Several Merry Christmas Parties

One of the nice things about having family in two different towns is that we can have more than one Christmas celebration.

Just before we left Montgomery heading to Meridian, we had a small Christmas celebration with our daughter and grand children there. It's always a pleasure to be with them.

We arrived in Meridian and we had a Christmas celebration with our daughter and some great grand children here. For some reason it was held on Christmas Eve.

On the 26th our children and grand children from Montgomery came over and we got together with our daughter, grand children and great children from Meridian for a big family celebration. We had hamburgers and hot dogs since just about everyone was tired of turkey and all the trimmings.

After filling up on hamburgers and hot dogs it was time to open presents. There were really a lot of packages under the tree. After two days of Christmas celebrations, it's hard to figure where all the packages came from.

Jerry got a new digital camera and she was really surprised about that. Now she'll really be able to take good pictures on our trips.

A Very Good Christmas Program

We went to Church to see our grandson. Dillon, in a Christmas Program. He had several speaking parts in it and did a very good job. The other children were good also but not near as good as our grandson. After it was over, I told him how proud we were of him and he had the following to say, "I'll accept cash, checks and all major credit cards". There is no telling what that boy won't say. Needless to say I took a couple of pictures of the Christmas Program. Break out the Egg Nog, sit back and enjoy them.

Up Date On Bob And Jerry

We're not on the road now so there isn't much to report. We were in Meridian, Ms. for a month and Jerry and I had Cataract surgery. It's a miracle how much better we can see now, neither of us have to wear glasses anymore.



Jerry had a little problem with her heart again and they did a heart Cather but nothing showed up, the Doctor said she was okay and has a strong heart. She was diagnosed with "A-Fib" and the Doctor wants to see her in Feb. to evaluate a pace maker.



We're now in Montgomery, AL. for Thanksgiving. A few days ago Jerry was heating some chili in the microwave and burned the inside of her left arm. It's a second degree burn and for a few days was painful. Seems like everything happens to us. We'll be leaving here on the 18th and go back to Meridian for Christmas with family. We'll be there until at least Feb. and don't really have any plans on taking any trips now.



Jerry and I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas.

Looks As Though We're Here For A While

Our Temporary Home Away From Home

We've been in Meridian, MS for about a month so Jerry could have her Cataract surgery and recover from it. The Doctor gave her a clear report.

Now I'll have my Cataract surgery on the 13Th and then the 20Th and will have to be here for about 3 to 4 weeks for a follow up. I hope I'm as lucky with the surgery as Jerry was, she has 20/20 in both eyes.

She went to the Commissary the other day and it took her about 3 hours to do her shopping. What took her so long was that she could easily read all the labels which she couldn't do before. She had a ball reading all the labels.

Smokey had surgery to remove kidney stones from his bladder before we left Montgomery. He managed to open one of the areas where they made the incision and we had to take him to a Vet here in Meridian to have it closed properly. The Vet put a collar around his neck to prevent him from opening it again. Doesn't he look cute?

Successful Surgery

Jerry had Cataract surgery on both eyes and she had her last check up yesterday. The Doctor told her she had 20/20 in both eyes and that she could get rid of her "seeing eye dog" all she might need would be a pair of "over the counter" 1.25 reading glasses for small print in newspaper or magazines.

She is amazed at how well she can see and also how clear everything is now. I'm so happy for her and now maybe she can read the small print on the road atlas and help me navigate on our trips.

On October 13 it's my turn to have Cataract surgery and I only hope I do as well as Jerry did. We'll keep you posted on my progress.

Rain, Rain It's A Pain

We arrived here in Meridian, Ms. on the 13th and we have had severe thunder storms and heavy rain every day since then. We're getting a little tired of all this rain and storms. We have to stow the satellite system every afternoon.

I guess it could be worse however, I saw Six Flags Over Georgia on TV last night and the roller coaster looked like the Loch Ness Monster. The entire park was flooded.

