We left Cando, ND and traveled to visit Kris’ last living grandparent in Devils Lake, ND.  Zelda Rinas (Paul’s mother) is 88 years young and living in an assisted living facility.  We took her to lunch and visited with her for a bit.  It has always been a milestone when one of Grandma Zelda’s grandkids or great grandkids have passed her in height.  Kiera has finally reached that milestone.  Although Great Grandma says, “It’s not fair because I have shrunk!”

We said, “Good-bye!” to Grandma Zelda and drove to Lake Ashtabula in North Dakota.  Kris’ cousin Ross and his family own a cabin on the lake there.  We met Paul’s sister, Lynette, her husband Steve and their granddaughter Zoey there.  We played on the lake with the ski boat and jet ski.  It felt almost like home.

We spent a day in Fargo where we spent time with Kris’ cousin Laurie too.

Then we drove home where we found the weeds were about as tall as I am!.  It’s good to be home.  We are busy unpacking and catching up on our house, boat, and business.

In North Dakota now.  We are staying at Kris’ Aunt Diane and Uncle Roger’s house in Cando, ND, which is a welcome break from staying at Motel 6.  Kris’ parents, Paul and Jeannine have joined us here as well.  We’ve been visiting with Diane and Roger’s son Derek, his wife Cathy, sons Noah and Zaydin.

We drove around looking at landmarks and houses where family members had lived in the past, and saw the family farms.  As we drove by Paul and Jeannine’s K-12 school, we noticed the doors were open.  The school had been closed down for years because of the lack of students in the area and the age of the school building.  We walked into the school and found workers who remembered Paul and Jeannine and took us on a tour.  The school had been turned into a museum of the area schools that had been closed.

Kris and Kiera took pictures of class pictures.  We found Paul on the bottom right side.

And Jeannine (Rance) is on the bottom left side.

We saw antique desks, typewriters and many other things.

 

 

The International Peace Gardens are right on the border of North Dakota and Canada. It was built as a way of saying Canada and the U.S. will have peace and not war.  You do not need a passport to visit, just photo ID.  Or just be cute like Kiera and get on through the border patrol.  It is it’s own entity and not controlled by either U.S. or Canada.

The gardens are mostly symmetrical on the U.S. side and Canadaian side.  Tourist are able to freely go from both sides as a manmade creek runs right along the border.

 

The International Peace Gardens has a Conservatory (green house) that houses succulents from around the world.

 

The gardens are big and beautiful. It is about 1.5 miles to walk the whole gardens area.  And there is so much color in the flowers and greenery.

 

A 9-11 memorial with steel beams from the Twin Towers are displayed in the garden as well.

Here we are standing with our right feet in America and our left feet in Canada.

 

After the Peace Gardens we were driving back to Cando, ND and we decided to stop for lunch.  This yellow sign sealed the deal:

“Mositurized” chicken?  It makes me think that someone is in the back rubbing lotion on live chickens!  Don’t worry we didn’t have the moisturized chicken.

Today we saw Glacier National Park. It was sooooo pretty! I think this is the prettiest of all of the national parks that we have seen on this trip.  There are mountains, rivers, lakes, tall trees, and valleys.

 

We did a hike to St. Mary Falls. It was really pretty. I got to climb on some rocks, but my knee and elbow hurt a little.  My side is feeling better. St. Mary Falls was a pretty light blue. There where so many waterfalls at Glacier National Park.

Waggs shakes so much in the truck and pants. He has travel anxiety.  He nudges my arm so I can pet him. He was nudging me while I was writing this😊.

On our trip, I learned there were 2 earthquakes in California. One was a 6.4 and the other was a 7.1, big, right? Fortunately, we did not feel these earthquakes, yay! But they are all over the news. (the only thing that’s on 😊)

My Aunt Holly wanted to take us on a tour of downtown Lodi.  She drove us to Lodi Lake, the country club, the hospital where she used to work, and historic Lodi Arches.  We enjoyed the view of the vineyards and cherry trees. We even got to pick Rainer cherries!  Waggs made himself at home here.  He slept on their couch while we were out doing day trips.

My cousin Kevin, his wife Libby, daughters Samantha, Madison, Layla and Jenna live in Folsom, CA.  We drove from Lodi to Folsom to spend the night with them.  My Uncle Craig and Aunt Holly came with us too.  They have a backyard with a gorgeous pool with a waterfall that uses heated water from the sun.  Of course, we spent the afternoon in the pool swimming, diving and floating while catching up.  Kiera had a great time swimming and diving for toys in the pool with Layla and Jenna.  They also have a trampoline that the girls enjoyed.

Waggs found their chickens and tried to charge at them, but a well camouflaged fence hit his face and stopped him. No chickens were hurt during our stay.

The next morning it was the 4^th of July.  Their neighborhood hosts a potluck breakfast and a bike/scooter parade for the 4^th.  Kiera used one of their scooters, since our bikes are all back in Indiana.  The neighborhood had a festive decorating station for the kids to decorate their bikes and scooters.  We all set off on the parade with the kids leading the way.  Kris went to get Waggs to join the parade and caught up with us at the end of the parade.

