Back in Yuma

Hello Everyone,

We spent the first week of September in Ventura, there to celebrate Chloe's first birthday. We had a wonderful time, celebrating on her official birthday, Sept. 4th, then again at her birthday party in the park on Sept. 6th. She was so much fun and is such a good baby. The whole time we were there we never heard her cry once. Her Mommy and Daddy are such wonderful parents and we're very proud of them. It was wonderful to have all of our kids together and get visit with them.

Our plan was to leave Ventura on Sept. 10th, go back to Pismo Beach for another month then to Yuma for the winter. Well, after a very disappointing meeting with our financial guy, we decided it would be in our best interest to skip Pismo and go to Yuma instead.

It's still very hot here, we aren't doing much of anything but waiting for the sun to go down. We jump in the Kawi, take a lap around the park then come back into the air conditioning. If a breeze is blowing we can sit outside for a little while, but if not, it's right back inside.

On Wednesday we took a trip to Tucson to have Zoe groomed, then went on to Phoenix to pick up a set of rims and tires for the Kawasaki. Zoe looks so cute, and the Kawi looks good too. We had to get new tires to be able to drive it on the street. You can license RUVs (Recreational Utility Vehicles) for the street in Arizona so Mike wants to make it street legal and drive it to the store and golf course.
All it takes is MORE money!

Speaking of money, since Mike can't live without his toys he's decided to get a part time job, something that will get him out of the "house" and make a little money. If you happen to go to the WalMart here in Yuma, you'll see him in the parking lot collecting carts. He wanted something that would keep him busy, with no stress, and he found it. We'll see what happens when the snow birds get here, some can be pretty vicious with their shopping carts. He always said that if he ever went back to work it would be as the Greeter at WalMart, looks like he's almost there. He still has to go through orientation, but should start soon.

We won't have a whole lot more to share as our travels are over for this year, but I'll update once in a while with new pictures and stories. We plan to do some off roading in the Jeep and Kawi, and of course go to Glamis.

Pictures:

Mandi & Chloe @ Chloe's Birthday Party in the park
Matt & Chloe @ Chloe's Birthday Party in the park
Kim and Tas @ the party
Zoe's new doo
The Kawi sporting new rims

Back in California

Hello

Man have we been BUSY. That’s my excuse for taking so long to
update once again.

Monday, August 8th we left Salmon Harbor for Santa Cruz.
We got to see our daughter Kimmy for the first time since April,
and that was wonderful! Kimmy and her boyfriend Tas came up to
his parents home in Santa Cruz and we all spent the weekend
together. Tas’ parents, Susan and Robert Szemeredi had a
wonderful weekend planned to celebrate Tas’ birthday and Mike &
I were lucky enough to enjoy it with them.

Friday evening before the kids arrived Susan cooked a great
dinner for the four of us. After dinner Susan and I went to
the Santa Cruz Boardwalk to see a concert on the beach
featuring the lead singer of Santana. We got there a little
late, so we only got to hear a few songs, and enjoy a carmel
apple. The guys decided to stay home and watch the opening
ceremonies of the Olympics. When we returned home the kids
were there so we visited for a few minutes and headed back to
the motor home.

Saturday morning started with breakfast at 8:00am. After
breakfast the kids went to play disc golf, then we all met
back at the house at 1:30pm to leave for AT&T Stadium in San
Francisco for a tailgate party and the Giants/Dodgers baseball
game. Tas’ brothers Robert and Zoley and Robert’s step son Sam
came too. Mike and I agreed that it was the best ballgame we’ve
ever attended. The tailgate party was awesome, with tons of great
food and the stadium was beautiful. We couldn’t believe how well
mannered the people wer, they didn’t even give us a bad time when
we were rooting for the Dodgers. Unfortunately the Dodgers lost
in the bottom of the 10th, but it was a great game. We all had a
ball. Susan even found a babysitter for Zoe, how nice was that!

