The Adventures of Nan, Greg, & Festima Lente

Our Trip to Mexico

It has been many moons since I have written anything for our blog site so you may have to sit through many boring words to see what has been happening in the Hershman Household.

As in our last update, we closed on a house in South Dakota.  Lead, SD is next to Deadwood and near Sturgis.  The house is in town and the town is in the Black Hill area.  We are about 35 miles north of Mt. Rushmore and 10 miles east of the Wyoming state line. 

It is good fortune that I have a cousin who lives in the Denver area.  She is 12 hours north of Scott’s and 5 hours south of our house so we have a B&B to stop in when we travel.  Thanks millions, Kathi~

Our house needs lots of work and Nan and I would love to be up there working on it; however, the place is not livable so we must camp while we work.  The winter temperature in Lead was below freezing with snow up to our ying-yang; and we hate frozen ying-yangs! Greg worked very hard trying to learn the computer program for the concept drawing but there are a few changes to be made to the computer design, i.e. the actual size of the turret and the dormers.

After closing on the house in October we planned our trip from the land of gold, gambling, and loose women with a destination of Scott’s in AZ.  However, Scott and Scott Chandler had driven his 5^th wheel up to visit us in S.D. and had wanted to continue on to Dallas to pick up his Harley.  Time ran out for Scott so he drove our car back to AZ and let us use the truck & 5^th wheel to head to Dallas. 

This unplanned side trip was great for us as we hadn’t seen Matt and his family in quite some time.  We spent about 3 days traveling from Lead to Dallas and had a wonderful trip.  We spent a week in Dallas getting to see the kids and grandkids.  Before we left, Matt loaded the Harley in the back of the 5^th wheel and it was off to AZ.

As we were heading up a hill north of El Paso, I couldn’t get the turn signals to work and when I checked the gages, I saw that we had no battery power.  Because Scott’s truck is a diesel, it kept running but something had to be done.  I pulled into a truck stop and pulled into the back.  After I shut off the truck, I tried to start it to see if there was any power – nothing, nada, no way no how.  I had a portable generator so after some quality rigging; I was able to hook it up as a battery charger.  I had also assumed that the alternator was shot and I talked to a clerk at the station.  He has some tools and would help me after he got off work in 30 minutes.  When he showed up we were able to get the alternator out and he took me to the local auto parts store where for a King’s ransom I was able to get a new alternator which we installed without a problem.  The battery still didn’t have the power to even ‘clock’ the relays but the auto alarm quickly told us that there was some juice,  I decided to wait until morning when I could see what I was doing.

In the morning, I still couldn’t get any juice going so I knew I had some other problem.  A call to Scott was made and he suggested several things and places to look.  Nothing did any good.  I tried to get some help from a truck mechanic listed in the Yellow Pages but he said that he only worked on BIG trucks.  I searched some more for solutions and made several more calls to Scott.  Finally, Scott realized that he was talking to a very incompetent father so he got his friend and some tools and made the 5 hour trip to where we were.

A few minutes of wire pulling and analysis by Scott and he had the problem corrected.  The truck, at some point, had been equipped with an aftermarket security system.  The system had malfunctioned and this caused it to think that someone was trying to steal the truck.  It functioned as it was supposed to and completely disabled the entire electrical system.  Thanks for the rescue, Scott!

When we got to Scott’s I began restoring a Wolf brand range top we bought in Rapid City to get it in shape for when we might have use for it.  I also tried to get the wooden arms, seat, back, and rockers looking better for the rocking chair she made a real steal on.  She got it at our camp site for $10.00 and it is in great shape other than the wood having some weather aging.  I also spent time helping Scott rebuild the front end of his truck.  I should have been spending countless hours riding my bike but my body had a quick discussion with me and told me not to abuse it. 

In November Nan and I returned to TX for Thanksgiving. again doing lots of visiting.  This time we even got to visit with James, our blind grandson who is having a blast at a school for the blind in Austin.  At the school they teach the kids how to shop, select their meals, and a plethora of other skills.  After Thanksgiving we snuck out of Texas because we had not gotten our car inspected since we will soon register it in SD.  Back in AZ, Nan began her culinary skills as she began cooking foods for Christmas. 

Phyllis, Nan’s sister, had gotten an airline ticket for Nan’s mom to come from Wisconsin to visit us and Phyllis’s son and his kids.  All in all, grandma got to visit just a whole lot of relatives.  We had a great time visiting, eating, and playing cards.  Nan’s mom is 87 and still in great health so she was able to get Nan to take her to some great places.

