Wednesday, September 13, 2023

2023 Winter & Spring Part II

One of the reasons to go to CA is that Yosemite National Park has been on my (Jean's) bucket list for a long time. Again, we were in the right place at the right time. The waterfalls in the park were "gushing" because of all of the winter snowfall melt.  In fact, one of the major highways through the park was closed due to snowfall (and remained that way through most of the summer). We arrived in the area on Tuesday, visited the park on Wednesday and on Thursday they announced that the park would be temporarily closed on Friday due to flooding in the Merced River. Talk about timing! 





I love this picture with the reflection of the waterfall in the river. 





As I have said many times before, pictures don't do it justice. Yosemite did not disappoint!

While in Tuolumne, we found an old railroad museum to visit. This is the fun of RV'ing. Hadn't planned on it but when we went it was a pleasant surprise. The museum houses old locomotives, including rhe one that was used it the "Petticoat Junction" TV show. 


Leaving CA, we traveled through the Sierra Nevada Mountains heading to Colorado. We frequently stay overnight in Walmart parking lots when we are traveling. It's not often that you can get a picture like this from a Walmart parking lot!


Spring blooms on the tree with snow capped mountains in the background. 

Colorado beckoned again. We had planned to go back when I had new knees so I could walk on the trails at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This year we did both the north and south rims.  
Unfortunately, the road to the bottom of the canyon was closed due to repairs. Black Canyon is like the Grand Canyon but on a smaller scale as you can see across the canyon to the other side. It is one of our favorite places. 


Trees growing out of the rocks!


Gunnison River running through the canyon. 


The beauty of CO is everywhere. We were located near Glenwood Springs. Again, in the right place at the right time. We were treated to red and green mountains. Locals told us that five years ago, they were all brown due to drought. Again, because of heavy winter snowfall, the drought was gone and the mountains were vibrant instead of drab. 


This is the creek that was gushing through our campground. 


We were sad to leave CO behind. There is so much to see there. We want to go to the Royal Gorge and to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. That's for another trip. 

I'm including this picture as part of our ongoing saga to see bears in the wild. Yes these are bears not in a zoo, but at a wildlife sanctuary. 


From CO we headed to MN for our annual trek to Mayo Clinic for checkups. I was supposed to have hip surgery. However, before we left CO I had an accident with my bike (tipping over on a gravel road). I got a nasty gash in my knee right next to the incision from my knee surgery. My surgery was postponed because of the open wound. When I could get it scheduled it interfered with the rest of our summer and fall plans so it has been put off for a year. 

We did get to see granddaughter Mira perform in "Anything Goes" at the Mankato Playhouse. She did a great job! (We're not biased at all.) After that the family met for a get together - this is the second year in a row it has rained. Fear not, the grands just played in the rain while the adults talked. 

Having missed the east coast contingent of the family in '22 due to my first knee replacement, we were excited to reconnect in person with Andy's kids in MD. We were able to enjoy the National Aquarium in Baltimore with Sam and grandson Brickell. (A good reminder that 3 year olds don't walk, they run.) 
Allison and I went to the Barbie movie since the guys didn't want to see it. A good time was had by all just being together. We enjoyed going out on Allison and Vince's boat with them. 

Now we are back in Red Bay for annual maintenance on the RV and a few upgrades as well. We are looking forward to fall, cooler weather and the Albuquerque Balloon Festival! 

2023 - Winter & Spring Part I

Winter 2023 saw us in the Phoenix area. This is the first time we had spent four months in one place. The park we stayed at was Sunrise RV Park in Apache Junction. It's close to Mesa with a bonus of some high school classmates in the area as well as my uncle and aunt. My second knee surgery was scheduled for early December. All went well and I recuperated nicely in the warm weather returning to aqua aerobics after 6 weeks and doing PT nearby. 

One of the excursions we took was to the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM). It is a fascinating place exploring the origin of musical instruments from all cultures. 





These are just a few of the photos from the museum. Truly a fascinating place for music lovers!

In March we moved to Tucson. One of the reasons for that was that we were attending the Escapade Rally at the Pima County Fairgrounds. 

We hadn't been to a RV rally for a while. We can always learn new things and we enjoy meeting other RV'ers. There is always something to talk about!

In Tucson I was also able to catch up with high school classmates Cheryl and Kathy. (Oops, forgot to take some pictures.)

Our next stops were Nevada and California. We'd been scheduled to go there in 2020 but then the pandemic hit and our plans were put on hold. Finally we were able to add the NV and CA stickers to our USA map. 

Before:


After:


That leaves NJ and CT as the only states in the lower 48 that we haven't stayed overnight in.

In CA we stopped in to see my brother Greg and wife Diane. Then we headed on to Greenfield where we were based for a month. It seems that we are lucky in being in places at the right time. After the harsh winter CA had (lots of snowfall and rain) this spring was designated a "superbloom" time because of all the moisture they'd had. We got to experience seeing lots of vibrant flowers.


These were alongside the road by a vineyard.


These poppies were in our campground. 

While in the area we did several side trips. One was to Monterey where we did a whale watching excursion. We also walked along the famous Cannery Row. 



Another excursion was to San Simeon to see the Hearst Castle. This rivals the Biltmore in NC. Too many pictures but here are a few: 



I am realizing that there is a lot more to cover and lots of pictures I want to include so I've decided to split this into two parts. Stay tuned!