On the Road with Ken & Joan

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012-01-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

We are back in Arizona after spending a very nice “dry”three weeks in Salem for Christmas. Weheard that for Oregon it was the driest December since 1877. It was cold, but we had sun every day. Could not have asked for better!! It was not so in Arizona. While we were gone, they got a lot of rain andthe desert is nice and green!

December 4, we flew out of Mesa Gateway airport on AllegiantAir back to Eugene, Oregon. Our daughter and her husband were there to pick usup and take us home to Salem. The flightwas only 2 hours, 28 minutes and very comfortable. I surely would recommend that airline to anyonewanting inexpensive and simple. We spent the next few days getting our houseready for Christmas. I put up anddecorated a tree, while Ken put lights up outside. While home, we did the usual stuff; shop, eatout, visit friends & family, shop, and eat out some more. Yes, we had to also pack what we would betaking back to Arizona with us. Since wedidn’t tow the Grand Cherokee to Arizona with us, we were preparing to pack itup for our return trip.

Christmas Eve and Christmas day are times for love andfamily. We spent both days with ourfamily and loved every minute we were with them. On Christmas Eve, we spent a couple hourswith the Paveleks for food, drink, and lots of visiting. From 8:30 to 11 we were at our daughters towatch the great grandkids open their gifts from everyone. After the little ones were done, we spent therest of the evening exchanging gifts with rest of family. At 11:15 Ken & I were at church tocelebrate the true reason for Christmas at Midnight Mass. A long day, but so worth it!! Christmas Day is when Santa visits the littleones very early in the morning, so we stayed home till Noon, then went backover to our Daughters for a wonderful afternoon and dinner. It was a wonderful day!!

Two days later, we had the tree down and all the Christmasdecorations put away. Finally, onDecember 28, the Jeep was loaded, the alarm set, and all the services turnedoff. We left Salem around 11:30 whilethe weather still was nice. That nightit was supposed to start raining. Wewere fortunate to make it across the mountain pass while it was still clear andhave a somewhat sunny drive to Susanville, California where we spent thatnight.

December 29, we left Susanville and made it to Tonopah,Nevada and checked into the Best Western for three nights. Our plans were to geocache along highways 6& 375 (known as the Extraterrestrial Highway) where over 1,500 caches arehidden. We spent the next three and ahalf days caching and found all 1,500 caches, plus many more that weren’t partof the “ET Run.” Most of that time, wewere on dirt roads and we along with the Jeep were covered with dust. Our poor “white” Grand Cherokee was a dirtybrown inside and out.

For New Year’s Eve, we had dinner then spent the night atthe Windmill Ridge Restaurant & Lodging. It’s a wonderful restaurant and the rooms (cabins) are very nice. Both of us were so tired from the cachingthat we didn’t stay up to see the New Year come in. We were both sound asleep by 7:30 pm.

The next morning, January 1, 2012, we were on the road at 6am. Of course, when we crossed over theborder from Nevada into Arizona, we lost an hour because of the time change. Even with that, we were in Queen Valley by 3pm. It was wonderful to get off the roadand back into our coach. The work beganwhen we started unloading the Jeep and trying to find a place to puteverything. Thank Goodness, we have twosheds here!

Since being back in Queen Valley, we are back into the swingof park life and trying to fit all the activities in. It seems there is something going on everyday and we really have to pick and choose what we really want to do. Since we have been coming down so many years,we have done most everything, so this year we are taking things mucheasier. Ken is still spending time inthe Rock Shop, but not as much as in years past. We plan on doing more off road trips and morecaching and less group partying. Theweather has been wonderful since we got back. The days are in the high 60s (low 70s) and the nights are dipping in thehigh 30s, so we’ve had the heater on a few times. As for rain, we may or may not get some thisnext weekend, but that is just a possibility.

We wish you all a very Happy New Year!!!!

Arizona Bound

2011-11-03T20:50:00.000-07:00

Afterthe annual maintenance and service checkup on the coach, we drove it over to Newportand stayed Oct 6-10 at South Beach State Park with our friends Rod & Lynda. According to the weather forecast, wewere supposed to have rain the whole weekend, but it didn’t turn out thatway. We all were quite pleased to havedecent weather so we could sit outside and enjoy a nice campfire and visit. Also, we had the opportunity to have anafternoon where we had fresh Oysters off of the grill.

Oncewe got back home, we cleaned up the coach (inside & outside) and finishedloading it with what we would need in Arizona. Once the house was secured we were ready to head out. Pulling out was much easier this time becausewe decided to not hook up the Grand Cherokee and take it with us. Since we already have a vehicle (JeepWrangler) in our storage shed in Arizona, we didn’t see the need to tow theCherokee this time. Our plan is to usethe Wrangler till we fly back to OR for Christmas then drive the GrandCherokee back to AZ after Christmas.

The morningof Oct 18 was sunny and clear. We drove southto Coburg where we stopped and fueled up the coach. Imagine our shock when we saw the cost ofDiesel was $4.15 a gallon--we took on 95 gallons (ouch).

Justsouth of Eugene, we got on highway 58 and drove east across Willamette Pass. It was a beautiful, scenic drive with many ofthe trees changing colors--lots of oranges, yellows, and reds along theway. However, we had some “slowdowns” justeast of Oakridge when we ran into road construction. First, we had to wait at the “Tunnel” becausecrews were inspecting it for cracks, then a couple miles past the tunnel, crewswere painting stripes on the newly paved road. Each time we had a long wait because a pilot car was needed to leadtraffic through on the one lane portion of the road. Just before we crossed the OR/CA border, wehad another long wait because of road paving. Finally, we made it to our usual stop at a volunteer fire department’s parkinglot in the small town of Likely.

Wewoke early on Wednesday the 19th and quickly were back on the road. The drive was uneventful all the way throughReno and east to Fernley. As usual, we alwaystop off our tank near Fernley on I-80 at a Love’s Station. The fuel there was $4.07 a gallon and we tookon 39 gallons. Price a little better,but still a lot more than we were expecting. Our next stop for the night was at Miller’s Rest Area just north ofTonapah, Nevada. We got there prettyearly and were able to set outside and enjoy a wonderful glass (or two) of winebefore dinner. Well, I had the wine andKen had his V/O. It was a beautiful day withthe temperature topping off around 75.

Thursdaythe 20th, we once again ran into more road construction between the towns of Tonapahand Beatty, Nevada. This time we had towait about 15 minutes for the pilot car to lead us through the work area. Finally, we were back on the road and makinggood time to Laughlin, Nevada. The furthersouth we went, the warmer it got. LasVegas was 76 degrees when we passed through it (11:30 am) and when we pulledinto the AVI RV Park (and casino) south of Laughlin, it was 90. So nice to be able to turn the AC on once wegot settled. For dinner, we walked overto the casino and ate a wonderful dinner.

Friday,the 21st, was another great sunny day. In fact when we left the AVI, it was already in the 60s. Our trip took us south to Needles, CA, wherewe saw Diesel was $4.79. However, whenwe got to Vidal Junction, CA the Diesel was going for $4.89…..that was justplain crazy!! We crossed the CA/AZborder at Parker, AZ about 10 am and it was already 89 degrees. There we ran into more road construction(paving) but we never had to come to a complete stop. There were no more slowdowns, but the roadsouth to I-10 was very rough. In factthe entire road from Needles to I-10 was rough. We may be thinking of another route next time we head south.

Anyhow,once we got to I-10 just south of Vicksburg, AZ, we stopped and filled ourpropane tank and added 20 gallons of Diesel to the tank ($3.79 a gallon). We didn’t stop again until we got to Avondalewhere we filled the Diesel tank up at Flying J for $3.75 a gallon. We then made the final trek through Phoenix,Tempe, Mesa, Apache Junction, and Gold Canyon arriving Queen Valley just before3 pm. The temperature was 90degrees. Since we didn’t have theCherokee, backing into our site and getting set up was a piece of cake. Ken quickly checked on the Wrangler andhappily, it started right up.

Wehave now been in Queen Valley for 2 weeks and are seeing more and more friendsshowing up. Our first night here we wentout to dinner with friends Dave and Pat, then just this last weekend spent a wonderfulday with “caching” friends from Tucson, Florence, and Apache Junction at a “BirthdayCampout” held just north of Florence (south of us). They all camped out, we didn’t. It was just great seeing them all again and are looking forward to spending a lot more time with them this season.

End of Summer

2011-09-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hardto believe, but summer’s almost over and soon we will be heading backto Arizona. I loosely use the term “summer”because Salem hasn’t really had one. June was mostly wet and cool. July had some nice warm days, but also some cool wet ones. August was nice and mostly in the mid to high80s. The first week of Sept did havesome mid to high 90s, but as I write this, it's back to rain andcool. We are being told there still issome nice days coming. Hope that happensbefore we head back to Arizona.

We gotback in Salem on Memorial Day and have been busy ever since. The first couple weeks of June we worked around the house and organized some repair work to be done onanother piece of property we own.

June25 we loaded up coach and drove it to Prineville where we parked at the CrookCounty RV Park for two nights. We werethrilled to have clear warm days and cool evenings! Both that Saturday & Sunday, we cachedand checked out the BLM campsites along the Crooked River to see what siteswere available for us to camp at starting Monday.

Monday,June 27, we moved the coach 15 miles south on hwy 27 and set up camp in awonderful spot along the Crooked River where we spent the next 12 nights. Soon after we were set up, our friend, Rod,showed up and set his camp up in the site next to us. Rod’s wife Lynda had to work until Thursdayso the three of us played cards and sat around and visited until she got thereThursday evening.

Saturday,July 2, our daughter Leigh & her husband Tim showed up with 4 of theirgrandkids and stayed in our huge family tent for two nights. What fun, we visited, floated the river, ate,visited some more, ate some more, and watched the four "mini tornadoes" - ages 3-7)enjoying their very first camping trip. The little ones got really dirty and no one cared! They were having fun and that was what the timewas all about. These are the four "mini tornadoes."

OnMonday, July 4, our daughter’s family packed up and drove into Prineville tocheck into a hotel so everyone could get cleaned up and have the little onestake a nap before watching the evening fireworks show. Rod & Lynda, and Ken & I stayed incamp and enjoyed a very peaceful evening.

After another few days of total fun, we all packed up and pulled out of our camping sites on July 9. Rod & Lynda headed home, while we droveback to the Crook County RV Park for a two night stay. Where we camped along the Crooked River wasin a narrow canyon, so we on AT&T had no cell/internet service (ourdaughter did on Verizon L)so we weren’t able to get news on our sister-in-law’s Breast Cancer surgeryuntil we got back into town. Once back in town, we talked to her and happily, she said she was doing well after having a lumpectomy and wouldknow in about a month if she needed further treatment. We later found out that would undergo someRadiation, but Chemo would not be needed. We spent the next two days caching in and around the area, then drovehome on Monday, July 11.

Julywas a month of Cancer surgeries…. On July 13 we spent a nervous day as ourdaughter-in-law underwent a "high risk" hysterectomy due to Uterine Cancer. Thankfully, she came through surgery with a veryhopeful prognosis. We didn’t find outuntil a month later that she was free of Cancer and required no furthertreatment.

July18-25, our coach was in Lafayette, Oregon having the bay door repaired. They did a fantastic job and it now lookslike new.

Therest of July we spent working in and around the house. Ken re-leveled the pavers in driveway whilethe coach was in for work, then after we got the coach back he repainted thehouse. We still need more work to bedone on house, but we plan on holding off till next year.

Augustcame and went so fast, it’s hard to remember what we did that month. I remember it finally being warm, sunny andin the mid to high 80s. We did go to Ken’s 50th highschool reunion on August 4-6. Also, on the18th, we drove to Seattle to attend a MEGA Geocaching Event that took place on the19th. Since we were so close to theCanadian Border, we drove across to White Rock and found a couple caches so we could claim aforeign country on our geo-stats. The MEGA Event was called “Groundspeak's Block Party” and it was held at their new headquarters on 34th andFreemont just under the Aurora Bridge, downtown Seattle. We spent the whole day there and hada great time meeting geocachers from all over the world and seeing old friends.

Ourgrandson Justin and his wife Holly live in Tacoma while Justin is stationed atMcChord AFB. Holly is pregnant withtheir first child and our soon to be 7th great grandchild. We found out late August that she is having aboy and his name is Tristen Raymond Allen. We all are very excited about the up and coming birth of this littleguy. On the 20th while heading back toSalem, we got to visit with Holly & Justin at their place and see how theyplan on setting up Tristen’s room. Afterhaving a late lunch with them, we checked into a hotel for the night and hadthe opportunity to have a wonderful visit with our niece Janis. Janis, whom I haven’t seen for over 20 years,is my half sister’s third of four children. It was such a thrill to sit and talk with Janis and reflect on the pastand present. We vowed to set up anothertime to get together and include her siblings and our daughter. I am truly looking forward to that.

LaborDay, Sept 5, we headed north to SeaTac and stopped in Tacoma to spend an hourwith Justin & Holly over an early dinner. As always, it was great to see them….they are so cute together!

Afterdinner, we drove north another 10 miles and spent the night near the SeaTac Airport. Early the next morning, we caught theairplane to Yakutat, Alaska and were there till September 14. Ken has been going to “Yak” to fish forSalmon since the late 60s, but I didn’t start until I retired in 1999. After watching the weather, we were expectingnothing but rain the whole time we fished, but were pleasantly surprised tohave some very nice days. Yes, there weresome days of rain, one very heavy and miserable day, but two days were totallysunny and nice. One thing about the rain,the awful “no see-ums” don’t bother you. As I have said in the past, the scent of the month in AK is DEET. I used a lot of Avon Skin So Soft and I didn’tget one bite (yay). The fish weresmaller than last year, so our “limit” didn’t weigh as much as last year, butwe still brought home 3 full boxes (150 lbs) of Filets plus about 30lbs in a4th box (180 lbs total)

It is now late Septemberand soon time to head to Arizona! Wefirst will be taking the coach to Coburg for its annual service and checkup onOct 5. The next day, we will be drivingto Newport, OR and camp at South Beach State Park till Oct 10. Once we get back to Salem and ready the coachfor travel to AZ, we will be on the road….hopefully by the 17th.

Back in Salem

2011-05-31T20:50:00.000-07:00

Our trip back home to Salem was another great adventure. We had sun, clouds, rain, and even snow while en-route. Our worst nightmare was the wind. No matter where we were, we had wind, and most of it was a strong side wind. Driving a 40 foot coach and towing a Grand Cherokee puts us at about 65 feet long, and the coach being almost 12 feet tall just makes us one huge sail in the wind. The strong wind started just west of Phoenix and didn’t quit until we got into Oregon and over the Willamette Pass into Eugene.

We left Queen Valley, AZ on May 12 and our first stop was on Vicksburg Rd, at exit 45 on I-10. We pulled into the Zip fuel center to fuel up and upon leaving the fuel pumps, Ken turned too sharp and ran into one of the side guards protecting the fuel pumps (oops). He banged up our pass thru bay door and now has to get it fixed ($$$).

After the mishap, we continued on our way to the Avi Casino and RV Park at Fort Mohave south of Laughlin, NV. We stayed there for a few nights and geocached along Route 66 from Newberry Springs towards Needles. We ended up getting about 851 total caches in two days. From there, we took coach up north about an hour and stayed in Searchlight, NV at a quaint mobile home and RV Park called Crees Trailer/RV Park. We stayed there three nights and geocached in the hills north of Searchlight and even drove over to Primm on I-15 for more caches. We found about 75 caches while there.

After Searchlight, we drove on to Hawthorne, NV and stayed at Whiskey Flats RV Park for 3 nights. We were hoping to drive the Jeep up the back way into Yosemite National Monument via Tioga Pass Rd, but the road was closed due to a huge snow fall. They said the highway was in the process of being plowed, but with all the repair work to be done, it wouldn’t open till mid June. Since we couldn’t get into Yosemite, we took a drive around June lake and totally enjoyed the sights and, YES, we also geocached while there. The first picture is of June Lake from above, and the rest are different views around June Lake Loop Road. It really is a beautiful spot and we so understand why a couple of our friends like to spend their summer there.

This really is a real slot machine buried in cement with plaque explaining it's history!

After we left Hawthorne, NV, we drove coach on to Reno/Sparks, NV to spend some quality time visiting with our relatives there. We did not do any major caching while there, but did pick up a few caches near Sparks Marina RV Park (where we stayed). We had a great time showing our aunt & uncle what a geocache looked like. When we took them out to dinner a couple times, there just happened to be a geocache very close to where we ate, so had to show them what we do for fun (grin). We also had dinner at our cousins house one night and saw a geocache about 450 feet from their house…of course, we and the cousins had to go in search and find it.

We left Reno just as the weatherpeople were predicting a huge winter storm heading that way. Yep, we got caught in part of it while crossing over Sage Hen Pass between Susanville, and Alturas on hwy 395. Snow and rain mix were pretty heavy for a while, but again, the worst part was the wind. We ended up making it to Oregon and stopping at the KlaMoYa Indian Casino on Hwy 97 for one night. The temperature that night went down to 35 degrees (brrr). We got home on May 30 just in time to say a huge happy birthday to Leigh, our daughter, who turned '40 something.' She is a beautiful lady, mother, grandmother, and above all our special girl!! We love her very much!!

Now as I sit here typing this blog, it is raining outside. Bummer, all I see in the forecast for the next few days is rain! However, they say the temps will actually start to rise sometime next week and actually may get up in the high 70s (wow). This is the end of May, so hopefully, there will be lots of sun to come in June!!

It's that time again.

2011-05-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

It’s that time again! We are getting ready to pull out of here on May 12 and slowly work our way back to Salem, Oregon.

April was a wonderfully slow and relaxed month since so many of the park’s activities were over and many residents left for their home states. We had more time to spend with great friends from Apache Junction & Florence by going out to dinner with them and even having some BBQs at their places. We will miss them a lot while we are gone!!

Ken & I did take the Wrangler out several times for some fun Jeeping & Caching adventures. We explored a lot of old roads that we hadn’t been on before and discovered a lot of great places. We only saw two Rattlesnakes and one Bull Snake this whole season, but we did get a very close up and personal shot of a Gila Monster on one of our last drives. He was not happy that we were invading his space, but did take the time to pose for us.

Because there wasn’t that much rain this year, the wild flowers didn’t pop out like they have in the past. The majority of cacti were late in blooming, but the huge Saguaro's bloomed right on schedule mid April. This arm was low enough that we were able to walk up to it and look right into the blooms. Aren't they gorgeous?

April was a strange month for temperatures. It hit 100 on the first (April fools) and by the 9th it was back to 55 and rain. It only rained one day then it turned dry and started heating up again. Thankfully, with the warm dry days, we had wonderfully cool evenings. We did get back up in the high 90s, but mostly we were in the mid to high 80s. Because of the varying temperatures, there was a lot of wind. So much wind and high gusts that we couldn’t leave the awnings out. That has all changed and now for May it’s turning hot! Yesterday, May 4 it hit 100 and it looks like it’s going to stay in the triple digits today and thru the weekend. We leave on the 12th and are hoping that the temps don’t get much higher…. Of course, Laughlin, Nevada is usually hotter than it is here in Queen Valley. Thank God we have 2 heat pumps that work very well.

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. IF you go out this evening, please stay safe and drink sensibly!!

April Fools

2011-04-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

This has got to be wrong, April 1 already? WOW, only one more month and we will be getting ready to head back to Oregon. I must be getting senile because I have no idea where the time has gone!!

We’ve been Jeeping & Caching a lot more this season, plus taking part in all the regular resort activities, which are way too numerous to mention here. It seems like there was something going on, in and around the park every day, and we had to start saying no to more activities than we were saying yes to. Also, we took more time this season visiting with and enjoying our geocaching friends. We even met some very good friends for dinner several times and visited with other friends & acquaintances’ at geo events.

Of course, Ken continued working in the Lapidary Shop preparing his “rocks” for making belt buckles & pendants as gorgeous additions to his spectacular beaded jewelry. In February, he had three tables set up of gorgeous jewelry for sale at our resort’s annual craft fair. He sold some and took orders for more!!

Our geocaching was a way to get out more with the Jeep Wrangler and find old roads that we haven't been on before. We did go out by ourselves a lot, but when we knew we were heading for some extremely tough roads, we had another couple go with us. Along with the Jeeping & Caching, we hiked. When there was a decent trail, I hiked and enjoyed it, but when it became boulder hopping and beating the brush, I called it quits (grin) and let Ken do it.

So far this season, we’ve only seen one huge Rattlesnake, and that was while we were happily in the Jeep. It was quite large and very unhappy to have us disturb his “warming” in the middle of the road. No, we didn’t have the camera with us and, of course, our cell phones were turned off (no reception) so no pictures.

So here it is April 1 already, and the weather is heating up. In fact, we are supposed to be close to triple digits this weekend. Supposedly, it won’t stay that way, but we will have to wait and see. There are some wildflowers and cacti blooming, but because of the lack of rain this year, it isn’t a sea of colors like last year. The huge Saguaro’s are starting to bud. They will be breaking into bloom in the next few weeks. I think the Saguaro bloom (state flower) is the most spectacular of all the cacti blooms. It just doesn’t look real.

The Resort’s activities have pretty much come to an end, with just a few things more happening before Easter. Many residents have left or are in the preparation of leaving. Yes, there are many like us that won’t be heading back to their homes till May and a very few that will stay all year long. We plan on leaving around the second week of May, unless the weather stays at 100 or below, then we may leave later. Right now, even though it’s getting warmer, the nights are cool and refreshing. It’s wonderful to have the cool breeze in the evening and listening to the Coyotes howl at night. Oh how we love the remoteness of this resort!!

We have friends, who live in Washington, arriving today. They have been staying in southern AZ for the last two months and now are heading home. They plan on stopping here for the weekend and visiting with us before their trek home. As I said earlier, it's going to be one hot (98 degree) weekend, but we plan on having fun.

Happy April everyone!!!

January is over

2011-02-02T14:03:00.000-08:00

Another month has gone by and we can’t believe we only have three more till we leave AZ. So much has been going on that I won’t go into a lot of details, but will say we have been having lots of fun and plan on continuing to have fun. We had a nice month of clear & sunny (sometimes cold) days with rain coming only on the very last day of the month. It was so completely different than what we had last year. So far, we have been pretty dry and the rain we got hardly settled the dust.

On January 4, our daughter called and said her car had been broken into. It seemed to be quite random since a huge amount of cars on their side of town were broken into. Sadly among the things stolen were our house keys plus our burglar alarm key fob. Thank goodness our address was not with the keys and we guessed/hoped the thief had no idea to whom the keys belonged. However, not wanting to take any chances with the alarm fob being active, Ken decided to fly back to Salem for a few days and meet with ADT to deactivate the stolen fob and change the house door locks.

Once Ken was back in AZ, we got back into park life and all the activities that go with it (many dinners, coffee socials, and lots of fun activities). We also hosted our annual ‘East Side Pot Luck’ where we provided BBQed Alaskan Salmon that we caught in September. Our neighborhood has some wonderful cooks who all brought a huge array of great food & desserts. The highlight of the afternoon was a ‘While Elephant’ gift exchange where we managed to wear off some of the calories that we all ate. As always it was a great time!

Since the days were so nice, we took time to get out in the desert with the Wrangler. It’s nice going out with a group, but mostly we enjoy taking our time and going out by ourselves just to geocache. We’ve been out Jeeping several times and have found lots of caches we haven’t been to before. Oh yeah, there are many more on rougher roads to get to.

On the 29th, we went hiking in Usery Mountain Regional Park with friends. Even though some of us were physically hurting (my knee, Dirk’s back, Kathy’s foot & shoulder), our goal was to hike the most popular Wind Cave Trail. The hike is 1.6 miles (one way) up a rocky terrain with an elevation gain of 800 feet. The trail is well marked, and in most places nice walking. It is rated at 2.5 (moderately difficult), but some areas have steep stepping spots and sometimes rough rocks. Going up was no problem, but coming down was quite painful on the knees. Even with the pain, it was a beautiful hike with some great friends.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2011-01-02T22:32:00.000-08:00

We hope you all were blessed with a very Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful time being home for Christmas and enjoyed seeing our grandson while he was there on leave.

Our Christmas Eve was busy with several things taking place:
First we, along with most of the Pavelek clan, were at Ken’s brother’s house sharing fun stories, warm drinks, and great food. We don’t get a chance to see this side of our family very often, so it was wonderful to get together for a couple hours and get caught up on what each family is doing.

Secondly, later that evening, we went to our daughter’s house where our immediate family had gathered. This is the time when we exchange gifts and watch the five great grandkids open presents from the family (they get special gifts from Santa on Christmas morning). Of course the greats (ages 1, 2, 4, 5, & 7) were wide-eyed and very eager to tear into their packages. We had a ball watching their excitement and listening to their happy screams each time a new prize was exposed. We also were extremely pleased to let them leave the room to enjoy their new “stuff” so we adults could be in peace while opening our gifts. It really was a great time!!

