5/31/08 Another Day at the Canyon

I woke up feeling better this morning, not 100%, but better. Good enough to get out of the house today after spending two days indoors. It was even warm enough to wear shorts and T's.....YAY!

We decided we would go look at the canyon again today at some of the overlooks we haven't been to as yet.

I wish pictures were in 3-D so that you could see how truly magnificent the Grand Canyon is.

We got to one overlook and decided that instead of taking the shuttle to the next overlook we would get there by foot.

So we set out and hiked strolled a rugged smoothly paved footpath for 8 miles 1.5 miles. Some beautiful scenery along the way to be sure.

Bob got way too close to the edge for my comfort. NO one has ever survived the 300 foot sheer drop from the canyon ledge.

Here's my dead tree picture for the day....darn you LaVon, I spent more time looking at dead trees today than I did at the canyon.

I did come across this tree and took the picture even though it was alive. Now that's a tree trunk!

I started getting warm and asked Bob how much further he thought we had to go. He told me he'd check it out and let me know.

Some final pictures of the canyon.

This is one trip I am so glad we made!

When we got back to the camp site I noticed how many rental RV's came in. I wonder how many of these renters will become full time RV'ers? It has to start somewhere. All three of these are rental units and there are more on the road behind us and a few further up the hill from where our site is.

We're moving tomorrow, going towards the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. Once again I don't know if we'll have a Internet connection.

Today we should hit 26,000 on the counter. I am truly amazed at fast it is turning.

Will post when we can....just keep checking back.

5/30/08 A Little Under the Weather

We didn't do a thing today as I woke up with a very sore throat and that achy all over feeling. What a time to get sick! We had plans today to see more views of the canyon but that just wasn't going to happen with the way I was feeling.

I started with drinking tea but after about six cups I had had enough of that.

Bob announced he was going to the grocery store to find something to eat since it was evident that this cook wasn't going anywhere near a kitchen tonight. I asked him to pick me up some throat lozenges, cherry flavor thank you very much, because by now my voice was all but gone.

Bob did take a nice walk today just to get out of the house. It was all I could do to drag myself to the bathroom and back. I hate being sick!

So, in a nutshell, that was our day.

5/30/08 Posts are mixed up

I don't know how or why this happened but the last two days of posts are switched in order. If you have already read about the day at the "Hole in the Ground" then scroll down to read Wednesday's post.

I'm hoping this isn't a new glitch with blogger.com and that it doesn't happen again.

We didn't do a darn thing yesterday. I think with being out in the sun all day the day before, the early hour at which we got up and a few other minor reasons like cool temps and wind kept us inside.

It looks like another thousand is going to roll over on the visitor counter within the next day or two. You know the drill, if its you let me know.

5/27/08 A Look at the Hole in the Ground

Bonnie and John arrived at our campsite around noon.  That gave us plenty of time for our morning routine and to allow us to get some house straightening up done.  Of course we've only been here one day so how messed up could it get?

We sat outside talking around the picnic table for awhile and decided we should get on our way to go see the Hole in the Ground.

We didn't have to drive as the Grand Canyon National Park has an excellent shuttle system in place.  We walked to the entrance of the campground and waited just a few minutes for the next shuttle to arrive.  There are several places where you can get great views of the canyon and we were determined to see them all.  Again, the shuttle service will take you to each one and when you are finished in that area you just wait for the next shuttle which runs about every 10 minutes.

John and Bonnie had seen the canyon about 10 years ago so it was like seeing it for the first time all over again for them.  I was so excited about seeing the canyon, one of the seven natural wonders of the world.  What a wonder it is!

This is the very first picture I took of the canyon.  It was hard to focus the camera with the tears in my eyes.  Look for the green sections on the canyon floor, that's the Colorado River which flows through the canyon.

I stood there with Bonnie and all I could say over and over again, Oh my God, this is so beautiful.  Trust me, the pictures do not do this justice!

I knew it was going to be big,,,,but I had no idea!

The length of the canyon is about 277 miles long measured along the river from Lees Ferry in the east to the Grand Wash Cliffs in the west.  The average width of the canyon is about 10 miles rim to rim.  But, a rim to rim trip from Canyon Village requires a 24 mile hike or more than 200 miles by road.

I really didn't know what to expect when we got here and was surprised by how many lodges/hotels/cabins there are available for rent.  I was even more surprised to see a Chase Bank, a full fledged grocery store, a medical clinic, a dental clinic and to learn that there is a school system in Grand Canyon for the full time residents of the canyon.  I didn't know that people lived here, owned homes and called the Grand Canyon HOME!

There are so many colors to the canyon.  Here is a section that has a green hue to it because of the vegetation.  On the bottom left side of the picture you can see a wooded area, this is Phantom Ranch.  There is a lodge there and cabins for rent.  How do you get there?  By mule of course!   I wouldn't want to be there in the dead of summer as the temperature gets to 120 - 130 degrees down in the canyon.

Here you can see a section of the Colorado River, keep in mind that the river is a mile DOWN from the rim of the canyon.

How does one describe this?

Awesome?  Beautiful?  Magnificent?  Stupendous?  Breathtaking?  They would all be right and none of them  are enough.

Bonnie and John taking it all in.

Every time we changed locations the view changed.

 

From yet another view point, take note of the change in colors yet again.

I can't wait to see this at sunset!

As we walked to on the viewpoint we came across this little fellow.  Obviously, he is very used to humans and paid us no mind while he had his afternoon snack.

Bonnie and I posing for John.  Take notice that the other people in the picture are in T-shirts.  Yes, we are way overdressed!  It didn't take long for those jackets to come off.

Don't back up Bob!

This picture was taken a couple of miles away from where the first one was taken.  You just have no idea how big this canyon is.

My dead tree picture for the day.

Bonnie hanging on to the tree to get a closer look.

More from the canyon....  click on each picture to enlarge.

We often remarked to each other today, "What did the pioneers say when saw this when they came west in their covered wagons?"  We thought maybe..."Holy S_ _ _ how are we get across this!"

Although we'll never get enough of looking at this wonder it was time to leave.  We stopped at the Yavapai Lodge for dinner.  It was a cafeteria style place but all of our meals were very good.  Expensive, but good!

On the way back we came across these elk.  Of course this one put his head down just as I snapped the picture.

This one decided to walk away as I trained the camera on him.

So this was our first of several looks of the Grand Canyon that we'll get while we're here.  Sorry Darlene, hole in the ground just doesn't get it!

As I told you earlier we tried all the adjectives we could think of to describe this magnificent work of God and then I remembered a word from my childhood that was to be used when no other word would do.  I think it fits here.  To me the Grand Canyon is definitely SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALDOCIOUS!

5/28/08 One word......WOW!

A couple of days ago I told you Bob had something very special planned for us . I didn't give any hints as to what it was, but today we did it!

Our day started early.

Yes, that's 4:30 in the morning! It's been a long time since we've been up that early and it damn well better be I hope its a long time before we're up that early again.

Just my luck I woke up with a bad case of bed head and had to wash my hair before we could leave and get on with our adventure.

We got our belongings together and at 5:30 made our way out to the shuttle stop. We took the shuttle to Maswik Lodge to meet up with the others who are going to share our adventure today.

We got here plenty early so Bob had breakfast while I walked through the gift shop and then sat outside when I was done.

Before too long our transportation arrived. This bus was very comfortable and new.

We drove along and I took some pictures along the way. What a nice way to start the day.

The scenery was just unbelievable!

Our destination was Page, Arizona.

Page, Arizona home of Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, was founded in 1957 when the need for a community came to be with the start of the building of the Glen Canyon Dam. The dam was to be the dividing point of the Upper Basin and Lower Basin of the Colorado River.

Because the land was, by treaty, part of the Navajo reservation, the Bureau of Reclamation, working together with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Navajo Tribe, had previously effected a land exchange. The tribe was given land in New Mexico in exchange for the 17 square mile area that would become the site of Page.

As we drove into town, Gigi, our bus driver explained that in Page everything is named dam this and dam that. A picture to explain.

Gigi further explained that in the very center of town are the schools. All next to each other, elementary, middle and high school, all on the same block. Surrounding the schools are churches, one next to the other all around the block of schools. Behind the churches are homes and businesses.

It was on the outskirts of town that Gigi parked and we got off her bus. This was as far as she could go. You see at the Glen Canyon Dam we had to go through a tunnel and because of Homeland Security we had to board a special bus for the two mile trip through it.

We had a little while to wait for our tunnel bus so I had the opportunity to take some pictures of Lake Powell.

And a picture of Glen Canyon Dam.

Look at dead center in the picture below. That is the tunnel we have to go through.

We couldn't take any of our belongings with us for security reasons so we loaded them into this little trailer that dam personnel will get to the other side.

Here we are, getting ready to go through the tunnel.

When we got to the other side we had to don hard hats because of where we had to walk.

Here's me in mine.

You may have guessed by now we are going to float down the Colorado River within the walls of the Glen Canyon. Can you see how clear the water is?

A view of the dam from the canyon floor.

One of the boats already loaded and starting their float.

This is Lauren, she'll be our guide for the day. She's nineteen years old and attends college studying nursing. Today was the first day she took a tour out on her own and she did a bang up job! She's a cutie isn't she?

