Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Oh,  I miss the trick or treater's and all that left over candy!  Because we are in a over 55,  gated community, we see no little ghosts or goblins.   I was tempted to buy some candy, but I resisted the urge.   Yah  Dawn.  

 Did you know the custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.  I knew my grandpa was a fun loving guy.  

   Have a happy day.

Arizona State Fair

  Corn dogs, candy apples, fennel cakes, and pepper, onion and sausage    Yikes, where do we start?    I almost forgot, they had fried cheesecake on a stick too.. 

   Ok. I don't want you all drooling on the keyboard, so I won't tell you any more about the food.   They had lots of animals there and you could ride a number of them, including elephants and camels.  There were zebras, goats, barn animals, and a rat as big as a small dog.   Isn't that just so gross??  But there he was, a giant rat!  After seeing him, I was ready for a Margarita!  

 When we first got there we took a ride on the skyride to check out the scene from above, and get the layout of the land.  There was the usual agriculture center with all the fruits and veggies, flower building, midway games, pig races, and continuous entertainment on different stages around the park.  

 They had a cow sculptured out of 600 pounds of butter.  That's a lot of butter.  They also had other sculptures made from butter, a wolf and a cowboy.  Pretty cool.  

We walked out feet off, ate more than we should have, rode the carousel and enjoyed the friendship of our friends.  What more could we ask for?  

VIVI Awards

    Hey,   I thought I was happy yesterday, BUT today I'm ecstatic.  Why you ask?  Because I was nominated for a  VIVI 2005 award.  

 Thanks to Barb from  HEY! LET'S TALK , who nominated my journal.   Barb herself was nominated for two categories, MOST EMOTIONAL JOURNAL and MOST INSPIRATIONAL JOURNAL.

  If you have not checked out this impressive list, please take the time to do so.  You won't be disappointed and you have interesting reading as well. 

 You really have to commend the committeee and Patrick for giving  so much of their time for us.  

   VIVI Awards 2005  

Tombstone

Thursday Oct. 13th

Crazy Horse Saloon, daily gunfights, rattlesnake crafts, O. K. Corral, Boot Hill and the main reason for this visit to Tombstone is Big Nose Kate Saloon.  This is where I will get redemption for breaking Bob's Big Nose Kate  glass.  Praise God, they are still selling those damn  glasses.  Bob is a happy camper.   We had a nice lunch there and mission was accomplished.  

 We heard a sad but true story about Tombstone when we were there.  It seems they just finished building a beautiful new high school, but don't have enough money to finish the road into it.  So it sits unused.  

 Big Nose Kate's Saloon Main Page  

We also found a monastery on our way back from Tombstone that we checked out.  

 From the street all that could be seen was a large beautiful cross.   The Monastery's composition is unique. It is made up of 3 communities, the monks, the sisters of Holy Family Convent and satellite oblates who live in their own homes on the grounds. There is also a growing group of RVers, who come each year to assist the community in many ways. They have been nicknamed "The Holy Hoboes".  

 Living in community in a monastery is a simple way of life, living with the necessities of life but without excess frills. Having and using what is needed to maintain one's self. Living in community requires sharing prayers, household responsibilities, interests as well as assisting and supporting one another.  It is not an easy life, but to many it offers one a chance to enhance his or hers spirituality   The chapel and grounds are open to the public for personal time of prayer and solitude.

Palmos, Mexico

Tuesday the 11th

     We are in Deming N.M. and today visited Palomas, Mexico, about 30 miles from us.
  This is what they would call a one horse town in the olden days.  There is not much to see there, but a pharmacy, dentists, and The Pink Store.  Here you can shop, eat, drink and I suppose be merry.   This is a large trinket shop and a pretty good sized restaurant.   It's a depressing  little town with wide spread poverty.  Women and children begging or trying to sell you some small item as you walk by.  There is a heavy security visibility all carrying large size billy clubs.

Despite our lack of interest in Palomas we did enjoy the ride there.  The town on the border is Columbus.  Another poor town.  Check out their Police Station to see where we came up with that idea.

Along the way there was a lot of border patrols, some on horseback, some setting up inspection stations along the road.  When we were walking across the border, we saw a border patrol car releasing about 12 Mexicans back  into Mexico.  At the inspection station each car had to stop and were questioned about citizenship.  They also looked in the back seat. 

Along this road we also spoted farms growing watermellons and red chili peppers.    We also found a historical landmark along the road.  It stated that the last invasion of the U.S. by a foreign country was the Pancho Villa Raid in 1916.  He killed everyone in town and then burned it down.

Wednesday,  Oct. 12th

  Today we traveled to another SKP park in Benson, AZ. and will be here for only two nights and then on to Mesa for the winter.   We have been getting emails this week from from other snow birds who are flocking to Mesa. It will be a good winter!
We crossed over the continental divide today too.  Oh, and wait till you see the pictures of the Texas Caynon (in AZ)

The reason we stopped here instead of going right through is that several months ago I broke Bob's Big Nose Kate  drinking glass.  Well, excuse me, you would have thought I'd taken a knife to his heart.  Well, it's time to pay the fiddler, we have to go to Tombstone and get another one.

