Almost 2010!

We made our way back to Thousand Trails Verde Valley shortly after Christmas. Our route took us over Hoover Dam which was fun. As many times as we have been to Vegas that was the first time I've seen Hoover Dam! Since we were towing a trailer we had to stop and have it inspected before crossing, it is a safety inspection put into effect after 9/11. No problems of course, actually kind of interesting since it is something we hadn't ever had to do. After that it was clear sailing to Cottonwood. Lots of snow the closer we got to Flagstaff. So pretty to look at, just glad the roads were all clear!

We hope you all have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!

Photos
top left: the last sunset of 2009 at Verde Valley
below:
1,2,3,4: Hoover dam
5. The new bridge they are building beside Hoover dam
6,7: snow near Flagstaff
8: Cheye and her new buddy

Dave and I are back in Las Vegas for Christmas. We arrived on the 15th and have had a nice stay so far…well most of the stay has been nice...I ended up with a flu bug that was not nice but I’m much better now. Our weather has turned a bit not-nice too; cold and windy the last couple days, but at least the wind is supposed to calm down tomorrow.

On the nice side we made it down to the new City Center complex, quite the place from the outside. It just opened, as a matter of fact we were there the day before they were allowing the public inside. We’ve also been out to some yummy meals, to Camping World in Henderson and over to Sam’s Town. Christmas Eve will include dinner out and a show so that will be fun. Hopefully we will make it downtown and back to City Center before we leave.

From Dave, myself & Cheye - whether you’re on the road or in a wheel-less home…have a fabulously Merry Christmas!


Photos
Top: our site at Thousand Trails Las Vegas
Middle and bottom: Taken inside Sam’s Town, Las Vegas, NV
Video
Cheye got her Christmas present a couple days early…

Looking like Christmas...

We’ve had a pleasant week here at Wilderness Lakes. Nothing really exciting, a couple trips into the Menifee mall, up to Sun City for the mail, to Perris for groceries at Winco . Today we decided to drive into Temecula and visit Costco and Barnes & Noble. Dave used the new exercise room here at the park quite a bit this week, I joined him once…the equipment they bought is really high quality. Very nicely done.

I was kind of surprised how elaborately some people here in the campground have decorated the exterior of their RV’s for Christmas. It’s fun to see, back when we lived in the Yakima Valley we used to drive around and look at light displays. We did a little decorating to the trailer, garlands and lights inside and a couple strands of lights outside, just enough to make if festive but stuff that’s easy to take down when we move!

Photos
Top and Left: A couple photos of Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes, Menifee, CA
Below: Some of the decorated RV's here in the park...our trailer is the last photo

Missed a move!

I notice that I neglected to mention that we were at Pio Pico for Thanksgiving. It is only about 80 miles away from Wilderness Lakes so we decided to visit the Chula Vista area for a couple weeks and then come back up to Wilderness Lakes…which is where we are as of today!

Yesterday was the wettest I’ve ever seen in Southern California. It rained all day at Pio Pico, from about 7:00 a.m. until long after dark. The wind gusted on and off during the afternoon…what a mess. One trailer next to us lost their awning, lots of tree limbs down and large puddles (actually I think I would call them shallow ponds) were everywhere in the campground. The power went out about 5:00 p.m. throughout the park. Of course power outages don‘t really bother us, with a large bank of batteries, generator, and plenty of propane in the tanks we were just fine.

One fun thing we did while in Chula Vista was upgrade our Verizon Aircard to a Verizon Netbook! If you aren’t familiar with them, the netbooks are much smaller than a regular laptop and have what is basically an aircard installed in them. It’s easy to carry around and surf the net anywhere. Very handy!

Photos
Top: Puddles at Wilderness Lakes...guess it rained here too!
Right: Dave's laptop beside our new Netbook

Wishing you a .....

A little over a year and a half ago we moved into our trailer and headed out as full-time RVer‘s. So far it’s been a great time! We are both so thankful that we have been able to adopt this gypsy lifestyle. Family, friends and health top the “thankful list”, the freedom to travel around our country, along with all of our wonderful freedoms in this country, are also on that list. There is just so much to be thankful for!

It’s been beautiful here in California. The temperatures have been in the 80’s, fabulous for the end of November. We decided to fix a little Thanksgiving dinner for the two of us today rather than go to the potluck in the campground. A cozy little turkey dinner for two will be just right! Dave & I wish you all a fabulous Thanksgiving, hope your day is wonderful!

Dave, Cheye & me at Hood Park in May 2008

Wilderness Lakes

We’ve been at Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes for a week now. So far we haven’t done anything particularly exciting, a little shopping and a hair cut here in Menifee, a trip to Costco in Lake Elsinore, CA and lots of relaxing. Of course there have been many walks around the park, also to the big empty field that is next to the park. Cheye can be off her leash in the field and run to her heart’s content.

