"Happiness is a butterfly, which, when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
– Nathaniel Hawthorne Hello everybody. At the present time, I am in Sunny Chicago (NOT!) where it is a balmy 32 degrees and snowing. YAHOO! You gotta know how much I love this weather. I will be here for a week for a class called "Spirituality and the Family". Looking forward to it. Anyway, let me get back to our Vegas adventure. We continued the week by visiting Ethel M Chocolatiers, which oddly enough, has an absolutely gorgeous cactus garden. It had every make and model of cactus you can imagine - - some very oddly shaped and some with funny names. Steve did a nice job capturing the name tags so you can see what I am talking about. This chocolatier is in the middle of an industrial park so it's not something you would ever put on the tourist guide, but it was fun and I am glad that we got to see it. Another cool place that we visited was the Neon Sign Museum with our friends Chris and Bob Perrine. What a fun place. This museum is made up of all the old signs from the early days of Las Vegas and the stories behind them were a hoot. We also learned a bit about neon sign design - - if you want a letter to look brighter, put the neon on the inside of the letter. If you want it to be bigger, put the neon on the outside. (Hey, it was news to me!) We also learned that neon is very special to the city of Las Vegas and any establishment on the strip must have 75% of its signage in neon. Our tour guide was a riot and we baked in the sun there (it was 85 degrees that day) but we had a blast. From there we visited Ricks' Restoration (from the show on the History Channel). We didn't stick around for the tour but it was interesting to see him in person. He's a very nice guy and his wife/girlfriend, Kelly, was the photographer for the tourists who wanted their picture taken with Rick. Man, these guys really know how to exploit their fame. T-shirts, key chains, bobble head dolls, pictures with Rick, and a tour of his shop - - all available for a price. I wonder if he even does any restoration any more of is the tourist dollar his main source of income now? Who knows, but I wouldn't want to deal with that life, no matter how much it paid. The next day we traveled over to the Hoover Dam with Chris and Bob. Our first stop, however, was the Mike O'Callaghan/Pat Tillman Bridge that was built to make traffic flow away from the Hoover Dam instead of across it. From this bridge, however, you get an awesome view of the dam. I am not sure why these two gentlemen are coupled and honored with the name of this bridge because from what I can tell, they had no interaction. Mike O'Callaghan was a former Governor of Nevada. Pat Tillman was a star college and pro football player who was killed in Afghanistan while on a tour of duty that he left the NFL to assume. No matter, the bridge is cool and the view was spectacular. The dam itself, originally named the Boulder Dam, was built in the 30's and provides electric power to 5 states: California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It straddles the Nevada and Arizona border and created Lake Mead. The water level of the lake is roughly 30 feet below levels seen when it was first built and with the lack of snowfall on the western face of the Rockies this winter, the water level is expected to be another 18 feet lower this summer. We toured the inner workings of this dam and it was really cool to stand right over the intake pipe (30 feet in diameter) that was providing the water for the generators. It's kinda creepy down in that dam and a little claustrophobic in some areas, but we had a great time. Steve and Bob were tempted to kick the earthquake sensor box just for laughs, but we talked them out of that. After that tour, we took a long drive down a very rough dirt road to get to the back country of Lake Mead. On the way, we passed bunches of these absolutely gorgeous orange flowers that looked like Gerber daisies. There were other desert flowers that I admired on the route - - purples, oranges, yellows - - SO BEAUTIFUL. So, a trip to Vegas would not be complete without a visit to Fremont Street and a walk down the strip. We stopped to see the pirate show at Treasure Island (excuse me, TI as it is called now) as well as the talking statues at Caesars. Neither of these impressed Steve in the least. We were going to do the Bellagio fountains and the volcano at The Mirage, but it was late and we were tired so we decided to save that for another trip. Lastly, we cruised past The Pawn Stars' shop, which had a line to get in down the block and around the corner. Apparently, it was a filming day. We said goodbye to Chris and Bob and headed west to San Diego, where we hooked up with Stevie and Aime (our youngest son and his wie). Steve and I were commenting on how we finally made it to California. Just 5 months ago we were in Homestead, Florida at the Nascar race, and now we are all the way across the country as far west as we could go. Yet another milestone of this trip has been achieved and we are clearly on the downside of our journey. Both of us are starting to get a little anxious and excited about our future and realize that in 7 short months, our travels will be over. But between now and then, we have Yosemite, Reno/Tahoe, Utah, Colorado, North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Idado, Montana, Minnesota and possibly Nebraska to visit. The remaining states (Oregon, Seattle, Oklahoma and Kansas) will have to wait for another adventure, possibly when we do Alaska (potentially in 2014). Alrighty folks. Gotta get ready for class. Have a nice week. Keep warm!
0 Comments
"Life is not the way it's supposed to be. It's the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."
