ourbusandus

2012-01-12T11:45:00.000-08:00

Soon after the party, Ron started looking in earnest for some property to buy. He looked and looked and looked and finally found a lot that he wanted me to look at. I was the reluctant one, but, this one lot looked promising, as it was bigger and on a corner.

Our new property

Original site of the gate, notice the low wall on the left

The new raised wall

We got a realtor to show us the inside of the mobile, which came fully furnished, and I liked the way it looked inside. The best thing about it was we could see glimpses of the mountains through the trees in all directions. So began our quest of acquiring this property, which started out for us making a ridiculously low offer. The surprising thing was

Notice there is no gate here now

that they came back with an acceptable offer, so we both agreed and it went into escrow. We wanted it to close in two weeks time, as we were paying cash, but, after a week, we hit a snag, as they hadn't done probate yet.....:(

Our new gate opening

What was surprising, though, was they had apparently decided that they didn't want to deal with this property anymore, so got probate done in record time and on Dec 2nd, the property was ours and looking back on it, it really

Large living room with windows all around

only took a little over two weeks past the original date to close.

Looking into dining room & kitchen, (Ron is changing the locks)

We didn't waste anytime after acquiring the keys, Ron had the side property walls all raised up to the 6 ft levels to provide more privacy for us and our neighbors.

Laying bricks for our patio by the bus

He also wanted the side gates more in line with backing in big rigs. The one side had a gate, but, it was moved over about 8 ft and the other side didn't even have a gate, so we added one. We upgraded the electric pedestal and added one more, for friends to come visit. We also had the plumber come out and upgrade the hot water heater and fix all the leaks we could find.

Trimming the trees with a chainsaw

On Dec 13th, we finally moved the bus onto the property. We have the one gate installed in front of the bus, and the other gate should be installed soon.

All cleaned up

Ron wants to remove all the palm trees and plant mesquite and palo verde trees instead, since it would be nice to have shade trees on the property. But, that takes planning, so for now, we'll keep the palms.

Getting ready to pour the cement and add brick wall to expand the patio

Even with all the waiting and work we've been doing, we haven't been idle. I've been going to Zumba gold classes three times a week and clogging class once a week. We have weekly movies to go to with other Boomers, going to dinner with friends and lots of card games with our various friends. Life has been great here, back in Yuma. We've also been going to our annual doctor visits and so far, we are still healthy. Ron takes walks around the neighborhood, getting to know everyone. All our neighbors are real nice and most of them are here year around, which makes it nice, they can keep an eye on our property for us. We even have a local cop as a neighbor, she's with the Wellton Police, which is the next town east of us past the mountains.

Just to let you know, we have plenty of room for visitors. We have an extra RV hookup for our RV'ing friends and extra beds for our non RV'ing friends. We have an add on to the mobile which for right now is an extra bedroom with bath, but, at some point, Ron may convert it into a workshop, which he'd really like to have. We only use the mobile for day use stuff and when people come over at night to play cards. We still sleep and watch TV in the bus.

2012-01-12T11:02:00.000-08:00

I was just looking over our blog to see where I had left off and oh, my gosh! Everything seems to be backwards, not sure how that happened, but, guess you all will figure out how it goes. It is now 2012, so Happy New Year to all of you out there, may this new year be better than last year.

But, it seems our blog is still stuck in last year, so maybe I can help out by updating it so you can all see what we've been up to since we left you last. We have been very busy, so I better get started!

At Gila Bend Family Camp

It was HOT in Glia Bend in late October....

It was finally time to split from Jack & Jeanne, they, on to their own adventures and us, heading towards Yuma for the winter. We did briefly stop for a few days in Gila Bend to reconnect with some Navy friends. They are staying at the famcamp at the Luke AFB annex right outside Gila Bend, he is working at the paper plant nearby. Yes, amazing as it sounds, they make paper towels, napkins and toilet paper from pulp flown in from various sources, a lot of it from South America. We had a lot of catching up to do, because I hadn't seen them since we left Delaware in 1990, Ron had visited with them more recently.

It had been beautiful weather in Deming, but, we were at 4300 ft and heading down to less than 1000, so it was bound to be warmer and it was. I was glad we were in a full hookup so we could run our air conditioner. We had a great time with them, we even headed down to Ajo one of the days to look around and have lunch. All too soon, it was time to leave once again and head west.

We got to Yuma about a week before Halloween and once again, stayed in the driveway of our friends, Gene & Kathy. Jenny, a fellow Boomer, who owns a lot nearby, found out we were back in town, so she decided to go ahead and throw a Halloween birthday party for me & our friend, Debbie. We were both born right on Halloween.

At Dan & Jenny's Halloween Bash

There were quite a few Boomers in Yuma already and it was nice and warm during the days, still. We had all sorts of characters who came to help us celebrate our big day. There was Rhonda, who was a real character, as you'll see, a ghoul showed up, two cute little pumpkins and an angel, a gypsy/belly dancer, a witch, (she didn't really look that scary at all), a couple of tourists, (man, they are everywhere, ya know?, although what there is to see in Yuma, I don't know)....two pirates, (now how did they get here...maybe they came in on the Colorado River, ya think?), and a few other folks who were apparently too shy to dress up. A great time was had by all, after all, when you get a bunch of Boomers together, we can't help but have fun. We even had a birthday cake complete with candles which we got to blow out.

Debbie & me, the birthday girls, we are GOOD witches!

2011-12-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

The Dreamcatcher SKP Park

The next day, we went to lunch with our friends Ray & Diane, to a little place they knew about. As Diane described it, "We decided to take Ron and Sharon to one of our favorite haunts here in Deming. Just a few miles east of here on an old school road off a farm road called the "Adobe Deli" a converted old school house, featuring a large dining room, a full saloon style bar and oxygen bar and a whole covey of stuffed wild animals and memorabilia. It's kind of like a night out designed by Cabella's, The Black Angus Steakhouse and the bar at The Palace Hotel". It was very eclectic to be sure and we had a great time talking about our travels and just generally catching up. They also had a great food! The pictures I have I took off her blog, because she was the one with the camera.

Diane & I at the Adobe Deli

The bar

2011-12-13T22:41:00.000-08:00

Ready for the auction to start

The balloon fiesta ran from Sat., Oct 1st through Sun., Oct 9th. On Sunday morning, all of our bus friends left and we drove over to where our Boomer friends were parked and stayed over one more night with them, where we had a Boomer auction and we bought quite a few good things that were being auctioned off. All the money we raised goes to CARE, which is a day care center, that was started by Kay, one of the founding members of our RV club. It is for whoever needs it, whether they need a place to be while they are recovering from strokes, heart attacks, broken bones or just because of old age problems.

