Sophie Kercher and her traveling companions!

Yesterday was errand day!  We had a nice breakfast out, got new slippers for Susan, new sheets for the bed and some groceries.  We spent the afternoon relaxing with Sophie while the clouds gathered, the lightning started and later the rain...wind...and more rain!  The gusts of wind were really strong when we went to bed with a steady rainfall.

This morning we collected our mail from the mail service and then headed to the Badlands.  They are about 40 miles from where we are staying.  After about 5 miles we caught up to the rain which got harder and harder.  We decided to stop at the famous "Wall Drugs" to see if the rain let up.

What makes Wall Drug famous you ask?  Ted Hustead and his wife Dorothy came to the town of Wall in 1931 and purchased the only drug store in town.  He had graduated from pharmacy school and worked for other druggists and decided he wanted to open his own shop.    They found this town with the shop for sale in the middle of nowhere!    But Wall had a catholic church and the people they met were nice so they bought it.  After five years their business had not grown at all and Ted was thinking about what to do.  Dorothy went out to put the children down for a nap, it was hot and she was amazed at all the traffic on the road and came up with an idea for free ice water.  She even had little slogans made up like the old Burma Shave commercials.   They made the signs and put them up.   Before Ted could get up all the signs, people were coming in for the free ice water and bought other things including ice cream!  By the next summer they had to hire eight employees and Wall Drug was on the map!  On a good summer day, Wall Drug draws up to twenty thousand people and estimate giving away 5,000 glasses of ice water per day all summer!

Ted and I looked around Wall Drug which is a city block long and deep.  They have clothing, boots, books, jewelry, a cafe and lots of tourist stuff!  We had lunch and the rain had still not let up so we headed back to the campground, saving Badlands for another time!

In our mail today, see who got their own mail:

Sophie was sitting with Dad the other morning!  She was wearing her halo and wasn't being the "snapping turtle"!

Tomorrow morning we  are going to DMV to get our drivers licenses address updated and then we will get on the road.  Next stop is Salina, Kansas for a few days!

Sophie and her "traveling companions"..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Home Again!

Saturday evening everyone was on our own for dinner.  We chose to go to the Moab Brewery for wings and things with John and Romola and Les and Ida!  The bar was packed so we ate in the dinning room but fortunately, Ida could still see a tv showing the Alabama college football game and fortunately for us, they won!  LOL  Ida is very into her team!

Sunday we put the crockpot on in the morning and then headed to Dead Horse State Park with Lou and Carol.  The legend is that the cowboys would round up the wild horses and put them out there on the mesa and they put up corrals on three sides because the horses would not jump off the cliffs.  The cowboys would go back later and get the horses they wanted but left the others.  The cliff was several thousand feet high and they could see the Colorado River below but they died from thirst.  Despite the legend, it is a beautiful area.  Carol kept Ted from falling off the rock!

Who are these people at Dead Horse Point???

In the evening we provided two pork loins, one southwestern flavored and one Korean flavored and the rest of the group provided salad, rice, and more.  For dessert the group came over to our grassy area with their chairs and we shared some dessert libation!  It was a nice end to the rolling rally!

Monday morning we all said goodbye and went our separate ways.  We headed to Draper, Utah, a few miles south of Salt Lake City!  We were having our large slide out repaired on Tuesday.  It is repaired and then we were on our way on Thursday to Box Elder, South Dakota (HOME)!   We made it here yesterday afternoon (Friday).

Today we decided to drive some more!  We drove a scenic hour to Custer State Park.  We were beginning to think we were not going to see any animals but Prairie Dogs, when we came up on a herd of Bison.  There were two big guys fighting in the middle of the road.  We were not close enough (other tourists) to get pictures of the fighting but it was pretty exciting to see.  We did get some of the guys meandering around!

  

Next we came to a Visitor Center and found a Pronghorn buck and two ladies lying around the area.  The buck was on duty protecting his two ladies from another guy who got too close. 

