On our last day in Vista my sister Sam drove up to join us and we had a fun day together. Here’s a picture of the four of us.
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Still in Vista, but we had to move to another RV Park
Gaujome County Park is beautiful, but they impose a maximum stay of 21 days. Since we want to be in Vista with our families for 4 weeks we had to move to another RV Park. We went to Champage Lakes RV Park, just a couple of miles north of the Lawrence Welk Resort on Interstate 15 in North San Diego County.
It’s also a beautiful and rustic setting. There are three lakes, lots of trees and lots of peace and quiet.
Laddy likes the wildlife!
Laddy sees many small animals during his walks. When he sees a squirrel he wants to chase it and when he sees a bunny in the grass he turns into a hunting dog, moving very slowly with his head down towards the little critter. Of course he can’t catch them as he’s on a leash, but it’s obvious he wants to!
Yesterday we were relaxing in the trailer a bit before dinner when a bunny rabbit hopped out from a bush right next to Laddy’s window and started nibbling on the fresh grass there. Laddy noticed him and sat up straight and watched him hop around a little and nibble.
After a few mninutes a squirrel came out from the bush too and started looking around for nuts. Laddy sat very still and watched them both intently! Here are some photos (I’ve adjusted the area around the bunny and squirrel so they show up in the photos):
We’re now in Vista CA visiting friends and family
We’re in Vista now, close to my Mom and sister and Jeff’s dad. Also pretty close to where we started from, which is giving us a chance to visit with friends.
No pictures or sightseeing for us while here.
We’ll be leaving this area about the third week in March, so come back to see where we’re headed next.
See ya, Paula and Jeff
It SNOWED on us while driving through Tucson AZ
As we drove through Tucson on the 20th on our way to visit family in Casa Grande AZ, we ran into a snowstorm! Very unexpected! Tucson is in the southern part of Arizona and is usually very hot and dry. Lots of cactus etc.
Here are a few pictures:
Remember the Alamo!
We stopped in San Antonio on our way west and visited the Alamo. It’s quite small in terms of size, but has a great story to tell of bravery, patriotism and sacrifice. Did you know that the siege of the Alamo by General Santa Anna was 13 days long and the Mexican Army had over a thousands troops while the U.S. had less than 300? Did you know that the U.S. troops were given a choice to stay and fight to the death or leave and try to escape and that only one person left? Did you know that no reinforcements were able to make it to the Alamo in time to come to the aid of the soldiers – every soldier was killed and their bodies burned.
There were some women, children and slaves who were spared with the command to tell the story.
If you’re ever in south-central Texas, be sure to stop and see the Alamo!!
Heading west – back to California
We spent a little over a month in Picayune with my daughter and her family, and had a great time. It was really nice to spend more than a few crowded days with them. We got to know each of the kids a lot better and they got to know us more.
But, now it’s time to head out. We’re heading west to California…I’ll post more as we travel!
A side trip with my grandson Kyle to find snow
We’re currently in Picayune MS visiting my daughter and her family. I’ve promised each of the grandkids a trip for their 11th birthday and Kyle asked to see snow. A couple of weeks ago a large weather storm moved through our area, dumping LOTS of rain, and 4-8″ of snow was predicted for the Smoky Mountains. Since they are pretty close to where we are and we could do a long weekend, Kyle and I boarded a plane and headed to Atlanta GA. From there we drove just a few hours up into the Smoky Mountains.
Well, the weather forecasters were wrong! Such a small amount of snow fell that it was pretty much all gone by the time we go tthere. We did find a small patch along the road where we pulled over and Kyle got to feel it and make a small snowball.
Just driving into the mountains was a new experience for Kyle – coming from the coastal part of Mississippi, he had never seen hills, let along mountains! He did a great job of navigating using my iPad map app, and he took several pictures of the mountains, some in the morning showed a lot of the misty smoke that gave the mountain area its name.
We continued into the mountains to Cherokee, NC which we knew was one of the higher points in the Smoky Mountains. Again, no snow. I wanted to head over the mountain pass on I-441 ending in Gatlinburg TN, but a rockslide had closed the pass so we headed east again.
We found the Scaly Mountain Outdoor Center the next morning – just what we wanted! They blow snow onto a tubing run and have an outdoor ice skating rink. Kyle had a blast!! The lines for the tubing run were never more than 15 minutes long and were great fun – in his words “AWESOME”. He was a novice to ice skating, but within an hour was gliding around and doing spins! I posted a video of him ice skating on YouTube: http://youtu.be/7kBOx3i8AGs. A 3-hour pass to do both activities was just $30.
We found a motel by 3pm that day near Franklin NC and the motel manager suggested we make a trip to the Fun Factory in Franklin. It was a great place to round out the trip. We bowled, played mini-golf, Kyle got to ride the go-carts and have fun in the laser-tag arena. There were also lots of video games. By the time we settled in for the night we were both pretty tired!
The next day we headed back to Atlanta and flew home. What a great trip! Here are some pictures:
Back in Picayune – and it’s raining!
We’re back in Picayune where my daughter lives, and it’s been raining the whole time so far! It’s great to back with family and get to spend so much time with our grandkids!
For his 11th birthday I’m taking Kyle for a trip to see snow. We’ll leave this Thursday and will be back Sunday night. We’re heading to the Smoky Mountains, and there’s a slight chance the storm system making it’s way through the area will drop snow in the higher elevations, but even if not there are some ski resorts in that area where they make snow. So, we’ll have lots of fun! I’ll definitely post some pictures when we get back.
Florida Caverns – did you know Florida has a cavern like Carlsbad does?
The Florida Caverns is in the panhandle of Florida where there are hills, in southern Florida a hole in the ground would be filled with water!
The Florida Caverns is a state park and while much smaller than the Carlsbad Caverns it’s unique and very interesting! There’s a lot more white in the stalactites and stalagmites due to a higher concentration of calcite. This cavern was discovered in the early 20th century and walkways were dug out by the CCC during the depression to make it accessible to visitors. Even with the walkways being dug out, it’s a lot more natural-looking and in several areas we had to bend way down to get through. It’s advertised as being 4 feet high in some areas and 2 feet wide in some areas.
We saw a lot of seashells in the ceiling area as the whole area was once underwater. We saw a larger fossil in one area noted in the picture below, as well as a formation named the Tower of Babel and one that resembles a statue of a mother holding a child.
An interesting point is that this cavern was discovered when the owner of the property decided to cut down a tree that had fallen over – when he arrived at the tree he noticed that a big hole in the ground where the roots had come out. He crawled into the hole and discovered the cavern!
Here are some pictures we took during our tour of the cavern: