RV Dreamers - Exploring America

NFL Hall of Fame/Amish Country

2010-07-11T18:07:00.003-05:00

We've been in Millersburg Ohio a week today. We arrived last Monday and will be leaving tomorrow morning for Pennsylvania for a little more time in Amish country. We came to this area of Ohio to go to Canton Ohio to check out the NFL Hall of Fame. We didn't realize that this area in Ohio is also Amish country and we were pleasantly surprised as we really enjoy Amish country.

Several days the last week we've shopped around at all the little shops and flea markets in the area. And the Amish food is just terrific. We ate at Der Dutchman, Mrs. Yoder's Kitchen and the Duthman Restaurant. All were delicious homemade goodness and just excellent. Yum!

Friday we headed an hour east to Canton Ohio to see the NFL Hall of Fame. We were so close and Mark wanted to make a point of checking it out...and we had a really good time. We got to see the NFL from it's inception in the early 1900's up through today, including players, owners, coaches...you name it, it was there. After the 3 hour tour we made a pitt stop in the gift shop and Mark bought a 2010 NFL Hall of Fame Hat.

We've set outside most every night this week and enjoyed time around a campfire. It's just so relaxing and enjoyable. We've had a wonderful and relaxing week here in Ohio and we're looking forward to moving on to Pennsylvania Dutch country. We have a week planned near Lancaster Pennsylvania to enjoy the beautiful Amish farms, hills and mountains. Not much on the agenda other than enjoying the area and just relaxing...without a "To Do" list of things we'd like to see.

We've spent the last couple of weeks finalizing our last few weeks on the road before heading back home in late August. We're tentatively considering continuing east from Pennsylvania to Washington DC for a Christians United for Israel christian conference. We're not sure if we can make it or not...but it's on the radar. The only other place we're planning on spending a week this time out is Savannah, Georgia. There's so much history and things to see and do in the Savannah area that we're really looking forward to our visit there.

From Savannah, we'll head southwest towards Lafayette Louisiana to make a stop where we purchased our RV to get some miscellaneous warranty work completed. From there, a brief stop in Livingston, Texas for a visit with Chris & Love, get our mail from our mail forwarding service, etc., then...finally home. Some 4 1/2 months and 7,000 miles later!

Well that's a wrap for this update. We've had a wonderful time so far and can't wait to see what's in store for us next week! Until later~

Ford Museum/Dearborn Michigan

2010-07-04T18:13:00.003-05:00

We arrived in Dearborn Michigan this last Tuesday. We decided to head south to Dearborn so we could check out the Henry Ford Museum. There are actually two very large museums...one inside and the other outside. The museums are so large we had to break them up into two separate trips.

So this last Thursday we headed to the Ford museum and spent the day checking out the Ford Museum located inside a large building, several acres in size. Wow, we were not disappointed! There were so many things to see it's difficult to know where to begin. These museums housed unique and exotic cars as well as the Model T and many old antiques. But, cars are only a miniscule part of the Ford Museum.

There were large exhibits of everything from the 1930's and 1960's hotels and what they typically looked like; to an enormous exhibit of airplanes, representing Lindberg (who was very good friends with Ford), to Amelia Earhardt, etc. etc. There were wagon exhibits from 1700 through the latest wagons created; Railroad exhibits; A unique 'Home of the Future' built in the early 1960's, a house built with airplane metal material that could be dismantled to be moved. Obviously that idea never took off.

There was an exceptionally fascinating exhibit of Presidential limousines. The one that enthralled us was Kennedy's...the one he was actually riding in when he was assasinated in 1963. There were 4 other presidential limousines on display as well, including Eisehower's; Nixon's; Johnson's and FDR's. Whew, our first day at the Ford Museum items located inside was just awesome! We couldn't wait to check out the outside museum.

We didn't manage to make it back to the Ford museum until today, Sunday July 4th. The external exhibit is comprised of 88 acres of amazing items and actual homes that had literally been dismantled, brick by brick...board by board, and relocated to Dearborn Michigan, in the Henry Ford Museum.

Actual homes from the 1800/1900's taken apart and put back together in the Ford Museum included Ford's childhood home...and Ford made sure that literally everything was identical. It took him 13 years to find the correct heater to place in the parlor. Same wallpaper, flooring, furtniture--everything. Ford was very good friends with Thomas Edison and Edison's boyhood home; Edison's actual labratories. Ford was also good friends with the Wright Brothers. Ford purchased the Wright Brother's childhood home and had it reassembled at the Ford Museum. The Wright Brother's Bike shop was also moved.

In addition to these homes and workshops, there were so many other homes, from 1800 school houses, to a shack of an hourly worker from the early 1920's, to Ford's favorite teacher, and on and on...so many it's impossibly to list them all. But my goodness, what a sight!

We entered a tavern that was built in the 1800's and cooled off a bit. While there, we checked out their menu, as also served food. The menu was full of items directly from cookbooks from the 1850's. We took one of the menus--items on the menu that you could sit down and order included: Beef Pie; "Dressed" Tomatoes; and even "Vinegar Pie"! The items were a tad too expensive, so we decided not to stop for a meal...but boy was Mark ready to give it a try! He's certainly the adventurous one when it comes to eating new and different things, that's for sure.

Whew! So that's a "brief" summary of what we've been up to during our 5 days in the Dearborn Michigan area. Where are we headed next? Well, we're only a couple of hours away from the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, so Mark wants to head that way so we can tour the Hall of Fame. So we leave early tomorrow morning for Canton, Ohio. We're planning on spending a few days there before continuing on to the Lancaster, Pennsylvanio area to spend a few days in Amish country.

That's a wrap for this update. Happy 4th everyone. Until later~

Shipwreck Museum

2010-06-26T19:37:00.002-05:00

Initially this morning we had decided not to go anywhere today, but around noon we changed our mind and headed north 75 miles to Whitefish Point, Michigan to see the Shipwreck Museum. It turned out to be a perfect half day trip.

There were several buildings on the complex in addition to the shipwreck museum itself. We started by taking a tour of the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, which listed many of the ships that have sunk around the Great Lakes area in the last 150 years. There were lot's of relics from the various shipwrecks as well, which I found most fasinating. That's what I love most about thinks like this--it's the history, the people that were impacted, there lives and artifacts. Mark got lot's of pictures too.

We then moved on to the Whitefish Point Lighthouse. I enjoyed touring the lighthouse and the attached Lighthouse Keeper's home the most. The home is in the same shape and condition that it was when used up through 1932 when the lighthouse was shut down. Each room included information about how each was used, including pictures and personal items from the last keeper, and each member of his family. It even included manequins of each of the lighthouse keepers family, during their 30 years in the house.

We checked out the other buildings and walked down past the lighthouse to the beach, which is located on Lake Superior. We've now seen 3 of the Great Lakes, Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. After spending a few minutes on the beach, we decided to head back. We made a stop in St. Ignace for lunch/dinner and got back home around 5:00. It was such a lovely day with high temps in the upper 60's that we headed down to the beach here in the RV Park with the lawnchairs and the dogs and chilled a bit watching the sun set.

We had a great day today. We still haven't made it to Mackinac Island, it rained pretty hard all day the day we had planned on going. We're hoping to make it tomorrow, but will have to see if the weather holds up. So, that's a wrap for this update. We had a wonderful day today and hope you did as well. Until later~

Touring Mackinaw City

2010-06-24T20:12:00.003-05:00

We actually slept in this morning and didn't leave until around noon today, heading to the downtown Mackinaw City area. The first place we went was to the Old Mackinaw Lighthouse. We'd never toured a lighthouse before and I really enjoyed it. We toured the old lighthouse keeper's rooms, which included a living area, kitchen, bedroom and small dining area, including period pieces of how the lighthouse was furnished. We walked up to the top of the lighthouse, it was something like 72 steps, and obviously no overweight or larger folks must have ever lived in the lighthouse! I suspect anyone over 200 pounds would have a difficult time climbing the circular stairs and once to the top, the actual stairs to the lighthouse. Whew! But the view was worth it. Awesome.

We continued down the path to the Old Mackinaw Fort, which consists of 10 or so buildings. The primary purpose of this fort was for the fur trade. The French and Indians exchanged goods for furs beginning in the early 1700's. There were also several reenactments while we were there, including firing of one of the canons and the weekly trade and barter that occurred between the indians and french. All of the buildings in this fort were actually recreated as it was torn down by the British during the American Revolution and moved to Mackinac 'Island', where they felt much safer from Americans.

Afterwards, we headed to a local restaurant and Mark had the walleye fish platter and I had shrimp. We topped it off by sharing a piece of homemade bannana cream pie. Yum!! We got back home around 5:00 and called it a day. Our plans are to head to Mackinac Island tomorrow morning. We'll catch a ferry for a 30 minute boat ride across Lake Huron to Mackinac Island.

I've wanted to see Mackinac Island and the Grand Hotel ever since I first saw the movie 'Somewhere in Time', starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. I still have that movie. There's lot's of things to see on the island and we're thinking about renting bicycles to check it out, as no cars are allowed on the island...only horses, horse drawn carriages and bicycles. So, we're really looking forward to our journey tomorrow.

We had a terrific day today and hope you did as well. Until later~

We're in Michigan

2010-06-23T20:49:00.003-05:00

We left Minneapolis early Tuesday morning headed to the Mackinaw City, Michigan area to spend some time in the Great Lakes area. There's so much to see and check out and we're really looking forward to our time here. We arrived at a small town near Ecanaba Michigan yesterday as a half-way point and spent the night at a little RV park next to a casino.

With only a couple hundred miles to go today, we got a late start and since we moved into the Eastern time zone today, we really got a later start. But fortunately we still arrived at Mill Creek campground around 4:00 this afternoon and as soon as we got the RV set up we headed into town to try a Mackinaw pastie. They're kind of like meat pies. We'd heard about them and wanted to try them. They were ok...not sure I'd have another one, but I'm glad we tried them.

There's lot's of things we'd like to see while we're in the area. Initially we're only planning on staying at this particular campground until Monday morning. One of the first things I'd like to do is go to Mackinaw Island. You catch a ferry down the road from where we're at and they drive you over to the island. It's actually become some what 'famous'...Mackinaw Island is where the romantic/classic movie "Somewhere in Time" was filmed, a move with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymoure.

There are lot's of state parks, a lighthouse and lot's of other cool stuff we're looking forward to doing while in the upper peninsula of Michigan. We're excited and looking forward to our time here on the Great Lakes. We had a wonderful day today and hope you did as well. Until later~

Catching Up - Minnesota/Tornadoes

2010-06-23T20:28:00.003-05:00

Wow, I've gotten behind again. We arrived in Minneapolis last Thursday for a 4-night stay. We decided to go thru the area on our way to the Great Lakes area to spend a few weeks in Michigan. But, first things first.

Wow, were we in for a big surprise the day we arrived! Having spent our entire lives living in "tornado alley", we're not easily spooked or freaked out by thunderstorms...and even tornado activity. So when we received a knock on our door the afternoon we arrived in an RV Park in Minneapolis informing us of severe storms in the area, and informing us where the storm shelter was located, we were not originally overally concerned.....

With menacing clouds rapidly approaching our area and with no access to the local tv channels, I grabbed my laptop and went to the national weather service for reports. Then logged on to local weather stations and whew!!! We were surrounded by tons of tornadoes!!! Really.

Then, I started getting a little Freaked Out. There were confirmed F3 tornadoes (more than one) within 50 miles of our current location. Unfortunately, with all the news I received about the tornadoes, we didn't know the areas or towns where these tornadoes were hitting. Two of the towns we had driven through earlier in the day, both within 50 miles of our current location, had confirmed tornadoes from storm chasers.

The dogs were freaking out far worse than I had ever seen them...and they have meds for storms--so they were definitely picking up on something, as it hadn't even started raining yet and they were turning in circles, barking, panting and just basically freaking out. I thought we should probably go to the storm shelter but didn't appear anyone else was heading that way, and well, I wasn't really sure what to do--other than drug the dogs with their RX for storms that knocks 'em out for a few hours.

Whew! Boy did we dodge a bullet last Thursday!!! Turns out there were "37" Confirmed tornadoes in Minnesota that evening--the LARGEST NUMBER OF TORNADOES IN MINNESOTA HISTORY!!!!!! Sheesh!!! Murphy's Law huh? Can you believe here we were in Minnesota for only a couple of hours and we end up in the worst storm in their history.

What was really freaky for me, was the fact that Minnesota is a relatively SMALL state--compared to what we're used to in Texas, and to have 37 Tornadoes in such a tiny little state, you get a good idea of how close together each of these tornadoes were. Turns out the closest tornado was about 35 miles away, so we only had intense winds of 40-50 and heavy thunderstorms, but at least no tornadoes.

After surviving the worst storm in Minnesota history, the next day we just chilled and hung out around the park. The next day we took off for the Mall of America and spent the day checking out the largest mall in america. We had an awesome time. We spend 4-5 hours and I actually picked up a few blouses and a watch for myself. Mark needed a new wallet and we found one in a western store in the mall as well.

We just chilled our last couple of days in Minnesota, planning our next move and where we would be going and doing. That's a wrap for our Minnesota update. We'll never forget our time in Minnesota. Who'd 'thunk' that we'd have to leave tornado alley at home and travel to Minnesota to encounter the worst tornadic activity in our lives?

Until later~

Leaving South Dakota/Heading East

2010-06-16T18:21:00.002-05:00

We wrapped up our time in the Rapid City, South Dakota area yesterday. We had previously went to see Mount Rushmore, Custer, Black Hills Forrest and several other attractions, which I previously blogged about. A couple of days ago we took a trip to Deadwood to check it out. It's primarily known as the place where Wild Bill Hickock was gunned down during a card game.

We spent the afternoon walking around the town of Deadwood. It's quite the 'tourist' attaction for sure, which lot's of casinos and souvenir shops. We were going to check out the cemetery where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane were buried...but didn't feel the need to "pay" $10.00 each to get in! That's just a bit much.

It's time to move on. We left Rapid City early this morning and decided to stop over in Mitchell, South Dakota, which is the halfway point of our next stop...Minneapolis, Minnesota. Huh? Yep, that's right...Minneapolis. Why? We're headed towards the Great Lakes for some travel and decided to cut through the Twin Cities area for a couple of days. There's a nice RV Park/Huge Casino complex near there and also only a few miles down the road from "Mall of America".

I'm hardly a big shopper, but since we were essentially driving through the area, I thought why not? So that's where we're headed tomorrow. Actually, I think it will be kind of interesting to see the largest mall in America. I doubt we'll see too much of it, as we'll probably only last 2-3 hours of walking. But sounds like fun.

Exactly 'where' are we headed when we leave the Twin Cities area? After all, the Great Lakes area consists of several states! Well....hmmmmmm, we're not really sure yet. I've been doing lot's of research and think we'll probably spend at least a couple of weeks in the Michigan area, or, at least that's the current plan as of tonight.

Whew! I'm embarassed to admit I'm tired this evening. We drove 300 miles today and went and grabbed a bite to eat after setting up, so when we got back home I just crashed on the bed. Wasn't sure I had the energy to type this update! I know, I know...pretty whiney excuse huh? I don't expect any sympathy!

Well, that's a wrap for this update. Hope you had a wonderful day today. Until later~

Little Bighorn/Mount Rushmore

2010-06-11T20:04:00.003-05:00

I've gotten behind again. We finally left Yellowstone early Wednesday morning, and drove 300 miles to Garryowen, Montana to spend the night. We stopped at Garryowen because it's the location of the battle of Little Big Horn, where Custer and 270 of his men were killed by Crazy Horse and thousands of Lakota and Cheyenne indians.

We got to Garryowen by 1:00 and were set up and out the door by 1:30. We headed directly to the Little Big Horn National Park and were quite surprised how detailed it was. The battle actually occurred voer a 5 mile area, which is quite substantial when on horseback. The Park Service did an excellent job laying out the trails and outling the details. Small tombstones were erected where each US soldier and Cheyenne/Lakota indian were found. In addition, there were several monuments as well.

The tour took a couple of hours and afterwards, we headed to a neat little restaurant next to the Park and had Indian Tacos. Yum! It's like a sopapilla (mexican bread) with taco meat/beans, along with avocado, tomatoes, cheese. It was just delicious. I'm glad I ventured out (well, for me anyway)...and it was terrific!

We left Garryowen, Montana early yesterday morning heading to Rapid City, South Dakota to spend a few days at Mount Rushmore and the surrounding areas. By the time we arrived yesterday a huge thunderstorm was upon us and we weren't able to get the satellite dishes up before it hit. The dogs freaked out, I even had to pull out the old sedative and dose them up. Knocked Clyde out for hours, but not Duffy. He was still terrified. So we didn't get to check anything out yesterday.

We got a late start this morning and headed through Custer State Park and the Black Hills National Forest on our way to Mount Rushmore. You can actually see the monument of the Presidents as you drive through these tunnels dug out through the granite. We were really surprised with the Mount Rushmore monument. It has been continually built up for decades and now includes a large museum, couple of theatres, a large gift shop and lot's of other stuff. As you approach the monument, the first thing you see are all of the state flags as well. It was quite interesting.

When we left Mount Rushmore, we drove through Keystone, South Dakota, which is some what like Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Lot's of old fashioned stores, even an old saloon. We grabbed a bite to eat, walked around a bit and headed back home. We really had a great time today. Tomorrow we're planning on driving to Deadwood to check out the big gunfight Wild Bill Hickock had as well as the other 'touristy' type attractions. We also plan on seeing Crazy Horse too...we were going to today but just didn't have time.

We're not sure how long we'll be here. We're supposed to leave Monday, but really need to get the oil changed on the car, so the earliest we'll probably head out of here will be next Tuesday. Or...who knows, maybe we'll stay longer!

Until later~

Yellowstone & More Thoughts

2010-06-05T20:46:00.005-05:00

We've spent multiple days here in West Yellowstone locked up in the RV because of continued downpours. It was very cold and rained pretty much continuously for 3 consecutive days...until today! Whew! We felt like a caged animal by this morning. We've thought back and seriously can never remember being in this much rain, for so many consecutive days, until our visit to Yellowstone last week.

We actually had a little bit of sunshine between the clouds today and felt blessed to just see that. Ok, enough complaining about the weather! We didn't get a very early start today but decided come what may, we were going back to Yellowstone today. We had not yet even gotten to see Old Faithful blow, and we've been here for 10 days. We finally got to see Old Faithful blow today and also pretty much drove the entire park today, doing both the lower and upper loops today.

We saw lot's of wildlife again. Tons of bison, lot's of elk, numerous birds, a few ducks and swans, a beaver and most importantly, we had an opportunity to see a momma bear with her '3' little cubs just pouncing around and playing near her. They were soooo sweet. We weren't close enough to get good pictures of the bears, but the little cubs were so cute tumbling on and over moma. All in all, we had a nice day at Yellowstone today and feel like we've pretty much covered it all, or at least what we wanted to see.

After so much cold and rainy weather we've elected to skip Glacier National Park and head southeast to South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park. We're not sure how long we'll be in the South Dakota area, but probably not too long as there really isn't really much more that we're interested in seeing other than the Mount Rushmore area.

On a very sad note, I received word this evening of the death of a childhood friend. We grew up together and he was a grade behind me in school. He lived his entire life in the same house, next door to me. Even though I had moved away from home by the age of 20, I still saw Phillip regularly through all these years, when I'd stop by the house to visit my parents, or during the time we moved into the house to help care for my mom in the early 2000's. He had been quite ill for a long time, but nothing that should have resulted in his surprising and untimely death at the young age of 52.

Most of the friends I grew up with in the neighborhood are all gone now as well, as well as my brother. It kind of makes my comments on the last blog update even more appropriate. It's just a really sad day today...the thought of touring anything seems a bit pointless right now.

Well, I hope you have a good evening. And don't forget how precious and short life really is. Ever since my cancer several years ago, the first thing I think every morning before crawling out of bed, is "Thank you heavenly Father for allowing me to have this day." Just seems to mean a bit more right now.

Reflections

2010-06-02T16:28:00.009-05:00

While in St. George, Utah a few weeks ago I mentioned that we discovered the roof of our RV had a tear in it. Most fifth wheel RV roofs are made of rubber and you have to be careful to avoid hitting any trees or anything else that may tear the roof. We think out awning blew backwards in high winds and caused the tear...but regardless, we had a tear large enough to require 1/3 of the roof to be re-roofed in it's entirety resulting in more $$$ than we had hoped.

While in Provo, Utah last week I mentioned that we had packed up early one morning and were ready to hop in the cars and head to Yellowstone. But, when we brought the slides in and stepped out to lock up the RV, the stairs literally 'fell' off. We had noticed they had been getting lower and lower to the ground over the last several months but just hadn't but 2 and 2 together so to speak, and unfortunately didn't address the problem before it became a big problem. You don't think of steps as being a big issue until you realize you can't get in or out of your 'home' without a 3-4 foot drop, making even trying to take the dogs out for a walk difficult. So we stayed in Provo and Mark went to an RV supply store found our 4-step stairs and installed them. Then, on to Yellowstone.

Which brings me to today. I was fixing a bit of lunch when there was a knock on our door. It was the man next door who asked if we were aware we had a flat tire on our trailer. Uh.....nope, didn't know that either. So, rather than run a few errands and buy some much needed groceries, Mark raised the trailer, removed the tire and took it to a tire store near Yellowstone to get it plugged and then brought the tire back and put it back on the trailer. We've put quite a few miles on this trailer in a short period and will have to replace them within the next year for sure, meaning quite a bit more $$$.

I mentioned last week that I had heard that things always seem to happen in "3's". Well, let's hope it stops at three anyway! In the last month we've had to have a 1) New Roof; 2) New Stairs and 3) Tire Repair. Actually, I realize that we are very blessed that this did not happen while driving 60 mph down the freeway...which could have caused serious damage to the trailer, and possibly injuring or killing us or someone else and that's the only thing that really matters isn't it? And what's more important than our health?

All in all, this journey we're on has indeed been life changing. We're getting to do and see things that we never thought we'd be able to do, certainly not until much later in life. Which brings me to one of the primary reasons we elected to take this journey now, rather than wait until we were 'officially' old enough to retire and it was age appropriate, say--maybe 62 - 65.

Had we waited until when we were "supposed" to retire, would we have been healthy enough to even do it at that time? If not, we would have had such regrets and disappointment, wondering what could've, would've been had we not waited. We've seen this happen to so many people. It's the Journey...not the Destination that counts. Our motto is Seize the Day! Carpe Diem!

We are by no means in a position where we'll be able to actually retire permanently at this point in our lives and we've known that from the beginning. Based on our life experiences, from the death of my immediately family within 5 years (father, mother and brother), to my cancer battle many years ago, we've discovered one thing for sure...Life is Short. Enjoy it. Embrace it. And most importantly Thank God for it. And never, ever take a single day of this precious life for granted.

And we're not.

New Pictures

2010-06-01T00:44:00.003-05:00

I've gotten so far behind on loading our pictures since we were in LA/Hollywood through our first few days here in Yellowstone. But I spent most of the afternoon and night working on them and I've finally completed and downloaded our pictures into new slideshows. I've loaded new slideshows for:

1) Teton Nat'l Park/Jackson Hole
2) Yellowstone Nat'l Park - #1
3) Reagan Library (When we were in LA)
4) Warner Brothers Studio (Took a Tour while we were in LA)

I've added the 4 new slideshows and they can be found on the right hand side of the blog. Whew! What a chore. I'll never let our pictures get that far behind again, that's for sure! (I know, I know...pretty 'whiny' excuse for work huh?)

Enjoy!

Tetons National Park

2010-05-31T20:38:00.003-05:00

What an unbelievable day. I know I say that too much, but I simply can't think of a better way to put it! We got a really early start today because we were going to take a long day trip from our location here in West Yellowstone, to Teton National Park. The only way to go is through a portion of Yellowstone, as the Tetons are actually an extension of Yellowstone that begins at the southern exit of Yellowstone.

We drove 275 miles today and though it was a busy day, we had such fun. We began our journey at 7:00 this morning by entering the West Yellowstone entrance and driving 70 miles from West Yellowstone to the Southern Yellowstone exit, then entering the Grand Tetons. Suffice to say the views of the Tetons did not disappoint.

