Christmas in Arizona

We had a beautiful warm day for Christmas. It was a balmy 75 and we decided to BBQ Steaks for Dinner......Christmas eve we had about 9 over for hor d'oeuvres, crantini and egg nog. It was nice getting together with friends that we have made here. We definitely missed the family but we were able to Skype everyone in so that was fantastic. Christmas morning if anyone knows Gary, he made his famous breakfast for the neighbors.

Boxing day we decided to drive to Prescott in Northern Arizona. The scenery was different there. We took the picture of the stagecoach at a strip mall that looked like a western town. Very Cool!! We took Route 17 and on the return we decided to take route 89 via Wickenburg which took us thru the mountains....Wow..we saw snow as we were over 6600 ft above sea level and the road winded around the mountains and at time we could only go 20 mph with the twists and turns. In fact, the highway is divided, heading to Wickenburg we were above the traffic heading to Prescott.

Scottsdale, etc

Having a great time. We made some friends and here is a picture of Sharry and Kevin hanging the american flag on Sharry's fifth wheel with Gary supervising. We went to Scottsdale for a visit and the Saguaro Cactus are everywhere and according to Tracey, we had to try Pinnicale Pete Patio(PP Patio) and it is an amazing place and yes, Tracey, the steaks are amazing...if you wear a tie when you are there, they will cut it off and hang it.....See the ties hanging and also the business cards, amazing....I officially retired my business card to the wall there so if you ever visit the restaurant it is the 3rd window from the end.We will celebrating Thanksgiving this week with friends we made here so 4 of the trailers(Sharry, Davette, Mandy and Kevin and families) will be joining us for a potluck supper on Saturday.

Some of my favourite cactus in Arizona

My favourite is what I call Stick Person "Saguaro Cactus". It is the state flower of Arizona. Here is 2 pictures of Prickly Pear Cactus, one with the fruit on it and the other one is in a pink color. It is a plant that is edible from the fruit on it to the flat pieces and they sell it in the stores. No I have not tried it yet...Also, this morning the Good Year Blimp went by and here is the Picture.....As youcan see we are having a great time..

Cotton Fields, etc

The cotton fields here is amazing and I had to take pictures of them. Eastman Gin is the last of the original cotton gins in Buckeye Valley. They are almost ready to harvest the cotton but wanted to get pictures before the field was bare. Very interesting to see. I got my best sunset picture tonight with the cactus I call "Stick Person".....Love the look of them and to see them close is amazing but their needles can pierce your tire interesting enough...Also, in the desert behind me where I take Colby for his walk I was told were rattlesnakes and scorpions....Haven't see any yet but believe me I have not been looking and I don't go near any bushes....

Parker Dam and London Bridge

We decided to visit London bridge in Lake Havasu City which was 3 hr drive thru the desert. When we arrived in Parker, it was like we came into an Oasis after travelling for 2 1/2 hrs in the desert, it was amazing to see the green lush town.Parker Dam supplied Los Angelos with their water supply. The sunset picture was taken by the park and I got the cactus with it.... Amazing....London Bridge was purchased by Lake Havasu City when it was taken down brick by brick and reassembled . You drive over it to get across part of the lake ....Great to see. It was an excellent day. See my pictures....

Buckeye Arizona

We have been here a couple of days and the weather has been great....Here is some pictures I have taken, Sunset is spectacular and this is our site and I took the picture of the cactus in the dog run. Reminds me of a stick person...Love it. Got my bike. Life is good!!!

Nevada to Buckeye Arizona

We woke up to Thunder and Lightning yesterday morning and after it slowed down we headed out. We were worried with the heavy rain going across Hoover Dam as it has twists and turns and a lot of climbing but to our great surprise and delight, the new bridge opened up the night before and we were honored to be among the first few to cross it. Awesome, it sure cut time down. As we came out of the canyon we crossed the desert and it was interesting to see the cactus along the way, Also in Nevada and Arizona we saw this tree and Gary was so sure it was a Joshua tree and sure enough it was and we went thru the Joshua Tree Forest in Arizona and I put a picture of the tree. We arrived in Buckeye around 12 noon and set up. Very busy park but so far so good and this morning I got the sunrise......80 degrees today and sunny...Gotta love that!!

Hoover Dam

We went to visit Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. Unbelievable. One side is Nevada and the other is Arizona. We parked and walked across the dam. The scenery is awesome...The picture above is of the new bridge just finished. Not opened yet but we did meet one of the drivers that hauled the spans for the bridge and was in the documentary. He was at a viewpoint in Montana where we stopped to take pictures. Small world .Enjoyed it very much. Tomorrow we head across again but this time we are heading to Buckeye, Arizona.

Salt Lake City to Boulder City, Nevada

Sunday we spend a relaxing day in Salt Lake City and this morning we departed for Leeds, Utah but the drive went so well we decided to drive to Boulder City, Nevada outside of Las Vegas. The drive was beautiful and we did a bit of climbing and the highest we got was 6600 ft about sea level and once we left Utah, we were in Arizona for about 28 miles and we came down part of the Grand Canyon and the scenery was spectacular and amazing and also very scary as the twists and turns in the middle of this scenery, WOW!!! We both agreed that this was the best part of the trip. Trying to absorb the scenery and at points coming straight down with hairpin turns at times. Very Scarey!!! Once we were down, we were in the desert into Nevada and we had to go into Las Vegas to get to Boulder City. Amazing. We are at Boulder Oaks RV Park for 2 nights and tomorrow we are going to Hoover Dam. I have to say this has been an amazing trip so far and I am so glad I did it. Amazing!!!! I know I keep saying it but I can't think of any word that best describes our trip. Wednesday we should be in Buckeye.....

