from Picacho thru Zion National Park 2016

Hi everyone,
 The "on the road" internet has been sooo slow I haven't tried to post since we left PPRV on Sunday. We said our goodbys on Saturday evening and left about 7:45 Sunday morning. Our tomato plants were loaded with green fruit so our friend and neighbor Donna is going to tend and eat them.  Will plant earlier next trip. Sad to leave but it's the right time. We drove north, up thru Flagstaff, AZ and on to Page. Had a problem with the camper's 12 volt system so bought a new battery that didn't make a difference. After settling into a campground for the nite, I found an unmapped fuse under the camper frame and replaced it. all was well then.  Left there on Monday am and drove across Glenn Canyon Dam.

We drove to Kanab,UT by a round about route but made it to Zion River RV resort. Beautiful park with green grass and actual trees.

 Hillbilly trailer hooked to a expensive motor coach

you can see for hundreds of miles

Yesterday we drove to the Zion NP thru a small town of Springdale just to check out the scene and how to get there. The NP  parking was full and it was late afternoon so we just stopped and wandered around town.  Had a late lunch at the Flying Monkey wood fired grill. It was great food. came back and walked the rv park and relaxed. We wanted to get into the park before it got busy so we got there by 7am. the information and visitor center was closed but the shuttle was running so we to it the whole length of the line, got off and walked to the "narrows".  This is where you have to walk in the water between canyon walls that are just feet apart and hundreds of feet high. there was a sign saying not to go into the Narrows as there might be high waters. as we found out later, the water temps were 49 degrees.  we took the shuttle back a stop and hiked another short easy trail and saw more wonders of this place. we stopped at various points along the shuttle route and took pictures and kept commenting just how big it is and how different than any other place we have been it is.

 note the climber on the facewall

Back into the park just sitting and chatting with the neighbors.  Life is good!!!

Lake Havasu balloon fest

welcome,
 We are home from our trip to Lake Havasu.  What a great time with our friends Doug and Susanne Kennedy. We left Thursday morning about 930 and Doug drove. We went out thru the south west side of Phoenix thru Buckeye and up to Parker. Parker is a beautiful place right on the Colorado river with alot of very pretty RV parks. We stopped for lunch along the way anf a couple of times just to streach our legs. It took almost 5 hours to get to the London Bridge Resort where we had reservations. A very nice place right next to the London bridge. We had a two bedroom suite with a small balcony. We contacted Mike and Becky Fleury, our Balloon pilot and his wife, and agreed to meet them for dinner. They showed us where we were to go in the morning to meet for the launching and then we had a very nice meal right beside the bridge and water. Friday was to windy to fly so the 60-70 balloons that were there couldn't fly. They did inflate a couple on tether (FlurDeTucson)  Mikes outfit was one, but the winds wouldn't cooperate so we took it down. There were tons of concession stands just like a fair so we walked arond, ate, listened to music, ate, walked and just had a nice day in the sun. The evening launchs were all cancelled due to high winds so Doug, Susanne, Linda and I went back to the hotel for a swim and hot tub soak. It was great. we walked across the parking lot and ate at Chile's and had great food and just a ball. we laughed so hard our ribs hurt. Mike called and said the launch was on for Friday morning so we quit early. We got to the launch site he had picked out and it was very close to the bridge instead of out on the island with most of the other folks. we had a great launch and Mike did a "splash and dash". that is where you fly the balloon over the river and just dip down and have the bottom of the basket just dip into the water and then climb fast to clear the bridge and hotels. Mike was the first of many to get it done. The crowd roared and there were lots of people taking pictures of it all.   the chase crew in two trucks followed him as best we could and even thought he might land in our hotel parking lot but he made it to over behind Chiles and dropped into the parking lot. we stayed there for a few minutes and checked wind and swapped riders. Susanne got to ride and the rest of us started the chase again. they flew at house top level waving and talking to the people that came out to watch from the ground. Mike found a quiet residential streen with no powerlines and came down right in the middle of the street. we all, and even neighbors helped ensure that the balloon didn't get hungup on any mailboxes. everything went well and when everything was loaded we all went back to the launch site(a dirt lot) and did the christening of the new flyers.  Champane and toast and pictures. neat day and lots of fun and tons of pictures. we had counted 38 balloons in the air at once, but I bet there were more. Quite a sight. Mike and Becky wanted us to stay and be involved that nite and fly on Saturday but the hotel room would have been over $400 for one nite so we couldn't stay.  we got packed up and headed home. good trip back but my legs were really cramping up an I could hardly walk by the time we got back. Great time and plan on doing it again next year.

 Linda and Susanne standing on London Bridge

 view from the front of our hotel

 filling the envelope

 looking inside

 John and I holding the head line

 landing in the street

now who would ever get their hair cut soooooooooo short.  well not this guy, at least I didn't think I was getting it this short. I had more hair at birth than I do now.

