Heading East to Oklahoma

It has been almost a month since my last blog. Deb and I have been enjoying the Utah summer here in Cache Valley.

We spent Pioneer Day July 24th over in Mendon, Utah. Mendon is one of the first settlements in Cache Valley even boasting a fort back in the 1850's. There are a couple houses surviving that period. The stone house above belonged to a family named Willie which in LDS history is well know for the Willie hand cart company. Mormons were formed into handcart companies and trekked from Missouri to Utah carrying their belongings in hand carts. There is a hand cart in the front yard of the stone house. The barn above is located not far from the house. It is a typical intermountain gable style barn. Deb and I are discussing the possibility of obtaining a smaller version of one of these barns and moving it to our property in Avon. They are located throughout Cache Valley in various states of repair.

We kid about running away with the circus for 5 years. Actually, our intent is to serve the Lord while exploring life beyond Enon Valley. I interviewed for a job at Utah State in their engineering department . We were hoping of getting a job here and sticking around since that was our real desire to spend time out west. Well, I wasn't selected for the job. I did have a plan B and so on august 20th I will report for work at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. The nice thing is I can take time off next summer to return here to Logan. We've leased this apartment for next summer. So for those of you who are planning a trip to Yellowstone or out West you're welcome to stop in and visit.

If you're yearning to see cowboys, cattle and oil rigs, come see us in Oklahoma. We should be settled in by the fall.

Well, I've been fattening up out here. Utah State operates a creamery which I visited a lot so now comes the hard work of losing weight.

Our neighbors down in Avon are going to care for my 1963 Chevy Pickup while we're away so I don't have to sell it. I do need to get it inspected in the next two days before I return for a visit to Enon Valley.

This morning I took Deb to SLC to catch a flight then I came back in time for church. Deb and I are also working through RC Sproul's Dust to Glory DVD series which is an overview of the Bible.

We will continue that in OKC. There is a PCA church fairly close by.

Technology is simply amazing. I was able to track Deb's flight real time with Flightaware then listen to Pittsburgh Approach and Tower work her flight in on Live ATC net. I knew exactly when she touched down and how she got to the ramp. I even knew the controllers who worked her flight at PIT. Wow.

Well, it's Sunday afternoon here and I'm thinking I'll take a walk in Logan Canyon. The picture in the upper left is one of my favorite close by places to go. It's been pretty warm here the past couple days reaching 100 degrees but the great thing about Logan is it's dry and it was 60 degrees this morning so it always cools off at night. And we get these canyon winds that blow at night bringing cool temps down from the Bear River Mountains.

I'll talk to you next time.

Rob

Utah Summer

This summer has been more typical of the weather in Cache Valley. Highs in the high 80's to low 90's low's in the 50's to 60's. Last summer we had 15 days over 100 degees and lots of fires. It has been hazy from the fires in California but that has cleared out. The wildflowers are wonderful up at Tony Grove which is an alpine lake above Logan. Deb and I went up there last Wednesday for a hike. (found a patch of snow and couldn't resist)

Life has settled down for now but it is expected to compress here in the next 2 weeks. I had an interview with Utah State Department of Engineering for a full time position with their junior engineering education outreach program. I would deliver the engineering modules to the schools throughout the intermountain region , in-brief the faculty on each of the modules they will be using then turn them lose with their students. Some schools also conduct an after school show and tell for the parents in the evening.

That's plan A. Plan B is already in motion. Contingent on Utah State, Oklahoma University has offered me a job teaching at the FAA Academy beginning August 18th. So you see, things will be happening very quickly. We either have to find housing here in Utah or housing in Oklahoma plus all the fun of a re-location. All this entertainment away from home keeps us out of trouble.

Chrissy is due to deliver her baby in a couple weeks and we plan to return to PA in August for a brief visit.

We are still processing our Warm Springs Indian experience. I down loaded a combined 29 gig of images including videos. How do you go through all that? I burned my first DVD with raw videos, no fades, music or any fancy effects. It's a learning process. The picture I attached is Bruce Farrant and I sharing images from the day. (Marjie, you would have been extremely busy trying to keep up with Bruce's passion for taking pictures)

Thanks for reading, I'll post next week when there's more news of our plans.

