Archive for February, 2010

Hello! Well, we found an RV park right off Highway 75 here in Florida. We are all settled in, plugged in, and we are cranking the heat. But, I have faith that the further south we travel, the warmer it will be. Today, it barely hit 55 degrees and by the time we hit the Ocala area, the temp should be well in the 80′s. No doubt. I know, I know, you can laugh at me later when I’m shivering in Miami.

So, what have we been up to?? Well, we have all changed the clocks for the very last time. I spotted that “Now entering Eastern Time Zone” sign on the highway. I notified all my friends back home I’m in Florida and 90% of them asked me the very same question, “Oh, so now that you are in Florida, are you coming home soon?” Awwww, you guys are great and I miss you all too, but no, we are not coming home anytime soon. Is there snow on the ground up there in New Hampshire?? You tell me when the snow is completely (and I do mean “completely”) gone and I might (and I do mean “might”) thinking about coming home. We have all of Florida to explore, people to see, and I’ve got to to chase down Mickey Mouse in Orlando and Jimmy Buffett in Key West! I’ve got a lot of work to do here……

So today we left our friends in Milton, Florida, and as always, it was so nice to see them again. This is where we park when we visit them, right in their driveway…..

There’s our boo-boo……

This is their van we took to the casino……so comfy……

He makes and sells honey right here in his back yard. He’s got a pretty big bee farm…..I just look at all those bees from a distance…..

We left Milton early this morning and visited my Mom’s aunt in Defuniak Springs. We stayed for a couple of hours and we all went out for lunch. It was nice to see her and her new home in Defuniak Springs. We left there and traveled I-10 until we turned south on 75 and then we started looking for an RV park for the night.

So, we are doing good, we have a million things to do in Florida, so check back on me as something new is always brewing here in my world! Have a good night.

Hi! I am writing this blog posting on my Blackberry in our friend’s van as we all travel back to Milton, Florida from the Wind Creek Casino in Atmore, Alabama.
I won’t have any internet service to do a post on my laptop for a few days as we travel around Florida. But have no fear, you get to hear me yap from my Blackberry!
Today we got to Milton, Florida at around 1pm. Not a bad ride over here from Mississippi, but it was cold out, don’t think it got over 40 degrees today….
We set the RV up in the driveway and it didn’t take us long to decide to hit a casino tonight (there’s five of us). Wind Creek Casino is easy to get to and is exactly an hour away from Milton. It’s a nice casino and yes, I did see many RVs dry camping in the parking lot, so come on over! I made out with a $60 dollar profit and we enjoyed the buffet there for 11.99. We are on our way back home now. All in all, everything is pretty darn good!
I took some pictures, but you’ll have to wait a few days to see them. So, I’m just checking in telling you it’s been a simple day of traveling and we are with great company. Oh, and if you are wondering about Jake….I’ve never seen a little dog more healthy and happy in my life! Have a good night!

Hi! Everything is good here. I think this is going to be a short and simple midnight post because everything is quiet here today. Some house cleaning and laundry was done today, a walk over to the casino here, and we enjoyed the delicious buffet. Oh, and, of course, Jake wanted to watch the Westminster Dog Show tonight so we cuddled and watched it together! Jake had a little bit of a reaction when he saw the Sheep dog, but I think he was trying to ask me, “How can he see?” Hey, pet owners have a great imagination!!
Other than that, I didn’t win a whole lot of money at the casino tonight, probably came out ahead with $40 dollars, not bad. The WiFi service at this park isn’t the best so I wasn’t going to fight with it for another night like I did last night.
Oh, let me tell you…..you can definitely feel the energy here from the football fans! Yep, people are wearing Saints jerseys and t-shirts and they are in the mood to talk football! They are all happy Louisiana is recognized for something good for once and they deserve it. The most watched Super Bowl went down how it was suppose to and it casted a whole new light on everyone’s face here.
So, tomorrow we are leaving and heading closer to Florida. We are going to drag our feet thru Florida and enjoy many sections of it. Noooo, I’m not telling you everywhere we are going…..I don’t even know myself!
So, I’ll leave you for another 24 hours with that and have a great night!

