FIRE!!!

WOW! As I was walking Tazzy around the park the other night, I noticed smoke billowing in the distance above the clubhouse. Soon, a crowd of people started gathering around the fence line - There was a brush fire headed our way. The wind was picking up as it usually does every day around 4 to 5 pm. Sirens started getting closer & then a helicopter flew by just as the fire trucks pulled into the RV park - We all thought it was the local news copter, but then it flew back around with a hose dangling from beneath. A loud siren went off & water started spewing out over the fire. After about a dozen attempts the fire was out - No one was hurt & no rigs were damaged. Yeah! That was enough excitement for one night.

Alfa RV Rally

Six days after we arrived at Coyote Valley RV Resort, we took off for the Alfa Rally in Pahrump, NV - We made our plans to attend this rally months ago. So, we had to back-track our way almost 500 miles through California, because, guess what?... there's no shortcut through Death Valley! Go figure! Once we turned off on to Death Valley Road I swear we didn't see another vehicle all the way up to Pahrump, NV - It was kinda creepy! We did pass the sign to Zzyzx Road - What kind of name is that? So, I looked it up online & here's the link in case you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/zzyzx.

It was pretty exciting when we pulled into the Treasure Island RV Resort. There were already hundreds of Alfa Rigs lined up in rows like soldiers. Once we got registered, parked & set up we took a walk around the resort. The pool is two-tiered with a waterfall, a spa and a Tiki Bar.

We had a great time at the rally - We learned a lot of helpful info about our Alfa at the workshops and had the Alfateer Service Center tweak a few things on our coach. There were dinner parties, games & prizes, an ice cream social and a pet parade. The best part was talking to all the other Alfa owners & getting to tour the interior remodels of at least two dozen motorhomes. We got some great ideas and input - Now we know what improvements we'd like to make to our home on wheels. More to come....

Catching Up

WOW! How time flies! Just didn't have enough hours in a day to write on my blog. Because I was working so much there wasn't anything to write about - We never had time to go anywhere or do anything fun or interesting, but now we have moved on to the bay area of Northern California & we love it here.

To bring you up to date, before we left Amarillo, we had an unusual snow storm & minus 30 degree temperatures. The wind was blowing so hard there were drifts up to 5-feet high - This was in February. It was just crazy weather.

The last week of March we pulled out of Amarillo to attend a week-long family reunion of sorts at my niece, Shelly's, in Dallas, TX. My sister, Sue, fly in from Seattle; Jen, David & Willow drove down from PA & Evan flew in from Las Vegas.

Shelly has a daughter, Regan and 3-boys, Ayden, Zach & Carter. Oh! And Surprise! Shelly & her husband, Sean got a dog. Lilly is an English Bulldog & Ayden really loves her. (See pic).

Willow & Ayden hit it off right away. They had great fun playing & running around the house.

Here is three generations of the Evans clan.

While we were in Dallas we stayed at the Vineyard RV Park, about 10 minutes north of Shelly's house. Our site was among the trees next to Lake Grapevine. It's a gorgeous park owned by the city of Grapevine, purchased from the Corps of Engineers. We saw lots of wildlife by the lake, like this crane in flight, & beautiful sailboats docked by the beach. We took Sue for lunch in the quaint historic downtown area. Yum! Delicious!

After the reunion we headed for California.

The trip was relaxing & the views were incredible. Heading north on CA Route 101, we travelled through the long winding hilly Pacheco Pass & reservoir, by one of California's windmill farms and passed miles & miles of orchards & vineyards. More later.

CHRISTMAS in our RV

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
This is as much decorating as we do while RVing.

Our wreath does light up at night for a more festive look.

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving get-together & dinner in the club house at the RV Park.
All the camp hosts helped prepare the dinner. We had everything - from turkey & ham, to potato & bread filling, to jellied cranberry sauce, to pumpkin cheesecake & pies galore- Everything I like! There were well over 30 people that attended the festivities. A great time was had by all.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Back to Amarillo-Different Route, Different Scenery

We took a different route through Arizona, down through Prescott into North Phoenix where we stopped for the night at Dessert Sands RV Park.

The next morning we pulled into Agave Gulch RV Park at Davis-Monthan AFB; it's one of our favorite parks. They just added an enclosed (fenced- in) dog park with an agility course that Tazzy just loves. Look at this adorable Airstream amongst the dessert landscape. We stopped the Soldier Horse Museum - mostly a tourist trap. While walking the dogs we came across these Ellipigo bikes - definitely something I've never seen before. They work just like the Elliptic Exercise Machine. One thing though, is that they don't have a bike seat; you can only stand while cycling.



We decided to take a different route back to Texas. We drove through Billy the Kid & Jicarilla Apache country in the mountains & rugged mesa's of New Mexico.
Check out this gorgeous view.

Those Ponderosa pine trees smelled like Christmas.

Further down the road near Alamongordo, we stopped by the White Sands Monument. This time we drove into the national park - it's "Like no place else on earth."

Here a father & son are preparing to sled down the dunes. We were told that earlier this year, during spring break, the parks gift shop sold over 900 saucer sleds in one day to college students. That must have been a blast!

As I climbed to the top of a dune, I saw this group of people in the far distance. It looks like snow!

White Sands National Monument is the largest pure gypsum field in the world covering 275 square miles. Unlike dunes made of quartz based sand crystals, gypsum does not convert the sun's energy into heat, so you can walk on the sand in your bare feet even during the hottest summer months.

There are 4 types of dunes that exist at White Sands, Dome (low mounds), Barchan (crescent-shaped), Transverse (long ridges of sand), and Parabolic (plants anchor the arms of barchan dunes & invert their shape).

Here's Liam on top of the world.

He climbed to the top, but immediately turned around to go back down to the RV - Okay, so now he can say "Been there, done that!"

When we finally got back to Amarillo, we heard there was a snowstorm earlier in the week. Glad we missed that. Until next time...

Evan

Evan invited us up to Las Vegas - As he put it, you're not that far away from here, why not come up to visit me; so we did. We had some unexpected engine issues on our way to Vegas that turned out to be nothing more than resetting the dashboard computer. Thank goodness. We stayed at the Nellis AFB Desert Eagle FamCamp.

We had a great time with Evan; he is so funny. We met him after work for dinner, then Joe & I went to The Mirage Casino to see "LOVE." It celebrates the musical legacy of the Beatles song lyrics through interpretive dance performed by Cirque du Soleil. His friend scored the tickets for us. Thank you Fabrice. The next day we brought the dogs over to see Evan. It was a short visit; Evan was leaving for Utah & we were leaving for Arizona, and, OOPS! I forgot my camera.



Evan told us that the Hoover Dam Bypass they were constructing the last time we were here was now completed, so we decided to drive across it on our trip down to Tucson. As we approached the Dam we saw this spectacular view of Lake Mead.




The new Colorado River Bridge spans the Black Canyon connecting Nevada & Arizona. The bridge is over 2,000 feet long & over 900 feet above the Colorado River. The new bridge is said to save significant travel time, and it does - We didn't have to navigate the narrow, windy road congested with tourists snapping pictures of the Hoover Dam & not paying any attention to what is going on around them (we should know, we've been one of those tourists). It easily saved us 20 to 30 minutes from the last time we were here.