London Bridge

Once we departed CA we were making our way to Las Vegas. On the way we knew we wanted to make two stops, the first being Lake Havasu City in AZ to see the London Bridge.

The London Bridge, located in Lake Havasu City, was originally constructed in London in 1831. By 1962, the bridge was not structurally sound enough to support the increased load created by the level of modern traffic crossing it, and it was sold by the city of London to Robert McCulloch who was trying to build up the area of Lake Havasu City and wanted a focal point, a tourist attraction, for his city. He reportedly paid $2,460,000 for the bridge and another $7,000,000 to transport it from London to the USA.

It was a nice place to stop for the evening and there is a small English-style village at the base of the bridge where we spent some time walking around.

San Diego Zoo.

While in the area of course we had to visit the world famous San Diego Zoo. We really enjoyed this zoo. They had some really rare animals and the kids enjoyed sitting atop a double-decker bus for a tour of the whole zoo. It was quite a bit of walking up and down hills, but we didn't mind it too much. We were very fortunate to find many active animals this particular day. Grizzly bears were very playful, gorillas were funny, four tigers interacting with each other was a special treat as large cats often sleep much of the day. The kids especially enjoyed the activity of the meerkats.

There were several animals we have not seen in zoos before like Koalas, echidnas, rare birds, and some really cool reptiles. I think our favorite are, though, was the insect house. The kids really enjoyed getting and up close look at some of the rarest and deadliest insects in the world.

This trip rounded out our visit to San Diego nicely as it was our last day in CA. We enjoyed the area very much and hope to return again for another visit.

Hodads.

While in Ocean Beach we ate at tiny hamburger joint that was recommended by another RVer we know. It was blaring music, it had funny personalized license plates all over the walls, and a great mix of interesting people dining there. Best of all, the burgers were amazing. They were huge and loaded with every topping you can imagine. Their fries were pretty good, but the onion rings were phenomenal. We ate here twice while in town and if we are ever in the area, I know we will eat here again.

Ocean Beach/Sunset Cliffs.

While in the area we made time to visit Ocean Beach and stop at the Sunset Cliff overlook. It was a pacific coast, scenic overlook. We climbed on the rocks a bit and looked at tide pools, ocean caves, and the surf hitting the rocky coast. We stopped here twice ands unfortunately, both times it was overcast so we did not get a good view of the sunset, but stopping here was definitely worth it.

Legoland.

We knew we had to make the trip to Legoland. Timmy has been talking about going here for as long as I can remember. We were really happy to give this to Timmy as his birthday gift. He loved every minute of it. The kids specifically enjoyed a few of the rides they had there.

I think our favorite overall was Mini Land. They had miniature versions of all kinds of neat stuff like Washington D.C., Las Vegas, NYC, San Francisco, and much, much more.

It was a special day for Timmy and we enjoyed seeing him so happy.

San Diego.

After leaving the crater we made our way to western AZ to a small town, Ehrenberg one mile away from CA where we spent two nights just hanging out. Then we made our way to the San Diego area. We stayed in one of our membership parks for 5 nights and made the best use of our time.

On our first day there we went to Sea World, San Diego. This was a really nice park with lots of animal interaction and we were able to enjoy a special event they had going on called Viva La Musica. It was a Latin-themed event with music, dancers performing on a stage and, food.

We had a lovely day and enjoyed all Sea World had to offer.

Meteor Crater.

After we left The Rally, we made our way across AZ. We made a stop in Winslow, AZ to see the meteor crater. Said to be created over 50,000,000 years ago, Meteor Crater is over 4,000 feet across, and 550 feet deep. We were able to view and touch a 1,406 pound meteorite fragment, the largest ever found in the area.

This was definitely a fascinating sight to behold and although the admission price was a bit steep, it was really interesting. If you ever have the opportunity to view a crater, I highly recommend it.

