Brown's Great Adventure

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T16:22:00.014-06:00

Hope your day is everything you want it to be! My Valentine went way above and beyond in the gift department! I got flowers, chocolates and a card! We have tickets to a show tonight here at the Palms, a Las Vegas Act, Three Faces of Elvis, so will have plenty of music and entertainment. Now they say when you're when your with your honey and it's real love, you can feel the earth move!

Well, 3:10 this morning.... we were all snuggled in and snoozin' when the blinds rattled and the coach shook and we swayed back and forth! Yes my friends, a 5.0 Earthquake! KayCee sat straight up and barked. So that was my "Earth Moving" experience on Valentine's Day! Not too much real exciting happenings here in Yuma. We have been having a great time with friends from the Escapees Group that have lingered here around Yuma for awhile. Last week we toured the Martha's Garden Medjool Date Farm.
It was just as interesting this year and it was when I went last year. This family has operated this farm for over 20 years and have increased the number of Date producing Palm Trees to over 8,000.
I am fascinated with the agriculture and how labor intensive these food sources are from this part of the country.

On the back side of the Date farm, we stopped for a wonderful view of some of the valley's lush and fertile farm ground, where the different varieties of lettuce are ready for harvest.

We stopped in their store and sampled a "Date Shake" and bought some dates to bring home. Then we came back here to our place and had appetizers and sandwiches on the patio. Sunday we gathered at Famous Daves BBQ at the Yuma Palms Mall.

A good time was had by all and we left with really full tummies! Tomorrow will be the next meeting at Steve and Carols and probably the last meeting until somewhere else down the road in the future.

It has been sunny here for the most part, but really not pool weather. The wind is a strong breeze and has been blowing every day!

DH got our TV set up in the basement and we had Happy Hour at our place last night and we had a Wii Bowling Tournament.

It's amazing how much fun we can have! Some of our neighbors are getting restless and branching out with side trips now.

Our next door neighbors are leaving tonight after the show to Palm Springs for a week.

The folks next to them are leaving in the morning for Las Vegas for a week. I have "hitch itch" too, but will wait until the first of March to branch out. We will go to San Diego and up to Carlsbad for a few days, then over to Casa Grande for a few days to visit with friends.

Every Other Day!

2012-02-05T15:44:00.020-06:00

Happy Super Bowl Sunday everybody! The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy ones. We've had to maintain two schedules....activities here in our Resort with this group and also about every other day...a meeting with our Escapees Class of '08 Group. I am enjoying them immensely this year! They are truly our RV Family! We've had a Car Show here at the Palms,along with a Burger Bash and Elvis Impersonator.

Suprisingly enough, a really good impression and voice actually sounded like Elvis!

(notice how all these beautiful cars are right out our back door! That's our rig right behind the cars, all I had to do was walk a few feet across the street!How cool is that!)

Our group sat right in the middle of the pools so had a good view and access to the beer and food tables. They estimated there were 2500 people here at the event. Word must have spread that it was a very good time last year!

Into the past week, most of our Escapees group have moved from Quartzsite to the Yuma Area and beyond. We have had several get togethers around here. A breakfast buffet meeting at the Quechan Casino one morning, and our usual meeting at DaBoyz Italian Restaurant in old Downtown Yuma.

The Marilyn Room, and it was a blast!

I had enough left overs for three days!
Thursday night we were going to have a campfire in the desert at Pilot knob, but the wind was blowing hard so we brought our drinks and appetizers and gathered at Freddie and Delcie's, putting 12 of us in their fifth wheel. Lots of hot air and good stories were swapped there!

Last night we had a Wienie Roast/Campfire at the Rivers Edge RV Resort out in Winterhaven California.

It was a beautiful night. Everybody had a hot dog! Lots of good toppings and Side dishes

Several of the folks at Rivers Edge welcomed us, we have gained more new friends and we really had a great night!

Thanks Joe and Lynda... even thought we had to bid him farewell for a spell, I have a very definite feeling that we will be seeing him this summer in his back yard!
The fire was multicolored after supper....almost mesmerizing.

A chill in the air made it's warmth feel really good. Full tummies and a great RV family! Can't get much better than that!

Today is the final Football Game of the season. I am going to enjoy the commercials. Haven't even picked a team to root for. Resting up though because tomorrow night is another BBQ at Pilot Knob RV Resort at Jeri and Terry's. Around here, one party leads to another...I just need a few minutes to do laundry every once in a while!

From Quartzsite to Mobsters!

2012-01-22T21:04:00.022-06:00

In the morning we will be starting another great week here at The Palms. Mr's back is a bit better. We got out of town on Tuesday and travelled to Quartzsite to visit some Escapee friends that are parked in the desert for a bit.

Quartzsite is not just a town, but an experience! Every RVer needs to go there at least once.

It is a city in the desert of every type and size of RV gather in the desert to attend a large tent swap meet and RV show. Our friends were parked south of Q, and we left here at daybreak to make the 75 mile trip. I catered them breakfast. Took them Breakfast Burritos made from scratch.

This little plane was handiwork hung in the meeting tent. We have some talented members in the group. Mr. IYQ carves and whittles and is working on a beautiful recipe box.

We went into Q for lunch at the Palo Verde Restaurant and walked around some of the booths and displays with another couple.
I tripped over a curb and fell on my face, so have been nursing my scrapes and bruises the rest of the week! We were looking for a certain ice cream booth, and we found it. After all that pain, I wasn't going home without some!
After a little more browsing, we made our way back to where the wagons were circled, had a wonderful visit and potluck supper.

Topped the day off with stories around the campfire, then hit the trail back to our home on wheels in Yuma.

Wednesday we did some touring and sightseeing up around Martinez Lake and had lunch at the Marina.

In the afternoon we drove the loop to the Imperial Dam, checked out an RV Park and Golf Course and back to town.
We drove through some U.S. Proving Ground territory, watched some parachuters and heard some very large guns being tested.

It's great to watch our Aircraft and Soldiers work and the equipment displays are awesome.

Thursday we drove around to look at Real Estate and Friday was a rather full day as we spent a few hours at the Arizona Marketplace.

Great food vendors, complete with live music. It's fun to watch people eat hot dogs and dance at noon! picked up some new patio chairs and in the evening we attended a Mobster Dinner and Dance here at the resort.The Service group here served us a yummy speghetti dinner. A good time was had by all!

Saturday we went to a Model Home Open House and I won a 32" TV!

Today we decided to go the the pool and relax, the sun was out, but by the time we got over there, it was gone.
We sat out for a bit, got in the hot tub a few times, showered and came home. We're ready to go for another week.

DH's back getting better. Hope he gets healed up enough to play golf soon. If the weather is kind to us, we will make another trip to Quartzsite to attend the big Tent RV Show.

The Arizona Sunshine is Missing!

2012-01-15T14:38:00.013-06:00

The Arizona Sun has taken a real break. The past few days, today included, there's nothing but clouds. The smell of rain showers is strong, but not many sprinkles make it to the ground.

DH has been convelescing and making trips to the chiropractor every other day or so. The ho-hum of winter in the desert is upon us! Thursday night a bunch of us went to Parrish's Pub for Fish n Chips.
The fish was really good and the wait staff was awesome, as they don't take reservations and when our whole group got there, we ended up with 17 people! We stopped at the Quechan Casino the other day on the way back from Mexico and picked up tickets to a concert Friday evening.

Its stars were Country Music Greats Sammy Kershaw, Joe Diffe and Aaron Tippin. They had a really good show and didn't just stand and sing, they talked about themselves, their careers and songs,told jokes and saluted our Veterans. Aaron Tippin just returned from Afghanistan.

He has made a dozen or so trips to Iraq and Afghanistan to support and entertain the troops. He usually goes to a war front on Thanksgiving to spend it with the soldiers.

A very admireable thing to do. We have seen and talked to him while he was fueling his bus at a Flying J in Nebraska a year or so ago, and he even drives his own bus! Just a real down to earth guy, he said "It breaks up the monotony of the trip!"

The pictures that I got of the concert, I apologize, as they aren't the best. It's been too cold for pool side or hot tub activities and I've just been in a mood to have something warm in the oven or in the crock pot and snuggle up under a blanket.

Today I'm baking cookies to take to the Escapees Reunion in Quartzsite on Tuesday. We are heading to the desert to a sea of rigs of all kinds, and this year's meeting of the class of '08 friends. Should be lots of fun.

The First Time in Mexico

2012-01-09T20:54:00.014-06:00

We had a wonderful New Year's Eve and New Year's Day with good friends. We laughed lots, had lots of great food and drinks, listened to good music and even danced our way into 2012!
The hubby was wanting to go into Los Algodones and check into getting a new top denture made, since a few of our good friends here had gone to a particular dentist and they were pleased with her work....and her prices!

The same thing with eyeglasses. Me? I have been skeptical and apprehensive toward the whole idea from the start!

Then I finally decided that if we could go with those who had been doing it for years, it may be good for a distraction, and at the best, DH will get fixed up. When your insurance doesn't cover these extras, it is nice to get some good work at a reasonable fee. So last Wednesday we embarked on the day's adventure about 9 and followed our friends to the Quechan ran ($5 on the way out) parking lot on the American side of the Los Algodones Baja California Border Crossing.
You park there, and walk through the gates and down a sidewalk around the Police Station and right down into the town Square.

The streets are lined with Vendor's booths....a Corner Plaza, where benches and restrooms edge the area where a Native American man sets up and plays the Flute. One Cart sells frest Asparagus and Frest Shrimp on Ice....some of the biggest shrimp I've ever seen, and they were $10 a pound.

We walked a couple blocks and through all the vendors and store fronts, there were many Dental and Optical Associates handing out cards advertising their services. Lots of souveneers, clothing, purses and belts. Accessories of all kinds for both men and women. We passed through all that browsing for the first while and right to the dentist office about 2 blocks away.

Mixed in amongst the vendors were booths and small cafes set up to sell Quesadilla, Shrimp Tacos and Margharitas.

Pharmacias every other store front offering lots of generic medicines that are very common to us in the U.S. and Canada for a very low price. The other bonus is that for anything but Narcotics you don't need a prescription. On Thursday we went back for his fitting and we stopped in Best Optical and he had an Eye Exam while we were on a roll....picked out two pairs of glasses, since they had a sale, buy one get one free. Also by the Pharmacias, there were discount Liquor Outlets, Cigar and tobacco Vendors. The first day we had to stay later in the afternoon and the line to get back across the border was really long.That wasn't to my liking, but we visited with some nice folks while we waited.

We probably were in line an hour and a half, but the second and third days our appointment was earlier and we were back across the border before noon, no lines no waiting. On Friday we were back over to pick up the Denture and Glasses...and I gave in to get a t shirt, very colorful jacket and an "ugly purse" according to DH. Let it be known that I like my "Ugly Designer Purse!" It has been cooler here this weekend.
The Border Patrol is really on the ball and they are guarding our Border Crossings. Homeland Security is very efficient and diligent in examining passports upon passing through the entry building returning to the U.S.
DH is down for the count.... his back started acting up before we started the trips to Mexico and it has gotten pretty bad.

He's made 3 trips to the chiropractor and basically is laying around on ice and walking a very small amount. It will just take time as usual, so there won't be any hiking trips scheduled in the next week or two! We had a couple of salesmen show up here on the street and knock on the door this morning with a brand new 2011 42 ft. Monaco Diplomat for us to look at. Nothing like Doing nothing and they bring the units to you!lol Actually I had walked over to our Mini RV Show on Saturday in the parking lot and visited with them while looking at another used unit. I guess they are trying to find something I like! Both of the rigs had some features that I really like and in seeing our rig, offered me a pretty good price, so the trading won't be out of the question, but I'm not flat in love with what I've seen...so they still have to win me over! Just calll me Picky and Foofy! :}

Another One Gone....But Not Forgotten!

