RETIRED ON WHEELS: January 2009

BACK IN GRAPEVINE

Well, we are back at Grapevine in the Vinyards Camp Ground. We left Silver City on Friday and we arrived back in Grapevine on Sunday after nightly stops in Van Horn, TX and Weatherford, TX. We will be here until the end of March at which time we will be loading up the truck camper and heading to Alaska for the better part of the remainder of 2009.

Retirement is being looked at with great anticipation.

SILVER CITY, NM and Surrounding Area

We woke up this morning in Silver City, NM to a slight frost as the temperature went down to 29 last night.

Silver City is at an altitude of 6200 feet and came into existence when silver was discovered and silver mining is still a big part of the area. Prior to that it was the stomping grounds of the Apache Indians. Silver City’s other claim to fame is that Billy the Kid spent part of his youth here and was said to have been arrested twice while living in Silver City, both times for stealing. In addition to mining Silver City has developed an artist colony with a section of the downtown set up strictly for artists to retail their wares.

Downtown Silver City, NM

We went downtown for a coffee this morning before heading out to Whitewater Canyon and the famed Catwalk. The canyon has been worked so that people can follow the trails for about 1.1 miles in and the same back out. They have built a catwalk through parts of the canyon so that you can walk right inside the canyon with the water running under you. It was only a little over a 2 miles hike but it felt like it was ten miles as everything was up and down. It certainly got the heart rate going. Kathy kept asking me if I have paid the insurances premiums this month.

Even with the difficulty of the climb the scenery was spectacular. I have posted a bunch of pictures and just hope that they do justice to the actual beauty that was there.

After leaving the canyon we headed up the road to an official ghost town and it is called Mogollon. The drive to get there was a big part of the fun as it is 9 miles off Hwy 180 and the first 4 miles were fine. The last 5 however proved to be an adventure as it narrowed to one lane and climbed over the mountain and down the other side to reach Mogollon. We ran into a couple of other people and it was a tight squeeze getting by each other. I had to 4 wheel drive to turn around as I almost got stuck in the snow and mud.

When we pulled into town I realized that they knew my brother in law. There was a painting on the rock face just as you entered town that proclaimed it was “ Ricky Donny Time “ After having a quick look we headed back to Silver City and called it a day.

It's Ricky Donny Time in

Mogollon

LEAVING CASA GRANDE, AZ

We left Casa Grande this morning and after a 274 mile drive arrived in Silver City, NM. We plan to spend two nights here before continuing our return trip to Dallas. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day but it is going down to 29 degrees tonight and there was snow on the ground in places as we came into town.

Tuesday, January 6, 2009 was our last night in Casa Grande. Where has the time gone, we have been here 20 days and it just seems like yesterday we left Dallas to begin the trip here. However we have to say goodbye to

The Howies

and their children

The last day was spent golfing with Peg and Rick and the game todaythat day gave us a total of 7 golf games during our stay here. I do believe the final score was Rod 4, Rick 2 with 1 tie, but who's counting. ME. I left the best for last as I shot my lowest score today with a 40 front nine and a 44 back nine for a total of 84. Rick did have the lowest score of the series with an 83 on the day he shot par. He is the best.

We then finished off the day with a nice steak dinner ( Kathy had lamb ) which we cooked on Ricks BBQ with brickettes, no gas and I must say the steaks were great. Nothing beats the traditional old fashioned BBQ.

This morning Cliff and Gayle along with Peg and Rick showed up to see us off and to laugh at my travelling clothes. They obviously confussed me with someone who gave a hoot.

The Goodbye Crew

My sister is going to miss me.

But not as much as Ricky Donny will.

STILL IN CASA GRANDE, Jan 2, 2009

Happy New Years, okay belated Happy New Years.

We are still in Casa Grande enjoying the company as more family arrived, eating to much, playing a fair amount of golf and in general enjoying life.

We did not do much on New Years Eve but Kathy and I did manage to stay up until midnight and welcome in 2009. We then spent a lazy day on New Years just enjoying each others company.

My niece and Peggy's daughter arrived yesterday with her husband JP and her 2 kids, Alex and Beth. They will keep Granny pretty busy over the next week.

Also there was another siting of "Bellisbeerius " and I do believe " Son of Bellisbeeris " was with him. There were spotted on the horseshoe pits accompanied by a bunch of shiny silver cans.

The crew plans to go to the Mesa flea market tomorrow and then get in a little more golf before we have to leave on Wednesday. When we leave here we will be headed to Silver City, New Mexico for a two day lay over before heading back to Dallas.