4th of July trip to Nevada......

Over the 4^th of July weekend I had a few days off from my new job so we decided to head for Nevada and visit my mom and family.  Thursday afternoon, June 30^th Lorelei and Cody came by and picked me up from work and we pointed the car south down Interstate 5.

We had a good jump on the weekend traffic but there were still plenty of people on the road as we made our way through Salem. Our destination the first night was the town of Medford about 200 plus miles away. We got to the hotel around 8:00 p.m. Lorelei had made sandwiches that we ate along the way. After settling into our room, Lorelei and I went for a short walk while Cody hung out in the room.

Friday morning we were up early (ok Cody and I were up) and we hit the breakfast room at the Best Western. We ate our fill and brought some coffee back to Lorelei. We made good time getting up and out and headed for Lassen National Park.

The miles rolled by as we made our way through southern Oregon and into northern California.
Below is one of Lorelei's shots in Northern CA along I5

At Weed CA we turned onto hwy 98 and skirted around Mt. Shasta. I saw an interesting looking side road so we made a side trip in hopes of getting some good pictures of the mountain. I got a pretty good shot but as you can see some tourists were in the way.

We made Lassen about lunch time and we were disappointed to find that although the park was open, we could not drive all the way through because of snow! We pulled into the park and pulled over near Manzanita lake. Lorelei pulled food from the ice chest and made us some great sandwiches. We decided to do the 2 mile hike around the lake. We all grabbed our camera gear, the temperature was around 70 degrees and blue skies overhead. What an awesome hike! We saw fish, ducks and ducklings, geese, and beautiful mountain vistas. We snapped several hundred pictures.

Lorelei and Cody are turning into very good photographers. Below are two more from Lorelei. Click on the image to view larger.

In the afternoon we headed for our next nights destination, Susanville. Cody and I were excited because this Best Western had a pool! After a great pizza dinner at the local Round Table, Cody and I got into our swim trunks. The air temp had warmed considerably  to about 90 degrees, as we were now in the high desert on the edge of the mountains. It was strange that no one else was at the pool??? Cody always gets into the water slowly……Me the dad, I need to show him how it’s done…..”Cody” says I, “this is the way to do it” as I dove into the deep end of the pool. As I entered the water, I feel the breath being sucked out of me as I realize why no one else was in the pool…….the water was freezing! It took about 10 seconds after I surfaced to casually utter the words “it’s not too bad”. We still swam for about a half hour until Cody’s teeth were chattering. By the time we got back to the room and cleaned up it was time to hit the hay.

On Saturday it was time to make haste to Hawthorne NV to see Mom, Floyd and family. We were cruising through Reno and getting low on gas. Lorelei was going to make sandwiches for lunch when off to the side of the freeway I see a IN AND OUT!  I announced “no sandwiches for us”.

As we headed out from Reno the temperature was in the mid 90’s. As we headed out across the desert it began to climb, 95, 98, 100……then 102! Yikes, we left 75 degree weather for this? We rolled into Hawthorn NV around 3:00. We hadn’t seen my mom or Floyd in about 10 years! We sat and visited, my sister Kelli and her husband Chris came by along with my nephew Kyle and his girlfriend Candy, also my  niece Beth. Wow it was great to get caught up on all that everyone was doing.

Mom and Lorelei looking over old pictures.

Cody wanted to play Pinochle, clockwise from bottom: Me, Kyle, Candy, Cody, Beth, Kelli (Mom in back)

Kelli and Chris

Floyd asked what we wanted to do the next day and we said something about wanting to go to a ghost town. Immediately everyone said “Bodie”. So Sunday morning we got up and headed out. Floyd drove his big Ford truck and along with my mom, Cody, Lorelei and myself, we headed out for the hour drive. The more you study Bodie the more fascinating it becomes. At it’s height some 10,000 people lived out in the middle of nowhere at 8,000 foot elevation in some of the harshest weather in the upper 48. It boasted 65 saloons! Most of the town has burned down more than once but enough remains for a wonderful look back in time.

Lorelei's picture of the Caine's House

Below another one of Lorelei's  pics

And below are a couple of mine from Bodie

Below the intrepid adventurers, Me, Lorelei, Floyd and Cody

On Monday morning we headed back towards Oregon. We stopped in Susanville so Lorelei could meet up with an old friend. 

 Lorelei and Carolyn

Wow....what a fun trip, the last night (4th of July) we stayed in Mt. Shasta, had a great dinner at the Black Bear Diner . Cody and I swam in the INDOOR HEATED pool at the Best Western while Lorele was working out in the Fitness Center. We finished up the drive home on Tuesday the 5th. Awesome scenery, great weather, wonderful company with family and friends.

Glynn Jr.

Random stuff.....

Been a while since the last post, thought I had better give an update. The new job is going ok, lots to learn. On Memorial weekend Adam and Pam drove out to the homestead on Sunday night and stayed over for a fun day on Monday. We didnt' do much but just hang out. We barbecued and played some horseshoes.