In addition to the many glaciers that still exist within the park, there were also a couple of old homesteads from 125+ years ago that included original cabins and various other extended buildings including barns, wagons, etc. We got to walk through all the various areas and it really brings you back in time. Just standing in these areas I kept thinking that the people pictured lived and worked...in this very space, some 125 - 140 years ago. It kind of brings you back to that moment in time...it's one of the things I enjoy most about this lifestyle. I enjoy the wonderful views, scenery, and 'things to do' so to speak, but it's the actual history of each place that captivates me.

After driving through from the north to southern exit of the Tetons, we were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We parked the car and walked around for a couple of hours. It's a quaint, old town with the majority of buildings being National Historic Landmarks, filled will all kinds of quaint, wonderful little shops. Of course we had to get a picture of the elk horn terrace that are located in a few places within Jackson Hole. It's an actual arch of elk horns that Jackson Hole is known for.

We had to make a stop in Cadillac Bar, which I had seen on the Travel channel. The bar stools are actually saddles. Guess you just belly up to the bar and rather than plop down on a bar stool...just climb up on one of the saddles. Of course Mark had to get my picture doing just that. We shopped through the Jackson Hole local museum and saw lot's of memorabilia from the past. There were a couple of beautiful parks in the center of town, along with a stagecoach that would drive you around town for a mere $6.00 each, (but we passed on that).

By then it was close to 1:00 and we were starving. We had packed us a picnic lunch and drove back towards the Tetons at the entrance to Jackson Hole where there was a beautiful picnic area and stopped there for our picnic. After getting our bellies full, it was time to head back as we had a good 140 mile return and lot's of stuff to see heading south back through another section of the Tetons. We did see a coyote that had apparently snared a squirrel and he was snacking on him...we weren't able to get pictures in time though, darn it.

We had thought about possibly stopping by Old Faithful to see if we were close to the next anticipated geyser, but it was approaching 4:00 in the afternoon and we had left the dogs at home for such a long time that we decided to defer checking out Old Faithful as well as all the other Yellowstone geysers until Wednesday.

We've had Lot's of snow, sleet and freezing rain since we've been here. That's why we basically didn't do anything Saturday & Sunday...if it wasn't snowing, it was freezing sleet or freezing rain. The temperatures have been quite cold (well to us anyway)...the temps during the day have been in the low to mid 40's and in the upper 20's or low 30's at night. Brrrrrr!!

Based on tomorrow's forecast, we'll probably make a visit in town of the Grizzly Bear/Wolf sanctuary. Other than that, we'll probably just chill tomorrow. We've yet to really check out any of the Yellowstone geyers, springs and waterfalls. We hope to head to Yellowstone Wednesday for our first full day of tourism.

Well folks, that's a wrap for this update. We had a wonderfully blessed day today. We are very blessed to be able to take the time to see all the wonders God has created. Until next time~

Wildlife Galore

2010-05-28T21:35:00.003-05:00

Yellowstone is proving to be as terrific and wonderful as I had hoped it would. Suffice to say it has not disappointed to date, and we have barely scratched the surface.

After taking a drive to Old Faithful for a quick look around the afternoon we arrived, we stayed home yesterday due to extensive rains and it's quite cold here. Well, I should say it's quite cold for 'Texans'. We stopped by the market this afternoon and were told temps drop to (-20) - (-40)...and that's not wind chill, but actually temperatures. They said that Yellowstone 'only' had about 5 Feet of snow this winter. Wow, I was freezing today with temps in the low 40's, rain and wind of 20+, the wind chills were off the chart for us.

But on to the important stuff--wildlife! To sum up today's wildlife in one word-- Awesome!! We decided to hold off checking out all the thermal activity and geyers today and take our babies (Clyde & Duffy) through the park and just look for wildlife. And we were certainly not disappointed.

Shortly after entering the West Entrance to Yellowstone we came across a couple of large Bull Moose. Their antlers were still covered in velvet and they were just beautiful to watch. On down a bit further we came across the first of many many Bison. One of the sweetest things I've ever witnessed was watching the new Bison calves being nursed, right next to us...within 10 foot of the car. Yellowstone is currently saturated with baby Bison calves right now.

On a couple of occassions, the Bison were within 2 feet of the car, so on one occassion I rolled down my window and lifted up Clyde so he could get "up close and personal" with them. It was hilarious!! Clyde acted like he Didn't See Anything!! What a hoot! This little chihuahua isn't dumb, that's for sure. Not a peep out of him...just acted like he was staring at the sky as the bison walked right by the car door and window, within 3 feet. Soooo cute.

We drove thru a part of the park called Norris, and on up to Mammoth Springs. It was there that we saw our first Bear. He was probably a juvenile and had silver hair. He was just taking a slow stroll from one side of the road, across to the other. There must have been 30 cars around along with a Park Ranger. So we pulled up behind a car parked on the road and Mark jumped out with the camera as the bear reached the middle of the street and just starts snapping pictures. Mark was probably within 10 - 12 feet from him and the bear wasn't the least bit fazed by the 40+ cameras snapping pictures of him. We watched him amble on up the hill on the other side until he was out of sight.

At the far northern end of Mammoth Springs as we began our drive south back towards West Yellowstone, we passed some of the most breath taking scenery we've ever seen. There's still lot's of snow at 8,000 feet and the views of the pristine snow with large pine trees look so tranquil and peaceful, like a picture on a Christmas card. The varied scenery during today's 120 mile drive in the park was just spectacular.

As we approached the end of our journey today we passed another blocked section of road with countless people off too one side. Mark made a quick u-turn and parked and we saw a rather large Grizzly bear on the other side of a stream. He slowly mingled and meandered his way along the river beds next to the water for a long time. We both got out and watched him for several minutes but the rain and cold weather finally forced us back to the warmth of the car.

We also saw Elk, Deer and numerous birds today and along with our Grizzly Bear, Black Bear and Bull Moose proved to be quite the wildlife outing. We were quite fortunate today as many visitors come to the Park and never see a bear. The only wildlife we've not yet seen are the wolves. But we still have 11 days here in Yellowstone, so you never know!

Tomorrow's forecast predicts highs in the 30's and low's in the lower 20's with 60% chance of precipitation, so we're planning on making some homemade soup and cornbread, and bundling up inside tomorrow and just watch tv and veg out. We stopped by the grocery store this afternoon and picked up a few groceries including stuff for a picnic on Monday.

Looks like Monday is a perfect weather day to head back and we plan on getting an early start and spending the entire day checking out many of the geyers and Yellowstone Lake as well as some of the Falls and who knows, maybe lot's more wildlife opportunities. We took very few pictures today, primarly just of the bears we saw. We'll kick our picture taking into high gear when we head back on Monday and we're really looking forward to finding a nice quiet location with spectacular scenery (easy to find in Yellowstone) for a picnic.

Well, that's a wrap for now. We had a wonderful day today and can't wait for our next trip into Yellowstone. So, until later~

Provo to Yellowstone

2010-05-26T19:53:00.006-05:00

We left Vegas early Monday morning and arrived in Provo Utah Monday afternoon. We went from 90 degree days in Vegas to 40 and heavy snow showers as we approached Provo, wow what a change in weather. We were up early the next morning, had the RV packed up, the cars packed and ready to go...but when we went to lock the RV door and push in the steps, the steps broke off--completely! Ugh! And we just had the roof repaired the previous week. When it rains it poors I guess--(not that you should feel 'sorry' for us under the circumstances!)

Well, it didn't take long before we realized that we pretty much had to stay in Provo and get the stair repaired, as it's a 4-5 foot drop off from the front door to the ground. So we set back up, unpacked everything and Mark started checking around RV supply stores and finds the correct stairs and by later afternoon, he had the new stairs in and we were ready to leave this morning.

We were packed up and heading out of Provo by 7:00 this morning. We made great time and arrived in Yellowstone National Park by 2:00 this afternoon. After getting settled in at Grizzly RV Park we headed to downtown West Yellowstone, which is a quaint little town that we're really looking forward to exploring over the next 2 weeks. But first things first--we were starving having missed lunch. We found a nice little restaurant in town and had a terrific meal.

After filling our bellies, we decided to locate an information center to get information on Yellowstone. We're only a few blocks from the entry to Yellowstone and before we knew it, we were inside the park on our way for a quick visit of Old Faithful--totally unplanned. We didn't even have a camera. But wow, we sure weren't disappointed. The drive to Old Faithful did not disappoint for sure. We saw so many bison and on a couple of occasions, there were actually herds of bison on the roads bringing all traffic to a stand still as they strolled down the middle of the road. This time of year there are lot's of baby calves as well and they were sooooo cute. The bison were only a couple of feet from our car on several occasions. Just amazing!

Ok, enough about today. We're so glad to finally be in Yellowstone, I've wanted to see this park for many years. We've decided to slow down the pace a bit and as I mentioned earlier, we'll be here for 2 whole weeks. We hope to see all areas of the park...but it is huge so more about that later. Well that's a wrap for now, I'll try to update more regularly while we're here. In the meantime, we had a wonderful day and hope you did as well. Until later~

Back in Vegas

2010-05-22T21:52:00.002-05:00

We decided to leave LA a couple days earlier than originally planned. I had forgot to previously mention that the RV Park we were staying in, is without a doubt the worst park we've ever stayed in. Good grief it was just hideous...but there weren't really any other options within 40 miles of the park and we didn't realize how run down this park was until we arrived. Suffice to say the pictures and feedback we had read didn't do this park justice so to speak--it was far worse than anticipated.

So last night we discussed heading out a couple days earlier than we had originally planned, especially since we disliked the park we were in and the electric had went out our second day and Mark walked down to notify the office and they never came. Fortunately Mark found the reset switch on the electric company box but we just didn't feel comfortable leaving the dogs in the RV and going out, so we decided to go ahead and leave early this morning.

We got an early start hoping to miss the majority of the LA traffic and with it being early Saturday morning, we didn't run into any problems. We made great time and arrived back in Vegas, at the same RV Park and we were even able to get our same spot from last week. We're going to stay tomorrow as well and head north towards Salt Lake City early Monday morning.

We have a reservation in Yellowstone National Park beginning Wednesday, so we'll be traveling for 3 consecutive days this week...which I'm not really looking forward to, but hey--I've always said "It's the Destination--Not the Journey"!!! Well that's a wrap for now, we had a wonderful day and hope you did as well. Until later~

Busy Busy in LA

2010-05-21T00:00:00.005-05:00

Wow, where has the time gone? We've been in Oxnard, a suburb of Los Angeles, since Monday. We've had a great time while we've been here, but quite honestly, we really couldn't handle living in LA on a long term basis. I'm not sure how these folks do it really. I thought Dallas traffic could be difficult...having driven to and from downtown Dallas for 30+ years I thought I was 'comfortable' in traffic--Not!!! But, let me back up a bit and fill you in on what we've been up to.

We got up early Tuesday morning and headed to Simi Valley to see the Reagan Library. Awesome!!! Without a doubt the best Presidential Library we've ever seen, hands down. It's very organized with multiple levels and things to see. The most amazing things were 1) Presidential plane used by Reagan; 2) His limousine, and motorcade of vehicles; 3) Reagan's burial site overlooking the unbelievable gorgeous mountains and 4) A miniature size identical model of the White House.

We were simply awestruck by the Presidential plane. It was a 707 and we were able to see everything from the actual cockpit seating, to the kitchenette, the Presidential Office, the First Lady's Office, Press Area, Key Staff member area, etc. They had some of Reagan's key trip detail laying out showing how the trips are detailed. It was just amazing.

I can't say enough about the miniature size White House. It is made to scale, exactly...one inch to one foot. It's been kept updated for 45 years by the same artisans. It's a literal working home. For example, identical chandeliers actually light up--the light bulbs are the size of a grain of rice! It's that detailed. You can look through the windows and see the private quarters and the tiny miniatures of the Obama's family portraits. It takes 1,000 hours to redo a single room when updated. It's constantly being updated. We were able to see the Blue Room; Red Room; Lincoln's Bedroom, etc. We were just amazed at the detail.

There were so many other things we enjoyed about this Library. An exact replica of the Oval Office when Reagan was in office was there as well. The views from the Library looking over Simi Valley leave you speechless. And of course, lastly we stopped by his gravesite, which overlooks the valley. It was just an all around wonderful day topped off by a stop at Jersey Mike's. It's a famous Deli we had seen on a Food Network show about top deli's around the country. Yum!! Mark had a Philly sandwich and said it was better than the original we had while in Philly last year. I had a ham/cheese with Mike's famous 'sauce' and loved it too.

Whew! We decided to "take off" yesterday and just chill with the dogs. But we were up very early today and headed off to Warner Brother's studio for a backlot tour of the studio. Oh my gosh...where to begin. This tour was the most highly recommended tour in Hollywood for several reasons--the tours are very small and detailed, only 8 at a time and you ride around the miles and miles of the studio in a large golf cart type vehicle.

We were first taken to the set of Two and A Half Men. We found out the shooting 'season' for television is from August thru April...so we just missed it. But we were given a behind the scene look at the set, how the live audience works and how the cameras are angled, etc. We were really surprised just how "small" the sets really are. They explained how the camera angles are designed to make the streets look larger. After a detailed tour of Two and A Half Men we moved on to the Props area. Wow!

There are literally acres and acres of buildings just to build the various sets and associated decoration. They took us through the saw mills; plaster mills; art department...you name it and we saw it. We were really impressed with the demonstration of "how someone is shot" and how they hook up the device to make it appear as real blood oozing down the shirt. They use miniature, tiny explosions that are attached to a plastic bag. When the miniature device is pressed it explodes, causing a hole in the clothing and with the bag above the explosion, it slowly oozes out. Just amazing.

We went on to the Hollywood backlots and saw countless sets that have been around for literally decades. Shows from Casablanca, to John Wayne moves, all of the Harry Potter movies, the Batman movies, and on and on. Then we were taken into the Warner Brothers museum...no cameras allowed and saw two floors of costumes and various movie props from Harry Potter, Batman, my goodness--so many movies from the last 50 years I can't begin to remember them all. Whew! What a tour! It was a very 'touristy' type thing to do and not something we would normally do--but well worth the time and money for sure.

Lastly, we were headed to a cemetery just a few miles down the road to check out the many famous actors who were buried there. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a Nightmare! It was apparently in downtown LA and we didn't realize it...not a good place to be during the week. I have never, ever seen traffic remotely that bad--even during huge traffic accidents over the years driving to/from downtown Dallas. There was no parking at the cemetary once we got there and it took us an hour just to get out of the downtown area. And the drive to get back to the Oxnard area was almost as bad. I cannot begin to describe the way people drive here. And there is NO need for blinkers in LA--they should just have the blinkers removed from ALL vehicles in LA because No One Ever Uses them!

I think we'd have been safer trying to scoot around the Daytona 500 during a race! Seriously. But, all in all--it was a terrific day. We've had a great time here in the LA area. Tomorrow we're driving up highway 1, which is right on the coast, up to Malibu and taking the dogs with us. We're hoping to get them out on the beach, they've never been on the beach and it'll be a hoot if we can.

We're tentatively leaving here Sunday morning for Yellowstone National Park. It's a 4 day drive, and now that I follow Mark in our Ford Escape, I'm not looking forward to that much driving, but I'm glad we went ahead and came back to California to see the Library and a little bit of Hollywood as well.

Our plans are to spend two weeks in Yellowstone. From there, we're not sure where we're headed as we're still undecided about the summer. So, stay tuned. Whew! Sorry for the long update--but we've been busy! I hope you had a wonderful day today...we sure did! Until later~

Winding Up Our Time in Vegas

2010-05-15T23:08:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow is our last day in Vegas, but let's back up a few days. We took a short drive out to Hoover Dam a few days ago. We had seen Hoover Dam 7-8 years ago when we took a short trip to Vegas, but the weather was really soupy, so to speak and we couldn't really tell anything about it. Having spent the previous entire day on the Last Vegas strip we thought it would be a nice change of pace.

Construction of the Hoover Dam began in 1931 and was completed 4 years later in 1935. The dam was constructed because of frequent flooding of the Colorado river in the 1800 and 1900's. The water from the dam had to be equitably divided between seven states, including Mexico. In 1999 it was named the number five construction achievement of the 20th century. President Franklin D Roosevelt dedicated the dam on September 30, 1936.

In order to get a detailed look, we decided to take a tour. We were taken down several floors underground and were shown the various aspects of the building followed by the visitor center and many artifacts. It was also a beautiful drive over there as well. All in all, we really enjoyed our visit to Hoover Dam and learned a lot as well.

We went back to the Vegas strip today and spent several hours. We went into many of the hotel casions and shopped around. Mark took lot's of pictures along the way as well. We gambled a couple of hours and only lost a small amount which was good--we never expect to come out ahead when gambling. We hoped to stay out long enough to get some pictures of the strip at night but 8 hours was about all we could handle...I guess getting 'old' takes a toll on your joints and aching feet after awhile! We're hardly big gamblers, so I doubt we'll do any more for at least a year.

As for our future plans, you may remember that last year we were headed to Simi Valley in California to see the Reagan Library when Clyde ruptured his ACL and we rushed home for his emergency surgery. We've decided that since we're only a day's drive away we'll head back to Simi Valley one more time to check ou the Library. We haven't decided if we'll head north from there, or turn around and head back east through Vegas towards Yellowstone.

We were recently contacted by our tentative workamper location in Glacier National Park and told that we would need to work a minimum of 40 hours weekly plus overtime as required for the park during the summer season of June-August, leaving us little time to enjoy the area...that really caught us offguard and we're not sure what we're going to do. If we wanted to work 40+ hours weekly right now, we'd just get fulltime jobs at home! We told her we'd get back with her and give her an answer later this week. Just wish she would have made that clear last March when we interviewed for the jobs. Oh well, that's life.

Well that's wrap for this update, hope everyone had a terrific week--we certainly did. Until later~

Gladys Kravitz

2010-05-12T22:38:00.004-05:00

Remember the old 'Bewitched' series from the 1960's? If so, remember the first Mrs. Kravitz on the show? She was Samantha Stevens neighbor and was always spying on them and trying to find out as much as she could about them and what was going on inside their home. Well, guess what? We've got a Gladys Kravitz next to us here in this RV Park in Vegas!

Yep, that's right. Actually, at first it was kind of amusing for Mark and I but later, the more she talked it became quite evident that she's missing a few 'marbles', or something. We got a knock on our door around 9:30 a couple of nights ago and this lady appeared at our door explaining she was in the motorhome next to us. It was quite cool outside with high winds so I invited her in. Big mistake!

She's probably in her mid 60's and was probably trying to be neighborly, in her own way. She had brought over a piece of cake and some type of greeting cards. The first thing she wanted to know was "how to spell our name" Huh? Well, it got stranger from there. She wanted to know the "Year" our kids were born...hmmmmm, ok. We first thought maybe she was trying to sell the cards once she explained she had made them herself and handed them to me. But no, that wasn't the case either.

She went on to say that when she had knocked on our door she "hoped she could get in to get a look at our RV"...Huh? Wow, this was really getting strange. She talked for at least 45 minutes. She would be in the middle of a sentence and then start tapping her head really hard and forget what she was talking about and just changed subjects. She finally was leaving and then insisted that we come over and see a picture of a $16,000 purse she had taken on the Vegas strip?? I explained I couldn't I had to make an important call. Well, that didn't work...she was insistent, so we went next door for a few minutes.

Things continued to get stranger by the minute. She continued forgetting what she was talking about and changing subjects and hitting herself on the head. At one time she went from discussing cookies to telling Mark--"Hey, I have just the thing for you! Check this out and then showed Mark a special hearing aid device for listening to the TV. Huh? I tried really hard not to laugh...of course, Mark doesn't have a hearing problem. We finally got out of there. Whew!

Back home only a few minutes, a knock on the door. She wanted to give us a printed copy of a picture of this $16,000 purse. Ok...thanks I guess. She came back again knocking on the door for something else a couple more times--I can't even remember them all by that time. By 11:00 p.m. she had finally left. I told Mark to remind me not to be so neighborly in the future!

She was back first thing the following morning but Mark explained I wasn't feeling well (just couldn't handle her quite that early). Fortunately, appears she has new friends across the street now. Yipppeee! But seriously, it was quite evident something was wrong with her and we really felt sorry for her. It certainly didn't seem like dementia or Alzheimers, but there was something wrong. She was in a very expensive motor home and drove a nice Mercedes Benz. But bless her heart, she was a sweet lady but she obviously had some kind of problem.

P.S. I can say I now have a new found respect for Samantha Stevens on Bewitched.

Viva Las Vegas Baby

2010-05-12T00:28:00.004-05:00

What a hectic couple of days we've had since arriving in Las Vegas. It's been exciting, fun, frustrating and a little bit 'scary'...yep, scary. First things first.

Frustrating - As we were pulling out of St. George yesterday we discovered we had a tear in our roof. Mark climbed up and after checking it out discovered that a relatively large piece of our rubber roof cover top had been torn. We're not exactly sure how it happened or how long it had been there. So as soon as we arrived in Las Vegas and got settled in we called for a local RV repairman to come out. The bad news is it's going to run around $600 for repair. Unfortunately, looks like our insurance won't kick in since we elected to have a higher deductible since we rarely seem to need insurance. Murphy's law I guess. They're supposed to be out early tomorrow morning and the front 1/3 of the roof will need to be replaced. It's supposed to take a couple of guys 5 hours for repair...a lot of work I guess. Oh well, 'stuff' happens huh?

Scary - As soon we got our roof situation handled after arriving we headed out for a bite to eat. Afterwards we decided to have our mail forwarded to us from our mail forwarding service as we needed to get our new car tags. After locating the Post Office in Vegas that handles 'General Delivery' mail, we headed down there to get the mailing address. Since it was on the far end of the Vegas strip (the side that is much much older and quite run down and well, 'seedy' you might say). There wasn't really any where for Mark to park so I hopped out to go in and get the Post Office mailing address. And...

Within 30 seconds of entering the Post Office all "HELL" broke loose! A young guy in line started screaming and cussing at a female attendant behind the counter. Instead of being afraid she starts screaming back at him and they were 'both' cussing each other out. Then the guy walks to the front of the counter saying "I have a gun in this pocket b#$@ch and I'm gonna kill you"!! He then proceeds to jump over the counter and a security guard comes out of no where and he starts yelling and pulling the guy off the counter and slamming him against the wall!!! The guy screams out "you don't have no f^^$%ng gun but I do to the guard". They're dialing 911 as this happens.

The young guy and security guard start wrestling around and pushing each other and he keeps telling everyone he has a gun and reaches in his pocket. I was so shocked I didn't do anything! Just stood there frozen like an idiot instead of running. Sheesh. Guess I'm not good in emergency situations huh? The security guard pulls the guy out the front door and you could still hear them both screaming at each other. Then I didn't know whether to leave or not and guess what another mail attendant said to me then? Welcome to downtown Vegas! Can you believe that? Even the female attendant didn't look scared and me? I'm thinking I've been in Vegas for 2 hours and I'm gonna get shot if not killed!

After getting the PO address I shot out of there where Mark was waiting in the car. After telling Mark what happened we realized that what happened was a federal offense, entering a Federal Building and saying you have a gun?? I don't know if the dude did or not...but I told Mark that from Now on--HE can go in these places, I'll wait in the car. I honestly haven't been that afraid since I was actually robbed when I was 16 years old working in a Pizza place. Whew, I won't forget this day that's for sure.

Fun & Exciting! Finally. After leaving the Post Office coming back down the strip I recognized the Pawn shop on TV. It's called Pawn Stars and I just had to go in and check it out. Awesome. I recognized several of the items from the TV show and we both enjoyed it. This morning, we were up early and on the strip by 9:30. We spent the entire day on the strip and went through many of the hotels including Paris Paris, New York New York, Monte Carlo, MGM, Caesars Palace, etc. We did a little gambling, not much. Seems like I always end up on the plus side and Mark on the negative. We figure our net loss for the day was around $15.00. Not bad for several hours of gambling huh?

