First day in Colorado Springs

Well, Colorado Springs gave us quite the welcome today ... lots of snow! Fortunately our drive from Raton, NM was uneventful and sunny.

I think at one point it was in the high 50s somewhere along the road. It was a beautiful drive ... check out these pictures! The mountains in Colorado are just amazing!

Anyway, we got to our campsite somewhere just after 12:30 ... really a very short drive today of only about 150 miles. As we were setting up, the clouds just kept coming in and getting darker. By the time we left for my brother David's house at about 4:30 it had started to rain. His home is 20 miles from our campsite and as we drove along I-25 the rain changed to sleet and then eventually to snow ... a lot of snow.

While at David's house we waited for my sister-in-law Judy to get home from work and the whole time it just snowed harder and harder. After she got home, Mike, Judy's late sister Lucinda's husband, came over and we all left to have a great dinner at Cracker Barrel. By this time, the snow had lessened somewhat, which was encouraging.

After a great meal, we parted company and drove back to our campsite. At first it was snowing quite heavily again, but before we arrived home, the precipitation had completely stopped. We will see what happens overnight. We are hoping to go to Denver tomorrow, but it all depends on the weather. Actually the remainder of our trip to Illinois all depends on the weather. We have the whole thing planned out for sure, but at this point, flexibility is key. TTFN!

New Mexico

Boy, time flies when you are having fun. Since my last post, we spent three days enjoying the beautiful Las Cruces valley. We had a wonderful mexican meal at a restaurant called Andele in historic Mesilla nearby. Our site at the KOA overlooked the valley and Wayne was able to get some amazing photos.

We left Las Cruces on Friday the 19th and traveled just up the road to Alamogordo. While there we took in the New Mexico Space Museum, as well as White Sands National Monument. The museum was fascinating and White Sands was amazing. We took a hike up and down some of the sand dunes. Lucy loves sand of any sort and was ecstatic, racing around like a maniac. Wayne and I both agreed that it would be cool to camp there sometime if that is allowed. Apparently the sunrises and sunsets are incredible. I can only imagine.

This past Monday we continued up the road to Albuquerque and stayed there through Wednesday. We spent a bit more time piddling around, getting a few chores done, and generally relaxing. We did take in an RV show, where we focused on the hundreds of vendors that had come to pitch their products. We were able to purchase a couple of needed items, but managed to keep from spending too much.

Yesterday morning we were surprised to find it snowing on us ... certainly not a blizzard, but some real, honest-to-goodness snow that even was sticking on the ground, our truck, etc. Of course it melted a couple of hours later, but it was fun nonetheless.

Today is Thursday, March 25th and we drove on to Raton, NM, just about 10 miles south of the Colorado border. For much of the day, we traveled through miles and miles of fields and mountains covered with anywhere from a couple of inches to a few feet of snow. It was sunny today and the blue sky coupled with the snow made for a really nice day of traveling. For the most part we limit our travel days to 4-5 hours, so they aren't really long days and we aren't exhausted when we arrive at our destination. It makes for a much nicer evening!

Anyway, we have both found New Mexico to indeed be the "Land of Enchantment". It was so different than I had imagined ... much more beautiful than I thought. I will be sorry to leave it tomorrow.

Interesting side note about traveling in the late winter/early spring. We had reservations for tonight in a campground right on the New Mexico/Colorado border, about 10 miles north of Raton. I called this morning just to make sure all was well. It was a good thing I called! They had received so much snow yesterday that they could not get us in the park today. Fortunately there is a KOA in Raton that was happy to accommodate us. We met a nice couple here on their 2nd work kamping job who were more than willing to give us some info and hints about work kamping. We will take all the help we can get!

After that experience, we decided it would be a good idea to call ahead to the Colorado Springs campground where we had reservations for the next week. This particular campground is part of our Resorts of Distinction membership. We try to stay in these parks as much as possible since it costs us nothing and obviously is much easier on our budget. Anyway, when I called I got a recording that made it clear that although we were welcome to stay, there would be no water or electricity available until mid-April! You would think this would be something important to bring up when we asked for the reservation! Oh well, we cancelled that one as well and made a reservation at the Colorado Springs KOA. We have stayed there before and it is one of the best KOAs we have ever been to.

Okay, I think I am now up to date. We plan to be in Colorado Springs for a week and then on to Fort Collins, CO for another week. Lots of family and friends to see ... looking forward to it. Later y'all!

Biosphere 2

Biosphere 2 - Interesting information

A $30 million gift from the Philecology Foundation, founded by Edward P. Bass, funds Bisophere 2 operations and some research projects. Other grants and awards, primarily from the National Science Foundation, also support research activities.

In the 1800s, the Biosphere 2 property was part of the Samaniego's CDO Ranch. After several changes of ownership, it became a conference center in the 1960s and 1970s, first for Motorola, then for The University of Arizona. Space Biospheres Ventures, bankrolled by Bass, bought the property in 1984 and began construction of the current facility in 1986 to research and develop self-sustaining space-colonization technology. Two missions, between 1991 and 1994, sealed Biospherians inside the glass enclosure to measure survivability. Behind this highly public exercise was useful research that helped further ecological understanding. An insider’s perspective on this experiment is provided by Jane Poynter, a veteran of Mission I, in The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Bisophere 2.

