PARKER, AZ

Jan. 19th, 2015

We arrived in the Parker, AZ area last Wed.  We will be in this area,  between 2 parks,  for a month, leaving Feb. 14th.   We have been coming here since our first trip in 2009.  Very warm and sunny.  Right now I'm in shorts and a t shirt with bare feet.  It  is 75 degrees,  by the weekend it will be around 80.  Feels so good after all the cold weather we have been having.  We have met alot of good friends in the area from all over the U.S and Canada

This park, Emerald Cove is one of our most favorites. It has 2 pools, a wading pool and 2 hot tubs. Also the Tiki Bar serves food all day until 5 pm. The clubhouse serves breakfast every day and Friday and Saturday night dinners.   Love that!  We have been to the hot tub and taken a bike ride around the park every day.  In 2 weeks we will stay at another park 12 miles away and then back here for 10 days until we leave for Palm Springs.  Doesn't seem possible that after all our traveling we are in the 2nd to the last area before we head for home.

This is where I first learned about geocaching.  Been lots of fun and taken us to all sorts of places.  Wed. we are going with Denny's cousins, Larry and Joyce on a bike ride around Lake Havasu,  That is the closest big town,  about 40 miles away.  We call it civilization.  Parker has less than 2000.  Here there is only one Safeway, a Wallmart and a CVS Pharmacy

Emerald Cove has the longest beach on the Colorado River. The River is the state line between CA. and AZ.

We have to buy our water here. You don't realize how much water you use until you have to buy it.  Have been here 6 days and used over 3 gallons plus a case of bottled water that we brought from Odessa, TX.  A gallon of water is 25 cents. All campgrounds and businesses have it for sale outside. You take your empty jugs and fill them.

Update on recycling: I had mentioned in an earlier post  that there is very little recycling anywhere.  The last 2 campgrounds we stayed in Cottonwood (Northern)  and  Buckeye (Central) AZ recycled everything. A pleasant surprise. Now in Western AZ., there is again  very little recycling. This campground has none. Our other campground, Big River, only collects aluminum cans. Since we don't drink pop, we have none.  After I talked about no recyling in Texas, my cousin, who lives in Plano ( northeast of Dallas) says they recycle everything.  I guess it is just hit and miss.

4TH AVE WINTER FESTIVAL, TUCSON

Dec 13th,

Sunday I went with the ladies next to us  to the 4th ave Winter  Festival  in Tucson.  Denny stayed home to watch  football, more his style.  Lots of fun just people watching.  Bought a few things, ate too much and had a great time.

There was a man selling recycled license plates.  One of the patterns was all the football  teams. They spelled your team with the logo. The only one they were sold out of was the SEAHAWKS.  Amazing to see in Dallas of all places. 

This is a business on the same street as the fair

She was the balloon lady. Quite the character. I saw alot of people  dressed this way, but  had a dead battery in my camera

Neighbors Christmas decoration

Decoration in RV park in Dallas

Have to mention something  we saw in Texas.  Parents raise kids in Texas a little differently. My cousin's twin boys never answered us without saying yes,  mamam, no mamam.  Very polite.  At my Aunt's garage sale, I heard more yes, mamam, no mamam's from adults than I had ever heard.  They certainly were raised with more manners than I had seen in a long time, if ever.  Nice  to hear

FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF SNOWBIRDING

We traveled thru the Northern States at a fairly fast pace to get ahead of the fall/winter weather.  Glad we did because several places that we have visited have lots of snow. Also  visiting lots of relatives along the way.  Arizona is our 14th state in about 3.5 months. We usually don't move that fast and we are exhausted.  We plan to stay in St David, AZ for 2 weeks just to relax, recoup and catch up on things.  This is our 3rd time in the area so we have seen most of all there is to see.  Perfect place to relax. St. David is about 50 miles south of Tucson.  Can't  tell you  how wonderful it is too know we aren't moving in a few days.  From now on, we will stay in places 2 to 3 weeks at a time.  We are finally stating our usual snowbird winter travels.

