Meridian, MS. Darn It's Cold Here

All the travel brochures tell you to come to the "Sunny South" where it's nice and warn. Today I don't believe it. I woke this morning and has frozen pipes to the RV. The park owner cut off the water last night cause it was going to be a "balmy 18" and he didn't want the exposed water pipes to freeze.

I disconnected the hose and drained the water from them before I stored them underneath. When Jerry tried to get water to make coffee, she told me we didn't have any water. We were using the water pump but nothing worked. I had to get out in the cold and go to the office to get water for coffee. Neither of us are nice to be around unless we have had our coffee.

Just for the neck of it I checked the weather in Seward, Alaska and it was warmer there than here. Their high was 40 and the low was 34. I'm just about ready to head there and stay warm.

Tonight we're looking for another "balmy" night of 16 and I've filled the water tank and again disconnected the hose, but this time I'm going to leave a small ceramic heater running.

We'll be glad when the time arrives that we can leave this "heat wave" place and go some where better.

The End Of A Decade

It doesn't really seem possible that we've been on the road for ten years, time really goes by fast when you're having fun.

We've have a lot of fun and have had the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful country you can imagine. We've been to every state west of the Mississippi except North Dakota and we've been to a lot of states east of the Mississippi.

We've been to Canada and Alaska and we are making plans to go back in 2011. When we go back, we plan to stay longer than we did this year, we want to see the Northern Lights. We couldn't see them this trip cause it "never got dark" the whole time we were there.

We taken several trips of various distances and the last one to Alaska was a little over 11,350 miles. We've put about 70,000 miles on the motor home.

We hope to have as much fun in the next decade as we had in the last one and as long as our health holds out we'll continue to travel and see our great country.

Stay tuned in for upcoming travel journals.

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.