Elephant Butte State Park November 2012

 Hello from New Mexico. We arrived here the end of October ready to go to work, and work we have. We decided to come back to Elephant Butte State Park because they spoiled us. We love the area, the other volunteers, and the park staff. When we arrived everyone welcomed us back home....and it does feel like home. We were put on the schedule right away because the learning curve was not very high (for Holly, me that's a different story). It turns out that they have been a little short of help for awhile and one host couple had to leave for medical reasons, so we have been working extra at the visitor center. 

 We are back in Quail Run which is one of three camp areas in the park and we have our same spot back. We have the quail and the cottontail bunnies and jackrabbits back during the days and we get serenaded by the coyotes at night. We had heard that the water level of the lake was down but we were really surprised at how low the lake was.

As you can see from these pictures, the lake is really down this year....about 14 feet from last year.  You can see by the dates on the pictures that they are almost a year apart.  They have closed three of the boat launch ramps and one of the marinas on the lake. The boating officers are out moving buoys that mark shallow areas almost every day. I have heard that the lake is at only 6 percent of it's capacity. But looking on the bright side, we have a lot of beach. The marinas are floating which is a good thing. They are able to move them to keep them in the deeper areas so they can stay open.

We took a couple of days over Thanksgiving and  went to Ruidoso which is in the middle of the state east of us. Brutus thought it was a great idea because he had his own bed. Ruidoso is a tourist town and in the winter there are several ski areas there. We did go to the Inn of The Mountain Gods for Thanksgiving dinner and had some good food but like I said on facebook, not as good as home made but better then a "Hungry Man Turkey Dinner" in the microwave. After dinner we went to the casino for a little entertainment.

We said the reason we did not want to return to places we have already volunteered at is because we have already seen every thing and we have found that to be true. We have a few things we want to do but we have been almost everywhere in this area . We did go to Silver City to do a little Christmas shopping and stopped to look at a open pit copper mine that we have driven by several times.

It is a very large mine and has been in existence since the 1800's. The area that they are mining cannot be seen from the observation area but you do get to see the full size Tonka trucks.

Well as I said, we have not been running around much, just spending time around the park, going to Sparky's for green chile cheese burgers and relaxing. We do have the Luminary Walk coming up on December 8 so we have been folding 4000 bags for that, but more on that next month.

We did take a little walk on the beach this last day of November. The high for the day was 75 and was 63 when we took the boys down to the beach. The nights are cool but the days are sunny and warm. Nice to be "home". See you all next month.

October 2012

 We saw we conquered and we found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so we left. That's right, we were on the road again. We spent a great summer on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. We traveled, saw the oceans and the mountains. The rain forest and the rivers. We were able to visit with family and friends. We put over 6000 miles on the Jeep and had a great time. We meet Captain Robbie Knievel. He stayed at the park while he was doing a promotion at a local casino. He is a very nice person even though we couldn't get him to jump over the pond.

Bad Lands National Park at sunrise.

 We loaded up the rolling condo and headed home...or so we thought. After twenty minutes on the road and the first big hill, the engine started missing. I was not happy. The next big hill produced the same problems. The first large town was one hour away so I took it easy until we made it to Silverdale where I could buy some spark plugs and plug wires. We drove over to the shopping mall and Holly went shopping while I changed the plugs and wires. Three hours later we were back on the road. We drove over the Cascade Mountains and we made it to the east side of Washington that day (Spokane Valley).

 The next morning found us up and on our way by the time the sun broke over the top of Wal-Mart. Another long day and more mountains. The mountains were hazy with smoke because of all of the forest fires out west. Another long day but the coach was running fine and that made me happy. We stopped for the night and another early start in the morning. We did find that there is not a Wal-Mart campground in every town. We had to spend $8 to spend one night at Badlands National Park. We rose early and so as not to disturb the other campers, we drove to an overlook, started the generator and watched the sunrise with our coffee.

