Trip to Honduras Sept 2025

Randy flew in for his wedding, what a Angel!

The kids were excited to be here

After our time in OR, we flew from Portland to Ft Lauderdale. The next day we took Spirit to Honduras. Spirit check in was chaotic. After a long lunch in Comayagua, we were taken to Hyatt Place in Tegucigalpa. We hiked in La Tigra NP and had a tour of the National Museum followed by a great lunch at a Peruvian restaurant.

                                            

The hiking group at La Tigra NP

 

What a cute couple

Violet, Patrick, Randy, Jenn and Rhys

Here comes trouble, Linden and Violet marching in step.

The beautiful bride, Alba

The first dance

The wedding was well attended, and the reception reflected a lot of planning for food, music and photography.  The next day, some people headed home, while the rest flew to the Island of Roatan. We checked into the Naboo Resort and had dinner and drinks with the group at Paradise Beach. We took an all-day group tour which covered Myan Edan Zoo with monkeys and sloths, had lunch at a brewery, and visited a chocolate factory.

Our new friend

The following day we did a snorkeling boat trip with the group to two dive sites, with lots of fish and good coral. The following day, we said goodbyes to the Toppers (although Linden was not ready to leave the pool). We enjoyed being able to spend time with family. Pat and I went snorkeling off the beach where she saw a nurse shark. On our last day on the Island, we started with another from shore snorkel. We took the Ferry back to the mainland, and a cab to the airport on the other side of La Ceiba, Honduras’  third largest city.

It's a baby Linden sloth

Driving in Honduras is not for the faint of heart. Most people thought we were crazy to rent a car here. Our plan to avoid driving in big cities backfired on us. From the airport, we were taken back to the city to complete the paperwork. When we finally got on the road it was in the middle of rush hour, the sun was setting, and there was an accident which brought the traffic to a crawl. The turn off to the resort was not illuminated and we missed it. We circled back and drove two miles on a very dark and rough entrance road. With all the banging going on under the car, we didn’t know if we were about to lose our gas tank or transmission.

The grounds at Pico Bonita

 We checked in to the Pico Bonita Eco Resort, and the next day we went on a nature hike to their butterfly house, serpentarium and finished with a hike to a swimming hole. The landscaping around the resort was filled with beautiful tropical plants and flowers. The food and service were excellent. The next day we did a much harder hike up the mountain sweating off a few pounds. Luckily, they had a beautiful pool at the resort.

At the entrance to the gardens

From there we drove to Tela and had a beachfront room. A nice location, except for when the local Garifuna boys came by banging on their drums, on and off all day, to get donations. I considered paying them to leave. We visited the famous Jardin Botanical Lancetilla, but we were disappointed due to lack of maintenance in the gardens.

Cannon Ball fruit 9 pounds

Where Pat fell

We drove to Logo de Yojoa but couldn’t find the hotel we reserved. We ended up at D&D brewery in a small room without A/C. We hiked at Eco-Arqueologico Park and visited their museum. On the way out, Pat slipped on their slick walkways, and came down hard, hitting her head on a rock. Blood was running down her neck. We finally got the bleeding to stop and managed to get back to the car. After Pat consulted with Linda and Mimi, we decided to wait until we got home to get it checked out. We left D&D the next day and went to see the impressive Cataract Pulhapanzak. Upon leaving the park, the guard informed us that we had a flat tire. He installed the temporary spare, and we headed back to town to get the tire fixed. Turns out there were two nails in the tire, and the wheel was bent. The kid fixed the tire and wheel, and we were back on the road. We drove to Comayagua and took our scheduled flight out the next day to Fort Lauderdale.

Pulhapanzak Falls

The following day we flew back to Helena and landed during rush hour on Friday.  I called Lyft for a ride home, but nothing was available, so I called Uber, same result. I tried Lyft again, no luck. I called the local cab company, but no one answered. We tried a couple of our neighbors, but they were not home. Pat was ready to walk home, which would take an hour without suitcases.  I found an airport employee heading home and I convinced him to give us a ride. It turned out he lived nearby.

Pat went to Urgent Care the following day, and they said she was fine. Pat still had doubts, so she returned the following day for a CAT scan. The results were negative; no cats were found. I came down with a cold, likely as a result of exposure during the flights.

Trip to Oregon Sept 2025

Sahalie Falls in Willamette NF

This was our fourth trip to central OR (Bend/Redmond area). It was hot and smoky most of the week, but we were still able to get some good hiking in, mostly around Sisters, and Bend. This time we flew into Portland and drove from there. Portland was very quiet; they desperately need the National Guard out there to stir things up. We drove though Columbia Gorge and stopped at Lewis and Clark SP on our trip from the airport. After 5 days at the Eagle Crest Resort (timeshare) we packed up and drove to the coast and stayed at the Otter Crest Inn (timeshare).

Deschutes River

 

Elk staring at Pat

Tumalo Falls

Frog camouflage

Fog rolling in. Our building is right of center

It was great being right on the coast, we could seal and whale watch from our third story living room, once the fog lifted. Lots of interesting hikes and views as we traveled up and down the OR coast. After 5 days we had to pack up and return to the airport at Portland for our trip to Honduras for Randy and Alba’s wedding.

Devil's Punchbowl

OR coast

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

Giant Spruce Tree

It's like hiking in Hawaii

Cape Perpetua

Sunset over the Pacific, view from our living room

Trip to BC July 2025

 

Island Lake

We had a couple of free hotel nights in Kalispell (from a cancellation last year), so we decided to use them on our way up and back from BC. After Kalispell we moved on to Fernie, BC and spent a few nights at the Timberline Resort. From here we visited Island Lake and hiked around the lake. In town, we had lunch with our friend Sheryl land her son Rory.  We did some biking around town. 

