Wrapping Up 2012

The photo above is the very first photo I took in 2012.  Sunset in Arizona.  Me taking a photograph of a sunset--go figure.  I guess I should start a blog post about our year's travels with a photo of a sunrise but oh well.

 
First, the boring facts; we traveled 7,019.9 miles this year with The Beast.  We started the year in Arizona and ended it in South Carolina.  We visited the Pacific Ocean coastline and have stayed three months on the Atlantic Ocean coastline.  During our cross country travels Denny and I stayed at forty-three different campgrounds in eighteen states.  Of those forty-three campgrounds, twenty-two were membership campgrounds or affiliated with our member parks so we either stayed for free or at a greatly reduced ($10 a night for example) price.  Of the remaining twenty-one parks, I'm sure probably one third of those were Passport America parks where the cost of the stay is discounted at 50%.   We don't boondock, dry camp or spend the night in Walmart parking lots.  When counting up our restaurant stops I was surprised to see that Denny and I tried one hundred and nine different restaurants, cafes, diners or bars over the course of a year.   Hmmm, I can see right now where we could cut our expenses a bit!  I think Denny and I managed to play about ten new golf courses before I injured my back.   And as is usual with The Beast, we had numerous repairs to be made to the furnace, to leaking slide outs, lights, propane regulators and hoses and right at the end of the year the microwave/convection oven blew for the second time in one year (thank goodness for extended warranties.)

Ah, but the good part of traveling by RV comes next; we saw full moons over the ocean, over rivers, over lakes and over the desert.

Over the past year Denny and I have seen birds and critters and flowers galore, except when we specifically went to see something special like the Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve where there were no poppies.  Sigh.  At the Mesa flea market in Arizona Denny splurged on a pair of 20 x 70 binoculars and boy have we had fun with those.  They allow you to see rock climbers and soaring birds and things you just wouldn't be able to see normally or with a regular pair of binoculars.

  

During this year's travels in California we were finally able to see the Lone Cypress and to drive Seventeen Mile Drive in Monterey.

After fourteen years on the road we finally made it to Yosemite National Park.

And the Reno/Lake Tahoe area.

I rode a duck for the first time in Wisconsin Dells.  It was there that I slipped and fell, ending up with compression fractures in two vertebra which ended our travels for six weeks while we saw a back surgeon and had our normal check ups with our family physician and dentist in Ohio.  Because it was so uncomfortable for me to ride in the truck for the long distance to our hometown from our campground Denny and I didn't get to visit with as many of our friends and family members that we would have liked.

After the back surgeon cleared me for travel Denny and I headed north to visit both sets of sons and their families before turning the nose of the truck towards Myrtle Beach.  Our intent was to check out homes in the area as a possible location to settle down, but when we found a place that we liked Denny and I found ourselves getting cold feet about the whole idea of staying in one place.  Together we realized that there are still coastlines to explore, lakes to picnic beside, bends in the roadway to follow.  Yes, if we bought a house we could always fly or drive to other areas and stay in motels but traveling in a RV allows us to take the cat with us without worrying about her care (or if she's clawing her caretaker to shreds), sleep in our own bed, cook local produce in our own kitchen and enjoy having a different view out of our windows every week.

So while we will continue to look at houses as we travel I have a sneaking suspicion that at the end of next year we'll be nestled among the saguaro cacti with a view of the Superstition Mountains out of the rear window of The Beast.  While missing the sound of the surf at Myrtle Beach.  And so it goes....

Time Flies

Suddenly two weeks have flown since my last post.  I think after seven years of blogging I've just lost interest in doing this on a regular basis.   Plus, this past week Denny and I were in Albuquerque to visit Denny's sister and running errands and accomplishing some of the tasks she had planned for us took up a lot more of our time than we budgeted for and I didn't even get a chance to get together with my ABQ blogging buddy.  That made me sad.

Settled high in the hills east of Albuquerque we were in time for some late blooming cactus.

There was also a nesting pair of hairy woodpeckers in the cottonwood tree on our site.  It bothered them to no end to have Patches sunning outside right below their tree while the two of them were trying to feed their little brood hidden inside the tree.  On our last day in Tijeras the little ones apparently flew the nest because for the first time in a week the incessant chirping/begging had stopped.

There was a partial lunar eclipse early one morning.  I had forgotten to take the tripod out of the truck and it was too early to be banging truck doors to get it out so I had to go with hand held shots of the moon.  I'm a lot shakier than I used to be so the photos lack the sharpness I was hoping to have.  This shot had a tiny bit of cloud cover moving in.

This was of the tail end of the partial eclipse since I woke up too late to see how "partial" partial was.

But all work and no play make the Brauns a dull set of folks so as a treat Connie drove us up to Santa Fe one day.  Denny and I both fell in love with the architecture of this historic town.  Although we weren't enamored of the prices of the items being sold in the many stores in town.

Under the roof of this long open air building sit a double row of Native Americans who have laid out their wares on blankets on the sidewalk to sell.  The craftsmanship of their work is exquisite and I wished I had a lot of throw away money to spend on the jewelry alone.

Long ago I had read the story of the famed staircase of the Loretto Chapel.  When the Chapel was built there was no room for a staircase and it would have been too difficult for the nuns to climb a ladder to the choir loft so they prayed to St. Joseph for assistance.  A workman appeared a few days later and built this beautiful staircase (originally there was no bannister) without the use of nails and with wood that apparently appeared from nowhere.  When you try to envision this staircase as it was built, without the handrail, you can see what an engineering marvel it is.

Outside the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis there is a statue dedicated to Kateri Tekakwitha, the only Native American to be named a saint.

While our week went much too quickly, Denny, Connie and I were able to knock out the items on Connie's to-do list and enjoy some good meals at the Savory Fare and El Patron restaurants in Albuquerque and at Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe.  Win-win.

Next up, wild fires in New Mexico and Colorado--all the way up to our next two destinations.  

A Quick Peek at Our Week

Today was a lazy day. Well, lazy in the sense that we didn't do anything special, although I did manage to wash a couple of loads of laundry and make a chocolate cake (with caramel icing, or frosting for those of you not from the Midwest.) We're meeting the group for dinner over at Gary's place tonight (although it still feels weird to see our old rig next to us instead of us living in it!)

So quickly, a picture a day for this week.

Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday.
Friday.
Saturday.
Sunday.