Saturday, December 31, 2011

New Years Eve

Sunrise

There is still snow on the ground
We had a quiet New Year's Eve, we stayed home and watched TV and went to bed way before midnight.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Home Again

We were both up by 4 and ready to leave by 5, so we headed out.  Goodbye Days Inn!  We stayed here because the last time we stayed it was a nicer place than the Super 8 we usually stay in.  Not anymore, it felt like being in a prison cell, bare walls with no pictures, no chairs to sit in, tiny little pillows and the room smelled bad, the smell permeated everything, by morning my pj's had picked it up from the sheets!  It was supposed to be a non-smoking room, but I don't think it was!

Sign on the motel we stayed in

The sun peaking out at 7:30 between Tucson and Globe
We stopped in Globe for breakfast, there were some cool vehicles in the parking lot! What fun to have one like this to play in!


We stopped at Seneca and I got some pictures while stopped.  It looked like this must have been a cool place at one time, too bad it closed up, I'd have loved to spend a weekend in one of the cabins!

The sun shining on a yucca, one of the cabins in the background

I love looking at the rocks in Salt River Canyon
Back in the snow country
I'd love to live in this modern Victorian!

Mural painted by Steve Taylor

It always feels good when Escudilla pops up in my view on a trip home!

It ended up being a not so fun trip home for me, my stomach wasn't feeling good, I guess I ate something that didn't agree with me yesterday. 

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tucson

John's spikes are in Tucson, so we drove down today to pick them up.  We met Andy at the crossroads to deliver Jessie to him and headed out.

Leaving town, I love these hills!

Andy waiting for us at the crossroads
Mandy, Mandy says it's going to take us over 6 hours from the crossroads! I wonder if she knows the way??

Ewww, they left their sewer drains open and we got splashed all over the front of the pickup and the windshield!  Come on people, close your sewer drains when you are on the road!!
Salt River Canyon
A quick stop to pick up lunch to go at McD's
We turned left at Gobe even though Mandy, Mandy told us to turn right, does she even know the way to Tucson??
There are lots of yuccas along this stretch of the road, love them!
We've reached our destination!
Wow, these two buckets have a TON of railroad spikes in them!
Loading the spikes, I wish I had one of those fork lifts!  It was cool!
Charles, Nikki and Christy with the quilt Grandma made Nikki for Christmas
 It was a stressful trip because the place where we picked up the spikes closed at 3 and we didn't leave until after we found out for sure they were in Tucson, which wasn't until 9.  The directions John printed off from Google Earth and our Tom Tom didn't agree, so it was stressful deciding who to trust! We ended up using parts of both.  We made it with time to spare, thankfully they loaded the barrels into the pickup with a fork lift, or we probably wouldn't have gotten them all loaded by closing time because we'd have had to take them out of the barrels a handful at a time.  We went to Charles' house after we got done and visited with them, then took them out to Golden Corral to eat and had a nice visit with them.

We picked the Days Inn to stay in because the last time we stayed there it was nicer than our usual Super 8.  Things have gone downhill since then, we wondered if the guests have been robbing them, there were NO pictures on the walls and no chairs to sit in!  It reminded me of a jail cell.  It smelled bad, too, old stale smoke and old motel, yuck!  We had a hard time getting to sleep because of the noise, I think someone was playing in the pool area and going in and out a metal gate, slamming it shut each time, and running up and down the corridor yelling.  I finally drifted off, not sure what time it was.
Our room at the Days Inn

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Our First Progressive Dinner

I got some cute photos of Jessie this morning.  She's so good about posing for me.



Carleen and Trish planned a fun night to celebrate Mom's upcoming birthday on Jan. 3rd.  Since Trish won't be here on her birthday she wanted to celebrate while they are here.  Jessie wanted to go, so we kept her for an extra day.  We all had a blast!  Jessie, John and I had never been to a progressive dinner and we had a lot of fun!  We had salad at Aunt Robbie's, Spaghetti at Carleen's and dessert at Mom's.

Mom and Aunt Robbie

Aunt Robbie's where we had a delicious salad.


Carleen's table
Jessie got her own little table. We all got a cute little mug with our
name on it to tell us where to sit.  The mug had goodies inside! 

Jessie, Me and John


Jessie, Sam and Trish

Sandy and Gary

Karen, Mom and Jessie with the flowers we gave her.

All of the dinner guests except Aunt Robbie, she was taking the photo.