South from Alaska

DIY Remodeling…

2011-03-27T20:04:00.001-07:00

…Wow! It’s done!!!

I’ve been wanting to re-do the window coverings in our 10-year old motorhome for some time now. The original ones were pretty water-stained and starting to fray. John was insisting that he planned to be gone when I did it, but – of course – that’s not how it worked out.

I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted, based on a rug we’d seen in Taos NM, but – here’s a slight understatement – couldn’t afford. So last October in McAllen (Texas), John & I found and purchased a wool rug with the colors and simplistic look that I wanted. Oh, and on sale, too!

The design is kind of “Aztec” like, but two of the designs remind me of Alaska: the person looks like an Eskimo and the “chevron” design reminds me of whale tails emerging from the ocean!

So, in November friend Karin and I headed to McAllen to Rio Bravo Fabric Store. If you’re in the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) and are in the market for upholstery fabric, don’t miss this place. They have BEAUTIFUL fabrics and lots of them. We spent several hours and finally decided on a deep (brick) red chenille-like fabric, an ivory colored ultra-suede and some two-inch wide woven trim with gold diamond-shaped threads to coordinate with the rug. Karin sews lots and was an immense help in deciding what would work and what wouldn’t. Fortunately, John was on-board with the colors, but had no interest in working out the details. I took home samples, the colors worked, and then December went by, January went by…

Finally, our life calmed down a bit and by mid-February we took the plunge. John’s idea of being gone went by the wayside when I decided it would be better to do this project down here near the fabric store rather than waiting till this next summer in Iowa in case I needed to buy more. And, am I glad he was around! He did the dismantling and I did the reconstruction. We may work in different ways, but after nearly 40 years of marriage, we’ve figured out what type of teamwork works for us!!

On February 11th, we took down the fabric insert of the slide-out frame. We discovered that the fabric-covered buttons on it snap onto screws. Slick!

I had spent several hours measuring windows and plotting fabric yardage, but even though I was pretty sure I had it figured out, cutting into that expensive fabric the first time about had me freaked out. Finally did it, though, and it got much easier every time I cut another piece out. (It didn’t help that the ivory ultra-suede was no longer being made and I had purchased the last three pieces of 2 yards, 2-7/8 yards and 5-2/3 yards. Oh, goodie! Now I get to refigure the piece placements – again!)

Anyway, recovering the slide frame piece was pretty straight-forward, except for recovering each of the eleven little buttons. Fortunately, we discovered that another fabric/upholstery shop in McAllen had a machine to do just that. Whew! What a relief. For less than 10 minutes and about $10 we had beautifully recovered buttons! For some things, DIY is NOT a good idea. And, of course, when we tried to re-install the newly recovered piece, we discovered that the new, thicker fabric meant that the screws weren’t quite long enough. One more trip back to McAllen for longer screws and Phase 1 was now complete!

Now it was time to tackle the window frames. We stumbled our way through figuring out how to remove the frame from over the couch. Here is a back view of the corner where the side frames join the valance.

I used the camera frequently to document where shade brackets and other screw holes were so they wouldn’t be so hard to find after recovering.

And, then we started pulling staples. And, we pulled staples and pulled staples and pulled staples.

Do you have any idea how many staples they put in these things? We know. Roughly 1,000. Per window.

I ended up going to McAllen (again!) to buy some thin foam to use on the valances and headboard. The old design had an upside down “v” shape with contrasting fabric and the foam was left with a deep indentation. I didn’t want to chance that it might be visible under the new fabric.

Here’s the new foam on a valance. Pretty easy except that I really fought with the staples on the really hard black “wood?” that was used for the valances. I finally ended up using John’s heavy duty stapler – not a one-handed job for me!

Here’s a close-up of the finished bottom/side frame.

To finish the trim and make it look more coordinated with the rest of the sides and bottom of the frame, I sewed a thin folded piece of the ultra suede on each side of the trim before sewing it on to the valance fabric. Thank heaven I was able to borrow Karin’s fabulous Baby-Lock computerized sewing machine with top & bottom feeders. All these layers of heavy fabric got pretty thick.

Here’s the first finished window frame – yea!! Only four to go….

I couldn’t resist laying out the new rug to see what it was going to look like. At least one side of the motorhome looks great!!

Next we removed the window frame over the dining table and sent the blinds out to be re-strung – after I had spent days trying to find quality string in blue. Finally located some from the guy in Oregon who had re-strung the bedroom blinds for us in 2008. He kindly sent us enough string to re-do the front blinds. The couple doing the re-stringing brought back the first two blinds right about the time we had removed the large window frame and blinds from the windows on the passenger side, so they re-installed the first two blinds and took the next two with them. I had toyed with the idea of doing the re-stringing ourselves, but John vetoed that idea and - after watching them re-hanging and adjusting the blinds - I’m glad we paid the extra to have them do it!

Once the front part was done, we tackled the two bedroom windows, headboard and pillows. The headboard proved to be a challenge to remove – lots of silicone attaching it to the wall! So, we did the same and used a whole tube of the stuff putting it back up.

The windows finally became pretty routine, until the last one. Guess I got a little cocky, tired or both because what I had feared so much at the beginning happened! While trimming corners in preparation for stapling the last corner on the last valance, I cut about 1.5 inches where I wasn’t supposed to. Only thing to do was to go eat (after saying a few swear words – sorry, Dad!), relax and then go borrow some iron-on fabric stuff from sister-in-law Jane and repair the damage. Ever try to iron a small piece of fabric that is already almost entirely attached to a four-foot long wooden window valance? Not impossible and a little Elmer’s Glue finished up the job.

Oh, yeah – there’s a couple of folding chairs under the bed… Now, this is my favorite part: look what was stapled underneath the seat dust cover! (You can enlarge the picture by clicking on it to read it.) Yup – it’s the instructions for folding and unfolding the folding chairs! And, to think we had spent the past four years trying to find those instructions…

Now everything’s done but the throw pillows for the bed. Should be a piece of cake. Ri-i-i-i-ight. Oh, well, they’re done now. Somewhere down the road I’ll find a different duvet cover.

Oops. Guess I better recover the wall piece that we use to hold family pictures and cards. Finally! Something fun to do! Karin’s computerized sewing machine was perfect for this project. What a dream to use! And, it does this amazing fancy stitching…

So, now – with lots of tape and hot glue, we have a matching picture frame on the wall.

DONE!! YEA!!!

Here’s some before and after pictures:

Lots of work, lots of mess, lots of sore hands, lots of staples and probably more swearing in six weeks than I’ve ever done in my entire life, but IT’S DONE. Thanks for all the help, John – we’ll wait at least ten years to do this again, OK?

Thanks also to Karin for her expert assistance/sewing machine and to Jane, Tony and Dad for their patience.

Catch-up time!

2011-03-25T21:55:00.001-07:00

Wow! I really have been neglecting this blog, haven’t I? I’ll try to play catch-up, but will just hit the highlights and hope I don’t forget anything major.

Here goes:

We had a really wonderful summer last year in Ouray, CO. Our job at the Ouray KOA was great fun and our co-workers were awesome!

John & I worked in the “Creekside Café” starting with Wednesday dinner & ending with Saturday dinner (no lunches – everyone is out playing during the daytime!).

There was live music three of the four nights we worked and what fun! If you’re ever in the area in the summer, be sure to at least stop by and eat – David’s BBQ is amazing!

Here are a few pictures of the campground and surrounding area…

We didn’t have any TV reception here, so we bought a hummingbird feeder and had many chuckles watching the three varieties in this area fight over the sugar water. There were even babies that we got to watch grow up (and get very nasty to each other!).

And, there was more wildlife than just birds. A young “teen-age” bear showed up every few weeks and actually damaged a few tents in the process of finding his next meal. Too bad people couldn’t read the signs posted all over the campground about how to store food properly!

We worked hard and played hard – just what our bosses, David & Deborah, recommended! Most of our free time was spent with daughter-in-law Kari, grandson Jacob, and son Eric (when he wasn’t off working). They introduced us to some of their favorite places, hikes and friends.

We loved going for walks with Jacob (i.e. picking up rocks!) and even did a few hikes and bike rides on our own.

We also enjoyed seeing some of the surrounding areas. Telluride was one of our favorites and the Durango-Silverton train ride was amazing!

The scenery in southwestern Colorado isn’t quite Alaska, but it does have an incredible beauty of its own!

We did sneak away from our jobs for a few days in June to attend the Folkerts Family Reunion in Priest Lake, Idaho. We had a fantastic time with parents, siblings and their spouses and lots of nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews – 43 of us in all! Everyone enjoyed boating, volleyball, hiking, eating or just visiting and watching the little ones play. We especially enjoyed seeing our grandsons Sebastian and Jacob together!!

We left Ouray on September 7th and headed north to Cheyenne, Wyoming. While overnighting on the way at Wal-Mart in Craig, we enjoyed a brief visit with Derick, our honorary 3rd son. We left the motorhome at a campground in Cheyenne and drove the car back into Colorado to see Eric, Kari & Jacob at the house they had just moved to in Allenspark (near Estes Park). We spent several days with them, enjoying hikes out their back door in the national forest and also in Rocky Mountain National Park. Then it was down the road again headed east…

Nebraska was fairly uneventful, except for a fun lunch with RV’ing friends Greg & Jean in Lincoln. In Iowa, we made a snap decision to take a slight detour off the interstate and look up my cousin, Larry, whom we hadn’t seen in many, many years. He guided us to the local Wal-Mart and we had a fun evening catching up on family news and getting a guided tour of Atlantic. From there it was only about a 4-hour drive to Dad Newby’s farm near Steamboat Rock where we stayed for the next three weeks, visiting family and friends.

On October 5th, we headed south stopping in Springfield, Missouri to visit our Alaska friend, Mary and to meet her fiancé, Steve. Then it was on to Fayetteville, Arkansas to catch up with an old college classmate of mine, Joe. We had fun exploring the area, including Devil’s Den State Park and touring Joe’s commercial photography studio.

We enjoyed a leisurely trip south with a stop in Houston, Texas for some routine RV maintenance. We arrived in Weslaco mid-afternoon on October 12th and settled in for the winter….

We’re almost done with our workamping job here now. It’s been a good winter with the exception of John’s dad spending time in the hospital on three different occasions. We flew out to Washington to see Vance, Jody and Sebastian in early December.

Our Doolaard nieces and nephews and their families all came for the Christmas holiday and Eric, Kari & Jacob came to visit for a few days in early January.

And now, we’ve just finished a six week project remodeling the motorhome. But, I’ll tell you more about that in my next blog entry…

End of vacation…

2010-05-26T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, our little vacation is ending. We have spent the last 6 1/2 weeks primarily in New Mexico, although we have been in 5 states: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado & Utah.

We have done 9 geo-caches and seen 3 caves, 3 state parks/zoos/gardens, 7 festivals/markets/special city areas, 2 casinos, 1 rally, 8 museums, 4 National Monuments/Recreation Areas, and 6 National Parks. Whew!

Time to go to work. So, this morning we hooked up the toad and hit the road. We stopped in Montrose, CO for fuel and groceries and arrived at the Ouray KOA at about 3:00 p.m.

Total miles on the rig since leaving Magic Valley? 2,041.

We got settled in our spot and had a chance to visit with several of the other workamping couples. All seem really nice!

But, of course, our first priority is to see the family that is the reason we are here – Kari & grandson Jacob (son Eric is working and who-knows-where!). Jacob didn’t remember us from January when they visited but he finally warmed up to us again. What a sweetie!

Tomorrow we’ll finish getting settled in.

Casing out Canyonlands

2010-05-25T21:32:00.000-07:00

We spent all day today at Canyonlands National Park. This is a park we’ve never been to before. It was established in 1964 and much of it is still inaccessible without 4-wheel drive or hiking. And, some of it is just flat inaccessible! The Green and Colorado Rivers come together here and their deep canyons have created three different, separate sections within Canyonlands: The Maze, The Needles and Island in the Sky.

Our choice to visit was Island in the Sky as it is the most accessible. We started out by going to the end of the road: Grand View Point Overlook. It’s hard to describe the sheer size of this place and even photographs can’t really justify it either.

I believe this next few pictures were from White Rim Overlook. This little hike gave us the heebie-jeebies walking along these edges. There were just too many of them that were ledges sticking out over these 1,000 – 2,000 foot drop-offs. And, the fact that much of the rock at the top of these mesas was called “Navajo Sandstone” didn’t help. This whole area was created by river erosion and breaking rocks – soft rock! Yikes!

The next little hike was nearer our comfort level. We hiked a couple miles round-trip to see Upheaval Dome, which some scientists believe was caused by a meteorite.

This view of a couple of notches off to the northwest was kind of neat.

And, on the way back we discovered “Lora’s Little Arch”!

And, Claret Cups Hedgehog Cactus…

Porcupine Prickly Pear Cactus (I believe), and…

possibly Palmer Lupine.

Next, was a short hike to see Mesa Arch.

And, finally we stopped at the Shafer Canyon Overlook.

There are lots of little lizards here.

This is a partial view of Shafer Trail, which long ago was used to move cattle between the canyon bottoms and the mesa tops. Now it’s a 4-wheel drive trail – but not for us! By the way, sometimes some of the cattle fell to their deaths…

This might be hard to see but the next two pictures show (in the center) a trail we followed out on this little mesa to read a couple of interpretive signs about the Shafer Trail.

Look where they put the sign! Right on the edge of at least a 1,000 foot cliff! OK, we’re spooked enough for one day – time to go home.

Moving up to Moab

2010-05-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

Time to head a little farther north. Although waking up to this:

really made us question the wisdom of heading north…

After getting everything ready to roll this morning, we stopped to exchange “business” cards with Roland & Suzanne. We would enjoy seeing them again someday.

On our way through Cortez, we stopped at Safeway for coffee and a couple donuts. Then we hopped on Hwy. 491 which angles northwest to Utah. We crossed the Utah border at 12:30 p.m. and then turned north on Hwy. 191 at Monticello UT. The closer we got to Moab, the more interesting the rocks got. The first picture below is of Church Rock between Monticello and La Sal Jct.

We pulled into an RV park just south of Moab at around 2:30. Got everything hooked up and then drove north of town a few miles to spend a few hours at Arches National Park.

We were last at Arches 2 1/2 years ago with Eric & Kari on our way to Michigan to buy the motor home. It’s still a beautiful place! Today, we tried to stop and hike at places we didn’t see that time: Balanced Rock, both Delicate Arch Viewpoints (last time we hiked up to Delicate Arch) and Panorama Point. The next two are a couple of views of Balanced Rock.

I think these were taken from Panorama Point. It was interesting to compare the rocks in Arches to the La Sal Mountains behind – like two different worlds.

