TRAVEL WITH BONNIE REPORT - TOUR THE UNITED STATES

“A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.”

~Tim Cahill

“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”

~Susan Sontag

“Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.”

~Anonymous

One of the main items on my Original Bucket List was to make regular tours throughout the United States with Bonnie, eventually hitting all the states. We did many trips around the country together, but my business travel, and the motorcycle trip across the U.S.A., took me to a number of states without her. There are ten states that we still haven't traveled together (Arkansas, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Vermont) and an additional six states where Bonnie has not yet traveled (Indiana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wisconsin). I still plan to clear this Bucket List item, but haven't yet planned travel to any of these states during my YEAR 77.

Although not on my Bucket List, Bonnie and I have had some enjoyable international travel. We have many memories of past tours which I will briefly summarize below:

TRAVEL PRIOR TO RETIREMENT:

Regarding California, Nevada and Utah: We've lived in California now for 53 years, and have traveled all around the state, as well as throughout Nevada and back and forth to all parts of Utah more times than I could ever count.

Most of our travel before my retirement related in some way to my work, so I have summarized this travel by the years I worked for each employer. Separate from the business travel listed below, during 1976 Bonnie & I, along with Merlin & Susan, Ted & Dixie, and Bill & Jo spent several days in Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlan. A fun trip but obviously it was of no help in adding U.S. states to our list. The photos below are in Mazatlan - our group having dinner, me on my one and only parachute ride, and the sunset.

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I was with Shareholders Management Co. from August 1967 to June 1973 and did some limited travel during that time. During 1969 I visited firms like Fidelity Investments and Dreyfus Corp. in Boston, New York City, and Dallas to gain some mutual fund accounting education that our firm needed. Both Bonnie and I visited these cities and states on many subsequent occasions.

During 1970 I flew to Europe, stopping in London and Brussels before going to Luxembourg to correct some accounting errors at one of our mutual funds there. Beginning in 1971 I was on the Operations Committee of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) and had regular meetings in Washington D.C. Bonnie joined me periodically in D.C. as well as when I traveled to Mexico City and Puerto Vallarta in connection with meetings there. Subsequently I was a speaker at an ICI conference in Quebec and Bonnie joined me on that trip.

I was with Hydril Company from July 1973 to March 1984 and I traveled more extensively during these years, including many trips, both foreign and domestic, where Bonnie joined me. The company had manufacturing facilities in Los Angeles, Houston, Rochester Pennsylvania, Youngstown Ohio, and Harvey Louisiana. I traveled to these facilities regularly (particularly Houston), and Bonnie joined me on several occasions. For various reasons I also traveled to other cities in these states and to other places like Oklahoma City and Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Richard Seaver, Hydril's CEO, wanted the senior officers to participate in industry associations, like the Petroleum Equipment Suppliers Association (PESA) and to attend the respective conferences with our wives. PESA in particular held their conferences at high-end resorts and we had some wonderful trips to places like The Homestead in West Virginia, The Breakers in Palm Beach, The Four Seasons in Scottsdale, and one year we attended the conference in Singapore.

In connection with major capital expenditures on manufacturing facilities, Richard arranged for the Board of Directors and senior managers, along with their wives, to visit these facilities and have a Board meeting in connection with the trip. In 1975 we visited New Orleans, took a helicopter ride to an offshore oil rig in the gulf using Hydril products, and then held a Directors meeting at the Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Mexico. In 1979 we visited a new plant in Aberdeen, Scotland (playing a round of golf at the old course at St Andrews while there) and held a Board meeting in London. In 1982, several of the senior managers and our wives traveled to Japan where we visited Nippon Steel in Kokura (they were a supplier of our tubular steel products), but also had some free time in Tokyo and Kyoto. We then spent a couple of days in Hong Kong on our way to a PESA conference in Singapore. Bonnie and I stopped overnight in Hawaii on our way home, our only trip to Hawaii at this point. These were wonderful trips that we would have never experienced other than with Richard and Hydril.

Photos from the left: 1st row- John Hall and I at a PESA conference dinner; on the Board trip to New Orleans; the offshore oil rig we visited. 2nd row- Las Hadas Resort at Manzanillo; next two photos are Bonnie & I relaxing at Las Hadas. 3rd row- Bonnie returning to London from Aberdeen in "our" private jet; Mr Lister (the chauffeur), Judy Hoon and Bonnie as they begin a tour of London; the changing of the Guard. 4th row- Bonnie and I with our Geisha Girl at dinner in Tokyo; me decked out for my tour of the Nippon Steel plant in Kokura; a pagoda in Kyoto.

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During 1980, one of Hydril's distributors invited Bonnie and I, and another Hydril couple, to join him on a trip in Mexico. We flew to Mexico City, then traveled in his private rail-car to Oaxaca for a tour of the pyramids. It was a unique and very enjoyable trip.

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I was with CalMat Company from April 1985 to May 1993 and did fairly extensive business traveling, visiting our plants (all on the West Coast in states I had visited many times), and meeting with shareholders and investment analysts (mostly on the East Coast in states I had visited many times). I was a member of the Operations Committee of the Portland Cement Association and attended meetings and conferences all over the country, but always in states where I had been before. I did, however, make a presentation at a conference in Toronto and took Bonnie, Tracy and Heather with me, and we visited Niagara Falls afterward.

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I was with Fleetwood Enterprises from November 1994 until June 1997, and then continued to do consulting work with Fleetwood for several years after my retirement. My initial assignment, which lasted approximately 18 months, was in Germany. I was based in Koblenz and worked in nearby Polch. During my time there I visited Frankfurt, Bonn, Munich, and Bad Waldsee (the location of a company that purchased our company), and Luxembourg. Fleetwood had many manufacturing plants all around the country and I visited quite a few of them during my consulting work with the company.

TRAVEL AFTER RETIREMENT:

Our first post-retirement trip was not within the U.S. but was a great 1999 trip to Europe, primarily for Bonnie to see some sights in England that she was interested in, for us to visit Glossup and experience some of the Hadfield family history, and to show Bonnie where I had wrapped up my career employment in Germany. The four photos below show Bonnie at the Deutsches Eck (the German Corner) in Koblenz, a castle viewed from a river trip we took along the Rhine, Bonnie at Hampton Court in London, and Bonnie in Glossup where we visited the nearby small towns of Hadfied, Padfield and Tintwistle. We stayed overnight in the Hadfield Hotel where I expected the desk clerk to say something about my name as I signed in. He said nothing!

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In October 2000, Bonnie & I, along with Merlin & Susan, went on a Civil War Tour with USU Alumni Assoc. It was a great trip. We flew to Baltimore and states visited were Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia and West Virginia. In October 2001, we went again with Merlin & Susan on an East Coast Tour with USU Alumni Assoc. It was a fun trip and was particularly interesting since it was just a couple of weeks after the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. We flew into New York, and visited Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington D.C.

Photos from the left: 1st row- At the Manassas Battlefield; at the Gettysburg Battlefield; in the town of Gettysburg. 2nd row- On a cruise boat around Manhattan Island - with Ross & Kay Peterson; in the Hudson Valley at the Vanderbilt Mansion; at Mount Vernon.

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In May 2001, we traveled with Jon & Maridee to Branson Missouri. We camped out at Darrel & Shirley Heaberlin's home while there. It was a fun trip, although we didn't go to as many country music shows as we had hoped.

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In April 2004, we toured the Black Hills and surrounding areas with Merlin & Susan. We drove from California, through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, to South Dakota, and hit Montana on the way home.

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In August 2005, we went on an Alaska Cruise with a group of our Sigma Zonk friends. Those on the trip were Jarrett & Marj, Mel & Linda, Jon & Maridee, Merlin & Susan, Marilyn, Grant & Finch, and Ted & Dixie. We flew into Vancouver, Washington and cruised the Inland Passage into various Alaska cities from there. We also took the train to Mt. Mckinley (from Anchorage, returning to Fairbanks) then flew home. It was a great trip, primarily due to the friends we were with more than to the cruise itself.

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On one of our trips in early 2007 we visited four states where we had previously been, but stood in them all at once at the Four Corners Monument, the only place in the United States where four states meet. As you know, these states are Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico.

In October 2008, Bonnie and I took 21 days and drove round trip from our home in Monrovia to Florida. This was a fun trip and the very type of trip I had envisioned when setting the travel goal on my Original Bucket List. We visited many friends and family members during the trip and stayed in a few places we had wanted to see (like Nashville and San Antonio). On the way to Florida we went through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. On the way home we went back through Alabama, then Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before arriving back home in California.

Photos from the left: 1st row- Dinner with the Fonnesbecks as we passed through Utah; Dinner with Cousin Bill in Aurora, Colorado; an evening out with the Habs (Linda & Jim Haberle) in Colorado Springs. 2nd row- Lunch with Cousin Ron & Marty in Kansas City, Missouri; atrium lobby at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville; Brad Paisley on stage at The Grand Ole Opry. 3rd row- Bonnie at the Ryman Auditorium; having lunch at an Old Town Nashville Restaurant; Ron at the Country Music Hall of Fame. 4th row- Having lunch with Tracy and Lea Hubbard at Clearwater Beach, Florida; a tour boat in the canal downtown San Antonio, and us beginning lunch by the canal.

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In June 2010, we traveled to Glacier National Park. Susan joined us, and of course it was a sad trip in many ways because it was the spring after Merlin passed away. We drove north to the California border along the Coast Highway and into Oregon. We then went through Idaho and into Montana to the Park. We returned through Wyoming into Utah, then the usual way home.

Photos from the left: 1st row- At Hearst Castle; at Mendocino (Grant, Finch, Susan, Bonnie, and Ron); at the Redwoods - the Chandelier Tree. 2nd row- Bonnie in front of the Crater Lake Hotel; Bonnie & Ron at Crater Lake; at Many Glaciers Hotel in Glacier Park (Lonnie & Lyle Cunningham, Bonnie and Susan). 3rd row- Taxi in Glacier Park; Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone Park; Bonnie, Ron and Susan with Grand Tetons in background.

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