May 7th: Peter added a second battery and a solar panel and I think, that all we have to do now, is pack.	May 9th: We found it very annoying, that our camper did not have an outside cable hook-up. We had to hook up the TV cable inside and lead it through the door gaskets for the campsite hook-up. Peter wanted to avoid drilling through the walls and found another way to fix our problem. See pictures below.
Our home for 7 weeks. June 22/23/24th: OK...the 'big' day was finally here. We left New Jersey towards Delaware Straight to Virginia. Once in Virginia, we went to Shenandoah National Park and it was breathtaking. The Skyline Drive is awesome and the Blue Ridge Parkway, that is actually the continuation, is a MUST SEE - you have to bring time along though, because it took us about 5 hours to drive 120 miles. It was worth it. We stayed two nights in the park and and even hiked to see a gorgeous waterfall.
June 25/26: We went to see our friends Maureen and Neil, whom we haven't seen since Dennis' wedding. They now live in North Carolina and we had a wonderful time. We even got a welcome sign. ;-)	June 26: Arrived over Atlanta, Georgia at John Tanner State Park, where we stayed one night. Then off to Biloxi. June 27: We were supposed to stay at Big Biloxi Campground, but it was closed so we stayed at Wal-Mart.
June 28: When we first started this trip, we planned on staying in Louisiana at least 2-3 days. Because Big Biloxi was closed, we decided to find another campground. The lady in the information center recommended one down-town New Orleans. OK...lets go there! Well.....little did we know that the place was a total dump. The whole city still looked like Katrina was there yesterday. We were disappointed and sad, as well as outraged, thinking that billions of our tax money is going to foreign countries, while we are in dire need for help ourselves. Please look at the pictures and tell me if I am wrong. I am furious and don't understand how our Government is allowing this mess. We are still very much in shock. The French Quarters were still standing and looked very interesting. We had a nice walk and took hundreds of pictures. Can't up-load them all though. OH....the good part....the city of New Orleans has WiFi. (Yeah)! We were told to eat Crawfish while there and we tried to find a restaurant that has fresh ones, just to find out that the Crawfish season is from November to June. We were too late, so we sacrificed and ate ribs. On the way to our next stop, we say a car that flipped over, seconds before we got there. Fortunately, the people in the car made it out alive....on foot...into the woods. Hmmmm...WHY?
June 29: We are on our Way to Texas. Houston our first stop. Well, about 25 miles away from Houston...close enough. The Campground is nice and it is HOT.....no, SIZZLING HOT! Texas is a state located in the Southern and Western regions of the United States of America. With an area of 268,581 square miles (695,622 km²) and a population of 23.5 million in 254 counties, the state is second-largest in both area and population—behind Alaska and California, respectively. About half the state's population resides in either the Dallas–Fort Worth or Houston metropolitan areas.
June 30: Today we went to see the Forbidden Gardens in Katy, Texas, is a fascinating outdoor museum replicating some of China's major historic scenes. Guided tours take you back to the third century BC to view the first Emperor's amazing 6,000 piece terra-cotta army replicated in 1/3 scale. The tour continues to the intricately detailed miniatures of the famous Forbidden City in Beijing.	View from our campsite and dinner.
July 1: A three hour ride brought us to Boerne, just 30 miles west past San Antonio. We found a nice, extremely clean campground on top of a hill. We will stay here until Monday and tomorrow, we'll take a ride to San Antonio.
July 2: The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. and the rest of San Antonio is very pretty, especially the River Walk. We walked 4 hours and enjoyed it very much. Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio's five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. These men and women continued to farm the fields, once the mission's but now their own, and participated in the growing community of San Antonio.
July 3: Guadeloupe Mountain National Park was our over-night stop for today. On the way we stopped at the David Crocket Monument. If you drive through Texas, as well New Mexico, you'll see oil pumps everywhere. It even smells like oil. Note the size of the beetle....we are still wondering what they feet them here. I always thought that Florida has the biggest ones....no way! Guadalupe Mountains National Park safeguards the world's finest example of a fossilized reef, a surprisingly complex and unique assemblage of flora and fauna, and West Texas' only legally designated wilderness. Here, one can experience solitude, tranquility, and the joy of finding plants and animals whose mastery of survival renews our sense of wonder.
July 4: The Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico are truly huge and awesome. I love caverns anyway, but the size of these just topped all the once that I have seen in my lifetime. Inside the mountain - the elevator took us down 750 feet in one minute. From Carlsbad we went to Oliver Lee State Park near White Sands Monument.
July 5: White Sands National Park. At this point, White Sands National Park topped everything that we have seen so far....(I know...we are not at the Great Canyon yet and all the other beautiful things yet to see)	Back at the Oliver Lee State Park for Dinner at sunset The park's namesake, Oliver Milton Lee (1865-1941) was one of the most colorful careers in New Mexico history. Life of late 19th century settlers can be experienced through the guided tours of Oliver Lee's ranch headquarters.
July 6: Just traveling to Tucson and when we arrived at Catalina State Park we were please to find another great State Park with the a gorgeous view. The sun was just about to set and the mountains looked like a painting.	July 7: We visited the Pima Air Museum, Tucson Arizona and it was well worth the visit.
Dinner was once again served with the prettiest sunset. :-)
July 9th: Who would have thought that we will ever ride on Rt. 66? Couldn't help but take a little detour onto Rt. 66 to Williams. It was great and interesting, and fun.
July 10th: I guess the Grand Canyon was so far the highlight of the whole trip. We stayed at the Grand Canyon National Park and it was awesome, and beyond anything I ever imagined. We left the RV at the campsite and took the shuttle from one end to the other. Lots of walking in between and enjoyed a deserved ham dinner. We ended the day with another shuttle tour to the sunset.
July 11th: The Hoover Dam....AWESOME! Before we got to the Dam, there was a roadblock and a State Trooper checked out our RV. Just a quick peek.....and off we went. We didn't drive much further and stayed at the Lake Mead National Park in the Lake Meat RV Village. Lake Mead is beautiful and we there, just in time for a pretty sunset.
July 12th: We are in Las Vegas today. We are staying at the Roadrunner RV Park and it is 110 F (43.3 C). It goes without saying that we had to see the 'Strip". It was everything we expected and then some. We stayed until 12:30 am and we saw people pushing baby strollers, while drinking beer from a bottle, hookers, guys trying to hand us coupons for all kinds from a night of pleasure to a circus show. We also enjoyed Bellagio's world-famous fountains.