LOVING life at Butterfield RV Resort in Benson, AZ!

Hi! Just a few pics on the blog today, in order for our friends who are not on Facebook to see what we've been keeping busy with.

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On one of our daily morning bike rides we found a GREAT street! hehe

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We went to Tucson one day to shop for some necessities (Sam's Club ... maybe a rock shop stop ... and a yarn store ..... yup necessities), and had to stop at Gus Balon's Restaurant. This is an old time restaurant, with waitresses that could have been cast in the TV sitcom, "Alice," and all the pies, breads, etc are made from scratch daily.  No calories at this place!

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 These are some pics from a recent potluck dinner at Butterfield. We got reacquainted with some dear old friends and made some new ones too!

THIS COUPLE >>>>>>>>>
are the park managers: Mark and LeAnna and they are FUN all the time, as you can see!  They are GREAT to spend time with!!!! 

Actually got my picture taken with Mark SMILING! And he didn't charge me!

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These cacti are HUGE HUGE HUGE and are obviously the home to various lizards, salamanders and other slithering things that I LOVE to see scurrying around!!!!!

TUCSON <<< Prettiest place in AZ!!!

Today we went to Tucson - - - DB to area rock shops and PJ to JoAnn's Fabrics & Yarn ....... YES we both spent our entire allowance.  :)

The beauty of the Tucson area is fascinating actually. 

Look at the beautiful trees at this car dealership!!!

 Curbside shrubbery.............

 Curbside landscaping......

 Downtown buildings......

It was a great day - - - really enjoyed all the beauty in the area - - - and also amazing was the HEAT!!!!!  The temp in the car fluctuated between 108* and 107* .......... Hello Arizona in October!!!!!   :-)

Sunday Morning......

Started out our Sunday morning with a walk in the desert, across from the RV park. Didn't see any quail but when we do, we'll get a picture hopefully!!!!  The weather is fantastic. The sun "feels" so much different here than anywhere else. Loving it. Will be going to church in a bit at our favorite Benson Baptist Church and then maybe swim a bit this afternoon. Yup .. LIFE IS GOOD!  :) 

Benson or Bust >>>> BENSON!!!!!!!

We are HERE!!!!!!

Thank you Mandy for the pics of the Rapid City Pumpkin Festival today!    Looks like it was soooo much fun!!!!!!!!

Had a great trip from Deming and arrived in the park about 2:00 ..... not sure yet if that was 2:00 SD time or 2:00 AZ time.  Will take us a little bit to get "synced" with the time change.

It is almost 90* here this afternoon and there is lots of activity in the swimming pool. WOW. How soon we forget!

We are in site 94 and it's a corner lot. Will take pics later to post. It's a fantastic spot and we are just tickled pink to be here finally.

Watermelon and Pepperidge Farm Goldfish for lunch. YUM YUM!

Our fave Mexican food restaurant "Nico's" is still here. DARN IT!!!!  That means it's going to be much harder to stay "on track."  :-p


God bless everyone, thank you for reading our blog and following our travels and pics of our "shenanigans" soon to follow.  (That's for YOU, Keri Peeberry)........

RUH ROH !!!

The day started out great! We got on the road by 7:30 a.m., whizzed through Santa Fe, on through Albuquerque...... 

................and then.............

DB: Ok the hub cap's off, am I done yet??

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It was a delay of about an hour and a half before we got BACK on the road again! The inside dually tire was FLAT FLAT FLAT. I saw what looked like a "twig" fly across the road outside of Albuquerque and didn't learn until later that the valve stem came out of the tire. (

Did I need to call our roadside assistance?  DB: "Nah! I'll fix it ......"    :-) 





And fix it he did!  (Can you hear Willie Nelson singing, 'On the Road Again.....'
  

                                             and this................... 

Rattlesnakes? Seriously? At a Rest Area entrance to the bathrooms? Seriously?

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Well, we arrived in Hatch, NM about 2:30 or so and refueled. 

Saw these precious horses and had to take a picture for LORNA!

We then arrived in Deming (our day's destination) about 4:00 p.m.

Made a stop at Walmart. THIS was in the parking lot. Some rockhounding vehicle, huh??

We are glad we are here and will probably stay a couple of nights. This is a nice RV Park and very good rates!!
Since Deming is the "Rock Hound Capitol of the World," I think DB deserves a 2 night stay .... or 3 or 4 or 6, after that tire fiasco today! 

LAS VEGAS to DEMING on Wednesday....

This is where we were today, looking around downtown Las Vegas, NM. Some cool old buildings and everything is OLD.  Very nice people !

Tomorrow we are going to travel from Las Vegas to Deming, NM and stay at the Dream Catcher RV Park.  About a 5 1/2 hour drive which sounds GREAT after a couple 8-hour-ish days.


 If I see this giant roadrunner, there will be no more blog posts for awhile because I will PASS OUT!!!!  I love it!

What happens in Vegas..........

Hello!

Eight hours from Brush Colorado to Las Vegas NM.  We are nestled into a nice little spot in the pine trees at the Las Vegas KOA Kampground.  The wind this afternoon was atrocious so we decided to pull into the KOA and now, are so glad we did!!

