Finally, Pictures

Finally, Pictures

I have posted some photos on the webshots album. http://community.webshots.com/user/brendamaa

In case some of you don't realise it, if you click on the button that says "view as slideshow" the pictures are easier to see.

We walked the dogs this AM and then the CCI dog got to go and play with another CCI dog, a good time was had by all.

September 29, 2005 Rain in the Desert

September 29, 2005 Rain in the Desert

Late yesterday afternoon the wind got very high, we thought the tent might become airborne. The dark clouds starting rolling in, so instead of cooking supper we went out to eat. It started to pour rain, so we spent the evening in the tent reading by the lantern. The wind didn't go down until late evening; but it rained hard on and off all night. It was still raining this morning and looked like it was going to get worse, so we packed up and left for Albuquerque. Spent some time sightseeing and went up to the Sandia Mountain Tramway, we didn't take the tram up the mountain as it was so cloudy. Drove around looking at the architecture and the landscape of the area.

Arrived at the housesit, went for a walk with the dogs to get an idea of their commands and spent some time getting to know the people and dogs.

The balloon fiesta starts tomorrow, so that should be an amazing sight to see the main ascension in the AM.

Coronado State Park, September 28, 2005

Coronado State Park, Sept. 28, 2005

We walked over to the Park today from the campsite where we are staying. It was very interesting. Originally inhabited by the Tiwa Indians, it is the site of a pueblo from years ago. They built up to 7 stories high and accessed the rooms by climbing a ladder and entering through the roof. The rooms were very small, maybe 5 x 10 feet!! Hardly room to turn around. There were separate kitchens though. We were able to go down into a Kiva, which was a ceremonial room for the men, women were only allowed to enter to give the men food, etc.. When it was discovered in the 1930's some of the original wall paintings were still intact. They were removed and are now in a special viewing room, amazing how well preserved they are, some of the colors are still very bright. In the original Kiva, they had reproduced the paintings so that you can see where they were placed. Very interesting.

Late in the afternoon yesterday the wind came up and it showered overnight, a bit of a surprise for here. They say it has been very dry for the last 2 months, so the rain shower was welcome.

Coronado State Park

Coronado State Park

Mon. 26, Tues. 27--Monday we just sat and relaxed at the campsite. Local ground squirrel enjoyed a couple of overripe peaches we had left out. There is a very tiny little lizard? type beastie residing by our campsite. He was sunning himself on a rock by the firepit this morning. We met the people we are going to housesit for, for brunch. They brought the " assistance" dog with them and for a young dog he seems very well trained. They leave on Saturday; but have asked us to come and stay with them from Thursday afternoon onward. We went to the library Tues. AM; but couldn't get MSN to work to read our emails. Managed to make 1 post on blog and then it wouldn't let me post this one after typing it in! Very slow access, even slower than our dial up service. Will relax here in the sun the rest of today and tomorrow and then be off to Albuquerque. Hot and sunny again today.

On The Road--Day 6--September 25, 2005

On The Road--Day 6--September 25,2005

We had a relaxing day yesterday. After using the computer at the library we went back to the campground. Roy watched football on TV and I did some reading, later on we went for a swim, chatted with a fellow from Tennesee and a couple from Lake Tahoe. This morning we left Bloomfield and drove south to Cuba, San Ysidro, Jemenez Pueblo. We stopped at Jemenez Pueblo visitors centre and got a lot of info from the staff there, very nice visitors centre, also stopped and had a couple of huge, yummy burritos. We stopped at Bernalillo for the night, it is only a short distance from Albuquerque so we will probably stay here until Friday. It was 63 degrees F. at 8:30 AM this morning. We crossed the Continental Divide this morning for about the 5 th time-- elevation only 7380 feet this time.

On The Road--Day Five--September 24,2005

On The Road--Day Five--September 24,2005

Well we decided to stay over in Bloomfield another day. This morning we sat outside at 7 AM with our coffee and watched the news on TV. We did a load of laundry and we are at the library now using the computer for free. We will go swimming this afternoon and relax before getting back on the road tomorrow.