Now for good news. On 22nd, Jerry had successful Cataract surgery on her right eye. She went back to the Doctor today for a check up and he said everything was GREAT. She is scheduled to have the left one done on the 29th. At the same time I'm going to have my eyes examined and see if I need to have Cataract surgery as well. Might as well get it done while we're here.

While I'm writing this Journal there is a big bright light in the eastern sky, it can't be the sun since it hasn't shown since we've been here. I guess someone must have turned on a search light.

Time To ReOpen This Blog

Now that we're back from our trip to Canada and Alaska, I've decided to put that Blog to bed till we get ready to make another trip there. We're really talking about making the trip again during 2011.

We've spent two weeks in Montgomery in our favorite RV Park, Capital City RV Park http://www.capitalcityrvpark.net/ . When we called to make a reservation, Tracy, the owner's daughter-in-law said our old site was taken but she'd make sure we had a nice spot. When we arrived, we noticed that Mick, the owner, had moved his RV so that we could have his spot on the corner. That was real nice of him but then he's a really nice man.

After two weeks there we left for Meridian, Ms. so that Jerry could have Cataract surgery on both eyes. Our daughter, Karen, is going to help take care of her.

We haven't decided where we'll go and what we'll be doing after the Holiday season but we'd really like to be where it's warm.

Stay tuned for more journals on this Blog and as with the Alaska Trip Blog, you have to furnish your own pop corn.

Great Falls, Montana

Today we had to go to the RVer's most favorite place, "Wally World" to get Jerry's prescription filled. And of course she just had to do some shopping there.

On the way in town we passed a park where several Canadian Geese and their families lived. They had a large number of cute babies and I just had to stop and get a picture or two.

After finally leaving "Wally World" we drove to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. In 1805 Lewis and Clark came here and remained about one month while they portaged their canoes over land to by-pass the series of rapids that stretched for several miles on the Missouri River

The Great Falls area had long been inhabited by tribes of Native American Indians, mainly the Blackfeet, with herds of Buffalo, Antelope, Elk and Deer roaming the prairies. The Grizzly Bears and the Mountain Lion also hunted and roamed the area.

More of Jerry's Great Photography Job

We were traveling from Belgrade, MT to Great Falls, MT and had to drive through some real pretty but rugged country.

Jerry was bouncing from side to side of the motor home taking pictures like there was no tomorrow. At one point she yelled "Boy am I having a blast".

She took a lot of pictures and we hope you like them.

Jerry's New Job

Since I had the trip pretty well planned, Jerry didn't have much "navigating" to do. She decided that rather than be bored she would become a "traveling photographer"

This and the next journal will prove how good of a job she has done. We hope you enjoy the pictures as much as she had enjoyed taking them.

I really don't know why she won't let me take pictures while I'm driving the motor home, after all I can "walk and chew bubble gum at the same time"

Kaycee, Wyoming

We left Casper, Wyoming heading to Kaycee, Wyoming to spend a couple of days. Our plans were to see the Butch Cassidy Hole In The Wall hideout and the Historical Museum in the town.

After we got to the RV Park and got set up we asked about driving conditions to the Hole In The Wall. We learned much to our displeasure that it's located on "Private Land" and the owner doesn't permit people to drive there. We also learned the Museum will not be open until Memorial Day and of course we won;t be here then.

We were very disappointed and will only stay here for two days.

We had the control device on our step break and it will not retract. That means that Jerry has a hard time getting in and out of the coach. We found a repair facility in Bozeman, Montana that can fix it and we'll leave tomorrow morning and get there on Thursday afternoon to get the repair done. After that's done we'll continue to head up to Great Falls, Montana to hopefully meet up with our other travel friends.

Since we were unable to see anything here, there are no pictures, sorry about that.

The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center

Between 1840 and 1869, approximately 500,000 emigrants traveled through the Casper, Wyoming area on three National Historic Trails: The Oregon Trail, The Mormon Trail, and The California Trail

350,000 pioneers traveled on The California Trail, 80,000 on The Oregon Trail and 70,000 on The Mormon Trail.

