Tucson, AZ
Dec. 15, 2005
Season's Greetings to all!!!
Well, here we go again! We went to see our Grandson in San Antonio...What a fun trip! We took Amtrak from Tucson to San Antonio. Now, that was an experience! First of all, the train was 5 hours late getting into Tucson; it was suppose to arrive at 2:20 ahoy; however we spent 5 long, hard hours on very hard benches in the train depot until it finally arrived at 7:20 a.m. We could have gotten a good nights sleep and still made the train had we known it was that late! At any rate, finally on the train; very tired, but still rarin' to go! We get to 12 miles west of Lordsburg, NM (for those of you who don't know where wonderful Lordsburg is, you haven't missed anything! It is in the middle of NOWHERE!) All of a sudden, the train comes to a grinding halt, with the announcement that the crew has ran out of running time. Apparently the crew can only operate the train for 12 hours at a time and they had officially ran out of time! Okay, so this is nice, we are really in the middle of nowhere...and no train crew! The new crew was coming out of El Paso, and they weren't there yet. We waited for almost 2 hours for the new crew to arrive, and finally we were on our way again. We arrived in San Antonio 8 hours late...I think this may be a new record for Amtrak! At any rate, we finally got our rental car and found our hotel and took a nice, long nap!
Danny arrived around 5:oo p.m. and we were sure happy to see him. He has grown up into a very nice, responsible young man and we are proud of him. We went to dinner and then he took us to a movie..we saw "Rent"...if you haven't seen it, go! It was really good.
The next day dawned a bit cloudy and cool, so we spent the morning shopping and then went downtown to the RiverCenter and took a boat ride on the river that goes through San Antonio. Very nice and we spent some time on the River Walk as well.
Sunday was rainy/misty and cool, but we went to the Alamo anyway. Very interesting place, filled with a lot of history. After that we decided to drive to Buda, Texas to the Cabelas store. Al wanted to nose around and Danny was amazed at how big it was! We stopped on the way back at the largest outlet mall I have ever seen! I just had to do some retail therapy there! If you are ever in or near San Marcos, TX, stop at this place...it has everything.
Monday, Danny had to work. He is in the Army and is getting ready to ship out to Germany for 2 years, but currently at Ft. Sam Houston. He is a medic and has just finished his training for optometry technician. We spent the day nosing around and then met up with Danny for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. We said our goodbyes to him that evening and got ready to brave Amtrak again in the morning. We were scheduled to leave at 5:40 a.m., but of course, we all know how that works. We were very surprised to arrive at the station and find the train already there! We got on and went to sleep even before it left. We had a fairly uneventful trip home, only arriving 4 hours late.
NOW, we are getting ready to leave again. We can't seem to stay home! We are leaving Sunday for Yuma, then on to California to see family and on the 23rd we fly to Hawaii for 16 days of paradise! We will be staying with friends in Honolulu for 3 days and then on the 26th we fly to Kona on the big island for two weeks. The first week we will have Jennifer, Mike and Bev: Ric, Janet, Ashley and Cammie; and friends the Waddicks join us mid week; the second week we have friends Rowland and Kathy with us. So we will be busy, but we will be warm and happy
and enjoying family and friends.
So until I post our next "blog" let us wish you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year....or Mele Kalikimaka and Hauoli Makahiki Hou!
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Wridin' the Wrails!
Dec. 1, 2005
11:40 A.M.
