Monday, December 9, 2013

 
 
 
 
                                      It's great to be with our daughters, Mindys husband
                                        grandchildren with another boy on the way in April

                                                                       
                                   Oh ya, about forgot the Cadillac Ranch just West of Amarillo
                                        And it was really good to see my Mom, Opal Brown
                                   We made it home for Thanksgiving, what a meal it was.
                                Another scene on the way home, dust storm in New Mexico
                                      Some of the mountains N/E of Mesa on our way home
                                           The Flapper and Doc's friends Gary and Debbie
                                            The Flapper and her Doctor at Halloween party
                                            Duck Dynasty at our Halloween Party in Mesa
                                                   Same sunset different picture, beautiful
                                                 Ya gotta love the sunsets in this RV Resort
                                              Shirley reading on the patio beside our home
                                                   Shirley next to our home in Mesa, AZ
Shirley between one of the three pools and the one of five jacuzzis 
 

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Sat.  Dec.7, 2013.  We have been in kansas/Missouri at mindy and rays for three weeks now.  Love being with the kiddos.  We have had a cold since we left Arizona.  I fell last sat and bruised a rib.  Very painful.  Spent last night with most of the Zook clan.  Sister Sharon not able to attend.  Joes wife deb was sick.  They didn't come either. Enjoyed visiting,eating and watching the 2 and 3,4 year olds.  Lots of laughs.  We will be back to mesa Az.  Around mid of Jan. Miss the weather their.
We've made several friends at the resort. We live in a Canadian part of, the resort I guess because we are surrounded by them.  They are some of the nicest people we've met in our travels. They are a lot of fun to be around and they really know how to make outsiders feel like we belong with them.
We also have become friends with a couple from Ohio that we spend quit a bit of time with.  Gary is also retired law enforcement.  They are full time rv'ers also.
Well we will try to be more diligent in keeping this blog updated but for now we need to do some Christmas shopping.
Later





Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Oct. 30, 2013 Daily life.

From Shirley;  Hi from warm, dry Mesa, AZ.  We are living just as normally as our readers.  Laundry, house cleaning on Monday and a little costume shopping .  Tai Chi for me on Tuesday.  Wed. carpets cleaned.  We have been so busy that we haven't taken any day trips lately.  Hope to go to Sonora next week.  We drive so much just going to grocery shop, church, out to eat, so we stay in the park as much as possible.  I have found my way to a scrapbooking store and JoAnn's.  Again lots of driving.  I volunteer in the camp library.  Jim  started volunteering in the kitchen today.  He's been real bored I think.  He'd never say so though.  I am looking forward to coming home around Nov. 22nd.  Our greetings and blessings on all of you.  Hope we can see those of you who read this blog. 

Saturday, October 19, 2013

October19


We have had a great week.  This is like a never ending vacation.  Monday we went to superstition mount.  It's not a pretty drive.  But there is the prettiest lake along the drive.  You can sit on a deck and watch the boats. Then we drove to Tortilla Flats, a little mining town where the lost Dutchman hung out
Saw my first Hells Angles.  They looked like three clean cut young men out for a nice bike ride.  Fro
Tortilla Flats we went  down the mountain and home.  The last part of the ride on the mountain is not very pretty.  We,ve made that ride before. Friday we went to the Arizona state fair.  What was the last time you saw a pot bellied pig a pigmy goat a miniature donkey and a wallaby.  The fair had a great petting zoo for the kids.  And have you ever been in an open air barn with hundreds of chickens and crowing roosters.  We've been their.  Thursday II went to a tea with a group of ladies at 1st church.  It was very nice and a real treat.  This group of ladies came in their favorite hats and best duds.  It was a special day.Today I'm nursing a migraine.  Jim's being nurse Jim.  Tonight we go to a park dinner and western dance.  These old folks are a hoot to watch.  They can really move around the dance floor.  Jim's friend Donna spent 3days with us before she traveled on to California.  We met a new couple across the street from us.  Joe and Candice. They were only here for 3days.  Joe has liver cancer.  He had a turn for the worst so they left to go be with family in California.  Pray for him.  That's our week.  Hope you've had a great week.  See you in about 4weeks.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

