Run for home.

Well, the snow did it! Our plan was to go north see Monument Valley, Four Corners, Durango and other places of elevation and probably SNOW!!!!!. Needless to say we changed course and decided to keep a moderately southern route to avoid the cold and snow. We headed east to the windy Amarillo and then on to Tulsa, Oklahoma to visit with one of our old friends who stood up in our wedding 40 years ago. This is Jeanne whom spoiled us with a great dinner and conversation and memories and my good wife Marge

After our stay in Tulsa which was beautiful with the spring greenup we went on to Missouri and stayed near Fort Leonard Wood just West of St. Louis. Stopped in Indiana and then Home!!! A bit of rush but the bug to get home was strong.

Grand Canyon

After our exciting trip from Oatman we arrrived fairly early at the Grand Canyon Campground. The weather appeared to be turning so we hustled over to the canyon via the transit system which is free and essential if you want to visit the overlooks. The views are unbeliveable and while we took probably 2 or 3 hundred pictures all were fantastic. What we both had problems with is the edge.....no guardrails in most places and foot trails that just wander for miles each way along this edge from the visitor center. Now I'm not real fond of heights. In fact, I wasn't even fond of riding in the buses that took you to the various points along a road that was entirely too close to the edge in my book. Below are just some of the views we saw.

The weather did turn and we stayed the second day thinking it might get better but by early evening SNOW started coming down. We had planned on heading north to Monument Valley after the stay here at Grand Canyon but the cold weather and snow quickly changed our minds and we decided on a more southerly route home. This post was a bit delayed as there were so many pictures and for some reason I had difficulty in posting them each time I tried.

Oatman, Arizona

We left Kathy and her family on Monday and drove to Needles, California which is on the Arizona/California boarder separated by the Colorado river. It was in the high 80's when we arrived at Moabi Regional Park and stayed the night. Lots of TRAINS there but failed to take any pictures. There was even an old Fred Harvey Hotel thats being restored.

We left the next morning and proceeded to take old Route 66 to Oatman, Arizona.
The road was pretty good until we started to climb up the mountain. Now my friend Art had told me about this place and it sounded kinda neat...... Wild Burro's running in the street looking for handouts and some neat old time shops. Well, I apparently misunderstood him, as he drove his car rather than the motorhome to this place....I was driving the motorhome (38 feet) plus towing the car. BIG MISTAKE!!!! First and most important., I need to pay attention to signs that say no trucks over 40' and then we saw no burro's althought we did not stay long enough to see anything more than their droppings. With no room to park or turn around we proceeded to go on to Klingman which turns out to be just over this "hill". I am a reasonably confidant driver, even with the motorhome, as we have had motorhomes for 30 years, but this was white knuckle and hold your breath time.

Marge was taking the pictures while I drove down the middle of the road except when I could hug the side closest to the "hill". She told me later that this allowed her not to view the dropoffs except through the lens and it made her less nervous. There was little or no traffic and what there was pulled off the road for us to get by. I'm pretty sure we did not go over 15 miles per hour until we well down the "hill" on the Klingman side.
This was first great adventure on the trip home may it be the last of this type!!!!

aaghh......Grandchildren!!!

How can anyone resist those smiles!!!!!

As its been a week or so since I've posted anything, you can understand when you see the energy these little ones consume. We have been busy!!!

We've been able to pamper and cuddle and really spend some quality time with these little ones.

Putting puzzles together...

Reading to them, although its sometimes rough reading the same story over and over.

We even went to tumbling class together

We spent a day at the San Diego Animal Park which was phenomenal....although everyone was pretty well worn out by the end of the day.





One of the Primary reasons to go West on our part was to participate in Garretts 3rd birthday. Kathy and Tony threw a party that was fantastic....the theme being dinosaurs...even his cake was a dinosaur.

There was even a dinosaur egg hunt.

The party was very much a success and fun was had by all..... especially the grandparents ....and we hated to leave. But today we left after wishing Garrett another happy birthday and we started our trip back to Royal Oak. This contribution was very hard to put together, we took probably 400 pictures and we were seemingly so so busy with so much happening it is hard to figure out what to put on this blog. Maybe once I figure out how to put a large batch of pictures as in slide show it will be more informative.

Tonight we stopped in Moabi Recreational area near Needles, California....tomorrow we should be at the Grand Canyon.