Next we went to check out the Delicate Arch Viewpoints. Look! Flowers along the trail!

At the Upper Delicate Arch Viewpoint, we hiked farther up the rock and enjoyed some time just relaxing.

Hmmm….missed this one on the way up.

From the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint:

Time to call it a day and head home. We visited for a few minutes with a fellow “Country Coacher”, ate left-overs and settled in for the evening. Here’s the view from our door. Not bad, huh?

Doin’ Durango

2010-05-23T22:42:00.000-07:00

One of the places we wanted to see while in the 4 Corners area was, of course, the 4 Corners Monument. Guess what? Closed till the end of June. Guess we’ll have to come back some day so we can do that touristy thing of putting one foot and one hand each in four different states at the same time. That’s not a picture I had planned to put on the blog!

So, our alternate plan was to go see Durango. It was a little breezy out again today – but not near as dusty and hazy as yesterday.

Our first stop was – you guessed it! – the Visitor Center. Yup. Closed. But they did have a few brochures outside, so we checked ‘em out and started at the Colorado Division of Wildlife Fish Hatchery. They had a nice little museum including a video about the hatchery. Then we wandered outside and checked out the three kinds of fish they raise here for stocking purposes: brook, rainbow and brown trout.

On our way back to the car, we walked over to the Animas River’s edge to watch the kayakers & rafters. Sure looked like fun…

Then we drove a few more blocks to the downtown area. We’ve seen some pretty depressed downtown areas in New Mexico so it was fun to spend an hour or two in one that appears to be doing great. There were hardly any empty store fronts.

We thought the upstairs condos in this building might be cool to live in if we ever settle down again. Well, maybe not. Besides the price, the one or two for sale were in the 2,000 square foot range. Too big for us!

And, lots of neat, historic buildings including this hotel.

Gorgeous wood above the entry to the lobby.

Nice mural down a couple more blocks.

We even saw some deer when we were nearly home! This herd of about 18 was busy munching on the new green grass. Nice ending to a nice day!

Mesa Verde National Park

2010-05-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

A windy, dusty day today but we had a great time anyway exploring Mesa Verde National Park. It was pretty hazy as we drove the nearly 30 miles up in to the park, but the views from the park road were still pretty spectacular. Quite a drive – up, up, up!

First stop: the Visitor Center where we discovered our neighbors from the RV park. We had visited with her one evening on our walk, so we signed up for the same tour that they were planning to do. There are three ranger-led tours here at Mesa Verde: 1) Long House is currently closed for trail renovation; 2) Balcony House included a 32’ ladder, a 12’ x 18” tunnel and a 60’ climb along an open rock face plus two more 10’ ladders; and 3) Cliff Palace, the largest, with five 8-10’ ladders and a 100’ vertical climb to exit. So Cliff Palace it was.

This was our first view of it from the overlook while we waited for the ranger to guide the approximately 50 people on our tour.

Climbing one of the ladders and then a closer view. What an amazing place!

These are vigas – old, old vigas.

Here’s one of several kivas which were used for both social and ceremonial purposes. They had a separate vent off to the side and were entered by ladder through the smoke hole in the middle of the roof.

We spent quite awhile after the tour visiting with our RV park neighbors, Roland and Suzanne, who are from Cape Cod. Nice folks! Then it was on down the road with several stops at overlooks. This is one of the other cliff dwellings across the way – there are several hundred of these scattered throughout the park. The picture below it is without the zoom – the dwelling shown in the first picture is under the small “arch” near the top of the cliff at the center of the picture. It amazed us that anyone ever found all of these abandoned cliff dwellings because they really blend in.

We also hiked down to the Soda Canyon Overlook for a look at Balcony House.

Pretty flower beside the trail.

And, the Utah Junipers are interesting. A large section of Chapin Mesa (where we were) was burned in 2002. Apparently, forest fires caused by lightening are common here.

Before heading home, we stopped at the Chapin Mesa Museum for about an hour. Very nice exhibits of ancient pottery, baskets and lots of information about how the Ancestral Puebloans lived.

Hmmm….I think I’m glad to be able to buy Teva sandals.

Tomorrow we head for Utah.

Nice day up in the mountains

2010-05-21T19:18:00.000-07:00

What a lovely, quiet day we had today! John took a walk earlier before I was up and around, so once I got motivated we took another walk up the hill. There we sat for quite awhile just enjoying the day: blue sky, warm breeze and gorgeous scenery! It doesn’t get much better than this…

But, as those of you who have hiked with me before know, I soon get bored just sitting. Time to check out the rocks surrounding us. That one would make a pretty good spear point, don’t you think?

On our way back from the hike, we explored around the park buildings. They do weddings here, too. Pretty place if you know of someone getting married – as long as they don’t mind thin air!

And, they could pick their own wedding bouquets!

After a quick lunch, we hauled the laundry over to the main area and got that started. Then we grabbed a few golf balls and clubs from the trunk and hit/putted while the clothes were washing and drying. Best way to do laundry we’ve discovered so far.

Late in the afternoon, we drove into Cortez to pick up some groceries – at Safeway, no less! I don’t think we’ve been to a Safeway store since late last summer.

John fixed a pretty good Pad Thai dinner and then I printed out some flute music I had found on line. We drove over to the showers to get cleaned up after all our exercise today and now we’re just vegging. Tough world. Tomorrow we’ll go check out Mesa Verde National Park – should be pretty neat!

Leaving New Mexico

2010-05-20T20:12:00.001-07:00

Well, today we looked back in our trip log and discovered that we arrived in New Mexico on April 21st. Guess May 20th is an appropriate date to leave. We’ve talked for years about spending a month in each of the 50 states and, after 2 1/2 years of full-timing, we finally did just that! We have had a wonderful time exploring New Mexico: museums, art galleries, local, state & national parks/monuments, cultural centers, casinos, zoos & gardens. We’ve seen stalactites, dinosaur skeletons, cliff dwellings, petroglyphs, rattlesnakes, huge kites and played in giant white sand dunes.

We rounded everything up this morning and hit the road by 9:45. There was an accident in Albuquerque on I-40 so it took us an extra 1/2 hour to get to the Flying J to fill the fuel tank. And, of course, that always takes at least 1/2 hour…. Then it was on to Camping World to pick up a Mountain Directory for the western U.S. And, finally, Westward Ho!

Just out of Albuquerque the terrain started getting more interesting.

We even found a train to race…

…but it won.

Even more interesting rock formations.

Just after we turned north on Hwy. 491 in Gallup, it was my turn to drive.

And John’s turn to take pictures…

Did I mention that Hwy. 491 was pretty bumpy? Here’s the top of the picture above.

We were appalled at the Indian housing in Shiprock. There were at least 50 or more of these – depressing…

More bumpy road.

Colorado mountains! Oops – there’s still snow on them…

John started to wonder about the campground I had picked out after about the third mile on a pretty narrow county road just outside of Mancos CO, but the end result was well worth it! Lovely, peaceful place. I think we’re going to like this home!

Time to go “home”

2010-05-19T21:15:00.001-07:00

John and I recently discussed how our interpretation of “home” has changed since we started full-timing. Now it seems that we use the term “home” for wherever we happen to be. We were even calling the condo in Taos “home”!

But, it was time to head back, so we packed up and hit the road. We decided to take a different route back and – boy! – did we!! Sure glad we were in the car and not the motorhome. We chose the “High Road to Taos Scenic Byway” on Hwys. 518, 75, and 76. Gorgeous views in the Carson National Forest.

The village of Truchas had beautiful views from its perch on the mountainside at just over 8,000’ elevation. This is coming into Truchas from the north.

And, this is the view from the other side of Truchas.

Then we took a side road back to Hwy. 285 on Hwy. 503. Hwy. 503 was by far the most interesting – it narrowed down to essentially a one-lane road through a couple of villages and could hardly be termed a highway!!

This was the wide part!

Oops – narrow again!

But, it was beautiful and we really enjoyed it. By the time we got back to Santa Fe we were hungry so we finally gave in and ate at a chain fast-food restaurant. Too bad we forgot about the little town of Madrid on the way home, though, ‘cause it would have been more fun to eat there. We did stop there, however, for a few quick tours through some funky little shops and a few minutes sitting in the sun on a bench.

Back home we got everything unpacked and put away and settled in. Tomorrow we head north to the Cortez, CO area. More fun places to explore!

Touring Taos

2010-05-18T21:13:00.000-07:00

Up, ate breakfast and hit the streets. We were only a couple blocks from the historical plaza, so we checked the area out for the next couple hours. This is the main street through town, just a block from the plaza.

The window and door pictures are from the Kit Carson Museum (also not open…)

One thing about living in a motorhome is that you aren’t tempted to buy a bunch of souvenirs or knick-knacks for the house. (‘Course we can’t afford some of the really cool stuff in this town!!) I did, however, find a Native American flute which is something I’ve been wishing for for some time now. Now we’ll see if I can learn to play it! I discovered later, through a little internet research, that it was made by an M. Mirabel from the Taos Pueblo. Don’t know if he’s a brother, or some other relative, or even not a relative, of the famous flute musician Robert Mirabel, but it’s close enough for me!

Another wonderful shop we discovered was “Weaving Southwest”. If any of you are ever looking for a really great rug, check this place out.

Well, we were now tired of “shopping” so we walked back to the condo, ate a quick lunch, hopped in the car and headed for the country. First stop was to see the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Can you believe this is the same Rio Grande River that is near our winter home in south Texas?

Then we spent the afternoon following the 85-mile “Enchanted Circle Scenic Byway” through Questa, Red River and Eagle Nest.

Here’s a view of the Red River ski runs for our sons…

Before heading home, we took a short side trip to check out Angel Fire and saw what may possibly be the longest straight ski run in the U.S.

The Sangre de Cristo mountains are just beautiful and we really enjoyed the drive.

Back in Taos, we headed for a local pizza place. We were the oldest folks there by a long shot, but the pizza was great!

Then “home” where we relaxed and watched some of the tornado chasing in northern Texas. It was near where we drove through last fall and close to some friends of ours, so we were glad to hear the next morning that there weren’t any injuries or damage. Sounds like more weather on the way for that area though….

A short dip in the hot tub and time to call it a day.

Checking out Santa Fe on the way to Taos

2010-05-17T21:11:00.000-07:00

This morning we headed north on Hwy. 14, also known as the “Turquoise Trail National Scenic Byway”. It was a beautiful drive to Santa Fe and we enjoyed seeing some old remains of buildings along the way.

Once in Santa Fe, we settled the car in a parking lot for a couple of hours and headed across the street to see the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

Oops! It’s closed till the 28th – bummer… Guess we should have checked the website first, but we’re accustomed to museums always being open – even if one portion is closed to change out an exhibit.

So, we got lucky. Next door was the Andrew Smith Gallery.

What an amazing gallery of photographs! There were all the old masters that I remembered from photography school: Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Alfreds – Eisenstaedt & Stieglitz, and Yousuf Karsh. There was a beautiful study of Georgia O’Keeffe by Yousuf Karsh (priced at a mere $16,000) and, more recently, a nude of a very pregnant Demi Moore by Annie Leibovitz. Amazing gallery… Don’t miss it if you’re ever in Santa Fe.

You may find art galleries you like better, but we were very impressed with Manitou Galleries which is just around the corner from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. This gallery had some amazing art work, sculptures and more. Here’s an old and very valuable Spanish saddle – check out the silver on this thing! It was only $18,000… We’d have taken two if they had that many!

We really enjoy Southwestern architecture and this town is one of the best. Here’s a few views of the New Mexico Museum of Art.

The protruding support beam ends are called “vigas” and really add to the interesting look, don’t you think?

We also walked by the historical Plaza, but missed seeing the “miraculous staircase” at the 131 year old Loretto Chapel. Hmmm….guess we’ll have to come back here someday. Oh, darn.

Check out this little red wagon that we spotted cruising around the Plaza!

By the time we had exhausted our cultural capabilities, it was getting well into the afternoon. We headed up the road and stopped for a roadside snack in Pojoaque. This was our view while eating.

No restrooms at our lunch stop so a little further down the road we pulled into a casino. Hmmmm… Can’t resist dropping in a little dinero. No big wins, but at least I managed to make my dollar last about 15 minutes longer than John’s. Love those penny slots when you’re on a budget!

We managed to arrive at the condo in Taos right at check-in time: 4:00 p.m. I think we’re going to like this place…

This is the first time we’ve had a studio, but it works just fine. It was “hotel-style” so we didn’t have a stove or oven – just a small frig, microwave and a little dishwasher. No problem. We wanted to sample some of Taos’s restaurants anyway! After hauling all our stuff up to our room, we wandered down to the Plaza and scouted out a few stores for tomorrow. Late afternoon light is always nice for flower pictures:

Then it was time to eat. The guy at the condo front desk recommended Orlando’s, so off we went. Good New Mexican cuisine (although it always tends to be just a tad warm for me…). Then a stop at a grocery store for ice cream and home.

Another wonderful day.

Learning about the Ancestral Puebloans

2010-05-16T21:06:00.000-07:00

Today’s agenda included the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center which focuses on the 19 remaining pueblos of northern New Mexico.

We started with the Native American Dancing exhibition which had just started when we arrived. Most were old-time costumes and dances but one was a dancer who competes – the costumes have become much more ornate and colorful than the original ones were.

This woman’s dance was based on a story about a young girl who was sick but was healed when the village women dressed her in a dress with lots of tinkling things on it.

The young girl danced the Shawl Dance and a young man danced a hoop dance – he also competes.

Then we spent over an hour in the museum which was very well done. Pictures were not allowed in this area. We ate a very colorful lunch in the Pueblo Harvest Cafe and bought a loaf of their bread to take home.

Then we headed up the road a few miles to the Petroglyph National Monument. It is amazing that these are still visible today. Most were “pecked” into these basalt lava rocks about 400-700 years ago although archeologists believe that some images may be 2,000-3,000 years old. We did the three trails in Boca Negra Canyon, one of which climbs atop a mesa overlooking Albuquerque in the Rio Grande valley and the Sandia Mountains.

There are even petroglyphs of birds that are native to Central America indicating that the Ancestral Puebloans traded with people from far away.

Home, help-yourself dinner and getting things ready for our trip to Santa Fe & Taos tomorrow!

Finding Nemo in Albuquerque

2010-05-15T21:04:00.000-07:00

Back into Albuquerque today. We parked near the Old Town area and walked over to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. What a wonderful museum! This is one that we would recommend to families. It started with what scientists believe is the beginning of our world approximately 12 billion years ago and moved through the New Mexican ice age period (10,000 years ago) with a major emphasis on the Triassic and Jurassic periods. Of course, that means dinosaurs – lots of dinosaurs!

