For various reasons we are spending the summer in the White Mountains of Arizona. It has been wonderfully cool until recently. With the heat in the valley - the Phoenix area - temperatures are beginning to rise here also. It is 20-25 degrees cooler than the valley areas during the day and much cooler after the sun goes down.
We are enjoying our explorations of the surrounding areas. On May 17th we went to the Petrified Forest National Park. We followed the road through the Painted Desert and into the Petrified Forest. We were there on an absolutely beautiful day - mild temperatures and very few people!
Route 66 went through the National Park.
All in all a most enjoyable day.
This is what we've seen out our window.
We are still in Casa Grande. We liked RoVers Roost so much that we leased a lot here. We added rock to the lot and painted the trim on our shed.
As most of you know right after we moved to our lot Bryan got sick. Many visits to the vet and a hospital stay later it was determined that he has IBD. Medication and a change of food has helped and he is doing well. The day we brought him home from the hospital in Gilbert, Victor said he didn't feel well. He was having a heart attack!
Another stent and he is feeling good.
We feel very fortunate to have been in Casa Grande because he was close to a hospital that has great heart doctors. This is definitely the quick version. It was all much longer and scarier, but it was wonderful being in a community that was so supportive even though we had just met these people!
We took a day trip to the White Mountains on Wednesday. We were looking at places to stay this summer. We found a nice park and made arrangements to be there for five months. We are enjoying Arizona and look forward to exploring more of this state.
My dad had an accident in his scooter Friday evening. He was banged up and also broke both bones in his leg just above his ankle. He has surgery tomorrow. These are the times that it is hard to be away from home.
This is one of the views out our window...
It all started in 2006. We began our lives together and soon discovered that we both loved to travel. The summer after we married we headed out in our Toyota Tundra truck (staying in motels along the way) to see as many National Parks as we could see in six weeks. We visited Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Glacier (even had to bring our own water for that as there was a problem with the water in East Glacier at the time), the Grand Canyon, and other places along the way. We had a wonderful time and knew we wanted to do a lot more traveling.
Back home in Oklahoma we soon decided that we wanted a dog. Enter Izzie, our first West Highland White Terrier. We were in love! Izzie soon showed signs of health issues that we spent a lot of time and money trying to resolve. We did find a doctor that prescribed medications that helped her during this time. We resumed traveling, but soon realized that we did not like the rooms we were given in pet friendly motels. The solution...buy our home on wheels...the WestieWaggin'...great accommodations! Izzie loved to travel and proved to be a great navigator! A couple of years later we added our rescue Westie, Bryan, to our family. What a sweet, lovable little guy he is!
Even though I had retired a few years before, a great opportunity came along and I worked the next four years. During breaks and summers we traveled as much as we could. One year we took my sister and nephew with us to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone as we also visited family along the way. We had a fun time. One summer my sister went with us to Wisconsin (enjoyed exploring Door County) and on to Duluth, MN and Lake Superior...what fun! Mostly these were quick trips and we always left knowing we had places that we still wanted to see along these paths. Finally, I retired again. A dream come true trip to the northeast. We spent six months traveling in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Finally spending the fall seeing the gorgeous foliage in these states.
We have been part time RVers for the last six years. We have enjoyed exploring this beautiful country of ours and decided this past year that we wanted to go full time. The emotions that come with that, especially for me, have been difficult; yet the changes are exciting. The past few months have been dedicated to selling our home and all its contents. We are almost there!
Our blog name comes from our love of Westies (West Highland White Terriers). We bought our first RV for our first Westie named Izzie. She loved to travel and was our navigator. Unfortunately, due to multiple health issues, we lost her the summer of 2013. Our hearts are still heavy as we miss our sweet girl. Izzie's adopted brother, Bryan, who came to us from Oklahoma Westie Rescue, is our travel companion. He is such a happy puppy and we are very fortunate that he rescued us!
We are in waiting mode for a while longer, then the WestieWaggin' will hit the road! You are welcome to come along with us on our journey and see 'what is outside our window'.
When we left Oklahoma after the holidays we were trying to get ahead of the snow. We had several errands the day we left, so got a late start. We weren't sure where we were going at this point. We made it to Throckmorton, TX and a nice city park with full hook-ups for only $15.00 per night. Woke to snow...whoops! We waited until it let up, cleaned off the slides, and headed further south. Made stops at Escapee parks in Pecos, TX (oil field workers fill the park) and Deming, NM (nice park). There is a wonderful museum in Deming. I don't like all museums, but this one is a jewel and a must-see in my opinion. We both enjoyed it!