Looking over the auction items

Everyone came out for the auction, plus we brought appetizers to munch on before it began.

Lots of food and wine to loosen us all up, so we'd buy more stuff....

Here's Chuck & Jan showing items to be auctioned

Our raffle prizes we won

On Monday, all of us had to leave, so we drove over to the casino where we had stayed the week before. Our good friend, Margie, had left us on Saturday afternoon of that final weekend to take a train to Long Beach, CA to attend a funeral and had left her rig with a fellow bus member in town. She came back on Monday morning, so we parked the bus in the casino parking lot and went to pick her up. She had family that lived in Albuquerque and wanted to get together with them for dinner, before she left town, so they came over after work and we all had dinner in the casino. It was so nice getting to know another of Dan's brothers and his wife. We found out after we got back that other Boomer friends had also stayed at that lot overnight, so we went to say our final goodbyes before leaving on Tues morning.

I have no idea what Ron is looking at

We said goodbye to Margie, she was heading back to Cottonwood to stay for awhile and visit Sedona. She had wanted to take the northern route back, but, when she found out how cold it was getting up there, she decided not to. As it turns out, from what we heard from friends, she probably would have been okay.

We, on the other hand, headed for Columbus, NM, south of Deming, down near the border with Mexico, to meet with our good friends, Jack & Jeanne, who were attending a chapter rally down there. We had been kept so busy at the balloon rally, that it was nice to slow down and take it easy. The weather was great and we visited Old Mexico with rally members for lunch. There was even a raffle and we ended up winning a few good prizes.

Walking around town making friends with the statues

Here we are enjoying some free margaritas, while we browse through all the unique items for sale in the store. After we bought some stuff, we sat down to lunch with other rally members. An American gal who lives in Deming owns this place and helps keep the Mexicans employed.

Downtown Silver City

One of several interesting murals we saw

After the rally was over, we all decided to drive up to Deming for the weekend. When we got to the park, we met good friends, Ray & Diane, from the Thousand Trails park in San Diego County. It seems we meet friends all the time at the SKP parks...Every time we've been in Deming, I've always wanted to see Silver City, so this time we went up there. It's a nice little town and we walked all over the place, saw a farmer's market, and saw an impromptu gathering of musicians down by the river that runs through town.

Interesting signs such as this were all over town

Reminds me of a street in Mexico

We enjoyed delicious gelato

I'm the only one that ate a healthful lunch

When I told Ron to take a picture of this dentist sign, I wanted him to get a close up of the words on the tooth, but, that's not how it came out, so this is what it says....
   purse extractions
                       x-rated rays
                       London bridges
                       British crowns
                       land fillings
   sports caps
                       not floss
I think this is a dentist I might want to go to, good sense of humor...

We had seen a sign for the Gila Cliff Dwellings, so we decided last minute to drive up there. The first sign we passed said it was only open from 9 to 4 and at that time, it was 1:30. The next sign we saw said it would take us two hours to get up there...we're thinking, it's only 40 miles, why would it take 2 hours to go 40 miles? Well, we found that the road was an extremely winding road, but, with Jack at the wheel, we got there at 3. Plenty of time to see the cliff dwellings...

On the bridge at the beginning of the trail; me, Jack & Jeanne

We found out that it was only a mile walk round trip, of course, part of that walk was uphill...it was rather warm in the sun, but, starting off on our walk was in the shade and it was nice. We crossed about nine bridges in the shade, before we started up the hill in the sun. It really wasn't a long walk uphill and we saw glimpses of the dwellings all the way up the path. What made this particular site nice was that we were able to walk INTO the cliff dwellings, not like Mesa Verde, where we walk next to them, but, are not allowed inside. It was great, we actually saw where they lived and stored their foodstuffs. Looking outwards, these people had a great view of the surrounding areas. By the time we had walked back to the parking area, it was just a little after four and we were ready to head home, it had been a loooong day.

The first of the bridges

Almost there...

These ruins look just like the ones we saw in Mesa Verde

The great view looking outward

It was rather warm outside that day and when we went up under the cliff facing, it was very cool in the shade, which would have made it nice in the summer heat.

There were rangers up there to tell us about how the ancient ones lived and it was very interesting.

Taking one last look before heading down the trail

2011-12-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

The scarecrow we crewed for

Here's just a few more pics of the balloon fiesta, plus some homemade ice cream that Gerald & Sue made for all of us. The last day the wind was blowing the balloons over to where we were parked in our RV's and quite a few of them landed all around us, so I took some pics of them landing and being packed up.

Cute little thing, isn't it?

Mr Sunshine

A ninja turtle?

What time is it?

This guy looks like he got dropped on the floor a few too many times!!

This balloon dropped down next to where we were standing, so stopped to watch, they are moving the basket to where they can drop it down without it being in anyone's way.

This balloon is all wrapped up and being folded into the bag

Gerald is serving up the ice cream

Gerald & Sue, fellow bus members, got their ice cream maker out and made vanilla ice cream for everyone, it was delicious!

Hmmm...what kind of topping do I want?

2011-12-13T12:56:00.000-08:00

Our poor old blog, stuck in a time warp back in early October, because I have been procrastinating about updating it and we've had so much going on since then. Well, I can at least continue on from where I left off, because just going to see the balloons fly is not the only thing we did while we were in Albuquerque.

I left off with our visit to Old Town Albuquerque on Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, really early in the morning, we all left to go take a train trip out of Chama, NM. It was almost a three hour trip and we got there around 9 or so. A cute little town and we all went off to buy coffee and a bit of something to eat, before the train left at 10. It's called the Cumbres-Toltec train and if you ride all the way through, it ends up in Antonitas, CO. We just rode halfway, though, to Cumbres Pass and stopped in Osier, to have a hot lunch.

Cumbres-Toltec Steam Train

The elevation in Chama is 7863 ft and it was a tad cold up there. But, we were all bundled up, because the cars did not have heat in them. It's an old coal burning steam train and our car, the Alamosa, was the one directly in back of the engine. Some people stood outside in front of the car, but, it was very stinky up there and sooty black stuff was getting all over the place.

