Good By Albuquerque

Sunday night we had dinner with friends Bill & Dawn, who were our neighbors in Mission this past winter. Bill works with Camping World as a traveler, he goes where he is needed, and so far he is happy with it. Dinner was at a Winery and Bistro. Food was wonderful and the wine wasn't bad either.

Monday we started the day with a late breakfast at the Route 66 Diner. It was like stepping back in time, even the waitresses were dressed in 50's uniforms. From there we went out to see the petroglyphs. It was quite interesting, but we were told that it had all been staged years ago, although the rocks were original. Hmmm, you think?
From there we were off to see the tent rocks. They were very interesting, we had never even heard of them. The bad part was getting there, we had 5 miles of washboard, dusty, bad, road to manage our way over. But that was not enough for us, (probably all that jarring shook something loose in the noggin) we decided to do another 4 miles to a Veteran Memorial overlook. Now this was over a goat path through cow pastures, but it was worth it.

So glad that we made the teeth jarring trek. Back on the paved road there was a sign for a golf course so of course had to check it out. And it was a wonderful surprise, it was absolutely gorgeous. It is rated one of the "must play"courses for 2008. So we made tee times for Thursday.

Today was kick it on down the road day. Pretty easy, 65 miles, we are in a nice campground, lots of pine trees and all. Had only planned to stay 2 nights, but guess we will stretch that out a day or two. Santa Fe looks to be a pretty nice town, so want to see some of it.

Life is good, blue sky, warm breeze.

Old Town & the 10 Dollar Taco

Yesterday we went back to old town, which is a very charming area. Lots of little shops and courtyards. Music everywhere, just a fun place for women. not too sure that Chuck (or any man) would list it as a must do. But Chuck was a great trooper. The cafe we stopped to eat in did put a chink in the day though. Chuck, not seeing what he wanted on the menu, asked if it was possible to have just a flour taco and enchilada. No problem, but when the check came, there was a charge of 7 dollars for each and a 3 dollar up charge for the flour taco. I had a taco salad at a cost of 6.50. So go figure. Being as these were only listed as combination dinners, his order was considered a special order, therefore the charge was reasonable. Only if you were not the one being charged!

Golf was on the schedule the other day, and that is where Chuck is now, as I write. He is playing in a tournament, and it was open to women, but I decided that I would skip this one. I have not been playing as much as I should to keep my game up and when I have to be on a team, afraid that I won't hole up my end. Glad that I didn't play as the wind is really gusting. At least it is nice and warm.

Wednesday we are leaving for Santa Fe for a few days, and then on to Springs. I'm ready for some new scenery. Want trees and mountains. Anyone wondering about Matilda (my pink flamingo) she is in hiding. Her outfit for this time of year is a yellow raincoat and hat, which just would not work here. But she has a great 4th of July costume to be sure, so there will be no hiding her then.

Till the next time, or if life gets real exciting and there is something to blog about.........

What a Difference a Day Makes

Just a little gathering......

Oh, it is truly a beautiful day, the sunshine is wonderful. The "blizzard" surely couldn't possibly have taken place. We had a very nice day at the vendor rally yesterday, it was casino day for

Coast to Coast. What a blast. Play all the high stakes blackjack or poker, and if you lost your chips they would give you more at the next table. The point was for every 50 dollars you won they gave you a ticket, good for 3 drawings during the day. Prizes were good and the grand prize was a 10 day princess cruise. No winners here. Entertainment was okay and the balloon glow, fabulous. They are so pretty at night.

We left the Rally 1 day early, and moved back to the camp ground at the base. Think we will stay here till the first of the month. From what we hear Colorado got more snow this last week than they had all winter. So we will just play the tourist a bit, get in some golf and relax.

Bring On Global Warming, Please

What is it with this weather? Thursday we took the bus, not once but twice to the vendor area. The first time was fairly easy, but the second time was a nightmare. We were in a line well over two blocks long, and the buses were very far and few. Took us two hours to get back to the RV. Yesterday, Chuck and I played in the golf tournament. We had a great couple on our team and had a wonderful time playing with them. But..... the weather, it was so cold and we actually had snow flurries. We were just hanging on to get done, looking forward to a nice hot lunch. And it just gets better....they were feeding us outside! I was so cold and shaking so bad that it was impossible to eat. Our team did come in first, and we got 60 dollars in gift certificates to be spent in the pro shop. I got a cute headcover and Chuck got a vest. All in all we were lucky cause the people that went to the vendors at the rally, had a 2-3 hour wait, and by then it was raining. You would have to look really hard to find a "happy camper" here. We made the trip this morning again, and made a few just got to have purchases. One that makes me feel better is the tire monitoring system. From what we hear, people who have been to other Rallys say that they have never seen it in two separate locations like this.

Life goes on, we shall all look back at this some day and laugh. But don't see it happening in the near future.

Update on the fan for those who thought the slides may have come in contact. Actually they

are about 12 inches below the blades. Going to post it on the Montana site and see if we are the only one, or if some one solved the how and why.

