Christmas - New Years - to Mid January

Once again its time to play a bit of catch up.

I've gotten a few emails again asking where we were and I realized that

several weeks have gone by since we last touched base.

First the Big Picture.

We celebrated our 25th Anniversary and enjoyed Christmas
and New Years at Catalina State Park.

We left Catalina on Jan 4th and moved to McDowell Mountain Regional Park

in Fountain Hills, Az  - east of the Phoenix Metro.

Enroute to McDowell Mountain we took the bus to Speedco in Eloy, Az for

an Oil Change, Fuel Filters, and a generator service.

After  McDowell we moved a couple of hundred more miles west to

Buckskin Mountain State Park in Parker Strip Az.

A map of our travels:

Christmas Day we started with some Cinnamon Raison French Toast.

Christmas presents for the doodles.

They watch as Kate gets them ready. 

Can we have our toys.... Pleeeeeze!

Their pile of new toys.

The supermarkets in Tucson were competing for our food dollars by offering Prime Rib Roasts

at less than $5.00/lb.   Needless to say - guess what I roasted for our Christmas Dinner?

Perfectly cooked by Chef Papa

A good bottle of Bordeaux, a nice slab of beef, and my Favorite Girl.

Enroute to McDowell Mountain we stopped at Speedco for some regular maintenance.

26 Qts of Oil and 4 Filters later we were out the door in about 2 hrs and on the

way to McDowell Mtn.

In the Bay at Speedco

Our home for 6 days - site 68.

Normally a great view and fantastic sunrises are the order of the day here at McDowell.

El Nino has some other ideas for us however and we had 5 straight days of rains and fog.

Kate took this opportunity to fly to Chicago to visit our friend Mary.

I held down the fort with the Doodles.

Cool days and cold nights....  eventually the sun came back out and

exposed the snow cover on the higher distant peaks just in time

for Kates arrival back in Phoenix.

We then moved to Buckskin Mountain State Park.

This park is about 30 miles south of Lake Havasu Arizona, and is located right

on the Colorado River.

It was here that we hooked back up with friends Ron & Maxine and the newest

addition to thier family - Buddy the Cockapoo,

Left to right  Lucy, Gracie (Katie Doodle) and Buddy/

Buckskin is in a narrow canyon and is quite scenic.

The availability of water creates a green oasis in the desert.

The view out the front window.

Our site - #23

Across the street by the river and beach.

4 years of College and you to can be a professional pooper pickerupper.

Just up river from the Campground is the Parker Dam.

A Gravity Arch Dam built during the depression, it impounds the water that

forms Lake Havasu.

An example of some of the Art Deco Influence which was the style of the day in the 30's

One of the local residents.

While here at Buckskin we got to hook up with some old friends from the Montana

group as well as meet some new folks.

Tomorrow we head 30 miles south to Quartzsite and will park back out in the desert

at our usual spot for a week or so and hook up with more of the Montana group,

visit the Quartzsite RV show, and enjoy the whole Q atmosphere.

More to come from Q for sure.

See you there.