Lovecraft's Desert

The Desert

Hi folks!

I'm writing this, once again, from the road.  We've descended from the heights of Colorado into the desert of Southern Utah/Arizona.  Today's route takes us from St. George Utah, through a tiny corner of Arizona before moving into Nevada and eventually, California. This is our last day of driving this leg of the journey, and I think everyone is ready to be done.  The hotels have been fine, the breakfasts maybe a little too big (at least for me) so we have no complaints.

Yesterday, we traveled through the barren wastes of Eastern Utah.  I was reminded that this territory was once a giant lake, and looking at the mountains all around us in that country, I could really see it.  They look like the drawings you see of the bottom of the ocean.  I even got inspired for a Lovecraftian tale.  Maybe its never been done before.  For forest dwellers, that landscape was an intimidating sight.  The sky is huge, devoid of trees as it is.  And every climb of the road feels significant because it seems like something should be over the other side.  Of course, there's mostly more of the same.  As we descended, a bit more green began to come into the landscape until we arrived at St George where there was plenty of low green growth and a few trees. 

Last night, we stepped out of the car into real desert heat for the first time.  No one was terribly hungry, so we walked a couple of blocks down to a frozen custard stand and called our berry sundaes 'dinner'.  Given that our last two meals were huge, it was a good thing.

As I write this, we have just come down out of the mountains and were greeted with the sight of the desert plane.  The next landmark is Sin City, followed by our destination.  More later as we stop traveling for a few days. 

Rockie Mountain High

Evening all,

We're all sitting at the Academy Hotel in Colorado Springs at the moment, zoning in front of screens.  It was, methinks, a good day.  First off, there were no travel issues which is the biggest blessing.  Weather has been good throughout the trip and the roads have been pretty open.  Diane had to deal with a few twists and turns and hills as we crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska this morning (not many hills in Nebraska, but we found them!) but other than that, smooth sailing.  The day ended in Colorado Springs, the town where Diane's folks grew up and she still has a lot of family.  We had dinner with Opa Lissenbee (her father's father) and Uncle Hans and Aunt Julie.  It was catfish night at the Cracker Barrel, so we ate well, staggered back to our very nice hotel, and are getting ready to hit the sack.  Rachel is chipper and excited.  Her mother and I are tired, but hey, we're getting up there and this was the second 10-plus hour day. 

Tomorrow, the climb over the Rockies and back down again to the very Southwest corner of Utah and the town of St. George.  Apparently, it's 100 degrees there this week so that will make a nice change.  Then, on Monday, the final push across the desert and into the City of Angels. 

The photo for today is one you on Facebook have already seen.  I call it: Nebraska - A Portrait.  Take care, all.  And I'll connect tomorrow. 

And...We're Off!

Greetings All!

I'm coming to you through the miracle of wireless internet on I-90 just outside Mitchell South Dakota.  We have completed the first day of our journey to California, and have begun the 'Plains to Mountains' portion which will dump us out on Colorado Springs by 7pm tonight.  Day one was wonderful.  We started with a bit of rain on familiar roads, then drove into 70 degrees and sunshine by day's end. 

The trip, in case you didn't know, is to take Rachel to college at Biola University in Los Angles.  Yes, we're driving.  We've rented a Jeep Liberty for the purpose (picture attached) and it's a very comfortable car.  It's a little short and boxy compared to our Sable wagon, but the only real challenge with that was learning to pack all of Rachel's stuff vertically instead of horizontally. 

I'll be checking in frequently (plenty of time to write on the road) so check back soon. 

Prom 2012

I had really wanted to post regularly this year, as it was Rachel's senior year, but alas it hasn't happened. We have lived and loved the special moments of living life to the fullest, but that meant there hasn't been much time for reflection and posting about what is happening. But I wanted to share her senior prom night with you. In January, Rachel and a friend went looking for prom dresses. Rachel had her heart set on a green dress. She was unable to find a green dress so came home and asked if I would make one for her. We worked together to design and make her prom dress. Here are a few pictures from getting ready and pictures followed by Grand March.

