MAY 10 & 11 - WILLIAMS, AZ

Grand Canyon by rail today ! It's a beautiful sunny morning with a high forecast of 68 degrees. Wayne, Linda and Randy just left for the train.

Sue, Mark and Julie are shopping the Route 66 in Williams, the last town to be bypassed by Interstate 40 in 1984. It's a really neat town! Time seems to be stuck in the 50's. We came home to walk the doggies and apparently Sue thought hers needed a tea party. LOL.

The Grand Canyon hikers arrived home and had a wonderful day! They took the red trail 1.6 miles each way.

OKAY, the crowd is tired of me doing Churchill so we now have Mark doing George Bush!!! We had such a laugh. It was Dubya's infamous "There's an old saying in Tennessee; well I know it's in Texas, so probably in Tennessee, ...". We had such a laugh. Apparently the blog won't accept video clips. Alas.

Sue, Mark and I had a wonderful day at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. We took the Grand Canyon Railway from Williams, Arizona, a nice 2 1/2 hour ride complete with a Western shoot out, singing cowboys and a train robbery for tips. It was FUN. Sue and I found the old Cafe car for wine! The rail cars are old, refurbished trains from the 20's and 50's. The train robbers rode up on horseback and stopped the train. Anywho, movies and photos don't even start to show the Canyon's majesty ! Perfect weather. We had lunch at Bright Angel and wine at El Tovar, did a little shopping, walked and took photos.

MAY 9, 2013 - TUCSON TO WILLIAMS/FLAGSTAFF

Beautiful sunny 61 degree morning. Wayne, Sue, Linda & Randy went to their favorite grocery store, Sprouts, for more food ! Left campground at 8:50 am on our 301 mile trip to Williams Arizona.

We are passing hundreds of stored airplanes ... preserved in the desert sun.

11:30 am, 80 degrees going through Phoenix, Arizona.

About 11:45 traffic slowed to a crawl because of an accident 17 miles ahead. Crawling along, Randy sprinted from the Prevost with a plate of sandwiches for Mark and I. BELOW IS PROOF! LOL

We stopped at Sunset Point rest area, walked the dogs and stretched. 122 miles to Willams (Grand Canyon Railway RV Park). Beautiful mountains vistas!

Fuel stop at Pilot on I40 ... 44 degrees with 23 miles to camp.

Arrived 3:45 PM and got setup. Took a drive down Route 66 and discovered lots of shops and bars! Home to cook Randy's marinated chicken. Tomorrow, Linda, Randy & Wayne are going on the Grand Canyon Railway for a day trip. The rest of us will go the next day so the dogs are looked after. 

This is a beautiful campground ... and spotless!

MAY 6, 7, & 8 - TUCSON

It was a cool, breezy night with a nice rain shower. Mark is taking the Dodge in for an oil change and Julie is waiting for the local mobile repair service to replace a slide motor. Sue, Wayne. Linda & Randy are going sightseeing.

Cameron's Mobile Repair found our slide problem right away. Unfortunately, a new motor had to be ordered and overnight shipped. It looks like we may be here in Tucson an extra day!

Linda and Randy have two moochers hoping for a handout. LOL. Picture below.

A trip to the local Walmart found us with too many full grocery sacks and nowhere to put them except the truck bed. Randy offered to ride "Beaner Style" and keep an eye on our bags. Hahaha. After we got things stowed away, Randy started his chicken marinade. Julie discovered raw chicken in the kitchen sink next to clean dishes. By the time Randy finished, he had had to sterilize the entire kitchen. LOL. So Mark said, "Did you learn anything today Randy???". And Randy said, "Yeah I did. Don't marinate chicken when Julie's around!!!".

Tonight we're all going to a Greek restaurant in downtown Tucson. Update ... Athena's was very good ! We found our way back to Rincon RV and sat on the patio with the dogs. It cools off nicely at night this time of year.

MAY 7 ... Randy and Linda are doing laundry, Wayne on the Internet, Mark, Sue and I went browsing at a downtown artists' area. Sue bought a few items including a glicee chipmunk painting. The three of us went to Guadalajara Restaurant for lunch. Wayne, Linda and Randy went specialty food shopping!!! Looks like some feasts are ahead. LOL

Sue and I had to make reservation adjustments due to our slide motor repair. We will now be here in Tucson an extra night with a later than usual departure on Thursday. We discovered our Flagstaff reservation hadn't been booked ... or the KOA couldn't find it. So, back to the books.

Wayne's cooking chicken ... the rest of us are drinking wine and watching news. Dinner was great ... drank some wine and watched Dancing with the Stars, then went for a walk. A good day!

