The Magdal's

Heading Home via Memphis, Tennessee - March 23-27, 2009

2009-03-30T13:05:00.000-07:00

We sadly said good-bye to our beautiful site and warm weather in Port St. Lucie, Florida on Monday, March 23rd, knowing we were heading back to cold weather. But on the way back to Minnesota, we decided to make a side trip to Memphis, Tennessee. George really put the pedal to the metal driving that big rig over 450 miles each day so that we could be in Memphis by Tuesday night. We arrived early in the evening & checked into the Graceland RV Park & Campground. It was the perfect place to be since we were only staying for 2 nights and didn't want to take the car off the tow dolly. The campground is located right behind The Heartbreak Hotel and across the street from Graceland, so we could either walk everywhere we wanted to go or catch a shuttle. This is me sitting in the lobby of the Heartbreak Hotel. Even the furniture here was extremely "Elvis" style. Since we only had 1 day in Memphis, we got up early in the morning (okay, it was 9:00, but that's early to us!) and headed off to Graceland to tour the mansion of Elvis Presley. It looked exactly as I thought it would - incredibly gaudy and 1970's. If you remember how Elvis Presley dressed, you can imagine how his house was decorated! The furniture was unbelievable and some of the walls even had green shag carpeting on them. The living room was all white & blue with a 30 ft white couch in it. Who has a living room that can fit a couch that long?? The downstairs television room was done in yellows & blacks and the pool table room was done in some sort of wild print on the walls & matching lights.The Mansion grounds and the Meditation Garden were beautiful. I think our favorite part of the tour was when we went to Elvis's Automobile Museum. He had so many really cool cars and a ton of motorized toys. I think George & Curtis were really coveting the toys! We also liked touring the "Lisa Marie", which was one of his two custom planes. Here's a picture of the dining room and the bedroom on the plane. Oh, if only we could fly in something like that! After spending the morning touring Graceland, I decided to stay back at the rig with Bailey while George & Curtis hopped a shuttle to Sun Studios in downtown Memphis. This is still an actual recording studio so Curtis was really in his element. Sun Studios is where Elvis Presley made his recording debut as well as Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and many of the old blues musicians. Since we only had the one day in Memphis, we had to keep going once they got back to the rig. What's a day in Memphis without going down to Beale Street?? We hopped another shuttle in the evening to Beale Street, the home of the blues. If you look real close at the picture of the outdoor restaurant, in the upper right hand corner, you'll see a real live goat standing on the ledge by the triangular cone. We're not sure what it was doing there, but it definitely was alive! It was great listening to all the different bands performing outside. The weather was perfect to walk up & down Beale Street & enjoy the atmosphere. However, I'm not sure I would want to walk it by myself after dark - there were tons of cops, both on foot & on bikes to keep order. I only saw one arrest while we were there so I guess it's probably a pretty safe place to hang out. We also couldn't believe the way they decorated their horse-drawn carriages around Beale Street. We thought we were in Cinderella's fairy tale! The last picture here on the left is the Meditation Garden at Graceland. I wanted to include it because I thought it was so different from the rest of Graceland. It was really a nice tranquil spot to sit down & rest for awhile. After a busy day in Memphis on Wednesday, we still got up early on Thursday to continue the long drive home. I was grateful that the entire drive home was uneventful. The weather remained clear & mild the entire 1700 miles. We spent one night in a roadside rest in Florida, where they have round-the-clock security and/or police, and one night in a Terrible's Casino parking lot in Missouri, which is where we first experienced cold weather after so long in warm weather country. It was time to put away the shorts and flip-flops and get out the long pants and shoes & socks. It was a great trip, but we're glad to be back in Minnesota and enjoying being with family & friends again!

Port St. Lucie, Florida - March 2-23, 2009

2009-03-25T19:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it over to the Atlantic side of Florida, where we stayed for 3 weeks in a small town called Port St. Lucie. It's located about 45 miles north of Palm Beach and is on the Indian River. It was a great place to stay because it's not real busy or touristy. We stayed at St. Lucie West Motorcoach Resort. The site we had was beautiful with a great view of a small man-made lake & waterfall. George went out fishing in the lake almost every day & he actually caught a fish once! Otherwise, the only thing he caught was a nice sunburn! The weather was perfect in the 80's during the days and 60's during the nights. The convertible was a great car to have especially when I had George to chauffeur me around all the time! Being so close to the ocean meant that we made almost daily trips to the beaches. We drove up to Fort Pierce one day and went out along the South Beach Jetty, which has the Atlantic on one side & the Indian River on the other. We watched the men fishing & were surprised when one of them caught a fish that was 27" long and he had to throw it back because it had to be at least 28" to keep. Back home, it would have been a great catch! We took a drive down to Miami to drop Curtis off at a friend's (Rob Rogers) apartment for the weekend & when we went by the Harley dealer in Stuart, of course we had to stop by to see what they had. George went nuts over this Ridley Vintage motorbike, which is a replica of a 1903 Harley. I think he really wanted to bring one home, but couldn't figure out how to pack it in the rig. Once again, we met up with our friends, Becky & Gary Rogers. This time we met at Vero Beach and toured the McKee Botanical Garden. It was incredibly beautiful! As hard as we tried, Becky & I could not get this bell to budge. Besides the beautiful flowers, trees and plants in the garden, there was a special glass art exhibition. There were glass displays & figures throughout the entire garden. These are a few of my favorites & are called, "Aces & Deuces, Jokers Wild" and "Frogs in the Waterfall". Can you find all the colored glass frogs in this waterfall? It was incredible to see all the different shapes and colors that the artist used in the displays. We were incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time! The Discovery Space Shuttle lift-off took place while we were in Port St. Lucie and since we were less than 100 miles south of Kennedy Space Center, we were able to see the lift off. While it wasn't as good as it would have been had we been at the Space Center, we were close enough to see the shuttle and when it dropped off the rockets into the ocean. I had to include a lot of pictures of this because it was just so cool to watch & I think we got some pretty good pictures. On a whim, we decided to drive down to West Palm Beach to go to Lion Country Safari. George was a little nervous when he realized that we would be driving our car through it because he was afraid that one of the critters might sit on the car, ram the car or chase the car. It was really neat to get so be able to get so close to the animals. We decided that the picture of the rhinos & zebras hanging out together would make a great jigsaw puzzle. The wildebeest was one of the ugliest ones we saw. George did get nervous & drove off pretty quickly when he realized the rhino was heading right for our car, but the rhino only wanted to cross the street to get to the other mud pond - he didn't care about us! I also couldn't believe what long ugly tongues giraffes have. There was no way I was going to feed it with a tongue like that! Again, a lot of pictures were taken here. Curtis got into the animal theme & decided to take a ride on a lion! A couple days before we left, it got incredibly windy on the beach, but I just had to get in at least one more walk on the beach before heading home. Since I was barefoot, I had to watch where I was walking with all the jellyfish washing up on shore due to the rough water. It's been fun, but it's time to pull up stakes and start the trek back to Minnesota. We're planning a short stop in Memphis on the way home to visit Graceland & see for ourselves whether or not Elvis has left the building!

