Crossing Missouri

If you combine rain

a lot of green

some limestone walls

and many, many cows

and throw in the giant Mississippi River and it tributaries

you will have a good idea what our trip across Missouri was like this week.

We have seen a lot of cold weather and cold rain over the past week or so. The wind and cold and rain began while we were in Tulsa. We cancelled our plans and reservations to go to Branson because of the threat of more rain and flooding in that area. The rain you see on the first photo above was falling Saturday in Tulsa.

Of course it takes a lot of rain to bring out all the green fields and leaves we saw as we crossed Missouri.  Coming from Colorado and spending our winters in Arizona, all the green is a delightful change.

We had no idea Missouri had so many cattle ranches.  The fields we passed as we drop east on I-44 were full of cows.  Maybe we were driving in Mooosouri!

The limestone hills and walls seen in this part of the country are so picturesque.  Of course the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers get most of their water from snow melt and rain. 

We also saw a farm that had camels as we drove east.  Our GPS doesn't understand that Missouri names county roads with the letters of the alphabet.  When it told us to turn onto Missouri MM we were told to turn on "mo millimeter."  We really laughed at that.

We also saw a sign on the back of a septic tank pump-out truck that read, "Yesterday's Meals on Wheels."

We get most of our weather news from the internet, so we surprised when we saw on the local news while we were in Springfield, MO, that there was a lot of flooding east around St. Louis.  In fact I-44 was closed at Lebanon due to flooding.  When I call the Missouri Department of Transportation on Tuesday morning before leaving Springfield, it was suggested we drive north to I-70 and take that road in to St. Louis.  The detour added about 100 miles to our drive.  We are now just east of the state line and the Mississippi River in Cahokia, Illinois, for a few days.  It rained most of the day and will do so again tomorrow.  We hope we don't have to figure out too many more detours.  But the good news is we haven't been caught in rising water and have traveled safely.

Water and Frisbee and Sailboats

Since John had a clergy retreat in Prescott this week, we took the trailer and spent a couple of nights in Point of Rocks RV Campground. We were right next to Watson Lake and the Granite Dells.  It is a beautiful place to walk.

In addition to several fishing boats and canoes, we saw this tiny sailboat on the lake.  It is entirely wind-driven but a radio-controlled motor changes the angles of the sails and the rudder to direct where the boat goes.

We see radio-controlled airplanes in a number of the parks we stay in and there is fierce competition with radio-controlled race cars in our resort.  This was our first time to see sailboats like this.

The Prescott park next to Watson Lake also has a Frisbee golf course.  A number of young men and women were playing the day we were down there.

While John attended the retreat, I stayed at the trailer, using my computer and walking. Prescott calls its trail system the mile high trail because of the elevation there. The low Thursday morning when we prepared to return to Gold Canyon was only 28 degrees.  We were glad to get back to a (slightly) warmer part of Arizona.

Montana Landsdape

As we drove north toward Glacier National Park we passed through the beautiful Montana farm and ranch country before reaching the mountains. There are great expanses of grass and wheat.

All that wheat has to be stored somewhere.

The sky began filling with clouds.

The mountains were striking, especially under that ominous dark cloud.

Then the fog came in.

Then came the rain.

The day we arrived outside Glacier it was cloudy and rainy. Since then we have had sunshine and beautiful scenery.

Time to Go?

The RV section of our resort is getting pretty empty. Look at all these available sites.

A lot of the park models have been closed up for the summer, as well. You can always tell when you see empty decks and covered automobiles.

If you are living somewhere north of Arizona and the temperatures are in the 40s or 50s and there is still a threat of snow, you might be wondering why all these spaces are empty. Here is the reason. This was our high temperature on Wednesday.

Even before it got that hot, we were told over 100 sites were to be vacated on April 1. Many snowbirds stay through Easter, then head home. April 1 was in the week after Easter. We aren't ready to move north, yet. We will be here till early May. Still more fun, turning on the lathe and other wood shop work in store for us here this spring.

The Bad and The Good

This has been the coldest Arizona winter we have experienced in the seven years we have been coming here. Until this week, the daytime high has been in the 50s for several weeks. We were getting tired of it. We come here to be in shorts and t-shirts--not possible in these temps.

Look at what we woke up to last week.

That's right--frost on the truck windshield! Brrr.

Then came the rains. See the water, running in the street? And the rain running off the neighbor's roof?

Finally, this week, we are having highs in the low 60s and lots of sunshine. And the good side of the rain is the flowers on the cactus. Beautiful!

Whooo Whooo Beep Beep

Those are really not sounds you want to hear. And when you are in the Denver, Colorado, area, they are very unusual. But this afternoon, about 4:45, first we heard the tornado sirens. It wasn't long until our phone sounded the weather alert. We hustled to the Cherry Creek State Park campground restroom building, just down the road. We weren't alone.