PS

How in the world did I forget to mention in my last installment that when we left Pagosa Springs we drove south to Santa Fe, NM.  What a great time we had here.  We even extended our stay another day so we could take it all in.  There are more places to eat in this town than we could ever hope to be in but I think we tried.  It was all good.  Shopping is the main thing on most peoples mind when they come to Santa Fe and for good reason.  Art of all kinds in available almost everywhere.  And Canyon road was a great adventure.  We spent most of one day just walking up one side of the street and than down the other, mossing into little building full of art of all kinds. 
After Santa Fe we were planning to spend a night in Albuquerque, NM and have dinner with some friend but they weren't  going to be in town so we drove on the Williams AZ, just west of Flagstaff.  We spent most of one day at the Grand Canyon.  The last time we were there it wasn't nearly as beautiful as it is now.  Just like us, the older it gets the more good looking it becomes. 
The next day, Sunday we drove to Mesa.  We  are planning to go back up I-17, the highway between Flagstaff and Mesa to visit Sedona.  We understand it's nearly a sin not to visit this area if we are close so we'll make that happen. 
OK, now we've been in Mesa a week.  We have put a lot of miles on the car and fill as if we are getting somewhat acclimated to the area.  We at least can now find our way back home.

For now, Later Friends

October 5, 2013

Well here we are, finally in Mesa, Az where we plan to spend most of the winter of 2013/2014. We arrived Sunday the 29th.  We will be going home sometime in mid November and returning to Mesa in mid January.  Maybe sooner if our daughter Mindy and her husband Ray get tired of us before the two months are up.
Sorry we haven't done a good job of keeping this blog up to date.  I could blame it google for having our email messed up for the last two weeks but that's not the real reason.  I could blame it on a number of other things but bottom line is we just didn't stay at it.  We've been having a great time in our travels.
From Mitchell's Corn Place we headed home and spent about two weeks with the kids.  It was great to be there for a short time but after only being gone for four weeks we were glad to be on the road when we left. 
We went to Hutchinson Kansas to visit Shirley's cousin, Calvin and his wife Jackie.  While there we also visited a dear old friend Jackie Tibbetts.  It was great to see her and see what she doing so well.
When we left Hutch we made our way to Pagosa Springs, Co. and stayed with Joe and Cathy Eck, some great friends from Olathe.  They moved to Pagosa about four years ago and built a great home on the eastern side of the town.  By now they have both retired and are in Overland Park making sure their second son's marriage goes as planned.  We have a great time in Paposa.  On Sat went to Durango to an art festival and had a great time.  Before we left Durango we ate at a really old hotel, can't think of the name of it.  We sat in the bar and while there, a young man turned around and started talking to me.  He had been in there a little too long but he was a really nice guy so we started up  a conversation.  Just barily into the conversation he admitted to being a little drunk and than proceeded to tell me that about a year ago he got arrested for DUI.  He said he sure wasn't going to go through that again.  I told him I had never been arrested for DUI but had arrested several for DUI.  This really caught him off guard and he sorted of stammered but than said "so you're a cop" and I answered with "retired".  He than started laughing and said something to the effect of all the people in this place you're probably the only cop in here and here I am spilling my guts to you about being arrested for DUI and here I am almost drunk.  We both laughed about it and introduced our selves.  His name is Ryan and he is a really nice guy.  I wish him a lot of luck cause he may need it.
While in Pagosa we had to have a little work done on the motorhome, the reservoir tank on the radiator broke and needed to be replace.  Not a biggie just one of those things that may happen.  I'm glad we purchased an extended warranty with the motorhome.
Well I'm going to try to put some pictures on here but will have to get off the lap top and on to the Ipad as that is where the pictures are.
Until next time, later friends.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Aug30. Today we are in Mitchell, so. Dakota.  We wouldn't be here accept Jim was kind enough to drive the 60miles out of our way for me to see the legendary,world famous corn palace.  It was all that and the orients favorite tourist trap today.  Understand we would be 60miles closer to Olathe if not for my tourist imagination.  We have set up camp for the night.
To bring our blog up to date.  Haven't had wifi forfir a few days.  So I will try to back track.
Aug.28 29 spent with Gary a friend of Jim's.  he comes home to Sharon,so.dakota every summer to harvest.  Jim spent his birthday,29th, on a rather large combine loving every moment.  I nursed a migraine.
When we left Sharon on the 30th, Jim had backed the car trailor wit the car on it.  This fouled up loading the car the next day.  Lost the ferrying on front of the car.
Spent that night in a city park in Estelle, so.dakota.  When we left the next day broke off water faucet creating a new water fountain in the park.  Also shredded our sewer hose.  We have not had one problem until we started home.