Sunday morning Susan put together a wonderful brunch for Tas’
birthday. We got to meet a few of their friends and spend more
time with the kids. It was a wonderful weekend. It’s the busiest
weekend we’ve had in 4 months!

The next morning we headed to Pismo. Since it’s still so hot in
Yuma, we've decided to stay here for another month and go to Yuma
in October.

We got to see Matt, Mandi and Chloe this weekend. Matt and his
friend Brian came to do some riding in the dunes, and Mandi came
to visit her cousin Stacy. It was so great to see them, and of
course we were thrilled to see Chloe. She’s grown so much and is
walking now. When we left in April she was just starting to crawl.
Chloe will be a year old on Sept. 4th, so we have a party to attend.
She is such a little doll, we can’t wait to see her again in a
couple of weeks.

Lastly, those who know Mike well know how he is about his toys.
He just couldn’t stand being in Pismo with nothing to do, so we
bought a Kawasaki Teryx, a side by side. I’ll attach a picture.
We’ve actually been talking about getting one for some time now
because we can license it for the street in Yuma, and I’m sure
we’ll get a lot of use out of it between Pismo, Yuma and Glamis.

Zoe is growing like a weed and is having a great time everywhere
we go. She loves to dig in the sand at the beach, and doesn’t even
mind riding in the Teryx. She has a new friend here named Rocky.
Our friends John and Roberta got their daughter Hannah a black Lab,
he’s 14 months old and what a great dog. Zoe loves him.

Until next time…

Pictures:
Chloe – check out here beautiful blue eyes
Chloe – zooming around
Zoe – digging to China
Zoe – playing with Rocky
Teryx – Mike's new toy

Wyoming ~ Montana ~ Canada ~ Washington ~ California

We left Gillette, WY on Monday July 7th; our next stop was Emigrant, MT. We stayed at Yellowstone River's Edge, the campground was very nice but we were eaten alive by mosquitoes. It didn't matter that we were lathered up with Off; they just bit right through our clothes. So, we decided to forgo our second night there and move on to St. Regis, MT to stay at the Nugget Campground. The Nugget was very nice too, and the owners were really friendly. We stayed in St. Regis for 4 nights. Our last night before entering Canada was spent at a campground called Sun Country Golf and RV Resort in Cle Elum, WA. We were actually camped right next to the golf course, across from where the golf carts were parked. Mike didn’t get to play golf because we arrived late in the afternoon and left early the next morning. But we will remember it for the future.

We arrived at the Vedder River Campground in Chilliwack, BC on Monday, July 14th.
Jeff & Linda Marsh, our friends from Yuma live in Chilliwack and keep their trailer at the Vedder for the summer. We had a wonderful time! First we went on a tour of Vancouver; we took the dogs and a picnic lunch with us, and found a nice park for lunch.

We played Tap-In Golf one afternoon, now that’s my kind of golf. It’s a beautiful 18hole scaled down version of a regular golf course, but you putt only. It’s like miniature golf without the windmill. It was beside the regular golf course, and had ponds with beautiful water lilies and flowers. We all had a great time, with a relaxing lunch at the Clubhouse restaurant afterward. Mike and Jeff got a real game of golf in later in the week.

A couple of the girls at the Vedder planned a nice birthday dinner for Linda on Friday evening, she was quite surprised and the food was wonderful. On Sunday we went to a family gathering at Cultas Lake and got to celebrate Linda's birthday again. It was nice to meet Jeff and Linda’s children, grandchildren and many other family members.

We also had a girls shopping trip one day, Linda, Shawn (Linda’s neighbor at the Vedder)and I. We had lunch afterward at a lovely tea house, straight out of England. That was my first tea, and I really enjoyed it.

Zoe had a great time playing with her new friends Phoenix and Cooper. All three are Border Terriers, and we have Jeff and Linda to thank for introducing us to this great breed. They got Phoenix when we were in Yuma last winter and we fell in love with her. They took her home to Canada and neighbors Steve and Cathy fell in love with her, so there you go… Cooper and Zoe.

