Another change in our life.

This is June 1st and it is just now starting to feel like spring, the last couple of days it has been in the 70’s and 80’s. Up until now the highs have been in the 50’s to mid 60’s.

Today, 6-4-08, we drove over to King’s Campers in Wausau to see the new motorhome and go over the placement of the accessories they are going to install. The new coach looks very nice. You wouldn’t think 2 ½ feet would be very noticeable, but losing 17 inches in the bedroom made quite a difference, especially going from a queen to a king size bed.



Minneapolis has had about four inches of rain over the last week, 6-5 to 6-12. On the 5th we had hail with 1.62 inches of rain and winds up to 29 MPH. We were getting concerned about the motorhome as it was going to be traded in a couple of weeks, but nothing was damaged.

This is June, 17th and the start of picking up our new motorhome. We drove to Camp King’s where we will be spending the next few days as they get our new one ready and we then transfer all of our stuff. Parking is just in the back of their lot, but at least it has electric and water hookups.


It’s Monday the 23rd and we are moving stuff from our old motorhome to the new one. I told Sandy that this should take a couple of hours. Of course, she didn’t believe me as it took 5 hours to move out of our class “C” into our tow vehicle. We started at 5:00 PM and were almost done at 10:30 PM. How did we ever get so much stuff into that motorhome? Here is a picture of the old and the new and one of Sandy moving a box between the units.



The next day we finished up several items on the motorhome and signed all the paper work. Then we headed back to the Minneapolis to spend the night before heading to Staples for the weekend and my niece, Mary’s, wedding.

When we got to my Dad’s place and unhooked the pickup, Sandy could not get it to come out of neutral gear. After she tried several times I also tried several times, but to no avail. So I unloaded the boat trailer from the pickup and called the local GM dealer and made arrangements to have it towed in the next day and have them fix it. After that was all done I thought I should give it one more try and, guess what, it came out of neutral so we could drive it. I called the dealer and cancelled the appointment. It’s one of those things that leave you wondering when it will happen again.


This, Saturday the 28th, is my niece, Mary’s, wedding day. Mary and her family worked so hard planning a beautiful outdoor wedding. Unfortunately, mother nature decided to storm and we quickly adapted the outdoor wedding to a semi-outdoor wedding. It was a real nice wedding that had a western theme, as they had met while going to the University of Montana in Missoula. Mary’s husband is “Tuff” Chester Harris and this will be his second year in the NFL as a defensive back. This year he will be in the New Orleans Saints training camp and we wish Tuff all the best for the season.



On Monday we drove back to the Minneapolis and the Mystic Lake Campground to spend the next week with friends, Chuck and Lorraine, who we had meet at Red Bay, AL. Along with them are their daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter from California. The kids are staying in a hotel near the Mall Of America so they could do some shopping. Chuck and Lorraine are staying in town for the National FMCA Rally in St. Paul, MN. They had gone to a FMCA rally in Wisconsin a month ago and Lorraine joined the Frustrated Maestros singing group. They performed each morning in the breakfast hall. I told Lorraine that they should have me singing so that the people would not want to linger and listen to the music so more people could be fed in a shorter time.

It was 57.6 degrees for a low last night and the high was 83.8 degrees. It was perfect weather for the 4th of July. We grilled steaks and corn for supper with potato salad and fruit salad. Later we had apple pie for dessert. After supper we just sat around, played cards and visited until it got dark and watched a great display of fireworks put on by the Casino. We saw some fireworks that we had not seen before. There were hearts in a ring, smiley faces and more. They only bad thing was that the Minnesota Vultures (mosquitoes) were out in full force.

Chuck, Lorraine, Sandy and I have been spending some time together. We took a couple of drives around town to show them some of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. One day we went downtown and took a walk out on the Stone Arch Bridge that is by the Mill Museum, just west of the new 35W bridge that is being built. As you may recall, the “old” bridge collapsed last summer. You also can look upstream and see Saint Anthony Falls.





We have also been sharing some good meals together.



Chuck and Lorraine left for the FMCA Rally on 7-11-08. We will still get to see them a couple of times when we go up to some seminars, but it was a sad day to start saying goodbye to our new friends.

Busy Busy Busy

Since we got back into the Twin Cities we have been able to go out for supper with our Friday night group. This is somthing that we have been doing for over 15 years.