We drove on and came to the beautiful State Game Lodge (formerly the summer White House for Calvin Coolidge).  Between busloads we had a good lunch in the beautiful dining room before heading back to the campground. 

I drove so Ted could sightsee and we picked what looked like the shortest route through the park to get out of the park so we could get home to Sophie!  We drove away from the Lodge in time to see some young Bighorn Sheep crossing the road.

Then a little further down the road we came across some people in the road and someone had noticed this Bighorn Sheep up on the rock.  He was spectacular!

We thought we had picked the quickest route out of the park, but we picked the route with LOTS of hairpin curves on VERY narrow roads.  I’m sure Ted was holding his breath in the areas where he was on the side of steep dropoffs!  We did see some beautiful spires and when he wasn’t scared, Ted had a beautiful view!  I was busy navigating the roads!

Seeing wild animals in their natural habitat…”Ain’t Life Grand!”

The rolling rally continues...

On Friday our group took off in different directions.  We went with Jerry and Hessie shopping in Cortez and to the church bazaar!  Ted got me a beautiful pair of Onyx and Opal earrings and necklace!  Then our group met up at the Guy Drew Vineyards outside of town.  We all had fun doing a tasting and even found some wine to buy!

Friday evening we attended the buffet at the casino.  I had a huge pile of crab legs and ate every bite!  Everyone had a good dinner and a little gambling and back to the campground preparing to leave on Saturday!

Monument Valley, Utah/Arizona

On Saturday morning we headed to Monument Valley to the Gouldings Campground.  We all arrived safely and settled in.  We were all on our own on Saturday afternoon and Ted and I went over to the Lodge and took a look in the gift shop and the museum.   There is a lot of movie history in the valley as well as the interesting story behind the Gouldings and their arrival in the Valley. 

On Sunday Ted and I drove to the Gooseneck State Park.  The San Juan River “goosenecks” around the canyon, it is pretty interesting how the land rose up around the river.

We came back to the Lodge and had a nice lunch before heading back to the campground.  I had put 5lbs of Pot Roast in the crockpot and Hessie had added potatoes, carrots and onions.  The other ladies made delectable items and we had a great dinner!

On Monday morning we all met before 8:00 a.m. for our 3 ½ hour Monument Valley tour.  We had arranged it so it would just be our group.   It was a great tour and you can appreciate how the Valley got its name.  We also were able to tour a part of the Valley that people are not allowed to visit unless they are on certain tours.  We stopped at a home and got a demonstration on spinning sheep wool into yarn and on making a rug in a real Navajo Hogan.  The young Navajo woman had gone to college but was back in the family home helping out.  She made it really look easy!

We asked the drive to stop by the Lodge restaurant on the way back to the campground and he agreed and said he’d come back and get us and take us the ½ mile back to the campground.  We had a good lunch!   We had an ice cream social for dinner that evening!

On Tuesday, everyone did their own thing and we met for dinner at 5:00.  Lou and Carol were barbecuing chicken for the group.  It was pouring down rain but we managed to have our picnic under the cover.  We had a delicious dinner and met an interesting couple visiting from Germany.  We were fine until it started thundering and lightning!

Moab, Utah

We headed to Moab Wednesday morning.  We again arrived safely.  We decided to go to town for dinner and Lou picked Pasta Jays.  We had a good dinner and were joined by John and Romola, part of the Travel Supreme club that had been up in Oregon at Fort Vancouver and met us in Moab!

On Thursday we were on our own and several of us headed to Arches National park.  We spent several hours touring and then had a picnic lunch in the park.  It is such a pretty park and I enjoyed visiting it again.  Thursday evening we had a group potluck of soups, salad, dessert and more. 

Friday everyone was on their own again hiking, sightseeing and more.  Ted was busy cooking his “famous” enchiladas.  Which ended up being his “famous enchilada casserole”!  He was busy chopping onions, cooking hamburger and compiling the ingredients to make the casserole.  The casserole was delicious and the ladies again, had wonderful side dishes!

