Yaaa Hooo!!

Parade Day!  We’re up bright and early to catch the train to the center of Calgary for the opening parade and the first day of the Calgary Stampede.

View from RV. 

The parade may have started at 9am but it did not reach us until almost 10:30. During that time several different cultural groups walked by and performed danced from their home countries.  Almost every other entry in the parade was a marching band from schools, colleges, police, and armed services.  My favorite were the bagpipers.  Of course there were floats and lots and lots of horse entries.  So many, in fact, that street sweepers were part of the parade entries.

An FMCA club has arranged all the things we will do the next five days so that we can find others of our group in the crowd we were all wearing lime green hats or visors.  Since we were sitting together for the parade our hats brought a lot of comments and interest from those folks walking in the parade.

The official yell of the day was “Yaaa Hoooo!!”   On the count of three — One! Two! Three!   Yaaaa HOOooooo!!!

Medicine Hat

We only spent two nights in Medicine Hat but found it to be a nice city to visit, partly because it is covered with biking trails. This city was established on the Alberta River so many of the trails bordered the river.

A very unique feature of Medicine Hat are the sculpted brick murals around town. James Marshall was commissioned by nuns at the Catholic Church to do a series on the Stations of the Cross.  From there he created several more murals for the city and has now done over 300 all over Canada.  One mural depicted the city recovering from a catastrophic flood in 1995.

Regina

We arrived in Regina (rhymes with vagina) on Canada Day so once we had the RV set up we headed to the park called Wascana Center where there was a big celebration. We walked almost 3 miles around the central lake while enjoying people watching, listening to music and taking in the crafts.

The Legislative Building or what we would call the Capital was at one end of the park. The next day we toured the building and learned about their government.The building itself was lovely, having used 7 different types of marble in its construction. Its green marble columns were beautiful.

Regina is also the home of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, their training center, horse brigade and an informative museum. It was a well done museum illustrating the Mounted Police beginnings and it history.

Winnipeg

We are camped a good 20 minutes east of downtown Winnipeg so it’s a bit of a drive into town on roads that are under construction.  But the center of the city is right on the Red River and the Assiniboine River with a community gathering place called “The Forks”. It is filled with shopping, museums, cafes, restaurants and a large park decorated with sculptures.  A converted train station is a shopping and dining mall.  The center of the park is a circular plaza with special arms pointing to the sky and directing the eye to various constellations.

After exploring the business district and looking for a nice restaurant for dinner we settled on an French place that served delicious small plate meals.  

We also toured the Canadian Mint where they make not only Canadian coins but also coins for over 40 other nations around the world. No photographs were allowed.

Bonanzaville

Today we had a history lesson about life in Fargo and North Dakota by visiting a reconstructed village with about 40 buildings filled with artifacts from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. All the original homes had been moved to Bonanzaville and some buildings had been rebuilt on the property.  There were 4 or 5 large shed filled with cars, planes, tractors, trains and farm equipment.

We visited a one room schoolhouse, a Lutheran Church, a fire station and police station.  There were several stores, a phone company building, a barber shop, and of course, a saloon with rooms to rent upstairs.  Every single house, building or shop was filled with artifacts.

Hjemkomst

Fargo ND is across the Red River from Moorhead MN where the Viking ship Hjemkomst (pronounced ‘yam-komst’) is located.  

Here’s the story.  In 1972 a gentleman of Norse ancestry had a dream to build an authentic Norse Viking ship from the 1400’s.  Over the next 10 years he made that dream come true. In 1982 12 men and one woman set sail from Duluth MN through the Great Lakes and down to New York City.  One man decided to go home to his family, the remaining 12 headed out into the Atlantic Ocean headed for Norway.  They made it to Norway in about 3 months and then sailed along the coastline to Oslo where the boat stayed for about 2 years before being shipped back to Fargo.

Included in this museum is an authentic Stave Church.  The foundation of the building is built on pillar like staves pounded into the ground.  Without the stone foundation the staves would eventually rot but the stone carry the water away so they stay solid.  The roof is created with angled slats and the interior has no seating as the people were required to stand for the services.  The small apse has pictures of Christ’s life because most people could not read so a story was told with pictures.

Leading Up to a Summer in Canada

Our annual family camping trip happened two weeks late this year since Erin moved into her new house over Memorial weekend.  We had three beautiful days together in Prairie Creek Campground on Beaver Lake playing in the woods, boating and swimming.  Pam had her science projects, RJ smoked a pork roast, the kids built a “fort” lean-to, explored the woods and had a great time playing together.  

After the two families went home, John and I stayed an extra day so we could visit Crystal Bridges Museum in Rogers, AR. It was an enjoyable day.

The detour to Norman to see Erin’s new house was worth the drive.  They have done a great job planning and designing their country home. Once all the boxes are put away they will have a very comfortable home.

