January

Feb. 26, 2002: We're still at Emerald Desert after spending a quick weekend in San Diego celebrating Caitlin's 2nd birthday! Here are a few photos of what the desert area around us looks like:

Feb. 3, 2002: Palm Desert, CA. We're definitely enjoying this warm, sunny weather! Emerald Desert Resort has all the luxury facilities one could want, so we should have a great month here. Chris has settled into his routine of "working out" on the putting green and the chipping areas a few times a day, while I've just enjoyed reading while overlooking our lovely view. We haven't tried the pools and spas, etc. yet. In the photo below, our coach is one of the ones on the right side of the photo. We watch the balloons go up each night...tonight there was only one (Super Bowl interfered with them, probably.) You can see we have a lovely view!

Jan. 29, 2002: We're still in Sierra Vista, waiting out the bad weather that is forecasted for the next 36 hours. Since snow is predicted, we've decided to stay put here and shall start out Thursday to get to Yuma, and then get to Palm Springs on Friday. Since today was cold and supposed to rain, we thought we'd try to visit Kartchner Caverns State Park, about 30 miles from where we are. They normally have sold out all their tickets for the tours of this new cave, but they do reserve a few for "walk ins" so we took a chance and were successful in obtaining a space on one of the late morning tours. This cave is like no others we've visited and is well worth the tour...they are doing an excellent job of trying to keep this cave in pristine condition. Multiple airlocks, small tours (only 20 per tour and only 500 total per day), no objects carried in (no purses, backpacks, fanny packs, water bottles, etc...), etc. are helping to keep this cave "healthy." It's a "new cave" that has only been open for 2 years. Here's the website if you're interested in learning more: http://www.explorethecaverns.com/cave.html Visit this site and take their interactive tour to see some photos of the place. They have a beautiful campground too which we'll return to sometime only because it's in a lovely site overlooking the valley...great nature viewing area.

Jan. 26, 2002: Sierra Vista, AZ: We've enjoyed brilliant sunshine here as well as snow! We've visited Tombstone and Bisbee as well as several local "birding sites." Today Chris played in a golf tournament at the local country club which he said is among the top golf courses he's played! We're here until Tuesday at which time we'll just head north 20 miles and stay in Kartchner Caverns State Park and hopefully get tickets to see the caverns which people say are spectacular...even if you've seen Carlsbad Caverns.

(Photos above: Ramsey Canyon Preserve with snow, view of the Huachuca Mountains from the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area...our campground is at the foot of those mountains and the Ramsey Canyon is up into them above our campground, and Bisbee.)

Jan. 19, 2002: Tucson, AZ: We have just finished a 4-day Country Coach Rally in Tucson at the Beaudry RV Resort. This rally was primarily for those Country Coach owners who are visiting or living in the southwest area...their main rally is held near the Country Coach factory in Junction City, OR in July. However, there were almost 200 Country Coach motorhomes here, which was a nice number of folks! For four days we attended seminars, viewed new coaches (didn't like any better than our own!), exchanged ideas, and made lots of new friends. Country Coach provided us with breakfast, dinners, and entertainment, so there was always plenty to do. When we arrived, they happened to put us right in front of the RV Resort since the holding area was full, so we were filmed by a film crew arriving and leaving the coach to sign in. We never got to see if it made the evening news! It was pretty impressive walking street after street in this RV resort and seeing only Country Coach motorhomes.

We decided to stay over a few more days (to let all that we learned settle in!), and then we'll head further south to Sierra Vista where we're meeting up with some new friends to spend a few days at a nice RV resort.

Photos: Our arrival in front of check-in, bagpiper strolling down the lane, one of many "streets" of only Country Coach RVs.

Jan. 11, 2002: Brenda, AZ: We are here in Brenda, AZ at Desert Gold RV Park visiting other members of the Compuserve RV Forum who spend much of the colder weather here enjoying the desert. We left San Diego a week ago and spent time at a nearby Escapee's park we like near Temecula, CA.

Here's our newest "co-pilot in training"...our granddaughter, Caitlin.

Jan. 12, 2002: Brenda, AZ: Our friends from the Compuserve RV Forum decided that 30,000 miles on our Jeep with no off-roading experience was a travesty, so they took us off on a day-long Jeep trip on "easy" roads...we ended up at some old gold mines and had a wonderful, if not dusty, time. The desert was beautiful...to leave the "real roads" and get into the back country was truly awesome. However, it will take us days to get the dust out of the Jeep!