Today is Friday and we have been home since Wednesday night.
From Marshfield, MO we drove the entire 575 miles to finish up our 2008/2009 winter adventure. Left at 7:30 am and pulled in the driveway at 6:00 pm.
Spent the remaining daylight of Wednesday and all of yesterday just unpacking the motor home and getting settled back into the our home. Brother Tim did an outstanding job of looking after the property and the house looked and "felt" just as we left it. Thank you Brother!!

And thank you all for taking the time to follow us during our travels. Hope you enjoyed the blog!

Below are just a few more pictures from our fast-track 1900 mile drive home.

Jim, Ellen, Isabelle, and Gracie


Humphreys Peak (the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 ft) as seen from the road driving south from the Grand Canyon to Flagstaff. The mountain is just north of Flagstaff and is obviously the focal point of the area. It can be seen from the Grand Canyon.


Foss Lake State Park in Oklahoma. It's a beautiful park and our second time there.


That's not snow on the tree, it's blossoms!

Morning view of fog over Foss Lake. The line in the distance it the man-made earthen dam that created the lake.

Left Foss Lake at 9:30 am.
Drove 435 miles to arrive in Marshville, MO for the night.
It's an RV park and right off Interstate 44. I mean right off I-44!
It's new, clean, friendly, and easy to get on and off the highway. Great stop for a quick night, but not one to spend any time - too noisy with all the highway traffic!

575 miles to home tomorrow. Long drive for one day, but too close to stop another night short of Elkhart. We plan to be home before dark.

Left Albuquerque at 9:00 am and arrived at Foss Lake State Park in Foss, OK 7 hours and 450 miles later. It is a sunny and 75 degree late afternoon. Beautiful little park on a huge reservoir in the middle of what would appear to be nowhere. I took a few pictures but the connection here is too slow to post them now.

According to the Weather Channel Elkhart has has some pretty good weather lately as well. Hope it stays around for our arrival back home in a few days.

Sun is coming up. Temp is 30. Time is 6:30. Sky is clear.
We are "out of here"!
Heading home -"yee-ha"!

Made it to Albuquerque, NM

Today we took the bus to the Western end of the Grand Canyon stopping at most points along the way. We hiked the first hour then jumped on the shuttles going from one view point to the next. We planned on hiking more of the way but it was a lot more than we were ready for. We need to come back!









The river is down there just left of center. It's hard to imagine that little ribbon of water is the principal cause of what we see now.

I zoomed in for this one, we could barely see the water from the rim. The "ripples" are a rapid. Looks like nothing from the picture, but having been down through there 3 times I can assure you those "ripples" are about 6 feet high.

A cold 27 this morning and the expected 2" of snow never materialized. Actually, today was forcasted to be cloudy with rain/snow showers. However, we woke up to blue sky and sunshine that lasted all day other than the occasional passing cloud.

We drove 25 miles to the East end of the park on the Canyon View Road that follows the Rim the whole way. Many view points and lookouts provided all the beautiful scenery we expected and more. The girls got to go for the ride so they saw a lot as well. The mid-day lighting did not prove to be the best for pictures - sunrise and sunset are best. But the sights were still stunning! Took 2.5 hours driving the road east, and only .5 for the return.

Lunch, a nap, and a little time with the dogs and we were off to the Imax Theater for a Grand Canyon film at 4:30pm. It was a short 30 minute film so we drove around the areas we visited yesterday in the wind, rain, and snow. Much prettier in the sunshine and a whole lot more enjoyable. Took some more pictures in the setting sun and got a few good ones with all the shadows and contrasts. Tried to find a bar in one of the lodges with a sunset view but were unsuccessful so we just came back to the RV for the night.

Another cold night tonight - went from 55 to 32 as soon as the sun set. Currently 28 at 9:00pm but going to the teens. Tomorrow should be even better than today and a trip to the West end of the Canyon is planned for the day. Private vehicles are not allowed in that direction so we will ride the free bus system. Three different bus routes actually provide the free service everywhere in the park. One could just leave the car parked and go anywhere. They even pickup and droppoff at the RV park.

Good night.


Some of the same views as yesterday only with a blue sky



One of the 100+ year old lodges here in the park. They seemed to be full. The RV park cleared out quite a bit today but was full again by dark.

Gracie got a new "baby" today on the rim drive - meet Lucia the Mountain Lion.

Issy was doing a little "surfing" on the internet and got distracted by something going on outside.

We enjoyed our three days at Camp Verde and did not want to leave so soon. But we had to go today in order to squeeze into The Grand Canyon RV park (Trailer Village). Next time around we will definitely stay longer in Camp Verde. Did not have a reason to believe that the Grand Canyon would be so busy this time of year - it's cold! We planned on just driving on up here and having no problem camping. Someone at Camp Verde told us we had better call ahead to reserve a space. Good thing we did! We wanted a five day stay and could only reserve a three day.

We arrived with snow and freezing rain spitting here and there, but no real significant amounts and no accumulation (as of 8:30pm). The forecast gets a lot better as the next couple of days pass. If we can book another night or two we might do so for the blue sky photo ops that are to come. There are a lot of people here! And it is spring break season! In addition, as we have seen in all visits to our National Parks, many groups of foreigners seem to always be touring at all times of the year. I simply can not understand how so many people would be here at this time. Being here in the "prime time" would have to be a "zoo".

The trails that go down below the rim are still icy and we are not equipped to venture into that territory so we will be limited to all the rim trails, bars, and restaurants. Oh Darn!

An assortment of pictures I downloaded off the camera today are below going back to San Carlos. As I said, the weather today was terrible here at the canyon, but some of the pictures turned out pretty good. Some sun tomorrow should provide great views! We had just a sliver of sunshine as we got to the park but could not pull over to park and take pictures. The view was amazing!


