In May, Frank had a colonoscopy and was referred to a Colorectal Surgeon to have some hemorrhoids removed. As it turned out, Frank was developing stage one anal cancer. The rest of the year was taken up with treatment and recovery which he is still going through.
We did take a couple of trailer trips in the early part of the year but due to various reasons very few photos were taken.
We started out with the trailer on January 9th headed south toward Las Vegas. Between home and Colorado Springs, we kept seeing signs stating high wind warning. As we got closer to Colorado Springs, we saw hundreds of trucks pulled off to the side. We stopped at a Walmart and waited for the wind to die down. After a couple of hours, the wind was still very strong, so we carefully drove a few more miles and stopped for the night at the Air Force Academy campground.
The next day the winds had stopped, but as we drove further south, we counted at least 12 tractor trailers that had been blown off the road, on their sides. Even the power poles had been blown over.
We spent a night in Santa Fe, then Holbrook, Arizona ending up in Las Vegas for a 10 night stay. After that we continued south to Laughlin, Nevada, then turned east staying in Salome, AZ, Gila Bend, Tucson and Benson AZ.
Into New Mexico we stayed four nights at a nice campground in the extreme south western corner of the state at a small place called Rodeo. This area is popular with armature astronomers because the air is very clear and there are no obtrusive lights. The night time skies were brilliant.
From there we traveled a bit further east and stayed at Hoffman Air Force Base then an interesting BLM campground called Valley of Fire. We stayed at the same place back in 1990 when it was a state park. This is the site of a fairly recent (4,000 years ago) lava flow. Tom was bitten by a small dog twice on the trail. Tom threatened its owner.
From there we turned back west, across New Mexico into Arizona ending at Phoenix for the Arizona Gay Rodeo.
After the rodeo we headed home. Here are a few of the campgrounds we stayed at during our spring trips.
The first two photos we camped at the John Martin State Park in South East Colorado. The next two are at Oasis RV Resort outside Amarillo, Texas. Then one photo in the Road Runner campground in Oklahoma City. One photo from a random KOA campground, then one at a Corps of Engeneers campground. Finally two shots at Big Brutus in South Eastern Kansas. Big Brutus is the second largest electric shovel ever built and is now a museum.
We also took a fast camping trip to Little Rock in April for their rodeo before returning home. Following are some campgrounds we stayed at during our trips this year.
It was about a month later Frank found out he had anal cancer which ended our camping trips as the rest of the year was taken up with treatment and recovery.
We did take the trailer to Jefferson County Fairgrounds in Golden, Colorado for the Rocky Mountain Regional Rodeo, after which the trailer has sat on its pad for the rest of the year. We are still deciding whether to take the trailer out next February for the 2018 Arizona Gay Rodeo in Phoenix or just to drive.
By August, Frank had had anal surgury so was not up to a trailer trip so we just drove the car to Santa Fe for their rodeo.
The first two photos are Frank's testing setup done in our garage for webcasting conventionThen a few photos Tom shot while at Convention in Little Rock.
