Western Caribbean Cruise

Since we were going to be in New Orleans for a month, we decided to take a 7 day cruise to Honduras, Belize and Mexico. We went on the Carnival Sunshine which is one of the upgraded ships with a Guy's Burger Joint, many restaurants and a huge water slide. They themed this ship like a beach outing and instead of the "carnival blue and red" uniforms they are wearing sky blue shirts with khaki pants/shorts. The serenity deck is actually 3 decks and away from all the kids activities.



The first port we stopped at was Mahogany Bay, Isla Roatan, Honduras. Pretty neat stop. They have these chairs that take you from the cruise terminal to the beach or you could walk to the beach. I took a tour of the island. The tour guide was very informative and there were a couple of good stops. One of the stops was at Yubu, the Garifuna Experience. This was a place where they did the native dances. Really fun to watch. We also saw authentic food places like "Bojangles"... hehehe For those people who don't know, Bojangles is in the southern part of the US and is a chicken place like Church's or KFC. 

Our next stop was Belize City, Belize. It was a 15 minute tender ride from the Carnival ship to the port, but worth it. I decided to take the Xunantunich Mayan ruins tour. WOW.... first it was a 2 hour ride from the port to the ruins site each way. The ruins are just a couple of miles from the Guatemalan border and all I can say is WOW... I have never seen anything like them before in my life. We were able to climb to the top. A little scary, especially for someone who is afraid of heights. There are no railings or anything... once on top, the view is just awesome... can't think of any other way to explain it. On our way back, we stopped at a place to get authenticate food. It was really good. 

Our last stop was in Cozumel, Mexico. I liked the Mayan ruin tour in Belize so much that I wanted to see what the ruins in Cozumel were like. They were not as extravagant as the one in Belize but they were really cool. The had a lot more "pieces" of the ruins than the Belize but they were smaller. One thing it did have was a lot of iguanas. Cozumel is an island so the tour also went from the ruins around the beach front of the other side of the island and then back to the port.

Back at the ship, they had a few additional restaurants that you could go to other than the normal ones included and the steakhouse. They had a sushi, an Italian and an Asian restaurant. We ate at the Italian restaurant once and it was good, but we loved the Asian restaurant. Went there 3 or 4 times.... YUM

Looking forward to our next cruise.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

New Orleans.... woohoo

We arrived in New Orleans... still searching for warmth. I really do like it down here. We took a drive out to the other side of the Mississippi River down to the Gulf... saw the shrimping boats. Our main accomplishments while we were here was the cruise (see the next blog) and Mardi Gras. Our son, Dennis, turned 21 the week before Mardi Gras and we had him come out for it. What a blast that was. So neat to hang out with him. We went to the Tabasco Factory in Avery Island, saw Oak Alley Plantation, went out to see a couple of parades the night of Lundi Gras and caught lots of beads, then took a tour of New Orleans and drove him out to Mississippi so that he could add one more state to his list of places he has been. 

Now we start heading back to the west coast for our grandson Hudson's birth. Next stop is San Antonio, TX.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Time to catch up.... TX, AR, TN, MS

Been a whirlwind few months. First off we made it to Grapevine, TX before the storm hit. Boy has this been some winter. Feels like it will never get warm. We spent Christmas and New Years there. Downtown Grapevine is such a pretty place at Christmas.

I also took a trip to the Bush Library. I was such a busy place. They had a very beautiful display of Christmas at the White House as well as the regular features. It was really hard to go into the 911 portion of the exhibit though.

Still in Grapevine, I went to the Gaylord ICE Show. What a neat concept. This years theme was the Nutcracker and everything is made from ice. It was such a beautiful site.

After Grapevine, we decided to go to Little Rock, Arkansas. Spent the week there and saw the town as well as the Clinton Library.

Next stop was Memphis, Tennessee and Graceland. WOW... a must if you are in the area. Such a beautiful place. We also saw the Lorraine Motel where MLK was assassinated. 

We decided to take the drive to Nashville, TN and look around there also.

After the week in Memphis, we drove through Jackson, MS and looked around that town then went on to Baton Rouge, LA.

Our next stop is New Orleans for a month. Got a cruise and Mardi Gras.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Oklahoma City, OK through Amarillo, TX

Well at least this trip was a lot better weather wise. We left Albuquerque, NM on Friday after Thanksgiving and stayed the night in Amarillo, TX. Got their with enough time to look around just a little and then had dinner at The Big Texan Steakhouse. Really good food. 

