March 2007

March 2007
Oh, Oh, this “off roading” thing is turning very serious. The Tahoe has been replaced with a 2007 4-door Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. Mike couldn’t be any more proud about the new addition to our family. Note the picture above, now we can go into places where the Tahoe just wasn’t equipped to handle!
We spent a day with friends at the Da Vinci exhibit in Palm Springs. It was an incredible exhibit and we came out with a new appreciation for a very intelligent man who was so far ahead of his times.

February 2007

February 2007
We started off the month with a “60th Birthday Party” on our lot. We had 66 people here and had a wonderful time. Mike is starting a new decade but it certainly isn’t slowing him down!
During the middle of the month, we flew up to Portland to celebrate Camryn and Colby’s birthday’s. Camryn is now 7 and Colby is 4. They are growing up so fast. While in Portland, we stayed at Marc and Maria’s new home in Sherwood, took in a “Hoop-a-thon” (fund raiser for Camryn’s school) attended the super joint birthday party, had a fun night with Brandon, Karen, Ben and Anna, went out to dinner at Benihana’s (Camryn & Colby’s favorite restaurant) and spent an afternoon at a local swimming pool. Great time!

January 2007

January 2007
Looking forward to a great new year full of adventure and travels. We are at Ourdoor Resorts in Indio (We call this home as we spend about 6 months a year here) Weather is wonderful, while the rest of the country is shoveling snow, we are enjoying clear blue skies and about 70-75 degrees) Mike has found a new hobby - He is now interested in “Off roading” By the picture above, you can notice that I’m still not too sure of this new adventure. We are taking the Tahoe out every Wednesday with a group from our resort. We head out into the desert and have seen some interesting canyons, vistas, old mines, beautiful cactus, a lot of rocks and a fair amount of dust.

December 2006

December 9-12, 2006

We flew to Portland to celebrate Ben’s 4th birthday and our family Christmas. Stayed with Brandon & Karen and had a great time. Spent our “Christmas” at Marc and Maria’s along with Brandon & Karen and all the grandkids.

November 2006

October 27-November 5, 2006 Houston, TX

What a great week in Houston. We went to the San Jacinto monument (The battlefield where Texas won their independence from Mexico)
We met up with Tom and Linda West. Mike and Tom played golf everyday for 6 days. Linda and Janet went to the week long Houston Quilt show. Awesome time!

Nov 5, 2006

Thanksgiving Outdoor Resorts, Indio, CAIt feels great to be “home” We just love it here. The resort looks wonderful. So many flowers in bloom, trees are trimmed, streets are clean. This is a true oasis in the desert. We have it all here. The nice warm weather of the desert and the beautiful green manicured surroundings that are everywhere.

Thanksgiving 2006

Marc, Maria, Camryn and Colby are here! Also Chuck and Eva are here. We had a great time with everyone. Maria, Eva, Camryn, Colby and I spent a fun day at the “Living Desert”

October 2006

Visited with Mike’s cousin who owns a 320 acre alfalfa farm in Norton Kansas.

Through county records, we found Janet’s grandparent’s marriage certificate and their first home in Phillipsburg Kansas

October 7th – Dodge City Spent an afternoon touring the Front Street and Boot Hill museums. Great memorabilia from the days of Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp and countless “Wild West” bad guys.

October 8th Oklahoma City

The memorial to those who died, those who survived and the rescuers from the 1995 Federal Building bombing is incredibly moving. It is a beautiful and sacred place. I am so impressed with the spirit of community in Oklahoma City.

10-12, 2006 Fredericksburg, TX

Fredericksburg is located in the “Hill Country” of Texas. While here, we toured the historic town, the Admiral Nimitz museum, the Lyndon Johnson homestead, the Lady Bird Johnson park, a turn of the century working farm and we went to Luckenbach Texas (the tiny, one horse town frequented by Willie Nelson)

October 13-16, 2006 Austin, TX

Austin is a beautiful town. We took a tour of the town, the historic old town, the new awesome beautiful part of town, the inside and the grounds of the State capitol and we spent an entire day at the Bob Bullock Texas History Museum.

