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.

Walt Disney World.

We enjoyed our week at WDW. It was nice to include Mom and Mike in our trip this time. They were seeing many things for the first time and I was happy to share my favorite magical place with them. We enjoyed long days in the parks, fine meals, and just being together.

The Year of a Million Dreams was magical to us as a dream was granted to us in the form of Dream Mouse Ears (see pic above). It was very HOT and humid the whole week which made it pretty uncomfortable, but FL weather can be very unpredictable. We enjoyed the A/C as much as possible.

Of course the end came too soon and our vacation was over. We said our goodbye's and hoped we would see each other again soon.

Catching up.

It's been a while since I've posted and we have done more stuff and been more places. We traveled through the early fall for vacation, visiting more friends, and catching up with other folks like ourselves who travel in and RV and drive a big rig truck.

We are currently in GA getting ready for our final job of the year which will be in the Orlando area, can you see where this is going ;)?

Check out the next several posts about what we have been up to.

Hershey, PA & GA.

After leaving OH we headed East to Hershey, PA. The park we visited there was very nice and had a lot of activities for kids. The camp staff was friendly. We visited Hershey's Chocolate World (sorry Uncle Ed). We learned some interesting facts about the Hershey family and the history of the Hershey company through a trolley ride with actors portraying the Hershey family members who explained their roll in Milton Hershey's life and about the Milton Hershey School.

We had time for a short, weekend visit to NJ to see some of the family. While it was short, we made the most of it. We got to visit with parents, siblings, cousins, and aunts and uncles.

Also while we were in PA I heard about the opportunity for Kelsey to meet a celebrity she likes. Vanessa Hudgens, the female lead in the High School Musical movies, was making an appearance at a near-by mall and doing a CD signing. We waited in a long line for 4 hours in the hot sun to meet the girl for like 10 seconds. Kelsey was so happy and she got her CD signed, so to her it was worth it. I really didn't mind it that much either. The other parents were friendly, the kids were mostly well-mannered, and I made my daughter's day. We got to spend the day together and that was what made most memorable for me.

We had a nice 2 weeks, but it was time to head for GA. We hadn't seen home since June. We had appointments to keep, a Nana to visit, and our shop to check on.

Once we arrived in GA all was well with the shop and everyone there. We spent about a week there until it was time to leave for Fl and our WDW vacation. We are excited that Mom and Mike are going with us for the first time this trip. It should be a lot of fun.

So, look for my next installment.

Ohio

Ohio was really nice. We had a long overdue visit with our good friends Steve and Cindy. We hadn't seen them in a very long time and were really glad we made time for this visit. We got to see the town they lived in and the beautiful camp ground they have been spending most of their time. The camp ground had a huge lake with a marina, lots of kids to play with, and plenty of wildlife. It also had very friendly people. They had activities for the kids and they won ribbons for their participation.

During our visit to OH we had the chance to visit a facility where they hand-carve and paint carousel horses. Carousel Magic had horses that were beautiful and the craftsmanship was unbelievable.

We also had the opportunity to visit Cedar Point. It was no Disney, but it was enjoyable. The kids rode some of the most outrageous rides. Top Thrill Dragster is a ride that goes 120 mph and goes 420 feet up in the air. It was insane, so of course they loved it.

Overall, our time in Ohio was pleasant and we look forward to visiting again sometime.

Great Cats of Indiana.

This is one of the pics from Great Cats of Indiana. This tiger was so gentle. He was being petted and played with by his handler, and loving every minute of it. The sign over Timmy's shoulder says, "Beware of Cat!" We thought that was pretty funny.

Indiana.

Since IL, we have been hanging out in Indiana. We spent a week in Monticello, IN where we visited a large cat sanctuary called Great Cats of Indiana. They have rescued over 50 large animals (mostly tigers and lions) who would have been killed otherwise. It was so touching to hear all of the stories and how they came to be rescued. This facility was part of a series called Growing UP on Animal Planet. On Growing up Tiger they had some tiger cubs that needed to be relocated. The cubs were born in Indiana and moved to TX. This place does really great work.

Now we are in Clinton, IN. Pretty much the middle of nowhere. It is quite a small town. It is peaceful though. The family has been doing a lot of fishing, and the kids are enjoying the pool and a billiards table.

We will be leaving here soon for Ohio. We will be visiting some friends there and Cedar Point. The kids are looking forward to that.