Houston

We've settled rather nicely into my brother's house, not sure if we will leave.  Just kidding Glenn.  Yesterday we went to the zoo and had a nice tour of downtown Houston where he used to work and where my niece works.  The freeways are all up in the air, flyovers they are called and all over the place.  I'm sure they make sense to the locals and on a map you can see the logic in them, but wow!  After the zoo, we went and had sushi, visited Martha's mom and came home and relaxed.  We are waiting to hear from the RV repair shop.  I bought a groupon coupon to visit a local distillery.  You have to make a reservation.  When I called they weren't in, so I'm waiting to hear from them too.  Hurry up and wait.  The weather is cool and very pleasant.  It was really hot when we were in San Antonio, I like the coolness.

They stamp their eggs here.  I guess so you know where they came from.

Trust me, it was good.

This little guy is from New Guinea, I think.

He's from Africa, not Texas, but has some pretty impressive horns.

The gas prices are unreal!

Martha got a margarita machine for Christmas and we had to try it out.

Southern Route Spring 2016

My foot has healed enough to allow us to do moderate hikes, so we loaded up the 5th wheel and headed East for the spring travels.  We have to be back home before the middle of March because our first grandson is due to arrive in April.  Our first planned stop was to be in Salome, AZ.  We stopped in Blythe at Albertsons to pick up some veggies before we arrived at Tom and Patty's casita.  Jay walked around the rig and smelled burning rubber. It couldn't be us.  We were really good about checking everything before we left.  We even took it into the RV center to deal with the landing gear that was acting up.  But as Jay glanced down he noticed that the two rear wheels were touching and rubbing together.  Not a good thing.  The shackle had broken and we couldn't move on.  We called Good Sam's roadside assistance and they told us they found a mobile RV guy in Parker, AZ.  He charged $1.50 a mile both ways and $100/hr for repairs.  What could we do?  Pay or live at Albertson's for the rest of our life?  Ok, send the guy out.  Our friends in Salome talked to the guy who does their repairs and he agreed to come out and get us and repair the shackle.  Canceled the Parker guy and followed our 5th wheel to Salome.  I think the truck is supposed to be in the front of the trailer.

The owner at the automotive shop, Tony, did a really good job.  He not only welded and reinforced that shackle, he did the same to all of the others too.  The landing gear acted up again.  He couldn't figure that one out, but put a metal strap around the motor so it wouldn't wobble all over the place.  $1600 later, we had the rig back.

Meanwhile back at the casita, we had a really nice time visiting with Tom and Patty.  We went to their local golf course and played nine holes.  They let us stay in their tiny house for a couple of nights while we waited for our rig to be repaired.

We left and headed east ahead of the weather front that was directly behind us.  We drove to New Mexico the first night and stayed at Rock Hound State Park.  Cute little campground, but full.  We spent the night in the day use area.  Then on to Texas.  The first night we stayed at Hill Top RV in Fort Stockton, TX.  Nothing but wind and dirt.  Then to the KOA in San Antonio.  I don't recommend driving through downtown San Antonio with a 5th wheel.  The campground was nice and a bus ride to river walk and the Alamo, but it has an automatic gate around it's 40 acres and in an industrial part of town.  Kinda spooky for me.  We didn't go sight seeing because we didn't want to leave the dog and we were dog tired from driving.  On the way home we plan to stop and do the sightseeing.

The view from our campground at Fort Stockton, TX.  Not much anywhere.  Jay was looking for green somewhere.

We found green at the KOA in San Antonio.

Stella was dog tired too.

Now we are at my brother's home in Houston.  The 5th wheel is back in the shop, hopefully getting the landing gear fixed.  I would complain, but it is 10 years old and this is one of the few times we had to take it in.  We will just call it maintenance.  

The Narrows . . .

We only live a days drive away from Zion, but we have never taken the time to explore any of the parks in Utah, because we were always on our way up to Montana to visit family.  Last year our son took our camper and toured the Grand Canyon and then went around the north side to end up finally in Watchman campground in Zion.  What a beautiful place.  We went back there with them the beginning of November before I had to have my foot operated on.  The last epic hike of the year.  It was so beautiful there and not too crowded.  From the sounds of things, we were lucky.  I guess it is crowded there a lot.  I don't think I would like to be there in the summer; it just looks hot.  I don't do heat well.  Guess that's why we leave the desert and go north every summer.  We hiked up the Narrows about 5 miles.  It was beautiful and we plan to go back there again.  I follow a blog "Oh the Places We Go" and they hike like crazy.  They posted a lot of their Utah hikes and I will be looking them up when we go back.  At the moment I can only sit here with my bandaged foot up and dream and plan.

