Nothing crazy happened today, so far!  While we did not play well, we enjoyed a morning on a beautiful golf course, lined with amazingly expensive looking estates (can't really call these things homes).  We played Troon North, the Pinnacle course.  Just a gorgeous golf course.  Also figured out the pic uploading into Picasa so I can get our slideshow working again.  Made the photo size on the camera as small as possible.  Hopefully, the resolution for you all will still look great!  Pics are uploading really well right now.  Linda made a short movie of a bobcat crossing a fairway today.  The upload process is deathly slow when uploading a movie!  My bad!

I hope you can see all the pics on the slideshow.  Remember you can go directly into the album on Picasa and see larger versions of the pics, by clicking on the slideshow itself.  Enjoy!

The rest of the day is laundry, grocery shopping, putting the bikes on the car, etc. getting ready to vacate this spot and head up to Kanab first thing in the morning.  We now start getting into the tough climbs and scary descents on the roads with the RV.  It is a mountainous area out here in the West!  In a few spots, we may actually unhook the car due to extreme descents like 11 to 12 % grades!  Slow up and slow down is what we'll try to make happen. Wish us luck!  :):)

I love the last pic of a huge Saguaro that has been hit by a few golfs!

RV'ing is such an adventure, and then some.  Today we had a few new ones.  First we decided to do a bike ride along the canals with Vaughan.  We found the library in Glendale that was our starting off point.  However, that was the easiest part of finding our way around.  We made many wrong turns while trying to ride the canal trails.  Managed to ride several miles and decided to turn back after about 45 minutes.  That's when the fun began, again.  This time, Vaughan started off by getting a flat tire pretty much about the time we decided to turn back.  Not thinking too well, we had Vaughan get off the trail and find an address that we could use with the Garmin to come pick him up.  The not thinking part, was not asking Vaughan for his car keys.  Yes, we drove both cars to the library!  Linda and I got back to our cars, loaded our bikes on our car and set off to find Vaughan.  Once we found him, we had to leave Linda behind with Vaughan's bike while I drove Vaughan back to his car.  Then it was back to Linda and Vaughan's bike.  Kind of like the keystone cops!!!

After leaving Vaughan, Linda and I decided to go to an Urgent Care to have my throat checked out to make sure I was not coming down with Strep.  I have been battling a scratchy throat since we drove into the dust storms in New Mexico over a week ago.  The good news was, we were within a 1/2 mile of the Urgent Care in the area.  $125.63 later and I was told I am clean of Strep, but I should use a "Nettipot" to clean out my sinuses on a regular basis.  We get back to the RV, clean up and head out with J&V to Sedona, 2 hours north of Phoenix.  More fun begins after about 15 minutes on I-17, we come to a dead halt.  It is now close to 99 degrees, in the middle of the desert.  Cars, trucks, tractor trailers, RV's all sitting on I-17, engines off waiting to find out what is going on.  Some people had CB's and we find out an RV, pulling a trailer flipped over and was blocking the road ahead of us.  The authorities had actually shut down the highway several miles behind us.  We sat, sweltering in the car for over 1 1/2 hours before the road was cleared and we were again on our way.

The rest of the day went pretty well. We enjoyed walking around Sedona, bought a few items, had dinner and then drove back to the RV.  Time to rest up before our next golf game, tomorrow morning at Troon North - Pinnacle course.  Whoo Hoo

Here are a couple of pics, still working on the slideshow!

Vaughan tried to kill us today on our first hike in almost two years!  We were planning on hiking the Camelback peak, but we found out it was closed for renovations to the parking area and the trail itself.  What's that saying - timing is everything!  Well, not to be deterred,  since we were all dressed up with nowhere to go,we decided to hike a longer trail than Camelback, Squaw's Peak.  It's actually called Piestewa after the first women service person to die in the Iraq war!  Anyway, these peaks are hiked by many, many people daily.  The toughest part of going on these hikes is finding a parking spot not too far from the trail itself.  Luckily for us we only had to drive around for about five minutes before we found someone leaving.  Most people get to these hikes early in the day due to the extreme heat.  Right now as I type this, it's 100 degrees.  But then, it is a dry heat ... lol.

Anyway, I do have some pics, but am having a very tough time uploading pics on this internet connection.  Julie has had no problems where she is located in the park. Guess I should take my laptop over to her site and see if it would upload some pics!  Anyway, tomorrow we are planning to visit Sedona for the day, then golf on Tuesday in 100 degree heat!  But it is dry heat!

All for now..

What a great day at Talking Stick Golf Club in Scottsdale!  Beautiful weather, great course, nice people in our foursome and both Linda and I played well.  I even hit par on a 217 yard par three!  I've uploaded the pics to Picasa so let's see if I can get the slideshow working.  Will be going into Cave Creek for dinner.  It's supposed to be a town area like Sedona.  Will see!