2011-12-31T13:13:00.021-06:00

Retro 2011 - A little reflection. We have been fortunate to have held on to our health for another year.
Brown's Great Adventure reached out across this vast nation of ours from coast to coast. We were able to put our feet in three great bodies of water. The Pacific Ocean at Carlsbad California, the Gulf of Mexico at Crystal Beach Texas. The Atlantic Ocean at Fernandina Beach Florida on Mother's Day.
We spent about 6 weeks in the state of Texas. My oh my that's a big state! The timing was so that we were able to set down and help a friend out that had become ill while working there. We got to visit with another friend that organized a Military Reunion for her Deceased Husbands Special Forces Unit in Savannah Georgia and fell in love with the pure Mistique of that City!

KayCee got to romp on the beaches in Cali and Texas and in the ocean for the very first time in Florida. We took an Airboat Ride and looked at Gators up a river by Titusville Florida, watched the spot where the last shuttle took off and landed after we were gone, and ate some fantastic Shrimp. When the time came to head back across the country, we stopped in several states along the way and while in Tennessee we visited the National Bird Dog Museum and the #2 Cracker Barrel restaurant.
#1 Burnt down!It was in the middle of the summer that we decided to stop through the center of Oklahoma and finally toured the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. We met an old Duffer....Duffy Martin that designed and built 5 golf courses after his stint on the Pro Tour. He is 95 and still a character. Unfortunately, while we were there it was 116 degrees and too hot for golf, or anything else for that matter. That area deserves some more exploration, minus the heat one day! Later in the summer, we headed the nose of our home on wheels to the north. We had one daughter give birth to a new Grandson and the other daughter get remarried, all in the span of a month, so we took a time out to visit with family and friends in the old home state. The fall came and we still had exploring to do! Off we went to the west.

Sat through a 7" rainstorm south of Colorado Springs, and hit the road to see what New Mexico had to offer.

Plenty of time spent learning the customs of several Native American Tribes and drinking in the visions of many red bluffs.

The calm and the colors are awesome. We headed on west and stopped to check out what was behind the song lyrics, "Standin on the Corner in Winslow Arizona." Just fortunate enough to show up there during their annual fall music festival. A great photo opportunity and came away with some pretty cool gifts. While Winslow was a day trip, we actually stayed at the RV Park for the Meteor Crater, which was a good thing to stop and tour also. it's amazing how a piece of meteor and a huge hole in the ground can be so fascinating! Moving right along, Maintenance items to our coach came next when we rolled into Flagstaff, stopping there just for the day and then on to Williams for a couple days.

It is one of my favorite places in Arizona. They are 60 miles from the Grand Canyon, located in the hills, higher in elevation makes it a cooler place too. They also are building a new attraction called "Bearizona" which was a good place for me to get a "Bear" fix. That place is gonna be pure awesome when they are done. It was a great breather after all the extreme heat and humidity that we experienced all summer, and then dropped down into the desert once more, arriving in Quartzsite before heading the nose south one more time into Yuma. It was 106 degrees that afternoon! Welcome home again! Whooowie! Thank god for Airconditioning! They don't call me Foofy for nothing!~ We spent a lot of time trying to avoid the Natural Disasters that occured here this year. Skirted around the fires, floods and tornadoes. Some things we missed due to these events. Hope we will catch them another year. Our lot here in The Palms RV Resort was secured to us and so we decided to set up and drive back to Nebraska for DH and hunting of the Pheasants.

He was about to hunt in Nebraska and two other planned trips to South Dakota and one to Colorado.

A little male bonding time in order.
She really likes this..and works hard. We had family time at Thanksgiving and I was able to celebrate and attend my youngest son's new band "Whiskey Richard" performing in two cities in Nebraska.

That was my great fun. I'm their biggest Groupie!

Our friend has regained his strength after his ilnesses

and we caught up with him and his business of tool auctions

and were able to spend some time helping him out a little late this fall before we came back to the desert for the second time
His crew wouldn't be complete without two of the cutest shih tsus around! Sammy and Sadie

and so.....The adventure continues. Now we hang out, bask in the sun and take advantage of this great desert weather to stay out of the extremes in the other parts of the country. Not bad....I think we'll keep on keepin' on...... I'm looking forward to a great 2012. Already starting to plan next years route! Stay tuned and have a very Blessed New Year.

As always...Dan, Kay, and KayCee

Winter Routine

2011-12-23T18:55:00.013-06:00

We are back in Arizona! It has taken me all week to get situated and back into this time zone.
Now we are in Mountain time but my body clock isn't cooperating and I'm getting up mighty early still. We have done quite a bit of driving around the area,watching the produce harvest in full swing.

They are picking Green leaf lettuce, fennel, brocolli and romaine lettuce.

The irrigation process is much different here. The newly worked fields are soaked down before they are planted.

Truckloads of the harvested produce make their way to the cooling plants along Interstate 8.
Things break in threes! It's hard to believe, you shut everything off and up and things just go bad and break without use, but it happens. For a minute or two, we thought the door latch was broken again like this fall at Oakley Kansas, but come to find out, the neighbor had locked the wrong lock. Whew! The 2 big coach batteries were dead and the living room slide wouldn't go out. That was cured with a trip to Interstate Batteries and $300.00. While unloading the car, the back hatch of the car stayed up, and then closed itself.
Then wouldn't open again. Finally it reset itself. Another Whew! Then when the Dish DVR was reinstalled...it wouldn't work. Either the bedroom would work or the one in the front.. and the message was... Fatal Hard Disk Error. Not good! Afer a couple of calls to Customer Service Tech Support, it was determined that the Receiver was toast! They sent us out a new one and three days later, we have TV in both the front and the bedroom! Lost was all the shows and movies we had saved for a rainy day, but oh well, at least we have the noise box back again. We had to repack the old one and mail it back to them using Fed Ex Return. It took us a couple days to get the coach readjusted and things back in working order. Today we made our way into Michaels Craft Store for me to pick up some beading supplies. Shoppers and parking lots are chaotic, but for the most part people are being patient and curteous. I won't be going out of the Resort now until Monday!
The weather is sunny but not warm and we had quite a bit of wind yesterday and today. Not shorts and sunbathing weather! The greatest part of the staff here got off at noon today, and things are going to quiet down until after Christmas. Our trek across the country happened just in time before a couple of nasty Winter blizzards made their way across where our path would have been and we avoided being miserably stranded or in the way. Glad we left when we did. We drove in some rain and heavy clouds shrouding Picacho Peak between Tucson and Casa Grande. DH's favorite peak!

I will start out the Christmas Eve holiday tomorrow by chopping up some vegetables and putting on a pot of soup. Then we will walk and bask in the sunshine in the afternoon. We have a Christmas Eve service in the Ballroom tomorrow evening. I wish all my Blog readers, friends and family a very Merry Christmas! I wish I could tell you that we are basking in warm sunshine...but it's just not the case. It's down right chilly!

KayCee is being her usual evening stink weed self, and so I am being summoned and need to spend some quality time with my fur kid. She got to experience the wind in her ears for a minute while we were riding around looking at the crops. Have a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Winter Wonderland on the Plains

2011-12-05T16:43:00.008-06:00

The pictures of sunrise and snow are fantastic this time of year.
I have some pretty awesome views at 6 am. We have our first measurable snowfall. It snowed here most of the day Saturday leaving us with about 5 inches total. The wind was minimal and so it fell pretty even.

What I can't handle at this point is the cold that came along with it! As it was coming to an end, DH couldn't hardly contain himself and fired up the snow blower to clear our sidewalks and driveway.

It started right up, even after no use for two years! Sunday morning he loaded up KayCee and took off to meet some buddies in South Dakota for some serious Pheasant Hunting.

I went out to clean off my car and the maintainer came up the street and buried the top of the driveway, so I got my scoop and scooped that out so that it didn't melt a little and become hard.
Better than lifting weights! So was planning on sitting around moping by myself and hibernating to keep warm, when a friend called and needed help with data entry for an auction, so off I went and spent the afternoon doing that! A nice break and diversion from missing my family!

Today I have spent some serious recliner time covered up with my double fleece blanket! It will dip down in the single digits tonight, with not much relief for a few days. The word from the weatherman tonight is temps of -5 for tonight. Brrr. I wanted to share some of these pictures with you all that miss this winter white stuff! ha ha ha ha or to remind ya of why you stay away from it! I know I'm going to appreciate the warm Arizona sunshine a whole lot!

Happy Thanksgiving One and All!

2011-11-23T13:44:00.019-06:00

We have so much to be thankful for this year. I don't know where to begin! We have our health and we have our family and friends and they have their health! I'm sincerely grateful that I have a wonderful man and a great German Shorthair to share my life.

We had a great walk yesterday out on our golf course. I am so happy that our weather is wonderful and this fall season in spectacular here in Nebraska.
I'm thankful to have been able to travel many miles this year and to be able to have put my toes in two more major bodies of water.
Thankful for the ability to be wandering from state to state and experiencing all of the local traditions and customs.
Thankful to be going back to the Desert for the winter and the opportunity to make plans for another travel season next summer.

We have made all kinds of new friends along the way, revisited and renewed some cherished friendships from the past. We have been able to participate in favorite old activities and learn a few new ones along the way.I'm especially thankful for the sense of humor when someone is taking pictures of me that I don't want them to!

We have gained some family members and sadly enough have lost a couple too. This time tomorrow we will be cleaning up the bones and diving into the pie! The quality of time we will spend through the day will sustain us until the next gathering.

I just want you all to know that I feel blessed,and thankful...for all of you! Happy Thanksgiving and don't you dare eat too much!hahahaha

First Snow of the Season

2011-11-16T08:41:00.011-06:00

We woke up this morning to this scene. The weather words were: Cold and Blustery. I found the description to be a little different than that!
Crisp and Serene is more fitting. The ground is covered and it has stopped, but it came down so nicely with no wind that it was truly beautiful as the sun was coming up. I am glad that it waited to do this today instead of yesterday, because it was my day to go to the Nebraska TV station about 45 minutes away and do a cooking segment on the Good Life Show.

I have done this a few times. When I was still working it was good advertisement for my business. Now they have me on for a bit of variety. They have a couple of working chefs that appear, but many folks around here like to have some down home recipes and basic cooking techniques and tips. While mostly I have done taped segments that can be edited before they are aired, yesterday was live tv, and I am not quite as comfortable.

I didn't rehearse and my time was switched to the beginning, but we got through it, and they had calls for my recipes at the end of the show, so I guess it turned out o.k. One of the hosts is a friend of mine, and she thought it was a good time, I'm not so sure! I felt like my brains were scrambled like the eggs! It's amazing how easy they make it look, not so! We have a few friends at that station, and it's always good to see them.

It is truly an inside day for me! I'm going to test out the recipe that I will do for them on the 7th of December. She asked me back for one more visit. I will try to find the link to the segment on their website and share it with you if I can! The snow flakes are falling so quietly. Straight down. Kinda looks like a scene from Currier & Ives. I am getting all of my traveling photos transferred to CDs and soon will have them off of this computer, so I have room for more! Time is ticking away. I have been elected to make the Stuffing for Thanksgiving Dinner. Just a little stuffing....for 45 people!~So next week there's gonna be some bread slingin! around here! It's a good thing I have a program that will convert my amounts - Cause right now I don't wanna know! Hope everyone is stayin nice a cozy warm! My DH is off getting one of my "honey Do's" accomplished. He does much better when I call it his "project" so we'll see how it will end up! I'm sure I will be pleased!

Waiting for a Snow Storm

2011-11-08T11:02:00.007-06:00

This afternoon I am taking a break. A break from the kitchen and a break from entertaining. It's been a long ten days! It's a different kind of quiet. Since last Thursday, I have been getting up at 5 am, cooking breakfast, and I have been cooking supper too...By the time I clean up the mess it's 10 pm. This morning, my wonderful hunting Shorthair decided to be sick at 4 am...and so there wasn't anymore sleep after that!

