Home Snow Home

Well we made it home without incident.  Lots of snow on the ground, it will take awhile for it to melt. 

made a trail to the sauna

can’t get to the fire pit but can get to the grills

the side garage got some damage from the snow falling off the roof and the snow plow shoving the snow.

It is good to be home. especially since I got a terrible head cold on the way home. much better place to lay around.

we put the bird food out but no takers yet. looking forward to seeing all of our friends and get this spring moving!

Kansas to Minnesota April 2014

We left New Mexico, passed through Texas, then through Oklahoma and landed in Kansas.  We went through Liberal KS but did not find the yellow brick road.  maybe next time.
we stayed at


It was a very nice park, we did not get to really enjoy it too much as we were there just for the night.
Next stop in Emporia KS at a RV park right off of I35.  It was clean but no TV! they are selling the place and canceled the cable… oh well it was just one more night without news and weather.  We did go for dinner at

The food was OK, nothing special.
Saturday April 5: we left Kansas, drove through Missouri, then landed in southern Iowa at the Lakeside Casino and RV park.  of course we got there early and by 5:00pm it was full!  $20 for full hookup and cable.
Sunday April 6: We got to Albert Lea Mn.  Almost home! we are at Big Island State Park. No water but electricity.  We will be home tomorrow so no worries with the water situation.  The lake is frozen!  We began seeing frozen water by the time we got to Northern Iowa, also a little snow.

not happy about the snow and frozen lake but happy we are so close to home. it seems like we left a long time ago!
We so enjoyed our winter escape this year. We met some wonderful people, seen some great places, ate some fantastic food and had a very good experience working at the refuge.

The Big Well

the biggest hand dug well in the USA if not the World..




The Big Well in Greensburg Kansas was hand dug!  109 feet deep at 50 cents a day!

 


 

new computer

had to get a new computer yesterday so blogging will continue  once I get it all figured out.

Saturday April 5: we are in Kansas, heading to Iowa.  

Heading home: Tucumcari, New Mexico

Wednesday April 2: we left Bluewater State Park at about 6:30 this morning and made record time to Tucumcari NM in 5.5 hours!  Eric is really anxious to get home. We only made a few pit stops, no sight seeing this trip..  The wind was not too bad when we left but picked up to about 30 mph by the time we set up camp at a KOA.  We did luck out as the wind was mostly at our back while driving, we got over 13mpg!   We have never stayed at a KOA before.  It seems to be OK.  right off of the freeway with clean restrooms.

Since we ran off quickly this morning and did not make any food stops we were pretty hungry so we headed to

it was a lot like a whopper.  not bad, not good but filling.

Since it was way to windy to walk or bird we drove around.  We found this Cheese Factory.  Being from Wisconsin we really like our cheese! 

we stopped in, well not quite, it was a factory without a retail store!  We just walked in, when Eric seen the hair nets and clean coats he knew something was wrong, I was just reading the sign to go 4 blocks to find the outlet store.  we did find where they sell their cheese locally but they were sold out of the cheese. this place also  boast that they serve a  good donut but were out of them too!  The owner said to come back after 3:00 to pick up some donuts!

she was still glazing them when Eric walked in…

we did find a local grocery store that had the cheese so of course we got a few chunks.

most of these towns rely on memories of Route 66 to keep them alive, they have wonderful murals, old cars etc..

dinner was good, not great but good

I did wake up with a bit of a sore throat this morning.  It is still there, hoping a good nights rest will cure it, if not maybe those donuts will do the trick in the morning.

April 1

Tuesday April 1, woke up to cool temps and high winds.  We took off at about 8:00 am.  the wind was very strong on our side but then came from behind so it was not too bad. We stopped a few times, back to Winslow to get better pictures of the Trail of the Giants and:

 

to pick up a piece of Petrified Wood.  It took us about 5 hours to go 230 miles. 

we spent the night at

in New Mexico.  It was terribly windy but we went for a hike in the canyon and it was not too bad.  Beautiful place to hike.

we started at the top

it only took about 15 minutes to get down

we walked both ways as far as we could.  on the one side we ran into the dam.

we assume these are from very large Elk

can you see the quarter?

too bad we won’t stay here a few days to explore but Eric is anxious to get home.

tomorrow we head out early to try and beat some of the wind.  Our goal is Tucumcari New Mexico, about 300 miles.

Flagstaff AZ March 31, 2014

Monday: woke up to temps in the 20’s!  we are use to the 60’s!  What the heck.. Since we only have 40 miles to go today it was a lazy start to the day.  We were heading to the KOA in Flagstaff but stopped short and ended up at Black Barts RV park and steakhouse.

 

we went into to town for lunch then off to the Lowell’s Observatory

we got to look through the solar telescope

the Clarks Telescope is being renovated so was not in the building

this is the telescope that found Pluto

we had a very good tour guide and although a bit windy it was a beautiful day

of course we had to do a bit of birding seen a Lewis’ Woodpecker (new) and some snipes

we went back to Lowell’s Obs. about 8:00pm to see the night sky. Although it was a bit cold and very windy there were a lot of people there standing in line to look through the telescopes.  We got to see the Orion nebulous, Jupiter and 3 moons and Mars.  great place to spend the day and night.

The Whirlpool Galaxy

I suspect we could spend a few days here but…..