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27 July 2001 Click on the
pictures to enlarge them.
Greetings again from New Mexico. We hope you all are having a great year 2001, the true first year of the new century and millennium. Our July Fourth newsletter is a little late this year because we were on the road from 19 June to 15 July.
LINDA NOT TEACHING
Last Autumn, Linda taught 6th and 8th grade classes at Hope Christian School. She resigned after that semester and has spent more time taking care of her mom.
LINDA'S MOM
Earlier this year, Linda's mom had fallen in her home and required assistance. (Therefore, we canceled our plans for a springtime Arizona trip.) On 6 May she moved into an apartment at The Woodmark Assisted Living facility just a few blocks from where she had been living. She is able to have her dog, Samantha, with her.
ROBERT'S NEWS
Last winter, Robert made three school visits under the Visiting Scientist Program of the New Mexico Academy of Science. He visited Hondo Valley School, Capitan High School, and Tohatchi School. Students at each school had the opportunity to view the sun through a telescope and observe sunspots.
Early in March Robert was asked to return to work with our church staff to help maintain the network of over 80 computers.
Robert is also continuing in his volunteer job as Treasurer of the Albuquerque Section of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
FOR THE BIRDS
On 12 February, we took a trip with senior adults from our church to visit the Bosque Del Apache wildlife refuge. It is along the Rio Grande south of Soccoro, NM, and is the winter home to tens of thousands of Canada Geese and Sandhill Cranes.
Sandhill cranes fly back to the bosque.
Some very rare Whooping Cranes also spend the winter there. At the visitor center we learned that one had been seen this winter. On our tour we saw bald eagles, a porcupine, and the thousands of geese and cranes. However, the greatest thrill was when we observed the birds coming back to roost at sunset. The Whooping Crane landed right in front of where we were
observing!
Whooping Crane. (White bird in center.)
MALSEED WEB NEWS
The family web site has helped bring us in contact with Malseed cousins from several countries. We have heard from people in England, Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the USA. That pretty much lists all the countries where Malseeds / Molseeds / Maultsaids live. We have also heard from Leinius, Russell, and Shubert cousins.
A VISITOR FROM IRELAND
From 24 to 27 March we were pleased to have Jim Maultsaid visit with us from Bangor, Northern Ireland. Jim found our web site in late February. He has provided us with a lot of information about Malseeds in the 1800s in County Donegal, Ireland. (Jim's ancestor, William Malseed, changed his name to
Maultsaid.)
Robert and distant cousin Jim Maultsaid.
TRIP TO MONTANA
We left Albuquerque on 19 June. Linda's brother, James, and his family (Norma Jean, Chris, and Stacy) left with us with their Suburban and trailer. We all drove to Colorado Springs and camped in the Garden of The Gods Campground in Manitou Springs. We spent some time with Linda's relatives in Colorado Springs and did some sight seeing. We then drove to the city of Estes Park and visited Rocky Mountain National Park on 21 June. The next day we drove to Glendo State Park in Wyoming. We spent the night of 22 June at Glendo Reservoir on the North Platte River. Then we drove to Custer State Park in South Dakota in the beautiful black hills.
Malseed Trek and Baxter trailer at Custer State Park.
We camped there for two nights (23 and 24 June). We saw buffalo and big horn sheep on a drive through the park. There were also some fantastic granite formations (called needles) that were visible on our drive. Sylvan lake provided a beautiful setting for our picnic lunch. Later on that drive we stopped at Crazy Horse Memorial to see what progress has been made since our visit in 1997. The monument looked the same, but many new visitor facilities have been built.
Crazy Horse Memorial.
On our way to Mount Rushmore we had to stop for a fawn that was standing in the road. It seemed afraid and unsure what to do until its mother came down from the road embankment and led it to safety. We were at Rushmore for the evening program when floodlights illuminate the mountain.
Mt Rushmore at night.
