The best photographers rarely bother taking photos in the middle of the day because they know it's all about the quality of the light, and the quality of the light is at it's best within an hour of sunrise or sunset.

I rarely even see the hour after sunrise! But, once in a while, we're in the right place at the right time around sunset. Never have I seen the setting sun change the landscape so dramatically as yesterday here in Big Bend National Park. Desert sunsets are simply magic, that's all there is to it. We were on the river till almost 5:30, so our 40-50 mile scenic drive back thru the center of the park took us thru prime time!



One of the truly unique peaks in Big Bend is called Mule Ears. We decided to take the short drive to a specific Mule Ears overlook. Since we had only passed a few cars all day long, we were sure surprised to see half a dozen cars at this parking lot and people standing all around. On closer inspection, we saw they were all painting.



Come to find out, it was a workshop given by two professional artists, David Caton and Bill Zaner. Hey Emily! I know you're in a watercolor workshop in Italy right now ... how about trying Texas next! David didn't have his own website but said you can find him on www.harrisgalleryhouston.com and Bill's website is www.BillZanerPaintsTexas.com and there is definitely contact information on Bill's site. This class was all working in oils, but we were told they do workshops on watercolor too. Here's David at work:



Back on the road and on to the next mountain scene, the Chisos Mountains. Just the road itself was quite gorgeous, don't you think?



And, most anywhere you look.



Here are the Chisos from a distance.



And we made it up to the top of the Chisos road *just* in time to catch the full sunset.



OK .. the day is done. Can't take any more pictures. Still 28 miles to go to home. What a day.

Truly, truly ... today was the perfect day. Water, sun, scenery, exercise, unique / awesome experiences. Diane and Andy, THANK YOU, for saying we *had* to visit Big Bend. I wrote on our calendar on the square for March 30 ... "Perfect Day." It just doesn't get any better than this. We took 78 pictures. We didn't get home till after 8. I'm going to have to divide this into 2 posts!

We had a relaxing morning because we needed to move to a different site, and we couldn't do that till 11. We got moved, plugged into electric so we could leave the air conditioning on for Odie - then took off to see Big Bend National Park. First stop, the visitor center, surrounded by pristine Chihuahuan desert.



We needed to stop at the visitor center to get a permit to go kayaking. Bill and Susan had offered to help us shuttle cars so we could float down the river on some determined stretch, but we couldn't find any put-in/take-out spots that would work. We decided to try our luck with paddling upstream for a while at Santa Elena canyon, then just turning around and floating back. The folks at the visitor center said, 'yeah, you can do that' and issued us a permit. Off we went. Look very carefully at this picture and you'll see a canyon cut out of the rock wall in the distance. The left side of the canyon is Mexico and the right side is the United States. That's where we're headed.



We're getting closer ...





Getting ready to put in.



The current started off very slow, it was pretty easy to paddle upstream. Can you see Jim's itsy-bitsy kayak in this colossal canyon?



I can't take *all* the pictures and prove that I was there now can I?



Here's Jim - touching Mexico! We were told in no uncertain terms that we could *not* get out of the kayaks on the Mexico side. Well, actually we *could* get out if we really wanted to, but then we would not be allowed to return to the US. The rules have gotten a LOT stricter since 9/11. Before then, visitors to Big Bend could wade over to Mexico, have a taco and a cerveza (not in this spot, of course, but at other places like Boquilla) and wade back. Not so today.



The current is getting a little stronger here. We got our exercise.



The river guides kindly informed us that we were going the wrong way!



We were starting to get a little tired at this point. So we pulled the kayaks onto a sandbar and took a little rest.



I just want to see the view around one...more...bend!


OK, now we can turn around and float ...



Look up at the sky ...



And reflect ...



... on how lucky we are to be able to do this ... how exquisitely beautiful the world can be. One beauty you can't see is sound. This massive place is
...
silent.
The silence permeates you to the point of being almost spiritual. This was one time, I told Jim, that I was so glad he doesn't talk much. (usually I complain that we don't have enough conversation!) The only sound, other than your paddle in the water - which we didn't do on the way back, was the occasional bird song. No opera has ever sounded as sweet.

more tomorrow ...