Naples, Florida - February 27-March 2, 2009

2009-03-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

We left Fort Myers and headed south just a little ways down to Naples, where we spent the weekend at an RV resort that is just being built and will be a super fancy resort when and if they ever complete it (with the economy being so bad, these fancy resorts are losing lots of money). Since we were only there for the weekend, we didn't mind not having a pool. The view we had from our motor home was beautiful, especially at sunset. Since we only had a few days in Naples, we headed to the beach the day after we got down there. The beach was beautiful, but the walk down to the beach passing all the huge beautiful homes was incredible. One of the things we like to do when we're out walking is to try & find the little chameleons that are always climbing around the trees and shrubbery. I couldn't believe it when one held still long enough for George to get this picture of it. Isn't he cute?? On Sunday, we headed down to Everglades National Park to do some gator watching. Boy, can those things move in the water! I couldn't believe how fast they swam. I'm just glad that they aren't found near the beaches. On the road down to the Everglades, there were signs posted on the roads stating to be careful not to hit the panthers. I guess the Florida panther is an endangered species around here. I never knew they existed, but we did see this huge one at one of the roadside tourist attractions so decided to take a picture of it since we never did see a live one! On Monday, we leave Naples & head to the Atlantic side of Florida to Port St. Lucie. It's not a tourist area so life should be a little more relaxing once we get there!

Fort Myers, Florida - February 1-27, 2009

2009-02-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

The beginning of February found George alone down in Fort Myers as I was still back in MN dealing with the family emergency. George wasn't alone for very long, though, because two of their friends from Minnesota, Gino & Connie, came down to visit for a week. As you can see, George was not the only one enjoying their company. Mr. Bailey was glad to have someone to play with besides George. While Connie & Gino were visiting, they not only had to tour the beach scene like Sanibel & Captiva Islands, they had to hit the two casinos in the area. George said the one on the boat was the most fun and Gino even won a t-shirt while Connie came out the bigger winner walking away with $100 more to her name! (I don't know why, but George didn't take any pictures of Connie, but I know she was there with Gino!) A couple of days after Connie & Gino left, our close friends, Becky & Gary Rogers (the ones who we saw when we were in Orland0) came down to the Fort Myers area with their entire family (all 9 of them!) and George joined them on a few of their excursions. Gary & Becky were excited to have their grandchildren here for a visit since they live in California and George enjoyed having some little kids around (gave him an idea of what life will be like when/if we have grandchildren of our own). George went to Everglades National Park with the Rogers to go on a boat ride. He didn't see any alligators while on the boat, but there were plenty after he got off. He did get to watch a few dolphins that took to swimming around their boat for awhile. After the Rogers left, George had only a few days to get the RV all cleaned up because Curtis & I were flying down to Fort Myers on the 22nd. After much persuading, Curtis decided to join us on the last part of our winter trip. Since I had planned on being in Fort Myers for a month & had lots of ideas of what to see & do, we didn't spend much time relaxing around the campground once we got there. The day after we got there, we went down to Fort Myers Beach and walked around. As you can see, Curtis made friends with one of the local birds shortly after we got there. However, we did discover that you do not walk on the beach while eating ice cream cones. After getting our ice cream, we decided to take the scenic walk down the beach back to our car and all of a sudden we were attacked by sea gulls. They hit George on the hat & got it all sandy and knocked my sunglasses right off my face! But they didn't get our ice cream! Curtis decided that putting the mattress from the hide-a-bed on the floor was the most comfortable way to sleep, but he forgot that by being on the floor, Mr. Bailey was going to be his morning wake-up call! Even though none of us are Twins Baseball fans, we just had to make a stop at their spring training camp. As you can see, it's an incredibly beautiful area. Too bad we won't have time to see a game because I think it would be fun to watch them play at this stadium. We went to Sanibel Island and enjoyed doing some shelling and beach walking, but the most fun was stopping by the little shopping center where Curtis found the perfect pair of sunglasses! Unfortunately, we couldn't convince him to buy them when we told him he looked just like Elton John! While Sanibel is supposed to be the best beach for shelling, I found that Lovers Key was much better. There were fewer people and the water was milder so it was easier to walk in the water and pick up shells. I couldn't believe that I actually found a sand dollar all in one piece and it's got to be at least 3" in diameter. I was absolutely ecstatic because sand dollars are my favorite kind of shell! I even found a baby starfish that was about 1" big, but since it was still alive, I had to throw it back into the water. I've found bigger starfish before when I was in California and walking around the tide pools, but never have I seen one when walking along the beach. It was so adorable! One of the nice things about our campground was that it had a mini-golf course and we made use of it a couple of times before we left. As you can see, Curtis is quite the pro golfer! Now we're off to Naples for the weekend!

Fort Myers, Florida - January 19-31, 2009

2009-02-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

We left Orlando and headed across the state to Fort Myers on the Gulf Coast. We only had time to check out the huge outlet mall and go to the RV show in Fort Myers before I was called home to frozen Minnesota on a family emergency. Needless to say, George & Mr. Bailey are down in sunny warm Florida and I am back in the frozen tundra. Mr. Bailey is enjoying his new friend, Chloe, and he especially likes that he can now ride in the EOS with the top down (Bailey & Chloe are hoping George is going to take them for a ride in the car!). George took Chloe on a tour of the RV Park we're in and she seems to like the mini-golf course. While I'm up here in Minnesota, George is enjoying getting out and meeting the other residents of the park. He found that several of them play musical instruments so he has gotten together with them to jam. It's not quite his kind of music, but he's enjoying having people to share music with him. Maybe he'll even have the opportunity to try his talent out on some new instruments. He's never played with an upright bass or dulcimers before so it's really been fun. When not strumming the guitar, George has found he has other talents like washing clothes and cleaning the RV - something he never thought he would be doing when we decided to head to warm weather in the winter. He's anxiously awaiting my return so I can take over those chores for him. While George hasn't gotten out to do much exploring around Fort Myers yet, he & Bailey have gone out on some adventures & hopefully, he took some pictures that I can share with you later in our blog.

