New Addition to the Booth Jeep Family

The Arrival of the M416 Military Trailer

(made by Stevens)

The maiden voyage behind the M38A1

It likes the woods just fine too.

Wheelin & Weiners

Last fall we joined the CNY (Central New York) Jeep Club, a club for Jeep owners in the CNY area. The club is loosely based in the Syracuse area which is one hour north of us. Meetings are typically held in a restaurant parking lot where members kick tires, share info and tell Jeep lies. Many of the members in the southern reaches of CNY are unable to attend the evening meetings mostly due to their employment and the distance and time to the meetings and back home. For this reason someone devised the plan that the southern contingent hold a monthly meeting in a location more distance friendly. The northern meetings are on a Weds night and the southern are held on Tues so we are not in competition.

In May Vic proposed that we hold the July meeting here at our place, making it not just a meeting in a parking lot but a time to play and show what out Jeeps are made to do. As time got near he decided to open it at 2pm for anyone who could come early. It was truly amazing the number of folks that decided to take a mental health day off from work. Before 3pm we had 14 Jeeps out running around the woods, swamp and ditches! Before the night ended there was a total of 21Jeeps and more than 35 people. Most came in under their own power. A couple came in on trailers. The first arrivals.......

At one time or another almost everyone got stuck somewhere. Joanne, Mitch and Tom watch the excitement while some local Amish drive by in the background. We can't help but wonder what they thought of the shennanigans. Almost everyone loved the stream crossings.

Oops - sorry I cut your head off.....

Hung up on the bank

The homebased photographer was unable to get out to all the sites while there was activity. This was one of those steep areas with enough muck and mud to make it interesting.

The day was voted a big success and it has been decided we must do this again. Next time it will be on a weekend and hopefully will have even more attendees.

Graduation

We have had the enjoyment these past few weeks of seeing our youngest grandchild graduate from high school. Actually, the real enjoyment has been the past 18 1/2 years watching him turn into a young man and we are quite proud of him.

The baccalaureate service was the night before graduation and was held in the local Methodist church. What a shame that only 10 of the class of 40 chose to participate.

Ken, Monica, Dan, Nanny and Pop

"The family is one of nature's masterpieces" ......George Santayana

Happy smiles!

One night at dinner when Dan was in 2nd or 3rd grade and visiting I made reference to when he would graudate from high school. He matter of factly told me we wouldn't be there. Puzzled I asked why and he calmly stated that we would be dead. We nearly fell off our chairs in shock. That was when we first realized that we looked a lot older to this child than we had any idea. And hallelujah,we were elated on graduation night that his young prophecy hadn't come true!

Our smiling Dan - the soon-to-be 2010 graduate.

Dan with the Superintendent of Schools. Here Dan received the Walter J. & Anna H. Burchan Award which is awarded to a senior who has an interest in nature and/or outdoor activities and good sportsmanship.

This is just one of the many benefits of going to a small rural school. The family dog of one of Dan's classmates attended graduation.

And this weekend - time for the celebratory party. If one knife will cut cake...... two should do it with twice the speed.

No sense in wasting icing Family, friends, food and festivities - what more can we ask? Coming attraction - "off to college".

Happy Birthday, America!

Traditionally the Thursday night before the Fourth of July the Ithaca community fireworks are held. We began enjoying the festivities in the mid-1970s when Monica was a child and we were new residents of New York State. First they were at Cornell University and, in more recent years, at Ithaca College.

For one reason or another, we haven't attended in a long while. This year the celebration moved to TC3, a community college in Dryden - just over the hill. It seemed like a personal tradition that we needed to reinstate. What a wonderful night it was! Breathtaking, heart-pounding and inspirational..........quite the spectacular! One more reason to be grateful to be Americans.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA and THANK YOU for the precious gift of freedom!

Home Sweet Home

Six days after leaving Colorado and only days before Mothers Day we arrived home once again. I drove the Jeep over 3200 miles following Vic with the truck and camper the whole way. You know what they say about the view if you aren't the lead dog. I can now say from experience that it's true.