It sure will be nice when we can get into a more leisurely pace. It just seems we are on the go most of the time. While on the road I decided that I wanted to take a fishing boat with us while we travel. After looking at different systems, I decide on a Heimgartner Trailer System setup shown below.

With this setup I can leave most everything in the boat and just launch it when I'm ready to go fishing. We traded in the GMC Envoy for a GMC Sierra Crew Cab to accommodate the trailer system.



My buddy, Terry, and I have been crappie fishing three times this spring. We went to Prior Lake once and twice to Clearwater Lake by Annandale. We caught about 90 on one trip and 152 on the other trip to Clearwater, with the biggest being 14 inches.


On May 12th, Sandy and I went to Cambridge to visit with Arlie and Mary Lou who have been fulltime motorhoming for about 11 years. It was good to see and visit with them since it was last fall when we had last seen each other. They will be heading to Algoma, WI for the summer on Lake Michigan. Fishing must be good to keep drawing them back there.

On May 15th we drove to Aberdeen, SD to visit with Sandy's parents, her sister and brother in law. We parked the motorhome on the south side of Sandy's parent's property.

On Saturday the 17th went went out to supper to celebrate Sandy's Mom's 80th birthday.

On May 21st, Sandy and I headed out to Spokane, WA in the GMC to have the Heimgartner Trailer System installed. It rained all the way out there so we did not get to see the beautiful mountains along the way. It was about 1:30PM on Thursday when we pulled into Spokane. The installation was scheduled for the Friday evening, so we had time to do a little sight seeing. We decided to take the scenic drive on US HWY 2 from Spokane to Sandpoint, ID. It was a partly cloudy day but at least it did not rain. Just before we got to Sandpoint we came upon this man working his garden with a team of horse's.

This was such a coincidence as earlier this year I was talking with my Dad and we got to talking about horses and how many it took pull a one or a two bottom plow. After talking about it for awhile we decided that it probably took 2-3 horse's to pull a one bottom plow and 4-5 for a 2 bottom plow. While I was talking with my Dad, Sandy called her Dad, and he agreed. Anyway, we stopped and I walked over to where he was, talked with him a bit and asked if it was OK to take some pictures. In talking with him, he confirmed our estimate on the number of horse's to pull the plows. We made our way back to Spokane and took the truck over to have the work done and picked up the truck on Saturday morning.


We went over the operation of the system and were on our way back to Aberdeen by 12:00PM. Unfortunately, it rained all the way back to South Dakota so we missed most of the scienery again. We got back into Aberdeen about 8:00 PM on Sunday. The next couple of days we spent visiting and putting coverings on the plants in Sandy's Dad's garden at night as there were threats of frost over night. Will summer ever come?

On Wednesday the 28th we headed back to Apple Valley, MN and the Lebanon Hills Campground, where we will be for the next couple of weeks. Now it's time to concentrate on the new motor home.

Grand Ole Opry, Ordering a new motorhome and Back in Minneapolis

I forgot to show the picture of our site at Seven Points Campground on our last post, so here it is. By the way, this was the last time we saw sun in Nashville until the day we left.


We went online this morning, April 8th, and ordered tickets for the Grand Ole Opry. We got tickets for the Saturday 6:30 PM show. We stopped at the General Jackson River Boat booth and picked up a brochure. If the weather holds out we might take a boat ride Saturday before we go to the Opry. On the way home we restocked our grocery supply. We also stopped in area called the “clover bottoms” and took this picture.


Today is Tuesday, April 3rd, it rained all day and then finally let up around 4:00 PM. In the morning I went to Bass Pro Shops to look for some crappie jigs with a bigger bite or gap then the normal ones for Terry and myself (that's hooks for the fish to bite on, not us). Although, we have taken the bait on some lures more often than the fish. I did find SOME 1/32 and 1/16 oz Big Bite jigs that look like they will work. Sandy stayed "home" and worked on projects while it poured rain. The high today was 60 degrees.




