Everything and the kitchen sink: How does an RV stack up to driving a plain old car?

This article about someone who took a trip similar to ours was interesting. They drove 2700 and we have driven 11,000 so far, but still, we feel like we saved a lot of money by traveling the way we did. We tracked every cent we spent, and our cost ended up averaging about $120 a day including the groceries, diesel fuel, RV parks, new tires all around and repairs as we went along. We counted every expense, including the $2000 for the Alaskan Marine Ferry. We even counted snacks and souveniers. Of course we bought a fifth wheel and truck, so you have to factor that cost in, but the biggest advantage to me is having my own space, own things, own bed. Also, we could stop pretty much where we wanted. In Alaska and British Columbia we often stayed in places that cost us nothing for overnight. We cooked most nights, and ate out rarely. Also, many of the people we met who were staying in hotels or renting cars and motorhomes had to see everything in two weeks! We enjoyed taking our time and seeing what we wanted to see. Read the article

Waiting in Houston

We arrived in Houston Friday, July 25. It was great to see Carrie and Dali, and also great to be stopped for a while. We are parked in a nice RV Park not too far from Carrie and Dali's house, and we have been helping them get some things done, like painting the wall in the baby room and painting a dresser to move into their room. It is hot and humid here, but we have managed to get in our walk early in the morning, and stay out of the heat.
Today is our 41st anniversary, so we are going out to eat with Carrie and Dali.
Hopefully, the next blog update will be the arrival of our grandbaby!

Georgetown, TX

Thursday afternoon, we arrived in Georgetown and found an RV park. We met our friend Nancy and her husband Frank at their home and went boating, eating barbecue on the boat. It was a beautiful night, although Hurricane Dolly had turned to a tropical storm and threatened to ruin the evening. Ellen was home from Texas Tech, and Nancy's sister Melinda from Vail was there also. When Ellen was born in Tucson, Carrie held her before her own daddy did! Ellen is trying to get to Houston and hold our new baby Sophie before Dali does. (No, she hasn't been born yet!)
We had a relaxing and fun time.
Friday morning we went for a tour of ROCK (Ride On Center For Kids). Nancy was the founder of this non-profit organization that provides therapy for handicapped children, at risk youth, and injured veterans. We especially enjoyed hearing the story of a young boy named Logan. You can read more about ROCK here.

Visiting Cousins in Decatur, TX

We were delighted to see Don and Barbara for the first time in 16 years. Barbara and Denny are cousins (their mothers were sisters). Don and Barbara have served God faithfully for many years. they met many years ago through mutual friends at a Christian youth endeavor in Los Angeles, California. We had visited their home when they still lived in Bellevue, WA. and they had visited us in Ohio and Tucson. Now they live on a beautifully wooded 12 1/2 acres in Decatur, TX. They cleared land and built their own log house. It is just a wonderful place with birds, hawks, and other wildlife in the area. They have a stocked fishing pond, goats, chickens, and they run an organic produce coop from their home. They loaded us up with organic fruits and vegetables before we left. We so enjoyed sitting around their kitchen table and catching up.

Why Denny Doesn't Like Driveways with Trees

Denny's cousin Don Vanderbecken says to us on the phone, "Oh, you will have no trouble coming in our driveway. Even semi trucks have come in here. Just avoid the pond." So, Denny avoided the pond and ended up totally stuck in the trees. Don got up on a ladder and cut down a large limb to rescue us.

On the Road Again

We left Franktown, Colorado Monday mnorning and headed toward Colorado Springs. We got stopped in awful traffic south of Colorado Springs and sat for about an hour. we went through Pueblo, then on to Lamar, CO where we spent the night. Next morning we headed toward Texas. We only went through a little bit of Oklahoma and then drove and drove3 in Texas. We spent the night in Amarillo, and are now headed toward Decatur, TX to visit Denny's cousins, Don and Barbara Vanderbecken.

Catching Up With Long Time Friends

Jim and Susie Efaw

Larry and Chris Hill

We were able to attend Beth Eden Baptist Church in Denver, Co where our good friends Jim and Susie Efaw have been for 18 years. We went out for some authentic Mexican food, and then headed to see another friend, Chris, who we knew from Tucson many years ago. She and her husband Larry live in the beautiful hill country south of Denver. Although it was 102 in Denver, it was quite a bit cooler at their house, and we opened our windows and had pleasant sleeping weather in their driveway. We explored the farm, enjoyed seeing the horses, cows and chickens, and even rode quads around their 80 acres in the cool of the evening.

News That Made Denny Very Happy

The Star had an article today that made Denny very relieved...............

Eloy will be state's only Starbucks casualty

By Christie Smythe

Arizona Daily STar

Frappuccino and caramel macchiato lovers in Tucson won't have to worry about finding a new place to get their fix.

Not so for the luxury caffeine devotees in Eloy.

The town's only Starbucks, at 4985 N. Sunland Gin Road across the street from Love's Travel Stop, is one of the 600 U.S. stores the company is planning to close in coming months. It's the only planned closing in Arizona. Read the article

Actually, we do stop at that one occasionally on our way out of town....

