On the road again

We left Monday morning at 7:45 from Paincourtville after spending a nice day at Cindy's mom's.  Very little traffic along the way, except for the love bugs!  Spent about an hour in Nocona, TX washing them off the front and windshield of the coach.  Spent the night at the Veranda Inn which has a nice smaller campground in back with full hookups and pull-throughs.  It's nice to not have to unhook the truck to back into a sight.
Tuesday morning left early again and drove up through Amarillo then across I-40 to Albuquerque then up I-25 to the Sandia Casino.  Huge parking lots, free to park overnight but no hookups.  Walked into the Casino and had dinner, Cindy had a green chile meatloaf and I had a big bowl of green chile stew.  Unfortunately no Navajo fry bread.  
Slept with the windows open and woke up to 52º outside but nice inside with just a blanket.
Hopefully today we'll find a roadside stand with a guy cooking some fry bread.  Usually around Farmington there is someone cooking burgers and fry bread.  We plan to drive up through Cortez, CO then up to Moab, UT and stop at Green River, UT for the night.  Tomorrow we'll get to Cove Fort, UT where we'll spend a week.  Thursday afternoon I have an appointment in Riverton, just south of Salt Lake City.
More to come later.

Almost ready

Our time left here in Louisiana is getting very short.  We’re still leaving on Monday but found out our dear friends  Clarke & Elaine have had to cancel their trip.  We’ll miss having them along but understand.

Last week we drove over to Bella Terra RV resort at Foley, AL to visit with our Newell Gurus friends.  Had lots of fun and made new friends!  We did have a few hot air balloons float low overhead.

The trip over was uneventful except for the rearview camera.  It has an intermittent problem that I thought I had fixed.  Nope, so I’m waiting for Amazon to deliver a new camera system and I’ll be working on that this week.  

Cindy was able through her extreme persistence to get an appointment for tomorrow for the 2nd epidural injection for my back.  I might have been OK with the first one but usually it takes 2 to get 6 months or so of relief.

Yesterday we drove to Thibodaux and surprised Ella and Eva at their school to have lunch with them.  It’s always a joy to visit their school and see a few of the teachers there from when our sons went there.  The staff is always so welcoming and the food is pretty darn good.  Eva was jumping for joy when she saw us, Ella being almost 11 going on 16 was a typical pre-teenager.  But she did manage to hug both of us.  After her friends left the cafeteria of course!

So the rest of this week we’ll be finishing packing the coach and getting the house ready to close up.  We'll spend Mother's Day at Cindy's mom's with our sons, then probably spend the night in the coach so we can be ready to leave Monday morning.

Until next time!

Time for an update!

     Been a long time but a lot’s happened in the past few years.  We sold the Newell and bought a house in The Greens of Pelican Point in Gonzales, LA about 4 years ago.   We’re near Cindy’s mom and our 2 sons, and 2 granddaughters.  It’s a nice place to live and easy to close up when we travel.

     But we missed traveling in the coach, had lots of fun in the Newell.  But as things change we decided we wanted to do more boondocking and wanted a smaller and simpler coach.  This meant no slides, yes they are nice but can be troublesome.  And 36' is a sweet spot.  Since Newell hasn't made a 36' coach since the 80's this brought us to our second choice:  Foretravel.  After looking at a few at Motorhomes of Texas in Nacogdoches, TX we found a 1999 36' U320 in awesome condition and bought it last year.  We took a 2 month trip last year through Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.  Then spent some time making it ours and getting it ready for our "trip of a lifetime".

     So this year is our long awaited Alaskan Odyssey.  We plan to leave after Mother’s Day, travel to Cove Fort historic site in Utah where good friends Tom & Darlene are volunteering for 6 months, then to Salt Lake City to see my Chiropractor to get my head put back on straight (vertigo issues), then meet up with Clarke & Elaine in Canada to start our journey.  The Canadian border is just about halfway to Alaska at 2500 miles!   We plan to spend 2-3 months in Alaska and be back home sometime around October.  Lots to see and do, I’ll plan to keep the blog updated as often as we have internet.  Expect plenty of pictures!

     We only have 1 campground reserved and that is inside of Denali at the Teklanika campground.  Everywhere else we'll either make reservations as we get close or just show up!

     I will put up some pictures on Facebook but this will be my main site for pictures and updates.  Don't expect daily updates though, there will be many areas that we won't have wifi or cell service.  But should have service at least once a week.

     If you'd like to follow along with us you can subscribe to our blog to get an email when we update it or just check it whenever you like.

About time for an update....

