December 2007

We started our December with a day trip to the Indio Tamale Festival. Fun and yummy too! We sampled all sorts of tamales…….at the top of my list are sweet corn tamales and roasted pork with pineapple tamales. The dessert tamales were great too. My favorite in this category was carmeled apple, butterscotch and walnut! Fantastic!

Oh, Oh! Now Mike has introduced Pat and Ron to off roading…….we spend time a fair amount of time in the desert and it is beginning to grow on me - It seems the desert takes on a beauty of it’s own. In the picture above you can see the Salton Sea in the background.

Mike had arthroscopic surgery on his knee this month. The doctor called it a “significant” tear in the meniscus. He is doing great - nothing seems to slow him down a bit. We flew up to Portland for a week to spend Christmas with the kids and grandkids. Had a wonderful time. My goodness those kids wear me out…..I must be getting old. We had snow on Christmas and the day we flew back. I returned to Palm Springs with a cold but it was all worth it!

November 2007

We love our winter home here in Indio - we have warm weather and great friends here! Outdoor Resorts threw a wonderful “Welcome Home” party - a good time was had by all!
We took the motorhome to Borrego Springs (about 90 minutes south of here) where Mike went to a two day off roading driving school. He really enjoyed the class and said he learned quite a bit.
We have started our off roading trips with the gang here and have already seen several desert trails this season.
My sister Jeri, her husband Brian and their friends came to our desert area in November and we enjoyed spending an evening with them.
Mike’s sister Pat and her husband Ron have arrived and will be staying in Indio for the next few months. It will be great to have them so close.

October 2007

October has taken us to see some beautiful sites! We met up with our friends Ken and Darlene Sutton and toured through the beautiful Zion National Park, spent a day in breathtaking Bryce National Park, visited Snow Canyon in St. George Utah, drove through Kolob Canyon and headed up in the snow to Cedarbreaks National Monument at 10,500 ft. All of these locations are in southern Utah (one of the most spectacular states we have visited)
From Utah we traveled to Las Vegas where we visited with Cliff and Marcielle Scott (Sunriver friends) and took in a fabulous seafood buffet (ate way too much - you know how those buffets are) While we were there, Mike had an adventure of a lifetime. He got to drive a NASCAR at the Las Vegas Speedway. He rode (at 165-170 mph) three laps with a professional driver then after some instruction, they strapped him in a real NASCAR and he drove (by himself) 8 laps where they clocked him at 133mph. He said it was an unbelievable rush!

We are now at Outdoor Resorts in Indio (near Palm Springs) where we will spend the next several months. We are very fortunate to be quite a ways from the devastating southern California fires. The weather here is warm, beautiful, clear and dry….every day.

October has ended with Janet’s 60th birthday. Who ever thought that 60 could be so wonderful. I’m having a great time!

September 2007

We are so fortunate to have a home with wheels. What a great life! This month, we started out in Flathead Lake, Montana. What a beautiful area. Flathead Lake is the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi. We drove around the lake, took a boat ride on the lake and enjoyed a picnic on the lake shore.
From Flathead, we headed to Glacier National Park. We toured the park, took a boat ride on Lake McDonald, hiked to a beautiful waterfall, saw some big horned sheep and took in the beauty of the park. We ran into Mike and Carol Semple from ORI (where we spend the winter) - great to see familiar faces and catch up on both families summer adventures.

Next stop - Livingston, Montana. We spent a few days here visiting with Denny and Kay Struss (also friends from ORI) Livingston is in a beautiful location just north of Yellowstone. When we left Livingston, we drove south and through Yellowstone National Park - just passing through, we saw buffalo, coyote, elk and a bear.

On to Driggs, Idaho where we spent 4 nights with Chad and Jill Stettler (also from ORI - living on the road has given us so many wonderful friends) Driggs is located on the west side of the Tetons and is quiet, great summer weather and full of so many friendly people. Mike took a float trip on the Yellowstone river with Chad while Jill invited me to tag along with her weekly hiking group. We hiked up in the hills - now I know what bear scat looks like! On to 5 days in Jackson Wyoming (on the east side of the Tetons) In Jackson, we toured Teton National Park, took a float trip on the Snake river, saw numerous eagles, hundreds of buffalo, elk, a bear and a moose too! We took a gondola ride to see the beautiful Jackson Hole valley, and we hiked to a remote incredibly beautiful lake and waterfall.

In Olathe, Colorado, we met up with Denny and Kay Struss and Dave and Roberta McCleary where we all gathered to participate in a FMCA 4-Wheelers Rally. We toured an amazing car museum created by the fella who owns the Discovery Channel. The car collection is located in Gateway Colorado. We went on 4 off roading trail runs and saw some incredibly beautiful country. We even had to slowly make our way through the middle of a cattle drive - complete with real cowboys!

August 2007

August began with busy activities in our Sunriver “home”: bike riding, weekly “Music on the Green”, the Sunriver Quilt Show, a neighborhood potluck, the Sunriver Music Festival. By the middle of the month we had packed up, said our goodbyes and headed off to the Portland area for a 4 day stay at Champoeg State Park to celebrate our annual “Fox Family Campout.” We had games, prizes, crafts, bike rides, s’mores, and a visit from two fabulous clowns (Mike’s brother and his finance) who painted our faces, danced with us, and made balloon animals, hats and swords!

On to our next adventure……. We were happy to meet up with our friends, Tom and Linda West, for one evening in Hermiston on our way to our destination, Missoula Montana. The wildfires in the Missoula area have filled the “Big Sky Country” with smoke but they are reported to be well under control. Mike, his buddy Neil, and some new friends set off to retrace a 465 mile stretch of the Lewis and Clark trail on their bicycles. The weather was warm (mid 80’s) but thanks to many weeks of training, they all did well. I spent the seven days he was gone exploring Missoula, bike riding and quilting.

July 2007

July has been a great month! We spent the 4th in Sunriver - The weather has been great. Mike has been riding his bike every day training for a 7 day - 500 mile ride in August. He rides 30 - 35 miles at a quick pace with many hills for conditioning. I also ride every day with a couple of gals. We ride slow and enjoy ourselves.

We spent a fabulous week on a cruise to Mexico with Marc, Maria, Brandon and Karen. What fun! The ship was great - the ports (Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas) were all great - the food was INCREDIBLE and the drinks were flowing! The best part was spending an entire week with our wonderful sons and their fantastic wives. I only hope they had as much fun as we did!

Brandon, Karen, Ben, Anna and their friends Jodi, Trevor, Ollie and Sam came to Sunriver for a campout. We went swimming, off-roading, rafting, golfing, shopping, biking and had a general great time.

The Sisters Quilt Show was fantastic (as usual) I really enjoyed seeing the creations and getting inspired to do some sewing.

June 2007

Can you believe it? Little Anna has turned two! Her second birthday party on June 10th was great fun. June 11th we headed to Sunriver. It’s great to be here again. The air is so clean, it smells like pine trees, we love our time here. The winter wasn’t too kind to our deck. Mike spent several days stripping and refinishing it - It’s beautiful now! We seem to have so many deer this year - There is a doe and her two very little fawns that have been by several times and a couple of bucks too. We see deer most every day

Mike’s sister Pat and her husband Ron have just sold their house, retired from their jobs, purchased a new truck & 5th wheel and have hit the road. It’s a great lifestyle! They came to spend a week with us in Sunriver. We really enjoyed having them here. While here, they found some property and have purchased it for their new “summer home” We had a BBQ with all of our Sunriver friends to introduce them and celebrate their new purchase.