Back in the DFW Area

INKS LAKE STATE PARK, TX September 26 – October 10, 2005
LAKE RAY ROBERTS STATE PARK, TX October 10-21, 1005

Upon leaving Delton’s High School Football team reunion, we decided to go back to Inks Lake for 2 weeks before heading back to the DFW area.

We thought the weather would be great and the hot weather would be gone, BUT the temperature was over 100 degrees for 10 out the 14 days we were at Inks Lake. Texas just didn’t want to cool down. Joni actually enjoyed the weather because she felt like she missed summer – being up north all summer.


We got to see some old friends and made some new friends while we were there. Pictured are Robert and Lynette - park host friends we enjoyed getting to know.
Delton caught some catfish (which we enjoyed eating with our friend Robert) and Joni loved paddling around in her kayak. .


We left Inks Lake and headed to Lake Ray Roberts – HOME. Joni was so excited to be back home. We got right back into the old routine – just like we still lived here. We’re involved in church, choir, old friends (Kathy and Skip McKie are pictured) and family. It’s good to be back!

One day while Joni was riding her bike around the campground, she noticed a car driving slowing past our campsite. The man was in the car and the woman was walking along the car, taking notes on the camp sites. Joni overheard them talking and heard them mention our campsite. We were originally scheduled to move out of our site the next day, but had decided to stay a few more days. Joni felt she should mention that to the people in the car, so they would choose a different site. WE HAD THE BEST SITE IN THE CAMP GROUND! Well, she rode her bike up to the car to talk to them and after a few minutes, the man extended his hand to introduce himself.
It was MARK DAVIS, popular local and national radio talk show host. He and his family were riding around looking for a good site to reserve so he could park his boat right at the site. How exciting that was!!! Joni talked to them for about 20 minutes, mostly about RVing and traveling around the country. Maybe he will use the topic of “Fulltime RVing” for a topic on his show one day.

Another funny thing happened while at Lake Ray Roberts. Joni was out paddling in her blow up kayak one afternoon, when she noticed a guy (about 25 years old) riding around on his wave runner. She noticed that he was stopping and starting a lot and thought he was just playing around. Actually, he was having engine trouble. Finally he caught Joni’s attention and asked if she would tow him to the bank around the lake (not very far away). She tied a rope around her waist and he held the other end of the rope and she started to paddle. It was hard – against the wind and all. Finally, when they realized they weren’t getting anywhere, they decided to switch places. He paddled the blow up kayak and she rode on the wave runner. They slowly made their way to the other bank. Too bad no one saw them and took a picture. It was a very funny sight.

Since we’re spending so much time in our old home town, we decided to move back to the Grapevine area. We moved to a Twin Coves Park on the north side of Grapevine Lake, only a 15 minute drive to our old stomping grounds.

Skip McKie's Retirement Party

October, 2005



We were lucky to be able to attend a retirement party for our dear friend, Skip McKie. Skip retired from Southwest Airlines in October. We were able to attend a party given at the Love Field and at the Skip and Kathy’s home in Trophy Club.

When a pilot retires, his last flight is treated very special. Many of the McKie’s family were able to take the flight with him. When they arrived back at Love Field, 2 fire trucks greeted the plane and shot water over the plane as it taxied to the gate. It was like laying down the red carpet for a job well done.

A party was given in the pilots lounge after the flight. Later on, Kathy gave Skip a party at their home, inviting many friends. We were so happy to attend, not only for Skip, but because we were able to visit with many of our friends and neighbors from Trophy Club. Joni spent most of the day with Kathy, helping her with the preparations and catching up with news from the months we’d been gone.

Weekend of Champions

Stamford, Texas: September 24, 2005

A fifty year anniversary celebration took place today to honor the Texas State Champions for AA Football for the years 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1959. Delton was a member of the 1958 and 1959 teams. A social hour and banquet was held at the Stagecoach Inn in Stamford. Coaches Bill Anderson and Larry Wartes were featured speakers as well as members of each state championship team (Jackie Mills, Mike McClellan, Jimmy Payne and Bobby Gamblin). Legendary Texas Coach Gordon Wood was represented by his son Jim. Gordon was coach of the 1955 and 1956 teams. Delton played for Gordon during his sophomore year and Coach Wartes was head coach of his 1958 and 1959 teams. A special video was shown highlighting each team’s accomplishments.