We did lots of other things and took great walks in the evenings after dinner. We really enjoyed the whole stay and would love to go back.

We left Canada on Friday, July 25th, stayed two night in Vancouver, WA then headed
down the coast to CA. We’re staying at the Salmon Harbor RV Resort on the Smith River right now and will be here until August 7th. Next stop Santa Cruz.

Until next time…

Pictures:
Mike, Jeff & family at Cultas Lake
Linda & Phoenix, Sally & Zoe, Cathy & Cooper
Mike & I on a walk at the Vedder

Gillette, Wyoming

Hello from Gillette!

Since we were informed by the Jeep Dealer that our hard top wouldn't be in until at least July 21st, and that wasn't a guarantee, we gave up on waiting for it. We'll order it when we get back to Yuma.

The timing was perfect for us to be able to attend the Escapees Escapade in Gillette, Wyoming. We've been here all week, with tons of RVers and have had a great time. We've met some wonderful people and run into other friends that we've made along the way.

It was a busy week with all kinds of activities. A lot of work goes into these events, there are seminars of all types, vendors selling everything you can't live without, dinners, a talent show, and you can even get your motor home weighed. This was a great event for beginners as well as full time RVers. The Escapees Club did a wonderful job.

Yesterday was 4th of July and we saw some amazing fireworks. It's been many years since we've seen so many. Actually they have been going on all week because fireworks are legal here. Everyone kept saying "these people must have spent a fortune fireworks" since these were all from people's backyards. The Escapade took place at the fairgrounds and we are staying in their campground, so we had a front row seat to the fireworks show the city put on. All we had to do was sit out in front of our motor home.

We have a very exciting announcement to make. We have a new addition to our traveling family. Her name is Zoe, aka Tasmanian Devil, a 9 week old Border Terrier. We have always had a dog, and since losing Mandy last February, it seemed like something was missing. She is adapting to her new lifestyle easily and we're already crazy about her. We picked a smaller dog this time, she will probably be about 14-16 pounds full grown.

We will leave Gillette on Monday morning and head towards Canada.

Pictures:
Gillette at the campground
Zoe

Until next time...

The Sun is Out

I know, it's about time this blog has been updated! It's just that we can only share so much about our trips to Wal-Mart.

The good news is, the sun has been out for about 5 days in a row now. We're still getting rain, but it only comes in the middle of the night and early morning.

We've been able to do a little off roading, it's so neat because you can pick a road and off you go into the hills through the pine trees. We also found a BLM road through old Ft. Mead and saw some of the old Calvary training grounds.

Last Sunday we decided to celebrate Father's Day and my Birthday by taking a road trip to Wyoming to see the Devil's Tower. What a beautiful drive, but then every drive is beautiful around here. We had two close encounters with deer wanting to run across the road in front of us, that's pretty scary. The Tower was pretty amazing, we even got to watch a couple of guys trying to climb it. I don't know what the heck they were thinking since that rock is straight up!

We're still waiting for the hard top we ordered for the Jeep to come in, so we'll probably be in South Dakota for a couple more weeks. We are thinking about moving closer to Rapid City since that's were we ordered the top, and we seem to be driving there more often anyway.

Pictures:
Devil's Tower
Devis's Tower - climbers (hope you can see them)
One of the roads we found
Mike and his buddies

Until next time..

Oh Hail

We've decided that we don't know how to read the weather in South Dakota, the hard way!

We got caught in another hail storm and this time it was a lulu. Last Wednesday we decided to drive to Rapid City to check out Sam's Club then go to Wal-Mart for groceries. The day was beautiful, so nice that we didn't even take our jackets. We were just finishing our shopping in Wal-Mart when I heard the thunder. I'm thinking, "don't tell me it's happening again", the exact same thing happened last week when we went to the Wal-Mart in Spearfish. So we hurry out of the store, hoping to beat the rain, then bam the lightning seemed like it was directly over our heads and the thunder was so loud I about jumped out of my skin. Here we are with this big metal rack on top of our jeep, so of course I'm thinking the lightning is going to strike us dead.

