Verde Valley and Sedona AZ

The drive from Las Cruces,NM to Tucson, AZ was beautiful. We stayed one night in Tucson and then left for Verde Valley, AZ. The drive there was breath-taking.

While in Verde Valley we spent days driving all over Sedona. Definitely one of the most beautiful sites I've ever seen.










Pictures cannot do it justice. This truly is something that must be observed with the naked eye.

















































We visited Jerome, this precariously perched "city in the sky", was one of most famous copper mining camps in the country. Today Jerome boasts a renowned art community with several switchbacks worth of shop, restaurants, and galleries.








Next day we visited Montezuma's castle. This ruin was home to the Sinaqua indians who farmed at the base of the tall structure.












We also visited Montezuma well. The well is an immense sink hole that provided water to the Sinaqua.










Another outing was Tuzigoot National Monument,a prehistoric pueblo built by the Sinaqua Indians.












We visited property owned by our good friends, Leon and Francine. We pray that one day they will be able to build on this beautiful setting.











On one of our driving tours around Sedona we visited the "Chapel of the Holy Cross". Yes that is a chapel up there and the view from it is incredible.










That same day we stopped for lunch at Tlpquepaque Village. A lovely place with many very unique shoppes. We had a lovely lunch at one of the Mexican restaurants within the village.









There's much to see within this general area and not near enough time to do it all. Guess we'll have to do it again!!!

Nicky and I thoroughly enjoyed hiking the many trails at the campground.

Las Cruces March 13 -15

Are you looking at this?? This is the view from our camper here in Vado, near Las Cruces. That field out there is where I walk Nicky. No picture can truly capture what we are looking at.










The first picture showed what we look at out our front window and this is what we look at out the back.











These are some of the mountains we came through on our way here. A spectacular drive here from Carlsbad the entire trip was beautiful.

We used our time here to catch up on bills, correspondence, laundry and Lee changed the oil on the rig.

This is our last stop in New Mexico.

Sitting Bull Falls March 11

What a beautiful sight!! On our way to the falls we passed lots of open pasture and cattle roaming freely everywhere. Nicky particularly loved seeing these guys up close and personal!!

Today we went to the "Sitting Bull Falls" located in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. They are the second largest falls in New Mexico. We were just so surprised to see water after looking at stream after stream all dried up.

The flowers are just beginning to bloom.

This is the entrance to the park where the falls are located and a very nice picnic area. The picnic tables are in the rock enclosure.

Lincoin National Forest March 11

The next day we took a car tour of the 5 point vista in Lincoln National Forest. There were 5 vista points and the views were breathtaking.


Don't you just love that lone cactus.

Who says there's no open spaces left??

Carlsbad Caverns March 11

The drive here was beautiful. We drove through incredible mountains and arrived at the campground only to find that our RV would be facing one of these mountain ranges. What a view!! You just sit there watching the mountains and the effect of the setting sun on them..

While here we toured the Carlsbad Caverns . We came out after 2 1/2 hours totally awestruck. The caverns are 31.9 miles long and 75 stories deep.

This is the natural entrance to the cave. At night thousands and thousands of bats take off from here.

Texas Hills March 9 & 10

We left Medina Lake for Stockton, TX. The drive was actually interesting --it was either very flat for miles or we were going through rock mountains.

There are beautiful flowers throughout the flats.

Can' get much flater than that can it?

Then you would move out of the flat land into something like this.

There were lots of windmills on the hills and below them you would see the oil drilling rigs. We saw cattle out on the flats and wondered where they got water -- it seems like all streams are dried up.

Stockton was dry, windy, and dusty --a good place to spend just one night!!

Lake Medina,TX Feb. 4-Feb. 8

Pictured below is beautiful Lake Medina taken from the hills surrounding the lake. The sunset was taken right from our camper where night after night we get to watch an incredible sunset.

We ran into Bob Shirley and Julie our first day here. We have enjoyed playing Pickle Ball with them each morning and their friend Mark. The second day here we did a car tour of the hill country with Bob and Julie and 2 other couples. Beautiful scenery and charming western towns along the way. We stopped in the town on Bandera and did some shopping and had some lunch. This is where I found the perfect cowgirl hat!

Town of Bandera

San Antonio

Next day Lee and I took off for San Antonio. We've done the river walk before but enjoyed it even more this time because the crowds were lighter and it was cooler. This the kind of place where one can go crazy taking pictures because it is all so charming and picturesque. In reality no amount of film can capture it -- you must go there and experience it first hand. We had a lovely lunch on the balcony of a sidewalk restaurant. Lee found a cowboy hat that he liked so now we're really ready to head west because we have the proper head gear!!