Okoboji

Time to try and get caught up! This is Okoboji Iowa, I was a little nervous about a resort in the corn fields of Iowa, but hey (or hay), it was where my conference season for work was kicking off, so who am I to question? This is a picture from the amusement park on Lake Okoboji.


Just a couple of blocks from the hotel was the local airport, or airstrip. Only in Iowa would you see the big bails of hay sitting on the side, pretty funny and very Midwest.

Sunset over Lake Okoboji was spectacular!

Sunset over the corn field wasn't bad either except that its was SO HUMID! I about died after climbing out of the air conditioning in the car to take a couple shots from the roadside, the air was so thick it hung like fog and quickly fogged the camera lens. Both pictures are along the road outside of town.


The most amazing thing about the Midwest is the fireflies, to me they are so magical. I tried hard to get a picture, but I couldn't get a good one, plus I was so mesmerized that I just put the camera down and watched. That is one of the coolest things I think I've ever seen! And one last shot from the patio of my hotel room. The week I was there they had gotten 8 inches of rain. I thought for the first day or two that this lake was supposed to be there, until I realized that the trees probably shouldn't have been growing in the middle, I know, very observant on my part....

What my dad really thinks about shopping....

A picture is worth a 1000 words...

A Real Fly-In Experience

The annual Kelly Airpark fly-in was this morning, but because of the wind and heat we decided to just drive over. Dad made some yummy cinnamon rolls last night that we took with us and they were devoured in like 15 seconds! It was fun to walk around and see all the great and different airplanes, this was the favorite, a Howard. There are only 6-8 of these left in the world, this is a $2mm airplane, YIKES!

This beautiful yellow machine is a T-6 (at least I think) We watched him take off and it was thrilling to hear and feel the rumble of the big engines.

And one more, you Hurricane Tigers will love the black and red. I loved this plane just because of the paint job, it was beautiful!

And a shot down the flight line just so you get an idea of how many people show up. Guess I should have taken a picture of the 100 people eating pancakes in the hangar...

Notable was that we saw 3, count em' 3 planes land a foot or two short of the paved runway, what's so hard about making that last foot with a strong cross wind and a bazillion people watching? Pretty astonishing, something I've never seen before at one of these, lucky there were any mishaps...

As soon as we got back, some of us decided a nap was in order. Hannah, ever the joiner was happy to have napping buddies. Tonight - Mexican food!

Happy Independence Month!

If we just contain it to a day, I will miss it, so celebrating all month long! I think a lot lately about the state of affairs we find ourselves in as a nation, first let me say that I am still grateful and proud to be an American. I do find it pretty distressing though that our country as a whole has dimished in stature, self respect and overall goodness. This past week I was traveling through Illinois again and took a few pictures that I will share in a later post, but this one made me smile. It is what the old Dairy Freeze in Hurricane used to be, a place to hang out in the evening for kids and families. This drive in was in Effingham, IL it smelled heavenly and had I not just eaten some healthy salad down the road, I would have loved to have dinner and a little slice of nostaglia here...next time!

Mountain Meadows

One thing that has been on my list to see and experience is the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Mom and Dad were gracious about taking us out there even though it was an unusually cold day. The pictures are from the momument at the site. Something like 140 people lost their lives there and it is still controversial about what happened. You have to grieve fo those who died and also for those who followed orders to take their lives. I'm sure this will all get sorted out somewhere but it does make you stop and think.



Next we headed over the mountain on a dirt road, we stopped at this historical farm, the Baker Place which was cool. Getting back in Big Red to continue down the road we realized very quickly that we had a problem with out brakes and that we probably wasn't going anywhere. A very nice guy and his wife stopped to help us (probably the one and only other truck on the road that day) and we limped it into the outskirts of Cedar City where the brakes completely locked up ON THE RAILROAD TRACKS! We were able to get it moved thanks to the masterful driving of my hubby, and thank goodness Karen and Len had made it back from SLC and could come and rescue us. What a day, it reminded me of being a kid when everytime we set out the car broke down. I still get queazy thinking about drinking warm Dr. Pepper....

Scenes from a Western Adventure

Since, I am so lame at posting lately I'll upload a bunch of photos from the last trip to Hurricane. Dan and Jill took us on a 4 wheeler trip that pretty much lasted all day. We went south from our house WAY past the Honeymoon trail to the Temple trail. Then looped up the mesa and had lunch. Next we were off to find Antelope Cave. Lucky for us that someone was already inside, so we climbed down in there too. I had heard about this cave all my life so it was great to finally see it. It's very large even though part of the roof had caved in and it went back in for a long ways. We didn't have flash lights so we stuck close to the entrance.



