Tree lighting at Mayfaire

Mayfaire had their 7th annual tree lighting.  It was a little chilly at 35 degree's. We probably got there a little too early and by the time it started at 6:30 everyone was cold. There were singers, dancers and of course Santa but the sound system was terrible and you couldn't hear anything. 

Santa arrived in style on the local fire truck and flipped the switch on the tree lights.  By 7:15 we were on our way to find a warm place.

Memorable but probably not repeatable.

Noah, Travis and Nikki

Thanksgiving

Can't say enough about the blessings of family...

All the fixin's

Noah's first Thanksgiving dinner!

Look at those cool shoes

Helping with the Christmas tree

Cookies in progress.....

Snicker Doodles, Shortbread and Turtles in progress....

Getting ready for tomorrow at Nikki and Travis's.

Wilmington for our 4th winter

We've been in Wilmington for a month. Settled in and relaxing... Kathy watches Noah on Monday,Wednesday and Friday and we occasionally watch him on the weekends.  Funny, she thought she would work Tuesday and Thursday. Now she works at relaxing after a energetic day with Noah!

Our spot in Wilmington

Long night trick or treating

And where are you crawling out of ?

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving at Nikki and Travis's. This year we will have a baked Turkey and deep fry some fresh oysters! 

Shreveport to Lake City and Lawtey FL then to Wilmington

After leaving Shreveport we spent the night outside of Mobile, AL and drove into Lake City, FL the next day. We stayed in Lake City from Sunday until Wednesday and then drove over to Lawtey where Jackie lives.

They have some nice acreage with a small lake and two RV hookups which makes it very convienent for visiting. Kathy and Jackie took Tim out shopping during the day and I met up with them for dinner at Tim's favorite place...the Golden Corral.

Friday we drove to Latta, SC and spent the night at the Flying J and drove the rest of the way into Wilmington on Oct 25th.

Lake City FL In/Out RV park

Wilmington NC KOA

Shreveport, LA

We arrived in Shreveport, LA on Wednesday after a short 2 hour drive from Terrell, TX. We leave Saturday and drive to either Mobile, AL or Pensacola, FL. Sunday we drive to Lake City, FL and will be there until we drive over to Lawtey, FL on Wednesday. Weather since we left Terrell has been perfect and is supposed to stay that way for the next week.

Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park

Saturday, after spending an afternoon in Roswell we decided that was enough excitement. Not really much to do in Roswell after you've been to the museums. Sunday we drove from Roswell to Terrell, TX about 30 miles east of Dallas. Last night was filled with 60-70mph winds and a lot of rain. I was thankful we were at the campground and not on the road. One of our roof vent covers was ripped off in the rain. Kathy and I agree that next fall we'll buy our new RV on the way back from Colorado. We'll get it either from LaMesa or Lazydays RV. We know what we want so just a matter of finding the right model and floor plan.

This is a nice campground. Clean, very well maintained and nice staff. Definitely worth a stop if you are in the area. http://www.bluebonnetrv.com/

The long and not very scenic drive from Roswell, NM to Terrell, TX. Hours upon hours of the same driving view...

Wednesday we leave for Shreveport, LA. We'll be there until Saturday when we'll drive to Mobile, AL.

Aliens!

We got to Roswell, NM today, setup and visited the Roswell Alien Museum and the Goddard/Art Museum. The Alien Museum goes into the specifics of the alleged crash and all the hype as well as history, movies, and UFO info in general. It was pretty interesting.

Roswell is a clean and busy city. Nothing that you would expect. The "alien" hype is not that much. There is a small area downtown with Alien t-shirts and "out of this world" gifts.  Thought about Suzie Q while there....there is a Quilting store downtown.

The drive from Silver City to Roswell takes you through the White Sands Missile Range.....make sure you have plenty of fuel! A lot of nothing. Its about a 6 hour drive from Silver City.

Silver City, NM

We arrived in Silver City on Wednesday afternoon. The KOA is nice but it rained a lot while we were there and really limited what we could do. Caught up on laundry, grocery shopping and general stuff.

