Update on Eye Problems and more...

Well, I have to have more eye surgery. It's my 5th in two years. My retina is now swelling in one area. But, the good thing is that I can wait until after my New York City trip with my granddaughter and daughter-in-law. We should still be able to spend most of July in Oregon at Blue Bucket (a gold prospecting camp).

Picture on above left: This is us enjoying a KFC lunch just before soaking in the Hot Springs at Honeyville, UT, one of my favorite places to go. I just love hot springs.

Willard is enjoying golfing and fishing(see pict upper right - one of many fish caught on Willard Bay, UT) with our son and grandson. We are all going boating this weekend. I am just relaxing and writing. Some of you might not know that I write children's stories. I'm also catching up on genealogy and digital scrapbooking. I must find time for practicing my clarinet and painting. Whenever did I ever have time to work????? I should get my Class of 2005 Yearbook tomorrow. Can't wait to see it. Perhaps I can put some names with faces. I can remember faces, but names are beyond me at times.

Ogden, Utah

The picture on the left is our boat which we keep at our son's home in Ogden. There are several fishing and waterskiing lakes nearby for family fun.

The small picture on the right is our son's family. Not sure how to enlarge it. Too bad.






The poor picture on the right is of us and our grandson just before graduation.










The picture on the right is our "home" at our son's home in Ogden, UT. We are planning on staying here until July 4, after our Family Reunion.

Harrisburg, Utah

Last Sunday we arrived at the Western Horizon RV Park in Harrisburg, Utah just north of St. George, UT. We have been driving to Cedar City every morning for Willard to golf with his old golfing buddies and I have been putting new merchandise in the Ancestors Market. Since we closed our antique business (Hunter House) last June, I have my "treasures" on consignment. It's been a good thing. Willard finished up some dental work, too. Six of our grandchildren and our youngest Dan and Anna treated us with a visit several times this week at the park. It was so good to visit with them again. They are all growing up so. Our son is expanding his food business in Cedar City. If you are in the area, check out the Gyro Stand. Yum, yum!

We just returned from a cookout that Wendle and Rachel had at their home. It was so nice to visit with "the guys" and their wives. Tomorrow I am planning to clean out and close our storage unit. I will take the important tax papers, my oil paintings, and family genealogy records to our son's home in Ogden, Ut. We will be heading to their home this weekend. Jason graduates from high school on Monday. Our plan is to park in their driveway until after July 4. Melissa, Beth and I are going to New York for a week in the middle of June. We will have a family reunion in Ogden July 1-3. Then we will head for Blue Bucket in Oregon. In the next few days I plan on adding new pictures to this Blog. Just haven't had time this past week. We still love this lifestyle!

Grand Canyon Escapees HOP

We finally made it to Williams, AZ to attend the Escapees HOP. We are all staying at Railside RV Ranch, a great little park with the most friendly managers. There are about 44 rigs in the group. And everyone we have met are just wonderful people. Many started fulltiming about the time we did. Some have been on the road for 10 years or more. We have had delicious catered meals and entertainment each evening. Yesterday we took the train from Williams, AZ to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. (Pict to upper left is Jean and new friends waiting for the train ride.) (Pict in upper right is Willard enjoying the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a long slow trip up and back. Even though we enjoyed the day, we were glad to get back to camp. Today we are resting up for the bus tour to Sodona tomorrow. Tonight we have a potluck dinner. I'm taking Apple Crisp that I made from apples I picked from our trees in Cedar City last year. They have been in the freezer taking up valuable space all of this time. This morning Willard and I had a little jam session just between ourselves. I think we are sounding pretty good. Anyway, it is fun. Duster is to be groomed today. He sure needs it. While he is having his bath we will take a little tour of the area.
PICTURE Below:This is the Escapees HOP group on the train from Williams, AZ to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. There were about 88 of us in the passenger car.

