Monday, March 26, 2012 -- Arrived home at 4:10 this afternoon. Had a great winter in Arizona and California. Seen friends we've made out there. It is a long trip out there and back, but we really love that area. It was probably 2100 miles to home from Casa Grande, Arizona. Haven't taken the exact mileage when we got home, but that is what we figured it would be last night.

It was so very nice to have Sheri family, Laura's family, Hannah, and Megan here to welcome us home.

Great sign -- Willis Road.

WooHoo Michigan.

Missed the picture of entering Ohio. We came into Ohio on US 24 out of Fort Wayne. Now we have gotten on 465 around Toledo. Love seeing Ann Arbor.

WooHoo Indiana. Counting them down.

Sunday, March 25, 2012 -- We are staying the night in Effingham, IL. We should be home by late afternoon tomorrow.

WooHoo!!!! We are in Illinois.

A barge in the Mississippi River as we are crossing into Illinois.

It is always so nice to see the arch.

Saturday, March 24, 2012 -- We are parked at Miami, OK for the night. This is real close to the Missouri border. We have had one day with 413 miles and yesterday and today with 450 miles. Seen so so many beef cattle today. Oklahoma is a very nice state to drive through. Bob has been checking out the farming fields. He needs to come out here after the crops have been planted.

We stopped here in Yukon, OK for lunch. I knew Garth Brooks was from Oklahoma, but didn't know where. To my surprise after we got off I-40 and stopped at stop sign here was this sign. Worked out great, I didn't have to take this picture at 65 mph LOL.

As we crossed into Oklahoma didn't see a sign. Took a picture of this telling information center at rest area. Well, in front of the rest area was a sign "OKLAHOMA". Yup and the camera not ready.

Friday, March 23, 2012 -- Having a nice trip home. The next pictures are from the trip today and I've also posted pictures from the trip yesterday. Getting up every morning at 6:45 to get on the road. That is early after three months of getting up when you want to most of the time. LOL

The sign by the steak. (next picture).

This is what the signs along I-40 kept advertising. 72 ounce steak -- you eat it all in one hour and you get it free. This looks more like a roast instead of a steak. No we didn't do this. After eating I ask a waiter what is the price of the 72 ounce steak if you don't eat it all --- $72.00. OMG And yes there has been people that would eat it all.

Very nice dinner.

Wanted to show a picture of the inside, but not sure you can see anything. Used flash but just to far for flash to help

This is where we went for dinner tonight. Steak was good and the inside was really interesting. Last year we pasted through Amarillo and seen the signs for this place, so we decided to splurge and see what it is all about. Very good.

See the horns on the front of the limo.

We are staying tonight at Amarillo, TX. Very nice campground. Just down the road is a Texas Steak place. This is a limo that will come to the campground to pick you up to go to the restaurant. We went to the restaurant, but we had to unhook the truck anyhow to get diesel fuel so didn't need the limo.

We just can't believe the many many places in the west that have feeding lots for dairy cattle. Would like to be there to see the milk haulers pull in for their milk. This picture only shows a little area, it is a huge lot. Later we also seen beef cattle lots too.

And the Texas sign.

These signs, goodbye and hello, are hard to get on the camera. But it is the countdown going east.

We have just left Albuquerque, very pretty scenery as we are going east. We actually got to an elevation of 6800 ft going east from Albuquerque. (Just telling you I didn't know how to spell Albuquerque until I started typing this blog -- wow learned something new today).

This is a surprise to see so much water in the Rio Grande. We crossed the river just before we entered into Albuquerque. Albuquerque is a really nice looking city.

The beginning of our trip this morning. Very beautiful, I think sometimes the camera doesn't do justice to some of the scenery. We are still headed to Albuquerque, NM.

Thursday, March 22, 2012 -- (posted Friday, March 23, 2012)
Had a real nice drive from Casa Grande, AZ to Truth or Consequences, NM. The following pictures are during that drive.

This is the Rio Grande. There will be a better picture of it later to the north.

Interesting mountain and also the road sign. We ended up staying the night at Truth or Consequences, NM. The campground was 5 miles from I-25, way back in the desert. Very quiet campground. I didn't have any bars on my phone, figured okay no phone calls tonight. To my surprise a call came in from Peggy (Bob's niece) and yes even with no bars I could make another phone call. The computer also worked off and on.