They migrated for different reason. They sought free land in Oregon Territory, religious freedom in the Great Salt Lake Valley and free gold in California

Here are a few pictures I took in the Center and the last ones are some Jerry took on our way to Casper, Wyoming, we hope you like them.

Wheatland Wyoming

We are parked at a City Park in Wheatland, Wyoming. It's small, only eight sites but they have 30 amp service and best of all it's FREE. We were only going to be for one night but since it's raining here and on down the road, we thought if would be better to spend another night here.

This morning we looked out the front window and found a family of Squirrels playing in the site next door. Jerry took some stale bread we had and threw it out the window at them. At first only one came up and it grabbed a large piece of bread and ate some of it then carried the rest up a tree to his nest. Soon we had about 6 or 8 out there all wanting some bread. It was fun watching them.

Vedauwoo And The Ames Monument

Twenty miles east of Laramie along I-80 are the towering rocks of Vedauwoo (pronounced VEE-dah-voo) an Arapaho word meaning "earthborn". Indians believe that these magnificent rock formations in the Pole Mountains area of the Medicine Bow Nationsl Forest were created by animals and human spirits.

The area was considered a sacred place where young Indian men went on vision quests. These oddly jumbled rocks form all sorts of shapes-mushrooms, balancing rocks, rounded knolls, lizards, faces, turtles and anything you might dream up.

The Ames Monument is a 60 foot pyramid shaped monument. This haunting limestone mass stands alone on the prairie and watches over the lonely remains of the one-time rail town of Sherman. This Monument was built in 1881 to honor the Ames brothers, Oliver and Oakes who were influential leaders in the construction of the transcontinental rail. The Union Pacific Railroad built this Monument at the cost of $65,000.

Cheyenne, Wyoming

This morning we left Colorado Springs for what we hoped was a short pleasant drive. Since we only had 186 miles to travel, we took our time getting on the road. After about 50 miles I began to wonder if we'd not have been wiser to stay over another day or two in Colorado Springs.

We ran into winds from the north-north west at about 45 miles per hour. Guess what?? we were going north west and this made our trip a bummer.

We heard a rather strange loud noise from the top left of the coach and had no idea what the problem could be. I finally found a wide place on the side to pull over and check things out. It turned out to be the "topper awning" above our front slide out. The wind had gotten under the front of it and had caused it to really flap in the wind. There was nothing we could do about it on the side of the busy Interstate. We'll check it out when we get to Cheyenne.

My navigator and photographer took some good pictures of our trip from inside a moving RV, I hope you enjoy them. If so, please send her a comment to this journal.

The Garden Of The Gods

We went to see the Garden Of The Gods which is a Colorado Springs City Park. The tour around the Park is about six miles and has some of the most beautiful red rock formations we've seen in a long time.

About 600 millions years ago the Garden Of The Gods began to form in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains eastern range. The mountains just west of the Park are known as the Rampart Range because they rise steeply, like a wall, marking the end of the wide rolling prairies to the east.

Maybe the following pictures will give you some idea as to how beautiful they are.

Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs

Today, we and our friends Michael and Terri left the FAMCAMP and went to our favorite store, "Wally World" to pick up a few items.

From there we took a short drive to the quaint town of Manitou Springs to hopefully find one of Jerry's friends who owned a jewelry store there. When we got there we learned that she had sold the store about a year ago and no one knew where she was.

We had a real good lunch at a restaurant called "Stage Coach" so the day was not a total lost. Terri found some stones she had been looking for so she was happy also.

On our way over from Alamosa Jerry took some pictures of the snow covered mountains and then today she took some pictures of Manitou Springs. I hope you like them.

We Arrived Safely

After finally getting over the "little hill", we arrived in Alamosa, CO where we'll spend the night in our favorite RV Park, "Wally World".

After getting parked I looked out the windows and the view was terrible, if we weren't tired we'd leave and find some place with a better view.

I'm sending pictures of what we have to look at until we leave tomorrow. Please feel sorry for us.

