Friends always seem to find you--thank goodness!

It seems no matter where we travel, other traveling RV friends always seem to find us, & we are grateful for this. It is definitely nice to see a few friendly faces along the way.

We were blessed by Dave & Elinore's presence again. They were visiting Branson, which is not far from Dianne's mom home, & they thought we should get together at least one more time before they traveled on to Florida. So we met up at the "Bass Pro Shop Outdoor World" in Springfield, MO. If you haven't been there, do yourself a favorite and put it on your "places to see". What a hoot.

Of course we had to finish our visit with a "goodbye dinner", and it just so happened that Lambert's (home of the throwed rolls) was just down the street. Again fun, good food and too many laughs with good friends!!

A few days later more Boomer friends--Gloria & Charlie Goss happened by this remote part of Mo, with their friends--so of course we all just had to go out and eat...... Doesn't it seem as if eating is on the agenda no matter where we are at--now why is that?? Oh yeah we love it!!

Thanksgiving in October

Unfortunately, we are rarely able to be with Dianne's mom & brother during the holidays--but fortunately for us our family can choose to be thankful whenever it is convenient. And Thursday, October 29th was the Watson's Thanksgiving Day!! Thank you Ron, you out did yourself!

A most wonderful visit with Mom & Ron

We have finally arrived in Neosho. Dianne's Mom and younger brother Ron, reside in this quaint mid-western town in southwestern MO, within the Ozarks. One of the benefits of being full-timers is being able to visit family wherever they may be. We were able to celebrate Dianne's mom 83rd birthday at her favorite local Chinese dining spot.

Mesa Verde NP, CO

This is such an incredible park to view & spend time in. So much of what we saw was beyond description. Thousands of years of an Indian culture--their homes, lifestyle & their very existence on the cliffs of an area so remote. Yet viberant and growing at a rapid speed--only to stop--why??? The cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are some of the most notable and best preserved in the North American Continent. Sometime during the late 1190s, after primarily living on the mesa top for 600 years, many Ancestral Puebloans began living in pueblos they built beneath the overhanging cliffs. The structures ranged in size from one-room storage units to villages of more than 150 rooms. While still farming the mesa tops, they continued to reside in the alcoves, repairing, remodeling, and constructing new rooms for nearly a century. By the late 1270s, the population began migrating south into present-day New Mexico and Arizona. By 1300, the Ancestral Puebloan occupation of Mesa Verde ended--leaving us to wonder why??

All of this would have been lost if not for President Theodore Roosevelt who in 1906 established Mesa Verde National Park to "preserve the works of man," it was the first national park of its kind. Today, the continued preservation of both cultural and natural resources is the focus of the park's research and resource management staff.

We often found ourselves trying to see "in our mind's eye" what this way of life must of looked liked--what did day in and day out bring???
We hiked into some of the ruins and were treated to a tour once we desended into the Ancestral Puebloans homes. We learned they made Mesa Verde their home from about A.D. 550 to 1300. For more than 700 years they and their descendants lived and flourished here. So much of what we saw left us wondering & yet in awe of all they acomplished.

Now, Mesa Verde National Park preserves a spectacular reminder of this ancient culture. The park contains over 4,000 known archaeological sites including cliff dwellings and the mesa top sites of pithouses, pueblos, masonry towers, and farming structures. Use the links below to learn about some of these archaeological sites. We of course were only able to view a small faction of what is available & preserved.

Riding the Rails in Colorado

As many of you know, Dianne loves trains--and more importantaally loves to ride a train. One of the trains she has wanted to ride is the the Durango-Silverton train--and finally the time was at hand.

What a wonderful train ride this was & we were so happy that Elinore & Dave Barry joined us on the trip. The Durango-Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad winds through spectacular & breathtaking canyons in the remote wilderness of the two-million acre San Juan National Forest. We were able to experience the adventure of traveling by a coal-fired, steam-powered locomotive on the same tracks miners, cowboys and settlers of the Old West took over a century ago. In Silverton it had been snowing just prior to our arrival, and gave us a photo opportunity of our 1st snowfall of the season. We were very happy we had reserved an indoor car-the outside viewing cars were a bit cold;)

Arches National Park UT

We woke up early today, energized after a good nights sleep and ready to explore our next National Park, Arches. This park is such a fascinating place with it thousands of sandstone arches, spires, balanced rocks, pinnacles and fins towering above the desert. It is without a doubt a sightseer's mecca.

