Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Our Whirlwind Summer

This summer has been filled with great trips and visits with friends and family. I have already posted about my high school reunion, so here's a glimpse of our trips to Branson and New Mexico.

BRANSON, MO June 29-July 4, 2007

Richard's parents have bought a time share in Branson but unfortunately we were not able to stay there this time due to booking conflicts. We drove to Branson with Rich's parents and his grandmother. Our days were filled with shows, food, naps and more shows. We had a great time but most of all really enjoyed seeing Rich's Nanny have so much fun. You would never believe she was 84 years old; she is such a spitfire and we love her so much! Here are some pics from that trip...

Lake Taneycomo...our resort (this is the second time Rich and I have stayed there) is just to the left of the Lake in this picture.
Reta (Rich's mom) and Nanny at our first show the first evening we arrived...it was Circle B Chuckwagon Roundup. It was a great show with great music and we all had a lot of fun.
Zeldon, Reta, Nanny and Rich at the overlook into Pointe Royale and Lake Taneycomo.
Me, Nanny and Rich at one of the last shows we saw...Smoke on the Mountain Gospel Jubilee. It was more like a dramatic church service. The "stars" said their entire reason for starting the show was to serve the Lord and minister through their drama and music. It really was an inspiring performance and one of my favorites this trip.

Pointe Royale is where we stayed again this year. Three years ago we went to Branson with Rich's parents and his brother and sister-in-law, and we stayed here, as well.


New Mexico Camping Trip
July 13-20, 2007

Wow, was this a trip! We had the best time with my parents. It started with me driving down to Uvalde to take the dogs and leave them at my parents. This also gave me a chance to visit with my grandmother and spend some time in Uvalde this summer. I drove down with the pups on Wednesday morning, July 11th. Thursday Mom and I spent trying to pack and taking care of my cousin's two girls, Madeline (4) and Kaitlyn (2). We had such a good time with them...they are sweet, sweet girls. Mom said after they left, she had forgotten how "hands on" little ones are. Here are a couple of pics of them...they wanted to swim in the pool but we didn't have their floaties so I improvised. I put the sprinkler under the trampoline and they LOVED it!



After their grandmother picked them up, we finished packing an ended up leaving for Childress on Friday the 13th. We spent the night and the next day were on our way to New Mexico. We had some minor setbacks along the way, but had a great time camping and exploring. Ultimately we ended up in the Gila National Forest near Silver City, NM. If you enjoy an primitive camping experience where you see little if any other people and are miles from civilization (ideal camping if you ask me) then I highly recommend this place! It was absolutely amazing! We have camped my whole life and I have to say this is in the top 3 of my camping experiences. I put all of the pictures together into a QuickTime movie, but it simply will not upload to my blog. SO, I have spent some time putting the pics together in a One True Media slideshow. They are not near as good because you can't put titles on them. So, I will tell you what they are BRIEFLY! I think if you click on one picture, it might give you some info about it, but I'm not sure.

We left Saturday July 14th and stopped in Quitaque, Tx for lunch. The first night we spent in Lincoln National Forest near Ruidoso, NM, and the next day we drove to Alamogordo, NM and stopped to see the White Sands National Monument which we had all seen at least once before. This is where we had some truck problems and ended up having the thing towed. We stayed the night in Alamogordo at a HOliday Inn Express and Chrysler (dad's truck is a Dodge Turbo Cummins Diesel) actually ended up paying for the whole thing so that was nice. We then were on our way to Silver City, NM and the Gila National Forest. We camped there three nights. It was incredible. Our campsites were 21 miles off the paved highway and took us an hour to get to, but it was well worth it. We fished and caught trout which we cooked and ate, we made a day trip into the Gila Cliff Dwellings where the Mogollon Indians lived over 700 years ago. The Apache took over the dwellings after the Mogollon abandoned them and they lived there until the mid-1800's. The dwellings were amazing...I highly recommend then. We also visited the Copper Mines near Silver City...incredible! The pictures don't do them justice. We had several side-stops including more dwellings and campsites, as well as Emery Pass Vista, a beautiful overlook into New Mexico. Our last night was in Van Horn, Tx at a Best Western because we pulled in at 12:30 Thursday night. We made it back home on Friday the 20th and were sad to have left the beautiful Gila National Forest. Rich and I are already planning a time to go back! Here is the photo montage (if the montage music doesn't play well, just give it a few seconds...

3 comments:

  1. Hey, did you know you were in the motel just down the road from where I grew up in Van Horn. My parents kept that motel one summer when I was about 13. Looks like you had a great time. I hated that we didn't make connections for lunch on your way through. dp

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  2. Too primitive for me (except for the Holiday Inn!) but I'm so glad y'all enjoyed it! The pics are very cute and it looks like y'all had great weather!

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  3. Oh, and I meant the camping was primitive. I could do the condo in Branson thing! :)
    BTW...Rich's grandma is TOO CUTE! I love her pink outfit!

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