Sunday 30 December 2012

Supper

Finished up the day with a pizza at Organ Stop pizza.  Probably the biggest pizza shop ever, certainly the largest I have ever seen, not that I am a pizza shop expert.  We sure had lots of pizza, Marg got 4 pizza boxes that were pretty well filled with the leftovers.  They have a massive 6,000 pipe organ, its a little like a phantom of the opera kind of organ. Kids seemed to enjoy the music, at one point Cass was making like an orchestra conductor, pretty funny.  Patti been calling me Mario Andretti, but she passed me like I was standing still on the way home.  I guess she is starting to get to know her way around, LOL.

Onward to Tortilla Flats

After Goldfield,  we continued on the old Apache Trail past Canyon lake to the old stagecoach stop at Tortilla Flats.  Kids thought we were funning them when we said population there was 6, but when they saw it could hardly believe 6 people actually lived there.  Got a few pictures.  Brennan & Bill calculated there was $1,200 in dollar bills glued to the one wall, which left them speculating about the value of the rest.  LOL




Dec 30th

Cooler day today, I think it got to about 55F & then rained in the evening,  Well the cooler weather keeps the rattlesnakes in their dens, so it's positive.




  Met up with Bill & Patti and their group to go out to Goldfield, its only about 10 minutes away from our rv park.  Its an 1880's gold mining town that is now a ghost town. Saw the sights, including a big shoot out in the main street.  Seems a bunch of bounty hunters caught up to some bad guys, 2 of whom were pretty friendly.  Both Patti & Marg got some pretty attractive admirers from among the rowdier 2 bad guys in the crowd at the village.  Had lunch at the Mammoth saloon, the kids panned for gold, with some good results.  Grandma sponsored a carriage ride through the desert.  Kids picked up a few souvenirs, including a horseshoe with their name on them.  They were sure busy, but seemed to enjoy their day.
 

Saturday 29 December 2012

Supper


Supper was great, it was Appleby's, one of Marg's favorites, great way to end the day.

Superstition mall




The girls wanted a mall, so it was on to Superstition Springs where they got a quality mall experience.  Each of them found a few things & seemed much happier after the day was done.  One of us even went for a relaxation massage in the mall.

Dec 29th

Shopping Day.
  I got early & cooked pancakes this AM with the breakfast crew.  Marg was too sick to be around food preparation, so stayed away.  It was a pretty successful effort, I think we fed about 75 & no one complained, that I heard of anyway.  LOL


  We over to the house to meet up with Bill, Patti & family.  They were slow starting this AM as they were all well tired from a long travel day yesterday. We started the day at the big Mesa open air market, or flea market.  A quick stop for a hot dog & let the games begin.  We only managed to see about half of it & they got a few things.

Friday 28 December 2012

Dec 28th

Happy days, Bill, Patti & the 5 kids arrived today at 1:30 on westjet at sky harbor in PHX.  They were all tired & hungry from a long travel day.  I guess they had to go to YEG, then YYC where they departed from.
  It was sure good to see them.  It was tough getting a car as they never reserved and with the Fiesta bowl this weekend there were no mini-vans or large suv's to be had, so they settled for a nice car & 2 kids road with us. We had to drive up for the keys and stuff for the house they rented. The only problem was the gps was set for scenic route, so it took a bit longer, & it was scenic.  Fixed that by setting it to fastest route.  As we were in the area, we went to the Sugar Bowl.  It's really an ice cream parlor, but they also have lots of food choices to go with the good stuff.
  After we went to the house, it's in Mesa, about 7 miles from where are. It 's a nice house with lots of room for all 7 of them.  Lots of tv's, rooms for all and a nice swimming pool.  All in a good neighborhood.  By then it was time to get a few supplies, they are staying for a week, after all.  So we went up to Walmart.  Fortunately there is one up on Signal Butte, very close to where they are.



  A little time for the little ones to unwind and we called it a day.  It was interesting to watch the  reaction of our grandchildren to the size of the city, the traffic, the appearance of everything.  Their reaction really re-enforces my opinion on how important it is for kids to see more of the world than being limited to what we have in northern Alberta.  There is indeed a whole big world out there.  Paige really summed it up best when she said she didn't want to grow up because she didn't think she would ever be able to do anything like this on her own.  Our reply was that if she stayed in school and continued to do well there, that everything she desired would be within her grasp.

Thursday 27 December 2012

Dec 27th

Cooler day in the valley of the sun, in fact it rained for about a half hour and then turned sunny.   From all the reports we are getting it is a little chilly at home today, so we can't complain here.
  We had some guests for coffee this AM, Margie & Michelle Greschner stopped in. Morris & Michelle came down with their family for Christmas.  Nice to see them.
  I had to beg off early to play pool, big road trip for the inter-park pool tourney today. We played at Eldorado park.  Our team won more than it lost, but my partner & I only won 1 of our 3 games.  Some days they go in, others it seems like the pockets are too small,
  Got lots of mail today, it finally seems to be coming through.  Marg was  telling the local postman here that it cost us $125 to get our mail forwarded for the winter & he couldn't believe it because the US postal service do it for free.
  Exciting day tomorrow, Bill & Patti arrive with their family just after lunch.  We get to drive to the big airport at lunch time.  It's about a half hour drive, at 65 mph, from here. 

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Boxing Day - or so

  For all of you fellow Canucks, this will come as a surprise.  Boxing day here is no big deal, it's not a holiday, just another day.  The service station last week scheduled my oil change today, so I went and got 'r done.  That was the $17.95 for oil & filter guy, but I brought my own oil & filter so that I could have Quaker State, so my total cost was just under $30, still a bargain compared to anything at home & I got what I wanted.  I wandered around and looked vehicles in car lots while waiting and saw some good deals on jeep wranglers, they make good toads [get it - towed].  That is rv slang for a vehicle that is dinghy towed.  Not sure if we are in the market for a new toad, but it almost never hurts to look.
  After I got back, I played some pool.  Played with a couple for the first time this winter & we had lots of laughs.  The one guy who was new this yr, must have wondered what was going on at first, but he seemed to enjoy himself in the end.
  After we went out, me to see the Geek squad, Marg to look at deals.  There were some, like 20% off, but nothing radical.  Neither of us were successful.  The line ups something else, but they were mainly exchanges and returns.  Someone in the park told me the line up for customer service in Walmart where he went was over 200 people.  I waited over 1/2 hr for the Geek squad and gave up.
  At the end of the day, we went to the Village Inn for supper.  After all it is Wednesday, now don't tell me that you forgot, that is FREE PIE night.  If you want; you could order a cup of coffee and still get free pie.  So now you are all thinking - what kind - so I chose strawberry rhubarb with a scoop of ice cream, Marg who does not eat the pie, got a country apple to go, so at some future time, I will likely get that as well,
  I almost forgot, but it was poker night.  One of the guys came to ask if I could come out to play, LOL.  Did OK, but I don't think I came out ahead, pretty close to even I would guess.
  The weather is nicer today, but a bit chilly in the evening, I think it got to about 60F.  We are both hacking away with colds that we need to get over with before Friday when Bill, Patti & the kids get here. 

Tuesday 25 December 2012

Merry Christmas

We started off the Christmas morning a little slower than usual.  We did get in our phone calls to all the kids & spoke with the grandchildren.  Sounded like they all had a great day, with lots to celebrate.  Christmas really is for children.
  The weather here sure cooled off, for here that is.   I think it only made it into the mid-50's today, something like 10C.
  We went out for a buffet dinner with another couple, Ron & Sue.  This was a first for us, dining out on Christmas day.  We usually have all the great stuff Marg prepares, but we decided to try something new this year.  I thought the dinner was fine, the turkey was good, there was crab [it was very good] & lots of choice in the salad bar and desert area.  The place was busy, lots of family's [with kids] and lots of seniors doing much the same as us.  I have to say the clean up was sure a lot easier.