Last, but not least, we celebrated the true meaning of Christmas by going to Midnight Mass and rejoicing in the birth of our Lord. It was a beautiful and joyous service!! We were tickled pink to see our niece, Larysa and nephew, Brendan in the choir playing their instruments. Brendan plays the Trumpet and Larysa plays the French Horn. She also plays the piano, and sings. Earlier in the evening, they had given us a CD on which they had recorded several songs of them playing and singing. They did a wonderful job and we are thrilled to have it. They are two wonderfully, talented young adults!!

Christmas Day we were back at our daughters for a huge family dinner. Thankfully, the great grandkids had already opened their gifts from Santa and were happily playing with each other. We ended up with eleven adults and 5 children around two tables for dinner. Like I said earlier, it was a wonderful time spent with our family. Sadly, our two sons couldn’t join us as they both live out of state, but we were able to have some time to talk with them on the phone.

On December 27, we were once again on the road heading back to Arizona. We had been watching the mountain pass reports and knew there was going to be a lot of snow. But, we were in the Grand Cherokee and did have “Spider Spike” chains with us, so weren’t really worried. We did have packed snow part of the way, but we truly lucked out and didn’t have any problems. We made it to Susanville, CA and spent the night there. It was cold, but clear!

The next morning, we saw a report that another storm was headed our way and would be hitting California then working its way across Nevada and Arizona. Hearing that report, we decided to get across Nevada as fast as possible. We made it to Tonapah, NV about Noon and after fueling up headed for the little town of Rachel (on the Extra Terrestrial Highway). We had passed through there on our way to Oregon and cached the whole way. However, there was one group of caches we had passed on called the Alien Head. The head is comprised of 51 caches laid out in the shape of an Alien head all about .10 mile apart. It is totally meant to be walked and Ken had already done 13 of them when we came through earlier. We didn’t want to miss it, so we got close to the site and parked the Jeep. Since this area is pretty remote, and because the Jeep was packed with bunches of “stuff,” neither of us wanted to leave the Jeep alone. At 2:30, Ken left me with the Jeep and followed a well beaten path to the majority of the caches. I was close to just a few along the road and knew where he would finish, so I managed to grab some without being very far from the Jeep and met him as he was finishing up about 4:30. We still had another hour to get to Alamo where we stopped at the Windmill Ridge and had a wonderful dinner. After dinner, we made the choice to continue driving for Las Vegas and ended up staying in North Vegas at a Comfort Inn very close to Nellis AFB. We both were beat but happy the weather was still clear.

On December 29, we were on the road early and made good time to Hoover Dam. There were clouds around, but no rain or snow. However, there was wind and a lot of it. We were on the new road/bridge that spans high above Hoover Dam and the wind was horrid. Even in the Jeep we were being pushed sideways. I sure wouldn’t want to be up there in the motorhome when the wind was blowing like that. After we crossed the span and were headed down out of the canyon, we started seeing sprinkles of rain on the windshield. By the time we got to Kingman, Arizona, it was raining hard. We did experience rain/snow mix while on I-40, but got out of it on the way down in elevation toward Wickenberg. It was a white knuckle drive in the pouring rain as we got closer to Phoenix and Mesa. The drivers were just crazy, cutting in and passing in dangerous areas. Finally, we made it through the freeway system onto hwy 60 and made our way to Queen Valley arriving about 2:45 pm. What a relief to finally be back at the coach and out of that traffic.

The heavy rain lasted another day, but the wind continued for a couple more days. It was gusting here enough that Christmas decorations from neighboring coaches and homes were being blown all over the place. After it quit raining it turned very cold! We had three days of very cold “freezing” temps. It was cold enough at night that Ken turned the outside water off to keep it from freezing. Thankfully, we have plenty of water on board, so it wasn’t a problem. We didn’t get anything like northern Arizona got and is still getting. They had lots of snow and sub freezing temps. Flagstaff was/is soooo cold that many places have had pipes burst. This is a picture of our park's fountain mid morning as the ice is melting.

Ken & I rang in the New Year like OLD champs. First, we played cards with some friends & neighbors. After we were back home, Ken watched China’s New Year celebration then at 10 headed to bed. I stayed up till Midnight, but was in bed at 12:02 am. Yes, I did watch the ball drop, but once that was over, I was off to dream land.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

November quickly into December

2010-12-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Somehow November disappeared and it’s now December with one only more week till Christmas. I honestly don’t know where the time has gone, but upon looking back I see we’ve been quite busy.

After we arrived back in Queen Valley from Texas, we immediately got to work getting our site back in order for our winter stay. We spent the next 3 1/2 weeks enjoying beautiful sunny days with cool evenings and watching our neighbors arrive back for the winter. The only regular park activity going on during that time was our Monday morning coffee social, so it was nice not having to worry about attending or missing anything. We did have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with our park residents and way too much to eat. We also took some time to do a little geocaching & Jeeping in the desert, plus we enjoyed visiting with more friends from Apache Junction.

Incredibly, November was gone, and it was December already. It seemed like we had just arrived in Queen Valley, but we had earlier made plans to go home (Salem) for Christmas, so we had to pack stuff into the Jeep and make sure the coach was once again secure for a month.

We left Queen Valley on December 2 with plans to spend a few extra days on the road to do some geocaching in an area known as area 51 along the Extra Terrestarial Highway in Nevada. This highway is really highways 375 & 6 heading west out of Ash Springs to Tonapah, and a very long 100 plus miles of nothing but open range and strange sights---dum-de-duh-duh (grin).

In June a group of cachers got together and hid 1,021 caches every 500/600 feet for over 100 miles along the two highways, plus another 51 were placed in the shape of an alien head in one huge field.

We arrived in Alamo, Nevada at 3 pm on the 2nd and found a comfortable (inexpensive) place called The Alamo Inn to spend a couple nights at. After checking into our room, we decided to drive another 20 miles down hwy 93 to the junction of hwys 375 & 93, to the start of the E.T. series (E.T. 001) just see what we were in for. We stopped at a couple caches in Alamo and Ash Springs and found another 15 of the actual E.T. series before heading back to a wonderful place in Alamo called “Windmill Ridge” for a wonderful dinner (and dessert). The Windmill Ridge does have rooms for rent, but the room we had at the Alamo Inn was much cheaper and just as good.

On Dec 3, we left our room at 5:30 am & fueled up the Jeep in Ash Spring. At 6:16 am we started caching along Hwy 375. I was the driver & operator of the GPS, while Ken did the jumping in & out of Jeep to grab the caches & stamp our geo names on the log sheets. We quickly got into a rhythm and averaged 100 cache logs in 1 1/2 hours. We did stop a couple times along the side of the road for a break and gave Ken a chance to rest his legs. At 3 pm we quit the highway and drove over to where the Alien Head was laid out and Ken walked to 13 of those caches before it got dark. At 5 we quit and headed back to the Windmill Ridge Inn for another great meal. Note, we found 622 caches that day, which is now our personal best finds in one day.

The morning of the 4th, we were up early and had Jeep packed & fueled before daylight. After an hour plus of driving down hwys 93 & 375, we were at the place we had quit the day before. We started caching at 7 am and finished number 1,000 just after Noon!! Originally the caches placed were 1000 in total, so we stopped at the original point of finish and had our pictures taken by some other cachers we met along the way.

We then headed on down the highway for the final 21 newer caches then drove on into Tonapah where we had a late lunch. Incredibly we completed the run, found 13 of the Alien Head, and even managed to find another 8 that weren’t even part of the “Alien” theme for a total of 1,042 finds in less than 17 hours (WOW). Since it was still early (2 pm), we continued driving and made it all the way to Susanville, CA where we spent the night

We were up and on the road (hwy 395) early Dec 5 and made our way north to Alturas, CA where we began to see snow along the roadside. We actually had snow along the road all the way to Klamath Falls, Oregon. By the time we got through K Fall and into to Chemult on highway 97, we were seeing more snow and some was building up on the road. Once on highway 58 and heading through Willamette Pass, we were really into the snow. It was gorgeous! Since there really wasn’t much traffic on the road, we had no problems getting through the pass and down & out of the snow. Of course with a Jeep, we weren't that worried!! That day was a wonderful drive and we made it to Salem (and home) by 2 pm.

Since we have been home, we have accomplished a lot. Our Christmas tree is up and decorated, and Ken even put up a few lights outside (not like in the past). Also, we have finished our Christmas shopping for the wee ones (great grandkids), and everything is wrapped and under the tree. Hooray, we have never finished this early before. We are sooooo looking forward to watching the 5 great grandkids open their presents on Christmas and of course the huge meal on Christmas Day.

I think our biggest thrill is seeing our grandson, Justin, back in Salem for Christmas. Justin is not going to be going into the Air Force Special Ops as originally planned because he injured both legs in CCT (Combat Controller Training). He has been on light duty since his injury and is now reclassified and heading off to Southern California after the first of the year for Vehicle Ops Training. Mechanics was his second choice if he couldn’t make Combat Controller, so he is excited. He will be in California for 6-8 weeks, then we don’t know where he will be going. Hopefully, close to Salem. Time will tell and all our love and prayers are with him!!!

October Fun

2010-11-06T15:10:00.000-07:00

During the first two weeks of October, we continued to get coach ready for moving south and getting the house in order to leave it for a couple months. There was so much to do because of some new things we had ordered for the coach and getting a valve replaced on the toilet (it didn't always flush well). I came down with a very sore throat during the first week of Oct, and it grew worse as the days progressed and ended up lasting almost three weeks. As the soreness went away, it worked into a horrid chest cough that lasted the whole month. No matter how bad I felt, I still had to finalize my portion of packing the coach, but I was working much slower than normal.

On Oct 12, we drove the coach to Junction City and had Davis Cabinets install new snaps for our new outside solar screens. Yes, we still had the old snaps and some were utilized, but we still needed about half of them redone in different positions. The job wasn’t that difficult, and they were finished by early afternoon. Since we had a coach service appointment at Cummins in Coburg the next day, we moved the coach over there and got set up in their parking lot. They have power and water, so we were very comfortable.

At 7:30 the next morning, Cummins took our coach in for its annual service check on the engine and generator. What was supposed to be a 4 hour service job turned into 8 hours because they found a fuel pump leaking fuel and a gasket in the generator leaking oil. Well, the fuel pump and gasket had to be replaced ($$$) so they put two techs on the jobs and we were on the road at 3:45 pm. Good thing because we had reservations at Newport’s South Beach State Park (Oregon Coast) and sure weren’t looking forward to parking after dark. As it was, we were in our site and all hooked up by 5:45 pm.

The morning of Oct 14, Ken & I took a two mile walk out to the beach and found an earthcache on a walkway platform. An earthcache is not a physical cache, but somewhat like a "virtual" where you have to answer some questions regarding something to do about the local geological area. This cache was related to the Newport Jetty and after answering some questions, we had to post a picture of one of us with the Jetty in the background. Yeah, that's me looking at the telescope.

It was a beautiful, but cool morning and we totally enjoyed the walk. I was thrilled that my foot didn’t give me any problems at all. We did get a little mist around 3 pm, but it was completely over by 6 pm. Our friends, Rod & Lynda showed up about 5 and got set up in the site next to us. We spent the rest of that evening visiting and playing cards.

We woke the morning of the 14th to sun and 43 degrees (brr). Since it was such a gorgeous morning, the four of us (Rod, Lynda, Ken & I) took a hike to the beach, then over to the Jetty and back down the beach before heading back to camp. We figured we walked about 3 miles. After our walk, we all cleaned up and drove to Lincoln City and did some shopping at the outlets, then headed over to Mo’s for Clam Chowder and Garlic Bread……wonderful!!!

On the 16th, we slept in a little, then decided to go for a geocache about a mile down the beach from the day use area. Well, we were parked in the G Loop which is about a mile from the day use lot. I wanted to drive down to the day use area, but everyone else wanted to hike the trail, so I relented and we ended up walking about 4 miles for a cache. Hooray, again, I didn't have any problems with my foot. It was a gorgeous day and we totally enjoyed walking the beach!

Sunday, the 17th, no one wanted to do anything, so we sat by the fire most of the morning, then decided to have a late lunch, early dinner at a local 50’s/60’s style restaurant in town called Fast Back. On the way back to camp, Ken & I stopped for a cache in a little known cemetery, while Rod & Lynda took a beach short cut back to camp. This was our last day at the beach, so we made the most of it by enjoying a quiet evening playing cards.

After pulling out of our site and dumping the tanks, we left South Beach around 10 am on Monday, Oct 18. Once we got back home, we cleaned the coach and loaded the last minute stuff for Arizona. We couldn’t leave until Oct 21 because I had a Dr Appointment and had to get an allergy prescription filled.

We finally left Salem on Thursday Oct 21 and after a very uneventful drive, we got to Queen Valley on Sunday afternoon, Oct 24. We parked the coach in our site, hooked up to power and water, and didn’t even pull the big slide out because we were leaving for Texas (in Jeep) early Tuesday morning, Oct 26.

We spent all day Monday, Oct 25 getting the basics of the coach set up and loading the Jeep with what we would need for the next week or so in Texas. We had found out earlier in September that our grandson, Justin, was scheduled to graduate his Air Force Basic Training on Oct 27-31. I had already made reservations for staying on base the nights of Oct 28 & 29, but we had to stay off base the night of the 27th because Lackland Air Force Base is a closed base and no civilian could be on base till 6 am, Oct 28.

We left Queen Valley at 6:45 and drove 633 miles to Fort Stockton, Texas, where we spent the night. It was a long drive and we even lost two hours because of the time change from Arizona to Texas. The next morning we were up and on the road at 6 am and pulled into San Antonio about 11:30. It was a hot 80 degrees with 88 percent humidity. There was lots of fog due to the humidity, but it burned off by mid afternoon. At 2 pm, Justin’s wife, Holly and her mom, Colleen, landed at San Antonio Airport and made their way to the base. They were able to be on base because Holly being a military wife had her Military ID and was able to go right in the gate. At 6 pm, we were at the San Antonio Airport where we picked up my daughter LeighAnn, her husband Tim, and his mother Ann. They stayed at the same hotel we did, so after getting them checked in, Holly & Colleen met us, and we all went out for dinner at the local Cracker Barrel. It was a fun evening and Holly was so excited about seeing her hubby after him being away for 8 1/2 weeks. Of course LeighAnn was very excited about seeing her only son too. This is the longest that he has ever been away from home (Salem area) and mom was pretty teary.

We were up early the next morning and on base shortly after 6 am. We couldn’t check into our rooms till 2 pm, so we left all the bags in the Jeep and attended the day’s festivities. At 7 am, we had “briefings.” This is where we learned all the dos and don’ts for being on the base. We also were told what the graduating “Airman” could and couldn’t do. Sooooo many rules!! Did we remember them all? Well no one got in trouble, so I guess we did OK.

At 9 am, we were lined up along one of the roads on base and watched all the graduating “flights” run by the visitors and family. We were sooooo excited when we spotted Justin. They ran by us twice while we all cheered and yelled greetings. The airmen trainees couldn’t even acknowledge anyone or they would have gotten in trouble.

At 11 we were in the bleachers for the “Coin Ceremony.” Every new Airman is given a coveted “coin” signifying they are no longer a trainee, but an Airman.

We sat in the first row of the bleachers and was right in front of Justin’s flight. He saw us, but couldn’t acknowledge us, so had to look away in order to keep a straight face. In the first picture below, Justin is in the second row from the right and 4th back. In the second picture he is in the third row from the right and fourth back.

As it was, all the airmen had to stay at attention after the ceremony until someone tapped them out of it. Once the ceremony was over, we all made our way to Justin and at that time, he was released for the rest of the day on base liberty.

While Justin and Holly got reacquainted, we went for pizzas (off base) and brought them back to one of the rooms so we could all just visit and enjoy being with our boy again.

The next day, October, 29, we were up and out to the parade grounds for the actual graduation ceremony. It was a beautiful thing as all the flights marched and paraded around the grounds, then settled into their spots for the invocation and ceremony.

Once the ceremony was over, we took Justin off base and went to the Cracker Barrel for Breakfast/Lunch, then off to the Alamo where we toured the site.

Later we walked down a couple blocks to the River Walk so he could see what it was all about. While some walked around the area, Leigh, Colleen, Ken, & I stopped at a small café and had some Margaritas.

San Antonio traffic was horrid, and Justin didn’t want to be late getting back to base, so we had him back on base in time for him to get something else to eat. He really wanted something other than military mess. We stopped at a Burger King (on base) where he got his fill (grin). It was great seeing Justin and it was hard to say goodbye, but we had to get back to our room and prepare to be up early in order to have LeighAnn, Tim, and Ann back to the airport at 5 the next morning. We were all in tears as we said our goodbyes, but we were glad that Holly was able to stay on a couple more days and have some quality time with her hubby.

Once we dropped everyone off at the airport, Ken & I headed to Dallas, Texas to see his son, Dean for a couple days. Dean had been having episodes with his heart the last few months and the doctors finally said his heart was only operating at 30 percent, and he needed a Pace Maker and a Fibulator. His surgery was set for 7:30 am on November 1. We got to Dallas about 10 am on Oct 30 and had a great visit with Dean. We went out to eat at a local mall and do a little shopping. On Oct 31, we did a couple geocaches and had more time to visit with Dean. We also had some great Mexican food at a local “Chuys.”

The morning of November 1, we picked Dean up and had him at the hospital in time to check in and be prepped for surgery. The surgery lasted about 2 hours and the doctor said he was pleased with how it went. We, along with Dean's mom & stepdad, were able to see him in recovery and then back in his room. Since things were going well, Dean was released after only spending one night in the hospital. We had to head back to Arizona on Oct 2, so after Dean's mom got him checked out and back to his house, we were there to say goodbye. While we were saying goodbye, a huge thunder and lightning storm hit with rain pouring so hard we had trouble seeing the road. We managed to get through the mid morning traffic and happily were out of the hard rain by the time we got past Fort Worth. We were both tired after the last few days of little or no sleep, so we stopped for the night in Odessa. At least we got some sleep after a light meal.

We were back on the road early and gained our two hours back as we crossed thru Texas and New Mexico back into Arizona. It was windy and there was some dust, but we had no problems on the road. We even managed to stop a few times to find some geocaches. We made it back to Queen Valley about 5 the evening of November 3. We were shocked to see that our total driving miles were 2,670 miles (whew)… It was nice to be off the road and back in our own bed.

It’s great being back in Queen Valley and seeing all our friends again. We will be here all of November, but plan on heading back to Salem (in Jeep) the beginning of December to spend the holidays with our family.

September Update

2010-09-24T19:01:00.000-07:00

When I posted my last blog, I was due to see the foot doctor about what damages (if any) that I may have done to my foot. I was still limping and in some pain when I saw the doctor, and thankfully, he said I didn’t do any major damage, but did rupture some fibers along the Plantar muscle along the sole of my foot. He ended up strapping my arch to ease the tension on the muscle and said to keep the wrap on at all times (except in shower) and give the muscle time to heal. He also recommended some better shoes/hiking boots and other types of arch support braces while walking. I saw the doctor on August 26 and by the time we left for Alaska (September 6) I was able to walk carefully without a lot of pain. It’s now Sept 24, and I can go out for short walks without pain, but if on longer walks/hikes, the muscle in my foot starts to rebel and I start limping again. The doctor said it will take quite a while for the muscle to fully heal.

We were in Yakutat, Alaska September 7-15 for some great Salmon fishing. The day we arrived (the 7th) it was gray and cloudy, but no rain. It remained cool & cloudy with some partial sun breaks until the afternoon of September 9. That afternoon the skies opened up and it started raining. It rained all afternoon and all night, but when we got up on the 10th, the skies were clear. We then had sun the next 5 days. In fact, Yakutat had record warm (70 plus degrees) temperatures during that whole week. It was wonderful, except for when the little “no seeum” bugs came out. As I have said in previous posts, the perfume of choice in Alaska is DEET!! I used a lot of Avon Skin So Soft and it helped a lot. The bugs still swarmed around but none were able to get through the oil to bite.

The fishing in Yakutat was unbelievable. We normally come home with about 140-150 pounds of filets. This year, we had to buy 2 extra fish boxes in which to pack the extra fish we caught. We ended up with a little over 200 pounds of Salmon Filets this year. The fish were much bigger and eager to bite our lures (grin). We were never out later than 1:30 fishing.

These pictures are just a sample of what we caught!

Ken is getting ready to filet this beauty!

This is Ken's limit for one day.

All was not perfect because we did catch some fish that ended up breaking our lines and taking the hooks with them, and many were pink/red that we had to throw back. The worst and most expensive mishap was done on our second day of fishing. We were done fishing for the day and were heading in for the day when “somehow” Ken knocked my Loomis “graphite” Rod and Shimano Reel into the water (oops). Yep, it sank in the murky depths and we never saw it again. Thankfully, we were done for that day and Ken had an extra (duplicate) set-up back in our room. It was an expensive day, but crap happens and the trip was still fantastic.

The day before we were to leave, we didn’t fish and since it was warm and sunny, we took a drive up the longest road in Yakutat called 29 Mile Road. That road dead ends at the Dangerous River, which is actually glacial water heading towards the ocean. The Yakutat glacier feeds into Harlequin Lake and the Dangerous River flows out from there to the ocean.

That's our rental van parked at the dead end turn-around at the end of bridge that spans the Dangerous River.

This is a view of icebergs in Harlequin Lake where the Dangerous River begins.

This is a close up of the icebergs at the head of the Dangerous River.

Here's an iceberg floating down the Dangerous River. Look how milky the water is!

Here is some bear scat we saw on the road. Notice the little red berries. No it didn't smell like pepper spray, nor did it contain any tiny bells (grin).

Here I am hugging Yakutat Jack just before our plane arrived.

We left Yakutat on September 15 and for the first time in a long time, our plane was on time. We landed at SeaTac on time at 11:30 and surprise of surprises, it was raining. We got our fish into the airport freezer, then checked into our hotel for some badly needed sleep. It rained the rest of the night/morning and most of the next day (16th) while on our drive back to Salem. It quit raining near Chehalis, WA, but remained cloudy the rest of the day.

If you wish, you can view many more pictures we have taken around Yakutat over the many years we have fished there. The link to our Picasa Web Album is: Yakutat

We are now in the process of updating some things in the coach and getting it ready for when we head to Arizona in October.

Busy July & August

2010-08-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

We got home the afternoon of July 10 and spent the next couple weeks cleaning out and reorganizing the inside of the coach. The rest of the month we took stock of the house and decided it needs a lot more work than we have time for…. We have to replace the front door and back sliding glass door, then repaint the whole outside. We also need a new dishwasher, microwave, and television…. Because of time restraints, all but the doors may have to wait until next year.

The first couple weeks of August proved to be a nightmare. We couldn’t believe that everything happening was taking place during those first two weeks. There were two RV Rallys, my 50 year high school reunion, a Moore retirees picnic, a good bye party for our grandson, my dental and eye appointments, Ken having to report for jury duty, and two geocache events. Whew!!

Since we couldn’t do them all, we had to decide what was most important. The first thing we decided to do was go to the Monaco RV Rally (Aug 2-8) which had been scheduled for several months and was already paid for. Early on the 2nd we moved coach out to the Oregon State Fairgrounds so we could hook up to electric during the rally. We were one of the first few in line and got a marvelous spot situated very close to all the activities and right across a grassy area from all the new show coaches. The “party” started on the afternoon of Aug 3. Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and lots of wine (and soft drinks) were served while everyone had a chance to see and visit with old friends and take the time to view some of the new coaches on display. The rest of the week was more of the same with a daily catered breakfast, happy hour/catered dinner, then an evening show. We had a lot of fun and loved being wined and dined, but we still didn’t buy a new coach. Yes, we looked, and liked some that we saw, but weren’t tempted to spend that kind of money. However, we did get a couple things fixed on our coach (latch on bay door and a new arm on main door) and ordered a new set of outside screens for the front of the coach. We even made an appt to upgrade our TV antenna.

Also during that first week of August, I had to visit my dentist and have two teeth (molars) prepared for crowns ($$$). It worked out, because the temporaries were pretty solid and didn’t stop me from participating in the meals or drinks (grin).

On Sunday, Aug 8, the great exodus of coaches headed out in caravan style heading for the FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) Rally in Redmond, Oregon. We were scheduled to attend the rally in Redmond (Aug 11-15), but had too much going on at home and couldn’t get away for the whole week (I had eye appt, Ken had jury duty). The FMCA Rally is a huge rally with 1900 coaches in attendance. There also were several hundred vendors showing their wares and offering some great deals. There were many things at the vendors we wanted to check out, so we finally got the chance to drive Jeep over on August 12. It was good that we did because Ken had purchased a tow shield storage bracket that didn’t work and was able to swap it for a mud/rock screen that does work. We also had our fire extinguishers recharged and ended up ordering some new inside solar and privacy curtains for coach’s living room. We also took the time to view many other coach brands and models, but still weren’t tempted to buy (grin).

