Bearheart and Butterfly

11-11-11 Honoring our Vets

2011-11-10T01:51:00.001-07:00

I would again like to share some beautiful pictures from Ft Logan National Cemetery in Denver Colorado. Our fallen hero’s from many wars abide in peace in this lovely setting.

Ladies & Gentlemen THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE!

Ft Logan through the seasons

HISTORICAL INFORMATION

Fort Logan is located in Denver County near the southwest boundary of the City of Denver. By the 1880s, with the removal of much of the Native American population to reservations, the federal government had begun to close many frontier forts. The rapid growth of the railroad had made it easier for the Army to quickly move troops to where they were needed. The frontier posts that had played such an important role in the development of the West became increasingly obsolete and expensive to maintain. Still, the citizenry of Denver, in relative isolation and apprehensive concerning increased immigration from the East and abroad, petitioned the Army to establish a post near the city. In 1886, Colorado Sen. Henry M. Teller introduced a bill in Congress authorizing construction of the post, and it was signed in February 1887. A little over three acres was set aside in 1889 for a post cemetery. The first recorded burial in the post cemetery was Mable Peterkin, daughter of Private Peterkin, who died on June 28, 1889.

The first soldiers to arrive at the fort were members of the 18th Infantry from Fort Hays and Leavenworth, Kan., who immediately set up a temporary barracks and guardhouse while construction began on permanent facilities. The name of the fort, originally known as “the camp near the city of Denver,” became Fort Logan in August 1889. General John A. Logan had risen to the rank of Union Army general and commander of volunteer forces during the Civil War. As head of the post-war veteran’s organization the Grand Army of the Republic, he issued General Orders No. 11, establishing May 30 as “Decoration Day” to honor the Civil War dead. This later became a national holiday called Memorial Day.

Although 340 acres of land were added to the fort in 1908, by 1909 Fort Logan was reduced to a recruiting depot. This remained its sole function until 1922 when the 38th Infantry was garrisoned at what locals sometimes referred to as “Fort Forgotten.” Despite a brief resurgence of activity in the 1930s and early 1940s, Fort Logan closed in May 1946. In 1960, much of the land was deeded to the State of Colorado to establish a state hospital that still operates as the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan. On March 10, 1950, Congress authorized the use of military lands at Fort Logan as a national cemetery, but limited the size to no more than 160 acres. Since that time, the cemetery has expanded from the original 160 acres to 214 acres.

NOTABLE PERSONS

Medal of Honor Recipients
Major William E. Adams, (Vietnam) U.S. Army, A/227th Assault Helicopter Co., 52nd Aviation Battalion, 1st Aviation Brigade. Kontum Province, Republic of Vietnam, May 25, 1971 (Section P, Grave 3831).

First Sergeant Maximo Yabes, (Vietnam) U.S. Army, Company A, 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division. Phu Hoa Dong, Republic of Vietnam, February 26, 1967 (Section R, Grave 369).

Private John Davis, (Civil War) Company F, 17th Indiana Mounted Infantry. Culloden, Ga., April 1865 (Memorialized in section MB, Grave 280).

Others
Seven Buffalo Soldiers are buried at Fort Logan National Cemetery.

Karl Baatz, a German POW who passed away while being held at Fort Logan, was is interred in 1943 (Section POW, Grave 14).

Skirting the RV & staying busy

2011-10-14T23:30:00.001-06:00

Well I guess it’s now permanent, we are installing semi-permanent skirting around the RV. This means we can no longer pull out in 1 hour, it will probably take a week now, oh well.

We figured since we were going to be here through winter weather we ought to do what we could to keep the RV warmer; it will probably help in the summer too.

Bill has been diligently building this week since our vacation to Mexico was canceled due to hurricane Jova; he’s utilizing those carpenter skills; you know; measure twice and cut once or is it measure once, cut then re-measure and cut again?

Measure & cut & caulk           Insulation board inserted in 2X4’s

   Street side front done               Under the nose is all enclosed

Our RV neighbor had to move to Pueblo recently and she was going to tear down and toss all her skirting, Bill volunteered to help her tear it down if he could keep the material. This saved us a bit of $$$. Of course he has to rework all the panels to fit our RV but it is really looking nice, don’t you agree, it even gave us extra storage.

Other than helping out my family here, we are very active with our Masonic families, the Masons and Eastern Star. As RV’ers that have to remain stationary, we decided to put some of our energy into these organizations, so far this has been very good for both of us. We have traveled a bit around the state to various events so it kind of helps the “hitch itch” syndrome.

We do love being back in Colorado with the awesome mountain views!



                                Delta CO



                              Trinidad CO picnic



          Central City Lodge                Volunteering keeps us busy too



   All dressed up for our Eastern Star installation

Well that’s what we have been doing this summer, hope you too have had a great time this summer.

Christmas in July

2011-07-27T14:51:00.002-06:00

While on a visit to the Eastern Star Masonic Retirement Center http://www.facebook.com/easternstarmrc with my parents a week ago; they were checking out the independent living patio homes there; Bill was recruited to play Santa for the assisted living residents. The first thing he did, with great hopes to find himself busy, was check his calendar – Opps – nothing scheduled – well he guessed he could come.

He was wonderful the residents all had smiles and were thrilled at the mid-summer entertainment – it was July 25th after all.

I had Mom with me at the Christmas party and she was named Grandma Claus for the event – the three of us had a great time. We passed out ice cream sundaes and presents to all the residents, and of course gave and got hugs all around.

We think volunteering always gives the volunteer back more than he/she contributes, if nothing else in “feel good” time.

As some of you know Bill has a wonderful singing voice, he entertained the residents with some Christmas carols and they all joined in. My Mom who hadn’t heard Bill sing before kept asking who that was – she was very pleasantly surprised too.

I had another present this month – lunch with one of my oldest friends, 44 years of friendship, Winnie is moving to the Oregon coast and we had to say goodbye again. Bill and I were invited to her new home so we do have a nice spot to visit when we can get away. Bye for now Winnie, drive safe.

Our new kitty claimed us

2011-07-04T15:53:00.001-06:00

We enjoyed a great lunch with our RV friends, members of the Chapter 2 “Rocky Mountain High Escapees” last week. We try to get together monthly when possible at a buffet, so to our SKP or other RV friends join us when you can.

Now to the kitty part – when we left the buffet we headed across the parking lot to Petco for dry cat food. Since we had lost our “old man” in May we had just the one cat a 10 year old pudgy shorthair.

Rusty “old man” RIP Bill and Pigeon

So naturally when we got close to the cat food we saw the glassed in room with about 10 cats up for adoption.

A cute calico was trying really hard to get our attention so I found a clerk and she let us in. The calico sniffed both of us and walked off. A beautiful grey laying on top of some cabinets reached out to Bill and he snuggled with her, then he handed her to me for some lovin’. I then set her down, walked across the room to sit on a bench and she promptly followed and jumped on my lap. After that every cat who even came near us she “popped” letting them know we were already claimed!

Cats adopt you, not the other way around!

Sadie our shady lady

Sadie is her new name and a shady lady she is, they say she’s 2 yrs old I think closer to 1yr, they say she’s a Nebelung I think she’s a Russian Blue throw-back. In my research I found the Cat association had changed their official eye color in the early 1990s from orange/amber to green – don’t know why – our Sadie has the orange/amber eyes.

She’s beautiful, soft and very loving, also extremely playful. Sadie is settling in and Pigeon is getting used to her and has finally stopped hissing at her.

So we are back to a 2 cat household.

Salute to our Veterans – Fort Logan Cemetery

2011-05-28T15:37:00.003-06:00

Flag at half mast during all funerals / Memorial Day honors

Memorial Day originated after the Civil War about 1866 to honor the veterans of that war. After WWI it was expanded to include all veterans who died for our country (click on this link to see the Memorial Day Historical Information)

Fort Logan Cemetery

We drive past this cemetery several times a week it is located very close to our campground; the grounds are beautiful in winter and summer. They are especially awe inspiring this weekend all dressed with American flags on over 100,000 grave sites. Enjoy some of my pictures.

Winter with the geese on parade!

To all our veterans “Thanks” for your service!

Memorial Day with flags placed at every grave and lining the streets

Summers glorious views and blue skies

Interested in the history of Fort Logan? Please read below:

To all our veterans “Thanks” for your service!

Special friends visit

2011-05-22T14:50:00.001-06:00

In 2008 we met 2 lovely ladies, Linda & Linda, while working at Amazon. Over the following 2 years we have followed their career changes as they managed storage facilities, managed a senior living center in the Carolinas and now back on the road selling ads for sitemaps. They are in Colorado now for a few months so we finally got our hugs in person.

One of the best things about RVing is the random meetings with old and new friends on the road around the country. Since our “tires are flat” which in RV terms means we are off the road; visitors coming to our semi permanent camp site in Denver are very WELCOME!

We also caught up with another couple Herb & Anita recently, we enjoyed dinner at Rosies Diner in Monument CO and caught–up with each others individual lives for the past year.

And this week we will also meet with Dave and Lois who have become good friends over the past year. They have a stick & brick in the Denver area so we get to see them fairly often ,Yeah!

If you find Denver on your route, please give us a call.

Memorial to Rusty

2011-05-10T19:16:00.000-06:00

Rusty, also known in our house as “the old man” departed this life with the help of a kind veterinarian on Mother’s Day 2011. Caring Pathways provides compassionate in home care for pets at the end of life – Thank You for being there when we called.

I rescued Rusty in 1995 from the Fort Lauderdale FL shelter, at the time he was between 2-3 years old. We initially lived in an apartment on the ground level and Rusty soon ruled the neighborhood. A very independent, curious cat as he roamed outside, he was always very much a lap cat at home.

When we moved to our own home in a cul-de-sac he was in heaven; new territory to discover, cats to lord over and dogs to tease. In Florida he & I together survived hurricanes, cancer, a major job loss after 9/11, a bad relationship and a wonderful marriage to Bill. He and I were “buds” for 16 years.

Bill, my wonderful husband, joined our household in 2002 and Rusty was very happy to teach him the fine art of cat scratching and lap lounging. Rusty tolerated the “kitten” Bill brought to our house but usually went his own way.

When we decided to sell our house and go on the road in our RV, I took on the project to turn him into an inside only cat, (yes it can be done) and spent all summer training him to use the litter box and stay inside. This was done when he was 12-13 years old; yes, you can teach an “old cat” new tricks. I did give up on using the cat door in the RV – we just propped it open for the cats.

From that summer of 2006 onward he was no longer allowed to roam. He toured much of the country and a bit of Mexico over the next 4 years with us in our new home, a 5th wheel RV.

We think he had a “good run”, he was 18-19 years old, pampered and loved.

Rusty you will be missed, We thank you for the companionship we enjoyed.

Loved you Old Man!

View from a different perspective

2011-04-14T14:56:00.000-06:00

Let me tell you what life it like when you are in a wheelchair, even temporarily like I am right now. I use my crutches upstairs – it’s a small area; a walker on the main floor; and wheelchair when I get to escape my RV and go out.

I will never pass up someone in a wheelchair again when it looks like they may need assistance.

The biggest challenges so far:

Stairs – in a 5th wheel you can’t even get to bed or bathroom without this challenge, since I can’t put weight on my right leg I must go up or down on my fanny, then my beloved Bill must either lift me up off the floor to stand, or sit me down on the floor to go down.

Restrooms – When at a restaurant (for example) the restrooms usually have heavy doors, pretty impossible to open by myself from the chair position – so help is needed. Then if you look at where the handicap stall is usually located (in the back and a hard 90 degree turn), it’s amazing that people can even negotiate to get in – lord don’t be in a hurry.

Doors – Many retail and restaurants have double doors to get into their establishments, they are heavy and frequently work in opposite directions. It’s a challenge to get the wheelchair in-between the doors then out of the way enough to open the 2nd door. Of course that’s WITH someone else opening the doors for me.

Shopping – I haven’t tried to grocery shop yet, but I can just imagine this scenario “Sir could you reach the milk on the top shelf please” “Miss could you reach that cereal up there please” etc, etc.

The minimal physical therapy exercises I can do are strengthening my leg muscles; and my upper body strength is getting better with the walker, crutches and stair climbing with my arms on my fanny. But alas, I still have at least 4 more weeks of “no weight bearing” on my right leg, then 3 weeks serious PT after that.

I could NOT do this without my life partner, I just hope he doesn’t get too worn out.

Next time you see someone in a chair or walker, watch and see if they may need assistance; I know I sure appreciate help.

Have a wonderful month.

Winter wonderland??

2011-02-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

I don’t like winter, hate being cold and driving in ice and snow is one of my least favorite activities – so what the heck am I doing in Colorado while my hubby is in Georgia!

My Dad had successful triple bypass surgery New Years Eve Day, and I flew to Denver to assist during the healing process. I am pleased to note he is doing great; we even both joined the YMCA so we could exercise, him for cardiac rehab, me because – well because.

Now January was pretty nice here, we even had some 65 degree days – but my goodness February is making history. I don’t believe there is a warm spot in the country even our RV friends in South Texas, Florida and Arizona are getting ice and storms. The temps this week have been as low as –18 with the wind chill making that –38 bbrrrrrr.

Bill is still stuck in GA waiting to head west to CO in between storms; meanwhile his daughter is keeping an eye on him while I keep an eye on my Dad. He is having a great time getting to know his daughter as an adult and our great son-in-law Kevin and granddaughter Imanyi. He will soon be driving solo along the southern route to join me in the frigid Rocky Mountains. Sure hope he runs into some of our RV friends along the way.

An interesting (to me anyway) thing happened while I was here – both my sister Aarela and I celebrated our birthdays with our parents in their home this year and that hasn’t happened for hummm about 45 years I think. Our Aunt Ginny hosted a family get together for brunch to help celebrate birthdays for me, Mom and sis! There are some advantages to being in this cold weather and that’s family.

The birthday girls below

Aarela and granddaughter Harriet Mom

Aunt Ginny and me

I have enjoyed visiting family and friends while here – it’s been a long time since I have spent more than a week in Denver at any one time.

