AARP Las Vegas@50+

Although it meant a 585 mile back-track, we could not pass up an opportunity to attend the 2009 AARP Convention at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, NV. Ellyn had heard that they had great speakers and an interesting show floor. So, after attending the 2009 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, we headed back to the west through Arizona to Las Vegas. We parked the RV at the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort and headed in to the Expo Center to pick up our literature packages which included the schedule for the 3 days, badge holders, and bags to carry all our swag.

On day one, we got an early start (for us) by getting up at 7:00 and heading in for the 9:30 kick-off meeting. It was in the largest hall in the building and had about 9,000 AARP members in it. After an introduction by the CEO of AARP who spoke about AARP's Health Care Reform requirements, there was a great panel discussion on the Golden Age of Television with Penny and Gary Marshall, John Amos and George Takei. Although most of the questions from the audience were directed at the Marshalls, There were still some interesting anecdotes by George and John. Especially George Takei mentioning that Gene Roddenberry had chosen the name Sulu for his character because it was Asian sounding but not specific to any Asian nation/culture. This was a great start to the convention.

After that, Ellyn and I took off for different sessions. The days were packed with different topics on finances, aging, travel, connecting, and health. They even had some movies they were showing. Geoff opted for a movie called “Certifiably Jonathan”, about Jonathan Winters and his newest endeavor, painting. Although the documentary was definitely tongue-in-cheek, the paintings were wonderful and the cast in the movie was terrific. Later in the afternoon, we both went to another movie called “The Wrecking Crew”, about studio musicians who were behind many Rock and Roll hits of the 60s and 70s. This documentary was created by the son of one of the musicians who passed away in 1994, and is something that anyone who grew up in that era and listened to those records will want to see. The director spoke after the movie and he is still looking for funding for the release which he's planning for early 2010. This movie was definitely a highlight of the event for us and we STRONGLY recommend it to anybody who loves American music of the 60's and early 70's.

Day two started later because there was not as much happening in the morning that we were interested in seeing. The main thing for that day was not until the evening when they were having a dance party in the big hall. It had 4 bands doing different genres of music. First was Duke Ellington Orchestra playing big band music. When we arrived, the place was already pretty full. We had to sit near the back but the dance floor area seemed to be The Zippers     woefully small. Ellyn was a bit disappointed, as there did not seem like enough dance floor space for something billed as the “World’s Largest Dance Party”. The second band to play was a party band - The Zippers. Nice name but great group full of spirit and playing covers from the 50s through the 80s. They really got people up. This made us think that the demographic of the people at this conference was closer to our age or even a little younger. Many more 50s and 60s than 70s. Next up was the  Tito Puente Jr Band. Some great Latin music from this bunch and, although we sat it out from being exhausted from The Zippers, it was a great performance. The Zippers came on for a second set and then Kool and the Gang topped off the night. They were really good. They extended the stage out into the audience more and even had them take down the barrier that was out about 6 feet from the front of the stage so they could “get some lovin’” from the audience during their numbers. They really rocked the joint and were out shaking hands at the edge of the stage afterwards. Their last song of the night was the most memorable..It was totally thrilling to be there dancing live to the group whose song we had danced to at every Bar/Bat Mitzvah and many weddings we have attended..."Celebration!" The evening was an exhilarating 4 hour dance workout!