Tucson

We arrived in Tucson today after another morning at Camping World in Flagstaff (Bellmonte). Friday after discovering we needed a lower unit for the A/C, Camping World picked one up at a different location and told us they would install it Saturday AM.  We spent the night in Flagstaff again and pushed our future reservations around some. Arriving first thing this morning we learned the part was the correct part but they had no one that could wire it. As it turns out the wireless unit we have is now obsolete and replaced with a hard wire wall thermostat. So now we have an appointment with Camping World in Tucson at 10 Monday.  At 100 degree's today and tomorrow we did not spend much time in the RV.

Tomorrow Chewie will stay at my mom and dad's while we go to breakfast and the Tucson zoo.

This has been the trip so far......hopefully after Monday it will be less eventful.

Kodachrome State Park

This place is well worth the trip too. You could hike for days here! With all the rain southern Utah got in the last few days they closed the park because the only bridge in was damaged. It re-opened Tuesday afternoon when we arrived. They had evacuated everyone there. It was like have the park to yourself for a while.

Grand Staircase-Escanlante National Monument / Escanlante Petrified Forest State Park

This was a beautiful place. There is a great campground there. May consider it next time. More pictures to come after I get them off Kathy's phone.

Petrified tree's

Bryce Canyon to Flagstaff

A few photo's of the trip from Bryce Canyon to Flagstaff. About 3/4 of the way there we had two tires blow out. Funny thing was we had just stopped for about 30 minutes just before this happened so not sure what caused it. Good thing we have Goodsam Roadside. One phone call and service will be here in about an hour.

Our campsite at the KOA in Cannonville, UT. The middle of no where. A great place to escape if you don't need groceries, cell service or reliable internet :)

30 minutes before the blow out. 

 And the blow out!!

Bryce Canyon, UT

We arrived in Cannonville, UT (pop 63) in the rain and hail storm. It rained all day yesterday and last night. We are staying at the KOA which is small but nice. Today the weather was a mixed of wind and rain. Fortunately it didn't rain while we were hiking at Bryce Canyon.

I thought the entrance fee was a bit steep for a National Park ($25 a day) but it was worth the trip. The shuttle is definitely the way to go. The parking at the view points are limited. There are some really nice hiking trails and next year we want to hike the bottom of the canyon as opposed to the rim. It was beautiful but a little chilly, windy and 49 degrees. The top of the rim is at 8,800 feet.

Tomorrow afternoon we are going to Escalante Grand Staircase and the Petrified Forest.

Cannonville is in the valley 

Next year we plan to hike to the bottom

Way too long....

Guess I lied when I said I would keep this up. Now I really do intend to. What a summer!
We arrived in Carbondale the 2nd week in May. Nikki and Travis got married here in July.
We had lots of company and it was a wonderful time.
Unfortunately on August 10th my younger brother Dwight (52) died of a heart attack at the Charlotte Airport travelling home with his wife. Labor day weekend we went to PA for the memorial which was really nice.

This year we leave for North Carolina on Saturday 9/27. We get back 10/31.

Our travel plans are:

Carbondale to:

Bryce Canyon, UT
Grand Canyon, AZ
Tucson, AZ
Silver City, NM
Roswell, NM
Amarillo, TX
Checotah, OK
Hot Springs, AR
Starkville, MS
Ozark, AL
Lawtey, FL
Wilmington, NC

Noah is 3!!

Noah with a present from Great Grandma and Granddad Kirkland

Saint Patrick's Day Parade - Wilmington

Saturday we went to the parade!  It lasted about 30-40 minutes and had all the town officials, military groups, dance groups and the Marine Corp Band from Camp Lejune.  It was a beautiful day around 75 and sunny. We really enjoyed our first parade with Noah, although he probably didn't care much. The sirens were not his favorite thing.

Watching the parade

Noah is in there somewhere

Battleship North Carolina in the distance