Will be out of touch for a week or so now until Albuquerque.

On The Road--Day Four--September 23, 2005

On The Road--Day Four--September 23,2005

It seemed as if the minute we crossed into Colorado the scenery changed from barren to trees and color. We left Craig and continued south to Meeker, Rifle and onwards. We decided then to take the "Grand Mesa Scenic Byway,". What can I say but, WOW, what scenery! Close to Skyway, Colorado a fellow told us that it is the largest, flat top mountain in the world, with approx. 200 lakes in the area. The fall color on the leaves was stunning. We continued on to Delta and Montrose. The area between Ouray and Silverton in the Uncompahgre National Forest has aboslutely breathtaking scenery. It is the regular highway--not a scenic route and at times the speed limit was 10 MPH. Elevations between 10 and11 thousand feet for several hours. I have driven on the "Going to the Sun" road in the Glacier National Park; but this area made that look like an easy drive. Road consisted of loops, switchbacks and 90 degree turns. The most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. The scenery and road remained much like that all the way to Durango, only a distance of 107 miles; but it took us 3 1/2 hours to drive. I don't have the words to describe the beauty of the area, definately reccomend this drive; but make sure your brakes are in good condition before doing so. From Durango we crossed into New Mexico and camped at Bloomfield, New Mexico for the night. When we arrived at Bloomfield it was 5 PM and 80 degrees Farenheit. Roy was sweating as he set up the tent. I was sitting at the picnic table at 8 PM in my short sleeves while writing this down. We had stopped at a couple of fruit/vegetables places and bought fresh peaches, tomatoes,cucumbers and corn on the cob. The fresh picked peaches were delicious and we pigged out on fresh corn on the cob for supper. The campsite has a pool, so we may go swimming in the afternoon, as I think we will stay here another night, before heading onwards. The parks we are thinking of staying in are out of the mainstream so we will be out of touch again until we hit Albuquerque on the 1 st of October.

On The Road--Day Three--September 22,2005

On The Road--Day Three--September 22,2005

Still heading south in Wyoming, through Shoshoni, Riverton, Sweetwater Junction down to Rawlins, Creston Junction and Baggs where we crossed the state border into Colorado. The scenery, barren, brown, no trees, and bleak even at this time of year. We were both so tired of looking at the same thing. The only things of interest were some pretty, yellow flowering shrubs (all over--as in weeds??) and the antelope. Where are all the cattle and what do they eat anyway? Antelope outnumbered cattle at least 2 to 1. To amuse ourselves we started to check out the road kill! No gophers-- but several rabbits, skunks, 1 racoon, couple of porcupines, and a few unknowns! We early on decided we could never live in this area. We camped this night in Craig, Colorado.

On The Road--Day Two--September 21,2005

On The Road--Day Two--September 22,2005

We kept going straight south through Harlem, Montana to Roundup, Billings, Laurel and Bridger. Not much scenery to describe, no photos taken. Brown, barren prairie. What the cows eat I don't know, lots of antelope . We crossed into Wyoming and met a nice couple running a grocery store in Deaver. They suggested a scenic route for us and we continued on through Powell, Cody, Meeteetse and stopped to camp in Thermopolis for the night. We did get a few chuckles from a couple of people. As we had power at the campsite Roy pulled out the TV and we sat beside the tent and watched TV until it started to rain. Pretty funny, really roughing it. Fortunately the water repellent we sprayed on the then worked very well, so we were warm and dry. The state runs a beautiful park right in the city. The park is famous for its hot mineral springs. We took a walk around the spring area which is called "Rainbow Terrace" because of the colors on the rock pools and ledges, caused by the minerals in the water. No photos, as the sun was directly in line with what I wanted to photograph and I knew it wouldn't turn out well. We were going to go and soak in the pool; but the smell of the mineral water was giving us both headaches so we left in the morning. Leaving Thermopolis we passed through a beautiful area called Windriver Canyon, lovely scenery for a short time.

