Dec. 27/09

Another beautiful sunset in Arizona.

This is the basket we won at our Magic Circle Christmas Pot Luck dinner on Christmas.

(We actually won 2 baskets, but were generous and donated 1 basket back to be raffled off again.)

This is a quilt club "challenge block". We were each given a 6" x 12" piece of the gold & the blue stripe fabrics and were instructed to make a south west block. At least 1/3 of the block had to have the challenge fabric and we could add fabric as needed to make a 12 1/2" block. I found the piece of horse fabric in a scrap bag at quilt club and added the dark brown background to make this block. I'll try to get pictures of the other blocks as they're handed in.

Quilt Project

This is another quilt project I'm working on.

Each block is actually a hexigon flower. I've been making flowers since before we headed home last spring and I'll probably still be making flowers on our way home this spring!!

Christmas Day 2009

Burr, it was cold this morning!! But, it's nice & sunny and much warmer now. Hopefully, the breeze will die down and be nice and warm for our huge pot luck dinner at the Magic Circle. We're expecting about 46 people for dinner in the tent today!

Went for a drive yesterday. Travelled straight across the top of the KOFA Wildlife Refuge hoping to see some animals. No animals, but lots of cactus!!!

Fri., Dec. 18, 2009

Finally finished the quilt

for Hillary's Birthday.

I bought the panel with the fairy last January at the Phoenix Sewing & Craft Festival and the fabric for the borders online this past summer. I had the fabric for the sashes & backing in my "stash".

I hope she likes it!

Also, this is the quilt I made for Spencer's Birthday. I bought the fabric at various Wal-Mart's somewhere in our travels over the past year.

He just got it the other day and called me to say how much

he likes it. His call made my day!

Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009

I've gotten behind in my posts since we moved into town! I'm not sure just what we're keeping so busy at, but time is flying past!

We had some more rain over the past weekend and that lead to some beautiful rainbows.

Everyone is gearing up for Christmas and I finally put out some of our decorations. It's kind of hard to decorate a motor home (especially when I don't like clutter) but we do have a nice collection of Santa's.

Hard to believe that next week is Christmas already!

Home - Sweet Desert Home

My sewing room - the 1st thing I set up once we settled in!

I set up our patio beside the trailer this year so that we can catch the slight breeze that always blows between the trailer & the coach. When it turns colder, we'll probably move over to beside the coach. (The coach will stop the wind.)

Sun., Nov. 29, 2009

Another week has gone by in the desert. The weather for the most part was great - only 1 day of wind & dust.

Went out on a bike ride on Monday with some of the gang in the desert. Saw a Tarantula Spider - the 2nd one so far this winter.

Had some more beautiful sunsets.

Did lots more sewing - finally got the quilt for Spencer finished.

Thurs., Nov. 12, 2009

Went for a bike ride with Robert & Melvina today. Headed down Tyson Wash to see what damage the floods did. Didn't recognize any of the landmarks. Even rode past the fence at the indian reservation without seeing any evidence of the fence that used to stop us from venturing onto forbidden grounds. Saw lots of wildlife though. There were at least 8 adult mule deer and we think 2 small ones in one bunch. Also saw a coyote.

Another beautiful sunset.

Day 6 - Fri., Nov. 6, 2009

Our first day in our winter home. The sunrise was spectacular.

We spent the morning cleaning the trailer and setting up my sewing room. We put out the two smaller patio mats and nailed them down. Noel set up the solar panels.

We went into town to the hardware store and joined them in celebrating their 35th anniversary with free hot dogs, drinks and dessert!

We went shopping at Noel's favorite store - Family Dollar for a few things that we needed. We went to the post office and the fresh produce stand.

We drove over to Les & Tammy's but they're not here yet. We drove by Jack & Doreen's but they weren't home.

We went back home to continue setting up and to visit with our friends.

We went to Social Hour at the tent and then back home for dinner & to watch TV.

We had a beautiful sunset tonight.

Day 5 - Thurs., Nov. 5, 2009

We were awake by 5:00 a.m. this morning and were on the road by 6:50.

We stopped at the Blue Beacon truck wash in Eloy, AZ to get the coach and trailer washed. It was filthy and we can't go to the desert looking bad!!! After getting the wash, we went across the road to the Flying J to fuel up. Fuel was $2.65/gallon (.58/litre) and this time we got 8.6 MPG.

After fueling up, we headed out on the last leg of our journey. We left I-10 and headed west on I-8 to bypass Phoenix. At Gila Bend, we headed north on Hwy 89 to Buckeye and then back onto I-10 headed west.

