Oklahoma to Folorida and back again.

Our trip to Florida went off without too many hitches. Flying is absolutely a most miserable option for travel nowadays. Our first flight out of Oklahoma was delayed and the second was cancelled. The third time was the charm and off we went to Tampa Bay and more relatives.

Florida still has lots of sand, sun and humidity, but it also has some of our favorite nephews and a stirling niece (hi guys). We had a great visit with everyone, Lydia's dear sister Polly and her Mom, who took some time to remember her, and another newly found relative, Margaret Towner, first ordained female Presbyterian minister.

We saw some wonderful birds as we toured Miyakka State Park as well as the back yard. Roseate Spoonbills, Ladderback Woodpeckers, Cardinals, Bluejays, Black Vultures (great flocks of them), Great Blue and Little Blue Herons, Ospreys, Egrets and a few more that are escaping my memory at the moment. Good birding altogether and alligators to boot!

All in all, a wonderful week away from the heat of Oklahoma and into the heat of Florida.

Back in Oklahoma we are preparing to start our return trip to the Pacific Northwest. Lydia had her last infusion before heading home and tomorrow is an oil change and check up for the truck. A few minor fixes on the travel trailer and we will be ready to depart on July 6th. Off to Fort Supply, Oklahoma followed by Dodge City, Kansas. If internet services are good we should be blogging every day again soon.

We are ready to hit the road again and ready to be at home at the same time. I am afraid the travel bug may have bit us pretty hard. Shorter trips in the future, but certainly more of them.

See you soon....

Phil and Lydia

Stifling Heat!!!!!

If you have been wondering where we are as of late, we are in Oklahoma with my parents and attempting to breath what they call air down here. We have set record temps several times now and not much relief in sight.

We did make the trip to the greater Dallas area for my granddaughters high school graduation and had a great time. It is hard to get used to a graduating class of almost 1,400 but there we were. Texas was pretty warm also but not nearly as humid as Oklahoma. All in all, a great visit with my daughter and her family. We were also finally able to get the stereo replaced in the truck. As any of you who know Lydia and I know, we can't stand to be without our Jazz tunes and they can be pretty spotty while on the road.

It has been good to see my relatives and catch up on all the latest marriages, divorces and deaths in the family as well as look in on some old friends.

Next week we are off to Florida to see Lydia's mother, her sister and her family for a week. After that it is back to Oklahoma for another week and then hitch up the trailer and start our trip home. Lots of fun places to see and wonderful things to see so watch for more updates in the next couple of weeks. We will try and do another blog while in Florida and another before we leave Oklahoma. We have to find WiFi hotspots to even get online here.

More travel pictures soon..

Phil & Lydia

Across New Mexico and Into Oklahoma!

Sorry you haven't heard from us the past few days.  No internet, and not much to report ... the drive across New Mexico was uneventful and with apologies to New Mexican's, very forgetful.

We did have two nice campgrounds in New Mexico however. The South Forty in Las Cruces was quite nice and we almost wish we could have stayed an extra night. Great owners and very clean facilities. The little Oasis State Park in Portales, NM (in the middle of nothing) was also quite nice with excellent facilites that somehow manged to eat our soaps and shampoos. Either that or we just forgot them.

After leaving Portales it was a short drive to Texas and a longer one to leave it. This was our longest drive yet at about 325 miles. It wouldn't have been too bad if Oklahoma saw fit to place some signs on the road. It only took 2 u-turns, but with a 23 foot trailer behind you they can be exciting to perform.

Today, Saturday, we spent the day at the Wichita Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, Fort Sill, OK. The Refuge was first established in 1901 as a forest reserve by William McKinley. In 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt re-designated the area as the Wichita Forest and Game Preserve.

This is a truly magnificent place to spend some time. Bison, Elk, Deer, playful Prairie Dogs and wonderfuil vistas are everywhere you look. The only problem during our visit was some serious heat, 103F today as we tried to get in some bird watching. We did manage to see the endangered Black-Capped Vireo, Mississippi Kite, Black and White Warbler, Western Meadowlark, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and a few other species while driving around. There are 470 species located here in Oklahoma, not bad for such a small state. Much like the Grand Canyon, this place should be on your bucket list.

Tomorrow we leave the Ft. Sill campground and have a short drive to my home town of Shawnee, OK after a brief stop in Oklahoma City for some needed trailer supplies. Little to no internet access means not much activity on the blog for a month or so but keep an eye open for the occasional post on our travels. We still have Dallas, TX and Sarasota, FL to do before starting our return trip.

See Ya - Phil & Lydia

A busy few days and no access again!

Wow, we have had an exciting few days. We arrived in Scottsdale for a visit with Barry and Cathy. It didn't take us too long to remember why we call them friends. In fact this whole trip so far is about seeing old friends and family.

We had an absolute ball with Barry and Cathy, spending time with them in their home and visiting new places in the Scottsdale area. It was a good thing we did have friends here as our air conditioner blower decided to go into failure mode on us in 90+ degree weather! We ended up spending an extra day there getting it repaired.

Off to the Botanical Garden our first evening and what a treasure it was. A pleasent walk with cactus and desert plants all around, mixed with wonderful conversation. Sometimes we tend to forget what a pleasant conversation can be worth to us.

This is Barry and Phil at the little RV park in Scottsdale. It was small but very nice.

And Cathy, Barry's wonderful wife and a dear giving friend.

