Friday, April 29, 2011

Well, here I am back trying to update again. Last Friday we went into Johnson City and visited the LBJ National Building, it had a really interesting display plus we watched two videos, one on Lady Bird and one on LBJ. It is amazing all things he accomplished as President and she was such a strong supporter of the environment.

Saturday we didn’t do too much, some laundry and getting ready to head out in the morning, then around 6 p.m. we went into Johnson City and got fuel and picked up a pizza for dinner. The weather continued HOT with highs in the low 30’sC (92F).

Miller Creek RV Resort, Johnson City, TX



Sunday was another HOT day all day, we headed north and east and ended up for the night at Fern Brook RV Park in Longview, TX. It is a new park and very nice with long paved pull thrus and was $29.70 – Good Sam price. We sat outside for a while after we got set up as we figured it would be the last chance for quite a while. All of Texas is so scorched and dry from the high temperatures and lack of rain, on the way out this morning we talked to Paul, owner of Miller Creek RV, and he said he was beginning to think they would never get rain.

Fern Brook RV Park



Monday we headed northeast again and as we entered Arkansas what a difference – everything was wet with lots of flooded areas, sure would be nice if they could send some of their moisture south to Texas!

Entering Arkansas


We ended up stopping in Brinkley, AR for the night, about 40 miles east of Little Rock. The RV Park was behind Motel 6 and boy was it wet, a lot of the spots were completely flooded but we did manage to find a fairly dry one.

Brinkley RV Park on Monday Night



Another couple came in behind us and said they were heading to Little Rock to visit their son and he had called and said they were having severe storms and tornados in the Little Rock area – oh great! Out came the TV and got tuned to the weather channel and talk about scary as it seemed the storm was heading for us. Fortunately, it went to the north a bit and we got a torrential downpour with high winds for about 15 minutes, then the rain settled in to just a good downpour. We were lucky that there was no hail, although we spent a very tense evening wondering what would happen and ready to run to the washrooms for shelter if we needed to. The tornado siren did go off once but not for long – needless to say not the kind of evening we want to repeat!

And On Tuesday Morning





Yesterday we drove from Brinkley AR to Effingham IL and talk about flooded land the whole way with the area along the Mississippi River totally flooded, at one point the water was just about over the interstate. I know we have had lots of rain at home but I hope it isn’t as bad as here.

Entering Missouri


Flooding Along Mississippi River


Large Cross at Effingham IL


Last night we stayed at Camp Lakewood in Effingham, a nice park with long level pull thrus and the Good Sam rate was $25. It was another warm day with temperatures in the low 70’s, and was partly cloudy and sunny all day, a good driving day when it isn’t totally sunny.

Camp Lakewood


Today’s drive was mainly overcast with a couple of rain drizzles, but we must say the interstate between Effingham and north of Indianapolis leaves a lot to be desired! Talk about construction and rough roads!! When we entered Indiana we got back on Eastern time so finally are the same time as home again.

Entering Indiana


Tonight we are at Fireside RV in Auburn, IN, this park isn’t all that great but it is open year around so is usually our first night out and our last night coming home stop. The cash or cheque price is $27.45 and the wi-fi is the pits so I don’t know if I will be able to get this posted.

The temperatures have been warm until today, but comfortable. I thought today was going to be much cooler so I put on long pants for the first time in more than 5 months and boy do they feel funny! As it turns out the temperature was in the mid 60’s all day so I could have done one more day in capris. There are storm warnings out again for tonight, great, another tense evening. I think the high for tomorrow will only be in the low 50’s – a great welcome home as we hope to be in London tomorrow night. It has just started to rain but we will keep our fingers crossed that we don’t get any wicked storms.

I couldn’t post this on Wednesday night as the internet was non-existent, same as yesterday so will finish up now.

We had a good trip yesterday from Auburn to London, we hit a spot of rain just before Lansing but other than that it was a good drive. It was quite windy but it was a tail wind for us so no big deal. We arrived in London around 3:30 p.m. and got settled in for the night at Can-Am RV. We went out for dinner with Pat, who works at Can-Am, and her daughter Christine, we went to Swiss Chalet so were happy to get a good dinner there after almost 6 months.

