November into December 2018

November was a relatively quiet month for us- we did some stuff around the house, and our daughter Jess came to visit for a few days.

That was actually pretty "exciting".
She had never been to the Desert Bar but had been hearing about it for ages, so we decided to take the Teryx there, using the back trail. Sadly, as you can see from the picture, we tipped it over.

Luckily no one was hurt and we continued on our way to the bar for lunch.
















After that excitement, things calmed down for a week or so.  As Thanksgiving approached we realized that other than Jess, we wouldn't be having any company for the holiday. That's unusual, and we got to thinking that there was no point in staying home if that was the case.

We threw out some ideas of where to go, and landed on Joshua Tree National Park.  Jess had never been there, it is only about 2 hours from her and about 3 from us. So, we packed up the trailer and took off.

We had cooked the turkey before we left, and decided to have our family's traditional Thanksgiving dinner- Turkey Enchiladas. We had a great day and had even found a spot in an RV resort with 4 pools and 6 hot tubs!







Joshua Tree National Park is obviously named for the unusual Joshua Trees that live inside the park- but I think its misnamed.

It should be called Boulder Park because the real fun of the park is climbing all over the boulders!

Joshua Tree is a small park and isn't as well known as some other parks, so it never dawned on us that it would be so popular the day after Thanksgiving!  We waited in line for over an hour and a half just to get into the park!

 We decided we might as well wait it out, even though we knew that parking would be an issue. Instead of parking at the hiking trails, which was our original idea, we parked along the roadway and explored the boulders nearby.













It wasn't exactly the outing we had hoped for, but we had a great time, and got to show Jess at least a little bit of the park.







Once Jess left for home, we had no intention of doing the same. Since we were out and about already, we kept going.

Our next stop was El Paso, to check in on Paul's mom.  Since it was a two day drive, we broke the trip up with a stop in Tucson, where we met up with our friends Dave and Nancy.

 After a couple of days with Paul's mom, we headed for our next destination- Bisbee, Arizona.











Our objective was to tour the copper Queen Mine.  We have toured quite a few mines in the past...so many that I could probably have passed on this one, but off we went.

After donning our hard hats, we boarded a small train that took us 1500 feet into the mine.

The tour was actually very interesting, and was conducted by someone who used to work for the mining company.

When I think I am going to be bored, I try to pay attention and find one or two bits of information I can come away with on a tour. I wasn't at all bored on this tour, but still, my favorite take-away was how they would use dynamite to blow an area into rubble. They set an ever increasing circle of dynamite sticks, and connect them together with fuses.
When they are done, they light it and walk around the corner. They don't have to go too far, because the way it is set off, it implodes, instead of exploding. They also needed to stay nearby so they could count the explosions and make sure there wasn't a misfire.

Once we were back on the surface, we drove past the mine on our way to our next destination.










Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument has been on our bucket list for quite a while, and we finally made it there. This national monument is in southern Arizona and shares a border with Mexico.
Pictured is the Organ Pipe Cactus that it is named for.








Our plan was a simple one. Relax, explore, relax some more. And that's what we did. There are two scenic drives- we drove both of them. There are numerous hiking trails.... and most had incredible views.....

At night the weather was perfect for sitting by a campfire watching the sun set.

Once we had had our fill, we headed back home.

And yes, I am on a mission.

October Happenings (10-2018)

Very soon after arriving home in October, Paul's  brother Tom and his wife Sue stopped by for a few days. They are now retired and have a motor home. We look forward to meeting up with them along the way!


Of course we made time for a trip to the Desert Bar before they left....

Our daughter Jess moved into a new apartment in Los Angeles, in October, and needed some of her household items that were being stored at our place, so I took a short road trip and met her about halfway,  where we transferred her stuff from my car to hers. There may have been some shopping done as well, haha.

Back at home, the hummingbirds were hungry enough to eat from the handheld feeder. Pretty cool.

The weather wasn't great in October in Havasu... we did manage to take the boat out, and hike a few times, but it wasn't too long before we decided to go on a road trip.

We loaded up the truck camper and headed to California.

The  route we chose was fairly remote, with few campgrounds along the way. In fact, most of the towns we were going through didn't have any television reception, which we considered vital that particular night. We called places until we found a campground that had cable (only in the clubhouse, but that worked) so we could watch the Red Sox win the World Series.

Our first stop was  Giant Sequoia National Monument, where we walked the Trail of 100 Giants.













This wasn't a particularly long trail but it was an interesting one.















Our second stop was Sequoia National Park.  Here we spent several days exploring and hiking. We found it astonishing that neither of us had spent any time here!

We couldn't have asked for better weather, and one of the perks of traveling in the truck camper is that its easier to fit into campgrounds that are IN the national parks, which really adds to the experience.

Many of the trees and groves here have been given names...The Senate, the House, etc. And of course, General Sherman tree....the Largest tree, by volume, in the world.  Note the car in the picture of this tree.

As impressive as the trees were, the trail with the best view was the granite dome called Moro Rock.

This trail wound around the granite, all the way to the top. Or, at least I assume it goes all the way.  The trail got a little narrow for me, and the railing was a little low for my taste,  so I waited for Paul just below the crest.

Even driving around the park was interesting...

 After a few days of hiking, we moved on to our final destination- Fresno, and the fraternity brothers.

Kirk was building a hot tub shack at his cabin in the mountains, so the guys got together to help, while the girls played Rummikub and provided the men with refreshments.

 Once the weekend was over, we headed back to Havasu.

“Running” Across the U.S. (10-10-18)

Once we re-entered the U.S., we had a decision to make…to go back to Virginia and the Carolinas to continue our genealogy research, or beeline for home. We decided to take the time and head to the Carolinas.  But that didn’t mean we couldn’t have fun along the way!

Our first, brief stop, was Acadia National Park, again. We stayed in the more remote Schoodic Peninsula area and spent one day hiking before moving on.













We also met with friends Lester and Sue in Maine- we missed them on the way north. Lester and Paul go way back and its always fun to catch up with them.

By mid September we had arrived back in Massachusetts for a brief visit.  The weather was cooperative so we finally got a chance to go to Lowell National Historic Park.

Lowell (dubbed the "Lowell Experiment" at the time) was built as a carefully planned industrial city, making use of the canals that connected the Merrimac River to the Charles for transportation, fishing, and power production. By the mid 1800s, it was a thriving, massive city, and the largest textile center in the country.

 By the early 1930s its role in the textile industry had severely declined and the city fell into disrepair and abandonment.  This is the Lowell I remember.  High unemployment, high crime- it wasn't somewhere you wanted to visit, never mind live.
Starting in the late 1900s ta re-birth began and over the years the city has begun to thrive again, embracing it's history. I was amazed at the cobblestone streets and the beauty of the waterfront area.

 Another neighborhood we visited while in MA was my own- the one I lived in growing up. The little blue house was ours.

 I am still friends with the women I grew up with on that street, and we all got together for a barbecue before we left town.

 As always, a visit to Boston feels too short, but
we were soon on our way.  We detoured to Cape Cod, (since it was after Labor Day-it would be too busy during the summer) and spent the evening with our friends Les and Alane. On the way to dinner we stopped to get a picture of the sunset.







The place we pulled off to watch the sunset was coincidentally the home of the actual Small Boat that performed the  greatest rescue in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.... the story was featured in the movie "The Finest Hours".  After watching the sunset and checking out the boat, we went back to Les and Alane's and watched the movie!

After leaving MA, we went to VA,  and also spent a brief time in the Carolinas, looking for more family history information.  Finding none, we bee lined for Texas to check up on Paul's mom before heading home to Havasu.