Oct 31 - Happy Halloween

Today went exactly as planned :) We went to White Sands and played! But first, we provided the Rangers with David's handicap paperwork, and got the America the Beautiful Access Pass for free...yay us! We can now get into almost any National Park and/or Monument for free, and can camp for 1/2 price, so we'll be able to visit and enjoy more of this beautiful country! As you can see from the pictures, we actually climbed a couple dunes and had a great time. The temps were in the high 60's, so playing in that sand was just perfect!

Kids sliding down the dunes!

Queen of the Hill

King of the Hill - yep we both climbed up...and giggled and giggled!

Plant in front - then dues and just the tip of a mountian in the back!
If you look at this closely, it resembles a dragon!

A lone Soapstone Yucca, holding it's own against the process of the dunes.

Then we stopped back at the space museum and took some pictures of that - when we went on Wed afternoon is was cloudy, rainy and cold...today was great for pics!



This was so cool...there were two dishes about 100 yards apart, I stood at one and just almost whispered into the 'ring'...David stood at the other one and we could hear each other perfectly! Amazing!

We came home and had something unusual for lunch - I found a recipe that called for saurkraut, apples and cheddar cheese on a tortilla - first slice the apples very thin, then heat the saurkraut, in a skillet heat the tortilla, add hot drained kraut, thinly sliced apple,then grated cheddar cheese - fold tortilla in half, grill on both sides until golden and crunchy...holy cow, was it good! I thought I'd try it because I like all those things, but had never put them together...yum yum!

We took naps and then went to the Moose for a 'halloween' party/55th wedding anniversary party that we had been invited to (we didn't even know the couple whose anniversary it was)! What a great time! I of course, went as a cowgirl (I did manage to keep my red hat), and because I came in costume I got $10 'moose bucks' which kept us in drinks for several hours. They provided the food - oh my, those folks can cook! It was a buffet with freshly made salsa and chips, pulled pork, chicken and beef, corn, string beans, baked beans, potato salad, spinach dip, all kinds of fresh fruit, watergate salad, and of course cake. Needless to say, we ate more than we should have, so it's oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow!


David - thanks for the memories darling!
To all the new friends at this Moose club (especially Rick and his lovely bride), - hasta la vista, I'm sure we'll meet again!
Thanks for a wonderful 4 days!

Bataan Death March continuation pictures

Here are some pictures of Cloudcroft - see we just had to get to see the snow :)

Blogger would not let me add any more pictures to the previous blog, but I really wanted these to be in our record.

Oct 30, Las Cruces, Mesilla

Oh my, did we have a day! We drove to Las Cruces, and first went to the Veterans Memorial. It was dedicated in 2005 and is a lovely, emotionally moving park. First off you see the three flags, surrounded by a 3/4 curved wall. When you walk down to it, you see all the different wars that was fought for our freedoms - and the names are ONLY those from Dona Ana County that died in them.

Then, you go on the memorial walk - and the first sculpture is three figures representing the survivors of the Bataan Death March - 1 looking forward to surviving, 1 looking sideways to see where they were, and 1 looking back to see where they had been. In front of and behind are footprints in cement, that were made by taking 38 survivors footprints in plaster, then pushing them into the cement - and most of them are of bare feet! Apparently on that march, many of them had no shoes. It is awesome to see this tribute.

There are also many other tributes on the walk, the marines, Korean war, US Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Army, and several units I didn't recognize. It is extraordinarily well done! If you ever get to Las Cruces, do make it a stop (and there are rest rooms there too)! It is not commercialized, they don't ask for donations nor is anyone selling anything at the park.

Then we drove downtown to the old town of Mesilla. There are many shops, some tiny, some large, all selling different variations of gifts, lots of jewelry, wonderful arts/crafts decor, clothing, knick knacks, t-shirts, etc. We spent several hours walking, admiring, walking, touching, etc. I resisted buying anything although I found something in the very first store we went in...David bought some fresh Hatch chili salsa and I went back to that store and bought a beautiful cashmere/wool blend poncho for $15...It is gorgeous and should be just right for the cool winter nights in Texas!