She's tired and sore and needs a break too. I just wish she didn't go out in the field and eat green wheat stalks during the day that upset her stomach! The weather man has been forcasting and threatening us with a major snow and blow for two or three days, and so far it still isn't here.The leaves are still not off of the bushes I planted or all of the trees.

I am so ready, patiently waiting and will be so relieved if it gives up and doesn't arrive at all! Our last group of hunters from Colorado and Arizona left this morning after breakfast. They are headed to DIA to put the one guy on a flight back to Phoenix. I think what storm there is, is out that way and hope they don't have too much of a difficult trip. I got a neat little device the other day that is allowing me to use my little camera again. It's an SD Card reader that downloads pictures on an SD Card with a USB connection. It has been just the ticket for me to get the pictures off my Easy Share. So that was a welcome fix. I happened to see this deer out my back door the other day. I love the fall mornings. They are my favorite. You never know what you'll see on the golf course!
Today I was watching our local information show called "The Good Life" and was asked over the air to come and do an appearance. I have done that in the past, when I was in the Catering Business and a Personal Chef, so now I will need to get busy and create something good to share with everybody. That's after a break. An empty table for a while.
I have a couple of new ideas that I have been working on, and have a special pan ordered for one thing..after I test it out, I may do that. Or I will create something with left overs and either Pheasant or Elk. What ever it turns out to be, it's kinda fun as I have several friends at the TV Station and it's good to see them! Thursday if the weather is good, I will be taking a trip down into Kansas to visit a new Cooking store and a new restaurant for lunch. Friday DH takes my wonderful dog and goes to Colorado hunting with our son and his brother for the weekend. My time for a weekend with a girlfriend, going to another one Whiskey Richard's shows in Kearney NE. Time is going pretty fast. Turkey Day is just around the corner.

Whiskey Richard and the Halloween |Party

2011-10-31T14:08:00.011-05:00

Ventured up to Broken Bow Nebraska on Friday to attend a Halloween Dance that featured my son's band...Whiskey Richard.

He is the drummer, and since he has been with that band, I haven't heard them, nor met two of the newest members. They play 70s, 80s, and 90s hits and sound really good!
I thought it would be appropriate and typical to just show up...however, beings it was a costume party, I thought I could use the opportunity to go in costume, and suprise them! I was on a secret mission, and it was fun.It's probably been 15 years since I have donned a costume and went out, I haven't lost the touch. Halloween used to be my favorite holiday! Well, it worked! The look on his face was priceless when he figured out it was me. I got hugs from all of them, finally met the other two guys,we all had a really good time and I stayed up way too late!

Lots of people were dressed up and they judged the costumes at the end of the night. I met some new friends....one of the girls took some good pictures of us and I will share them when I get them.

I posted an album on Facebook this morning too. I stayed in a motel because I have pretty much given up driving on the highway after dark.

The rest of the weekend was spent with family and hunting season opener. Domestic Engineering isn't always an easy job.

I spent the day yesterday shopping to replace some items that have broken or quit working..it's amazing how when one issue presents itself, there will usually be two more! I have a new pan, a new bedroom tv and a new living room chair! That all quit Saturday in 6 hr. period of time. Was a rough weekend on possessions. I'm just thankful it wasn't the refrigerator, washer or dryer!

When I walked out on the deck this morning, I caught this deer munching grass on the golf course just past my back fence Was lucky enough to catch a picture of her. The rest of the day I will spend playing catch up and rest up.

Where did it go?

2011-10-28T11:22:00.003-05:00

I really don't know where the month has gone, but here it is, the last weekend in October! A lot of the last couple of weeks has been spent - 1. On the road home 2. On the road after we got home....so basically in a vehicle. There is a saying, "Busier than a one armed paper hanger" Well I have a friend in Canada that I converse with through e mail everyday and I swear.... we've been passing that little paper hanger back and forth. I made a grave error for the blog however, in that I left the USB cord for my little camera in the coach in Arizona. I have tried several others I have and they don't work! So for a couple months I won't have pictures to share unless I use my other camera or my phone camera for something. There's always an abundance of things to do when we get here to the sticks and bricks in the fall. We have been busy with those. I was even called a "Slave Driver" one day! I got a new range hood installed, fall bushes planted in the front yard and one valve in the shower replaced. Several more things on my "Wish list" that I have a feeling will be next year's projects. KayCee and DH have been riding around the country every day securing places to hunt pheasants and getting some exercise. My oldest son came from Colorado Springs last night and his first Tank Commander in Iraq came from Lincoln, NE where he is now a recruiter. They met here and will spend the weekend hunting birds with DH and having a nice visit. I don't think they've spent much time together since Iraq. This is the first year in 35 that when Pheasant Season opens at daybreak tomorrow, I won't be here. I have a date at a Costume Party tonight in Broken Bow Nebraska....shhhhh! It's a suprise. Oh boy, will it be a suprise. Stay tuned....I'll let ya all know how it turns out! This next month is going to be super busy. I think I need to ship the little paper hanger guy back to Canada to bug Jan for a while but she suggested that I send him to Colorado to scoop snow and that would keep him busy for a while! What ever works...I just need a breather. We are still waiting for the firt storm of the season. We've had two or three hard freezes so it's only a matter of time now.

Fall in the Desert

2011-10-14T21:01:00.008-05:00

We arrived here at our 2nd home on October 1st. It has been beautiful weather, 80s in the daytime and 50s at night, until this past week and it climbed back up to 100 every day and just gets to about 70 at night. Unseasonably warm for the second week in October, it's just regretable that we couldn't capture that and bottle it up for the second week of January when we sit around with coats and long pants on!

Betsy got a much needed bath form Dave's Auto Detailing and we got busy and gave her a complete rub down with Dri Wash and Guard, and all the maintenace issues are done for another season. The oil and lube job for the year was obtained at the Freightliner Shop in Flagstaff on our way across the top of Arizona.
We are finally getting our ducks in a row to leave this paradise on Monday and return to the land of corn and pheasants. The freezer is empty and defrosted and the last of the laundry was done this morning. I have made up my mind not to tote hardly anything back this time. As I look around tonight, I think it's matter over mind instead of the other way around! Many little piles to get loaded. So I may have to do a second ditch effort to pare it down! I have been really good about going to the gym every day, walking two miles on the elliptical and lifting on the weight machines every other day. We have enjoyed floating in the pool and sitting in the hot tub when we thought the pool was a little too cold! We both have had our flu shots, KayCee had her vet visit and she's caught up on her boosters.

They are walking in the desert every morning to get in shape, or DH walks and KayCee runs. We have an irrigation ditch right behind the park, currently running pretty full, and this morning, KayCee thought she would get a drink and she went over the edge and slid down in! Scared her, DH was ready to go in after her, he said she did swim in a circle and her long nails saved the day! She climbed back out, and he said he don't think she'll do that again. DH has been hitting the golf course pretty steady. A couple from Montana that we know showed up and we had a nice visit. They brought their coach down here and went back home on Wednesday. Now they will come and go all winter too!The guys went golfing a couple days and we had fun at the pool. They met up with some Airforce C130 technicians that are on rotation here for a few weeks with their planes...they have golfed with the old guys a couple times. Every day we watch the jets fly, the Ospreys and Helis do their manuevers and drills. I never tire hearing it or watching them take off and land.

I would much rather listen to them in the air than the sirens that pierce the early morning quiet and jolt me awake. Must have been a wreck up on the Interstate this morning. We went for another long walk around the park tonight after supper. It was still really warm. Every day there's more folks showing up. When we got here there wasn't hardly anybody here, which was kinda nice. It will just get busier and busier from here on out.

There's quite a lot of construction going on and it's really bustling during the day. The Grounds keepers are busy pruning, fertilizing and getting things spruced up for the winter visitors.

This park is completely full for the month of January. We have tickets for some shows that will be happening when we return here about Christmas time. I'm looking forward to seeing family and enjoying some cooler temps for a while, but will be ready to return here to our oasis in the desert.

The Land of Enchantment

2011-09-19T12:13:00.016-05:00

Today finds us in Santa Fe New Mexico. We left Colorado Springs KOA a little later than I had planned on Friday, but still made it to Santa Fe about 5 pm. It was an uneventful trip over the Raton Pass and on the Santa Fe Trail.

We had some fuse problems upon doing light checks before pulling out and that took a few minutes to troubleshoot and fix. We had about 6 inches of rain in couple of days that we were there, reminding me of Monsoon Season once again. We are perched high upon a hill just outside of Santa Fe.

The view is gorgeous, and people are friendly, mostly our age group doing some fall traveling.

Saturday we went into the city and drove right downtown to the Santa Fe Plaza. Very busy narrow streets and no parking available directed us to the State Capitol Parking lot. We spent a few minutes having a bite of lunch and listened to a group of people protesting against the State's Employee Policies.
It just goes to show that there's lots of people everywhere that are very dissatisfied with the Government today. To just happen upon a demonstration on a Saturday is not usually a common thing. We left there before everyone else. Stopped and poked around in a gift shop and didn't find any bargains, but found quite a few items made in Pakistan and China that really turned me off. I was disappointed in not finding any more genuine Native American baskets and crafts. I'm hoping to go into the Navajo Nation and find some home made items later this week. We spent most of Sunday driving in the hills and the National Forest north of here.

The fires earlier this summer from Arizona played havoc with the forests and many roads and areas are closed.

There were lots of signs warning of Elk and Deer, but we only saw one deer cross the road in front of us all day.

We crossed the Rio Grande River and looked across the Rio Grande Valley not far from Las Alamos. We stopped at an information center at Jemez Springs, an Indian Community. They had a model of a Summer adobe home and dome oven.
Upon completing the circle of travel, we found ourselves back to Interstate 25 not far from Albuquerque. Pointed the nose back east for the drive home. About 30 miles we stopped at a rest/info center and I picked up some brochures on Grants and Gallup, which will be our next stop. When we got back up to speed, a large pickup loaded with hay grass bales came along side of us.

I said something about that not being tied down and not very safe, well, no more than getting that out...they pulled on ahead, a big bale flew out and landed in fron ouf us. A bunch of the hay flew up across our windshield and we skidded to a stop along the shoulder. NOT FUN....VERY SCARY! DH did a heck of a job keeping us from wrecking.I remember while skidding, all I said was "o.k,o.k.o.k!" and then we were stopped. So scared. I was shaking soo bad. KayCee got thrown around a little, but she was fine. Being the nice person he is, he got out and ran across and got the bale off the passing lane so that some poor other person wouldn't hit it. The pick up had stopped quite a ways ahead.....I being not so nice....and really shook up, got in the drivers seat, let DH get in.....roared forward, and chewed his ASS! Royally. He acted like he didn't even know what the problem was,probably just worried about losing one bale, and luckily we escaped any damage to the vehicle or ourselves. I did call the State Patrol and report it, but without damage they weren't going to pursue it. I feel sorry for the next person that's behind him one day and not so lucky! Be very aware folks...there's all kinds of idiots out there that do very dumb inconsiderate things....that could have been the end of us! I am very thankful to be here today to carry on our journey and write yet another long and boring post! Have a great Monday...we'll see ya down the road.

Colorful Colorado Once Again

2011-09-13T19:10:00.007-05:00

Colorado has always been one of my favorite places. It is a great coincidence that I have a son that lives in Colorado Springs. He moved here in 2002 when he elected to join the Active Duty Army shortly after the horrible events of 9/11/2001. No amount of convincing that he would be involved in a war and sent over seas would deter him from doing what he thought was his part in defending our great country.