October 17-20, 2006 San Antonio, TX

In San Antonio we toured the Alamo, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 5 of the missions in and around town, a boat tour of the “River Walk” (which we liked so much that we walked the River Walk also.)

October 21-23 Galveston, TX
Galveston is an island south of Houston. The weather is beautiful but very windy. In Galveston, we met Mike’s cousin and his wife for a great seafood lunch and they showed us some neat places in town.
We also toured the Houston Space Center (pretty incredible)

October 24-26 Beaumont, TX

We spent several days is Beaumont. Mike’s cousin lives in Bridge City Texas and was a fabulous host, showing us the sites. We drove over across the border into Louisana to see some of the devestation still left from hurricane Rita (over a year ago). There are still many houses with blue tarps for roofs, many FEMA trailers, an entire beach community washed off it’s foundations.

September 2006

Sunriver – It is starting to feel like fall. The nights are getting pretty cold…27 degrees one night. Labor Day Weekend - Marc and Maria stayed at a condo in Sunriver meet with them and we all had a great time at the swimming pool! Brandon, Ben and Ron Tangermann stayed with us in the motorhome. The three fellas spend 3 days bike riding. First day they rode around Crater Lake, 2nd day they rode around Mt. Batchelor and the 3rd day they had to cut their ride short due to a broken cable. Ben and I had fun while the guys were out killing themselves in the heat.

September 7th – 10th 2006

The annual Fox Family Picnic is the Fox Family Campout this year…We spent a 3 day weekend at Champoeg State Park in Newberg Oregon. What a success! EVERYONE had a great time!
We had a great crowd. Our two boys, their wives and all of our grandkids. Mike’s two sisters and their husbands, Our nephew, his wife and their two boys we were so happy that Mike’s brother drove up from Las Vegas for the campout. We all agreed to make our future picnic’s into a camping weekend.

September 14th

Spent a fabulous night at the Skamania Lodge near the Bridge of the Gods on the Columbia River in Washington. The night was a special retirement gift from the folks at Intel.

September 15 - 17th

Spent a great weekend with our very dear friends Joe and Lynn Lewellen at their home in Tacoma WA. We had so much fun.

September 19 -22nd

We attended the Monaco Homecoming Rally in Salem Oregon. There were 800 coaches, great food, outstanding entertainment, interesting seminars, the latest and greatest Monaco products and we met some wonderful people!

September 25th – 29th

It feels good to be on the road again. We have left Salem and are heading to Denver Colorado. First night on the road in Baker City, OR. Second in Declo, ID, then on to Rawlins, WY for one night. Finally we arrived in Denver, CO where we stayed for a week. We spent time with our friends Bob and Paula Lucas and also spent time visiting relatives. (Uncle Don, Aunt Diane, Aunt Melba, Bill & Barb and their kids, Don & Darlene, Gloria, Danny & Bobby and their families, Aunt Arlene) We made a brief visit to Estes Park in the mountains and even found a farm in Longmont where Mike lived 45 years ago.

While in Denver, Mike spent a day at the races in Golden, CO with his cousin Bill Reeves.

Picture above is of Mike’s Grandma & Grandpa Foxes home in Deertrail, CO.

August 2006

August 3rd – 7th Brandon, Karen, Ben and Anna brought their trailer over to Sunriver and we had a great time. The guys played some golf and rode their bicycles. Karen and I had a day shopping in Bend. The kids loved “Goodies” in the Sunriver mall!

August 24th – 27th – Longbeach Washington
Had a great 4 days in Longbeach at our annual family weekend. Trips to the beach, scooter rides, golfing for the guys, trip downtown and the carnival. Papa took the grandkids on the carnival rides and got a little queasy J Marc, Maria, Camryn, Colby, Brandon, Ben, Grandma and Papa went for horse rides along the beach. Karen stayed back with Anna. Everyone loved the go-kart rides ….We had a really fun time.

