What a month this has been.  Bryan’s job has been going really good and he is quite enjoying his new duties.  Carol is still sorting out photos and has found a studio where she can start painting again, and has already started to dust off her paints and brushes.  On the 17th Carol drove to Edmonton for her annual medical and after having a routine mamogram the radiologist found something strange and a change from the previous ones.    Though we are concerned we are not worried, the radiologist recommended she go back in 6 months to see if a there were any significant changes.  Our doctor, being proactive has made an appoinment for her to have a core needle biopsy on the 6th of October to make sure that it isn’t anything serious.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that all will turn out well.

How to start what has been going on in our lives.  After the last post a lot has changed, out of the blue  Bryan received a phone call and was asked to come to Calgary for a job interview.  Though we were both settled in current our jobs, we drove down to check the offer out and by the time we got back to Edmonton he received a call and was asked to come down for one more interview.   A week later we were on our way back to Calgary for another interview, on the drive we decided if it was the right offer we would pack up and move to Calgary.  While there we checked out some RV parks on the off chance we would move and found a nice one situated along the Sheep River, a bit of a drive for Bryan to head to work if  he took the job, but mostly highway driving and on the right side of the city.  It turned out the offer was good and after submitting our resignations, two weeks later we headed to Calgary one more time and on the 20th of July Bryan started his new job.  With Bryan being on a 3 month probation period, we decided that Carol didn’t need to work.  With years of photos stored in boxes in no particular order, Carol started sorting through them and putting them in years, family members and occasions.  It is amazing how may duplicate pictures we had, taken over the years, mostly scenic and how little meaning they had to us at this point.  We still have a lot to go through, but the sorting is getting easier and we are only keeping the ones with people in them.  What a job!!  If we had to do it all over again dates would have been placed on all the folders holding the pictures.  Hindsight is a wonderful thing isn’t it?  We have settled in quite nicely and have developed a routine.

Yikes, it’s been almost 4 months since we last updated our post and a lot has happened in that time.  We arrived safely to our rv site in Edmonton on the 10th of April.  Though the site had been plowed out, Edmonton experienced snow for a few days afterwards, and we arrived to an almost clear site.  Bryan had to go around the rv park to find a shovel and cleared out a little more snow.   We settled in nicely, and Carol started to work at the golf course shortly after arrival.  Bryan started on the job search, which became quite a long quest.  Apparently, the economy in Alberta faltered while we were away and instead of the “if you are breathing, you are hired” mentality, Bryan was faced with “you are over qualified for this position” mentality.  Thirty plus resumes, five phone calls and four interviews later, he did finally land a job and started on May 19th.  With both of our shifts being strange, to say the least, we seldom had time to do the visiting we had promised ourselves.  We did find time to plant a small garden near the end of May, Yum fresh veggies, we could hardly wait.  Mother Nature had other plans, and on July 1st we experienced a frost that killed the beans and nipped the potatoe plants, which put them behind.  Fortunately, the rest of the garden was hardy enough to survive the destruction.   On the 21st of May our Grand-daughter Alaynna graduated from high school in Medicine Hat, and with Bryan’s new job he wasn’t able to get the time off, but Carol drove down with Jeanette and Madison (other daughter and grand daughter) and proudly watched her walk across the stage to be awarded her diploma.   Without being prejudiced, we think that Alaynna was the prettiest graduate on the stage.  Carol also has had the chance to watch Madison riding, and we both are looking forward to watching Nicholas play football.  Life has settled into a routine but we did manage to visit some of our friends and relatives in between working our shifts.  Bryan’s cousins and aunt came to Edmonton, and we were able to visit with them plus many of the relatives that we had not had the chance to see earlier.  We do regret not updating the blog earlier, but hope now to keep it current.

Last night we made it as far as Helena, another long day.  We got up early this morning, once again, knowing that we had about 4 hours ahead of us before we reached the border. As we got closer to the border there were signs along the road saying the border crossing can be busy during peak hours, be prepared for a delay.  Being cocky, we thought, just how busy can it be, we should be ahead of the rush leaving that early.  As we crested the hill going into Sweetgrass we had to slow down and then stop.  Apparently a lot of snowbirds had the same idea and got up earlier than us, the line up was over 1/2 mile long and it was just creeping along.  Two hours and ten minutes later we finally crossed the border and about an hour later we were in Lethbridge.  Karen and the girls (Alyanna and Kelsey) drove in from Medicine Hat for a visit and brought supper with them.  We were sure glad to see them again.

Wow, it’s hard to believe that we are on our way home after being away for almost 4 months.  We checked today’s weather forecast to see what lay ahead of us, and all seemed good so we headed north.  The drive was uneventful, other than there are a lot of Albertans heading home, we passed quite a few and some passed us.  When we stopped in Ogden, Utah for the night four rigs followed us in.  As we were sitting and relaxing, one of the campers (not an Albertan) came out with his pet cockatoo and brought her over for us to see.  Her name is Peaches, she is quite friendly and Cody didn’t even seem to bother her.  We hope to get as far as Helena, Montana tomorrow, but will keep you all posted on our trip.