Since it’s a new year and I kinda forgot about the blog last year I think it’s about time for an update.
So last spring after spending a week in Durango we headed back to Louisiana.  My elbow took over a month to heal up but it’s doing great now.
After enjoying family and Ella’s birthday we drove the coach up to Ozarks RV Resort on Table Rock Lake in Oak Grove, AR and met up with a bunch of our Newell friends for our yearly Rally.  We had a great time visiting old friends and making new friends.  The week went by quickly and we were on the road again this time heading to Colorado.  After a night on the road at a KOA in Oklahoma we pulled into Fort Collins, CO, parked the coach and went spend a few days with our friends David and Denise.  It’s always a great time visiting with them and this time was no exception.  Then we drove the coach to Frisco, CO where we stayed for 2 weeks meeting up with Ron & Jean to do a bit of RZR riding.  We also flew home for a few days to take care of a couple things.  We’re buying a house!  We like traveling in the coach but decided with home prices starting to rise it would be a good time to get another one.  So while we were in earlier we found a new construction in The Greens of Pelican Point in Gonzales, LA and signed a contract.  But since the inside was not finished we had to fly back to pick out all of the interior items from kitchen cabinets, floors, paint colors, granite, etc.  The builder said we couldn’t do it in 2 days but we did.  Of course we cheated a bit because David & Denise took us through a bunch of model homes in the retirement community they just moved into.  Thanks guys that really helped a bunch!  So we flew in late Tuesday night, got a rental car and drove to meet with the builder.  Ran around like crazy for a couple days but got everything selected.  Then spent the weekend in Thibodaux.  Had to get a grandkid fix.
After Frisco we drove a short ways to Breckenridge and spent a week at Tiger Run.  Then drove down to Nathrop for a week.  Well after having a couple months of no problems I guess it was time.  While in Nathrop I came down with a severe inflammation in both eyes.  I could not see for a few days, visited a local ophthalmologist and started treatments.   Well it took a couple months for my eyes to get back almost to normal.  I had vertical double vision in both eyes which is extremely rare and not much fun.  When I’d look at someone I would see 4 eyes, 2 noses and 2 mouths.  Very weird.
Anyway we moved to Creede where we parked for a month at Mountain Views RV resort.  It was nice to be parked for an entire month in such beautiful country but with my eyes recovering I couldn’t enjoy it very much.  While we were parked there we discussed at length that since we were buying a house should we keep the coach or sell it and rent cabins for a month in different places.  So after we left Creede we parked the coach in Alamosa then drove the truck back for a week.  While home I visited my regular eye doctor who put me on different eyedrops which started clearing up my eyes a bit quicker.  He said he had never seen an eye inflammation of that magnitude.  My vision was finally back to 20/20 corrected with my eyeglasses.  Previously it was much worse than Cindy’s.  So we spent a week with family then drove back to Alamosa picked up the coach and drove to Amarillo, TX for a couple days.  While there Richard & Rhonda stopped by on their way to Arizona and we had an enjoyable meal together catching up.
Then we drove to Nacogdoches, TX where we put the coach up for sale on consignment with Motorhomes of Texas who we bought it from a couple years ago.
Then drove to Baton Rouge where we rented a condo at LSU for a few weeks while waiting on the house to be finished.
Finally got to move in the end of October and started unpacking and getting settled.  It was finally nice to be in a house again and have so much room.  And great internet!  That’s one thing about RV’ing is the internet connections are very problematic and limited.
But we’re enjoying the house and neighborhood.  Bunch of old timers here, but I guess we’re old also.
So in a few weeks we’re thinking of taking a couple weeks and drive down into Florida.  And once the coach sells we’ll start traveling again.

Colorado bound

We really enjoyed spending a few weeks with Tom and Darlene.  We met them a few years ago in Creede, CO at our first Newell rally and have become close friends.  No, more like family.  They are selling their beautiful home in Mesa and have already bought a neat place in Wittmann out in the desert.  Tom plans to build a huge bus barn and workshop if the county ever issues him a permit.  One morning Tom and I hopped in his golf cart and helped a neighbor build a small “bunny barn”.  His wife is planning to raise rabbits and in the summer Arizona heat they will have to use a swamp cooler to keep them happy and breeding.

We spent lots of time helping them move and setting up the new house.  Cindy helped Darlene pack boxes and move stuff.  I just kinda stood around with my arm in a sling.  Other than that it was a fun time.

But the temperature is getting into the 90’s and it’s time to head to the mountains.  So we pulled out and drove up to Durango, CO.  Really nice here at 6500’ with temps in the low 70’s and nights are in the 40’s.  Yesterday we drove up to Silverton, well Cindy drove.  She did pretty good once she relaxed her death grip on the steering wheel!  Had a nice lunch in Silverton and walked around town.  The town shops aren’t officially open until Sunday so most of them were busy painting and fixing up.  We did find a nice jewelry shop and found a couple Zuni indian necklaces we’ll give to Ella and Eva.  Got them at 1/2 price and the nice lady gave us sterling chains for them.  Hope Ella likes them for her birthday.

Silverton down in the valley

Then we drove home and hit the grocery store.  Today we’re just hanging around the coach taking care of “house stuff”.  Cindy’s washing clothes and I’m working on one of the awnings.  While driving through north Arizona with 30-40mph winds one of the awnings started to open.  So I stopped and Cindy helped me to tie it down.  I think I have it figured out how to lock it better.

