HEADING TO TUCSON!!

Dec.3rd

We left Van Horn-and the new friends we met there. We had a good time in this little town,and hope to see our friends on the road-someplace-sometime!
We spent the night in Lordsburg,New Mexico-another KOA-clean and neat, but not a friendly one like in Van Horn. Tomorrow we would be in Tucson!
Dec.4th
We arrive in Tucson and manage to find Randy's house. He is Andy's good friend, and has been so nice to let Andy hang out with him in Tucson. His house is great-and the view of the mountains is spectacular! Soon Andy arrives home, and it is soo good to see him! We just spend the evening relaxing and catching up-Randy makes a beautiful fire for us,and Ginger and Shadow(Randy's sweet white Shepard) get along well and have some playtime. We hit the bed early-tomorrow is a new day!
Dec.5th
We had parked "the house" next door to Randy's-Andy is hoping to rent the house-and the owners said he could stay there while they were working out the details. All was good-we grilled pork chops,visited-and had settled in for the night. Around 10pm,Andy got a call from one of the homes owner's-the wife was on her way there-flying in from Vegas,would be "home" at 1am. So, change of plans! the next morning we pack up the house and move to a great rv resort down the road. Andy will come and spend the weekend with us!
Sat. we just play most of the day-Andy puts lamb on the weber-it is a great night.
We meet our neighbor-her name is Sharon,she is from Victoria BC,and her little dog Mina. We asked Sharon to stay for dinner-and she and Mina accept. Randy joins us and has brought Shadow too! Dinner is delicious, the music is good-and Mike even gets a dance with Sharon. We have been so lucky to have met sooo many great people on our travels.
Dec.7th
Today will be a lazy football watching,brunch eating day.
The weather is a bit chilly-Andy has brought firewood-and we have a semi-legal fire in the weber. We get Sharon,and start a game of 31-it has been quite awhile since we have played-but we muddle through and even teach Sharon and Andy to play. I was lucky and won-then Sharon announces next time she will try to teach us how to play "blind 31" I think she is holding out on us! Anyway-it was fun, and Andy makes us a fabulous dinner of Steak and crab legs and broccoli-yum!
Tomorrow we will get our "house" ready for our travel to Calif.! The beautiful purple cactus is in Randy's yard-never have seen purple!!

Van Horn Texas, and the Carlsbad Caverns!

Nov.29th

We packed up our horses and left Austin-
our stay there was longer than expected-and more wonderful and fun than we could have imagined! We will spend the night in Ozona,Texas-if you have not heard of it,well we have not either. There is a KOA there-so we should be fine for the night.
Nov. 30th
We decided to spend the night in Van Horn,Texas-another KOA.
the park is ok,a few two many stickers for Ginger-but all is fine.
We ended up spending three nights here-the people(our hosts and workampers) are so friendly. They are a great group and it is fun to just hang out here for a bit.
We decided to make the two hour(each way) to see the Carlsbad Carverns. Both of us have wanted to check it out-so off we go. The day we choose is Tuesday,Dec.2nd-in honor of David's Birthday-his 55th I have to add!
We did a jet-boat tour on Nolan's 30th Birthday-so this seems only right.

We arrive at the caverns-they are in the middle of the desert-amazing how they were ever discovered in the first place! We had booked a tour of one area of the cave-the Kings Palace. We left Ginger at home-and when we went over the New Mexico border-the time changed back an hour too. We cancelled our tour for fear Ginger would not be so happy when we got home so late. We did the natural entrance to the "big room"-self guided tour about 1.50 miles, and about 2 hrs long. we begin our decent-it will be a total of about 800ft,and all steep switchbacks into the cave. We were both totally out of our comfort zones-and wondered if we had made the right decision to walk down-and skip the elevator! the first part was pretty eery-and,to top it off,smelled like bat poop. we kept on, because the alternative-to walk back up was not an option!
the path smoothed out a bit as we got lower, and closer to the "big room" at the bottom of the cavern. the scenery was quite beautiful-and amazing how this cavern has been exactly the same inside for millions of years. In the early 20's,guests had to walk on wooden stairs all the way-that would have been pretty scary and difficult.
All in all, we had a great time and were so glad we did the whole tour. Tomorrow our calfs will feel our choice!

