The Derrick Clan...

Well some of the Derrick clan that is! Here's Katrina with Spirit (a 1 yr. old Golden Doodle) - remember she broke her elbow last September and I went to Hawaii while her husband Jerry was in Kuwait?






Harmony making faces! She's 4 going on 20!










Justice doesn't really like the camera, he just tolerates it!! At 7, he's missing several of his front teeth!










Brother and sister...not fighting!







There's no pictures of Christina, Hope or Charity (the cats) or Jerry (the husband)! They arrived the day after we did from Hawaii. They are relocating to Virginia and are spending a few weeks in So. California waiting for escrow to close on their new house!

Happy Birthday, Haleigh Nicole!

It's so hard to believe that today Haleigh would have been seven years old! If you haven't read about our granddaughter, and would like to, you can read my blog from April 28, 2006 which is here http://leithblog.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html. Haleigh lived for such a short time, but the love that she knew in that time was tremendous!

Happy 7th Birthday, Haleigh! I love you!

Some people only dream of angels...we got to hold one in our arms.

Baker-Vegas Challenge Cup Relay - 2007

Arrived at Baker High School in Baker, CA on Wed. Quite a few of the "stages" were also there. On Wed. night Ray & Janet Best, our RV Support Coordinators fed us Pepper Bellies. This is chili, Fritos, cheese and onions. Not too bad, especially since it means you don't have to cook! :-)

The picture of the motorhomes was taken on Thursday when there were only about 1/3 of the RV Support group there! In years past, many of the teams brought RV's and were parked across the street where there are now homes! The population of Baker swells the week we begin arriving for the race!

On Thursday morning, John Marnell, a retired LAPD officer took us on a tour of China Ranch. This is a date farm that is in the middle of the desert! You go through the town of Topock, into a canyon and all of a sudden here is this oasis of palm trees, cactus and green grass! It's incredible! We also made a lot of other stops at various points in the desert. John, his wife, Barbara and their daughter, Debbie have spent a lot of time in the desert and are so full of great information about the area. John has given us tours for several years now. They are always fun and informative! I don't have any pictures on this blog, but many were taken that day!

A great potluck on Thursday along with an ice cream social that the 7th graders put on at the high school. Baker High School is so small that the kids have the same teacher from 7th - 12th grade. When that "group" of kids graduate their teacher begins again with another group of 7th graders!

Friday morning, Don and I, along with Steve and Vicki Terra sorted and passed out all the equipment needed to set-up and run the various stages on the race course. There are 20 stages beginning with the first one along 127 17 miles from the high school. The course runs along Highway 127, through Shoshone, Pahrump and then into Las Vegas. 120 miles all on foot! This year there were 227 teams, there are 20 runners for each leg of the race and several alternates in case someone can't finish their leg or can't run their leg for some reason. We as the RV Support Group set up the chute where runners exchange their baton and time is kept for each of the runners. I can't begin to tell you how many people are involved in this race, but the number is phenomenal! There are at least 2 RV's on each stage, Ham Radio operators as well, another ham 1/2 and 1/4 mile from each stage, medics on each stage to help any runners that need medical attention, a full medical team that happens to be staged at our Stage (3), helicopters and their pilots to fly out anyone that is in need, each team has to supply several volunteers to help out at each stage and "motors" that patrol the highways keeping everyone safe and monitoring runners and traffic as well!

After we handed out all the equipment, we had our meeting where Don and I were given plaques for our 15 years of volunteering at the race! Our friends, Steve & Vicki received their's for 10 years. When we first started 15 years ago we were on Stage 18. Our first runner came in the middle of the night and we worked through the night. Over the years, we've moved up and are now at Stage 3. First runner arrives around 1:00 p.m. and our last runner comes in around 7:00 p.m. Much better than the "old" days!

A spaghetti dinner is put on by the 8th graders as a fund raiser. People come from the town and most of the RV'rs. This year the students served us at our tables instead of having to go through a line and get it ourselves. The dinner wasn't too bad for $5.00/each!

Saturday morning the 12th graders have a pancake breakfast. The number of breakfasts served is much greater than the spaghetti dinner since there are lots of teams beginning to arrive in anticipation of the race! We eat an early breakfast and head out to our stage to begin setting up!

Don and Steve began setting up the chute along with our first team volunteers (they have the reflective vests on in the pictures). Vicki and I set up our table with the bibs that we hand out to each runner leaving from our stage. We also "check-in" each runner who has to show us their badge and fill out their medical information on the bibs. Signs are posted before our stage and across the street letting drivers know that this is an exchange point. Oh yeah...I'm sure that the people who drive on the highway (including many trucks carrying freight) who have no involvement with the race are sorry they picked THAT day to drive that direction!!! Except for the start of each flight (six) the highways are OPEN during the race!

Wasn't too long before our runners started arriving to check in and before we knew it their teammates were coming in ready to hand off the baton to their next runner! It was very hot and we had quite a few runners go "down". The helicopters airlifted at least 6 runners with one or two going into Las Vegas by ambulance!

Each runner has a "follow vehicle" which offers encouragement, gives the runner water throughout his/her leg and often has music blaring as the runner runs alongside or in front of the vehicle! It's as awesome sight to see all the runners, vehicles and people along the highways!