– Virginia Satir Hello from VIVA LAS VEGAS!!! Yes, we are in Sin City for a few days and having a great time so far. But before I get to Vegas, let me finish our time in WIlliams, AZ. As I mentioned in our last post, Williams Arizona is an adorable town just west of Flagstaff. It was an important stop on the old Route 66 and you can see from the pictures that we took, it still clings to this accomplishment. What a cute town and so touristy!! We had a nice time just wandering around town doing a little shopping. One store had a whole wall of hot sauces, some of which had 1,000,000 units on the Scoville scale (as a point of reference, one jalapeno is, on average, 5,000 units). We bought a collection of those for our grandsons who claim to be hot sauce aficionados. Yeah, we'll see. The town, itself, is home to about 3,000 people full-time but in the spring-fall months, the place gets packed. It is perfectly situated between the Grand Canyon and Sedona and near a ton of nice geological and scientific stuff like the Meteor Crater, Sunset Crater (which is the aftermath of a volcano), the Petrified Forest, Wupatki and Elden Pueblo Indian ruins, etc. Speaking of Indian ruins, Steve and I visited Walnut Creek National Monument, which are 800 year old cliff dwellings of the Sinagua people. They were different from the Gila dwellings that we saw in New Mexico in that they were individual units and not a community of rooms. They also were built into what is called an "island" in the middle of the canyon and followed the canyon wall all the way around the island. I am not sure how these indians were able to get to these cliff dwellings - - they must have used a lot of ropes and ladders - - because the cliff faces are fairly straight down to the ground. As you can see from the pictures, we had to descend 240 steps to reach these dwellings, which was fine, until we had to make the journey back. You may be thinking that 240 steps is NBD (no big deal), but let me tell you, at 6900 feet the air is a bit thin and breathing is quite labored. It took us only 20 minutes to reach the caves but 40 to return to the visitor's center. I was breathing like I had just run a marathon or something! We were looking down at birds flying around 6500 feet, which was kind of funny. We also visited Sedona while we were in the area. If you've never been there, I suggest a visit. It's one of the more "spiritual" places in the world - - and I put that word in quotes because this is the place where people come to have their auras read and to get crystals and visit vortexes. I don't know what any of that means, but it's a thriving business in this area. Anyway, we visited Red Rock State Park and did some hiking. What a view from the top of the trail we took. The pictures don't really capture the red of the rocks but man oh man, beauty abounded. The winter snows were melting and the river that runs through the park was over its banks, which was interesting to see as well. Even the drive from Williams to Sedona was breathtaking. We drove right past the Junipine Lodge where Terry, my mom and dad and I stayed when we came down here back in 1997. WOW that was a long time ago! Our last adventure in Williams was a trip to Bearizona, which was a zoo that was part drive-thru and part walking. LOVED IT!!!!! We drove through the park and saw Rocky Mountain goats, burros, bison, Alaskan Tundra wolves and Arctic wolves, Dall sheep, Bighorn sheep (or "rock sheep" as I like to call them) and lastly black bears. When we went into the walking part of this zoo, we stopped in the gift shop to see the three bear cubs that were just born. They will be hanging out in their incubator for about a month and then taken to another pen until they are a year old. They will stay in the larger enclosure until they are 3 years old and then they are allowed to roam free in the drive-through part of the park. We saw lots of other cool animals while we were there and had a great time. My favorite, I have to say, was the peacock. What a gorgeous bird that is. The colors take my breath away. Ok, that was all we did in Williams and again, if you are thinking of a place to come for a family vacation, give Williams a chance. It has a ton to offer and is an adorable little town. Besides all the things that I mentioned above, there is abundant hiking and fishing available as there are a number of lakes nearby. There is a golf course 2 miles from the city as well. Nice place to visit. Steve and I really enjoyed being there and plan to come back again. Ok, off to Vegas. I must say the drive from Williams to Vegas was one of the most beautiful we have had on this journey. The landscape really changes and the mountains are spectacular. Our first night we cruised down the strip so Steve could see that (he's never been to Vegas) and then headed for Fremont Street. People-watching in Vegas could be an actual sport and we had a great time. We will walk the strip later this week so Steve can experience all the cool stuff like the pirate ships at Treasure Island, the talking statues at Caesars, the water fountains at the Bellagio, etc. Our really big adventure was our trip to Death Valley. HOLY CRAP WAS THAT A MIND BLOWER. I think we were expecting a flat plain that was dry and sandy and Death Valley is anything but. It is mountainous (Telescope Mountain is 11,000+ feet) and the rocks are so colorful. The pictures cannot really capture the beauty that this park offers at all. You have to see it to believe it, trust me. Anyway, we visited Badwater which is the lowest point in the United States at 282 feet below sea level. That was cool because at the bottom is a salt lake that, when dry, leaves a crust of salt all over the land. Again, pictures do not do this justice at all but we tried to capture it for you. We also visited Devil's Golf Course which is an extension of the salt lake, only very rugged. In the spring and summer, the salt forms all kinds of crystaline shapes on the rocks that looks really cool. This park is so huge we could not possibly experience all of it in the one day that we had. I wish we were able to spend more time there because it really was quite spectacular. Near Death Valley is Ash Meadows Wildlife Preserve which is an oasis in the middle of the Mojave Desert. There is a natural spring there that contains the endangered pup fish. This fish is found only here and at Devil's Hole. Nowhere else in the world. Speaking of Devil's Hole, this is an underground aquifer that is also located in the desert. The water in this hole is a constant 93 degrees all year round. USGS has been studying this aquifer for quite some time because, aside from the fact that it's in the middle of a desert, they have not been successful in their attempts to map the cavern. The deepest they have recorded is 500 feet and they know that it is not anywhere near the bottom. The really cool part of this hole is that when there is an earthquake anywhere in the world, the water in this hole is affected. Follow this link to a video that will talk about it more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y96KfyyzsWM. How cool is that? Our last stop was to a ghost town called Rhyolite. It was founded in 1905 and dead by 1920 but in it's heydey, it was home to more than 3,000 people. What was really cool about this little town was that a bunch of artists from Belgium decided to make this place their personal canvasses. One artist, Albert Szukalski, made a sculpture of ghost-like characters called "The Last Supper". We loved that and some of the other artwork out there. But back to the town. The town was originally founded to mine Rhyolite and also gold. The speculators of the gold overstated the lode there, which is why the town was empty in 15 years. Most of the houses were moved to the nearby town of Beatty, but what is left was pretty cool. The bottle house was especially neat. It was built by Tom Kelly in 1905 and he used 30,000 bottles to do it. Pretty neat, huh? Okay, that's it for now. We are headed to Rick's Restoration and the Neon Sign museum with our friends from Toledo - - Chris and Bob Perrine. We will talk to you soon. Take care and love you all so much. "Experience is not what happens to a man. It is what a man does with what happens to him."
