2009 Holidays and 2010 Beginning Travels

This travel blog will catch everyone up to date of our activities through the holidays and the beginning of our 2010 "snowbird" travels.

We spent a week in Wyoming ~ a few days at brother Dick's home before going on to brother Jim's home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Santa Claus on a motorcycle was a sight to see in Rock Springs, WY, while out shopping the day after Thanksgiving.

Entertainment for the holidays included a Living Nativity Scene at a local church and attending granddaughter Caily's school Christmas program. Caily is the one in the middle in the red dress.

We took a three day trip to Leavenworth WA with friends for the Christmas lighting festival.

A new addition to our extended family. Mom shown with Mae (my niece, Karla's first baby).

After Christmas festivities with Dennis' and family, and Karla's visit to our home on the 26th, we loaded up the motorhome, trailer, car, bicycles, and ATV to head south. We met up with cousin Judy

and her husband, Larry, from Nebraska in Las Vegas, Nevada on the 27th of December. The Venetian Casino was one of our stops ~ the first time we have seen a "living statute" in the U.S. First picture shows the canal boats as seen in Venice, Italy.

Sharon particularly wanted to see Christmas lights in Las Vegas. Unfortunately they were few and far between. A nice display was in the Wynn Casino..............

......and at the Ethyl M Chocolate Factory and Cactus Gardens. Here they had over 500,000 lights all over their Cactus Gardens. There is a great video of this display at this site.

While in Vegas, Judy and Larry decided to upgrade three of their four ATV tires ~ picture shows the ATV void of three tires while they went to pick up the new ones.

First picture is a strange site was a motorhome with a cat door out the back of the motorhome. Double click on pictures to see larger image.

We visited the Trump Tower (picture is of Judy and Larry beside the model of the Trump tower) to see if Trump was able to "trump" the luxury we see in the Wynn Casino. Our vote was that it wasn't as good as Wynn Casino. But we did see on display the Singleton whiskey in the lobby lounge which is a rarity.

Another strange site in Vegas was this twin tower leaning casino and condo construction.

Our next RV park was outside of Lake Havasu....it was strange to see a motorcyclist ride up, sweep some rocks away, and pitch a tent for the night.

Our first ATV ride after arriving in Quartzsite was, of course, out in the desert. Judy managed to get a cactus sticker completely through her shoe. Tony got the pliers from our tool box and Larry removed the sticker.

More fun and excitement to follow soon.

Christmas Greetings from Tony & Sharon

We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

To all of you we were able to spend time with this year.....it was great. To all of you we were unable to see, we hope 2010 will make this possible. Of course, everyone of you are welcome to visit us in Moscow, Idaho....make a special trip or just stop by.

We posted a YouTube video of our Christmas room.....because we have a Christmas room and wish all of you could be here to enjoy it this Christmas season....and because Tony got an early Christmas present ~ a Sony camcorder!! You wouldn't believe the fun we had doing this. Tony's new camcorder has face recognition. When he first started filming, he had to start over because he was laughing so much when the camera zeroed in on the smiling faces of the chair covers (all six of these were made by sister-in-law Cindy Phillip). Another item in the room is the plaque "The Singleton's Christmas Room", a gift fron friends, Joyce & Jon. The fireplace you see is actually a TV set with a video running. Tony built the case around the TV to look like a real fireplace. The nativity set is a gift from my Grandmother Kelly (over 45 years old). Many of the items in the room are gifts from friends and relatives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh1BbQW16XI is the YouTube web address. Click on the bottom right for HD viewing.

This is our Christmas letter for 2009, written by Tony.

Hi you guys and a Merry 2009 Christmas,

We’re here again in front of the computer trying hard to remember all the things we’ve done this past year and why we did them. The first three months we spent in Arizona as before, this got us away from the harsh Idaho winter and into the far warmer conditions near the Mexican border. Boon docking or dry camping, as its known, out in the desert for half of that time is rather nice especially with our own car and ATV and friends to go on long rides and adventures with. Having said that we had to be towed across the desert because our ATV broke down with serious transmission failure thus meaning a complete strip down when we get back home. But by the beginning of April it began to get too hot so back up North we came.

Sadly this year we made two long trips to Nebraska for two funerals of Sharon’s aunts Despite the sombre occasions it was really good to get to see some of her friends and relatives out there – her mother and all her three uncles and aunts are in their late 80’s and early 90’s and have been married 65 years or more.

I finally finished making an oak pedestal desk for our office, a project started last year in an attempt to hide away all the cables of the computer and printer. Then Sharon wanted something similar to match it but not quite so lavish – she now has an oak "skirt" round her desk which seems to fit the bill.

There was so much rain and snow here during the winter our back lawn was flooded when we came home. This coupled with the risk of our motor home sinking into the mire prompted us to get a friend to excavate a large area about 15 inches deep and fill it with aggregate so we could have a reliable place to park it. Then we opened up the workshop to create enough space for a medium sized centre lathe for me to "play on".

Sharon made preparations for family gatherings on Easter Sunday, Mothers’ Day and of course the 4th of July. On one of these events there were 28 people trying to sit round our 12-seater dining table. She continues to paint pictures, blog, crochet, and cross stitch. She convinced me to make her rails to hang on one of our hallway walls so her paintings could be displayed. The grandchildren are here often ~ which keeps her young.

When time permits we still love to go camping to our favourite Meadow Creek spot. I’m afraid swinging an axe to split our quota of winter logs is getting just a touch too difficult so we had to give in this year and buy some from one of our camping friends. I then made a mechanical log splitter.

We spent a really nice week with my cousin Linda and Mike up in Glacier National Park, Montana. Not to see the glaciers, they’ve all gone, but to see how they totally reshaped some of the mountains up there. On the way we visited a pottery shop, a coffee bean factory and a drive round a black bear park. Later in the year we drove out into the wilds of Idaho to a little place called Dixie from where we took a lengthy ATV ride down some 4000 feet to a remote area beside a swift river where they actually had a small sandy beach. People really lived down there and their only access was by small plane or ATV across a narrow bridge.

A week over Thanksgiving at Sharon’s brother’s homes in Riverton WY and Green River WY was a lot of fun and we were fortunate with the weather. We have a Christmas party planned here at home and one more small trip planned to Leavenworth WA for the Christmas lighting festivities with friends the week before Christmas. We look forward to visits from UK relatives next year after our return from being "snowbirds" in Arizona & California.

Retirement is still good to us but we’re all getting older so drink the good wine first!

Happy Christmas from Tony and
Merry Christmas from Sharon