The Waiting Game!

More bad news!  The repair guys came out this morning.  When they pulled the bearing off, they found the axle itself was scarred and will have to be replaced.  We are waiting for them to find a new axle and bearing.  So right now, we have no idea how long we will be in Gallup!  They will also have to repair the underside of our RV as some part of what happened tore it up in a couple of places.  It covers our insulation and protects the floor and all of the tanks.  Our underbelly is actually one piece from front to back but it will now have patches.

We drove into town today and looked around.  We saw a Cracker Barrel in town so Ted is taking me there for breakfast in the morning!  They have good breakfasts!  We weren't really in the mood to do much sightseeing so picked up some dog food and a couple of things and are back at the camp site.  When you have nothing you can do about things, I blog and hog the computer so Ted is taking a nap and Max too!

It's 90 degrees here right now and starting to get cloudy.   In Chama it's in the 70's and beautiful...so they tell me!

Being safe and sound..."Ain't Life Grand!" 

Petrified Forest and Painted Desert and the bad news!

Yesterday we drove through the town of Holbrook on the way to the Petrified Forest National Park.   It is a very small town with lots of motels, one grocery store, lots of rock shops, a couple of banks and so on.  The main road through Holbrook is U.S. Route 66!  Route 66 encompasses 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles originally.  The interesting historic Wigwam Motel is on Route 66 in Holbrook!

From there we went on a drive through the Petrified Forest National Park.  Our first stop was to the Rainbow Forest Museum.  There were a lot of pieces of trees laying around that were over 200 million years old!  The logs were buried in layers of sediment along a river with silica gradually replacing organic material.  The rainbow of colors come from trace minerals such as iron and manganese oxides!  They are beautiful and mother nature has polished them to a brilliant shine!

 As we drove through the park we were being chased by thunder, lightning and rain!  Most of the hard rain went around us!

The Painted Desert is at one end of the 28 mile road but you can only see a small portion from the road.  We stopped at the Painted Desert Inn, and took a look inside.  There were only 6 very small rooms in the inn, a nice lounge, eating area and beautiful views!  It no longer functions as an inn but as a museum and you can look around.

The colors in the painted desert are amazing. It was a cloudy, rainy day and I'm sure on a sunny day it would even be more beautiful!

This morning we left Holbrook and were planning to drive to Santa Fe, New Mexico.  It was a beautiful day and I took some pictures leaving Arizona...

And arriving in New Mexico!

But the bad news...about 12 miles into New Mexico we heard a loud pop!  We had a blow out on the RV on the driver side.  Ted got pulled over just past the weigh station and managed to back into an area of the weigh station not being used, all the while the trucks were whizzing past us leaving the weigh station.  The tire man came to fix the tire and now for the really bad news...it was another failed bearing!  But they never fail they tell us...sure, this is our second!

So he managed to chain up the axle so it wouldn't touch the ground and we followed the tire guy as we limped 4 miles to the next exit in Gallup and to a repair shop.  Of course it is Sunday and it wasn't open but luckily, the man and his wife happened to drive by and noticed us (all 55 feet or so) in front of his shop and pulled in to see what was going on.  We have an appointment for someone to come out in the morning to see if they have a bearing that will work for us.  Last time it took a few days to get the bearing so we "camped" by the side of the road between Las Vegas and Pahrump, Nevada!  We also will have to buy a new tire and order a new rim from Indiana!

We are safely in an RV park in Gallup which we had been to before, and it is a very nice park.  Tonight they had a man singing country songs, they had a barbecue and an ice cream social.  I cooked our dinner but we attended the social and ate ice cream and talked to some nice people!

Ted says..."Life ain't too Grand today!"

Holbrook, Arizona

We left Cherry Valley yesterday and are now in Holbrook, Arizona.   I always think of Arizona as hot and desert like!  We drove through Flagstaff and it was about 10 degrees cooler at that elevation.  There is one area that has a huge field.  We have seen it filled with snow, green as could be and yesterday it was full of yellow flowers and very pretty!

We decided to spend two nights here and today will visit the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.  We've been wanting to see the area and we have the day to do it!  We've stayed at this campground before and they have a "Cowboy Cookout".  So we decided to partake.  I had a good steak dinner and Ted had a good old fashioned cheeseburger!