Our next foray into the desert heat was to one of the coolest places we have ever been. The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix will be one of the high points of our trip. The museum is just what the title says, all musical instruments from around the world and the ages. At every display and country there was information about the exhibit as well as recordings/videos to listen to via headphones they provide. You could spend a week in this place.

Again we saw some great birds in Scottsdale, including:
Gila Woodpecker, Abert's Towhee, Inca Dove, White-Winged Dove, Nighthawk and both Black-Backed and Green-Backed Lesser Gooldfinch. While we don't have a lot of time to bird, we are both adding some life birds to our list as we go. Thank you to our special friends Barry and Cathy for taking such good care of us.

After Scottsdale it was off to Tucson, AZ and yet another friend Celia.

We spent a truly great day with Celia driving us around Tucson. First we went to the Tucson Tamale Factory and I had my first Green Corn Tamale!! Man that was so good we bought some frozen ones to help us finish the trip.

Then it was off to the International Wildlife Museum. I can't belive we got to go to two museums in one week! What a treat. This one is hard to describe simply because it defies description. Think heads, hides and horns for a moment. It was all of that and more. Mounted (taxidermied) species from all over the world were on display in great settings.

Another very informative and exciting place to visit if you ever make it to Tucson.

We left Tucson this morning and had a rather uneventful drive into Las Cruces, NM where we are all settled in for the night. Lydia is planning on posting all of our photo's on her Facebook page so you can see even more of where we have been and what we have done.

Thanks for reading and traveling along with us.

Phil & Lydia

The Grand Canyon certainly is!

The drive to the Grand Canyon was very interesting. We arrived in Williams, AZ to be greeted by a small blizzard, almost an inch of snow blowing sideways. We stopped for a bite to eat and see what was going to happen.

After about an hour the snow stopped and we decided to continue onward to the Grand Canyon only to be snowed, sleeted, hailed and rained on all the way there. Once we finally arrived at our campground everything but the wind and a little rain was all the weather we had. Oh, it was also just above freezing. Fearless as we are, off to see the cnayon we went. Did I forget to mention that we didn't bring any warm clothes!!!! We layered up and off we trecked.

Even with the weather the views were spectacular. If you haven't been there yet then start making plans and go as soon as you can. Our main wish was that we were had more time to hike some of the canyon trails.

The campground was a little rustic but very nice. We had lots of wildlife including Mule Deer, ground squirrels visit us. We also saw Mountain Chickadees, Great-Tailed Grackle, Scrub Jays, Ravens, Crows, Red-Backed Dark Eyed Junco and Pinyon Jays. I do believe there was a Raven convention going on while we were there, we have never seen more Raven at one time in our lives.

One of our favorite stops at the rim was the Dorothy Kolb House at Hermits Rest. We are actually sitting in the fireplace here warming up before heading back to the campground. There just are not enough words to describe the views of this remarkable place. We also came across people from everywhere on the planet during our stay. We heared Japanese, German, French, Turkish, British, Brazilian Portuguese and even Canadian being spoken while there.

As hard as it was to leave we had to get on to Scottsdale and more friends. Before we leave, one last video of the Canyon at Yaki Point.

We arrived in Scottsdale to a sligth change in the weather. Low 90's and about 8% humidity. When we got out of the truck my first thought was that someone broke the atmosphere. For us Northwestern people this is quite a change!

More to come.

Phil & Lydia

Bakersfield to Needles

What a nice drive this turned out to be. A lot of up and down hill driving but quite pretty in its own way. We took a short break on Route 66 for a quick lunch at a very dilapedated old restaurant where the food was surprisingly good.

The RV park we are in is mainly park model mobile homes with some RV spaces thrown in for good measure. The Colorado River is running full and quite beautiful. We did manage a few pictures there on an early walk.

Off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow but no internet access so you can expect a long blog after we leave there on Friday. The weather promises some excitement while we are at the canyon, almost freezing at night (they are getting snow tonight) and thunderstorms and wind during the day!! We are having fun now.

More after the Grand Canyon trip.

Phil & Lydia

Fun time in Novato, CA

We finally made it to Novato after some harrowing experiences on Hwy 101 coming down the coast. Landslides at one point completely blocked the North bound lanes so we had the opportunity to share our South bound lanes for a while. Lots of construction underway on 101 and it certainly needs it. It is still a beautiful drive and was a memorable one for Lydia and I. Fun is not a big enough word for our trip so far.

Our friends John and Barb took us on a fabulous trip through Napa, Sonoma and Calistoga Valleys to see some great wineries, had a remarkable burger, at another one of Guy Fieri's favorite spots, and then they took us to a tremendous little olive oil pressing operation that also had some wonderful Italian cheese and meats. What a treat!!! This will be a high point of our trip I am sure.

We also had a fun visit at the Beringer Winery. The architecture of the house was magnificent and you could have spent hours going from room to room just looking at the wood and stained glass, etc. The grounds were gorgeous with landscaping and we had a wonderful time walking around.

Our visit with John and Barb was a special time well spent and we will treasure it for years to come. Good friends are a true pleasure. Good conversation and a wonderful introduction to the healing properties of a well made Manhattan cocktail.

Today we drove to Bakersfield, CA and tomorrow off thru the Mojave to Needles, CA on our way to the Grand Canyon and more friends in Arizona.

See more of you all soon..

Phil & Lydia