2nd travel day 1-7-2012

I don't know what, where or why these were out in the middle of no where. They are solar panels I know but I don't know anything else. It just looked really strange.

They were all lined up in several rows. It was really neat to see but still kinda SiFy and eerie sorta too.
We went thru Hatch, AZ and kept seeing green and red peppers along side the road and, of course, in field. But we saw no road side stands. Then when leaving town we saw a packing plant for them and a bunch on the side of the road so I conveinced Phil to get out and pick them up. He tasted one and said they were really HOT, as he spit out the window and grabbed a water bottle.

This is what Phil did not want to see again and here it is on the desert. It was really pretty and not very cold. Enjoyed looking at it knowing we wouldn't see it for very long. He survived Another great day for traveling. We tried to go to Silver City but we had to turn around our 5th wheel was to tall for an overpass so we turned around and then kinda took a wrong turn and saw a lot of things we would have missed. So we usually enjoy when we make a wrong turn. We will spend the night in Tucson and have breakfast with Linda and family. Great sunset in AZ.

First day of travel 1-7-12

We have had to delay our trip to Az for one reason or the other since winter 2011. We retired from TK Hearing Group Jan 2010. Phil hadn't been feeling good and just didn't enjoy the job anymore. I had my right rotator cuff repaired, Phil had a heart stint, I fell and broke my L3, mom had some set backs and then Daddy died 12-26-10. The summer I had with him I will always be thankful for. Let's just say 2010 was a hard year. Then 2011 started and March 3rd Phil's father died and on May 26th Momma died. Phil had kidney stones and he thought he was having chest pains again but after testing they decided it was his sleep apnea giving him trouble. I had my left rotator cuff repaired and then our truck developed an oil leak. Oh well we left for Az any way after it was in the shop for over a week.
We had to stop and eat at Connies before leaving town but then we were on our way.
Our first stop for the night was in Dalhart, Tx in a Alco parking lot with a couple other 5th wheel. Even though we had our own bed to sleep in we didn't get much sleep. I think it must have been the excitement of our trip. We had great traveling weather and the traffic was good.
I just liked this picture. No special reason. Kinda remined me of Kansas. Could I be possibly missing my home already. No way.

What a way to end a great day. This beautiful sunset going thru Ok panhandle into Tx. I decided that because we had to delay our trip because of our truck and not knowing from day to day when we would get to leave enhanced my excitement for the trip and I was actually excited about going.

Cambree was singing a song about missing G-ma last time I spoke with her today which says it all. Yes I do miss my family a lot.

The stake out + Phil and his present

Phil wanted a "comfort bike" for Christmas and when he went into the bike shop where he had been looking at a bike he really liked for the last 2 weeks it had been sold the day before. Well he was so disappointed and then he was really disappointed when it wasn't under the Christmas tree-I hadn't bought it.

He found one in Blue Springs, Mo and the Unruh family was going up to KC so they picked it up for him. He is a very happy biker now.







We began staking out the new barn. It is located at the Ricks'es home. It is 40' x 60' with a 16' lean to for a porch area.

These stakes kinda show you where the
East side will be. The closest stake here is the end of the building and there will be 3 garage doors here so it will be all open with a 16' covered porch area. The north end of the porch will be enclosed with a bathroom and a room for weights or pool table or whatever.







Cambree is so excited that she will have her Gma and Gpa in her back yard when they come to visit her.

Brennan is excited that he will have a indoor soft pellet gun range . Oh yes and also that we will be there some too.

Audrey is excited because our WFI reaches inside to her room.

We are just excited that we will have a roof over our head when we are home. So you all will have to come visit us next summer.
Our truck should be ready Wednesday morning so we will be on our
way to Az by noon. I will finish my physical therapy in Blythe, Ca
We plan on doing a lot of walking and hopefully bicycling.

Pray for safe travels. Love to all I will miss you.

We left early this morning and went up to
see Mom and Dad's head stone. It makes me
'happy'. It is so them. We stopped and got
flowers (Cambree said Grandma would like
flowers).

I know this would please them very
much. Their holding hands is what made me
get teary eyed. They really stand out.

Thanks for the thumbs up from every one.




This is Mom's corner. The rungs on her
rocking chair are engraved. It is very detailed. This really reminds me of mom.



This is Dad's corner. This is what he
loved to do. The only other thing we could have added was all the grand and great grand
kids.