This is inside the Basilica

These are some of the musicians making good music in the square!

Here I'm bargaining with a jewelry maker - she won!

The square inside Old Mesilla

One of the main reasons we went down there was because I had a gift certificate for $25 for the restaurant 'Peppers' that we heard was very good. OMG, they weren't kidding - it was fabulous! We started with chips, salsa & chili con queso...David ordered Spinach Enchilad's and a Chili Relleno, I had Beef brisket that was slow roasted over a cactus fire, and drenched with a honey chipolte bbq sauce and shoestring fries. We shared a to die for coconut flan!


David - thanks for a wonderful day!

Oct 29 - Cloudcroft, White Sands

This morning started out very chilly! There was snow on the mountains all around us - and so we took our time this morning, answering emails, paying bills, puttering around. Finally got caught up on my 'expenses' spreadsheet, and made a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, grits and crumpets with blackberry jelly...yum :)

First off we headed to White Sands, figuring we'd just do the visitor center today and go back to see the actual dunes on Saturday when it is supposed to be in the 70's...and were so impresssed that we did the entire thing, including getting out and touching :) Wow, what a terrific place! David once again forgot the camera (I'm going to have to get one of my own ;) so we will still be going back on Saturday! We got to see some people sliding down the dunes, and hopefully we'll get some good pics later!

We came back to the MH for a cup of soup, then off we drove to Cloudcroft. In 16 miles we climbed from 4,234 feet to 8,3116 feet...it is a climb! AND they had 8 inches of snow!!! Not a problem, we visited several small shops, and once again plunked down some dinero for a few things we couldn't resist! On the way back down the mountain, we stopped at The Apple Barn, a huge building with antiques, homemade fudge, tons of touristy stuff, but hardly any apples :(

Our next stop was at a Pistachio Store & Winery...where we sampled 6 different wines, and got a pack of Pistachio's, but no wine. It just was not what we were envisioning...We came back to the MH and rested until it was time to walk over to the Moose club - where we indulged in cheeseburgers and fries and onion rings...oh my, it was yummy! It cost us 9.50 which is a huge bargain no matter how you look at it! We also me a lovely couple who invited us to join them Saturday evening for dinner (their treat) and dancing and oh yeah, a masquerade party...Think I'll go as a cowgirl :)

Now we are in our cozy little home, watching the second game of the world series (well, David is anyway!). Tomorrow we will spend the day in Las Cruces - in old town Mesilla.

Come back tomorrow and I'll try to have some pictures...it might just be all pics!

Oct 28 Alamogordo NM

Having made the decision to head south again, we got up this morning and did our 'get ready to go' list. I joined the happy campers at the clubhouse because Wed is donut morning - and I'm NOT going to pass up a free donut :) Then Cinder and I went for a long walk to work off those calories! By the time I got back to the MH David had everything ready to roll...and we were rolling down the road by 9:40 am! That is the earliest we were on the road since we started this journey!

The wind was gusting about 40 mph, which was not too bad, since we are from Cheyenne and 40mph is considered a gentle breeze...:) During the trip, we got an email from Dianne in Cheyenne, envying us because Cheyenne was getting dumped on - with 25 degree temps...I know it was evil, but we just kept chuckling to each other!

We pulled into the Alamogordo Moose Club about noon - got permission to park (I called yesterday) and lo and behold, we had electric AND wifi!!! Woohoo, it doesn't get any better than that! Oh yes, and the price is right..free!

We had some lunch (taco stuff) and headed out to the Visitor's Center. After chatting to two very nice volunteeers, we stopped at a small local museum, then decided we would take a chance on going to the New Mexico Museum of Space History which was a good decision! http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/content.php?id=38 It is well worth the $5 per person - we spent about 2 hours there.