Everyone settled, we were on our way. Here we saw a small waterfall coming out of the rock. Look dead center.

This water looks inviting but it is a cold forty seven degrees. It never warms up even though the floor of the canyon will get well over a hundred degrees in the summer and never gets any colder, a constant 47 degrees.

The canyon walls are about 700 feet in this picture but they will get much taller.

The scenery was absolutely beautiful.

We floated along very slowly even though our raft had a 135 hp motor on it.

As we floated along Lauren pointed out things to us such as what's in the picture below. Can you see the man made out of rock? Look just below dead center.

This next picture is of Pacman's Ghost. Personally, I don't see it. I only put this in here so that I could show you how big these canyon walls are. The cutout section in the center is 400 feet tall!

We came to a place in the tour where we were getting off the boats. We walked a trail back to a petroglyph panel. On the way there were four very nice, clean bathrooms if we needed them. We soon came to the panel and there was a park ranger there to explain what we were looking at. As best as they can figure the Indians who made them did so about 700 years ago. I can't remember the name of the tribe.

The "W" in the picture above was not something the Indians put there, some jerk tourist decided to add his own handiwork. The large drawing just right of center possibly signifies twins being born.

It also looks like the Indians were drawing big horned sheep in this next picture. (click to enlarge)

Its time to load back onto the rafts.

But not before I snapped this picture of these fisherman. Keep in mind, they had to be brought here by boat.

We were in one section of rafting trip called the "horseshoe". We couldn't tell from where we were sitting but Lauren had a picture taken from the air of the section of the river we were on.

Scenery.

This section of the canyon walls are 1200 feet high.

Bob checking things out.

It's time for lunch.

We knew lunch was included on the float but we had no idea what it was going to be like or if we would get enough. Boy, were we surprised!

We pulled onto a beach where a party barge or pontoon boat was already docked.

We had our choice of bread, lunch meat and cheeses, lettuce, tomato, onion, trays full of sliced carrots and celery, cookies, crackers and drinks. We could have as much as we wanted.

Here's Lauren, our guide, who braved the cold waters of the Colorado.

Close up of the rocks that make up the canyon walls.

Its time to move out.

When we got back on our raft we talked with this one couple and found out they were from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Meet Bernie and Greg.

Sections of the canyon wall rocks turn black. This is called desert varnish.

Scenery as we floated along.

These rocks signify that there is a fault line under the river.

Back in the late 1800's Mr. Powell, for whom the nearby lake is named, hired a young man to draw maps and pictures of the canyon. He climbed up to the top of the peak, in the center of the picture below, and shot a gun into the river. He didn't hear anything.

These are walls opposite of the peak shown above. They are now known as Echo Peak.

It takes 24 seconds for the sound of gunfire to make its way back to the point of origin.

All too soon, actually five hours later, we pulled into the end of the line for us. Lee's Ferry. Gigi, our bus driver there waiting for us with bus all cooled down with a/c and a big cooler of iced down water.

Our last look of the view as we boarded the bus.

On our way back Gigi asked us if we could see the train car. We could, can you?

Views from the road on the way home.

A look at the Colorado River.....

These pictures were taken through the windows of the bus and aren't the best of quality but I'm posting them anyway to show the canyons that are all over this area. This is known as the Little Colorado Canyon.

When we got back to the park Gigi pulled over in one the overlook lots and let us get off the bus to take some late afternoon light pictures of the Grand Canyon.

So that was our day on the Colorado River as we floated down Glen Canyon. What a day! It could not have been any better and I'm so glad and thankful that Bob made arrangements for this trip of a lifetime.

5/26/08 We're at the Canyon!

After our morning computer rituals we packed up in no time at all so we could get on the road. Before we left Bob pointed out this weed. Prettiest weed I've ever seen!

Our trip north was absolutely uneventful, just what every RV'er wants.

We pulled up to the entry gate and showed our National Parks Pass and were waved on through. We're now $35.00 ahead on that little gem.

As we made our way through the park to the Camping Village we took notice of all the cars parked on the side of the road. I looked to my right and could see just the very top of the rim and knew I was looking at the Grand Canyon. I looked away quickly as I didn't want to see it this way. I want to walk up to it and see it in all its glory.

We found our site with no trouble and got set up in short order.

In this site we'll only have neighbors on one side as a little wooded section is on the back side of our rig. We walked through that little wooded section and Bob pointed out tracks of deer and possibly elk that I would have never taken notice of. I was also given a lesson on what deer poop looks like. Ahh,,,life with a hunter!

John and Bonnie McMullen are coming to spend the day with us tomorrow.

I can't wait to see what my Quail Run friend, Darlene, calls the "hole in the ground".

Gotta run, have to get the camera battery charged!

5/26/08 Moving Day

New message below.

Today is a moving day for us. We'll be traveling a whole 62 miles up to the Grand Canyon. We're staying within the park boundaries when we get there and I don't know if they have Wifi or not.

I know I write that with each move and so far we've been lucky with the park having Wifi or being able to pick up an open signal from a fellow RV'er that has his own satellite connection. I'd really like to have one of those!

Anyway, I'll post if I can and if not I'll keep writing the blog and will upload everything when we do get a signal. Make sure you stop back, Bob has something very special planned for the Grand Canyon.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

OK, we're here! We are picking up a Wifi connection from somebody, I don't know who. I'm hoping they aren't leaving tomorrow! Gotta finish setting up now, had to fire up the computer to see if we have a connection or not. You know,,,,PRIORITIES!

5/25/08 WHY Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

Today was really a do nothing day for us as it overcast and chilly outside. I got the blog caught up, Bob did whatever it is he does on the computer, we watched movies on TV, made a quick trip to the grocery store for shredded cheese and that was about the extent of our day.

I got this in email from a good friend of mine and want to share it with you. I hope you get the chuckle I did. Thanks for sharing this with me Ruby.

WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?

(Difficult to answer, not for lack of opinions!!!)

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road!

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER- CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?' That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together , in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ........ reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun!

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

5/24/08 Dinner at Doc Holiday's

Another day in Williams, Arizona and another day of snow flurries. Memorial Day weekend and we're looking at snow! What's wrong with this picture?

Today was a maintenance day for us. After some cleaning in the rig I set out to do the weekly laundry. The campground laundry isn't up and running as yet,,, whatever that means, so I had to go into town to get this chore out of the way. The laundry bags were much heavier this week due to them being filled with jeans and sweatshirts, oh please bring back the days of shorts and T's.

I found the laundromat easily enough as downtown Williams is just a stones throw from the campground. I quickly filled the four machines and went next door to Rod's Steak House to check out the menu as we have plans to go out to dinner with the McMullen's while we're here. I can tell you we will NOT be dining in this restaurant!

Reading the menu I was just blown away when I read that if you want a baked potato with your steak, which were on the pricey side to begin with, that we would be charged $4.50! $4.50 for a baked potato???? Seems to me you can buy a 10 pound bag of potatoes for less than that! Want a salad? Add $8.00! Nope, not eating here!

I met a couple from southern California while waiting for the washers to finish their job. They and eighteen other couples are all into vintage cars. In their case, a Model T, fully restored and roadworthy. They told me that they and the others shipped their cars to Baltimore, Maryland and then they all flew there. On May 1st they started the trek across country on Routes 40 and 66 arriving in Williams today. During our conversation it came out that the Model T's top speed is 35 miles per hour so they had plenty of time smell the roses along the way. We do get to meet the most interesting people while living our dream.

While the clothes were drying Bonnie called to see if we wanted to go out to dinner tonight. My first question was where? She said she and John had heard good things about Doc Holiday's. Whew... So we agreed to meet at 6:30 so we could make the prime rib special cutoff time. Baked potato included!

We met up with John and Bonnie and had a delicious prime rib dinner. As stated above, baked potato, a huge tossed salad and veggie were included with the prime rib all for $13.95. The dinner was very good but the company was fantastic!

After dinner, stuffed as we were, we headed to Twisters, a 50's era soda fountain shop for desert.

Bob and John found a booth for us while Bonnie and I headed to the gift shop section. Here's Bonnie checking out poodle skirts.

How many of you remember these kid's peddle cars?

On display was this old gasoline pump. Take note of the price of gas. Twenty cents a gallon and six cents for taxes! TWENTY SIX CENTS A GALLON! Oh those were the days! Not that I remember gas that low in price. Oh alright, I can, but I wasn't driving. I can remember the gas wars of those days though I wasn't much more than a toddler. Well, may a little bit more than a toddler but I was young!

Do you think Coca Cola had anything to do with the decorating of this place?

Now I'm not old enough (Honest!) to remember these soda shops like this where the teens would gather after school or on Friday and Saturday nights to listen to the likes of Elvis and those of that era but I sat there and imagined what it must have been like. Girls in their poodle skirts,bobby socks and black & white saddle shoes, guys in their white T-shirts with the pack of Lucky Strikes rolled in their sleeve, sporting that DA haircut. Oh those must have been the days! The days when doors were rarely locked, keys to the car were left in the ignition, drive by shootings were unheard of and you were likely to be disciplined by the lady next door as easily as by your own mom. Yep, those must have been the days.

