A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

Good-bye to a fun 2013!

In 2013 we traveled 9,540 miles and visited 36 States

 

This was most likely the most miles we will put on in a year.  To visit the East Coast States was something we wanted to do, but now that we have done it, we will probably be content with staying in the Western States.

 

"At Home" in Arizona!

 

January 1, 2014

This first day of 2014 we are settled into a site at a favorite park in Cave Creek, AZ.  We arrived yesterday afternoon, and the closer we got, the more at home we felt. 
There's nothing like the Arizona desert sun!

 

We will be here 8 days, and are looking forward to spending time with our friends, Harry & Drina.

This New Years Day, we spent the day at their house.

They have such an incredible outdoor living area... each time we visit, its evolved a little more.

 

Good Buddies enjoying a New Years beer together.

Harry and Drina are such hospitable neighbors...
They always welcome any of their neighbors to join in the fun... and they do!

 They had told us that their next door neighbor lights up the hill with lights every year, and we finally had the chance to see it for ourselves.  This was incredible!  I cant imagine how many hours of work this is... but it sure is enjoyable for all to see!

 

 

January 2, 2014

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 5 year wedding anniversary!  and 4 of our 5 years together we've lived on wheels!

Living the "Wheel Life" means we're together all the time, which makes it nearly impossible to get something for the other without them knowing it... so we give of ourselves and make our own cards.

This is what awaited me this morning.

 

We'd been debating for awhile, what we should do for our anniversary.   It seems like we should find something special to do together... but it's not like we haven't spent each of the other 364 days together, and enjoyed so many special things together!  SO... we talked ourselves out of having to find something "special" to do.  Instead we chose to enjoy the peacefulness and warmth of the sunshine at our site. 

 

 But first we went to Costco... finally! 

 

 We bought Salmon and a side dish, so we grilled up a wonderful anniversary dinner here at the park.

 

 

 

 

Blog Catch-Up

Last post was on Christmas and we were in Luling, Texas.

We left there the day after Christmas, and headed West, not sure how far we would travel.

We ended up traveling 325 miles and staying at a Rest Area (I-10 MM305) between Ozona and Fort Stockton.  Not a bad nights stay for a rest area.

 

The next day (Friday) we traveled another 320 miles and made it into New Mexico. 

 

We've spent a lot of time in New Mexico, mainly our first year out. 

 



Jeff breathed a big sigh and a breath of excitement when we crossed into New Mexico.  For me, I had felt that way when we arrived in Texas... but for him I guess it didn't happen till we got to New Mexico.

 

We had a few extra days to get to Cave Creek for our reservation, so we had the choice of staying a couple days in Las Cruces or a couple days in Tucson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we don't really like to drive on Saturday, we opted for staying 3 nights in Las Cruces.  

We ended up stopping East of Las Cruces at a PA park in Vado, NM.  It didn't look like much, but it was comfortable.   

 

Saturday we went into Las Cruces to relive the places we'd been.  But there were just too many people in old town, Mesilla... we couldn't even find a place to park.  So instead, we found a brewery that we hadn't gone to before... and shared a pitcher of IPA.

Then we gave a call to Elaine.  We met Elaine our first year out at Fort Seldon State Park, where she was camp host, and we've stayed in touch and stopped in when we were in the area.  She just bought a house so we went to see her there.

 

I really looked forward to seeing Biscuit again... as you can see.  I think I need my own doggie again.

 

We enjoyed the visit, and met her brother, Diego, who was visiting.

 

Sunday, we really wanted to watch the 49er game... the last regular season game.  It turned out the local station was not playing the 49er game... they were playing the Packers game. 

 

So we found a sports bar in Las Cruces that would have the game on.  But the place was packed!  No seats available, and the 49er game was only on one television.  There were 3 huge television out on the patio but every TV had the Packers game on... I wanted to say "You can watch THAT game at home!  So Go Home and let me watch my 49er game!!  But that wasn't going to happen... so we came home and I followed what I could on my laptop. 

 

We left Las Cruces Monday morning, and since our reservation at Cave Creek wasn't until Tuesday, we stopped at Tucson for the night  We decided to stay at the Desert Diamond Casino for the night.  We stayed there 3 years ago, and it was even better this time.  We got a great parking spot for the night... AND they gave us a free dinner buffet and Free Play!

 

So back to TODAY (January 3rd)...  We just enjoyed more of this wonderful Arizona Sunshine.

And there's nothing like a Desert Sunset!

 

 

This weekend is FOOTBALL!!  The 49ers won last week and will play a Wild Card game Sunday!  We WILL watch it!

Now I will end this post with Jeff's latest "Bright" idea:

Jeff turned his last box wine into a dry camping faucet! 

It works great.  Obviously, if we have water in the fresh water tank, we can use the real faucet...

but if we didn't know we were going to boondock, and we have an empty fresh water tank...

 this is for those times!  Great idea, Jeffrey!