Camp Verde and travel day to Florence

Dave and I slept in Tuesday morning and then did a slow wake up and get ready.  We decided we would do a little sightseeing in the area to include Montezuma's castle, Toozigut and a look around Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

We left about 1130 and headed over through Old Town Cottonwood to get to Dead Horse State Park.  This is a VERY nice state park and we wish we would have known about it before we reserved and camped at Zane Grey.   Only because it's closer to nature and is only $25 per night.  Anyway, we marked down which sites we liked best and are keeping it in mind for next time.

Then over to Toozigut.  We walked around for a bit in this 1500 yr old Sanigua (san-ee-wau) indian site.  Beautiful views from the top of the hill.

Not the best shot of the views, but I didn't realize that until we were in the car.  Here's a shot of the ruins looking DOWN the hill.

And a little guy who was not scared away by us big people.

When we left there we headed back towards Camp Verde for Montezuma's Castle.  This is the first cliff dwelling we have ever seen and both of us reacted with "not me!".  Until about 1959 visitors were allowed to climb up a series of ladders and explore these dwellings.....CRAAAAZY.

By then it was after 4 and we decided to head back to camp, with a short stop at the car wash to get the grime off the truck.

Here are a few shots of our desert campground.

 Dave is going to go up to the office today to see if we can move to a spot where we get the morning sun (as opposed to the HOT afternoon sun) on our door side since that is where all our windows are....maybe we can run the AC less that way.

 We'll see if we get used to this desert camping.....personally, I like a few more trees.

I was excited to see my first barrel cactus....it was actually coming down the pass from Camp Verde.  Dave said "aren't you going to take a picture".  I said nope, cuz I'm sure there will be plenty of them when we stop.  Sure enough.  At the bottom of the pass it was like FORESTS of them and down here in the valley they seem to be used more for landscaping.

Anyway, we have a not-very-interesting day planned of scouting out Florence and where the Country Thunder grounds are, grocery store and maybe laundry.

Tomorrow we spend the day in Tempe with our new bosses, doing some training and picking up equipment.

I'll probably have a new post for you sometime this weekend.  Not sure when we'll be too busy at Country Thunder after that!

Doris and Dave


SHOUTOUT:
To all my facebook friends who have come to take a look!  Thanks!

What goes perfect with Dinosaurs?

Ok, I'll get to the dinosaurs in a few, but first:

We are finally in a part of Arizona that was warm today....75...tomorrow supposed to be 80.

We had a pretty uneventful trip the last two days.  Our campground last night was ok, but not great...NOW our campground tonight is  a 6 on a scale of 1 to 5!  It's called Zane Grey RV Park and is just outside Camp Verde AZ.  We went through a slight mountain pass late today...saw lots of pine trees in Flagstaff....that was a real nice looking town.

We will be staying at Zane Grey until Wednesday morning.  Then we will be moving on to the RV Park we will be at until the end of April.

I wanted to post some pictures of bridges I took in Albuquerque yesterday.  I know sounds boring, but I noticed last year that all of their bridges are decorated in a southwest motif....some are iron work and some are adobe looking.  Here are a few pictures:

And here is one of the highway wall that are all decorated too

And one last one....An art deco bridge tower:

.

Ok, here is our campsite in Gallup NM last night:

And here is tonights...

MUCH nicer.  And the rest of the park is very nice too...lots of trees and a nice trail to walk the dogs on.

Ok, we stopped at this weird dinosaur place today out in the middle of nowhere, because I had to pee and there wasn't a gas station or rest area for awhile and, well, I REALLY had to go.  Here's some shots for you.

I couldn't just go in an pee and not buy anything....bought a hemitite ring and a clump of desert roses....sorry, no picture...:)

The owners, the Stewarts, were very nice people, so I really had to buy something.  Oh, and while I was in the bathroom, (the store was in a converted mobile home) there was something sticking out of the shower, so I looked....would have pissed my pants if I wasn't already on the toilet!  A mannequin laying like she had been killed.  Gave me a jolt and a good laugh.

And what goes with weird dinosaur shit?  How about ..........

Ostrich's!!

Ok, a couple more pictures of the scenery coming down the pass from Flaggstaff

And here's just one more for Sean...saw a bunch of the Nascar semi's going East, but only caught one on the camera.

Ok, I went kind of long tonight, but I guess that's all right once in a while.

Doris and Dave

A nice few travel days

We've had a nice few days....a little chilly still while we were in Kansas, but was 70 when we got to Santa Rosa NM today. 

