Count Down to Christmas

It won't be long now until it's Christmas Day and you can just feel the stress in the air. I did manage to get up a tree and some decorations so it feels pretty festive around here. Korin and I are both fighting some kind of illness. I think mine is residual sinus infection from September and I think hers is from getting run down with all the Christmas hub-bub. You know, too much to do and not enough time.

Kyle & Korin will be getting their new apartment this weekend and will be doing the movin' thing. Mixed emotions here. It's been fun to have them around every day to find out how their day went, but I think we're all needing our own space. I'll miss them and we've even gotten kind of attached to their cats!

MacGyver ~ King of the Jungle

Gracie ~ definitely the Princess!

Home Again

We've been home a little over a week now, and are still trying to get caught up and settle back in. It's always amazing to us how much there is to do when we've been gone that long.

Kyle and Korin had these very cute costumes of Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo for a Halloween party on Saturday night. Another of their friends was Shaggy.

Happy Halloween!

Cutting Horses

We had a great visit with my cousin, Skeet, in Visalia. Her joy for life is contagious! I hope I can be as spry when I approach my 80th birthday.

Skeet hooked us up with a place to park our coach overnight at her friend & neighbor, Jim Putnam's, horse ranch. When we got up this morning there were a number of people arriving with their horse trailers and we were invited to watch them work their cutting horses!

If you've never seen a cutting horse in action, you've missed some amazing animals at work.

Jim even has a horse pool in the middle of the stables! There are 2 chutes with ramps at the end that slope down into the water.















Check out the video...

There was also a pomegranate tree on the ranch that was so loaded that the branches were touching the ground. I've got a bag full to take home! Yum!

Viva Las Vegas

Las Vegas was so much fun! We’re not big gamblers, but we do love the great dining and entertainment.

On our first night in town we got last minute tickets to the show at the Wynn called Le Rêve. It was a great show in the Cirque du Soleil style, using water and aerial acrobatics. (It was produced by Franco Dragone who also produced various Cirque productions, including Mystére, one of my all-time favorites, and the Celine Dion production at Caesar’s.)

Day two was a bit laid back. We spent some time at the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay and then had dinner at Sushi Roku at Caesar’s Forum Shops.

On day three, Les broke down and paid to have the RV washed. It had gotten really dirty and was making him crazy, but RV parks won’t let you wash your own coach in their parks. (Mobile RV wash people bring their own water and pressure washers, then give a kick-back to the resort.)

We had yummy pre-show appetizers at Stack at the Mirage and then saw the Danny Gans show. It was a good show and he is very talented, but we were too far back to really be able to enjoy the show (at one point I thought Les was going to fall asleep). My favorite joke was from his impersonation of Jeff Foxworthy: “If your wife says she’s ‘game’ and you shoot her, you might be a redneck.”

Our standard for a ‘good’ show is if we would pay to see it again. We would definitely pay to see Le Rêve again, but would pass on a second go at the Danny Gans show.

This morning we chose the Wynn for our traditional Eggs Benedict breakfast before leaving Las Vegas.

Tonight we’re boon docking in Mojave. Tomorrow Visalia.

Taos!

We had a great couple of days in Taos, New Mexico. The daytime weather was wonderful, but the nights dropped into the high 20’s – low 30’s… brrr…

We especially enjoyed the Taos Pueblo. This has been continuously inhabited for 1000 years. Every door is a separate dwelling and each dwelling is handed down from generation to generation. Each dwelling owner is responsible for keeping up their portion of the pueblo. The Indians speak a native language called Tiwa that is unwritten and is passed down orally. Entry fee is $10 per adult plus $5 if you have a camera and want to take pictures! I had taken about 3 pictures when the batteries in my camera died. Ugh. Les had to buy some at one of the gift shops in the Pueblo. He still won’t tell me what he paid for 4 AA batteries!

We left Taos and headed south to Socorro, New Mexico to meet up with Doug and Roberta for an evening. (They were headed to Texas.)

Beautiful windows in the church. They wouldn't allow any pictures to be taken inside the church.

I loved the different color doors!

We’re starting to get white-line fever, so we pretty much bee-lined it across Arizona to Nevada, where we spent one night in Laughlin and are now in Las Vegas for a couple of days.

Family and Patriotism

We arrived in Durango and thought the Wal-Mart would be a great place to boondock, but they had some “No Overnight Parking” signs, so we tried to find an RV park close to town. The closest one was full (and tacky) and another was closed. The other 2 in the area were a long a ways out of town. So, Les called and spoke to the manager of the Wal-Mart and found out that the “no-parking” was a city thing and the manager wasn’t really happy about it, so we ended spending 2 nights in the lot!

