Hi,
We arrived home at 9:30pm.  We traveled 9208 miles for 6 weeks and 1 day.
Thank the Lord for safe traveling.  I don't think we saw any accidents along the way.
Last Sunday we met Rev. Jerrien and Mrs. Gunnink, our former pastor at Providence, at First Christian Reformed Church in Denver.  The congregation had a potluck after church and we were invited.  We met a few other people we knew.  We had a nice visit.  The Gunninks are hoping to sell their house and move back to Holland.  Their son Jerry and family live here.
After church we had to travel from Denver to Kansas City on I-70.  It is straight and flat butt we could go 75 miles an hour.  We stopped at Hays, Kansas.
Monday we stopped in Abilene, Kansas and toured President Eisenhower's house where he grew up.
Tuesday evening we went to a Beatles concert in a beautiful open air amphitheater in Kansas City.  The singers were impersonating the Beatles.  They were called Rain.  It was nicely done and we enjoyed it except the loud rock and roll segment of the concert.
We are really thankful that we arrived safely home again.
Jan and Don

Hi,
We arrived in Overland Park, Kansas (near Kansas City) yesterday afternoon. 
We hope to leave tomorrow morning and either drive all the way home which is about 10 to 12 hours or stay in Springfield, Illinois to visit Abraham Lincoln Memorial Park.  We will decide tomorrow morning.
There are some pictures on the blog that were taken at Yosemite.  In Valley View, Tunnel View and Glacier Point and the sunrise at the rock in Green River.
See you soon,
Jan and Don

Hi,
We traveled a long time today and made a good headway towards home.  Since it is so hot here, we decided not to go to Zion National Park.  We left this morning at 7am and the temperature was 73.  Two hours later it was in the 90,s.  When we drove through on the strip in Las Vegas it was 100 degrees at 9:30am!
The dessert extended way beyond Mojave.  It went on and on.  In fact where we are it is still dry.  We are in Green River, Utah.
We drove down I-70 east today and the scenery was incredible.  We had never seen anything like and we have seen a lot of red rocks.
Jan and Don

Hi,
We had no internet nor phone coverage the last two days near Yosemite.  Very frustrating.
Tuesday, August 31 we traveled from Lake Tahoe to Yosemite.  It did freeze during the night.  It was a very pleasant 150+ miles.  Near the Tioga Entrance of Yosemite we came across Mono Lake.  It looked very nice from afar but when we got to the entrance of the beach area things looked really wierd.  It is very salty.  Twice as salty as the ocean and very alkaline.  The strange tufa towers are the result from calcium rich spring water bubbling up from the alkaline lake water.  It smelled terrible. 
As soon as we turned onto Hwy 120 going into the park the huge bare granite mountains appeared.  The temperature was in the 90's.
The scenery on the Tioga Road (Hwy 120) was very beautiful.
Cedar Lodge is a very nice place to stay but it takes about an hour to get to Yosemite Valley from there.  The road is very curvy and slow to travel on.  There is no place to eat around there other than the motel restaurant.  A BLT is over $12.  We needed some groceries and decided to eat in the next town which was 12 miles away but it took 45 minutes to get there because of the curvy road.  A tip:  stay in Yosemite Lodge which is across from the food court with reasonable prices and across the street from the shuttle bus.  It is worth the extra charge.  We spent about four hours on the road going back and forth for two days.
Wednesday, September 1 we hiked, walked, drove, rode the shuttle bus in Yosemite Valley.  Gorgeous however the trees are getting very tall and obstruct the view.  Yosemite falls were dry.  Both upper and lower.  A tip:  come earlier in the summer.
The weather was hot and sunny.
Thursday, September 2 we had to say goodbye to Curt and family.  We had breakfast together at Yosemite Lodge food court and then parted.  They to San Francisco and we went to Glacier Point and south. 
Glacier Point is breathtaking.  We were about 9000 feet high.  You can see the valley below and the mountains in front of you.
We decided not to go to Sequoia National Park.  The curvy roads were getting to us.  Very tiresome.  We saw the Sequoias is in Yosemite Park so that was enough. 
We finally came to a freeway highway near Fresno and could travel at speeds of 70MPH.  We hadn't gone that fast for a long time.  The temperature reached 105 degrees today so we thought we would travel as far as we could before dark so we could cross the Mojave Dessert in the morning because of the heat.  We made it to Barstow, CA.  It is about 160 miles from Las Vegas and 60 miles from the dessert.  It is still 94 at 9pm.
Jan and Don