Our good friend Carol Bourdo of Eagle Totem Gallery in Trinidad CO, shows her art work in Denver once a year at the Indian Show held in Jan, and since we never plan to be near snow we have always missed this event – well this year I was able to attend and this show is excellent. I caught Carol at her booth – check out some of her paintings behind her, and that’s only a small corner of her work!

Please drive safe and stay warm this winter will end eventually!

On the road again!

2010-12-27T20:53:00.001-07:00

It’s been awhile since I posted, we were just busy working and not doing anything really interesting. That may not be totally correct as there are a lot of people curious about working at Amazon, but for us it’s old news.

We finished our stint at Amazon.com, this makes our 3rd year working as Christmas elves, and we chose KS since we have so many friends there both in the community and at Amazon.

Since our departure Dec 23 we have been working our way leisurely south and east towards our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter – who is now 6 years old. It will be a post Christmas visit but wonderful all the same, maybe even better without all the pre-Christmas stressors.

Of course our route and timing were dictated by the monster storm making it’s way across the country. Today we arrived in Heflin AL and there is snow on the ground – not a whole lot but noticeable. In fact our campsite was covered with between 1/2 to 1” of snow and it’s going to be cold here tonight, somewhere around 20 - brrrrrr.

I haven’t loaded the Picasa program and all my pictures to my new computer so text will have to do for this post. It’s kind of nice to start out fresh with a new computer. It helps to eliminate a lot of clutter I had collected on the computer, kind of like the mess of paper on my desk. Oh well, I will soon have some time to tackle both projects.

Drive safe.

Friends visiting - good dining - Woolaroc museum

2010-10-30T22:11:00.001-06:00

We have been working, eating and sleeping for the past 2 months and haven’t spent any time touring around this year; so it was great to have a visit from good friends from Denver.

Dave and Lois have spent about a week here and after our work days were over we headed out on some side trips. First was a stop at Kings Table in Dearing KS – one of our favorite places to eat, we look forward to eating here when we are working at Amazon in KS. This is a great family run restaurant, all homemade items and with a specialty coffee bar. The soups on Thurs were ham & bean or enchilada soup, Bill and I split a chicken salad sandwich & soup, Lois enjoyed a big salad & soup and Dave had ham salad & soup – they also enjoyed a piece of homemade pie. Now what makes this place so special is that everything is made on location and fresh daily, breads, soups, pies and all the sandwich fillings.

The boys are jousting for dessert The spoils of the contest

The awesome foursome on the patio of Kings Table in Dearing KS

Next stop is Woolaroc Museum and Wildlife Preserve in Bartlesville OK.

Woolaroc = WOOds – LAke – ROCks – now you know the rest of the story!

They have beautiful lakes and waterfalls, the preserve has lots of interesting animals, including: longhorn cattle, ostrich, sika deer, fallow deer, llama, wapiti, highland cattle, bison, emu and tahr goats.

And after that little trip into the interior of the estate you find the museum established by Frank Phillips of Phillips 66 petroleum. This is the area on the outside of the museum.

Statues of native Americans …………and……….the American cowboy

The ever present oil derrick with a great statue of a horse and cowpoke in the foreground. Lois and Dave in front of the doors to the museum – the Indian was all done with small tiles.

This is one of the most complete displays of western history and art I have ever seen in a private museum; it’s about 40k feet - 2 floors of massive galleries filled with native American memorabilia, pioneer & cowboy history.

Butterflies greeted us in front of the museum – I can’t resist a good butterfly picture!

Here are the names of the rooms in the Woolaroc - The Dawn of History, Land of Forgotten Cities, Indian Territory, The Trail of the Cowboy, A Cavalcade of History, Grandeur of the West, The Woolaroc Airplane, Frank Phillips and 66, Art of the New West, Something for Everyone and The Philip R. Phillips Collection of Colt Firearms.

This is one small section below – massive art work hangs in every gallery

This was started by Phillips 66 Petroleum family so you can’t leave out that part of the history! Oil truck and their airline.

The doll collection was quite nice – here is one of the oldest dolls.

If you are ever in NE Oklahoma this is a must see! Woolaroc Museum.

Next post will cover the Will Roger Museum and Cafe on the Route.

Coffeyville KS Sept 2010

2010-09-19T00:57:00.001-06:00

We have worked 3 weeks now with 14 weeks to go at Amazon.com. We are definitely busy earlier this year than the last 2 years. Most of the facility has been working overtime for months and the orders keep rolling in.

Here’s a bird’s eye view of the Amazon facility in KS – pretty big isn’t it?

I had promised to post some pictures of this years campsite at Heritage CG for our friends Bobbie & Jim – so the following is for you.

That’s us straight ahead on the right………down one side is all park

Beautiful park like setting out our back window.

Pecan trees in the park…Looking at the back of our rig, Bill’s grilling steaks

Travel Safe!

It’s Pizza time at Amazon

2010-09-09T14:21:00.002-06:00

We have returned for our 3rd year here in Coffeyville KS to work for Amazon.com, this year we are coaches. We basically check on all the workampers several times each shift to make sure they are OK in body, mind and spirit; and serve as a go between for them with management; there is some computer work and shift reports we are also responsible for. We know they will add other duties as needed – it’s Amazon after all!

It’s been interesting the first 1 1/2 week so far, and it’s nice to reacquaint ourselves with the fulltimers we have worked with the past 2 years.

Wed night this week we had our first big social gathering, the location we picked was Pizza Hut they have a nice gathering room for us to use. Attending were 29 people, including some new workers who start Sun and even our HR Mgr came with her family. Of course you can never pick a time and place to suit everyone but that was a good showing for the first event.

The dining room is ready for us …………….I got to socialize with everyone!

The tables filled up one by one………Richard in the orange is also a coach

We are movers in this group – lets move this table to join that group!

……………………Jenni and her youngest with a couple of workers

Next post is for Bobbie – showing our campsite area

Somebody turn on the lights PLEASE!

2010-09-05T15:35:00.002-06:00

This is for the guys:
We were driving home from Amazon.com the other night in a blinding rain storm and our little old car barely put out enough light to see the road; we just missed the huge tree limb that had crashed onto the road and was blocking our lane (marked by the pin on the map). For those familiar with Coffeyville - road construction is continuing here for the 2nd year, and this was one of the bypass roads not shown on the map of course.
Bill had heard an ad on TV about this headlight lens polishing kit, skeptical as usual he ignored it until he also saw an ad where someone offered a service doing just that.
A couple of nights passed and we decided to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to see if they had the kits – and we were both carving ice cream after work. After examining the 2 kits we bought the 3M kit, it seemed much more professional than the one in a foil package where you couldn’t even see the items in the kit, both cost about $18. Follow the link below to see the packaging etc.
http://www.autogeek.net/3m-headlight-kit.html

Sat morning we are off work and Bill heads to the car with the kit and his drill, water spray bottle and wiping rag – that’s all that is required guys. The lenses on our 1995 Toyota Corolla were YELLOW, no wonder we couldn’t see anything.
After about 20 minutes he came in all excited and wanted me to SEE this transformation – he was not about to start the 2nd lens until I could see and photograph the difference. And what a difference!
Both headlights see the difference? Close ups below.

This one is polished and looks almost like new

This is what they both looked like when Bill started

Bill showing his technique
So if you have an older vehicle and don’t want to spend big bucks replacing your headlight lenses – try this it really does work and takes about 1 hour.

Out with the table & chairs

2010-08-28T11:14:00.001-06:00

We had discussed leaving the dining room table and chairs in our storage shed at my sisters for the last year; it was just hard to admit that we never used the table to actually eat at. The table was great for sewing projects but mostly it collected STUFF. I couldn’t even find one picture to show the mess!

It was too tight to seat 4 comfortably and when there was just the 2 of us we used our magic table which folds up small by Bills recliner. What to do about guest seating? Well 2 comfortable padded folding chairs from our shed will work just fine and can be stored either in the basement or the truck storage box.

So Bill set to work, while I was on my last visit with my parents, and performed his magic again. He installed some new cabinets, built a top with a railing and moved the dining room table and 2 chairs to storage.

Looks great doesn’t it!!!! And I really appreciate the extra storage, I got a lot of stuff off the floor (previously stored under the table), extra pantry for big items like coffee, 24 packs of water, lunch buckets for Amazon etc.

We bought ready builts from Home Depot, upper kitchen cabinets, 1 single door, 1 double door and a corner unit, a couple of side panels, trim and the railing were all from the ready builts. Bill then bought pine for the top, stained, sanded, stained again, sanded more, coated with polyurethane several times and Voila – a finished unit.

Notice the wooden blinds above the cabinet? Well that was also a project he did this summer – that particular windows day/night shade had broken strings 3 times and we had both ‘had it’ so out it went and the new blinds were installed. They travelled very well by the way – so as shades need to be fixed they just may be replaced with the wooden blinds.

Of the original furnishings in the living area from when we left the factory 3 years ago - we now have only the 2 recliners left! For those new to RVing do not be afraid to make changes – it is Your Home after all.

Bill also was busy creating “Pegs & Jokers” sets over the summer. Right now he has 2 sets done, one is mahagony with oak inserts and the 2nd is the opposite - oak with mahagony inserts. Do you like the house and castle? I think he did a great job – now to find another couple here in KS to play with (Lois & Dave where are you?).

Wow 2 posts in one week!

Travel safe.

Good bye Trinidad

2010-08-27T11:53:00.005-06:00

We had a busy August in Trinidad, Bill and I worked at the Eagle Totem Gallery while our friend and the owner/artist Carole Bourdo took a well deserved R&R trip to Alaska.

While working I reorganized all her pictures on her computer and cleaned up her overflowing email inbox – that took about 4 days right there.

Bill meanwhile was creating new pieces for our display case and reordering everything in it, in preparation for Christmas sales.

I also added a necklace & earring set to the case – actually 3 since the 1st two sets sold before we left.

I got in one last visit to my parents, aunt and aunt & uncle, arriving in time for the Friday night dinner with the 5 of them. Amazing they are all in their 80’s on their own and still active.

Dad & Mom............................ Aunt Ginny and me

.................Uncle Bob & Aunt Jeanne

My reward for driving my aunt to her nail appt was a pedicure, it looked so nice I paid for the matching manicure. The lady hand-painted the design – what a steady hand she had.

Dad, Mom and I did one last shopping trip to Costco so I could load up on cat supplies, snacks, etc. We will soon be back to Walmart and grocery stores for those supplies.

Good bye to our summer mountain top home…

Thanks sis and Bob – see you next spring!

Historic Highway 12 drive

2010-08-05T00:08:00.001-06:00

We have had a comfortably busy summer, in the Trinidad CO area. I have been able to visit my parents frequently for several days at a time. We have worked many days at the Eagle Totem Gallery (see our previous post), both to help our friend, the gallery owner Carole, and so Bill can increase sales on his stone carvings. Bill is getting quite proficient on the flute and is complimented daily by shoppers.

A couple of trips to Southfork CO to visit our friends the Chapman’s – we even managed to plan our last visit to coincide with Bobbies birthday, and she was certainly surprised when her lunch with one friend ended up being lunch with 6 friends!

birthday girl “Bobbie” is 3rd back on the left side

We have developed many new friendships in Trinidad and really enjoy coming here during the summer. Maybe someday we will take that trip to Canada instead of spending the whole summer here.

Here is the picture from our Eastern Star initiation – the lady in green next to me is my sister, this was the 1st time they had initiated 3 at a time and all in one family too – so it was fun! We are now a Masonic family.

Meanwhile we have enjoyed many scenic drives, one of our favorites is Historic Hwy 12 in Colorado; I marked the map with push pins to show the route the road takes.

Enjoy some of the great pictures we captured driving Historic Hwy 12

Fishers Peak in Trinidad – start of Hwy 12 on the south end

Cokedale CO - the picture on the left is a coke hill, on the right old coke processing plant remains, Cokedale is where we turn to get to our summer camp site

Travelling down the hwy with a beautiful view of the mountains

Reopening the New Elk Coal mine Farm buildings

Old church being demolished along the way - Picketwire a store in Stonewall

Monument Lake

Quaint town of Cuchara Rural Post office at the side of the road

A cool rock formation, Bill insists it is a sleeping dragon, between Cuchara and La Veta

End of the Hwy – outside La Veta CO on the north end

Safe travels!

Eagle Totem Gallery and the Pied Piper

2010-07-14T00:03:00.002-06:00

I emailed a friend in FL recently and told her what we were doing this summer – it sounded like a good blog post – so here it is.

Since we have taken the summer off and are not slaving at a campground (which we haven’t missed for one minute), we have been doing other interesting things. Bill has a nice display of his stone pipes and jewelry at a gallery in Trinidad and we have been working there occasionally to help out our friend and the owner Carol Bourdo. She’s a great Internationally known artist and we love to help her out.

Bill, the Pied Piper, sits outside in front with a small table display of various items and plays his flute, he then talks to everyone who walks by and encourages them to check out the gallery. He is so successfully at getting them to walk thru the door that our traffic and sales have really increased!

The gallery is host to several local artists and that’s part of Bill’s patter to the tourists and even the locals. Paintings, pottery, stone work, digital camera prints, wood work and art supplies make up the majority of the gallery. Here are some views in the gallery, each little room is a separate artist. Bill’s stone work is in the display case just inside the front door.

Bill with customers View down the length of the gallery

Some of Carol Bourdo’s art work on display in the gallery

Pottery room and the wood craft item room

Meanwhile I am trying to lose the 50+ pounds I have put on, I signed up for Curves for the next 2 months while we are here in Trinidad, and continue with my new healthy eating program I found online at Sparkpeople.com (it’s free). Since May 6 I have lost 9 pounds – so I am making progress. I don’t know if I will be up to Curves once we start Amazon the end of Aug – you know 10 hrs a day on your feet is a lot of exercise – but I may go to continue the upper body and variety of lower body workouts.

Another thing we have been doing this summer is a lot of Masonic activities. Bill completed his 32° in the Scottish Rites, and he has been going to lodge meetings in 3 cities, plus various dinners here and there. Bill & I plus my sister are currently applying to the Trinidad Eastern Star chapter, we can be active during the summers while we are here and it gives us instant social connections where ever we travel.