July 2006

June 29 – July 2nd – Durango, CO

Eclectic little town with so much to do and see! We took an all day ride on the Durango/Silverton Small Gauge Railroad and saw some gorgeous country. Now I understand why so many people think that Colorado is so beautiful……the Rocky Mountains are incredible. The train ride (in an open gondola) was great and we were able top spend a few hours in Silverton – a small mining community in a fantastic valley in the middle of the Rockies. The next day we drove to Ouray, Colorado – 75 miles north of Durango. To get to Ouray we drove over three 11,000 foot passes on a very narrow, windy, steep drop off road. Ouray is in the most beautiful setting I have ever seen. Steep mountains on every side. It reminded me of Leavenworth, Washington only on a much grander scale. I would definitely like to go back to Ouray and spend some time there. And on yet another great day in Durango, we drove to “Four Corners” – the only place in the US where four states meet and you can stand in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona all at the same time. From there we went to Mesa Verde National Park. This is an amazing step back into ancient Indian history. Some of the dwellings date back as far as 1 AD….most about 1200 AD when the Indians built their communities in the sides of the cliffs……Amazing how they still stand today very much intact.
What a great time in Durango……It was everything I had hoped it would be. (We even saw “John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) wandering the streets of Durango with his family!)

July 3-5th – Moab Utah

It’s really hot and dry here but this place has a definite beauty of it’s own. We visited Canyonlands National Park – it’s like the Grand Canyon but many many smaller canyons rather than one big one. The view from Dead Horse State Park is breathtaking. At Arches National Park, we walked back between some “fins” (very tall slivers of rock that have been formed over the years) and found a beautiful sandy area and also “Sand Dune Arch” It was peaceful – felt like a sanctuary.

July 6th – Torrey, Utah

We came to Torrey to see Capitol Reef National Park. So many beautiful rock formations in Utah. Capitol Reef has a beauty different than Moab. The National Park is located in a beautiful green canyon with a river flowing through it. We took a hike up to a “slot canyon” (narrow canyon where two rocks almost touch) It was quiet and peaceful in the canyon but strenuous getting there J I went to the one room Fruita schoolhouse (totally restored) and the “Gifford House” (a very small restored home built by a Mormon pioneer) We saw ancient Indian petroglyphs and took a beautiful scenic drive through the park and a breath taking view of a winding river at the bottom of a deep canyon.

July 7th- 9th – Ely NV and Carson City NV – Traveling to Lake Tahoe on the “Loneliest Road in America – Highway 50”

July 10th – 17th – Lake Tahoe

We spent a week in Lake Tahoe for the “Celebrity Golf Tournament” The weather was great and the tournament was fun. They had 80 celebrities there….our favorites were Lance Armstrong, Stone Phillips, Donald Trump, Dan Quayle, Morrey Povich, Kyle Boller, Billy Joe Tolliver just to name a few. We took the paddle wheel cruise out to Emerald Bay (so incredibly beautiful!!) Cathie and Julie came up and took me to see Troy ride in a BMX race. He looks so little out there on the course

July 18th-August 23rd –Sunriver

Chuck has headed back to Las Vegas. It was great having him with us in Palm Springs and traveling with us. Mike has worked hard to get our lot back into shape. It looks great! It’s good to see our “Sunriver” friends. Glen & Judy, Norm & Joan, Cliff & Marcielle, Jerry & Susan and Bob and Marianne are all here. An unexpected visit from Denny and Kay Struss was a treat. We have decided to try out hiking and so far we both love it. We hiked around Todd Lake and took the Ray Atkinson Memorial Trail near Sparks lake too. This is beautiful country. We took a day trip to Crater Lake – Wow what an awesome National Park area.