Looking from our car back towards the snack bar

Some of our group, waiting for the train to depart

Just north of the train station, we passed a small RV park, near this little river, it looks like a real nice place to stay and it looked like it had hook ups, too. We're already starting to see some local color as we start climbing up into the mountains. After the conductor told us we could start walking around, we headed back to the observation car to take some pictures, but, found out real quick it was too cold to stand back there.

So, we stayed long enough to snap off a few pictures, then, went and stood between the cars for awhile. This is a shot as we rode through the aspens that were turning golden. It was a great train ride, always heading up, winding around and through the mountains over trestles of creeks and canyons. We didn't see that much wildlife, although we did catch glimpses, now and then, of deer running just out of sight so fast, we couldn't get pictures of them in time.

Sometimes, on the steepest parts of the grade, we would slow way down, almost coming to a stop, it seemed. The guy who was shoveling coal must have had big muscles, doing all that work just to keep us going. Once, while I was looking back, I saw a glimpse of a little car in back of us and found out later it was the work car to make sure there were no fires.

The higher we went, the foggier it got and then, we couldn't take any pictures for awhile. I almost missed this sign of Cumbres Pass, at over 10,000 ft. None of us were going outside at this point, because it was too cold! We made a stop in Cumbres, because we needed to take on water.


The thermometer says it's 44 degrees!	'

Filling the tank with water

Here we are looking at another train in the distance. We hear there are a bunch of foreign photographers on the train, taking pictures of the scenery for something they are doing in their countries.They will be stopping at the midway point, where we have our hot lunches. Notice the color in the distance, here it is closer to us. Beautiful oranges and yellow, look great against the evergreen of the pines.

At about the halfway point, we came to a long valley and we saw a bunch of vaction homes out in the middle of nowhere. We also passed quite a few large ranches. As you can see in the above photo, there was a meandering creek going through the valley, as well.

Looking over at the train that was in front of us, now parked off on a side track. We are almost at our destination, Osier, at the half way point.

When we get off this train, we take all our stuff, as we will be going back to Chama on the southbound train from Colorado.

Ted & Geri, Jere & Ronnie, me & Margie departing the train to go have lunch

Ron had meat loaf

I had turkey with all the trimmings

Northbound train to Antonito, CO

Southbound train to Chama, NM

This guy is the coal tender

Our train got to Osier first and as we stepped out of the train, the sun was shining and it was nice. Our food was buffet style, hot and inviting after the cold trip up the mountain. We were in the middle of our lunch, when the southbound train came in and even more people Ifiled into the large building.

As we walked out from lunch, it was trying to rain and it was getting colder. We walked around a bit to see what there was to see and I got some good pictures of the engine of the train we were taking back. I didn't get a picture of the engineer or coal man from the other train, but, this guy was standing there, so I got his picture. I tried to get the engineer in the pic too, but, he was lazy and didn't want to get out of his chair. This guy is going to have a relatively easy time of it on the way down the mountain, he won't have to shovel as much as the guy did on the way up....

Don't these pine trees look like they have golden plumes?

On the way back down the mountains, it started raining in earnest and we couldn't take many pictures at all. I felt sorry for the people that had come from Colorado, because they couldn't take any of the nice pictures we took on our way up.

All of us were in agreement that this was a great day to ride an old train!

2011-10-05T21:41:00.001-07:00

Sorry about that last entry, I DID NOT put that big empty spot in there, when I did it, everything was where it was supposed to be...stupid computer!!! Or, should I say, stupid blog!!!!

The next day and beyond...

2011-10-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

Just a bit about what happened the next morning....we went to where our balloon was supposed to be, even though it was supposed to be in the second wave....well, it never showed up and it wasn't until later, when we talked to the balloonists next to us, as they were ready to head out after their balloon that we found out our pilot was given the chance to fly a special shapes balloon. So, she told us where to find him and when we got there, the balloon, a scarecrow, was already laid out. We still went over to tell him we were there to help and we basically did crowd control while the balloon was being inflated. He was flying this balloon in conjunction with the pilot that owned it, who was from Brazil. We ended up chasing it, too, and it's amazing how hard it is getting all the air out of such a big balloon. Remember, we didn't take our camera, which was a big bummer, so didn't get a picture of it, but, it was BIG!! If it flies on Thursday morning with the other special shapes, I will definitely get a picture of it flying!

Anyway, on Monday morning, I had forgotten there was some competition flying, so Ron came into the rig to tell me balloons were flying over us. I grabbed the camera, trying to take pictures and coudn't understand why it wouldn't let me. I soon found out that Ron had lent our camera card to one of our friends so she could download pictures onto her computer. None of our other cameras had full batteries, so, another day of not being able to take pictures and there were some balloons we hadn't seen previously.

A little later in the morning,
we all decided to head for old town Albuquerque to
walk around the shops and have lunch.

Five Navajo Code Talkers signing books

We browsed through some of the shops, most of everything was out of our price range, however. There was a book signing going on by a remnant of the Navajo Code Talkers, there were five there that we saw. Ron went up and shook each one of their hands thanking them for their service.

We found the town square and found they had a couple of cannons sitting there.

We found a cute little courtyard with shops to look through, then found someone to take our picture. We also walked through a museum, but, didn't have time to see all of it, so will have to wait until next time...

12 pounder Mountain Howitzers

Rattlesnake Museum

Margie, Ron & Sharon

After we got through all that, we decided to have lunch at a place called La Placita's, which was right across from the town square. It was originally called Casa de Armijo, built in 1706 and lived in for many generations by the Armijo family. In 1930 it was restored from a ruin to its present condition and remodeled in conformity with its old character. It is now a Mexican restaurant and the food is delicious.

Clockwise around the table, Larry, Ted, Jeri, Sue, Gerald, Dodi, Margie, Judy, Ron, Sharon, Ronnie & Jere

The people you see around the restaurant are not in line, there are American Indian vendors selling their crafts in front of the building. Really nice stuff, too!

The first day!

2011-10-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Now, I had decided to publish this next blog all at one time, not like the last one, when I was just learning my way around on where to put the pictures and such...yeah, well, it wouldn't publish, I was thinking maybe it was just too big. It could also have something to do with where we are located at the moment. I can be looking at my phone and it will have full bars one moment and the next, nothing. So, I'm breaking it down by days and it seems to be working right now. But, now, I'm getting to where I posted a lot of pictures, so not sure if it's going to post in its entirety or not, let's hope so...it looks terrible when I have to break it up...so here we go...

