A Busy Fun-filled Week

Upon returning from Lake Powell we had the usual catchup on yard work and unloading, cleaning, winterizing and storing the boat. Then on Thursday evening Damon and Donna Rosselot stopped over on their return from a seminar in Salt Lake City to their home in Shady Cove, Oregon. These are the same old friends that hosted us last summer at this same time as we visited Crater Lake, the Oregon coast, etc. We packed in a full day on Friday starting with a bumpy ride from Inman Canyon in Inkom to Pebble Creek above Lava Hot Springs on the other side of the mountains. We were out to see some early fall colors and the ride proved to be a bit of a challenge for the little blue Elantra but we made it. After the ride we enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park and then a soak in Lava's famous hot springs pools. We then returned home and took a dune buggy ride up the the Pebble Ski Area for a view overlooking the valley and also to the Inkom water tower up Sorelle creek canyon north of Inkom overlooking the town site. We then returned home again for a campfire and bratwurst roast meal with all the trimmings. Early Saturday morning Damon and Donna headed for home and we headed for Logan, Utah to support Laurie who was running in the Top of Utah Marathon. She was very surprised to see us and it seemed to give her an extra boost of energy with three and one-half miles yet to run. We ran with her part way but almost couldn't keep up and then cut out to see her across the finish line along with Leslie and her boys, LaRinda and Trevor and family and Evan and the Ockey kids. She finished in 4 hours and 29 minutes in spite of hanging back to support a friend she ran with who was suffering cramps half way through the race. Laurie is amazing for what she has accomplished and we are so proud of her. After the race we had lunch at the Bluebird Restaurant in Logan and headed for home with the O'Donnal family on our tail. They were coming up to visit us for the remainder of the weekend. That afternoon we took all the kids for dune buggy rides and had another campfire dinner with roasted wieners and marshmallows. Lance and Aubri brought Taylor out to share the evening with us. On Sunday we went to early morning church and then Linda Burrup came up to saddle one of her horses in our pasture and let each of the O'Donnal family take horseback rides. LaRinda has always loved horses and this also fulfilled one of Alyssa's biggest dreams as she also loves horses so much. Alyssa said that the ride had her much higher up and was more bouncy than she had anticipated but she seemed to love it. We also got to meet and were quickly charmed by a very attractive and fun young lady from Denmark they are hosting as a foreign exchange student for this school year. Josephine, if that is spelled correctly, or Josey for short is sixteen years old and a Junior in high school. She seemed to have a good time but she wasn't too sure about the horseback ride although she did try it. All in all it was a week crammed with friends and family and we loved it!

Lake Powell

After the usual catch-up yard work and related chores back home after our Uintahs trip we set out on our pilgrimage to beautiful Lake Powell for a week of R & R with Dave and Laurene. We have made this trip with few exceptions once every summer going back to about 1987. As I recall when we bought our first boat in Salt Lake City we didn't even have a vehicle prepared to tow it home and Dave Gardner was called upon to provide this service. Our old Coachmen motor home first provided this service then it was our GMC custom van and for at least the last 12 years it has been our green GMC pickup. Our first boat was a 20 foot Starfire and we bought our current 22 foot Larson in 2001. Over the years we have been with many good friends. They included Darren, Dave's sister Denise and her husband Kenny Petersen and their family, Dave's brother Ron and his wife Megan and their family, Kenny's parents Earl and Avis Petersen and Laurene's sister, nephew and mother. We have also taken our children including Lance, Leslie and Lindsy and their close friends. We did not have the boat for Laurie, Leon and LaRinda before they left home but we did have one big family reunion at Lake Powell including a rented house boat in the summer of 1997 that was great fun. As for this year we went later than usual since we and the Gardners have now all retired. It was a bit cooler than usual but that was actually quite nice for a change. The water was still as warm as it was in the years that we vacationed in June. We also found that there were still more boats on the lake than we expected for this late in the season. The lake level was a little higher than it has been for quite a few years at about 3634 feet. We left on September 5th and returned on September 13th. We had a drizzling rain off and on the first day on the water but we were camped under a huge cave in Fiftymile canyon off the Escalante and had no problem. We also camped in Dungeon Canyon, Oak Bay and Hall's Creek Bay. In Oak Bay we got to watch a nice fireworks display as two house boats competed, one just a few yards from where we were camped across a small island. We did a lot of relaxing, reading, swimming, canyon surfing, played pinochle and watched movies at night. Over the years we have taken thousands of pictures and I keep saying what could be new but each year it seems more beautiful than ever and we take some more. This year was no exception and we'll share a few.