Our Drive Over Wolf Creek Pass

Today after two weeks at Ute Mountains RV Park we left heading to Colorado Springs. We'll be there for four days before we move on toward Wyoming, Montana and finally into Canada.

We had to cross a little hill before we got to our first stop for the night at Alamosa, CO. The little hill was just a little over 10,850 feet and believe me it really tested the metal of the Monaco motor home. It took a little over an hour to get over the "little hill" but the scenery was beautiful. There were many mountains with snow covering them.

I can't really understand why, but Jerry wouldn't let me take any pictures while driving. She took a few and I hope you enjoy them.

Monument Valley...Hallowed Ground

Monument Valley is one of the scenic wonders of the world. Located in the northern Arizona and southern border of Utah, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park offers spectacular views of buttes, mesas, canyons and free standing rock formations that will take your breath away.

Created from materials eroded from the Rockey Mountains and deposited with earlier layers for the formation of stratified buttes, Monument Valley has withstood the test of time.

This is considered by movie fans as "hallowed ground" since John Wayne made several western movies here. Among them are "Wagon Train", "She Wore A Yellow Ribbon", "The Searchers" and the very first one "The Lady and The Bad Man".

Its hard to tour this area without taking a lot of pictures and I guess I'm not alone in doing this. Break out the pop corn and enjoy the pictures.

Driving In The Snow ???

Today, we took a drive from Cortez to Durango and Silverton, CO. The drive was nice but we didn't see as much snow on the mountains as we've seen in the past.

When we got to Durango a lot of the businesses were not open for the tourists yet, I guess we're a little early. The same thing was true for Silverton, all of the stores and restaurants had signs that read "Closed will open May 15".

We were going to take a drive to Animas Forks to show Michael and Terri an old silver mining ghost town but the road was not opened all the way so we had to turn around and head back to Durango.

On the was back to Silverton we ran into a snow shower that lasted about 30 minutes. It looked pretty but it was not fun to drive in. Thank goodness we didn't have any traffic on this road. About half way back to Durango we hit another snow shower and this one lasted about forty-five minutes.

The only good part of our trip was a stop at "Serious Texas Bar-B-Que for one of their great bar-b-ques with cherry chipolte salsa. Believe me they are well worth the trip. We like the salsa so much that Jerry bought three bottles so we could enjoy it on our trip to Alaska.

I have a few pictures of our little trip but not as many as I would like, sorry about that.

The Arches National Park

Water and ice, extreme temperatures, and underground salt movement are responsible for the sculptured rocky scenery of Arches National Park. On clear, blue-sky days it is difficult to imagine such violent forces, or the 100 million years of erosion, that created this land boasting of one of the world's greatest densities of natural arches. Over 2,000 cataloged arches range in size from a three-foot opening, the minimum to be considered an arch, to the longest, Landscape Arch, measuring 306 feet base to base.

Today new arches are being formed and old ones destroyed. Erosion and weathering work slowly but relentlessly,creating dynamic landforms that gradually change through time. Change sometimes occurs more dramatically. In 1992 a rock slab 50 feet long, 11 feet wide and four feet thick fell from the underside of Landscape Arch, leaving behind an even thinner ribbon of rock.

Delicate Arch, an isolated remnant of a bygone fin, stands on the brink of a canyon, with the dramatic La Sal Mountains as a backdrop. Towering spires, pinnacles and balanced rocks-perched atop seemingly inadequate bases-vie with the arches as scenic spectacles here.

I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Mesa Verde

About 1,400 years ago, long before Europeans explored North America, a group of people living in the Four Corners region chose Mesa Verde for their home. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished here, eventually building elaborate stone communities in the sheltered alcoves of canyon walls. Then in the late 1200's, in the span of a generation or two, they left their homes and moved away.

Mesa Verde National Park preserves a spectacular reminder of this ancient culture. Archeologists have called these people Anasazi from a Navajo word sometimes translated as "The ancient foreigners". We now call them Ancestral Puebloans, reflecting their modern descendants.