I have also enjoyed several trips to Denver to visit with my parents, 2 aunts and 1 uncle. I haven’t spent much time with them over the past 15+ years and it is quite enjoyable to do so now. Bill has been staying down south and keeping our cats out of trouble – I think he enjoys having some time to himself occasionally. This lifestyle does throw us together 24/7 most of the time, we know many couples who couldn’t deal with that amount of togetherness – fortunately we like each other.

Travel safe!

Old Barns and Buildings

2010-06-23T22:37:00.004-06:00

I want to share some of my favorite “old barn” pictures. (Best viewed full screen)

When we travel around I almost always have my camera with me, and Bill knows to hit the brakes when we see an unusual old structure. Hope you enjoy these pictures.

This one was in Illinois

2 near Boncarbo Colorado

Westcliffe Colorado area

Coffeyville Kansas

Love the Rockies in the summer

2010-06-10T14:48:00.001-06:00

It’s been a month since our rally in Montrose, and we have stayed above 6000 ft for most of that time.

Post rally we spent a week with 2 great couples in Gunnison at the Blue Mesa resort, we even joined the Western Horizon resort system while there.

Clubhouse Blue Mesa Lake ( the largest body of water in CO)

View from our campsite

This gives us no-cost or minimal cost camping at hundreds of campgrounds around the country, we look forward to utilizing it a lot in the winter.

The trip back over Monarch was UN-eventful thank heavens!

Monarch Crest without the blizzard!

Next stop was a couple of nights with our friends the Chapman’s in one of the campgrounds they are managing near Southfork. We had a nice visit, dinner out in Creede one night and Bobbie cooked a yummy meal the other night.

Our friends & us going to dinner in Creede CO

There is a lovely river flowing through the campground, lots of trees and only 12 campsites so it was rather peaceful.

Campsite above Southfork CO

We are now back on the mountain above Trinidad CO, parked at my sister & brother-in-laws for the summer. I spent about 5 days with my parents and Aunt in Denver, while Bill was busy constructing a “pegs & jokers” game board, it’s really nice too!

Generally life is lazy here and I don’t have a whole lot to mention. We have grand views of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and enjoy watching sunset, storms over the mountains, and various weather conditions lighting up the western sky, plus the unlimited night sky visibility is really breathtaking.

We will spend more time with my parents during the summer, they are in their 80’s and still living independently in their home. Dad’s in great shape, Mom has some health issues but holding her own. My Aunt also in her 80’s is living in a Senior apartment building with some meal services etc, she is amazing, even with her macular degeneration she doesn’t stop. There is water walking several days a week, dinners out on the town, almost daily walks or exercise, and she even still plays bridge. She has a fantastic memory and uses that when playing cards.

Actually both Mom and my Aunt suffer with macular degeneration – boy I sure wish there was some treatment for the dry type that is plaguing our seniors and will soon be a really big problem for the baby boomers; the loss of your central vision is very devastating. Between that and the hearing loss many of the boomers are or will be experiencing the medical community has a lot to solve. Below is a website if you are interested in some more information.

macular degeneration research

Have a wonderful summer – I know we will!

Montrose Rally

2010-05-17T15:52:00.002-06:00

After we calmed down from the exciting ride over Monarch pass we settled in to the rally events – which included eating, talking, eating, sightseeing and eating.

We started eating right away (Bobbie you would have been in heaven), the early arrivals ‘Sat crowd’ had dinner at El Jimador in Montrose.

Barb is the artist for our banner above, she painted this in 2005 and we got it back to Colorado this year.

Sunday night is burgers and brats – Herb,Bill and Chuck are cooking up a storm! We had lots of sides, salads and desserts to choose from also.

Monday and it was a visit to the local cheese factory and the winery. They don’t make cheese on Mon so we missed that action; but the PR lady did give us a good presentation. They make and sell several different cheeses and can be found in the deli section of some major stores “Rocking W” is the brand. There is a large herd of cows and they are milked 3 times a day, they sell almost every fat level of milk. The cows in the pen below are expectant moms, just beyond them a group of cows were being herded into the milking bays for their noon milking.

Olathe CO is also known for their sweet corn, people drive from all over to stock up when the crop is in.

Next stop is a local winery, we spent a bit of time tasting then went to the distillery building. They use mostly stainless tanks for their wines, it was a small operation but interesting and informative.

Margie and Sandi “Drinking” wine

Tonight is chili night and any leftovers will be used for toppings on the baked potato’s, tomorrow night dinner.

Karaoke after dinner was a success

Of course Judy had yummy breakfasts planned every morning too.

Tuesday we had a productive business meeting and then the ladies headed out to Cafe 110 for a “red hat” lunch, while the guys went to lunch at Starvin Arvins. A good time and good food was had by all.

Check out this cheesecake dessert!

We had our “brown bag” exchange on Tues night and Bill stole the stuffed dog as his choice. Now after dinner he was out of the rally hall and the dog was ‘dog napped’, boy was he concerned, he looked everywhere. The dog was eventually found hiding in a box – but the dog napper got away clean!

Lee sitting on the left donated the dog and Bill adopted him.

Mel and Marge conducted an inside campfire and we had a sing along. It was well attended as you can see. This is 1/3 of the group.

Some great pics from the campground and area.

view from the rally hall this is the rally hall

Awesome view from the campground

Those of us who stayed an extra night went shopping at the Antique stores – we all found something to take home

Bill’s favorite stop ask him why! The original RV wagon!

Sheer Terror!

2010-05-15T16:51:00.001-06:00

Thank God Bill travels with a crowbar – he needed it to pry me off the seat in the truck. Such was the strength of the “pucker power” I / well really WE experienced Fri. We were headed to the Colorado Chapter Escapees rally in Montrose CO and travelling along Hwy 50 from Pueblo you must cross Monarch Pass at 11, 312 feet.

We were going to spend the night in Salida, CO and drive the pass Sat morning but we were on a roll – so up we started. The 1st few miles were OK then it started to snow – then it started to almost white out with snow. The road got slippery and slicker with each foot – The truck tires were spinning at 20 mph and we were moving upward at about 1 mph. The rig stayed straight on the road but the truck was crabbing up the hill at about 90 degrees and sliding all the way.

I was terrified to say the least – Bill at least had “some” control of our lives – he had the steering wheel! We made it, barely, to within 2 miles of the top and found a turnout where we found a highway worker stopped looking for his work crew. He dropped his small trailer attached a long chain to his truck and ours and pulled us the last 2 miles up the hill to the top.

Shane setting up the tow chain Sliding in the parking lot on top

Shane then proceeded to go down the west side to check conditions and promptly came back to tell us that the road had no snow, was only slightly wet but clear sailing from the top.

We spent about 1/2 hour in the restaurant / store at the top of Monarch pass until we both stopped shaking before we headed down hill. We made it to a campground just past Gunnison for the night and we both collapsed for the night exhausted.

Campground outside of Gunnison across from a beautiful lake

Beautiful scenery along the way

Sat involved more passes – smaller and mostly dry and we made it safely to the campground south of Montrose.

The couple next to us was involved in a 7 - 9 car / truck / semi / RV mix up on the way down from Monarch this morning – the side of their truck is scrapped, dented and cracked from the front bumper to the back – the car they squished between them and the mountain stopped inches from their 5th wheel.

After hearing their story we counted ourselves very lucky our adventure didn’t involve any damage!

Springtime in the Rockies – sun rain wind & snow

2010-05-03T17:02:00.001-06:00

We enjoyed a few days with our friends the Chapmans in Pueblo where we got to tour their new rig and generally catch up on each others winter adventures. We also had a nice dinner with the Rocky Mountain High SKP chapter officers (this is the Colorado chapter of the Escapees RV club). We have a fun rally scheduled for May 16-19 in Montrose CO and we talked about some of the fun things Chuck and Judy have planned. Join us if you can!

Next stop was Colorado Springs were we stayed at the Air Force Academy Famcamp – this is a beautiful campground with lots of big pine trees.

Air Force Academy Campground

Bill had scheduled a 3 day class to complete his Masonic degree work; he achieved the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rites Lodge, and I got to join him for the dinner following the class. I find the Masons a warm friendly group, they are so involved in philanthropic work throughout their community and the country that you would think they would be more visible. To our friends who don’t know much about the Masons – know that this is a spiritual organization NOT a religious organization, it doesn’t matter who your higher power is as long as you believe there is a higher power.

Bill all dressed up

While Bill was busy studying I enjoyed 3 days with my parents and my Aunt Ginny (it snowed). Mom got a new elevator chair to help her get around their house.

Mom’s new transportation

I shopped at Costco with Dad and finally switched our phones to Verizon – Costco offered a deal I couldn’t refuse; of course now I will HAVE to upgrade our antenna / booster to a wireless set up and that will cost $$ but we got the phones free and rebated all activation charges.

We then rolled down the road to my sister and brother-in-law’s on “Webster’s mountain” west of Trinidad CO,

Aarela & Bob The view from their house

we will spend most of the summer here enjoying the friendship of family and the clean mountain air (very strong winds for 2 days and of course snow several days so far). We have several projects to keep us busy for the next few months, but plenty of down time too hope you enjoy your summer as much as we hope to.

View from our back window

Sedona, Prescott and Flagstaff

2010-04-16T20:41:00.001-06:00

We had a whirlwind weekend with friends we had traveled to Mexico with in Feb - Jerry & Madeline Stephens.

Our touring area

We caught up with them in Cottonwood AZ at Dead Horse Ranch State Park (one of the few not selected to close in AZ) on Fri the 9th.

The next day we toured Sedona and visited as many of the vortex centers as was reasonable. We didn’t hike into any of the major sites as that was more that we were physically ready for, but we got some wonderful pictures.

In Sedona vortexes are created, not by wind or water, but from spiraling spiritual energy. The vortexes of Sedona are named because they are believed to be spiritual locations where the energy is right to facilitate prayer, mediation and healing. Vortex sites are believed to be locations having energy flow that exists on multiple dimensions. The energy of the vortexes interacts with a person’s inner self. It is not easily explained. Obviously it must be experienced.

Overlook near one vortex site Cathedral Rock

One view of Castle Rock

Bill wants this rock to carve! A big chicken in Sedona

The famous Bell Rock

The 4 of us also stopped at a roadside art / craft show where Bill & I found a couple of items we added to our stuff.

Sunday we ventured out to the Tuzigoot National Monument which are ruins of the Sinagua culture dating from about 1000 – 1400 AD; the views were fantastic and the pueblo ruins in good shape.

Tuzigoot ruins from the bottom and from the top

Next we toured Jerome an old mining town built in terraces on the hillside; the highway from Cottonwood where we were staying to Prescott takes you right through Jerome and you wouldn’t want to drive an RV on that route! The town was a thriving mining town of 15,000 people until the early 1900’s, the population dwindled to about to 50 people by 1960 then was discovered by artists. The creative types started moving in and they have built a fun and unique set of shops, wineries and restaurants in the town, the current permanent population is about 400-500.

Trashy artist’s stuff and classy artist’s work

Next we traveled on up to Prescott, saw some beautiful Victorian houses and basically enjoyed the scenery on our drive.

Prescott’s beautiful Victorian houses - the whole street was like this

Flagstaff at 6000 ft on Monday included the Lowell observatory, famous for being the site to discover the planet (now planetoid) Pluto in 1930’s. We got to see the original main telescope which is now used for photographic telescope work. Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff AZ. It was cold and windy so we didn’t take the full outside tour but the museum was quite interesting.

Original observatory and telescope

On the way to Flagstaff we stopped at the Montezuma Well National Park – the well is a limestone sink continuously supplied by an underground spring, the well discharges into the river through a natural tunnel. The Sinagua irrigated crops with its waters and lived within the walls of the well, Montezuma well and Montezuma Castle.

Montezuma Well and ruins within the side walls of the well

After saying goodbye to Madeline & Jerry we drove a short distance to the Meteor Crater RV park. Six miles away is the Meteor Crater itself; created 50,000 years ago when the meteor hurtled through the skies at 26,000 miles per hour and in about 10 seconds slammed into the AZ landscape. The iron-nickel meteorite was estimated to be 150 feet across, it created a crater 4000 feet across by 700 feet deep – you could have 20 footballs games playing at the same time on it’s floor while more than 2 million spectators observed from it’s sloping sides.

Bill above the the crater A 1000 lb piece of the meteor

We are currently in Albuquerque NM, where we had the rather unpleasant experience of going to the VA emergency room and sitting for 8 hours, add another 1/2 at the pharmacy (which could not provide the Rx) and we steamed out of there with nothing but a potential diagnosis. At 12:30AM when we got back to the RV I researched the problem online and we proceeded to implement cleaning out the infection he has in the Parotid salivary gland using that information. It’s now 2 days later and he’s doing much better. Boy I hope the VA sends us a survey to complete about their lack-of “service”.

I installed a camera and Skype while here so we can now chat via video with our friends and family – it’s really quite fun.

Next stop is Colorado.

From Drab to Fab!

2010-04-09T17:59:00.003-06:00

The street artists of Los Algadones:

We finally got the satellite dish painted. When we were here in 2008 we saw the artists painting the dishes and we just didn’t make it back across the border to get ours done. This year since we were back and forth 2 to 3 times a week for Bill’s dental work, we got our dish painted.

Here is the series of pictures from plain to fabulous.

plain boring dish he uses cardboard and paper to paint

time for details - using cardboard and a razor blade

The finished product

close up of the hummingbird he even painted the back

This wouldn’t make sense for a homeowner with their dish on the roof or one of the RV’s with their dish on the roof – but for us it’s great. We set up the portable dish on the new “marriage saver” tripod and it’s visible to everyone who walks or drives by, and we get to enjoy the artwork daily too.

Here’s the marriage saver stand (before the dish painting).

Posting from Dead Horse Ranch State Park in AZ – safe travels to everyone.

Julieanna’s - ladies day out & earthquakes

2010-04-05T23:53:00.001-06:00

During the Escapee’s Boomer happy hour at Nancy & Gary’s Sat, the ladies decided to have a ladies day out. As a result we had 11 for lunch at Julieanna’s Patio Cafe – a really neat restaurant in Yuma AZ.

