School of Fish

Working A/C

The replacement vehicle for my truck with the A/C that just couldn't keep up in the hot southwest.

June 22

The pool in Balmorhea:
Gage and Emma:

The water is cold and Nick's not too happy about it:

Matt:

Mimi and Jessi:

On the drive to Fort Davis, TX where we'll spend the next few days. We're only 8 hours away from our new home!

June 21

We arrived in Balmorhea, TX after lunch and we're joined by Carey's mom and nephew, Gage. Balmorhea has an extremely large spring-fed swimming pool complete with fish!

No, this wasn't in the pool:

June 19-20

I received a call this morning; some computer generated "Your extended warranty on your vehicle is expiring soon. If you would like to renew, press one. If you want your information removed from the system, press two."

I pressed two............................. An hour later, the air conditioning started blowing hot......The temp was 116.

We stopped in Tuscon, AZ only to hear the dealership couldn't get us in that day, maybe the next. That night, we were owners of a new suburban.

Stress isn't the word for our day, but we are grateful we are all alive and doing well. And I have air conditioning that works and I'm not afraid it will go out soon.

We arrived in Tombstone, AZ much later than scheduled, but still managed to have great BBQ for dinner.

The next morning, we toured the town and fell in love! Real cowboys roam the streets and carry real guns! We had buffalo burgers for lunch in the OK Cafe before getting on the road.

We spent the night at a campground in El Paso.

June 18

Drove to Yuma, AZ today and it was HOT!!!!!!!!!!! So hot that we didn't do much in the town after arriving other than a little shopping and dinner.

Mexico on the other side of the fence:

Outside temp:
Yuma campground:

June 16-17

Spent two full days at Disneyland and California Adventure. The first day wasn't too hot and crowded, but the second day was both. All the kids had a great time and we were the winners of Mickey ears hats as part of the Million Dreams Giveaway.


The boys are tall enough this year to ride roller coasters and they loved the ones we took them on. Jessi was brave and rode Space Mountain with Dad!


A baker at the California Adventure Sourdough Factory treated all of the kids to their own Mickey Mouse head bread:

We were able to have the truck serviced at a dealership and have working air conditioning now!

June 15

With no air conditioning in Carey's truck, we drove from Yosemite to Anaheim through Los Angeles traffic. It was not so much fun for Michael with the camper.

Had one tire on the camper explode, but 20 minutes later, we were back on the road.

California sunset:

Our campground is near Disneyland, so were able to enjoy their nightly fireworks show before bed.

June 14

Still no air conditioning, but we made it to Yosemite and saw all of the highlights. The temperature was a little hard to handle, but we knew it was only going to get hotter on this trip and tried not to complain.

The big kids climbed Lower Yosemite Falls and enjoyed getting wet.

This evening, we met a wonderful family from Louisiana and what a small world! They know Carey's cousin and their family is linked to Carey's grandmother's family!

Bad internet connection, so I'll upload pics later.

June 13

We started out the day well and were looking forward to our short, 5 hour drive....How is it every short drive for us turns into 10 LONG hours?

We drove through Napa Valley and WOW! So many vineyards!

We visited a petrified forest for a rest stop:

We got stuck in major traffic at one point today and Michael happened to hear something like a large Lego hit one of his back windows. He sees Matt........He's been throwing toys out the window while Michael is at a crawl and the side of the road is littered with Potato Head parts, Legos, markers and note pads. Goodness knows what the people behind him were thinking!

On our way to Yosemite:

This afternoon, my truck air conditioner stopped working.....I'm guessing my poor truck, which has never had the air conditioning running longer than an hour or two, just couldn't handle the 90+ temps we were in......With the windows down, we made our way into Yosemite. Here is what I saw in my review mirror:

So we're heading to the campground and find ourselves having to drive Highway 120 which is narrow and winding with an extreme climb. I'm not sure the GPS is right and finally find a tight turnout and Michael follows. We spent a few minutes looking at a map and the GPS only to realize it is the right way. Michael goes back to his truck and finds something not good. Keep in mind Matt is quick and mischievous on a daily basis and being stuck in a car seat for 10 hours doesn't help his behavior. Somehow we've been lucky and all of the kids are doing well, for the most part. Anyway, Michael finds Matt in the front seat of his truck...........in his car seat.........He had somehow unbuckled his seat and climbed into the front seat while still strapped in the car seat, which was lying on its side. ?????? Michael says the dog, who is riding shotgun, was crouched against the door looking at Matt like, "I had NOTHING to do with this!"

June 12

We drove from southern Oregon to Willits, California along the coast. Good weather allowed us to get the first state "welcome" sign.

Driving through the Redwood Forest.

During one of our rest stops, we were visited by a herd of elk.

We had to use the air conditioner in the camper for the first time!

June 10

We had our wonderful photo session with Tara Staton (www.tarastaton.blogspot.com) in the morning on the beach and then drove down the Oregon coast before settling in for the night at a campground. The temperature was perfect and the kids were able to run around for a little while. Matt, however, has chosen to spend time lying on the ground at every stop. LOL!

June 9

We made it across the border from Canada with no problems. We arrived in Lincoln City, OR around 8PM and had a great evening with Grammy, Aunt Carol Ann, Lauren and Kathryn. We stayed in a hotel on the beach. Here is the view from our room:

Matt and his CI

Michael quickly discovered that Matt's CI would stick to the walls in the ferry cabin. Sometimes I think he just goes around trying to stick it to things while Matt is in the bath....LOL! Anyway, our last night on the ferry, Matt climbed into bed, stuck his CI to the wall, turned it off and assumed the "relaxing Vorholt position" with arms behind the head.

Animal Sightings

Our first day in Canada, we saw 5 bears, 1 moose, 5 deer, 1 fox and several eagles. Our second day, we saw 2 moose. The third day was through the mountains with winding roads, so our full attention was on the driving and we didn't see any animals.

Moose:
Back of a bear. It was hard stopping the truck, putting it in reverse and grabbing the camera for a shot. LOL!

Orca Sighting in Ketchikan

June 5-6

We sailed from Yakutat to Juneau on open sea areas, so our vehicles had to be tied down. From Juneau, we sailed south via the inside passage to Ketchikan where we were delayed 24 hours b/c our ferry couldn't take us all the way to Prince Rupert, BC. We had to board the M/V Taku for the 7 hour sail and then pass through border patrol.

Mendenhall Glacier:

We would get "car deck calls" a few times a day where permission was given to go down to the deck and get things out of the truck and walk the dogs. The dogs did really well considering our first two nights were so rough.

Chenega Glacier