Christmas 2010

We spent Christmas day at Michael & Brittany's beautiful new home. Brittany is the oldest daughter of Barry & Rachel (for those of you that don't know them... Barry is my 1st husband's brother). We had a wonderful day and truly appreciate Barry & Rachel including us in their family Christmas.

Barry

Papa & Victoria

Victoria

Proud Papa & Victoria


Duke

Getting dinner ready

Baby Kourtney & Brittany

Baby Kourtney...she was just

getting her first teeth

Barry making himself at home...

not sure what Jeared is doing

with the doll. :-)


Kourtney ready to

go nighty-night

Merry Christmas from Apache Junction/Mesa, AZ

We arrived in Apache Junction on Wednesday afternoon. We went to dinner with our friend, Ginger, Wed. night and had a nice visit. Yesterday we had some last minute errands to run and it was a zoo out there! Tomorrow we will be spending Christmas with Barry & Rachel and their family. We ALWAYS have such a good time with them and are really looking forward to it. Below are a few pictures of this area that shows why we like it so much here.


We never get used to how low the
planes fly over the freeway when
landing at Sky Harbor Airport in
Phoenix.


Same plane...

This is my favorite type

of palm tree and it's right

across the street from us.

Here's a corner in Apache Junction

with the Superstition Mountains in

the background.

The Superstition Mountains with

the Phoenix sign made from white

rocks.

Another shot of the Phoenix sign.

The Superstition Mountains from

our campsite...not a bad view!

Quartzsite, Arizona again

Yesterday we drove over to Quartzsite, AZ again. There are more RVs there and more of the flea market booths are open now. After Christmas it will really fill up. The months of January & February are when they have the Gem & Mineral Show there and there will be thousands of RVs camping in parks and in the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) areas in the desert. Quartzsite is unlike any other place we have been. It's excellent for people-watching and you just never know what you are going to see there.


The Quartzsite billboard...
listing their claims to fame.


More RVs in the desert now



"Welcome to Beer Belly"...not
sure what that's about, but check
out the painting of the miner to
the right.


"No Name Street" and they
even have a sign for it. :-)


Somebody even flies their own
plane into Quartzsite.


Sure glad they didn't have to
climb too "high" to create their
rock artwork. :-)


The sky was so pretty on our
way back to Ehrenberg...

The Official Center of the World in Felicity, CA

Yesterday (Sunday) we visited "The Official Center of the World" in Felicity, CA. This place is directly across the freeway from our RV park. The idea comes from a children's book named, "COE, The Good Dragon at the Center of the World". Felicity was named after the owner's wife. There are dozens of marble slabs there being engraved to depict the History of Arizona; The History of California; Early Aviation; A Korean War Memorial and Part I of the History of Humanity. One of the marble artists was working while we were there and it is amazing to see how he etches the pictures from a small example. There is also a pyramid that houses the "Center of the World" plaque, a section of the original Eiffel Tower winding staircase, a chapel and a sundial.

The highway sign at our exit.

This is the Chapel On

The Hill. They brought

in tons of dirt to build

this chapel on.

This is a section of the

original staircase in the

Eiffel Tower in Paris. It

was the steel that Mr.

Eiffel installed there in

the late 1800's. It was

replaced in the 1990's.

This is the arm of the sundial.

It is a 3-D bronze replica of

Michelangelo's "Arm of God"

painted on the Sistine Chapel.


The sundial.


The dot in the center of the plaque

is The Center of the World. :-)

The 1st marble slab in

the History of Arizona

section.

This is the section of marble

the artist was working on. The

large picture on the bottom

right of the slab is the same

as the small picture on the

bottom right of the paper.

This is the pyramid that has the

marker for the Center of the World

on the center of the floor inside.

Winterhaven, CA & Yuma, AZ

We have spent the last week at Pilot Knob RV Park in Winterhaven, CA which is right across the state line from Yuma, AZ. There's not much to Winterhaven, so we have spent most of our time in Yuma for shopping, etc. Below are a few pictures from the past week. Tomorrow (Monday) we leave to go back to Ehrenberg, AZ for 9 days.

In the background you can

see the inland sand dunes,

which are just west of our park.

We aren't just close to the

California/Arizona border,
we're also close to Mexico...

this is the border area on the

Colorado River near here.

I saw this tree (and others

like it) in Yuma. Not sure

what kind it is, but I think

it may be the same as the

one below, just trimmed

nicely.

A tree in our RV park...I love

the white trunk.

This is the "Ocean to Ocean

Highway" bridge in Yuma.

This bridge made it possible

to travel from the Atlantic to

the Pacific on land. It was the

last link to connect the route.

For those of you who remember

when Bob had his beard and had

darker hair (and more of it)...I

was shocked when I saw this guy

at the end of Antiques Road Show.

Bob replayed it and couldn't believe

himself how much this guy looked

like him. :-) Now I'm trying to

figure out how he was in San

Antonio in 2007 and I knew nothing

about it.