May 8 ... Mark cooked breakfast on the patio for Linda, Randy and us. Sue joined the gang and we drove to Hobby Lobby where Sue instantly found a piece of furniture for their cottage ! She has to measure available space ... Vetoed by Wayne ! Haha

All but me, Julie, have gone to Sabino Canyon for the afternoon. I pulled a rib muscle so stayed at the RV's and relaxed. Apparently, it was a great tour with wonderful mountain scenery!!!

Hallelujah ! Our slide part and repairman arrived, so we may be traveling in the morning!

MAY 5, 2013 - VAN HORN TO TUCSON, ARIZONA

May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, 56 degrees and windy this morning! Linda was cold and now bundled up in Mark's hoodie! We had to get fuel and Pilot was our only option. As usual at Pilot stations, it was a half hour deal ! They hire the dumbest people.

The Eagle mountains look like huge gravel piles!

El Paso, Texas is very large and very colorless. Everything is brown, with the occasional green tree.

At 11:00 we crossed into New Mexico and stopped at a nice rest area, walked the dogs and took a few pictures.

11:57 we went through a border patrol station ... In our own country !!!

Mark spotted some dust devils and tumbleweeds!

50 miles east of Tucson is an area called Dragoons. Very interesting rock formation ... big boulders. See two photos below.

Arrived 4:00 local time, setup and Randy poured drinks. It was Julie's night to cook and we had salad and pizzas. Everyone was worn out so we had an early night of TV. No A/C needed ... it cooled down to 61, was breezy and rained.

MAY 4, 2013 - SAN ANTONIO TO VAN HORN, TEXAS

Today, Saturday, is a 436 mile travel day ... we departed San Antonio at 8:10 am. It was a chilly 43° and sunny!

At 10:15 am it was 67 and sunny. We are passing interesting mesas and scrub brush. Stopped for fuel and lunch at a redneck truck stop in Ozona. Yikes! Back on the road by noon.

Okay folks we're at the trailer park !!! Wayne got in big trouble for washing his windshield ... Of course I, Julie, had to get in there and help. I might say I was a big help and they called reinforcements. Note to self ... I thought the Alamo was already won!!! This is how karma works, the argument was over the use of water, so now we have no water pressure in our kitchen!!! That's karma!!! LOL. Mark has Randy helping and asked Randy to blow on the faucet to clear the line ... so Randy did ... then Mark started laughing and Randy had a coughing fit. Too funny.

We had delicious turkey burgers on the grill with Razzleberry pie for dessert and all turned in early.

MAY 2, 2013 - SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

9:10 am departure ... 73 degrees and sunny. It was a very windy ride, and we were rockin' n rollin' but arrived safely at 2 PM at Travelers World RV Resort. A cold front has come through and it is currently 58° and sunny.

Our living room TV slide did not open properly, so Randy and Mark are working on it. It sounds like a new gear motor must be ordered!

Randy cooked chicken breasts, Mark cooked rice and Sue made tomato/avocado salad. It was very windy, so we dined in the Prevost ... and Mark snuck some of Wayne's 2007 wine. LOL.

It was a chilly night and Mark got up Friday morning and put the furnace and fireplace on. Linda, Randy, Sue and Wayne have gone on San Antonio bus tour this morning. Mark and I are doing laundry and cooking lunch but will go on the Riverwalk canal tour this afternoon ... and dinner on the Riverwalk tonight. Nice!!!

Friday's tours enjoyed by all ... Dos Equis at Durty Nelly's Irish bar ... then home to feed and walk the dogs.

Seven o'clock reservations at Rio Rio where Wayne ate refried beans, aka "baby poop". LOL. We sat on the balcony overlooking Riverwalk and had a terrific meal. Early to bed for an early start to Van Horn, Texas in the morning.

MAY 1, 2013 - KEMAH (Houston)

We are enjoying our stay at Marina Bay RV Resort, just off Galveston Bay. This is the cleanest RV resort we've ever seen!

We walked to Skippers, a local restaurant, where we were served a wonderful breakfast. The City of Kemah has a nice beach resort feel.  We shopped at the Twisted Sister then the Eagle's Nest and browsed.  Later, we walked Kemah Boardwalk; it must be the happening place on weekends.

At 5 o'clock, we are going for cocktails at Kemah Yacht Club with Scott and Cindy Monroe.   Later, we're barbecuing marinated chicken breasts at our lakeside gazebo for dinner. Tomorrow, we're off to San Antonio, Texas!

Well, plans changed! Scott and Cindy showed us their 1937 Trumpy, The Flying Lady. This vessel is in showroom condition! What a treat it was to see! Afterwards, we went to the Lakewood Yacht Club and enjoyed drinks and dinner! It was a wonderful evening.

Next leg of the journey is 230 miles to San Antonio Texas.