Alive and Well in Amarillo

The windy city…whoever said Chicago should be called the windy city has obviously never been to the Texas Panhandle in Spring.  The wind blows in the morning.  The wind blows in the afternoon.  Then, just as if you’re not tired of rockin’ and rollin’, the wind blows through the night.  Gotta love Amarillo!  We blew into town nearly a week ago and set up shop in the “back 40” of our friends Don and Vickie.  They installed hook-ups for their RVing guests, and we are enjoying not being in an RV park, thanks to them.

We want to thank all of you who have called, e-mailed, and posted to Facebook wondering what in the heck is going on with us!  Here’s a quick recap of the recent journies of Justravelin:

Over the past month or so, we’ve traveled from Mesa, AZ to Apache Junction, where we spent some time hanging out with Deb and Rod at the KOA.  We so enjoyed our time with them, doing some sightseeing, and learning new recipes - of course trying them out!  When it came time for us to go separate directions,  we moved on to Benson and hung out with JoAnn and Doug at the Escapees’ Saguaro Park for a couple of weeks.  While we were there, we took some day trips, one to Chiricahua Monument, another to Willcox for some wine tasting, and a couple of trips to Sierra Vista. 

We also hiked Ramsey Canyon one day:

After that strenuous hike, Doug convinced us that lunch at the Bisbee Breakfast Club was required to revive us:

And of course, a visit to Tombstone was required while in the neighborhood.  We toured the famous, supposedly haunted, Birdcage Theatre, but didn’t encounter any ghosts:

Our next stop was a short visit to Las Cruces, NM.  We spent a couple of days there, taking in the old town of Mesilla and a couple of wineries there.  Then we landed in Carlsbad, NM.  We spent a few days camped at Brantley Lake State Park, oh yes, it was windy there, too!  Jim finally agreed to visit the Carlsbad Caverns and I think he actually enjoyed seeing that amazing hole in the ground.

We had some shopping to do once we got to Amarillo:

 

This is our new toad – a 2011 Chevy Equinox.  We have the parts on order to get it ready to tow, hopefully that will happen soon.  We’re having fun with the “bells & whistles” like Onstar, XM radio, and the simple things like automatic transmission, remote start, power seat, windows and locks, etc.

Meanwhile, we are keeping busy with friends and relatives here in town.  We also decided to move our primary  medical care to Amarillo, so we both have appointments with new docs next week.  We’ll be here for a few weeks until Jim’s family reunion, then, let the wind blow us wherever!