California

Before heading into California we stopped at River Breeze RV Resort on the Colorado River in Ehrenberg, AZ.  After 2 plus months of desert landscape it was good to see flowing water, grass and something besides palm trees. 

 

Our home for the month of April was Casa del Sol RV Park in Hemet, CA. From there we branched out and explored the central and southern parts of California. First thing we did was find a farmers market and purchased the most beautiful and tasty strawberries any of us had ever eaten. 

 

We visited the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Museum to see some of the history of drag racing. 

 

To further Beverly's knowledge of car racing, we attended a World of Outlaws dirt track race. While focused on getting to the pits before the racing started, we failed to notice that they had watered the track and the "hot laps" had begun. We were making our way around the curve when we were sprayed with mud clumps. Welcome to dirt track racing. Another difference in this and NASCAR racing is that many fans wear goggles to protect their eyes and bandanas or dirt bike/hockey type masks to protect their nose and mouth from the dirt that at times is so bad you can barely see the track. We had a great time. 

 

We toured Palm Springs and rode the Aerial Tramway to reach the Mountain Station in the Mt San

Jacinto State Park. Enjoyed the 2.5 mile ride over the Chino Canyon, views from the top and displays in the museum. We ate lunch at the Peaks Restaurant while watching this getting off the tram, many who were not prepared/dressed for the temperature change and gusting wind associated with the 8500 feet elevation. 

 

We went to Yorba Linda with Larry and Beverly to visit his cousins Margaret and Nancy (from Arkansas) and their husbands Bob and Gary. We had a wonderful meal and great time watching Larry and the "girls" interact. You could easily believe that they had caused all kinds of problems for their parents when they were younger. 

 

One afternoon as Larry and David were preparing to grill our dinner, they heard a crack and looked up in time to see a tree limb slowly fall onto the top of our motorhome. Help from the RV park was slow in coming so David climbed on top, cut and remove all limbs with no damage done. Took park employees a week to remove the limbs from in front of our coach. 

San Diego is the home of the USS Midway. It was a Navy aircraft carrier and the largest ship in the world until 1955. It operated for 47 years and saw action in the Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm. It was decommissioned in 1992 and is now a museum. We roamed around the ship for hours checking out the various aspects of carrier life.  It was all quite amazing. After the tour, we ate at the Fish Market Restaurant and walked around Seaport Village. 

We finally had the opportunity to go to Hollywood and we were very excited. We traveled down Hollywood Boulevard, saw the Walk of

Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and hundreds of people. When we noticed how crowded it was and how many people were approaching tourists trying to sell them something or promote their latest cause, we decided we had seen enough. We did however, still need to see the Hollywood sign.  We proceeded to Griffith Park Observatory area which was the perfect spot to see the sign and a view of the LA skyline. 

 

No trip to California would be complete without seeing the Pacific Ocean. We traveled to Oceanside and after a walk on the beach, went out on the 1,954 feet wooden Oceanside Pier.  We saw Pelicans and other birds that appeared to be waiting for a handout from someone........anyone. They were not bothered by people at all. It was a very pleasurable time. 

 

 

 

Presidential Libraries are on our "must see" list so we were excited that there were two in this area.

 

 

We didn't get to tour the Richard Nixon Library as it was closed during renovations so we headed to the Ronald Reagan Library. It was great to learn new things about his early life, see the influence he had been and how he transitioned from actor to president. Wonderfully enjoyable. 

We did lots of sightseeing. Many times we would just chose a direction and go. We ate at several interesting places. Farmer Boys was a California inspired hamburger joint, but not exactly our style. Polly's Pie had wonderful homestyle food, cornbread that was more like cake, yummy pies and Strawberry Lemonade with lots of strawberries. Enough said!!

Something we never got accustomed to was the traffic. Didn't seem to matter what time it was or how many lanes the road was, traffic was bumper to bumper in all directions and lanes. Would not want to deal with that on a daily basis. We can now say we have truly been to California and not just the airport, LAX. 

PHOENIX

We left Tucson and headed to Phoenix where we spent March at Leaf Verde RV resort in Buckeye, AZ.  It was a lovely park, convenient to everything but with no shade. Although we had a palm tree in our spot, it provided no relief and the trailer next to us was to small to add any shade relief. 