The next morning we traveled to Oklahoma City, OK. We stayed at Twin Fountains RV. This was a nice place with Hunt's Brothers pizza on site. Really helped for when we got snowed in later that week. We went sight seeing on Sunday. We went to a couple of Museums; The National Cowboy and Western Heritage and the 45th Infantry. We saw sights like OSU, the capitol, homesteads and mansions. We also stopped by the Oklahoma City Memorial. Beautiful memorial but such a rush of emotions when you go.

We were suppose to head out to Little Rock, AR the next weekend but ended up getting snowed in and couldn't get out until late Tuesday afternoon. This did give me the opportunity to go to the ASA Softball Hall of Fame and drive on snow and ice.... something I have never done and not sure I want to do again. Because the next storm was coming in on Thursday, we decided to just head on down to Grapevine TX a few days early.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

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Thanksgiving in Albuquerque, NM

OK. Our first stop will be Albuquerque, NM for Thanksgiving with my sister in law. I don't know if we could have had worse weather. We left Las Vegas, cold and raining. We seemed to be following the storm and as we continued across I-40, we hit the snow. We were suppose to stay the night in Flagstaff for the night and continue to Albuquerque the next day, but with the snow we just kept driving to get off the mountain. We stayed the night in Holbrook, AZ. We were there just before dark and really only set up and grabbed dinner.... not much snow, just a dusting. We ate at a Mexican restaurant called Joe & Aggies Cafe on US66. What a need place. Apparently, Holbrook, AZ is the town that "Cars" was about. Story goes that John Lasseter (director) would sit and talk with one of the owners about the way it use to be before I-40 came to be. There are even signed sketches from the movie on their wall. Good food too. First introduction to Sopapillas... YUMMMMMM

Woke up the next morning to snow. Had to scrap off our slide awnings of all the snow before it would close. Finally got all of the slides in and off we go to Albuquerque. We stayed in the truck tracks most of the way and really questioned if we were going to make it. I-40 was closed going into Texas and wasn't sure how far that closure was going to go, but we made it. We stayed at American RV Park which was nice and thankfully the snow had stopped and we just needed it to melt. Bad part was that we still got below freezing and had to disconnect the water every night.

Del and I are big race fans and one of the cool things here was the Al Unser museum. This is actually 2 museums in one. The first is what I would call a normal racing museum... some race cars, engines, tires, etc. The second one is Unser's private collection of cars... totally awesome.

One of the other things we saw while in Albuquerque was a couple of hot air balloons. Although it was not really the season for them and it was really cold, there were a couple of brave souls out there. This one was just getting ready to take off. They are sooooo pretty and colorful. In the fall, they have a hot air balloon festival. Would love to see that someday.



One of the things that New Mexico is known for is their chiles. New Mexico cuisine has some of the best flavors. Definitely try it if you get here.

Well our next stop is Oklahoma City, OK.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Ready to head out again... what a year.

Well it has been an interesting 15 months to say the least. While in Nebraska, we had a family tragedy and rushed back to Las Vegas. From there, we went to Klamath Falls, OR for our granddaughters first birthday. While there, Delbert started not feeling well. We decided to go down to Orange, CA to see a doctor. We found out that he had stage 3 colon cancer and needless to say, that put a stop to our traveling for a while. He had surgery while in Orange and then we moved back to Las Vegas for his chemotherapy and moved into an apartment. Chemo went well and he completed it in May 2013. We have taken a couple of small trips including a couple of weeks back up to Klamath Falls for our daughters "official" wedding and seeing the grandbaby.... We did loose our best friend of 10 years and trip navigator while in California in October. 

With all of the tragedy hopefully behind us, we are now ready to embark on journey again.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Iowa and Nebraska

OK.. Iowa has A LOT of corn. Everywhere you look are stalks of corn. We spent the night in Iowa City, Iowa and got to Lincoln, Nebraska on Sunday. We are staying at Camp A Way. It is not far from the University of Nebraska and downtown Lincoln. 

On Tuesday, we drove into Fremont to visit my brother and his family. I got to see nieces and nephews that I haven't seen in over 30 years. 

