PROUD PARENTS! 5/7/2012

No pictures at this time, but lots of pride gooshing out all over the place.  We are in New York and have spent the last several days being immersed in the world of our son, Jed Cowley, and the film making world.
We attended the premiere screening of two of his recent films, Shale and Dear Dog, I Love You!  We felt the audience's approval strongly outdoing the approval of the other 5 films screening with his each night.  Then to boot, he received many compliments and invitations from producers and other film festival producers that invited him to show at their programs.  We stood back and watched him mingle with and share the stage with Michale Moore, Chevy Chase, Jerry Stiller and many others.
Proud?
Yup!!!  More to come!
More..... New York.... I have seen another side of life this time in this city that has not been seen the couple visits we have made before.  A side that disgusts me and frightens me.  I see in some of the film makers, a need to be crude, base and carnal in their films.  I see a crowd of entertainment industry hopefuls polluting that which has the opportunity to be entertaining, uplifting and beautiful.  I see the crowds of audience people accepting and awarding filth and vulgarity.  I see and hear people walking on the streets, riding subways and eating in restaurants using vulgar language and telling stories of their exploitations.  I see young ladies allowing that kind of language to be used around them and even using it themselves.
But, overshadowing that is the fact that our son's two films were uplifting, told good stories and did not expose the baser side of this world.
Oh, and this evening we got to see Angela Lansbury while walking in Times Square on her way to her Broadway play she is staring in.

RED CLIFFS CANYON, UT 2/24-5/?? 2012

The fixing of our refrigerator ended up taking more time than we planned.  We had planned to have it fixed and be headed north on 4/24 to spend a week with our #5 son and his family up in Provo, UT.  But the part we need is not even scheduled to arrive until 4/30.  We may not leave here until 5/2.  We spent a fair amount of time being frustrated and then decided there was nothing we could hurry by allowing ourselves to steam, so we occupied ourselves with more temple, a night at the movies and out to dinner, and something we love to do... go for a day hike.
The beautiful red cliffs had been beckoning us, so we drove to the Red Cliffs Recreation Area and found the small parking area and campsites full, so we drove back to the next closest parking area, parked our rig, and hiked around that area.  Then the cliffs called us, so we hiked about 1 1/2 miles towards them on hot blacktop.

We finally got to the original place we had wanted to hike today!

As we got off the road and got into the park and campground we were reminded why we love the desert in the spring time.  The blooming cactus and other plants are just amazing!

 We began hiking towards a canyon someone had told us of....

 ....enjoying more beautiful scenery and flora.

 In the day use area of the campground, we stopped for a much needed shade, lunch, water and rest break.  Do we look hot and tired yet?

Then up the trail headed towards the canyon and a small creek.  See the green trees?  That's where the creek is.

The canyon began to narrow and we were hiking closer to the creek so it got a little cooler.

Narrower and narrower!

Then we began hearing excited youth voices up the canyon.  After a while we found water sliding and cliff jumping youth.  It made us miss our boys and their families!  We wished they were here with us!

 

Then there was a little narrowing of the canyon trail that required some climbing and squeezing.

And it opened up to more beautiful canyon.  This hike was reminding us so much of hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park!

We both experienced aging realities on this hike.  As much as our minds approached things youthfull with no care or worry, our bodies were telling us to walk and act like old people.  It is and amazing part of the aging process, as ones body forces caution.  Slipping and falling in our minds is no problem, but our bodies make us more careful.  Our minds are 17 years old and rebels at our bodies telling us loudly to be careful.

Though we progressed up the canyon at a less rapid pace than the youth passing us and we took more breaks than we used to, it was an exhilarating hike and day together!

Further up the canyon we reached a place that the concern over falling told us we had gone as far as we should.  But Wayne, with Ann telling him not to, had to overcome his body's reluctance and prove he still could be younger.

With legs shaking he overcame what once would have been something he would have not even thought twice about.   Aging is interesting!

So, we rested at the end and then returned down the canyon to the campground, then 1 1/2 miles back down the road and to our truck which was parked at the parking spot of this old restored pioneer home.  One of the few left of the now non existent 1860's farming community of Harrisburg.
If you look closely to the left of the house and off in the distance at the base of the mountain, you can see some white spots.  One of those is our trailer.

Our hopes are to be in Provo no later than 5/2 because we have a flight to New York on the morning of 5/3.  There we will visit son #3 and then to Maryland to visit son #1 and both their families.  This will be the last entry until we get back from that trip in a couple weeks.

HURRICANE, UT 4/19-24/2012

We love this drive from Las Vegas, NV to St. George, UT, especially from Mesquite on.as we drive through the Virgin River Canyon.  We love the violent geology of the canyon and then the beautiful BLM land after that where we hope to some winter spend a month or so out in the desert with all the other dry docker snowbirds.