It was a long two day drive to Sioux Falls where we picked up our mail and enjoyed several good meals. This town has a plethora of fine dining establishments. Sioux Falls also has a well developed bikeway that circles the downtown and Falls Park. The ride was over 22 miles but we stopped halfway around to eat at a Chick-fil-A, we being maybe the only 2 people who had never eaten at one.

Synopsis of the Remainder of Our Winter

Forgive me for not keeping up with my blogging.  

When we left Doheny State park we camped on Cachuma Lake near Solvang and did several wine tastings and wine pairings.  Vega, Mirabelle, Sanford, Alma Rose,  Roblar and Rusack Vineyards were just some of the places we visited.  Some good wines, some great foods.  We bought a few bottles to drink later. The weather was cool and rainy most days.

We headed back to the coast in Pismo Beach to do more wine tasting but weather was raining buckets.  It actually flooded out the state park next to our commercial campground.  We sampled at Presqu’ile and Riverbench and drove up to McPrice Meyer’s in Paso Robles for their annual party.  

After that we decided we had had enough rain and headed back to Borrego Springs.  We stayed there 10 days and had to move twice within the park.  If we are going to move sites we might as well head further west so we snagged two weeks at Palm Creek Resort in Casa Grande, AZ.

We hiked, played pickleball, and rode our bikes around the resort. At least it was warm and dry! From there we headed towards home and a visit in Norman with our daughter & family. Arrived home on April Fools Day.

This has not been the best winter weather wise which has made us wish for a Florida winter next year!  

Doheny Beach State Park

It looks like California is experiencing one of its worst winters in over 28 years and this is the year we chose to visit.  I’m not sure why I brought any shorts or tee shirts because all I’ve been wearing are long pants and sweaters!

The first part of the week wasn’t too cold.  We were able to ride our bikes on the adjacent bike trail most days.  We rode to Mission San Juan Capistrano and enjoyed a walk through the old mission, which is quite large and well preserved.

We found some pickleball courts nearby and tried to play but the people were much younger, better players, and not very inviting.  Did not go back. The bike lanes are along most of the roads so we have ridden or walked to grocery stores or other shopping.

Our friends, Jeff and Linda, whom we met many years ago when we had our Born Free RV, live just up the coast a short way so we had a delightful lunch and afternoon visit with them. 

Friday and Saturday this week are totally wasted as a huge winter storm moved through.  Parts of Orange County got snow which they haven’t seen in 28 years.  It was very windy, cold and rainy.  The bad news is that we can look forward to this kind of weather for the next 2-3 weeks where ever we go.  Yuck!!

Palm Springs in the Winter

We parked our RV at Outdoor Resorts in Indio which was only 1.5 miles from our friends Mike and Dianne’s home in La Quinta. Our two weeks here will be the longest we will stay in any one place for the rest of our trip.  We had hoped the weather would be warmer and less windy here but that was not the case.  Our site is one that is owned by someone and they have rented it out for the winter.  They have done a nice job of decorating the site with a covered patio, a built in outdoor kitchen, and comfortable patio furniture.

One reason we chose this park was because it has eight pickleball courts and an 18 hole executive golf course.  Of course the amenities included swimming pools, laundry, a restaurant and many planned activities.  Since we were only going to be here two weeks we did not make use of much except the pickleball courts.

Mike and Dianne kept us busy.  Dianne’s sisters were visiting so the girls took a architectural and historic tour of Old Palm Springs with a nice lunch. We dined with them several times either at their home or a restaurant.  They graciously included us in their family Super Bowl party. Go Chiefs! 

Mike and Dianne were married two weeks before we were and the men were in each other’s ceremonies.  We celebrated our 50th anniversary with them in Switzerland and Italy last August.  While in Italy we stayed in a lovely Villa in Tuscany with them and three other couples from La Quinta so we wanted to get the whole group together while we were here.  It was such a fun evening and yet we never thought to take a single picture!

Luxury Camping in the Desert

From one desert in AZ to another desert in CA, we enjoy this one more. Basically because we stayed in a commercial campground called The Springs in Borrego.  Anza Borrego State Park is California’s largest park and the city of Borrego Springs is right in the middle of it.

The Springs has an 18 hole golf course and the guests have access to the community’s eight pickleball courts. It is also very close to town so we ride our bikes around to view all the metal sculptures in Galleta Meadows and to go shopping.

One of our favorite things to do here is to take our cocktails out to Fonts Point to watch the sunset over the mountains. We never get tired of this view.

Our Last Stay in Quartzite

This may be our last time to stay out in the desert near Quartzite.  We enjoy it less every time.  Especially this year with the weather being so windy and cool. And the RV Show tent has less and less interesting booths and more and more ‘junk’ to sell.  

We rode our bikes into town almost every day.  We went to the tent a couple of times, checked out the junk tents nearby and also out on the highway. We toured the town on our bikes and walked into the desert for exercise. 

