When we returned from a hike on Friday, Jan. 6 we were pleased to see our neighbors the desert tortoises. The reason we named this site we’ve camped at before is because we met these two, probably the same, tortoises we saw 2 years ago. They were busy grazing on the sprouts growing in the wash between our campsite and the hill.

The male eventually wandered off down the wash, grazing between spurts of rather quick hiking.

While the female finally had her fill and hiked up the hill to the same hole she retired into when we saw her last.

For some reason I bake double chocolate biscotti only when we are out camping for an extended period of time. It is a great accompaniment to a beautiful sunrise viewed from our ‘deck’.

Rain fell in the desert in December creating conditions that allow us to enjoy the desert abloom with ocotillo flowers at the tips of the long branches that are covered in verdant leaves.

Happy New Year!! I decided to start the new year with a new head of hair. Yep, I went all GI Jane, Sinead O’Conner, Sandy Baynham (for those who really know me) and cut off all of my artificially colored hair. I want to know the true color and texture of  my hair. I’ve been coloring it for so long I don’t know what it really looks like.  And at least now I know I don’t have a misshapen head!

We left Hiwasse, Arkansas and our friends late afternoon on March 9. We were packed to the gills and feeling like the Beverly Hillbillies with the new golf cart loaded on the trailer and with various parts of the new garden cart screwed or stapped down to it. We headed slightly south and directly west to find good driving weather and turned north and west at Gallup, NM into Utah then Idaho and finally Oregon. It took us three long days and three short, restless nights to get ‘home’.

Our modern day Model T with a golf cart rather than 'grannies rocker'.

A loose horse crossed the road in front of us past Shiprock, NM on Navajo lands.

An interesting rock formation and scenery on the way towards Moab, Utah.

Near Canyonlands and Arches National Parks, an arch seen from the highway.

It'a a genuine Roadside Attraction!

Mom- Ruth Douglas

May 7, 1918 – February 26, 2011

Mom holding me, with my brothers Kenneth and Richard and Grandpa, 1956.

Mom and I at a function, 2002

Mom and I sitting on the swing at Lake Cora, 2003

My Long-Hair phase, 2006

Mom was more than happy to cut my hair! April 25, 2006.

Mom, playing at 'The Bean' in Chicago, May, 2009, just days after her 91st birthday.

Thank you Mom. I Love You.

We took a drive up to Lake Cora, Michigan to visit Robert’s Aunt and Uncle and reminisce about the great times Robert spent there in his youth. He had never seen Lake Cora in the winter and they have a fairly fresh coat of snow. The lake is frozen over and we were able to walk out and look back at ‘the homestead’ as well as Oak Cove Resort, closed for the season.

Aunt Tootie's Cottage

Looking back at the cottage from out on the frozen lake.

Robert & Mavrik out on the lake.

The Adirondack chairs at Oak Cove Resort waiting for the summer season.

Mavrik is so good when he’s asleep.He fits perfectly in his little doughnut bed.

Is he handsome? In natural light.

Or is he cute? With flash.

It has rained almost all day today. Thank goodness for my new rubber boots, the envy of 6 year old girls everywhere!

They are so 'camo' you almost don't see them!

We headed back to the Chicagoland area today. Our route took us through St. Louis. I’ve never been there and had to be content with a view of the Gateway Arch through the car windows. It was a beautiful day for travel though.