Past, Present, and Future of Thomas Hector
Since Thomas is at work, and it appears that he will be there for awhile longer, I decided to take over his blog to give you some good news. Thomas thought this would be his last post, but he was talked into being a contributing member in a whole family blog. So, we will all continue to enjoy his photographic posts, only a little less frequently.
Head over to the new site:
Hopefully we will see you at our new location!
Later.
BFH
Long time no write everybody! I am writing to inform you that this is going to be my last post for awhile… life has shoved itself in my way and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day for writing a post! Don’t fret though… I may be back someday…
My last post is going to be on a topic requested by my very dear friend: Oatman.
Oatman requested that I post some pictures of “Life in the Hector family of long ago.” Since my dad did not get his first digital camera until the late ’90s, pictures you will see in this post will be post-then. I hope you enjoy, and I’ll see ya around!!
This is probably the earliest of the bunch. Dad Ben and I are up on top of the Indian Head (rock formation on our property)…
The lack of available wireless internet connections combined with the long hours of driving and sickness that ran rampant through the family in the second half of the trip didn’t help the posting department any. We are safe and sound at home now, a little early which gives time to post some pictures of the rest of our trip. Let’s see… I think I left you with a picture of the Davis’ van up on the back of a flat bed tow truck… yep! That was the last one.
The van took a couple of days to fix so we spent this down time at the Davis’ relatives house that was located very conveniently three hours from where they had the brake down… still in Kansas. Here are some pictures of us in the front of their house experimenting with the sailboat…
Captain Dave ready to command the seas! Or the pavement…
Afterwards, the older kids walked over to the nearby train tracks to do some good ol’ fashioned penny squishing. Scout Ben was trying to track the train…
I don’t know what Nate and I were doing here. Just being goofy I guess…
You can guess what the thinking was behind this one…
After our lovely visit with the relatives, we headed out early to try and make up some lost time. We wanted to get to Peoria, Illinois by 1830hrs for a planned baseball game so we left at 0600hrs. The next state? I’ll show you…
I didn’t see any people welcoming us… just a sign. John Wayne’s birthplace was not too far off the desired route, so we made a slight detour to make Nic happy…
Here’s the first house of one of the greatest actors known to man. Second only to Gary Cooper…
After our long trek through Iowa we finally made it to Illinois, right on schedule…
Unfortunately, people were more interested in watching the ball game or socializing with new found friends than they were in taking pictures. So we will skip to the next day which was spent at a wildlife park. Joe and Sara were playing with an amazingly still elk/deer thing…
At the park they had a 52 foot slide. Kate and Sara enjoyed every foot…
Later that evening there was an ordination/dinner/dance. No pictures from the first two, so you will have to be content with dancing pictures. “Unfortunately” I was beginning to feel under the weather, and “unfortunately” dad had twisted his ankle the week before, so sad to say, we had to sit on the sidelines.
Sara never stops smiling…
We stayed at the McDonald’s house for a couple of nights in Illinois. This shot was taken pretty much at their back door. A mixture of Californians, Illinoisans and Tennesseans. Lovely pond…
Another group shot of Californians, Illinoisans and this time Arizonans…
We left the McDonald’s and headed about an hour south to stay with some more friends. Yes… it is always green over there…
Upon our arrival at the Bandy’s house we started our ritual of getting the RV and boat set up for the night, but this time we discovered something had gone wrong. Take a look for yourself…
Yeah… not good. If those last two bolts had failed, then we would have said bye bye to the boat, probably on the freeway. Let this be a lesson to you… never tailgate!!
At the Bandy’s we enjoyed a wonderful evening of Dutch Blitz (Nertz), amazing food, and a rousing game of “smack the other person with the boffer”. A boffer is a length of ¾” pvc, with pipe insulation, wrapped in duct tape. Nice and soft, but hard at the same time. Needless to say someone got "boffed" quite nicely towards the end of the game. Care to guess who?…
Yep… right in the face. Thanks for that one Ashton…
The next morning we said our goodbyes to the Bandys and headed back north to visit some more new found friends. While en route we noticed a bit of wind rushing in to the RV from the bottom of the windshield. Then a little more… then a little more… until it got to the point where the bottom of the windshield popped out, so much that Ben could see the freeway through the space. And what do you do when the windshield pops out in the middle of nowhere? Use duct tape!! That is exactly what we did…
Ben likes to search for an internet connection where ever he goes, in the weirdest places…
The next day while the windshield was being fixed, we headed up to a nearby lake in Wisconsin to take the sailboat on its maiden voyage…
The mast goes up…
Thanks to Jonathan Erber for this great picture. It only looks like the mast got struck by lightning. No clouds… see?…
And last but not least, the sails…
The boat was ready to go in the water…
We came to find out that it does not sink…
Hoist the mainsail ye lads!!…
Swab the poop decks!! Or just sit there and enjoy the ride…
Cruising along on Lake Geneva with No-Neck Laura…
While some were sailing others were relaxing on the shore…
Or swinging on the shore. See the sand?…
Everybody across the country knows how to play Nertz…
The great chef and baker Ben decided to make a couple of cheesecakes for our wonderful hosts. See the orange behind Anthony’s neck? That is the mastermind and we are his grunt laborers…
Group picture with the Erbers…
We left the Erber’s and headed south towards Springfield and Lincolns tomb…
That would be him… or his box… or whatever you call it…
This sign in the bathrooms at the tomb just amused me to no end…
Missouri was the next state on our travels. It was the first time any of us had ever been there…
Not many pictures taken in Missouri. Moving on to Kansas…
And this was the only picture I could come up with in Kansas…
Moving on to Colorado…
Notice how that picture looked hot and dry? Well this one is in the same state but totally opposite…
We didn’t get a New Mexico state line sign picture, but we did arrive there at our friends the Haroldsons, who also know how to play Nertz and are crazy good at it…
The Haroldson family is full of musicians, so I had to pull my violin out to join in…
And a group picture of the two families…
Now for the long drive home through the desert. Arizona to be specific…
Laura helped with the navigation along the straight flat roads…
A bit of dad’s artistic eye in combination with an interesting rock formation…
This one is for Mrs. Loughman. A picture of our sailboat in the middle of the desert…
We made a push for home and drove into the night. The California state line sign didn’t turn out so well in the dark…
Yep… we’re back in California with the crazy California drivers that try and make U-turns on Jack Tone Road in a semi truck. That guy has courage…
Thanks for reading that extremely long post!! It’s good to be home… and we decided… next time we’re flying…
As most of you know by now, the Hector family has embarked on another excursion to see more of this wonderful country that God has blessed us with. For the next three weeks this blog is going to be devoted to the ins and outs of the trip, but in a little different way. I am going to be posting pictures of the trip with brief descriptions and Ben will be posting complete (or mostly complete) order of events. If you wish to read the narrative version of the trip then you can head on over to my brother Ben’s blog by clicking here. Did you click on the here? If you did not, I will give you many more opportunities to click a here. Like here for instance. Or hear. But not there because that was not here, but hear.
