Dallas Texas -The Kennedy Musuem - Traffic

Dallas is a beautiful city with a mixture of the old and the new. It is difficult to tell where Dallas starts and Fort Worth ends, and the other smaller cities connect. We left for Dallas mid-morning in our Honda fit. There is a big difference between 40 mpg and ....well much less than that in driving a house around. The trip in was very pleasant, and Sue (Suzi) and Hillary agreed on most of the route. It is still some what funny to watch sue tract on the paper map while Hillary tells us where to turn. Sue has even begun to audibly disagree with Hillary. We got exactly where we were going with a minor alteration in the address.

We spent the next several hours on the 6th Floor of the Texas Book Depository were the alleged assassin of John F. Kennedy shot the President. The museum had numerous exhibits including displays on his accomplishments during his short three years, his family history, and of course, the three days in history in Dallas in November, 1963. The exhibits included a recorded guided tour that you could hear detailed information on each exhibit, video stations to watch different historical sequences, and replicas of evidence. I also found out that someone actually has more books on the assassination than I do. Unfortunately I still haven't solve the who done it.

We went down to the grassy knoll, and got a much better picture of the layout. It made the scene much more understandable by seeing it. I have come to the realization that this case will never be solved, so I will move on. There was an interesting poster in the gift shop that showed around fifty "prime" suspects that had a reason to see him dead for a sundry reason. My newest favorite suspect is Frank Sinatra. Don't mess with my friend Marilyn.

I love photographing building buildings. So I did.

On the way home we encountered rush hour traffic. Note for me: 4-6pm is not a good time to be traveling away from a big city. In Arlington we just need to know what time the cows crossed the street to the milking barn.

We had another great day and were blessed by the days farewell. Tomorrow will be a stay at home day with some little chores to take care of before we set out again south.

The Long Drive East...

Yesterday morning we packed up the coach and prepared for a travel day. Our destination was Abilene, Texas (a distance of 270 miles). We estimated our drive to be slightly more than halfway to Bridgeport, Texas which was our next stop. After reviewing the map we opted not to take the freeway, but to journey on secondary highways and some county roads (the scenic route) and as the morning became afternoon realized that the drive was great, and the destination was within reach with a little extra time. Sooo, here we are in Bridgeport, TX (427 miles, and 9 hours later).

The drive was more interesting with a combination of long stretches of prairie, huge ranches, and small 300-4000 population towns. This was much more interesting than freeway exit businesses, and cars and trucks thinking that 60 miles per hour is way too slow.

Sue offered to "drive a spell", but the drive was not bad nor was I tired, so I will save that experience for later. Instead, she continued sharing navigation duties with Hillary, our faithful GPS.

We are in a 1000 Trails campground a day early, which will give us an extra day to bank for an extended day here, or in the Houston/San Antonio area later this week. We are on a lake with a beautiful view, and moderate temperature.

Today we are driving the car into to Dallas in hopes of solving the JFK conspiracy once and for all.

We look forward to each day and what it brings along this adventure.

Day two in the Caverns

One day was not enough! We scheduled a guided tour this morning and are glad we did. Even though our calves still are tight from the walk yesterday, today was worth it. We were treated to the "Kings Palace" and a lot of history and geology. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So here is a glance of some of the wonders we were treated to.











Tomorrow we are off to Texas. On purpose. Another great adventure.

WOW! Carlsbad Caverns - Day One

There are no words, or pictures that can describe the awesome beauty of the Caverns. After looking around the grounds we descended down the "natural entrance" a distance of 1 mile, and then took the self guided tour one more mile around the big room. The total trip took two and a half hours. We enjoyed it so much that we are going back tomorrow to do a third guided led tour tomorrow morning. Sue has never been to the caverns, and I was last there fifty years ago. I do not remember it being so big, and so amazing. After the caverns were first discovered, U.S. Department of the Interior sent Inspector Robert Holley to see whether Carlsbad Cavern was truly an outstanding natural scenic wonder . Holley was a skeptic at first wrote in his final report "I am wholly conscious of the feebleness of my efforts to convey in words the deep conflicting emotions, the feeling of fear and awe, and the desire for an inspired understanding of the Divine Creators work, which present to the human eye such a complex aggregate of natural wonders." I concur! It was a photographers dream.

Thank goodness for digital.

Next time we will pay full fare and take the regular path.

