Tuscon Arizon

We are here and it is lovely. We have been at the Catalina State Park and this is our view...gorgeous huh? Our 5th wheel on the left and Mikey and Jan's home on the right.

And here we are, the four of us who have planned and waited for this journey for 8 long years....here we are. We all wondered from time to time if our long talked about dream was going to happen...well here it is and we are so going to enjoy ourseves.
An early morning walk on one of the hiking trails this morning was not only refreshing (oh the air here is wonderful) but was full of picturesque cactus. Now Jan was telling me the names of each but do ya think I can remember...not.

A bird found this one a good nesting place.

And let me see if I can get this straight. These guys typically have a 'mother tree' that surrounds the cactus. The poor old mother tree eventually dies off.

Just a nice picture

We were hiking as the sun rose and it gave this cactus an iridescent glow.

Speaking of glowing, see the light that we throw when we kiss....or perhaps it is the sun.....

Tomorrow morning we take off (with Mikey and Jan in the lead) for Yuma. There will be stories to tell I am sure.

Texas

Is a big state which goes without saying I know but we drove all day yesterday and we are still in Texas! It seems like you could drive for days and never get out of this state. We did meet a full timer who has been full timing for the past 7 years and is from Texas. When he and his wife started traveling their goal was to live for at least a month in every state. They have and he says their favorite state is still Texas because.....you can drive 300 miles and be in hill country or another 400 miles and be at the ocean etc and never leave the state of Texas. Well I guess that is the positive way to look at it. We just always feel like it takes so long to get anywhere else when traveling through this state! By early this afternoon we should be out of Texas.
We pulled out of Ryan's yesterday morning after a few grandma tears were shed. Those darned grand babies just steal your heart and we miss Abs already! Our trip was without incident even though Tackla's 'knock her out' pill didn't knock her out and Peeko trounced on the laptop a few times (the old laptop Len-the old one)....we had no snow and icy roads nor did we find ourselves on some muddy, rutty road somewhere. This is a good thing.
So Mikey and Jan...
Get ready cuz here we come...we are on our way.

Our Time Here Is Nearing The End

Tomorrow morning we pack up and hit the road again. Our next destination is Yuma Arizona to meet up with Mikey and Jan. Jan the travel guide has lots planned for our 4-5 day stay...it will be fun and we are so excited to see them.

While we have been at Ry and Jen's we really haven't done much 'touring'. The weather just has not been cooperative but it has been nice to get to know our grand daughter and to spend time with her parents.
Believe it or not, because it got so cold here last night David and Ryan drained Ry's water pipes so that they would not freeze up. And it was warmer in our camper than it was in their house so they spent some time here thawing out their feet. It has been an interesting couple of days.

We did accomplish some things....
David and Ryan put a new tub in Ry's bathroom. Looks pretty nice too.

I sewed curtains for their living room.

And last night Ry and Jen went to a hockey game, David headed to a local bar to get into a game of hold-em and Abs and I stayed home. She is cutting a tooth so was happy to sit in Grandma's lap and rock until she went to bed. Goodness knows Grandma was happy to have snuggle up as well.

Tonight Ry and David have their last hurrah. They are going to try to get into a game of hold em uptown. I should note that when David went down last night the guys wouldn't tell him how they play...it turns out that they thought he was a cop going to bust them for gambling. Way too funny. It may be interesting to see what tonight brings.

Weather Advisory

So I am pretty much over being bummed because the weather just has not been as nice as we think it should be. I am now finding it way too funny listening to the weather advisories on TV. It may get down to 20 degrees here tomorrow night and a high in the 40s (if we are lucky) the rest of the week. The news is constantly warning people to prepare your animals, bundle them up.... do not let them outdoors for long periods of time, be aware of their paws getting frost bit. People are scurrying to put insulation around their water pipes and oh they are so worried about their plants. I just now heard that the schools are going to KEEP THEIR HEATERS ON all night long tonight so that the schools will be warm when the BIG FREEZE hits. OK I am really laughing now! Too frigging funny. Yesterday it was oh 50 or so out, the sun was shinning and it was only a tad breezy. We decided to wash the camper. This means you get a bucket full of soapy water and a long handled brush and you use a hose to rinse the suds off. I was dressed in my flip flops, jeans and a sweatshirt. Two fellas walked by and said to us, "We wondered how you can be doing that in this weather and now we see, ya'll are from Minnesota"! What more can I say.
We have left our very nice state park and have moved to our full service site and the Woelpern campgrounds. We are so lucky to have these full service, free sites. This one )much like the Leonard campgrounds) has a nice level lot, electricity (sewer if David needs to hook up to it to dump:) and a washer and dryer as well as home made suppers! Not bad.
As we were leaving San Felipe I had to take a few photos of some interesting barns n things.
A great rusted out water thingy (like my technical terms) sitting in a fallen down rusted out farm yard.


