Keep Travelling and Not Blogging!

Sorry about that, but vacationing and blogging aren’t going together for me.  Between facebook, gmail, facebook chat, reading work email, texting and surfing, I keep forgetting to blog!
So I am trying Live Writer – anyone use it?  Some immediate advantages thus far are that you do not need to have an internet connection to write the blog.  Two benefits to that are that I won’t forget what to write (hopefully) and I can write better posts, adding as I think of something.  It apparently has an IPhone app as well so I will see about that.  In addition it has a spell check which I really need.
So since our road trip to Mexico we have moved on.  We spent 4 nights at Lake Havasu State Park.  It was a beautiful campground, but did have some drawbacks.  It was noisy being on the water as the boats seem to never stop.  And there is a large boat that shuttles folks back and forth to the Havasu Landing Casino and Resort, across the river in California.  I am not talking about a small amount of traffic, but LOTS of it.  As well the sites did not have services.  In moderate temps that would be okay, but it was tooooo hot for no A/C.  So we ran the generator for a couple of hours daily, but would have been better to have a consistent cooling source.
Lake Havasu was also very windy while we were there, as was Laughlin.  But that was not so bad in the 30+ weather.
As you know we travelled to Mexico on Thursday.  Friday we took in the sights at London Bridge in Lake Havasu.  If you are not familiar with that attraction, it is a bridge that was purchased from London England in the 60’s and moved to Lake Havasu and reconstructed.  Purchase and moving costs were just over $7 million.  Now it is a quaint area with restaurants, shops, etc.  Pretty cool.  And lots of waterfront boat docks as well.
Saturday we went on another road trip.  We went north a ways to see the town of Chloride.  This is an odd story.  In 1966 an artist decided to go up the mountain and paint some murals on rocks.  This sounds far more interesting than it was:)
Saturday night we rode the shuttle boat to the casino, had some supper, gambled enough to recoup our losses for supper and drinks, etc. and headed back home.  It was enjoyable and cool outside on the boat.
Our plans were to leave on Sunday.  We had thought to go back to Valley of Fire park, but as we were driving decided to change entirely.  I texted Pat and her and Walter were in St George, Utah, so off we went.  We stayed with them for 2 nights before heading out.  On Tuesday am we took off for Boise Idaho, stopping at the Lehi Utah Cabelas to pick up a boat motor for Jeremy.  We had an overnight at Cabela’s in Boise and off again.
Today we travelled to Farragut State Park, north of Coeur d’Alene Idaho.  It is one of our favourite state parks.  It is also close to a quaint town called Bayview, which boasts one of the best internet cafes I’ve seen.  Great coffee, pie and internet!
Not sure where the next few days will find us.  If Radium Hot Springs campground is open we will go there for one night.  Our plan is to be home on Saturday.  And Sunday we will see the grandkids – miss them lots!
Talk soon – goodnight.

Road Trip Report

On Thursday we got up EARLY 7:00 a.m. and headed south to Yuma and Mexico.  It was just over 2 hours and then we were walking across a border check into Mexico.  Unique expereince is all I can say.  We went to Los Algodones for a stroll to see what I could buy or what we may want to explore.  But in that quaint little place if you don't want dental (counted 33 offices) eyewear (counted 29) or medicine (counted 11 pharmacies), then there is not much need to visit:)
But it was a cool experience, and we travelled back home through California, along the Colorado River, and across the Parker Dam.
It is unique to see all the boondockers in the dessert.  Don and I excel at staying in the trailer for long periods of time without services, but the money these folks spend on solar power, etc. would sure pay for a lot of serviced camp sites.
But it may be us some day.
Today we are relaxing.  I finally finished my last exam in the secong last class of my National Advanced Certificate in Local Authority Administration, which I call Local Government.  I only have the Law class left then I will be done.
We are off to the beach for the day - so have a good one.  One week left for us and then it's back to the normal life!

Well hello again!

Sorry about the lengthy delay in blogging, but wi fi has not been that strong.  I've manageed a few facebook updates, but photos etc are difficult.

So here we are it's Wednesday a whole week since I wrote!  We had a great visit with Walter and Pat.  They have a lovely new trailer that is very nice to live in.  Great rear kitchen and a king size bed in the bedroom!  We did get to Freemont Street and the seafood buffet, so that was nice.  Wednesday we spent driving around shopping, picking up a few odds and ends.  Pat and Walter had friends flying in from Saskatoon on Wednesday afternoon, and once they arrived Pat cooked a great supper and we visited.

We left Las Vegas on Thursday, but not bright and early by any means.  We had the breakfast buffet at Sam's Town for the second day.  The only time I like lying about my age, BUT how come they believed I was 50??