A windy trip down the road.

We are in Carlsbad, NM. We didn't take pictures because we just got here. We are not complaining, but from the turn south from I-40 to here we have been in a strong cross wind that continues as I write. Although we have full hook ups. the slides have all come in for fear that the small awnings above the slides might be ripped. The wind continues and may for a day or two. We will go up to the caves tomorrow in the small car (to visit not to live) and take lots of pictures. We are safe and sheltered, and will wait out the storm as we are currently scheduled to leave after three nights. According to "weatherchannel.com" the winds are currently 30 miles per hour with gust up to 50. Tomorrow will be better.

It is a good thing this didn't happen in Albuquerque, the balloons would be in Europe by now.

Our Last Day in Albuquerque

It is really too bad we are leaving tomorrow morning. I just got used to spelling Albuquerque. One would assume that while we were parked at the balloon museum that we would eventually see a balloon or two outside of the museum. We did! This morning started with the balloons and this evening ended with balloon "burn" . We may need to schedule a trip back here to witness the balloon festival sometime in October when hundreds of balloons descend on the city. (note: If you want to see the pictures full size just double click on them. It should give you a better view.)

I spent the majority of the day at one more seminar, and picking up pre-approved items for our trip. Sue dropped by for a couple of hours and than left me on my own. Dangerous!! I came home with only the things on the list, and a couple others.

The biggest and best news is the arrival of our Washington Plate for the Honda Fit. Those of you who know the story can appreciate how big this news is. For the rest of you, I will just share briefly that an unnamed bank had to be "chased " for five months to get a title to me so I could change the plate. Thanks to my daughter Kim in Arlington, the plate arrived here and I can legally drive/tow my car for the rest of our trip. Happy Day.

We are off to Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow. Neither of us have been there since we were kids. Another great adventure, and a couple days of hook ups for the coach.

SantaFe and B.J. Thomas

Yesterday we took the day off from the Convention and rode the train up to Santa Fe. The $7 dollar round trip was on the commuter train was well worth every dollar. We sat and relax on the upper floor of a warm coach enjoying the scenery between

Snowing in Albuquerque

Albuquerque and Santa Fe without the concerns of traffic or directions.



The trip started off with snowing in Albuquerque and ended up with sunshine in Santa Fe. Santa Fe is a beautiful town with a combination of the new (the Hilton Hotel) and the old, the 400th anniversary of it's establishment. A combination of Galleries, Shops, and street vendors were located all around the the Plaza. It is touted as the "walking city" and rightfully so. A short trip from the train station puts you in the middle of the Plaza. We looked for some authentic ethnic food for lunch but settled for a Frito pie and a corn dog at the old five and dime soda fountain. (In case you were wondering, a Frito pie consist of a bag of Frito's opened on one side and chili poured into the Frito's. I love health food.)

We returned to Albuquerque just in time to see the evening entertainment from the FMCA Convention at a local casino featuring B.J. Thomas. It started at 7 pm so the older crowd could be back home before bedtime. Thomas is a sixties singer who is best known for "Rain drops keep falling on my head" from from The Midnight Cowboy. In the old concert tradition of waving lighters to to rhythm of the music, a group behind us used their cell phones. Isn't technology great. It was a fun evening and a great day.

Tomorrow we finish with a seminar on the CAT that I have in the motor home, and a last look at the expo before we batten down the hatches and prepare for our journey to Carlsbad NM.

Everything is great, and we are enjoying each day with continued anticipation of another adventure ahead.

Window Shopping (mostly), preventative maintence, the pampered dog, and Family.

We ventured out to the exhibition halls for the first time after Steve (me) went to two seminars at the "convention/rally". Except for a cover for the tow bar, a sign that identifies us for the motor home, and two free bags of pancakes, we did ok. The seminars are very interesting, but also cause one to think about all the things you need to do to keep the motor home in tip top shape. A two hour a month chore will probably end up a all day event.

Speaking about preventative maintenance, a mobile oil change, lube, and liquid level check truck came to service our coach at my request. 19 quarts of oil later, and a service of the generator was done in a short hour and half by someone who actually enjoys siding under the coach and getting dirty. It cost a little more than jiffy lube (ha,ha), but was well worth it. Every thing checked out great, and it won't be necessary for another 11,000 miles or one year.

(above)For you dog (or cat) spoilers, here is the picture of the day. I don't have my own entrance, exit, but he/she does.