We have been so darn busy since getting back to Salem in July that we just haven’t had much time to do any caching…. Well, we finally had a chance while on the way home from Redmond. We ended up finding 21 caches, but since then haven’t been out looking for any.

Our grandson (Justin) joined the Air Force and on August 30 is headed to San Antonio (Lackland AFB) for his basic training. His elected field is in Special Forces/Combat Controller. His wife, Holly, had a goodbye party for him on August 14th, so we had to be home for that!

This is Holly & Justin.

This is Leigh, Tim, Jessica, Mila & Justin

This is Me and Ken with Justin

It was a fun day with several family members in attendance. We were so glad to be able to let him know how much we love him and how much we will miss him. We are very proud of Justin and will pray daily for his health and safety. We hope to be in Portland for “Family Day” when he has his final swearing in ceremony and then departure for Texas. There is going to be a lot of tears that day!!

Happily, Ken’s juror number wasn’t called, so he didn’t have to report for duty, but his name has gone back in the pot and can be selected again soon….

After having my temporary crowns on for just over two weeks, I went back in for the permanent ones, and as dentist was fitting them, he noticed something that he didn’t like and said he would have to have them remade and rescheduled me to come back a week later. Finally after 3 weeks, I have the new crowns on and they feel great.

I also had new glasses ordered and when I tried those on, I couldn’t make out the words on a written page……bummer, they now have those on back order with an adjustment to the bifocal section.

This has not been the best of weeks for me because on Aug 20, while just walking, I pulled something (??) in the back of my left heel (felt like a rubber band snapping) and spent the last two days with foot wrapped while hobbling around. Today (Aug 23) it feels better, and while slightly limping, I can bear some weight on the side of the foot. Yes, I did call for an appointment with a podiatrist and will find out what damage, If any, I might have done. It’s really a bad time to have foot damage/soreness because we are off to Alaska in two weeks for our annual Salmon fishing trip. There’s a lot of physical work to be done during that trip, so hope I can hold up my portion of the trip. Wish Ken luck for having to deal with me as his fishing partner, and wish me luck in being able to handle all the work ahead of me!!

Trip Home

2010-07-16T18:49:00.000-07:00

After leaving Reno we stayed at Kla-Mo-Ya, Indian Casino in Chiloquin, Oregon. It was pretty noisy with trucks and other traffic coming and going, but it did quiet down after 6:30. Would you believe we even found a cache in their parking lot? Just one, no more till we got to Prineville.

Earlier in June, we made arrangements with the Marion County Sheriff’s Dept in Salem to renew our concealed weapons permits which were going to expire before we got home. Our appointment was scheduled for June 24, so we left the Kla-Mo-Ya Casino on June 23 and drove to the Crook Country RV Park in Prineville, Oregon. After we made sure the coach was secure, we loaded the Jeep with some un-needed stuff and headed to our home in Salem. We arrived home three hours later and unloaded the Jeep. Later, we met our friends, Rod & Lynda for dinner at our favorite Pizza place (Paddington’s).

The next morning (June 24) we were up early and off to the Marion County Sheriff’s office to renew our concealed weapons permits. Once they had all the pertinent information, did another background check, and took our mug shots, we had our new cards in hand. It never fails, the pictures they put on those cards always makes us look like criminals. We have never had a good picture taken there…. Oh well, at least now we are legal for another four years to pack (in Oregon).

When done at the Sheriff’s Office (and before we headed back to Prineville) we went by our daughter’s office and surprised her with a short visit and hugs. She was very surprised and I think we all had a few tears in our eyes when we left. The drive back to Prineville, was uneventful and we arrived at the coach about 2:30. Once we put our stuff away, we went down to the river and secured our site for the campout.

The 25th we attended the Gem Show at the Prineville Fairgrounds where Ken perused many wonderful rock slabs and some beautiful gem stones. He did buy a chunk of nice rock to take back to QV to work on.

June 26 & 27, we went caching on top of the rim above Crooked River finding a series of 32 caches that were hidden in the shape of a face frowning.

June 28, we moved the coach down to the Crooked River and set it up for12 days of dry camping. We weren’t totally primitive, we had the generator and did use it for electric power. We even had 100 gallons of fresh water, so we enjoyed some (not many) showers. We were later joined by friends Rod & Lynda, and Daryl & Kathy. Our weather was warm and sometimes windy. Yes, there was even a slight sprinkle on one day, but in general every day was perfect! Rod saw a Bald Eagle fly by early two mornings, and we all got to see several deer. Ken & I even saw a Badger trying to come out on the road, but he soon decided not to when we showed up. There was a day that the girls went into Bend to do some shopping while all the guys went hiking (and caching). We all did go into the town of Prineville for dinner a couple times. We had a great time and are looking forward to next year.

Everyone broke camp the morning of July 10 and drove the RVs to Prineville to dump the tanks and head home. We were the last to empty our tanks and we made it home by 2 pm. We did encounter an event taking place in the town of Sisters, so were routed around the town, but after that, there was virtually no traffic stalls of any kind.

We are now home and the work has begun on cleaning out the coach. It is amazing what we can amass in just 7 months. I have taken many items out that we haven’t used in a long time and Ken has checked and rechecked what he really needs to be carrying in the basement storage. We are now getting ready for a Monaco RV Rally here in Salem on August 4-7.

We also have looming a goodbye party on Aug 14 for our grandson who is leaving for boot camp on Aug 24. Justin joined the Air Force and will be going into Special Ops (like the Navy Seals) and is facing up to two years of intensive training. We are very proud of Justin and know he has some tough times ahead of him. He is very determined and we pray he does well and achieves everything he has his mind set on. We love him very much and will miss him a lot!!

Heading Home

2010-06-21T21:33:00.000-07:00

June 8, we paid to stay two more nights at the AVI Casino/RV Park, then drove Jeep to Searchlight to check out a small RV/Mobile home park that we had spotted while driving by earlier. The park is just west of Searchlight on Nipton Rd and even though it’s mainly a mobile home park, there’s a huge gravel area in front of the mobile home section strictly set up for overnighters, or for those who wish to stay monthly. We couldn’t believe that it was only $20 a night. We quickly said we would be up on the 10th and spend four nights. Plus it was much cooler up there (whew). After visiting with the manager, we headed back to Laughlin via an area that we have wanted to travel for a long time. The route is called “Christmas Tree Pass” and was a fun drive. Even though the road was gravel, it was in great shape and the views were incredible once we hit the summit and made our way down the other side.

The last day we were at AVI (June 9), we did laundry and prepared coach for moving. During the whole six days we were at the AVI, the daytime temperature never got below 106. The highest we had was 112. Both of our air conditioners were going the whole time because the nights never went below 79.

On June 10, we moved coach one hour north to Cree’s Mobile Home Park in Searchlight, NV. They didn’t have a problem with us coming in early, so we were set up and ready to go caching by 9:30 AM. The best part was the temperatures were 10 degrees cooler than Laughlin and Bull Head City. We spent the next four days geocaching around the hills of Searchlight, and further west in the Primm/Jean area.

Monday, June 14, we pulled out of Searchlight and headed for Hawthorne, Nevada. While on the road, we received an email telling us that Jo Hennrich, a close friend and neighbor in Queen Valley, had passed away in her sleep. What an absolute shock!! We had spoken with her the night before we left Queen Valley and she seemed in perfect health. Jo was a beautiful lady and all who knew her will miss her….I know we sure will. Our hearts and prayers are with her husband, John, and her entire family!

Once in Hawthorne, we secured a site at the Whiskey Flats RV Park for two nights. Since we got set up early enough, we took a short drive along the highway around Walker Lake and found some caches, then headed back to the coach for dinner and early to bed.

The next morning, Tuesday the 15th, we headed out for some geocaching on the east side of Walker Lake, then drove west and worked our up the Lucky Boy Pass to Bridgeport Reservoir, Mono Lake, and then south back down to Hawthorne and our coach. It was a very windy day, but thankfully the sun was out and it was wonderfully cool. It was so nice to finally be cool after the last couple weeks of high temps. We were gone all day and we didn’t get back till late and saw the most incredible sunset ever. High winds were blowing a lot of clouds over us and the setting sun was creating some weird and unusual effects. The pictures below are only a couple of what Ken took.

The 16th was still extremely windy, so we stuck around the park until close to checkout hoping it would die down. It never did calm down and we had strong wind with even stronger gusts all the way to Reno/Sparks. We are about 65 feet long when towing the Jeep, and our coach is 12 feet tall, so we are like a huge sail in the wind. With the side wind, Ken had to fight it all the way to Reno/Sparks. We finally got to the Sparks Marina RV Resort about 4 PM, and Ken was pretty tired. We called Ken’s aunt & uncle and told them we were in town and would see them the next day.

Thursday, Ken worked on the outside of the coach cleaning and I cleaned the inside. Ken’s aunt & uncle showed up about 1:30 and we had a nice visit before heading over to the Western Village Casino for dinner.

Friday morning, we took a nice walk around Sparks Marina Lake and spent the afternoon with Ken’s aunt Velma & uncle Francis. At 5:30 we went to dinner at Ken’s Cousins home. Barry and Gordy have a beautiful home up in the heights above Reno, and we had a great visit while enjoying the view. Ken also had fun showing off the jewelry he’s made.

Saturday, we had a chance to take a very early morning drive to Pyramid Lake (a few miles north of Sparks). Since we had to be back for a late breakfast with Ken's aunt & uncle, we didn't stay long at the lake (just up and back). Yes, we even grabbed a couple very quick caches while up there.

Later, back in Reno, we had a huge breakfast, then spent the rest of the day with Velma & Francis and later had a light dinner at their favorite restaurant. It was so nice to spend time with them because they are getting on in years and we don't know how much longer we will have them around.

While in Reno/Sparks, the temperatures stayed in the wonderful very high 70s with marvelously cool evenings. However, the news was reporting a warming trend was coming and the temps were heading for the 90s....thankfully, after we were due to leave.

We are heading for Oregon with plans of staying in the parking area of the Kal-Mo-Ya Casino in Chiloquin, Oregon (north of Klamath Falls). We will end up in Prineville, Oregon on June 23 and stay in the Crook County RV Park until we move the coach down to the Crooked River for 12 wonderful days of "dry" camping with friends and family. We are scheduled to be back in Salem on July 11.

OMG, It is HOT!

2010-06-08T07:35:00.000-07:00

Since we were planning on leaving Queen Valley on June 1, I had made arrangements to have our land-line phone put on vacation that day. Well, as it happened, we didn’t leave Queen Valley as expected because we found out on May 28th the part for our refrigerator hadn’t arrived. Because of the holiday weekend, we knew there would be no more deliveries until Tuesday, June 1, so we knew we weren’t going to leave until after that date. Even though we didn’t have the land-line, we still had the Internet and our cells worked when/if we left the park.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed our last of the double digit days by basking in the sun and going out for dinner. I didn’t want to cook inside because of the heat and Ken already had the BBQ cleaned and stored, so if we wanted to eat, we had to go out (grin). We made our last trip to Superior and had our last pizza for the season from one of our favorite places, Edwardo’s. We also went to The Great Wall in Gold Canyon and had a nice meal.

Finally on Tuesday, June 1, we called the service center and yes they had the part. We were up very early on Wednesday, left the park at 7:15 AM, and got to the service center in Apache Junction just as they were opening at 8 AM. They checked us in and after checking the part for our refrigerator, they got really red-faced because that part was not designated for our coach—in fact, they didn’t even have our part because it somehow wasn’t ordered. At least they had our replacement fan for the Air Conditioner unit, so while they were installing that, they called Norcold and special ordered the refrigerator part. We were told it was to be shipped overnight at Norcold’s expense and we could have it installed early Friday morning. We weren’t happy but what else could we do. After the AC fan was replaced we drove back to our site in Queen Valley. Thankfully, I had arranged to have the electric set to be turned off on June 7, so we still had power, just no phone.

Thursday, while waiting to check with the service center, we just hung out around the coach and didn’t do much (too hot). Our park had virtually become a ghost town with just a few residents left. I think out of 32 sites in just our section, there were only four units occupied (that includes us). There were only a few more occupied in the whole park of 200 sites. Sometime before Noon (92 degrees outside), we looked out our front windshield and saw a coyote loping up the road right in front of us. He was headed for the storage unit and looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. He was moving too fast for us to get a camera and take a picture (dang). Anyhow, Ken called the service center that afternoon and found out our part did in fact show up. He made arrangements for us to have our coach there at 8 am on Friday. The temperature on Thursday topped out at 100, but we were hearing the weekend was going to be in the 106-110 range (whew). However, we also heard Laughlin (where we were headed) was going to be 110-115 (yowie).

Friday morning (June 4), we were once again up very early and left the park at 7:30 and had the coach into the service center just as they opened at 8 AM. They confirmed the part was truly ours and quickly set about to install it. Finally, less than 2 hours later the recalled part installed on the refrigerator and we were able to leave Apache Junction. We had a comfortable drive till nearing Needles, CA and the temperature was climbing to 100. I turned the generator on (yes while driving) and then turned on the coach Air Conditioner. Boy did that make a nice difference. We got to the Avi Casino/RV Park at 3:30 and the temperature registered 107 at that time….whew it was hot when we got out of the coach…and we knew it was only going to get hotter (and it did).

Saturday morning, we got up at 4 am and drove Jeep to Searchlight area (1 hour north of Laughlin) and did a “power run” of geocaches. It was 79 when we got up and 109 at 5 PM. We found 101 caches and had to quit about 10 AM because of the heat. Sunday was another day of the same and we were once again back west of Searchlight for 67 more geocaches. We did a lot more walking only to have to give up because of the heat. Both Saturday and Sunday, Ken & I went through at least a gallon of water in a couple hours. They aren’t kidding when they say the heat really saps your strength. Sunday was another hot 109.

Monday, June 7 was going to be a day of rest, but Ken didn’t want to sit around the coach all day, so we took off about 8:30 for Golden Valley which is east of Bullhead City and west of Kingman. We found an area of caches that had been set up like a monopoly board called the Cacheopoly series. It was fun because most of the roads were dirt and sandy washes and very little walking….but it still was hot. We started the run at 11:45 AM (95 degrees) and quit at 1:30 when it hit 101. By the time we got back to the coach, it was 112 degrees. It was so nice to have the AC on and be comfortable through that heat. I have never been in that kind of temperature before and it just suffocates you while scorching the skin right off of you.

We were planning on leaving the Avi RV Park today (June 8) and stopping in Primm, Nevada for a few days. However, we found out the RV park in Primm (south of Las Vegas) isn’t open any longer and we don’t want to go there and be forced to dry camp in this kind of heat….so we opted to stay in Laughlin 2 more days and get some laundry done and do some more off roading. The temperatures aren’t supposed to be going down for the next few days!!

End of May

2010-05-26T09:18:00.000-07:00

The month of May is almost over and we’ve now made the decision to leave Queen Valley on June 1. We’ve had fantastic weather and couldn’t bear the thought of leaving any earlier.

The month of May began in the low to mid 80s, then bounced to mid to high 90s, and continued to yo-yo between 80s & 90s till it finally hit 101 on May 21. We only had the one day of 101 because another cooling trend came through and the temps dropped back to the low 80s and high 70s. In fact on May 23 & 24 the temperature only got to 79. The forecasters are saying it won’t hit 100 again until after the Memorial Day holiday……it really has been an amazing May!! Everyone is incredulous with how nice it has been!!

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end! We decided to leave on June 1, not because of the weather, but because of a recall on our refrigerator’s thermal switch unit. It seems Norcold (the maker of our fridge) had several motorhomes go up in flames while their refrigerators were operating on propane, so Norecold put a recall out on those particular models. Turns out our refrigerator is one of the offending models (bummer).

We drove our coach to a service center in Apache Junction (AJ) on May 20, and they said the refrigerator looked great, but needed to order the new part to be installed as per Norcold’s recall requirements. While at the service center, we also had them service our front AC unit because it was making noises. It was determined the “squirrel cage fan” in the front air conditioner unit was out of sync and needed to be replaced. Once we picked a date to have the parts installed (June 1) we decided it would be a good time to make the move and slowly head back to Oregon. We have several stops planned before getting back to Oregon and won’t be home until mid July.

With so many of our park’s residents gone, it has been very quiet. We feel like we are living in a ghost town, and it’s wonderful! We enjoyed these past few weeks by geocaching, rock collecting, visiting friends, dining out, and just enjoying our solitude.

The first and second of May we attended geocache events celebrating “10 years” of geocaching. One was in Mesa and the other was on South Mountain in Phoenix. Both events were well attended with fun activities and as always, lots of food.

I have had many people ask me what geocaching is: Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment. Anyone interested can always go to geocaching.com and check it out.

We drove to Tucson the night of May 14 and attended a World Wide Flash Mob Geocaching Event the next morning. That event was our find 6,000. The Flash Mob was only 15 minutes long. and to commemorate it, there was a group picture taken by a member of our group who was controlling the down town web cam from his computer. The picture isn’t really very clear, but the operator of the camera doesn’t have a lot of time to “capture” the picture.

On May 20, we had a special visitor stop and see us. He looks a little like a Golden Eagle, but in reality is much smaller and is called a Harris Hawk. He stayed around for most of the day preening and chattering all the while staying very close to our site. It was fun to see him so close just watching us as we watched him.

As I said earlier, we are pulling out of Queen Valley on June 1 and stopping in Apache Junction to get the parts for the fridge and AC installed. We should be done and on the road by Noon and hopefully in Laughlin early that evening. You ask what we will do there? Well, geocaching of course! We plan on staying in Laughlin for several days, then work our way up to South Vegas and stop again at another casino to do more geocaching. We are not huge casino fans, but like staying at their RV parks when we can.

End of Season

2010-04-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is May 1 (May Day) and it’s totally dead around here. We actually see and hear more wild critters than real people. Yep, the snowbird season is over and many of our residents have gone back to their summer homes. The few that are still here plan on pulling out soon. We plan on staying here until the weather hits triple digits and stays there for a decent period of time.

This last month was like a roller coaster with the variance of temperatures. A week would start off in the low 70s and work up to a low 90, then drop back to the 70s before it once again would end up in the high 80/90s. Our lowest daytime temp in April was 67, with the highest daytime temp at 95. Because of all the sudden temperature drops, we haven’t had a chance to acclimate to the higher temperatures, so when it does get hot, we feel it! As usual, we had lots of wind and dust, some rain and thunder, and many beautiful sunny days. No matter what, we loved every minute of it!!!

Since it’s getting warmer, the snakes are out and several have been spotted in and around the park. Park maintenance doesn’t like to kill them unless they become a nuisance. Not all are Rattlesnakes, we have seen many bigger Bull Snakes. They are wonderful to have around because they kill and eat the Rattlesnakes. A couple of Gila Monsters have been spotted and our close neighbors even saw a coyote chasing a bunny on the morning they were packing to leave. Yes, we too have spotted some critters while out driving the back roads (mostly snakes).

There were many wildflowers blooming in April turning our green hills yellow. The sides of the roads were quite colorful, and yes, the pollen was nasty (I’m still sneezing)….but that will all come to an end once the days get hotter.

Many of the cactus are now blooming, but there aren’t as many blooms as there normally are. It’s probably because the weather has been much cooler than normal. The magnificent Saguaro also is blooming, and its white blossom is gorgeous! I’ve always been amazed at how these plants can have such a beautiful flower.

Over Easter, we had a scare with Ken’s son Dean. Dean was hospitalized due to some chest pain and found out he had Pneumonia. He was released from the hospital, but was told there also may be some problem with his heart and needed to schedule a stress test. The stress test showed Dean was having some restriction problems, so he had to undergo an angiogram, which thankfully showed no blockages. The doctors think Dean’s problems were side effects of a high blood pressure medicine he was on. Dean is now on a different medicine to reduce the high blood pressure. He is back to work and gaining strength every day! Thank God!!!

The rock shop is now closed for the season, but Ken spent his usual days working during April. Happily, Sylvia is now the Rock Club’s new president and Ken will have more free time next season. He will continue to monitor and work in the rock shop when we return, but the paper work and spending personal time working on club stuff will be over. For the rest of this year, Ken will continue beading and making jewelry.

Before the huge exodus of park residents, there were many going away (clean out the fridge) parties with lots of food being served. We also were involved in the usual geocaching events and going out to various restaurants with friends…. So much eating!!!! Since most of that is over, we are back to our sensible eating habits and hopefully will start to downsize our waist lines (grin).

We’ve still been taking the Wrangler out on some 4WD trips, and hope to do more before we park it for the summer. No, we don’t plan on going anywhere dangerous, but do plan on going after some elusive geocaches. Yes, we will continue to “pack” and carry an emergency locater!

I am still not sure when we will leave, but we do plan on doing some intensive geocaching in and around Laughin and South Las Vegas before heading back to Oregon.

Desert Fun

2010-04-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

After we got back from Death Valley, and while the weather was nice, we managed to take a few jaunts out in our Wrangler to enjoy the desert. Yes, we have had some very nice days along with a few cooler and a couple wet days.

One very nice, 73 degree day, we joined our friends, Dave, Pat, and their daughter Marilyn on a drive north of us to see a slot canyon which overlooks Roosevelt Lake. They weren’t sure what the road was going to be like and didn’t want to go alone, so we tagged along with them. It’s always a great idea to travel with someone just in case there is a problem. Most of the drive was on paved roads with just the last mile on a somewhat rough (high clearance needed) dirt road that ended at the top of a slot canyon. We did go through some deep mud puddles, but didn’t have any problems. Notice that Dave is taking the high side of this mud puddle. The middle is much deeper!

The view from the rim was awesome! I hate heights and steep drop offs, but I did enjoy this great view. No, I didn’t go near the edge. Ken was the one who enjoyed tormenting me by standing right on the edge as he took pictures.

We all had a great time and after we got back to the main road, we had an early dinner by the lake. Yep that lake you see in the distance! Do notice the snow on Four Peaks!

We went out again on March 27, and 30. Both days we drove south about 40 miles and went off roading in the 96 Hills area. No, we didn’t follow our own advice and have someone go with us. We went by ourselves, but did have an emergency locator with us just in case something went wrong. Plus, we always pack while going out by ourselves. Ken was loaded for snakes, and I was loaded for whatever (grin). Our goal was to find the geocaches that were placed during the last couple AJACS Campout events that we hadn’t had a chance to look for. This time during the two days, we found a total of 31 caches. Most involved some bit of hiking and climbing. Yes, Ken did ALL the climbing! We also found snakes...Rattlesnakes. One very mad Rattler was too close to a cache that we wanted and he was not going away. Well, Ken won that argument, and we signed the cache log and got a picture of the snake. Another Rattler was soaking up sun in the middle of the road and was not very happy about our big white Jeep interrupting him. We managed to get a couple pictures before he finally went off in the weeds on the side of the road. Another one which we couldn’t get a picture of was at the edge of the road and was not letting anyone or anything get close to it. We let that one be.

The wildflowers are blooming, but we only saw buds on the cactus and no blooms. We did see some strange Saguaros and took a couple pictures.

April is now here and as you all can see I made a change to my blog page. No it is not an April Fools joke. I may keep it this way, or may change it again….I just haven’t decided.

Death Valley

2010-03-23T13:44:00.000-07:00

During the first couple weeks of March, we did the usual park functions and off road trips. Ken also turned 67, and we celebrated by attending an Apache Junction Area Caching Society (AJACS) Campout. We had lots going on that weekend, so only went to the event one day and spent our time visiting with old friends and enjoying a beautiful warm 77 degree day. Good thing we didn’t spend the night because it started raining that night and rained hard all the next day. Out of seven weekends in a row, five of them were wet! The second week of March was cool, but dry.

March 14th, we took off in the Jeep Grand Cherokee and headed for Death Valley. We were going to take the Wrangler, but Ken found out before we left that the main trail we wanted to tour (Titus Canyon) was closed due to flood damage, so we took the Cherokee and rode in comfort. Our reservations at Stove Pipe Wells Village was for March 15-19, so we stayed in Pahrump our first night. Yes, we even did a little caching there.

March 15th, we took off early and drove to Rhyolite where we stopped and toured the old ghost town. Rhyolite is the largest ghost town in Death Valley! Rhyolite had a population of nearly 10,000 people between 1905 and 1911. The town had 2 churches, 50 saloons, 18 stores, and much more… Many ruins are still there including a Bottle House, part of a three-story bank, and more.