The next morning, Saturday, was the first day of the event. We got up at dark thirty, and you, who know me well, know I hate getting up early, but, I made the effort. :) I wanted to get over there as early as possible, and we were on the bus at a little after six. They had school buses that were shuttling everyone from the RV park over to the field, so that was nice we didn't have to walk that far. Not that we were really that far away from the field, we weren't, but, since we were probably going to be doing a lot of walking on the field and all around, might as well ride over first thing. The first thing that happens is a few balloons go up at around 5:45 and they are called the Dawn Patrol. They go up and the other balloonists can check the weather and where the air currents are coming from.

This balloon had either gone up and then down or it hadn't gone up at all, was just sitting there lit up. It looked kind of neat and I'd wished we'd been there earlier to see them all launch. Some of the balloons that had launched were flying away towards the northwest. This first day of the event was a memorial to the guy who founded the festival back in 1972, so they had a lot of extra stuff going on, including a flyby with the missing man formation. man formation.

But, as the day got brighter, more balloons were coming in and more people started coming onto the field. What's neat about this event is anyone can go right up to the balloons to see what is going on. The more balloons that were being set up, the lighter it got and more and more people were coming in..

As you can see by this picture, the field looks pretty wide open, and as you can see in that one row, they are all lined up and that is how it goes right on down the field. But, like I said, this day was different.

There were people pulling in right and left, unloading their baskets and laying out their balloons and getting out the fans that blow them up. They were getting their chase teams ready and telling each one what they were going to be doing. We finally located our pilot, who was giving instructions to his team. We introduced ourselves and told him we'd be helping him tomorrow morning. We found out that he is a professional balloon pilot and works in Colorado doing this type of thing all the time.

Colin talking to the team

Since we were not going to take our camera with us the next morning, we took pictures of what it takes to set a balloon up for flight. First you unload the basket, then, lay the balloon out in the field. The burner sits on top of the basket on the supports. We saw them fastening things to those burners, so I know a lot goes into hooking everything up.

They lay the basket on its side and start fastening the lines from the balloon to the basket. Once all that is done, they set the fan out, open up the end of the balloon so the fan can start blowing air to inflate the balloon. On the other end, which would be the top end, they seal the top with velcro fasteners, so the balloon can hold the air in.

Someone holds a rope that goes from the ground to the top of the balloon, so it can't fly off or rise too quickly and also to center it. Even when the balloon is all the way up, the rope is still held until either they tie it off to the basket or it just hangs in the air. I made this picture rather large so you can see what I mean. The guy in the black coat is holding the rope of the balloon that is all the way up. There is another guy holding the rope to the blue/yellow/red balloon farther away.

When the balloon gets to a certain point, they add the burners in with the fan, that is what allows it to fill out completely and start lifting from the ground.

Once it is all the way up, the pilot has to wait until a referee type person comes by to say they can take off. Sometimes, if a breeze comes up, the balloon will try to fly off, that is where the team comes in to hold onto the basket as best they can to prevent it from going anywhere.

and we have lift off!


Up, up and away!

We had been to the Yuma balloon fiesta a couple of years ago, this one makes that one look like a backyard event. I could not believe how many balloons there were and the crowd was getting bigger. Here are a few pictures of the different balloons and even some special shaped ones....

Here fishy, fishy...

This is her debut at this fiesta

I added this so you could see the wall to wall people

The baby has arrived!

What's amazing about all this is that the balloons go up at 7AM and by 9, most of them are in the air. One of the Boomers told us that today was one of the most disjointed balloon ascensions she had ever seen. They are supposed to go in waves, one row after the other, but, not today. Guess we'll see what happens tomorrow....

On to the balloon fiesta!

2011-10-05T19:52:00.000-07:00

The next morning, Thursday, we were all waiting around for Larry to show up, since he was leading us all, as a group, to the RV park. We thought we had to wait until the afternoon to go in, but, he had told us the previous evening that we were going in the morning. He finally got there around 9, so Ron started the engine and it fired up, just as if nothing had ever happened. We all paraded out of the parking lot and over to the lot which was only about maybe 5 miles or so, not very far at all. Fortunately, there wasn't that much traffic going into the lot, so we didn't have to wait very long to get parked. We are located about 5 rows from the main street, which is handy for us. The balloon museum is just across that main road and the balloon field is just beyond that. I think we lucked out on our spot.

I took pictures of our spot, but, it's on the other camera, so when I get them off, I'll post them. We didn't do much of anything on Thursday, except set up the rig. We decided not to set up the satellite, since we figured we'd be too busy. We did see some Boomers walking past the rig and it turned out to be Kaz & Jackie, and Ron followed them over to where the Boomers were parked so we'd know. I know I was doing something else, but, can't remember right now what it was or I would have gone, too. Ron met some of the other Boomers who were around, including Chuck & Jan and they told him we could still sign up to be on the chase crews.

So, on Friday morning, we went over to the balloon field to check everything out. We watched a video on what was expected of us and then went to the tent to sign up. We had decided that since this was our first visit, we just wanted to sign up for one night and one morning. We got assigned to a balloon called Cardiac Air Rest, piloted by a Colin Grahm. We walked over to the field just on the off chance that he might be there, so we could meet him, but, he wasn't there. So, we just walked around among the different vendors to see what they were selling.

On our way...maybe...

2011-10-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

The next morning, the engine wouldn't start, not even with the generator running....hmmm...not good...every time we tried to start the engine, we'd almost stall out the generator. We finally ended up calling roadside service and they had told us it would take an hour to get a truck out to us, but, instead he showed up in about 10 minutes or so. We still had the generator running and he hooked up his jumper cables and we tried to start it...no go....finally, he told Ron he was going to get another truck to come out and see if that helped. Meanwhile, Ron had to call the road service back to see if they would cover it, which they did, finally. So, the guy comes back with his truck, plus the other truck, which is smaller, plus they had two batter boosters. Ron is just rolling his eyes, thinking, "oh boy, this is not going to work." So, everything got hooked up and next thing we know, they have it running. YAY!!!! Just don't turn it off for anything!!

Our bus members had assured us we could fill up with diesel and not turn the engine off, so that is what we had to do, with no problems at all. Once we got that done, it was off to the casino in Albuquerque to meet up with our bus friends. Considering we had planned on getting there at 11 and we ended up getting there at 1, guess it wasn't so bad after all.

