Well, I think we will take this blog on in the same order as our trip. It was a fantastic time and so glad we got to do this as our 1st cruise. The ship was the Island princess and a smaller ship holding just over 2200 people. The ship was not fully booked and that was good for us as less people to deal with, but even on sea days it was not too crowded. So, let’s get going 🙂

Lots of Pictures in this Blog.

We Flew into SFO on a later Friday flight from Phoenix so we could spend the night and have a not so rushed transfer over to our flight to Dublin with a layover and then on to Rome. SFO, we had no issues landing and getting to our hotel, we stayed right on the tram line so was a nice convivence. The next morning, we got back to the international terminal only to find out 3.5 hour prior to flight to check your bag, so we had to wait on the pre check area till then. Everything went fine thru security and to our gate. for more wait time. We got on our plane on and started to taxi out and then stopped, they had to take us back to a gate and fix the Air conditioning issue. this whole thing left us on the plane for 1 hour before everything was fine and we could take off. At least we did not have to get off and reboard.

The flight from Dublin to Rome was ok, again had to sit at gate for about 20 min before takeoff. Transfer van to our hotel was waiting for us and our 45 min. Ride to the Hotel. A cute little place, Odd for Us but seems like a normal thing overseas. More of a B&B, not what I would call a hotel, But the beds were cozy and that was good. Spent the next day just visiting the area around us and seeing about how to get to the ship in the morning. Had a nice lunch at a small sidewalk cafe, Food was yummy.

Day 3 April 2 was ship boarding day and after waiting at the wrong bus stop for about 30 minutes we had someone tell us where to go to. We got to the right place, what a mess, but once we got to the cruise port terminal it was easy peeze. And we walked right onto the ship. We headed to the dining room as we waited for our room to be ready, it did not take long, and we got settled into the room and Luggage unpacked. Here are a few pictures of the ship.

The ship took off for Naples that nights and by morning we were getting ready for our tour of Pompeii.

No History lessons in this Blog, just comments 🙂

Naples Italy April 3

Pompeii was amazing and we had no idea it was so BIG. If you are not into history and life it would just be, well, a bunch of old knocked down walls and buildings, but it would be hard not to just stand there and think of what life was like back then and how organized and hard it must have been. And then the loss of life that day, more than 2000, Just an amazing area to see, 150 years and counting on the excavations. So many people still live in the danger zone for the next eruption.

So my Camera was set to black and white, by mistake, but here are a few pics. anyway.

Catania Port in Sicily Italy April 4th

During the night the ship moved to Sicily, and we docked to 10am. We took it easy today, only going to shore to touch down in town for a quick visit. No big tours today. I thought the town was, Dirty. To be fair it was only in the port city area where we walked around.

After Sicily we had a Sea Day as we made our way over to Athens, Greece.

Athens Greece April 6th

Athens was another amazing place to visit, I enjoyed it a lot, city was busy but clean and the people we met were friendly.

Upon arrival, the weather was beautiful, and we were looking forward to our trip to see the Parthenon.  We met our bus Next to the ship and took off for a drive through the city and saw the highlights as we were making our way to the temples once we parked the bus there was only 80 short steps to the top it really wasn’t that difficult but down from the port and you’d look up at this place you’re thinking how am I going to get up there. The temples were beautiful and we learned the history of how they were damaged and who stole what, thanks great Britain, After a tour of the temples we left for the shopping district I’m sure the bus company makes some money off of this but in any case we had some Greek food not the best I’m sure it was very yummy but not to our American taste then we did some quick souvenir shopping and picked up a couple things got back on the bus and came back to the ship. As night came we headed towards our next stop Mikonos Greece.

Mykonos Greece April 7th

No shore tours today but we took the water taxi over to the little port town and checked out the area without getting lost. The streets are so cool, but we were warned that people do get lost sometimes and cannot find their way back to the pier.

Kusadasi Turkey April 8th

Turkey had us parked right in the marina area, all combined with the shipping area so lots of cargo containers and ships around. Not the prettiest area but we hopped on the bus to our shore excursions and off we went into the hills and to see our sites. 1st stop was the tomb of John the apostle. A nice area that they are still working on. A beautiful marble tomb to mark the spot. Then off to Mary’s house, sitting on top of a hill overlooking the city, for safety and not the view. They rebuilt the top part of the house and roof. No inside pictures allowed, and they still treat this like a small church. On the way down the hill to go see Ephesus, we stopped at a statute of Mary overlooking the valley. Then on to Ephesus and the ruins in the area. Another cool place they are still working on putting back together. After a tour and some history of the area we saw a demonstration of carpet weaving, the turkey way by one of the best in the country. Fascinating and very time consuming. They tried to sell us a small entry rug, priced at $800 our special cost, originally 1700. We did not get it. In any case beautiful works of art. 

Ephesus was another amazing site to see. The detail in the work and so much still standing.

They did a very small Roman Skit.

And I guess with no phones or Newpapers to take to the bathroom, you just had to talk to your neighbor.

Crete Greece

We did not find anything interesting in the area or for tours close to the ship so we skipped this adventure and stayed on board the ship for the day.