Rally time and the Fan Goblins Struck Again

Well we moved to the Balloon Fiesta park. Sort of disappointed with the set up. The RV's are parked here, along with the entertainment tent. All the vendors and seminars are at the fair

grounds which are about 12 miles away. Granted they have very nice, large buses running back and forth, but it is not like being at the rally site. Now for the big mystery.....the broken blade on the ceiling fan. This happened about a year ago, when not one but two blades broke in half while we were traveling. Ended up replacing the whole system and it was fine until today, when once again one of the blades broke in half on the move here. Last time we had gone over some very rough roads and sort of thought some how, some way. But this time we only came ten miles and they were very smooth, no bumps, nada. Yet there was the blade broke in half. Talked to the RV dealer and he had no idea how it could have happened, never heard of it before. So there must be a "fan"tastic devil hid some place here that only comes out when we are headed for a rally as the last time was on our way to Branson for the RV Dreams rally.

Balloon Fiesta Park

just over the hill

They are expecting 2500 RVs here, so that is a lot, and they seem to have it very well organized, lots of volunteers. We had sort planned to do that, but they required 25 hours per person, so that worked out to 5 hours a day, and we just did not think being as this is our first big rally, that we wanted to split our time and energy that much. Besides the reimbursement was at a rate of 4 dollars an hour. So we will look forward to learning a lot, there are quite a few seminars that we are very interesting in attending. Till next time.

Happy Easter

No chocolate bunnies, no colored eggs, cheezz, what's up?

We are just in holding pattern, waiting for the Rally next week. We are leaving here to move to the rally camp site on Wednesday. The sites are electric only, but because Chuck had a handicap sticker we will have a site close to the main area. The campground here has been full since last night, and being as they do not take reservations, there have been people arriving all day to be turned away. Feel sorry for them as we hear that the campgrounds around here are also full. We will probably come back here after the rally for a few weeks, as they just had another snow storm in Colorado Springs, and we want no part of that. We will be spending a few days in Santa Fe as there are a few places that we would like to see.

Roinn, greatgrandson,hunting eggs in Colorado Springs.

Robert, our grandson and our great granddaughter, Kylee

Looking forward to the Rally, it sounds like it will be really big, with hundreds of vendors and a lot of the seminars sound very interesting. This will be our first Rally of this size that we will be attending. Hopefully we won't find too many things that we can't live without....LOL So that has been our exciting life the last week, we have been out looking over the town, but have not been eating out all that much either. Got to get rid of some of the food that we brought down to the valley 5 months ago. And I need to hon up on my cooking skills.

Good-By Texas, Hello Aliens,Raining Mud & Real Wind

Matilda in her

Easter outfit

Spent the day touring Carlsbad Caverns, and it was total awesome. We had toured it 40 years ago, but the memory had faded, so it was like we had never done it. The bats won't be back till late next month, but even though it would have been great to see them we were not disappointed. Having the Golden Age pass really paid off as everything was free. And free is good!

We left Carlsbad April 3rd and decided to make a run for Albuquerque. as the wind predictions were dire. Took some pictures along the way, and if anyone made lemonade out of lemons, it is Roswell, after the air force base closed there. They have the aliens.

Once we passed through Roswell the scenery was

not a wow factor.

And 100 miles down the road.

At least the road was straight, so we could catch a nap.

The wind really picked up before we were at the park, had about 50 miles of it, and it was scary, but not nearly as bad as after we were settled. We are at Kirkland Air Force base camp ground, which is very nice. Planning on staying here till the Rally which starts on the 15th. Back to the wind......during the night it was rocking and rolling the RV, and then it rained for a few minutes. Well, come morning we found it had rained MUD. What a mess, but the good news it was mainly on one side. The bad new it is still cold.

Today we toured the area, getting to know the streets and all. Found Camping World, or it found us. And they have casinos here, so we had to pay our dues. Spending all that time in Texas saved some money.

So that is it for now, jacks are down, life is good.

On the Road Again

Yesterday we left the Buckhorn Lake RV park in Kerrville, and lo and behold just a few miles down the road we encountered 6 vans, and 3 trucks, all with Verizon logos on them. MY PEOPLE, were looking for me! And there I was going in the other direction. This was one of the few places that our cell service was so poor.

We had planned to drive to Fort Stockton which was about 250 miles, but Chuck was feeling great, so we just hung a right on 285 and pushed on to Carlsbad. The last 30 miles were a little scary though as the wind came up and was horrendous. But we made it and settled in at the Carlsbad RV park for a couple of days. Today we will do the caverns and look over the town, then trek on to Roswell. We lived there for almost 3 years and will be trying to find the house we owned. That is if it still standing. Hated every day we lived there, can't believe we are actually going back willingly....LOL We got a taste of the wind and the dust storms yesterday. Somethings are meant to be forgotten, and that was one of them.

This morning the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and the wind is gone. Gotta love it.