This will be a quick post cuz the generator is running and we've gotta get movin' on our day. Jim put our name on the waiting list to get into the full-hookup park today cuz we want to do some sightseeing that will take us out all day and we have to leave Odie behind since he's not allowed on any trails in a national park. It's pretty hot, and we'd like to leave him with air conditioning.

If it weren't for the heat, we'd certainly stay in the campground. It's very pretty and lots of space. The full hookup area is just a crowded parking lot. Here's our site:



Anyway I just had to post a couple more photos we took. There are roadrunners all over the place here. They're also known as 'paisano' meaning countryman in Spanish. Yes, they can run fast, so you gotta shoot a lot of pictures to capture one. Thank god for digital cameras! Jim took these.





He also took this one of a little red beauty. We don't know what it is, but I've sent the photo to Liz and asked for an ID - I'll edit this post when I find out.



And, here's the Sierra Del Carmen mountains at sunset last night.

We are here at Big Bend National park, and we planned to take a hike to the hot springs that are a few miles upriver from our campground. Oh Boy! Hot Springs. My favorite!

First a couple photos from yesterday. There's a great little nature trail right from the campground, to views of the river.


On coming back to camp we interrupted dinner for these Javelinas. They are distantly related to pigs, and they can be pretty aggressive. There are all sorts of warnings about not leaving food out, and keeping a tight hold on your pets.



As we were settling in to our campsite last night, I noticed a fifth wheel pulling in that looked familiar. Sure enough when they turned the corner, I saw the sign on the back that said "CoolJourney.net". That's the website for Bill and Susan who we met in Utah last year. What a treat to run into them again. Since we were all settled in, we decided to go over and bug them while they went thru their setup procedures. They graciously gave us some wine while we yakked away and were generally being nosey about all their stuff! Don't they know, if they give us wine, we'll never leave?

Anyway, we agreed to get together this morning for the hike to the hotsprings. It was wonderful.

This is Jim and Susan hiking.


I guess you'll have to go to their website to see pictures of them because the only photo we took of them was with their camera. We really enjoyed the conversation along the trail, and, what a treat to have someone along to take a picture of the two of us.





Quite a few cactus flowers along the way.



It was a hot, dry hike, but the views were worth it.



And, here's the hot springs. The trail from the camground is 3.3 miles, but there is also a road that comes in from another direction. So, there were a few people at the springs. The temperature was about 100, it was wonderful. And, you could sit on top of the retaining wall and get in the Rio Grande to cool off. Just, hold on to the wall cuz the current was pretty swift.



Here are some views on the way back.



Everything you see here is in Big Bend National Park - it's huge.


The mountains in the distance of this photo are the Sierra Del Carmen. They're on the other side of the river, thus, in Mexico.

It never fails to amaze me how BIG Texas is. How much of nothing there is in West Texas.



You just drive and drive and drive. Jim does the great majority of the driving. I am just the relief driver. This basically means, I drive sometimes in Texas!

Ah .. finally, signs of Big Bend National Park.



We're here!



Actually, there's about 40 more miles to the campground.



This has to be a short post because we have to turn the generator off now. More tomorrow!

Gotta find another word for Wow! We just kept saying it over and over again walking along the Echo Canyon trail yesterday in Chiricahua Nat'l Monument.

We started the day in Willcox, AZ and visited the Rex Allen museum and Cowboy Hall of Fame. Rex Allen was right up there with Roy Rogers and he was from Willcox. Here is his statue. He was a real cowboy to start with, then turned to music and movies. Although, Jim remembers him best as the voice of the narrator on the Wonderful World of Disney. When we got to the Chiricahua Visitor Center, we discovered that the narrator for their intro film was none other than Rex Allen Sr. Ah yes, a very memorable deep, resonant voice.





Then we took the 35 mile drive thru the desert to Chiricahua. What a difference! We're in pine forests at 6, 7000 feet. What a contrast to the creosote and yucca on the valley floor.





