Good Bye Mazatlan....Hello Buckeye

It would appear that I have forgotten how to write a Blog..... that would true, I could not remember how to log in.  The real reason is that I am a lazy bum.

Good Bye Mazatlan

Life has been unusually busy for us retired people.  Since last writing we have traveled South, purchased a home to be built in Buckeye, AZ, continued south to Mazatlan where we put our condo up for sale, it sold in a few weeks, closing took a couple months, we packed our Honda CRV with everything that would fit, drove back to Buckeye where we are living in the motorhome the past two months, purchased a whole storage until full of things to furnish the new home, been busy overseeing the home being built, purchased a pool to be installed after we take ownership of the home.  Now was that a long enough run-on sentence?

We are very happy with our new direction in life.  We both agree that it was time to move on to the next adventure.

The white line in the backyard will become a swimming pool.

As I write this morning we are camped out in the middle of the desert taking a one week break before a busy closing week on the new home (April 1-8).

My big plan for the week is to become a "rock hound" following in the footsteps of my Grandfather.  I need a variety of stones for my front yard landscaping.  Our size limit is based on what the two of us can lift into the back of the Honda CRV.  I'm not sure how we will get the "big one" out, I can hardly move it now that it's in there.

Thursday morning we were headed out to find more rocks.  As we left the dirt road we turned right and drove 104 miles to check on the progress in the new house.  208 miles later we were back at the motorhome in the desert to continue camping.  We are both a little crazy as we wait for closing day.

All is fine with us and the new home.  All the appliances are in now and the landscaping will begin Friday.

Life is good... time to paint Arizona pictures.

Heading Back to Washington

We didn't want to wear out our welcome in the beautiful state of Wyoming, so after 3 wonderful weeks we are headed home.  Slowly.  We passed through Yellowstone quickly.  Drove all day to get out of Montana.  And tonight we are on the shore of Moses Lake, in warm Eastern Washington.

Our plan is to go south around Mt Rainier and then work our way back north to Tacoma next week.

We haven't traveled Hwy 12 in a few years and we haven't camped there in years.  It's time to go look around.

Here are a few photos from this last week.  Most are from the area around Shoshone National Forest.  We had a wonderful campsite right on the Shoshone River.

The view out our front window.

One afternoon we could feel a sudden storm blowing in.  We picked up our chairs and secured everything knowing what was coming over the ridge in front of us.  First wind, next lightening, than thunder and last sheets of rain.  Mind you all of this time it was still brightly shining on our campsite.  Here's a photo out our front windshield.

It came down in buckets a few minutes later.  There was enough rain that it turned the crystal clear river to brown in a few hours with all the run off from the mountains.

Bright sunshine and rain?

We stopped and looked at Buffalo Bill Dam.  They had a vast collection of driftwood piled against the dam.

When it was built it was the tallest dam in the world.

Shell Falls

As usual we were able to find many falls and a few great hikes along our way.  The only drawback to hiking in these areas is oxygen.  The air gets pretty thin above 8,000 or 9,000 feet.  I just keep climbing and wheezing my way up.

Five Springs Falls

Here's my high climbing buddy.

Sunset at our last campsite in Wyoming.

Life is good..... we're heading home to see Grandkids.  Thus ends a 6,000+ mile trip that has taken 125 days.  It will be good to be back.

Captive in Wyoming

We don't seem to be able to leave Wyoming.  After being here for two weeks we still have a week or two of sites to see.  We both agree that Wyoming is beautiful and we are nowhere near Yellowstone yet.  There are still great things to be seen and done.

Ten Sleep Falls near our boondocking spot in the Big Horn Mountains.

We have spent the last 7 nights boondocking or dry camping at 3 different spots in the Big Horn National Forest in north central Wyoming.  Each day has been spent hiking and four wheeling through very amazing canyons.  The new Honda CRV is four wheel drive and we could not have done the dirt roads we traveled in our old Honda Fit.

It's hard to pick a favorite day, but the day spent in Crazy Woman Canyon may be it.  The dirt road/path was a challenge.  The river running through the canyon was beautiful.  And Eve loved it all.

One of our campsites was on this beautiful lake.

The view out our front window.

One morning a moose walked about 50' in front of us.  I was so excited I forgot to take a picture.  We've seen lots of different wildlife, but my favorites have been the various moose (or is that mice).

Another windshield shot as we squeezed between boulders.

Our last three nights were spent boondocking off a dirt road between Bear Lake and the Ten Sleep River.  We could listen to the water cascading down the river from our RV.

Ten Sleep Lake

We enjoyed our warm 3 mile hike beside this lake.

The next day we decided to change our scenery so we drove out of the mountains to see Castle Garden.  Again it was many miles of dirt road but well worth the effort.

Time to climb a Hoodoo.

We needed to do laundry after two weeks so we headed into the town of Ten Sleep (population 250).  We'll spend the day here getting water, dumping tanks and getting ready for another week in the northern portion of the Big Horn National Forest.  Next stop will be Lovell, Wyoming.

The reason we came to Wyoming was to attend the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) convention.  We both enjoyed picking our favorite seminars from a list of 150 classes.  There were over 1,600 motorhomes in attendance.  It was alot like a big county fair for RV'ers.

Great concerts every night.

We're loving life on the road this year.  The new-to-us motorhome is a pleasure to drive and we are getting to know all the different systems.  It has kept us cool on 100 degree days and warm through chilly nights.  This was the hail from a few nights ago up in the mountains.

Not snow, just large hail stones.

Life is good....driving down the road to somewhere unknown.

Gering, Nebraska

We have enjoyed our week in Gering, Nebraska.  We decided to slow down and spend the week of the Fourth of July at Rubidioux City Park.  We had been moving at a little too fast of a pace, so it was time to kick back and not move for 7 days. 

While here we visited Scotts Bluff National Monument.  It was a great drive on a windy road to the top of the bluff.  We did a couple of hikes and enjoyed the scenery.

Starting the drive to the top.

We also visited Fort Larimie National Monument and Chimney Rock  Historical Site this week.  We spaced our drives with lazy days between each trip. 

Not wanting to be too lazy I managed to wax half the RV.  Terri said I deserved the extra work, I wanted a bigger RV, now I have more to wax.

Tomorrow morning we head for South Dakota to visit Wind Cave National Park.  It will be a short 154 mile drive on county roads and highways (no freeways).  We're in no hurry so we are taking the road less traveled. 

We will be at Elk Mountain Campground which is a dry camping location within the National Park.  We will spend four days communing with the Bison and Prong Horn Sheep.  We will also tour the caves a couple of mornings.

Life has been good in Nebraska.

Flowers

I'm like my Mom.  I have a thing for flowers.  Everywhere we go I take pictures of flowers.  So today the blog is a few of my floral shots from the past 5 months.  Enjoy.

Thanks for looking at all kinds of flowers....Life is Good.