Home At Last

Yeah!!! We made it. Yes, we took the long way home, but it was well worth the effort. Over the next few days, I will take you on our journey day by day. Of course, after the 2nd day, I didn't take any pictures as I was not able to find a location that suited me. I'll get to that when I expound on the later days. so, let's start the journey. Sit back, relax and hold on to your seats, 'cause here we go.


On Friday, the 25th of September, we sadly left Frances' house about 10 am, and then again about 10:45 am. Why, you may asked, did you leave twice? Well, when we had been traveling for approximately 15 minutes, Betty turned to me and casually asked, "Did you put my wallet back in the drawer" When I answered to the affirmative, she asked if I had removed the money, which I hadn't done. So it was back to Frances' for the wallet. Poor Kujo didn't know what was going on. After another sad good-bye, we were off again to my sisters. Then we get to Hoover Dam. There have been checkpoints since 9/11 but with the recent capture of the homegrown terrorist they have been stepped up. Since I had a car-top carrier, it had to be checked. I thought I would have to take everything out but as I was talking to the individual that was doing the checking, we got to talking about beer-mugs and Germany. After he checked a couple of things, I was able to put the things back and get on our way. Don't get me wrong, I am all for the security checks and I was not upset about having to open the carrier. I truly believe there will be another 9/11 attack in the near future, but I won't go into my reasoning at this time. I went over the dam in December and I wanted to checked out the progress of the new bridge. I don't think it will be done in 2010 as advertised. I did get some great pictures which are below. Hope you enjoy them.

Looking down on the dam.
What a magnificent engineering feat. It is really beautiful.

Another view.

The new bridge.
As you can see, there is still quite a lot of work to be done, not including the road to the bridge.

Main arch of new bridge
The roadway will be attached to this arch. Another engineering marvel.

We got to my sister Doris' house about 3:30 pm (we lost an hour going into Utah). It was good to see her and we just talked for awhile. I talked with my niece and she said she would be down to see us. Shortly, Zac, our grand-nephew, showed up and then Jackie, our niece and Sydnie, our grand-niece. Zac had to get back to the high school because the orchestra was practicing for the school play, "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers". He knew his mother was going to be there and he needed gas money. The following two pictures are the 2009/2010 school pictures of Zac and Sydnie. I brought them home with me to scan them and now I have to send them back to Doris.

Zacery, a 16-years-old Junior
Zac is a very talented musician and is first chair in the saxophone section in all the bands and orchestras he is in. He plays all the saxophones; Alto, Tenor, Soprano, and Baritone. In fact, for the play, he has to rewrite 120 pages of music, scored for the Bassoon, for the Alto sax.


Sydnie, a 14-year-old Freshman
Acording to Zac and Jackie, she just gets straight A's and socializes. Can't beat that. We were also told she is the fastest "texter" around.

Now I have to ask you, do you think I took after the same side of the family as my sister (see photo below)? There is no way I did. I took after the Harms side, Lolo's side, and Doris took after the Hitchcock side. Then, the question is, which picture below is Jackie and which is Doris. I could not believe how much Jackie looks like her mother, especially in the photo below. It's amazing. You can do the comparisons yourself. I'm also including a couple of more photos I took at Doris'.

Doris


Jackie
I couldn't get a frontal view because she wouldn't let me.


Zac, when he first arrived.

Sydnie
Trying to make social arrangements so she doesn't have to "hang with the old folks."


Sophie
Doris' dog, a Bichon Friche

After Zac left, we decided to go get something to eat, so we piled into Jackie car (yes, even Sydnie) and headed to Red Robin. Poor Sydnie had to sit next to me at the restaurant and I was giving her "the 3rd degree". After a while she turned to Jackie and said "You were raised with him?" Jackie said she was and tthat we always had a great time when she was with us. I know Sydnie was enjoying it also. Jackie has some great kids and she is very proud of them, as she should be. We really enjoyed visiting with Doris and Jackie and the kids, and were sorry Jason, Jackie's husband was not available. He was headed to his grandmothers to install a new roof with the help of his brothers.

Betty said I shouldn't include this last photo because she was afraid I would embarrass Sydnie. But, I just couldn't resist.

Have you ever seen such dirty feet? Just kidding, Sydnie!
Sydnie only wears flip-flops, even in winter.

Well, that's all for today. Tomorrow, we're heading further east.