Here's a view of a glacial lake located just inside the Eastern entrance to the park.
You can see some little white specks in the mountains
at the back left and center of the lake. Those are snow
fields left over from last winter. As one continues into
the park, the glaciers become larger.

I don't know how anyone could drive through any of
these parks and not believe there is a GOD.  But, there
are some many that do. There was ice and snow every where you looked and waterfalls
that fell hundreds of feet from the end of the glacial ice down into the valley below.  There
was one point in the drive as we started down the mountains, that the road was down to
one lane because part of it had fallen into the valley hundreds of feet below.  At one point,
you could almost reach out the window and touch the glacial ice.

Next we headed into Washington state, trouble struck again.  
This time it was in the form of a flat tire. We were coming down
this mountain pass when I ran over a small rock on the road.  
Unlike the soft sandstone we have here, this was a piece of sharp
grainte and it went right through the tire. The next town with a tire
shop was 80 miles away in a high mountain valley. I pulled off near
an old Silver mine and put on the spare tire.  We finally reached
town about 5:30 in the evening, found a place to stay and had a
lovely dinner.  Early the next morning, we drove around to find a tire store that might be
open.  I put out $400 for a new set of tires ( I was needing to buy new tires for the winter  
anyway) and now we didn't need to worry about the rest of the trip. Good thing we did!  As
we crossed the mountains in Washington state ,at about 8000 feet we ran into a terrible
hail storm.  The hail was so bad and big that everyone had to pull off and set till it slowed
down.  Within five minutes there was an inch of ice covering the road surface.  We waited
about 15 minutes before we could move.  A large camper came by so I took a chance and
pulled in behind it and followed it down the mountain out of the storm.

                    Next stop,   Redmond, Washington to visit with a relative.  It was about 80
                                      miles and 7000ft down from the hail storm.  We had a nice visit
                                      and left the next morning for Sacramento to see my cousin.  
                                      This part of the trip took us down the Washington-Oregon coast.
                                      Talk about beautiful scenery. We followed a Tsunami emergency
                                       escape route most of the way down the Washington coast.

As we neared the California border we headed back inland
to pickup the Interstate. We did this because last time we
were in California we came up the California coast line.
Well as you may recall, a lot of California was also on fire
last Summer.  Luckily most of the forest fires were out or
under control before we got there.  We stayed in
Sacramento for a couple days visiting before we headed Southeast to Yosemite National
Park.  We missed this on our last trip and we weren't going to miss it again.

The fires in the Yosemite area were all out, but there was still
some smoke in the air. This is our first view of Half-Dome one
of the many wonders  of Yosemite.  All the time we traveled,
we were going up in altitude once again, and when we stopped
to view Yosemite Falls trouble found us again. I found myself
starting to experience altitude sickness. I couldn't walk very far
without becoming totally fatigued. Heart problems again? I asked myself!  Little did I know,
our dog was also experiencing problems.  Her hair was beginning to fall out. I made it up to
the view point for Yosemite Falls.

That was the end of walking for me.                           As long as I sat in the car I was OK!
But as we climbed up over the                                   10,000ft mountain between Yosemite
and Nevada, I really got in trouble.                             The room we had was on the second
floor. By the time I walked from the                             car carrying a suitcase, till I got to the
room I was so fatigued I almost                                   passed out. I had to lie on the bed for
15 minutes till I got strong enough                              to stand up.  The next morning, the
floor on the Motel room was                                        covered with dog hair.  It looked like
someone put down a rug covered with hair.  Once we got down from that mountain, things
began to improve for me. We drove across old route 50 till we got to Kansas City . There
we visited with a second cousin whose wedding we didn't make three years before because
our daughter had just been diagnosed with Leukemia and we didn't want to leave her alone
with only her husband to visit in the hospital.  From Kansas the trip took us back to Ohio,
where we visited my sister. While we were there we learned that our daughter Wendy was
back in  the hospital with new cancer problems.  We went straight from Ohio to the hospital
in Virginia. Thus began the trials by Cancer.

Wendy went in and out of the hospital many times from August to November.  The third
week in November, Wendy was once again in the hospital to get another bone marrow
infusion.  Everything seemed to be going well, but then the host reject began.  Wendy was
turning yellow from her toes up to her knees. Thursday morning of the third week, I got a
call from Wendy's husband that Wendy had just taken a turn for the worst and we better
get there fast.  

The doctor's said there was nothing else they could do.  The cancer had moved into her
Liver and her kidneys were bleeding.  Joy had gone to Glennville, so I hopped in the car
and headed out to find her.

Well, let me tell you just how fast you can get from Sutton to Glennville to Washington DC
in a Corvette.  Well no, I better not.  That was the beginning of many trips between here
and there.  We stayed in Virginia for three days at a time returning to Sutton to complete
personal business then heading back for another three days.  Wendy was sent home from
the hospital at the beginning of December because since they were not treating her, the
insurance company would no longer pay for her to be there.  So she went home on
Hospices.  Wendy's husband had been staying with her every day and feeding her in the
hospital, now he continued at home.  We had to come back to Sutton just after Wendy
came home and two days later, were headed back.  To our sorrow, our son met us as we
got out of the car at Wendy's home to tell us that Wendy had died. Oh! the shock, because
Joy had just talked to Darren the day before and he said she was sitting up and talking to
friends who had come to visit.

We were able to spend two hours saying goodbye and praying over her lifeless body
before the funeral directors came.  It was a very sad, but heart warming time since we all
knew that she was now out of pain and with Christ in the heavenly mansion. It's been a long
struggle coming back from this pain, but with the rebirth of this newsletter that pain begins
to subside.  I hope I haven't made you too sad as you read this.  Praise GOD for his Son
Jesus Christ who died to give us eternal life.

As I was writing this, my wife wondered what this has to do with a Church Newsletter?  Well,
now that the story is done she gets my point.  No matter what trials you run into in your
travels in life, it will all end in the presence of GOD and his Son Jesus Christ.

       Praise God and all his blessings.         Don & Joy Fritz





















                       (click images to enlarge)