Jim and the girls taking a look at a view point in walking distance from our San Carlos RV park.

A new home almost completed being built on a hill top overlooking the Gulf in San Carlos. We could see it all lit up at night from the RV park and we walked up past it on our way to the view point above. Major bucks!!!!!!!

Heading to the border on our way home

The line-up. It took one hour in line before we got to the border.

One quick picture from our hike up Madera Canyon just north of our Amado RV park. It was a good exercise for the four of us.

All the following are pictures from our short visit to the rim today. It was cloudy, and rain/snow falling to the North, but the pictures are still worthy to share. We will not be able to put any pictures on the blog or verbalize what we see that will do the experience justice!

It's Tuesday morning and 38 outside. There is frost on the car windows!!!! We are in Camp Verde, AZ north of Phoenix at an RV resort just off I-17. Beautiful place! Had no idea before arriving what we were getting into. We delayed going straight to the Grand Canyon because of high wind warnings yesterday. Wanted to stay at a regional park near Carefree just North of Phoenix but they were full. Glad they were because this place is "primo". It's called Beating Drums RV Park. It's only a few years old, spotless, landscaped, all cement pads & patios, great views of the surrounding mountains, exercise room, and lots more. Gotta love Arizona! We intend to stay here a second night tonight then head to the Grand Canyon in the morning.

We are near Prescott and called Bill Mueller. We wanted to drive over to see him, but he is not doing well enough to want us to visit. He just had another stent put in two weeks ago and did not seem to want company. We talked for a few minutes, but he sounded weak and a little confused. He said he is just an "old man" now and spends most of his time and energy seeing doctors. He has two to visit with today so I guess he just didn't have the strength for us as well.

Sunday we drove the dogs to Madera Canyon just north of the RV park in Amado. It's a well visited Coronado National Forest Park with maintained hiking trails up into the canyon. And, obviously, dogs allowed. Stopped at a big grocery in Green Valley on the way back and worked up a huge bill restocking the RV with USA foods.

Yesterday was a driving day and we arrived around 3:00pm. Early enough to get set up and walk the dogs around for a visit of the facilities. AND, time to drive across the highway to an Indian Casino for a couple hours of gambling before dinner.

Today we are going to do a siteseeing drive after visiting the fitness center for a much needed workout.


Still working our way home, however. See you soon.

Now it's Saturday.
We made it across the border.
Back at Amado 25 miles south of Tucson in an RV park.
Same park we stayed at night before "the crossing" going South.
GOD BLESS THE USA!

Heading north to the Grand Canyon on Monday for a look-see even though the temps will be cold. Probably will not go there directly, but meander in a northerly direction stopping along the way at several State Parks. After the Grand Canyon the plan is to head up through southern Colorado to see Mesa Verde Nat'l Park and Great Sand Dunes Nat'l Park. After that - heading home on I-70. We are sick of driving through Texas so we will take the colder northeren temperatures and return through the middle of the country.

The cell phones are back in use - call now!

New video now on the blog of a great drive off-road to the beach in Mazatlan that I could not upload for a week. But knowing most will not go look at the videos section of the blog here is the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhkiNxHilxk

Good Night,

Jim, Ellen, and Pups

Good morning,

It's 65 at 6:00 am here in San Carlos. That's nice and cool. I can smell the ocean but cannot hear it. And dew has not covered everything in a layer of moisture. We have not had to clean the RV or CR-V for two days (this will make three) because it is so clean here and away from the sand and humidity of oceanfront camping. We were going to leave this morning and cross back into the US but have decided to stay one and maybe two more nights.

This RV park is nearly empty. The one in town(Totonaka) that we stayed for two nights after crossing in January is full. Totonaka is a dump compared to this one, the ocean cannot be seen there, it's near a sewer line that dumps into the water so it stinks, and it's noisy being right in the center of town and just off the highway.

Point is, we did not think too highly of San Carlos after our first visit. Now that we are back and in a new spot we kind of like it here.

See you all soon

Yesterday, Wednesday, we did nothing but clean, clean, and clean. Soooo nice to be out of the sand, dust, etc. Here are some pictures kind of wrapping up our Mexico adventure.

Rene with his son and dog came by to say adios. Patty P gave his son the red teddy bear while she was visiting and he carries it around all day long. Rene is a hard working local man who speaks English and is a "jack-of-all-trades". The bald guy is a not-so-hard-working tourist bum called over to get in the picture


Our final Mazatlan sunset. I keep saying no more sunset pictures but I just can't help myself.

Marcos, the security guard at Tres Amigos, saying goodbye to Ellen. He speaks no English but he and Ellen communicated.

Mr Moro office, restaurant, and hotel

Our ocean front site at Mr Moro

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Ellen surveying the scene

The beach at Mr Moro and all the way South into town for almost a mile was full of people from Los Mochis and Gusauve on Sunday when we arrived. It does not look too busy here but the closer to "town" the more crowded it got. The road in was so frustrating we never gave a thought to getting a picture of the crowds on, along, and around the streets of town we had to drive through.

The next morning, not a person in sight. I drove into town (forgot the camera) to look at what we went through and not a live body or car in sight. No street vendors, no restaurants, no nothing! But this beach scene without a soul in sight resembles what I saw in Las Glorias, the town that seems to exist on weekends only.

Our site

Arrival at El Mirador in San Carlos. Great place but not very busy.

View from our San Carlos site with the ocean in the distance

No sand, no dirt, no bugs, no humidity, no noise. Just a cool breeze and great view.

Ellen's new friend Dulce with her dog Cholla. She is traveling with her parents who are full time RV'ers at the present time while their new house in San Lucas at the tip of the Baha is being built. She was adopted and is Guatemalan by birth. She speaks great English, is very smart, and extremely "cocky".