Colorado

We have always wanted to spend time in Colorado. We really only saw Discount Tire in Fort Collins, so today we spent the day in Estes Park, on the edge of the Rocky Mountain National Park. We came back through Boulder, and attended a crafts fair on the Pearl St. Mall. I included this picture of a CU student in Boulder with a cardboard sign that said,
Got Stress? Yell at me for a $1

Good News Bad News

We left Kaycee, Wyoming, and I was still not feeling great, but we wanted to move on. We wanted to see Dr. Eugene Peterson, who was our pastor in 1968-1970. He also was one of Denny's professors at seminary. We knew where he lived, and wanted to stop by. We stopped in Fort Collins to get a cup of coffee first, and noticed we had another flat tire! We got the tire changed, and went to a tire shop to find out the deal. The deal was another broken rim! We called around Fort Collins and found another rim, drove to Discount Tire, parked out in the back and waited for them to get it on. While we were waiting, the manager pointed out our wearing tires on the truck and offered us a good deal, so we got new tires on the truck. As we returned to the fifth wheel still parked out in the back parking lot, we noticed water running out from under it. There was a water line leak in the back of the refrigerator, so we spent awhile in 100 degree heat trying to find a shut off valve.
The GOOD NEWS was that we were able to get in a few minutes with Dr. Peterson, and it was an encouraging reunion. It has probably been 20 years since we have seen him. He was a great encouragement to us, and we shared that with him. He is 86 years old, being treated for Parkinsons, and we were really glad we were able to stop.

A Bump in the Road on the Way to Cheyenne

It was not our plan to stop in Cheyenne, but I woke up Wednesday morning with a urinary tract infection and it just got progressively worse. We went to urgent care in Cheyenne and got some antibiotics. We decided to stay here for a day and kick this thing.
Wyoming is rolling hills and not much else. We did enjoy seeing the pronghorn antelope along the road. Also, we saw these goats who looked like they were herding this herd of angus cattle!

85 days and still going

Who was it at church who asked Denny if he had thought about how it would be to live with his wife in a 33 foot fifth wheel? Well, 85 days, and we are still having fun. I snapped this picture of Denny coming back from the Schwann's truck with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream! We are in Kaycee, Wyoming, population 246 and who would think there would be a Schwann's truck? Denny said, "There is a Schwann's truck!" I said, "Oh, let's get some ice cream!" I was just kidding, but Denny ran after him, hailed him down and bought the ice cream. What a guy!

Custer's Last Stand

I have a renewed interest in National Monuments and Parks because I have started collecting commemorative stamps and getting my National Park Passport date stamped as we visit each site. Today we visited the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Billings, Montana

We visited Lynn and Peggy Howe in Billings, Montana in 1980. I remember the date because it was our 10th year in Ohio. We came through on the fourth of July and they had other people visiting them also with a big family. We put all the kids on the floor. We had a delightful time. So, that was 28 years ago, and now we are here again. Lynn and Peggy were good friends in Seminary and at Trinity Baptist in Castro Valley, CA. Lynn has been pastoring in Billings for 37 years!
We parked in their church yard, which was full of jackrabbits. I felt like I was living in Watership Down! Sorry the picture is blurry of Lynn and Peggy, but I wanted to include it anyway. Oh, also the National Goldwing rally was going on in billings, and while I didn't get any pictures, the parade went right by us at 10:30 at night. It was pretty spectacular!

We just might stay at West Fork!

After leaving Missoula, and spending the night in Butte, Montana, we set out to find Gale and Hoyt, our friends who spend the summer in Montana. We weren't having much success connecting because they were on a flyfishing float trip, and did not have phone service. When we had about given up, we connected! Although we did not have a great phone connection, we were able to follow Hoyt's directions to West Fork Campground and Resort. We were amazed at how beautiful this area was, with the Madison River running right through it. We are about 30 miles northwest of West Yellowstone. We have hiked, biked, enjoyed the beautiful wildflowers and met the other people in the campground. We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, and may even come back next summer for awhile. Hoyt even gave Denny some tips in flyfishing. From here we will head to Bozeman, then on to Billings to see some friends from seminary days.

Missoula, Montana

We arrived in Missoula on Sunday, July 6. We had a delightful time with my sister and her husband, and their married son Nate and his wife Melissa. Nate and Melissa just had a new baby, Parker Joy, born July 2, so we thoroughly enjoyed being with all of the family, including Haven, who is 2 1/2. We were able to park at the church, and we even had an electric hookup, so that was nice. The weather was beautiful.

Still Watching for Bears

We heard so many bear horror stories while in Alaska, we weren't too thrilled to go hiking. They have signs posted everywhere telling you to watch out for bears. We thought it would be wise to buy a "bear bell". It is a bell on a caribiner that you wear to make noise so that the bear is not startled. Also, some people recommend that you buy "Bear Pepper spray". We were going to buy some of that until some hikers told us that if you carry/use bear pepper spray, you are just going to be "spicy dinner" for the bear! So when we saw this last bear warning sign, we thought it was great.

Back in the USA!

Wow! I was so happy to cross that border! Everything, including diesel was so expensive in Canada. They charge a $3 deposit on a case of water, so the first thing I did was go to Walmart in Montana and buy water bottles! We were getting a little "travel weary" so we stopped and spent three days in Kalispell, Montana. We loved Kalispell. It is absolutely gorgeous. I remembered we had family friends who had moved to Kalispell when I was in high school, so we gave them a call, and had a fun time reconnecting with Mrs. Wenholz, although we were saddened to hear that her husband had died in 2004. We had fun reminiscing. My sister and brother-in-law live in Missoula, so Jill came up for the day, and she and I went to Big Forks to browse and shop, and Denny went to play golf. After attending church on Sunday, we headed to Missoula. We are parked on the church property, right next to their building. Bruce and Jill live right down the road. We are excited to see Nate and Melissa's new baby, Parker Joy, today.

Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise

I have always wanted to see this area, and it was very beautiful, with the turquoise water and the many glaciers. There were also many Rv's and people! We had beautiful weather. A black bear strolled across the highway in front of us, and we saw a few deer. We saw mountain goats in the roadway.