We traveled all day again today. We are staying at a KOA outside of St. Louis. It is beautiful. It has a cemetery at the back and a river with cliffs along the side. There is another pop up camper and several tents. It is going down to around 40 tonight so it is going to be really cold.

The storm last night had quarter size hail and 70 mile per hour wind in areas near us. The main part of the storm miss us. We got pea size hail and lots of rain and some wind We took the camper down and went and waited at the tornado shelter for about 2 hours. Then Jim put the camper back up in the rain and we went to bed. The thunder and lightning was pretty bad but we were safe. I do not think I went to sleep until about 1:30 and had to be up at 6:30 so I slept in the car most of the day.

I could get used to this vacation life style. When did I say I was coming back?

It was hard to say goodbye to California. It was really beautiful. We went into Malibu almost everyday. I began to wonder who owned the homes that were behind those fancy gates. Mel Gibson, Charles Bronson, Sting, Rob Reiner, Howie Mandel, Richard Gere, Woopi Goldberg, Sally Fields, Barbara Streisand, Robert Redford, Brittany Speers and Drew Barrymore are just a few. The town's total population is just 13,000
.
We have been on the road the last two days and we are now in Oklahoma. You had to remember to get gas because sometimes it was a 100 miles or more between stations. The land is beautiful and empty for hundreds and hundreds of miles. In Oklahoma the soil is very red and the grass is green and there are even trees. Arizona and New Mexico are very dry and almost nothing is green. They call their river beds - washes- and they are completely dry.

We are expected a storm tonight with high winds and thunder and lightning. We are at the RV campsite that has the tornado shelter. The camp is almost full and again we are the only pop-up.

It’s our last day here. We leave tomorrow morning. Jim finally let me feed the squirrels. He said I had to wait till the last day because he was afraid of what would happen otherwise. There must be a thousand squirrels here. So far no problem but I just started feeding them. Wait till they tell their friends.

When the tide is down you can get to parts of the beach that are not accessible during high tide. Jim went into a cave-that's him poking his head out a "window" of the cave. I did not go in. You have to dodge the waves to get in.

Yesterday they were filming a music video at the beach. They had security and people that would let cars in when it was appropriate. They said it was a singer from Europe not well known here yet but famous there. Her name was Jessica. They filmed all day. We ate our lunch at a picnic table just feet from where they were filming a car scene. I did not recognize the female but the male looked a lot like Justin Timberlake. I wonder if they lied to me. They were dressed in clothes from the 60s and drove an old white convertible. It was very interesting. They had trucks full of equipment. It would be fun to see it on TV.

We went to Venice Beach in Santa Monica today to the pier. Jim had heard that there are lots of unusual people there but not today. Maybe they come out at night. We had lunch and watched some fishermen. We saw a small boat with what appeared to be a dog on board that they wanted off-it wasn't a dog it was a seal-a friendly one I guess.

We spent time on the beach again today. They had a surfing contest. It was fun to watch. Saw lots more starfish in lots of colors.

The parrots were back so I took a picture. They stay high up in the trees squawking loudly. He is located in the middle of the picture. We got up early this morning and went down to the beach. The tide was out and we searched the area for sea creatures. We found lots of star fish in many different colors, purple sea urchins and lots of other cool stuff. We almost missed seeing a seal. We were within two feet of him before we spotted him. He was just laying on a rock. We walk the beach at least twice a day. We still have not seen a whale but we did see more dolphins today. It was cloudy and cold today but we still had a good time. It should be sunny tomorrow. One interesting thing here at the camp is you have to pay if you want hot water for a shower. Its 50 cents for 3 minutes.

Another great day. We went out early this morning to the ocean during low tide to look for creatures in the tidal pools. Did not see much but did see a seal-you will have to settle for the drawing because I am not quick enough with the camera. We spent part of the day in Malibu-they have fancy homes, cars and dogs. We saw parrots again and a dolphin. We cooked dinner over the fire again tonight.

We finally made it to California and the place is beautiful. We got a great campsite. In their advertisement on the web they forgot to mention one little thing-no electricity. I am glad we did not know because we would have stayed somewhere else and I would not have wanted to miss this place. We go to bed at 8:30 p.m. and we are up with the birds-they insist! This morning I laid in bed watching the birds, squirrels and rabbits and a coyote walked right through our campsite-awesome! We saw seals and pelicans down at the beach. We were going to go to a town about 30 miles away in hopes of seeing wild parrots but the parrots saved us the trouble. We saw them right at our campsite. It will be hard to come home.

We camped again today at Lake Mead and it was a great day. We went to Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas to see Shark Reef (aquarium) I saw lots of cool things including a very large puffer fish. You could touch Sting Rays (I chose just to take their picture). We went to Red Rock Canyon. It was beautiful. I love the desert. I did not realize how many different types of cactus there were. I cooked pizza tonight-first time while camping. Turned out excellent. We bought 2 Womp'em Sticks. It allows you to cook Grand Biscuits over the fire in a shape that will hold a hot dog or you can fill it with other cool things. We will not be using it until it gets a little cooler-it was 95 degrees today.

We made it to the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful as the pictures show. We thought we would have a short drive but it took us 8 hours again. We are camping at Lake Mead in Boulder City for 2 days. We need the break. Tomorrow we go into California. We were briefly in California yesterday. They stop you on the highway to find out if you have any fruits, vegetables or animals. We are going into las Vegas today to an aquarium. It will be 95 degrees or higher-a little different from yesterday (I think it was around 40). Those told us when we got here to be careful of the scopions, traratulas and rattle snakes. How fun. Everything is very dry here-the river beds are all dried up-very different from all the flooding we saw 3 days ago. We have cable at our site but no WiFi. Sunday night we camped at a very old Route 66 motel/campground with train cars to sleep in. Maybe next time.

We drove 8 hours again today. Did I say that California is a long, long ways away. Tomorrow will be easier. I think we are driving to Las Vegas for 3 hours and staying 2 days. I like the sound of that. It is 5:58 and I already want to go to bed but Jim says no-we would wake up at 2:00 am. I think he is wrong I think I would get up at 6:00 am. We saw snow on a mountain today. Tomorrow we go to the Grand Canyon. We are only a few miles away. Arizona has some beautiful spots but they also have miles and miles and miles of grassland with a few shrubs and an occasional cow. It is sunny and warm.

When we got up this morning is was very cold and raining-it was time to go so we took down the camper in the rain and set off for Santa Rosa, New Mexico. I finally saw an amadillo but Jim says it does not count because it was dead. I say it counts because it still was in great shape for being dead. We saw a town with hundreds of windmills. (Maybe not hundreds but a lot). It rained most of the day but we did have 10 minutes of sunshine and warmth. We had to use our heater last night and probably tonight. They say it is at least 20 degrees below normal. We set up our camper tonight (again we were the only popup-all the rest were big rigs) and storms started hitting us-terrible winds. I think I know why we are the only popup now. It was scary but the whole trip is wonderful.

We drove for about 8 hours today. California is a long ways away. It rained all day again and its cold. I saw long horn steers. They were pretty cool. We ate at Sonics - their ads are better than their food. We are near Oklahoma City tonight and we may get a storm. The building in the picture has a tornado shelter. I hope we do not need it. The dirt around here is very red. Gas was only $1.79 a gallon. I will be glad when we get somewhere it is warm and sunny.