Wyoming and Tetons Day one

Wyoming has proven to be a land of surprises as we have traversed the state from Southeast to Northwest. An early antelope (this time I got the picture!), miles of buttes, bluffs and land that at times resembled a desert, and then into the Shoshone National Forest which changed the landscape entirely! We took a sidetrip on a 5 mile dirt road to Brooks Lake and the closer we got, the more snow there was!! Wildlife continues to be abundant as this deer indicates.

Back on the road and it wasn't long before we crested a hill and there they were!--THE GRAND TETONS! Teddy Roosevelt is said to have remarked something like "Now that's the way mountains should look!" - and WE AGREE!

We are in a motel tonight, and tomorrow we will transfer to the Inn at Colter Bay where we will connect with Celeste and Rolf for 5 days of exploring the Tetons and Yellowstone. I don't think it will be possible to take a bad picture here, so early in the morning I plan to start shooting away.

We have a whirlpool in our room tonight, so any more blogging is just going to have to wait! I'll post again in a couple of days.

David and Sandra

Colorado Springs to Rawlins, Wyoming

"Home, Home on the Range!"




Tonight I'm writing to you from Rawlins, Wyoming. Yesterday we completed our three day stay in Colorado Springs with a visit to the US Air Force Academy in the morning and a time for regrouping in the afternoon. (Sandra and I did laundry and while we waited for clothes to get clean, I cleaned and washed the car)



So many people had encouraged us to go to the Academy, and we are glad we did. It was alot of walking for Sandra but she showed that she is a trouper, and we got to walk through most of the campus. Most buildings are off limits but there is great Visitor's Center, and then there is the CHAPEL! Oh MY!! The word AWESOME comes to mind. We spent some time reflecting there, and on our way back to the car stopped to watch the beginnings of "formation" on the lower Quad. It wasn't as impressive as it would have been when all of the cadets are present, but still it was interesting and impressive to see the precision and discipline involved.

Today we hit the road again and drove through some of the most spectacular country yet!

We went first to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and revisited the exact place (St. Paul's Lutheran Church) where we had the first "serious talk" about our future together 51 years ago! FUN! and also quite romantic.



The drive from Cheyenne to Rawlins took us through mile after mile of unbelievably broad views of "the Range" (as in "Home, home on the..."). I didn't take any pictures of it because I couldn't figure out how to capture the vastness of it all. We saw quite a number of antelope near the highway, sometimes in herds, sometimes solitary, but by the time we saw them it was always too late to stop, so once again - no pictures! I hope to correct that when we get to the Tetons!

We got here early this afternoon, so we will take advantage of the pool for a swim. Tomorrow takes us to Jackson Hole and the Tetons!

By the way, if you want to go back a couple of days and check out the Garden of the Gods you can do so at http://www.gardenofgods.com

June has been a great month for our family. June 24th was Grandma Izzy's 93rd birthday, Keith and Kim were married 20 years on June 5, Tyler turned 15 on June 11, and Celeste and Rolf will celebrate their anniversary tomorrow, June 27th! Happy celebrations everybody!!


David and Sandra

Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls

A Day in the Garden of the Gods and at Seven Falls

The alarm went off at 5am this morning -- on purpose!! We are discovering that here in Colorado Springs the mornings are by far the best time for sightseeing and that by 2pm or so the afternoon thunderstorms roll in. Photographically, the early morning light is great for scenics, so we really took advantage of it. I'll let some pictures speak for themselves.

"Balancing Rock" is one of the fascinating structures in the Garden

The wildlife is abundant and used to people being around. Today we saw deer, rabbits, hummingbirds, and a black bear cub that ran across the road right in front of us. It happened too fast for a picture, but fortunately we were driving slowly and could avoid him.

After a relaxed morning in the Garden of the Gods, (Sandra sat in a gazebo and let the wildlife come to her while David hiked and took pictures.) we hopped in the car to visit another of the sites from honeymoon days - Seven Falls. Located in North Cheyenne Canyon Park, Seven Falls is a beautiful series of cascades. The falls is also the site of some authentic Native Dancing. Since we were last here they have blasted a vertical elevator shaft that takes you to the Eagles' Nest where you can get a view of the entire "Seven Falls"

Tomorrow we will visit the Air Force Academy and spend the afternoon doing laundry and cleaning the car before our trip on Thursday to Cheyenne and Rawlins Wyoming.

