Rock & Roll Hall of Fame & our Entegra Factory Visit (October, 2016)

After leaving New England we headed to Aurora, Ohio to meet our good friends from Kentucky (they have a Phaeton coach).  We had all talked about going to the R&R HOF in Cleveland for so long, we decided we had better go and do it before Winter set in.  We all enjoyed the day touring through the history of R&R. The rest of our time was spent eating and playing dominoes.  Again they beat us but we did give them a run for their money this time.  It was so relaxing and so much fun to spend time with them again.  It had been too long since we had camped with them.  Posting a picture of Carl in front of ZZ Tops car which is prominently displayed at the R&R HOF.

 

Then we were off to the Columbus, Ohio area to see "Aunt Ruth".  It is a always a pleasure to visit with her and get all of the latest family news.

A few days later we were in and out of the Spartan Factory in Charlotte, MI after having our coach checked out and Koni shocks installed.  Les decided to have all the annual maintenance done so we stayed an extra day there.  Yay for us because we met the nicest people, albeit they were American Coach folks (okay this is a friendly nudge)....Brett & Susan.  They are also full-timers and we had a good time chatting with them.

Off to the Entegra Factory to have our PDI done as well as some other more involved work (roof replacement).  We love our coach and we are extremely happy with all of the people at Entegra.

September in New England!

As most of you know we generally spend the end of Summer into early Fall in New Hampshire doting on my niece's two adorable little girls.  This year is no different and we had a wonderful time playing with and spoiling them.  Lyla is 6 and entered the First Grade this year and Kynlee is almost 2 1/2.  We did take her to the daycare school 3 days a week so that she didn't lose her spot when we left but watched her the other 2 days.  I will post a couple of photos that are especially cute.  Every morning while we waited for the bus both of the girls tortured "Uncle" and did his hair!  One day while I was doing laundry Kynlee sneaked into the room and hopped into the laundry basket.  A "girls only" cruise to Bermuda in September and a trip to Fenway Park capped off our visit to New England!

Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire

Since we were on the way to Vermont via New York we stopped at Brian and Jeanne's place near Potsdam NY and visited for an overnight.  Sadly Jeanne was in Mass. so Brian was stuck with us. We had such a nice time reminiscing and feeding his cattle and pigs.  So out of my element but I enjoyed it very much.  His cows are fairly friendly and trained to come to the fence when he is outside.  We fed them apples, although it took me several tries to get it in their mouth without letting their tongue touch me, and believe me they have long tongues!

Going to lump next three states together as we passed through two of them fairly quickly.  We landed on time in Vermont to spend a few days with Bob and Don and attend the very lovely graveside service for Bob's mother who passed away several months ago.  They have their own cemetery on the family property (aka The Farm) and it was a gorgeous day to celebrate her life.  The following day we were invited to attend Bob's brother and his wife's 50th wedding anniversary surprise party, needless to say good company, good food, good times!

Off to Massachusetts, specifically Lakeville to see our friend Pat, gorge on some local seafood and have a little visit with Aunt Betty.  Both of the cats enjoy hanging around outside Pat's house and Boots especially likes the view from the window sill inside!  Les had to have a project so he power-washed and stained the back of the house and put up new lights, have to say looks fantastic!  All is well in that neck of the woods so far and we intend to revisit in October before we head to Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.

New Hampshire, our little part of the world that makes us smile when we see the "girls".  Gosh the "babies" are not that anymore, Lyla will begin 1st Grade in a week or so and Kynlee is 27 months.  We feel privileged to be able to spend quality time with them before we head out.  We will be posting some photos of the girls in the coming weeks.  I am taking a little time out to go to Bermuda with a couple of girlfriends, so Les will be the backup sitter for a couple of days while I am away.  Somehow I see KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut in his future!!

All for now...Ciao!

Salt Lake City, Heber City, Utah

After we left Big Sky, Tommy & Sheila and Les and I headed down to Utah for the week. We stayed at Mountain Valley Resort, very nice park with lovely amenities, would definitely stay there again.  We had so much fun and laughter this week, felt like we had all been friends forever and not just a short time.  We did some sightseeing, we had some cocktails and food and Les & Tommy actually took the bobsled down the Olympic Village at Park City!  They made the run in less than 1 minute, a daily record for the 3 man sled.  They had a really good time and Sheila and I were quite satisfied taking the photos!  We had a chance to go to the Great Salt Lake, something we hadn't done in the past.  Utah has a beautiful landscape and we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.  We were sad to leave but we were on a mission to get to Vermont in a little more than a week and needed a quick stop at the Entegra Factory for satellite repair.  I am posting a few photos of our adventures in Utah.

Here they go!

Panorama view of Great Salt Lake

What a time!