Dillon to Salt Lake City Utah

well we woke up to 32 degrees or 0 Celcius.....Cold!!! Thank goodness we turned the heat on. For anyone that has a GPS for the first time since we bought it in Montana we hit 3 times no service for approx 30 minutes each time. Just before we hit Dillon, it went out and Thank Goodness Gary had written the instructions from their website on how to get to the RV park. When we left in the morning, it was almost an hour before we got service. We had rain for the first couple of hours and once we crossed the border to Idaho the sun came out and it started to warm up. The scenery was amazing and I got loads of pictures. The size of some of the ranches was mind boggling.....You could see buildings for the staff not the rancher so it must of been a distance away. We are not used to seeing that large of spreads!! On our journey I saw a billboard that made me laugh....Could not believe it....This is what it said: "You can't fix Stupid, but you can vote them out" Very funny!! One of the pictures is our site at Pony Express RV Park in Salt Lake City Utah....The one with the rocks is the Lava Formations in Idaho and the last is the scenery of the ranches with mountains in the background so picturesque....

The closer we got to Salt Lake City the warmer it got....We arrived to 75 degrees or 22 Celcius....Yeahhhhhhhhh!!! We will be spending 2 days here. The Pony Express RV Park is very nice with concrete pads and beautiful picnic tables. I am enclosing a picture. Very nice.

Our journey continues, Calgary to Dillon Montana

We left Calgary Thursday morning and we said goodbye to Dallas, Gretchen and Ben, our sweet angel and he had a big smile for us. We will surely miss him.

We drove as far as Lethbridge where we overnighted at Walmart. When we got up in the morning we could not close the popouts as we had to boost the battery. Oh Well live and learn!!! Six weeks in Storage, Dead Battery!!

We left at 8:30am and arrived at Canada, Montana border at 9:40am. Well to describe Montana with one adjective I would have to go with VAST!!!!!! The scenery is unbelievable and spectacular. You go from rolling fields to rock cliffs and mountain ranges. Some of the ranches were very spread out. In fact, I saw a cowboy on horseback rounding up some cattle. Felt like I was watching a western. Of course, no time to take out the camera as I was knitting. It was such a windy day, if fact, outside of Butte, Gary hit a crosswind and for a moment he thought it was going to flip the trailer but he got it under control. It was windy all day and he was some glad to arrive in Dillon to tie up for the night. One of the pictures show the Missouri River.

working in Calgary

Well, just finished working in Calgary for 2 weeks and did one day in Edmonton for Maritime Travel formerly Atco Travel. I enjoyed the staff they were great people and made me feel so welcome. I was the go to person with the transition to our system which was new to them.

The pictures enclosed was sunset on our way home from Edmonton and the sunrise was this morning on my way to work. Phase 2 will begin on Thursday when we hook up to our fifth wheel and head to Lethbridge, overnight at Walmart and head to US border to begin our journey to Pheonix......more coming next week.....Happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends and may your day bring joy and happiness with your family and friends.....

Castlegar to Calgary

We woke to fog and when we left , we climbed the mountain and I mean climb, straight up and no guard rails(I am not good with heights especially no guard rails that you get to look way down!!!). We took a picture from the top and it shows the top of the mountain, the fog and castlegar below. We passed long horn sheep on the side of the road, we saw deer and wild turkey. Talk about up and down mountains. Wow!!! I mean straight up and down with 45 degree turns. Wouldn't want to do this in winter!!!! It was a beautiful drive. We went thru a lot of passes in the 4 days but I thought the Crownest Pass was the biggest disappointment as we did not go thru the mountain more we went thru the valley thought we did got thru a rock tunnel build at the edge of the mountain. All in all is was a great 4 days and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Scenery was spectacular!!

Kelowna to Castlegar

We started off the day with wine tasting (yahoo) at Jackson Triggs outside of Oliver, BC(Darn, Gary had to forgo as he was driving. Did you know that it is made up of 2 wineries, Jackson from Niagara Region and Triggs from Okanagan Region. I told them I had tried their wines but in the eastern part of Canada our wine comes from the Jackson winery and the west is from Triggs. I loved their dry Reisling , for a white it was excellent and I also bought their 7 year old merlot...Very good. We also stopped at one of their fruit stands and bought fresh apples from their orchards, Granny Smith, Macs and Gala. We had an excellent day around 16 to 20 celius what a beautiful day and the scenery was beautiful and mountains we climbed, was unbelievable...Thanks goodness we did not take our 5th wheel with us. We stayed in hotels. When they tell you to check your brakes before you go down the hill, we climbed up mountains like billygoats...straight up and then straight down...The picture from the mountain is of Osoyoos, the small town we drove thru..and then we headed inland and the mountains and valleys were magnificent. It was almost 90 degree drive downhill into Castlegar. Wow, I wouldn't want to have to drive these mountains in the wintertime. We drove right by the Canada, US border and at times it was right close to the road. Hard to believe how close it is to the border. One of the border crossing showed it was only open from 8am to midnight