We made sure we were right where we wanted to park before we turned off the ignition. Larry, who was hosting this event, is a whiz at figuring out diesel engine problems, sooo, when he showed up in the late afternoon, we came out of the casino where we'd been having an early dinner and he went to work. It really didn't take long at all, because what was wrong was a loose ground wire. Probably dropped out when we were driving on the really rough road on I-40 out of Flagstaff. WHEW!! We really didn't want to put out all that money for brand new batteries to replace the ones we have and then figure out where to send them from Canada! As soon as he put it back on, the engine fired right up just like nothing had ever happened, which made Ron a happy camper and finally put our minds at ease. I should have taken a picture of the two trucks and battery boosters hooked up to the bus, but, that was the last thing on my mind at the time. Didn't even get any pictures of us at the casino either....

We spent the rest of that day having a good time, we went into the casino, got a club card with $25 to spend in the casino and we had a buffet dinner for only $5 each. After dinner, we decided to play the slots, ya know, these newfangled slot machines, I just don't understand them like I did the old ones. I'm really not into gambling all that much, but, since it wasn't my money, why not. Well, of course the first $20 went just like that, but, the last $5 I put in the machine, I actually won $8.75, so I cashed out. Ron won $9, so we didn't do too bad. One of our other members was playing the dollar machine with her last $15 and won $180! First time she's ever won anything like that. Good for her!

Getting ready to head for Albuquerque - Sept 25th thru 27th

2011-10-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, our friend Margie was leaving Chula Vista, Ca, where she'd been camping with her camping club and driving up to meet us in Cottonwood. She didn't really want to drive all that way, but, I called and enticed her by mentioning that there was a winery right outside the campground and maybe we could go wine tasting the next day...she actually drove in as it was getting dark.

The next morning, we were waiting for the guy to come out and wash and hand wax the bus. He finally made it out there and spent about 5 hours on the bus. That meant we wouldn't be able to take Margie to Sedona, but, it did mean we could go wine tasting. So, we left Ron supervising the work and we went to have fun. At least she was able to spend one whole day relaxing, not having to worry about driving anywhere.

The next morning, we left the campground and headed towards Albuquerque. Right off the bat, I saw a frog or what looked like a frog on the side of one of the freeway bridges. It could have been an Indian symbol or something, but, looked like a frog to me.

As we got closer to New Mexico, we started seeing some really neat rock formations and some of them looked like the ones we saw up in Mesa Verde, without the Indian ruins inside.

. We didn't want to drive to Albuquerque all in one day, that would have been too long for Margie, so we got as far east as Grants, where we stopped for the night at an Elks lodge. That is where the "fun" began...Ron looked at the amp meter and announced that the batteries were only reading 11.1 amps, this is AFTER we just drove 300 miles, which should have charged the batteries all the way up!!!

We had just finished working at a campground all summer and were hooked up to electric, we didn't know we had problems with the batteries! So, there we were worrying about what we're going to do next. Finally, we thought, we can't do anything tonight, we'll wait until tomorrow comes and see what we can do. We were only about 70 miles from Albuquerque and help if we needed it, so we started the generator, (thank goodness that still worked), so we could run the microwave to heat up our dinners, watched TV for a bit, then, went to bed early.

2011-09-25T19:31:00.000-07:00

As we rode along on the train, we always had the Verde River beside us. Not that we could always see it, but, it was there.

Hole in the rock, see the big rock on top sticking out, on the side it looked like a giant bathtub

Those two big rocks on the top left are the Budweiser frogs, come on, use your imagination!

Turtle Rock

We saw bald eagles all day, but, managed to only get this one picture. Ron saw one flying around and I saw one standing in the middle of the river. He may have been eating, but, it was so far away, I couldn't tell.

Going into the tunnel....


Perkinsville - end of the line

This cool looking eagle is painted on the front of the train

There it goes...down the line to the other end

Heading back to the station in Clarkdale

2011-09-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

Our scenery starting out was not that great, as we passed by a slag heap, testimony to the old days of mining. I read in an article in the lobby that Phelps/Dodge bought the whole thing for 6.5 million dollars because the newer technologies can get at the minor metals. They figure they can make 50 million dollars from those metals. I must say, looking at that is a real blight on the landscape..

I was just going to mention, if you noticed my layout is a bit different, it's thanks to Donna Huffer, who showed me that I can manipulate my pictures where I want them. I didn't know that, I didn't think I had a choice where they were placed. I like the way it looks now. I also changed the background from what it was.
                                                     This second picture was higher than our heads, higher than the train going by it. It would be real nice if they could move the whole mess somewhere else, while they're at it..
                                                                                the very first thing we saw, after the slag heap was a couple of Indian ruins high up in the cliffs. Considering they weren't protected by any national park or anything, they were in pretty good shape...

Verde Canyon Train ride

2011-09-25T15:54:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, we took a day off from sightseeing and just vegged. Ron made reservations for the train ride to Sycamore Canyon. We were surprised to hear that the train doesn't take off in the morning, like we thought, it doesn't even leave the station until 1PM. It was a beautiful day to take a train ride!

As we were walking into the train station/lobby, we noticed they had a little restaurant and people were ordering food before taking off on the train. We didn't bother, because in first class they served food. We were in the Wickenburg car and this is the inside of it. See the small tables to the left? That is where we were sitting, the bigger couches were for parties of four and they had bigger windows to look out of, it didn't matter to us, anyway, we spent most of our time outside looking at the scenery.

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We went up into the housing area to see if we could get high enough to get better pictures of chimney rock & coffeepot rock. These are the vistas one has when they live in Sedona. There are lots of other rocks that look like different things, but, those are for another day...

On the way back to town, we stopped at the bridge and took a hike to the lookout. In the distance you can see Sedona with Oak Creek meandering below

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Interesting rock formations, Oak Creek and the beautiful winding road

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On the way up towards Oak Creen Canyon we saw this bridge in the distance

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Coming into the outskirts of west Sedona

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Yesterday, was the day we went to hear the presentation on a time share. We went through the whole speil and they just couldnt understand why we weren't going for their great deal. We just couldn't make them understand, so they gave up and gave us our two free first class tickets for the train ride. We had lunch in their bistro and the food was really good. Our ticket was buy one, get one free and boy, I am sooo glad we didn't have to pay for two sandwiches. The first one cost us enough!! It came to over $17, but, the two sodas were around $2.50 each, plus they slapped a $4 gratuity in with it!!! For two people, we would have been better off going somewhere else for lunch!