Wed, Thurs and Fri we are at sea crossing back west over the Mediterranean Sea on our way to our next stop of Gibraltar. We did see some fantastic sunrise and sunsets on the way

Gibraltar GB April 13th

Just 3 miles long and .75 miles wide and part of GB. We took a nice trip thru the city, oh they drive on the American side of the road, as does Spain their neighbor. Very Clean and Friendly. We took a tram up to the top of a mountain right next to the “rock” They have resident monkeys that hang out there, not that we saw a ton on the day of our visit. we also visited the Great Siege Tunnels, Major work to make this happen and very cool to see. learned some history of the tunnels and hiked deep into the mountain, and of course had walk back up to get out 🙂

So, The airport Divides Spain with Gibraltar, they Finaly put a tunnel under the landing strip for cars to get back and forth but in the early days they just drove across the strip, today between landings, they still let Bikes, scooters and pedestrians walk across to get from one country to the other. You cannot see where in the picture below, but it is just to the right of the end of the picture.

Malaga, Spain April 14th

No Shore Excursions today but did make the walk into the port Shopping area. It just happened to be the 2nd Sunday of the month, so they had a farmers’ market. The area was very clean and lots of nice people all walking around shopping. Another town where we had no issues with the language. They also have a nice Large Sailing ship in the port. We loved the area, might buys a house here when we win the lottery 😉

After leaving Malaga we started heading west, back thru the straight and another view of Gibraltar.

We had a day at sea and one of the Ships Formal nights for dinner.

Madeira, Portugal on April 16th

The plan of the day was to take the cable car ride with an overview of the city, a Traditional sled ride, they have two guys glide you down the city street in a wicker basket, and the Botanical Gardens. Once owed by a private party and then purchased by the city when the family sold it. This is just a small island off the mainland. It did suck that it was a busy day and over an hour was waisted in line for the basket ride as well as at least 1/2 hour waiting in line for the tram.

The botanical gardens

Now leaving Madeira we have 5 days at sea as we continue to cross the Atlantic and towards our next port of Bermuda. Here are a few sea day pictures, not much but Ocean all around.

April 18th, we had nice dinner at the steak house to celebrate our 26th anniversary.

Bermuda April 22nd

Bermuda was Beautiful, the area, town, and water. all amazing. It is only spring, so the water is not that warm, but it is not crowded at the beach, but not sure it is what I would call a “Pink Beach” and just an FYI, Gas is $10.00 a gallon. Everything needs to be shipped in, Much like Hawaii. It was still a very nice place to visit. Dawne was not feeling well so she stayed on the ship as Chrissy, and I headed off to the beach and a quick town tour. The harbors along the way all had nice ships, sailing boats and the most beautiful water.

After a short day in Bermuda we had two more sea days before we got to The USA and Ft Lauderdale Florida and time to get off the ship. We had a 6:30 debarkation time so early to rise and on to a day of air travel back home.

WE had some waiting to do at the Airport before we could check our luggage, oh and no place to sit in Ft Lauderdale pre luggage check, that sucked. But we got on our 3-hour flight to Huston, and then 3-hour layover before 3 hours to Phoenix, and a two-hour drive home. Made it home just before 10 pm.

It was an amazing trip with tons to see and as well we learned a few things along the way. It would be something we would do again. a normal 7- or 10-day cruise might seem short after a 23-day cruise, but it would still due 🙂 Thinking New Zealand or British Isles ??

Well after a successful return from Supercamp it was time to get back to our place in AZ and get the site fixed up and ready for some comfortable patio time.

We arrived July 3rd to a very hot summer in the works. 100 degrees the day we pulled in. After a very cool Supercamp this can be a bit of a shock to the system. What would follow would be one of Arizona’s hottest and longest 100+ streaks on recent record, over 1 month, Lucky us 🙂 But work had to be done in order to get this place all set up so, get up early and get it done before it got too hot! Here are a few pictures from the start. Getting our storage unit and the patio cover installed.

and then our patio poured, so no more rocks 🙂

In Mid-August, Dawne left to dog sit at Chrissy’s and I then Proceeded to get sick and that sucked as I still had so much to get done. So, it took just a bit longer to finish, and hey, we are retired so no worries. I still had brick work to do between the DRV and patio as well the driveway from street to patio. Have to leave 1′ on the curb line so they can get to the water line if needed so bricks are what everyone uses around here.

After much work, in the AM due to Hot conditions, we have our finished Site.

It’s cozy and we love it.

in September we headed to a visit with the Vogl’s and Dawne’s class reunion. It was a fun weekend as always when we visit. and some pictures from the last Reunion, Dawne and I just got together so 25 years ago.

At the end of Oct. we had a short visit with Caprice as the Meese’s came to AZ for a short vacation. We met them at the Great Wolf Lodge for 1 afternoon and then we headed back to our place the next morning as The Vogl’s were stopping here for a weeklong visit, and the weather was perfect! We visited with some friends in Wickenburg for lunch one day

And had a nice Dinner at Longhorn Steak house one night. Then we headed up to do our Grand Canyon loop, and got the chance, for a few moments, to see the Meese’s as they also came up there. On our way there we had to drive thru Skull Valley, we survived. 🙂

The Grand Canyon was beautiful as always, But Cold! I wanted to go out to a great picture spot for a sunset but the only way to get there is by park bus and we just did not feel like finding parking and then getting on the bus to the spot, as well as it was cold.