Mom

The end of January, Nan and I headed to the boat in Guaymas, MX.  We knew that there were several tasks to be completed before we could get into the water and do some cruising.  Most important on my in depth project list was rebuilding one of the cockpit seats.  For several years I and seen evidence of water seepage on this hatch so this year it was a ‘Must Do’.  I tackled the seat with gusto; I removed it and removed all of the screws holding it together.  The seat didn’t come apart – there was so much glue holding everything together that it was solid. 

Slowly I began to slide thin putty knives between layers of wood and after a week I had nothing except wood slats and a seat frame.  I spend hours sanding away the glue and old wood until I had something I could reconstruct.  In less than 2 weeks I had totally rebuilt the seat so that it was in presentable shape.  This was a job I thought would take 3 to 4 days.

At that point, I tried to use the windlass but found that it was frozen solid by saltwater that had seeped through the deck.  The windlass is the piece of equipment I use to lower and raise our anchor.  The anchor and chain will weigh up to 200 pounds when there is a good length of chain played out. I am far too old and in too bad of shape to raise the anchor by hand so I began working on the windlass. Our boat weighs about 20 tons. This also becomes a safety issue because sometimes you need to raise the anchor quickly to move the boat out of danger.

Our windlass has a 12V motor located below the deck and attached to the part that is above deck.  The instructions read; “to remove motor, loosen three (3) allen head caps crews and pull motor down.”  I removed the cap screws but the motor wouldn’t budge.  I squirted WD-40 where the motor met the windlass but nothing happened.  The next day I repeated the task and used a hammer to try to persuade the motor.  I repeated this sequence of events for about 8 or 9 days until I could finally feel the motor begin to budge.  Almost home!!! 

After I finally got the motor removed, I still had to get the windlass off the deck.  Because of some pretty tenacious sealant, this portion of the task took another 3 days.  After nearly 2 weeks of developing new words, I had the windlass on my workbench.  I could tell what part was frozen but it had expanded from saltwater so much that I couldn’t get it off.  After another 2 days, I was able to remove the culprit ‘down tube; and found that this was the only piece I would need.  I quickly got on Skype and called the manufacturer in southern California to have the part shipped to Scott’s.  It was now Tuesday and if they could get the part to Scott be Friday, we could get the part brought down by Phyllis, Nan’s sister, who was taking a morning bus from Tucson the first of the next week – all well and good.

On Wednesday I again called the manufacturer to get some additional information from the owner.  He said “I’m glad you called.  Does your windlass have the thrust washer above or below the bearing?”  My reply was “Thrust washer?  I ain’t got no stinken’ thrust washer!”  After several different measurements the owner was able to determine that our windlass was over thirty years old ant he would need to machine / make the part I needed.  Needless to say, the part wouldn’t be able to make the bus trip from Tucson to Guaymas.

We finally accepted the fact that we wouldn’t have a working windlass for the 2012 sailing season and would remain on the hard.  This was not such a bad thing as there are plenty of projects to keep both of us busy.

I have scraped the bottom of the boat to remove all traces of last year’s sailing; all of the winches on the port side of our cockpit have been rebuilt / greased; a screen in our sleeping area has been replaced and I am beginning to repair and repaint the stern.  I still have more winches to go after and trim rings around two of our ports need to be replaced.  I have the plastic but need to cut, fit and attach said rings.

Nan has been busy redoing the teak.  Last year, after getting advice from our broker, we redid our teak with Thompson’s Water Seal.  For the first 2 weeks the teak looked great but then the water seal began to ‘blotch’ and our work quickly began to look ugly.  After a hard summer of sunshine, the old stuff is gone – burned off – so this time Nan is using real Teak Oil; a much better finish.  Thanks to Nan’s sister, Phyllis who also helped with oiling the teak.

Teak work

On the 22^nd of February, Nan’s sister, Phyllis’ came to visit and go sailing.  As outlined above, there was no sailing this year so Phyl became a yard bird with us.  We used the time to discover Guaymas and the surrounding areas.  We spent one day running around San Carlos and returned to San Carlos several days later to visit the “Soggy Peso”.  Here we roamed the beaches, marveled at the many points of interest and the fabulous views.  Then we sat at the “Peso”, had a drink and chips, and watched as the world passed before us.  We got to watch 7 sail surfers skim across the water and lift themselves into the air.

