Home!

I've really slacked off with the blogposts this past week, so sorry.

No pictures-who wants to see really flat pains nearly covered by oil wells, and associated equipment.

Big Springs Texas has a large refinery-which is sort of architecturally interesting but not beautiful.

Finally hit the green again!  And trees!

Spent part of a day with my Baylor college roomie, her husband and sister in Grand Prairie-lovely visit.  Gloria took me off to the library's book sale-I bought books!  Then we took Quinn off to a nice dog park, something she hadn't been able to do for a while.

Skipped driving though Dallas with Ceili by taking a state farm road out of Weatherford, it was a nice drive and brought me out almost at the Oklahoma state line.

Spent Friday night just outside of Oklahoma City at a really nice park, didn't unhook just got up the next morning and hit the highway again.  Usually, I'd go up Interstate highway 35 which turns into the Kansas Turnpike then into the southwest corner of the Kansas City metro.  This time I took the Oklahoma turnpike/Will Rogers turnpike into Missouri at Joplin and Interstate 49 North.  That one takes you into the Metro at the Interstate 470 loop east skipping a great deal of congestion!  Pulled into Oak Grove Missouri campground early enough that I got all set up before dark!

Yesterday was spent watching Kolby play soccer and catching up with the children.  I managed to sneak up on Brayden and Beth with hugs-Both big boys were glad to see me, it's really lovely when your children and grandchildren miss you!  Scott and Ryan came up from Columbia, Rob and Tanya make Baked potato soup for one and all.  It was great!

I missed apple season here but not the fall color!  Some trees have lost their leaves but the really pretty ones like hard maples have just begun to change! Grass is still mostly green.

I'm glad to be back!

Today, I have to start the process of finding a place to live!  First though I have to decided where and How I want to live!

Midland-Odessa

From the time we left El Paso until we changed to Interstate 20 from Interstate 10 there were mountains somewhere around us.

About 3 miles onto Interstate 20 and we were in the flat!

At least there is grass growing here.

I think Quinn thought we would never see it again!

Nothing to see for miles and miles.

Save for oil derricks, pumps and storage tanks.

Snooze.

Is it any wonder then that I was tired and cranky when we got settled here!

Today, I did boring but necessary things:

Got an oil change in the truck-the light can stay off now!

Visited a Quilt shop.

Hit Petco for Quinn's food.

Did some minor grocery shopping-more milk!

Then cleaned the trailer 

and the truck a bit.

Read.

Went to Taco Tuesday for dinner.

Filled the truck with gas for tomorrow.

Snooze.

El Paso, A you can't get there from here place

I spent part of the day shopping in El Paso, TX.  I bought some new Nikes at the Outlet Mall-finally I bought something at an outlet mall! My old tennis shoes had begun hurting my little toe on my right foot and my slip-on shoes were aggravating the nerve issues still affecting my left foot.  It is hoped that new shoes will help at least part of that!  I tried to buy some other shoes as well-some hiking boots, cowboy boots, and a couple other pair of boots-unfortunately I have a very high instep and I simply could not get them on my feet! So I was disappointed there.  I did get an outfit for Ryan at the Oshkosh outlet which I think will be very cute! Then I went to the grocery store.  In the process of doing all that shopping I discovered that El Paso is a "You can't get there from here" town!  I thought only San Diego had earned that title but I was oh so wrong! Spent as much time wandering about as I did shopping!  Once I found my way back to the campground it was with the heartfelt "I'm not leaving Ceili until we head out tomorrow!"

On other subjects.  I just finished the book: No Time On My Hands by Grace Snyder.  I highly recommend it.  Grace McChance Snyder was a Nebraska Quilter and an amazing woman! Inducted into both the United States Quilting Hall of Fame and the Nebraska Quilters Hall of Fame, two of her quilts appear in the book 100 Quilts of the 20th Century.  I loved the book even though I cried when I finished it!  (Which is still available from Amazon and other places-I got mine at Chimney Rock, NE) Google Grace and there are videos of her life and color photos of her quilts, you won't be sorry! (I tried to do links but I guess I'm just not good enough at that as none of them worked!)  Some of the quilts are at the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Lincoln, NE.  I think I saw one, but now I have to go back!  I am certain that I shall never be the quilter that Grace was.

300 miles

Or something like 300 miles. 

 I was headed to El Paso, Texas.

I made it into Texas, exactly 1 mile into Texas!

I guess the campground is in Anthony.

Anyway, we left Tucson early for today's drive.

It's a good thing as we drove into the Mountain Time Zone and it was an hour later there! 

The road was very hilly for a while and there was actual grass

-not a lot but enough that a few cows were spotted.

Not far from Tucson we stopped at the Texas Canyon Rest Area.

Normally, I wouldn't stop so soon but there was something here to take photos of 

and a safe place to take them!

Pretty interesting rocks!

Mountains in the distance too!

There have been mountains in the distance nearly all day and on all sides.