We got the groceries loaded and headed home. No sooner had we got on the Interstate when the sky opened up and golf ball sized hail started coming down. All we could do was pull over to the side and wait. It was pretty darn scary, it sounded like the hail was going to come through the windows. It seemed like it lasted an hour, but in reality it was probably 15 minutes before we got to take off again. The streets and parking lots looked like it had snowed. (I got the golf ball size from the news that evening)

Our jeep really took a hit, we have lots of dings on the hood and fenders.

Pictures:
1. Mike loading groceries in Spearfish
2. Jeep damage in Rapid City
3. After the storm in Rapid City

Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park

I know it's been a while since we've updated, but unfortunately we haven't had a whole lot to share. May has been a record breaking month for rain in this area,
9.77 inches!

We've been able to sneak in a couple of sightseeing days, and today was the first time we made it through the whole day without rain or drizzle. It was great!

This was our second visit to Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park. We got to see the Presidents without their heads in the clouds and some amazing animals on Custer Wildlife Loop Road.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but we had a huge herd of Buffalo, with their babies move across the road right in front of us. It was so neat to hear the babies make this little grunting noise when their moms would get a little too far away. Next we come around a curve and find two Long Horn Sheep right in the middle of the road getting ready to head butt each other. I was able to get the camera out fast enough to video them. Right after they rammed heads, two more sheep jumped over the guard rail as if to break it up. They all stood there for a minute then moved on. I'm not able to attach the video, but do have a picture of one big guy giving us the eye. We thought for sure he was going to ram our jeep, so we slowly creeped away. My personal favorite were the Burros. They just stop traffic and walk right up to your window, looking for food I'm sure. How do you like my buddies bangs? He was so cute.

We also stopped by Crazy Horse. They showed a movie of the whole story and it's quite interesting. They have been working on the statue since 1948 and I don't think it will be completed in our lifetime. His face is the only thing that is complete, they still have his upper body and front half of his horse to go. They will not accept funds from the Government, tho funds have been offered. It's funded by donations only. The original artist has passed away, but his wife and 7 of his 10 children are still working to keep it going.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

South Dakota - Rain Rain Rain

We arrived in Sturgis last Wednesday and what a beautiful place. We no sooner got set up before it started to rain, and rained through the night. It was drizzling when we got up on Thursday morning but we decided to take a drive through the Spearfish Scenic Bypass anyway. It was amazing even through the drizzle. The Bypass loops around from Spearfish through Lead and into Deadwood. There was a creek running next to the road the entire trip, and we saw a beautiful waterfall as well. We even passed a meadow with 18 deer grazing.

We stopped in Deadwood for a while, found lots of casinos and gift shops, but didn't stick around long enough to find the historical stuff because of course, it was still raining.

It continued to rain until Sunday morning. Poor Mike, he had cabin fever so bad, I was ready to kick him out into the rain a couple of times. As soon as we saw some blue sky we jumped in the jeep and headed to Bear Country USA. No, we haven't seen Mt. Rushmore yet because we're waiting for a "sunny day". The owner of our campground told us that we would be able to take the soft top jeep through Bear Country. So we get there and the first thing they tell us... "you can't take the jeep through, but we do have a courtesy car you can use." We get a white Crown Victoria and we're thinking cool, a nice comfortable ride. Everything was great until about half way through when Mike says "the engine is getting really hot". Now mind you, it's only 68 degrees outside, so why the heck is this car overheating. By the time we got to the Bears the poor car was smoking like crazy and I was having a nervous breakdown. I'm sure the people behind us were ready to kill us, plus the poor animals having to breath that nasty air. We made to the end without the engine blowing up thank goodness.

