Moab, UT Tuesday July 2

We went to Dead Horse State Park and hiked. Like Grand Canyon but not as deep but almost as spectacular. No crowds. I wonder if people don't know about it. We saw almost more Germans, French and Asians than Americans. Beautiful. Hard to leave and quit looking at it. We went on to Canyonlands National Park but Noche can't hike on National Park trails so Noche and I sat in shade while f did a brief hike to see an arch.

Negro Bill Canyon

Moab, UT Monday July 1

We hiked to Negro Bill Canyon (really that's the name!). We hiked to an arch. We could see the arch in the distance with people on it who had rappelled up it. The path was sandy. It was like the trail to the sand slide in Big Bend.

Moab, UT

Moab, UT June 30

Gorgeous! Like Big Bend. We saw gorgeous sunset that turned everything red sitting by the RV. Morning brought spectacular sunrise as we were leaving to hike, hiked 4 miles through Carona Canyon. We found some places that allow dogs in trails. I even got up at 6 am to hike to avoid the heat!

Fire

Fire

Grand Junction, CO June 29

Drove to Grand Junction. Fires are all over the place in CO and we got detoured off the highway because of a fire. We could see smoke in distance and all over sky. But detour was beautiful scenic tour and except for dark smoke we could see over the horizon it was a nice trip. We were only 20 minutes from Grand Junction when we had to get off main highway so trip was lot longer than we planned on. Dead tired when we arrived

RV Problems

RV Problems

Fort Collins, CO Monday 25

Something is wrong with hitch so we had to have that worked on. Took a few days but people at hardware store were really helpful.

Sheridan and Habitat Friends

Sheridan, WY June 23
In Sheridan WY to see our Habitat friends from last year. KOA not as great. You can hear highway traffic. But lots of trees and family/dog friendly. Brian, staff person for Habitat, came to RV tonight for dinner. F made stew in his new crock pot. We really enjoyed the visit. The next night we got with the Thompsons. He is Sheridan Habitat president. We enjoyed seeing them again.

Devil's Tower

Devil's Tower June 22
The Devil's Tower KOA is beautiful and every site has a view of the Tower. Most have trees and lots of shade. Noche has a place to run. They asked if he was under "voice control." Fred said it was more like "cookie control." There are some Amish camped here in tents and they take a walk through the camp every night. We can hear the wind and cottonwoods rustling and lots of bird calls. We regret we didn't plan to stay here more than 2 nights. We took a hike around the base of the tower today. Some people were climbing it and they looked like ants from the path. The Tower and especially June are sacred to the Indians and climbers are asked to not climb the Tower in June in respect of Indian beliefs. Guess some don't care.

Rushmore

Rushmore, SD
June 17
Saw Rushmore today. Amazing! But really crowded and touristy. I decided I like natural sights and don't like crowds. Cranky old lady! We heard a ranger presentation about the building of Rushmore. Got to take a long walk in woods with Noche and let him off leash. He loved it.

This KOA is amazing. Several pools and water parks, hot tubs, horses for rent, restaurants. We loved walking through the camp last night after going to the hit tub watching all the families cooking over fires. Noche has made many new friends. There are a lot of local wineries so we bought wine to drink and share!

Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse , SD June 20
An image of Crazy Horse is being carved in a mountain close to Rushmore. It was started in 1947. The original sculptor has died but his wife and kids continue. It is much larger than Rushmore. Very impressive. Only the head has been completed. They plan to add his body riding a horse. Beautiful day so visibility was great. Nice museum and artist's home and studio on exhibit. They want to show "Indians have heroes, too." Took another long walk and Noche got to run. Something has gotten to pine trees and devastated forests here. So sad.

Successful Habitat

Habitat Ends
Sioux Falls , SDm
June 15
What a great 2 weeks. We went from only studs for walls to sheathing for outside walls and roof. Fun to see it become a house.

Besides the two women who are the home owners of one house the other home owner came and worked with us for three days. She is a young woman from Kenya with 6 children. So that house will have 4 bedrooms and two baths. Her husband has a job and they have been in Sioux Falls 7 years. It was great getting to know her and teach her construction skills. She is Muslim so wore her long robes and headress every day.She was in a refugee camps hen the US government relocated the family to Sioux Falls.