Better Late Than Never

I'm so glad to be able to get these pictures downloaded here.  They go with the entry below.        Take care all.  I'll be settleing in Arizona this Friday sometime.  See you all then.

Texas

TEXAS    Our adopted state

We left Louisiana at 7:30AM with a lovely rising sun peaking in our window.  We stopped for diesel at $3.20 a gallon.  Holy crap!  We hold 100 gallons. We traveled US 59 down to Livingston, TX, where we need to get our vehicles inspected and pick up our mail.  This is a secondary road, in very good condition.  We pass though a town named Bobo and Garrison, which advertises itself as the "biggest little town in Texas".  As we near Lufkin, we begin to see storm damage as many trees are down, roofs lifted off, tent campers in a church parking lot and abandoned cars along the road.  We also past a burned motorhome on the side of the road.  Diesel in Lufkin is up to $3.39 a gallon.  As we came into Livingston there again are all the signs of a major storm.  Our home park, Escapees,  have lost many trees and a few of then landed on  homes. Today, Tuesday, there are still over 5400 families that do not have electricity yet. 

Wednesday  Oct. 5th

   We are off to San Antonio today.  Still traveling on I-10.  We are seeing more signs stating "Don't Mess With Texas" or "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You".   We found that Texans are very proud of their state and them don't mind telling you what a great state it is.   We often tell them that we were not born there, but got there as soon as we could.  LOL   When we became full timers , we needed to declare a domicile for tax purposes.   We choose Texas as they acknowedge our existence  by making special rules applying only to us.  They welcome RV'ers with no state income tax, unlike Taxachusetts.  They also have a booklet giving step by step instructions to become a Texan.   They make exceptions for us when we are traveling and not in town for a jury duty.    The RV club that helps full timers is called The Escapee Club.  When we joined our membership number was 64227.  Membership now, five years later is 89,941, that's a lot of people running around this great country in an RV.

Thursday   Oct 6

On our way today to Fort Stockton.   We are hurring to get across Texas, it just seems to go on forever.  We are in what seems to be hill country.  Long dirt roads  off   the highway leading to heaven knows where.  The road are like ribbon candy going up and down endlessly.  It has started to rain, we really don't like driving in the rain.  We just drive a little slower.  A few miles further down the road we see two 18 wheelers completely on their sides.  This really slows us down.  Very sad.

Friday Oct 7th..

El Paso, Texas just across the Rio Grande River from Juarez, Mexico.   The Mexican influence in is imediately recognizable with the people, radio stations and language.   The sight at night from our front window looking over the river is lovely with all those lights.

We will be in until at least Sunday.  Next stop New Mexico.   We plan to be in Mesa Arizona by the 15th.   Called the phone company today.   Want it turned on the day before I get there.   YAH.

I was going to download some photos, but my connection is to slow.   Tomorrow we are moving on to New Mexico, maybe it will be a bit faster there.

Leaving Vicksburg

  We have been in Vicksburg for the last five days and have seen quite a bit of this small city.  The weather has been warm, but breezy.  Last night we were able to leave the windows open , love that. 

   There is a fine mixture here of the old and the new.  We were more interested in the old and enjoyed the historic downtown section with its specialty shops.   Some of the streets here are made with the old red bricks.

  No visit to Vicksburg would be complete without a ride through the Vicksburg National Military Park.   We found the park itself not very well cared for, grass needed cutting and  in general  the appearance was shabby.   Perhaps it has been let go as they are closing in two days until next April.  

 We are staying at the Isle of Capri RV Park.   This is a park that we have stay in before.  It is operated by the casino and is priced very reasonable.  They have phones connections at every site, which is a bonus for me, Yah, internet!   They also have a shuttle to take you to the front door of the casino. After making our  usual contributions, we went to the buffet, which I really came for.  On Friday nights it's seafood, including all the crab legs you can eat.  The only problem here is that Bob doesn't do crab legs, says it's to much work.  Well me on the other hand feel its worth the work.  So by the time I'm through with my plate of legs and ready to see what else is there, he has had a salad and a plate of food and looking for dessert.   Oh well, If that's all I have to complain about , I'll shut up.  

We also discovered the Riverside Murals , which we had not seen before.  The brochure says life like murals grace the waterfront wall: enjoy a peak into old Vicksburg, the steamboat era, the great bear hunt and African American history.   It was a beautifully way to view the city's history.

  Tomorrow, we are off to Louisiana and Monday we should be in Livingston, Texas . Y'll take care now.

SOX GOT EVEN

Ladies & Gentlemen, Boys & Girls, Children of all ages...

The Boston Herald Red Sox Forum proudly brings to you..
The 2004 Baseball Champions of the WOOOOOOORRRRRLLLLLLDDDD!!!!!

The Boston Red Sox!!!

and if you ain't DOWWWWNNNN with that, we've got 2 words for ya!!

Go Sox

SO........Get out all your lucky Sox hats and shirts, or lucky underware and put the whammy on those YANKS.