We left Rhyolite and drove to Stove Pipe Wells where we met up with friends, Dave & Sandy, and after checking into our room, we took off to Artist’s Drive, then Zabrinski Point to watch the sunset. This is just a sample of the color we saw before the sun set.

Tuesday, Ken & I met up with Dave & Sandy for breakfast, then we all headed out to the Badwater Basin area of Death Valley and drove the West Side Road all the way to Ashford Mill. We stopped along the way at many sites and even had lunch at the Eagle Borax Works Ruins.

After the long drive over the sometimes washboardy gravel road we all headed back to our room and had snacks and drinks for the evening. Dave & Sandy had to leave early on Wednesday, so they headed back to their trailer around 6pm to pack and get ready to pull out.

The one high clearance, off-road drive we really wanted to do was Titus Canyon. The drive is approximately 28 miles on a mostly one-way unpaved road. It stretches from just west of Rhyolite in Nevada (near Beatty) from highway 374 to the Scotty’s Castle Road in Death Valley. The road was closed because of a huge rock slide in the narrows and wasn’t due to open until Friday the 19th (the day we were leaving…bummer). Our only option was drive to the mouth of the canyon via the 3 mile east-bound portion of the road and hike uphill through the narrows (another 3 miles).

Once we got to the mouth of Titus Canyon, we were pleased to see the narrows portion of the canyon had been recently graded. The narrows are just wide enough for a small truck, with a constant uphill climb in sand and gravel. It's a huge drainage/wash channel for the nearby Grapevine mountains. I ended up walking just over a mile in and decided to turn around because I knew my knee would be killing me on the walk back out. Ken continued walking another 2 miles through the narrows and past the slide. He was pleased to see the slide had been cleared and kinda wondered WHY the road was still closed. We found out later the officials were waiting till the threat of rain was over, which was supposed to be on Friday. Oh well, we were happy to just be able to do what we did.

After leaving the canyon, we drove on up to Scottys Castle to find the answers to a couple of geocache virtuals. The park does not allow ANY physical caches to be placed in it, but you can have what is called Earth Caches, and Virtuals. We even ate our lunch there and were greatly surprised to run into a couple we know (Larry & Laura) from Spokane, Washington. They were in-between tours, so we visited until they were ready to go on their second tour.

On Thursday the 14th, we toured some other sites and had lunch in Furnace Creek. After lunch, Ken talked to one of the park rangers and was surprised to learn Titus Canyon had opened up early that morning. We didn’t even have to think about it…. we got back in the Jeep and headed out of the park to the Titus Canyon Cutoff and headed on in.

We crossed the National Park Boundary about 2 miles in when the road became a drainage channel (wash). About 7 miles in, we started getting into the Grapevine Mountains. We went through two passes (White Pass and Red Pass) with some spectacular views into the Valleys. Oh boy that was an experience! The road was narrow & twisty, with many steep drop-offs.

After some white knuckles on my part (Ken was fine) and 16 miles in, we stopped at the ghost town, Leadfield. All that remains of Leadfield are the ruins of a wood and a tin building along with some cement foundations of the mill. They mined for lead there in 1926-1927.

Just outside Leadfield, we entered Titus Canyon. The road once again became thick loose gravel as we drove through several wash/drainage areas. At 22 miles in, we came to the Narrows portion of the canyon. The narrows portion is 3 1/2 miles long, with many twists and turns. We came to the mouth of Titus Canyon after driving 25 1/2 miles and were once again back on the busy two-way portion of the road. It was a long day, but so very worth it.

After we got back to our room, the sky darkened, the wind started blowing and we had a full force sand storm. We were soooo glad we were not on the road when that came through. The visibility dropped almost to zero during the height of the storm, but soon it was all over and back to normal.

What happened to February?

2010-02-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

Where in the world did February go??? I know it is the shortest month of the year, but for some reason, it has disappeared. Is that called being too busy? OR absent minded?? Anyhow, since we supposedly have been busy, I am just going to talk about some of the highlights for this month.

The weather has been a big factor in what we do and don’t do. February’s weather was good and bad. We had some wonderfully warm days, but we also had a few very rainy/stormy days where areas around here were flooded.

In fact, last night we had thunder and lightning and now it's pouring down rain. It's only supposed to last through today, then get back to nice warm days. That is IF you can trust the weather forecast. Oh well, you can bet there are going to be some beautiful wildflowers blooming soon. I already have seen Daisies and Poppies in bloom.

Well, back to what we have been up to!!

Every Monday morning we have a park wide coffee social where the weeks activities are announced and discussed. Every Friday (weather permitting) we go 4 wheeling with The Axle Twisters and explore many back roads and old mine sites. Rest of week is filled with rock shop and other park wide activities (dinners, dances, potlucks, etc..).

Early this month our youngest granddaughter (Jessica) celebrated her 20th birthday. It seems like yesterday she was a toddler running around getting into everything. Today, she is a beautiful young lady with her own tiny toddler (Mila 1 1/2) who is running around getting into everything. They can be quite the terror at that age, but Mila is very well behaved and a delight to be around.

Twice this month our resort had a craft show/sale. The first was community wide with crafters from the park and nearby towns who came to display their wares. Our activity hall was completely filled with tables full of gorgeous stuff. There were even tables outside! Ken had three tables set up with his beautiful jewelry.

The second show was just for crafters from our resort who displayed the results of their hobby. We have a lot of very crafty people in this park and everything they do is beautiful. Ken displayed and sold many items that he created in the rock shop. We even had on display many different types of “rocks” that are found around here. Both shows were very successful and Ken was pleased with how his jewelry was received. He sold a lot of pieces, and has orders to make more.

We did find some time this month to go geocaching. We also attended a couple of geocaching events and had fun meeting some very new “cachers” in our area. Right now we have over 5,800 finds and hope to find more time for caching in the coming months.

Of course it is hard to write a blog without mentioning how many times we go out to eat with friends and even by ourselves. Two special places we have been this month is San Tan Flats in Queen Creek and The Arizona Opry in Apache Junction. Both places are a treat and soooo much fun. There is way too much to talk about at each of these places, so just click on the links and check them out for yourselves. They each are a huge highlight of our outings.

Yesterday (Saturday), we drove over to Glendale (University of Phoenix Stadium) to attend the Sportsmans Show/Expo. After we saw all we could, we went next door to Cabelas. You can’t go to Glendale and not go to Cabelas!! Of course, at each place we had to leave a bit of money behind. Hmmmm funny how that always happens (grin).

Well, it is still hard for me to believe that today is the last day of February and that we have been here for three months.

Gosh how time flies when you are having fun!!

Busy January

2010-02-01T06:54:00.000-08:00

When I last wrote, both Ken and I were in the middle stages of a bad upper respiratory illness. Thanks to his getting on prescription meds, he was over his in just over a week. I, on the other hand, took over the counter meds and had my cold for over three weeks. Happily, we are all better now!!!

We had some pretty rough weather thanks to a series of three storms in less than a week. The first storm came in on the night of the 18th. It just rained that night and was all gone when we woke to a beautiful sunny day on the 19th. However, the second storm hit that night (19). We had thunder, lightning, wind, and 1 1/4 inches of rain. Again it only lasted for the night and we had another gorgeous sunny day before the third and worst storm hit.

The third and worst storm came in around midnight on the 20th. It rained heavy and steady all the rest of the day on the 21st. The entire state was under storm alerts. Every county had some kind of severe weather warnings that were being televised every half hour all day long!! The high country was getting snow (up to 5 feet) and many highways were closed because of severe weather. We had flash flood warnings along with tornado warnings. Yes, Arizona does get a tornado every once in a while. One even touched down for a bit in the Scottsdale area.

We were'nt too concerned with the tornado warning because we are surrounded by mountains, but the flash floods were troublesome. In fact our little town of Queen Valley actually has been flooded before. Queen Creek which goes thru town always rises quickly with heavy rain. This time the bridge on one of the main roads in town was closed because of high water and the danger of the culvert eroding. There is a big wash on the back road out of town and it was closed because it was a raging river. Our site is in the upper part of the park, so we weren’t worried about flooding, but the winds can be vicious and they were getting stronger as the day went on. Early evening we pulled our slides in because strong wind gusts were hitting them broadside. By pulling the slides in, we saved the slide awning from being damaged. We also had a better night’s sleep that way. We heard the wind gusts were so strong in the Yuma area that 5 big rigs were blown over….incredible. Around the Phoenix area and points east (towards us) some power lines went down and many trees were toppled. Some homes lost their metal awning and many places along rivers were flooded. We in Queen Valley didn’t lose power and as far as I know, no one had any structural damage. The first two pictures are of the flooded wash in our park. The last two pics are of Queen Creek in Queen Valley.

Our weather was nice until the 27th when we had more showers. Thursday the 28th it just drizzled rain all day (not a nice day). Ken worked in the rock shop for part of that day, but it was too cold and he came back at Noon and both of us stayed in the rest of the day (me wrapped in my blanket on the couch and he asleep in his chair with a blanket).

On January 30, Ken had his first showing for his jewelry. We were set up at a monthly Farmer’s Market/Craft show for the day and he had a lot of interested browsers. This was a first for him and a preview of what is to come for his jewelry business.

Sunday was the last day of the month and the resort had a Wine Sip “n” Swap Event along with a classic car show. We tasted a lot of wine (at least I did) and had a great time.

Today is the beginning of February, and so far the weather doesn’t look like very promising. We have a few nice days forecast, but there is still a lot of rain showing up for a while. Oh well, we are in the desert of Arizona and it is always nice (even when it rains).

Fun around Queen Valley

2010-01-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

It's been three weeks since our return to Queen Valley after spending Christmas at home in Salem.

We were only gone for a little over three weeks, but during that time, the weather here went crazy. There were huge dust storms then heavy winds and rain that struck the area. Since there was so much dust in the air, the rain became what we call “mudding.” We were shocked to see how much mud and dust had accumulated all over the coach….we’ve never seen this coach sooooo dirty. The roof had a layer of dust and mud, and I could even look up through the shower dome at a huge layer of mud all around the base of the dome. Yes, the slides were in so the awning covers weren’t affected. Needless-to-say, after Ken recuperated from the long drive, he spent several days working on the coach to get it back in decent shape.

I wasn’t much help to Ken in cleaning the coach because after we got back to Queen Valley, I came down with a sore throat, cough, and sinus infection. I am still hoarse and coughing a lot, but I do feel better (three weeks now). Even though I didn’t have much stamina, I could get out and enjoy riding in the Wrangler, so after Ken was done with the coach, we drove out in the desert several times and even found 35 new geocaches.

We even went on a drive with the Axle Twisters to an area north of Roosevelt Lake called Thompson Mesa and around Dutch Woman Butte on the edge of Boyer Wilderness. We saw some pretty areas and found a deserted cabin on the edge of the wilderness area.

This cabin is called John Boyer Cabin and I really don't know the history or anything about it. We kinda stumbled on it and were surprised to see what great condition it was in. It does look like hunters kinda use it as a camp base during hunting season.

It was a fun day with great folks, but Ken started complaining of a sore throat during that ride. That was on Friday the 8th, and by Saturday evening, he was down with the cough, stuffy nose, and sore throat. Since Ken needed to establish a doctor in this area, he made an appointment to be checked out. We went in on Thursday the 14th and we found out that “Yes” he has a cold (well, duh). Anyhow, the doctor gave Ken prescriptions for cough syrup and an antibiotic. It seems to be working because he is feeling better.

We took the Wrangler out on Friday the 15th with the Axle Twisters for a drive to an area near Tucson called SASCO and the Silver Bell Mine. SASCO is just a few buildings now, but was once a thriving mining community with a huge smelter for the mines to process their ore. We were surprised to see a cache in the area and had to go for it. This area is where we found the cache and really don't know what the structure was used for.

This looked like a shaft, but wasn't very deep.

This is the old SASCO Rockland Hotel. Not much of it left anymore.

I really don't know what these pilings were used for, but we think they were supports for the track that the train ran on to bring Silver Ore to the smelter.

This is a view from the air of the Silver Bell Mine area. It was an open pit mine. We couldn't get close to it because it is all on private property and it has no trespassing signs all around it. we couldn't even get to the old town of Silver Bell because the road was fenced off.

It was a long day & drive, but thankfully Ken was feeling better. We do enjoy Jeeping with the Axle Twisters and plan on going out with them as often as we can.

Sunday, Jan 17 was our day to host our eastside neighborhood pot luck party. We have a lot of fun planning the party, and Ken BBQes Salmon that we caught during our September fishing trip in Alaska. The Salmon is a huge hit and Ken did an excellent job BBQing it. Of course everyone brought much more great foods to go along with the Salmon and we were all stuffed after dinner!

This next week is going to be a quiet week for us because there are three storms heading our way. This morning (Monday) we had some drizzle, but the onslaught of rain (snow in the high country) will be coming later this evening and everyday for the rest of the week. It will be a great time to get caught up on a lot of needed reading and house work. Ken, of course, will be spending at least three days of this week in the rock shop. We have some craft shows coming up and are hoping he does well in showing and selling his jewelry.

Back in Queen Valley

2009-12-31T20:10:00.000-08:00

I can’t believe how fast the last three weeks went. We arrived in Salem, Oregon on the evening of the 6th, and went out early on the 7th and cut down a fresh Christmas tree. Amazingly, we had it up and decorated by that night. From there on the rest of the time we were in Salem is just a blur. I did catch a bad head/chest cold, so for one week I really didn’t get much done. The rest of the time we shopped, visited with family, went out to dinner with friends a few times, and even managed to babysit our youngest great grand-daughter a couple times.

On Christmas Eve, we had two family gatherings and watched our three oldest great grandchildren go ape over all the presents Santa and family gave them. The two youngest (babies) let their parents open their gifts (much more civilized). Of course we managed to eat ourselves silly on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day where we gathered with our immediate family for a huge meal. Sadly our two sons live out of state, but we managed to spend some time with them on the phone.

Christmas Eve, Ken & I went to Midnight Mass to celebrate the true meaning of CHRISTmas. The congregation gathers one half hour before Mass to sing carols along with the choir. We were thrilled to hear our nephew, Brendan, playing his trumpet along with the choir. Our niece, Larysa, was also singing in the choir. It was a beautiful, meaningful Mass, and the choir were excellent!!

The day after Christmas, I had the tree down and all the decorations put away. We spent the rest of that day packing our Jeep for the trip back to Queen Valley, Arizona.

We left Salem at 6 am on December 27, and drove 743 miles to Tonapah, Nevada (one very long drive!) We hit snow on the road in Oakridge heading up over the Willamette Pass to highway 97.

Once we got on highway 97, the roads were in good shape. Yes, we did have a couple snow flurries along the way, but nothing to keep us from traveling the speed limit. We got to Tonapah at 6:30 (12 1/2 hours after leaving Salem) and it was 29 degrees. We didn’t even turn the TV on that night. Just grabbed a bite to eat and hit the sack in order to get up early the next morning.

The next morning, we ate a quick breakfast at the hotel and headed for Arizona. Even though there was a smattering of snow in the mountains, we didn’t have any on the roads. In fact, we had mostly sun until we got through Boulder City and across the Hoover Dam. Once we got into Arizona, the skies became cloudier the closer we got to Phoenix.

We had left Tonapah at 6:30 the morning of the 28th (18 degrees) and arrived in Queen Valley (550 miles later) at 5:45. Of course we had the hour time zone change, so we actually drove 9 plus hours. When we got out of the Jeep, neither of us was feeling very limber. We vowed never to do that trip that fast again. 1300 miles in two days is insane!! Yes, we did change drivers, but only stopped long enough to get fuel and hit the restrooms.

Anyhow, we are back to being settled in the coach, and unfortunately I am back down with a sore throat and a terrible cough. I hear there are several folks in the park that are also sick. Not a fun time, but I am on meds and hope to get over this crud soon. No, I am not going out this evening to bring in the New Year. Instead, I will be taking my meds and heading to bed very soon.

I hope you all have a healthy, prosperous new year!!

Home for Christmas

2009-12-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

We are home in Salem, Oregon for the Christmas Holiday. We got here on December 6 after a very long 3 day drive from Queen Valley, Arizona.

Before we left Arizona, the night temperatures had been dropping into the low 40s. Well when we left on the 4th of December, it was actually 37 degrees at 5 am, and it didn’t get any warmer the further north we went. Our route out of Arizona was north through Kingman where we caught highway 93 towards Las Vegas. Before Vegas, we crossed the Hoover Dam and had a good look at the new bridge they are building. We could see a lot of progress since we crossed it last year.

Currently large busses and trucks are not allowed to cross the dam and are forced to bypass via highway 95. We did find out that RVs are allowed to cross the bridge, but they are subject to a thorough search before crossing. Since we were in the Jeep, they just took one look at us and waved us through. Guess we didn’t look too threatening.

Once we got through Las Vegas, we took I-15 north to highway 93 and headed west to Ely, Nevada. We were in a hurry to get to this point, so didn’t do any geocaching beforehand which would have slowed us down. On the road to Ely, we stopped to find 10 caches, but it was way too cold (high 20s) to do more than that. We made it to Ely about 4 pm and got a nice room at the La Quinta for the night. It was 17 degrees when we checked in!

The next morning, we woke to see the temperature outside was 4 degrees. We quickly got our bags in the Jeep and went for breakfast then headed out of town on highway 50 towards Fallon (one long very lonely road). There is nothing along that road but flat valleys, and some mountain passes. I think we crossed three or 4 mountain passes and only two mining towns, Eureka and Austin. I would not want to have any problems along there because there were only a few spots that we had cell service. That would not have been fun to break down out there!!

We did happen to spot some wild life at one point! There were actually two, a Doe and last year’s fawn. This is the yearling that wanted to cross road to be with mom, but didn’t like our Jeep, so stayed up on the hill. Not a good picture, but it didn’t give us a lot of time to take its picture.

We did geocache along hwy 50, but it was way too cold (10-20 degrees) to really do much, so only stopped for a few that were right on the side of the road and really quick. As we got closer to Fallon, we could see clouds building and thought we were going to get some snow.

But, we were lucky and didn’t get anything but a couple flakes in the higher spots. We got to Fallon about 3 then Reno at 4 where we went to Ken’s aunt and uncles’ place to visit and spend the night.

We were really hoping to spend a couple nights with them, but there was a severe winter weather alert in effect for most of Northern Nevada, so we decided to stay just one night and leave Reno before the storm hit. We did have a very nice visit with Francis and Velma, but sadly missed seeing some of the cousins we were hoping to see. Hopefully, when we head back to Arizona, we can stop by again.

Sunday morning, we woke to an outside temperature of 11 degrees (brrr). After having some wonderful waffles that Velma made for breakfast, we left Reno at 8:30 and took highway 395 north through Alturas and Klamath Falls towards Salem.

As we passed Border Town west of Reno, we could see the snow clouds building.

The snow hit shortly after crossing the CA/NV border.

From there all the way to Alturas we were in and out of snow flurries. The temps were in the low teens all the way so the snow was very dry and powdery. It was kind’a mesmerizing as we watched it swirl around on the road. The only time it really was dangerous was when we were being passed by trucks or larger cars which would swirl the snow up in front of us and cause zero visibility. We just made sure we didn’t have anyone close in front of us, so we didn’t have problems.

This picture is of where we like to park for the night when we are heading south to Arizona in the motorhome. It is the volunteer fire station's parking lot in Likely, CA and normally, there is no snow there.....but this is what it looked like when we passed on the 6th.

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but as we went through Klamath Falls, the lake was totally white. The lake was frozen and the snow on top of it caused an eerie effect. We did stop in Klamath Falls and have a late lunch early dinner so we wouldn’t have to stop again until we were home.

When we got to the highway 97/58 junction, we took highway 58 west to Willamette Pass. Of course, there was snow, but not as bad as we thought it was going to be.

Once we got beyond the pass, the snow disappeared and we were happy to see the temperature warming up in the 30s. Actually hit 35 when we got to Eugene, Oregon.

We got home at 6 pm on Dec 6 to a nice warm house. Thanks go out to LeighAnn and Tim for turning our thermostat up!!

It stayed very cold until December 11 when the temps finally went above freezing. We were supposed to be having rain for the next week or so, but so far, it is sunny and in the high 30s. Hooray, sure hope it stays this way for a while.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Thanksgiving & Beyond

2009-11-30T15:02:00.000-08:00

Last Summer, I was pretty lazy about blogging, but I plan to do much better this winter. My last post was only six days ago and we were getting ready for Thanksgiving.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we hope you all had as great a Thanksgiving as we did. On Thanksgiving Day, we had a very nice dinner here in the park’s main activity hall. There were seven tables set up with 12 people signed up per table.

Each table was treated as a separate dinner/meal, and each person at the table brought an item to share. Of course we had to have a taste of everything that was brought at our table, and even though we thought we were just taking a small amount, we were stuffed. The picture below is just a small amount of what was brought for our table.

The photo below is my dinner. Notice that gorgeous bottle of red wine! That's from my brother-in-law's vineyard "Terra Nativa" in Boise, Idaho. Oh so good!!!

We ate at 1 pm and thankfully had the rest of the afternoon to wear it off. We missed being with our kids, but were very happy to have had a quality phone call with each of them before we headed off to eat. We couldn't have asked for a better day! It was sunny and topped off at 81 degrees.

On Friday, we took the Wrangler out Jeeping with the same group we were out with last week. This time, we drove close to an old mine called "The Golden Bell," but the road ended before we got there. We did get within .17 mile of it and could see the mine tailings, but since the road was blocked and washed out, we couldn’t get closer. You can see some of the mine tailings in the photo below. Ken took this picture with his iPhone and I zoomed in on it, so the quality is not the best.

These next two photos show some of us heading back out to the main road.

What was I saying in my last post about Arizona having no rain? Well Arizona is still way behind in its annual rainfall, but some parts of the state got rain this weekend (they had snow in Flagstaff). Queen Valley got a bunch of rain on Sunday, and we even had thunder and lightning. Ken & I were south of Queen Valley picking up some Cholla stalks earlier in the day and noticed some heavy clouds over the mountains. It was nice and sunny where we were at, so really didn’t pay much attention to it. See, it looks like some rain, but nothing to really worry about....

After getting the Cholla stalks, we decided to drive back into Apache Junction to put fuel in the Wrangler and give it a good wash. Big mistake! We really should have know better.....everytime we wash one of the Jeeps, it rains. Sunday was no different!! On our way back to Queen Valley, this is what we saw. Those previous dull gray clouds had turned much darker!! See the darkest part? That is where we were heading (yikes).

As we got closer we started feeling the wind (lots of it) then we saw the lightning and heard the thunder. By the time we were at the coach, it was raining hard. It was very dark out, but it was only 2 pm. Thankfully, the heaviest wind and rain didn’t last long. But it did drizzle on for a while.

At 4:15 we headed out to dinner with friends and drove 18 miles east to the town of Superior for pizza. When we got back home. the only sign of the rain was a few puddles in the road.

Arizona Fun

2009-11-24T09:38:00.000-08:00

The last couple weeks have been marvelous! Record low temperatures before we got here, then record highs after we arrived. Finally, around the 12th, our temperatures actually dropped into the high 80s, then leveled off to the high 70s. Our evenings are cool (mid 40s), but sooooo very nice. We did have one day and night of some rain (if you can call it that). The rain we got was just enough to get the coach and car dirty (spotty). Sadly, none of the storms hitting the Pacific Northwest have brought the badly needed water that Arizona needs. So the drought continues with no end in sight.

Shortly after we arrived, we had an off road geocaching function, so took the Wrangler out for some fun and a little caching. During that outing, Ken noticed some wires (one continually hot) hanging loose under the dash. Also, the compressor, lockers, and air shocks weren’t working. Last year, we knew there was a problem with one of our rear lights and blinkers, so after Ken decided he couldn’t fix it, he took the Jeep to the shop. It took four days and lots of bucks, but they got it fixed and now it’s supposedly right. Seems they had to rewire the whole thing because the diodes were literally crumbling and very close to an electrical fire. The wiring was done completely wrong when all the extras were added ages ago and things were getting very hot. The guys at the shop were amazed we didn’t have a fire, but we never had the Wrangler out long enough to overheat the wires. Ken now has the wiring diagram in case something should ever go wrong again (hope that never happens).

Tuesday, Nov 17, Ken & I picked our friend Connie up in Gold Canyon and drove two hours west to Buckeye for some intensive geocaching. There is a road there called “Sun Valley Parkway” which is loaded with many caches. We call it a “Power Trail” because a cache is located every half mile. We hit the trail at 7:30 am and finished at 4 pm and had a total find of 111 caches. In all that time, we only had three no finds. We even took time for lunch. It was an incredible time, but we all were very tired and sore. After the long drive back to Apache Junction, we stopped and had some marvelous ice cream. Connie figured we were in and out of the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) 115 times. Wow, no wonder we all were sore.

