Merry Christmas!

Love this picture! 

All of the Christmas lights are so pretty here in the desert! Instead of beautiful scented pine trees, the locals decorate their cactus! 

Jer and I walk a lot around our little park! Tonight we invite you to stroll along with us!

We had grilled chicken and shrimp ceviche for our dinner tonight! Yum!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Beautiful lazy days!

Our sunset on the winter solstice tonight! So beautiful!

We have been having some wonderful lazy days here, neither one of us have gotten used to being 'retired' yet... Our days are just drifting by.. We hike, read, nap, go for walks...we just are. It is such an interesting time.

Have taken drives around town, found a starbucks and local thrift stores, and a wonderful vegie/fruit market

Hiked to the end of the hieroglyphics trail. 

Fascinating markings! Wonderful challenging hike!

Have been grilling our meals! 

Chicken kabobs and stuffed chilies! 

We are loving this weather and life!

Awesome day

We (I actually) am trying to get this ole bod back in shape during our time down here in the sun!  One of the things i really like to do is spend time outside and exploring nature.

Sunrise this morning

Today we went to Silly Mountain just a few miles south of us. It is a small mountain just west of the magnificent Superstition Mountains and has several trails to choose from. We chose 3 that would take us to the very top!

Our day was slightly overcast and temps were in the low 70s with a little breeze! Perfect for drying sweat...the peak of the mountain is in the pic above.  The trail was very well marked, but rocky and very steep in places. 

Daaad, do I have to?

We made it!

Yay!

Taken from about halfway up

We were really high !

Superstition Mountain range

Looking out over the valley

Found a different trail to go down and made it safely back to the truck....I can't wait to go again and try the other trails there.

Got home and made some spaghetti for dinner along with fresh pineapple and mangos...yum! Listening to a very soft rain now...perfect day!

We have arrived!

We pulled into Happy Days RV park about 1:30pm last Saturday afternoon. Our drive into the valley was gorgeous and hair raising. Mountain drive up and DOWN all the way! I was unable to get pictures due to my fingers being glued to the steering wheel the whole way down. When i was able to glance around my jaw would drop open at the beauty before and around me! Our temperatures have been in the 70s and dropping into 50s at night...absolutely wonderful.

We have spent our week acclimating ourselves to our new area..groceries, laundry, long drives. Jer got a day of golf in with buddy Ken and I got a day of beads in with good friend Mona.

Last Friday went on our first hike in Arizona, Hieroglyphics Trail near Superstition Mtn.  I pooped out about  half way there, so sat on a rock while Jer and Bailey went on a little further ahead. I definately need some more conditioning! Ha!

Yesterday, Saturday,  we went over to the Lane's house for the day. Got some updates and downloads done on their wonderful fast wifi, guys went and hit balls, gals did some beading (Mona taught me a wonderful new pattern!)..dogs did some exploring in their huge big yard, and we shared a yummy meal with an awesome german chocolate dessert. Perfect day!

Today will be laundry and plan for a new week! I have discovered that the days are just melding into one another without having any work schedule! Working 7 days a week for all those years has left us a little bewildered as to what to do with ourselves. So maybe with a little more structured planning we can help ourselves get into more of a routine?? Sounds good anyway right?!? Haha!

Tucumcari, NM

We found another KOA in Tucumcari, NM and stopped about 4 yesterday. Was a cloudy, terribly windy, snow flurries and cold day! Starting to sound like a broken record and not in a good way!?!?

The views along I-40 have been beautiful to me. The land is rugged, barren and beautiful shades of browns, tans and greens! (Hmmm..new quilt?)

Was concerned about accumulation when the snow flurries started and pulled into the next KOA we saw...this place is very nice.

(Can you see the snow?)

They even had a small restaurant onsite and delivered to the rig! How sweet is that!?!? I had chicken fried steak and jer had chicken strips! We even shared a piece of carrot cake! 

And now back to our regularly scheduled temperatures! I even checked our compass to make sure we were going the right way when i noticed temperature dropped to 18....I hope today is warmer?!?

Oklahoma....still freezing

We are in El Reno, Oklahoma at a KOA right off exit 108. The temperature is 19 and winds are in the 30mph range! Ugh! This KOA is really nice, quiet and super clean. 

We left lakeside Recreation Park, Assaria, KS about 9:30am yesterday. Decided to take 81 all the way south to I-40. It was 2 lane most of the way and turned to 4 lane just before interstate. Not a bad road but went from 65 to 25 constantly between all the little towns. We fought strong winds all day! I was amazed at all of the plants, mills, oil fields, refinaries along this highway.

Tonight we are relaxing with our Jack and coke and planning our travels for tomorrow. Our goal is to keep making our way south and get out of these winds and cold weather! No dawdling along on this voyage!

Oh my Gawd it is cold!!

I didn't sleep well last night knowing that we would be leaving in the morning!  Listened to the wind roaring all night and the rig rocking! Finally decided to get up and start the coffee pot and look outside to this:

Even bailey was hesitant to go out... Took her all of about a minute to find a place to pee and raced back inside to curl up!

We are patiently waiting for Jer to return from dr appt. i have stowed everything away and double checked, so that we can be on our way to one more (bailey's) appt and then we will hit the road!

Soooo excited!

Tomorrow morning is the day that we finally leave for our first winter in the south! We are packed and ready!

It is freezing cold here, blowing winds (30-40mph) and temp is around 35! It is supposed to get even colder the rest of this week?!?! We are outta here! It seems so weird to be able to say that! Finished up all our last minute packing, even decided at the last minute to bring my sewing machine and all that that  entails: desk, material, feet, thread, etc., etc.

Yesterday we celebrated Lily's 5th birthday with a wonderful day of  'Frozen' treats and family. Jamie, her new boyfriend, Clint, and kids were able to make it for the afternoon....It was wonderful being all together! Lily had an absolute ball and was such a princess!

I am so going to miss my kids and grandkids, but will be wonderful to facetime and visit with them.

Tomorrow a.m. Jer has a Dr. appt to get prescriptions renewed and Bailey has a post-op check....as soon as those are done we will fuel up and hit I-80 west to York, NE and then turn south through Kansas. Don't know how far we will get, but will just pull off when we get tired, :) Our trip to and from North Carolina was nice, we drove about 5 hours each day and then stopped, no hurry, no schedule, just perfect.