 

Kiera was so fast on the scooter that she did two laps of the parade, because the street is a big circle.  On her second lap she hit a rock and fell hard on the asphalt.  Her left knee, elbow and side were scrapped and bleeding. She could see us in the distance but couldn’t catch up.  A man in his late 70’s ran up behind us out of breath and said, “I’m been trying to catch up to you for a while.  Your daughter fell off her scooter and is hurt.”  Kevin pulled out his first aid kit and we fixed her up.

We drove to Lake Tahoe and joined the many other people who wanted to spend their 4th of July at Lake Tahoe.  We couldn’t find a place to park on the California side of the Lake.  On the Nevada side, we found a 20 minute only parking spot.  So we parked and ran down to the lake.   The aqua and indigos of the water were amazing!

 

We took a day and drove to Yosemite National Park.  I lived in California for 26 years and never visited Yosemite.  This was a bucket list item that finally got checked off.

We were warned that it would be crowded, but we were not prepared for just how crowded it would be.  We couldn’t find a parking space to see the Yosemite Valley.  Kris drove around while the girls and I went into the store to buy lunch.  We pretty much just drove around and took pictures from the truck.

 

Almost at the exit gate we found a parking space and took some pictures of the mountains, waterfalls and river.  It is gorgeous here and I now know why it is so crowded.

 

The next day we went to San Francisco where we found a parking spot at Fort Mason, an old military base in World War II.  We ate lunch at Ghirardelli Square, at the ice cream shop.  Yes, ice cream was our lunch and we paid way too much for it!

 

We walked uphill from Ghirardelli Square to Lombard Street, the windiest street in the world.  There are houses on each side of this street and someone actually parked their car on this street.  They would be lucky if a tourist flying down this street in a car didn’t hit it!

 

We waited in line for over an hour to ride a cable car into downtown.  About 5 minutes before we boarded the cable car, I was wondering if it was even worth it.  Kami and Kiera said, “Yes, it was worth it!”  They enjoyed it, so it was good that we did it.  In downtown, we went to Boudin Bakery to get a loaf of my favorite bread, sourdough!  It was so good!

We took a bus ride back to Fort Mason where we walked the piers and took some photos of the sunsetting and Golden Gate Bridge.  The water was shimmering in the setting sun as sailboats passed by.  And the Golden Gate Bridge was our way out of San Francisco that night.

 

I remember Sequoia National Park from my college days.  A bunch of friends, our biology teacher and her husband, from high school went for a camping trip at Sequoia National Park, in probably 1996.  We had a great time hiking, star gazing, seeing waterfalls and the really big Sequoia trees.  I remember the place covered in these giant reddish bark trees.  Well, it is not as I remembered.

The road to get into Sequoia National Park is so windy.  There are corkscrews, turns and twists along this road.  And there are pockets of Sequoia trees, but it’s mostly covered in tall pine trees.  We were tired from staying up so late with friends and family in Bakersfield.  Kami wasn’t wearing proper footwear for the 0.3 mile walk to the famous General Sherman Tree, so she complained the whole way.

 

 

General Sherman Tree is the biggest and widest tree in the world.  Scientist have estimated that it was alive when Christ walked the earth!

Kings Canyon National Park also has some giant sequoias.  It is home to the General Grant Tree, which is the second biggest tree in the world.  We were over the trees and got a stamp for Kiera’s National Park passport stamp book and left.

We drove to my Uncle Craig and Aunt Holly’s house in Lodi, CA.  Craig is a semi-retired CEO of Bear Creek Winery, which is owned by Ironstone Winery.  They took us on a private tour of Ironstone in Murphy, CA, which is the face of both wineries.  At Ironstone, there is a mining museum.  The town of Murphy was the center of the Gold Rush.  In the mining museum there is a vault with an enormous piece of crystalline gold.

Ironstone winery owns an old pipe organ rescued from a theatre in the area.  It was reassembled and computerized.  It plays songs with the touch of a button now.  Phantom of the Opera played as a private concert for us.  Wow!

 

We even got to see the caves of Ironstone.  At the end of the cave sits a waterfall that echoes throughout the cave.   This is where the barrels of wine are stored.  As we were looking through the wine barrel labels, we saw some barrels that said “Rus”.  Craig and Holly own a vineyard behind their house and sell their grapes to Ironstone, where it is put into Zinfandel wine.  The label that said, “Rus” means it was their grapes.

 

We left Ramona and drove down the 405 to Santa Monica, CA.  Kami has always had a love of Santa Monica.  For her Rube Goldberg Machine assignment in 8th grade her theme was Santa Monica. Both girls enjoyed their ride on the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier.

 

After Santa Monica we drove toward West Hollywood seeing Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive, and UCLA.  The traffic was horrible!  People of Indiana, you have got to stop complaining about traffic!  This is real traffic!

 

We then went to Bakersfield, CA, my hometown.  This is the city where Kris and I met and where Kami was born.  We stayed with my aunt Lyn.  She has an adorable dog named Ruby.