Warm Springs Indain Reservation

Hi from the Confederated Tribes of Warms Springs Oregon. We arrived here Saturday afternoon and met up with Linda and Bruce Farrant. The rest of the group arrived about and hour and a half later. We went down to a pow wow they were having here and it was really interesting. Lots of dancing, drumming and singing.

Warm Springs has about 5000 people living here, most live near the town of Warm Springs. Yesterday was our first day and for those of you who have been out with me on mission trips, first days can be good or bad. Yesterday was great. Not having any idea about our work projects or the lay of the land we had a great day. We worked at the boys and girls club replacing a window and scraping in preparation for paint. While part of the team was doing that another group went door to door asking people if they had any prayer concerns we could take with us. That was amazing and the team had great reports.

I'll have more to report from Warm Springs later. Right now I have to go to work.

Joseph Oregon June 27 2008

Hi from Joseph Oregon,

I recently finished a book by Kent Nerburn entitled Chief Joseph. It is book about the Nez Perce Indians under the leadership of young Chief Joseph. They lived in Eastern Oregon/Washington. Without telling the whole story they ended up running from the UG Govt for years before they were caught in Montana. Old Chief Joseph's (young Joseph's father) wish before he died was to be buried with his fathers in the land they lived in.

Well, he died in 1870 and a fitting memorial was finally established outside the town which bares his name. His bones were intered there in 1926. The pictures of Lake Wallawa were take above the lake on a glacial moraine owned by a timber company. My friend of thirty years ago Bruce Dunn works for R/Y Timber and they own property on both sided of this beautiful lake. It was fun visiting with Bruce and his wife Jane. Bruce was my boss at Rexburg Lumber Comapny in Eastern Idaho when I was a young industrial forester in 1974-76. Bruce and I both lost our jobs when the Teton Dam collapsed June 5, 1976 washing our lumber mill down the Snake River. Bruce remained in forestry and I as you know jumped over to aviation.

Today we head west again and the Warm Springs Indian Rez. GPS sez 6:40 time enroute. We will hook up with the rest of our team later today. Yesterday as we were driving on I-84 in Idaho, I called Bruce and Linda Farrant who according to their itinerary were supposed to be enroute from Twin Falls to Warm Springs. It turned out they were about two hours ahead of us on the interstate. THEN, as we were in Boise exiting the interstate looking for the Cabela's, Bruce called us to check on our progress. It just so happened that as we were wondering which way to turn Bruce and Linda just left there and told us to turn left then turn left and there it was. God did provide direction for us just when we needed it.

We woke thia morning to blue skies and cool temps. It's supposed to be 101 degrees tommorrow in Warm Springs. We will be tent camping on the front lawn of the church. Standby for pictures.

I'm hoping to have WI-FI on the rez but we'll have to see. So maybe I'll be able to post Monday or not.

Blessings

Rob and Deb

Blue Skies, Cool Temps and Mountains

As we drove across America I was struck by some thoughts about what we were seeing. Beside flooding in Iowa, which by the way Deb said I-80 was closed in sections due to flooding, so timing is everything when you go cross country.

Green: everything is so Green. Which isn't a big deal to you all back East but out West it is a rare sight which perishes very quickly. It will be brown in about 3-4 weeks but for now the desert is green and spectacular.

Goats: Slang for speed goats which is slang for Antelope or Pronghorn, whichever you're partial to. Now Marjie, you may have a post which has a more correct description. There were more Speed Goats along the highway then I can ever remember and I've been running I-80 since 1973. It was great to see the critters. Yes we're out west when you start seeing speed goats.

Snow: Yes fresh on the Snowy Mountains southwest of Laramie WY. I couldn't take my eyes off of the mountains. Story about the Snowy's. After Deb and I were married in Logan Utah in 1975 we drove her 1978 Jeep CJ5 soft top across America in December. We had to stop off in Saratoga WY to drop something off at our best man's place. Well we cut across the Snowy's on a road that is closed in winter (WY 130) but we're in a jeep right. It's dark on a mountain road and I'm driving. I wanted to demonstrate just how dark it was so I shut off the lights as we were driving.

