"Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona..."

We made it to Winslow tonight just as it was getting dark...good planning and a long day of 300 miles in the RV and another 50 or so in the car visiting the "Canyon de Chelly (rhymes with 'play')National Monument" in Chinle, AZ.  Not sure why we had skipped visiting there in the past, but it is a beautiful place!  The canyon was inhabited by Indians thousands of years ago and there are still some that live, work and farm there now...holding on to their ancient culture.  We had to park the RV in a campground and then take the car on the canyon rim drive.  Seeing the natives farming at the bottom really put the whole view into perspective.  After visiting the canyon we made our way to Winslow and put $276 worth of fuel in the tank and are being hosted by WallyWorld tonight.  On to Palm Creek tomorrow.

GOLD in them there hills!

We left Montrose and the Centennial RV park around 10am on Wednesday and headed to Ridgeway and then towards Telluride on the San Juan Skyway.  The aspens are in their glorious fall best colors.  There were all shades of green and gold splashed across the mountainsides as we wound our way along the highway.  Some of the mountains were topped with snowcaps, but we enjoyed temperatures in the 80s along with brilliant sunshine.  We stopped for the night at the Ute Mountain Casino near Towaoc and will head into Arizona tomorrow.

Along the San Juan Skyway, Colorado

A stand of aspens along the San Juan Skyway

Gunsmoke!

Today's jaunt was to the nearby town of Ridgeway.  We had a great pizza lunch at a place called "Panny's" and then stopped at the "Dennis Weaver Memorial Park."  Apparently Dennis Weaver and family had moved to Ridgeway in the late 1980's and loved the area.  They donated 60 acres along the Uncompahgre River for a city park.  After Weaver's death, a beautiful memorial was built...a huge bronze eagle in flight.   The sculpture is in the center of a Ute Indian "Circle of Life." There is also a plaque with one of his poems on it.  All in all, an impressive place.

Eagle in flight at the Dennis Weaver Memorial

A view from the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park

Out and About

After several days of hangin' close to home - thanks to Mary's painful pulled muscle - we ventured out on a road trip today.  First stop was lunch at the "Stone House" in Montrose...quite tasty!  Then, with our friends Art and June as tour guides we drove a little bit east of town to the "Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park."  We had visited here eight years ago, but it was well worth a return trip.  It was sunny and 80+* outside and we enjoyed stopping at the various lookout points.  The canyon is 50 miles long and 2000 feet deep - much smaller than the Grand Canyon - but just as beautiful and majestic.

Tom and Art saw a bear while talking to the park ranger  :-)

That's the Gunnison River down below...a little smaller than the Colorado.

Mountain Rain

True to the weatherman's prediction we awoke this morning to heavy gray clouds hanging down over the mountaintops.  We could watch them move and swirl and float across the valley where our RV park is located....AND they brought us a steady heavy drizzle all day.  The sun did try to come out around 5:00 but it was shrouded once again very quickly.     To give our day a little interest we drove into town (about 8 miles) with our friends Art and June.  We made stops at Walmart, City Market Grocery, Walgreens (where Art and June got their flu shots) and at "Rib City" where we got a tasty lunch.  (We even had the leftovers for dinner tonight.)  Hopefully, tomorrow will bring some sunshine!

The "Million Dollar Highway"

Monday was a day to catch up on chores, laundry and restock the pantry on a drive into Montrose.  Tuesday we took a ride up the "Million Dollar Highway", Route 550, to Silverton.  We drove through the town of Ouray and over Red Mountain Pass.  We're not sure why it's named the Million Dollar Highway, but in the 1800's and early 1900's there were many mines in the area.  The aspen trees have turned to gold and the views along the drive were spectacular.  The quaint towns of Ouray and Silverton are full of shops, boutiques and restaurants along with many restored and abandoned homes.  In Silverton we watched the arrival of the steam train coming from Durango and raced the huge crowd of passengers to get a place for lunch.  It was a great day!

At Red Mountain Pass along the Million Dollar Highway

Tennis Anyone???

