Headed South.....

Today we're departing Columbia and heading south. Last night we got to have dinner with our friends Phil and Vicki. I bumped into Phil a few years ago online while doing some research on the Maroon Bells area of Colorado. We discovered that we had been there during the same week in 2006 and we've been chatting since. It was so much fun to finally get to meet these guys in person!!!! We had an awesome dinner at a place called Murry's. The food was FABULOUS and the company even better. We shared travel stories and photo tips. When we got back to their house after dinner Phil shared some of his work with us. He gave me some great ideas for places to see out in Colorado, too! Thanks a million you guys!!! We really enjoyed our visit!!

Before heading down to Columbia we spent some time in Moberly with my Aunt Marcia and Uncle Tom (my mom's brother and his wife). It was such a treat to see them. We so rarely see our family....especially those on Mom's side. We had a wonderful visit and ran around Moberly for the afternoon with Marcia. We got to have dinner with them as well and we really enjoyed the day. It really was a treat to get to see them. I think we figured it had been 14 years since we'd seen each other last.

While in Moberly we had a few "coincidental" meetings with people who knew my family. I don't really believe in "coincidence". I know it was arranged.... :) One of the ladies who was running the front desk turned out to be my cousin's aunt. Her sister was married to my uncle. That was an interesting conversation! She was extremely helpful and we enjoyed chatting with her. We also met a guy who was surprised to hear that I was a Wessel. He said he lives in the "Wessel" subdivision and when he was recently remodeling his kitchen, he found Dad and John's signatures in pencil on the wood!!!! Small world!!!

When we left Moberly we drove over to Glasgow where my mom lived as a girl. We also wanted to visit my grandmother's grave there. We found out just what a small town Glasgow is!!!! Tom (my uncle) had given us a general idea of where Granny was buried and said that if we needed any help finding it to go to the funeral home and they would be able to help. They also said just to mention that I was Tony Komer's niece to anyone in town and I'd get all of the help I needed. :) When we got to town we stopped at a little floral shop and bought a bouquet of flowers to take with us. Then we wandered all through the cemetery with no luck and headed over to the funeral home (which is right across from the floral shop). We went in asked if they could help us and they were able to tell us when she had passed away, but wasn't sure where "exactly" she was buried. She suggested that we try across the street at the monument maker's place. So, we walked over and asked him if he could help us find Elizabeth Komer's plot and he sort of did a double take and then asked if I was related to Tony Komer. :) It turns out he was a good friend of Tony's and he actually not only told us where she was buried but took the time to drive us right to the spot!!! He asked if we were driving a suburban (Yukon's look about the same) and said that he'd already talked to his wife about us....... She owns the floral shop!!!! We hadn't been in town 30 minutes and already we'd been spotted and tagged as "the out of staters". :) I don't guess Glasgow, Missouri gets a ton of out of state visitors. :) I have lots more details and musings about this leg of the trip that I want to share, but right now we need to get down the road........ I'll catch back up later with pictures and details........
We're off!!!!

On the Road Again.....

Just a quick update.......

Our first night out ( 9/17) we stayed at the KOA in Billings, MT. It was a long but uneventful day.

Our second night we thought we'd drive all the way to Mitchell, SD but ended up only making it to the Badlands. It was dark and we had to decide if we wanted to see the Badlands or not. We stayed at some dump called the Circle 10 Campground at the east entrance to the Badlands. What a divola!!! It was a "Good Sam" campground and so we figured "How bad can it be?". Bad..... We'll leave it at that for now.

We rolled in to Des Moines, IA late on Friday night. Saturday morning we drove out to Tom and Terri's house (my uncle and aunt). Unfortunately, they weren't home. They were down in the Ozarks but we're hoping to meet up with them later this week. From there we went to my grandparent's house and had a very nice visit with my grandparents. We also got to see my cousin Ryan. On our way out of town that night we went over to see Ryan's house and meet his girlfriend Ashley. We really enjoyed our visit with them as well.