Christmas has finally come to the RV.  I usually decorate Thanksgiving weekend, but I was busy with the garage sale. Because you are limited in space in an RV, I didn't want to take up too much of it for things we only display for about a month.  Would like to have more, but  can't.  Everything we have is unbreakable.  I did buy one new thing this year, can you see Betty Boop at the top of the tree?  She is my favorite character

We have made friends with the couple next to us. They invited us to go to the local Benson Christmas parade last night.  Nothing like a small town Christmas parade to get you in the spirit.  Fun time. Today the ladies have asked us  to go along to see the Christmas Street fair at Tucson.  I'm going, but Denny is going to stay home and watch the Seahawks.  Street fairs aren't really his thing.

Catching up on my journal, decorating and my blog. Only thing left is Christmas cards.  Yahoo!

THANKSGIVING AT ODESSA, TEXAS

Nov 25th - Dec 7th

Been so busy I haven't been able to update my blog.  We came here to spend Thanksgiving with my Aunt Laura and  my cousins. Laura is my Dad's younger sister ( 90 yrs old)

Dinner at Denise's home. 

Denise, Richard and their 2 twin boys, Clayton and Garrett. Richard should get son in law of the year award. . He bought  Laura a new house so she could be closer to them.  She  now lives just around the block

Laura with her 2 daughters, Carla and Denise plus me. Carla lives in Dallas, but was here for Thanksgiving and to help with garage sale

I keep seeing this guy every where I go,  so decided to let him tag along

West Texas is the biggest oil producer in the state. . Refineries and oil wells as far as you could see

 These tile pictures are typical in any Texas rest stop

We stayed 2 weeks to help with Laura's garage sale at her old house.  She had 90 pairs of shoes for sale, alot which had never been worn. Also lots of clothes and handbags. . It looked like a department store.  

I have really enjoyed visiting all my 1st cousins along the way on our travels.  Had a lot of one on one conversations that are hard to do at reunions. Reunions are too hectic to have long  conversations.  Also loved getting to know the husbands more.  This has been our 8th stop to visit relatives. 

FORTH WORTH STOCKYARDS

Nov 24th

When you think of Dallas, you think of oil, when you think of Forth Worth, it's cattle.  Sharon and Gary took us to the Stockyards, the historical part of Forth Worth.  They picked us up, so we didn't have to tackle the traffic again. Denny was VERY  happy about that. 

They still have the streets of brick

For the tourists: cattle drive thru the streets everyday

Christmas decorations, Texas style

 Had to get  on. When I first saw this cow, I thought it was fake. NO, it was very real and MOVING. Couldn't get Denny to get on

 Stockyard museum. Closest I could Denny to a saddle

1800's stove. 

1924 stove. can't imagine using either one. Glad times have changed

1st cousin, Sharon and her husband Gary. Great tour guides

Went to a  Barbecue restaurant. Never  have seen a roll of paper towels for napkins and large jar of jalapeno peppers on table. Pretty typical in Texas. You order the meat by the pound.  You just get a slab of beef or pork on your plate. It comes with pinto beans, but all other sides are separate.  Very different experience. 

After the stockyards, they drove around to show us the area. Back to Arlington to see the stadiums.  Arlington is between Dallas and Forth Worth.
  

Dallas Cowboy stadium, nickname: Jimmy's world. It is huge. It costs $75 to park there for a game. Tickets average $350.  

Close up of workers on roof. I don't think I would get up there.

Workers from a distance. They look like ants

Texas Rangers stadium.  Built to look old. I like that better

6TH FLOOR MUSEUM AT DEALEY PLAZA

Nov 23rd

the 6th floor museum is the old Texas Depository building that Lee Harvey Oswald  was in to shoot President Kennedy. He was on the 6th floor.  Dealey Plaza is the Grassy Knoll where alot of people think they heard more shots coming from.  There are all sorts of conspiracy theories but nothing ever proved.  It was very interesting. Everyone had headphones for an audio tour. When you came to a display, you clicked on the number and  it told all about it. Pictures weren't allowed. We saw  the window that Oswald stood with packing boxes all around to hide him.  Looked out at his view.  

