Cochiti Lake, New Mexico

Yesterday we moved from the Hollywood Casino in San Felipe to the Corp of Engineer Cochiti Lake Campground.  We had Beth with us and we wanted her to be somewhere serene, take in some beauty and relax; she has a very stressful job. We accomplished all that.

Here are a couple of photos from our windows.

            

This area of the campground was redone last year and it sure is nice.  The Mossman’s and us stayed here last year but at the Tetilla Campground on the other side of the lake.  Cochiti Lake Campground is much nicer.  These campgrounds are  about 10 miles off of I-25 so you’d want to make sure you have all your necessary supplies because you certainly don’t want to have to go to town for a gallon of milk!

Beth did some walking and went down to the water to read, while I knitted another Swiffer Cover….yes, still in red and purple.  Jim tinkered. It was very relaxing.  Jim cooked up a wonderful dinner of salmon, baked potatoes and fresh asparagus (on sale for $1.98/pound).

We finished the evening watching Dancing with the Stars, NCIS (yes, both going back and forth) and the new Body of Proof with Dana Delaney (it was good).

This morning Beth woke up early and is down by the water watching the sunrise. Soon we’ll breakdown and take her back home and we’ll continue north to Alamosa, Colorado….we’ll be “home” for dinner.  Oh, El Charro here we come for some good Mexican food tonight!!!!!!

Remember, you are loved.

Day with the family-Santa Fe, NM

We spent a wonderful day with our family in Santa Fe.  We started with breakfast at Beth’s with the leftover quiche and strawberries. 

She also made us a delicious smoothie that gave me so much energy, I was really surprised!  The ingredients sound weird together, but tasted great.  In the blender she put a cup of kale, a carrot, a few strawberries, a handful of blueberries, and a banana with cold water and gave it a whirl.  OMG, all the fruits masked the taste of the kale and it was actually sweet.  About 10 minutes later I got such a surge of energy….like nothing I have felt before.  Beth said she found you can combine any two vegetables and three fruits and get the same natural “kick” of energy.  Sometimes she adds an egg to make it frothy or yogurt for more body.  I do make my own yogurt for about 84 cents per quart…now I think I may be buying a blender to chew up kale and carrots to make energizing smoothies.

We went grocery shopping for dinner then went back to our rig to make potato salad and cole slaw.  Going to Christine’s house we watched the movie “Mask” while Jim grilled chicken.  The daughters reminded me that I brought them to the theatre to see Mask back in 1985. That brought up lots of memories of their growing up years that were fun to recall.

We are moving over to a nearby Corp of Engineer for a couple of days.  This will give Beth a change of scenery for a while and time to relax. We will then continue on our travels to Colorado.

Remember, you are loved.

Albuquerque Zoo

We started out our day with our daughter, Beth, making breakfast for us at her apartment. She made her dad proud with the biscuits and sausage gravy she had. Then she made a nice veggie quiche with a crescent roll crust.  The fresh strawberries were sweet and a beautiful addition.

We spent a wonderful day at the zoo.  We our daughters to this zoo 28 years ago so it was really fun to return, this time with the addition of our granddaughter along with our daughters. Here is Alyssa, Christine and Beth.

The weather was perfect with temps in the high 60s with a slight breeze.  This is a very good zoo and well laid out, so it was a treat to spend two hours walking out and having fun together.  both our daughters have great senses of humor and are always kidding around so there was a lot of smiling and laughter going on.

Most of the animals were sleeping, but at least they were out in the open where we could see them.

A couple of photos came out especially nice

It was a great day together and one we will long remember.  Remember, you are loved.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We left Amarillo, Texas, yesterday morning after this magnificent sunrise

Going down the road we saw the famous Big Texan Restaurant where they give you a free 72 oz. steak if you can finish it….ah, you have to pay for the steak a head of time and IF you finish it they give you a refund.  There is Live Cam on all the time so you can check in to see if anyone is taking the challenge.

The park map had an advertiser that got our attention.  It was for Blue Beacon Truck Wash.  Our rig was sooo dirty. It hadn’t been washed since December in Campbellsville.  Every campground we had been in wouldn’t allow rig washing or the weather was so cold Jim didn’t want to be outside doing it.  So we decided now was the time to do it on our way out of Amarillo.

All clean and pretty now!

We got to San Felipe Hollywood Casino about 2:00.  It’s about half way between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.  They have a nice RV Park with electric on the sites with water and dump station available.

After getting set up we drove into Santa Fe to see the family.  We hadn’t seen our great-granddaughter since last she was two months old, so at 16 month old now she has grown and changed from a babe in arms to a toddler.  We brought in the large bag of Mardi Gras beads and she had a great time with those.

Daughters, Christine and Beth

Granddaughter, Alyssa with her niece, Amity

We went out to a soup and salad bar for dinner and let the daughters taste our “Apple Pie” - the shine version.  It was a hit with them!

As we left Amity finally decided Jim and I were too bad and allowed us to pick her up.  I think this was a nice picture.

Remember, you are loved.

Amarillo, Texas

Made it to Amarillo in six hours, so that is pretty good.  We are staying as Passport America members at Amarillo Ranch RV Park right off I-40.  It’s a very, very nice RV park with a lot of amenities like indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, etc.  Pretty fancy.