THE DAY AFTER

nov.28th

We had such a great Thanksgiving-and the third sleepover with Mum-what more could we ask for? wel, Sheila made us a great breakfast friday morning-we enjoyed the dogs a bit more-then it was time to say good-bye.
I cannot remember how many years it had been since I had Thanksgiving with my Brother,Don-but it does not matter. We had the best time-and however many years it took to get together-it will not take that many more next time til we do it again!

Eve of nov.28th
we were so happy that we will be able to see Mike and His Wife, Jolene before we leave Austin. They moved to Austin a little over a year ago-and we so had hoped we would be able to get together while we were here in Texas.
Mike(aka Mario) and Jolene came to camp Fri. eve-we had a great visit-some wine, some catching up-and some great food at the restaurant down the road!
It was so nice to see Mike G. and Mike M. get to visit-so much history between them.
we will come back to see them before too long-what fun and trouble we can get into-so look out you guys-we will be back!!!!

AND NOW GINGER GETS HER TURN!

Sheila was so patient and let Ginger get in the ring-how fun it was to see how she did! We now know she is great with the ducks-the sheep-well,not so much!

THE RIGHT WAY TO WORK THE DUCKS AND SHEEP

Easy knows how to get the job done-he is so cute and smart!!

A THANKSGIVING FEAST-THE BEST IN YEARS!!

Nov. 27th
Thanksgiving day! Yippeee!
We get up and get out of the house pretty early. We have a couple of stops,then pick up Mum-head to Manor. Oh, bye the way-this will be the THIRD SLEEPOVER for Mum and Mike and I. Mike has made Rumaki-I have made the cranberries. I still think of my former(legally) sister-in-law, Sandy, everytime I make cranberries. We always would call each other when we were doing then. Happy Thanksgiving Sandy!
so, we get to Don and Sheila's-the dogs are all excited-including Ginger. They all want to meet each other. Don and Sheila raise and train and breed-Austrailian Shepards-they have puppies all over this world!
Don has made some delicious appetizers-we are not going to go hungry here!
Everything is so good-and the day is perfect.
We are getting to see Easy-one of the best doggies- work with the ducks and sheep. He is amazing-it is fun to see the dog work,and to see the ducks and sheep talk about Easy when they are back in their respective pens. Now it time for Ginger to have a turn! well, she had a blast working with the ducks-they obeyed her-and were so cute. The ducks get points for being so well mannered. next-the sheep. I love-ed the sheep,watching them in their pens-all walking together and chatting. Well, the sheep did not think Ginger was so cute-one of them let her know they were so not going to behave for her-and after a few pokes from the male sheep-we got the heck out of dodge! It was fun to see Ginger with the animals-Sheila really has a good hand on what goes on "at the Hall ranch".
Dinner was perfect-a very traditional,perfect in every way feast. Don worked so hard to make everything so good-he is a great chef-and did it in less time and with less mess than anyone else I am related to! Don-you are a star!
We had fabulous home-made rice pudding with whipped cream for dessert-a perfect ending to a perfect day. Thanks Don and Sheila-and also all of the puppies that made the day so much fun. To the ducks-thank you! to the sheep-Baaaaaaad! To the horses-I know you did not really want to bite my ear. Merlin and Easy-I love you!

A FUN EVENING IN AUSTIN TEXAS

Nov.25th

After we left Mum's-we were inspired to shop at the H E B and get the groceries for our bbq that eve. with Sam and Lonnie-Alex, and Jason and his beautiful new bride-Krissy(I hope the spelling is ok,let me know please!)
we decided to bbq at our "house"-it was a great decision,we had such a great evening catching up and just having fun. Sam tried to talk Mike into staying just a couple more days-but Mike was tough-we had to get on the road.
It was so nice to see everyone in Roundrock,Manor,Austin,and Georgetown. Next time-Central Market, and 6th street-and yes,Jolene-the fair and Fredricksberg!!!
Mike gives a big shout-out for the "boys" that came for a visit-you know who you are-
it was a special time in Texas-and we have yet to do the Thanksgiving feast with Don and Sheila and Mum!!