Of course a big topic on conversation was the Easter Sunday 7.2 earthquake which we all felt, the epicenter was less than 100 miles from us here in the Yuma area. Bill and I stepped outside our RV and watched the rig sway back and forth on the front landing jacks and the little car was rocking visibly too. We felt about 4 aftershocks and were told to expect more this week. One thing for sure you can really feel them in an RV!

One of the lunch time attractions at Julieanna’s besides the great food is all the macaw parrots.

Catalina Macaw

Please enjoy some of the photos:

The entrance Dining at the outdoor patio

I got almost everyone at the table

Julieanna’s Band where we found a geocache Interesting sign post

Shadow boxes with “critters in them” here are just 2 – the famous chicken is being manhandled! The shrimp are quite large too.

The yummy dessert tray Indoor dining room

We will be here in Yuma until Fri, then it’s time to start heading towards Colorado – sure hope the snow is done for the season!

Los Algadones specials - Eyes, teeth and hair!

2010-03-27T17:45:00.001-06:00

Our first trip to Los Algadones Mexico this year and we successfully got the eyes examined for $20 each, teeth cleaned for $35 each, and hair perm’d, trimmed and styled for $20! This is paradise for retired folks who need dental work done, and the optical prices are also outstanding, we didn’t need new glasses but if we had the costs were incredibly reasonable.

This is my new hairdo

Bill promptly had a crown fall out 2 days later so we returned to the DDS for the required prep work and had the crown impression made, we will return in 2 days for the new crown. This is the same crown that fell out last year in FL and cost about $500 for the “original DDS” to reinstall the old crown. The Mexican DDS is charging $260, $130 for a new crown and $130 for the post and tooth prep. If he hadn’t needed the post to hold the crown on it would have been only $130.

We are having a relaxing time here at the Yuma Proving Grounds – Army base; our friends from Colorado Dave and Lois Kropp were able to join us here after they picked up their new MH. Dave has spent time organizing the basement, working on the TV reception etc, and Lois is experimenting with her new (to her) washer in the rig, starting her new blog “Kropps Travels” and catching up on some reading. Several of our friends have purchased new rigs this winter, it must be contagious – they were all at the Boomerville rally in Quartzsite AZ too.

The 4 of us ventured into Los Algadones Weds so Bill could get his new crown installed at the DDS, and then we shopped a bit and bought some “cheap Mexican stuff”; picked up the supply of antibiotics we like to have handy and made it back across the border by 10AM. Enjoyed a nice buffet brunch at one of the casinos and made it back to the base before 2PM – not a bad day.

Lois and Dave have been teaching us “pegs & jokers”, and we find it another fun game! Those who know us well know that we LOVE to play cards and board games! Bill is planning to make us a pegs & jokers board set when we get to Colorado for the summer – he has some beautiful wood stored in our shed to work with.

This area is big on farming, they grow a lot of produce – I caught some of the pickers at work, we don’t know exactly WHAT they are picking but it was interesting to watch.

Produce pickers

Along the same highway there is the neatest little church – the “Farmers Church”. Their sign says they hold Easter sunrise service there too.

The Farmers Church

And we end this post with a beautiful scene from Mitry Lake reserve.

Gypsy Journal Rally – come & gone

2010-03-14T19:23:00.001-06:00

This past week was spent at the Yuma Fairgrounds with 222 other rigs enjoying this unique rally. Nick & Terri Russell put on 2 RV rallies a year one east, one west; as well as write the Gypsy Journal newspaper and maintain several very entertaining blogs!

Nick Russell opening the rally

The number of seminars and the content of them was really interesting. There seemed to be something for every interest, hobby and RV concern. I attended the geocaching seminar and field exercise, genealogy, digital photography, computer safety, boondocking forum, women’s discussion group, and more. Sessions ran from 9am to 5pm daily, with entertainment every night.

After an initial parking snafu on Sun, in the rain and mud, Nick found us a spot to park with electric closer to the activities. I was grateful I didn’t have to walk too far to get to anything. The marine base next door was very busy and a bit noisy with all the jets etc flying over – quite interesting to watch though and it seemed we could almost touch them!

The jets are so fast they are hard to catch on camera

We had a small potluck together with old and new friends one evening, pizza with all the rally attendees another night, and I know there was small group gatherings other times – but we were a bit tired and spent the evenings after the entertainment in our rig.

Terri with some of the mounds of empty pizza boxes!

The vendors at the show were tops, mostly RV related items, which was refreshing after Quartzsite where the majority of vendors seemed to carry “fluff'” items.

Bill bought the “marriage saver” – that’s a satellite dish stand that makes set up incredibly easy – it took Del Saindon a couple of hours initially and he had to re-bend our dish back into shape (it had taken a bad fall during the heavy winds we had in Quartzsite), but when we moved on Fri Bill was able to set up in 5 minutes!

Bill’s checking the set-up after Del finished

Check out this honey bee swarm - it was in the tree behind our rig! Unfortunately the fairground workers managed to kill them all before they had time to fly to a new hive location; I was a bit upset, bees are so important to our agriculture.

We got to spend some time with our friends Dave & Lois, they had been on the trip to Mexico with us and are Colorado people too so we will see them this summer.

Dave & Bill Lois & Lesle

I think they are going to join us next week at the Army base ‘Yuma Proving Grounds’ where we are camped for the month.

The Yuma Proving Ground is larger than the state of Rhode Island. There are realistic middle eastern villages built on the base where the military can practice security procedures, IED location and deactivation, test new equipment, vehicles and electronic equipment and I don’t know what else!

Travel camp for RV’s on base

Cactus Cafe – a nice restaurant on base

The base is just east of the Colorado river and the extensive Imperial dam dry camping area – which we toured on Sat.

Lake and camping area at the Imperial Dam / interesting marker

Safe travels!

Repairs done!

2010-03-08T00:37:00.001-07:00

We were fortunate to have Ron & Dan in Bullhead City to handle the repairs. They are the team who worked on the rig initially in Elkhart IN, and as it’s very cold there right now they are working out of the Bullhead City sales office for Americana. They steadily worked through our list fixing both the major problems we had – axle, landing gear and hot water heater; and the multitude of minor ones on our list. Thanks again guys!

Mobile repair van Ron working on our rig

The bent axle required us to buy 2 new very expensive tires for the rig, but thankfully we were saved from a future imminent blowout. Since tires were on our minds we also fixed the flat on the truck that we got in Mexico and bought 2 new tires for the “clown car” I drive. My little old car no longer shakes and shimmies when I hit 64mph, and she still gets 40 mp gallon, with 237000+ miles on her!

River Palms and view from our campsite

We enjoyed our stay in Laughlin – dining at the River Palms for Bill’s birthday on their special 2 for 1 prime rib buffet for a mere $10 TOTAL for both of us, the special was offered Mon and Tues and at that price we went both nights. We also caught the movie Avatar in 2D and now we can hardly wait to see it in 3D. It was also a real pleasure to catch up with our friend Don, his wife Ann was my oldest best friend; she passed to a higher plane last June so it was good to see Don busy living his life. Ann would have wanted him to thrive and be happy.

Our 1st Mexican Adventure in the RV

2010-03-03T23:52:00.005-07:00

MECHANICAL PROBLEMS COME IN 3

First the bent axle, Carl’s RV in Tucson temporarily fixed the old one for our trip – to be replaced in Bullhead City.

Second the landing gear failed in Kino Bay on arrival (see pictures & details below) - to be replaced in Bullhead City.

OOOPS

Third a flat tire on the truck the day before departure.

Bill was fit to be tied!!

Now, some details about our trip:

Tucson AZ

We spent 3 days in Pima County fair grounds in preparation for the trip, consisting of meetings, trip across the border for our tourist visa, evening gatherings, meeting with our group travel caravans and generally getting to know each other. I think we ended up with 68 rigs for this years Mexican Connection trip.

Our part of the Caravan into Mexico, we had 9 rigs in our group.

Benjamin Hill Mexico

We overnighted in a small town – Benjamin Hill on Weds to regroup after crossing the border.

Parking Crew “Marylou”

Soccer field parking Charity Donations

We stayed in the town’s soccer field and the Mexican Connection group (us) donated big piles of merchandise and money to 3 different charity groups, along with some money to the mayor for our stay in the soccer field. The priest runs a soup kitchen (one of our charities) and after the presentations he was available for anyone who wanted ashes for Ash Weds.

Ash Wednesday Church Plaza

Benjamin Hill and 3 towns around them all threw a fiesta in the town plaza for us. Kids groups from all 4 towns danced and sang until about 8PM, then the town’s people supplied dinner. We actually pooped out just before dinner (of course we had NO idea what time they were finally going to stop) and went home to the rig.

Young dancers Bill being observed

Happy kid Unhappy kid

The Parade through Hermosillo

The drive was fairly smooth, no shoulders but good roads, WE were the parade thru Hermosillo 9 rigs plus a police escort – driving thru red lights – the locals honking their irritation and video and still camera people everywhere. The other 8 groups all took the bypass around the city.

News Media interviewing Policia escort

The flag & bear on our rig reflected in the rig’s window in front of us

Crazy Hermosillo city traffic

Kino Bay Mexico

We had a mechanical problem with one of the landing jacks after we got here, as we were leveling the rig one gear went rrruuuppp and dropped down to the cotter pin, Bill had lots of male help getting it jacked up enough to put extra blocks under that side and leveling the rig for our stay. We plan to borrow a heavy duty jack to bring the rig up to truck height so we can hitch up then we will stay hitched until Bullhead City.

This quiet fishing and beach town hosts a number of Americans who winter here every year, some of the folks we met have been coming here for 10-20 years. They live in their RV’s or homes or a combination of both, and only return to the US during the summer. The beaches were clean, the Cortez Sea was a little cool and rough during our stay thanks to the El Nino storms tracking across the southern US during our stay, but we enjoyed walking the beach.

The old town area held a very few souvenir shops, several small eateries, a pier with an open seafood market and some trinket stands, lots of simple shacks used for housing and very friendly people. We never felt threatened or nervous during our stay.

Madeline & Lesle A fresh coconut treat

They raise shrimp, have oyster beds, crab pots and all other sorts of seafood, and right at the estuary we had a lovely cheap fresh seafood lunch. Loved the gulls, pelicans and scenery at the estuary.

Jerry & Dave eating Fresh Oysters Oyster estuaries

Gull guarding the boxes Largest colony of nesting osprey in the world

Our Mexican Connection group held events almost every day or night during our stay and we could be as busy as we wanted. Bill & I met some great couples, several of whom we will be meeting up with later on. Jerry & Madeline were lots of fun and we will probably go to Mexico with them next winter for a couple of months. Dave & Lois live in the Denver area and we hope to see them this summer. Tom & Coral are members of our Colo Chapter along with Dave & Lois and we will see all of them at the May rally. Our wagonmaster Ed & Jan are also Colo people – there was a good number of couples with Colorado connections at the rally. Chuck & Nancy and Dan & Michelle will be in Yuma with us in a week for another rally. Needless to say we met many lovely people and hope to see them again soon!

Potluck night

Seri Indians

We were honored with a large turnout of the Seri Indians who came to our campground to perform and sell there beautiful baskets and shell jewelry. The locals kept saying they had never seen this many Seri’s outside of their home village before. The ladies all had something to sell, face painters were busy, and they danced and sang for us. Quite a treat! I did breakdown and buy one of the beautiful baskets – of course the design is butterflies!

Hermosillo Mexico

We took a full day trip to Hermosillo and visited several sites (see some of the pictures). Here again we were entertained by dancers, most of whom were high school students this time.

Lunch in Hermosillo Special cookies being made

Final Dinner and local Kino Bay High School Dancers

Skipper Bear travels around the country enjoying Escapees events

The trip back to Tucson was accomplished in one day, we had 7 rigs in our return group and fortunately no problems with the Military check point in Mexico or US customs at Nogales.

We loved our trip and hope to do it again next winter.

Tucson Highlights

2010-02-16T00:15:00.002-07:00

We relocated back to Tucson in preparation for our trip to Mexico with the Chapter 8 Escapees group called the Mexican Connection.

This is the time to get the rig checked out, test the new CB radio etc. Bill scheduled an appointment at Carl’s to check our axles and we did have one bent – the shop fixed it, but recommended we replace it. I spent about 1 hr on the phone with the various manufacturers of our rig, axle and the Americana people, and was successful in getting a new axle at no charge including shipping to Bullhead City AZ, where Americana has an office. We will go there after we return from Mexico and have it installed.

We left “Carl’s” and headed to Davis Monthan AFB FamCamp for the next 11 days. This base was voted #1 many times in the recent past, they have good camp sites, great on-base services, and lots of nice people. It was really nice to have some down time to just kick back and relax.

Famcamp views

Chuck & Nancy joined us for the last 5 nites as they are also going to Mexico. We spent some time exploring the area with them.

The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum http://www.desertmuseum.org is a wonderful place to see, it’s part zoo, part museum and part botanical garden. The 4 of us wandered the many pathways, attended a lecture on rattle snakes & Gila monsters and took lots of pictures.

Docent showing the “boys” the map

Nancy and the Organ Cactus

Beautiful cactus behind us!

I even caught a hummingbird on the nest. We missed the raptor flight due to the rain – but still spent about 4 hours touring the outdoor museum.

Poppa is on guard

Momma is sitting on eggs

Enjoy with us some of the other flora

Cactus DO come in colors!

Joshua Tree and bloom (below)

and the fauna we saw.

Big Horn Sheep

Mexican wolf

Cougars

Next stop was just up the road at the Saguaro National Park (that’s pronounced “sah-WAH-row”). The park is divided into 2 districts one west of Tucson and one on the east side. The park gets it’s name from the saguaro cactus, but barrel cactus, cholla and prickly pear are also abundant. The park was established in 1933 and it became a national park in 1994.

Saguaro National Park Cactus

The purpose of the visit was to buy my lifetime “senior park pass” for a mere $10, the mission was accomplished. We will enjoy visits to many more National Parks thanks to the lifetime pass! This day was not a day to tour – the rain was coming down pretty heavy by the time we arrived – so home to the base we went.

The Famcamp held a Valentines dance for us with plenty of finger food, music and dancing, it was a pleasant evening for our last night there.

