#164 Depoe Bay, OR 12-8 thru 12-14 (only Dixie)

A very wonderful lady, and a great friend, needed some help. So I (Dixie) flew to Portland, OR, where Linda picked me up and drove to Depoe Bay, to spend six days doing computer work, and doing whatever I could do to help her!

Frank stayed with the RV in Indio with Gidget.

December 8, Frank drove Dixie to Ontario airport through the Coachella Valley, a beautiful valley surrounded by snow capped mountains, viewed through the palm trees and gorgeous blue sky.

Our first day in Depoe Bay, we woke up to icicles handing from the escarpment over the ocean water. I know the temperature at one time was 22 degrees.

We walked to the Post Office to pick up the mail and then to the sea wall to view this “unusually” cold snap on the coast! As you can see I was well clothed. Linda said I was the only person on the coast wearing ear muffs. At least my ears were warm!

Linda loves the cold weather, she is only wearing a sweatshirt, no gloves, no hat and loving the ice!

Knowing her best friend was a “sun bunny,” Linda made me a bed right in front of the fireplace. Ah, warmth. I look like a bundled up mermaid!

Duffy, the cat liked my yarn, he also liked getting on the bed in front of the fire. No dumb cat here!

We worked every day on the computer, gathering information, fixing lost icons, and getting reports for the CPA to do tax returns. It was definitely a working week, with a little time off for sight seeing.

Our last evening together we decorated the tree and hung lights over the window. A little tree with pink and raspberry colored decorations. Beautiful.

On the last day, (Dec. 14). I finally packed away my thermal’s and put on regular clothes as we headed to the airport and on to the sunshine in Southern CA.

I missed a big storm that battered Portland the next day. Good timing!

Coachella Valley is sunny, warm in the 70’s and I’m wearing T shirts again! It’s really good to be home, back with Frank and busy getting ready for Christmas.

#163 Ladies Dessert night and Rachel’s Baby Shower.

On Friday, Dec. 4, I joined Nicole, her Mom, Mireko and Aubrey who were going to a Ladies Dessert night with their church ladies.

We had a great time, and I don’t remember the last time I was anywhere with so many little children. And so many good things to eat. My contribution was a couple of little plates of the home-made Almond Roca.

Just part of the goodies that were spread out for us to munch on.

Aubrey and girls playing dolls and tea party.

Aubrey found the big trampoline outside (in the cold) and a friend to jump with her. We had a hard time getting her to stop. Her hands and feet were like ice, but she was having the time of her life. She is a very social 3 1/2 year old. By the time we got home around 9:30 p.m. she was a very tired little girl, as was Grandma Dixie!

The next day we all got together and drove to Lancaster (about 140 miles), for Rachel’s baby shower. Ray drove their mini-van with two car seats, one for Alex and one for Aubrey, Frank and I and Nicole and Ray in the other seats. The shower was at 1:00 pm, and we left about 9:30, with a couple of stops along the way.

The shower was just about to start when we arrived. Laurie’s dad, Lawrence and his wife Sharon along with Lawrence’s brother Jim and wife Juanita were there. They were leaving the next day for a cruise, and the timing worked out for them to attend the shower.

Frank, lower left, making conversation with Lawrence’s wife Sharon. Jim and Nita Martin on couch, and Lawrence in rocking chair. The neat thing about this picture is that Lawrence is sitting in the rocking chair that I rocked Laurie in when she was a baby. (Who says you can’t get along with your exes?)

More food and drink! And more friends and family.

Grandma-to-be, Laurie.

Meanwhile, out in the garage, the grandchildren are beating up a storm on the drums.

Because it was such a long drive back to the desert and the kids were getting tired, we left before Rachel had opened all her presents. But she did have a pile of goodies for the new baby.

It was a wonderful shower and a beautiful day, I’m so happy we were able to all go to the shower together.

