Windy day today

On Thursday, we drove through west Texas and into New Mexico. The wind was blowing 25-35 mph so it was slow going and dusty. We stopped at Deming NM for one night - at Dreamcatcher RV Park, one of our favorite Escapee Parks. It was cold and we jumped into the jeep and went into town to eat at Irma's, a Mexican restaurant we really like.

This morning the temp was 17 degrees!! We are heading towards Quartzsite today.

On our way to our 2008 adventures

At 6:01 a.m. it started raining. We quickly got up and moved the motorhome to the asphalt and then started packing up to leave and make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything.

We drove through Austin and Fredericksburg (one of my most favorite towns) and made it to MM 349 on I-10 for the night.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Our trip to Louisiana to see Glenda's mother and sister and brother-in-law was nice. Everyone is in good health and doing well. The weather was good and the dogs enjoyed the fenced back yard a lot.

We drove to Dallas Dec 22 and had Christmas with the grandkids. They are leaving today for a ski trip. It was great and everyone had a wonderful time. We received our favorite fulltimer gift--a Walmart Gift card!

Here's Baron & Marquis wishing everyone Happy Holidays!



We are leaving on Wednesday, heading to Palm Springs.

We had a great week in Dallas with the kids and grandkids for Thanksgiving and are now in Midway for a few weeks.

We've been doing maintenance on the motorhome and Jeep and just generally hanging out and cleaning up. We have ordered a new Davis weather station so that should be fun to play with!




Happy Holidays to all of our friends and family!!

Back in Texas

We left Death Valley on Nov 11 and went with some friends to Las Vegas for a few days. We had a great time trying out several buffets and doing a little gambling. We decided to watch the Frontier Casino implosion on the news as none of us wanted to stay up until 2:30 am to witness it.

On Friday, Nov 16, we headed east. We made it to Winslow, Az the first night and Amarillo, TX the next. We arrived here in Dallas this afternoon and will be here for a week. Hope to have lots of fun with the grandkids and enjoy Thanksgiving with them.

The Wagon Train and Trail Riders arrived-Death Valley

On Friday, we walked over to the Western Art booths. Our biggest surprise was to find an artist with a greyhound. Satin looked so much like Marquis, so we looked up her stats on the greyhound database to find that they have the same father!! No wonder they looked alike!!



The wagon trains arrived at 1:00 pm followed by the trail riders.




Today,we also drove to Stovepipe Wells to the woodcarving, needlework and photography competition.

There's music and entertainment during the day and evening.

Scotty's Castle-Death Valley

On Tuesday, we went to Scotty's Castle, a large home built in the 1920's.
This was a coyote that was near entrance drive.

Road trip to the Racetrack-Death Valley

On Monday, Gerald went with some of our friends to the "Racetrack". This is where they believe that when it rains and the lake bed is wet and slick, that winds push these rocks around, leaving the tracks you see in these photos.





Here are some other photos he took along the way.

This is a volcanic crater.


Beautiful scenery and Teakettle Junction.

Death Valley National Park

We arrived at Death Valley National Park and found a spot in the overflow of Sunset Campground. We are expecting 14 motorhomes to join us for a week of festivities at the Death Valley 49'ers Encampment.



This is a coyote that walks along the perimeter of the campground a couple of times a day.


We drove to Rhyolite, a ghost town. This is the 'Bottle House'.




Beautiful hills all around us!


Then, 7 cars from our group drove through Titus Canyon. It was really spectacular.

In Las Vegas for a few days.

We left Tucson on Saturday and spent one night in Quartzsite. We arrived in Las Vegas today and are at Thousand Trails. We will be here for 5 nights and then head to Death Valley for a rally and enjoy the 49'ers Encampment.

We are at the Datastorm Rally in Tucson

We are really enjoying the Datastorm Rally in Tucson. There are over 120 rv's here with datastorm dishes on them. It is truly the 'city of blue lights'.

It's Windy in Palm Springs!

On Oct. 15th, we left Yosemite Lakes and drove down to TT Soledad Canyon for a couple of nights. That's near Palmdale, CA. The park is huge and nice. We found a dog park in Lancaster and got to let the dogs run for a while. They loved chasing tennis balls.

Today, we drove to TT Palm Springs. The wind is blowing at 35mph with gusts in some areas up to 50 mph!! It's supposed to die down tonight. We are heading to Apache Junction, AZ tomorrow and then to Tucson to the Datastorm Rally there.

In Awe of the Giant Sequoias

On Tuesday, we drove to the Mariposa Grove and took the tram ride around the grove. It was just awesome.


We couldn't get too close to the trees; they have determined that walking too close will damage their roots, so it was hard to get a photo with any perspective.


This was taken on the way back to the motorhome as the sun was setting.


Yesterday, we hiked to the Tuolumne Grove. There are about 20 sequoias there and it was a beautiful day and nice to be out.



This is one of the 'tunnel' trees. That's me standing in it.


The colors are starting to change. This is Gerald standing next to a sequoia that fell in 1983.

Visiting Manteca and Almond groves

On Oct 1, we went to TT Turtle Beach in Manteca, CA. This was a nice park and we got a great site. We have some friends with an almond grove and enjoyed visiting them and watching the harvesting of the almonds.

On Oct 5, we drove to TT Yosemite Lakes. It was raining and sleeting when we arrived so we didn't do much the first day. Yesterday, we drove into the park and went to the visitor's center.




Wildlife: so far, we have only seen several deer.

On to California

On Friday, we left Oregon and headed down Hwy 101 towards California. We stopped along the way to enjoy the view and spent one night in Klamath. Then, onto Thousand Trails Russian River Park near Cloverdale, CA.



We drove through the redwoods and they were beautiful, although hard to get a good photo through the windshield. The road was really narrow and we had to go really slow!


Here we are at TT Russian River.

Last few days on the Oregon Coast

These photos were taken north of Florence along the coast.

South Jetty for a few days (Florence, OR)

After the Monaco Corp combined rally, we drove over to the coast to the Thousand Trails South Jetty park near Florence, OR. There are sand dunes for miles along the coast. Lots of dune buggies are active going up and down them and it was fun to watch.

We drove along the dunes and found a beach access and took a walk down to watch the sunset.


This is Gerald with the dogs.


Click on the photos to enlarge.




Our new dog, Baron, loves Marquis' toys and takes them all back to the bedroom to nap with them.