I guess we hadn’t been punished enough physically because on Thursday the 19th, Ken & I took the Wrangler off road and found another 23 geocaches. Also, found some new roads we didn’t know existed. Fun day!!

Another opportunity we had to play with the Wrangler was on the 20th when we went out with “The Axle Twisters” to see the Coke Ovens.

I found this blurb regarding the ovens on the Internet:
"The ovens were used to reduce mesquite wood to coke, a hotter burning fuel, for use in smelting gold and silver ore taken from surrounding mines. The beehive-shaped stone coke ovens are each about 25 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. Each has a ground level entry and a few upper level vents. The mesquite wood, burned slowly in the ovens for days, yielded the coke. The new fuel was then transported directly across the Gila River to the community of Cochran (now a ghost town) and the smelters."

There are several ways to the ovens and all are difficult, but do-able. The easiest (or so we thought) was by crossing the Gila River near the extinct town of Cochran. Since AZ is having a drought, the Gila River is running very low and we figured that was our best chance of getting there. We took off around 9 am and got to the ovens after 2. Of course, we stopped for lunch on a gravel bar in the middle of the Gila River (LOL). You can see the road we crossed from on the right side of this picture.

We had a few obstacles along the way, but mostly the drive was easy and lots of fun!
Our first obstacle was having to cross some rail road tracks. The high clearance Jeeps had no problems, but a small Tracker needed a bit of help. This is some of the guys adding extra rail road ties to the tracks.

A big obstacle was on way back out having to crawl back up and through a washed out area. The first is where Norm took went too high and had two tires just spinning. The guys pushed him back out and he took a lower path and easily made it through.

This is Ken coming through!

Here are two others coming through.

After we all got back to town safe and sound, we stopped at a favorite Mexican restaurant for some great food. A fun time was had by all.

I must say the Wrangler performed great and we never had any trouble at all. We are so looking forward to our next trip out with this group Friday after Thanksgiving.

Here's wishing you all a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Arizona

2009-11-06T13:49:00.000-08:00

We are now in Queen Valley Arizona! We got here on Monday, November 2 around 2 pm.

Happily, our trip began on Friday, October 30th. Up until the time we left, we weren't too sure which way we were going to travel because a few days earlier, all the passes were covered in snow. I was keeping up with the weather reports and watching the road cams on the passes, so felt comfortable about going when we did, but I just wasn't sure of our exact route.

We left the house in Salem at 9:15 am and stopped in Coburg to top off our fuel. We took on 41 gallons at $2.68 a gallon. The morning was cloudy, but thankfully, no rain. I again checked the road cam on highway 58 (Willamette Pass) from my iPhone and saw the bare pavement with no new snow. Hooray, that meant we could cross there and not have to go all the way down I-5 through California. We continued to have clouds all the way to the summit, but once we crossed the pass we had sun and 52 degrees. There were some more clouds north of Klamath Falls, but the temps were warming up and when the clouds finally gave way it was wonderful. Later in the day, it got up to 67 degrees.

Our goal for the first night's stop was to get across the California border and down highway 395 to a neat little place called "Likely" before the sun went down. When and if we get to go this way, we like to stop at the fire department's large gravel lot and spend the night. Likely, CA is a very small town located south of Altures and only has a couple stores, cafe, bar, and of course the "volunteer" fire department. It's a nice quiet spot to stay and not have to deal with a lot of semi truck noise. Ken was very happy to get to Likely at a decent hour and have a bit of a rest before dinner.

Saturday, we were up early and on the road by 7:30. It was 38 degrees when we got up, but it got much colder as we drove down the mountain to lower elevations and into fog. The lowest temp we saw was 27 degrees (brrrr). As we were making our way through the fog, we came up on a herd of deer that were quickly getting off the highway and watching us go by. No, we weren’t going that fast!! We even had a truck towing a trailer in front of us, so we were never in danger of hitting any of them. There were quite a few Doe in the herd and only 2 bucks. Thankfully, the fog was gone by the time we got to Standish (near Susanville) and the rest of our drive to Reno (and beyond) was nice and sunny. In Reno we took I-80 east for several miles and stopped at a Love’s station near Fernley to fuel up. We took on 37 gallons at $2.86 a gallon. At exit 48 we took hwy 50 through Fallon and hwy 95 south to Tonapah where we stayed the night at Miller’s Rest Area.

We love that rest area because semi trucks are not allowed and a lot of RVers like to spend the night there. It was sunny and 65 degrees when we got there at 3 pm. Ken was tickled to get the windshield washed and still have time to sit in the sun and enjoy a snack and drink before dinner. I wish I had taken a picture of that, but just didn't think of it.

The next morning (Sun, Nov 1) when we got up, it was a 28 degrees. As we grabbed a bite for breakfast, we let the engine idle to warm it and us up. Even though we were still in the Pacific Time Zone, we didn’t set our clocks back, but stayed on Arizona time. We took off at 8 am and drove through Las Vegas to Laughlin, Nevada. We still had lots of fuel but decided to stop in Searchlight to add a few gallons to insure our making it to Phoenix without running out. We have a 130 gallon tank, but they say only 80 percent is useable, so we didn't want to get too low. Fuel cost in Nevada was $2.81, but we knew Phoenix was much cheaper, so we just put on 25 gallons. The drive from Tonapah to the AVI RV Resort and Casino just south of Laughlin was short and we were checked in and parked by 2 pm. It was 85 degrees there....sooooo nice!!

While in Laughlin, we unhooked the Jeep and drove over to Bull Head City for dinner and stopped at a store to buy some dry ice. While in Salem, we bought a small freezer to take to Queen Valley and place in our shed there. We were carrying it in the coach. Ken also had a cooler of frozen meat in the Jeep and was keeping it frozen with dry ice. To make sure we made it all the way to Queen Valley with it still frozen, he needed more dry ice just to be safe. Once we were back at the coach, we re-hooked up the Jeep and had it ready for towing the next morning.

Monday, Nov. 2, we left AVI at 8 am. We drove south through Needles, CA and took hwy 95 to Vidal Junction, then crossed into Parker, Arizona at 9:30 am. From Parker, we took hwy 72 to Vicksburg and on to I-10. By this time the temperature was quickly rising to 73 degrees. At 10:30 am we stopped at the Flying J Truck Stop in Phoenix and took on 81 gallons of fuel at $2.69 a gallon (actually $2.79). In Arizona, RVs get a 10 cent break on fuel cost, which is very nice.

After leaving Flying J, we drove to Apache Junction and filled up our propane tank, then headed on to Queen Valley. I was watching the temperature rise all along and when we got to QV, it was 84 degrees ending at a high of 89 for the day.

We got to QV at 2 pm and were set up shortly after. There was a lot of stuff to do to be completely settled, but we had enough done by evening to be comfortable. Yes, we got the little freezer set up and now we have more capacity to keep frozen food on hand. Our trip miles from Salem to Queen Valley was just over 1,300 miles.

We've now been in QV for 4 days and have the little Jeep (Wrangler) out of the big shed (yes, we have two sheds) and even taken it out geocaching. Ken has trimmed our tree next to the small shed and coach, so our site looks much better. I still can’t get the satellite working, so will be contacting a tech next week to see what is wrong. The TV does get nice digital HD reception, so the satellite isn’t that big of a deal. I should just turn it off and upgrade to a new system, but need to find out what that will cost before doing so.

Tonight, we are going out for dinner with close friends in the park and celebrate each of our anniversaries. Theirs was the 5th and ours is the 8th. There is a whole bunch activities in store for this season, so hope to have a lot more to talk about soon.

You can also keep up with a lot of my daily ramblings by following me on Twitter; see the link to Cachinbird on the side of this page. I am also on Face Book, so you can always send me a friend notice to view more of my pictures and daily doings.

Time To Go South

2009-10-29T20:30:00.000-07:00

We are packed and ready to head south for the winter. Problem is the weather. Because of snow in the mountains, we still aren’t sure which route we will be traveling. I plan on watching the road cams as we head on down the road and decide at the last minute whether we will go across the pass on hwy 58 or go all the way south through the Siskiyous.

Sorry again about not posting more often, but we have been very busy. Even though most of what we have been up to wasn’t very interesting, I will try and recap most of what happened this last month.

On September 28, we took our coach to Cummins Coach Care in Coburg for its annual service work and engine/generator checkup. While they were working on coach, we drove into Eugene for some needed shopping and even managed to find a few caches. We really haven’t had time to geocache lately, so it was fun to take a couple hours and find some. When the coach was finished at 4:30, we decided to spend the night in one of Cummins sites because we had another appointment scheduled for the coach in Eugene the next morning. It really didn’t make sense to drive all the way back home, then have to be back in Eugene the next morning.

Since Ken had new tires put on the coach last year, he thought it a good idea to have the front end realigned. Our appointment was with Keizer Wheel Alignment downtown Eugene which is about 10 miles from Coburg where we spent the night. We were up early the next morning, and instead of hooking the Jeep up to be towed, I drove the Jeep and Ken drove the coach to the alignment shop. Good thing because it was pouring down rain and it would have been miserable trying to get the Jeep hooked up. Since it was so miserable out, we just went out for breakfast and spent the rest of the time at the shop waiting for coach to be done. The work was finished at 10:30 am and happily the rain had quit. We hooked the Jeep up and made our way out of Eugene and headed for Newport, Oregon where we had reservations at South Beach State Park for a week of camping with friends.

Our week at South Beach was supposed to be rainy and windy, but we really lucked out and ended up with great weather. Out of the whole week, we only had one morning of rain. The rest of the time it was somewhat overcast with lots of sun breaks. This is a shot at Boiler Bay.

This shot is of the bay at Florence.

Besides us there was, Rod & Lynda and Darryl & Kathy camping at South Beach. On Friday afternoon, we were joined by Gary & Shannon (Rod's daughter and son-in-law) and their adorable 5 month old Madi. Isn't she a cutie??

Sadly, they could only spend the one night, but they had a nice time visiting and hiking on the beach. We all managed to take several walks along the beach collecting agates and some shells. Ken and I also took a whole day and went geocaching up and down the coast line. We found a lot of caches and had a great time enjoying the scenery. The evening meals were the highlight of our time camping. One evening we had fresh BBQed Oysters and Shrimp plus Ribs for some who didn’t like seafood (you know who you are… grin). All in all, we had a marvelous time enjoying each other’s company and spending lots of time just sitting around the campfire, which was going day and night.

This is Rod finishing off a succulant Oyster!

Here is Ken enjoying a nice fire!

It’s hard to believe how fast a week can pass, but it did, and on Oct 6 we all packed up, emptied our tanks, and headed back to our respective homes. Ken & I got home early afternoon and quickly prepared for a trip to Salt Lake City. We were scheduled to be in SLC on Friday the 9th to attend several geocoin events that were taking place that whole weekend. Since it was a short stay and all the events were taking place at the Marriott City Center, we decided to drive our Jeep there and take advantage of the event’s special hotel rate. We left the morning of Oct 8 and drove to Twin Falls where we met up with our son Bill and his family. We visited for just a short while before heading on to Burley, Idaho where we stopped and spent the night.

The morning of Oct, 9, we were up early and headed for Salt Lake City. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to waste, we only stopped to find 5 geocaches. All were side of the road pull offs, and didn’t take much time at all. We arrived in SLC and had trouble locating the entrance to the hotel parking. The Marriott City Center is a part of The Gallivan Convention Center, so we weren’t sure where we were supposed to park, but finally spotted the sign for the underground hotel parking entrance. Well, once in the underground garage, we got lost (sigh). Yes, there were signs all over for hotel guests and arrows showing where to go, but we circled several parking levels before actually finding the very small area assigned for guests. Happily, we found a spot very near the hotel elevators and made our way up to the lobby. We were a bit early, but our room was ready and we were able to get checked in and settled into a gorgeous room on 5th floor with a very nice view.

This last shot is a gorgeous view from the 10th floor at night.

We have never stayed in a Marriott before because of the outlandish nightly cost, but this room was really steps above all that we have ever stayed at. The mattress was wonderful and I slept fantastically!!! Thankfully, we got a huge break on the cost of the room, but even at full cost, the place would have been worth it.

After we settled in, Ken got his coins (several hundred) together and we went downstairs to the first of three events. There were so many geocoin collectors there looking at and enjoying all of Ken’s coins. He was delighted that he sold a bunch of coins that evening!!
This was just a preview of coins to come.

The next day, Saturday, was the main event where all the geocoin vendors were showing off their latest and newest coins and gadgets. We got there early and were among first people to enter the hall. There was one vendor in particular that Ken really wanted to see. Her coins are hotly sought after and we were lucky enough to be about the third or fourth in her line. Yes, Ken bought “many” of her coins.

After buying the coins he wanted, we set his coins up at a table and proceeded to sell more coins. Here is Ken showing off some neat coins.

We didn’t sell our own personal coin, but did trade it for many other cacher’s personal coins. We saw several geocachers from Arizona and Oregon that we know and had a great time meeting many more that we had heard of but never met. The event went on till early evening when we all packed up and called it a day.

The next morning was Sunday and there was a group of cachers scheduled to go out on a geocaching adventure on a bus. We didn’t want to go on the bus, but did attend an early morning gathering for breakfast and coffee. Later, Ken and I got in our jeep and drove out to "The Great Salt Lake" and did our own geocaching. We found a lot of caches and had a fun time viewing the lake. We didn’t get very close to the lake because most of the beaches required some long walks and we didn't want to take that much time. We did stop at one of the original tourist buildings, but that was all locked up and fenced off, so we got to view it from a distance. We did stop at the lake’s marina and saw several sail boats on the lake, but again we couldn’t get too close because there was a fee to get in the main area. Alas, we saw what we could and did a lot of geocaching. Fun day!!!

We left Salt Lake City at 7 am on Monday, Oct 12 and drove all the way home to Salem. It was an extremely long drive, 13 1/2 hours to be exact, but we did gain an hour when we crossed the Oregon/Idaho border. We did stop two times to find a geocache and another time in Hood River to drop off a special travel bug that wanted to be left there. Of course, we had to stop a few times for fuel, food, and potty breaks. For safety sake, we did switch drivers a couple times, and got home at 7:30 that night.

The rest of this month has been spent working on an old house that needed to be cleaned out. The place has been empty for quite a while and we needed to get it kinda liveable because our grand-daughter is thinking of moving in there later. There is still lots of work to be done inside and out, but our son-in-law will take care of what is needed while we are gone.

Arizona here we come!!!

Alaska Fishing

2009-09-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Another month has gone by and I have so much to talk about! We are once again home from our annual fishing trip in Alaska. We are safe, sound, and have lots of fish!!

Last time I wrote, we were just finishing up from our grandson’s wedding. Well after the wedding all of our kids, who came from out of town, headed home. We were once again back to normal and preparing for the Alaska trip,

We did take some time out of preparing for Alaska to travel to Portland and visit my sister. On August 15, we and our daughter (Leigh) visited my sister (Vonna) my niece (Judy) and my nephew (Pete). My sis is 14 years older than me and even though she lives in Portland, we don’t get to see a lot of each other… of course, it is because I am usually on the go so much. Even though she has become a bit forgetful (haven’t we all?) she is still holding her own and managing life as it comes. She, like all of us is slowing down, but she still enjoys her freedom. I can certainly identify with this! We had a marvelous visit and vowed to do it more often.

The next week I came down with a bad chest cold. I was down the whole week! Ken had medical appointments and had to deal with getting all the gear ready for Alaska, plus working on cleaning the yard up at the old house we are managing. Wasn't a fun week for him! We are looking at selling the place just for the land because the house itself is not liveable. However, it doesn't look like it will get done this year!!

On the 28th of August, we shipped our boat motor, fishing poles, and a crate of supplies to Alaska. We also did some needed shopping and some geocaching before attending an evening Geo Club Meeting in Clackamas. Ken had some geocoins with him and ended up selling some very nice ones.

August 29, we spent the day at the Oregon State Fair. We had to sample some of the various foods, take a peek at all the vendor merchandise, have a Dairy Wives Milk Shake (yum), and of course visit the miniature horses. They are sooo cute and about the size of a Great Dane.The day we were there, they had a Veteran's Appreciation Day Parade.A new structure was added on the State Fairgrounds and they are having a contest to name it. Some have come up with something like "Tower of Hope" and many other names beginning with Tower. Hmm what would you name it?Of course, the Ferris Wheel is always a highlight.No, we didn't ride it, but there was a long line for it.

September 4th was the birthday of two of our great grandchildren, Noah-6, and Adriana-3. Yep, both were born on the same day, just three years apart. The party to celebrate was on Saturday, Sept 5 and we had the whole family there…what a wild time that was with the wild itty bittys running amok. There were 4 running around, but it seemed like a legion (grin). Thankfully, the 5th great grandchild (Ciara) was just 2 months old then, so she slept most of the time. I am sooooo not used to the noise of all the little ones, so it was nice to finally get back to the peace and quiet of our own home.

The next couple of days we were busy finalizing the packing our bags for Alaska (stuff we didn’t ship) and packaging up 26 oil paintings (and frames) that a very old friend (Mike-who passed away several years ago) had painted. We made arrangements with his niece (Bev) in Seattle, who wanted the paintings, to pick them up while we were there to catch the plane out of SeaTac.

On September 7 (Labor Day) we drove to Seattle. We didn’t do much geocaching because we were in a hurry to get there and meet Mike’s niece, but we did find a few from Kalama, WA north until it started to rain, then we quit.Once we got to the Airport EconoLodge Hotel, where we had booked a room for the night, we contacted Bev, and she drove down to visit and pick up the paintings. She was so very excited to get them because Mike had meant so much to her. We told her that we are still in process of cleaning out the old house, and if we find more, we will make sure she gets them.

September 8, at 7:20 am, we boarded the plane for Yakutat, Alaska. We had been at the airport since 5:30, which was a good thing, because it seemed to take forever to get through the baggage check in, security, and boarding process. Our flight to Yakutat made one stop in Juneau at 9:25. Actually, it was 10:25, but we crossed into another time zone, so we had to set our clocks back one hour.We got to Yakutat, AK at 11 am. Once we got the rental van, we had to pick up our shipped cargo (boat motor, box of supplies, and fishing poles) and get checked into our room at the Glacier Bear Lodge. We had the rest of the afternoon in which we got everything unpacked and ready for the next 7 days of fishing. The weather was cloudy, but not raining like it was in Seattle. We were told a storm was coming in, but no one knew exactly when it would hit (oh joy).

The next couple days (9th & 10th) were fantastic days for fishing. We were up at 5:30 each morning and had a hearty breakfast (free for lodge guests) then it was to the river where we had a boat waiting (a small John Boat).The river we fish on is a tidal water, and we like to go up it during low tide because the fish bite the best then.The fish tend to hunker down and not bite when the tide is outgoing. Well, these two days the tide was fairly high when we got to boat and motored up (about 1 ½ miles) to where we like to fish. This is Ken fishing the high tide in the chute. We found so many fish in our favorite spot that we were being very choosy on which ones we kept. We threw back ones that were too small and some that were darker (more red than silver) than we liked, plus some that Seals had taken bites out of (hate those Seals). We had a fantastic two days and ended up with about 70 pounds of Salmon Filets after all was said and done. Both days all of the fish were cleaned, vacuum packed, and in freezer before 1 pm. Wow, we thought we were in heaven this year!!!

Do you remember my saying a storm was coming in? Well mid-afternoon on the 10th it hit. It poured down rain all night long and was coming down really hard the morning of September 11. The wind was ferocious, but we thought we could still fish in it. We did get ready and drove to the boat and even managed to get up to where we like to fish, but the wind was gale force and we had a very rough time navigating the river in the small boat. Yes, we were stupid, but soon realized we shouldn’t be out there and, very carefully, made our way back to where we kept the boat docked. It wasn’t too bad when we were either facing the wind or had it at our tail, but when we were sideways to the wind, we were really rocked and the waves were as high as we were. Thank God, we made it back safely! The rest of the afternoon, we spent it in the room watching the rain come down sideways. We even ended up with a lake behind our room at the lodge. I had two books with me, so I was very comfortable.

The next day, September 12, we were again up at 5:30 and having a wonderful breakfast before heading to the river. It was still raining, but not near as windy as the day before. Out on the river, we didn’t have near the luck or catches that we did during the first two days of fishing. We only got 3 fish that day. Could have had our limit, but when I had one to the boat, Ken tried to net it and ended up knocking the lure out of its mouth (I wasn’t too happy about that). Of course that same day we both had hooked more, but they either threw the lure or broke the line taking the lure with them (dang).

We continued to fish on September 13 & 14, and only got a total of 7 more fish those days. We hardly saw any sign of fish. Seems the storm added a lot more water to the rivers and the fish quit biting. Also the fish in the bay won’t enter the rivers until the water level goes down. The 14th turned out to be a nice day and we actually fished without having our rain coats on. However, when the rain quits, the bugs come out. Our moisturizer was DEET (grin). Thankfully, we didn’t get eaten up too much. Ken only had a couple bites around his hat, and I had 2 on my right wrist where the gloves and shirt met. Not near as bad as in past years. Since we literally had 3 full boxes of fish filets at the end of the 14th, we decided to quit fishing for the season and turn the boat back into the lodge. Since Tuesday the 15th was going to be another nice sunny day, we thought it would be great to get all the gear dried out before packing to go home. Also, it would be a nice time to rinse out the motor and winterize it.

As predicted, Tuesday was a beautiful day. We got a lot accomplished and even tried to find some ripe Cranberries and Blue Berries. The Blueberries were abundant, but not very big and there were no Cranberries to pick. Seems the unusually warm summer held down the growth of the berries……of course the bears could have gotten there before we did. We did see lots of wild life this year, but no bears. We had some deer (Sitka Deer) run down the road in front of us one morning while on the way to the river. They look very much like our White Tail Deer, but are a lot smaller. Eagles, Geese, Cranes, Swan, Ducks, and Seals were all spotted by us. This cutie her name is Angel, is quite the begger around the lodge. She also loves to chase bears away from the lodges fish cleaning station. Just a few days before we arrived, she was spotted biting one bear on the rear as she chased it away.After cleaning out the boat motor and winterizing it, we left it at a friend’s house in Yakutat. We usually ship it back to Oregon and have it serviced and winterized here, so hope leaving it in AK doesn’t cause it to have problems next year. I guess we will find out. We did ship the fishing poles and a box of fishing gear back to Portland, OR (they were what we had shipped up to AK).

Wednesday, September 16 was back to heavy rain, so after we checked out, weighed the fish boxes to make sure we weren’t over the 50 lb limit on each box. We had two that weighed just over 49, and the third was 46 lbs. Of course that included the weight of the fish boxes too. We equaled out the boxes and had no problems as using them as our luggage. A seabag full of our fishing clothes along with the S&W 500 that Ken wears while out fishing (and picking Cranberries) was our fourth piece of luggage. Since we didn’t leave until late in the evening, we waited out the time at the Lodge, and I was finally able to get on their computer and clear up what email made it through my blocking of messages. Yes, I did have the iPhone with me to catch the WiFi at lodge, but half the time, the WiFi was bouncing on and off, so I gave up and didn’t use it.

At 6:10 (7:10 Oregon time) we boarded the plane and in the air at 6:55 (right on time). We landed just over the mountain in Juneau at 7:30 and were told it would be a short turn around, so stay on the plane. But…. about the time we were to take off, the Pilot got on the mike and said a flight out of Anchorage that landed in Ketchikan was disabled, and the passengers that were headed for Portland were stranded and needed us to stop and pick them. He said it would only be a short delay (yeah right). We sat on the ground at Juneau for another 45 minutes while the baggage guys rearranged ALL the baggage and cargo to balance the weight for the extra passengers.

Finally, at 8:45 we left Juneau and landed in Ketchikan at 9:20. With all the new baggage and passengers being added to plane, we were very full and didn’t get off the ground and headed to Seattle until 10:20. We originally were supposed to land in Seattle at 11:30 (Seattle time)…..well, that didn’t happen. With the time change and all, we didn’t get to Seattle until just after 1 the morning of the 17th. We ended up getting Alaska Air to put our fish in their freezer, so we could get a few hours of sleep before heading off to Salem.

After getting about 5 hours sleep, we picked the fish up at the airport and headed for home. We did find a few caches on the way home, but with the Jeep loaded with frozen fish, we skipped a lot of them. We did stop in Tracy so Ken could check out the Cabelas store there. Of course, that was a special stop because there also was a cache in the parking lot (grin). After an uneventful drive, we arrived home about 1:20 pm and got things unloaded and put away for the afternoon.

The rest of this week we have been getting all the gear washed and back in working order for next year. The big thing to finish is getting the coach ready to move for traveling. We will be taking it to Cummins on the 28th for its annual checkup and service. The 29th we are getting the front end realigned, then head to the coast (Newport) to camp with some friends.

