Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky. It sure has been a stormy or cloudy spring. The weatherman recently displayed a graphic showing only 4 sunny days in the last month and a half that we have been here. Even before we became full-timers we were weather obsessed trying to catch as many forecasts as we can and then averaging them out. Most of the time they are fairly close but every once in awhile one of them will go out on a limb and be different. They may be the same or they may be different but they are invariably wrong.
When we were in our planning stages for full-timing we decided we needed a weather radio since we would not have a basement anymore. Since we were near two county lines we added both counties into the mix. We finally turned the dang thing off and sold it at the estate sale because we got sick and tired of getting woke up in the middle of the night because there was water in Millie's back yard. Every watch or warning was blared out and to be brutally honest 99.9% of them only served to annoy us.
Since we are weather obsessed we watch local weather no matter where we are, along with ForecastFox, a Firefox extension that puts weather based on a zip code in the statusbar of your browser. We also watch the Weather Channel but we still felt vulnerable even with all that. We are currently back in our old stomping grounds, the Kansas City area, and saw an article in the paper interviewing a local weatherman. They have hooked up with WeatherCall (http://www.kmbc.com/weather/16511224/detail.html) and this info is from their website, "WeatherCall combines this new method to determine a warning area with robust emergency telephone notification. Using computerized mapping, WeatherCall matches the danger area defined by the National Weather Service with your address. If your address is within the danger area of the weather warning, Chief Meteorologist, Bryan Busby will deliver the warning message to the phone numbers you register, and also send you an email if you provide one." SMS text messages are also available and an iPhone app is in the works.
This service is available for $6 a year but you must provide a specific street address. We contacted WeatherCall and was told we could change the location address on the profile at any time so we signed up. So far we have received one phone call that was for a severe thunderstorm that gave us enough warning to lower the satellite dish on the roof due to 70 mile per hour winds. Last night it was mentioned that WeatherCall warnings went out to phones 10 minutes before the sirens went off in an area that had tornadoes.
We may have had only one phone call but there has been numerous interruptions of television broadcasts for weather reports on local television. There is a website for one local weather personality, http://firekatie.com, that we swear will break into network shows when there is water in Millie's back yard. One night all three hours of network television were interrupted for a severe thunderstorm lasting a few minutes. We then had to follow it way out of the viewing area and see what the same storm front was doing in Oklahoma for a few minutes, freaking Oklahoma hundreds of miles away for heavens sakes. Luckily now that we are full-timing our network channels are out of New York and believe us they do not break into network programming as often as Katie does. We do lose the satellite signal occasionally in heavy rains though.
So far we have been pleased with WeatherCall and we will keep you posted as we change our physical address in the profile and see how that works.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Friday, May 21, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Benson, Arizona 2010 Stopover
Benson really surprised us with all that there was to do. Close by was the incredible Kartchner Caverns State Park which is a virtually unspoiled “live” cave recently discovered in 1974, is host to a wide variety of unique minerals and formations. Tombstone was as an easy day trip as was the mining community of Bisbee. Tombstone is not just the OK Corral and Boot Hill which we visited but we also saw the world's largest rose bush, the historical displays in the Courthouse were informative and the Bird Cage Theater, one of the few surviving structures, was musty but real neat. The weather finally started to cooperate and we had pleasant days. There were some really good places to eat like Gracie's Station and the Apple Farm Restaurant. We cannot believe we jammed all this into just one week. This is definitely a place we want to visit again. For more detailed information read on.
Kartchner Caverns State Park - In 1974 two young spelunkers were exploring the limestone hills near Benson. In the bottom of a sinkhole they found a narrow crack leading into the hillside. Warm, moist air flowed out, signaling the existence of a cave. After several hours of crawling, they entered a pristine cavern. Existence of the cave was kept a secret for a few years and then it was reported to the land owners who sold the area to the State of Arizona for a State Park. It took a few years to develop it as a "live" cave so the park has only been open to the public for a few years.
There are two tours available the Big Room and the Rotunda-Throne Room and we took the Rotunda-Throne Room Tour.
It was too late in the day to do both tours, oh well next time. This bell canopy is one of many fascinating features on the tour at Rotunda-Throne Room. It is formed by water flowing over a bump on the wall, then dripping to create this beautiful formation. Full-timing has shown us just how much we don't know about this great land of ours and caves was one of our weaker areas. Now we know all about stalactites and how Kartchner Caverns is home to the world's longest soda straw stalactite at 21'3". We also learned about stalagmites, moonmilk, birdsnests, and turnips. In Kartchner Caverns you will see the only "turnip" shields and "birdsnest" needle quartz formations in the world and the most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk anywhere. So if you are a spelunker then you need to head to Benson ASAP.
No trip to this part of the country would be complete without a trip to Tombstone, site of the infamous shootout at the OK Corral. We actually saw Tombstone on two separate occasions since the historic Courthouse was closed on the first day we went. Turns out the Courthouse is a State Park and Arizona is having a budget crisis so they have closed some State Parks and a number of Rest Areas. Coming back to Tombstone on our way to Bisbee and stopping at the Courthouse was well worth it. We decided not to pay to walk into the OK Corral since it was expensive and we thought it just would not be worth it. You can read about the shootout in many places so we passed. There were a lot of historical markers along with a commentary on politicians, seems like they had issues with politicians back then too.
We also saw the world's largest rosebush while in Tombstone. The trunk is 12 feet in circumference and the rosebush covers over 8,000 square feet. Each spring the rosebush blooms with over a million tiny white blossoms. The accompanying museum about the family that planted the white Lady Banksia rosebush in 1885 and the interactions with other Tombstone residents was one of the better museums we have seen.
The highlight of Tombstone though had to be the Bird Cage Theater, which is one of the few surviving structures from the Earp era. The current owners wanted to have a museum in Tombstone and were surprised to find that the previous owners had just left everything in the building so all they had to do was buy the building and they had their memorabilia along with some supposed ghosts. Legend has it that 26 people were killed at the Bird Cage during its 8 year run and there are countless numbers of bullet holes that you can see to this day. The hearse that carried everybody to Boot Hill from 1881 to 1906 is also part of the exhibit. The only downside to the Bird Cage is that it smells like it was shuttered for a number of years which it was. In fact 6 rooms on the lower level were just opened to the public that have been sealed off since 1889.