By the time we arrived in Palm Springs, the Light parade had started. We found a parking place and took the kids to see some of the show. We were standing in back of the crowd, so it was a little hard to get pictures. Here are a couple of them. It was really pretty, and was cold standing there. We didn’t stay until the end of the parade.

On to La Quinta—another 20 miles—and home with two really tired kids. It was a long and wonderful day!

#162 Thanksgiving-Lancaster and Carlsbad, CA

The Morman Rocks on our way to Lancaster, CA for Thanksgiving with daughter Laurie and family. Can you see the trains in the picture?

We parked the RV at the Lancaster Elks Lodge. It is about 5 miles from Laurie’s, so fairly close and an easy drive with the tow car.

A pregnant Rachel after dinner. She could hardly get out of the chair. We all felt that full. Laurie, Nicole and Rachel made a wonderful dinner.

We all did a little shopping either on Thanksgiving day or the day after, Laurie and I went to K-Mart where Collin works on Thanksgiving evening and took advantage of no crowds. Rachel and her Grandmother Diane went shopping on black Friday, getting up at 4:00 am to get the good deals on electronics. She bought a new video camera—just in time to get pictures of Eldon, once he is born. Nicole and Laurie went shopping on Friday night. One day was enough for this Great-Grandma to be.

Ray and Nicole drove back to the desert on Saturday,

Frank and I moved the RV to Oceanside Elks lodge on Saturday so we could spend time with our grandson, Cameron, who was here from Rutgers for the holiday. We only got to see him for a couple of hours. His flight back to New Jersey left at 6:30 a.m. the next day. But, we’ll take whatever we can get! Sunday, after we got back from church, we went out to a late lunch with Diane, Mark and Andrew. It was a very nice relaxing day. We at at a Mediterranean style restaurant overlooking the water. And the weather was great. Diane is recuperating from shoulder surgery and had her arm in a sling most of the time. Mark has to do everything, Diane supervises. She returns to her job on Monday. Typing on the computer should be quite a challenge.

Sunset on the West Coast, what a beautiful sight!

Monday we packed up and left the ocean and headed back inland to the desert. Tuesday Dixie has a Dr. appointment for her annual check-up.

#161 Indio, CA – Nov 17, 2009

As we park at the Indio Elks Lodge RV park, our map of the states we have driven through and visited only shows three missed, North Dakota, Nebraska and West Virginia. Guess we are not through with our travels and will have to start planning next summer. Of course Alaska is a state we haven’t visited, but we think we would rather not drive there! (Maybe a cruise?)

Frank is doing so well, if you didn’t know that his right side wasn’t working last month, you couldn’t tell anything was wrong. I know the sunshine and being able to walk outside has helped immensely. He is back to doing his exercises, too. Can’t keep a good man down!

La Quinta City park for the afternoon, with blue skies and not a sign of rain!

Who wants to grow up when you get to spend time with granddaughter Aubrey at the park, with her “puppy?”

We are so happy to be here and to wearing our shorts again. Just the way a November day should be!

#160 Roswell, NM to Indio 11-3 thru 11-16-09

We parked at the Roswell Elks Lodge again this year. It’s been two years since we were here. We brought Franks little battery powered air plane so he and our favorite bartender, Pete, could fly their “toys” together.

Pete wasn’t working the first two days were there so, we started out to visit the museum where the first rockets that Dr. Goddard designed and flew were on display. It was also an art museum, and had a small planetarium.

Above is just a few samples of his first rockets that are on display.

This is a quilt that was hanging in the art gallery. It is all made out of silks and shiny fabrics. I thought it was really unique.

By the time we were about ready to head back, Frank informed me that he was feeling strange and losing control of his right side. So off we went to the ER.

Thankfully it was just down the street a few blocks and near where we were parked with the RV. When we arrived at the ER, he was dragging his foot a little and had a hard time signing his name. They did all kinds of tests on him. Ultra sound, CT scan, and X-rays. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him and sent him home. By that time, he was feeling fine and walked out and we had dinner at the bar in the Elks.