We will never know the whole story, they left no written records and much that was important in their lives has perished.

I hope the pictures I took will give you some idea of what these people built and how impressive they are.

The Towers of Hovenweep and Four Corners

The canyon and mesa country north of the San Juan River holds many archeological sites where ancestors of today's Pueblo Indian tribes lived. Round, square and D-shaped towers grouped at canyon heads most visibly mark once thriving communities. No one has lived in them for over 700 years, but they are still inspiring.

By the 1200s the population had grown dramatically, and pollen studies show that much of the tree cover had been removed. Perhaps drought and depleted resources figured prominently in the ancestral Pueblo people's sudden departure in the late 1200s.

Next we went to "Four Corners". This is the only place in the United States where four states merge and form "Four Corners".

You can stand with one foot in Utah and the other in either Arizona, New Mexico or Colorado. The Monument is owned by the Navajo Indian Tribe and they charge a small fee to visit the sight. The drive to it is about 38 miles east of Cortez, CO and by the time you arrive you're in New Mexico.

Since this is the only location of this kind, it's well worth the drive to see and experience the uniqueness of it.

Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

Today we took a pleasant drive from Holbrook, Arizona to see the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

The Painted Desert is some of the most beautiful hills and valleys I've ever seen. There are many various colors and they look as though some artist painted them. I'll let you be the judge of just how beautiful they are.

The Petrified Forest are stories of climate and culture told in stone. This high, dry grassland was once a vast floodplain crossed by many streams. Tall stately conifer trees grew along the banks. Crocodile-like reptiles, giant amphibians and small dinosaurs lived among a variety of ferns, Cycads and other plants.

The trees fell, and swollen streams washed them into adjacent floodplains. A mix of silt, mud, and volcanic ash buried the logs. This sediment cut off oxygen and slowed the logs decay. Silica-laden groundwater seeped through the logs and replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallized into quarts, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood.

Meteor Crater

50,000 years ago, an unbroken plain stretched across the Arizona desert. Suddenly, out of the northeastern sky, a pinpoint of light grew rapidly into a brilliant meteor. Hurling at 26,000 miles per hour, it was on an intercept course with Earth. In seconds, it passed through our atmosphere with almost no loss of velocity or mass.


An iron-nickel meteorite estimated to have been about 150 feet across and weighing several hundred thousand tons, struck the rocky plain with an explosive force greater that 20 million tons of TNT.


The results of these violent conditions was an excavation of a giant bowl shaped cavity. In less than a few seconds, a crater of 700 feet deep and over 4000 feet across was carved into this once flat rocky plain. During its formation over 175 million tons of limestone and sandstone were abruptly thrown out to form a continuous blanket of debris surrounding the crater for a distance of a mile.



This is indeed one "big hole". I hope the pictures will give you some idea of its size.

Montezuma Castle

It is not a Castle although there is a great magnificence to this prehostoric American Indian structure. The Aztec emperor Moctezuma II was never here, the Castle was abandonded at least a century before he was born.

Rising 100 feet above the Beaver Creek floodplain, Montezuma Castle is a testimony to the resilience and innovations of a people called Sinagua" named after the Spanish term for the San Francisco Peaks, the "Sierra Sin Agua", "the mountain without water"

The 19 rooms could have housed 34 to 50 people, conserving precious farmland near the creek. Entrance to most areas was usually from a hole in the roof, a ladder made access easier

There is not too much left of the Castle, but the drive from Flagstaff to it is worth it. The country side has a lot of mountains and beautiful valleys.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures I took of the Castle.

On our way back to Williams, AZ we ran into a snow storm and it snowed all the way back. Even after we got back to Williams the snow continued till early evening

Tomorrow we're heading to Winslow, AZ to see the Meteor Crater. Pictures to follow.

Tour Of Grand Canyon

Even though it was cloudy and there was a possibility of "snow", we decided to drive to the Grand Canyon and take our chances on bad weather. When we got there it was "cold" and windy and it was a little overcast.