Are we having fun yet? You bet!!!!

David and Sandra

Midsummer's Day thru Pike's Peak

June 21 is Midsummer"s Day in Lindsborg (just like the rest of the world!) As you can see from these pictures, we had a blast celebrating our Swedish heritage. We walked most of Main Street and stopped in some of the shops where we knew the owners; watched the Swedish Dancers and the Folkdancers; listened to good music (the Swedish variety); and enjoyed a traditional Swedish Smorgasbord.

Later in the evening we drove to Salina to visit with Alan and Joyce Lindholm. Alan is Sandra's cousin and we had a delightful evening remeniscing about times during childhood summer days spent in Bridgeport, Kansas, where the Lindholm clan would gather.

Sunday morning we bade farewell (with some heart-tugs) to Bethany and Lindsborg and turned the Subaru due West toward Western Kansas. Once again, energy sources caught our attention in the form of a huge windfarm. It just kind of rose out of the horizon like an apparition and became more and more visible as we drove along. It took us an hour to actually get there!

Our goal for the first half of the day was the West Kansas farm of our friends Bill and Wilma Mai.

Wilma was Sandra's maid-of-honor and we had not seen them for years. We were to discover that Bill has become one of Kansas' leading experts both in tri-part rotation and dry (no irrigation) farming of White Wheat. White wheat is what whole wheat flour is made from, and one of his major customers is King Arthur, in Norwich, Vermont. Small world!!

Today (Monday) was the first of three days in Colorado Springs, and we decided to take the Cog Railway to the summit of Pike's Peak. It was a beautiful trip, but both Sandra and I had a fair amount of difficulty with light-headedness at the top. We were warned that with the "light air" at that elevation the danger was of dehydration, and we really had to be careful not to pass out. We stopped by Garden of the Gods in the early afternoon just to scope out what will be our focus tomorrow. We're hoping for a 5am start to take advantage of the early morning light. Hope to have some good shots of a beautiful place for you be tomorrow night!

For now, let it suffice to say that our "Pilgrimage" is living up to all our expectations!

David and Sandra

Valkommen!

Today we greet you from Lindsborg, Kansas where we have returned for a visit to our Alma Mater, Bethany College, and a gathering of the Augustana Heritage Association.

There are many beautiful things about Kansas, but what has struck us is the juxtaposition of two very contemporary issues: Food (that's wheat in the field) and Oil (that's an oil pump pumping away right in the middle of the wheat field. )
Kansas produces only a small percentage of the world's oil but a huge percentage of the world's wheat.




The sign at the edge of town says "Valkommen" and what a welcome it has been. In many ways it seems like we had never left. Many important events in our family took place here including our engagement, the birth of Celeste, Sandra's and my college graduations and Celeste's as well.


Our days here have been filled with reunions with college and seminary friends, and a chance to participate once again in the wonderful Augustana (Swedish American) culture that nurtured our early life and faith.



It has been particularly nice to revisit Bethany College. Much about the campus has changed but the spirit is very much the same. Some buildings have gone and some have been built, but the biggest change has been the landscaping. It's beautiful!!
Although "Old Main" is no more, the statue of Karl Swenson (now a fountain!) still dominates the campus along the "Prominade of Flags" that runs through from South to North. Faculty and student guides still greet you as though you are long lost friends.

We have been staying in a room (actually a suite) in
Anna Marm Hall. The air conditioning makes it a much more pleasant experience than either of us remember of summers in Kansas! The room is wired for internet which is also new and very nice.










Here Sandra visits with Nadine Burns and Betty Hanson who are among the many friends and classmates who are here. The seminary class of 1965 is really quite dominant in the life of AHA, and many a greeting has been given and stories told of the "good old days".

Tomorrow is "Midsummer's Day" in Lindsborg, so many special Swedish traditions will be on display throughout the town including Swedish Folk dancers, a Smorgasboard, and many more colorful activities.

We'll be visiting with Sandra's cousin Alan tomorrow, and some good friends, Bill and Wilma Mai in Western Kansas on Sunday before we continue on to Colorado Springs on Sunday. And so goes the Pilgrimage. We are very grateful.


Sandra and David

From Texas to Kansas

Hello friends!

