As the morning fog lifted, this was he first of these small canyons that we would pass through today.

Dutch taking a little breather after a work out with his dummies, me and the rubber one. This is Lake Almanor, just north of Quincy, California. We were the only people in sight on this big, beautiful lake.

This is only of vent holes at Lassen Volcanic National Park, although she is still venting, it erupted a long, long, long, time ago - but the debris area and rocks that it spewed out are still visible today, it was a big blow!

Another vent hole, but if you look in the upper left corner, you can see our road going along the mountain - we have just started up the mountain at this point.

This is just part of the mountain that was blown away when the big one hit!

This is summit Lake, almost to the top of the pass which was created by one of many craters that were created.

This is the confluence of the North Fork of the Trinity River with the Trinity River, if you want to get a fisherman excited, click on it to enlarge!

Wish all of you a Happy Halloween! We treated ourselves to a big dinner and some great dessert - Dutch got extra treats! We did pass a farmer this afternoon who just happened to be harvesting his pumpkins on Halloween. A little late for the Halloween market, but his five acre field was literally covered with pumpkins so I assume they were on their way to the pumpkin pie mix factory. Since this morning, we have only traveled 364 miles and 8,926.9 for the trip but we had a great drive. We are back to the Pacific Ocean and just happened to stop in the community that lost a number of lives during the 1964 Alaskan earthquake from the tidal wave generated in Alaska.

If you learn nothing else from this trip, if you ever have to cross California from east to west or west to east, follow the route that we took today. We have made this trip several times, but this is the first time we took this route and it was spectacular. We were in constant beautiful scenery, heavily treed with a variety of trees but predominantly Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine and Oak trees. It was mountainous most of the way which only added to the trip. To keep Brother Bill out of trouble, I would not recommend it for 18 wheelers.

Pulling out of Quincy this morning it was foggy and 40 degrees but within an hour we lost the fog and the high temperature of the day was 75 degrees until we hit the coast, then it was fogged in all the way to Crescent City. On Highway 101, in a fog with visibility of about fifty feet is not a fun drive, however, I discovered a new use for Suzie! I drove the last one hundred miles on instruments! Just watch Suzie's screen and she would let us know when the corners were coming up, it was very useful. However, we did discover a place for a top secret military base, hide it in the Redwoods - the forest canopy is so thick a satellite image can not get through. We lost contact with Suzie several times, the first time it has happened this trip except when we were in a mile long tunnel in Zion National Park.

We entered Lassen Volcanic National Park under sunny skies, did not get to use my lifetime pass as all the rangers had quit for the winter. We entered the park from the south end and exited out the west side, a total of 34 miles of driving a narrow, cliff hanging highway. The drive was great, it was the first time that I have had a National Park to myself! We saw a total of five cars on our entire trip through the park. Topping the divide, the elevation of the pass was the highest point we will hit on this trip, the highway is at about 10,200 level. It was great that we had the road to ourselves, coming around a corner, Terry saw a bear on a little slope just a few feet from the road. It was a good size grizzly, not to concerned about us so we stopped in the middle of the road, rolled down the window and took videos of him. Since he was on my side of the road, I had to run the video camera so we did not get any still shots of him. It made Terry's day, she finally got to see her bear.

Leaving the park, we continued through the mountains and under Interstate 5 at Redding, California knowing that we could make Portland yet today or continue exploring and take the slow road. It was not a decision that was difficult to make. Leaving it behind us, we continued through the mountains, the fall colors are past their prime but still very colorful. As we got closer to the coast, we dropped into the Trinity River Valley, my heart leaped with the first sight of it. Just a touch wider than the Anchor River, crystal clear with nice runs and some deep holes. Great looking river and there were a good number of fishermen on the river, fishing fall Steelhead! The highway paralleled the Trinity River through the canyon for about 35 miles, so many spots to fish and a good number of federal, state, and private campgrounds. Getting back into the truck after checking out one likely "hole", I noticed the temperature was 58 degrees! Fishing Steelhead at 58 degrees? I may have to get a new rod, my rods are not use to temperatures like that. I will return to the Trinity to spend a few days and fish it, after I do a little research but I am sure it is also a tributary of the Klamath River, a world class Steelhead River. The next couple of days, we will passing a large numbers of rivers that are known for their Steelhead fishing. I may fall in love again!

