Next Stop, Amarillo Texas

We're leaving Arizona on our way to New Mexico. We've just passed through Las Cruces and are heading toward Alamagordo, just on the other side of these hills. 

Just before Alamagordo, we pass by the White Sands Missile Range. If you want more info on this unique geological anomaly, check out our blog for spring 2009. I still give it a thumbs up.

Made it to the RV Resort in Alamagordo. We spent quite a bit of time in the town in 2009 so decided to go for a drive.

We spent the day driving into the mountains. This had a beautiful view of  the town and if you can see the white line on the horizon, that's the White Sands Dunes. Cool, huh. We climbed about 4000', saw some snow and rubbed the rust off the cars brakes coming back down.

Time to head further east. Leaving Alamagordo we have to get through the same mountains but this road is a little more civilized. Harvey (the RV) has no problem with these hills; plenty of power going up and exhaust brake going down. Piece of cake.

 The drive was winding and hilly until Roswell (didn't see any UFO's, sorry). After that, flat prairie for hundreds of miles. Anything for a distraction.

Ask and ye shall receive. You just never know what you'll see along the byways in the US. It was a rush picture so the horses are just visible. Quite the caravan.

After a long days drive, we arrived safely at our destination in Amarillo. Have you ever noticed how all our RV Resort pictures look the same? There's Harvey, car behind and dirt to sit on and maybe a tree. Unique.

Having the Clampetts as our next door neighbours was a bit unique. Talked a bit With Jethro; he and Ellie-Mae were heading over to the cement pond. If these references escape you, talk to someone our age. We'll have a days break here and then off again. TTFN.

Heading Home

Well, it's that time again! We've had a great winter in Hemet. We made some new friends, had some fun times and golfed more than I ever have (not that it helped much). But, time and provincial health care have told us it's time to go home.

Besides it's been way too long since we've seen our grand kids, including the cute new addition Ethan, born on Dec 21st and hasn't had the pleasure of his grandparents company yet, poor kid. So, off we go, again.

Our first stop after leaving glorious California is Yuma Arizona. Don't we look all settled in. Sherlock Holmes would look at this picture and ascertain the truth quite readily, but for the rest, I'll elucidate. It's freaking hot. Over 100F. We lasted about 2 hours then I put on the front window shades, and the roll down shades and then we turned on the A/C, which we do about twice a year. After a cool wet winter, this was quite a shock. Even Grammie thought I looked hot.

Timing is everything. A week before or after and we would have missed the St. Patrick Day's parade, A highlight of the season at the Shangri-La. Even green beer afterwards. 

The evenings are so warm here that Barbecuing seems the only sensible way of making animal protein safe. BBQ'ing in Hemet usually involved sweaters or jackets this winter. I know; you snow shovellers back home are shedding a tear.

But time marches on and off we go to our next adventure. If you travel this area of the world, the US border patrol assumes you are either an illegal or are harbouring one so checkpoints like this are designed to catch miscreants in action. A quick dog sniff and we are released to continue our trip to Benson AZ.

So, here we sit. Benson AZ. The wind howls and the sun beats down. I'm inside where blasting sand and burning sun cannot find me. But it sure beats the hell out of Ontario's current snow storm! Sorry, did that sound a bit like gloating? Tomorrow we head further east to see what adventures await. Stay tuned.

Whats Up

Although we haven't done a lot of blogs because most of what we're doing is the same as last years, we have been keeping busy. I got to open some great gifts from our kids and grand kids on my birthday. 

 Friends then took us out for my birthday supper. Can't go wrong with Mexican. 

There are lots of activities in the park and certainly some opportunities to volunteer. We're the cake people for Taco night. To give you an idea of whats going on for activities, last week we helped out with the "Chicken Cordon Bleu" supper. Grammie went to a Ladies Lunch on Friday. 

Then that evening there was a Pot Luck supper. There's a hamburger bash next Wednesday complete with ice cream. Oh, I almost forgot the Talent Night on Monday with cake and Ice Cream. Then there's Pizza Night for our Golf windup on Tuesday. Then there's Breakfast in the Park on Friday complete with pancakes, Strawberries and whipped cream. Then, the following Wednesday is the windup supper as us Snow porkers head home.

Oh yeah. On Tuesdays we go to Bingo. Won 3 times and right now I'm ahead about $75.00. Definitely time to head home.

Its a real treat when good friends decide to stop by for a couple days. We took a days tour of Joshua Park.

 Its a great place to see different desert panoramas from cacti to really cool rock formations. If you remember, last year Brad and Karen visited the park with us. We took more pictures that time. Check out last years blog about it.

Grammies been taking golf lessons for awhile so we figured its about time she gave it a go. Don't we look professional? 

 Pretty good form. Head down, not looking up until the balls left. Impressive.

 One tree on the fairway and I managed to hit it. Can you believe the lie. I used a foot wedge to make it playable. Hey, its supposed to be fun right.

 Grammie took the cart up to the next tee box while I looked for another lost ball. Drat!

 I played in another golf tournament, just like last year. If you recall, I was in the winning foursome. Perhaps you can zoom in close enough to see my name on the trophy.

 Wow! Did it again. I can't believe another group of good golfers could again cancel out my mediocrity. So you can see, although not much of note goes on here, a lot goes on. We've had a great winter here and are planning on coming back again. We'll be heading home soon and hopefully I'll be able to blog about our next adventures. Keep in touch.