This morning it was cold and raining when we left London but thankfully we ran out of the rain after about ½ hour and the sun was shining when we got to Kincardine but it has still been a chilly day. Then the fun started – moving back into the cottage, we are part way there but still lots more to do tomorrow. Unfortunately my back is still killing me so John has done all the loading and lifting and I have put stuff away as he brings it into the cottage.

I have an appointment with a chiropractor on Monday morning so sure hope it helps, then I have an appointment in Kitchener in the afternoon to get a lymph drainage massage so hopefully I will feel much better after all the attention!

Tomorrow night we are going to the Erie Belle for dinner with Alison, Bob, Mike & Margie so it should be a fun evening and will be great to see our friends again after a long winter away.

Next weekend we are going to our daughter Nan’s for dinner and are really excited about seeing our family again, it is a long winter with only phone calls. Unfortunately Mike & Franneca can’t go on the weekend but we will see them on Monday so are also looking forward to that. That is the one downside about being away all winter, we really do miss our children and grand children.

This will be the end of my blogging for the summer, it is just too hard to think of something to say, but I do thank everyone who has been following our trip this winter and wish everyone a very great summer.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Happy Easter everyone, hope you have wonderful holiday.

This is the Welcome to New Mexico Sign


and the Welcome to Texas


The weather has continued hot and humid with highs each day in the 90’s, it certainly doesn’t make me feel too energetic! Our site backing onto the river is really nice and there are lots of trees behind us, one being a large live oak tree with branches almost on the ground.

There are no wildflowers here in Hill Country this year as they had a very dry winter. It is disappointing but we are so thankful we were here last year to enjoy the bumper crop. Here are some pictures of last years' beautiful wildflowers.












Tuesday we went to San Marcos, home of Premier and Tangier outlet malls; sure lots of shopping to be done there!! There were only a few places I wanted to go to so I did that while John patiently bided his time waiting for me. It was then off to the Olive Garden for a yummy lunch and a day wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Wal Mart. By the time we got home we were glad to come in, turn on the a/c and relax.

Wednesday we toured the Lyndon B. Johnson ranch and Texas White House as it was known when he was President. The Johnson’s donated about 600 acres of their land, including the house, to the National Park on the condition that the house would be their private residence until they had both passed away. Lady Bird passed away in 2007 so the house and a couple of the outbuildings are now open for tours. We toured the property in 2008 but the house wasn’t open for tours at that time so there is now more to see and it was interesting to do the tour again. LBJ raised Herefords and at the livestock area they had a mother and a two month old calf in a pen and a bull that was two years old and weighed 1900 lbs.

Bull


Calf


And Mom


At the hangar we saw the plane he used to travel back and forth between Washington and Texas,

as well as a number of cars he owned, and it was at the hangar we started the tour of the house.





When he became president there were no private telephone lines in this part of Texas, they were all party lines, but he had 72 private lines installed into the house so he could carry on his work as he would in Washington. There were phones everywhere in the house with one installed on the leg of the dining room table – talk about always being on call!! Guess he would have loved the cell phones of today. There were also TV’s everywhere, usually 3 in one place and when in residence he had them on all the time.

After the tour we went into Fredericksburg where we both got hair cuts then went to HEB and picked up a cooked chicken and potato salad for dinner.

Yesterday we drove north to Marble Falls and I got a pedicure, sure felt good. A quick stop at HEB and we were back home around 3 for a quiet rest of the day.

We are heading into Johnson City shortly so I had best get changed and ready to go.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Monday, April 18, 2011

We are now in Johnson City, Texas and will be here for a week. We have had four long days of driving through nowhere Arizona, New Mexico and Texas but the weather was good until Texas when we hit the Texas winds.

Saturday night we enjoyed our rib dinner at the Roadrunner Café at the park in Fort Stockton. It was really funny, we were parked beside another Airstream in Fort Stockton, we don’t see a lot of them on the road and to be parked beside another one two nights in a row is unusual. John and Nancy are from Birmingham and were heading to join an Airstream Caravan in Carlsbad, NM. What was really funny all 3 Airstream fellows are Johns!

Driving into Texas from New Mexico it was really hazy, it turns out there were a lot of wild fires to the west of Fort Stockton and the town of Davis Mountain was pretty well burned out and hundreds of animals killed in the fires – how devastating! I think they are now under control but it is so dry here it wouldn’t take much for a fire to start.

