On our way again

Our time in Santa Fe was enjoyable as we got to know other members of the 4CU of WBBCI.  The campground was on a hill over looking the valley and therefore, it was quite windy each day.  Usually about 7 or 8 pm  the winds would die down enough that we could sit outside on our patio and enjoy the view, the town lights sparkling below.  It was really dark up there.  

Friday we went to visit a bronze foundry that I had found on Trip Advisor. It wasn't too bad of a drive, just about 10-12 miles and was entertaining for a couple hours.  Dave enjoyed talking to the employees and they were interested in his background.  He spoke their language.  The had a larger than life size figure of a horse and rider that is being finished and then will ship to Oklahoma. 

 

They also had a figure of a lion for a zoo that they were finishing up.

This gentleman is responsible for all the bases, pedestals, packing and shipping that is prepared for every item that is sent out.  Here is a small replica of the large statue that he is preparing to ship.

 

Here are a few other pieces from the foundry.

 



 

Saturday was a lazy day around the campground, doing some chores, and just visiting with people.   Each evening we had a potluck and they served breakfast each day also.  Dave said their biscuits and gravy with green chilies were really good.  We had a Taco bar one night, BBQ brisket another and another potluck.  Lots of good cooks in this unit.  :)

 

Sunday we went to the local flea market where Dave found a huge assortment of petrified trees.  The man that had them for sale said they were all taken from his land.  We found one piece we would have loved to have for the front yard at the new house.  Problem is it probably weighed in at over 2000 lbs!!!   We settled for a piece that was about 30 lbs.   He had some beautiful pieces with great colors.   It was very interesting walking around them all and trying to choose.  :)

 

Then we went back to the campground and I did laundry, oh so fun....... yeah right!  Anyway, the restrooms and laundry at this facility are immaculate and very nice, so doing it wasn't so bad.

 

This morning, Monday, we packed up and headed to Durango, CO via Chama, NM and Pagosa Spring, CO.  Just stopping over to break up the drive to Monument Valley, UT which will be another four hours after we leave Durango.  It took a bit over four hours to get here. We stopped for a lunch break at a small lake at the base of Chimney Rock National Monument.

 



 





 

I'm sure I'll have lots more picture the next few days as we visit John Wayne's stomping grounds at Monument Valley.   :)  

 

Talk to you soon!!!

Quilting in Santa Fe

We arrived yesterday at about 4:30 and got set-up in our site; I need to get a picture of it and post, will do that later.   Nacho is lying by my side, too tired out from all the fun he has had today, running in the dog park and meeting other Airstreamer dogs.  So far, I believe he has met 7 new friends.   :)

Here is the entrance to the Santa Fe Skies RV Park, it is a very nice campground, well maintained though typical desert soil and landscaping.  We are told they have only had about 1 1/2 inches of rain in the last year, so everything is very dry.  We told them we were bringing Iowa rain with us and it has been sprinkling this evening.   This park sits on a hill above the valley and it is very windy!  I think it is worse than Iowa!

They have a collection of old implements from the original ranch that was on this property.  Here is a very old John Deere.

 

 So after spending the morning walking around the park and meeting the other early arrivals and exercising the dogs, we went to the Plaza in Santa Fe to explore a bit and to see the quilt show at the State capital rotunda.  One of our fellow Airstreamers from the 4CU actually has three quilts on display.  Once a year they have an artistic quilt display and it was amazing.  Here are three of Rod's quilts that were displayed this year.  I'm including some of the detail work on one of them, it's beautiful. 

 

 Below are a few of the other quilts on display.  They were just beautiful!!!

 

 

 

 After strolling around the Capital and admiring the talent on display, we were quite hungry so walked down to the Plaza to find a place for a bite to eat.   Along the way we passed the oldest house in the western United States. 

 

 

We found a restaurant with outdoor seating on the balcony overlooking the square.   It was pleasant to sit and people watch and enjoy our salads. 

 

After relaxing on the balcony, we headed back to the RV park to see how many more Airstreams had pulled in.  They are expecting about 27-29. Some people are backing out because they have heard of the fires in the mountains southwest of Santa Fe.  We aren't affected by it at all but the sunset had some neat coloring tonight. 

We meet about 4:30 this afternoon to have an ice breaker for the early arrivals (the rest are supposed to arrive tomorrow) and discuss going to dinner as a group.    So about 6:15 we all met at the entranced and caravanned to the Picos Trail Inn for dinner.  As we came out the sun was setting and the colors were beautiful.

 

This is the view behind our Airstream at the park.

We had an enjoyable day, met some interesting people and observed a bit of artistic beauty.

 

Guymon, OK - Corral Drive In Theater and RV Park

Nacho here, I told Mom that it is my blog, so I should get to do the blog once in a while!!! 

