Gypsies In A Caravan: Wickenburg AZ For The Winter Season 2017/18

When we left the Rocky Mountains and headed to the Northglenn Elks Lodge in Colorado. We have been here before, its a good location, a nice lodge and we feel safe leaving the rig there. On the 12th of September we flew back home to Wilmington to visit family and friends.

Our first stop was to see our new granddaughter Kinzie Mae and her older brother Jaxson.

There is nothing better than the smell of a newborn.

Welcome to the family baby girl.

Reed is our oldest grandson and trying to get a good picture can be tough.

I think he learned it from his Dad.

Enjoyed spending time with my best friend Tammy and my Aunt Ruthie.

My sister-in-law Susan and I planned a family reunion. The timing worked out great as my nephew and his wife and baby were in town. It was so nice to see everyone and have them meet the new generation. I'm sorry I didn't get more pictures.

Hopefully we can do it again!

It was sad to leave everyone but we will be back again.

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Once back in Colorado we hitched up the rig and headed to Durango to visit our friends Linda and Greg Thompson. Our plan was to only spend one night at Walmart in Alamosa Colorado but the wind was blowing a gale so we stayed another night. The route on 160 takes us over Wolf Creek pass with an elevation of 10,856 and they were having 55 mph wind gusts, better to stay put.

Got to love a Walmart.

We arrived at Linda and Greg's safe and sound and mooch-docked in their driveway.

Downtown Durango with beautiful fall colors and as an added bonus a long hornsteer, don't see that everyday!

Our wonderful hosts took us on a colorful drive to Ouray passing through the San Juan National Forest and Silverton on the Million Dollar Highway. You better be paying attention when driving this route, with a narrow width, S curves and a lack of guardrails, concentration is key. The road was originally hand-carved by Russian immigrant Otto Mears in the 1880's to transport ore from Silverton to the railroad in Ouray. There are several legends why it's called the Million Dollar Highway but one is that it's fill dirt contains a million dollars in gold ore.

The Bear Creek Falls is a must see near Ouray!

You couldn't ask for better hosts, thank you so much Linda and Greg.

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Back on the road we spent the night at the Elks Lodge in Winslow, AZ and then arrived in Wickenburg AZ for the winter.

Once all settled in, Mark got his business up and going and I got back to silversmithing. Boy it felt good to play with my new toys!

I would have never dreamed there would be so many opportunities for me to be a vendor in Wickenburg! I vended at the farmers market, friends of the library craft show, a craft show in our park, an invitational show at the Desert Caballeros Western museum and the club rock and gem show, and Gold Rush Days at the rodeo grounds. It was a very busy season doing a show every weekend and completing several custom orders! I greatly appreciate all my customers.

Just a few of the custom orders.

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Once a month the town had free concerts in the park that we all enjoyed.

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Bob Spears is a great pool player so we all went downtown to support him.

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In January we pulled out with our friend Doug headed to Quartzite for the big tent show. Doug had never been so it was fun see his reaction. We found a nice spot to boondock all by our selves. Quartzite is an experience, you have to go at least once. With the tent show and the rock and gem show going on there is something for everyone.

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In February we took a road trip to San Marcos CA for our great nephews 1st birthday. Mark's brother Lynn and sister-in-law Susan flew out for the event at my nephews in-laws. It's always a good time to when we get together with our west coast family Christo, Alida and Andre.

I'm always so impressed with wind turbines and Palms Springs CA doesn't disappoint.

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It's always fun to go for a ride in the desert on the 4 wheelers. Our friend Doug bought one and gave us a key so we could use it when he was out of town, now that's a great friend! Bob Spears knows the desert like the back of his hand and took us on an adventure.

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I'm not exactly sure how this became my job but it did. Deoxidizing the rig, waxing and caulking. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to keep your rig waxed! The white on ours is the gel coat and the color is paint. The gel coat over time will start to oxidize and leave a powdery film. This has to be removed with a specialized cleaner (I use Metal Lustre and get it on Amazon) and then wax it with turtle paste wax. It took me 2 weeks to get this job done and was I ever happy when it was over!!!

I have been looking for some new colored globes for my pendant lights but couldn't find any. So I googled painting them and discovered Krylon sea glass paint, very happy with the results.

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Mid April we loaded up Mark's work van to take it back to Wilmington NC. Last year we left it in Wickenburg for the summer as we were returning back in the fall. This winter we will be back on the east-coast so we had to get it back there some how. Mark checked out different options and this plan worked for us.

Taking turns driving, sleeping in a make shift bed in the back and only one night in a hotel, we drove 2,342 miles in 3 days!

We parked it at our son Ryan's house and he will keep an eye on it for us until we get back. Actually we will be parked at his house when we return, it's nice having a son that has a big enough space for us!

Our daughter-in-law Mary is due in September with our 5th grandchild. We rented a house for 10 days and had a gender reveal party. It was her birthday a few days before we got home so I took her to the nail salon, lunch and then the doctor appointment to find out the gender of the baby. I was so honored that she asked me to go but had to get the sex given to me in a note, as I was afraid I would give it away before the party.

It's a BOY.

It was so nice to have the family together again.

My Aunt Ruthie drove down from VA for a visit.

So glad she got to meet baby girl.

A few days later we went to the aquarium at fort fisher with the kids. So fun to see Jaxson amazed at that sights.

All good things must come to an end and unfortunately it was time for us to head back to AZ. We sure will miss everyone and these sweet babies weigh heavy on our hearts, but we will be back in October ready to hold our new grandson Nash.

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Once back in AZ we started the process of packing up getting ready to move. The park had pretty much emptied out as most folks left the end of April. It was kind of nice to have the place to ourselves, so we took advantage of it and had a going away party. We sure will miss everyone next year but will hold the memories close and actually see some of you this summer.