Since we were planning on going back to the Tombstone Courthouse and since it was on the way to mining community of Bisbee we decided to combine those in a day trip. Bisbee is a neat city built right into the mountains that provided the copper they were mining. The streets were narrow so we were glad we just had the F-350 but even with that it was narrow. We found a place to park and on our way to the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum we walked by a shop selling Killer Bee honey. Having never tried it we bought a couple different flavors and man are we glad we did as this is good honey. We then toured the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum which is part of the Smithsonian Museum Affiliates Program. We have to say we came away a little underwhelmed by the mining museum so we cannot really recommend. After seeing so many good small museums we were a little disappointed.
As far as food goes we have a confession to make, we are creatures of habit. If we find a good place to eat we go back. So except for a visit to Quiznos, Taco Bell and the deli at a Safeway grocery store we ate at Gracie's Station or the Apple Farm Restaurant for every meal we did not have in our condo on wheels. Both are highly recommended as evidenced by the number of times we ate there. We were getting recognized at the Apple Farm we ate there so many times.
Next time we visit we will visit Kartchner Caverns again and do the Big Room tour. We also plan on the Chirachua National Moonument, a day trip to Wilcox and a visit to the Cochise Stronghold and Dragon Mountain. For food we hope to try other places but will probably eat a lot at Gracie's Station or the Apple Farm Restaurant.
Photos from this visit have been added to flickr.com.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Kartchner Caverns State Park - In 1974 two young spelunkers were exploring the limestone hills near Benson. In the bottom of a sinkhole they found a narrow crack leading into the hillside. Warm, moist air flowed out, signaling the existence of a cave. After several hours of crawling, they entered a pristine cavern. Existence of the cave was kept a secret for a few years and then it was reported to the land owners who sold the area to the State of Arizona for a State Park. It took a few years to develop it as a "live" cave so the park has only been open to the public for a few years.
There are two tours available the Big Room and the Rotunda-Throne Room and we took the Rotunda-Throne Room Tour.
It was too late in the day to do both tours, oh well next time. This bell canopy is one of many fascinating features on the tour at Rotunda-Throne Room. It is formed by water flowing over a bump on the wall, then dripping to create this beautiful formation. Full-timing has shown us just how much we don't know about this great land of ours and caves was one of our weaker areas. Now we know all about stalactites and how Kartchner Caverns is home to the world's longest soda straw stalactite at 21'3". We also learned about stalagmites, moonmilk, birdsnests, and turnips. In Kartchner Caverns you will see the only "turnip" shields and "birdsnest" needle quartz formations in the world and the most extensive formation of brushite moonmilk anywhere. So if you are a spelunker then you need to head to Benson ASAP.No trip to this part of the country would be complete without a trip to Tombstone, site of the infamous shootout at the OK Corral. We actually saw Tombstone on two separate occasions since the historic Courthouse was closed on the first day we went. Turns out the Courthouse is a State Park and Arizona is having a budget crisis so they have closed some State Parks and a number of Rest Areas. Coming back to Tombstone on our way to Bisbee and stopping at the Courthouse was well worth it. We decided not to pay to walk into the OK Corral since it was expensive and we thought it just would not be worth it. You can read about the shootout in many places so we passed. There were a lot of historical markers along with a commentary on politicians, seems like they had issues with politicians back then too.
We also saw the world's largest rosebush while in Tombstone. The trunk is 12 feet in circumference and the rosebush covers over 8,000 square feet. Each spring the rosebush blooms with over a million tiny white blossoms. The accompanying museum about the family that planted the white Lady Banksia rosebush in 1885 and the interactions with other Tombstone residents was one of the better museums we have seen.
The highlight of Tombstone though had to be the Bird Cage Theater, which is one of the few surviving structures from the Earp era. The current owners wanted to have a museum in Tombstone and were surprised to find that the previous owners had just left everything in the building so all they had to do was buy the building and they had their memorabilia along with some supposed ghosts. Legend has it that 26 people were killed at the Bird Cage during its 8 year run and there are countless numbers of bullet holes that you can see to this day. The hearse that carried everybody to Boot Hill from 1881 to 1906 is also part of the exhibit. The only downside to the Bird Cage is that it smells like it was shuttered for a number of years which it was. In fact 6 rooms on the lower level were just opened to the public that have been sealed off since 1889.
Since we were planning on going back to the Tombstone Courthouse and since it was on the way to mining community of Bisbee we decided to combine those in a day trip. Bisbee is a neat city built right into the mountains that provided the copper they were mining. The streets were narrow so we were glad we just had the F-350 but even with that it was narrow. We found a place to park and on our way to the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum we walked by a shop selling Killer Bee honey. Having never tried it we bought a couple different flavors and man are we glad we did as this is good honey. We then toured the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum which is part of the Smithsonian Museum Affiliates Program. We have to say we came away a little underwhelmed by the mining museum so we cannot really recommend. After seeing so many good small museums we were a little disappointed.
As far as food goes we have a confession to make, we are creatures of habit. If we find a good place to eat we go back. So except for a visit to Quiznos, Taco Bell and the deli at a Safeway grocery store we ate at Gracie's Station or the Apple Farm Restaurant for every meal we did not have in our condo on wheels. Both are highly recommended as evidenced by the number of times we ate there. We were getting recognized at the Apple Farm we ate there so many times.
Next time we visit we will visit Kartchner Caverns again and do the Big Room tour. We also plan on the Chirachua National Moonument, a day trip to Wilcox and a visit to the Cochise Stronghold and Dragon Mountain. For food we hope to try other places but will probably eat a lot at Gracie's Station or the Apple Farm Restaurant.
Photos from this visit have been added to flickr.com.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Friday, May 7, 2010
Not really roughing it : )
We married late in life and although we had camped in tents and RVs my wife said her idea of roughing it was a nice Hilton. After going to a number of RV shows and walking through a lot of different floorplans we finally decided we could have a nice RV and just take our Hilton room with us as we traveled across the country. That is how we ended up with our Carriage Cameo, or what we call our condo on wheels.
Being a fully enclosed fifth wheel allows us the capability to do what is called boondocking, that is parking without the electrical, water and sewer hookups. So far we tried this once at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Illinois when we were bringing the Cameo back from the dealership in Michigan where we picked it up. It was the first time we tried this and it was a disaster. We talked about this in an earlier post, http://bobandjotravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/2-weeks-of-full-timing.html, but this experience has made us very cautious to repeat roughing it in that manner. Running the battery down and not getting much sleep due to the parking lot and lack of circulation was so much fun!
Our reaction was to go clear in the other direction, every night that we have parked for the past 8 months we have had full hookups (electrical, water and sewer) at the site. We have two options when it comes to electrical hookups, either 30 amp service or 50 amp service. So far we have been able to get 50 amp service which allows us to use all of our appliances, even both air conditioners at the same time if need be.