Although he is now out of the Military, still a retired Disabled member of the 4th Infantry Division located here, having met his wife here and now their family lives on the front range outside of the city. We went to a Sports Bar, The Fox and Hound that has hosts the group Coloradans for Nebraska and watched the Cornhuskers win their Football game. With all the big screen tvs it was almost as good as being at the game! We had great seats!

Sunday was a day for reflection of the horrible events 10 years ago, and we flew our flag and watched the specials from New York City. We were awakened yesterday by the sounds of Bugles and Revoli...and then the sounds of gunfire across the Interstate on the gun range at Fort Carson. The result of those days 10 years ago, makes this country an entirely different place. I felt pretty safe going to Safeway...not because of the name, but the amount of 4th ID soldiers in the store at the same time! I have to get used to the large presence of soldiers every time we're here. It's wonderful to see all the dedication and sacrifice that they are making. We went to friends house for dinner Sunday evening and sat on the patio. It was wonderful to do that without it being 100 degrees, and sweat running down your back. They live in a very nice neighborhood by the Olympic Center and Broadmoor hotel and Olympic Ice Skating Museum. We felt pretty safe there too, in spite of the stories Ken was telling us about the large black bear that broke into his storage shed the other night, climbing through a window and trashed it. The fact that him and his wife were sitting on the very same patio and a large black bear waltzed up onto the front step and sat watching them have dinner...so he promptly threw a perrier water bottle at him and hit him square in the nose! The bear blustered at him and ran off! I would have been so gone! After all, Ken was mad that he trashed the little building! They always have bears and big cats in the trees in the back yard and in their trash.. the dogs always go crazy and let them know when they have company, so when the Molly the yellow lab that was snoozing at my feet suddenly got up and took off growling and barking, we promptly took leave to the car!

It was a great evening though, just not a fan of being there after dark! The weather is very pleasant and cool, it has clouded over and rained for two afternoons now and that is forcast for the remainder of the week. Not for sure when we will be leaving, but our next stop will be Santa Fe New Mexico. Just taking this adventure one day at a time and stirring the Jello frequently! Not much exciting but a great relief to be out of the heat.

Shock! I'm Back!!!!

2011-08-26T09:05:00.015-05:00

When you spend a good deal amount of time in one place, especially your old home base, it becomes difficult to keep writing a routine blog and make it interesting. We were originally going to be in this area for about 2 weeks while we visited family, met a new Grandbaby Boy, Tig Elliot Dossett and we added a new Son In Law, Dan Follmer in Kearney Nebraska, where our Eldest Daughter became his wife.

The weather dictated that we get here a little sooner than expected, and after getting all the events out of the way, we ended up a lot longer than we planned. That's the great thing about our lifestyle, all plans are written in Jello and can be stirred, changed, set or erased with the flick of the wrist!

Our new Son In Law is a member of the Kearney Nebraska Fire Department and the wedding took place outdoors at their Training Center. It is nice to welcome another Fireman into the family!

It was a beautiful day and the wedding and reception were great fun! Our Oldest Granddaughter is a member of the Kearney Fire Deptartments Junior Cadet Program also...so the tradition will continue.

Lots of hugs for 10 Grandchildren, and aweful hard to get them to be still in one place for pictures! Photographers definitely need our respect when they tackle a group like ours!

D.H has a new toy, he's been shopping at Cabelas since we have points saved up from our Cabelas Card, it's like Christmas when we get here. With the upcoming hunting season in mind,he spotted a pair of Sunglasses with a video camera built in.

They are used for recording hunting events, and having free hands. They would also work for other events too, such as a wedding. I thought it would be inferior quality, and I was mistaken! The video and audio quality is excellent and he wore them and taped the before, the ceremony and afterwards at the reception! We had DVDs made of the recording and that is a keepsake they will have forever. The only bad thing is DH is not in any of those pictures, his voice was very strong and he was the one that walked her down the aisle. We get his prospective, sometimes shoes and dizzy views as he visits with people and shakes his head, but it is a learning process. I'm now a fan of those glasses. Great recording of things and free hands. He has taped KayCee Marie retreiving, it is awesome to watch. As long as the files aren't too big, I can make CDs of the footage. Now onto the subject of Hitch Itch. We had thought that DH was going to Colorado to help our oldest son Harvest some Hay for a couple of weeks, a real camping trip...the job fell through at the last minute and I had already paid rent here for another month, not wanting to pay high tourist prices in Colorado. So we stayed, and have really enjoyed our time, but it's time to go.

Hitch itch is attacking me now. Everything I had wanted to do or see this summer has either been blown away or flooded with storms, or the heat in the middle of the country literally chased us out!

We helped out a friend in Texas, got our coach painted and made a stop at the gates of Fort Benning GA. where my son took basic training.Played on beaches from Texas to Florida and back to Georgia.
One stop was outside of Nashville, Tennessee, where we visited the 2nd Cracker Barrel restaurant opened (the first one burnt down) and we traveled by car down by Memphis to visit the National Hunting Dog Museum. We've met and made many new friends and I wouldn't change this time for anything.

Our next stop will be Colorado Springs right after Labor Day. I'm looking forward to the Mountains and Pikes Peak. We will stay for a short visit and then move on South down I25 to Sante Fe New Mexico. I am excited to be visiting that area of the country on the way back to Arizona. We also will be stopping at other towns in New Mexico and then to Williams AZ for a couple days and take another look at the Grand Canyon. I'm needing a scenery fix. Lots of fun in store, and really looking forward to some cooler weather!

A Devil of a Time

2011-07-11T12:51:00.026-05:00

I considered headings for this post and couldn't come up with anything very pleasing! Now I know the Devil doesn't live here...but I think he sure could right now! It is once again 110 degrees today. We are maintaining day by day...completely out in the sun with no shade trees! DH actually went with the neighbors this morning and played golf on a golf course near here. I have not been feeling too good. Actually went to a walk in clinic yesterday afternoon and that alone was a pleasant suprise, finding an open clinic on Sunday! No lines and no waiting and once my meds kick in now, I'll hopefully feel much better, but for now, I just will stay in and stay down. No need to be outside anyway. I really do like it here, and we will definitely make another trip down here at another time.
This past week we have gone into Oklahoma City and toured the site of the OKC Bombing and Memorial Gardens.

It was eerily quiet and a somber site, but structurally interesting and amazing at the memorials still left on the fence by people that visit. We must never forget those that lost their life by the hands of a deranged individual, mad at our government.
We ventured from there down along Brick Street and had lunch at Tobey Keith's Bar and Restaurant.... I love this Bar!

Another day, we went West to Kingfisher, which is the Birthplace of Sam Walton.

We toured the Chisolm Trail Museum, which was boasted to be the greatest cow trail in the world.

It served to get Texas cattle north to the Kansas Railheads from which they were shipped to other parts of the country.

Jesse Chisolm was a mixed-blood Cherokee guide and trader. Born in 1805 and died from food poisoning in 1868 from tainted meat. Guess they didn't refrigerate much back then. I think that I like my washer and dryer much better than these that I found outside of the Dalton Gang's Cabin!

We went back east yesterday about 5 miles from Edmond...to a fun location. After a 5 mile drive on the old Route 66 we stopped at a real Landmark, a futuristic building holding over 500 glass bottles of Soda.

The corner is marked by a 66 ft. tall LED Pop Bottle, complete with straw!Surely it would be much cooler lit up at night! It is named aptly, Pops museum!

It is also a convenience store and restaurant. We got there about 12:30 and the place was rockin...absolutely packed and over an hour's wait for a party of 5.
We, being a couple and willing to sit at the counter, got right in. It was a very fun atmosphere.
We had Buffalo Burger Specials and got some pop to go!

I think that is the end of the touring for this year. I have begun to trace my family tree and with Cherokee lineage, I want to do some research here, but will come back at another time for that. We are headed north and hopefully away from some of the heat on Wednesday. Will get a good early head start!

Enduring the Heat

2011-07-07T20:28:00.012-05:00

I can't believe it is staying this hot, this long! Day in and day out the temps go up over 100 degrees. Tuesday we left Arkansas and drove almost 300 miles west and a little north to Guthrie Oklahoma. Our first stop in Oklahoma was to a Welcome Center where I was very happy to see it was clean and modern and had lots of information about the state.

The travel aides answered all our questions and volunteered extra information and literature with things to do and places to see. I had a couple of things in mind and we are staying in the midst of four golf courses, so I thought I would have the activities covered.

It's too hot to play golf! These four courses were designed and built by a pro golfer, Duffy Martin, who owned a great part of the countryside where this RV Park and Courses are located.

DH has enjoyed visiting with him and Duffy has told DH a lot about the area in just a couple of morning visits. This morning he honked (horn sound like a cow and he has a roo bar on the front of his Lincoln TownCar)and waved and told us he was going into OKC to a singles dance! Only 95 years young!

The first night we were here, we happened upon Roma's Italian Restaurant. It is an authentic Italian Eatery, family owned and operated,very reasonable. We have taken a couple of trips into Guthrie and browsed in the downtown gift and antique shops, had lunch at the Stables restaurant, which was excellent, and looked at beautiful art, pottery and other items made in Oklahoma by local crafts people and artists. Many of the buildings are of beautiful old restored Victorian Architecture.
I am totally impressed with this place and it will warrant another trip down here in the future, hopefully when it's not so hot and DH can get a few golf rounds under his belt. Guthrie was the first state capital of Oklahoma until they took a vote and moved it to Oklahoma City.

There's a lot of history here,there's also tornado damage from a storm that came through here about a month ago and wreaked real havoc on the east side of the golf course next door to us, and through north part of town.

I don't think anyone was exempt from destruction this spring. Glad we missed it.

Ozark National Forest

2011-07-04T16:03:00.009-05:00

Happy Independence Day! We aren't celebrating much...it's too hot! We got outside when it was barely daylight, rinsed and wiped the bottom third and the ends of the coach to get rid of the dust.
Yesterday before heading up into the hills and forest the car got an automatic scrub so that I could see out of the windshield to drive!

We took off headed North on SR 7 into the Ozark National Forest, stopping at a few highlighted scenic view sites and enjoyed the trees and winding drive for a few hours.

We drove deep into a wooded campground to see the falls that were listed on the map as a view.

Heavy smoke from several camp fires hung in the trees and as I got out, found it difficult to breathe!

Gone are the days when that sort of thing didn't bother me! The trees there were so dense that very little sunlight peeked through but the heat and humidity still intense.

While enjoying this stop over and a pretty little park, the dog has been spooked with the sounds of fireworks going off in town for the past two nights. We found a nice Steak house in town and that was our weekend treat.

Now we're celebrating this holiday with hot dogs potato salad and ice cream here at home! Tomorrow will be a long driving day with our destination being Guthrie Oklahoma. Clean Rig, Clean Car, rested people and hopefully low traffic. It's gonna be another scorcher so I think we'll get up early and go some miles before it really heats up.

Bird Dogs, BBQ and Battlefields

2011-07-03T17:14:00.021-05:00

On Friday before leaving the state of Tennessee we took the day to tour some things that we like.

We left our park early in the morning and drove about 75 miles down towards Memphis to Grand Junction Tennessee, the location of the National Bird Dog Museum.

This location of three combined buildings, a combination of The National Bird Dog Museum, The Field Trial Hall of Fame and the Wildlife Heritage Center.
This is a wonderful tribute to some of the great Hunting Dogs and their owners/handlers. The displays capture 40 different breeds of Retreivers, Flushing dogs and pointers.

A meeting facility and library for teaching and understanding the different elements of Sporting Dog Events and Functions.

We took our own Pointer in to visit the Museum and she was very well behaved. We visited the German Shorthair Display on the walls and strolled through the facility viewing all of the wonderful paintings, prints and donated items.