The plan for tomorrow is to back track about 30 miles and pick up some of the things that we missed traveling in the fog that we wanted to see, if it is still foggy - we will head north after snooping around Cresent City. Looks like an interesting place to live. Our friends, Mat and Cindy that have a summer home in Anchor Point lives just a few miles from here in Branden, Oregon so we will stop by to see them sometime tomorrow. A great day, saw some beautiful country, a bear, a deer and got instrument rated on my driving, life gets no better. See you up the road as we creep north.

If you were expecting to see my daily posting, you are looking on the wrong site! O.K., so I goofed up, I have accidentally posted it to the Hole In The Site, to view it, all you will need to do is click on the link that is underlined or highlighted. Hence forth,I will endeavor to insure that I post on the right site, let's blame it on "road fatigue", see you on down the road.

For the first time this trip, both Suzie and the truck compass is pointing us going N for a sustained time, so I guess we must be headed towards home. We are now in a very small town about 309.7 miles north of Laughlin, Nevada. Passing through Las Vegas without a stop and Suzie did her typical outstanding job directing us through the interstates and traffic, I really do love her!

We did pull out of Laughlin a day ahead of schedule, not due to heavy gaming losses, quite the contrary. Prior to our arrival in Luaghlin, I called my favorite hotel, the Colorado Belle. I have stayed there a half dozen times, even with my youngest daughter. Wanting to make reservations but discovering that they do not accept pets which I thought would be the case. However, they recommended a kennel in Boulder City which is just across the Colorado River from Laughlin. Wanting first to checkout the kennel, I did not make reservations at $22.00 per night despite the fact that they are advertised on the Internet at $19.00 per night.

Found that the "spa" for Dutch was very nice, he had a lot of company and I am sure he did not get much sleep last night even tho he had his own pent house, but it appeared to me that there was a good number of "ladies" just hanging around looking for a little companionship, so he was in heaven with lots of friends. Leaving Dutch in Arizona, we headed to Laughlin, Nevada and to check into the Colorado Belle. Upon checking in, we discover the room rate is $30.00 per night, when questioned why the difference from the time I called, her attitude comment was "oh, those are reservation prices", I know I should have taken out the cell phone and called for reservations in front of her. Behaving myself, I went to our room. After settling in, I pull out the old laptop to see what kind of reception I had since they advertised "wireless". Surprise, I had great reception but first I had to register and pay $6.95 per hour! After enjoying wireless connection free of charge from the motels since we left Alaska, it upset me just a touch that a hotel this size and a casino, would charge for wireless.

Freshening up, we left for the casino floor. My next surprise since my last trip to Laughlin and Vegas, "what in the hell are all these penny machines"? Hundreds of them, the nickels and quarter machines were a minority! But, I did find my favorite dollar machines. After Terry lost $10.00, she gave up to go sit in the sun by the pool. My biggest surprise and it took awhile to adjust is that there are not more silver dollars crashing into the tray! It is all automated and programed noise of money falling. You feed any denominational bill into the slot and it gives you credits to play. When you quit, you hit the "cash out" button and it prints out a receipt showing your winnings or money you have left to play. You can use this later to feed into another machine or cash it in for the real stuff. By the time, that Terry found me for dinner I had accumulated a tidy profit for my time and enjoyment.

Following dinner and a refresher nap while watching the last game of the World Series, I returned to the floor to play until 1 a.m., this time almost tripling my earlier winnings. Over breakfast, I added my totals up and made the decision that I would leave Laughlin and the Colorado Belle a winner. This morning while Terry was checking out, I did have to invest $20.00 in my favorite machine from the night before, by the time she returned, I cashed out my $41.00 and gave it to her for packing out all the luggage and I walked away with a nice chunk of their money. The Colorado Belle's final surprise came when Terry was checking out, she had made two long distant calls from our room using her phone card. The check out bill included $1.00 for each of the times that she used their phone. I really do not mind the extra charges - but don't nickel and dime me to death - raise your room rates!

