More Pictures

Several of you have asked me to include more of my photography. I have selected some of the scenic shots that represent where we have been.

Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens:









We took a ride in the Oso National Forest which is above our campground. There are 6 places where the road goes into the river. We were a little nervous but it really was okay.

This restuarant used to be stopping point for the stage coaches.

Now it is a favorite place for motorcyclists.

They tell us that on Sunday the place is hopping crazy.

So we went on Thursday.

Thanks to all of you for your positive comments and encouragement.


Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

Our Three Weeks at Rancho Oso

We have spent the past three weeks camped at Rancho Oso Thousand Trails and have totally enjoyed this location. As you can see, we are in the hills and totally surrounded by the Santa Ynez National Forest. If you double click on the picture and enlarge it, you should see us, the brown motorhome, on the back row.

We are about 20 miles from the Santa Barbara beaches and wharfs in one direction and about 20 miles from the wineries of Solvang and Los Olivos. For us, that is best of both worlds.

The weather here has been almost perfect. The nights are cool and the days are warm. I guess I could complain since the nights are almost tooooo cool in the 50's and the days are almost tooooooo warm in the 90's. But that has worked out well for us. Each day we would sit outside drinking coffee while the weather is cool. We would take our walks and relax. And then by around noon we would prepare to go for an outing. And then return by around five'ish when it cools down and we can enjoy our glass of wine outside. And Bailey is loving this schedule, too.

We also took a drive on a windy road into the mountains to view the Chumash Indians wall paintings.

This was a magnificient example of Indian drawings; all of the work in this cave was done in color, mainly red.

We have never seen drawing so clear and well preserved as these.

Solvang is a Danish community with many restuarants serving Danish cuisine. We went to Paula's Pancake house and had these pancakes that were as large as the plate and as thin as paper. We got the ones that were sprinkled with powdered sugar but there were others with syrup, rasberries, sausage, strawberries. They were absolutely delicious. I ordered the Danish sausage on the side. It had a sweet taste. We enjoyed it so much that we purchased some to take home with us.

There are so many wineries in this area that there is no way for us to go to them all. We did discover that some of the wineries were just tasting rooms in Solvang, Los Olivos or Santa Ynez. Each of these are small towns within 10 miles of each other.

We chose not to go to the tasting rooms but to go to the wineries themselves. The entrances and the grounds were beautifully landscaped and were surrounded but what seemed like miles of vineyards. We went to the Firestone winery and the Bridlewood winery. And of course we purchased several bottles of wine from each. What fun that was. By the way, if you get a chance to sample Firestone wine, you may want to try it. We love both the white and the red wines from this winery.

As you can see, I have not mentioned the beaches of Santa Barbara. We went to the beaches several times, took walks along the beaches as well as brought our blanket and spent an afternoon reading and watching the waves. We also went to the wharf and harbor to have a drink and appetizers. And each time we went I did not bring my camera. So no pictures of the water. All that will have to wait until we return.

Tomorrow we leave and head north to Pismo Beach. We will spend two days there at a rv park right on the beach. Really looking forward to that.

Love and hugs. Stay healthy,

Linda and Barb

Pictures from May/June Travels

I thought I would post a few pictures that I have taken as we travel.





Flowers growing at the side of the store at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails Park.








Our motorhome parked on the upper level of the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails. This campground is in Acton, CA, a little over an hour's drive from Las Angeles. We did not spend much time here; we plan to return here to visit family later in the summer.






At Rancho Oso Thousand Trails there was a demonstration of how young bulls are trained to
become "Bucking Broncos".




If you look closely, you will see the rider is a teddy bear dressed as a cowboy. I loved the fact that I got a shot of the bull with all four feet off the ground.

Rancho Oso is about 45 drive to Santa Barbara. We really like this campground both for its location and for the great people we have met here. It is well maintained and has some neat activities. This afternoon we will be going to a wine tasting, which as you know is right up our alley.

