May 18th. On Tuesday, we head for Denver to visit with Leigh's cousin Ruth. Since she is the historian of the Mueller clan, we plan to talk a bit about the Mueller family which settled in Iowa in the 1840's. We have a great time talking with Ruth and her daughter Brenda and spend much time poring over her genealogy albums. I get a much better sense of all the Mueller ancestors and their histories. Later in our trip, we plan to visit Walnut, Iowa where many of the Muellers settled and built homes. May 19th. Wednesday afternoon we head down to Colorado Springs to meet Jack Thomas and his wife Margo. Both Jack and I have been researching ancestors on the Thomas side of the family and have been corresponding via email after we "met" ... read more

May 17th. This morning we head east into Colorado. We pass through Dinosaur, the location of the Dinosaur National Monument headquarters, where the large dinosaur excavations can usually be seen. The center is closed, but we drive further east and decide to take the 35-mile Dinosaur Scenic Drive to Harper's Corner. The views are so spectacular, we take most of the day enjoying the drive and vista points. Late in the afternoon, we head for Yampa River State Park where, at last, we pitch our tent.... read more

May 15th. This morning the storm clouds have passed through and the sky is a reassuring blue. We take a short drive around town to see the notable sights such as the capitol building and Temple Square. We stop in at the LDS Family Research Center, which is a huge library containing genealogical data on more than 3 billion people. I try out their online search capabilities and am able to locate information on my great-grandmother, Laura Gertrude Vaughn, whose familly history was lost because she died very young. We could easily spend hours if not days on researching our relatives, but we decide to move on. Before we leave Salt Lake, we stop by the Apple store, where we find out that my trusty laptop battery will no longer charge because the computer's logic board ... read more

First we'd like to start off with where we live now for those who have never been to The Sea Ranch. The Sea Ranch is a community of about 2000 homes along the California coast about 2 and half hours north of San Francisco. The Sea Ranch is in a rural area of woods, coastal plains and rocky shoreline, about an hour and a half from busy city streets, shops and freeways. Sea Ranch is well-known for the architecture of its homes, which have a distinct style. It is also a popular tourist destination. There are over 40 miles of trails, swimming pools and tennis courts on the Ranch with about 400 home available for vacation rentals. I've added a few photos of the area to give you an idea of what it looks like.... read more