Back At Timber Ridge

We drove back to Magnolia on Monday in the pouring rain. We left Glen Rose before 8am and drove almost non-stop back to Timber Ridge. We decided with the weather so bad that we would head for the Houston area. We were advised that the ROD park at Lake Whitney becomes a mud bog when it rains, so we canceled our reservations there and headed south. We arrived about 1pm.
It was a miserable drive, but I'm glad that we are so far above the road surface that the mist from the traffic was not as bad as it is for those that are closer to the road surface.

We arrived at the park only to find our spot was still occupied. It seems that the occupants of the site decided a late check-out would be ok as we were not due in until Wednesday. We had called Gwen on Sunday to find out if we could come straight to Timber Ridge, or have to go to Rayford for 1 or 2 days. She said to come here as the people in our site were leaving that day. She had not contacted them to tell them we were coming 2 days early.

As we waited for our site to become available, we went over to Rayford Crossing to visit with Gwen and the girls.
It was nice to see them again and we had a nice visit.
Tommy Hathcock came into the office and invited us over for coffee. It was delicious. Tommy and Susan are such nice people.

We then went over to Jay and Stella's trailer and visited with them for a while. We had a nice visit. The last time we saw them was in June, when they were on their way back to Dickinson to work on the sale of their house, while we, Ted and Donna were headed on our summer adventure.

Tuesday we went to my sisters house for coffee, then we headed out to have some breakfast. We had a nice visit and caught up on a lot of things happening within our family.
Val and I talk almost every Saturday, no matter where we are. It is so nice to chat with her every week.

Tuesday afternoon we went to see Ted and Donna. They had just returned from a 19 day European river cruise on Saturday. They were excited about it and told us about there trip in more detail than in the blog.
This is the first time we had seen them since the 2nd of August. They seemed tired but relaxed.

We worked around here yesterday. Brenda washed clothes. It cost over $20 dollars to wash as we had both sets of sheets, the towels and all of the rugs to wash, as well as a bunch of dirty clothing. She was pooped when she finished.
I washed the rig and the car. After our drives in the snow and rain both were quite dirty. It took about 3 hours to wash both, but they looked great when I was finished.
Of course, it rained last night, but at least the dirt is off of the rig.

Brenda has tests and a doctors appt. today and tomorrow, so we will be quite busy.

We start work on Tuesday and I see a lot to keep me busy for a while here around the park.

Ta ta for now.

Back In Texas

I have been waiting to get a better wifi connection to post the latest in our journey.
We left Williams on Saturday for Gallup, NM. It is a much larger place than I thought with a strong Hispanic influence.
We went to church there at the cathedral. The mass was in English, by an Indian priest. The songs were all in Spanish. Although the congregation was largely Hispanic there was surprisingly very little singing in the congregation. It was very interesting.

We went to Tijeras, NM on Sunday after church. It is on the east side of Albuquerque. We stayed in a ROD park. The sites were close, very close, and the little bit of grass between the sites had not been cut in a very long time. The sites were terraced and gravel.
There is great potential for this park, but very little effort is put in the grounds keeping. The infrastructure appeared to work well, at least at our site.
We would have to think twice before staying here again.

We did get into Old Town Albuquerque on Monday and Tuesday. It is very much like Old Town Spring with lots of shops and restaurants, only pueblo style buildings. There was entertainment in the plaza in the form of an Indian dancer in full costume, and a beautiful fountain.Across from the plaza is is an old Catholic mission church that was built in 1793. It is still active and is used daily. It is called San Felipe de Neri church. It is simple but beautiful.
It definitely shows the Spanish influence in this area.
Before going back to old town we went to the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center. It is a museum, art center and learning center for the various Pueblo Indian tribes still living and working in the area.The museum is a series of displays the feature the different tribes in differing settings.
There is also a history of the Spanish invasion and conversion to Catholicism of the Pueblo People.
There was no written history, only verbal history passed from generation to generation in oral tradition.
Surprisingly, there was very little difference in the various stories by the individuals from each tribe as they told the stories from their recollection.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures within the indoor complex.
The murals in the courtyard were quite spectacular.
Brenda was especially impressed with the rabbits painted on the sidewalks.
We left Tijeras Wednesday morning in the cold rain. A cold front had come in on Tuesday night and it rained all night.
We had to climb over a mountain range, (Rockies after all) and we ran into three different episodes of sleet and snow at the higher altitudes. At the highest peak the snow was actually sticking to the ground. Fortunately, it was not sticking to the road surface.
I like snow, if I don't have to drive in it.

We spent the night in Amarillo and got to Wichita Falls yesterday. The weather here is cool, and damp which is much different than the desert where we have been for the last 4 weeks.

We are headed for Glen Rose, TX for 3 days then to Lake Whitney for 2 days before heading to Timber Ridge.
Both Glen Rose and Lake Whitney are ROD parks so no cost to stay there. I just hope that they are nicer than the Tijeras park.
Brenda has planned this whole trip back to Timber Ridge. I am so proud of her.

Ta ta for now.

Grand Canyon

2 years ago we went to the Grand Canyon and we were, to say the least, underwhelmed.
We decided to go back today and try again. This experience was so much better. I can't tell you why we were not impressed with the "Big Ditch", maybe the weather, or the time of day we were there, ot maybe the unruly crowds.We are here in Williams, AZ. It is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. We are staying in the park where the IRV2 national rally will be held in July 2010.
We met the Wagon master of the rally, Jim & Cherri Krylowicz, and Jim told us to take the free shuttle around the south rim.
It was so much more relaxing than trying to drive and we went to areas that we couldn't drive to. A really great experience.
We are so glad we tried the GC again.