The Permian Age “Dimetrodon Limbatus” skeleton was 6-8’ long.

The Placerias & Phytosaurs fighting below were from the Triassic period.

This Phytosaur mouth from nose to jaw was as long as my arm!

We found Nemo! He was part of the exhibit about the Cretaceous period (146-65 million years ago) when nearly all of New Mexico was under a sea.

It’s really hard to describe how large the skeletons were for the Saurophaganax and Seismosauras shown below. The Seismosauras (the big, long one) was 110’ long and weighed approximately 30 tons.

I hope you can read this story about a dinosaur eggshell find – I thought it was pretty cool!

Many of the skeletons here were from this area. It appeared to us that New Mexico must be one of the primary archeological areas in the U.S. Are we right, Norah?

Afterwards, we walked back to the car and ate our lunch at the edge of a pretty little fountain. With roses nearby…

Then it was on to Old Town itself with its many shops and galleries.

A lady near one of the shops told me this flowering bush is “Spanish Broom”.

Time for ice cream (me) and coffee (John) while we listened to a musical group called “Wing and a Prayer” playing in the gazebo in the middle of the town square.

Old Town has been around since 1706 and includes the historic San Felipe de Neri Church and its Rose Garden.

Then home for a quiet evening after a wonderful bean soup from the crock pot.

Errands

2010-05-14T21:49:00.001-07:00

Well, our errand day was a success. We found the VA Hospital so John could finalize his web access, drove to Camping World to pick up a new sewer hose (I managed to break the one we usually use a few days ago!) and a few other items, went to a shopping center for my haircut and new tennis shoes (I managed to lose mine in Tucson last week) and then home. Hopefully I won’t manage to do things that result in extra expenses for awhile now….:):)

Another movie tonight and tomorrow it’s time to get back to sightseeing!

Moving again

2010-05-13T21:41:00.000-07:00

Well, enough for this part of New Mexico – time to head north! The 164 mile drive to our next campground just east of Albuquerque was uneventful. The campground is a bit on the shabby side and pretty hilly, but it is nice to be up in a more mountainous area with some trees around. And, mountain lions and black bears according to the staff in the office!

We got settled in around 1:00, ate lunch and later went down the hill to do laundry. While the machines were doing our work for us, we enjoyed visiting with an older couple who are visiting about 10 national parks in the west while travelling in their pop-up trailer! They spent 10 years full-timing and volunteering for SOWERS (a non-denominational Christian ministry of RVers) and we really enjoyed hearing of their travels (including Soldotna, AK).

We watched a movie this evening after taking a walk around the park. Tomorrow looks like it’ll be an errand day and a chance to check out Albuquerque a bit more.

Exploring Elephant Butte Lake State Park

2010-05-12T21:24:00.000-07:00

John & I have both really been missing boating since we retired. We had a Zodiac for all but the first year that we lived in Anchorage and it was a big part of our recreation time during spring, fall and summer. We also had individual catarafts the last few years up there and REALLY enjoyed those! We hauled them around in the motorhome for the first year, but didn’t end up using them very much as we were either in south Texas where there aren’t many places to boat or we were in areas where we weren’t familiar with the places to go, so we sold them while we were in Alaska the summer of 2008.

So, lately we’ve been talking about renting a boat occasionally and Elephant Butte Lake near Truth or Consequences seemed like a good place to do this. A little research on the internet revealed that only one location rented kayaks or paddleboats, so off we went this morning to find The Dam Site Marina at the south end of the lake. The state park website didn’t really give directions & Google Maps wasn’t much help, so we made a quick stop at the local Elephant Butte Chamber of Commerce. The lady there, while very nice, didn’t possess the handy skill of giving concise, accurate directions so we finally said thanks and took our chances. Good grief! Now we knew why the website said to call for directions…. This was a state park and the lack of signage was abysmal. We could see the marina from up by the dam, but getting to it proved to be much more difficult.

We wandered around the surrounding hills and finally stumbled on to the road winding down to the marina. It took another 10 minutes to locate someone who worked there only to find that, because it was windy today, paddleboats could not be taken out of the enclosed area bordered by the two walkways (center of picture below).

$15 per hour wasn’t a bad price, but definitely not worth paddling around & around this tiny area for an hour! Sigh…, so much for boating…

We noticed again the neglected appearance of this state park – similar to what we’ve seen in several communities and state facilities here in NM. Not sure if it’s just that spring-time clean-up hasn’t begun yet or funding issues… This building just up the hill from the marina (restaurant on state park grounds??) looked kind of neat, but unused.

The flowers were pretty, though…

So, we drove up the west side of the lake just to explore. Apparently there is funding for new entry fee stations – charming, aren’t they?

This area has not made our “this-might-be-a-neat-place-to-live-someday” list.

Moving day

2010-05-11T20:01:00.001-07:00

After ten days in Deming, NM, it was time to move a little farther north. So, at around 9:30 we settled up with the Escapees Park we’d been staying in and headed east and north to the Truth or Consequences area. Higher winds were forecast for the afternoon so we wanted to get settled in before then. We arrived at a park near Elephant Butte around 11:30 and got parked, leveled and settled.

I did a little cleaning before we left Deming and finished up in Elephant Butte. Sure is handy to always have your house with you! Then we headed for T or C, which is known for the hot springs that is under the downtown area. We located a discount coupon for what appeared to be one of the nicer hot springs businesses and spent a very relaxing hour there. It overlooked the river and “mountains” beyond, so the scenery was better than most areas we’ve seen around here so far. Alaska-scenic, it ain’t!

On the way home we stopped by Wal-Mart for groceries and then Taco Bell for something to eat. Nice, relaxing day. Tomorrow we hope to find a paddleboat or something to rent for a bit. We’ve really missed boating and need a water fix soon!

A day in Deming

2010-05-10T21:15:00.001-07:00

It’s Deming Day for us…

We were going to walk downtown today, but after researching how far it was and noticing how hard the wind was blowing, we drove the car there instead. The downtown area took us about 15 minutes to explore. We don’t know whether the downtown took a hit when Wal-mart moved in or whether the economy the last few years has reduced the number of merchants, but there wasn’t much there…

So, we headed over to the “Deming Luna Mimbres Museum and Custom House” instead. The name apparently was derived from the town (Deming), county (Luna) and river (Mimbres). We never made it across the street to the Custom House, but the museum was wonderful! It probably has the most varied exhibits of any museum we’ve ever been to: furniture & dishes, dolls & toys, area family historical photographs, quilts & laces, bells, whiskey bottles, ranching & old store items, military & music, gems & minerals, art gallery, old clothing, nutcrackers, fire engines, tools, and a Hispanic section. And, we’re not talking about just a few items of each: the whiskey bottle collection probably numbered over 1,000; the dolls at least that many including some from the mid-1800s and one with clothing from the Civil War; too many geodes to count – I could go on and on… There were even Roman coins from 364 B.C. to 395 A.D. and an Alexander the Great silver coin from 364 B.C. Amazing!

But, the best part (for me, anyway) was the collection of Mimbres pottery. The Mimbres Indians lived along this river about 1,000 years ago and were very gifted potters. They created very geometric patterns of black & white, plus some with reddish browns, using brushes made from Yucca cactus leaf fibers chewed to a fine point. The ones of animals were very stylized – similar to petro glyphs found in this area. Many of the pots were buried with people and so were preserved. Most of the buried pots had a hole punched in the bottom – it is believed by some that this was to let the spirit escape.

Sorry, no pictures today – not even of flowers!

We had a mid-afternoon meal of spaghetti and then followed up with DQ ice cream sundaes around 6. Yum, yum!!!

We’re getting ready to move up to the Truth or Consequences area tomorrow for a couple of days. New turf to explore!

Exploring Silver City on Mom’s Day

2010-05-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

We started our exploration at Silver City’s visitor center which, unfortunately, was closed. There was a cabin on site which was donated by director Ron Howard from the 2003 movie, “The Missing”.

We left the car there and walked across the “Big Ditch”. Apparently between 1890 and 1910, several devastating floods washed away what used to be Main Street. The only original building in this area is the Warren House.

The “Big Ditch” is 55 feet below the other streets and has been turned into a park although, like some portions of the river front in Carlsbad, we found it to have been somewhat neglected. It did have a few flowers, though…

The remaining downtown area had some interesting architecture and artwork.

There is also an “art district” where we found only a couple of galleries open.

One couple opened theirs for a few minutes for us and we enjoyed visiting with these transplanted San Franciscans. If you are ever in this area, stop by the Seedboat Gallery. They had some beautiful things there.

We had planned to have lunch at a “quaint” little restaurant but, probably because of the combination Sunday/Mother’s Day, we were foiled on that also. Most places in the downtown area were closed, so we ended up at a very basic (read: not at all quaint!) Mexican restaurant. The food was great even though the typical southwestern seasoning is just a bit on the hot side for me. We cooled me off with gelato at “Alotta Gelato”. Then we wandered down some more streets and headed home.

Another wonderful day – including phone calls from all three “boys”! Thanks, guys!

Exploring 700 years ago

2010-05-08T21:07:00.001-07:00

Today we stepped back in time – way back! After eating an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at the hall, we drove up north of Silver City to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. It was quite a drive just to get to the visitor center: 42 miles of winding, twisty mountain roads, with some sections as high as 7,000’ elevation. It’s part of a National Scenic Byway named the “Trail of the Mountain Spirits”. Beautiful Ponderosa forest, though, so we really enjoyed it.

We, as usual, stopped at the visitor center first and watched a little video about the national monument here.

Also got our National Parks Passport book stamped (it’s filling up fast!). Then a quiet lunch outside at one of the picnic tables while we watched about 6-8 hummingbirds at the feeders. Cute little buggers.

We could only drive as far as the first parking lot as the bridge is suffering from some pretty serious erosion.

So now, instead of a one-mile loop trail up to the caves from the last parking lot, it’s a three-mile round trip hike. According to the rangers, they’ve noticed a 50% reduction in visitors. The last part of the walk climbs about 180’ in elevation, but the steps weren’t too bad. This is a petroglyph that we saw along the roadside just a bit after the bridge. There was a rattlesnake nearby, also – our second sighting this week for a total of two (outside of zoos) in our entire lives!

This was our first view of the caves (this is Cave 7). The next two pictures are from just past the caves as the trail winds upward.

The Mogollon people inhabited these caves between the late 1270s and 1300 A.D. They built about 40 rooms inside the natural caves by using rocks, mortar and tree timbers. The wood apparently is one of the things that helped archeologists to determine when the caves were inhabited. No one knows for sure why the Mogollon cliff dwellers left, but nearly 80% of what is left of the walls and other features within the caves is the original construction, so they certainly knew what they were doing. It was quite fascinating to wander through several of the caves and imagine them occupied with people busy with their everyday lives and children running from room to room. One also wonders how many children died from falls…

Can’t forget flower pictures…

The hike down was beautiful, too.

We took a different route home (Hwys. 35 & 61) and enjoyed a slightly more level road winding through the pines interspersed with open meadows. New Mexico has impressed us with the variety of terrain – it’s got a little of just about everything (except seashore, of course!). We didn’t get home till 7:15. Playing tourist is hard work! We know, we know…somebody’s got to do it.

White sand – lots of white sand!

2010-05-07T20:31:00.001-07:00

Today we went to White Sands National Monument. It was about 120 miles one way, so we stopped at a pecan store in Las Cruces to break up the trip a bit. We had tried to stop at another pecan store on our way to Tucson last Sunday, but it was closed so John was happy to have another chance to buy some nuts. Then we went to Wal-Mart to see if we could find something suitable for sledding on the dunes. We ended up buying a couple of inflatable tubes designed for swimming pools. At least if they don’t work, we can give them to Jacob!

This was our first view of the dunes from I-70.

We stopped first at the Visitor Center and were just in time to watch the 15-minute video.

It was interesting to hear how some of the plants, such as the soapbox yucca cactus, have adapted to the changing environment of the sand dunes. They simply grow fast enough to keep their leaves above the sand. Unfortunately, when the sand dune “moves on” and unburies those long, long roots that have developed, the cactus usually collapses because it has no support.

After getting our National Park Passport book stamped, we entered the park, following the 8-mile road which takes visitors to the center of the dunes. There are 275 square miles of sand dunes here and it is the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

We stopped at one of the picnic shelters near the end of the road for lunch. This was the view while we were eating:

Then we moved to another nearby parking area to try our luck at dune-sledding. Not such a success; apparently sand isn’t as slippery as snow!

We then spent the better part of an hour wandering around on the dunes, looking for critter tracks (lizards, mice and kangaroo rats) from the night before.

The animals are smarter than we are: they burrow down during the day! This place was kind of “other-worldly” – it reminded us a little of Turnagain Pass during the winter months. Especially where the sand had been plowed off the road and parking areas.

On the way out of the dunes area, we saw all these people having a good time.

This yucca - like a few people we've known through the years - wasn’t quite keeping up…

We got home around 5:30 and went first to shower – lots of sand on our legs and feet! Then we enjoyed a delicious 15-bean soup that John had put in the crock pot this morning. Nice quiet evening….

Getting ready to explore the Deming area

2010-05-06T23:33:00.001-07:00

We didn’t have any plans for today so we ventured out around 10 and made a stop at the local visitor center where we picked up a few more brochures. Then we stopped at Walmart for groceries. After coming home and putting the groceries away, we had lunch and later in the afternoon went to do laundry. John had supper/dinner* ready when I came back with the clean clothes and sheets and we watched the movie “Infinity” in the evening. It was interesting to note that much of the movie was based in New Mexico. Tomorrow’s forecast looks less windy than appears to be usual around here, so we’ll probably head over to White Sands to explore…

*farm kids who move to the city sometimes become confused as to proper meal names…

Back to Deming via Saguaro National Park

2010-05-05T22:26:00.000-07:00

We took off from Oro Valley around 8:45 after one more good-bye to Donna & Shelley at the exercise class up at the rec hall. After stopping by a Safeway store to pick up sub sandwiches, we drove to Saguaro National Park (East)

where we watched a 15 minute video on the park and got the stamp for our National Park Passport Book. We then drove the 8-mile one-way “Cactus Forest Loop Drive”.

Took a few more pictures although I already had pictures of most of the cacti we saw there.

This is a cholla cactus – commonly called “jumping cholla” (pronounced choy-ya) because the thorns seem to get you even if you’re not very close!

Then it was time to hit the road so we would get home before dark. We stopped for gas and chocolate shakes near Benson and then ate our sandwiches in the car.

The next two pictures illustrate why we usually come this way with the RV during spring and fall when we’re headed to the northwest from Texas. It doesn’t get any easier than this when crossing the Rockies!