Other so. Dakota memories include 2 days spent in medora,so. Dakota. Medora is the entrance to teddy Roosevelt national park.  This is a beautiful park and a short drive .  Saw close to 300 buffalo.  See pictures..  And they think the road is all theres. Also saw wild horses and mule deer and their young.  Saw a play in outdoor ampitheater and a teddy Roosevelt impersonator.  Excellent.   This is the way history should be taught.  We will visit medora again.

Before this spent several days in browning,mont.  we were there doing some family geanology on the Blackfeet Indians.  The reservation was dirty and completely lacking hope.   It is the entrance to the glacier national park.  I would think the government could make a better public example of this city for this reason.  So when you hear the Indians got a raw deal you can believe it.  I must compare this to medora also a national park city.  Clean,shopping,some restaurants.  Guided tours. Other entertainment.

Sister Joyce hubby Maurice.


Monday, August 26, 2013

Jim and Shirley's travels: ro

Jim and Shirley's travels: ro: Good evening.  It is Sat. Aug. 24th.  We have left Browning, Montana and are headed home.  Think we will be home sometime next weekend.  Our...

Saturday, August 24, 2013

ro

Good evening.  It is Sat. Aug. 24th.  We have left Browning, Montana and are headed home.  Think we will be home sometime next weekend.  Our posts haven't been too exciting but we have had the time of  our lives.  God has surely created a beautiful and diverse country for us to enjoy.  We have watched wheat harvested from Kansas to Montana and now in reverse as we start home.   We have never seen  such big equipment as they use up here.  Went to Glacier Park in Browning, MT.  Glaciers will all  be gone by 2030.  Very  small now, better hurry up here if you wish to see one on US. soil.  Also did some Indian heritage  while in Browning.  Found nothing.  Back to square one.  When you hear the Indians complain about how they are treated, believe it.  Browning is the reservation for the Blackfeet tribe.  It was the most pitiful place I have ever been.  Dirty also. Well now we are in Glasgow, MT. for the night.  On to North Dakota tomorrow.   Love to all.  Hope to see many of you soon. (Shirley)

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Well it's Sunday evening, the 18th day of August here in Billings, Montana.  The last up date to this was after we left Hastings, Neb.  From there we went North to Valentine, Neb.  The next day we drove to Pierre, SD to visit Shirley's aunt.  We stayed for two nights at the city park by the river that runs through town.  A beautiful river with people fishing, boating, water skiing and swimming.
From Pierre we went to Rapid City SD where we camped about 28 miles south of Sturgis SD.  Luckily it was Motorcycle Rally week in Sturgis and boy was it great fun to see thousands of bikers and their babes and all those motorcycles.  Shirley even got on a Harley and rode it, kind of, on afternoon and enjoy it a lot but not quite enough to buy her own.
 We spent as much time with Shirley's cousin as we could but she is a nurse and works midnights at a local hospital so she slept a lot during the day.  We had dinner with her three nights.
From there we drove to Sheridan, Wy and visited with our friends from Olathe, the Halvosons and their son and his wife.  We stayed in Sheridan three nights than moved on to Cody, Wy. While in Sheridan we met a couple from Spearfish SD  who used to ride motorcycles but after a near serious accident they sold them and bought an ATV.  They spent their days in the Bid Horn Mountains looking for wild life.  They really were enjoying themselves.  They gave us their address and phone numbers and told us to contact them when we were in their area, that they had a place on their ranch we could park the RV and stay a while.After a couple of nights in Cody we moved to Billings.  On Tuesday morning we will leave here and head for the Blackfeet Indian Reservation to, hopefully meet some of Shirley long lost relatives.
 I haven't put any pictures in this message as I can't figure out how to do that on my lab top.  I'll have to go to the I-pad and insert pics we've taken along the way. You will see the KID at several locations long the way.  Yes he does get around for being such a little guy.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Shirley's sister Joyce and, her husband Mory


