Several weeks ago we were at an RV park and we were with a group of campers talking about places we'd been. Grand Canyon came up, and one guy said simply, "It's not real." We all laughed--you know, mirrors, smoke, etc. Well, now we know what he meant. It was incredible and awesome and beautiful. We decided it would be fun to take a tour, so on Friday a van picked us up at our campground, we picked up a group of German tourists at another campground, and spent the day in Grand Canyon. We really enjoyed the trip, and Mike was happy not to have to drive. We got to see endangered condors soaring above the canyon. That was a real treat!

http://picasaweb.google.com/TxMike3

We also drove to Sedona, AZ and were surprised at what a beautiful little city it is. The rock formations and their colors reminded us of Bryce Canyon in Utah.

Sunday we left AZ for Santa Fe, NM, our last stop on our grand adventure. Santa Fe averages over 300 days of sunshine a year. Unfortunately, it has rained here every day so we haven't gotten to walk in any of the many parks, or hike any of the trails. I did, however, get to visit the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, and really enjoyed it. I learned so much about her life and work. I was familiar with her large flowers, which I love, but got to see her abstracts, sketches, and landscapes; and learn about her life in New York City and in New Mexico, and her famous photographer husband. Santa Fe is a beautiful city with unique architecture, but is also very crowded and the traffic is terrible.

This is our last post for our blog. It makes us sad to realize this. We have truly had a wonderful, near-perfect, dream-come-true trip. Hard as it will be to get back to reality, we know that there are more trips in our future, and we're already starting to plan!

Some last notes:
We've driven almost 20,000 miles, about 12,000 towing the trailer and the rest on side trips, sightseeing, running errands, etc.

The strangest thing we've seen: in SD and in AZ, mobile homes with tires lined up on the roof.

The most we've had to pay for diesel fuel for the truck was $3.24/gal in a small town in CA near Yosemite. The least we paid was $1.99 in Quartzite, AZ last winter.

18-wheelers come in more colors than cars: various yellows, orange, and coral; magenta, bubblegum pink, maroon, ordinary red; navy blue with pink pinstriping, cobalt, columbia, turquoise, and baby blue; teal, hunter, and sea green; even gold and mauve.

Sirius Radio has accompanied us through the whole western United States, mostly tuned to Margaritaville and Sities on Six, and sometimes to golf tournaments or NASCAR.

Carmen (our Garmin GPS) has been immensely helpful the whole trip, finding Post Offices, grocery stores, and RV campgrounds; she sometimes gets her left and right mixed up, so we always look at her map; the funniest things she's said are, "In .6 miles turn left on Hiking Trail," as if it were Kingwood Drive, and we were towing! And, "In .3 miles turn right on East University Doctor." Think about it.

It's amazing how few clothes and "things" we actually need to get along. We plan, however, to burn most of our clothes when we get home, we're so sick of them!

We wonder if Gracie and Max will remember Cubby, and he them. And we wonder how long it will take Gracie to put Dan's young dog Strider in his place, and if Max and Strider will enjoy playing together. Bet Max will teach him how to catch squirrels.

Happy Trails to you, until we meet again.

As we drove away from Mt. Shasta last week, it was a beautiful day and the sky was a clear brilliant blue. Except as we looked back at the mountain, there were clouds hovering around its peak--the only clouds in the sky. Hmmmm.

Two days of driving brought us to the tiny town of Midpines, CA, near Mariposa and Yosemite NP. On our first trip into Yosemite, we went for a great hike to a small grove of Giant Sequoias. That's where the picture above was taken. We tried to take a shortcut on the way back to our campground; well, you know how shortcuts usually work out! We ended up driving on a very winding road in the dark--not fun. Our second day into the park we took a nice drive to some wonderful vistas. We avoided the valley because of the crowds, but did enjoy seeing some different areas of the park. http://picasaweb.google.com/TxMike3

We left Midpines last Monday, the 17th, and drove across the Mojave Desert. We thought it was funny that the temperatures in Austin were higher than the temps we experienced in the desert! We spent the night in the desert town of Barstow, and the RV park blew a huge breaker, leaving the campers with no AC. And it was hot! Fortunately, there was a small section of the campground that had power, so those of us without generators unhooked and moved. The next long day's drive brought us to Flagstaff, AZ. What wonderful summer weather this city has! 80's in the daytime, 50's at night, and no humidity. We were amazed at the news report from Phoenix that the humidity was high at 27%! Max is, again, having bad hair days. Both dogs are pretty dirty from all the sand we've been in for several days.

