Great Get Together With Our Alfa Friends In Oklahoma & Weather Scare

  We had a great visit with friends Hannah & Joe Dubuc and Richard & Karen Hugo in Oklahoma City Oklahoma.
Hannah, Joe , Richard, Karen and even Foxy were our traveling companions when we went to Alaska in the Summer of 2007.  That trip was the best we have ever had, trip of a Lifetime!
We had two other couples with us that trip Barb & Pat Pintus and Larry & Marcheta Barker.

Karen, Hannah, Pat & I are all photographers so we were having a blast shooting away getting thousands of photo's.  We were all very glad that we were all using Digital camera's!!!

We heard Hannah & Joe were in Oklahoma City before their trip to Ireland to stay with Hannah's Mom there so wanted to see them since it had been October since our last visit.

I am bound and determined that some day Dan & I will get to travel to Ireland with Joe & Hannah. So we got one day with them and they treated us to lunch at Applebees....Thanks Joe!!!  Hannah & Joe both used to live in Oklahoma so they are used to the crazy storm watches.

We got a couple days with Richard & Karen and we all freaked out on Tuesday 29th of May that a very nasty Thunderstorm suddenly came thru.  Richard had drove us around Oklahoma City to check things out, weather nice, sunny.  We went out dinner at El Chico Mexican food Restaurant, had a good time and then quickly stopped at the Hobby Lobby store so I could buy some masking fluid so I leave areas white on my paintings.  Richard, Dan & Karen waited in the car and I ran in to get the stuff I needed.
The Hugo's motorhome was across the hwy from the Hobby Lobby.  We no sooner got parked and were chatting when a storm came thru and hit them HARD!!!  I could see our car moving with the high winds rocking it and noticed a dumpsters doors flapping back and forth and garbage flying out!!!  We were pelted by the high winds and rain and then the hail came down the size of nickels.  I was able to get the sudden downpour on video and then we heard the Tornado warning alarm go off!!!  Now we are really scared and ready to jump out of the RV to the bathrooms across from Karen & Ricard. Siren stopped so the tornado threat was over but there were branches down off the trees and messy.  Dan and I knew we had a tiny break in the weather to hurry and get back to our own campground before it got dark. We let Karen know we got back ok and also my Brother Larry who was at work at Tinker Air force base.

We listened to the radio all the way back.  Got back just in time to bring in the slides, put the outside chairs away so they would not get wet, take down the roof antenna, grab the cats and put them in their carriers, grab my purse with the ipad in it and drive down to the storm shelter a short distance away.

We were not alone, 13 more people and 4 dogs were inside a cargo container that had been shoved into a back wall of a hill and dirt filled in to the sides so no way could a tornado lift us up.  We were all hot with the door closed and bolted but we had lanterns inside and could get some air in thru 2 vents.  We were just glad we were all safe inside.  I was amazed more people were not in the shelter with us. Alot of thunder and lightening right over the top of us and hail and heavy rain.

We were finally able to leave the shelter and drove back to the RV, it was still there unharmed and the Jeep did not suffer either, a large branch on the tree next to us had split off and fell to the ground hitting our portable satellite dish but did not hurt it.  Next morning the staff came over and cut the branch off the tree.
We were indeed lucky, all I can say is Thank-You God for aways watching over us and protecting us!!

Was really glad we had a nice visit with our friends, we'll be talking about the Oklahoma storms for a long long time, just glad we were all safe.

Happy Birthday Shirley

  May 28th we celebrated my Sister-in-law Shirley's birthday by going to see The Avengers at the Warren Theatre in Moore Oklahoma.
WOW what a treat!!! We had reserved seating in the balcony, was escorted to our plush high back heated seats in the middle of the front row of the balcony. We had a table between our seats in front of us.  There was a menu on the table and we were told that we could order anything on the menu and then push a buzzer that would light up red and a waiter would come take our order and bring it back to us.  Since Dan and I arrived early we had already gotten a big tub of popcorn and a large Sierra Mist drink from the beautiful lobby concession stand.  I would have loved to take photo's but in big letters on the front door was " NO CAMERAS" So I could not take photo's of the most beautiful lobby area we have ever seen!! On the main floor was a waiting area complete with a fireplace  between the men's & women's bathrooms.  The whole area was spotless clean and staff sweeping up anything on the beautiful carpeted floors. If you ordered the large pop & popcorn you got free refills.  So when ours was gone, we pushed the button and the waitress took our empty bucket and pop and came back with our free refill to us....hooray we did not miss a minute of the movie.
First floor had a Restaurant that you could eat at before or after the movie OR you could order and have it served to you in the Balcony area.  Food could only be delivered to the Balcony area.