Another trip we took was to the local pearl farm.  Nan and I had never heard of the farm before but we traveled several miles from the boat, to the local seaside college, and found the farm.  We were treated to a wonderful tour and found out many interesting facts about pearls, how they are cultured, the different types, and how Sea of Cortex pearls differ from others.  To view the pearl site, go to:  http://perlas.com.mx/en/

On one Sunday, we drove to a small town south of us, Empalme, to visit their street market.  Thus market covers about 8 or 10 blocks and features everything from normal flee market items to birds ,used auto parts, raw honey (including the bees). and food.  The ruckus was too much for me but the girls had a blast and met me back at the car two hours later.

Another side trip we made was to a ‘shelling’ beach.  I have never seen so many shells scattered along so much sand.  We took some friends and everyone was bending over to pick up that very special shell.  For 5 days shells sat in buckets in bleach and when Nan and Phyl finally went through the shells, the gleaned some very fine looking shells.  They sure are beautiful.

As we drove past one spot near where we have the boat, we noticed a Circus tent so we knew that we had to visit the circus.  Several nights later we drove to the circus and it was a good thing we had purchased our tickets in advance – we avoided the long line.  On the marquee outside the tent was a picture of the ring master or owner; a dashing 50 year old gentleman ready to shout “Ladies and Gentlemen, and Children of all ages!”

We had to walk under the bleachers – bleachers so low that I couldn’t stand straight – to get to our seats.  When the circus finally began, there was no Ring Master but simply some Spanish coming over the loud speaker.  The really best act of all was … mediocre!  We saw clowns and 1 person performing on a slack wire.  A magician did some tricks I think a 5 year old would be able to figure out.  Two fellows got on a big swing and got the swing going quite high and when the swing was at its apex, they jumped into a net held by some of their fellow performers.  We got to see a horse and a llama parade around the ring with one hoof on the ring.

After all of the acts had been performed, the owner / ring master was paraded out by six (count them … 6) beautiful women – well not all that bad looking women.  The gentleman was now about 75 years old with somewhat of a potbelly.  It was easy to imagine him as a dashing man in his youth but he was far apart from that at this point.  The owner did a lot of interaction with the audience.  It is unfortunate that I have no Spanish skills as it appeared that he was very good at getting the audience to laugh and join in on some of what he did.  He worked with several groups of kids that had been retrieved from the audience.

All in all, Phyl, Nan and I felt that we got good entertainment for our $2.75.

About two weeks ago Nan began to feel poorly.  Sort of a sinus problem that worked its way into a cough and a headache.  No sooner had she began to recoup from this than Phyl began to feel bad.  Sort of a sinus problem that worked its way into a cough and a headache.  I wondered how these seemingly healthy women could get so sick.  If only they were as fit as I, they wouldn’t suffer so.

The night before last I could feel sort of a sinus problem that worked its way into a cough and a headache.  As I write this I am constantly sneezing and blowing my nose (or is it NOISE!)  I am beginning to feel somewhat better but I want to be over this!

Today, Nan and I took Phyl to the bus for her trip to America.  She will be working at Yellowstone National Park for the summer and needs to be on her way.  It was sad to see her go.

March 25th

Last week nancy and Phyl took a short hike over to a bay.  “Just follow the trail at the end of the road, it’s a great little walk.”  When they returned they were tired so this morning Nan and I took the same walk with 3 neighbors.  It was a tiring walk for me as I haven’t done any hiking since we have been down here.  When we got back, I measured the distance on Google Earth (wonderful thing, that!) and found the round trip was 5.5 miles of mostly flat but some inclines and declines.  I felt as if I had completed a 50 mile hike and spent the afternoon napping in the cockpit.  Memo to self:  I must get in shape!!!!  Oh well, I guess I’ll wait until I get old to do that.

March 26th

Nan and I drove over to San Carlos to visit some boater friends we have known since we lived in Chula Vista.  Brian and Laurie have been cruising since 2003 and it has been ages since we have seen them.  It sure was fun getting together and telling each other the Tales of the Sea.