– Aldous Huxley Hello from the Andersons. Sorry that you didn't hear from us last week, but I have been swamped with school and just could not take the time to write. But we have some updates this week, so here goes: If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that Steve and I thoroughly enjoy visiting military museums, especially ones that have vintage aircraft. This week's trip was to the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tuscon, AZ. This was a wonderful place to visit and HUGE!!!! There are about 300 different airplanes there and we had a great time running around trying to see them all. Steve's favorite was the B377-SG, the "Super Guppy" which was used to bring back sections of the Saturn 5 (Apollo) rockets. That thing was GINORMOUS (if I could make up a word)! My favorite is the AV-8C, otherwise known as the Harrier. I have seen that jet in action and it is pretty darn cool. One of the best parts of this museum was the movie they did about making a giant paper airplane. This museum sponsors a contest for kids to design paper airplanes. The winner of the contest then gets to help professionals build an almost life-sized version of his model. When construction is complete, they attach the airplane to a helicopter and take it airborne and let it go. The movie showed this young boy's designed airplane soaring over the desert. The look of pride on the kid's face made me cry. He looked like he felt he was 10 feet tall. Awesome! I highly recommend this museum if you are in the Tucson area. It's a lot of fun. Next, we paid a visit to the Saguaro National Park to visit some truly majestic cacti. The first picture in this gallery is Steve standing next to one of them. Now, my beloved is 5' 10" tall, so you can see what I mean when I say they are tall! And not only are they tall, but they can weigh up to 8 tons. Who knew? The park is huge and has a lot of nice hiking trails which take you on paths through every make and model of cacti available: cholla, prickly pear, barrel, hedgehog, fishhook, ocotillo, to name a few, and not just the saguaro (pronounced, by the way, sa-warr-o). The desert is a beautiful place even though it is extremely dry. I am sure that in about a month when the cacti are in full bloom, the desert will take my breath away. From Tucson, Steve and I went up to Maricopa for a few days with the Christian Fellowship group that we are a part of through our membership with Escapees RV club. We had a blast with these people just fellowshipping and eating, but there was also learning involved. We studied a book called "The Circle Maker" by Mark Batterson, which is about praying for God's promises.. We learned a lot and really enjoyed our time with these people: Bob and Mary Shuey from North Carolina, Barbara and Richard from Arizona, Linda from British Columbia, and Dave and Gail from Montana. It was great to hang out with fellow believers and Steve and I look forward to our next rally with this group in Campo, California in late March/April. From Maricopa, we headed north to Williams, AZ. This town is absolutely adorable and was once a busy stop on the old Route 66. Next week's update will provide you more information about Williams because we have not explored it much. We just got here the other day so we've only managed to visit the Grand Canyon so far. Steve and I have both been here before, but the last time we were here (Steve's first visit, my second), it was rainy and overcast and Steve was not able to really get a feel for the grandeur of this wonder of God's creation. This time, he was blown away. Pictures really do not do it justice folks. For those of you who have been here, you are knodding your head in agreement on that statement. For those of you who haven't -- DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO VISIT. It is absolutely breathtaking. The enormity of this canyon cannot be described. It just goes on and on as far as the eye can see. And the colors are so vibrant, again not able to capture with pictures. I especially liked the bits of snow that were still evident in places. There are an absolute ton of trails to hike - - some along the rim and a good number that will take you down inside the canyon. We hiked the Trail of Time which explained the geological features of the canyon and described the types of rock layers, etc. We tried to capture that but gave up because there were just so many. We were also blessed with some wildlife sightings - - deer and elk. That was fun because Steve and I hardly ever get to see wildlife. So this week we plan to visit Flagstaff and Sedona. Steve is going to do some exploring on his own as I spend a day in the library of Northern Arizona University (research for a study that I am working on). We will also explore the town of Williams as well because it is just the coolest little town. One thing, though, the altitude is killing both of us. We are about 7000+ feet up and both of us struggle to breathe at times. I am sure by the time we are ready to leave we will have adjusted. Funny story though - - in church today we met a woman from Swanton, Ohio. She is moving here soon and is in the process of selling her house on Route 295, right near where we used to live. Small world!!!!! Ok peeps. Talk to you next week. "The tragedy in life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach."
– Benjamin Mays Hello everyone! How's it going? Today's quote was chosen because both Steve and I had a major realization since we hit Arizona. We are really achieving the goal that we set out to accomplish. We finished the first half of the country like we had planned and are well-ensconced in year 2. When we originally set out, it all sounded like a pipe dream to take this trip and to travel the country. Some people were giving us 6 months or less before we quit and came home. But here we are, 16 months later, and still going strong. Kinda nice! So we had a nice week. It started out with a visit to Kevin and Mary Ann Bandur, the lovely parents of our son Terry's girlfriend Jill. You will recall that we spent some time with them last summer while Terry and Jill were hiking the trail. They live here in Tucson, so we paid them a visit to catch up. What a lovely home they have here. It is impeccably decorated and so warm and inviting. They live in a golf community and their home is right on the golf course with a spectacular view of the Catalina Mountains. We had an excellent time visiting with them and hope to hook up with them later in the year as they are contemplating an RV purchase for their own and traveling as well. Next was a visit to an old Titan II Missile Museum. WOW was that cool. We have no idea who Count Ferdinand von Galen is, but they named this museum after him and we liked his name (plus I think he's one of the stars of Breaking Dawn II, isn't he?) This visit was so interesting mostly because our tour guide was a former missile launcher from the late 60's and 70's for the Air Force, so he had a lot of inside scoop to share. We began our tour by climbing down 55 feet to the second level of the complex where the launch control station was. Our tour guide explained the use of codes and multiple keys that were required in order to launch the missile and also told us that when he was on active duty in this role, there was no need for any such safety features. He could have launched his Minuteman missiles with a simple push of the button. SAY WHAT?????? The Titan II is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and is 143 feet tall with a nuclear warhead that was 10,000 times greater in power than the one that destroyed Nagasaki (Yikes). There were ton of security practices put into place to ensure that no one could launch the missile without appropriate authority. For instance, there was a two-man rule - - no one was ever alone in the silo. Secondly, there were four security doors/phones that you had to get through in order to get to the launch command center. The military personnel were given codes on little slips of paper and would have to call in the code before the door would be opened. Once opened, they were to burn their slips of code paper. The other interesting point is that the personnel assigned to launch the rocket had no idea what the target was. There were simple buttons labeled "1", "2" and "3". Their launch instructions would tell them which button to push. I thought that was pretty cool! These were not all military in nature, however, as NASA made use of the as well. The Titan rocket was used to launch Neil Armstrong into space for the first time. Thankfully the Reagan administration decommissioned all of the Titan II rockets with the exception of this one base so that it could be made into a museum. The nuclear warhead, however, was removed for safety purposes. Our next stop was to Bisbee, Arizona and the Queen Mine. Bisbee, is a town that was founded in 1877 because of a copper mining claim that was made by the U.S. Army. It grew from mere shacks to a town of 20,000 in almost no time at all. The city is built into the mountain and the streets are striated into the side of the mountain with each successive street one level higher than the next. I cannot imagine how difficult it was to build some of the homes in the mountains, but it made for a cool looking little town. Steve and I intended to do the mine tour, but sadly, my claustrophobia kicked in big time so I had to high tail it outta there. Steve continued on without me and my favorite picture is the one at the end of him sitting on the toilet. Nice!!!! Anyway, they pulled out a lot of other minerals besides copper. Lots of turquoise, silver, malachite (not the Old Testament Malachites, however) and some other really beautiful stuff. From there we headed to Tombstone and watched the re-enactment of the shootout at the OK Corral. The city of Tombstone was developed as a town in 1881 as a result of a huge silver mine in the area. That mine didn't last that long as it flooded due to an overrun of an aquifer that the miners broke into while drilling for another mine shaft. Sadly, the town really has no other claim to fame other than the shootout which began with a drunken cowboy named Curly Bill's shooting of the then Marshall, Fred White. Virgil Earp was the Sheriff and City Marshall of the town and he deputized his brothers (who were also U.S. Marshalls), Morgan and Wyatt. The McLeary and Clanton brothers were at odds with the Earps over control of the city and, as the story goes, they had a shoot out and the McLeary's were killed along with Billy Clanton. We visited the Boothill Graveyard where the three victims of the shootout are buried. There were also some other interesting gravemarkers there as well. Another fun place that we visited was the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which highlighted the flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert of Southeast Arizona. It was beautifully put together and a nice little piece of exercise too. You can see all the animals and plants that we got to see. We especially liked the Saguaro cactus which are huge. These pictures don't do them justice because you can't tell how tall they are - - but most of them are about 30 feet tall or taller. They also form some pretty weird shapes that can be amusing. Check out Steve's pictures of the hummingbirds. He caught one in action, hovering over the food bin. COOL!!!! Our last adventure was to the Tucson Rodeo. Apparently this event is one of the largest and most important on the Pro Rodeo Competition circuit so the major rodeo talent was there. We got to see both bareback and saddle bronc riding, bull riding, barrel racing, individual and team roping. It was an absolute blast and I am totally hooked on this whole rodeo experience. I cannot wait to go again somewhere else while we are out here in the West. Steve shot some video of the events, including some slow motion, and will upload them to You Tube as soon as he finishes editing them. Ok, that's it for the week. We are still in Tucson until Wednesday and then we head to Casa Grande. Take care guys! Miss you. "If one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better."