Yesterday we arrived here and were totally beat, we lost an hour on Friday when we left Arizona as Arizona doesn’t do daylight saving time and then we lost another hour on Saturday when we left New Mexico and Mountain Time – 2 hours in 2 days is hard on the system!

Today was a very quiet day, my back is still really sore so I wasn’t up to doing much except laundry. Just after I started the laundry John came to tell me we were moving to a site along the river so he got the trailer moved while I did the laundry. Today was 30C+ (90F+) and it is supposed to be like that all week so he thought it might be a bit shadier and cooler by the river. I DO NOT like temperatures that hot but will just have to suck it up, I know if I was home with 4C I wouldn’t be happy either!!

We have a few things we want to do in the area and I want to try and find a massage for my back so it will keep us busy for the week.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Wow, it’s really has been a long time since I’ve blogged but I guess we haven’t been doing anything too terribly exciting.

We really enjoyed my sister’s visit in March and managed to do a lot of touring, we took her to California to see the sand dunes and the Salton Sea, did a trip to Algadones, Mexico for some shopping, went to the Ghost Town in the middle of nowhere, the old Yuma prison etc. The time flew by while Pat was visiting so hopefully next year she will come for a couple of weeks.

The day before Pat arrived we lost the water pump on the truck so we had to rent a car for a couple of days while we went to Phoenix to pick her up then arranged to get the pump replaced, always something to keep life excting!

The weather has been really nice and two weeks ago today Yuma set a new record high temperature of 101F – a little too hot for my liking but fortunately it cooled back down to more reasonable temperatures.

We had the trailer in storage for four months, since we moved into the new house, so Monday was the day to pick it up and get ready for our trip home. We parked the trailer in front of the house on Monday and spent the day loading up the things to take home – always a fun time! Somehow I managed to do my back in again so am now living on Ibuprofen to keep moving, not fun and if it isn’t better in the next couple of days I will try to find a massage therapist to see if I can get some relief. John had arranged for the Mexicans to wash the trailer on Tuesday afternoon so we moved it onto a site in the RV end of the park until we left yesterday morning. There were still a few things to move but the main thrust from Tuesday afternoon was to summer-ize the house and that was finally done yesterday morning, now we will be waiting with fingers crossed until we get back in the fall to see if everything was done okay.

Tuesday night our friends Sharon & Bob had a nice little get together for us and invited some of the neighbours and friends, a great time was had by all and Sharon had enough snackies that we didn’t have to go home & make dinner – how good was that! Wednesday night we went out for dinner with Sharon, Bob, Carolyn (yes, another Carolyn!) & Gary, we went to a place for fish & chips but believe me they came nowhere the fish & chips at the Erie Belle, but the company was fun.

We have arranged with David, next door, to keep an eye on our place while we are gone and keep our cedar trees watered – can you believe it, we have the only cedar trees in the park in Yuma but are surrounded by them in Kincardine. Sharon inherited my plants so it will be interesting to see if they survive the summer there. David is also going to build a small wall in front of the house to keep the gravel off the road and build a path of paving stones from the front to the back patio, should look nice.

We finally pulled out of Yuma about 11:30 Thursday morning and had a good, boring drive to Benson AZ where we stayed at one of our favourite parks – Cochise Terrace. The one drawback to Cochise Terrace is that they don’t have free wi-fi but they say they will have it by the fall – time will tell. It was a windy day and when we got to Benson the wind was still howling so not a night for John to grill so we had a pasta dinner and an early evening.

Today was a gorgeous day and the wind had died down so we had a great drive to Almagordo, NM. We stopped in Wilcox AZ for fuel and there was a 34’ Airstream parked in the plaza but we didn’t see the people who owned it, then we caught up with it in a rest area in New Mexico. John talked to the fellow (another John) and it turns out they are from London ON and bought their trailer from Can-Am and were heading for Almagordo. To make a long story short they are parked beside us tonight and in talking to them we realized that they had been at Country View Motel & RV park last spring when we were there and John had met them just as they were leaving – talk about a small world!