After spending the night, we started our trek home, that started with a stop in Williams at Bearizona. A nice little park that is well managed and clean, the only issue here is the lack of some animal being in their area and the petting zoo was closed. I guess you have less animals and less crowds when you go off season, they should adjust the price to get in if they are only 1/2 open. Still a fun place.

We then took the long way home, thru Sedona, Very Beautiful area with a very nice town, a total tourist area.

We got home safe, and the next day had a nice day off, relaxing. We did manage to get a small ride in but time flies and before we knew it was time for Russ and Kim to make their way home. Another great visit and we look forward to the next.

Well, it’s coming up to the holiday season and we are having a group dinner with a few of our friends around us. And Christmas is just around the corner so Decorating will keep me busy and out of trouble.

And again, for the 2nd year in a row, we will not be going to BLACK FRIDAY sales LOL

Hope all is well with everyone and that you have a great Thanksgiving.

Love to all.

Well, we start this blog in Casper WY. after a successful trip from SD we are at a park near the Platt River, and it is warm outside and not windy 🙂 We got set up and hit the store, we are back in Kroger land so found a Smith’s to restock our food supply. The next morning, we headed to the National Historic Trails Center. This is where all the settlers moving out west crossed the Platt River and moved on to Salt Lake City, Oregon Or California. Very nice museum with lots of information on that period. We also hit the Tate Museum at the Collage. The rest of the sites we wanted to visit all were closed on Monday, so keep that in mind when you visit.

The following day we visited Fort Casper, and they had a nice small Musuem about the Fort as well as have the Fort area set up like it was back in the day. We also visited the local Veteran’s Musuem also interesting. Casper was a nice visit but nothing to make sure is on your bucket list.

We will hit the road today towards Cheyenne as the weather starts to get more rain forecasted for our visit there, oh well, not like we can control that. The weather here is not bad. 70’s and a chance of thundershowers this afternoon. looks like showers are in the forecast for Saturday and on our leaving day of Sunday, hopefully after we head on to our next stop.

On our first full day in Cheyenne, we hit the Cheyenne Depot Museum, very interesting displays and information on the railroad coming to the area. We also checked out the Wyoming State Museum, another great museum that had the history of the area and nice displays. We ran into a small museum for the cowgirls and how they all started out doing rodeo shows and then on to doing real riding in the shows. These painted boots are all over downtown and you can see them all if you want to take the walking tour.

Saturday was clean up and get ready to hit the road again, on our way to Colorado Springs to check out the area. We are staying at Cheyenne Mountain State Park. I nice visit on these towns with the Vogl’s but we are parting ways from here as they head back to Pacifica.

This is a beautiful park with full hook ups and very close to Cheyenne mountain, just in case we come under attack from the Chinese. LOL. The downside is all the moths, and they continued to haunt us for days after we left 🙂

Our first full day here we headed off to see Garden of the Gods. another cool place to check out and do some hiking if you wish. It was a busy day, and we can only imagine what it would be like in the middle of summer. After the park we headed out to meet with Jeff’s parents for lunch and then to go see their house. what a great view they have and a nice house to boot. It was a nice visit.

On Tuesday we headed out to the Colorado Wolf and wildlife sanctuary for a tour and a chance for Dawne to see her favorite animal. Let’s not let Xena know about this! All the wolves are very well cared for and the place gives great tours.

After our fun times in Colorado Springs, we got up early to beat a windstorm and headed to Alburquerque NM, just a short 6-hour drive. We almost made it before the wind really started to get bad. By the time we got to Hwy 66 RV park it was very windy, but we set up anyway and headed to the casino for a quick bite and to give our donation playing the slots for a few minutes, we had fun and that is all that matters 🙂

Checking out a few places in Alburquerque was fun as we explored a less windy day and visited the Pueblo History museum, and old downtown park area with shops and this cool church.

This was a quick stop and we got ready to head back up the west side of the Rockies to Mesa Verde NP, lucky for us the wind was at our backs, as another windy day was moving through the area. The drive was not bad except for the roads, another horrible excuse for our gas tax dollars. Where is all that money going, well not on the road maintenance.

When we arrived at our campsite it was a perfect spot right across the freeway from the park.

The next morning it was time to head into the park and check out the sites.

We got some good shots of the valley and the view from the west side of the Rockies at our first stop of the day.

The rest of the park was very cool as we discovered the cliff dwellings and information on them.

They give Tours of the Cliff Palace, Picture below, that we had reservations for on Monday morning, and of course it is raining now so that is a scratch for the day. We will be back next year on a short trip so will have to wait till then to hike down into the dwellings.

On the way out of the park we stopped by one of the fire lookout roads for some fantastic views at 8500 feet.