Arrived at Desert's Edge RV Park in Phoenix yesterday around noon here.  We are now 3 hours behind our Florida home.  We set up and relaxed a bit before going to dinner with Julie and Vaughan. Still not yet into the "taking pictures" mode, but will do so soon.  Today, Linda and I took our first adventure here in Phoenix.  We drove down to a local county government office to get a bike map for all the greenways developed around the canal system here in the greater phoenix area.  They have done a remarkable job laying out hundreds of miles most with paved bike trails.  Some are hard pack gravel, which I hope to test out possibly on Sunday.  Today was only about 15 miles in very strong winds, good workout and some beautiful canals, golf course, neighborhoods, and parks along the path we rode.  Tomorrow is our first golf date, Talking Stick North Course in Scottsdale!  Here are a couple of pics -----

What a day!  Last night we stayed in an RV park. Got to shower and go to dinner, open up the slides and relax in style. Today we drove about 600 miles in order to get into Phoenix a day early. Tomorrow we only have about a five hour drive to get to our first week long stay. Who hoo!

Of course, the day would not be complete without another "RV adventure". This time it was our RV that developed an issue. After getting on the road this morning, maybe 15 minutes into the drive, one of our side doors that hold our electrical systems opened up while we were going about 65 mph. We pulled over, re-latched it and got going. Five minutes later, once more it opened. We pulled over another time to re-latch it once again.  By this time, Julie and Vaughan are about four miles ahead of us. Once more on the road and yes, it opened again.  By this time Julie and Vaughan realized that we needed to stop and figure out a permanent fix so we could keep driving.  We latched the door one more time and drove very slowly down the highway to hook up with Julie and Vaughan.

Thanks to Vaughan we took about 30 minutes to get it figured out and repaired permanently. As I said in an earlier post, it is great to travel with our good friends.  There is nothing that I have found that Vaughan can not figure out and fix.  The door is fixed for good and will give us no problems for the rest of the time we own this RV!!  Thanks Vaughan!

We are now in the New Mexico welcome center off hiway 10, just 20 miles from Arizona. Tomorrow we arrive in Phoenix and start our vacation for real. Yippee!!

P.s.  we woke this morning to 39 degree weather!  In Abilene Texas. It's warmed up a bit, but you should see my Facebook page, there is a pic of Linda bundled up IN THE RV this morning!   Gloves, earmuffs, muffler, and heavy coat!  I thought this was a summer vacation. :):)

Don't mess with Texas!  Abilene, that is!  That;s where we are right now.  Stayed at a Wal-Mart last night somewhere in Louisiana.  Not a pleasant time.  Tonight we are at an RV park for the night.  Trying to decide what to do for next few days. drive all the way in to Phoenix over two days or stop somewhere and take three days.  The night before last, we had dinner at Ray and Dale's house!  Very nice and we had a blast as you can see!  Not much happening but driving, driving, driving!  Yuck, this is not the most fun part of this trip!

Here are a couple of pics!  That's Ray doing all the cooking, Shrimp Diane, awesome!!!

A big THANK YOU to Vaughan for spending the day with us to fix several small things on the RV.  Golf was canceled this morning due to COLD WEATHER!  Who knew it would be 39 degrees at tee time this morning here in Atlanta, Georgia!  While we missed a wonderful day on a great course with our friends Dale and Ray, we will see them tonight at their house for dinner.

Instead of golfing today, we spent the day running around auto parts stores, Lowes and Walmart looking for things needed to fix a water hose connection, refilling our A/C unit with coolant, fixing our brake buddy (used to slow or stop the car in case of an emergency), putting foam in skylights to keep the sun from baking us silly, fixing the latch on the front hood of the RV, putting screws in the floorboard to keep a place floor mat from sliding, and fixed one of the window shades that had decided to break when we pulled it down last night!!! Vaughan was the main fixer upper, I simply provided him lunch (Linda made him a sandwich) and paid for the parts.  He provided the know-how and the effort.  We love traveling with Vaughan!  Anything that breaks, he can fix!

Now its off to dinner with Ray and Dale and of course Julie and Vaughan!

MAJOR DISASTER AVERTED -- Whoo Hoo!  We were on the road for about 2 hours when we decided to stretch our legs and hit the restroom.  Our location was in the middle of nowhere Georgia.  We pulled into a gas station that had an area big enough for us to pull into and turn around.  After taking our break, we began to pull out of the gas station onto a side street before getting on the highway.  I just happened to look in the rear camera and noticed that one of the two tow bars that hold the car onto the RV was OFF THE CAR and DRAGGING ON THE Pavement!  This was freaky and dangerous.  The car was being towed at an angle and whipping back and forth.  I managed to slow down as best I could to avoid the car from slamming into the back of the RV.  The car did sustain some damage when it ran into the back of the RV, but not as bad as it could have been had I not noticed the tow bar being detached.  This just gives Linda another reason to buy a new car when we return!

