That's a wrap, and winter travel plans

Monday, October 14

We've really enjoyed our first summer at Sandy Point Resort on Gull Lake. It's been busy and certainly blogging didn't make it far up the 'to do' list.

The Grandkids loved to go metal detecting on the beach.

The results of our treasure hunt. I think we found a total of 15 cents, but we did clear up a lot of nails and sharp objects from the beach.

The park held a 'Summer-ween' at the end of August where all the kids (and adults) dressed up in their Halloween costumes and went door to door. Candy for the little kids, something much stronger for the adults! A great time and a good way to wrap up summer.

The leaves began to fall and the temperatures remained reasonable.

The best time to hike through the woods is Fall. These trails are within our resort boundary. So handy.

Found this fellow grabbing a snack. A beautiful Pileated Woodpecker. He's well over a foot tall.

The forest is working hard to reclaim man's waste.

It's beginning to look a lot like it's time to make like the geese and head south. We've actually been working on our itinerary for a while but we got serious about it once the first few flakes began to fall.

Our first snowfall on September 30.

We plan on crossing into the US on October 15 and heading toward Moab, UT. We want to check out Arches and Canyonlands National Monuments. Then we'll head down through Monument Valley and back through Four Corners before sneaking back into Colorado for a few days. Then it's down into New Mexico. Albuquerque, Santa Fe then down to Roswell, and Carlsbad then to White Sands. Then we'll head over to Southeast Arizona and check out the sights there, such as Tombstone, Bisbee, Karchner Caverns and so much more. Next we'll head toward Tucson and explore around there. Then up to the Phoenix area for a visit. We just have to go back to Lost Dutchman State Park and we have a reservation for a few days there in early December. After that it's over to the Yuma area for a couple of weeks until after Christmas, then head over to San Diego to meet up with some family visiting there from Canada. After the first of the year we'll explore southern California, Anza-Borrego, Salton Sea, and Palm Springs then head back into the Parker and Quartzsite area. Then we'll gradually make our way north toward Nevada. I'd love to see Death Valley so hopefully that will happen before it gets too hot. After that we hope to head further north in Nevada but as always once you hit the end of March many of your plans are weather dependent. Our plan is to be home by the end of the first week in April.

Another long trip with many stops and locations to visit. I hope we're not planning too much. I think our longest stop in one place will be two weeks. Eastern Utah, Southern Colorado and New Mexico will be totally new for us, as will the Southeast portion of Arizona and Southern California. After last year's marathon tour of the US Southeast, this year's trip will seem like a breeze. One of these years we may just have to choose a location and stay there! ......or maybe not! Nice to have choices!

We're looking forward to meeting up with friends in the south, but life circumstances mean that some won't make the journey to warmth this year. The desert won't be quite so colorful without them, but we'll do our best to share our exploits so they can feel they are a part of the experience.

Looking forward to seeing lots of colorful sunsets in the desert, like this one over our Resort.

See 'ya next year!

........and that was Our View From Here!