At this time, it looks like we will be heading to Arizona sometime near the end of October, but we don’t have an exact date because there is still a lot of things we have to finish up here first.

Beautiful August

2009-08-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

Golly, where is the time going? August has gone so fast and time is drawing near for our heading back to Arizona.

So far, we have had a very nice August. Temperatures have been pretty warm, but pleasant and not sweltering “HOT.” Oh, we did have one day it hit 99, but it was still comfortable. The humidity was down and we could at least breathe.

On August 8, we had a family picnic (reunion) at Ken's brother’s (Gerry) place. For the first time in quite a while, all four Pavelek brothers (Gerry, Ken, Dick, & Don) and most of the family, were present for a very fun afternoon of eating, drinking, and visiting. Three Pavelek brothers live in the Salem/Jefferson area, but Richard (Dick) and his family live in Boise, Idaho, so it isn’t very often that we all are together at the same time. We had a great time and even got to “sample” some of the wine being produced from Dick and Pam’s vineyard (very nice indeed). Later in the day, our oldest son, Bill, and his family arrived from Richfield, Idaho, but they were too late to come out and join in the fun of the picnic. Instead, they got themselves settled in for the week and just enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing from the long tedious drive.

On Sunday the 9th our youngest son, Dean, was hoping to surprise his dad by flying in from Dallas, Texas for the wedding. He had arranged for our daughter (LeighAnn) & son-in-law (Tim) to pick him up at the Portland Airport and bring him to the house and surprise Ken (I already knew he was coming). Unfortunately, Ken really wasn’t that surprised. Ken said he had it in the back of his mind that Dean would try and come out for the wedding, but really didn’t know when, or how much time he could take off from work. Amazingly, this was the first time in a lot of years that we had all our children in town at the same time.

This is Dean, LeighAnn, and Bill.August 12 was wedding day! Our grandson, Justin, married the love of his life, Holly.
The skies were grayish with some sun breaks and were threatening rain, but happily, it never did. We ended up with a beautiful afternoon for outside pictures, and a marvelously cool evening for all of the festivities after the wedding.

As for the wedding, what can I say? It was beautiful, and yes, I cried. The day was extra special because it was also the 30th anniversary of Holly’s parents (Colleen and Steve) plus, Holly and Justins’ wedding ceremony was performed by the same minister who had performed Holly’s parents wedding ceremony 30 years before. I really don’t think there was a dry eye in the audience. Even the bride was wiping away tears as she listened to Justin who was choking back tears as he said his vows.It was very funny when just before they were pronounced “man and wife,” the minister said that after so much time was spent on the preparation of this wedding (one year) that it was all over in 20 minutes. Isn’t that just the truth to a lot of things…..it got quite a chuckle. After that, we spent the rest of the evening partying. Congrats to the very happy couple. We love you both very much!!

By the way, I have posted on Our Web Album a whole bunch more wedding pictures. Take the time and check them all out. We had so much fun and it was a great time for all the family to be back together again. If the link doesn't work, you can always go to your browser and type in http://picasaweb.google.com/jopavelek and it will take you to the "Picasa on-line album" where I have a lot of pictures uploaded in many different albums.

Sadly, I have one more thing to post that happened in August:

On August 10, we received the sad news that a close friends companion and love passed away from complications of Leukemia, which he had been battling for a long time. Charlie (76) was an avid pilot, Jeep 4-wheeler, and RVer. He was a marvelous man living his life the way he wanted to. He was one to never turn down a challenge, and was even planning a sky-diving trip when he passed away. Our hearts and prayers go out to Connie and the Biehn family, and we pray they gain peace in knowing that Charlie is now challenging God to give him more daring things to accomplish.

Charlie, we all will miss you!!!!

HOT July

2009-07-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

As all of you have heard (or experienced) we have had some pretty hot temperatures during this last week. Since arriving home from camping in Prineville, we have had temperatures in the high 80s and 90s. But on July 27, the temperature went to 103 with high humidity. Our evening lows stayed around 75 and muggy. Ugh, we felt like we were in a sauna! The next two days, the triple digits hung at 107 and 106. We escaped yesterday to Newport on the Oregon coast where the temperature was a marvelous 61 (106 in Salem). As usual, Newport was foggy with a light mist, but what a relief to feel cool.

These pictures are taken at Yaquina Bay where the Yaquina Bay Bridge was shrouded in gray which made it very eerie.

Today, Salem topped out at 92, The humidity is still high, so things are still kinda uncomfortable. That is all supposed to change as a cooling trend (high 80s, low 90s) is happening for the rest of the week. We can only hope!!

As I said earlier, we spent the 4th of July camping south of Prineville along the Crooked River. We had a great time and uploaded many pictures on my Picasa Web Album. Hope you take the time to check them out. I have many albums posted on Picasa, so take your time and check them all out.

After we left Prineville, we took the coach to Davis Cabinets in Junction City and had new inside solar and privacy screens installed. The privacy and solar screens now take the place of the front wrap around curtains which were getting old and ragged. The new screens make a huge difference while driving. Before, we had split visor shades and the sun always found a way to get into our eyes. Now, we can lower the one piece shade (no splits) for complete sun control.

One big job we have had since being back in Salem is cleaning out an an extra large storage unit. There was a lot of furniture and boxes in the storage unit that needed sorting and distributing. We ended up donating the majority of it to St. Vincent DePaul. We were able to send a bunch of old electronics, to recycling, but there was a lot that had to go to the landfill. We have that out from under us, but we still have to clean up an old house and get the lot taken care of (no not our home, this is another one we have to take care of).

As for our house, the main bathroom was desperately in need of repainting and some cabinet work. We have repainted the walls and changed some of the hardware, but still have all the cabinet work to do.

On July 21, I had my first Colonoscopy. Oh my, that was an experience. Yes, they did find one very tiny polyp and quickly removed it. The pathology came back clear! Now, instead of having that test every 10 years, I have to have it done every 5 years(ugh). Actually, the preparation for the screening was much worse than the actual procedure. At least I have 5 years before I have to go through that again (grin).

On July 24, we took the Grand Cherokee in for its checkup and oil change. Seems the brake buddy we use while towing the Jeep has been causing the brakes to drag a bit and caused the calipers to heat up. Now, it looks like we will have to replace those in the very near future. We really didn’t need to hear about having to do that.

On top of having to replace the calipers on the Jeep, we may have to replace the seal on the toilet in the coach. We were having a lot of problems with the “electric” flush control while we were in AZ, but now we are having problems keeping water in the bowl (more work to be done).

Have I mentioned in past posts that I have a sister? Well, I do! She isn’t going to like my talking about her, but she doesn’t have anything to do with a computer or any of that “Techy” stuff, so she will never see this (unless one of her daughters shows it to her). She is 14 years older than me and just had her 81st birthday. Bless her heart, she is doing great and still maintains her large home all by herself. With my being gone so much, we haven’t had a lot of times to visit, but my daughter and I are going to visit with her early next week and get caught up on all the “family stuff.” I just hope when I get to be 81 (God willing) I will be doing as well as she is!!

Speaking of family stuff, I mentioned in the last post that we have a new great granddaughter. This is the birth picture of Ciara Rose Rojas-Rodriguez (long name for such a tiny thing).Isn't she a cutie!! Lauren and Abraham are doing well and the baby is doing great!

Ken is still making some gorgeous jewelry. Even with all the work we have been doing, he is finding himself beading during the evening hours (keeps him out of trouble anyhow).

These are some of his latest creations.We are going to Eugene on Friday the 31st to the Bead & Gem show where he hopes to find some more beads to work with.

I will have a lot more to talk about in August because my grandson Justin is marrying the love of his life, Holly, on the 12th. So until then, I hope all of you stay healthy and keep safe.

Camping

2009-07-12T19:31:00.000-07:00

After a fun filled 12 day camping trip, we are back in the land of TV, Cell Phones. and Internet. It was so refreshing to be completely out of touch from June 30 to July 11. Well, we weren’t completely out of touch, we did drive to town a couple times, and I did manage to go through at least 60 plus messages each time on my iPhone. When we finally got the coach back to electric hookups on July 11, I had 150 email messages to sort through. Egad, that was a mess!! Especially since we are in a small town called Prineville and the cell phone (Internet Data) service is very slow. I still have in the neighborhood of 40 email messages that have attachments that will take forever to open here……so, I am waiting until we get back in a better service area to deal with them.

No, I did not take any pictures! There are many already posted in our Web Album (check left side of page for link) so I didn’t think we needed more. Just know it is a beautiful spot and sooooo very serene!!

We left Salem on June 28 and drove to Prineville where we parked the coach for two nights in the Crook County RV Park. That afternoon, Ken & I drove the Jeep 16 miles out of town along the Crooked River and into the canyon looking for a camping site. The usual spot that we stay at was full, so we found a nice area near the end of the camp grounds for us and our friends. We quickly held the sites with tents and made the payments to keep them.

Once we had the sites secured, we went back to the coach and settled in for the night. The next day (29th) we drove Jeep to Redmond and did some geocaching.

On June 30, we moved the coach down to the river campground and spent the rest of the day relaxing and just enjoying the solitude and hoping to see some wild animals (we didn’t, not then anyhow).

On July 2, we drove Jeep back into Prineville for some needed supplies and to check on IF we were great grandparents for the 5th time. Well, it seems our grand-daughter had an ultrasound on June 30 and was told all the amniotic fluid had leaked out, so she was immediately moved to the birthing center and labor was induced. The baby girl was born at 6:30 that evening. Her name is Ciara (pronounced cee-air-ah) Rose Rojas Rodrigues, weighing in at 5lbs 13ozs and 17 ½ inches long. Mommy (Lauren) and daddy (Abraham) are doing well, but it seems daddy was a bit weak kneed for a while. Our daughter, Leigh, had been trying to call us and had left messages, but alas, we were out of touch. Anyhow, while we were still in town, we had the chance to call and talk to Laurie, so all was well.

Our friends showed up shortly after Noon on the 2nd and quickly got settled in to camping mode. During the next 10 days, we tried to be very lazy and do a lot of nothing. The guys did take a long hike along the rim, then one day, all but me took a hike up to Chimney Rock (big tall rock outcropping with big elevation change). I later went up part way (.25 mile) with Ken to try and find a geocache, but we didn’t find it. That same day, Ken & I took a loop drive from camp up and over the rim, and drove the back way into Prineville, then back to camp. We did do some off road stuff, but nothing hard. Naturally, we found some caches along the way (grin). Another day we all rafted down the river. We dropped the rafts in just below the Bowman Dam and pulled out about 5 miles down stream at our camp. The river was moving pretty fast, so it only took us about an hour and a half to make the trip. Some spots were pretty shallow and we scraped bottom a few times.

One of our outings was just us girls driving to Bend (the back way) and shopping at the Outlets. The guys didn’t want to do that, so they stayed in camp and lazed the whole day. Yes, we all did go to town (Prineville) another day and had dinner and special milk shakes at The Tastee Freeze. They have some marvelous burgers and just the very best “REAL" milkshakes. Our last day of camping, no one wanted to BBQ, so we all drove to town and ate at the Sports Bar and Grill. They have wonderful pizzas and you can even shell the “free” peanuts on the floor…..we had a mess around us when we left (grin).

If you are wondering if we went to town on the 4th of July to watch the fireworks, the answer is no…. we didn’t want anything to do with that mess. Besides, we have been there and done that, so we were all contented to enjoy the peaceful river and see the occasional Owl, Eagle, and even Deer a couple times.

Most of our days were warm and sunny. We did have some wind and clouds and even a couple evenings of thunder and lightning. What rain we did get was minimal and didn’t last long at all.

Unfortunately, our time along the river went all too fast and we broke camp on July 11. Our friends drove straight back home, but Ken & I drove back into Prineville and settled in at the Crook County RV Park for two nights.

Today, July 12, we went out and found 19 caches before the weather turned bad. This morning, we woke to beautiful warm sun, but by early afternoon, the skies turned black and menacing. Soon the thunder and lightning along with wind arrived. We even had some heavy rain for short intervals. One thing about Eastern Oregon, the thunder feels and sounds like it is sooooo much closer. It really resonated when sounding off. Our temps dropped from the 90s of yesterday to the high 60s this afternoon (wild).

We will be leaving here in the morning and heading for Junction City which is a few miles north of Eugene. While in Junction City, we are having our front privacy curtains removed and installing electric solar screens and privacy shades. The front ones will be all one piece and will fit just inside the windshield. Each will be moveable from driver and passenger sides. The driver side and passenger side windows will have manual screens (solar and privacy). This is going to make a huge difference in how the front looks, and we won’t have those awful curtains to move back and forth. Now everything will move up and down. We should be in Junction City all of Monday and probably part of Tuesday, but we won’t know until they get in and start working on stuff.

Still in Salem

2009-06-22T22:07:00.000-07:00

As you all have noticed, I have been very lax in keeping this blog up-to-date. Sorry about that, but if you have been watching this site, you may have noticed on the left side of the page all the “Twitter” updates. I really have been doing more Tweets lately than anything else. Also, I have been posting a lot of updates (and some photos) on my Face Book site. If you are interested, you can look me up on Face Book and send me a friend request to follow me. As for Twitter, my tweeting name is Cachinbird, but to find and follow me, you have to look for Snobird. On Twitter, you don’t need to send me a request to follow (that site is pretty open). I can block people, but so far have not had to.

Anyhow, we are home and have been here since June 2. We really haven’t accomplished much other than getting the house back in order and getting some work done on the coach. We did attend two graduation parties and go out to dinner a few times with friends and family. Yes, we have geocached a bit and even gone to one of the local geocache clubs meeting/event. We even have one more geocaching event to go to this Saturday.

Our niece Kellie
and nephew Brendangraduated from high school earlier this month, and we were very fortunate to be in town to attend their grad parties. These two wonderful kids have grown up so fast. It seems just like yesterday that we were oohing and aahing over them as babies. They have made their parents, Don & Carol, and Jim and Michelle, and all the family very proud.

Our youngest great grand-daughter (Mila) turned one today. Jess and Luis had a birthday party for her on the 20th with both sides of the family attending. The house was overflowing with food and people. All the kids were having a lot of fun while the adults ate and visited. Little Mila didn’t know what to make of it all, but she enjoyed the attention (what baby doesn’t?).

Sunday was Father’s Day, and we celebrated with our family by going out for breakfast. It was a huge gathering and we all had a great time. Sorry, I forgot the camera and didn't think about using the camera on the phone. Oh well, we hope all the fathers, and grandfathers viewing this blog all had a marvelous day. I know the men in my family did (grin).

Yellowstone to Salem

2009-06-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

As I said in the previous blog, we were up early on Thursday, May 28, and ended the day parked in Ken’s brother’s huge driveway in Boise, Idaho. Well, I didn’t elaborate on our drive there.

We were just an hour out of West Yellowstone and passing a small town called Island Park on a very narrow two lane road heading south. We were traveling about 55 or 58 mph, and as you all know, you cannot stop a 40,000 pound rig pulling another 5,500 pounds very quickly. Well, we were motating on down the road, when all of a sudden from our right side came a huge female deer running full bore heading for our lane of the highway. Ken reacted very quickly and hit the brakes just enough to barely miss her as she jumped into the left lane. We only missed her by about a second or two. BUT, coming from the other direction was a fully loaded semi-truck probably weighing in the neighborhood of 50,000 pounds or more, and while we squeaked past the deer, the trucker hit her just as our Jeep passed them. Ken could see “stuff” fly off the truck’s front end (lights, fenders, etc…) and also saw the deer being thrown topsy turvy into our lane. He (trucker) had to be going at least the same speed we were IF not faster. I don’t remember hearing his brakes, but I did hear the “WHUMP” as the deer was hit (awful sound). We were going way too fast to stop safely, so had to keep on going…..plus there really wasn’t anywhere on the side of the road where we could easily pull off. Ken doesn’t think the trucker stopped either because he really didn’t have anywhere to pull over. Like I said, it was a very narrow road. We are sure he was ok and probably ended up parking in town when he got there to check out any damage to the truck. Needless-to-say, the deer did not get up….. We both thanked God for placing that guardian angel with us. What a difference 1 or 2 seconds can make!! As I have said in the past, some devastating stuff can happen in just a blink of an eye!! IF we would have hit her, there would not be much left of the coach’s front end. Yes, we both had our seat belts on!!!

Thankfully, the rest of the drive to Boise was uneventful, but we were ever vigilant for any unusual “thing” to happen. The weather was very cool Thursday morning (43), but once in Boise it got warm….very warm (92). Stayed that way all the while we were there. Happily it cooled in the evenings.

Ken’s brother Dick and his wife Pam have a gorgeous place in the west hills of Boise and the breeze up there was wonderful.
Once we got the coach settled, we all visited outside on one of their several patios and had a late dinner, then watched a wonderful sunset. During dinner, we were treated to some marvelous wine from their own vineyard (Terra Nativa).
I don’t normally drink much red wine, but they produce a marvelous Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and more. It was very hard to pick a favorite….they all are great!

We only spent three short days (4 nights) visiting with Dick, Pam and their daughter Nicole, but we stuffed in a whole lot of visiting, eating, and drinking. Pam’s birthday is June 4, but they celebrated while we were there on Saturday the 30th. Their guest list included 70 plus close friends and family. On their property there is a natural rock area where they set up the coals for some tasty Dutch Oven Chicken to slow cook and a bon fire to later sit around.Their lush grassy side yard provided the perfect setting for the party.
They also provided a huge array of wines and other drinks to have while eating and visiting. It was a fun night and all wished Pam a very Happy Birthday. I won’t say how old she is turning, but will say she is younger than I am by several years (grin). You go girl, you look wonderfully young!!!
Also on May 30th my daughter and daughter-in-law turned a year older. They are a few years apart, but share the same birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!!

We left Boise on June 1 and made a half day drive to the John Day Recreation Area and parked the coach along the south side of the Columbia River (Oregon’s exit 109) near the base of the John Day Dam. We could not believe how hot and humid it was. Hood River (just west of us) was 100 with a threat of Thunder and lightning. Thankfully, there was a breeze (very warm) from the river, and we had all of the coach’s windows open to keep the breeze flowing through. We had dinner at a small restaurant near the dam. We then spent the evening sitting outside relaxing and enjoying the declining day.

The next morning, we were up early and pulled out at 8 am. We fueled up at the Flying J in Troutdale and headed for Salem. We arrived home at 11:30 am. That’s when all the work began! It is a wonder at how much has to be laundered and cleaned upon leaving the coach. We also had to get the house back in living shape. We first had to turn the water and water heater back on, and make sure the satellite had been reactivated. Once that was done, we drove to the post office to pick up our mail and resume delivery. When we got back home, the water was hot enough to begin washing clothes, blankets, and rugs. I still had to restart the newspaper, and make some crucial appointments before we head back out of town near the end of the month. By bedtime, we both were totally pooped!! Oh yeah, the temperature was a humid 82 degrees. It is supposed to stay kinda warm, with some thunder showers the next week (I hate that humidity).

Even though it’s a lot of work, we are at least home safe and sound, and God willing we will be back on the road for a 12 day camping trip in Eastern Oregon with our bestest friends over the 4th of July holiday.

Yellowstone

2009-05-29T13:04:00.000-07:00

After leaving Twin Falls, we drove to West Yellowstone and arrived at The Grizzly RV Park at 12:50 pm. We saw snow in the mountain passes and could see where the park had recently had a lot of snow. Thankfully, there was no snow when we arrived, but there were some small piles around the park. Of course in the week we were there, it did melt.

The whole seven days we were at the Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone, we never knew whether we were going to have Internet or not. The park charges for unlimited WiFi, but not all the spots receive it very well. As it happened, we were in one of the worst spots. No, we didn’t pay for the usage, but did opt for “coupons” which allowed us to connect free every 10 hours. As I said, the connection was terrible (actually, it sucked!!) but I worked around it. I couldn’t even get good cell reception on my air card, so that wasn't even an option! I did use my iPhone to get emails and such when we were in town. There were a few times I was able to upload and get stuff done on the PC, but that didn't happen often. When I did manage to get on line, the service was more like dial up and not speedy at all....it seemed to take forever to get anything done on it. Even though Internet and cell reception were an annoyance, it didn't stop us from enjoying the days we were sightseeing (and geocaching) in Yellowstone Park.

Friday morning we woke to 33 degrees, but the sun was up and shining bright all day long. The temperature actually got up to 67 degrees, but the evenings were so cold that we had to use the heater. We hurridly got our stuff together (cameras, binoculars, snacks, and jackets) and drove into Yellowstone. Boy is it nice to have the Golden Age Pass! We just showed it to the ranger at the entrance and drove through with no charge.

Since Yellowstone is a National Park, no physical geocache containers are allowed to be placed there. The only thing allowed is Earth Caches and Virtuals. Earth Caches deal with geological formations, and the person who places the cache asks the finder to email them some type of historical data (or post a picture) in order to claim the find. As for virtuals, the finder has to go to a certain spot and email the owner something about what you see there (usually a name or something). Of course, there are many geological features in Yellowstone, so there were a lot of "caches" to locate. As it was, we ended up finding 29 of them.

Since Friday was our first day in the park, we drove to the most famous spot of all (Old Faithful). Old Faithful, as usual, was great. Almost as soon as we got there, the geyser was about to go off. However, we were in for a surprise and got to see both Beehive Geyser and Old Faithful going off within 2 minutes of each other. The ranger said that is not a common occurence, so we were really fortunate. The first picture is of Beehive going off and the second picture is the world famous Old Faithful spouting off.After watching those two go off, we continued to walk around the boardwalk and saw more hot bubbly pools and spouting geysers.

It was still early when we left the upper geyser basin, so we wanted to go see the Grand Prismatic area (mid geyser basin) but it was closed to bear activity, so we ended up going further north to Mammoth Hot Springs.At Mammoth, we climbed the steps to the top of Minerva just to find the answers to one of the Earth Caches we were researching.Some of the stuff needed was pretty technical, but we managed to send the owner an email on what he was looking for. We had planned on having dinner at the restaurant in town, but ended up with an an ice cream instead. Neither of us was very hungry after climbing up and down the steps around Minerva.

As we were driving back to West Yellowstone, we saw a group of Bison (cows and calves) on the road. These animals are so big, the cars don’t even bother them. We all had to stop and wait for them to move on down the road.

Saturday, we headed northeast to Canyon City and drove around both the north and south rims to view the the falls areas.The prettiest spot is the overlook called Artists Point. The colors were awesome! It was a fantastic 70 degree day, and we spent a lot of time walking the “many” steps up and down to various view points.

From Canyon City, we headed south to Fishing Bridge, then back by Old Faithful and north again to Madison and on to West Yellowstone. During that drive, we saw a Grizzly Sow and her cub, along with a lot more Elk and bison. This is a long distant shot of the sow and her cub. The sow shows up ok, but the cub is really hard to see.Here is a good close up of a cow Elk.Sunday, we got up early and actually looked for, and found, three physical caches that were hidden near town (not in the park). It was cold and sprinkling rain, so we didn’t stay out long. Good thing we went back to the coach because the skies turned black, and it started to rain very hard. It poured the rest of the day and most of the night. Again, we had to have the heater on because it didn’t get over 59 degrees that day.

Monday, the sun was back out and the temps were back up. This time it actually hit 70. Could not believe what a beautiful day it was. We went back into the park and drove south to West Thumb and walked around the basin there. West Thumb is actually a crater within a crater inside the huge Caldera of Yellowstone. Confusing, but with all the earth caches we were doing, we learned a lot about how the whole area was formed. We spent a lot of time in West Thumb and took our time driving back to the coach.

Tuesday, it was again a very nice day, so we drove to Jackson Hole. Now that was a long drive!! We were amazed to see Lewis Lake completely frozen over.Yes, there was a lot of snow along the Continental Divide, but once down in the Tetons the only snow we saw was in the mountains.

Jackson really hasn’t changed since we were there several years ago. We stopped at a couple places and even had lunch there, but everything was so high priced we didn’t buy anything. We spent more time stopping and taking pictures of the Tetons. What amazing mountains. No matter how often we see them, they continue to awe us.It was late by the time we got back to the coach, so just had a quick snack before cleaning up and calling it a night.

Wednesday was a clean the coach day (inside and out) and get ready to leave on Thursday.

Thursday, May 28, we were up early and off to Boise, Idaho. We are now in Ken's brother's driveway (huge parking area) until Monday morning.

Fun with Family

2009-05-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

We had a great time visiting with our son and his family the six days we were in the Twin Falls area. The kids live in a small town about 40 miles north east of Twin Falls, so we had a long drive each day just to visit and to attend the three huge events that our twin grandsons were celebrating.