The best part was hiking the 3.3 mile Echo Canyon trail. It went up and down and wound around thru canyons of rock formations and beautiful forests. All at over 6300 feet.









Even though this is their high season, we only saw 3-4 other people along the trail. This is a real 'off-the-beaten-path' find! Thanx for the tip Lizzie!

This next picture is actually 8 photos stitched together. Click on the picture to see a larger version.



Today, it's on to Texas!

We're headed east, and we're going to stay headed east until we can't go east no more!

Sure glad we weren't in the westbound lanes here! This line of traffic was 5 miles long. It was an overturned travel trailer that was blocking the traffic.



Southern California sure has a lot of windmills, and I just can't resist taking their picture.


Where we are right now is in the southeast corner of Arizona. We're going to visit Chiricahua Nat'l Monument today.



Here we are.


I believe those two pointed peaks in the distance is Chiricahua Peak, and it's 9,798 feet high. We really don't know much about the place, but Liz highly recommended a visit. And, we're determined to do a little sightseeing on this stretch, so here we go.



We are in an area where the Sonoran desert meets the Chihuahuan desert. Chihuahua is characterized by Yuccas and agaves, growing with grasses and often Creosote Bushes. Sonoran is known for the Saguaros. Both are pretty desolate, but can be gorgeous.

Time to go explore. We're also going to visit the Rex Allen Arizona Cowboy Museum. We got in the mood by watching part of 'Lonesome Dove' last night. We got the video a while ago. Larry McMurtry is one of my favorite authors. I especially like a little known book of his called 'Roads'.

As I mentioned before, while we were at the FMCA convention in Pomona, we were parked in the parking lot with no hookups whatsoever. We were there 6 nights. I think we did pretty good. We ran the generator a total of 32 hours and used a about a quarter tank of gas. I'll estimate that at 13 gallons. That comes out to 2.4 hours/gallon and about $1/hr. We didn't use the generator very hard. No air conditioning, no electric heat. I did use a hairdryer one day, and the microwave a couple times. We mainly need it for the computers and the satellite dish. Without electricity, this is just a very expensive sign, letting us know we're home!


One of these days, we'll buy an inverter, and probably some solar panels, so that we can run our computers off our house batteries. Just haven't gotten around to that yet. It is definitely on my list though because the generator exhaust makes me sick. The generator is located right below where I sit in the coach, and the exhaust pipe is just outside my window. I keep the window closed of course, but it still gets in somehow. The first day, our CO2 alarm went off after just a half hour of running the generator so we had to turn it off. Oh boy ... this is going to be a problem. But, the next day, the wind must have been blowing in a better direction - the alarm didn't go off any more.

One of our neighbors had an extension pipe on their exhaust. I'll bet that would make a big difference. We can't use those big pipes that stick up in the air because it would bump into our awning. Jim says he can pick up one of these simple extension pipes at a Napa auto parts or something similar.



Although the first couple of days were cold and drizzly, the last couple were warm and beautiful. The view of the mountains to the east was beautiful.



We had to leave Odie in the motorhome all day long, but we walked him every morning. It's not too hard to give him some exercise. As long as we can find an open area, Jim and I separate as far as we can, then we call Odie. He comes running first to Jim, then to me, then to Jim ... well, you get the idea!



The warmer weather brought out the sociable side of these RVers too!



We ran the hotspot every day to plenty of appreciative email-readers! Really, it seems like we got more people saying "Thank-you, I really appreciate this service" than at any other rally we've done. They look awfully serious though, don't they?

When people buy an RV and plan to travel around the country, I don't think this is exactly what they have in mind for a campground.



But, living onsite with 10,000 other RVers, has a charm all of its own. There are lots of opportunities for getting together with other RVers. Here's Jim meeting Robert who has been following us on our Blog! He knew all about us ... we had to get to know him. He took part in a special outing arranged by FMCA to see the new Robin Williams movie: RV. We gotta go see it. He said that people were rolling in the aisles laughing. What a treat to have a theatre full of RVers to watch a comedy about RVing.



