Phoenix "Good Guys" Car Show

It's been awhile since I've taken over a post in the blog from my good wife Jo. I'm the one who experienced this bit-"o"-blogorama.
We've made good friends with our Canadian neighbors next door and "Jerry" saw that there was going to be a big carshow in Phoenix, Arizona. He wanted to go but his wife was uninterested. He asked me and I jumped at the chance. It was nice going with someone who was interested in good old fashioned American muscle car iron from the past. I used to be heavily involved in cars, namely drag racing and am in love with all of that shiny chrome and paint. I've never been to a big carshow outside of Fairbanks, Alaska and have only seen that type of show in "Hot Rod Magazine".

We got there and I was bedazzled with all of the gorgeous cars shining in the Arizona sun. The weather couldn't have been finer for a car show. I took tons of pictures but have limited them for the slideshow. Jerry and I only made it through three quarters of the show before we had to go. There were over two thousand cars there and most were "to die for". I hope you enjoy these pictures. I'm warning you though, put on a bib because you'll drool over these cars. My shirt was drenched by the time I got out of the show.

Catching Up

I haven't been posting since we've settled down to a fairly normal routine here in Arizona for the winter. I figure you're all just not that interested in hearing about us visiting with friends and family in this area or going to movies or playing golf or hanging out reading books or having the occassional happy hour with some of the neighbors. But still, it's probably time to make an entry to keep things up to date.

I crocheted a blanket for my great-nephew Matthew for Christmas. I hadn't crocheted anything in a long time and I forgot how much I enjoy it. I just picked up a pattern book for crocheting stuffed animals, so I'll try my hand at that next.

In late January, our niece Lorrie Grace came to Arizona to visit her friend Kim who lives in Flagstaff. She had to fly out of the Phoenix airport, so we met up with her and Kim for lunch before Lorrie's flight. We loved seeing her again, even for such a short time. And it was fun visiting with Kim who we hadn't seen since before we left Alaska.

Shortly after that, Tom's brother Bill came to visit us for 5 days. He and Tom had a great time playing golf almost every day.

Yesterday we spent the day at a dog show in Scottsdale. We didn't enter either of our dogs, we just went up to socialize with friends we generally only see at dog shows.

So, that's more or less the highlights of the last couple months. I'll try to be better about posting updates every couple weeks even when nothing overly exciting is going on.

Christmas Greetings

Dog Beds

Dash liked the cats' beds at Doug & Karen's so much, we had to get them for our house. Spoiled? No, our dogs aren't spoiled.

Friends in Deed

Our motorhome went into the shop on Monday to get some work done. We had to move out for the week and our friends Doug and Karen came to our rescue. Tom worked with Doug at the power plant in Fairbanks. When Doug retired a few years before Tom, he and Karen became full-time RVers for awhile. They just had a house built in Green Valley, Arizona, about 15 miles south of Tucson. We have the honor of being their first house-guests this week. Thank you Doug and Karen!!!

They have two cats, but luckily our dogs are pretty mellow around kittys. Dash would like to play with them, but they generally don't want to play with him. Thankfully he gets the hint quickly and leaves them alone. Gracie pretty much ignores them completely.

Dash decided he'd take over one of the cat beds and Gracie makes herself at home on Karen's recliner every evening. We're going to have to get a couple of these beds for the kiddies once we get our house back.

Clifton's Wedding

Last weekend, my nephew, Clifton got married to his lovely bride Sylvia. My mom flew down for the event and it was a very fun mini family reunion.

My mom (Fran), my brother (Mark) and me

My mom, Tom, me, our great-nephew Matthew and my sister-in-law Laura
My mom, Clifton and Sylvia

Arizona Sunset

We love the sunsets here.

Winter Home

Yesterday we arrived at the Palm Creek Golf & RV resort in Casa Grande, Arizona. We've stayed here twice before, for one month each time, and we so enjoyed this place we decided we'd spend the majority of our winter here this year. We still have a couple of things we need to get taken care of on the motorhome before we can really settle in for the winter (we need new tires and we need to have the back end aligned - which is why we need new tires) but we're still very happy to be "home."