The last night all the volunteers ordered pizza and celebrated. It was a great group of people.

We rested and washed during the weekend and visited the church we have enjoyed while we were here.

Hard Work

Habitat Begins June 4
We began work on Habitat house today. The owners of the house came to work with us. It is 2 women partners who have a 4 year old son. Really nice and jumped right in and seemed to feel comfortable with all the old people. They are in their 20's. Both work at Texas Roadhouse here. it is a very nice group of volunteers but for the first time we have run onto some men who want to let you know how many homes they have built. Like one ups man ship. Interesting. We'll see how this plays out. There are several couples we really enjoy. All are our age and have RVs. About half are "full timers" (live in their RV). Weather is great at 82 and they keep talking about heat and F and I just laugh!
Habitat Build
June 6
We are really tired! I don't know why it's getting to us this year. We came thinking it would be cooler here in June but it was 90 today. We had a covered dish tonight at the RV site and invited the home owners and their son. Had a really nice time. There were a couple of Habitat people we hadn't really been enjoying but as we get to know them better we like them more. F made a spinach and blueberry salad that they polished off. I slept 12 hours last night. Feel better today but heat got to F.

Finally in Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls, SD June 2
We are camped at the Sioux Empire Fairgrounds in Sioux Falls. Very pretty and green but few trees and in path of top gun planes from some airbase, next to railroad track, and Renaissance Fair going on here this weekend. We went to see Men In Black 3 . F loved it. Last night there was a youth dance and gang fight afterwards. We didn't hear anything thanks to our fan. Noche found a dead squirrel, rolled over it, and carried it around n his mouth and wouldn't come to us. He smelled awful and was a bit better after a bath. He was so proud of his catch! Some of the other Habitat people came in today and one couple from Arizona is coming over tonight and combining our food. Weather has been cold enough we are using our electric blanket at night!

Gormans and Betty in KC May 30, 2012

Our next stop was KANSAS city to see more Little Rock friends, Betty Rozzell and Linda Geller and John Gorman. We parked our RV in their driveway like we did in Ft. Scott but stayed in the house. We got to see Betty and her sister, Joyce, several times. We got to see their daughters and grandchildren. Alex, their oldest grandchild and his girlfriend brought their puppy over and Noche got to have a play day. We met some good friends of Linda and John who came for dinner. We could understand why John and Linda enjoyed them so much. We went to the equanimity and it was beautiful, very serene with lots of natural space and walking trails. They had just installed several Chinese sculptures along the trail. I got some beautiful flower shots. We visited Weston, an historic town near KC. They had restored the downtown area and had car tours. We ate at an Irish restaurant. Of course we had to visit the historic cemetery since we were with Linda. Dates went back to 1700's. We spent a lot of time outside on their beautiful patio and backyard. We were very ready for some down time.

Visit with Manns

Manns in Ft Scott, KS 5-25-2012
We had a wonderful visit with Becki Balch Mann and her husband, Dean, in Ft. Scott, KS just south of Kansas City. We loved their beautiful home and their 1880 home on same property. We loved the Fort and reenactments and hearing cannons. Docents were dressed in period attire, even children. We ate downtown where most of the stores and storefronts have been renovated. Dean and Becki have renovated a three store building and had a restaurant in it for a while. They also have approval for a huge project on the River that runs through the town, including equestrian area, RV parking, hiking, access to river, parks, etc. we were very impressed with all they have done for this town. Becki and I had a great time reminiscing about Little Rock.

Oklahoma City

Denton to OK City 5-22-2012
Denton to ok city today and had dinner with 2 of Fred's cousins and his uncle. Great to see everyone. Wind is unbelievable even shakes the trailer

Had lunch with Fred's aunt, his fathers sister, Cynthia and Pat. So nice and gorgeous home. He was in oil and did well. They have a home in CO too.

Had dinner worth Kenny and Jean, Fred's cousin. He built displays for Ralph Lauren and lives in NY.

Denton 5-21-2012
Starting on trip to SD in Denton Luggenheims took up from when we last saw them. Saw F's cousin Lynette and her husband Len. They fixed crepes and brunch for us. We talked about selling our homes and then what are we going to do.

Had great visit with Sales. They have new home in senior neighborhood in Denton. Beautiful home and seem really happy.