Next it was down over the mesa on the Honeymoon trail, that is one scary piece of road. They say that in the heyday they used to walk down the trail and tie a pair of horses or oxen both to the front of the wagons and on the rear. I'm thinking that if I had been alive back in those days, I would have wanted to be married and had that marriage consumated before risking my life getting down the mountain, but what do I know...The view was spectacular but I didn't get a decent shot so I guess I'll just have to go again next time.

Enjoy the pictures!

This place is 4 sale!

This old church is in a small town in Wisconsin. I had all kinds of thoughts about what to do with a groovy old bulding like this. Too bad it is in Wisconsin, I couldn't take the humidity, but what a fun place for gals and pals, weddings and shindigs!

The will to win

Yesterday as the snow started to melt out of the gardens and the fear of what it had done to my budding irises became apparent, I picked out a stem of buds that had been broken off by the weight of the snow and put it in a glass on the cupboard, I didn't think it would survive, but here is a picture of it in full bloom this afternoon, a gift and a lesson that we can become magnificent against any obstacle brought down upon us.

Springfield, IL - Land of Lincoln

My job has been taking me out to Springfield, IL the past couple of weeks. I do a 2 hour presentation each day and then have some time to explore. It's kind of a neat place and it is filled with tons of history since it is the home of Abraham Lincoln. I got to tour his home and the neighbor he and his family lived in before he was president.
Lincoln's Home

Me on the front steps

The Sitting Room

Hard to imagine the President sitting in an outhouse...

The Shutt home, located just down the street

I also toured the Lincoln Museum which was pretty cool. The best part was the documentary on Lincoln's presidency. He was on mid-40's as the President but accomplished more in the several short years than most of us in a lifetime. It was remarkable to see the aging process that the strain had on him. He probably aged 10-20 years during his presidency. Here is a picture from inside the museum. The lighting wasn't great, but this was very realistic.

The last part of the day took me to the cemetery and the Lincoln tomb. It was very impressive and I had a cool experience as I was one of the last people out for the day so the lady watching over the tomb entrance gave me a history lesson and told me things about Lincoln and the burial that I would have never known. He was intombed 10 feet below the groun and cemented over inside the family tomb to keep grave robbers from stealing his body, seems crazy, but there are crazy people out there.


This is a street view of the capital building in Springfield, very beautiful limestone building.

Then dinner at Saputos, 2 nights in a row actually, the place rocked! Best Italian food I've had in a while.

And last but not least, I flew out of St. Louis, so this is a picture of damage the tornado did to the windows a couple of weeks ago. There were 6 large arches of window like this and all of them were boarded up, that must have been one mean twister!

Until next time, keep living life one adventure at a time!

Catching Up

Can't believe it's been a month! I don't feel so bad though when I see people that still have Christmas posts up... Lots going on, but tonight just a quick post in memoriam of a friend that lost his life a week ago in a plane crash. The pictures I took from another friend, and they really tell a story of a life cut short.

I didn't know Pete Vinton super good, I had met him a couple of times, toured his hangar and had him show me the plane he was building. He took me on a demo flight of the Carbon Cub SS that he was the sales rep for (and the one he lost his life in)lst summer. It struck me that he was a veteran of Desert Storm, a military pilot, a no nonsense kind of guy that loved his country, his family and flying. He was straight to the point, and made an impression on me. I have talked about that flight in the Cub for almost a year now, even the morning he passed away, I was talking about it. There are a few jackasses that built their homes around the private airpark that Pete managed, they put up stupid signs along the road (that I take to get to DIA) protesting the airpark. Its ticks me off everytime I drive by so I asked Pete about it and his reply was, "it's ironic that I fought for my country to give people the right to free speech, essentially the right for those people to protest my right to fly" his language was a little more colorful, but you get the point.

Anyway, I just wanted to write about Pete and share a couple of pictures. This is partly why I love to fly, the feeling, the experience, the joy. These pictures were taken last summer on a flight from Alaska to Washington.

Blue skies, tail winds, soft landings...RIP Pete Vinton

The 3rd of April

Last night the wind was blowing so hard it ripped a section of our barn roof off, I haven't gotten a picture yet because it's hard to hang on and snap a picture at the same time, maybe tomorrow, the section of roofing is about 50 feet away...

Here's the scene to the west, Pikes Peak is normally out there on the horizon...

And to the east out the front door, gee I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

A little "light" reading

I get the opportunity to talk with a lot of people from different backgrounds, which is interesting and thought provoking for me. Recently I was asked about polygamy and challenged to read a book titled "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer who also wrote "Into the Wild" and Into Thin Air". I bought the book and it has been difficult to put down.