Heading South 2009 & Orlando, Florida - January 12-19, 2009

2009-01-18T15:33:00.000-08:00

On the road again! We haven't stayed in the rig since it was up at Grand Casino in Hinckley, Minnesota during the month on August 2008, so it's a little like opening your cabin up after being away from it all winter. Due to a family medical issue, George and Mr. Bailey headed south without Katherine on Wednesday, January 7. A few cold days and nights on the road with lots of male bonding time, George was glad to finally reach Florida in only 4 days. He got to our camp site at Tropical Palms in Kissimmee a day early arriving on Sunday, January 11. Katherine took the easy way down on a 3-hour direct flight from Minneapolis to Orlando. She arrived after all the work of setting up was complete. Oh, what a life! We spent the first day down here getting re-acquainted with the rig, setting up things the way we like them when we're living in it and grocery shopping. I want to introduce a new member of our traveling family. Her name is Chloe and you'll see her in some of our pictures throughout our trip this year. She's an adorable little doll that my sister, Karen, gave me for Christmas to bring on the trip. Here's a picture of Chloe & Bailey ready to hit the road and another one taken in front of a palm excited to be in warm weather. As you can see, Chloe and Bailey get along great! Actually, Bailey thinks she's a new play toy for him so I have to be careful not to leave her where he can get at her! After one day of setting up and resting, we hit the ground running and spent the next 4 days visiting Disney World. We started off with Epcot, which is our favorite and then went to the Magic Kingdom the following day. The third park we went to was Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios when we visited it about 15 years ago). George really enjoyed Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show. We both agreed that if our son, Derek, had been with us, he would have wanted to participate in all the stunt driving at this one. Of course, my favorite was the Beauty and the Beast Live On Stage performance. There's a new ride at the Studios called Toy Story Midway Mania, in which you wear 3D glasses and the ride takes you through a maze of carnival-type shooting galleries where you shoot pies, bullets, whatever out of your gun. I was ahead of George, but then he must have gotten his second wind because he ended up with over 107,000 points to my 88,000! (Personally, I think he cheated!) Our final day at the parks was spent at Animal Kingdom. I've been there a few times, but it was a first for George. I don't think he'll ever enjoy going to the zoo back home again. It's incredible how up close and personal you can get to the animals when you take the safari ride. Since the weather's been cooler than normal - it's been in the 60's to low 70's, the animals were out and active. Again, I think my favorite part was the "Festival of the Lion King" live stage performance. All in all, the parks weren't very busy so we were able to get through them in about 6-8 hours each day. Last night, we met our close friends, Gary & Becky Rogers, and their daughter, Emily, for dinner. They used to live in Minnesota, but now live down here so I only get to see them about once a year. After dinner, we decided to go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to see if we could see any of the animals roaming around outside the lodge. Here's a picture of the Rogers and Katherine standing in front of a authentic African head dress that weighs over 200 lbs. I can't imagine putting that on my head! We were incredibly lucky because there were lots of critters out walking around near the lodge. George is now a firm believer in Disney's saying that dreams do come true! While we were at the lodge, we were able to use some 3rd generation night vision goggles to look out and watch the animals after dark. I think he spent as much time looking up for UFO's as he did looking at the animals since these goggles are the recommended ones to use for night time UFO sightings! We spent our last day in Kissimmee (Orlando) relaxing and enjoying the wonderful weather.

Minnesota - June, July & August 2008

2008-08-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been told that I can't take a break for the summer & I need to keep up with our blog, so here goes. We got back to Minnesota the first of April and thought we would see little or no snow. Boy, were we wrong! I think it snowed almost every day in April and then switched to rain almost every day in May! We're thinking about not coming back to Minnesota until mid to late April next year. We spent the first few months we were back in Minnesota just enjoying being home and spending time with our family. We took our rig up to Shorewood RV where we purchased it and gave them a list of things that needed to be fixed, all of which was warranty work. There was nothing major wrong with the rig, but since it was in for its 1-year checkup, we wanted to have them fix every little thing we found wrong with it. It was also a great place to store it until summer at which time we were planning on putting it at some campground for the summer. Great plans always seem to go wrong, don't they? We were so busy that we never got around to picking it up & setting it up at a campground until the middle of July. Memorial Day weekend, Katherine, Derek, Jenny and Katherine's sister, Karen decided to head down to Chicago to visit Karen's son, Bob & his new wife, Ellie. They had just returned from their honeymoon and moved from Oakland, California to Chicago. After 7 hours on the road, we arrived in Chicago and tried to reach our hotel, The Belden Stratford. Every road in the area was blocked off. It took us an extra 45 minutes to get to our hotel even though we were only a few blocks away. We later found out that Johnny Depp was there shooting his latest movie. We had to keep our eyes on Karen to make sure she didn't run around the hotel looking for Johnny since he's her favorite actor. The room was actually an apartment with 2 bathrooms and a walk-in closet off the bedroom that was as big as our office back home. The views of Lake Michigan and Lincoln Park Conservatory were beautiful. We met up with Bob & Ellie on Saturday and we all went to the Museum of Science & Industry. Since Jenny is a science teacher & had never been to the museum, she was like a kid in a candy store. On Sunday, we went to Bob's in-laws for a delicious cookout. We had a great time and plan on going back some time in the fall, but next time it will be Karen, Curtis & Katherine and we'll go see the aquarium next time. On June 27-29, we changed our mode of transportation to the Harley. George and I, along with Derek and Jenny, rode the Harleys up to Duluth for the annual HOG Rally. We left early on Friday morning in what looked like it was going to rain at any moment, but we were lucky and only got a few drops on us all the way up to Duluth (about 150 miles north of home). We stayed at the South Pier Inn which is right across the lift bridge from Canal Park. Our view was incredible as we could see and hear the bridge go up every time a ship/boat was going through the canal. It was so much fun. Shortly after we got settled in, we decided to go up to the Harley dealer. We walked out of our room and ran into Tom & Sandy Horne, who are dear friends of ours (and Derek's godparents). What a surprise! We hadn't seen them for awhile and they ended up being in the room above ours - talk about a small world! On our way back from the Harley dealership, we hit a downpour of rain and got totally drenched. Thank goodness, we were on our way back to our room and our room had a fireplace & a jacuzzi so we could warm up real nice. On Saturday, Derek & Jenny headed up to Gooseberry Falls and George & Katherine went to the Park Point Art Fair. We all met back in time to go on the annual HOG Rally ride up the North Shore & around Duluth and the weather was perfect. Our ride home on Sunday was again great because the weather continued to hold and it was a perfect day for a ride. However, since it was the first time this season we had been on the bike for a long ride, we were a bit sore for the next few days. It wore off in time to go on another ride on July 5th. We met up with Jenny & Derek and Craig (my former boss at the PD) & Tommy Reid and enjoyed a nice ride up to Taylor Falls where we stopped for some delicious homemade root beer. The weather was incredibly gorgeous for a ride and we continued over the river and into Wisconsin where we drove south to Hudson. We stopped there for lunch and had a delicious one at a small restaurant that Craig & Tommy had eaten at before. It was a great day for a ride and this time, we weren't nearly as sore as we had been the previous week. So...here we are the first part of July and still haven't gone up to Shorewood to get the RV back! We finally took the time and found a spot in St.Cloud at the St.Cloud Campground and RV Park. It's a nice little campground that's only about 75 miles from home so we rented a site for a month. Getting up here was quite an experience, one which I don't care to ever repeat! I dropped George off at Shorewood RV to pick up the rig and I headed up to St. Cloud in the car. I got a call from George shortly after I left him and he said that the rig was overheating so he had to pull over about 5 miles down the road from Shorewood. And wouldn't you know it...it's a hot humid day & he pulls over in the recycling center with the waste management site only about 1/2 block down the road - yuck! George climbed under the rig & found that the fan belt had broken, so we called Freightliner & they sent out a tow truck to tow it back to them. I thought George was going to cry as he watched his baby being hoisted up on a tow truck! Lucky for us, it was all covered by the warranty. Can you believe it cost $450 to tow the rig 8 miles??? Incredible! But on July 21st, we were finally able to pick it up again and head to St. Cloud. It's nice to be able to stay up there for a night or a week, whatever we have time for since it only takes about an hour to get there. My dear friend, Becky Rogers and her daughter, Krissy, came to town the last weekend in July so I stayed home with them while George, his Dad, and his brother, Eric went up to St. Cloud and had some quality sons & father time. George & Eric decided to play a round of mini-golf while there and George had to gloat because he beat his little brother! Of course, Mr. Bailey (our Shih-Tzu) loves being back in the RV! I think he likes the fact that we're all in the same room together all the time! We only have about one more week left up here and then it will be time to move on. I can hardly believe it's been almost a month since we set up camp in St. Cloud, but we've already reserved a spot at Grand Casino Hinckley. I know it's a casino, but they have a great inexpensive campground, too! Who knows...maybe we'll get rich on the $5 we might gamble!