This morning we bid farewell to Isabelle, Terry and Lorena and their families. We headed North into Oklahoma with a carload of great memories from our ten days in Ft. Worth. Shortly after entering Oklahoma we entered the Davis Mountains (Yes, mountains in Oklahoma!) and were reminded of a wonderful waterfall that we used to visit on our trips from Bethany College to Ft. Worth.


So we decided to take the side-trip and were rewarded with views like the ones posted here. The place is called Turner Falls in Davis, OK and we were just wowed at how the place has been developed since our last visit 50 years ago without destroying its beauty! The falls inspires local artists as you can see by the second picture.





Tonight we are staying just outside Lindsborg, KS where we will go tomorrow to begin our three day excursion into the history of the Augustana Lutheran Church. It combines a visit to our alma mater Bethany, so that is a plus as well.

Hope you are well, wherever you are. We'll check in with you in a couple of days!

David

Hello friends,

Well, our stay in Ft. Worth is almost over. It has been enjoyable with the possible exception of the heat which reached 100 degrees today (the day I chose to mow the lawn!)

Yesterday the Becker clan celebrated Isabelle's 93rd birthday. She just amazes all of us, and we have tried to enjoy her as much as possible while we have been here.

Thursday we will head for Lindsborg, Kansas for three days of the Augustana Heritage Association at Bethany College. Augustana is the Swedish version of the Lutheran tradition that preceeded what we now know as the ELCA. This will be a nastolgic three days on two accounts. It will take us back into our early church experience and will also take us back to the Swedish heritage of Lindsborg and our alma mater Bethany. Sandra has been able to connect with some college friends - Bill and Wilma Mai, so we are trying to make an adjustment in our travel plans in order to see them in Sharon Springs (Western Kansas)

Thanks to all the family for your Fathers' Day greetings. It made it a very special day!

We'll talk with you all again soon.

David

From Ft. Worth

Well, here we are in Ft. Worth, settling in for our stay. Isabelle is doing well, and we are enjoying her company alot!

I guess I owe all Texans an apology. Terry reminded me that the picture of the Texas monument that I posted on my last entry must have been taken from the wrong side, because it's backwards!! Oh well! Imagine the picture from the other side.

The picture on this post is of Nathan, who is Tom and Lorena's grandson. It's not quite the same, but he gives us a little bit of a grandkid fix until we get back to our own!!

Temperature is the big news, both in CT and Texas. I can't believe the heat, but when we woke up this morning the temp was down in the 70's after some rain overnight. Unfortunately it's not going to last! Back to the high 90's by tomorrow.

I haven't been able to establish an internet connection at Isabelle's. (It's a long story) so I'm over at Terry's today. Probably won't post again for a few days.

Love you all!

David

Hi everybody!!

Sorry about the non-post yesterday. Forgive me, but there isn't really much to say about Tennessee! There has been this long grey ribbon in front of us for the past couple of days and the boredom has increased exponentially. But things have gone so smoothly on this trip that we were able to move things up and drive into Ft Worth today (Saturday). We are staying with Terry and Beverly tonight and then will get set up with Mom Becker after church tomorrow. It feels good to be here, and our confidence is way up as we think about the ret of the trip.

I'm not promising daily posts for the next ten days - it would probably be "today I mowed the lawn" or "today I cleaned up the back yard", etc, etc. If anything really out of the ordinary happens I'll let you know. Otherwise we'll pick this up again when we head to Kansas. The picture above is Sandra at the monument at the Texas welcome center. What a change after Arkansas - Clean bathrooms for the firstime in miles!!!

David

Pilgrimage 08

Well, here we are at the conclusion of Day one, in New Market, Virginia. We have been through Connecticut, New York, NewJersey, Maryland, West Virginia and into Virginia. Everything has gone without a hitch with the possible exception of slowdowns getting out of Conn (especially New Haven) and through New York City. (Yes, "David the Lion-hearted" decided to go THROUGH, not around, the Metropolitan area.) We timed it well, and rush hour was well over by the time we hit the city. That meant that it was only the NORMAL bumper-to-bumper traffic. We made one small mistake going over the George Washington bridge, but a simple circle put us back on track, and we only lost about three minutes. In general, there were enough trucks to provide a second roadway (on TOP of the trucks) if we had chosen it. The very best surprise today was that the price of gas dropped $.30 a gallon the minute we left good old Connecticut.

Tomorrow we should face alot less traffic, and if all goes well, we'll greet you tomorow night from Nashville, Tenn.