This may change this summer as most of the parks that Bob has found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are 30 amps and a few do not have sewer hookups at the site. This will be a new experience for us as we may have to worry about running the microwave and the toaster at the same time for example, oh the inhumanity. Now that is really roughing it!
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Being a fully enclosed fifth wheel allows us the capability to do what is called boondocking, that is parking without the electrical, water and sewer hookups. So far we tried this once at a Wal-Mart parking lot in Illinois when we were bringing the Cameo back from the dealership in Michigan where we picked it up. It was the first time we tried this and it was a disaster. We talked about this in an earlier post, http://bobandjotravelblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/2-weeks-of-full-timing.html, but this experience has made us very cautious to repeat roughing it in that manner. Running the battery down and not getting much sleep due to the parking lot and lack of circulation was so much fun!
Our reaction was to go clear in the other direction, every night that we have parked for the past 8 months we have had full hookups (electrical, water and sewer) at the site. We have two options when it comes to electrical hookups, either 30 amp service or 50 amp service. So far we have been able to get 50 amp service which allows us to use all of our appliances, even both air conditioners at the same time if need be.
This may change this summer as most of the parks that Bob has found in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are 30 amps and a few do not have sewer hookups at the site. This will be a new experience for us as we may have to worry about running the microwave and the toaster at the same time for example, oh the inhumanity. Now that is really roughing it!
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bobandjotravelblog/
You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Monday, May 3, 2010
Full-timing is about choices
Most of the time we as full-timers concentrate on the choices that we will be making, we can choose where you visit, how long we will stay there, etc. Rarely do we talk about what we gave up when we made the decision to go full-timing. This hit home as we spend time in our old stomping grounds of the Kansas City area. We had season tickets at the New Theatre Restaurant which is an excellent dinner theatre and the American Heartland Theatre. The local talent in the KC area is incredible so we always saw great talent doing shows. The New Theatre also brings in a celebrity to headline each of their shows.
Since we were back in the KC area for awhile we decided to attend a show at the New Theatre. We were surprised that we got great seats, in fact one of our old season ticket tables so that was special. The show was "Becky's New Car" which dealt with adultery in a very funny way. The celebrity headliner was John Davidson. The food, oh my gosh, the FOOD!! We have always said that the New Theatre is probably one of the Top 10 places to eat in the KC area and this time did not disappoint us. The quality of the food is well worth the price of the tickets by itself so we look at it like we are getting a show for free. If you are ever in the KC area we highly recommend the New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park KS.
Before we head out of town we also will be going to the American Heartland to see a show. The American Heartland Theatre is located in the Crown Center in Kansas City MO. The show we will be seeing is the Dixie Swim Club.
It will be good to get a taste of what we gave up to become full-timers and still enjoy the lifestyle, it is good to be us!!
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Since we were back in the KC area for awhile we decided to attend a show at the New Theatre. We were surprised that we got great seats, in fact one of our old season ticket tables so that was special. The show was "Becky's New Car" which dealt with adultery in a very funny way. The celebrity headliner was John Davidson. The food, oh my gosh, the FOOD!! We have always said that the New Theatre is probably one of the Top 10 places to eat in the KC area and this time did not disappoint us. The quality of the food is well worth the price of the tickets by itself so we look at it like we are getting a show for free. If you are ever in the KC area we highly recommend the New Theatre Restaurant in Overland Park KS.
Before we head out of town we also will be going to the American Heartland to see a show. The American Heartland Theatre is located in the Crown Center in Kansas City MO. The show we will be seeing is the Dixie Swim Club.
It will be good to get a taste of what we gave up to become full-timers and still enjoy the lifestyle, it is good to be us!!
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Monday, April 26, 2010
Spring Cleaning
One of the best things about full-timing is that most everything is reduced sized, not super sized like it was in our old sticks and bricks. Spring cleaning, or just house cleaning is one great example. Whenever we did cleaning before full-timing we would always start out strong and then fade as the enormity of keeping 3300 sq ft clean became evident. Spaced out over a couple of days we cleaned everything in our condo on wheels. Above the normal vacuuming with the central vac and dusting and the bathroom we cleaned windows inside and out and wiped down the ceilings and walls. Bob has never been a good wax on, wax off kinda guy so we had professionals wash and wax the outside so after spring cleaning our new home looks brand new, well maybe for about 30 seconds and then the cats spread litter everywhere and the birds think there are bulls-eyes painted on the roof and sides of the fifth wheel but we will always have those 30 seconds.
Since we have begun full-timing we have not cleaned gutters or mowed lawns or shoveled snow but now we are just being mean : )
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
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Since we have begun full-timing we have not cleaned gutters or mowed lawns or shoveled snow but now we are just being mean : )
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Friday, April 16, 2010
Added blog gadget!
On the left pane is a list of our favorite things dealing with food. If changes are made to this list a blog entry will accompany that change. We look forward to comments on this list.
We also plan to slightly change how we do future blog entries. There will be more single themed entries that will be shorter in nature (kinda like this one). When a review of an entire area, like the upcoming Phoenix area, is posted there will also be a shorter summary of the area. We are still working out the template for the summary so be patient with us. Some readers like the full blown entries and some like shorter entries so we shall see if we can keep both types of readers happy.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
We also plan to slightly change how we do future blog entries. There will be more single themed entries that will be shorter in nature (kinda like this one). When a review of an entire area, like the upcoming Phoenix area, is posted there will also be a shorter summary of the area. We are still working out the template for the summary so be patient with us. Some readers like the full blown entries and some like shorter entries so we shall see if we can keep both types of readers happy.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bobandjotravelblog/
You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Right back where we started from!
We started our full-timing adventure on September 10, 2009 when we moved ourselves and our 3 cats into our new home, our condo on wheels, which was parked at the Peculiar Park Place RV Park in Peculiar Missouri. We spent two months there getting used to full-time RV living and getting everything finalized since our house sold so quickly (if anybody needs a good Realtor we sure can recommend one). Our first full-timing adventure where it was more like a vacation was when we left for Branson in early November 2009. From Branson we went to Checotah OK to Melissa TX to Livingston TX to Rockport TX to San Antonio to Kerrville TX to Pecos TX to Deming NM to Benson AZ to Goodyear AZ to Holbrook AZ to Albuquerque NM to Amarillo TX to Chandler OK and finally to Peculiar, right back where we started from :-)
While in Peculiar we will be seeing friends and family, eating at our favorite places and catching up on appointments with our many Doctors. After 5 months of full-timing coming back to this area has been an adjustment though. It is the first time in a long time that we have had to put things on calendars and the first time we have had to be somewhere on time except for Mass.