We climbed the Rockies on Wed. Sept. 15 and made our way through the Eisenhower Tunnel and on to Frisco and Breckenridge.  We spent a nostalgic evening driving arouind and seeing where Reid used to live, work and play.  It's such a neat area!  Tiger Run RV Resort was as scenic as we remembered it as well.  Then it was on to Grand Junction and a three night visit with our friends Helen and Glenn Arnold.  We parked in the street in front of their home and had a fantastic visit.  We played tennis each morning on the court at their daughter's home and in the afternoons we had a guided tour of the Grand Valley area to include the downtown as well as the fertile Palisade orchards and vineyards.  Most spectacular was our drive through the Coloroado National Monument.  Every turn in the road gave us another spectacular view...and we could also see it from Arnold's home.  What a great place to live!                                  We're now in Montrose, CO, parked next to friends Art and June Nelson and will spend a week or so visiting with them and exploring some more of "Colorful Colorado."

tennis on the court facing the Colorado National Monument

The "Coke Ovens" at the Colorado National Monument

Colorado National Monument

             

Pretty Corny!

We've spent the last several days driving west across the central plains...Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and now eastern Colorado....on interstate highways.  The scenery the whole way seems to have been cornfields and more cornfields dotted here and there with a barn and a grain silo.  Finally when we got close to the Kansas/Colorado state border we saw a field of sunflowers.  We thought Kansas was the "sunflower state" and we hadn't seen any at all.  We also found summer weather again and were happy tonight to have electricity and therefore the air-conditioning to deal with 90* temperatures.  Wednesday we plan to pass through Denver and climb into the gorgeous Rockies...remembering how much Reid enjoyed living here...and spend a night at the Tiger Run Resort in Breckenridge...our favorite scenic RV park.

Reunited!

We had a two generation reunion today....We met Bill and Beth at Cabela's in Dundee, Michigan as they drove north from Perrysburg and we went west from Monroe.  We had a chance to visit in the car as we drove on to Jackson and had a nice reunion with Mom.  We all went to eat at the Texas Roadhouse...a delicious meal in celebration of our reunion and Tom's birthday.  We enjoyed catching up with everyone as we had not been all together at one time in the same place since Christmas.

The five of us at Mom's.

Orange barrels!!

We left our campsite in Monroe, MI around 9:00 this morning heading south into the greater Toledo area.  By the time we returned to the rig around 4:00 we had made a great 100 mile+ circle tour of the area and it seemed no matter where we were going we had to wind our way through a maze of orange construction barrels.  We even found a few freeway exit and entrance ramps that were closed, which only added to our route.  But, we did accomplish a few errands, most importantly getting Tom's driver's license renewed and having our yearly eye exams taken care of.  We picked up our mail in Waterville, did a little research on new cars, stopped by to visit our old neighborhood and made a visit to Costco and to the grocery store...whew!  After dinner we took a walk through the campground...its a busy place here on the weekend.  We discovered that some aquaintances are just a few sites down from us and had a nice visit.  I guess we're getting settled in!

Fore!

We had a great visit in the Newfane, NY area with our buddies, Jim and Paula Jones. Jim and Paula live a 100-year-old house on a small farm and run a greenhouse business in the spring. Their neighbors continue to grow a large vegetable garden and take fresh produce to the community Farmer's Market. Jim and Paula made sure we had plenty of good meals at home and out and showed us around their part of Western New York. We caught views of Lake Ontario and took in a Sunday afternoon concert in the park in Olcott. We crossed the bridge to Grand Island in the middle of the Niagara River and stopped at the beach, visited the market, and met several of their friends and their son, Jimmy. We even had time for a round of golf at the local course…and didn't do too badly considering I hadn't been on a course since we left Arizona. When we gave our final hugs and headed on our way west, our arms were loaded with fresh produce.

                                     

Lions, Tigers and Bears....Oh, my!!!

We had a great trip from Elysburg to New Stanton, PA near Pittsburgh on Wednesday.  On Thursday we drove with all the McCurdy's to the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium.  We had a great day visiting all the exhibits and watching the Sea Lion show.  The zoo is quite hilly and the layout is in a circle.  I guess you are supposed to start at the gate and go around clockwise.  Our gang, however, had specific goals in mind as "first on the list" so our trip was a little haphazard and we covered a lot of ground a couple times, including a hike to the parking lot for lunch in the van.  We had a great day and enjoyed seeing all the wonderful animals.  It was a fairly hot day, so a stop for ice cream on the way home tasted really good...and we were off to the pool when we got back to the campground.  Dinner was followed by a campfire and S'mores and a surprise visit by some of our old Bounder buddies.  On Friday we met some more Bounder buddies for lunch and then had a family birthday dinner at Dino's in Greensburg...where our friends had told us they serve the best "wings" in Pennsylvania...and they were quite tasty!   Saturday we go our separate ways and will miss and remember or visit in Pennsylvania!