Somewhere in eastern Arizona (about 12 miles from Lordsburg, NM)
We are on our way to see Danny on Amtrak. We were scheduled to leave Tucson at 2:20 a.m. today….however, the train was 6 HOURS LATE arriving in Tucson. We had called at midnight and were told the train was running an hour late. We called again at 1:30 a.m. and got the same info, so we loaded up the car and took off for the train station in downtown Tucson. We got to the station at 2:45 and found a sign that read “Amtrak delayed until 4:45 a.m. due to Union Pacific freight traffic”. GREAT! We checked in our luggage and decided we would go have breakfast, or a cup of coffee, or something! After discovering NOTHING is open in downtown Tucson at this hour, we headed out to I-10 and found a Denny’s open. Not in the best part of town, but we didn’t have a choice. We had breakfast and finally at 4:00 a.m. we headed back the train station. We parked the car in the parking garage and walked the 2 blocks to the station. We sat down and waited. At 4:40 a.m. the station agent made an announcement that the train was delayed due to an emergency and would arrive at 5:55 a.m. GRRRR! Have you ever tried to sleep on a bench in a train station? They are harder than the ground….Jo tried and gave up! 5:55 came and went -- people were getting a little (?) irritated…finally the station agent made yet another announcement (by the way, he had the personality of a rock) that the train was delayed about 35 minutes out due to a broken rail on the line. GOOD GRIEF! Scheduled arrival of 7:30 a.m! WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN A DECENT NIGHTS SLELEP! The crowd was getting antsy…one young woman had been there since midnight with her two small children; after taking a bus from somewhere north of Tucson. FINALLY at 7:20 Amtrak arrives. We board and get to our “room”…we have a sleeper on the trip. Our room is about 4 feet wide, two seats facing each other..very cozy! I could see a lot of time being spent in the observation car by us! Since the room was not made up for sleeping, we went up to the dining car (the entire length of the train from where we are) and had breakfast again! We got about 3 miles from the station and the train had to stop on a siding to let 3 freights pass. I should tell you here, that freight trains have priority on the rails….and Union Pacific owns these rails. We also found out that the southern route for Amtrak is always slow…and at least 2 hours late! By now we are over 6 hours late. Finally we get rolling again. We go back to our “room” and try to figure out how we are going to sleep. The attendant comes by and told us that the room across from us was unoccupied, and gave the room to Jo to use until someone boards for it.
It is now noon and we are still stopped in the middle of NO WHERE! All I can see is sage brush, weeds and I-10. You will never guess why! Apparently the train crew can only operate the train in 12 hour shifts (government regulations) and this crew has ended its shift. We are sitting here waiting for a replacement crew.---I hope they aren’t coming by Amtrak…we will be here a long time!
11:40 A.M.
Somewhere in eastern Arizona (about 12 miles from Lordsburg, NM)
We are on our way to see Danny on Amtrak. We were scheduled to leave Tucson at 2:20 a.m. today….however, the train was 6 HOURS LATE arriving in Tucson. We had called at midnight and were told the train was running an hour late. We called again at 1:30 a.m. and got the same info, so we loaded up the car and took off for the train station in downtown Tucson. We got to the station at 2:45 and found a sign that read “Amtrak delayed until 4:45 a.m. due to Union Pacific freight traffic”. GREAT! We checked in our luggage and decided we would go have breakfast, or a cup of coffee, or something! After discovering NOTHING is open in downtown Tucson at this hour, we headed out to I-10 and found a Denny’s open. Not in the best part of town, but we didn’t have a choice. We had breakfast and finally at 4:00 a.m. we headed back the train station. We parked the car in the parking garage and walked the 2 blocks to the station. We sat down and waited. At 4:40 a.m. the station agent made an announcement that the train was delayed due to an emergency and would arrive at 5:55 a.m. GRRRR! Have you ever tried to sleep on a bench in a train station? They are harder than the ground….Jo tried and gave up! 5:55 came and went -- people were getting a little (?) irritated…finally the station agent made yet another announcement (by the way, he had the personality of a rock) that the train was delayed about 35 minutes out due to a broken rail on the line. GOOD GRIEF! Scheduled arrival of 7:30 a.m! WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN A DECENT NIGHTS SLELEP! The crowd was getting antsy…one young woman had been there since midnight with her two small children; after taking a bus from somewhere north of Tucson. FINALLY at 7:20 Amtrak arrives. We board and get to our “room”…we have a sleeper on the trip. Our room is about 4 feet wide, two seats facing each other..very cozy! I could see a lot of time being spent in the observation car by us! Since the room was not made up for sleeping, we went up to the dining car (the entire length of the train from where we are) and had breakfast again! We got about 3 miles from the station and the train had to stop on a siding to let 3 freights pass. I should tell you here, that freight trains have priority on the rails….and Union Pacific owns these rails. We also found out that the southern route for Amtrak is always slow…and at least 2 hours late! By now we are over 6 hours late. Finally we get rolling again. We go back to our “room” and try to figure out how we are going to sleep. The attendant comes by and told us that the room across from us was unoccupied, and gave the room to Jo to use until someone boards for it.