Many works of notable Sporting Dog Artists. The Director talked with us and took pictures of us with our dog in front of the museum. This place is entirely privately funded and dedicated to preserving the past and protecting the future of the Sporting Dog and anyone who would want to experience the world of Bird Dogs. After a very interesting morning we decided to stop at a small roadside BBQ and experience some local flavors.

We gauged the place a success by all the trucks and traffic stopped all around. Waiting or eating and it was turning out to be a hot day.

We were parked at a camp in the location of a Civil War Battlefield and on the return trip from Grand Junction, stopped through Shiloh at the National Battlefield site and Shiloh National Cemetary.

These locations were very vital in the Civil War, and it's hard to imagine over 9000 Confederate Soldiers lined up and in the trees at these battlefields alone and many more Union Soldiers invading and fighting from the north.

Too much history for such a short time! Saturday July 2 we got up and got on the road early, committing two very big no-nos and I'll not be doing it again! After getting fuel in the town of Parker's Crossing, we got on I 40 and headed West.

After all, I thought it was a straight shot not leaving the Interstate. We traveled 316 miles....too far......and traveled not only on a Saturday, but a Holiday Weekend Saturday! Oh MY!!! Too many idiots in a hurry and we had more close calls in one day than in 6-8 months.... We'll not be doing that again!The whole 300+ miles we only saw ONE Patrol car. Interesting, on a Holiday weekend no less!

Thankfully we arrived all safe and sound in Russellville Arkansas, after crossing the Mississippi River at Memphis, taking pictures of where some of the flood waters stood and making our way over half way through Arkansas, about 75 miles past Little Rock.
We will be here for three nights until Tuesday when hopefully the Holiday travelers will be back at work and we will move on!The heat is oppressive and got to 104 today. I hesitate to even venture out and about...for fear that the vehicle will overheat or malfunction, we did explore some today though.

Stay tuned tomorrow for an account of our travels today into the back woods and Ozark National Forest.

Testing Me in Tennessee

2011-06-27T14:13:00.011-05:00

In my last post while in Georgia, I had somewhat of a plan. That has been changed several times. Gee this planning is fun! We spent all day last Wednesday waiting on the folks at Mid State Service Center to finish repairing and reinstalling our Generator.

They were good enough to let us stay in their electric hook up lot when it was too late to get us on the road. We wanted to hang out and run the generator and make sure that it was fixed.

Then, when I called ahead to Chatanooga TN to get a spot for Thursday night, they were full. Next best plan, make a run for it and we traveled over 300 miles just east of Nashville to Lebanon Tennessee.

Now Lebanon is the home town of the first original Cracker Barrel Restaurant. Being a fan of that place, we went to try it out and experience the place that started it all. Except our receipt said #2. Upon inquiring about the history of the place, the chain originated in 1969, but the first establishment burned down and thus a #2 replaced it being in the original town, but different location. I think that it was some of the best Cracker Barrel food we've had. We are also fans of Golden Corral Restaurants and the one in Warner Robins Georgia is hands down the best I've EVER had! After a great meal, we went to the next thing on the list that Lebanon is noted for,and that's their Outlet Mall. It is large and we had a pretty good workout walking up and down and through all the shops.

It has rained here a couple of times since we've arrived. This park is in a pleasant country setting right off the interstate, but not near an exit, so you still hear the noise, but no traffic. Today I had planned to go into Nashville and see some sights...but oh no, theres that word again...planned.

I've got a dog with ear infection, I have kidney infection and last night I came down with a roaring sore throat, temperature and cold to boot! So O.K throw me another curve!

No swimming pool or floatie seat for a while. Another small roadblock. I have taken every remedy and pill I can throw at this stuff. DH has a golf date to play in a mini Srs. tourney at an awesome course here early in the morning, so at least he'll get to do something. He took KayCee to the Vet this afternoon. I am watching the rain drops on the window and listening to the thunder.
We are still moving on West Thursday, but only 125 miles or so. I have wanted to see the National Bird Dog Museum for a few years now, so will finally get that in on Friday. No real plans for the holiday weekend, but to try and dodge the traffic and spend a quiet Monday in Russellville Arkansas. After a few short jaunts we will see some sites, check off two more states and land at a golf resort outside of Guthrie OK. on the 5th of July. Back to the 100 degree days once more, I just hope I feel better by then.

Betsy Gets a Facelift

2011-06-18T21:37:00.009-05:00

We have spent more time here in Georgia than was on my list for stops this travel season. As enjoyable as this may be, at this time I am ready to move on! Every place that has been on my list of places to see and fun things to do, has either been flooded or blown away, so I gave up for a while on the sightseeing and turned my focus to maintenance issues with our home on wheels. After looking at new and used coaches in Florida and not coming across anything that we're interested in or can afford, we have decided to hang on to "Betsy" for a while longer. We have a very solid coach and with regular care it will stay that way. Traveling on the Interstates is an easy way to make our way around the country, but we have picked up lots of rock chips in the front cap from vehicles pulling in front of us too close and throwing rocks and gravel.
The rear bumper and top end cap, and several places around has started to show some sun fading and I decided she was going to have a face lift. We also had some issues with our Onan Generator running rough, and it needed some immediate attention, since we depend on it to run our A/C even when we travel. The dash air just can't cool this big space, so I found a local RV Service Center in Byron GA. about 22 miles north of here, and when I was looking at their business online, I came across their state of the Art Body Shop also.

After reading about their facility and staff, I decided to pay them a visit while getting the Generator worked on.http://www.midstaterv.com/index.php/body-works-design-center.html Mid State RV Center has been awesome to work with. Michelle Fernandez, the Body Shop Manager explained their process and showed us around their awesome Paint Booth.

I knew immediately Betsy was going to be in good hands and I had found the place that I wanted to get this work done! Mark Walton and the others that helped with the paint process have our sincere thanks for a beautiful job, they were very attentive to detail we are really pleased and I would highly recommend them for any RV Body Work that you need done.

When we decided on what we wanted to have done, they worked and got us in very quickly and tried to coordinate the job with those at the Service Center who have our Generator out for repairs.

Ofcourse if you want to see God laugh, make plans! While Betsy was in the shop, we camped at the Days Inn in Warner Robins GA. four nights. We thought that the Genset would be put back together and ready to go on Friday and when they got finished at the body shop we would get it put back in and return back to the Twin Oaks Campground for the weekend....to take off on Sunday (Father's Day) and scoot through Atlanta in light traffic. Well, that plan didn't come together. A part is ordered and supposed to be here on Monday, so with a little luck, service will get us put back together on Tuesday and we will head down the road on Wednesday.
I had gone ahead and made reservations in Chatanooga Tennessee and also just east of Nashville, at a Resort that we will set down in until after the 4th of July. One of my rules of the road is to not travel on weekends or holidays!(minus getting through cities on Sunday mornings!) I've had to break my rules more than I care to...but hopefully not this time. We will try to time the trip north up I 75 in the middle of the day and avoid rush hour at least. I've had to push my reservations ahead a couple of days. Now I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have any more bad weather, and the part arrives on Monday. We hadn't been back here at the campground very long yesterday...really just wanting the paint job to cure good over the weekend, and it blew up a thunderstorm and rained for about 3 hours! I was almost afraid to go out and look this morning, making up my mind that if we had damage, that's what we have insurance for...and we lucked out.... everything is good. She looks so pretty and new! Until next time....Happy Father's Day to all you Fathers out there. We will be going to a BBQ and pool party here at the clubhouse. It will be a good time I'm sure!

Dog Days of Georgia

2011-06-10T08:16:00.011-05:00

I would have not thought that we would still be in Georgia. We have hit a bump in the road.

Heading back north out of Florida, we decided to use Interstate 75 and visit several more states before heading west. With the heat being so severe, we operate the generator while we travel to run the house air conditioners. It's much more comfortable and I can also use the computer going down the road. I found an RV dealership here that repairs our Onan 10,000 KW. Generator. They also have a state of the art Paint Booth for RVs at their body shop and having kicked around the idea of a face lift for Betsy, we decided to get the end caps painted where the front has rock chips from the road and the back end has some fading from sun and clear coat issues.

These people are going to apply a new product to the front of the coach so that the rocks from the road won't be an issue anymore.

I will report how that works but I'm excited because the rock chips are very unattractive. The Service Shop has removed the Genset and are waiting for the inspector from our extended Warranty Service to come out and approve the repairs. Betsy goes in on Monday at 7 am for the paint work and we will head to a Hotel in Warner Robin GA for a mini vacation away from the coach! They will have it for the entire week and we will get her back on Friday.
All this is taking place 20 miles north of where we are at the Twin Oaks RV Park. We have found a "gem" of a place to stay and if it weren't for the bugs and heat, we'd stay a month!

The owner and managers are great people and the facilities are relaxing and wonderful.

We will come back here after the paint job for the weekend to be sure the paint is set and head on north into Tennessee.

These folks haven't had any rain for over two months. This area could really benefit from some moisture.

We'll pray that happens soon! The only complaint that I have is their Verizon Service is erratic and my cell service is rotten! I am running on WiFi. which is o.k. for most things, but my business stuff waits just for my aircard. In the meantime, we're just experiencing Central Georgia.

DH loves to play with the camera, and I never know what to expect when I look! I think he's still havin' fun!

The Beginning of Summer Travel

2011-06-01T15:38:00.008-05:00

The first day of June finds us in Seffner Florida, right outside Tampa. Today it has turned rainy after days of hot hot temps. Not much wind to speak of so it's not hard to tolerate. They really need the rain. June 1st is the beginning of hurricaine season for these folks and I really don't want to hang around and experience that, the shuttle Endeavor landed early this morning in the dark.
I knew we couldn't actually see that, I'm not sorry we didn't stay to see it, so we are headed north, back into Georgia in the morning. It's kinda sad that the Shuttle program is ending for good. There will be about 7,000 people losing their jobs here. That's sad. Some have already got pink slips. It was kinda fun seeing hot little space guys walking around Walmart in their jumpsuits! We will stay just south of Macon at a nice little RV Park. I will get my mail and we have a couple of maintenance issues to address while there at a large Service Center.

We came down here to Seffner yesterday after spending the Memorial Weekend at the Great Outdoors RV and Golf Resort.
While enjoying the beauty and facilities, that is not for us! DH had fun on the golf course, but there were much too much limits and rules.

I've never seen a resort with all the restrictions that place has. It's like they want you there, but it's almost like house arrest and there's monitors and speed enforcers (complete with tickets) everywhere! It's very expensive and they roll the amenities and the streets up at dark 30!
We also learned from another resident that their little dog had been bitten by a pygmie rattler in the dog park...and I held my breath every time KayCee went in there.

We have had fun here at Lazy Days RV Park in Seffner. They treated us Royally, and we looked around at some coaches, but they just don't have what I'm looking for right now. I totally believe that if it's meant to be it will happen, and I will know when the right one comes along. It's just not here right now...so we will continue on, do some maintenence and see some more country. Our coach is very solid and I am confident that we have a lot of great years left with it. We had been referred to a Super Sales Professional, Kevin Mullis and he is a great guy to work with. He has been in the Motorcoach business for over 20 years, his walls lined with awards from very high sales records.

I trust what he says and in using my own brain, he just didn't have what we are looking for right now. I'm still a little nervous about heading north into the path of could be hail and tornadoes, so I doubt that we come north of I 40 very soon.

These pics are from The Great Outdoors and the Midway Air Boat Ride that we took up the St. John's River looking for Alligators and wildlife.

Happy Memorial Weekend to ya'll!