On another hike, we found petroglyphs.  The rangers finally gave up the location, but they didn't want to.

The last hike until next year.
 

The end of the Alaskan Highway . . .

Just before we left on vacation, we happened upon a jeep and bought it.  Jay had mentioned that he would like one to tow behind the truck and low and behold, a good deal just happened to land in our laps.  Needless to say, the entire trip every time I saw a jeep, I would ask if that is like ours.  I truly didn't know because we had it for a few days before we left.  This isn't the one we bought, but this is how we thought we had to pack to drive across Canada and Alaska, not so much.  There are gas stations and civilization outposts everywhere.  

If this was me, I would have had some veggies growing up here.

Our models, Judy and Buddy.  We had to stop here for reindeer sausage and other types of meat
you can't find in the lower 48.

This is the outside of the meat store.  It is a big processing plant.

The Alaska state bird.  Guess who the jokesters are on this trip?

Road signs you don't see too many other places.

We took this trip backwards.  This is the end of the Alaskan Highway.

One thing I love about traveling north for the summer are all of the flowers. There are big balls of flowers hanging off of patios and store fronts everywhere.  We have had such a drought in California for such a long time, it's nice to see green and flowers.

I miss my garden at our old house.

The flowers and garden are in front of an old farmstead in Delta Junction.  Loved reading about and seeing all of the old stuff.

After we left here, we continued on to North Pole to visit my cousin.  More on that later.

Thought I would have finished this by now . . .

We have been home, gone back up 395 to Bishop, sprained my ankle and waiting to have surgery on my other foot next week.  With all of that, I truly thought I would have finished my Alaska trip by now.  Whoops, so I am just going to put up some pics with highlights.  When we finished going to Chicken we stayed in an RV park outside of Denali.  It was raining and a muddy mess in the park, but being a Desert Rat, I loved the green and rain.

Saw "The Mountain" several times peeking in and out of the clouds

Then we went to North Pole and met up with my cousin and finally met her family for the first time ever.  Her kids are full blown adults with babies! Well, we only met one of her kids, the others were at college and at work.

When we left North Pole and Denali, (Denali was after North Pole) we headed to the Kenai Pennisula and stayed at Homer, Seward and Valdez.  I loved it there.  It is what I picture when I think of Alaska.  When we go back, we are going straight there.  We fished for halibut and salmon and caught our limit.





I caught the bass!

There is a food truck next to the brewery that delivers the oysters when you order them.  Jay was mad because he had to share with me.  The other ladies don't like oysters.



The only wildlife we kept seeing were Elks.



Transportation in McCarthy

Brady was too hot and sat down in 50 degree water!

The boys had to stop here, one of their fav shows



Combat fishing at midnight in Soldotna


We had a great time.  Came home through Montana to visit my brother, biked the Hiawatha Bike Trail, met up with the kids near Tahoe, saw our sister-in-law in Reno and eventually made it home.  It was a great retirement trip!

Back in the USA at a BLM

We are back home now. It's Labor Day weekend and we are finally getting caught up on all of the chores that didn't get done this summer.  I didn't know I had so many people reading my blog while we were gone.  So I am going to continue with our travels through my journal and pictures.  Basically I get to go on the trip again and download more pictures because I have decent Internet.  They have it in Alaska, but it's sketchy and it takes forever for pictures to download.  Anyway, buckle your seat belts and let's go to down the road.

One of the nice things about turning 62, (for Jay) is the senior pass you can buy for the national park system.  Most places you camp, you get 50% off.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has a lot of basic dry camping spots that are pretty cheap to free and if you have a senior pass, you usually only pay half price.  The Milepost has one such campground that is outside of Chicken, so we decided to stay there for the night.  Buddy and I were super excited to be camping for $5 a night.  The only downside was that there was a warning of mosquitoes.  It was really pretty and it did have a ton of mosquitoes.  They didn't bother Buddy, he chews tobacco, or me too much, but the rest of the group basically stayed inside their RV's looking out.  

Forty Mile BLM campground  

There is a beaver lodge there, but you can't really see it.