On the road again, but this time in our motor home. Ann wanted something with a bathroom and shower, so we traded in the pop-up camper and bought a 31' Jayco. We are now soaking up the rain in Ocean Shores on our first outing with this unit. She wanted to watch the storm come in, and boy did it come in, thunder, hail, pouring rain, gusty winds, and waves high enough that we couldn't see the ocean out beyond the breakers. I'd like to post some pictures, but this connection is realllly slooowwww. Ken

We left Nauvoo on Thursday and really covered ground.  We got all the way across Iowa and into Nebraska.  We did see a cougar in a wooded ravine right alongside the road, but were moving too fast to get a picture. 

We ran into a "severe thunderstorm" just west of Omaha, continuous lightning, nickle-sized hail, traffic on the freeway down to 20mph with flashers on for quite a ways.  I guess it had spawned a couple of tornadoes in Colorado, just south of us.  The wind was blowing 50-60mph across the freeway, sheets of rain.  We decided to spend the night in a motel in York, NE.  I'm not sure either of us wanted to be out in that stuff in a camper. 

We scooted out of town and drove the rest of the way across Nebraska, leaving the freeway at Ogallala and following the Mormon Trail up the North Platte to Torrington, WY, where the thunderstorms were threatening again, so are holed up in Grandma's Inn for the night. We had hoped to get west of the storms, but still have a way to go. Fortunately, both motels cost us less than we usually pay for a single night, and we got nice showers out of the deal.   

We will take some time to sort through pictures, and I'll post the ones that apply to this portion of the blog when we get back into coverage.  So far, so fun, so good! Casper and Landers tomorrow, I hope.

We have traveled quite a long way from Texas since the last post.  We haven't had good WIFI reception anywhere we have been until now. 
So, we went from Lee and Cindy's to Many, LA.  Stayed in an RV park called Southern Leisure-not recommending it to anyone.  The bathrooms and showers were scary.  The path into the park should have warned us.  Paved, but barely, and huge lumps and bumps.  At least it was only $10.  From there we went to Ashdown, AR.  The trip there was nice, the scenery was green and lovely.  The RV park was much nicer, still only $10, but with a decent shower!  We went on up to Branson, MO the next day and stayed there 2 nights.  Very nice private park with good restrooms and showers, right off the main road.  It was much quieter than I had expected.  The best part was that we got to see fireflies for the first time.  I was enchanted.  Unfortunately we couldn't get pictures of them.  We went to the Butterfly Palace, to the Titanic Museum, and to the Johnny Cash Songbook.  We enjoyed all of them very much.  Ken especially liked the Johnny Cash show.  The lead was good, but the guy who played the backup guitar, banjo, and the dombro was fantastic.  He is the champion bluegrass banjo player in the country.  He was with the group on the Andy Griffith Show who always were coming into town and giving Andy a hard time.  They could sing and play, though, and Andy would end up joining in.  We sat on the second row for the show, small theater, and Ken was right in front of him.  He was great.
From there we went up to Owensville, MO.  It was a nice park, but really warm.  Our campsite had absolutely no shade, and it was a ways to the bathroom/showers.
 Went from there up to Nauvoo.  We spent the next 5 nights there.  This was the closest to real camping that we have done.  The camp was a State Park, and only had electricity hookups, no water.  It also had bugs.  The last 2 nights we didn't turn on the lights in the trailer, just used a little flashlight that has a red light setting for light.  The bugs aren't attracted by the red light. 
We greatly enjoyed Nauvoo.  We went to church at the missionary Ward, and felt the great spirit there.  We did a temple session, went to the missionary show, Sunset on the Mississippi, and to the BYU Ballroom Dance Show.  Sunset on the Mississippi was so fun!  I laughed until I almost cryed at the antics.  The young people who do much of the show are a group of young people who try out each year.  Of course the BYU group is excellent.  They were in full costume and had backdrops and lighting.  This was all done on the outdoor stage.  We also saw all the historic sites in the restored area of Nauvoo.

