August 27th 2017
 Wow, what a month! After leaving Carlsbad NM we headed to Albuquque  and arrived there without incidence. Long drive on good highways with not much to see but desert and brush but pretty in its own way. We were supposed to stay at Leisure Mountain Rv park in ABQ but when we arrived the campground (again a PA campground) it was beyond awful so we canceled and went down the road to Hidden Valley  Campground. It was also a PA campground and while not a great campground it was a 100% better than Leisure Mountain. It was $18 a night so quite reasonable.  Brad and Mallory had a delay getting into Abq so did not arrive until sunday. We were invited to Mallory's parents home for supper sunday night and had a very enjoyable evening getting to know them and catching up with Brad, Mallory and Brett. The week went by quickly. We went to Old Town with Brad and family and then out for pizza on Monday. Tuesday we had Tom and Ginny Decoster and brads family up to the campground for supper. Beautiful evening sitting outside. Brad and I did some dance practicing also during the week. Thurs. we moved the camper to the house in ABQ that Eric rented and Eric and family arrived. Nice house but according to Mallory not the best of neighborhoods. Heather and I went for a walk anyway. There was also a party that a friend of Tom and Ginnys put on, which was delightful and what a view from their home. Friday Kevin and family arrived and we just hung out until the rehearsal at 3pm. Then on to another party at Tom and Ginny's. Another great time. Joel, Karen, Josh, Marisa, Mom, and Cindi arrived and we stopped at their rented home on our way back to our house. Saturday was wedding day. Rain was predicted but it turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and not too hot for a change. They wedding was beautiful and so much fun! The kids danced until they feet almost fell off. So much fun! Sunday we had everyone (tom and ginny too) over to our house for a cookout. Toms brother Randy and Debbie also made it to the wedding so we had a good time catching up with them. Monday most of us went up to the top of the Mountain Range (10368 feet) via a tram and some of us hiked further up. I could not make it. Man, that lack of oxygen affected me greatly. Tues. everyone packed up and left to various destinations.
 We packed up the camper and headed out by 0730. 54.9 miles later tom noted that a piece of metal was flapping on the driver side of the camper so we pulled off at the next exit ramp to tack it down. We got out and looked at it and the entire tire/rim was GONE! At some point the tire flew off. We didn't know what to do we were so shocked. We never felt a thing. Eventually, we put the spare on and since 3 of the studs were shirred off and all of the lug nuts gone we took a lug nut from each remaining tire and screwed them on and limped to the travel center across the highway. Fortunately, there was a fix-it truck that was able to come to us and fix everything up and give us 2 new tires/rims and $600 we were on our way down the highway agai

old friends. class of 72. Denise badour, carla piehl, deb ellis and myself. we go back to 7th grade!

NM natural history museum.

Josh and I at the top of the mountain

beautiful view on the way up the mountain in the tram

 beautiful sunset for the wedding night

wedding pictures

josh, mom and cindi

karen, randy, deb and donna siverling

the happy couple

kendall, payton, wade and brett had a ball at the wedding

beautiful service led by friend scott

ginny and  i before the wedding

brett and i

well, i guess 3 beautiful women

mom and i

grandpa and his girls

great gramma and kids

family picture but the bride was still hiding

grandma and her girls

me and my boys

aprill and kendall

the kids loved tom and ginny's pool

tom and brad

me and all my girls

tom, tom eric and brad hanging out at tom's place

headed home

n. We stopped for a quick lunch break a couple of hours later at a small pull out in a town that had almost nothing in it and then continued on down the road. A bit later we stopped for gas and when I did my walk around I discovered my bike was GONE! Are you frickin kidding me???? how much more can go wrong? We finally made it home on Friday, got an estimate ($1600) and 2 more new tires ($300) and parked the camper. I wanted to kiss the ground at Pine Harbor. So glad to be "home".
 Saturday was my 45th class reunion and we had a blast! So good to catch up with old friends.
 Then this week was medical stuff with mom. First an appt. to take her to. Then another appt. and after she had a near syncopal episode in the lobby she was admitted to the hospital for 2 days and had testing done and NOTHING was found out except her artery's are clear. Yikes what a month. Friday was Cindi's birthday and she and Hanna came up to Chippewa and we all spent the day together. It was a great day.