In 1919 Congress established the Grand Canyon as a National Park and since then millions and millions of tourists from all over the world have visited it. There were people speaking about any foreign language you could imagine while we were there.

I hope the few pictures I took please you. I know we'll have to come back another time in order to see all of it. The weather was not in our favor this time.

Williams, Arizona

In 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain, thereby opening the Arizona Territory to trappers and mountain men.

Williams was named after one of those fabled mountain men, William Sherley Williams. Following the arrival of the railroad, Atlantic and Pacific in 1882, Williams quickly grew as a center for the railroad, ranching and lumber industries.

In 1901 a spur line was built to the Grand Canyon, Williams became known as the "Gateway To The Grand Canyon"

In 1926, U.S. Highway 66 was established through Williams, which served the touring public as part of "Main Street of America". Williams became the last "Route 66" town in America to be bypassed in 1984. Bill Williams Avenue, a section of "America's Main Street: won national Historic Register status in 1989.

We toured the town and found a lot of cafes and gift shops on Route 66. I took a couple of pictures and I hope you like them.

Finally A Tour Of Old Prescott, AZ

We got to Prescott, AZ on Friday after a hard trip from Tucson. The wind was rough and the traffic through Phoenix was awful.

We had some real high mountains to climb on the way up to Prescott. On one of the ridges we went from about 2,000 feet to a little over 5,000 feet in about five miles. That was a high climb and it tested both of our motor homes.

The RV Park in which we stayed was real nice, the sites were large, level and the view was great.
If you plan to travel through the Prescott, AZ area you might want to check out http://www.fairgroundsrvpark.com/, it's really a nice RV Park.

It started raining Friday night and continued all day on Saturday. We had some snow on Saturday but it didn't stick. However some of the higher mountains have snow on them.

Today the sun is out and we drove into Prescott to see what the old town is all about. There wasn't as much as we thought it would be. We had lunch and then on the way back home we found it....."Wally World", Yea!!! Needless to say the ladies had to stop and shop a little.

I have a couple of pictures of Prescott which I hope you enjoy.

Tomorrow we leave for Williams which is a town outside of the Grand Canyon. We'll be there for four days and I guarantee I'll take some pictures there. Stay tuned.

The Mission San Xavier Del Bac With Our Friends

Today we took our friends Michael and Terri to see the historic Mission San Del Bac. This Mission is one which has to be seen if you come to Tucson.

The Mission dates back to the early 1600's and is a beautiful building inside. The walls and ceilings are decorated with gold and silver. The statues and paintings look as though they were just installed recently. I'm sure you'll like the few pictures I took of the Mission and some of the cactus around it.

Tomorrow we leave for Prescott, AZ and will be there for three days, then we'll leave for Williams, AZ and be there for four days touring the Grand Canyon. Story and pictures to follow.

A Trip To Picture Rocks Road

Today we took a pleasant drive through the Saguaro National Park to find the petrographs. The road is well marked but there are no signs to let you know where the petrographs are located. We drove around and around till we finally found a couple of Park Rangers and asked for directions.

The drive was well worth it. The drawings in the rocks have been there for thousands of years and no one is really sure which Indian Tribe did them.

As always I took a couple of pictures which I hope you'll enjoy. If you're ever in the Tucson area this is a trip well worth the taking.

Mother Has A New Toy

Mother has a new Blackberry no, not the fruit but a cell phone that can take pictures. She has been playing around with it trying to learn how to take pictures with it.

She has high hopes that she'll be able to do a good job with it before we get into Canada on our way to Alaska.

I have included a couple of the pictures she has taken and I hope you like them. Please let her know how well she did with the "New Toy".

Sight Seeing With Our Friends

Michael and Terri were still a little tired so all we did Saturday was to show them where "Wally World" was located. No true RVer can get along without a Wal-Mart.

We also went to Golden Corral and had a good lunch. They have one of the best buffets we've been to in a long time.