Making the drive from Las Vegas to here, if anyone ever offers you 1,000 acres of free land in this area - run! It is desolate, sage brush, desert, no water and small mountains on the horizon, however, we did add one more specie of game to our animal list today. These are wild burros that roam this area in large numbers. This was the largest herd that we saw but we saw several other small herds. You can find out more about these animals by visiting the HITW. Talking with the motel owner tonight, he also said there are a lot of wild horses as well and they have an annual round up on them each year to keep the herd in check.

Tomorrow, we will arrive in Reno early so most likely, we will stop for a little casino entertainment before continuing home. From Reno, we have no idea which way we go but it will be in some northerly route. Got to go, Bronco game is over, they did better than I thought against Green Bay. See you down (up) the road.

We are on the road again. Sorry, I was remiss in my nightly blogging, however,I do have a good excuse, I did not have access to the Internet! I also tried to post some pictures tonight, but the download time was taking so long, I canceled it before I even got the first one loaded. Had an easy drive today, just covered 257.8 miles, bringing the total trip mileage to 7,774.7 miles. We have now reached our most southerly point of the trip and come first light, we will be riding out 0n the northward bound part of our trip.

Have spent the past two days visiting family and good friends, however, I was really slack on taking photos and I kick myself for that. Spent the next day after arriving in Wickenberg, AZ back tracking the previous day route for about 30 miles to a small town by the name of Wilhoit, AZ. My mothers brother, my Uncle Ted and his lovely wife Virgie live there after he retied from the copper mines in Baghdad, Az. We had not seen them in 40 years (October 1967) but it was just like we had seen them on a regular basis - it was so neat to see them and they both look so good. Uncle Ted reminds me a lot of Don, but you can also see the reassemblance of Larry and myself, tall and slender. We had a great time visiting with them.

We returned to Wickenberg to continue our visit with John and Ann, they have such a neat home and John does one good barbecue. Bob James's daughter,George, came up from Phoenix to have dinner with us, it was good seeing her once again. She has a second home that is vacant in Phoenix and offered it to us for the night, so we coded in the address in Suzie and in the dead of night headed down the highway. Freeways, traffic, 6th largest city in the U.S. and Suzie takes us to the front door without a hitch! I know I love her! Her second house is huge, sits within just a few miles of downtown Phoenix yet the lot is 2.5 acres, completely fenced in with chain link fencing as one time it was a riding academy. The adjoining properties are the same size and predominantly horse related, although, I was awakened this morning to the crowing of a rooster, just before daylight. Dutch had a great time, he was able to run free!

By coming in on Friday night, it put us just a short distance by freeway to Donnie's and Thida's home - freeway being the operative word. Once again, Suzie directed us through all the traffic and lane changes without a hitch, I know I love her, to their front door. If fact we were so stealth that we caught Donnie cleaning the house with an apron on! The have a beautiful home in a very nice neighborhood. After seeing John and Ann's home and now Donnies and Thida's home, I am so envious of their access to landscaping material - I could go wild down here! Their backyard is to die for, landscaped very nicely with a pool and cascading water fall, it is great. We had such a great time seeing them, even tho we saw them in Alaska just a few months ago. Dee Dee came over as well as their mother, we had not seen Patty since Don and she had separated. Had a real good visit with her and enjoyed seeing her again. Something else to keep in mind is that Donnie is a very good chef when it comes to barbecue, he may be useful at the HITW on his next visit. Got to see Nikki very briefly, this was their homecoming weekend and she was very involved in the school projects. They did give us a tour of several landscaping businesses looking for some items that your mother was wanting, Donnie is now on the look out for a weather vane and brass bell! For some reason, I do not think he has any discipline as to how they may come into his possession - the acorn does not fall far from the tree.