Tomorrow we plan on spending the night in Fort Stockton TX and have dinner at the Roadrunner Café in the RV Park – they have an excellent rib dinner for $7.95, hard to beat that. Last year when we were there the wi-fi was the pits so don’t know what it will be like now. From there we are planning on going to Hill Country Texas for a week, then head for home. I will try to be better at keeping this updated while we are on the road and take some pictures to go with it.

And so ends many more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Again, a couple of weeks have gone by in a flash, I don’t know where the time goes.

Two weeks ago Sunday we had gone to the inside Arizona Market (they now have an inside one and an outside one), and Sears is right across the road so when we left the market John wanted to run into Sears and get a screw driver so I went in and decided to wander through the grill section to see what, if anything, was on sale. Lo and behold if the grill he had wanted wasn’t on sale, $100 of with an additional 10% off so of course we grabbed it. They only had 2 left and both of them had been put together so it was a very slow trip home with it in the back of the truck, but we made it safely taking little used roads and going real slow. John really likes his new grill and it is almost as nice as the Napolean at home.



We finally got to see The King’s Speech and what a good movie it is, we thoroughly enjoyed it. We had received a $10 gift certificate for Logan’s Roadhouse from the place where we bought our new mattress so went there for dinner after the movie. We went to Logan’s a couple of years ago and said we would never go back the service was so bad and the food wasn’t great, but with the gift certificate in hand back we went. The service still wasn’t great and John’s steak was tough but my shrimp were good, I don’t think we will go back again as there are too many other good places to go but it certainly wasn’t as bad as a couple of years ago.

On the same day as we went to the show I went to the Ladies Luncheon here in the park and won another prize, this time a tea towel and some bag clips. That same day our daughter Kelly won $5,000 in the Heart and Stroke calendar daily draw, her sister had given her the calendar for Christmas so how lucky was that! Now it would be nice to see Nancy win one of the draws also.

Last Wednesday our new solar shades for the south side of the house came and we are real happy with them. We got a burgundy colour that looks really nice with the house, most people get the beige so ours are really different but look nice. We only had a 3’ drop put in the section at the bottom of the deck steps so we still would have access to outside the patio area and John could get at the grill. It also lets in some sun but there is also lots of room to get out of it if we don’t want to sit in the sun. We do need new shades on the two back sections but that will have to wait until next year. We bought some new chairs and side tables for the patio so that area is now all done.





Last Saturday night we went to the burger dinner here at the park with the couple across the street and another couple who have bought a place here in the park and will be moving in around mid March. The burgers were really good and after dinner we went back to Sharon & Bob’s and sat out until it got too cold to sit out any longer. When we came home it was only 7:20, dinner at 5 sure makes for a lonnnnnng evening when you aren’t used to eating that early! Last night we went to the spaghetti dinner and were home before 6, I call it the eat and dash dinner because as soon as people are through eating they head for home, no socializing done at these dinners!

At dinner last night we sat with our neighbours on the north and they asked when we were leaving and were disappointed to hear we would be still here when they are ready to leave as they were hoping to put their 5th wheel on the road for a day or two to load up before they leave. It is allowed here as long as you leave it hooked up to the truck, but they are so long they would block our driveway where we park our truck. John told them it would be no problem, we could park the truck on the other side for a couple of days and then we could block their driveway for a couple of days when we are loading up, a good deal for both.

David next door came in to the hall last night and got take out for his mom and him and when I came home he was just heading out to take his dog for a walk and I had a good laugh as Mitzi was red all around her mouth from licking out the spaghetti container.

John is enjoying his new bike, the frame is a bit small but he managed to get the seat elevated and the handlebars in a comfortable position so it is better for riding than his fold up bike. Maybe some day he will be able to find another good deal with a larger frame but for now this one will do and the price was right.

Today is the annual fashion show and luncheon so I am looking forward to it as it is usually a nice time, I hear they are serving chicken cesar salad and strawberry short cake.

The forecast is for rain tomorrow and today is overcast and cooler but we aren’t complaining as it still beats the weather back home. This week has been really nice with temperatures in the mid to high 70’sF, just perfect as far as I’m concerned.

A pretty sunset last week


And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Yes, we are still alive and in the land of the living. I find it very hard to write something when we aren’t doing anything exciting; when traveling it is easy to write about where we are and what we are doing, but now we are like anyone else living in the same place and carrying on a normal life.