Tomorrow our roof is being repaired and we need to stock up on groceries, etc., so we'll take the 'day off', so to speak. We're planning on taking a short trip to check out the Hoover Dam this week. We saw it many years ago, but it was so foggy we didn't get to see much. We also will go back to the strip for pictures...decided not to bring the camera today. We'll be here a week in order to get our mail delivery so we probably won't be heading out of here until next Monday.

We're considering a possible change in plans once we leave here. Stay tuned and once we make a decision, I'll update the blog. So, until later~

Zion National Park

2010-05-09T18:23:00.003-05:00

We've been in St. George, Utah since last Wednesday and we leave tomorrow for Las Vegas. We've been some what surprised how warm it is here. But it is southern Utah and St. George is only a couple of hours from Las Vegas, which reaches 110+ in the summers. We've since discovered that St. George also reaches temps in the 100's in the summer.

Across the street from our current location is a large mobile home area. It's also part of the same park. It's actually quite nice...they're all attached and look much nicer than a typical mobile home type park. We discovered that St. George is a mecca for snow birders--folks who spend their winter in a warmer area. Having said that, we're ready to move on.

We were some what disappointed with Zion National Park. We've become some what spoiled with the natural beauty the last several weeks. Especially after Moab and Cortez. We got a late start yesterday and arrived at Zion National Park. You can only enter the Park via a shuttle bus. They pick you up near where you've parked and there are 7 different locations in the park that you can be dropped off or picked up.

We did hike the lower Emerald Pool. It's a little more than a mile and once again, I found that I have to stop every few minutes just to catch my breath. Gosh I had no idea how out of shape I was. When we do get back to Dallas, I'm joining 24 Hour fitness to try and get back in decent shape again. But I digress. We also took a break at Zion Lodge and grabbed a bite to eat. We spent a half day in the park and we got a few pictures. Certainly no where near as many as we have recently though.

Utah scenery in general is just breathtaking. We discovered that on our drive in to Moab from Cortez, Colorado. We found the views in Zion National Park to be like those on our way into Utah. Maybe we've seen such awesome scenery in places like Arches National Park in Utah, seeing Zion National Park is just a tad disappointing. But all in all, we enjoyed our time here in St. George, Utah.

We're really looking forward to a few days in Las Vegas. Being only a couple of hours away, we thought it would be nice to spend just a few days and check out the new additions to the strip since we were last in Vagas, 6 - 7 years ago. Neither of us are big gamblers for sure--but we really enjoy seeing the recreation of areas like Paris, France and Italy, etc. We'll probably do a tad of gambling, for a couple of hours. That's usually all we do before calling it quits.

Well that's about a wrap for now, we leave tomorrow morning for Vegas. We've not yet decided whether we will stay at an RV Park on the strip, or stay at Lake Mead, which is an hour away and just drive in and enjoy the lake as well. Guess we'll know by tomorrow night, huh? Lastly, Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there. If your fortunate enough to still have your mother around--know that you're blessed. I sure wish mine was still around to wish a Happy Mother's Day to. Until Later~

Glorious Arches National Park

2010-05-05T23:50:00.007-05:00

Well, I'm a few days behind schedule on posting. We're now in St. George, Utah to spend a few days in Zion National park. But let's back up to our last day in Moab, Utah a couple of days ago.

We initially went to Arches National Park in Moab, Utah last Thursday but encountered a freakish unanticipated snow storm. That didn't deter us spending the day enjoying the Park but we elected to hold off taking pictures until there were sunny skies so you could better see the true magnificient of the sandstone formations. And boy were we not disappointed!

On our way to Arches we first stopped by a diner so I could get an ice cream fix...chocolate waffle cone--Yum! Once satiated with my chocolate fix, it was on to the Park. Once past the visitors center, it's a 34 mile drive from the entrance to the end of the park. However, there are several side roads off the main street and we went down each and every sidestreet to ensure we didn't miss anything.

Since we already had some 200+ pictures of the Moab mountains, including Canyonlands National Park, several scenic byways that included petroglyphs, we wanted to limit the pictures taken at Arches to only those we considered a must have. We still took 100+ pictures! It's that gorgeous. The rock formations are so unique it's difficult to describe them.

There are several huge arches in the park, along with various named rock formations including "The Three Gossips", and the "Garden of Eden". In addition, we took several pictures of the first rancher in the area, who resided in a small log home with thatch roofing. The house as well as his rudimentary corral is still standing. It's really fascinating to see structures like that...it's like going back in time 100 years. The original table and sparse furnishings were still in the home.

We also took a couple of small hikes up the mountains to get a better view of some of the formations. Well--I should clarify, I took on one of the hikes and only made half of that one and decided to just wait for Mark to complete the hike up for pictures. The second hike Mark took on his own...I decided there was no need to attempt the second hike, I was still trying to catch my breath from the first one! (After all, it was 7000 feet above sea level!)

I've posted some of the Arches park pictures in the most current slideshow on the left hand side of the blog. Our week in Moab wasn't enough to see all of the amazing scenery and parks, but it was time to move on.

We packed up this morning and continued our trek west to the Zion National Park area to spend a few days checking out the park. Unfortunately, we were going to see Bryce Canyon National Park as well but discovered we are too far away to visit right now. We had planned on staying in Kabab Utah, but after checking out the RV Parks in person, they just didn't live up to our expectations or as advertised, so we continued on another 80 miles to our current location in St. George, Utah.

We'll be in St. George, Utah through Saturday for sure and possibly a little longer. We're tentatively planning on heading to Las Vegas for a few days once we leave St. George. But we haven't given up on seeing Bryce Canyon National Park either. We'll be driving back through the Bryce Canyon area once we leave Las Vegas and plan on spending a couple of days in the area so we can visit the Park.

Well, that's the latest for now. We drove 400 miles today--way too many for me! That wasn't our initial plan, but once we decided to continue on to St. George, our travel day extended too long. Ok, enough 'blabbing'...it's late and I am exhausted. We had a great day today--and hope you did as well. Until later~

Canyonland National Park

2010-05-02T18:38:00.003-05:00

We got a late start yesterday before leaving for Canyonlands National Park. We finally headed out around 11:00 and first planned on stopping by Dead Horse State Park, only to discover there wasn't much to see really. So we continued on another 17 miles to Canyonlands National Park. It was on our list of To Do's before leaving Moab. Wow! I can't believe anything can make the Grand Canyon look small--but Canyonlands certainly does.

Canyonlands is 35 miles west of Moab and is the largest national park in Utah. The various areas of the park staggers the imagination. It is divided into three districts by the Green and Colorado Rivers: 1) Island in the Sky; 2) The Needles and 3) The Maze. Only Island in the Sky can be seen without the use of 4x4 vehicles. Each was named for their most prominent geologic characteristics, these districts are quite varied in what they have to offer.

The Island in the Sky section that we visited sits atop a massive 1500 foot mesa, quite literally an Island in the Sky. Twenty miles of paved roads lead to many of the most spectacular views in southeastern Utah. From these lofty viewpoints, visitors can see nearly 150 miles in any given direction, resulting in panoramic views that encompass thousands of square miles of canyon country. There are many hiking trails.

We did hike one trail, the one mile round trip to the Mesa Arch. Wow, it was really difficult to hike into the Mesa Arch. It's 6500 foot above sea level so I had a difficult time just trying to catch my breath. In addition, it was a much steeper climb than the park brochures indicated. The hike was classified as easy, huh! If that was an easy hike, I'll eat my shoe! Needless to say we didn't do any more hikes during our time in Canyonlands.

We had a terrific time yesterday in Canyonlands National Park. We took today (Sunday) 'off' and plan on going back to Arches National Park tomorrow to take pictures. We were there last week but there was a snow storm, and we didn't get any pictures. Tomorrow's supposed to be a sunny, warmer day so tomorrow we're off to Arches. Hopefully we'll have lot's of good pictures of Arches.

Tuesday it's chores day, laundry and getting stuff ready and packed for our travel day this Wednesday. We leave Wednesday and are heading to a city near Zion National Park. We've not yet decided exactly where we'll be staying...guess we'll figure that out one way or another, by Wednesday afternoon for sure! Well, that's about a wrap from here. We had a terrific day and hope you did as well.

Until later~

Beautiful Moab

2010-04-29T22:08:00.003-05:00

What a wonderful day. We got a later start since we spent a couple of hours this morning trying to come up with some kind of draft of where we're headed after leaving Moab, until our arrival at Glacier National Park on June 12th. That gives us about 6 weeks to get there and lot's of places we want to see, hence the need to at least draft our next several weeks.

Once we got that behind us we were out the door, heading to Arches National Park. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate and the first half of the day and the majority of our visit to Arches was spent in a snow storm. Yep, that's right a snow storm. Ironically, it was semi sunny an hour before. It actually began when we stopped for gas on our way to Arches. We were first hit with sleet pellets and by the time we arrived at Arches, the clouds were gathering.

So no good pictures of Arches today. We did take a few as we were leaving the park and plan to head back Monday to get some great shots. Once we left Arches, we headed for one of the scenic drives recommended in the travel brochures. We got lot's of good pictures from the scenic drive and combined with the few we were able to get at Arches, I've posted them to our blog. Check out the Moab Pictures slideshow on the left hand side. Just double click on the slideshow to enlarge the pictures.

We stopped by a local brewery on our way home and grabbed a burger. Mark had a couple of their homemade brews and we headed home, kicked back and chilled. Considering we were in an unexpected snowstorm earlier today, who would have thought this would turn about to be such a terrific day?

Well that's a wrap for this update...we had a wonderful day today, and hope you did as well. Until later...~

Short Travel Day to Moab, Utah

2010-04-28T20:13:00.003-05:00

Since we moved into the Mountain Time Zone last week, we're slowly beginning to move our hours back in the direction they should be. I wasn't crawling out of bed until 9:00 - 10:00 on some mornings! Yikes, almost half of my workday was behind me by this time in my 'old' life. I've been setting the alarm the last week so we could get going on our site seeing adventures. Well, it's apparently worked. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. this morning without an alarm clock. Just like I used to do--it's like the brain knows what time to get up even when you're sound asleep.

Anyway, I was up very early this morning and grabbed some coffee and sit back to watch the news. Around 6:00 Mark got up and by 7:00 we had pretty much everything in the RV packed up and ready to head out. We were leaving Cortez, Colorado this morning, heading to Moab, Utah.

Before heading out this morning, we knew we would be cooking most days during our week in Moab, and since they don't have many grocery stores there we headed to the Walmart in Cortez this morning to buy our weekly groceries. We were back home and still had everything packed away and heading out by 9:00 a.m. this morning.

We only had a short 120 mile trip today from Cortez to Moab. The drive into Moab was absolutely, breathtaking. Mark and I were exchanging "OOHHHHHH and AWWWWW's" on our walkie talkies the last hour of the drive. Many many westerns, movies, and TV shows including Touched by an Angel were filmed in the southwest area of Utah. The scenery is not like anything either of us had ever seen. The stone formations were unlike anything we've ever seen. Just gorgeous.

We rarely make reservations because in this lifestyle you're really never sure exactly where you'll be on a given day, but we just squeaked by today. We almost left empty handed with no place to stay! Thank goodness we traveled on Wednesday. Had we arrived on the weekend or Mon/Fri we would not have had a place to stay. Countless RV Parks were full, but we finally found a place, got settled in and everything hooked up and then headed to the Utah Information Center to pick up lot's of brochures and info of Moab, Canyonlands and the surrounding areas.

Suffice to say we'll be quite busy this week. We plan on spending tomorrow at Arches National Park. The area is full of unique sandstone structures, on the Colorado River. We'll be spending several days checking out different areas of Canyonlands National Park. It's huge--makes the Grand Canyon look small. We also want to see Dear Horse State Park--several movies were filmed there and the scenery is just spectacular (notice I keep saying that? Can't think of a better adjective!)

Mark grilled a ribeye steak for himself and I had a hamburger pattie (don't care for steak believe it or not). It's Wednesday evening now and we've kicked back just chilling--anxiously waiting for tomorrow morning so we can go check out these places and take lot's of pictures. I'll post pictures tomorrow evening if I get a chance. Well, that's a wrap for us...we had a wonderful day and hope you did as well!~

Durango Silverton Train Ride

2010-04-27T23:31:00.002-05:00

We got up very early this morning and were out the door at 7:00 a.m. We had a one hour drive from Cortez Colorado to Durango for our 1/2 day train ride to Cascade Canyon. During the winter season, the Durango Silverton train only runs a 52 mile round trip excursion. But it turned out to be just about right for us.

We had a wonderful time on the way down there. We sat the entire time in one of the outdoor observation rail cars and stood the entire two hour trip to Cascade Canyon. The views were obviously spectacular and the pictures uploaded via the slide-show to the right, simply can't do it justice.

I had wanted to go on this train for many years and was really glad we finally had the chance to do so. Having gotten up so early (5:00 is early for us these days!), combined with the rolling movement of the train on our return, I found myself dozing off a few times. But since we had a chance to see everything on our trip down, I didn't miss anything. (But I did do my usual "bobbing" of my head when I get sleepy that *Billy/Julie and Mark make fun of me doing!!) Fortunately, we had put the camera away and Mark didn't get any pictures of the bobbing this time!

To top off a wonderful day with terrific weather and sunshine, when we got back to the train station we stopped next door for an ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. Yum!! Wow, we had never had an ice cream from this place before and boy were they terrific! I had a chocolate cone and Mark had a vanilla one. Suffice to say they probably had a gazillion calories, but it was our 'dinner' as we were too full to eat anything else once we got home.

We've really enjoyed our short stay here in Cortez, Colorado, but it's time to move on. We leave tomorrow morning for Moab, Utah. We're tentatively planning on staying a week in the area and spend a day at Arches National Park and a couple of days checking out Canyonland National Park, which is huge.

Well, that's about a wrap for us...we had a wonderful day today and hope you did as well! Until later...~

Mesa Verde Nat'l Park

2010-04-25T23:28:00.004-05:00

We arrived in Cortez, Colorado yesterday, Satruday April 24th. We're staying at the Cortez KOA campgrounds. We got up early this morning and headed to Mesa Verde National Park, which is only a few miles down the road from where we're staying. The backdrop and views from our campground are phenominal as well. We can also see the Rocky Mountains, still snow-capped as well.

Mesa Verde National Park was a wonderful experience. We saw lot's of wildlife, deer, countless birds and surprisingly, a herd of wild horses. They're apparently all quite used to humans as none of them run off when they see you. We have several pictures of the wild mustangs and deer included in our slide of the Park, on the blog for you to check out.

Now, as for a few details about Mesa Verde National Park. The park is considered America's premier archaeological wonder. National Geographic Traveler even named Mesa Verde as one of the top 50 things in the world that one "must see" in a lifetime.

The beauty and complexity of the homes and villages speak eloquently of the ancient peoples who built them. Walk into any of these spectacular cliff dwellings and hear the wind whispering through the shadowed rooms. The walls radiate noise and you can hear distant voices from other areas of the ruins. I don't think anyone visiting the park could not come away untouched by the experience.

Until recently, these ancient people were called Anasazi. Today, they're referred to as Ancestral Puebloans, forefathers of the people who now live along the Rio Grande River and the high mesas in New Mexico and Arizona. The Park comprises 52,000acres of amazing canyons, and home to falcons, eagles, deer, coyotes, bobcats, bear, mountain lions and wild stallions.

As for our journey today, in order to actually enter any of these cliff dwellings, you must join one of the National Park ranger led tours. We initially decided to go to both the "Cliff Dwelling Palace" and "Balcony House". After checking out the surrounding areas and Pitt-rooms some 2,000+ years old, we arrived for our Cliff Dwelling ranger-led tour. Wow! What an experience.

The Park Rangers indicated the tours were 'somewhat strenuous'...especially since we were at 7,000+ feet above sea level. Whew! For awhile there, I thought I may end up spending the night there, it was sooooo difficult getting out! Initially, you work your way down several levels of stairs, all uneven and hand-made. I thought, sheesh--piece of cake, getting down. I got this thing covered! Well, uhhhh...that was until the End of the tour and we had to CLIMB out.

The ranger led tour was wonderfully help, quite interesting and we really thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I had no idea just how difficult it would be climbing out of that sucker. We had to climb up 4-5 sets of wooden ladders and additional stone stairs for a total of probably 10+ flights of stairs, to get out. The steps between were quite high as well. Throw in the fact that we were at 7,000+ feet elevation, and it's a wonder I ever got out of there.

Of course, Mark patiently walked behind me...not even appearing winded--at all! I on the other hand, was Gasping for air. I had to stop several times on the way out to try and suck in a little air. I actually thought I might have a heart attack before I got out of there. Whew! That's without a doubt the most strenous thing I've done in 10+ years. Really.

We had tickets for a follow up tour of "Balcony House". However, we were informed it was much more strenuous than the Cliff Dwelling Palace. So did we go to the second tour? Uhhhhhh....hmmmmmm, let me think a minute here--Not!! At that point, it was after 3:00 and I was exhausted, very tired and hungry. So we called it a day and left. We stopped for a bite to eat and then came back 'home' to our RV and I crashed on the bed with our babies for a few hours of rest.

Overall--we had a wonderful time at Mesa Verde National Park. We're really glad we did it--another item crossed off our "bucket list"! Tomorrow, we're planning on driving an hour from our current location in Cortez, to Durango and riding the Durango Silverton train. It's an entire day trip up there and back with lunch included.

We should have more updates tomorrow or the next day. Be sure and click on the Mesa Verde Nat'l Park link on the left side of the blog to look at all the pictures we took. **Oh yea, BE sure and check out the picture of someone's "rear-end"!! That unfortunate individual is me. Yep, Mark had the audacity to take a picture of me trying to climb up one of the many ladders getting out. I told him I couldn't believe he did that--that was down right cruel...so I decided to include it so you could see for yourself! Suffice to say it's a terrible picture--but my wonderful husband took it. (See what I have to put up with...??)

Well that's a wrap for today. We hope you had a wonderful day today--we certainly did!!~

Lubbock to Albuquerque

2010-04-23T19:02:00.005-05:00

We left Lubbock this morning heading to Albuquerque for the night. Not long after entering New Mexico, the winds really kicked up and temperature started dropping. I quickly remembered why I do Not like New Mexico weather! Last year we spent a couple weeks in New Mexico, and the winds continually blew 40 - 50+ mph constantly.

The winds were so bad last time that the toppers on our slide-outs were ripped out (it's kind of like a material awning above the slide outs of the RV)...well, guess what? Yep, that's right--it happened again. Ugh!!!! Within an hour of entering New Mexico, one of the toppers blew out again, so we'll have to get it repaired some where along the way once again.

In addition, the temperatures continued to drop from the mid-60's in Lubbock, to the low 40's by the time we made it to Albuquerque. About an hour outside Albuquerque we hit I guess what you'd call a 'blizzard'. Really, a blizzard. The flakes were so small at first I thought I was driving into a mass swarm of small insects. I actually called Mark on our walkie-talkies to ask him what it was! The mountains in the distance were almost white in color. Imagine snow blowing at 50 mpg. You couldn't see the mountains it was so white.

Well we successfully maneuvered through New Mexico, the wind not withstanding, and arrived at an RV Park just outside of Albuquerque and will spend the night here. We'll be leaving here early tomorrow morning, heading to Cortez, Colorado to spend a few days. We're tentatively planning on spending some time in Mesa Verde National Park and driving to Durango, Colorado to check out the area and possibly take the Durango Silverton train.

We've spent five of the last six days traveling, so we're looking forward to spending a few nights in one location. Both our babies (Clyde & Duffy) travel really well. Both sleep in their little doggie bed in the front seat, though Clyde does ride on my lap some as well (did I tell you Clyde is one really spoiled "and loved" little Chihuahua??) Well, that's about it for today. I hope you had a terrific day--we did. Until later~

We're Finally On Our Way!

2010-04-21T22:13:00.003-05:00

We finally began our journey north today. We made it to Lubbock this afternoon with no unexpected surprises this time. It was a rather uneventful trip, which was great. We had planned on stopping over in Snyder, Texas for a visit with family. Unfortunately, all RV Park in the area were booked for some kind of pipe fitters activity, so we pulled over and made an 'executive' decision on what to do next.

One of the wonderful things about this lifestyle is that changes like this aren't a big deal any longer. I told Mark yesterday that we were fortunate that we weren't on a schedule vacation, like the old days when I was with Ma Bell...we lost a day, no major problem--just make a new plan.

We decided to continue on to Lubbock this afternoon and drive an hour or so back to Snyder tomorrow for a visit with my aunt. We're not sure if we'll be here more than a couple of days--that will depend on how my aunt is doing. She's having a very difficult time with her memory these days, so we'll just play it by ear and see how it goes. From here, we head to Cortez, Colorado to visit Mesa Verde National Park and the Durango, Colorado areas.

We also made some adjustments to our upcoming travel plans as well. We've added a few more stops along the way in our trip to St. Mary's, Montana. We're tentatively going to see Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park and a short stop in Las Vegas to check out the new attractions since we were last in Vegas several years ago.

Well, that's about it for now. As always, our plans are in 'jello'--(one of my favorite parts of this entire journey for sure). Hope everyone had a wonderful day, we sure did. Until later...~

A "Lucky" Breakdown?

2010-04-21T21:57:00.004-05:00

Ever heard of a "Lucky" Breakdown? We had one. Yep, that's right--we were lucky. How's that possible? We were on our way back from Lake Livingston and a vist with Chris. We were headed to West Texas for a short visit with family...and about halfway, the truck engine overheated and started an automatic power-down. I was following Mark in the Ford Escape as he limped off the freeway, and Guess what was directly across from us as we moved on to the service road?

A Ford dealership! Yep, that's right. What are the statistical chances of having an engine failure, with only enough time to pull off the highway and the very exit you must take--has your vehicle's dealership (in our case Ford) right in front of you! Is that awesome or what? I mean, if you're gonna have a breakdown on the road, it couldn't possibly go any better huh?

As we pulled into the dealership the service manager comes out and immediately explains that his diesel mechanics are back up thru Friday, with a 3 day backlog! Ouch! Mark explained our situation and asked if they could tell us if it were at least safe to drive some 100 miles back to Dallas. The dealership manager was present and told us they'd work us in that day, due to our circumstances.

It took the dealership 4 hours to make the repair, and fortunately we had just purchased our Ford Escape, so......rather than having to wait outside the dealership in hot weather with both dogs (Ugh!) we had our other vehicle and went to grab a bite to eat. At least we were comfortable in our airconditioned car!

We made it back to Forney late Tuesday afternoon, got set up and were relaxing by 7:00 that evening. Whew! What a "great" day, huh?

Travel Plans

2010-04-18T21:09:00.004-05:00

We've made our tentative plans for our journey to Glacier National Park for the summer. We're supposed to be at our workamping summer job in mid-June. That gives us 7-8 weeks to get there and more importantly, time for a little site seeing along the way. We've mapped out our tentative travel plans for the next several weeks as follows:

1) Snyder, Texas - Visit with relatives
2) Cortez, Colorado - Mesa Verde National Park
3) Durango, Colorado - Durango Area and Train
4) Monument Valley, Utah - Monument Valley, where many western films were made
5) Moab, Utah - Arches National Park;
Badlands National Park
6) Jackson, Wyoming - Grand Tetons National Park
7) West Yellowstone, Montana - Yellowstone National Park
8) St. Mary, Montana - Glacier National Park
St. Marys RV Park - Workamping Location

Of course, there will be changes along the way...but at least we have a draft as we begin our journey. As always, more to come--stay tuned~

On The Road Again

2010-04-18T00:11:00.003-05:00

Finally! We ended up staying home in the Dallas area much longer than anticipated, but between all the "To Do's" we needed to accomplish in selling the parent's home, getting both our boys moved and settled in different cities, getting our must keep stuff into storage--along with all the things necessary to help Mark's parents over the last several months, and tons of other things, we feel good about getting out of town as quickly as we did!

Last Wednesday was our 33rd wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary Mark!! We left Thursday morning for an RV Park on Lake Livingston, in Livingston Texas. It's very peaceful and quiet here...we're really enjoying this park. Mark spent today fishing, not sure he had any bites, but he really enjoyed fishing...says it's relaxing. (As for me, my idea of relaxing doesn't involve sitting in the hot sun, staring at a pole, and reeling in those slimey little guys!) We do enjoy sitting out in the evenings just before dark and spending a couple of hours just enjoying the silence and stars. What a life, huh?

