Several excursions in AZ

We've met some wonderful people this trip. In Mesa, we met three couples who own HitchHikers (same manufacturer as ours) and will be going on the same trip to Yellowstone in June that we're taking. We are anticipating approximately 40 or more HitchHiker owner couples will be there!

And we met this fun couple from Ontario, Canada. (They own a Titanium, not a HitchHiker.) We spent 3 weeks enjoying their company, taking day trips, sharing meals and refreshments at each other's trailers, etc. We look forward to seeing them again in the future! Here are Dennis and Donna with Gene when we took a drive to see a copper mine. Didn't get good pictures of the mine, but greatly enjoyed our day.
Gene was especially pleased to spot this red cardinal at Roper Lake State Park, near Safford, AZ:

At Cochise Terrace RV Park in Benson, AZ, this blooming cactus is beside our trailer:

We spent a day exploring Tombstone, AZ. What a fun little town. It's pet friendly, so Mr T explored the streets with us allowing folks to pet him and sniffing their pockets in hopes of treats. :-)

We didn't ride the stagecoach, but sure enjoyed watching it go by:

Guys like this are all over the town (well, there are "ladies like this" too!):

Every few minutes they shoot outlaws at this place. Gene wouldn't have lunch there, however. I think he must have been afraid of being mistaken for one of the bad guys!

Lots of outlaws in this place:

We are thoroughly enjoying the sun in AZ. As always, we are thinking of you and hoping you're doing well.

~ Bonnie, Gene and Mr T

Fun in the Sun

What a wonderful place Arizona is to spend the winter! Almost every day, there is a brilliant sunset:
We decided to add some "ornaments" to our camp site: This is our solar-powered hummingbird. It lights up dust 'til dawn right outside our trailer door:

We also added a bird feeder to our site. Birds flock to everyone else's bird feeders in great quantities, but only a few ventured in to our camp site for a free meal. Wonder if they can "smell" Mr T? :-)

The quail are especially lovely. Of course, they're "ground" feeders.

They run like made when they think someone is near.

We saw several coyotes during our stay at Usery Mountain Regional Park, but I wasn't able to get any pictures of them. This bunny, however, was quite content to munch outside our back window:

A "desert parrot" (our very own made-up name) visited us. Gene was fortunate enough one morning to see a pair of these pretty birds.

We've moved on from the Mesa area and are currently at Roper Lake State Park (SE of Tucson). Today there is a terrific wind storm that is supposed to last through the night. It's heavy enough to rock the trailer, change some people's travel plans, blow lots of sand around, and make it unpleasant to be outside. [Even Mr T doesn't want to go outside for a walk today!] We'll begin exploring the lake and surrounding area tomorrow. And of course, we'll take lots of pictures! :-)

By the way, we met some very nice Canadians (Dennis & Donna) while we were at Usery Mountain park. They discovered this Roper Lake State Park and told us about it. Since we had reached the limit of our allowable stay at Usery, we decided to visit Roper Lake. Dennis & Donna are parked a few camp sites down the "road" from us.

Hope this finds each of you well. We look forward to hearing from you.

~ Bonnie, Gene and Mr T

2009 Winter Trip Begins

Before I share with you some travel news, I would like to send our deepest condolences to our daughter-in-law, Jennifer, for the loss of her wonderful mother. We are deeply saddened by this loss.
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We left home to travel south on Wednesday, January 14, 2009. Yes, Heidi's 40th birthday! We celebrated with her, Scott, Andrew and Lauren the previous Saturday.

After our first night at the Seven Feathers Casino RV Park, with great steak dinners at the Casino, we headed south to Sacramento. We spent 5 nights at Sacramento's Cal Expo RV Park, visiting with Gene's mom, and our friends Charlie & Sally Butts.

We then headed south, bypassing the Orange County area until we head home so that we are able to meet our new grandson who is due February 20. We spent a couple of nights at one of our favorite spots: Orange Grove RV Park outside Bakersfield, CA.

We visited friends Lyle Sparks, and Darryl & Helen Zucker in Palm Desert. Lyle treated us to a couple of lovely meals at the Country Club (Sunday brunch, and Wednesday dinner buffet). Instead of staying in town, we camped at Lake Cahuilla, about a 45 minute drive from them. Lake Cahuilla is a County Park and was a great place to stay. We'll keep it on our list for next time! Here is a view from our trailer.
We enjoyed having Darryl & Helen join us for a BBQ and evening of visiting at our trailer. Mr T enjoyed their visit, too!