It is now noon and we are still stopped in the middle of NO WHERE! All I can see is sage brush, weeds and I-10. You will never guess why! Apparently the train crew can only operate the train in 12 hour shifts (government regulations) and this crew has ended its shift. We are sitting here waiting for a replacement crew.---I hope they aren’t coming by Amtrak…we will be here a long time!
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Home again, Gone again!
Nov. 30 Tucson, Az
AHHHHHHHHHHHH---home again!
We arrived back in Tucson on the 20th, just as planned. We spent a few wet, cold days in Seattle before heading south. We had a chance to visit with Ric and family; Sherrie and Denice as well as Jennifer. Al had a few doctor appointments to finish up so we didn't leave Seattle until the 12th. We sloshed our way south on I-5, finally running out of the rain in Medford, Oregon. We spent a day in Medford visiting Jo's sister and brother-in-law and niece and family. Had a good, but too short visit there. BUT we did find this odd, bright object in the sky there...I think they called it SUN!
We continued on down I-5, stopping in Chowchilla briefly to put flowers on Jo's parents grave; then on to Mojave, CA where we spent the night in a motel. After 7 nights in the camper with the two big dogs, two cats and us, we decided a night in a motel was called for. Now, let me tell you, downsizing from a 35 foot 5th wheel to the camper is a trial all in its self! We have finally gotten a system going when we are all inside the camper -- dogs on the bed, cats where ever they please, AL sitting at one end of the table and Jo at the other, or cooking, or doing dishes, etc. Bedtime and dogs get OFF the bed (Beau had a hard time accepting this concept!); cats where ever they want and us in the bed. And that even worked some of the time. One cold night Jo woke up wondering why she was so cold....well....BOTH dogs were in bed with us, Al was rolled up in the blanket and the cats had the rest of the covers. Needless to say, this was quickly corrected....Jo found herself another blanket and went back to sleep! No sense waking up everyone, right????
We made a stop in Lake Havasu to see friends and stayed at Billie and Dan's house there. What a nice house they have! We had a good visit with the Skidmores and got to see Billie and Dan briefly. Finally on Sunday, Nov. 20, fighting the wind (not fun in a big camper!!) we arrived home. The dogs and cats EXPLODED from the camper and ran around the place checking their territory out. We unloaded just what we needed for the night and decided to call it good. Our friends, Jude and Roger Hubbell had dinner waiting for us that night...what a great treat.
We have settled in, some what. Some of the boxes are unpacked, and some may never get unpacked...if they don't then guess we really didn't need whatever was in them! We are taking our time getting unpacked...we have all winter!
We leave tomorrow for San Antonio to go see our grandson Danny. Danny is in the Army and will be shipping out to Germany in February. Since we will be gone to Hawaii end of Dec to mid Jan we decided this was the only time slot to go see him. We are taking Amtrak this time....and looking foward to the train trip. We both really enjoy the train and seeing the country! We will be home on Dec. 6. The dogs are at Holly and Bruce's; the cats are staying home and we are packing once more and ready to go. The Wroamin' Wraspirs are on the wroad---er, wrails again! So until next time, we hope this finds you happy, healthy and living life the way you want.
The Wroamin' Wraspir's,
Al, Jo, Beau, Schuster, Jose and Juanito
AHHHHHHHHHHHH---home again!
