We’re in Chandler, Arizona at the moment visiting with our daughter Jaelene and her family. Right now, Nina is teaching the three grandkids how to make balloon animals. They are having a very good time and lots of balloons are popping. Making these balloon animals takes a lot of patience during the learning phase for sure.

We’ll be here over the weekend, leaving on Tuesday morning (very early) to drive back north retracing out trip down.

We left Pocatello after Church on Sunday afternoon and drove down to Heather’s in North Salt Lake. It’s always a delightful visit at her house … except Danielle was definitely not feeling good while we were there. It seemed to be more of a cold than the flu, but who knows. So far Nina and I seem not to be infected (another balloon just popped and I jumped!). We did some shopping on Monday, that is after I drove back to Pocatello to pick up some meds I forgot to bring with me. That evening we attended the local high school’s presentation of West Side Story. Grandson Michael was in the chorus and he’s got some very smooth moves. They’re performing every night this week and the final presentation is next Monday evening. I’m sure he’ll be plenty tired when the musical is finally had it’s run!

Early Tuesday morning we headed south on I-15. It was almost a perfect day for driving. Absolutely no weather, partly sunny skies, and reasonably cool temperatures. Twelve and a half hours later we pulled into Jaelene’s driveway.

The Big Event … actually Two Big Events … are Colten’s 11th birthday next Monday (with a family party on Sunday afternoon) and Jaelene is running in a 5K race on Saturday morning. Hence the reason we’re here.

However, Arizona is still HOT. 97° today and warmer forecast for the next several days. Since it had already turned to winter in Pocatello, we’re finding the temperatures to be more than a bit uncomfortable. I think by the time we leave, we’ll find Pocatello to be plenty cold when we get home.

Today we spent a couple of hours at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. The native American exhibits were very interesting and I really enjoyed our time there. It would be worth a return visit for sure. We rode the light rail from Mesa to the museum and back. That was also a pleasant ride and there seemed to be good ridership as well.

Life is pretty dang good down here!

A few days ago during Green River, Wyoming’s Flaming Gorge Days parade, my favorite brother tweeted about the lack of a band in the parade. Today we were in Sandpoint, Idaho walking around downtown when I saw this sign in the window of an establishment. I’m in full agreement that every parade needs a band. Congratulateions, Sandpoint, on figuring out a unique solution to this problem.

Years ago … more than I want to count … I was in the marching band in Soda Springs High School in Soda Springs, Idaho. I played the drums, usually the base drum. Every year the High School Marching Band would march in the 24th of July Parade in Soda Springs. I don’t think we ever marched in the 4th of July parade because the Veterans handled that parade. We wore woolen red uniforms with full jackets and tall hats with a plume on them. By the end of the parade, which was only about six blocks long, I was drenched inside that uniform. The high school band no longer marches in parades in the summer time in Soda Springs and the Veterans don’t either. It’s definitely a loss. Perhaps Soda Springs should adopt the Sandpoint solution, I’m thinking.

This is our last day on this vacation. The map says we can be home in about ten hours if we drive 55 on the Interstate. We’ve decided that’s just fine and we’ll leave here in the morning and park the motor home at our own house tomorrow evening. That’ll give us Saturday to put things back in order so we can go to Soda Springs on Sunday afternoon.

Our granddaughter Kendra is in North Salt Lake for a few days. She flew down from Seattle a couple of days ago and will fly back next week. She’s staying with our daughter Heather and family. After Church on Sunday, Heather and the kids are driving up to Soda Springs and we’ll meet them there. Thanks, Heather, for making this possible. All the more reason to head for home tomorrow!

The flight from Manila to Narita left Manila early and arrived early in Japan. The rainy season has started in Japan and the rain is pouring down outside. It’ll rain for the next month straight. I won’t get anywhere near the outside on this brief stay in Japan. It’s 1:30 p.m. on Sunday 18 June here in Japan and my flight leaves in about 90 minutes. I’ll leave here in about 45 minutes to go down to the gate which is quite a ways from the lounge. The flight from Manila was full but the Business Class Lounge here is not particularly busy. Maybe the flight to Portland will not be so full in Business Class?? It probably doesn’t matter in any regard except when I get a seatmate who is constantly getting up and down. I’ve got a aisle seat meaning that person would have to climb over me each time.