Before we left I put a crock pot of Paste E fagiole soup on - and when we got back the beans were still hard - so we had cheese wheels for dinner and the soup will work for lunch tomorrow.

We're now cozy and warm in our home on wheels - and I'll update tomorrow night :)

To all my 'friends and family' in Cheyenne...and in Albuquerque - stay safe and warm!

Oct 26 - 27 Elephant Butte NM

We made the trip from Albuquerque to Elephant Butte NM on Monday, arriving at Lakeside RV Park. It was a quiet trip of about 2.5 hours, with a little wind but not too bad. After we got here we quickly got set up and found that the WIFI was not working :( They nicely explained that they had had a storm and were waiting on an expert to come fix it. sigh...

We hopped in the car and did a quick trip around town, looked at the State Park but wouldn't pay the money just to get in and drive through, so no pics of that! We went back to the cg and they have a 'happy hour' every day at 4:30 on the patio, (you are welcome to bring your iced tea if you prefer), and we met some terrific people from all parts of the country. The ones at the table were from: Baltimore, MD, Gillette, WY, Las Vegas, NV, London England, and Seattle Washington. There were 12 of us, plus another 6 or so in the clubhouse working on jigsaw puzzles! We went back to the MH and had leftovers for dinner.

Tuesday we got up and putzed around, the weather was gorgeous, 65 degrees at 8 am, so I took Cinder for a long hike through the scrub. She loved chasing the quail and rabbits! We were both winded when we got back! We went over to Truth or Consequences (they all say TorC) to Lincare to get David's oxygen refilled. While over there we visited the Vietnam Memorial wall - it is 1/2 the size of the one inDC, but it has all the names and all the emotions. Because the wind had kicked up we did not take the time to see the rest of the memorial - they have several but the new museum has not opened yet. We made the mandatory Wally World stop and went back to the MH. Since we had full hookups we took the opportunity to do some heavy cleaning (shower doors, windows, etc.) and I caught up on 13 days worth of laundry!

This campground has a great lending library (take one leave one) and a big library of movies to watch - David found two he didn't have :) We watched the weather forecast and decided that we would be leaving in the morning - further south because snow was coming to Albuquerque and we wanted no part of that!!!

No pics - nothing major to see here, but it was a good couple days.

10/25/09

This morning started out bad - I took the time last night to prepare a crock pot full of steel cut oats with apples, cinnamon and a little brown sugar. At about 2:30 I woke up and realized I had not turned the crockpot on...so I got out of bed and turned it on (by the nightlight). When I got up this morning, and oh crap, I didn't PLUG IT IN!!! We ended up having a granola bar for breakfast :(

However, not all was lost - we met friends Ron and Kathy at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History - where admision is FREE on Sunday's from 9 am 'til 1 pm. The art was great, but the conquistador items were fantastic. I truly don't understand how those men were able to stand up with all that weight on them....and the poor horses - they were in shields from their ears to their tails! There were two wall hangings in the 'gift shop' that I adored...but the price tag of $8,500 was a little too rich for my blood :)

The sculpture garden outside was phenomenal! David forgot the camera, so we made do with my phone camera, so the pics are not the best quality, but I hope you can see them!

After spending several hours wandering around the museum, our tummies were growling, and there was a Little Anita's mexican restaurant a couple blocks away - the 4 of us had a wonderful brunch. When we left there, across the street was a shop called The Candy Lady. Well, you know with a name like that, we couldn't pass it by!!! David got ONE piece of almond toffee, and I got ONE white chocolate peanut butter cup. We'll have it this evening for our 'snack'.

We then went into a silversmith jewelry makers shop, where I fell in love with a pair of earrings - silver with emerald green stones...but alas, I had no money with me - and David had gone out, so those earrings are still there :) Wow, they were beautiful, and I am a sucker for good earrings.

