What nice responses from you. Grow,what a nice sentiment. Yes we should all be thankful for blessings both seen and those yet to come. It's our faith in those future blessings that keep us going when things may not look as bright as we would like. Tjsangel I losy my father in September. I thank heaven for all the wonderful years we had together. He was 87 and alert and active for all but the last three days he was with us. Now he,my mom,and my brother are all together again. So I am thankful for the time spent with all of them in days gone by. I am also thankful for new friends and the family I have left. Tootswisc,I am keeping things small as well. It will be me,the 'ball and chain'(lol)kids,dad's wife and few friends. I am so looking forward to it! I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I wish you a speedy recovery. I have no doubt that before long your health will be back full capacity! Keep the faith and believe. I wish you well . Now I am off to work. Take good care everyone. Grice

Right on, Kenny! NEVER stop dreaming! As a matter of fact, ever since I got back from this years vacation, Ive been planning for (dreaming of!) NEXT years vacation! I can hardly wait! And you dont need to actually move somewhere, but you can plan a trip down to Utahor Arizonaor somewhere to do some sight seeingand dream of staying there like I was doing this year! Besides the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a couple other National Parks, Utah has LOTS of National Parks and Monuments, and if youre looking for a warm place, New Mexico has several too. I went to Aztec Ruins and Chaco Canyon for the first time this year (cant wait to go back!), and theres Carlsbad Caverns WAY down in the south end of N. M. if you REALLY want warm! Youre never too old to be tooling around in the National Parks, and once you buy your $10 LIFETIME National Parks Senior Pass, everything is FREE and youre good to go! I dont have any implanted devicesyetbut when Im 80, in 14 years, I fully intend to still be doing my annual National Parks vacationscomplete with hikes! Actually, maybe/hopefully MORE than "annual" by then! The hikes might not be as "challenging" as some of the ones I do now, but Ill still be doing them! Heck, when I wind up driving a Hoveround to do things, Ill still be out enjoying the National Parks. Look out world! Crazy woman driver here! Ive seen a couple Dust Bowl shows on PBS, but I wont be able to watch the one on History. I dont have cable! Since they keep rerunning their shows, maybe Ill get to see it on a layover sometime! I really like shows like that! REAL "reality" shows! Hey, has everybody seen the new Ken Burns series on the National Parks? Like all his stuff, its really good! Yeah, David, thats the Moki Dugway! In 07 and 08 I wasnt able to find any decent places to stay in Blandingor Monticello, so for this year I was sort of googling that area and I happened upon the Moki Dugway! Researched it a little bit more and decided it would be fun to do, so I looked for places to stay in Bluff, and found a little cabinbut it turned out to be just one in a row of cabins, facing a parking lot. It was nice inside, but not the kind of cabin I look forwont be staying there again next year! I was thinking of doing the Valley of the Gods road too, but when I researched that online, people were saying that that roadalmost 20 mileswas REALLY bad washboard road, so I took the "real road" (Utah 163) to the west end of Valley of the Gods road and backtracked a little ways into it. It really was BADwashboard AND washed out in spotsso I didnt go very far, and as far as I went, there wasnt that much to see. Maybe there would have been more if I had done the whole thing, but after seeing Bryce, Cedar Breaks, and the other Parks down in Utah, I wasnt at all impressed. So since I was starting in Bluff, going to Natural Bridges, I "did" the Moki Dugway "backwards!" I started at the bottom and went up it rather than down it! I didnt take any pictures of them, but there are several of "those" signson BOTH ends of it! This is the "regular" road sign at the bottom where the pavement ends. I admit, at that point I was wondering what I was getting myself into! [if you click on the pic to get to the Picasa viewwhich is bigger than what I have posted here, all my pics are captioned] When I was "researching," I found out that the Moki Dugway was originally an Indian trail which was developed into it's present form by a mining company in 1958 so they could transport uranium ore to Mexican Hat at the base of Cedar Mesa. Maybe it's just because I've been in Colorado for so long, but the road wasn't half as bad as I was expecting from what I had found online! It's a very steep dropoff most of the way down, but it was surprisingly wide and really very well graded! I've been on way worse where you had to go really, really slowly around the blind curves in case somebody was coming the other direction! When I was researching it, this is the pic you most often find online! Here you can see a "loop" of the Dugway with paved Utah 261 in the valley, and the west end of the dirt Valley of the Gods road which goes past a building that used to be a B & B! And this is a pic at the top (looking backwards for me) right where it starts the steep drop down into the valley. If you havent done it before, I recommend it. Its a fun drive with some great views. Bet your kids would enjoy it! And, it sounds like youve been to Natural Bridges! Have you ever hiked the Horse Collar Ruins? Not the overlook, the ruins themselves. I recommend that too. You hike to the base of Sipapu and then about a mile down the canyon. This is it from the overlook. And this is it up close and personaland how it got its name! And, Dan, if youve been to Canyonlands, heres a couple pics for you! You must have seen some wonderful wildflowers if you were there in spring! This is the only plant pic I took in Canyonlands! I was wondering what it waswhen I first saw it the foliage looked like Sedum album, but when I looked more closely, the stems were semi-woody! I showed the pic to a Ranger, who I was hoping could tell me what it was, but even after looking online, she couldnt. Since I got home its been identified by someone I used to work with in the green industry as some sort of a chenopod (Chenopodiaceae), and I spent a little bit of time looking further, but there are a kazillion of them, so I still dont know the species! If anybody can tell me more......... Now heres the REAL pics! SMALL part of the view from Grand View Point Overlook! And this is one of the views from the Anasazi Granary trial which is under an overhang just below the very tippy-top of Aztec Butte! If anybodys thinking of taking a vacation down this way and is interested in seeing more picturesincluding the WONDERFUL little cabins I found in Moab, Torrey, Vallecito Reservoir (near Durango), and Pagosa Springs, let me know and Ill send you the links. I dont want to put the links to the full albums here online! A couple times when Ive googled things, Ive come up with MY OWN pictures, and its kinda weird to think of all of them floating around out there in the ether!!! Heres a tease! This is the ranch where I stayed in the Hideaway cabin in (23 miles northwest of) Pagosa! And some of the fauna I was enjoying with my evening glass of wine! ~~~AND~~~ Ignore all of this if youre not interested! Im just hanging out at home right now with lots of time to kill! National Parks Girl, Skybird