On the Road--Day One--September 20,2005

On The Road--Day One--September 20,2005

We finally got to leave! We took off about 7 am, heading straight down highway 41. When we left home we were paying 106.9 per liter(CAD) for gas, at Oyen, AB. we paid 98.9 per litre. After passing Consort, AB. about the only interesting things we saw were the antelopes and we wonder why they live there. The land is flat and at this time of year very brown and uninteresting. Cypress Hills Park was the only green and treed spot in the whole area. It appears suddenly and is gone just as quickly; and the land reverts to brown and barren. We crossed the USA border at 3:30 PM at the Port of Wild Horse. Customs was a bit more involved than pre 9-11 but not bad at all. A few minutes and a trunk check and we were off. That night we stayed in Harlem, Montana; where gas was $281.9 per gallon(US).

On Our Way

On Our Way

Today is the day. Finally after 11 months of planning and researching this trip, the departure time has come. All of our goodbyes have been said, all the preparations are done. We actually can get in the car today and leave. About time!! We packed the car yesterday, and surprisingly enough it all fit in with room to spare, have never packed for 6 months before. We spent all day yesterday waiting for the guy to come and shut off the water, he finally arrived at almost 7 P.M., needless to say we were getting a little antsy! As he went about his job, we were chatting and discovered that he had spent some time in Mexico and really enjoyed it. Anyway, we had an good time talking with him of his experiences and he told us some funny stories about his travels.

Well Hasta Luego everyone and away we go, hopefully will be able to update regularily.

Just Hanging Out

Just Hanging Out

This morning we are just hanging out, relaxing, waiting for the water guys to come and shut down the water. It is very quiet around here without the dogs, we miss them already!

Watching CNN and seeing the gas prices on the rise, makes me glad I sold the truck. I was also thinking about the people on another blog we read, they will soon be on their way to Mexico, driving a truck and camper, I am glad that we will not have their gas bills. A relative from Hawaii called the other day and was complaining about their gas prices. I asked her about the cap on prices there and she said it has just made it worse. When the gas cap went on all the companies raised their prices right away to the cap price, so they are paying more now. Figures. They are paying (two days ago) $4.17 per gallon, when I figured out what we are paying per litre ($106.9) we are actually paying $4.06(U.S. gallon) and we live in an oil/gas production area, think we are getting ripped off?? When you factor in the exchange rate for our dollar, we would be paying more than them.

Also have been listening to the news of the newest hurricane on the rise and it looks like it may get to the Texas coast and thinking of all the evacuees in Houston, etc. that are there and am sure they do not need to live through another one right now. Hopefully it will change its course and everything will be alright. I'm sure that another blogger will be watching that one carefully as they also have a home in Houston.

Hopefully the next time I blog it will not be from home but on the road somewhere.

Bye for now.

One More Day To Go

One More Day To Go

It is VERY quiet around here suddenly. I took the dogs to the step-daughters this morning, said goodbye to them and the grandchildren. When I got home we drained the water out of the washing machine and the dishwasher. Roy cleaned the car inside and out and I cleaned some things up in the house. Everything is put away and locked up for the winter. My sister and her family came up to visit one last time, their dog couldn't seem to figure out why there were no dogs here. We are also all out of biscuits, for her the visit was a bust! We did give her a bone, which she had left in the house, as they were leaving she came back into the house and grabbed her bone. It was very funny. We all went out for supper and had a good visit. Hard to believe that we will not be seeing anyone familiar for almost 7 months. Tomorrow we wait for the water guys to come, finish packing and relax for the rest of the day. We leave early Tuesday morning if all goes as planned.

Almost Ready

Almost Ready

I took our small dog to get his grooming done yesterday, so he is but a shadow of his former self today. Spent some time yesterday and today doing little things that needed to be completed before we left. Called and confirmed that the well company will be here on Monday to shut down our water system. So, now it is just relax and wait for a few days. Except for our clothes we have everything packed and ready to go. On Sunday I will take the dogs over to the step-daughters where they will be staying, after I return from that we will clean all the doggie slobber off of the car windows and the car will be ready. After the water people leave on Monday we will take the rest of our freezables to my mother-in-laws for storage, get rid of the garbage, lock everything up and pack the car. We had intended to leave on Wednesday; but if everything goes well it may be on Tuesday! Blogging may be sporadic for awhile, as we find and get the hang of the internet cafe thing. We have confirmed our housesit in Albuquerque, so that is on track.