Some how I deleted the last post on here about our weekend spent with Joyce and Moeeie.  We went to Menden and spent a good part of the day at the Pioneer Museum.  What a great collection of everything from farm machines to fine china.  Had a great day with Joyce and Morrie.  We went to church with them on Sunday morning, then lunch and than we hit the road headed to Valentine Neb.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Shirley had Michelle make a small Kidstlc logo for me for my retirement. It will get a special place in our new home. You will see it in many location in the coming months. This picture was taken just minutes before pulling out of town on our first leg of our great adventure.


Getting closer to our dream

Well I retired for the last time on Friday 7/26.  We will attend a BarBQue at Kidstlc on Tuesday and try to leave town on Friday.  We purchased a dolly for the V/W today.  Wanted a trailer but the car was too low to the ground and couldn't get it on the trailer so we went with the dolly.
We still don't have the title work on the motorhome but we have a temp tag good until Sept. 23rd so we're leaving town.  Going to Hastings, Neb for the week end.
Hope you enjoy the pics of the new motorhome
We'll tell ya more later.
Thanks for checking on us.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Good morning

God morning.
Leaving pagoda, Colorado soon. If Jim can stop talking.  Weve had a great time with joe and Cathy Eck,  we wake each morning to cool mountain air and hot air balloons backdropped by the mountains.  Beautiful.  We are headed to Santa Fe new mexico today.  Cant wait.  Have a god blessed day.  All of our love to you.  We would love to hear from you @sbrown7679@yahoo.com

We are in beautiful Santa Fe.  Terrific drive over here.  Wish you could all see the hills and miles of mountains we have seen today.Jim is resting then we will go to old town,new mex.

 


Saturday, July 13, 2013

Sorry it's been so long sense I've added to this

Well a lot has happened.  We arrived in Mesa at the Camping World dealership about 4:30 PM on  Sunday.  The general manager was there and met with us.  He loaned us a car that belonged to the dealership to go to dinner and get a motel for the night. 
The next morning we met with him and he showed us 3-4 motorhomes he thought we'd be interest in.  We settled on one, a Alegro Bus made by Tiffin .  It is in great shape, has more whistles and bells than any one needs but don't try to take them away from us.  We love it.  We left Mesa on Thursday afternoon.  We arrived in Olathe about 10:30 PM Sat. and parked it in the parking lot at Kidstlc.  We went to bed, showed the next morning and went to Church.  After a week leaving it parked at Kidstlc, we moved it to an RV Park in Lawrence, the closest place we could find that had a spot for us to stay in for a month.
The plan is to stay in this park until the end of July, than we'll take it to Olathe, get it serviced and leave for our big adventure the first week in August.  We bought a Volkswagon Jetta to pull behind the motorhome.  We've decided not to take the motorcycle with us.  In fact we may sell it before we leave.
Well I'll write more later, it's past my bed time.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Well kind of an uneventful day.  Traveled to Gallup today.  Transmission overheated comeing up out of the valley at Alberquie but pulled over and let it cool down, called Camping World in Mesa and talked to Mr Peterson, the man we'll be seeing Sunday or Monday about trading this thing in.  He was very friendly and told me I should shift down while going up a big hill, he explained this would keep the rpms up and this would help keep the tranny cool.
We are staying in an RV park on the West side of Gallup, a really nice park and we got the last spot in the park.  The high school national champion rodeo competition is in town this week end.
Well going to turn in for the night, next time maybe we,ll add pic's of new motorhome.