We were out by the pool, surrounded by palm trees and flowers when I spotted one of the locals!

Lake Jackson Gecko

At The Museum

We took the tribe to one of the local museums so that they could show us the big Jade Ship

3 foot Tall Jade Ship

The twins birthday was coming up, so for their big surprise, their parents had arranged for horseback riding at the home of friends on the morning of Memorial Day.  I'm glad I wasn't in the room when Em heard about it.  Her shriek of joy was loud enough to break all the windows in the house!

Emily Is Excited

Elizabeth is Excited Too



Ethan Is Next



Seth Cowboy

Kaylee Loves the Horse

Emily Goes Solo

Elizabeth Goes Solo, Too

Mom Gets Her Turn



Dad Looks Good on a Horse



Grampa Ken is Last

 I do believe that everyone involved had a good time.  I haven't been up on a horse for forty years, but it's kind of like riding a bicycle, you get right back into it again.  From the expressions on the faces of the crew, they looked like they were enjoying themselves.  They even got to feed the horses some green apples, which was too scary for the little ones, but they put out hay for the ones inside the fence.  We had to cut off the hay supply or they would have emptied the hay shed.


Cowboys and Cowgirls Ready to Ride

They next day Ann and Ken went down to one of the local nature observatories to see if they could add to their bird sightings, but it was close to noon before we got there.  The birds were a lot smarter, they were in the shade (92 degrees/95% humidity) so we took some flower pictures.  The orchid was a rare find, but I understand there are many varieties that grow in the wetlands. Hi Barb and Claire, this one is for you!

Orchids in the Swamp

This Passion Flower was near the visitors' center, but was so spectacular I just had to have a picture.

Passion Flower 3.5" Across

Carlsbad Cactus

Sorry for the delay, we have gotten emails wondering if we had fallen off the edge of the earth, but we have been having so much fun with the grandchildren that we got behind with the blog.  The desert just explodes with flowers after a rain, and you can see the old buds on the cactus were about to dry up when it rained and it bloomed overnight. 

Ann and Ken at Carlsbad

 We made it to Carlsbad caverns, it was bright sunshine outside, but way darker inside, as you can see from the gift/snack shop photo.

Carlsbad Gift and Snack Shop

 I took 170 pictures in the 2-1/2 hours we were in the cave, and finally decided to leave when my hands got so cold I was uncomfortable--I must have been getting used to the heat outside. :-)

Doll Theatre at Carlsbad

Soda-straw Ceiling at Carlsbad

 The ceilings in the grottos were just covered with tiny soda-straw stalactites (they are hollow).  I couldn't get a picture of the great room--not enough light, since it is 7 football fields long--stupendous scale.

Carlsbad Columns

 Ann liked this one, since the columns had stretched floor to ceiling, probably about 100' high at this point.

Stone Curtains--Carlsbad

 Some of the formations were shaped like curtains of stone, formed by water coming down from a fissure or crack in the ceiling.

 Speaking of ceilings, here's just one photo of a place where it was close enough for the flash to work.

One more flower shot, in purple for all you Husky Fans!

While we were in Ozona, TX, Ann got this great shot of a Bullock's Oriole--just brilliant yellow.

And last of all the friendliest cat we have met so far.  It was hard to get a picture, since she kept rubbing around our legs and would not hold still except when she was getting petted, and then would wiggle away and come back for more rubbing.  We met her in Wimberley, TX, just west of Austin. 

Next segment will have pictures from Lake Jackson, TX.

We drove south toward Alamagordo, but stopped to visit the Petroglyphs National Monument.  We were used to seeing petroglypys on sandstone walls, but these were all over a rock hillside--amazing.  I took about 140 pix, and we only stopped at three of eleven sites.  The thunderstorm was threatening, and we were on an exposed hill.