On the 2nd floor there is a Bar so you could come early and have a drink or have a drink after the movie. Because the Balcony serves booze you are carded at the top of the stairs to the balcony. You can have booze brought to your seat in the balcony ONLY.

The theatre was beautiful, screen was HUGE and when lights started to darken the elegant scalloped screen began to rise...Totally awesome!!!  Best Theatre experience we have ever been to!!!  We Will be back again!!  Because we went to the matinee the price was $12 a seat....that was pretty good!!  Not sure what the seating price was on the main floor and  was $22 a person for the Private VIP room where you are in reclining director chairs like the Hollywood screenings and a large big screen with 20 seats in the VIP room.

We had a great time and the Movie was great!  Thanks Shirley for wanting to go here for your birthday, it was perfect!!

We have arrived to the Oklahoma City , Oklahoma area

  Parked at the -A-  AAA Adult RV Park in Newcastle Oklahoma.  Very nice, lots of grass and trees, huge sites and plenty of room between RV's.  We came here in 2005 and enjoyed it and we are only 15 miles from my Brother Larrys home. We have noticed alot of the RV's here are on a long term monthly basis rather than short visits.  I can see why, it's only $280 a month and super quiet because no children are allowed to stay here.  We kinda laughed that we were parked right across the site we were in the last time! We've been having fun with my Brother Larry and his wife Shirley mostly on the weekends since they both are still working.

Cross Of Our Lord Jesus Christ Ministries

Our friend Lorna said that since we were heading east on I-40 to make sure we stopped to see the Giant Cross and life size statues of the stations of the Cross before the death of Jesus.


Wow you could see the cross from miles away,the cross is 19 story high!!!

It was really humbling to go to each station of the cross and then go into the gift shop with lots of wonderful things to buy. I bought a new journal, this journal will be very special because I will only journal in it all the good things God has done in my life and he has done LOTS!!! I have a testimony that there is a God and he loves and protects me every day!!

Here is the website for this unique Cross


http://www.crossministries.net

Singer Roger Miller Hometown Museum

  Dan and I spent two night at the Double D RV Park in Texola Oklahoma just over the border of Texas and Oklahoma.  Mostly  construction workers staying long term in the campsites. Pretty run down park but we paid $24 for 2 nights and had fun Geo-caching and sightseeing so we did not care.

Found the Roger Miller Museum in Erick Oklahoma, had a very good tour and watched a DVD about his life and sad to hear he died at 56 yrs old.  I always liked the song King of the Road and we were just off Historic Route 66.  Roger penned over 1,000 songs during his career. Songs Dang me and King of the Road were his best known songs.  Roger Miller was the first country artist to win a Tony Award for his music and lyrics for the musical Big River.  In 1995 Miller was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

You can see all his memorabilia in the museum in Erick Oklahoma off I-40 exit 7
http://www.rogermillermuseum.com/.

Tucumcari New Mexico

  We had 2 days at the Elks club for $15.00  to just relax.  Jenny started catching a cold and zapped it with Airborne..stuff tastes like a cherry fizzy but hey it worked!!

Dan had fun Geo-caching around the area and the cats really got excited one day when they saw not one but SEVEN huge Guinea Fowl strutting through campground.

Happy Mother's day

  The finale of a great Mother's Day weekend was going out to dinner at the Ponderosa Eatery & Saloon. It was a really good restaurant out in the middle of nowhere in Tijeras New Mexico. Staff was really friendly, food was great and ALOT!!!  We had enough food for two dinners.  We loved the Wild wild west type decor, in fact some of the flooring was slanted so this place was pretty old and loved the old saloon look.
Thanks Dan for spoiling me!
Love you lots!!

  My wonderful Mother's Day presents from Dan, I am SO spoiled but so is he because we take good care of each other.  Thanks Dan!

Albuquerque New Mexico

  We had a great time in Albuquerque New Mexico, lots to do and see. I loved Old Town the most with all it's Southwestern shops.  Lots of jewelry made of silver and turquoise, loved the pottery and I had a ball taking photo's of the area and even got a chance to see the beginning of a wedding at the Gazebo in the town square.

Went up to the Sandia Crest that is 10,678 feet and over looked all of Albuquerque.  I had forgotten how flat the area was when I went up in a Balloon ride years ago. It was so calm and peaceful on that tour of the area then. Really enjoyed our stay in this area.

Turquoise Trail

  We had fun going through the old Ghost Towns that have become Artist Havens for studios and galleries.

Prehistoric people made their homes here.  Spanish missionaries explored the area and battle were fought over the land.  Outlaws and Confederate soldiers camped in the area.  Kit Carson marched the Navajo people along the trail in their "long Walk" to incarceration at Fort Sumner.