After DB's unbelievable knack for dragging around this 42' "recreational vehicle" we got parked, and within 10 minutes I was heating water for a cup of tea!

We went through THATCHER, Colorado which was a THRILL for me, though the only there is the SIGN.

DB again, amazingly maneuvered this monstrous RV through the Raton Pass like nuthin'...... he's so good at all this stuff!

Looks like we're choosing to stay here TWO nights, it's so nice!!  Mandy is sending me pictures and videos of the kids which SOOTHES the soul.  :)

Will try to post some pictures ...... THANKS FOR READING AND FOR TRACKING US!

DB's rig and the WHIRLYGIGS!!! My favorite things in the world!

Getting into tight spaces at the Las Vegas KOA !!!

Finally...... backing into a 50-amp space!!

(And of course, Dorothy and Hefly looking over the activities!)

xoxo

Made it to BRUSH, Colorado!!!

We left Hart Ranch about 9:00 this morning with intentions of arriving in Sidney, NE for the night, however got there before lunchtime, so decided to continue on to Sterling, CO.  THAT was a fiasco, trying to locate a decent RV park and/or the Walmart Supercenter, so we just drove an additional 35 miles to Brush.  All-in-all it was a 316-mile day!!

We are now parked at the City Park. Grateful for our generator! They have all the hookups however we'd need an adaptor to utilize the power box, so the generator is doing a fantastic job giving us power.

DB looks SO TOUGH driving the truck and RV in my rearview mirror, that at one point I got way ahead of him, stopped along the road, jumped out, and snapped a few pics with my phone, but there's no way to capture how COOL it looks going down the road!!!

My Bible took a bath in the coffee I had placed in a carafe, and I think it's too soaked to ever recover so I may be in the market very soon for a new NIV Study Bible.....

It's great receiving text messages and pictures from everyone as we travel.  WE includes my two little dashboard traveling companions, Dorothy and Hefly.  NO, Mary, I am not texting and driving however look forward to our stops so I can check my phone!

Monday, 092412 .. SOUTHBOUND ......

This is Butterfield RV Park in Benson, AZ where we will be for the month of October.  We're leaving Rapid City Monday morning about 9:00 and will spend our first night in Sidney, Nebraska, the home of Cabela's.  

This trip south is a little different because I'll be driving my car, following DB as he maneuvers the 20,000# of truck and RV.  We're going to be mostly on Highway 71 South through Colorado and then will weave our way southwest through New Mexico.

The best part of today so far was spending time with kids and grandkids and attending church with John and Mandy at Fountain Springs. WOW, what a church!!!  Had no idea Rapid City had THAT kind of great, progressive, welcoming church.

The worst part of today was saying goodbye to kids and grandkids and friends.  :-/

SOOOOOOO grateful for cell phones, email, Facebook and pictures!  

L@@K at this gorgeous dog!

Today we went to downtown Santa Fe. We were looking for a parking place at the Flea Market when I saw a man walking with this dog. I about bailed out of the truck before DB could even get it stopped! This dog is "Sadie," and she was so sweet and friendly!!! It was the perfect start to our day!



After the Flea Market we went to the Loretto Chapel which was an AMAZING experience!!! I bought a neat figurine of a baby wrapped in an angel's wing in memory of Alison and Andrew. The Chapel was an incredibly emotional experience and I'm so glad we went there!

Then we drove to Tesuque Village NM and on to Espanola. The beautiful little homes and villages in the NM landscape was incredible.

We had a great day and are looking forward to going to Santa Fe Calvary Chapel for church tomorrow. Then we will probably leave here Monday morning and continue "northbound." :)

Santa Fe and

Santa Fe & Albuquerque Day!

Hi everyone! We are on Day 2 in Santa Fe. Yesterday we found "Rock On!" rock shop and the proprietor was a funny little flamboyant man who spoke in abbreviations..... he said, "Oh you're from SD? Like SOO FOO?" (crazy!) When I said, "Rapid City," he replied, "Ohhh Rap! Well my mom is from Breck!" He then clarified, "Breck....en....ridge," and said, "I'm originally from Minn...." I presume that's Minnesota and he's not the child of a Min Pin. hahaha.

After than interesting adventure, DB found a great Mexican restaurant and I have no idea what the name of it is, but across the street was JoAnn Fabrics and down about a mile was Hobby Lobby, so good luck if you're looking for a great Mexican dinner in Santa Fe! ha.

Today we went to another rock shop "Natural Rocks" which ended up being a low-end bead store and not an actual rock shop.

We found a Trader Joe's !! FAVORITE health food store of all time I think. At least so far! Then we took the Santa Fe RailRunner Train to Albuquerque's downtown. It was a great way to see the area's landscaping. We had pizza for supper and are now gratefully back home in the camper before tomorrow's "big adventures" !!! We're planning a morning at the Flea Market/Farmer's Market in Santa Fe and another art/craft/show & sale in Tesuque.

See you later!!! :)