 

Since we were in Phoenix partly for baseball spring training, the next day we went to our first game. We had great seats along the first base side at Surprise Stadium where we saw the Texas Rangers beat the Kansas City Royals 10-0. Larry secured several autographs and was very happy. 

 

That weekend we went to Melrose on 7th Ave Street Fair & Car show.   It was not like the craft fairs or art festivals we had been too. It was mostly vender types (like infomercials) and food trucks plus lots of classic cars. You know the guys liked it. 

 

On a local PBS tv station, we saw a program called "Check Please" where they rated local restaurants. One looked especially yummy so we all headed out to Flavors of Louisiana.  We went several times during our stay in Phoenix and had: Dunkin' Catfish (fried catfish strips over rice covered with crawfish etouffee), Cajun-fried shrimp and catfish, fried pickles and green tomatoes, hushpuppies, coleslaw, red beans and rice, dirty rice and beignets. Yum. Yum. 

 

Our church while in Phoenix was First Southern Baptist Church-Buckeye. It was a little more reminiscent of our Longview church but with a much smaller choir.  We really liked the preacher  and the messages he brought. He identified our accent (especially Larry's) right away and knew we were from Texas. 

 

We visited Goodyear Stadium was where we saw the Texas Rangers beat the Cincinnati Reds 11-5. Great seats again and a good time was had by all. 

 

Cafe 25:35 was a great find for us. Their mission statement scripture was Matthew 25:35, which explains their name and desire as a business.  They had wonderful breakfast and lunch which we had several times. The cafe and the business next to them, had free fast wifi so it was a great place to get a good meal and update apps at the same time. 

 

 

 

NASCAR was in town so we went to the race. Beverly knew nothing about NASCAR racing so it was a lot of fun seeing her enthusiasm and excitement leading up to the race.  We got there early so we could check out all the displays. When we saw Richard Petty and told her to take a picture of him, her response was "Which one is he.".  Oh Beverly, we have lots more to teach you. 

 

 

 

 

One night we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens to see the Bruno Munro's Sonoran Lights. The

artist used fiber optic lights to create beautiful displays throughout the gardens. One display used water filled 2 liter bottles with fiber optics inside in different colors. Contrary to the norm, this was one time when a picture was better than the real thing. The colors were much more vibrant in pictures. 

 

 

 

While Larry and Beverly went to a local music festival/workshop, we went to a local car show. Since it was sponsored by a Cougar Club, there were lots of older Cougars and Mustangs from old to new. 

California was next. Will report on that soon. 

TUCSON

 

TUCSON.....

Our home for the month of February was the Valley of the Sun RV Park in Marana, AZ. This is just north of Tucson, actually a suburb. The entrance was narrow and we wondered if we could get in.  We questioned the whole area when we noticed all of the park models (smaller mobile homes) at the front of the park but soon saw the signs which stated that the "larger RV lots were in the back" and to "proceed to the office". Our parking space was large and faced an open field area, away from traffic or other distractions. We soon realized that we had a perfect view of the beautiful evening sunsets.

 

Our first excursion took us to Saguaro National Park (pronounced "suh-wah'-ro") to see the cactus by the same name. This is the iconic cactus you see in all the old western movies with its arms spread upward. Saguaro are slow growing but can grow as tall as 50 feet. They are close to 100 years old before their first arm appears and can live for 200 years. We stopped at the visitor's center, hiked the trails around the center and drove one of the routes through the park hiking up Signal Hill to check out the petroglyphs. We also returned one evening to see the sunset from the park.

Living Way Baptist Church was our church home for the month. It was a very small, mostly older congregation. They sang from the hymn book, all verses of every song.  We loved it. Their welcome time (meet and greet) was at least 5 minutes with everyone coming by to speak to us, and many remembering our names. The pastor spoke with enthusiasm and you knew that he believed what he preached. Although this wasn't the style service we usually attend, we really enjoyed this church and its people and were sad to leave.

