Merry Christmas! It would appear we're in the only warm spot in the country! I don't have any new pictures to post, but wanted to let everyone know that Waylon's tail is curly again!!! The antibiotics/anti-inflammatories did it! And also wanted to wish everyone Happy Holidays.

So it turns out we do have stuff to write about. Cruises are really cheap, if you're around Miami and can leave at a moment's notice. We did a 4 night to the Bahamas last week. Had a good time...it was our first cruise; the Bahamas were disappointing (dirty and crowded), but being on a big ship was a blast! We had a balcony room and all you could eat (food wasn't great, but it was free!) The picture to the left was Miami, leaving; picture top right is in Nassau; one in the middle is Great Stirrup Cay (private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines). All in all it was fun, and we'll do another one some day.

Prior to leaving, Waylon was exploring here at the compound, went into some bushes and yelped really loudly, and when he came out of the brush, his tail was limp. I freaked, gave him some benedryl (assuming he'd been stung by a scorpion in the face). I was wrong...as it turns out he was stung by a scorpion in the tail. We went to the vet where the put him on antibiotics and antiinflammatories, and his tail is still limp. The vet didn't think it would stay that way...hopefully his curly tail will return...that's the cutest part of him!

The Keys are great. We've picked up where we left off...working around the compound, catching up with old friends and making new ones. Weather is fabulous as always and the sun is shining most every day. No fishing yet...

The annual boat parade was last night, where the locals decorate their boats and travel around the bay. That's about the only reminder that Christmas is around the corner...seems unlikely when it's 80 degrees. Happy Holidays to everyone out there...

We made it to the Keys last weekend! It's great to be back. The weather, water, foliage, birds,... are all beautiful.

The trip here was uneventful, camper-wise. It looks like the suspension may finally be fixed. Won't know for sure until we move again, in April.

We had lunch with Sammy in Ft. Myers...he's doing great.

I won't be writing much while we're here, as every day is pretty much the same, and I've written about it all already, last year.

Mark is doing well. This year we will be painting the outside of the motel. That should keep us busy. Ginger isn't as big as I thought she'd be...she and Waylon are about the same size, and they picked up fight where they left off! He's happy to be "home".

We spent 2 weeks with Steve & Raylene in San Acacia, NM, hanging out on their ranch, working with the horses,... What a great area! We've never been there in the fall, and it was very green, temperate and pretty. They've expanded to about 50 acres and had 39 horses (some were boarded). And while we were visiting, we went to Ruidoso for a weekend, and to Ruidoso Downs to watch one of their horses race her first race. Well, she was rejected by her mom as a baby, so Raylene bottle fed her every couple hours for 3 months until she started eating on her own, grew up to be a beautiful filly, and came from last place to win her first race in 6 furlongs! We were so proud!!! And won $68.00 in the process! Anyway, we plan to go back next fall and spend a lot more time with them.

While we were there, the travelling camper repair guy came to fix our suspension again. Then he came to Dallas and fixed us again. Then we went to the factory in Ocala, FL to have it fixed again, spent 2 very frustrating days, and we think it may FINALLY be fixed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time will tell. Dallas sucked, except they had the best farmer's market I've ever seen with probably 50 or more venders selling fresh fruit and veggies!

Now we're in Port Charlotte, FL for the night and should be in the Keys tomorrow:) It's 90 degrees with 500% humidity here:( I guess we need to get used to that again. I was really looking forward to it after the dryness in Idaho, but holy crap! My hair is majorly frizzy and it's hard to breathe!!! It's usually cooler and breezier in the Keys...I hope.

Taos was cold and windy, and we were going to leave after only 1 night there, but decided to get a visitor's guide and check it out. We started with New Buffalo, the destination of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider. It's a hippie commune that was bought 5 years ago by Bob Fies, a retired doctor, who has spent tons of $ and time restoring the main house. What a great place! They are attempting to live off the grid completely, doing lots of organic gardening, solar, battery power, and cysterns. We may do some work camping there next fall.

Then we visited the "earthships" which are entirely self sufficient and very cool! They use their water 5 times (gathered in cysterns from the rain), utilize solar panels and battery power, and the homes are built out of old tires and adobe. So Bob & I bought 3 books to learn how to do this. Not sure what we'll do with that information yet, but I'm sure it'll be useful at some point.