Bear Country was really nice, the animals wonder all around the compound, and we even had to stop a couple of times when they decided to cross the street in front of the car. We saw Reindeer, Rocky Mountain Goats, Timber Wolves, Buffalo, Mountain Lions, and lots of Bears.

It started raining again last night (Sunday)and is expected to continue throuh tomorrow. We're supposed to see some sunshine on Wednesday. If so, we'll head straight to Mt. Rushmore. Wish us luck.

Still in South Dakota

Monday, May 19th ~ Wall, South Dakota, what can we say... biggest tourist trap we've ever seen. The wooden sidewalks were pretty cool, and the food was good, but every store carried the same stuff, you've seen one you've seen them all. We stayed at a campground called Sleepy Hallow. This place was straight out of the 70s, including the store and the lady that worked in it. Pretty funny.

Wednesday, May 21st ~ It's 7:00am and we're already on the road heading to Sturgis, SD. Now this is more like it. We're staying at Rush No More and it's beautiful. It's located in a valley surrounded by rolling hills covered in pine trees. There are horses next door and it's so neat to hear them. We were told that two weeks ago they had 30 inches of snow that lasted a week. Thank goodness that's gone, but it is a bit cool.

We will start our touring tomorrow and really look forward to it.

Iowa to South Dakota

Saturday, May 17th ~ Finally! the motor home was finished yesterday afternoon and we're ready to go. Since it was so late in the afternoon we decided to stay in the Winnebago parking lot one more night and take off this morning.

Another very windy trip, but we made it to Sioux Falls, South Dakota in one piece. We're staying at the Yogi Bear Jellystone Park. We just watched Yogi drive around the park in a John Deer Gator (like a Rhino)visiting all the kids. It was really fun to watch.

The DMV in Sioux Falls is open on Saturdays so we drove into the city and got our new SD drivers licenses. We didn't even have to take a test, what a deal.

We are going to stay here until Monday morning, then on to Wall, SD, home of Wall Drugs. Everyone keeps telling us we can't miss Wall Drugs, so we're looking forward to see what the heck it is. We will also get to see the Bad Lands of South Dakota.

That's all we have for now, until next time....

Kansas and Iowa

Thursday, May 8th ~ after another crazy night of wind and rain in Amarillo, the morning weather looked safe enough the head to Kansas. It was a windy but beautiful trip through lots of green farm land. We even saw some Wild Turkey, Phesants and tons of Rabbits along the way.

We stayed at the Big Band Ponowanie Casino RV Park in Mayetta, KS. The RV Park is located right behind the Casino within walking distance, so that was nice. The weather was cold, windy and rainy the whole time we were there, but we did have a chance to go for a drive with our friends Peggy and Eldon. They are from Kansas, so they showed us a couple of little towns, the hardware store which carries everything you can think of, and drove us around the back roads. We really enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Sunday, May 11th ~ On the road again heading to the Winnebago Mfg. in Forest City, Iowa. We have a 6:45am appointment on Monday, so we spend Sunday night in the parking lot of the service center along with all the other RVers who have appointments. Mike is in hog heaven, so many guys to visit and compare notes with.

Each morning our assigned rep is at our door at 7:00am ready to take the motor home and we're on our own until 3:00pm. Looks like everything will be completed tomorrow afternoon (Thursday), so we'll spend one more night then take off for Mitchell, South Dakota.

Monday we drove to St. Paul, MN to see the Mall of America. Now that is an amazing place. We didn't get to spend as much time there as we would have liked because it was a two hour drive one way and we had to be back to Forest City by 3:00pm. Tuesday they needed to keep the motor home through the night to have the second shift crew do some work, so we had to spend the night in a hotel. We decided to go to Des Moines to have dinner with Jon & Carolyn, friends we met last December at the Ventura RV Resort. We had a great dinner and visit and got to see their beautiful home. Scott & Rich, they have 64 red Corvette and 64 Impala SS, both are beautiful.

