Headed Back To The East Coast

What a busy 2 months we have had!  We drove to the West Coast in our pick up truck pulling the 26'  travel trailer.  We spent a week with Chad, Rhonda, and their 2 boys.  Left Chico with them and caught a military hop (The Patriot Express) to visit Dirk, Sharon, and Cece.  Then it was back to Tacoma, WA to spent another 2 weeks and we are now making our way toward Maine.

If you follow our blog you know that we left Maine in April and stopped the see Pam and Skip in McLean. VA, then went to Fairfield Glade in TN to spend a week with my sister Paula and Terry before seriously heading to Tacoma, WA.  After our trailer break down in Illinois, we had an uneventful trip west.  We stopped in Nebraska, Wyoming,and Salt Lake City, before getting to Chad's.
A couple of nights we dry camped in Walmart parking lots, but mostly spent 3-5 days at each stop.  We usually stay at military bases which have well maintained family camp grounds with water, sewer, and elecric availability.  Walmarts are RV  friendly and allow travelers to park in their parking lots overnight. so we sometimes stop from 6:00 PM to 6:00 AM.  It sure is nice to have our own bed, bathroom and kitchen along the way.

Hill, AFB in June,2011.  Note the hills behind us.

FE Warren, AFB, Wyoming in June2011.  These pronghorn antelope were everywhere

We got to Tacoma on a Wednesday and set up our RV at Camp Murray on American Lake for 2 weeks.  It was just about 10 miles south of Chad's house in Tacoma, so we got lots of granchild time in.  The first weekend that we were there, Rhonda had made reservations at a State park in Sequim (pronounced Squim), so all of us (4 adults and 2 children) took their 31' travel trailer and went camping up in northwest WA near Port Townsend and the Straits of Juan DeFuca.  What a beautiful area that is!  We also got to spent time going to swimming lessons, playing at the waterpark, having Holden's 2nd birthday party at the park, going for long walks, cooking, and sharing great meals.  Roland (5yrs old) even spent a couple of nights away from home with Nana and Grampy in the camper.

Grampy and Holden at camp site

Roland having fun at the zoo

Then Bill and I hopped on the Patriot Express for a week in Okinawa, Japan, with Dirk, Sharon and Cece.  The Patriot Express is a contracted airlines that flies military people (active duty, families moving overseas to Japan, families and personnel on leave and, if enough room, retirees and their families on vacation) from Seattle to Japan.  We had no problem getting there, but we ended up trying for 2 more weeks to get on any kind of military flight off the island.  Summer is a big time for families to get away on vacation as well as the season for moving and changing assignments.  There is a priority for taking the flights and retirees are in categoy 6!  There are no reservations so we had to be there at the terminal everyday to see if we could get a seat.  Another problem is that they only announce flights 3 days ahead and those are subject to change on the spur of the moment.  The biggest problem was that we couldn't drive over there, so one of them had to take us every time we went and the terminal was on a different base from the one they live on.  After 3 weeks we ended up paying for a commercial flight back for more than $3,000.00! OUCH!  It cost more than we expected, but it was well worth the cost to get to spend time with them.

The palace building at Shuri Castle

Cece sitting with a Shisa Dog.  These are at the entrance of many buildings in Japan.  One on each side of the entrance, one with open mouth to let out evil spirits, the other with closed mouth to keep in good spirits.

We did a lot of touristing in Okinawa.  We toured an ancient castle that has been restored on the ancient ruins.  It is amazing to think that old to that country is 2000 years, where to us in the states 200 years is old!  We also went to Tori Beach and collected shells, rocks, and seaglass, it was very warm and humid there. We went to a huge aquarium that had whale sharks (the largest fish on earth!), and an outdoor dolphin and pilot whale show.  It was amazing to watch those huge animals jump high out of the water so close in front of you.  We went to a coral farm where they grow coral to reintroduce into the ocean when it reaches a viable size, as a means of restoring damaged reefs.  Bill and Dirk had a chance to go scuba diving and saw lots of different fish, coral, sea snakes, etc.  They had a wonderful time.

Grampy, Sharon, and Cece at Tori Beach

Dirk and Cece

A pilot whale performing

Nana and Cece in front of the whale shark tank

Cece and her best friend Caroline

Then it was back to Tacoma and 2 more weeks of family time.  Little Holden became quite attached to Chico and it was a highlight for both of them to give "puppy cookie"!  Roland liked to hold the leash and walk Chico.  Chad likes to cook, so he and I concocted delicious meals from breakfast to dinner.  Bill helped Chad jack up his house to replace a sill.  All the things that families like to do together and we miss out on being so far away.

Chad and Roland at the zoo.

Chad and Holden in swimming lessons at the YMCA.

We are now in Rapid City, So. Dakota, staying at Ellsworth AFB where we were stationed 30+ years ago.  Wow, have things changed.  The housing we had on base is no longer there, replaced with new, modern houses.  We tried to find the house that we bought here and had to use the GPS to it locate it because so much has grown up around this town.  It is a big city with malls everywhere.  One thing we had never done was visit the Geology Museum at the School of Mines, yesterday we went there and were very impressed: not only rocks, but lots of dinosaur and prehistoric fossils that were found in this area.  We learned that a salt water sea once covered this part of the US.

We will be leaving here on Tuesday the 9th of August and I plan to keep the blog updated at least weekly.