Before dinner on Thursday, I was speaking with one of the ladies in the campground and the lightning started with a huge clap of thunder.  Within seconds it was hailing and pouring rain!  Then again after dinner the “weather” started again!  During the night, there was the loudest clap of thunder I ever remember hearing with a huge bolt of lightning!  We all sat straight up in bed.  Sophie, who sleeps through everything, was startled!  Then the pouring rain and blustery wind started.  We felt very sorry for the little pop up camper with tent like slides!

Today four of the ladies had a shopping trip in town.  We visited several stores and bought a few things before having a nice lunch!  This afternoon we are planning a visit to the Moab Brewery for snacks and drinks.  If the rain subsides, we are planning to visit the North and South Windows in Arches for sunset…will keep you posted!

Motorhome arrived and we are "on the road again!"

I've been derelict in my blog duties, but things got incredibly crazy once the RV came in!  The motorhome arrived on the 20th to La Mesa RV in San Diego.  We got over there in the afternoon to see  it.  The good news; the generator and air conditioners were correct!  The dinette table on the first unit had been blocked by some switch plates (design error).  That was fixed but the table still won't make into a bed because they screwed the lever to the table and that lever needs to move to allow the table to go down to make into a bed.  We are making our warranty repair list for when we go by the factory!

Then there is the refrigerator story!  We originally ordered the gas/electric fridge. We had one that was a side by side and held a ton of stuff!  The gas/electric arrived with a very small freezer on top, the refrigerator part was ok.  We asked if they could order the new replacement RV with a side by side.  Then we spoke to Mike and Sandy Adamson, friends that also have a Phaeton motor home.  They have the all electric fridge with extra batteries.  They had really wanted a gas fridge as well but they chose an RV off the lot.  They had La Mesa put solar panels on the roof and they have been ok with it for the six months they have had it.  So we ordered our second RV this way!  So naturally it came with the same gas/electric fridge with the small freezer.  The service manager told us that they are having problems with the all electric chewing up the batteries and he personally would not want the all electric.  Of course I then asked him what I was supposed to do with all that food I had currently in my freezer that wouldn't fit in the small freezer!    The sales manager then suggested they give us a freezer in the slide out for additional space.  We all agreed, including Ted who had to give up some of his space for it!

On Friday we rushed around in the morning packing up the last few things and then we took the old RV to La Mesa RV where we were to sign papers, have a two hour walk through and transfer the items from old to new RV.  We got there and the service department had done their checklist but not anything on our list including the new freezer.  They said it had not come in.  So again I ask, what am I supposed to do with all my freezer stuff.

We had originally ordered in April allowing plenty of time for them to get and process the RV and for us to repack the RV before going to an RV rally, we were hosting!  Since we didn't accept the first one we were now out of time!  Around 3:30 the Service Manager came out said fridge had arrived and they could get it installed!  They also finished the other items that needed to be done.  We then worked until an hour past closing time to empty our old RV into our new RV, and orderly enough that they would be able to drive it to Yuma the next day.

La Mesa put us up in an hotel for the night and we finally got subs delivered about 8:30 and practically fell asleep while eating them we were so exhausted.  We got up early and were at La Mesa at 7:00 a.m. for our drive to Yuma.  We stopped an had breakfast and got to Yuma around noon  We signed the special form saying we took possession in Arizona (so we only have to pay our South Dakota 3% sales tax and licensing fees opposed to California fees, as we are residents of South Dakota)!  Here we are  in HOT Yuma picking up the RV!

 Ted loves his new motorhome!

Sophie too was excited about the new motorhome!

We took the motorhome back to Pio Pico Saturday evening.  Our friend Peggy and her son Scott came over to see the new RV and brought pizza with them.  The new few days are a blur!  On Sunday our friends Jim and Della Crownover (long time motorhome owners) helped us get EVERYTHING out of storage and in our RV and their car...amazing!  We went back to the campground and they helped us unpack on Sunday.  We unpacked more all day Monday and still had 9 boxes when we started traveling on Tuesday morning!