We got home around 5:00 pm. The motor home seemed to have survived just fine without us. We got everything unpacked and put away and crashed. Nice trip – thanks for your hospitality, Tucsans!!

Nice day with friends

2010-05-04T22:11:00.000-07:00

Waffles for breakfast – yummy! Jack always takes his walk very early in the morning, so Donna, John & I later took a walk through a near-by park. We even saw a rattlesnake on one of the paths! I think that was our first rattlesnake sighting other than a zoo. Later Donna & I made a grocery store run for Lucy, an elderly neighbor and then the four of us went for soup & sandwiches at Olive Garden. Afterwards we wandered through several of the shops there. It was in the 90s today – the temps are edging upward...

Later we picked up pizza and headed out to Mike & Shelley’s for a nice evening of food & visiting. Thanks for having us – it was fun as always!

Cacti & flowers

2010-05-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

After breakfast, Donna, John & I headed up to the park’s rec hall for Shelley’s exercise class. Good thing the two of us were in the back row ‘cause we sometimes got the giggles because we couldn’t coordinate our arm and leg movements the way we were supposed to! Afterwards, Shelley went back to work and the rest of us (including Jack) headed for nearby Tohono Chul Park. This park is rated by National Geographic Traveler as one of the top 22 secret gardens in the U.S. & Canada and rated as one of the world’s 10 best botanical gardens by Travel + Leisure. We would have to agree with both – it was wonderful! Of course, it didn’t hurt that many of the cacti and other plants were blooming…

I believe this one may be a “bottlebrush”.

The prickly pear cactus flower is probably one of my favorites. They come in various shades of yellow, salmon and pale orange and have a very fragile look to them.

The flowers on the Saguaro cactus were just starting to bloom.

Don’t know what this purple one is, but it was sure pretty.

Here are John & Jack looking at a paloverde tree. They were blooming all over town and were very pretty. The two following photographs show closer views of the flowers on the tree.

I don’t know my birds, but hopefully Karin will let me know what kind of hummingbird this is!! Karin?

This next one is the flowers on a Goats Horn Cactus. Cool, huh?

And, this bird is a….. (Karin?)

This tortoise was sound asleep.

This flower was beautifully lit from behind (sometimes one gets lucky).

These are Desert Pupfish in one of the ponds. They have truly adapted to desert life and can withstand water temperatures of more than 110 degrees Fahrenheit – amazing!

One of the docents took us to see a nesting hummingbird that we would never have found on our own.

The park had some beautiful quiet areas, too. This one was particularly pretty.

And, the little lizards were everywhere! This guy was probably only 6-8” from nose to tail, but he sure looks bigger (and nastier!) in this picture.

After spending at least two hours in the gardens, we ate lunch there at the Tea Room. Don’t miss it if you’re in the area – it’s very nice and the food was quite good – we would definitely recommend it.

Later we went to visit friends from our Iowa Falls days, Steve & Ev, for a wonderful dinner & a very nice visit. Thanks, Steve & Ev – it’s always fun to see you again and reminisce!

Road trip in the car

2010-05-02T22:21:00.000-07:00

Well, we’re ready for a little ordinary road trip. We have several friends in the Tucson area and want to see them as long as we’re this close, but didn’t want to drive the rig clear over there and then back to Albuquerque. Fortunately, Jack & Donna are like second parents to both John & I and they’re always so gracious about us just popping in. So, we packed up and headed west around 10 a.m.

The mountains in Arizona are different than Alaska’s but are still beautiful.

This next picture was taken in Texas Canyon just east of Tucson. It has been a favorite of mine ever since I first saw it in late 1991 when the boys and I flew into Tucson and then drove to south Texas. This picture doesn’t show all the “balancing” rocks there – some are the size of a small house and look like they could just topple over at any moment.

The flowers are blooming here, too – we’ve heard this is one of the best flower years in a really long time in the southwest.

On the way to Jack & Donna’s we planned to stop for a couple of hours to see other friends. Since we arrived a little early, we stopped by the local Del Webb community and toured the 12 model homes. Fun, but all that space reminded us of how much we enjoy living in an RV and NOT doing all that housework!!!

Ryan, Louise and their little girl, Gabrielle, were home around 2:00 so we headed that way. Ryan was a neighbor of ours in Anchorage and he and our oldest son, Eric, are good friends. They're a lovely young family and we always enjoy seeing them when we’re in the area. As we were leaving their house, it started to rain and these clouds were pretty heavy over Tucson. It rained a bit off and on, but didn’t last long.

We pulled in to Jack & Donna’s a little after 5:00 – just in time for a nice dinner with them and their daughter Shelley’s family. Shel went to school with both of us way back when and it’s always fun to catch up with her again, too!

Nice, quiet travel day

2010-05-01T22:17:00.000-07:00

Today we drove 282 miles from Lakewood, NM down through Texas to Deming, NM. We saw one antelope and that was it for wildlife. The clouds finally broke up and blue sky began showing through about halfway to Deming. We passed through El Paso on the north side by travelling through Ft. Bliss. There was quite a bit of new construction there; it appears to be a pretty large Army base. My cousin, Pat, was there with her husband back in the 60s and I think she would be amazed to see how much it has changed.

We got settled in our spot by about 5:30, enjoyed left-overs for dinner and will probably call it an early night. Tired…

Snow in Texas today!

2010-04-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

Thought this headline might get your attention. And, no, we’re not kidding! But before we get to that, let me get caught up to today…

On Tuesday (April 27), we went to Sitting Bull Falls. We did a quick “hit and run” cache near the park here and then were on the road about 11 - had a wonderful day! The falls are a federal recreation area within the Lincoln National Forest and are about 40 miles SW of the town of Carlsbad (which is 22 miles south of us). There is a nice picnic area there and it is only a short walk to the falls.

Beautiful spot and we had it all to ourselves for awhile. On the way, we visited with the camp host, a single guy about our age who came for a 3 month stint four years ago. He claims he’s a desert rat and loves it there. Here are some pictures and a video from the area below the falls.

Then we hiked up above the falls where the spring provides the water for the falls on its way through several very deep, very clear pools. John estimated this pool at 6-10 feet deep!

This is the view from above the falls overlooking the parking/picnic area.

And, of course, can’t have a blog entry without some of my flower pictures!

There are a couple of remaining structures that were constructed by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) in the late 1930s.

There was quite a bit of open range on the way in and back from the falls. We enjoyed seeing the cows (we know: been away from Iowa too long!).

We "found” our second cache for the day (a virtual cache) here near the falls and then stopped at Brantley Lake State Park on the way home to find another one. Here’s the dam below the lake.

I hope this picture is generic enough not to give away exactly where this cache was! Love those ears!

Wednesday (April 28), we did laundry and watched a couple of movies in preparation for heading over to Deming. We got a little bored in the afternoon so took a walk down to the road (about 1/2 mile each way). Boy, pretty exciting life, huh?

Thursday (April 29), we drove up to Artesia for groceries in the morning and then we sat and rocked & rolled here in the motor home for the rest of the day. We had originally planned to leave on Thursday, but high winds started last evening and by the afternoon, we were experiencing steady winds of 30-40 mph with gusts recorded as high as 69 mph in Artesia which is just 12 miles north of us. Yikes! By 4:00 pm, we felt like we had been living on a boat and decided to take a break so we fought our way over to the rec hall for happy hour. It was nice to spend some time in a solid building! We had a nice visit with our tablemates who had just arrived. They lived on their sailboat travelling the eastern seaboard for seven years and finally decided to buy a “land yacht” as they felt they were no longer physically capable of handling a sailboat at sea. They’re experiencing the west for the first time and are headed up to Alaska this summer so, of course, we stayed and visited long after everyone else went home. Not much else of note…

Sooooo, now it’s Friday (April 30). We had thought about moving down to Guadalupe Mountains National Park today, but a call to the ranger there changed our minds. High winds with gusts up to 70 mph were possible in the Guadalupe Mountains today, so we left the rig here and took the car. It does SO much better in high winds! Turns out the winds weren’t that bad, but the temperature was about 45 degrees at the 5,700’ elevation and IT WAS SNOWING! Not huge flakes; more like sleety stuff, but still a 4-letter word!!! Here’s our proof:

We enjoyed a short slide show about the park and wandered around their visitor center looking at all the displays. Then we had lunch in the car watching the s**w and viewing Capitan Reef. This park is part of what was once a marine fossil reef some 260-270 million years ago. The high cliffs (Capitan Reef) that we see here today were part of a 400-mile long reef separating a lagoon from a vast sea that covered portions of Texas and New Mexico.

After lunch, we stopped at a pull-off to explore the remains of a stagecoach station that was part of the historic Butterfield overland mail route in the mid-1800s. Oh, look – flowers here, too!

Just a few miles down the road was the Frijole Ranch History Museum located in the historic Frijole Ranch house.

The museum was small but well-done and gave us a nice overview of what life was like for the early pioneers that lived here. We would like to return here someday to do some hiking.

After returning home, we attended happy hour again and then removed the sun screens and tire covers in preparation for travelling tomorrow. Whew! No snow here at the park!And, this is one of two little baby bunnies that we’ve been seeing on the path near our rig – so cute!

Tomorrow, we’ll move to Deming, NM for a week or so before we wander up to the Albuquerque area.

Happy Birthday, Kari!

2010-04-26T22:21:00.001-07:00

It’s Kari’s birthday today! We enjoyed a quick phone call with her and sang “Happy Birthday” – well, I sang anyway!

Our intent today was to go see Sitting Bull Falls, but on our way there we looked at the gas gauge and decided it would be more prudent to drive in to Carlsbad first and fill up. Did that and then decided to go visit the National Forest Services office for some more information. The gentleman there was very helpful and, besides giving us lots of brochures and stuff, he also gave us some helpful hints about snakes and mountain lions. Maybe now we feel a little braver about doing some hiking around here…

Anyway, by the time we got out of there it seemed to make sense to practice being flexible (our new retirement catch-word!) and forgo the Sitting Bull Falls trip till another day since the road to it was back towards our campsite and there were other things we wanted to do and see in town.

So, we walked across the street and went to see the museum. It was free and very nice.

Then it was time for our picnic lunch so we drove a few blocks over to the Pecos River. Here’s the view from our picnic bench:

Then it was time to explore the Pecos Riverwalk. We headed down the path enjoying the ducks and geese along the way.

These guys had a little topknot of feathers…

Down about 1/4 mile was a floating pedestrian bridge just before the dam. These ducks were just hanging out on the edge of the dam.

We crossed the river and wandered down the other side back in the direction of our car (only on the wrong side of the river…). Saw this beautiful flowering bush – not sure what kind, but it sure smelled good!

The sidewalk veered off the river just a bit through “Pecos River Village” which was quite uninhabited. Seemed a little odd to us as it looked like a pretty neat place.

We asked a couple of locals and apparently it gets used at Christmas and only a couple times through the year. Hmmmm….strange.

So we wandered farther on assuming that there would be another way across the river down there somewhere. You know where assumptions will get you. Ours took us on about a 2 1/2 hour walk as the sidewalk dead-ended at a picnic pavilion just before the railroad trestle! Soooo….we walked all the way back the way we came! At least we got to see these two little guys – pretty cute!

Then a stop at the grocery store for some supplies and home to watch a movie after eating the yummy chicken and rice supper John had in the crock-pot.

It’s a rough life but somebody’s got to live it!

Taking it easy on Sunday

2010-04-25T20:44:00.001-07:00

Well, we planned to have a more low-key day today, but couldn’t resist going to see at least one touristy thing!

Around noon we headed just a few miles down the road to one of New Mexico’s state parks: the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens. It’s located high atop a huge hill just west of the town of Carlsbad. The 1.3 mile self-guided walking tour took us through all the different habitats found in the Chihuahuan Desert.

First, we went through the aviary. There are lots of these doves at our RV park and we probably won’t miss their constant cooing when we leave!

And, of course, lots of flowers for me to take pictures of! Don’t know what kind this one is.

Can you see the lizard in this picture? They’re really hard to photograph because they move so fast!

More unknown flowers…

This one I know! It’s a Claret Cup Cactus.

The yuccas here were huge! These were probably easily 20 feet tall.

There were desert critters here, too – javelinas, owls, prairie dogs (including one very tired one!), bison and elk.

And, isn’t this mountain lion gorgeous?

Our last stop was a greenhouse where they had cacti and succulents from around the world.

A nice peaceful, but interesting, Sunday…

Ruidoso, here we come!

2010-04-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

Thought we’d show you how much the terrain changed during our drive to Ruidoso today.

1. This is what it looks like heading north about 2 miles from our RV park:

2. Here’s the view looking west from the west edge of Roswell:

3. Finally, in the mountains again just west of Hondo:

We noticed that the new leaves got newer and smaller as we went up, up, up!

We drove through Ruidoso Downs where the All-American Futurity (the richest quarter horse race in the world) has been held every year since 1959. We thought the place looked pretty shabby for a famous racetrack…

Just up the road we stopped at the Ruidoso Chamber of Commerce and were told that the Kite Festival that we had come to see was cancelled because of a blizzard yesterday (a tent blew down in the high winds and injured some of the people). Someone said that they thought some people were flying kites anyway, so we drove up to the White Mountain Sports Complex, which was essentially a big green field near the schools. Lots of kites and great fun to watch them – especially the little kids crawling under the big, blue “puffer fish” kite.

We also enjoyed seeing little Nemo and his BIG, BIG daddy kite!

Here’s big Dad in the air.

And, the butt and legs were pretty original…

The star kite was not as odd but still cool…

After eating our lunch there in the car we went back down the road a few miles to Ruidoso Downs to visit the Hubbard Museum of the American West. Wonderful museum! Curt and Diane - put this one on your list to see – you’ll love it!

This amazing bronze sculpture was just inside the front door. It’s of “Touch the Clouds”, a 7 foot tall chief who was a cousin and lifelong friend of Crazy Horse.

The displays here were well done as would be expected since it’s a subsidiary of the Smithsonian.

We were surprised to find John’s dream kitchen here, too. Didn’t expect that!!

And, best of all, Lora got to try her hand at calf roping!!

Obviously, the calf never knew what hit him…

Not.

Then we made a stop next door at the Billy the Kid Casino which is right next to the racetrack. In a measly 20 minutes, we managed to lose $20 and get our clothes all smelly from cigarette smoke – time to leave! We don’t make a habit of hanging around casinos when we’re losing a dollar every minute!

We took different roads home: Hwy. 70 south to Hwy. 244 which connected to Hwy. 82 back to Artesia. It was more mountain driving but very fun! The highest pass was 9,122 feet. There was still a fair amount of snow up there and the drive through the Ponderosa Pines of the Lincoln National Forest was beautiful. This route also took us across part of the Mescalero Apache Reservation – they may have some of the best looking reservation lands in the U.S.