After we left there, we drove into the city of Sedona. For those of you who have never been there, it's so pretty with a backdrop of red mountains all around. Since we'd never driven up through Oak Creek Canyon, that is what we did and it was beautiful, too. Although with all the hardwood trees, I'll bet it is gorgeous in the fall with all the leaves turning different colors. On the way back down the canyon, we just had to stop for a Dairy Queen blizzard...

Standing in the middle, looking down each side and out at the lush Verde Valley

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We saw this little fella sitting on the ledge on our way out, it was almost like he wanted to have his picture taken

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Inside the only covered building that was there, notice the construction of the roof

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Looking up at the site from the visitor's center

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Tuzigoot was probably around when the Ancestral Puebloans lived up in the cliff dwellings in Colorado, much of the construction is the same. These people lived on top of the ground, though, but, try to picture the whole settlement with roofs and ladders going up the outside walls and ladders going down through a hole in the roof. They utilized both the insides of their houses and the roofs, too. This looked to be a thriving settlement.

2011-09-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

At the bottom of the hill, we drove right through Clarkdale, home of the Verde Valley Railway

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We finally were ready to leave, because we had one more spot to stop on the way home. We had heard about Tuzigoot Nat'l Monument, but, had never seen it and here it was, right in the vicinity. So, down the hill we went....

At first, I thought he was making a vase, but, it turned out to be a glass. One of original bldgs, the glassblowing was in courtyard of bldg.

2011-09-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

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There were all kinds of shops in downtown Jerome, we walked through the artisans co-op, where everything in there was made by someone in the town. It's just amazing how many creative people there are in the world and no two things are just alike. I saw some stuff in there that I would have loved to have....the art galleries in town have some amazing things, I especially liked the glass items, something that is a no no in an rv, darn it. In fact, down below & behind one of the galleries, there was a glass blowing demonstration going on, so of course, I had to go see it. By the time we got down there, he was probably half done, wish I'd see it from the beginning, but, what we saw was good, too. Lots of work go into making a specialized glass, vase, bowl or whatever they are making, so I can see why they demand high prices. The nice thing about this demonstration was he explained all the processes he was going through so it was very informative.

I had to take a picture of the post office, the post mistress is working hard, I see...

2011-09-21T16:46:00.000-07:00

Just had to take a picture of this, reminds me of the song...maybe we can eat there some time and see how the food is...

2011-09-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

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As we walked out onto the street, we saw this vintage auto go by, more in keeping with the age of the town, it looks like it belongs there more than the newer ones on the road now.

2011-09-21T16:40:00.000-07:00

The pictures you are looking at through the lens of the camera are more beautiful than that, because at the foot of the mountains, there runs a ridge of dark red and makes it so pretty, contrasting with the lighter colors up above. Sedona is out there somewhere and for those of you who have been there, know what I'm talking about, so yes, the pictures are pretty, but, in person, they are better looking.

Here I am, enjoying the beautiful scenery out the window

2011-09-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

Two different views of the Haunted Hamburger, in Jerome, where we had lunch

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2011-09-21T15:26:00.000-07:00

We got home well after dark, had a bit of a light show going on south of Flagstaff. I don't think it was a thunderstorm, because it wasn't going anywhere, just lots of heat lightning, I think.

On Friday, after packing up the day before, we drove out of the campground for the last time and drove a whole 90 miles south on I-17 to Cottonwood. We are staying at a Thousand Trails park for the next 11 days. On Saturday, we just vegged. Did the laundry and rested up, because we did want to do some sightseeing around here. We've never been in this area of Arizona before, but, we've heard a lot of good things about it from other Boomer friends who have stayed here.

The first thing we did was go visit our good friends, Ken & Maryanne, who live in Cave Creek, which is located on the northern fringes of the Phoenix area. Granted, we had to drive an hour and a half one way, but, it was all downhill. We had a wonderful day relaxing, catching up with each other and meeting their friends who had gotten together for a small jam session. Maryanne made a delicious spaghetti dinner and then we listened to Ken's beautiful voice and excellent guitar playing. We had a very enjoyable day with everyone.

On Monday, we decided to go tour Jerome and the shops there. We had been there briefly back in January with bus friends on a day trip to Prescott, Jerome & Sedona. We only walked into a few shops, but, I wanted to go back and see every shop there. So, that is what we did, I bought some earrings that are made out of fabric, so are very light on my ears. We had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. Seems while they were remodeling the building, some highly suspicious goings on were noted, hence the name.

This restaurant sits on the edge of a hill, so when we requested a table, we wanted to sit outside. It took us awhile longer to get seated, but, the wait was worth it. We got the best table out there, with a great view of the surrounding countryside and a nice breeze. Their hamburgers were delicious. What I liked most about them was the hamburger bun wasn't so heavy that it took away from the hamburger and all the fixings. They make all their own bread and desserts on site and the bun was light and airy. While we were waiting for our table, we noticed the very big desserts. The cake was monstrous and one piece weighs a pound and sells for $7.50 a slice!!! It can feed more than two people, so it would be worth it! We told the waitress that we'd have to come back just for the dessert because after eating that big hamburger, (half a pound of beef!), we were just too full! The carrot cake is very unusual in that it is round cakes piled on top of one another with icing in between each layer, it too weighs a pound in one slice, but, looked really good. We might have to go back before we leave just for a taste of that dessert...Jerome is all of, what, maybe 10 miles away from where we are sitting, not far at all...

2011-09-21T15:25:00.000-07:00

2011-09-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

2011-09-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

For those of you who might decide to drive through the Petrified Forest, you won't even see anything until you get closer to the southern half of the park. I was getting a bit annoyed, because I wasn't seeing anything, mile after mile. Finally, we stopped at a place called the Crystal Forest and there were a whole bunch of them. All the petrified wood I have ever seen always looks like a giant piece of stone. But, this bunch did look like wood, with the bark still on it and one looked like it had been charred, it was great! There was a path through them all, but, we just walked a little way. Don't expect to see forests, because although these once were standing trees, now, it's just open land with blobs of logs here and there as you will see...

2011-09-21T15:12:00.000-07:00

2011-09-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to I-40 and started west. There were thunderstorms all around us all the way home, but, we managed to bypass most of them with just a few drops here and there. I had mentioned to Ron that we were always driving by the Petrified Forest, but, never stopping to see what was there. We still had daylight, so we pulled off. It's a 28 mile loop that goes north, first, through the Painted Desert, and then turns south into the Petrified Forest. As I mentioned, it was getting cloudier by the minute, so even though we took some pictures of the Painted Desert, it would have been prettier, I'm sure, with the sun shining.

