Midwest Flooding Moves Onto Iowa

We are back in Colorado and I will add a few of my own pictures from in and around Ames, Iowa soon. To be sure -- it was wet. It wasn't raging floods but just completely saturated ground that wouldn't hold any more water -- so it laid on top -- and pooled in lower areas. Ducks and geese were swimming in what should have been corn fields. Local jet ski enthusiast joined them in places. Roads were intermittently closed as water flooded over the top.

In some areas, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids they had massive flooding -- 32 feet above flood levels in places. And it rained -- and rained -- and rained.
This picture is from the news -- taken in Shelby. We stopped there for supper on our way to Ames. It wasn't wet -- it was hot and muggy. I'll post the corn lakes later.
It is good to be back where Jim can breath in the air even if it is thin. The humidity in Iowa landed him in the ER.

"DES MOINES, Iowa — The severe flooding soaking the midwest and southern
plains this week moved onto Iowa Wednesday, after leaving large swaths of Ohio
underwater Tuesday and a trail of deadly destruction in its path.
The death
toll from two storm systems — one in the Upper Midwest and the remnants of
Tropical Storm Erin in Texas and Oklahoma — reached 22 on Tuesday when searchers
found the body of a man tangled in a tree near Lewiston, Minn. Officials in Iowa
are still determining if a death in that state can be attributed to the storm.
In Iowa, widespread flooding continued early Wednesday as thunderstorms
dumped more heavy rain across northern Iowa, which was already flooded from
earlier storms.
Strong winds destroyed buildings, cut off power and left
roads and homes underwater."

FOXNews.com - Midwest
Flooding Moves Onto Iowa, Where Death Toll May Rise - Local News News Articles
National News US News:

Beauty in Reflection

As I stand at the kitchen sink washing potatoes for supper I look out the window and see the sunset reflecting on the Mt Garfield and am awed by the beauty ...

and turn an see see the Bookcliffs and feel a sense of gratitude.

And then I sit down at the dining room table to eat supper and look out through the french doors at Grand Mesa and wonder how it is that snow can look so warm...

and as I put the dishes into the sink and look again at Mt Garfield I ponder the fact that one does not have to look west to enjoy the beauty of the sunset.

2008 Golden Bear Awards

We won Best Picture!

Travels with Hale and Friends

2008 Golden Bear Awards

Tougher ID Rules for Borders

Chertoff: Tougher ID Rules for Borders -- GOPUSA: "Chertoff: Tougher ID Rules for Borders
By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
January 18, 2008"

Thousands of people enter the U.S. through land crossings every day. The
biggest effect of the change will be at the Canadian border since it applies to
both Canadians and Americans. Non-Americans coming in through Mexico already
need extra documentation.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New border-crossing rules that take effect in two weeks will mean longer lines and stiffer demands for ID, including for returning Americans, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.
A driver's license won't be good enough to get Americans past a checkpoint at the Canadian or Mexican border, Chertoff said. That will be a surprise to many people who routinely cross the border with Canada, but Chertoff bristled at criticism that such extra security would be inconvenient. More than 800,000 people enter the U.S. through land and sea ports each day.
''It's time to grow up and recognize that if we're serious about this threat, we've got to take reasonable, measured but nevertheless determined steps to getting better security,'' he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Thousands of people enter the U.S. through land crossings every day. The biggest effect of the change will be at the Canadian border since it applies to both Canadians and Americans. Non-Americans coming in through Mexico already need extra documentation.
Congressional critics representing Northern border states were anything but impressed with Chertoff's rhetoric.
His department has proved incapable of implementing a 2004 law on border security, and Chertoff ''frankly has as much credibility on telling people to 'grow up' as Geoffrey the Giraffe,'' said Rep. Tom Reynolds, a Buffalo-area Republican.
Added Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, ''Secretary Chertoff's comments that those objecting to the plan need to 'grow up' indicates that the department still doesn't understand the practical effects of DHS policies on the everyday lives of border community residents.''
Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the move does nothing to enhance security and will only hurt the economy. ''When it comes to the Northern Border, the muddled thinking and poor planning at DHS seems to have no bounds, and the agency that botched Katrina seems to have no shame and no memory to boot,'' Leahy said.
Under the new system, which takes effect Jan. 31, Americans and Canadians who are 19 or older will have to present proof of citizenship when they seek to enter the United States through a land or sea port of entry. A passport will be fine. Or a birth certificate coupled with some other ID such as a driver's license.

