Its early 2015… and we’re off traveling the West again.   After having spent the 2014 Christmas Holidays with our family back in Michigan, and celebrating our Granddaughter’s 1st Birthday, we left Michigan and drove our ‘toad‘ (tow car) south to Texarkana, Texas where we had left our Motorhome parked a few weeks earlier.  Our Winter travel  plans for the year?   After enjoying a good visit with Alice’s Family in Texarkana, we would drive slowly across Texas… across Southern New Mexico… and eventually find ourselves parked in sunny 😎  Yuma, Arizona.!

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‘These Stones‘… being Tombstones, that is.   Located in the historic, Old City Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford, Texas… the starting point of many of the ‘Cattle Trails‘ used by Texas Ranchers to get their steers to the Kansas Rail Heads during the 1860’s – 1880’s.   Legendary ‘Cowtowns‘ like Abilene, Wichita, and Dodge City were the drover’s destination with Cemetery’s like Dodge City’s ‘Boot Hill‘ becoming famous.  But what brought us to the ‘stones’ in this cemetery… is a 1985 ‘Trail Tale’ with a strong factual background in history.

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Alice and I enjoy local history… and when our good friend Morris (Mo) Jones brought up a remote Canyon down in South Dakota’s Southern Black Hills that was reputed to have some very old Indian Pictographs & Petroglyphs… we were interested! Continue reading →

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Devil’s Tower… famous for the 70’s iconic movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind“… and Tower shaped mashed potatoes… and of great spiritual significance to the Lakota, Cheyenne and Kiowa Indian tribes… with a cultural affiliation by over 20 other tribes… and perhaps one of the most beautiful National Monuments in the State of Wyoming. 

But what most people don’t realize is…  That Devil’s Tower also attracts Angels.

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Alice and I have spent the last couple of months enjoying Arizona’s Verde Valley area… a large river valley south of I-40/Flagstaff  that encompasses the cities of Cottonwood, Camp Verde, Jerome, Clarkdale, and Sedona, as well as the Verde River itself.   This area was also home to the Sinagua Indians during the years 500 AD thru 1425… whom Historians believe preceded today’s Hopi, Yavapai Apache, and Navaho tribes… The Sinagua left evidence of their habitation all over the Verde Valley…   hence this post of hiking pictures & narrative from our hike to the Sinagua Ruin Site of Sacred Mountain.

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One of the most beautiful hikes in the Sedona, Arizona area is located at the foot of the Mogollon Rim… in famous Oak Creek Canyon, at about the 5,400 foot elevation level.   The West Fork Oak Creek Trail #108 has it all… a creek filled with trout, rocks, canyons, cliffs, wildlife, flowers, Ponderosa Pines… and even some interesting History.

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Hi Folks. It is April 2014, and Alice and I have been in Arizona for several weeks now… We’ve reconnected with good friends from last year’s travels, and enjoyed the sunshine & warm temps… We’ve ‘road tripped’ to Las Vegas & California… and generally eased back into the Motor Home way of living.   This is our 2nd year, so we are not newbies… but we are still learning.  In this detailed update post from last year’s “Observation’s on Motor Homing”, we share some new & revised lessons and impressions.

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The 2013-2014 Holidays were long… wonderful… and Cold.   After storing our Dolphin Motorhome in Texas last November, Alice and I headed North, visiting our Baker Family in Ohio & Pennsylvania, and then staying with our Daughter & Son-in-Law in Michigan.   We enjoyed Christmas…Family… and the birth of our first Granddaughter.   Then in early March, we headed back to Texas for sun and warm weather… Continue reading →

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Summer 2013 is over… and it is time for Alice and I to be heading back South for a visit with Family in Texas.   While traveling from Hart Ranch (Rapid City, SD) to Texas we made a planned stop in Wichita, KS, to visit our Son, SSgt. Thomas LaPeer.   After a great family visit with Tom, we resumed our trip to Texas, passing thru the legendary Old West town of Dodge City, KS…where we were directed to another legendary site… the Santa Fe Trail ! Continue reading →

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If you love old steam locomotives… then this Post is for you!   Around our country are still several old railroads… working steam locomotives… relics from our country’s early days when the Railroads represented far horizons beyond one’s village limit.   A steam train’s whistle would bring village kids running to the train station, to see the huge behemoth of metal… belching smoke, huffing and puffing its way thru town on its way to the next town.

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