We took a drive up Mt Lemmon on the Skyline scenic byway. We passed through five different landscapes:  desert with cacti, rocky no vegetation, grasses, pines (not like we have in East Texas) and snow (8200' elevation). It was 78 degrees at the bottom (2000') but 53 degrees at the ski resort on top. Since the weather continued to stay warm, we weren't surprised to hear that the snow had melted a few days later.

 

Next we went to a RV show. There are many large dealers in the area and some dealer was  having one every weekend. We went into most of the motorhomes and some other units only to decide that ours was the best and especially for the money. There was one top-of-the-line Winnebago that we all liked but........

Tubac Art Festival was calling our name the next weekend, so we headed south. This was truly an art festival as the name said. David and Larry bought new Buffalo leather billfolds made by a man from Minnesota and I bought a wooden barreled stylus made by Sawdust Man from Hemet, CA to use with my iPad. We also went home with soup and dip mixes and kettle corn, of course.



Pima Air and Space Museum, adjacent to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, houses the largest private collection of historical aircraft in the US. There is a large outdoor display and five (almost 6) hangers full of aircraft and memorabilia. We opted to take the tram tour of the outside display and were glad we did. The driver was very informative and it saved us a lot of walking. We toured the hangers until we couldn't walk anymore, then called it a day.

The last things we did before leaving Tucson were to attend the La Fiesta de Los Vaqueros or Tucson Rodeo and the parade that preceded it. 

 

 

The parade is said to be the "longest non- motorized" parade in the world.  This is such a big deal in Tucson that schools were out for two days and many businesses were also closed.

The rodeo, in its 91st year, was very exciting and we really enjoyed ourselves.

We left Tucson and headed to Phoenix for March. We'll tell you about that soon.

Arizona ...... Finally!

ARIZONA........FINALLY

After leaving Las Cruces, we crossed over into Arizona. Two observations: 1) there are a lot of Border Patrol check points and 2) all Arizona rest areas are closed.  We have been through many BP check points in car and motorhome.  So far, they have just motioned us on after a quick look at us. Hmmmm. Don't know what that's saying about us. Next, it might not be true that ALL rest areas are closed, but that has been our observation so far. This caused us to have to stop at a truck stop where the pavement was white, hard packed dirt.  Unfortunately, it camouflaged deep holes in said non-pavement. We ran in to one of these holes causing the motorhome to violently sway back and forth, dumping the contents of some of the upper cabinets onto the floor.  Although this scared Larry and Beverly, who were behind us, and left us with accelerated heart rates , no real harm was done. 

Our first stop in Arizona was at Butterfield RV Resort and Observatory in Benson. We were intrigued by the observatory, so we signed up right away for one of the nightly showings. Our volunteer host was very informed. He professed not to be an expert in the field but he seemed to know a lot about the subject and answered all questions that were asked. Each person there was able to look through the telescope at every star, cluster or galaxy that was spotted. It was very interesting. Can't believe this was at an RV Park. 

Another interesting thing at this park was the Ham Radio Shack.  There were several radios and antennas set up to be used by anyone licensed. Since David is a Ham Operator, he spent some time checking out the equipment and listening for traffic on the various bands. 





We weren't far from Tombstone, so we decided to check out the OK Corral.

There were lots of artifacts and photographs from that time period that told the story of Tombstone and the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  We had to check out the reenactment so we made our way to the Corral. The actors were very good and even added some humor to the show. Think there is still a question about who were the good guys and who were the bad. 

Of course we had to check out the food in the area. A worker at the Park told us about the Horse Shoe Cafe. Although we had gone early, we had to wait (outside) for quite awhile to be seated. It was definitely worth it. The food was wonderful country/homestyle fare and large portions. We left stuffed. On another evening we went to Galleano's which was another great restaurant serving large portions of wonderful food. 

It was time to head to Tucson but we will definitely return to Butterfield RV Resort and Benson, Arizona in the future. 

Headed West

HEADED WEST 

After spending Christmas with our family in Oklahoma, we headed to Holiday Campground at Lake Benbrook, Texas and met up with Larry and Beverly. After a couple of days planning, we finally headed west. We traveled through the Wind Turbine Capital of Texas (Sweetwater) and the oil fields of the Midland/Odessa area.