Salt Lake City, Utah - March 23-28, 2008

2008-03-29T17:34:00.000-07:00

We didn't realize how far St. George is from Salt Lake City. It's over 300 miles and took most of the day to get there, so we spent our Easter driving & setting up the coach at our new site in SLC. Of course, the first place we had to visit was the LDS Conference Center since Curtis had never seen it. It is incredible & huge. It sits 21,000 people and has a huge organ. One of the neatest parts of the center is the glass ceiling in the foyer. It's absolutely beautiful, especially on a sunny day! Standing on the roof is the best place to get a picture of the Salt Lake Temple. The roof is about 6 acres and they grow flowers, trees and prairie grass on it. After we left the Conference Center, we walked around Temple Square and got a chance to see the changes that were made to the Tabernacle. One day while driving around Salt Lake City, we came across a few motorcyclists & were really impressed with the way they were dressed - who ever said McGruff couldn't ride his own motorcycle in a parade? We had heard that it might snow on our last day in Salt Lake, but didn't really believe it until we woke up and looked outside! It lasted only a couple of hours and then was all melted - too bad MN snow couldn't disappear that fast! We met Mike & Catherine Long, old friends of ours who now live in Utah, and their daughter, Leslie (who Curtis went to school with) and her husband, Beaudy and their 2 kids, Dakota & Kennedy, for lunch at a really great Vietnamese restaurant. The food was delicious, the view was beautiful and it felt good to have the time to visit with old friends before heading home. Curtis was able to meet up with an old friend and her husband, Catherine & Steve Monson, for a visit at our coach the night before we left Salt Lake City. Our time in SLC seemed short & we were sorry to say good-bye to the friends we had a chance to re-connect with on this trip. This is also the end of our blog since it's the end of our travels. We're now going to put the "pedal to the metal" and make tracks through Wyoming, Nebraska & Iowa stopping only long enough to rest & then continue on our way home. Our travels have been great, but it'll be good to get home - we miss Derek & Jenny and the rest of our MN family. I hope you have enjoyed following our travels as much as we've enjoyed traveling! We'll give our Roaming Valhalla a rest for awhile as we plan our travels for next winter. Until then, may you all have some wonderful adventures of your own!

St. George, Utah - March 20-23, 2008

2008-03-26T20:03:00.000-07:00

The drive to St. George was incredibly beautiful and long. In fact, we decided to break it up into 2 days of driving, especially since George is the only one who drives the rig. I can't drive a car through the mountains, let alone a huge motor home! Before we left Pomona, we dropped the coach off at the service center for some work. While they worked on it, we went out to breakfast at Denny's where Curtis said he wanted the kid's rocket ship drink glass, so I asked the waitress if he could have one & she gave him one (some kids never grow up!). Doesn't he look happy??? Our first night on the road, we pulled into the parking lot of Buffalo Bill's Casino in Primm, Nevada and spent the night with all the truckers - what an experience! Buffalo Bill's is in the middle of the desert with nothing around it but an outlet mall and 2 more casinos. Not much to do, but the dinner & the breakfast at the casino were delicious! As I said, the drive to St. George, leaving the desert and heading into the mountains, was absolutely incredible. We couldn't believe how beautiful it was in St. George and the surrounding area. It sits in a valley surrounded by red bluffs & high mountains with snowy tips. We happened to be in St. George over the Easter weekend, which is when they have their yearly art festival. The most beautiful building in St. George, of course, is the Mormon Temple (if you look real close, you'll see Curtis sitting on the temple steps). It was especially nice to go out for a walk each night around our resort and be able to look up and see the temple all lit up. Since we only stayed for the weekend, we didn't have much time for sightseeing, but we did enjoy the wonderful weather in the upper 70's. We knew it would probably be the last time we would see temps that warm until summer hits Minnesota. Happy Easter to all as we head off to Salt Lake City!