We spent a great evening with my nephew Robert, his wife Lisa, and their son Michael (not Mikey or Mike, but Michael!) at dinner. One of the things we look forward to during this trip is getting to see friends and family that have been separated by distance. Michael was a very patient young man while the adults visited for an hour or more. Family is always important!

We are taking a day off from the Convention today to go by train to Santa Fe. We look forward to another great adventure.

Official Day one at the Conference/Expo

Today was the first official day at the FMCA International Conference (in Albuquerque, NM. I attended three seminars explaining how to avoid

Dream--->

avoiding disasters, and what I really need to make this adventure successful. The expo will have every type of opportunity and than some. I will try to remember the difference between want and need.

I tried to explain this to my oldest grandchild 12 years ago when he was four. Sue and I were walking through Toy's R Us and he kept saying "Josh needs this, Josh needs this, and Josh needs this. Finally I looked down at him and remarked that he needed to learn the difference between "need" and "want". After a short moment of silence Sue looks at me and replies "and your going to teach him that?" Touche.

So I will attend some more seminars, and walk under the careful eye of Sue through the exhibit halls. There are several things "we" are looking for, but we will see what the prices are first.
<---1963 Airstream
We walked through the new motor homes on display, Sue saw many different floor plans in motor homes from 80,000 to 1.4
million dollars. We are not looking for a new motor home but it is fun to look. I did find one or two RV's that were in our price range, but sue talked me out of making an offer.

We just watched the movie "up", a Disney Pixar animated film. If you haven't seen it, it is a great family film about a balloon ride. It

Reality--->

was very poplar here with the balloon theme and the senior citizen theme interwoven in the story.

The weather was beautiful today, but they say tomorrow will cool down and we may see some precipitation. But regardless, we still look forward to another great day.

It's a beautiful day...and Warmer

The sun was out, and it warmed up to a pleasant 60. We did our daily walk down to the main tent and attended a non-denominational service. Great music and a good inspirational message. We sat by people who had lived in Marysville, and another from Orting. It is a small world.

We hiked back up to our parking area and toured the hot air balloon museum. Now before anyone says anything, I was not looking for employment. It was a very interesting exhibit and lots of history. Many years ago the Rotary club sponsored an exchange student from France. Her great grandfather was one of the brothers who invented the concept of the hot air balloons in France. Indeed, it mentioned her great grandfather and his brother. Albuquerque is famous for it's annual international Balloon Festival and the park we are in is dedicated to that event and ballooning.

After lunch we we headed into Old Town Albuquerque and walked around the shops. In addition to shops, there were numerous artist selling there creations sitting on the sidewalks. The prices were good, and the environment was great. After a few purchases, we found a quaint Mexican Restaurant and had a great dinner with plenty of left overs. We won't be cooking lunch tomorrow.

Tomorrow starts the seminars, and expo. We are looking forward to learning more about the coach, and some tips on traveling.

Albuquerque is a beautiful town and we are looking forward to exploring some more before we leave.

Burrrrrrrrrr........It is cold out there!

Yes, I was sniveling about a little snow yesterday. We safely arrived last night at the staging area for the 30 coaches to go into the Balloon park today. This was day one for dry camping. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term "dry camping" it means no water, electricity, or sewer hookups. Now before you get the wrong idea, we do have indoor plumbing in the coach, as will as a huge generator, and a 90 gallon tank of fresh water, so it is not quite like tent camping. We use an inverter to give us some electricity but when we need to micro-wave dinner or heat or make my mocha, we have to fire up the generator. Indeed, It is tough.

When I woke up this morning it was extra cool, and I ventured out to take my early walk I found that it had snowed over night. Luckly it wasn't sticking on the road and began to melt before we left the staging area. We are now parked in a graveled lot waiting for the convention to start on Monday. The tempature is cold, but the view is great! They expect about 2000 Motor Homes this year, quite a few less than in the past.

The coach was filthy after the rain/snow and road here, so I tried the infamous half gallon of water wash that my good friend demonstrated. I got the dirt and grime of, but it still need another wash soon.

Tomorrow will be an exploring day. We called my nephew who lives in Albuquerque and hope that we can meet up before we leave on Thursday.

Every day has brought new experiences and we continue to look forward to each day.

Albuquerque bound and the first of 7 days "dry camping.