– Jane Austen The above quote has nothing to do with anything we did this week. I am just a HUGE Jane Austen fan and wanted to share. Okay, Hello from Deming, New Mexico. What a fun week we had and lots of adventures. It all started on our drive over from Lakewood, across the San Andres mountains, through Cloudcroft where we saw snow and our first long-distance view of White Sands. We both decided that we didn't miss the snow at all and how amazing it is that you can go from total dry bones desert to pine-covered mountains with snow in just a few miles (of mostly elevation, to be sure, but what a drastic change). We made a stop at White Sands National Monument and what a beautiful place that was - - it looks like snow but it is really finely ground gypsum which was the bottom of a sea bed that was in this part of the world some 250 million years ago. The winds out in this area blow and drift this sand into huge mounds and it was a blast seeing kids sledding down the sides of them. It was like having your winter fix but the temperature was 68 degrees and sunny. We parked Big Red next to one of them so you could see how big they are. Aren't they cool? Our next adventure was traveling down to Puerto Palomas, Mexico. We were told by some people at the Lakewood RV park we had just left that you could get optical and dental work done very cheaply here, and since Steve broke his glasses and was using a back-up scratched pair (sounds like our grandson Darius), we decided to head down and check it out. What a great time we had. First, the entire process - - eye exam to glasses - - only took 2 hours. In the meantime, we shopped at The Pink Store and had lunch at the restaurant that is part of the complex. We listened to live music and ate some absolutely fabulous Mexican food, and even met and spent time with the owners - - Sergio and Ivonne Romero. They were lovely people and tried to convince us to move to Las Cruces. If you are in the southwest New Mexico area, I highly recommend heading to Palomas for a visit to The Pink Store and our new friends Sergio and Ivonne. Check out their website: www.thepinkstoremexico.com. Next, we headed to the Gila Cliff Dwellings which is a place that I have always wanted to see. These cliff homes were built by the Mogollon Indians around 1270 A.D. and were inhabited for only 30 years. According to the ranger, they estimated that 40 people lived within the walls of these caves. They farmed the valley below for corn, beans, and squash and supplemented their diet with the local berries as well as the deer in the area. There was a severe drought which is one of the theories as to why they only remained here 30 years - - they had used up all the natural resource and had to move on. The caves were ransacked between the early 1600's when the Spanish began to settle in the area, and the late 1800's when our government decided to make it a National Park. They were able to find some artifacts which helped explain how they lived and farmed and what each of the caves was used for. Apparently, these Mogollon Indians were expert ladder builders which they would have to be because some of the rooms in these caves did not have doors - - like the grainery. They purposely made their storehouses something that would have to be reached from the outside of the cave and accessible only by very long ladders. And, based on the pictographs present, they used them to leave additional clues near the ceilings of these very high caves. We thoroughly enjoyed visiting this site. The Gila National Forest, where the cliffs are located, are also very interesting. Geronimo was born in the 1820's at the mouth of the Gila River, not far from the cliff dwellings. There is a scenic drive called "Trail of the Mountain Spirits" that takes you from Silver City, NM passed Fort Bayard and the Santa Rita Open Pit Copper Mine (which was enormous and very interesting to see), through the Gila National Forest which boasts the most interesting rock formations, passed Lake Roberts (a high elevation lake in the mountains) and then to the Cliff Dwellings. What a lovely drive that was. We saw snow again, and thankfully just blew right passed it. There is also a hot springs and an old mining town from the 1860's called Pinos Altos that is fun to see. The drive, including the visit to the cliff dwellings, is an all-day thing, but very much worth your time. Our next adventure was to the City of Rocks State Park which was a total surprise and one we thoroughly enjoyed. These rocks are the aftermath of a volcanic eruption that was estimated to be 1,000 times greater than Mount St. Helens. They are basically lava drippings that landed and cooled into cool shapes and Steve and I had a blast climbing all over the rocks. We also did some geocaching which was fun, but I almost died again. Of course, I am exaggerating! But in the process of looking for one cache, I walked right into a thorn bush and, because I was wearing capri pants (yes, it was that warm), my legs got all scratched up and bloody. Not a pretty sight!!!! On the way home, we headed out Green Leaf Mine Road to do some rockhounding. This mine was built to harvest the flourite in the area, which is what we were rockhounding for, as well as carnelian. To get there we had to take this very long dirt road back behind someone's ranch. It was a very beautiful drive to be back in the open desert like that. We also stopped to see some pictographs that were left behind by the Indians in this region. Not much is known about this old mine or the pictographs, so I cannot give you more information, but it was fun to see. There is even an old gravesite right near the mine's opening. I am sure there is a good story there, but what it is, we will never know. Lastly, we experienced something totally new and not so wonderful. Let me say that the desert is a beautiful place in its own way. The cactus are diverse and interesting. There are mountains everywhere and the wide-open spaces allow you to see 30-40 miles in the distance. With a sky that huge, the sunrises and sunsets are unmatched. But the lack of humidity has an unbelievable affect on your body - - my skin is absorbing lotion by the gallon and our sinuses just burn from the dryness. And, then there's the "mother nature" affect of sandstorms. This past Saturday, we had winds of 50 mph with gusts even larger than that which caused us to have an unbelievable dust storm. I have never seen anything like it and, quite honestly, didn't care for it. The dirt was so high in the air that the bottom of the clouds were brown. The blowing sand was so thick, you couldn't see very far in front of you. And when it all settled down, everything was covered in dirt. Not so much fun peeps! It must be a frequent happening because there were roads in the area that had signs warning of low visibility due to sandstorms. It was interesting to see, but i wouldn't want to have to deal with that very often. We tried to capture it in pictures but they really don't do it justice because you would need the "before and after" shots to be able to tell how much visibility had diminished. Needless to say, it was a dirty mess!! Alrighty, today is moving day. We are headed to Benson, Arizona to visit some friends, to see Tombstone and visit the Sagauro National Park and its towering cacti. FUN!!! Weather is expected to be in the upper 60's. Nice! "What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