What a difference a night makes.  It is cool and windy here, but the sun is shining and the clouds are high, white and fluffy.  We had breakfast, then got ready to move to our new site for the night.  It really didn’t take too long to move and set up once again.  Bryan wanted to take the trip back up the scenic byway we had driven down the other day, so he could stop and enjoy the view and go through the tunnels once again.  The day stayed bright and clear and we got out at a few view points to explore and enjoy the view.  We then drove back past our RV park and found a store called the Virgin Trading Post where we stopped and wandered around before heading back home.  Another perfect day.

We woke up to the sound of wind blowing, rain on the roof and a cool morning.  We spent the morning quietly then decided that a little weather wasn’t going to stop us from sight seeing.  We hopped into the truck and went looking for awesome scenery and found it.  We took the Zion Canyon scenic tour, 6 1/2 miles into the canyon, stopped and went on a 2 mile hike into to where the canyon starts to narrow.   The Zion Canyon is incredibly beautiful even with the rain and cloudy skies.   The cliffs seemed to reach towards the sky with no end, the water falls seemed to fall from the middle of the cliff with no befinning, the Virgin River winding beside the trail made this day perfect.  Once back home, we changed our plans and decided to stay here one more night to ride out the snow storms happening along our route home.  The downside is that we will have to move to a different spot in the morning.

The last couple of days we relaxed and got things ready for another day of travelling.  Today we left Camp Verde at 8:00 am (yup, we finally left when we said we were going to) and headed north towards Zion National Park in Utah.  The countryside is ever changing with the sameness of the plains, the beauty of the rugged red cliffs, coral colored sand dunes and canyons.  We are so blessed that we have been able to see this incredible scenery and are looking forward to exploring the Zion National Park.  The highlight of our day was when we took the scenic byway to Virgin, Utah and found out that we would have to drive through 2 tunnels, one we could get through easily, the other, park rangers had to stop on coming traffic so we could drive down the middle of the mile long tunnel.  This tunnel is 13′1″ high in the middle (our trailer is 12′ 10″ high), runs down hill and we had to navigate curves while in it.  The rest of the highway was narrow with hairpin curves and steep drop offs.  When we reached our desitination, Zion River Resort, Carol had to pry her fingers off the door rest and thanked her lucky stars that Bryan was driving.

This morning we got an early start and  knowing it would be a long day, Cody came with us, much to her dismay.  She has become a homebody dog and not as much of a travelling dog as she used to be.  We started towards the Grand Canyon and took a 36 mile side trip to see the Sunset Crater Volcano and the Painted Desert in the distance.  The volcano erupted about 900 years ago and the devastation is still visible today with the lava flows and cinders the main scape of this area.  The ground cover is black with a few trees dotted through out the mountain side and surrounding area.  We got out of the truck and wandered through a small area to see up close how it must  have looked years ago.  Our side trip continued and took us past more ruins and at last the painted desert was visible miles away.  The near landscape is in greens of the trees, reds and yellows of the fore ground and in the distance the painted desert looked pink.  Once again we were on the highway driving towards the Grand Canyon.  We have never been there before and don’t know what to expect.  Cody has been dejected, sitting in the back seat, and even with walks her demeanor hasn’t brightened.  Poor girl.  Finally we arrived at the Grand Canyon and stopped at the Watch Tower viewpoint on the south rim in the National Park, the first of many we stopped at along the way.  Cody came with us to experience our first sight of the Grand Canyon.  Words fail us.  It is breathtaking.  Each stop along the way was more breathtaking.  It everything that we have read and heard about.  The trip back home was anti-climatic.   The day was long, but rewarding.

We had another wonderful day and we think it even topped yesterday.  Our first stop was to Montezuma Castle National Monument, a cliff dwelling that was constructed around 1100 AD by the Sinagua Indians and it is still a mystery why they left the area around 1400 AD.  It is thought to be the best preserved cliff dwelling in America.  Not only did it house 250 people, they managed to build a canal system along the Beaver River to irrigate their crops.  The dwelling sits high along a cliff wall and was accessible by ladders.  We had only walked 1/3 of a mile and stepped back into the past.  Since the tour didn’t take as long as we expected we started planning the rest of the day.  We had read about a small mining town, Jerome, built half way up the Mingus Mountain and thought it was worth investigating.  The highway took us through some small towns and then we started to climb and climb along switchbacks to reach Jerome.  The town buildings sit precariously on the side of the mountain, the main road is narrow and winds through the town in hairpin curves.  In order to walk from one street to another, steep stairs are placed between buildings.  At one time Jerome was the 3rd largest city in Arizona and had a population of over 15,000 with mining the main industry.  We stopped and wandered through some unique shops, had an ice cream cone then headed down the mountain side.  With some sunlight left, we decided to head back towards Sedona to view the scenery once again.  We can’t imagine how anyone ever would get tired of seeing the rugged red rocks and steep cliffs in the area.