Likely have 3 more full days left here and then off to travel for almost 7 months, what a great thought!

Hasta Luego

Visiting

Visiting

I spent the afternoon visiting yesterday. One of my step-daughters, along with 3 of her children (the fourth was in school) picked me up and we went for lunch. Her oldest has just started Grade One and was quite disgusted that he had to go to school, rather coming along. The twin girls will start Kindergarten today, while the youngest is 3 years old. We then picked up my mother-in-law and went to visit her sister. My mother-in-law will be 82 in October and her sister turned 80 this year, they both are much more active than I am and they both walk a mile or more every day. We had a nice visit with her, the grandchildren were quite happy to sit outside and watch the power company employees replace a transformer on the power pole right at her driveway. The twins were excited to show me their new lunch bags for school and sang a few songs for us all, and as usual, they had lots of stories to tell. It was a nice afternoon.

The youngest grand-daughter in the van.

My mother-in-law, her sister, the twins, the "baby", and my step-daughter.

While I was gone Roy built a gate to go across the driveway for when we are away, it seems strange to have to find keys for everything and try to lock everything up, as we don't normally worry about doing this.

I remembered to bring in the rain gauge last night, so that it won't freeze and break, and then of course it rained again last night.

It is damp and chilly this morning and Roy had to go to work, yuck.

7 days to go!!

Frost

Frost

It froze here last night, UGH! what a horrible thing to awaken to. There is ice in the bird bath. It has been a cool, rainy summer here and everyone is disgusted with the weather. Thank goodness we are leaving soon, the way the weather has been this year I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed!

Hmmm we have come up/down?? in the world I guess, the spammers found our blog last night, so I have turned on the word verification in the comment section.

There is some discussion on another blog that I read about blogging ins and outs. I find this site very easy to use. I started out blogging on MSN personal spaces; but found it frustrating. Half the time the various buttons wouldn't work and also you couldn't go into the "insides" of your blog and add codes, you used what was there. When I came across this site, I decided to try it. I like the fact that you can go in and insert codes for various stuff from other sites, etc.; although with me it is a hit and miss thing as to whether it goes where I want it to!!! I am not very computer literate. I like being able to add photos in the body of the post (you can choose from 3 sizes) and they are also clickable to enlarge. All in all blogging on this site is an easy experience. The link to our MSN site is on the sidebar if you want to check it out, I have left it there as all of our beginning preparations are there. I, also have been thinking of backing it up; but of course haven't done it yet, will probably wait until it crashes and then complain!!!

Have a good day.

9...8...7...6...5...Let the Countdown Begin

9...8...7...6... Let the Countdown Begin

Yesterday my sister and her family came up to visit. They picked up their ski-doos that had been stored here, our house plants, and her youngest son took home the fish from the pond. They brought their dog, so there was a happy doggy reunion. One of the first things she did was sit and wait for a doggie biscuit, pretty funny. We had a nice visit with them and they may come again next weekend before we go. They need to cut some wood for the winter so may also do that. My sister has emailed several times today, I guess the aerator for the fish quit overnight and 3 of the fish died, including the largest one which Rhyley had already named "Bigfoot". Hopefully they get an new airstone before they all die, oh well that's the way it goes I guess. We had plugged everything in here before they left so they would know how it worked; but I guess something must have gone wrong.

I called Bell ExpressVu today and put the T.V. on "vacation" for six months. Tomorrow is "visiting day" and Thursday the dog has to be taken for his haircut. He will need some extra attention after that as he always seems to be sad for a few days after his grooming. After that all that is left to do is wait until the day before we go to get the water cut off and we will be gone!