Thursday, Mike and Max went for a long walk part way up a mountain by our campground. It was hotter than Mike had anticipated and at one point, Max just sat down! They were pretty beat when they got back. Gracie is not too spry these days, so she and I went for a shorter walk, and played her favorite game of "Find It" here in the RV.

Today we took a van tour of the Grand Canyon. What an experience! I haven't uploaded those pics yet, so will update the blog again soon.

We're in the town of Mount Shasta, CA within sight of Mt. Shasta. For the picture above, we drove up the mountain, as far as the road went, above the tree line. The mountain is actually 4 volcano cones, and although they are dormant, the chances of an eruption are 1 in 250 - 300. After seeing all the damage that Mt St Helens did those odds are a little too good for us so we're leaving tomorrow. ;o) This view was looking toward 2 mountain ranges to the southwest, with Mt Shasta behind us. http://picasaweb.google.com/TxMike3

We enjoyed the little town of Mount Shasta. There are lots of funky little espresso shops and cafes, and many shops selling mystic rocks and beads, potions and incense, tie-dyed clothing and books on meditation. It was really interesting! This is a ski area, so there are lots of little motels and inns. We also visited the town of Weed, which was not as quaint, but there was a great T-shirt with this saying across the front. "I [heart] Weed." We didn't buy one, but we were tempted!

Tomorrow (Thursday) we head toward Yosemite for a few days, and hope the weather stays mild for us.

Tomorrow we say good-bye to the beautiful Pacific coast. We loved the California coast as we headed north back in February, March, and April; we have loved the Oregon coast just as much. I enjoyed taking pictures of several of the lighthouses, and we had hoped to get to tour the one at Cape Blanco, but were surprised at how early it closed. We hate to brag about the weather--high's in the upper 60's and cooler nights--because we know we'll be back in the heat in just a few weeks!

We celebrated our 39th anniversary here in Port Orford. At the recommendation of the owner of the little RV park where we are now, we went to eat at the "best restaurant in town." We were skeptical when we saw it, but it was really good and very charming.
http://picasaweb.google.com/TxMike3

We have picked up the pace, and won't get to stay 5 days or a week in any one place. We'll be at Mt. Shasta the beginning of this week, (at a KOA where we need to catch up on laundry; it just doesn't go away!); 3 nights in Yosemite, then we'll head for the Grand Canyon and Flagstaff where it's high and cooler. See you on down the road as we head for home.

Well, we're a little behind on our blog--busy with matters at home, and staying at campgrounds with weak internet signals. Glad to be in touch again! The picture above shows Mt Saint Helens in the background; this is as close as we got. It was quite a drive to get close. A helicopter ride would have been the way to really see the volcano, but that was just too expensive! That's the Toutle River Valley; notice all the ash still in the valley. We only vaguely remember the 1980 eruption, so it was very interesting to read all about the eruption, both the geological events leading up to it and the drastic changes that came afterwards. We ate lunch at a wonderful restaurant, which is where this photo was taken.

From our campground at Castle Rock, WA, we also took a long and beautiful drive to the coast. The scenery was just as you might imagine: steep wooded hills, sunwashed,narrow, shingled houses, lots of boats docked in the bays, high capes with incredible views. We really enjoyed the drive, especially seeing Astoria, where the fun "Goonies" movie was filmed!

From Castle Rock we headed south, with the sober thought that we had turned toward home. We spent a few days on the central Oregon coast in Florence, and again got to enjoy spectacular drives. There are many, many lighthouses, of course, and we've gotten pictures of a few of them. We are also happy to be back in the cool weather! We've learned that in this part of the country, fog has to be really close to the ground to be called fog; otherwise it's "marine layer." Every morning there's a marine layer on the coast!
http://picasaweb.google.com/TxMike3

Today we moved south to Cape Blanco, at Port Orford, just a little north of the California border. There are many state parks with hiking trails which we hope to explore. Our 39th anniversay is Saturday, and the campground owner has recommended a restaurant right on the coast, where we can watch the boats and enjoy the view while we eat. Looking forward to that, and to more adventures these last few weeks of our trip!