The lounge in Narita now has free wireless. That is a huge improvement! Back in the ancient days — 1995 through 1998 — getting a dial-up connection here at the airport was pretty dicey. I had my AT&T calling card number ripped off once in this airport. When I arrived in Seattle on a Sunday morning, my card had been cancelled and I couldn’t make any phone calls. Now there’s free wifi in the lounge. It’s about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday evening in Pocatello, and I just finished making a Skype phone call to Nina sitting at her computer at home. We talked for about ten minutes, for free. A couple of years ago in a previous job when we were negotiating with AT&T for data and voice networks, I told the AT&T rep that we weren’t going to pay anymore for long distance voice calling; that those calls had to be free in the contract. We didn’t make it down to free, but pretty dang close. Today I’ suspect that larger companies are no longer paying anything for their voice long distance as it’s all going across their data networks as just another kind of data. I know it was certainly impressive to me to be in the lounge here at the Narita Airport talking over my computer to Nina at home a third of the way around the world. Technology is amazing.

Well, the first leg is over. The long one comes next followed by the very long layover. I wonder if there’s a place on the Portland Airport to rent a room for a few hours and get some sleep? That might be nice, particularly if we get there early, which is often the case.

Traveling with a cold is a real pain. I’m constantly sneezing, coughing, and hacking. So, I’ve gone to the Japanese style — a face mask. It actually is helping to filter out some crap in the air and I don’t sneeze nearly as often. Hurrah.

The flight from Portland to Narita (the airport serving Tokyo, Japan) was mostly uneventful. The airplane was about a year old, but several of the seats in Business Class didn’t work correctly, including mine. The footrest didn’t work correctly on my seat. The woman in front of me could put her seat down, but it wouldn’t go back up. It took several folks to get the seat mostly back up for landing. The flight was full — both in Business Class and in Economy. I’m now in the Northwest lounge in the airport waiting for my connecting flight to Manila. It’s about 5:20 p.m. Tokyo time (2:20 a.m. Pocatello time) and my flight is scheduled to leave in two hours. I took a short nap on the way over, but I’m pretty tired right now. It’s time to be in bed and I’ve got several hours to go before that will happen. Even then it’ll be a short night’s sleep!

The weather here in Japan is very nice. Partly cloudy with temperatures in the mid 60’s. The lounge is pretty crowded with people making connecting international flights. These flights start in about a half hour and the lounge will start emptying out and by 8 p.m. it’ll be empty. The big difference from the last time I was here is that the wifi is now free in the lounge. That is a nice improvement! It used to cost about $5 for a couple of hours of connectivity. The landing today was to the south, so we came in over Tsuchiura and Mt. Tsukuba was visible in the haze in the distance. Lots of good memories associated with this airport and Japan. The airport terminals have changed enormously from when we left in 1998, all for the better. Both terminals now appear to be open, so that eternal project may be coming to an end. In a couple of years my business trips will come to an end as I retire. That’s one part of retirement that I’m not looking forward to!

I’ve arrived in Portland from Salt Lake City. My opportunity to move to a different seat did not marterilize. We waited, waited some more, and the front door didn’t close at the time it should have closed. Then a whole group of people came on, huffing and puffing. I guess their flight from out east was delayed and we were waiting for them. Every seat filled up except one middle seat near the front. I wasn’t about to move for that option!

I’ve caught something — it kind of acts like hay fever and kind of acts like a cold. On the flight from Pocatello to Salt Lake, everything cleard up and I kind of exulted, “This is hay fever!” However, that was not the case from Salt Lake to Portland. So maybe it is a cold. I’ve got plenty of meds with me, most of which don’t do anything other than mask the symptoms. If it’s a cold, it isn’t a bad one (yet). If it’s hay fever, it’s pretty bad. We’ll see what the next ten-hour flight brings!

This is my travel schedule: