In the fall of 2009, just prior to Thanksgiving, we left our trailer in a campground in Denver under the watchful eyes of our friends Dave and Jim in their trailer next door to us. We then flew to Toronto for IGRA Convention and then back home to Clifton. On Jan 2nd, we flew back to Denver to prepare the trailer for its next trip.
In January several snow storms came through the Denver area, and we waited our chance. When that chance came we made a mad dash over the Rockies en route to Las Vegas for IGRA University. Here are some photos of Utah's grandeur and in a Utah campground when our water pipes froze because it was too cold. Yes, in Las Vegas it was warm and sunny.
For years, Frank has been wanting to visit Elko, Nevada during their Annual Cowboy Gathering in January. This year we attended, and it was great. Good poets, and great cowboy singing. The event lasts for 5 days and nights and every event was jammed. All hotels were booked up by June, but we had our trailer. Frank's favorites are Dave Stamey and Don Edwards. Even the great Baxter Black was there. You can listen to many of our favorite's on Frank's website.
En route back to Las Vegas, we passed through Flagstaff, Arizona, and stopped by beautiful Sedona to visit our friends Harley and Lee. Sedona is about an hour's drive north of Phoenix, but in the mountains. Sedona is absolutely gorgeous.
We then returned to the Phoenix area for the Road Runner Regional Rodeo. A day prior to the rodeo Frank joined a trail ride lead by a decendant of Wyatt Earp and a re-enactor. After the rodeo, we travelled south to Tucson, Arizona and stayed at Davis-Monthan Airforce Base. We took a day trip to visit Biosphere 2, where several people tried their best to live a self-sustaining life without outside assistance for two years. The project was paid for by Mr. Bass, of Bass Oil.
Slightly west of Tucson is the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, which is a class act. It is beautifully done, and as good as the Smithsonian. Their wildlife are carefully taken care of, and the lectures are terrific. They also have a great restaurant in which Tom had pickly pear cactus ice tea. A wonderful drink.
Our next stop was in Benson, Arizona. We took a day trip down to Tombstone, Arizona and saw an old western town and some entertainment.
Heading east, we again stopped at Carlsbad Caverns National Park. What a gloreous site. It took millions of years to develop, and the area is simply riddled with caverns for over a hundreds of miles.
Continuing east we stayed again at Oasis State Park in New Mexico. This is where we met our friend Lilly Rendt during our 1989-1991 trip across the US and Canada. Then turning north we headed for Raton, New Mexico. From Raton we visited the Capulin Volcano National Monument.
Returning to Denver, we were very happy for our friends Dave and Jim as they moved from their trailer into their new home. Well, not truly new as the house is over 100 years old, but wow was it beautifully restored and renovated. Great wooden floors, and even a wine cellar in the basement. The last photo shows Jim and their great, wonderful dog Andy.
Travelling east through Oklahoma we stayed at a Corps of Engineers campground before returning to Oklahoma City. This is a nice site on a lake made in 1942 by the Corps. The last photo shows how Frank remodeled our trailer server area to make it look nicer.
Continuing east we eventually arrived in Florida and visited Cedar Key Museum State Park. They have a small historical museum and the restored home of Saint Clair Whitman, a resident of Ceder Key who donated his collection of artifacts and shells to the city before he died in 1959.
We continued down the west coast of Florida and visited an archaeologist state park which dates their primitive Indians burial mounds back to about 200 BC.
We visited Frank's sister Sallie in Seminole, Florida and some of their nearby parks. The Tampa area and Florida in general have a great park system. One photo shows Fuzz, a very old cat who sadly passed away this year.
Heading south we travelled through the Everglades and saw alligators sunning themselves on river banks. We camped in the Seminole Indian reservation and visited their museum.
After the Florida rodeo we headed north to visit Curt and Ellie who were managing a Corps of Engineers campground in South Carolina. We were camped right on the water. A beautiful view.
While there we visited the small town of Edgefield the home of many governors and senators from South Carolina. The last 3 shots are of our campground on the lake and some more of Frank's night photography.
Once again we toured Mamouth Cave. But on this tour, after the heavy rains in the area, some of the lower passages of the cave were flooded, so those tours were closed..
Then further west we made our first visit to Branson, Missouri. One evening we went to a show by the Sons of the Pioneers. Branson was fun, but the traffic was very congested.
Heading slightly south, we went to Bentonville, Arkansas and visited the home town of Wal-Mart. And the Wal-Mart museum.
We returned to Oklahoma City, and visited their fireman's museum. Since Frank had been a volunteer fireman, he had keen interest in the equipment and the patches. 2 of the patches are from the volunteer departments Frank was a member of in the late 70's and early 80's. (see arrows in photos. Fair Oaks is the new name for Navy Vale VFD, the second deaprtment Frank ran with)
We then turned north and visited Big Brutus. Brutus was the second largest "electric" shovel ever used to remove the overburden (top layer of earth) to expose and mine soft coal. This was one of the last of the soft coal strip mining operations. The second photo shows the power cable that ran on the ground and supplied Brutus with 7,000 volts of current. Brutus is...well, BIG! See Tom standing beside the tracks in 2 of the photos. The Big Brutus is in the south eastern corner of Kansas.
We visited the beautiful botanical gardens of Missouri in St Louis. A truly magnificent site to see. Extremely well cared for.
In June, we returned home to Clifton. After a few discussions we both agreed that the only reason for being home was to clean the gutters and check on the house. On the second day home, we called a neighbor/realtor Debbie and listed the house for sale. A week later, with one showing, she sold the house in one day. Amazing. So we sorted much stuff, threw away much, gave much to charity, and packed the rest to be shipped to storgage in Denver...the place for our future home. In the process of moving we sold Frank's 2004 Ford F-150 truck and Tom's 2007 Honda Accord. We sold these vehicles because we were expecting to be travelling in our trailer for about a year before buying a home in the Denver area. So on August 10th we said good bye to our home of 19 years in Clifton. It was a great home.
One day while driving through the rain, we found the underbelly below the bedroom of our trailer was coming apart. We had to take the trailer to Motley's RV repair in Oklahoma City where they replaced the front section and did a better job of sealing than the original.