September 28, 2011

Last year we traveled through South Dakota and stopped in Deadwood, an old mining town on the western side of S.D.  Deadwood’s twin city is Lead (‘Leed’) as the two towns touch each other.  This area is located near many picturesque sites: Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, Devil’s Tower, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse, and other attractions.  The area is in the hills (5,000+ foot altitude) and is surrounded by massive pine trees.  The Homestake mine, which was owned by George Hearst, father of William Randolph Hearst of Hearst Newspaper fame, was located in Lead.  When it was closed in 2002, the mine was the oldest, richest, and deepest (8,000 feet deep) mine in the western hemisphere.

We fell in love with the area and said that we would like to live here if we could find a house.  On our summer trip this year I was ‘surfing’ the net and happened to see an old house in Lead that was listed at an unbelievable price: $14,000!  This was something that needed to be checked out.

Nancy and I changed our driving route and, instead of heading to the Pacific Coast and traveling south, we headed east to South Dakota.  We spent lots of time talking to the Realtor and looking at the property and, although the place needs LOTS of work, the price was reasonable and there was tremendous potential.  What we found was an old house that someone had begun to restore but ran out of money.  We later found out that the seller had purchased quite a few old houses and had lost his shirt on every one.

Well we made an offer for the house and, after some negotiating; the bid was accepted so we are going to be house owners.  I will not yet say ‘Home’ because this place has a long way to go to be a home.

Nancy will post many pictures and I am sure that most will wonder about our sanity in purchasing this place.  For those of you who have watched HGTV’s ‘PropertyBrothers’, look at this place as the ‘affordable home that will need some ( a lot of) reworking’.  We are one step better than the homes on Property Brothers, we don’t have to do any demolition on the inside – it is already done.

The house currently has no kitchen, bathrooms, or bedrooms.  To us, this means that we have a clean slate so we can design the interior as we desire and upgrade the systems to be energy efficient.  The outside of the house will receive a deck along the north and the east side with a corresponding roof to semi-restore the house to the way it appeared when it was built in 1903.  In automotive terms, this will be a ‘resto-mod’.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

    Nan and I get up fairly early and break camp since we are headed back to Arizona.  On the way south, we plan to spend a night camping between Lead and the Denver area where we will visit with my cousin Kathi.  As we approach the Wyoming area and our selected camping area, we are surrounded by lightening and can hear the thunder over the sound of the car.  It is really blowing and Nan takes several pictures of the clouds and the rain coming down.

    Because the weather is so bad, Nan calls Kathi and asks if the ‘Hasfjord Hilton is open for guests a day early.  Kathy says to come on down so we arrive in Lakewood in the late afternoon and have a great reunion.  We haven’t seen Kathi since last year when we were in Wisconsin.

Monday, August 22, 2011

    Nan, Kathi, and I spend all day reviewing our past year, looking over Kathi’s extensive family genealogical information our grandfather, father of Kathi and my mothers.  We sit and relax on her porch and watch time pass as w discuss ‘old times’; all in all, a great day.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

    Friends we know from our cruising in Mexico, Don & Susie; Susie, live in the Denver area so we contact them and drive over to their house.  We had last seen them in La Paz, Mexico last time we were there so again we spend all afternoon reminiscing.  They are not returning to Mexico so visits to Denver will be the only time we have to get together.  It is good to see them again.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

    Nan and I get up early (for us) as we have a lot of highway to put behind us today.  We want to head towards Phoenix via the route through the ‘4 corners’ area, the only place in the USA where 4 states meet.  Several years ago we had been close to this area but didn’t have the time to stop; today we will.

    Our plans are to stay just outside Durango, CO, in the San Juan National Forest.  As we approach Durango, the skies are ‘nasty’.  There is rain falling everywhere and the lightening and thunder crash all around us.  We opt to press on towards Phoenix.

 

    When we get to the 4 corners area, we pull in and find that the spot is owned by the Indian nations and there is a $6.00 per person charge to enter.  I am not prepared to spend $12.00 so that I can say that I stood in 4 states at once!  We turn the car around and continue out trip to Scott’s in Chandler.  We finally arrive late at night but Scott is still awake and we have a great reception.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

    After many days on the road, I haven’t written in our Blog for a long time.  I take the time and work on my writing but there is something that keeps pulling me away from writing: in Lead, Nan and I looked at a potential house to buy.  At Scott’s we are able to spend some time trying to figure out the financing.  As I look at the potential financing, I also work on the design of the house.  My mind is in constant motion and I can’t stay focused and I spend hours awake each night doing conceptual layouts in my head.