Today we took them to Old Tucson Movie Studio where John Wayne made four movies. There you walk on "hallowed ground". We also went to the Saguaro National Park to show them some beautiful cactus plants.

As usual I took a couple of pictures. I hope you enjoy them.

Our Friends Have Arrived

Our friends, Michael and Terri Brown, from LA (lower Alabama) arrived today and it was a big surprise. We didn't expect them until sometime Saturday.

They drove from San Antonio, Texas to Lordsburg, New Mexico in one day. That was a long hard drive and one I would not have done. The next day they drove from Lordsburg, NM to Tucson, Arizona.

Needless to say they were tired and wanted to rest before doing anything. I don't blame them.

Jerry and I are happy they are here since that means we have a couple going with us to Alaska. I'm quite sure it'll make out trip much more enjoyable.

A Tour of Tucson Valley

Today we took a very beautiful scenic drive through the Tucson Valley. The road carries you through the Old Tucson Movie Studio, a place where John Wayne made four movies, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum and finally to Saguaro National Park.

We stopped at the Tucson Movie Studio to get some information as to whether they were filming movies there now or not, it turns out they are not. Since we're expecting another couple to join up with us in about a week, we decided not to tour the Studio today.

When we stopped at the Sonora Desert Museum there were at least two groups of school children there so we didn't want to be there with all the noise and crowds. Again we'll come back later.

Finally at the Saguaro National Park we found a place that was not crowded. We arrived just in time to see the 25 minute movie about the Saguaro cactus and it was really worth our time. The pictures were truly beautiful and the narrative was very informative.

Even though we didn't spend too much time at Tucson Studio or the Sonora Desert Museum, I still took a couple of pictures of our trip which I hope you enjoy. The country side here is truly beautiful and something that you must see.

San Xavier Del Bac Mission Tucson, AZ

In the vast desert on an Indian Reservation just south of Tucson, one would not expect to find a beautiful church. The San Xavier Del Bac Mission, also known as "The White Dove Of The Desert" is truly an awesome experience.

The "White Dove Of The Desert", founded in 1692, built in 1783. One of the best preserved and most exquisite old Spanish Missions in the Southwest. Established in 1892 by Father Kino, it stands in the center of a Papago Indian settlement along the banks of the Sante Cruz River.

Services are held here regularly for the Indians who are direct descendants of those for whom the Mission was conceived.

A visitor to San Xavier should note that the entire structure is a series of domes and arches and that wood is employed only in windows and door frames.

I hope you enjoy the few pictures I took of the Mission, it is really impressive.

Tucson, Arizona

After spending a month in Willcox, Arizona is was finally time for us to move on. We can't allow grass to grow under the wheels.

We really enjoyed staying at Lifestyle RV Resort, the sites are nice and they have a large indoor pool and a wonderful hot tub. The exercise room has all kinds of equipment so that you can work out and stay in shape.

En route to Tucson we had to drive through Texas Canyon. It has noting to do with Texas and I don't know why the name but it's really a pretty place with all sizes boulders that have been there for millions of years.

The park we're in here in Tucson has over a hundred Saguaro (pronounced Sue-War-Oh) Cactus and the mountains around us are beautiful. This is quite probably the prettiest park we've ever stayed in. Of course I took a few pictures for your pleasure.

Chiricahua National Monument

As you enter the Chiricahua National Monument you are climbing up a sky island, an isolated mountain range rising above the surrounding grasslands sea. Meadows dotted with cactus and mesquite begin to fill with sycamore, juniper and oak trees. It's the rock pinnacles looming over the road like guardians of the forest that announce you're in Chiricahua country.

Chiricahua National Monument was established in 1924 to preserve and protect the pinnacles. In 1934 the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) took on the job of improving the road and constructing trails and many of the structures. The park comprises 11,985 acres, 86 percent of the area is designated as wilderness. The eight-mile scenic drive rises from the grasslands to the summit at Massai Point, where you get a true sense of being atop a sky island.