We pulled into Laughlin aroung 12:30 pm and decided to stay at Davis Camp on the river.  You can see why from the photo:)

We set up camp quickly then headed to the Bullhead City Walmart to visit with my brotherWarren and his wife Cherie.  They were headed home to Alberta from the winter in Needles CA.  We had an early supper at a mexican restaurant and headed back to our site.
We knew Don's high school freind Ivan was in the area as we read his blog, and sure enough on Friday as we were returing to our site and Don and I are discussing what type of trailer Ivan pulls, there he was on the road.  He joined us for a few drinks at happy hour, then we headed to the casinos for appetizers and more drinks.
On Saturday we did a bit of a road trip and toured the area, although we have been in Laughlin many times.  Ivan joined us for supper on Saturday night, and Don and him spent Sunday driving around and touring.  I HAD to do some homework on my final exam, and was glad Don had someone to visit.  Supperagain at our site, then we said our good byes to Ivan, as we all planned on leaving the next day.
Not like Don and I, but we actually just left Laughin this morning, a week later.  We were cozy in our site and in no hurry to go anywhere.  We visited the Laughlin casinos a couple of times, drove to some new explore areas, and generally did a lot of nothing.  The internet conncetions have been sad, so I haven't been skyping like I expected to:(
We are now camped at Lake Havasu State Park, another site on the water.  I will post some photos later, as it appears we actually have strong internet connections.
Happy travels to all!

Viva Las Vegas

Well for anyone who travels alot you will understand no blog updates = cruddy internet! Let's see how I do at recapping the trip so far. On Friday we spent the night in Great Falls. The weather had improved immensely by then, and although the furncae ran a lot it was toasty. Another full day on Saturday found us at Cabelas in Salt Lake City. They have water and a sanitary dump for RV's, as well as a restaurant. Great stuff.
Sunday we arrived at the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The park is about 30 miles north of Vegas. I haven't downloaded the photos yet, but wow that park is amazing for scenery. We spent 2 nights, and met the nicest couple from Missoula Montana. Gerry and Peggy spent the evening at our fire and we shared dessert. Yummy.
Monday we headed into Vegas, and are staying in Sam's Town. Our old friends Pat and Walter Parker are staying down south this winter. We met them when we lived in St Paul, over 17 years ago.
Last night we went to Freemont Street for a fabulous seafood buffet and the light show of American Pie.
Today we are just hanging out. We are having an RV wash service clean all the Alberta scrunge off the trailer, get some groceries, and maybe check out some sights.
My next post should be form Laughlin - so see you there!
PS - Has anyone skyped? We are hooked up and saw Blake and Em yesterday. How sweet!

On Our Way!

Well thanks to the Stony Plain weather of wet snow we headed out at noon. So we are now lucky enough to be driving along highway 2 in beautiful weather. We'll let you know when we are somewhat settled.

Getting Ready to Hit the Road!

Well, we are excited that our spring holiday is days away.  Today Don and I will start packing the trailer for our 3 week excursuion.  Here is a map of where we THINK we may visit, but you know how plans can change.  No reservations are made, so we can see where the adventure and weather takes us!

Lots of miles but that's the way we like it.

As for today we are also babysitting Emerson and Blake overnight, just because.  I wanted to have Em because she has not had a sleepover with us yet.  So I will let you know how it goes...

Talk soon.

And another year has began!

Well 2009 was a busy time. New baby, wedding, lots of "holidays"away, etc. Now we are already preparing for Emerson's 1st birthday. Hard to believe.

We are going to Red Deer today to an RV show. We are not in any way looking to purchase but we certainly enjoy looking. We will definitely have one more fifth before we say we are done buying. Our current trailer has a full rear bath, larger than ours at home. We love that luxury of space. It has a double clothes closet as well as a floor to ceiling linen closet. In fact we have so much storage that we have never used the bedroom closets for anything other than my purchases on vacation!

But - we also want recliners in the back living space, so we will have to sacrifice the bathroom some time down the road. What I have never wanted, and no offense to anyone who has it, is the bathroom in the bedroom, with no walls. I find this plain rude. Where else is it normal to sleep with a toilet adjacent to your head? The good news is that now most builders are making the bathroom a separate room from the bedroom. We will likely never have a bathroom the size of our current one, but at least it will be private.
One more awesome feature of our current home on wheels is that when you walk in our trailer we have a full size coat closet. Holds ALL our coats, my shoes and purses, the broom and vacuum, etc. We never realized how unique these features were until after we purchased our fifth and started looking at others and talking with them.

Ours is a 2006 Pilgrim, hard to believe we have had it that long already! We recently added up all our trips and the trailer has gone over 40,000 km! Already so many great memories...

We are going to Oregon at the end of March for 3 weeks. Time to see the ocean again. Neither of us love hot weather so we are looking forward to seeing our favorite coastline area in the spring. Ahhh - I can smell it already. This Pisces is ready to go!