Last night we drove on as far as Moberly, Missouri. We figured we'd have no trouble getting a room. WRONG...... I guess Missourian's take their football seriously because there was apparently a college game (in Columbia I'm assuming) because Macon, Moberly and Columbia were all booked because of this game. So, we spent the night in the car in the parking lot at the Holiday Inn. :) Oh well. We saved a few bucks! We want to rent an ATV while in Colorado and it's about a $250 rental. We figured if we spent a few nights camping instead of in hotels we could rent the ATV and not add any $$ to the vacation budget. We're over half way there!

So, tonight we're staying INSIDE the Holiday Inn in Moberly and tomorrow we'll do a bit of looking around in this area. Today we drove out to the house my grandparents used to live in and saw the A-Frame that Dad built in that same area. After we're done up here we'll head south to Columbia.

I tried to add a few photos, but for some reason it's not working..... I'll try to figure it out tomorrow.....

More later!

A Double Blessing.....

These are 2 people I have such love and respect for.....yes, they are my parents, but they are also my friends. I probably don't have closer. I feel extremely blessed to have these 2 people in my life. You know, when you're a kid you never really appreciate your parents or even see them as "people". They're your parents...... As I've grown older, I've come to know them as people. I wish I'd not wasted so many years. They are 2 of the most beautiful people I know. They inspire me to seek the Lord in all things, to love others even when I don't like them, to treat my husband with love and respect, to forgive, to be honest and upright...... They have such an impact on my life. I am so thankful that God blessed me with such amazing people for parents. Mom and Dad....I love you and I thank you for being who you are........

This life is short....cherish every day with those you love.

On the Way to Monument Valley

I was just digging through some old shots that I've never spent any time on. I wasn't especially thrilled with them so I just stuck them away in a file. I pulled this one out and had a second look tonight. I wish I'd had a longer lens at the time. I think if I could have zoomed up on the moon some it could have been a much more pleasing shot. Next time..... :)

The dust storms they were having ended up driving us out of the area early, but they did make for nice sunrises and sunsets.....

11 Days and Counting......

Only 11 days left! I have a ton of stuff I should be doing rather than sitting here on the puter, but oh well. They'll be there tomorrow. :)


I was playing with a new brush I got...... I'm not sure I like what I did. I think the colored leaves are way too "whimsical" or something for the image. I don't think I like it..... The brush is cool...it just doesn't work here. And the back ground was supposed to be white...not pink. Egad! What was I doing????
This one is a pre-dawn shot at the Maroon Bells. We got up at the butt-crack of dawn for this shot. It was necessary. If you could see what was behind and beside me, you'd see why. This is an extremely popular spot for obvious reasons. It's aslo a great place to catch alpenglow. It was 27 degrees and there was ice around the edge of the lake. Our fingers and toes were totally numb, but we didn't care. I'll be going back.... :)

Countdown to Colorado

As of tomorrow, we're only 2 weeks away from leaving on our fall roadtrip!!! With my mammoth project at the office (mostly) behind me, I'm really looking forward to the break. It will be weird not being at the office for almost a month, but I think I can hack it!!! :)

True to form I haven't made a single reservation. When you are relying on the autumn color it's hard to know where you should be and when. We like to stay flexible (which sometimes translates to "we like sleeping in our car because we didn't make a reservation and there's a soccer hell convention in every town across America that we need to stay in...."). We've actually had such things happen....often, in fact. One year we stopped at a Wal-Mart in Rock Springs, Wyoming and bought sleeping bags because the ENTIRE STATE of Wyoming was booked because of the pipeline work. I'm not making it up......the whole state really was booked. We drove the entire state stopping in every town that had hotels. We ended up driving almost 18 hours that day to Steamboat Spring, Colorado. I guess that's just the risk you take.

We plan to hit Montana, Wyoming, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, maybe Oklahoma and Arkansas, Colorado and Utah on this trip. We'll be gone almost a month. Unless of course we just can't stand hotel beds anymore and come home early. We haven't taken a trip like this in a year and a half and we're really looking forward to it. We try to do it every 6 months, but we've just been too busy. Hopefully we'll hit awesome color and the snow will hold off. Last time we went Colorado had a very early winter and we got robbed. Oh, we still had fun, but we pretty much missed the color. We're praying for better weather this time.

Only 2 weeks left!!! WHOOHOO!