While the winters are always wonderful, home is always - well, home sweet home. Jeep activities fall off now. It's an east coast fact of life unfortunately. There are few places where offroad travel is legal. Vic will have an event here this summer for the CNYJeep Club and, hopefully, there will be others. Mothers Day was lovely. Monica and Ken met us in Norwich where they treated us to dinner. It was wonderful to see their smiles once again and get real hugs. And this past weekend was grandson Dan's senior prom. We were invited to take pictures at his home then follow to his date's home for more picture taking. We all contributed to a cookout after the kids left for their big evening. It's s000-o nice to be back near family once again!!!

Dan and Dorie

While there won't be as much to report, check back periodically. You just never know.....

Heading East Again

As all good things must eventually come to an end, we bid a fond adieu to Moab and started our journey towards home. The first stop was near Gunnison, Colorado in the Curecanti National Recreation Area where we expected to spend a few days, maybe as much as a week, exploring the 4x4 roads of that area.

While we were setting up camp this cute little critter was busily occupied right next to the RV without the slightest concern for our activities.

After temperatures in the low to mid-80's in Moab, it was quite a shock to awaken to this scene the next morning.

We found it to be very early in the "spring' season here. The dirt mountain roads in CO are gated keeping the more adventurous of us at bay. In addition the wind blew and it was just plain cold and too miserably windy to be outside for even a few short minutes.

Magpies were in abundance and didn't seem to mind the weather. Because we did mind, greatly, we made the decision to start for home the next day.

Parts of Kansas have the most interesting post rocks. On the outskirts of Dodge City is an example of the dugouts that were built by the settlers. This one is is surrounded by the stone fenceposts or "post rocks". Central Kansas had no trees which made building a challenge. Settlers did find layers of limestone just below the surface. The layers were 8-12" thick which was just the right size for making "bricks" and fenceposts. Holes in a line were drilled using wedges and stone hammers. When the holes were drilled the blocks were pried lkoose with pinch bars. Blocks were cut for shaping the walls inside the dugouts and longer pieces were measured and cut to use for fenceposts. The limestone was quite soft and chalky, making it easy to form. When exposed to the air the edges cured quickly. Post rocks lasted for 60 years and more making it well worth their effort.

On each end of Dodge city is this silhouette identifying the town.

Boot Hill is just one of the claims to fame used to draw to tourists. Unfortunately the original cemetery is long gone. Behind the fence are many old commercial buildings strung together for visitors to view.

Our next stop was at Brown Fishing Lake in eastern Kansas. We had the place to ourselves that night and in the morning found that we had been sharing it with all kinds of critters and birds. These geese were headed for their a.m. swim.

The muskrat made numerous trips past collecting greens.

After filling its belly the egret took off perhaps to hunt elsewhere.

The lake has 6-8 of these lovely peninsulas with picnic tables and fire rings. We back the camper out onto one and are surrounded by water on three sides - lovely. And best of all, they are provided by the state of Kansas free of charge. Each county has at least one fishing lake.

A heart attack in styrofoam! The gal who collected our money at our campground in Illinois told us of a regional meal we decided we had to try. The regular size meal is called a horseshoe while the lo-calorie (?) size is a ponyshoe. It begins with a slice of bread which is covered with a hamburger (2 on the horseshoe) then a pile of french fries. Then nacho cheese is ladled over the whole thing. There are variations. Vic's horseshoe is on the right and my chili ponyshoe is on the left. I have one burger with fries then a ladle of chili under the nacho cheese. It can also have ham , fried chicken or another choice or two.

Apparently this is a big thing in central IL and is virtually unknown in the southern and northern portions of the state. Good thing we don't live there. It was quite good - probably a good thing for health's sake to eat only once in a lifetime.

Our final night on the road was spent in southwestern PA where the white dogwoods were in full bloom!

And now, HOME SWEET HOME!