We drove to Brenham yesterday to spend the day with Chris and Love and took them for an early dinner before heading back home to our spot on Lake Livingston. One of the reasons for staying in Livingston is so we could drop by Escapees, which is an RV organization that also has a mail forwarding service that we just started using a few weeks ago. We dropped by today to pick up our mail not realizing they were closed on Saturdays. Not to worry...our schedule is always flexible! So we'll probably hang around here one day longer than anticipated to pick up our mail before heading out. We'll most likely leave here Tuesday morning for Snyder Texas, to visit with my aunt and cousin.

We plan on staying in Snyder for a few days to help my aunt with various things and once we leave, we'll be heading to Utah. More to come on our travel plans in a future update. Oh yea, I followed Mark to Lake Livingston Thursday, he was towing our fifth wheel, and I followed in our new Ford Escape with both our 'babies'. It drove just great and the gas mileage was almost 30 mpg! We're really happy with the new 'addition' to the family (knock on wood!). Well, that's a wrap for this update. Stay tuned...~

New Purchase/Plans

2010-04-12T00:55:00.005-05:00

We've had a problem with our transportation needs since we moved into this lifestyle in February 2009. We sold Mark's small truck and returned my car when the lease was up, leaving us with only the Ford F450 tow vehicle for the last 14 months. That works out great on actual travel days when we're moving our 'home' on wheels to another location, as we travel around the country. However, we've come to realize that it's a Big problem when we're not traveling.

We've been back 'home' in the Dallas area for 5 months now, (far longer than anticipated) and have accomplished lot's and lot's of things. But we've had to do it with only one vehicle on most occasions. We were fortunate enough to have Mark's dads car for use and with us for a couple of months while here. But it's become clear that we can no longer go on with only one vehicle. To make matters worse, we've piled on way too many miles on our tow vehicle, just running errands, getting groceries, etc. So, we finally came to the realization last week that we simply had to buy another vehicle so that our tow vehicle was used only for towing purposes.

So, we finally 'bit the bullet' so to speak. We just purchased a 2008 Ford Escape. It's a small SUV and a 4 cylinder and we'll get really great gas mileage and we got a great deal. The only bad part for us is that I'll have to drive the vehicle behind Mark as he pulls the trailer. I really enjoyed travel days and enjoying the scenery while we crossed the country (when not nodding off...!) On travel days, we'll split the babies--Clyde will ride with me and Duffy will ride with Mark. Once we've reached our new location, the truck is parked and never driven, unless absolutely necessary. We hope this will significantly prolong the life of our tow vehicle and it should ultimately save us money, since the truck only gets 8-9 miles a gallon!

Last but not least, it will be a Much more comfortable ride around town too! Well it's Sunday night, and we're planning on finally heading out Thursday morning. We'll be going to Lake Livingston for a few days and visit with Chris and Love. From there, we'll head north to spend a few days with my aunt in Snyder, Texas. From there...we're heading north. We'd like to check out a few places in Colorado, see the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, ultimately ending up at Glacier National Park in Montana in mid-June.

Of course we'll keep the family posted as we roam this summer, so stay tuned!!

Plans and Analysis

2010-03-28T22:44:00.004-05:00

Though we've known for sometime that we will be working for a small RV Park at the entrance to Glacier National Park, in St. Mary Montana this summer, we've not actually set down to begin working out travel plans. I spent several hours this evening beginning an outline of where we'll be going and what we're interested in seeing in our journey north. And Mark and I spent some time tonight reviewing the draft.

We've not yet even clarified exactly when we'll be leaving the Dallas area. Of course, part of the joy of this lifestyle is the flexibility it allows. Even when we move to full-time jobs, it's quite possible our jobs will not be in Texas. Having spent our entire lives in Texas, outside of the occassional vacation, we're interested in spending time in areas outside of the state. We've discovered that plans in this lifestyle are frequently in 'jello'...they can and do change frequently.

We hope to have our final activities here at home finished around the 10th of April and head out around that time. Our tentative plans at this time are to first head south to spend a few days on Lake Livingston, Texas, giving us a chance to see our older son Chris and his wife. We've also set up our mail forwarding service with Escapees, which is headquartered in Livingston, Texas, so we'll have a chance to get our mail and packages before heading north.

From Livingston, Texas we'll be heading north to Snyder, Texas to spend a few days with one of my aunts. I was quite close to her growing up--she pretty much clothed me until I was in the 8th grade, as my dad drove a truck and we had little money. She was almost like a second mother to me. She's in her early 80's now and needs more help than I believe she realizes right now. So Mark and I hope to help her and her son out, (and he's in a wheelchair), with various things they need done around her home. From there, we begin our real trek north.

I spoke to our boss for the upcoming summer the other day and she indicates that the roads to the entrance to Glacier National Park are currently being targeted to be opened on June 12th. Unless more snow occurs, we should be able to access the RV Park, Johnsons of St. Mary, where we'll be working, around June 10th. So we should have 6-7 weeks northward to enjoy during our trip to St. Mary's.

We definitely want to spend a week in the Creede/Durango Colorado area, checking out the area and things to see. We'll continue north to Bozeman for a few days. The only other definite at this point, is that we really hope to spend a couple of weeks in Yellowstone National Park. Of course, during early May there will be lot's of snow left, but we don't have time to wait for warmer weather before going, since we need to be in Montana in early June. We've heard that some of the best times to see wildlife, with bears, wolves, moose, etc. coming right into the RV campground. (And fear not...our little chihuahua Clyde is with us. No bear or wolf will dare tread near our RV...you can bet on that!! lol)

We'll do lot's of research of places to go and things to do and see along the way. We're really looking forward to moving on. We've spent 5 months back in the Dallas area--much longer than anticipated, but we accomplished much, including the sale of my parent's home, moving both our sons to different locations, helping with elderly parents, etc. We've also had a chance to spend time with family, as once we leave here, we won't be able to head back home for several months--we checked today and it's 2700+ miles from Dallas to our summer job in Montana.

Our workamping job is thru September 15th, so we'll tentatively begin our trek southward in mid-September. We're excited and looking forward to the adventure. The great thing about our job this summer is that it provides us with a free campsite and electric, along with an hourly salary and a free meal each day too! The good news is this will really help our budget, as we'll have little expense this summer, since our 'rent' and food are covered, along with an hourly salary--allowing us to put a bit away as well.

We weren't really sure if we would enjoy this lifestyle when we began, but we've discovered it is indeed much cheaper and enjoyable (for us) than living in a home. Even if your home is paid for, you still have all the taxes on your home, along with insurance, gas, electric, etc. Heating/cooling our 360 foot cocoon, isn't very expensive. Considering neither of us had ever been in an RV, much less slept in one...we really did take a 'flying leap' of faith when we did this didn't we? February 16th was our one year anniversary in the RV, and we can say that we absolutely made the right choice, for us. In fact, it was one of the best decisions we've made in a long, long time.

Of course, this lifestyle isn't for everyone, but it has really worked out well for us. There was a huge weight lifted off our shoulders after doing this, and we weren't expecting that. Paying off every credit card, vehicles, the RV, truck, etc., and getting rid of most of our 'stuff', was quite 'freeing' and gave us much more control on how much we must spend each month. The only mandatory expenses being campground fees (if not workamping), food, insurance and cell service.

The current economic state of this country would have made it impossible for us to have continued living in our old home, with our big mortgage, new vehicles, credit card bills, cable, phone, electric, gas, cell, etc. etc. Everyone in my organization with AT&T was laid-off by the end of April, 2009. They shut down the entire organization. Mark was laid-off in January of 2009. We would have lost our home, cars, and everything else since we would have been unable to make any where near enough money as required to keep our head above water.

With the current economic times, our combined salary would have been far less than half of what we required--once again, making our decision a wonderful and timely one. With the hideous new Healthcare Bill (i.e., Obamacare), it appears the healthcare that I and so many other retirees "earned" after working more than 30 years, will be whacked out from under us...thank you Mr. President. AT&T announced last Friday that they are "reviewing" retiree healthcare and that changes are anticipated. Looks like AT&T will be dumping retirees into the federal system. I get soooooo ticked off thinking of the direction of our new 'socialist' country...but, that's for another blog entry, so I won't get on a tirade here. Suffice to say I'm a christian/conservative--I know that's no longer the 'popular' thing to say--but I don't give a flip. And YES this country was founded as a Christian Nation...I don't care what our president says. "Nuff said".

As for our decisions--No regrets. We're very blessed, quite fortunate and looking forward to what God has planned for us as our future unfolds. Stay tuned...~

This-n-That

2010-03-24T23:13:00.002-05:00

We didn't get much done today. Bought groceries. Grilled some burgers. Unfortunately, our fryer broke today. Of course, I guess it's a good thing from a health standpoint. Baked potatoes are a lot better for you than fried! We'll probably purchase a small one to replace it before we head out in the next couple of weeks.

One of our neighbors drop by for a visit earlier today. We had a nice visit and he brought over a bottle of wine. How thoughtful. The folks in this little park are quite friendly. And I think Mark has probably met and knows almost everyone one of them! Mark's kind of like a puppy dog...likes everyone and never meets a stranger!

I touched base with our workamping boss for the summer. Kristin owns Johnsons of St. Mary's, which is the RV Park we're supposed to work in this summer. It's located at the entrance to Glacier National Park and we've met lot's of folks who have been there and just loved it. One of the ladies in this Park told us yesterday that she had been there and it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. We're really looking forward to checking it out. And Kristin is just a hoot. She has a sister that lives in Tyler, Texas and is always making comments about "Texans". She told me today she was buying lot's of hairspray and bobby pins with stars for her visit here next week. Lol. She's a nut and should be fun to work for. Of course, neither of us have ever workamped, so we'll just have to see how that goes.

We've also got another To-Do marked off the list. Mark was hoping to get his dad's car sold, and sounds like our brother-in-law was able to get it done. That was really good news. Not sure if they'll be able to find a wheel chair accessible van to replace the car, but that's the plan. Maybe they'll be able to get it all worked out before we leave.

We weren't able to take Jason out to eat for his birthday in March, so we're picking him up Saturday for lunch. He's asked to go to Saltgrass, one of his favorite places to eat. I'm glad we'll get to visit with our 'baby' one last time before heading out as well. Guess that's a wrap for now. Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Progress and Plans

2010-03-24T01:10:00.003-05:00

The house finally did sell, we closed on it a week ago. We've gotten so many things done in the last few months, but it seems the old To Do list just keeps on growing! Even though I'm officially 'retired' from management...I find I can't get away from To Do list. Guess after 30+ years, some habits just can't be broken. I've come to accept that I'll always continue doing some things, even those I'd rather not--whether habit or not. Anyway, our list is growing smaller.

We're still not sure when we plan to try and head out of here. We had initially targeted the first of April, but that doesn't look too promising right now, as we have a few things to do and appointments that take us into the first week of April. But, fortunately we don't have to be done, or outta here...or well, anything else on a specific day. That's what I just love about my new life. I know I'll have to work somewhere, as will Mark. But I'm no longer tied to a job that consumes my life. A job that determines in many ways what we can do and when we can do it.

Paying off all our credit cards and other bills, and paying cash for our 'home on wheels' and truck, do provide a freedom that I really wasn't expecting. Kind of like a weight lifted off your shoulders, that you really never knew you carried. Or, at least not to the extent it was bogging you down. The thought that we don't "have" to make a specific amount of money to survive is such a relief. Especially in today's day and age when the likelihood of anyone obtaining a job making the kind of money they did on a previous job is almost impossible.

The only things I miss from a 'sticks and bricks' home is: 1) Taking a long hot soaking bath once and awhile and 2) A fenced in backyard for the dogs. Other than that, we're pretty much happy as a lark in our little cocoon.

We're planning on heading to Livingston Texas for a week when we leave here. There's a wonderful little park on Lake Livingston that's just gorgeous and we're looking forward to a week there. Mark wants to do a little fishing and we'll be fairly close to Chris so we can drop by and visit them while we're at the lake. From there, we're heading to Snyder Texas so I can spend a week with my aunt, helping her out. She's one of my mom's older sisters and is in much worse shape than I realized. I'm hoping I can help her get a few things straightened out and settled before we move on.

From there we may move through Odessa, Texas. My mom was one of 11 girls, and many of them lived in Odessa. The oldes one is now 96 and lives in Odessa. I'd like to see her one last time if possible. From there? Who knows. Guess we'll figure that out when the time comes.

Well, that's about all I have for now. So, until later...~

We've FINALLY Completed Our Move/And Hopefully Sold the Home!!

2010-02-27T01:01:00.004-06:00

When we first returned to the Dallas area last October, our primary goal was to move all of our stuff from my parent's home and place in storage and then attempt to sell my parents home. It's an older home that would need extensive work before it could be placed on the market and purchased via a loan. So our only choice was to sell the property "as is", so to speak.

We've located a buyer and had tentative plans on closing March 1st, however, we've run into additional legal issues. With this being my parent's property, attempting to coordinate everything with my brother's family, the purchaser and the title company, has been challenging for sure. We're not actual sure if this deal will go through or not...guess we'll know for sure in the next week.

Regardless of whether we sell it, at Least we finally have everything out of the old home, either in storage, or marked for a future garage sale or stuff to pitch. We've faced so many challenges to get to this point. Both of our sons and a daughter-in-law were living there in October. We had to assist one in moving to Brenham, Texas with his wife. We helped the other get moved to a North Dallas apartment. Since they couldn't be out of the house until after Christmas, we were basically in a "hurry up and wait" mode for 3 months. Ugh. The only good thing about that was 1) It's so "cheap" staying in this local RV Campground right outside of Forney, that we saved lot's of money and 2) We had ample time to spend with family and Mark had time to help get his folks moved into new assisted living and residential nursing homes.

Whew. It's such a huge relief for us to have this ordeal behind us. We had no idea how many challenges we'd face getting everyone moved out and set up. Now, if only this deal doesn't fall through, we'll be free to move on with our plans. We've not yet decided when we'll be leaving and heading North. Most likely some time in April. We'd like to spend a few weeks in Colorado before arriving in Montana for the summer.

Well, that about wraps up the latest for us. We're keeping our fingers crossed on the sale of the home!!!

WHERE on Earth Have We Been???

2010-02-03T21:53:00.002-06:00

Ok ok ok...so no excuses! Bad blogger!! Bad bad blogger! Several folks have asked about the blog, or rather--what happened to your blog? The last time I updated it we were leaving Bar Harbor, Maine. We were in some what of a hurry to get back home to get some personal things taken care of, so didn't seem necessary to update the blog...I mean, we weren't exactly site-seeing, ya know?

Obviously, we've been back home (mostly), for a few months now. We're trying to wrap up a few final things so we can hit the road without some of the worries we encountered in 2009. I'm in the process of selling my parents home and moving what few things we're keeping to storage. With our son Chris and his wife recently moved to Brenham, Texas and our other son Jason moving to an apartment in North Dallas, there's no longer any need to keep the house--well, that and the taxes, insurance, etc. We hope to have everything wrapped up in the next couple of months.

We're tentatively planning on heading to Colorado in early May to spend a month. *We also recently accepted a job workamping at a local campground in St. Mary, Montana. This campground is at the entrance to Glacier National Park and 18 miles from the Canadian border. We're supposed to report the first week of June, but understand the campground may not open until mid/late June, depending on when the snows clear out and roads are opened. We checked the annual summer temps and the average high's are 75 in July/August with low's in the upper 40's...I think that would be great for a change. Personally, I'd never spend another 'summer' in Texas if I could avoid it...I absolutely hate Texas summers and the 100+ degree days we must all endure.

We're excited about spending the summer in Montana. It's a really remote location. We're definitely bringing our passports along and plan on spending some time in Canada (including taking our RV across the border for a few 3 day getaways) on our days off. Here's the link to the campground we'll be working at this summer: www.johnsonsofstmary.com

On the home front, I recently took a bad fall (tripped on an electrical cord in the trailer...Ugh!!) (I think Mark pushed it out just hoping I'd trip over it--and collect all that 'Publisher's Clearhouse money with me out of the picture!!!) Well, it was my sister-in-law's suggestion--but sounds good to me! My knees were pretty banged up but the biggest problem was re-injuring my ribs. I had dislocated the rib cartliage in a fall many years ago and apparently it's much easier to re-injure them once that happens. It took 3 months last time for them to completely heal. At this point, I'd just like to take a deep breath without Pain!!! But, all in all--I'm lucky, it could have been much worse.

We just got back from Louisiana. We went to Lafayette to have some RV warranty work done and then stopped by Brenham, Texas to visit our son and his wife and see their new home. It's really nice and we're proud of them and they're doing well.

Well, though there are many many things we've done in the 4 months since I updated the blog, these are the latest and most recent happenings in our lives. I promise I'll get back on track and update the blog more regularly--at least weekly. So...stay tuned!~

Bar Harbor Maine

2009-09-20T20:58:00.003-05:00

We arrived in Bar Harbor Maine last Wednesday and spent the next day getting settled in and getting our bearings. We got up early last Friday and headed to the Bar Harbor, Maine downtown Village. It was a beautifl autumn day when we visited. Not down right cold, but definitely light coat weather. In addition, with the village being on the ocean and a light wind, it was really chilly when we arrived that morning. Brrrrrrrrrrrr! Fortunately, the winds died down a bit as the day moved on and with the sun out in full force, it turned out to be a gorgeous New England day.

We first headed straight to the Bar Harbor coast to check out the views. The ocean beaches are so different than anything we know of in Texas, or Florida--where there are actual sandy beaches. The New England coasts are rocky, with slick moss on rocks precluding the possibility of attempting to walk close to the water. A couple of other oddities we discovered about the New England coast is 1) the drastic change in tide. When the tide is low, the ocean is 100's and 100's of yards low, leaving unsightly areas for a majority of every day. If you had one of those million dollar homes with oceanfront, the majority of the day, your views are of...well, just mud. 2) There are no waves hitting the shores. Isn't that strange? It was a windy day when we were in Bar Harbor and there were none of the normal waves crashing into the shore as you see in Galveston, or some beach in Florida. Anyway, we thought it a little odd...(I'm sure there's a really good scientific explanation if we'd bother to check).

The Bar Harbor village we spent the day checking out was so quaint, for lack of a better word. Whereas Route 66 in Santa Fe had lot's of shops and unique shops, they were modern...not particularly historic. But this little Bar Harbor village was just a warm little village. There was also a very distinctly different people touring about. Whereas Route 66 had lot's of 20 & 30 somethings, Bar Harbor had lot's of older folks. As a matter of fact, Mark and I would probably be considered 'whiper-snappers'--not quite 'dry behind the ears'! Seriously, the crowded streets were pretty much a sea of white heads.

We really enjoyed our day in the Bar Harbor Village, but plan on venturing out tomorrow to drive up the coast of Maine and check out lot's of the local villages along the coast. This time we're taking our 'babies' Clyde and Duffy with us this time. Though Clyde is still just hobbling along on 3 legs right now, we want to let them walk around on the beach--assuming we can find any beaches with actual sand in Maine. There's so much to see up here and obviously not enough time to check too much out. We'd have to stay in one location a month or more to really check it out.

But of course, time is passing by quickly. It's hard to believe we've been gone this time since right after the July 4th holiday. It's also getting Very cold very quickly up here. But I just Love this weather. I don't mean I'd enjoy 6 feet of snow and -30 temps...but I absolutely love New England in the Fall for sure. It's dropping into the 40's at night now and temps during the day are in the upper 50's/low 60's. But the Campground we're in is right on the ocean. We can see the ocean from our bedroom window. And the winds blowing off the ocean make it much colder. It's definitely sweatshirt weather around here.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, most of the Campgrounds in the Northeast shut down in mid-October, so we've only got a few weeks to reach the south. We leave Bar Harbor this Wednesday and are heading to the Cape Cod area for a few days. As I've said many times, we're having a wonderful journey and are very blessed to have an opportunity to do this. Well, that's about the latest for now...I'll update again after our next journey up the Maine coast.

Beautiful Vermont Countryside

2009-09-15T18:43:00.004-05:00

We planned on spending the day checking out the Vermont countryside and some of the scenic tours suggested from some of our travel information. We got a later start, but what a wonderful day it turned out to be. We didn't have an exact itenary, just heading south in the direction of some beautiful scenery and came across some unexpected surprises:

Calvin Coolidge - I knew his birthplace was some where in central Vermont, but not long after leaving we came across President Calvin Coolidege's birthplace, the home he lived in with his wife and children and the "Western Whitehouse". What a nice surprise! Though his father had been a state representative for Vermont and a well known farmer, he was brought up in what would now be considered meager beginnings. There's a tour of the small home of his birth and childhood. Furniture was sparse with wooden plank floors. The actual barn, tools and carriage-sled were there.

Coolidge built a home on this land when he married and moved into it in the late 1890's. The home was not 'fancy' by any standards, but was nice. Linoleum floors throughout. The kitchen was so small and the oven so tiny it's hard to believe you could actually cook family meals in it. In addition to both his childhood and adult homes and barn, the 'Western Whitehouse' is there, though it's difficult to imagine something as plain and simple as that as a home office, much less a western whitehouse! His office was simply a room built over his childhood home--that's it. It's the room he was in when he found out Harding had died and he had just become President of the United States. It was just a wonderful, quaint, simple town...but just serene with beautiful mountains in the background.

We then moved on to several small Vermont towns that are quintessential Vermont. The foilage throughout the entire New England area is just now beginning to change color and it's so pretty. Though just now beginning to change colors, the greens are no longer intense, but are fading. Some foilage is beginning to turn a beautiful golden/light brown. And then we began to see a few limbs that have turned this gorgeous Reddish/Orange color. Breathtaking. I can only imagine what it looks like when the entire area turns that beautiful Red/Orange/Golden color. Wow. In addition, the towns we went through were small and quaint. Many with homes 100+ years old. We took pictures of some of the areas to give you an idea of what the Vermont countryside looks like right now.

Lastly, we drove up to the mountains and ski slopes and drove around. Apparently Vermont must be a huge draw for snow skiers. We saw lot's of signs for 'Snowmobile Tours' too. Imagine going on a snowmobile tour. Of course, in the ski resort areas some of the homes and townhouses were just gorgeous...and probably cost millions too. All in all, Vermont is just a beautiful place. I can't imagine living or working in Vermont, but I can't think of a better place to just come and relax. I'd definitely come back to Vermont again. We had a wonderful few days here, but it's time to move on.

We're quickly discovering the temperature is just dropping rapidly. The average temperature at night is already down into the 40's and today with the high in the low 60's, I definitely missed having a light jacket with me. If we forget to turn on the heater at bedtime, we wake up to temperatures in the 50's inside the trailer. But, I must say I just absolutely Love this weather. I'd live in this climate year round if I could. Mark's convinced I'd hate the dead of winter and maybe so...but I'd sure give it a try and see!

We leave tomorrow morning for Bar Harbor, Maine. Based on the average temperatures in the Northeast, we're going to have to kick it in gear.

I'm Back Online!! / Niagara Falls

2009-09-14T20:03:00.005-05:00

During our week in Niagara Falls, New York, I didn't have internet access. We were unable to get a satellite signal because of trees in the area and the WiFi internet at the RV Park did not work. So, I've been unable to make any updates for over a week. We're currently in White River Junction, Vermont. But more about that later. First, our week in Niagara Falls:

Though the actual Falls are absolutely breathtaking...like, one of the 8 wonders of the world. I told Mark, anyone's "bucket list", must include Niagara Falls. BUT, Niagara Falls the city, is without a doubt, one of the dirtiest, ugliest cities we've ever seen. It literally looked like the 'ghetto'...or at least, as the ghetto is portrayed on TV. The 10 mile drive from our location to the Niagara Falls area, was just block and block and mile after mile of filth...I know that sounds terrible, but it was. Almost like pictures of areas in overseas. House after house, neighborhood after neighborhood were just falling apart in disrepair. What's so ironic, is that such a short distance away, were these magnificent Falls and associated parks.