Oddly enough we left there and landed at Joliet Illinois at a casino RV Park and lo and behold we met up with some folks we had met in Arizona in January, what a small world the RV world is!

Big Sky, Montana

After a short stay in Bozeman we headed up to Big Sky Resort in a 4 coach caravan.  2 new couples we met at Bozeman and 1 we had met in Hilton Head and reconnected with here.  We were all headed to an Entegra Rally at the resort with fun activities and new friends to meet.  What a fantastic rally this was, first class everything!  We had mimosas and Bloody Mary's at 8800' at Everett's Patio, a short ski lift ride.  Just gorgeous, we were all oohing and aahing over the views!  The next day we took a lift up so far, then took an open truck ride to the tram shack and then took the tram up to the top of Lone Peak.  I'm posting some of the photos from that trip.

Tram to 11,110’ Summit

Sheila & Tommy

Randy, Tanya, Les, Pat

View from ski lift of 80 Entegra Coaches

Everett's Patio at 8800’ for cocktails

Randy & Miss Tanya

Sheila, Steve, President Tadd Jenkins, Pat, Tommy, Les
BBQ Night

Wyoming

We decided to further explore Wyoming and settled into Cheyenne for a week. And what a week it was, we had a "wicked" hailstorm, that cracked one of our skylite covers, and one of our solar panels. Fortunately the solar panel did not come apart, although it did shatter in place. There wasn't too much to do in that area but we did go to a museum and a little shopping. From Cheyenne we went to Rawlins for a few days, but honestly there was not as much as we thought in this area other than a penitentiary, LOL.  As with the rest of the country Wyoming was starting to heat up so we relocated to Casper to a KOA with a pool, although we then learned it was indoor! We spent quite a bit of time here and enjoyed the local Pioneer/Mormom museum.  Here is a couple of photos from there.  Although Wyoming claims Buffalo Bill Cody, he is buried in Colorado.  We visited his grave while we were there and I'll attach a photo.  There was quite a controversy over which state would claim him but his will stated he wished to be buried in Colorado.  His wife is on one side and he the other.

Then off to the Greybull KOA which had a lovely pool that we enjoyed. This KOA was actually one of the nicest ones that we had stayed in.  This was a neat little town and convenient to the mountains. One day we did take 100 mile jaunt up Beartooth mountain. We walked 3 miles rt to the medicine wheel sacred grounds.  Medicine Wheel is a National Historic site and to this day many tribes make the journey to perform sacred ceremonies (closed to the public).  There was still snow and ice on our trek up!

 

The final Wyoming place was to visit cousins Lila and Bibby in Cowley, Wyoming. I'm not sure that we can explain in the blog how much fun and laughter we all shared.  We did not do anything other than reminisce, chat about current times and of course eat. Almost the moment we landed Lila made Leslie homemade cinnamon rolls!   We had dinners with Lila, Bibby and Keith ( her husband) and then went to Bibby's and had a huge steak dinner followed by another outing at Lila's for all that could attend in the form of an ice cream social with the rest of the cousins!   Sometimes when you revisit a person or place it is not as you remember it and you are disappointed. I can tell you that every single time we visit here we have a better time then we did the visit before. We almost could see ourselves living here in the summer just to be surrounded by the love and laughter of family. We were sad to leave on Sunday but we were on the schedule to meet friends in Bozeman Montana. When we all visit, we are regaled by the stories Lila  tales of her life married to a sheepherder. We will miss all of them!

Estes Park, Denver, Colorado

Spent quite a bit of time in Estes Park at Elk Meadow RV Park.  It is the closest oark to the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park.  This was a glorious place and we thoroughly enjoyed it, driving up Trail Ridge Road and picnicking at Sprague Lake.  Here are a few pictures.  When we drove the TR road we stopped at Alpine area and was greeted with the NPS100 sign carved into the snow!  What a great way to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of theNational Park Service!  Honestly words cannot describe the beauty here.

These letters were at least 15 feet high!

Returned to Denver area to visit with Ron & Alison.  We had intended to catch up with Glenda and Tim too but wasn't able to.  We did get a visit to the Furniture Row Racing Team shop the day before we headed out.  Next time we will take our vitamins.

Colorado Springs, Pikes Peak

Colorado Springs –  we decided to stay at the Garden of the Gods RV resort because it looked like it could handle us and it was fairly convenient. I had no idea why it had that name but soon found out that there was a wonderful park within a long walking distance that was so named. There were beautiful rock formations and a terrific set of walking paths.  The real highlight of this area was pikes Peak. It is called America's mountain because in 1893 Katherine Lee Bates viewed the land from the summit at 14,000 feet. She was inspired to write America the Beautiful from this view.   Pikes Peak is the highest summit on the front range of the Rockies. For a mere $12 each you can drive to the summit, which of course we did. It was very interesting, so beautiful it really is difficult to describe. On a perfectly clear day you can see to Kansas.   We will leave here on May 27 and head to Estes Park Colorado, near the entrance to the Rocky Mountain National Park. Happy Memorial Day!

