More Highway

Just thought on a few things, the highway is fully paved except where there is construction and not much of that, just a few short waits. The highway also has been rerouted and curves taken out so much better than in the early years. The tourist traffic has been less this year,[economy] sometimes we can drive for 2 hrs and not see a rv...Most are from BC. It has been getting thicker the further north though. The music.......how strange it is. Most are stuff that are on a album you buy but never play. The women sound like a stressed out Madonna and the men are Nickelback sounding. Also a lot of old 40's stuff that are not orginal...It will be good to be back in the states [Alaska] again for those reasons...

The Alaska Highway

Day 1. The Alaska Highway starts at Dawson Creek BC.... This would be the 3rd night camping since we left Bend. A person would think the start of the Alaskan Highway would start in the mountains, but not so. Dawson Creek is a prairie area with lush farmlands and poplar, birch, cottonwood and some pine...Its a cool place, very interesting. It was in the 80's when we got there and stayed fairly warm all night. It was dark for about 4 hours, 11-3. We got up at 5 and down the highway at 6 or so...The miles are fairly mild with a few rivers and a few animals. The first moose we saw we named Rigo, as it had a set of very stiff legs... it had been laying in the same spot for over a day.. the next we saw was a small cow and then we saw Mortis who had been laying there for quite some time....But we did see a big girl who showed off for us. The road is fairly easy all the way through Fort St John and things dont pick up till after Fort Nelson except for the Peace River which is huge. After that things get exciting. The Rockys reappear and lakes and rivers are all over the place. Major water.... The thing I think about while driving down that highway is how it was made and how long it took...It is a marvel. Its 1528 miles long, it was built in a little over 8 months with 7 regiments of American engineers, 11,000 men from the services, 16,000 civilians, 7000 pieces of equipment, against some of the most unforgiving wilderness areas in the world. The road included 133 major bridges and more than 3000 culverts. The cost,,,,$140 million dollars...Finished Nov 20, 1942, one month and 2 days before I was born...Think of the equipment then compared to today... Anyway we drove to Muncho Lake that day, stayed in a cabin for the hell of it and had wienerschnizel. On the way we saw trophy stone sheep about the road the melted in to the rocks, but keen eyed June spotted them and we turned around and got pics while they posed....Pictures you wait a lifetime for.. FYI......Pics will follow later when June gets on this in Fairbanks so she can download them. Next day we went a hour to Liard Hot springs and camped and kicked back there. On the way we did see some huge buffalo along the road, who did migrate into the area a long time ago. Also one black bear. The springs are huge and big pools...A large campground is alway full of rvs that stay for the night. There is a boardwalk about a quarter mile long that goes through the warm marsh the hot springs empty too. At the end is a big pool and 5 minutes up another. A few years ago a woman was attacked by a black bear on the boardwalk. A man saw her in trouble and went to help her....Both were killed, her child wounded. It was on the Discovery channel . Last week they tranquilized a sow grizzly that was there bothering the people and took her across the river where she will bother no more. Then after a nice rest we took off today to Watson Lake, home of the famous sign forest which we have pics of...There are 2000 town, road etc signs that people have stolen that are put up every year... We saw today many more buffalo, more sheep, and many black bear, some of cinnamon color.... no grizz yet, but there will be. We are camping tonite in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We are right on the Yukon River. Rained a lot of the day, but no biggie...Stopped at a place that had rhubarb pie that was out of this world... This is the first place we have had WiFi, so that what took so long.....We did go through a large forest fire today, burned on both sides of the road, there were flames next to the road on one side....Must have went 15 miles with the fire and where it had been, but it rained most of the day and it really helped ....Tomorrow Haines Jct and beyond. The mountains are still here and high and snow capped and everything is green and lush..

Balloons Over Bend

I woke up early this morning, and with Tom gone on a river trip with son, Chris, and son-in-law, Wylie, I decided to do my usual Pilot Butte trek early in hopes of catching the balloons. I got there right at 6:30 as they were starting to go up. The best of all was the Energizer Bunny!

As I watched them, I recalled that it was just 3 years ago this weekend that I arrived in Bend...on my way to the store to buy a newspaper, the skies were full of balloons. I had no

idea what was going on, but felt I had landed in a special place for sure! The weather today was good for the balloons, but not so good for mountain visibility. Here are some shots I took...

Cross Country

On May 11, 2009, Tom & June took off in the Beloved Prius heading towards Cincinnati, Ohio, and Grand-daughter Emily's graduation. First touristy stop along the way: A Pony Express
Station in Gothenburg, Nebraska. This is an original building, however it had been moved
from it's original site south of town.



Some wildlife we encountered along the way....just happened to be inside a Bass Pro Shop in
Omaha, Nebraska....

Crossing the Mighty Muddy Mississippi....

And, Heeerrrreeee'ssss Emily! She is posing next to a picture of herself along with her classmates....a picture quilt they made to leave behind so that they will never be forgotten at

Xavier University. Emily (and the 19 others) are receiving their Master's Degree in

Occupational Therapy.

The Happy Graduate with Mom and Dad...

And the Happy Graduate complete with Diploma. We are so proud of her, and know that she

will have a bright future ahead!

After Graduation, we all headed to Joe's Crab Shack for a celebration. Tom & June had made the trip to share this important event, as well as Emily's maternal grandparents, Carl & Kay

Williquette. While celebrating Emily's achievement, we also celebrated Carl's 70th

birthday! Joe's Crab Shack has some unusual celebration ideas....Carl became a flying Shark, complete with wings, and Emily was given a stick horse and cowgirl hat, which they proudly wore around the restaurant.

