Merry Christmas all -- here are a few shots of our Christmas in California. As you can see, a good time was had by all. See if you can find Quinn and Veronica in the Bethlehem scene. The kids had a great morning and Dad's hands were full putting things together.

Well, here's what happens when you get operated on for Dupuytren's contracture which is what I had. After three hours of surgery and a couple of day's recovery, I am able to grin and bear it -- well, I did have the help of some little white pills. All is well at this point. I start therapy Monday the 11th. Stay tuned

I am going in for some hand surgery on Friday the 7th -- before I go under the knife I wanted all to know that our boy cat has been officially named (again) and the new name has lasted over two weeks, so this is it for sure. Edie is his name and that makes me 'Edie's Father" -- sing it Larry.

Well, I spoke too soon -- Smokey Joe just ain't working for the boy. Stand by while we try out yet another name.

Wake up Mom -- I'm hungy!!!

Hi Gang -- we are spending a couple of weeks in California's central wine country. Our RV park is in Paso Robles so we are within easy driving distance of some great attractions -- San Simion, Morel Bay, and about 100 wineries. The pix are some left over from our visit to cowboy movie land, and of course, a shot of the kids. They really get along fine and Smoky is growing by leaps and bounds. Next stop is S. Cal for Thanksgiving with the grand kids.

OK -- we have finally decided on a name for our boy-cat -- we must have tried 25 names out on him, but none seem to fit after a couple of days. So here it is, we will NOT change it again -- meet SMOKY JOE!!! He really is a terrific guy.

Hello all -- we are currently located in Lone Pine Caifornia -- the western movie capital of the world. That's right, this little podunk town of just over 2,000 is home to more cowboy movies than you can count. In addition to cowboys, the origianl Gunga Din was shot here as well. Here are a few shots of our travels.

Hello Folks -- here are a few shots of our mini-trip to Astoria, Oregon. Did you know that Astoria was named after John Jacob Astor? Seems he was a big fur trader in the early days. Who knew? The tall column is a carved memorial high-lighting the journeys of Lewis and Clark. The garden scenes are from a Chinese Garden located smack dab in the middle of the City of Portalnd. We will be leaving beautiful Portland to journey to Southern California for some business and pleasure. More details as the trip developes.

Pals! That says it all.

This is for my friends who have been asking if I am enjoying retirement. You be the judge.

Hello all -- Don Fairchild came to vist so we we took a trip down the Columbia river on a genuine paddle wheel. What a beautiful state we have adopted. Latest name for our new addition is "Lucky Blue" and you can see what he thinks of that name. Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend.

More fun in our adopted city, Portland as well as a shot of our favorite food!

This is for Quinn who was worried that Ruby Foo ran away and did not come back -- Quinn -- here is a picture of Ruby and our new cat. Kisses from the Grand PaPa

OK -- here's a "Believe it or not" -- as you may have read (see below) I had quite an accident a couple of weeks back resulting in facial disfiguration and various bruises. Having suffered through the pain of the accident, I came out with the absuolute absence of any cronic back pain that I have been living with for the past couple of years. I am walking tall and stright with no pain. Apparently when I fell I dislodged the nerves that were pressing on my spine so that I am now pain free. Go figure!

Look who is growing by leaps and bounds -- new name (for now) is Billy Blue. Stay tuned.

Hello All -- well we made it to Portland and will be hanging out here for a month or so. Here are some pix of our camp site. Enjoy!

Well this has been an eventfull week -- first we enjoyed a dinner of one of the basic food groups -- RIBS! Our coach was finnaly out of the repair shop and we were on our way to Troutdale, OR to spend the rest of the Summer when we stopped for fuel. I was rushing about (I still have not slowed down) and tripped over our tow bar with the results shown here. All this time our newest child has been growing and makeing himself at home, as you can see. We have changed his name about three times. The current version is SPAGO BLUE -- we now have Ruby Foo and Spago Blue -- not sure if this will be the final name, but that's it for now. Stay tuined

Hi Folks -- some of you have asked about the "repairs" to our coach that I mentioned in my last posting -- just some minor reparis; the usual scrapes and dents you incur when navigating a 40 foot monster around the country. All is well and we will be back on the road soon. Thanks for your concern. Stay tuned.

