Back in Hondo, Texas

We appologize for the long gap between posts. There really was nothing new to photograph in Coffeyville (see posts from 2008), and we were working five 11 hour shifts per week. Not much time or energy to do anything else. How fortunate we had friends there to visit with when time allowed.
We left Coffeyville, Kansas one week ago and are now on our lot in Hondo, Texas. Our last day working for Amazon was on Tuesday December 22. Wednesday we pulled out of the City park shortly before noon heading for Texas. We had two options, either the Austin area or the Houston area (both have relatives to see at Christmas). A winter storm chased us further and further south and we didn't stop to sleep until 3 AM on Thursday. It was a good decision as we avoided the ice and snow. We decided to go to Spring, Texas where one of Larry's sisters lives. It was a great three days visiting with her and relaxing, thanks for the use of your driveway! Sunday we drove to Katy, Texas for a couple of family baptisms on Claudia's side of the family. We had the wonderful opportunity to visit more family. We spent the night at Camping World and arrived here in Hondo on Monday.
We hope to have some new pictures to post soon.

Visiting Family

We were able to visit with all of our children this year, which is a big accomplishment considering they are living in California, North Dakota and New York. In October we took the long way around to travel from Montana to Kansas, via North Dakota, New York and Virginia. The following are a few snapshots of family we visited. We also appreciate all the friends we were able to catch up with in the eastern part of the US. Thanks to all for their hospitality.


Our wonderful kids.








A few of our brothers and sisters.

Just checking to see if you were paying attention. This was at the Cornell Orchards in Ithaca.

Cayuga Lake and Taughannock Falls, NY

Most of our time the last couple of weeks has been spent catching up with relatives and friends in the area, some of whom we had not seen in almost 10 years. Yesterday we decided to play tourists and revisit some of the natural beauty in this part of the country. We drove down by the shore of Cayuga Lake, one of the finger lakes, which was carved by glaciers. For our next stop we picked Taughannock Falls State Park. It was cloudy and looked like rain might come soon, so we went to the overlook at the top. There is a trail you can take which goes close to the base of the falls, but we decided against that for now.

Fall colors are everywhere.

Looking across Cayuga Lake at some of the cottages on the west shore, surrounded by trees hanging on to their many colored leaves.

A look at Stewart Park at the south end of the lake.

Taughannock Falls

The water plunges 215 feet, which makes this the tallest free-falling waterfall in the northeast US. If you look closely, you can see where the lower falls trail ends at the bottom right.

The Texas tourists.

The water fills the pool at the bottom of the falls.

The following are a sampling of the beautiful trees in the state park down by Cayuga Lake.

Travels from Montana to New York

After spending the summer in the Yellowstone area, we left abruptly in the middle of the day on Oct 3, to avoid the 1 to 3 feet of snow and very cold temperatures they were predicting. The weather was chasing us, so we had longer days on the road than we normally plan on. Our first overnight stop was in Billings, MT and then on to Minot, ND to spend 3 days visiting our youngest. The weather was cold, wet and dreary, but we had a great visit.
Our next destination was the central NY area and with the cold weather at our heels, we covered that ground in 4 long days, with nights in Minneapolis, MN, Davenport, IA, and Sandusky, OH.
Here are a few sights seen along the route. The weather was not the greatest and most of the shots were taken out the window of our truck while on the move.

Crossing the Mississippi River very early in the morning. It's been quite a while since we've been on the east side of the river.

We were glad we were not too late to see the show of fall colors in the east.

Now that we have stayed in Iowa, we only have 5 states left to visit. We should be able to cover New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine without too much trouble. Alaska and Hawaii, who knows? You can make your own map at www.visitedstatesmap.com

Big Springs and Cave Falls

We spent this day, taking Tom and Nancy to Big Springs, where we saw this muskrat having a cool dip. You can see more photos of this location on previous posts.



At our visitors' suggestion, we went to a place we had never visited. We had read about Cave Falls, which is located at the southwest corner of Yellowstone NP. The access to it is from the Idaho side, so is not visited by very many. It was definitely worth the trip.

The aspens are starting to turn.

A distant view of the Tetons from the west side.

More aspens, which can vary in color from pale yellow to bright orange and all shades in between.

The next few shots are self explanatory, as we take a walk up to the base of the falls. According to what we read, there was supposed to be a cave there, but a recent rock slide appears to have covered the entrance.

More Friends Visit !

For a few days last week, we were doubly blessed to have 2 couples visiting us. It was great for all of us to have time together, as they are friends too. Our boss was gracious enough to give us a Saturday off, so we could spend the day together. We started our day at the Campfire Lodge for breakfast. It was a wonderful meal, with great company and all at the shore of the Madison River. In the afternoon we had a cook out at Tom and Nancy's rig, where we were glad to be joined by two more friends.

Larry, Claudia, Diane, Dave, Nancy and Tom posing for a group shot behind the Campfire Lodge.

Some fly fishermen just downriver from the restaurant.

The SKP Boomer line-up: Tom & Nancy, Dave, Betty, Jeannie (soon to be a Boomer), Diane (Dave's better half), Claudia & Larry. As is common for Boomers, we had great eats and lots of laughs.

The following day we went for a ride with Tom and Nancy along the Mesa Falls Scenic Drive. We missed Dave and Diane :( but they had to head back to South Dakota.

A strange looking bug. Looks like a cross between a bee and a butterfly.

Upper Mesa Falls. We took the nice walk which got us up close to the falls.

The lookout for Lower Mesa Falls gives a more distant view.

Zooming in on Lower Mesa Falls. We recently saw a report of an extreme kayak ride over these falls. We'll let you decide if it's an extreme sport or stupidity.

Most of the flowers are gone, but the leaves are turning beautiful colors.