On our way back from Mt. Rushmore, we had to stop for a porcupine that was in the road. It was a slow mover. (No wonder so many seem to become road kill.) After two nights at Custer, our next stop was at Sibley Lake high in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. In the morning, Robert saw a small beaver swimming in the lake. The next day (26 June) was a long drive to Yellowstone National Park. We descended a very steep grade (up to 10% for over 10 miles) down from the Bighorn forest to the Bighorn River. From Cody, Wyoming, we ascended back into mountains and entered Yellowstone National Park. Along the way we spotted a bull moose by the roadside. We camped in the park at Bridge Bay. The next day we drove around the upper loop in the park. We stopped and watched a grizzly bear alongside the road. Later, at the petrified tree site, a bull moose came out of the woods to graze.
Of course we spent time observing boiling springs, mud pots, fumaroles, cauldrons, waterfalls, etcetera that make Yellowstone a fantastic geothermal site.
Grizzly bear.
Moose comes to visit.
What a wonderful day of nature and wildlife viewing! On the 28th we split. James, Norma Jean, Chris, and Stacy headed south to Jackson, WY, to meet Norma Jean's sister while we headed north to Malmstrom AFB at Great Falls. On the way we saw the largest herd of buffalo that we had ever seen. We also had a wonderful close-up view of some bull elk.
Elk cools his feet.
The highway crossed over the Little Belt Mountains - a very scenic area. We spent a day in Great falls visiting the Charles Russell Museum, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, Great Spring Park, and viewing some of the Great Falls of the Missouri River. (The falls were mostly dry.) Charles Russell is a famous western artist who lived in Great Falls. Lewis and Clark found the falls to be a big impediment to their expedition in June 1805. On the morning of the 30th we left Malmstrom and drove south and west to Hamilton, MT, in the Bitterroot valley. The road took us through Helena, the capitol of Montana.
A big rack of antlers.
We arrived at our friends' home in the afternoon. This area suffered greatly in the forest fires last year. Our friends, who live in the middle of the valley, provided shelter and meals to many who had to leave their homes when they were threatened by the fires. It was sad to see areas where we had hiked in our previous visits that are now blackened by the fire. We saw more fire damage south of there near Sula, Montana. We were there over the Fourth, so we celebrated with John, Maria, and some of their friends. In the morning Robert and John went to the firing range and shot some .45 caliber holes in cardboard silhouettes. After sunset we watched fireworks from the back yard. After a week we left Hamilton and drove south and spent a night at Idaho Falls. The following day we arrived in Salt Lake City. On the way home from Salt Lake we spent a night at McPhee Reservoir in southwest Colorado.
RESEARCH IN SALT LAKE CITY
From 9 thru 13 July we stayed in Salt Lake City at the Camp VIP campground. Each day we spent time at the Family History Library. We made some progress in our genealogical studies, but no big breakthroughs.
TRAVEL PLANS
This August and September we plan to travel to Oregon and Washington. We have family and friends to visit there. We will be attending the summer Family Motor Coach Association convention in Redmond, OR, in August and the annual Safari Motor Coach Homecoming Rally in Harrisburg, OR, in September. Between those events we plan to travel up to the Seattle area. We went to Homecoming in 1999, and decided we needed to make a return visit to see more of the area.
POCKET PC
We put our income tax refunds to use and bought two more computers. We each have a Compaq H3670 Pocket PC. They link up to our home computer network and allow us to carry a lot of information with us. Some of this newsletter was written on the Pocket PC during our trip. Robert also found that having his genealogy database instantly available was useful in doing his research. Our friend and New Technology Pastor at our church, Dale Coffing, maintains a web site devoted to the Pocket PC.
(See our Links page.) We have been helping him with the User Group meetings held at our church each month.
PICO
On 21 August Pico will be 14 years old. His hearing isn't what it used to be, his eyes are developing cataracts, and he has congestive heart problems. However he still seems to feel good and he enjoys traveling in our motor home. (He has traveled about 65,000 miles with us since 1991.)
Pico rides with Chris in the Safari Trek.
THE BOTTOM LINE
We continue to be thankful for the Lord's provision for us. We trust in Him, and pray that you will do likewise.
Love,
Robert & Linda
& Pico
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Page last updated:
14 March 2007
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