We can probably summarize our first seven months of full-timing in three simple words; weather, food and history. Weather because an El Nino year is not the year to start full-timing. What El Nino does to weather is downright criminal. We are fans of anything water so we decided our travels would first take us to the Gulf of Mexico for a month and then work our way across Texas to see friends and family in the Phoenix area in February. Everywhere we went in Texas was experiencing record cold or rain or both. In over a month in Rockport TX we had maybe 4 or 5 nice days, other than that it was about 20-30 degrees cooler and rainy and foggy. We experienced our coldest overnight temperatures just south of San Antonio. In the Texas Hill Country in Kerrville we finally had some of the weather we were looking for but this was just a stretch of 4-5 days and then El Nino reared its ugly head. It wasn't until we made it across the vast expanse that is west Texas and across New Mexico and into Arizona and arrived at Goodyear just west of Phoenix that we had great weather. In the month and a half there we had a couple of days that were cool and a couple of rainy days but for the most part the temperatures were in the low 70's and it was sunny. That was the weather we thought we would have when we started this adventure.
All good things must come to an end though and the weather impacted our travel planning on the way back. Flagstaff had record snow so we had to watch the road conditions and weather forecast for our first leg, in fact for our entire journey. We did see our first snow up front and personal on this drive as there still was snow piles right near the interstate and the mountains were covered. Albuquerque had snow the night before we planned on traveling there so we delayed a day. Amarillo also had snow the the night before we planned on traveling so we delayed yet another day. On Good Friday when we planned to travel from Chandler OK to Peculiar MO a nasty thunderstorm blew through Chandler a little after 7am and then through all points on our planned route. Let me tell you 70mph winds, hail and heavy rain sure make a lot of noise in an RV. The cats were scared and the racket woke Jo up. Needless to say we spent the day watching weather forecasts all along our route and trying to decide whether or not it was safe to travel that day. About 1pm we decided to give it a go and we never got rained on or had any trouble. The roads were still wet around Joplin and you could see that it had just rained but we timed our trip pretty good. Now El Nino occurs on average every 5 years so one thing we know for certain is that when the next El Nino is forecast we will be back in Goodyear or Yuma because the Phoenix and Yuma AZ areas were the best places to be this El Nino year.
Now to our favorite topic - FOOD. As you can tell from our blog name, "How to Love Where You Are and Eat Where the Locals Eat", we do love our food. We have found a very good question to ask people where to eat and that is for them to imagine that they have been away for awhile and are back only for a short time and can only eat at one place, what place would they eat at? This question has lead us to a whole batch of new favorite places to eat. From the ribs at Florida's Kitchen near Livingston TX to the oyster stew at Charlotte Plummers and the po boys at Alby's Seafood, both in Rockport TX to the Arizona Green Chile Eggs in Winslow AZ.
Besides food we have been filling up on history on our travels. We walked on the deck of an aircraft carrier that was the same class of carrier that Bob's dad served on in WWII. We saw a 6' scale model of the ship that Jo's dad served on in WWII. We visited the Alamo and some great small town museums.
We do plan to provide updates on the rest of journey during our two months in the Kansas City area.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
While in Peculiar we will be seeing friends and family, eating at our favorite places and catching up on appointments with our many Doctors. After 5 months of full-timing coming back to this area has been an adjustment though. It is the first time in a long time that we have had to put things on calendars and the first time we have had to be somewhere on time except for Mass.
We can probably summarize our first seven months of full-timing in three simple words; weather, food and history. Weather because an El Nino year is not the year to start full-timing. What El Nino does to weather is downright criminal. We are fans of anything water so we decided our travels would first take us to the Gulf of Mexico for a month and then work our way across Texas to see friends and family in the Phoenix area in February. Everywhere we went in Texas was experiencing record cold or rain or both. In over a month in Rockport TX we had maybe 4 or 5 nice days, other than that it was about 20-30 degrees cooler and rainy and foggy. We experienced our coldest overnight temperatures just south of San Antonio. In the Texas Hill Country in Kerrville we finally had some of the weather we were looking for but this was just a stretch of 4-5 days and then El Nino reared its ugly head. It wasn't until we made it across the vast expanse that is west Texas and across New Mexico and into Arizona and arrived at Goodyear just west of Phoenix that we had great weather. In the month and a half there we had a couple of days that were cool and a couple of rainy days but for the most part the temperatures were in the low 70's and it was sunny. That was the weather we thought we would have when we started this adventure.
All good things must come to an end though and the weather impacted our travel planning on the way back. Flagstaff had record snow so we had to watch the road conditions and weather forecast for our first leg, in fact for our entire journey. We did see our first snow up front and personal on this drive as there still was snow piles right near the interstate and the mountains were covered. Albuquerque had snow the night before we planned on traveling there so we delayed a day. Amarillo also had snow the the night before we planned on traveling so we delayed yet another day. On Good Friday when we planned to travel from Chandler OK to Peculiar MO a nasty thunderstorm blew through Chandler a little after 7am and then through all points on our planned route. Let me tell you 70mph winds, hail and heavy rain sure make a lot of noise in an RV. The cats were scared and the racket woke Jo up. Needless to say we spent the day watching weather forecasts all along our route and trying to decide whether or not it was safe to travel that day. About 1pm we decided to give it a go and we never got rained on or had any trouble. The roads were still wet around Joplin and you could see that it had just rained but we timed our trip pretty good. Now El Nino occurs on average every 5 years so one thing we know for certain is that when the next El Nino is forecast we will be back in Goodyear or Yuma because the Phoenix and Yuma AZ areas were the best places to be this El Nino year.
Now to our favorite topic - FOOD. As you can tell from our blog name, "How to Love Where You Are and Eat Where the Locals Eat", we do love our food. We have found a very good question to ask people where to eat and that is for them to imagine that they have been away for awhile and are back only for a short time and can only eat at one place, what place would they eat at? This question has lead us to a whole batch of new favorite places to eat. From the ribs at Florida's Kitchen near Livingston TX to the oyster stew at Charlotte Plummers and the po boys at Alby's Seafood, both in Rockport TX to the Arizona Green Chile Eggs in Winslow AZ.
Besides food we have been filling up on history on our travels. We walked on the deck of an aircraft carrier that was the same class of carrier that Bob's dad served on in WWII. We saw a 6' scale model of the ship that Jo's dad served on in WWII. We visited the Alamo and some great small town museums.
We do plan to provide updates on the rest of journey during our two months in the Kansas City area.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Friday, March 26, 2010
Deming, New Mexico 2010 Stopover
We spent a week in Deming NM at the Escapees Dream Catcher RV Park on our trek to the Phoenix area. The day after our arrival we went to one of the best small town museums we have ever seen. It was the Luna Mimbres Museum in downtown Deming. 