Billie to answer your question. We will be leaving here on September 21st and slowly traveling down to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We will be housesitting there from October 1st to the 6th and then will slowly travel to Mexico. There are several places that we want to stop and sightsee along the way. We expect to enter Mexico, through Nogales around the 15th of October.

We will be going to San Carlos, Guaymas, Empalme, Sonora area. We have been in contact with someone from there who has said that he will assist in renting a place, due to our lack of Spanish. He has emailed us that his wifes aunt has been constructing a couple of apartments and that one of them may be what we are looking for. It is a small, one bedroom place with a stove, small frig., a complete bathroom and a garage with a cost of about 2200 pesos for rent and utilities. So we will see what that is like when we get there. The apartment has a lavadero and he said we could use the aunts clothes dryer if we want. It will be interesting to see what it is like. From what I had been told most apartments are rented without stove, frig, etc. that are usual in a rental here. So it will be an adventure, we had kind of been expecting to be almost camping out in an apartment.

8 days to go.

We have been planning/researching this trip since last November and time is beginning to DRAG! I think that I have organised it to death, and am still wondering what I have forgotten to do, think I am driving Roy crazy! He very nicely, says that I am not.

Hasta Luego.

Getting Down to the Small Stuff

Getting Down to the Small Stuff

Yesterday we went to visit Roys daughter and grand-daughter, picked up the swim fins and did some shopping. I picked up a card reader for the camera and another memory card, so hopefully will be able to load our photos via internet cafe to the online photo album, if I can figure out the spanish keyboard stuff. Not too much left to do here before we leave, need to call Bell ExpressVu to put our service "on vacation", take the dog for his haircut, and that's about it. I will spend one day next week visiting people before we leave and then it is basically just wait until the water is cut off before leaving.

The hurricane chaos continues. FEMA rethinking the debit cards for evacuees; but FEMA employee credit cards have their limit increased from $2500.00 to $250,000.00? I'm hoping that that was a mistake in the reporting.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmmm

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmmm.....

12 days to go! Yesterday we both went to the Doctor and got our prescriptions, etc. for when we are gone, so that is done. I finished up the last few things in the yard. It's getting closer.

We are still watching the Hurricane Katrina news on T.V., here is a Webshots photo album with pictures of the devastation posted by people in the area. http://www.webshots.com/collections/hurricane/hurricane_0.html

We have also been doing some reading online, I find it interesting that a subsidiary of Haliburton has the contract to do the cleanup for disasters (not just in New Orleans, it is a general type contract, if I understood it correctly). This morning, heard that Bush had signed a bill saying that people working for contractors (you know, the people who have lost everything) at the disaster cleanup will not have to be paid the average wage. So....... Haliburton basically has the contracts and now will not have to pay the laborers even the "going rate". Hmmmmm..... guess who will benefit the most from the 50 some billion dollar relief fund, to be administered by FEMA?? The wonders of politics, and patronage!!! When all is said and done, will the average person who really needs the assistance get any?

I also came across Goggle Print. You can search book pages online which I think is nice. Here is that link: http://print.google.com/

Adios

14 Days and Counting

14 Days and Counting

It seems like ages since I have posted so will split this up into 3 posts this morning to make it easier.

It is getting closer to the time that we leave, 14 days and counting.

Yesterday I lowered the levels in two of the ponds, enough to catch the fish in one of them and enough to make catching the fish in the bigger one far easier in a week or so. It was warm yesterday, so I wanted to do that when I didn't have to be cold, as I usually end up getting wet and of course yesterday was no exception.

We woke up to a nice surprise this morning. We had an email from our contact in Mexico, who has been watching for a place for us to rent. Apparently his wifes aunt is in the process of making a couple of small apartments and he feels that one of them would be what we want. It sounds like we would have use of a garage for the car and a small apartment with a couple of rooms, which is all we are looking for. He is going to go and have a look at it and get back to us. We are looking for something very basic, ie: four walls and a roof, so were not really expecting too much.

The car has been overheating, so Roy is at the garage trying to get that rectified this morning.