Now we're in San Acacia, NM with our rancher friends, Steve & Raylene. We've been here for a week, and are helping out around the ranch. The economic crumble has hit them pretty hard, and while they have 52 acres and 50-some horses here, they are unable to afford ranch hands, so Bob and I are lending a hand. Will probably stay here for another week or so then travel pretty fast to the Keys.

Bob was on WAPL last Friday for the 30th anniversary! He phoned in and talked to Rick & Len & Roxanne & Joe & John for about 20 minutes. I picked it up on the internet...it was great to hear him on the air again!

Waylon is having a blast here with Doc, a 1 yr old black lab. They have the run of the ranch, and he's getting pretty comfortable with horses finally. We haven't been able to do any riding; all these horses are breeders or race horses. And speaking of which, we went to the race track last weekend to watch one of their race horses, Lonesomedove run (her maiden race). Raylene bottle fed this colt for 3 months because here mother rejected her. She came from the back of the pack (7 horses), and won! It was very exciting! She was a long shot at 25-1, so needless to say, I won a couple bucks on the race!

The weather here is gorgeous. We've only been here in the winter, so it's great to see all the green this time of year. It's been in the 70's during the day yet, and a little chilly at night. Another place we could possibly settle down...

Made it to Durango, CO last Tuesday. Another gorgeous place! Rick & Pati from the Baja trip live here, and we've spent some good time with them. A couple dinners in this very charming town, and drove up to Silverton one day (a tiny little mining town at 9500 ft. that reminded us of the town in "Northern Exposure". There's a cute little train that goes up there twice a day, but it's $75.00/person, so we decided to drive. It's mostly closed for the season, but we found a great little bar and had fun!

We also found the best dog park ever near our campground. It's about 5 acres, bordered on one side by the Animas River, and the other side by a mountain, then fenced only on the north and south side. Waylon loves it, and we've me some great people and dogs!

Rick and Pati are leaving for a trip to Italy on Wednesday, so they're quite busy, but we had a weekend visit from Joe Rooyakkers and his friend Lori. Also had a great time with them. Golfed yesterday, did a little biking, and went to Pagosa Springs today (about 1 hour east of here). A great little resort area that boasts the most healing springs in the states (or was it the world?). There were 20 pools, each one a little warmer than the next. We all felt great after an hour of soaking, then Joe and Lori headed back to Winter Park, and Bob & I had dinner with Rick and Pati, and are now pretty exhausted!

Will probably leave here Tuesday and head to Taos, NM, then San Acacia, NM.

How 'bout them Packers today?!

Looks like we left Triumph just in time...heard it's snowing there today! We're in Cottonwood, AZ with Rockin Randy & Tammy, who are considering early retirement also. Trying to give them help with their decision making process, but since we arrived, our camper water pump went out, we've ordered a new one (last Monday), but their 2-day delivery promise isn't looking good (it's Saturday and still no pump). Planned to leave here this Monday, but we need that pump. Also, the turbo on the truck took a dump, and the truck was in the shop for 2 days. We do spend a lot of time at repair shops! Anyway, it seems we've confused them even further. But we're having a blast here. It was in the 80's the first couple days, but got very windy and 60's today. Randy & I went horseback riding a few days ago. He has a horse (part of their traveling dilemna), and we borrowed a horse for me, a 20 year old quarter horse named Annie. She was great! We went a couple miles through the mountains, very rocky terrain with lots of cactus and fortunately no rattlesnakes! It was awesome!

Last night we went to the "Bull Bash"; Camp Verde Days was an annual carnival type thing with bull riding in a very small arena, and we were up close and personal with the bulls & riders. One kid appearred to get trampled right in front of us! He walked away and didn't get carted away in the ambulance (paramedics checked him out), but it was ugly. 2 more riders were hurt after that. Rodeo's were more fun when everybody walked away unscathed.

Today we drove to Sedona. What a beautiful city. Walked around a bit and had a couple margaritas. Then stopped in an art gallery...Randy wanted to talk with an artist he likes, and Bob and I felt a bit out of our element. Most of the pieces in there were more expensive than our bikes, motorcycles, computer,...

Tomorrow is golfing then football. Hopefully it'll warm up a bit! Sorry...it looks like the rest of the country is getting cold.

We're finally leaving Triumph tomorrow.  Decided to stay on an extra week, well, because we could.   The fall colors are spectacular!  So we've done a few more hikes checking them out.  Plan to go to Cottonwood, AZ from here to see Rockin' Randy & Tammy, for a week or so, then to Durango, CO to visit Rick & Patti from the Baja trip, and Joe Rooyakkers is coming to meet us there for the weekend, then to San Acacia, NM to see our rancher friends, Steve & Raylene for a couple days, then toward the Keys:)  We plan to be there mid November or so.  It sounds like they haven't been hit by hurricanes too badly this year...hopefully that good fortune continues.