Staying Ahead of the Storm

I checked the weather report this morning and learned there is a strong wind storm forecast for tomorrow - which was when we had planned to go to Yuma. As you can imagine, driving the motorhome in high winds is not the best idea. So we decided to come to Yuma today to stay ahead of the storm. We are now parked at the Pilot Knob RV Park in Winterhaven, CA (about 5 miles outside of Yuma).

We were able to make dentist appointments in Algodones for tomorrow and we'll have the roof repair touch up done on Wednesday. If all goes well, we'll be back in Casa Grande and settled in at Palm Creek RV park by Halloween.

Long Drive, Long Day

Wow! We covered about 500 miles today in about 9 hours. We haven't gone that far in one day in a looooooong time. Usually we try to limit our travel to about 4 hours a day or less.

We originally figured we'd only go about 280 miles today and get to Lordsburg, New Mexico. But when we got close to Lordsburg at around 2:00, we were both feeling pretty fresh and alert and decided to just keep on going all the way to Casa Grande, AZ. We'll spend the next three nights here, then go to Yuma for a touch up on the roof repairs they did last year.

We'll also try to fit in a quick visit to the dentist we saw in Algodones, Mexico last year. Then it will be back to Casa Grande where we plan to spend the majority of this winter.

On the Road Again

After a month of enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and wonderful weather in Kerrville, Texas we are on the road again making our way toward Arizona where we plan to spend most of the winter.

Tom drove about 350 miles today to get us to Van Horn, Texas; the first stopover on our journey west. We'd been a little nervous about today because of all the problems we had with the motorhome just before we got to Kerrville. But all went smoothly and the motorhome ran perfectly. Praise God! We both feel like a huge weight has lifted off our shoulders and we can relax and enjoy the next few days of travel.

Being Lazy

Our time here in Kerrville has been very uneventful, and that's just what we were hoping for. We were both pretty burned out from all the touring we did this summer, so we needed this down time. We've been here for three weeks so far and most of our days have been spent just relaxing. Tom is spending a lot of time fishing in the stream that runs through the park and I've managed to read 5 or 6 books already. We did visit our friends Roland and Elizabeth for a couple of days. And today we took a drive to Medina to the Love Creek Orchard Bakery to get one oftheir fabulous (and huge) apple pies.


We have one more week here, then we head to Arizona where we plan to spend the next five months.

Coast to Coast

On Jan 1, 2009 we were in Palm Springs, California. Late April found us in Florida and by mid August, we were in Belfast, Maine. Wow! We really put on the miles this year. All in all, we covered over 7000 miles in the motorhome and visited (or at least drove through) 28 states.

I keep a map in the "Where are We Now" block on the side bar of this blog showing the routes we've taken and where we've stayed along the way. I had to start a new map since we are now overlapping the route from earlier this year. But here is the map from January through now. You can zoom in on the map amd drag it around to see more detail if you are interested.



View January '09 to September '09 in a larger map

Fixed!

I think the engine is actually fixed! The CAT repair shop ended up putting in a whole new brain (computer). They drove it a couple of times without any problems before they called us on Friday morning to come get it. Once we got there yesterday afternoon, we drove it another 40 miles or so before we parked it for the night. Today we drove about 230 miles, still no problems. I think I can finally breathe again.

We made it to the Buckhorn Lake RV Resort in Kerrville where we'd wanted to spend a month. Not sure if we'll get to stay a whole month after all these delays, but we should be good for at least 3 weeks. I'm soooooooooo ready to just sit and relax!

And this is a good place for relaxing. We spent three days at this RV park this past spring and enjoyed it so much, we've really been looking forward to coming back. Our site is right on the bend of a stream that runs through the park so we have a lovely view.

Engine Trouble

One of my worst fears about living in the motorhome has come to pass. We are having engine trouble and for the moment, our motorhome is stuck in Waco, TX while the mechanics try to figure out what is wrong. The diagnostic computer is logging a fault with the speed sensors. The mechanics have changed out the speed sensors and the wiring to the speed sensors, but the engine is still running rough. When they started talking about tearing into the engine and needing us to move into a hotel for a couple of days, we decided to just throw some things in the car and drive the 130 miles down to Kingsbury, TX to stay with our friends Roland and Elizabeth. We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends, willing to take us in on a moment's notice.