The motor home is ready to roll so much faster than the fifth wheel and we got off around 8:00 a.m.!  We made it to Kingman, Arizona on the first night.  We unpacked a couple more boxes and fortunately the campground had taco night and we were able to eat without cooking or leaving the campground!

Wednesday morning we got ready to go at 8:00 a.m. again and our jacks would not go up.  We waited until 8:30 and called La Mesa service, they were in meetings until 10:30.  We then called the Tiffen factory in Alabama.  They walked us through a few things and then told Ted how to raise them manually.  They thought it might be a solenoid problem and gave us a few service numbers down the road to try.  

We noted that La Mesa RV has a shop in Albuquerque, NM so we drove until 8:00 p.m. and made it to the campground across the freeway.    In the morning we drove over there and found that they are not allowed to work on Tiffen products because there was already a Tiffen dealer in town when they opened shop!  But, being a La Mesa customer, they would see what they could do.  Of course Ted had tried to lower the jacks the night before and they still didn't work.  We got there, they guy went out to look at them and they went up and down without a problem!  Murphy's Law!

Good news and we were on our way to Chama, NM about a 3-hour drive.  Every afternoon the clouds came in and most days we had rain, thunder and lightning and a rainbow!  

When we came in on Thursday we parked in a space and then on Friday we moved to a different space.  Our first space was a little tight but Ted had no trouble parking and Sophie enjoyed looking out the window!

When we moved to our new spot, we were putting out one of the larger slides and I yelled for Ted to stop.  Some kind of silver thing had dropped out of the slide.  It was one of the rollers.  The roller looks okay and Ted can peek inside and see that the bracket looks okay but its not something we can fix.  Fortunately it came back in and we will have to leave it in until we finish the rally.  We have an appointment up by Salt Lake city to have it repaired!

We were in Chama until Tuesday.  Thursday night I was happy to find out the plan was to go to the Cliffs restaurant.  We've always have a great meal there and have been able to feed the deer.  This year they weren't hungry but we still had a good meal!  It was good to see everyone and catch up on what was going on.  This year it is a smaller group of 12 plus the addition of a couple there in the park that joined the club!

On Saturday was the Chama Labor Day weekend arts festival.  Very interesting and I got a new pair of sandals and earrings!   Saturday night we cooked our  steaks and everyone brought stuff to share.

We got the last of our boxes unpacked on Sunday and at 6:00 we had an ice cream social!  After ice cream, the ladies played Liverpool Rummy and had a lot of laughs!

Monday morning Ted and I hosted an open house in our new Motorhome!  We had pastries, fruit, orange juice, mimosas and Dom Perignon Champagne!  All 14 showed up and at one time we had 12 comfortably inside at once.  Not everyone had chairs but everyone seemed okay!

On Tuesday we left Chama and are at the Sleeping Ute Mountain Casino and RV Park in Towaoc, southwest of Cortez, Colorado.  There are four other RV's with us for a total of 10 people!   The ladies decided to go over to the casino in the shuttle.   The campground gave us $5 per day to spend in the casino!  A couple of the ladies came back with a little bit of money.  I donated $20!

When I came back to the campground it had cooled down and it was pleasant enough to sit outside.  So thats what Ted, Sophie and I did!  We have a nice view from our site!

Later we all had dinner together in the Casino restaurant.  They have a table for 10 and it's great for us. When we got back to the campground, we had a double rainbow (almost)!

We have given the group some things to do and everyone was on their own on Wednesday.  We visited the Visitor Center in Cortez and the Anazasi Heritage Center in Delores.  We had lunch at a little bar and grill right by the Delores river.

In the afternoon we had "happy hour" at our place with some snacks.  Unfortunately it was hotter with no breeze and after awhile the "biting" flies drove us inside...the casino!  This time I was successful, came home with more money and a "happy camper"!

Today is another free day.  I'm blogging and washing.  Ted is going cross-eyed looking at the motorhome manuals!  Tonight is an "Indian buffet" at the casino so we are all planning to attend!

Sorry it's such a long blog!

Loving our new home..."Ain't Life Grand!"