Note # 1: Don't start gloating about no snow too soon. After leaving Gallup this morning we had still not seen the predicted snow.

Gallup was an interesting little town that was primarily Native American craft shops and artist gallery of native American art. The difference between the galleries and the craft shops was the price. Unfortunately for the economics of the city, neither had many customers resulting an excellent customer services if you walked in. There was beautiful woven blankets, jewelry or silver and turquoise, and dolls. We also went in to a shop that was also a pawn shop and watched a transaction between the owner and a customer where $12 was paid for three sets of handcrafted earrings that sold for $20 or $30.00 each in the glass display. Many people are disparate for money.

Gallup is at about 5000 feet above sea level. Before descending into Albuquerque we would go up to about 7000 feet and then down to our destination. We noticed a dark cloud chasing us from the west and decided to "out run it. We didn't. The picture of us posing at the continental divide was skip in favor of getting back down the mountain before the snow started sticking. We did. We are now at our overnight parking spot awaiting the convoy to Balloon Park tomorrow morning. We will be joining 1 to 2 thousand other RV Motor Homes for a rally and Expo. Sue is in charge of Steve's wallet.

Another great day is right around the corner!

Cottonwood AZ to Gallup NM

Off we go, into the wild blue yonder.....will not quite, but it sounded good. No one wants to hear about 9:00 am starts that begin at 10:30 so I will skip that part. We headed north on 17 towards Flagstaff this morning. Our agenda was...we didn't have one. We wanted to be in New Mexico some time early evening. Our ultimate goal is to be in Albuquerque on Friday afternoon.

Some people warned us about the possibility of snow in Flagstaff and beyond. As we began our accent towards Flagstaff we saw small patches of snow on the ground (off the road thank goodness). We also realized that we were at 6000 feet above sea level. The higher we got, the bigger the patches. No snow on the road.

We headed east on Highway 40 and saw signs for Meteor Crater. Off the main road we went to see if this was another Highway attraction, or for real. Six miles off the road we found a large tourist center with an even larger crater. After paying admission (senior citizen rate) we ventured into the museum, theater, and gift shop. Some time in the pre-historic past a large meteor slammed into the earth. The blast was equivalent to 1000 times the bomb dropped in Japan. It is not the largest meteor to hit the earth, but the hole was 700 feet deep and the circumference is 2 and 1/4 miles around. It was a great geology lesson. It is privately owned by a family who established mining rights in the 1800's. It has also been used by NASA to train the astronauts who went to the moon.

We left the Crater and continued east. We still had not decided where we would stop. I saw a sign that promoted a discussion. It said "Gallup-60 miles". I pondered out loud if anyone could really could do that with out hurting themselves let alone the horse. That discussion then move to a sounds like a good place to stop for a night. We re-calulated the time we needed to get to Albuquerque and realized we could actually stay two nights and still have plenty of time. So we are staying here. We will take several day trips including a NCCST. This reduces the ability to spend anything more than what we have in our pockets. (like that's going to work). We will see how that goes.

New Mexico is just as beautiful as Arizona. We will take more pictures tomorrow.

Note: Just because the truck/weight station says "Trucks, trailers, and tow bars required to go through weight station in New Mexico) apparently does mean that just because we have a tow bar we need to. I didn't think that it was as funny as the guy in the booth did.

Sedona AZ - Early in the morning

Yesterday morning I adventured out early w/o Sue to get pictures of Sedona and the Red Rock formations at Sunrise. (Sue loves sunrises when they occur after 9 or 10 in the morning). Sadona is another touristy town in northern Arizona about 30 miles south of Flagstaff. It has wonderful little shops with expensive gifts and art, that are best observed from outside a closed door. I did get some great pictures of the mountains, found an open Starbucks, and went for a adventure ride on a "loop". Generally one thinks of a loop as a road that starts and finishes on the same road. About 3 miles down hill I saw a county sign that read "end of paved road". Hummm. Should I continue, or turn around. It was early in the morning, and I wasn't pressed for time, so I continued on and saw some fantastic views. The car, a small Honda fit, did ok on the bumpy road, the road eventually became paved, and I did end up on the original road. I headed for camp and noticed several air balloons high in the sky. Sue has always wanted to take a balloon ride. I stopped and snapped a couple of pictures and than continued on. I came around a corner and saw another 6 or 7 balloons. These were much closer to the ground, in fact too close and flying across the highway about a couple hundred feet above. This looked too close for safety so I stopped again to take pictures. I than realized that the chase vehicle was just below the balloon and watched them land safe and softly.