 It was five long days on the road but we made it home. Grandma was able to finally hold our new grandson (Grandpa too). So darn cute. We spent three weeks at home. We took all of the kids to dinner. Had a chance to see Grayson and Heidi bowl. Holly was able to see her friends and I was able to fix a couple of things around the house and get down to the train club. Changed the oil on the motor home made a few simple repairs and took it easy and enjoyed being home. It took about three days but we finally were able to get Holly to give Jason back to Beckie and (ya that's right) we were back on the road again. We had a job offer to be host at the Dickerson Driveway Campground and it was tempting but we were already committed so we had to turn them down.  We headed out and things went fine until we got to Oklahoma and we found out where the wind comes from. We had a few problems on the way but solved all but the cracked windshield on the motorhome. We'll take care of that when we get back home.

Now for the ones who didn't know where we are spending our winter, look right. That's right... one more time. We had job offers in Texas and California but it just felt right to go back to New Mexico. We are here, getting settled in and starting to work. Can't wait to find out what we missed the first time around. See you all next month when there should be more to write about.

Sequim Washington September 2012

September has come and gone and so have we. We have finished our commitment at Rainbows End RV Park in Sequim, Washington and left many good memories and friends and family behind. We have had the chance to see the many wonders of mother nature.

We had the opportunity to visit and walk thru the rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula.

We drove up to Hurricane Ridge and marveled at the beauty of the mountains and valleys.

We saw our first glimpse of the mighty Pacific Ocean from high up on Cape Flattery Point.

We wandered on many Forest Service roads, some which ended at the proverbial rock. At least there was room to turn around.

We went to Forks and LaPush vampire hunting. We didn't find any, in case you were wondering; at least any we could photograph.

The dogs loved to run on the beach (when this wave came up on the beach Brutus ran right out of the picture).

There were really big trees.

We had lots of time to go on walks and bond with the boys.

We were able to spend time with Holly's Aunt Lorrie and visit Marymere Falls. We went on a trip to Victoria B.C. courtesy of the Black Ball Ferry Co. and attended a high tea at the famous Butchart Gardens

We spent time with my sister Debby and her husband David when they came and stayed with us over the 4th of July. We also had a chance to go to dinner with them and their son Ryan just before we left. Wish they didn't live so far away.

 We visited light houses on Whidbey Island and at Fort Worden in Port Townsend.

Holly's friend Sue and her husband Jon came out and stayed at the park in their motor home. We took them around the Peninsula and  showed them the sights. Holly's sister Debbie also came out and stayed with us during the famous Sequim Lavender Festival. We want to give her big thanks and many hugs for putting us up when we took the ferry across to go sight seeing and visiting friends. I personally want to thank her for the great pies...she knows I have a sweet tooth.

Now before you do a double take just let me say that yes, the three girls in the upper picture are the same three that are in the picture to the right. I must also add that I didn't know anything about this when we were married. When she called them her sisters I just figured it was a figure of speech...any further questions should be directed to Holly.

This is the Seattle skyline from the ferry. We went over one day and walked around downtown and saw a whole different type of people. Some were just down on their luck and homeless, but some were just downright strange.

We did go back over to Victoria B.C. just before we left so we could walk around and go to the Royal B.C. Museum. They had some great displays and was very informative about the early Northwest Territory. We also saw a circus parade. It was one of the displays in The World of Miniatures. They had several different displays of many different things, plus doll houses.  Everything is carved and made by hand, including an operating saw mill.

We walked uptown and toured the Craigdarroch Castle. This was a house that a lumber-coal baron built for his wife. He died before it was done and she only lived in it for 18 years. Their children spent more time in Europe than in the house. It was very beautiful and the craftsmanship was outstanding .

On the way home we spent one night at the Badlands National Park. We got up and drove to one of the turnouts to make coffee and watch the sunrise.

When we got home we were introduced to our new grandson Jason. A very nice thing to come home to (and of course, all  the rest of the kids and grandkids, too). We will be home for about three weeks to do some preventive maintenance on the motor home, do some repairs around the house and get things ready for winter.  When we started this adventure we said that we wouldn't go back to the same place twice because there is so much to see in this great country of ours. So keeping that in mind, we will be headed to Elephant Butte Lake State Park for the winter. I know, we already broke our own rule. Manny, who is the volunteer coordinator at the park, called and asked us if we would like to come back. We decided that we had such a good time and made such great friends there that we would break our rule this one time (besides, Maria's, which is my favorite restaurant, is there). That's it for now. In a couple of weeks we will be on the road, headed to New Mexico to get reacquainted with old friends and to make new ones. See you all then.