A stop for ice cream at Walmart in Artesia was the topping on the day. We arrived home around 6:30. Even put the slide out again – the winds haven’t been this quiet since we got here.

275 miles today, but well worth it!

Carlsbad Caverns National Park

2010-04-23T20:46:00.001-07:00

Wow! What a finale for our little “cave” trip this last week! We headed down through the town of Carlsbad and on to Carlsbad Caverns National Park around 10ish. It was about an hour’s drive and pretty windy the whole way. The forecast is for 30-40 mph winds with gusts up to 55. Good day to spend underground…

On the way into the Visitor Center, we stopped at several interpretive pull-outs. One was a short hike down to a cave that was used by Native Americans long ago. The Mescalero Apaches frequented this area – you’d have to be as tough as they were to survive around here!

Another stop was at the Walnut Canyon overlook where we found this cool “almost blooming” cactus.

Quite a view from up here.

We checked out the bookstore first and picked up a National Parks Passport booklet and the CCNP stamp for it. It’ll be fun to keep track of the national parks as we visit them. Also found a small book on Texas wildflowers so – yes, Mom – I can start identifying the flowers in my pictures!

We then headed out to the car to eat our lunch before heading down to the cave. We opted for the elevator rather than the hike. We went down 750 feet – I tried not to think about that too much:):) This cave is really huge compared to the other two we’ve seen recently. The “Big Room” is the largest known limestone chamber in the Western Hemisphere and is approximately the size of 14 football fields. The loop trail is 1 1/4 miles long and takes about an hour. There is also a lower section of the cave which requires someone braver than us to get into! Here are a few of our pictures:

This is “Giant Dome” and it is 62 feet high – it really is difficult to comprehend how large these stalagmites really are! The ceiling at it’s highest is 255 feet up – WOW!

And, here’s proof that I really did spend two hours waaayyyyy underground!

John’s headlamp came in very handy to see lots of stuff that wasn’t lighted. It was also a great help to light up formations enough that I could get the camera to focus on them!

This area was not lit at all and we were quite surprised at how the picture turned out!

This one is the “Chinese Theater”.

Quite an amazing place! We didn’t get home till nearly 5:00 and spent the evening trying to figure out where we want to go tomorrow. Hmmm…either the Desert Zoo/Museum near here or we might head over to Ruidoso to check out the kite festival and Billy the Kid’s old turf… Guess we’ll sleep on it!

Getting settled day

2010-04-22T20:50:00.001-07:00

We ventured down to the office after breakfast and got signed in and then moved the rig to a regular full hook-up spot. After getting things put away, we hopped in the car and drove the 22 miles south to the town of Carlsbad. We did our grocery shopping at Albertson’s and then stopped by the Chamber of Commerce where we picked up LOTS of brochures about things to see and do around here. We won’t be bored…

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laundry and putting on the tire and window covers. At 4:00 we headed to the hall for Happy Hour. Apparently nearly everyone comes; there were about 40-50 people there. They take turns being the “emcee” and today’s was a young (for here…) guy who, with a friend, had just gotten in about 11 pm last night with a “new-to-them” rig they picked up in Arizona. They had pulled in next to us in the boon-docking area and were pretty quiet – although I did hear the gravel crunching underfoot outside our window and wondered why someone was travelling so late. Most RVers tend to get off the roads well before dark. The other little interesting tid-bit had to do with snakes: we had been warned to watch out for them and apparently one was spotted last night here in the park – yikes! This is a whole new area of wildlife that we don’t know much about… Give me a moose or bear any day. Any way, we are supposed to take a flashlight whenever we go out after dark – NOT!

We enjoyed our yummy dinner of chicken, baked potatoes & peas and spent the evening on the laptops listening to the wind. It is very windy at times here and we finally pulled in the slide a short time ago – haven’t done that before, but the awning over it was flapping enough to bother us both, so….

John has spent the evening researching Carlsbad Caverns where we are planning to go tomorrow. There are several guided tours, but we agreed that neither of us wants to crawl in tight places and climb up and down ladders, so 5 of the 6 are not on our to-do list. Should be fun even if we just do the old-folks’ tours!

Last travel day for awhile...

2010-04-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

Slept in this morning and we took our time getting ready to hit the road; finally started rolling at around 11:30. It was mostly cloudy and the trip was pretty uneventful (which is OK with us!) as we headed for New Mexico. It seemed to be a pretty gradual climb across western Texas and we noticed that the new leaves were quite a bit newer here than they were farther east. There were still some wildflowers but they gradually petered out as we got closer to NM.

We fueled up in Pecos which seemed like a pretty rough town from what we saw of it. And, finally! – a wildlife sighting bigger than a bunny: John spotted a coyote near the NM border, which we crossed at 5:08 pm (Central time)/4:08 pm (Mountain time).

We’re staying at an SKP co-op park near Lakewood, NM which is just north of Carlsbad. Seems like a nice place. We’re boon-docking tonight and will move into a regular site tomorrow when the office is open. Lots of lightening (and a couple of thunder booms) which we enjoyed watching from the rig with the lights out. Alaskans aren’t used to thunder and lightening…

Travel and Caverns of Sonora

2010-04-20T21:50:00.001-07:00

How nice to finally sleep in as long as we wanted to! We did a few little housekeeping chores and then headed over to the office to report that, so far, the electric is working fine – even after unplugging and then plugging in again. Guess we’ll hit the road and see what happens. The really nice news was that they didn’t charge us a penny for the diagnostic work. We spent most of yesterday in shops for a total of $104! That doesn’t happen every day in an RVers world! So, if you’re in San Antonio and need some work done, check out Iron Horse RV Inc.

This is the first time we’ve had a chunk of time and no definite daily plans so we just headed west on I-10.

The wildflowers are probably past their peak, but were still beautiful through the Texas Hill Country. Here is the famous Texas Bluebonnet and the yellow one is called Greenthread.

One picture we didn’t manage to get was in a wooded area where the bluebonnets created a “river” through the trees. It was about 12-20 feet wide and just wound through the trees – absolutely gorgeous! The picture below was farther down the road, but may give you some idea why the Texas Bluebonnets are so famous! The center picture is of an Indian Blanket and the far right is, I believe, an Engelmann Daisy.

While we were at one of the rest stops this afternoon, we decided to turn this part of the trip into a “caving trip” since we’re planning to see Carlsbad Caverns when we get to New Mexico. So, around 4:15, we drove several miles south of the town of Sonora and drove up a hilly gravel road to the Caverns of Sonora. There’s a small RV area here so we settled in and the headed over to do the last cave tour for the day. While we were waiting to start the tour, this peacock showed up. Isn’t that tail amazing?

The cave tour was only the two of us and one other couple who just bought a place on South Padre Island and are headed back to San Juan Island, WA where they spend their summers. Our guide was Steve and he did a great job explaining the various formations in this cave. The tour is close to 2 miles long and takes about 1 3/4 hours. The temps inside are fairly warm and the humidity is 98% – even the handrails were wet! This cave apparently has the most formations of any cave in the U.S. – it was pretty impressive. The “rooms” were more long and narrow and weren’t near as big as the ones in Cave with No Name near Boerne, but they extended much further. Here are some pictures. Do you see the “soda straw” in the first picture?

Here are some more of the “soda straws”.

My favorite formations were the fish tails…

This cave has lots of “popcorn” as you can see in a couple of the following pictures.

More fish tails…

This part was near the end of the tour and is in what is called a “dead” section.

On the way back to the rig, we spotted a guy doing some amazing juggling. Turns out that this young couple is also full-timing! They will be working here at the caverns this summer and we had fun visiting about their trip to Alaska last summer.

Back home for showers and some relaxation. Fun day!

Repairs and relatives

2010-04-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Up early (for us, anyway) to head down to the fix-it place for the generator. It was only 14 miles away and we didn’t need to be there until 9:30 so we could avoid rush hour traffic. We stopped and filled up on the way. Turns out that the fuel line between the tank and the fuel pump for the genset had gotten turned around when we had the frame work done last summer. Apparently there was enough fuel in the lines the couple times we had started it in the last few months for it to run a few minutes. We know, we know, we’re not exercising our generator often enough! Anyway, it got fixed and runs great!

Back to the park to get settled again, but no 110 AC inside again! This time re-setting the main breakers didn’t do the trick so we tracked down another fix-it company. They weren’t too far away either so we unhooked everything and headed out again. This time we towed the car – later discovered that was a good move.

Lyle, our technician, couldn’t reproduce the problem on either the generator or shore power and believes it may be either the transfer switch or the inverter. So, because of no definite resolution to the problem, we decided to stay the night there. Settled the coach in the lower parking area and hopped in the car to go see John’s cousin, Judy, and her husband Rick. Here’s some gorgeous flowers we saw on the way (I think they're "Greenthread" flowers):

This is is surely one of my all-time favorite flower pictures!

We got to Rick & Judy’s a bit early so we went for a much needed walk while Judy finished up her work (she works at home). Then we enjoyed a great dinner with them and a nice conversation afterwards. We’ve seen each other only a couple times since the early 1970s so it was really fun to spend some time with them and get reacquainted. Thanks, Rick & Judy, for a wonderful evening!

Seeing Schertz

2010-04-18T18:42:00.001-07:00

So hard to say goodbye – but it was time to hit the road again. We hitched up amid several sessions of SKP’s hugs and headed down the highway about 11:15. Settled into our campsite in Schertz, TX about an hour later. Had a little problem with some fuses but John finally tracked down the pesky little things and – voila! – AC!!

After a little lunch, we hopped in the car and scouted out our route to the generator repair place for tomorrow morning. No truck stops within about 50 miles so we found a station that we could get in and out of OK tomorrow. Picked up a few more groceries and then home to take a walk around the park. Looks like a fair number of permanent “settlers” here, too. We’ve been seeing this wherever we go and are not sure whether more people are doing this because of the economy or if there’s no real change in numbers, but we just didn’t realize it before…

We’re enjoying temps in the 70’s today; partly cloudy and just a little breeze. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll head over to John’s cousins, Rick & Judy, for a visit while we’re in the area. Meanwhile we’re enjoying some more cable TV after six months in the RGV with only local stations!

Post-rally day

2010-04-17T22:39:00.000-07:00

A couple more rigs left this morning. Dick & Karin had planned to move down to Bandera while waiting for parts for their rig repair, but because of the heavy rains during the night (and this morning yet), they decided to stay an extra day here based on unsubstantiated reports that there was flooding near the campground.

After making plans for chili, etc. for dinner this evening, John & I headed down to Best Buy. We took in our two laptops, which passed inspection and ended up buying another printer. Pretty good deal, though: $49 on sale and that included the print cartridges! Stopped for fuel for the car and a few groceries and then back to the rig so John could start the chili.

I wandered around with Howie & his two pups to make sure everyone knew about it. Back to the rig to research and make campground reservations near where we will be having the generator looked at on Monday. Off the the rally building for chili – good stuff, Newby! Lots of good eats to go with it, too! Amazing what this group can come up with on short notice…

Spent the evening playing hand and foot with about 10 other folks. Good time again… Back home and got the printer set up. Even managed to print some more business cards – who would a’ thunk a printer could work so well???

End of the rally and a cave

2010-04-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

The rally was pretty much over today. The only thing on the schedule was a Hitch Up Breakfast at the rally building and then clean-up. The all-class rally was a success – it appeared that everyone here had a fun time. Lots of good-byes as many rigs left this morning.

We spent the afternoon with Dick & Karin driving out to see “The Cave Without a Name”. We found a geo-cache near the cave and discovered later that we got to it from the back-side – not the normal route! The cave tour was just the four of us and was quite amazing as you’ll see from the following pictures. (Hint: to see a larger version, click on the photo and then use your back button to return to the blog.)

On the way home, we stopped for dinner at the Bar-D-BBQ for really good brisket, etc.. Great food, although it sure wasn’t very crowded for a Friday evening. Apparently – once again – we ate earlier than everyone else!

Geo-caching and Alaska

2010-04-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

John got up early to finish the cinnamon rolls he started yesterday morning and then we went over to the hall for Jay’s famous biscuits & gravy breakfast. There were also scrambled eggs, apple pancakes and a wonderful French toast casserole. Yummy, yummy!

Bob & Greg conducted a fun geo-caching workshop in the morning – including a trip to do two geo-caches. Unfortunately it was raining pretty good, but we all enjoyed it anyway. Some of the gals enjoyed learning how to wire rocks for jewelry with Mark & Renita. Beautiful things!

Lunch was a quick affair after I got changed into dry jeans and then we hauled our stuff over to the hall for our AK presentation. It went OK – had a pretty good crowd for it. We concentrated on things that local Alaskans enjoy doing in Southcentral – since this is a group that are experts in internet research for all those “touristy” places!

Happy hour at 4 and then we enjoyed tacos in a bag, a dessert contest (“Juanita” Newby won with Sex on a Beach, a/k/a Sex in a Dish or Sex in a Ditch) and then a brown bag auction. The group raised $800 for CARE this week – pretty impressive for roughly 50 people! Our wagon-master, Norah, and cat-herders, Linda & Molly did a bang-up job – thanks ladies!!!!

Afterwards, we wandered down to see the most unique rig in our group: Bob & Jan have a 1965 White semi-truck pulling a 1946 Trailmobile trailer. Bob rebuilt the trailer from the framework out and both are painted kelly green. It is very eclectic inside and we truly enjoyed seeing it and visiting with them – fun folks for sure!

On the River Walk

2010-04-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Another continental breakfast in the rally hall (John & Howie found a great little bakery and have been picking up donuts every morning) and then we car-pooled to the River Walk in San Antonio. Dick & Karin rode with us and two other couples followed in their truck. After a little confusion finding a parking lot, we finally got parked and headed for the Alamo gift shop and grounds. Here’s Dick & Karin ready for a fun-filled day!

The flowers were beautiful…

We didn’t end up doing the Alamo tour as most of us had already done so on a previous trip.

The oak tree below is getting close to 140 years old. It was huge! Then it was over to the visitor information center where we met up with the rest of the group and decided on Casa Rio Restaurant for lunch. This restaurant was founded in 1946 and is the oldest on the River Walk.

After lunch the four of us wandered up a level to find one of the geo-caches that Karin had researched. It was fun and challenging to be subtle with so many people around – we didn’t want to encourage a “muggler”! (a muggler is a person who observes someone finding a geo-cache and then gets curious and removes the geo-cache). At a little before 2:00 we met the others again for a boat ride on the river. Our guide was Joel and he was awesome!