Island Lake

Nelson Firehouse, featured in 1987 movie "Roxanne" with Steve Martin

Mid-week we moved to Nelson, BC to explore that area. We walked around town and took a bike trip on their rail trail above the town. On the way out we hiked in an old growth forest nearby, before taking a ferry across Kokanee Lake. We overnighted in Creston, before returning to the US.

Rail Trail above Nelson

Cottonwood Creek Falls in Nelson

Old Growth Forest

Ferry Crossing Kootenay Lake

Trip West - May 2025

Lindon racing to get an egg

Violet all decked out for Easter

After a Easter egg hunt with Linden and Violet, we prepared for our trip back to Montana. This was our first trip out to MT without the RV. It is currently up for consignment sale at an RV dealer in PA. Our first stop was to visit our good friends Bob and Wendy in Lynchburg, VA. We enjoyed their hospitality and the meals we shared before heading to Knoxville KY. The purpose of heading to the SW was to visit a few Civil War sites in TN. 

 In Knoxville, we went to the site of Fort Dickerson. Its position, with cannons high on a hill overlooking the entrance to Knoxville was  critical in stopping the Confederate  attack by General Longstreet’s cavalry. 

TN State Capitol

Nearby we toured Bleak House, a house General Longstreet used as his command center during his unsuccessful attempt to win Knoxville. After we walked through the U of TN’s gardens, we toured the State Capitol.

Didn't recognize him without the coonskin hat

Stone River National Battlefield

We drove towards Nashville and stopped at the Stones River National Battlefield. This battle was significant in Dec 1862, because it gave the Union secure control over central TN. 

Ventilation provided by Confederate Sharpshooters during the Battle of Franklin

From Nashville we took a guided tour of a few houses near the Battle of Franklin. The Union knew in Nov 1864 that the Confederates wanted to retake Nashville, so they blocked their path in Franklin, TN. The Confederates suffered massive casualties there. They still tried to take Nashville, but that battle was the end of the Confederate Army of TN.

Ferne Clyffe SP 

While we were in Nashville a vicious EF4 tornado swept across KY killing 19 people. The path of that tornado was only about 50 miles north of us. A total of 60 tornados swept through the mid-west during that storm event. We left Nashville and drove through the tornado belt up to Ferne Clyffe SP in IL. 

Honeycomb weathered rock at Ferne Clyffe SP

River Keel Boat - type used by L&C

In Nebraska City we visited the Missouri Valley Lewis and Clark Center. We did a few hikes in Badlands NP in SD, before booking it back to Helena, MT.

Pat hiking in Badlands

Finally Montana!

Calypso Orchids in MT

Our Trip to Florida Jan-Feb 2025

Our Rig

After a weekend stop on Jekyll Island, we headed down to Ocala National Forest, hoping for warmer weather; instead, north Florida got its first snow storm of the season. It was too cold to get out on the open water, so we did some hiking instead. After we moved to a senior trailer park near Tampa, we tried to do some canoeing here but found most of the small streams closed due to cleanup efforts to remove the trees felled by the hurricanes. After a lot of misinformation from county employees, we found a section of the Hillsboro River that was open, so we canoed it. From here we moved to the east coast, and mostly did hiking and birding. We did an eight-mile canoe trip on the Rock Springs Run of the Wekiva River, a National Wild and Scenic River. We were told we were departing the put-in an hour and a half too late to catch the shuttle bus back; but we signed up for it anyway, knowing we would be charged a $100/hour if they had to wait for us. We hustled down the river and got to the takeout an hour before the shuttle bus was scheduled to arrive.

The Crane Whisperer

 

Rock Springs Run

Tri Colored Heron

We headed further south to Lake Worth and went out to dinner at a Peruvian restaurant with nephew Randy and his wife Alba. We learned the hard way to closely check the bill. Who would expect a 20 percent service charge for a group of four? We spent Super Bowl Sunday with my cousin Mary and daughter Crystal. Mary kept us well fed with her home cooking. On the way back we stopped to have dinner with Phil Guyer and his wife Nancy at a nice water front seafood restaurant. Before we left Florida, we paddled the Santa Fe River while smaller streams in the area remained closed due to the hurricanes.

Mary

We put our RV in storage before we checked into our timeshare in Hilton Head, SC. We took a day trip to Savannah and took a tour of an historic cemetery and a walk along the Savannah River front. We had an e-bike with us that we used on some of the canoe shuttles and had it locked to a bike rack outside our unit. One morning we found the lock had been tampered with in an attempt to steal it. We could not open the damaged lock so we had to have it cut off. We visited with Pat’s friend Rick and his wife Maureen. Rick prepared four delicious pizzas from scratch for our dining enjoyment. 

Savannah Cemetery

In Savannah

Savannah Riverboat

They shouldn't joke about free beer!

. In Hilton Head we walked around Fort Howard, built during the civil war to protect an area where freed slaves lived. From here we drove back to Odenton, MD. While we were gone, MD had one of the worst winters it has experienced in many years. Our condo was without power for two days. I guess you just can’t escape problems. 

Flag at Fort Howard

This replica 1864 flag is one version of the Union flag flown during the Civil War. In 1864, beginning to foresee victory, the Union considered the nation undivided, and the confederate state's stars were included.