The low last night was 49.3 degrees and another storm came through about 4:15 AM. We had a lighting strike close by that tripped the ground fault. It’s still raining at 9:00 AM Friday. We moved from beautiful Seven Points Resort to Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park to be closer to The Grand Ole Opry. The park was OK, but not as private or scenic as at Seven Points. We did a little shopping this Saturday morning. The weather today was cloudy with a high of 61 degrees. At 5:30 PM we headed over to the Grand Ole Opry. There were a couple of changes to the list of entertainers, Jesse McReynolds was replaced by Restless Heart and a Bluegrass singer named Dale Ann Bradley. She was very good and sang Run, Rufus, Run. This is a song she penned about a cousin of hers who ran moonshine for his father.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRfGmofFURM


The show was real good with the exception of Mel McDaniel, I think he was into the Jack Daniels before the show. The pictures I took did not turn out very good, but here is one of Mel Tillis. We were hoping he would have sung “Send me down to Tucson” which is one of our favorite Tillis songs. Each performer sings only one or two songs. Between each performance everthing stops for a commercial break since this is a live radio show. It seems a little strange to pay to listen to commercials but the entertainment is good.



On Sunday we got up to more cloudy skies and a temperature of 51. By the time we finished breakfast at Cracker Barrel, got packed up and ready to leave it had cleared off and turned out to be a beautiful day. Of course, the day was spent driving to Normal, IL. We stopped for the night at a Wal-Mart. It was 67 degrees and sunny.

After getting up we drove 22 miles to Chenoa, IL where I wanted to look at a boat to replace my jon boat. After finishing up there we headed north to Wausau, WI to visit John at King’s Campers. We did this under duress as we had heard that northern Minnesota and northern Wisconsin had gotten some heavy snow. Bemidji, MN had gotten 23 inches. We drove under cloudy skies and the last 40 miles had drizzle. The temperature was 38 degrees when we pulled into King’s Campers for the night.

It's Tuesday, April the 8th, and “we’re not down south anymore”, at least that’s what the outside temperature is telling me. The low last night was 36.3 degrees. Oh well, we had better get used to it as they are predicting about 23 for a low on Thursday. This morning we went in to see John at Kings Campers but he was in a meeting, so we went out and sat it the 36 QSP Allegro Bus that they had in stock. We had come to order a new motorhome and had decided on a 40 QSP. We had also considered the 36 foot model as we wanted to have access to smaller campsites. But after we had seen it at the factory we decided we did not like the bedroom layout. Sandy says she can't live without a washer and dryer in the rig and by the time you put a washer dryer in the 36 footer, there isn't much of a closet left. But as long as Kings Campers had one we thought we would revisit it to see if our minds had changed. After sitting inside the 36 footer for 2 hours we came to the same conclusion that we had before and went back in to see John and ordered a 2009 40 QSP Allegro Bus. Too bad we didn’t order that the first time. I guess I was pretty hung up on being able to tow 15,000 lbs behind the motorhome. We found that the extra length and placement of the tag axle kept us from getting into a lot of sites. With this MH we can fit into a 34 foot site if the back is clear so we can overhang the pad. After finishing up in Wausau we headed over to Minneapolis. We are staying in Prior Lake, MN at the Dakota Meadows Campground at the Mystic Lake Casino. We lucked out as they turned on the water yesterday so all is good. We will probably spend a month here and then move to another place as more campgrounds will open up by then. The next few days are going to be very busy here, but that is OK as we will need something to do to keep us warm. The high today was 41 degrees.

Today, April 9th, is our first full day back at our home base in the Lakeville area. This morning it was 33.2 degrees. They are predicting 6 inches of snow on Friday, but next week it is supposed to warm up to 60. We went over to the garage, our home base, and picked up Sandy's car.


We will have to get back there and start organizing and start the process of excahanging items in the MH that we have not used for different items that we will still probably will not use.

Today, April 11th, we are wondering why we came back to Minnesota so early. The weather is cold, we are getting snow mixed with rain and we could be in Arizona where it's 80 and sunny. I know, all you Minnesotans and saying "stop whining--this is nothing compared to the long cold winter". If it hadn't been for some business to tend to we would have stayed south longer. However, it's good to be back home to spend time with family and friends we haven't seem for awhile.

This will be our last Blog post for awhile. So, until then, keep safe and we will see you all later.
Dave and Sandy

Getting work done in Red Bay, a road trip, a good bye supper with friends and on to Nashville.

This morning, Tuesday March 25, Sandy and I went into the lobby of the Service Center to see if our friends were in getting work done. It turns out Chuck, Lorraine, Steve and Sandy were in there. We visited with them for awhile before we had to leave for Sandy’s hair cut appointment. Then just as we were leaving Richard and Patsy came in, so we got to see everyone again. When Sandy got her hair cut, the hairdresser said her husband works in the service department here at Tiffin. She was saying how blessed they are to have so many manufacturing jobs in a small town, the biggest being Tiffin, which employees about 1,000 people, Sunshine Construction which makes prefab homes and a dog food plant.

