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