For the first few days here, we drove into Santa Barbara to walk on the beach and check out the shops. Believe it or not, I did not take my camera to the beach. Maybe next week.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

Calico Ghost Town

Calico Ghost Town is about half way between Las Vegas and Acton, CA, where we are heading . I was searching for a place to stay overnight and found this spot on my Streets and Trips program. It is a county park that is part of the San Bernardino Regional park system. The property of the town was owned by Walter Knotts, from the KnottsBerry farm family.

The Rv park is right next to the Ghost Town.

So after we pulled in and hooked up, we walked up the hill to the Ghost Town. It is really quite cute and they have done a good job restoring the buildings. Since it was after 4:00 pm by the time we got there, we just wandered around for a half hour and got the lay of the land. We also purchased cups of ice cream and sat on a patio overlooking the entire area. The ghost town is high up on a hill and overlooks the entire valley. The RV park is down in the valley.

I just like this picture of the posts on one of the porches.

We decided to spend two nights there so we could tour the town in the morning when it was cool and then relax in the afternoon.

So that is what we did and it was really quite enjoyable. Certainly this is a good place to stop and rest and tour for a day or two.

Next stop............Acton , CA, Thousand Trails park in Soledad Canyon.

Love and hugs,

Linda, Barb, and Bailey

Leaving Las Vegas

Today, May 29 , we left Vegas for the beginnings of our summer adventures.

We stayed in Vegas for a total of 5 weeks. We had our good bye dinner with Robyn, Scott and the kids and I showed them the video that I produced of our time together. I have really become more and more accomplished at taking pictures , and using the Studio 11 program, making a video with music , transitions, titles and everything timed to flow together. Doing these projects has truly given me a greater appreciation for what a movie editor does in producing a real film. Just producting this 20 minute video took me about 20 hours.........that is an hour of work for a minute of video.

For the week before we left, Barb got her fill of playing poker at the casinos. She played for 8 days in a row and, though, she did not win any big jackpots, she did have a great time playing. In addition, she accumulated money in comps. So we went out for a nice dinner at the Green Valley Casino. We had never been or heard of the China Spice restuarant but the online reviews were good. Well, it was better than good. We had a wonderful dinner, great service and enough left over for the next night's dinner.

We are heading towards California where we will spend the next couple of months. We will stay at the Thousand Trails parks that are part of our membership parks between Las Angeles and San Jose. All of the parks are outside the cities, so we will take day trips for going to the beaches and other siteseeing adventures.

We will keep you up to date.
Love and hugs,
Barb and Linda

Our Week with the Grandkids

This week Robyn and Scott are in Montreal for a conference and we are staying at their house with Zack and Ashley.

On school days, we would get them ready for school, drop them off , and then drive across town to our motorhome for the day. After school we would pick them up and take them home. Two of the days, Zack had baseball practice/games. So we had to hurry home, get them fed, change clothes and off to the game. On Wednesday, practice day, I took Ashley to Borders to get some books. That way she had something special too. We all stayed for the game on Thursday. Zack had 2 hits, scored a run and threw a player out at first. He had a great day!!!

Today, Saturday, we went to the Mini-Grand Prix. There was race tracks of varying levels and the kids could drive the cars around the track. There were also rides and a game room. Lots of fun, but exhausting for us adults.

Robyn and Scott return on Sunday. Barb leaves for St. Louis on Tuesday to be with her mom. She is doing well and looks forward to Barb's visits.

Hope all is well with you.
Love and hugs,
linda and barb

How a 6 Mile Trip Became a 6 Hour Trip

Last Thursday we had to move to a different site in Las Vegas. The first membership park, the Oasis, only allows us to stay for a week at membership rates. The next park, Thousand Trails, allows us 3 weeks. So that makes our month in Vegas.

Okay, I first have to acknowledge that it was not 6 miles in 6 hours. The parks are 15 miles apart and it only took us 5 hours. So here's how our day went:

11:00 am: We hooked up the car and were ready to leave the site. I had check all the routine stuff and the tires were a bit low. We have a compressor in the motorhome, but the Oasis also had an air machine at the exit so we decided to just use theirs.