We now know where all the interstate road taxes are going, to Mesa Verde, the roads in the park were fantastic. 🙂 And a rain out picture on Monday

All in all we have had good weather on most of our trip, or should I say the days we have planned something it has been beautiful. In between those days we have had some very bad wind days, May can be a gamble for weather. It has been a strange winter in any case. Tomorrow, we head out to Williams, AZ for the night and then on to our AZ home for 8 nights, then off north to Oregon to see some Graduations and visit with most of you.

Well, we made it back home, after seeing sun, rain and snow on the way to Williams for the night. We had no weather issues on the trip back home. WE did have the RV Batteries give out on us once we got back and had to replace them in order to live like normal people, well after I figured out that the converter was unplugged and was also not charging or letting the proper juice into the house. Now to make this story worthy of the blog, it came unplugged all by itself, on the rough roads we have traveled.

So far, our interstate roads suck everywhere. Where is that gas tax going ??? The state roads in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska are mostly good. South Dakota is the winner so far as they have nice roads up there. As we head off thru California and into Oregon, we are prepared for more rough stuff as we know their roads suck as well.

We had a quick stop in Redding for the holiday weekend, we could not make it as far as Oregon, this gave us a chance to visit with Allen and Bryson and that was a fun thing to have happen. We decided to meet in Chico and eat lunch and do some miniature golf. We are sure Bryson won the game.

We had no issues driving north as we ended up in 7 feathers RV resort for a nice stay of 8 nights and a chance to regroup and pick up some stuff from Chrissy’s place that has been waiting as we have traveled around, including a very large pup Named Xena 🙂

Saturday June 3rd, Alex Graduated from High School as most of his family had the chance to witness. I will not give any long speeches here, but as much as we think we do it all ourselves, it takes great parents and a supporting family to shape us into who we are today. This family of ours is very special and always there for each other, Thankfully. But yes Alex, the diploma is your 🙂 Congratulations on a great day for you.

After our stay at 7 feathers, we made our way to Eugene for a week. We have an appointment to get a few things done on the house as well as our next Graduation with Adrienne, or should I say Doctor Tedesco? Maybe she will let us still call her Adrienne?

So here are our 2023 Grads.

After Our Graduations we got ready for Supercamp 2023 and then headed down to Emigrant Lake for our 25th year of hanging out with Family. You can see that recap in the Supercamp Blog.

After Supercamp we headed into Redding with the Vogl’s to check out Lassen National park. So we went from raining at the start of Supercamp right into the frying pan with 100 degrees in Redding.

You can tell Lassen National Park does not get the visitors other parks get and as such it must be low on the government’s budget list. Lots of repairs are needed to the facilities, and that includes the entry sign as part if it has been broken off, but we still got a picture 🙂

The full loop is not open due to snowpack they are clearing on the road so we could only go so far on the loop drive, but here are some pictures of the park. It was a beautiful day up here at the park.

Reflection lake above and Chaos Crag’s below

And the grand Lady herself, well it’s as close as we could get.

Well that is it for this Blog, we leave tomorrow from Redding and then down to Lodi, and off to Bakersfield each for 1 night and then a long 6 hour drive home in Very HOT weather. 6000 miles and lots that we have seen, it will be nice to park for a while and stop spending so much $$ on campsites and GAS ! Love to all

Mom and Dad

25 years of camping together. Man, it has been tons of fun!! As we all arrived it was a rainy day to start off and not what you hope for camping, any day 🙂 But we are experienced campers and made camp set up in no time between the showers. The next day was mostly sunny. This year we had 5 sites and the the Dorning’s had their new 5th wheel, very nice rig guys.

The camp Safety flag 🙂

And Kitchen camp

The lake was a tad chilly and weather not really that hot, but we still managed to have fun as always. The kayak’s always get used and there is also hiking adventures, and campfire conversations to be had as well, so all in all, a normal Camping trip.

And for the first time ever we had not one but 2 rattle snakes in camp, this guy was taken by the park staff for relocation, the first snake was taken down by Jeff. Although it was sad to kill it, we could not see letting it go on its way and bite a dog or child who was camping.

Caprice had another adventure day in town as some of the gang left to see the local Japanese garden and a small park in the city as well.

25 years we have been meeting to enjoy camping and lots of changes during all these years. It has always been fun, and we have enjoyed all the company 🙂

Before we headed out to Phoenix to get a few things checked out on the house we had a last cookout with some of the people we know around here, most of them from Wisconsin. It was a chilly night but fun in any case.

And then ran over to Palm Springs and caught Reba on Tour. Another great concert in a newer venue. We had great seats and had no problem seeing the star in action:-)

We got our breaks checked and the wheel bearings repacked, but no success at getting one of our Jack stands replaced. We will hit that under Warranty when we get to Oregon. So off we go on the road again. First stop was a quick visit in Tombstone AZ. Very Warm Weather here and we are enjoying it very much.

Cool Campsite markers 🙂 A little bit of history in town and made a visit to Big Nose Kate’s. They have Gun fights in the streets and as we were eating the first shots made us jump, but more alcohol calmed our nerves 😉 A very cool little saloon with live music and good food.

This was just a quick stop on our way to Las Cruces New Mexico, as we made our way east and to our 1st NP of the trip. White Sands National Park. Very cool place and interesting on how the process makes the sand out here in the middle of the desert. It was an overcast day, maybe that was a good thing as we are sure the sand gets hot!!