We were not scheduled for work today, Wednesday, but while I was in the shower we got a knock on the door at 7:15 AM and a guy asked if we had been told to go to bay 49 this morning. Sandy told him no, so he said we should go over there. Sandy asked him when we should go and he said right now. They normally come the night before to let you know if you need to be at a bay for service in the morning. So it was a rush to get stowed away and get over there. We made it at 7:45. When we got there it turned out to be the welding shop and they were doing a preventative reinforcement for a crack that was showing up in a few 42 ft RV’s. It was good Tiffin was being pro-active but. we were kind of disappointed because we thought the call was to get the items on our punch list corrected. While we were waiting for the work to be done we went to Swamp John’s for breakfast with Chuck and Lorraine. The food was kind of mediocre, but there was alot of food and the price was cheap. One of their specialities is a chocolate gravy. And yes, it's as bad as it sounds. When we got back to the Service Center our friends showed me a fun new card game called "Pass the Love". They said it is a lot like a card game called Golf.

While we were playing cards, a lady came over to watch and ended up joining us. As we were playing Sandy said to her that she looked familiar. Sandy finally figured out that we had met in Amarillo, TX last November. Their names are Susan and David and they have this little sweet Corgi dog. This is just another case of running into people that you have met along the way. Late in the afternoon Chuck and I walked done to the office and it turned out that the meat man was down there. Chuck said that he had heard that the sausage was real good, so I bought a couple of pounds. Chuck bought a couple of pounds also plus some pork chops. On the way back I invited him to come over and we would package them with the Food Saver. Now, that is a nice item to have along as it really helps keep items fresh. About 5:30 PM the camp host came by and told us we needed to be in bay 29 at 7:00 AM tomorrow. Hurrah, we are finally getting into service to get started on punch list.

On Thursday we got up at 5:45 so we could be ready for our 7:00 appointment. When we got in there we went over our list with Kevin and Steven, who are our service tech’s. The first thing Steven did was get the TV set up to get surround sound when watching TV. We were always able to have surround sound while watching DVD’s or listening to the I-Pod, but not the just regular TV. After Steven showed us what he changed, we went into the lobby and spent the rest of the day visiting with people. About 2:00 we went back to the service bay to go over any questions with Kevin and Steven. We pulled out at 2:45 with instructions to be back at 7:15 AM the next morning.

Today is Friday and it was another 5:45 morning to get up so we could get over to the service bay. We left the motorhome with Kevin and Steve and went back into the lobby. Around 10:30 Sandy and I went over to the factory to take another peak at the new RV's.
Kevin and Steven had finished all of the items on our check list with the exception of the paint. Monday we will go in and see if the paint department can get us in next week to do some touch-ups. If they can, we will stick around, and if not we will pack up and leave for home. We had new neighbours in the site next to us today. They have a Port-A-Boat on top of their car too, but, unlike ours, theirs has been well used. Our boat is still touring the US before it decides where to get into the water. Friday night we went out to supper with Chuck, Lorraine, Steve and Sandy A. We went to Reese’s Fish and Steak House. It reminded us a lot of Wahoo Valley back in Staples and the food was very good.

On Saturday morning 6 of us went on a field trip. Chuck and Lorraine picked up Richard, Patsy, Sandy and I and we drove up to the Shiloh National Battlefield. At this 2 day battle in April 1862, there were 23,746 casualties out of 94,706 combatants. Also the Confederate General Johnstone was killed here by a bullet wound to the leg and died from blood loss. He was the highest ranking officer to be killed in the Civil War. Just after we started the tour we started to get some pretty heavy rain, so Sandy and will have to go back when we get a chance to walk the area more. Here a few pictures in the cemetery.


This cemetery was created a few years after the war. The solders bodies were dug up from mass graves and reburied. The ones that could be identified were buried with grave markers like above and the ones they could not identify were marked with the numbered square marker shown below. #869.

After the tour we all met Steve and Sandy A. in Iuka, MS for supper at the Cafe Memories. The food was real good and we had alot of good laughs.

The inside had this eclectic mixture of old items used for decorations. It was very interesting.

