Meeting up with friends in Minnesota

We continued our trip to Madison Wisconsin.  We have friends, Ed and Rosemary, who live in Minnesota, we called them and decided to meet up at an RV park in Rochester MN.  They have a motorhome as well, so when they arrived, we had dinner and talked for hours.  We had a great time and made a plan for the next day.  We are going to the "Spam Museum" a few miles away in Austin MN.  Who would ever think that there would be a museam for Spam??  Well it was good, and very interesting too.  In the gift shop they sold all different flovors and types of Spam.  So of course we had to buy some to keep in the coach.

Ed, Rosemary, and her Dad Stan

Their coach a Damon Challenger and ours

The Spam Museum

We spent the next few days there at the campground, had a good time and shared great food and lots of laughs. Went out to eat a few times and caught up on all the news.  They were also planning on going to the FMCA Rally in Madison also, so we will see them again at the rally.

Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse, SD

Mount Rushmore is a wonderful place to visit. We took a tour bus from Ellsworth AFB FamCamp. It is about a 30 minute bus ride, and what a wonderful place to see, so patriotic, so inspiring. We stayed for the lighting ceremony at dusk. They asked all the veterans to come down to the stage and nearly half of the audience went.

We visited Crazy Horse and was surprised how large it is. It will not be completed in our lifetime. In fact it may be a long time before it is ever done. It is now being worked on by the second generation of the family that started this wonderful monument.

There was a storm while we were there in Rapid City. It was a rain storm then changed to an ice storm, these are pictures of the ice 4 or 5 inches thick all over the road while we were traveling up to Mount Rushmore on July 28th.

down.

Hill AFB, Utah, Wyoming and Ellsworth AFB South Dakota

What !! Is this Tim's fountain ?? Here at Hill AFB

We left Hill AFB FamCamp in Utah and headed through Wyoming toward South Dakota.  These pictures in Wyoming are about all you see there between towns.

This is what you see in Wyoming

We stayed one night at an Elks Lodge in Rapid City, then moved over to Ellsworth AFB as soon as a site was available in the FamCamp. At Ellsworth we were able to check out a Missle Silo. That was very interesting, they also have a great Air Museum there. These are pictures we took at the missle silo.

Joe checking the hatch to the missle silo

 

Joe at the controls - watch out!!!

The Missle

Bryce Canyon, Red Rock Canyon and Zion, Utah

We went through Utah and visited Zion, Bryce and Red Rock Canyons, these are some pictures we took there.  We were amazed how beautiful Zion was.  We stopped at a small campground just North of Saint George and had a great time there.  They even had Karaoke one night while we were there.  That was a lot of fun too, all the people staying in the park attended and had a good time.  The next day we headed out for Bryce Canyon and Red Rock Canyon.   These canyons are just wonderful and so near where we lived in Southern California and so close to Las Vegas area too.  Hard to believe that we had not visited there in all of these years.

Joe at Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon

Red Rock Canyon

Zion

Bryce Canyon

Red Rock Canyon Arch

Zion

Red Rock Canyon

 

Zion

Zion

Zion

We are headind for Hill AFB, UT near Salt Lake City now, we will stay there for a few days then we will head on up throught Wyoming and to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Leaving California at last

We Left California on the 8th of July and headed to Laughlin Nevada for a few days,  we spend some time with Frank and Regina, stayed four nights at Harrah's and did not win any money at all.  We did have a good time anyhow, Joe and Frank played golf and we went out to eat with them.  We even went to a movie while we were there, and did a little shopping at the outlet mall.  We filled up the coach in Arizona where the fuel prices are a little lower, and headed to Boulder City for a few days.

When we arrived and got settled in the RV Park, we wanted to drive down to the lake a see if it still looked as pretty.  So we took a short drive down to Lake Mead, the water level was way down, much lower than usual.  We stopped at a small resturant up town and had dinner.  Tomorrow we will check out the new Pat Tillman Bridge that they built beside the Hoover Dam.

.



We went to see the new Bridge that was built over the Colorado River below the Hoover Dam.  It was amazing to see all that it took to build this bridge, and to see how big the bridge is.  We can walk out on the bridge, I walked out a little way, then went back to the side (where I felt safe).  However Joe walked all the way from the Nevada side to the Arizona side and back again.  The wind was blowing so much out there, it felt like you would go over the side.

 

View of the bridge from the top of the dam

People walking across the bridge

View of the Dam from the bridge

Joe standing on the bridge after walking from
Nevada to Arizona and back

We stayed at the Elks Lodge in Boulder City Nevada, this is a very nice RV Park.  10 sites with full hook-up and right in the middle of town, next door to a great McDonald's.  The McDonald's had brass statues of children playing and doing yard work, it was so nice, they almost look real.

Visiting friends during recovery

I am recovering well from my surgery, and physical therapy is going well too.  I think I am doing better, and recovering faster than with my other shoulder.  Will be doing PT until the end of June and we are still hoping to leave California around the 1st part of July.  My doctor appointment is the 6th of July and we are planning to leave the next day.

We went to Harrah's Rincon with our friends Vince and Pam, stayed at Harrah's Hotel, and had a great time.  We won some and we lost some, we sure did have fun tho'.  One trip we visited 3 different casinos in the area all in the same trip, that was fun too.  We ate at the Buffet at all three of them and tried to decide which one was the best.  We always have a good time with them and they have invited us to go to the Angel's game with them a few times while we were in CA.  I couldn't so the first two times, but Joe did go with them and had fun.  The last time, I was able to go too. 

We also have been able to spend some extra time with our friends, Tim and Marcia, Ron and Bev, Kelly and Sipia, Sherman and ShaunMarie, and Tom and Sue.  In fact they are planning to have a cookout on the 2nd just before we leave, that will be fun, and so nice of them to do that so we can see everyone before we start out on our next adventure.

Our plans change again !!!

Our plans have changed again.......... 

I have to have rotator cuff surgery on my right shoulder before we can leave on our trip.  I have been having problems with my shoulder for a very long time, but now it is much worse and after having an MRI and seeing the doctor, we have decided that I need to have the surgery now.

Three years ago, I had rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder, so went back to the same doctor, Dr Pratley, on April 14th. He referred me to a surgeon in Orange County. We saw him on Monday the 18th, and scheduled the surgery for Tuesday April 26th.

The physical therapy is about two and a half to three months, so we are now hoping to leave by the first part of July.  We are still planning to be attending the FMCA Rally in Madison Wisconsin in August.  I will not be writing in the blog as much for a while, but will catch as soon as I can.