11:05 am: So we pulled up to the air machine , got out our quarters, and started filling the back tires. The air went from 95 psi to 90 psi. Not the right direction. So I figured I was doing something wrong and kept trying. By the time I was finished, the pressure in the tire was at 88 psi. Not good!!!

So we decide to just use our air compressor. We have a hose that extends from the front of the rig to the rear wheels. I hook it up to the compressor and start to stretch it to the rear. As I get about 1/2 back, Barb screams!! The hose broke into several pieces, hitting her in the hand. When the hose was stretched and then broke , the pieces flew with great forcce back to their orignial point , which was Barb's hand. I guess the hose was brittle from not being used too often. She was in a great deal of pain for about 15 minutes. After she felt better, we needed a new plan.

11:45 am: I went to the security desk at the exit, told them either the machine was not working correctly or I needed help. So they called on the walkie talkie for someone to come help.

11:50 am: Help arrives. He proceeds to take the air hose to the other tires on the other side of the rig, we put in quarters, he puts air in both tires, and then checks. The air pressure of those two tires are at 85 psi. NOW WE HAVE 3 TIRES AT 85 psi.

12:15 pm: Decision making time. Do we travel to the Oasis, 15 miles , with low pressure in three tires? ot a good thing to do. Do we drive the rig/car to the Problem is to get to the truck stop, we need to make a left turn and there is no left turn out of the park. So we would have to make a right turn and then find a place to make a U-turn, which is not an easy thing to do with a 40' rig towing a car. We decided to unhitch the car, park the rig, and drive the car the route we would need to take with the rig to check things out.

1:00 pm: Car is unhitched, motorhome is moved and parked. I go to office to get our $2.25 back. (It was the principle of the thing! And we were aggravated by this time.) Woman at desk gave me a suggested route to take to make the U-turn.

1:45 pm: We drive the suggested route, check out a few others, drive into truck stop to see where we can get air pressure. Talk to person in service bay. Return to the Oasis to get rig.

2:15 pm: We hitch up the car, leave park, take route for U-turn and arrive at truck stop at service area where air compressor is.

2:45 pm: When we pull up, we realize we cannot get close enough for hose to reach. So we need to unhitch the car. Car unhitched, we manuever the rig in close and I start trying to fill the air. No success. Service person comes out, offers to help, and says, "I like George Washington." It took as a few minutes to realize he wanted a tip. We say fine. He gets it to work. Now all four rear tires have 100 psi.

3:15 pm: We hitch up the car again. That is the third time today.

3:30 pm: We leave to go to Thousand Trails.

4:00 pm: We arrive Thousand Trails.

So that is our 15 mile drive that took 6 hours to drive.

RV'ing is Fun!!!!

Love and hugs,
Barb and Linda

A Quiet Few Days

Ashley's birthday party yesterday was a terrific success. The neighborhood park was a perfect setting ..... the kids could run around and play and shout. Their school gym teacher came and lead them in games and activities for about an hour and a half. Since they all knew him from school and knew the games, they had a wonderful time playing. There were about 20 children invited plus siblings, who just come along. After all of the play, Robyn and Scott served hotdogs and chips and then birthday cake. And after all that, there was a pinata filled with candy and toys......................

Starting today, Monday, we have 3 days on our own to just relax. Barb left early this morning to go to a casino for a poker tournament. And I have been updating my computer. Windows Vista has a new program for getting mail that combines both of my email accounts (gmail and hotmail). So I updated it and like everything else on the computer, it did not work the first time. Have been playing with it for a couple of hours now and it seems okay.

I guess the rest of the day and week I will read and take walks and maybe work on some pictures.

Love and hugs ,
Linda and Barb

Arrival in Las Vegas

We left Needles on Thursday and had a very uneventful trip to Las Vegas. And we are greatful for that. The big highlight of the trip was watching all of the motorcycles driving in the opposite the direction. They were on their way to a motorcycle rally in Needles this weekend. It almost reminded us of the Sturges rally in South Dakota.

