Spaceport Rotary Trip

What a great idea Alan! Last Friday afternoon, the Rotary Club of Truth or Consequences joined the Elephant Butte Rotary Club under the leadership of our president Alan Briley to take a guided tour of the Spaceport construction site. The Council of Governments loaned us two buses for the trip. On the way out, Liza Greer and her son Earl were exceptional tour guides pointing out landmarks and ranches along the way. Alan’s friend led the tour pointing out buildings under construction and let us go from one end of the runway to the other, plus get out and really get a feel for it taking pictures to our heart’s content.

Connie Siffring and Liza Greer on the bus complete with hard hats.

I’m still not sure what goes in there, but the shape was interesting.

Blanca and Kandi: the prettiest Rotary construction workers I’ve ever seen!

Give the girls some place and they want to show off their line dancing!

This is the hangar under construction.

My friend Deb Peters was my guest on the tour. She loved the idea of seeing where she might potentially have a job. She was stationed in Alamogordo in the service and really knows the area.

My dear friend Naydene Gardener Daves and I hadn’t seen each other forever and were deep in conversation.

Kandi and I just seemed to be in awe of the whole operation, but the tour leader was right there on our left. I don’t know why we didn’t ask more questions.

It was a great time and great tour. Thanks again, Alan.

Headed home

We set off for Flagstaff by way of the highway over the Hoover Dam. Because I was driving a motorhome, they had to inspect the inside of it. There was road construction the whole way. Evidently, they are building some humongous new road over the dam. The wind was blowing like hell, so I didn’t stop to take any pictures. We stayed in Williams at a very  nice KOA that had an indoor pool. It was so relaxing that we stayed an extra day and toured Williams. They have a great train ride up to the Grand Canyon that’ s an all day affair. It would be a fun thing to do sometime. The train station was unique and also the 66 Cafe.

We stayed in Springerville on Wednesday not realizing how close we were to the crazy people who escaped from Kingman. After lunch at the Buckhorn in San Antonio, we arrived in Elephant Butte on July 29: six weeks of adventure complete.

The next evening Carman cooked hamburgers for the Desert Haven gang. Everyone enjoyed the little reunion.

Note: for all my dear friends who actually pay attention to this blog, you will notice that I was a little slow with my final postings. Too much work to do and too much catching up with friends and family.

Las Vegas, Here we come!

Las Vegas is over 400 miles, so we made it as far as Tonopah.  This place is on a high hill (6200 ft) with absolutely nothing for miles. We parked at Tonopah Station Casino/Ramada Inn.  It’s a bona fide RV place, even though, it’s only a parking lot. It really filled up with people like us who didn’t want to go further. There’s Wi-Fi, but no cable. On Thursday, we left about 7:30 am and arrived at Sam’s Town Casino and RV Park around lunch time. We toured the casino and Walmart across the street. I got my nails done while Carman tried to find someone to fix his tire rim. No luck there. I made an appointment for Tux to get groomed and went swimming to cool off. It’s 114 degrees. On Friday, we drove to Aunt Sophie’s. What a beautiful home! She gave us the grand tour and then Carman took our picture.

After that we had lunch at the Village Pub and Poker. Excellent food. Sophie and I had to-go boxes. We made plans to get together on Sunday, so I could finally meet cousin Jeff.

Later in the afternoon, we went to the casino to see if Carman could become a millionaire. That didn’t happen so we had a drink and watched the laser light show at Mystic Falls. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our cameras.

Saturday morning at 10:30, we took the shuttle to the strip. We started at the Nascar cafe for lunch. They must have had 15 TVs in the bar and not one had a race on.

Then we walked the strip as far as we could in the heat, slipping into the places we wanted to see to cool off. There were so many people waiting for the bus that it was useless to pursue that. We went into the Venetian to see the gondola rides. It was so nice and cool and quiet, I could have stayed forever.

We ended up at Harrah’s about 4 and took pictures and enjoyed the sights waiting for the shuttle to take us back to Sam’s Town.

That night was a full moon and from the rv spot I had a clear shot of the Cannery Casino.

I guess I took this picture after we went to Roxie’s, a little bar inside Sam’s Town and drank for half of what things cost on the strip. They had a great little country rock band and we had buffalo wings for a snack. On Sunday we went to the Cannery and drank for free while we played the machines at the bar. Fun!

We met cousin Jeff and Aunt Sophie at Paymon’s for dinner. Great food with to go boxes all around.

 

Las Vegas was quite an experience, but look forward to leaving the heat behind.

Virginia City

On Monday, we left for Virginia City. It was a very scenic drive through Lassen/Shasta, but several construction areas slowed us down. Virginia City is 6200 ft. straight up. After this drive, I can drive this unit anywhere. Checked out the town and plan to do a walking tour tomorrow. It cools off nicely at night.

Tuesday morning we walked to town and got tickets for the train ride, trolley ride and discount coupons for restaurants and other things. The train took us to Gold Hill which is only a mile from Virginia City. We got off and toured the Gold Hill Hotel and Saloon. The maid showed us two rooms and the bathrooms. It is the oldest continually operated hotel in the United States.

The stairways reminded me more of being in someone’s house instead of a hotel. The bar was closed, but I got a picture anyway. The dining room was set up for dinner complete with place settings.

Our next stop was St Mary’s in the Mountains Catholic Church. It was burned during a fire but re-built. In 1959, the Mad Monks (Cistercians) decided the church was too ornate for them, so they started to dismantle it. They were stopped and for the next 50 years they restored the church. Just finished last year.

Headed South

     From Tillamook to Florence along the coast highway 101, it was very cold and windy. When we walked the dogs in the morning, I noticed that Tux’s neck was bloody, so we stopped in Newport Beach and took him to a very nice vet. The verdict: Marshall bit him. So now he’s on antibiotics along with his Benadryl and vitamins. The campground in Florence was very nice, but because of the cold and wind, we couldn’t even sit outside. So I was forced to make jambalaya for dinner. We left Saturday morning at 6:30 to avoid the wind and headed for Yreka, CA. Great scenery, scary mountain passes. Great shot of Mt. Shasta.

 

Arrived at a nice quiet campground after lunch. Went exploring in Yreka and found a unique bar called Capp’s Speakeasy. The bartender filled us in on the history of the place and let us take pictures. We also bought some chili butter that they make there. Carman cooked chicken on the grill with it, but it wasn’t as spicy as we thought it would be.

We decided to stay another day just to relax. There was a Walmart just a few blocks away, but it didn’t have groceries, so we had to visit a Raley’s for fruit and veggies.