We all ordered one scoop ice cream sundaes and when our water was delivered we all exclaimed, "Oh, I remember these cup holders!" It had been YEARS since any of us had seen those cone shaped paper cups!

As we enjoyed our sundaes we talked of years gone by and how different things are today.

More interior shots of the soda shop.

Tonight the McMullen's and the Quinn's got their kicks on Route 66!

5/23/08 Our Day Long Road Trip

We decided to brave the cold and take a road trip today. Our Quail Run friends that we are here to visit, John and Bonnie McMullen, gave us a map with a trip marked that they took several days ago. Cooler packed, clothed in warm clothes and full tank of diesel we were on our way.

Here's the route we took.

We weren't on the road too long before we came across this highway sign.

The clouds were low in Oak Canyon.

Highway scenery .

We made a stop at this store and the one next to it.

Outside were some sculptures made from chrome. Each piece was polished and painstakingly fitted together and welded.

This eagle taking flight is just beautiful! Such detail!

This Indian figure greeted newcomers.

We went inside for a few minutes and looked at all the Indian jewelry, pottery and figurines. Each one handmade and painted.

The pottery caught my eye! I talked with a saleslady and she told me that each one is hand thrown and PAINTED! I can't even imagine......

Needless to say these things are very expensive. We saw lots of pottery in thousand dollar and up range. There was one that I really liked but it was behind glass so taking a picture was not an option. It retailed for $3400.00. I considered buying it but it figured I would walk out the door and promptly drop it. Believe that this Queen of Cheap would even consider spending that kind of money then you need to talk to me about the ocean front property I have for sale in Montana.

When we stepped outside we saw this little fellow. He must be a full timer too, he takes his house with him wherever he goes!

Our next stop was right next door. The Indians Gardens Store.

This store was part grocery store, gift shop, deli and lunch counter. Out back they had tables and chairs set up in a garden setting for the lunchtime crowd. It would have been very nice to sit out there while Bob ate the bowl of chili he bought but it was much too cold.

Getting on our way again we stopped to take some pictures.

We stopped at Midgley Bridge to take even more pictures.

There was a trail we could walk along the canyon walls.

There is so much color in these rocks!

How would you like to have this for your view?

The road took us through this little town named Jerome. We would have liked to have taken the time to walk through the town but by now the temperature had dropped even further, or we were in even higher elevation, and it was way too cold. At one time the town of Jerome centered around the lifeblood of this community, a copper mine.

The downtown section of this town is up near the very large building in the picture above. The streets are very, very narrow and twist-y and winding. We passed this one home that is evidently rooting for Hillary for president. Unfortunately, we passed too fast for me to get a picture of their "display". On their chain link fence they had a large banner that read Hillary for President and on each side of the banner they had red, white and blue large sized bras hooked on the fence. I thought that was very clever.

It was our leaving this town that convinced me that I shouldn't ever leave the house without taking a dose of Dramamine. We had to go over a very large mountain and it wasn't a straight shot! Oh no, switchback after switchback, hairpin turns at 15 mph, it took us forever to get over this mountain!

Above is just a short segment of the road we were on. You can see how high up we are, just look at how far down flat land is! I spent most of this part of our trip with my head near the open window getting fresh air. Damn this motion sickness!

We saw some beautiful sights today but the cloudy skies certainly didn't help do the pictures justice.

After arriving home, we turned up the heat to help get rid of the chill and we chowed down on soup and sandwiches before settling back to catch some TV.

5/22/08-Part 2 The Rest of Our Day

After the shock of snow falling from the sky and phone calls back to Delaware telling our loved ones that we were in near blizzard conditions....well our tummies started growling and we got on with our plans to go out to breakfast.

A scene from the road.

We decided to have breakfast at Old Smoky's Restaurant.

Built in 1946, this is your typical small town restaurant. We sat in the booth although we had a choice of that or sit at the counter. The walls are all knotty pine and there is a shelf all around the place about a foot lower than the ceilings and just above the windows that holds collectibles that are for sale. In amongst the sale items are some decorative pieces such as the small flower arrangement in a SPAM can, and to think I've been throwing ours out.

The walls are adorned with drawings from the local children and a little area near the door is where you buy your Old Smoky's Restaurant T-shirt. We passed on those.

This restaurant is located right on Route 66 as is the town of Williams. Some very famous people have eaten in this restaurant back in the heyday of Route 66, the gateway to the west. Elvis Presley, Chubby Checker and Ernest Borginine are among the notable diner patrons.

If you'd like to learn the history of Route 66 click here The Canyon Motel and RV Park - History of Route 66.

Our breakfast arrived and I just had to get a picture. (I call this practice of photographing restaurant food, "Doing a DeAnn" ) You may not understand that but she will when she reads it.

Tummies stuffed to the max we got back into the truck to go to Safeway. The view from inside the truck.

Is the young lady driving this car advertising something? Have her parents seen the back window of her car????

We really want to take the time to walk the town of Williams. We passed this hotel and took notice of the sign for how much the rooms cost....back in the day...of course! Yes, you are reading that correctly! $3.50 and UP!

Soon enough we were back at the Canyon Motel and RV Park.

Here's another railroad car you can rent for your stay in this motel/rv park.

Our view when we returned from breakfast.

We didn't stay home long as Bob wanted to take a ride to find the nearest lake so he can do some ice fishing. As were going through the park we saw this little travel trailer....and we mean LITTLE! We've never seen one so small. Eight feet long if you're lucky?

Riding through Williams we came across the gas station. Now, if I'm not mistaken Conoco is one of the companies that does NOT buy foreign oil. Needless to say I'll push our truck to the next station before we pay this price!

And of course we have our dead tree picture for the day.

Once again, another day in the lives of these full timers.

5/22/08-Part One Can You Believe This????

A few days ago we were in temperatures that topped out at over 100 degrees! Look at what we have today!

This one was taken about half an hour before the rest.

5/21/08 We Did It! 25,000 HITS!

On Tuesday evening I wrote:

As of this writing we are 87 hits away from 25,000! I'm predicting we're going to hit that by this evening, tomorrow at the latest.Who will it be? Let us know if its YOU!


Well, this morning, after reading the blogs I read, playing a little Jewel Quest and reading my email I came into the site to see where the counter was and how close we were to hitting 25,000.

Yep, you guessed it! It was ME! This is the second time this has happened now.

We didn't do a whole lot of anything today. In fact, we both spent the entire day on our computers as its very windy and cold outside.

Wait till you see what we're going to do next week while in the Grand Canyon. Bob has planned something very special for us and we're going to have great pictures to share with you! That's all I'm telling you for now.

We watched American Idol tonight and I was right. David Won! For those of you who don't watch American Idol I guess I should tell you that the two who were in the finals were both named David.

That's about it for today.

5/20/08 A Day With Friends

We woke up this morning and both of us remarked how well we slept. I link it to a cool evening and all the windows open.

We had a few things around the rig to get done and then we called Bonnie and John and told them we were ready for them anytime they wanted to come over. Within the hour they arrived and it was good to see them again.

As soon as we got settled in our chairs outside in the sun Bonnie says to me, "I brought you something" and then handed me a small plastic zipper lock bag. Inside was this....

This was quite a surprise and it is just so pretty!

We spent the day talking about sights to see, where we've been since we saw each other last, their jobs, RV'ing in general and we solved all the world's problems.

About 4-5 hours later we called it a day and John and Bonnie went home and we went in for dinner. We'll see them again for dinner and John and Bob are going to go fishing. I hope it isn't ICE FISHING!

There is something I forgot to write in yesterday's post. We had stopped at truck stop when we were on our way here yesterday and while I was in line I got to talking to a lady trucker. I asked her if the trucker's were going to shut down and she replied, "Yes, we are, and we're getting our ducks in a row right now". She went on to explain that a firm date has not been set as yet because the truckers are putting money away to tide them over while off the road. She also explained that a lot of trucking firms will probably be going under because from the time they contract to ship product and they actually pick it up for delivery the cost of fuel has gone up and they are actually losing money for the shipping. She further explained that she knows a lot of independent truckers who are already off the road because they just can't afford it anymore.

The cost of fuel has us possibly changing our plans with going home to the east coast. We WILL go home but instead of driving the truck and towing the house on wheels and staying for 3 months we may now end up parking the rig and flying home for a month instead. We have to sit down and figure out which way is going to be more economical for us. Right now its all up in the air.

After dinner we settled in to watch American Idol. Tomorrow night the winner will be announced and I'm predicting David will win!

We're Gonna Turn 25,000 Hits!

As of this writing we are 87 hits away from 25,000! I'm predicting we're going to hit that by this evening, tomorrow at the latest.

Who will it be? Let us know if its YOU!

5/19/08 I Love Safeway!

We were on the road this morning just a little after seven. Since we only had to unhook the electric line and do a few things inside it didn't take us long to get road ready.

We're heading to Williams, Arizona for a weeks stay before we move a little further north to the Grand Canyon.

It was hot traveling today to say the least. We stopped at several rest stops just to let the engine cool down again.

Some highway scenery as we traveled.