The third and last day, we slept in again and went to a few things in the afternoon including the movie “Mama Mia” and the introduction of the Chevrolet Volt with a talk by the CEO of General Motors. Ellyn attended an interview of Chef Anthony Amoroso who had, just last week, had beaten Iron Chef Morimoto on Iron Chef America. Ellyn also took in a session with Dr. Susan Love who is a well known expert and activist working towards elimination of breast cancer. Along with Avon, she is driving to get one million women registered as an Army of Women for studies and statistical demographics to determine, not just a cure, but the prevention and elimination of breast cancer. She's a great speaker. If you haven't already done so, please consider registering for the Army of Women. In addition to the speakers, the expo floor was great - we picked up lots of travel brochures from Southern states  we're soon to visit. Geoff got a free harmonica along with a 30 minute group lesson. Ellyn picked up more free junk (swag) than she should have because there's not much room in the RV. We really enjoyed the 3-day event - a great combination of entertainment and learning. It was a very diverse group - perhaps the most diverse event we've ever attended (excepting our sons' high school graduations). We recommend it to any of you who are 50+ and who will be near the annual event. Next year it's in Orlando. And, oh yes - it only cost $25 for the registration so it's a bargain! And now, we have two more days left in Las Vegas. We've been to LV enough in the past that we're not forced to do a lot of sight-seeing. We're still considering what we're going to do - perhaps just lounge around the great looking pool area here at the RV resort - maybe a trip to a casino.

California, Summer/Fall 2009

Our tour of California from Napa to San Diego, September and October, 2009. Hover over any picture on the map to see the name of the location, and click to see a larger version of the picture or more  pictures from the location.

The Surprising Verde Valley, Arizona

We've already been camped here at the Zane Grey RV Park, in Camp Verde, for five days and it's been a beautiful five days. Here's some of what we've seen...

The hillside town of Jerome - former mining town, redlight district and ghost town now filled with shops and galleries.
The Mongollon Rim escarpment which, more or less, is a one edged canyon. We drove 30 min. on a bumpy, gravel road to get there.
Quail Country Quilt Show - reminded me a lot of Janet's Guild Quilt show but a bit smaller.
The beautiful red rock spires surrounding Sedona including a sunset view. There were two wedding parties at the river taking photos and one had a Native American flute player that added just the right musical atmosphere.
The planets orbiting Jupiter, the Ring Nebula, and a star cluster through the telescopes at Lowell observatory. It was a beautiful new-moon evening and we could easily see the Milky Way without even needing the telescopes.
Montezuma’s Castle and Well. Considering the fact that Montezuma never left Mexico, there are a lot of things here named for him. Early explorers mistakenly assumed the ruins they found were left by him, but they were actually much earlier inhabitants of this land.
Tuzigoot ruins of a 1000 year old town - rebuilt by the WPA in the 30's along with a beautiful little museum also built by the WPA.
Beautiful vistas and views in every direction along the beautiful Arizona horizon.

We also kayaked in one of the small-ish Dead Horse Ranch Lagoons as well as biked to get a closer view of Sedona's Cathedral Rock.  

Yesterday, we took a day off from driving around. Ellyn learned to play "Hand and Foot" cardgame with two of the women  from the RV park. We really like this small shady RV park - it's very relaxing and the people are very nice. Perhaps, we'll get a chance to visit, here, again in the spring.

6 Months of RVing - by the Numbers

We consider the start of our Full-Time RV living to be April 14th when we left Debbi's and Peter's driveway in Bethel, CT for Ellyn's brother's and sister-in-law's curb in Vienna, VA. We choose that date because it's the date our home was supposed to "close" on but it didn't actually close until the 17th. Now, in celebration of our first six months of RV living, here's a summary of our travel by the numbers:

RV Miles: 13,076

Car Miles: 6,707

States Traveled: 31

States Camped: 28

Nights in RV: 173

Last date we saw measurable rain: August 25th (almost 2 months ago)

Pounds Ellyn has lost: none (but none gained either)

Longest bike ride: 12 miles (in hot steamy weather with Ken & Martha)

Highest altitude: 11,796ft (Rocky Mountain National Park)

Lowest altitude: 8ft below sea level (est. between San Diego and Arizona)

Highest gas price: $3.18 (California last month)

Lowest gas price: $1.83 (Virginia in April)

National Parks & National Historic Sites: at least 9

Friends visited: at least 22

Family visited: at least 20

F&F met-up with on travels: 4 (Logan & Maureen, Dave & Marie)

Campgrounds: 61

Most Expensive Camping: $85/night (Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - included admission)

Least Expensive Camping: $9.50/night

Average Camping: $33

Number of incredible experiences & memories: Far too many to count!!!