Our friends, Dwight and Sharon, are camped about a mile down the road from us for the winter having been there since November. We had a nice lunch with them and had intended to connect up again but we ran out of time.  We did find pickleball courts at a commercial campground and enjoyed playing one day.

Nothing much changes in this desert community and we didn’t take a single picture the entire 7 days.

Pleasant Harbor

We are camping on a site in Pleasant Harbor State Park overlooking Pleasant Lake and next to a commercial campground. Our friends John and Susanna from Missouri are staying for a month in Anthem and two other couples from Sedalia have homes in Cave Creek.

Our first outing was to watch the AFC playoff game at John and Susanna’s for a Chiefs win over the Bengals.  We also went hiking with them a couple of times, ate dinner with them and the folks in Cave Creek and I spent a morning with a former Sedalian, Beth, at a small Farmer’s Market nearby.

It felt like a very busy week.

More to do in Tucson

We connected again with our friends Judy & Tom from Sedalia and went out to dinner a couple of times with them.

Then we had dinner one night at a restaurant called Locale Neighborhood. John made these reservations almost a month ago but it was worth the wait to dine on really good Italian food.

Before we leave Tucson I wanted to go to two highly rated tourist destinations - Mount Lemmon and the Pima Air and Space Museum.

Mount Lemmon towers over the Tucson valley.  It is over 9000 feet high with snow at the top. In fact, it had snowed so much two weeks before that there was still enough to keep the ski resort open.  We enjoyed the magnificent sights along the road and a nice restaurant at the top.

Then we visited the Pima Air and Space Museum, an all afternoon affair but very interesting. We explored several buildings full of planes.  Some were vintage WWI and WWII, some from Vietnam and some from more recent wars.  From small planes to giant commercial planes, from helicopters to fast jets, we saw it all.

How To Enjoy Tucson

This is the way we have explored the city and surrounding areas - by foot, by bike and by car. 

First one needs to keep an eye on the weather forecast.  If it’s going to be rainy, windy or cold you want to get in your car and drive around. One day we drove south to Green Valley and toured the Titan II Missile Silo.These nuclear weapons were put in place more as a deterrent to Russian aggression than as an actual weapon.  The missiles were three stories tall and were watched by four man teams 24 hours a day.  If a threat came from Russia, we were prepared to launch within minutes.  After the silos were closed, the missiles were removed and some were used to launch the Apollo rockets.

Other dreary days were spent looking for a meat market, checking out grocery stores or trying to find wood pellets for our new portable fire pit.  New Year’s Day was spent searching for an open BBQ restaurant or any kind of restaurant since I didn’t want to cook!

The occasional hot days were spent on our bicycles riding some of the numerous bike paths. One took us downtown, another out into the desert and another to a very expansive sports complex.

The cooler but sunny days were spent hiking in Saguaro National Park.  The East Park Tanque Trail was a steep trail that about did us in while the West Park was covered with saguaro cacti and has a more diverse selection of trails.  The Desert Winds trail was a flat desert walk while the Brown Mountain Trail took us up and across the mountain then down onto the desert floor.

And in between all these excursions we played pickle ball with our new friends from around the country - Canada, Iowa, Colorado and other cold states. 

Tucson Before Christmas

We arrived in Tucson on the 17th and fairly quickly made ourselves at home in the KOA Campground.  It’s a large campground with probably 200 sites, two swimming pools and hot tubs, weight room, two pickle ball courts and lots of planned activities for both adults and kids, plus a restaurant.  We explored the area around us while trying to find a nice grocery store and shopping.

Monday morning found us playing pickle ball and making new friends.  We also got together with friends from Sedalia, Tom and Judy, and had dinner together before walking through Christmas lights in the zoo.  It was a nice evening although a bit chilly.

The resort hosted a Christmas Eve pot luck dinner with ham, dessert and wine while everyone else provided some really nice side dishes.  We sat with our new neighbors, Bill and Tracy, and another couple and laughed a lot while sharing RVing stories and blunders.

Christmas Day was cool but sunny.  I enjoyed a church service in the morning and we watch a football game before preparing a nice steak dinner.  Of course we talked with all the family at some point during the day.  Merry Christmas!

A southwest Winter Trip

Hurricane Ian changed our plans for this winter.   Our spot at Fort Myers Beach was devastated and we chose not to add to confusion of rebuilding. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families in Sedalia then took part in as many Christmas activities as time would allow before heading to the Southwestern states in our RV.  We have hopes for a warm winter but it is not starting out that way.

We left home on December 10 and spent some time with our daughter and family in Norman OK. After driving in fog and rain for two days we finally drove into some sunshine in New Mexico but not the warm weather we had hoped for.

Roswell NM seemed like a good place to camp for a couple of days. Just a few miles from town is the Bottomless Lake State Park.  The Lakes are fed by springs so water is very cold.  It appears to be a popular spot in the summer.  But it’s winter, it’s chilly and it’s very windy.  What better time than to examine the UFO Museum and walk the city streets.