Scared us both to death and we still talk about how dark it really is and gauge everything dark against that night on WY 130. We arrived in Logan on Tuesday night 6/10 and it snowed that night in Logan. The mountains surrounding Logan were beautiful all snow covered with the green bases.

Smell: It just smells different out west. Fresh air mixed with ag gas, anybody who's been around cows knows ag gas. The grasses smell different. And then there's the smell of pine that's been standing in the sun, mmm.

Wind: This isn't a sermon, I don't have to have all my thoughts begin with an "S". It's windy in Wyoming. And something I wouldn't have thought of in 1973. Wind generating wind mills, huge windmills and by the hundreds generating clean energy, As long as I don't have to look at them right? Actually, I stare at them with fascination. It's their size I think or maybe it's the airfoil.

Oil Wells: Energy business is booming. And with the price of crude at records they can't get it out of the ground fast enough to sell. Almost without exception, every pump was in operation sucking the dead speed goats or the stuff they ate that lived 20MM years ago from beneath the arid landscape. Petro business is big out here. I noticed also that they've actually tried to paint the pumps and storage tanks to blend into the landscapes, using browns and subdued shades of greens. They probably have a special color called With-In Sight of the Interstate : WISOTI for short.

Vermin: Prairie dogs, sub-terrainian rats but cute and we looked forward to another encounter with them this trip. This is the same rest area where we were chased back to our car by hungry organized packs of land locusts. Actually they're very cute and very bold as you can see from the picture. Probably not a good idea to feed them cheese crackers but these are the interstate variety and used to a mixed palette of snack and healthy foods.

We're settling into life in Logan again. Sun screen at all times and a sweat shirt handy for the cool weather. Sun glasses on and we're ready.

Thanks for reading

Rob

Big Wonderful Wyoming

We're back "out west" after a long day of driving. We're in Laramie WY. There's snow in the mountains and it's 58 degrees. So much for 94 degrees yesterday. As we passed through Iowa City we saw the results of severe weather that went through last night.
Tommorrow we head into Logan Utah. Everything is so green here right now. Last year we came out the end of June and things were turning brown. The weather was raining this morning and we drove into beautiful blue skies and cooler temperatures.
I am reading a book titles "On the Rez". It takes place on the Pine Rodge Indian Reservation not too far from where we are here in Laramie. It's a good read for preparing for our mission trip to Warm Springs in three weeks. We'll write when we get hooked up again in Logan.

Westward HO!

We're off for another adventure. We left Western Pa this morning after having breakfast with our girls.
Travel was good but very hot. High of 94 degrees. Deb got the driving leg through a severe line of thunderstorms southeast of Chicago. She did fine but she always manages to get the nasty driving legs.
We stopped for the night in Davenport IA. Hope to make Cheyenne or Laramie Wyoming Monday and Logan Tuesday.
This summer is different than last year. This year we're heading out for 5 years. We will be going on mission trips and hoping to find work in Logan.

Three weeks thence

Tis three weeks to go before departing the East for Utah. There is much to do in preparation. One of the things I wold like to do is pay a visit to the local Amish lady who sews quilts. We bought one from her last year for Chrissy's wedding and saw all the beautiful work she does. It seems appropriate to buy a quilt to take with us on our trip out West.

There is so much to do I don't think I'll get it done. Oh Well I can only do so much.

I have put in an application to teach air traffic somewhere. I don't know where but we should find something out by August.

We're heading back out West this summer

Hello,

It has been half a year since I wrote to you. There have been good times here in Western PA. We've had a lot of snow this winter. We 've been burning the wood stove constantly in January and into February. It's really helped with the utility bills. I must get busy and cut for next year. But wait, where will we be next winter?

We don't know. We will be going back out to Utah in June and our kids will once again be left to fend for themselves and watch the property. They enjoy congregating here on the porch or having campfires in the back.

They're all doing quite well and we're very proud of them. Chrissy is expecting their first this summer. What a Blessing from Above.

We have been invited to participate with a mission team going to Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon this summer. We are in prayer that we may go humbly and with servant hearts. We will spend about 5 days there and we've been invited to go and visit on the Yakima Reservation also.

We have decided to keep this house and not build in Utah for the time being. As you all know, this is not the time to sell a house if you don't have to.

I will post at least once a month now until we leave. If you are led please pray for us as we plan our future.