Although, we would have liked to stay longer, we thought it best to at least clear the city for the night so we could get a fresh start in the morning. We cleared it out right, come first light we will be within just a few miles of the London Bridge! Tonight, arriving in Parker, we also went to California, but it was by mistake and not Suzie's fault, she tried to talk us out of it but we knew we were right, until we saw the sign welcoming us to California. She brought us out of Phoenix today with a half dozen changes on the freeway, the setting sun in the west and in our eyes, without a hitch. Terry even complimented me on well I had handled all the traffic and lane changes - but it was Suzie that did all the work - I really do love her! Tomorrow, we have an easy day, tour the area here at Lake Havasu (sic) and then just a short drive into Laughlin, Nevada. I am hoping to hit the bank there and make some rather large withdrawals with out a large deposit. Probably spend a couple of days there handling the banking transactions.

As for temperatures, on Friday we were hitting 92 degrees and even warmer today, the highest I saw was 97 degrees. It really surprises me how people withstand the heat down here. It was hot so I drove around with my windows down to keep cool - almost every car I saw had their windows rolled up, I do not understand how they were keeping cool under conditions of this type. Blogging may be a little light over the next couple of days, unless I hit the big one and then you will know. No word from me, I am loosing!

We have enjoyed the rock formations throughout Utah and northern Arizona so much that we have decided against having a motor home in the future and in it's place have a winter home in the area. We found the ideal place today, just 40 miles north of Flagstaff and at the entrance to the Grand Canyon. The little "ranch" house comes with seven acres bordered by federal land on one side and the Hopi Indian reservation on the remaining three sides. We met with a Realtor today and have made an offer on the property which was promptly accepted. We can close on it after we get back to Alaska via mail. It is a "fixer upper" but we figure we can work on the HITW in the summer and retreat to Arizona to work on the "ranch" during the winter months. It will take some work and time but there is so much potential for improvements and landscaping. I will have a great choice of rocks to work with in the landscaping. We are excited.

Spending our second day in Montrose, woke up to find some white stuff on the ground this morning! Glad we came over the passes yesterday as they got a lot of snow last night. With the white stuff on the ground this morning, it is time to push further south to get out of the slightest hint of winter. Will head out tomorrow, after half dozen errands so I doubt we will get to far, but we only have to get 184 miles and we can be in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado at the same time.

Montrose has changed so much, just in the 22 months since I was here last. The town has now spread as far south as the river. The swimming pool is gone for the home of a office building. The old home site on South ninth, the house is gone, the garage is in tact as is mothers rock flower beds and yes, the play house that mom made for you kids out of the old chicken coop is also gone. Had a good visit with Larry and then out to see MaryJane, Jess, Mike, and Coleman were all there watching football games. Come daylight, will see some other family members, replace one more inner tube, see why our new digital camera is not working, do some banking, say good bye to some family members, wash and wax the truck, will wait for an oil change until we get home. All is well, all is good, on the road again soon!

An easy day drive today, covered just 268.5 miles which brought our total trip mileage up to 6,125.3 miles. Little cooler today, down to about 75 degrees. We did drive 32 miles out of our way to visit the Great Sand Dunes, just outside of Alamosa, Colorado. Well worth the effort, although we have been here before it is always interesting to see what nature can do. These giant, pure sand dunes with some as high as 300 feet, nestled at the foot of the mountain range with altitudes of 9,000+ feet.

Once we left the prairies of southeast Colorado and started into the mountains, it was quick to realize just how beautiful western Colorado is. Drove over Monarch Pass, which was bare of any snow except on the very highest peaks. Dropped down on the western slope of the mountains, stopping long enough at Blue Mesa Reservoir for Dutch to get a little exercise by retrieving, rewarded with a cold drink of water from the Gunnison River. Stopped long enough to see the small town of Sapinero where I lived prior to my school years, the town is gone now, sitting at the bottom of Blue Mesa Reservoir.