We spent an entire day at the various locations of Niagara Falls. In addition to Goat Island and several of the beautiful bridges and locations, was "Cave of the Winds". Mark just flipped over this tour. I loved it too...but you get just soaked! Here's how it worked: You get in line and ride down this elevator 5 stories and come out at the bottom of Niagara Falls. They give you a thin plastic poncho to put over your close that has a hood attached. (I should have guessed then what was coming). They give you these velcro slip on beach shoes and give you a bag to place you shoes and socks in to keep them from getting wet. You walk around the corner and you can see the massive/roaring Niagara Falls right in front of you.

They've built several sections of stairs...each one getting closer to the Falls. The top section literally right on top of the Falls, is called the Hurricane Deck. The force of the falls on that section is so intense, that you cannot stand up straight. It's like trying to walk towards three 747 engines...the force is so great, it just blows you back. Only in addition to the wind, water is coming at you like a hurricane, hence the name. The deck below that was actually built literally right next to where the Falls hit Lake Erie and you can reach your hand out and touch the rapid falls. It's difficult to describle...but it was exciting and awesome! The force of the water is overwhelming on the lower deck--I sure wasn't going to try the Hurricane level! But of course, my lovely husband never wants to miss in all the excitement. He not only managed to get on the hurricane deck...but stood there for a couple of minutes. Needless to say, he was totally soaked. Heck, I was soaked just going through the first 3 level of stairs. But it was awesome! We had a terrific time on Cave of the Winds.

Then on to the Maid of the Mist. It's the large boat that goes right up to the Falls. It's the boat you see on most Post Cards of Niagara Falls. They also give you another little measley paper thin plastic poncho for this too. Mark had the bright idea to hurry up to the bow of the boat. So we were right at the front of the bow, with 200 of our closest friends cramped right up behind us. Then the boat slowly moves up towards the falls until it's directly in front of them. At least, that's what I'm told it did. The force of winds and water was sooooooooooo intense I spent the entire 15+ minues simply trying to hold on to the bow so I wouldn't fall. I couldn't even open my eyes it was blowing so intensley! What wasn't already wet from the Cave of the Wind, was now wet. My hair right down to my feet were soaked. Strange as it sounds...it was exhilirating! We were literally 15 - 20 feet from the bottom of the Niagara Falls. Wow. It was awesome...we had a ball. Overall, Niagara Falls should definitely be on everyone's Bucket List! (Just stay on the Canadian side--it was really nice).

The following day we did something we hardly ever do--we spent an afternoon at the Casino near Niagara Falls. We had a good time. I've discovered that I'm just not comfortable in a casino, as I inevitably win something within the first few minutes...sometimes just a little and sometimes a lot. Well, that was the case this day. While playing on the quater slots, within 5 - 10 minutes I won $50.00. Minus my $20.00 invested, I was up $30.00 and just couldn't bring myself to 'waste' any of it, by just giving it all back in the slots. So I cashed in and quit for the day. Unfortunately, Mark of course wanted to continue playing. So he played a couple more hours while I watched and walked around. Bottom Line, with Mark's losses and my gains, we were able to eat and still netted a +$15.00. Not bad for a half-day of entertainment and food! That'll probably be our casino fix for at least another year.

We left Niagara Falls Saturday, heading to Vermont. We spent our first night in Brattleboro, Vermont. Unfortunately, there are so many trees in Vermont, we were unable to locate a campground where we could get a signal for TV or Internet. So we got up early yesterday and headed further north into Vermont and found our current campground. We're planning on getting up early tomorrow and checking out some of the sites in Vermont. We only have one day left in Vermont, before we head to Bar Harbor, Maine. From there, we'll begin our journey south towards home. Well, that's about it for the latest on what we've been up to. I've got lot's of pictures of Niagara Falls that I still need to upload. I'll get them uploaded as soon as I can. Hopefully, I'll be able to make updates more frequently and won't lose internet access again. Well, that's a wrap for now...stay tuned~

What a Day in New York!

2009-09-02T17:53:00.007-05:00

We got a very early start yesterday morning. With our campground being 90 minutes away from New York City, and the cost to drive and park in New York, we decided to take a tour from our campground here in Florida, New York and let them 'do the driving' for us so to speak. We were picked up for the tour a little after 7:00 this morning...with a total of 2 1/2 hours driving to and from, the earlier the start the more you can actually see. Wow, what a day!

Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty

Ellis Island - If I had a "bucket list", these two sites would definitely have been on my top 10 list--I've always wanted to see them. Our tour guide took us to the New Jersey side to catch the ferry out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty (and upon return, we found out why...more about that later). We were ushered on to the ferry headed to Ellis Island. I got goosebumps once we entered Ellis Island, knowing that I had great-great-great grandparents from Ireland that walked right through those same doors I was now standing when they came to America. We were surprised to learn that the majority of buildings on Ellis Island were various hospitals. One for men and another for women, who arrived in America and were sick with disentary, scarlet fever and various other illnesses. But we were really surprised that one of the largest buildings on the small island was a Psychiatric hospital. Not only did folks looking for a new life and opportunity come to America, but foreign countries also would send their "undesirables" to America, i.e., like those mentally ill and those in jail or prison.

The Statue of Liberty - When the ferry pulled around the corner and we got our first glance at the Statue of Liberty, it gave me chill bumps. It made me feel proud that I'm an american when I saw it. We took a tour around the outside and Mark took lot's of pictures. In order to get a tour of the inside, you have to obtain tickets months ahead of time for an assigned date/time, sheesh, we're not organized enough to even know where we'll be week to week! After touring, we stopped by the only place to grab a bite to eat on the island and had a burger and fries. We then needed to head to the ferry for our return trip...Then we understood why our tour guide took us to the New Jersey ferry! The line to return to the New York side was literally 100's and 100's deep, literally wrapping around the Statue of Liberty! The Jersey side? We walked up 15 minutes before our ferry time, and were the only ones in line! (See, sometimes it pays to just let the tour guide do the thinking!) Seeing the Statue of Liberty should be mandatory for all americans...it's part of our heritage...I'm soooooo glad we got to see the Statue of Liberty.

New York City - After returning from Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty, we headed to Manhattan...downtown New York city so to speak. Our first surprise was the sheer size, from the financial district, to SoHo to NoHo, one end to the other. When seeing Manhattan from across the bay at the Statue of Liberty, it's just breathtaking how Big it is. Not only the sheer size of the buildings, but the 2 1/2 - 3 miles in length. We found out that a one bedroom 600 square foot apartment in Manhattan would run $10M to $25M, depending on where it was located...whereas the same apartment on the Jersey side would 'only' cost $3M...(they just give 'em away don't they?)

911 - The first stop in Manhattan and where we spent a great deal of time, were multiple locations associated with the 911 terrorists attacks. We were first shown where 911 occurred. A single building of 108 stories, same length as the originals, is being built now. The other section is being reserved as a rememberance of those lost, including the 1800 people that were never recovered. Our tour guide had many stories about 911 including gruesome detail of a 30 story building he pointed out, which was next to one of the burning towers, and that many body parts that were found of those attemping to jump and missed...(sorry, told you it was gruesome). We were taken to St Paul church, where many volunteers found sleep on a cot and food while taking a break. We went to the fire station next to the twin towers, that were all lost as first responders. We were also taken to the temporary location of the only remaining steel from the twin towers...which was a two pieces of steel in the shape of a cross and will be placed into the 911 museum when it's finished. Just lot's and lot's of information on 911. Sobering, but glad we got to see it.

The Real New York - We spent the remainder of the afternoon checking out everything from Broadway to Fifth Avenue and the Theatre District and everything in between. It's exactly as we envisioned it would be. We were shown the building in which John Lennon was gunned down, to the penthouse that Leona Helmsley left her cats and many many other sites. We got a small break towards the end of the day...directly across the street from one of my favorite foods in the whole world...Juniors Cheesecake! Needless to say I went straight across the street for a big old piece of Cherry Cheesecake...Yum! Mark grabbed a coffee at Starbucks and we walked up and down the Theatre district where all the Broadway shows are located. There were as many people crammed into this small area as we imagined there would be...and it was an awesome place to visit but we'd never want to live there--even if we were given a $25M penthouse!

Whew! As you can tell, it was an action packed day. We were both totally exhausted by the time we got back home. It was a long, exhausting day but we had a wonderful time. With the Labor Day Holiday just around the corner and lack of local campgrounds on the East coast, we decided to extend our stay here in Florida, New York for a week and will be here until next Wednesday. We've decided to move inland next, to Buffalo, New York to spend a few days in Niagra Falls. From there we'll head towards Maine and begin working our way southward down the Eastern seaboard. The majority of campgrounds in the Eastern United States close in mid-October...so we only have a few weeks to complete our Eastern seaboard journey.

Well, that just about wraps up our time in New York...we're planning on taking a tour of West Point Military Academy this week and I'll update once we've checked it out. Until later...~

Goodbye Amish Country/Hello New York

2009-08-29T18:54:00.004-05:00

Amish Country -

In reflecting back on our time in Amish country, Mark and I discussed our overall favorite places since our journey began March 14, 2009, and we both concur that our time in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania Amish area has been our absolute favorite to date. Who would've thought? The area is just so beautiful and breathtaking that words and pictures just simply can't do it justice. We were actually in a tiny little suburb of Lancaster PA called Intercourse PA...(I know, hard to believe the name and apparently came about when established in 1752 since it was the first city in the area where two roads met, hence the name). There were countless wonderful little shops, boutiques and restaurants that made the town feel like you were home. And sitting outside in the evenings, listening to the Amish horse-drawn buggies trotting through the streets was just awesome.

We noticed the entire Pennsylvania countryside, lined with farms and older homes, were kept immaculate. What's amazing is we didn't see a single farm or home that wasn't kept neat and immaculate. Yards were freshly mowed with flowers prominently displayed. Amish buggies could be seen prominently displayed in their driveway or barns. Many of these Amish farms sold their home-grown goods, i.e., eggs, fruits, vegetables and pies, right off of their front porches.

Moving on to New York

We took our time getting packed up this morning as we only had a couple hundred miles to drive today. We pulled out of our RV Park around 10:00 a.m. this morning, heading to Flordia, New York. We've discovered the further East we go, the fewer RV Parks there are. There are only 3 RV Parks within 100 miles of New York City and one of those, is Blackbear Campground, about 60 miles from New York, NY.

We discovered it costs a Whopping $55.00 a "Day" to just park in New York city! In addition, almost all of the roads leading into and out of New York are Toll roads. So, we've decided it's most cost effective to take an actual Tour of New York. One of the reasons we chose this RV campground is that they have a New York tour company that comes directly to the campground and will pick us up and return us directly back to the RV Park here in Florida, NY. We had hoped on taking the New York tour leaving here Monday morning...unfortunately, we discovered when we arrived that Monday's tour is all booked up. So, looks like we'll be here a few days longer than we had initially anticipated as the first available New York tour from our campground is this coming Thursday. Hmmmmmm, that means we have 4 days to hang around or chill before getting to see New York. The tour includes all the key things we'd like to see including the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, The 911 location and many others...so we're really looking forward to it.

I'd wanted to go to Coney Island/Boardwalk area and though it's only 70 miles from our location, due to parking and toll road costs, it's ridiculously expensive and I can't see spending $60.00+ the cost of diesel, just driving there and parking! Uhhhhhhhhh, think we'll have to pass on the Coney Island/Boardwalk option. But, I've no doubt we'll find other things to do and explore. Our campground is in a very nice secluded area, way off the beaten path...a terrific place to just kick back and relax a bit--especially after the last few hectic weeks in Washington DC and Philly.

Oh yea, the Weather here is just awesome! The highs for the upcoming week are in the low-mid 70's and the low's in the 50's!! After the heat we've had the last several weeks, I'm really looking forward to some weather with a little 'nip' in the air! Well, that about wraps up the latest on where we are and what we've been up to. Check back Friday or Saturday and I should have our New York trip update and pictures. Stay tuned...!~

Picture Updates

2009-08-27T20:33:00.002-05:00

The RV Park we're in this week has DSL, which is much much faster than our internet speed via our dish on top of our RV. So I was able to get our pictures uploaded quickly. I've updated all 3 slideshows of the blog with our latest 3 sets of pictures as follows:

1) Philadelphia Independence Center
2) Amish Country
3) National Cathedral in DC

Enjoy!

Philadelphia Independence Center

2009-08-27T17:25:00.002-05:00

We got up early this morning and headed to Philadelphia, about an hour from our RV Park location in Intercourse Pennsylvania. We first headed to Independence Visitor Center to obtain tickets to see Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights were authored and signed.

The Independence Hall tour begins with a 30 minute film of the Independence of the United States and the fight with Britain. The tour then moves to the Supreme Court, which was originally officed in Independence Center in Philadelphia from 1791 until 1799, when moved to Washington DC. The other room was the Assembly Room, the actual location where the Delegates from each of the 13 states met, debated and approved the Constitution of the United States, along with the Bill of Rights 11 years later. Additionally, the US Congress met in Congress Hall from 1790 to 1800.

We also learned additional information about the initial establishment of Congress. We found out that one of the biggest obstacles for the new Congress was a debate and arguments between the larger and smaller states. The larger states argued that they should have more say than the smaller states and the smaller states argued that they should have equal say in matters concerning the nation. Apparently Connecticut came to the rescue by offering a resolution that there be two branches of Congress...one that provided representatives based on population, i.e., the United States Congress and the second resolution was the creation of the Senate, in which each state would be equally representatives, resolving conflicts from smaller states without large populations...and that's why there are two branches in Congress--the House of Representatives and Senate, with varying numbers of representatives by state. Isn't that interesting? Mark took lot's of pictures of both rooms.

On another important note, the room which housed the first and second Congress, also has the actual chair that Washington set in to conduct business for the 10 years congress was located in Philadelphia...it was also the chair he was sitting in when he actually signed the final draft of the Constitution of the United States.

We then went to see the Liberty Bell Center, where the Liberty Bell is housed. It summoned the Pennsylvania Assembly to debate the Stamp Act and other burdensome actions by the British Parliament. The original Liberty Bell actually cracked sometime between 1817 and 1846. It isn't known exactly when it cracked. It was recast by a local craftsman when cracked.

We also went to Franklin Square, the actual location of Benjamin Franklin's home while serving in Congress. There are remnants of Franklin's home that still remain and are encased for viewing. Just down the street from Franklin's home is a small cemetery where he's buried. The majority of that cemetary are graves from the 1700's...very few that died into the 1800's, it's that old! There were many other exhibits housed between the locations that we checked out, including 5 row houses that Benjamin Franklin had built as rental houses and one for his printing company...all of the homes are from the mid to late 1700's and remain intact, each are still private homes at this time.

Lastly, after a day full of exhibits, we made a stop a Pat King's Philadelphia Steak sandwich, which is the restaurant that originally created the Philadelphia Cheesesteak sandwich in the early 1900's. On our way to Pat King's, our GPS had us going up and down multiple streets within downtown Philadelphia and discovered that just about every street has Food Carts with various kinds of food for sell. I knew food wagons on street corners was popular in New York/Manhattan, but they're apparently just as popular in downtown Philly as well. It was good and I'm glad we made the stop for the historic cheesesteaks from the originator, but not sure it was worth the $8.00 a piece that each one cost! Overall, we had another wonderful day, though we were both exhausted from all the walking by the time we left.

Mark took lot's of pictures and I'll get them uploaded to the slideshow as soon as I can. We'll be here in Pennsylvania through tomorrow and will be heading to Flordia, New York Saturday morning. Looks like Florida NY is as close as we can get to New York city via an RV Park. We're hoping to take the NY Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We rarely take actual tours as they're just too costly, when you can just go directly to most places for free, or nominal bus/train fares. But we might have to break down and take a bus tour to get to the New York/Manhattan areas. Well, that's the latest scoop on what we've been up to...pictures from today will be uploaded as soon as I can. Until later~

Amish Country

2009-08-25T20:13:00.002-05:00

We left DC Monday morning and arrived in Intercourse Pennsylvania. Yep, that's right...it's not a typo. We're actually in the city of Intercourse. Lancaster Pennsylvania is Amish country. Intercourse Pennsylvania is just a couple of miles from Lancaster. And there really are numerous horse and buggy's around here. Amish people are everywhere. The men have very long beards and wear overalls. The women all wear long dresses and have their hair up in buns with little white lace tops around the hair buns.

The Pennsylvania countryside is just breathtaking. The last couple of days we've driven around the countryside and the farmlands and houses/barns look just like the quaint, serene pictures of the Pennsylvania Dutch country that you see in magazines. Yesterday afternoon we stopped by an old Dutch 'smorgasboard', as their called, and it was delicious. It's just good old fashion country food, as we'd say. It's served family style, but we were the only ones at our table yesterday. They served roast beef, chicken sausage, chicken and dumplings, corn, mashed potatoes, buttered noodles and for dessert: Shoe-fly pie and peach pie. We thought shoe-fly pie was a myth or from a fairtale or something...we had no idea it's a real pie. It's made of maple syrup, sugar and stuff and didn't think it would be very good, but it was. And I don't care for maple syrup. It wasn't too sweet either. It also came with homemade vanilla ice cream. And Everything is made from scratch daily. Mark said it's one of the Best Meals he's EVER had! I loved it too.

Today we went to a huge restaurant...41,000 square feet! It was a buffet of ALL homemade stuff and the buffet line was as long as a football field. The food was just wonderful. There are more than 100 separate homemade desserts alone. Needless to say, we loved that place. And downstairs was a 41,000 square foot gift shop. That place also had their own grocery store and even make their own spices and have two smoke houses. We spent a couple of hours just walking around and checking things out. We then drove to a little shopping center full of unique shops and Amish things. Just an overall wonderful day for sure.

We'll be here through Friday and will be moving on Saturday morning. We'll be heading to Philadelphia to check out all the historic sites like the Liberty Bell, Independence center, Washington's presidential office, the house where Thomas Jefferson wrote the draft of the Constitution, etc. Oh yea, we also have pictures from our last day in DC, when we visited the National Cathedral. It looked like a medieval castle or something. The beauty was just awe-inspiring. I still need to upload our pictures of the National Cathedral as well as our Amish pictures from the last couple of days.

Well, that's about it for now...more updates to come, stay tuned!~

The Capital & Library of Congress

2009-08-21T22:18:00.004-05:00

*I've just Added another slideshow to add our pictures from today. Check out!

What a wonderful day we had yesterday! We took the early bus and subway yesterday into DC to get an early start since there's just not enough time in a day to see everything we plan to see. We started our day off at the Capitol. We arrived just in time to walk right up and grab a couple tickets for the next tour, which was just starting. After a 15 minute movie, a tour guide took us through the main and second floor of the Capitol building. Of course, the Congress isn't in session right now, but we did pass Speaker Nancy Pelosi's offices. The architecture is just amazing. There are full length statues of all Presidents as well as various key individuals from all states as well.

At the end of our Capitol tour, the tour guide explained that you can reach the Library of Congress by following the underground tunnels from the Capital. Though the Library of Congress wasn't even on our list of things to see, based on information from the tour guide, we decided to take a short detour over to the Library of Congress. WOW! It was awesome! I just thought there would be various books in this building...not! First of all, the architecture of this building was just amazing. We came in just in time for a tour of the building and joined in for the one hour tour.

We were shocked to discover all the things the Library of Congress had. There were more key documents and items from an historical perspective in this building than I ever remember seeing in any building any where. Everything from draft copies of the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights from Thomas Jefferson, to actual ship logs, diaries from the 15th and 16th centuries. There were so many historical documents from Early America as well as things from way back in the 5th and 6th centuries. In addition, Thomas Jefferson's entire library of more than 5,000 books were on display. BUT, in addition to all these historical items, there were also other really cool things, like a complete section dedicated to Bob Hope and included everything from his first contract with Vaudeville, to his Presidential medal of Honor from President Johnson. Bob Hope's dancing shoes, lot's and lot's of scripts from his shows, his Oscar from the 60's and so so so much more.

To top off this day, we were headed to the National Archives for a short visit to plan out our follow up trip there to check out what we wanted to see. But, we passed the National Museum of Art on the way. Now, for anyone that knows Mark and I, we've never been into the Arts, but we decided to stop in and check it out briefly. I almost decided to turnaround and leave when I found out we had to check our backpack...seemed like to much trouble. But, we decided to take a quick peek and oh my gosh! There's were numerous rooms with paintings that were just gorgeous. We actually saw numerous paintings from (I'll probably butcher these names, but here goes): Renoir; Whistler; Van Goh; Rembrandt, etc. etc. The majority of the pictures were in the 15th - 17th centuries! And many of them were Huge...like the size of a king-size bed. There were statues and other things, but we didn't really enjoy those too much. To actually see these paintings, that weren't even enclosed in glass cases, where we could get right up on them and view them...was, well--Awesome. Can't think of a bigger word than that. I so enjoyed the visit to the National Museum of Art. We didn't take our camera into the Art Museum because we thought pictures couldn't be taken, but after entering saw that was not the case. So, we may go back so I can get some pictures.

Whew! Sorry for the length of the explanation, but we just saw and enjoyed sooooooooo much. Our day of 1) The Capital, 2) Library of Congress and 3) National Museum of Art, made the day my absolute favorite while not only in DC, but any day I've experienced while on this journey. We're planning on going back tomorrow to spend the day at the National Archives. We leave DC Monday morning, but we're not really sure where we're headed quite yet. We're thinking about either Gettsyburg, Pennsylvania to see civil war stuff or Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Amish country. Well that about wraps up another wonderfully blessed day of this journey...stay tuned~

DC Pictures Available

2009-08-19T22:38:00.003-05:00

I've finally uploaded the pictures we've taken the last several days while in D.C. These pictures are from our Smithsonian Museum tours along with our DC night tour we took a few nights ago. There were over 200 pictures to upload to the blog...so it took awhile!

Just double click on each of the Slide-shows to the left: 1) DC by Night and 2) DC - Smithsonian and view each album of pictures. We're planning on heading to the National Archives and the Capitol tomorrow. So more pictures coming soon...until later~

Washington DC

2009-08-18T19:16:00.003-05:00

We arrived in Washington DC last Friday. We've been so busy checking out the sites in Washington DC I haven't had a chance to make an update! Wow, we've done a lot. We're staying in an RV Park just a few miles from all the DC sites. We catch a bus in front of the RV Park and take it a few miles down the road to the DC Metro Rail. The Metro Rail is just awesome. It's amazing how fast you can get where you need to go. Those things really haul...I mean really fast! I'm sure they're going at least 70 mph at times. It's a very sophisticated rail with 5 different tracks that essentially take you any where you need to go.

We took a DC by night tour a few nights back. It's just awesome seeing DC at night with all the monuments lit up. It took us to the Washington monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the World War II Memorial and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. We took lot's of pictures. We had actually taken this tour when we were in DC several years ago and wanted to take it again. Last time we went in early March and the wind chill was literally -10 degrees that day!! The great thing is there was literally no one at any of the memorials, of course the bad news is, it was so cold I couldn't make it through all of the sites. Mark toughed it out for pictures, but it was just too cold for me.

We took the Metrol Rail this morning downtown and checked out a couple of the Smithsonian Museums and the Holocaust Museum. First, we went to the American Nature Museum, which had lot's of information about dinosaurs, prehistoric fish, and gems including the Hope Diamond. We then moved on to another American Museum that was just filled with awesome things. We saw lot's of information on the various American Wars including the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, etc. There was a room dedicated to the First Ladies that included various items, apparel and pictures of all the first ladies.

We really enjoyed a sections and items representing all areas of american life. Seeing early electrical devices, toasters, blow dryers...you name it, they had it. There was even a small section dedicated to Julia Childs! The kitchen she used during the filming of her shows beginning in the early 60's was donated to the Smithsonian, we got pictures of that too. Oh, and Archie and Edith Bunker's chairs from All in the Family was on display! The Ruby Red slippers that Dorothy wore in the Wonderful Wizard of Oz were on display. Gosh, I could go on and on. It was just awesome.

