Catching up to Palm Desert

WOW, sure is nice to have phone, Words with Friends and our computers all working, all the time again.  We are back at one of our most favorite places, the Thousand Trails Palm Springs RV Park.  

We decided to go visit the area I went to high school in, Lakeside, CA. Boy, I am so grateful for all I have in my life now, what a change from childhood ! !   We also went up to the Barona Reservation, up past the high school.  My brother, Jeremy's, best friend was Stan Maxey who lived up on the poverty reservation.  WOW, what a change there too, Tons of money now that there is a very successful casino there.  Million dollar houses are even there! Stan's mother was chief of the tribe back in the day.  We found pictures of her and the fam in the casino, she was the chief for quite some time.  I was interested in finding out about Stan's family so we looked at all the pictures of tribal families in the casino and a housekeeper told us to check with an older employee to find out about anyone who lived there.  The first person we saw was a security guard who was new so told us to go over "to that desk and see if she can help you".  Turned out that the gal behind the desk was Stan's stepdaughter, he had raised her and she totally thought of him as her dad ! !  What a small world.  She was so happy to talk about him since it was close to the five year anniversary of his death. Jeremy had died a year ago so it was really a tribute to them both.. It was a great time talking about old times. 

While we were at Pio Pico in Jamul, CA our niece Becky and her husband Johnny hosted a wonderful taco dinner for the fam ! !   Look at all the cell phones out ! ! !  My oh my, how times have changed..

Love you Troy ! ! !

We got to see brother Joe the day after his surgery.  Doing good but very tired ! ! !  Was great to get to see him before we left San Diego County..  Love that guy ! ! !

Catching up to Jamul CA

Oh my how the time flies ! ! !  Between no service and bad timing, I have not posted in a while.  We stayed one day in Yuma AZ at a park that grilled the heck out of us, especially regarding our age, needed to be over 55 and since we are way over it was really a pain in the rear.  Wanted birth dates and all.  Really surprised they didn't ask for birth certificates!! LOL....  No Costco's close around Casa Grande or Yuma.  Stopped at the one in El Centro on our way thru to Octillo Wells.  Gotta have Costco ! !

My terrific nephew Daniel DuGal!!  He is holding onto the beautiful moon in Octillo Wells ! ! !  What a guy he is! !  

Daniel DuGal!!

Look at Colton ! ! !

Dan is really catching air ~ ~ ~ !!

Loved these campfires and watching to moon rise!!

Octillo Wells really took us back to our three-wheeling days, only much more speed.!!

Our nephew, Troy DuGal, took us for rides, lots of air and 80 mph on the straight aways !!  The rail is definitely different than our three-wheelers were in the sand!!  Fun weekend with niece, Darcy and her family!!  THANKS to the DuGal family for including us!!

We are now resting in Jamul, CA in Pio Pico a Thousand Trails Park!!  However, found that my brother Joe has been in and out of the hospital again.  Another surgery tomorrow.  Hoping for a really good outcome again!!  Will get to visit him on Wednesday !!  Love that guy! !  He has the most amazing, supportive wife.

Tomorrow Kim, a long time friend from San Diego, is coming out to the park and bringing lunch!!  We will be reminiscing about her mom who died a year ago.  Sure miss Peggy ! ! !  She was like a mom to me too!

Our plan is to stay here another week.  We will see.  Hard as we thought we had all the techie issues solved but really don't.  Calls are constantly dropped and internet is slow.  Worse is I haven't been able to play "Words With Friends" in a few days and maybe not for a week.  That will be really hard ! ! !

Day 2 in Casa Grande

Spent a great day with Jack & Shari Barnes, was great to catch up with each others lives! Then we went to Picacho State Park.  We went on a short hike, wrong time of day, a little warm and "they" wouldn't stop talking about snakes ! ! ! !  That doesn't make me want to hike up a rocky path!!  LOL but a great day anyway ! ! !

Casa Grande AZ

We have four nights here in Casa Grande.  Friends Jack & Shari Barnes are coming to visit tomorrow.  They used to live in Portland and now in Phoenix so this will be a fun day!! Got the rest of the laundry done today and some much needed cleaning.  Nothing fun except that it was in the high 80's here today ! ! !  Had hoped to visit with Dean & Shelly Handley, Ken's cousin but they are out of the country.  Maybe next time..

Traveling through

We got to the Wilcox AZ Elks Club about 11:00am today and not a vehicle in sight.   They have 28 water/electric hook up spaces so we decided to call and check that they are really open. Set up and they will be here about 4:00pm.  Nice. The only thing, we didn't really know what time is was.  LOL, Pacific time or Mountain time???  We actually had to ask a shopkeeper.  We had been told that Arizona was back to Pacific, but sure was not here in Wilcox!!  We walked the "old" downtown and found a few second hand stores and a few restaurants.  Apparently they get quite a few people stopping by.  They actually do a wild west reenactment in the park too!!  Great veg out day!!  Headed for Casa Grande tomorrow, will stay there four nights.  

Kinda a fun place!!