We arrived at the Oasis RV Resort by 12:30 pm and were all set up by 2:00 pm. For those of you who are rv'ers, you know that means we did it very slowly. As we usually do things. Setting up means that on the outside of the rig, I connect the water, electric, sewer hose, awnings out, tire covers on, chairs/tables set up on rug. On the inside of the rig, Barb takes all tables and chairs and dishes/pots that have been put up safely back down. Coffee pot gets unhooked, all albums and files that go in corners get put back in the correct place, etc.

We have spent Friday and Saturday with Robyn, Scott, Ashley and Zack. We are thrilled to see them and they have, as children do, grown up quite a bit in the last year.

Friday night we had a seder dinner.

We know it is at the end of Passover but decided it would be fun to have seder dinner and read the Haggudah with the kids. They have a children's version of the Haggudah and the kids did the majority of the readings. It was a wonderful experience. And the dinner was great ...... between Robyn's cooking and mine, we had all of the traditional foods..........gefilte fish, matzo ball soup, brisket, twice baked potatoes, green bean casserole, salad. Ymmmmmmm.

Saturday was Ashley's birthday and her party will be today at a nearby park. So we spent Saturday shopping for all of her birthday stuff.... cake, plates, etc. And Saturday night , she got to pick what restuarant she wanted to go to for her birthday. So we had a great dinner at Outback.

Today is the party. We will go there about noon.......party at 3:00pm.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

Our New Park Model

As I mentioned earlier, we purchased a park model at the Superstition Mountain Resort (SMR) in Apache Junction. We are not planning to give up full timing but decided to purchase it to have a place to stay some time in the future when we do want to stop traveling.

Our plan is to rent it during the winter season and summer too, if possible, and just have a little income from it. So far, we have it rented for Feb. and Mar.

We spent the last two weeks before we left fixing it up the way we wanted it. The previous owner was an "accumulater of stuff." So we needed to go through everything and decided what we wanted and what we wanted to give away. Some stuff went to friends, some to Goodwill and some to a friend's church for their yearly auction. And the 7' pvc pipes went to a construction company that works in the park.

After getting everything out , we decided that the drapes she had throughout did not give us the amount of light and airiness that we wanted. So we removed all of the curtains, drapes and rods. And then I spent a day patching the holes from the rods. I have become real good at patching. There were also some cable wires and phone wires that were strung from the bed room to the living room. They were either glued on or attached with nails. So I need to carefully remove them, trying to leave the wallpaper on the wall, and then patch all of those holes.

While I did all of that , Barb cleaned the kitchen and all the appliances. She even moved the store and refrigerator out to get behind everything. We washed down all of the walls, the cabinets and the windows. And then we started on the shed. That took another day or two.

But now, the park model really looks great and we are quite thrilled with it. In June, we have arranged to move the fence that is there so that it is on our property line. That will increase the size of the fenced in area for our yard.

We are in Needles, CA now. Barb is at the casino and I will be reading. Having restful day.

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

New Tires Installed

Finally, yesterday, the new tires were installed. I think we have learned our lesson with regard to tires.............Costco is not the place to go. As I mentioned the date code on the Michelin tires that Costco ordered was from March 2007. So the first mistake I made was to not do anything about them right away. I talked with Kirk at Freightliner and he questioned if the tires were in an air conditioned warehouse. I had no idea. I then misinterpreted the date code on the tires and thought that they were just 6 months old and that that would be okay. Later found out the code indicated that they were a year old.

The second mistake I made was to wait until a week before we were to leave to try to get tires ordered through Freightliner. That just was not enough time.

So here we are with lessons learned. The new tires are installed. They finished about 3:00 pm yesterday and we hit the road. We just wanted to spend a night at a full hookup and off of a parking lot with diesel trucks coming and going all day and night.

