Travels of the Merrie Yacht: Heading South for the winter

After not posting for more than a year, we have decided to again try to communicate with family and friends through this blog. It has been an eventful summer and fall for Jack and I. We put our home up for sale in May and waited through many Open Houses and showings for the right person to some and make us an offer. Only after a fall while on a cruise in September and injuring my shoulder, did I make contact through the receptionist at physiotherapy and someone came to see out townhome and subsequently made us an

offer and we sold our home on October 5 with a short closing of only 4 weeks. We had bought a townhome in Oakville, near our son and his family back in June. We had had renovations done and painting throughout and it was ready to move into by the end of October. But it was not Jack and I that moved in! Greg and Tara began a big renovation on their home and needed a place to live for 4 to 6 months, so they moved into our home in Oakville, we moved out of our home in Brantford and most of our goods moved into storage. The RV now became our primary home and we took it on the road on Monday, November 12 after lots of good byes to family and friends. We drove to Goodrich, Michigan to spend a couple of days with our son Derek who is working on my sister's horse boarding farm. Jacque and Chuck have given Derek a home for the past several years and he works in the horse barn each day. He has a new Indiana Jones leather jacket and outfit so we took some pictures of him with the horses.

It was COLD at night - down to 22F - and despite the electric blanket and 15 amp plugin on the farm, we were ready to begin our trip down south. Thursday, November 15 was bright, sunny and dry and we headed down through Indiana, spending the night at a Walmart near Terre Haute, Indiana. The next day we drove through Illinois and crossed the Mississippi River at St Louis.

Misssouri and Oklahoma were the next states to pass through and we stayed the following night at a Flying J Truck Stop. We like Flying J's because they have dedicated RV island for fuel as well as dumping and water fill ups. The temperatures are moderating now and we are enjoying high 60s during the day and only down to high 40s at night. We LIKE this!

I-40 takes us across the top of Texas and through Amarillo.

We saw several of these feedlots full of tomorrow's steaks.

We are definately in the southwest when we see the sign for the state of New Mexico. We spend a night in Alburquerque at a Walmart then stop for fuel and a truck wash for our RV and car that were very dirty mostly from Michigan and the rain and dirt road to the farm on our first day of travel. Our friends, Gary and Carlene Hoeksema, live in Gallup, New Mexico. Carlene introduced Jack and I to each other 44 years ago and we had a great time connecting again over dinner. We parked the RV at Rehoboth - a mission of the CRC for the Navaho. The elevation here is quite high - 6300' and it is cold again at night - down to 25F! But tomorrow we will be in Phoenix!!!

~~Finally - after six days of travel, we turn south from I-40 onto I-17 toward Sedona and Phoenix~~
Loooong trains and free range cattle are part of the western tableau.

We have spent several seasons at Mesa Regal RV Resort and we really like it here. Our spot this year is on 6th Street and it is very near the main Activity Center. This means that the pools, computer room, yoga room, laundry and lots of other activities are just a short walk away.