Moving East

The Budweiser Clydesdale horses came through soon after we arrived at the AZ State Fair

Vince riding the overhead tram to go back to the car for his meds

Jes, Colby, Vince and Dawn after they got off a ride

Larry and his mom Thanksgiving Day

Cousins Bethany and Alex before we ate

Granddaughter Ceret, the great cook, and her mother, LaTia

The family photo of Thanksgiving minus one grandson who had to work


We started off the month by going to the state fair with Dawn, Vince, Colby and Jes. We had not been to the AZ State Fair in years and had a great time. We chose not to buy a 'ride pass' but everyone else did so we watched while they rode and tried to take pictures with the phone since we forgot to take our camera. We enjoyed the food and made a few purchases of things you can't live without. We didn't get home until after midnight.

We enjoyed our time at Paradise RV in Sun City, AZ and it really flew by quickly. Ellen had several doctors appointments and then on Nov 18 had minor surgery on her ankle. She had a wonderful, caring podiatrist and everything went really well with NO PAIN--PTL!!

We took Thanksgiving dinner to Prescott to be with Larry's mother. She has a hard time around Thanksgiving as both her husband of 69 years and a son died close to Thanksgiving. Larry helped her with a few items that needed attention that she was not able to do.

Then Black Friday we had our family Thanksgiving meal at our oldest granddaughter's new house. It was her first Thanksgiving to cook and her did a wonderful job! We had lots of food left over and Ceret sent us home with 'care packages' which we enjoyed. Some times the best part of thanksgiving is the leftovers!

Yesterday we moved to Phoenix, just one mile from Dawn and Vince. This is really a mobile home park with just a few sites for RV's so we have an actual address!

Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!

On to Paradise (RV Resort that is)

Celebrating 50 years of marriage, the happy couple Bill and Nan



Actress Heather Burns and Actor Johnny W (I don't remember his last name)on the bench in the middle. He is the main character in the movie.



Changing the set for a different angle


We enjoyed our time in the Verde Valley. We met new friends and saw old friends and basically just relaxed most of the time. We made two runs to Phoenix to the VA there to see Larry's primary care doctor. So far they can find nothing wrong with him which is good news. We had lunch with Dawn the first time we were there. It was good seeing her again and we had a two hour 'lunch'. We also made two visits to Prescott to see Larry's mother. His brother and sister-in-law were visiting also the first visit and since their 50th anniversary was Nov 1 and we couldn't make the 'official' celebration, we took them out to dinner to celebrate.

Nov 1 we moved to Paradise RV Resort and we will be here the month of Nov. When we arrived we discovered one of our trailer tires had lost all the tread but still had all the air in it! We figured it must have come off fairly close to the park so we went looking for the 'alligator' but didn't find it in 10 miles. Hopefully it will be covered under warranty since it is only 15 months old and obviously is a defect.

This evening we watched a movie set in the resort. It takes 12 hours to set up and film a five minute segment! No wonder movies cost so much! The name of the movie is "Valley of the Sun" and should be out Dec 2010. They have been filming the whole month of Oct. and will finish filming Nov.6 in Marana. They also did a segment in Happy Trails Resort in Surprise, AZ. We found it all very interesting.

Cottonwood

Our campsite in Verde Valley TTN

Since I updated the blog just two weeks ago, not much has happened since. We moved from Happy Jack, AZ where we 'just happened' to run into friends we hadn't seen in awhile to Cottonwood. Larry did something to his back and after a week of walking around 'crooked' and in pain, we went the the VA in Prescott. They took x-rays and gave him a shot which helped ease the pain. While we were in Prescott, we made a quick run to see his mother. She is looking better than we have seen in a long time. The VA Doc said Larry could benefit from a chiropractor so he has been to one in Cottonwood three times so far and is doing MUCH better. He is walking fairly straight again. (Since he broke his collar bone many years ago, that side has been lower ever since so walking 'straight' is something he doesn't do.)

It has been hot here but today was lovely and it is supposed to be in the 70's for the next ten days-yeah!