The Stamford vs. Jacksboro Homecoming football game was played that afternoon. Each championship team and player was recognized at the game. The combined win/lose record for the championship teams was 58-1-1. Delton was an End and one of his receptions played a key role in the Championship game against Brady. This highlight play appears in the book King Texas Football. Out of the people that Delton associated with in this group, players and coaches, there are six people recognized in the Texas High School Coaches Hall of Honor, one U.S. Congressmen and a Federal Judge. Many others went on to very successful careers in business and agriculture. Their experiences during this time on the gridiron contributed greatly to their success.

Delton’s dad, Doc, was very proud of all his sons and especially loved watching them play football. He passed away last year and we all know he would have greatly enjoyed coming to this celebration event. Delton’s mom, Josie, participated in the event along with wife Joni and brother Ron.

On Our Way Back to Texas - The Rocky Mountains

September 11-15, 2005
We spent 2 nights in Seattle after returning from our wonderful cruise to Alaska. We caught up on our laundry, business and other daily tasks. Then we started our long drive back to Texas.

We had about 2 ½ weeks to get back to Stamford where Delton was looking forward to his September 24th high school reunion for the championship football teams 50th anniversary.


We drove for 5 straight days, driving about 250-300 miles each day. We when got to Loveland, Colorado, we decided to stay for a while. We were at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and knew this was a place to enjoy.
We stayed at the Riverside RV Park for 5 days and took day trips into the Rocky Mountains to do some hiking and biking.

We drove up above the tree line on the Trail Ridge Road on one adventure, which took us into some very cold snowy weather. I couldn’t believe it was September and it was snowing – hard. The road was narrow with big drop offs and no guard rails. We drove very slowly and the view was spectacular, but Joni couldn’t see much since she was driving and wouldn’t take her eyes off the road….. She only looked when we stopped!


Eli and Lisa Bernard, our education pastor and friend from First Baptist Church Trophy Club had just moved to Loveland, so we decided to stop on their doorstop and surprise them. We had a great visit and they invited us for diner the following night. It was fun catching up on the latest news from the last few years.


After leaving Loveland, we had a few extra days before the reunion, so we decided to visit our friends, Walt and Gayle Fenoglio in Glorieta, New Mexico. We spent one day picking raspberries with them, did some hiking in Glorieta and played cards with Gayle and Walt and some of the volunteers in Glorieta.

Delton’s friend and co-worker from IBM, Gary Miller, lives in Albuquerque, which is close to Glorieta, so we decided to see Gary and his wife Ellie. They live in an adobe house with a beautiful view of the mountains in their back yard. Delton enjoyed catching up on old times with Gary.

After spending 5 days in Glorieta we were ready to head back to Stamford for the reunion. We stopped off in Lubbock to visit Larry and Linda. While there we got our refrigerator fixed, the Jeep inspected and Delton got his address changed on his driver’s license.

Cruise to Alaska

Anchorage, Alaska: September 5, 2005

After months of anticipation we were finally on our way. We drove our car to the Sea-Tac Airport and boarded the Princess Cruise Line bus which dropped us off at our ship in Vancouver, BC. Delton was excited because Alaska was the only state of the 50 that he had not set foot in. He had waited for many years to make this happen.

We had several other family members coming along to make this very special. Delton’s mom Josie; brothers Ron, Larry and Max; sister-in-laws Linda and Rita; uncles and aunts Robert and Ruth Isaacs, Dorothy Bailey, and Tommy and Betty Keenum joined us in Vancouver. The aunts are all Josie’s sisters which made it special for her. Joni loves the water so cruises are always fun for her, although she would have liked the weather to be a lot warmer.

