Marsh paddle

Jamie and I portaged the kayaks over to the boat ramp (7 minutes) and paddled up Habersham Creek. At the head of the creek the channel was only a few feet wide. Jamie is in the channel, I'm taking a short - cut.

Sunset at Habersham

This was the Labor Day weekend.

Aubrey's first day of 2nd grade

First day done

First day

Connor begins his education which will eventually end with a PHD in Astro-physics.

The boys eat corn

Not all who wander are lost

Home

Suwannee River State Park

We are obviously in northern Florida. All of us are familiar with the Suwannee River from the Stephen Foster song "Way down upon the Suwannee River". He never saw the river or set foot in Florida. He was a song writer living in Pennsylvania and he was looking for a southern river with a 2 syllable name. He had settled on the Pee Dee river when a friend suggested the Suwannee. This park has 2 big springs that flow into the river. I'm sure my friends & relatives in Texas would love to have this on their property.

Tickfaw State Park

This place has to be in Louisiana with a name like that. It's a swamp. We arrived here right in the middle of a God awful thunderstorm. We had to put on our rainsuits to get set up. The lightning knocked out the parks power so we are on generator at the moment. We drove 515 miles today. I think that's a record for the MP. We should be in Florida tomorrow.

Aubrey prepares for ballet class

Boerne lake city park

This is an obvious case of kayak overload and a rare sighting of the creature from the dark lagoon.

Bunch of Everett's

Top row left to right: Jason, Maggie, Jim, Anne, Jenny. Bottom Nuria and Larson.

Seminole canyon SP

This park is on Hwy 90. We much prefer Hwy 90 over I 10. The traffic is much less and the scenery is much more. I like this park because there are pretty good hiking/biking trails. Today was pretty much an outdoor oven. I rode anyway. By the time I returned to the MP most of the life had been sucked out of me. Every place seems to have plusses and minuses. I didn't have to carry bear repellent today. A plus? There is no data here. I'll post this tomorrow as we drive through Del Rio.

Guadalupe National Park

We've been here many times but since it's one of my favorite places we're here again. The RV campground is a parking lot. No hook-ups. I walked up a hill above the parking lot to stretch my legs and take a few pics. Jenny and I were going to hike a trail but a ugly look'n rain storm appeared and Jenny applied something she calls "good judgment". We are not sure about our stop point tomorrow. We should be in S.A. on Saturday 16 August.

Albuquerque day 2

We started the day with a dusty round of disk golf. The course can only be described as a desert wasteland. Every disk golf course is unique. This one was no exception. I was out of bounds occasionally. After golf we went to a tamale factory/take out restaurant. We bought 2 dozen tamales. Don't fret, we are going to share. Tomorrow should be Guadalupe Mts. NP. In west Texas.

Albuquerque NM

Today's highlight was the fantastic Mexican meal we had in Old Town Albuquerque after we got set up. Here are a couple of pics that show a rather stark contrast. Jenny took the first one today as we drove through the Navajo res.

Moab day 6

Today was spent hiking all the overlook trails in the 'Islands in the sky' district of Canyonlands NP. There were 3 of them and it took all day. When we turned around after taking that last picture we both came to the realization that this epic motor home marathon in coming to a close. We will be seriously headed home from here on out. The pics below are some of the many we took. The possibilities for spectacular pictures from the trails we hiked today were endless.

Moab day 5

Today was fairly laid back. I needed a day of recovery after the ride yesterday. There are many paved bike trails around Moab. Our morning was occupied by a easy ride on some of those trails. We ate lunch at a food truck. This truck is the # 3 place to eat in Moab according to 'trip advisor'. It was good but it was still a truck. Our afternoon was devoted to a drive down a road that follows the Colorado River downstream for 17 miles. There was rock art and dinosaur tracks to examine. Tomorrow we have planned a day long hike in Canyonlands NP.

Moab day 4, The Whole Enchilada

Today I rode this classic bike trail with a guide. I don't feel I can describe the ride accurately because it would be hard to believe. I will say this: I had no idea you could safely do what we did on a bike. I wouldn't have known had I not been following the guide who rather nonchalantly did things that I thought you could only see at a circus. If he could do it, well by God, so could I. It took us 7 hours of brutal bike riding to descend 7500 feet. I'm really, really tired. Jenny thinks she can get the blood stains out of my shirt.

