Family News Feed

Rather than do a whole lot of speaking, I’ll just show whats been happening.  Yesterday was tour day.  I went with a co-worker on an Irish adventure.  Didn’t make it into Blarney Castle, really wanted to kiss the Blarney Stone, But I did kind of see it through the trees from a long ways away.  Ok, so basically I didn’t see it.  But i got closer then you did.

Here are some pics from Kinsale and Charles Fort.

This is part of the town of Kinsale, many little shops, restaurants and pubs

Yes, thats a road.  And yes, it’s a two lane road…

The view from above Kinsale looking towards Charles Fort.

The entrance to Charles Fort

Inside the fort

More Fort…

Some famous tower, information overload and then a huge amount of I don’t care…

I finished the night off in the Woolshed Bar for quiz night, we came in 4th.  I had to do rock paper scissor against a cheating Irish man, they don’t like being called “wee little people”, apparently thats offensive or something.  He out cheated me and our team lost.  There were about 150-200 people in the bar that night, packed out.  Very fun.

Time seems to move a wee bit slower over here in Ireland.  I don’t know why, it just does.  The transition to the time zone went well.  Really no jet lag to speak of.  Which if I had jet lag, this would be a really rough trip.  So Yay to that!

The weather leaves a bit to be desired, though, cloudy, cold, rainy, windy, rainy, cold, windy, cloudy, rainy, cloudy, windy, and cold.  I think I covered the basics of the weather here.  I now understand why people here drink so much, you gotta feel warm somehow, right?

This is from out my room.

Today has been an amazingly beautiful day…not just for driving, but for enjoying.  Thank you, Lord, for blessing us in this way.

Jim has decided to go for the gusto and go for home.  It is in the upper seventies as we fly down I-5 heading toward home listening to some of our favorite music…Mercy Me ” I Can Only Imagine”, Paul Baloche “What Can I Do?” and many more.

We are very grateful for the chance we have had to get away, for Tammi and Paul and Nancy covering for us at home, and for such gorgeous travel weather . In many ways, and for many reasons, we would love to go back or would have liked to stay.  We loved reconnecting with Tim and Tosha and getting time to smother the grandkids. We loved their church, they are in a very sweet location, have a good Life Group through their church. The biggest need is secure jobs for both of them. We are expecting to hit Portland about 3:30.

Wow, we got up about 8 am again. The winds are still screaming around us but Jim thought we could at least try to put a few more miles on and maybe get north of it all.

We were on the road about 9:30 am.   Both of us are tired and feel very dried out.  It is like we can’t get enough to drink. At first the horizon ahead was clearly a dust bowl again, but  by the time we reached Willows we could once again see faint hills.

the drive today was absolutely beautiful, browns, greens, mountains…very warm.  We feel like we are seriously in August or September traveling on both sides of Washington.

We ended the driving at 5:30 pm landing back in Phoenix, Oregon at the Holiday RV park we were in on the way down.  And, yes, we were indeed greeted with fresh cookies.  They also allowed us to be back in our “Garden Campsite”.  Someone stay here all summer and has spent money upgrading the campsite with a rock wall, 6 bush roses and some other little pottery things.

Now we kick back.  Not sure how far we will even try tomorrow.  This is a long haul from here to home in one day when we are limited to 55 mph, which is safer for us with the trailer anyways.  Not sure if we will attempt the whole way.

When we woke up at 8 am, it was still very warm 76.8 degrees outside. They are breaking records here and north for temps.  It was also very windy.  We were all gassed up and on the road by 9:30 am.

Wheat and orchards as far as the eye can see.

The winds are so strong there are actual whitecaps on the aqueducts running along the freeway.

By 10:15 there was no longer blue sky in front of us…clearly we were looking at light brown sky and the horizon was no longer visible…dust. We made it through Sacramento reasonably, but when we came out the north side we were no longer protected by the tall concrete barriers and trees and were hammered by the winds. Jim was exhausted from fighting the wind sway so at 1:30 pm we pulled into Woodland and stopped at a Costco.  As we killed some time, more and more big rigs and big trucks were pulling in.  The winds were expected to continue to increase up to 40 mph until mid  Weds so we gassed up and drove to the Yolo County Fairgrounds to wait it out.

