Karla's Kronicles #2

2005 Karla Kronicles #2

Would you believe….The Christmas (Kristmas) Kronicles 2005….

Season’s Greetings to You All…

Ok, so we have not released a Karla’s Kronicles Travel Newsletter since May 2005 … well, we wrote one in October when we returned to Tucson, we revised it in November and here it is late December and … how about turning it into Karla’s (and Larry’s) C(K)ristmas Kronicle’s #1, Year 2005???

Our 2005 travels took us into 7 National Parks and the J&P Scott Resort of Bend Ore***:

Organ Pipe National Monument (May 8^th)
Sequoia National Park (May 14)
Kings Canyon National Park (May 14) (Sequoia and Kings Canyon are adjacent parks, so we made an enormous driving loop (without RV) to see them both)
Yosemite National Park (May 18) Road our bikes in Yosemite 2 days after it was evacuated due to floods. The waterfalls were incredibly beautiful. On May 22^nd we hiked the Merced Grove and Tuaolume Grove trails. The Tuaolume is the River’s name (Two-All-Oh-Me). Again, Giant Sequoias to be seen and enjoyed.
Aug. 16^th-18^th in North Cascade National Park for a 2 night, 3 day canoe trip on Diablo Lake.
Sept. 8^th brought us into Yellowstone National Park West Entrance, Wyoming; we stayed two nights in the town of “West Yellowstone” with full hook ups, then 3 nights at Grant’s Village with NO hookups. Needless to say, our batteries were getting low, but there is nothing like camping inside Yellowstone with the critters and the SNOW falling around your rig.
Our final National Park for 2005 was Rocky Mt. National Park in Colorado. Discovered a new birdie for our records, The Clark’s Nutcracker, named by Clark of “Lewis and Clark” which was significant since 2005 is the 200^th anniversary of the L&C’s expedition.
***The J&P Scott Resort of Bend Ore is a privately owned Resort with excellent amenities. We were extremely fortunate to get reservations to stay in one of their two deluxe RV sites for both Memorial Day and Fourth of July holidays. (Thanks for two great weeks, Jeff & Penny!!!!!)

Speaking of the 200^th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, our travels took us into Seaside OR where we visited Ft. Clatsop (L&C’s winter Fort, 200 years ago), the site of the Salt Works where 5 of the men in the expedition traveled near the ocean front to boil sea water for the salt to cure their meats and flavor their foods. They made 5 barrels of salt to cure their meats for the trip home. We hiked the Tillamook Head Trail, where part of the expedition traveled because of news of a beached whale. They traded with the Native Americans for blubber to make oil for their lamps.

We were fortunate to see many friends and family on our travels, but we obviously did not get to see everyone we would have liked to see. We are so glad we were able to attend Teknologic’s Solstice affair in Snohomish, or we would have missed seeing even more of you! (Thanks to Brent Smith and Sharon Graff for organizing this “mini reunion”, so we can see folks!)

Visiting Walla Walla this summer (Karla’s Home Town) was another special time as Karla’s Mom had several of the Grand and Great Grand Children and their Spouses visiting from Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina. Even Karla’s Sister Kathy and her husband Jerry happened to be in town for their High School Reunion. On July 1^st , Karla’s Mom hosted a Pizza Party for about 45 family members and close friends so all could get re-acquainted and visit together.

Our plans really changed when we got to our property in Marblemount, July 29^th. Instead of a week there, we stayed a month. We were just enjoying our land too much to leave! Larry got the backhoe working and we did lots of projects and future planning. We actually only went “down river” twice in that entire month, mainly for supplies and one Sunday luncheon. During our time in Marblemount, we were able to solve some of our Internet communication problems and now point to a different Direcway satellite that gives us excellent coverage when we are in Washington State. It took about 10 days to resolve, but it will allow us better nationwide coverage, especially up in northern Washington State where our signal was very poor to non-existent. With the exception of a three-day canoe (boat in only) campout on Diablo Lake’s Hidden Cove, and a few “day” visits with friends and relatives, we worked on the land every day. We have a strong desire to return to Marblemount as we realized after a month of being there (our longest stay ever) how much we missed the serenity, the forest, river, deer, eagles and other such critters.

The best part of being free of a house at this point is that we can return to Marblemount (which was our original retirement plan) and see if we want to live there for a few years. So, for those of you that don’t know…as of Feb. 1^st 2006 if you need to reach us, best do it by email (kldayhuff@hughes.net) as we are pulling up stakes in Tucson and heading North, expecting to arrive in Marblemount around April 1^st (no fooling), take care of a few items there, return to Tucson to get the remainder of our goods and back to Marblemount and see what happens from there. As much as we love our mild Tucson winter climates and good friends we’ve made …we are feeling a pull back to Marblemount that is too strong to ignore. We will get a P.O. Box established in Marblemount and communicate that new snail mail address to all.

We do still plan to travel. In fact, we are probably going to continue to live in our 36’ foot 5^th wheel RV at Marblemount as it has all the comforts of home. The mobile home we put on the land in 1993 is currently rented to a nice young couple and we are all willing to co-habitate on the land for a little while, giving everyone some flexibility and extra security. (After all, with 90 acres, I think we can manage to share some space!). Larry has designed a log home that we would begin building in 2007 with our own timber if all goes according to the current plan.

So that is the current scoop from the Wandering Dayhuffs. We look forward to hearing from all of you!

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