– T.S. Eliot Good morning from Southeast New Mexico! What a disappointing week we had. I haven't said that too often, so that's a good thing, but yeah, it wasn't our best week. This area of New Mexico is experiencing its ninth year of a severe drought. The desert scene we experienced in Texas at Big Bend was lush and green compared to this part of the country. Even the Brantley Lake State Park, which is based around a huge lake, is almost completely dried up. All along the main highway between Artesia and Carlsbad are signs for the sale of fresh water. There are trucks going up and down the highway all day with huge tanks of water. So, needless to say, we did not get to experience the beauty of a healthy desert. It was as brown and dry as could be. Sad!!! And when I say dry, I am talking a kind of dry that I cannot explain. My skin soaks up lotion like a sponge, my hair stands on end from the static, and our nasal passages are so dried out that it burns to breathe. Have you ever experienced that? The only thing that offsets that bit of discomfort is that we are staying in the absolute friendliest campground that we have ever visited. This is a campground that is part of the Escapees RV Club that we belong to and is a winter home for a good number of full-time travelers. Steve and I learned how to play Pokeno, we went to a Super Bowl party, and these people even helped me with the ethnographic research project that I am working on for school. Nice! So let's get to our adventures and the other things that disappointed us this week. First, we visited the Carlsbad Caverns and had a great time. Being the adventurous sorts that we are, we began our visit by taking the natural entrance trail instead of the elevator. This trail is 1.25 miles long and goes down a 20% grade (good for the quads) into a huge hole in the ground. While we were walking the trail, however, it started to snow - - yes, snow - - and man were we not happy about that. Nonetheless, we were not going to let this dampen our enthusiasm. The cavern itself is not the largest - - Mammoth Cave holds that distinction. It is, however, the most decorated cavern of all in the world. It has the largest number of "decorations" and the greatest variety. There are, of course, the requisite stalactites and stalagmites, but this cavern also boasts a ton of soda straws, draperies, flowstones, full-blown columns (when stalactites and stalagmites meet), cave pearls, popcorn, argonite crystals, and lily pads (which are not plants but rock formations that look like lily pads). Totally cool. There were so many of them that your eye couldn't behold it all. The trails within the cavern descend to 1,037 feet but the rooms are never so small that my claustrophobia kicked in (which is nice, because that was not the case when we visited Mammoth Cave). There are three major trails, two of which require a ranger to lead. Steve and I took the blue trail, which heads into the Big Room where the bottomless pit, the chandelier, and the really cool other decorations are located. I highly recommend this as a place to visit more than once since it took us more than 4 hours to do just the two trails that we did, and we were exhausted! Near the Caverns is a state park called Living Desert State Park. This was a surprise and an absolute delight. The park has a greenhouse where all the varieties of cactus are housed and a good number of them were blooming. So beautiful. The remainder of the park is a zoo which houses the animals that can be found in the desert, except the elk. I am not sure elk live in the desert, but hey, who am I? Anyway, we had a nice visit there and recommend that as well. Now on to our disappointments. First, we attempted to go see Sitting Bull Falls which is located in the Lincoln National Forest. I was excited on two accounts - - a National Forest implies trees and wildlife, right? Well, not so much here. It was barren desert just like the surrounding area. Again, the water deprivation that this region is experiencing is literally killing the desert life. Secondly, the park is only open Friday to Monday. We went there on a Thursday afternoon. So, we drove more than an hour to get someplace that we couldn't even see. UGH!!!! I hate that. It's my fault though. I checked the website and it said Friday to Monday but my brain saw that and said Monday to Friday to me. Has that ever happened to you? Next disappointment - Roswell. Steve and I were so excited about visiting the aliens. We were expecting a town that was themed on aliens and spaceships and all things space related, but NOOOOOOOOO! There was the UFO Museum which was nothing more than laminated newspaper articles and some alien dummies. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't that. There were a couple of "Area 51" stores where you could buy t-shirts and other worthless junk, and a McDonald's that had a playground shaped like a spaceship, but that was it. Yes, the street lights have alien faces on them, but come on people, you could have done so much more here. How about a alien-themed restaurant? What about having some aliens just walking around the streets? Man were we disappointed. It is a complete waste of time. Too bad. Okay, that's really it for this week. We are headed to the Southwestern side of New Mexico and have to cross some mountains to get there so the drive will be a challenge for Steve. We will be seeing White Sands National Monument, Las Cruses, Gila cliff dwellings and heading to Mexico so Steve can get new glasses. Hopefully I will have a better report for you next week. Take care guys! We really do miss all of you. "Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
– Louisa May Alcott Hello. Sorry I am late getting this blog together but school is really kicking my butt!!!! Anyway, Steve and I just left Marathon/Terlingua, Texas after spending a week in the dusty desert. The weather was absolutely gorgeous the entire week - - in the 80's and sunny every day! We had a blast at Big Bend National Park so let me get to the details. First, we visited the eastern part of the park. Our first stop was an area of the park where they found several dinosaur fossils. Steve and I stood on a ridge to view the area and imagine the dinosaurs roaming, and what happens next - - I ALMOST DIED!!!! Well, not really, but I came close to going over the edge. The top of the ridge was undulating rock and I twisted my ankle on one of the ripples and went down and almost over the side. Holy Cow! I lived, of course, and we went on to the Boquillas Canyon Overlook and watched a dude on a horse cross back and forth on the Rio Grande, wondering if we should alert authorities or what! We decided it was NBD (no big deal) and just chatted with the people we met there, and guess where they were from - - Gladwin, Michigan. This is the second time that we've met people from Gladwin, which is where our family cottage is. How funny! We also took a long hike to the Hot Spring that is in the park as well. Apparently, this was quite the place to hang out in the late 1800's/early 1900's. There were a lot of older buildings there that used to house a store, a spa, and a place for people to change their clothes, etc. Interesting. The next day we visited the Terlingua cemetery. Terlingua used to be an important town when they did mercury mining in the area in the early 1900's. There is a ghost town there which is nothing more than some crumbled buildings, but the cemetery was really cool. Many of the people buried here died from mercury poisoning but we were told some of them were the losers of a gun fight. Every year, once a year, people gather there to celebrate their loved ones. We also toured through the Chisos Basin in Big Bend. This part of the park is at a much higher elevation and sported evergreen trees and wildlife (of course, we didn't see any, however). We stopped at The Window to watch the sunset and met a guy named Scott from Phoenix who gave us some tips on things to do while in that area. While there, I also learned about the century