We had put off our goodbyes for as long as we could, but it was time for us to say goodbye to Ron and Kathy. The past 10 days have been wonderful, sharing good times, stories and friendship. We will be leaving tomorrow morning for Elephant Butte, another 3 to 4 hour drive - and we are trying to get further south before yet another storm comes down the pike, giving temps in the 40's here. Hopefully we'll have internet access there!

The oatmeal didn't go to waste...we're having it for dinner!

Ron and Kathy - thanks for the memories!

Oct 23 - 25 Moose Club - Albuquerque

We left Pueblo on the 22nd, and drove all the way to Las Vegas NM. Previous entry shows the snow we traveled through, and going through Trinidad and over Raton Pass is harrowing enough without the slick patches we saw (very few - thank heavens). David had knotted up shoulders and a headache by the time we pulled off at 3:30. We took the first exit into town and stopped at Pino's family restaurant. I asked permission to stay in their lot overnight and it was freely given. After we parked the MH and unhooked the car, we went in and had a fabulous meal! Cinder and I took a walk and it was getting pretty cold. Little did we know just how cold it would get overnight! We know it got down in the 20's because we had lots of ice on the car and MH when we got up!

One of the reasons we stopped in Las Vegas NM was a little place called Charlie's Bakery & Cafe, where they make homemade tortillas...for breakfast! With out tummies full, we left Las Vegas and 2 hours later we were parked at the Albuquerque Moose Club on Skyline Drive. We've parked here in the past and were warmly welcomed once again.

You can see from the beautiful blue sky that we have finally driven into wonderful 72 degree temperatures - and are looking forward to more of the same!

The first thing we did was make our list - Car to detailers, drive by daughter's house and check it out - stop at Walgreens for cough syrup for Dawn something vile called Buckleys, stop at Trader Joe's...We got it all done and was back at the MH by 3:45 - before the famous Albuquerque rush hour traffic! We had a lovely dinner of bbq ribs, baked sweet potato and peas...followed by a bedtime snack of homemade apple rolls. I hadn't made them in years, and I made them in Pueblo and shared with Ron & Kathy - and we had the leftovers!

This morning we set the alarm (oh no - thought I was done with that for a while!) and went to the Downtown Growers Market - everything has to be made or grown within 60 miles of ABQ - what a lovely time! We bought a winter squash, some Jerusalem artichokes, an heirloom tomato, and a basket of Rome apples. We wandered around for over an hour admiring the jewelry and crafts.

After that we went to World Market, one of our favorite stores for strange things :) We got some ginger beer, gnocchi, con queso, ginger snaps...then we came home and had some lunch and a nap...we DID get up early!

We met Ron and Kathy at the Route 66 diner on Central Ave (old route 66) and had dinner together - a couple of hours with good friends.

That brings me up to date, I'll try to post before we leave here on Monday.

Oct 19,20,21,22 Pueblo CO

We got to Pueblo CO with friends Kathy and Ron – and are currently staying at Pueblo Lake State Park/Marina. It has been a marvelous start to our adventure!

First of all we spent the better part of two days unpacking, organizing, and repacking 6 of the bays in the MH – whew, what a job! Weather was fantastic and we had happy hour outside, enjoying some wonderful chips/salsa/dips, while imbibing in our beverage of choice :) Monday evening we had our friends for dinner – we had enchiladas and Kathy brought a salad. Yum!

Tuesday we went to visit Rosemount Museum. Built in 1893, this 37-room mansion was home to the John A. and Margaret Thatcher family and named for Mrs. Thatcher's favorite flower. It remained a family residence for 75 years. Designed by noted New York architect Henry Hudson Holly and two years under construction, the mansion was completed in 1893. Nearly all furnishings, accessories, decorative arts, paintings custom paneling, wall and window treatments are original to the home. Here is the url: http://rosemount.org/home/
It was amazing to see the craftsmanship in this home. They said they planned it for 7 years prior to building – and it shows! If you ever get to Pueblo, CO and have an hour or two, we highly recommend it!