In Madrid...Pronounced MAD-rid we found Maggie's diner where they filmed the Movie Wild Hogs with John Travolta.  Dan enjoyed Geo-caching around the area while I window shopped.  Madrid was a coal mining town in the 1800's. Because of the unique geology of the area, a phenomenon found in only two other mines in the world , hard and soft coal were mine here with shafts as deep as 2,500 feet.
In the 1970's is when all the artists and craftspeople arrived.

Cerrillos was  a Turquoise And lead town. Cerrillos is one of the oldest and most marked of the old Spanish Mineral Developments of the Southwest. Miners supported the 21 saloons and 4 hotels back in the mining era.  The old St Joseph church still has Mass every Sunday. The old town has been a setting for many motion pictures.

National Radio Astronomy Observatory VLA Telescope

  Our friends Nick and Terry Russell suggested we go I-60 for a different route and we came across these HUGE satellite dishes that are moved on a railroad track! They were the backdrop for the movie " Contact" with Jodie Foster.
Later that afternoon we found a huge rest area and pulled over for the night just SW of Magdalena New Mexico. Big Semi carring cars  came in and ran the truck all night, of course Dan slept thru all the noise but I didn't.  Next morning a Phoenix Cruiser RV pulled behind us.  We had a rain storm that night but nothing threatening but oddly enough 2 days later we heard Magdalena had a tornado touch down.

National Monuments await us

  We arrived to  Verde Valley RV Resort safe and sound on Thursday May 3rd, got a nice end campsite and  Jenny headed to the pool and hot tub to relax the first day.
Fri 4th we headed to Tuzigoot National Monument and Jerome.
We were thrilled that we finally got to buy our National Parks Senior pass for a Life time for only $10.  So now we can go into all the historical places that normally they charge you now for FREE.  We could not buy the Pass till Dan turned 62 yrs old.  He turned 62 on March 15th.  Tuzicoot was really interesting, to the left of the photo's you see all the open areas, these were the homes of the Sinagua Indians. When the Indians lived there they had thatched roofs and used ladders down thru the roofs to get in and out of their very small homes.  The Indians were mostly farmers.  No one knows why but the Indians abandoned their Pueblos in 1400.  We walked along a long trail and I just loved the Hedgehog cactus in bloom.

Montezuma's Castle

  Since we were so close to the Montezuma's Castle we went back to update photo's of that area.  I have always enjoyed taking photo's of this 5 story 20 room dwelling by the Sinagua Indians early in the 1100's.

I also loved that I did not have to pay this time to go see it by showing our Senior Pass.

Sedona

  We drove around Sedona and drank up the red beauty of all the mountains there.  Weather was beginning to change and started to rain by the time we toured the area but it was interesting to see all around.
Noticed  alot of pricey Art Galleries, shopping, lots of Psychic's, New Age places to find peace.
Found a million dollar mansion just below the Chapel Of The Holy Cross, WOW what a beautiful home!!!

Chapel of The Holy Cross

  We ventured over to Sedona and found this unique Church perched up on a mountain and the view from it was amazing!!! Very spiritual place to be and so glad we got to see and touch it.

Super Moon

Saturday May 5th was suppose to be the night for the Super Moon , it was suppose to be closest to the Earth and be huge.   I waited to get some shots but they were not great and then the Moon came up on Sunday night and I got a fantastic shot that just gives me Goose bumps because it is so Eerie looking.  I watched the Moon rise over the edge of a cliff that had trees below it and added a tad bit color and WOW got a great shot.

Great Time With Friends Nick & Terry Russell

Goofy me did not take photo's of our visit , so I borrowed this one from them, but we had a great time with Nick & Terry at the  Verde Valley Thousand Trails Park near Cottonwood Arizona.  We talked about our days from Life On wheels and the friendships we made through the special RV Program created by Gaylord Maxwell.  Nick does alot of rallys and promotes his newspaper the Gypsy Journal the RV Travel Newspaper.   http://www.gypsyjournal,net/

We had a great time talking  and having dinner together at the Sizzler.

We have a stack of the Gypsy Journal newspapers in the Jeep and we are leaving issues along the way to promote Nicks pride and joy.  Nicks newspaper is full of lots of information and Terry gives us a treat of recipes from Terry's Kitchen. Enjoy!

Out Of Africa Wildlife Park Adventure

  We found out there was a Wild Animal Park close to our campground so we decided to spend the day there and go on a Safari.
Our tour guide was excellent and had alot of knowledge about the animals there. We were all given a carrot to feed  either a giraffe  or a camel. I was tickled pink when the guide told me to put the carrot between my teeth and lean way out of the safari bus so the giraffe could come over and take it out of my mouth and give me a kiss!  I was the first one dareing enough to do it and everyone got excited and started doing it too.  The kids were thrilled to see a giraffe ducking it's head into the bus!  We were warned not to feed the Zebras because they could bite.
After the safari ride we were let off to wander around all the rest of the compound and check out the animals.  Because it was a warm day alot of the animals were taking their daily naps but I was able to get quite a few photo's of critters.