We had lots of people using the hotspot.


And we both helped some folks.





I gotta say tho, that there aren't as many people using the hotspot here as at the last couple FMCA shows. I expected there to be a drop in problems ... RVers are more educated about WiFi now than they were a year ago (did we have something to do with that? I hope so) ... but I didn't expect a drop in usage. All I can think of is that cell phones all work pretty good here, so a lot of people are putting up with the slower speeds in order to use their computers in their RVs rather than lugging them to the hotspot. The last two FMCA shows were in areas where cell phones didn't work so well. Now we're in the middle of a major metropolitan area ... actually THE major metropolitan area - Los Angeles, Pomona to be exact.

There certainly was not a drop in attendance at the seminar though. The monitors told us we had over 300 people at our first WiFi seminar.





At the end of the day, we still had a little time to visit the new RV displays. I think a LOT of people come to these rallies specifically to buy a new RV - so many manufacturers are represented here. And, all their service personnel come as well. Anything you need done to your current RV or a new one you buy - you can get it done here.



If you didn't want to go RVing because you couldn't take you motorcycle with you ... check this out:



I was particularly impressed with the Airstream on a Freightliner chassis.



We had heard that Safari was making a new Class C motorhome ... AND ... that they were saying it is the FIRST time that Safari made a class C. We certainly know different! The new Safari Class C is called "Ivory" and it isn't as nice as ours!



Did you notice the snow on the mountains in the background? They say this is the coldest March since 1934 or thereabouts. Hey Jim! I'm C O L D!! Take me back to Florida OK?

This will be our 5th big rally representing Coach Connect. 3 FMCA and 2 Great North American RV Rally. But, this is the first one where we're on our own. We got here a day early to be sure we got our bearings.

Here's where we're parked.


Us and 4,000 other RVs!


Here's the main Information Center where the Coach Connect WiFi hotspot will be.



And the seminar room where we'll be presenting the WiFi seminar.





Hundreds of coaches were pouring in all day. I'm so glad we got in early. We're ready!

Some interesting rigs here.

Ahhhhhhh. I love hot springs. And we have come across very few in our travels. In fact, the only one I can think of is Thermopolis, Wyoming. The other night we stopped in Tonopah, Arizona - about 60 miles west of Phoenix on I-10. We spent $10 each to soak for an hour in a private tub at Eldorado Hot Springs.

I would call it 'Desert Funky'. I *like* desert funky!




Oh ... it felt soooo goood.

As you can probably tell ... I love blogging. This Blog is all about our life and our travels. Sometimes I talk about computers and things I think others might find interesting or useful about computers, Internet, WiFi, etc.

Jim and I talk about computers with people ALL the time. We have a LOT to say! So, I decided to start another Blog that is devoted to that conversation. It's called WiFiSavvy.com, but it's not limited to just WiFi information. It's a Technology Blog for RV Travelers by RV Travelers.

I also am trying out a new Blogging system: WordPress. It's quite a bit more complex than Blogger, but that means it's more powerful too. I've been working on it for a while. I didn't want to tell you about it until I was 'done'. Hah! That will never happen. And, I'm making that Blog more of a commercial venture. You will see ads. When you click on the ads you see there, we get paid. Just a few cents, but it *could* add up. I hope to have links for things to buy someday as well.

Today I wrote a post that I think you all may be interested in about a website that lets you create a map of the states or countries you've visited.

Go check it out .... www.wifisavvy.com.

Two highways converged to bring an extended family together. One was I-10, that concrete and asphalt highway that is a part of the US Interstate Highway system. And the other is the Information Superhighway ... the Internet. When Tom IM's me (IM= a verb for using Instant Messenger), his identification tag always includes his location. Right now it says "tomv in Ehrenburg, AZ". And, our location is almost always noted on the Datastorm map. He has a laptop on the passenger seat of his truck and he gets online using WiFi at Flying J Truck Stops. So, it was only a matter of time before we figured out when our paths would cross. Yesterday was the day.

Here's his truck. He's carrying a load of boats.