Pomona, California - March 16-20, 2008

2008-03-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

We made it driving the RV through Los Angeles from Ventura to Pomona with no problems. The California highways have got to be the worst ones in the entire USA! I drove Aunt Barbara to her friend's house in Claremont while George set up the coach at our new site, which was right next door to the Fairplex County Fairgrounds - too bad it wasn't time for the fair! The weather was absolutely gorgeous in the upper 70's the entire time we were there. Since Curtis hadn't been to Downtown Disney and we were going to meet one of my closest friends daughter & her family at The Rainforest Cafe there for dinner, we decided to get there early so we would have some time to wander around before meeting them. I showed Curtis around taking him to the entrance of Disney's California Adventure, where I got a picture of him sitting inside the "C" of their sign. We met Melissa, Rob, Robbie and Lauren Au at The Rainforest Cafe and had a nice visit with them. (Yes, Becky, I have to agree that they are the cutest grandkids!) Lauren took to Curtis & insisted on sitting next to him at dinner. We sat right by a huge stuffed gorilla & about every 15 minutes it would come to life and make sounds that scared Lauren so that she would grab Curtis. He was so patient with her! I got a day of R&R (actually I cleaned the coach and washed all the bedding & clothes) when Curtis & George went to Warner Bros Studios for a tour. Curtis liked visiting their sound stage and George liked seeing the actual General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard. They had a good time & enjoyed telling me how the studio had an entire floor dedicated to Harry Potter (and I missed it!). The weather was so perfect, I hated leaving California. It meant we were at the end of our travels west and were now heading back to Minnesota (and we were told MN just got a lot more snow!). But Utah...here we come!

Ventura, California - March 12-16, 2008

2008-03-19T16:39:00.000-07:00

I feel like we've reached the end of our winter travels in our arrival to Ventura. The reason for heading west this year was to attend our nephew's wedding in Ventura & that time has finally arrived! We were anxious to meet up with our oldest son, Curtis, who was flying in for the wedding and my sister & her husband, Karen & TJ and my aunt, Barbara. We arrived a few days before anybody else so that we could have some sightseeing time before the wedding activities began. We took a drive up through Santa Barbara and into the mountains to Solvang, a Danish town that looks like it belongs in Europe. It was a really cute town, but the drive there was through the most incredibly beautiful countryside, both along the ocean and up in the mountains. I can hardly believe that I drove through most of it. I must admit I finally turned the wheel over to George when I had to cross a bridge (awful enough to do when on flat land) right in the middle of the mountains (another fear of mine) and I was glad I did. That way I was able to enjoy the scenery! Family arrived on Friday and it was good to spend time with everyone. My nephew, Bob, and his wife-to-be, Ellie, hosted a party on Friday night at a local hotel, but instead of having it in a ballroom, it was held in The 50's Flat. This flat was set up as a 1950's one-bedroom apartment with a beautiful view of the ocean and all sorts of fun 1950's memorabilia. We had a great time getting to know Ellie's family and welcoming them to our family. We had time on Saturday morning before the wedding to get together and spend some time wandering through Ventura Harbor Village and along the beach. Bob & Ellie's wedding was held in one of their friend's back yard late afternoon. The wedding was very touching as they decided to not write their own vows, but actually wing it & just say what was in their hearts. It was incredible! I'm so glad we were able to be a part of their special day. For their reception, they had all sorts of international foods (Thai, Indian, Hispanic, Italian, etc) and their wedding cake was the most beautiful one I have ever seen! We feel so blessed that Bob & Ellie have decided to make their home in Chicago so we'll now be able to see them more often. After saying good-bye to Karen & TJ (they were taking a week long cruise), Curtis, Barbara, George & I packed up and headed east to Pomona, California - our first stop on our way back to MN!

Anaheim, California - March 5-12, 2008

2008-03-12T20:33:00.000-07:00

WOW...I think we now need a vacation to rest up from our week in Anaheim! During the week we were there, we went to Universal Studios for a day, Downtown Disney for a day and then 3 days at Disneyland & California Adventure. The weather was incredibly warm being in the mid to upper 80's almost every day. Universal Studios was way on the other side of LA, so the drive up was about 45 minutes and the drive back took about 1 hour & 45 minutes because it was during rush hour. Who would ever want to live here & drive through this mess on a daily basis? We had fun on the rides, but especially enjoyed the shows, particularly Water World and the Studio Tour. It was nice to get a little wet on the Jurassic Park ride since it was such a warm day. Our camp site was only about 1/2 mile from Disney so every night we either sat in our coach or walked around the park enjoying the Disney fireworks. Of course, Mr. Bailey didn't think they were much fun for the first few nights, but he did get used to them eventually. I think we walked about 8-10 miles each day. The days we went to Disney we walked and while we were only about 1/2 mile from Disney, it was about 1 1/2 miles to actually get to the main entrance. I couldn't believe how much Disneyland had changed since the last time we were here about 10 years ago. I can't help but feel like a kid every time I enter the Disney park! It truly is "the happiest place on Earth"! We had so much fun going on the rides, especially Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones Adventure and the all time favorites like Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion. George bragged about scoring so much higher than me on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters the first time we were on it, but I scored higher the second time. Luckily, I got to follow him on Autopia so I could play bumper cars and ram into his car. We also got to watch the fireworks as we drove our little cars in Autopia - perfect view! I think our favorite ride at California Adventure was definitely Soarin' Over California. We had so much fun that we had to go on that ride twice. There was also a fun ferris wheel that not only went around like normal ones, it also slide around and back and forth which was a little eerie the first time it swung way out from the ferris wheel. What a view from the top! I think George really enjoyed the 3-D "It's Tough to be a Bug!" show with it's smellovision and all. The 1/2-hour performance of "Aladdin" was incredible. While it was a very exhausting 3 days at Disney, we had a super time & perfect weather. Now on to Ventura where we're going to meet up with family for our nephew's wedding. Curtis is flying out to join us and will make the drive back to Minnesota with us over the next 3 weeks.

San Diego, California - February 27-March 5, 2008

2008-03-06T20:04:00.001-08:00

San Diego was super. We had beautiful weather and we were able to spend a few days visiting with some cousins we hadn't seen in years. Our campground was right on Mission Bay and our site overlooked the bay & wild life refuge. It was beautiful to see the sun set each night. We went to the San Diego Zoo, which we hadn't been to in many years. It hadn't changed much and we did enjoy seeing the panda bear. I drove over the bridge to Coronado - once I got on it, there was no turning around. You all know how much I love to drive over bridges & this one was really long. I kept telling George I thought I was going to faint or throw up, but I made it across and we were able to spend time on my favorite beach by Hotel Del Coronado. George drove back over the bridge, but the road back had 3 lanes so that was a lot easier! We went to Sea World and were lucky enough to get into all of the shows without any waiting time. While the dolphins, the sea lions, and the whales were great, George's favorite show was the one with the dogs, cats and pigs! We spent one day driving up to La Jolla, which was our old hang-out when we would come out to visit my aunt. We were surprised how it had grown and thanks to GPS, we were able to find my aunt's old house. We also drove up to another old favorite spot - Mount Soledad. There's a 30' cross at the top, which is now also a Veteran's Memorial. The view of San Diego is incredible (the bright white building that looks like a castle is the San Diego Mormon Temple). Mr. Bailey had his first experience with water other than bath water - the Pacific Ocean at the Ocean Beach Dog Beach! I don't think he liked it very much because every time a wave came, he ran away from it and headed to George for safety. However, he did enjoy playing with all the dogs. I've never seen so many dogs running around & having so much fun! Bailey also enjoyed chasing the ducks by the bay where our campsite was, so he got lots of exercise (and so did we chasing him!). And now we're off to Anaheim - I can hardly wait to visit THE MOUSE!