To start things off I thought I would write a poem about the first two days. After this I promise I will just stick with the pictures…
The day started early in Cal
Last minute packing was done
The RV and boat equaled 63 feet
The obstacle of leaving was won
The plan was to meet friends in Reno
For an “eat till you bust” buffet
Trials and troubles of driving
Were not going to stand in our way
A broken down truck and trailer
Threatened to stop us on hwy 88
A keen dad and bro with an idea
Managed to shorten our wait
(For more on that keen idea click here)
Reno was made
Lunch was consumed
A noticed low tire
Promised nothing but doom
Costco was found
The prognosis was bleak
A hole in the sidewall
Would continue to leak
A patchwork was done
We were sent out of town
A smile on our face
Instead of a frown
Straight, flat and boring
The state of Nevada doth be
Full of dirt, sagebrush and dirt
And the speeding Lexus’ by me
This saga just might continue
Perhaps as soon as the morrow
If events of interest occur
That lead to excitement, not sorrow
So… what did you think of my attempt at making certain words in the English language rhyme? When I read it to the fam, they gave me that “oh… that’s very… um… nice!”
Here are the pictures as promised…
At the beginning of the trip at the end of the road. The camera’s on a rock…
Here is a closer version minus myself…
A frozen/snow covered lake not too far from our house…
Matt and Nic below decks. Kinda cramped…
Here is our first campsite… Actually more like a parking lot…
Yes, the windshield needs to be cleaned once in awhile…
Utah state line. Doesn’t it look like a good place to live?…
We had to get our traditional picture at the Salt Lake…
The Davis family decided to join us for our picture…
We can now say we took our boat to the Salt Lake…
Wyoming state line. A nicer place to live…
Little America in Wyoming. Kinda hokey…
Sara’s b-day at Little America…
Nathan put himself in between the two vehicles. Like a bumper…
Snowing at the gas station…
Nebraska state line. A greener place to live. The good life…
The only National Cemetery in Nebraska…
Found our relative in the cemetery. Interesting first name…
The youngin’s…
And last but not least the van on the back of the tow truck…
What is a blog?…
That is what I should be saying. I haven’t put anything on here since March! And it is already May! Where did the month go?
Anyway… quick update on all things.
1. I have jumped through many of the hoops in the process of becoming an Oakland firefighter. Thus far I have passed the written test, the oral interview, and the physical agility test. This now means that I am officially on the list!! Although that means nothing if I don’t do well in the chief’s oral interview coming up on Tuesday.
2. As many of you found out from Ben’s blog, mom fell and broke her wrist last week. This has thrown another variable into the already hectic schedule, but I think she is worth the effort.
3. On Sunday the 11th, our family is loading up in the RV once again to take a trip to Illinois for our annual church meeting. We are making it into a vacation so we will be gone for three weeks. I (and I am sure Ben will too) will update you from the road.
In the meantime, I thought you would all enjoy some pictures from our last pile of dead pine branches that we burned. If you don’t enjoy them then I will stop thinking.
I have no idea what we are staring at. It obviously is on the ground and it is obviously a different thing for each of us that captured our attention…
I must be a caveman. I can start fire. See the flame?…
Antwon got a little chilly just standing there…
Look at those beefy muscles on that guy! Throwing trees all over the place…
Flame caught with a camera is fascinating…
It didn’t take very long for the fire to grow into a raging inferno. Remember kids… Only YOU can prevent forest fires… Ok Smokey, stop hijacking my keyboard and get back to hibernating…
It got so hot that Sara had to resort to throwing sticks on the fire from quite a distance back…
It burned down rather quickly so Jonathan was able to show off his wonderful skills of throwing huge hunks of tree around…
Doesn’t the flame look like a third tree that is on fire? The way it points just like the trees gives it an artistic touch…
This last pic is my favorite. It reminds me of a Vincent van Gogh painting…
If you are in California, enjoy the beautiful weather we have been having! If you are not in California try and enjoy whatever weather you are having in your current location!
thector87