Tuzigoot national Monument..Pronounced: Two Zuh Goot

Construction at Tuzigoot spanned over 300 years, from about 1100 to 1400 AD. The earliest construction consisted of a small number of rooms near the top of the hill, with new rooms added in an ad-hoc fashion as the population increased. At its peak in the late 1300s, the pueblo was 500 feet long, 100 feet wide, contained 86 ground floor rooms and 15 second story rooms, and probably housed as many as 230 people.
The name Tuzigoot is Apache for "Crooked Water". At one time the river flowed in a loop around the west side of Tuzigoot; but long before the arrival of man it changed its course, and now runs along the east side. The original riverbed to the west became a large, flat marsh (Tavasci Marsh), and was used by the Pueblo's inhabitants to grow crops of squash, corn and beans.
Tuzigoot was excavated in 1933-1934 by archaeologists Louis R. Caywood and Edward H. Spicer, aided in part by labor provided by the Federal Emergency Relief Agency's Civil Works Administration (CWA), an organization created during the Great Depression to provide employment for out-of-work Americans. Caywood and Spicer's report to the U.S. Department of the Interior, titled "Tuzigoot; The Excavation and Repair of a Ruin on the Verde River near Clarkdale, Arizona" (July, 1935), contains some fascinating details:

View Full Album

We had a great time and would do it again.

All is well

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Debi cooked a 9 1/2 pound turkey in her new Ninja 3 in 1 cooker, and it was the best turkey I have ever tasted.

Friday we sat around for a bit and then we decided to go to The Cliff Castle Casino about 9 miles away in Camp Verde AZ. We spent a few hours there playing the slots and had a ball, we didn’t win big but we only lost $40.00, not bad for a few hours of fun.

Well, it’s 3 AM and I think I’ll see if I can fall asleep. Tomorrow I want to rearrange some of the outside bins and I think Debi wants to make a run into town and stop at the grocery store.

Till next time be safe and Happy RVing

Happy Thanksgiving

Well it’s that time of the year again and we are enjoying it. This is our first Thanksgiving full timing in our motor home.

We are in Cottonwood Arizona at Thousand Trails Verde Valley, finished our turkey dinner and just ate some leftovers. Debi outdid herself, everything was amazing.

We had an amazing week, went on a ride in the Jeep up to Sedona AZ, beautiful country. Then on to Old Town Cottonwood AZ, We wound up in Jerome AZ and that was the coolest place of all.

I really ate a lot today and I am getting sleepy, so I’ll just add the pics and take a little nap. I hope Y’all had a great Thanksgiving and are as full as I am.

View Full Album

We are Rolling

We are finally on the road. Got a late start this morning so we only drove 140 miles and stopped for the night at RiverBend RV Park in Luling Tx.

On Wednesday we headed West again And stopped for the night at Caverns Of Sonora. This a real cool place, they have a huge underground cavern and a walking tour, click for their website.

At about 5:00 PM an alarm went off and deer came running from all directions toward a feeder that was right by our MH.

Before I forget, we stopped at a little rest stop on I-10 West before we got to Sonora, to let Cricket stretch her legs. She saw this sign and said, “OH OH”

Work in progress.

Besides staying warm we are  getting ready for our cross country trip.

Motor Home fluids changed, entire rig washed and waxed, seals lubed and checked, stair control board replaced, new tires going on Monday.

We will be pulling out of Thousand Trails Lake Conroe Tuesday morning and slowly head towards Verde Valley Arizona where we will be spending Thanksgiving. Then we will be heading North west to Los Vegas for Christmas and New Years. After that it’s south to San Diego to visit with family.

I really wish that we started this lifestyle years ago, we are having so much fun. We have met some of the nicest people while RVing, and I am sure we will remain friends for many years.

Last week we had our first meet and greet for our Facebook groups

We are thinking of doing this all across the country so we can meet all our great facebook friends. Let me know if you think this is a good idea.

Our New sign

We got our new sign and it sure is a beauty. If you want a great quality sign here is where we got ours  BK Signs & Designs, Keith Geiger is the owner.
I made a lamp post/sign holder for the new sign and I really like the way it turned out.
Debi woke up yesterday morning not feeling very well and today is not a good one for her either. She has had back surgery in the past and every once in a while it acts up, I sure hope she feels better today.
Tuesday we leave to go to Miami Florida to visit my daughter and her family. I hope Debi’s back is feeling better before we leave, or it will be very uncomfortable for her on the plane. I will be posting lots of pictures on my facebook page when we get back to Texas. Click here for my page. Happy RVing

The Storm

We left Thousand Trails Lake Conroe on Monday. Driving down I-45 south, we hit  rain. It was raining so hard I had to slow down to about 45 MPH, by the time we hit I-10 going west the wind was blowing about 40-50 MPH straight out of the north and the rain was intense.

We finally made it to Thousand Trails Colorado River. The rain and wind had stopped, so we unhooked the Jeep and headed for our site.

As soon as we got here  the deer moved in

Wednesday we woke to 49 degrees, I had to turn the heat on for the first time this season, but it warmed up about an hour later and we had to switch back to AC…..Got to love Texas weather.

Thursday was a great day. Janice and Dave came over for a fish fry. Janice’s uncle had given her some fish that he had caught and cleaned. Janice and Debi brought out their induction cook tops and fried fish, potato chips and onion straws, everything was delicious.