June 2006

June 9th – June 15th
Vancouver WA – Spent the week taking care of some Licensing, Post Office and banking stuff – but we are here mainly to see the grandkids. Took Camryn and Colby to see the movie “Cars” (what fun!) and we took Ben and Anna to the park, McDonalds and Coldstone for ice cream (yum!) Mike played in an American General Finance golf tournament but failed to win me a trip to Hawaii…..he did, however, play later in the week with Marc, Brandon, Matt Soukup and Chuck where he got his first eagle! Eagles are an endangered species – especially for Mike

June 16th – June 23rd
Heading east toward Colorado. Today begins our road trip – heading toward the Coontz Family reunion in Craig Colorado. We meet up with John and Sheri tomorrow AM. From Hermiston, we are traveling up through eastern Washington, across the Idaho panhandle where Mike has found a 72 mile bike trail traveling from the Montana/Idaho border to the Washington/Idaho border. (Might be a great ride for next year) We spent our nights on the road in St. Regis Montana (beautiful) and Billings Montana. When you hear the words “Big Sky Country” you can’t really imagine what it means until you see it. Montana has a BIG, beautiful sky for sure. We stopped at the Big Horn Battlefield – the site of Custer’s Last Stand. It is an awesome sight of some incredible American history. We spent one night at Devils Tower in Wyoming…..Hiked around the base - it’s pretty impressive. Next stop Hart Ranch in Rapid City, South Dakota where we spent 3 nights. While in South Dakota, we drove to Deadwood (had a great dinner at Big Al’s), went to Mt. Rushmore (an absolute must see for anyone’s stay in SD). We went to Crazyhorse monument (an Indian tribute to their leader Crazyhorse. When completed, it will be larger than one could imagine. This monument has been under construction for over 50 years - Right now, Crazyhorse’s face is completed – next they will start on his horse) We drove the Needles Highway – Beautiful. – A few of the 6 tunnels are “barely” large enough to drive our car through – 3-4 inches clearance on either side! We toured the Badlands and went to Wall Drug (more of an attraction than a drug store).

June 24th – June 27th – Coontz / Heintz Family Reunion in Craig Colorado.
We really enjoyed the 3 day Coontz/Heintz Family Reunion . It was fun driving through town and seeing the two homes that Mike lived in when he was a young boy in Craig. We had picnic’s in several parks in town and had a good time visiting with relatives and the Coontz’s and Heintz’s had plenty of time to talk about the “good ol’ days.” Sheri and I took advantage of the city swimming and wave pool. What fun ! The fella’s golfed one morning and Joyce cooked us some great food! We spent one afternoon and drove up to Steamboat Springs – a touristy, trendy little ski town. The next reunion will be at the Oregon coast in 2009 – hosted by the Fox family!

June 28th – Moab, Utah – This is a beautiful town. Very dry and hot but beautiful red hills surrounding the town. We are just spending the night here but we look forward to coming back to see the sights after our time in Durango.

May 2006

May 15th Time to leave Indio. It’s been over 100 degrees for the past few weeks and even with afternoon’s spent by the pool IT’S HOT! Chuck is heading back to Las Vegas to take care of a few things and he will meet us in Reno in 4 days.

May 16th

LonePine CA – We are heading north on US 395 – Great road and not much traffic. In Lonepine we toured the Alabama Hills (beautiful rock hills where many western movies have been filmed) Mt. Whitney is located here although it doesn’t really stand out as there is whole range of nearly 14,000 ft mountains. It is beautiful here.