God's incredible creation

Landscape Arch with Navajo and Partition Arches to the right, Arches National Park,UT




Wooden Shoe arch in the Needles section of Canyonlands National Park, UT




View through Mesa Arch in the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park, UT




On the drive up Kane Creek Canyon Moab, UT




Hovenweep National Monument,UT




Four Corners monument showing where Arizona, Utah, Colorado,and New Mexico meet




Valley of the gods, UT




Goosenecks State Park, UT




Mogi Dugway with Valley of the gods in the distance




Us at Muley Point, UT with Monument Valley in the distance




Butler Wash Ruins near Blanding, UT




Natural Bridges National Monument, UT




Monument Valley, UT




Spider Rock, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, AZ




Giant logs in the Petrified Forest near Rainbow Forest Museum, AZ




The Painted Desert, AZ

We have done so much and seen so much in the last two weeks, I decided I needed to add to the blog early.

After leaving Gunnison, CO we went to Moab, UT where we visited the Arches National Park, both sections of Canyonlands National Park and took the Kane Creek Canyon trail to Hurrah Pass and back. The scenery was incredible! We hiked two miles round trip to Landscape Arch in Arches NP and that about did us in as the temp. was in the mid 90’s. It was worth the hike though. We enjoyed the Needles section of Canyonlands more than Island in the Sky since you actually drive though the canyon and have the towering walls on both sides. The Kane Creek Canyon drive was spectacular and we utilized our 4 wheel drive.

We next moved on to Bluff, UT and visited Hovenweep National Monument, the Four Corners area, Valley of the gods, Goosenecks State Park, drove up the Mogi Dugway, went out to Muley Point, on to Natural Bridges National Monument, stopped to see Mule Canyon Ruins and Butler Wash Ruins and drove through Monument Valley. Such awesome beauty and it is truly amazing how our ancestors lived in such rugged conditions.

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, AZ was our next stop and we drove both rims and attended a presentation by a Navajo ranger who has lived all his life in the canyon near Spider Rock. Again, such awesome scenery—God has done a fabulous job of creation!
Yesterday we visited Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, AZ with more incredible scenery.

We took over 250 pictures and I tried to show one of each area so not to bore you too much.

Colorado

The pictures are of 'Poncho" a 'ponkey' born July 23,2009 at Terry Bison Ranch, Bear Lake and Alberta Falls in Rocky Mountain National Park, the Air Force Academy Chapel and inside the Protestant organ and the Jewish Chapel downstairs, a mountain goat we saw coming down from Pike's Peak, us at the top of Pike's Peak and looking towards Kansas from the top of PP,and the last four pictures are of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, from the Visitors Center, Pulpit overview, Cross Fissures overview and the East Portal from the bottom looking up to the road that is a 16% grade.




We took a week to drive to Colorado and enjoyed the scenery through NV, UT and WY. We visited Angel Lake near Wells, NV and enjoyed all the animals at Terry Bison Ranch near Cheyenne, WY. Larry even had a llama chase him! I was too scared to even think of taking a picture which would have been funny but he used his umbrella to scare him off and we scrambled over the fence to safety.

We spent six days in Loveland while we went to Rocky Mt National Park. There is a tram from Estes Park to the National Park and then we took the free tram around the park. We hiked around Bear Lake and then up to Alberta Falls. There where way too many people to really enjoy the falls and the pine beetle that is killing the trees makes the scenery not all that beautiful so we were disappointed to say the least.

We then moved on to Monument, CO and visited the Air Force Academy, drove up Pike's Peak and visited my cousin Mary who we saw in AZ last Jan after 18 years. We enjoyed our stay near Colorado Springs and have many more places in the area to visit on our next visit.

We are currently near Gunnison, CO and had a 'incident' as we crossed Monarch Pass (11,300'). We had a can of paint explode in the trailer from the change in pressure. It could have been disastrous but PTL the damage was confined to one cabinet and Larry had everything wrapped in plastic or in a box so nothing was damaged except it took the paint off the shelf. (The paint had separated and only the thinner exploded out of the can, hence why the paint came off the shelf.)

We visited the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park while here. I didn't even know anything about this National Park. It has been a NP just since 1999 but it is AWESOME! After viewing the canyon from the top, we drove to the bottom, a 16% grade! Colorado has some beautiful scenery and we are so blessed to be able to visit much of it.