Tomorrow we are going on the Winnebago tour and will just hang out around here the rest of the day.

Amarillo, TX

We made it! Weather looked positive so we hooked up and headed to Amarillo yesterday morning. Arrived at the Fort Amarillo RV Resort around 3:30pm and what a neat place. They have the most amazing store here, it's called Lizzie Mae's Mercantile. You could spend hours in there and still not see everything she has in there. It's certainly not your normal tourist trap.

We had wind on the way, but it wasn't too bad. Spent the rest of the afternoon setting up, shopping in Lizzie Mae's then went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Ruby Tequilas. It was soooo good. I think I could live here, in a brick house of course.

Now to the weather ~ The wind started blowing late in the evening and we thought about closing the slides before we went to bed, but we didn't. 11:45pm we were up closing the slides and now not only was it BLOWING, but raining like crazy. We only saw on lightning bolt, but didn't hear any thunder. It rained most of the night, and has been on and off all day.

We found Cadillac Ranch, the cattle field with 10 Cadillacs buried nose down all in a row. Now all we have to do is figure out how we're going to get the mud off our shoes...what a mess. The cattle seem to have enough since to stay away from all the crazy people painting on the cars. It's quite a site.

Tonite we're going to the Big Texan for dinner. Home of the 72oz steak, you know, eat the steak and potato in 1 hour and it's free! We won't be doing that, but we are being picked up by a limo from the restaurant, with bull horns on the hood and driven by a cowboy. Now you can't beat that.

We should be good to go tomorrow, heading out to Topeka, KS. Our plan is to stay there until Sunday morning, then head to Iowa. We're going to stay at the RV park that our friends from Yuma, Elden & Peggy stay during the summer. They are on their way to KS as well, so hopefully we'll be able to see them for a couple of days.

Until next time..

May 5, 2008

We've been in Albuquerque, NM since Monday afternoon. The drive here was nice, but nothing real exciting. Our plan was to leave tomorrow morning for Amarillo, TX, but there have been some severe weather warnings with large hail and high winds in the Amarillo area. We've decided to check the weather channel again when we get up in the morning and if it's still hanging around we'll stay here another night.

The crazy thing is, our plan is to go to Amarillo, TX, then Topeka, KS, ending up in Iowa. Wouldn't you know it, that's exactly where ALL of the storms are hovering. As long as we can get to Forrest City Iowa by May 12th we'll be on schedule, we may have to make a beeline there once the storms blow through. We have an appointment at the Winnebago factory to have quite a few items fixed on the motor home, as well as some services done on the chassy.

Wish us luck.

May 3, 2008

Yesterday we decided to take a ride to Sedona, AZ. I have to say the best part of the whole day was the beautiful drive through the Coconino National Forest. The mountains and trees were beautiful, but it was sure amazing to drive around a curve and bam the rocks were red.

We drove past Slide Rock State Park and it was fun to watch the people climbing on the shelves of red rock down to a stream of beautiful clear water. We would have stopped but we were not dressed for the occasion. It was 51 degrees when we left Williams so we were wearing jeans and long sleeves shirts. By the time we got to Slide Rock it was in the high 70s, so we decided between the heat and the altitude we would just keep going.

Sedona was so nice, we walked around a bit, then had lunch at a restaurant called the Cowboy Club. We felt it was in our best interest to stay out of the shops, so we drove through town and then headed back to Williams. If you're a shopper, Sedona is the place to go!

Today was house cleaning day, inside and out, and this evening we will load up the bikes, hook up the jeep and be ready to head out in the morning. Next stop, Albuqurque.

May 01 2008

Hi this is Mike. Today was just a lazy day here at the Grand Cayon Railway RV Park we'll be here untill sunday morning, arrived here Monday to ride the train to the Canyon and we are now waiting for our mail. Sally and I thought we should have our mail sent to us incase anyone is trying to give us some money..LOL Sally is rapped up in a blanket on the couch as I type this. As the tempture is falling past 37 degrees headed to 28 by morning. I think we'll be gald to head to warmer weather. Good Night friends......

