back in red rock country at last! for a while...

A big hello and hugs to all!!!
Lava was a blast as always. It really is a wonderful group of friends we have there.
We were there for about 5 weeks and got the old porch torn down and the new one rebuilt from the ground up. A few design changes along the way, and knowing Kathryn some additions will be upcoming!  First pic is the old porch...roughly 8x12 with a shed roof. New deck is 16x20 with a pitched roof. And a really nice swing!

We visited Chris (John's nephew,) Missy and Ian [and wife and son] in Salt Lake valley, in route to Moab.  We'll be house/pet sitting for them at the end of October while they are traveling so we will return October 17.
Made it to Moab for one night in town and then moved up river [20 miles out of town in the middle of nowhere] to camp at a friends place. It's nice to be back out of town and in the desert again and to be among the WONDERFUL  red rocks again.  Life has a way of helping us along with good invitations and great rendezvous'!
The canyon country has had an unbelievable amount of rain this year and continued with showers last night so the desert is green and flowering again! Some views from our current camp...

til the next time,
Scott and Johnney 

I can't believe how much time has passed since the last entry. If your still reading, sorry for the delay.

Our time on the east coast was not long enough and harried as usual. John's oldest son graduated from the University of West Virginia with his PHD in Sports Psychology. It was a great weekend for him, and we were honored to share it with him! And very proud parents!

 On the way back from West Virginia we stopped in DC to see my new great nephew. He is so cute and the happiest baby I've met in a long time!

While on the east coast we had some time with my two sisters, brother, and my Aunt Sally. I do miss having my family close by. We had several days with my older sister exploring some of the White Mountains. It was so wonderful having a tree canopy overhead again, hiking in the woods! But I do not miss the mosquito's and black flies...

And many thanks to Robert and Liz!
After we got back to Phoenix it took us several days to load up the bus, and shut Dave's house down for the summer. We also finally got a kitchen sink installed!! Running water!!! A dream kitchen at last!
After many hugs and see you agains we headed out one morning. At nine am it was already 90 degrees so we were looking forward to heading north for cooler temps. I don't know how people live in Phoenix year round in temps of 100 - 115 on a daily basis.  It was slow going, even for the bus, since everything north of Phoenix is gaining in altitude. But we did make Flagstaff by early afternoon. Picked up supplies and continued on to Bonita, a campground we stayed in before, not far north of Flag. And it is 5-6000 ft in altitude! For us, it was the first time in weeks it was cool in the evening. Dropped to 47 degrees actually. We fell asleep to the breeze in the pines [ponderosa pines], the "who, who" of an owl and the quiet of a deep forest under a bazillion stars.  NO traffic noise! We could see the stars again! No hum of air conditioning. Wild animal noises. It was a glorious night!
At this point we knew we would head to Boise, Idaho. We had an offer for some work. But we had to stop over in Lava. First was Salt Lake though. Some time there with John's nephew. And Dyl [John's youngest, the rock climber] came to spend time with us. His van broke down in Salt Lake, so he has been working for a few months. We spent one day with him up in Alta [the ski mountain] hiking with him. A warm and beautiful day, with snow still on the mountains.

We had the bus that day, and it was very slow going. We had to get to the trailhead at 8000 feet. No problem. The bus engine is not fast but a real workhorse. The problem was coming down. Even though we were going real slow, I could smell the brakes overheating badly. We pulled off right away and got out. There were flames coming out of the front wheels from the brakes! They were easily put out and we had to wait on the side of the road for an hour til they were cool enough to make it the rest of the way down.
As I said earlier, from there we headed of to Lava. Somehow people knew we were coming and a short while later we were sitting down to dinner with 10 or so friends. Word got out and they just kept coming in. It was really great to see everyone again! As one thing lead to another we ended up staying for almost a week instead of a few days. After all, we couldn't miss Milan's birthday party!

After a week of festivities we headed of to Boise. We had a house to paint, with some stone work, and a fence to put in. The owner was getting anxious to get started! So back to work we went. Long days and achy backs but it is now finished - 4 weeks later. In the meantime Sue, John's sister, the owner of said house, has been telling her friends about the work on her house. We now have more work than we can handle! No complaints there! We are in the middle of our last house paint in Boise for this year as we need to be in Lava on September 3rd for a construction project there. Then it's off to Salt Lake to house sit for John's nephew in October. 3 dogs and a cat...

So the question is: where do we spend the winter???
We miss you all,
    John and Scott

Time for a new chapter

The end of winter here in Phoenix, and spring has sprung. Hard to tell except the temps have already hit the 100 degree mark. It's already too hot for us.
John's sister Sue was here for a few weeks!!! And Rob from Boston too!!! So we went exploring the places we still wanted to see before we leave. Places like Deer Valley Rock Art...