We're headed towards Shiprock, NM. The rock formation on the bottom right and top picture is named for the town. Doesn't it look like a ship?

2011-09-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

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We had lunch in Cortez and then started home, this time, we were going straight south towards Gallup, NM. There were interesting rock formations on this drive, too...

2011-09-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

I had been wondering all day how cold it had been, remember we were at 7,000 ft. When we finally got back down to the main highway to drive out, I looked up and noticed the temp on the mirror of the Jeep said it was 48 and that was at 12:30PM! So, when I noticed it was getting colder when we first started out on our tour, it must have been in the lower 40's, maybe even the high 30's....BRRR!!!!

2011-09-21T14:50:00.000-07:00

Wouldn't you know, once we got back on top to the waiting bus, it was raining again? Sheesh! It paused while we looked at the ruins and started right back up again when we were done. But, it didn't really matter all that much, because it was the last stop of the day and we were headed back to the lodge. We did notice, though, once we got off the bus for the last time, it looked like the fog was rolling in and there was an afternoon tour. I was glad we had taken the early tour, even if it had been raining and cold.

Steps to ladders, ladders up and out and one last glance back down at Cliff Palace

2011-09-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

See these slight indentions in the rock? Those are the hand and toe holds that the Indians used to climb up out onto the mesa

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This was the elderly gentleman who was unsteady on his feet, but, look at him go!

2011-09-21T14:39:00.000-07:00

Ready to leave the ruins, it wasn't raining the whole time we were down there

2011-09-21T14:35:00.000-07:00

2011-09-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

Remember when I mentioned that everyone should be in good condition to go down into the ruins? Well, while we were up there leaning into that building taking pictures, I noticed an older man who was hobbling around. Our ranger had to go up and escort him down the stairs and I thought he was going to take a tumble, as he was very unsteady on his feet. As we were walking out, we had to walk up several steps and then climb three different ladders to get out at the top. There he was, walking up the steps ahead of us and he must have made it out, because we never passed him up. I was proud of him!

It's hard to see, but, there are about 4 little slash marks on the wall above the wood, wish I could have taken a picture of the other painting,

2011-09-21T14:27:00.000-07:00

2011-09-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

This next picture, you'll notice the area around the door looks discolored. It's because they will let you go up and look inside and take pictures. There are two paintings up high which Ron took a picture of one and then, I looked in and saw another one, but, couldn't get a picture because the camera didn't want to work right then. I didn't want to hold the line up so just gave up, but, you can see the one in the top picture.

Compared to the walls on the immediate right, as you are looking at it, the walls around the room look very well made

2011-09-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

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The room in this next picture was the best made one in the whole ruin. The rocks were placed just so and it looked well built, compared to the other ones that look like they were just thrown up quickly. We speculated that maybe someone important in the tribe lived there or that maybe that room was special to the other members who lived there.

2011-09-21T14:07:00.000-07:00

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The following pictures are different views of the ruins. There were some archaeologists working in one of the kivas, and we were instructed not to talk to them at all, they didn't like to be bothered with what they were doing. One of the kivas looked in really good shape, with the small fire ring, with a slab of rock in front of it to deflect the heat. The vent right behind it is to vent the smoke up and out. This kiva was better looking than the one we saw at Spruce Tree house. If you are wondering why they don't have roofs, they fell in long ago.

A feather dropped from many of the swifts who make their home in the rock overhang above

2011-09-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

The wood you see sticking out is the floor of this room

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Down, down, down and then up this ladder into the ruins

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Looking at these cliff dwellings, you are probably wondering how in the heck did they get out to tend their gardens on top of the mesas? They most certainly did not have steps or ladders climbing up to the top, that's for sure. As you will see in the one of the pictures, they made hand and toe holds going up and down the cliffs. I must say, looking at those little itty bitty indentions in the rock, I would have been scared to death going up and down that way, but, it was a way of life for these people, they probably didn't even give it a second thought.

These are all views we saw before we started down into the ruins. Notice the ladder in the top picture coming out?

2011-09-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

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We were turned over to another ranger for our trip down into the ruins, I think her name was Ranger Beth, and right at the start, it is stated that all of us needed to be in good shape, if we had heart or respiratory problems, we probably shouldn't be going down there, because the steps going down were uneven and irregular. Also, because of the elevation being 7,000 ft, some people might not be used to that and feel either light headed or ill. I think maybe one or two opted out, but, most of us were game to go down and see what there was to see. She was right, the steps WERE very steep and parts of it had no hand rails, but, there were rocks on either side of us to hang on to, so we all made it down safely...

Me, Ranger Adrienne & Ron in front of our bus

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The Cliff Palace ruins were the last stop on our tour and it looked like the rain was letting up a bit...whew! So, although, some people left their rain jackets on board the bus, I decided to take my umbrella, just in case it was needed. Here we are standing with Ranger Adrienne, who had filled our heads with all kinds of history of the Ancestral Puebloans.

Cliff Palace as seen from afar...pretty impressive...

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One of quite a few ruins we saw from across the canyon

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As we were looking at these living quarters, we're thinking, they look so small! But, this was probably only one or two rooms, they may have been bigger than what we were seeing, but, then again, the Ancestral Puebloans were not very big people, the men were at most, 5'4" and the women were only about 5', so being down in their houses, they wouldn't take up much room. You look at those houses and remember, they did have roofs on them made with wood and reeds or whatever material they had on hand at the time.

As the years went by, the floors kept getting deeper, probably found out living almost underground was warmer

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They started with rather shallow pithouses, with the floor not that deep....

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2011-09-21T13:14:00.001-07:00

Ron still wanted to go view some more ruins on another mesa, but, it was getting later. The place we wanted to eat was only open until 8, and I didn't want to miss eating there, so we stopped for the day and went to eat dinner. After that, we went to relax in our room and enjoy the views. Our room faced east, so we didn't get to see the sunset from our room. We thought, that's okay, we'll see the sunrise tomorrow morning.....hmmmm....

The next morning when we got up, we thought it was a little stuffy, so opened the window and in the distance we heard a couple of bull elk bugling, it was such a neat sound. I looked out to the east and saw a bit of red, but, knew we wouldn't be seeing a sunrise that day. The entire sky was covered with clouds and as we walked outside it was RAINING!!! It was cold, too! We wondered as we drove to the restaurant if they were going to cancel the tour, but, soon found out, it was still on. Of course, I didn't even think about bringing a rain poncho and Ron has a full set of rain gear, but, all that was back at the rig...so, I decided to bring my umbrella, which worked just as well, probably even better.