People also brought their pets. There was some barking, but overall the animals were well-behaved.

This is what the radar looked like. Some people were taking it seriously, especially those from the mid-West.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but it rained very hard for a while.

When the tornado warning expired, we braved the rain to return to our RV and dinner, which I was just about to serve when we heard the sirens. Thankfully, we still had electricity and I could warm up our chicken nuggets (left over from when our grandchildren visited last week) and vegetables. And we could get back to our wine, which we had been sipping when we left.

We have only had to take shelter from a tornado warning once before, in Denton, Texas. That time, we drove to a car wash and waited out the worst of the storm. Although there were 30 to 40 people sheltering in the restroom today, obviously most of the 250-300 campers here ignored the weather warnings. Maybe they have never seen what a tornado can do. We preferred warmed-over chicken nuggets to being blown around in an overturned RV.

There is still a flash-flood warning for our area, but we are nowhere near the lake or Cherry Creek. We saw this good news in the sky a little while ago.

All is right in God's world, at least right here, right now.

It's Spring!

Today is the first day of Spring. In Gold Canyon, the prickly pear cactus are showing spring growth.

Birds are nesting. We suspect this dove is sitting on a nest. We didn't disturb her to find out, but she (or he) didn't move as we edged closer to look. Several years ago, a dove built a nest in our RV hitch about this time of year. Unfortunately, we had to move the 5th wheel before the eggs hatched. John carefully carried the nest and eggs to a(relatively) safe place for them. We have no idea what happened.

This bug appeared. I have never seen one like it and have no idea what it is.

I don't know if the weather is related to the beginning of Spring, but just before sunset, the sky turned dark to the east while the setting sun was still shining.

We could tell there was moisture in the air because this rainbow appeared. The very top of the bow was missing.

We did get a brief rain out of those clouds, in addition to lightening and thunder.

Wind and Falling Shades

The wind is blowing. And blowing. And blowing. We are in Las Cruces, NM, and the wind has been blowing every afternoon. We planned to stay only two days--Thursday and Friday--but by the time we arrived, winds were predicted for Saturday so we paid for Saturday night, as well. Yesterday, the forecast was for winds on Sunday, so we paid to spend tonight here, also. And now, the wind is supposed to blow Monday, tomorrow, so we will probably go in tomorrow morning and sign up for one more night. In ways, it has been good to sit for this long. John had some stomach bug while we were in Willcox, and it came back after we got here. We have reservations in Junction, TX, Wednesday, but even that can be changed it the wind continues.

Then, last night, when I was pulling down the shades in the RV, the Deluxe Day-Night Roller Shade on the window by our dining room table fell. It didn't just come unrolled. It fell out of the window with a bang. Since there are two shades--one a sun screen and one a black-out shade--on separate rollers, the shade is heavy and made a loud noise. I'm just glad it didn't fall while I was asleep.

When we examined it this morning, John found that the bracket had broken on one end. We drove to the Camping World in Anthony, Texas, about 24 miles from here, today, but they don't have the part. So, tomorrow we will try the Mobile Suites factory.

As I wrote last week, the foot fell off our front landing gear as we drove here from Arizona.  We contacted the factory about that issue, too.  As a temporary measure, they recommended we get a strong 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 board to put under the front leg.  We tried a 2 x 10.  It didn't work all that well. The RV is too heavy for that.





We are really glad we carry weight with us for our semi-regular workouts. We found a 10 pound weight fits right under the front leg and spreads the weight across the orange plastic leveling blocks. Hope it continues to work till be meet up with the part that is being sent to us in Junction, Texas, where we will spend a couple of days later this week.



At least the broken bracket doesn't affect traveling with the RV or parking it. We can live without the shade for a while.

Boy, Is it Hot Out There!

As I write this blog, the temperature in Mesa is 95 degrees. That is way too hot for us! I guess our neighbors knew something we didn't. For the past six months, all these sites on the east or front door side of our RV have been full. Now, everyone is gone. Was it something we did?



We learned that 100 RVs left on April 1. Two days ago, I was told 21 were leaving that day. And many of the park models are empty for the summer, as well. It's beginning to look like a ghost town around here.



It's beginning to look like a ghost town around here. If it weren't so hot, we would enjoy walking on the nearly empty streets. Actually, we do enjoy it, but early in the day or after it starts to cool down in the evening.

Last week, before it turned so hot, we went for a hike on the hieroglyphic trail. We passed through some green areas, cool with all the vegetation.



There was one small pool of water in the rocks near all the petroglyphs.



If you want to see all the writing on the stone walls, check out my blog from November 2011.

Because of the early heat wave, we are seeing lots of blooming cactus. Look at the flowers and the many buds on this plant.



This is what the blooms look like up close.