Wild West Pictures!!!

Three Cowboys Found The Wild West!


Cowboy Up!



Cowboys need lots of gear!

The Goldfield Ghost Town

(This was at the end of a long day of pictures...is this the last one, Mom?)

The Town and a Huge Swarrow Cactus

Trev on a tractor, where else?! :)

A tour down into the mine...

Yeehaw!!!

Pictures - Lots o' Rocks...Flinstone's and The Grand Canyon

Yabba-Dabba Do (or, Don't) Cute though, right?


Poor Grammie and Papa! (Great pose, Gmie!)

Fantastic movie but, look at the day we had...even more gorgeous than the movie! :)

The Watchtower

Disneyland Pictures!

The Landon's @ CaLifornia Adventure


The Landon Guys taking a break.

Trevor - "I caught him, guys! Come quick!" :)

"Yes!"

Four REAL boys!

"I can't take my eyes off of him!"

The Magic Kingdom

Ferris Wheel FUN!

Ferris Wheel FEAR!

Place the magic feather on Dumbo's ear and watch him FLY!

Measuring up to Goofy.

Go, go, go...crash! :)

The Shasta Caverns and a Long Drive

*Thursday, April 8*

We packed up the trailer to move on to Harris Beach State Park, today. But, first we stopped at The Shasta Caverns for a tour.

“Three tours in one,” the marketing brochure says. First, a boat ride across Lake Shasta. Then, a steep bus ride up the hill to the mouth of the cavern. Next, a fascinating tour of caverns filled with stalagmites (bottom –up), stalagtites (top – down), and all sorts of amazing formations shaped like peanut brittle, bacon, spaghetti and popcorn. Why did they name them after food, I wonder? Anyway, the caverns are a system of tunnels and open spaces that are bridged by narrow, vertical stairs and walkways. The guide said that we walked about 700 stairs. That seems about right. It was completely amazing. The boys asked lots of questions and were very interested in the formations. It was an awesome morning.

Early morning boat ride

Lots of stairs to and from chambers filled with formations.

'Bacon' formations

'Spaghetti' formation - These names are making me hungry...

Now, we are making the long drive back to Harris Beach in Brookings, OR. As the crow flies, we are not far but, we have to travel up to OR, then back down into CA, then back up HWY 101 into OR. It is a bit out of the way but, the memories of our first days at Harris Beach are wonderful and the weather on the coast is supposed to be clear for a day or two so, we are going back to enjoy it again.

The plan is to stay two days, then up to Florence for a day of tidepooling and maybe some crabbing, then home to Portland. These are the last few days of our vacation. Ugh, I’m sad. The kids will be, too when they figure it out. They are having a blast. I hate to tell them yet. One day at a time…

Shasta Dam - Massive and Beautiful

*Wednesday, April 6*

What a fun day! We visited Shasta Dam, this morning; a beautiful sight! We watched a movie about how the dam was constructed and we talked about Great Grandpa Landon who helped construct Grand Coulee Dam! Grand Coulee Dam is nearly twice the size in mass as Shasta Dam. Grand Coulee, at 11.5 million cu ft of concrete, is the largest dam in the nation and Shasta, at 6 million cu ft, is the second largest.

Papa and Grammie Landon live just up river from Grand Coulee Dam during the summer months. Sounds like a "must-do" summer excursion - a boat ride to the Dam! Put it on your activity list, Grammie! After the movie, we walked along the ridge of the dam and entered an elevator that took us down 500 feet to the 12th floor of 15.

Shasta Dam, Mt. Shasta in background

We got to walk through the massive tunnels and hear our voices return to us in an echo. We walked out onto the grounds surrounding the base of the dam and into the power plant to see the generators. It was very cool. The kids really enjoyed it and the weather was gorgeous so we had a terrific view of Mt. Shasta. What an experience.

After lunch we loaded the bikes and drove to Turtle Bay Exploration Park where the Sundial Bridge crosses the Sacramento River. There is a great bike trail that crosses the glass-bottom bridge and follows the river. We all wore ourselves out walking and biking. Nicholas expertly biked down a pretty steep hill with Paul running after him on 'stand by' to clean up after his impending crash. :) But, he peddled right out of it! I had visions of him repeating my downhill bike accident - over the handlebars and cracking a collarbone. Great job, Nicholas!!

Expert bikers on little wheels!

*911 and a Car Alarm

*Tuesday, April 5*

We had an interesting night, last night...

We were all exhausted and fell asleep before our heads touched the pillows. At 3:30ish, Paul and I were roused by the shaking of our trailer and male voices outside the window. One said to another, “(naughty word), it’s held on by 7 mm bolts…,” and they walked away; presumably to get a 7mm socket. They were trying to steal the stabilizer bars that connect between the trailer and the hitch off of our car. It was kind of scary - my heart rate was definitely elevated!

