Published: August 23, 2017
Categories: Travel
Our 2017 travels got off to a slow start as we bought a new( to us) RV. It is a 2007 Monaco Executive, we went from 38 ft. to 44 ft. Since we live in it full time the 6 extra feet really makes a difference.
We left Casa Grande, AZ and went to San Diego to visit family. We have a new great nephew that we had to see and we love that area. Then we traveled to Petaluma, CA where we stayed at the Elks RV park. We wined our way around the beautiful wine country in Sonoma, Napa & Calistoga.
One of my very favorite winery’s is the Castello di Amorosa in Calistoga. It is a true castle with 107 rooms on 8 levels above and below ground, that cover approximately 121,000 square feet. The details and building techniques are architecturally faithful to the 12th and 13th century time period. Among many other features it has: a moat; a drawbridge; defensive towers; an interior courtyard; a torture chamber; a chapel/church; a knights’ chamber; and a 72 by 30 feet great hall. We took the wine tasting tour and it worth every penny.
The next winery we visited was Francis Ford Coppola winery.
We had dinner on Tuesday night at what is called A Tavola. It is served family style, where the waiters come around to your table and serve you. The wait staff is dressed and act like a big Italian family. One is dressed in his pajamas carrying a prop cigarette, he said “I just woke up and did not know we were having company”. Another member starts to play the accordion. It was so much fun and the food was wonderful, there were so many courses we lost count all for only $42.00 per person (not including liquor).
The museum displays the beautiful Tucker car from the movie Tucker: The man and his Dream.
Upstairs is the Godfather’s desk.
This next winery is the Ferrari-Carano Winery. The gardens were so beautiful.
The last two California winery’s we visited were Cast Winery and Wilson Winery. They both had wonderful wine and beautiful vineyards.
In our next post I will show all the wonderful places(other than wineries) we visited along the coast on highway 101.
While we were in Montana we visited Livingston which is along the Yellowstone river, surrounded by beautiful mountains. It is a great little western town with around 7,000 residents.
We attended the 4th of July parade & rodeo.
This was my first time shooting pictures of a rodeo, so some are not as clear as I would like.
During the intermission we got to see these beautiful horses perform.
This was the beautiful sunset during the rodeo.
In June we visited Yellowstone National Park. The park is so breathtaking & beautiful I cannot describe it with words so I took a million pictures. I hope that you enjoy them.
This was an awesome sight with the water flowing between the lava.
Jaywalking animals of Yellowstone
This mama bear & her cubs ignored all the onlookers, and just crossed the road right in front of us.
The Yellowstone lodge was beautiful. The craftsmanship was unreal.
On June 1, 2016 we arrived at Yellowstone’s edge RV park. The park is about 30 minutes from the North entrance to Yellowstone Park. This RV park was by far the nicest we have stayed in. The park was beautiful and the owner’s Chan & Pam Libbey made you feel like family. The park is right along the Yellowstone river.
We visited this really cool resort called Chico Hot Springs Resort & Day Spa.
Beautiful sunset pictures looking out from the RV park.
The Grand Tetons are spectacular. We visited the park in May this year.
We took a full day to drive the main loop, here is a link to the map.
Below are pictures of the Mormon Row Historic District.
In May we visited the wondrous Bryce Canyon. We camped in the beautiful Red Canyon campground. There were no hookups and the cost is $15.00 per night.
We were surrounded by beautiful red rock formations.
When we first went into the Bryce Canyon national park, we pulled into the visitors center. We went in and received information on the park. These are pictures of the lodge and surrounding cabins.
I was interested in the wavy roofs of these buildings.
Then we walked around on a trail which led us to the canyon overlook. We were not prepared for this awesome sight. It literally took our breath away. The winds along the rim are very strong.
The odd shaped pillars are called hoodoos.
We spent the rest of the day touring the park and stopping at all the overlook sites.
We also visited Sedona last year. What a beautiful area. The red rock formations are incredible and everywhere you look is picture perfect.
We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross which is a Roman Catholic Church built into the side of a mountain, absolutely beautiful.
The next area we visited was called Red Rock Crossing.
There is a beautiful park with Oak Creek running beside it. There is a large area with flat rock formations that have great reflections in between the rocks when it rains. This picture was taken then flipped around.
Just outside of the park there was this crazy guy at the end of a driveway.
In the town of Sedona we visited the Tlaquepaque arts & crafts village, which has lots of interesting art work and landscaping.
There were some mariachis playing in the courtyard.
Our first stop for our 2016 travels was the thousand trails RV park in Cottonwood, AZ. We got settled and then started exploring the area. This was also our first stop in 2015, so I will include pictures from both times.
The downtown area of Cottonwood is really cute, there are lots of good restaurants and breweries.
We discovered a really unique mining town called Jerome. It is “America’s Most Vertical City” and “Largest Ghost Town in America”. This is one of my favorite things to photograph, old buildings with such history. We actually visited two times as there was so much to see and photograph
The area called the Husband’s alley was the red light district.
There is a really neat hotel called the Jerome Grand Hotel.
Very bright colorful Mexican restaurant.
In June 2015, we camped at a wonderful state park in Utah![]()
called Millsite. It is certainly a hidden gem. Almost all of the other campers were locals from Utah. They come back every year so we were really lucky to get a spot.
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The closet town was Ferron, it is a small town with a quirky vibe.