Almost Ready to go

The new TV in the front of our motorhome



The new 'brush guard' on the back of the motorhome



The beefed up wheel on the trailer



Near Bonanza,OR the view from our first OR property

After a month at our home base repairing, maintaining and customizing the motorhome and trailer, we are ready to ‘hit the road again’.

We have stayed pretty close to home, making weekly ‘runs’ to Klamath Falls for items we couldn’t get in Merrill. Since there is no sales tax in OR, we like to stock up on paper goods and other consumable items to last until we return to OR. That makes for a very full motorhome!

Larry’s projects included putting in a new 32” TV in the front and modifying the cabinet around it as well as beefing up the support in the back so hopefully this TV won’t be “jarred” to death like the last one. He also put in a central vacuum cleaner, something I didn’t particularly want, but he wanted to get the dust and noise out of the living space since allergies bother him so much. I have to admit it is very handy and I do like the less noise and heat. He put a new ‘brush guard’ on the back of the motorhome in place of the heavy mudflap that came on it. He is hoping it will improve the mileage as well as protect the front of the trailer better. He put a bumper on the back of the trailer so, if need be, he can push the trailer with the car when it is disconnected from the motorhome, as well as beefing up the trailer wheel so it will roll easier when it is disconnected from the motorhome. He also changed the oil filters on the coach and repositioned the oil filters for the Aqua-Hot and generator so he could get to them easier in the future. Since we use the Amsoil by-pass filter system on both the car and the coach, we don’t change the oil, just the filters, so we have been “green” long before “green’ was the “in” thing!

I spent the time cleaning and sorting our clothes, the cabinets and closets so we have the right mix of things for the next 10 months or so. I also spent time in the yard weeding, spraying and picking up the neighbor’s cats ‘droppings’, not a job I enjoy! I did lots of laundry so everything is nice and clean, ready for our trip.

One Sunday we did take a ‘Sunday afternoon drive’ as a dry run for our upcoming trip. We wanted to be sure there were no ‘surprises’ like a low bridge or an overload bridge on our planned route since we have never gone that way before. Since we were out we decided to ‘visit’ the first property we owned in 2000 in OR. It is a long way from anywhere and the road is definitely not suited for our motorhome, so God knew what HE was doing when He had us sell it in 2001! The views are great but would have required a lot of work to make it doable. Besides that it gets A LOT of snow each year.

Lots of water in Oregon

Paulina Creek Falls located just outside Newberry National Volcanic Monument



Larry at Foster Lake near Sweet Home for our pre-rally with Oregon Coaches for Christ



Dining Hall at the Northwest FMCA rally where our group did the decorations. Had great meals here throughout the rally



Getting ready for the "West is Best" parade. We collected canned goods and paper items for the local food bank in the truck.



Our club banner for the parade and some of our group



Jack and Bev on a modern day 'horse', ready for 'camping', one of the entries for the 'West is Best' parade



Lowell covered bridge outside of Eugene on Hwy 58, taken as we were going down the road.



Scenic overlook on the Paulina Highway. Note the snow on Mt. Bachelor!



Paulina Lake near the lodge. They get around 12 feet of snow here in the winter!


Us surrounded by the Big Obsidian Flow overlooking Paulina Lake. The Big Obsidian (black glass) Flow is located in Newberry National Volcanic Monument and is the youngest lave flow in OR (1300 yrs). A nice hiker stopped and took our picture.


We started out the month of June going to Foster Lake RV near Sweet Home for our Coaches for Christ pre-rally. There were 20 rigs present and we had a good time preparing for the NW FMCA rally in Albany. We caravaned to Albany and spent six days in Albany. We had a great time and great food. It rained several days while we were there but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. It was sunny the day of the parade.

We changed our plans slightly and stayed in La Pine before going back to the Eugene area for new tires and shocks for the motorhome. We now have new tires and shocks all the way around and a very flat pocketbook!
While in the La Pine area we visited East Lake, Paulina Lake and Falls and the Big Obsidian Flow.

We came home a different way through Grants Pass where we met with friends and stopped in Medford at Costco to stock up on paper goods for the next year.

Since getting back to Merrill, Larry has been very busy with his new projects.