The barn and house of that farm yard

A cool looking barn along the way
And we spotted this train coming into town (nope it is not Ryan) and we had to wonder if the horse was going to stay put or wander onto the tracks. Thanks goodness he did not go on the tracks.
All righty then. I am going to bundle up and wait for the big freeze!

Drum Roll Please

As was posted on her facebook page my daughter in law says.....

Kelly Schafer Leonard Julia is going to be a big sister! We are due at the end of July. Ultrasound looked good today and all is well except for the constant nausea but it shall soon pass well at least that is what I keep telling myself.

And Grandma and Grandpa say yet another little baby to spoil! It doesn't get much better than that!

Speaking of spoiling, we have gotten to spoil our little Abigail Rose this past week. Today her and her mom and dad came for a visit and oh Abs is just a snuggle bug! Pictures? Why certainly! We don't get to see this little lady very often during the year so we have to get our time in when we can!
Walking away

Texas Hold'Em...at this young age...really Ry! But momma says that it is OK because it teaches math skills...too funny!

We Moved

Our state park in Edna Texas (Lake Texana State Park) just was not what we hoped it would be. First, the only thing in that area to do is a great little place to eat called the Pinto Bean. It is a wonderful little dive type Mexican restaurant that serves food much tastier and less expensive than our little island (Isla Mujeres) off of Cancun. Breakfast tacos filled with whatever you choose are a whoppin $1.25 for a small one, and small is all that I can eat to be sure. Great food great prices but as I said it really is the only thing good about the area. The campground had lots of hiking trails but due to the recent and constant rain they were nothing but mud. The terrain in that area is just blah, muddy, brown blah. The campground is on Lake Texana but it is just water, nothing special. Our site was muddy and so full of trees that we could not put our awning out. We were able to enjoy the alligator and the many armadillos but nope I do not recommend this state park.
So yesterday we decided to dump our tanks and head for Stephen Austin State Park which is much closer to Ry and his family. This morning Peeko and I woke up to 6 deer grazing right outside of our camper and yesterday we took a nice long hike along one of the many well groomed and dry trails. We have our awning open and gee I don't see a mud puddle anywhere:) Yup we are much happier here. I am sure that you all are happy as can be that we are happy as can be...yes?
That's all, no pictures no substance just wanted to say that we are happy.

Our 2009 Christmas

You know it is so nice to have adult children...well it was nice to have young ones as well but when they become adults it is another nice phase in parenthood. Like.... they take their turns hosting holidays :) Not only did Len and Kel have this year's Thanksgiving but our early Christmas as well and then we come to Texas and Ry and Jen make sure that we have a very nice day on December 25th. You know we are in Texas and instead of turkey or ham, Jen brewed up a great batch of chicken jalapeno chili. It was so yummy and a very nice day. Not only was the food and company good but we then watched Abs open her presents. Pictures? Of course there are pictures:)
A few of the many faces of Abigail Woelpern
Oooooooooo
You think so huh?

Aint I the best present ever?
Auntie Kelly...your gift was a hit here too. Abs loved the train...good job all around Auntie!Ya gotta wonder....what the heck? Daddy and Gramps (and Peeko too of course) trying to convince Abs that this thing really isn't scary to crawl into....maybe it was who was in it that created the bit of fear in her?

While Jen cleaned up the kitchen and I washed a load of clothes the guys had their usual game of hold'em. Once again David ended up with all of the chips. BTW Jen did let us know that she too beat Ry in what he THINKS is his game!
Thanks again Jen and Ry for a very nice day...more to come in the next couple of weeks I am sure. Whatchya cooking up next Jen?

Where Is The Chimney?

Happy holidays everyone.

Into The Jaws Of......

An alligator ?
Since David has been to three different places to purchase fishing 'stuff' he thought he would try his luck today. There is a spot at our park that the park rangers recommended he try. It is on one of the bridges fishing on a culvert. Before David threw in his line he saw some interesting ducks on the water and began walking on the culvert to see them better. He says that he heard one hell of a hiss, looked down and not three feet away was a 7-8 foot alligator enjoying the sun laying on the culvert! David says he backed up as quickly as the alligator backed into the water. He was able to get a couple of good pictures.
Here he is right off of the culvert

And a good close up of his head,eye and snout....phewww. BTW Mikey, he did not catch any fish.

