Participated in a tour organized by Richard Holzapfel, professor of Ancient Scripture at BYU. Flew into Tel Aviv (only 10 hours from New York — not so fun, but survived), and stayed at the Sheraton on the shore of the Med

Next day we began our tour, which included Mt. Carmel and Capernaum.

From there we got to see the Jordan River (north end prior to it’s entering into the Sea of Galilee),

and the Sea of Galilee,

including a short boat ride.

Next, it was on to Nazereth, where Jesus grew up

Finally, we arrived at Jerusalem,

where we visited the Garden of Gethsemane

the temple mount, including the courtyard and several other parts of the temple grounds,

and the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies

While staying in Jerusalem, we also visted the dead sea,

and Masada, where I hiked up to it.

We saw many other things and visited many other places. In sum, it was an incredible experience.

The minute I laid eyes on it, I knew that Earl would want me to have it in the spirit of getting the most fun possible out of being old.

Went to Sayulita, Mexico (a few miles north of Puerto Vallarta) to spend a week with Jed and Chelsey at the end of their 2-month Work outside the country experience. Unfortunately, my back began giving me fits at the beginning of the trip, so I was only able to walk around (slowly and not too far), but couldn’t do fun things like surfing and snorkeling. They rented a nice villa within a block of the beach.

Jed and Chelsey were able to do some surfing, which made me envious, but . . .

We also went to church, although it was all in Spanish

after which we did a picnic lunch on the beach going back home.

We had a wonderful housekeeper who agreed to come and cook some really good fish tacos one nite.

We also met some interesting friends who lived in a tree just outside our villa.

On balance, it was a good trip, even if I was restricted in what I was able to do.

Don’t you hope you’ll look this happy on your 89th birthday (:-}.

Actually, she was quite alert, but didn’t eat much of the birthday dinner we brought.

And nobody does it better than Grandma Geri

• Another first last week–20 minutes out of Salt Lake on Delta Airlines, the plane took a quick dip to the right and then down dropped all the oxygen masks — yup the unlikely loss in cabin pressure the attendants are always warning you about at the beginning of a flight. I suddenly wished I had paid closer attention to those demonstrations at the beginning of each flight on how to use those things. The flight attendant even said she has been on hundreds of flights and never had that happen. Anyway, we went back to Salt Lake, where we waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . and finally got on another plane headed for L.A. and onto the Mexican cruise. It was “smooth sailing” after that, but it did add to the excitement of the trip. By the way, in case you haven’t paid attention either, be sure to yank on the clear tubing to get the the oxygen flowing. I had my mask on, but just about sucked myself inside out because the oxygen wasn’t flowing. No harm, though, just a headache. — Geri

Trip couldn’t have been better. Lucked out with the nicest Compfort Inn I’ve seen for $99 in Gathersburg, MD — great breakfast and only a 15 minute walk from the Metro. Weather was perfect — cool, but no rain. Began with three days seeing all the tourist things in DC. Some highlights worthy of photos (we went to all the museums) were:

Washington monument

Lincoln Memorial

Inside the Memorial is pretty plain, but looking up at the statue, just couldn’t help thinking, “Here is a great man.”

Arlington Cemetery

The guard at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Changes evey 30 minutes in a very formal ceremony. In between, these guys march back and forth about every 5 minutes, again very stiff and formally.

Drove down to Bob’s for the weekend and on the way back we stopped at Fredricksburg, site of one of the big Civil WarBattles and where some 2000 Union soldiers are buried (13,000 casualties to 5000 for the Confederates, who were clear winners).

Union General Burnside kept sending wave after wave of Union soldiers across a large open field against Confederate soldiers with rifles and cannons behind a wall. Before he finally called it off, the Union soldiers were piled three deep.

On the way back, we also stopped at Mt. Vernon, estate of George Washington. Lot’s to see, but we didn’t have enough time, so we’ll definitely plan to give it more time another trip.

So, now on to the big bike adventure on the Blueridge Parkway for which Larry has been training all summer. It starts about 80 miles west of DC in a place called Front Royal, VA. So, here we are:

(my friend Alan and I) ready to go

with our trusty support crew cheering us on.

The first 20 miles had us climbing 3000 ft, but it really wasn’t bad, given that I’d been training all summer doing 2800 ft in 10 miles. So, here we are at lunch time, feeling pretty good.

Did about 50 miles a day, which was about all we wanted. But, when ya got this kind of stuff:

consantly overlooking the Shenandoah valley, life can’t be too hard, can it?. Meanhile, as we’re rolling up the pavement, out support team is

playing with some new friends and

getting some much needed rest from the hard work of support (:-}.

