July 2024

The Orviks visit several places across the country this July, and they were very busy. Rusty was traveling for the entire month, with the rest of the family joining at different intervals. Rusty begins the month up in DC seeing the Lewis family for a much needed reconnection. The rest of the family then travels up to NorCal for a 4th of July celebration! After this, Rusty goes and supports veterans in Alaska. Meanwhile, the rest of the fam starts out their journey up the north coast of California. Starting in Petaluma, the crew make their way up the coast to see some very interesting things. Rusty joins them a few days later, and then they make their way up to Fort Bragg up the coast. He meets up with an old college friend and the fam goes to Glass Beach, all while checking out the old lighthouses on the route. The Orviks stay in Red Bluff and head up to Lassen Volcanoes National Park, a great landmark. There, they encounter snow in July! After that, the Orviks head back down to the bay, with a brief stop inland to meet up some long term friends! After this, Grant and Jen depart for Tucson to be there for band camp. In the meantime, Jordan and Rusty explore more of NorCal over the week. Meeting up with family and friends along the way. The vehicle they borrowed has a manual transmission, and so Jordan took some time to learn on it, and now he is a natural, just in case a manual is the sole car available. Speaking of, Jordan begins his car research in CA looking and test driving many vehicles to see what he likes. Jordan and Rusty then catch a C17 flight home and are in Tucson for a couple of days. Jordan continues his car search, including finding some cars in Phoenix to look at. Grant performs excellently at his band camp performance, and it looks like there is an amazing show in the coming months! Jordan then joins Rusty up to Spokane, WA. There, they meet up with the Hearreans and enjoy the beautiful weather. While Jordan has 3 weeks to go, this does mark the end of the summer for Grant. He will now be entering his junior year in high school after a long and busy summer with fun activities. Well wishes for Grant and Jordan as they enter school in the following month on the path to academic excellence. DC, Maryland, Brad Lewis, Terry, Zach, horse, 4th of July, gladys, Kay fireworks, hearrean beach, parade, American legion, North Pole, Alaska, Fairbanks, silkies, slide, antlers, point Reyes. Petaluma, Stinson beach, lighthouse, coast guard base, fort Bragg, Mendocino, David Sasse, Sasse, checkpoint Charlie, glass beach, lassen, lassen volcanic national park, red bluff, waterfall, redwoods, hike, hatchet, axe, axe throwing, Andersens, train, drums, stick shift, manual transmission, San Jose, oakland, San Francisco, elevator, yes day, sjc, San Francisco Centre, city hall, c17, travis, todd sucrose, camping, Spokane, radio flyer, little red wagon, Spokane river, clear lake, tubing, hot dog, driver wins, flatiron, flatiron building, b52, Fairchild afb, tlf, sprinklers, Idaho, Montana, Hiawatha, Hiawatha trail, couer d’Alene, Cda, moose, boat, Silverwood, stunt pilot, bumper cars, river rafting, northern lights, aurora borealis, tunnel, alder house, soccer, Saki, seattle