Ta ta for now

Lake Havasu City

Tuesday we left Pahrump and headed to Lake Havasu City.
We had the rig washed and waxed, but the guy didn't finish on Monday as he thought he might. So, we had a late start on Tuesday. The rig looks great. He did a good job.

We are here to look for possible places to winter in the future. This is a nice place and less expensive than most of the places we have been in over the last several weeks.
We went looking at campgrounds yesterday, and we found a nice resort on the island in the lake. It was a peninsula until the London Bridge was bought and erected here. A canal was dug and the island was made.

The lake was built by the Corps of Engineers back in the 1930's and is a reservoir for the lower Colorado river. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by desert.
The Colorado River divides Arizona from California. We are on the Arizona side.
The campground where we are staying now is nice, but not for long term. It is an industrial area of town and very close to the lake. The facilities are new, but the view lacks somewhat.
We are headed for Williams, AZ today with a severe change in climate.
It will be 95 here today and only 70 in Williams. In the 30's tonight.
We will only overnight there. We are staying at the Railside RV Ranch, where the 2010 IRV2 national rally will be held. We thought that we would check it out. We are thinking of going to the rally next year.

Ta ta for now

Pahrump, NV

We arrived in Pahrump, NV to investigate if this is a place that we might want to winter in the future. There is not much in tourism here. We have asked several people if there is any site seeing, but they said nothing but desert. The big attraction is the weather in winter and the casinos.
We have decided that this is nice for some it is not our cup of tea. We don't particularly like the desert, although we are surrounded by mountains. Brenda just loves the mountains, but she doesn't understand why.
There are many expensive homes here, but they are landscaped with gravel, sand and rocks. Not too much vegetation. We have always been around lawns, trees and bushes, so we don't really like it here.

We are headed to Lake Havasu City from here for a couple of days to see about wintering there.
We have heard that there is a lot to do there and the RV vendors come in droves there in December, January and February. There is all kinds of RV repair there, too. But, we will be there early, so we will see what is there.

This is a nice park here. Level sites, nice clubhouse, but, this is the desert after all, so little or no trees. Fortunately, the temperatures have been in the high 70's during the day so it has been pleasant. We have good wifi and good satellite reception.

I, now have setup the HD satellite dish 3 times now with good luck. It has taken just a few minutes to align the dish. It takes more time to assemble the sled, so I am looking to get a tripod when we get to Timber Ridge.

We have been to the casinos here. They are nice, but although we are only 65 miles from Vegas,
the casinos here lack the glitter of Vegas. They are small and don't have the entertainment of the casinos in Vegas.
Brenda has had a good time, but we have spent all that we plan to gambling.

Ta ta for now.

Hurricane, UT & Zion National Park

We arrived in Hurricane on Monday after an uneventful trip south on I15.
We are definitely in the desert as the temperature upon arrival was 97 degrees with the humidity about 10%.

As we were setting up a very nice lady came and knocked on our door. She handed us two slices of watermelon and told us that since we wouldn't come to them she would come to us. There was a watermelon bust going on and I explained that we had just arrived and we were not completely set up yet.
We went down to the club house and played games for an hour or so, but we left early as I was tired from the drive.
Tuesday we went over to Zion (less than 20 miles) and took the free shuttle into the park. No vehicles other than park vehicles are allowed on the scenic route from May to November. It cuts down on traffic and pollution from the cars and trucks.

There were 7 stops along the route and you could get off at any stop and take as long as you wished as the shuttles were 5-7 minutes apart. There are many photo ops available and the scenery is absolutely gorgeous. ( Internet is so slow here that I can't post pictures).

The park here is nice. The infrastructure is a little old and the sites are close, but on the whole it is a nice park.
Evie and her husband Bill, (she is the very nice lady with the watermelon) go up to the clubhouse every night to play games and socialize. She has not been too successful in getting people to come. The park has been near capacity for the last 2 nights and everyone is given an activity sheet upon arrival. We don't understand the lack of participation.
We play pegs and jokers every night.
She teaches a game called Pickle Ball and is played on a tennis court. I'm not sure as to how the game is played, but she asked me to help extend the tennis court with paving stones.
That is what we did Wednesday.

Wednesday night while we were playing pegs & jokers, Evie suddenly screamed. There was a 2-21/2 inch tarantula crawling across the floor.
We got a large Styrofoam cup and trapped it. (Bill, a practical joker, wanted to leave it on the floor in the cup for the people who opened the clubhouse in the morning to find it. It was decided that it would not be good for the spider or the morning people, so I got a piece of paper, slid it between the bottom of the cup and the floor, took the whole thing outside and released it back to its home. Evie and Brenda were very alert for the rest of the evening, to the point of distraction to the game.

Thursday, Brenda and I went up to Kolob Canyon for the drive through that part of Zion. (Zion is a large park but there are not roads that connect all sides of the park). That drive is a 5 mile road that has a turn around point at the end. It is a beautiful drive with many turnouts for picture taking.The National Park Senior Pass paid for itself again.

This afternoon we are going down to St. George for a 5 mile bike ride with Evie and Bill. They come to this area often and know some biking trails in the area.

Ta ta for now