When we arrived in Kingman, Arizona we got off the highway as we needed to re-fuel. We were told that Safeway had the cheapest fuel around in these parts. We found it easily and were surprised that diesel was ONLY $4.18 a gallon. $4.18!!! That's CHEAP! OMG...I can't believe I just said $4.18 was cheap! In fact, we only paid $4.15 because we have a Safeway grocery card so we got three cents off that! While Bob was fueling the truck I went in the store to get Pepsi's and beer and I also picked up paper towels. Using my Safeway card I brought the bill from $59.00 down to $45.00. Everything I bought was on sale!

We were very thankful we were heading east at one point. In the west bound lane we passed this.

A closer look.

This tractor trailer evidently jack-knifed and when it came to standstill it was across both lanes and the shoulders. NOBODY was getting passed it except for maybe some motorcycles! Traffic was at a standstill in the westbound lane and it looked like it was going to be for quite some time. The police hadn't even arrived yet. As we traveled down the road it was quite a few miles before we saw the red flashing lights indicating the police were on their way. Who knew how far a crane had to travel to get this truck upright again. To make matters much worse it was HOT! I felt sorry for all of them, the truck driver and all those to who had to wait probably a couple of hours to get moving again.

As we were driving down the road we couldn't help but notice the strong smell of pine. It smelled soooo good!

We finally pulled into Williams at the park we're staying in by mid-afternoon. I went in to get registered and was pleasantly surprised to find out we were going to get two discounts! Military and a free night because we were paying for six. We got our assigned site and went to get parked. The site we were given was occupied by a pickup truck so I knocked on the travel trailer that was parked next door to let them know we were there and to ask them to please move their truck. Well, it seems that they parked there because they were assured that site wouldn't be rented out due to them being hooked up to that site's cable connection since the one on their own site was broken.

Back to the office I went to get another site. The lady who owned the pickup caught up with me so that she could make sure this didn't happen again in case they were gone when the next rig came in. On the way she introduced herself and asked my name. When I told her Snookie she got this big smile on her face and said, "That's my daughter's nickname!" We talked about that a bit before we arrived back in the office. On the way Bob and I did look at other sites and found one we wanted if it was available. Sure enough Site # 3 was open and we could have it. It's HUGE! Lots of room for the rig and the truck.

It is much cooler here than in the desert and it felt oh so good! It was actually a pleasure to be outside while setting up.

There aren't many in the park right now but I'm sure this will change with the holiday weekend coming up.

This is combination RV park and "motel". I haven't seen the motel part yet but I did see these accommodations. There are several rail cars on the property and I'm thinking this is the motel. How cool would it be to stay in one of these?

Our view across the street.

So why did we come to Kingman? Our friends, John and Bonnie McMullen, from Quail Run are workamping in a KOA just down the way and we've come here to spend some time with them.

After getting all settled in I called Bonnie to let her know we were here and we made arrangements to get together tomorrow.

There are tons of things to do here in this area and lots of day trips to be made. We may even come back here after the Grand Canyon because I don't think we'll get everything in that we want to see before next Monday.

We caught the ten o'clock news and weather. They are calling for SNOW here on Wednesday. Hmmmm....Desert or Snow...Desert or Snow....

5/18/08 To Leave or Not To Leave, That is the Question

We woke up tired! After all that walking/hiking yesterday we're just pooped! Bob asked me if I wanted to stay another day here but I told him it was up to him, after all, he does all the driving.

I guess he thought about it and decided we better get on the road. Within the hour we were on our way. Our goal today is Needles, California on the way to Williams, Arizona.

It didn't take us long and we were back in Nevada and it was HOT! Around 2 p.m. we were driving through a town and the bank clock/temp thing-y was reading 103 degrees. The further south we drove the hotter it got. I realized that I did not miss the desert!

We ended up getting as far as Boulder City due to the heat. We had to pull over several times just to let the truck engine cool down. Thanks heavens Bob installed those gauges to let us know how hot the engine/transmission was getting.

We pulled into a campground but didn't even bother getting unhooked as we were leaving early tomorrow morning. In fact, other than the electric cord we didn't hook up water or sewer lines. We were parked right next to the bathroom facilities so we decided to just use them. Were they ever nice! Just as clean and modern as could be.

It was still incredibly hot even when the sun went down. While watching the 11 o'clock news the weatherman gave the present temperature for Boulder City.....are you ready for this??? 92 degrees! At eleven at night! Thankfully the humidity was only 9%.

We'll be back on the road early tomorrow morning.

5/17/08 Zion National Park

Today we toured Zion National Park. It's much warmer in this area than we were in for Bryce Canyon. It's amazing what a difference a few thousand feet in elevation makes. We are back in shorts and T's.

Scenery on the way to Zion.

As we got closer to the park we saw signs that the parking lots were full in the park so we parked in a small hotel/restaurant parking lot that advertised they were a shuttle stop.

We didn't have to wait long as the free shuttles that run from the town of Springdale to the park run about every 10 minutes.

In no time we were at the park.

We are now ahead on our National Parks and Monuments Pass. We paid $80.00 for this pass and have used it enough that it has now paid for itself with the parks/monuments we have visited and we are $15.00 ahead so from here on out we are seeing the parks for FREE! We have plans of seeing five or six more parks so this little card was really worth it!

I have to be honest with you, I was disappointed with Zion Park. After seeing Bryce Canyon, well, this just doesn't compare. The parks are completely different. The major difference being that at Bryce you are looking down on the sights and in Zion everything is above you. Bryce's features were colorful and unusual and in Zion they were, well, rocks!

A little bit about Zion.

Mormon pioneers arrived in Zion in 1863. Issac Behunin built the first log cabin in Zion Canyon, near the location of the current Zion Lodge. During the remainder of the century, small communities and homesteads in the area struggled to survive. Pioneers gave the canyon the name "Zion", a Hebrew word meaning safety, or a place of refuge. Despite the name, the canyon offered poor soil, and catastrophic flooding, making agriculture a risky venture. By the first decade of the 20th century, the scenic qualities of southern Utah, and Zion Canyon in particular, had been recognized as a potential destination for tourism.

The park is characterized by high plateaus, a maze of narrow, deep, sandstone canyons and rock towers and mesas. The North Fork of the Virgin River has carved a spectacular gorge in the park called the Zion Narrows. The canyon walls in some places rise 2000-3000 feet above the canyon floor.

Another major difference was that you couldn't drive your vehicle through the park, you had to be on a shuttle bus. You were welcome to get off at each of the seven stops and stay at each one as long as you like. The next shuttle was just 5 or 6 minutes away.

So after watching a movie about Zion we boarded our first shuttle. Now I'm sure you have all heard the phrase "It's a small world". Well we learned just how small it is. We were on the shuttle to start our tour of the park, a typical shuttle, the first two seats facing each other and all the rest of the seats facing forward. A young couple who were obviously going to do some serious hiking in the park were sitting across from us. The couple behind them, in the first set of forward sitting seats, were talking to them about the equiment they had with them. The lady asked them where they were from and they replied, "Salisbury, Maryland". Now Salisbury isn't all that far from Delaware and I was surprised when the older couple said, "Really?, we're from Wilmington." Now I was really listening. I said, "Excuse me, did you just say Wilmington?" She said yes. The couple behind them said, "Wilmington?, we're from Newark!" Three Delaware couples all within five feet each of other almost all the way across the country on the same shuttle bus in Zion National Park. It IS a small world!

Some of the scenery as we traveled to our first stop.

The shuttle driver pointed out some rock climbers. This picture was taken through the ceiling air vent of the shuttle bus. Can you see the climbers? There are two of them and this should certainly give you an idea of just how big these rocks are. The most visible climber in this picture is dead center and the other is to the left and at about 10:00. NO WAY would I even attempt this!

We got off at the first stop to explore the area.

We walked our first trail.

We did a lot of looking UP.

The river, hence the name of this trail.

How many frogs do you see? (Click to enlarge)

There are two.

We saw these plants quite often growing out of the rock.

We saw ALOT of these and they have absolutely no fear of humans.

I just realized that I didn't take pictures of all the trail signs on the trails we took. So the above pictures were in fact taken from different sections of the park. Sorry about that.

On one trail we came across this tired little fellow. He just laid there as dozens of tourists took his picture.

More pics from different trails.

There just has to be a picture of a dead tree. Oh my gosh LaVon, you've got me hooked on dead trees!

The trees in this picture are TALL trees, not bushes.

These two took the time for a rest and to cool their feet in the stream.

This isn't snow.

Here it is flying through the air.

We couldn't see where it was coming from, but it was flying all over the place. It reminded us of the fuzzy stuff when a dandelion goes to seed.

It was time for lunch and we went to the Zion Lodge to get something to eat. Bob and a burger and fries and I had a piece of pizza. We sat on an outside deck and watched the world go by as we ate.

We passed these horses on a trail ride.

A picture taken from the bridge.

The view from yet another trail we walked.

So we take the trail to the Emerald Pool. It was just under a mile trail and I couldn't wait to see the emerald green water at the end and the waterfall.

Well, the waterfall was barely a trickle and here's the Emerald Pool.

Sorry, I'm not impressed with the Emerald Pool.

It just amazes us that flowers will grow just about anywhere.

