New Mexico - January 14 - 20, 2008

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

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

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

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

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!