First,
Thank you for all your concern. As Warren noted, Marie's mother passed on last November, and this gave us a number of more options in life. For the first time since 1996, we were free to travel any time we wanted to.
In January this year, we spent two weeks looking atl Defever 49's, 44's, and similar trawlers on the East Coast South of the Carolinas. One of our goals was to show the grandchildren some of life, other than what they were experiencing in S. Calif. Our final decision was that we could not find a suitable boat, and that we were probably past that stage of boating in our lives. We traded in our 30 foot RV for a 41 foot Holiday Rambler Ambassador, which had sleeping arrangements for 6. We had previously discussed traveling for a month with our daughter and two grandchildren each summer for the next few years.
We picked up the grandchildren in the middle of June, and drove the first day to Las Vegas. The first stop was a few nights at Circus Circus. The grand kids loved the Adventuredome. Don't ask how my daughter ended up in the "stripper bar" at Planet Hollywood, while the rest of us were standing in line for a variety show!.
Next off for a couple of days at Zion. We camped on the Virgin River--and the kids had their first experience at tubbing a river, with a little help from "gramps" and mom.
We had to stay at Kanabe, Ut. because the North Rim of the Grand Canyon was too high for my cardiac condition, but we drove up for about 6 hours of walking on the rim and the sunset.
Next we spent 5 days at Lake Powell. We camped on the beach by Lone Rock (I managed to get the 30,000 lb RV stuck in the sand coming into the camping spot, but some great guys pulled us out with their "monster truck". Next time we will unhitch the Honda Pilot AWD and explore the area first! We rented a Bayliner 18 footer for a tour of the lake, and had our 9 1/2' inflatable along for tubbing etc. All voted for a houseboat trip on Powell as part of next year's adventure. (We will work it so that my son in law will get to come also)
Bryce was only a single day and night, but a lot of fun, and the next day we took the "Scenic" route....which was only 50 miles further, but took an extra 5 hours because of cows in the road etc. The plus was we visited an Indian archeological site which the kids loved.
About 50 miles out of Salt Lake City, we lost all of the engine gauges (speedometer, fuel gauge, water and tranny temp, oil and air pressure etc). So we continued on with just the GPS speed, and seat of the pants, with an excellent exhaust "jake" brake for the next 1500 miles.
A long drive brought us to Jackson Hole, with the gunfight at 5 PM in the Town Square, and lots of walking around town. The next day we met up with Jim and Joan (Wild Blue) at the Grand Tetons for a short visit, and then through Yellowstone to Gardiner WY. We chose Gardiner because it was considerably lower elevation than the other camping areas, which was necessary because of my cardiac condition. We spent 5 days touring Yellowstone, and all enjoyed a great C Dory ride on the well equipted and cared for "Far West II", with "Yellowstone John"--certainly the best guide on all of Yellowstone Lake! Man, the traffic in Yellowstone was at times worse than the Los Angeles freeways!
The final National Park was Glacier, where we were fortunate to be up close and personal with both mountain sheep and goats. This time we stepped up up the river running to some Class III Rapid and one class IV rapid on a guided raft.
The final days with the grandkids were spent along FlatHead Lake at Polson, MT where we visited the "Miracle of America Museum" . The gang flew home from Missoula, MT, and we finally found a Cummins dealer who could fix our gauges! This set us back a couple of days on our schedule and we didn't make the Bellingham gathering.
We rested a few days in Sequim, and then fast tracked South to pick up the RoadTrek class B RV we had kept in S. Calif. for the last 6 years. After a couple days with my children's families, our caravan headed to Pensacola. Marie driving the RoadTrek, behind me in the Holiday Rambler.
Upon return to Pensacola, we cleaned up the RV, got the RoadTrek ready for its new owner (it left 3 days ago) and went through the 10 week's worth of mail. Then I visited the C brats site again.
Today was my 74th Birthday, which I celebrated by a dental appointment followed by a walk on the beach (no oil), played with my birthday present (An Ipad), and finally dinner with two other couples who have been friends for almost 50 years.
I decided not to read or post on C brats during this busy summer for a variety of reasons. I'll still be around, but I will be spending more time on a forum dealing with Monaco Motor homes (somewhat like the C Brats, but there I am the novice, despite 48 years of RV ownership). Also this summer brought me to the realization that I had a most unusual life, which my grandchildren need to have a record of, and I will be spending time writing about my experiences.
My best wishes to you all!