Photos of the birds that are here in the park is another pastime. We take a lot of the same photos when we are here, but hey, the birds are pretty! I haven’t seen the Great Blue Herons this time and the Egrets are being somewhat allusive, but lots of ducks, geese and another bird that I don’t know what it is. A photo of the unknown-to-me bird is top left…any ideas? I’m sure it is a common bird but we didn't have them in eastern Washington!

Photos
Top left: not sure what kind of bird this is
Below:
1. Cheye in her "fenced yard"
2 ,3, 4, 5: Birds at Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes

A little trip to California

After being in the same place for a couple months it felt like time to hit the road, so we headed out to California and are currently parked at Thousand Trails Wilderness Lakes near Menifee, CA. We arrived Tuesday, after an 8 hour drive from Cottonwood, and managed to snag a site right on the canal…it’s fun to watch the ducks and other waterfowl when we sit outside. The park isn’t as full as we have seen it but that will change as we get closer to Thanksgiving.

Yesterday, after picking up some groceries, we sat outside and relaxed by the canal. A few of our neighbors were out fishing and caught some catfish. Cheye really wanted to check out those flopping fish on the fishing lines. Today was a nice relaxing day, which I think will be the theme for the rest of this week. Next week our friends will be joining us here for a few days of camping. It should be fun!

Photos
Top: some ducks & geese waddling by
Right: a view from the park
Below
1. one of the canals in the park
2. sunset view from our site
3 - 5. views around the park

A Beautiful Week

It has been gorgeous here at Thousand Trails Verde Valley near Cottonwood, AZ. Cool crisp nights in the 30’s and sunny glorious days in the 80‘s. It’s what I call 2 outfit weather, morning and evenings you need a sweater , long pants and shoes. Afternoons it’s tank tops, shorts and sandals…really perfect weather as far as I’m concerned. The leaves are finally dropping from the trees, it’s so pretty to watch them twirl and swirl to the ground…particularly since I don’t have to rake them up! ;o)

Our week has been fairly quiet. We did cross paths with some people we met here last year, Dave & Anne from England. They are such nice people, we had a great visit with them the other evening and plan to get together again before we all head off in different directions. Otherwise it’s been a week of the usual grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, reading, computing and walking. That is not a complaint…it is just how I like it, relaxed and peaceful.


Photos
Top: A balloon floating by the campground this morning
Below
1. Moonrise last weekend
2. another pic of the balloon floating by the campground
3. & 4. - two pics of yesterday's sunset as it changed
Video
Finally I'm posting some of the video we took when we went on the Grand Canyon Railroad to the Grand Canyon!

Grand Canyon

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday we took the Grand Canyon Railroad train ride from Williams, AZ to the Grand Canyon Village. The train ride is about 2 hours (each way) then we had 3 hours to wander around the South Rim area. It was a fun outing and so beautiful. We’ve been to the Grand Canyon before but it’s been years ago and the Canyon is just so impressive I could visit it numerous times and enjoy it. It was chilly up there, it only got up into the low 50’s, but for walking around it wasn’t bad. Our friends Ron & Marilyn are up here camping for a few days so they dog-sat Cheye for us. Sounds like she had a fun day too, we were told that Cheye loves hot dogs and tortilla chips… :o)

Speaking of chilly, it’s been rather cool here in Cottonwood also. We had been enjoying the low 70’s when suddenly last Monday the temperature started dropping. Wednesday it didn’t make it out of the 40’s, we even had a few little tiny snowflakes on Thursday. Now we are gradually warming up and should be back to 70’s (and possibly 80’s) this week. Yea!!!

Photos
Below: Dave and I at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon
Video: Slide show of the Grand Canyon Railroad and Grand Canyon - I'll also do a video in the next day or two.

Montezuma's Well

On Wednesday we decided to visit Montezuma’s Well National Monument which just a few miles up the road from Camp Verde, not far from Montezuma’s Castle. It’s an interesting site, a natural well that was used by the ancient Indians for water. They actually dug irrigation canals in the stone to use the water from Montezuma's well for their crops. Some of the canals are still there. It’s a free site and worth a visit.

Thursday we went into town and bought the new Windows 7. Dave installed it on his pc that same day and I did mine yesterday morning. It takes about 3 - 4 hours to install but what little I’ve looked at I like…starting with the fact that it freed up some Gigabytes on my hard drive. Always nice to have a little more storage on my pc with all the photos and videos I collect from our travels. One of these days I need to go through all of them and clean some out, or maybe just get another back-up drive! :o)

Photos
Top: One of the cliff dwellings by Montezuma's Well
Right: a little tiny lizard...can you see it?
Below & Video: Views from Montezuma's Well