2011-05-28T19:50:00.004-05:00

We are hanging out here at a huge RV Resort a few miles outside of Titusville Florida. It is an absolutely georgous place, with every activity and ammenity possible....except Verizon Internet Service! It stinks! So once again, no pictures right now. We will be here until Tuesday morning and then head over to Tampa and the Lazy Days RV Park at the Lazy Days Dealership. We had several Thunderstorms yesterday and some wind, but nothing bad. DH played golf and I went shopping today. We have driven around some and toured a wildlife preserve. Thursday morning we took an airboat ride and saw lots of alligators. Yesterday I had a dentist appointment and today I cooked and we layed out at the pool. Will keep this short for now and be watching as I do have lots of pics and things to say! Now it'll take 10 minutes to post this...so I'll go back to my word search puzzle. By the way, I made home made cherry cobbler with canned Montana Flathead Cherries that I've been carrying around. It is "TO DIE FOR" I miss Montana!OH yeah, and most important, I hope ya'all take time out from the picnics and celebrations to shake the hand of a soldier, say thanks to a Veteran and say prayers for those soldiers deployed and their families. Acknowlege those in our cemetaries that helped and fought to keep us free! We have not forgotten them! Party on!

Storms and Prayers

2011-05-23T03:00:00.004-05:00

Good early Monday Morning. Can't sleep and while I'm sitting here thinking of what all we have to get done to be ready to leave here on Tuesday, I skimmed over to Fox News after seeing a post about storms on Facebook. My sincere thoughts and prayers go out to all involved in Sunday's horrific tornadoes in Joplin MO, and Minneapolis MN. Both places we've been to in other years. We will head for Florida for a while, until we just can't bear the heat anymore,
or the space shuttle lands and we get to see that. It's scheduled to come down June 1st and we will be staying at Titusville, which is not very far from Merrit Island and the Kennedy Space Center. I feel very fortunate that all we are dealing with now is very warm temps. We got busy and gave Betsy a much needed bath Friday before it really started heating up. The thermometer got up to 101 today. The condensation from the a/c just runs! It will be refreshing to be in a cooler climate and I am considering that move next. I think I need some mountains! KayCee is ready for cooler weather too! All she wants to do is eat and lay on the couch!
Which is what we all did today! I will attempt to catch another 40 or so winks now and get errands done early as it will be another scorcher (no, boiler!) today.

Georgia Hospitality

2011-05-13T15:29:00.013-05:00

One of the great things about our journeys is the ability to meet up with old friends and make new ones!

Last weekend was Graduation at Georgia Southern University. Almost all of the folks staying in this park over the weekend were taking home kids from college. By Monday most everyone had gone home and it is very quiet here. We will be here through this weekend and depart on Tuesday, headed south into Florida. I made reservations at a fancy golf resort called The Great Outdoors that is a suprise for Danny, who is out playing golf as we speak! He has met up with some guys here in Statesboro and according to him, is playing pretty good.
Last Saturday we went to a park in Savannah and attended a Military Reunion picnic for Christy's husband's Special Forces Airborne Unit.
It was a fun day even though it sprinkled and rained! Her dad cooked hamburgers and hotdogs and she said it was as if the guys hadn't been apart, that they picked up where they left off 19 years ago and really enjoyed each other's company. I think it was a great thing that she organized it.
Tuesday night for Christy's last night here, we spent back at Jeff and Bettina Double's at their Country Estate for another fantastic meal and patio conversation.
I feel blessed to have been introduced to such special people and I hope we get to spend time with them again.

Trees in the South

2011-05-12T08:53:00.000-05:00

We left Robertsdale Alabama and made out way on across the panhandle of Florida to the end of I 10 and headed north into Georgia last Friday. We stopped for the first night at Quincy Florida and then arrived at the KOA in Kingsland Georgia off of Exit 1 Saturday morning. At first I thought it was the smog from Jacksonville that was obscuring the views, and then was to learn there is a huge troublesome forest fire in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

They have closed that park, and I feel bad for those who live there. Lots of trees everywhere and of every variety around here. We spent the weekend in Heavy smoke, and it rained ash all over everything! We spent lots of time at the Fernandino Beach and Amelia Island back across the Florida border, so it was a good weekend.

KayCee had a ball on the beach...and got braver and braver going into the water. Monday morning we headed up the Interstate 108 miles to Savannah GA and the Savannah Oaks Resort.

Spending one night down in a total tree obscured campground and our Satellite wouldn't work so we moved on Tuesday to Statesboro Ga, and a very nice RV Park by a motel. Everything works and it is very quiet.

We met my girlfriend from California yesterday when she got off the plane for a great southern seafood meal at her favorite place - Carey Hilliard's Restaurant. We met her mother for the first time and then she took us to some friends house that live in the country but are from England. We had the best evening! In fact are going back tonight for some more visiting on the patio! It is so relaxing here. Unfortunately we still can smell and see smoke from that same fire, but not as strong. We have an extremely busy weekend.

Her mother has an art studio and teaches painting classes in this quaint barn in a country setting. She also has a garden and dug us some fresh new potatoes, can't wait to fix them! Christy's husband was killed in Germany in a military accident several years ago. He was an Airborne Ranger in the Special Forces and their Reunion is this weekend. Saturday we are invited to their picnic in Savannah. I have found a wonderful pet sitting service to use while I'm here and I really enjoy that. Tiffany Gates trains military bomb and drug dogs, and owns one fantastic Shephard. It makes my life even more stress free! It is very fun catching up with old friends and making new ones! Have a great weekend.

Rainy Day in Foley Alabama

2011-05-03T18:22:00.009-05:00

We have been on the move and stopped for one night in Louisiana, one night in Mississippi, and then arrived in Robertsdale for several days while we receive our mail from the past month.

It has been really hot and steamy here along the Gulf Coast, until today, when a front went through and dropped the temps about 15 degrees to tolerable. A light breeze this morning and the sun was shining but by 1 p.m it was all overcast and the Thunder heads were gathering. I discovered several things we were out of and went to look for a grocery store. Lo and behold I found a Winn-Dixie. Then on down the highway further was the Original Lambert's Cafe...home of the "Throwed" Rolls.
We went to the other one south of Springfield MO. a couple years ago..and the atmosphere was a complete Hoot! They literally Throw piping hot out of the oven dinner rolls across the room at ya...

You order an entree and sides off the menu..but servers are serving up hot fried okra, buckets of fried potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes, and all the extras that you could ever want to your table all the time.

All you can eat...and you walk out of there stuffed. I was trying to be good, and I brought a lot of food home!

We have small Magnolia trees here in front of the coach and at the entrance to the park there's mature trees that have lots of blossoms.

They really welcomed this rain...we have received about 1/4" today. One thing I don't like is stinky wet dog...so foofy dog got to wear her raincoat and so did her master! We drove through Mobile Alabama yesterday.

Noticed increased presence of Border Patrol Vehicles. Lots of ships, even a Cruise Ship in port. We got to go through a tunnel under the bay, and across on the beltway, a highway on cement pillars in the water.

Back on dry land we drove about 30 more miles ot our destination. Some people that used to run a restaurant in our hometown live in Mobile. She has a catering business and they had us over for a fantastic fish dinner last night. Tomorrow we are getting together and I am praying for sun as we are going to Gulf Shores and a place called Flori/bama. Should be a good day and I want to walk on the beach for a while.

A Month in Texas

2011-05-01T19:38:00.004-05:00

Well, it’s been a month to the day since we’ve left our winter home in Arizona. I need to apologize for taking such a long break!
We have spent the entire month in Texas and have seen many more cities, towns and countryside than we expected!
We stopped in San Antonio for about a week touring the city, the Alamo and the Hill Countryside trips to Corpus Christi then traveled to the middle of the state and stopped in Schulenburg off of I 10 because a friend from our hometown had his business there and we wanted to visit with him for a few days.
He owns his own business and operates roadside Tool Sales with a semi and travels in an RV. He has a Truck Driver for the Semi and shares the RV with him and two adorable black and white Shih Tsu dogs, Sammy and Sadie.
KayCee had fun playing on the beach with them. We planned on heading on east into Louisiana a couple of weeks ago, stopping for a day or two and driving some side trips down to the Gulf Coast and beaches but it turned into much more than that!
We all had moved to the eastern part of the state, when he became very ill and ended up in the hospital with a collapsed lung!
It continued on, and he spent 9 days in the La Grange hospital, then he was transferred to another hospital in Austin by Ambulance and a heart and lung specialist finally released him and said he was on the mend.
It has been a very busy, wild time and I’m glad he’s going to be alright. It is one thing to be out on the road and traveling to other states to work and play without knowing anyone, but being in the hospital and having serious issues, I would hope I had someone around to count on.
I wouldn’t have thought to go on down the road until we knew that he was going to be alright, or other family was here. His wife Connie and Daughter Missy drove down from Nebraska when he was transferred and they said he was going to have surgery! Anyway, while being based in Beaumont Texas, we traveled back and forth through Houston quite a few times and are comfortable with doing that.
Met up with a friend of DH’s that hunts Pheasants in Ne. He took us to a great Seafood place called Captain Tom’s, and we did some shopping at a new Bass Pro Shop off of I 10 in Katy, TX.

We visited Port Arthur, south of Beaumont along the coast, witnessed damage still visible from Hurricaine Ike.

We got to drive down along the beach at Crystal Beach and witnessed all the rebuilding from the hurricanes. All of the houses are up in the air on grand stilts…there was even a mobile home with an elaborate ramp system up the side instead of flights of stairs! We got up this morning and broke camp, heading east on I 10. We crossed into Louisiana and passed Lake Charles and Lafayette. We stopped in Breaux Bridge for the night at Pouche’s Fish n Camp. I was able to find a Louisiana state pin at the truck stop where we stopped for some liquid gold (diesel fuel) and we will continue on East tomorrow morning. I have no phone or Internet service here, so glad it’s only one night.

Phew! Got through that and tonight at this writing, we are in Biloxi Mississippi. We arrived this afternoon, unhooked the car and went driving down on the coast. Had seafood at Snapper's Restaurant on the beach before coming back for a snooze! We will only have a short day of about 90 miles tomorrow so won't be in a hurry. Maybe I can sleep in...

Extreme Touring Week

2011-04-09T15:27:00.014-05:00

It's been an extremely busy week, packed full of activities every day. If I had to choose a favorite, I think it would be our stop at Gruene on Tuesday. It was not planned and a pleasant suprise. Wednesday we were picked up by a tour bus at 8 in the morning and didn't get back until after 5pm.
There were lots of stops on the tour and lots of walking. Included on the tour was the Mission San Jose, Japanese Sunken Gardens, Buckhorn Saloon and Museum, Texas Ranger Museum, The Alamo, Mission Concepcion and the Mexican Marketplace - El Mercado.
We were so packed full of facts and figures that I couldn't begin to retain it all, much of which I took notes on, and I won't bore you with all that here. The tour also included a boat ride in the river downtown by the Riverwalk.
It is mainly a hotel district, packed full of shops, restaurants and bars, but the architecture and historical buidings are supurb!
If you want to learn about San Antonio History I would highly recommend doing it this way. The Buckhorn Museum had tons of animal mounts and pictures using rattlesnake rattles. Bonnie and Clyde's car, complete with death certificates and bullet holes. We had time on our own and stopped at the Buckhorn Saloon for a quick bite and I know we didn't see everything there. The tour bus driver was very knowledgeble and made the day fun. Thursday we got up early again and headed down I 37 to the southern Texas Coast.
We drove on through Corpus Christi and stopped on Padre Island for lunch at a place called Snoopy's Pier. It was by recommendation of a friend and turned out to be a good one.
The shrimp and fish was melt in your mouth good and we had an added bonus while dining out on the deck to watch the Blue Angels practice their formations getting ready for an air show.
The skies were overcast and the wind was really blowning so the day at the beach didn't turn out to be a good one.
We drove by Mustang Island State park and out onto the beach itself. Drove up the beach a ways and continued up to Port Aransas, where we took the ferry across to the town of Aransas Pass. With the weather not cooperating, we decided to return to our home base at Elmendorf rather than stay in a hotel for the night.
I had packed and prepared, but was just as happy to make the drive back to the coach.
I still really like my own bed! Friday was another driving day, only this time we headed Northwest of the city, to a town that boasts to be the Cowboy Capital of the World! Now we ate some pretty good Texas BBQ there, and browsed through some western shops right downtown.
The town of Bandera, with a population of less than 1,000, has lots of older buildings and homes and has a Frontier Museum with a carved totem pole in front, but I cannot see where they can claim that title!
I let DH go for the two hour museum jaunt, and I kept KayCee company outside and in the car. When DH returned he couldn't really give me any facts or names of famous Cowboys to remember, and they didn't have any printed material so that was that.
We left some of our money on Main Street though, after lunch, he bought a pair of shoes and a hat stretcher in one of the western shops, so all was not lost. Today was a regroup day and we went to Wally to stock up, spotted a detail place across the street and had the Suburban Detailed and Waxed. Now that is done for the summer. I am doing laundry and tomorrow morning we will pull into a self serve truck wash and attempt to wash the dirt off of this coach. We will only travel about 100 miles tomorrow and meet up with a friend of ours that is crossing our path. I made reservations today in Savannah Georgia for the 9th of May, so now I have a goal to achieve! We wil bid San Antonio good bye for now, and I know there's lots more to see on a future visit.