Flagstaff, AZ and Williams, AZ

So much for staying in the WalMart parking lot in Flagstaff last night. The signs said, "NO OVERNIGHT PARKING" so we had to go to plan two. Figuring it was a city ordinance, we decided to stay in an RV park even though we didn't need to hook-up only needed a good night's sleep and some groceries. Anyway, that's when we learned we can't always trust "Gretchen." We asked her to take us to the closest RV Park. Well, it wasn't there. So, we told her to take us to an RV park we had stayed in before (JH RV Park) out on Hwy 89. She took us right down the middle of the old part of town with their narrow streets. And she didn't realize that they were all one way streets. Oh my! She kept screaming,"Recalculating" everytime we made a wrong turn. We finally turned her off and followed our own noses. No more little pink road for us in this town! The park we stayed in was $32 a night (with the Good Sam discount), and the gas was $3.17 a gal. for regular. We decided not to spend another penny in Flagstaff, EVER. Besides, we've never driven on I 40 between Albuquerque and Flagstaff without the wind trying to blow us off the road. "Breaking Wind" has always been a REAL effort.

This morning we were in no hurry to leave the RV park. We didn't have to leave until 11:00 am and we wanted to get our money's worth. Besides Williams was only about 30 miles away. We arrived here at Williams about 12:00, hooked-up, and headed for Denny's for lunch. It is cold and windy today. Hope the weather warms up for our HOP which begins tomorrow. I'm going to crawl in bed and read my book probably snoozing between chapters. Willard is reading, Duster and Worthless are sleeping. It looks like it will be a quiet afternoon.

Albuquerque, NM

We left Hidden Valley Resort this morning and are now in a Casino parking lot near Grant, NM. Willard is inside playing nickle Keno. I spent my limit and decided to catch up in this journal. We are killing time before the Escapees HOP in Williams, AZ. Guess we will stay here tonight, at a Wal-Mart in Flagstaff tomorrow night, then on to Williams to an RV Park. We have had cool nights (40-50 degrees) so drycamping will be fine to save a little money. If it gets too hot for a good night's sleep, then we will stay in an RV park for the electricity to turn on our air conditioner.

Last Friday we had a wonderful day visiting Old Town in Albuquerque. Some of the buildings were origional (since 1700's). We had lunch at a nice restaurant, visited shops (I bought another hat pin), toured a church, and relaxed at a sidewalk cafe while enjoying beautiful music from a group from Ecuador called Amauta HAC. We then visited the Rio Grande Botanic Garden and Aquarium. What a surprise! Both were so interesting we spent the rest of the afternoon there.

Thanks to Mickey and Patty we purchased a Garmin StreetPilot 2620 GPS system. We rode with them to a restaurant near Rend Lake, Ill last summer and they had one. "We have to have one of those!" Willard exclaimed. "Oh, no," I thought, "not another toy! Will we ever have everything we NEED for this lifestyle?" Anyway, we bought one and I can finally enjoy the surroundings on our trips instead of keeping my nose in a map trying to figure out where we are, where we're going, or how we got on the wrong road. We named our GPS system Gretchen. She has been really patient with us as we get used to her telling us what to do. When we do what we are told and turn at 500 ft. we don't get lost. When we don't listen carefully, we inveriably get off route. "Off route," she screams at us "recaculating!" I am just waiting for her to yell, "Ok, Ok, just go where you damn well please then," and turn herself off in disgust! Thanks to Gretchen we saw wonderful parts of Albuquerque that we never would have on our own. We asked her to direct us back to "home" the short way. So, she took through some beautiful neighborhoods. There wasn't much traffic either. We returned safely home and enjoyed the trip without looking a map even once. I love Gretchen...

Yesterday, we just stayed home and relaxed. Willard watched golf in TV and I read my John Grisham book. We took Duster for a walk through out the park and later Worthless took me for a walk around our rig. He got disgusted with me because I wouldn't let him catch any birds, so back into the Rig he went. I actually cooked three meals (Belgian Waffles for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and one of my creative hamburger meals for supper). We had a little jam session before popping popcorn and watching a movie in the evening. We were beginning to have "hitch-up itch" so it was good that we planned on hitting the road this morning.

Of course, we met some new friends. I met Doug and Betty while I was doing laundry. I introduced them to Willard, as they were walking by our rig later that afternoon. They just started fulltiming this year. We found that we had a lot in common. They are from the Houston area, joined most of the same RV clubs we belong to, and are headed to the Western Horizon park in Harrisburg, UT (our home park). We are both going to spend the rest of the summer in Washington and Oregon. I hope we meet them on the road and get to know them better. They seem to be wonderful people. We exchanged personal info. cards. Now, I think I will finish reading my new Gypsy Journal, a little newspaper I love to read. I must subscribe to it for it is packed with so much information on the RV lifestyle and great places to visit.