Friday and Saturday, August 26 and 27, 2011

    Nancy and I unwind from our trip.  We have traveled 5,700 miles in less than 2 months.  This is no record and not nearly as much as we did last year.  In all of this time, we have bicycled fewer than 30 miles, an unenviable bit of datum that speaks highly of our advancing age or our ability to say “The heck with it, I’ll ride tomorrow!”

    We are now getting back into being grandparents as Scott Chandler is in school and Scott has jobs he is working so Nan and I are there for Scott C. when he gets home from school.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

    We stop at Hardin, MT., home of Custer’s Last Stand.  During our visit to the Historic Center, a movie is announced so I wander into the presentation room.  Before the movie begins, one of the Rangers gives a great talk about what happened during that memorable day, where the Indians were, where Custer and his troupes were.  The talk is much more interesting than the movie as the Ranger puts real life into his talk. 

    After the movie, we drive through the battlefield and try to get an understanding of the fight.  All around the battlefield are markers – graves really – of where each soldier fell.  This is one of a very few battlefields where soldiers are buried where they fell.

    After leaving the site, we continue east and as the day progresses, we cannot find a campground that looks interesting.  We finally realize that we are not going to find anywhere to stop and camp for the night so we head towards Deadwood, SD, and in the early evening we make camp at Mystic Hills south of Deadwood-Lead.  

Monday, August 15, 2011

    Several weeks ago I saw a house listed on the Internet in Lead, South Dakota.  Lead is a twin city to Deadwood and is just a dew miles from Sturgis, the home of the yearly Harley Davidson round up.  I did some investigating and the home looked like it might be something Nan and I would be interested in buying.  This is why wed headed east from Oregon rather than to the Pacific coast and south.

    After a nice shower and breakfast, we head into Lead (pronounced ‘Leed’), to visit with the Broker.  We take a trip to see the house and it is a complete mess – but something with potential, if it can be bought for a good price.  The house is OLD – built in 1900 and it has no plumbing, bath, kitchen, wiring, etc. so we would be working with a clean slate.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

    The weather is beginning to turn cool and we sleep wonderfully with the nice crisp nights.  After breakfast we stop at the City Building in Lead to visit building inspector.  He informs us about the required building permits, building codes, etc.  In the midst of our talk, Dennis, the building inspector, told us that the house had been condemned; when he saw the look on our faces, he suggests that we sit down for a talk.  

    Dennis explains that the house is condemned, not for any structural problems, but for non-occupancy and for back taxes.  With this information, we elect to proceed.  I then ask Dennis if the city has any property that is condemned for the same reason and he tells us of another home that we might look at.  After leaving Dennis’s office, we drive to look at the other house and wander around the outside of the property.  This 2^nd house is much larger but sits on a lot that has had some movement in the land and foundation.  Even so, this might be another place to consider as the lot is bigger, the house somewhat newer, and the street much more accessible.

    Nancy sets an appointment to walk through the house with Dennis tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

    Nan and I arrive at the 2^nd house and wait for Dennis but after waiting ½ hour past appointment time, Dennis still has not showed up.  We enter the house and find that it is designed as a 4-plex rental – 2 upper, 2 lower.  This could prove to be an interesting find as we could easily have Nan’s mom or sister visit us and they would have plenty of space.  During Sturgis Bike Week, rentals in this area go for high dollars; to me, another strong feature.

    Soon we are visited by ‘Harold’, an older gentleman who has lived in the Lead area most of his life.  He asks us about the wall in the back and I state that it is in need of repair, he says “No wonder, I built that wall in the 40’s.”  Well, if the wall has survived 70 years, it probably could survive another few years.

    Walking through the house raises lots of questions that we want answered.  We head to City Hall but Dennis is not around so it is off to the library for some computer work.  As we sit there, Dennis comes in to talk with the librarian and when he sees us, he tells us that he has spoken to the City Administrator and they might be interested in selling the property.  He asks what we might be willing to pay and I state that they should simply give it to us to get it back on the tax roll and avoid the cost of tearing the house down.  Dennis has another meeting with the City Administrator and other City Officials that afternoon and will address the sale of the property. 

    There is hope.  Nan and I spend hours discussing which house we would rather have; there are definite pros and cons to each place.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

    Nan and I stay at camp all day.  We have no appointments so our day is free.  We sleep late and have several great meals without having to rush anything.  We both spend a lot of time reading.