During the night, Frank suffered a severe cramp in his calf. When he got up in the morning his entire right side was acting strange. We did the normal at home tests for stroke, and he smiled with both sides of his mouth, held his hands out straight and talked without a slur. But, because his foot was dragging and he had a hard time getting the spoon up to his mouth with his right hand, we took hem back to the ER. This time they did an MRI. Still nothing showed up, so the ER DR. told him to take a baby aspirin each day and make an appointment to see his primary care physician. So the next day we headed towards CA, with Dixie doing all the driving!

Day one for Dixie driving. About 138 miles to Alamagordo, NM. We stayed at the Elks for a couple of nights. We were going to go to the White Sands National Park, but it was quite a ways out of town, and entailed a lot of walking. So we will have to save that for another time. Instead we drove across town and went to the museum.

Above is the side of the museum, reflecting the beautiful mountains. The outside display of rockets is to the right above. Below on the left is the testing area for the “G” force. They use this to adjust the seats for the astronauts, based on their size. Below right is a mock up of one of the satellites.

About 146 miles to Deming, NM. Nice easy day for second day. We stayed at the Escapee Park, Dream Catchers. As always it is welcoming, it was sunny, and Frank felt well enough to park the rig. We only spent one night, but did have time to go downtown and buy some groceries.

Fall has arrived in New Mexico. The foliage was beautiful. The picture below is a little blurry, but you can see blue sky, mountains, and the trees in their bright yellow foliage. We are driving about 50 miles an hour when we took this picture.

Next day Dixie drove a little further. About 151 miles to Wilcox, AZ where we spent the night at the Elks Lodge. Really nice RV facilities, but right next to the RR track. Didn’t keep us awake. Frank is busy getting better and better and Dixie is tired from driving and trying to help Frank with the hook-ups.

Next stop was Casa Grande. Another 150 miles or so. We went to the RoVers Roost Escapee Park and just spent the night.

Dixie had made a dentist appointment in Algodones, MX to have a crown fixed that had come loose. So we had to be in Yuma by Wednesday. This was the longest day of driving. Dixie drove 176 miles—give or take a few miles. We arrived in Yuma around 2 p.m. and stayed at the Kofa Ko-op Escapee Park. We have been there before and really like it. It is located a little far out of town, but it is quiet and the people are all very friendly. The weather is so nice!! Sunshine and warm. We even got our shorts out. We planned to stay at least 3 days, but ended up staying the entire weekend.

We celebrated Veteran’s Day by putting out our “bunting” for the front of the RV.

We made two trips into Algodones, MX and got Dixie’s tooth fixed and refilled our stock of medicine and had our shrimp tacos. It was a very good stop, and much needed rest.

I think the sunshine is fixing Frank!! He is walking better and is doing a much better job of shaving in the morning.

On Monday, Nov, 16 we headed to Indio, CA. Our home Elks Lodge is the destination. Frank’s Dr. appointment is on Wed., Nov. 18. So we had a day to spend with son, Ray, Nicole and grandkids.

#159 Clovis, NM 10-31 thru 11-1-09

We arrived in Clovis on Sat. afternoon. Just about the time we were setting up Sarah called and asked where we were. Here in Clovis at JC Campground right around the corner from their home, so we joined them for lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant. Ah, I was really ready for a fix. Great fajitas and tacos. And Salsa and Chips, my tummy is really happy!

Now tonight is the night that we change our times back to standard time. We remembered that, but we forgot that we crossed into Mountain time. So we gained a couple of hours.

We headed off to meet Sarah and Joe and the family for church Sunday morning. We got there at 10:30, remembering to turn our clocks back, but it was only 9:30 am Mountain time. So we decided to go find a McDonalds and have a mocha coffee and read the paper for an hour. Boy did we feel silly not knowing what time zone we were in!

After church we all went out out to The Cotton Patch for a late lunch, then home to take a short nap. Joe, Sarah, David and Melissa came over to the coach a little after 4 pm and we visited and later Joe got Rebecca from here afternoon meet and we all had some sandwiches for dinner. Worked out fine and a lot of fun to catch up with their family. David who is 10 and Melissa who is 7, both remembered our visit two years ago and were really happy to see us (and especially Gidget).