plant. This is an agave that buds only once in its 100-year life, but when it does, it sprouts a stalk that can go as high as 50 feet. This stalk contains the seed pods and, once the seeds are released, the entire plant dies and falls over. COOL! The next day we hit the western part of the park. We tried to capture some of the plant-life in this part of the park because it was really cool, despite being mostly colorless. Within this part of the park is a place called Castelon, which is an old store that, again, was important to the area back in the late 1800's/early 1900's. This store was a busy place for both Mexicans and Americans, especially during prohibition when the Mexicans would bring their agave liquor over the border!!!! Anyway, what's cool about this is the house in Castelon was owned by the same family for a long time and every year, that family gets together for a family reunion at the house. It makes the local news and all (there's not much going on in this part of the country, trust me), but what is cool about that is that I met a woman who married into that family and who will be attending that family reunion in February. She was working the desk at the RV park that we were staying at. She is originally from Hawaii but married someone who is a park ranger and it is his family that owns that Castelon house. Neat! Ok, so we also hiked the Santa Elena Canyon trail that led right to the edge of the Rio Grande. As you can see from the pictures, the river is extremely low and I have got to tell you, the drought in this part of the country is so overwhelming. There are all kinds of lakes and rivers that are dry or pert near completely dry. Anyway, the walls of Santa Elena Canyon are 1500 feet above the river and, while it was quite the hike to get there, it was definitely worth it. On the way back from that hike, we took the Old Maverick Road home and stopped at the Jacal that was there. This "hut" was owned by the Luna family, all 8 of which lived in this hut until 1945. I mean really????????????????? Lastly, for a good laugh, we saw this sign "Loose Livestock". I am not sure what they have against the livestock, but just because a couple of cows made a poor decision or two, they don't have to call them out and make a sign about it - - know what I mean? We all make mistakes. C'mon. I mean, I had my time in the 80's or so. Thankfully, nobody has made a sign about me!!!! The last thing we did in Big Bend National Park was hike the Grapevine Hills trail. This trail led to some unique geological features - - the rocks here were more like round lumps rather than jagged and sharp like other places in the park. There was some cool flora there too but mostly, we saw an absolutely spectacular sunset there. Check out the pictures. I am telling you it was like fire in the sky. Cool stuff. The rest of the time in Terlinqua, we spent in Big Bend Ranch State Park, which is even further west in Texas and straddles the Rio Grande. I must say, this park was even more beautiful than the National Park. First, we stopped at the Barton Warnock Environmental Center which is the visitor center for the park. This was a huge surprise as it housed one of the best geological and historical exhibits of the area that we had seen. It also has a Desert Garden which is beautiful. Almost immediately into the park is an old movie set, which was really cool. From a distance, the houses looked authentic, but when you get up close, you can see the chicken wire and stuff so it is clearly not historic, but the setting was absolutely breathtaking. We did a couple of hikes in this park which were awesome. The first one took us around the hoodoos that are there. These are formed because the rock here is much softer than at the National Park and was eroded in an unusual manner when the water level of this area was much higher than it is now. We also hiked into another canyon, but this time we could actually walk all the way through the canyon because there was absolutely no water in it. Again, the drought is killing the beauty of this part of the country! One of the fun things we did is stop at the roadside teepee and have lunch. We saw some cool flowers on the side of the road - - one of which is the Texas Bluebonnet, which literally covers southwest Texas in about another month or two. But what was really spectacular was our very best wildlife sighting - - Javelinas. These are wild pigs that are about the size of a 30-pound dog. There must have been about 20 of them or so, and we were so excited that we actually saw something alive!!!!!! So cool. Our last day in the area was spent in Fort Davis, Texas. Our first stop was to visit the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute to take some pictures of the flora in the area so that you can see what we had been viewing for the past week. Some of the stuff was really cool and I am sorry that we couldn't visit in March/April because all of this flora would be blossoming. I understand that the cactus, especially, are gorgeous when they flower. Next, we visited Fort Davis National Historic Site. This fort was important in the mid-1800's as the United States (or the Texas territory at the time) was under constant pressure from the local Indians and Mexicans. This fort was also one of the homes of the Buffalo Soldiers and the first black graduate from West Point - - Henry O. Flipper. It was really interesting touring the fort and seeing the original furnishings still housed in the Commanding Officers quarters. What we found interesting, however, was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, dressed as a cowboy, narrating the film about the fort. Seriously? He was your best choice? Anyway, we drove through the Davis Mountains State Park and went on the Skyline Drive to get a spectacular view of the Chihuahuan Desert below. We also saw a decent sunset up there as well, and took a picture of our beloved Rex. From there we headed to the McDonald Observatory to do some stargazing. This part of the country is the darkest in the U.S. and, under normal circumstances, makes for excellent celestial viewing. Unfortunately for Steve and I, we had extreme cloud cover the night we went to the observatory. We did get to see the moon seriously up close and the planet Jupiter. When we viewed Jupiter, we could see two of its moons and some of the rings on the planet. Way cool. We learned a lot about spectrographic analysis and how scientist use this to determine the age and composition of stars. We also learned about the Apollo missions to the moon and some of the things that those missions accomplished. I was especially excited to hear about how one of the missions left reflectors on the moons surface that scientists now use to determine distance from the earth. The scientists will shoot a laser to the reflector and, based on the amount of time it takes for the light beam to return to earth, they can determine how far from the earth the moon is. It was interesting to hear that the moon has moved away from the earth about 5 feet since the Apollo missions left the reflectors. Cool huh? I wanted to point out that Howard, Raj, Leonard and Sheldon performed this same experiment on "The Big Bang Theory" but I didn't think the astro-physicist who was doing the lecture would have appreciated that. Alrighty, that's it for us and Texas. Between last year and this year, we have spent close to 3 months in this state and I would say that constitutes "done". We are now safely ensconced in New Mexico and - - finally - - get to put a new sticker on our States Visited map. WOO HOO! Take care people and stay warm. I understand most of you are in for some snow in the near future!!!! "Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it."