The Phoenix Museum of Art which had an installation called "Order, Chaos, and the Space between". This included 30,000 butterflies winding their way around...

Southeast of Phoenix, in a town called Florence, is St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery. They have six different chapels in various styles and many acres of gardens, fountains, and statues. All very beautiful.

From there we headed a little farther south towards Tucson to the Bioshere 2. It is a huge series of buildings where everything is enclosed and self sufficent. The first experiment had 8 people living there for 2 years without any thing from the outside world.  It's called a window to the future. Hmmm...

Recently we went to this "house" called Mystery Castle with our friend Bern. A large stone house with quite a history! All hand built, recycled materials, for his daughter. She lived in it until she passed in 2010.

second floor

With Spring come the flowers. And the desert is blooming!

 

It is now May... the winter has gone by and it's time to think of our next chapter. The next few actually.

First, we are headed to the east coast. On May 14th we will fly with Dave to Portland where his son will pick him up to go to New Hampshire for the summer. John and I will be staying in Scarborough for a few days before heading south towards West Virginia. John's oldest son, Ian, will be graduating again, this time with his PhD in Sports Psychology. He has worked so hard for this! What a great day!

Then it's back to Portland with a stop in DC to see my new great nephew. Then to New Hampshire to see my sister for several days. The next week will be all around the state [Boston, Rhode Island too] for various people before heading back to Phoenix on June 4th.

The chapter after that will be... hmmm....left or right at the next stop sign...?

Scott and johnney

Winter in Phoenix so far

Hello everyone!
We hope the colder season has treated you well so far. According to some weather reports the east coast has had some warmer temps than we have had here in Phoenix. Temps have been down in the low 30's some nights, with a few frosts. We don't miss the shovelling though...
The fall and holiday season turned into a whirlwind of activities. We had quite an adjustment with Dave getting meds regulated and getting to know his needs, as they change weekly. He is doing well.
Some friends from Boston came to visit (YA!!!) and we had a great time. Went to the Japanese Gardens which were quite beautiful. And so many Koi!!!

Christmas brought us to Lake Havasu City for the annual "Parade of Lights". The city sports a "London Bridge" that was actually dismantled in London and shipped here and rebuilt. It crosses over a canal from the lake and this is where the parade was. Lots of boats of all kinds all decorated for the holiday!
We also went to the Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix for the annual Luminaries display. With 3-4 hundred thousand candles in bags, and many trees lit up with the tiny white lights (electric of course), and about 8 different groups playing music it was a magical evening!

We have been to a few museums, the Heard Museum being a wonderful experience. We had a whole afternoon to wander around all the Native American artifacts. Amazing stuff! Another museum we went to was out in Wickenburg, about 1 hour northwest of Phoenix. It is all western art, whether it is paintings, clothing, or saddles. Some of the art work on the saddle's were pretty cool. My horse never had anything so fancy!
Last weekend was the beginning of the Barrett-Jackson car auction. A free car show was happening down in the Scottsdale area so we headed down there for an afternoon of gawking at some wonderful cars and trucks.

Other stuff we have made time for has been some hiking in the local area. North Mountain and South Mountain Preserves have provided some great hikes close by.
Phoenix has alot of great stuff to offer, but it's a huge city and we are looking forward to the day when we can hit the road again!
Be well!
Scott and Johnney

HELLO!

We are here in Phoenix and finally settling in to some sort of a routine with Dave. But let me back up a bit before I tell you about Phoenix. So much has happened and been seen. As I said in the last post we left Lava Hot Springs the Friday after Labor day and headed north with Dylan, John's youngest son, who has spent the last year and a half climbing around the country. He is actually in Greece right now climbing. Anyway,our first stop was just outside of Jackson Hole at Granite Creek. The pic is of the falls, but they are much larger than it appears. The hot spring is at the bottom of the falls. Wonderful spot for a soak! And a nice campground just down the road.

The next day we spent some time checking out Jackson Hole. Found a WONDERFUL store called The Purple Moon. {We are a little biased... we know the owners from Lava}. In Jackson we picked up Dyl's car and we proceeded through the Tetons to a campground on the north side. I have never seen the Tetons or anything close - I am an east coast boy after all - and they are amazingly beautiful to see.



  This old guy was right on the side of the road as we went through Yellowstone, enjoying the afternoon sun.Yellowstone was pretty, but we didn't spend alot of time there as we had alot of miles to cover in order to reach Phoenix by the 15th of Oct.