On to Brenda, AZ (about 20 minutes from Quartzsite) where we spent 5 nights at Black Rock Village in a berg called Brenda. Even had a nice prime rib dinner at their cafe'. We explored the desert and enjoyed the sun. In fact, we've had great weather this entire trip so far. There's a cattle corral and loading chute in the desert near the RV Park, so of course I had to explore it a bit.

Also behind the RV Park, there is a "desert golf" course. You can't actually "see" it. You have to look for flags and hit your ball in that general direction. We're told people lose lots and lots of ball out there!

Some desert flowers:

As I write this, we are camped at Usery Mountain Regional Park just NE of Mesa, AZ. Lovely, lovely desert park. More gorgeous weather to enjoy. Some fun owners of HitchHiker trailers (different models than ours) to meet and visit with. We've done some exploring, some hiking, had our first-of-the-trip Mexican lunch, and lots of other great food. And lots and lots of sun! :-) These views are from our trailer and camp site. This mountain has a 'formal' name, but is also known as Scarface. The sun and moon come up just to the right of this mountain. :-) Took this picture from the trailer door.

As you look at the Saguarro cactus (the tall ones), remember that they have to be 60 to 70 years old before they grow arms. This desert is just lovely!

Sunsets and sunrises are gorgeous!

We drove to the community of Fountain Hills to check out another county park. Fountain Hills is really a lovely place. This is a picture of their fountain, which is in the middle of a man-made lake, which is in the middle of their town park. Really stunning.

We hope you've enjoyed these pictures. We've sure enjoyed taking them. We will most likely be here at Usery Mountain for a while. I'll post more photos in a separate entry.

Please keep in touch while we're traveling. We're checking e-mail regularly, as well as the messages on the home phone. Cell phone is on all the time!

~ Bonnie, Gene and Mr T

Visits

While we were parked in Bakersfield, CA, we drove to Lancaster (160 mile round trip) to visit niece, Jenny and her husband, Bob. Had a great visit and a nice Chinese lunch. Jenny is a cancer survivor and we're very proud of her strength and determination during her treatment. She'll be glad in April when she finishes with her two years' worth of treatments! Yeah, Jenny! She and a close friend will be celebrating with a cruise and we look forward to seeing some pictures of her in Mexico.
From Bakersfield, we went to Lake Forest, in Orange County, to spend the week with Don, Jennifer, Steven, Matthew, Nathan, Anna and Grace. Last year we parked in their driveway, but this year HitchHiker doesn't quite fit in the driveway, so we're parked out front. We're thankful their neighbors are putting up with us.
All the children love Mr T (and Mr T loves all the children), but Anna and Grace seem the most fascinated with him. They're both very good with him, as he is with them.
While Jennifer and Matthew were away from home one day, Papa spent some special time with the rest of the children. The weather that day was almost 80 degrees, clear and sunny. :-)
After Anna had a change of clothes, everyone spent a little while in the living room, enjoying some quiet time. Papa is holding Anna with Steven next to him; Nathan is on the floor in front of Steven, and Grace is in her usual spot NEXT TO Mr T!
In my next update, I hope to be able to include some photos of Don, Jennifer and Matthew, all missing in the above photos.

Jennifer, as usual, is a fantastic hostess, feeding us whenever possible, so we are feeling very special. Thank you, Jennifer.

We hope each of you is doing well and look forward to hearing from you.

~ Bonnie, Gene and Mr T

Enjoyment on the Road

After a warm and wonderful send-off by Heidi, Scott, Andrew & Lauren, we headed south our first day as far as Canyonville, OR. We spent our first night on the road at the Seven Feathers Casino RV Park. It was a very nice park and we wouldn't hesitate to return.

We ventured to the Casino for dinner via the Park's shuttle that picked us up and delivered us back directly to our site. :-)


The next morning, Nana decided to have a bowl of cereal for breakfast, only to find a rather startling visitor in her bowl!

Boy! I can tell you, Nana is going to get back at someone for THAT one! This lovely surprise is only one of many. Check out a few of the others that had been strategically hidden throughout our trailer. We came across them regularly for the next couple of weeks! There was a third white mouse I found during the THIRD week of the trip; we can't help but wonder if there are more. Believe me, Nana and Papa will have loads of fun getting our revenge once we get home.
:-)

Our second stop was at Eagle Point, OR, near Medford where we had a wonderful visit with our dear friends, Maggie Webster and Ruth Amesbury. We really must do that more often! (Sorry no pictures of this visit.)