You know we didn't use to have these modern conveniences, but now if you don't have them you seem cut off from the world. LOL Bob doesn't.

At this point we are heading north on I-25. We took I-10 to Las Cruces, NM and headed north to Albuquerque, NM. We have never made this trip on I-25. There was some really pretty mountains. Bob say "little red" doesn't like the mountains. But the truck does fine. (why Sheri name his truck little red, I don't know).

This is the Rio Grande. Yes, we are wondering why there isn't water in this river. Of course we all heard of the drought out west. You will see later in the pictures of water in the Rio Grande.

The continental Divide. This is before we got to Las Cruces, NM

We took I-10 into New Mexico and snow on the mountains in the distance.

In the same mountain area.

This is when we were leaving Arizona on route I-10. Huge rocks make up these mountains. Very interesting, it make you wondered how they stay put and not just fall.

Thursday, March 22, 2012 -- We left Arizona this morning. Arrived at Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Yup that is the town name.

Bob's cousin, Chris Delf Stout called today letting us know that her husband, Bill had passed away. They are more than cousins, they are very good friends. We will miss Bill very much. He fought Colan Cancer for over 1-1/2 years. Our thoughts and prayers are with Chris.

I will have pictures of todays trip. Just too tired tonight to post them now.

Sunday, March 18, 2012 -- We had a very windy day yesterday. Temperatures were 80 or so. But that was blowing in the cold front. We had rain and very windy during the night. Today at 10:00 a.m. it was 48 degrees. Now at 12:45 p.m. we are having rain and hail. That is what the next two pictures are; hail on the back bummer of the truck. We are suppose to get to 58 today, we won't unless the sun comes out.

We will be cool until Wednesday, I see they've change to high on Wednesday to 73 degrees, then Thursday it is suppose to be 82. Wednesday should be a nice day. We leave here on Thursday morning.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - (Posted 3/15/2012) Barbara Jean's 15th birthday is today. Happy Birthday Barbara. Yesterday she found out she made it on the Lincoln High School JV Soccer Team. Very proud of her. Jessica is have try-outs for Lincoln High School Softball Team. Will not know until Friday or Monday what team she will be on.

Yesterday we (I) had a great time. I love to go to the zoo. This isn't one of Bob's favorite things to do, but he did fine. He actually told me when we got home that this is probably his last zoo. He says one giraffe whether it is at Toledo, San Diego, or Phoenix they all look alike. We did San Diego last year. That's fine, I appreciated him going to the zoo yesterday. It is a lot of walking and when it's hot it can be a long day.

It was a nice zoo. Because it was 80+ degrees there was a few animals that opted for shade and laying down. We were surprised some of those that were walking around. We were normally able to see the animals, even though they were laying down. Some zoos they can hide away and you can't even see the animals.

Very nice zoo.

These turtle are enjoying the hot sun. I wonder when they climb up on the piece of wood if the others think they will fall in the water. Now that would be neat to watch them climb up there.

This is a Mexican Wolf. I think we should send all of the Wolves in United State back to them.

More resting animals.

This is quite a stunt. This big takes a dollar bill (I'm sure he'd take a bigger one too) from a child and stuffs it into this slot in the bin. Not sure, but I think it was for endangered animals. Bob says it is for someones pocket, just kidding. It is neat to see him do this. You can imagine every child really wants to see him do this.

Some kind of stork.

Feeding time. They are so so tall, really tall.

Ugly.

This peacock is so pretty. He is on an area he would have had to fly to get upon. We were walking on the path and here it is. I'm going to show my stupidity on this peacock. I didn't realize they could fly. I would have liked to see that. He is just so big.

These are some kind of chicken. But man are they noisy. If they were in your back yard, they'd be on your dinner plate real quick.

So very pretty

Can't remember what kind of bear this is, but it doesn't hibernate. As big and furry as he is, you'd think he'd be resting in the shade. He was walking near us in his fenced in area.

This is the baby fawn of the Mother deer. We would notice her looking back at this area and then we seen why.

This is some kind of deer from Mexico. So small.

This is a Sand Hill Crane. Don't usually see these up close. Normally in the fields up by Chelsea/Stockbridge.