Driving to Beautiful Verde Valley, AZ

We arrived last night at Zane Grey RV Park in Camp Verde, AZ. For the first time in a while, we are surrounded by trees and there is a lovely creek on the campgrounds property.

Our drive here from Albuquerque had a few diversions. We stopped in a really nice, friendly campground in Holbrook, AZ for two nights and spent a day in the incredible Petrified Forest National Park (PFNP). The PFNP is more like two parks in one - the northern half is the Painted Desert whereas the southern half has many areas with petrified logs. Also included in the park, were ruins of the original inhabitants more than a millennium ago as well as outstanding petroglyphs. So, there was really a lot to see and photograph. We'll add lots of photos to this post as the photos will save me a thousand words of typing.

As we headed toward Flagstaff, we stopped at Meteor Crater. You sci-fi movie fans may remember that the ending of the movie "Starman" was filmed there. It's the size of 20 football fields and is where a 150 foot meteor struck the earth millions of years ago. The museum had very interesting meteor and crater exhibits.

A smaller item we saw in the garden, a the crater, was a lizard that appeared to change colors as we watched move from the plant to a rock. In the parking lot, we met the transport driver of a Seattle hydroplane. The driver of the hydroplane, he was hauling, is Kayleigh Perkins who, in Aug, was the first woman to be the unlimited light Seafair champion!

We then drove on through Flagstaff to our current campground in Camp Verde - about 30 minutes from Sedona. We plan to spend a week, here, relaxing and touring the area. First task is to grocery shop after we send out this post.

Playing Catch-up Again

Ok, let's see, where are we now. Oh, yeah, back in Arizona after a week in New Mexico. The balloon fiesta in Albuquerque was fantastic. We sure are glad we parked right on the park grounds because the traffic trying to get into the facility in the early morning was backed up for miles, according to the local news stations. Also, the early morning events started at 5:45 AM. Ouch. But we did not shirk them and we are so glad we did not.

The morning started out with the Dawn Patrol, a group of balloons which would launch before dawn to "prove" the wind direction and speed before the mass ascension. This was more than just balloons in the dark, because they would do some "all burn" and "flicker burn" maneuvers  to light up the morning sky. It was quite colorful.

At 7:00 AM the rest of the balloons would begin inflating and launching into the sky as soon as they were ready. By this time the sky was light and by the time the last balloons lifted off, the sun would be bright over the Sierra Madre mountains. The best thing about these balloon launches was that the public was able to mix and mingle with the balloons and launch crews right on the field as they wished. It was quite something to see these huge balloons inflate, rise over you head, and then rise into the morning air. Each time one lifted off there would be a cheer from the crowd right around it.

The first morning we saw the mass ascension, it was just the special shapes balloons. The other balloons were at another site to the northwest of the field. After the special shapes were all launched, they clear the field and set up targets for the other balloons, which then flew into the filed, dropped markers into the targets, and tried to retrieve envelopes form tall poles. This was the "keygrab" competition and it was quite something to watch. It is amazing show the pilots can actually do some fine controlled maneuvering of the balloons. It would get really interesting when there were several balloons really close together over the field jockeying for position and "kissing" each other to get to the targets and poles.

The after noons would be relaxed and the balloon crews would do maintenance and rest up. Then in the evening, they would get back onto the field and inflate, but not fly. They would then do a "Glodeo" in which they would light their burners all at once or in a flickering pattern to make everyone "oooo" and "aaaah". It was very colorful. The evening would then be topped off with a fireworks show.