  I thought it was OK, but Marg said she won't be doing this again.  She thought it would be better to be in frozen, snow bound GP.  Sounds like that is the plan for the future.  Oh well, you have to be open to new ideas, sometimes they work out fine. 

Monday 24 December 2012

Arizona Rangers



Not sure how familiar you are with the tales of the old wild west, but Arizona was pretty much one of the last parts of it settled & that got law & order.  The law enforcement agency charged with bringing an end to the lawless element was the Arizona Rangers.  They were as famous as the Texas rangers and are still a presence in Az.  The Arizona Mounted Rangers were all over the Walmart parking lot today, so we took a few pics.  What you don't see is many of them are packing six shooters in holsters, just like the old west, even if they were on quads.  And make no mistake in thinking their six shooters are decorative.  I think it might have been a theft deterrent strategy, in case anyone thought the parked cars were easy targets.

Dec 24th

  It was a nice day & we hung around the park for the morning. The mail arrived just after lunch & we had a couple of Christmas cards.  We're getting a fair collection of them, so when looking for a spot to display them, we chose the top of the big slide.
  While Marg was steaming the laundry, I went & played a few games of pool.  Played with a new guy in the park & he was good, he will be a valuable addition to our team in the inter-park tourney's.  I tried to play him tight, but he still kicked on me pretty good or bad, I guess.
  We thought we should fuel up as it we may need it tomorrow.  We plan to go up to Ft McDowell with Ron & Sue, so went to Fry's where it was $2.89/gallon, which would be approx. 69 cents a litre.

  Supper was stir fry & bbq shrimp, but we had to go get a bigger frying pan.  Me on the bbq & her on the stove, that is pretty typical of how we do it here.  It seems we only have small ones in the RV, problem solved. 
  Not sure if you can see it, but there are decorative lights all along the rocks around our site.  It wasn't quite dark enough when I took the pic.

Sunday 23 December 2012

Sunday

Oops, no pictures, got busy & never took out the camera.
  Marg made sausages, eggs & fried potatoes for b'fast, I think she was feeling sorry for my missing out yesterday AM.  It was a great way to start the day.  The day turned out nice & sunny, too warm for a coat, although you really need one in the evening.
  Went up to camping world for bathroom taps & an antennae switch.  As luck would have it they had neither; well they had taps, but not in the brushed stainless finish.  Annoying, because it is up around exit #180, about 16 miles from here.  On the way back, stopped at AJ's purveyors of fine foods.  A fancy way to say - expensive grub!  They do have some nice stuff, but she was disappointed when she found they were out of meat pies.  After that, we stopped at a new grocery store WinCo that everyone here is talking about.  It's something like Costco without the 5 gallon pails of pickles.  She found a few things, but I think it was a let down after AJ's & Trader Joes; her 2 fav's.  The final stop of our journey was Lowes where we got regular household taps.  I think the only difference between them & the RV ones, is rv ones are all plastic [but about 1/3 the price], however the quality reflects this.  Also had to buy the crimping tool for the pex tubing.
  Got back to the RV & replaced the taps.  Turned on the water, causing a minor flood amid shouts of "turn it off".  Well by then the other campers in the vicinity were alerted, so in passing, I just said - guess I failed the quality inspection.  Turns out there were instructions saying the way the pex is cut is important; so a trip to Ace hdwe to buy a cutter.  As luck would have it, this was the solution, because it never leaked after making the nice straight cuts.  Learned something today.
  Went to Ron's for a beer after, so I could share all my new found knowledge & learned that Richard has several cutters & I could have borrowed one.  Oh  well, any job worth doing will get a guy a new tool!
  That was about 8 hours ago & still not leaking, so I think we are good.
  Marg made supper, a kind of chicken stir fry.  It was good & best of all the water was back on so she was able to wash up after. 
  After supper Marg went to play cards in the hall. She won once, so that was good.  Tonight they played 31, for quarters.

