Mark discovers his hand

Is this cute or what!?

Today Mark spent more than 20 minutes batting at these toys suspended over his head. Amy says it's a first for him. He was very intent the whole time- it was fascinating to watch.

Baby time

Joanie is in Denver for 2 weeks to spend time with the kids -- Oh yes and with sweet baby Mark!!


Here he is going to sleep on my first night here....
Isn't he sweet??!!

September photos

After our days off in upstate NY- we traveled to New England-
Where we saw the very beginning of the turn to fall colors in the trees.....



We loaded yogurt and headed for New Mexico- where we saw this beautiful sunset over the desert......


We saw this flipped truck during a rain storm.......


Then, in LA, we saw this sign that perfectly expressed our feelings about drivers using cell phones.....


and I finally got a clear shot of this great sign near Mt. Shasta .....



Then we were back to Washington and up to Kettle Falls for 11 days - where more tile was added and new drywall was hung (not to mention several days of plumbing changes in the crawl space- no pictures).

Big Red visits Lake Ontario

Okay, we didn't really park the truck on this bluff over the lake- but we did park nearby and enjoy Lake Ontario at Sodus Point for the entire Labor Day holiday.

First we visited the old Light house---here it is---

And here is the view from the light house lawn....with the Sodus Point jetty in the background

And here we are on the jetty

After all that walking, we had lunch at a roof top restaurant with the Sodus Point harbor in the background

We spent the afternoon at the beach on Lake Ontario. The water wasn't warm enough to entice us to put on our suits- but I enjoyed wading........

and Kurt took a nap........

We visit the Palmyra Locks

While in Palmyra New York we got to watch a lock #29 on the Erie Canal in action.


As we arrive, the downstream boats are just entering the lock
This is the side canal where the main canal overflow enters


Here are the down stream gates closing


The water flows into the lock from underneath. It only took about 10 minutes to raise the water level 16 feet.


Here are the upstream gates opening. There was barely a ripple as it opened.

A day off on the Erie Canal

After Wisconsin we drove on to upstate New York and had the better part of 2 days off over Labor Day weekend.

Our first stop was to the town of Palmyra, NY- that is located on the Erie Canal (and is famous as the town where Joseph Smith found the Mormon tablets in his manure pile). We hoped to see the touristy side of the canal. Turns out that Palmyra town is a few block from the canal- so we got a lot of walking in as we toured the canal and then the downtown.

Along the canal we met this marmot (see him in the bottom right corner)



The town has resurrected this original canal bridge in their city park


Here is their information poster on how they saved the bridge.


Although Palmyra is does not appear to be a very wealthy town- there were some very stunning homes. We loved this one...


The local summer time hot-dog stand was not open on Sunday when we happened upon it, but we couldn't resist taking a picture of their sign. Apparently there is another Kurt with an appetitie for BLUE hot dogs!

Wisconsin Backroads

Every now and then we get a delivery that is a little off the beaten track. On Friday we delivered 8 bins of organic Washington apples to a hilltop orchard business about 60 miles off the interstate in Wisconsin.

It was a beautiful drive through the country side. Here is some corn growing....


Here is a neat-as-a-pin farm along the way


Here is the truck backed up to the dock...


Here is the view from the truck as we sat at the dock...

My favorite birds

This is a lake at a rest area in Minnesota. We watched this pair of egrets for the longest time.

Here is the white one


Along comes another one to join him

More scenes from the Painted Canyon in North Dakota