This post is looking back to Grandpa and Grandma Huber’s visit to us in Cypress, Texas in January of 2014. Memory fades somewhat, but they flew down and hung out with us for a couple of weeks. Grandpa did a lot of pruning and cutting wild vegetation in the yard. Grandma spent a lot of time enjoying the kids. We also went on a couple of trips, and played some board games. Enjoy the pics and the memories.
I took some video clips on our trip to Yellowstone National Park in August 2014. It was a low end video camera and I think the SD card that I had in it wasn’t fast enough, so I was getting buffer issues. Consequently, there’s some footage (like Old Faithful erupting) that I missed. Anyhow, here is a montage of my video clips of the geysers that we saw on that fateful day in August.
The Geyser Video
I’m trying to push the total number of posts on Hubcrate.com to the grand milestone of 200. So, here is post 199, spot the out of place lizard…
One of the really popular locations at Grandpa and Grandma’s 50th anniversary celebration was the photo booth. The idea was pure genius. All manner of props and clothes were provided (although more accessories were available for the fairer sex) and pictures were taken of anyone willing to dress up and pose. It was a busy place all evening long.
Here are some of the pictures with Ben Huber family members in them. For those of you reading who aren’t part of the larger Huber family, the other posers in the pictures are all cousins. Without further introduction (or captioning as this latest version of WordPress for the iPad doesn’t do that easily, or I’m too lazy), here are the pictures to enjoy.
The last day of our trip home started in Amarillo, Texas and end up in the driveway of our new home in Houston, Texas. It was a pretty long day, mostly uneventful; just lots of driving. Google’s recommended route was through Forth Worth, but we took that route back in May coming home from Colorado, and I didn’t want to go through Fort Worth on a Friday afternoon. So we took a different route which probably added some time to the trip, but took us through different countryside.
And to wrap things up (since the only thing that I am remembering from that day is driving and gas stations), here are a couple of pictures taken right after we got home (in less than ideal lighting conditions.)
Day four of the trip home saw us starting in Parachute, Colorado and ending in Amarillo, Texas. It felt like the longest day of driving, an impression bolstered by losing an hour as we crossed time zones.
Breakfast at the hotel felt like it was the minimum that they could do while calling it a hot breakfast.
We drove through the mountains of Colorado, passing through the ski community of Vail. It was raining and in some places there was standing water on the road. This combined with a steep upgrade (and driving in a lower gear with more torque) and a heavily loaded vehicle resulted in a couple of cases where the wheels started to spin, but were quickly brought under control by the traction control system. I wouldn’t want to drive that highway in the snow, but apparently people do. There was also quite a lot of truck traffic. We went through the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel under the Loveland Pass. At over 11,000 feet of altitude and being almost 1.7 miles in length, it was pretty impressive. Plus, I was happy that it was downhill from there.
We headed on through Denver in the mid-afternoon, trying to make it through the city before rush hour which we accomplished. We stopped in southern Colorado in the city of Trinidad. We had dinner at Habaneros Mexican Grill, as suggested by the Yelp application. It was a pretty small place, but the food was excellent and we enjoyed it. Here are Lori and Davison sitting at the counter in it.
It was getting dark by that time, and we had quite a long trip ahead of us. We pulled into Amarillo pretty late, but made it there safely.
On the third day of our trip home, we travelled from Idaho Falls, Idaho, through the state of Utah, ending up at the town of Parachute, Colorado. (I had already posted about the hotel in Parachute).
It was a bit of an uneventful day, with lots of miles covered with lots of rugged, barren scenery. Lori and I listened to most of the story “White Fang” by Jack London.
Here’s a couple of pictures from the Utah rest stop where we stopped to prepare our lunch and use the facilities.
And here are some additional pictures taken on the road and at a rest stop further down the road.
Supper was a forgettable stop at a MacDonalds near Grand Junction, Colorado.
Day two of our trek home saw us starting off in Helena, Montana and ending up in Idaho Falls, Idaho. On the way, we visited Yellowstone National Park to check out the geyser scene. Here is the route that we took.
One of the staples of Huber family travels is stopping at rivers and throwing rocks into them, although truth be told this is not an hourly or daily occurrence. Nevertheless, here we are by Cardwell, Montana on an outhouse stop, throwing rocks into the river.
From there it was on to Yellowstone National Park, situated primarily in the north west corner of Wyoming.
Yellowstone National Park turns out to be a pretty big place, consisting of more than one geyser. Nevertheless (whoops, I already used that word in the post, so how about “irregardless”), Dad decided that we needed to go first and see Old Faithful. We got to the large tourist complex that has grown up around it. By the time we parked, found and used the restrooms and got oriented, we missed the big blow-off.
It turns out that Old Faithful is pretty regular in an ambiguous sort of way. It goes off every 90 minutes give or take 10 minutes. So, we had some time to experience new and wonderful things and headed off to the Visitor Center to learn about geology and steam. Here is Heidi and Brock checking out the exhibits.
Having learned all that there was to learn at the VC, some of us begrudgingly (others of us joyfully, others not at all as they went to reserve seating at the Old Faithful viewing site). The next two pictures are from that short hole (0.7 miles if my memory serves me correctly).
Here is what Old Faithful looks like when it is at rest.
And here it is in all of its glory.
After seeing Old Faithful, we took a look around some other parts of the park including some lesser known geysers and hot springs. I have some of that on video, but for the sake of getting this post done, will postpone posting those until some later (or never) date.
The day ended with a less than memorable meal at Denny’s in Idaho Falls, and an entirely forgettable stay at a Motel 6 (other than the quirky room furnishings).