Home to Sunny California

I have been taking a break from blogging as we are back to our old home town visiting family for the holidays and Joe has doctor and dentist appointments, needs to go into the office for some meetings. We also need to have some work done on the motor home. Within a few days of arriving at Newport Dunes, we were finally able to go to a hockey game. Chris, our oldest son, got tickets from his friend that has season tickets. We have missed going to games after having season tickets for a number of years. We went with Chris and one of his brothers, Michael. Unfortunately the Ducks were shut out and we didn't get to do much cheering. However, later in the week Chris got more tickets and he and Carol and us went to another game that ended in the shoot out win for the Ducks. Yeah!!!!. More exciting game for sure.
Another project we had to do was help clean up my parents house. My dad had to go into the hospital as he had fallen again. He wasn't hurt but his blood pressure was high. THey then transferred him to a nursing home so they could have him do therapy to strength his legs a little. In the mean time, Kristi and Brock put our Mom in a board and care as she can't be alone in their house due to her dementia. WHen my dad able to leave the nursing home, they had him go into another board and care that is owned by the same person as where Mom is. THis one is right next door to Kristi and Brock. My dad realizes that they can't go back to that big two story house and so wants to sell it. There is a lot of work to do as my Mom saved everything. There is a lot to just go through and throw away. Then sort through what needs to be given away or sold or kept. So we have spend a number of days on that.
A more exciting event this month was that we finally got our new puppy. Savannah flew into John Wayne Airport and we went to pick her up. SHe came on Continental Airline which is an airline that a lot of breeders and people who show dogs use as they take very good care of the animals. We picked her up at a place a few blocks from the airport and there were two other dogs that had flown with her. She is just the sweetest dog. She was so happy to get out of her travel crate and just gave us lots of kisses.

                                                                 

Cattail Cove State Park, Lake Havasu

Boy, were the racers lucky. The weather had been nice on the days of the races. However, Sunday was really windy. So much so, that they probably wouldn't have been able to race. We stayed another day and left for Cattail Cove State Park on Monday. The park is right on the Colorado River between Parker and Lake Havasu. We were able to get a spot pretty close to the water for a nice view. We will be staying here until Friday when we will head back to California.

                                                                     

This is definitely a place we would come back to to stay this winter for a few weeks. A nice combination of water and desert. Places to hike and to kayak as well. We went into Lake Havasu, about 15 miles away for shopping and  some lunch and to just check out the area several days while we were here.                                                                                       

Racing in Parker

Friday, we left Safford and headed on to Parker, Arizona. It was about a 7 hour drive. We decided to just stay at the Blue Water Casino in their parking lot for a few days while we are here for Michael's races. It is free which is nice. No hook ups so will be using generator and solar. WHen we got there, we were surprised at how many motor homes were parked at the Casino. I am sure the Casino doesn't mind as they know most people camping there will probably spend some money at the Casino. In fact we did. Casey, Michael and Chris arrived with the boats about 9 o'clock and hadn't eaten and so we went over to the Casino for a bite to eat. It was nice catching up on what everyone has been doing since we last saw our boys in June.
Casey and Michael got a room at the Hotel and Chris stayed with us.
The APBA(American Power Boat Association) races were being held both Friday and Saturday. However, Michael had to work on Friday and so only participated on Saturday. This is the APBA/ SCSC 63rd annual Thanksgiving regatta. It is also the last race of the season. Michael has two boats he is racing. He races the small hydro planes. His brothers help him out. He had some issues with his boats. He ended up borrowing an engine for one of his boats. Everyone there is very helpful that way. Michael ended up with two third place finishes. He thought he had won second place in one race but they checked his boat and the engine wasn't exactly sitting the way it was suppose to and he got disqualified on that one.

Michael pulls away in his little red boat

Casey waiting for the start of the race

Working on the engine

Chris and Casey pushing Michael out into the water

Close race at the moment

           Here are some pictures of the other types of boats that raced

  

   Above is a picture showing both Michael's boats. Casey recently bought a boat but it is just the basic boat without engine, etc. He will be buying parts for it as he finds them and then will start racing also. He did race earlier this summer in someone else's boat and had a lot of fun. Chris has been a great brother helping Michael out. Go Dirty Racing Team!!!!