After the trip to the museum, we parted company with our friends and headed out to find some free wifi…do you know that Starbucks now charges to buy a wifi card??? $5 that’s just ridiculous! McDonalds has wifi…but again, you have to pay to use it. We’re on a rather strict budget, so no paying for wifi for us!!! After riding around for a while, we decided on treating ourselves to dinner at Golden Corral – it was very early, but we knew we could walk some of it off later – and lunch was pretty light, summer sausage, cheese, crackers and grapes. Well, we really lucked out, they were running an ‘early bird special’ and they gave us both the senior discount…so we had steak and seafood on an all you can eat price for the two of us was $14.69…what a deal!!!

We’d planned on leaving the area this morning, but a big snowstorm (10 inches at Raton) kept us here today – and we hope to leave tomorrow!!!

I used google information this morning to find the local library, which is where I’m posting this. We will remember that almost every library has free wifi…and nice clean restrooms, and water fountains, and magazines – yep, we’ll be visiting them quite often I think!

Again, I’ll try to post pictures when we have them where I can get at them!

Ron & Kathy – thanks for some great memories :)

Oct 16, 17 &18 Parrish Ranch with the Drifters

We pulled out of Cheyenne WY for the last time for a long time on Friday morning. It was bittersweet – we have so many friends that feel like family there! But, on with the adventure!

We arrived at Parrish Ranch about 1:00, greeted all our friends, had lunch and then the real fun began…chatting, munching, chatting some more. The weather was beautiful, and it was 68 degrees, no wind – perfect!

Saturday morning dawned chilly but sunny, and the peacocks and wild turkeys were all over the park, making Cinder very jumpy! She would lay under the MH…and wait until the birds were very close, then she exploded out…she caught feathers a couple times, but they are very fast birds :)

We played games Saturday morning, then at 1:00 pm we had the Parrish Ranch BBQ special as a group…oh my, there was pulled pork, bbq chicken, beans, slaw, two kinds of potato salad, rolls, and a baked on an old cook stove from scratch peach cobbler with soft serve ice cream….groan, there goes my healthy breakfast – down the tubes! The saving grace was that Cinder and I walked for more than a mile after – and then got a nap :)

Saturday evening we sat around the campfire, and had popcorn for dinner – we simply weren’t hungry for a big meal! I’ll post pictures if/when I can edit this thread!

Sunday morning I was up and cooking 9 lbs of sausage to make a roaster full of sausage gravy, and our friends came with fresh piping hot biscuits, fruit, juice and cinnamon rolls to round out breakfast! A great time was had by all!

The weather Sunday was hot hot hot! It was 89 degrees when we pulled into Pueblo State Park!

To all our friends – in Cheyenne and Longmont – Thanks for the memories!

Oct 15th Last Day at WORK!!!

The past two weeks have been quite a ride - I turned in my notice and today was my last day. I had my staff to dinner at our house, and they reciprocated by planning a fantastic pot luck for my last day - and I didn't have to cook at all.

'My people'...if you are reading this, thanks so much. I really appreciated it! Saying 'goodbye' is a hard thing to do, especially after 13 years - and here is a picture of me and my staff at our 'last supper'.

We've had an early fall storm dropping 10 - 14 inches in the Cheyenne area last weekend. We were in Loveland at Boyd Lake State park, and I drove back to work on Monday morning, took 2 hours from Wellington to Cheyenne...black ice and fog! Not at all pleasant.

Tomorrow we start the next chapter in the book of our life :) We're going down to Parrish Ranch for the last campout of the year with the Drifters, our dear friends. I'll try to write the blog in word and upload when we have internet service - which probably won't be for 7 - 10 days.

A very good friend said that I need to put a picture of David and I on the blog - maybe that will happen soon...kind of wanting a picture of us on the beach :)

To everyone who has made my last couple weeks very special - thanks for the memories!