And here's Tom.





As much as I love living on the road, I don't think I'd like the truck driving lifestyle. Where we drive 3-4 hours in a day, he often drives 10! And that's 6 days a week. We might drive a day or two, then stay put for a week or more. He has a bed, cooler and microwave in his rig, but I wouldn't call it 'home'. I was surprised to learn that he eats most of his meals in the rig. He really seems to like what he does. He gets to see the whole country in every season.

After seeing his rig, we brought him over to see ours. Here's what invariably happens when Jim brings up Google Earth on his computer! They're looking at some place in Colorado where Tom used to live.



Happy Trails Tom! I'm sure our paths will cross again, now that we're connected.

Three busy days. We gave 3 seminars in a row. WiFi with Coach Connect, Practice Safe Computing, and Picasa. We had 20-30 people in each seminar, and a lot of them took all 3! Someday, we'll have to figure out how to get more of these 'gigs'. We do like it so much.

You should be seeing some pictures here of the Picasa seminar today, but something didn't work right. I was SO excited because the Picasa button for 'Blog This' has never been able to post more than one picture at a time. I happened to try it with 2-3 pictures and it brought up all of them ... so, in class today I tried ending with the 'Blog This' feature. We picked 3 photos, taken during class, clicked on 'Blog This' and it appeared to successfully post all 3 at once ... that is SO cool.

But ...

After clicking the final 'Post' command. Nothing happened. No post. I haven't gone back in to look at it. Maybe I'll figure it out.

Yesterday we had a nice break when Gypsy John came to visit. And a great dinner. The 'doggy bag' we took home made for a great dinner tonight too. Thanx Gypsy John! I didn't get out my camera, but John did. Maybe you'll see some photos posted on his blog. Here's a photo John sent me later:



We're on our way now to Pomona for the FMCA show. If we thought we were busy the last three days! We ain't seen nothin' yet!

Tomorrow could be real interesting. I've recently been communicating over Instant Messenger with a man I've never met and we're trying to arrange a rendezvous. No, it's not how it sounds ... shame on you.

It's my Dad's son. Yeah .. you might think that means my brother. Well, maybe. But my Dad, even tho he's the only Dad I've known since I was 5 years old, is my StepDad. And, his son is from a previous family. Our paths have never crossed before. But now they do. You see, he is a truck driver. He drives back and forth across the country every few weeks. We drive back and forth across the country once or twice a year. We're both on I-10 right now, and, according to his emails and Instant Messenges, his plan was to get gas and some sleep at an exit about 9 miles away from where we're staying. So ... Jim and I may be getting together for breakfast with my truck-driving 'Brother Tom' in the morning.

Stay tuned ...

And now, for something completely different. Thanx to our friend Joline, we got an invitation to join a Dowsers group in Cave Creek, AZ for a special meeting at Taffy's house. Taffy is very involved in Labyrinths and has two in her yard. The purpose of the meeting was to learn about Labyrinths and to walk the one in her yard.

Many people equate Labyrinths with Mazes. The difference is that Mazes have dead ends - you can get lost in a maze. Labyrinths give you a path to follow where there are no choices. You follow the path and you will end up in the center. Then you turn around and follow the path back out. It's very meditative. In the classic Labyrinth, you also make several sharp turns, reversing directions - it's a good brain-centering activity. And it's an outdoor, back-to-nature kind of thing too.



Jim walked the Labyrinth too.

We didn't bring Odie. We didn't trust him to walk within the lines. And he would probably pee on the sacred center stone :-)



The Labyrinth society has a project to build Labyrinths all across the country on the 39th parallel. Wouldn't that be an interesting reason for planning a trip?

There was a second Labyrinth on her property. I think I liked this one even better. You had to concentrate a little more to follow it.



And the house and neighborhood were beautiful. Especially with that new snow in the mountains nearby.







Thanx Joline!



Ooooh, almost full moon.

143 days without rain in Arizona.

It made up for it yesterday! I haven't seen that much rain since hurricane Katrina. We didn't even take Odie out for a walk until a 10 minute lull mid-afternoon.

