Going Home

UNDER CONSTRUCTION ! With frequent updates until the blog reaches home in Salt Lake City, jou can look to the right and select the travel segment of interest - just click on it and it will come to the top.

Here is a map of the first week or so of our journey home.

October 16th. Here we are ready to drive away. We are in the Dartmouth Stake Center/Halifax Temple parking lot after President Blake's 'Thank You' party. Richard, our son, was in the area on business and we are headed for the Sterners in Fredricton, then on to Boston where he will complete his business and fly home to Phoenix. Sister Muhn is sharing the back seat with a big pile of our belongings...

Wow, this is going to take forever! I'd forgotten how difficult it is to add more than one picture at a time, then get it in the right place.

Tom & Peggy showed us all around the area and we all picked some Canadian red maple leaves as the countryside was afire with the fall colors!

I wish I could include a hundred more pictures!

Farewell Sterners & Canada! What a wonderful experience!!

Next stop - the border, then Boston.

Boston

The weather is beautiful and the scenery spectacular with the fall colors.














Here is part of the Boston skyline
















Here is Janet at the Old City Hall in Boston. We walked the Freedom Trail through the downtown area and took in many of the sights.

More Boston

Here is Paul Rever's silversmith shop.










After tromping all over Boston on foot, we visited the Nnahs. Their son, Emmanual, was one of the missionaries we came to know in Malawi, Africa. He is away at school at BYU. Maybe we will see him when we get home.


Enjoy!

Boston to Connecticut

After Boston, we headed to Connecticut to see Janet's cousin , Amy and her daughter Sophie.

As you can see, the weather is holding out great, the traffic light (except Boston), and the roads clear.

Then on to our longtime friends, Laurel
and Bob George in Danbury, Connecticut.

From Connecticut to Louisiana

Here is a slide show of our trip to Louisiana. After a night at Best Western we dropped in a HERSHEY, then on to visit Kaboni Gondwe in Athens, Ohio where she is working on her advanced nursing degree - she is a friend from Malawi, Africa. It was good to see her and that she is doing well.

Then on to see Janet's cousin, Mike, in West Chester, Ohio. Its about the 21st of October now. She has not seen him for quite a few years. Scott is not in the pictures because he is taking them...

We've tried to leave a little time for unplanned side trips - like going to see Mammoth Cave - fun!

The next night we spent at a Best Western in Mephis, TN. While we were in the area we just had to see Grand Old Opra, Graceland, and then an old time and well preserved plantation in Louisiana (E on the map below). Enjoy the slide show.

A note on the slide shows: The show usually starts before you get to it. You can back it up by clicking on the 'stop' square at the top middle of the slides, then clicking on the back or forward arrow to get to the start or slide you want.

From Louisiana to Texas

Why such a circuitous route back to Salt Lake City? We want to see and get reacquainted with our kids and grand kids! So that will eventually take us to Southern California before the final leg back to Salt Lake City; and then only for a brief layover before we head up to see the last family in Idaho for Christmas (weather permitting).
We stopped at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky then on to the plantation (E) in Louisiana
Here is the next slide show from Marie Kulbeth's home in Lafayette, Louisiana (F) to our daughters in League City, TX (G), just south of Houston.

Taken at our daughter's home in League City -

L to R : My sister, Joann Kearns; with her daughter, Amy Kearns; Alisa Rasmussen; Jewelie R.; Janet Muhn; Kya R.; Riley R.; Nathan R.; Chantry R. Missing: Russell Rasmussen, Alisa's husband. (and me - taking the picture...)

The following slide show includes a birthday party for Chantry, an Eagle Court of Honor for Riley, a trip to Brazos Bend Park (aligators), a ferry trip, and other fun things.

Janet's Mother, Lorene, flew down from Colorado for the Eagle Court of Honor - so a lot of family there!

More pictures from the Houston area.

From Houston, TX to Aztec, NM

I guess I only get so much storage on the slide show program, so as I add new pictures, old ones disappear. Haven't figured this all out yet - guess I need to go back and read the fine print! So for now, here are some maps of our continuing journey.
From Mikes (A) we went to Mammoth Cave (B) on 22 Oct. 2010, then on to Grand Ole Opry (C) and spent the night at Best Western in Memphis (D).