Anderson-Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum

While at The Rally we made time to visit the hot air museum. It was really interesting learning about the history of balloons and ballooning. There were lots of hands-on things for the kids to explore and even a simulation of flying a balloon.

We got to see a movie about the annual Balloon Festival held each October in Albuquerque where hundreds of balloons of all shapes and sizes participate in events. It really looked amazing.

We enjoyed the museum a lot.

The Rally.

We arrived in Albuquerque, NM the next day. It was a little hectic getting into the RV area as the volunteers were not as organized as we would have liked. However, once we got in, we got settled quickly and had plenty of room to set up the RV.

There were somewhere between 2,500 and 3,000 RV's in attendance. That was definitely a sight to see.

We mostly enjoyed the Rally. We had not been informed that the RV area was a 20 min. bus ride away from the event location. This posed a bit of an inconvenience. We decided after the first day that we would drive our own vehicle.

The youth center for the kids was really great. They had a lot of fun meeting new friends and going on some really fun field trips. I was glad they had a fun place to hang out while we enjoyed the seminars and exhibits.

Timmy won 2nd place in the Oreo cookie stacking contest and was rewarded with a $100 Target gift card.

The RV's were set up in the Balloon Fiesta Park. Some of you may know that Albuquerque is very famous for being the hot air balloon capital. We were treated one evening to a balloon glow. Several hot air balloons lined up in an open field. They were tethered to the ground and they filled the balloons with flames so that they glowed bright yellow and orange. It was really beautiful and cool. We all enjoyed this very much.

We liked meeting new people and sharing a passion for RVing with others. It may be a few years before we attend The Rally again.

Roswell, NM

On our way through Arizona we planned a one night stop in Roswell to see if we could find any aliens. We did make time to explore the UFO museum and read first-hand accounts of the many UFO sightings in the area as well as the famous crash of a UFO in a field nearby in 1947.

It was silly fun and the kids got a kick out of all the alien and UFO inspired merchandise. Even the street lights in the town looked like aliens.

Easter in TX.

We spent Easter in the RV park in San Antonio. They had a lot of stuff for the kids to do including an egg hunt, pinata, and lots of goodies. The Easter Bunny showed up to greet the children and play with them. Even though the kids are older now, they enjoyed the festivities and then we enjoyed a lovely meal at home. We left San Antonio the next day to make our way to NM for The Rally.

Sea World, San Antonio.

We recently spent the day at Sea World. The weather was beautiful, although very windy. The park had very low crowds so the experience was great.

There were no wait times for rides and the animal interactions were so great because there weren't people crowding around as we have experienced in the past. The kids enjoyed the thrill rides. The Steel Eel (roller coaster) was their favorite. They got to ride multiple times due to the crowd level being so low.

The only disappointment was that the attached water park was closed, so we did not get to enjoy that, but we may go back.

Overall, we had a wonderful day and were really glad we went.

San Antonio, TX.

We are currently hanging out in the San Antonio area. We are at a membership park on Medina Lake in Lake Hills, TX. It is quiet and peaceful and full of wild life. The animals here are very used to humans and love to be fed. There are deer, ducks, jack rabbits, red squirrels, and lots of birds (south Texas is a big birding area).

The weather is warm and the evenings have been mild. We have made time to wash the RV, go to ice cream socials and play mini-golf.

We are enjoying our time here. We will be here for about 2 more weeks and then it's on to The Rally in New Mexico. We have a day trip planned to Sea World and possibly a visit to the Witte Museum.

So, until next time, see ya.

Happy Birthday Kelsey!

We recently celebrated Kelsey's 12th birthday. It was a small celebration at home with our immediate family, Nana and Aunt Kim. Kelsey received a few gifts, but her main gift was a new laptop that she has been really wanting.

I can't imagine where the time goes, next year we will have 2 teenagers in the house. For now, I will enjoy what time I have left enjoying her as a child and I will cherish every moment.

Happy 2009!