Our next lengthy stay was in Sacramento, CA where we spent a week visiting Gene's folks (Grandma and Grandpa Cooper). Unfortunately, Grandma spent some time hospitalized while we were there, but it was short and she is home and doing OK, while undergoing some further testing to help determine the best way to stablize her blood pressure. (Sorry, no pictures of the grandparents either.)

While in Sacramento, we visited with Charlie & Sally Butts, Don & Sandy Doll, and was fortunate enough to celebrate Bill & Judy Rutherford's 50th wedding anniversary with them. Since Gene (and Charlie and Don) were in the wedding, we came away from the celebration with a lovely vase of flowers, and some warm memories.

From rainy Sacramento, we made it to SUNNY Bakersfield. Well, it did rain on us Super Bowl Sunday, but that was OK since we were watching the game. They get fewer than 6 inches of rain here each year! We camped literally in an orange orchard. This place was so enjoyable, we extended our stay and just hung out for a while. The oranges are available for picking, but many guests pick so many that the trees were getting low on oranges. We did get several really good ones, though, and thoroughly enjoyed them. This is another place we'll plan to return to.

As you can see by the above picture, our site was perfect. :-)

Our next destination is Orange County where we will visit Don, Jennifer and family, and of course dear friends like Colleen Sterner and Jim Merrill.

We hope each of you is well. We are thoroughly enjoying our trip. We're (all three of us) healthy, happy, and enjoying life in the sun!

Please keep in touch - often!

~ Bonnie, Gene and Mr T

Road Trip 2008

Greetings from the chilly Pacific Northwest! Gene, Bonnie & Mr. T took off this morning for their 2008 adventure in their new HitchHikerII.

As usual, Gene and Bonnie made sure to pack the essentials...

along with a few "surprises"! (Andrew - 11)

We can't tell you what else they might find... (Lauren - 8)

Even Mr. T got a new surprise for the trip - it's a little gorilla that make gorilla screeching noises.

Saying goodbye was almost as big a production as packing the HitchHikerII with the final items.

Hugs from the grandkids...I wonder if Papa is at all suspicious. That looks like a pretty strong hug!!
Ready to roll...
Have fun, Nana and Papa!! We'll miss you!!
Heidi, Scott, Andrew, Lauren, Molly, Odell, Kirby, Kelsie and Fishies

Farragut State Park, Idaho

Our campsite at Farragut State Park in NW Idaho (about 30 miles NE of Coeur d' Alene). Lovely place! Campsites are very private, and there were very few other campers at the park while we were there. Just perfect!
Farragut was a Naval Training Station during World War II. Grandpa Cooper (Gene's dad) was stationed here for Boot Camp in early 1944. Gene loved touring the park and imagining his dad here. In this photo Gene is standing by a new memorial dedicated to those who trained and served. Notice the "gold" head, and check out the photo below!
This is a close up of the back side of the memorial's head: comprised of faces! Really quite remarkable!
During an annual reunion of survivors in 2006 (the last "formal" reunion), there was a ceremony dedicating this memorial.
The memorial is positioned near the Museum, which is housed in the Brig. I have no interior shots of the museum to share, but it is full of items donated by those who served: pictures, newspaper & magazine articles, plaques, uniforms, and much more. Most of the original records were lost in a warehouse fire, so records are not complete, though they are receiving donations regularly.
We got in some nice bike rides throughout the park.
This water tower was most likely used for training purposes.
The park has a large deer population. This photo was taken through the windshield! Mr T would really have liked to join these deer and made sure we knew it! When these deer hold their tails upright, they are bright white and look really long.
She stopped to check on us!

These two showed up out our back window while we were photographing the others through the windshield. :-) Don't they have interesting markings on their chests?
A view of the lake.
Mr T was really enjoying his off-leash play time! :-)
Tired, but he still had to make sure his toys were with him as he napped!
We loved Farragut State Park and plan to return.
From there, we moved on to Walla Walla, Washington where we spent a few days enjoying the town (& waiting out some weather conditions). We did some wine tasting, visiting with son-in-law Walt's parents (Pershing & Anne), and bought some goods at the Saturday Market. Walla Walla is also a place we plan to visit again!
The evening of Monday, October 22 should find us at home (weather permitting).
We hope you've enjoyed our Idaho trip. We sure have!
And yes, after more than a month in it, we thoroughly LOVE our new HitchHiker!

~ Bonnie, Gene and Mr T