The day before we went was the 51st anniversary. 

Grassy Knoll

Wanted to show where the grassy knoll is in relation to the building. Grassy Knoll is  left, building on right

Room is the on the far right, 2nd from top. 

Close up of room, notice the boxes at the window

 Old Dallas

New Dallas, quite the contrast. I took both of these pictures from the grassy knoll, just looking in 2 different directions.  Sharon said that the tell skinny building is a resturant

Driving into Dallas on our own was quite the experience.  Freeways crisscrossing on top of each other. Missed our last turn so went back on freeway.  Luckily the Garmin came thru but nerve wracking to get lost in the city. So glad we were there on a Sunday.  It was an experience that we hope never to do again!

TEXAS, OUR 12th STATE

Nov 23rd

We have been gone 3 months yesterday.  Sometimes it seems like a long time, other times not at all.  We have been to 12 states, visiting and sightseeing in 11. The only one we drove thru was Arkansas.  We had a time frame so we couldn't stop,  maybe another time.  We have traveled 7828 miles. That is alot of diesel when you only get 9 miles to the gal. We paid the cheapest diesel in Memphis at $3.19 per gal. Our most expensive was in  Medora, North Dakota at $3.99. We came to visit my 2 first cousins and their husbands. Sharon and Gary live in Plano,  25 miles east. Carla and Dan live in Southlake, 10 miles to the west.  The Dallas/Fort Worth area is huge.  Between those 2 cities there is almost 2 million people. The Metroplex is what they call all the surrounding cities. So close that you don't know what city unless you see a sign. The Metroplex area has 6.5 million people and we are right in the middle.  We don't usually like to go to big cities, but nothing  is really close.  This is one of our favorite campgrounds. We were here in 1996.  Expensive, but beautiful.  The Metroplex has been in a drought for many years. They can only water their lawns twice a month

View from our campsite

View of campground

Map of states when we started

Filling in our 8th state on this trip that we had never been to. I doubt if we will ever get to the remaining 2 states,  South Carolina and West Virginia. I can't figure out how we missed those states when we went all over the U.S. in 1996

NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM

Nov 17th

One of the places  I really wanted to see was the National Civil Rights Museum.  I'm so glad we went. We have seen alot of museums on our travels, but this  is the most well done and  thought provoking that we have ever seen.  There is so much to see and take in,  that it is mind boggling. I got teary eyed several times. It is located at the Lorraine Motel, the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated.  You start in the modern building next to the motel and  it ends  actually looking into the room of Martin Luther King.  Felt very strange  looking into his room. The other part of the museum is across the street in the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed.

This was taken from the  bathroom window where James Earl Ray stood.    His  room and  bathroom at the boarding house were on display.   The wreath is where martin Luther King stood when he was assinated.   Also felt   strange  to be at the window.

Original sign of the motel

Wreath is  right in front of his room, exactly where Martin Luther  King was standing when he was killed

Hard to imagine

Statue of typical sale of slave woman and child. Sometimes they didn't have clothes on so the owner could see what he was getting

 Hold of slave ship, hard to imagine

Rosa Parks on the bus she rode when she wouldn't give up her seat

One of the lunch counters where they had their sit in's.  The 3 on the left were white,  3 on the right were black.

 Burned  bus of the Freedom Riders

 Equality has come along way, but still has far to go.  Just think of what's going on in  Ferguson, MO.   We visited my cousin, Lois, in IL.  She has  been a teacher in  Ferguson for 27 years. It was interesting to get a point of view from someone who has been there  from the beginning.


Unfortunately you still see this in the south.  This trailer was at our park in Memphis.  When we toured the south extensively in 1996, we saw  alot of rebel flags.