Wow! It's been a loooong time!

But I'm back ... at least for the next five weeks!  Gary and I decided we needed to finish off the west coast tour so we put together a 5-week itinerary to cover southern Arizona, southern New Mexico and a dip into Texas to visit Big Bend National Park on the mighty Rio Grande!  This excursion will cover over 3,500 miles (go ahead, calculate the gas cost at 8 mpg with the average price of gas at least $2.75/gallon!!).

It wasn't an auspicious start.  First, we had to delay our start date due to weather in the forecast including snow and--much worse--wind.  The first week of this trip was bombarded with bad weather and breakdowns!  Wind is NOT a friend to the high-profile vehicle. So, okay, we delayed.

I reviewed our itinerary and decided we could still fit in a quick visit to Nevada's only national park, The Great Basin.  However, weather was not our friend and the snow in that area kept us away since getting into the basin you have to go over an 8,000 ft. pass.  Once again, weather kept us away from The Great Basin (this was our second attempt).

Even though we changed our route, we still encountered snow over the higher passes.

  

We stopped on the side of the road so I could get some snow pictures!

You can see the snow behind us--and that's Rascal in the front (in case you were wondering!)

 Rascal try to find a critter!

So, we detoured ... the very (yes, very) long way around and eventually made it to Boulder City, NV where we explored Hoover Dam.

Then, on our way back to the RV park from doing some shopping, that dang Jeep lost power and the "check engine" light started flashing.  Into the shop goes the Jeep (one more time again).  $900 and three days later, we were able to get back on the road and headed to Flagstaff, AZ.

What a cool city is Flagstaff, and what a change in temperature!  But our tale of woe did not end in Boulder City.  NO it didn't.  But this time it was the RV.  Somehow (and honestly, we can't figure out how) the light cable from the RV to the Jeep (which is towed behind the RV) got cut and our lights no longer were functioning--a very dangerous thing!  Thankfully, there was a Camping World within 10 miles and Gary was able to get replacement parts.

In Flagstaff, we visited three different areas:  Sunset Crater National Monument, Wapatki National Monument and Walnut Canyon National Monument.

But, our tale of woe continues!  Weather once again started to mess with our itinerary.  What the heck!  Is that wind following us?  Well, our route was to head next into New Mexico (east), but the wind forecast was wacky and we just didn't feel like being buffeted around and possibly pushed off th road, so we changed the order of our route and are now heading south.