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

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Waterpark Capital... Wisconsin Dells

We made it to the Wisconsin Dells, better known as the Waterpark Capital of the World and boy do they mean it. Even the cheapy hotels had some sort of water slide in it. It has to be one of the biggest tourist traps, I mean ... destinations that I have seen. About 20-30 waterparks, with about 10 of those being very large scale amusement/water parks. 

Can you imagine seeing this going down the street.

We stayed at the KOA while we were here and went roaming through town. Unfortunately, the parks closed about 7pm and we worked until 5pm, but we did get to see many of them. We also got to go on a Dinner Cruise up the Wisconsin River (Upper and Lower Dells) with Jason and Carol. That was sure pretty. They served steak and lobster... very yummy.

I love watching the sun go down.

Well, we received notice that the house finally has been sold... well, in reality, the bank bought it back, but either way.. it is no longer ours. The kids are working on their move out plans and we are headed back, once again, to put our stuff into storage and hand over keys. Thought we could do this remote, but the storage company needs to see Delbert since he is the only one registered on the motorcycle. Oh well... nice 1800 mile trip, but at least we have about 4 weeks to do it in.... so next stop Iowa and Nebraska.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

The Twin Cities....Minnesota

Minnesota is nicknames the Land of 10,000 Lakes... well I think I saw half of them just driving in from North Dakota. Every few miles there was more water. We stayed just outside of the Twin Cities at a campground called St Paul East RV Park. It was a nice park and close to shopping. Also, Mall of America was only about 20 miles. We didn't know it was here until we saw the signs coming into town. We decided to take a drive out there and see what it was all about. WOW... First, it was built where the old Vikings/Twins stadium was. There is even a plaque in the amusement park part of the mall where the home plate used to be. It is 4 stories and yes for those who didn't catch it the first time... has an amusement park in it along with an aquarium. Lots of shopping and restaurants.

Our next task was to look around the Twin Cities. We like to pick a few places to see... usually historical or trendy I guess is the word I would use. For instance, we saw the Capitol, a couple of beautiful churches, ball parks and bridges, but we all so the Mary Tyler Moore statue. This statue is in the place where they filmed her throwing her beret in the air in the opening credits.

Also while we were here, we had a nice dinner and visit with a friend of Delbert's, Ken. It was a really fun time and boy can his wife cook.

We head to Wisconsin next.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

North Dakota

Hey there. We made it through the storm in South Dakota and headed North to...... you guessed it, North Dakota. Really this is just an overnight stop so I can add it to my map and it doesn't look any different than South Dakota. We stayed at Lindenwood Campground in Fargo, ND. It was a pretty park on the river. We didn't find a whole lot to see around there, but we did eat dinner at Pop's Roadside Eatery which shares its kitchen with Mom's Diner and Tailgator Sports Bar. Pretty neat place, 3 restaurants in one and the food wasn't bad either.

Well our next stop is the Twin Cities.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Little House in De Smet

I made it. I got to the Ingalls Homestead in the town of De Smet, SD. So cool to know that Laura use to live here. The town of DeSmet keeps here memory alive... Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, Laura Ingalls Wilder Pagent Society, Laura Ingalls Wilder Memorial Society and Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary school are all there. The Homestead sits about a mile or two from De Smet. 

Laura was born in Pepin, WI. She moved with her family from Pepin, WI to Independence, KS to Walnut Grove, MN to Burr Oak, IA back to Walnut Grove, MN to De Smet, SD where Pa, Ma and Mary stayed the rest of their lives. Laura, of course, married Almanzo and moved to Mansfield, MO.

The first winter in De Smet (1879-80),  the Ingalls stayed in the Surveyor's house below. Laura wrote about this house in the book, "By the Shores of Silver Lake".

Pa built the house below in 1887 and it is the last home for him, Ma and Mary. This is the original location and they have it filled with original items of the Ingalls family.

After viewing this house, we went to the cemetery to visit the grave sites of Pa, Ma, Mary, Carrie, Grace (with her husband) and Baby boy Wilder.

This was such an awesome trip and it was so nice to hear so much about Laura and her family.

Well we head to North Dakota on Saturday and the Twin Cities, Minnesota on Sunday for the week.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Crusing the Coeur d'Alene Lake

We went for a dinner cruise today on the Coeur d'Alene Lake. Such a beautiful Lake and surrounding area. They had a great buffet with Prime Rib and Salmon on it and we cruised the lake for 2 hours while eating and chatting. Met a really nice lady, Stephanie with mom and son. The  Coeur d'Alene resort sits on this lake. There is a golf course where one of the holes is actually in the lake. If you make it on the green, then you go down and take a little boat called "The Putter" to the hole, finish your shot and then take it back.