OK -- I have had a complaint about the over-dose of pictures from England and France. Complainer wants to see more current information. Well -- we have been stranded in Eugene OR while they are repairing our home. Good news is State Farm is picking up the tab for most everything except my $500 deductable. Way to go, State Farm.

OK -- As you know neither Jann nor I are what you would call religious. But when Ruby Foo went missing a few months back, Jann bought a Lady of Guadalupe candle and placed it on the picnic table of our camp site. Sure enough, about 3:00 a.m. in waltzes the Foo, dusty and dirty but glad to be home. We joked about the power of the candle, and put it in storage.

Now this comes under the heading of "be careful what you pray for" -- Flash forward to present time. While camped in Oregon, the cutest stray cat (Rockey) adopted us. He simple moved into our camp site and patiently waited to be fed and petted. As he was full grown and very active, we felt he was not fitted for life in a motor coach. So we left him a full bag of food and notified the camp owners to be on the look out for him.

But, that is not the end of the story -- while wiaitng for our coach to be repaired, Jann and I were riding our bikes down by the river we heard this little peeping sound coming from a bush by the water -- out comes this little two month old kitten, who imediately said that we were to take him home so he could make friends with Ruby Foo. I cannot believe how quickly Ruby has acceppted this little guy. So it looks like we are now the proud parents of two.

Problem is -- how do we shut the candle off? We prayed to have our cat returned, but that darned candle keeps sending cats our way. We can't toss it out and we certainly will never light it again. But we cannot become a traveling shelter for every lost cat we bump into.

Here's a shot of Ben Blue. If you have nay suggestions as to how to stop the candle let us know.

Three more shots from our trip -- Napoleon's Arc --an old mill somewhere in Jolly Old England and Hever Castle where Henry and Ann used to play

Now here's a shot of a pub we enjoyed in Oxford -- note the date it was built -- and we think buildings where Wahington slept are old! Also note the difference in the way the English express things -- they bill themselves as the "Eigth best Inn" our advertising agencies would have billed this as "One of the Top Ten Inns" -- same language, different outlook.

Eifel Tower upright and the infamous Lodon Tower -- look closely, you can see Ann B. waving to us

More shots of our recent visit to London and Paris

PS: The Eifel Tower looks better on it's side so don't give me a hard time --great trip pix will be posted later this week.

Back from England and France -- and who would have guessed it? The French people were courteous, helpful and polite -- so much for sterotypes. Here are a couple of shots from the trip -- English country side is so green it hurts your eyes. Paris is just as beautiful in person as it is in the movies. We ate lunch in the Eifel Tower and saw Notre Dame -- you really need a week or more in Paris, but we did our best.
We saw Sir Winston Churchill's home and Ann Boelin's summer home -- quite an experience to walk the same halls as Henry VIII and his wives. We are now in the Portland area for the sumnmer so I should be able to catch up on more of adventures -- stay tuned.

Well here it is the end of May and we are still in California -- turned out my "routine" visits to various doctors uncovered some surprizes -- I now have two new hearing aids, to go with my man-made knees. I also have 20/20 vision in one eye thanks to a catarac operation. Left eye will be cleaned up in late June. Next week Jann and I are off to London, Paris and NYC -- talk about a tough retirement! Check out this site for pix and travel report after our trip.

Hello all -- here is a quickie --- we stayed overnight in Laughlin, NV and Ruby Foo had a fit -- every morning and evening we were treated to a feeding frenzy by over 75 swallows. Apparently the gnats or no-seeums are out in force at these times. Anyway, as the swallows were feeding and diving, the Foo was on the dash board trying to get at them. It really was hilarious to see poor Foo trying to join the birds.

We will be in S. CA for almost the entire month of May, taking care of business and seeing eye, ear and various other Doctors. Stay tuned.

Hello All -- I am not sure what we did between Oklahoma City and Cedar City Utah where we are now headquartered, but I do know that Utah has turned out to have some of the most majestic scenery on the planet. We visited Bryce Canyon yesterday and I am still in visula over-load --Take a look.

Oklahoma City! Who knew? What a delightful town. Very freindly people and good eating -- our newest find is the Wing Stop -- be sure to try the lemon pepper wings. To our friends in California, there is a Wing Stop on Newport Coast Blvd near 17th street. Also in OK City you will find one of the most moving and beautifull memorials located on the site of the Federal building bombing in 1995. Here are some pictures of the memorial along with the state capital.