We got through only about 1/2 the museum and luckily for us that included the pottery collection of the Mimbres Indians who lived in the nearby valley between 950 A.D. to 1250 A.D. Nobody knows for sure what happened to the Mimbres but they left an incredible amount of pottery and this is one of the best collections in the world. We also saw one of the best rock collections we have seen, actually a world-class exhibit of Thundereggs, Geodes, and Nodules.
The next day we went to Columbus NM and visited the site of the last armed invasion of the United States, the 1916 Pancho Villa raid. We stopped first at the Pancho Villa State Park which was the military post there and where a lot of the fighting took place. The visitors center had a lot of exhibits detailing the life in Columbus at the time and the battle. There was a neat film there. We then went to the Depot Museum in the old train Depot where we saw another neat film and a lot more exhibits and displays.
On the way back we drove through Spring Canyon State Park which was scenic.
Just across the border from Columbus is Palomas Mexico. We had been to Mexico before and it just did not appeal to us but people at the RV Park mentioned they were going to Palomas so it got us thinking. What sealed the deal was one of the volunteers at the Depot Museum in Columbus said they were taking their lunch break in Mexico and eating at the Pink Store. If someone who lived in the area would do that we decided we could too.
We are so glad that we did! We stopped in the Pink Store and talked to a lady from Las Cruces NM who had just eaten at the Pink Store after getting dental work done. She was with a group that had done the same thing and was going to shop at the Pink Store and then hit the Pharmacy. She raved about eating at the Pink Store and she was right, more on that later. Las Cruces is over 90 miles one way from Palomas so we were feeling more confident.
We first decided to hit the Pharmacy since we weren't quite hungry yet. We were directed to the Farmacia Express where we got some of our medications at incredible prices. We then went to the Pink Store and did some browsing. We ended up buying a purse and earrings for Jo and Mexican vanilla. We then ate at the Pink Store and it was wonderful. Jo got the tostada trio which she said was as good as she has had anywhere. Bob got the chile relleno which was good. Definitely a place we will visit again.
We then crossed the border and just in case we did not say prescriptions or medications along with the other shopping but said 'drugs' instead Jo hung back a little so she could bail Bob out of jail if need be :-)
Photos from this trip have been added to flickr.com.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
We got through only about 1/2 the museum and luckily for us that included the pottery collection of the Mimbres Indians who lived in the nearby valley between 950 A.D. to 1250 A.D. Nobody knows for sure what happened to the Mimbres but they left an incredible amount of pottery and this is one of the best collections in the world. We also saw one of the best rock collections we have seen, actually a world-class exhibit of Thundereggs, Geodes, and Nodules.The next day we went to Columbus NM and visited the site of the last armed invasion of the United States, the 1916 Pancho Villa raid. We stopped first at the Pancho Villa State Park which was the military post there and where a lot of the fighting took place. The visitors center had a lot of exhibits detailing the life in Columbus at the time and the battle. There was a neat film there. We then went to the Depot Museum in the old train Depot where we saw another neat film and a lot more exhibits and displays.
On the way back we drove through Spring Canyon State Park which was scenic.Just across the border from Columbus is Palomas Mexico. We had been to Mexico before and it just did not appeal to us but people at the RV Park mentioned they were going to Palomas so it got us thinking. What sealed the deal was one of the volunteers at the Depot Museum in Columbus said they were taking their lunch break in Mexico and eating at the Pink Store. If someone who lived in the area would do that we decided we could too.
We are so glad that we did! We stopped in the Pink Store and talked to a lady from Las Cruces NM who had just eaten at the Pink Store after getting dental work done. She was with a group that had done the same thing and was going to shop at the Pink Store and then hit the Pharmacy. She raved about eating at the Pink Store and she was right, more on that later. Las Cruces is over 90 miles one way from Palomas so we were feeling more confident.
We first decided to hit the Pharmacy since we weren't quite hungry yet. We were directed to the Farmacia Express where we got some of our medications at incredible prices. We then went to the Pink Store and did some browsing. We ended up buying a purse and earrings for Jo and Mexican vanilla. We then ate at the Pink Store and it was wonderful. Jo got the tostada trio which she said was as good as she has had anywhere. Bob got the chile relleno which was good. Definitely a place we will visit again.
We then crossed the border and just in case we did not say prescriptions or medications along with the other shopping but said 'drugs' instead Jo hung back a little so she could bail Bob out of jail if need be :-)
Photos from this trip have been added to flickr.com.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Weather Delay (kinda)
We are still in Holbrook AZ and saw the weather that Albuquerque, our next destination, and the rest of the midwest was getting overnite Friday so we decided to stay here one more day. We said kind of a weather delay because we had the fortune to eat at the Turquoise Room at the La Posada Hotel in Winslow AZ for breakfast. This was the day before we were thinking about leaving and the food was excellent, so excellent that it was an easy decision on where to eat when we decided to stay. Bob got the Arizona Green Chile Eggs both days, 2 over easy eggs on top of polenta on top of green chile (AZ green chile not NM green chile but still good) topped with corn salsa. Had black beans the first day and their famous green chile potatoes the next. Jo had the french toast the first day and the corn maiden the next which was two poached eggs on top of polenta with corn salsa on top and jalapeno cheese and fire roasted tomatoes. We split the prickly pear bread pudding the first day and we each got one the next day it was so good. Seriously, this place is worth spending time in Winslow just for being able to eat there.
Tomorrow we head out to Albuquerque unless the weather looks bad :-)
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Tomorrow we head out to Albuquerque unless the weather looks bad :-)
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Thursday, March 18, 2010
Finally on our way back to Kansas City area
We say finally because we were planning on starting the journey on March 15th but did not leave until March 17th. During the day before departure ritual Bob makes sure that the air pressure in all the tires is OK. Since we were in Goodyear for 5 weeks we had put the tire covers on so we did not see the tires. One of the trailer tires was low so air was added and the rest of the tasks were completed.
The first thing Bob did the next morning was to check the pressure again and sure enough it was down 10psi. We have an Emergency Road Service from Good Sam's RV Club and one of the benefits is to put the spare on which we had them do. Not willing to travel without a spare we took the leaking tire to S&S Tire in Goodyear, now doesn't that sound strange. Inspection of the tire showed a long nail had caused irreparable damage. Finding the same tire proved to be a challenge so this turned out to be an all day affair. Since we had lost our mojo for traveling we decided to stay one more day and because it would be the first 80 degree day we would have full-timing. You just knew we had to work in how great the weather has been didn't ya : )
A lesson learned from this is that we will be investing in a tire pressure monitoring system, probably PressurePro. Bob checked the pressure when we left Benson AZ on our way to Goodyear so the nail had to happen somewhere between. PressurePro would have notified us immediately when the pressure dropped. We were so lucky to not have a blowout. Another lesson learned is that we need a better compressor which we also be investing in.