We took part in the parks Garage Sale two weeks ago, and hooray, we managed to get rid of everything. We were out just before 8 a.m. and it was quite chilly until about 10, people were arriving wearing gloves it was so cool but it did warm up nicely. Sharon & Bob, across the street from us, had put an ad in the paper re the garage sale as they had a lot of stuff they hoped to get rid of and their ad sure brought in a lot of people from outside the park which helped us. We sold our lazy boy chair and towards the end we still had two bar stools left, plus some odds and ends when a gal came along and bought the bar stools. She had a friend with her who gave us a brochure for Helping Hands and she said if we wanted she would take away anything that was left over. The gal who bought the stools came back about 45 minutes later to pick them up and her friend took the few things we had left, so we were real happy to see everything gone & not having to deal with the leftovers.

We had a few good laughs out of people, John had two saw horses out for $1 each and a fellow came along and looked at them, thought his friend in Washington might like them and tried to call him to find out if he would like them, but couldn’t remember his phone number. Anyways, after much dithering about he decided to buy them – all of this for $2! Another lady was looking at the humidifier we had out, it is one that sits on the kitchen counter and the fellow we bought the house from needed it as he got nose bleeds from the dryness. Anyways, it was towards the end so John told the woman $0.25 for it and she still couldn’t make up her mind and ended up walking away. A couple of minutes later her husband came back to get it and asked me how much so I said $1, he said he though it was $0.25 but I said my price was $1 and he paid it, sometimes it doesn’t pay to procrastinate about things!! Another lady spent five minutes asking questions and dithering about a ceiling light, another item that was at that point going for $0.25, but she did buy it with our assurances that it worked and the only reason we were selling it was because we had replaced it with a track light. People like this made the morning fun!

Last week our friends Jim & Linda came over from Desert Hot Springs, California for a couple of days and we had a great visit with them. On Wednesday we went out to Lake Martinez to show them the lake and look around. There are some absolutely gorgeous homes out there and then there are some pretty tired looking places, a little bit of everything. We had lunch at a restaurant/bar there, Jim & Linda treated us to an awesome burger, an absolutely huge burger that serves 4 and was it ever good – thanks again guys.





We will have to go again sometime with another couple who would like to split a burger! After lunch we drove farther out from the lake to the National Wildlife Preserve and went through the visitor’s centre, then came back through the Dome Valley where it is all farmland, not something you expect to find in the desert.

We had a real cold snap here this week and the pool was even closed for 3 days. On Wednesday night/Thursday morning it went down to 28F and a lot of people had their plants killed by the frost and it looks like the trees got frostbite also. Wednesday and Thursday the temperature didn’t get much past the mid 50’sF during the day but it is now warming up again. I really won’t complain though as they had a rough weather week back home so our little cold snap wasn’t all that bad. On Wednesday afternoon we went downtown planning on seeing The King’s Speech at the theatre but when we got there the lineup was huge and it was cold and windy so we decided to wait and go another day, that day still hasn’t come but we will go soon.

This morning a fellow came from the insurance company to take pictures of the house and he was telling John that his brother lives in Tucson and because of the cold weather they have run out of natural gas, now that would not be nice! I was just checking the Tucson News and it seems like there were about 15,000 homes that lost their gas supply and now Southwest Gas must turn off all the meters in the service area, then repressurize its system before turning all those meters on again. Workers have to enter each home to turn customers’ meters back on and can only do that when someone is home and they expect they won’t get them all back on until Tuesday, wow, what a mess that is.

Yesterday when John was out for his bike ride he saw a Giant bike for sale in the area he calls Little Mexico, so when he came back he took the truck over to check it out and came back with a new, to him, bike for $25. It is in good shape but sure needs to be cleaned up so I know how he will be spending his time for the next while. He loves doing stuff like that so is in his glory and will end up having a nice bike when he’s done.

Time to get some lunch then head out to fight the crowds at the grocery store.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

It has been a week since I posted a blog so I am doing a bit better with my updates. It is hard to write when there isn’t much to write about, it is not as exciting being in one place as it is being on the road and seeing new places and discovering new things.

I haven’t been doing a lot as my back has still been sore, one day it seems to be a bit better then the next day worse again – very frustrating, but yesterday I went for a massage and today it is much better so I have my fingers crossed that it is on the mend now.

