September 17, 2009

Friends and Family,

You last heard from us from Larry’s House in Atlanta on June 21st. We had nearly completed work on our sailboat so we headed back to Washington to see people and take care of business prior to what could be an extended trip into the Bahamas or Caribbean. First we returned to St. Louis, Missouri, where we stayed with our friends Jesse and Lena again, except by this time they had had a baby, Violet.

Then we droned across Missouri, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle, and New Mexico. In Albuquerque we visited Steve's niece Kat, her (now) husband Billy, and baby daughter Kayla. We also received the new netbook computer we had ordered. Then we attended the annual Rainbow Gathering in the mountains of New Mexico, which we had heard of through Ginny's sister and a Juggalo-looking guy at a rest area in Oklahoma. It was Steve's second and Ginny's first. Fantastic, huge, lots of music, bizzare spirits, and free food, though you have to stand in lines for that. There was a rainbow inside a rainbow as we freaks went wild. This all took place above 9000' where it was surprisingly cold.

Next we went to Arizona and hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. We camped a couple nights in the canyon. The temp was over 110 during the day. We sat in a stream for hours to keep cool! Then we met Jim Hogg in Phoenix and camped with him for three days around the Chiricauhua Mountains. Next stop was Ginny's grandma's house in Los Angeles, where for the second year in a row we made it to her birthday. Our arrival this year was a surprise! Almost everyone made it, even Carley, who then drove up to Washington with us.

We got back to Washington late on the 19th of July. The tasks we set for ourselves ended up taking eight weeks. Steve found a new renter for his house in Pacific and got his income taxes done. Ginny integrated the new Asus Eee into our lifestyle and helped Jenna with her clothing design business. Though we visited quite a few people we mostly stayed at Jenna and Ben's house in South Seattle. We worked on the truck (our Isuzu is better than ever now; it even drives straight when you take your hand off the wheel!), put new gunwales on the canoe, built a new waterproof accordion case, made an awesome rocking horse for Violet's first birthday, snuggled with Ginny's cats, and checked off many smaller tasks from a long To Do list.

On September 11th we finally headed back toward Pepper, who awaits us at Larry's house. We went via the Canadian Rockies, where our improved canoe has again proved its worth. We now write you now from Calgary, Alberta, where we are also adding to our gallery of mp3 songs to listen to while we travel. We hope this finds you all well and that your lives similarly blessed with newness and love of each other, eh.

Steve and Ginny

Check out the rest of our new photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/ginnygoon/TheAdventuresOfGinnyAndSteve#