Sweetwater, TX

Well, neither of us were abducted by aliens in Roswell so we had a long 293 mile day to Sweetwater, TX on the back roads.  We are in Lake Sweetwater Municipal CG out in the boonies with one other RV.  We are way off the main roads so it should be very quiet and dark tonight, good for sleeping. The DirecTV and Verizon hotspot work well so we are happy campers.  Two normal 200 mile days to Livingston, TX and the Escapees home park Saturday.

Roswell, NM and the original illegal aliens arriving on UFOs

On the 30th we made the 222 mile tow to Roswell, NM.  We passed by Roswell in 2010 when Margret died and we were headed to Cumming, GA.  This time we stopped and Judy wants to check out the UFOs and te original illegal aliens from 1947.  I was too tired after the drive and setting up so we decided to stay another day and visit the museum(s) tomorrow.  We did go out for a late lunch which was VERY good, I had a bacon cheeseburger and Judy had a chef salad at the Big D restaurant downtown.  Roswell is much larger than we expected.

This fellow (lady?) greeted us as we entered.

And here they meet face to face!

After awhile they got pretty chummy with Judy..........

But they they had to leave.............

One did stick around for some medical attention.........

he was too ill to make the trip to Dracula, GA and have Jody work on him (her).

Judye & Bill

We started the day at the Ford dealer getting the oil changed and some routine service.  We fueled up as diesel was only $3.35 then stopped at Camping World which was next to the CG we are in.  Bill & Judy came over so we had a good visit then went to Sadie's, a Mexican restaurant, for lunch.  We finished our visit so they went home late in the afternoon.

Albuquerque, Bill & Judy visit

Sunday morning the rain woke us at 7am but I managed to sleep in until 8am, Judy was up.  We had a plan to head east from Camp Verde on the back roads but after seeing the forecast of rain, flooding and winds to the east we changed our plans.  At 9:30 we had packed up between the rain showers and headed north to I40 and then east.  We thought we'd travel 200 to 250 miles but after talking about Judye & Bill Teetz being in Albuquerque for the upcoming balloon festival we decided to push on the 370+ miles to see them.  We stopped for lunch at Judy's favorite truck stop....Loves....so by the time arrived and set up the sun was starting to set.  Judy saw on Facebook we passed Robert & Leslie, who were at a casino on I40 west of Albuquerque.  If we'd had known we could have seen them them too.

Camp Verde, AZ visiting Dave & Trish

Wednesday the 24th we traveled 88 miles to Camp Verde and the Western Horizon membership park to visit RV friends Dave & Trish Wood.  The last time we saw them was 2010 at the Grand Canyon while we were with Clayton & Pat.  Dave & Trish went to Camp Verde while we headed east to Meteor Crater.   They liked the Camp Verde area and work camped at the Western Horizon park a couple years until Dave had some significant health problems.  They sold their truck & HH and bought a home in a 55+ community across the road from the park.

 
There is an 18 mile down grade from about 6500 feet to 3000 feet.  It has been in the 90s while we are here.

                                                    Home sweet home for 4 days.

We got to visit with Dave & Trish each day and yesterday we all drove to Jerome, an old copper mining town which is now an artist colony, I think, and a tourist destination.  It's up a steep mountain and the streets are very narrow and twisty.  It has been raining today and we plan to leave tomorrow, the weather should be good.

Rich & Joan and Murray & Shelle

Today we drove up to Trailer Village CG inside the Grand Canyon National Park to visit Rich & Joan Walters and Murray & Shelle McDole.   We tried last week to make a reservation at their CG but it is full.  It is amazing how busy Arches and now the Grand Canyon parks are.  Just like Arches there are hundreds of small class C rental RVs all over the place.

Here's Rich, Shelle, Murray, Joan, Judy and myself at the south rim.  We rode the park bus to the Arizona Room for lunch.  We sat at their campsite the afternoon catching up since it's been a couple years since we have seen each other, great visit.

                                                Here's Murray checking out the big ditch.

                     Here's Rich with a friend in the background as we sat at their campsite talking.

                                     Joan, Shelle and Judy with a friend in the campground.

This fellow was chasing the ladies who wanted nothing to do with him.  He walked past me 10 feet away, I didn't think he'd come that close.

There was a small elk herd wandering around in the campground eating nuts from the trees.  They were not afraid of anything.  The campers were pretty much ignoring them after seeing them for awhile and they ignored us.  One was licking the water leaking from a rental RVs water hose connection.

Jacob Lake to Williams, AZ

Today we made the 200 mile tow down to Williams after saying good bye to Ron & Roberta and Mel & Dee as they head east toward home.   We have reached the furthest point west on this trip.  We started to break camp and half way through it started to rain so we just went inside and waited an hour.  We caught these pictures of the clouds in the mountains after we descended to the desert at 4000 feet.

As we drove over the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry we spotted a fellow waving his arms as we passed.  Judy thought it was a HitchHiker friend, Sarge and Gill who split their time between the US and England.  Unfortunately we didn't realize it was them until we were a few miles down the road. Wish I would have stopped.

This is our site in Williams at Grand Canyon Railroad RV Park.  The is a train station here that has daily trains up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon\, about 60 miles north.  We'll be here 3 nights.