We moved to the Pima County Fairgrounds on the 13th to meet up with our fellow adventurers to Mexico. We had met several of the couples at other SKP events, and rallies. It looks like this group traveling together to Mexico is a friendly bunch of adventurers!

The 3 of us couples are in the same group, Madeline’s name for the “B” group stuck and we are now the “Banditos”. We have 9 rigs in our travel group and our group has been selected to be the publicity group – we will be escorted by the policia and tourist office through Hermosillo; they have planned a parade, news media, TV cameras and who knows what else. More on this after it happens.

Nancy, Lesle and Madeline

Jerry, Bill and Chuck

The sun is setting on this submission to our blog so we wish you all Safe travels!

The every changing AZ desert

2010-02-03T19:44:00.001-07:00

We love the blue skies, the mountains that surround the area and are sometimes hidden in mist, sometimes crystal clear. Giant cactus every where you look; see how they tower over Bill!

The storm clouds that ride in on the jet stream and bring crashing rain storms, very gusty winds desert washes full of water and some nervous moments for RV’ers.

And the always beautiful sunsets; AZ has some of the most beautiful sunsets in the country.

We attended and co-hosted the Boomerville rally in Quartzsite AZ area for most of Jan, over 130 rigs joined us at one time or another during the 3 weeks we were there. Boomer Bear welcomed friends to our rig! Shhh don’t tell Bear about the lampshade, he partied too much last night.

There were discussion groups daily on an amazing variety of topics – some geared to the guys (see the Geraldine contestants below) and some discussion groups for the gals.

Happy hours at the fire pit almost daily, potlucks & pancake breakfasts – all provided lots of time to make new friends and renew old friendships.

We also raised over $2400.00 for the Escapees Care facility at an auction we held while there.

This little community of Quartzsite AZ hosts one of the largest RV shows in the country, every Jan followed by hobby/craft shows and an antique car show, the normal population of about 2000 grows to over 250,000 for the month. There is a mass of tents in many areas on both sides of I10, the vendors sold a vast variety of items, this is always a beaders heaven and we all stock up during the events. Of course there is all kinds of stuff for the RV’s most of which you didn’t even know you needed! The big tent holds the “specialty shows” but that’s only a drop in the bucket as to the number of vendors there.

Most of us park/camp out in the desert on BLM land, which means no electric, water or sewer - for out friends who are not RV’ers. The “honey wagon” comes by weekly for those who need it and the water truck also comes out, yes they are separate trucks! We usually went to town a few times a week and filled our own water jugs, but did utilize the honey wagon.

My birthday was spent with friends at the Desert Bar – a remote bar several miles up a mountain dirt road,

open only on weekends with a live band, bar and hamburgers (don’t ask for cheese) or hot dogs on the menu.

The band rocks out with 50-70’s music to the delight of all us baby boomers, dancers were on the dance floor at all times.

We stopped at a casino in Parker AZ on the way back for a little slot machine action and an OK buffet. All in all a nice birthday – and best of all I can now officially start collecting early social security – YEAH.

We met with a group who is going to Mexico to Kino Bay in Feb and to my surprise Bill actually approached them for information. I have wanted to go south of the border in our rig for a couple of years; Mexico offers cheap living, beautiful beaches and some very active US/Canadian communities. So I was thrilled when Bill said “do you want to go?” We meet up in Tucson Feb 14th for 3 nights then head south through Hermosillo then west to Kino Bay. There will be about 70 RV’s attending, so we travel in groups of 8. More on this later.

All in all January was a fun month!

Happy New Year

2010-01-05T23:15:00.024-07:00

We are now toasty warm in south AZ!

Christmas at Shawna & Mark's

We departed Colorado Dec 27th after a very nice holiday with the family and headed south. First stop was the San Felipe Casino between Santa Fe and Albuquerque the next day off to Deming NM to stay at the Escapees park "Dreamcatcher".

Mountain view from Deming RV Park

We caught up with Bobbie and Jim here and spent a pleasant few days resting, eating, and just unwinding. New Years eve day we went to the St Clair winery tasting room and enjoyed some libations, one of their specialities is to combine their house wines to your taste. We ended up with a red wine that was 20% sweet and 80% dry - very smooth and no preservatives, this also means that you are supposed to drink it within 2 weeks - I'm happy to say we followed their instructions well. The park held the New Years party at the club house and about 50 people attended, we left fairly early as the plan was to travel on News Years day.

Tasting Room

Wine shopping completed!

Jan 1st the four of us travelled from NM to AZ to a nice park in Huachuca City, this is south of I10 between Tuscon and Bisbee. The office was closed so one of the volunteers led us to a nice site near some of our Escapees friends - Bobb & Kathy from NM. Apparently the RV park is having management changes, and they will be changing the name etc, but it's fairly seamless to us campers in the park.

Six Escapees sharing Happy Hour

Jan 2nd we toured Bisbee a bit, this interesting town will require further exploration at a later date, there is a mine tour of the copper mine I would like to take and wonderful museum we haven't visited yet. We enjoyed lunch at the Bisbee breakfast club - a restaurant that the locals frequent and we can see why - very tasty food. Walked around old town and visited some of the shops, drove through this unique RV park and in general had a lovely day.

Turquoise Pit Copper Mine

Bobbie enjoys her latte

Shady Dell RV park and Dots Diner

Bobbie & Jim headed to Tuscon to camp with some friends on Sunday and we just kicked back with the Sunday newspaper and the laundry. I got a call from Carol P a great friend from South FL and she really started my year off right. We caught up on each others lives and I vowed to call some of my other girlfriends from FL. Next I reached Judy F - my 1st boss at Renaissance Cruises - again it was wonderful to catch up with each other. Thanks to both ladies for starting my year out with old friends we had all worked together at Renaissance Cruises prior to 9-11 and the family we had there is still strong today.

Monday Bill and I visited Fort Huachuca, an Army base established in 1877 to fight the Apache and other local tribes; it is also the home to the Buffalo Soldiers, these are the black soldiers of fighting fame with units home based here from the late 1800 until after WWII. The museum was well done with excellent historical information on the area and the base.

Historic Sign at the Fort

Bill at the museum

Tuesday started off with a nice long call from my friend Betsy - it was soo good to hear from her. Later we took off for Tuscon to meet with Bobbie and Jim for a shopping trip to Trader Joe's - for our friends in the east this is a grocery store that carries their own brand of foods, they have great Greek yogurt, prepared meals, home of the $2 buck Chuck wine (which actually now costs $2.99), and yummy snack items we will need for the rally in Quartzsite starting next week.

Weds we will probably take a trip to Nogales Mexico and who knows what trouble we will get into there with all their shopping!

Happy New Year!

It's a white Christmas in Colorado

2009-12-24T14:18:00.007-07:00

We worked up to our lunch break at 10:30PM on Dec 20th and went home to get some sleep - why you ask, well as usual a big storm was heading in and we needed to be parked and set up by Tues afternoon in Colorado.

It was an uneventful drive with our friends Bobbie and Jim caravaning with us from Coffeyville KS to La Junta CO. We spent one night in Garden City KS, surrounded by Hugh feed lots - and the smell was really something. I can't even imagine how bad it would be in the summer with the high heat and humidity! At La Junta we headed N to the Air Force Academy FAM Camp and the Chapmans headed to Alamosa to visit their family. We made it in by 1:15 and were set up by 2PM the snow started a few hours later. The Chapmans caught some snow and icy roads but also made it home for the Holidays safely.

It is COLD - day time temps below 20 and nights below 10, we had light snow for 2 days so we will have a White Christmas!

We head to Denver this afternoon for the traditional Oyster Stew my Aunt Jeanne prepares every year and will enjoy getting together with part of the family at their house. Christmas Day will be at ny niece Shawna's house - she will graciously host the get together so my parents only have to drive from Denver and my Sister will come up from Trinidad (she and Bob are already in Denver for the oyster stew). Shawna & Mark's house is the 1/2 way point. We look forward to Christmas with them her kids and my other niece and nephew.

Working for Amazon.com during their peak season is hard work physically, but well worth the income - our bank account is much happier and we plan to relax a bit for the next few months in the AZ and NM areas.

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family!

On the home stretch in KS

2009-12-11T15:19:00.002-07:00

Well we are on the last days of our assignment here at Amazon.com. With overtime and our plan to leave a little early (3 days) we have 6 working days left. We have been working 5 days at 11 hrs each for the past few weeks - tired YES - love the boost to the bank account YES.

The management has provided 2 Holiday dinners the past few weeks, lemon pepper chicken and a ham dinner the next time. Next week we get pizza for our department because we topped all the records AGAIN this week, yesterday we received over 222,000 pieces of merchandise! Now that's a LOT of stuff.

Right now we are still receiving used books by the truck load and what a pain that is, the boxes weigh up to 75 pounds and the books are sometimes ridiculously old, out of date (legal and medical stuff), and many in poor shape. I wouldn't even accept many of them at a used book store! We have to receive each book and make sure the tote we send to the stowers doesn't weigh more than about 15 lbs, as you can tell each box load of books produces alot of totes! Then the poor stowers don't have space to put them - they walk up and down the aisles trying to find spots, to the detriment of all the NEW books, DVD's CD's.

One more week, or less, and all those old books will be sent to the Phoenix facility - YEAH. I don't know if that's all the incoming ones only or will include eventually all the ones currently in the warehouse. My guess is that it's only the new arrivals.

We have seen some interesting gift items - but soooo many that I still haven't gotten my shopping done. I'll probably get our holiday letter out late too!

It's been cold here - but not as bad as Colorado, at least we haven't had snow! We hope to make it to Colorado for Christmas with the family but that will depend of their weather - if they are having another of the bad storms they have been blessed with this year we will detour south.

Happy Holidays to everyone!

Almost half-way

2009-11-21T12:44:00.003-07:00

Thank all the Gods we are almost half way through our assignment at Amazon.

I have Bobbie's cold - just not coughing my head off like she is and so far have been able to work anyway. This was a tough week as they we worked 5 - 11hr nights - do I need to remind everyone this is hard physical labor?

We all did our best and did manage to work that extra night as it meant an extra $360 between the 2 of us. After all we are ONLY here for the $$. I can't say I was very effective the last 2 hours or so - but I was there, I hit the wall - as we say here - and hardly knew what I was doing minute to minute.

Last year we worked the extra days near the end of our assignment in shipping, and we were way too tired - couldn't even work our normal 4 days the next week. Hopefully we can make it OK and they won't make us do it again - the outbound group should pick up big time next week. We are inbound (receiving & stowing).

Managed a quick trip to our favorite chiropractor, Dr Steve Chapman, here in Independence KS Fri and today - Sat it's laundry and grocery shopping - what a life!

Thanksgiving week this coming week and we don't know if they are going to ask/tell us to work an extra shift Thurs or not. If we have it off we will probably go to a casino near here for dinner.

Time to get the housekeeping chores done for the week.

The Amazing Amazon.com

2009-11-02T11:16:00.012-07:00

We all started work Oct 25th on the night shift, the 1st week was light 2 - 5hr nights, then 2 - 10hr days. For the most part we all felt pretty good for a bunch of "old farts". The new shoes are working great, the feet don't hurt; NOW if there was something to make the lower back pain disappear we would all be in heaven!

Our countdown started with 32 working days (without overtime days), and now that we are into our 2nd week we have only 27 working nights left as of today Nov 2nd. Thankfully we are scheduled for only 4 - 10hrs nights this week, because next week is 4 - 11hr nights. We keep our spirits up with the daily countdown and knowing the $xxx amount of money goes into the bank account every night we work.

It's like the Little Engine that Could "I know I can - I know I can".

I don't have any pictures of the areas we are working in this year - but I'll post a couple from my library so you can see the some of the massive operations.

A view of the conveyors in shipping

Bobbie and Jim are working on the receiving line, where they scan into the computer every item that comes off the delivery trucks, put it into a plastic totes and send it downline on the conveyor.

Bill is currently stacking those totes on wooden pallets, shrink wrapping them for safety before a mobile fork lift truck takes them to the areas where the items will be stowed. Later this week Bill with be driving the "PIT" vehicles, he certified on 5 different pieces of equipment - so we will see him zooming all over the facility beeping his horn soon.

Bill driving a PIT vehicle

I am stowing the stuff, and belive me it's an amazing amount and variety of items. Amazon is now carrying directly used books for those of you on a budget - I am always impressed with the supply of books. Stowing the big down coats are a pain because they are so bulky and take up a whole bin, but again the selection is extensive. And don't forget about all the kitchen items, toys of every type, automotive stuff etc. They are also handling a line of perfumes and makeup (I don't know what as I haven't worked in that area yet), the Bebe line of shoes and clothes - fairly high end and high fashion; and the Lacosta line - again high end shirts etc.

I stow on 1-4 floors of "mods" these are heavy duty units obviously, the PIT vehicles bring the pallets loaded with totes and lift them up to whatever floor we are working on - we stow them them into the appropriate bins by scanning each tote, then each item in the tote is scanned into a specific storage bin. Sometimes we walk for quite a bit to find an empty storage bin,

The pickers come along behind us - and pick the items that have been ordered put them into totes - all properly scanned of course - and send them onto to a shipping group. The management can track a specific item from start to finish and everyone who has laid a hand on that item.

This company was built by computer geeks, is run by the same and automated to the max. They can change direction, staffing, whatever on a dime; we can get one set of instructions at our twice daily meetings (standing of course), and a completely different set of instructions at the 2nd meeting. That's one of the reasons they are so successful and profitable. Of course the marvelous workkampers they hire really contribute to that success for the Holiday shopping frenzy.

So shop away my friends - keep us busy!

Hey Toto - we're back in Kansas

2009-10-25T14:20:00.013-06:00

We had an uneventful trip from NM to KS via Amarillo TX, Norman and Quapaw OK and Branson MO. We utilized the casino parking at both stops in OK one was with no hookups the other had electric and water - both were free.

I really wanted to go to Branson and when we got there I was so tired that I couldn't decide on a show so we just relaxed and enjoyed the campground.