Back to Santa Fe, Texas (near our hometown)

My dad passed away in November in Cedar City, UT. We had him cremated and have been traveling with his cremains since, working our way toward Alvin, Texas where he wanted his ashes buried. We parked our rig at Willard's brother's home in Santa Fe, TX (pict above on left). We had a BBQ in his back yard and enjoyed a family gathering. The next day we had a grave side ceremony at South Park Cemetery for my dad. That afternoon my brother, sister and I took a drive to Galveston Beach (see photo above on right of my sister on the beach). It was nothing like we remembered as kids. Too many beach homes, very little beach driving, and the beach was covered with seaweed. Below is a picture of a Barber Shop Choir performing at a Winery in Santa Fe, TX where we visited with my cousins, brother, and sister on a Sunday afternoon. We spent the afternoon catching up on family news, snacking, and enjoying the music. We are now looking forward to moving on to more experiences on the road. We left Tuesday morning.

Happenings since Easter

It's hard to believe I have not updated this journal since Easter. Well, we have been so very busy. Before we left Hill Country RV Resort we washed the clothes while we enjoyed the hot tub and pool. The next morning we headed for a park closer to our son's home in Cedar Park, La Hacienda RV Park in Austin, TX. It was a small but quaint and clean park. We will definately stay there when visiting our son and his family in the future. We invited Robbie and Hauani over for dinner and took them to a restaurant on Lake Travis. It was a wonderful evening.

A couple pulling a small trailer moved in next door. They had just bought the trailer and knew nothing about hooking it up. So, of course we help them. They said they were going to go fulltime. So I gave them a book about fulltiming, showed them our Passport America Book, and sold them on Escapees. I think we overwhelmed them. Later in the afternoon Willard and I had a little jam session. One of the neighbors heard us and stopped by to listen. We enjoyed entertaining. I wonder what will become of all of this?

On Wednesday we headed for Santa Fe, TX where Willard's brother lives. We parked in his driveway for almost a week. During that time we had a big family BBQ, Willard golfed with is brother that lives in Alvin, we played Bingo one night, and visited relatives. My brother came from Missoula, MT to participate in our Dad's burial. My sister planned the service. It was a small but reverant graveside burial. Nine attended. We left the next morning.

We drove to La Grange, TX and discovered a very nice RV park, named Colorado Landing. We enjoyed being near the Colorado River lined with hudge old Cottonwood trees filled with song birds. We also found a great restraunt called Fishes and Loaves a definate stop for anyone in the area. Robbie and Haunani came over for another visit. We enjoyed a spaghetti dinner at our site and took a lovely river walk. We have really enjoyed seeing them so much during the past week. Our visits with them are usually brief.

We then headed for Roaring Springs Ranch Club. What a nice surprise. It is a large park, with a golf course, springs, and pool. And there weren't many people there until the weekend. We enjoyed the peace and quiet after spending so much time with family. We even let Duster off his leash and let Worthless roam around hunting for birds and rabbits. It was the most relaxed time we have had in a long time. Willard golfed, fished, and played his guitar and sang his songs. I did some hiking and catching up on correspondance. We went to a Bob Wills festival in Turkey, TX, but the wind was unbearable, so we headed back to camp. Monday night I couldn't sleep, so I got up and turned on the TV. I turned to the weather channel (something I never do). They were predicting a storm moving into the area with rain, hail, and tornados. The next morning we packed up and headed toward New Mexico. That night we stayed in a busy Love's Truck Stop, something we will never do again, if we can help it. Neither of us got much sleep with all the noise.

The next morning we found the park we are in now, Hidden Valley Resort, which is just east of Albuquerque. That is where we are now and will be here until Sunday. We found a great Casino with great food and Willard had a chance to play Nickle Keno and I joined several live Poker games. We've met some wonderful people who are new fulltimers (class of 2006). Tomorrow we will explore the area. All is well. We still love this lifestyle!