The ship left the port on Monday afternoon, August 29th, from Vancouver with stops in Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway, Glacier Bay, College Fjord and Whittier. From Whittier we rode a bus to our final destination of Anchorage. This is a one way cruise so we took Alaska Airlines back to Seattle. As always the most enjoyable parts of the cruise are the eating and entertainment; aside from the excursions. We had a lot of each and despite a lot of walking on the excursions managed to gain a few pounds.

When in port the some of the ladies wanted to shop, so the guys reluctantly tagged along. There were not very many hardware stores for the guys, mainly jewelry, t-shirts and the typical tourist traps. Other than dinners together and a few shows everyone seemed to have their own glitch for doing things. The sisters like to shop and they drug Robert and Tommy with them. Larry and Max with their wives had their thing going. Ron was gracious to hang out with us in whatever we did. We like to hike!

Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway are all located in the Inside Passage of Alaska. Ketchikan got its start during the 1897 Gold Rush Era but for the past several years its mainstay industry is tourism. The brothers and sister-in-laws wanted to see the salmon run so we headed up to Creek Street. The tide was going out so all of the salmon were hiding behind rocks to wait for calmer streams. We saw hundreds of large salmons. All the girls but Joni quickly tied of this, so shopping began. Since Creek street use to be the old “Red Light” district for the miners we had to take that in. At the Dolly House Museum we had a little lady entertain us as we strolled by. Then the gals, except for Joni, drug us off for more shopping. Joni preferred hiking and looking at the sites.


Juneau was also founded because of gold. The gold mining industry was halted in 1944, but continues to play an important part in their economy, as does fishing and tourism. Joni, Ron and I decided to take the Mount Roberts Tramway which was just a block from our ship. We were able to see bald eagles both going up the tram and coming down. On top we had a great view of the city and bay area. It was a beautiful site. There were also trails going further up the mountain which we explored. We stopped at Father Brown’s cross which is at 2,050 feet with a great view and then went on up the mountain for another couple of miles and over 3,000 feet elevation. We enjoyed the hike and exercise. After coming down we explored the city.


Skagway got its start because of gold, but in a little different way. The gold was discovered in the Yukon Territory and Skagway was the passage to get there. Two routes were taken to get to the Yukon. One was straight up and over the mountains and the other was up the valley. Both were very hazardous. After a few years a narrow gauge rail line was built up the valley. We took the White Pass Scenic Rail ride to the top of the White Pass and learned a lot about the history of this area. At the top you could still see the trail that the miners used. There was a movie made about the other trail, but I cannot remember the name of it. My mom, brothers and sister-in-laws all made this trip with us. It was great sharing this experience together.


After Skagway we headed to open waters in the Alaskan Gulf. We had two stops along the way, first at Glacier Bay and then College Fjord. Both bays offered great views of active water front glaciers. We were able to hear the thunder created by the splitting ice and see calving take place. Calving is where ice breaks off the glacier and forms an ice berg. We had a great sunny day at Glacier Bay. On the way out of the bay we were able to see our first bears and also some whales. They were quite a ways off so it dampened the excitement. The next day at College Fjord was overcast and cold. However, the glaciers were something to see.

Our last port was Whittier. We moved our luggage off the ship and checked our bags into Alaska Airlines. From Whittier we took a bus ride to Anchorage. It was a beautiful ride up the bay with more whale sightings. One of the buses in our group had a run-in with an RV. The bus lost one of its mirrors and had a few excited passengers. They are still looking for the RV. He was in a hurry to get wherever he was going. In Anchorage, we mostly did the tourist stuff and some shopping. At the end of the day, we took a bus ride to the airport and caught our flight to Seattle. This ended a great trip and loads of fun.

Waiting in Seattle

Seattle, Washington: August 29, 2005

Our Alaska cruise starts on August 29. We arrived in the Seattle area on August 21st. It was important to us to get here early so we could figure out how to get to our ship in Vancouver and find a storage place for our motor home. After looking at storage, boat, train, airplane and car options for a few days we finally worked things out. We were able to store our motor home in the RV park where we had been staying for the past week. From there we could drive our car to the Sea-Tac Airport and then take the Princess bus directly to the ship. This worked out to be our easiest and least expensive options.


