MY MOM

Tomorrow my Mom will be 87 years old!

This is a pictorial tribute to a wonderful woman, my Mom, Yvonne Trumps.

Four of my siblings, (Ginny, Sharon, Don, Norma) with me in the middle standing behind our Mom on November 25, 2010.

                                 My Mom still likes to travel!  (photo taken on the way to Louise, Texas. to visit friends) March 17, 2012

                       Norma, me, Mom, and Donna (taken at Mom's home
                       on March 25, 2012)

                                                       me & Mom  (November 24,2012)

                                   Norma, Mom, Don and me (November 24, 2012)

                       me, Mom, & Norma (taken at our house on
                       December 2, 2012)

                                Mom, in front of hers and my Dad's headstone
                       at the Rosevine Cemetery. (January 3, 2013)

                                            Mom, with her hand on my brother, Lyndon's, headstone; my brother, Roger's, there at her feet; my daughter, Candace is on the other side of Lyndon. (January 3, 2013)

                                Mom, what are you thinking about??????
                             (January 27, 2013)

                               Tom, Mom, & me on Easter Sunday, 3/31/2013

Mom still likes to play games with us, and does quite well at it!  This was taken while Mom, Carla, Holly Beth, Norma, & I were playing Mexican Train Dominoes; at our home on May 26, 2013.

We are so incredibly blessed to still have our Mom with us, and so happy that she still enjoys her zest for life.  Mom has always been a rock of strength, a fountain of love, such a caring and generous person.  She enjoys her "alone time" and still lives at home, and for that I am so grateful.  I am blessed beyond measure with the family I was born into!  I do love my family!!!!!

NO PLACE LIKE HOME!

What a wonderful morning!  The birds are chirping, enjoying a beautiful sunrise!  Surprisingly, it is 57 degrees this morning (in June?!).  What an awesome Spring we have had (and are having) this year!  Just enough rain every few days to keep the garden and the landscape lush and green.

I snapped this photo (thru the truck windshield) just south of Canton on Hwy.198.

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May 5th (Last leg of our Grand Canyon Trip)

 

Following a great night's sleep at the Holiday Inn Express in Graham, Texas., we had breakfast at the hotel and continued on our scenic drive east on U.S.Hwy.380.  Since we drove until well after dark last night, we missed what was probably beautiful scenery as U.S.Hwy.380 crossed over the north end of Lake Graham and then hugged along the east side of the lake also before we entered the town of Graham.  This morning our drive took us thru Bryson and Jacksboro before we came to Runaway Bay, which sits on the south end of Lake Bridgeport.  When we arrived in Bridgeport, we took a detour into downtown to the Visitor Center, where the city's life-size replica of a Concord Stagecoach sits in a glass enclosure in front of the building.

 

 

Following our little detour into Bridgeport, we were soon to Decatur, where we picked up U.S.Hwy.287 south (right thru Fort Worth) all the way to I-20 east.  Thankfully on this Sunday morning there was no traffic problems in Fort Worth, and we were soon heading east toward "Home Sweet Home" at the edge of the woods!  We were home by lunchtime!  Yippee!  No place like home!

 

Here is our garden before we left for this vacation:

 

Here is our garden a few days after we got home:

  

The unusually cool nights that we have had this Spring has slowed down the growth a little, however we should be able to pick our first veggies soon.

 

More later about our ongoing project of clearing the old fence line that you can see at the back of the garden in the first garden photo.

 

Also the week after we got home from our Grand Canyon trip, Tom's brother Tim, and his wife, Kathy came from Georgia for a few days to visit!  It was so great to see them and have them in our home here at the edge of the woods for awhile!

Saturday May 4th

Wow, how wonderful it was to get a good night's sleep last night, following a great Mexican food dinner.  I brought the Road Atlas into our hotel room and looked for a different way to go home instead of the usual way (which would be to go south to pick up I-40 east to Amarillo and then Hwy 287 south to the DFW area).  We decided this morning to go south to Albuquerque, N.M., than go east for only a short ways to Clines Corners, where we will take U.S.285 south to Roswell, N.M., where we will find U.S.380 east which we can follow almost all the way home.  This will be a new route to us, so we will see places we have never seen before, and that's what vacations/adventures are all about!

You probably remember me talking about all the many, many giant billboards for Clines Corners we saw on I-40 last Sunday as were going to Grand Canyon.  Well, we could not pass this place up a second time without stopping to see what all the "hooplah" is about!  I can tell you that I have never in my entire life seen that many souvenirs under one roof!  Aisle after aisle of thousands and thousands of any type of trinket you can possibly imagine.  Plus they had the largest and cleanest restrooms of anywhere (I think it was around 30 stalls in the women's!).   AND, the large wooden Indian in front!  Oh my goodness, what a tourist trap!!