Lastly, we made a stop at the Holocaust Museum. We only had a short time to check it out before catching the train back to the RV Park, and it was...well, sobering I guess you could say. There really weren't too many things to see as tickets are passed out to see some of the exhibits upstairs and all the tickets had been given for the day...so we didn't get to see those. But we did check out exhibits on the first two floors. Exhibits on the first floor showed various posters, documents and items including film of Hitler. We then checked out a very large exhibit on the second floor dedicated to a diary from a small boy during the holocaust. The exhibit actually depicts the writings in his journal. From his initial entries about their store being burned down, to writing about being required to wear yellow stars on his clothing...to losing their home and several entries about the ghetto his family was shipped to. He has an entry explaining about his sister and mother being separated from him and his father and how scared he was. And lastly, the concentration camp that he and his father were sent to and how they shaved his head and detail on the little food they were given, like a loaf of bread for the week...for both of them.

The most facsinating thing about "Daniels Story", the diary above, was that each of his journal entries were associated with actual scenery, i.e., a depictions of his family's one room when moved to the ghetto. A depiction of portions of their home, kitchen and living areas before the war. Words really can't describe it really...I guess you just have to 'experience' it to fully grasp and how it affects you. We left the Holocaust Museum in a solemn mood for sure. But, I'm really glad we went.

All in all, it was a terrific day checking out the sites. We will be going back to spend a day at the National Archives to see the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and lot's and lot's of other historical documents of our history. We knew it would take most of an entire day to see the National Archives, so we wanted to wait until another day to see it. Tomorrow, we're planning on heading to Georgetown to check out the homes and shopping. The homes in Georgetown are up to 200 years old and are the most expensive in the DC area. In addition, there are lot's of quaint little shops we'd like to see.

So we plan on heading to Georgetown tomorrow and back downtown to see the National Archives the following day. We're having a wonderful time here in DC. There's so much to see and do we've already extended our stay an additional 3 days. We could spend several weeks here and not see everything we'd like to see. But we'll definitely have gotten in all the stuff we really want to see before heading out this coming Sunday. Our next destination is Pennsylvania, most likely Gettysburg. Well, that's about it on the latest...stay tuned!~

Huntington, West Virginia

2009-08-11T17:52:00.003-05:00

Where have we been? Gosh, I didn't realize a week has almost passed since last updating the blog. We arrived at Beech Fork State Park last Thursday and have been here several days now. We came to this area to attend a christian conference near downtown Huntington. Getting to the actual RV Park was a challenge. It's a two lane road for several miles, that wind around and around...and one in particular that requires almost a 180 degree turn! Certainly not one of my favorite experiences getting up here for sure!

This RV Park is fairly nice. We're right next to a small creek and the sites are decent sized. Mark has started a fire at night a few times...our first campfires since the Rio Frio way back in March. During our entire stay on the West Coast earlier this year, all fire was banned due to the high risk of fires and high winds. It is peaceful late at night, watching the stars and hearing the crackling of the fire.

We think Clyde may have re-injured his leg again. He's limping as bad or worse than he ever has. But good grief, I don't know what else we could have done to prevent it short of keeping him locked in his little kennel 24 hours a day. Sheesh. The doctor did say that without surgery, in 9 months or so, the ligaments tighten up some how and will eventually tighten the leg and reduce the ACL sliding back and forth on his leg. But she also said that without repair he would have significant arthritis in that leg for the remainder of his life. So we're just not sure what the status is on his leg...but at this point, there's not much we can do. We carry him and set him down just to 'do his business' and then pick him up. He hops around on 3 legs, so we try to reduce his walking of course.

We're scheduled to leave Beech Fork State Park Friday. We plan to continue our trek East to the Washington DC area...or, I should say 'near' the DC area. There are no campgrounds very close to the downtown DC area. We'll try to stay near Arlington Cemetery area or some where relatively close and take the subway to Union Station. From there, we can hop on and off a Tram to reach the different areas we'd like to check out. We spent a few days here several years ago, but didn't have time to see nearly everything we'd like.

That's about a wrap for now...here's a couple pictures I took earlier today when we went into Huntington for lunch and a laundry run. Until later...~

North Carolina/The Biltmore

2009-08-05T19:32:00.005-05:00

We arrived in Asheville, North Carolina yesterday after 5 days in Pigeon Forge. We made a planned stop in this city to check out The Biltmore, which is known as the "Largest Home in America". Wow! Awesome! Breathtaking! We got a really early start this morning, arriving at The Biltmore at 8:30 a.m. this morning, to ensure we had plenty of time to check everything out. Entrance to the actual Biltmore Mansion is by assigned time. Our entrance time was scheduled for 10:30 a.m., so we had a couple of hours to check out the surrounding grounds around The Biltmore. The Biltmore rates in my "Top 3" things we've done so far...right up there with the Grand Canyon and Yosemite. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed of the inside of the home, but we took lot's of the grounds and gardens.

For a little history on this home, The Biltmore House has 250 rooms. George Vanderbilt began building this home in 1890 and moved in on Christmas Eve 1895, though work on the grounds and inside continued on for several more years. George Vanderbilt was only 33 when he moved into his "country home" and was known as "the" catch of the century. George Vanderbilt did not make his fortune, his grandfather came to America and started a shipping company and later a railroad company. His father doubled the Vanderbilt fortune and they had in excess of $200 million by the late 1800's.

George brought his bride Edith to Biltmore and welcomed the birth of their only child, Elizabeth, who was born in one of the rooms, (as were her children 25 years later). George's biggest contribution was actually building The Biltmore. He died at a relatively young age. He was 50 and died due to complications from appendicitis.

We took a tour of the entire home with an audio guided tour. They referred to their home as "relaxed elegance"...I'd call it unbelievably elegant and beautiful. The home includes original art from master artists like Renoir, 16th century tapestires, a Napoleon's chess set, a library with 10,000 volumes, a huge Banquet Hall with a 70 foot ceiling, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, bowling alley, and countless antiques. The Biltmore remains American's largest privately owned home.

But that's just the Home itself. The Biltmore included 9 different gardens; a Winery; Stables; River Bend Farm and an Inn. The gardens were just breathtaking. Both formal and informal gardens and all designed by "America's foremost landscape architect," Frederick Law Olmsted, who also designed New York Central Park. The gardens cannot be captured in words or pictures--to get the full impact, you just have to see it. The Stables area retains it's outward appearance, but has been redesigned to hold a Gift Shop, Dining and various other things.

I had first become aware of The Biltmore on an old cable show: America's Castles. I don't think that show has been on in at least a decade. I told Mark way back then that if we ever had the chance, I wanted to go to The Biltmore. We're so glad we came. As you can tell, today was just an awesome day and we're very blessed to get to do what we're currently doing.

We leave Asheville, North Carolina tomorrow morning for Huntington, West Virginia. This is the location of the Christian conference we had planned on attend last month, but we missed due to Clyde's injury. We've spent a couple of hours this evening trying to locate a campground in the Huntington area to no avail...so we're not really sure where we'll end up tomorrow! Well, that about wraps up our day at The Biltmore. I've finally gotten all the pictures uploaded to the blog...check them out on the slideshow. Stay tuned!!

Gatlinburg Tennessee

2009-08-01T16:14:00.003-05:00

Well, sorry for the delay in updating the blog. We actually arrived in Pigeon Forge Thursday afternoon and we're staying at a Park right off the Parkway, which is where everything, and I mean Everything, is located. Parkway is like a Main Street that runs from the entrance to Pigeon Forge, some 15 miles all the way through Pigeon Forge "and" Gatlinburg, all the way to the entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park.

Yesterday we got a pretty late start and just ventured out to the Pigeon Forge Main Street and walked around, checking out lot's of shops. They have everything, and by that I mean, not just a "gazillion" restaurants, both sit-down and fast-food, from McDonalds to Tennessee Barbeque places...to ALL Kinds of activities, like race car tracks, to circus rides, Mirror Houses, Magician Shows, every kind of Dinner Show imagineable. There's more 'stuff' on this Main Street drag than we've ever seen! Even the Las Vegas strip can't rival the stuff here. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of shops. We stopped by a wood shop and had a sign made to hang on our RV, and of course we included Clyde and Duffy's name. Pictures of our new sign are included in our Gatlinburg slideshow.

Today we were going to spend the day in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but when we got there we found out that to go to the primary locations in the park, it would be 3 - 4 hours, including the return. We didn't have enough gas or time to make it that far today, so we've made an 'executive' decision this afternoon to extend our stay through Monday. We're planning on avoiding the Park tomorrow...it's so crowded here and Saturday and Sunday are the absolutely horribly crowded. We're planning on getting up early Monday and spending the entire day in the Smoky Mountains.

We spent several hours today on the Gatlinburg 'strip' and had a great time. We probably walked at least 2 miles and checked out hundreds of shops and malls and stuff. We came across this shop selling these machines called the"Jiglin' George", that you lay down, place your ankles in, they place a soft compress over your eyes and just relax. This machine starts 'jiggling' your ankles, which makes your whole body kind of shake back and forth. Supposedly, it solves ALL problems. You got an ache anywhere and I mean anywhere, and this machine supposedly solves it. The only thing I could tell after 5 minutes, was my lower back really hurt! Really! I've had a bad lower back for a year or so now and it was off the chart painful after that 'treatment'! Sheesh! Guess that's what I get for trying the thing out anyway huh? *Mark took a picture of me while I was having the 'treatment' and I took a couple of him while he was laying down for his treatment. We look like real dorks don't we? See the slideshow for pictures.

We hadn't eaten out in some time and we passed Bubba Gump's Shrimp restaurant and decided to eat there. We both had the fried shrimp platter and it was delicious. Well, that's about it for what we've been up to the last few days...I'll update again Monday after our day at the Smoky Mountain National Park. Until later...~

Incline Railway/Rock City - Chattanooga

2009-07-28T19:08:00.003-05:00

*Pictures from our day at the Incline Railway & Rock City have been downloaded to the first slideshow to the left.

We got a late start this morning. We were going to spend the day checking out Lookout Mountain. We stopped by Ruby Falls and decided to pass on that attraction...we found out it's an underground cave with a fall, after Carlsbad Caverns, we decided Ruby Falls couldn't hold up to the Caverns. So we headed on down the road to the Incline Railway.

Now that was interesting! The Incline Railway is supposed to be the longest/steepest Railway in the Word. It's a little over one mile, at a 72 degree incline. Folks, that's steep! When I saw it, I started to back up and just watch Mark do it. I don't mind heights, but the track looked pretty much like a 90 degree drop at the top portion of Lookout Mountain. But I followed through and joined Mark on the ride up. At the top they have a lookout that spans 7 states. It was a little hazy, but you could easily see the Smoky Mountains, a good 150 miles from where we were. After the very steep ride to the bottom, we headed to Rock City.

Mark says he's heard of Rock City and seen it on bumper stickers since he was a small kid going to Arkansas and he always saw bumper stickers about Rock City. So needless to say, we couldn't come to Chattanooga without checking out Rock City. I didn't know what to expect, but it was actually a beautifully landscaped garden, encompassed in rock. It was a very humid day today, which made it feel much warmer than it actually was. I was ringing wet halfway through the Rock City maze. I remembered hearing about "Fat Man's Squeeze", and Julie, tell Billy it was indeed a tight squeeze! A few places we had to suck in for sure!

There were several lookout points at Rock City as well. You can see 7 states on a clear day. It had cleared somewhat and you could very clearly see the Smoky Mountains, North Carolina and Kentucky. There was a really cute area towards the end of the second maze...primary for children but it was just sooooooo cute. Lot's of depictions of gnomes in various scenarios, for various fairytales, like Snow White, Humpty-Dumpty, etc. Also, lot's of nursery rhimes were set up with colorful paint. Mark took lot's of pictures and I'll need to download them to Picasa, which takes several hours. So I won't get them posted tonight, but will as soon as I can.

Only thing on the agenda for tomorrow is to check out the Chattanooga Civil War National Park. It's supposed to be the largest and oldest in the U.S. There's a good chance of rain tomorrow, so we'll have to play it by ear. There is an 8-mile auto tour, so we should at least get to check that out tomorrow.

We'll be leaving Chattanooga Thursday morning and heading to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for a few days to check out the Smoky Mountains. From there, we're planning on heading to Asheville, North Carolina to check out "The Biltmore", known as the "Largest Home in America". It's a 250 room mansion and takes more than a full day to check out the home and surrounding/supporting areas including the Winery, Stables, River, Gardens, Orchards, etc. I first heard of The Biltmore on an old show called "Americas Castles"...I loved that show. Anyway, we recently discovered we'll only be 150 or so miles from there, so why not make a short stop and check it out?

We're having a great time and are really excited about what we've seen so far on this trip, as well as the things we're hoping to check out in the coming weeks. Well, that's about a wrap for this entry...stay tuned~

Last Minute Change of Plans/Chattanooga Tennessee

2009-07-28T05:25:00.004-05:00

We got an early start yesterday and were heading to Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountains. But, once on the road I got the road map out and couldn't figure out why we were going to the Smoky Mountains and then to Chattanooga. We'd end up driving "backwards" some 150 miles or so to go to see Chattanooga.

So we made a last minute 'executive change' and drove south to Chattanooga Tennessee. We finally arrived around 2:00 P.M. yesterday afternoon, but not without encountering a harrowing experience. I had found an RV Park that was reasonably priced (remember this was a last minute change in plans, so no we had not yet checked out any of the RV Parks in the area). We were folling 'Nellie's" directions (Nellie is our trusty little Garmin GPS). Once we got into Chattanooga, 'she' sent us towards the downtown area...which are All One Way streets. We were within a few miles of the destination, according to 'Nellie', when Mark noticed a sign indicating the upcoming Bridge Clearance was 12'6"...too low for us. Our RV is 13'5".

We veered to the left, thinking we could avert the bridge, only to find we were going the Wrong Way On A One-Way Street!! Yikes!!! Cars started stopping and honking their horn, and one guy yelling and pointing we were going the wrong direction...Well Duh!!! So I rolled down my window, half-way climbed out and started pointing the cars to go around us. Once the road appeared clear (we couldn't see beyond a stop sign due to a sharp curve in the road). So Mark 'darted' the short drive (going the wrong direction) to the stop sign. I'm not explaining it too well, but bottom line--we were going the wrong way down a one-way street, through a stop sign in order to get turned around. It was a miracle there were no cars coming from around the bend...if there had of been, I don't know what would have happened! The Good Lord was with us, that's for sure! Whew!!!

That's definitely been the most precarious situation we've ever been in while on the road. We changed plans, back-tracked and found an RV Park not far from Look-Out Mountain. We're planning on spending 3 nights in Chattanooga. Today, we're planning on going to Look-Out Mountain; Checking out the Incline Railway and Rock City. Tomorrow, we're planning on checking out the Chattanooga Civil War battlefield. And then moving on to Pigeon Forge, Tenneessee on Thursday to spend a few days in the Smoky Mountains.

Well, that's the latest for now...I'll update after our day on Look Out Mountain and the surrounding area this evening if I get a chance. Until later...~

Shiloh Civil War National Park

2009-07-26T18:45:00.002-05:00

Wow, what a terrific day! Though the Shiloh Civil War National Park is much smaller by scale than the Vicksburg Military Park, it was by far our favorite. The monuments were more 'simple' and there were far fewer monuments, however, this park did a good job outlining each area of the Park with "Who" was where; "Where" the Blue/Gray lines were drawn; "Where" the battlefields were and who was killed.

There was a very sobering site halfway through the battlefield. The Shiloh Civil War was the bloodiest battle in the Civil War. More than 2,700 men died that day. More than 1,700 troops that died that day were from the Confederacy. After the one-day battle, many of those in the vicinity had requested to go to the battlefield and find their loved ones to bury them. So General Beauregard sent a messenger to deliver a note to General Grant requesting a temporary truce, in order to bury their dead. Grant responded that it was too late, his troops had already buried them.

The Conferderate forces that died in the battle of Shiloh, were buried in "Mass Graves". Archaeologist have located the largest of these mass burial sites. We took pictures. They simply dug a very long trench, and simply dumped all the dead into the trench and covered it up. More than 700 men were buried in the mass grave marked. It was sobering. Sad. Most of these men and young boys in battle, on both sides, were farmers and the only thing they'd ever tried to shoot were deer and other game. We've learned so much about the Civil War in the last few days, between Vicksburg and Shiloh.

On a brighter note, when we were checking out the Shiloh Church, which existed at that time, and has since been rebuilt at the same location. Using old documents, they built a cabin with the same dimensions. We were walking around the grounds and peeked inside the building and got to visiting with a guy and his wife who were planning to have their wedding vows renewed in that very building. They were joined by friends and the wedding planner.

All of them are quite involved with the re-enactments of the civil war. Now these guys know their history! The one guy set to renew their wedding vows, had a Confederate Hat; Confederate Checkbook hanging out his pocket; a Confederate belt buckle...and on and on. Mark and I thorougly enjoyed talking to these guys. They were a hoot too. Just listening to them talk about what transpired in that area (they parents; grandparents And Great-grandparents all lived in this area). Savannah is in Hardin County, and apparently he was a well known figure during the civil war and afterwards. The stories are too numerous to mention here, but suffice to say we really enjoyed listening to what "actually" happened. We must have stood there talking for at least an hour and would probably still be talking but they had to leave to continue their wedding plans.

The Shiloh Cemetary was much much more impressive as well. You enter through these magnificent gates. Once you enter, there are large monuments representing where Grant had his 'office' while in camp. The cemetary is beautiful. Peaceful. There are several tombstones that indicate "two soldiers buiried here"...with no name. Those actually buried in the cemetary are mostly Union soldiers...the Conferderate soldiers were buried in the mass grave trenches by the Union soldiers.

Though we only spent one full day here, we really enjoyed it. The folks at this RV Park, at the laundry where we did some clothes this evening, were all so friendly. Just good ole' country folk, guess you could say. We leave early tomorrow morning for Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days at the Smoky Mountain National Park. We'll probably spend 3 - 4 days in Pigeon Forge before moving on to Chattanooga, our last planned stop in Tennessee.

Well, that's about it for this update. I've downloaded our pictures from today, but haven't had time to upload them so I can put them on the blog. I'll try to do that tomorrow night. Talk to you soon...~

Savannah Tennessee

2009-07-25T18:34:00.004-05:00

We got an early start this morning as we had a 375 mile drive to our new location in Savannah, Tennessee. It's the closest location we could find with a decent, low cost RV Park near the Shiloh Civil War National Park in Shiloh, Tennessee. We passed a rather large Farmers Market and hope it's open tomorrow so we can stock up on tomatoes and cantelope.

Our current plan is to spend tomorrow touring the Shiloh National Military Park all day. It was supposed to be the 'bloodiest' battle of the Civil War. This location was also a good stopping point before moving on to the Smoky Mountains, which will be a relatively 'short' 250 miles. We still need to do some research on where we'll be staying when we leave here Monday morning for the Smoky Mountains.

We were planning on spending 3 nights in Pigeon Forge, which is just a few miles from the Smoky Mountain Park. However, after picking up some literature at the Welcome Center when we entered Tennessee earlier today, we discovered Gatlinburg is just a few miles from Pigeon Forge and the Smoky Mountains as well. Pigeon Forge is actually where Dollywood is located, and she has a nightly dinner show called Stampede, that's reasonably priced, so we're considering going there. But, there appears to be lot's of things in Gatlinburg as well.

Anyway, we're in Savannah Tennessee thru tomorrow and are planning on heading to the Smoky Mountains Monday morning. I'll update the blog with pictures from our adventure tomorrow when I get a chance. Stay tuned...~

Vicksburg Civil War & Courthouse

2009-07-24T19:43:00.007-05:00

**(Note: I've updated the Blog ADDING ANOTHER SLIDESHOW, so that both the pictures from yesterday of Natchez Mississippi, along with those taken today in Vicksburg, Mississippi, can be viewed. Just click on either slideshow to see the pictures from that location)

Well we had a really busy today. We got out the door around 10:00 a.m. (that "used" be to a time I considered "late morning" when I was working!). We stopped by the RV Park office to pick up a free copy of the CD used in conjunction with the auto tour portion of the Vicksburg Military Park tour and headed out.

Our first stop was the Vicksburg Military Park visitor center. We then took off on the 3-hour, 18 mile auto tour and used the CD with each monument and stop, which provided lot's of detail, including voice depictions of events that occurred at the time. One of the most amazing things was the breakdown of "Blue" and "Red" throughout the entire Park. They placed Red and Blue markers throughout the park, which depicted the front of the Union and Confederate Lines.

Vicksburg, Mississippi was the site of one of the pivotal battles of the Civil War. It’s importance was its geographic location on the Mississippi River, control of which was crucial for the passage of Union troops and supplies into the South. Located high on the bluffs, Vicksburg was a fortress guarding the Mississippi River. It was known as "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy."

The Union troops were under the direction of Maj. General Ulysses S. Grant; the Confederates under Lt. General John C. Pemberton. The siege lasted 46 days, from May 18 to July 3, 1863. It is ironic that on July 4th, the day of our independence from England, Pemberton surrendered to Grant at Vicksburg. This surrender, coupled with the fall of Port Hudson, Louisiana, divided the South, and gave the North undisputed control of the Mississippi River.

The park sprawls over 1800 acres, contains 1,330 monuments (the most of any military site in the U.S.), provides a 16 mile auto tour road, and whose cemetery provides the burial site of over 17,000 Union soldiers of which over 12,900 are unidentified. It also includes the remains of a Union ironclad gunboat, the U.S.S. Cairo, which was sunk in 1862 and spent 102 years on the bottom of the Yazoo River before being raised in 1964 and later restored.

As you begin your tour on the auto road, you are driving along the Union line and the road is appropriately named Union Avenue. Later you will reach a point where the road changes to Confederate Avenue, at which time you will be following the Confederate line. Many monuments of all sizes line the route. There are, of course, major structures erected by each state whose soldiers fought here. But there are lots of smaller monuments honoring each specific battalion who fought, listing the designation of the battalion, the leader, and the number of soldiers who died and were wounded. One after another, the sheer number of granite stones begins to accumulate and as they do, so does your understanding of the magnitude of the battle and your reverence for this hallowed ground.

One of the most stunning and substantial monuments was from the state of Illinois. Modeled after the Pantheon in Rome, the approach contains 47 steps, one for each of the days that Vicksburg was under siege including the day of surrender. Sixty bronze tablets lining its walls contain the names of all 36,325 soldiers from Illinois who fought at Vicksburg during the Civil War in 1863. Many of the memorials are beautiful and artistic sculptures and structures. Many contain some kind of symbolism, or the absence of same, as some states directed their designers that the monument should not contain any feature that is an expression of war or conflict. One of the most unique memorials, amidst this park full of huge granite and marble structures, was the contemporary Kansas memorial.

One of the relief panels on the base of the Wisconsin monument features a Union soldier shaking hands with a Confederate. According to the audio CD, a two and one half hour truce was declared on May 25 to enable soldiers from both sides to collect the bodies of the many dead that lay upon the field in this area after a particularly long and harsh battle. Flags were unfurled in both camps and soldiers moved freely among the ridges, visiting and trading with friend and foe alike, even entering each other’s camps. Afterward, the war and fighting resumed. War can be quite strange at times huh?

We also spent at least an hour at the Cairo Cannon Ship, which was the only one of seven that did not make it during a trip down the Mississippi by Union soldiers in an effort to take Vicksburg. It was shot by Confederate cannons in strategic locations on the bank and sank in less than an hour. The Cairo was found in the Mississippi and raised July 4, 1965, exactly 102 years after it had sunk. Since it had been in silt/water, much of the ship and lot's of items from the ship were recovered. We were able to board the Cairo boat and took pictures (see slide-show for pictures). Then, we went into the Cairo museum. It was packed full of articles and personal items from the sailors, as well as items from the ship. Everything from spoons (sailors actually carved their name on their utensils), to the ancho, canons, doctor equipment, kitchen equipment, officer items, shoes, etc. etc. Wow! This was an awesome experience!

We then went across the street to the Vicksburg National Cemetary. Of the 17,000 graves from the Civil War era, only 4,000 were identified by name. The other 13,000 was simply buried and assigned a cemetary lot number in which they were buried. We also saw graves from the Spanish American War and World Wars I and II as well. I think that was one of our favorite venues...it's sobering to walk among the graves of these brave men, not knowing who the majority of them were.