While waiting for our cruise date we were able to make several excursion trips in the Seattle area. We went to Mt. Rainier, Mt. St. Helens, Olympic National Park, the Space Needle and Port Angeles. Don’t go to the Space Needle. It is a total rip-off! They wanted $13 each, just to ride the elevator to the top for the view. We decided to decline their offer. At each of the parks we did quite a bit of hiking. There were some very nice trails and most had water falls and other things to see.

The top of Mt. Rainier was covered with clouds when we were there, so we were disappointed about that. We did get in a nice hike to Carter Falls. Fortunately we were able to get a clear view of the mountain several times as we traveled about the Seattle area.


Mt. St. Helens was very interesting. We drove up to the Johnston Ridge Observatory where we did some looking and hiking. The volcano is still active and gases were escaping to form a cloud above the peak. We also saw a couple of movies that showed the big eruption on May 18, 1980. It was incredible to see the destruction that resulted from the blast and mudslides; some of which is still visible after 25 years. Weyerhaeuser has done a great job in restoring the forest that was destroyed. The last eruption was in 2004 which did little damage by comparison.


Olympic National Park is very pretty. We took a trip to Hurricane Ridge and hiked 1.6 miles to the top. You could see the bay area, including Victoria and Canada. It was a great view! We went back down the mountain and after a six mile bike ride in Port Angeles we drove over to Lake Crescent. The lake was beautiful. From the lake we hiked up to Marymere Falls. We passed through some very old forest with huge trees on the way to the falls. It was a great hike!

On Our Way to Seattle

August 17 – 20, 2005

We decided to take our time getting to Seattle for our cruise to Alaska. Our first night was in Provo, Utah, then to Boise, Idaho and then Yakima, Washington. We traveled between 250 and 400 miles a day. It was a hard 4 days. We prefer not to drive so much without stopping to see the sights, but we had a deadline and needed to get to Seattle to firm up our plans for the cruise. We had to figure out how we were going to get to Vancouver BC, where we sail from, and where to leave our motor home (in the United States, not in Canada) and how to get back to our motor home after the cruise. The cruise is a one way sail, so we must fly back from Anchorage to Seattle.

While traveling in Utah, we ate at the Red Lobster. Our waiter, James Roberts, was very interested in what we were doing. As luck would have it, his sister, Sissy, lives near Seattle and has a covered RV spot with full hookups at her home. He offered us the spot while we cruised. We exchanged phone numbers and have been trying to figure out how to make the logistics of our plans work out. We’ve been in touch with Sissy a few times and as of this writing we are still working on this. Who would have ever imagined that our diner at the Red Lobster would turn out with a answer to our logistics problem. People can be so nice. You never know where the roads will lead us……

Angels Landing

Zion National Park, UT: August 16, 2005

Angels Landing is a 1400 foot high chunk of rock that juts out into the Zion Park valley. It has vertical cliffs on both sides that start at the top and drop on both sides to the valley below. The trail to the top is 2.5 miles long with a climb of 1,488 feet and is not for the faint-of-heart! It starts at the river below and winds through the narrow valley on the west side to a waiting point called Scout Landing. Along the way you get to climb up a set of 21 switch backs called Walter’s Wiggles. The switch backs allow you to ascend quickly up the mountain. Most hikers of the Angels Landing trail make it to Scout Landing, but only a few decided to go on to the top. It’s has something to do with the 1400 foot shear drop-offs on each side. It is not for anyone fearful of heights. Everyone that comes to the park talks about this climb.

