We are AZ Home!

Before sharing a few photos of our day, I want to mention what a special date of celebration this has always been for both of our families. Three very important folks in our lives were all born on this date. Rich's mom was born on October 22, 1906, my Pauline was born on October 22, 1912, and my dad, the youngster of the three, was born on October 22, 1916. We loved them and will always miss their presence in our life.

Today we drove back to our AZ home from our fabulous visit with family and friends in sunny southern California. It's a long one day drive in the motorhome so with two stops for breaks the 460 miles took about twelve hours.

We left the campground a little after 8:00 this morning. When you're driving east early in the day, cloud cover like this is very welcome.

Looking back as we approached the Santa Susanna Pass it was sunny over Simi Valley, which is where we stayed.

I loved seeing the mountains shrouded in haze as we came down the other side of the pass.

The 118 runs high above the southern edge of  the San Fernando Valley. Again, I just wanted to capture the haze that is often seen in the mornings.

Many, many miles later we saw these mountains on the horizon...Arizona!

Wouldn't you know it? There was a crash on I-10 near the airport which delayed us some.

When we got home, it was a quick unload of the refrigerator, computers, and bathroom stuff but the rest can wait until tomorrow. What a luxury it is to have it parked next to our garage!

While we were gone, our bedroom was painted and our bathroom is nearly done. The paint colors I chose...hmmm  Oh well, I'll wait and see what it's like in the morning.

Lovin' Life ~~ And CA, but Happy to be Home

A Short Trip to CA!

Yes, I am fully aware of the fact that we just got to AZ less than three weeks ago but now we are on the road again. We had a busy day yesterday with well issues that delayed laundry, a meeting with a contractor, and prepping the motorhome. About 2:30 Rich asked me how soon I could be ready and what did I think about leaving then rather than wait until morning!  It was after 5:00 last evening before laundry was finished, we packed, had everything loaded and drove off. Not bad. By the time we got west of Phoenix it was getting dark.

With a stop for fuel and a quick dinner, we made it to the Flying J Truck Stop  in Ehrenberg, AZ which is 1 mile from the California border. This Flying J listed RV parking so we had planned to spend the night there. The lot was packed. There must have been 100 semis parked for the night, either backed into single row spaces or parked two deep in some rows. We can't back up because we are towing a car so we need to pull through a space to eliminate the need to unhook the car. There were only two open spaces, unfortunately they were not one in front of the other but were catty-cornered to each other. Here's my sketch of the incredible maneuver by my hero to get us parked for the night. He serpentined that RV in-between the rear right corner of one truck and the front driver's side of another like it was made of rubber.

This morning I cooked breakfast and we drove straight out of our overnight parking space without having to unhitch. He is an amazing driver! In just a couple of minutes after getting back on I-10 we crossed the Colorado River into California!

There are always beautiful sights, just about everywhere we travel. Here are a couple of shots of the Chocolate Mountains. In the second one are a few of the dead palm trees in Desert Center, CA. I've always been curious about all the palms with their tops lopped off and many more that have fallen and are lying full length on the ground side by side.

An interstate overpass at Cathedral City is decorated with these Gothic shapes that when overlapped are the trim on the dishes we just bought for the new house and also the shape of the openings on the Brooklyn Bridge...love these links!

In the Palm Springs area there are massive wind farms in the mountains on either side of I-10. Even though you now see turbines everywhere, these have been here for years.

From about Palm Springs on the drive seems interminable. There isn't much of interest except for the famous Cabazon Dinosaurs. Coming back from skiing at Big Bear one winter we had stopped and visited the dinosaurs. There's a gift shop inside the belly of Dinny.

We decided that the rest of the drive seems so long because you feel like you're there, since it's just solidly linked town after town, yet there are a lot of miles left to L.A.

As we passed the city, we switched from I-10 to the familiar I-5 and then when we reached the 118 I really felt like we were back home.

The 118 Freeway was part of my commute from our home in Canyon Country to Cal Lutheran University the two years I went to school there in Thousand Oaks. Here a few scenes; what a lovely commute. I never got tired of that drive.

See the smiley face on the hillside? Like I said on FB earlier, it's a reflection of how I feel being here...happy, happy, happy!!!

We are so excited about seeing our family and friends over the next few days from our base in Simi Valley. Stay tuned!

Lovin' Life ~~ In Sunny So Cal

We Are In Arizona!

After a long day of driving, 410 long miles to be exact, we are parked for the night about 175 miles from our AZ "home." We left our Roswell, NM RV park at 6:00 this morning...yawn...that's EARLY for us! I took lots of photos today of our beautiful drive so let's see just a few!

Running the checklist at 6:00 a.m.

Forty-five minutes later we were watching the sun rise in our rear view mirrors!

As it continued to rise, the sun bathed the hills ahead of us in an orangey-goldish glow.

