Tucson, Arizona

"Ease on down, Ease on down the road.  Don't you carry nothing that might be a load.
Come on, ease on down, ease on down the road."
 - Diana Ross

That's what we did.  We eased on down to Tucson today.  It was a nice drive.  We are staying in the Tra-Tel Tucson RV Park.  It's a small park but it's nice and neat and the people managing the place are great. 

 

I didn't make this picture, but I liked the way it looked.  This is the park we're in and this is the background.  As I said, I make pictures all day but they don't do the real thing justice.  We have been surrounded by mountains for a few weeks now.  The mountains are so beautiful everywhere you look.  We are in the Sonora Desert now.  Tomorrow we will explore downtown Tucson.

But for now . . . that's right, it's time to curl up with a good book.         

Pheonix, Arizona

Today, we drove into Phoenix.  It's a beautiful city.  We toured the Rosson House. 

This was a home owned by a doctor and his wife back in the 1800's.  It's 2800 square feet.  These people were ahead of their time.  They had gas, electric and even a telephone.  They had an intercom system from downstairs to upstairs.  Also, they had the doorbell rigged to ring upstairs in the doctor's bedroom, in case someone needed the doc in the wee hours of the morning or middle of the night.  All in all, it was a very nice experience.  We drove through the streets of downtown Phoenix which was easy since it's Sunday and traffic was at a minimum. 

I picked this picture of downtown Phoenix at night because cities are prettier at night in my opinion. 
There are some beautiful and different buildings in Phoenix that you don't see in other cities.

For dinner, we ate at Filibertos Sports Bar and Grill.  If you ever get the opportunity, check it out.  The food is wonderful and reasonably priced.  The people were all cheering for their NFL team today and it was just a lot of fun. 

We met the people camping next to us today.  They're from Scotland.  They came here and rented a motorhome to run around the USA.  We meet a lot of people from different countries.  They are all so friendly. 

Check out the size of these cacti.  The scenery is so beautiful here.  The temperature is so hot!  It's in the high 90's this week.  Tomorrow we will be moving farther away but this place is beautiful.  We love this RV park. 

Time to chill!

Buckeye, Arizona

We are staying at Leaf Verde RV Resort in Buckeye, Arizona. 

This is a very nice park.  The sites are spacious and most of them are pull-throughs.  We will be here for a few days.  We want to visit Phoenix and the surrounding area of Buckeye.  By 4:00, we were parked and sitting outside in our chairs.  It felt great. 

But driving across the desert getting here  . . . . well, let's just say, I had some weird thoughts.

 
 

 

Last night in Anaheim

Anaheim is beautiful and sooooooo busy!  We got to spend the day with Uncle Charles and Aunt Lois.  They are so nice and so much fun to be around.  Yesterday, we visited with Mike's cousin, Laura and her children Nathan and Sophie.  Laura cooked our dinner and it was great. 

This is our last night here so we will be heading back to Arizona tomorrow. 

 

Our view leaving their home last night.  They just live a few streets over from Disneyland and there were lots of fireworks as we were driving away.  (We could only see the fireworks from their street, not the castle.)

Weinersnitchel Restaurant where we had lunch today.  It was a great experience.

We will miss Uncle Charles and Aunt Lois but, personally, I won't miss the traffic.  Unbelievable!

This is what it looked like on the way back to the campground (only dark).  Tonight, it took us an hour to drive about 15 miles because traffic looked like this--bumper to bumper.  Crazy traffic here and they all drive so fast.  I don't think I could drive on 91 freeway.  We will have to get back on it tomorrow morning while leaving, ooooooooh. 

I just want to say, though, it's not always like this.  Something must have happened up ahead.  Most of the time, we zipped right through, really fast.  So don't let our one night of congested traffic keep you away.  This place is AWESOME!

It's getting late here, now, so I'm getting off-line.  Next time we come to California, I want to travel northern California.  Every part of this state I've ever seen is beautiful. 

 

See ya!

 

Huntington Beach

Greetings from Huntington Beach, California. In this picture, we're standing on a pier watching surfing competitions.  It's fun watching these kids wait for the right wave then jump on their board and ride it to shore.  This is the area Mike spent his teenage years.  He spent a lot of time at this beach and in the water as a young man.  I guess that's why he's such a great swimmer.  We had lunch at Ruby's at the end of the pier. The temperature is getting a little cooler here.  It's in the 70's.  We were wearing shorts and t-shirts but a lot of people were actually in swim suits in the water.  I thought it was a little cool for that.