Thank you for sharing a small bit of this evening with us. Diane

Almost Vacation Time!

Tomorrow we will be beginning our vacation! We'll drive down to the cities and pick up Sarah before spending the night at a hotel and then catching a plane early tomorrow morning for SeaTac. The last few times we've flown back to visit family on the west coast we flew into Portland, but this time the tickets to SeaTac were significantly cheaper than flying to Portland.

And we're excited as we get to spend some time in Seattle showing it off to Sarah and meeting up with friends (namely godparents for Stephen and Rachel) before heading north to Sedro-Woolley to visit Diane's family for a few days then head down to McMinnville to visit Jeffs's parents for a few days before flying back home.

This will be a fairly quick trip, but we are going to take all three children which probably won't happen again or not very soon. So getting 10 days in which all of us could get off work and clear schedules was something of a miracle.

Looking forward to seeing the west coast soon!
Diane

Completed!

Six months ago I gave Sarah and Rachel a Christmas gift that culminated Friday evening in them participating in a fashion show at Convergence.

Below is the video that Jeff took of the girls modeling in the fashion show. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150220097871160

This was a huge project that was hard work, delightful and very rewarding. I have done a fair amount of sewing and was in 4-H sewing for about 6 years growing up. But I hadn't done much original sewing. The girls and I brainstormed, they drew/sketched what they wanted. We bought fabric (lots and lots of it) and then I set to work to create what they imagined. I worked with five different patterns as well as creating many of my own pieces. Both dresses were made in muslin for fit and to make sure I was heading in the right direction with what they imagined.

Cutting the real fabric was scary. Was this going to work? But as the dresses came together I began to get very excited. It was so much fun to see their imaginings become real.

Here are a few more pictures of their dresses.





You can also check out both Rachel and Sarah's Facebook pages for additional pictures. Once the dresses were basically complete it was time to steampunk them. Sarah is a talented artist and this was her specialty. We visited a number of stores, the best being a watch repair place who let the girls have about 10 broken watches for free that they dismantled and used to create very beautiful jewelry.

This was such a wonderful time to connect with both girls and create works of art that they will (I hope) remember for a lifetime.

And if you are on our visit list in July when we fly back to the west coast then you might get to see these dresses as we are mailing them to my parents house and then will ship them back at the end of the trip.
Diane

St. Paul weekend

Jeff and Stephen left in Stephen's car on Friday about 1:30 pm for the cities. Rachel and Diane followed about 2 hours later as they both had to work. We all met up together at the hotel we were staying at with Sarah and met her friend Rachel for a brief time Friday night, but it had been a long week and we were all very tired (except for Sarah who was hyped that we were visiting).

So Saturday morning we met up to try on the costume I'd made for Sarah and Jeff, Rachel and Stephen ran errands. They went to the apple store for Jeff to get his Father's Day present, a new cable he wanted for his ipod. They also checked out a magic and costume shop for a couple of hats, neither of which they found.

We then went to lunch at the Chatterbox. Lots of laughter, conversation and good food was involved. We walked up to the Teasource so I could stock up on my addiction. I love good tea and needed some summer teas for iced tea.

We followed that up with a trip to the Axman a surplus store to look for gadgets for costumes and I found corks and colored tape for summer craft projects. The girls had also stopped at a watch repair shop to ask if they had any broken watches they could have for their costumes and came away with about ten watches and stopwatches to take apart.

Saturday evening we cooked a dinner at Sarah's house outside in the fire pit then played Arkham horror. Sunday morning we met at 9 at Shish a wonderful restaurant for breakfast. It was marvelous to meet up with the Utters and hear their latest and just spend several hours talking and laughing. This weekend there was lots of laughter, hugs, and talking.
The dogs decided Rachel was pretty special and both wanted to sit with her. We teased her about being a dog person now (as opposed to the cat fanatic she is.)

Stephen headed west to Morris where he will work with faculty this week on a conference presentation and his TA stuff this fall. He'll then fly to Michigan for the conference, when he returns he'll spend about a week with Sarah in the cities before attending Convergence with Jeff, Rachel and Sarah.