The book starts out detailing the gruesome murder of Brenda Lafferty and her young daughter in Utah a few year back by her husband's brothers who believe that the execution order was given to them in a revelation from God. The book traces the roots of the LDS church through Joseph Smith to Brigham Young through the separation of the Fundamentalists through the Mountain Meadows Massacre and back to the murders and the trial. What has surprised me the most is that all of the names in the book are very familiar, the places are places I know, the history is part of my history and most shocking is the stories (documented in foot notes) of the details behind each of the events. It has caused me to really stop and think about what I have thought I knew all my life. It has also peaked my interested to study more of my history and not just take stories I've heard at face value. I've always been fascinated with Mormon history, loved The Work and the Glory series, read tons on Porter Rockwell, but never really though about it much past the surface.

In the trial chapters of the book the Defense team thought about using the insanity defense for the Lafferty Brothers, but there is a whole issue around trying to prove that someone is insane because they pray to and receive guidance from God...don't we all?

It has brought up a lot of great questions in my mind and I am looking forward to more reading and researching, discussions and deliberations. The more I learn, the more I want to know. I am fascinated with the story of John D. Lee. I never connected that Lee's Ferry on Lake Powell was named for him and that he was bannished there by Brigham Young after the massacre. He was excommunicated along with a couple of church leaders from Cedar City and in the end given up as the scapegoat for the tragic massacre and executed at Mountain Meadows. That is a whole story I want to study. I'll also be making a trip up to the Mountains Meadows next time I'm in Hurricane. If you want to read an article put out a couple years ago by the Church, google the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

And one last thing that I want to study more is the Dream Mine that is located in the mountains above Salem, UT. We've all seen it from a distance, but there is a whole other story that weaves into LDS history about the mine and all the gold that is supposed to be buried there.

2 Other recommended reads that are on my list are The Mountain Meadows Massacre by Juanita Brooks of St. George and Blood of the Prophets.

A week of Sun, Sand and Sorrow

This past week I have been pretty well laid up with a viral infection, and since it is now starting to depart my poor fatigued body, I wanted to catch up on the week before I was sick and got to spend some time in Hurricane withe friends and family.

Mom picked me and Brucer up at the Las Vegas airport on Sunday afternoon, we had decided to fly commercially which ended up being a very decision even though weather during the week was just about perfect. We stopped on our way out of Las Vegas as we usually do at a small grocery store off the Cheyenne exit for authentic Mexican cuisine. The place is called Marianne's, it's in a strip mall south of the exit, it's phenomenal! Of course some of you will wonder why we risk the neighborhood, but just take a stroll around the store and you'll get it pretty fast. The bakery, the meat counter, the fresh produce and the cafe, unbelievable. Yes, we are the only white faces in there, but WHO CARES, the food rocks!

Some of the high and low lights of the week were: hanging out with my brother Dan and learning to milk his nanny goat. His wifey Jill has been growing a herd out there and they have some really cute babies (kids).

Jill's been making cheese from the milk and is getting ready to do soap and lotions, I'm in line for that stuff! Right after we headed back to the house, Jill was hiding from the baby goat so it wouldn't follow her to the house, she got leveled by the dogs in her hiding place, I thought it was kind of funny (the same kind of thing happens to me regularly) until the next day....

I thought I would run from the house to the hangar on the rock path, bad idea! I tripped on a rock and went down hard! Skinned knee, gravel in my hands and a few days of feeling like I was 90! Sorry Jill, I shouldn't have laughed!

That night I was sitting in the living room when I noticed the ambulance lights at our neighbor's home. Jen and Pat McCarroll live across the taxiway behind us and Pat has been battling bone cancer for as long as we've known him. He lost his fight that night and it was a really sad scene. RIP Pat!

The better part of the week came on Thursday when Dan took us out to the desert for some 4 wheeling sight seeing dog roasting fun. We broke in our new side by side and had a great time, I can't wait to go out again and just explore, it was incredible!





And a picture of my silly beautiful sister Karen

Then the big rib smoke with Dan, Jill, Karen and Leonard. If you haven't had meat that Dan has smoked topped with his special barbecue sauce, you are totally missing it. He caters events too, so give him a call, his food in INCREDIBLE and the ribs ROCKED!

About this point in the week I had a sore throat and was in the beginning stages of the crude that has had me down all week. Great trip, but I wish I could have left the crude there!

I loved my trip to Utah this time and I am looking forward to the next one...soon!

Who would believe it?

See, I did milk a goat!