We drove around Newport yesterday on our way to Huntington Beach.  Wow!  This is definitely a ritzy section of the city.  Everywhere you look are dealerships for Ferraris, Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, Maserati, Bentleys, Jaguars, and Porches.  Crazy!  How can there be that many people who have that kind of money to own these multi-million dollar homes and to afford these cars?  I don't know but it was fun just checking it all out. 

Anyway, Huntington Beach is a nice area.  There are so many shops and every kind of ethnic restaurant imaginable.  Whatever you have a desire for can be found here.  All in all it was a nice relaxing day. We got in quite a bit of walking.

Our solar night light (compliments of Joey, Jesse and Zoie) 

Canyon RV Park

This place is beautiful.

It's like a state park.  Each rv site is so large.  You're not crammed right between two other campers.  And look at all this space behind the campers.  Nice.  There are 140 sites in here.  We've walked this place a couple times today.  We just stayed here today and enjoyed this place.  They had a big car show with a pretty good band.  There's an amphitheater here with lots of seats and it's mostly in the shade.  They had vendors with food and drinks and lots of booths for veterans. 

There's even a ropes course for anyone brave enough to take the challenge.

We took a nice walk after dark.  It feels so nice here.  It's in the 80's and there was a nice breeze.  One nice thing is we weren't bombarded by insects. 

This morning, we actually slept til 8:30!  We NEVER sleep that late.  I'm usually awake by 5 or 6 at the latest.  After having our coffee, we lit in to cleaning this big house.  Man, it takes so long to clean three rooms.  We vacuumed, dusted and reorganized some things.  I bet it took an hour.   Ha Ha.
Like I said, big houses and all that stuff is way over rated.  Of course, our house wasn't that large but we had a lot of stuff.  We couldn't be happier in our little motor home.  Right now, I'd like to thank God for making all this possible.

That's all for today, folks.

 

On the road to Anaheim, California

I'd like to be able to say, "close your eyes and picture this" but since you're reading, I can't.  But try to picture this because taking a picture on our camera does not do justice. 

We left Needles, California this morning by 8:00.  There was nothing in Needles that would ever make us want to stay here for more than one night, just passing through.  It's a poor town.  Part of it is Mojave Indian Reservation.  However, the rv park we stayed in was beautiful.  There was a KOA rv park right next door but it wasn't near as nice and looked hot.  Yesterday it was 97 degrees and today it's over 100.  Good day to go somewhere else!

The mountains--oh, the mountains.  Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by mountains.  Some look like God is shining His light on them.  They are magnificent!  Then there's the desert.  When I think of desert, I think of sand.  Today we spent the entire day driving across the Mojave Desert.  As far as we can see are rocks--small, medium, large and huge boulders.  (They could provide driveways and landscaping for every home in America.)

We keep thinking about early settlers and Indians having to walk across this desert.  Unimaginable!  It's so hilly, rocky, dry and full of snakes, lizards, tarantulas, mountain lions, and coyotes.  The dangers they had to endure and they didn't have the sturdy books we do today. 

Did you know there are tarantula hawk wasps in the desert?  Are you seeing these things in your mind right now?  How horrible does that sound?  Well, when you read up on them, it gets worse. 

Now, we are nearing the end of I-40 and, once again, the landscape has changed.  The desert has changed from rocks to sand.  As far as we can see-sand.  There are more trees here.  We weren't seeing any trees before.

Just a few miles up the road, the scenery changes to red rocks everywhere.  Every now and then, you see like an oasis in the middle of the desert with some trees and a house in the middle.  Imagine how far these people have to travel for groceries or gas! 

Entering, now, the San Bernardino Mountains--B-E-A-utiful and lush with evergreens, cedars and pines. 

Okay, we have entered into Anaheim.  (To tell you the truth, I wasn't looking forward to this.  As a matter of fact, I'm already ready to leave for other places.)  Don't get me wrong, I love California.  It's a beautiful state.  But the traffic!  Yikes!  There are so many streets and they're stacked up all around and so many cars.  It's hard to imagine this many people all driving around in one place and so fast!  They drive so fast here.  I don't think I could drive here.  I'd get run over.  People would be shooting at me because I would be going to slow and slowing them down.  Crazy! 

Anyway, we made it to Canyon RV Park.  It is so nice.  It looks like a state park.  There are way over 100 sites here.  We have a nice shady spot.  You have to use a key card to get in--nice.  That makes it more secure.  We will be here for a week.  We even drove over to Uncle Charley and Aunt Lois's home for dinner.  They have a very nice home in Anaheim.  So, we stayed there til almost 10:00 just talking about the Costner past.  It was fun and informative.  But I'm getting tired.