June 29, 2007

Well, we ended up staying in Las vegas for three nights. We drove in to the strip the first morning just to see where to go. It was so hot that we decided to wait until that night to go back and walk around. That didn't help much since it was just about as hot and there were the same crowds. We went to see the collector cars on display in The Imperial Palace. When we got there we only had about thirty minutes before they closed so we decided to come back and finish seeing the cars the next day.

The next morning we got up about 9:00 and drove in. This time we knew where to park in a little better place. We finished seeing the cars, ate the noon buffet and started walking up and down the strip. It was about 105 degrees so we would duck inside the Casinos occasionally to cool off and then go again. We went to the Coca Cola store and to the M and M store. We saw the M&M movie (3D) and then went to Caesers Palace. They have a huge shopping area and lots of ancient Greece looking stuff. They even had a Trojan Horse. When we decided to go back to where we were parked, we were so tired that we caught the monorail and rode it. I don't think we could have made the walk back. We were worn completely out by the time we got back to the trailer.

This morning we got everything together and drove north as far as Provo, Utah. We don't know how long we will stay here, but will decide tomorrow.

June 26, 2007

We decided to stay another day in Williams, so yesterday we got up and made a drive down to Sedona which is about 30 miles south of Flagstaff. Since Sheryl had asked about Sedona in her comments to Sunday's post, we decided that we should go and check it out. Sedona was as beautiful as we had heard with it's location in the red rock canyons. Rather than drive south from Flagstaff we went west on I10 and made a loop into Sedona from the west. It looked really good on the map, but as it turned out it was a narrow winding high mountain road that required 10 MPH speeds on a large percentage of the trip. I am not too keen on mountain driving so I was a nervous wreck when it was over. Needless to say, I didn't see too much of the scenery since I had to concentrate on the road.

Today we left Williams at about 9:30 and drove to Las Vegas. We will probably stay a couple of days and then move on north into Utah since it is so hot here.

June24, 2007

Yesterday was our day to ride the train to The Grand Canyon. The train was scheduled to leave at 9:00am and we were afraid that we would miss the train, so we got up at 5:30. At least this gave us time to go eat breakfast and to watch the early morning gunfight (they have several each day). The trip to the canyon took about 2 1/2 hours and passed through some very pretty country with lots of big ponderosa pines. Riding the train was a good idea since the canyon area is so congested with cars and parking places are hard to find.

The canyon is much more impressive than in pictures that you see. We took the shuttle bus to several of the overlooks located along the South Rim. Lots of people were taking hiking trails of various distances down into the canyon but our days of that kind of activity are over I think. Emily took one picture of hikers on a trail near the bottom of the canyon and the people looked like little ants. They surely had a long climb back out. We spent about 5 1/2 hours at the canyon and enjoyed it very much. On the trip back we rode in the dome of one of the cars. I took a picture of one named the GRANDVIEW, but it was not the one we rode on. The views on the trip back were great from the dome and we enjoyed the ride back even though we were very tired.

About five miles north of Williams, the train was held up by mounted outlaws. The train stopped and they got on and robbed the passengers. They only got a dollar from us since we told them that was all we had. I don't know if they believed us or not, but it worked. They wanted Emily's earrings, but she wouldn't let them have them. I told her to let them have them since they were not worth getting shot for. She said no and they went on to someone else.

When we got back we extended our stay by one night since we knew that we would be too tired too head out this morning. Therefore we slept in this morning and then got up and went to church.

June 22, 2007

We got up this morning and drove to visit the Crator. After that we left about 9:30 and drove to Williams, Arizona which is a distance of about 75 miles. We have decided to stay here a couple of days and ride the train to the south rim of the Grande Canyon tomorrow. It is really nice here with high temperatures in the upper 80's and a low tonight expected to be about 50 degrees.

June 20, 2007

Rebecca's Bunch At Disney World



Emily and I left Elephant Butte, New Mexico at 7:30 this morning and arrived at Meteor Crator close to Winslow, Arizona at about 4:00. We drove about 425 miles which is way more than usual, but we were trying to escape the New Mexico heat. I'm not sure about local time since Arizona doesn't go on daylight savings time. I think it is now 6:30 here though the clock set on Mountain Daylight Saving Time says 7:30. I don't guess that it really matters that much anyway. We plan to stay here two nights at least and then turn north hoping to find cooler temperatures. It is not as hot now as we were experiencing, but it should get considerably cooler tonight since our altitude is about 6000 feet.