It was a beautiful time to take the cruise.... not too hot, wind blowing a little and sunset happened while we were on it.

Well our next stops will be Missoula, Montana and then a long drive through Wyoming and South Dakota to get to Sioux Falls. I'll update you when we get there.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Spokane and Northern Idaho

We are in Post Falls, Idaho. This is about 15 miles past Spokane, WA. We stayed here so I can put my Idaho sticker on my map. It is a very nice place. This whole area seems to have lots of lakes and streams. 

We went into Spokane and looked around. We were told that they had already "turned the falls off" so that was a little bit disappointing, but we drove by the Riverfront Park. They have some really neat statues throughout the park. One really neat one is called "The Joy of Running Together" and they look like a bunch of runners running around the park.

After spending a few hours looking around Spokane, we called it a day.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Astoria, Oregon

Hello all... we made it to Astoria, OR. We stayed at the KOA near Fort Stevens State Park. He was a wonderful place. They had indoor pool & jacuzzi, a playground, basketball courts, horseshoes and All you can eat Pancake breakfast. It was nice and cool while we were there also. Astoria is a border town between Oregon and Washington right on the Columbia River. There is a beautiful view of the river. It is also where they filmed parts of Kindergarten Cop and the Goonies.

Astor Elementary used in Kindergarten Cop

As I said before, we stayed at the KOA that was across from Fort Stevens State Park. This is a really neat place. They have 4 or so parking areas that go out to the ocean and the beaches. One of the neat sites was the Iredale shipwreck. The Peter Iredale was a four-masted steel barque sailing vessel that ran ashore October 25, 1906.

Peter Iredale shipwreck, 105 years later

Fort Stevens is an old fort used during World War II. There were not many buildings left standing, but it is pretty cool to drive through.

Our next stop will be Spokane, Washington.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Time to get caught up

OK. Well it has been a while. Last posting, we were in the Akron Ohio area and was heading to Sandusky to go to Cedar Point. We were there for a day and got a call that the house was going up for auction and we changed our plans and headed straight home. While doing so, we did stop by Madison, WI to visit my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. We then went to Mt Rushmore in South Dakota and went to this really cool place called Bear Country USA. It is a drive through exhibit with live animals... deers, wolves, sheep, mountain lions, buffalo and of course bears.

This bear was doing sentry.... just pacing back and forth letting one car in at a time.

From South Dakota, we drove through Wyoming, Utah and finally made it home to Las Vegas. We were there for a few weeks, sold/gave away our stuff, put up with 100+ degrees and celebrated our daughter, Ashley's 21st birthday. Once we had that all done, we took off to Southern California, where it was much cooler. We stayed there for a couple of weeks, visited with my sister, Pam and brother, Tim and then headed north to see our Uncle Coy in Bakersfield and our grandmother in Tracy. We then continued north to Klamath Falls, Oregon where we saw my sister, Rhonda and her family and our daughter Melissa and grandbaby, Ashlyn.

I was so nice to see them and Ashlyn is getting so big. After a couple of weeks there, we left to start our travels again. Next stop.... Astoria, Oregon.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Hi! O hi O

Not long after leaving Charleston, WV we crossed over the Ohio river into Ohio. We are staying the week in the Canton/Akron area of Ohio at a campground called Pier-Lon in Medina, OH. It is a beautiful campground that is kept up. There are quite a few people who just live here. They have breakfast every Sunday morning along with church in their pavilion. I saw some people fishing in the lake and they were catching bass. They do not allow any alcohol in the park, but we took that to mean outside the trailer. I saw a couple of bunnies running around. Boy does Buddy love to try and chase them. I don't know what he would do if he ever caught one. It would probably scare the daylights out of him but he tries. He loves to go on long walks around in the wet grass.

We took our normal Sunday drive this week. We stopped by this gas station to fill up the tank and they were a country store also, so we grabbed a sandwich. We went to drive the Amish Country Scenic Byway that goes through Millersburg, Berlin and Wilmot. Very beautiful countryside. There were a few Amish out in their buggies and walking the country road. There are a lot of cheese factories there. 

