Trip Days 5-13a

Days 5-13

June 1-9

White Sands, NM to Phoenix, AZ

Over the next few posts I'm going to go through our time a Grandma and Grandpa's (The point of the trip, remember). We arrived Friday, the 1st and left Saturday, the 9th. Most of the time we spent swimming and eating and talking.

We always build at least one jigsaw puzzle when we go to G&Gs.

Update / Day 3-4

I haven't been able to post for a while. As I was trying to post about our first trip, we went on another one. We just got back from a trip to Pisgah National Forest in the Smoky Mountains. I'll post on it later.

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Day 3

May 30

Monahans, TX to Carlsbad, NM

100 miles

We had a short trip today so that we could have plenty of time to go into Carlsbad Caverns. We also came back to the caverns later to watch the bats come out. We have plenty of pictures of the cave but most of them didn't turn out because of the dark conditions down there. Besides, I'm having trouble compressing the photos. We just got a new version of Windows Vista and because of that I don't have all my photo software back on the computer.

End Day 3

Day 4

May 31

Carlsbad, NM to White Sands, NM

100 miles

Today we went to White Sands National Monument/Missile Range, but before I tell you about that I have to tell you about the trip there. I will soon be able to post video to the blog (I'll do an experiment in a minute) but for now you will have to let words suffice. In the middle of southern New Mexico is the most amazing forest, Lincoln National Forest. We didn't take any pictures only video (how could we?). White Sands was a pretty amazing place. You know its cool as soon as you drive in and you see the sign that reads, "Road closed for missile testing when flashing."
That's a real sign. The sands were awesome.

(This picture is not compressed so it may take time to load)

We happened to be there on a blue moon, and it was awesome to be there on the white sands with a full moon.

End Day 4

Trip Day Two: TX

Day Two

May 29, 2007


Tyler TX to Monohans TX

450 mi


Today we ate breakfast at the Tyler campsite. It sprinkled a little bit but not bad. We did have to drive through some pretty bad rain storms once we got on the road. At one point a lightning bolt struck the road between us and the car behind us. Sometimes we were driving at 40 mph on the interstate. We stopped at Monohans Sand Hills State Park for the night and had grilled chicken and baked potatoes.

End Day Two

Back home/Trip Day One: AL-TX

We made it back. We got home Tuesday afternoon after a two week trip to Phoenix and back. It was a great trip. Over the next few days we'll do posts about the days of the trip (remember 'Countdown to Christmas'?). Today I'll do the first day of the trip.

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Day One

May 28, 2007

Birmingham AL to Tyler TX

500 mi

Today was the first day out. We left home some time between 8 and 9 in the morning. This is day in which we travel through the most states: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and some of Texas. There are no odd adventures to report. We eat breakfast in the van and lunch somewhere in Mississippi. Tyler is about 1/5 of the way in to Texas; it's half-way between Dallas in Louisiana. We pitch camp at Tyler State Park around 5 pm.

End Day One

News from Phoenix

I think this is the first update posted from someplace other than at home. Right now we are at Grandma and Grandpa's house in Phoenix Arizona. Weleft AL a week ago and have been here for a while. It's a little warmer here than at home; on our way here on I-10 the thermometer read 111 F! We've spent most of our time in the pool. G&G have a pool in their backyard and there's also a waterpark near by.
I (Jesse) am trying to get pictures of our trip out here posted but this is my first time to try to update the blog on the new laptop and I can't figure out how to compress the pictures so your computer will read it faster. I'll try to get help on that and post pictures soon.

Hurricane Relief pictures

The hurricane pictures are ready. There were 144 pictures that we took on the 4 day trip, and I've selected 14 of them. I will definitely post more later. Also, I would like to post more in-depth comments on the trip. I'd like to have Abigail write some too. Anyway here are the pictures. If your are looking for pics of Jack and Chris' B-day, see the previous post.

Our crew: left to right (back) Sam, Andrew, (middle row) Abigail, Rebecca, Melanie, Scott, (lower row) Jesse, Jenell, and Greg.

The interior of the house we were working on. We worked on the roof, so the inside still looks like this.

The outside of the house. Trash from the hurricane was still everywhere.

Half the roof already had shingles on when we arrived. This is the other half.

We had to do some of the roof in the rain and wind. No one fell though!

The finished product.

Some men from another crew helped us finish the roof in double time.

Here's Andrew feeding seagulls. The wind was blowing so hard that the birds just hovered in the air like humming birds.

That all the pictures for this post. Like I said I will try to post more later...

[JESSE]

No, we're not dead!!!

Trust me; there are still functioning humans in the Kawell household, and if we haven't updated the Blog for a while...well, we've been busy!
Let's see, two Saturdays ago we started putting in the floor downstairs as we come near the end of our Downstairs Remodel Project. Our wonderful friend, Mr. Harper, came again to help out!




But, they couldn't finish sealing the floors because all day Sunday we were preparing for our annual vacation to Florida! Early Monday morning we set off, praying for no jellyfish or seaweed. Well... there were no jellyfish!

Fortunately, we only had really bad seaweed for one day, and we spent the rest of the six-day trip swimming...

Learning to play tennis...

Eating at our favorite restaurants...

With a beautiful view of the sunset...

Driving Go-carts...

And bumper-boats...

And, of course, building sandcastles... make that, a sand city!

It was a wonderful vacation!!!