Autumn Leaves

As the sun was coming up I snapped a few shots of the early morning light hitting the leaves of the apricot tree.

Salt Lake Tribune Article

Utah Governor Jon Huntsman wrote a really good column in today's Salt Lake Tribune stating why the nation needs John McCain. Here's a link to the column - Huntsman Article

Weekend Activities

It's been an eventful weekend. First Robin and I spent most of Friday putting plastic on the roof of the house. It's a temporary measure until next year when we can put on a new roof. We really want a metal roof. Last winter we found several places where the water dripped and this will solve those problems for this coming winter.
Here are some pictures of the result of our efforts:

Here's the house from the front -


Here's a look at the roof in the back of the house -


Finally, the back over the patio -


Then Saturday we celebrated Brighton's 5th birthday with a small party.

Here's a picture of the Superman / Spider-Man ice cream cake -


Brighton checking out the cake -


A really pleased young man -


We also included LaRue in the celebrations since she and Brighton have the same birthday. She received a few presents from Robin and Emily and from me.

Some New Family Websites

Andy has added a couple of new websites. One is dedicated to his film Butterflies and the other is a personal site.
Here are the links - Butterflies and Andy Bailey at Weirdribs
Finally, here's the location of John's new podcast - Batwing's Beat

Political Statement

Okay. So far Bailey Acres has not taken a stand either way on the upcoming election. And we get emails from people on both sides of the political coin forwarding us stuff either promoting their candidate or slamming the other guy.

The time has come to take a stand.

We're not voting for Obuma Obama . And we're not discussing it, either.

Trip to Granby, Missouri

Last Wednesday LaRue and I drove to Provo to drop off some items at Liz and Gary's house before heading east. Then it was a drive up to the Roy area to meet up with Robin and let him take the car for the duration of our trip. We had dinner with him and all drove back to West Valley to the hotel where LaRue and I were going to stay.

The next morning we rode the hotel's shuttle bus to the Salt Lake airport. Everything went smoothly at the airport and we were soon waiting for our flight. We flew Southwest to Denver and then to Kansas City. It was about three hours on the plane (including 25 minutes on the ground in Denver).

At the car rental in Kansas City we picked up a Mitsubishi Galant. Nice car, but not something I would ever buy. We found it not real comfortable for the long drive to Granby (186 miles).


However, we didn't go straight down to Granby but drove the short distance to Liberty to tour the Liberty Jail. It was really interesting to see the place where Joseph Smith was incarcerated for almost 4 months. The jail itself was very small and the men found it hard to stand upright.

From there it was a 3 hour drive to Granby through rolling hills of greenery. Quite a change from our desert area.
There are actually no motels in Granby so we stayed in nearby Neosho at the Booneslick Lodge. It was really nice.

We must have been quite tired since we slept in Friday morning. In the afternoon we went over to the church and helped a little with the open house preparations. Gary's mother had done a fantastic job decorating and we helped with some final food preparation.

The open house was really nice. Afterward we helped put some things away and headed back to the lodge. We had to get up at 5 AM to drive make the drive back to the airport.

Now I'm going to rant a bit - the Kansas City airport is not one I will ever fly into again. Unlike the Salt Lake airport, once you pass through security in Kansas City there is nothing but the chairs of the waiting areas of the boarding gates. In Salt Lake they have restaurants and shops inside the secure part of the airport. We wanted to get something to eat so we had to leave the secure area, go eat and then go through security all over again.

The flight from Kansas City to Salt Lake was five and one half hours due to stops in Dallas and Albuquerque. Following that was the drive back to Vernal in the dark. We hate driving in the dark. But we made it home safe and sound about 11:30 Saturday night.

Overall, we enjoyed our trip and I have put up some pictures. You can see them here: Missouri Pictures

Tow Trip

Friday evening Robin was driving to Vernal from Roy when the car he was driving -
the 1995 Hyundai Elantra developed a problem with the driveline. He had Emily drive out to get him and attempt to tow the vehicle the rest of the way to Vernal. However, being night and raining, they decided to leave the car at a rest area west of Duchesne.

Saturday after work Robin came by and he and I jumped into his van - and headed west.

This map shows the route. It's 76 miles from Vernal to the rest area.


We found the car safe and sound, hooked up the tow rope -
and started back to Vernal. But a few miles along the rope developed a little too much slack, got run over and broke. Robin made a quick alteration to the tow rope that involved a bungie cord to keep it from dragging and we were off again.
An hour and a half later we had the car back at home. Robin thinks he can fix it fairly easily, so it will sit at our house until he returns.

Cars - gotta love 'em.