– Madeleine L'Engle Hello from Hondo, Texas everyone!!!! What a town, this Hondo! We had terrible cell service and the campground's WIFI left a lot to be desired, so we have been somewhat incommunicado this past couple of weeks. For me, it hasn't been bad because I was in Chicago for the first week. For Steve, however, it's been a long two weeks. Not that this part of the country is completely devoid of charm - - au contraire mon frere! It is quite lovely in this here part of Southern Texas. There are huge praries that sport funny looking cactus and some wild looking trees. And the sunsets - - well check out Steve's pictures for a taste of those. The wildlife is also interesting - - we had a roadrunner dart out in front of us the other day! HOW COOL! Unfortunately, that thing moved so fast we couldn't get a picture of it. The best way to describe this part of Texas is to take you back to an old western movie - - the ones where the cowboy walks through the swinging doors of the bar and takes his hat off, hits it against his thigh, and dust kicks off of it. Yeah, now you've got the picture. Very very old frontier, but quite charming. We did a lot of stuff this week. We visited a museum called Shooting Star Museum in Castroville, Texas. This museum is run by several women, one of which is a commercial airline pilot for Continental Airlines. In this museum, they focus on WWII memorabilia as well as some other interesting stuff. They are putting together an exhibit of handmade quilts and one of the women there, Alice, was responsible for making a good many of them. Very talented lady!!!! Our tour director, Donna, took us out to the barn where they had a huge exhibit of "hit and miss engines". They also had some old games from my childhood on display and those brought back a ton of memories. We enjoyed our time visiting with Donna, Alice and Lilly. Before I leave Castroville, however, I want to tell you that this is the Alsatian capital of the United States. Apparently there is some connection between this town and the Alsace region of France, and in 1998 the Steinbach House was gifted to Castroville. The house is so "Sound of Music" and I swear I heard Julie Andrews singing "The Hills are alive . . . . " when we visited. This house was originally built in 1618 in Wahlbach, France and is unbelievably cool. Castroville even has Alsatian restaurants (which is really similar to German food) and an Alsatian bakery where Steve and I picked up some coconut/date/fig cookies that were to die for. Okay, moving on. We visited the town of Bandera, Texas and toured through the Frontier Times Museum there. Honestly, when you get into this part of the country, you can almost picture the cowboy activity that took place 150 years ago. Bandera also boasts the country's second oldest Polish-American Catholic Church - - St. Stanislaw - - which was built in 1876 and served the needs of the Polish settlement that began in 1855. Hey, my people were here!!!!!!! No wonder this town felt so warm and inviting to me! One day, Steve and I went into San Antonio and took a carriage ride around the historical part of the city. That was totally not worth the $40 that we paid, so if you are in the area and are thinking that it would be a nice thing to do - - save your money. Anyway, we headed to the Riverwalk and had a nice walk alongside the canal. We ate at an English pub and had some good British food - - one of my favorites: Shepherd's pie! After that, we headed to the Alamo and the other 4 missions that follow the San Antonio River south. WOW did we enjoy that. First, of course, is the Alamo which has a long history. It was originally named Mission San Antonio de Valero and was originally built in 1724, then Spanish territory. In the early 1800's Spain used this mission as a fort and stationed their cavalry there. It got the name "Alamo" from these soldiers in honor of their hometown Alamo de Parras, Coahuila. (Who knew?) It was a strategic for during Mexico's struggle for independence from Spain. Finally, this mission played an important role in the Texas Revolution in 1835 and 1836. In March of 1836, nearly 200 men, including Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie, were killed by Santa Anna's men. The Alamo is currently owned by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and is maintained strictly by donations and is really worth a visit when in the San Antonio area. In addition to the Alamo, there are four other missions in the area: Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan Capistrano, and Mission Espada. We were not able to see Concepcion, but the other three missions were spectacular. First, we visited Mission San Jose, which is quite spectacular. This mission was built in 1720 and is in remarkable condition for being nearly 300 years old. The Indians and missionaries both called this mission home and worked together to produce crops and mill flour for sale to the locals. The church was breathtaking and is still actively used today for Sunday mass. The facade of this church was worth noting. The stone carvings around the door all mean something: heart = love pomegranate = symbolizes church unity and the growing number of converts shell = baptism rose = martyrdom angels = link between God and man The statues also have particular meaning: At the top was St. Joseph (San Jose) the patron saint of the mission Below and to the right is St. Francis of Assissi - the founder of the Franciscan order that provided the missionaries to this church Below and to the left is St. Dominic to whom Mary, the mother of Jesus, appeared and told him to pray the rosary At the bottom right is St. Anne, the mother of Mary At the bottom left is St. Joaquin, the father of Mary So beautiful! We visited the grist mill and learned that they could produce about 50 pounds of flour in one hour using this mill. This was a money-making venture for the mission!!! From there, we visited San Juan Capistrano, which was completely under construction but we could at least grab a picture of the mission. We also saw the hugest cactus ever there!!!! See if you can find my face in the mess of cactus leaves. Lastly, we visited Mission Espada which is he oldest of these missions. It was built in 1690 in a different location but moved to San Antonio in 1731. This mission taught the indians trades like blacksmithing, weaving and masonry. What I loved about this mission was the inside of the church. It was so quaint and beautiful - - you walk through two very heavy wooden doors and enter the interior space which looks very much like it did when it was built. The ambiance was just the coolest. And believe it or not, this is a very active church as well. I would have loved to attend services there as it just really gave you the feeling of being in the Old West back 200 years ago. I loved it. Steve and I did some geocaching in two of the state parks in the area: Garner State Park (where we saw the roadrunner and an armadillo) and Government Canyon State Park. Very nice parks. The Hill Country of San Antonio offers so many different kinds of views and vistas that hiking is an absolute joy. Unfortunately for both of us, when I got back from Chicago, I came down with a terrible cold (half my class was sick) and then poor Steve got it from me. But we made the most of our time in Hondo and enjoyed it. Heck, Steve even won $50 at Bingo at the Catholic Church!!! Alright, that's it for this week. We are headed to Big Bend National Park next week where I am sure we will get some awesome pictures! It's going to be in the 70's there so you people in Detroit/Toledo, SORRY FOR YOUR LUCK!!!!! "All human wisdom is summed up in two words; wait and hope."
