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!