While we were in town, we also ate at this wonderful Mexican food place, the building was very cool and had lots of room to feed tons of people. This town is bigger than what you see from the freeway and Way too busy for us but has everything you need. Next stop Was still in New Mexico and an easy drive, meaning roads were not that rough!

The people here are very friendly, and the town is tons bigger than I would have guessed. Walmart’s are everywhere in New Mexico. I hate them but when they are the only game in town you don’t have much choice. Great little park we are staying in. Just proves with the right apps and research you can find safe travels along the way.

On Sunday we took a drive south to go check out Carlsbad Caverns NP. This has to be on your bucket list, so neat inside and hard to imagine. The Big room is so massive you really can’t grasp it in pictures. So glad we checked it out.

After our visit in the Roswell area, it was time for a drive to Amarillo Texas, and into another time zone change. The drive was easy, and we had no issues. The weather was wonderful, and we had shorts on in the mid 80’s. On our Anniversary Day we had dinner at the Big Texan! sounds like meat on the menu 🙂 Another cool visit and the dinner was very good.

TO A FANTASTIC 25 YEARS !!

Well, the weather started to catch up to us as they had High wind warnings for our travels north and our next stop in Liberal Kansas. So, I made some adjustments and your mom called parks to change a few plans as we hit the road on a different path to Nebraska.

We still passed through Oklahoma.

And then through Kansas

And then through Nebraska to our campground in Ogallala right off I-80

So, to recap, Oklahoma, Kansas, and southern Nebraska all look pretty much the same LOL

And a bonus image in Nebraska

When we got into Ogallala NE, to spend the night and avoid the drive in 55+ winds from Kansas the next morning, it was windy as hell here too. They got calm for a bit and then about 1 am picked back up again, as I thought I have to drive in this shit tomorrow. By morning it was still very windy, but we hooked up and hit the road. It was bad but not as bad as I thought, we had 2 areas that had side wind, rough to drive in pulling a 40′ trailer, the rest of the time we mostly bucked the wind, not great on gas mileage. As we continued north in Nebraska towards South Dakota the state became rolling hills with green fields everywhere. We are sure OK and KS are both nice during planting season but still flat as hell ;-). Once we passed the welcome to South Dakota sign the roads were beautiful 2 lane highway all the way into Hermosa, of course when we got in to register it was windy as hell again, so we used safety chains tied to us and the trailer so we would not get blowen away. Ok I jest but it was set up and get inside ASAP. The winds calmed down around 8 pm and a good night’s rest by all. 5 states, 2 days we needed the rest 🙂

So as weather would have it, you can fight the colder weather and have less crowds or come in the summer when it is nicer and fight all the hoards of people. It is also so much easier to change plans with parks, in the summer good luck as parks are full, we had no issues and lots of space everywhere we have stayed so far. Just a side note for you future travelers.

Sometimes the weather can affect your travel plans as is the case with us rearranging our plans due to wind, and sometimes, as the case with Russ and Kim due to snow :-(. This has put them back a day meeting up with us in South Dakota. Safety is always the way to go, and we have flexibility in our schedule so that we just readjust our site seeing. 🙂 They are on the road again towards us today, 4/22, and we are hoping they have safe travels.

The Tour list for South Dakota is big and I will share some of our adventures with The Vogl’s below.

First stop and a beautiful day, was Mount Rushmore. It took them 14 years to finish this monument, and it is a sight to see.

We headed over to the town of Custer and right before the town they have the Crazy Horse monument and we checked it out as well. They have a beautiful museum, but we did not take the bus right up to the monument, so the pictures are from their viewing deck at the visitor center. Interesting movie on how the project started, in 1948, 75 years ago and they still only have it done to what you see in the picture. The ETA on the hand, arm and horse head is 2037. This is not government funded so that could be while it is taking so long.

They had a piece of the towers from 9/11 and a memorial.

The town of Custer is cute, and we stopped and had a wonderful lunch at a small Pub. Then on to Custer state park. It was a nice park, and they have an area of wildlife much like Yellowstone. We had the chance to see many buffalo and some Parie dogs. It is also not Spring here yet really so still cold at night and some snow around the area in small pockets.

And in the town of Keystone, we found Big Foot

After our long day running around, we took a break the next day and just did a quick visit to the reptile park near us, it was surprisingly full of nice information and displays of animals. OK, it was not busy, so we also played on the playground for a while 🙂

The next day the weather was sunny, and we headed to the missile sites and Badlands National Park. here are some pictures from both places. Another fun day exploring the area. A great movie on the Minuteman program.

As we exited the park, we had a visit to Wall Drugs in Wall SD. A very cool place and glad we did not miss it. 1 large building with lots of shops inside.

Yes, Dawne did catch me and now I am sleeping on the couch 🙁

We had an off day on Thursday and worked on Laundry and other chores. We finished as another major rain, wind and thunder rolled through our campground. Got to the point where it was so windy, we had to pull in our kitchen slides, both Us and the Vogls’. The wind died down about 10:30 and we had a good night’s sleep without the flapping of the slide out toppers 🙂 On Friday we headed to Wind Cave NP and we did the 1-hour guided cave tour, if I had more time, I think a longer, deeper tour would be fun, again for you future travelers who might come here.