Shop till you drop!

We've had two "girls' day out" adventures this week.  On Monday Tom and I had run errands in Bloomsburg and done some grocery shopping.  As we returned to the RV in mid-afternoon we got a call from the bored McCurdy girls.  They had decided, since Matt would be working late, to go shopping and invited Grandma to go along.  So, we were off to Hershey.  Of course, any trip to Hershey means a stop at Chocolate World...so we took a ride through the "factory", got our chocolate inspiration tasty treat, and then headed to the outlet mall.  We closed the mall down at 9:00 and headed home with a few good bargains.             On Friday we were a bit more organized, had goals in mind, and were on the road earlier in the day headed to the town of Muncy which has a nice Target Store and a mall with an Old Navy, Borders, and JCPenney among others.   Meanwhile, Tom was painting the basement stairwell at the McCurdy house and when Matt called around 2:30 to say he was on his way home and suggested a game of golf, it didn't take much to get Tom to agree.  We were all together again by 7:00...an enjoyable day for all!

Crash, Bang, Boom!!!

It's definitely not something to make light of....we've been up close and luckily not personal to three major traffic accidents this week already.  We had commented earlier this month that the daily paper has large color photos on the front page every day of another accident...and now we've seen it all before it hits the front page.  Not good!  I skipped taking photos, however!   And the problem around here is that there aren't that many "through" roads...and all the roads are curving, winding and hilly (6% to 9% grades)  So, when there is an accident,  traffic is a total mess...for hours!   One on Sunday as we were leaving the amusement park was the most graffic and tragic...it still haunts us.  Wednesday's caused us to turn around and drive about 10 miles back to Elysburg, go south a ways and then take another road  15 miles to Sunbury to get to Coffey's ball game...getting there just in time...and then having the game rained out after three pitches.  Today's was at the intersection just down from the McCurdy's home as we were coming for the day.  One of the crashed vehicles looked just like Ann's and I madly made unanswered phone calls trying to make sure it wasn't her.  It wasn't!!!   And so, life goes on.....multiple ball games and practices, dental appointments, music lessons, flag corp workouts as well as cleaning, cooking, painting and dog walking at home.

The Big Chill

Yep.......the refrigerator seems to be working.  The new cooling unit was installed on Tuesday.  It ran about 36 hours on electric power and then we switched it to gas this morning....and it appears to be maintaining appropriate temperatures.  We made some ice cubes and bought some milk, eggs and ice cream yesterday...and they are all in great condition.  Meanwhile we have continued to participate in the "day to day" at the McCurdy house....today was Coffey's Flag squad practice and Ann had to work.  We gathered for dinner and then took all three girls to evening "day camp" for Girl Scouts.  It's still plenty hot an humid, and the days busy!

The circle is unbroken......

That's the circle we've been driving...round and round from the campground, to the McCurdy's, and back, again and again and again!  On occasion, we make the circle a bit wider with additional stops at the mini-grocery store (near the house), the school (next to the campground), a ball field (several in the area for two girls), a doctor's office (dentist, surgeon, dermatologist, lab in four towns), a library ( two towns), girl scout day camp (held in the evening) and the gas station.  Just today, I think it was 5 circles.  Ann has probably 75% recovered from oral surgery...the surgeon told her today that she was just a few weeks past having had the surgery when she was 18, and thus it was a little more difficult :-)  She went to work today - her usual 4 hour shift - but was glad to get home and rest before a doctor appointment.  Yesterday she had minor surgery at the dermatologist, so that didn't add to any comfort today.  Matt has been working lots of hours, but we all had time to rest and relax over the weekend...and enjoy some pool time.  We're keeping up...more to come!

Whew, it's HOT!!!

It's been 105* the last two days...the granddaughters want to know "Is this how hot it is in Arizona?"  Yes, every day at this time of year.    But, at least, here in Pennsylvania right now, the humidity is cooperating.  We've managed to stay in air-conditioning most of the time, and that helps!  The girls vounteered to wash the cars on Tuesday...so they could play with the hoses!  But Grandpa made sure they did a good job on the cars, too.  Ann even ran over to the Dollar Store and got a new "Slip 'n Slide." 