In Van Horn we had great Mexican food at Chuy's Cafe (not associated with the restaurant chain of the same name) made famous by former NFL great John Madden. Mr Madden did not like to fly so he traveled by coach/bus most of the time. On one of his trips through Van Horn he stopped at Chuy's and really enjoyed the food and conversation. After that, he stopped anytime he was in the area. They have a table reserved for him at all times. 

After eating a wonderful homestyle breakfast at the Park Cafe and hearing how the couple that ran it came to be in Van Horn, Texas, we headed out. As we traveled through El Paso, we realized how closely I-10 takes you to Mexico. It runs parallel along the border for quite a bit. You could see the wall/border, the road that runs directly next to it and the houses that cover the hillside in Mexico.

We left Texas and entered the "Land of Enchantment", New Mexico. We spent the next week at the Hacienda RV Park & Resort, in Las Cruces.







On Saturday we headed downtown to the Farmers and Craft Market.
Since it was not harvest time, we didn't find fresh produce but we did find locally made jelly, apple butter and breads plus kettle corn, of course.  Since it was lunch time, we decided to have pizza at Joshua's Pie at the Market. They cooked in a mobile wood-fired oven and the pizza was delicious. Yum. Yum.



The next day we headed to La Posta de Mesilla, a 100 year old Mexican Restaurant in Old Mesilla. Great authentic Mexican food. 

One thing we had to see while in the area was White Sands National Monument. Dune after dune of white sand, as far as the eye can see. Although we walked around, we didn't stray far since we had heard several stories of people getting lost. While there, we stopped in to see Gary and Ann, a couple working as interpretive volunteers that we met last summer while volunteering at Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma. We met up with them over breakfast the next day and had a great visit. 

A few days later we visited the White Sands Missile Range located inside the military base. We all had to provide ID and be photographed, then Larry had to show registration, insurance etc on the car.  Even after we got the okay to enter, we still had to get out of the car while it was searched from front to back, inside and out.  All this for us to travel a few hundred yards to the Museum. It was all worth it as we toured the museum and outside displays, learning some of the history of these missiles. 

More later as we left New Mexico and finally made it to Arizona. 

WORKAMPING IN OKLAHOMA

WORKAMPING IN OKLAHOMA

2015 has come and gone with some lows but many highs. It started with unexpected major surgery, but Thank the Lord, it was successful and recovery was quick. Next was a wonderful trip into the Hill Country of Texas where we saw the most beautiful array of wildflowers plus many other sites Central Texas had to offer.  Our friends Larry and Beverly were heavy in discussions about full-timing and all that involves, so we tentatively planned to meet up in the fall for a trip out west (postponed from earlier in the year).  With that decided we headed to Oklahoma to try workamping during the summer. 

We chose a position as campground hosts in the Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Sulphur, Oklahoma.  Surprisingly this area looks a lot like the area we're from in Texas. Slightly hilly, with lots of trees. The only things missing were the big pine trees back in Longview. We didn't know what to expect but caught on right away.  As campground host we were the interface between camper and ranger, their eyes and ears. We stayed busy answering questions, passing out maps, helping campers at the fee machine and cleaning sites after campers left (sometimes amazing and sometimes disgusting what people would leave behind). 


In this campground were 65 single tent campsites and 12 group sites all primitive, no utilities, but on most nights they were full.  Regular campground animal visitors were deer, raccoons, armadillos, stray dogs and cats. 

As summer gave way to fall, we moved to another campground in the park on the lake. We covered 2 loops (around 90 sites) consisting of electric and non electric sites with one loop being reservation only.  Our duties were the same as before but the campers needs were a little different since so many of them were in RVs. We saw some of the same animals deer and armadillos but also saw fox and wild turkeys. Most evenings we could hear owls and coyotes in the distance. 

One of the more interesting things we saw was the Tarantula Hawk Wasp.  It hunts Tarantulas and although we didn't see it capture the spider, we did see one dragging its prey away.



We hiked and fished at the boat house, had nightly campfires and learned about and enjoyed the "rocket" fire log.