This next picture is of The Court of the Patriarchs. They are three pyramid shaped peaks which have been named Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Back at the lodge, all the trails we were going to walk... walked, we waited for the next shuttle. Wild turkeys kept us entertained as we waited.

Some final shots of Zion National Park.

So there's our day in Zion National Park. When we got home we COLLAPSED! Tired from all the hiking on the trails we were just wiped out.

I may be married to Bob, but tonight I'm sleeping with Ben. Ben Gay that is!

5/15/08 A Day to REST!

It was another chilly day here in the mountains. It really didn't make much difference to us as we opted to stay in and rest after all the activity yesterday.

I did take the time to look at the stats for this last week. I was pleasantly surprised.

We had 351 visitors to the blog and they viewed 518 pages. The busiest day of the week was Friday the 9th with 104 visitors and the slowest was Saturday, the 10th with only 57.

We had visitors to the blog every hour of the day with the exception of 2 and 3 a.m..

Visitors came from all over the world. Countries represented were: USA, Canada, Barbados, Denmark, Turkey, Australia, Germany, Pakistan, Thailand, Belgium, United Kingdom and Singapore.

Visitors called 31 different states home.

The top four states for pages viewed were: Virginia, California, New York and New Jersey.

The four cities for pages viewed were: New York City, NY, Huntington Beach, CA, Reston, VA and Livingston, NJ.

Keywords in search engines that brought up this blog: Once again, How To Kill a Groundhog - Rebecca Dawn - Sandia Peak Tram - Crosseyed Cricket Canoe, Sunshine Skyway Fishing Pier and my favorite.....

@ 12 mph how long does it take to travel 2.7 miles

I googled this myself and sure enough # 9 on the list was this blog.

So visitors from VA, CA, NY and NJ....get signed in on the buddy map! The rest of you who haven't put yourselves on our map....what's taking you so long?

We did manage to fill in our states map today.

Its really getting filled in.

We have decided to move on tomorrow. Yes, we are paid through until Sunday but with the distance we have to travel to Zion and back it just makes more sense to move closer. Yes, this Queen of Cheap hates to just throw away the $24.00 we'll lose by moving but when you figure in the cost of fuel.... Besides, the place we're going to has WIFI!

This was pretty much it for today.

5/16/08 On The Road Again

First things first. We have two birthday wishes to send out today. Family first, Happy Birthday to our nephew, Dusty. Twenty five years old! Wow, the time went fast, it seems like yesterday he was born! Our next birthday wish goes to our good friend KK. We hope both your birthday celebrations are/were good ones!

Today we moved from Red Ledge Campground down the road 44 miles to Willow Wind RV Park. Willow Wind was a very nice campground. Cement pads, shade, well kept and much closer to Zion National Park. If in this area to see Zion, Willow Wind in Hurricane is a good place to stay as it is convenient to a grocery store, gas stations and restaurants.

We met a very nice couple that is staying two sites down from us, Tom and Barbara from Florida. They are new to RV'ing and this is their first trip.

So other than breaking camp, driving 44 miles, setting back up again, a quick trip to the grocery store and sitting outside in the evening we didn't do much today.

5/14/08 Bryce Canyon: The Land of Hoodoos

We were on the road for the 75 mile drive to Bryce Canyon National Park at a little after nine.

Scenery from the road: still pockets of snow here and there.

The whitish color isn't snow on the mountain you are looking at, its trees that haven't leaf-ed out yet.

This picture was taken from a scenic pull over place on the road to Bryce. Now THIS is scenery!

The higher in elevation we went the more snow we saw.

This is Navajo Lake, still ice/snow covered.

We knew we were dealing with some pretty steep grades on the roadway but we were a little surprised to see this sign. We were sooooo glad we weren't towing the rig behind us! Yep, that's an 8% grade! Bob kicked in our extra towing brake that he installed and it worked just the way it should.

More road scenery. We saw A LOT of rental RV's like this one in front of us.

It was hard NOT to enjoy this ride with this to look at!

The beginning of Red Canyon, certainly aptly named.

A red rock tunnel.

An hour and forty five minutes later we arrived.

We added another $25.00 towards our National Parks pass cost. One more park, or $10.00, and it will have paid for itself.

Bryce Canyon, where the black tailed deer...

and the antelope....

and a yearling elk all play.

We were advised in the Visitor's Center that the best way to see the park is to drive to the end of the road, about 18 miles and on the way back stop at the overlooks. Doing it this way put you in a better position with the flow of traffic.

So we started out sightseeing at....

There were very nice walkways out to the point.

The view from the outermost point. In the center of the picture you can see a peak, this is called Molly's Nipple and is actually 22 miles away.

Another view from the same point. Looking at this picture, look at the bottom of the picture and find the snow that is just left of center. Now find Molly's Nipple in the right third of the picture,,,draw a line "up" from the snow and line left from Molly's Nipple. Where they intersect you can see a peak. That is 86 miles away!

It is here I found this entries dead tree.

We moved on to Farview Point. What we could see from there.....

Views from Rainbow Point.

It is here that Bob asked me to hold my hand and he dropped this in it.

Holding snow in my hand on May 14th!

More pictures of what we saw....

Can you imagine what a setting sun would like against these colors?

How do I find words to describe this?

Now here is where it really gets spectacular!

These are Hoodoo's.

In the picture below, look in the center of the picture and you can see a little town.

Its in this little town that Ebenezer and Mary Bryce settled, the couple for whom Bryce Canyon is named for.

What it looks like from the other end of the trail.

It was time to move on to the next point, but I can tell you it was very hard to leave this!

From this vantage point we could get up close and personal with the hoodoos.

Look closely, you can see people in much better physical shape than us me who opted to hike down to the canyon floor.

Can you imagine what this must look like at sunset?

Bob had to finally tear me away from this and we headed out. We spotted this little group on the way.

This black tailed deer posed for me.

What a wonderful day this was! Sights I didn't even know existed.

More pictures from the Red Canyon on the way home.

It amazes me that these rocks don't fall!

We hope you enjoyed your trip through Bryce Canyon National Park.

For dinner we stopped at the Pizza Hut for dinner and went home and collapsed after all the walking, climbing and picture taking we did today.

5/13/08 Kolob Canyon

Today we saw the most amazing scenery! The first place we went sightseeing in this area is to Kolob Canyon, a part of Zion National Park. This park is literally, just down the road from where are staying. We were able to use our National Parks pass and put another $25.00 towards the eighty we paid for it. It won't be long and it will have paid for itself.

The first thing that we noticed was the road. Pretty, isn't it?

I really can't tell you too much about this area. I think the pictures are worth a thousand words anyway. Enjoy the scenery! Remember, you can make the pics bigger.

To give you an idea of how big this is rock is, look at the evergreen trees just right of center at the base of the rock. They are FULL GROWN evergreens!

Bob taking it all in.

This is a picture of the Hidden Valley. Take note of the trees just above the very center of the picture. Do you see the black line coming down the face of the "rock"? That's a water mark, its where the water runs off when the snow melts or it rains.

I can't even think of the appropriate words to use to describe how truly beautiful this is.

Notice that I'm dressed for winter? It was a little chilly today. Not to the locals, just to these full timers who have spent the last months in the desert.

Another valley of trees that somehow grows on the rocks. We saw this when we walked one of the trails.

Flowers that we saw along the way.

LaVon, I was thinking of you when I walked this trail. A dead tree!

Other than hundreds of grasshoppers, this was only "wildlife" we saw. A moth.

More scenery.

The mountains sure are colorful around here! Our view from the roadway on the way home.

I talked with campground owner when we got back today and told him where we had gone and what our plans for the next few days are. He said, "If you went to Kolob today, you ain't seen nothin' yet!"

After dinner we settled in and watched American Idol. I think the two David's will be in the finals.

5/12/08 Get Out the Sweats and Turn on the HEAT!

We got on the road this morning around twenty after ten and it was hot already! Though I don't know for sure I'm guessing the temps were already in the 80's. I DO know we were hot!

On the way out of town we took a road we hadn't been on before and took notice that this must be big ATV country. Look at all the trails on these hills out in the middle of nowhere. (Remember, you can click on each picture to make it bigger)

Everyone on the road just seem to be whizzing past us even though we were holding a steady speed between 57 and 59 mph. It soon became apparent why it seemed like everyone was on a speedway compared to us.

Evidently these people have money to burn and don't care about the price of gas and diesel fuel. If they did, they'd be slowing down. Does anyone really have to be somewhere in so much of a hurry? Besides police, an ambulance or a fire truck I personally don't think any of us need to travel that fast.

As we were going down the road, at a respectable speed mind you, Bob pointed out the mountain in front of us. He said, "Oh look, we have to go over that". I couldn't see where anyone was going over it. In fact, I couldn't see where the road was going at all.

As it turned out we didn't go over it, we went through it! Now this mountain was very long in the left to right sense and very high. It was also extremely deep!

Some scenes as we drove through mountain. It took us a few minutes to get through it too!

Using the tractor trailer for a reference you can see how big the mountain is on the sides.

It just seemed to be neverending getting through this thing! We wondered how long it took to clear all the debris after the mountain pass was blasted.

