ccsimpson

I will worry about you two until you get home!!! You have ceertainly had you share of "adventures" this year!!! Glad the truck problem was a simple one. Be careful and try and relax til Jim can get that boat back in the water and fish til his heart's content! Carol

Jim and Sandie, I KNOW you will be glad to leave AZ,but don't go too far! Saw it SNOWING in the Billings area!!! Be careful, and don't go from one extreme to the other! Love Kalispell, so have some huckleberry ice cream for me! Will still be here in Denver until June 17th. Carol

May 10 until May 29 at Buckley AFBin Aurora east of Denver, CO. Just slowing down to pass some time and explore the area. Met up with good friends again plus took care of some buisiness. Then got a really bad case of food poisioning. Then Doug got a mild case. We both are still recovering. NOT a fun thing when you are here to have fun!!! At least we are here for a while so have time to do the things we want to do. We have a beautiful view of the Rockies with the snow on top from our site. But Denver is CRAZY! It is so spread out and traffic is horrible, even at night! Plus there is just loads of road construction going on, so our outings will try and be around the downtown areas. The drive up over the Rockies getting here was a beautiful drive! Hope to see more of them while here. We were just at the Nat. Park in Sept. so won't go that far unless we make a stop near Estes Park on our way to Cheyenne, WY. Carol

5/4 to 5/7 Panquitch, UT. Will visit Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. Hve been here before but just hate to miss a visit to such a beautiful place. Had to skip Vermillion Cliffs due to requirement for 4 wheel drive vehicle, 6 mile hike to "the Wave", plus a waiting list for a pernit to hike the park.

5/1 to 5/4 Page, AZ, to visit the Vermillion Cliffs and Antelope Canyon. Spent 2 nights at Canyon de Chelly at the nice wooded, paved campground just below the visitor's center. It used to be free but as of a few days ago it is now $10 a night which is still pretty good these days. Then we spent 1 night at Gooseneck State Park near Bluff, AZ, in the middle of nowhere on our way to Monument Valley. But you just camp for free on this bluff in an open area along the rim of the San Juan River 1,000 feet below. Pretty country out there! Carol

4/28 - 4/29 at Canyon de Chelly. We are staying at the nice wooded campground just below the visitor's center. Campground is only $10 a night so you can't beat that! The canyon is quite unique and the weather hasbeeen great! Carol

4/27 one night at a gift shop in Holbrook, AZ that offers free camping. It is just outside the south entrance to the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert Nat. Park. Quiet and the owner of the shop lives behind it so someone is always around plus several other folks pulled in for the night. Beware of time-shares for RV parks! We just left Western Horizons at Camp Verde "Resort" in Camp Verde after using a free coupon for 3 nights that we got out at Quartzsite. First of all the park was disgusting and they refer to it as a resort! Half the sites or less had only 30 amp and no sewer with gravel and grass sites. It was in desperate need of upgrades. We had to go back to the office and get a longer site and 50 amp. Anyway, we listened to the sales pitch and then it ended abruptly when the salesman insulted us because we wanted to take a copy of the contract and read it. He told us that was just an excuse to find a reason not to buy! That was the WRONG thing to say! He wanted us to sign on the dotted line right then and there! That meeting was over! Do people really sign away $9,000.00 without reading a contract? I sure hope there are not that many out there that are that gullable! We would have left after the frist night but we had reservations for the Verde Canyon Railroad and other resonable campgrounds were full because of a birding festival. So if you go to a rally anywhere in AZ and you see Camp Verde Resort, just be weary of there sales antics. Plus the owner is selling off some of the parks so where does that leave the time-share holders? We learned our lesson, again. If something is free or sounds too good to be true, it is and the danger signals go up! rvparkreviews.com can give you the expenience others have had with these people. Carol

Jim and Sandie, glad the news was good about the cancer not spreading. So will continue to keep checking on you. Guess I will have to buy Jim some more sugar free chocolate! Carol

4/19 to 4/23 Camp Navajo Army National Guard CG just outside of Flagstaff. Park wasn't supposed to open yet but the water and elec. have been turned on and we were allowed to stay even if there was no camp host. Just us and one other motorhome. Nice and quiet tucked under Ponderosa Pines with a view of Mt. Humphrreys with snow still on top. Maybe we will have a campfire and watch for elk tonight! Carol

April 12 - 19 In Kingman, AZ. Well, we are sitting here this morning watching it snow!!!! We are in the DESERT!! Day before yesterday we were in shorts! It is pretty coming down but cold! Then tomorrow will be warm again. Mother Nature can't seemto makeup her mind. Carol Sandie you and Jim are in our prayers.