Finally, we drove to downtown Vicksburg, to check out the historic Courthouse. This courthouse was established in 1835 and survived the civil war and the numerous bombardments by the Union to destroy it. The items in this historic Courthouse were, well........unbelivable. Beyond description. It was just awesome. Absolutely everything you can think of from the time period, was included. From old family portraits, to furniture, guns and ammunition, clothing, the chair of Jefferson Davis, items passed down from the Jefferson Davis family. In addition to the two story building full of items from the 1800's thru the early 1900's, we found the actual Courthouse which was used by various judges beginning in 1835. We also took pictures of the courthouse. It was the actual courthouse as it was used, with the old jury section chairs, as well as the defendant the judge areas.

Wow! Like I said, we had a busy, but awesome day! We're really glad we took time to make a stop here in Vicksburg. Everything from the Vicksburg National Park to the Cairo Cannon Boat and Museum and the Old Vicksburg Courthouse made for a terrific and wonderful day! I'll update the Blog Slide-show to reflect the 110 pictures taken during our day today.

Well, that's a wrap for today. We leave early tomorrow morning for Savannah, Tennessee. We're planning on spending Saturday & Sunday in the area to check out the Shiloh Civil War Park. Our current plans are to be in Savannah, Tennessee Saturday and Sunday. Moving on to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a few days and then on to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to spend a few days in the Smoky Mountains. Hope you've enjoyed the info...I'll update after we've seen the Shiloh Civil War Park. Stay tuned....~

Natchez State Park

2009-07-21T00:25:00.003-05:00

Well, we've settled in at Natchez State Park in Mississippi. This is our first stay in a state or national park and I think we're going to really enjoy staying in these parks and plan on staying in them whenever possible. Not only for the natural scenery and beauty, but it's also much cheaper...which is always a good thing!

We got a late start today. We didn't get up until 9:30 and didn't begin packing up to move until after 11:00 this morning...that's a first for us on move day. We didn't get packed up and out of Poche's RV Park until around noon today. And we miscalculated how long it would take to get from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana to Natchez Mississippi too. We miscalculated the estimated mileage; there was lot's of construction in several long sections of the highway and it took awhile to get to the state park campground and set up.

But we're here and it's beautiful. After setting up, we took a drive a couple of blocks down the road to the lake and took several pictures. We peeked out of the RV tonight after dark and Wow...is it Dark! If you stepped a mere 10 feet away from our RV to get away from the light inside, you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face! Now that's a tad scary for me. I told Mark if the dogs need to go out tonight...they'll just need to go in the 'house'--'cause I'm not stepping foot outside this campground until daylight!

Oh yea, on a side note, Mark took Duffy out for a walk earlier this evening, and we're right next to a big forest, and a deer had walked right out into the opening, just a few feet in front of them. Mark said the deer just stood there watching them for a minute or so, until Duffy decided to take off after the deer barking. We also saw a bunch of wild turkeys right down the road too. Hopefully we'll get pictures of those in the next couple of days. We're planning on staying here in Natchez State Park through Wednesday night and will continue north in Mississippi Thursday morning.

Tomorrow morning we're planning on checking out some of the sites in downtown Natchez. There are over 100 antebellum mansions in the area and several of them are open to the public and we'd like to check them out. There are also walking tours of the downtown historic district that we're hoping to check out tomorrow as well. Well, that about wraps it up for another blog update. In the meantime, stay tuned! I've attached a few of the pictures from our current location.

Heading to Natchez Mississippi

2009-07-19T21:46:00.004-05:00

We've finished up a very relaxing week here at Poche's Fish Camp RV Park. After checking out our "101 Most Scenic Drives in America" book yesterday, we're headed to Natchez, Mississippi for a week long trip from Natchez to Vicksburg.

We'll be following the Natchez Trace Parkway, starting in Natchez to check out the lavish homes from the civil war era that are still in existence. We'll move on to see beautiful pathways, a couple of State Parks and on to Windsor Ruins. I'm looking forward to checking out Windsor Ruins. It was built in 1861 for a whopping $175,000, which of course was an enormous sum of money in that day and time. It survived the civil war as first a post for Confederate soldiers and later became a hospital for the Union. Ironically, the building survived the Civil War only to be destroyed in 1890 by a careless smoker. All that remains of the structure are haunting skeleton of this once magnificent mansion is 23 weathered Corinthian columns, with ornate iron capitals touching nothing but the sky. I'll be sure and take lot's of pictures.

Then we'll check out a couple of Falls, a swamp, and Tombigbee National Forest. We hope to wrap up our Mississippi stay in less than a week, as we've made plans to be in West Virginia in 3 weeks for a Christian conference we'd like to attend. Sorry I didn't get pictures of where we've been, but if I get a chance, I'll snap a few on our way out of here tomorrow morning.

Mark finished up our week here by fishing again this afternoon. I think he got more 'bug' bites than fish bites! Well, that about wraps up the latest on what we've been up to and where we're headed...stay tuned, I'll update the blog with new pictures and info as soon as I can. Until later~

Breaux Bridge, Louisiana

2009-07-16T01:59:00.003-05:00

We're now in Louisiana. We dropped the RV off Tuesday morning for repair and they weren't able to finish and asked us if we could stay in a motel so they could finish up this morning. So, we spent last night at a LaQuinta in Lafayette. Mark and I felt like a fish out of water in the hotel, we Missed our home on wheels! We picked it up around noon today and headed a few miles down the road to Poche's Fish Camp in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana.

We're planning on staying here through Sunday. Mark loves this place...it's like a fish farm of sorts. There are 4 separate ponds stocked with large trout. After cooking out this evening, I settled in for the night and curled up to watch TV with Clyde and Duffy. Mark grabbed his fishing pole and lawn chair and walked 10 feet over to the closest pond and fished for a couple of hours. I understand there were a few bites, but no fish...tonight anyway.

No big plans tomorrow...we're planning on just hanging out and chilling the remainder of the week. I'll take some pictures of our park and post them tomorrow. Well, that about wraps up the latest for us...stay tuned~

Clyde Cleared for Travel/Heading Out Monday

2009-07-10T23:05:00.004-05:00

We took Clyde to the vet today for his follow up visit and to have his stitches removed. The doctor said that as long as we were careful with Clyde for the next few weeks that we could go ahead and take Clyde back on the road. Yippee!!! We got our truck worked on today. We had the 20,000 mile check up (already!) and they had to replace the radiator due to a seam leak and they also found a problem with the A/C condensor and replaced that as well. So, the truck should be good to go for some time now, Lord willing.

We're still leaving Monday morning for Lafayette to have the RV worked on, but rather than return back to the Dallas area we'll continue East. We're heading to Tennessee for a few weeks to check out the Smokey Mountains and lot's of the civil war sites (thanks for the info Julie!). We're not really sure where we'll go from there, but have several ideas. We'll be back home for the holiday season, November and December.

We're planning on spending tomorrow going to East Texas to get some peaches with the family and Sunday Chris wants us to all go to 'Twisted Root', a new burger bar in North Dallas that he found out about on Diners Drive-In's and Dives. Then Mark wants to wash the RV and truck Sunday afternoon before so all is clean before we head out Monday morning.

Just "Where" Are We and Where Have We Been?

2009-07-08T22:04:00.003-05:00

I apologize to those folks that have begun following our blog and e-mailed wondering what has happened to us since our trip to Yosemite in late June. To better track where we are and our plans, I'll 'try' to update our blog, even if just briefly, daily...or at least 'most' days.

Ok, where are we? We're back home in the Dallas area. Why? During our last day in the Yosemite area our little chihuahua Clyde injured his back leg some how when we had left to grab a bite to eat for Fathers Day. He couldn't put any weight on it and it was quite apparent it was serious, so rather than heading on to Malibu and Simi Valley to see the Reagan Library the next day, we decided to go ahead and head East as planned, only a few days early and a detour back home to Dallas, rather than on to Kentucky as planned.

So...we got back home to Dallas on June 25th and took Clyde in to see the Vet the following day. We were surprised that he had actually ruptured his "ACL" (the same injury that athletes have--didn't know dogs even had an ACL!). He also dislocated his knee. He required emergency surgery according to the vet. So Clyde had surgery the following day and we're still in the area awaiting clearance from the vet to leave. Actually, they want us to stay "at least 4 weeks"...! That's gonna be really difficult for us having traveled so much. Clyde is doing quite well so far and they say he's ahead of schedule and his stitches will be removed this Friday.

We're planning on staying here at Plantation Place in Sunnyvale through this Sunday and plan on leaving this Monday 7/13 for Lafayette to have some warranty work done on our RV. So we'll be in the Lafayette area thru at least 7/15 and will most likely head back home for a quick follow up visit with the vet. We hope Clyde is doing well enough for us to get back on the road and head East some time the week of 7/20. We always enjoy coming back home and visiting with the boys and Mark's family.

As for "where" exactly we're going when we finally head East...well, we're still not sure. We've kicked around lot's of ideas but haven't made any decisions yet. We want to check out some of the Civil War sites, maybe Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia/West Virginia and ultimately, we'd like to camp near Washington DC. We spent a few days there several years ago but didn't have nearly enough time to see all the Smithsonian buildings and only had a couple of hours at Arlington National Cemetery...so we're planning on spending a couple of weeks in the area so we can take our time checking out all that Washington DC has to offer.

We've talked about heading up to New York State for a few weeks as well, but of course, no firm plans have yet been made. Well, that about wraps up our current status and plans, at least, what we've planned so far...but that's one of the awesome things about this lifestyle, flexibility. When something comes up it's so easy to just change our plans. Well, that's a wrap for this entry...I promise I'll try to update the blog daily, even if we don't have pictures to include, as was our previous blog update schedule. Stay tuned~

Yosemite National Park

2009-06-19T21:12:00.002-05:00

We left Vallejo California Monday morning and moved on to Yosemite National Park. We're staying at an "Escapee" Park. Escapees is a member organization that actually owns several RV Parks across the country. So we stayed at the local Yosemite Escapee Park, which is just beautiful, quiet and peaceful. We went on an all day tour thru all the key places to see in Yosemite on Wednesday.

There are several waterfalls in the Park...one of them is the 4th largest Fall in North America. We also went to Glacier Point, which is the highest peak in Yosemite. We took lot's of photos and I'll update our Slide-show with our new Yosemite pictures. Towards the end of the day on our trip to Yosemite, we took a break while waiting on the bus. I found a bench and sat down for a snack. I had a Baby Ruth candy bar and drink.

and Wow! The squirrels in the Park are more than just friendly! As soon as I sat down a couple of squirrels ran straight for me and thinking they are sooooooooooo cute, I started talking to them, the way I'd talk to Clyde or Duffy. Guess I shouldn't have done that, because that really got them excited! They acted just like Clyde and Duffy do when we return home and are thrilled to see us. One of the squirrels stood up and looked just like he was begging for food. Before I could do anything, that little squirrel climbed right up my pants leg! Ok, they're cute, but that's a little too close for me. Yikes! Unfortunately, by the time Mark got the camera turned on the little guy wasn't in my lap. I gently stood up...hoping he'd jump down without biting me.

Mark was able to get a few pictures of me feeding the two squirrels. I picked out the peanuts of my candy bar and they must have been hungry...they even got in a fight, right between my legs on one of the peanuts I'd dropped. Anyway, I really enjoyed the encounter...but it reminded me of the time a deer 'nipped' me on the rear and I took off running from him, and he ran after me (well, actually he was running after the food, but I'd forgot I took off...with the deer food still in my hand!) Anyway, we enjoyed our little encounter with the squirrels. It was a nice ending to a wonderful day.

We'll be leaving our current location in Coursegold, California on Monday. We're planning on heading to Malibu, California Monday...it's right next to Simi Valley, CA, where the Reagan Library is. Mark's always wanted to see his library. On the website, there's apparently a lot more to see, compared to many other Presidential Libraries. In addition to being buried there, Airforce One is also on location and you can actually take a tour of the plane as well. So we're excited about that. We'll keep you posted on our wonderings...just click on the slideshow on the upper lefthand corner of the blog, for the latest pictures of Yosemite National Park. Until later~

San Francisco

2009-06-12T14:33:00.004-05:00

Sorry for no updates in over a week. Last update we were at Klamath River, California. We did spend another day in the Redwood Forest before leaving, but the pictures were very much like the ones I last posted, so no need to add those here. We enjoyed our week on the river, but were glad to move on where we had cell phone service too.

We decided to continue south and are currently in Vallejo, California, about 40 miles from San Francisco. We got here on Monday but didn't make it out for site-seeing until yesterday. We left early yesterday and headed a couple miles from our RV Park to the Vallejo Ferry, which runs between Vallejo and the San Francisco Port. So we boarded the Ferry for the 1 hour drive across the San Francisco Bay to the San Francisco Port, located in downtown San Francisco, and only a couple of miles from Fishermans Wharf.

We spent the day checking out all the sites. We last went to Fisherman's Wharf 10 years ago when we took the boys there. Things are pretty much the same, maybe a little more built up than it way the last time we were there. We walked the entire Pier from 1 thru 42. We ate at one of the local fish places on the Pier. Checked out the seals, piers and eateries. We also thought we'd walk to Chinatown...(it didn't look that far on a map...)Big Mistake! We walked a couple of miles, Uphill--and I do mean Uphill, it was more steep than any hill or mountain I've ever even thought about tackling!

After a couple of miles walking, we realized there were just too many remaining streets, that were all uphill, so we aborted the thought of Chinatown. So we decided to head back towards the San Francisco Ferry to head back across the Bay, it was getting later into the afternoon. Unfortunately, "I" was the one with the map--so it probably isn't a shock to anyone that we ended up Totally LOST! We ended up at the top of Nob Hill...only to discover there are no streets connecting it to roads leading back to the Pier!

We walked THREE PLUS Miles back, re-tracing our steps back to the Pier. Then another mile and a half from Pier 41 to Pier 1, to catch the Ferry. We walked Two solid hours just to get to the Ferry yesterday afternoon and my feet were literally numb for hours. I didn't get any feeling back in my feet until this morning! But besides our fiasco getting out of San Francisco yesterday afternoon, we did have a great time. (Now, will someone tell Mark to Never, Ever let me hold the map or provide directions in the future! Sheesh...you'd think he'd know better by now huh? He he he).

*Check out the Updated Slideshow...I've updated it with all our San Francisco pictures...there's lot's of pictures. Just double click on the slideshow and it should pull up, so you'll be able to 'click' thru each picture individually, in a 4x6 format. Enjoy! Not sure where we're headed next, but we'll let you know as soon as we've figured it out...until later~

Redwood National Forest

2009-06-03T20:40:00.006-05:00

**CHECK OUT THE "SLIDESHOW" IN THE UPPER LEFTHAND CORNER...IT INCLUDES ALL PICTURES FROM TODAY!!

We took off early this morning for the Redwood National Forest, just a few miles down the road from us. Wow, what a treat. I expected to see big trees, but didn't expect how unbelievable the giant forest as a whole would impact me. It's another one of those sites that I just can't seem to find the right words for. Magnificent? Awesome? Spectacular? The trees were "Gi-normous"! We took lot's of pictures and Mark and I look like little 'ants' when standing beneath them.

We went to the Lady Bird Johnson State Park, which was dedicated to her by Nixon in 1968. It's a 2 mile walk thru some of the largest trees in the world. As you can probably tell from some of the pictures, there's a fog that is pretty much constant here...especially in the forest. The forest is so close to the ocean, that's it's also quite cool here year round. The average annual temperatures are 40 - 60...which is why the Redwood's can grow so large. Many of them are 1200 - 1500 years old and at 30 - 40 feet around the trunk. Walking thru the forest in the fog and wet dewiness reminds me of what the Rain Forests must be like. It was actually kind of eery walking thru it. Dead silence with only the sounds of birds. Viewing this forest reminds me of just how small we are in the scheme of life and once again, I'm reminded of the greatness of God. I cannot grasp how anyone can observe something this magnificent and not believe in a God...of some kind.

It was a wonderful hike and we had a great time. We'll be heading out for other recommended hikes and scenic drives tomorrow. In the meantime, here are a few pictures from today:

Settling In and...Black Bears!

2009-06-02T19:21:00.008-05:00

We spent the morning settling in and then made a 20 mile trip to the closest grocery, in Crescent CA. The entire trip is on Highway 101, which 'hugs' the coastline and also runs through a portion of the Redwood National Forest and Park. The drive is just awe-inspiring. We've never seen anything like it. The redwood trees were huge...absolutely huge, 100+ feet tall and the trunks huge.

The highway has been carefully carved thru the Redwood Forest to reduce impacts to the forest. There's a section you drive through where the redwoods form a 'steeple' over the road, covering it entirely, and it's breathtakingly beautiful. Once thru the forest, the highway hugs the Pacific ocean the rest of the way. So we really enjoyed the drive into town today. We can't pick up any cell service while in camp, so we made a couple of phone calls while in town, bought our groceries and headed back home.

Then it happened!!! We had just entered the Redwood Forest section of the highway and when we rounded the bend, a Big "Black Bear" walked right out in front of us on the Road!! It was huge! Mark hit's the breaks as the bear walked right onto the highway in front of the truck...the bear never neven looked at us as he strolled into the middle of the road. The bear saw a car approaching from the other side of the road, stopped midway on the road, stood up (he was 6 foot tall) then turned around...dropped down on all fours and trotted right back off the road into the forest, on our side of the road. It was such an awesome experience! We were both speechless at first. I couldn't believe it.

We had been warned about Elk and avoiding them, as well as raccoons getting into trash...but we were unaware that bears were in the area. I guess since it's so near the coast, it just never dawned on me we were in 'bear country', so to speak. That's the closest we've ever been or will probably ever be to a wild bear. And I felt honored to have been in his company, if that makes sense. Of course, the thought of facing that thing in the wild would be terrifying. Afterwards, we drove on and just a couple of blocks up the road were several folks with their cameras taking pictures into the forest, and their cars were no where near them--and to think that bear was just around the corner from them...yikes!

We plan on checking out the sights in the area, including the Redwood Forest in the next few days, but you can bet we'll be cautious about where we go! No pictures yet, we were too busy today but we'll get some pictures of our river location as well as our other 'outings' and post in the coming days. So...stay tuned!

Goodbye Washington/Hello California?

2009-05-31T20:33:00.005-05:00

There's one thing about our current lifestyle we love, it's simple. It's easy to change our plans when we want/need to. We've decided not to take the part-time job in Castle Rock, Washington in exchange for RV hookups for the summer. The biggest reason is we were asked to sign a contract that we would stay through October 15th...! Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, no we don't think so. It was our understanding this was seasonal through the end of August only...had we agreed to stay, they wanted us there 'at least' thru October 15th. We wouldn't have been able to get back home until around November 1st, and we just don't want to be away from home that long.

So, after informing the RV Resort that we could not accept an assignment through October, we decided to leave Oregon and headed South to California. We've been in Redding, California for the last couple of days and leave tomorrow morning for an RV Park on the Klamath River, and is next to Redwood National Park, which has 7 of the 8 oldest trees on earth--that will be exciting. We also plan on heading back to Yosemite National Park (we went there with the boys 10+ years ago); We also want to see San Francisco and Fisherman's Wharf and the Winchester House; Check out the Napa Valley Winery area and maybe even take a tour of a winery and we'd like to see the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, if we get that far south into California.

We're not sure whether we'll spend the entire summer in California or head out in mid-summer to go back to Colorado and spend a few weeks there. Either way, we're excited to see what's around the corner. Of course, we'll take lot's of pictures and keep this site updated on our wonderings. So...stay tuned!~

Checkin' Out Our Summer "Home" AND Mount St. Helens

2009-05-25T20:33:00.005-05:00

Wow, what a great day! We started out early this morning to check out our new summer 'home', the Toutle River RV Resort. We had a brief meeting with our 'boss' and he gave us a tour of the place and it's huge...much larger than we thought it would be. However, it's still not technically open to the public due to permit issues of some kind, so our weekly 12 hours of work should pretty much consist of Mark putting together picnic tables with the guys, and me watering the new shrubs, flowers, trees, etc. Ok...I think we can handle that! We won't be moving to the Workamper location until we've gotten our satellite dish fixed this week.

Since it was so early in the day and the RV Resort is at the entrance to Mount St. Helens, we decided to go ahead and make the 50 mile trek up the mountain...and wow was it worth it. The scenery was spectacular...(seems like I keep saying that about scenery, but it is!) We were trying to decide where Mount St. Helens would rate with our other top spots, including the Grand Canyon--and we would definitely put Mount St Helen in our top 5.

We learned lot's of interesting things about Mount St. Helens and the eruption and we took lot's of pictures. A few are included.

We Finally Arrived - Beautiful Oregon

2009-05-24T22:38:00.003-05:00

We left Pendleton, Oregon early this morning for the remaining trek to our Northwest destination. We're staying at an RV Park in Portland thru Tuesday, to have our satellite dish repaired. We're planning on moving on to our final destination for the summer, Castle Rock, Washington, later this week. We're tentatively supposed to begin our "12 hour work week" some time the first week of June.

Now that we're settled in for a few days, we plan on taking the one hour drive from our present location, to check out the Toutle River Resort RV Park, which is located at the entrance to Mount St. Helens, where we'll be spending our summer while here in the Pacific Northwest.

The drive from Salt Lake to Oregon has been beautiful. We thought our drive into Salt Lake was beautiful, but after the 200 drive this morning from Pendleton Oregon to Portland, which included the 50+ miles along the Columbia River Gorge, we've decided that to date, this was without a doubt, the most spectacular scenic drive we've had to date. Unfortunately, no time for pictures today, but promise we'll have lot's and lot's of pictures in the coming weeks and months...so stay tuned.

We hope to get a few pictures of our new summer 'home' during our trip tomorrow, I'll post them tomorrow night. So, until later...~

We're Now in Salt Lake City, Utah

2009-05-22T22:24:00.007-05:00

Well, it's been a Long few days since we left the Dallas area. We drove from Dallas to Amarillo on Tuesday. Wednesday we drove from Amarillo to Cheyenne, Wyoming...now that, was a long day for sure. During our stay in Cheyenne, we stayed in a cute little RV Park called Terry Bison RV Ranch. They had Bison on the ranch, along with Camels, horses and several other things. It was a cute little park and we took the dogs down the railroad tracks so they could get a first hand look at the Bison...they sure weren't interested in getting any closer than the fence, that's for sure. Duffy looked 'worried' and Clyde just looked away like he didn't see 'em at all! I've attached a few pictures of the little park.

The drive from Cheyenne Wyoming to Salt lake was breathtaking. As we moved to the outskirts of Salt Lake, the views for miles were just beyond words...pictures nor TV do them justice. Unfortunately, the camera was in the RV and we didn't have time to get it out as our satellite internet dish apparently broke in Cheyenne, and we were hoping to get it to a local repair shop in Salt Lake yesterday...but they couldn't squeeze us in. Unfortunately, after 1 1/2 days here, it's become apparent this afternoon we aren't going to get the dish fixed until after the Memorial Day holiday...so we're planning on leaving Salt Lake tomorrow morning and heading on towards Washington and will get it repaired in Vancouver.

We hope to stay in RV Parks with Wi-Fi internet until we can get our dish repaired. As for our current travel plans, we have 800 miles to go and plan on making half that distance tomorrow and the remaining distance to Castle Rock, Washington on Sunday, Lord willing of course. We'll keep our progress updated here...so stay tuned~

Leaving Dallas/Workamping Stint - Castle Rock, Washington

2009-05-09T22:45:00.006-05:00

We've been back in the Dallas area a little over a week now due to an unexpected emergency at home. A few days ago we were contacted by Toutle RV Resort, which is located in Castle Rock, Washington, inquiring as to whether we were interested in taking on a Workamping position for the summer. (I had put our resume out on the workampers.com website just to see if we'd get any 'bites', but not expecting much since neither of us have any background in this type of work. But, we've had 3 - 4 job offers within the last 3 - 4 days...from Maine, to Texas to Washington. Wow, so much for worrying whether anyone would hire us, huh?!)

For the Washington offer, we'd only work a total of 12 hours weekly (6 hours Mark and 6 for Myself), in exchange for an RV spot with full hookups--free rent/utilities for the summer. After discussing the pros and cons for several days, we decided it was probably a good idea to take these guys up on the offer...it would reduce our monthly expenses considerably and our only expenses would be for groceries, diesel, insurance and cell service.