Hi,
We arrived in South Lake Tahoe late this afternoon.  It is very cold here.  I think it will freeze tonight.
Since the last writing of the blog, we have taken a tour of the Boeing Airplane factory with Kyler and Marie.
We along with Curt and EunJu and family left early Saturday morning on our trip towards Yosemite.  We saw a segment on the food channel about a "funky" donut  shop in Portland, Oregon which would be near the freeway we were traveling on so we had to stop and take a look.  As you can see it is a very popular place.  It is called Voodoo Donuts.  Their specialty is making a fried pastry made like a voodoo doll.  It is filled with raspberry jelly (looks like blood), frosted with chocolate icing, decorated like a voodoo doll and a pretzel stick stuck in the body.  They also have numerous toppings for donuts. eg: fruit loops, maple glaze with fried bacon.  Chalk it up for an experience. 
We arrived in Crescent City, California late afternoon after traveling about 500 miles.  We are traveling in two cars because for Curt to rent a car back would cost more than spending gas for his car the whole trip.  It turned out to be a good idea because the luggage would not have left much room for all of us.
The next day was spent viewing sea and trees.  The ocean views along the Hwy 101 were fantastic and the Redwood trees in Redwood National Park were unbelievable.  They were huge!  They grow only this way in this part in the world.  We had to drive through one of course.  We are having a fantastic time with the kids and we are seeing some outstanding scenery.
Jan and Don

Hi,
Today was one of those perfect days to visit Mt. Rainier National Park.  The drive and scenery were incredible, stunning, etc.  I don't know if it was Mount Rainier, the clear blue sky, the temperature in the 70's, the tall dark green pine trees, the abundance of wild flowers blooming, there not being too much traffic, the slow speed zones, or what it was, but it was one of the most beautiful rides we have had. 
The pictures of reflections in the lakes are at two different lakes.  The first one with the wild flowers was at Tipsoo Lake and the other ones at Reflection Lake.
We left at 8:30 and came home at 5:30.  We drove around the mountain and saw all the sides of it.  The drive was about 150 miles. 
Jan and Don

Hi,

We have been busy watching Kyler play soccer with his team.  They had a four day tournament.  We had to get up at 5 AM and drive over an hour to get to the soccer fields.  There were lots of campers, motorhomes, trailers and tents all along the soccer fields.  There were thousands of players and hundreds of teams.  The teams were from as far away as Spokane.   Kyler's team kept winning so we had to go every day.  The last day the game was played in the rain and they won so they had to play the last game at 2pm that afternoon.  They won!! and it was sunny.  
On the way home on one of the days there was a "you pick" blueberry field so we stopped to pick some.
We also have been busy playing games.  Kyler and Marie love to play.
So far the weather has been cloudy but not too cold.  In the sixties.  We have only seen the mountain once.
Jan and Don

Hi,
We arrived in Maple Valley, Washington about 5pm yesterday.  The trip on the ferry was very nice. The temperature was 95 degrees
and today it started out raining and it did not get above 72.  Late afternoon the sun came out and it cleared up nice so we could see the mountain (Mt. Rainier) The photo was taken from Curt's front door.  The mountain is about 60 miles away!
We are having fun getting to know our grand kids again.  Playing lots of games.
Jan

Our day today consisted of driving a short distance from Victoria to Sidney to the ferry, waiting for the ferry, riding on the ferry to Anacortes, and then driving to Maple Valley, WA where our son, Curt, and family live.  Another beautiful day!

Don

Hi,

We had our GPS do the work for us today.  We had intended to go to Pacific Coast but it was too far and besides most  of the trip would be on a winding road through trees.  Instead we went to all the small towns along the Georgia Strait on the east side of the island.
We started the day by visiting the Nanaimo Bakery.  Wow that was a good one.  Too bad we just had breakfast so we weren't hungry.   We decided to buy something sweet and they had crusty rolls with Edam cheese.  We bought two of those too for our lunch.
First stop was Chemainus.  About two dozen buildings had murals painted on the side.  They were really nice.  We then stayed on the road along the coast and ignored our GPS and ended up in Geona Bay.  The road ended there but it was perfect place to eat our lunch.  The gift shop sold coffee to go and there was a picnic table too.  The rolls were really delicious and we wished we had bought more.
A few more interesting towns and then we drove to Victoria.
We staying overnight in Saanichton north of Victoria and about 10 miles from Sidney where we will board a ferry to Anacordes in the state of Washington.
Don and Jan