Indio, California - February 22-27, 2008

2008-02-26T20:48:00.001-08:00

I think we found motor home heaven here on earth in Indio! We have never seen or stayed at such a gorgeous RV Resort in all of our travels so far. It's absolutely incredibly beautiful! The sites are enormous - I think some are at least 1/4 acre here at the Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Country Club. At our site we faced the man-made canal that ran through the resort and looked out at the snow-covered mountains. Mr. Bailey got so excited just to be able to run through the lush grass and roll around - it's been so long since he's seen grass like this. It's just like Minnesota grass in the summer. Amazing! I'm so glad we spent most of our 5 days here just relaxing and enjoying the resort with long walks & relaxing in the hot tub. We were amazed at all the luxurious motor homes we saw as we walked around the resort and how beautifully the lots were landscaped. They were building an inground swimming pool with a hot tub & waterfall at one lot at the end of our street. Most people also have incredibly cute golf carts or little electric cars that they use to get around in the resort. One of our neighbors invited us out on his electric pontoon boat & we were able to enjoy a nice leisurely cruise around the 1-mile long canal. The weather was absolutely perfect here, too. The days got up in the upper 70's to low 80's and the nights got down in the low 50's. We spent one day driving around the base of the mountains through Palm Desert and Palm Springs. Most of the towns have gated communities so it was hard to see what the houses were like, but if they're anything like the resort, they must be beautiful. So enough relaxing as we're off to San Diego for a week!

Las Vegas, Nevada - February 13-22, 2008

2008-02-26T18:11:00.000-08:00

Las Vegas...Sin City...the lights & all! The first night we were in LV, it got windy with gusts up to 64mph. While laying in bed, we could feel the rig moving. I thought for sure we were going to take flight! We enjoyed our visit to Red Rock Canyon because the day was warm & sunny, so we decided to put the top down on the EOS & let Mr. Bailey experience the wind in his face. He really seemed to enjoy it. Red Rock is incredible with all the different colors in the rocks on the mountains. We didn't do too much hiking as I was still somewhat afraid of running into another rattlesnake! The highlight of our time in Las Vegas was when Karen & TJ (my sister & brother-in-law) flew out for 5 days. Before they came, George & I ventured down to The Strip once & decided we would wait for them because they've been to LV several times. We went downtown to Fremont Street their first night and enjoyed the light show. Wouldn't you know the first light show we saw was about aliens (I think they did that just for George & TJ!). WOW, that's a lot of lights! After dinner, we decided to go into one of the downtown casinos and George, who usually won't gamble more than a buck, put in $5 and was having fun winning. He was happy to walk away $35 richer! Since Karen & TJ were only going to be with us for a few days and there was so much for them to show us, I don't think we rested until we pulled out of LV! I even spent one night staying at the Luxor with Karen - a girl's night out - and TJ stayed at the rig with George. We had a ball! We not only spent a lot of time walking around The Strip, we also went to Valley of Fire, which is a beautiful spot that gave us some time away from all those huge casinos. I think we did more walking (and Karen & I did more shopping!) in those 5 days we were together in LV than we had done since we left home! We had to check out all the fancy new casinos on The Strip. Of course, we hadn't been to LV in about 15 years so there were a lot of new sites to see. I couldn't even tell you which casino we liked the best. They all had something neat to see like the auto museum at The Imperial Palace, the conservatory & fountains at The Bellagio, the lion habitat at the MGM Grand, the masquerade show in the sky at the Rio, the canal & gondolas at The Venetian, and the waterfalls at The Wynn. So much to see...so little time to see it all! The best part about Las Vegas was spending time with TJ & Karen since we hadn't seen them since we left the first part of January. We dropped them at the airport on Friday & headed to Indio, California. We'll meet up with them again mid-March in Ventura, California for their son's wedding.

Lake Havasu City, Arizona - February 6-13, 2008

2008-02-12T17:57:00.000-08:00

The trip from Mesa to Lake Havasu City was incredibly beautiful as we drove through the mountains. I think I could easily make this place a winter retreat. The weather has been in the mid to upper 70's during the days & low 50's during the nights. The site we stayed on gave us an incredible view of the sunrise over the Arizona mountains to the east of us and unbelieveable sunsets over the California mountains to the west of us. We really enjoyed sitting out each evening and watching the sun go down. Of course, the most important site to visit here was London Bridge. We walked under it & we drove on it. It's incredible to think that it was shipped here piece by piece back in the 1960's or 70's. Who would have thought that you had to go to Arizona & not London to see the London Bridge?? We drove down to Parker one day to see the dam on the Colorado River and enjoy the scenery. The water in Lake Havasu is so much bluer than any lakes back home. We also spent one day driving up old Route 66 to Oatman, Arizona. Oatman is a small western town where the donkeys come down into town each morning and hang out hoping to get fed carrots by the tourists and then they head back up into the mountains each night. While we were there, we decided to have lunch at a saloon where people have tacked dollar bills on the walls until you can no longer see the walls. While driving back to the site down Route 66, it was hard to believe that George & I had taken Route 66 home from California about 37 years ago when we came back from our honeymoon. All the twists & turns really made for some fun driving with the top down on the EOS! Is it really winter??? I don't think so! Mr. Bailey has had a great time here because there were so many dogs his size to play with. He especially enjoyed playing with Ms. Twinkie Sparkles, a 13-week old Yorkie who had just as much energy as he did! We've met a lot of really nice people from all over the country here, but tomorrow we say good-bye to Lake Havasu and head to Sin City...Las Vegas here we come!

Mesa, Arizona - January 30-February 6, 2008

2008-02-07T19:46:00.000-08:00

Our first night in the Phoenix/Mesa area was truly exciting! We spent it in the Freightliner parking lot with lots of fire trucks that were being built. George had discovered a small oil leak & decided since we would be close to a Freightliner/Cummins shop, we should get it checked out. They found not one, but two small leaks so they needed to keep the RV overnight and since that's our home, that's where we stayed. At least they got to it first thing the next morning and we were able to head back to Mesa before things got crazy with Super Bowl fans coming to town. Just outside Mesa is Goldfield, an "authentic" ghost town so, of course, we had to go. Driving out there by the Superstition Mountains was beautiful and the ghost town was fun. But I think we had more fun shopping at the Superstition Harley Davidson shop on the way home! It was huge! On Super Bowl Sunday while everyone was either at the game or watching the game, we headed out to the Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park near downtown Phoenix and had the park almost to ourselves. The highlight of our time in Mesa was stopping by Earl & Marilyn Weckman's winter retreat and visiting with them. Earl's a retired Hopkins cop who George got to know real well when he first started with the Hopkins Fire Department and Marilyn used to work for the City of Hopkins. I've known Earl since I was about 6 years old because his brother & my dad were on the Minnetonka Fire Department together, so it was really great to be able to spend the afternoon visiting and then going out to dinner with them. Marilyn gave me some grapefruit off their tree and I've been enjoying them for breakfast. We're now packing up and heading to Lake Havasu for a week.