The park lies atop an underground salt bed, while earth above it is compress rock and so millions of years of erosion by water, ice, extreme temperatures, and the underground movement of salt, which is much softer, gives way it created these spectacular arches and rock formations. Even now new arches are being formed and old ones destroyed, and it was cool to see evidence of this throughout the park.

Elinor and Dave again joined as our visit to the park and we all found trekking around this park worth the tried bones & sore feet we experienced later that evening. Seems age can sometimes catch up with you when your not looking. Funny that way that happens, huh?

Dead Horse State Park is a definite must see!

We were advised by fellow RV’ers that we should not miss Dead Horse State Park, and I must admit we were not ill advised! If you are in this area don't miss going to this statepark. Y0u will feel as if you are on top of the world. It is only thirty minutes from Moab, at a turn off on the way to Canyonlands, It is most certainly worth a 1/2 day side trip. This really is a must-see location. It is, without question, one of the most spectacular vistas in the American Southwest as you stand on the rim of the canyon and overlook the Colorado River & Green River meandering below with a very up close and personal view of a spectataular view below.

Canyonlands National Park, UT

Today just before noon, the Barrys & we arrived at our destination a little north of Moab, UT. We found a Passport America park, Arch View, that was perfect. And as the name denotes, we had a spectacular view. We set up quickly and left soon after to explore our 1st park, Canyonlands.

There are five National Parks in Utah, Canyonlands is the largest in Utah and was established in 1964. The 530 square miles of park contain countless colorful canyons, arches, buttes, mesas and a myriad of other spectacular rock formations. There are two great canyons carved by the Green and Colorado rivers. Over millions of years, the rivers and their small tributaries have carved the flat sandstone rock layers into many amazing forms with a wide range of colors, so many vistas, so many rock formations, so much to gaze upon. Wow what a treat to the eyes—even if our poor feet were a bit tired at the end of the day.

It was dark by the time we exited the park and we decided to drive into Moab for a quick bite. Little did we know that October around these parts is a mighty busy month, and there were lots of folks looking for that quick bite. We did finally get to eat and thankfully it was more than satisfactory. Yeah, like a few extra people in town could prevent us from eating--hardly--we're Boomers!

Winchester Bay Oregon with R(o)Ving Rods

We left our summer roost in Portland a few days ago and cruised down the Oregon Coast to Winchester Bay, with an overnight stop in Florence to enjoy the company of several of our Boomer friends from the road.

And why Winchester Bay you might wonder? Well, the Gruelle's and seafood, especially Crab, are a marriage made in heaven. So when the R(o)Ving Rods hold their annual Crabfest Rally, in this small harbor by the bay in late September, we try, if at all possible to be there. We've been members of this group since we went on the road in 04, but this is only our 3rd year to attend. This year there were over 70 of us parked at Salmon Harbor overlooking the beautiful marina, for 8 or more days--on asphalt, no hook-ups only lots of fun, setting crab traps, pulling crab pots, cooking crabs, picking crabs, bagging crabmeat, group lunches & dinners out, games, laughter, daily social hours, and did I mention the best part....eating all that crab! This is a communal event, with everyone sharing in the bounty. Some have boats to crab from, some toss their traps off the pier, others cook & clean the crabs, many of us join in the picking of the crabs and then we all share the meat of the crabs in the way of potlucks. The crabmeat is given out to be used in a potluck dish that is shared by all and feasting begins. I never knew there were so many ways to make a crab dish--and all of it was delicious.

There were a good number of Boomers (19 of us) this year which made the event all that more enjoyable. This meant walks in the day, games in the evening and even a computer class thrown in on Blogging. And a big thanks to Boomer friends Jenny & Dan Sheppard (pictured in top photo in his very Yellow outfit) for sending us back on the road with a few fresh crabs from Dan's own catch. Now that's "good friends"!