Hi! We made it to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Wow, what a long trip in these last few days and I just haven’t been sleeping that well. I just don’t sleep that good in parking lots. Jake is up all night wondering what the revving is next to us, the starting and parking of big rigs, that puppy was wide awake in protective mode all night long. I paid the price as he wanted to get off the bed, he wanted to get back on the bed, he wanted to get off the bed again. He’s only 8 pounds and I have steps for him to use, but when he’s nervous, he get disoriented easily. Other than those nights in nowhere land, he’s perfect and gets a good night sleep right here next to me. As for me, tonight I will get a good night sleep, I can already feel it. We are at Hollywood Casino RV park for two nights. We are relaxing now and it should be easy going from here on out. Texas is such a big state and took two days and a half days just to get thru thanks to the delay of our tire blow out. Here’s your pictures….

Well, other than that, everything is good. Everything should be good compared to that! I see Jake is out cold next to me and I would love to be in my own little dream world too. I’m exhausted so I will be back tomorrow. Have a good night and I hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day.

Hello! I don’t know how else to explain it. One moment we are carrying on a conversation as we travel across Texas on I-10 and the next moment there are shredded tire scraps all over the highway, half the fender trim is gone on the right side of our camper, and the panel right next to the lower part of the door is crunched beyond recognition. Yes, welcome to the world of an RV trailer tire blow out and it has no mercy on anything in it’s way.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the flat tire that is the big deal, who cares, change it and you are good to go (which is exactly what we did), it’s the damage it does to the camper you just want to cover your eyes and peek between two fingers.
Well, we pulled over to the side of the highway (not even an exit in sight), and out came the jacks and power tools. We used two jacks to lift the Montana to make it more secure as trucks and cars whizzed by us in an 80 mile per hour zone. Sure was glad to see a member of the Texas Highway Patrol pull in behind us. He hopped out of his car and peeked at the damage, and the first words out of his mouth was, “I promise I won’t laugh because I got a fifth wheel just like this at home”. He was nice to check on us and told us to flag him down if we needed anything as he drove away.
On with the spare and immediately to the local tire shop to replace the damaged tire. Campers World was out of our size tire (that tells you a lot about the highway here, doesn’t it?). So they sent us 10 miles down the street to a “Discount Tire” store only to be told by Discount Tire, “Yeah, we got your size tire right here, but it will be a two hour wait for us to get around to installing it for you.” Choice less, we walked right next door to a Denny’s restaurant. Nice outside today, right around 58 degrees.
Sooooo, we obviously didn’t pack on the miles today and we are sleeping at a Flying J in Baytown, Texas. Pretty decent place with pretty decent food. We are next to two other fifth wheels here and it’s not too loud around us at all.
Ohhhh, I know what you are thinking…..You Betcha’ I got pictures of the flat tire and the damage to the RV. I went crazy with the camera on the side of the highway and I’ll be posting those pictures as soon as I catch an internet signal. Have a good night and I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully at a cozy RV park with a casino next door! Nite Nite!

Hello! I’m in the middle of Texas somewhere. We pushed the truck with miles behind us today, took two drivers to get over 450 miles today. You may not think that is a lot but we got a late start (9am) and finally parked the RV at a KOA Campground off the highway somewhere off I-10. Our choice was to either find an RV park in the dark (ugh!) or park in a rest area somewhere listening to engines running all night long (ugh!).

So I guess this is the part of the trip where I know we are heading east bound (Florida bound), but not sure where we are going tomorrow or what we are going to see tomorrow. A part of a trip where wandering aimlessly becomes a daily habit. But everything is good here, OH, I’ve got pictures for you from Tombstone!!!!!

Oh, gosh, I just went thru all my pictures and there are a lot….and I do mean a lot……

Our campground spot is less than 100 feet from the Tombstone attractions….

Just leave the RV and walk one block to see this street…..

This town is full of history……it’s amazing…..

Ohhh, Ghosts!!!

This is the carriage we rode on to take a trip around the town learning new information about what this town holds…..Wow, is that sky white!!

Bird Cage Theatre – We heard a lot about this place……history at it’s finest!

This is considered a state park – read about it HERE……..

We are taking our tour……

This is the place I was talking about…Big Nose Kate’s Saloon! Neat place. Live music, delicious drinks, and OK food…….

Ha! This was outside one of the stores……

Yep, we took this trolley ride…..another narrated tour of the town. This trolley will take you to Boothill Graveyard……..

Oh, I’m gonna be rich!!! I’m gonna be rich!!! Pan for Gold!!!!! Ewwwww, I’m not putting my hands in that sand!! I asked if they could dig the Gold out for me……well, neatless to say, I’m not rich.