Tuesday 

It was a really long day from Eagleville, MO to Guymon, OK.  We only stopped to get gas and take a short walk!   Mom says we were trucking it, whatever that means.  We passed through the Kansas Flint Hills and saw lots of cows.   I sure like looking at them.  I bet I could round them up too.  :)

While Mom drove, Dad did research on places to stay tonight (I think he likes his new iPhone and using Mom's iPad).   Anyway, he found an RV park that was just constructed this last year out of an old drive-in movie theater.  And they still show movies on the weekends!  Dad wishes we could stay (almost) because they are showing "Fast & Furious 6 and the new Star Trek movie".  We could sit outside the Airstream and watch the movies.  How cool is that?  The owner is also a big John Deere fan as he got a used tractor from a friend, and used it to grade the whole campground, AND it is very level.  Go John Deere! 

Now there is a big storm blowing in and our trailer is rocking!!  Mom doesn't like this at all!   Temps were 92 when we arrived and they have dropped to 84 degrees in the last 1 1/2 hours.  Severe thunderstorm with ping pong ball hail and 70mph winds!   Signing off!! Pictures and more later! 

Wednesday

Nacho here again.  It was a late night because Mom didn't want to go to bed until the storm passed which was about 11:30!  I snuggled up close to Dad because he was laying in bed watching the storm while Mom paced from window to window. 

We slept late and then ran an errand, so it was 11:30 when we left Guymom, OK.  We followed the Santa Fe Trail for most of the way to Santa Fe.   Here we are taking a quick break at a rest stop at the bottom of the Rockies.

We arrived at Santa Fe Skies RV park about 4:30 MT time.   It's a nice park with pleasant views, but boy is it windy out!    

Well signing off until tomorrow. 

Kisses.....slurp, slurp!

Nacho 

On the way

So after spending the morning taking care of some last minute details, we pulled out about 12:40 pm.   We originally thought we would make it south of Kansas City, KS but since I didn't sleep well last night, we decided to stop about 5 pm.  After searching, using the handy RV campgrounds apps that I have on the iPad, we decided on Eagle Ridge campground in Eagleville, MO.  It is very small, but clean and nicely maintained.  It overlooks some rolling hills and a small pond.  

We pulled into the campground and went inside to check in; we were gone max 5-6 minutes and came in and found KT had unzipped my purse and was gorging on garb mix with raisins, peanuts, sunflowers and M&Ms!  None of which she should have, so I'll be keeping a close eye on her tonight!  

After getting set up, taking the dogs for a walk down by the pond, we came back and I fixed bacon and blueberry pancakes with rhubarb sauce for supper.  Dave LOVES blueberry pancakes so he was tickled to get them our first night out.   :)

Well that's it for now, just going to relax and go to bed early.  More tomorrow.  :)

Santa Fe or bust!

Roof leak fixed - check

New door handle and lock - check

House shown - check, though no offer, but they liked it a lot. 

Loading Airstream - in progress

Meeting with banker - scheduled

We are moving forward and on schedule for lift off on Monday afternoon.   Yeah!  Tentative first night at Hillsdale State park in Kansas.  

Big shout out to Ryan at RV Revive for keeping us on track and rescuing us once again!   Without his experience and ingenuity, we would not be leaving on time. On Friday he diagnosed and repaired the roof leak.  Then when the new Lock kit from Inland RV in CA arrived Friday afternoon,  Ryan still had us done by Saturday afternoon.  The kit had poor instructions, but with Ryan's knowledge it was installed correctly and we have a much better handle and a more secure lock.   Big thanks Ryan!!!!!!

Very disappointed with Inland RV, we asked them to ship it so we would receive it quickly, but it did not arrive until Friday afternoon, (they said it would arrive by Wednesday) it arrived with a scratch all across the top of plate for the handle, and they didn't return our old one.  If we hadn't overnighted the original to them, we probably would still be waiting.  Considering we overnighted to them the original a week ago Thursday, so they could repair or send a new kit, their service did not live up to what we had been told. 

So another thanks to Ryan for his super quick service! 

Nice handle, too bad about the big scratch!

Dave also had mud flaps installed on the truck to protect the Airstream from road debris.  Nice work by  Custom Blacksmithing in Waterloo. 

Sharp looking, right?   :)  Stay tuned........

In Search of the "Gunder Burger"

In the midst of one of the heaviest rain storms this year or the last five years for that matter, we drove with friends to try a Gunder Burger.  Now, this HUGE burger is made with 20 oz. of ground beef, fresh ground that day, by the taste of it.  This sandwich has been featured on ROAD FOOD. 

Check out their website and you will find lots of suggestions for great places to eat in little towns and big all over the USA.

The Gunder menu



We have heard about this burger for quite awhile, so to celebrate our retirement with them, the four of us decided to take a road trip.  (We might be saying that phrase for a while; "to celebrate our retirement"). 