Here he is looking longingly out the window on our dreary day.



It was pretty chilly too. Snow level got down into the 3000-3500 ft level. Check these photos out from our drive today. This is the scene from the freeway driving thru Phoenix.



And, here's a car driving back from the nearby mountains.

You could read the title of this post either as a 'change of course' meaning to switch directions in midstream. Or as a 'change, of course' meaning our plans are always changing. We thought we were headed to Florida. We started at the Pacific Ocean and we were headed east, not planning to stop till we hit the Atlantic. But, somewhere in Arizona we got a call from Coach Connect asking if we would represent them at the Pomona, CA FMCA show on March 20-23. So, we got out the map and the calendar and did some figuring.

We love giving the WiFi seminars at big RV rallies like the FMCA show. Check out this post from our last FMCA conference. The audience is often 2-300 people and they just make us come alive. We will also be running the free WiFi hotspot that Coach Connect sponsors at the show. We've done this several times before as well and we always learn new stuff.

So, of course we're going to do it! It just means that our 'moseying' slowly across the country will have to speed up a little. But, we should still have time to stop at Big Bend Nat'l Park in Texas and make it to Florida by mid April.

Right now, we're at Palm Creek RV in Casa Grande, AZ. We are scheduled to give our WiFi seminar here on Tuesday morning, and the Picasa seminar on Thursday morning. Then we'll be headed *back* to California.

It didn't stick to the ground, BUT ... it was snowing this morning. NOT what we were planning on!



Odie didn't get a very long walk this morning!

We decided to go into town for breakfast and wandered around the shops at Tlaquepaque, cuz we weren't going hiking in this.





We especially liked Bear Cloud Gallery and the big paintings of the artist's 'Vision Quests'. One good thing about living in an RV - you're never tempted to buy stuff.

And we drove up to the airport to look at the views.





Then we just went home and hung out by the heater all day.

To get to Sedona from the north, you take highway 89 south of Flagstaff. This takes you very steeply down into Oak Creek Canyon. Yikes!





But Jim was well prepared for this drive because he'd already 'flown' over it using Google Earth. Using satellite photography, Google Earth can actually simulate the view from your car window and 'drive' you along a specified route. It's something you download to your computer and it accesses images from the web. It's a lot more detailed than the plain google map, but even the google map shows a lot:



We decided to splurge and stay at an RV park right in Sedona. Rancho Sedona - cost about $40/night (once you add the dog fee and the taxes), but we're able to walk right out our door and take a hike:

There's so much to tell you about when we're travelin'. And less time to do it! In the last post I told you that we had found the 'middle of nowhere'.

I was wrong.

Here it is.


US40 in eastern California goes for over 100 miles without so much as a gas station. And, we didn't plan for this of course. We thought we were going to be limping into Needles on fumes, then a gas station appeared out of nowhere . But, we had to pay $3.65/gallon. Luckily they only took cash, so we could only get $25 worth ... that's less than 7 gallons! Just over the Arizona border, it went down to $2.25/gallon.

We had breakfast at the world famous Bagdad Cafe. No, really ... it IS world famous. I saw the movie, probably 20 years ago and loved it, but it is a cult classic in Europe and Asia. People do come from all over the world to see this broken down dive of a cafe on route 66 in the Mojave desert. The owner spends more time taking customer's pictures than taking food orders. You feel like you're entering a time-warp when you walk thru the door. Two separate parties of customers from Japan visited while we were there. If you saw the movie you know, it's all about *magic* ... and it is.



Our destination was Laughlin, Nevada, to meet up with our friend Joline.

Look at this town:



It didn't exist when I lived in Nevada in 1980. The bridge was built in 1987 and 8 new hotel/casinos were added to the one that was already there. People do love to gamble.

