Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and hope that 2013 brings good fortune and blessings for you!
Thank you to our familyMary Jo and Dick's cabin, New Mexico, Dec 2012 and friends who provided many joys, encouraged us through struggles and brought repeated smiles in the past year.
With all good wishes, I’m sharing a few photos that didn’t make it to the blog in the past twelve months. 
A great way for me to start is with this photo of Mary Jo and Dick’s Christmas tree in their cabin in Ramah, New Mexico – a special setting for some special people.  Thanks for the memories, MJ!

We all enjoyed the Niehaus family gathering in November a great deal. Here’s my niece, Angie, my nephew, Alan, my daughter, Krissy, my niece,Nikki, and another nephew, Patrick.   What a great group of young people!  Love you all.
Niehaus Cousins, Nov 18, 2012

Tim, once again, generously hosted our Thanksgiving.  The turkey was delicious and it was a heartwarming day.   Thanks Tim. And Happy Birthday to you, too! 
Tim's Thanksgiving 2012






















 And here’s my favorite guy on Thanksgiving with two great gals, Amy, his niece, and Jamie, Tim’s lady.   Aren’t they a beautiful trio?!
Thanksgiving 2012

My grand nephew, Chase, gives us his handsome smile.  He’s a guy we enjoy spending time with and he adds a special ingredient to the family gatherings.
Chase Perkins , Nov 2012

My sister, Lin, is posing here with her granddaughter, Madison.  This is such a rare happening, that Lin would actually be so nice.  I had to add this one for the record! Winking smile
Madison and Lin May

This lineup also needs these special grandchildren….Caroline and Ben having a good time with Gramps!
Caroline, Jerry (Gramps) and Ben

And just because, I’m including a photo from the summertime.  Hanging out at our place with Marti, (Sis) and her two grandchildren, Breann and Chase. It was a nice afternoon. 
Breann, Nancy, Chase, Marti
Niagara Falls, Nov 2012

Peace, love and joy to all!

Saturday, December 22, 2012

A Friendly Day in Congress (AZ)

When people reach out to include you they make you feel so good.  That’s how things are going here for us.  We have been visiting with our friends, Jerry and Dee Thomas, at their place in The Thomas Truck, Congress,AZCongress, Arizona , at North Ranch RV Park.  It’s an outgoing group of folks that make this their home for various amounts of time during the year. (These guys to the left are included in that group.  But, hold on. We’ll talk about this splendid vehicle later.)
This morning Dee invited a few girls to her house for Christmas cookie decorating. She baked Jerry’s great grandmother’s cookie recipe, about five dozen delicious Christmas cookie decorating in Congress, AZsugar cookies.  Then Marla and I got to create designs with icing and sprinkles.  Part of the fun was licking the delicious icing off our  fingers, of course. The guys took care of various “projects” all day long, too.  There always seems to be a project or two.  But first and last, there’s lots of good conversation, discussing the how to’s and why not's of it all. 
As we move around the country we are blessed to encounter people that are outgoing and enjoy life. This afternoon, as we were heading back to the lot where we’re parked, we stopped to say hi to Marla and Rick and found we had a mutual friend from their hometown of Sheridan, Wyoming.
By the early Christmas Goodies Box.afternoon we had shared stories, sampled cookies, tweaked motorhomes, shopped for Christmas groceries and retrieved packages and mail from the local post office.  We received Krissy’s Christmas baked goodies gift today.  We aren’t finished sampling the new assortment for this year. But I have  to say the lemon truffles are exquisite.  And Jerry still loves the spiced nuts.
And, oh yeah, there was even time today for Jerry (Thomas) and his brother, Tom, to relax and reminisce as they looked cool in their family heirloom truck, “Big Red.” This 1955 Dodge (in the photo at the beginning of my post) worked for the Thomas's in their RV park business for many years.  I think that this vehicle might tell a myriad of tales of these two with their Dad back in Ohio.  Memories!
Thanks for visiting Hurley Travels.  Stay safe.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Death Valley National Park–A Site To See

