Viva Las Vegas!

It was an interesting ride from Show Low, AZ to Las Vegas yesterday. It was a long drive for us, we usually try and drive 6 hours or less. We left at 8:30 and arrived at 5:00. Our drive was over 400 miles. What was interesting was that we started out with temperature in the mid 70's. Around Flagstaff it got down to 47 degrees, driving through sleet, rain, thunder and lightning and strong winds. In the last 75 to 100 miles the scenery gets pretty boring!

After setting up the RV went over to the Boulder Station casino and had a bite to eat. We gambled for about an hour (Jeri, we both played Wizard of Oz machines) and won enough to cover dinner!

Today we are meeting friends David and Debbie for brunch!

More later and "ain't life grand"!

Show Low scenic drive

Today we took a scenic drive into Apache Reservation country south of Show Low. It was a beautiful drive, mountains and valleys, red rocks, pine trees. Didn't get any pictures today because heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightning followed us around (about 100 miles)! The temperature changed around every curve fluxuating from 79 degrees down to 52 degrees and up again! Today we experienced it all.

After our drive we stopped for lunch and we had an indian fry bread taco. That was the first time I have had indian fry bread and it is yummy!

Tomorrow we are heading for Las Vegas. We will visit one of my former bosses and his wife, David and Debbie Hawkins. Probably have to visit a casino or two, hopefully making a withdrawl and not a deposit!

Rain or shine, "ain't life grand"!

The Road to Show Low, Arizona!

We left New Mexico yesterday morning and traveled along I40. It is a beautiful drive there are red mesa's and mountains, my pictures don't really do it justice. As we drove into Arizona, the scenery changed. There was less red but still beautiful. We turned down 77 south and there was alot of scrub brush. Not what we were thinking we would see. A few miles from Show Low we got to the Sitgreaves National Forest and the scenery changed. There were lots of pine trees. We are at 6300 feet. We took a short drive around the area. A nice size town and very pretty. It was 44 degrees this morning when Max and I walked at 6:15!

When we got back to the campground, we had a huge thunder and lightning storm (very close) with only a little rain. Max really doesn't like the thunder. He went back and forth from me to Ted wanting us to stop the thunder. We finally had to close the windows and turn up the tv so he could relax!

The road to Show Low AZ!

Once again "ain't life grand!"

BRRRRRRR!

40 Degrees outside this morning! Grants, NM is around 6400 feet and chilly! Had a bit of rain last night through a beautiful sunset. Even had a pretty rainbow but by the time I got my camera out it was gone!

We are headed for Show Low, Arizona this morning about 180 miles. Show Low is around 5000 feet so may be chilly there also. Should be a beautiful area. We never know if we will have wi-fi or not so thought I'd blog this morning!

Our dinner last night was fantastic! It was nice to have it delivered to us piping hot!

Have a nice day because "ain't life grand"!

Made it out of Texas!

We got our truck back yesterday and left Amarillo today (finally). We still have the problem where the truck lugs or surges going uphill :( but today we only had one small instance of black smoke and we made it to Grants, New Mexico (almost to Gallop) without any trouble.

We are in a KOA campground and they have dinners that they cook and deliver right to your RV. We are having Ribs and Brisket! Hope it will be yummy (anyway, I'll have no dishes to do tonight)! The campground is near a volcano and there are tons of lava fields all around us, pretty interesting.

We've been having some rain, thunder and lightning the last couple of days. Drove through some rain today. Tonight the temperature is supposed to be in the low 40's! Gotta unshrink the comforter!

Hopefully we are on our way again and "ain't life grand (still)"!

Lava Field in back of the campground

Lava field - rain in the background!
Cute little rental cabins at the campground
Max wants to check out the cabins!

Memorial Day

Happy Memorial Day to our friends, family and especially our service men and women.

Since we are landlocked at the campground and nothing much is going on. Just doing laundry, writing a blog and blah blah blah! Thought I'd enclose a picture collage of my stepdad Hal, his youngest son Ron, oldest daughter Carol Ann, Ron's ex-wife Coleen and Snooper the dog!

How we are spending our Memorial Day Weekend!