We're still in Triumph, ID, and loving it. Haven't written much, because it's pretty much status quo. Haven't gone for any more long hikes with the mountain lion danger (2 small dogs have been attacked pretty close to here, and the recomendation is not to hike alone). Bob and Ross have been tearing it up on the motorcycles quite a bit and Waylon and I have gone on lots of short hikes with our eyes peeled at all times. We thought about getting a gun, but after lots of back and forth decided against it. One of the neighbors teaches a self defense class with emphasis on shooting, but we're just not gun people. So we continue to be careful.
We've made lots of friends here...everyone is great. It's a wonderful part of the world, and we'll be sad to leave here next week, but it's getting cold (no snow yet), and it's time to move on. We will definately be back here next year:) But we're both getting the travel bug!
Still working for Victor through the end of the week, and that's been a great experience as well. The homes we work at are beautiful, and the work is relatively mindless and easy, not to mention good paying!

Last Saturday Bob & Ross took off in the truck for a mountain bike ride, and were quickly turned baaack by a pack of sheep coming down our road! We watched as 1000 sheep, 3 Mexican "shepherds" on horses, several border collies and other dogs, a truck or 2, and a covered wagon (which the shepherds live in) came by the house! It was great! Apparently these are free range sheep, and while we've spotted packs a few times, we've never seen them up close and personal. Not sure where they went, somewhere up in the mountains.

And last week we took a ride up to a mine (Bob & our new friend Colleen biked, I ditched my bike and hiked with Waylon). It's quite a ways up in the mountains. Anyway, Colleen was the first one up there, and as she got to the hut (you can barely see the top of the roof in the photo), a deer jumped up and ran out at her! Her dog, Merle took off after the deer and while he ran for a long time, he didn't catch it, but he got a good work out in that day. There are several mines around town (this was a mining town before it was a hippie town and later a UFO town), but this one had a tragic accident in the 1930's when 17 miners were killed by an avalanche. It was a little creepy, but a good destination. We've been doing less and less hiking as there have been several mountain lion sightings in the last couple weeks. And Reverend Steve is still on vacation. Hopefully he'll be back this weekend and we can resume our Sunday "services". I miss hiking, but Waylon and I don't feel very safe alone out there.

Work is going well... Victor keeps us busy, and the work is interesting and varied, so we don't get bored. And the homes are gorgeous! It never ceases to amaze me what the rich will pay for!

Also, the weather is still great. This morning I have our fireplace on; it's only 40 out, but sunny, and will get up in the 70's today. I hear it can snow in September, so we have to start thinking about heading south pretty soon...

Another spectacular day here in Triumph, ID! Went for a 5 hour hike with "Reverend Steve" (our regular Sunday church service). Today we hiked up 3300' to "Pioneer Cabin". what a place,...and the views were amazing. Apparently this cabin was built in the 1930's and is used regularly by hikers. It was difficult to pick photos to post...we had so many beautiful ones. Waylon is a great hiker...he stays right with the pack, is very brave and agile, and very pooped now! We had to scale a shale hillside on the way back...don't think that was planned, but we all made it out alive, pooped, and exilerated at the same time. What a gorgeous part of the world!

Wow, What a Summer

It just keeps getting better and better here! Last Sunday, Steve (Ross' landlord...the bird man) took us on a 6-1/2 hour hike up to the peak across from our house (2500' up). It was gorgeous, but very grueling! It's so cool to sit outside here and look up, and say "we walked up to there". Waylon and Dude had a blast, but we all ran out of water! We had to cross a river to begin the hike (all took our boots/socks off and walked across very cold water with slippery rocks), but we were soooooo happy to see the river on our way back! It was a great experience, and Bob made it without too much difficulty (his knees, I mean), so he's agreed to do more hikes, if I will do more mtn biking. So Steve has our next hike mapped out, next Sunday, and we're all looking forward to it. Today, we're finally not too sore! And Bob and I both bought new hiking boots today and went on a small hike to break them in. That will definately help.

And we've found the perfect weather. I may have already mentioned that, but it remains in the80's during the day, and 50's at night...perfect sleeping weather! This weekend we are going to the folk fest on Friday featuring the Gourds.