Lake at the SKP campground - just outside our front door

Bobbie and I did get a pair of shoes for our work stint at Amazon at the Easy Spirit outlet in Branson. Jim, Bobbie and Bill did not care if we went to a show or not; so maybe during a later stop in Branson we will try again.

Show Theater in Branson

Driving off into the fog - AGAIN! Seems we drove in fog for days

Since I am driving the little car I don't get to nap while Bill drives the truck and rig - it's a real bummer and I do get tired. The big advantage is to have a great gas mileage vehicle to do all the local driving when we stop. You should see the 4 of us climbing in and out of the car - it is such a hoot that we named the car the "clown car" or CC for short. We look like a bunch of clowns - all we need is a little white face makeup some colorful clothes and big shoes to finish off the "Look". Hummm sounds like a good picture idea - we'll work on it.

Beautiful Fall Colors!

We arrived back in Coffeyville KS Oct 18th and it was our good furtune that a couple we had worked with at KOA was already here managing a campground. We called Susan a couple of days out and she reserved 2 spaces for us. Thank God for that because this campground is dry and has full hookups. The park we were in last year was very soggy, downright muddy in many places and the open sites still had no sewer hookups so we would have had to deal with the honey wagon 3 mornings a week. That's not fun when you have just gone to sleep!

It's been a lazy week - touring around the area, checking in at the employment office, eating in and out and doing a little grocery shopping. We invited another couple to join us at Kings Table in Dearing KS for lunch Sat and they fell in love with the quaint restaurant also. Homemade soups, breads, fillings, pies and cakes, with speciality coffees and teas also available.

Kings Table restaurant in Dearing KS

Old time gas station in Dearing - check out the chimney behind the station

We all got our requested shift - Sun - Weds nights 5PM - 3:30AM in the receiving department. This leaves our weekends free to visit the local fairs and festivals which we missed last year.

we went for orientation, safety training and to see our work area; then it's 8 weeks of long hours, hard work (physically), lots of moaning and complaining about sore this and that! It's a good thing the money is worth the groaning.

Up Up and Away - Balloon Fiesta

2009-10-08T19:13:00.029-06:00

Morning Dawn Patrol getting ready to launch

Albuquerque NM at the International Balloon Fiesta Oct 2009, this event was on our bucket list and it was AWESOME. We parked in an RV lot across from the balloon field with a group of Escapees called the "Boomers". A fun group of people, with a Happy Hour every night at 4PM, a potluck and auction, and almost eveyone in the group crewed for different balloon pilots.

Auction items

Bill & I signed up online at the Balloon Fiesta official site to crew and we said we would crew for an International pilot. We were very fortunate to crew for Stan Wereschuk from Leduc Alberta Canada. He is very safety conscious, flown for 35 years and a good teacher.

This is the Northern Lights balloon we crewed for. The pics show some of the set up and landing and Bill's first flight!

I flew on Friday Oct 2nd with a different pilot "Mike Liberti" on the Morningstar. The Fiesta has a special launch at the schools around the city, this gives the kids a chance to get up close to the balloons prior to the fiesta.

Preparing to launch from the school

Mike typically asks a "newbie" to fly - I jumped at the chance to fulfill one of my bucket list items. It was everything I hoped for and more.

Lesle's first balloon ride

We started crewing for Stan on Sat and we were thankful to have had the experience of helping 3 balloons lift and 2 balloons land the day before.

Let me tell you 4:30AM every morning comes way too early for this late riser - but I wouldn't miss this for anything. We don't fly everyday, if Stan doesn't like the winds or has a "gut" instinct not to fly we stay grounded. That doesn't stop us from enjoying champagne and OJ at the field when everyone who did fly gets back. So far we have had 1 rain day where we actully got to go back to bed and sleep and 1 wind day. After 9 days of early rising we are now done, and loved every minute of it. Since pictures are sometimes worth a 1000 words please enjoy a few of the shots from the fiesta.

Balloons have such beautiful colors

Our pilot was very generous with passes to all the special events and meals. We attended the beer & brats lunch at the field. The very exclusive Flight of the Nations dinner for the international pilots, this was held at the Hyatt Regency a beautiful remotely located hotel, we enjoyed live entertainment and a fabulous dinner. Next was the lunch party held at the zoo where we toured some of the exhibits and of course ate again. The awards luncheon and our last night dinner at the pizza place with our pilot.

More balloons with all the marvelous colors

My sister Aarela and hubby Bob joined us Fri afternoon, we all attended the special shapes night glow on Fri night. They also got to help us crew for the Sat launch - I think they had as much fun as we did. Our Sat night glow was aborted because of the wind and the Sun launch was also canceled due to wind, but all in all it was a wonderful experience.

And one more slide show with special shapes

Hope you enjoyed some of the shots from the balloon fiesta, we sure enjoyed taking them.

"On the Road Again"

2009-09-30T22:46:00.009-06:00

I went to Denver to spend my last weekend off from work with my parents; we had an enjoyable visit, made all the more so when an old friend of mine from my United Air Lines days came to see us. The 4 of us went to dinner and caught up with each other, I think the last time Winnie and I actually saw each other was about 35 years ago. We usually corresponded at least once a year at Christmas - so this was a real treat to sit down and talk. We still have a lot in common after all these years. Winnie had been living in Oregon and working for a local newspaper until she retired last year, she then moved back to the Denver area. I hope to see her more frequently now that she is in CO and I have a reason to come to CO because of my family.

Winnie and Lesle

Bill completed his 3rd degree with the Masons and is now a "card carrying" member of the Lodge in Colorado City as a Master Mason - he has been busy all summer with this, memorizing pages and pages in order to pass the three degrees. Many nights were spent with his sponsor going through the "work". As I knew he would he did an excellent job at each of the steps. We attended a last Masonic dinner the Fri before our scheduled departure - what a nice group of people. I'm sure he will attend Lodge meetings while we travel and that will be another way to meet some good people on the road.

Congratulations Bill

Just before we departed a local artist chainsaw carved us a bear with a butterfly on his shoulder, it is really cute - see the picture.

The Welcome Bear

We had a mini balloon fiesta at our campground the last weekend we were there, so I got a few practice photos of balloons - I'm sure everyone will be sick of them in a few weeks but enjoy these for now.

Balloon Fest

Our Campsite

The Johnson's (in the middle) - our Campground Owners

We finished work at our campground on Sept 27th, finished up some Dr appointments the 28th in the AM and headed south by 3PM. Our first stop was Trinidad to have a nice Mexican dinner with my sister Aarela and hubby Bob. It has been nice to be so close that we could attend the family get togethers this summer.

The local Walmart was our campground for the night where we shared the parking lot with about 15 rigs. Of course I also spent money IN the Walmart - to me that's one of the rules of the road - if you utilized the free parking - you need to buy something from the company.

On Tues the 29th we met up with our friends Bobbie and Jim in Sante Fe NM, we parked our rigs at a Walmart because we were meeting both of their daughters for lunch. We had a nice visit with them and then got back on the road headed for the San Felipe casino between Sante Fe and Albuquerque where we spent 2 nights before moving on to the balloon fiesta campground.

Jim and Bill both did well in the casino on the penny and nickle machines. We found this casino to be a good stopping place, reasonable camping and very convenient.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Summer's end in Colorado

2009-09-19T22:43:00.043-06:00

August and September flew by and we are getting ready to start our next adventures.

We enjoyed a couple of family get togethers to celebrate birthdays. One party was held at my niece Shawna's in Colorado Springs - this was for Harriett's 3rd birthday.

Harriet's 3rd Birthday

Shawna & Felix at the birthday party

My sister Aarela had us all down to Trinidad for a weekend to celebrate the other 3 birthdays -for Aunt Ginny and Uncle Bob who share a birthdate as well as nephew Gage. After a big dinner at her house Sat we went to the Italian picnic in town on Sun - oh my was there alot of food!

Aarela with her grandkids

Bob & Ginny (left) Jeanne (right) at Italian picnic

YUM

Felix LOVES chocolate!

The campground has been busy; we hold several theme weekends during the summer and Bill & I hosted the "star gazers" weekend. Two amateur astronomers brought about 5 telescopes for the campers to use, both night and day scopes. We viewed some awesome night skies and the sun scopes were fascinating, even though the sun wasn't putting off BIG flares or sunspots - just to see the corona and the smaller flares was really cool.

We attended our favorite blues fest the Trinidaddio in you guessed it Trinidad CO - this was our 3rd year. The music as always was GREAT but the weather did us in late in the afternoon, after getting soaked for about an hour we left early. Usually we stay until about 10PM the groups later are more well known - but we left by 5 this year.

The blues fest crowd

One of the groups - playing the washboard

We had a wonderful 4 day respite at the Southfork CO campground with our Colorado Rocky Mountain High SKP's, it was a rally of RV'ers who are members of our RV club the Escapees. The campground is nestled back in the trees along the Rio Grande river, we met with new and old friends, enjoyed good food, singing alongs and some fun activities.

Tree lined RV sites

Rio Grand River

Let's eat AGAIN

Our ex-fireman friend Jim arranged for us to tour the underground firestation in Creede CO - the firestation was blasted right into the mountain, the story goes that they didn't have the money to "build" a firestation but this was a mining town and the miners used their skills to blast an area into the mountain and built the volunteer firestation.

Underground Firestation

Pretty RED truck

Me in front of the underground mining museum

The Red Hats on the Road (all the ladies were included) toured the firestation then we went to lunch at the Firehouse Cafe,

Firehouse Cafe

Good friends Bobbie & Judy

Red Hats at Lunch

2nd table of Red Hats

The men ate down the street at the OMI. A good lunch was had by all.

OMI Restaurant

These 2 houses were used as the "cribs" or the local brothal during the height of the silver mining.

The drive to and from was spectacular - the aspen are starting to turn and the views were really interesting with the low clouds drifting around.

Aspen Changing

We are headed to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta next week and I will try to post some of the hundreds of pictures I plan to take.

Meanwhile we hope you enjoy these last pictures of Colorado until we return next year.

July - Hot and Sunny, Rain and Hail

2009-08-07T10:52:00.042-06:00

July and the summer is 1/2 over, the temperatures have been in the 90's during the day and the 50 - 60's at night. We have had magnificent thunderstorms, lightening popping, hail storms, cooling afternoon rains and don't forget the unbelievable winds. We really have to watch that our awning is in during the afternoons. Several campers have lost theirs to the wind!

We have 2 months left before we move on for the winter and since we really like the owners here we have put our name on the list to come back next summer. This KOA is in a great location for us with family both north and south of us. Also we have to come back because Bill is the CO Escapees chapter #2 President for this year - he will need to hand over the gavel next year. We also have more exploring to do in Colorado.

This summer it seems all we have done on our days off is go to medical appts. We are off Sun & Mon and many of our Mon's are spent attending to health issues. Thankfully many of these are once every 5 year things, but still it sure eats into our fun time. I got my 5 years cancer clear in June - then had a big scare in July that started with a chest x-ray - 4 very anxious weeks by the time all the various Cat Scan's etc were done and read - Thanks to the Higher Powers - all tests came out negative for cancer. We still don't know what the nodule is and I have more appts to deal with - but at least the worst fears have been put to bed.

I got all my hair cut off this month - no more coloring, easy wash and ready doo - what do you think? Bill liked it long but he didn't have to color it all the time, and as the temperature crept up - my temperature also got hotter. All of my female friends and family like it and I do too.

Fun things this month included a visit to friends Bobbie & Jim at their campground Big Meadows - a beautiful setting in the mountains. They love working up there and we love to visit them, a little too high altitude for us to work in but great for visits. Jim and Bill rescued a young ground squirrel who was hiding in Jim's truck - he popped his little head out of the windshield wiper area while they were driving. The little guy rode around on their shoulders for the next couple of hours - then they figured out that Momma was calling him and returned him to the parking place where the 2 were reunited.

A day long drive passing through the San Isabel Natl forest; a stop and tour of Bishops Castle where we marveled at the stone masonry work of the builder Jim Bishop. He has built this whole thing by himself over the years, and his other claim to fame is how he stands up on rock, usually while laying stones, and pontificates about the state of the union. He is totally politically incorrect, hates the government, but LOVES America!

Jim Bishop at work

Lunch Stop in Westcliff

Our next stop was Cotapaxi, then the Royal Gorge - no we didn't go over the bridge, it was too late in the day and they wanted $24 per person to get in for about 1 hour, we decided to maybe take a train up the Gorge later. Off to Canyon City, dinner in Pueblo then home to our KOA.

Scenery along the way

Deer Crossing

Another old Homestead

We attended the Hippie Days music festival in Gardner CO with my sister and brother-in-law - great music and fun vendor booths.

Hippie Days Music Festival

We met my parents, aunt and nephew at the Hilton Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs for brunch, this is a stately old hotel that has a long history in the city - their buffet is still excellent.

Then we celebrated my Dad's 85th birthday in Denver with my family. He's very active, alert and I love him very much.

Aarela with Granddaughter Harriett

And Young Felix helping celebrate his Great Grandfathers birthday

Bill is getting ready to stand for the Masonic 1st degree and he has been studying with a group of men every night this week and 2 nights a week earlier this month. We attended 2 dinners with the group this month - they are involved in so many philanthropic things it's amazing.

Love and Hugs

June in the Rockies / Memorial to Ann

2009-07-02T20:42:00.025-06:00

June was a busy month; we held our 1st Escapees RV Rally here in Colorado June 9-12th, held at the KOA where Bill & I work. Our friends Bobbie and Jim co-hosted with us, unfortunately Jim had to stay up the mountain at the campgrounds they are managing for the summer - but Thanks be to all - Bobbie was able to attend - she's a dynamo! There were 15 rigs and 1 cabin booked for our group which amounted to about 32 people - a GREAT turn out for our first rally in years in Colorado.

Homemade RV (they didn't attend the rally but they wanted to!

Rally Schedule
Day 1 was check in and our first Happy Hour, this was when we introduced ourselves and finally got to meet everyone face to face; a baked potato dinner followed, everyone brought different toppings to share and we had a wonderful selection; this was followed by a showing of Mama Mia, with toe tapping and humming from most of our group. It looked to us like we had a good group and we were right!

