Key West-3

After so many lovely balmy days Jan finally arrived in Key West. Tue we awoke to fog so thick that water and sky seemed to be one.  It burned off by mid-morning w/ temps in mid 70’s then engulfed us again around 5:00 with wind picking up and mercury falling.  Tom did another one of his infamous “secure the awning in driving rain” scenarios with an assist from Duncan.  Since then the water has not been serene nor have the trees been rustling—it’s choppy water and whooshing wind through the trees and low 60’s!  HELLO January!  It still beats sitting at home freezing our tootsies (among other things) off. 

There is such beauty in every season at every place in this great country if you stop and look around you.  As the fog was rolling back in I looked up and eight albatrosses were diving and riding the thermals—disappearing into the fog—reappearing—becoming ghostlike—then full color—then POOF—up—disappearing—not even leaving a hole in the fog.  They performed an absolutely beautiful wing dance for us.  I so wanted an encore so I could applaud and blow kisses and toss roses (actually they probably would prefer fish heads) –but their exit was silent and final.  So-so-beautiful!

Life is good my loves.  Live it—love it—enjoy it—treasure it because it is so fleeting, as we all know.

More later y’all!

Tee

P.S. Thank you—thank you—thank you to you who have taken time to respond to our ramblings.  We love hearing from you!

Key West-2

Drove on down the Keys on the 4th as planned. The further south, the higher the temperature rose—Yea! Tom has already sent a picture of the view from our site so I can’t tell you how heartbroken we are to have to stay here for two weeks. Ha! Every day we sit outside and read and watch kayaks, wave runners, sailboats and assorted other vessels pass by as PELICANS, gulls and an occasional osprey soar above and dive in to fish or just float around for a bit. Mostly it’s just the serenity of the water and the rustle of the trees from gentle tropical breezes. Yesterday we encountered two iguanas sunning themselves. They were about 3 feet long and quite dragonian looking so we said hello, took a picture and moved on!

We rediscovered our sweet Cuban restaurant—snapper as good as ever—and dined al fresco for brunch at a lovely café we enjoyed so much on our last visit. We’ve driven around town, walked a little of Duval St., but mostly have just enjoyed “being” and the warmth. Our neighbors from home arrive tomorrow for a week so we’ll pick up the pace—or not.

Here’s another picture you will appreciate—reminds me of one of our rallies with our motorhome chapter (Carolina Pelicans)—just a bunch of Pelicans sitting around doing nothing except maybe dozing every now and then.

More later—Life is Good!

Tee & Tom

Happy New Year

Day 1 of the New Year—1/1/11—found us loading the last of our “stuff” into the rig and hitting the road by 11 am. Made our way down to The Oaks at Point South, SC where we picked up our friend Duncan for our trip to Key West.

Day 2—down I-95 to Daytona Beach. We had spatters of rain off & on but nothing serious and shirt sleeve weather all the way.

Day 3—Another good warm weather day and clear skies. We decided to take the Florida Turnpike instead of I-95 from Ft. Pierce to Florida City because of traffic but not sure it made much difference. Holiday traffic has pretty much cleared out but the roads were FULL Sat & Sun. Spent the night in Florida City at Southern Comfort sitting outside at 6:00 pm in our shirt sleeves. Love it!

Day 4—Down US-1 to Key West and Sigsbee RV Park where we’ll be dry camping for hopefully no more than 2 weeks and then into full hookups. Take a gander at the view out of our front windscreen! Mallory Square will come later. Hope y’all are staying warm—we are!!!

Tom & Tee & Duncan

ROLLING ON WEST TO ARIZONA

Saturday Sep 13

Had a LONG day today—400 miles in 8 hrs—that’s a lot for us.  We descended from 7,000 feet in Santa Fe leaving the lovely adobe architecture, turning west on I-40 at Albuquerque.  Passed thru flat scrubby desert where you could see forever into a little more vegetation & watched real cowboys herding cattle.  We’ve already stood on the corner in Winslow, AZ—ditto for Meteor Crater—stopped for a break at one of the hundreds of trading posts and saw an original RV—the skeleton of a covered wagon—drove thru vast lava flows—saw lots of the Mother Road (Route 66)—which included falling down & fallen down buildings & rusted vehicles.  Sad sight!  I-40 has meant the demise of so many small towns & businesses—turned them into true ghost towns.  With all that said, this is still an awesome, beautiful country we live in!  Gradually ascended to 7,000 ft coming into Flagstaff, AZ where mountains & trees suddenly popped up from the desert floor and it’s much cooler.  We’ll be here for two full days.  More on that later!

tnt

OUR LAST DAY IN THE CITY DIFFERENT(SANTA FE)

Fri Sep 11

Our last day in Santa Fe was interesting.  We started out at the Tesuque Flea Market which was recommended as a “must do” although the lady at the Visitors Center described it as “snotty upscale”.  It was full of junk—not upscale junque—just plain old junk!  Then we found the pueblo which dates back to 1200 AD and all it amounted to was land with houses on it (a Pueblo is like a land grant) so we headed back to Old Town.

There was a Fiesta going on at the plaza and it was packed with people.  We found a cute little cafe on a side street and dined al fresco while watching a parade pass by.

We walked miles poking through shops and side stepping street people and beggars.  For such an artsy high priced town—the City Different (as it is referred to) is loaded with the homeless.  So—been there—done that—and didn’t even buy a T-shirt!  Now I’m going to go and soak my aching feet!

Later,

tnt

Couch Ranch & Santa Fe

Had another lovely visit with Chuck & Karla at Couch Ranch.  Karla serves the most beautiful, tastiest meals and seems to do it so effortlessly.  They’re both so sweet and thoughtful—I wish you all could meet them!

Chuck offered but Tom didn’t go flying this time because his wrist is getting worse and he didn’t want to risk hurting it more and not being able to do all he has to do with the RV.  He did, however, manage to get the GPS for the airplane reprogrammed.

Kansas has been so dry but Monday night we had 3 inches of rain dumped on us with a doozy of a thunderstorm.  We woke up about 3 am thinking we were under a rocket attack!  We waited until about 2 pm Tues to leave because we were afraid we might not make it up one of the hills.

Got into Santa Fe Wed pm just in time to get hooked up before we got drowned again!  Went to a really good Mexican cafe for dinner and went to Old Town today for lunch and browsing the plaza.

Tomorrow a driving-looking—perhaps shopping day.  Then off again on Sat bound for Flagstaff, AZ.

Tee

Saturday, September 5, 2009

We had another memorable filet at Cattlemen’s Cafe in Stockyard City (Oklahoma City).  It’s as if you’re chewing juicy, beefy, buttery meat that crosses your tongue like velvet!  We’ve never had steak like it anywhere in the world.  Okay—maybe the Kobe beef Tom had in Japan was a close second!

Since we had an appointment to have 4 new house batteries (ouch!) installed at Camping World we went to Classen’s Cafe for breakfast.  It was written up in “Road Food” but, in our opinion, was a bummer.  Then we followed a part of old Route 66 and rode & looked—not much left.

Made our way north into Kansas to the Couch Ranch today.  Chuck & Karla are at a football game 4 hours away but we were greeted by Garbo, the dog, who was pleased to see us.  She spent the afternoon in the motorhome with us.  I saw her following a critter across the yard—it was a mole—in the middle of the afternoon!  Anyway it’s now lying in repose shrouded in a WalMart bag in the garbage can after Tom whacked it with a shovel!

We’ll be

here a couple days then roll on west.  By the way—we’d love to hear from y’all!

Tee