We arrived back in Tucson on the 20th, just as planned. We spent a few wet, cold days in Seattle before heading south. We had a chance to visit with Ric and family; Sherrie and Denice as well as Jennifer. Al had a few doctor appointments to finish up so we didn't leave Seattle until the 12th. We sloshed our way south on I-5, finally running out of the rain in Medford, Oregon. We spent a day in Medford visiting Jo's sister and brother-in-law and niece and family. Had a good, but too short visit there. BUT we did find this odd, bright object in the sky there...I think they called it SUN!
We continued on down I-5, stopping in Chowchilla briefly to put flowers on Jo's parents grave; then on to Mojave, CA where we spent the night in a motel. After 7 nights in the camper with the two big dogs, two cats and us, we decided a night in a motel was called for. Now, let me tell you, downsizing from a 35 foot 5th wheel to the camper is a trial all in its self! We have finally gotten a system going when we are all inside the camper -- dogs on the bed, cats where ever they please, AL sitting at one end of the table and Jo at the other, or cooking, or doing dishes, etc. Bedtime and dogs get OFF the bed (Beau had a hard time accepting this concept!); cats where ever they want and us in the bed. And that even worked some of the time. One cold night Jo woke up wondering why she was so cold....well....BOTH dogs were in bed with us, Al was rolled up in the blanket and the cats had the rest of the covers. Needless to say, this was quickly corrected....Jo found herself another blanket and went back to sleep! No sense waking up everyone, right????
We made a stop in Lake Havasu to see friends and stayed at Billie and Dan's house there. What a nice house they have! We had a good visit with the Skidmores and got to see Billie and Dan briefly. Finally on Sunday, Nov. 20, fighting the wind (not fun in a big camper!!) we arrived home. The dogs and cats EXPLODED from the camper and ran around the place checking their territory out. We unloaded just what we needed for the night and decided to call it good. Our friends, Jude and Roger Hubbell had dinner waiting for us that night...what a great treat.
We have settled in, some what. Some of the boxes are unpacked, and some may never get unpacked...if they don't then guess we really didn't need whatever was in them! We are taking our time getting unpacked...we have all winter!
We leave tomorrow for San Antonio to go see our grandson Danny. Danny is in the Army and will be shipping out to Germany in February. Since we will be gone to Hawaii end of Dec to mid Jan we decided this was the only time slot to go see him. We are taking Amtrak this time....and looking foward to the train trip. We both really enjoy the train and seeing the country! We will be home on Dec. 6. The dogs are at Holly and Bruce's; the cats are staying home and we are packing once more and ready to go. The Wroamin' Wraspirs are on the wroad---er, wrails again! So until next time, we hope this finds you happy, healthy and living life the way you want.
The Wroamin' Wraspir's,
Al, Jo, Beau, Schuster, Jose and Juanito
Monday, November 07, 2005
We be headin' south - finally! Nov 8, 2005
Odessa, WA Nov. 7, 2005
FINALLY -- it is way past time to head south! Tomorrow we begin or annual migration south..to Tucson ultimately. We are way late this year as AL wanted to hunt this year. Elk hunting was cut a little short due to the heavy snow in the mountains, however, he had a good time. We have just about everything packed and ready to go. Packing this year was a little more challenging than it has been in the past. We usually travel in our 35 foot 5th wheel, but it is for sale in Moses Lake and we decided to leave it there over the winter and travel south in our 12 foot cab over camper! Now remember, to make things more interesting, we also have two very large poodle's and 2 cats that travel with us...plus Al and I in the camper....we will see how this works, or not! We are also pulling a cargo trailer with us to get all of our needed "stuff" to Tucson! Somehow we got all of this in the 5th wheel, and now we need a cargo trailer to haul it?
Our first scheduled stop is Seattle, tomorrow. That is if we can get there from here! I-90 is closed on Snoqualmie Pass due to a rock slide, which means we will have to go over Hwy 2; a narrow, two lane road. That should lengthen the trip somewhat! We will spend a couple of nights in Seattle; Al has a full day of doctor appointments on the 9th and we want to see the kids one more time before we leave. We are also meeting some good friends for dinner one night at a great Persian Restaurant in Redmond.