And blow it did.  Just a little NE of us it was 46 mph.  Hot, very windy.  All the countertops, table…everything feels grimy and I am continually wiping everything down.  The red flag warnings went up and will remain in effect into weds.  We thought that was the wind warnings but learned on the 11 pm news that the red flag warnings were for severe fire danger because of the heat and the winds. The wind blew hard all night long.

Up and on the road about 9:15.  We seriously dread the whole LA part, but it turned out to be fairly uneventful except for the people cutting in and barely clearing our front bumper.  Pulling a rig is not fun then, for sure.  We made it back to our RV park in Santa Nella about 5 pm and settled in for the night. The temp was 95 degrees at 5 pm.

Jim took some sunset pictures for us.

The weather predictions were for high winds on Tuesday increasing until Weds.  Jim’s favorite thing …bucking the wind with a 30 foot trailer. It was 95 degrees when we arrived and was still in the mid 80′s when we went to bed.

Where has the time gone?  The boys spent the night with us, a movie and then to bed really very early for them.  I think Levi was exhausted from his long hot soccer game.  Tim, Tosha and Avi joined us for breakfast about 10.  We really wanted to go to church, but Avi had a birthday party to go to at 12 so we couldn’t attend the 11 service, and there was a 1/2 marathon beginning at the fair at 7 am and the closed our roads to all through traffic from 7-8:30 am for the run which took out our ability to make the 9 am.  Tosha took Avi to her party and Tim and the boys hung with us.  In fact, Poppy, Tim, Levi and Chase all revisited putt putt golfing and Chase won.  Then the girls returned, pizza for dinner and we said our farewells about 7:15. That was really hard.  Torn between wanting to take them home and wanting to stay longer and explore San Diego with them.

Off to grab some groceries for the trip home and then the beginning of battening down the hatches in prep for pulling out.

This morning Avi and Poppy went for a doughnut run.  We had doughnuts and scrambled eggs for breakfast.  Then we did Avi’s hair and she watched a movie.  Next on the agenda was Levi’s soccer game at 2.  It was a little cooler at the beach, it is warmer here at Tim’s, but the breeze makes it comfortable.  Indeed, it was a hot one at the soccer game.

Tim only had 5 kids show up so everybody had to play the whole game non-stop, and they were amazing.  A lot of team passing, scoring..they won 6-3.

Back to Tim’s to collect Avianne then off to Red Robin for dinner, followed by a putt putt golf competition near our park.

the boys stayed with us for a last sleepover.  We watched a movie and they were out like lights.

My heart is still very focused on Bremerton and my mom and dad.  Mom seemed better when I talked with her.

We made a run back to Home Depot then went to Tim’s and did some gardening in the flower beds, barked it down.  Their roses are very beautiful.

Tosha and i walked up to school.  After Avianne’s ice skating, Tosha, Avi and I went to a mall, specifically to Claire’s and Avi and I got second ear piercings.  Long story, but we were there for hours.  Fri pm and only one girl working and it was nuts…lots of people shopping in there and lots wanting ear piercings.  The girl was very good.  One of Avi’s friends was really struggling…her mom wanted her to get a second set and she was scared.  She wanted but then she didn’t.  We left and went to dinner at Rubio’s and when they went back, the girl and her sister had just finished.

Avi spent the night, we watched the Apple Dumpling Gang movie until 11 and then all quiet on the western frontier.

Today is hard.  My Mom was taken to ER last night by medic unit with Tammi helping my Dad.  Hard not to hook up and race home.  Paul and Nancy arrived early this am to relieve Tammi, and Mom is doing better.  Our plan is to try to finish out our visit and keep some promises that we made to the kids before we pull out, unless Mom is no longer improving.

We made dinner to take over to Tim’s.

Jim and Tosha took the boys to a park

We watched Chase at karate, then stayed for their small group.  Tim and Tosha host and Carlos leads.  It reminded us of our own care group.