It’s hard to really enjoy pictures from a cave, much better to see it in person but here are 2 shots for you.

Wind cave vs Carl’s bad Caverns? Doing the tour at Wind Cave it felt more cave like due to the low ceilings, but for sure WOW and going at your own speed, Carl’s bad Caverns is a must see!

We also went to the mammoth dig site, another educational Musuem in Hot Springs SD. and a few pictures. This is an active dig, but doubt they are moving that fast on it.

Saturday is our finial day here before we depart for Casper WY. Time to get the Trailers ready to roll, but before our chores we ran over to Bear Country for a quick tour. Here are a few snap shots of or adventure there.

Our driving adventure so far has been fantastic, and we are so glad we are seeing all the sights along our way on this 2023 tour. This is as far north as we get and start to head south for more adventures. It’s been tons of fun meeting up with Russ and Kim to share part of this adventure with. Please keep us in your thoughts for safe travels. 🙂

Next Blog should be in a few weeks, Love to all

Christmas set up by the local Neighbors began and we had to represent so we did a small display. Even though it was beautiful during the day we did not need the snow to know it was Christmas Time.

The week leading up to Christmas Dawne got sick and was down for 3 days sleeping, as I tried to nurse her back to health and trying not to get sick myself, she says I woke her every 2 hours, but this was not true, and I will stand by my statement! by Saturday Christmas Eve, she was up and about but not interested in seeing anyone and still feeling weak. One of our good Neighbor’s brought Bloody Mary’s to their friends, and they were Yummy, Dawne was still not feeling well enough to enjoy. But it was a fun thing that they did.

The Above Photo is of Steve and Cindi, as well as their good friend Denise. Steve and Cindi are great people, and we share our Extra lot with them. Christmas Eve, they had the golf cart/ sxs Parade and that was fun to see.

Christmas day Dawne felt better so it was Ham dinner day and some Christmas calls. By the time Dinner was finished it was a good day. We missed all of you and hope to get together maybe next year 🙂

Just before New Year’s Day we were invited to go out with some other friends and check out a few of the sites in the desert. The weather was overcast but we still had a good time.

New Year’s Day is Tomorrow and then Quartzsite rock and gem show starts. A very big event for the town. It lasts all month so I am sure it will get Dawne all excited to start searching for her own rocks here. Looking forward to seeing it on the 3rd or 4th. We had rain the other day overnight so it was the first we have seen being here. And it sure beats what we were sitting in just last year at this time.

It’s late January and we are not doing much but here are a few things to talk about

Well, the 49ers are giving a good reason to watch some football. Lucky for us the games are on FOX as we are hooked up to the parks cable, it’s not a 4K picture by any means but we can still watch. The weather here has not been what it was last year, and it has been cold. We still see 60’s during the day and the sun is out shinning, so that is a big plus. Today is storage delivery day, or so they say, It’s Jan. 24th so much later than we expected. The holidays always push things back so here we are. It will be so nice to get our stuff organized with the extra space, and your mom wants to start her tumblers. Here is a picture of the unit.

Right after the Storage unit showed up, they came with our patio cover. This is the unit just after setting up. the next week or so we will be getting it set up like a backyard patio so more work to keep us busy, but the place is feeling like home, and we are looking forward to enjoying it in the coming months.

Dawne Got her late Christmas gift, she is excited to use it to get around the park, mail and Laundry will be the big uses, but it works better than always running around in the car.

Headed out the other day with the gang to explore the back country again. There are so many rocks around, it is hard for Dawne to have to move on to the next stop. We will revisit the area’s again with the people next door, they like to rockhound as well.

This was a great weather day, IE sunny but all the Girls are wearing Jackets, so it was chilly, but just like all of you on the west coast getting bad weather and rain, it is much cooler down here than last year. The last few weeks have been in the mid 30’s at night, and low to mid 60’s. The big thing is we get the sun out 98% of the time and that is a big win.

January was mostly slow, not much happening around here and a chance to get caught up on cleaning and organizing the storage unit.

February was another quite month. we did head down to see Kathy for the day to check into how she was doing. Feb we also got to go see our first spring training game. the 2nd one was canceled due to rain but we had a great time at our first game.

March came and we are heading down to see Kathy for her birthday, Bill was also there so we had the chance to get caught up with him. Kathy mostly sleeps and we could tell she was not getting any better from when we last saw her. Everything is going smooth there and all plans are in place for her future, sad as that will be.

As March continued, we got in a concert to see Carrie Underwood, It was a fantastic show, followed up by our last Nascar race on Sunday, that has been checked off our bucket list officially 🙂

Well now it is Mid-March and time to start making list of things we have to get done to be ready for our April 5th departure. This will be some more good blog post as we work our way up to south Dakota and then returning back to Oregon for some Graduations.

We will Keep Everyone posted as we are traveling. I will try to keep up on the Blog as I did last year and let you know what we have been seeing and how our travels are going.

Hope to see all of you in June 🙂

Snowbird Time!