From the Beginning

November 30, 2007 ~ as I left for my last day of work Mike drove the motor home out of our driveway for the last time, heading to the Ventura RV Resort. We had reservations for the month of December, as there was now way we were going to miss Christmas with our kids and new grandbaby Chloe.

December 30, 2007 ~ we headed off to Yuma, AZ to the Las Quintas Oasis RV Resort where we planned to stay for the next few months. We were ready to just relax for a while before we started to travel. We met so many new friends and enjoyed the resort so much that we've decided spend next winter in Yuma as well. The best thing is, it only takes us 5 1/2 hours to drive back to Simi and Ventura to see the kids. In the 4 months we stayed in Yuma we saw the kids and our friends quite often.

As luck would have it, Yuma had a car show in March called Midnight at the Oasis. Our friends Scott & Debbie Campagne and Rich & Karen Mehas from Alta Loma brought their awesome cars down to enter in the show. We had a blast, we rode in a parade through town and went on the poker run with Rich and Karen and were able to attend the dinners and hang out at the show all weekend. It was a real treat for us.

Unfortunately we lost our dog Mandy while we were in Yuma. We were lucky enough to have her for 16 years, and she took to living in the motor home right off. She loved all the new friends she made at the dog run, and it was a great way for us to meet new people as well. Dog people are so friendly and always want to tell you all about their babies. We miss her so much and think about her all the time.

April 21, 2008 ~ we left Yuma and headed to Bullhead City, AZ. We spent the night at our Aunt Lillian’s house and left the next morning for CA to spend a week at Yucaipa Regional Park. We brought Aunt Lillian with us and dropped her off at her friend Ella May’s house in Beaumont. It was Ella May’s 95th birthday and Aunt Lillian didn’t want to miss that party!

We got to see the kids at Matt & Mandi’s house on Tuesday evening. Kimmy drove over from Simi and we all played with Chloe until we pooped her out and she went to sleep.

Saturday we attended Hailey Campagne’s 2nd birthday party. She was so cute and just loved every present she opened. It was wonderful to see all of our good friends, some that we only get to see about once a year. It’s funny how all of the kids have grown up and we haven’t aged a bit.

April 28, 2008 ~ we left Yucaipa and headed to Williams, AZ, which is where we are right now. It is very beautiful here, but we’ve had to get our winter clothes out again.
Cold and very windy, days have been in the mid 50s and nights in the high 30s. We’re not used to the cold, it was in the 90s when we left Yuma.

Tuesday we just messed around the city of Williams and went over to the Deer Farm to feed the deer and check out the other animals. It was pretty old and run down, but we had a good time.


Yesterday we road the Grand Canyon Railway. We boarded at 9:45am and it took about two and a half hours to get there. We enjoyed every minute of the time, besides looking for wildlife along the way, we were entertained by a Hopi Indian singer and a visit from an old west cowboy. We arrived at the Canyon at 12:15pm. We hadn't booked any bus tours, so we did a lot of walking, stopped for lunch, shopped and had an ice cream cone. The Grand Canyon was amazing, when we walked up to the edge, it was breath taking. We saw 5 Condors, two of them flying in the canyon. They are huge, some with wing spans up to 9 feet across.

We boarded the train again at 3:45pm to head home. Our entertainment on the way home was a fiddle player and what a crack up he was. He had people dancing and playing his fiddle. Then all of the sudden two masked cowboys came riding their horses along side of us and one jumped on the train. I guess the rest of his crew was waiting for him on the train because there were 3 of them when they came through each car to rob everyone. It was fun, but they did keep the bills and change that everyone gave them in the robbery, tip money I guess. With everything going on, we were still able to see Elk and Antelope along the way. It was a very nice day.