Home Again

 It is the end of the year already and I never finished our trip report back in October.

After our time in California we visited good friends in Surprise, AZ and then headed to Albuquerque, NM in time for the annual balloon fiesta which is held the first two weekends of October.

We had a good visit with our son and daughter-in-law who love ABQ.  On Saturday morning we got up before five to join the traffic jam into the fiesta parking lot.  We arrived just before seven, in time for the grand opening and the first ascents of multi-colored balloons.   

The first balloons drifted their chasers had to go after them.After the sun rose over the mountains to the east of ABQ the air movement changed so that most of the balloons hovered in the airspace above the fiesta grounds and the city for several hours.  A few came back and landed at the same place where they took off. The phenomena of the air movement, "the box" as it is called, is what makes ABQ one of the premier balloon sites around the world.

After the weekend we left for home with one stopover in Kansas for a night with friends.  

The month of travel was delightful and safe.  Aside from one tire blowoout we had no difficulties; just pleasure and marveling at the wonders of the earth.  If you haven't been to southern  Utah it would be a great trip to visit the five national parks and Natural Bridges Monument.

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 In October I went up to the Upper Peninsula Bible Camp again to work for two weeks with 5 or 6 other men.  We were able to nearly finish the siding on the outside and final bits of drywall installation so that insulation could be blown into the attic areas of the one building.

  Since then I have done some handyman projects for other people and also a major flooring and painting project in our own home.  I did my first bit of installing hardwood flooring in our kitchen and family room area by the fireplace.  I am now almost finished with the project--tomorrow should do it.  Just in time for Christmas!

Zion NP and more

Since our last blog we have traveled west again from Mesa Verde in Colorado. Our traveling friends went east to Durango then north to Estes Park for a reunion.

Our first stop was at the Glen Canyon dam on the Colorado River which creates Lake Powell in southern Utah. A one-hour tour of the dam, starting at the visitors center, took us into the heart of the dam, to the electric generators, and a view of the lake

The next day we traveled back into Utah to Zion National Park. We parked our trailer in the campground for two nights. Since public vehicles are not allowed in the canyon we took one of the frequent trolleys. At lookout places we could get off, look around, take pictures, hike a little and then get back on the next trolley.

 Zion NP is an incredibly beautiful park with mountains of rocks on either side of the canyon. At the end of the park the rocks form a natural amphitheater with only the riverbed continuing through the narrow rocks.


  The following day we drove about 100 miles without our RV to Bryce National Park. We were told it would only need to be a one-day visit. Bryce is different; there are hills but no canyons.  The outstanding feature of Bryce is the "hoodoos", the pillars of rock through the valley

 

Leaving Bryce NP we drove through Red Canyon, a small area of rock formations. A few pictures were necessary but that was all. We drove back to Zion for the night and then left for southern California. We debated stopping at Las Vegas but we just saw the "Strip" from the expressway!

This week we have been in Costa Mesa, CA, parked at Karen's house, off the back alley! From here we have visited Rosie's siblings and families. For two days we were up in Lake Arrowhead, about 6,000 feet up in the San Bernardino mountains. Rosie's brother took us out in his boat both days to see the shoreline homes and cabins around the lake.

 On the weekend we will head east again, seeing family and friends along the way, before we arrive at home about the 6th or 7th of October. It has been a wonderful trip so far, and by God's grace, we hope to finish our trip with pleasure.

Thanks for traveling with us.

Abner (and Rosie, too)

Utah and West

It has been a while since the Baumans have done much traveling, at least not vacation traveling! So on September 4, the Saturday before Labor Day, we set out on a trip west; this time to visit some of the National Parks in the south of Utah. On Tuesday we met up with a couple from Oregon that we have been with on several Wycliffe Associates projects overseas. They have an RV too so we planned to camp and travel together for a while.

Embedded in this blog are some pictures from Arches National Park (NP), Canyonlands NP, Capitol Reef NP, and Natural Bridges National Monument. The parks have been amazing, varied, and beautiful; lots of mountains, all kinds of rock, and strange shapes. The scenery is spectacular. We have done a lot of hiking to various bridges, arches, canyons, etc.
One morning the other fellow and I left for a trail at 7 am; before checking out of camp we wanted to see two of the natural bridges we hadn’t seen. The trail took us down into the canyon and along the riverbed for about 3 miles, then up 700 feet of slopes, steps and ladders. It was tiring but a lot of fun and we have scores of pictures to prove it!

Two days ago we came over to Mesa Verde NP in Colorado. The landscape is much different, but the cliff dwelling ruins are very interesting. Somewhere around 1200 AD Indians lived in these hard-to-get-to cliff dwellings and worked the ground on top of the mesas. We enjoyed a very educational day visiting a museum and two of the ancient ruins.



Our next stop will be back in Utah at Zion and Bryce Canyon NPs. Our friends will continue traveling and visiting relatives in Colorado while we head west, eventually to see Karen and Rosie’s sister and brother in southern California before heading east again.

Enjoy the pictures. You can make comments at the end of the blog or on Facebook. Our email address is still: abner_bauman@wowway.com We get our messages along the way wherever we can pick up WiFi connection. We would love to hear from you.