The Minnesota Roads Were Not The Last Of The Bad Roads

We spent two days with Ryan and his family. Two very nice days so lets talk about the good stuff first.
Wednesday we pulled into a State Park near Bellville Texas where Ryan lives. Bellville is a nice little town where you can walk the town square (and the town) in no time....so we did. I snapped a few pictures along the way.
I liked how the peak of this house looked through the trees.

And this brick house made for an interesting shot

The downtown was decorated for Christmas

We ran into this blacksmith's shop that has been here, and running, since the 1800's.

The current owner has been here for 6years. He graciously gave us a tour of both the building and his work. He still uses the original brick forge that you see in the picture as well as the purge that is used to keep the fire hot. This was the highlight of the day, a very interesting find. We hope to stop by when he has the forge fired up and is working on something.

The next day Ry and Ab joined us for some breakfast and then off for some golf. Well Ry played golf, he and David drove the 9 hole course in a cart and I pushed Abs in her stroller.

Here she is looking at Gramps and Daddy in the cart and I am sure that she is wondering.. what the heck how fair is this?

Grandpa did take a turn pushing Abs....so did Daddy.

And just a cute picture of Abigail. This little lady is a thinker, you can almost hear her wheels turning as she quietly ponders something.

When you live in Texas you really have to know how to drive a big Texas truck even if you are a girl. When daddy was taking the golf cart back Grandpa and I thought we'd give Abs an early start on it. Not to worry Ry and Jen, Grandpa was right there out of camera shot holding on to her.

Oh the wonderful things that we could teach our girls if we had them for only a week:) It was nice to get my grandma time in and we hope to get much more in in the upcoming few weeks. PS Len and Kel, it must be a grandma thing because Abs reached her arms out for me and completely stood her daddy up!

OK so here is the sad but true story. We left Bellville Friday afternoon for what should have been a short 1 1/2 hour drive to our next destination, Lake Texana State Park. Ryan gave us directions and we plugged it into our GPS. We really should have realized that something was amiss when we hit our first muddy rutty country road. But we just kept following the GPS bumping and bouncing along the muddiest damned road ever towing our 34 foot camper. Cows, we saw loads of cows and a shit load of mud. I wasn't concerned about getting stuck (foolishly) I was concerned about how the inside of our camper was going to look after being bounced for miles down the road. After about 6 miles we decided that this was too stupid and braved turning this long ass camper and truck around on the narrow mud and rut infested road that was 10 feet wide max. Had it not been for four wheel drive(and David's braveness) we would have sunk into the mud to be sure.

This is the view of the road right before sunset. That was another thing thing, the sun was setting and we were lost on that god awful country road.

We did make it to the park and are damned glad that we can sit and relax for a few weeks. You know Mikey I can just here you saying, "Only my good friend David".

Anyway it is a nice park with lots of hiking trails and wildlife galore.

These deer seem to know how to cross the bridge safely. Yup David is happy as there are lots of deer here. As well as the all too familiar-watch for poisonous snakes-signs....eeeewwwww I so do not like snakes.

The park promised alligators and by golly yes they do live here. In fact they bask in the sun on the shores of the campground anywhere they please. We will be watching the dogs closely.

We will be here until Jan 3rd and then off to perhap's Ryan's campground for a week. We are then off to Quartzite Arizona to meet up with Mikey and Jan for the rest of our trip.

Backing Waaaayyyyy Up

To before we left for our trip, we had an early Christmas at Lenny and Kelly's. Christmas really is about kids and it was fun this year to make and shop for our girl's gifts....Grandma and Grandpa Claus were pretty busy this year.
Julia seemed to like the chair that Grandma made for her

And yes Bugsy you were right....

Julia and Grandpa spent some time laughing

Tigger sitting under the tree made a great picture
Len and Kel put on one heck of a spread. There was shrimp lasagna rolls, stuffed mushrooms, mahi tuna (is that right Kel), beef something or other and yummy jalapeno sausage wraps. It was all very good. This picture is so not for you to look at the people but at the table of food!
Auntie Kelly gave Julia a 'build Elmo' Leggo kit. Her and Julia put together one evil looking Elmo...well Kelly put it together and Julia watched wondering what in the heck she was doing to her favorite Elmo!
After all of the gifts were opened Julia ran around with an empty bag on her arm...tell me again why we buy all of that stuff for little ones when they are just as happy with an empty bag :)
It was a fun day, thanks a ton Len and Kel for the hospitality.
Next post will be back on the trip track again.