I thought about trying the SOW Melt



From our house to Elgin, Iowa is about an hour and half and the entire drive it rained so hard Dave could barely see the road!  But we were determined!!  Now this sandwich is served at the Irish Shanty in Gunder, which is so small a village if you close your eyes for about 30 seconds and you will miss it.  Their menu was impressive for so small a place and everything looked good!  :)



Each couple decided to order a version of the burger; one had cheese, bacon, sautéed onions, and mushrooms and the other was a bacon and cheese burger.
They were split between the spouses.  Good thing too because each burger really could have fed four people. Besides the burger it came with a side of your choice of potatoes which could have fed at least two people.  So between the four of us we tried their American fries, French fries and hash browns.   Oh my! Needless to say we had leftovers.  We finished the meal with their Rhubarb cobbler, which was ok, but not great, but that's fine because everything else was!

You'll notice the bun doesn't cover but maybe a fourth of this burger.

 

Splitting the sandwich!

One half of the bacon cheese Gunder!

These hash browns covered a dinner plate!  More than 1/2 was brought home!

Well that was our adventure yesterday along with finding the trailer very wet inside from a leaking air conditioner when we returned from Gunder.  That situation has to be fixed immediately so we can leave for Santa Fe soon. So off Dave went this morning to RV Revive with it in tow for Ryan to work his magic.   Hopefully, the kit for the door handle and lock will arrive soon also, because until it's repaired we won't be leaving!  :(

Memorial Day Weekend - SE IA

Friends and Family,
Thank you to all who have served our Country.  Because of you, we all have freedoms that we enjoy due to your sacrifice and service.  We honor you!!!

Our plan was to travel to spend the weekend with dear Friends from our home church, Edgewood Baptist in Rock Island, IL.   Thursday night after purchasing groceries, I prepared to load them into the trailer and as you know it was locked and broken; you know the details if you read the previous blog entry.  Here we are pulling out of our street.

Well, Friday, after getting the trailer loaded we rigged up a combination that included a long nylon rope and bungee cords. Just about 12 miles on the road and the suction from a passing semi had us pulling off the road to reassess the contraption.  After some further refining we pulled back on the road, but determined to go slow to avoid the risk of the door being sucked open again.  Traveling only 50 miles per hour sure lengthen a 2 1/2 hour trip to over 4 hours, but we arrived safe and everything inside was fine.   Here we are set-up in our personal campground with full hookups, next to our friends cabin. 

 

They have a beautiful park like setting behind the cabin.

 

I was in charge of breakfast each morning and Joanie handled the lunch and dinner.  On our first breakfast we received this cute card from everyone.

 

It reads: D & C Jones, Retirement City, Layback Town, Any where.

 

We have so much fun with these couples, chatting and catching up on each other's lives as it has been over a year since we have seen them,........ way too long!!!!  Good thing we all like chatting away as rain was in the area for the whole weekend.

 

Saturday night, Mike had promised an Amish family, their friends in the area, that he would fix a squirrel fry.  Some of us were less enthusiastic about the main dish, so hamburgers and hotdogs were also on the menu.   Here's Mike doing his thing, cooking up the squirrels (30 of them)!

 



 

Now, Mike is a hunter obviously, and he has traveled all over the USA hunting and leading other hunters.  He hunts turkey, elk, antelope, deer and of course, squirrel.  They don't buy meat, he usually hunts for all they eat, but he also donates or gives to those who need meat.  So I enlisted Mike to give me my first lesson on how to use and shoot my first gun, Sig Sauer 9mm P938.

He also, instructed me on how to use the other gun we purchased, Ruger SR22.   I think I like the 22 much better, not so much kick and not quite so loud.   As you can see from the target below, I didn't do too bad for my first time ever shooting.  :)  It was positioned about 15 yards out.

 

I hit the target on each shot!!!! I'm impressed with myself!!!!  :)  Dave is really good though, so I will have to practice more!!!  Mike was really impressed with Dave's shooting!!! :)

 

So.... Mike insisted that I am now Miss Annie Oakley, and that I should try his rifle.  Here he is setting it up.

 

 

 

Mike giving me some instruction on how to position myself behind the gun.

 

 

 

 

I hit the target!!!!!!! From 100 yards!!!!

The three green spots are my three shots!  That gun is really heavy and there is no way I could have held it and fired.  I won't ever be shooting one of those!



I am feeling a bit better about owning a gun, now that I have had my first lesson and I promised Mike I will get more lessons and practice, so I can be a Very responsible gun owner. Target shooting is definitely in my future. 

We attended a nice little church, had wonderful meals, my first shooting lesson, attended a couple flea markets and fellowshipped with dear friends.  Despite the rain, it was a very enjoyable weekend!  Thanks Mike & Joan for hosting!!!  For our first weekend as a retired couple, we sure had a lot of fun and our friends from the Quad-Cities made it a great start!!!