Saturday 22 December 2012

Saturday

  Slept in this morning, stayed up 'till 3AM last night messing with this new laptop.  I think we have the basics figured out, but there is a lot more to it than we have used.  Missed breakfast in the park as a result, so next Sat. will be our first breakfast and we will be cooking it.
  The other factor was the heated mattress pad we bought.  Last year we bought a Sealy Tempurpedic mattress and it is very thick foam, so gets pretty chilly when it's cool.  In fact it made it so toasty warm last night that Marg said it was like being cuddled all night.
  It was a nice day, I think 70F in the sun, so I went for a bike ride.  Jerry B had left his bike for me to check out and try before I buy.  Did some visiting in the park with some people I did not see until today.  Visiting is almost at a whole new level here.  Went up to Ron's to wish him happy birthday and check out a project he is working on in his park model.  Norm stopped by and offered to take me out in the desert in his tracker today, but I had to pass, too many things to do, but will go with him next time.  Also had to pass on an offer to play pool today.  If I'm not careful, life will get too serious on me - LOL!
  Went out to Walmart and bought 5 quarts of oil for $14 to get the car changed.  The shop didn't carry Quaker State or 5-30, but said if I brought it in, they would do it for $10, still a pretty good deal.  When they do oil changes for their $17.95 special, it is with their bulk oil in 5-30w and the Malibu calls for this weight.
  Marg topped up the pay-as-you-go phone and got a deal.  We normally get double the minutes because of the package we bought, but this time she got a couple thousand minutes at a promo rate.  The best part is the minutes work either locally or for long distance, even to Canada & England.  So we want to hear from everyone at Christmas.
  Fought with a water leak today, we had it before in the bathroom vanity and it's back.  It is an intermittent thing, sometimes doesn't show up for weeks, so I thought I had it beat last summer. Tomorrow I think we will just go and buy a new set of taps.
  BBQ steaks for supper tonight.  Marg picked up some nice ones at Trader Joes yesterday.  This was our first time this winter using it.  Seems funny to say winter when there is no snow, but a new arrival from IOWA today told me he drove through a terrible blizzard on the interstate where there were fatalities yesterday.  Speaking of blizzards, I know you Albertans are having a tough winter -- stay warm!  Will try & add some pics tomorrow.

Friday, Dec 21st

  The ancient Mayans were wrong, the world did not end today in AJ, although when the laptop died, you would have thought it did down here.  Computers, god love 'em.  We are now the proud owners of a shiny new laptop with 15.2"HD monitor, 6GB RAM & a mega hurts price tag.  But we are connected again.
  To recap, Wednesday Marg did laundry & I played pool.  It was good to get back in the groove, the newly covered & leveled tables are great.  After supper I played poker and they missed me so much they let me win a few hands.  We had lots of laughs and I think I might even have come out a bit ahead.  We got our coupon book at the Chamber of Commerce, it's a must in our group of friends.  If you don't have one, it's a bit like the Seinfeld episode where he bought his dad the Cadillac & they never went to the early cheap supper, you had to see it.  Marg delivered Christmas cards to some people in the park. It was sure cool all day the wind was chilly & overnight it almost froze.  The computer was acting up in the evening, but I thought it was either a bad internet connection or something Marg did - LOL.
  Thursday got up and the laptop would not even boot up.  I was convinced Marg got up in the middle of the night and did something else while I slept.  Anyway we went to Best Buy to get a new one.  They have the Geek Squad service and we asked them to recover the data on the old machine.  Bought a nice laptop made by Toshiba with more RAM than before, a 15.6" HD display, a shwack of disc space.  Those are technical terms for those of you who don't know computer-eze.   We did some running around and got a few other things as well.  Got back in time to play in the inter-park pool tourney.  Rain dance were here and we only had 7 players, so most of us had to play twice.  Fortunately I had good partners both times and we won 2 of 3 games in both pairs. 
 Managed to pick up a few bows to use as Christmas decorations.
 Today we went out to harass the geek squad in an effort to speed up their conversion of the data to our new machine.  It turns out that doesn't work.  So then we drove out to see the house that Bill & Patti rented for next week.  Pretty nice house in a good area.  Not too far from here either. 
After we went to Costco, where it was a madhouse and then to Trader Joes, one of Marg's fav's.  Got back in time to go to a movie with Ron & Sue - The Guilt Trip with Barbara Streisand.  Chick flick, Marg said it was alright, I thought the popcorn was good.  Then the 4 of us went to Chili's for dinner, pretty good food.  We stopped in to the Geek squad, who had the computer data converted, so here we sit trying to figure out windows8.  If you can imagine, me on the bleeding edge of technology.  Time for another scotch, less water than usual.
  Much nicer day, the sun shone and it got to about 72F/22C; too hot for a coat.  Also got some good news on mother today, so on the whole, it was a good day.