While in Bakersfield, the girls and I got pampered.  Lyn took us to get Starbucks and manicures and pedicures.  We had a great time.

We also got to see Michelle Luckett Meadors, her husband Jeremy and stepson Josh.  Michelle was the Maid of Honor at our wedding.

They served us a wonderful lunch on the patio of their new home.  They moved in last week!

My brother Nick, his wife Stephanie, their kids Madisyn and Tysen hosted us as well.  We got to met their adorable 8 week old puppy, Piper.

Piper is driving her family crazy with her puppy antics of not sleeping through the night and potty training.   Tysen earned his puppy with his good grades in school.

We got to go to Dewar’s Candy and Ice Cream with Nick and family.  It’s a fabulous ice cream shop in Bakersfield.

The girls got to go with them to Madisyn’s softball game.  Kiera and Tysen played together while Madisyn and team tied the game.

Uncle Nick let permit driver Kami drive his truck to the game!

While in Bakerfield we had to drive around and see how things have changed.  One thing hasn’t changed.  And that is Oildale!  For those of you who don’t know, Oildale is the redneck/hillbilly side of town.  Kris had to take a picture to prove we were there.

Kris and I also got to see my high school friends, Jake and Cheri Spitzer, Jenne and Brent Boado (Brent is actually a church friend and one of Kris’ groomsmen) and their boys Joshua and Seth, and Scott Porto.  I forgot to take pictures :(.  We all met from dinner at El Pueblos in Lamont, CA.  We laughed and had a great time together.

 

We drove to Ramona, CA without problems!  We felt like that was quite an accomplishment!  We have enjoyed spending time with Kris’ brother Brandon and wife Kerri, and their boys Zeke and Rhett.  Kris’ parents Paul and Jeannine also came to visit with the rest of the family.

While here we have enjoyed swimming, going for walks, playing at the park, doing tennis drills as an entire family, attending church, and going to Oceanside.  We took the kids to Oceanside for some fun in the waves.  Kiera loved the sand and promptly buried herself.

Kami actually smiled and ran around!  Kami had to wear her very fashionable short shorts. Kris and Grandma thought they could make their shorts like Kami’s shorts.

We thought it would be fun to recreate some pictures from the past while on the beach.  The first picture of Kami and I was originally done in Pismo Beach, CA right before we moved to Indiana.  It wasn’t an exact duplicate in location, but it works.

We finally got the call from the RV repair shop. That one tire did $14,733.81 worth of damage to the travel trailer.  We thought immediately that it would be marked as “Totaled”, by insurance.

Then we waited another couple of days for the third party to verify the damage and tell State Farm their opinion.  We were tired of waiting around, so we hopped in the “Red Deck” truck as we affectionately call it.  We drove toward Ramona, CA to Kris’ brother and his wife’s house. While stopping for lunch, State Farm called.  In 102 degree temperature, the girls and I waited for over an hour while Kris argued and negotiated with State Farm and the RV repair shop.  We were told that the amount in damage is not high enough for it to be considered totaled, even though it is about 72% of the value of the trailer.  So all of that means that we will have to return to Phoenix to pick up the repaired trailer in 6 weeks or whenever it is fixed, adding more unexpected expense to our already expensive trip.

So now we have the answers we were waiting on.  We should be able to plan the rest of our trip now.  However, either out of fear or we have learned how to be flexible, we don’t want to plan anything.  Maybe we will get our act together soon.

We’ve been trying to stay busy here in Phoenix while we wait for an answer on our travel trailer.

We’ve taken the girls to Lego Discovery center along with Uncle Guy, Paul, Jeannine, and cousins Furio, Roxy and Rocco. The kids could have stayed there a week. They had a great time.

They even redecorated the Lego Friends stars!

Cerretas Fine Chocolates and Candies gave us a tour of the facility and let the kids decorate chocolate teddy bears.

Since we a we are in a western state, we have to eat at In and Out. And yes, the cheeseburgers and fries really are that good!

Still waiting for an answer from the RV repair shop, we decided to go to Las Vegas. Hoover Dam was on the way, so we stopped. It must have been 1000 degrees. There were so many stairs to climb!

At Vegas, We stayed at Circus Circus and slept really well. During the evening we walked around and saw the Bellagio’s fountain show. They played Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On, a show tune called Hey Big Spender, a piano piece and In the Mood by Glen Miller. This was our family’s favorite spot. We had just seen James Cordon and Carpool Karaoke with Celine Dion (if you haven’t seen it, look it up on YouTube and make sure you watch the ending). At the Mirage we saw the volcano show and got shoved out of our spot by some rude tourists! But the fire and water show was great. The chandelier in the Cosmopolitan was breathtaking. And in the mall they have colored water tornados in the floor and in columns. In the Venetian we saw a rare book store, they housed books from the 1700’s.

I’ve felt waves of emotions about the trip changing and my carefully laid plans ruined. It was just one tire and one truck that caused all these problems. I suppose I am learning how to be flexible, but it stinks right now.