Waterloo, IA

Time has flown by! The next day after Osceola, we drove to Des Moines and stopped to have the oil changed in the motor home and the generator. Then off to Saylorville Lake for our volunteer position there. It Wes a busy time there. My job at the lake was affected by changes at the maintenance buildings (preparing for tearing it down and replacing it) and the lake reaching flood levels. A storm tore off our patio awning. One of our daughters there in Des Moines was preparing their house for sale and packing for a move to Alabama. We spent some time there helping with both of those projects. The house sold, we loaded three pods and they left for Alabama with their camper. We enjoyed visiting with our other daughter and her family doing the annual neighborhood rummage sale and their son invited us out to eat a couple of times at some very nice restaurants. We went to one of their daughter’s house to fix an electric outlet giving us a chance to see her house and go out to lunch with her. They took us out to a Chinese buffet before we left town. 

The beginning of July brought us to Sioux City. We had sold our house there to our daughter and her family that had been renting it from us. We parked in the driveway there and spent the month of July. Our usual annual medical and financial appointments along with repair projects and time spent playing games and enjoying the grandkids.

That brings us to the first of August and time to head to our son’s house in Michigan. We left Sioux City yesterday and stopped for the night at the Walmart in Waterloo, IA.

Osceola, IA

We originally planned to stay for a week in Farmington, AR at the Ozark Canopy RV Park, but we were enjoying our time there and decided to extend our “vacation”. We extended or time there by 9 more days. We did some flea marketing, some sightseeing, some laundry, and just enjoyed time together doing some puzzles, and playing games. On Saturday we drove to Nevada, MO and went to Mass on Saturday night. We overnighted at the Walmart and had supper next door at Sharkey’s Pub. Today we drove to Osceola, IA and are overnighting at the casino RV park there.

Sallisaw, OK

We spent Monday night at a Walmart in Sweetwater, TX, and the next night T the Winstar Casino RV park on the Texas/Oklahoma border. Tonight we are at a Walmart in Sallisaw, OK. 

Van Horn, TX

 It is windy here in Van Horn. We went to Holy Thursday Mass last night and then had a late supper at Wendy's. I spent most of yesterday changing the check valve on the output of the water heater so we could have hot water again. Only took three trips to the local hardware store. We plan to stay here until Monday. We are predicted to have a good tail wind on Monday. We are at the Wild West RV Park, it is a small graveled RV park, but very friendly and clean. A motorhome parked next to us last night that spent the winter in the RV park across the street from us in Yuma. Janice got to play with some of their national award winning dogs. 

Deming, NM

Stopped for the night last night at the Walmart in Deming, NM and today drove to Van Horn, TX. We will be here until Monday. Our hot water quit flowing today. Hopefully I can fix it tomorrow.

This a huge statue of a road runner overlooking Las Cruces, NM at a scenic overlook where we stopped.

Heading North Again

We enjoyed our winter in Yuma. We took a couple of Jeep trips out into the desert to visit some old mines, took a cruise on the river, toured the historic Yuma prison, Toured a mine at an historic mining town, and participated in the park games and activities. After learning how to us the wood lathe, I was able to complete 10 bowls. We may go back some day.

Today we left Yuma and are headed North again. We are stopped for the night at the Pima County Fairgrounds RV Park near Tucson, AZ.

Yuma, AZ

 We arrived in Yuma on October 25, and will be here until sometime in March. We are staying at the Sun Vista RV Park here which is a large RV park with 1200 sites. They have a theater area, a library, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, pickle ball courts, miniature golf, RC car race track, shuffle board, horseshoes, a two story fitness building, etc. There are loads of activities and games scheduled every day, plus concerts and dances. Most residents travel around on golf carts or electric bikes. It is a very nice park, with easy access to most of the town. We came here because they had a first timer special this winter for $450 a month including electricity. 

We have spent time here exploring the town, putting together puzzles in the library, playing bingo and other games, and working on the motorhome and Jeep. We had a lift kit installed on the Jeep and tried it out in the desert last week. Now we are installing some insulation in the Jeep roof. We added a screen wall to our awning for more shade and added outside shades to the windshield and front windows. We have replaced most of the other window shades with new day/night roller shades and really like them.

They have a wood shop here for the residents to use, and I am starting a lathe class tonight. Hope to learn how to make bowls, etc. on the lathe. They have a quilting and an embroidery group here so hopefully Janice will get to join them.  

Janice spotted this scorpion on our Jeep trek in the desert.

Looking through an old mining tunnel.

Looking down in an abandoned mine shaft.

A nativity set at our RV park

A picture of the sunset taken at the pool at the RV park next to ours.