You could hear a pin drop

It is so very quiet out here...lordy!!!

Silver City Historical Cemetery

And it not cause of the neighbors....I don't think. It is just really quiet and special here. We will be staying at this RV park for the winter just to get a good feel of the area.

Click on this photo >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
and you can see there is a very large W on this mountainside. How nice of them to put our initial on the mountain as a Welcome! (Our last name begins with a w for those that don't know)

But that is not the case at all...it stands for Western New Mexico University.

When you have a University in your area you usually have a lot of art & culture. And this applies to this area. (sorry mr nutz) And shopping here isn't the greatest BUT you can get to Las Cruces in a couple a hours or less. So all in all it isn't that bad. We'll take it. Reminds us of when we moved to Key Largo years ago. There was nothing there at all and had to drive up to Miami for everything nearly.

So what goes around comes around I'm guessing.

More poking around on the menu today so.........stay tuna'd

Meet our new neighbors..........

This little girl (?) was spotted just as we were leaving the property we are looking into purchasing.

She has friends...aren't they just the cutest thing.



I can just see them chomping down on my herb garden.



We are looking at this property, the views are stunning. There are neighbors BUT they are way over yonder.



Nice flat area for the Doodles Casita.





Time will tell..........stay tuna'd BUT what do y'all think???

I have a soft spot

in my heart for New Mexico. I fancy myself as being a hysterical student of American Indian culture. So when the opportunity came to move west, I immediately thought of New Mexico.

Sister and I took a Thelma & Louise trip so 14 years ago from Los Angeles to Toas,New Mexico and back. Did the Route 66 thing and all, suffice to say we had a blast.

I have longed for many years to come back and enjoy the residents of this great state, so very friendly, interesting and helpful. I might add that Mr Doodles has never ever been to this state.

Mr Doodles and I came from the east of I40 and landed in Albuquerque. Didn't intend to spend any time at all here, just an over nite. We got here at a decent time, so were able to head into Old Town

Sister and I were here and my how it has changed. Spiffed up a lot, beautiful shops and restaurants. But I knew there was a special place I had to find. And that was Gus's Jewelry store located at the south end of Old Town.

Turned the corner and there it stood Gus's. What a site I was sooooo excited. However I noticed that the building was looking a bit shabby, shame on you Gus for letting your building deteriorate like this. Went inside and there he was in all his handsomeness standing behind the counter. We got to chatting and he tells me that he will be closing his store next year. What!!!!!! Why????????? The building owner sold the building out from underneath Gus and they are tearing it down.

No wonder the building looked so shabby. Gus has been at this very location for forty plus years, and this is all he knows. Of course he is in his early 70's and should kick back some. However he lost his wife and is kinda sad, God love him. Well because sister and I were there fourteen years ago I thought I would pick up a fond memento for both of us. I will share that with sister moon when we see each other next month.....Woooo haaaaaaa!!!

We wandered over to the Indian Cultural Center which was quite nice. Then off to the Albuquerque Museum
Indian Pueblo Cultural Center What a city Albuquerque has turned out to be. Too big of a population for us to live in but great place to visit.

Decided we also wanted to enjoy the Pueblo Village of Acoma.
They have built a new RV park that is wonderful and when you check in just like a Casino hotel you get $5 worth of chips to play with at their casino. Oh I forgot to tell y'all they also have a state of the art casino. Hot damn - did good for the two days we were there.

During the day we went on the tour of Sky City. They charge for the tour and also charge for a permit to take pictures. And you may ONLY take photos when you acquire permission. You must respect privacy of the residents. My what a great tour this was. This pueblo was built on the top of a sandstone mesa approximately 400 feet high.

After having waaaaay too much fun in Acoma we traveled south for our final destination at least for a couple of weeks. We are now in Silver City, Mew Mexico. And we are in love!!! With this City, the area and the residents.

So we are gonna go look at some property............stay tuna'd

Traveling is certainly educational

you get to see some of the most amazing sites.........like an abundance of cotton fields in Mississippi. Not a good shot cause we were buzzing down the hiway. But lordy for miles that is all you could see. Played a bit of havoc on the allergies cause the cotton picking machines were out working.

Another fun place was Peabody Hotel, Memphis


Check out the site and see their preferred guests. Mr Doodles could not believe he was standing and waiting for five ducks to appear. At 11 a.m. the five Ducks come off the elevator and waddle over to the pond pictured below. At precisely 5 p.m. the celebrity Ducks march out of the pond, down the red carpet to their private elevator that takes them back to their home.

The Peabody Hotel is a stunning structure of the Olde South and has a lot of history.




After the Peabody we found our way toward the harbor of the mighty Mississippi and came across a delightful museum called The Cotton Museum
A small, but quite informative exhibit, that showed much of the history of cotton plantations and how they were related to the Birth of the Blues in that area.