Later on, Debi and I were sitting and talking about camera’s, and we decided we needed a better one than the ones we had, so at about 6:30 we decided to take a 56 mile drive to Katy Tx to visit Best Buy. We checked out a few camera’s and settled on a Nikon P-600. We will get some pictures when the deer start moving and will post them later.

Until Later….Happy RVing  

We Finally Closed On The House.

We closed on the house Friday, it sure was a long hard path.
After the closing we met with some good friends and celebrated with a steak and lobster dinner, then it was back to Thousand Trails Lake Conroe.
Woke up Saturday morning to the sound of rain hitting the roof of the motor home, I really love that sound  it’s so relaxing. Rained most of the day so we just sat around and watched TV most of the day.

Well, it's Sunday morning and it's 9 ;00 AM and overcast. It looks nasty outside, Debi and Cricket are still sleeping and I'm on my second cup of coffee. I guess we will start getting ready for moving day tomorrow. We will be heading over to Thousand Trails Colorado River for a 21 day stay, we should be pulling there at about the same time as our good friends Janice and David Evans, it will be great seeing them again and catching up on last few months.

I think I will be spending some time today on the phone with American Airlines, We are planning a short trip to Miami to see my Daughter, son in law, and four Grands, I can't wait.
I think I will have one more cup of coffee and make some noise, maybe I can wake up the two sleeping beauties.     See Ya!!

Still waiting to close.

We are still waiting to close, We were supposed to close on our house last Friday...Well that got postponed because the buyer forgot to submit her divorce papers to the VA.
The closing was changed to Monday, well monday morning we get a call from our agent saying they haven't got all their paperwork done so the closing will be wednesday or thursday, well guess what....now they say it will be friday at 2:00 PM.

In the meantime, we have registered our vehicles in Livingston Texas which is our new address (Escapees), we have moved out of our driveway and into Thousand Trails Lake Conroe until monday, then it's off to Thousand Trails Colorado River for 21 days.

 We will be coming back to Conroe after Colorado River for what Debi is calling a Meet, Greet and Eat at Luby's for our group members, Debi said 50 people have RSVP so far. It will be great to meet some of our group members.

When we get to Colorado River TT we will be meeting our good friends Dave and Janice Evans, It's been months since we have seen them, we have a lot of catching up to do!

A special shout out to our friend Fred Siems, who finished his last chemo treatment the other day..Congrats Fred.

Well, it's 3:00 AM and I am going to try and get some shuteye. I will be back tomorrow and let Y'all know if we finally closed or not .....Fingers crossed

I'm back

I know it's been a long time since my last post, but I'm back.
 Things have been very hectic since the last time I posted anything. We have put our house up for sale and finally got a contract, the appraiser was here two days ago and now it's just hurry up and wait for a closing date.
 Everything in the house has either been sold, given away or stuffed into the motor home. We have been living full time in our motor home in the driveway for the past three months.

While we were out here I made a few modifications to the RV. First I removed the Norcold RV refrigerator and installed a Samsung residential refrigerator

Debi is a very happy camper and she loves all the extra space in her new refrigerator, I love the ice cold drinks and hard ice cream.

I also added a Splendide  washer/ dryer combo and built a pantry 

This is the pantry being built, I will post some pictures of the finished project later. 

Poor Cricket didn't know what to make of every thing that was going on, so she just hid on the couch under her blanket.

 Well, it's getting late so I'll end this for now.

I will pick this up again later and tell Y'all about some of the other things that have been added.

Blue Bell Creamery

Today we went on a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream Plant in Brenham Tx.
On our way out of Columbus we stopped about one mile north of Columbus for a brief photo op of Rick and Janice Binns, this was their first experience with Bluebonnets.

Then it was off to the creamery. The tour was short but informative (sorry, photos were forbidden). A quick stop for our after tour samples of ice cream. I had sea salt caramel, my new favorite.

On the way home we stopped at Cantus in Columbus for a bite, and then a quick stop at HEB for milk and bread, then home. Rick and Janice came over for cookies, Debi made some oatmeal raisin cookies. While we were talking Debi spotted something right outside our Motor Home, this is what she saw.

They were about 15 feet away from us and stayed there for about 5 minutes or so.
Dave and Janice Evans are leaving in the morning and heading back to Conroe Thousand Trails, we will miss them, but we will see them in a few weeks at Martin Dies JR. state park.

Painted Church Tour

Today we went on a painted church tour in the Schulenburg Texas area.
We went with our good friends, Rick and Janice Binns and David and Janice Evans. We all piled in Rick’s truck and headed out at 9:30 AM.
First stop was “ The Original Country Bakery” where we pigged out on kolaches, and sweet rolls. After that we stopped at the tourist center in town and got some maps

Then off to the first church

First we had to cross the Piano Bridge (1885).
Some say it's named after it's musical sound as you drive over it, while bridge aficionados say it is technically a "piano-wire truss." After we crossed the Piano Bridge and visited the Dubina Church, I was heading back to the truck and spotted this sign..Glad we were in a pick up truck and not our RV.

Here are some of the church pictures

On the way home we stopped at The Old Smokehouse BBQ, and once again pigged out on their buffet. When we arrived back at the campground everyone headed to their RVs and took a nap (we are old people).
What a day, great food, great fun and great friends.