We only passed thru two small towns, Encino and Vaughn, between Clines Corners and Roswell.  We stopped for an ice cream cone in Roswell and continued on our way.  Nothing much to see other than beautiful sky and flat barren brown landscape.

Oh boy, was it ever good to see Texas again!  After all the brown, desolate land we have been seeing yesterday and today, then as soon as we crossed the state line into Texas, it was like entering the "land of plenty"!

No matter where I go, there is absolutely no place like Texas!!!

I think Texas may be the only state that has beaches, mountains, high plains, desert, thickly wooded hills, many State Parks, also National Parks, and so much more.  I guess there is just no place like home!

Taking U.S. 380 from Roswell was a very pleasant and scenic drive once we crossed the state line into Texas.  I had no idea there were such huge farms in the high plains of Texas.  Wheat, cotton, and other crops as far as the eye can see!  Also acres and acres of grape vinyards!

This route was definitely more scenic, less traffic, less stressful; interesting to read about all the towns (in our Texas Travel Book) that we were going thru for the first time; however it took a little longer than it would have if we had traveled on the interstate.  I think the trade-off was worth it, although by the time we got to Graham, Texas we were beat.  When we saw a brand new Holiday Express Inn, we zipped in and got a room for the night.  We will travel the final leg of this trip in the morning.

Friday May 3rd (cont.)

Before Tom and I left home on this vacation, we made our hotel reservations through Thursday (May 2).  We knew we would be visiting Bryce Canyon on Thursday, but weren't too sure how the remaining three days of this trip would play out, not sure of our route, not sure about how many more Parks, Monuments, or Historical places we would have time for. So when we left our hotel at Bryce Canyon on Friday morning, in the crisp, cold, sunny weather, it was a truly gorgeous day for a drive!  We were pleasantly surprised at the incredible beauty of Capital Reef National Park, which before this trip we had really never heard of this Park.  We are headed east on Utah Hwy. 24, the Capital Reef Country Scenic Byway.  Again this is a such a remote section of our country, we see few vehicles on the road this morning, and fewer towns.  Majestic views are plentiful as we travel toward Hanksville, passing thru only one "town", Caineville, on this long stretch of highway.

We finally reach Hanksville, which isn't much of a town, but mainly a highway intersection, where we will head south on Utah Hwy. 95, the Trail of the Ancients Scenic Byway.  At the Highway Junction is the Hollow Mountain Station, complete with a store built into the side of the mountain (completely underground).  How could we pass this up, we had to stop!

We are loving having the Utah Road Atlas which gives us the names of every mountain, gully, mesa, creek, wash, etc.,  and shows all the roads, even the unpaved ones (with these warnings "Roads may be impassable when wet").

This past Tuesday, after we left the Grand Canyon, we went thru Page, Arizona, and across the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, at the south end of Lake Powell, which is one gigantic (long) lake!  Well, today we will be once again crossing the Colorado River, as the Dirty Devil River flows into it, and subsequently both flow into the very north end of Lake Powell, many miles north of where we were on Tuesday.  En route to this, we are traveling along side the Henry Mountain Range, just west of Highway 95.  This will likely be the last glimpse of snow-covered peaks we will see on this trip.

(Sorry about the reflection in the windshield of the car; I am taking these photos as Tom is driving along!)  We still see few vehicles on this road this afternoon.  I would not want to have "car trouble" out here; might be a while before anyone came along to render assistance.  Here is where the Dirty Devil River flows into the Colorado River.

Next we cross the big Steel Bridge that goes across the Dirty Devil River.

Just before we get to the Bridge, we look to our right, up on a tiny, flat spit of rocky ground, this small airplane is taking off! 

We have not seen any kind of a town or small settlement since we left the Hollow Mountain Store near Hanksville this morning.  However, we know from our Utah Road Atlas that we will soon be to Natural Bridges National Monument. We take the Park Road 275 to the Visitor Center, where we pick up a brochure about the Park, and decide to drive the one-way loop (9 miles) thru the Park, stopping at each Bridge viewpoint.

"Million of years ago these sandstones were deposited and then slowly uplifted as part of the Colorado Plateau.  Erosion gradually formed today's canyons and landscapes.  Natural bridges are formed by the erosive action of moving water.  Arches are formed by other erosional forces-mainly frost action and seeping moisture-that also enlarge natural bridges once stream erosion forms them."

Our first stop is at the Sipapu Bridge (220 ft. height, 268 ft. span, 31 ft. width, 53 ft. thickness.)

Our next stop is the Kachina Bridge (210 ft. height, 204 ft. span, 44 ft. width, 93 ft. thickness).

Our last stop on this 9-mile loop is the Owachomo Bridge (106 ft. height, 180 ft. span, 27 ft. width, 9 ft. thickness).