Our next stop will be Medford, OR to see Jo's sister and brother-in-law and niece and family. We plan on spending a day or so there. Then it is on to Lake Havasu, AZ to visit with Billie and Dan and see our friends Carl and Ruby Skidmore. Speaking of Billie and Dan, we want to brag a little here....Billie just was promoted to Lieutenant on the LA County Sheriff's Department. We now call her "LT Daughter"! She has really worked and studied hard for this promotion and we are very proud of her accomplishment. Okay, so I got off track a little here....our next stop after seeing them will be an overnight in Yuma to visit friends, and then into Tucson. We should be home by the 20th, or sooner.
Since our last travel log, we have been doing some traveling here and there. Jo had her 40th high school reunion in California in September. She enjoyed seeing some old friends and was amazed how good everyone looked....but she couldn't figure out how they got so old! :-) Of course, she hasn't gotten any older --HAHAHA! Seriously, she really enjoyed seeing her old school mates but was sad to see how many are no longer with us. Also on this trip we took in a wonderful concert by the Eagles at Staples Center. We have always wanted to see the Eagles in Concert and it was well worth it. They performed for 3 hours! We just proved the old folks can rock out -- just not for very long!
On this same trip, we moved Jo's Aunt from her apartment in California to Colorado Springs, CO so she is near her daughter, granddaughter and great-grand babies. She is in a nice assisted living arrangement not far from where her family lives and we feel much better knowing she is close to family that can take care of her. Jo's brother Johnny and her cousins Linda and Patty helped accomplish this move...which was no small feat! In 3 days we basically packed and moved her belongings. We gave most of her furniture away, and UPS shipped the rest. Thank you again Jack (Patty's husband) for your help.
As I sit and write this journal, I am looking out the window and it is truly WINTER here. There are NO LEAVES on the trees and it is cold, (34) gray and looks like snow. All we want to do is get out of here before that frozen white stuff starts to fall. Hope we make it! We will miss our friends and family here, but we are really looking forward to seeing our friends and family in Arizona! So, here we go....or here we come, which ever way you want to look at it. We are off! The Wroamin' Wraspirs are at it again!
We hope this finds you all happy and healthy and living life the way you want! Please drop us a line and let us know how you are doing and how you like our new way of sending out our travel journals.
Take care.....
"On the wroad again, just can't wait to get on the wroad again........."
THE WROAMIN' WRASPIRS
AL, JO, BEAU, SCHUSTER, JOSE AND JUANITO
FINALLY -- it is way past time to head south! Tomorrow we begin or annual migration south..to Tucson ultimately. We are way late this year as AL wanted to hunt this year. Elk hunting was cut a little short due to the heavy snow in the mountains, however, he had a good time. We have just about everything packed and ready to go. Packing this year was a little more challenging than it has been in the past. We usually travel in our 35 foot 5th wheel, but it is for sale in Moses Lake and we decided to leave it there over the winter and travel south in our 12 foot cab over camper! Now remember, to make things more interesting, we also have two very large poodle's and 2 cats that travel with us...plus Al and I in the camper....we will see how this works, or not! We are also pulling a cargo trailer with us to get all of our needed "stuff" to Tucson! Somehow we got all of this in the 5th wheel, and now we need a cargo trailer to haul it?
Our first scheduled stop is Seattle, tomorrow. That is if we can get there from here! I-90 is closed on Snoqualmie Pass due to a rock slide, which means we will have to go over Hwy 2; a narrow, two lane road. That should lengthen the trip somewhat! We will spend a couple of nights in Seattle; Al has a full day of doctor appointments on the 9th and we want to see the kids one more time before we leave. We are also meeting some good friends for dinner one night at a great Persian Restaurant in Redmond.