So we drove 35 miles, arrived at Tonepeh, Saddle Mountain RV park, and set up camp. Had a few problems with the electricity having too high a voltage. Our surge/electrical protector would shut off the electricity every time the voltage reached 132. The good news is that it was working and protected our electrical units. The bad news was the electricity to the rig kept shutting off. Barb figured out that we should change from 50 amp to 30 amp to see if that helped ......... and it did. We are okay now.

We leave this morning for Needles, CA for two nights.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

Superstition Mountain

View of Superstition Mountain as we see it from our rv site in Apache Junction. Feb 2008.

It does not always have grass on it but there was lots of rain in the spring and the mountain thrived.

Our Weekend at Freightliner

All plans have been changed. We left SMR on Thursday, planning to have new tires installed at Freightliner on Friday and then leave for Needles, CA on Saturday. THAT WAS NOT TO HAPPEN.

The story on these tires has become very involved, but here goes. Last November we knew we needed new tires for the rig at a cost of about $400 per tire. Kirk, the rv service person at Freightliner, suggested we get them from Costco, save some money, and he would pick them up. He also suggested we wait until spring to get them. So we ordered the tires in March. When they came in, we discovered that the date code indicated that they were manufactured in march 2007. So we contacted Kirk last Monday and he did a rush order through his tire dealer to get new tires for us. They were supposed to come in on Friday.

Friday afternoon, Kirk found out the tires did not come in and would not be in until next Wednesday. Now our plan of spending a week in Needles was shot but in addition, our plans were to be in Vegas with the kids by Thursday. We decided not to wait until Wednesday, just in case they did not come in then. We went back to Costco, got their tires and are just hoping and planning that they will be fine. Salesguy there said the tires were from an air conditioned warehouse in Ontario, CA. But now we have to wait until Monday, tomorrow, before they can be installed.

So here we are this weekend in Freightliner's parking lot. Actually it has been quite restful. We did a little shopping, did a lot of paperwork that has been stacking up. Today, well, I do not know what we are going to do. There is a dog park nearby so we may take Bailey there.

That's our update as to our travels. We plan to leave here either Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning. Not sure how far we will go.

Love and hugs,
linda and barb

Summer 2008: We are on the road again!

Summer is here and we are ready for our new travels. We left Apache Junction yesterday for a long 45 minute drive to Tolleson. In other words, we drove from the eastern edge of Phoenix to the western edge of Phoenix. We are parked in the lot of the Freightliner facility. Today we get new tires and few other repairs. We will stay here tonight and then leave tomorrow morning.

Today will be an interesting experiment for us. We have to leave by 7:00 am and not return until 4:00 or 5:00 pm. In the past when we have done this, we have gone out to breakfast, gone shopping, go to a movie, whatever. But this year we have Bailey. So we will still go to breakfast since it is cool in the morning and okay for him to stay in the car. And then we will spend the rest of the day at a nearby park.

The last few months have been quite exciting for us at AJ (apache junction). And I will fill you in the next time I write. Most exciting is that we have purchased a park model in the rv park that we stay in. Pictures and stories to follow.

We are heading to Needles, CA and will spend a few days there before going to Las Vegas. I plan to keep this blog up to date while we are traveling.
So stay tuned and check in ..... comments are welcome.

Love and hugs,
linda and barb

Update from Apache Junction

We are still in Apache Junction at SMR and are actually very busy with activities.



Bailey has adjusted well and so have we. His lessons are teaching us what we need to know. He is really very good now at "stay", "sit", "wait". And he is somewhat improving his walking along side of us. We are taking classes at Petsmart and are quite pleased with the trainer. She uses treats and a clicker as the motivator. At the beginning of a new lesson, we use a handsignal to indicate what we want. For instance, extending hand, palm up means sit. Then when he sits, we click the clicker and give him a treat. As he progresses, we substitue the word "Yes" for the clicker and give a treat. Then we progress to using the word "Yes" two or three times with no treat and giving the treat on the third "yes". Eventually, he is responding to the hand signal and the reward is the word "yes". It is interesting to watch him progress.

