The Pacific Ocean

The last leg of the trip was definately the hardest. The wind and road was the worst! What we thought would be a 5 hour trip was actually about 7. California was at first not very impressive. I guess I thought some movie star would be waving at us by a palm tree as soon as we crossed the border or something....nope, more desert, steep inclines / declines, some rain. We scratched LA just a tad as we made our way south. We finally rolled in to our destination where we will be living for 1 or 2 months, "Santee Lakes RV". A very nice RV park northeast San Diego that has 7 lakes, pools, paddle boats, fishing piers, and coyotes that yelp at night :). After we unhooked, my cousin, Luke, who is in the Navy and lives here in SD assisted us and then toured us across the huge Coronado Bridge to something I never have seen before...the Pacific Ocean. Welp, our journey west cant go any further...only because the water is waaay too cold to swim in. Time to get to work now...the desk is organized and ready for business....

Vegas!!

We hooked up at a super nice RV park "Oasis RV" where we decided to book two nights since we had a day to burn anyways. This place had everything from a grocery store to an 18 hole real putting green course! (As pictured) We ate at Margaritaville (Thanks, Cindy Gular!) It was very good and Byrnn loved it also. We just mainly drove the strip a few times. We couldn't attend any of the shows because they will not allow any children under 5 years old so no "Beatles LOVE or Blue Man Group" and not even the Pirate Show outside of Treasure Island casino because of high winds...who knew? We managed to get some sun and Brynn got to float in her turtle floaty by the pool. The second night we ate at Hard Rock Cafe which was really good. We were a little uncomfortable with all the skin everywhere and Brynn being in that environment but we managed to have a good time and saw Zorro, Jack Sparrow, and Austin Powers walking around. By the way, we gambled $10 in the slots and walked away $10 poorer, ha ha!

Hoover Dam Winds!

This was an exhausting trip. We had to leave early because they were going to shut down I-40 due to high winds. We were told that once we passed Flagstaff, AZ we would be out of the wind but not so much. (Let me throw this in here...Arizona is a gorgeous state...the north part anyways...we couldn't believe how many pine trees and forests there were in this area). Ok, back to the WIND! I was so ready to get off I-40 after dealing with the signs that had the little kite attached to it and read "Warning: Cross Winds". I just thought the fun was over with the wind until we got about 30 miles from Hoover Dam. This is really the beginning of the Grand Canyon and I grew a fear of a new sign "Steep Grade Next 17 Miles with 6% slope"...this is fun considering the wind and with over 15,000 lbs behind me. Finally! Reached the Hoover Dam which was really awesome! We couldn't believe that this was built by man between 1929 & 1931. (Pictured along with Lake Mead & the new Hoover Dam Bypass...an engineering marvel! Look how small the workers are up next to the foundation!)...our truck was tired but we finally made it to our destination 30 miles from Hoover Dam and very much up-hill........VEGAS!!!

Jana at the Helm!!! (Day 9)

Jana drove the big rig for the first time (as pictured) on our first leg of this trip! We only made it little over 300 miles, drove through a duster (a desert tornado) but managed to keep control of the trailer, crossed into Arizona, and made it to our next stop at Meteor Crater RV where, yes, a Meteor made a crater 550 feet deep and over a mile wide. We managed to see the museum right before they closed and the big ol' hole was quite interesting. Brynn started talking all of the sudden...must have been the radiation from the meteor...she said "wait!" and "what's that?!" just out of nowhere. We finally found a Chase bank in Flagstaff, Arizona so we could stop living off of Monopoly money. Ate some mexican food for the first time since leaving Texas and drove on pieces of route 66 (as pictured...notice the Duster in the left side of the picture in the distance) where they filmed Pixar's "Cars"...lol.

Enchanted Capital Day 8

We made our way down out of the mountains and into the desert. New Mexico is rather ugly and 100% of it's beauty is now in the rear view mirror. Some lucky pedestrian is now owner of our rear Texas license plate. We connected with Historic Route 66 and made it to our destination of Albuquerque where we stopped at Enchanted Trails RV Park as pictured. We unhooked and searched in vain for a Chase Bank upon discovering that there is not one single Chase Bank or ATM in this entire state of Enchantment. Tomorrow we make our heading due West!

