Almost All Work And No Play

Our good friends Mickey, Larry and Jordan Woolums were all in Phoenix for Thanksgiving.  Jordan lives here now and hosted the holiday.  Hannah and Jordan played soccer together for many years, so our course Hannah flew in.  The majority of our time here has been spent getting to know the different areas.  We have decided we are going to land here!  Yay!  This decision has  been weighing on me.  We will rent a place for one year to make sure we really like it.  We have not experienced summer here so we don't want to make a hasty decision.  It is November and we are in shorts, which is lovely.  I really haven't taken any pictures here since we really have just spent lots of time in the car looking at model homes and rentals.  We think we may have found a place in the Scottsdale area.  We will know for sure tomorrow.  We are planning to head back to this area after the first of the year to begin getting settled and to sadly begin looking for jobs. 

Sedona Red Rocked!

We stayed in Sedona for 5 days and loved it.  We had been here many years ago and I forgot how beautiful the red rock is.  This is not a place we could live, but visiting was great.  We did multiple beautiful hikes and had a wonderful time.  Headed to Phoenix for Thanksgiving.  Again, the pictures don't really do it justice.

Standin' On A Corner

We decided to "take it easy" in Winslow, Arizona.  Got to watch the Bears whoop Detroit despite the Bears kicker hitting the goal post 4 times.  Very fun!

Santa Fe

We had a few different people recommend Santa Fe as a possible place to live.  It is not for us.  We had a good time sightseeing but this is not our future home.  Our camp site was up in the mountains which was beautiful but below freezing at night.  We stayed there 5 days but left early because of the threat of snow.  The art district is very interesting and the hiking was great.  Onward to Sedona with a 2 day stop at the Homolovi State Park and Winslow, AZ. No cell or internet in the mountains which we have decided we don't care for.  Marching towards San Diego we go.

Hyde Memorial State Park

 7 miles up from our campsite!

On The Road Again

We had a wonderful 3 week visit back in the Chicago area.  We were able to see lots of family and friends.  It felt really good to see all those familiar faces.  We stayed in a studio at the Candlewood Suites which was a bit tight but made the RV seem roomy once we left.  Initially we headed to Madison, WI to spend time with Jackie, Kelli and Elena.  We briefly got to see Alex who is in college as well.  Very fun!  From there we decided to head to St. Louis to see Mickey and Larry Woolums.  We were able to stay at a very nice State Park 5 minutes from there home.  Always have fun with our buddies.  Our plan was to leave St. Louis and head to Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Half an hour in to our drive form St. Louis we decided to take a detour and go back to look at Asheville / Hendersonville, NC.  Last time we visited the area we did lots of hiking.  This time was all business.  We looked at housing and cost of living more in depth.  We did get to hike one day.  This was the closest we will be to Asheville in the next months and figured it was worth a second look.  We did a day trip to Greenville, SC and decided we like that area better than Asheville.  It is only 45 minutes away from Asheville and is more affordable.  From Asheville we did a power drive to Hot Springs, AK, where we currently are.  We got a beautiful site on a creek in the National Park but the weather so far has been very rainy.  Today we went to the Quapaw Bath House and experienced the healing water.  You don't go to Hot Springs and not get in a hot spring.  From here we will be headed west with our next stop being Santa Fe, NM.

This was a meadow we hiked to in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  One lucky dog, so is Lilly ; )

These pictures are from right behind the RV in Hot Springs National Park.