This little creek in this next picture was really flowing! Snow melt is a really big thing around here right now!

As we drove down the road we each stuck an arm out the window and said, "Wow, does that feel good or what?!" The temperature was definitely cooler! About 15 degrees cooler than when we left Vegas! It felt wonderful!

Scenes from the road as we traveled.

We finally hit the UTAH state line! I wasn't as close as I thought in this picture but the state slogan seems to be "Ski Utah" and this shows a skier.

Utah scenery.....

Take note of the different colors in the next picture,,,brown and then green.

The brown color is dead trees! It seems as though there is some kind of blight out here that has killed thousands and thousands of trees.

We arrive at the campground we're going to be in until this coming Saturday. Its a small mom and pop place, just 22 spaces I think. Its in the town Kanarraville which boasts an all volunteer, all WOMEN fire department!

This is a Passport America park and we will pay $24.00 for the first night and then $12.00 a night for the rest. The owners are very nice and seem to go out of their way to make your stay here a happy one.

As soon as we got out of the truck it hit us! Its cold! The temps couldn't have been out of the high 50's and we were in shorts and T's. Trust me, it didn't take long to break out the sweatshirts and long pants and jackets. Needless to say, the heat went on tonight!

We got settled in and watched TV this evening. The sightseeing begins tomorrow!

5/11/08 Pear Scented Armpits????

Our last day here in the desert. Hooray! We are so ready to get to some other location, away from high heat, the color brown, the sound of fighter planes overhead, the color brown, reville, the color brown.

We figured we'd better take advantage of the Commissary before we go so we spent quite a bit time there stocking up.

One of the things on my list was deodorant for me. I have a favorite brand and they didn't have it. I was checking out the shelf for what was available and one in particular caught my eye. It was pear scented. Who in the world would want pear scented armpits? True, I've used strawberry scented shampoo and scented soaps but when it comes to my armpits I want NO scent, pears included! I didn't buy that one.

I made my way to the laundry detergent aisle and took notice that there were about 8 different kinds of Tide Laundry Detergent. Tide with Downy, Tide with Febreeze, Tide with bleach, Tide with colorbleach, whatever that is, Tide with Mountain Scent, excuse me here for a sec...isn't a mountain made out of dirt?....Tide for cold water, Tide for front loading machines, whoa, let's back up here. Tide for front loading machines? How does it know its in a front loading machine versus a top loader? If used in a top loader does it cling to the lid and refuse to clean the clothes? Do we as consumers really fall for this? I'd bet dollars to donuts that they are all the same product in all the bottles.

The cleaning product aisle was next. Now I'm sure you are familiar with the pretty blue liquid that is used to clean windows, namely, Windex. I, myself, have used it for years. Well, it seems that old standby is no longer good enough. Now you have a choice between that and Mountain Berry Scent Windex! I don't want my windows and mirrors to smell like mountain berries. I don't even know what a mountain berry is if the truth be told.

I'm off my Commissary soapbox now. Thanks for listening, I needed to get that off my chest.

We'll be pulling out of here tomorrow and heading for Utah. I already know that Wifi will not be available for uploading pictures to the blog. So what I'm going to do is write the blog and add my pictures, which are sure to be spectacular, and will upload as soon as I can.

So I'll be off for a few days, probably until Friday. Check back then and see where we've been!

5/10/08 NMTT which stands for....

NOT MUCH TO TELL!

5/9/08 Something To Share

I'm going to use this space today to share things I've learned.

I got an email from a good friend of mine, Nancy "Killer" Reid, a little over a week ago and I've read it every day, some days twice. Its all about priorities and how sometimes we let ours get out of whack. Read this, and then read again, let it sink in.

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of wine...

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full." The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else; the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "There is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. Do one more run down the ski slope. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend."

I think that pretty much says it all.


Another thing I've learned....

Since most of us have cell phones these days I thought I'd share this with you.

Cell phone companies are charging $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls. Since no one carries a telephone directory in their vehicle, they get away with it.

When you need to use the 411 Information option, simply dial 1(800) FREE 411, or 1 (800) 373-3411; you will incur no charge. This works on your home telephone as well. This is the kind of information people don't mind receiving, so pass it on to your family and friends.

I've checked the above out with http://www.snopes.com/ and it is true.


Enough for things I've learned today.

Our Buddy Map.....

Some of you have taken the time to put yourselves on our Buddy Map and we appreciate it very much. I'd like to welcome Carrie Lee from Middletown, Delaware to the ranks. We don't know Carrie Lee or how she even found our blog, but we welcome her just the same. I noticed Lou from Kinder, LA also signed on. We haven't had the pleasure of meeting Lou but I think he has been following our adventure for awhile now as has Kathy Dehring from San Bernadino, CA. We're glad to have you all along for the ride.

So while you're here, please take the time to click on My Buddy Map in the right hand column and get yourself on the map. Go ahead, do it now, I'll wait.

Now that you've taken care of that little task we'll continue.

We didn't do a whole lot of anything today. The heat has been turned up a notch here and we were feeling it. I'll be glad to get out of the desert for awhile. When we leave here on Monday we're heading to Utah and will be near Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon for a week or so. We're both ready to be in the land of tall trees! You know, now that I think about it, I'm not even sure what is going to be there. Is it all green and trees like I see in my minds eye or will we still be in the desert? I better check this out, wait here, I'll be right back.

Well, Zion pictures that I looked at showed lots of trees, Bryce Canyon...not so many and in the few words I read I did see Mojave Desert. Oh well, I'm not going worry about, it is what it is and we'll deal with it no matter what.

We had a nice steak dinner tonight and then just settled in and watched TV.

Nothing exiciting today. If we had exciting days EVERYDAY, wouldn't that get boring?

5/8/08 You Can Have Vegas!

I think the title of this one says it all. I wasn't impressed.

We decided to go down to Sin City in the mid to late afternoon with the intention of staying until tonight. That probably would have happened except on the way we had a fight, argument, discussion. What it was about it isn't important, now or then. Just the same it put a damper on things and shall we say there wasn't a whole lot of talkin' going on in the truck as we drove.

So we get down to the Strip. It was crowded, it was hot, we didn't even get out of the truck. Drove from one end to the other and came home. I don't care if I ever go back. For a non-drinker and non-gambler, Vegas just doesn't cut it I guess. As Darlene from Quail Run would say.....It's just another downtown area. So much for Vegas.

We turned 24,000 hits! Our friend, Ann, from Suncoast Rv (Florida) was the one who hit the magic number.

So what did the stats say this week?

We had a total of 391 different visitors and 570 pages were read.

Readers came from: USA, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, New Zealand and Greece.

The top three states for page viewing are (in order) California, Virginia and New Jersey. There have been visits from 34 different states.

Tuesday, May 6, 2008 was the busiest day of the week for page viewing but Friday was the day with most visitors.

There must be a lot of people who want to kill groundhogs because that is the phrase most often put in Google when this site comes up. It looks like several people want to make the wind chimes out of silverware like we have as those key words come up often too. Dolly Steamboat is another one as is zipper art and mud fish.

For you Survivor watchers...is Erik dumb as a rock or what?

That's it for today....pretty much a bust, but hey, it happens.

5/8/08 It's Been 553 Days....

THE WAIT IS OVER! Tonight for dinner we had CAPRIOTTI SUBS! YES!!!!!

We just puttered around today. We had planned on going to Glitter Gulch, otherwise known as The Strip, in the late afternoon and staying through to late tonight. As sometimes happens with us, our plans changed.

I spent a couple of hours at the Base Exchange just browsing, getting my nails done and just passing the time.

When I got home around five I asked Bob if he felt like having subs for dinner. I held my breath waiting for his answer. I let out a huge sigh of relief when he said, "Yeah, subs sound good".

It didn't take me long before I was in the truck on the way to Capriotti's about 8 miles away. Believe me, I would have gladly driven 28 miles!

I arrived in the parking lot and immediately felt my heart rate quicken and I started salivating! I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Five hundred and fifty three days to be exact.

Their logo never looked so good to me!

When I walked in with my camera I got some strange looks from the store employees. Did they think I was with 60 Minutes or something? I explained to Jessica, the order taker and cashier, that I would be taking pictures while our subs were made for our travel blog. She said there was no problem with that and that yes, I probably was the first one to photograph sub making. There were several orders ahead of ours, which was totally expected! I sat down at one of tables to wait. I think I now know how first time dads of yesteryear felt while sitting in the waiting room waiting for news of their firstborn. Yes, I wanted this sub that bad! Remember, Capriotti subs were our normal Friday night dinner for a long time.

Meet Cody. He is the young man who is making our subs. Today, he is my new best friend.

Let the building begin....

Lots of hot peppers for Bob's sub.

Pickles for mine.

Tell me your mouth isn't watering!

Let's not forget the oregano.

More Meat!!!

It has to be placed....just so.

....and then all tucked in, nice and neat.

Wrapping it up, ready for travel.

As I was waiting for Jessica to check me out I noticed something on the counter. Tastykakes! Another east coast, mid Atlantic states, delicacy. I bought two packages of chocolate cupcakes and two packages of peanut butter cakes, our favorites.

Jessica rings up the sale, putting us that much closer to eating these much awaited for subs!