Last Tuesday I finally talked to my brother in Australia on Skype and thankfully they are fine and not affected with the flooding, I certainly was relieved to hear that. I watched a video of some of the flooding in Brisbane and it was incredible to see how quickly the water rose and washed cars away, and a friend sent us pictures of some of the rail lines north of Brisbane and what the water had done to them. I certainly feel sorry for all the people affected by it.

The last week has been pretty quiet, John has been looking for a new grill but so far he hasn’t decided on anything; I have given up going out to look with him as it is frustrating watching him hem and haw about them. He is the one who uses it so it is his decision what he wants, just wish he would decide!

We are looking at shades for the new patio area as it is too sunny without them, John was out looking yesterday and is waiting for a call from someone to come out and give us a quote.

Yesterday when I got home from my massage just as I came in the back door there was a knock at the front and it was Bob across the road saying to come over for a drink, I said it sounded good but didn’t know where John was, turns out he was already there. I went over and they had a few other people there so it was nice to meet new people and visit, a very nice time.

I had an e-mail from Larry T. asking how we decided to come to Yuma so thought that I would put a bit about that in my blog. For some reason I have always wanted to visit Arizona but being the uninformed Canuck that I am thought that all of Airzona was warm (hot even) in the winter – NOT!

We left London ON on January 1st, 2006 heading for our first visit to Arizona. We had gone to London on Dec. 30th and moved into our new Airstream with plans to leave on the 31st but is was snowing pretty good that day so decided to wait until the 1st. On the 2nd of January it was 70F going through Indianapolis but we did know that was unusual for that part of the country. The next night we stayed in Springfield MO and again it was nice weather, we even turned the water on in the trailer.

A few days later we arrived in Alburquerque NM and again the weather was beautiful, in the high 50’s and low 60’s during the day but cold at night (I just checked my diary and it went down to 21F one night) – brrrr! We spent a week there thinking this was usual for that part of the country but were told that it was an unseasonably warm winter, worked for us though as we enjoyed our time there and found it a very interesting city with lots to see and do. Even Sandia Peak, which is a huge ski area there was green instead of snow covered! Had we been there a year later we would have been buried in snow up to our ying yang, apparently a far more usual winter for that area!!

From there we headed south to Arizona with no particular destination in mind, but the night we stayed in Deming NM on the way to Arizona we had an e-mail from our friends in B.C. who said they were heading to Yuma and had just made a reservation there at Desert Paradise RV from Feb 6th to March 6th, so we called and managed to get a spot there also at the same time. That is how we found Yuma.

When we arrived in Arizona we stopped at Benson and stayed at a really nice park there, Cochise Terrace. We were there almost 3 weeks and really liked the park and area, we were about 45 minutes east of Tucson and within touring distance of Bisbee, a gorgeous old mining town, Douglas, Tombstone, Chiricahua National Monument, Coronado National Monument, etc. There was so much to see and do in the area but the big drawback was the weather – it is a higher elevation there so the temperatures didn’t get much above 60F during the day, and it got very cold at night, not warm enough to spend a winter! Boy, are we learning that all of Arizona isn’t the hot climate that we thought it was!

From there we spent a week at Gila Bend, out in the middle of nowhere between Casa Grande and Yuma, but did day trips into Phoenix, Aljo, another old mining town, Petroglyph Park, Organ Pipe Cactus National Park and other interesting sites.

We arrived in Yuma in early February and really liked it, the weather was warm and sunny every day!! Yuma has the most sunlight of any place in the states and great temperatures, it isn’t as hot as Florida or the Rio Grand Valley in Texas but it isn’t humid, there are no bugs here and overall the weather seems to be more consistent day to day. One evening we did a dinner cruise on Lake Martinez and our friend Janet put it perfectly when she said she never imagined being on a lake in the middle of winter, in the middle of a desert and enjoying such beautiful weather and a gorgeous sunset.

We ended up staying here until late March, then went to Lake Havasu area for a week, then to Kingman for 5 days and then on to Williams for about 10 days. From Williams we did the Grand Canyon a couple of days, went to Sedona, did a steam train ride through the Verde Canyon and visited lots of ancient Indian pueblos – a fascinating area. The only problem with that area is the weather, our first morning in Williams around the 8th of April we got up to find the park covered in snow! Fortunately it was gone by mid day and after that the weather was beautiful. After that we spent a few days touring the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest before leaving Arizona to head home.