We have been in Kingsbury for the past three days while the motorhome remains in the shop in Waco. When Tom talked to the service manager this afternoon, he was cautiously optomistic that they may have solved the problem.

It's been a pretty stressful few days for us, not knowing what the problem is or when it might be fixed, but we are making the best of it and enjoying our time with Elizabeth and Roland.

More Wildlife from our Window

Rain, rain, rain. That's almost all we've seen for the last 3 days. We still haven't tried to explore Nashville because of the wet weather. And since this is our last day here, I guess it's just not in the cards for this visit. Horror stories of flooding and hydroplaning vehicles causing accidents have dominated the news. So we have just been staying home. Thankfully it's a lovely setting, even if we are seeing the view through the haze of falling rain.

Tennessee Flora and Fauna

We made it to Music City - Nashville, Tennessee - though we have yet to spend any time in the city doing the tourist thing. We're staying at Seven Points Park on the J. Percy Priest Lake just outside of Nashville. It's such a beautiful setting, we've been content to just hang out here and relax. These pictures were taken right from our campsite.

Kentucky Horse Country

While in Kentucky, we've been staying at the campground at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. The Horse Park is a huge complex which hosts various equestrian and other special events throughout the year. It will be the site of the World Horse Show in 2010. It seems like there are at least as many huge horse trailers here in the campground section of the park as there are RVs.

Lexington is serious horse country and everywhere you look there are rolling green pastures and split rail fences. And of course, horses, horses, horses. We like the Lexington area a lot. It's developed enough to have all the shopping, entertainment, services, etc. one needs for everyday living, but just minutes outside of the more urban areas and you are in "the country".

Today we drove about 60 miles west to Louisville. As home to Churchill Downs, we expected it to be much the same as Lexington. But it is not. Louisville has the look and feel of a densely populated big city.

We took a tour of Churchill Downs (home of the Kentucky Derby) which we really enjoyed. The tour included visiting the paddock area, the race track, the grandstand area and the trainers' stables behind the racecourse. There is no live racing going on this time of year though. I was kind of bummed about that. I would have loved to see the horses run. But according to Kentucky state law, only one track at a time can be holding races and it's not Churchill Downs' turn. They have race "meets" two times a year, from mid-April through mid-July and then late-October through late-November.

Today was our final day in Kentucky. We move on to Nashville, TN tomorrow.

Place your cursor over picture to pause slideshow.

It's the Water

Why does the best whiskey come from Kentucky and Tennessee? It's the water! That is one of the first things we learned today on our tour of the Woodford Reserve Distillery where they make super premium Bourbon whiskey. This area sits on a huge limestone aquifer that serves as a giant filter, removing unwanted minerals and adding calcium. The calcium reacts with the yeast during production to make a better Bourbon.

The tour begins in the Distillery Building where they start by cooking up a mixture of corn, rye, malted barley, water and yeast into a "sour mash" which is then transferred to a huge wooden fermenting tank for 4 to 6 days.

Once fermentation is complete, the mash is moved to the first of three copper pot stills to begin the process of separating the water and alcohol from the mash. It is distilled three times before being transferred to barrels. The barrels are then moved to the warehouse to be stored for aging by rolling them along rails. The Bourbon remains in the barrels for 7 to 8 years.

When the maturation process is complete and the Bourbon is deemed ready, it is bottled and shipped off to be sold. Some is held back for tour guests to taste (and buy at the gift shop.) So of course we had to buy some - along with some chocolates and Bourbon caramels. YUM. Tom bought a very big bottle, so it should keep us in Mint Juleps for a long time.

Almost Heaven - West Virginia

John Denver was on the right track when he wrote West Virginia was "almost heaven". At least from a gorgeous scenery stand-point, it's certainly true. For the last four days we've been at the Summersville Lake Retreat campground in Mount Nebo, West Virginia, in the Allegheny/Cumberland Mountains. We're surrounded by hills and river valleys all covered in a blanket of trees. The trees are just starting to change to their fall colors. It will be spectacular here in just another week or two. But we'll have to miss the show. Tomorrow we move on to Kentucky.