Tomorrow we will be in New Mexico!

Taking time to sightsee..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Last day in Cherry Valley!

Yesterday was soooo relaxing.   We needed to recouperate after our busy week in San Diego.  My excuse to be lazy yesterday!!!! 

Today we took our truck in and they replaced the "drive line".  That is what they call it.  Tomorrow we will see how it works pulling the RV.  It had a "shimmy" when you would start off but didn't last long.  I asked Donald our Commerical Fleet Service Advisor at Sunrise Ford if I could take his picture of where we "used" to spend so much time with our old truck.  He laughed and allowed me to take the picture!

He is a nice man, but more importantly seems to know a lot about trucks and what he doesn't know, he finds out!

Tomorrow we will start out to Chama, New Mexico. 

Back on the road again..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Made it to Cherry Valley!

We had such a good time in San Diego.  We enjoyed time at Jim and Della's.  On Thursday she had her famous spaghetti dinner!  Elaine Williams had made brownies that were to die for!  When we arrived we found Kelli enjoying the spa after her six day bike ride from San Luis Obispo!  I'm not showing the picture of her before she realized we were there, let's just say we could have probably made some $$$$ on it!

The weather was wonderful for sitting out on the patio!  Phil, Elaine and Marion were enjoying!

On Friday we met our friend Jeri Gutowski at Barona.  We had a couple of hours of gambling and lunch in the cafe.  It was a lot of fun!  We hurried home to let Max out and made it to Jim and Della's in time for Jim's yummy ribs and beer can chicken.  Della had made a ton of salads and her yummy sweet and sour beans!  Her friend Kim made a marshmallow/cream cheese sauce for strawberries that was also a big hit!

We got the group together for a red lips picture!

On Saturday I met my friend Peggy Price for lunch in La Mesa.  We enjoyed lunch and then while I was getting my nails done, she came in with pumpkin spice cupcakes and cream cheese frosting...my favorite!  I think I gained 10 pounds this week in San Diego...yikes!

In the afternoon we attended the Su-Hi grand re-opening!  The school looks great.  I managed to get a few more pictures:

Ted, Kelli, Karol, Jim & Della (side picture of the new building)

Kelli and Vicky with one of their former teachers!

Vicky with the High School Mascot!

After listening to speeches, roaming the new halls of the school and buying a t-shirt to help the football team, we headed back to Jim and Della's for left overs and quiet conversation!  It was a fun day!

Sunday we met our friends Jeri and Stach Gutowski for brunch and then we opened birthday presents...past, present and future birthdays!  Stach was May, I was July, Jeri is August and Ted October!  It was fun doing it all together!  Jeri found red lip luggage for me...too cute...and a beautiful Paris neclace and earrings!  She got Ted an Amazon gift certificate (for his Kindle) and two 24 oz Starbucks tumblers that she had added pictures too!  They were so great...loved them!

We are now in Cherry Valley, waiting for a new drive shaft for our truck.  We are hoping it comes in today! 

Week long blogs..."Ain't Life Grand!"

The Blog!

Tomorrow we leave San Diego and  we will have better internet again!  I couldn't even add pics to the blog it is so slow!  Will do the blog after we get settled in Cherry Valley!

We've had a great time in San Diego..."Ain't Life Grand!"

San Diego!!!

We made it to San Diego!  On Monday we took the new truck to the dealer for it's first oil change.  We also had a couple of issues.  When it would shift in and out of 5th it would clunk!  They updated the computer and that problem was fixed (takes a couple of hours)!  The shimmy that happens when it first starts has to do with the drive shaft.  They have to balance the drive shaft with the RV weight to the truck.  They had a fix for that, a new longer drive shaft.  We will take the truck back next Tuesday for the change out!  We still love the new truck!

While in San Diego for the week, we are trying to meet up with friends and get some things done.  Tuesday we got the RV set up and got some errands done.  Tuesday night was Girls Night Out!  I met up with the girls and we had a good time, lots of laughing and some gift exchanging!   Yesterday we met up with our friend David Prime for lunch and then friends Larry and Carol Wallis for dinner!

Today Max goes to the groomer and then tonight we meet up at Jim and Della Crownovers for a Su-Hi Mama Della spaghetti dinner get together! Yummmm!

Seeing friends..."Ain't Life Grand!"