Paul grabbed the remote for the key saying, “If they come back, I’ll hit the panic button on the remote. That should be enough to scare them away.” The "mom" in me instantly played out that frightening scenario in my head - kids screaming and scared, our next door neighbors with their autistic son trying to make sense of the situation and calm their family, the unknown reaction of the "robbers"...I grabbed the phone and called 911. Two police cars responded quickly, talked to Paul, and patrolled the park for about an hour. Neither of us slept much after that and (as you might imagine) we were packed up and out of the park very early. Whew - thanksgivings for protection!

We drove up the road to Redding and stayed at a quiet, pretty little park. We arrived around 1 pm and had a lovely lunch at our picnic table. Everyone took a long nap. The kids and Paul discovered an Atari game system in the club house while I was cooking dinner. They ALL loved that! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen Frogger and Ms PacMan! They liked the idea of Donkey Kong but, couldn’t quite get the hang of it. It was funny to see the antiquated graphics. Remember how cool that seemed 30 years ago?! :) Oh how times change...and, now we are the adults protecting little ones from harm.

The park has a nice playground and the boys are biking a lot. It will be a relaxing place to stay for a couple of days.

Our Detours - God's Hand

*Monday, April 5*

Our plan today was to drive into Yosemite National Forest to spend a few days hiking and sightseeing but, the village got over a foot of snow and the trails got between 17 and 28 inches of snow last night with more scheduled for tonight. I guess that Spring has not quite arrived at Yosemite. :) So, we have regrouped and decided to drive further North. Our target is Redding, CA. It is raining off and on all the way up the West Coast today but, the rest of the week looks like it will clear up. We hope to make as much progress on the road today as possible while the weather is yucky. The kids are enjoying this unexpected "down day."

Everyone is tired and our allergies are acting up. But, the wildflowers are beautiful and the fruit stands are open selling freshly picked asparagus and strawberries. We stopped at a stand and stocked up – delicious. We stopped at a cheese factory and bought some yummy varieties (I taste tested each one just to make sure) along with crackers and a sourdough loaf for snacking later. Oh how I long for a trip to Dairy State Cheese in Rudolph, WI...delicious and inexpensive...only in the "dairy" state!

Everyone is getting weary of driving. We are looking for an excuse to pull over for the night...ahhhh...once again we decide to take a detour to Jelly Belly Factory! Everyone perked up at the idea so, off we turn to get a sugar fix (and another bag of chocolate covered almonds!) and then to find a place to stay tonight.

We keep seeing billboards advertising an olive processor in Corning, CA called, The Olive Pit. "TOURS!" "SAMPLES!" That sounds right up our alley! So, we’ll make a detour there on our way to Redding, tomorrow. Once we reach Redding our "plan" is to spend a couple of days there seeing the sights. But, the beauty of this trip has been the opportunity to take a detour when desired. So, we’ll see where the wind blows tomorrow. :)

Just as sweet the second time around!


I would smile but, my mouth is stuffed full of jelly beans!

**Amazing God - I have to write what just happened to us!**

As we were getting buckled and ready to leave the Jelly Belly factory we noticed a white Toyota Sequoia just like ours with a Thule rocket box on top. Paul said to me, “That could be us without a trailer. We could just haul everything and stay in hotels.” “No thanks,” I replied, "I love having our home travel with us!" And, as we were pointing at them, they were pointing at us.

The wife hopped out of the car and flagged us down. She said that they want to buy a similar sized trailer and wondered if the Toyota would pull it, etc . Her husband was close behind her, along with their young son. As we stood there chatting and laughing about all sorts of things their son said, “We went to church yesterday.” Paul said, “Hey, us too!” And as we visited, we discovered that the church we attended in San Diego, San Carlos United Methodist Church, is only 4 miles from their home! Note: we are now 500 miles North of San Diego!!

We shared with them what a fun service it was, how nice the children’s ministry leader is and how many active young families there seemed to be attending there. She nudged her husband and said quietly, “Maybe that would be a good place for us to check out?”

We don’t know exactly what will come of that meeting for them but, what are the chances of that just happening? We believe NONE! God is amazing. To think that we were led away from our original plans to that very place and time where we would meet someone who lives so close to where we went to Easter services. And to think that we attended there, a 20 minute drive from our RV Park in San Diego, because Paul picked up a local magazine and scanned the ads for an Easter service that would work for our family. Of all the churches, of all the cars, of all the places, of all the snow storms...absolutely incredible, God!

What a living example of His grace. And, what peace that brings us! How much more capable is He of providing for our family, preparing our future and guiding us on His path? Knowing that God can so perfectly orchestrate a meeting between two families traveling in opposite directions bolsters our faith in Him. I believe God to be huge. I believe that He can do what He says he can do – move mountains, heal, restore, forgive, save. YEAH, GOD!!