This sculpture was a gift from Mexico and represents the friendship handclasp of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. It is called the Torch of Friendship.

Then we did two more caches on the River Walk itself, and wandered around enjoying the views, architecture and the ducks. And, of course, more beautiful flowers!

We even ventured down to see the dam on the river and then found an ice cream shop (actually several while trying, in vain, to find Karin some flavored yogurt!) before heading home right in the middle of rush hour traffic. Got back to the rally building just in time for an “appetizer” dinner with the group. Fun day!

On a "Rally" schedule now!

2010-04-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

The Rally officially started today with a continental breakfast followed by a blogging & Picasa workshop by Molly. It’s always fun to help and learn from others. I particularly enjoyed learning how to do collages in Picasa and downloaded MS Livewriter after hearing good things about it.

At noon we had a final rehearsal for the skit we’ll be doing as this evening’s entertainment. We have had such fun at our practices – retirement seems to bring out hidden talents in some folks…

At 1:30 we attended Ron & Linda’s presentation about volunteering in the NWR. Sounded like something we would enjoy doing at some point.

4:00 happy hour was followed by a potluck – wonderful food as usual and ice cream for dessert!

We did our skit and had at least as much - or likely more - fun as the audience did! If you would like to see it, and promise not to disown us after seeing it, let me know and I’ll send you the link. We stayed for some of the jam session after and then headed over to Dick & Karin’s for a bit. Karin helped me with a little tweak in our PowerPoint pictures and we, together, managed to abort her download of the skit to YouTube!

Tired – time to go home.

Getting ready for the Escapees Class Rally

2010-04-12T21:52:00.000-07:00

One of the things we did in the RGV this last winter with some of the 2007 Class was to practice for a skit we’re planning to do here at the rally. The last two couples in our skit arrived yesterday afternoon so we had a practice this morning.

Later Dick, Karin, John and I went to a nearby local RV dealership to check on Dick & Karin’s body repair and our generator fix. They can’t do ours but kindly gave us a list of names of companies in TX who do work on Power Tech generators. Dick & Karin were told that this company has a great body fixer, so they made arrangements for a quote and started the process. Meanwhile, we checked out a couple of 5ers for friends – yuck but fun to look at and critique! It’s amazing how so many RV’s are poorly designed for storage and actual use. But, boy – are they pretty to look at!

Back to the park in time to see the tail-end of a video from the first rally in Quartzsite. Then it was off to dinner at the Hungry Horse Restaurant with all of the gang. Good food and then we went back to the park for the impromptu welcome in the hall. Some of us played “Hand and Foot” afterwards.

I stayed up really late working on our AK presentation materials after finding out today from Norah that they couldn’t find a projector to use for PowerPoint presentations. I’ll be sleepy tomorrow…

Exploring Boerne and shopping and...

2010-04-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

The rally doesn’t officially start till Tuesday, so today Dick & Karin joined us in our car for a trip to the Farmer’s Market in downtown Boerne. We wandered around enjoying the craft items and the various pets! The items here were of pretty good quality – great, actually, compared to the Don-Wes flea market that we go to in the RGV!

Then it was on to the mall down I-10 about 10-12 miles. First stop was Best Buy so Lora could research printers (yes – I’m STILL fighting with that HP from last year!). Then we spent about an hour in the Bass Pro Shop where we browsed through the zillions of things for sale and enjoyed the “fish” demonstration. Then we wandered over to the Verizon store so Dick & Karin could check out the Wi-Fi air card. So, while the Verizon manager went to find one of the air cards for them, we went to lunch nearby and then went back to pick up their air card and headed back home. Still had a couple hours daylight, so we grabbed our geo-cache stuff and found 2 of 3 geo-caches in this area. One was on the grounds of a convent and had a gorgeous view which included a huge herd of deer!

Great day!

On the road again!!!

2010-04-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

Six months in one spot – it’s past time to move! We left MVP at 10:00 am with friends Dick & Karin following in their 5th wheel. At around noon, we stopped at a rest stop and did a quick geo-cache before our picnic lunch. We’re hoping to learn more about geo-caching from these experts!

We made another “stretch” break in George West where Dick & Karin discovered some damage to their 5er. It appeared that something was kicked up by the tires and it wrinkled two lower panels and then punched entirely through the back corner of the fiberglass bumper – ouch! The good part of the trip, though, was seeing the wild flowers along the way. We probably missed the peak season, but they are still beautiful!

Lora insisted on trusting the GPS and “she” (this is a family blog so I can’t use her true name!) led us down a regular street not far from downtown San Antonio to hook up with another freeway. We were all stressing about the low hanging trees, but arrived safely at about 4:00 pm in the park in Boerne where the rally is to be held. We all got settled in and then joined about 8 other friends (new and old) for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Good eats and good time!

Summary of winter in the RGV

2010-04-09T20:28:00.000-07:00

We’re back! Sorry about the hiatus. Here’s a recap of the last six months….

We arrived in the RGV (Rio Grande Valley) of Texas on September 30, 2009 and quickly settled into our first workamping gig at the park in Weslaco where we had spent the winters of 2007/08 and 2008/09.

John & I worked 4 hours each on Monday and Tuesday and another 2 hours on Wednesday morning. Soon after starting I agreed to “work” at another park in the afternoons. This extra job turned into “managing” the other park – yikes! More than I had bargained for, but the people there were fun and it turned out to be a good learning experience. However, because of the more-than-I-wanted time commitment, I won’t be returning to this post next season.

We enjoyed our other co-workers: bosses Joe & Fran, Bill & Sandy (whom we knew from previous years), Dick & Karin, Shirley, and Floyd & Cathy.

John’s sister, bro-in-law, his parents and John’s dad all arrived in November. Our Texas family was complete! John’s dad quickly settled into living alone again for the first time since before he was in the hospital the previous spring. We all stopped by often, but I do think he enjoyed some time to himself also!

John’s brother and sis-in-law drove their motor home over from Arizona for Christmas and Sam came again in late March to drive Dad home.

In early January, our son Eric, wife Kari and little Jacob came to visit for about 5 days. Such fun to see them and the little guy again! We made sure to get a 4-generation picture… …and did the same in February when our other son, Vance, came with his little guy, Sebastian, for about 10 days. More fun!

We also enjoyed several get-togethers with the Class of 2007 – several lunches and a fun boat ride on the Rio Grande River.

The weather in South Texas this winter was much cooler than usual. We experienced freezing temps on three different nights and much vegetation was damaged, including Dad’s papaya tree. Consequently our tans are not quite as dark as we had hoped – well, mine anyway…

Last day of work: April 9th – YEAH!!!!!!!! Time for some rest and relaxation!

Boy - the weeks are flying by!

2009-10-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

This week went really fast! John was busy painting around the park and I learned some more about my job here and my second (afternoon) job at another park. A few more people have arrived and there will be more coming this next week. We've been hearing some tales of nasty weather through Nebraska...

On Saturday, we had our regular breakfast with the gang at Beto's and then we, and our friends Bill and Sandy, headed for South Padre Island (SPI) to see "Sandcastle Days". SPI is the southernmost portion of Padre Island National Seashore which is the longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world (about 70 miles). The sandcastles are created by experts from all over the world and were really neat, but unfortunately, it was quite windy and, after about 45 minutes of being sandblasted we headed for someplace calmer. You can click on the picture below to see the detail - quite amazing!

We drove a little ways north on the island to the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center which overlooks the Laguna Madre. We wandered down one of the many boardwalks and look what we found! We looked in vain last year here for an alligator. This little guy was about 4 feet long and the first we've ever seen outside of a zoo or aquarium.

Not sure what this bird is - I suspect it's some kind of heron. Anyone out there recognize it?

This one is a Great Egret. Someday we should pick up a bird book for this area, since there are so many around here.

Quiet day today catching up on naps (John) and paperwork (me). We did get our two-mile walk in and washed the salt off the car. It's a tough life we have here...

Cooling off in Texas

2009-10-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Cooler temps finally! Last Thursday, the electric company FINALLY got the power pole fixed for the section of the park that we're normally in. When John finished his work shift, we moved the RV back to our regular spot. NOW we can get settled in for real!

On Friday we got up, ate breakfast and started washing the RV. Big job, but it was long overdue... Afterwards, we washed the front windows, put up the window shades and John put the tire covers on. He even got the extra stuff out of storage in the car and put away in the bay door spaces vacated by the chairs. And, of course, it rained less than an hour after we finished:):) We sure didn't complain though, because it finally cooled off. Bill and Sandy came over for a fun evening of pinochle. Bill and I won all but one game (had to brag a little!).

Saturday, we went over to Beto's for breakfast with the regular Saturday morning group that have already arrived. Charlotte was there with her daughter. She's selling her trailer and will be wintering in AZ with her daughter/son-in-law. We'll really miss her - she's such a neat person! Not windy today, so John & I got the 10' square sunshade tent set up with Bill's assistance. John did lots of reinforcing with PVC pipe and straps hoping to prevent it from blowing away the next time we have a strong wind. We'll check into getting a couple of mesh side panels so it'll stay nice and shady in there.

Later in the afternoon, we played some shuffleboard with Bill & Sandy. The women's combined scores were exactly the same as the men's combined! Guess we're pretty well matched with them!

Don't know what all today will bring, but we've already enjoyed a two-mile walk, as it's still cool. Very humid, but a whole lot better than those high 90s!!

Work, work, work...

2009-10-07T19:49:00.000-07:00

I should have said "hot, hot, hot....", but hated to sound like a whiner! It has been in the high 90s every day since we arrived. John - poor guy - has been working outside every morning using the high pressure sprayer on pool walls, fountains and sidewalks. The place is looking very spiffed up - I think people will be pleased when they arrive.

I've been in training for the office work and just heard today that I will definitely be working an additional part-time job. My boss has also been managing another, smaller RV park not too far away and I've been asked to work there in the office in the afternoons for 20 hours a week. John will work there on an occasional temp job, as will another workamper.

We've got a really nice, fun group this year, but it still seems strange to us with so few people here. We went for a walk this evening and only saw one other person to visit with...

Starting our third winter in the RGV

2009-10-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

We left Laredo last Wednesday morning and arrived at Magic Valley a little after noon. It was nice to have a warm welcome from Joe & Fran who will be our bosses this winter! We spent some time getting blocks under the tires, etc. only to discover that evening that the electrical problems we were experiencing late last February and March have not been resolved. John finally unplugged our shore power around 3 a.m. when the "surge protector" kept kicking off and on every couple of minutes.

John started on cleaning bathrooms the next morning and I spent some time swimming with Ruth (her doctor doesn't want her swimming by herself since a heart attack last spring). In the late morning, the electric guy came, discovered nothing and said he would try to get a recorder put on the electric to hopefully find the problem. By late afternoon, there was no word from the electricians so we moved the rig to another spot. It was beastly hot and we spent much of the afternoon hanging out with a few others over by the pool. Our friends, Bill and Sandy, arrived this afternoon also - so good to see them again! Thursday evening, we gathered three other couples and bobbed around in the pool getting acquainted. Nice people!

Friday morning was work time for both of us. Sandy, Karin & I started our office training with Fran and John & Bill used the high pressure sprayer on the pool fencing in preparation for painting. We've all been impressed with how much sprucing up has been done here this summer. The new clotheslines are wonderful and so is the widened sidewalk! In the afternoon, John & I headed for the RV supply store to pick up a replacement thermostat. We knew the thermostat was starting to have problems, but after we moved the rig yesterday it quit working altogether. Still no air conditioning - aaaagggghhh! It's been in the high 90s and miserably hot!! Fortunately the new thermostat worked like a charm so we finally have a cool place to hang out in. We did laundry and then went out to dinner with all the other workampers at a nearby restaurant. Great food and wonderful company! It's gonna be a fun winter!!

Down in the heart of Texas

2009-09-29T15:09:00.001-07:00

Up around 7 and on the road by 8:15. This was the first day we’ve seen lots of wild animals. Do they still count as wild animal sightings if they were all behind huge fences? Lots of hunting ranches in the area north of Leakey, TX. We saw elk, emu, at least two different types of deer and, of course, lots of the recquisite Texas vultures or buzzards or whatever the heck they call them down here. The country just north of Leakey (roughly 100 miles west of Austin) was quite beautiful. This is hill country and one of our favorite parts of Texas. And, as usual, we are always quite amazed at the huge spreads, houses and elaborate gates that they all seem to have. One even had a keycard post to open the gate!

John had been wanting to stop at some of the historical markers, but most were too small or on the other side of the road with limited visibility for pulling back on the road. Fortunately, our lunch stop was right by one of the markers. You can click on the picture to read it - we thought it was pretty interesting. You never know what you'll run across when you get off the freeway!!!

It was cloudier today and we hit short rain squalls in several places. The high today was 88 degrees. The car and motorhome are in dire need of a bath, but that comes after John & I get at least one dip in the pool at Magic Valley!!

At around 3 we came upon a big line of cars and semis. After about a 20 minute wait, we discovered that, for some unknown reason, a semi full of fresh beef must have rolled. The top of the trailer was blown out and there were boxes of meat everywhere in the ditch. We surmised that someone was passing in a no-passing zone. Don't know that for sure, but we've sure seen lots of it around here.

We stopped for the night around 4:30 at a pull-off just north of Laredo. We enjoyed hot showers (before the water cooled off) and should be able to get an early start in the morning.

A slice of small-town Texas life

2009-09-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

Several days ago we had called friends from the RGV to see if we could meet for coffee somewhere along our way. They invited us to overnight at their place in Fritch TX, so we accepted. We arrived at Noel & Carol’s a little after 3:00 pm on Sunday and enjoyed a wonderful brisket supper with them, their daughter-in-law and their grand-daughter. We had a really nice visit around the firepit that evening catching up on all of our summer trips and getting reacquainted again. Only a Texan would get the firepit going on a 97 degree day!! Just kidding, Noel – it was fun! Breakfast this morning was a very entertaining event at a local restaurant. We’re sure enjoying these tastes of small-town America again and truly enjoy Texan’s own brand of humor! After a side trip to see the Lake Meredith Reservoir, we hit the road about 11:00 am and headed back to Hwy. 83. We stopped at the Childress Dairy Queen for snacks and then continued on to Abilene where we stopped for the night at the local Wal-mart parking lot. We picked up some chicken and salad for supper and called it a day.

Wonderful visit with family in Kansas

2009-09-27T15:05:00.000-07:00

Since I last wrote, we spent Thursday driving over to my brother and sis-in-law's place nearDodge City, KS. We had lunch pulled over on the side of the street in Granada, CO. We saw lots of huge feed lots (or t-bones on the hoof according to John) on the way and also noticed that quite a bit of rebuilding had been going on in Greensburg, KS since we were last through there a few months after the devastating tornado that occurred in May 2007*. The family had a nice dinner waiting for us and we enjoyed playing with the little ones.