Today we went to the McCurdy house mid-morning and Tom took Coffey to her oboe lesson and the rest of us waited around for the oral surgeon to call and say that Ann was next up on the list.  After she and Matt went in for the surgery, the rest of us went to the campground pool and then dinner in the RV.  Merrick and Close are having a sleep-over with us tonight, after we all went to say hi to Mom, who is feeling pretty groggy, but had no problems with the wisdom teeth removal.

The car is all repaired...hope it lasts!  They replaced the part that had been repaired in Alabama.  We're still waiting on the refrigerator...and lugging coolers back and forth to Ann's daily.    Life is never dull!

Things come in Threes - Round 2

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit in West Virginia and the adventures with our son, Reid and daughter and son-in-law, Ann and Matt and of course the three granddaughters, Coffey, Close and Merrick.  When our fun there was over, we moved on to Pennsylvania and a campground near Ann and Matt's home.  That's when things begain to fall apart....AGAIN!      1) We'd had the car repaired in Arizona before we left, again in Alabama a month ago and once again it is flashing all sorts of lights indicating trouble.  It has an appointment on July 6 for repairs, Pennsylvania style.     2) The morning after our arrival in PA, our milk for the cereal was pretty chunky.  Not good!  After several calls to repair services and a few experiments with equipment it was decided that we need to replace our cooling unit - which had been replaced in March.  So, we are awaiting arrival of the new unit, under warranty, from Tucson.  Meanwhile, all food is room temperature.     3) On the evening of our second day in PA, Mary's computer froze up and "died."  True to their word, agents at the Geek Squad based in the Selinsgrove, PA precinct of Best Buy, got all data retrieved and the computer all reformatted and operating once again.  A new external hard drive came along with the deal.

We did enjoy a great family 4th of July celebration...going on a picnic to the Bloomsburg, PA Town Park and enjoying the live band concert and fireworks display.  We're getting into our "summer mode" with ball games and trips to the pool with the granddaughters...more fun to come!

Our site at the J&D Campground in Catawissa backs up to the Roaring Creek. 

The girls enjoy exploring in the shallow water

Wild, Wonderful West Viginia

The lake at ACE

The family on horseback

We've had a great time with the family here in West Viginia.  Ace Outdoor Adventures is a fabulous place to visit....with every activity you could ever imagine.  Thanks to the wooded mountains, cell phone and internet service is absolutely lousy, but we managed to coordinate our activities.  The McCurdys especially had some great moments.  On Tuesday Tom and Reid went off to play golf at a beautiful resort while the rest of us tested our horseback riding skills.  Later that evening, the McCurdys went zip-lining through the forest on a "canopy tour."  Wednesday morning we awoke to lots of rain, but the rafters (Ann and Matt) were going to get wet anyway - so off they went!  (Matt won the prize for the most "swims" on the rafting trip!) Grandma and Grandpa took the girls to the National Park Visitor Center at the New River Gorge Bridge and learned a little about the area and took a look at the Western Hemisphere's highest arch bridge.  Luckily, the sun came out and we spent the afternoon at ACE's spring fed lake filled with giant inflatable water toys, a huge water slide and a zip-line into the water.   Uncle Reid treated us to dinner at "Pies and Pints" before the McCurdys had to leave...with three girls begging to stay longer!

What do you mean, no Internet???

We've had a great weekend but had to go without Internet service...but we can live with that on occasion.  We had a fun Saturday in Stanardsville, Virginia with Beth and Geoff...touring part of the Monticello Wine Trail, hitting just three of the 21 wineries on the tour.  We didn't know that Virginia is the 8th producer of wine in the US.  The countryside is beautiful with lots of history as well.  Geoff fixed us his famous enchiladas for dinner and our visit extended into the evening.  We got back to the RV just before the lightning, thunder and rain took out our electricity for the night. 

On Sunday we made a five hour drive up to West Virginia and parked at our favorite campground in Fayetteville...WallyWorld.  We drove out to visit the campground we will move to later today...it will be a challenge to get parked!  We also found where Ann, Matt and the girls will be staying and that, too, is an adventure in driving, but the facilities are going to be fun once they get there.    Reid had been kayaking all afternoon and we met him for dinner at a great restaurant, Diogi's, that we had eaten at last year.  We enjoyed catching up on what Reid ahs been up to and hearing about the challenges ahead in his work.

We're looking forward to the McCurdy's arrival this evening and the adventures ahead for all of us.  Not sure when we'll be able to post again as we'll have to come to McDonald's or to Reid's house to get a connection.