The remainder of the day was spent relaxing in the 75 degree sun. Something that I need to learn to do more often. Last night (in the hot tub)we met one of the guys from Palm Springs who sang in a Barber Shop Quartet to Sue in the pool. (Is she being stalked?)

This morning we batten down the hatches and move on to New Mexico. Neither of us have been to New Mexico since we were elementary age. Another new adventure! We are not sure of wi-fi connections for the next several days, so if you don't see a new blog we will catch up in a day or two.

Today will be another great day!

Jerome and Tuzigoot National Monument

Today was a tourist day. We first ventured to the quaint City of Jerome. It is on route 89a and about half way to Prescott on a steep uphill grade. Once a copper mining town, located at about 5000 feet, it is best known for the "ghost" that

The police and fire department in Jerome AZ >

haunt the many old buildings. We personally didn't see any, but I guess that's why they are called ghost. It is now a large tourist city with every trinket you can imagine. There was a lot of local artists whose work was sold in small galleries. My favorite item (that I didn't buy) was a rustic looking tee-shirt with a group of hikers in the high wilderness walking along on a ridge. The caption was "take a compass, it is embarrassing to have to eat your friends." After climbing up to the top of the business district we walked back down to the car. More exercise.

We than drove east to the Tuzigoot National Monument and toured the old ruins. Another short walk around the site and back home for the day. We ended our evening with a pleasant evening in the hot tub at the community building that provided a beautiful view of the stars unobstructed by city lights and buildings.

Another great day as we look forward to tomorrow.

Verde Valley - High Desert - Arizona

This is my mom and dad who graciously hosted us in Surprise. I can only hope that I am as active as they remain at their young age. They are involved in their church, Gideon, and veterans associations (Dad is a retired marine SGT. Major who served in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam, and mom was the general in charge of 6 kids!


We left Surprise right after church this morning headed for the "high desert" just south of Flagstaff. The drive was beautiful! Instead of large forest of trees, the area is a large forest of Saguaro Cactus. I would have taken a picture, but Sue doesn't want me multitasking while driving. This is a picture I stole off the internet.


We arrived at Verde Valley at about 3pm and found a great space with a great view. More pictures to come. Setting up is getting easier every time. We still have some tricks to learn. Thank goodness for friends like Adriaan. The 2 back slide outs would not make a sound. Would not go out, in, up or down. I spent the next hour checking every fuse, reading the owners manual, re-checking every fuse, and looking for the manual override (there isn't one). I didn't have a chain to pull it out, so I decided that the extra room really wasn't necessary until Sue reminded me that
without the slide out out, the drawers with our clothes would not open. Actually her's wouldn't, I can belly crawl to get to mine with the exception of....will that not necessary information. I decided to call my good friend who knows everything about this coach, and then she referred me to her husband who is my tech service associate. After putting me on hold for the mandatory 20 minutes, he asked me a question, that par for the course, didn't make any sense. "Had I checked the TV? I didn't care about the tv, I wanted the slide outs out! He then explained that the coach had a switch that would not let the slides work unless the tv was completely latched closed. Oh!


The slides are out, I can get to my unmentionables, life is good! This evening we took a short walk and view a beautiful sunset. I think that Arizona has some of the best sunsets in the world. Washington could have great sunsets, they just need to get the sun to come out once in a while.



As always we are looking forward to what tomorrow brings with great anticipation.

Last Day in Surprise

Today will be our last full day in Surprise. We spent the week with mom and dad just relaxing, working on projects, visiting, taking rides, and shopping. Sue, mom and Steve found some bargains a a thrift store, sue and I cruised downtown Phoenix while dad had an appointment at the VA, and we ate at a BBQ place that fed us the equivalent of three nights worth of food. We are all still working on it.

Today we will go through the soon to be routine of putting things away and preparing to pull put after church. We are headed to Cottonwood, AZ where there might be some snow. Every day is another adventure. We have used the hot tub every night. Two nights ago we chatted with a long lime RVer who share a lot of great advise. (Note: always bring a note pad when you go to the community hot tub,. You never know what great information you may get, and I rarely remember it by the time I get home.) I did remember when the old timer shared his experience where he was cut off by a speeding truck in the snow and was traveling sideways for several hundred yards down a highway in his 40 foot coach. The mere picture of that made getting to Texas a good thing.