Aug 4th 2017
 It has been a busy week! Lots of miles put on and have seen a lot of the country we have never been to before. We stayed at a PA campground outside of Topeka one night and listened to the very loud circada's. Then we moved on to Dodge City Kanas. Tom wanted to see the town that one of his favorite shows Gunsmoke was based. We happened to get there during their Dodge City Days celebration and were pretty excited because we figured there would be lots to keep us busy. What a bust! Their 10 day celebration could have been condensed into 2 0r 3 and still had time to spare. Minong Summer days had a lot more going for it. The historic downtown appears to be dying. We stayed at the Gunsmoke Rv park which was nice. $36 a night with good sams discount, full hookups. we stayed 3 nights only because we knew that we were pretty far ahead of schedule.  We left on tues morning the 1st and headed for New Mexico. We stayed in Logan NM at Arrowhead RV park. $20 with PA. A very rustic park at best, but the owner was nice. Park could use some considerable clean up but we did have full hookups. Between Dodge City and Logan we topped a hill and nearly rearended the cars in front of us due to an accident up the road. No warning from police at all just bang there it was! How tom kept the truck and camper on the road without overturning or crashing into the car ahead of us I will never know! It took my heart a long time to beat normally again After leaving Logan NM the roads were nice and wide with light traffic so I made the suggestion that I should drive for a while. I have not driven with the camper since the day we bought it so I had to relearn a few things. Just as I was starting to feel comfortable BANG. At first I thought the trailer fell off of the truck and when I checked the mirror I noted it was still behind us and  then I thought BLOWOUT. I pulled over to the side of the road as quickly as possible and we could then smell the blownout tire. Of course, there was no cell service on hwy 70 so we had to change it ourselves. Fortunately, tom was very prepared and had everything we needed to get it done in under an hour. So off we continue to Carlsbad NM. We needed to stop at the closest Walmart which was in Roswell NM and get another tire. At the Walmart a nice gentleman was helping us and when the old tire was taken out of the truck he asked us to move the truck/camper and tom did so forgetting that the tailgate was down and the tailgate tore the shit out of the front basement door. Good lord. What next. upon leaving the Walmart with the new tire, we got turned wrong on a street and tom quickly corrected to get us on the right street, but I am sure we were close to causing an accident. Finally, we got to our campground in Carlsbad NM...I was so glad to get here. We stayed at Carlsbad RV park. $42 a night with good sams. Nice campground and happened to be next door to the only RV repair shop in Carlsbad. We had them come over and look at the damage caused by the blowout. they did the next day. The gentleman said that he thought we were ok to continue on with the trip and said he could tack down the loose parts. Which he did and didn't charge us anything!! While in Carlsbad we went the Carlsbad NP and did a cave tour which was amazing! We returned in the evening to watch the Bat Flight. 400,000 or so bats leave the cave nightly to go hunt insects. It was pretty awesome to see. Today we were going to go to Guadalupe NP, but it is so hot here we decided to go instead to the Sitting Bull Falls park. Pretty park with a nice waterfall out in the middle of the desert. One would not expect to find something like that out there. Tomorrow we are off to Albuquerque . Brad and Mallory along with Brett will be arriving also. We are going to stay for  5 nights  at Leisure Rv park. Hopefully, brett will want to stay with us and we are going to do some sightseeing around ABQ and meet Mallory's parents.

It is a dry heat they say. Yeah right! Its HOT

Lincoln National Forest. Carlsbad NM

Entrance/exit where the bats leave nightly

Check off another park!

Carlsbad NP terrain over the caves

STUNNING formations inside the cave. And a cool 55 degrees inside. Blissful!

More park terrain

 No snakes but I was watching out for them

Working out at the Arrowhead Rv park in Logan NM. All of it was broken!

Camp spot at Gunsmoke Rv park in Dodge city Kanas

Campground headquarters. Unique little campground

Tom and Matt Dillion at his statue unveiling in Dodge city Kanas.

Yep, tom is wanted alright!