This is the back. Nice big Navy plaque
And the crosses we all wanted on.

Their head stone is very similar to
the others, as far as size and shape, it has more
red in it.

Can I just say this makes me
'smile'.





Sorry I had to put this on my blog but I couldn't figure out
how to put them on my email from 'my pictures'. I will learn.
When we start traveling next week I will start blogging again
so please come visit.

Desert life-2

OK I know you are wondering 'what in the world is that'. This is a Century plant it is in the Yucca plant family. It lives just to put all of its starch and sugar
into growing this staff. It grows several inches a day. And then it will die. But look at these pods and the close up of the flowers it produces. Amazing isn't it!

This is the tallest saguaro cactus we have seen we estimated it to be around at least 50 feet tall. Phil is standing close to it. He would not get any closer to it due to the thorney tree under the cactus. No there is no trickery in this picture, number 1 I don't know how to do it.
The arms on the cactus just above Phils head are bending downward. That is caused by them being frozen way back when. So the end of the arms are now bending back upward. The more it rains the bigger around these cactus will get.

That thing was HUGE.

This tree is loaded with Misletoe. Dosen't do the tree any good because it is a parasite and eventually will turn the tree black and ugly

This is a Joshua Tree it is also in the Yucca plant family. We could not figure out what it was at first.

It has a trunk like a tree, it has bark like a tree, and then it goes crazy, with cactus like features.

The Joshua Tree can live to be over 1000 years old.

To answer a question we have gotten about Jake and Elroy, in an earlier blog. We got lost, we do that alot even with a GPS, and we were turning around in a parking lot. Well out behind a bar we saw Jake and Elroy sitting outside in the sun. So I told Phil we had to get a picture.

We are leaving Arizona Thursday March 25 and taking a week to get back to Wichita, unless I can hurry Phil some. We are anixious to see what retirement life is really like because here I feel like I'm on vacation. Well Phil isn't near as excited as I am to get home. It snowed 5-7 inches Saturday, also first day of spring, in Wichita and here it is 82. WOW (also Happy Birthday to Ivy, she got 12" of hair cut off for Locks of Love) she is just one of the reasons we are coming home now for.

Desert comes to Life-1

I was doing the exciting job of getting our laundry done this late morning and my cell phone rings. It is Phil. He says "when you get laundry done we will go look at the Az/desert Poppies they are yellow" I said sure I have nothing planned".

WOW we drove west out of Tuscon and entered Saguaro National Preserves. It is a winding road and up hill. We drove around a curve and over the pass and again WOW. Ahead of us was a sea of yellow poppies amonst the different cactus of Arizona.


This is the Ocotillo. I call it the desert Christmas Tree. It is the brightest ever-green color in the desert. It will only leaf out if there is alot of rain and, of course, this year they have had alot of rain. It is like a stick bush. These spears go from the ground with leaves all the way up and then you see these orange flowers at the end. These were small ones about 6-8 ft tall.

I have no idea what these plants are but can you just image what the different colors bring to the browns of the desert.

I enjoyed this so much and I can only hope that you can somehow see the awesome beauty in all this.

travel 2010 #2

Our 2010 trip continued. We went thru Death Valley, Ca to see the desert. Well we thought spending a few months in Tucson, Az we had seen the desert, we were wrong. This was dry, seen little vegetation lots of rocks, sand and blowing sand. Coming down in elevation to below sea level we even saw a sign that said radiator water 1/2 mile ahead and then there was a cylinder of water for your car. The temperature at the bottom was 84 degrees. (Ks was 42)

This is the desert. Look at the mountain

So many different colors and textures. There is alot of lava rock. Back years ago there was no explosion but there was lava flow hence the rocks. Notice very little vegetation. We were told to look for the flowing cactus. Saw some yellow flowers.







This is a spring feed lake. Once upon a time this lake covered the bottom of this canyon. The mountains surrounding this area keep the heat in and the rain disapaites. The floor of the canyon looks like snow but this is salt. "Salt flats".

Back in the 1800's they mined ore and borax from here. Hauled it out with 20 mule team's 164 miles. This is "dinah" a steam tractor they replaced the 20 mule team with in 1894.





They have a board walk out to the lake,
to hot for us to walk out there, as you
can see we were actually 282 feet
below sea level.


Interesting ride thru past history. This valley was called Death Valley because only 2 families from a wagon train made it out alive and upon leaving the valley she turned around and said "good-bye valley of death.