It has just been nice to mosey on down the road instead of rushing to get there because we only have a scant few days to enjoy a trip.  This is SO much better.

Here is a shot of our view out the windshield in the Oklahoma Panhandle!  And they think Kansas is flat!!

Here is picture of the Campground we are at tonight

and one more of our spot...yes, not very attractive, but ok.

If they give that spot to the right, away, their door would open right into ours!  Yuck.

Ok, on to Gallup NM tomorrow....shouldn't take us long..it's only 268 miles.   Glad to see I could add pictures to the blog and not blow it!!

Talk to ya later


SHOUT OUT!

To Tim and Kathy...here's a picture of a bounder that reminded us how much we miss you guys!  It was just behind us at the campground in Liberal KS last night.

And here we go.........

Even though we don't want our new life to include hurry up and go, I am definitely feeling the "hurry up" this morning.  We are both anxious to get this new life going and get on the road.

Babysat two of the grandkids last night and saying goodbye to them and to my daughter was a little hard.  Wasn't able to see the other family this week, but will skype this weekend, so hopefully that won't be as hard.
I talk to the youngest on the phone all the time, so this should be business as usual...just a little farther away than usual......hmmmmm.....check with me as we are driving away from town and neither of us will probably be so calm about it!

OK!  Here we go.....time to get in the shower, make some breakfast, get the last minute stuff done and get going!  

3 Days and a Wake UP

To borrow a phrase from our military days.....we are 3 days and a wake up until our departure date!

As March 25th gets nearer we are taking care of last minute details, but more importantly saying goodbye (for now) to our family and friends.

For our kids and grandkids, this will be hard to roll down the road without shedding more than a few tears...I see my oldest daughter at least once, if not 4 or 5 times a week,  I see my son and his family at least every few weeks and my youngest is a close 2 hours to spend a weekend with.  We will still keep in touch all the "other" usual ways....phone, text, facebook, emails...but it just won't be the same as being able to run across town to see them and the grandkids..........the ONLY thing I am not looking forward to getting used to!   Soooo we'll have to start doing the skype thing, so we can at least "see" how the kids are growing and how funny, smart, and sweet they can be.

Okay, Okay, we will be back in a short 2 1/2 months, but that's the longest mom and dad have ever been gone (together anyway).  We will all get used to the new lifestyle together.  They will all have their jobs and families to keep them busy and we will have new places and faces to keep us busy and to share with them.

For our friends we are leaving behind, we will miss them tremendously, but, again, they have their lives and families to keep them busy and we have new places and faces to share with them.

Sooooo, I hope my family, my friends and anyone else interested will check back from time to time.

SHOUT OUT:
Adrienne, Jared, EmmaRae and Jaxson
Sean, Jennifer, Destiny, Erica and Jacob
Caitlin

Love you all the bestest!!

Until next time..........

Today is the First Day.....

of the rest of our lives!  

I know this is an overused quote, but it expresses so well how we are feeling on the first day of being jobless and starting the next phase of our lives!

I'm starting this blog with (hopefully) no expectations to keep at it everyday, but to inform our family and friends what we are up to and where we are.  So I hope you will come back by to check in once in a while.

We are SO excited to be on to the next phase of our life.....not retirement....but a new phase.  We will still be working and still need to, but will be doing it on the road with a job that we believe we will really enjoy.   The great thing about this lifestyle is we can live on 1/4 to 1/3 or what we used to make with the added bonus of traveling how we have always wanted.

For those that don't know, Dave's last day of work was Tuesday Mar 15th.  Mine was a few weeks ago.  We are now in the process of getting our 5er (5th wheel trailer) ready to go on the road after being in one place since last June.  This entails more than you think.

Making sure propane tanks are full and the water heater has a new anode are the kinds of things to expect, but we also have to go through all our storage space, closets and drawers before we leave.  Anything that we have not used the last year will be given away or trashed.  We figure if we didn't use it in a year, we don't need it.

We need to make sure EVERYTHING is in working order, that the tires are good to go and that we absolutely have everything we need for us and the dogs. And then.......

We can hit the road!  Target day is Friday, March 25th.  We need to be in Florence Arizona by March 30th.  Plenty of time to get there (6 days).  We will probably stay in Liberal Kansas the first night and then not sure the next night or two, but plan to spend at least a couple of days in the Flagstaff area.  Then on to Florence and our home for 30 days, Desert Gardens RV park.   http://www.desertgardensrvpark.com/

A very nice looking place to stay for  awhile.  We will be working at the Country Thunder outdoor country music festival April 7th to the 10th and then we will do some sightseeing.

Until the next time .....