Last day of Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

I got up this morning thinking there was nothing more the Fiesta could do to impress me. But when I looked out the window I could see it was another spectacular day!!  Since they couldn't fly yesterday, everyone was out today.  We had seen them all on the ground yesterday, but flying, that is soooo different. It was clear, blue skies and no wind. Amazing the overnight change.  All the "special shapes" were flying.

The cow actually skimmed over the RV's and landed in the field beside us.  Then the crew grabbed all four legs and turned it 360 degrees.  It was awesome!!  and amazing!! That was an incredibly skilled pilot!!

However, all good things must come to an end.  So about 8:20am we headed off to our next destination!!  We found a campground in Deming, NM and that is where we are staying tonight.  Traveled for about five hours.  That is a long day for us!!  LOL  Got some laundry done and made taco salad for dinner!!  All is well.  Off to Wilcox AZ Elks tomorrow.  

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - Day 7 and 8

I am getting behind again...   yesterday was a beautiful day with a road trip to Santa Fe.  It is a beautiful city but the shopping was not as good as previous areas.  Glad I was almost done. The city only allows Santa Fe style architecture and no buildings taller than the church, that makes it very interesting.  There are many dirt road in old town and that is the way the people want it.  They are almost one lane, windy and dirt, all with beautiful houses!!  

Today is a "free" day and the weather was predicted to be very iffy for balloon flying today. Some new friends, J.O and Fran and us decided we would meet at the shuttle at 6:30 am if the news said that the "special shapes" balloons would fly.  They were calling it a rodeo. Balloons all need wind of less than 10 mph. The early morning news thought they would fly so we made our first trip to the balloon grounds to meet up with thousands of others and to be able to walk among the balloons, really up close and personal.  

There were probably 100 "special shapes" balloons on the ground for about an hour after it was announced that the winds were too strong.  They were so close together "kissing" that you would think they would get tangled but they don't.  When they brought them down it was amazing, all down in about 15 minutes.  We hung around for a while and then headed to the Balloon Museum.  We were in there for about a half hour when we went to walk back to the RV park.  However, the winds had come up and were at least 30 mph so we hurried over to the shuttle and rode it back.  Having gotten up so early we decided to "veg" out for a while only to have the sky turn black from the dust kicked up by the wind and then the rain started.  Like Oregon rain ! ! !   Only lasted a short while but is keeping us inside on our last day here.  Tomorrow is predicted to be a great traveling day, especially since we are going south.  We will leave here early in the morning..  Fantasy Tours is supplying breakfast, so right after that.  There is snow is the northern mountains now!! Albuquerque advertises 360 days of sunshine per year, can believe that now since even with all the rain today, the sun is shining!!

Albuquerque Ballon Fiesta - Day 5 and 6

It is truly amazing to see these sights every day!!  Very interesting how the wind speed controls everything.  The pilots can only control up and down to get to another wind speed level. You can literally watch them change levels to go slower or faster.  I looked out the window to see this balloon landing in the RV parking area.  Some of the RV'ers rushed over to help untangle it and up and away it went again!!

Then there was Humpty Dumpty ! ! !

Yesterday our tour was to Old Town Albuquerque ! !  Oh my, a shopping mecca!!  Had a couple of hours and never got off the square.  I remember some of the area from coming to Albuquerque years ago for a AAMA Conference!!  Nice to be back.  Today we are going to Sky City.  Will report back tonight!!  Well maybe, cuz we are also having a margarita party! ! ! 

Well, I keep thinking that Fantasy RV Tours cannot top the last tour but again, today, they did. Our guide told us that Sky City is the commercial name for the Acoma Pueblo.  Pueblo is, I think, the new pc name for tribes.  It appears that no one says tribe anymore here in the Southwest, they say Pueblo.  This tour was incredible.  The reservation is now half a million beautiful acres, down from 2.5 million.  There is no buying, selling or renting of homes here. The homes are kept in the family and a few people still live here full time, most come for special events and to sell their wares to us tourists!!  There is no water or sewer up there on the mesa, they have to bring everything in.  They love the Culligan man per the guide!!  LOL  If you come into town to visit a family, all you have to do it look to see if there is a rock at the door.  That would mean that they were not home.  There were a lot of artitians around the city selling very beautiful things.  Boy, it is hard to decide what you have to take home.  When I bought something from one of the artitians, she then invitied us to dinner at their home just down the street.  There is a big celebration that takes place every September 2nd and she was inviting us to come back for that. The city cemetary is almost full, they are about to add the fourth layer. That's right, they stack them.  The only people who qualify to be buried there are Pueblo Leaders and Pueblo Veterans.  That was nice to hear.  There is a very interesting history with the Catholic Church.  In the very early days Indians were murdered for not converting to the Catholic Church.  Our guide says that today their faith is a mix of Catholic and their original beliefs.  

THEN, tonight was the marguita and nachos night with the Fantasy RV Tours Travelogue about the Rally's they offer.  We had already decided that we would purchase the Pasadena Rose Parade Rally that would be after our Grand East Coast Trip.  They handed out tickets for a chance at a free Reunion Rally and guess what, WE WON! ! ! !   Sooooooooooooo, after the Rose Parade we will be staying in the desert and going to Hemet for the Reunion Rally.  YEAH!!  WOW, what a night!!