Crater Lake, Oregon

Dear Family and Friends,

Once again the weather was beautiful for top down touring. We went to Crater Lake, Oregon, our last tour destination before returning to Richland, WA.

It was my first visit there even though I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for 35 years. Crater Lake is actually a mountain that sank in the middle, forming a huge crater. Over time the crater filled with water from snow melt and rain.

Here are some pictures...




Here is a critter picture.....yes, I fed him in order to get this picture.


The other day Chuck bought another wide brim hat for me to wear in the convertible because I left mine at Kylie's house.

I found one I liked a whole lot better. So he decided to wear this one in order to keep the sun off his face. It has a tie that goes under his chin to keep it from blowing away as we ride along. I started calling him Carlos.


So here we go down the highway after leaving Crater Lake. We pass a cop on a motorcycle and he pulls out behind us and turns on his lights.

We pulled over, showed him the obligatory license, proof of insurance and registration. He then issued us a warning for not pulling over into the other lane when we saw a car that was being stopped by another cop.

Anyway, we got off light. I think he just was curious about the hat and wondered what clown was wearing it.

Not only are we finishing our road trip tomorrow, it is also Carlos' birthday. I don't think I will bother buying him a birthday hat.

With love,
Nancy and Carlos

Surviving the High Desert in a Convertible

Dear Family and Friends,

Tonight we are in Medford, Oregon. Tomorrow we will drive to Crater Lake. A first time trip for me.

Although I did not take pictures today....just riding and goofing off, I thought I would take this opportunity to explain a compromising relationship.

Chuck has an older (1990) Chrysler-Maserati. Before we moved to Ecuador he was reluctant to sell it. He wanted to hang on to it for sentimental reasons. Since we have lived in Ecuador those sentimental reasons have faded somewhat. Paying for insurance while it was sitting in the U.S. probably helped to cool the sentiment.

This trip has been our last jaunt in this car.

Before we left Richland, Chuck removed the hard top. We left with the soft top that folds back to make the car a convertible.

All of the freeway driving was done with the top up. But, as soon as we hit the scenic dot dot back roads Chuck folded back the top.

Most of the scenic dot dot back roads were done in the high desert...quite cold even with the sun shining. It was really cold going 60 mph.

You can ask Chuck, I never complained. I adapted. This is pretty much how I looked for more than half the trip.


This has been a great trip. I am glad Chuck was able to enjoy his special car one more time before it finds another home.

With love,
Nancy

Family and Friends

Dear Family and Friends,

We have had a wonderful weekend. First we visited our daughter, Kylie and grandson Bryce. They live close to San Francisco in Dublin, California. We enjoyed going with Bryce to pick out pumpkins and playing in the park on Saturday.

Here is a picture of Kylie, our grandson Bryce, Chuck holding our grand dog, Ziggy and me.


On Sunday we drove to Santa Rosa to visit Chuck's sister, Audrey and her husband, Jim. Audrey and Jim will be visiting Cuenca the first two weeks of November with their friends Lynda and Jeff. This will be Audrey's and Jim's fourth trip to Cuenca. They have almost attained resident status based on number of visits.


Mary and Steve....known by many as "SOZ - South of Zero" bloggers emailed us and invited us to drop in for a visit since we would be close by. We left Santa Rosa this morning and drove to visit Mary and Steve. We already felt we knew them because of their blog...and they said the same about us. We just started in talking like we had known each other for years.

Mary prepared us a nice brunch and as you might guess our topic of choice was Ecuador.

We had a delightful visit and are so glad we got to meet them. Unfortunately our visit was not nearly as long as we would have liked but we had to get back on the road.

We took turns taking pictures of ourselves.


Keep up the good work Mary....we all love your blog.

Tomorrow we hope to see Crater Lake in Oregon. We are working our way back to Richland and ultimately back to Cuenca.

With love,
Nancy and Chuck

Capitol Reef Park in Utah

Dear Family and Friends,

Although Chuck and I are in California now, I want to go back and catch you up a bit. We have been without wi-fi for several days.

I have these beautiful pictures to share that I took when we were in Utah. I took them in the Capitol Reef National Park. This park is not too far from the Arches National Park that I shared with you earlier.

As you can see, this is a beautiful place and was well worth our effort to see this awesome scenery.









We drove to Ely, Neveda to spend the night. The next morning we drove across the state of Nevada on Highway 50. It was dubbed the loneliest highway in America about 20 years ago by Life magazine.

It took us all day, but the road was not that bad. Although stark at times the scenery was interesting. Very little traffic and mostly straight roads so we made good time if you get my drift.

We were lucky to stop to find the famous "shoe tree." This tree is in the middle of nowhere. I mean NOWHERE. I guess that is what makes it so interesting. Where all the shoes came from is a mystery. It is hard to believe that that many people have tossed shoes up there. We kept ours on because we didn't have a pair to spare. Take a look at this...






This is a how the road looked for most of the trip. You can see why we were so fascinated not only by the number of shoes on the tree but that there was a tree.


We spent that night in Reno, Nevada and the next day drove to Dublin, California. I will share all the VIPs we have met in our next post.

We are on our countdown until I return to Cuenca. We have had a great time, but we are ready to get back home.

With love,

Nancy and Chuck

Nevada

Dear Family and Friends,

Short and simple.......we are somewhere in Nevada. The internet is crappy. So for the next couple of days I will not be updating the blog. I still have some great pictures to share, but I will have to wait until I get to descent internet service.

We just want everyone to know that we are fine, healthy and still having a great time.

I'll post again on Saturday.

Love,
Nancy and Chuck

Arches National Park, Utah

Dear Family and Friends,

Lots of pictures today. This is a magnificent place. The pictures say it all.





















With love,

Nancy and Chuck

Mesa Verde

Dear Family and Friends,

We thought the beauty of the drive to Taos, New Mexico was wonderful and couldn't be beat. We were wrong. The drive from Taos to Mesa Verde, Colorado was superb. Take a look at these pictures.....




The drive up the mesa to the top gave us wonderful views of the valley below.



The cliff dwellings were awesome to see....



This is a well preserved Kiva...a ceremonial center


We are now in Moab, Utah. Tomorrow we are going to see the Arches National Park. Here is one enormous rock we saw while driving here. I hope it is a hint of sights to come.

We are having a grand time seeing the beauty of our home country, the USA. We are, however, missing Ecuador a lot. We keep up on what is happening by reading all the blogs.

Hugs to all.

Nancy and Chuck

Drive to Taos, New Mexico

Dear Family and Friends,

Saturday was a top down day for us. We left Clayton, NM and headed to Taos, NM on the scenic back roads.

On our first stop we went to the Capulin Volcano National Monument. We drove to the top of the volcano and the view was spectacular.


Here is Chuck enjoying the view.



After leaving the volcano we kept heading west. We had terrific trip, the weather was perfect. See for yourself.

We saw cowboys herding cattle....


We saw antelope...


We saw terrific scenery...



And I think our timing of this trip was perfect to view the fall colors....


Sunday we are headed to Mesa Verde. We are taking back roads once again. I am looking forward to the adventure and sharing it with you.

With love,

Nancy