We recently enjoyed a few days in one of the most scenic and surprisingDante's View  in Death Valley NP places we’ve been lucky enough to visit.   Death Valley National Park is vibrant, colorful and diverse…even if it is the hottest place in the world.  We only covered a portion of the 3,000,000 acres, but we sure did get our eyes full of spectacular scenes. 
We chose to spend our time in the southern area of Death Valley, taking in that section of the canyons, views of the valley and mountains and interesting history and geology. We camped in Furnace Creek Campground where there are water and sewer hookups available at a reasonable price of $18, only $9 for us Golden Age pass holders.   From there we were conveniently located for the sites we chose. Echo Canyon and Ole Yeller (Oh, BTW, if you see a promo for this national park, look for us at the information kiosk at the visitors center.  They filmed us as we used the self-help presentations for the park.)
To start off our Death Valley exploring, how about seven miles into Echo Canyon?!  Ole Yeller carried us easily over the mushy gravel trail as we were enjoying being out in the open again.  There are wind and rain-carved, colorful walls all the way through the canyon, displaying the results of millions of years of earth movement and exposure of the layers of minerals.  Sunshine and 60s made it a pleasant morning, ending with our lunch back at the entrance to the canyon with the valley stretched out in front of us. 
Our next path was through Twenty Mule Team Canyon with its caramel-looking mountains.  Some people describe them as mudhills. (Below)  We were curious about the makeup of these chalky-looking hills. Death Valley's Twenty Mule Team CanyonThey have a high clay concentration. When you grab a piece it crumbles in your fingers.  We could imagine the mule teams pulling the wagons of borax during the mining period in the late 1800s.  In the Death Valley Museum in the park we saw examples of the large wagons and other equipment used in mining and processing this product in these hills.
The next destination we chose was the Artist Drive located about 20 miles down another highway within the park.
Wow! Artists Palette at Death Valley NPThe name of this four-mile road tells the story.  It winds through a continuous array of shades, almost as though an artist was gathering various paints for a piece of work.  At one point a road sign points to the Artist Palette where you can stop to view the mounds of greens, tans and rusty-reds of this volcanic formation.   As it turned out our timing was just right.  We came through between 3 and 4 pm, ending our drive just as the sun dropped behind  mountains to the west.  The natural lighting was bringing out the best in those shades of nature. Then, as we stood watching the lights went out and all the colors were subdued.
On another day in the park we decided to take the 52-mile-round-trip up to Dante’s View.  This was stupendous!    The view is breathtaking. Nancy at Dante's View, Death Valley NP (That’s the first photo as I began this post.) At the top you are 5500 feet above it all, with a view of the mountains sloping up from the valley.   But there is definitely a scary and chilly feature of this location.  We were battling very strong winds with a 15-20 degree drop in temps as we tried to stand at the viewpoint. Here I am trying to hang on to my hat and keep my footing at my wonderful hubby tells me to stand next to the “keep back” sign. But it was exhilarating and fun up there.  
From over-the-top to the underside – our exploration went to the Devil’s Golf Course, Devil's Golf Course where the evaporated lake formed crusty mounds of salt down in the bottom of the valley.   These crustaceans are soBadwater Basin in Death Valley Natl. Pk. eerie and unique. We just had to touch those rough, frozen,  mounds to sample the salt.  Lastly, we traveled about five more miles down the road to Badwater Basin, 282 feet below sea level. There we took a walk out on the expansive salt floor. Here the erosion from the surrounding mountains has formed a 9,000 ft. basin of sand, silt, gravel and salt.  This is yet another unique experience, standing on a solid, smooth, foundation of what appears to be packed salt.  Occasionally a pond will survive after a rain and provide a home for small creatures that can somehow live in the saltwater. Today there was a small pond bubbling at the edge of the salt flat.
We were very impressed with Death Valley National Park, even though we took in only a portion of what’s there to enjoy. This is, for sure, a place we would revisit.  Below is a shot of the mountains as we stood at the Devil’s Golf Course.  In the foreground you can see just a small part of the dry lake bed of the valley that forms sharp, crusty, salty towers as the wind and rain do their thing over thousands of years. 
Devil's Golf Course view.
Thanks for spending some time with us in Death Valley.  Stay safe!

Monday, December 10, 2012

The Road Traveled to Beautiful Scenes and Good Friends

Since my last Arizona scenerypost ten days ago we have enjoyed both good scenery and good friends in New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada.  The first good news was that the weather forecast was sunny and 60s for at least another week as we approached northern New Mexico.   That meant we were definitely on the northern route across I40, leading us to a visit with good friend Mary Jo who lives south of Albuquerque.  So, we found a comfortable, clean, and reasonable stopover park in Grants, the Bar S RV Park. 
Having some personal visiting time with Mary Jo was super. Our day included a very nice trout lunch at the Wow Diner in Grants and then a trip to her friend, Trish’s, Horse Park and Lodge about Mary Jo and Nancy15 miles west of Grants. There we had the chance for catching up, sharing all of our latest experiences and plans.  And, there was also Trish, an amazing lady and new friend. She is rebuilding her cabin and other buildings and facilities on her property.  If anyone wants to bring their horses and stay at her place, it is such a welcoming and accommodating facility.   013 Trish and her daughter have also built up a small deli that serves a popular frittata for breakfast and a selection of sandwiches that people come back for.  The park is just outside the entrance to Bluewater State Park in New Mexico, about five miles south of I40.  What a perfect spot for two old friends to get to spend some time together.  Thanks to Trish and her daughter, Kiersten, for welcoming us.
After a few days of resting, we were ready for our next destination, Nevada.  I was curious to see Death Valley, so we decided to head that way. But why not spend a few days in Pahrump, Nevada, first? Okay….next stop, Pair A Dice RV Park, an Escapees Park we haven’t had the chance to try.    As soon as we registered at the park office we found friendly Escapees members who greeted us with smiles.  Then, we ran into some RVing friends, Laura and Gordon Bornkamp, parked at their lot just two spaces down from where we were parked.  It’s been great to talk with Laura and Gordon, getting the lowdown on this area and where their travels are taking them.   Then, last evening they gave us a tip on the local casino giveaways of cash prizes and ipads.  None of us were selected for the prizes but we had fun sharing a few laughs while we played a little.  We all came out ahead anyway. There was even some time for techie stuff. Laura and I put our heads together today with our iPads, sharing our favorite apps and tricks.
One strange thing did happen in the past three days.  We haven’t taken any pictures!   Weird!  So, you don’t see any pics shared here of our latest visit with friends.   Maybe I’ll fix that tomorrow morning…
For now, I’m signing out.  Death Valley is on our agenda for the next few days.   More to come.
Thanks for visiting Hurley Travels.  Stay safe.