We are walking around…..looking around……

Oh boy…….

There’s Boothill Graveyard……

The Graveyard…….

Ohhh, a gun fight…….

Let me tell ya, it’s freezing out. I couldn’t put enough layers on and it was cold to my bones….I just couldn’t warm up at all……time for some hot chocolate. They had a petting farm here too, we just looking at the animals and moved on……

Time to explore a mine……

That’s what they were looking for – Silver! I’m rich! I’m rich! I’m so rich!! What do you mean this pile is only 4% Silver and that’s why it was left behind by the miners????

This guy was part of a tour I went to…..not sure who he is…..oh well, you get to see him too

The OK Corral Gun Fight Show…….this display is where all each of the Cowboys and Law men actually stood that deadly day that took down three Cowboys by the Law men……

Here’s the show getting ready to start. The show was good, the movie displays what happened better. Watch the movie!!

Doc Holliday!! Wow! Too Cool!

Well, the show went on and they showed how 4 Cowboys and 4 Law men came to clash that day. I took all the pictures I could to show you.

Well, this is a short blog posting because I’m off to watch “Tombstone” again! Have a good night. I’ll erase all the pictures on my camera and start taking pictures again tomorrow. I’ll be back. Enjoy your weekend!

Hello! Well, today was mainly a traveling day. Leaving Tombstone this morning at around 9am we made it to El Paso around 4pm. Didn’t really see anything exciting on I-10, just a lot of freight being moved along by the truck drivers and the trains. We stopped along the way to put $200 dollars in the tank (we have an external fuel tank in the bed that feeds the main fuel tank below the truck). And diesel price isn’t too bad out here sitting at around $2.69 a gallon.
This is mostly going to be a short posting, because there’s not much going on. We got 15 channels on TV here from the antenna and just finished up a movie. We are dry camping tonight. I’m not a big fan of dry-camping, but I can’t complain because the temperature is very nice outside (t-shirt weather). We sure won’t freeze tonight, but it’s noisy outside with the running engine of tractor trailer next to us. Oh, well, take the good with the bad when we are making our way to our next destination.
I wish I had more news to tell you, but sometime no news is good news. We will see where we end up tomorrow. Have a good night!

Hi! Sure is a lot of Cowboys in this town. I could get use to this! In a town that purely survives from tourists, they know how to make you feel welcome! Survival of this town tetors between admission fees, shops, and the “tips” jar.
We started today out with a trolley ride around town, giving us another narrated guide tour on the history of Tombstone, Arizona. Every minute that passed today made me more and more interested in the history of the Outlaws and Law men that once stepped foot here and did about their business over 130 years ago. From Doc Holliday to the Earp Brothers, a legendary story that was brought to life for us today.
Our day was extremely touristy as we hopped from attraction to attraction covering everything from touring the mine that brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to Tombstone, to the showdown of the infamous shootout at the OK Corral that brought down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton (Billy was only 19 years old at the time of the gunfight that ended his life). History magnified by dedicated actors that showed how the gunfight erupted and how it went down.
We stopped for lunch at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. They only called her that because she had her nose in everyone’s business. Running a bar and keeping Doc Holliday (and many others) satisfied was her only job. I have to mention here (just from me to you) that we have been to three restaurants here and other than the homemade chili, the food served here is very….ummmmm…. commercialized. I hope that sums it up, because I don’t want to insult their food, but you won’t find too many home cooked meals here. So go easy when going out to eat here, enjoy it, and definitely stop by Big Nose Kate’s for a drink! Well worth it!
Moving on, the mine tour was amazing taking us over 100 feet under earth’s surface to a world of minerals and veins of hollow passages that once held Silver that was transported, exchanged in hands of money, to make US currency coins. Old mining tools were shown to us that over 400 miners used to work with only by candle light. It was 30 years later, gas combination was introduced to keep a lantern lite and 20 years after that came similar to battery operated lanterns. But let’s stay in the late 1800′s for a minute when working with tools caused serious health issues with dust and an inventor from Denver introduced new tools to work water in with the working environment while digging and chipping thru solid rocks. Water didn’t kick up dust, so while using water in with chipping at rocks caused mud, these miners sure didn’t mind working with mud one bit. Oh, and payday came around shelling out big bucks to miners in the 1800′s at exactly $4 dollars a day. $4 dollars was a lot of money those days when enjoying a beer cost less than a quarter. Well, obviously all this information was from our friendly tour guide and I’m happy to share with you all that I’ve learned today, so on your way out near the exit door is a tip jar for you to show your appreciation on all the fun and entertainment I have walked you thru. Have a great night and y’all come back real soon now, ya hear!