The crowd consists of runners, catchers (someone to "catch" the runners coming in - some need it, others don't), family, friends, support people, etc. Some of our "team volunteers" are used strictly for traffic and crowd control! You can see our two motorhomes parked in the back. That's where Vicki and I sit to check in runners. To the right of the crowd is our medic team and in front of them is the ham radio set-up. Behind all of us is the medical team and helicopters!

When the helicopters land and take off you have to turn away, cover your eyes and hold on to anything lightweight! The dust they create is amazing! The dust and dirt that ends up in the motorhomes is not! :-)

This runners follow vehicle didn't make sure they were drinking water or other fluids as they were running! The ambulance takes the runner to the medical team and from there they might go to the helicopter for airlifting! This person DID get a ride in a helicopter!!

The lights from the follow vehicles and the people that unknowingly are driving down the highway wind up the hill for miles and miles. Our "leg" is over 8 miles long! I took this picture while we were waiting for our last runner. For us, this was the end of our 15th year at the Baker-Vegas race! On Sunday morning, we will have breakfast together and Don and I will head into Las Vegas!

A possible new home base?

This is a lot that we found at Greer's Ferry, AR...

Lot #5 - our choice?







One of the lots in Emerald Isle







The front entrance of Emerald Isle






A common view from the lots!

What's with the white stuff?

Drove from Cabot, AR to Oklahoma City, OK and then on to Tucumcari, NM. It was raining when we left OKC and continued on during the day. As we were heading west it began to get icy and then turned to snow. Pulled into a campground in Tucumcari, got set up and were inside, dry and warm when the snow began to really fall! It was fun watching the snow come down - remember, we're both native southern Californians! The biggest problem that we had was the snow interferred with our satellite so we had no t.v. or internet! I didn't mind, no t.v. and it really was no big deal that we had no internet either. Just wouldn't want to be without it for days and days! The next morning the snow was rapidly melting. Our only problem was we hadn't put our slides in the night before. The slides that were on the sunny side came in with no problems, the slides in the shadows had to have some help! Don got the ladder out and with a little hot water...the ice that had accumulated was melted in no time! Didn't take long for us to get on the road once again!

Oklahoma Bombing Memorial

Don and I spent a very emotional day at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. Prior to going to the memorial we rode the "water taxi" that is about 1 mile long! Not very long, but our guide was very informative on the history of downtown Oklahoma City. One comment that Don and I both have is that the city is one of the cleanest places we've ever seen. Truly, there is no trash, even in the industrial section of town! From the water taxi, we jumped on the trolley which took us to the northern section of town and the memorial.

The first thing that you see is the fence where people leave tributes and memorials for those that lost their lives on the day of the bombing. Families of some of the victims have also left mementos along with pictures of thier loved ones. Lots of key chains, license plates and many other trinkets along the fence.



Next are two walls, one representing the moments before and the other the moment after the 9:02 bombing.









Finally are the "chairs". Although we were there in the day, I've also seen them at night. The chairs lit is a very eerie site. The rows represent the floors the victims were on with each chair represeting someone who died. The small chairs represent the chidren who died while in the building. They were in the day care center on the second floor. There are also chairs on the sides that represent those that were in other buildings and also died as a result of the bombing.

The memorial is a wonderful tribute to those that lost their lives that day. It was very emotional to see, read and be a part of this memorial. I would highly suggest a visit to it.

The "Wow" House!

This is a house that Don and I looked at in Greer's Ferry. In fact, we even made an offer on it. We didn't make a full price offer on it because there were several things that we would need to change to make it work for us. Plus, we thought it was over priced. The owner countered at almost full price and we said "no thank you". In fact, after we declined the offer, the price was raised! The house has already been on the market for a year...doesn't sound like they really want to sell, does it?


We called it the "wow" house. When you walked into the great room (or inside the door...you said "wow"! It had an awesome view!

Oh well, guess it just wasn't meant to be!

Cabot, AR - Third Post

Posing for Grandma's camera! :-)








Here she is again in another outfit! It was too cold to wear her Easter dress. Later she modeled some of her clothes for me! Ashleigh's favorite store is Gymboree! She tried to get me to take her there but I resisted! It can get very expensive when you take her in there! She wants matching everything!





We stayed a few days longer than we had originally planned. Ashleigh had a music program the night before we left. The kids were supposed to dress up as something they wanted to be when they grew up. Ashleigh wants to be a dancer (for now) and wore a dress from one of her dance recitals!

Cabot, AR - Second Post

Here's Ashleigh with her eggs!
Can you see her first loose tooth? It would come out in just a few hours! :-)
Waiting for the Tooth Fairy while spending the night at Grandma & Grandpa's! Did you know it is VERY special when you loose your first tooth at Grandma's? The Tooth Fairy thought so too and left her $20.00! :-) Grandpa thought the Tooth Fairy was too extravagant but hey, what are Grandparents are for?


Here we are dying Easter Eggs! It went VERY fast! Eggs in, eggs out! Whoops, Grandma broke one! That's the same egg that their dog, Bandit ate the next morning after the Easter Bunny hid them!

Cabot, AR - First Post

Ashleigh and Grandpa!
Having lunch at school with the kindergartners.
Ashleigh and I made a hat for the Easter/Spring Bonnet parade!
Can you find the eggs? We just put out hundreds of eggs for the kids to pick up! Each child got to "keep" 12 eggs! :-) There were just a few that didn't know how to "stop" at 12!