We joined John and Bev Higbie at 8:00 am at the shuttle station for the ride up the valley. An early start is important because it can get very hot going up and down the rocks. We rode to the Grotto drop-off point. After departing the shuttle we crossed the river and started our climb up the valley. The first part of the trail has only a slight incline and is very easy. Then you get to a set of switch backs that gets your heart pumping from the climb. After that the trail goes to a more gentler incline until just before you get to the Walter’s Wiggles. From there it is a steep climb to Scout Landing.
When you get there you get a good look at what lies ahead. One-half mile of steep gutsy climbing lies ahead. Then you get to come back down, which is even more gutsy because you get to see what lies below. Only Delton and Bev decided to go on!
The climb to the top is mostly up and across vertical rocks that ascend one side or the other of the cliffs. Pictured are DELTON'S FEET from a very high point with a big drop! At one point of the trail there is a narrow section (about 30 inches wide) where the cliffs drop on both sides to the valleys below. At some sections of the trail there are chains that you can hold onto to keep from falling off. We were told that last year a Boy Scout fell from the top. He and a friend had ventured off from his Troup and they got a little careless.


Delton and Bev really enjoyed the climb and felt the rewards were far greater than the risk. John and Joni thought we were CRAZY.

Joni was expecting us to come back in about 30 minutes. She paced back and forth at Scout Landing and constantly looked up waiting for Delton and Bev’s return. It took us about an hour and a half to make the round trip. Joni was almost at panic-state by then. It was a good thing John was there to comfort her!

Grand Canyon, Arizona

August 16, 2005

One of our side trips while staying at Zion National Park was to go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a 2 hours drive and we went there with John and Bev Higbie.

Delton had been to the South Rim before, but not the North Rim. Joni has never been there before. It was spectacular! We took in the scenic views and hiked a few trails, ending our day with a wonderful meal at the lodge. Our window table had a magnificent view overlooking the Grand Canyon. What a sight!

Pictured is Joni getting use to a new comfort zone, looking over the edge of a steep drop-off.

We needed more time to see the whole park, but only had one day. It’s definitely a place to go back to.

Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah

August 12, 2005

We took a side trip to Bryce National Park in Utah during our stay at Zion National Park. Bryce is located about 90 miles northeast of Zion.

We went on a 5 mile hike through the canyons, meadows and forests. The beginning of the trail was amazing. It had rock formations from years of erosion that left the land in a rainbow of colors, cliffs and rock carvings.

Joni was very apprehensive walking the narrow trails with big drop offs and steep up and down climbing. The trail was supposed to take 4-5 hours to hike. We made it in 2 ½ hours – probably a hike record. A major storm was looming in the background which would have made the trail slippery and dangerous and there would have been no place to take shelter. Joni fled through, hardly stopping to look at the beautiful sights, while Delton tried to keep up. We got a great workout!

Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah

August 9-17, 2005

We stayed at the Quality Inn/RV Park in the town of Springdale during our trip to Zion National Park. The park is ½ mile from the entrance to the park, very convenient to both the town and the park. We didn’t need to use our car as we could walk or ride our bikes wherever we needed to go.

We met our friends John and Bev Higbie there. John and Bev were the first people we met on our very first campout in our motorhome in 2002 at Lake Ray Roberts in Texas. They own a beautiful 42 foot ForeTravel motorhome and have helped us through our life style change from home on land to home on wheels. Bev has been a major support in getting Joni through the sale of our house and getting into the full time RV experience.

John and Bev had to work during our first few days at the park, so we took a few hikes and met them during the evening. We saw some spectacular views while hiking and riding our bikes through the park.

Pictured are Delton and Joni on the way to Angel's Landing. It is a trail not designed for the faint-of-heart.

Lake Powell, Utah

August 8, 2005 Page, Utah

We spent one night at Lake Powell, Utah – on our way to Zion National Park in Utah. We had been driving for a few hours in the desert and everything was dry and dusty. All of sudden we came upon Lake Powell in the middle of the desert.


The lake was amid tall rocks and canyons. We had a beautiful camp site with a great view. Many water activities made it the perfect place for Joni. She wanted to stay a few more days, but we had reservations and friends to meet at Zion. It’s a place we will definitely go back to.