Here is a group shot of Dave, Sandy, Sandy A. Steve, Richard, Patsy, Chuck and Lorraine.

The following picture is of Steve and his cream server for his coffee. He did get a little ribbing about that. It was a sitting cow and the cream came out of its mouth.

It was an enjoyable evening that went by way too fast. These are some friends that three weeks ago we did not know, but now hope that our paths will cross again sometime in the future.

Richard and Patsy left for home today, Sunday the 30th. It rained most of the day, but it did stop long enough for Chuck and I to help Steve install a Pressure Pro tire pressure monitor on his coach and toad. After we finished that project, the six of us went to O’Brian’s for supper.

Today, the 31st, Steve and Sandy A. left and headed back west. Sandy and I went into the paint shop to see how long it would be before we could some paint chips taken care of. When they said 2 weeks we decided that we should start heading back home. So tomorrow we will be leaving for a slow trip home. Chuck and Lorraine came over in the afternoon and we visited some and played cards. For supper Sandy made spaghetti and Lorraine made the salad and rolls. Then after supper we played a dice game and visited some more. We sure are going to miss the friends we made here in Red Bay.

This is April Fools day. Sandy and I went over to the Factory and got the price list and changes for the 2009 Allegro Bus. Then we went back to the campground, packed up and said our goodbyes to Chuck and Lorraine. It was about 10:45 when we pulled out and headed for Savanna, TN. We had not yet decided where we would end up for the night, but when we got to Savanna we decide to go to Nashville for a few days and let the weather improve before we head back home. It started raining about an hour into the trip and pretty much continued until we got to the campground. They are predicting rain for the next few days. We are at Seven Points Campground on J. Percy Priest Lake. This is a Corps of Engineers campground that we have been at before and enjoyed in the past. It’s a little tighter fit for us in here with the 42 footer then it was with the 26 foot Lazy Daze we had before. But there are still a lot of sites we can fit into.

On Wednesday morning the sun came out and it is supposed to be about 60 for the high. This was a surprise for us as they had predicted rain through the weekend. Say Chuck, Sandy made breakfast with the sausage that we bought at the campground and it is very good.

We have a site that is across the road from the lake but we look out over the lake from the front.

Red Bay, AL at the Tiffin Factory, Gulf Shores, AL, and back to Red Bay

Today, Monday 3-10, we got into the express bay were you are given two technecions for 3 hours. Then, if you have anything thing else that you want done, you can make an appointment or wait for the next available express bay opening. I know they will not get everything done and we will end up making a standard appointment. They spent three hours with us, but we had to make another appointment for the 26th. By the way, camping is free as long warranty work is being done. There are a couple of things we want to do here, then we are heading down to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL.

On Tuesday Sandy and Patsy, who is parked next to us went for a walk while I washed the motorhome. A couple of hours later she called and said that she was at another motorhome playing Mexican Domino's with some ladies that Patsy knows. That's typical, while the men slave away the women play. I guess that's payback for all the house work they have to do when living in a house.

Sandy and I went on the factory tour on Wednesday. It was nice to be able to walk right next to the units as they were being built. If you had a question you were free to ask the people on the line. In this plant they brought in the rolling chassis and the unit was completed except for the awnings and paint. Painting is done at the Belmont, MS plant. Another couple from Minneapolis happened to be on the same tou with us. When we got back to the motorhome, we had a “bring what you've got supper" with two other couples we had met, Chuck, Lorraine, Steve and Sandy. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, Kielbasa sausage, salad, macaroni salad and camp potatoes. It sure was good.

We went over to the factory today, Thursday the 14th, to visit with Danny Inman in the Sales Department to see what the changes are for 2009. They had the Phaeton information done but it will be a couple of weeks before the Allegro Bus changes would be out. Hopefully, we should be able to see a 2009 Bus before we leave for home. While there, we took the opportunity to visit the building where they are producing their own chassis, the Powerglide.


After the tour we packed up and hit the road for Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. We left about 1:45 PM, with the intention of stopping around 5:00, but as the storm clouds built up behind us we pushed a little further into the night and droveas far as Mobile, AL,and spent the night at a Love’s truck stop. It was not too bad there as we were able to park along the driveway next to the curb. We did have some traffic going by but at least we did not have trucks idling next to us all night. We would not put it on our list of favorite camping spots, but it was a place to get a few hours of sleep beforemoving on.