The next morning, we loaded up the Beloved Prius with some of Emily's prize possessions so that we could haul them back to Oregon for her. (Emily and her dad had already loaded up

'Pedro' [her car]) . After a Sunday breakfast gathering, Tom & June headed towards Minnesota. First stop was in Bloomington, Minnesota, to visit relatives at Aunt Lois's

house. Here is Tom with cousin Roger....(Roger suffered a stroke a few years ago)...

June and Aunt Patsy.....

Aunt Lois and Cousin Mary....

Tom and Cousin Mary....

Tom and Cousin Marie, with her daughter Sarah.....

and Cousin Jimmy.....

The next morning Tom & June headed to Maynard, Minnesota, to visit the farm where Tom lived until he was 15 and moved to The Dalles. The farm is currently owned by the Gustafson

family, and although some of the old buildings were there, several of the out buildings are no longer there.

Here is the old machine shed which housed all the machinery to farm the farm....now you can't get one piece of equipment in there. At least it's still standing!

A view of the current yard...

The old barn is still standing. It was pointed out to us that there are no nails in the large beams in the barn - it was built with dovetails and wooden pegs!!!

and the silo....

Here is the house, which has been added on to and updated a bit. The little building on the left was the wash house...it has been updated as well. From what we have been able to find out, the house was built sometime in the late 1800's and had square nails in it! They told us that when they replaced the floor they found under the boards some newspapers dated 1910, but

obviously the floor had been replaced once before that!

The Gustafsons were very cordial and were happy to show us around and tell us what they had done. They have lived there for 30 years and it was evident that they really care for the place.

Before we left, they even offered to let us have the farm for a Mertz family reunion someday!

We made a stop in Sturgis, South Dakota to check out the bikers, bars, etc. Our last tourist stop was in Deadwood, South Dakota, where we found Saloon #10 where Wild Bill Hickok was shot. It looked like a very fun town, and someday we may get back there to spend some time. But for now....it was onward and westward. Here is the visitor center in Deadwood...

The Beloved Prius once again earned our admiration. We traveled 5077 miles and spent $248.77 on gas...usually averaging $2.49 per gallon! Driving speeds of 70-80 we managed to average 47 mpg. We're now trying to figure out how to put the camper on the Prius for our

trip to Alaska......

The Wedding

It was not easy, but I picked out a few of the 700+ pictures to share from the wedding. June's daughter, Bethanie, married Ryan Fanti on February 28, 2009 at Laguna Beach, California.
Being February, we were all very nervous about the weather, but it turned out to be a perfect day!

Here is proud mom and her two daughters...Bride Bethanie and twin sister, Breanne.


The girls along with the flower girl, Lexie, the daughter of a friend of Bethanie's.

The beautiful bride.

The happy couple...

The two girls...

Breanne, her husband L.J. and their 4-year-old son, Logan. Breanne is expecting a baby girl in early August.

This is the gazebo where the ceremony took place, overlooking Laguna Beach, taken just before the ceremony.

Mr. and Mrs. Tom Mertz - all dressed up!

Logan, taking his ring-bearer duties very seriously....

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Ryan Fanti...

The cutting of the cake.

Another Adventure

For a wedding present last year, Tom's kids gave us an overnight stay at McMenamins Edgefield Hotel in Troutdale, OR. We finally put it to use. Waiting for good weather certainly paid off, as it was perfect while we were there! As you can see in the pictures, the trees were in bloom and the sky was blue. The Edgefield property itself is quite amazing - there are 10
restaurants/bars/tasting rooms, along with a spa and a 32-hole par 3 golf course. There is
a winery, a distillery and a brewery. What more could you want? A pool hall? Oh yes, there is one of those as well. And a movie theater. Edgefield is a 74-acre estate built in 1911 as the Multnomah County Poor Farm. The door of each of the 100 guestrooms is painted with the name of the former occupant, and on the inside of the room, there is a brief history of the person as well as a painting of him/her. We were in Lucky Staehly's room, which happened to have also been known in his day as The Make-Out Room. ! How appropriate for nearly newly weds. We sampled some of their fine beer, and later a bottle of their fine wine, while sitting in rocking chairs on the balcony. Ah yes, it was a truly fine get-away.

We had seen some commercials on TV about the Tulip Festival in Woodburn, OR, so decided while we were in the area, we'd pay a visit. It was amazing! There are 40 acres of tulips of all

colors and varieties. Pictures do not do it justice. They were at their peak when we were there.

After visiting the tulip farm, we visited Tom's son Chris, wife Carla and their son Sam...and

went to watch Sam's LaCross game that night.

On the way back to Bend, it was an amazingly clear day, and I could not resist taking a picture of Mount Hood in all it's glory!

On the Mend in Bend

We are back home in Bend now, trying to get caught up on mail, taxes, etc! When we left Wickenburg, we headed for northeast Arizona and Monument Valley. Since the back roads are closed to private vehicles, and we wanted to see as much as possible, we took a tour with a Navajo guide. We visited a Hogan with a Navajo lady demonstrating rug weaving. When we started out, we were concerned about blowing dust, but before we knew it, we were fighting blowing snow!!! We were sitting in the back of a pick-up truck outfitted with bench seats, but not much in the way of protection from the weather. Once it began to snow hard, visibility was next to zero, and he cut the tour short to get us back. It is another beautiful part of Arizona (and Utah). Arizona is a very diverse state where you can go from desert cactus to ponderosa pines in under one hour.

We had a wonderful stay and will return to sunny Arizona next winter!