A week or so ago Cody and Lorelei were driving up the gravel road on their way to school and work. A doe walked into the road followed by a just born fawn. The car spooked the mother and she took off running, the fawn wobbled around and then promptly fell down and would not get up. Cody jumped out of the car and walked right up to it and put his hand on it's back. The fawn proceeded to let out a YAAAAHHHHH (or something like that). The mother was just standing off watching. Finally Lorelei and Cody needed to get on down the hill. As they drove off the fawn just laid there. They called our neighbor down the road and she said she would drive up and take a look. Apparently by the time she got there, the little guy had got up and was on his way, hopefully under the care and supervision of his mother.

In other news Cody entered a writing contest hosted by the local Lions Club and he won 1st place in the 7th grade division for his essay on  what makes Amity Middle School great! Cody is an awesome writer with an incredible vocabulary and an imagination to go along with it.

Cody and I attended a circus a couple of Friday's ago, yes an actual circus big top came to our little town! Complete with a lion and two tigers. Cody and I liked the juggler the best.

On Friday the 10th, Cody and I drove up to Seattle and picked Jon up from college. It was interesting to see 100's of young men scrambling to clean out a school years worth of accumulation in their dorm rooms. Couches and other furniture, clothes and tons of other stuff littered the hallways as we made our way to Jon's room. We were able to fit all of Jon's stuff into the car with room to spare and we were on our way. We hit lots of traffic on the way home so it was a long day. It's good to have Jon home for the summer!

Lorelei is done working for this school year and it was hard for her to leave her kids. She has a heart for helping these kids and she is truly upset that the school year is over. With budget cuts it's unsure of how much opportunity she will have next year.

In other news around the place, we have been working on retaining walls and walkways around the back of the house. I have been hauling wall blocks and rock almost every weekend. It is finally starting to shape up. I will post some pictures when it's all done.

We saw our first clutch of baby quail yesterday the 18th! The mother quail had 15 little ones. She brought them right up to the feeder while dad watched for danger. At one point they needed warming up so all 15 scooted under her wings and stayed for about 5 minutes to up their body temperature.

The new chickens are about full grown and we are slowly introducing the older chickens to them. We are already getting plenty of eggs, so when the new ones start laying we will have too many!

That's about all for now.


Glynn Jr.

Just another day at the office....

5-18-11

At 8:50 this morning I was in the modular training building at the Columbia Helicopters, Inc. headquarters in Aurora OR. There was a presentation going on with the topic projected up on the big screen in front of us. It was a required course on Federal Aviation Regulations. The first hint of something different was the image on the screen began to shake, followed instantly by the low drone of huge Chinook turboshaft engines as they cranked up to idle speed. The entire building was vibrating as the Columbia Helicopter model 234 sat on the tarmac about 40 yards from our classroom.

The instructor must have seen the look in my eyes, because he looked up at the clock and said it was time to take a 10 minute break! Most of the other 22 employees in the class had seen the behemoth helicopters taking off and landing many times before, but not this green horn.

I made my way quickly outside and down the ramp, the helicopter was around the corner and just out of sight on the west side of the building. As I rounded the corner and the big bird came into view I was immediately blasted by the heat and turbulence of the huge rotors and exhaust and the smell of spent jet fuel filled the air.

For several minutes the craft sat there at idle while pilot and co-pilot went through their checklist. Finally with seemingly little effort the two 3,000 hp engines were throttled up just a bit and 10 tons of aircraft gracefully left the ground. The rotor wash threw dust and other small particles everywhere (including into my eyes) but I squinted and kept my eyes on the huge #46 that the guys in the shop had spent so much time on. Nearby trees and bushes were bent over in the turbulence as the helicopter rose to about a hundred feet and slowly pivoted to point east.

Finally at about 150 feet the nose of the 234 dipped downward and the craft began moving off to the east. On it’s way to it’s next assignment.

Glynn Jr.

Long time no post.....

It's been almost a month since my last post. Lots of stuff going on. Jon's shoulder seems to be healing. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. He likes SPU and is getting along well up in Seattle. Just a couple of more weeks and he will be returning home for the summer.

Adam is moving this Friday to a house with a new room mate. Lorelei, Cody and I went to Portland last Saturday to help him move some of his stuff that would not fit in his car. The new neighborhood seems nice and it looks like it will be a good move for him. He is still working and playing music.

Lorelei has been on a long term sub job in her favorite class and will be there until the end of the year. She is doing well!

Cody is doing awesome in school with straight A's and all his teachers enjoy and appreciate him being in their class. Cody will be a teenager next month! Cody played in the band for the annual May Day celebration at Amity HS.

As for me......I started a new job a few weeks ago which is part of the reason for the lack of blog posts. I now work for Columbia Helicopter in Aurora Oregon. We have the largest publicly operated fleet of heavy lift helicopters in the world. Lots of new stuff to learn!

Around the place we have had another record setting spring. Too much rain and not enough sun has put a damper on the garden. Some of it will need to be replanted. Some retaining walls have been built and a few other projects are in the works.

That's about all for now.

Glynn Jr.