Even though it was warm outside I rode the 8 miles back to the base with windows up. I didn't want to waste one minute of having the aroma of those Italian subs next to me.

Finally arriving home I couldn't get in the house fast enough, we were just minutes away from a very special treat.

First a picture of them sitting on the counter.

This is where the pictures stop. Once I got that sub in my hand, there was nothing, but nothing, that was going to distract me from enjoying this.

Bob got his sub and sat down in the front of the TV to eat his. I wanted everything just right. No paper plates for this meal. I put only perfect potato chips on the plate, the broken ones went back in the bag. I had an ice cold Pepsi, a napkin and the plate on the table. I was ready. Oh, was I ever ready!

I picked it up and ever so slowly brought it up to my mouth for that first bite. OMG! It was better than the first day of summer vacation, better than a birthday party, better than Christmas, better than sex. Well, OK, maybe not better than the last one but it was really, really good! But then again, I must have let out a moan because I saw Bob look over at me and I realized that I must have made that sound out loud!

We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner! I'm not leaving Las Vegas until I have another one!

Cody, you did a great job making our subs and we THANK YOU!

Sometime today, we're going to have the counter turn another thousand. If its you leave a comment and let us know who you are. Nothing special will happen, I'm just curious who it is.

5/5/08 HOOVER DAM

After our normal morning routine we got in the truck for the ride to Hoover Dam. Of course on the way we had some beautiful scenery. These aren't real clear because they were taken through the windshield. (note to self: Clean inside and out of windshield)

Lake Mead

This is the new road that is going to lead to the new bridge that will cross the Colorado very close to the dam.

How's this for a power plant?

We arrived at the Nevada side of the Hoover Dam and tried to go into parking garage they have but we were turned away because we had a container with diesel fuel in it in the back of the truck. Therefore we had to drive across the dam to the Arizona side where they had open parking. Finding a parking place wasn't too bad but we had a bit of a hike to get down to the main attraction.

We finally arrived.

For millions of years the Colorado River ran 1400 miles from Colorado's Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of California, carrying water through the dry lands of the west.

In the early 1900's it was decided that the river had to be controlled since it often flooded farmland and communities in the spring and summer when the water surged with the melting snow. In the late summer and fall it dried to a mere trickle. Something had to be done to protect the low lying lands from flooding and there was a need to assure a stable, year round water supply.

Before the river could be controlled and managed its water had to be divided between the states that depended on the river. In 1922 a representative from each of the seven states and the federal government met and formed the Colorado River Compact. The agreement divided the Colorado River Basin into an upper and lower half and gave half of the river's annual estimated flow to each basin. The states that each basin served had to fight it out amongst themselves as to how much each state would get.

Before the dam project could be started, two tunnels had to be dug in order to divert the water. Two were built in Nevada and two in Arizona. This took nearly a year to dig the tunnels then they had to be lined with concrete. Each tunnel was 56 feet in diameter and the combined length was just over 3 miles. After the concrete was poured the diameter of each tunnel was 50 feet.

Following the completion of the dam, the entrances to the two outer diversion tunnels were sealed at the opening and half way through the tunnels with large concrete plugs. The downstream half of the tunnels following the inner plugs are now the main body of the spillway tunnels.

Construction of the dam itself started in 1931 and the last concrete was poured in 1935 - two years ahead of schedule and well under budget.

Here's an aerial view of the dam.

Hoover Dam was without precedent, the greatest dam of its day and it still is a world renowned structure.

Our view as we walked to the dam complex.

Getting ever closer.

Here's the bridge that will link Nevada to Arizona when it is complete. I don't think I would comfortable with this bridge,,,way too high for me.

ahhhh....NO, not me!

Hoover Dam is named for Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the US. It was called Boulder Dam but the Hoover Dam was made permanent by Congress in 1947. Strongly supported by Hoover, he believed the Boulder Canyon Project be self supporting, financed entirely through the sale of hydro-electric power generated at the dam. To this day, the operation and maintenance of the facility continue to be solely supported with revenues from power sales.

The Boulder Canyon Project's original $165 million cost has been repaid, with interest, to the Federal Treasury through the sale of power.

Thirteen to sixteen thousand people cross the dam everyday!

Pictures taken from the Visitors Center.

You're looking at 3.25 MILLION cubic yards of concrete here! The base of the dam is 660 feet wide, enough to fit the length of two football fields in and then some.

Below is the "Winged Figures of the Republic" by Oskar J.W. Hansen, part of the monument of dedication on the Nevada side of the dam.

A close up of one of the Winged Figures.

It was time to start our tour. It was a very welcomed 58 degrees down here as it was quite hot outside.

The generators that supply all the electricity. This picture doesn't do them justice as to how big they are.

Here's a picture of a wrench that is used to maintain the power plant generators. This puppy weighs 105 pounds!

What holds it all together.... if you can't read it,,,this coupling bolt weighs 181 pounds.

Hoover Dam lit up at night time.

Taken from the observation deck.

You can see just the edges of the new bridge on either side.

In this next picture you will notice "white" all around the canyon walls. No, they didn't paint it on. That is calcium deposits left from when the canyon flooded back in '83.

We were told that they are now in the 7th year of a drought and that Lake Meade is down 100 feet! We did see out on the lake that there was a fishing pier or a boat dock that was cantilevered out of the canyon wall and it just hung there. The water level was nowhere near it to make it usable.

Bob, with the Hoover Dam behind him.

We are so glad to have been able to see this magnificent feat of engineering. If ever in the area be sure to make this a stop!

On the way back I was able to get this.

On the way back to LV the clouds started rolling in and made for some unusual coloring on the mountains.

Back at home the fighter planes were out in force. This plane is practically going straight up. Take notice of how gray the sky is. Not one drop of rain though.

These things are LOUD!

5/4/08 This is the EXPRESS LINE???

Bob kept himself busy all day doing odds and ends around the 5th wheel.

I spent my time in the laundromat getting our clothes cleaned and dried. Of course that didn't take me all day but it sure seemed like it. Usually I can go in and fill 4 washers with clothes, towels and sheets, have them washed and dried all within two hours... max. Today took much longer because there were only three washers and dryers and two other women were also doing laundry. So we juggled our wash loads from machine to machine and spent the several hours talking.

When I finally got done I realized the Commissary was going to close soon and I had forgotten to get crock pot liners when we were there yesterday. Since we'll be out sightseeing Monday I had planned on a crock pot meal so that dinner would be ready when we returned. So I run over to the store to get the liners and having the opportunity to walk up and down the aisles by myself, I did. Of course I picked up a few more things that were on sale that I didn't see the day before.

Soon the announcement is made that the store is closing and to please proceed to the checkout lines. Since I only had a few things in my cart I got in the Express Line. There was young couple in front of me who had less than the 15 item limit also. Now here's where it gets bad. Evidently the husband had slipped something into the cart that the wife didn't see and they got into a fight over it. I had to wait for them to get this settled and decide whether or not they were going to buy it. I'm starting to spend a long time in the Express Line now. So they get their 12 items scanned and bagged and the total comes to around $38.00. She brings out this debit/credit card that clearly has been bent in half rendering it useless. She tries and tries to swipe it through the machine and it is not going work. They told her to take it to the ATM machine nearby to see if it would work there so that she can get cash and get the Express Line moving again. She said she already tried that and it wouldn't work there either. DUH! If you already knew it wasn't going to work then why are you trying it in line to pay for your groceries? The EXPRESS LINE, you know, the one those who want to get out of the store quickly use? OK, so this isn't going to work and they figure out how much cash they have between them. $23.00 and change. Now they have to figure out what they are going to put back. They argued. They changed their minds a dozen times. I was almost ready to pay for their stuff just to get them out of my way.

Finally, its my turn. I put my items up on the conveyor belt and I check out in no time at all. I'm just getting ready to walk out the door and it hit me! I got some great buys with the on sale stuff but neglected to get the one thing I went there for, the crock pot liners. Oh geez! I turned right around and went back to get them. I had to hurry because the store was closing. Lucky for me the shelf they were on was very close to the front of the store and I had them in my hand within two minutes from when I realized I didn't have them. Back to the EXPRESS LINE. There are four people ahead of me not including the one checking out. The two people in front of me each have a cart with 8 or 9 items each in their carts. The lady in front of them has a gallon of milk. Now here's where it gets bad again. The lady whose turn it is to check out next has a cart that is half full. Did she not see the sign that this is the express line? Actually, she had to know she was in the express line because it is separate from the normal lines. To make matters worse she kept sending her teenage daughter to get more things. The four of us behind her in line start exchanging looks. Finally she started putting things up on the conveyor belt and I really believe we were all counting as she put her groceries on the belt. I counted 33 items but I may have missed a canned good or two. Just as the cashier is almost done she squeals, "Oh my gosh, I forgot to get fabric softener!" OH NO! She sends her daughter off to get it but not before detailed instructions on what brand to get, what size to get, what scent and as the young teen is walking away Mom yells, oh yeah, get toothpaste too! By this point I am so angry I could eat iron and spit out rust!