A couple weeks ago, Ross entered a mtn bike race, representing the Cold Beer Racing team, where everyone had to drag a log around, at night, and actually beat a guy that beat Lance Armstrong, but was eliminated with the beer Shotgun round:( CBR has made it's name here in Idaho! Everyone loved it!

We finally received Waylon's shock collar from the Hong Kong e-bay seller. It works, when it works (the collar was cheap, and works only occasionally), but Waylon responds well to just the buzzer part, rather than the shock part. It's a great little training tool. He goes to work with us daily, and sticks around pretty well, and is basically a good boy. Work is going good too...not too difficult, not too hot. We still really love it here!

3 umph in da hoe

We've been here in Triumph, ID for almost a month now. What a gorgeous place. Bob said this is one place he could live. He and Ross are having a blast on the motorcycles and mtn bikes. I'm enjoying the hiking. Summer in Idaho is beautiful. The wild flowers on the hillsides are exploding right now, but the locals say in the next couple weeks everything will turn brown:( It hasn't rained since we've been here, and apparently that's pretty normal in the high desert. We spent the 4th at Ross' friends' cabin on Petit Lake, a glacial lake about an hour from here. It was very peaceful and a great weekend.

Work is going well, we've been staining decks on multi-million $ homes mostly. The majority of the clients are pro golfers, and these are their second/third homes. We've decided we need to play more golf if this is the payoff!And the people here are great...everyone's so friendly and down-to-earth and healthy. What a great place. We'll definately come back here next summer!I didn't apply for the animal shelter job...it was full time, and they probably wouldn't want me for just the summer. Haven't even visited there yet, although we are still thinking about a dog for Waylon. He and Dude are having so much fun, so we'll probably wait til we're almost ready to leave here. Also we want Waylon to be better trained. He continues to be a monkey with very selective hearing.

Triumph, ID

We made it to Ross' last week, Tuesday. What a great part of the world. Mountains surround his house, which is in a small town of only 60 people. Nearby are great little towns of about 6000 people, Hailey and Ketchum. Very quaint little towns with very few chain stores in them. The weather is great...80's during the day and sunny, and 50's at night (high desert). And just outside his door are tons of mountain bike, hiking, and motorcycle trails that seem to never end! And apparently there are no rattlesnakes in this area (the elevation is too high), and no bears to speak of. Although there was a mountain lion attack on a deer last month:( But Ross has found his home here, and it's beautiful. Bob is pretty fond of the biking and motorcycling too!

Steve, Ross' landlord also lives on the property (great guy), and every night he feeds the magpies out of his hand! He's a fascinating man...was in the merchant marines, and has been here a long time. He has lots of stories.On the way here, we stopped in Yellowstone NP for a night, and spent 2 days exploring

the park. What a fascinating place. Waylon saw snow for the first time! Saw lots of bison, several walking alongside the road, a few elk, and fortunately, no grizzly bears (or even black bears). Although, signs all around our campground warned against leaving food out because of the grizzlies. We met a great young couple from San Francisco that were bicycling from his parents in Casper, WY to San Francisco. They were on day 15, and having a blast. Bob was so jealous...he even asked me to drive the rest of the way to Idaho so that he could ride with them. No. Sorry.We started our job this week, working for a great guy, very laid back. One day we delivered a bunch of bikes to various clients, then another day we cleaned patio furniture, built 2 bikes, and sorted through xmas lights. Pretty simple work, and it gives us something to do a couple hours a day. The camper is doing well, considering.

Waylon is having the time of his life playing with Dude and the other dogs here (it's a very dog-friendly area), and is trying to talk us into a sister... We're still debating. There is a full time job at the local animal shelter that I may check out; don't think we have enough room for all the dogs I'd want to bring home tho... We'll see. And the truck is having a "check engine" issue which we had looked at in Cody, WY, and have another appointment here tomorrow. Hopefully nothing serious. Did I talk about Cody? We went to a rodeo there...what a blast. My first one, and I loved it. Hailey has one over July 4th that we'll check out.Anyway, we're here for the summer, and all very happy to be here. Internet is iffy at best, and phone service is hit and miss out here in the sticks.

Forgot to include this pic in out Wisconsin post...me and Grampa golfing (and Bob too).

And this last pic is from the top of the mountain overlooking Ross' house...you can barely make out the 5th wheel. Bob and Ross rode motorcycles up there. Did I mention the boys are having a blast?