It was a short hike/walk, from the parking area, on a nice pathway to view each bridge. The mighty power of water is truly phenomenal!

We left the Park, and kept going south on Utah Hwy. 95, and saw this. Aptly named, don't you think?  Bears Ears!

Next we reached the Jct. of U.S. Hwy. 163 & 191, just south of Blanding, Utah.  We took the shortest route we could find to get Montezuma Creek where we would pick up Hwy. 162 that would take us to the Colorado border and Colorado Hwy. 41 south to U.S. Hwy. 160 west to Teec Nos Pos, Arizona, where we would head back east again toward Shiprock, New Mexico on U.S. Hwy. 64!  You see, we are trying to get to the Four Corners Monument, the only place where four States actually touch, at one point!  We barely made it to the Monument before they closed and locked the gates!

Tom and I both used our hands and feet to be in all four states at the same time.  This monument is located within the Navajo Indian Reservation, and I'm sure it is a "happening place" on weekends, holidays, and during tribal celebrations, with the many vendor booths that surround the Monument.

It is getting late in the day, we are running out of daylight, and we have traveled a long way today and seen such beautiful sights and enjoyed the remoteness of the awesome beauty that abounds in southeast Utah.  Now we are looking for a place to lay our weary bodies and get some rest, get a hot shower, and a good night's sleep!

Our goal is to get to Farmington, New Mexico tonight, and maybe make it all the way home tomorrow!  On our way into Shiprock, New Mexico (29 miles before Farmington) we see the "Rock" that gave this town its name!

Of course, we are a good ways away from it so we cannot fully appreciate its height, 7,178 ft., but it does resemble a "Ship"!

Homeward bound tomorrow!

Friday May 3rd

Last night, we stayed at a hotel just outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon.  When we woke up this morning, it was 19 degrees!  Brrrrrrrrr!  We are ready to get back to Texas and some warmer weather!

Today we are traveling thru some of the last-settled land in Utah.  Not until the 1950's was there a paved highway thru this remote area of the state.  We pass thru the very small towns of Tropic, Cannonville, and Henrieville on our way to Escalante, Utah.  This sparsely populated, rugged landscape is all part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  The road between Escalante and Boulder is called the Journey Through Time Scenic Byway.  One section thru the most rugged area is called the "Million-Dollar Highway".  The views all along the way are so awe-inspiring!

We are headed to Capital Reef National Park this morning, and we are really enjoying this remote section of Utah while traveling there.  Unbelieveably remote and desolate, but also such rugged beauty abounds.

"Capital Reef National Park is a giant buckle in Earth's crust and stretches across south-central Utah.  This vast warping of rock, created 65 million years ago by the same great forces later uplifting the Colorado Plateau, is called the Waterpocket Fold.  Capital Reef National Park preserves the Fold and its eroded jumble of colorful cliffs, massive domes, soaring spires, stark monoliths, twisting canyons, and graceful arches.  The world of the Waterpocket Fold stretches 100 miles--and beyond." (This is the description found in the Capital Reef brochure from the National Park Service.)

When we pulled in to the Visitor Center, I got a kick out of this guy who had "exploded" his backpack onto the parking lot, in an attempt to get himself organized!

After leaving the Visitor Center, we toured the Gifford Farmhouse, depicting what life was like over a hundred years ago, and took a short walk along the Fremont River which flows thru the Park.  Then we drove the 8-mile paved Scenic Drive thru the Park.

However, the real fun began at the end of the 8-mile paved road!  We decided to continue down the gravel/dirt road into Capital Gorge!  Oh my goodness, I was driving at the time and I was a little terrified at how narrow the road was, winding thru the immense canyon walls soaring up into the sky!  I hope we don't meet anyone coming from the other way.  Probably not, because we are probably the only tourists who have ventured down this "skinny" road winding ever deeper into Capital Gorge!

What spectacular scenery around each curve of the Canyon!  What a surprise when got to the end of the gravel/dirt road!  We were not alone after all!!

 

 Our little red Chevy Cobalt is dwarfed by the Canyon wall!

Yes, there is a small gravel parking area where the road ends, and it was full of other curious tourists just like us!  Also a picnic pavillion, and a small building with a composting toilet!  There is a hiking trail that continues on deeper into the Gorge from here.  It is amazing to see these flowers in such a barren rocky landscape struggling for survival!

Now we must retrace our route on the gravel/dirt road (Tom's driving now!)to get back to where the paved Scenic Road ended.  We meet several tourists who are walking down the road in the direction we just came.  They were worried about driving their vehicles on this narrow road with no pavement.  We figure "Hey, we only live once, go for the adventure!"

Traveling back toward the Park entrance, we get to view the cliffs lining the road from a different angle.  More photos!

More from Friday, May 3rd in my next post-----------