Bill (an LE ranger) was telling us about the big acorns he saw in the park on the Burr Oak. Since we weren't familiar with them, he stopped by later with several to show us. Oh My Goodness.  They are HUGE.

Our volunteering extended further than just campground hosting. David checked out their radios and antennas after they found out he had experience in the communications (2-way radios) industry. We also helped Paul (ranger) with preparations for the Christmas party.   What started out as a summer commitment to be camp hosts, turned in to 6 months, 4 campgrounds, 2 loops, a total of 4 moves.

We found out lots of things we didn't know about the National Park Service and the people that work for them.  There are several types of rangers: Fee Rangers take care of the money and all that goes along with that; law enforcement or LEs are the police; and Interpretive Rangers host campground talks about various subjects of interest in the park. We worked daily with the fee Rangers, interfaced most days with the LEs and at least weekly with the Interpretives.  All were extremely friendly and always concerned about us not being put in an unpleasant situation.  One holiday weekend, about a week after we arrived, Heather (LE Ranger) was visiting with us when a mass of cars converged on our campground. There were probably 20 to 30 cars parked every way and Heather was caught in the middle. She was immediately on the radio calling for someone to "come help these people". They all thought we would leave.

One of the funnier things was when Bill (LE) came by to check on us but had a phone call. He stepped aside to take it and when we looked around, he was standing on the bumper of his truck doing a stork imitation. We never did know what he was doing and not really sure he did either. 

Chickasaw National Recreation Area and our campground hosting experience was great fun for us and we hope to be able to return in the future. We really miss those people. 

Two highs for our family in 2015 were the adoptions of our newest grandsons in July and November. These boys, 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 have been with the family since they were born. They are a great compliment to our wonderfully handsome teenage grandsons and our beautiful pre-teen granddaughter. David and Nicole, you have your hands full. 

If you wonder what happened to our friends and our planned fall trip, well.......Larry broke his leg.  After surgery, 3 months with no weight being put on the leg, then rehab, he is mostly back to normal and ready to go. Actually, they are now full-time and are visiting their grandkids. That early 2015 trip which was changed to a fall 2015 trip has now been changed to an early 2016 trip. We are meeting up with the Quinns in the DFW area and heading toward Arizona.........Finally.   We'll let you know what's happening. See you on down the road. 

ONE YEAR DOWN - MORE TO GO

May 18th marked our first year as full-time RVers. It was this date, one year ago, that we left our sticks and bricks home for the last time. I remember being totally overwhelmed by what we had done and.......well, tired. Thank the Lord for friends (Larry and Beverly Quinn with Sam and Brenda Soules) who surrounded us with love and caring as we spent several days at Lake O the Pines recuperating. 

After recovering, we made plans and set out on our adventure. 1) Take care of final business concerning sale of house (check).  2) Extended stay in Oklahoma visiting family (check).  3) Back to Longview for holidays (check).  4) Phoenix for RV Rally and other western points of interest (ah....no, that didn't happen).  Our plans are not always God's plans and He threw up a roadblock. After taking a step back, with time for healing from a health issue, we were ready to go again. Thankfully our friends were again at the ready with alternate plans to replace those cancelled.  4) Find bluebonnets (check and double check). 

We're back in Longview right now, taking care of appointments and other stuff. One thing we decided to do was upgrade our tow vehicle. We loved our Jeep Wrangler (Betty Boop as the previous owner had named her) but felt we needed 4 doors and wanted a hard top. Two days later we had a Jeep Wrangler, 4 door, hardtop. We bought it one gray, overcast day, as most have been, and to everyone that saw it, it was burgundy. Recently, when the sun peeked out for a few minutes, we discovered it was red, Deep Cherry Red Crystal Pearl to be exact (that's red with red metal flake). We were very pleasantly surprised. No name yet. We'll let you know. 

This has been a year filled with adventure.  Even with a bump in the road, it was still ours to experience. Many times we questioned whether this was really our life or if we would wake up and it would all have been a dream. I'm here to tell you that it is real and we are living it. Whatever tomorrow holds, we want to live life to the fullest, seeing this world that God has made for us to enjoy, one adventure after another.

See you on down the road.