We left Goodyear about 10:00 a.m. on the 17th as we like traveling between 10a-2p. It does not seem to matter when we get up we always seem to leave about the same time. The cats weren't quite in travel mode as JJ hid under the recliner again. But once we dislodged him he walked into the bedroom on his own. Tiger had to be picked up off of the bed so we could put the slide in. Sandra was the champ again as she waited patiently by the bedroom door so she could go in.
We took the northerly route from Phoenix so we went through Flagstaff. Now Flagstaff has had over 140 inches of snow this winter and the weather can change at any instant so we kept track of the weather and road conditions before we left. We did see our first snow while full-timing on the side of the road and on the mountains near Flagstaff.
In addition to the first 80 degree day and our first snow we also encountered our first really steep grades, both going up and down. Although we have been on steep grades before the length of the grade was the most challenging, a downhill grade of 6 degrees lasting 6 miles for example. We are so glad we bought the F-350 because it handled quite well. There was one time going up the hill that we got caught behind a heavy load and knew we just did not have the power to get around and not impede the cars that we were whizzing by at 75mph. We also got caught on the down grade in the slow lane. This was the first time Bob had to downshift the transmission, usually the tow/haul mode handled the speed reductions but like mentioned before the down grade was not 6 miles long as it was here.
There were some rough roads around Flagstaff but we guess that is to be expected since it is probably still winter there and the road crews have not had time to fix them. JJ took a long time coming down from the bedroom after we got there and setup. We leave the bedroom slide in until he comes out because he wedges himself under the bed while we travel and we are afraid that he may get caught in the moving slide. He eventually did come down so we could put the slide out and setup the bedroom for our stay in Holbrook AZ where we will see the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, and maybe a few other things while we are here. We will only be staying here 3-4 nights and then heading off to Albuquerque.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
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The first thing Bob did the next morning was to check the pressure again and sure enough it was down 10psi. We have an Emergency Road Service from Good Sam's RV Club and one of the benefits is to put the spare on which we had them do. Not willing to travel without a spare we took the leaking tire to S&S Tire in Goodyear, now doesn't that sound strange. Inspection of the tire showed a long nail had caused irreparable damage. Finding the same tire proved to be a challenge so this turned out to be an all day affair. Since we had lost our mojo for traveling we decided to stay one more day and because it would be the first 80 degree day we would have full-timing. You just knew we had to work in how great the weather has been didn't ya : )
A lesson learned from this is that we will be investing in a tire pressure monitoring system, probably PressurePro. Bob checked the pressure when we left Benson AZ on our way to Goodyear so the nail had to happen somewhere between. PressurePro would have notified us immediately when the pressure dropped. We were so lucky to not have a blowout. Another lesson learned is that we need a better compressor which we also be investing in.
We left Goodyear about 10:00 a.m. on the 17th as we like traveling between 10a-2p. It does not seem to matter when we get up we always seem to leave about the same time. The cats weren't quite in travel mode as JJ hid under the recliner again. But once we dislodged him he walked into the bedroom on his own. Tiger had to be picked up off of the bed so we could put the slide in. Sandra was the champ again as she waited patiently by the bedroom door so she could go in.
We took the northerly route from Phoenix so we went through Flagstaff. Now Flagstaff has had over 140 inches of snow this winter and the weather can change at any instant so we kept track of the weather and road conditions before we left. We did see our first snow while full-timing on the side of the road and on the mountains near Flagstaff.
In addition to the first 80 degree day and our first snow we also encountered our first really steep grades, both going up and down. Although we have been on steep grades before the length of the grade was the most challenging, a downhill grade of 6 degrees lasting 6 miles for example. We are so glad we bought the F-350 because it handled quite well. There was one time going up the hill that we got caught behind a heavy load and knew we just did not have the power to get around and not impede the cars that we were whizzing by at 75mph. We also got caught on the down grade in the slow lane. This was the first time Bob had to downshift the transmission, usually the tow/haul mode handled the speed reductions but like mentioned before the down grade was not 6 miles long as it was here.
There were some rough roads around Flagstaff but we guess that is to be expected since it is probably still winter there and the road crews have not had time to fix them. JJ took a long time coming down from the bedroom after we got there and setup. We leave the bedroom slide in until he comes out because he wedges himself under the bed while we travel and we are afraid that he may get caught in the moving slide. He eventually did come down so we could put the slide out and setup the bedroom for our stay in Holbrook AZ where we will see the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, and maybe a few other things while we are here. We will only be staying here 3-4 nights and then heading off to Albuquerque.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
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Saturday, March 13, 2010
Blog features updated
As we near the 40th post the blog is becoming big enough that it needs some features to make it more readable by our faithful readers. We have added a blog archive for the posts beginning in 2008. Most of the posts in 2008 and 2009 deal with getting the house ready for sale so that we could begin our full-timing lifestyle, although 2008 had reviews of the Kansas City and Seattle areas. Early on the 2009 posts dealt with getting the house ready for sale sprinkled in with a report on Bob's Canada fishing trip in June. In August of 2009 it all changed as the house sold quickly and full-timing began on September 10, 2009. That means loyal readers that it has been 6 months since we started full-timing and that is scary how fast time is flying by. What is even scarier is that it has been over TWO years since Bob retired and started this blog.
We also added a search feature so that you can more easily find what you are looking for.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
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We also added a search feature so that you can more easily find what you are looking for.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Kerrville Texas and Texas Hill Country 2010
We had read great things about the Guadalu
Exiting the hotel takes you to an outdoor area where
The site is actually a State Park and consists of a living history farm which was our first stop after the
Earlier President’s went on vacation like Truman to
Although this is a State Park the National Park Service is in charge of restoring the house so this was a work in progress. For one thing they cannot find the pink carpet that was in the study which Lady Bird hated and had removed after LBJ’s death. The kitchen was much smaller than we expected for a house of this size. There was a nice photo collection of all the generations of Johnson on the wall in the kitchen. We did not know that Lady Bird lived in this house until her death in 2007 so the restoration is really just beginning. We want to go back when the Secret Service building is completed, along with an aircraft hanger that was made into a movie theatre during LBJ’s presidency, and to see if they ever find that dreaded pink carpet.