 We were excited to cross once again into Utah.  We have grown to love southern Utah and most of Arizona and their red rock desert mountain formations.  It is beautiful here and there is lots of good hiking areas!

 Cresting a rise, we come into St. George.  The freeway's not so beautiful, but the St. George Temple with the beautiful Southern Utah mountains in the background was a welcome sight!

 We set up camp in Encore's St. George RV Park using our Coast to Coast membership ready for a 5 day short stay.  While we were in Mesquite having a bite to eat, we noticed an ammonia smell coming from our refrigerator.  Not good!  That means there is some coolant leakage and will cost us money.  So we contacted a local RV fix-it shop to begin the process.  Easy right?  More on that in the next bog entry.

During the five days we were here we spent some time at the beautiful St. George Temple.

 The grounds there are so peaceful. A good place to sit, contemplate and relax.

 While walking there, we heard our names being called.  We turned around and saw a young man with a group of other college students.  Turned out to be a missionary we had served with while in Oakland a few years back.  It was so good to see him and catch up on where his life has gone since we last saw each other.  But... forgot to take a picture of him.  Here's one of us though!

 And another one too!

 While here in Hurricane, we got a call from another missionary we had served with in Oakland.  She had noticed on Ann's Face Book thing that we were in town and called to invite us to get together.  So, on Monday night we went to their house in Hurricane for a BBQ and visit.  This is our missionary's husband, Sam.  He did an awesome job of BBQ'ing hamburgers for us!  I didn't notice until just now that he had a Crater Lake tee shirt on!  Wow!  Sorry Sam!  I'll bet you wore that just for us Oregonians and we didn't even notice!!  Well we see it now.  Thanks!!

 Here we are in their house getting ready to chow down.  There you see our missionary friend, Lizzie Markham, now Lizzie McGee.  The gentleman on the left is a return missionary friend that was staying with them for awhile.

LAS VEGAS - CITY OF FUN 4/5-19/2012

Las Vegas Thousand Trails Preserve is for those who wish nothing more of a place than a place to sleep between visits to The Strip.  Is it for the beautiful scenery, the beautiful green trees and grass or the spacious parking places? Nope! 

  But we found beauty here!

 If you look knot for those thrills of the world, you can find another beauty.

 You find other activities you would not tray'd for those things of The Strip.

 So, what did we do while we were in sin city with neighbors so close, with no green grass, or beautiful trees?

We went to the temple, we worked on family history, we went to church, we cooked good meals, we visited our daughter-in-law's father and grandmother, went for walks and did a little clothing shopping.
We leave here on 4/19 and head to Hurricane, Utah, just up the road from St. George.  We will stay there a few days and then head up to Provo to visit son # 5, his wife and their two little ones for a wee bit.

Aus der Schnee bis Sonne!! 4/2/2012

We left Oakzanita TT on March 20th, leaving behind our winter wonderland.

About 8 inches of snow made it interesting hitching up the truck to the trailer

 The snow sliding off the bathhouse roof reminded Wayne of pictures from his parents' stay in Big Bear Lake, CA in the 1940's.

  Interesting how just a few hours drive can make such a big difference!  Here we are the same day in our space in Thousand Palms Thousand Trails, space 71, near Palm Springs, CA

Know why they call this "Thousand Palms"?  We really like it here.  We spent 2 weeks here 2 Christmases ago and completely enjoyed the weather, people and animal life.  Everyone and everything is friendly!  When we pulled in to park, we had 3 men show up and began helping Wayne park the rig. Each one of them had a different foriegn accent and a different set of instruction on the proper way to back in a rig.  After awhile, Wayne got out and asked Ann to tell them to leave.

Know why they call this "Thousand Palms"?

 The roadrunners keep the snake and lizard population down around here.

Across the road from us, one day, Wayne saw a man (He's the one in the foreground here in the light blue shirt) working on his water heater.  Wayne went over to see if he needed help or tools.  Within 5 minutes there were two more guys there giving advice and jumping right in to help.

 Within 5 more minutes......

 ....two women had stopped by and were giving their 2 cents worth too.  It was hilarious.  See the guy in the front?  It's his motor home!  After a minute, he just smiled at me and relaxed while everybody and their dog rewired his water heater!  It was a photo minute, so I ran and got my camera.  This photo is actually staged, but it mimicked exactly what had happened.  Gotta love those RV'ers!

 We struck up a friendship with our neighbors outside our living room window.  Wayne helped them restring one of their day/night shades.  Wayne has learned how to do this, restrung 2 or 3 of ours and it was fun teaching someone else how to do it.  Take the shade to a pro shop and it's $75!  Good money saved!  We spent a fair amount of time with Tony and Bobi and ended up one day going into old town Palm Springs for lunch.  It is a quaint little place with lots of sidewalk restaurants.  It was a fun afternoon together.  Recognize the shirt, Luke?