Friday, August 19, 2011

    First on our agenda today is to stop and see Dennis, He stated that he should have an answer on the 2^nd. house today.  When we finally track him down, he tells us that the city is not interested in selling the house; we surmise that they may feel that there is too much liability.  We head down to Deadwood and tour several of the ‘saloons’, visiting one that has an auto museum.  Deadwood is a very historical town as this is where Wild Bill Hickock was shot and where Calamity Jane spent her last years.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

    Since we are now down to a selection of 1 house (do we get it or don’t we?), we spend a few hours in the morning looking at the outside of the house trying to help clear our thoughts.  The remainder of the day is spent wandering around the area, trying to get our bearings.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

    We leave Terry and Dana’s and drive to the small town of Mill City, OR, to visit Mike and Renate.  Nancy had worked with Mike when we first moved to California back in 1985 and we haven’t seen them since we headed out cruising six years ago.  We arrive in late afternoon and after some initial “Hi’s and How do’s, we head out for meatball sandwiches.  Great friends and good food – what can be better?

Monday, August 8, 2011

    Mike and Renate live right next to the North Santiam River and have a fantastic view of the river from their living room.  It is quite relaxing to just sit and watch the river headt to the Pacific Ocean.

    Mike has some paperwork that needs to be retrieved from places around the area and we use that time to also see the delights of the Mill City area.  They take us for a drive up through the hills and into several small towns; Nan and I love to drive and to visit new areas so our day is great.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

    Today is ‘Tour Day’ at the Medley’s.  We begin with a visit to Detroit Lake and a walk on the dam followed by more sight seeing after which we return home and have dinner followed by cards while we rehash old times.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

    Mike and Renate have a small boat with a motor which has not been operated in several years.  The motor won’t start, and since I am an old time outboard mechanic, I grab some of Mike’s tools and remove the carburetors for cleaning.  After an hour or two Mike and I get the outboard started and it is time for another drive.

    We load into the car and head up some hills, down others, until I am completely lost.  We have arrived at Silver Falls State Park for the ‘Trail of Ten Falls’.  This park features a 10 mile trail that leads along the Silver River.  We elect to only travel to the largest falls and are thrilled to be able to walk behind the falls on a natural trail.  Along this lava formed formation we can easily see where American Indians probably once spent their time in the natural small caves.

    After dinner we go to a renovated movie theatre in Stayton and watch ‘Captain America’.  This is probably not a movie I would have picked but we both found the movie to be fun and entertaining; I’m glad we went.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

    Today is scheduled to be a long day.  We get into the car and Mike drives us along a scenic route to the ocean (Pacific) and the town of Newport.  This old town has lots of interesting sights and we stop at the old, but still operating, lighthouse for a tour.  The lighthouse was built in the late 1800’s and is completely restored.  This is a great place with fantastic views of the ocean.

    After the lighthouse, we travel north along the ocean so that we may have lunch.  As Nan and I are totally unprepared for this cooler weather, we stop at Goodwill and we both get large flannel shirts that we can wear as jackets.  These prove their worth later in our trip when we head towards South Dakota.

    When we return home we have another great dinner and again play cards while we reminisce.

Friday, August 12, 2011

    We leave Mike and Renate with a fond ‘farewell’ and a commitment to visit more frequently.  We head north towards Portland where we stop for breakfast w/ Donna & Earl and Tom & Sue.  These are folks we first met many years ago when we lived aboard the boat in Chula Vista.  While we remained at the marina, Tom and Sue took off to Mexico and sailed the same waters we now frequent.  Earl and Donna took a more adventurous trip as they sailed to Hawaii where Earl had been transferred.

From Drop Box

    After breakfast we continue our trip east along the Columbia River to a campground outside of Lewiston on L&C Trail.  At this distance up river, the Columbia has changed names several times and is a mere 100 feet wide at this point.  We spend the night at this very well kept campground and rest well despite the mosquitoes. �

Saturday, August 13, 2011

    We have a great breakfast then break camp and continue out trek east.  We meander along U.S. Highway 12.  We had grown up just south of US 12 in northern Indiana and the scenery and traffic are totally different than what I remember from those old days.  Here the road is windy and un-crowded with fantastic things to see as we drive along.   Today ends up being a longer than planned drive so we stay at a motel in Bozeman, MT, for the night and splurge on a dinner at the ‘two for one’ Mexican restaurant located at the motel.