May 17th

On the way north, we stopped and toured the Manzanar WWII Japanese Interment camp. Very impressive – not necessarily America’s best moment, but history was made here. We stopped in Mammoth Lakes and spent 2 nights. What a beautiful location. They are still skiing here. Several of the roads around here are still closed due to the snow. We drove to twin lakes (beautiful waterfall), Mono lake (to see the “tufas”), June lake (a small little town nestled at the foot of the Sierra Mountain range – I can’t imagine any location being more beautiful)

Late May

It’s cold here in Sunriver! The highs are in the 50’s and the nights are in the 30’s - none of the other RV’ers are here yet. We may have arrived too early in the season. After a week of cold weather, we transitioned into some rainy weather L When we got here, we found a tree that had fallen during the winter. Miraculously it snapped off about 5 feet up, fell so close to the pump house that it scrapped off paint – but no damage to anything! After chopping up the downed tree, Mike set to work refinishing the deck. The winter was pretty hard on the deck but after his hard work – it now looks great again. May 29th, we drove to The Dalles for Anna’s baptism and a BBQ at Bonnie & Darryl’s. We also drove to Portland for a day trip and Mike played in an American General golf tournament. We went to dinner with Dick and Rosemary Allen, played golf and had dinner at Nan and John Williamson’s and we were pleased to have Ed and Betsy Dingeldy stop by and spend the night with us! The weather is now in the 60’s and it is the Beautiful Sunriver that we remembered.

April 2006

April 1st – April 9th
A great visit from home – Brandon, Karen, Ben and Anna came to visit for a week – We all had a great time. Went to the Living Desert, Hanging out by the pool (Kids loved swimming) Many golf cart rides J , spent one very long fabulous day in Disneyland, the guys played golf and the gals went shopping on El Paseo



April 9th 2006
Ruby has fought the good fight. She developed pneumonia and was given a trach with a ventilator breathing for her. Even with many attempts to wean her off the ventilator, her body just can’t seem to breathe on its own. Another complication – she has lost all kidney function and is on dialysis 3 times a week. Mike and I are fortunate to be only a 5 hour drive from Las Vegas and we have been able to make several trips to see Ruby and offer some support to Chuck. On April 9th, Ruby lost her valiant fight for life and she slipped away from us. Ruby will be missed by many people. We have invited Chuck to stay with us for a while.

Late April 2006
We have taken a short drive east and toured the General Patton Memorial. A very good WWII museum – well worth the admission price. We also took the Palm Springs Aerial Tram up to the top of the Mount San Jacinto range. We took a short hike – So very beautiful at the top.

January - March 2006

January 2006

Ruby has entered the hospital and has been diagnosed with advanced stage bone cancer. Mike has made a trip to Las Vegas to offer support to Chuck. Later we both went to LV to see Ruby. She is a very sick lady.

March 2006
Spent four days in Las Vegas where Mike, Chuck and John went to the NASCAR races. I spent my time visiting with Ruby (Still in the hospital - hanging in there but not doing too well) The remainder of my time was spent chauffeuring the “three stooges around town J) They had a great time!

October - December 2005

October 17th 2005

We have finally arrived in Paradise (and it’s raining) I am so glad to be here for more than 2 weeks! This is what we have been dreaming about for the past 9 years since we bought this lot. We are so excited to be here. After that first day of rain, the sun came out for the entire winter. On November 17th while out on a bike ride, I fell off my bike (what a klutz!) dislocated my ankle and broke my tibia and fibula. My first ambulance ride took me to JFK hospital where the emergency room doc put me out, re-located my ankle and sent me home in a soft cast with crutches. Two days later, after seeing an orthopedic surgeon, surgery was scheduled. Two more days later, I had 8 pins and a plate holding my leg together, a cast and crutches. My broken leg was the talk of ORI and so many people came with well wishes and food too! Mike became the homemaker and quickly took over cleaning, cooking, doing the laundry etc. What would I have ever done without him? Thanksgiving arrived and Chuck and Ruby came to Indio to spend the holiday with us. Ken and Darlene came over too. Ruby’s osteoporosis is really giving her a terrible time and she is having trouble getting around. Ruby is a real trooper and she doesn’t complain much but I can tell she ‘s in a lot of pain. Chuck ate something that didn’t agree with him and he got sick. Mike is the nursemaid J He plunks me in a wheelchair and pushes me all over the Coachella Valley- it really helps my frame of mind to get out. We went to the Indio Tamale festival with Steve and Linda Pedersen – YUM! Neighbors came to our rescue with food (so Mike didn’t have to cook) slowly I became more mobile and was able to start doing some things for myself. Christmas was really hard – Dr. Roger said I couldn’t travel home, either by car or plane. I missed Ben’s birthday and Christmas both. I was really bummed and just wanted the holidays to get over! Time marches on and January arrived before we knew it. By February, I was ready to travel and so we flew home to Portland for Camryn and Colby’s birthdays. Great to see the kids and they all got a kick out of Grandma with a cast and using crutches to get around. I started physical therapy when we returned and I seemed to begin recovery quickly. By mid-March, I am limping but no cast and no crutches!