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Tuesday

  Nice day in the park today.  Some of the people are leaving to go home for Christmas.  Flights within the US are so reasonable, reminds me of Europe.  One couple are flying to Denver, return for $100, not like Grande Prairie, where they would charge you that much just to look at the airplane.  Quite a few stay here though and decorate their units with lights.  Apparently there was a golf cart parade the week prior to us arriving.

We were originally planning to have dinner on Christmas day in the park here, but we have some friends with different plans that appeal to us, so are now leaning towards going out for dinner.
   Marg did laundry this AM, the first time since leaving home, so there was a lot of it.  I played pool with a bunch of the same guys as prior years and we had some laughs.  A pleasant surprise was they had the tables re-levelled and new felt installed, so they play very true. 
  After we had a busy day.  We were running around looking for an antennae selector for the rv, but it is no longer made so the search continues.  Apparently the new units don't use them, but are wired quite different from our 4 year old model.  Hard to believe we are dealing with both a piece of equipment and technology that is obsolete.  They will no doubt have a replacement part at Camping World at a greatly exaggerated price.  Stay tuned.
  Went for some groceries and Marg got a bunch of stuff we probably need, me I just got a 30 pac of Miller.  It's in the grocery section, must be because of the nutritional value, LOL.  Marg picked up a few bottles of wine.
  A quick dinner and off to bingo.  Saw a bunch of people there for the first time.  No winner, but we came close.  Sadly they don't pay for close.  Marg said it was worthwhile as she got a bunch of hugs from people she saw for the first time. 
 

Monday 17 December 2012

Monday

Busy day.  Didn't get a lot of the hook up stuff done yesterday.  Spent a lot of the day on the telephone with Shaw trying to get the satellite system working.  Finally I called in a hot shot dish liner-upper who got us on track.
It was funny, the guy in our old stall said we should have his space as ours is easier to get into with his large rig and ended up asking how we got this space as he had requested it.  I told him that I reserved it last spring and that his space had been ours for the last 4 years.  Space envy, just another thing we have to deal with..  LOL


Did all the connections & Marg went for groceries.
I didn't bring my bike, thinking I would look for one here.  Turned out Jerry had one that was almost new, so I have it on a trial basis until he gets back from his Christmas in Colorado.  Lots of visiting today, might not be a good space for a hard worker like me, hah!
Nice sunny day, I think it was about 18C with no wind, t-shirt weather.
A couple of pictures of our site and our view towards Superstition mtn.  Life is good.

Sunday, Dec 16th

Nice day when we packed up to leave Laughlin.
Forgot what a long grade there is coming out of the valley.  I think it must be about a 20 mile long pull & don't believe I got the motorhome over 55 mph.
A great travel day.  The sky was blue and traffic was light.  Took the route up around Kingman and then down hwy #93 through Wickenburg.  About 2/3rds of it is 4 lane and the balance is pretty good 2 lane.  The drive through the Joshua Tree forest is probably the most scenic part of the drive.