We have been off-line, no wi-fi so need to catch up.We are currently in Amarillo, Texas. Our x@#$%ing truck saga continues! We have had the truck at the Albuquerque Ford dealer, the Boerne, Tx Ford dealer, the Ft. Worth Ford dealer and yesterday at the Amarillo Ford Dealer. We were all set, ready to go, 3 miles from the campground, sputter, cough, black smoke, white smoke yikes! We limped off the freeway and had to call for a tow truck for the truck and the 40 foot 5th wheel! And now we are back at the Amarillo Ford Dealer. Wow that was fun!Anyway, we are safe, back in a campground with no transportation to enjoy the Memorial Weekend.

We hope all of our friends and family enjoy their Memorial Day and maybe have a little more excitement than we are having! The good news is we can rest up and have internet access again!

Our very own Parade!

Before we were stranded, we managed to tour the Palo Duro State Park! Here are a couple of pictures from the park...

The other local attraction we were able to visit: The Big Texan Steakhouse! If you eat the 72 oz steak in one hour, it's free! Needless to say, we just had the regular size steaks!

On the Road Again!!

We spent yesterday afternoon with Hal, Ronnie and Carol Ann. We went out for a bite to eat and said our goodbyes!

We headed out this morning and are at a campground at Lake Whitney, south of Ft. Worth for a few days. We have an appt on Monday to get our truck looked at again! Hopefully the 3rd time will be the charm! Ted was driving when we went through a huge rain storm. You could barely see 5 feet in front of you. We finally pulled over and had our lunch. We pulled into our campground around 3:00. The good news is that the temperature has dropped down to the 60's!

I called Ron and my Dad to let them know we made it ok only to find out that my Dad's other son, Tom passed away last night. He has some health problems but just went to sleep and didn't wake up. That's all they know at this point. He lived in New York so guess they will be flying over for the funeral. He was too young that's for sure.

Just wanted to let you know that we don't have wifi at our campsite so may not have a post for a couple of days. Hope all is well with all of you! More later...

Lunch at Papa's on Lake Conroe

Today we picked up Hal (Dad) and took a drive around Lake Conroe (where we are camped). The lake is 22,000 acres and it looks like every edge of it has homes, businesses, restaurants or some sort of development. We stopped for lunch at Papa's, the big purple restaurant right on the water! (See pictures). Ted takes us to all the nice places! It was a bar and grill and is definitely for the younger crowd. We think it's probably hopping on the weekends. They have a pool with a sitting area and waterfall inside the pool as well as outside the pool area, vollyball area, horseshoe area, lots of video games, tv's and a big patio area with a stage on the roof! The waitresses were pretty cute and there were some young ladies around the pool for Ted & Hal!

We had a nice lunch and drive, dropped off Hal and are back home relaxing..."Ain't life grand"!

Texas is still hot & muggy!

Hope all you Moms had a great Mother's Day!

We spent Mother's day with my Step dad's family. He had one son and one daughter there, a few grand kids, an ex-wife and us! It was interesting! We had some great barbecue. I'm really enjoying the Texas barbecue!

We tried to make an appointment at the Ford dealer in Conroe yesterday but unfortunately they are booked. The truck still doesn't like lugging the 5th wheel up a hill. We're headed to Dallas/Ft Worth area this weekend and maybe we will be able to take it in there.

We were going to take Hal to lunch on Lake Conroe yesterday but he wasn't feeling too well. So we visited and then ran a bunch of errands and did some shopping. We got Max some Advantix for flea protection and he had a reaction to it. He was busy scratching last night. We gave him an antihistamine so we could all sleep. Today we took him in, they had to shave him, gave him steroids (shhh, don't spread that around, he might get arrested) and some salve. $100 later he's doing okay!

I also got my hair cut (and color - shhh don't tell anybody). Of course she didn't have the same brand of color stuff but everything came out ok! It didn't turn red or any other bad colors!

Haven't taken any pictures lately to share, but "Ain't Life Grand"!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you mothers. Ted and I hope you enjoy your day!