45 to 4/12 we are at The Ranch in Congress. SOOO...... glad to be on the road again after 4 months in Mesa, AZ. Had a great time with great friends but are ready to explore other areas! Will drive up to Prescott and Jerome while we are here. Sandie and Jim, so glad we got to see you one more time before we left the valley! Be safe! Carol

2/20 to April 5. We decided to extend our stay here in Mesa, AZ, at Palm Gardens. We want to explore some areas a bit further north in AZ but after checking the average weather for March at 50s during the day and 20s at night, decided that is just TOOO COLD! So we will just findmore things to do here while waiting for warmer weather. Carol

Jan 23rd to March 5th back at Palm Gardens in Mesa, AZ, after a good time at "Q" to finish out the winter. Quartzsite- Just got back after 10 days with the class of 07 out at "Q". What a nice group of people! We are class of 09. They really made us feel welcome. They even officially adopted 6 of us couples not of the 07 class, and even pinned us with badges to prove it! They are also such kind hearted folks. We had an auction right there in the desert of items no longer wanted. We raised a generous huge amount of money of which 100% goes to SKP CARE. The evening bon fires and sharing adventures along with great food from the "desert chefs" under spectacular sunsets just didn't get any better than that!! This was our first time at "Q" and the group really made it nice for us. We had a great time and made lots of new friends we hope to meet again soon down the road. Carol

Jan 13 to Jan 22 at Quartzsite with the 07 rally. We are 09. We came with fellow SKPs and everyone we have met so far is really nice. It was fun around the campfire and looks like we are going to be eating really good this weeK!! It is great to make new friends and meet up with a few old ones. This is our 1st visit and everyone is real excited to show us the "Q" winter lifestyle that you hear so much about. Carol

Sandie, My gosh girl!!!! What an ordeal! But it sounds like it could really have been worse. At least you can still hitch up and close the tailgate. Just be careful going out to "Q". Once you get there just relax and let the nerves get back on track! We will be thinking about you. Carol

12/5 to 3/5/2012 at Palm Gardens RV Resort in Mesa, AZ. Here for the winter and after checking other parks, we decided on this one since we were already here for the week. Got the LAST site available for the season only due to a late cancellation! Whew, that was lucky! Now we will just hang out with all the other THOUSANDS of snowbirds! Carol

11/28 to 12/5 or may stay the season at Palm Gardens RV Park in Mesa, AZ. Visited a few other parks today to see what is out there and 2 were full and the others were too tight for us to get into. Prices vary. So will scout some more areas the next couple of days before we decide to stay where we are or not. Even the sire we have now was really tough to get into because you have to avoid park model awnings, mail boexes, and palm trees. Seems like the parks are not really RV designed and mostly park models. Mesa really does need a new park just for RVs only. Carol

11/21 - 11/27 At the SKP park in Casa Grande to have Thanksgiving with fellow SKPs since not near family this year before heading to Mesa for the rest of the winter. Carol

11/16 to 11/21 at Davis Monthan AFB in Tucson. Will take our usual drive up Lemmon Mountain and do the Saquaro Nat. Park again. Bruce and Bunny, enjoyed our visit with you and just might see you at Quartsite! Carol

11/13 thru 11/15 at the SKP park in Benson, AZ. It stll ain't that warm yet!!! Carol

11/10 to to 11/13 at the SKP park in Deming. After ten great days in Rock Hound St. Pk. we need to move just doen the raod to catch up on laundry and wee what is going on with fellow SKPs. Carol

11/7 - 11-9 Still at Rock Hound State Park in Deming, NM, to use up the balance on our NM St. Pk. pass. Decided to use it up here because of such a nice setting. Carol

Jim and Sandie, it will probably be around the first part of Dec. We are going to spend more of next week at Rock Hound State Park then then a few days at the Deming SKP park to do some laundry Then we want to stop at the SKP park in Benson, and stay a few days at the AFB in Tucson. We like Tucson and love driving up Lemon Mountain. So we are in no rush but looking forwrd to getting there. Sounds like you had a great time at your rally! Carol

So IYQ, does that mean the Co-op park was full? We had hoped to stop there for a couple of days in the next week or so. Carol

10/31 to 11/7 we are at Rock Hound State Park in Deming, NM. (Then will move down to the SKP park to do laundry and such). That should just about use up the prepayment on the park pass. This park is really nice since it has been upgraded since our first visit in 2002. The views are great and so is weather. There are some open sites but we understand that in the next few weeks this place will be completely full til after Feb. IYQ, We only had one day of 30 mile hour winds at Elephant Butte and the rest of the time there were nice soft breezes and we were able to have several campfires. The 360 degree views from the bluff are just amazing! So far that is the best NM state park we have stayed in. Riverside now has 24 cows that roam thru the campground because the river is so low and the farmer across the river lets his cows cross and refuses to put up a fence. The Ranger is the farmer's friend so no help there. The camp host tried at first to clean up but it was too overwhelming and shouldn't be a camp host's job in the first place. We will not be going near that place again. Sailbad, looks like we were only one leg behing you. We must have brought our share of flies with us as well because even Rock Hound State Park sure has its share. But at least no cow pies!!!!! Sandie, I sure hope that new jack is working fine and there will be no more problems. We had the same problem many years ago on our Cedar Creek. We had the jack sent ahead to our next stop in Salt Lake City, then had to hang around to wait for it. After looking at it Doug installed it rather than hang around even longer for an appointment at some RV place. Not a fun project! Carol