Our next stop will be Medford, OR to see Jo's sister and brother-in-law and niece and family. We plan on spending a day or so there. Then it is on to Lake Havasu, AZ to visit with Billie and Dan and see our friends Carl and Ruby Skidmore. Speaking of Billie and Dan, we want to brag a little here....Billie just was promoted to Lieutenant on the LA County Sheriff's Department. We now call her "LT Daughter"! She has really worked and studied hard for this promotion and we are very proud of her accomplishment. Okay, so I got off track a little here....our next stop after seeing them will be an overnight in Yuma to visit friends, and then into Tucson. We should be home by the 20th, or sooner.
Since our last travel log, we have been doing some traveling here and there. Jo had her 40th high school reunion in California in September. She enjoyed seeing some old friends and was amazed how good everyone looked....but she couldn't figure out how they got so old! :-) Of course, she hasn't gotten any older --HAHAHA! Seriously, she really enjoyed seeing her old school mates but was sad to see how many are no longer with us. Also on this trip we took in a wonderful concert by the Eagles at Staples Center. We have always wanted to see the Eagles in Concert and it was well worth it. They performed for 3 hours! We just proved the old folks can rock out -- just not for very long!
On this same trip, we moved Jo's Aunt from her apartment in California to Colorado Springs, CO so she is near her daughter, granddaughter and great-grand babies. She is in a nice assisted living arrangement not far from where her family lives and we feel much better knowing she is close to family that can take care of her. Jo's brother Johnny and her cousins Linda and Patty helped accomplish this move...which was no small feat! In 3 days we basically packed and moved her belongings. We gave most of her furniture away, and UPS shipped the rest. Thank you again Jack (Patty's husband) for your help.
As I sit and write this journal, I am looking out the window and it is truly WINTER here. There are NO LEAVES on the trees and it is cold, (34) gray and looks like snow. All we want to do is get out of here before that frozen white stuff starts to fall. Hope we make it! We will miss our friends and family here, but we are really looking forward to seeing our friends and family in Arizona! So, here we go....or here we come, which ever way you want to look at it. We are off! The Wroamin' Wraspirs are at it again!
We hope this finds you all happy and healthy and living life the way you want! Please drop us a line and let us know how you are doing and how you like our new way of sending out our travel journals.
Take care.....
"On the wroad again, just can't wait to get on the wroad again........."
THE WROAMIN' WRASPIRS
AL, JO, BEAU, SCHUSTER, JOSE AND JUANITO
Our First Blog
This is our first blog! We are trying something new and exciting!
We are retired and do a bit of traveling and I think this is the spot where we will post our travel journals in the future. That way, people who want to read where we are and what we are doing can; and for those poor soles who aren't really interested in what we are doing or where in the world we are, they can pass!
We have been traveling for the past 6 years -- usually in a 35 foot 5th wheel trailer. Accompanying us are our two large poodles, Beau and Schuster and our two cats, Jose and Juanito. We have managed to travel all 50 states in our trailer (well, okay, so we didn't take the trailer to Hawaii, but we were living in it when we went to Hawaii and came back, so we are counting Hawaii as "traveled to".) We spend our summers in Eastern Washington State and our winters in Tucson, Arizona. In between, we spend time in Alaska fishing and other places in the U.S. visiting our many friends and family.
I hope you enjoy our blogs.... here goes!
We are retired and do a bit of traveling and I think this is the spot where we will post our travel journals in the future. That way, people who want to read where we are and what we are doing can; and for those poor soles who aren't really interested in what we are doing or where in the world we are, they can pass!
We have been traveling for the past 6 years -- usually in a 35 foot 5th wheel trailer. Accompanying us are our two large poodles, Beau and Schuster and our two cats, Jose and Juanito. We have managed to travel all 50 states in our trailer (well, okay, so we didn't take the trailer to Hawaii, but we were living in it when we went to Hawaii and came back, so we are counting Hawaii as "traveled to".) We spend our summers in Eastern Washington State and our winters in Tucson, Arizona. In between, we spend time in Alaska fishing and other places in the U.S. visiting our many friends and family.
I hope you enjoy our blogs.... here goes!
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