Petroglyphs 1

Petroglyphs 2

Petroglyphs 3

 We stayed the night in Alamagordo and drove to White Sands National Park.  The sand is really white.  It rained hard the night before, about 1.25" and this dry playa had water in it--that's not a mirage.

Playa at White Sands

Ann took this picture of a yucca in full bloom, with a sand dune behind it--looks like a studio shot with a white sheet. 

Soap Tree Yucca in front of White Sand dune

The rabbit bolted up the sand dune, but the bobcat caught up with him before he reached the top.

End of Story

Dad at White Sands

Mom at White Sands

 We drove the rest of the way to White Sands Missile Range, but were told at the gate that we couldn't take pictures.  There are displays of all the major missiles which have been tested at the range, beginning in 1940, and included the developmental work on the Manhattan Project and Trinity Site testing. Mom bought a postcard with a half dozen of the missiles on it, probably about 10% of those on display.

We are headed for Carlsbad Caverns tomorrow, don't know if we will get there in time to see them, maybe do the cave on Friday. 

We got as far as Tuba City AZ and spent the night.  We drove through Monument Valley where all the westerns were filmed.  They would have to edit out all the power lines to the homes if they shot there these days.

Monument Valley

Monument Valley

Canyon DeChelly



White House Canyon De Chelly



Spider Rock--Spider Woman taught Dineh to Weave

Next stop was Canyon De Chelly (deshay) which, unlike Mesa Verde is still being used by the Navajo Nation.  The Dineh have farms in the bottom of all the canyons, sharing the ruins on an everyday basis.  The drive along the South Rim was great, lots of wildflowers, and the lookouts were easy walks down from each parking lot.  It might have been better to do this before Mesa Verde, since you can't go into the ruins here without a Native American guide.  The Navajo Nation controls all the access rather than the national park service.  It was still very interesting.



Ann in Four States




Ken in Four States



We stopped at Four Corners for pictures--it's more for the experience than the view--trust me.  The monument is the only thing there.  We decided to come back to Cortez because the campground here has the best showers and the most grass of any of the places we stopped.  When we get to Texas I will have to give everything in the camper, inside and out, a good cleaning--dust, dust, dust, and grit!

We drove out to Shiprock on Saturday.  Ann wanted to see it up close and personal after over-flying it at 30,000 feet so many times.  We got within a couple of miles, but the road to the rock is 4WD quality so we decided to use the long lens instead.  It is part of a volcanic upthrust in the middle of all the sandstone pillars--very interesting.  Sunday we went to Church again in Cortez, three weeks from the first time we were here.  It was fun--they told us one more time and we would have a calling. 

Grand Canyon at evening Mather Point

Grand Canyon as light fades Mather Point

Grand Canyon Grandmother

The wind was blowing!

California Condor in flight

Grand Canyon Sunset

Grand Canyon Sunset 2

Grand Canyon Sunset 3

Ann before the cliff

Grand Canyon the next morning

Condors 16 & 22

Condor 13

Ken at the South Rim

Condor watchers

Ann at the South Rim

We spent an evening and a day at the Grand Canyon, so far the highlight of our trip.  The canyon was a fantasy at sunset, and we got pictures of the California Condors in the skyglow.  While Ann was trying to get a little closer to the edge to get the pictures, she "did a Becky," turned her ankle, fell 2 feet down the cliff and bruised her dignity.  You will note that in the next day's picture she is using her walking stick and I'm carrying her purse.  The last pix shows her without her stick and doing fine.

The next morning we went further down the canyon rim and stopped at a point where the condors roost and nest. 

We drove through Monument Valley, and stayed at Chinle last night.  We will make our way to Canyon DeChelly, and will be doing the rim drive on both sides today, heading for Four Corners, and possibly Shiprock, NM by evening, depending on how many side trips or stops we make.  The wild flowers are in bloom, masses of yucca, paintbrush, and cacti, with carpets of tiny white and blue flowers in some areas.