Day 2 started with a healthy breakfast of fruit, toast, bagels etc - it was wonderful how much help we had getting everything cut up, served and even cleaned up after breakfast. Escapees are great volunteers! In the afternoon we gathered for craft projects, I beaded a necklace and earrings, Bobbie taught a group how to make plastic grocery bag crocheted items, another lady was "tatting" I think that's the correct term, and several others were working on various sewing projects.

Red Hats on the Road

Eight of us met for a Red Hat tea at Max's restaurant across the highway from our campground. We all wore our Red Hats as we flounced into this local diner and took over the middle table in the room. The staff were tickled to serve us our tea or coffee and one of their yummy desserts - I know the local Red Hatters also eat there so we weren't totally unexpected.

Happy Hour was well attended, with 5 different people bringing the snacks each day no one felt over burdened with cooking etc.

This was Hobo Stew night and our chefs Bill (on the right)
Vern & Herb (on the left)

with an assist from Dennis took over the browning of the meats, and opening all the canned goods, chopping the fresh stuff and spicing up the 4 different stew pots - they stirred the concoctions for about 4 hours. Served with chunks of French bread and followed with brownies for dessert. This unusual stew, which had everything from sausage to cranberry sauce to fresh veggies surprised many of our group in how GOOD it turned out.

Day 3 I was out sick so Bobbie and Bill did all the work. No one played in the miniature golf tournament, but the computer workshops Bobbie held were well attended. Another group got together with Bob Barnes in the afternoon to learn about Geocaching - he had hidden several objects around the campground that they had to find using their GPS units.

At Happy Hour today - Bobbie and Bill held a business meeting to vote on reforming the Colorado SKP chapter - we are now a Chapter - Rocky Mtn High SKP's. Bill stood for President for the 1st year, Lynne for Secy / Treas and
Judy & Chuck (below) are hosting another rally in Sept.

So we are off to a running start. Congratulation to the new officers and to the group for their active participation!

Bill convinced me to join everyone for the evening meal even if I couldn't talk; we had a Mexican Fiesta plate or Fried Chicken - catered by the KOA owners. No cooking tonight - just good food and conversation!

We ended with our Brown Bag Auction - and some of the items were priceless - hope we do this as a tradition, it's great fun and you never know what you will end up with.

Day 4 after breakfast it's time to say good bye - we'll meet again at the end of the summer.

I still had no voice so ended up with a few more days off - Bill was enjoying the silence I'm sure.

Our New - Old Car

My sister & brother-in-law gifted us with a 95 Toyota Corolla to run around in, it gets 32 miles per gallon compared to our big truck's 14 to 18, and this is wonderful. We bought some seat covers and hubcaps, Bill put in a bunch of elbow grease to clean it up inside and out and she runs just great - after all our brother "Bob" is a master mechanic and he saw to that part of the car! We got the missing keys replaced, and the only thing she might get next is a paint job. We didn't think we would be one of "those" RV'ers who drive 2 vehicles - but to have a little car to do all the local running around in is a great savings.

MEMORIAL to ANN CAHOY

My best and oldest friend passed out of this life very suddenly on June 18th, Ann was admitted to the hospital only 1 week before; all of her family and friends are still in shock with the suddenness of her loss. Ann and her dear husband Don stood up for Bill and I when we got married in Laughlin NV. She and I had been friends for 40 years, we had studied Astrology, and Esoteric studies for years together - she was my friend, teacher, mentor and most of all my Soul Sister. Ann will be missed by us all - she was greatly loved!

I was privileged to hitch a ride to Kingman AZ to attend her memorial with old friends June & Will, we were also joined by another old friend of Ann's, Eva - so the 4 of us shared Ann stories as we drove 2 days / each way.

June 25th - the memorial was lovely, over 100 people attended from all over the country. The number of lives this lovely lady had touched is amazing. Not only was she an accomplished Astrologer, Esoteric Astrologer and Teacher, she was an amazing quilter with international recognition for her applique work. I was honored to speak at her service, which was wonderfully healing for me, I still cry from time to time like when writing this piece, but at least it's not all day anymore.

Ann's finished Baltimore Quilt hung at the Memorial

Ann's good friend Wanda conducted the service and Don in the background had hugs for everyone.

Don's Christmas present - a beautiful Southwestern quilt made by Ann

When I got back from AZ - it was immediately back to work. Keeping busy helps the healing.

Bill has embarked on a new journey as a Mason, he was inducted on June 29th - doesn't he look handsome in his new suit!

Life has many unexpected changes - so enjoy your loved ones every day.

May in Southern Colorado

2009-05-31T13:59:00.025-06:00

Spring cleaning brought new colors to our blog. Any comments?

We are working 5 days a week at the campground with Sun & Mon off. Of course our work schedule is not like last summer - I work 4-5 hrs a day and Bill 4-8, Bill has landscaping (mowing) duty Tues - Fri in the AM and I usually get to sleep in.

May 3rd we visited our friends the Chapmans; drove to Alamosa where they were temporarily parked, then headed to the campgrounds they are managing for the summer - way up the mountain at 9000 ft. On the way we had a WONDERFUL Mexican lunch at Baldo's in Monte Vista.

On the way back we checked most of the other campgrounds they will manage this summer - all were currently closed due to snow. They plan to open for Memorial Day May 22. On the way back we stopped again in Monte Vista at a different restaurant for some awesome pie - I will have to get the name of that place from Bobbie.

Their campground is called Big Meadows

has about 50 sites tucked into the trees, a great lake for fishing and lots of interesting critters, which I couldn't stop taking pictures of.

Chipmunk

Marmot or whistle pigs

Awesome mountain views

They will dry camp all summer, we on the other hand have all the hook-ups anyone could want; including a swimming pool (haven't been in yet) a hot tub - which we HAVE enjoyed, miniture golf - we'll play someday, and a great store (where I work). This Colorado City KOA is #1 in CO and in the top 20 nationwide, they always wins awards. The owners are great folks and work just as hard as their workampers. There are 5 couples, plus the owners to share all the projects; you may have heard last years story in Idaho - same size campground basically, one very angry owner who worked daily, us and 2 part-time local kids. This is a whole different world here. Life is GOOD!

May 10 & 17 - We enjoyed one Sunday at the Hot Springs with my sister and brother-in-law on Mother's Day, then the next Sunday went to Denver to celebrate Mother's Day with the family.

Mom with lap blanket Aarela made

My parents and my Aunt Ginny took us all to their country club for their buffet. It was great to see everyone - Aunt Jeanne & Uncle Bob and Aarela's kids and grandkids. We had a good meal, nice visit with the whole group and then some extra time with just my folks, Aarela, Bob, Bill and I at their house before we headed back to southern CO.

We have been getting Dr visits done - several already out of the way in May and June is due to be busy with the various medical community. May 24 I had an overnight sleep study done for apnea & Bill was delighted to hear I will get a CPAP machine too (he got his in 2002) - he's tired of hearing me snore and stop breathing.

Wired for sound I mean sleep!

Got to admit I did feel more energized the morning I left the study, not like the usual sleepy all day feeling. Will let you know how quickly I adjust to the machine and headset after I get it. Bill's hearing test came out OK - they said he hears just fine (selective??). Of course they still can't do anything for him in noisy environments or with a lot of background noise.

The Grisbaum's visited the campgound and us for the long Memorial weekend.

We went to the Shrine circus in Trinidad with Bob & Aarela on May 27 a Weds nite - brought back memories of when we went with our Grandfather, who was a Shriner, to the big Shrine Circus in Denver with all us kids - 14-16 people.

We saw lions, tigers and bears OH MY and elephants and acrobats. It was a small 3 ring traveling circus named Jordan Circus, they did a good job of entertaining all of us. My camera battery died - so I missed the picture of Bill with a black bear - DARN!

While in Trinidad (before the circus) we checked in with Eagle Totem Gallery - to see if any of Bill's things had sold - he did have a couple of sales; we got some good hugs in with our friend Carol Bourdo - a great painter and owner of the Gallery. Then on a whim we took the box of excess stock; since we still had some time we stopped at the local bead store I have wanted to see for ages. The owner loved Bill's bear necklace and ended up buying for the store 8 pieces. This could be a new and profitable market - we'll see how they sell! Bill couldn't stop smiling all night.

There are no coindences in life - Bill ended up speaking to 2 local Masons and 4 South COLO officers of the Shriners within 2 days - he has decided the time is right for him to join the Masons; his Grandfather was a member too. We had the current and 2 future Potentates and one other officer in the campground for 2 days - they travel with the circus in So CO, introduce them at the start of each show, and talk about the Shriners Hospital for children. Bill's goal is to complete the first 3 steps by the end of Aug; the Southern Colorado Potentate Tom wants to "Fez" him at a big ceremony in Colo Spgs Sep 9-11. I can hardly wait to see that!

Potentate Tom and Shriner Steve

All in all it's been an interesting month. We celebrated our 5th year wedding anniversary this month and 5 years of me being cancer free! June looks to be busy for us too.
Hugs to all our friends and family!

Rocky Mountain Home

2009-05-02T23:18:00.020-06:00

We spent the first part of April with my sister & brother in law on their mountain top above Trinidad CO.

Of course they had snow while we visited, their winter so far had been very dry - just needed our arrival to drop some white stuff. This is still one of our favorite stops, snow or not - the view is marvelous and we always enjoy our family time.

While in Trinidad Bill entered 3 pieces into a juried art show here - they were all accepted, which is a first step. He didn't win any prizes at this show - but he has more confidence now to enter shows in the future. Here's his Eagle with Attitude ceremonial pipe.

The snow did delay our arrival at our summer job at the KOA in Colorado City CO, we waited an extra day for the roads to dry out since our drive off the mountain is 9+ miles of dirt road, and that's after Bill backed the rig down a 1/4 mile of driveway! He did a great job too!

We arrived at our campground Apr 14th, settled in, then put our yellow shirts on to start work the 15th. What a difference from last year, they hire 5 workamper couples and the owners work right along side of everyone. We have minature golf, pool, hot tub a new social hall, a great gift shop and awesome views.

We are only 20 miles from Pueblo for major shopping, our little town of Colorado City has a nice grocery store, 27 hole golf course, hardware store and other ammenities. So far it looks to be a good summer.

Our friends the Chapmans have been in Alamosa before they move to their summer job in South Park at about 9000 ft. We are working at about 6000 ft and that's plenty high for us - we are still puffing and panting. If all goes well we will see them Sun May 3rd before they head up their mountain.

Chapmans & us

The 4 of us have been planning the first Escapees Rally in Colorado for a long time. We are holding it at the KOA where we work. So far we have 15 rigs joining us and bookings are coming in every day/week. The SKP Chapter Directors Susie & Denny Orr stopped here on their way to the Escapade and we had a nice visit.

Fortunately the Chapmans were also in town so Bobbie got to join us for breakfast while Jim was stuck in a class about water management. The Orr's brought some friends with them to breakfast MJ and Bill - so we have another couple to help us reactivate the Colorado Chapter. It's great to have such positive reinforcement when you're tackling a new venture. We are moving right along with the rally , we have a tentative rally schedule, and as I said earlier the campground offers excellent facilities. If anyone wants to join us June 9-12 2009 at Colorado City KOA - just drop a message here.

Rally Hall

Bobbie helped me get my ears pierced with a 2nd hole - she made sure the young lady got them even - thanks Bobbie!

Bill and I finally joined the SKP Boomers this month, so we will be meeting more new friends on our adventure.

Life is good and we love our gypsy lifestyle.

Friendly and very windy New Mexico

2009-04-05T17:04:00.051-06:00

We rolled into The Ranch an Escapees RV park in Lakewood NM on Thur Mar 26th, they have a reputation for being the friendliest SKP park and YES they are!

Check the sky - it's sooo blue

The Chapmans are still traveling with us and when the 2 rigs arrived together the bell was rung for both rigs, people arrived by foot, bike and car to welcome us to their park.

Ringing the bell is tradition when someone arrives

They even have a welcome-wagon person who visits newcomers to make sure they know about the happy hour and special events happening during their stay.

Views of The Ranch in New Mexico

Since the weather was cool we decided to spend it underground on Fri and visited Carlsbad Caverns. Neither Bill or Jim had been there before; Bobbie and I had visited many, many years ago. This national monument is well worth the trip; our RV park was only about 50 miles away so we had the perfect opportunity. Please enjoy our view of 750+ ft underground.

(Click on any picture for a larger view of it)

Carlsbad Caverns

The wind kicked up Sat & Sun; 30-45+ mph at times, so we delayed our departure; our RV is a high profile vehicle and our Momma's didn't raise any dummies! Life is sweet when you can change your plans at the drop of a hat when the wind blows.

The residents at the Ranch reach out to people more than any SKP park we have been to, and we have experienced very nice people at most of the other SKP parks we toured this winter. Located between Carlsbad and Roswell, this area is high plains desert, small critters - lots of bunnies, cactus, cows grazing and when the sun shines the sky is the most beautiful blue.

Bill celebrated his birthday AGAIN at the monthly ice cream social for birthdays and anniversaries; we played cards several nights and had DVD movie nights at our rig on other nights.

The clubhouse rocking chairs outside and the birthday party inside

Mon Mar 30th and the winds were supposed to be calmer today - yeah right - we bucked 15 - 30 mile headwinds most of the way into Albuquerque NM. The Chapmans went west after Roswell while we headed on north-west, it was a sad parting as we had traveled together almost 6 months now.

Our roads are heading different directions for awhile

What a wonderful thing it is to discover friends that you truly, truly like and love at our age and on the road to boot! I can honestly say that we have more friends today than we had at any other time in our lives. Ah life it GOOD!

We like to stay at Kirkland AFB Famcamp when in Albuquerque - what other RV parks are in a gated community, protected by fences and armed guards. They have just completed about 41 new RV sites here so the Famcamp has grown a lot since last year.

Kirkland AFB RV park

Bill and I headed for the Base Exchange (BX) where he has ceremonial and trade pipes on display for sale at the art gallery there. Roy, the owner, has a beautiful display set up for Bill and the rest of the gallery features work from other veterans focusing on Native American motifs. I always love to visit and admire all the paintings, carvings, pottery, jewelry and more; thank God we have an RV otherwise there is just way too many tempting items available to buy. http://www.roybreckenridge.com/

High winds are again delaying our departure for Colorado, also snow in Colorado made staying here the best thing to do. The winds here were fierce we even had gusts up to about 55 mph off and on from Tues through Sat; we were glad to be tucked into a RV park, and at least no snow stayed north of here.