When we arrived in Quartzsite, we went to the Pit Stop to fill up our propane tanks. The people there recognized us and welcomed us back! After that, we headed straight to La Posa South LTVA - our home campground. We registered and paid our $180.00 fee for the winter. As we were registering, our friends Robert & Malvena saw us and welcomed us "home". On our way in to our campsite at the Magic Circle, we stopped to dump our sewage tank and fill up our water tank.

We arrived at the Magic Circle and our favorite campsite was available so we backed the trailer into it's usual spot and moved the coach into it's usual spot and dropped everything to go to Social Hour in the tent. Most of the full time gang are already here!! It was so good to see everyone.

After social hour, we headed back home to finish setting up and settling in.

Day 4 - Wed., Nov. 4, 2009

We were awake early again and on the road by 7:30 a.m.

We headed south on I-27 a short way and then headed west on Hwy 60 to Clovis, NM and then south west on Hwy 70 past Roswell, NM, through Ruidoso, NM and Alamagordo, NM, past the White Sands National Monument and Missile Base to Las Cruses, NM and then west on I-10.

The weather was beautiful the whole day. It got very warm, up to about 83F at one point! There was a tiny bit of snow on the northern hill sides just south of Ruidoso in the Mescalaro Apache Reserve but then we were at about the 7,000 foot mark through there!

We continued on through New Mexico and crossed into Arizona at about 5:00 p.m. and finally stopped for the day at a truck stop in San Simon, AZ at 5:45. We had left overs from our dinner at the Big Texan and tried to find a TV channel to watch. We managed to find 3 channels - 2 Mexican and 1 religion so we put in a DVD and settled down to watch the movie. We stayed up as late as we could but as soon as the movie was over, we were into bed. It was only 8:30 mountain time!!!

It was so warm, we slept with the bedroom windows open! That was great until the middle of the night when several trains went by!!

We travelled 556.5 miles today - 2,296.7 miles to date.

Day 3 - Tues., Nov. 3, 2009

Changing from Daylight Savings Time and loosing another hour to a new time zone has us all out of whack! We were up by 6:00 and on the road by 6:45 this morning!

We travelled straight through, just taking turns driving as we went along.

We stopped for fuel at the Flying J in Amarillo, TX at about 5:00 p.m. Fuel there was $2.67/gallon (.59/litre). We did 8.1 MPG today. Lots of big hills through Missouri and Arkansas so

we're suprised our mileage was so good.

After filling up, we drove down the road to the Big Texan Restaurant and got backed into their truck parking lot. We sat for a few minutes to relax and then went in for a delicious Texas dinner. This is the restaurant where you can get a 72 oz. steak dinner for free - if you can eat it and all the fixings in one hour!!!

After dinner we weren't long heading for bed - all those miles are starting to wear us out!

We travelled 663.4 miles today - 1,740.1 miles to date.

Day 2 - Mon., Nov. 2, 2009

We were up by 6:30 this morning and on the road by 7:15 a.m.! We drove through a bit of rain, then it cleared up and was a beautiful day.

We headed south on I-69 through Michigan and into Indiana. When we hit Indianopolis, we headed west on I-70.

At St. Louis, MO, we headed south/west on I-44.

We stopped for fuel at the Flying J truck stop in Sullivan, MO. Diesel fuel was $2.73/gallon (or .60/litre) with our Flying J discount. We calculated that we were getting 8.76 MPG.

The rest area that we planned to stop at for the night was closed for re-construction, so we continued on to the next one near Conway, MO. We stopped for the day at about 7:15 p.m. We had dinner and went to bed and watched a bit of TV before falling asleep. This rest area was brand new and very nice. They had a designated area for RV parking, but Noel being Noel, we had to go park with the trucks.

The weather was beautiful all afternoon. The only problem was the sun setting in our eyes as we drove west!

We travelled 695.1 miles today - 1,076.7 miles to date.

Day 1 - Sun., Nov. 1, 2009

We had a late start in getting away today. First, we had a couple come by to see our upstairs apartment that is for rent. They loved it and will be moving in on Nov. 15th. Company for Jenn who is living down stairs in our apartment!

We finally started out at 10:30 a.m. We crossed into the U.S. at the Sarnia/Port Huron border at about 4:00. This was the first time that I've driven the coach across and answered all the questions. The inspector didn't even ask if we had any alcohol to declare so I didn't have to worry about how much O'Darby's was smuggling across for me!

We called it quits for the day at about 5:30 and spent the night in a rest area just north of Lansing, MI. We had dinner and went to bed early and watched TV before falling asleep.

We travelled only 381 miles today. We'll have to boogie tomorrow to make up for lost time & miles.