Branson Mo

We arrived in Branson on Tuesday night and are staying at The Landing. It's a great little spot right on the water. We are really close to everything. Last night we saw Pierce Arrow and tonight we saw Six. Both of these shows were spectacular. Pierce Arrow was a christian show and I would encourage everyone to go see them. They had great singers and the funniest comedian! And Six, well that was the most unique show. They are six brothers and there were not any instruments. They would make the instrument sound with their voices. You would have thought there was a band somewhere in the back but there wasn't. Very unique!
Tomorrow we see Terry Fator. He's the ventrioquist. We can't wait to see him.

Oh, we failed to mention that when we left Rapid City we went through Wall Drug and the Badlands. The Badlands were much different than we had imagined. They are quite beautiful. It was like the ground just sank in spots. The areas that were hilly had beautiful bands of color and the wild yellow flowers were everywhere. It was nothing like we had expected.

GUESS WHAT...GUESS WHAT! We received a call tonight from Sean and Deana (Van's oldest son and daughter-n-law) and they are expecting their second child!!! Yea, Yea, Yea. Their one daughter, Afton, will be three soon so this is just perfect. Van and I can't wait to find out what they are having. We'll let you know when we know.

It's late and I need to go. We'll be here at Branson until Tuesday morning. We're not sure if we are heading to Boonesville, Mississippi to see Sean, Deana and Afton again or heading towards Tennessee to check out scenic spots. I need to go by Savannah (where Kristin-my daughter and Matt-my son) live. I need to find a mother of the bride dress asap. Kristin's wedding is October.

We sure miss everyone and hope everything is fine.

Luv lots,

Joy, Van and Monet

mammoth site, mt. rushmore & crazy horse

We are in the Rapid City area and we must admit that there are lots of things to do here, especially for children. We were very surprised by the area. We visited the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. This is the largest active archeological site. The structure that you go into is actually built right over the open area in the ground where they are acually doing the digging and there is a walkway that takes you around the area. I would suggest that if you are ever in this area that you see this.

Of course, we visited Mt. Rushmore. We tried to go last night because they were having fireworks and it was too busy for us. We waited until today. We also went through Custer and drove by the Crazy Horse Memorial. The head is nine stories high. We did not go into this park because the cost was $10.00 per person and it is still being developed. I think it's going to be an indian sitting on a horse when they are finished.

We have had a wonderful time so far. The weather is hot! We shouldn't complain but we went from cool to hot...no easing into it. Also, we realized today that as we journey east the time will return back to the eastern time zone. We have really (and I mean really) enjoyed the pacific and mountain times. We never had to set the clock and usually we even beat Monet up. The three of us are going to be in for a big shock in a few more days as we get back into our regular time zone.

We will be heading to see Wall Drug and Badlands tomorrow. We think we'll get about 100 miles or so past there before we stop. We were hoping to stay a few days at the Lake of the Ozarks before going to Branson but could not locate any campgrounds that were actually on the water. You will have to dig hard to get past their fancy advertising to find this out. So it looks like we'll go onto Branson and stay downtown on the river there. We're not sure how many days we'll be there but we understand that there are lots of things to do. Also, my Aunt Joy and Uncle Bob live nearby and we plan to visit with them if they are available.

Our phone service is poor in the central part of the country so calling has been hard. Sorry! We don't know if we'll just sleep in Walmarts for the next three nights or go to a campground. We may not have wifi until we hit Branson but hopefully cell phone will kick in soon.

We love everyone and hope you have had a great 4th of July. Be careful!

Joy, Van and Monet

Yellowstone,Jackson,Grand Tetons

Yellowstone is definitely our favorite National Park. It has the most variety of things to see. We must have taken a hundred pictures and only put four on the blog. Of course, we saw Ole Faithful and many kinds of animals right there beside us on the road, to include a coyote, a bear and the buffalo! The picture with the black bird was taken at Ole Faithful. The motorcycle had a soft side flip top that the bird knew how to get in and get food. We loved Jackson Hole. We had a drink in the famous Million Dollar Cowboy Bar where you sit on saddles at the bar. The Grand Tetons were also beautiful. The fields there were full of wild flowers. I wish I had taken pictures of those. I kept thinking I would see more on the way but there were not any like they had.

We are now in Cody and will stay here 2 nights. We will visit the Buffalo Bill Museum tomorrow. We understand it is second only to the Smithsonian and will take all day. It is raining and thundering right now. It's only the first real rain we 've had. Monet is, of course, petrified.

We love everyone and are having a great time. It looks like we'll never get home!!

Luv again,

Joy and Van (and Monet)

Glacier National Park

Hello again everyone,

I am sending a picture of Glacier Park. The road was only open for 13 miles due to snow but you would never know it by the areas we were allowed to go to. We mentioned how pretty and nice the weather was and how come Logan's Pass was still not passable. She mentioned it was still under 50 foot of snow!!! You would have never guessed.

We enjoyed Glacier but wished we could have traveled the entire Road to the Sun.

We arrived at Jackson Hole, Grand Tetons and Yellowstone on the 24th. We will update when we are finished. We were able to get 3 nights inside Yellowstone Park at Fishing Bridge. We go there tomorrow. We won't have wifi and cell phone service will be sporadic. We think we head for Cody on Monday. We'll see!!