Mark got out the Atlas and we spent a few hours checking out the location and researching all the things we could do during our 4 - 5 off days each week. This place is basically an hour from Portland and Seattle, as well as an hour from the beach. It will be much cooler there this summer and we could avoid the hot Texas weather. And of course, the Pacific Northwest is beautiful in the summer. This particular 'job', would give us several days a week to take off exploring the area. There are 9 other Workamping couples in addition to us that will be onsite as well and the work will rotate. I'll most likely work in the office area and mark will do odds and ends outside.

This RV resort is at the entrance to Mount St Helen as well and the pictures of the place are just gorgeous. In addition, a little less than a mile down one of the RV Resort paths, is the Toutle River...there's another river that pours directly into the Toutle at this private location and the fishing is supposed to be phenominal. That means Mark can fish for salmon, trout and steelhead the entire summer! Heck, I might even grab a pole and the dogs and join him occassionally! Fishing combined with all the other activities and things to do within a 100 mile radius, along with the huge cost savings, pretty much makes this a 'no-brainer' for us. The only drawback is that we're required to stay thru the entire summer, no trips back home during the summer--but it's such a long drive back, it wouldn't be feasible anyway unless we flew back, which we couldn't do anyway unless it was an emergency of course.

Since it's about a 2300 mile trip from here in Terrell, we're planning on giving ourselves at least 10 days to make the trip, throwing in a few extra days for cushion just in case. We report June 1st, so we'll be leaving the Dallas area some time between May 18 - 20. We'll let everyone know as soon as we've figured it out! So, stay tuned~

Grand Canyon - More Pictures

2009-04-24T21:48:00.004-05:00

Here's a few more pictures...and of course, I just had to include "Charlie"...the little guy that wanted to share my ice cream with me yesterday. Today, he found a nice man that shared some pecans with him...(no gas for Charlie tonight!)

Grand Canyon Again/With Pictures

2009-04-24T20:58:00.003-05:00

We went back to the Grand Canyon today, ensuring the batteries on the camera charged all night before leaving this time! We went back to all the locations from earlier this week and got some great pictures. This trip was much shorter because we drove straight to the Grand Canyon and back. There were actually lot's of places to park. This time of year the park isn't nearly as crowed as it is in the summer. But with the crowds today in April, I can't imagine how crowded it is in the summer. Unlike earlier this week when we went, it was really windy today, but we had a great time anyway.

We're planning on just 'chilling' tomorrow. Sunday we're planning on driving to Sedona for the day. We'll fill you in when we return. We're not yet sure where we're headed once we leave here, we were planning on heading to Durango or Creede Colorado. But after the Grand Canyon Railway train ride, we're not really interested in taking the Durango Silverton train. We may move on to Moab, Utah...or possibly head West for a week on Lake Powell. We'll let you know once we figure it out! So, stay tuned~

Montezume Castle /Tuzigoot - More Pics

2009-04-23T23:29:00.004-05:00

We're trying to figure out the best solution to just including a link for all pictures that we take, rather than attempting to download a few with a blog entry. It takes 10 - 15 minutes to just download 5 pictures, which is the maximum on blogger.com, apparently. We'd like to come up with something that doesn't require a code to be entered in order to see them, but in researching tonight, I haven't come across a solution as yet.

But wanted to include a few more pictures from today, I inadvertently included a couple of pictures I didn't intend to and some how the one of Mark was left off. Anyway, here's a few more.

***Ok, Ok...I Give Up! These are not the photos I selected to upload and quite frankly I'm exhuasted! So.......you're 'stuck' with wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many pictures of Sherry! There...that's it. I'm saying Goodbye, Goodnight to all...it's bedtime for me!!!

Montezume Castle & Wells/Tuzigoot National Monuments

2009-04-23T22:11:00.006-05:00

Well we had a full day today. Today, we decided our babies (Clyde & Duffy of course), should join us on our trip past Sedona to check out several of the National Park Monuments in the area that we had wanted to check out.

The first monument we saw was Montezuma's Castle. The primary structure was a five story, 20-room dwelling built between the 1100- 1300's by the Southern Sinagua Indians. It was erroneously named, assuming this settlement was built by the Aztecs, but was not. In addition to the Castle, there was another building that held up to 100 people.

The next monument was the Montezuma Well. That was really interesting. It's a 55 foot deep circular hole, for lack of a better word. The diameter of this body of water was probably only 15 - 20 feet. The springs that feed it still flow continuously. The Southern Sinagua irrigated cropts with these waters. Traces of the original irrigation ditches they dug with primitive stone tools still exist. Several of the original stone building remains still exist. The Sinagua people lived in the area until the early 1400's and mysteriously left and it remains a mystery. They left prime architectural lands, water and shelters built over a 200 year period suddenly. It has never been determined where they went, no Sinagua people or tribes were ever recorded after the 1400's.

Then we drove to Tuzigoot, about 20 miles from the Montezuma Castle and Well. Tuzigoot means 'crooked water' in Apache. This was probably the most beautiful location we saw today. The views were breathtaking. This structure is several hundred feet about surrounding areas with several structures that remain in relatively good shape. They were also built in the 1100 - 1300's. The original pueblo was 2 stories high with 77 ground floor rooms. There were few exterior doors and entry was by ladders through openings in the roofs.

The drive to and from the area was spectacular as well. Unlike the mountains in New Mexico, the mountainous areas in Arizona have a red hue and large with flat tops...bottom line, they're just beautiful. The scenery in Arizona is just awesome...we really love it here!

Grand Canyon/But No Pictures!

2009-04-23T21:38:00.004-05:00

Yesterday we went to the Grand Canyon. We took the Grand Canyon Railway train from Williams to the South Rim for the day. Unfortunately, before we boarded the train we discovered the camera battery was dead! No pictures...bummer! But, we decided we'd drive back up while in Flagstaff this week and take pictures of our favorite spots. So, we left the camera behind and had a great time.

If you've seen the Grand Canyon, you know there are no words to describe it...what came to my mind when seeing it was...How could anyone see this awesome, magnificent thing called the Grand Canyon, and not believe in a God...of some kind. It's so awe-inspiring, I have no words to describe it. I had thought Yosemite was magnificent, but this tops that by a long shot. We were blessed with a couple of rare-endangered Condors that were gliding...not flying, they were gliding and circling the canyon for at least 5 minutes and came within 15 feet of us a few times. We felt blessed to just be in the company and observe these magnificent creatures...(I keep saying magnificent don't I? Can't think of a better word...?!)

There are signs all around warning not to feed the animals. Right outside the cafeteria and gift shop, were several squirrels that have obviously been well fed by people. They aren't the least bit afraid of people. I had sat on the ledge to eat an ice cream and a couple of the squirrels trotted right down to me, one even rared up on my knee sniffing! I was afraid he was going to crawl right up in my lap, so I slowly stood up. Mark sure wished he had a picture of that. Then the little guy scampered off to the trash beside me, climbed right on top and started licking a bowl of left over chili. Mark pointed out the little guy will probably have gas and his buddies would wonder later that night...what's wrong with 'Charlie' tonight, shew! (I knew you'd appreciate that little Mark tale).

After finishing our Grand Canyon hike, we moved to the Hopi Building and they were putting on a show for "Earth Day". It was pretty awesome...they did some kind of dance with 15 - 20 hoops. He started dancing with one of them and by the end, was making awesome displays with all these loops intertwined together. Oh yea, included with the train trip, unbeknownst to us, was a Gun Fight at the OK Corral before the train left in the morning. Lot's of antics by the actors on the train...and lo and behold, we even had a genuine "train robbery" on the way back, including masked gunment on horses running after the train, right before our eyes, followed by the robbers coming on the train, 'robbing' folks and last, but not least of course, the Sheriff coming thru to save the day. We'd have probably enjoyed the whole train robbery a tad more if we weren't soooooooooo exhausted from our full day of exploring and walking...and walking.

We're planning on heading back to the Grand Canyon tomorrow for pictures. Hope everyone else had a great day! Until tomorrow~

Hello Flagstaff!

2009-04-21T20:51:00.004-05:00

We pulled out of Balloon Fiesta Park before 7:00 a.m. this morning, to beat the crowd of RV'ers that would be pulling out shortly. We had an uneventful 6 hour trip to Flagstaff today and were parked and hooked up ready to go by 3:00 today. We grabbed a bite to eat and took a short drive around town to get a lay of the land so to speak. We came across Lowell Observatory, perched high above the city and is only a few miles from our campground. It has three 2-story telescopes and they offer tours daily and even offer several nightly tours to look at the stars...we're adding that to the agenda for sure.

As for tomorrow, we've settled on heading to the Grand Canyon. We're catching the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams Arizona early tomorrow morning, which is just a short drive from our campsite here in Flagstaff. It's a 2 hour train ride into the Grand Canyon and return...and we're hoping for lot's of terrific scenery. Once there, they offer free shuttles throughout the Canyon that we'll take to check out the different areas of the south rim. So, that about wraps it up for today...we made it safely to Flagstaff and are planning on staying here at Black Bart RV Park for the next week. Can't wait to see what tomorrow has in store, so until later~

Goodbye Albuquerque

2009-04-20T19:39:00.004-05:00

Well, looks like I've went too long without an update again, but we've been so busy I haven't had time to make an update. We've spent the last several days attending seminars that were quite helpful, we learned an awful lot. In addition, we purchased a couple of things we had needed for the RV, but had not yet been able to get. In addition, we attended shows in the evening, Neil Sedaka, Rita Coolidge and last night, the Osmond Brothers. So that didn't leave any time for updates...but sorry about that.

There wasn't anything to take pictures of this week while attending seminars or the Rally exhibits, but we did have a bit of excitement a couple of nights ago. As everyone knows, Albuquerque is the city for hot air ballonons, and last night they brought out several hot air balloons for the rally and they were right at the end of our row after the concert. There's a way to light the balloons up at night, so that they look like a lighted Christmas ornament. They were just gorgeous, and the pictures certainly don't do them justice, but I've included a few. We actually got to come around to the secured area and visit with the 'pilots', as they refer to themselves. These balloons are lit up with really intense flames that put off a tremendous heat. One of the pilots tried to get me to climb up on the basket before he pulled the lever to light the balloon! It felt like my hair was singing from where I was 5 feet away...Uhhhhhhh, I Don't Think So!!! But it really made for a beautiful ending to a great day.

Tonight the Rally ends, and we really take off and will be kicking things into high gear. The plan is to leave early tomorrow morning for Flagstaff, Arizona. We'll stay in Flagstaff for 1+ weeks, while we explore the Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, Walnut Canyon Nat'l Monument, Oak Creek Canyon, Sedona, Montezuma's Castle, Sunset Crater and Wuptaki Nat'l monument. We may not hit all of 'em, but that's the current plan...and Flagstaff is a great central location to them all.

Well, that about wraps it up for now...I'll update again once we get settled in Flagstaff. Until later~

Finals Days in Santa Fe/Arriving at Albuquerque Rally

2009-04-16T17:11:00.018-05:00

1st Picture - We're packed in at the Rally

2nd Picture - Our view from the Rally

3rd Picture - Mark at the Rally entrance

4th Picture - Sherry @ the Rally entrance

5th Picture - Balloon Fiesta Museum in the park

Well, we finally made it to the 2009 RV Rally yesterday. It's been more than a week since our last update...sorry about that! We spent the last several days in Santa Fe running just running a few errands, checking a couple of places out and mainly...just waiting for this rally to begin.

We did check out one of the local Santa Fe 'dives' that was recently on the Food Network show, "Diners, Drive-in's and Dives". I tried the green chili/cheese burger, that the guy on the show said was terrific...and it was, though a tad spicey for my liking. Of course, Mark being the more adventurous one, decided he had to try the buffalo burger, so he had a Bison burger...he says the meat tasted great, not really 'gamey', but the burger was a bit spicey. So that was a fun experience. We also went back to Route 66 for a day and checked out several cool places, but we forgot to bring the camera so no pictures of that day!

The most interesting thing we saw our last day on Route 66 in Santa Fe was the 'Loretto Chapel'. I remember hearding about it on the Travel channel a few years ago. It's a Catholic church built in the1870's for some nuns that came to Santa Fe to open the first convent school for girls. They had run out of money before the staircase could be built to the second floor of the church. The sisters prayed about it and the next morning, a stranger showed up with a saw and a couple of other basic tools, offering to do the work for the sisters. They were glad to have someone work on it without requiring payment upfront, so this man spent the next 7 months creating this circular staircase, which has No supports and makes 3 complete 360 turns. The stair case was finished in 1877. The morning after it was completed, the mother superior looked for the stranger, to pay for his work or at least for the wood and he was gone...never seen nor heard from again.

Numerous architectural 'experts' have completed detailed analysis and even a chemical compound breakdown of the staircase wood used, and to date the wood cannot be identified. So the sisters and folk lore is that the work must have been completed by the patron Saint of carpentry whom the sisters had prayed to the night before the man showed up to complete the staircase. In addition, NO nails were used, only glue. All pieces were done by intra-locking each step of the staircase! And until 1977, this remained an active convent with hundreds of girls going up and down these stairs everyday...with no structural support! And the wood is beautiful, it looks brand new! Isn't that a fascinating story? Mark and I spent a couple of hours checking it out, they had a bookstore area where you could read the actual geological and structural analysis. None of the 'experts' have been able to identify the type of wood used, how the staircase structure supports weight with no structural support, nor why after 125+ years, it is still in pristine condition. (I like to think there was some kind of help from someone 'above'!)

Well, that pretty much wrapped up our week in Santa Fe. We got to Albuquerque yesterday evening and there are currently 2,000+ RV's at the Balloon Festival Park with more coming tomorrow. There are lot's of seminars and booths and stuff to check out on everyting from RV stuff to cool places to visit, etc. I've included a few pictures of the rally site., (By the way, Mark wants to point out that in the extended view of the Balloon Fiesta Park RV's, our RV is the one with the white roof..(he he he)! As for entertainment, tonight is a concert with a group popular in the 59's/60's. Tomorrow night is Neil Sedaka, (remember him from the 70's? Loved that guy). Then the next night is Rita Coolidge, country western singer and the next night the Osmond brothers.

That about wraps it up from here, sorry I've been a bad 'blogger'...promise I'll do better on keeping updates of what we're up to. So......until tomorrow, have a wonderful evening~~

Santa Fe - Turquoise Trails

2009-04-08T19:53:00.004-05:00

We got up early this morning and headed out for an all day trip from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, along the Turquoise Trails, which is one of the recommended scenic drives in New Mexico. We drove along 30 miles of beautiful mountains with small towns and little museums along the way. At the half way point we decided to go up the Santia Mountain, which at the top, is 10,800 feet. Due to recent problems with high altitude while on a day trip in Carlsbad, I decided to take precautionary measures. So, last night I took a baby aspirin, at the recommendation of one of the 'neighbors' we met in an RV Park recently. In addition, I drank lot's of water to keep hydrated...(thanks for the suggestion Julie), and NO Altitude sickness! At least not this time. I was sooooooooo relieved, as was Mark. With our upcoming move into Colorado, I knew I better come up with something or we'd have a real kink in our future plans!

Anyway...it was a long 15 mile drive up the mountain, but the views were definitely worth it. We spent some time at the gift shop and Mark took lot's of pictures. We were surprised at how much snow is still in the upward part of the mountains. The temperature dropped from 70 to 34 in 30 minutes and with the wind blowing, the wind chill was probably in the teens! So we headed back down the mountain and continued on thru the remaining 20 miles of the drive, ending up in Albuquerque. We stopped at Red Lobster for a nice meal and headed back to our home on wheels. It was a nice day trip...we had a good time, got home and curled up for an evening of television. Not sure what's on the agenda tomorrow, but we'll find something!

Our 'Babies' & The Rig

2009-04-08T19:37:00.004-05:00

As my wonderful sister-in-law recently pointed out, we don't yet have a single picture of our babies! Thought I'd attach a few copies of our babies (albeit, they may be a 'tad' heavy!), but they're still babies to us!! Also thought I'd attach a couple of pics of our rig too.

Route 66

2009-04-08T18:55:00.006-05:00

We've been so busy I haven't had a chance to post an update in a few days. A couple of days ago we drove to the old Route 66, the famous highway that moves thru several states. We parked the truck and spent the majority of the day strolling thru the cool stores, boutiques and museums. We had lot's of fun and plan to head back later this week to see a few of the sites in the area we didn't have time to check out. Attached are a few pictures of our day on Route 66.

Goodbye "Snakes" - Hello Santa Fe

2009-04-04T18:52:00.003-05:00

Yep, that's right...snakes! We didn't do any other 'tourist' activities our last couple of days in Carlsbad. We spent yesterday doing chores, getting ready for our drive today from Carlsbad to Santa Fe. We had taken the dogs out for a bathroom break yesterday afternoon and Mark noticed a snake a couple hundred yards away! And it was Big...really, it was almost as tall as the man who threw his hat over the snakes head and grabbed him! It was probably 5 - 6 foot long. I saw the man throw his cap on the snakes head and grab it from behind (just like the Crocodile hunter on tv!) He posed with it while his wife took pictures of it even and they showed it to their grandkids!! They were freakin' Crazy! We know it wasn't a rattle-snake, no rattler. We found out it was first seen chasing one of the wild rabbits in the park...right next to an RV a row over from ours...they said the rabbit was fighting back too! Wow...Wow!! I was amazed and scared! I had taken the dogs out at night earlier in the week, without even a flashlight! Needless to say, I didn't take them out again at that park! Mark had to. After showing the snake to anyone interested (and Mark did go over and check it out), the man took it over to the empty field and released it...so it was probably right back in the park last night! Between the high winds and snake, I was really glad to get out of that park!

We awoke early this morning, packed up and were headed out by 8:30 on our way to Santa Fe. The winds in New Mexico have been fierce...at least 40 - 55 mph constant at times, with gusts probably at least 60 mph...Way too much for us. The high winds have pretty much ruined our slide-out toppers and we'll probably remove them one day this week. We'll take the RV in for repair of an internal door this week, probably Tuesday. There's several things we're hoping to check out this week, including mountains, beautiful scenic drives and of course, Route 66. We're in a beautiful RV park this week, up on a mountain overlooking Santa Fe.

Well, that's about it from here...I should have more pictures to post in the next few days. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll find something! Stay tuned...

Cloudcraft and White Sands

2009-04-01T22:20:00.006-05:00

Well, we got up early today and grabbed the dogs and headed out. We planned on driving to White Sands National Monument near Ruidoso today and the round trip was 300 miles. Maybe a tad too many for one day of sight-seeing I guess. But we had a great time and the dogs really enjoy getting to go places with us.

We drove to Roswell and headed southwest to Alomogordo, to check out the White Sand dunes. On the way, we went through beautiful mountains all the way up to Cloudcraft, which was at some 9,000 ft altitude. Well, unfortunately I discovered I must have a tendancy for altitude sickness, because I started getting a migraine that increased the higher we went and lasted until we were back down on the other side of the mountains today...bummer! So we didn't get to spend anytime in the old cowboy/western town of Cloudcraft as planned. But, we did go thru Lincoln National Forrest on the way to Almogordo, and the scenery along the entire trip today was beautiful. Ruidoso had lot's of great scenery too.

I've included a few pictures of the White Sands National Monument, which was one of the strangest things we've seen...it appeared to be snow with 20+ foot snow-drifts, but obviously was just white 'sand' from gypsum. Mark even climbed up into one of the dunes with Clyde & Duffy...Duffy enjoyed it, but Clyde sure didn't! He slid down the dune with all 4 feet extended, he definitely wasn't enjoying the dunes as much as we were! But today, we did get to see Roswell (again), Almogordo, Cloudscraft and Ruidoso today, and overall, we really enjoyed today's outing.

We're not sure what's on the agenda tomorrow...this Friday is 'chore' day, when we get the laundry done, truck cleaned and fueled and everything ready for our Saturday morning early departure to Santa Fe. We'll probably go to the Living Desert Zoo and possibly Sitting Bull Falls tomorrow. But not sure...so stay tuned~

Roswell & UFO's

2009-03-31T18:27:00.003-05:00

Today we drove from Carlsbad to Roswell New Mexico. We spent a couple of hours in the UFO Museum. It was actually pretty cool...we weren't sure what to expect, but there was lot's of interesting information. Especially interesting were several affidavits from individuals about the incidents that occurred in Roswell in July 1947. In addition, there was also lot's of information about UFO's and citings throughout the world, including documented letters from pilots and others on several citings throughout the last 50+ years.

We then went to Red Lobster for a bite to eat and started visiting with a couple that recently moved to Ruidoso from the Lubbock area. They suggested we take a scenic drive up through Cloudcraft, through the mountains, to an old ghost town. It was too late for the trip today, so we're getting up early tomorrow, grabbing the dogs and heading off for a scenic drive through the mountains of New Mexico. Then Thursday, we're hoping to go to the White Sands National Park and take the dogs romping thru the sand. We can't wait...stay tuned~

Chillin' in Carlsbad

2009-03-30T18:57:00.005-05:00

We arrived in Carlsbad, New Mexico Saturday afternoon. We spent the afternoon touring around the area and getting a lay of the land. Then yesterday we went to the Carlsbad Canyons and spent the entire day taking a couple of the tours, the 'Natural" Entrance and the Big Room. We had a great time. Just the scenery on the way to the caverns was unbelievable. We've never seen anything like it. It's a complete desert with the Guadalupe mountains as a backdrop...quite pretty, in an odd way.

We were exhausted today after a combined 5 mile hike in the caverns yesterday, so we took the day off and just chilled hangin' around the 'house'. We're planning on spending the day tomorrow at Sitting Bull Falls and a local wildlife area. We're also going to Roswell this week to attend the UFO museum. Also on the agenda this week is the White Sands dunes of New Mexico. That will pretty much wrap up our activity for our week in Carlsbad.

We're tentatively planning on heading to Santa Fe this Saturday for a week. We have some minor warranty work needed and it's a great location for exploring before we move to Albuquerque the following week for the Good Sam rally. I'm still trying to figure out this 'bloggin' stuff, I've loaded a few pictures from our trip to the caverns, but still having problems with where they're placed on the page. But...at least they're there! Well, we're off to Roswell, New Mexico tomorrow to take in the UFO museum, which is supposed to be the largest UFO museum in the world. So...stay tuned!

Relaxing Week on the Frio River

2009-03-25T23:16:00.006-05:00

A Little Bit of Heaven

Our first week of this journey was spent in a wonderfully relaxing location, backed right up to the river. We've spent the last week just chilling and enjoying time around the campfire. Considering the fact that we'd never previously camped in our entire 32 year marriage, or even had a campfire, we're really getting into the groove of this lifestyle! This was one of the most relaxing weeks we've had in a long time and we've had a wonderful time.

Our Chi's, Clyde and Duffy, have really enjoyed the week too. They saw their first armadillo and lot's of squirrels, geese, fish and other birds. During a late night around the campfire this week we heard some scampering around and an armadillo had actually walked right up to the campfire and both of them started howling like crazy ! (I have to admit, I was a tad afraid myself...after all, it was pitch dark!) Mark went fishing several days and caught a few as well. Overall, it's been a wonderful week, just what we needed after months of "To-Do's" and Action Items getting things ready for our new life.

Now that our batteries are charged up, we're ready to kick things into gear and take off on our journey. We leave tomorrow for Snyder, Texas for a short visit with my aunt before moving on to Carlsbad, New Mexico Saturday morning. So, until later....

It's Finally Here!

2009-03-12T23:52:00.004-05:00

Well it's finally here. After months and months of planning, we begin our new fulltiming life Saturday morning, 3/14/2009. Our first stop is back to Lafayette, for some minor warranty work on our new Mobile Suites. Afterwards, we be heading towards New Mexico. After a short stop in Hobbs, New Mexico, we'll be going to Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico for a week or so. We're also planning on attending "The Rally" in Albuquerque in mid-April, followed by a few days in Santa Fe.

Though plans are far from final, after New Mexico we're tentatively planning on moving on into Colorado for a few weeks followed by time in Montana. The wonderful thing about this journey is no alarm clocks or plans set in stone...all plans are as firm as 'jello'! So, until later...~