– Alexandre Dumas Good morning Everyone and Happy New Year! Let me catch you up on what Stephen Ray and I have been up to since I last posted. First, we had a nice Christmas at the Escapees RV Park in Livingston. We made new friends during this visit - - Ed and Joan Winter - - who taught us a new card game and shared an excellent recipe for a pastry-type dinner. YUM YUM. The members of the Escapees RV Club are such great people and are so warm and welcoming. It was sad to be without family this Christmas, but the members of this group made us feel like we were at least with good friends. Shortly after Christmas, we left for Galveston. Steve and I love the ocean so we wanted to spend at least one more week near it before we made a sharp right-hand turn to the desert Southwest. Our time in Galveston was great. We wish we could have spent more time there and may even consider it for our family vacation in 2013. Tons to do for young and old alike - - wonderful beaches, great restaurants, one of the best waterparks in the U.S. (Schlitterbahn), museums, fishing, botanical gardens, shopping, etc. You should check it out. Let me begin with Moody Gardens. This is a complex of buildings - - 3 of which are pyramids - - that house a rainforest, an aquarium, a science center complete with several 4D rides, botanical gardens, an old-fashioned paddle wheel boat ride in the bay, and in the winter, a snow chute. WOW. What a great time we had there. First, we went to see the Christmas light display that they designed to walk you around the entire complex. The coolest part was a light display of the nativity story. Certain sections of lights would illuminate during different parts of the story. It was difficult to capture that in pictures, but we hope you enjoy what we were able to record. During the day, we returned to Moody to see the inside of those pyramids. We absolutely loved the rain forest. There were beautiful birds and flowers everywhere. They even allowed monkeys to roam freely inside the building. HOW COOL!!!! Next, we visited the aquarium. Steve and I love watching sharks and seals and things like that swim about in their somewhat "natural" habitats. Nice aquarium! The Moody Gardens is a definite must-see if you are ever in the Galveston area. (http://www.moodygardens.com) We also visited the Houston Zoo one day. There was a light rain falling so the zoo wasn't crowded. That was nice because we called Steve's mom and had her go on-line to the zoo's website. The zoo has a lot of webcams and because it wasn't crowded, Steve and I got to stand by the chimpanzee webcam and she saw us on-line, waving to her. She thought it was a hoot and her response to us was "Finally, you guys are where you belong - - in the monkey cage." Steve and I also enjoy museums dedicated to old war-time machinery, whether it be ships or airplanes. The Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston was quite interesting (http://www.lsfm.org). Naturally, there were a ton of old planes which we enjoyed. But our biggest thrill was watching a P-51 Mustang take off. You can get rides in a number of these old war birds, including an old B-17 bomber. COOL. What was interesting to note about this museum was the damage it had sustained from Hurricane Ike. This museum was a solid mile inland, but still had about 8 feet of standing water within its complex during the Hurricane. Unbelievable, and until you see something like that in person, it is hard to imagine the power of Mother Nature and the damage that it can do. Steve and I also visited the Ocean Star, a retired oil rig (http://www.oceanstaroec.com). Galveston and the surrounding area are huge oil towns - - tons of refineries that make the BP refinery in Oregon look like a 1/4 scale model or something. Anyway, we learned a ton about the oil industry and the costs associated with drilling for oil. For example, the cost of running one of those off-shore oil rigs for one day is a staggering $463,000 - - that's PER DAY! That really puts the $4.00 gas price into perspective, don't you think? We did a lot of boring things like go to the movies, walk along the beach etc. but really enjoyed our time in Galveston. At the present time, we are housed in Hondo, Texas which is just west of San Antonio. Steve will be here for the next week, but I am flying to Chicago for a week of intensive study at my school, Moody Theological Seminary. I will miss him, but I get to stay with Terry and Jill while I am in Chicago. I haven't seen them since we picked them up from the trail back in August so it will be good to spend some time with them. Alright people. Have a great week! "Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozey, and don't be afraid to hit the ball."
-Billie Jean King Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Wow, can you believe that it's Christmas yet again? It seems like the year just flew by for us - - I guess being in a different place just about every week will make the time seem to fly. We hope you guys are all able to be with family this holiday season and take the time to let them know how much they mean to you. This week was very slow for us. We did get a chance to visit Galveston, which we loved so much that we changed our plans and will be spending a week there beginning December 28. What an adorable town! The architecture is really quite cool with a good number of the city's original buildings still in place and restored back to their finest. We drove around the island, did some geocaching, and visited the Railroad Museum. Again, we are planning to return to Galveston next week so we will have more to write about then. Steve and I also went Christmas caroling this past week. We are staying at one of the parks that is part of the Escapees RV Club in which we are members. What we really like about this club is that it is more of a family than just a bunch of people who share the love of RV'ing. At this park, there is an organization called C.A.R.E. - - Continuing Assistance for Retired Escapees. Its mission is to provide a safe haven with professional assistance at affordable prices for members whose travels are permanently ended because of age or temporarily interrupted because of health problems. CARE is a place where retired RV'ers will receive professional help for the things that they may no longer be able to do for themselves. It is not a nursing home. Its goal is to delay or eliminate the need for a nursing home. There are CARE patients who live in their RVs right on the premises and are cared for by the full-time medical staff at the facility. CARE patients receive 3 meals per day, have a dedicated activity center where they engage in exercise and other fun things, and provides transportation to/from various appointments for its members. Most of all, CARE provides these people with companionship. The members are visited and cared for by the other RV'ers in the park. So, you can see what I mean by "family". Some of the patients of CARE are shut-ins due to their health. For that reason, Steve and I got together with a bunch of other campers here at the park and visited them and did some Christmas caroling. What a blast! We had a parade of golf carts and a beautifully decorated trolley car that traveled throughout the park complex. We stopped at about a dozen homes along the way and the residents were thrilled to have a visit. Steve had never been caroling before so this was a new experience for him! He loved it and both of us got into the Christmas spirit with this little adventure. Most of all, though, it brought some Christmas cheer to people who are really suffering and some who are very much alone. We were both so delighted that we could bring a little ray of sunshine into their lives this holiday season. Lastly, we visited Lake Livingston and did some geocaching. That was fun and probably our most productive day in terms of finding caches. Our goal is to have 100 by the end of the year, so we still have a little bit of work to do. Okay, that's it for the week. Now, for our Christmas card to you - - - - - - - - - - - |
Past Blogs
December 2013
|