I'm gone for a while from the computer and look what I miss! PJ, I'm sorry your dad had to spend Thanksgiving in the hospital. I'm glad he's out and on the mend. My son and DIL were home on leave for Thanksgiving, but we had it on Tuesday instead of Thursday so my other son could participate. He works at a movie theatre, and with the other big past time on Thanksgiving being going out to a movie, he had to work. This was one of the best Thanksgivings I've had, in a way. It's the first I've hosted for some time, and all my kids were home for it for the first time in 3 years. My FIL and nephew came down from Oklahoma City, my sister came over from Sulphur Springs, my neice (sis's daughter) got to come, and my brother came up from Katy. Even my cousin's daughter dropped in for a brief time. It was wonderful! But with having all that company and not being used to it, I just didn't spend any time at the computer other than to look up recipes. The bonus of having Thanksgiving a couple of days early was that we just kicked back and ate left overs on Thanksgiving day. I started to watch the Cowboys game, since I have watched it each Thanksgiving at the in-laws house over the years. That's the only day I watch them any more. I just don't like Jerry Jones. I did watch them when Troy and Emmitt were with the team, and I definately watched them back in Stauback's (sp?) day, but football just isn't the same as it used to be. I used to watch it with my dad when I was a little girl. We used to watch Vince Lombardi's team. At the moment I don't even remember which team it was he was coaching at the time, but I do remember watching football with my dad. Linda, I'm so glad about your son. What a relief! Finally, PJ, I missed the 2nd half of the game on Thanksgiving because my son found out one of his good friends was hospitalized in intensive care with a respiratory infection, and was hooked up to a breathing machine and everything. So, off we went to visit him in the hospital. He was actually allowed visitors, which surprised me. It appeared he was on the mend, but still in pretty serious condition. Being sick and in the hospital is definately not the best way to spend Thanksgiving. Sally

glenda_al, your son looks happy enough to pass for Parke Jr! I'm betting it's a good match. :) We'll be doing our usual trek out to my sister's place in Massachusetts..... always a traffic holdup at Thanksgiving, so will likely be a 5 hour+ drive. I have to finish getting packed and ready... She's a cooking/baking phenom so whatever I bring there will already be two or three of the same there. I'm keeping it easy on myself this year and just bringing cranberry sauce, gluten-free brownies, and lots of her favorite wine -- because they don't sell it in Mass! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (can't believe the holiday season has started already!!!!)