It's been a while since I checked in. We have been hanging out in GA since Christmas and getting some work done. It's been cold here but we have been seeing some mild temperatures recently. We managed to find the time to take a week to go to FL and enjoy our first WDW trip of the year.

We are back in GA now for a few weeks, more work to do, then we hope to go to south TX for a few weeks. We haven't made any concrete plans yet, but I will post when we do.

Anyhow, just wanted to share the new Disney pics and let everyone know what we are up to.

Take care until next time.

Sharing some family pics.

The kids putting together the holiday decorations, they did a great job.


Kelsey helped bake the Christmas cookies, they were delicious!

Happy Holidays!

Greetings one and all. I hope this holiday season finds everyone happy, healthy, and with the ones they love. Our holidays were all really nice. We spent Thanksgiving in FL where we were working at the time. The campground we were staying in had a lovely meal that we shared with all the other RVers including some friends that met us there. It was a little sad not being with family, but we enjoyed doing something new.

We were in FL for most of November and 1/2 of December. We managed to fit in one more trip to WDW and we also got to visit Sea World this time. We enjoyed these trips very much.

We returned to GA for Christmas to spend it at home with Bob's family. It was a nice, quiet day. The kids loved all of their gifts and we enjoyed a lovely day that was in the 60's. It was warm so we were happy.

We hope everyone had a nice Christmas and Santa was good to all. We want to wish one and all a very happy and prosperous 2009.

Coming Home.

Upon completion of the rally we had to make our way back to GA our final job of the year was coming up and we needed to prepare for it. So the next few weeks will be spent here in GA working and visiting with family. Our next job will take us to Orlando in the beginning of Nov. We will be there for Thanksgiving and will return to GA in the beginning of Dec. Of course we will make time to visit our favorite mouse while in FL. It will be our final trip of the year.

School is going well and we are moving along nicely. Recently we took a break from book work and had a home economics lesson. The kids made some Halloween treats for all to enjoy. They have decided that they are too old to trick-or-treat and don't want to dress up. So we will spend a quiet evening at home watching scary movies and eating popcorn. They definitely don't need all the candy anyway.

We are all well and enjoying the lovely colors and cooler temperature that the fall brings. We have enjoyed seeing many animals out foraging for food and getting ready for the long, cold winter ahead. We are happy to see some relief at the gas pump and are eagerly anticipating Nov. 4th. So much could change. We hope it's for the better.

HDT Rally.

We left TX and made our way to Hutchinson, KS. We would be meeting up with fellow RVers all of whom drive HD (heavy duty) trucks like ours and pull 5th wheel RV's behind them. There were 32 rigs in all and we met some very nice people.

There were many social opportunities, classes and seminars, catered and pot luck dinners, evening entertainment, and door prizes. We had a really nice time and enjoyed meeting everyone for the first time.

The kids were the only ones there (as usual) and we had many nice compliments on their behavior (if they only knew, lol). On the last night prizes were given in various categories and they made a category for youngest rally attendees and the kids (as well as us) were given tickets to the Hutchinson Cosmosphere. We all really enjoyed it and of course turned into an educational experience.

Overall, we had a really nice time and look forward to making it an annual event.

Trinity, TX.

During our vacation we got a call from our friends in TX. Hurricane Ike had struck their area and we had called to see how they made out. We had been planning to go to TX after our vacation to help them with the construction of their new home, specifically, the installation of new kitchen cabinets. We wanted to see if this was still possible as their area had no power for about a week. They called to inform us that power would be back on in the camp ground by the time we arrived.

So, we made our way to Trinity and were happy to find all was well with our friends. They had a few set backs, but were mostly happy with the progress. It was a big change from the last time we had seen them and all they had was a bare lot. Now there was a home, landscaping, and they were nearing the finish line.

We spent a week enjoying their company and getting the cabinets done. It was nice catching up and just being together. I hope it is not another 2 years before we see them again.