Yesterday we met my Dad (Hal), his son (Ron) and daughter (Carol Ann) for breakfast. Ted had never met Ron or Carol Ann and I had not seen them for 18 years (time does fly by doesn't it)! Hal came over to the RV where we could catch up in peace and quiet, he's pretty hard of hearing. Aside from the normal hearing loss that happens as we age sometimes, many years ago he was fishing down off the coast of Florida (out of Ft. Lauderdale) with a friend when their boat capsized. He spent the night in the ocean and was rescued the next morning. One of his eardrums burst and so he hasn't been able to hear out of that ear for a long time.

When we took him home we took the scenic route. They have had a lot of rain here and everything is very green and lakes are full. Where we were over in Boerne, they have had a two year drought and it's probably only 250 miles as the crow flies! It's pretty warm here and very muggy!

Again, Happy Mother's Day and "Ain't Life Grand"!

On the Road Again!

On Wednesday Max got his haircut, actually he got a total shave! He lost about 10 pounds of hair. He's not so hot anymore, cute but not hot! We ran some errands the last couple of days, met with friend Laura, had dinner with John & Gloria the last couple of nights and today we were on the road again. We drove approximately 300 miles today.

Tonight we are at Lake Conroe, Texas at a Thousand Trails campground. We are north of Houston about 30 miles. My stepdad lives nearby in Splendora with his son. His two daughters also live near them, and grand and great grand children. Tomorrow morning we are having breakfast with my Dad and his son Ron. It will be good to see them.

Update on the truck, it's better but not fixed! So probably will look for a Ford dealer while we are in town. Maybe the third time will be the charm!

SKINNY MAX SAYS "AIN'T LIFE GRAND"!

MAX IS PRETTY CUTE!

Old Friends and Riverwalk

Yesterday Ted and I had lunch with an old friend of his from San Diego. He and Laura go back to the 80's and haven't seen each other since March of 1998 so they had a lot of catching up to do. We had a good time catching each other up!

We met up with Gloria and John and went to their Grandson, Jack's baseball game. He's 4! It was so cute seeing all these little guys out there trying to hit and catch the ball and run the bases. Most were interested in what was up in the sky or down in the grass! Gloria fixed us a wonderful dinner and a GREAT apple pie! I just keep adding on those pounds! One of these days....

Today we dropped off the truck and rented a car and took off for the Riverwalk. It's fun to walk along the river and we checked out a few shops (shopping!!!!!). It was a little hot and a lot muggy so we decided a Mimosa would be good. It had to be 5:00 somewhere as they say!

Best news of all, the truck is fixed! It was the same problem as in Albuquerque and same parts were replaced, but it "is fixed for sure this time"! (Famous last words). Of course we have to hook up the 5th wheel and drive around awhile to know for sure soooo, guess we will find out when we get on the road again, probably on Friday! We'll keep you posted.

And of course, "AIN'T LIFE GRAND"!

Susan, Ted & Laura

San Antonio River Walk

Still in Boerne, Texas

Ted and I have been visiting with Gloria and John the last two days, eating out and some shopping! Today they took us into San Antonio to the Market Square. They have stuff for sale, music and restaurants. It got a bit hot and muggy this afternoon so we had to have a margarita to cool us down! It was very refreshing.

We took a picture of the shopping cart at the beginning of the square. Not sure what it's about but it's big!

Market Square, Downtown San Antonio

Gloria, John & Ted

Giant Shopping Cart????

Red Lip Shoppers!

Texas Pride Barbecue!

What a whirlwind today was! Up and out (packing up the RV) to the repair place, they finished in about an hour. Then on to the tire place, screw removed and down the road to the Ford place. Now we have an appointment for the truck on Tuesday. Race back to the campground with the RV, set it up (again), get cleaned up to leave to meet John & Gloria (Ted's cousin).

They took us down east of San Antonio to the Texas Pride Barbecue Restaurant. It was way out in the middle of nowhere. We had brisket, ribs, chicken and sausage, delicious! It apparently was a gas station at one time! Quite an interesting place! Great food but not sure it's the PRIDE of Texas (see photo)!

Full bellies: "Ain't Life Grand"!