* 'Canyon of the Eagles' with nature walking trails
* revisit
* revisit
*
* Enchanted
*
*
* “Let’s go to Luckenbach
* eat at Cooper’s BBQ in Llano, Buffalo Nickel Bar and Grill, Big Earl’s, Francisco’s, Billy Genes, The Rails-A Cafe at the Depot
Photos from this trip have been added to flickr.com.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Bird Feeder
A neighbor of ours at the Guadalupe River RV Resort in
At first there was no activity but we are finally seeing some birds and boy does it make our cats happy. As you can see from the picture two of them, you have to look carefully to just see the ears of the second cat, were mesmerized by this bird and luckily the camera did catch this Kodak moment.
We are a little sad right now because our time in Goodyear has about come to an end. We will spend 5 weeks total and already 4 weeks and a few days have past, much too quickly if you ask either one of us, or our cats for that matter. I have tried to tell them not to worry the bird feeder will go with us and we will have birds every place we stop but all they hear is "yadda yadda yadda" .
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Saturday, March 6, 2010
Cactus League
Baseball that is fun again, even if it is watching the Kansas City Royals : )We enjoy baseball games but the going to baseball games is not fun. Paying to park your car miles away from the stadium then paying exorbitant prices to watch the game is only part of the reason it has been a long time since our last baseball game. Another major reason has been the weather, you go early in the year and it will likely be cold and rainy. Late in the year and it will be hot and humid.
Now compare that to our experience on opening day of the Cactus League in Arizona. As you can see from the pictures the sky was blue and the temperature was in the low 70's. Our parking was free and just across the street from the 1st base entrance to the park. Our tickets were also significantly cheaper than at Royals stadium in Kansas City. We were told not to expect a big crowd since neither the Royals and Rangers are the big draw that the Cubs and the local team the Arizona Diamondbacks are so we were sure surprised when there were lines at the ticket windows. With the weather being so bad back in Kansas City maybe more people decided to come to the Phoenix area
.The larger than expected crowd also affected the concession stands which were running out of food and drink left and right. Now we have not paid concession stand prices for a long time so we do not know if this is out of order or just normal these days but Bob paid $6.50 for an italian sausage and peppers on a bun and $4.50 for a diet coke. If these prices are also much lower than what is paid at Royals Stadium then all we can say is WOW!!
Our first impressions of watching this game is that the Royals players seemed less developed physically than the Rangers; it looked like a pro team playing a college team to be honest. Rangers were 6'2" 225 lbs while the Royals looked like 5'10" 180 lbs. When the Rangers starters walked past us we thought we were looking at a football team while the Royals looked like soccer players. As the game progressed it took on the nature of batting practice except the poor Royals pitchers did not have the screen to duck behind. Also as the game progressed it became more apparent that the Rangers also had more talent top to bottom than the Royals. At the end of the game you could tell it had an impact on the announcer who announced the game summary as "for the Rangers 13 hits, I mean 13 runs 21 hits 2 errors", guess when he sees a double digit number it usually is hits and not runs.
The Royal still have Zack Greinke who pitched one the second day of Cactus League and the Royals won 4-2 at least temporarily wiping the bad taste out of their mouths due to the 13-3 shellacking on Opening Day.
We have really enjoyed our stay in the Phoenix area, the weather has been great, the park we are staying at is real nice, we have found great places to eat all of which will be documented in a future blog entry.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Sunday, February 21, 2010
Hawaiian Luau
This is absolutely the cruelest thing we have done as bloggers and maybe in our entire lives. 
With most of our friends and family experiencing the worst winter many can remember in the Midwest we choose this point in time to post an entry on our Hawaiian Luau experience at the RV Park we are staying at. To put this into perspective Iowa has set a snowfall record with at least 4 inches of snow on the ground for 55 days. Council Bluffs/Omaha has had 75 days of at least one inch of snow on the ground. Kansas City is way ahead of the normal snowfall rate and the temperatures have been below normal. At one point the normal is 24 days above 50 degrees and they have only three days 50 or higher. To make matters worse the Kansas City area was hit with an ice storm and snow while we were at our Luau : )
After all that discouraging weather news we would like to state how much we like the Destiny Phoenix RV Resort.
We chose this because friends of ours, Bob and Wilma, come to this park every year escaping the Kansas City weather but this park stands on it own as a great place to visit. There are activities galore so no excuse to be bored. We have been to a potluck and a Hamburger Night put on by the park along with the Luau. For the first few days we just enjoyed the weather and went to Wal-Mart our home away from home.
There were 150 of us at the Luau and it was a great time. The start time was 4:00 p.m. which meant you needed to get there about 3:45 p.m. Since there were so many of us they kept us out of the area until it started so by the time the gates opened there was a very long line. Well, here I go again, as we sat there for about an hour chatting with the other people at our table it got very hot since we were sitting in the sun by the pool. Jo luckily remembered a little hand fan which she used to keep cool. We know we are getting a lot of sympathy from our friends and family up north right about now.
A little after 5:00 p.m. they brought the food out and man it was good including the meat from two pigs along with good salads and dessert.
We went table by table so as to not swamp the buffet tables, luckily we were about in the middle but there was no worry, there was way more food than we could ever have eaten although Bob made a great effort going back for seconds. As we were finishing the feast the sun was setting and we got this excellent photo.
No Hawaiian Luau would be complete without an Elvis Show. The Elvis impersonator did a two act show, the first act was dedicated to the movie "Blue Hawaii", other Elvis movies and lesser known Elvis songs.
Act 2 was dedicated to the 70's and the Aloha from Hawaii television special. It was a very enteraining show and we enjoyed ourselves. Our friend Wilma even got Lei'd by Elvis right in front of us! So about 8:40 p.m. the evening concluded which is the latest we have headed back to our site in a long, long time. But this time was a short walk from the club house.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
With most of our friends and family experiencing the worst winter many can remember in the Midwest we choose this point in time to post an entry on our Hawaiian Luau experience at the RV Park we are staying at. To put this into perspective Iowa has set a snowfall record with at least 4 inches of snow on the ground for 55 days. Council Bluffs/Omaha has had 75 days of at least one inch of snow on the ground. Kansas City is way ahead of the normal snowfall rate and the temperatures have been below normal. At one point the normal is 24 days above 50 degrees and they have only three days 50 or higher. To make matters worse the Kansas City area was hit with an ice storm and snow while we were at our Luau : )After all that discouraging weather news we would like to state how much we like the Destiny Phoenix RV Resort.
