WE'RE BACK ONLINE!

Buenas Tardes, Amigos!

Wow, a lot has happened since we last had a posting on this blog. I last wrote while in Chama, NM in early October. When the New Mexico Excel club gave us their hugs and we all said our goodbyes, Betty and I decided to stay a little longer (than we had planned). The loss was that we missed seeing the friends in Santa Fe we had originally planned to visit. We had to get the trailer into Moriarty to RV Sales for winter storage, then bust to Denver for my doctor appointment on 10/8. We had a breakfast at a Roadhouse in Santa Fe, dropped the trailer and headed for Colorado Springs.

We stayed around Denver for the rest of October and visited family and friends. Leo and Jamie (two former NPS associates from San Francisco) flew into Denver for a conference and we had dinner together. Jerry and Mary Ann were in Castle Rock visiting their daughter and family, so we met with them , too.

On November 1^st, Betty and I flew to Hawaii as a celebration of our 40^th Anniversary. First to Oahu to visit Robb (Betty's brother) and Rose Anne who moved to the Mililani, near Honolulu, last year. We spent a week with them, then flew to Kaua’i to spend two weeks in their beautiful vacation condominium at Lae nani., in Kapa’a (www.lae-nani.org). We flew back to Honolulu for five days at Thanksgiving to spend time with them in a condo on Waikiki, and had our turkey dinner at the Waikiki Yacht Club (what a lovely site!). We then flew to the island of Moloka’i for a week of more R&R and a visit to the old Hansen's Disease (leprosy) colony at Kalapaupa, Although many individuals still live there, no new residents have arrived since 1969 as the disease is now well controlled. We rode mules down the 1600 foot sea cliff to the colony, and back…and boy, do we have a keen appreciation for the sure-footedness of these fine animals. From Moloka’i, we flew to Maui and had breakfast with friends Tekla and Bill from Haleakala NP, then off to the western coast of Maui at Kahana for a week. We flew back to Denver on December 7^th to spend the holidays with family, and during the following several weeks we got our doctor and dental appointments out of the way.

ADDRESS CHANGES: We have a new mailing address. Please do not send letters and cards to the Lakewood, CO home. Rather, send to 3700 S. Westport Ave. #2757, Sioux Falls, SD 57106. Our cell phones are the same, and the only email addresses we now use are 1) talktogordon@escapees.com and 2) talktobetty@escapees.com.

On January 22^rd ( a day late due to the 5^th in a series of heavy snow storms to hit Colorado this winter) we packed our truck and headed for Moriarty, NM to pick up our trailer with a night’s stopover in Colorado Springs to see our newest family member, Elizabeth Victoria (Lizzy), born to Kate and Scott on November 28^th. Big brothers Sean (5) and Timmy (3) are surely proud of their new sister.

We arrived in Moriarty on the 23^rd, and boy was it cold: 11 degrees. We spent the night, then left the following day about noon after cleaning snow and ice off of the room slides. We spent the night in the Flying J truck stop at Winslow AZ, another cold night, but were comfy in our little house on wheels. The 25^th found us in the Tempe, AZ at the Tempe Elks Lodge where they have an RV park with 26 full hook-up sites for traveling Elk members. This is a very nice club, and we surely appreciated their hospitality.

At 7:30 AM on the 26^th, we picked up our friend Joan from Denver at the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, loaded the truck and trailer, and headed for the US/Mexican boarder at Nogales. We crossed into the Mexican State of Sonora, cleared the customs checkpoint with a breeze, and by 6:30 PM that evening we were snuggled into the El Mirador RV Resort in San Carlos. Joan’s husband met us at El Mirador, loaded her treasures into his pickup and we all drove back into San Carlos for dinner with their friends Richard and Beatrice. One of Beatrice’s sisters owns El Gallo restaurant where we had our delightful dinner of fresh seafood and pasta, and listened to the mellow guitar and vocal of Mark Mulligan.

So, here we are at El Mirador (www.elmiradorrv.com). It is about 70 degrees during the day, 55 at night. Bright sunshine is over the marina near us looking out into the Sea of Cortez. And the SUNSETS….oh my! Colorado can keep the snow!

Keep watch as there is more to come: More Photographs, maps, and other promises that I hope to keep. Thanks for reading!!

Hasta Luego