On the second full day there, we got up early to see the dawn patrol (5:45 AM!) and then to watch the mass ascension of all of the balloons, both special shapes and the “regular” balloons. I set up the video camera and shot 90 minutes of the activity. Then I put it all on

Mass Ascension

my computer and compressed it to run in 2 minutes. It is pretty cool and you can see it here on YouTube. We had 3 days of great fun, until the last evening, when the winds decided to kick up and they had to cancel the balloons. They still did the fireworks, so all was not lost. The last morning, they were supposed to do another mass ascension as a farewell but the winds were still too high. We were so glad we did not wait until the last day to see that.

Good-bye Pacific - Hello Desert

Yikes - we're behind, again.

Our stay in Orange County, CA was great (don't we say that every time?). One treat was that Orangeland Campground had citrus trees throughout the park. They even had fruit picker tools to borrow so we helped ourselves to some of the ripe oranges. Since they were too juicy to eat, we juiced them. We still have a dozen or so in the fridge.

I had a great visit with Ellyn's longtime friend, Henry, who was her first boyfriend (at 15) and she's been dear friends with him now for 42 years! We went to Yom Kippur services at his Conservative Synagogue which were very, very nice for Kol Nidre and a bit more dull for YK morning. Ellyn got to also go out to lunch with Henry in Laguna Beach.

At Henry's suggestion, the two of us spent an afternoon on Balboa Island and taking the itsy-bitsy ferry to Laguna Beach. The ferry is similar to the Essex Ferry in CT. It was an incredibly beautiful day and it was great riding our bikes along the beach, walking on the pier.

Another treat in Orange County was meeting up with our friends Marie and Dave for dinner. Also at the dinner was Dave's sister and partner (who we had met in WDW last Jan) as well as an IBM colleague of Ellyn's that she hadn't seen in years. It was a great dinner at the Disneyland Hotel's Steakhouse 55.

Next, we headed to San Diego where Geoff's Brother Wes and family live. It was great hanging out with them at their house. The youngest niece is now graduated from high school and the great-niece is now a very active and precocious 5 years old. An extra treat was that we saw the Navy's Blue Angels fly over the house as they were doing a nearby Air Show.

On Sunday, we had a great kayak paddle in Mission Bay nearby the RV park and in the afternoon, Wes, Pat and little Trinity came to join us in Mission Bay Park. It was a beautiful day. I have read that San Diego has the best weather in the world and our few days there seemed to bear that out. We also flew our kites but the wind was a bit variable so we didn't do that for long.

Yesterday, we said good-bye to the Pacific and started driving east to Arizona. Our drive was great - not much traffic and we passed interesting views of rocky hills and valleys and then into the desert where we passed through blowing dust and saw a real tumbleweed tumbling. Geoff made an unannounced stop in Dateland, AZ to get a Date Shake. Ellyn was too full from eating pumpkin seeds in the RV.

This morning we headed further east to leave the RV at BEAUTIFUL Gilbert Ray Campground near Saguaro National Park. Then, we drove about an hour more east in the car to go the INCREDIBLE Kartchner Cavern. We've been to 8 or maybe more caverns around the country and this one was unique. It was discovered only 35 years about by two college students. They kept it a secret and finally told the landowners (the Kartchner Family) about it four years later. They decided that it should be made a State Park so it could be protected. It took a total of 14 years, after it was discovered, before it was made public, and then another 10 years until it was opened in 1999. The discoverers and the state did research on problems other caves had had to put as many protections in place to preserve the cave features and atmosphere such as dim lights and triple door chambers to maintain the humidity. The utmost care was taken in the building the wheelchair accessible pathway and entrance. So, as far as I could tell, there weren't any broken off stalagmites or stalactites and there were incredible "straws" (one 21 feet from floor to ceiling) and columns (one dubbed Kubla Khan is 60 ft tall!). The tour was a delight so kudos to the discoverers, the Kartchner family as well as the State of Arizona!

Our plans for tomorrow are to tour the Saguaro National Park in the morning - maybe even get up for sunrise over the mountains. Then to drive some more towards Albuquerque where we plan to be on Thursday to go to the Balloon Fiesta over the weekend.