Change in Pace!

2011-04-05T18:36:00.011-05:00

The saying is "Everything is Bigger in Texas!" Well, I want to change that a little to "Everything is Faster here in Texas!" The wind that we traveled so hard to escape got here about 10:30 yesterday morning, and it was no day to go sightseeing or be outside. We took the opportunity to regroup, study some brochures and get a plan for the rest of the week. It blew about 40 all day and finally started to settle down here about 8:00 last night and it wasn't a bad evening when the dust settled. We lucked out and met a lady at the office that walks and cares for dogs here in the park while their pet parents tour the city so we got on her short list. We will be taking a trolly tour of the city and the high points, including the Alamo and River Walk downtown.
Today we headed north into the hill country and stopped off at Camping World in New Braunfels to pick up a couple things that we've been looking at. We purchased an Electrical Surge Protector for the coach. I've been wanting one since the beginning that and decided with all the strange campgrounds and Parks we will be visiting this summer, it would be a good idea to be safe. We took a few minutes and looked at several new Coaches and small Camper Vans, since I have decided to start planning our summer in Alaska for 2013. I know for sure we will not take our coach up there and I want something small, efficient and economical. That took the rest of the morning and then we continued on to the little town of Gruene, which turned out to be a very pleasant stop.
The Gruene Historic District At the Water Tower was born in the 1840s when some German Immigrant Farmers arrived in New Braunfels to find very little acreage available, and therefore purchased land down river. They ended up being Cotton farmers and thus the town of Gruene. A large Brick Victorian home now stands as a B&B, a mercantile store was built in 1878 and a Cotton Gin powered by the Guadalupe River was added soon after.
The original burned in 1922, and was replaced by an electric model. It now houses the Gristmill Restaurant and Lounge where we had lunch today, out on the patio.

Another Building, The Gruene Hall, is the original Dance hall that has been the venue for many many famous musicians and has served as a movie set in the 1960s.

Most of the businesses in the town did not survive the Great Depression, but the Hall never closed. We looked around and poked in and out of a few shops, where I found my Texas Hat pins for the collection.
Yea! Now that's done I can focus on other things tomorrow. We made our way back to the park before rush hour. Everyone is moving at a much faster pace around here! Seems like I need to ramp it up a bit after kicking back all winter.
In Whole Foods I got ran into by a grocery cart this morning that was in way too big of a hurry. Geeze!!!! We have to be up and ready to hop on the trolley at the office before 8 in the morning, so I better get around and switch to touring gear! I'm wearing my running shoes! Thursday we will leave for Corpus Christi for a couple days of beach and water. So my week is booked pretty full. Stay tuned!

We Made it to Texas

2011-04-03T21:29:00.002-05:00

We are in San Antonio! Yippeeee! We got here a day early, because there was high wind warnings for the Southwest part of Texas and we didn't want any part of that, so we did something today that we never do! Drove 451 miles!

Last Day in Paradise, for now....

2011-03-28T18:21:00.011-05:00

We're in the last day here at The Palms RV Resort for this season. Our street is pretty empty now but tonight a Tiffin Phaeton came in and they got the end spot on our side right where the last of "Our Gang" had left from this morning!
We're really gonna miss our new friends, and I'm excited about next fall already! I keep expecting to see one of the guys walking down the street, dragging a lawn chair, heading for happy hour someplace. The wind has started to blow mildly the last couple of days and the temps have been in the low 90s until today.
It's forcast to be hotter tomorrow and no rain in the near future. The breeze was welcome at the pool this afternoon. I cleaned and repacked our closets this week and took the top layer of dirt off from the last three months. KayCee got her last walk with her friend Bill and I took this picture and had it framed and sent to them in Canada.
We went and watched the performance's of the Air Show last Saturday. In seeing all of the traffic and cars, we decided that we'd go find a place along a street and watch from beyond the fences of the base.
It was awesome to watch, but we all agree that we will bite the bullet and go in next year as we will enjoy it more being able to hear them tell about what's going on and there's a lot more events that we didn't see.
We had a tasty roadside picnic lunch and the Ice Cream truck pulled up, so it was a pretty nice afternoon.
We've had quite a few days of "lasts" in the past week. DH had his Last Massage. We had our Last Neighbors Coffee at Lloyds.
We went to DaBoyz Saturday night and had our last supper gathering in the "Marilyn" room. Before every one leaves we usually have a meeting in the street to exchange hugs and cards, well wishes and hopes to see them in the fall.
DH has been busy packing up the outside and getting ready to roll in the morning. Hope I can sleep tonight. That's usually an issue on the night before we pull out. I'm ready for our next adventure, but will really miss this Paradise in the Desert!

Days Ticking By

2011-03-23T11:24:00.010-05:00

It's hard to believe that it's the 23rd of March already! I would swear that we have just got here! Only 8 days left until we head off to the east again and begin the travel part of our year. Everyone here is scurrying around doing last errands, making last side trips and spending last times with friends. We attended a performance by a Comedian/Magician on Saturday night here. Our neighbors across the street have purchased a lot here in the park and they are really busy getting layouts done and meeting with architects and builders before they head back to Canada.
They are selling their motor home and building a house. I think it will be an awesome place and can't wait to see it next year.
Tomorrow we are having a cook out here at our place for friends on the block. We've had several grey and very windy days, the nights have been chilly, but the Arizona sun is bright today and the forcast is for beautiful the rest of the week. Saturday will be a very packed day for us. The Annual MCAS Air Show starts at 8:30 in the morning. We will get an early start for that....I'm looking forward to it..the guys are really practicing heavily every day now. We have Harriers and Ospreys,(like the ones that rescued the pilots in Libya this week) Rescue helicopters, fighters and cargo planes flying by all day long. It's kinda the highlight of their year. DH has a massage at 2:15, then a reservation for 10 for a last visit to DaBoyz Italian downtown. Our neighbors are all going to start pulling out on Sunday and Monday and we will have a few quiet days before we head out on Friday. I have been planning our stops and will admit I'm looking forward to moving again. We have our spot reserved for late this year, and I am so relieved to know we will be back here again.
A weekly event here at the Palms, the Burger Bash got a little wild last Saturday. It started out normal with the live band and dancing by the pool, a Leprechan from Sun Vista came to pay us a visit, keeping with the St. Patrick's Day theme of the week.
Then some folks decided to combine Birthdays and Going Aways with St. Patricks Day and regression back into high school.
One went in and then a bunch! It wasn't the warmest day either when some were dunked twice for good measure.
That day I was glad I don't drink, and I'm sure I felt better then they did the next morning! We were told that the Americans always got crazy at the Bashes, but this time it was even Crazier Canadians! It was nice that our table was mellow and away from the meyhem. Everybody there got wet! DH is getting one of his last golf days in today and I am doing laundry and taking KayCee to the dog park later. It is a sad day to learn of the death of Elizabeth Taylor today and happy because my baby is 31 today. Happy Birthday Thomas Jerome Brown! Don't know why, but this day always makes me feel older than my own Birthday!

Lazy Sunday

2011-03-13T11:10:00.009-05:00

We have had a busy week taking in activities and today will be a laid back day to regroup.
The Entertainment and Activities here at the Palms is starting to wind down but it's still a bustling place! People are starting to get hitch itch as it warms up here and lots of the Canadian Visitors have to head home soon.
We have made lots of new friends, but our group here on the street is a good one and we all will stay in touch.
Most mornings my patio is a gathering coffee spot and my new Cuisinart Coffeemaker gets a good workout. We take turns at our patios on our side of the street in the afternoons to have a get together about 4:00.
Yesterday we attended the Lettuce Days Festival in the Quartermasters Depot grounds by the Colorado River on the edge of town. Since this is an Ag Based Community, it is a big deal to show off the produce and functions of the companies that work here. Dole, Foxy and Earthbound Farms to name a few. They focus on providing safe healthy produce and the Arizona leafy greens represents a 1 Billion dollar industry with a workforce of over 20,000 people.
It was an interesting morning as we walked through the trade booths and picked up our lettuce samples. We then topped the morning off with lunch at Lute's Casino in old downtown. (No Gambling, just good food and old Nostalgic Atmosphere) We still have quite a few things to do here the next couple of weeks, and it is getting up to 90 the next few days, so we will be in the pool more in the afternoons.
We are having massages on Thursday...as we have a massage therapist on staff here. It's hard to believe we haven't made many side trips this year. We didn't even get to San Diego, but there's always next year. We're looking forward to heading to Texas and will be doing some side trips there. Hopefully we will get to the Gulf and Corpus Christi to check that out. That's the great thing about having your plans written in Jello, we don't have to stick to a plan!

How Quick Things Can Change!

2011-03-07T20:17:00.013-06:00

Yesterday was my DH's big 6-0 Birthday.

I had quite a time keeping the fact that we were having a suprise party for him at a great restaurant in Olde Downtown Yuma last night.

We started out sharing coffee with the neighbors and he went to Lowe's with the guy across the street. I had reservations for 5...which they all showed up and we followed along behind about 20 after.

In order to keep him from suspecting, I bought him a lime ade from Sonic for lunch and took him to the Q Casino to spend his $10.00 in free play. We then headed back into town. He was definitely suprised!

We had coupons again and ended up with lots of food to bring home. After opening a few "special" old gifts, we headed back to the hot tub and finished the night off by getting chased out of there by the wind. It came up really strong for a while and then died down about 10.

It came up again about 5 a.m. and has been strong and dirty ever since. Fast forward to this morning. Lloyd came over and we were having a visit and cup of coffee when our other neighbor, Marilyn, showed up asking if the guys could go put her awnings in because her husband had been terribly sick all night.

(yep, he was with us!) Then all of a sudden her big awning started to unroll and we couldn't get it back in. We all ended up over there trying to tie it down in the 40 + mph gusts! Back up to right before we went over, Marilyn shut my door and the latch broke, locking us out, and I didn't have any shoes on! Thankfully I left a back window unlatched!The guys got the ladder out and DH crawled in and got the door unlocked. Lloyd was trying to get a rope over her awning and fell off the ladder, dislocating his thumb. Another guy strung a bungee cord on the end and I was helping him hold it down and fasten to a stake...it came off and snapped my in the back of the wrist and my chest. OMG....it hurts....both places. I have had ice on the rest of the day...I'm hoping it's just bruises. At least I can still use my hand and wrist. They finally got the Awning anchored until the repair crew came...over $400 later they got a new motor of the arm and got it put back in for good.