Sequim, Washington August, 2012

Happy Labor Day!  Well, at least I'm a lot closer this time.  When I was thinking about the August blog I wasn't sure what I was going to put in it. I was thinking that we have seemed to slow down in our travels, but I was wrong.  I did include some stuff from Labor Day weekend but I figured it started on the last day of Aug. so it all counts for Aug. We took a trip to see Point Wilson Light which is located by the town of Port Townsend. The Coast Guard Aux. is working at restoring it so it is only open on Saturday afternoon. It is still a work in progress.

John and Sue

 We had some new visitors this month. One of Holly's high school friends came out to spend a couple of days. Sue and her husband Jon have a motor home and they camped two spaces down from us (didn't want them too close, we weren't sure if they snored too loud) and we had a great visit. Holly and Sue had a chance to talk about things from the past and we took them out touring. That's right, we ended up at Rialto Beach (see the July blog if you forgot about visiting us). We also went to the HOH Rain Forest. Sue and Jon had some questions about full timing and being campground hosts. We told them about what

Sue and Holly on a very windy Rialto Beach.

we have done and how we find places to host. We also told them how great a time we've been having. The big thing about being a host is that you have to like talking to people and enjoy having a good time. I think if they decide to host at some time that won't be a problem for them. As it always seems, time flew by and they had to leave (that darn work thing). It was a great visit and we were sorry to see them go. This month we've made a few more side trips up forest service roads and had some fun in the mountains. Almost went in a ditch on one adventure, but it wasn't my fault and I'm sticking to it.

On Labor Day weekend we took the Kingston to Edmonds ferry to pick up Holly's sister Debbie and her dog Chester and headed over to Plain in Eastern Washington. Holly's brother Greg has a cabin there on the Wenatchee River. As you can see it's just a little shack, set in a very quite and peaceful setting right on the river. Well, it was peaceful until we showed up with us and three dogs. Greg has one dog and his daughter Courtney and her boy friend Matt came with two more. It wasn't too bad except for Brutus. The brute kept picking on Greg's dog Lucy. He had that poor dog scared to death of him. Oh that's right, if you didn't know, Brutus is a dachshund and Lucy is a Weimaraner. Every time she came into a room or outside she was looking to see where that little brown dog was, poor thing.

On Saturday Holly, Debbie and Courtney were able to talk Matt into taking them into the town of Leavenworth. This is a little town that is built to resemble a town in Germany. It's sister town is Frankenmuth, Michigan. They did a little shopping and walking and talking and let poor Matt follow with their two dogs while Greg and I stayed behind to watch the other four (I think Greg and I came out ahead on that one).

There were a lot of tubers on the river and Courtney and Matt went out in front of the cabin and got a little cool down. Courtney more then Matt due to the fact that Matt was in a little boat and had to keep rowing to stay in front of the cabin because of the current. He didn't last long and had to come back into shore. They both went up river Sunday with tubes to float down and as far as I know they made it back but I bet their butts were cold.  That mountain water is freezing!

Debbie and Holly

We all had a great time and some great food. On Saturday Greg smoked a whole bunch of ribs (He still has a bunch left). Holly brought potato salad, Courtney brought a delicious Asian salad and Debbie brought two homemade pies. With all the food, it was my kind of holiday weekend.

Debbie, Greg and Holly

Matt and Courtney

Greg and Lucy

Jason Glenn

Now the important part of August...On August 31st our daughter Beckie presented us with our 7th grandchild. Jason Glenn was 8 lbs. and 19 inches. He had a rough start due to the fact he didn't think it was time to leave his cozy little abode.  Thank goodness mother and son are doing fine and are home with daddy John and big brother Cameron. We are excited about getting home in October to see him as well as the rest of the family. That's all for now.  It won't be long and we'll be headed home and then on to our next host job (more on that next month).  Everyone take care and join us on our next adventure....on the road...