The 23rd, we visited Graceland (Elvis Presley - D) then headed south into plantation country where we saw the Rosedown Plantation (E), then continued after nightfall to see Marie Kulbeth (F). We went to Church with her the next day, then headed off for our daughters in League City, TX (G). We spent the 24th of Oct. through the 8th of Nov. at her home and enjoyed the family.



From League City, TX we headed west on the 9th of November and stopped in to see Alex and Stacey Karuth (he was a missionary in Africa while we were there) in San Antonio, TX (B).

We spent the night of 9 Nov. in Ozona, TX (C), then on to see the Billings at Silver City, NM (D) on the 10th . Their daughter is serving in the Halifax Nova Scotia Mission where we came to know and love her.

11 Nov: From the Billings, we drove to Janet's Brother and family in Santa Fe, NM (E) on the 10th of Nov. We spent a few days there and had a wonderful breakfast at Harry's Roadhouse Cafe (world famous I'm told), had a tour of old town Santa Fe, and headed to Aztec, NM to see our son, Samuel, and his wife, Sarah. While there we shingled a shed and we all pitched in to clean part of their back yard so he could relocate another shed.

We went to a choir presentation that Sarah is part of and flew R/C planes and helo's with Sam one calm day.

Aztec to Phoenix

20 November we departed Aztec, NM headed for Phoenix, AZ. The weather continued to be beautiful! Along the way we visited the Petrified Forest(B) and the Ghormleys(C) (old friends from our days in California) before arriving at the home of Richard, Lisa & George Muhn in Phoenix, AZ.

Here are some more pictures

Phoenix and Dana Point - CA

At Phoenix we visited our son, Richard, and his wife, Lisa, and son, George. They live just north of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve. While there we helped with his remodeling of his 'new' home - something for the young and energetic; but it was good to help and share in their life. Its also a good time to be in the desert!

We arrived in Phoenix the evening of November 19.

Collin Oxspring is another of the great elders that served with us in the Zimbabwe mission.
Map:
We left Phoenix 30 November to spend some time with our son-in-law, Dan Everett, who has just started his own Medical Hyperbaric Treatment business. Then a visit to long time friends, Ken & Cathy Wilson who are serving in the Redlands Temple. Finally on to our Daughter's home in Dana Point, California. Dan, her husband, commutes to spend the week at Palm Springs. Again - wonderful weather!

This is our Home Teaching/Visiting Teaching route (we are 'A'). Between the temple and trying to squeeze this in between is a challenge. To reach the one way out at Port Deffern ('D') on the far right takes about 1-Hr 40 Min if we don't stop at any of the others on the way. There are a man and woman we try to get home at the same time. If we time it right it is a two day affair. We go up, help clean, fix and repair, spend the night, then help with other things and head back the next morning. We often try to catch one or two others on the way - but it seldom works out.


An interesting sight on our way to Port Duffern.

This is one of those sights you whizz by then say, "what was that?!". So this time I stopped took a picture. One picture is worth a thousand words . . . .

Christmas 2009

We had a busy and wonderful Christmas here in Nova Scotia. Although we missed family and friends, we have met so many wonderful people here in Nova Scotia and in the future I hope to share a few of their stories. Each one is unique, heart warming, and faith promoting how the Lord will seek out his sheep. (Ezekiel 34:11 KJV).

25 Dec 2009 - Christmas Day. Elder & Sister Muhn opening some gifts:

25 Dec 2009 - Christmas dinner at the Jewer's in Lunenburg:

24 Dec 2009: Both the Stuarts and the Pillings invited us over for Christmas eve dinner and festivities - a wonderful evening with good friends:

23 Dec 2009: The Churches in this area have a yearly live nativity program including live animals (as available). I have mostly movies - but it is likely to take some time to edit those into something presentable, so here are a few pictures. Sorry if some are a little blurry:

Lights and Sights around town:

12 Dec 09 The Temple President and his wife had a Christmas Open House for friends and temple workers. Most of the pictures are of the decorations as I thought I'd talk with people rather than take pictures of them this time :-) :

9 Dec 09: Janet, with testing assistance from Scott), cooked and baked plates of goodies for everyone in our apartment complex as well as friends and missionaries - no small undertaking!









7 Dec 09 The Church in Sackville has a yearly creche display where church members and others in the community bring their nativity pieces for display: