2008 Wrap Up

To wrap up the year 2008 I see lots of accomplishments, activities and achievements, but I also see lots more to do. I especially wanted to visit some Spanish speaking countries this year – which I did, going to San Salvador, Guatemala, a bit of Honduras and Belize, following the route of the Maya. I also wanted to spend lots of time with my daughter’s and grandchildren, which I also did – a month in July/August and now 3 weeks over Christmas 2008-New Year’s 2009. In the meantime I was able to qualify for Operation Smile and have a medical mission, lined up for Managua, Nicaragua for Feb 4th 2009, for plastic surgery of cleft lip/palate children.

This Christmas, in Sierra Vista, Arizona has been very festive and full of kids and families. We traveled up to Phoenix for two days to visit my son-in-law’s family. While the Pacific Northwest was struggling under snow, and Hawaii was struggling without power and enjoying Obama's visit, I had a holiday with good weather and snow on the mountain peaks.


Now I'm learning about “Geocaching” with my grandson, Braden. We followed the latitude and longitude clues found at http://www.geocaching.com/ for around this zip code area, and used my old GPS to zero in on the hidden cache around the Sierra Vista, AZ, and outlying areas. We found three “caches” and a couple of the bigger ones had little trinket treasures that the finder could chose from and take, and leave one of your own, if you want. While looking for the geocache we discovered that there is a nice nature path along a dry wash, and even stumbled on














a burned out trestle that once crossed the creek. Then we found a little park by the Whetstone Fire Station and discovered a hidden cache nearby. Finally we followed a clue coordinates to “A Starry Night” and discovered that there is an observatory on the campus of the Univ of Arizona, South. I didn’t even know there was a University campus there. So it looks like my fondness for “volksmarching” long ago in Germany is now becoming a fondness for geocaching in the USA.

On Christmas Eve, Scott, my son-in-law who is in the Army, rode his motorcycle in the escort of the 11th Signal Brigade's arrival from their deployment to Iraq, from the Ft Huachuca airport to their big family home-comings. There were 50-60 motorcyclists, many veterans with flags fllying, escorting the 5 busload of soldiers and another bus of airmen. Very nice to see them come home without any injuries or losses. The picture here shows Scott on the far right.

Of course, Genealogy is a prime endeavor, and I do work on that about every day. I’ve just realized, that my distant cousin via the Joshua Wallace family, may also be connected to me by the early Plumb family of Connecticut. Here's the generation where we may connect:

Descendants of John Plumb
1 John Plumb b: 24 Nov 1646 CT, Milford d: Mar 1727/28
.. +Elizabeth* Norton b: Abt. 1645 CT, Bramford m: 24 Nov 1668 d: Father: John* Norton; Mother: Dorothy*
... 2 Elizabeth Plumb b: 01 Nov 1669
....... +Samuel Hickock b: m: 1690;
... 2 John Plumb b: 29 Jul 1671 d: Abt. 17 Aug 1716;
....... +Rachel Bunnel
... 2 Mary Plumb b: 15 May 1673
....... +Joseph Kerby m: 17 Oct 1704
... 2 Sarah* Plumb b: 05 Apr 1675 Of CT, Milford, New Haven Co d: 17 Aug 1712;
....... +Joseph* Kellogg b: Mar 1677/78 CT, Norwalk m: 25 Nov 1702 CT, Norwalk, Fairfield; d: Bef. 21 Jan 1720/21 Father: Daniel* Kellogg Mother: Bridget* Bouton;
.........3 Rachel* Kellogg b: 15 Jul 1710 d: 24 Dec 1793;
............. +William* Reed b: 16 Nov 1708 m: 28 Nov 1729 d: 02 Aug 1793 CT, New Canaan; Father: John2* Reed Mother: Elizabeth* Tuttle
... 2 Hannah Plumb b: 15 Apr 1677
....... +Unknown Bunnel
2 Dorothy Plumb b: 23 Mar 1678/79
....... +Samuel Prindle b: m: 01 Jan 1698/99
... 2 Josiah Plumb b: 06 Feb 1680/81 d: Bef. 1719
... 2 Joseph Plumb b: 1683 d: 27 May 1742
....... +Elizabeth Bailey b: m: 05 Dec 1709 d:
... *2nd Wife of Joseph Plumb:
....... +Thankful Gaylord b: m: Aft. 1709 d:
... 2 Ruth Plumb b: 29 Nov 1685 d:
....... +Hezekiah Bunnell b: m: 03 Jul 1706 d:
... *2nd Husband of Ruth Plumb
....... +John Wheeler b: m: Aft. 1706 d:
... 2 Robert Plumb b: 19 Apr 1691 d: 30 Nov 1699

In 2001 when I was driving around America on my Vagabond “roots discovery” trip, I spent a bit of time in New Haven, Wethersford, Milford, and New Canaan, Connecticut. These were areas that the Plumb and Kellogg families lived after 1635. I think Wethersford , CT is best know now for a witch trial.

A sad note is that my first cousin (on the Hague-Wallace side), Carol's daughter-in-law, Kerry Putman, died Dec 7th, after a Thanksgiving holiday of riding a "quad" in the desert around Las Vegas where she and her husband lived. She was bruised after a collision accident, but no broken bones. She died a week later from a pulmonary embolism. A great loss to the family.

2009 will be here soon, I hope to keep more of a log at this blog. It should be a good year.