We did make our way down to the harbor but it had started to rain so we didn't hang around much.

Decided we could have a bite for lunch and turned a corner where there was of all things in Memphis Mexican restaurant, Rio Loco. So being the brave souls that we are we wandered in. To our surprise it was packed with downtown office workers. The place was huge and quite crowded. We were seated in just a few minutes. After looking at the menu and the aroma coming from the plates whizzing by going off to be served to others, we knew that this was our kind of place.



After our delish lunch we walked outside to a sunny BUT very HUMID afternoon. But knowing how much we wanted to go over to Beale Street we suffered thru the humids, after all we lived in Florida and know about humidity.

Beale Street was our favorite.........we wandered onto a small impromptu street concert. What a terrific group.
They all play at different clubs thru out the city but during the day some just meet up at this particular spot around the corner from Beale Street. One of the highlights was the BB King Club. We ventured in to see what was going on. Actually it was pretty busy in the afternoon. But I bet it really jumps at nite.

Glad to hear Mr BB is on the mend.




If the local ordinance is posted such as this sign can ya just IMAGINE how it must be some late nites...WOW!!! Probably puts Key West to shame.

This beautiful magnolia flower was the only one on a HUGE magnolia tree standing outside a second floor window at Graceland, home of Elvis.

Must catch up on my blogging cause I cannot wait to show you New Mexico.................stay tuna'd


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tombstonetumbledweed@gmail.com

OK the worst Highways have been awarded to...

sound the trumpets......ta ta ta daaaa................OKLAHOMA!!!

Now don't get me wrong it's a beautiful State. Oklahoma City is a great place to visit, hell we stayed here four nites and were only going to drive thru. We are very happy that we did stay over. The people are wonderful, a ton to do here, the RV park where we stayed was super, BUT the roads SUCK!!! They are like washboards everywhere. It is hard to believe that such a wonderful city would allow this to happen. Talk to any resident, they are appalled and ashamed of the roadways of their beautiful City. Maybe the Governor should put their Lotto $$$ to the infrastructure.

Now let me tell you why we stayed here for an extended period of time. One reason was the Doodles clan had a bit of a summer cold but are on the mend.

First of all the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. Well let me say that this is the MOST heart wrenching memorial I have ever seen.

Their Mission Statement: We come here to remember those who were killed. Those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this Memorial offer comfort, strength, peace hope and serenity.

The Field of 168 Empty Chairs stand as a reminder of each life lost April 19, 1995. I also put a few pics up on my Flickr site.

Prior to this we discovered that THE largest stockyards existed in Oklahoma City. Too cool I say, cowboys wrangling cattle, what's not to like, we say so found our way to Stockyards City. Yep they have their own city it's just that big and a restaurant too. Big disappointment, cowboys only wrangle cattle on Monday and Tuesday's CRAP!!!

As I said this city is filled with amazing venues......guess you could call it a destination city depending on your interests.

OK now on to the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Holy cow this place is magnificent and huge. Anything regarding western history from cowboy art to modern day rodeo. Also the grounds are filled with stunning bronze art work. Needless to say we enjoyed our day here.
Oh and this is funny, we received free admission. Ford Motor Company pays for all guests that show up on Wednesday.

Yep we enjoyed Okie City as the natives do refer to themselves.

We are going to venture down Route 66, the Mother Road,
so stay tuna'd.............

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tombstonetumbledweed@gmail.com

Spread the word...please

Do you know your carbon footprint............well it's time you found out.

This site is user friendly ZeroFootPrint

Bone up cause there will be a test. This is not something to skim over, not a fad, definitely not to be ignored. Something that you must think about.

None of us are perfect BUT we can strive toward improvement.

Stay tuna'd.................and I was just kidding about a test.

ps - you must register at this site so consider yourself warned.

O K LA H O M A !!!

That's where we are, Oklahoma City to be exact. Nice not to have a strict itinerary. Traveling on route 40 we crossed the state line from Arkansas into Oklahoma and stopped at the well stocked travel center. They had a section for RV parks so we checked out what else is going on in the city. We discovered that there was a lot we could see and do. Found our way to the RV park that we thought looked good. By the way it is wise to make reservations no matter what time of year cause they mentioned that available spots were getting few because the State Fair is starting on Thursday.

We all know that Oklahoma City was the scene of a terrorist attack in 1995. It is said that the terrorists aimed the attack at the Murrah Federal Building. It was a little eerie being here on the day of September 11 and how the Oklahoma City residents handled the media. These are some quite fine folks in this city. And they are quite proud to celebrate their Centennial.