We went over to the Casino and had their buffet which was very reasonably priced. Not like Las Vegas. At least these days. We then went to the award ceremony where Michael got several.

The boys left Sunday morning but we are staying through Monday. We spent some time checking out several campgrounds and are planning on going to Cattail Cove State Park in Lake Havasu, which is right on the river. We'll be there until Friday when we will head back to Newport Dunes. Back to California.

                                                         




                                                                                                  

Thanksgiving at Roper Lake

We have just been relaxing here at Lake Roper, taking walks, reading, little working for Joe. Have just been in town a few times for supplies. Last time we were here everything was very green. Here we actually have a little of the fall colors.

This is the first Thanksgiving it has just been the two of us. Though we will see our boys on Friday at Parker.
I looked up slow cooker recipes for turkey as we had purchased a small turkey breast. I complied a few, using wine and a little chicken stock and some vegetables and basting the turkey with olive oil and herbs.
It really came out tender and moist as the blogs I read mentioned. We also had mashed red potatoes with sour cream and cream cheese added and some peas with thyme added. Very yummy. Also had some corn bread I had bought at the store and with a little wine, had a very good Thanksgiving meal. We are very thankful that we have been able to live this new life style. The first six months have been awesome. We have really seen some great places. THese months have also been pretty packed full and we have covered a lot of territory as we knew we would. We will be spending a month or maybe longer in Southern California and then spending the rest of the winter in Arizona at a slower pace.                                                    
                                                      

On to Arizona

We enjoyed the rest of our stay at Padre Island and hated to leave. However, we are planning on being at Parker, Arizona on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Michael, one of our sons, is racing his boats and all our boys will be there. It will be great to see them after our last six months of travel. We debated on where to stay next but ended up deciding to just do a couple of days of long travel and head towards Roper Lake in Safford, Arizona. We stayed there in June and it is one of our favorite places so far.

This is the view from our site. We arrived on Saturday and were just hoping to get any spot and then moving to one with a view of the water on Sunday when the weekenders leave. However, we were pleasantly surprised to find the same spot we had last time we were here open. Some of the best spots are non-reservable and so though most of the campground was pretty filled a few of the water view spots were open. Luckily for us. We plan on staying here until Friday and will then head for Parker, which is about a 6 or so hour drive.                                                                     

Taking care of business

Reception on internet and cell service has been off and on. One day we drove over to check out  one of the other campground on Padre Island. Joe took along his computer to see if it would be faster so he could do a little work. Bird Island Basin has camping right on the water.  We still like where we are staying a little better as it is prettier with the dunes and flowers. Joe spend some time working while I still some reading and watched some of the wind surfers do their thing.

You can also camp right on the beach. Just down a ways from where we are staying is a part of the beach where you can drive your car right on the beach. Part of it , anyone can drive on and then you come to a section that is 4 wheel drive only. We, of course, had to try it out. We saw  tent trailer, a small airstream trailer and a fairly large 5th wheel camped out on the beach.  Also a number of people fishing. One of these days we have to get some fishing gear and try it out.                                                     

Sunrises at the Beach

Even though we stayed up late to watch the Ducks play and win, we got up a few mornings to watch the sunrises.                                                                                                                                                                                              

It is so beautiful here. The Padre Island Seashore is the longest undeveloped stretch of barrier island in the world. Birders would love it as there are so many types of birds here. It is also the only place in Texas where all 5 types of sea turtles are found. They are very protective  of the nesting sea turtles and during the nesting season, warnings to be careful if nests are sighted. they also ask the nests to be reported to the rangers.