This flat cloud was fascinating.

Between Ruidoso and Tularosa we caught our first view of the White Sands, with the San Andres Mountains in the background.

As we drove through Tularosa, something certainly caught the attention of The Girls.

We don't see a lot of water on this route but this pond was lovely with the San Andres Mountains behind it.

We had passed the entrance to the White Sands National Monument when I took this photo. This is the first time we have driven this route and not stopped there but we were anxious to make our goal of reaching Benson, AZ today.

This is the north-eastern side of the Organ Mountains which overlook Las Cruces on the other side. We didn't stop in Las Cruces today either.

Moving on, we parked at a truck stop lot in Deming, NM for lunch. One of the many things we love about traveling like this is having breakfast and lunch in the motorhome. That gives Rich a break from the road where he can relax. As we started to pull out of the lot, Rich noticed this...

We've put all but 4,000 of those 40,000 miles on this motorhome in the last three years...and great miles they have been! 

We saw lots of dust devils racing across the flats of western NM but luckily they all dissipated before reaching the interstate so Rich only had to battle the crosswinds that came up again this afternoon. It was difficult getting shots of them since they were all approaching on Rich's side and I couldn't block the reflections in the window.

This next scene was taken 15 miles from the New Mexico/Arizona border. Seeing the blue, navy, purple outlines of mountains in the distance is always a thrill for me. Isn't this gorgeous?

And then...

Fifteen to twenty miles east of Benson, AZ we pass through Texas Canyon. These enormous rock formations are another favorite sight on this drive.

Soon we dropped down into Benson. After hooking up the facilities and feeding The Girls, Rich was still feeling a bit road weary so he's lying down. I'm going to finish this post and make some dinner for him.

Lovin' Life ~~ On The Road, At Home, Anywhere Together!

We Love Roswell!

This will be a very short post because there's not much to report. After leaving Oklahoma we drove to Amarillo then took Hwy 60 to Clovis, NM where we switched to Hwy 70. If you've been following my blog, you've seen most of the sights along with us as we traveled this route a few times before. We drove about 375 miles today but with no wind or traffic it was an easier day than yesterday!

The next three photos were taken along I-40 in Texas, east of Amarillo. There is a stretch there of many intermittent shallow canyons like these. I'm sharing these as an example of why we LOVE traveling in our motorhome. If you were cruising along here in a passenger vehicle, you would not even be able to see these gorgeous scenes because the road sides are somewhat sloped.

We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's in aptly named Hereford, TX. Here are a couple of photos of the massive cattle feed lots in this area. If you've never seen them, it's quite a sight. We must have seen tens of thousands of cattle today...millions of burgers on hoof. Does anyone know why some of them stand on top of these small man-made hills in the pasture?

Ten to twenty minutes out of Roswell, NM we finally saw this...a mountain to the front of us and those plateaus/mesas to the right! Yeah, we are in the southwest!

We are both excited about visiting our favorite small Museum of Modern Art here in Roswell tomorrow!

Lovin' Life ~~ Getting Close to Our Other Home & Family!

"Old" Friends, Short Days

I had such a great time last night that I forgot to blog!

Yesterday was a short driving day, we only went from Springfield, MO to Tulsa, OK where we dry-camped at the Hard Rock Casino.

We especially wanted to stop here this trip because our friends, Dianne & Mike, from our neighborhood in California have moved here. They met us for dinner at the buffet in the casino and we spent a fabulous four hours catching up on each others' lives.

As the four of us walked through the casino on our way out, we each gambled a bit. I put $20.00 in a slot and cashed out at $32.75. That may not sound like much to you but where else can you get a 63.75% return on your money in about fifteen minutes? Dianne didn't do quite as well; she put $1.00 in a slot machine and cashed out at $1.40...but still, that's a 40% return! The guys, well neither of them had a ticket to cash out...giggle!

This morning we left Tulsa at 9:00 planning to drive to Amarillo, TX. Here is the Arkansas River which runs through Tulsa.

Bella was feeling well enough to keep an eye on the road for Rich!

There are some beautiful scenes along I-44 in OK!

Check out the tree, not the bug splattered windshield in this shot. The cross winds were strong which makes driving a rig pretty exhausting. When we stopped for gas, we decided that there is no reason to push it so we are spending the night at the Elk City/Clinton, OK KOA. The winds died down late this afternoon.

For Dora it was just another boring day on the road. She was keeping an eye on me because she must have known that they gave me dog biscuits when I checked in here at the KOA.

Bella though was tired and took a nap soon after we arrived. All that co-piloting is hard work!

Right after we pulled in, I got a delightful surprise...my friend since grade school, Sandee, called! We don't often call each other so it was a treat chatting with her. It must be old friends week here on the road...check in please!

Lovin' Life ~~ Staying In Touch With Friends