Tucson, Arizona - January 21-30, 2008

2008-02-04T20:44:00.000-08:00

We arrived at Rincon Country West RV Resort and within an hour, we met our neighbors, joined them for drinks outside and were invited to a champagne brunch on Saturday. WOW...we could get used to this resort real quick! The people we met here were awesome! The set-up was different from any place we've stayed. The sites are set up in a square around a grassy courtyard with one RV parked on each side, so it's real easy to visit with neighbors. These people were so incredibly friendly. It was real hard to say good-bye & I sure hope our paths cross again. (Don - thank you so much for teaching Bailey how to climb out of the RV. Now we have to remember to close the door or he comes running out! Bailey really enjoyed playing with you! And we hope Jan's ipod is working okay.) George thought he had seen it all when we went to Roswell, but soon found out Tucson had a lot to offer! We spent one day driving down to Tubac, a small historic village on the Santa Cruz River with tons of little shops. If Karen (my sister) had been with me, we could have done some serious shopping! The weather was gorgeous & we had a great time walking around the village. The next day we drove down to Tombstone (another dream come true for George!) and watched the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. Who were the good guys? It was really hard to tell! Walking down the streets of Tombstone really made us feel like we were in the Old West & me without my boots & spurs!! If Tombstone wasn't enough excitement for George, the next day he went to the Pima Air & Space Museum. Not only did he get to tour a retired Air Force One plane, he toured the Boneyard. No, it's not a human graveyard, but an airplane graveyard with about 4,400 planes resting side by side. Oh, the glory of it all! We ended our sightseeing in Tucson by visiting the San Xavier Mission. The inside of the mission was as beautiful as some of the cathedrals we've seen in Europe. Oh, and the champage brunch we were invited to attend....was incredibly delicious! There was everything you could possibly think of to eat for breakfast as well as the OJ & champagne! To our new friends from Rincon Country, thanks for your hospitality - may we meet again some day! Farewell to Tucson...we're off to Mesa!

New Mexico - January 14 - 20, 2008

2008-01-20T19:14:00.000-08:00

We left Texas and arrived in Carlsbad, New Mexico where we stayed for a few days. While the nights were chilly (down in the 20's & 30's), the days were sunny and warm (50's & 60's). Of course, everyone who stays in Carlsbad has to make the drive up to Roswell to visit the UFO Museum and Research Center. I think this will make the top 10 on George's lists of neat places we visited this year! Even though George was convinced that we should wear aluminum foil helmets, we decided to be daring and walked around the town without them on! The museum was interesting with a lot of newspaper clippings to read, but I'm not sure about their "research center". But unfortunately for George, we did not see any UFO's nor did we meet any aliens (at least, not the kind that come from somewhere other than Earth!).

The day after our visit to the UFO Museum, we put on our hiking shoes and went to Carlsbad Caverns. We chose to enter through the Natural Entrance which meant we walked down a steep path that descended 750 feet below ground. I was almost backed out when we reached an area they called the "twilight zone". That's when we left all natural lighting & could no longer see the outside world - my claustrophobia just about kicked in! However, we stuck to it & walked the mile down to the Big Room. It was incredible and so beautiful! I was just glad that the Mexican Free-tailed Bats were not around - they don't arrive until March! Luckily, after walking the mile around the Big Room, we took the elevator up to the surface. Thank goodness, they no longer let you walk back up - we never would have made it. Both of us had sore legs the next day, but it was worth every ache & pain!

We left Carlsbad and headed for Las Cruces, New Mexico on the 17th. On the way, George decided to stop at a wayside rest to check on the car and suggested I take Mr. Bailey out for a quick walk (cats are so much easier!) so I did. We were not more than 4' from the RV when I looked down & saw what appeared to be a "dead" snake not more than 6" from Bailey and me! It was big and all curled up, so I grabbed Bailey and ran for the RV screaming as loud as I could. George couldn't figure out what I was saying & when I could finally tell him, he decided to go see for himself. He got out of the RV, camera in hand & took a picture of the snake. When he got back inside, he decided to throw some rocks at it to see if it was alive and it was! It slithered off like nothing ever happened. George got a good picture of it so we could identify it. It was a Western Diamond-back rattlesnake. So much for my carefree days out in the grass in New Mexico!

Lucky for us, Las Cruces held their Hot Air Balloon Festival the weekend we were there and the view from our campground was perfect since we overlooked the city. It was fun to see them go up in groups of a dozen at a time. They said there were about 70 balloons total.

We spent one day visiting White Sands Museum and Missile Park. It was incredible to see all the missiles on display. I never knew we had so many different missiles of all shapes and sizes. After touring the park, we decided to drive out to White Sands National Monument (which is actually a huge park & not just a monument!). Now this place really is something else! It was incredible when we got out of the car & hiked through all the white sand. It looked like Minnesota in the middle of the winter except the temperature was in the 50's! In fact, people were sledding down the dunes on saucers just like we do on the snow in MN, only without having to wear all the winter clothes! The white dunes just seemed to go on forever. It was one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen.

Tomorrow we head for Tucson, Arizona!

On the Road Again - January 8, 2008

2008-01-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

After being home for the holidays (and all the snow!), we left Minnesota on Tuesday, January 8 and arrived back in Texas on Thursday, January 10. Thanks to a wonderful new friend of ours, Joann, who took care of our motor home while we were back in Minnesota, our rig was well taken care of. We stayed in San Marcos, Texas for the weekend while we had some minor warranty work done on the RV. The weather was fabulous - in the 70's and sunny! While in San Marcos, we went to a super outlet mall (Where are you when I need you, Connie, Derek & Jenny, my shopping buddies?). It was huge & had a lot of neat stores. We left San Marcos on Sunday morning & spent Monday night at Fort Stockton, Texas. The drive from San Marcos, which is just north of San Antonio thru western Texas was incredible. I have never seen such desolate country in my life (other than traveling thru Iceland!). I don't think anybody lives between San Antonio & El Paso!

