Taos. New Mexico, May 7, 2013. We left the Canon City area yesterday morning and drove to the Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. Between rain showers, we both climbed the dunes. We didn't climb the tallest one (750 Ft.) though. It is quite a sight. We then camped overnight at San Luis Lake State Park. Our site was to have a view of the lake. As you can see in the photo, no water in the lake. We then drove to Taos today. On the way we found another deep river gorge to drive over. This time we could. It is the Rio Grande Gorge just north of Taos. Taos is an interesting town with lots of art and crafts. It is a very old town as the narrow streets downtown make driving an RV interesting. Tomorrow we head to northwestern New Mexico to an aztec national park. Then who knows.

Canon City, CO

We spent much of the day in town to take the scenic railroad tour of the Royal Gorge. We have now seen the bridge from almost all possible angles. We also visited the Blossom and Music weekend in town though it is too cold to have any blossoms. Next we head to Great Sand Dunes National Park. I see on Facebook that Greg and Amy Rowley were there yesterday.

May 4, 2013 Canon City, CO

Since I last posted we have driven across Nebraska and into Colorado. The weather is slowly improving although there are signs of snow everywhere. While it has been wet at home it is extremely dry in southern Colorado. So lots of fire danger worries. We are camping near the Royal Gorge. It is a bridge over the Arkansas River in a 1000 ft. deep gorge. Really neat. They won't let us drive the RV across the bridge much to Beth's relief so we walked it. We also took a cable tram over the gorge and an inclined rail to the bottom of the gorge. We saw some white water rafters and wished we could join them. Next we go to Cripple Creek, CO then on to the Great Sand Dunes National Park south of where we are now. The first picture is what we left in Des Moines

Our May 2013 trip to the Southwest

Ok, we made it to Des Moines, Iowa the first night. We drove through lots of high wind. Our new motorhome, named the "Little Beast" handled it a lot better than our old one. We woke up today, May 2nd, 2013 ( I emphasize May) at the Cherry Glen campground on Saylorville Lake, just north of DesMoines to a snow storm. We decided to drive west toward Omaha instead of south to Kansas City after talking to our personal meteorologist, Mary. We drove through snow until we were near Omaha.  After that it was just high winds until we stopped at Grand Island, NE. The new unit performed well just have to get used to filling it with diesel amongst the big boy truckers.

Home

We left Weldon Springs State Park  Clinton, Il early and drove through fog and rain and finally some sun near Wausau. Great trip. We drove 2015 miles. We paid $3.219 for gas in northern Ill. When we arrived home gas is $3.499. We saw it as cheap as $2.919 in St. Louis.

Branson Shows

Hi, We watched the Packers beat Arizona on Sunday. It was warm and sunny. Bill took a long walk to the nearest Walgreens. Traffic is bad even on a Sunday AM in Branson, For those who have never been here, there is one 2 lane road on top of a steep ridge. The theaters are all along this road. So, it is bumper to bumper traffic all the time. It was a challenge driving into our campground (Branson Shenanigans) towing our car with the RV through the whole town. We hope to find an easier way out.
    Sunday night we went to The Haygoods show, It was very entertaining. Monday we are planning on seeing the Lennon Sisters and later the Presley Family Show (no relation to Elvis). It is raining a bit this morning and cooler. So Long summer weather. If you haven't voted yet don't forget to, Tuesday (tomorrow). We plan on heading home Tuesday. It has been a really nice trip.

Branson. MO

We enjoyed our 6 day stay at Bull Shoals-White River State Park. By Thursday & Friday the temperature soared up to the mid 70's. We drove to Mountain Home for a meal, groceries and stopped at a book store. Bill continued fishing every day plus we hiked around the area. On Friday we hiked a 3 mile "bike" trail. The problem with any kind of trail in the Ozarks, is the plentiful supply of small rocks. I think the bike trail would be a hazard for bike tires. Anyway, the river was up and down every day, depending on when the dam at Bull Shoals was opened or closed..

     We decided to leave the state park on Saturday and drive to Branson. It was easier for us to then drive to see Silver Dollar City near Branson. We saw 3 shows there. They have a long way to go as fas as crowd control goes, compared to Disney World. We stayed until the evening so we could see the all the lights. We are planning on seeing 3 shows in Branson before heading home.