Abner and Rosie

Germany Blog 3

Hello friends!
We have been home from Germany for one week and adjusted to sleeping at our regular time in our own bed. The last week in Germany was very busy. On Sunday Rosie and I were invited by a German family whose relatives we met here at home. When this person found out where we were going in Germany she got real excited because it was near her hometown. After emails and phone calls we were picked up at the Wycliffe Center on Sunday morning and taken to church and then home for dinner. What a delightful time--a good German dinner with several other family and guests. Some of the people spoke only German, but a few spoke fluent English. Rosie had a great time remembering her German and understanding quite a bit of the German conversation.

The last week of work was a push to get the house ready for occupancy. By noon on Thanksgiving day we were close to finished; a few of the team were staying for the weekend so they expected to finish up.
Rosie and our Wycliffe hostess cooked a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the trimmings and 3 kinds of pies. The team had a great time celebrating.
On Friday morning Rosie and I, along with another couple, boarded the train for Frankfurt, about 60 miles southeast.

We arrived in Frankfurt about noon, walked to our hotel across from the big railroad station (Bahnhof) and then walked the town! We walked a few blocks to the Main (pronouced 'mine') river and down the esplande to the old town square (the Romer area).
The square and surrounding area was all set up for the Christmas Mart, with booths, eating stalls, shops, etc. for the month-long celebration. These German 'Marts' are famous and draw huge crowds.


Our friends had to leave town by bus for another airport, so we walked them back to the hotel for their luggage and to the nearby bus stop. After they left we looked aroud the RR station to buy our tickets and find the platform from which we would take the subway early Saturday morning for a ride to Frankfurt airport to catch our 8 a.m flight to Chicago.
In the evening we took a street car back to the Christmas Mart to see the lights and meander with the crowd. A retired policeman's group sang German Christmas songs for about an hour; we stood listening for a while and then took the street car back to our hotel. We skipped the famous red light district a few blocks away!

Before going to bed we asked for a wake-up call at 4:45 in the morning (we didn't have an alarm clock or cell phone with us). We were awake a few times during the night but we slept well toward morning. We didn't hear a wake-up call (either they forgot or the phone didn't work!), anyway, at 5:05 I woke up, we jumped out of bed, threw a few things into our baggage and hauled it off across the deserted street to the Bahnhof. We got to the platform a minute before the subwaay arrived at 5:38.
The 15-minute ride to the airport took us right to United's check-in counter where there was already a 100-feet line up, even before the ticket counter opened at 6.
We had a good flight home, almost no turbulence, a good breakfast and a snack before arriving at Ohare at 10:30 a.m. I think this was the first early morning flight west across the Atlantic; at least I can't remember leaving in morning daylight, flying for 3 hours into night darkness and then seeing a sunrise behind us an hour later! It was strange, but beautiful.
If you have read all three blogs you know that we had an enjoyable time in Germany. We had morning devotions together and worked hard with a friendly team, visited some beautiful and interesting sites in central/south Germany, had good fellowship with the German people and learned a great deal. We would love to go again!!

From Germany Two

Hi again:
Last weekend we had to vacate our lodging here at the Wycliffe Center so the team decided to leave on Friday morning for a 4-hour trip to Rothenburg and on Sunday to Nurnberg. Most of us had no idea of what to expect. Rothenburg is a walled medieval city which today lives on tourism. The city was spared serious bombings of WWII so had relatively little damage. A wall still circles the old city on three sides; the other side is a steep ravine that needed no fortification

The nine of us (the others stayed behind and worked!) stayed at a pension inside the walls, only one block from the central market square. It was recently rebuilt over a grocery store with good accommodations and a breakfast room in the attic floor. We were very pleased with our stay there. Most of the time we walked the streets and the walls of the city, taking in all we could. Of course the gals had to do some shopping (window and real!). The city has a large Christmas museum and many stores that sell Christmas trinkets, etc. We visited the large Lutheran church which they inherited when the city turned Protestant during the reformation. We took a night tour with the city watchman, a comic with an interesting story of the city.

Rosie enjoys recalling some of her childhood German. We do okay as many of the younger people speak English. Some of our meals we ate together as a team; others we did on our own as we wandered around the city.




On Sunday morning after team devotions we left for Nurnberg, about an hour east of Rothenburg. Since we were so close we decided to spend at least a few hours there. We toured the Documentation Center which tells a very honest story of how the Nazi movement grew and how Hitler was able to rally the people behind him. Nurnberg is the city were many of the rallies and congresses took place. Hitler and his architects had dreams of a 80,000 seat congress hall and a 400,000 seat stadium for rallies and military demonstrations. The war broke out before much of this was completed. The Documentation Center, as it is now called, is in the partially completed congress hall, and the military parade grounds are put to other uses.
We had time to visit the old city for two hours before leaving for home. Rosie and I walked the streets, and up the hill to the Kaiserburg--the old castle. Much of Nurnberg was bombed and damaged during the war but much of it has been rebuilt, though not restored to its original architecture.

Now we are back to work again and expecting to make another shorter trip to the Mosel River valley this weekend. After that it will be mostly work and not much play. Pray that we will accomplish enough that the home will be useable by the time we leave.
Thanks to those of you who have left comments on previous blogs. We appreciate hearing from you, especially when we are away from home. You can email us at: abner_bauman@wowway.com We would be delighted to hear from you. Bye for now!