Oh What A Night!

After my trip back to Pennsylvania for my high school reunion, I hurried south to Mesa, AZ. I'm actually staying in an RV Park for 3 months, taking advantage of a special offer they have, and seeing whether I like the park lifestyle.

So far, I'm pretty happy!

It's a tough life, but I think I can handle it!

One night, my friend and I went to the Wild Horse Casino to see the show "What A Night - Jersey Boys Meet Mama Mia," a trubute to the Four Seasons and Abba.



The group, December 63, did the tribute to the Four Seasons. A short video of one of their famous songs...

The Abba tribute was done by the group AbbaFab.



Here's a short video of their most famous song.

At the end of the show, they got together and performed a couple songs.

Oh, What a Night!

I Can't Believe I'm This Old!

I'm off again, flying out of Salt Lake City to go to Harrisburg, PA, where I grew up.

This is the beautiful school where I went to high school. Five years ago, it was abandoned and the high school moved to a new building out of town.

I wandered back behind the school to see how the stadium seats have been overgrown. Just as good as rusty stuff!

I can't believe the football field got this overgrown in just 5 years! The weeds were way taller than I was.

But the big reason I am here? My 50th high school reunion! Conversation was easy - "What have you been doing for the last 50 years?"

There were 400 in my graduating class, and 110 of them attended the reunion. I'm seated on the left here.

Some more of the attendees.

These are the ones from my grade school.

The most famous of my fellow graduates was the president of our class, who became the mayor of Harrisburg for 28 years! He was called the Mayor for Life, and was so popular that no one ran against him most of the time.

Two of my very best friends from high school, Toni and Mary Lou, were there. It was amazing that we just picked up where we left off, even though we hadn't seen each other in 50 years!

A picture of us from high school - I'm in the lower right, Toni's in the upper right, and Mary Lou is upper center.

While there, I stayed at my father's house, and one day took him down to see my son and his family. Here's a photo of the 4 generations.

My son's a great dad - even painting my granddaughter's nails. "Hey, Daddy, I think you missed a spot..."

Heading South, with a Stop in Idaho Falls

After Yellowstone, I headed south because I would be flying out of Salt Lake City to go back east for a couple very important things. But first, I stopped in Idaho Falls. The falls here are interesting because they are partly dammed up and partly preserved in their original state.

The Idaho Falls LDS Temple is the big attraction here.

Birds sit on the top of the falls to catch their dinner.

Along the Riverwalk are various animal sculptures.

Cute!

Also some stone Japanese lanterns.

One day, I headed south to the State Fair, stopping along the way to see Hell's Half Acre, an area of volcanic flow.

At the fair I saw some very clean animals -

Hi there!

Awwww.... How cute!



The highlight of the day for me was the kid's pie eating contest.

This guy didn't win, but he was really cute, and I loved his shirt!

More of Yellowstone, Plus a Brand New Trail!

We spent one more great day inside Yellowstone National Park. We started out driving through Firehole Canyon to see the waterfall.

Then we hiked around Biscuit Basin.

The star of the show here is Sapphire Pool.

At the far end of the Biscuit Basin boardwalk is a side trail to Mystic Falls.

We then did the Black Sand Basin boardwalk. Ever wonder what makes a geyser geyse?

Well, this explains it...

The bison seem to like this place a lot!

The colors are just gorgeous!

This is Emerald Pool.

And yet another distraction... Don't have a clue what this is.

But the thing I was most excited to see was the brand new trail to an overlook of Grand Prismatic Spring. Definitely the best way to see it! I had climbed up here 4 years ago on an unofficial trail, but now there is a very nice official trail! I'll bet this is the first new trail the National Park Service has built since the 1930s, and it's very much appreciated.

Things to See West of Yellowstone

While we were parked in Island Park, ID, we went to see several things on this side of Yellowstone. First up was Earthquake Lake.

This is a lake formed because of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake back in 1959. The whole side of the mountain slid down and blocked the river.

This gigantic boulder was thrown all the way across the lake. It's now a memorial to the 28 people killed by the landslide.

You can still see some of the cabins that floated away that day.

And also the remains of a lodge.

On another day, we went to see Johnny Sack's cabin. Johnny was a German immigrant who built the cabin in 1929. Because of its uniqueness, it's now a National Landmark.

Johnny was a carpenter, who build everything himself.

I liked the coat and hat rack.

We interrupt this post because Diana is distracted again...

And then on another day, we went to Harriman State Park, where were did a little hike -

Looking for their main attraction, the Trumpeter Swan.

We also went to see Mesa Falls - first, the Upper Falls,

And then the Lower Falls.