Here is Dom opening his card from you guys. He bought several nerf guns. He was so thrilled!

Love and miss you all bunches!

Well, we finally made it!!! Miranda got her braces off! She was so excited she came home and took several pictures of herself.

She Was Always Pretty





So Are These

June 18, 2007

We left El Paso this morning and headed north into New Mexico. Originally we planned to go at least as far as Albequerque, but we found a nice park in Elephant Butte, New Mexico and decided to spend a night. It is really nice with good internet so we may have to stay here a few days. It is still really hot so we need to get more elevation soon. The elevation here is about 4800 feet so it cools off at night.

June 13, 2007

We have been without continuous internet service for the last few days so I have not kept up with our activities. I will now try to bring the blog up to date and fill in some of the places and things that I missed. I may backtrack some. Emily finally tried the swimming pool at Balmorhea before we left there. She said that it was cold but she almost got used to it. It didn't appear that anyone just jumped in and stayed. I don't think that the human body can stay in 72 degree water indefinitely.

While in Fort Davis we visited the old fort that is in the process of being restored. It was interesting and very different from the last time we were there over 40 years ago. On Sunday night there was a tour of antique cars coming through town and spending the night. The town people put on a bar-b-que for the visitors. We decided to spend the night in town at the hotel. It was fun for something different. We also went on a Jeep tour out into the Davis Mountains that lasted about three hours and let us see scenery that we would never see otherwise.

We are now in El Paso. We left Davis Mountains State Park on Tuesday morning and got to Clint, Texas at about 2:30. The park where we stopped showed to have Wi-Fi in the Trailer Life Directory, but when we got here it did not. We decided to go ahead and stay one night since we were tired. After checking several RV parks closer to El Paso we found one that has Wi-Fi (for me) and a swimming pool (for Emily). We will move there later today and probably stay for a few days.

Clint is about 20 miles east of El Paso which makes it close to The Cattlemans Steak House. Therefore we decided to go there to eat last night. The restaurant and menu were exactly the same as when we were there 30 years ago. It is really interesting place. There is very little advertising and no signs on Interstate 10 where you turn off. The road is about 7 or 8 miles out into the desert (it was gravel the last time we went , but is now paved). It is known just by word-of-mouth but always has a full parking lot when you finally get there. Their speciality is a 2 pound porterhouse steak (called the Cowboy) that is the best that I have ever eaten anywhere. I had it last night and it was just as good as I remembered. Emily opted for the beef ribs and brisquet.

June 9, 2007

We have moved from Balmorhea to the Davis Mountains State Park outside of Fort Davis. We got here yesterday morning and have a very nice camping spot. Last night it came a storm and rained about an inch, but we stayed dry. Today we rode to Fort Davis and then to Marfa to see the Marfa lights. We are now waiting for dark, so I will report on the lights later.

At about 9:15 we started to see some lights on the horizon. There was no knowledgeable person there, so we don't know for sure what we were seeing. The sky was pretty cloudy. By the time we got back to the campground it was raining. We had a pretty bad storm and the electricity was out for about an hour or two.

June 6, 2007

We left The Llano River RV Park last monday morning and drove to Balmorhea, Texas. We are staying at the Balmorhea State Park. There is a large spring-fed swimming pool, but it is so cold (72 degrees) that we are afraid to swim. Maybe Emily will try it tomorrow. We don't normally stay in Texas State Parks, but we bought the annual pass so we will probably stay more now. This is a real nice park and there aren't a lot of people here during the week. Some people come in during the day to swim, but they aren't camping.

The only Wi-Fi antenna is up near the office so I have to go sit at the picnic table to get internet. I have found that it is best just before sundown because the sunlight is too bright earlier. I guess that I need to get a hood to go over my head. Emily road up one night and took my picture.

Yesterday we rode up to Pecos, Texas which is about 30 miles north. It is really a sad looking town with nearly all of the businesses closed and people living in squalid conditions. They don't even have a Super WalMart. Tomorrow we plan to ride down to Fort Davis which is about 40 miles south.