The RV was full of us as you can see below.

Melissia on Sarah's lap. David on Joe's Lap. Rebecca in front, Joe in back..

Sarah and David on the couch. Frank with Melissia on his lap.

After our dinner of BLT sandwiches.

We had beautiful sunny weather, with only a slight breeze. I even got to wear a short sleeve shirt. The campground had nice big spaces. It is a new campground and there aren’t any big trees, but the spaces are level and the interior roads are wide and graveled. It is a good place to stop. It’s a Good Sam member, so we got a small discount.

#158 Amarillo, TX 10-27 thru 10-30-09

We arrived in Amarillo with sunshine on our shoulders! We thought this would be a nice stop and a place to get warm. We stayed at the Elks Lodge and had 30 amp hook-up with water at the site.

The site isn’t much. Just a back lot against the fence around the swimming pool and volleyball court. This must be a busy place in the summer. It is pretty deserted now.

Below is the “Porta Party” that was parked by the RV sites.

Quite a party trailer! Only in Texas.

The next day we woke up to clouds and rain showers, so did our grocery shopping and hunkered down in the RV to wait for nicer weather. Guess that was not to be, because on Friday night it turned really cold, froze our water hose a little bit and it was just plain miserable looking outside. We looked at each other and said—Don’t think we want to go sight seeing in this kind of weather. Good thing we didn’t, because right after we had lunch we looked out the window and below is what we saw.

THAT IS SNOW! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Brrrrrrrrrrr. Turn up the heat, and put on more clothes!

Well, the weather forecast says sunshine tomorrow and warmer, up to the 60’s. So we stayed another night!

The morning dawned sunny—not real warm, but at least the sky was clear, so off we went to the Palo Duro Canyon. While we are this close we have to check out the “grand canyon” of Texas.

Our first glimpse of the Canyon. Can you see the hoo-doo on the left side of the picture?

The colors of the rocks and walls are really pretty.

The nice thing about this canyon is that you can drive through it. There are lots of camping areas and places to picnic. There weren’t too many campers now. Too cold.

Because of the rain and “snow” the past few days we did have to ford a number of places that were subject to flooding as you can see below.

We even saw some wild life on the side of the road. Can you make her out? She walked off into the brush right after we took this picture.

The colors of the trees and leaves against the background of the canyon were amazing. We were really glad we spent the extra couple of days in Amarillo waiting for some sunshine.

Looks warm and inviting. But looks are deceiving. We were still in our sweatshirts and jackets. I even had my ear muffs on for a while. The air was very crisp and clear. We enjoyed our ride in the canyon.

On our way back to the coach we stopped and took a picture of the Texas longhorn, one of two kept in the park. One is named Biscuit and the other is Gravy. I’m not sure who is who.

The span between the tips of their horns can be up to 6’ wide.

We left the canyon and headed back to Amarillo. About 26 miles away. It was past lunch time so we started looking for a place to stop and low and behold we found a “Whataburger!” Can’t make it through Texas without a good ole burger. Now I feel like I am in Texas. One thing about their burgers, you don’t go away hungry. Dinner will be soup.

While we are out and about, we decided we would go check out the Cadillac Ranch. There are vintage cars buried half way in the ground in a row, pointing upward. People have painted names, and other stuff on them. They are out in the middle of a big field, and you can just open a gate and walk right out to them.

The wind was blowing a little and it was very cold in this field, so we high tailed it out of there after taking the pictures. Most of them I couldn’t recognize what year they were. They are completely stripped down and have so much paint on them they are almost unrecognizable as Cadillac's.

We’ve seen enough of the area and tomorrow we take off to Clovis, NM. We will visit niece Sarah and her family. It will be Halloween.

Happy birthday to Katherine McDonnell and Alex Martin, 10-31.