Saturday, April 30, 2011

Visiting the Grandbabies

April 19-26

rally and beaumont 015Beep beep, Nana and Papa are here!  We left the motorhome in Las Vegas and flew to Houston for a week to see the grands.  They are as active as we remembered and we had fun trying to catch up on all the fun we had missed.

Of course, Papa pooped out pretty fast as you can see after an active day at the beach along with the kids.

rally and beaumont 028

Cole 21 mos. is a waterbaby if he isn’t in the sprinkler he’s playing in the toliet ,never a dull moment here!!

rally and beaumont 020

We got to play Easter bunny and we colored eggs and hid them.  The kids had a ball and it was so funny to watch them, unfortunately they won’t stay this size long so we will visit as much as possible.  Mom and Dad are always glad to see us and sad when we leave, we keep them out of their hair for a week!   It was a week of chaos, but we loved every minute.

Back to Las Vegas for more of Nana and Papa’s kind of fun…jackpot!!!!!

Back to Pahrump for Rally

April 13-18

We are going back to Pahrump, Nv to attend a rally for people who have motorhomes like ours an Alfa. There were about 120 motorhomes that attended the rally.  We meet lots of new people and learned lots of new things. We stayed at Nevada Treasures RV Resort which was a real nice place.

We did a 4 wheel trip with the group into Death Valley through Titus Canyon on about 23 miles of backroad country and stopping in the canyon for a picnic lunch. The scenery was awesome.

rally and beaumont 002rally and beaumont 007pahrump alfa rally 040

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Springtime in Cottonwood, Az

cottonwood,sedona, az 009cottonwood,sedona, az 013cottonwood,sedona, az 016

Spring has arrived and we are in Cottonwood, Az where the flowers are starting to bloom and trees are budding, temps have been in the high 70’s until yesterday.

cottonwood,sedona, az 026cottonwood,sedona, az 023cottonwood,sedona, az 032

The winds blew and the clouds moved in, temps dropped into the 30’s and the rain changed to snow in the mtns. surrounding us. So we drove up to Jerome an old ghost town and had dinner at the Haunted Hamburger and watched the snow fall. What fun, we drove back down the mountain and the snow was gone that’s the kind of snow I like.

cottonwood,sedona, az 018

Coffeepot rock in Sedona

cottonwood,sedona, az 006

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Strange housing

On another side trip to the town of Shoshone, Nv which is on the south boundary of Death Valley we came across a historic town by the name of Dublin.

death Valley 053 (640x480) death Valley 054 (640x480)

This little community was made up of different folks seeking a new life in Death Valley.  Some of them had been more well off than others but, they were all in the same boat by the time they had reached Death Valley.  The area had some springs for a water source and mud and rock washes and hills.  Seemed like a pretty good place to start a new town. So they made their homes in the sides of the mud hills and called that home.

death Valley 025

death Valley 027They even had a community outhouse a two-seater by the way.  Most of the cave homes had a fireplace and some had connecting rooms for the larger family.  One family had come here from England and had sold most of their belongings except for a sterling silver teapot, which they used every day to have tea time in front of their cave home.

death Valley 029Trash service wasn’t available so they just pitched everything into a pile in the front yard.  Some of the folks are buried across the road just up out of the wash a bit.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Death Valley, CA

We have moved to Pahrump, Nv for a week so, we took a day trip over to Death Valley. First we had to get out the old ‘35 and gas her up.


death Valley 024 (640x480) (2)death Valley 017 (640x480)


I bet this old girl never ever thought she would see those prices, gulp! Now we are ready to go.


Death Valley is one of those truly awesome sights the first time you see it, it’s sort of other worldly.

death Valley 023

The white stuff is salt. This section is known as Badwater and is almost 300 ft below sea level. Most of the Valley is much the same except for the Furnace Creek area in the center of the park. It is like an oasis in the desert.

death Valley 003 (640x480)death Valley 005

death Valley 007 (640x480)death Valley 016 (640x480)


This wonderful spot is the Furnace Creek Inn built back in the 1930’s and has been updated through the years into this oasis of a hotel. It was fun to walk the grounds of the old beautiful hotel, but pretty spendy to stay there so, we drove back to Pahrump