New home; a work in progress

We got to Sherman RV about 10:00 this morning, did our paperwork and started moving into the new coach. I took this picture as it was getting dark (about 4 p.m.) We moved everything over and then from about 5 - 6:30 put stuff away! We had a lot of stuff in that small RV!

I can't wait to get Christmas decorations up, then I'll take pictures again so you can see the finished product.

We are staying in Sherman tonight and will start our journey back to
Phoenix tomorrow. Hopefully the return trip will go as well as the trip here.

Hope everyone is having a really good weekend and getting all your Christmas shopping done. This has been a different holiday year, but it's always like that when you move around Christmas time.

This is the kitchen (please notice the full-size refrigerator) I love it!!!!!!!!!

Waiting in Tupelo

What do you do while waiting for your coach in Tupelo, MS? Visit the house Elvis was born in (already did that); drive the Natchez Trace (already did that, too); go to the Tupelo Battlefield with marker, maps, and cannon (very interesting and actually 3 battles fought here); visit the Oren Dunn City Museum and Veterans Museum (we always enjoy area museums and this one was interesting); visit the Tupelo Automobile Museum with over a 100 cars dating from 1899 to 1994 (that was really fun too!)

I only got a few pictures of the Tupelo Battlefield, but it was interesting to
stop there to see the area, especially the map that showed all the skirmishes that were in the area.

The museum told not only the history of Tupelo, but the area. Tupelo was a capital of the Chickasaw Nation and wasn't settled until just before the Civil War. Union soldiers blew up tressels and bridges on either side of the settlement and set up some sort of headquarters here. Interesting history.

The Automobile Museum had several cars from the 1800s and quite a few from 1900 through about 1920. They were sure different! The '60s cars we liked were the Vet and the Tbird right next to each other. There was one car that had 14 made 0 sold and of course there was an Edsel.

I took a picture of the hard top convertible because I remember the television commercials. There was also the car from "The Great Race" and LOTS of other neat cars.

We also made a trip to Sherman RV yesterday ... and ... WE SAW OUR NEW COACH!!!!!! They have to go through it to make sure everything is good to go today, but they said we should be there tomorrow morning so we can do the paperwork and move in! YEAH!!! Then we get to drive 1700 miles to Phoenix again.

I promise to take pictures as soon as I can and get them on the blog. The coach was in a garage when we saw it with all the slides closed so I wouldn't have been able to get a good shot.

Hi, from Tupelo

I only took two picture all during our trip. This is the bridge over the Mississippi at Vicksburg, MS. The next picture is of the Mississippi River.

We left Phoenix Thursday at 1 p.m. We arrived at Tupelo tonight at 5 p.m. THAT'S A FAST TRIP!!!!! We don't like traveling this way. We will now crash for a few days.

Our coach should be ready this week. As soon as it is ready, we will head back to Phoenix. We're hoping to get back before Christmas and if all goes as scheduled, there should be no problem.

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a less hectic one than our 1700 mile drive -- TWICE!

Arizona

"We're in our roost."We got to Phoenix early (the last week of October) and have had fun helping Brian with projects and playing with Grayson. We have started walking every morning again and spotted this bush not far from our RV. There are lots of these around this time of year and they are really pretty. It has cooled down a bit here, only in the 70s, perfect weather! We love it. We will be having Thanksgiving at Brian's house this year, should be fun. I'll try to remember to take pictures to post.

I had my appointment with an endocrinologist in Glendale and will be going on thyroid probably next week. She did a scan and another blood test to see where my thyroid is now. I get to start on samples to see which one works. She also gave me information to help me start the weight loss process. (That should be fun?!)

It's nice to be settled for a bit again. I've started lots of projects: skirt, purse, blouse, and craft bag. And I'm crocheting blocks for an afghan to give away.

Hoover Dam

This is the new bridge over the Colorado at Hoover Dam. After seeing it, we decided we were NOT going to be the first ones across the bridge!

Lake Mead is REALLY low! We haven't ever seen it this low. This was taken while driving across Hoover Dam. The white all the way around is the high water mark!!

We drove under a portion of the new bridge. It is WA-A-A-Y up there.

We drove full circle: Kingman to Las Vegas to Laughlin back to Kingman. This picture was taken after we left Laughlin on our way to Kingman. We are now in Phoenix for the Winter. We brought cooler weather with us, highs have only been in the 60s since we got here. We're looking forward to good visits with Brian and Grayson while we're here.

Painted Desert & Petrified Forest

The Painted Desert is really pretty with changing colors of grays, pinks and reds! At one point you can see 120 miles across the desert to the San Francisco Mountains north of Flagstaff. That distance doesn't show on a photograph, so I didn't even try!

This is Pilot Peak, also in the Painted Desert. This park is worth the trip. We are loving National Parks/ Monuments since we got our Senior Pass. The pass cost $10 and we get into all parks and monuments for $0.00, we just show the pass!!!! We recommend it to anyone over 62.

The Petrified Forest was really cool! I've wanted to go for a long time, ever since I collected rocks as a little girl (that's a long time!) There were full logs and lots of pieces. This picture is of a log bridge. The log is suspended over a small gully and is about 15 feet long! It's a bit hard to see the log in the picture, because it's the same color as the rock around it, but it was impressive.

This picture shows the wood grain in one of the logs. The petrified rocks in Arizona have lots of red in them. They're really pretty. We went to a film at the visitor's center before we started our tour. We learned that the trees started out in a huge swamp and were submerged in water and eventually covered with silt (and then dirt, rocks, etc. when the swamp dried up). All the debris covering them preserved them for us to see now!

This is a log field! Lots of really big logs that we got to walk through. It was really neat to walk through so many rock logs! This was a neat place to visit.

I

New Mexico

It has been way too long since I updated this blog! After Durango, CO we drove to Santa Fe, NM. It was a beautiful drive through high desert valleys and some really pretty valleys. Santa Fe is an artist community, listed only behind New York and San Francisco in number of Art Galleries! It isn't a really big town and the building codes say everything must be built according to a specific southwest architectural code. Lots of buildings are the pueblo style. It makes for a really neat community. While in Santa Fe, we also drove on the Turquoise Trail. It is quite a drive going all the way from Santa Fe to I-40 east of Albuquerque. There are lots of galleries along this
drive also and it is really pretty just east of the Sandia Mountains. After leaving Santa Fe we drove to Roswell, NM. That's where Howard went to school and where Loriann was born. The area had really changed since Howard was there, but we were able to go out to Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell campus where we got a really good tour of the department by the head of the department. She was so enthusiastic about the program and the students it was really cool to visit with her. We also went to the UFO Museum while we were in Roswell -- that was interesting! We learned lots of new things! From Roswell we drove to Carlsbad where we went through the
Caverns. That was REALLY cool. The big room took well over an hour to walk around (over 6000 square feet big!) After touring the big room, we stayed and watched the bats come out at dusk -- we watched for about 35 minutes as they swarmed out of the natural entrance to the cave. They were still coming by the droves with seemingly no end in sight, so we left! That was really something worth seeing!!!!!!!! From Carlsbad we drove to Alamogordo, NM so I could get my new military ID card. Mine expires this birthday so we drove to the White Sands Missile Range and got me legal. We toured the museum while there and learned a lot of the history of the Missile Range. Then on the way we went to the White Sands National Monument and drove through the park. Lots of white sand!!!! They actually plow it like snow where it has drifted across the roads. Pretty cool! We are now in Albuquerque for about a week. We were here two years ago and we really like the area.