Joline was here to see the UFO conference. Joline was the first person I ever met who had a Datastorm 2-way Internet dish on her RV. She met my mom years ago at another conference, and the 3 of us went together - in Joline's RV - to the Prophet's conference in the Florida keys in January '03. Actually, I think that's where our plan to live in a motorhome was hatched. The dream had existed for quite some time, but the idea that it could be reality took hold then. The message I got at that conference was that, not only is it OK to follow your dreams, it is each individual's responsibility to follow their dreams. That's what we're here for. Do it! It's your job. Thanx Joline and Mom!

Joline wanted Jim to check out something on her Datastorm while we were there. It checked out fine, so we had plenty of time to visit and enjoy a buffet at the casino. There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but this was pretty close. $9.99 and a one-time $2 off, for all you can eat AND drink, including wine!



We just spent the one night there and said goodbye to Joline in the morning.



Parked just across the street from us, we saw a very unusual site. Another Safari class C. We've only seen one other, and it had a different paint job. This one looked exactly like ours except it was shorter.

Check it out. We spent quite a while talking to the owners, and they love theirs as much as we do.



Theirs is 24 feet and ours is 30. The difference is that ours has a dedicated bedroom, where they need to sleep in the cab over. But, theirs actually has more kitchen counter space and a bigger bathroom and closets.



They don't live in theirs full-time like we do. They have several acres and a house in Washington state. They are spending a month in their motorhome, and starting to miss their house already.

We're off to Sedona today!

Ever wondered where the 'Middle of Nowhere' is? Well, we found it!



Actually, we've stayed in this park before. It's a Passport America park which means half-price ($12 for the night with water and electric.) It's just east of Barstow. The nearest town is Newberry Springs. The Bagdad Cafe is here.

We're back in the desert.



And, Odie loves to run in the desert.



Don't know what this is - but it was pretty in the setting sun.



Here's our site ... waterfront no less!

We planned to spend a month in the San Luis Obispo area. And we did. Now it's time to head back to the 'other' coast. We need to be in Florida by first of May in order to be ready to go with my Mom on a dive trip to Fiji. Pretty cool huh? A dive trip to Fiji - her treat! We'll be on a boat called the Nai'a. Check out their website.

Please don't wake me. I have to remind myself that, just a few years ago, the prospect of taking 1-2 months to travel across the country in an RV would have been a 'someday' dream. Something to wish for, make plans for, and envy others for doing. Now, it's just 'matter-of-fact'. Let's see, we're in California. We need to be in Florida mid-April, first of May. OK, let's go.

Pinch me.

We're going to stay south, sticking pretty close to I-10 the whole way. With one specific detour to Big Bend National Park in Texas. Our friends Andy and Diane say it is a 'must see' and we've driven by it 3 times now!

We left the Pacific a couple days ago it was kinda rainy.


Are we in Ireland? You'd think so from the rich green rolling hills just east of San Simeon.





This reminds me, I need to show you a couple photos that I missed posting earlier. In this same green rolling hills area, Liz took me to a friend's home to show me around. Her friend actually has 2 houses on a few hundred acres! One house they live in, the other they rent out to private parties. Here's the 'party house'.







If you want more information on the house, they have a website at www.cottontailcreek.com Liz has reserved this house for a party the first week of May. I'm invited. Actually, it's a reunion of the 'Downhill' group. This was a group of friends who used to go backpacking once a year in Big Sur. Liz found a trail where we could spend 3 days hiking ... downhill. Too bad the timing doesn't work for me to go. It sure is beautiful though. Bye for now Lizzie!

Once in a while, you get a day that dreams are made of.

Like on Star Trek episodes where the crew get shore leave on a planet that’s remarkably like earth. The sun is shining, the grass is green, the birds are singing. And, their loved ones have been transported to this garden of Eden to spend the time with them. Maybe they even film it thru gauze to make it look like a dream.

Or like …

Yesterday

We were just about the only ones in the whole park.


And, we had all this nice grass around our rigs.


Lynne even gave in to the urge to do a cartwheel. I think it had something to do with proving that a birthday doesn't mean you're getting old!

We had both planned to leave after just one night, but, by noon, we were all still just putzing around and enjoying ourselves, so we stayed. There's a nice trail going from the campground all the way to the beach.













And, what's a hike without a geocache?