On saturday, May 16, we were honored to watch the boys (James and Edward) receive their Eagle Badge from the Boy Scouts.Grandpa Pavelek, who is an Eagle, had the privilege to speak at the boys “Court of Honor.” His speech touched on how much work the boys had to do in order to reach the Eagle level. Plus he spoke about the history of the Eagle, and how things were different 50 years ago when he received his Eagle Badge. James and Edward had to work their way up many levels in the scouts and finish a public service project in order to qualify for the Eagle. We are very proud of them for sticking with their goals and not letting “girls” or other peer pressures sway them from attaining their goal.

On Sunday, we were in attendance when the boys graduated from their church’s Seminary class.They along with others from their class had to attend a 4 year religious training and history class that began at 7 am, Monday thru Friday. In order to graduate from “Seminary,” they had to have an 82 percent attendance. The church where the graduation took place is in Carey, which is another 15 miles east of where the kids live, so it was a long drive for us, but it was gratifying to see these two boys again stick with something and complete it.

Finally, on Monday the 18th, James & Edward graduated from High School.
This is Edward.This is James.
That day it was 95 degrees and the graduation took place in the high school’s “very hot” gym at 8 pm. The class of 2009 was the largest class Richfield has had, and I think every person who lives in Richfield was there to watch. The “huge class” of 20 had been together since grade school.The long speeches and accolades ended at 10 pm, then everyone received their diploma. That’s when the party began. Our grandsons had a group of kids over to their place for Pizza and Root Beer (they don’t drink alcohol) and were up all night long partying. It was a hot, glorious evening for all!! We didn’t stick around for the party because we still had the 40 mile drive back to the coach, so we left right after the boys received their diplomas.

The week’s visit with the kids ended all too soon, and we pulled out of the KOA park Thursday (21st) morning.

Drive to Twin Falls:

2009-05-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Friday, May 15 was not fun!! We left the park around 8 am and made it down the road a few miles before being stopped for road construction. We had a long wait before a pilot car led us through the one and only lane that was open. We then made it down the road about 45 miles and 6 police cars coming at us with lights flashing forced us to the side of the road because they were escorting 3 huge loader bodies on trailers down this very narrow highway. These police cars were spread far apart, so thankfully they gave us several miles of warning. Thank God there was a wide enough shoulder for us to pull over on and wait until they all went by! After about a 10 minute wait, we were back on the road and heading for Jackpot (on the border of Nevada and Idaho).

The road from Ely to Jackpot was a very long boring drive, and Ken needed a little break, so we decided to pull into the rest area about a mile south of Jackpot. As we made the turn into the rest area, we saw a sign that said “NO TRUCKS.” Oh, Oh, we were already committed and couldn’t turn out, so we headed on in. Well it looked fine and we really thought we had enough room to turn around in.Ken wasn't worried, so he went ahead and took his long needed break. With the Jeep attached, we measure about 65 feet in length, so our turning radius is not good.

This is a picture of what we look like hooked up and ready to roll. No, this was not taken in the rest area. This was actually taken a little south of Ely.After Ken had his much needed rest, he decided to try and make the turn to get back on the road. Well, he turned the coach and Jeep as sharp as he could, but we ran out of room. Of course with the Jeep attached, we couldn't back up....SO, the only thing we could do was to go outside and unhook the Jeep. After we unhooked, Ken had the ability to back up and jog the coach around to make the drive out. All of this time, we had the entrance blocked and people were driving in watching and waiting for us to clear the area (not fun). Finally, he got the coach in position where I could pull the Jeep up behind, and we re-hooked up and got the heck outta there.

The final 40 minute drive to Twin Falls was uneventful, but then we got on Blue Lakes Blvd on the north side of Twin Falls. As far as we knew the route through Twin Falls to the Jerome KOA (where we were staying) is north on hwy 93, then east on hwy 30, and north on Blue Lakes Blvd to I-84. Yes, we were using the GPS, but that was/is the main route and we didn't want to try any unknown routes with the coach. Well, we made it to Blue Lakes Blvd with no problems, then, just a couple blocks north on the Blvd, we ran into more road construction (aarrgghh). All the south bound lanes were closed and were being routed on to one of the two north bound lanes and the left side of the north bound lane was merging into the right hand land…..Thankfully, we were already in the far right lane that was being merged into, but the traffic was extra heavy and the traffic lights (many of them) seemed to last forever. Plus, there were those idiots who thought they could rush up as far as possible then force their way in ahead of those already in the right lane. Well Ken kept the nose of the coach as close as possible to the vehicle in front, so no one was going to get in front of us (grin).

It took us 30 long, nerve-racking minutes to travel five miles, but we finally made it through the mess and to the KOA just north of the I-84 interchange. We checked in and were settled by 4 pm.

When we checked in at the KOA RV Park, we were told of another way to bypass the construction, so we did drive back into town to do some shopping at Costco and get a marvelous dinner at a local Thai Restaurant. Temperature was 67, but the forecast was for warmer weather in the next couple days.

Ely, Nevada

2009-05-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

We left the AVI Casino/RV Park on Wednesday, May 13. It was 7:10 in the morning and already 74 degrees! We took the Mojave Highway north to highway 163, then west where we connected with 95 going north to Searchlight, Nevada. At Searchlight, we cut west to I-15 and drove north towards Las Vegas. One thing about I-15 going through Vegas….it is NOT fun!! They were in the midst of road construction where the freeway goes behind ALL the casinos along “the strip.” We were forced from three lanes down to one all the way through town. After we got through town and on the north side, the lanes opened up to two, but the traffic was still very heavy until we got to the junction of I-15 and highway 93.

At the junction of 93 and I-15, Ken took a break from the driving and parked the coach in a “truck stop” spot where a Mexican “Taco” lunch wagon was set up serving some nice looking meals.A lot of trucks were pulling in and out of the area during the 15 minutes we parked there. I saw one trucker taking a huge burrito back to his truck for lunch. If we had been hungry, we would have gotten something. Alas, we were in a hurry and had to move on. By then, the temperature was 85 degrees.

We headed west on 93, then took highway 318 towards Ely, Nevada. As we headed north, we could see snow in the distant mountains, and the temperature was getting cooler (what a relief). We reached the KOA in Ely, Nevada at 3:30, and it was a blessed 64 degrees…..no air conditioner(s) needed that night (grin). After we were settled, we went into town and had a steak dinner at nice restaurant and did a couple local caches before going back to the coach where we headed to bed early (we both were tired).

Thursday, May 14 was a busy day! We went caching and Garnet mining. The caching was minimal, only found 12 caches, but we had a ball Garnet mining.

We have been to these Garnet fields before, but never really found anything nice. This time, we actually found a couple neat small stones (and a lot of tiny ones). The Garnet fields are overseen by the BLM and at various times of the year they blow up the fields to crumble the rock for locals and others to come up and “dig” for Garnets. It was a marvelous day and the temperature only reached 67 degrees……Oh so nice!

Like I said earlier, we did some caching while in Ely. We took a drive up in the hills to a place called Summit Hill for a cache and actually ran into snow. We didn't drive in any, but did drive through a lot of melting (muddy) runoff. This picture is where we stopped at the top (for a cache).

Yep, that's us way down there!

It was a fun day, but as all good things do, it had to come to an end, and we had to head back down the mountain and back to the coach. The next day (Friday) we were pulling out and heading for Twin Fall, Idaho.

Queen Valley to Mojave

2009-05-19T11:14:00.000-07:00

During our last few days in Queen Valley, the temperatures were well into the 100s, but no humidity made it somewhat comfortable. That’s what’s great about Arizona, it’s a dry heat after all!! Plus, we had the Air Conditioners on (grin).

We left Queen Valley on May 10 (Sunday) and had an uneventful trip through Phoenix. We traveled west on I-10, then north on highways 72/62/95 through Parker and Needles and arrived the AVI RV/Casino (KOA Park) at 2 pm. At that point, the temperature was 97, but quickly hit 102 (whew). Thankfully, by that time we had the ACs on (both of them) and were very comfortable. The rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning in and outside the coach. That evening, we were too tired to cook in, so we drove across the river to Bullhead City and had a relaxing dinner.

Monday, the 11th, we got up early (a glorious cool 73 degrees). One great thing about being near a casino is the great inexpensive cafés and restaurants (grin). We didn’t want to cook in, so went for breakfast at the AVI Casino’s Café. Our breakfast was huge and not expensive! After eating, we were stuffed and needed to work it off, so off we went to the hills for some off roading and hiking to caches. As the day wore on, it got way too hot to continue (101 at 1pm). By that time we had found 11 caches and hiked enough to wear ourselves out, so quit and headed back to coach. We were wise enough to have turned the air conditioners on, so things were nice and cool. The temperature that day hit a high of 103 at the Bullhead City Airport, but we recorded 105 on the coach’s thermometer. It was again way too hot to cook in, so drove back to Bullhead City and had dinner at the Black Bear Diner.

Tuesday, May 12, was going to be even warmer, so we left the coach early, and after grabbing a quick breakfast at McDonalds, we drove about 20 miles east to Oatman.

This is a fun, historic town in the hills on old Route 66 that is a living Ghost Town. The biggest draw to Oatman is a herd of “wild” burros, that really aren’t that wild anymore. The herd is several generations old, and are protected and under the control of the forest service. These “begging” burros are seen all around town waiting to be fed carrots from the visitors. They actually were at the entrance of town when we saw them, and in the middle of the road, so we had to drive around them in order to get into town.

We walked from one end of the town to the other and then back again, going into every souvenir shop. We even had some homemade ice cream while watching a robbery/shootout in the middle of town (great fun).

Naturally, we cached on the way to Oatman, in Oatman, and on the way back to coach from Oatman. Yay, we found 17 caches! A few of those caches were off road (some 4 wheel drive roads) and involved some uphill scrambling. Some were pretty easy and close to where we parked. One was actually in a shop in the town of Oatman (that was fun!)

As we left the mountains, the temps rose to 105 degrees. While in the hills, we were warm/hot, but there was a nice breeze…..that just was not so in Bullhead City.

Twitter does it all

2009-05-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

As you all can see, my daily ramblings from Twitter are all being posted here on the left hand side of my blog page. That is the reason I am being lazy about doing long blog updates.

I promise I will post pictures and a more detailed blog once I have more time. Hopefully, that will happen once we slow down after the visit with the kids.

We arrived in Twin Falls on Friday after a two day stop in Ely, Nevada. We will be here in Twin Falls until Thursday the 21st, then move the coach to Yellowstone.

We had a very nice day yesterday with the twins Court of Honor. The Boy Scout Eagle Badge is quite an honor!! We are very proud of them both for this very special achievement!!

Today is a graduation rite from their church seminary (something I really don't understand), but we will be tied up all afternoon and most of the evening with that festivity.

Then, the final event is their high school graduation tomorrow night. After their graduation ceremony, there is a huge family gathering with tons of eats. Actually, each day has involved eating with a large family grouping. I don't know why we can't get away from food, but I guess that is the way it goes when you are retired (grin).

Anyhow, until I can post a more detailed blog, just keep up with my tiny posts via my Twitter updates on this page.

HOT

2009-05-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

It hit 105 today!! Thank heavens for air conditioning; today would not have been fun without it. What's really nice is when the sun goes down. The baking stops and things do start cooling. We turn the AC off around 9:30 pm and open all the windows for a marvelous cool breeze. The low this morning was 73. Now that may sound warm to all of you, but we actually felt cold (grin). According to the weather report, it's going to stay in the triple digits for at least the next week (maybe longer). At least it's a dry heat!!

We are pulling out of Queen Valley Sunday morning and heading for Laughlin, NV. Unfortunately, even Laughlin will be 105 when we get there. We were planning on doing some caching while there, but it may be too hot. Not sure, but we may just go out for a short period in the mornings and stay inside during most of the day and come back out in the evening. May even wander the river walk to keep cool.

We are almost ready to go. The sun shields still have to come down and the awnings need to be put up, but we won't do those things until after sunset tomorrow.

This morning while Ken was taking stuff up to the shed, he saw this on the road. Needless-to-say, he had to grab the camera and take a couple pictures.

This guy isn't the biggest we have seen, but he is just as poisonous. He really wasn't that worried about us and never did coil up. He just leisurely crawled off into the brush.

I just looked at the thermometer on the coach's dash, and it is showing 99. That's because the sun is setting below the hills and isn't shinning on the front of the coach any more. Now it will get dark fast and the temp will drop to the high 70s...Sweet Relief!!

Almost Ready

2009-05-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

Only four days to go and we will be heading for Laughlin, Nevada. We would have loved to leave earlier because it is going to be hot, VERY HOT (triple digits) the next few days. However, we aren't quite ready!! And, Ken really only wants to travel on a Sunday....since we missed this last Sunday, we have to shoot for this next Sunday the 10th.

The bench in our storage shed still isn't done, so it looks like that will have to wait until next season. We will be putting our Wrangler in the shed this summer, which is more secure than it was last summer. There is sooooo much on the Wrangler that can be stolen, and we were very uncomfortable leaving it out in the open last year. At least this year, we can breathe a lot easier.

Finishing up on the addition to the rock shop has been a big job for Ken, but he is almost done...just a couple more things to do, and he will be able to lock it up for the summer.

The stuff around the coach is mostly put away, but still have the outside lights to take down.They are the easiest of things to take down and put away, so that all can be done in a couple hours.

Our mail from home arrived today, but that was after the office was closed, so can't get it until tomorrow. The office here is now on "summer" hours and is only open a few hours a day and not at all on the weekend. Our park is several miles off the main highway and there aren't that many "unreserved" travelers showing up for a night, so the managers feel the office really doesn't need to be open for long. It really is like a ghost town around here right now. Because of the heat, we only see a few people wandering around; usually early in the morning or late in the evening and never during the middle of the day. Yes, the manager does see the unexpected arrival of travelers who suddenly drop in for a night or two. Of course, the phone in the office and the manager's residence is still operating, so the people who have reservations are always being taken care of.

We still have to check the hookup for the Jeep (Grand Cherokee) and make sure the turn signals, and brake lights work, but that can't be done until we pull out of the site and hook things up to the coach. We always hold our breath until things are all hooked up and working.

SO, we are on the count down for leaving our winter home!! Our schedule is to be in Laughlin three nights (10th, 11th, and 12th), then we will be in Ely, Nevada on the 13th, and 14th. On May 15, we will be parking at the KOA in Twin Falls, Idaho for 6 nights. While in Twin Falls, we will be attending our twin grandsons (Edward & James) graduation from high school, and their very special award of the Eagle Badge from the Boy Scouts. We are VERY proud of them!!

Baby Pics

2009-05-01T09:00:00.001-07:00

This is the week for new babies!

I received word the other day that my cousin has a new grand daughter. I don't know what number this is for him, but each and every one is precious. This little girl is Angelina Alyssa. She weighed in at 6 pounds 7 ounces and was only 17 1/2 inches long. Congrats to Grampa Bill and Gramma Maria!!

This is "Angel" Isn't she cute!!!

As I stated in my last post, our bestest friends became proud grand parents for the very first time. Needless-to-say, everyone is very excited and happy!! Her name is Madilyn Mae and she weighed in at 7 pounds 14 ounces and was 20 inches long. Here is a huge congrats to Grampa Rod and Gramma Lynda!!

Here is the adoreable Madi!!

Oh, I can see it now. Each of these little girls are going to be huge heart breakers! God Bless them both and their families!! Love you all!!

End of April

2009-04-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

What has happened to our winter? I can't believe that tomorrow is May 1st!

At my last posting, I said it was supposed to hit triple digits. YES IT DID! It reached 102 on April 21st, but only for that day. The next couple days it was in the high 90s. Since the 24th it has been in the very comfortable mid to high 80s. However, it may hit triple digits once again before we leave, but that is why we have Air Conditioning (grin).

Ken has continued to work/monitor in the rock shop, but today was his last day to have it open for park use. Now he has to clean up the machinery and close it up for the summer.

With all our preparations, we still aren't ready to head north. Ken still has to finish building his shelves in the storage unit and revamp the outside vent. Also, during the last high winds, we had a strap break on one of the slider awnings, so had to find some new ones. Needless-to-say, all we found were too short, so had to special order some. I still have to get my hair cut and we have to wait for our mail from home to arrive. Doesn't look like we are going to be able to leave until the end of next week.....maybe Sunday the 10th. I do have everything ready to shut down at that time, so we have to leave by then (lol).

Not every day has been a work day. On Tuesday, the 28th, we took a break and went in search for an unusual Saguaro that we had only visited once a couple years ago. This Saguaro is in an area very close to what we call Box Canyon, but the road getting there is not that apparent and most of it is in a very narrow, sandy wash. Thank goodness for the Wrangler because I don't think we would want to take our Grand Cherokee back there. Anyhow, we found the cactus and "duh" neither of us brought the camera. Well I did have my iPhone, so did manage to get a few shots. No, the iPhone does not have a great camera, but it gives you the idea of what we were looking at. Isn't it something else?This Saguaro is huge and has a fantastic mutated top.We were very surprised to see it had a bloom in an area that we could reach to get a nice picture (see the little white speck on the tip of that downward arm). Ken had to step on a rock and hold on to me for balance as he managed to get some of these shots. I must say, he did a good job!! These shots really are of the Saguaro Bloom. Don't they look fake?

Of course while we were out "wheelin," we did find 19 caches. They were all way off road or at the top of some awful hill (tough climb). We even had to chase 2 King Snakes off the road so we could pass. We really didn't want to run over them! With the 19 finds, we surpassed 5,200 finds. Hopefully, when we get to Laughlin, we will be able to devote more time to caching... no, we don't gamble when we stop there.

We also got word last night that our best friends became grand parents for the very first time. CONGRATS TO R&L and especially to S&G on the birth of a beautiful little girl named Madelyn Mae!! We are dying to see her!!!

Latest

2009-04-20T11:59:00.000-07:00

Boy our weather sure is changing! From the high winds and cold days just a few days ago, we are now at calm, very warm (hot) days. Last Thursday (16th) it was 68 degrees, and yesterday (19th) it was 95. I just looked at the thermometer and it is already 94, and it is just Noon. Gonna be a very hot day! AND, Yes, I do have the AC on!! Tomorrow (if not today), there is a huge chance we will hit 100 degrees for the first time this year. It won't stay this way for long....they say it will be back down to the low 80s by the end of this weekend. They call this the "Pre-bake" time for 2009 (LOL).

Yesterday, Ken & I took the Wrangler down south for a whole day of geocaching and off roading. We didn't do anything terribly hard, but Ken did end up hiking up a couple large hills in search of ammo cans. No, I wasn't going up to those places, besides he goes a lot faster without some whining woman behind him complaining about his choice of route (grin).

We ended up on some pretty narrow trails (ATV paths) and did get some pin striping on the Wrangler.... oh well, that is why we have it. Even with all the hiking and jeeping, we found 26 caches and have made it to a grand total of 5,182 finds. No, we didn't see any Rattle Snakes, but we did come across a very huge Bull Snake. He was lounging in the dirt road and we almost ran over him, but he quickly came to his senses and got the heck away from us as fast as he could. All we saw after we realized what it was, was just a black undulating streak heading for the brush. We also saw our first baby Quails. They are soooo cute! They were running so fast, they looked like little bugs running across the ground. Mama and Papa Quail were making sure ALL their babies got away from us....they are very good parents!

Today, Ken is cleaning up the rock shop saws and getting ready to shut down the shop for the season. Not a lot of people left to work in the shop, so it is time to close it down. Ken will continue to work on his jewelry long after the shop is closed. He has most of his pendants done, so now it will be mostly beading.

We are also getting our shed (8' x 25') ready to keep the Wrangler in for the summer. With the shed being enclosed, we won't have to worry about any of the stuff walking away from the Jeep, nor will we have to worry about pack rats or any other kind of critter chewing all the wiring up (that does happen to a lot of vehicles left out for the summer). There have been instances where some of the park models had rodents chew their wires up and cause fires when the owners came back for the winter. Now a lot of people make sure their places have "rat/rodent" deterences around their places when they leave.

I am still having a hard time believing it is nearing May, and that we will soon be heading north. I still don't know where the last several months have gone. It doesn't seem like we accomplished very much, but we were always busy....go figure. Anyhow, it is nearing the time that we will be heading north and watching our grandsons (twins) graduate from high school and also watching them get their Boy Scout Eagle Badges. What an honor for them both to be receiving that badge.

ALSO, We were reminded the other day that our very close friends (you know who you are) are soon to be grand parents. We just want to remind you guys to let us know when little Maddie arrives....we also want pictues!! Love you guys!!!

Late Update!

2009-04-10T12:52:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the late update, but I have been playing way too much on Face Book and Twitter and have ignored my main Blog. Check it out and send me a friend notice for Face Book IF you are on it. As for Twitter, I am known as Cachinbird (see the link at left of this page "Snobird's Tweet Site." Look me up and follow me if you want.

I have added more photos to “Our Web Album” for your viewing pleasure. The link is on the left side of this page.

It’s Good Friday and our park’s “season” is basically over. Many of our friends and neighbors have already pulled up stakes and headed back to their “other” homes. I still don’t know why because our weather here has been exceptionally cooler and nicer (albeit more wind) then in years past. To date, it has been 50 days without measureable rain, however, it is predicted that will end this evening (rain is forecasted for tonight and tomorrow).

You ask, “What have we been doing?”

Well on the 27th there was a group from our park who took a drive to Superior and went to Arizona’s famous 1880s Silver King Mine site.
We were treated to a short story about the mine from Jack San Felice, who wrote the book “When Silver Was King,” which is a marvelous book detailing the discovery and history of the mine. The mine is dormant now and rests quietly below the mountains for which it was named. See the crown? It is a bit left in the pic at the top of the mountain. The big crown is the "king" and the smaller one a bit lower and left is the "Queen."The 28th, we paid a visit to our “sick” Wrangler that was in the Jeep hospital. Seems the previous owner neglected to tell us that the gas tank had a problem and we didn’t notice it until it refused to run anymore…we thought it was the fuel pump. We were told the Jeep had landed on a rock too hard and the skid plate under the tank was pushed up into the tank and cracked the feeder hose in the tank. Our bouncing around on some rough roads the last few months enhanced the crack to the point that the fuel pump was sucking mostly air and little fuel. So, the tank, skid plate, and more had to be replaced. We were told it would take another week or so to finish because a 1993 tank was not available and they would have to build one (yikes).

On the 31st, we drove to Mesa and Chandler to do some geocaching. From 10:30 AM to 4 PM, we found 31 caches and even stopped for lunch and dinner in that period of time. It wasn’t a hard day and didn’t even go off road even though we had the Grand Cherokee and could have.

On April first, friends (Larry & Laura) from Spokane arrived in our park for a week. They had been in Tucson for a couple months and were working their way back to Washington and decided to pay us a visit. What fun it was seeing them and showing them our little neck of AZ.

On the 2nd, we, along with Larry and Laura, spent the whole day in town and had lunch at a neat restaurant in Apache Junction called “Dirtwater Springs.” Check it out on Google…some say it’s good and some not so good. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the food was not pricey, but good. For the evening we went to the AZ Opry. As always, we were treated to a marvelous show along with a nice dinner and even better dessert.

On the 3rd, we had strong winds with gusts up to 50mph (not a fun day). Larry and Laura had stuff to do that day, but we got together for happy hour and put the Margarita Machine to work (inside, the winds were too strong to stay outside). While enjoying the Margaritas we “happily” played the evening away learning a new card game called “nothing.” Around 10 pm we heard “rain?” (if you can call it that) on the coach. That was a surprise because rain was not in the forecast!

We woke the next morning ( 4th) with mud splattered all over the cars and coaches….thanks to the meager “rain” we had the night before. There was soooo much dust in the air from the high winds that when the rain did come, all it did was bring the dust (mud) down on everything (yuk). The morning was clear and sunny, so we took Larry and Laura to a place they hadn’t been before. We drove east to Boyce Thompson Arboretum and spent the day there. The walk through the park was gorgeous with many of the cacti and plants in bloom. With the slight breeze (wonderful), the main loop trail was a delight to do.

This is just a sampling of the 134 pictures that ken took. To see the rest, click this link Our Web Album and then click on the Boyce Thompson Arboretum Album. There are more albums there to enjoy, so take your time and click through all of them.

When we got back to our coach for the evening, the wind, again, kicked up so it wasn’t a good idea to eat outside. Instead, we all gathered together in our coach for a marvelous dinner, then Ken & I taught Larry & Laura a new game called Jokers and Marbles. In spite of the wind, it was fun evening!!

On the 5th, we all went to lunch at Arizona’s only active Olive Mill near the San Tan Mountains. After lunch, we went to a nearby mall and did some shopping (girls did). Later in the day, we joined a group (about 40) from our park at a quaint restaurant called San Tan Flats for dinner. There was live “outside” entertainment where everyone could dance along with open pit fires where everyone could make their own “smores.” The smoke was a bit much for us, so we didn’t stay too late. Besides, everyone was pretty tired from the long day and busy week.