There was about 15 of us in the tour and as we got going, I realized the bus heater worked very well, which was a good thing. We had opted for the 700 year tour, so we got all the history of these people, how they lived, etc. The first few stops, the ruins were under cover, so even though we weren't getting rained on, it was still cold. Once or twice, we went outside to look at some ruins across the canyon that aren't open to the public. The ranger said there were lots more that were uncovered when the last big fire went through a few years ago. It was fortunate that even though it was raining, we had no fog, that would have been terrible for far viewing.

These sites showed continuous occupation from A.D. 750 through A.D. 1300

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The people we know as the Anasazi are now known as the Ancestral Puebloans, as the people in the know, now call them. They originally lived on top of the mesas, tending their gardens, but, over the years, they migrated to living under the overhangs of the cliffs and in that way, were more protected from the weather.

Walking through the museum

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We could only stand on the outside looking in at the different rooms in the ruins. I can see why we were not allowed to walk around inside, but, still, it would have been nice to do it....

The inside...

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The one room we were allowed to go in, a complete kiva, where the ancient ones probably spent most of their time in the winter

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You can't really see it, but, this path is STEEP in spots, I am glad it was paved.

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Spruce Tree house as seen from the top of the mesa

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At the lobby registering and the view from our room looking down into the canyons, it was a beautiful day

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Going up and looking out at the town of Cortez and surrounding communities, below

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We left home about 7 and stopped for breakfast in Flagstaff. We stopped a couple of times for bathroom breaks and got to Mesa Verde around 2, our time, but, once we crossed into Colorado, we went ahead an hour. We still had some daylight left, so we dropped our stuff off in our motel room and headed out to look at some Indian ruins that were near the museum.

4 Corners:each part of my body is in Utah, Arizona, Colorado, NM

2011-09-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Interesting rock formations while driving through the Navajo/Hopi reservations

2011-09-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

2011-09-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

Our last week of work went soooo sloooow for me. The campground had been slow after the kids went back to school, but, after Labor Day was over, it was even slower if you can imagine that. No one coming in for hours on end, so I started taking a book to read at work. There is only so many times you can wash the windows, dust the shelves and sweep the floor. After that, everything is as clean as you can get it, so you deal with the boredom however you can. So, it was a loooong five more days.

On the day before our last day, our manager, Judy, came around and invited us to dinner Monday night. The ended up taking us to the nicest restaurant in town, called the Red Raven. They were right, the food was delicious! We had a great time talking about our past travels, they asked us which place we liked the best, always a hard question to answer, because each place has something unique about it. It was a great ending to a hard summer of work for us.

The next morning we were off to Mesa Verde in the Jeep. We had opted to stay at the lodge in the park for one night. We decided since we had all day to get there, we took the route that would take us through 4 corners. I have heard that the actual monument that the Indians have set up is off the mark by a couple miles or so. For those of you who remember it from long ago, the Indians have commercialized it with booths selling Indian crafts all around. We just went in there and took our pictures and then left. It was the first time we've been there, but, we've heard from others that it just to be very natural looking, nothing around but desert. Too bad it still doesn't look that way....

Had to get this picture of the outhouse sitting on the side of the road. It didn't look too stable close up, either....

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The little town of Williams far below

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This is looking north towards the south rim of the Grand Canyon

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This is not the greatest picture, but, we're looking towards Walnut Canyon which is a national monument with Indian ruins

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Looking at Bill Williams Mtn as we drive south out of Williams

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Sept 21

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The day after we went to the fair, Ron decided he wanted to go visit Bill Williams Mountain, which sits behind Williams at a height of 9,000 ft. From pavement to the top was about 6 1/2 miles of rutted road. We enjoyed the ride and took pictures of the surrounding area below as we went up. This mountain has all kinds of microwave towers bristling at the top, but, what surprised us the most was that there was a fire tower. There was a sign at the bottom telling us it was okay to climb up the stairs, so we did, but, as we were getting closer, Ron saw a lock on the bottom of the trap door. At first, we thought it was locked, but, then, Ron decided to go closer and try to open the door. Well, it was locked, but, the next thing we knew, someone was opening it up from the inside!

We were invited in, one at a time through the door and met a most congenial fellow, by the name of Gilbert, who was working the tower. It was an awesome view from up there and the windows were squeaky clean. We introduced ourselves and he showed us how he uses his map to report fires in the area. We learned the tower is manned most all the time from May to October. Gilbert works there 8 hours a day and there is a fulltime occupant who lives on the property all summer. He had just mentioned he'd seen a fire out by where we're working and had sent out a fire truck to investigate. It's nice to know, in our area at least, there are tower lookouts looking for the telltale smoke that may mean a forest fire in the making...and ready to nip it in the bud.

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Last Saturday night, we went to the Coconino County Fairgrounds in Flagstaff. It was a pretty nice fair for a small one. We had a great dinner, walked through the animal exihibits, saw one of the kids who used to work at the campground, he was showing his turkey and walked in to listen to the animal auction for a bit. As we were finishing our funnel cake, Ron decided to walk through the vendors before we left for home. As I sat and rested my leg and listened to some great country western music, Ron came back out. Guess we are going to hear a 90 minute presentation on some resort near Sedona on the 20th. For the torture of that, we got two free first class tickets, (worth around $80 each), a lunch for two at some bistro and for showing up on time, $20 cash. Such a deal, huh? We wanted to go on that train anyway, so now we get to go for free and with an upgrade at that!

As of yesterday, we only have five working days left. YAY!!! We are so ready to to leave this place and see what our next adventure will be, although we will miss our co-workers that we got to know so well over the summer. Hopefully, we can stay in touch with them and see them again some day. We had a real nice summer, several Boomers stopped by to see us, and then, almost at the end of our stay, we found out some good friends, Frank & Charlou, were working in the Canyon. Too bad we didn't know it earlier, but, we did manage to get together with them just the other night. We also got to see, if only briefly, some other Boondocker friends, Carl & Carol, who were staying in the forest near Flagstaff. So, it was a fun summer with all the friends and family dropping by.

Stay tuned, we'll have more pictures to share next week when we drive up to Mesa Verde to see the Indian ruins....

Looking out at the vastness of the Canyon and looking at the river flowing westward

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