At home in Iowa, a whirlwind!

                                               It has been a whirlwind around the farm!! 

                                              Things are growing, going and happening..

 Really.. with seven grand-kids just outside our door and three more a few miles down the gravel road.  I'm not complaining,  I LOVE IT!!  So what have I been doing the last seven weeks?  Biking with the kids, fishing with the kids, reading stories to the kids, playing games with the kids and a little gardening.

We cleaned out the Bluebird boxes and I'm happy to say we have babys.  Bluebirds have been struggling in our area so we have been putting up boxes and monitoring their progress.  Randy has made several nice boxes and found a good way to mount them so the snakes and racoons don't get them.

The week before we hooked up to go to Indiana we had a fellow camper pull in for a visit.  Doug backed in his fifth wheel right next to our camper.  Spent some time watching the corn grow and just talking.
 We gave him the tour of Old Nauvoo and had a horse drawn ride around town.

One of the restored homes.

 Did I mention the neighbor with seven kids (Christine's family ) were gone that week on their own camping adventure?  I'm sure most of you thought Randy and I were doing the happy dance as we watched them drive out the lane.  Not really!!  I miss them already....:)

This is the tree house behind the camper that Randy built for the kids of all ages.  The things I have viewed from the back window, if only they knew!

,

It has been an absolute riot.  The things little kids can do and say will make for a very interesting day.  Of coarse there is never a lack of hugs or laughter.  I have to admit sometimes it is nice to hide in the camper.                                                                                                                    

We are now on our way to Indiana to the Rv manufacturer to have have some camper work done.  Hope to explore the Amish country and take in some local sites.  I have a feeling that may be an interesting report.

Until next time....enjoy the simple things and I hope you find something that makes you laugh and smile. 

The journey home from Tucson

It was a fast trip back to Iowa from Tucson.  We normally like to take it easy when traveling with camper in tow but got delayed at Rv dealer with repairs so took the short route.  Randy had to get back for doctors appts.  First day was the longest, made it to Albuquerque.  We stayed at Kirkland AFB campground, easy to get to and pull-thru sites. 

 When going to a new location my biggest worry is how hard it will be to get a 39ft camper into the space.  It can be quite entertaining to see what some of us have to do to get it parked.  When the driver doesn't understand the spotters hand signals it can get a little "heated" if you know what I mean.  

It was my birthday the next day and since they were forecasting high winds we decided to layover one more day.  About birthdays....  I never was one who wanted to celebrate on my big day until I turned 60!  Then for some reason I decided hay, it should be a big deal.  Who knows how much time we have and we better make the most of it!!   I try to do something special and new.  This year I lucked out and meet up with Doug P. a friend we first met in the  RV park  in Tucson.  ( a true full timer)  

 Had lunch at a very interesting restaurant called the Range Cafe, homemade everything.  Circle the Wagons was the name of breakfast and the question always asked in New Mexico is?  Red or Green Chiles

 

 After lunch we decided to take the Sandia Tram ride to the top of the mountains.  It was a little scary at first but what a thrill, awesome views of New Mexico!  It had been in the 90's at the bottom but was a cool 54 degrees at the top.

 

   Here are a few facts. 

Total Horizontal length,  2.7 miles.  

Track Ropes, 1 5/8 inches in diameter. 

Total Vertical rise 3,819 ft.

Elevation at upper terminal: 10,378 ft

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we headed out for Liberal Kansas where we stayed at a county fairgrounds just across the Ok border.    Since the place was empty I decided it would be a good time for me to try backing in the  new camper.  Randy and I really need to work on our hand signals!! :) 

 

 

 We drove all the way across Kansas on Hwy 54 the following day  with a strong side wind and made it to Kansas City.  Stopped at a roadside cafe/gas station that sat all by itself in the tall grass prairie.

  The gal that waited  on us also ran the gas pumps and was the cook.  Made great biscuits and gravy and homemade cinnamon rolls every morning.  You really see a different side to this great county by traveling the back roads.  She told us the wind never stops blowing in Kansas!  

Bluestem Pasters (tall grass prairie)

 

 Our last night on the road we stopped at Smithville lake and met for supper with  fellow RV full-timers who stay in Kansas City for the summer.  Its always fun to catchup and compare notes on where we have been.  

 Final morning on the road, this has been smooth sailing.  Well that thought was to good to last... Went to close up the camper and the side-outs won't come in and landing gear won't come up.  The hydraulics wouldn't work.  After hours on the phone we finally got everything up and in with the help of a mobile Rv service.  The pump will have to be replaced.  

We made it home!

Randy had the girls catching fish!!

 

First day back,  fishing, cutting trees and building a bonfire.  

No smores?  Sorry were out of marshmallows.

Kids, they are one of our greatest assets.