The park was started in 1988 by Dean & Prayeri Harrison, they wanted to share their animal experiences with the world. It was first started in Scottsdale Arizona and then moved in 2004 to Camp Verde and opened again in 2005.  It was quite a task to move everything but alot of people helped out.

The Animals are treated with the golden rule- to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Love and Respect for all life is the Parks objective.

Dean MC's the Tiger Splash Show and does alot of the Private VIP tours.  We were really impressed with the staff that worked with the Bears and Tigers.  During the Tiger Splash where they had Cypress a young female grizzly bear playing with the staff and chasing them and jump into a huge wading pool and popping inflatable pool toys galore. Cypress Sister Aspen came down by the pool.  Aspen has been very ill with Valley Fever and on meds so she would walk much slower and not want to play.  Aspen came too close to the edge of the pool and went to turn and lost her balance falling into the pool.  Six staff members went into action and jumped into the pool to help the disorientated bear. Poor Aspen was scared and they finally got her out of the water but it took a long time to get her to the edge of the pool and then finally walk out.  Remember she is wild so when she turned around and growled the staff had to back off a bit but she calmed down and was able to get out of the water.  Her sister Cypress had to be distracted to get her out of the pool area so Aspen could be helped.  You could tell Cypress was really concerned about her sister.  I got the whole rescue on video and after the staff got Aspen back up on the grass, everyone cheered and applauded.  You could tell these young trainers really cared about the animals and not one animal was afraid of them.

What shocked me was tigers sound like a cow when they Meow and the bears purr like a cat!!! I would have never believed it but I was standing within 5 ft of each one!!  It was a great experience, well worth the money.

Go to http://www.outofafricapark.com/  to check it out

Historic Jerome

  We had a fun time walking around Jerome and all it's shops. Had to go back to the Jerome Palace Restaurant so we could have a Haunted Burger.
There are real ghosts there and from time to time can be seen.  One ghost loved to steal hammers.  When the new owner could not find his hammers he was puzzled till he talked to the previous owner and figured out that the ghost did not like the new owner pounding around the Restaurant making renovations!!

I'm always amazed at the type of people who travel up to Jerome and the people who live there.  Houses perched up on the sides of cliffs and old, some over 100 yrs old.  One old Brothel was made into a gift shop with sexy girlie things and had coins from the old days that the men purchased to give to the Prostitutes as payment.  There were lots of saloons and Brothels back in the old days of mining.

On The Road Again 2012

Ok folks I know I am way behind on posting on the blog, so I am going to do something different. I'll blog from the present time and fill in the past when I get a chance.

May 1st we locked up the casita and shed , locked up the gates and gave hugs to our next door neighbors Earl & Sandy and said Good-Bye and off we headed to Wittman AZ to stay with friends Joe & Mary Schoenmaker.
Thanks Sandy & Earl for dinner Monday night, that was a treat because we were only thinking we were having a Happy Hour and did not know you were going to make us dinner so Thank-You very much it was yummy!!

We always hate leaving our home in AZ it is so peaceful there and I will miss my gardens & Neighbors.  This year we decided instead of heading back to WA we are heading to the East coast instead.  We are anxious to visit the parks on the East coast that we just upgraded our Thousand Trails membership to. We have not gone East since 2006 and we got as far as Louisiana but not further so we are anxious to go to the New England areas.  There is much history on the East Coast and when I was married to Frank we were stationed in the Army in New Jersey but we never went  anywhere so I'm anxious to explore the East Coast.

Sadly Biff did not make this trip with us, he died of Renal failure in March. We do have his ashes with us though and so we have ashes of Biff & Felix with us.

We had a great Winter with lots of fun with neighbors and friends, lots of get together's.

Visit with Mary & Joe Schoenmaker

We arrived to Mary & Joe's in Whittmann AZ on Tuesday May 1st. We had upgraded the new GPS "Randy" and it took us right to them.
Joe built a beautiful home with high ceilings, kitchen/living room was huge!
We loved they actually had grass growing in the back yard, felt good in our bare feet! Back yard had room enough for 4 RV's!!

Tuesday night Joe threw some flank steak on the Bar-B-Q , Mary made mashed potatoes and I made a salad and we had some sweet Watermelon...YUM!

Wednesday Joe took us on a tour of the area and showed us a lot he bought that had a fire and the house removed just leaving the foundation so he wants to build a new house on it. Saw alot of expensive houses out in the desert...lordy what do these people do for a living??? Went to The Upper Crust for Pizza and Mary & Joe's Daughter Robin and husband met us there for dinner. Had a nice time and great Pizza.

Thanks Mary & Joe for the great time visiting you!