The next two pictures are ones I took when we drove through Greensburg in 2007.

The next three pictures were taken on this trip.

The local college where several of our nieces attended was kind enough to allow us to park there and work off our site rent (with full hook-ups, no less!). So, after going to a local parade in the rain on Friday morning and then walking over to see Marcy & Josh’s house, we worked for about 6+ hours on Friday with other volunteers assisting with a remodeling job. Everyone was very nice and we enjoyed visiting with another full-timing couple who were our neighbors. After we finished with that and got cleaned up, we headed out to my brother and sister-in-laws’ for a quick dinner and then back to the auditorium for the college girls’ volleyball game. It reminded us so much of small town sports when we were growing up!

On Saturday while John & Jon were working on the RV generator & checking the AC units, Deb & I drove in to Pratt to get groceries and then we met the guys back at the motorhome, where Jeremie, Stacy and their two kids met us for a picnic lunch in the sunshine. Then John & Jon headed for a small local lake to go kayaking/fishing and Deb & I enjoyed some visiting time. We made a side trip to see Stacy’s newly remodeled house and then we headed back to their lovely log home where Stacy had fixed a wonderful elk stew and Marcy made some great garlic mashed potatoes – yum, yum! More kid time and we all called it a fairly early night.

Jon & Deb each stopped by Sunday morning on their way to church activities to say goodbye and we headed out around 9:00 a.m. Thanks to Jon, Deb, Jeremie, Stacy, Josh & Marcy for a wonderful visit!!

*Quote from Wikipedia: "On May 4, 2007, Greensburg was devastated by an EF5 tornado that traveled rapidly through the area, leveling at least 95 percent of the city and killing eleven people."

Time for a break

2009-09-23T20:22:00.001-07:00

Last night's weather forecast had us thinking that we might head for KS this morning, but it turns out that it didn't even snow in Colorado Springs. It was windy off and on here today, though, and we were tired so we just stayed put. In fact, we didn't even leave the motor home all day...

I cleaned the bathroom, worked on the woodwork, cleaned up bill stuff and spent the afternoon getting caught up on this blog. John cleaned the shower and the microwave. Hmmm....can you tell that he's better at relaxing than I am???

Tomorrow we'll head for my brother Jon's place. It'll be so fun to see them and two of their daughters and families! Lots of cute little kids to play with - yippee!!

Em's & Kelly's - sorry we can't hang around to see you, but hopefully we'll all see each other next summer!!!

Denver Day

2009-09-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

We all hopped out of bed this morning and headed for the airport around 7:30. Darlene rode with us and, after we dropped Eric off, we stopped for a nice leisurely breakfast. Then we took the left-over blueberry pancakes home for Derick's grandpa to enjoy. After sharing pictures, Darlene and I headed out for a little shopping trip. John & I headed back to Pueblo a little after 1 pm so Darlene would have a little time before she had to go into work. Thanks, Darlene, for the wonderful visit (as usual!).

When we got back to the motor home, we finished setting up and got things organized again. We miss everyone, but it does feel good to have some down time again!

Time to head out...

2009-09-21T15:09:00.000-07:00

...but we hate to leave Eric, Kari and baby Jacob. Thanks for a wonderful visit!

We got things unhooked, the car hooked up and pulled out of the RV park. We stopped for a few minutes to tell Kari, Jacob and Kari's parents goodbye and hit the road. Eric came along with us so we could drop him off at the Denver airport for work. He'd never ridden in our motorhome before and seemed to especially enjoy the ability to use the laptop while traveling!!

We had good weather until the eastern side of Monarch Pass where we hit some wet snow. Fortunately it wasn't sticking to the road. (If you want to see the snow better, you can click on the picture!)

The aspens higher up are turning that beautiful gold color that they have. They would have been much brighter and prettier in sunshine!

Blue Mesa Lake was as pretty as we remembered it from when we were last by here in 1993.

We had previously planned to park the motorhome in Colorado Springs, but finally decided to park it in Pueblo and take the car north. So, we did that and headed for Denver around 5 p.m. We arrived at our friend Darlene's house around 7:00 and had a nice evening visiting with her, her dad, Francis, and her daughter, Elizabeth, who lives fairly close. For those of you who don't know, Darlene's son, Derick, has been a part of our family since he and Eric were in college together 15 years ago.

Happy Birthday to Jacob's Grandad!

2009-09-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

It was just a hang-out kind of day, which felt really good! We did laundry after breakfast. Kari had to work at the spa and was worried about being bored, so she did a facial for her mom and massages for her dad, Eric and John throughout the day. How nice - thanks, Kari!

The rest of us played with Jacob, enjoyed lunch downtown (during which a huge wind, rain & hail storm came through that took out several large portions of trees around town), played some Mexican Train Dominos and then went down to the local Mexican restaurant where we enjoyed really good food and great company!

Afterwards we headed back to our place, played one more hand of dominoes and tried to watch the rest of the "Amadeus" DVD, but apparently there's a second DVD that wasn't sent to Ken & Harriet. Darn! We also enjoyed celebrating Ken's birthday with him all day and ended it with some carrot cake that John made - yummy! Everyone headed for home early, so we could get things finished up to head out in the morning. Bummer - we've had a really good time with Eric, Kari & Jacob and with Kari's parents also the last few days! Thanks, everyone!

Ouray Walking Tour

2009-09-19T21:09:00.000-07:00

Kari's parents, Ken and Harriet, arrived late last night, unloaded a few pieces of furniture for Eric & Kari and then parked their pick-up camper just across the road from us. So, when everyone finally roused out of bed this morning, we headed down to Eric & Kari's for breakfast. Their neighbor, Kay, and her son, Zach, were enjoying the sunshine on their front porch so they came up and had pancakes and eggs with us. Fun visit!

Later, we headed downtown to do part of the Ouray Walking Tour. This is the Uncompaghre River that runs through town. It is the most unusual shade of green that we've seen.

There are lots of hollyhocks in town, also. Many of the historic homes and businesses here have beautiful yards and courtyards.

This is the Beaumont Hotel. It's on the National Historic Register and looks very authentic both outside and in. All three floors are open to the main floor lobby. This would be a fun place to stay if we traveled differently!

Baby Jacob is having a fun time with all four grandparents visiting at the same time!

Dinner tonight was marinated chicken, rice, salad and baked squash at our place. Afterwards, we watched the first part of "Amadeus" and decided to watch the rest tomorrow.

Work day

2009-09-18T22:51:00.000-07:00

After John & Eric went to Ridgway to pick up supplies at the hardware store, we spent the day helping Eric & Kari with house projects: got the sofa winched up to the 2nd story deck and into the living room, got the old sofa moved out to the deck, got the futon set up in Jacob's room, got stuff organized in his room and put together the drawer that rolls under his crib.

But the most fun part of the day for me was when Kari needed to have a volunteer to get a facial at the spa! Wow! Was that ever nice and relaxing! John baked his first high-altitude cake while we were there and then we all had spaghetti at the motorhome and played a little Cribbage before Jacob got tired and they went home. Had a fair amount of rain today with beautiful blue skies in between...

Jobs and Telluride

2009-09-17T22:55:00.000-07:00

Kari had to do some training at the spa this morning, so the rest of us just hung out and played with Jacob. We finally got a call from Deborah at Ouray KOA - we got the jobs! Should be fun!

In the afternoon, we took both cars and headed for Telluride. This pond just past the town was the most incredible turquoise color. It reminded us of Kenai Lake in Alaska.

Here is a panoramic video of the area around the pond. Gorgeous, but unfortunately it was starting to rain so we took some quick pictures and got back into the cars. We'll definitely come back here next summer - hopefully on a nice sunny day!

We wanted to wander through downtown but it was still raining and even hailing once in awhile so we settled for driving around looking at the cool houses. Kari stopped to check on a possible job at a spa and then we headed for Montrose to get groceries. It was still raining and was really pouring by the time we finished dinner at Chili's. Got our groceries, Eric, Kari & Jacob headed home and we stopped at Target to pick up a few things. Got home about 8:30 and called it a day.

Cross your fingers for us!

2009-09-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hmmm...Looks like it's getting closer to time to get out of Dodge!

We called the Ouray KOA this morning as they had requested and they asked us to come out for a tour/interview. We spent the rest of the morning there and are thinking this would be a fun job. If hired, we would be a cooking team from Wednesday dinner through Saturday dinner (no lunches - so would have a break in the middle of pretty long days!). We really enjoyed Dave & Deborah and believe they would be fun to work with.

Kari had some training this afternoon so the rest of us hung out with baby Jacob - tough job, but someone has to do it!

Job Hunting

2009-09-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

We did laundry this morning and then headed north to check out some workamping job possibilities for next summer. Of the six parks we stopped at, three looked like they would be nice to work at. We'll be following up with at least two of them in the next few days. John also was encouraged by the local Safeway store manager to contact her when we return next summer. Sounds like they are usually looking for bakery help...

On the way home through Ridgway, we saw this old railroad truck. The museum looks interesting - maybe we'll be in the area next summer and can go see it!

Eric & Kari had picked up some steaks for dinner which we enjoyed after Kari returned from her job interview. She got the job and will be working Sundays. It is nice to have adult time once-in-awhile when you have a little one! Oh, yeah - just thought I'd mention that I had the highest total score for the three Yahtzee games we played tonight...

Tour Day in Ouray

2009-09-14T22:14:00.000-07:00

This morning John, Eric & Kari toured the Bachelor-Syracuse Mine just outside of town, while Jacob & I had fun together. They said the mine tour was pretty interesting.

In the afternoon, John wanted a nap, so the rest of us went to see the local museum. It's in the old hospital and was very nice. I was amazed at the sheer number of artifacts from this area.

Afterwards, we stopped by the courthouse which is on the historical walking tour. I was quite impressed with the courtroom which still has the original 1888 chairs for spectators. And, it's still in use one day each week by the District Court Judge!

We all enjoyed dinner together and then spent some time outside around the firepit making smores with the downstairs neighbor, Kay, and her son, Zach. Wonderful neighbors - too bad they're moving across town soon, but I'm sure they'll become good friends for Eric & Kari.

Million Dollar Highway, Silverton & Animas Forks

2009-09-13T22:17:00.001-07:00

Well, we got to drive the infamous Million Dollar Highway today. It's really gorgeous...if you're not driving! The driver better not be taking his/her eyes off the road 'cause this one's pretty hairy! We stopped at an overlook just south of Ouray and this is the bird's eye view of the town. Can you see why they call it the "Switzerland of America"?
This is a view of the highway from the pull-off near the Yankee Girl Mine - one of the richest concentrations of silver ore in the U.S.
When we arrived in Silverton, we left our car and hopped in with Eric & Kari (after moving the dogs to the back). Then we headed for Animas Forks, an old ghost mining town. We can hardly believe that this "road" actually appears in our road atlas, although it is marked as "Unpaved - check conditions locally". They aren't kidding - this is 4-wheel drive territory and is mostly one-lane with frequent small pull-outs. I found it more relaxing to focus on baby Jacob's smiles rather than looking at the narrow, rocky road winding along the mountainside. Eric & Kari are much braver than we are!

That said, the ghost town and surrounding scenery was awesome! It was chilly & windy when we arrived so we ate our picnic lunch inside the manager's house. Here's John checking out the views from there.
A couple of the houses had a "bathroom"! It was an attached outhouse. What do you think, Mom & Dad - would you have liked that up at the lodge????
Here's a view of the manager's house from the outside.

When we got back to Silverton, we stopped for ice cream at the hotel, did a little window-shopping and headed back home for tacos, movie and play time with the baby. Great day - thanks, Eric & Kari!

Colorado, here we come!

2009-09-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Up and out of Wal-mart by 8:00 a.m. For the first time on this trip, we had a little headwind but it was only through the first canyon on Utah Hwy. 6. Throughout the 23-mile deer "area" we saw 0 deer. Not much wildlife on this trip yet... Hwy. 6 winds through the gorgeous Price Canyon area and we did notice some signs of fall colors.

After passing through the communities of Price and Wellington, the country opens up again. It was so easy to eliminate the roads and fences in our minds and picture, instead, a group of Indians on their ponies picking their way through the sagebrush, while a wagon train was creeping along in the distance with a tell-tale plume of dust.

...finally some wildlife! John spotted several elk laying down near a rest area where we had stopped to switch drivers. We crossed into Colorado just after noon and stopped for a picnic lunch in the sunshine at the Colorado Welcome Center in Fruitas. At Grand Junction, we headed south on Highway 50 and then Hwy. 550 from Montrose on to Ouray. As we got closer to Ridgeway, this was our view. It was a little disconcerting to realize that we would be driving the RV in those mountains ahead! They sure are beautiful, though, and I read that the San Juans are the newest of the entire Rocky Mountain chain.

We pulled into Ouray a little after 4 and, shortly after getting set up at an RV park just a block from Eric & Kari's, they showed up with baby Jacob! So good to see all three of them again! And, Jacob seems so much more grown up than when we last saw them in Hawaii in May! After dinner we took a walk through town. This is a view of main street Ouray.
This is an historic livery stable that is currently housing a horse-drawn carriage company. Very cool town! It reminds us a bit of Girdwood, AK and the mountains surrounding it are really gorgeous!
Good travel day, but it'll be fun to stay around here, spend lots of time with the kids and grandson, and explore the area!

Idaho to Utah

2009-09-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Beautiful weather today! We left Boise around 9 a.m. and cruised across the wide-open expanses of southern Idaho. We remembered seeing more animals when we were in this area two years ago with the car, but this time all we saw were huge herds of dairy cows. We crossed the border into Utah at 2:15 p.m. and stopped for fuel at the Flying J in Ogden. Unfortunately that put us creeping through Salt Lake City at the beginning of their rush hour. Pretty slow going sometimes - especially where two on-ramps of two lanes each in about 50 yards merging onto a three-lane freeway with no metering stop lights...

We were hoping to get as far as Price, UT tonight, but a phone call from Eric reminding us of a high deer crossing area before that, plus the SLC delays, helped convince us to stop earlier. At 6:30 we checked out the Cracker Barrel parking lot near Springville, but it didn't look very large-rig friendly so we went across the freeway to the Wal-mart. We picked up chicken, shrimp and salads inside for dinner in the rig.

Just before retiring at 9:00 p.m. we took a little walk to scout out coffee possibilities in the morning and then picked up some trash and put some carts away in the Wal-mart parking lot. Just our way of saying thanks for letting us stay for free! This was our sunset view from our first "stay" at a Wal-mart. Not bad, huh?