We stopped the RV, unhooked the car and drove both the RV and the car back to the gas station.  The tow bars are connected to the car by a cotter pin.  Lucky for us, the cotter pin that fell out, was in the parking area where we stopped for our break.  We were very lucky both in finding the cotter pin, but also the tow system seemed to still be functional.  So, we hooked the car back up to the RV and off we went!  Everything seems to be working fine.  We might have a clue as to what happened, but we don't know for sure.  This could have been a real downer so early in this trip.

I guess that's what makes these trips "adventures"!  :):)

So, now we are in Atlanta visiting with Julie and Vaughan and other good friends, Ray and Dale.  In fact we were supposed to golf with Ray and Dale at their club, a Jack Nicklaus course, tomorrow morning.  However, no one wants to golf in 40 degree weather, cart path only due to the rain.  So we'll just work on a few things that have broken on the RV, one shade, freon for the AC unit, etc.  Never boring on RV trips, always something to fix!  Then we'll hook up with Julie, Vaughan, Ray and Dale for dinner.  Always fun to spend time with good friends!

Sunday will be or first travel day on our way out to Phoenix.

Barely two hours into this trip and I have already made a big blunder.  I did not mention that besides seeing our son Ren today to start our trip and then again in Philadelphia as we end our trip, we are going to hopefully see our other son, first born no less, Jake!  That is if Jake is still there during the summer.  He is scouring the nation looking for an internship.  He could just as easily be in Seattle or Chicago or wherever, instead of New York City.  HOWEVER, if he is in New York City when we finish our trip in Philadelphia, we will most certainly enjoy seeing our son Jake!!!  Big shout out to you Jake, Love you!

Today we drove to Tallahassee to have dinner with Ren and Victoria,  You can see them both below, along with lovely Linda.  Tomorrow we mosey up to Atlanta to hook up with our RV buddies, Julie and Vaughan.  They will be sharing the first three weeks of our trip out west.

All for now!

We finally got the motorhome back from the shop yesterday.  Had to replace the house batteries (which run the coach and support all appliances when not running on shore power), make sure the tires have proper pressure and get the hitch for towing the car re-welded!  Thank goodness we took it into the shop after our last quick trip to Key West in late March to check out the hitch.  It had cracked in two places and could have made for a rough voyage had we not checked it out.  But, now all is fine and we are getting ready to rock and roll!

Will take today and tomorrow morning to load it up with all the essentials needed for an almost three month trip.  We will need both warm weather and cold weather clothes.  It's still pretty cold out west, especially in Idaho!  How did we get talked into making the trip up to Sandpoint, Idaho?  Thanks go to Gerry, Karen and a bunch of crazy neighbors also making the trip.

Looking forward to getting on the road Thursday afternoon!!!

Hello Everyone, I'm just starting the process for this blog, setting it up for our next trip that starts April 18th.  Our plans begin with a visit to Tallahassee to see our son Ren and his girlfriend, Victoria.  Ren will be moving up to Philadelphia while we are on this trip to attend medical school.  He starts a two year program to become a Physician's Assistant in late July.  After visiting Ren and Victoria, we travel to Atlanta to pick up our good friends and fellow RV'ers, Julie and Vaughan.

On April 22nd, the four of us leave Atlanta and take a long four day trip to Phoenix, Arizona.  Why, do you ask? So J&V can scope out Phoenix as a place they may want to move to when they retire ... soon?  Who knows?  They will travel with us to a couple of places in southern utah, Escalante and Kanab, to enjoy some hiking in the slot canyons and maybe some crazy mountain biking.  At least Vaughan may do some of that, but not me!  :):)  J&V then fly back home due to work commitments (but not for long, eh Vaughan?).

Linda and I will continue up to Sandpoint, Idaho and will spend about four weeks enjoying the state of Idaho.  Seriously, we expect to do a lot of hiking, biking, golfing and site seeing in this not often visited state.  Other stops along this trip will be Jackson Hole, Wyoming, the black hills of South Dakota, visit with friends of ours in Eastern South Dakota, the Pfeiffer's.  Then it's on to Ohio to visit Linda's family at her parent's lake house in Senacaville, Ohio.  A stop in Philadelphia to see Ren and Victoria's new crib and neighborhood.  Possibly a quick trip up to Maine to visit more good friends, Gerry and Karen, before heading back home to the friendliest home town in America, The Villages!

Come along with us as we enjoy another RV Adventure!!!