The big Texan

Well we made it to Amarillo and again shut her down about 4:30. Stayed in a KOA again. These people are the friendliest people we've met so far. I started hereing something else flapping on the outside front of the m/h 50-60 miles out and discovered the left head light cover had lost 2 of its screws.  When we pulled in to this KOA we were greeted by the nicest guy. I asked him where the nearest hardware store was and he asked me what I needed.  I showed him the loose headlight cover and said he fix it for me. Than we asked about a good place to eat and he suggested The Big Texan. He told us they had a shuttle service that would pick us up at our sight.  We didn't try to eat the 72 oz steak but saw 4guys try to put it away.  Try is all they did.
About 30 miles from Amarillo the fuel gage quit working so from here on to Mesa I've really go to watch the mileage so we don't get stranded. Well it about time I wake Shirley up so we can get on the road. Until next time, talk to ya later.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

One thing is for sure, CHANGE is for sure

Well, we are finally on our way to Mesa AZ to trade this piece of crap motorhome for hopefully a newer and much better one, one with the accurate milage and in much better shape.  We are in Wellington, Ks.Nope didnt make it very far first day but didn't leave Olathe until noon.
I guess I should bring some of you up to date.  On Tuesday Dr. Drummond ask me if I would stay in my job another month.  I told him I would but I'd need to leave as soon as possible for Mesa to trade motorhomes
and to keep Shirley from hurting both of us.  He said to go. I said I'd leave on Thursday and be back to work on July 1st.  He said to have a good time, drive careful and see you when you get back.
Ok, back to today.
We stopped about 4:30 as I was getting tried of fighting the wind.  The right front fender had come loose and was flapping in the wind so I went to Wallmart and got some duct tape and, well it don't look to good but it fits the rest of the m/h.  When I connected to water to the unit it flooded the basement.  I had to take all the things out of the passenger side of the basement and dry that up.  Shirley fixed a great meal  and we enjoy just setting and relaxing.  After my shower it got the computer out to look to see if the dealership had added any motorhomes to their inventory but found they had sold the only unit I was really interested in.  Hope they have some more real soon cause I'm not coming home until we get one we like.  The 1st of July may have to wait.
Well it's late and I  have some emil to send out.  Good night.

Sunday, June 2, 2013

THE Motorhome!


Well, here it is! What a journey this has been. Shirley and I went to Arizona in January and picked this lemon up. We were so excited but before we got her home I felt something was wrong.  It had either had some abusive use or it had a lot more miles on it than we were told.  The dealership, Camping World of Mesa, AZ,  told us the motorhome had 39,400 miles but when we had a scan run on the engine after we got home, that scan revealed 107,000 plus.  
Our oldest daughter works for a law firm in Overland Park and she put us in touch with an attorney.  He contacted Camping Worlds corporate office and the dealership in Mesa, Az.  After several letters to and from, they consented to give us the money we had in this unit toward another one.  This is all we asked for and it looks like it may work out that way.
We will leave June 14th to head to Mesa to trade for another motorhome.  At present they have nothing on their lot that we like that we can afford but hopefully by the time we get there that will change.  
My last day at Kidstlc is June 28th.  Sometime after July 4th we will travel to Hastings, Neb to visit Shirley's sister and her husband than to Pier, SD to visit her aunt.  Than the journey begins.  We will head to Oregon and Washington for a couple of months.  We have a reservation at an RV resort in Apache Junction, AZ for the winter.  We will be coming home, by car around the middle of November and be here until the middle of January than back to Apache Junction for the rest of the winter.  After that it will kind of depend on what way the wind is blowing.
Most of our post will not be this long, just wanted to catch everyone up on what the Brown's have and will be up to for the next few months.  We will be posting photos and more words along the way. and