Where the hell have we been???

Hello Dear Readers!

  Well it's been almost a year since my last entry to this blog, so I guess apologies are in order. That's not to say you'll be getting any, they're just in order. We had a great time at Mom's for last Christmas, it was good to see all the DFW family. We also got to be with Mitchel and Melissa for a few days at Lake Mineral Wells State Park. When we left the DFW area and headed back to the Rio Granda Valley we had an extra rider with us, my Mom. Let me tell you, if you ever get the chance to do something like that with your Mom, I suggest you jump on it. The three of us had a fantastic January. Penny and I did things we probably would not have done if it weren't for Mom being here and I'm sure the same can be said for Mom. We went out several times with some friends of ours to some rather seedy places (Crazy Joe's Biker Bar) and she had a ball. She even got out on the dance floor with yours truly a few times. For an 85 year old she is still pretty active. Every day, weather permitting, she would go for a walk sometimes she'd take Squeaky, sometimes by herself. She'd be gone for half hour to an hour walking around the park, and she is a pretty fast walker. We tried to put some weight on her because we think she could use a few extra pounds, but I don't think we were successful. She was the best house guest. The only problem we had with her was not being able to keep her away from the dirty dishes after dinner, it was a race and an arm wrestle as to who did the dishes. I was little concerned that our two dogs would be too much for her, she says she's not a big dog lover. She may not ever want a dog of her own but she fell for these two, and the feeling was mutual. In fact her new nickname is "the dog whisperer" because she could calm Wonder down quicker than ever.

  We spent the first 3 months of 2014 in Mercedes Texas at Llano Grande Lake Park RV Resort. We really fell in love with the park as well as the Rio Grande Valley area. We met some great people while we were there, as well as catching up with some old friends.

  To say we've been busy is an understatement. Along with traveling about 15,000 miles, covering several states, we saw some fantastic sights with some fantastic people.

  On April 1st we left Mercedes and headed east for Myrtle Beach South Carolina for spring break with Miranda and Lexi. Brian and his boys, Jackson, Ryan, Collin and Owen were also able to come for a weekend. We had a great time. We were about 100 yards from the Atlantic Ocean. It was still a little cool, but a good time was had by all.

   From Myrtle Beach we made our way towards the DFW area for my niece's wedding and a family reunion of sorts. Most of the four generations of the Rehder family were there. Again, a great time was had by all.

  From DFW we headed northwest towards Colorado. Once there we took a drive to the top of Pike's Peak. No, we did not tow the camper up the mountain.

  After Pike's Peak we started the "National Parks" portion of our journey. We started with a week long stay in Estes Park Colorado, visiting Penny's cousin Andrea and her husband Skip. They were quite the hosts. Andrea even had entertainment planned in the form of My Fair Lady, which she played a part in local community performance. It was a very good show. It was an outdoor show and was definitely the coldest July night we've ever experienced. I think it got down in the 30s. Rocky Mountain National Park is right there in Estes Park and was beautiful.

    
  We left Estes Park and headed west to visit Yellowstone National Park, Grand Tetons National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. The pictures below are in the same order. We had the pleasure of good friends Tom and Jo Theriot joining us for the Grand Canyon.

   After the "National Parks Tour" our journey went south, and not in a good way. We had been having an issue with the slide out for our bedroom and we were hoping it would make it to Mercedes Texas for our winter stay. We were less than lucky. On the way to our next stop from the Grand Canyon we were following directions from our GPS, it sent us down a road that we found out was having some work done on a bridge. In fact, the bridge was gone and they had made a small one lane road around the construction. Small being the operative word. We didn't quite make it. The road gave out on the driver side and we came VERY close to tipping the entire rig over.

  Needless to say, it took a very large tow truck to get us out. Most of the damage was cosmetic, although the fresh water tank was also damaged. We had never used the fresh water tank as we always use the city water in the parks we stayed in. So, again we thought we could get it all done once we got to South Texas. It was not to be. When we reached Deming New Mexico the bedroom slide out would no longer go all the way out or in without help. The repairman in Deming couldn't fix it but helped us get it back in to where we could take it to Camping World in El Paso for repairs. That was on September 28. The slide we wanted fixed through the warranty and the body damage through insurance. Evergreen is very particular  (read difficult) about who works on their campers. They blamed the slide manufacturer for the problem and the slide manufacturer in turn blamed Evergreen for faulty installation of same. We told Evergreen that we bought the camper and warranty from them, they could fight with the manufacturer on their time. After 83 days of arguing and waiting for parts, all repairs were completed and we hit the road on December 20th heading to Mercedes.

  During our extended stay in El Paso we had to say goodbye to our navigator Wonder. He started having seizures the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and on Friday he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Sweet boy we miss you.

  We did get a buddy for Squeaky a few days later, not to replace Wonder, that's impossible, just a companion. His name is Charlie.

  Obviously, traveling 15,000 miles at an averageof 300 miles a day, you can guess I left a long list of stops out of this blog. Some of the more memorable are listed below:

Panama City Beach Florida 

Savannah Georgia 

Colonial Williamsburg Virginia 

Jamestown Virginia 

Ashville North Carolina 

Pigeon Forge Tennessee 

Hot Springs Arkansas 

Amarillo Texas *

Raton Pass New Mexico 

Colorado Springs Colorado
Manitou Springs Colorado
Cripple Creek Colorado 

Jackson Hole Wyoming 

Bear Lake Utah **
Boulder City Nevada

Sedona Arizona
Tombstone Arizona 

There were others, but I've slept since then.

Things we saw:

Tybee Island Pier
Yorktown National Battlefield
Exchange Hotel Civil War Museum
Monticello
Biltmore Estate
Shilo National Battlefield
Bathhouse Row
Cadillac Ranch
Highway of Legends
Garden of the Gods
The Stanley Hotel
Sinks Canyon State Park
Red Rock Scenic Byway
Boot Hill
The Birdcage Theater
This list scratches the surface.

* in Amarillo we picked up a hitchhiker, a writing spider. He stayed with us for over 2 months.

** Bear Lake had the bluest water we had ever seen in a fresh water lake.

  So, that brings us up to date. Tomorrow we'll be back at our winter destination, Llano Grande Lake RV Resort. Who knows where we'll go after that?