We had a private tour of the Ranch House at Faraway Ranch. Swedish immigrants Neil and Emma Erickson settled here in 1888. It took Mr. Erickson ten years to build the ranch house. In the early 1900's their daughter and her husband turned the house into a Guest Ranch.

We really enjoyed seeing all the beauty nature has provided and of course I took a couple of pictures. For those that probably will never make a trip out here, hopefully you'll enjoy the pictures.

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An Enjoyable Trip To Tombstone, AZ

Today we took a scenic drive to Tombstone, AZ. Most people would have taken I-10 over to Benson and then down to Tombstone to have paved road all the way. We decided to take the back roads and see the beautiful countryside. We drove to Pearce Ghost Town and then we took what they call a Primitive Road and believe me it was. It was a gravel road loaded with "washboard" areas, but the countryside was beautiful.

After touring Tombstone and since it was getting late in the day, we did take the paved roads back to Wilcox.

Of course I took a few pictures of our little trip and I hope you enjoy them.

Shakespeare Ghost Town, Lordsburg, NM

Shakespeare Ghost Town is the remains of a pioneer southwestern town. From a small settlement on the stage and emigrant trail to California. It grew in 1870 with a silver strike and the diamond swindle to a town of considerable size, around 3,000 people under the name of Ralston City.

In 1879 other mine promoters changed the name of the town to Shakespeare, in the Bard's name and under this name prospered as a mining camp until the 1893 depression.

For more information about the Ghost Town check out their web site.http://www.shakespeareghostown.com/

Wilcox Gun Fight Reenactment

Today a group of cowboys held a reenactment of some old gun fights in front of Rex Allen and Marty Robins museums. They were good but it would have been more enjoyable if the wind hadn't been so high. It made it hard to hear what they were saying. I guess that's the reason the show lasted for just thirty minutes.

Historic Willcox, Arizona

Willcox, Arizona was founded in 1850 and was mostly a cattle ranch country for many years. The ranchers had to deal with drought, high winds and the raids from Cochise and the Chiricahua (pronounced Cheer-a-cow-a) Indians.

One of the most famous ranchers was Henry Hooker. He owned the ranch where Wyatt Earp left Doc Holiday when he was ill during the Earp, Clanton vendetta. Of course Doc didn't stay there very long and joined Wyatt in the gun fights.

Willcox is also the home town of Rex Allen the star of many western movies back in the late 40's to mid 50's. His faithful horse KoKo is buried across from the Rex Allen museum and upon his death Rex was cremated and his ashes were spread over KoKo's grave.

Willcfox is not too far from Tombstone, "The Town Too Tough To Die", several times a week they have the reenactment of the "Gun Fight At The OK Corral". This is a must place to visit. Also close by is Cochise Stronghold. It's rumored that Cochise and his horse are buried somewhere in the Stronghold but no one knows where. Close by is the Chiricahua National Monument. It's a11,985 acre "Wonderland of Rocks" with incredible rock spires, stone columns and balanced rocks.

Jerry Being Held Hostage

Henry Hooker's Ranch House

Grave Of Warren Earp, Wyatt's Youngest Brother

Ghost Town Bummer

Is This A Motel ??

We passed the Stein Ghost Town on the way into Willcox and couldn't stop so we went back to tour it. Bummer it was closed being fumigated for some reason. Since we were close to Lordsburg, NM we decided to go there and fill up the car at Flying J and have lunch at their buffet.

Another bummer...they don't have a buffet. This is the first Flying J we've been to that didn't have a buffet. We found another restaurant that was highly advertised and went there to eat. Another bummer, the food was not really good at all and the service was not to good either.

We drove through Lordsburg which was an old cow town and take some pictures of what was left of it, not much I'm afraid.

Touring White Sands Missile Proving Grounds

We finally had a sunny day when the high winds has calmed down. We wanted to tour as much of the Proving Grounds as possible. They have very strict restrictions on where you can take picture

White Sands Proving Grounds is the location of a site called Trinity, which is where the first atomic bomb was detonated.