The last time that we were in Durango was 1990 when Lance had a mountain bike accident and broke his neck! Had C-3 blown in instead of out, he’d have had a very different outcome! We are still thankful that he can walk!

From Durango we made our way to Salida, again partaking of the hospitality of Wal-Mart for a couple of days. We had a nice dinner in town to celebrate Lester’s birthday (you’ll have to ask him which one). The next day we drove the truck to Gunnison and had lunch and when we returned, the wind had started to blow, gusting to 60 or 70 mph (depending on your source)! When it got really bad, Les was outside fending off the shopping carts that were flying across the parking lot. He saved us from getting hit by at least a dozen carts and a plastic chair and a bench! It blew hard all night and we pulled the slides in because it felt like the coach was going to be blown over!


Can you see the dozen shopping carts against the fence?


We stopped at the Royal Gorge, near Canon City, and spent some time on the highest suspension bridge in the world! Lunch was an Oktoberfest celebration on the other side of the gorge where Les especially enjoyed the Ohm-pah pah band! (Can’t you just picture it??)








The Bridge...





And the gorge...



We got a big chuckle over the sign... the river is over 1,000' down!




The view straight down from the bridge.








(My name is Edith Ann and I am 5 years old...)



We spent about a week in Colorado Springs; the first part of the week was spent doing a bit of housekeeping. We were in a nice park in the south part of Colorado Springs in Old Colorado City. We stumbled on a great Italian restaurant called Parvicini’s (at Colorado Ave & 28th St.). Our best meal on the whole trip!

A really great evening for us was being able to hook up with Vic & Tanda in south Denver while they were on their way to Nebraska. Vic told the waitress some really random story about how he had spotted us on the freeway and pulled us over… such B.S. Victor!!!





Then we got to spend a fun time with the Hoffman’s celebrating Paul’s 50th birthday. Kyle & Korin were here too! Paul’s band played at the party and they were amazing! I wish I had taken some pictures to share, but I was too busy groovin’ to the music… Paul & Margot live in a great area called Black Forest where they have 12 acres to keep their horses, Sunny & Snowy.


















Today we got to spend the afternoon with Cadet Shelby Judd, the son of our dear friends Kriste & Perry. Shelby is in his second year at the United States Air Force Academy. He gave us a tour of the campus and his room and also shared with us many of his experiences as a 1st year Cadet. We were so very proud of him and came away with an amazing respect for the young men and women who have chosen to pursue a career in our armed forces. I’ve been told that about 50,000 young people apply for a congressional nomination to the Academy and that about 10,000 people get that nomination to fill 1400 openings each year! According to Shelby, the first year is extremely difficult, but the sense of pride he has in getting through it is palpable. Today was definitely a highlight of our trip and we’re hoping for an invitation to graduation 2010.














http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force_Academy

Welcome Hunters!

For the last couple of weeks, Les and I have noticed a lot of “Welcome Hunters” signs in many of the towns that we’ve been in. It’s apparent that the hunters are good for the local economies. We pulled into the little town of Cedaredge after being in Grand Mesa National Park and we both almost fell off the bike when we saw a huge “Welcome Hunters” sign plastered on the side of the local church! Do you suppose that the hunters stop in on Sunday mornings to pray for divine intervention?

We have seen the most amazing scenery that we keep thinking that it can’t possibly get any better, but it does. We drove from I-70 south at Glenwood Springs on Highway 133 and saw the most amazing scenery. We really have arrived here at the perfect time for fall colors.

We spent one night in Montrose so that we could ride the Black Canyon of the Gunnison area. Again, amazing!

It was finally time to take a day for coach maintenance, so we’ve spent the last couple of days in Ouray (you-ray). We spent a whole day of cleaning and laundry and another day touring the Telluride area. The weather has been holding out well for us, however it was rainy the day we arrived, dusting the mountains with snow, and the temperate dropped to 36 overnight. Brrr....

Above our campground in Ouray.

Les & I drove the truck to Telluride, so we were able to drive up the road to the base of the falls. Yeah!
Can you see the house at the top of the falls? A family does live here, but they have to drive up a 4-wheel drive road part-way and then take a gondola to the top. There is a generator at the top of the falls that provides a lot of power to the town of Telluride.

Bridal Veil Falls.

Looking back down into Telluride.

A smaller waterfall.

Part of the San Juan Range, southwest of Telluride.

Next stop, Durango!

Glenwood Canyon

I took all of these pictures off of the back of the bike today on I-70 at Glenwood Canyon (near Aspen). Wow! Isn't this canyon amazing!