We spent a couple of nights at Leaf Verde RV Resort in Buckeye, AZ. This is a wonderful park in a great area. We made plans before we left to spend the month of February there. On to Quartzsite, AZ and the big tent show. We stayed in The Scenic Road RV Park (wouldn't do that again) because we wanted to attend Geek Week with Jim and Chris Guld. They had workshops every day about technology. We learned so much during that week. It was interesting to see all the BLM land fill up with RVs...more and more every day. We made a couple of trips to Yuma. Spent one day driving to Joshua Tree National Park. The desert terrain is a different beautiful!
We also drove to the Salton Sea. Another beautiful desert area.
On the way we passed lemon, orange, and date orchards. Of course, we had to try it all...yummy...so fresh! We didn't get to spend as much time as we wanted in this area, so we might have to return. We enjoyed visiting the big tent and made a few purchases. It wasn't crowded the morning we went so we easily found parking. We enjoyed Quartzsite, the Escapee happy hour, Geek Week, and all the day trips we took. Neither of us enjoy crowds of people for long, so we were happy to leave after a couple of weeks. We weren't sure which Escapee park we were going to go to when we left, but ended up at RoVer's Roost in Casa Grande. We really like the park. It is small and the people are very friendly.
More catching up to do!
We put our house on the market December 30, 2013. We moved into the RV and proceeded to sell, donate, and toss most everything. As soon as Spring arrived, we had an offer on the house and the SOLD sign was up! We could finally start the next phase of our lives.
We left our hometown area on June 4, 2014 heading for the Northwest. Through Colorado and Wyoming our first longer stay was at Colter Bay in GTNP. We explored more of this gorgeous park and continue to count it as a favorite. Next stop was Yellowstone's Fishing Bridge. Since Victor had worked in the park the previous summer; we wanted to see some of the people he had worked with and visit some favorite places. We were again fortunate to see several bears. Not as close as the grizzly that visited our RV last year WHILE I had the dogs out - thank goodness! Love watching the animals! We also drove the Beartooth Highway while in the area. Such beauty everywhere in this part of the country.
Next stop was Polson, MT to visit a dear friend that we met last summer. She was a full time RVer for many years. Wonderful, fun lady! Had a great time visiting Rita and her dog Rio. We also spending a day with her in Glacier - my all time favorite national park.
On to Coeur d' Alene, ID for a quick visit with fellow Escapees that we met in Hondo, TX. Quick visit, but good to see them again. This area of Idaho is worth a return visit!
Washington has been on my list for years and we finally made it there. We both enjoyed the state and ended up staying longer than we had planned. We went to every National Park and other places we had just read about. Mount Rainier we saw briefly on the drive to its base, but it was not visible when we arrived at the Visitor Center. There was still lots of snow in the park. North Cascades NP is beautiful. Not quite what I expected, but we totally enjoyed our time there. Mount Saint Helen's was not visible the day we drove there. We could see it from a distance, but the fog kept getting thicker the closer we got. We took the RV and tow on the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula...that was fun! Enjoyed the Olympic NP and the diversity of the area a lot - Hurricane Ridge, Hoh Rain Forest, and Ruby Beach. Cape Flattery, the farthest NW point in the lower 48 states, was an quite a hike. Whew!!! (The farthest NE point is sure easier to get to!) The Lavender Festival was going on while we were in the area. Visits to a lavender farm were made. The gift shop smelled so wonderful! We also took a day trip into Canada to Vancouver.
Oregon is beautiful. We enjoyed Oregon even more than Washington. The Columbia River Gorge drive is beautiful. The waterfalls are gorgeous. The Multnomah Falls is the tallest and prettiest of the falls. It is a short walk to the falls from the parking area. One can climb on up and walk across the bridge if you so desire...I didn't. Crater Lake NP is an amazing place. Quite impressive! The Rim Drive offers several viewing places of the lake....all the same, yet all different. Then there is the Coast. Wow! Had a great time there. We loved visiting the many lighthouses. Hope to return to Oregon again someday!
Time to start our journey to Iowa and the Winnebago factory for a few repairs. A stop by Devil's Tower. We spent some time in Minnesota touring the Amish areas while we waited for our appointment. Back to South Dakota to become residents of that state. This was all accomplished very quickly. Our mailing service people at OurHomeAddress were so helpful with every aspect of what we needed to do.
On the way back to Oklahoma for doctor appointments we decided to stop and look at 5th wheels. Our 30 foot Class A seemed to have gotten smaller when we were full time. We found a Lifestyle Alfa Gold 5th wheel that we really liked and had the dealer tow us to Oklahoma. The search was on to find a truck. We found a Chevrolet 3500 dually that took care of that problem!
We had beautiful fall weather which lasted into the beginning days of winter. The holiday season was spent with family and friends. Precious times with special people. As 2015 approached it was time to hit the road again.