Cleared Blue Mesa Pass and Ciero Summit and dropped into the valley and Montrose. Spent the evening visiting my sister and brother in law Clifford. Brother Bill also drove in from Grand Junction and will be around for a few days so we are having a mini family reunion. The next couple of days will be rest days, then we will be back on the road again with a full schedule of places to see, people to see and places to go - getting closer to the casinos!

Pulled out of Elk City, Oklahoma this morning, by the time the sun was setting in Alamosa, Colorado we had completed our exit from Oklahoma, crossed Texas, New Mexico and into Colorado. I thought Texas was suppose to be the second largest state, we drove across it in one day! The good thing is that it was the first state that we did not spend a dime!

Just checked my Doppler radar, seems that everyone in LA is getting some type of moisture, I am assuming rain. Again, today we had to brave sunny sky's and temperatures up to 80 degrees - that is above zero! Texas was non-descript, at least the panhandle, just very small rolling plains primarily sage brush, but in the areas that are cultivated, they had some great looking fields of cotton, hay and grain.

Getting into New Mexico, we had a very beautiful drive, a part of New Mexico that I have never seen. We got off the interstate at Tucumcari and headed northwest on the secondary roads. Going through Taos and Las Vegas. At first it stated out typical New Mexico, rolling hills of sagebrush, then it turned into larger rolling hills of cedar and pinon trees. No sign of civilization except an occasional herd of cows. We then entered the Santa Fe National Forest, towering Ponderosa pine trees and great rock formations. I was very impressed and will make the trip through this area again. We had to go up one pass that gained elevation rapidly, but once on top it was a flat mesa. As far as the eye could see it was just slight slopes covered with grass and not a tree in sight, one would have expected to see herds of buffalo roaming the countryside. We never left the mesa and later gained a little more altitude into Colorado. Did cross the Royal Gorge of the Rio Grande, very impressive deep canyon but not nearly as deep as the Royal Gorge in Colorado. Beside the scenery in the National Forest, another reason I want to re-visit this area is the structural buildings. I have never seen as many "old" buildings in one particular area, some were run down old wooden homes, but most of them were either rock or handmade red clay bricks. By the looks of them, I would guess that they were built back in the days that the buffalo did range this area. At anytime, I expected to see "Blue Duck" come riding in, it would be a great place to shoot a western movie. The great thing about it, no population. A few, small, towns that definitely showed that they were at or below the poverty level. If you ever get a chance, make that drive. The third good thing about it, I never saw a truck!

We are less than 200 miles from Montrose, so we will be in there early tomorrow. We have decided to go the Monarch Pass route and through Gunnison instead of going west to Durango and over Red Mountain - maybe on our way out. If we get the time, we are going to look around Montrose or Grand Junction for a motor home. That way, if we get one we would just leave it at the Miller's and fly down next spring to retrieve it - just looking - nothing firm. Funny story that I forgot from last night, we got into Elk City, Oklahoma to find most of the hotels were full or would not accept Dutch so we drove into town to find accommodations. Stopped at this one place, decent looking but not a name brand type operation. Was greeted by a young desk clerk of Spanish decent, asked her all the typical questions, especially wireless Internet connection which she assured me that they had. For the first time, we asked to see the room which gladly produced us a key. As we walked across the dark parking lot, I could not help but notice a group of young men sitting on a car and talking loudly in a language I could not understand except Si! At first the key would not work in the door, after the third attempt the door opened, I reached in to flip on the light switch and nothing happened. Walked into the unit to the bath room, flip the light switch, nothing happened. It was at this point, we decided that perhaps we should find other accommodations. About the time we were crossing the lot to return to the office, the group of guys started walking the same way, but they went in the back door of the office, Terry got in the truck, I heard the locks snap shut as I went into the office to return the key. The young lady was smiling and asked if I liked the room, I told her that I probably would have liked it but it did not have any electricity, it was then that I knew for certain that she was of Spanish descent, as I slipped out the door she was still screaming at the guys that came in the back door in Spanish, I can only assume they were discussing the lack of electricity in their motel rooms. If we would have stayed, I feel certain that I would have found my truck sitting without tires this morning, if I even had a truck left. 534 miles today, 5,856.8 for the trip, talk to you on down the road.

