Avery is Here!

Mom is here for her summer vacation...

Fun day with the Pitts boys at the Gentry Zoo!

Playing dress-up!

My Starbucks Buddy

Avery loves to go to Starbucks with her Cici ...and I love to have her with me! Having fun in North Carolina...

Hanging out in Texas

Saturday:  We got to Jeanetta's ranch around 10:45 this morning.  We enjoyed spending time with Phillip's family...Jerry, Jeanetta, Rod, Debra, Nancy, Herb and Dave.  Here is a picture of our Hostess:

Jeanetta is such a good cook and we enjoyed messing around at their beautiful place.   I loved the cows and donkeys!  They had 5 calves and one momma ready to deliver.

It was a good day with family, and finally, we are back home in Arkadelphia by 8:30. This has been a great 15 days of vacation.  I have never been so relaxed.  Usually I'm ready to be home after a week of being gone, but not this time!

Dirt Shirts and Driving

Thursday:  The t-shirt store with dirt shirts was closed by the time we got there yesterday evening, so we headed downtown again this morning to get the grandkids dirt shirts (and Phillip).  Goodbye Sedona...I love this little hippie town with its day spas and Vortex :)

Thursday we got from Sedona to Santa Rosa, NM.  We were planning on sleeping in the Wanderlust, but there was a lightning storm and I had just read an article to Phillip from the Weather Channel about a woman's car that was struck by lightning.  No way I'm staying in the camper tonight!  Thank goodness there was a Holiday Inn Express in Santa Rosa.

Friday we hit the road because we have a full day of driving ahead of us.  We got to Greenville, TX around 8:30 and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express there.  We are getting close.....

Heading home slowly...

Wednesday:  We are getting pretty low on provisions and the worst thing....we are about out of coffee....only one package of Starbucks Via left!  I made a deal with Phillip...he can have the last coffee if he will go directly to a Starbucks when we hit Flagstaff.  Thank goodness there is a Starbucks on the North side of Flagstaff....best Frapp ever!

We stopped at a Wal Mart in Flagstaff for provisions. They had solar panels set up in the parking lot to provide covered parking. Plus they had trees, bushes and plants all through the parking lot. It looked so much better than the expanse of asphalt that we have in Arkansas.



We got a spot at Rancho Sedona RV park at 135 Bear Wallow Lane...very nice with lots of trees.

This dry weather has been rough on my skin and nails so we stopped in Sedona for a little pampering at a day spa ....cause that's what you do in Sedona. Mani-pedi for me and massage for Phillip. I am beginning to feel like a civilized woman again....

After the pampering we went to dinner at a place my manicurist suggested, Pizza Lisa.  They had wood fired pizzas and very good salads.  After dinner we did a little shopping downtown - very nice evening.

Cycling

Tuesday:  We decided to stay another day at the Grand Canyon, so we reserved our spot for another night.  This is the only place the entire vacation that we stayed at one place for two nights :)

We loaded up our bikes, drove to the Grand Canyon Village and caught the shuttle to Hopi Point.  This section of the road is for shuttle buses only, so there is very little traffic.  When we got to Monument Creek Vista, we got on the new Greenway Trail (which is for bikes only).  We road all the way to the point which is at Hermits Rest and road the shuttle back to the village.  The weather is perfect, there is very little traffic and in this directly the road is mostly downhill or level.  Phillip is not big on biking, but I think he is liking it more and more :)  Riding our bikes along the south rim and the Greenway Trail:

Along the way we saw a helicopter flying very low with a seat or basket hanging from the bottom.  At first we thought it was some kind of ride and I said there was no way I would fly from a basket      off of the helicopter.  Then we saw another one.  When we got around a point so that we could see the other side of a hill, we saw that it was a rescue copter picking up people from a ledge on the side of a cliff!  I took pictures, but all I had on me was my iphone so you can't really see much....

A squirrel enjoying the view :

We had a late lunch at the lodge, picked up some groceries for this evening and headed back to the camp.  After dinner we road over to the tower again and stayed to see the sunset from the South Rim.  Very pretty.....

As we were getting our privy tent ready for showers, a huge bull elk walked right past our camp site!  I love camping :)

More of GCNP

Monday. We woke early this morning so that we could watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon (5:10 am).  It was BEAUTIFUL!!

It was pretty chilly out this morning!  After eating, we loaded up and went to the north rim visitors center,  Stopping at all of the viewing spots along the way. On the way back we had lunch at the same little restaurant at Jacob lake. After lunch it was off to the south rim.  We got there early enough to get a spot at the Desert View campground in the NP. It amazes me that it is so cheap to stay here - only $6 a night with the senior pass, but no services. We dropped the trailer and then rode over to the main visitors center - checking out views along the way. We went to the market and got food to cook for dinner, enjoyed a delicious dinner at camp and then road the bikes over to the tower and lookout area. We climbed all of the stairs to the top of the tower, but didn't stay to watch the sunset. We took a nice warm shower and went to bed.