I have been crewing for the balloon alot and Linda has been in the hobby house alot. we are going with other crew folks to the owners for dinner and gathering tonite. We have got our reservations in Lake Havasu  for next Thursday and Friday.( we are going with Doug and Susanne for a ballooning festival. the Flureys(the ones we crew for) are taking their craft and along with others we hope to fly but at least have fun at the fairs. crafts and all the other things going own. there should be 30-40 balloons flying over London Bridge and we have been told it's a spectacular sight.
 life is very busy for us, the weather has been relatively cool but good sun.
 I have started trimming our Palm tree and plants, and am thinking about building a shed for all our collections. I do have some windows to caulk, as we noticed a couple seeping in the very heavy rain the other nite. 
Hope you all are enjoying life as Linda and I are.  she is out with a group doing a 10 mile hike around the "peak" to the old silver mine today.
stay well and stay in touch   the maintenance man

Christmas day 2015

we arrived to PPRV on Monday Dec 21st in the afternoon and we over joyed with our new home. I took pictures before we started dragging stuff in and making a mess. Friends showed up to assist and get us welcomed home.  the home is great! more storage than our house in Barrington. lots of windows, cabnets and more. The back year/patio is all set up with Cactus and plantings. we love it.  Dave and Virl took us down to the new canteena by the pool for diner. it is a nice little spot in the park to get quick food. it was great.  we took the RV mattress to use in the house for a few days. Tuesday we continued to unload the truck and camper into the house and get kind of organized. I played darts that evening, did ok but not great. had a good time. Linda is feeling alot better after having been sick the last few days. we did get to Casa Grande and got a real mattress that we really like, a vacuum and lots of other stuff. Our friend Jim O loaned us a kitchen table and others have been offering us items that we can use for the time being. I help pour a friends concrete driveway. I have spent quite a bit of time arranging for internet service to be installed, I decided to try Direct TV and they are coming early next week. last nite we had carolers show up and sing to us. it was fun. in  the evening we went to friends and just relaxed talking and reconnecting. today being Christmas most folks are hanging with family so Linda went for a walk and I have been writting a shopping list for Home Depot, I want to install a couple of outlets where I need them, arrange out little shed and a few more projects. At 2 pm we are going to the club house for Christmas dinner with lots of folks from the park. We didn't have alot of choise of what to take for our donation to the dinner so Linda has made a big Mac and Cheese .  Forgot to tell you, we have misplaced our camera  so I can post pictures or even take any more. I am sure it will turn up in here when we aren't looking for it. Merry Christmas to all.   Russ and Linda

Monday dec 21,2015

here we are again. Yesterday we drove from Odessa,TX to El Paso and got into Ft Bliss rv park where are friends Donna and Johnnie live. Linda had not been feeling very good all day but felt well enough to go out to eat with them. They took us to Texas Road House on base. Great food and a huge food court and shopping mall for the military. Came back and lLinda went right to bed at 630. she still doesn't feel very good but we are going to get ready and head to Picacho and be there's by early afternoon to get settled in. I think we just over did the long days and she is worn out. Might be a cold coming on. Hope when she's in her new home she will feel better. The time change is messing with us both. 2 hours different than home. Jess called yesterday evening to check on us, glad we have her to watch the homestead.  Going to go start readying to leave. Hugs and smiles

dec 19th 2015

Hi,
 Well we have stopped early for a change. so trying to get you all caught up.  we left Tuesday at 0500 and drove to Hershey,PA and parked in front of Linda's sons and hooked up thru his Christmas lights. Had a good time seeing the kids open their gifts , having supper, and then off to Gavin(grandsons) basketball game. back to the rig and a early nite. left abot 8am and drove to Bristol,TN(long day). nice park but we just needed supper and a place to sleep. we had made crockpot meals at home and made up meal packages with out vacuum sealer. just toss on in boiling water and presto a hot simple meal. left there at 0730 in the rain and drove across all of TN and stopped in North Little Rock,AK for the nite. another long haul. the weather had cleared and we found a city rv park right on the Arkansas river directly across from the Clinton Library. The gated park had access to a walking bridge that was all lite up with christmas colors that we could have walked across and gone to the Clinton stuff but it was to late. Great little park right in town. we have had a couple of issues with the truck alarm system going off and of course it did at 2:30 in the morning. I stepped to the rv door and pushed the remote button and it stopped , but I think everyone could see my truck lights flashing and the horn blowing until I got it to stop. well to bad, they don't know me anyway. we left the early and drove to Joey and Brenda Paradis's place in Mineola TX (about 80 miles east of Dallas). had a great diner with them. Brenda is a wonderful cook and the both are great hosts. wish we could have spent more time with them. let at 073 this morning and have stopped in Odessa, TX for the night. early day as I was getting tired and Linda said her legs were falling asleep. got hooked up and finely have a miniute to relax.  the piping in the camper bathroom has a bad fitting and when we hook up to park water it causes it to leak, so we hook up and get the waterheater filled and heated then shut off until nighttime, and then just leave towels on the floor to soak up the clean water. will fix it after we get to Picacho and moved into our new home. I trust that I will find time.  The Flury's (the hot air balloon folks have already called and need me on Tuesday AM but I said I really couldn't help unless it would cause then to not be able to fly and if that happened to call and I would go.  This is a real quick trip across the country and neither of us really want to try it this quickly again, as there is so much we still want to see and do. We had decided that we wanted to be in Picacho before Christmas so get settled in and get to the grocery store before Christmas. so the push is on. we leave here in the am and go to FT Bliss in Elpaso,TX for the night and see out friends Donna and Johnnie that we had so much fun with last year in AZ. They are there for a while as his work demands that he go differeent places for certian times. the on the PPRV on monday am.  will try and get more to this blog later this coming week.  hugs the speedy driver.

Well, we are pretty much set to go. last minute stuff in the morning. heading for Hersey, PA for an overnite with the family.  the weather is overcast and  a little rainy but still almost 50 degrees and they are predicting about the same for Tuesday.  Thanks to all the folks that have stopped by to say bye and to all of the house sitters.  Wishing you all a great warm winter.  Hugs and Smiles  "the driver"