Exploring Idaho

2009-09-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

We took a break from our traveling today and did a little road trip in the car. What a beautiful area! We headed north out of Boise on Hwy. 55, also known as the Payette River National Scenic Byway. The byway is 111 miles long and follows the Payette River which is calm in several places but mostly pretty serious whitewater.

We made one stop at a mercantile on the way (other than pull-outs). On the right side of the store were guns, knives, military gear, etc. I think I can safely assume that these people were not Democrats if the signs, posters, and hat logos were any indication! On the left side were many beautiful Amish quilts for sale with proceeds going to assist handicapped kids. Interesting combination...

We pulled into McCall early in the afternoon and stopped by the Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center where a nice lady gave us several ideas for a place to eat our picnic lunch. We ended up at Legacy Park on the shores of Payette Lake. Lovely park to enjoy on a gorgeous day!

Later we wandered through some of the shops. After I enjoyed some ice cream at the marina, we headed out of town and over to Hwy. 95 which we took back south. This highway wasn't quite as scenic but still interesting. The first part was a pretty winding road through the national forest. Then the scenery opened up as we entered the farming valleys.

We didn't get home till about 6:30, enjoyed some left-overs for dinner and then soaked in the hot tub for a few minutes before showering and calling it a day! Tomorrow we'll hit the road again. We're looking forward to seeing Eric, Kari and baby Jacob again!

Labor Day weekend fun!

2009-09-09T20:33:00.001-07:00

On the road again!!!!!

We left Everett Friday morning and headed east on I-90. The Snowqualmie Pass area is beautiful and fortunately we missed the worst traffic - not bad at all!

One of our first excursions with our friends Curt & Diane after we arrived was the Country Mercantile just north of Tri-Cities on Hwy. 395. If any of you travelers reading this blog go through this area, be sure and stop! They have wonderful local fruits and vegetables and the most amazing assortment of jams, sauces, dressings, salsas, candies, etc., etc. that you'll likely find anywhere! And, as an added bonus, their parking lot is very RV friendly.

On Saturday afternoon, we headed for the local county fair. If my memory is not too faulty, I think this is a little osprey.

The kids' tractor pull was a big hit and our little friend, Jesse, did an awesome job!

On our way home we stopped at one of the local wineries - aren't these grapes beautiful?

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping, watching movies and just hanging out. Thanks for everything, Curt & Diane!

Late summer summary...

2009-09-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! Amazing how fast a summer can go... John finished up his summer job with Safeway in the Everett & Lynnwood districts and we are now footloose and fancy-free again - yippee!! The last few days before we left Everett were pretty busy with some last minute visits with cousins Theresa and Angela, RV’ing friends John & Susan and, of course, saying goodbye to Vance, Jody and grandson Sebastian. Definitely the hardest part as we're not sure when we'll be seeing them again.

Here are a few pictures from our Pacific Northwest summer...

Several members from our Escapees "Class of 2007" gathered on Whidbey Island in July for lunch and then we soaked up some sun at Fort Ebey State Park for awhile. Fun group/beautiful day!

Several days later we hopped on another ferry (we enjoyed the Washington State ferries this summer!) and went to see Port Townsend. This is a wonderful place to visit: the uptown and downtown areas, Fort Worden, and the harbor were our favs.

Near the end of July we finally located a reputable business to replace some severely rusted framework on our motorhome. Aalbu Bros. of Everett did an awesome job for us. The only bad part (besides the bill!) was that we couldn't stay in the rig and the first week at Vance & Jody's was the hottest of the summer in Seattle. High 90's to 100's was too much for us! We also spent four days in a hotel to make room for Jody's family. We were thrilled to get our home back!

Our oldest son's (Eric) in-laws came for a visit in early August and we spent a wonderful day on the Kitsap Peninsula visiting the Elandan Gardens where the owner, Dan, kept us well entertained and made sure we knew how to correctly pronounce "bonsai"! We enjoyed the ancient trees and beautiful flowers, had two lovely picnics and two fun ferry rides. Good friends, good day!

Our oldest grandson enjoyed visiting grandma and grandpa at their motorhome this summer. Don't you think we should sign him up as a substitute driver?

September 4: time to head south via our friends, Curt & Diane, in SE Washington, son Eric & his family in Colorado, brother Jon & family in Kansas and then on to the Rio Grande Valley in southern Texas for our workamping job!

Tourist Time in Leavenworth

2009-07-12T22:08:00.001-07:00

Ohmigosh! Two posts in three days!

Seems like we finally had a day with something to write about besides work (John) and hanging out (me)! John has a couple of days off, so today we got up early (sure seemed early to me!) and hit the roads heading east towards Leavenworth, WA. If any of you have been there you know that it's a Bavarian village up in the mountains of central Washington. Definitely a tourist trap, but a kind of neat one! Many of the shops carry a higher quality of product than you normally find in touristy towns and it's fun to hear the polka music over at the gazebo! Best accordian music I've heard in years!!

We enjoyed good brats sitting in an outdoor restaurant, picked up some cheese and taffy to take home and even found a Christmas present. The plan is to leave the grandson's gifts with their parents during the next couple of months rather than try to find storage room in the RV and then pay postage to ship them! Goodness - we've really got this retirement/budget thing down pat, don't we??!!

On the way home, we stopped at Deception Falls and took the half-mile hike along the Tye River and Deception Creek. Beautiful place and a joy to spend a little time in the "wilderness" again. It was also a reminder that we are not around water as much as we used to be and we miss it. There was a quote on one of the information sign-posts that struck a chord:

There is no rushing a river. When you go there, you go at the pace of the water and that pace ties you into a flow that is older than life on this planet. Acceptance of that pace, even for a day, changes us, reminds us of other rhythms beyond the sound of our own heartbeats.
- Jeff Rennicke, River Days: Travels on Western Rivers

Good thing we had that little chunk of peaceful time, 'cause the rest of the drive home took two hours longer than it should have! We assumed the problem was either an accident or construction but we saw no sign of either. Pretty slow going, so we caught up on some phone calls. Hmmm. Reminds one of that old saying: something about making lemonade....

All in all a fun day. And, the kicker was that it appeared to have been cloudy and rainy in Everett all day and it was mostly sunny and about 90 degrees in Leavenworth - yeah!!

Me Bad, Bad, Bad...

2009-07-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe so much time has passed since I last wrote here! And, I certainly can't claim lack of time right now - just a lack of initiative, I guess...

Anyway, to summarize the last couple of months: I had a great time babysitting for little "Seabass", John & friend, Curt, thoroughly enjoyed the trip west in the motorhome - stopping for the night/shopping at not one, not two, but - yes! - three Cabela's. Probably a good thing I wasn't along:):)

John & Curt left the motorhome in Spokane for some work/maintenance. The last couple of weeks in May we spent in Hawaii with our two sons, their wives and our two adorable little grandsons. One daughter-in-law missed the first five days because of work commitments (bummer!). We had a wonderful time playing with the babies and especially enjoyed seeing them experience the pool and ocean for their first times! The (adult) kids had fun surfing, snorkeling and sightseeing.

After returning to the mainland, we resumed babysitting again. And, since we needed to go pick up the motorhome, we packed up baby and gear, hopped in the toad and made the five hour drive back to Spokane. It took awhile to get gear situated in the motorhome and we made it partway back to Seattle before stopping for the night. Sebastian was a wonderful little traveler, sleeping through refers beside us at the truck stop all night and watching the trees and trucks go by his window over the sofa where we had his car seat strapped in. We drove straight to the RV park north of Seattle where we are spending the summer, checked in and got the rig settled and hooked up in less than an hour and "flew" back down to Seattle to get us and baby cleaned up and dressed, daughter-in-law's mom/stepdad picked up at the airport and all of us to the courthouse for daughter-in-law Jody's bar swearing-in ceremony - whew!

John started his summer job the next week and I headed for Alaska to visit my parents, take care of the annual medical appointments and go to a niece's wedding. It was wonderful to spend time with family again, but getting back "home" to the motorhome - after what seemed like forever! - was even better. We've been full-timing for about 21 months now and still love it - our home and the lifestyle. It doesn't get much better than this!

So, to end this rather longish post, I leave you with a little tidbit of our life - one which will come as no surprise to those of you who know me well and for those of you who don't know me as well, now you know that I've been a very spoiled wife for a long time now!

Since John is working full-time (6 days this week) and I'm not, this morning I was going to put the roast, etc. in the crockpot for our evening dinner. But, because of me not cooking for the past 20 years or so (told you I'm spoiled!), I totally forgot. You see, I'm not exactly in the habit of even thinking about meals (at least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). So tonight we had leftover spaghetti and this is what my loving husband left on the kitchen counter for me before he retired for the night:

Complete with directions...

Changes, changes, changes...

2009-05-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

My mom tells me that my generation is the "in-between" group right now and it's very obvious to us right now that she knows what she's talking about!

We spent all of April helping out with John's dad through his hospital stay and now his recovery at home. And, just when he was showing definite signs of improvement, our youngest son called from Seattle and asked if one of us could come babysit for our oldest (nearly 6 months now!) grandson, Sebastian, while his mother takes on a 6-week job. So, last Sunday I flew from Des Moines to Seattle to help out the younger generation...

John is still in Iowa. His brother and wife will be there any day now and next week John will fire up the motorhome and head west. On the way, he'll pick up our good friend Curt at the Minneapolis airport for company. They're SOOOO looking forward to a shopping trip at Cabela's in Owatonna, MN and a sightseeing trip through the Black Hills of South Dakota. Things certainly have a way of working out, don't they?

We would like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers for John's dad's recovery. He is doing much better and he's happy to finally be feeling better.

"Homecoming" for Dad

2009-04-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

We sure wish seeing into the future were an option so we could have skipped a step or two the last few days...

To make a long story short, John's dad was released from the hospital last Monday afternoon and transferred to a nursing home/rehab center very near the hospital. Twenty-three hours later he was in his own home!

Nothing drastic, but the little things (not all of them were little to him!) added up. The final straw came when John's sister and I arrived the next morning only to be followed into his room by two nurses who insisted that he wasn't supposed to be wearing the immobilizer (a strap/velcro affair that keeps his left arm stable while the pacemaker heals). Needless to say, we responded that they were not to touch him! John's sister, Jane, is a registered nurse so she immediately went to see the orders while I "guarded" Dad. She returned several minutes later and announced that he was going home. Jumping through all the Medicare/doctor hoops took several hours, during which John was kept busy lining up a hand-held shower head, oxygen and a hospital bed at home. The smile on Dad's face when he finally settled into his own recliner at home was worth all the hustle and bustle - definitely the right decision!

He is doing much better already and his spirits have improved dramatically. We're keeping up with the meds and have started his exercises. Fortunately, one of Jane's daughters is a physical therapist in a nearby state, so we have the advantage of tapping her knowledge. Tomorrow a nurse from the local home health agency will come and assist us with anything we might have missed and let us know which services would be helpful.

Just a little detour in the life of a pretty special 87 year old...

Life at the hospital

2009-04-17T19:03:00.001-07:00

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly two weeks since our last posting. Life at the hospital seems to supercede the rest of the world. John's father was moved out of ICU last week and has spent the time since recovering from the pneumonia and trying to regain some strength. His pacemaker was postponed several times but his doctor finally put it in today. The nurse who came to get us afterwards scared us to death when she was wiping her eyes before she told us anything. It turned out to be sweat she was dealing with and were we relieved! Dad came through the procedure with flying colors and will likely move to a rehab facility on Monday. His doctor is quite cautious about recovery and very strongly recommended against taking him straight home. Needless to say, Dad's first reaction was not positive. We have spent much time this past week exploring various options for him. Hopefully we didn't pressure him too much to make this decision - such a fine line we walk sometimes...

The weather here has improved tremendously since the snowstorm on April 5, although rain is forecast for tomorrow. It'll be fun to see spring arrive. It's been many, many years since we've been here in the midwest at this time of year.

Iowa instead of New Mexico

2009-04-05T13:56:00.001-07:00

Well, we had planned to head west last Thursday, but John's dad ended up in the hospital in Iowa, so we turned the rig north instead. We made it to Iowa in 2 1/2 days with no more problems than high winds in southern Texas which forced us off the road in George West for about 3 hours.

John's dad is finally showing some improvement after being diagnosed with an atypical pneumonia. He'll also get a pacemaker before leaving the hospital. He's still in ICU so the family is spending most of their time there.

We are so thankful to not be working anymore and marvel at how easy it was to simply make a change of plans, head our home a different direction and stay as long as necessary. Jello plans are definitely the way to go!

We are sorry to miss seeing many of you in Albuquerque for "The Rally", but being here for family is, without a doubt, more important. Hope to join you all for another one down the road in the future...

Slowing down in the Rio Grande Valley

2009-03-31T05:40:00.000-07:00

It's always amazing how busy we can be without working...Last week was full of people leaving, including John & his dad, his sister & bro-in-law and his parents. Fortunately they missed the storms (for the most part) and arrived safely in Iowa on Friday. Others who have left here recently were not so lucky. Apparently some are stranded in the Dakotas and don't anticipate moving on to Canada until tomorrow at the earliest. There were reports last night that one couple couldn't even get to a restaurant. Hmmm....eating solely from motel vending machines probably isn't as much fun as I would have thought.

Back in Iowa, John's dad is busy visiting doctors to try to find out why he's having so much trouble breathing and John is visiting some friends while he's there. He'll fly back down here later today - yeah!

I've kept busy washing the RV & car, running errands, and generally getting everything ready to hit the road again. Oh, yeah - and I learned to read electric meters one day and enjoyed a visit the next day from a high school classmate and her father. Jean and I hadn't seen each other for about 20 years and had a fun time catching up again (indoors since it was 102 degrees here in the valley that day!).

So, today's project is reorganizing the bay doors - yippee..... And, on Thursday we'll become nomads again as we head for New Mexico. This is the first time since we started full-timing that we have a pretty good block of time to explore one of our 50 states. Should be fun!

Back in the RGV

2009-03-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

Our trip back to the valley on Friday was uneventful. We'll miss everyone from the rally but will likely see several at "The Rally" in Albuquerque next month and others in Washington this summer. It's quite amazing how paths cross in the RVing world!

Many of the people from here are heading north now, although some will stay here through the end of March, some till April or May and a very few stay here year-round. Activities are slowing down and will pretty much stop after this week. There wasn't any Sunday night ice cream tonight, but John's sister Jane and her husband Tony hosted a little get-together this evening to get some help cleaning out the refrigerator before they head home. We had a fun time and then topped off the evening with a game of Dominoes. John & I got beat - oh, well. Maybe we'll have better luck at pinochle tomorrow afternoon...