On Monday, Larry and Laura spent the morning making calls and plans for their leaving on Tuesday, so we just got together for happy hour and dinner in Gold Canyon at the Red Sage Restaurant (always a great place for a nice meal).

Also on the 6th was our son’s 46th birthday!!! Happy Birthday Bill, we love you!!!

Sadly, Larry and Laura pulled out Tuesday morning heading for the Grand Canyon and much cooler weather. They only plan on staying there a couple days before making their way back to the cold temps of home in Spokane, Washington. What fun it was to have them visit us for a week!!

Also on Tuesday, we had word that our Wrangler was ready to pick up (yea). After doing some needed grocery shopping, Ken retrieved the Wrangler while I drove the Grand Cherokee back home. When Ken got home, we took the Wrangler out for a trial run on a semi rough road and found two new caches. It seemed to run smoother, so hopefully, we won’t have that problem again. In the next few days, we will try it out on rougher roads and see what happens.

Right now, we are being warned of another storm coming from the west. Again, we are told there will be high winds with even higher gusts along with the chance of some needed rain. We are supposed to get measureable rain up to .50 of an inch tonight through all day tomorrow. Wow, this is going to make a very cool Easter on Sunday.

Anyhow, that is all I have for right now, so HAPPY EASTER to everyone and a wish you all are happy and healthy. God Bless!!!

Season winding down.

2009-03-26T14:18:00.000-07:00

The end of this season will soon be here. Already some residents are packing up and heading home. The huge exodus will begin about the first week of March. Don’t know why because it is still cold and snowy in most parts. Some say it’s because of taxes, and others say they have “work” to do…Ugh, that awful four letter word! We will truly enjoy April when it is quiet and warm/hot (very few will be left here then).

This last week our temps have fluctuated from the very high 80s (90 on Sat) back down to the high 70s. Actually, it dropped to 71 with a low of 48 on Monday (brr). We have also had some extremely high winds which is fueling a fire in the Tucson area. Really don’t know much about the fire, but the winds are making it very hard to fight. There is a statewide high wind warning through tomorrow morning. Now what AZ considers as high winds (gust range 30-60 mph) is much lower than what we get in Oregon, but what we have here blows all the nasty stuff around….dust, pollen, and even valley fever fungus (not a fun lung disease). It is always a good idea to stay inside (with doors and windows closed) when the wind blows like this.

Since last posting, there have been three dinners and even a geocaching event that we have been to. The caching event was held in the desert about 38 miles south of us. It was hosted by a group of geocachers from Apache Junction (A.J.A.C.S.). This was the fifth year the Apache Junction Area Caching Society has hosted this camping event. It was a weekend (three day) event, but we drove down on Saturday and spent the whole day visiting and having a great time with everyone. Here we all are sitting around during the drawing of raffle tickets.The group hid 25 new caches for everyone to go look for, but since it hit 90 degrees that day, we opted to wait for a cooler day to go in search. Besides, the rattle snakes are out and we didn’t want to tangle with anymore of them. Several cachers did run into snakes and even a Gila Monster (yikes)….

Like I said earlier, our season is winding down, but the rock shop will remain open until mid April, so Ken is staying just as busy as usual. He did find some time to make a necklace, bracelet, and earring set for a lady here in the park. She had an old Amethyst and Turquoise bracelet that she loved, but it was hard to hook up, so she asked Ken to put on a new clasp for her….well that new clasp ended up in being a whole new set. As they were checking out her old bracelet, Ken showed her some crystal Amethyst beads from Swarovsky and she liked them better, so decided she wanted a new bracelet made, plus a necklace and earrings to go with it. Yes, she did keep the old bracelet, but she will be wearing the whole new set instead. They really did turn out nice!! Pretty aren't they!!Ken now has 15 pendants ready for next year’s craft sale and will be adding more crystal type necklaces to his list. He plans on using only the best crystal and Sterling Silver for his jewelry.

Pinto Valley

2009-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, our daughter and son-in-law, Leigh & Tim celebrated an anniversary. So glad we had a chance to talk and glad to hear you were doing special for your day. Hope you guys had fun! We love and miss you!!

Our Saturday evening was spent in Globe attending a geocaching event. The event was held at a small Mexican restaurant where great food and drinks were served. We especially enjoyed the Margaritas (yum). Globe is an hour east of Queen Valley, so of course, we managed to find 7 caches while on the way there. There was a great turnout and everyone had a great time visiting with each other and exchanging all kinds of cache stories. We are hoping that they will hold more in the future.

Monday was a quiet day after our weekly morning coffee social. Ken worked in the rock shop as usual and probably will be involved there through mid April. He is president of the club and spends a great deal of time involved in rock shop stuff... but he too has had more time to work on his own stuff and hopes to have a lot more jewelry done for next year's craft sale.

On Tuesday the 17th, we led a small group out on a back road trip to show them how we geocache. They had their own GPSes and had previously checked out GC.com, but hadn’t really done anything on it. Our trip took us east towards Globe where we turned south on a dirt and rocky road called Pinto Valley Road. The road was really in a lot better shape than we expected, but the drive still involved many steep ups and downs, plus some hairpin turns all the while climbing towards an 8,000 foot high mountain (Pinal Peak). Along the way, we all managed to find 8 caches and all had a great time. We even found a nice shady spot to have lunch.This is a view from where we had lunch.Our last cache was at a junction where we could either try to reach the mountain top or head back down to the town of Globe. A couple weeks ago, we would never have had the choice because that area was then inches deep in snow. However, when we got there on Tuesday, it was clear (and warm) and no snow in sight, so we decided to travel the next 3 miles up to the top. However, as we made our way up there, we encountered some snow on the sides of the road, then about 1/2 mile from the top we had to stop because the road was covered with snow and we could see where someone had recently slipped off the road.We knew we could make it to the top, but coming down may have been much trickier and we didn't want to take the chance, so we stopped and just played in the snow there. It was a beautiful sunny warm day, but there it was quite cool and refreshing. Coda (the shepherd) loved it!! She played in the snow and even caught scent of a wild animal, but thankfully, she was on a leash and couldn’t run after it.
After our own playing in the snow and taking pictures, we decided it was time to head back down to town (Globe) and then head back to home.

That is Globe in the distance.
It was a great day to be out with friends and enjoy some country we hadn’t had the chance to explore before.

Sad News

2009-03-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

I just received the sad news that the Lord has taken Andie Grace.
Anderson (Andie) Grace Paulus was only two days old when she was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with "Coarctation of the Aorta." She survived the surgery, but had many ups and downs. Thousands faithfully read her blog (andiegrace.blogspot.com) and all were praying that she would gain strength and overcome the many obstacles that were being placed in her way. However, God had other plans for baby Andie. While she was in her mommy and daddy's arms today at 1 pm, God took her home. She was only three weeks old.

Andie is now blessedly free from pain, but her spirit will continue to live on in and around her family until they too can joyfully join her in heaven.

God Bless ALL of Andie's family!!! Our hearts and prayers are with you!!

Rattle Snake

2009-03-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, this is going to be the season of lots of snakes....

There was a 41 inch Rattle Snake killed in the storage area of our park a couple days ago and just today, three more were spotted by a group of ATVers from our park.

We also saw another Diamond Back (coon tail) Rattle Snake today. This guy wasn't very big, but he was extremely irate.

When we first saw him, he was stretched out on the gravel road enjoying the nice warm sun. When he sensed us, he started to crawl off, but we got to him before he got to the edge of the road. Ken stopped the Jeep, and quickly grabbed the hiking stick while I grabbed my cell phone (I forgot the good camera). Ken got near him and used the hiking stick to pitch (toss) the little guy back into the middle of the road. As soon as he landed, he coiled and shook his rattles warning us not to get too close. He was ready to strike if we were stupid enough to get close (we weren't).

I took several pictures, and then got back in Jeep so we could get closer to him. He sure was not a happy camper!! The pictures above are from the Jeep because we just couldn't get a good shot of him any other way. No, we did not kill him, we left him on the road and alive....

The road we were on is just north of Apache Junction in an area called Bull Dog Canyon. It is a locked area and controlled by the Mesa Forest Service. Hikers can go in without a pass, but motorized vehicles have to have a pass (free) and must stay on well marked (primative) roads. We had the permits (and combo) to get in through the locked gate, and had a great time traveling the sometimes very rough road. The drive is only 7 miles long, but can take a long time depending on how good your clearance is. We had no problems, but the road did get pretty steep and rocky in places. We stopped along the way many times and found eleven caches. At one knoll (hill top) Ken quit searching for a cache because there was a nest of bees and he didn’t want to tangle with them.

Again, these pictures were taken with a cell phone, so the quality is not that good, but you get an idea of what the area looks like.

Today was supposed to be 74 degrees, and I think it got pretty close to that, but the breeze was still cool. In the canyon, it was warmer because there wasn't much of a breeze.

Box Canyon

2009-03-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

Friday was Ken's 66th birthday, and to celebrate, we went on another Jeep ride. This time we traveled with "The Rough Riders" through an area called Box Canyon. Of course, we had to drive through some pretty scenery and rocky roads before getting there, but it was all worth it. After we finished the ride through the canyon, I took Ken out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Florence about 19 miles south of where we park the coach. Their food is always a treat after a long, dusty, day of Jeeping. It was a fun and satisfying day for both of us!

Here are some of the pictures I took along the way. As always, you can go to "Our Web Album" on this page to see all of the pictures I have uploaded from other trips and outings.

This is near the beginning of the drive.

We are going down there!
There was lots of scenery and "Arizona Wildlife" to see along the way.

This is the group starting into the canyon.

The worst of the drive really was through the narrow canyon, but with Jeeps, no one had a problem. We all got through without any scrapes or hang ups which made it a successful trip! After everyone was through, Ken and I branched off and did a cache before heading for L&Bs (the mexican restaurant). Never can pass up a close cache (grin).

Like I said, it was a nice day and Ken survived his 66th year! Happy all this next year babe, I love you!!

Rock Shop Event

2009-03-08T15:41:00.000-07:00

Like I said in the last posting, Thursday night was our annual Rock Shop "Chili Dinner" and Stage Play.

The club started preparing the chili about 9:30 in the morning and let it slowly cook all day. The chili recipe has been handed down for many years and is always a major hit and huge "funding" source for the rock shop. I, of course, always add extra hot sauce and Jalapinos to my chili, but others said it was "warm" enough for them. The evening was a "sell out" and all had a great time, plus lots to eat.
For dessert "many cakes" were provided. This is just a small portion waiting to be cut up and served.
The play is written by one of our own park residents, and the actors are all from the park. The hit of the play were three "gentlemen" who performed the song "Ally Oop." What a hoot seeing three grown men dressed up in cave men attire!!
This is the cast and crew who all worked together for a great (and funny) performance.

The raffle for 83 items was held after the play. The club raised over $600 from the raffle of these donated items.
Here are two of the bolos that Ken made and donated.
Another item donated was a beautiful hand made quilt by "Linda" a member of the park's quilting club. The club raffled it off separately and raised $452 on it. This is Linda (still in costume) standing on stage with Ken just before she drew out the lucky number.
Unbelievable, but we (Ken & I) were the lucky ones to win the quilt. After finally realizing we were the winners, they had me come up on stage and they wrapped the quilt around both Ken and I as Linda explained how much love and happiness was placed in it with each stitch.
I was totally blown away with the win and will cherish it for a long time!!

Now, I can't wait until next year to see what happens then.

Coach Bay Door

2009-03-03T19:00:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday evening and still 75 degrees. It never did hit 90 yesterday, but did get to 86. Today was only 83 with a low of 62. During the next few days, it is expected to cool down to the mid 70s.

The other day Ken discovered the lower latch on one of the pass through bays wouldn't open all the way. Seems he could get the upper latch to release and it would pull out about 2 inches, but the lower latch would not budge. Thankfully it is a pass through, so he crawled inside from the driver's side and had to remove the loop from the bay floor so he could release the piece holding it. The portion that flips over and holds tight to the loop of the bay was broken, but we can now open and close the door. Yes, it is driveable that way and lockable. The bottom latch was just to keep the bay door from pushing out away from the bay, but the main latch is holding tight.

On Thursday we have a Rock Shop Chili Feed and Play taking place. Everyone in the rock shop is expected to donate finished items for the raffle during that evening. So far, Ken has donated two beautiful pendants with ear rings, 2 bolos, and 2 belt buckles. All of the pieces are made out of Mahogany Obsidian and are gorgeous. No, I didn't take pictures, but will try and remember the camera the night of the event.

Jeeping and Caching

2009-02-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

Even if it has only been a couple days, I have a lot to talk about since my last posting.

First of all little Andie is doing better. Her stats are up where they want them, but her lactate levels are still too high....although they were down a bit this morning (good news). She still has a long way to go before they take her off of her meds.

Friday, Ken and I finally had a chance to take off and do some Jeeping and caching. We took a familiar route over Montana Mountain and looked for and found 11 caches. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day which made it perfect for both Jeeping and caching.

This is just some of what we saw!

We even found some water falls. With the snow melting in the mountains, we had a lot of water running in most of the washes we passed.

After being out all day Friday, we decided to go out again today. We didn't leave very early or really go that far, but we were still out for most of the day.

We drove south about 38 miles to check out an area that we wanted to hide a cache for an up coming Geocaching Event. It was about 11:30 and close to 80 degrees when we got to where we wanted to be.

We ended up driving over several trails that were more like ATV paths, but the Wrangler performed like a champ. The worst part was the brush we had to go through. The trails were very narrow and we sustained some nice "pin stripping" on the sides of the Jeep. After the recent rains, the trails were pretty rutty, but with the heat, things are drying up and the mud is becoming like cement.

While in the area, we even found 4 caches. We weren't planning on that, but they just happened to be close to where we were driving. At one of the caches, Ken was near some boulders and he heard a funny noise..... well that noise turned out to be a Rattlesnake. He was so close to it that he was surprised it didn't strike him. He was so close he didn't dare try to jump back, so he pulled his gun out and shot it. His souvenir was the nine "buttons" from the tail. Sorry, he didn't have the camera to take pictures of it.

After that bit of scary experience, we decided not to do any more hiking or searching around rocks/boulders. It was getting late, so we decided to quit for the day and head back home.

It took us a while to follow the trail back to the main road, but after we hit pavement, we drove into Florence for dinner then on back to the coach. We got here before dark and had time to enjoy a nice cold drink and the beautiful evening. I think it hit 85 today, but it is supposed to hit 90 by Monday. As the weatherman just said, "the heat is on." Oh boy!!

Still hard to believe it, but two days in a row Jeeping and Caching, WOW that is almost a record (grin).

Update on Andie

2009-02-26T20:24:00.000-08:00

Thank God, the meds seem to be working. She was stable and stats were high all last night. So far she is hanging in there and with God's help and all the prayers she will soon be strong enough to have the meds reduced. Yea!!!

Andie Grace

2009-02-25T21:20:00.001-08:00

I have been watching the updates on Andie, and it has been touch and go all night long. There has been tremendous efforts (and medication) to open up her lungs in order to increase the blood/oxygen saturation. At one time they thought they were going to have to go back into OR and place an ECMO (Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) - a machine that bypasses the lungs to oxygenate her blood. But, thank God, they haven't had to do that yet.

I just saw this update on Praying for Andie.

They increased the medicine to open up her lungs and her stats went to 100%!
Praise the Lord! Andie had opened her eyes, and the nurse told Brooke to look. By the time she got over to the bed her eyes were closed again. So Brooke whispered into her ear & she opened them again. So precious, the bond of mother & child.

There is a lot more information being posted on The Blog so if you can, please check it out. It is sooooo inspiring to see all the comments that people from all over the world are saying.

Also, I received the following note from Andie's grandpa (my cousin, Bill).

Thank you for the prayers! This is Andie's Grandpa Bill. I arrived back from Arizona yesterday evening. She is dong much better, but as you've read, from the great job Kelly did on the blog, that she has a long was to go before she's out of the woods. I just want to thank everyone for all your thoughts, prayers and words of kindness. It just amazes me how so many people, from all over the world, have sent us such great words of kindness. I just want, to personally, thank everyone and how it means such a great deal to our family. If you would, could you pass this on to everyone that you sent the Andie Grace Blog, So they will know how much our family appreciates their prayers. Thank you, Bill & Maria Ledgewood

We all pray Andie continues to rally and the doctors soon can reduce the meds. This little girl sure seems like a fighter and with God help (and all the prayers), she will get better.

Pray for Andie

2009-02-25T11:42:00.001-08:00

On February 19, my cousin's daughter (Brooke) had a beautiful little girl. The named her Andersen (Andie) Grace Paulus (6lbs 7 ozs). Two days after Andie's birth, it was discovered that she was a sick little girl and had Coarctation of the Aorta along with Pulmanary Hypertension (pneumonia). Her stats were very low, but it was decided to go ahead with the surgery to fix the heart problem. After the surgery, her blood pressure and heart are doing well, but she is still fighting the pneumonia. Little Andie's aunt, Kelly, has been keeping up a marvelous job of blogging updates on Andies progress. Praying for Andie Please check this out and pray for this tiny baby. She needs all of our help!

Rocks for sale

2009-02-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

Today, the Rock Shop, Wood Carving, and Stained Glass clubs put on a "craft" show and had a lot of goodies for sale.

For the last several months, Ken has been working hard on finishing his pendants, belt buckles, and bolos. In order to showcase his pendants, he beaded some beautiful necklaces and used the pendant as the main drop. They turned out very nice! He also beaded some ear rings to complete the set for each necklace made. Today was the first day anyone has seen his stuff, and they went over very well. Yep, he sold some!! He went for quality and used Sterling Silver and high quality beads for the necklaces, and people could tell how nice they were. The main "rock" that he used was a Mahogany Obsidian which he polished to a high gloss. He also had Amethyst, Honey Onyx, and Queen Valley Marble in some of his pieces.

Here are some pictures of his display. For a better view, click on each picture, but be sure to hit your back arrow to get back to the blog.

Today was a beautiful 83 degrees and will cool to 55 tonight. The forecast is nothing but clear sunny skies and warm temps for the next week (yea, love it).

The only huge event we have coming up is the rock shop's fund raiser on March 5. It is a Chili Feed and play. The play is written and directed by one of our residents and the "stars" are all park residents. It is one the highlights of each season and always a "sold out" event.

The park's activities will be going strong through mid March. then start slowing down as many folks will be heading back to their summer homes. Our plans are to be here till early May before heading out.

Caching, Shopping, and Eating

2009-02-22T19:50:00.001-08:00

Thursday night we attended a monthly dinner show event, which is put on by our park's activities group. The dinner theme was "Tropical" and everyone was dressed like we were in the tropics. Our food was Brandy Marinated Pork along with scalloped potatoes and green beans. The dessert was fruit and pudding. The banquet style meal was prepared by several volunteers from our park and was very good. Of course the "spirits" I drank made it that much more enjoyable (grin).

The entertainment for the evening was Laughing Bird. Janey and Tupelo (Laughing Bird) have been here before and are a lot of fun to watch and listen to. They are a husband and wife duo, who have been performing and recording together for 30 years. Laughing Bird’s show is a lively mix of original contemporary folk music with overtones of new country, bluegrass, and light acoustic rock. It was a fun evening.

On Friday, Ken & I took the Wrangler out to find a couple of caches. One cache really wasn't far off the main road, but the road to the second cache was another story. We had to drive 6 miles (one way) into the back country through some muddy ruts and over some rough terrain. It was a warm day and thankfully most of the "dirt/mud" road was drying out, so we didn't get too terribly muddy. What mud we did get had to be washed off quickly because when it dries, it is like cement and extremely hard to get off.

Saturday was another caching, shopping, and eating day. We drove the Grand Cherokee this time and went to Queen Creek to find 9 caches and shop at a meat shop called "The Pork Shop." This "Pig" place has everything associated to pork products and is the best place in the area to get meat. Of course, we left with our share (LOL).

Also in Queen Creek is a place called the The Olive Mill. It is Arizona's only working Olive mill and a fun place to visit. While there, you can taste many different wines, have a nice meal, take a tour, and buy lots "olive" products. We spent quite a bit of time there and came away with some good stuff (also plan on going back).

Today, Ken continued to work on his jewelry and "rocks". He has many neat items that will be up for sale on Tuesday when the Rock Shop and the Wood Carvers group put on a craft show. I do plan on taking pictures of his treasures and will post them as soon as I can.

Snow to Sunny Days

2009-02-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

After the snow in the hills last week, the weather has been great; Lots of sun with temps in the mid to high 60s, and lows in the 40s and 50s. We did get rained on Tuesday the 17th, but most of that fell before we got up. The rest of day was just cloudy and cool. Thankfully, most of the storms coming into Arizona went north of us and dropped rain and snow in the higher elevations. In fact Flagstaff is seeing an influx of skiers hitting the snowy slopes there. This weekend, it is supposed to be warming up and should be reaching 80 by Monday.

We hope you all had as nice a Valentine’s Day as we did. First, we attended a huge Craft Sale that the RV Park was putting on. The activity hall was filled with vendors and even more shoppers. We controlled ourselves and didn’t buy anything. If we had bought something, we would have had to find a place to put it (grin--there is only so much room in the coach). After the craft sale, we had a fun “date” and celebrated by going to a movie and dinner. The movie we saw was “Slumdog Millionaire.” It was good, but I don’t think I would vote for it as best picture of the year. Even with the rough language, my vote for best picture would be “Gran Torino”…… of course I enjoy anything and everything that Clint Eastwood is in OR directs. For dinner, we chose Chinese and had a very nice quiet meal. What is nicer than an evening out with the one you love?

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday is when Ken works in the rock shop. He is making some gorgeous stones to be used as Pendants, Bolos, and Belt Buckles. Some of the Pendants he has finished are being used as the focal point on beaded necklaces. On the 25th of this month the Rock Hound Club and the Wood Carving Club are putting on a show and we hope to sell a lot of what Ken has finished (we will see how that goes). I will post pictures later of what he has done.

With Ken spending so much time being in the rock shop, it only leaves Tuesdays and Fridays to run errands and possibly get out on the trails. We try and not to do the trails on the weekends because there are just too many crazies out there playing with their ATVs. It is not fun trying to traverse a rough road with a hoard of ATVers hogging the trails. You never know which way they will turn or where they will try and pass you.

As usual, we are participating in many of the park’s activities. Once a week, there is a coffee social where we socialize and learn all of what is happening around the park. Usually, the activity hall is over flowing, and we have a nice time visiting with everyone. There are also entertainers that come here to perform and even more places that groups (called tag-alongs) from the park will go to be entertained. Also, some evenings we spend the time with neighbors enjoying an invigorating game of cards or just partying. Tonight we are attending one of several dinners that is being put on by the park (the theme is “tropical”). It really seems like everything we do involves a form of eating or drinking…..tonight will involve both of them (grin).

Fun Week!!

2009-02-10T22:15:00.001-08:00

Friday night a group of us from the park went to the Arizona Opry. Our group of 40 people had six tables (all up front) who enjoyed the great show. The Barleen’s “Arizona Opry” Dinner Theatre has been in operation for 30 years and is always a treat to visit. They put on several different shows throughout the season and performs everything from pop, to Opera. The “music director” is George Staerkel, who has a 5 octave vocal range and plays over 70 different instruments. George sings a fantastic rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which he also used to sing many, years ago with a group called “The Tokens.” George was only with The Tokens for about 5 years while the main singer (Jay Siegel) was performing with another group in the east. George is marvelous and still sings The Lion Sleeps Tonight just like he did many years ago. Read all about it at this link... Arizona Opry

Saturday was a gorgeous day in the mid 70s, but that night it started raining and rained all night long. There was more rain Sunday and even some hail. The high that day was only 60. Here is one small cloud dropping some rain.

Monday, we only had a few drops of rain, but it was mainly cloudy with lots of wind. The wind became so strong in the afternoon that we had to pull the “slider” awnings in. It started raining later that night and poured for most of the night. What a surprise to wake this morning (Tuesday) to 39 degrees and a snowy view of the distant hills. The snow was down as low as 3,000 feet and was very pretty. Needless-to-say, we couldn't stay inside but had to go out and see how much snow was around. Just twenty miles east of us is Devils Canyon with a summit of 4,600 feet. We saw lots of snow up there and some beautiful views. Here is just a sampling.

Most of the snow fell in the northern areas of AZ where roads were closed due to dangerous white outs and driving conditions. We can be thankful our area got just a couple inches that will quickly melt when the sun comes out. It really was kinda fun to see snow and not have to deal with the dangers of it.

The next few days should be a tad bit warmer, but it looks like more rain is predicted for this next weekend (yep, a rainy Valentines Day).