Had an early dinner at Golden Corral.  I got to stop eating there - or at any buffet.  Luckily it was Friday and also being Lent there was a lot of fish and good selection of vegetables.  I just eat too much at buffet.

We needed to go get milk after dinner, so we were happy to hear a neighbor diner mention that Braum’s had the best milk.  Excitedly, we asked where was the closest Braum’s store.  We were introduced to Braum’s while in Coffeyville, Kansas, working for amazon.com.  They have their own dairies, farms, ranches, stores, bakeries, processing plants and delivery trucks.  They are the only ice cream producers who milk their own cows!  Because there isn’t any middle man their prices are very low.  All their 270 stores are within 300 miles from their dairy in Tuttle, Oklahoma. 

I don’t know what they feed their cows but their milk products taste soooo good!  It’s like I remember milk tasting when I was a kid.  Jim and I both drank the milk when we got home and both remarked the 2% tasted almost like cream!  We happily bought their cheese, dips, butter and milk.  If you ever come across a Braum’s in your travels, do yourself a favor and stop by and stock up.

The RV park has free cable so we have like 72 stations to watch tonight.  So I think I’ll sit back watch a little telly and knit up another Swiffer Cover.

Remember, you are loved.

Interesting e-Book article

I keep track of e-Book deals on Kindle Nation Daily.  I get an email every day with e-books on sale for a short period of time.  So I get a normally priced e-book for 99 cents to $2.99 instead of $7.99 to $12.99.

The other day there was a very interesting article entitled Some Bestselling Kindle Authors Weigh In on the Kindle Revolution: Barry Eisler, Joe Konrath, Amanda Hocking, and John Locke.  Barry Eisler turned down a two book, half-million dollar St. Martin’s Press deal in order to publish directly himself via Kindle.  The article talks about the changes in publishing being required now because of the popularity of e-books.  I found it fascinating reading.

I highly recommend you read this article if you are intrigued, as I am, about e-books as the new way of being published.

Remember, you are loved.

Dallas, TX

Yesterday, we left Mill Creek COE Campground around 9 a.m. saying a sad “goodbye” to our “bestest” buddies, Jim and Linda.  Linda didn’t want her picture taken so early in the morning, so that’s her waving goodbye behind her arms….cute, Linda!

Had an uneventful trip….which is the way we like it…across I-20.  On the way we saw this sporty looking car on the freeway.  Isn’t that a hoot?

One of the places we stopped for gas was Kyle’s Quick Stop that had a laundromat  as part of the building.  It also had a Sonic menu right there in the gas up area.  Never saw that before.  Do you think if you ordered while filling up the tank they would bring out the food to you?  Pretty convenient, if you ask me.

About 2:30 we came to Dallas.  Not sure if this is Dallas proper, or outskirts as we took I-35 north off of I-20.

We drove up US 287 to Sunset, Texas and are staying at the Passport America campground, Sunset RV Park.  For $12.50 at half-price it’s not bad.  For overnight we don’t really care.  Can get three channels on the batwing so can watch national news and America Idol, so we’re all set.  Oh, and Jim and Linda gave us some leftovers from the delicious dinner Jim made last night of meatballs in a spicy brown gravy and baked buttered and boiled potatoes….yummy!!! So I don’t even have to cook dinner….life is good!

See you tomorrow when we drive to Amarillo.  Remember, you are loved!!!!

Port Arthur, Texas

Yesterday we took a drive south to Port Arthur, expecting to see a waterfront town with little boutique-y or tourist shops….NOT!!!

Here is what we found……

We were fascinated by the many, many oil refineries for miles and miles.  I had no idea there was such a concentration of oil refineries here. Hard to image all the work it was to build one of these things with all the tubing connected together….fascinating! 

Oh, and here is the bridge we had to cross…look at the steepness of that bridge in the distance!!!!  On the right is the scene from the top of the bridge.
    

We saw an oil tanker leaving the area with an empty belly and loved the seagull

        
We drove all the way downtown and it was shocking to see it empty, devastated by Hurricane Ike in 2008.  Everything was boarded up, windows blown out, etc.  Noticed no one is walking around.  The police department was active as was a transit authority, but nothing else.

As we drove down Sabine Pass we saw a lot of off shore oil drilling rigs, we assumed “beached” because there isn’t any use for them right now in the area. 

Couldn’t figure out what this was used for	Square things are jacks that go down in the water and anchor in the bottom
Rescue vehicles attached to side of these offshore oil rigs	Older rig

We had a good day seeing all this.  I can’t say I will ever return to Port Arthur but it was interesting to see all the oil refineries.  After seeing “Mr. Charlie” in Morgan City, LA we understood the offshore oil platforms and the function of all the parts.

The last couple of days we have had the pleasure of the company of Paula and Tom Nankivell, fellow Escapees and members of Class of 2007 (those of us who retired and hit the road as fulltime RVers).  We enjoyed happy hours and an evening campfire together.

We are off today heading west towards Colorado with a stop off in Santa Fe to see our daughters.  We leave our dearest friends, Jim and Linda Mossman, after traveling together for the last six months.  But it will only be a three month absence as they will be coming to Colorado in June to spend the summer with us.  That’s a good thing!!!

So I’m off to button down the rig and hit the road.  Remember, you are loved.