First let me say how wonderful it was to get the chance to visit with all of you! Great times !!! and let’s make sure everyone knows they are welcome to visit us down in warm AZ if they feel the need.

Our New address is Siekman 46628 E. Hwy 60 #A65 Salome, AZ 85348

It is time for us to get settled onto our lot and set up the house where she will be till Mid-April when we head for South Dakota. Here is a picture of us at our new Site.

We headed for a Visit with Russ and Kim on Oct. 13th and it was so nice just to hang out and relax. So much driving over the last few months and getting set up in AZ. We headed over to Will’s place on Sunday for Wesley’s BD, and also watched the 9ers get their ass kicked 🙁

Flying from SFO you depart at 7 am or 4:30 PM. we took the 4:30 flight. It gave us a nice view of the sunset over Phoenix.

There is some excitement on our approach, as we were going down all of the sudden the plane started heading back up? did our wheels not come down? Nope, another plane was still on the runway, so we had to do the circle back. This cost us to be about 10min. but we got to see the above picture and who wants to crash on another plane anyway! We got home safe from the airport at about 9 pm.

On Oct. 28th we had a neighbor invite us to a Block breakfast where we got to meet some of our other neighbors, only about 8 couples but it helped us meet some more people that are interesting and have been in the area for a long time, a few were newer like us :-). We are still getting settled in here. Ordered our storage unit and that will help get the truck and trailer more organized so we can have room to move around once that comes (6 weeks) But all is going well, and we are loving the weather.

We are heading to Kathy’s to see her and help her get to 2 doctor appointments. It’s about 4 hours away from here so that will be an overnight trip. She is doing well, and it was great to see her and get caught up on what is going on with her health and the plan. It was a long day driving back as I also had to hit the dentist, but we made it and returned safe to the home.

Saturday, we headed to our first NASCAR event, it was the final race day for the B team guys and was fun to check out a BIG race. We still really love small track racing as well and plan on hitting a track in Lake Havasu sometime in Jan.

last Luner eclipse till 2025, at 3 am in the morning, thank goodness I don’t work the next day, I wish I would have had a telescope with a camera attachment on it. This is with my phone so not that great but proves I got up and checked it out 🙂

DISNEYLAND HOLIDAY VISIT

It did not have as much as we thought it would but still fun to see and another of our bucket list items. It was so crowded, but it was the start of Thanksgiving week so I should have known. Here are a few pics of the visit.

Mom Got sick on Monday so she missed the last day, then Chrissy got home and was sick and on Thursday night I started with my symptoms. Not sure where it came from, so many rides and things you touch. It was not covid, just seemed like the flu.

We had a good Thanksgiving with the normal fixings, just a turkey breast this year as it was only us two, Dawne was feeling better and as I sit here typing this, I feel I am getting better but not ready to tackle the world yet.

We had the chance to go to our first Country music concert, Maranda Lambert Velvet Rodeo tour, and it was Amazing! we really enjoyed it.

The next few months will be just normal living for us so no Blog’s. Our next big trip starts in early April 2023. I am sure we will talk to you all many times before then, and blogs will start when our next adventure starts.

Love to all

We start this part of our Blog in Rice Hill and end it for our Snowbird Site, Desert Gold, In Brenda AZ. Our First day we headed to Dad’s for a visit on Labor Day. As always it was relaxing, and we had a great chance to get caught up on what everyone has been doing. Kathy is getting ready for her Cruise, and we hope she has a fantastic time! It was another great visit for us.

Tuesday, we moved the house down to Rice Hill RV Park for the next two weeks as we get our yearly Eye exam, and some follow up doctor appointments. We will also get some more time with Dad as well as Chrissy and Alex. Wednesday it was off to meet some people from work and play some shuffleboard.

Saturday, we headed to the Roseburg Fairgrounds to check out the Dog show with Chrissy, after that we headed over to her house for a bit and did some more organizing for our trip to AZ. I also took a few moments to put up Alex’s new fan.

Sunday it was off to Dad’s house for a visit and to watch the 49ers lose their game. Oh well visiting is the whole point, and we had a great time talking about everything, including current US/west coast politics.

The rest of this week has us both getting our yearly eye exams and more organizing the house for the trip south

Saturday the 17th I headed up to dads to watch the Ducks Game, they won with no problems and then on Sunday we returned to Watch the 49ers beat the Seahawks, finally 🙂 It was another good visit with Football and conversation.

ERROR! The RV Park we were staying at in Rice hill screwed up our booking and as I went into pay for our final two days, he had booked our site out for an incoming group of 3 rv’s. They are old school here so no computer system from preventing them from doing this 🙁 So I called 7 Feathers, and they had space for us, so we packed everything up and moved south. The bad is having to pack up and waste time moving, plus a longer drive to see dad on Tuesday. The good is we are 1 hour closer to our next stop in Redding, and we had 3 free nights here so all in all we are moving forward with a bad start of Monday but a good finish

Tuesday, we planned on headed back to dads for a final visit, sadly Dawne was not feeling well that day, But I headed off and had another great time talking about life and all of our kids.