We continued our drive from the Amish country into Canton and Akron Ohio. It began to rain which always place havoc on my pictures. We drove out to William McKinley Presidential Library and Museum. I didn't know it was here so I didn't make plans to see it. The first one we didn't go into. We also went to see the Football Hall of Fame, the First Ladies Historical Site, and the Soap Box Derby

We left Medina a day early and headed to Sandusky, OH to Campers Village at Cedar Point Amusement Park. We planned on staying for 9 days, but got some news from home that is making us have to head back home for a while to take care of some business, so we pack up and started down the road.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

West Virginia

We left Mt. Airy, NC and headed north to Charleston, WV for the remainder of the week. We actually stayed in Milton, WV about 30 west of Charleston at the KOA. Very pretty KOA with large sites. 

One of the things I noticed about traveling is that every Walmart has memorabilia from the local colleges. Well this one was no exception. Turns out that Marshall University is just west of here. You may remember this if you watched the movie, We Are Marshall. It was a true story about a college that lost their varsity football team, staff, and other people when their chartered plane crashed on approach to the airport. We didn't go to see it, but its interesting how things jog your memory.

Anyways, we stayed here until Saturday, as usual. Went to a really good Japanese steak house, saw a movie and went roaming their mall. 

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Mayberry RFD

We went to Mt. Airy, NC last Saturday and stayed at the Mayberry campground. Mt. Airy is the hometown of Andy Griffith and the it is said to be the inspiration to Mayberry. It is also home to the Siamese twins Eng & Chang Bunker.

The town of Mt. Airy really is a neat town, especially if you know about the Mayberry connection. They use squad cars for tours. They have stores like Floyd's Barber Shop, Opies Candy Store, Wally's Filling Station, Mayberry Soda Fountain, Mayberry Courthouse, the Old City Jail, Bluebird Diner, and the Snappy Lunch.

Andy Griffith was born here and they say that he used the town of Mt. Airy as the inspiration for Mayberry in his 2 shows; The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. It is even near Pilot Mountain (Mt. Pilot). The have a playhouse and museum named after him and the TV Land Statue stands in front of it.

Andy Griffith Homeplace

TV Land Statue

Mayberry Campground is owned by the great great grandson of one of the famous Siamese twins Eng & Chang Bunker. The owner of the campground is Eng's great great grandson. Two guys attached for life, married two sisters and had 21 children together, quite a feat. The Bunker farm was a 2000 acre tobacco plantation. At first they all lived together and slept in a bed for 4, but eventually the wives had didn't get along so they had to set up separate houses. 

We only stayed for one night and then headed to Charleston, WV on Sunday.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Raleigh/Durham North Carolina

Well folks, I am a little behind on my blog updates. Last week (April 30-May 4) we were in the Raleigh Durham area. We got to see one of Delbert's friends from work and had dinner with him and his girlfriend at the Pit, a really good BBQ place. We also took in the sites of the Raleigh area including the capitol and Duke University and of course a trip to Durham isn't complete without going to see a Bulls game: they won... We had great seats, 3rd row behind home plate, but the pictures stink because of the netting. We had a great time. We stayed in a place that was nice and had huge spots. In no way was it a resort or anything like that, just lots of trees, large lots, great wi-fi and cable. There sure seemed to be a lot of universities in the area though. The campground was actually in the Chapel Hill area about 15 miles or so from Raleigh. We had a great time.

Check out my blog for the next place... we are heading to Mayberry... ok Mt Airy, which is the home to Andy Griffith.

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....

Roush Fenway Racing

Woo Hoo... got to go see Roush Fenway Racing facility..... nienor nienor nienor.... I am like a kid in a candy store. My favorite driver is Carl Edwards and getting to see his cars and stuff is so cool... I can actually touch them. I don't know how any race car driver actually fits in the seat though. They are really narrow and if you watch a race, they just seem to hop in and out of those things like it is nothing... although, I haven't seen any heavier people racing.

Roush Fenway Racing's Sprint Cup drivers currently are Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr and Trevor Bayne are Nationwide drivers. There are so many things to see here from all of the Roush drivers but I especially liked seeing the Carl stuff. After checking out the museum and gift shop we went over to their garage and saw them working on the cars.

We also went to Petty Motorsports, which didn't have anything to see and we to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, which had a few more things. 

You can view videos at Delbert's Videos on YouTube.

Gotta run.....