Working on the road.

We are still traveling and going to RV rallies selling our products. We are learning a lot about doing shows like this and making new friends. We are enjoying it, and it keeps us traveling.

Right now we are taking a couple of weeks off to relax and enjoy some down-time. Mom will be joining is here in VA on Friday for a week-long visit. We are all looking forward to our time together.

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer and staying cool. We are having fun and looking forward to more shows and a very busy fall.

So, until next time...take care.

Update.

We've been hanging out in GA for several weeks now. It's been very hot and very humid, but that's to be expected in GA in the summer.

We went to our first RV show as exhibitors in the beginning of June. We learned a lot and are eager to do many more. We will be heading out some time next week to OH for our next show. We are excited to share our products and to be heading on the road again. We are getting hitch-itch and are ready to be somewhere else.

We hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far and staying cool (or dry depending on where you live).

Las Vegas

Finally getting around to adding the Las Vegas portion of our trip. We stayed at a campground 5 miles from the strip. We enjoyed the area, although, not the heat. It was in the mid 90's every day we were there.

We made several trips to the strip, one with the kids, the rest by ourselves. We saw most of the major hotels like the Bellagio, Caeser's, MGM, Luxor, Circus Circus, the Rio, Treasure Island, the Venetian, New York New York, and more. We enjoyed all the mini-shows and attractions and just seeing the strip all lit up at night.

We had several must-see's, one of which was the Luxor. DD is a Criss Angel fan and she really wanted to go there and see his hotel. She got to see some of his stuff displayed around the hotel and she got a replica of a necklace he often wears.

Our favorite, overall, was Circus-Circus. We all had a great time there. The kids really enjoyed the Midway and circus performers and the adults the tables we had pretty good luck there.

We went to downtown Las Vegas and the Fremont St. experience. The kids enjoyed this area much more than the strip. It was sort of enclosed with an LED screen on the ceiling where they show videos and such periodically. They also had street performers which we enjoyed watching.

We also made time to see some other things in the area. We made time to visit the Ethel M factory near-by and enjoyed sampling some delicious chocolate. We also did some shopping at an outlet mall with a Disney outlet store.

We really enjoyed our trip and I'm sure we'll visit again some time.

Happy Birthday Tim.

In the middle of all of our traveling we celebrated our son's 15th birthday. Where do the years go?
He is so tall now and he is changing all the time. He didn't want much of a fuss, so it was a small celebration at home with just the immediate family. His gift from Mom and Dad was the trip to LegoLand. He received gifts from Nana once we returned to GA and Grandma has contributed to a new laptop. So, overall, it was a nice time to be a 15 year old young man.

Hoover Dam

The second stop we made on our way to Las Vegas was at the Hoover Dam. It is on the border of Arizona and Nevada and is located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. It is currently the world's 35th-largest hydroelectric generating station and is named after Herbert Hoover, who played an instrumental role in its construction, first as the Secretary of Commerce and then later as the President of the USA.

The dam is 726.4 ft. tall, 1244 ft. long, 660 ft.thick, and 4.36 million yds. of concrete were used.

Lake Meade is the reservoir created behind the dam and is named after Elwood Meade who oversaw the construction of the dam.

We enjoyed seeing this massive structure and were really glad we stopped.

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.