We have found Arizona to be a fascinating state, it has so many different faces and so much to enjoy. Not being big city fans we have no desire to spend time in the Phoenix area but would like to spend a few days there sometime to do the Apache Trail and other interesting things in the area. We did spend a couple of weeks in Casa Grande the next year on the way to Yuma so did see some of the Phoenix area from there. We also spent a week in Tucson a couple of years ago but prefer the smaller cities with less congestion.

So that is how we found Yuma and why we keep coming back. Our next problem was finding a park we like, we spent two winters at Desert Paradise RV park but found the sites very small and tight, it was built before trailers had slides, and there was a huge issue with trains as the rail line is just north of the park and there is a level crossing there. It is a very busy rail line with lots of trains and the trailer would literally shake when they went by and the whistles from the crossing were extremely annoying, especially the second winter there. The next two years we spent at Del Pueblo, which was far away from the trains but south of the marine/air base so lots of air traffic, but at least they moved faster than the trains! We didn’t find the park very friendly so last year decided to try Mountain Cactus Ranch and really like it. Again, the rail line isn’t far away, but farther than at Desert Paradise so the trains aren’t an issue, the people in the park are very friendly and the lots are huge, we have never seen a park in this area with lots this big. So this is where we are and we are really enjoying it.

We just had the fellow from Time Warner here checking out the internet and he seems to think our wireless router is the problem – great!! Guess we will have to get out and look for a new one as we need wireless with all our electronics that need the internet.

I think I have rambled on enough for one day so will go and get some work done.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

I didn’t realize that is has been so long since I did a posting, where oh where does the time go! Last week was my sister-in-law Carol and our son-in-law Carls’ birthdays so a belated happy birthday to both of you and hope you both had a gooder!

My back is still sore so I am trying not to do so much but that is hard to do when there is always something beckoning at me to get done. We have accomplished quite a bit since the beginning of the year – the brick wall across the back, the wall at the front expanded and the patio enlarged has been done and we are very pleased with the result.

John's New Grilling Area


Expanded Patio Area


Expanded Front Wall


I found a rocker/recliner exactly like we have in the cottage so am happy to have a real comfortable chair again. We have found a new futon mattress, now we are waiting for it to come in and are hoping it will be here in the next week or two. I found a comforter set and matching valance for the bedroom and am real happy with them and think they look really nice.

John has been busy, and as always, he seems to have lots of projects to keep him busy and out of trouble. He is enjoying his morning bike rides with the guys and most days there are 5 or 6 of them who go.

Last Tuesday we went to see True Grit and quite enjoyed it, the young lady who played Maddie certainly did a fantastic acting job. We went to Chilli’s after for dinner and it was very good.

Thursday night we went to the spagetti dinner here in the park and it was delicious and the price was certainly right at $4/person. They had such a good turnout the cooking people didn’t get any spagetti as they had run out of food by the time they got to eat – not good! The only problem we have with the park dinners is that they are so early, at least for us, at 5 p.m. and everyone just eats and runs, not much socializing done except with those near you during the meal.

Sunday we went to Daybreakers’s for brunch and it was good but I think we will go back to Brownie’s Café next time as it is equally as good and a bit cheaper.

Today was the monthly ladies luncheon so I went to that and had a good time. Everyone brings either a salad or desert and it was surprising how much variety there was. They had a trivia game after lunch and at the end draws for prizes and I won the final prize of a very pretty Cyclamen plant, it looks real nice on the kitchen windowsill.

Today is cool with a north wind but it is supposed to be quite warm by the end of the week, I don’t care if it is cool as long as we don’t get snow! Another snow storm has hit in the east, there sure have been lots of snow storms this winter. I have been watching the weather in Australia and the flooding is horrendous, I am hoping to talk to my brother on Skype and see how they are doing, hopefully they aren’t being flooded but it looks like there is a good sized lake and dam near them so don’t know how they are faring – they live on the Gold Coast and aren’t far from Brisbane.

And so ends more great gifts of days and we look forward to more good days to come.