We are off to the Cowboy Hall of Fame, the Fireman's Museum and the Stockyards here in the City. They have REAL cowboys working at the stockyards and y'all know how much I love cowboys. And a great photo opportunity I am hoping. I remember going to Ft Worth and seeing the cattle drive they have and NOT having a camera. I am going to the stockyards with my camera.

As I have mentioned I am having CD drive problems but that won't stop me from posting, it just frustrates the S#&% outta me. I have several posts I must take care of such as the Elvis tour...............yep we saw Elvis and a lot of Elvis' all around and my favorite area was Beale Street, man what fun that was!!!




That is one handsome boy.......do you have an Elvis favorite song?

This one is mine........... A Fool Such As I

And by the way the temps have dropped wooooo hooooo, woke to a 52 and today should be a high of 78 no rain and NO HUMIDITY - hot damn!!!

OK breakfast awaits.............stay tuna'd!!!

ps...........thanks to my sweet sister for coming to my aid during my computer problem. By the way go check out her site for her new art work

Photo site

email me at tombstonetumbleweed@gmail.com

We interrupt this blog

for a special bulletin................I am having problems

downloading photos!!!


stay tuna'd

The sites you see...........

while motoring down the hiway. Tennessee names their rest stops after country western stars. I am still in search for the Alan Jackson AND Tim McGraw rest stop for a picture. Mr Doodles doesn't think it's funny to stop at EVERY ONE!!! But I bet if there was an Ann Margaret or a Faith Hill he'd be stopping.

These big boys are headed to a feed lot just outside Amarillo, Texas. Right now they weigh about 800 lbs. and when the feed lot stay is completed they will weigh about 1600 lbs. That is a lot, I mean a LOT of cholesterol.




stay tuna'd for an Elvis sighting............we just left Memphis!!!

Newspaper article on US infrastucture

While having breakfast this a.m. Mr Doodles and I read an article in USA Today titled "States act swiftly on bridge repairs". This is all due to the horrific bridge collapse on Minneapolis August 1st.

Mr Doodles told me not to read the article because it would scare the beejezus outta me. We are motoring around the country ya know.

Well I am not one to listen most times so I read the article. What annoys me more than anything is that several Dept. of Transportation Commissioners in this country are quoted as say "after the inspection reviews cost for repairs will be in the BILLIONS!!!

Well DOT Commissioner shouldn't you have kept up with maintenance all along and maybe it wouldn't cost Billions of $$$.

I have now come to the conclusion that there are dopes in charge all over this country not just Washington.

This photo is going to

every stinking candidate that is running for President in 2008. Maybe I'll even send it to some dopes in Washington as a reminder...I don't know why they would need it though, do you?

Hope your Labor Day was pleasant.....

We stopped at a rest area in Kentucky and as I approached the building I noticed the flags outside at half staff. I asked the attendant at the information tourist booth why that was. He said "when a soldier from our state of Kentucky is killed in action we lower the flags across the whole state. This young man was killed in Afghanistan last Wednesday and his funeral will be tomorrow".

Say a prayer for that family and all the other families of young men and women fighting this battle.

This photo is of Louie, the big bad truck, entering Louisville crossing over the Ohio River, where he was built. Didn't care if we stopped just wanted to see where he came from.



off to Memphis........stay tuna'd

Life is good..........

yes it really is cause our stay in Indy was tons a fun. Got to meet up with new and old friends. Talking and eatin seems to be a favorite pastime of most of us. What's not to like there!

This a.m. early we headed off to Kentucky, another adventure cause we have not been to that part of the state. So am anxious to report back all of our findings. We will make our way to Memphis, yes we are going to Graceland Mr Donzo and Miss I. And to get me in the mood Mr Doodles is playing Elvis on Sirius radio - ugh!!! One of Mr Doodles pleasures. Spending three days in Memphis to get the flavor of the city and that does include taste testing some of the BBQ that they are so famous for in Memphis.

Haven't done a food review in awhile so ................stay tuna'd for the Graceland and BBQ findings and yes pics too.

A big congrats to the UCLA Bruins football team for their victory Saturday

Olson Leads No. 14 UCLA to 45-17 Victory Over Stanford

Poor Buddy........

This cat has certainly been thru some very tough times. When we had to have maintenance/repairs done to the RV Buddy could not stay in the RV. At one point we had to move into a motel for reasons I won't get into now.

Anyway, Buddy has been an amazing Happy Camper as I have mentioned in the past, but being carted around in his cat carrier is not his deal. We walked into the motel room and he was running around like he had won the lottery. Then when he discovered there was a tub he literally howled, reminding you he LOVES water. We were hysterical. Mr Doodles told Buddy we would check into a motel once in awhile
for him to get his tub and water fix................HA!!!


Gonna go post some more pics on my flickr site

stay tuna'd for updates................

email me at tombstonetumbleweed@gmail.com