We are finishing up our final doctor appointments and getting the house all cleaned up for our trip to Redding a 4-hour drive south for a night before we are off to Colusa for 4 nights as we visit Allen and Willie.

Redding was a nice park, and we had no issues getting into our spot. We hate just staying one night in a place as it is time spent setting up and then taking down the very next morning, but it beats a 6- or 7-hour drive, so the stop overs are not that bad, just a small bitch LOL. The next morning, we headed out about 10am for the short drive to Colusa for our 4-night stay as we visit with Allen and Willie. We ended up meeting up with Allen on our first day there so we could plan out the rest of the weekend. The Casino was not kind overall, but I did have a winning machine, and we came out just a bit ahead of our Walkin money.

Saturday, we headed for the Lake to Visit everyone and have a BBQ.

It Has been a while since we have seen the boys and I think Willie could still sit in Kim’s lap if he wants to show up for Supercamp LOL. Company and food were great !

Sunday, we headed for Chico so we could meet up and go Bowling with Everyone.

Monday the gang came out to meet us at our house and then off to Granzella’s for lunch

WE made the long drive from Colusa to Bakersfield in 6 hours via Hwy 99 and it had some rough spots, but we made it, spent a night in Orange Grove Rv and then the next morning made our way to Palm Springs for two nights. We were going to hit up Jousha Tree NP but are tired of driving every day, so we stayed in the area and checked out some local fun. It is also HOT, so we will come back to JTNP in Jan or Feb. Here are some fun pictures of the local tourist trap 🙂

The next Morning, we got up early and hit the road, had about a 13 mile climb out of the palm springs area into our final destination. It all went well, and we arrived at Desert Gold about 10am and were able to check into our site. There will be a small blog post next but for now LOVE to all and TTYL

We it was a great Supercamp and so much fun to see everyone, it is always a sad day when you break down camp, but it does have to happen sooner or later 🙁

We headed north up the coast for a stop in Coos Bay. on the way we got a nice shot off the coast on a beautiful summer day as well as a wonderful shot of the moon rise over the bay at Coos bay.

Spent most of the time in Coos bay getting cleaned up from Supercamp, same stuff all of you did when you returned. Did get a few nice drives in to see the coast and cool back country road, and never even heard banjo music 🙂

Our next stop was McMinnville and we stayed at a nice park right next to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. They had a nice walkway right to the place that we used to get over to it. They also had a large screen Theater where they played 3 movies. Reaching for the stars, Rescue and Fighter pilot. all shows where under 1 hour but all were fun to watch.

Could have spent another day here reading all about each thing, fantastic history in the two buildings.

This was a great lead up visit to the Airshow here this coming weekend, first time seeing one and another Bucket list item for me. At first, we were only here till Wednesday and then on to Champoeg State Park, up on check in I asked if there was any space so we could stay….lol in my mind, and of course they had a 20-person waiting list, so I said thanks for checking. Well Sunday morning they called and asked if we still wanted to stay and I said of course, they made some changes and we got to stay till the following Sunday morning, and in the same spot as well. This is such a great spot and right across the street from the airport. Easy trip on Friday and I assume we will also get to see some of the flights on Saturday right from our site. Here is a picture of our site.

And on to the airshow on Friday, gates open at noon, so we got our parking spot and waited till then and into the event we went. It was a normal “fair” type event, lots of food booths, beer and wine ETC. We found the beer garden, where our seats were, and at the beginning I felt like it was a bit farther down the runway than I pictured, this turned out to be the best seats in the house!! Here are some pictures of the event. I took so many photos, but these are what I narrowed it down to. The day started out partly cloudy but turned to fantastic blue sky’s right after the show started.

The show started off with the Air National Guard F15c Eagles, these guys are fast and loud. The final fly by was right over the runway and you could feel the sound as it hit you.

WE also had a visit from the Airforce F35A flight team, they put on a great show as well and finished with a joint flyby of the P51, Main fighter plane until Jet fighters became the standard, and the newest Airforce fighter jet.

To close out the Show the Thunderbirds had a fantastic show as well and had 6 jets with them, you had to watch out for the sneaky ones who would come out of nowhere and remind you of how powerful these jets are, flying right over your head.

The Airshow was fantastic, and we are glad we got to see one. So much Fun, make sure to check one out if you get the chance.

Another day we took a trip to Canby with Caprice, Adrienne and Zoey to check out the Swan Island Dahlias and had a nice time hanging out together for part of the day.

On Saturday we watched the airshow from our campsite, and I got one great shot. Caprice came over with Adrienne, and Zoey with her friend. They spent tons of time swimming as the Adults got to visit. We are on to the next stop on Sunday as we continue to work our way south.

We arrived in Coburg and set up camp and then headed to Washington by car for Joey’s 40th Birthday event. It started out as a drizzling morning, but we still had a good time and the kids had fun once the weather turned a bit dryer. Here are some of the pictures

And some dinner at the Hotel Bar area

We are off to Rice Hill Next, just north of Sutherlin where we will visit with Family and Friends as well as take care of our eye Checkups and some Doctor follow ups.

Till next time, everyone take care!!

Here it is, normal and goofy as well my location scout after finding the right spot 🙂