November 1997 in Omega

You can use most any measure
when you’re speaking of success.
You can measure it in fancy home,
expensive car or dress.
But the measure of your real success
is one you cannot spend.
It’s the way your son describes you
when he’s talking to a friend.

August 1999 in Salt Lake City

Mom and Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary - July 2001

Sometime in 2001

February 2011 Trip To Utah

If I thought the trip to Utah the month before was rough, it was a cakewalk compared to the drive over this time. We had excessive amounts of blowing snow and whiteout conditions on this trip. Some of these pictures will give a small idea of the conditions. The first picture shows what it was like just as we were leaving the city limits of Casper. These pictures were taken while on the interstate...
Surprisingly, it only took us about 8 hours to get to the kids house.

January 2011 Trip To Kids

In January of 2011, Joe and I finally got to leave Casper for the first time in six months due to all the medical problems Joe had been experiencing. Since we hadn't been able to spend Christmas with the kids, we were going to celebrate it during this trip. Though the weather was quite nice with the sun shining, it became one of the hardest trips I'd ever driven to Utah.
The following pictures show what is known as "cloud inversion". It is mainly caused when the temperatures at ground level are colder than those above at certain altitudes. Normally it is where the change in temperature is that determines the altitude at which the inversion takes place. The warmer temperature above keeps the clouds in place.

There were times it seemed as if the road was going to run straight into the clouds.

The picture below shows more of the cloud phenomena. If you look near the bottom of the next picture you will see a "V" in the mountains. That is known as "Devil's Gate" which is located right next to Martin's Cove. The site, significant in the history of western pioneers, was a major landmark on the Mormon Trail and the Oregon Trail although the actual routes of travel did not pass through the very narrow gorge.

These flags flying at the Independence Rock rest area and show how briskly the wind was blowing when we stopped for a break.

These mountains are near one of the Continental Divide areas we pass over. Notice the solid white snow-covered mountains which we eventually drive by.

Before we got to the interstate, we started seeing lots of blowing snow. Sometimes it was so bad I had to pull over off the road because I couldn't see.

The following two pictures show the parking lot at a gas station we stopped at along the interstate. The second one is a handicap parking space.

This deer and buffalo herd was looking for food at one of the rest areas where we stopped.

The sun was trying to break through the clouds.


We finally arrived after 9 1/2 hours - the longest it has ever taken for us to drive there.

It's Papa!

These flags have flown so hard in the wind that the American flag has become frayed and a portion of the Wyoming state flag has disappeared.


This is our arrival at the kids' home. And who did Derek want to see first?



Papa Joe!!!

Then he had to show Papa how well he could ride the tricycle he gave him for his birthday...


Then it was on to give the furry kids a drink of water...

The Craw-Holyoak Wedding Reception