Wow, I'm way behind...

So here's an abreviated version of the last half of our vacation...

Since my wife soooooo awesome, she loaded up the kids and drove the car out to Washington. I hopped on my bike and road down through Glacier Park and over Going to the Sun Highway again, and of course it was AWESOME.













We all arrived at our destination safe and sound. My brother in law had some time off of work for the get together, so we spent most of our first day puttering in his garage on our bikes. I finally got the fan switch wired in and finished mounting my side covers.



Went to watch the fireworks out at Cusick- the Tribes put on a HUGE display. It was great. Had a lot of fun watching a dozen or so little kids running around with glow sticks too.



Part of the reunion every year is a Motorbike ride. We did about 250 miles up and around the NE corner of Washington- some real pretty roads and sights up there. Makes me almost miss living up there...









'Course, theres also the BICYCLE ride too... We road about 14 miles along the Centennial trail in Spokane, WA. I even got 'Ole Paint again this year!



Then it was time for the loooong trip home. We road/drove to Helena, met Grandma and Grandpa and off-loaded our kids for a couple of weeks. We stayed at a bed and breakfast there, and did a little shopping. Helena sure is an interesting town. Has some GREAT thrift shops! Even scored a basketball hoop and backboard to put up in my classroom this year.



Saw a whole bunch of this on the way home...



The Silver Bullet. Been a great car, but I sure hope we can upgrade sometime soon.



So there you have it. A week of Canada, then a week of Washington. Now we are empty nesters for a couple of weeks, what are we going to do!?!?

Vacation part 1- the Great White North!

So pretty much every year we get to go on vacation.  Having family in two different locations means we have to schedule two vacations into one trip since both destinations are *only* 350 miles apart...

This year we started off in Southern Alberta.  Thankfully my parents live far enough south that we didnt have to worry about all of the crazy flooding places like Calgary and High River got this year.  Had some excellent weather, a great family reunion, awesome food, and lots of playing!

What would vacation be though without a bit of "work"?  Suprisingly Dad is still working on getting rid of junk.  At his current rate he should be cone by August.  2079.  He wants to get rid of this old Fargo cab, so I pulled a bunch of parts off it as spares for great grandpas Dodge.



Course, what would a trip to Canada be without driving the Ugly Car?!!?



Parade was great,







Fireworks were awesome,





Even snuck in a ride up to Waterton Park.  Only saw one deer though, kinda strange for a trip to the townsite.







Fun was had by all. Many ketchup chips were consumed. Much to my wife chagrin... Had to be done though. After a week in Canada, it was time for a change if scenery.

The long way 'round: Big Southern Butte.

 Managed to sneak away for a few hours yesterday and what was supposed to be a little ride ended up being a little longer.

Sometimes I feel trapped here in South East Idaho- we have a plethora of long, straight, boring roads. If you ride for an hour in just about any direction, you start to get into some more exciting areas but I just never have the time to ride for an hour to get to the good riding spots.

That needs to change. Consider this my exploratory route to see which directions I need to head for the "good" roads.

Lets pound some pavement! Originally, I figured I would ride out to Craters of the Moon and back, past Big Southern Butte. It's about 50 miles as the crow flies from my house, a fair bit further if you get there on roads. The nearest paved road is still quite a ways away, this thing is HUGE.



But you can get fairly close. 'Bout as close as you can get from the highway.



Gotta love the Idaho desert.



Made it to Craters- will have to take the fam out here and hike around for a bit. This is on the back side of the butte from where I started.





Yup, still more boring Idaho desert.



I did finally make it out towards the mountains and found a few interesting roads I'll have to explore in the future.

1,000 down, and only 5,000 more miles to go to my goal for the year!



Pretty uneventful ride, but I did see this off in the distance coming out of Twin Falls.





Not sure what caught on fire, but they were just unhooking the trailer as I went by.

Looped around and hit I-15 for the South view of the butte...



Almost home, with the butte waaaayyyy off in the distance.



Not a bad trip- 302 miles in about 4.5 hours.



Next time, I'll cut off to the North and get up into the fun stuff I hope!

Cali Trip Day #6: A day of Disney and the looooonnggg drive home.

Thursday morning. Our last day in California. It seems like we've been here a month now, most of us are ready to be home, sleep in our own beds, eat our own food. There are a few who wish it would go on for a few more days.

The last breakfast.



We woke up and ate in shifts- one bus was still dead (actually, it was on it's way to the repair shop) so we loaded our bus first, took them to Disneyland, dropped them off, and then it went back for the rest of the students.

Finally got everyone there!



The plan was simple- students had to check in with us once during the day, and then meet in the evening to head out of the park. We went on several rides- Pirates of the Caribbean,



Indiana Jones,



And of course ran in to random groups of students all over the place.





Apparently I dozed off for a minute while waiting for our dinner reservations...



But it was worth the wait! Dinner at the Blue Bayou was spectacular!



The day went by pretty quick, and before you knew it we were gathering for the mad dash out of the park. Turns out students make good armrests.



Getting them all out was CRAZY. Not as bad as I had thought it was going to be, but trying to get our group out in one piece was, well, like herding a flock of ducks. ADHD ducks, who have had WAYYY to much sugar! We managed to get them all out, with Mrs. Gordon at the rear. We had a special award for her, as this was her last year to go on the trip. She has been going for 21 years I believe, quite the accomplishment! Congrats, and you will be missed!

After watching the fireworks from the parking lot, it was time to load up and head out. 900 miles, 18 hours, 3 cramped buses. Yay. Students didn't seem to mind- they slept,



and slept,



and slept through breakfast,



and slept some more!



We did watch a couple of shows along the way. We managed to borrow a copy of Twilight for the boys to watch, but they figured it out pretty quick and made such a ruckus we had to switch it, even after we told them it was because Connor lost a bet with Mrs. Lee on the baseball game.

But we *finally* made it.



I guess their parents missed 'em, cause almost all of them were there waiting for us. Only took about 1/2 an hour to get everything unloaded from the buses and to say good bye to all of the "ducks".



Sure got quite in a hurry! Kind of a weird moment. Relief that it's finally over and done with, sad to say good bye, and absolutely ecstatic to be headed home for a hot shower, some more good company, and to catch up on some zzz's in my very own bed.

MANY THANKS to everyone that helped get this shindig organized, but especially to Mr. Southern for his hours of hard work to pull it all together. Thanks for letting me tag along, hope to do it again sometime!