In the morning we headed over to Gulf State Park. Along the way we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for Sandy's favorite breakfast meal, blueberry pancakes. Then we were off to the grocery store to restock the groceries. When we got to the park about 11:30 AM they were putting people’s names on a waiting list. We were #17 and so far only 15 sites were open. The procedure here is to have everyone on the list come back at 2:00 PM so they can see how many sites are available. It turned out not to be a problem for us, as some on the list decided to go someplace else which moved us up to #12. It ended up they had 30 campers waiting for 20 sites. This same procedure goes on day after day as this is a great State Park along the coast.

We went for a walk on Sunday morning and is this State Park huge. They have about 200 daily sites and about 300 monthly sites. There must be at least 100 feet of space between each campsite.

Today, 3-17, we went to the post office and painfully sent our tax information to the accountant. Then it was off for some more shopping. This afternoon Sandy went over to wash some rugs at the on site laundry while I did a little reading, which turned into an hour nap. When she came back she asked if I had seen what pulled into the site next to us. Of course, I hadn't noteced since I had been napping the whole time. Turning to look and thinking it probably was a Tiffin product of some sort, especially since she said she almost pulled into the wrong site, I was surprised to see it was a 2005 Lazy Daze Teal Mid Bath, exactly like the one we had. Later in the day we had a chance to visit with the people. They were from Maine and have a son who lives in Maine and a daughter in California. Their children are both expecting, so I think that Lazy Daze is going to get a few miles put on running from coast to coast.

The temperature was 65.8 when I got up this morning, 3-18. It got up to 71 degrees for the high with lots of wind. We went up to Camping World to see if we could find the Mexican Domino’s game. They had some, but not the right one. So I guess we will just have to keep our eyes open. They are predicting a lot of wind and rain overnight so we pulled the slides in for the night.

It did’t rain over night but there were some moderate winds. Today, 3-19, it started raining about 9:30 AM and quit by 12:00 PM. I washed the outside of the motorhome today. The wind has died down to a light breeze with a 65 degree temperature.

It was just a perfect day today, Thursday the 20th. It’s about 70 degrees with just a slight breeze and lots of sun. We took a couple of walks, and just enjoyed the nice weather.


Today is Good Friday. The wind has picked up quite a bit with temps in the mid sixties. We went for a walk this morning and as we approached an intersection a car pulled up next to us. Sandy looked over and waived and recognized it was the couple from Minneapolis that we had met on the Tiffin tour. They were just heading over to Pensacola, FL to tour the Aircraft Museum. We invited them to come over for a visit. It’s kind of nice to run into people that you have met before. Wayne and Nancy came over about 7 PM and we ended up visiting until about 10:30. It turns out Wayne is into quarter scale R/C airplanes, which he also sells. It was interesting to listen to all the detail they get into to make the planes look realistic. Most of his are Mooney’s and P51’s. They told us a lot about their travels to China and Russia.

Today is Saturday and we are heading back up to Red Bay with a stop in Tupelo, MS. This morning it looked like it was going to be the best day here in Gulf Shores since we had been here. When we got up, it was in the middle 50’s with sunshine and it was perfectly calm, and kept getting warmer as the morning progressed. We probably should have stayed another day or so as we do not have to get back in Red Bay until the 25th.

Today is Easter and my Dads birthday, 3-23-23. The last time Easter fell on the date was 1913, and the next time will be 2160. When I was talking with Dad he said he probably would not want to be around for the next time it happens. He must have thought 227 years old was too much. We decided just to head over to Red Bay and get checked in rather then spend Monday here.

This morning is Monday the 24th. We sure know we are back at the Service Center as all the motorhomes start moving around by 6:30 AM for their 7:00 appointments. It's just like being in a truck stop with all the traffic. First thing we did this morning was check in with D Ray Hester, the expediter for service. He said we will probably get in about Wednesday. After we talked with D Ray we went over to the Sales Department and talked with Danny Inman again about the 09 models. He said the first 09 Bus will be out of the paint shop on Thursday so we can look at what the new models look like. This afternoon we went into Tupelo to visit Elvis Presley’s birth place. They also have a park and a museum there. We learned a few things that we did not know before. This is a picture of the two room house in which he was born. The bedroom was in front, the kitchen was in back and outhouse was way out back. His dad, Vernon, built the house for $180 worth of lumber and Vernon, Vernon’s dad and brother providing the labor.