We did stay just outside of Yellowstone in a town called Gardiner. The campground was just outside of town on top of this mountain. Great views, and we camped next to the horse rings. Both John and I grew up with horses so it felt [and smelled] like home. That night we climbed up on to the roof rack - it is empty for this part of the trip -  laid back and watched a meteor shower!

The next day brought us through the town of Boulder, Montana, where the is an old, turn of the century hotel that after being abandoned for decades is slowly coming back to life. The hotel was popular in it's day for the hot, healing waters. Of course we had to stop and soak away a few hours.

We continued on to stay in a town called Clancy. Met with a friend for an enjoyable evening out.

Our next destination is Glacier National Park. We were coming up the east side, passed through a town called Browning [don't ever bother  stopping there] and found a great B&B/campground about 8 miles out of town called Aspenwood. It was like arriving at Gramma's house, all warm and cozy, farmlike, and she has 5 dogs! They all come out to greet the newcomers so as we drove in and saw they're wagging tails I said to John " we are staying here tonight " No question.

The next morning we had a problem, a first for the bus. One of the front tires had a large split in the sidewall. Although the tire wasn't losing air, we needed a tire ASAP. Turns out the only place that had a tire that would fit was 70 miles away. So through the south end of Glacier we went to Columbia Falls. A bit harrowing crossing over some of the narrow mountain roads with a tire that could blow anytime!

Later that afternoon, with a new tire on, we headed up the west side of Glacier to a campsite on Big Creek. Feeling a need to stop for more than one night we spent a couple of nights there. Unfortunately we couldn't take the bus across the "Road to the Sun". The length limit was 21 feet and the bus is 37, so we meandered around the park on the west and south sides. Still a beautiful site. We stopped at Lake Macdonald Lodge for lunch, enjoying the old log style architecture. Not as grand as the one in Yellowstone, but just as interesting. Once we had seen all we could with the length restrictions we headed south towards Hot Springs, Montana.

Hot Springs is an interesting town. Small town - pop. just over 500 - but with some cool stuff happening. Nice co-op with all locally grown food, and it's own bakery. We stayed at the Symes Hotel, another turn of the century hotel. And quite large. It was taken over by an artist group a few years back and is in the process of being refurbished. A huge project. But they have great hot springs! And they have a fabulous Blues Festival every year that is fast becoming nationally known.

After much soaking we headed out the next day towards Missoula and spent the night just south of town. Great little campground on a river where we met this couple that trains a certain breed of dogs [the name escapes me at the moment]. These dogs, and this couple in particular, travel around the US and Canada. The dogs are trained to go after bears to scare them away from areas like campgrounds. 

The next day, as we headed south from Missoula, we started to encounter smoke from all the fires in the area and from the states of Washington and Oregon. We hadn't gone to far when we stopped for lunch and to check in at the Ranger station in Stevensville. The smoke was so bad our eyes were watering. We were headed to a hot spring called Gold Bug, but the fires were all around the area. And in some places vehicles had to be escorted through the smoke.  So we turned around and headed back towards Missoula to take another route. There was another hot spring up in Lolo Pass that we wanted to hit called Jerry Johnson. As we headed up the pass through this beautiful canyon the air cleared and we could see the sun again. And Breathe!!! But that didn't last long. By the time we got to the top of the pass, the smoke was back and just as thick as ever. We found out at the ranger station that another fire was spreading through the canyon and the hot springs were in the middle. The fires were all along the roadside, so petal to the metal, looking for clearer sky.

We drove hard all day and finally stopped in a town called White Bird, Idaho. Cute little campground on a river with laundry! But the next morning was still very smokey as the pic shows. That was taken at 9 am...

So another day with the petal to the metal, trying to get out of the smoke. By the end of the day we had passed through most of the smoke and were headed to Bernard Hot Springs just north of Cascades. We found the road, and thankfully John was driving. It was a one lane dirt road in good shape, but the mountain was steep. And with a drop off on one side of the road several hundred feet, and straight up on the other side, along with sharp curves scattered along the way, we SLOWLY made our way to the top. I don't know what we would have done if we met up with another vehicle... The drive was worth it. We came to a wide spot in the road with a great hot spring about 20 feet from the road. We camped for the night, enjoying the spring, stars and good food. What more is there? Well, that too...

The next afternoon we headed down the mountain reluctantly and headed for Boise. But some more hot springs awaited us before that.

About a hour and a half north of Boise are many hot springs if you have the right map. Which we do. So we spent another few nights sampling the area and meeting lots of people. John's family in Boise was awaiting our arrival so we headed back to civilization again.