Road looks like it will disappear!

Behind u

Cog Railroad departing Summit

Looking back at the ski area

We made it!

Colorado

After journeying through Green River Utah and a brief stop in Grand Junction Colorado, for some warranty work on our engine, we headed to Montrose Colorado. I did not realize there was a national park located near there,  Black Canyon of the Gunnison. It was made a National Park in 1993 and it is a stop that should not be missed. I am posting some photos of the beautiful black canyons. We also  wanted to check out Cimarron, with many of the wild West movies were made, as well as Owl Creek Pass. Owl Creek Pass is at about 10,000 feet and was the site of some John Wayne movies. We headed off in the jeep, packing our lunch and looking for adventure. We made it almost to the top of the pass when we ran into significant snow. We got through the first snowbank twisting and turning and going back-and-forth, but when we got to the second snow barrier and the road had narrowed Les made the decision to turn around.  We did connect with Kynlee (happy 2nd birthday) and Lyla via FaceTime from here!

Black Canyon

Back up!

View from Owl Creek Pass 

We then headed to our destination of Canon City, Colorado. We had to cross the Monarch Pass and of course ran into snow and ice. It was a little sketchy with the RV and a tow vehicle and winding mountain roads, but you know Les never stops for anything! Unfortunately when we arrived at Royal Gorge the weather was very cloudy and cold so there was no point in driving to one of the places we wanted to go, Cripple creek. We did end up viewing the Royal Gorge Bridge, one of the largest suspension bridges in the world. It was nice, but we did not pay $25 each to walk across it, and I was fine with that because I do not like heights.

Monarch Pass

Royal Gorge Suspension Bridge

Lake Havasu, AZ, San Diego, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Happy May!  My friend Janet reminded me that she couldn't go any further than Deadhorse because I hadn't posted for a month!  That was just the impetus that I needed to get back on track.  We left Deadhorse and went directly to Lake Havasu State Park in LH, Arizona.  Again another recommendation from Ron and Alison and they were right on the money with how neat this one was. We had a great site only a stone's throw from the Lake and although there were a couple of days with very high winds we had great weather and managed to put on the sneakers and get to walking!

First photo is pano of Les overlooking a tiny piece of Lake Havasu.  

This is the original London Bridge relocated and reconstructed in Lake Havasu.

Replica of Hatteras Lighthouse, one of many recreations here in Havasu.

We then meandered down through Yuma, Quartzsite and over to Santee Lakes outside of San Diego.  We stayed at the Santee Lakes State Recreation Park and this was also a winner!  This park even had full hookups, unlike most SP that have only water and electric.  We will definitely stay here again when we visit brother-in-law Bill.  Speaking of Bill we had another fantastic visit with him and he even secured us tickets to the Padres/Pirates baseball game one night.  It was so much fun and perfect weather.  Of course Les was all into the food! We must have brought the Padres some luck as they sounded defeated the Pirates (sorry J-Rod) that night.  I had been anxious to try our Bill's newly renovated kitchen and new appliances and I was not disappointed, beautiful job with the design and layout and love the natural gas for cooking!  We had chicken, corned beef, tri-tips (Bill cooked this meal) and finished our last night with a Turkey Dinner.  We will be making this stop each and every time we are close to California!

Panorama of Petco Park

And who doesn't like a little slot machine action once in a while?  Nobody I know!!  We headed to Vegas and as a bonus our friend Yvonne was flying in to meet her daughter and friends for a girls weekend!  We had a chance to spend a little time with them and enjoyed seeing them, although we did miss Richard!  You know that Les' nickname is "Lucky Les" and he was, again!  If I hear that "goldfish" song one more time I'm gonna scream!  No photos!  You know the saying, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

We ended up staying in Vegas longer than we had anticipated because we needed some warranty work done on the Coach and had to wait for a part so we skipped a planned stop in Hatch, UT and came directly to Bryce Canyon where I write this epistle...and although the reader will not know her we lost a good friend M&M recently and wanted her to know that we blew her a kiss from the Hoodoos!

Posting some glorious photos.  We hiked down to Queen's Lace trail this morning and at almost 9000 ft. above sea level, puffed like a steam engine all the way back up!  Tomorrow he plans to do the loop trail which is about 1 mile longer and 400 vertical feet lower.  Apparently he plans to cash in on my life insurance!  Ciao for now!