Mr. Bailey, our new pup, is a super traveler and really seems to love life in the motor home. He has learned that he gets a lot more from us when he whines & cries than when he barks. He had his own camping site at the Canyon River RV Park in San Marcos. He was the only dog in the entire campground with his own space!

He's found that resting in our bed is the best thing to do first thing in the morning. He's also made many friends along the way, especially since he thinks everybody is here to play with him (and just about everybody does play with him!).

Bailey has also gotten very proficient with the computer and enjoys talking with Curtis on Skype each night!

San Antonio, Texas - November 13 - 18, 2007

2007-12-22T16:00:00.000-08:00

The drive down to San Antonio was interesting. While George loved the Ozarks and being able to use the "Jake Brake" going down the mountains, Katherine spent a great deal of time closing her eyes and praying. Mountains & bridges are not favorites for her! Grateful to be out of the mountains, Oklahoma, nice & flat, was a great place to spend the night en route to Texas. We camped at a really nice KOA in Checotah. Further south also meant warmer weather. It was wonderful! We got in early enough that we were able to enjoy the nice weather. However, we woke up to rain for the first time on our trip and boy, when it rains in Oklahoma, it really rains. This was our first time driving the motorhome in hard rain. George seemed okay with it and again...Katherine spent a lot of time with eyes closed & saying prayers. We spent Monday, Nov. 12th at the Waco KOA. Now the weather was in the 80's and we were told to be careful with Bailey and the fire ants. Oh great! Just what we needed! Luckily, Bailey got into the burrs and not the fire ants.

We arrived at the San Antonio KOA early on Tuesday, Nov. 13th. It was about 85 degrees and lovely! We had camped at this KOA with the kids & our travel trailer in 1993 and were glad to find that it was still a nice place to camp. Thanks to Bailey's need to meet everyone, it didn't take long to meet most of the other campers! After the long trip down, it sure felt good to relax in the hot tub that evening.

On Wednesday, we took the bus into the city. It was another 85-degree day! Even though we had been there before, George insisted we go to the Alamo - it's one of his favorite spots. After that, we walked along the River Walk. It really hadn't changed much from when we were there in 1993.

One of the officers Katherine worked with, Micheal Johnson, had taken a leave of absence from the police department to join the Air Force Reserves and was graduating at Lackland Air Force Base on Nov. 16th. Since we were in San Antonio, we decided to attend his graduation. On Thursday, we went to the base to get registered and attend the Coin Ceremony. Three other officers from Hopkins PD came down for the graduation and it was nice to have lunch with them on Thursday before the Coin Ceremony. Friday, the 16th, was graduation day for Micheal. WoW...there were sure a lot of people graduating that day! It was real interesting to be there and to be able to have Michael give us a quick tour of his barracks.

Saturday, we decided we toured the missions along the Mission Trail. Since they're considered national parks, Bailey came with on this sightseeing outing. Mission San Jose looked like it was the biggest of the 4 we visited. When we drove by the San Jose Burial Park (different name for a cemetery, don't you think??), people were celebrating and having picnics right next to the grave sites. It seemed strange to us, but they really do go all out in celebrating the Day of the Dead down here. It was amazing! We've never seen a cemetery so decorated up before! The flowers at Mission Espada were absolutely beautiful!

We left on Sunday to head home (and cold weather) for the holidays. We dropped the motorhome off in Bastrop, Texas at a friend of a friend's home. Joanne has 15 acres and offered the space for storing our motorhome while we're in Minnesota for the holidays. We started the 1200-mile trek home in the car and arrived safely in Eden Prairie on Tuesday night. Shortly after getting home, we were greeted with lots of snow and cold weather! We're looking forward to January and our return to Texas to pick up our motorhome and continue the adventure!

Branson, MO - November 7 - 11, 2007

2007-12-22T10:33:00.000-08:00

We arrived in Branson, Missouri on Wednesday, Nov. 7th where the weather was a gorgeous 70 degrees during the day. But once again, the nights got cold and we were grateful for the furnace. Branson had a lot to see and do - almost too much. We had a beautiful site down by Lake Taneycomo in walking distance to their new hot spot called Branson Landing - great shopping (sales tax is much higher than MN)! We went to a Titanic Museum which was incredible. When we arrived, they gave each of us a boarding pass with the name of an individual who was on the ship & we didn't find out until the end whether our person survived or not. Lucky for us, both of our people survived. Mine was a 48-yr old dress designer who was in First Class & George had a 9-yr old boy in Third Class.

While in Branson, we walked up to Branson Landing each day and evening. The days were warm (mid to upper 70's) and it seemed strange to be surrounded by all the beautiful Christmas decorations and music. The nights cooled down to the 50's, but it still seemed a bit out of place to be looking at the Christmas lights. In the middle of Branson Landing overlooking the lake, there was a huge water fountain and in the evening there would be a Fire & Water show done to music. It was incredible (Bailey got scared by all the fire!)

We decided to see a show while in Branson. There were dozens to chose from and we decided on a dinner show called, "The Magnificent Seven". The show went through 7 decades of music beginning in the 1940's. The performers were outstanding and the dinner was delicious. Since it was the week of Veteran's Day (which they make a real big deal over), there was a set honoring our veterans and then a final set with Christmas music.

While Branson was fun, it was time to head further south. On Sunday, Nov. 11th, we packed up and headed south towards San Antonio, Texas.

Leaving Minnesota - November 5, 2007

2007-12-22T10:28:00.000-08:00

We left cold Minnesota on Monday, Nov 5th and went as far as cold Des Moines, Iowa where we spent our first night. How ironic that the campground would be across the street from a casino since casino campgrounds have been our favorite camping spots since we got the RV! It was a really cold night and much to our dismay, our furnace quit working about 2:00 a.m. The temperature in our rig was a mild 54 degrees. Lucky for us, we had also brought some electric space heaters so we plugged those in & the rest of the night was pleasant. The next morning we discovered that the RV business we bought our rig from has a sister site which was about 1/2-mile from our camp site. We got there bright and early and it didn't take them long to fix the problem. We were on our way by mid-morning.

Oh, by the way, for those of you who haven't heard...George decided we couldn't be the only ones in the neighborhood without a puppy, so just days before Katherine retired, Mr. Bailey joined our traveling family. Mr. Bailey is an adorable (hopefully, soon to be fully housebroken!) little black Shih Tzu. George refers to him as a real "babe magnet". Where ever we take him, we are surrounded by people of all ages. He is a great traveler and seems to enjoy life in the RV.

The second night we stayed just south of Kansas City and the weather was a bit more mild. However, we were glad our furnace was working correctly as the nights do get cold down there. We got in late, set up camp, made dinner & went to bed - so much for Kansas City! We left early in the morning as we were anxious to get to warmer weather!