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Stampede Tour - On the Road Click HERE to search through a list of past subjects. Click HERE to find a specific month and year.
Yesterday was our 30th wedding anniversary…And they said it wouldn’t last. We went out to dinner with friends Dick and Donna Cross. It was Donna’s 31st anniversary of her 39th birthday. Figure that one out. I think the key to our successful marriage is that we are not only lovers, we are also best friends.
Sunday we traveled from Williams, AZ to Prescott, AZ…about a three hour trip. Every morning when we woke up in Williams the temperature was below freezing. And each night our water hose froze. But, by 8:00 am the temperature was in the high 30’s, and we were in business. This morning at 5:00 am the temperature was 50 degrees. A bit of a change. We’re staying at Point of Rocks Campground and will be for about ten days. We’ve stayed here before, and Jake loves it. The campground is surrounded by rocks, and he loves climbing the rocks. Here are a couple of pictures of his climbing expertise.
We’re back from our Red Rock Ride, and what a trip it was. Some of the most unbelievable scenery; excellent stock…mostly mules; wonderful food; new friends; and memories to last a lifetime. Later we’ll be putting together a slide show that will be available to see through our web site. We’ll tell you about it when it happens. Here is a picture of some of the scenery and Sunny’s mule Carl.
We’re staying at a real nice RV park in Williams, AZ. Out our front window are some chainsaw carvings on the top of pine tree trunks. Sunny is always so anxious to see eagles that the first couple of days here she would look out the front window and for an instant mistaken the carved eagles for real ones.
Monday morning we’re headed up to Tropic, UT and the Red Rock Ride we’re hosting with Dave and Melissa Stamey. I’m told there is no cell reception where we’re going. So, there will probably be no updates until we return to civilization.
Well, we’re still having major computer problems. We got our computer going enough to do the radio shows, but it is as slow as molasses in the winter. No one seems to be able to change the new computer’s operating system from Vista to XP. And my printer isn’t working. But, other than that everything is going fine. We’re presently in Williams, AZ visiting our friends at Wild West Junction. One of their buildings is the Chronicle of the Old West international headquarters. Actually, it’s just a store front, but people are always stopping by to meet us.
We’re still alive. But I’m not sure if that is true when it comes to our computer. During our travels from Southern California to Williams, AZ, the computer crashed. Nothing could be accessed. The computer went to the repair shop, and they worked on it for three days. When I got it back yesterday afternoon it worked, but very slowly. I was able to get this week’s show out. We bought a new computer, but the operating system is Vista, and three of the programs I use haven’t been upgraded to Vista. So, we’re having a computer person get rid of the Vista and replace it with XP. Dakota is too old to have to be dealing with this. Incidentally, we were able to take a picture of the computer repair people in the process of doing some kind of a dance around the computer.
Actually, the picture is of some buzzards that were going after a dead critter. It took place about 20 yards from our RV in Anaheim, CA. When we walked up to them, they spread their wings to make them look bigger and fiercer.
We’re almost over that coughing thing that has been going around. But we still feel a bit punkish. The later part of last week and over the weekend we took care of our grandchildren, Kaine and Quinn. Part of the time we stayed in our RV and took hikes along the Santa Ana River during the day. The last half we stayed at their home.
We’ve had people (adults) spend the night in Monty. It was a little tight, but manageable. Having two active children is a horse of a different color. We’ve seen instances where families of four or five have lived full time in RVs smaller than ours…I don’t know how they do it.
Yes, we’re still alive, but barely. We have been battling that bug that has been going around. For the past five days we’ve been having coughing contests. I’ve heard of “coughing up your lungs.” Why they stayed in our bodies is a miracle. And during this time Dakota had to put out the paper. So much for the whining. We will survive, and prosper.
We’re headed to Yuma, AZ for a couple of days. We’ll be meeting up with some friends. After that we’ll be heading for Southern California for about a week.  Over the last two weeks we’ve spent five days at the cowboy action national championships and four days at Festival of the West. Unfortunately, much of the time we’ve been dry camping…no electric, water or sewer connections. It’s called “dry camping.” We’ve had water in our water tank and holding tanks for the other liquid stuff, but have operated off battery power. That precluded us from downloading any pictures we took. I know…”whine, whine, whine” So, here are some of our friends: The first picture is Geneva Eads. She and her husband own Buckaroo Bobbins. We’re talking about frontier clothing.
Anyone who’s been around Old West events knows the “Knight of the Green Cloth”, Lafitte.
And the third is Gavin Hazeldene, an Australian-American in 1800’s Australian military attire.
For the last few days we’ve been staying at the Pioneer RV Park in north Phoenix. The park is on the edge of the desert. As indicated in the last entry, most mornings start with hot air balloons taking off in the nearby area. The RV park has a boot hill that is on the way to a nice trail through part of the desert. It’s always interesting to read the tombstones.
Many people maintain that 1800’s tombstones read like this…but I’m not so sure.
We’re presently in Phoenix, AZ attending SASS’s Winter Range. Winter Range is their national championships. Dakota is part of the entertainment…He’s interviewing people before an audience. We’ll be in Phoenix for a couple of weeks. Next weekend we’ll be attending Festival of the West on the south end of Phoenix. With nine days of the next two weeks taken up with our being at shows all day, working on the radio shows and newspaper will make for early mornings and late nights. Incidentally, right next to where we’re staying is an open field where hot air balloons take off.  We are now official members of the “clean rig club.” A couple of days ago we took Hoss to the truck wash and gave him a good going over. And yesterday we washed Monty. And it’s amazing how much easier they drive.
We figured it would cost $100 to get Monty washed by professionals. So, we decided to pay ourselves. Sunny took her $50 and put in the diesel fuel fund. Dakota, on the other hand, said he would use his $50 as down payment for a new pair of boots. Who’s to figure? Over the last three days we’ve been doing some traveling. While in Fredericksburg, TX we went to KNAF, and had a meeting with our affiliate there. Then we started back to El Paso. On the way we stopped by Junction, TX and recorded a segment with our station there. The next day we headed over to Sonora, TX and did a live show with the KHOS morning team. The picture is of the KHOS people.
Then we spent the night at Ft. Stockton, and the next morning stopped by KFST…our station there. We also visited Circle G Western Wear. They sponsor our daily show on KFST. Then, yesterday we arrived in El Paso. Tomorrow we head out for Arizona. Sometimes what we do is a bit hectic, but it sure beats waking up in the morning trying to think of something to do for the day. We’ve spent the last couple of days in Fredericksburg, TX. This is an absolutely beautiful town with a German ancestry. KNAF here in Fredericksburg carries our daily show. KNAF is a station that’s been in the same family since the 1940’s. Just one example of the great architecture of the town is the Holy Ghost Lutheran Church. We had an enjoyable time attending it last Sunday.
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