Desert

Biosphere 2 facility

• 3.14 acre Biosphere facility
• 7,200,000 cubic feet of sealed glass, 6,500 windows
• 91 feet at highest point
• sealed from the earth below by a 500-ton welded stainless steel liner
• 40-acre campus
• 300,000 sq. ft. of administrative offices, classrooms, labs, conference center, housing

Ecosystems under glass

• Ocean with coral reef
• Mangrove wetlands
• Tropical rainforest
• Savannah grassland
• Fog desert

Tropical Rainforest

Apache Junction and Benson, AZ Mar 8-16, 2010

I have quite a bit to report since last time. First of all, the final game we went to see between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Oakland As completed our streak of rooting for the winning team. The As won 7 to 3. Woo-hoo! We had a great time seeing several of the teams get up to speed for opening day.

While in Apache Junction, we went to the Lost Dutchmen State Park (about 5 miles from the KOA) and took quite a hike. (See the pictures included.) It was only 2.4 miles, but the elevation gain was about 550 feet and the terrain was quite rough, especially on the way down. Although I have not experienced any muscle soreness since then, my knees haven’t quite forgiven me, specifically the knee I hurt when I fell back at Jon’s house a month ago. I am not sure what I did, but it is very unhappy, not when walking thankfully, but if I kneel down … oh my word … excruciating. Anyway, the view was amazing from the top of the trail. It’s a shame this park is one of nine that Arizona has slated to close within the next 6 months or so … all due to monetary woes.

We did not have to change our clocks on Sunday, as Arizona does not subscribe to the whole Daylight Saving Time most of the rest of the country follows.

We left Apache Junction yesterday, Monday the 15^th and drove to Benson, AZ just under 200 miles southeast. However, on the way there, we stopped near Oracle, AZ and spent about 3 hours visiting Biosphere 2. Look on the Internet if you don’t know what that is. Suffice it to say, it is well worth the time and money … absolutely fascinating. We were both glad we took the time to stop.

We spent one night in Benson, and then got up this morning and drove into New Mexico, stopping at Las Cruces KOA. We will stay here through Thursday and leave Friday to move just up the road to Boot Hill RV Resort in Alamogordo. You may remember we stayed here in early February on the way to Anaheim. However at that time it was just an overnight stop. This time we are staying three nights as we want to visit the White Sands National Monument close by.

One more thing, we DID have to change our clocks ahead 1 hour today when we entered New Mexico. They DO observe Daylight Saving Time so we are now an hour ahead of our friends and family back in Washington, Oregon and California.

‘Til next time, I bid you farewell. Trust the Lord. HE is the only trustworthy One.

Mesa and Apache Junction, AZ Mar 1-14, 2010

Well, I haven't updated in a while, mostly because we have sort of slowed down here in Arizona and I don't have much to report.

I said "sort of" slowed down because we have actually kept quite busy going to several spring training baseball games. It has been a lot of fun for the most part, but I doubt Lucy would say the same. Poor thing has been left in our trailer almost every day for 6 hours or so. Although all the games have been in the vicinity of the greater Phoenix area, some of them have been over an hour away from our home. That and trying to get there in time to find a spot in the parking lot has meant a lot of driving time, some of it spent creeping along in a line of cars with little to no traffic control. Needless to say Wayne understandably has not enjoyed those times very much. Yesterday was the worst as we were trying to get to Scottsdale Stadium to see the Giants play the White Sox. This stadium was built with minimum concern for the ability of the fans to find parking spaces. On top of that, it started pouring right as we parked so even though we paid $5 to have a gentleman peddle us to the park, we were drenched by the time we got there. The game ended up being delayed an hour, but finally started at 2:00. Fortunately, the Giants beat the White Sox 6 to 2. The cool thing is, none of the teams we have rooted for have lost ... nice!

1. SF Giants @ Seattle Mariners 8 to 7
2. Texas Rangers @ KC Royals 13 to 3
3. AZ Diamondbacks @ Chicago Cubs 7 to 8 (didn't really care who won this game)
4. LA Angels @ Oakland As 2 to 4
5. Chicago White Sox @ SF Giants 2 to 6

Tomorrow is the final game -- we are going to see the Milwaukee Brewers play the As. We were supposed to see them play the Cincinnati Reds last Sunday, but that game was rained out, so we are using our tickets tomorrow. Hopefully the As can win again.

We had a nice visit with my Aunt Sarah today in Sun City. We took her to lunch at Cracker Barrel and then went back to her home for a bit of a visit. She had some ice cream sandwiches in her freezer which made a great dessert. She wanted to buy lunch but we wouldn't let her. She thinks she won the "argument" because she "gave" me a roll of quarters ... wouldn't let me buy them from her. However, while she was out of the room getting them, I put a $10 bill underneath one of her figurines on a shelf in her living room. Hopefully by the time she finds it, she won't realize it was me that left it! :-)

Monday we will be leaving the area and staying one night in Benson, AZ, moving on to Las Cruces, NM for three days. I'll catch up to you then. Stay safe everyone!