September 2005

Early Sept 2005

Annual Fox Family Picnic at the park in Hillsboro, OR. A really fun day – we played games, visited, ate wonderful food and cranked homemade ice cream. Chuck and Ruby came up from Las Vegas and JR and Flo drove down from Bremerton, WA. Wonderful weather!

September 20th – October 16th

Spent a great week at Winchester Bay crabbing with the Suttons & others. 105 Crabs ! – Weather was cold but beautiful.
Heading down the Oregon coast – we spent time in the northern California Redwood forest (so beautiful) and some time in the Napa Valley – great vineyard tours (Sterling and Beringer) Spent 3 days in Vacaville and met Uncle Bob for breakfast. Toured the Jelly Belly and Budweiser factories and also spent a day in San Francisco (Took the ferry from Vallejo to the big city for a fun day) Spent 3 days in Reno visiting with Cathie, Scott, Terry, Brett, Julie and Troy. Next stop – Pahrump Nevada. Toured Death Valley and Scotties Castle. Death Valley is amazingly beautiful! 282 feet below sea level. Spent 10 days in Las Vegas visiting with Chuck and Ruby. While there, we toured Hoover Dam, Valley of Fire, Mt. Charleston, Ethel M Chocolate Factory, an evening on the “Strip”, mucho casinos and more J Great time.

Summer of 2005

July 7th through August

We’ve kept pretty busy in Sunriver. We bought a storage shed (pre-built) and Mike has built a fabulous deck. He has worked so hard and the lot looks so nice. The best part of spending the summer in Sunriver is the wonderful friends we have made. Glen & Judy, Jerry & Susan, Doug & Lois, Norm, Joan, Bob & Marianne, Cliff & Marcielle and Lady Di – many potlucks, cocktail hours and dinners out.

Mid-August 2005

We left Sunriver for a week – parked the coach at the Elks in Keiser and drove to Longbeach WA for a great 4 days with the kids and grandkids at Grandma & Grandpa Skov’s beach cabin. What fun! Trips to town, ice cream cones, a stop at the candy store and of course the rides at the amusement park! – Great weather!

The Adventure Begins!

Wednesday July 7th 2005 – The adventure begins! Mike has officially retired and I have officially quit. Intel has been very good to us but we are so excited to begin this new phase in our life. We sold our home in Olympia and we moved out April 1st 2005. The move took some very good planning. We went through everything we owned, sold some in a massive garage sale (Thanks to Brandon and Karen for helping us with the rainy day sale), we gave truckloads of good usable “stuff” to the goodwill, we made several trips to the dump with not so good unusable stuff and we farmed out furniture to Brandon & Karen, Marc & Maria and John & Sheri. A small storage unit in Vancouver holds the remainder of our things that we couldn’t part with. April 1st we moved into our motor home and from April to July 7th, we lived at Deep Lake Resort in Tumwater, WA. What a beautiful park and what an incredible freeing experience. I think I might like this lifestyle! Today we headed south to Sunriver.