The woman finally gets done and looks at the woman behind her and says....."Oh honey, if I had known you only had that gallon of milk I would have let you go in front of me." The man in front of me says a little loudly,,,"If you had been in the line where you belonged we'd all be home by now". Tempers were getting short to say the least. I was glad to get out of there.

I spent the evening talking to a couple down the street from us about fulltiming and sightseeing. Upon my recommendation they are having Capriotti subs tomorrow for lunch!

That's our day.

5/3/08 Lovin' Life in the Desert

We both slept well last night. All the windows were open and it was a little on the chilly side, but a nice kind of chilly.

After our morning stints on the computers checking email, checking forums and in my case reading the twelve blogs I follow everyday, it was time to get this day started. Note to Darlene...I'd like to make it thirteen...hint, hint.

Bob started the set up of our satellite dish. Ours stands on a tripod outside and after getting it all fitted together it was time to find our satellite in space. Bob locked onto the signal fairly quickly and in no time we had a a whole lot of channels to choose from.

One thing we have noticed here is that everyone is so very friendly. Not one person has walked by and not said hello and most have stopped to talk. I don't know if we should attribute that to being RV'ers, the friendliest people on earth, or to belonging to the military and the kinship we share there. Regardless, we've met some very nice folks in the less than 24 hours we've been here.

Bob and I both had priorities today. His was to go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get a water pressure regulator. Mine was to find out where the closest Capriotti's is.

Ahhhh, Capriotti's, I salivate just thinking about it. For those you not in the know, Capriotti's is one of the best loved sub shops in Delaware and there are now Capriotti's spread all over the country! Franchises have been sold and there are several here in Vegas. You can bet we'll be having a sub while we're here. Probably two! We haven't had a sub or a cheese steak in over a year and a half now, at least not GOOD ONES! I've had one or two really terrible imitations of an east coast sub. Oh yes, a Capriotti sub is in our near future for sure. I found that there is one just 6 or 7 miles down the road from the base. I read the online restaurant reviews and 99% of them just raved about these sandwiches.

For our Quail Run readers,,,,I talked with Shelley Wright and they are ok. I know you have noticed that she hasn't blogged lately because of the comments on her blog and those I've talked on the phone with. She won't have Internet connection until Monday the 5th. She'll bring us to date on their adventures then.

Tonight we were sitting outside for awhile and we can see the lights from the Strip in Las Vegas from our patio. We won't go into town until at least Monday. We've learned to stay put when in a big town on the weekends. Traffic is just too bad, especially when in unfamiliar territory.

So that was pretty much our day today. Just another day in the life of these full timing RV'ers.

Play on Words...

Did you hear about the guy who had his whole left side cut off? He's all right now.

5/2/08 We're Going to Vegas!

We packed up what little we didn't get done last night and were on the road by 8:15 this morning. We're heading north where hopefully it will be a little cooler and a lot less windy.

We only had one problem on the way to our next stop. One of the tires on 5th wheel has a very slow leak and when we stopped to fill it the air came out instead of going in. Now the air pressure was even lower.

We stopped at two more places and the same thing happened. We decided to just slow down so the tires wouldn't get so hot until we could find a place where the air pumps worked.

We crossed the Nevada state line and somehow we both missed the sign so there is no picture. I think this is the first one I've missed.

We stopped at gas station/convenience store combination and I was totally surprised to see 6 poker type machines lined up. Then it hit me that we had crossed the line and were in Nevada....the land of gambling.

We had some pretty scenery along the way.

I just never get tired of these mountains and hills.

We pulled into the Desert Eagle RV Park which is in Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas. Twelve miles outside.

What a nice park! It has, I believe, 132 spaces. Once again we have access to all the amenities the base has to offer. While we're here Bob will take advantage of the Auto Shop and change the oil in the truck.

Making short order of getting set up it was time to go to the Base Exchange or BX(department store) and the Commissary (grocery store). The BX is about the size of your average Kohl's or Target. Prices are just a tad better here than in the civilian stores, but not as cheap as they used to be by any means. We had to go there because the water pressure in this park is really high and we needed to get a water pressure regulator or else we would be blowing a water line. We have two but somehow they are nowhere to be found. They had one but it was plastic and not of the best quality (Camco) but it will do until Bob can get to Lowe's or Home Depot tomorrow to get a brass one.

From there it was on to the Commissary. I don't know what we were thinking! Well, actually, I DO know. If we didn't go to the grocery store we weren't going to have dinner! I had been using everything in the cupboards and fridge so that we don't have all that extra weight onboard as we travel and when I looked in the fridge I couldn't think of anything to make out of a bottle of ketchup, half an onion, butter and a half bag of brussel sprouts. Looking in the cupboards the pickin's were slim there too. We pulled into the parking lot and realized just how crowded the place was. Then it hit us,,,,it was payday for these airmen and their families. Bob dropped me off and went in search of a parking place. The plan was for me to get started and he would find me in the store.

The Commissary here is very large and very nice! We spent about 45 minutes walking up and down aisles and halfway through I knew it was a mistake to go there hungry. (We hadn't eaten anything yet today and here it was four o'clock) Our grocery cart was filling fast but at these prices it was hard to not throw things in. We got TONS of food for less than $100.00! Our pantry and fridge/freezer are filled to the max now! I was surprised that we could get a 3 lb roast, 2 rib eye steaks, thick pork chops, country style ribs, hamburger and lots of canned goods plus a whole lot more for just $97.00. At Walmart this would have set us back at least a buck fifty. Since Bob doesn't like frozen corn or green beans we picked up 8 count boxes of Libby canned vegetables that figured out to be 43 cents each. As is customary in all commissaries, at least the ones I've been in, your groceries are bagged and taken out to your vehicle and loaded by the commissary personnel. Of course they depend on your tips so add 2 more dollars to my grocery bill.

After unloading all the groceries and getting them put away it was time to finally make dinner. While it was simmering I went outside and Bob thought it best to park the truck a little better. I stood on the patio looking around and we heard IT! A squeal. If I had whipped my head around any faster I would have broken my neck! I looked at Bob and he looked back at me with this look of horror on his face. He stopped the truck but the squeal continued. We both let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't our truck making the noise. Bob chuckled and said, "Gee, do you think we're paranoid or what?"

After dinner, we settled in for TV. We're on antenna right now as we haven't had time to set the satellite dish up yet. So we have 8 channels to choose from and 3 of them are spoken in Spanish. This is going to be a long night!

We have a very strong Wifi signal which makes us very happy campers!

Have you taken the time to put yourself on our map yet? If not, please do so now, let's get er' filled. Look in the right hand column below the state flags.

Speaking of the map... this is a note to SKIP of South Carolina!

Wow! You are still following along! Glad to hear it! It's been awhile now if I'm not mistaken. I think we were in Florida last year when you got on board with our adventure. Wait till you see where we're taking you next Skip!

That's about it for today, a new location, new faces, new things to see. We are lovin' this adventure! Truck breakdowns and all!

Play on Words...

The thief who stole the calendar got 12 months.

5/1/08 We've Got WHEELS!

When your car or truck is in the shop, do you feel like somebody took your lifeline to the outside world away? Do you feel stranded? Cut off from civilization? Horrible feeling isn't it?

Our truck went into the shop on Tuesday and we just got it back, around five, this afternoon. A long time to be without wheels. We took a big hit in the wallet on this one but it had to be done. It wasn't because routine maintenance wasn't done on our part, things just wear out.

I called the office yesterday morning to let them know that our truck was in the shop and that we needed to stay another night even though we had already stayed our five nights for free. Without so much as a second of hesitation I was told that was fine and to let them know in the morning the status of the truck. We did get a visitor in the afternoon, evidently the word wasn't put out that we were staying another night. Once I explained to her that I had talked to Michelle in the office and that we were stuck, everything was fine.

I called the office today to let them know the truck would be done today but not until late in the day. Again, no problem. They have been really nice to us. The best part, we were never called to do the tour thing.

As far as TV is concerned, I don't like being further west than my friends! Last night I called my Quail Run friend, LaVon, and before we hung up she asked me if I had seen American Idol yet? I explained that no, it wasn't on here yet. She then said, "Oh, well make sure you see it, you won't believe who got kicked off tonight". Oh! Suspense! Then just a few minutes ago my friend Judy, who is in Delaware, called and said, "Have you seen Survivor yet?" I said no, its not on here yet. She replied, "Oh Snookie, you HAVE to watch it tonight, make sure you don't miss it. You won't believe what happens". MORE SUSPENSE!

The wind has been really bad here for the past 48 hours. Our house on wheels shook all night long with the gusts of winds we had. When I stood outside today I really had to "plant" my feet so that the wind didn't knock me down. We'll be glad to get away from this, that's for sure!

So tomorrow we'll pull out of here and head towards Nevada. We'll get to add another state to our map. We're undecided as to where we'll stay when we get there. We know that there is a nice Elks Club in the area with full hookups and there is also a military base. They will both cost the same so we'll have to see where things are actually located once we get there.

The first of May already. Its hard to believe we're into the fifth month of this year so soon. Is your time flying by as fast as ours is?

That's about it for today. I've got to get dinner out of the way before Survivor comes on.

I don't know what our Internet connection is going to be so if I don't post tomorrow check back in a few days. We're going to VEGAS!