 After lunch, Ann and I visited with Sonny Bono, past mayor.  He was not much of a conversationalist.  Much quieter than I remember him when he was a performer!

While we have been here these last two weeks, we have done our taxes, gone on lots of walks, played water volleyball, sat in the hot tub, visited with many people, worked on Family History research, went to church, washed both rigs and many other activities.  Here we are in our bedroom, watching General Conference on our computer.

 We had to put up the towel for sun glare through our day/night shade.

 We leave here tomorrow, April 3 to head to Needles, CA for a couple days and then up to Las Vegas, NV for a couple weeks. 

OAKZANITA TT PRESERVE, CC 3/8-20/2012

 After one last lunch date with Chip and an afternoon of conversation (I don't know how we figured out what to talk about without Vicki!), we headed a little north to another Thousand Trails for a couple weeks.

About 3 miles north of Descanso, CA, up Hwy 79 is the Thousand Trails Preserve we are for 12 days.  It is cooler here than at Pio Pico, less border patrol vehicles, more oak trees, better tasting water and much better internet and cell phone reception.  It is a smaller preserve that feels more like camping than trailer parking.  It is about 3,800+ elevation, freezes at night, but with the sun out in the day it gets up to 58-75 degrees during the day, though sometimes it is a little breezy.

 Here we  hunkered down for doing taxes, more Family History Research on line, more reading and more writing in our autobiographies.  Church is 30 minutes away in the community of Alpine.  Church starts at 10:00.  Meet us there and we'll do church together!
It is so beautiful here that we go for walks often.  This was one of the cooler days. Notice Ann's jacket and Wayne's long pants?  But, look at the trees budding out!

 We have each taken time, also, to do some fun cooking trials.  Here are some whole wheat home made noodles.  We used some to make home made chicken noodle soup, some of the thinner ones to go with a new recipe we tried of bolognese sauce, and some used with a new buttery herb sauce.  We also made home made chocolate chip cookies and experimented with a new mush combination for breakfast that would have made John Ashcraft envious.

 We took a day to got north on a very narrow, windy Hwy 78 to a old western mining town, kind reminiscent of Jacksonville, Oregon.  It was a fun town with lots of shops and tourist trap stuff.  The day we were there was a day all the Ron Paul (Didn't see you there, Roy!) supporters and hundreds of bikers (The kind with beer bellies, tatoos, leather jackets, greasy Levis and beards.... and that's just the women!) came to town.  Wayne's people watching cup ran over big time.

We escaped the streets for what Julian is supposed to be known for, Mom's home made apple pies!  We had a slice of apple cherry pie.  Wayne still thinks Ann's are better, but we both enjoyed it and the little hole in the wall bakery atmosphere.  Notice the pie is already gone?!

More walking through town, going in shops, book stores and people watching. Notice the row of bikes?  I know, you've seen the same movies I have.  Was Wayne tempted?????   Went back to Mom's and had to wait in a long line for chicken pot pie, split pea soup and a turkey sandwich.  Delish!!!

We also have acquired a new friend.  Seems, a lot of places we go, a bird finds his reflection in the window and then spends the reminder of our stay there trying to chase that other bird out of his territory.  Here's our friend this time.  Each time the aggressive, territorial bird will peck at the window, call it dirty names, flap wildly at the window and sometimes fly into it.  Funny....sad....yet entertaining.

 Wayne loves nothing but warm weather.  Ann loves the four seasons.  Here at Oakzatita TT at elevation 4,000 feet, you can have both!  After walking around in shorts and tee shirts, one morning we woke up to this.  Through the day it piled up to about 8 inches!  (Remember Lassen Park 40+ years ago in August, Cliff?)  Ann went walking and frolicking taking the pictures.  Wayne hunkered down in the trailer and complained about being cold.  This is all your fault, LINDA!!!

 Ice Cycles???  Sunny, Warm, Southern California???

 It is pretty though isn't it?

 From this......

 ....to this, overnight!!!!!

 My poor little truck!!!

 We tossed out some cooked wheat and other yummies for the animals.

 Many came to surround our trailer and search for more.

 That's a rabbit back there in the bush.

Anyway, it has been a nice stay here.  Got a lot done with Fam. Hist., autobiographies, reading church history, cooking experiments and such.  Got to enjoy the variety of Southern California weather and will be heading north and out to the desert in Palm Springs come Mar. 20.  I hope it is warmer there.  Hope to wash and wax the trailer, swim and more research.  Maybe we'll run into some Gingrich supporters there, Andrew!