Moab day 3

Today's event was a hike up a canyon located a few miles up the Colorado River that can be accessed from the river road. This canyon has a perennial stream, something that is kind of unusual. At the head of the canyon is a large arch. That was our goal. This is a popular hike because it's close to town. One thing that was unusual was the amount of poison ivy growing along the trail. It was very healthy and begging to be touched. This pic shows the arch above us.

Moab day 2

Since this is the mountain biking capital of the world I went for a spectacular Moab bike ride this morning. Jenny drove me to a trailhead above the town and I rode 22 miles on some really fantastic trails. A good portion of the ride was on slick rock. The route is marked with a line painted on the rock. I found a guide to ride with me on "the whole enchilada" I'll do that Saturday morning. Tonight we are doing a cruise on the Colorado River. We have known about this trip for years but have never done it. There is apparently a light show projected on the canyon walls above the river. Sounds touristy. We'll see.

Moab UT day 1

Short day today. We reserved the same campsite we had last year. Both vehicles have been filthy for weeks. You can't wash anything in the campground using their water so we bit the bullet and paid someone to wash it for us. They brought their own water in a big tank. The MP is gleaming. I washed the car in a car wash. One of the things I want to do while I'm here is ride a trail on my bike that was named the best mountain bike trail on earth. It's called "The Whole Enchilada". I am working on hiring a guide to ride with. The thing is 35 miles long and loses 8000 feet. This is somewhat out of my comfort zone because it's supposed to be very technical. I guess I'll carry a first aid kit. Here's Jenny relaxing after sunset.

Green River SP Utah

We have camped here 3 times. There is something about descending from the higher elevations into this desert that gets me pumped. I really love this part of the country. It feels like home. We drove through several pretty severe rain storms today. A severe rain storm in the desert frequently causes a flash flood. We drove over half a dozen Creek beds that were flashing. I took this first pic at a rest stop north of Green River. In the second pic I'm celebrating the fact that today I'm eligible to begin redeeming my investment in the social security trust fund. Happy birthday to me.

Where in the world are Dave & Jenny

Heyburn Idaho

We are camped on the bank of The Snake River. The satellite dish works here. We have been so far north the directv satellites have been below the horizon. At least that's my theory. We've really missed Chris, Rachel and The Rev. Unbiased news is so hard to get. After we got set up, we ate pizza, went for a bike ride and just chilled. Tomorrow will be a long day but we are planning on a stop at Green River Utah.

Emigrant Springs SP Oregon

We drove through the Coulee corridor today. It's in Washington. Here's the explanation: a huge lake formed behind an ice dam during the last ice age 25,000 years ago. The dam burst and over a period of just a few days a monstrous river, greater than all the rivers on earth combined, flowed into what is now Washington. A canyon was gouged out and in the bottom of that canyon pools of water remained. Coulees. This pic is what remains of the earths largest waterfall. It's at the beginning of the ancient canyon. Had enough history?  Sorry I'm not done. This campground is a campsite used by pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail. There is a spring not 100 feet from the MP that was a water source for wagon trains. The Oregon trail at this location is now an interstate so there is a rather significant amount of road noise.

Omak Washington USA

We're bbaaaccckkk!!! They confiscated our fresh jalapeños and green onions when we cleared customs. You can't get away with anything apparently. There are big fires burning in Washington. We didn't know. We were going to go a little farther but the parks were closed due to the unsafe conditions. I say "Damn the fire put the pedal to the metal". I was overruled. Below are some pics we couldn't send earlier.

Salmon glacier

Here are some pics taken above Salmon glacier, near Hyder Alaska.

OMG it's summertime

I had forgotten. I got into my summer uniform (shorts & a T-shirt) for the first time in a very long time. It's been long pants and a long sleeve shirt or at least a jacket for 2 months. We are in Cache Creek BC. For those of you that are unfamiliar, it's right down the road from Kamloops. We are in a desert. I had no idea BC had any desert. There is sagebrush, brown grass and heat. I had a long hot bike ride on some desert trails behind the campground this afternoon. Sweet. Tomorrow we enter the lower 48.