Getting Caught Up

Well we made it safely to Texas yesterday and pulled into an RV park just south of Fort Worth. It was a balmy 40 degrees and was windy but we were warm and comfortable in our little home. Once settled David and I took a trip were....well to Walmart of course to pick up a few groceries. We all (dogs included) got a good night's sleep and are now on our way to the Bellville area where Ryan lives.
As we drive we both just shake our heads wondering why...why do so many Minnesotans come to Texas for the winter (sorry Ry). We have never really been big fans of Texas, there just is not much to see or it seems to do. Unless you are in a development area or a large town the terrain just is well it is not that pretty...in our opinion. We did however just pass an old wooden place that had hand painted road signs advertising that they had soda, groceries etc. Once we got close to the 'store' I could see that they had a smoker going outdoors and I bet they served fabulous food. Those are the sort of places that we like to explore.
So we look forward to spending time with Ry and we wonder what kind of adventures we may find ourselves in:) I may have to eat my words in regards to not being a big fan of Texas after our Ryan time!

The Joys Of Traveling With Dogs

We made it to Topeka Kansas last night. Finally got out of the crappy road conditions after Iowa...that was not fun. Anyway, when we hit Kansas it was still 15 degrees or so with a low of -5 that night. David thinks...well we can turn the heat on in the camper and it will be fine. I on the other hand think that we will look for a pet friendly hotel. I won. We stayed in a flea bag (Mikey you would not have liked it at all) place in Topeka. Price was right, we had a shower and walked to Arbeys for supper. Our wonderful little Peeko, who has to have the exact right spot to poop, had not yet found that spot the entire day. He had not found the spot by the time we settled into our flea bag. At 3am he pawed me for about the third time. Knowing that he had to poop David took him out and we decided to hit the road since we were awake. So here we are on the road...yes Jan driving in the dark. We are on the lookout for deer. I have not had coffee yet and my Blackberry will not turn on....crabby......but this too shall pass. And by the by...it seems to be getting colder the farther south we get. When we left Topeka it was a whopping 11 degrees. After almost an hour on the road it is now 7 degrees.

I know you have probably already seen the pink glove dance. But it is so damned good that it bears watching again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEdVfyt-mLw

And We Are Off

We left the Leonard hotel this morning at around 8am. We wanted to see Julia off to school before we got on the road. When I get a chance to download the pictures from our early Christmas I will post another entry then. But now I just wanted to say..........SHHHHHIIIIITTTTTT.
We had not even gotten to Waseca when we did a little fishtail due to the icey roads. Did another little one a bit farther on. We stopped for a much needed stop some damned place in Iowa for fuel and a bite to eat. We are now on the iciest god damned road that we have hit yet. Cars in the ditch all over the place and people still passing us like crazy. The winds are horrible and the snow is blowing and I am a bit freaked out but am not trying to show it. Poor David..... After we left our pit stop we hit a damned ice patch in an over patch that was windy and pure ice...we almost biffed it totally as well as wiped out the car that was in the left lane of us but good ole David pulled us out of it.
K, closing the computer down and am going to try to be calm :) We'll get out of this damned state yet we will!

Northern Minnesota deer hunters say they caught Bigfoot on camera | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

As my friend Bugsy wonders....are we feeding this guy? Or perhaps is he watching our place this winter while we are gone? The supposed Bigfoot sighting is very near where we live. And I have been afraid of the bear! Our bear are nothing compared to this fella (or gal) :)


Northern Minnesota deer hunters say they caught Bigfoot on camera | Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota

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It's December

And this is how it is supposed to look in December in Minnesota.But not in Texas...especially when we are heading there in a week. Ryan has been ordered to assure that all of the snow is gone by then :) The picture is from Ry who took it I am sure just to needle me.

The last time that we were at the Leonard hotel we had a game or two of Wii bowling. David 'got into it' so much that we all wondered if he was going to go through the TV!
It seems that Julia was concerned about it as well with this look on her face!
Julia decided that she too should bowl. When it was Grandma's turn, in my arms she went and bowl we did. She had so much fun that the next day she ran around with the Wii remote saying, "bow, bow". Too cute.
And now that she is walking all over the place she thinks that she can pick up and carry the cats. Gotta give her points for trying. The cats are actually pretty patient with her and she has learned to be gentle with them as well.This coming weekend we have an early Christmas at the Leonard hotel and then off to points south we head.