The Chapmans visited with friends in central NM then were heading to Sante Fe on Thurs to see their daughters - and guess what - their truck lost all power just outside of Albuquerque and their Chev truck was towed back here by a Ford (sorry Jim I had to slip that one in)! They ended up at a RV park 15 miles west of us but within hailing distance. We shared another meal at the 66 Casino buffet Thur night; then fellow 2007 classmates the Bubars' found out we were here and we again headed to the Casino - for lunch this time on Fri. This meeting up with classmates and fellow amazon workers is becoming quite a habit and we love it!

Bubar's, Chapman's, and Bill heading to lunch

One other very special thing happened here - I had good friends in Thousand Oak CA back in the 1980's - Terry & Judy, they were responsible for my love of parrots. They had moved here in the early 90's and other than one short visit just after they moved here I had lost contact with them. While doing the laundry I looked in the local phonebook and found them listed. So nothing ventured, nothing gained I left a message on their phone.

Terry & Judy and Lesle & Bill

Judy has a wonderful fitness studio with dance of all kinds, all the exercise equipment you could need, wonderful instructors in many different disciplines. She has more energy than a 25 year old and she looks just as good as one! http://www.cedarcrestfitness.com/

Terry works full time doing 3D graphics for a firm actually here on the base and in his spare time is busy working on his new business offering classes in photography, computers, graphics and much more; he has built an entire classroom & art studio set-up in the same building as Judy's fitness center. http://www.newmexicoworkshops.com/
I was very impressed to say the least!

Bill and I spent Sat afternoon visiting them, we talked for hours catching up with each other, enjoyed a lunch of pizza & touring their facilities. What other lifestyle allows you to travel the country and find old friends to reconnect with on the way!

They encouraged us to come to their "Sock Hop" that evening - what a fun evening, and what a sneaky way to get me to exercise! Who doesn't want to get up and dance to 50's and Do-Wop music, even Bill danced. Thank you Judy and Terry - we will always stop and visit when we pass through Albuquerque which is frequently because it's on the way to lots of places we like to visit.

Judy is a natural on stage.

Lesle & Bill dancin the night away!

On to Colorado Monday, my sis says the snow has melted and the winds are not expected to be a problem.

Windy, Windy West Texas

2009-03-28T20:12:00.045-06:00

We departed for Hondo TX Fri Mar 20 after the rally – it was a short leisurely 2 hour trip, south and west of San Antonio. The SKP’s at this park are friendly and welcoming; we attended the get acquainted social and the ice cream social and met many of the more permanent residents at the park and had a good laugh at the neighborhood goats just outside the park as they ate everything in sight.

The restaurant everyone referred us to was Bill and Rosa’s Steakhouse in D’Hanis TX – you have to see the photos below of the full and ½ orders of the chicken fried steaks to believe just how big they are! Bobbie & Jim have a full order, the 1/2 order has a potato with it. Of course we all ended up with excellent leftovers.

(my first attempt at a collage - just click on any picture for a larger view)

Other than eating out twice, we spent our time here catching up on laundry, playing cards and just resting. Bobbie & Jim and Trish – another classmate all ended up here. We initially planned to stay 3 nights but we added a night after the high wind warnings were issued for Mon our planned travel day.

View of Hondo RV park - the owners install neat sheds for extra space

The nice thing about our life style is we can easily change plans or switch directions.

As we checked out of Hondo, TX another Amazon.com workamper was also leaving, he recognized Bill and said Hi; between our 2007 classmates and our Amazon friends it seems we always run into someone we know.

Tue Mar 24th we drove to Pecos TX, a 7 hour drive. The weather was beautiful, very mild winds, unlike the 20-35 mph winds of the day before. We passed the mountain below on the way.

Interesting shape don't you think?

We were warned that the RV park in Pecos, TX was a parking lot and not to expect much, well it pretty much is just that, we had the little shelters with a picnic table to share, no trees, but some nice cactus displays. The wind blows pretty continuously here, and there is nothing to stop it! Thankfully we missed the big winds and the dust storm from a day earlier!

Pecos, TX - SKP RV Campground

View of our beautiful Americana RV through the cactus.

Cactus bloom - is this the "Yellow rose of Texas"?

Pecos seems to be a dying town; many of the residential areas we saw had houses in terrible condition, in need of repair, roofs, paint and generally major maintenance. There are probably nicer houses a little further out but we didn’t see them.

More Amazon.com friends Greg & Bree rode their big bike over from Big Springs TX to visit with us, it was great to catch up with them, before they depart for their summer job in SD. We had a quick lunch and then the 6 of us toured the museum together.

Bree & Greg visiting

Pecos does have a nice museum – the West of the Pecos Museum. The museum occupies what was formally a saloon connected to a hotel, they were built between 1896 and 1904, there is several original bullet holes still visible in the saloon. Every room was devoted to a specific theme some of them I’ve listed here - male and female rodeo riders – with all the saddles, boots & pictures; other rooms were dedicated to firefighters, military, different doctors, beauty salons, Mexicans, American Indians, etc. All filled with memorabilia and lots of pictures from the late 1800 and early 1900’s.

One of the Rodeo rooms in the museum

Pecos is known to have held the world’s first rodeo on July 4 1883, this tradition continues today. It is also known for the Pecos Cantaloupe’s, a sweet delicacy grown in the region. And the coup-d-gras as far as we were concerned was the best Mexican restaurant we have found in months and months. If you pass thorough stop in at the local dive called Alfredo’s Mexican Restaurant, don’t be put off by the holes in the roof and the soffit falling down – the salsa was perfect and the dinners - well I’ve never had such good Mexican; Bill, Bobbie & Jim all agree.

Yummy meal at Alfredo's, we even went back a 2nd night

Next stop is New Mexico - early departure at sunrise.

TEXAS and our 2007 class reunion

2009-03-22T19:19:00.032-06:00

Broussard LA to Livingston TX,

A very big machine that passed us - What is it?

not a bad drive considering all the rain, we arrived in time to get settled and decided a quick Chinese dinner was in order. Friday evening we attended the Social Hour at the club house and had the honor to meet the founders of the Escapees RV club – Joe & Kay Peterson. They started full time RVing in the mid 70’s and paved the road for all of us – Thanks!

Our 3 rig Caravan to Boerne, TX

We took a vote to move onto Boerne TX early to join our fellow 2007 classmates and departed Livingston TX for Boerne TX on Sunday Mar 15th, it’s about a 6 hour drive, just NW of San Antonio TX. Boerne is pronounced Ber-nee.

What a fabulous group we have, we all “graduated” to fulltime RV status in 2007. When we get together it's eat, drink and be merry!

Day one was an impromptu potluck, so off for a quick shopping trip at the local grocery market – called HEB, nice store with lots of selections.

Day two and more of the early arrivals pulled in (most of us were already there) dinner was baked potato’s with all kinds of different toppings, we found huge potato’s at the local HEB market.

baked potato topping buffet

Day three St Patty’s day party Happy Hour - with an incredible variety of green snacks and your drink of choice!

Dinner was the traditional Hobo Stew - that's where we cook up the meats and then add all different vegetables, soups etc.

Chefs Bob & Howie

Check out all the cans that were added to the stew. An awesome meal thanks to chef Bob!

Day four happy hour was very interesting - imagine a table full of chocolate of every imaginable kind, cake, candy, brownies, éclairs….and then we sampled liqueurs and cordials from all over the world YUMMY!

Chocolate and more Chocolate

Bobbie, Bill & Trish getting the liqueur table set up

Dinner this night was a chili cook-off – we had 6 chefs and the competition was fierce.

Chili cookoff judges

Our winner this year was Joe Jones.

Day five the Happy hour challenge was to bring your favorite dish and the recipe, the dishes were excellent and the voting was close - the Ceviche won.

Dinner had been cooking all day again prepared by our master chef Bob, with helpers Bill, Jim, Joe and Marty – they deep fried 2 whole turkeys and 6 turkey breasts in peanut oil; sounds strange but it is very, very moist.

The "boys" cooking the turkeys

The rest of us provided the side dishes and again another marvelous meal.

I know it sounds like all we did was eat – but we did have classes in geocaching, genealogy, blogging, T-shirt decorating, a stargazing demonstration, knitting and other needle work going on at various times, plus the jig saw puzzle we worked on set up on the back table.

Molly's Blogging Class

Marty's Genealogy class

Puzzle workers

Mark's Star Gazing group

Norah & Howie slow dancing our wagonmasters did a lot of work and it showed in how smooth everything ran.

Molly & Bob and Marcia & Joe – all had their hands full with the breakfasts and wonderful dinners. I know I didn’t talk about the breakfasts – who wants to get up that early anyway!

Molly's burnt croissants - breakfast anyone?

Bobbie planned all the Happy Hours and as usual she did an awesome job.
I don’t mean to leave anyone out – so I’ll just add that EVERYONE who attended contributed to the food and entertainment in some way, and we left with plans perking for next year’s rally.

We are collating a recipe book for our favorite Rally Recipes and plan to sell and contribute the profits to the CARE center in Livingston. We collected over $225 this year to add to our contribution to CARE – we are working on our 2nd $1000. Good Job everyone! And Thanks to Jim Chapman for handling the CARE money.

Cruising the Exotic Caribbean

2009-03-13T21:24:00.033-06:00

On Sat Feb 27th our good friends Bobbie & Jim got up early to drive us from Summerdale AL to New Orleans LA to catch our cruise with the family. Not only did they drive us both ways; they fed and loved our cats for us while we sailed the Caribbean seas.

Sat was spent in New Orleans where we met with most of the family at their hotel right in the French Quarter. Hotel court yard
There are lots of touristy shops around with Mardi Gras masks, beads and goodies to buy, and of course New Orleans is known for food! Johnny's Po Boys - local dive
We spent some time checking both things out then Bill & I walked back to our hotel before dark for a nights sleep.

We cruised on the Norwegian Spirit
her itinerary is New Orleans; at sea; Casa Maya, Mexico; Santo Tomas, Guatemala; Belize City, Belize; Cozumel, Mexico; at sea; New Orleans. There were 17 family members cruising ranging in age from 80+yrs to 15 months – all on board to help Bill celebrate his birthday Mar 1st! Bill's Birthday

The only sad thing was our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter were supposed to be with us – and they had to cancel – that was a bummer especially considering that Laura got us all started booking the cruise to begin with.

We shopped and looked at all the interesting items for sale in all the ports. It was obvious that the bad economy was hitting everywhere, lots of shopping but not too much buying both on land and on the ship. Since Mom uses a wheelchair Bill, Dad & I helped make sure she got ashore every port except Belize – which required using a boat tender to/from the ship.

Casa Maya – beautiful sunny day, the town is very clean and rather new, made to accommodate cruise ships and all the passengers. Casa Maya Dancers

Guatemala – a little cloudy here, we did go shopping for their wonderful textiles right at the port.
They bring in lots of vendors to a covered building on the port property, entertainers, food vendors, and a jade museum. The surrounding area I heard was poverty stricken. Guatemala Shore Line

Belize Welcome
another beautiful day, after a ½ hour boat ride to the port where the shopping is pretty good – well for me it was more than pretty good, since Bill bought me a beautiful sapphire bracelet with multiple colored stones; then we visited their Eco park and
butterfly facility. Not much to brag about there but the
swimming pool was wonderful – wish we had more time to actually get in and enjoy it.

Cozumel – a sunny day again, this port is known as the
shopping capital of the western Caribbean – you can walk for miles and shop to your hearts content.
Cozumel transportation & NCL Spirit

Some of the younger family members took shore excursions at every port – the zip line in Belize was probably the most favorite activity of everyone who took it.

We enjoyed dinner at the Steak house & the French restaurant on 2 of the nights; French Restaurant
all the specialty restaurants charge a surcharge. I signed up 6 of us to do a “murder mystery” dinner one night – that was fun too!

Sunday the 8th and we arrived back in New Orleans our timing meeting up with the Chapman’s in the pick-up area was darn near perfect. This was Jim’s 3rd trip to the big easy in 1 week!

As if we hadn’t eaten all week – we stopped at the Isle of Capri Casino in Biloxi MS for their buffet lunch on the way back to Summerdale AL. Good price for their lunch buffet at only $7 and they had an ample selection; understand that at this point we are all pretty expert at buffet critiquing.

We caught up on laundry and hoped to leave Tues after picking up mail Mon – which didn’t show up, so we delayed our departure until Weds. That gave us time Monday to EAT again – this time it was at Firehouse Subs – yummy.
The 4 of us were joined by Linda B and Linda S and we shared memories of working at Amazon.com together. Then we all went to Billy’s Seafood to pick up several pounds of fresh shrimp – all the locals shop here and Bobbie had tested it last year so we knew it would be good. Billy's Seafood Staff
We got all that home and in the freezer ready for our Weds departure – and still had one more wonderful meal to go.

Dinner at the “Gift Horse” that evening was wonderful – this is one of the top 100 places to eat in Alabama, right in the little town of Foley. We dined with the Chapman’s and Dave & Claudia McGhee and Don & Barb Williams – great folks who adopted us the 1st night we arrived in AL. McGhee's & William's
They always had space for us at their table for any event at the clubhouse and they taught as a new card game! We can’t wait to teach it to the Class of 2007 rally later this month.

Weds the 11th and we are on the road again – headed for TX. Tonight we stopped in Broussard LA so we could tour the “Tabasco Factory” in the morning on Avery Island. This is the only place in the world where they bottle the various Tabasco Pepper sauces, the peppers are grown in several counties but all the processing and bottling are done here and have been since 1868. Interesting tour and we enjoyed the country store shopping as well. Tabasco Tour
Thurs we had planned to drive for a few hours only after the tour then on to Livingston TX on Fri – but with the rain and making good time we pushed on into the Escapees Park and Headquarters for the club at Livingston TX Thurs night.

Whew that’s a lot to cover for now! Safe travels everyone.