Since we are still waiting on camper repairs  decides to spending a week at Fort Huachuca camping at the base of the mountains. This is a nice Army campground with full hookups outside of Sierra Vista, Az.  I posted in earlier blog about the Fort so will let you reference it for further info.

We have been traveling with the kids for a couple of weeks,  its fun  (they are funny),  exhausting  (I am to slow) and sometime I can't wait for quiet time.  But what we can learn from them! They are witty, candid, open minded, and honest with their thoughts.   Sometimes you are the teacher but often they teach you. I forget, what was that thing, what was the name of something we saw earlier in the day?  No worry the kids remind me,  with all the highlights of the best part of their day!

The first day of spring!  We hiked up  Garden Canyon, talked about the plants and different wildlife and had a picnic lunch along the stream.  Found cougar and deer tracks along the trail and declared ourselves rock hounds. No silly not a type of dog but someone who likes to look for cool rocks! 

Our next day trip was to Fairbank Az which is now a ghost town.  Explored the abandoned buildings and explained the history of the town and area.   We packed our lunch of coarse as there are no fast food places there. 

 Visited the San Pedro House and hiked along the river which is part of the flyway for many migratory birds.  Played under one of the oldest, biggest, coolest cottonwood tree I have ever seen.  We imagined what the Native Americans and early explorers would have been doing right under this same tree! 

What more can I say,  kids make it OK to be a kid!!  I like that...

Enjoy your day!!  

The life of a busy (lazy?) blogger, winter is gone.

                             

                             WWoooow,  life please slow down!! 

 

 Can it possibly be time to migrate  from our desert home?  I  can't believe it has been so long since my last post, I really have got to get with it!!  

We have packed up and broke camp at Desert Trails,  Looking forward to heading home but always hate the good byes.  The friends we have made here have become our extended family.  Have shared a lot of laughs and some great times.  Hope to see them all next season!

Thought I would share a few photos with you.

 The  road to Mt Lemmon, part of the Coronado National Forest.  22 miles of twist and turns with cool rock walls and canyons, lots of places to camp, picnic and hike. 

It was 94 degrees at our campsite in Tucson so Christine and I decided to take a drive up to Mount Lemmon, its one of many sky islands in Az  just outside of town.   What a dramatic change from the cactus desert floor to the pine tree top at over 8,000ft  where black bear, deer and wild turkey call home.  We stopped for a picnic in the Ski resort town of Winterhaven and had to sample the fudge.  At the cookie shop we shared a 9" warm, gooey, most delicious chocolate cookie! 

The drive down the mountain was awesome for most of us.  Christine does not do well with shear drop offs. She has a touch of vertigo.  I offered to drive but no...... she wanted to stay on the inside of the road.   

 At the top of the mountain we found snow, yes snow in the middle of the desert. It was 60 degrees compared to 94 in Tucson!  Of coarse we had to stop and play awhile.  Snowball fights broke out!!

 I revisited the Saguaro National Park, hiked a few trails and saw the ancient rock art.  Also saw a rare fan shaped Saguaro, only happens once out of 220,000 cactus.

  The Sonoran Desert Museum, one of our favorite places . It has a new exhibit, an aquarium of life in the waters running through the Sonoran desert.  The sea horses are my favorite! I could write a book about all the things to see and do here.

Reid Park Zoo, what a great place to spend the day.  Just the perfect size for youngsters and grandma.  They have a wonderful elephant exhibit.  Lots of green space and activities for kids of all ages. 

One of the many missions through out Arizona.  This one is just outside of Tucson and has seen major restoration.  I'm amazed at the interior paintings and wood carved statues.  

Trip up Sabino canyon with Christines family. We packed a lunch, loaded 7 kids and took a 7 mile trolly ride though the canyon. At one of the 7 stops after crossing over the stream seven times we had to stop and play!!!  Grandpa was a big helper, 

Settling in at Desert Trails, Tucson AZ

Randy and Shelby

Mom and Dad at jam session.

Have spent our first week setting up camp and settling in for the winter.  Randy has been washing and waxing the camper removing all the grim from traveling 1,900 miles to get to Tucson.

I have been taking advantage of above average temperatures (90's)  with a few swims in the pool.  Also took my first hike on the desert trails just behind our park.  I feel lucky to be able to walk among the Saguaro cactus, I just love them!  They remind me of giant sentinels watching over all who pass by  their path.

Lots of activities starting up and we should be in full swing soon as more people flock in.  There's always something going on, hiking, biking,  jam sessions,  golf, bocce ball, ping pong, ladies pool, line dancing, Exercise classes, yoga, swimming, wed. is games night and Thursday is Bingo. If that's not enough to get you started you can always join up with the Photo club or Creative writing group.  Oh a new group, the RV travel club to be starting soon sounds interesting.  On Monday morning you can join everyone in the park for coffee and donuts and information at the club house.  Thats a good way to find out whats going on in the area for the coming week.  Also learrn about the twice weekly entertainment scheduled at the club house.

