Behind, In TX, and heading to AZ

Hi,

We are so behind on our blog.
I have been busy with work and we are trying to get to AZ for another Solar job.

We are in Amarillo, TX heading to AZ.

We will post our Graceland, Elvis pics just as soon as we get a chance.

Hope everyone is well.

Marv and Ellen

Tupelo, Where Elvis got his start

Thursday 2-3-11
As we traveled toward Memphis, we turned off in Tupelo, Mississippi to visit Tupelo Hardware, the store where Elvis’s mom bought him his first guitar. It is a great old fashioned hardware store.

The same family owes the store that owned it when Elvis shopped there. An employee, Howard, told us the whole story and gave a lot of history of the Presley family and of the town and the store in particular.They sell anything you can imagine, like a good old fashioned general store. It reminded Ellen of the store her Grandpa Hansen used to have in Idaho.

Ellen with a smile to see all the stuff! The very door were Elvis walked through. See the X on the floor that is where Elvis threw a fit for a bike but got a guitar instead.

Replica of the Guitar with famous signitures.

You can buy your own

Grandma Eudell I will miss you

Jan 7 – Feb 2, 2011
We thought we better put a few words down to let everyone know that we are still around. After Peace River we journeyed back up to Orlando and stayed at the Lake Magic Resort. This is a sister resort to Thousand Trails which was full so we had a reservation at Lake Magic under our Thousand Trails membership. It is a beautiful resort.

We were gone for a week to fly to Montana for the funeral of Marv’s dear Grandma Eudell Lundman.

I would spend the summers with her as a teenager. Lately we would stop at her house in malta and park out 5th wheel in the back for a couple of weeks. She was a strong lady and loved her grandchildren. We would play cards and games and I enjoyed listening how she grew up in rual montana. The last couple of years were hard as she lost her memory and had to be placed in a ederly care center close to my uncle gary. When we would visit her there she would always have a big smile and was happy to see us but you could tell her memory was gone. I felt so sad for her and am even more sad that she is gone but am happy that she passed in no pain and is now resting in peace. It was a real tribute that all her 3 children and their families were there to celebrate her wonderful 91 year life. All 9 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren as well and much extended family were there to share stories of summers with Gramma Dell and the way she touched everyone’s lives. The day of the funeral the sun shone brightly making the beautiful white snow glisten. She was a very special person who is sorely missed.

When we got back, Marv had one more solar job to finish before heading out of Florida. We are now in Red Bay, Alabama. We toured the Tiffen Motor Home factory. Oh, to be able to afford a beautiful new motor home. Tomorrow we head for Memphis, TN to visit Graceland, and then on to south of St. Louis for a job. Hopefully after that we can head south again as it is getting colder as we move north.

Stay tuned for pictures of Graceland next week.

Moving north to Orlando

We are on the move again.

Today we are heading north to Orlando again.

Along the way we took a pic of the orange trees. They are every where.

We will be at Lake Magic Rv Park close to Thousand Trails.

We plan on staying here for 2 weeks then I have a solar job to do in St Louis, MO.

It should be fun as lately it has been 5 to 32 degrees.

Arrival at Peace River Thousand Trails

We made it back to Peace River Thousand Trails Park. We took a bicycle ride into Zolfo Springs to visit the old Pioneer Park and tour the small town, Ellen and our friend Claudia taking a posethen bicycled 5 miles the other direction to Wauchula to return a rented movie. Plenty of exercise that day! We are here until the 13th. We are both working hard so probably won’t have any more time for activities until we hit the road again.

Everglades Air Boat ride

Thursday, Jan 6
We packed up camp and drove north and then west through shark valley, still in the everglades. Late morning we needed a stretch break and stopped where they were giving air-boat rides through the everglades for $10.00/person. How can you beat that? It was really fun. He took us out to an Mikusuki Native Indian village built on a hammock in the middle of the everglades. We also saw alligator, otter, and various wading birds. We enjoyed the beauty of the saw-grass plains up close as the wind blew through our hair.

The are boat with alligatoer in the lower right of photo

Bike ride and first crocodile

Wednesday, Jan 5.
Another long bike-ride to a couple of different ponds to see alligators and other birds. One of our favorites is the pink spoon-bill.

He swings his head back and forth with his big flat bill in the water until he bumps into something good to eat.

Stoney tried to walk over mud flats with no luck except to sink into the mud.Taking abreak from our bike ride for a snack We nearly had to leave him there. We also rode over by the marina and saw our first crocodiles. Not a cute as the alligator.

Heading our way!

Taking a look at us

Everglades birding tour with ranger

Tuesday January 4,
The next morning we arose early to join one of the park rangers, Joyce, for a bird walk. We met at the edge of the bay as the tide was out, exposing mud flats and hundreds of birds having their breakfast.
We then walked on down a path to see both inland and coastal birds. We walked right past a rather large alligator lounging in the creek bed. We would have never even noticed him if the ranger had not pointed him out, even though he was only about 5 feet away.

We saw various cormorant, anhinga, herons, pelicans, egrets, wood storks, the ever-present vultures and many more.
There were several osprey nests and we found several red-shouldered hawks willing to pose for a picture. Unfortunately, we should have written down the names of the birds we saw as nearly all were new to us and remembering all of their names impossible.

Spoonbill Pink Pelican

Looking for breakfast

Flamingo Campground Everglades NP

Monday Jan 3
We traveled from the entrance campground of Lone Pine Key to the southernmost edge of Everglades National Park to the Flamingo Campground on Florida Bay. We were joined there by our friends Claudia and Stoney. We went for a short bike-ride along the shore, saw some vultures drying their wings, and Claudia and Ellen even got their feet went in the bay.

Everglades Tour on New Years

Saturday January 1, 2011
We took a 6 mile bike-ride to Royal Palm Visitor Center. There we walked the Anhinga Trail to see anhingas, bad smelling buzzards, Herons, various other ducks and birds and of course the infamous alligator. It was very interesting to see all these creatures in their natural habitat.

Our friend Sleeping

A white Heron

A bunch of our friends napping

Cute blue heron

Ellen photo with her friend

Our friend eyeing us

And on the way back we drove over the highest pass in Florida

A ray of sunshine

More to come.