More...

3 killed in northern Alberta bus rollover

"Last Updated: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 10:07 AM MT
CBC News

Three people were killed and one critically injured when a Greyhound bus rolled in northwestern Alberta early Tuesday morning, trapping some passengers beneath it, RCMP officials said.
Those killed were a 72-year-old woman, a 20-year-old woman and her five-month-old son.

The RCMP said the bus, carrying 28 passengers and one driver, rolled off an icy highway into a ditch at 6:20 a.m. MT Tuesday near Bezanson and about 50 kilometres east of Grande Prairie.
RCMP Const. Scott Hagarty said some of the passengers were pinned underneath the bus. "



More... 3 killed in northern Alberta bus rollover:

Almost finished

This load was most of the outside stuff and the big tools. Jim thinks it looks like something from the Grapes of Wrath -- I was thinking Mad Max. No rocking chair so its not a Clampet load.


Tomorrow we get the keys for the house and I can do some painting before the inside stuff arrives.

End of his Leave

From a Canadian Cadet to an American Soldier: End of his Leave

Driving through the mountains

The drive back on September 22 was beautiful with all the fall colors.


The drive back on September 25 was beautiful -- with all the snow.


I have yet to make this trip that it is not completely a new view from anything I have seen before.

House and Road

Moving to Grand Junction

Photos of the trips back and forth and also of the house and yard in Grand Junction.

In a tanker?

Back Home

It has really been a great week and it was exciting to find out it had rained while we were away. Jim's lawn survived and my vegetable garden, along with a daily watering, well -- it really did great. (Beans? What beans?)










It was a breathtaking view crossing the rocky mountains and the San Juans in Northern New Mexico. We took highway 64 and stopped in at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Angel Fire.

























We camped at Trinidad Lake State Park and traveled the Highway of Legends as well as exploring the Ludlow Massacre site and some of the old mining towns in the area. We left for home a day early and made it a 2 day trip. We drove east to the Capulin Volcano site in NM and camped up in the Sangre de Cristos. We visited the Earthship homes and stopped at Hopewell Lake.



The heat hit us at about Chama and even the A/C had little effect by the time we got to Farmington... a real shock after our week of highs in the 70s.

Most of my pictures are at Webshots

The Toys are in Oregon

ToyVoyagers - Travelling Toys - Little Things on Big Adventures - Viewing Travelog: Picado: "


22nd June 2007 - Veneta, Oregon, USA



Yipee! I am so glad to be out of that package. The flight was marvy but it was a bit dark in there. The crew only came round once with p-nuts and you know how hungry I can get on long flights.
Thank goodness we stopped at this marvelous bakery and got some goods before going to my hosts home.
It is called 'Our Daily Bread' and they also serve lunches there. Yes--it is in this old church. Great food!

My host has treated me to a welcoming party when I arrived and I got to meet some other toyvoyagers and was finally reunited with my brother Morado. What a great day it is.
Oregon is beautiful and I am already having a great deal of fun.

I will write more another day, as I am going to a sheep show now and will have to report in tomorrow with more photos.

Bye! "


Morado has several travelogue updates here.
I would say they have both been enjoying their stay in Oregon.

And Florence is in Austria

Update with pictures

Mom in Deland

Last weekend was Mother's Day and I spent it with my mom in Florida. While I was there I made a trip to Daytona Beach to Sam's Club but did manage to get down to the docks without trying.




Me in Daytona

While I was at my mom's I got Mother's Day greetings from all kids and grandkids. Trevor phoned on my cell from BC, Tammy and the girls left a message on my wall at Facebook and Dallas somehow managed to have a cactus bowl delivered to the house, but I doubt it came from Baghdad.

The days went by really fast (too fast) and it wasn't long before I had landed back in Albuquerque where things slowed down fast -- and traffic on I-25 north came to a crawl.





And if the hour it took me to get out of the city wasn't enough, I drove into a storm between Cuba and Bloomfield.




But all this rain has been super good for my yard and I got home to find my garden flourishing -- including the volunteer poppies all over the yard.




For the past 2 days I've been confined to the house by near freezing outdoor temperatures and rain but everything in the garden is doing good -- and I have a cool weather garden loving it. More pictures can be found in my webshots album. Go to the end of the album for the most recent photos.