We were in Boise a little over a week, visiting, going on dog walks, celebrating Katie's birthday, joining in with the family tomato contest. I never knew there were so many varieties! Tasty too! The bus finally got a wash and wax. Looking good! It certainly deserved it. That thing has taken us all over the country, down highways, and roads I wouldn't take a car down, through deserts and cities, through major snow, over 10,000 foot mountains and it has never failed us! We love that bus. Does eat alot though...

Finally we headed out of Boise. We still needed to stop back in Lava before Phoenix to pick up stuff we left behind and say another goodbye to friends. On the way of course we hit a few more hot springs and spent a few days at Craters of the Moon. That place is a lava field about 2000 years old, and is due for another eruption. We crawled around caves and old lava tunnels with the bats. It was very interesting being able to see the lava solidified mid stream with all the striations of the flow.

From there we headed on back to Lava Hot Springs to collect the rest of our stuff. Another weekend of good food, drink and much merriment. And saying goodbye again.

With the roof rack loaded up again off we went. We knew then that we had a deadline - to be in Phoenix by October 15th. Headed south from Lava going down around Bear Lake. The most beautiful blue water. Then up into the mountains into Logan Canyon in the Cache National Forest. Nice. Found a campsite in a side canyon next to a river. Mountain views, quiet, but no hot springs...

Missing the hot springs at the end of our day we moved on to the next canyon down called Ogden Canyon. Stopped at the mouth of the canyon at a nice hot spring consisting of several pools of varying temps. Made our way up farther into the canyon for a camping spot. A couple of towns beyond where we were camping is a town call Eden. And in town is a Mexican restaurant called Carlos and Harley's. They had the best salsa ever and made right there. The next day we made our way back to the hot springs for a soak before heading into Salt Lake City.

Back in the city again! Noisy and crowded as any city, but had a great lunch with Mac, one of John's older brothers. He has retired and seems so much happier!

Our next stop hours later was in Torrey. We were back in red rock country with all it's beauty. And this campground had showers!!!

While in Boise John's sister Sue had a cook book from Hell's Backbone Grill in Boulder, Utah. It was a great cook book, but also read as a story. We were so intrigued that we made it a stop. What a cool little town! We found a camping spot a few miles outside of town and spent a few days there exploring the area. I can't believe we actually got the bus down that road, it was so narrow. And then turned around to get into the one campsite barely big enough for the bus.

Boulder is near the top of the Grand Escalante National Momument so our drive over the next day or two took us along the northern edge. We made a stop in Kodachrome basin for some hiking with fabulous views, and then made our way up to Bryce Canyon again to our old camping spot. Didn't have any elk or prong-horned sheep wandering through our campsite this time, but plenty of cows.

Our next stop was the Grand Canyon. Last spring we explored the North rim so this trip we checked out the South Rim. What a difference. The north side is much quieter, and not nearly as built up. The south side is just the opposite. We made many stops along the way, amazed at the beauty. We recently had friends, Jim and Rick from Boston, visiting from Boston. They also saw the Grand Canyon but from a helicopter. It's really the best way to really see the canyon as you get the full impact.

 A few more stops along the way and we made it to Tonapah, which is a hot spring just about a hour outside of Phoenix. 2 days there were needed before the noise and energy of the big city.
So here we are in Phoenix. We are caretaking our friend Dave who had a stroke last spring, and can't live alone now. We will be here until the spring, when Dave will head back to New England for the summer, and we will probably head to the northwest. In the meantime we will contiue to explore the city and all that it has to offer. Will keep you posted.
In the meantime be well,
Scott and Johnney

On the move again!

So it's been awhile since we have updated. It got so busy these last several weeks with Tahra's wedding reception, potlucks, work, more work, etc. We had a big party with our Lava friends at the campground we were staying at right before we left. Time for saying goodbye...
So we have moved out of Lava and we heading out to parts north. Dylan, John's youngest, joined us in Lava for the last few days and then we all road up to Jackson Hole. Found a wonderful hot spring at the base of a waterfall and near a campground. It's on Granite Creek outside of town. The views were amazing!! From there we headed to the Tetons for another campground and more hot springs in the woods. We do avoid the commercial ones, and have been lucky to find natural springs thanks to our new bible "Hot Srings of the Northwest" A bit of hiking or crossing streams is normal but well worth the effort!
The Tetons are beautiful, but Dyl had some issues with his car so one day was spend seeing him back to Jackson so he could get a mechanic. He is on his way south again for more rock climbing! The next day brought us into Yellowstone for a night and a day, then on to Gardiner, Montana, for camping on the mountain top. Cool little town. Today will be heading north for Glacier National Park which may take a few days. Pic's will come later.
So nice to be on the road again!!!!!!!!!!

Til the next internet connection,
Scott and Johnney