Happy Cinco de Mayo! We woke up this morning in Republic to SNOW. It lasted a good couple of hours and it got to the point where there was no grass showing before it slowed down, but it did, and turned to rain. It was definitley cold, but we headed up to the property around 11:30 hoping to get some planning done. We got word yesterday that a gravity fed drainfield has been approved! So we continue to clean up, cut down and buck-up trees, and burn in preparation for getting the trailer moved up there and for starting the storage building. Tomorrow we are going to make at least one trip to the dump. There is still a refrigerator left by the previous owners as well as a lot of tin roofing (unusable), chickenwire, old ... read more

I have been working on getting a file/album together of our travels and it has really been overwhelming. I have always lived in the northwest, except for a short stint in CA. I know that the rest of the world is different - I watch TV! But Arizona really surprised me. I had always visualized flat, baron desert - not mountainous, green land with wildflowers and life gallore! We really were treated to a side of AZ that not many people get to experience. My expectations were shattered along with the box I had put them in. God has created a world that can't be put in a box or be explained by scientific justification. There is no doubt, when you look at the mountains, flowers, cactus, rivers, all the animals, the canyons - that there ... read more

We made it from Provo Utah to La Grande, OR. It took 11 hours to get here with a half hour break for lunch and couple of potty slash dog walking slash gas breaks. We are sitting at Eagles Hot Lake RV park in La Grande. The wind is TOTALLY crazy outside. We have a beautiful view of the mountains, oh, and the marsh across the street that provides an abundance of musquitoes in their first round of production for the year. Not very obvious out there right now with the wind blowing most of them into the next state, but the office was full of them. With as many insect bites as Bob and I have, we were in a bit of a self conscious, paranoid, get-me-outta-here-and-away-from-these-bloodthirsty-insects mode, so we paid, and fleed for our ... read more

When I wrote the other day, I left out a VERY important detail... we saw our first rattlesnake! Turns out it's a regular at the Palatka ruins. They have even named the little guy. I was able to get some pics of him - his name is Jake. It makes us a bit nervous that they are coming out now, but we have walking sticks that we are carrying with us now. Hopefully they will provide enough protection should we need it.... So yesterday we went on a 5+ mile hike into Boynton Canyon. It was so lush with trees! Looking at those red rock towers through all the trees was kind of surreal. The views weren't as impressive as some of the previous ones we have experienced, but they were still beautiful. It was a ... read more

Well our first night of boondocking went quite well. I can't say it's roughing it when we still have TV and the stove and such, but well, it's still called boondocking.... We woke up this morning to hot air balloons on the horizon as the sun was coming up. Pretty cool. They danced along the top of the hills for about an hour or so before drifting out of our sight. After a hearty breakfast, I packed up a lunch and some water and headed out for a hike. We couldn't find the one we actually wanted to go on, so we took a chance on a different one - well actually 3. We combined Teacup, Sugarloaf, and Soldiers Pass to make it a 6 mile trip. Al wore her packs again and did very well. ... read more