I am going to put away the swing cushions, hammock, wrap the fountains up for winter and other outdoor things today, so I better get off of here and go get busy.

Hasta Luego

Katrina

Katrina

We have been glued to CNN since Hurricane Katrina hit, the devastation is unimaginable to us. It is wonderful how the people are rallying around the victims with offers of clothing, food, housing, jobs, etc.. I think it is great that Wal-Mart is trying to give jobs to the displaced people and former employees ; although I do question the wisdom of putting someone in a "deli" position when they have just been evacuated from an area where the distinct possibility of E-coli, Hepatitis A, gastro. infections etc. are very possible and/or probable.

It is a good thing that the average citizens are helping out as the government should be shot for their lack of timely response. How could FEMA not know about the people in the Dome or Convention Centre when everyone else in the world with a T.V., radio or computer knew?

Thank you Billie for posting the "Katrina" blogs on your site. If anyone is interested here is a link to Billies blog to find those links. http://billiemercer.blogspot.com/ . We have spent several hours reading them.

Life Returns to Normal-- For Us Anyway

Life Returns to Normal -- For Us Anyway

Our company arrived on Friday and left on Sunday, long enough for a nice visit. The weather co-operated and it was nice and sunny; although we did have a heavy rain one evening. It was nice to see everyone: my mom, her husband, my "big" brother, his wife and their daughter. My youngest son also came to visit on Saturday.

My niece and her mom.

My mom and sister-in-law.

My "big" brother, relaxing????

Our dog "Griz" and his buddy "Scotty" playing.

We went out for dinner on Saturday evening and they surprised me with a piece of cherry cheesecake with a birthday candle on it for dessert. One of my favorite desserts is cheesecake.
People company left on Sunday and doggie company left on Monday.
A busy, happy weekend.

A Short Visit

A Short Visit

Our company arrived last evening, we met them in town and visited while they had some supper. We then went to the towns fairgrounds, listened to the music, watched some metis dancing and the fireworks. Metis peoples ancestors were the original aboriginal people who intermingled with the French trappers and explorers who first travelled and lived in this area of Canada. It is Albertas centennial year this year and all of the towns/cities were celebrating it yesterday. The fireworks were very nice, everyone reacted with the appropriate oohs and aahs.

My mom and her husband then decided to call it a night and retired to a local motel, while my "big" brother, his wife and their daughter followed us home. They were tired from the drive, so we visited for awhile and retired. They are still sleeping at the moment, so I am getting my computer fix for the day. My youngest son is supposed to come up today to see them, so I'm sure it will be a busy day.

I emptied the deep freeze yesterday and cleaned it up, so that is done. The yard is almost finished with for the fall, just need to put away all the pumps for the ponds and fountains and empty all the water out of them. I also need to catch the fish from the ponds and give them away; but won't even attempt that until the ponds are pumped out, otherwise I will just end up wet and frustrated as the fish are faster than my netting hand!

17 days until we leave, I wonder what I am forgetting to do? I'm sure there is something; but hopefully it is not an important "something".

Well people are starting to awaken so time to go for now.

Hasta Luego.

Pokes in the Arm

Pokes in the Arm

Well, we are all finished getting needles poked into us. Roy had his Mantu test yesterday morning and I had my Hepatitis A booster shot this morning. Tomorrow morning Roy has to go back and let them "read" where they poked him and that will be it. When we return, he should go back and have it done all over again, by doing this, if he does test positive then they can better determine where he was in contact with the T.B.. I'm sure that will be high on his priority list when we return!

We are getting company Friday and Saturday, so I need to get busy and root out some spare bedding and pillows for 5 extra people. I should also do some housecleaning which hasn't been high on my list, between all the summer yard work and getting ready to go. Having company should help to clean out the deep freeze for us anyway. It will be nice to be able to see some of my family before we go away. Roy has taken the next couple of days off of work because of the company coming, so in the morning we may make a quick visit to his daughters and also retrieve the swim fins, before our company arrives. We will see how energetic we feel.

Time to get busy I guess.

Tengo un dia bueno.