 If you prefer some quiet time  we have a great library with a large variety of books compiled by past and present park travelers.

Its exciting to see our friends coming in and catching up with whats been going on since we all migrated out this spring.

I guess you can see why we like it so much at Desert Trails!!!

 Just wish the grand-kids weren't so far away!

October is almost over!

I love the month of October! We spent the first week in Tennessee with Amys family.  Camping in their backyard  was really great as we got to spend alot of time together.  Had some bonfires, roasted hotdogs and smores of coarse.  Took a trip to the Nashville Zoo, just the right size for the younger kids.  Now the leaves have turned to bright reds, yellow and orange, they don't last long!  With every breeze they swirl though the air and cover the ground.  As kids we spent alot of time raking them into piles, making make believe forts and then jumping right in! Then back to Iowa to get ready to leave for our trek west.  Spent the last couple of days with Mats family before heading out with a backyard fire and star gazing. Set off some firework left over from the 4th, that was a hit with the kids!  I always find saying good bye when we leave hard to do, I miss them already.

On the Iowa farm.

Kyler, Emily, Lane and grandpa

I 10 Texas

Happy Halloween!

The last week of October has been spent traveling toward Tucson AZ for the winter months.  This trek has been a new adventure for me as I am pulling the camper by myself.  Randy following along behind with Aunt Ruthann, he is driving her motor home. I have a new appreciation for all the driving Randy usually does!!  I have to say I was very nerves the first day, the second day and on and on.  Took a few deep breaths, put the metal to the petal  and off we go!  Since I'm the only one who has Gps and internet on my smart phone I get to be the navigator and travel guide.   How did the pioneers do it!  Travel with out cell phones and the internet?  They are my life line, need to see where the nearest gas station is up ahead or find a campground for the night?  JUST GOOGLE IT!   Radio going for company, tense muscles, sometimes white knuckle moments but now I know I can do it..

Tomorrow should be the last leg of this trip,  looking forward to seeing all our winter friends and taking walks in the desert.  Sun, fun and a swim in the pool awaits us!   Happy Trails.... Happy Halloween too!

Fall in Iowa

  It looks like we will be delayed departing Iowa for another month due to canceled and rescheduled Dr appts.  Have to take care of all that good stuff before we can take off for our winter home in Tucson.

 So thought I would take the time to rediscover rural America where I was raised and lived most of my life...Iowa.  Cooler temps, crisp nite air, golden corn and bean fields.  Fall awaits and the sounds of combines harvesting are all around me.  Made a trip to one of the local orchards to get some of Randy's favorite Honey crisp apples.  I was tempted to pickup some pumpkins put where would I put them in the camper?  So got some warm just out of the oven apple turnovers instead.  Yum!!!


Cleaned out Mats garden as were supposed to get a hard freeze and that will put an end to it.  Its fun to get to do the easy part of harvesting and canning.  Now Mat does the hoeing and watering.  Squash, tomatoes, watermelon, muskmelon, beets, green beans, peppers and beautiful sweet carrots. Oh Christine and family made old fashion sauerkraut in a century old crock the way I remember my grandparents doing it.  Canned kraut and deep red pickled beets line the pantry.


Decided to take a trip to middle Tennessee to see our daughter Amy and her family before coming back for  RV repairs.  Chronic problems with electric awning and convection oven on new camper.  I think we have a dark cloud overhead when it comes to campers!

Having arrived in Tennessee we are having a great time with the granddaughters.  What do you do on rainy days with two active girls?  Go to Goodwill..... stuff a bag for $2.99!!  Rent movies from Red box for only $1.00 and play games.

Goodwill shopping

 Took a field trip to the Tennessee State History Museum in Nashville.
Very interesting and it was free.. Learned alot about the area, prehistoric, plantation life and civil war battles of which Tn was greatly affected.  The only thing the girls were in a hurry to see was the mummy on display!


The girls decided they would like to have a rope swing in the back yard.  So with the help of the internet we found a great website with very good step by step instructions for an old fashioned tree swing.  Thus the project got under way and the whole family got involved... I learned some cool knots too!

             We did find one warm night to have a bonfire, make smores  and of coarse take turns telling scary stories.

Randy decided to put in 50 amp electric for the camper so we could park right next to the house and stay in their yard. Needless to say the girls have been hanging out in the camper..playing with Barbies, helping out.

 We'll have to drag ourselves back north in a couple of days..Burrrrrr.  Then off for Arizona we hope and looking forward to catching up with our winter friends!    Take Care!!!!



   Kathy