This past week we have been involved in the Mindless Tumbleweed Games. We spent one week playing games from our childhood, not competitive but fun. We played pickup sticks, jacks, bean bag toss.

And then there were the sporting events.....We had a javelin competition in which the javelin was a foam noodle from the swimming pool. We putted golf balls through plumber's pipes with hoses.

Crazy games but lots of fun. And then there was bingo which was a big hit.

Barb was one of the three organizers and I was involved in taking pictures. The week culminated with a steak dinner...........and a slide show.

This is a quiet week, which means that we have spent it catching up with cleaning house and doing laundry. We have had no times for these necessities.

Today is Valentine's Day.

So we wish all of you a very happy Valentine's day

and send our love to all of you.

Barb and Linda

Gilbert Bird Refuge

The Gilbert Bird Refuge is about 10 miles from here in the middle of the city. It is an oasis of lakes and walking paths and birds. A wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

One of our favorite outings is the Boyce Thompson Arboretum.

It is a garden of desert plants

and a great place for walks.

Bailey has us trained!

Bailey has adjusted very well to living in a motorhome. And we have adjusted fairly well to having our life style altered. We have learned that getting up in the morning and leisurely have a cup or two of coffee is not to happen. We have learned that reading the paper without interuption is not to happen. We have learned that working on a project with out stopping to take a walk will not happen. We have learned to say "no" and be ignored. We have learned to share the sofa and the bed. We have learned that the warm blankets on the sofa are not ours.

And we have also learned how much fun it is to take a walk through the park and have Bailey lead us. We have learned the comfort of having Bailey snuggle up close on the sofa and wait to be petted. We have learned the fun of playing tug of war with Bailey. We have laughed and enjoyed his attempts to chew and throw the many toys we now have. We have enjoyed throwing his toys and having him bring them back to us. Of course, he does not let them go when we say "drop it". So that is just more of the fun of chasing him around the house.

At night when it is time for bed, he just follows us around with sorrowful eyes wondering why it takes us so long to get ready for bed. Our bed is too high for him to jump into so he has to wait for one of us to put him in it. We decided not to lift him in until we are ready to get in also. So he mournfully follows us as we make the morning coffee, clean up the last of the dinner dishes, brush our teeth, and change clothes. Finally when he sees we are ready, he puts his front paws on the bed and all we can see is his head and pleading black eyes..........."please, it is bed time; what is taking your so long!"

But this Wednesday, some things may change. We start dog training. Our biggest goal is to teach him to walk on a leash without pulling. So we will see how that goes.



So all is well here and we are having fun.

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

Bailey's visit to Santa

I guess there is nothing to say except he is absolutely adorable and we have totally fallen in love with him.

We send all of you our love
and wish you a

Happy Chanukah,
Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays
and a
Peaceful New Year.

Linda and Barb

Wii Bowling

We have joined a bowling league.

We do not go to a bowling alley. We do not own a bowling ball. We do not change to bowling shoes. And the place where we bowl is not smokey and noisey.

We are bowling in the Cabaret room of the club house and all we use is a small device on our wrist and a TV. We have entered the high tech era of video games. This device that we do hold and that is strapped to our wrist causes the person on the TV to move in the same manner as we do. So when Barb swings her arm back, the video person swings her arm back. If she throws her arm straight out, then the ball goes straight. And if she twists or curves her arm, then the ball has a curve. Amazing!!!

BARB ROLLED A STRIKE!!!

We can walk and throw the ball as you would do at a regular bowling alley. Or you can just stand there and throw as I am doing.

There are four of us on a team and we play two games once a week. We record the total points of all of our scores for both games. At the end of the 12 week period, the 4 teams who have the highest score will play off for the championship.

We are having a great time!

Love and hugs,

Barb and Linda

Bailey's Birthday party

Yesterday,

Dec 7,

was Bailey's

2 year birthday.

So we had a party for him

and his best friend Simba.

He had a wonderful time opening his presents.

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb