More Speaking Opportunities

I've had the great opportunity to speak about our trip to the POE ladies in Cushing lately. Rep. Lee Denney asked me to be her guest and share our story with her friends. I had a wonderful time, and it was amazing how much I could share in such a short amount of time. I appreciate Mr. Vollmer watching my students so I could have this opportunity to share.
On President's Day evening, Donna and I have been asked to relate our adventures with the Oilton Chamber of Commerece!
Also, the Tulsa Historical Society asked us to speak later this summer. Stay tuned for more details.

The Trail of Two Teachers

The fun continues! Thank you Mrs. Allen for writing the great article about us that was published in the Oklahoma Humanities Magazine! Thank you to Carla Walker and staff for printing such a fabulous story about the boys and us! We both feel honored to appear in this great state publication! Donna and I were so excited to see the finished product! Mr. Vollmer showed our staff the magazine during our last staff meeting. It is wonderful having others join in our excitement...Thank you teachers for being excited for us. We are anxiously awaiting our copies!! Last Friday, before Donna and I had even seen the magazine, we received an email from Robert Klemme of Enid. His son took the picture for the cover of the magazine, and he took the time to look up our email address. He was the man responsible for placing all of the Chisholm Trail markers. He sounds like a fascinating man....it reminded me of what made our trip so fascinating....meeting people and hearing their stories! Thank you Robert Klemme for sharing your story with us!

New Abernathy Videos

Check out these videos made by teachers at our school.
http://celebrateoklahoma.ning.com/video/video/show?id=688012%3AVideo%3A6359
http://celebrateoklahoma.ning.com/video/video/show?id=688012%3AVideo%3A6362

November Update

Wow, it has been such a busy year....my class finished reading Bud and Me....and loved it of course......we are working on several projects....An ABC book and a documentary project that Mrs. Smith is going to help us with....can't wait to finish that.... Last week, Donna and I went to a Fund For Teachers meeting....it was so exciting to hear about all of the other trips....Every time I get to talk about the trip, I get so excited all over again! We had such a great time. I know there were some other great trips, but I have to say that ours was the best!!! I wouldn't have traded my trip with anyone elses....
I think that my family is going to scream if I say "I've been there!" one more time when we are watching tv....just last night Gary England was talking about the 46" of snow in Deadwood SD and I said my new favorite phrase....it reminded me of how much fun we had that day...We ate crab legs at an all you can eat dinner! I know we definitely ate our share! The gun fight and museum were really a fun experience.... What a beautiful part of the world!
Donna and I are eagerly waiting for the Oklahoma Hummanities magazine to come out this month! Mrs. Allen wrote a fabulous article about the boys and our trip! Thanks again Mrs. Allen.

September

Well, we have submitted our final Fund For Teachers reports! Yeah! I know that you all are all surprised that we made the deadline with just a few hours left! We are so thankful for all the attention that we are receiving about the trip! Mrs. Linda Allen, former Spanish teacher at Yale High School, has written a great article about our trip that will be published in the Oklahoma Humanities November edition. We look forward to sharing this article with our friends and students...
More soon

Melody and Donna

Catching Up

This is a short blog to catch up, and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post a blog for each day that is missing....tonight's hotel doesn't have wireless in the room and last night it was pretty late when we got settled...don't remember the excuses for the other nights....
Thursday we went to Donner Pass....quite a powerful experience to go through the museum and walk around the trails....couldn't help but express the irony of the fact that while walking down the trail to where the Donner Party lived out the winter of 1846 in solitude you can hear all of the cars and trucks zooming down the highway at 75 miles per hour....after we left there we headed to San Francisco....I couldn't talk Donna into walking across the Golden Gate Bridge...but it was still wonderful to drive across and view the Pacific Ocean to the west...we checked in the hotel and caught the bus for Fisherman's Wharf....we took the scenic route for a couple of blocks...and then headed the right direction....of course it had been in the high 90s when we came across California, but by the late afternoon and early evening the breeze that was blowing across the water was down right cold...so of course we had to buy a hoodie....I overheard one shopkeeper saying that they sell more coats in July than any other time, because everyone comes to San Fran thinking that it is summer....LOL...Friday morning we dumped our Coney Island water in the Pacific Ocean....and gathered a sample of Pacific ocean water....then we were off to the John Muir woods to see the Coastal Redwoods...these are not the giant Sequoia trees, but they were giant to us!!!! It was so peaceful and beautiful....it made me think of Eden and what that might have been like....We drove into the valley to spend the night....the traffic was terrible....so glad that I was able to visit...and would love to visit again.....BUT...I would not want to live there and have to put up with that kind of traffic all of the time....Saturday we drove and drove and drove...but it was worth it...we reached the Grand Canyon in time for Donna to see it before dark....it rained earlier in the day and was still cloudy...however she was so impressed....more details later....We stayed Saturday night in Flagstaff....We didn't get up quite as early as we thought we might, but that was ok...we had a great morning driving and walking through the "Terrified Forrest" as Donna called the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert......what another grand case of God showing off!!! How beautiful.....we continued to drive across NM....I had some really great Green Chile Blue Corn Enchiladas ..... Yum....don't think that Donna was so impressed with her fajitas....we called it quits at Santa Rosa for the night...hopefully we will arrive in Amarillo tomorrow.....I left out lots of details...
Thanks for reading....we miss everyone....we will be home soon.....Matt will be home Friday....Gordon will be home the 30th....hope Mike has enjoyed the peace and quiet! LOL

Nevada

Melody here—Tuesday and Wednesday we drove across Wyoming, Utah and Nevada----lots of rocks and sagebrush….We went through the Flaming Gorge National Park area early Tuesday….then headed into Utah….of course when we arrived at the Great Salt Lake, Donna had to taste some of the water…I don’t think she really believed that it would be salt water…but guess what it is salty….The Great Salt Lake is not a very beautiful piece of water….and the area we walked on was extremely stinky…Donna says that she wishes there could be a camera to capture the smell of things…except I don’t think anyone would want to smell this….we stepped over lots of carcasses of birds…pretty yucky…one of the interesting things about the Lake is the way the salt dries on the sand and it crunches under your feet---like stepping on a beach of corn flakes….then you will reach another part and if you step it will be very wet underneath your feet….so we traveled on….after leaving the lake area…the salt desert stretches for miles and miles and miles…we stopped at one rest area where you could walk out on the salt flat…it was probably over 2 feet thick…it looked like a sheet of ice….there was a man wind sailing on the salt…we were able to take some interesting pictures of him…he even let Donna go for a spin….I think my favorite part of Tuesday and Wednesday were seeing the mountains that were tall enough to still have snow remaining on the tops…we saw some peaks that were over 10,000 feet tall…..the really bad thing about the last couple of days has been the haze…it hasn’t been clear enough to see things until we are really close up….We did stop a little early on Wednesday ---we reached Reno…found a place with an outside pool and actually did a little swimming….nice to relax a little before heading into San Francisco…