Not really high mountains like Montana (I miss them) but a break from this:

Although there is a lot of vegetation here and in someplace it was quite barren.

I saw some areas of obviously planted TREES.

At first I thought citrus but they seemed too large.

There is never anyone to ask as you drive down the road!

Sometimes you get lucky though.

The last batch I saw had a truck parked at the end of the rows-The New Mexico Pecan Co!

Solved that one.

Then there were the dairy cows.

I know what a black and white Holstein looks like.

 I might not know a Guernsey or a Jersey but I know a Holstein!

There were hundreds of them hanging out in paddocks.

Must have been some big dairy operation but 

I was not lucky enough to spot a sign!

The last picture is of part of Organ Mountains National Monument behind Las Cruces, New Mexico.

This monument is in three parts which we drove right past!

That's Interstate 10 right down the center.

Miniatures!

Today I visited The Mini Time Machine Museum of Miniatures here in Tucson.  Lots of fine art miniatures and the Fairy Tree was super cute.  Also lots of manufactured things like Department 56 North Pole Village-Of which I have a few pieces.  I enjoyed it. I read the blog of Casey Rice  which is always fun thanks to Tessie and informative-lots of how to's.  She did a lot of restoration on doll houses etc for the museum.

After that I hunted down another quilt shop and a yarn shop, came away from both empty handed.  Which is fine.  Then I stopped off at a garden center, just for grins.  Almost came away with a kumquat tree though.

The big excitement for the day came when I got gas in the truck at QUIKTRIP!  First one I've seen since I left home!

A Different Forest

Did you notice?  I got the Moon!

Quinn and I took a drive, part of it was a dirt road adventure!

We left our RV Park and headed west to Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park.

The park is in two sections one on each side of Tucson.

It was a gorgeous drive up the Gates Pass road through Tucson Mountain County Park.

Lots of Saguaro along the way.

The Saguaro is the largest cactus in the U.S. Standing up to 30 feet tall.

On the way up I had the thought (I know strange-I had a thought!).

What I was looking at was a forest. 

A forest of Saguaro.

A forest where each "tree" was totally visible.

See what I mean?

The cactus grow clear up to the top of the mountains-check out the right hand edge of this photo and you'll see some standing against the sky.

Six species of rattlesnakes live in this forest!

Yikes!

This is how the arms start!

The tree in front of the saguaro is a Palo Verde, literally the Green Tree.

It has the greenest bark I have ever seen and tiny-I mean really tiny leaves!

It is the state tree of Arizona and acts as a nurse tree for saguaro cactus by creating shade.

The mountains in the distance. From our dirt road adventure.

The mountains here aren't really in ranges they just sort of Pop here and there!

This wasn't a really long trip and we started early as the daytime high temperatures here are still in the 90's.

So after dropping Quinn off at the trailer I visited a Quilt shop, of course!

Bought a few fat quarters then went to a yarn store where I finally found the needles I needed for the knitting project I bought in Dillon!

Playing Catchup, Again!

I've been in San Diego, CA for 6 days with this girl and her parents!

We were busy, busy, busy!

So to catch up.

We spent three nights in Yerma, CA doing not much of anything.

I did go to the outlet mall but didn't buy a thing.

Always wonder why I bother, I'm not a Coach girl or any other big name brand for that matter.

Then we drove to San Diego.

That requires driving around Los Angeles, not through for which I am grateful as just driving around wasn't fun and I will not do it again.

Also, air quality was horrible and I'm sure I drove through smoke from a big fire!

I really can not imagine why anyone would live there!

To encapsulate the rest of the week:

we dined out, a lot!

Quinn and I went to the dog beach, twice.

 We would have gone more but there were high tide warnings.

She does love the sand.

That's her, the smallish one in the middle!  

She isn't fond of getting wet.

She got sideswiped by a wave once and there was sheer terror on her face!

The second time she willingly got her feet wet but mostly ran on shore while the other dogs ran in the water!

I walked on the beach with Steve, Candice, Nora and Tina after dark at La Jolla Shores.

I always try to make it down there.

Looking east.

We drove up to Julian for apple pie!  

Then back through the National Forest.

We took a little hike there! 

Part of which was on the Pacific Coast Trail.

Eastward!

I went clothes shopping with Candice as my personal shopper!

Yikes, I get sticker shock!

I did buy some new, dressier clothes though.

(I still need more though.)

Then yesterday we turned the truck to the EAST and began the long trek home. 

We went up and down mountains until we hit the flat.

Passed a National recreation site of golden sand dunes.

Hit the INS vehicle stop where we chatted with a nice young man from Washington, MO.

Drove through more boring scenery than I could name on worse roads.

Everything in Ceili was a disaster!

For the first time this trip I did not unhook the truck and we stayed only one night in Gila Bend, AZ

Both of these photos from our huge campground.

The desert is hard.

Evidence of that fact is very common.

Tonight we are in Tucson, AZ where we will stay for three nights and see some sights, take some photos, etc.

I can tell you I could never live here.

I would miss the green.

I already do.