We chose this because friends of ours, Bob and Wilma, come to this park every year escaping the Kansas City weather but this park stands on it own as a great place to visit. There are activities galore so no excuse to be bored. We have been to a potluck and a Hamburger Night put on by the park along with the Luau. For the first few days we just enjoyed the weather and went to Wal-Mart our home away from home.There were 150 of us at the Luau and it was a great time. The start time was 4:00 p.m. which meant you needed to get there about 3:45 p.m. Since there were so many of us they kept us out of the area until it started so by the time the gates opened there was a very long line. Well, here I go again, as we sat there for about an hour chatting with the other people at our table it got very hot since we were sitting in the sun by the pool. Jo luckily remembered a little hand fan which she used to keep cool. We know we are getting a lot of sympathy from our friends and family up north right about now.
A little after 5:00 p.m. they brought the food out and man it was good including the meat from two pigs along with good salads and dessert.
We went table by table so as to not swamp the buffet tables, luckily we were about in the middle but there was no worry, there was way more food than we could ever have eaten although Bob made a great effort going back for seconds. As we were finishing the feast the sun was setting and we got this excellent photo.No Hawaiian Luau would be complete without an Elvis Show. The Elvis impersonator did a two act show, the first act was dedicated to the movie "Blue Hawaii", other Elvis movies and lesser known Elvis songs.
Act 2 was dedicated to the 70's and the Aloha from Hawaii television special. It was a very enteraining show and we enjoyed ourselves. Our friend Wilma even got Lei'd by Elvis right in front of us! So about 8:40 p.m. the evening concluded which is the latest we have headed back to our site in a long, long time. But this time was a short walk from the club house.Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Unbelievable Weather
And we mean UNBELIEVABLE! After 3 months of unseasonably cool tem
Bob & Jo
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Friday, February 5, 2010
San Antonio 2010 Stopover
We are currently in Benson Arizona continuing our westward trek to the Phoenix San Antonio
In spite of the low overnight temperatures it warmed up during the day enough for us to do a little sightseeing. Both of us had always wanted to see the Alamo
so we did that the day after we arrived just south of San Antonio Alamo when they really knew the bad news. We heard an outdoor lecture by a historian and another lecture inside the church which has become the symbol of the Alamo . The outdoor displays were good as well as the displays in the Long Barracks Museum Long Barracks Museum Tennessee Alamo Museum
Another great story we learned at the Alamo is that Phil Collins is obsessed with theAlamo . He has a great collection and had a diorama of the battle built. This diorama is in the History Building across the street from the Alamo and he narrates a 15 minute light show detailing the battle. There are other exhibits in the History Building which make it a must see while in San Antonio
Usually another must see while visitingSan Antonio 
One thing we did not know until this trip is that the Riverwalk is drained once a year for clearing debris, cleaning and maintenance. Although the shops were still there and it was an interesting walk it was a little disappointing for the Riverwalk to be drained while we were there.
What we like so much about full-timing and traveling around the country is that we are learning so much we never knew before. We were excited to find out that Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of the five Missions inSan Antonio , is still an active Parish, in fact the Alamo is the only Mission 
Parking was very confusing because all the signs directed you to the National Park Service parking lot which closed at 5:00 p.m. the same time that Mass started. Luckily we saw that sign and asked the Park Ranger where to park and moved our car before Mass started. Five minutes before Mass started the Priest made an announcement about the parking and there was a mad dash to move cars.
Although the weather did not cooperate we were able to see a few sights and eat at a couple of places of note during the week we were there.
In spite of the low overnight temperatures it warmed up during the day enough for us to do a little sightseeing. Both of us had always wanted to see the Alamo
so we did that the day after we arrived just south of Another great story we learned at the Alamo is that Phil Collins is obsessed with the
Usually another must see while visiting
One thing we did not know until this trip is that the Riverwalk is drained once a year for clearing debris, cleaning and maintenance. Although the shops were still there and it was an interesting walk it was a little disappointing for the Riverwalk to be drained while we were there.What we like so much about full-timing and traveling around the country is that we are learning so much we never knew before. We were excited to find out that Mission San Juan Capistrano, one of the five Missions in
Parking was very confusing because all the signs directed you to the National Park Service parking lot which closed at 5:00 p.m. the same time that Mass started. Luckily we saw that sign and asked the Park Ranger where to park and moved our car before Mass started. Five minutes before Mass started the Priest made an announcement about the parking and there was a mad dash to move cars.Although the weather did not cooperate we were able to see a few sights and eat at a couple of places of note during the week we were there.
* Tom’s Burgers – located near the Braunig Lake RV Park in Elmendorff
We certainly will be coming back to
* Visit the other
* See the Riverwalk when there is a river to walk by
* Botanical Gardens
* Tour
* Military Base free museum
* Eat at The Cove (a diner, car wash, and laundry all in one), Tip Top Café , Big Lou’s Pizza
Photos from this trip have been added to flickr.com.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Friday, January 29, 2010
Flickr Updated
We have corrected some permission issues so that more photos should be viewable by all in our photos on flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/, especially some of the Canada photos and the big fish caught by Mark and Gerry. We bet they thought we did not want them seen : )
We also added sets for our stays in Texas (Livingston and Rockport) and historical pictures from Clearwater Beach Florida.
Another blog update has been the recent addition of the visited states map. We are in Deming New Mexico now so we added another state. Stay tuned for changes to the visited states and other updates I have planned.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
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You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
We also added sets for our stays in Texas (Livingston and Rockport) and historical pictures from Clearwater Beach Florida.
Another blog update has been the recent addition of the visited states map. We are in Deming New Mexico now so we added another state. Stay tuned for changes to the visited states and other updates I have planned.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
You can subscribe to this blog posts and/or comments by making selections under 'Subscribe To' or you can join the yahoo group which will notify you whenever a post is made,
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bobandjotravelblog/,
You can also signup to be a Follower of this blog.
NOTE: See our photos from places we have visited at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Our fifth wheel is no longer a virgin
Our Cameo now has its first scrape : (
We were pulling into a site yesterday that is about as wide as some of the pull thrus that we have been in but this one was for two RVs AND to make it even worse there was a tin sheet roof canopy. This is when the comedy of errors began:
- we saw how narrow and shuddered but did either one of us think to get the spotter out of the trunk, NO!
- as we got closer it was so narrow we collapsed the mirrors on the truck but did either one of us think to get the spotter out of the trunk, NO!
- Bob even made the comment that he could not see a dang thing but did either one of us think to get the spotter out of the trunk, NO!
Then we heard the scraping noise and guess what, we finally got out of the truck : )
We scraped the side of our Carriage Cameo and the bathroom window. Turns out Bob had not turned wide enough to navigate the turn. Bob backed up and with the aid of his very capable spotter was able to pull thru successfully. Now we get to figure out how to get it repaired.
Till next time,
Bob & Jo
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