Slipped out of Arkansas in the heat of the day and headed west, a late start this morning but still manage to put on 504 miles and Elk City is just southeast of Anchor Point by 5,322.8 miles. Had a beautiful drive out of Arkansas, went down through the Ozarks, very beautiful country. High rolling highs with a great variety of heavy tree coverage. The oak trees are just now starting to turn color. Heading west into Oklahoma, not what I expected, up to Oklahoma City it was nice gentle rolling hills with dense forest, primarily walnut trees. Picked up a bunch of walnuts in the various stages of ripeness for the kids to see. West of Oklahoma, the hills flattened out and now we are into more of a prairie type country. Out timing was perfect coming out of Arkansas to put us into Oklahoma right at rush hour traffic - but Suzie took us right through the traffic without incident. Oklahoma City should be the largest city that we pass through on this trip. Made good time on the Interstate, especially when a bunch a "wild eyed" truckers are pushing you - but I surely do like the secondary roads better for sightseeing. Will pass through Texas and into New Mexico tomorrow, likely make the Colorado border but doubt we will go all the way into Montrose.
Everything is still going great, had a little tube problem today, blew out to inner tubes within just a few miles of each other - fortunately I bought two so I had a spare and was able to change it out on the spot.
Dutch has proven to be a great traveler, he is now use to it and when he gets to bored sitting up front, he crawls through his exit door and lays on his bed in the back of the truck so he can look out the rear window of the camper. He does enjoy the rest areas. When he was a puppy, he was a real chick magnet - now he is just a magnet - getting a little tired hearing, "Oh, what a great looking dog", I never get any compliments!
Checked out the weather in Anchor Point this evening, sounds a little nippy! Our high today was 86 degrees, now that I have discovered my Ford does not have air condition, I discovered a new way to keep cool. By taking a bag of ice and putting it in the drivers window and then raising the power window until it is held tight,the air blowing through the window over the ice provides a great cooling affect, something like a "swamp cooler". The other thing that has aided in keeping comfortable is that I have started driving in just my shorts. I just have to remember to get dressed again when we stopped at a rest area or to gas up - walked into Walmart today before I realized I had not put my pants on.
A couple of you have made a stab at trying to guess how my grandfather got the nickname of "Ten". Since I told Ranger Bill on the phone today, perhaps I had best tell all of you the rest of the story. The mystery was easy to solve, if I would have just thought the obvious instead of looking for something deeper. Henry Philo Harrington was called "Ten" because everywhere he went, he carried a Parker Brothers, double barrel 10 Guage Shotgun with him so they naturally just called him "Ten". Some of you may have guessed by now, others may not know the entire story, but this particular shotgun was given to my father by his father, Henry Philo. It was a family heirloom. My father passed the shotgun down to me and it remains in my gun collection today. I knew that the shotgun belonged to grandfather, I even had brass plates made for it with his name and a second tag with my fathers name on it, but after all these years, I did not know that this particular gun earned my grandfather the nickname of "Ten", it makes the gun even more special. Darkness is burning and daylight comes sooner down here than in Alaska, so I had best close her down for the night, see you on down the road a piece. Just noticed the date, 44 years ago today, I enlisted into the U.S. Navy - I should go have a rum and coke to celebrate!

Short blog tonight since I am sitting in the cab of my truck working on battery power because Tom Boddett forgot to leave the damm light on and connect up to wireless. However, the hotel just down the street has wireless so I am in their parking lot - expect the Internet cops to come in and nab me at anytime. A great day, got to visit the grave sites of Henry Philo and Ella Harrington (my grandparents whom I never knew). Today was a reminder it is a small world, got additional research and documentation done on the family but best of all, I solved a mystery that I have been working on for the past ten years or so - no one in the family knew the answer, even my older siblings - but now I have the secret and the proof in my possession. You will just have to wait to find out. If all goes well, should be in Arkansas tomorrow night. See you on down the road.