Hi! Once again, I’m posting from my Blackberry and you won’t believe where I am! Tombstone! A 1/2 a day spent here and I love it already! This is where it all started, an old cowboy town with a couple of Saloons! I think I’ll order up a beer tomorrow at one of the local Saloons! “Bartender! I’ll take a cold one and my horse outside will take one for the road.” I love it!
I’ve got a ton of pictures to show you and my camera is back on the charger tonight for a big day tomorrow!
Tomorrow will be great! We’ve got a trolley ride to show us around town, a wagon ride thru the Silver mines, a haunted ghost tour (was told the ghosts will show up in my pictures!), and a reenactment of…..go ahead…say it with me….”On the count of three! Draw Your Gun!”. It’s a daily show right outside on the town road! Too cool!!
Oh, I got ahead of myself again, this morning we left Yuma at around 8am, stopped for lunch and made it to Tombstone at around 3pm. We are staying at Wells Fargo RV Park right against the Tombstone main street. We didn’t have to unhook the pickup because all the action is 100 feet away from us! I like this RV park, they are so very nice here….welcomed us with open arms. They talked our ear off for quite a while telling us everything that is going on, discounts on local restaurants, secret places on where to go first, and they walked us to our site to make sure we were happy with it.” Kudos!! I’m sure there are plenty of other RV parks out there that are just as friendly as this one and I want to visit them all!
Speaking of weather…..ugh, suppose to rain here all day tomorrow, so we will do as much as the weather lets us. We might hop over to the office and sneak in another night, but I’m not sure, Tombstone is so unique!
Other than that, I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I’m taking. Today we went for a horse drawn carriage ride thru town with a narrated guide telling us about the history here. Have you seen the movie “Tombstone”? I have, a long time ago, and I’ll have to watch it again now!
So, I’ll leave you with that and I’ll be back tomorrow. Have a good night!

Hi! Nooo, that’s not a typo or an old blog posting title up above. We are back in Yuma, Arizona again! We left Las Vegas around 8am and with a leisurely drive and a brunch stop at Denny’s in Laughlin, we made it to Yuma by 5pm. It was a nice easy trip down here and what made my day was that we made it “here” before 6pm so I can go to Bingo!! Yes, we are dry camping in the parking lot of the Paradise Casino tonight, then tomorrow off to Tombstone, Arizona!
I’m not a big fan of dry camping, but I make exceptions if we are in a casino parking lot. In this case, it’s okay!
With a quick phone call to my Bingo partner that stays in Yuma, she met us at Paradise Casino for some Bingo action that started at 6pm! I got so close to a $100 Bingo jackpot tonight….just one number off and they showed my number in the TV monitor and before it was called, and before I yelled “Bingo!”, someone three tables behind me beat me to it, calling out “Bingo” for the number just before mine! Arghh! Sooo close and very painful!
Anyways, the night wasn’t a total loss, we visited with our good friend here in Yuma at the casino and I won $50 bucks on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine! The whole evening was a lot of fun!
Hmmm, trying to think what else is new, but that pretty much sums up today. We did change all the clocks so now we are an hour closer to you all on the east coast. (Don’t bother looking it up, I’ll tell ya. We have a 2 hour time difference now instead of 3. So whatever time you are looking at right this minute, it’ll take us two more hours to get there.)
Tomorrow we will explore Tombstone and I will bring my camera with me to get some pictures. And then we will take our time heading towards Mission, Texas where we will stay for a little while.
I know for a fact that wonderful, reliable Nextel has no cell phone service all the way down the west border of Texas against the Mexico line, and I know this because I remember last winter’s panic attack I had from being cut off from online social civilization on this same trip. So this year I’m ready, I’ll hold my breath and my survival instincts will hopefully kick in as I live with my Blackberry being dead for a few long, long hours (maybe even a, a, a, *gasp*, DAY!!)
Okay, the generator is about to be shut off now and that will be the end of power to this RV. Have a great, great night. Have faith, check on me, as I will be back tomorrow!