Mountain Dewin' it! (Day 7)

Still hanging out in Angel Fire but the scenary never gets old. You can definately see why they filmed Lonsome Dove close to here. We got to experience seeing the birth of a baby horse today which was a first for all of us. Brynn is trying to say "donkey" and is getting closer everytime. It's not every day you get to work while drinking a mountain dew and actually seeing a creek that is flowing right outside your window because of the mountain dew...hmmm. We also took some time after doing some work to do some more sight-seeing as pictured. We plan to head out of the mountains and down to the desert either tomorrow or the next day and start our journey due west. Jana has been fighting a cold but is on the up side of that. Enjoy the pics we took at an elevation of over 10,000 feet and make some comments!

Snow!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. Snow everywhere. We just did a lot of driving around and sight-seeing. Took a small drive to near-by Red River and grabbed a bite to eat. Got to take "Cinch" (One of Richard's horses) for a spin. Spotted some Elk. Check out the pics!

Angel Fire, New Mexico...finally! (Day 3 & 4)

We finally made it through Texas! We departed from Goodlett, Texas at about 9am after a long night of some crazy storms and some very loud thunder and super bright lighting. (Word of advice: dont move your trailer even just a little bit if you are still connected to something. yeah, or you will be the one running across the RV park with a special tool that shuts off the water valve and water supply to 1/3 of the RV park. Old Faithful is cool and everything but not when you are the one who caused it, lol! Oh yeah, watch out for really big lizards and beatles when you open a water meter cover that hasn't been opened since the last guy busted a pipe...fun) We fought some really strong winds going through tornado alley but made it ok. We stopped at the Big Texan in Amarillo to eat steak of course. Had some interesting moments getting in and out of gas stations with this big trailer following me everywhere. We took a lot of great pictures but are having difficulty getting them on our computer except the one attached that I took from my iPhone when we were rolling into Angel Fire. Once we figure that out we will be posting them on this section of the blog because there are some really nice ones! We arrived at Angel Fire at about 6:45pm Mountain Time on Day 3 and we got everything hooked up at the "Angel Fire Stable and RV" which is extremely nice much like everything else around here. I was sad to hear that the golf course was not opened yet nor was the ski-lift to the disc golf course but the 38 degrees this morning was so refreshing. I am in training for my new job today and every day that we are here. Jana is getting some work done while Brynn is running around demanding attention. I will post those great pics as soon as I can....

Wagons West! Day 2

So after getting some rest we are refreshed and happy to have my grandparents knock on our door at about 10am to see us off and to give us a few important items along with words of wisdom. My grandad and I had a "bonding" moment when we had to repair Jana's closet rod that failed during the first leg of the trip. Upon completion of closet repair we worked up enough hunger for some local "Cotton Patch" food. You guys from Houston dont even know about some cotton patch or you would be slapping your momma. So after just taking it easy and getting caught up from all the weeks of working we finally took off from Corsicana and started our trek west. Ft. Worth wasn't too bad as long as we got ahead of the traffic which we did. Jana was able to get a lot of work done from her laptop as we headed to our next stop..."Ole Cotton Gin RV Park" in Goodlett, Texas. We arrived at 8:15pm just in time to see the sunset. Brynn seems to be loving all this traveling as long as she got her exercise playing tag with momma at the rest stop (pictured above) along the way. The weather is a little shaky. Sustained winds of 30mph with gusts up to 50mph. There is another storm headed our way so pray that we will be sheltered from the storm through the night...

Houston, We Have Lift Off! Day 1

Old house...new house.

After dealing with the learning curve of hooking it all up we finally departed from Houston at approx. 10pm Tuesday night. We stopped at Buc-ee's and learned that Turkey Jerky is really awesome. The plan was to leave late so that Brynn could sleep most of the way...after the third time through the Fox and the Hound is when we realized it didn't matter seeing how wide-eyed she was at 2am while snacking on some Beaver Nuggets. We made it to our first stop at "American RV" in Corsicana, Texas at around 2:30am. Needless to say we were very exhausted from a long day of packing it all up and then driving for about 4 and half hours....