The traffic around the loop was busy but not too bad.  We made it to Apache Junction and the Carefree at around 4 PM.
  Our space was empty, so we just pulled in like we belonged.  It didn't take long for old acquaintences to stop by and start catching up on that summer.  It didn't take long for us to get back to work either.  There was an ice cream social and I was scooping while Marg was dishing out cake, within 2 hours of arriving.  It was a very special evening as we had a choir from a childrens home sing for us.  There were 8 or 10 young people from 8-17 who entertained us and then had cake & ice cream.  I think that was the highlight for the kids.  It was heart warming to hear their story, a young fellow told us how much the place meant to him and his sister and how they finally felt like they had a family.  The pastor told us they have 55 kids right now and have plans to add to the facility.  He also talked a bit about how kids get there and it really makes me wonder.
  Funny most people said - Welcome Home, hah!

Saturday 15 December 2012

Saturday

  Rained last night, but we woke up to a bright sunny morning.  It was nice to be back in our familiar bed again.  A pretty nice day, shirt sleeve weather.  Went for a bit of a tour around Bullhead City & Laughlin.  For those of you not familiar with the place, the two are on opposite sides of the Colorado river, which is the state line between Arizona & Nevada.  The casinos are really all there is in Laughlin, all the people live in Bullhead City, where most of the services are located.
  Went to Ihop for lunch, now I know I'm really in the south, my first Ihop.  Stopped on the way back to wash the car.  A quick stop at Terribles for fuel and a car wash.  They give you 20 cents a gallon off, which made fuel $2.94/gallon, I think that would be approx. 75 cents a litre.  I think we must have had the dirtiest car in the place.  A funny thing on the radio when the announcer was talking about only using his windshield wipers a couple times a year and hoping they had fluid.  He should have driven with us, where you need to pack an extra gallon of windshield washer fluid.  A stop at Safeway to stock the pantry and fridge, then back back to the rv park.
  Went to the casino for a few hours.  They really had my number, let me get ahead, then pulled the rug out.  Marg got them though, she made more than I donated.  Just about enough for supper.  Supper was - yes you guessed it; back to the buffet.  The feature at the buffet was prime rib, so we had a very nice dinner.  It was funny because tonight was what they call 2fer, meaning if you get there before 6pm, it was 2 for the price of 1.  We got there at 6:15, but had forgot to change our watches from the time zone at home & in Utah.  As we are on the Nevada side of the Colorado, that made it 5:15, so life was good.

Friday 14 December 2012

Friday

Got away from Spanish Fork early, it was nice being on the right side of Salt Lake City and the traffic was pretty good.  We had great roads all the way to St. George, but did get some rain on the high places and it even tried to snow in one place.  When we got to the rv park and got the motorhome, it started to rain there as well.  The girls at the office said that was the forecast for the weekend, & as it was only 1:00PM we made a decision to keep travelling.  It took us a while to get the rv ready to travel and the car pinned on.
  Left St G & went to Mesquite where we filled up, got a buger and kept going.  It was very windy by this time and we fought the wind the rest of the day.  Not fun when you are driving a moving billboard, LOL.  Made Las Vegas in the middle of the afternoon and the traffic, although busy was pretty much what you expect.  Marg had been on the telephone all the while.  We had reservations at an rv park in Laughlin for new years eve, but with our plans changing, we wanted to use them now.  We had sort of decided if she couldn't get a response by LV, we would stay at an rv park on the old boulder highway in the north end of the city.  Just as we were about to turn off, she got the word, so it was onward to Laughlin.  With all we had to do, we made about 500 miles today, but are within easy striking distance of Phoenix now.
  The temperatures all day were above freezing & very pleasant when we pulled in to Laughlin, something like 52F, cool enough that we wore sweatshirts and vests, but not cold enough for coats.  Got a nice pull thru site and were able to flush out the lines and get ourselves set up.  As luck would have it the buffet was featuring seafood tonight, so there was no decision, seafood it was.  The food was very good & the bread pudding even better.  After we went to Safeway to stock up on some groceries and that was our day.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Travelin' Dec 13th