As we still are having sunny and warm days we went to Mustand Island to do some kayaking. We went there last year and liked it. We probably should have looked at the tide charts as it was low tide when we were there and so we couldn't go through some of the inner trails. We paddled out to the Corpus Christi Bay. We had quite a workout coming back as we were going against the wind. However, we still enjoyed the paddle. This is a big fishing area and the only people we saw were  fishing, no one but us actuallly out paddling .                                                                                                                         

Padre Island National Seashore

Sunday, we left Conroe, Texas and headed on down to Malaquite Beacg, which is on the Gulf on the Padre Island National Seashore. It is about 15 miles from the town of Corpus Christi.We stayed there last year on our vacation. Wow, that seems long ago. We got a good spot where we can see the water through all our front and side windows. Not a big campground and no electric or water, but cheap and great view. It is only $8 a night and only $4 for those with America the Beauty pass which we have. Hardly anyone on the beach and nice and peaceful. Monday we took a long walk on the beach. Weather very nice in high 70's or low 80's and sunny.

Tree from storm/hurricane as there are no trees on the island.

We are planning on staying here at least a week to just kick back and do a little kayaking, biking and walking on the beach.                                                                         

Spring, Texas

The rest of our time in New Orleans was uneventful. We had more rain and then strong winds. Friday we left and headed for Texas. We want to spend some time on Padre National Seashore on the Gulf in Texas. However first we are going to make a few days stop in Spring, Texas.  Near the beginning of our drive we take Interstate Hwy 10. We cross a bridge that is 18.2 miles and crosses the Atchafalaya Basin, which is the largest swamp in the United States.

                                                    
                                                                                                        

We got to Woodland Lake RV Campground in Conroe, Texas. It is fairly nice and our site looks on one of the three fishing ponds they have there.

The reason we are stopping here is to see some Cavalier King Charles puppies that we saw for sale on the internet. Madaan Cavaliers is the breeder and we set up a time to see the puppies on Saturday. We arrived to find a litter of beautiful little puppies. All but one were the blenheim coloring. The one we picked out is a tri color, which is black and white and tan. It was very hard to choose as they are all so cute.

                                                              
                                                          

    Isn't our little southern puppy, Savannah so cute. We had a hard time leaving her as she won't be old enough to come home with us until at least the middle of December. Mary, the breeder is very nice and really loves her Cavalier dogs and the puppies. She has shown dogs for years and has been a breeder for a long time as well and we can see she really takes wonderful care of the dogs. We look forward to have Savannah join our family.                                                             

The French Quarter

Tuesday we went into the French Quarter. THere is a shuttle from the campground into the area which is good as driving in that part of New Orleans isn't recommended. Once we got there, we decided to get a pass to use the street cars so we could get an overview of the area.  There are three different lines, St Charles, Canal Street and Riverfront. They all start downtown but go to different areas. We started on the Riverfront but switched over to the St Charles. It started in the Business area but then goes through 100 year old Oak Trees and past many antebellum mansions.

It started raining and so we decided to head back to the French Quarter. Luckily we brought an umbrella as rain had been predicted for the next few days. Oh Joy. We walked around on Bourbon St and some of the other streets in the Quarter. I really like a lot of the architectural of the buildings but we weren't that crazy about Bourbon Street itself. I guess night time would be better to bar hop and listen to music. I had a few restaurants in mind, such as one of Emeril's but with the rain we just wanted to pick one without walking too far. We found one called the Royal House Oyster Bar which has seafood and creole/cajun food. We got a nice little table right by some open French doors so we could watch the rain coming down and people watch as well. Joe got a muffuleta and I got a taste of New Orleans, which had small cups of gumbo, crawfish etouffee and jambalaya.

                                                                     

After lunch we walked around in the rain. We walked over to a museum but it was closed, maybe because it was election day(we mailed our absentee .ballots last week)    We watched a scene being filmed what we heard later was for a soap.

We had a few hours before the shuttle would pick us up and so we ended up just going into a few bars to get out of the rain. It was raining hard enough so even with an umbrella we were getting wet. Maybe it was partly because of the rain but we wouldn't say this was one of our favorite places. We would have liked to take a tour of the garden district or a swamp and bajou tour but with the rain that was out. And tomorrow is expected to bring more rain. Just part of traveling. It seems we have rain almost everywhere but we have had our share of beautiful sunny days too. Can't really complain. We caught the shuttle and headed back to the campground where we could just look out the windows at the rain while we have our fireplace on and are cozy and warm.