Tomorrow we’ll go to Church and then drive out to Pagosa Springs.  There is a campground there that sounds nice.  If we like it and they have availability we may change our plans and stay there a month or two instead of driving out to Oregon and Washington.

Frozen crystals

Before we left Ella told me she wanted a “crystal thing” like in the movie Frozen.  Well today Tom took us to visit with one of his neighbors Calvin.  He is retired and has been rock hunting and collecting for over 10 years.  He has an unbelievable collection of crystals, minerals, fossils, etc. in his house.  But on the walkway to his house are a few pieces of petrified wood.  These are about 2’ in diameter and 3 or 4’ high!  Amazing.  His backyard has piles of rocks everywhere that he has either collected himself or bought from overseas.  Quite a bit of his rocks are very rare.  We spent about 2 hours listening to his stories.  He is very knowledgeable about geology.  He let me cut a couple pieces and let Cindy polish them.  They came out quite nice too.

Not far from Toms house near Surprise are fields of roses.  They grow the bushes to sell and are beautiful to see fields of red, pink, yellow, and white roses.  Today we saw the workers on these wheeled carts laying on their stomachs working on the bushes.  There was another worker who pushed these covered carts along as they needed.  I snapped this shot with my camera while we were driving past the fields.

We’ve been busy helping Tom and Darlene move from their house in Mesa to the new one.  Saturday we had a ground breaking barbecue for Tom’s bus barn he is building in the back yard.  Had about 25 people over and bbq’ed bacon stuffed burgers.  Cindy cooked gumbo and bread pudding.  Not much was left over.

Oh yeah, clumsy me tripped and split my elbow open like a watermelon.  Had to go to urgent care.  The doctor took over 2 hours to clean it, put 5 stitches, and then apply pressure for about 20 minutes so it wouldn’t bleed.  That hurt the most.  So for the next couple days I had my arm in a sling and couldn’t do anything.  But it’s much better now and I can use it.  Just need to be careful.  Get the stitches out on Monday.
That's it for now.  We plan to leave next week, probably Tuesday morning.  We'll drive over to Durango, CO for a week or so.  Then we'll start heading back to Louisiana for a month.

Bleeding moons

It was with a heavy heart that we left Paincourtville on Friday morning in the rain.  We have enjoyed our winter stopover.  It has been fun spending time with family and friends.
Thursday afternoon we went to Ellas school to watch her perform in their Easter Angel Choir.  All of the kindergarten and 1st graders had fun singing their hearts out.  Even Eva seemed to enjoy it.

We drove the first 2 hours in rain then it cleared up.  Stopped over in Beaumont for the night and met up with Rudy and Carol for dinner.  Saturday morning drove over to Kerrville, TX for a night or two.  Cindy talked with the lady at the office and scored a free night so we stayed until Tuesday morning.  We tried to rent a car Monday to sight see but there was nothing available.  But we did stop at a rest area for lunch and saw some pretty flowers:

 Oh yeah, the truck is in the shop getting repaired from a slight mishap while I was loading the RZR in the back.  The straps holding the ramps up broke and I had no choice but to gun the throttle.  Well I made it into the truck but couldn’t stop in time.  Broke the rear windshield on the truck and dented the rear panel.  So had to leave it for repairs.

We had a nice drive as I decided to drive 60 mph.  It helped the fuel mileage since I was getting 8.5 mpg.  We stopped for the night north of Tucson in a trailer park that advertised big rig rv parking.  Yeah right, the 70’ pull through was about 20’ short and I had to back out of the spot and squeeze through the turns.  Oh well, we just need to check out our stops before we pull in.  Gotta remember that.

Thursday around lunch we pulled into Tom and Darlenes new place in Wittmann, AZ.  Nice place out in the desert just west of Phoenix.  They previously lived in a nice subdivision in Mesa and once Tom retired he wanted to leave the city.  Yep, he’s out of the city.  Chickens, horses, goats, rattlesnakes, etc.  But it’s nice and quiet out here and they love it.

Tom and I went to Canyon raceway to be the pit crew for his son in law Jon.  He has a modified stock car he races.  He did well starting in 14th place and moving up to 4th place but unfortunately blew his transmission so couldn’t finish.  Oh well that’s racing.  It was fun to watch the different classes of cars race from the sprint cars to dwarf cars to stockers.

I’ve been helping Tom with a few little projects around the homestead.  They’re getting carpet put in today so we’ll help them move some furniture in tomorrow.  Last night I drove with Tom over to north of Prescott to buy an 8.5 x 20’ enclosed trailer.  We got back just in time to enjoy the blood moon.  The skies out here are incredibly clear and bright.

That's it for now.  We're just enjoying spending time with friends and enjoying the nice weather.  It's been in the mid 80's and in the 60's at night.  Really pleasant but DRY!