Joy

Lake Louise Canada

We arrived at Lake Louise Canada on Thursday the 19th for 2 nights. We arrived early enough to go and see the Lake. It was spectacular. We about froze walking around it, but it was just beautiful. If it wouldn't snow or freeze there, we would build our house right on the shoreline. There really isn't a way to explain it. The pictures we took did not do it justice. It is hard to believe that the Lake freezes about 3 feet thick. It would be wonderful to be able to visit this area in the winter. The picture with Van in it was taken along a rest area stop. Everywhere we looked going through Canada looked just like this one picture...absolutely beautiful.

We both think that the Canadian Rockies are thusfar the prettiest and most magnificent we have seen. I was able to find a quilt shop in a nearby town....can you believe that? (ha)

We have now arrived at the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park. We will go there tomorrow and drive the Road to the Sun as far as we can. We understand that due to heavy snows this week Logan's Pass is not passable. We heard we are able to ride about 13 miles which should get us to the Continental Divide.

We'll head for Yellowstone Sunday morning. We don't have phone service in this area so right now we can't call to make reservations and they don't take email reservations so we aren't sure where we'll be staying.

Hugs and kisses to all,

Joy and Van

Bend Oregon

This is the nicest RV park you'll ever see. If you are ever in Bend Oregon come and stay at the Crown Villa RV Resort. There are also tons of amenities that go along with your stay. We ended up coming here on Fri the 13th and staying thru Tues am. We had planned to head towards Lake Louise on Monday but needed to wait for our insurance cards for both the RV and car to be overnighted to us. Apparently Canada has started requiring hard copies now and not accepting the emailed ones. But between the golf tournament, the baseball and basketball playoffs, Van was in hog heaven. And with the infamous quilt shops here and at Sisters, I was a happy camper too. It really turned out to be a much needed break. As soon as we receive the fed ex packages, we'll be off to Lake Louise, Canada. We plan to break up the 800 mile drive in 2 1/2 days and we hope to stay at Walmarts along the way. We should have phone service but probably won't have access to wifi for awhile.

Crater Lake Oregon

Crater Lake is absolutely beautiful! The water is as clear as any you'll ever see. We could not drive around the whole lake because part of the rim road was still closed due to snow. They had had snow the night before. If it were summer, we would have taken the boat ride. I think seeing this lake from that level would add another dimension. It's almost 2000 feet deep and has no water running in or out of it. This is a must see!

San Francisco

Hello everyone,

We have spent 2 days in San Francisco and 1 day in Sausalito. We are glad that we got to see San Fran but would not want to live here. We stayed at the one and only campground in San Francisco called Candlestick RV Resort and it was the "worst" part of San Francisco. About 30 minutes after we arrived 4 black boys tried to rob the rv store and the manager was screaming. Monet and I were right there in front of the office on the grass pee-peeing (she was pee-peeing..not me) and we both scooted on out of there. Then while we were on the phone with the transit system lady she asked where we were staying and when we told her she said "do you realize you are in a bad section of town?" But after talking to the staff and realizing that they had security guards at night and that there was no other option within 50 miles or so, we settled in. It's been fine since. We ended up not utilizing the transit system because to catch it was 3 blocks away and we were told not to go there...we would be mugged. The rv place had a shuttle that picked you up right here and brought you back but their schedule was not good for Monet (of course), so we drove. After the first day it was fine. We learned where the best spot to part was without having to move the car..it was $20 a day per parking lot. We even decided we would drive down Lombard Street. That's the street that is the most crooked in the united states. It has 8 turns within a one block radius, was paved in red brick and had an 18 degree grade down. That was really cool!!
Today we decided to spend the day in Saulsalito (right across the Golden Gate Bridge) for lunch and sight seeing. As most of you know, Monet is a "snitter" with other dogs. I happened to be carrying her when a big dog came by and she decided to bark at her. I was holding her really tight so she wouldn't jump out of my arms. After a little bit, I went to put her down and she couldn't walk. We waited a little bit and she still whined and wasn't walking so we took her to the vet. They xrayed her leg and determined she had a soft tissue injury. She is on pain medicine and can't put any weight on it for about 10 days. Can you tell in her picture how pitiful she looks? Her bunny is propping her leg up. I haven't figured out yet how we'll manage without hurting her more. I did bring her "carry pouch" so it looks like she gets a free ride for a few weeks! (ha) Van is thankful that he wasn't carrying her.
Well, enough for now. Tomorrow we head out for Crater Lake and will probably stay there 2 nights and then I think we will go to Lake Louise, Canada, next. We hope everyone is doing fine and we love you lots.

Family

This is Kristin & Jeremy (our daughter) who are engaged and getting married in October. We also found out Sunday that Victoria & Michael (our other daughter) got engaged and plan to get married in May. (I don't have a picture of them with me) We're going to have a busy year but aren't we blessed? We have four chldren-2 boys, 2 girls- 1 daughter-n-law, 1 granddaughter, and soon we'll have another grandson.

Kristin & Jeremy are planning to get married in Statesboro Georgia (which is near Savannah) and Victoria & Michael are planning to get married in Athens, Georgia, where they have been in school.

Beautiful Carmel, Pebble Beach & Monterey