Things are starting to bloom, so it must be time to leave

This morning, 2-20-08, Sandy, Jane, Vicky and I took a hike with there 4 dogs on the Overton Trail. This is a moderate hike of 3.3 miles around a hill just north of the campgrounds.














Sandy and I have been doing enough hiking that we thought we should get some hiking boots for walking these rocky trails. So off to Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops to look for some boots. While there Sandy decided to get a walking stick although it looks like a cattle prod to me-or, is that a DAVE prod. On Sunday the 24th we took our last trip around the Overton Trail before leaving on Monday. There were a few flowers starting to bloom, but it will be 2-3 weeks before things get into full bloom.



On Sunday afternoon we went out to supper with our friends Ron and Jane. This will be the last time to see and visit with them on this trip. It was both a fun and sad dinner as we reminisced about what we had done together and trying to figure out how to convince Jane that Minnesota is west of the Mississippi. She has this thing about taking the motorhome east of the Mississippi.


This morning we packed up and headed to Tucson. One of the advantages of not making reservations ahead of time is that when we come upon a beautiful site , like we did a Piacho Peak State Park, we can just pull off and stay there for the night or week. So Tucson will have to wait until tomorrow. Here are a couple of pictures of the Mexican Poppies in bloom.

This area also had the farthest west engagement of the Union and Confederate forces during the Civil War.










Once we finally got to Tucson, we went to see something called the "bone yard". This is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base where they keep all the surplus planes in storage. I had seen pictures of this and have also looked at it on google earth.com. You have to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum to get on a tour of the "bone yards". While there we found out that it is not just surplus planes there but they also rebuild and refurbish planes that are used by the armed forces. They also sell parts to our allies. This is probably the only branch of government that actually makes money. Not including the original cost of the plane, for every dollar spent, they take in $25. The Pima Air and Space Museum has planes from WWII whereas the "bone yard" is from the Vietnam War to today.













We are now on our way to Red Bay, AL to have some service work done on the motorhome at the factory. On the way we stopped in Van Horn, TX to meet up some friends of ours from Staples, Rick and Karen. They had just left Mission TX 2 days earlier and were on there way to the Phoenix area to visit family and friends. When we got up the next morning it had snowed a little as was 32.2 degrees. Rick and Karen were saying "we left Mission for this".

It took us a little longer to get to Red Bay then we figured as we lagged behind the snow storms that were going through the Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and areas north. We finally got into Red Bay on Thursday the 6th. Because we came in without an appointment it will probably take us all of next week to get worked through the different service areas. Some of the employees here at the factory service center were anxiously awaiting the first snowfall predicted for Friday night. Their wish came true as it was 28 degrees when we got up in the morning and a little over an inch of snow had fallen during the night.

How does time fly by so fast?

My gosh, it's been almost a month since we last posted. It must be this fast-paced life we are living. But then, after you read this you will ask, what do they do with their days. Anyway, after we left Las Vegas we went back to Lake Havasu City for a couple of days. On Tuesday the 29th we took a jet boat tour up the Colorado river thru the Topock Gorge. This is about a 2 1/2 hour trip that goes about 45 miles round trip.

On the way up we saw the lone wild Burro on a hill top. Be sure to click on the picture to enlarge it so it is visable. Later we saw a small group of burros along the river bank on the way back.















On 2-7-08 thru 2-10-0 the South West Lazy Daze group had an outing at the group camping site in the Cave Creek campgrouds where we are staying. We joined them on their first group outing in January 2007 when we had a Lazy Daze. It was nice to see some of our old friends from the first outing and to make some new friends. There were people from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California, Nevada, New Hampshire, Arizona and, of course, MINNESOTA.

Every night we had a campfire.



There was always alot of socalizing, eating, hiking and one day we even had a Strong Man contest.


Sandy and I have been taking it pretty easy during the day and watching the sunsets in the evening.






We have done some hiking on the wonderful trails in the park to get some much needed exercise and take in the beauty of the desert after all the rain. The wildflowers are just starting to bloom, but we will have to miss the prime bloom because we are leaving the area on the 25th to head down to Tucson.


















Below is a "mutant" Saguaro cactus we saw along the trail. We've never seen one like that before.
















Guess I had better get back to doing nothing but soak up the warm sun and listen to the birds. We miss all our family and friends so it will be nice to get back up north in a couple of months.