Ron and Teresa Lost in America: 2013

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Final stats...

After 15 weeks on the road...

27 States
41 Campgrounds
1 Friend's Driveway
9,269 miles
Approximately 1,235 gallons of gas
2 tire blowouts
1 tube of toothpaste
1 broken pair of glasses
Sent over a hundred postcards
4 quilt shops, 1 museum
Many, many other museums
Endless vistas, rivers, and lakes
1 Swamp
Hundreds of wonderful campers
1 tornado watch
1 Cooter
Countless road kill
1 argument with tears over the kids re:money

And...one broke down motorhome. Wouldn't start for Ron when he went to move it, she's tired.

All this and we're still planning the next trip for the Northwest in May! Keep you posted!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Los Angeles visting

Well, LA turned out to be a busy stop, not as relaxing as we hoped for. Spent much of our time in Santa Monica helping my mom adjust to not having a car. She's 87 next month and shouldn't drive any more, she is bummed, but knows she has other options. Dockweiler state beach proves to be the best sunsets and really nice weather. We visited with Debbie, Larry, Janice and Mike at Debbie's house for dinner one night. Also, got to see Ashlee in action, she did my hair at her new job/salon she works at. Ron visited with old friend, Wayne and his son Nick at the gas station. Also, he went with Pete Farina for lunch. Anyway, LA was a fitting end to our journey, just wish it had been more relaxing.

Seriously beautiful sunsets

Ron loves his beach

View from our camp

Sunsets like this every night

Added highlights

Nick will be third generation Marina Shell

Janice and Ashlee

Shopping at Debbie's DC Designs jewelry

Looks like Janice found one

Larry, Ron and Mike chillin

Had to have Titos

Don't miss this great LA traffic one bit

Selfie with mom at the DMV

Shack Burger another must, we'll start our diet Monday

The three amigos, bad to the bone

Sunday, December 1, 2013

California here we come....

Wow, familiar roads! We are coming full circle now in our home state. We are looking forward to visiting family and friends here in L.A., planning to be here for the whole week. Here's a taste of one of our favorite places, the beach.

Love the California desert

Beach campground not woodsy or fancy but it is ON the beach!

View from site can't be beat, even with winter sand burm

Sand burm acts as a great seat for sunsets

Thanksgiving in Laughlin, Neveda

Finally made it safely to Laughlin and time for some fun and R&R. We got to visit several of the casinos and had a great time doing a little gambling. We had our Thanksgiving dinner at the Gourmet Room at the Riverside Resort.

Movie date night, saw Catching Fire

Waiter is not best photographer, Thanksgiving.

Couldn't resist the arcade photo booth

The boys all checking out the Colorado River

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Cactus and blow outs...longest day ever!

So, we leave Apache Junction heading for Laughlin on Monday morning. Along the way we couldn't help stopping for a photo op with the giant Saguaro cactus.

had to be forty feet high

needles in the sunshine

baby one wants to grow up to be just like papa

don't mess with these bad boys

very scary cactus

close up little fur ball

Well, we actually missed our connecting highway (93) because I was too busy chatting with my daughter, Diana, so we had to catch the next small highway (71) to cut back to the 93. Along the way we had an inside rear tire blow out. We were in the middle of the desert but luckily had phone service. AAA was there in about an hour, and we were on our way within two hours. So we finally get to the 93 headed west, when the second, now left rear, tire blows! We crawled along the highway 4 miles to get to the next town, Wikieup, to find it was the smallest town ever to have a problem in. We found a guy open, but he was busy with another truck, and said it would be about an hour...at least four hours later, we had a used tire and 90 more miles to drive. We held our breathe that the tire would hold, and we finally made it to Laughlin. Longest day on the road for this whole trip! Now in Laughlin we have a Friday appointment for a new set of tires and we will be on our way Saturday to spend a week in L.A.

first blow out, was dark out by second blowout, so no photo op

In the middle of NOWHERE...

AAA guy got it done...

Finally our Apache Junction / Phoenix visit...

We arrived in Apache Junction a day earlier than originally planned. We saw Audrey and David the next afternoon for the first feast. (Shocker, seems like all we did was eat that weekend!) Met up with my brother, Andy and Paula the next night for dinner. Not before lunch with David and Audrey of course. Then we went to Jacque's house on Saturday night. Gina was there with her fiancé, Mike, and the kids. My brother joined us there, too, so we had a great night with a full house of kids and laughter. It was a blast reminiscing with the girls. David then had us all over for Sunday dinner of chicken cach and pasta. Our whirlwind weekend went by too fast but it was the best catching up with our brothers and family. Here's a bunch of photos from mostly over at Jacque's house...