Things are great and we anxiously await today's experience.

Take me out to the ball game

Surprise Arizona is the site of spring Training for the Texas Rangers, and the Kansas City Royals. What was once a desert above Phoenix, is now a thriving city for retired folks (like us) and spring training facilities. As luck would have it, the Mariners played Texas on Wednesday, and we joined 6 old (figuratively and actually) friends for a ball game. The Mariners won.

This is why young people play base ball. I would get hurt if I tried this >.

It was surprising that even with the time that had passed since we had seen them last, it soon seemed that we had never been away. We knew some of these people for nearly 40 years and had kept in touch. The game and the dinner after the game allowed us to catch up with everything and than some. The memories, the jokes, the laughing, and planning for the next get together flew by. The only thing that changed was the party ended at 8:30pm when it used to start at 9:00pm. How great is is to have friends over the years to laugh with.
(Bottom row L2R Sylvia, Pam, Al, Don, Top row Steve, Sue, Becky and Doug). The guys all worked together as finance director, parks and recreation director, should have been fire chief, and should have been police chief in Tukwila during the 70's and 80's and some in the 90's.

The weather has improved and is in the 70's. Morning walks (one of us) are relaxing. I am eating a fresh tangerine just picked off mom's tree. It is delicious! She also has a huge crop of huge grapefruit. Life is great.

Steve (and Sue)

Surprise Arizona - A visit with Mom and Dad

We are parked in Surprise Arizona right next to Steve's parents community. We all worked together moving collections from the casita garage to the main garage so the the "sub-terrarium termites" could be eliminated. They are pesky little creatures who love the desert weather and the wood inside of the house.

This park is huge. A golf course, naturally, a huge community center, four pools, tennis courts, horse shoes, and miles of roads to walk. They have sites that accommodate motor homes and a small or not so small house,extra room, or utility shed. It is apparent that many of the people are permanent residents, but some are snowbirds. We managed to rent a space for a week during spring training. Many of the rental spaces are booked a year in advance.

My parents think that the rainy weather is following the people from the northwest as it rained most of the week my brother was here, and has rained every day since we have been in Arizona. It is supposed to be better tomorrow.

We are still having a great time, and looking forward to each day.

Good bye sunshine - Hello Rain and a Can you believe this?

We left Palm (Sunny) Springs on Saturday Morning. It was a beautiful Day and we were well rested for the next adventure. We headed east towards Arizona with nothing but a annoying sound coming from some unidentified place in/on/around the coach. We had already removed the TV antenna that doesn't pick up anything that is digital (like all the channels) and the noise still continued. More on this later.

We crossed the border in to Arizona and stopped at the Flying J Truck Stop to refuel. We are prepared to spend some money for diesel fuel, but not all of it at the first station. If it continues this way I may have to give away our first child.....hummm. Just kidding Kim. We chose to take the road less travel and headed north on a small rural highway towards Lake Havasu,a dam created Lake on the Colorado river. Sue ask me if I wanted a break from driving. She has never driven this coach or the truck with the trailer, or our first motor home. I thought she was kinding. She wasn't. Thus the picture posted. This is for real. She drove about 25 miles and then allowed me to take over. There will be no remarks about driving over the gravel shoulder every time a car, truck, or shadow came the other way, she did great.

We arrived mid afternoon and had a great time visiting with our friends from Tukwila, Bob and Gerri. We enjoyed dinner and all went great until Bob told us about the monster taranchula (sp?) that he had thrown in the field we were parked in. Needless to say Sue (and I) walked carefully back to the coach, and still are making sure that he didn't hitch-hike back with us to Surprise.

Sunday Morning we went to breakfast with them and snapped another picture. Lake Havasu is the home of the London Bridge. By the way, it is not falling down.

We had another great ride except the annoying noise. I finally went to the top of the roof and found that the dish had not been setting properly causing a tap on the roof constantly. A slight adjustment, no more noise.

We will being spending a week at Happy Trails RV Park next to Mom and Dad's Home at Tradition. We have a ball game planned with some other Tukwila friends, and lots of time with mom and dad.

Our favorite sign leaving the small town of Hope Arizona, "You are now beyond hope", and maybe we are.