We rode W,Th,F (50 miles each day) and decided to take Sat morning to see some stuff around Lexington, VA (e.g., Stonewall Jackson Museum,

campus of Virginia Military Institute,

and then the Parkinsons (our friends) drove down to see their daughter in Chaple Hill, NC, coming back on Sunday. Meanwhile, we drove over to Charlottesville, went to Church, and then out to Thomas Jefferson’s Estate, Montecello.

Very beautiful grounds, including a hill, overlooking his estate and home (the white structure in the middle),

and the home itself (which is what we’re looking at).  We didn’t remember this, but this back view of Jefferson’s home is on  one side of a nickel.

Biked again on Monday down to Roanoke, which gave us just over 200 miles, where we decided to give it up and spend some more time enjoying some of the surrounding attractions.

Lest some of you think, “Well, 200 miles in four days is nothing,” according to the Shenandoah National Park map, we climbed a total of 20,646 feet in those four days. Glad I had trained as much as I had (guestimate I spent well over a hundred hours on my bike before the trip).  I became very intimate with the Alpine loop in American Fork Canyon, just 2.5 miles from our house.

On Tues we drove all the way back up (north) to Antietam National Battlefield (another Civil War battleground), because we had to take our rented bikes back to Leesburg. Antietam was another very sobering place. It remains the largest single day loss of American solders in US history (total of 23,000 soldiers killed on both sides). It resulted in a stalemate, but was considered a Union victory, because it stopped Lee’s advance toward Washington. This is a shot of the cemetery where most of those solders are buried.

All around, don’t know how we could have had a better trip.

We began in southwestern CO, where I just had to take this picture of a high mountain meadow (10,000 feet - almost as high as top of Timp)

1. the meadow, 2. sign for Lizard peak above the meadow, & 3. Lizard peak.  As beautiful as are our mountains, Colorado has more than 50 peaks above 14,000 ft.

The next stop was the ruins at Mesa Verde, just east of Pueblo, CO.  Only took a couple of pictures of the exits out of the ruins, which are actually located in openings in the sides of cliffs .

1.  18 foot ladder we had to climb, and 2.  opening through which we had to squeeze.

Next stop was Albuquerque and the balloon museum.  The annual hot air balloon festival (the largest in the world) is held there each October.  The museum has all kinds of balloons that have been used since people began to use them.  Didn’t feel like pictures could really justify.

Next was another set of native ruins at Chaco Canyon,  New Mexico (northeastern). Unlike those at Mesa Verde, these ruins are above ground.

1.  Info sign, 2.  Layout of the original complex, and 3.  some of the ruins

Next stop was Sedona  Arizona (northwestern).  However, on the way there in western New Mexico, we came across the Very Large Array (VLA) of receivers that make up the world’s largest radio telescope, operated by the NRAO (National Radio Astronomy Observatory).  By placing 27 large receiver dishes in a Y-array, they are able to simulate a a receiver dish that would be 22 miles in diameter.   They are on tracks that allow them to be arranged in a variety of configurations.

The mountains of northern Arizona are very nice, so the trip into Sedona from NM was very scenic and enjoyable (just the stuff for which motorcycle rides are made).  Sedona is very beautiful and is nestled in the mountains south of Flagstaff.  There is a spiritual mystique associated with it that attracts all kinds of people such as artists searching for inspiration for their work and other kinds of spiritual guidance.  Unfortunately (from my perspective), it has become very touristy (e.g., take Park City or Jackson, WY times 10 for gift and crafts shops and jeep tours).  But, it makes for a very interesting visit.  Unfortunately, we had been a bit too leisurely on our trip to that point, so weren’t able to spend but a couple of hours there.

1.  A shot of the area surrounding Sedona, 2.  intro to the road north to Flagstaff, 3.  a shot back at the road (very nice ride)

We stayed the last nite in Blanding, Utah (very southeastern corner), but on the way there from AZ, we saw a couple of very interesting sites I’d previously heard of, but hadn’t visited.  The first was monument valley, which is a large flat, kinda barren valley, but from which protudes some very interesting formations (e.g.,)

The second was Mexican Hat, which is the name of a very small town, BUT is named for a very interesting formation as I’m certain you’ll agree

As it turned out, when I stopped to take the first picture, I felt something biting my leg, and looked down to find myself standing in an ant bed.  For the next few miles, I was patting my legs and bottom, killing ants — not fun, but not too serious.

Surely everyone can see why God created motorcycles!!!

This is just a test

Just some photos of our hike with Eth and Tanner up in American Canyon. Took them with my new phone camera, which explains why the quality isn’t quite what one would like.

- Larry