From Texas to New Mexico to Arizona

After finally leaving Texas we made it into New Mexico and one of our stops was Rockhound State Park near Deming. We have been there before and really enjoy the view from the side of the mountain looking west toward town. At night the lights from the city and surrounding area light up the distant valley, yet it's out in the country and very quiet and peaceful.

One of the nights we spent there mother nature decided to show off what she can do and Dick was able to step out of our MH and get several beautiful sunset pictures.

No red filter here just the sky on fire. Or that's what it looked like.

A few days before we took a trip in the late afternoon to White Sands National Monument.
Very nice visitors center and talked to a Ranger that came from Eastern Washington. We did not realize that this park was in the middle of nowhere and just about ran out of gas! We had to travel another 10 miles past the park to get gas and then back to the park.


We had the AC running in the Jeep but it looked like a snow storm had just came through.

Very difficult to get good pictures with white sands and white clouds but we gave it our best try.

People were out there sledding, just like it was snow.

On the way back to our MH we ran across another beautiful sunset behind the mountains.

Before we departed Texas we took a car tour of various old Churches. While we saw 8 or 9 Churches of various sizes and religions we will only post a few in our blog due to space only.

All Churches were open for viewing with no one around so we were able to see some beautiful art work inside.

Most of the Churches are well over 100 years old and have been brought back to excellent condition.

We spent about 2 weeks in Arizona and then got on an airplane and are now visiting family in Washington State. The MH is in storage and we will be back there on the 3rd of January. We'll spend some time re-stocking and then plan on going to Quartzsite for a few weeks to camp with the Montana Owners Club as SOBs (some other brand). We both love being here with the family but can't help remembering how warm it is in Arizona. Luckily CC is still in Arizona with Robbie and Alice (who we hope will give her back!). It's cold here.

To be continued...

Louisiana swamp critters...

While in Louisiana we spent quite a bit of time visiting and touring some of the swamps. One day we took a boat tour through a large swamp and river. It was exciting to see what we would see and get a shot of. You can see the water height changes by the color on the trees.

A great blue heron was just sitting there asking to have his picture taken. What a huge beautiful bird.

This guy was just lying there watching us as we floated by. He measured about 12 to 14 foot long.

Another day we went for a drive along a lake (looks like a swamp to us) and Jackie spotted this guy sitting in the trees as we drove by. Really blended in with the color of the tree but we did get several good shots of him.

Turtles are really hard to get on film. If they see you move, they are gone back into the water. Finally did find three on the log.

We think this is an Anhinga that was just about ready to take off heading for the top of the trees but still in view of Dick's camera where he got some more pictures of him (her).

This fella (gal?) was relaxing in the sun on a floating log. These guys we spotted while walking down the road.

What can we say? What do you think? Picking flowers or a vegetarian?

Interesting what you can see if you look further into the swamp.

Several pictures of Egrets. Hard to get a good shot with those wings flapping hard.

Just at sunset.

Looking for dinner.

Aren't they beautiful?

Hope you enjoy a little different blog with just some of the critters we shot while in Louisiana.

We finished our tour of Louisiana and headed west through Texas (888 miles) and are now in New Mexico for a week or so and then will head to Arizona.

To be continued...

New Orleans Louisiana

We left Florida on the 17 of November and started our trek back west. Went through Alabama, Mississippi and ended up in the little town of Abita Springs, Louisiana, about 30 miles due North of New Orleans. We traveled just a little over 200 miles that day. Set up the rig and spent the rest of the day just sitting around and relaxing.



Today, the 18th, we took off in the jeep and headed toward New Orleans. About 10 miles down the road we found Pontchartrain Causeway (bridge) that took us across Lake Pontchartrain. We have never traveled on a bridge that was so long (24 miles); the other side was not visible until we got about half way across. Took over 20 minutes at 65 mph!



We finally got to the other side, found the visitors center, and then the French Quarter. Spent the day just walking the streets and shooting pictures. Had a great lunch sitting on the balcony of a restaurant and enjoying watching the people below on Bourbon Street.



Nothing special with the pictures just shots that Dick thought might be a little different than most you would see so not much to write about.



Line-up of horse and carriage's waiting for tourists.

The lady in the window is a manikin but hard to tell until you get close.

A little run down...

and around the corner a big change. Guess it's the same here as most places.

The flag reads "FALLING LEAF ZONE", cute.

Canal Street.

Loved the shadows.

Our view at lunch looking down Bourbon Street.

Take the time to look up and you get a different view of the buildings.

Lots of plants on the balconys.

To be continued...

Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow, NAS Pensacola

A week or so ago we decided to take in our first ever Air Show and headed to Naval Air Station Pensacola for the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. We drove onto the base, found a parking space and hiked to the field along with 50 to 100 thousand other people. The price was just right, free.

We settled into our chairs and Dick started to take pictures. One of the opening performaces was a parachute team that came down with the American Flag while the drop plane circled.


We walked the tarmac viewing some of the 17 planes on display.

Walked through one of the smaller ones :>)

Just about the time the F-15E Strike Eagle flew by at close to 600 MPH the battery went dead in Dick's camera. A long trip back to the car to get the extra batteries only to find four more dead ones. Back to the flight line and missing the chance for more good pictures we found a booth that had some batteries. Great, just in time to get some shots of this jet powered glider perform. What a beautiful display of flying with smoke from both wing tips.

The Yak 52 Russian design built in Romania,

The star of the show was Blue Angels F/A-18 with a top speed just of 1,400 MPH and can still fly at 129 MPH with a sneak pass while you are looking at the rest of the planes just off the ground at 600 MPH. And the Blues performed for nearly an hour, keeping us on our toes wondering which way they would come from next.

You can feel the sound completely through your body as they fly what looks like just a few feet above your head. Click and blow up this picture and you can see the smile on the pilots face.

No we did not turn the picture over.

Four of the six in a slow pass with wheels down.

And a fast pass.

Straight up again at 30,000 feet per minute.

And finally a shot of all six.

All we could say was W O W a day sitting in the warm sun watching a fantastic display of air power and it was all free.

To be continued...