Got an early start from Great Falls, the temp was around 35F and had good roads to Helena.  Through the Elk park pass the driving lane was partly snow covered, but still pretty good travelling.  By the time we got to Butte, it was pretty cold, around 10F, buat after the Monida pass we got up over the freezing mark and the temp kept climbing all day.  Drove with the cruise control on after that, you never really miss it until you can't use it.  All through the passes, I had to use the old foot feeder [father-laws term for the gas pedal].  We managed to hit Salt Lake City at 4:30 so that we could enjoy the rush hour.  By then it was 52F, a pleasant day.  Stopped at Spanish Forkand ate at the Cracker Barrel restaraunt both of which we did here in on our very first trip down south.  We had a nice sunny day & are just ahead of a winter storm that should be here tomorrow or Saturday.  Thought we did pretty good yesterday with 495 miles, but topped that with 612 miles today.  Should make for an easy day tomorrow.
We should be at the motorhome in St George tomorrow [250 miles] and rid of motel beds.  Really looking forward to that.

Wednesday 12 December 2012

Dec 12th

Lucky day according to some beliefs -- 12-12-12.  It was for us as things seemed to be better this morning; so we elected to continue our southward journey.  Left Edmonton around 10AM and although it was colder [minus 18], the roads were not too bad for winter conditions.  Some icy spots and a bit of snow in places.  Around the Edm airport a semi had lost it's load, so the highway was bumper to bumper, just crawling along.  After we got south of Leduc, the highway was dry and bare most of the way to Calgary.  Approx at Airdrie we hit snow and the roads were a little tricky unless you had skates on, LOL.  Made it through cowtown just after noon and stopped in Okotoks for lunch.  The snow stayed with us right until the border with the passing lane & shoulder pretty slick, but still able to hold 110 in the driving lane .  Just after lunch Marg drove until we stopped for a coffee in Lethbridge.  A quick stop at the duty free for scotch & then the quickest border crossing we have ever had.  One vehicle at the booth & as we drove up it left, so we pretty much drove right to it.  Two questions, the last of which was have either of you been in jail and we were on the road.  I think that was mainly for Marg's benefit.  It was amazing, as soon as we crossed the border, the roads were dry and clear.  Maybe they have a snow removal trick or secret in Montana, that operators in Alberta should know.  I think it might be something like blade down or spreader on. The weather probably helps too, it was about minus 4C in Shelby & close to zero when we stopped.  Anyway made it to Great Falls where will spend the night at the Crystal Inn.

Sunday 9 December 2012

First day on the road

Made the trip from GP to Edmonton today.  Got on the road in good time, but it was icy and cold in GP, minus 25c.  By the time we got to Debolt, the roads were better and were clear and dry all the way to around Gunn.  Icy roads again from their to hwy #16.  Got to Edm shortly after lunch, where we went to moms place.  Not the welcome we expected, we arrived just in time to accompany her to the hospital.  It appears she will be scheduled for surgery, so our journey will be delayed until mother is on the mend.  Will stay at the Sandman in the meantime.

Saturday 8 December 2012

Let the games begin - 2012

  And so it begins another trip to Arizona with Dave & Marg.  As we venture forth on the Snowbird trail we will try and give you a travel log that won't put you to sleep.  We leave tomorrow on some ice covered roads in the bone chilling deep cold of an Alberta winter.
  With any luck we will find internet connections that allow us to keep in touch with friends and family, so all you followers, lurkers out there, stay tuned.
  After we get to Apache Junction we will share our days in the desert and the shopping areas around Phoenix, with a few pictures to help you understand why we leave a warm and loving family in this frigid north so we can selfishly enjoy the winters. 
  Just like Willy Nelson we will be -- on the road again!