It all went downhill this morning in about 10 minutes and has been kinda crazy the rest of the day. Tomorrow DH plays golf and I hope he has a lot better day. The wind has gone down some now that it's dark. I should have mail to deal with tomorrow, and I have some cooking to do for this week. I spent some time planning our first move when we leave here and have decided that we will be in San Antonio Texas about the fourth of April. We will be leaving here the 1st and I'm hoping to avoid all April Fools Foolery! Just an easy run across on I8 south of Casa Grande, then merge onto I 10 for the rest of the trip across the United States. I love it when a plan comes together.

Midnight at the Oasis

2011-03-06T09:42:00.010-06:00

Yuma's annual Classic Car Show and Moonlight Festival was this past weekend. Thursday night they had a drive in movie, Friday night was the Classic Car Parade and Saturday was the show and concerts in the evening.
The show was in the Ray Croc Baseball Complex, which is huge. We got a late start and it was a very warm day, which was perfect to bring out a large crowd. There was over 1,000 cars, and we walked around until we got tired of looking! Lots of beautiful nostalgic autos and trucks.
The Yuma County Sheriff's office had a booth, along with the Border Patrol from this area displayed their sand buggy chase rig.
This was the largest car show we've ever been to.
I learned about a particular car...a DeTamaso sports car, which was a Ford/Italian made car manufactured for a mere 4 years from 1971-1975.
The engine is in the rear and it must have been fairly popular, as there were several of them here. I got enough sun for the whole week and it was plenty hot out there with no shade. Most of the car owners had shades in their spaces.
Although I didn't find the car I was looking for, a 1952 black Chevy, I did find a ford with the same Salmon and Black paint job that my Grandma ordered for her only new car!
We are going to have another great day. It's supposed to get hot again and today is the big 60 for my hubby and I have a few fun things planned and a suprise dinner with our friends. Be sure to look back at the last post, I added some more pictures of the Bugle Corp!

Happy March!

2011-03-01T17:35:00.005-06:00

The weather is warming up once more and activity here at The Palms is at a fever pitch. Lots of rigs coming and going all day long. The grounds keepers start work about 6:30 in the mornings and that is enforced with the humming of the trimmers and purring of the cart engines. Everything is being spruced up for an "Owners Event" this week and more outside shows and entertainment.

The Marine Corp Marching Drum and Bugle Corp will be performing twice at two different school athletic fields and I will attend either one, or both.
The 100+ Corp is made up of the Marching Corp and the Silent Platoon that does their whole routine carrying a 10+ pound rifle, equipped with a bayonet. It was precision to the max and very very impressive!
We have a block "dinner" friday night with other couples at a fancy steak house in town. March 3 - 6 is the "Midnight at the Oasis" Show and Shine Classic Car Show and Nostalgia Festival and we will be attending that on Saturday.
Another great event this weekend will be the arrival of DH's big 6-0 birthday. I have a plan and have reserved a room at DaBoyz restaurant downtown for a group of us to gather for dinner on Sunday. Stay Tuned after this busy time and I will add pictures of these events!

Martha's Garden Date Farm

2011-02-23T18:31:00.009-06:00

Four of us ladies from Antigua Street took the riding tour of the Martha's Garden Date Farm yesterday.
Martha's Garden is located 10 miles east of downtown Yuma, tucked away within the city limits but perched on the edge of town.
140 Acres of mature trees and 40 Acres of leased state land with new trees planted on it and miles and miles of plastic water lines and individual bubbler drip irragators make up this wonderful stand of Medjool Date Palms. The water is supplied from 5 natural wells on the property. I was amazed a the facts that were shared with us about the process and the product. All of the work from planting to pollenating to harvesting the dates is done by hand. They are for the most part an Organic Fruit, having no artificial fertilizers or chemicals used on them. Dates have more antioxidents than Blueberries or Pomegranites, but they are high in natural sugar and Carbohydrates. The resident rattle snakes are respected as they take care of the rodents and prairie dogs who chew the water lines and the roots of the trees.
There are male trees and female trees and each fruit stem is thinned and pollenated annually. This growing season is just beggining and won't get really busy until about May. They use sacks around the fruit when it starts to grow to protect it from birds and weather.
The farm employs about 80 people at the peak of harvest...and only the hearty survive that job, which is done in September and October during some of the hottest days of the year. The rinsing,sorting and processing takes place right there in the middle of the farm, and Dates can be frozen and refrozen with no ill effect.
They have a 300 Sq. ft. freezer. Their largest export customer is Australia, and they follow all legal and ethical procedures to export to them. The original tree starts came from Tripoli in the middle east and the only place in the U.S. that has the correct climate to grow these dates are this desert area and across the border of California in the Imperial Valley. During the riding tour it was interesting to learn a few facts about the farm ground that lines Hwy 95 Some of the prime farm ground in the area is family owned and rented out for lettuce, onions and other produce.
When it's available some of this prime ground would most likely sell for as much as $68,000 per acre! It was a beautiful afternoon and we topped off the informative tour with a Date Shake in their gift shop..... I also learned we have about two weeks til the snakes come out...and then KayCee's romps in the desert will cease.

Just More Fun

2011-02-22T13:56:00.010-06:00

Our skies continue to be alive with Marine Corp Air Craft.
Weather has been cool. We took a ride into California yesterday.
I'm looking for a California pin for my collection and once again bombed out.
We had lunch and stopped at a local museum just off the Interstate on the way back.

Have spent quite a bit of time with the friends on our street. There's been lots of shows and entertainment here every day and most nights.

We spotted this balloon going up on the way back home yesterday.
Today DH is golfing with 3 guys and I am going to the Date farm with 3 girls. When we get back we get to attend the 7 pm Oak Ridge Boys Show here at our Community Room.
They arrived early this morning and the place has been a bustling ever since. Not much news. We looked around outside the Museum of History in Granite, but it was late in the afternoon, so didn't stay and tour. We will do that another day.
The day is warming up, there's no wind and it should be a good day at the date farm!

Yuma Marine Corp Air Station

2011-02-17T13:33:00.017-06:00

We spent a few very interesting hours taking a tour of the Marine Corp Air Station this week. About three times a year during the winter months the Marines invite the public to tour their facility and look at their operations and equipment.
We drove through gate 8 and a couple miles down the road we came to a big parking lot where we waited for the next available tour bus. An absolutely beautiful morning, we were able to watch some jets taking off and landing. It was 9 a.m. and a few tour busses had already left for the tour, it appeared as if it was in full swing! They only offer the tours from 9 - 10:30 in the morning. Our tour guide was Lance Corporal - soon to be Corporal, Jakob Schulz from Chicago.
He works in PR for the Air Station, writes stories for the Station's paper, The Desert Warrior and he is being deployed to Afghanistan in March. Our driving tour took us past several sets of Barracks, the Physical Training facility, a couple of simulators that trains the marines for a vehicle roll over.
They looked like a carnival ride! We continued on past the Ceremonial field, where there was an actual Ceremony taking place, a changing of the guard or some such thing.
The drum and bugle corp, dressed in red were practicing also on another outside field.
The base reminds me of the Ft. Carson Army Post at Colorado Springs, a city within a city, they can operate fully without leaving the base for months at a time. They provide housing barracks for single soldiers, and houses for married soldiers and familys. Recreational Facilities and all of their training and equipment buildings. We arrived at the main Aviation building where we disembarked from the bus and were led through the doors and out onto the main tarmac.
On display there were several pieces of support equipment. A rescue helicopter, a Harrier Jet and it's pilot, a tiger jet an ambulance and several different weapons.

We see these helicopters flying over our park all the time and the jets are always practicing formations, take offs and landings right over the middle of town. Yes they are noisy, and that day we learned that we now have a bigger F35C jet here and it's even more noisy....but it's a good noisy because they are learning to keep us safe. It's awesome to be able to watch them every day and was fantastic to be able to see them up close.
The Military Police unit were there with their dogs that they use for search and subduing criminals. One had actually been deployed overseas. These demonstrations were awesome, and I would never want to be taken down by those dogs. They hit really hard. Several interesting facts about the base.
The 214 Blacksheep Squadron that is based there was depicted in the movie "Top Gun." The 211 Avengers, a Marine Attack Squadron earned the nickname of "Wake" due to its heroic defense of the Wake Island(Japan) in December 1941. Tiger jets are used as decoys for the bigger performance jets.
The smaller camo jet that folks climbed on was a tiger jet. The pilot of the Harrier jet told some pretty incredible stories of his experiences and I could have listened to him for a lot longer. There is only 6 bolts that hold the wings on a Harrier Jet.That makes loading and assembling quicker and easier. The one big Airstrip here is 3 miles long. It makes Yuma third in line to receive a shuttle landing if Florida and California doesn't work. The next time that the gates will be open is March 26th for the annual Air Show, and I will be at that for sure. Lots of people parked across 32street and were taking advantage of a great photo opportunity that day....I'm sure they got some awesome pictures. I didn't even take my big camera, thinking they wouldn't allow pics...so these were taken with my phone. Next time I will know better and will get good ones!The skies are alive again today, and just as I am writing this, two great big copters circled over head. I couldn't even get my camera out quick enough, but I'm sure I'll get more opportunities.

Valentines Day

2011-02-15T08:33:00.005-06:00

We had a very laid back V Day yesterday....it started out with a gift. I gave my husband a coffee in the morning with all our friends on the patio.
I made two pans of Cinnamon Rolls the night before and baked them in the morning. So we had a visit on the patio and enjoyed the morning sun. DH went for a bike ride with a neighbor and the neighbor had a wreck and fell off his bike!

After 15 miles they made it back safely and we sat on the patio again. Everybody must have liked it so much, they came back for Happy Hour and that was my day! That's the laid back version of life at the Palms....or a day in the life of MsKay...oh yeah, I almost forgot.a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ahSqmheyYwo/TVqSoc7A2NI/AAAAAAAADJ0/Ba2uhMYmCwc/s1600/DSCN3122.JPG">
I did 3 loads of laundry. This morning we are off and running and about to leave to take a tour of the Marine Corp Air Station. They give tours once a month. Hopefully I'll have some thing interesting to share from that.

Yuma's Agriculture

2011-02-10T13:36:00.012-06:00

The harvest of the latest crop here is winding up. I am fascinated about the process of getting the crops out of the fields here. There are several different varieties of lettuce....broccoli.....cauliflower, cabbage and carrots.
Groves of orange, lemon and tangelo trees line the street that runs through Yuma, and covers the land to the south. There are date farms.....and cotton is another large crop produced in the area. We have a great selection of fresh produce.
The semis full of cases of lettuce and cauliflower come and go from the 9 different cooling plants in this area.
We are blessed with lots of roadside farm stands to get our produce and we even have a stand here in the resort. The workers in the fields are basically of Mexican Nationality. They are bussed in daily in white school busses and the have a traier behind their bus with two portable bathrooms.
They pick and sort the produce and load it with a conveyor belt to the bins that are taken to the packaging plants.

The workers are allowed to do business here before they are bussed back across the border at night. Basically the fields are cleaned and planted right back to back.
The main irrigation used is a flooding technique, and they have lots of irrigation ditches but we have seen some sprinkler systems too. Fertilizer is applied with smaller applicators.
I suppose because of the super sandy soil and the super hot summer temps they can grow crops year round here, I just know I like this area because it has lots more green fields and green trees then the desert valley south of Phoenix and reminds me of home on the plains.

Block Party on Antigua Street

2011-02-09T21:00:00.008-06:00

This crew doesn't really need an excuse to gather, and most days there's a group of chairs sitting in front of one motorhome or another right here in the middle of the block.
They either coffee or have Happy Hour and try to solve the problems of the world. Well, this time it was a couple's 41 Wedding Anniversary and the guys got together an organized a formal "Block Party/BarBQue" in their honor! So far this week both has been sick with the flu, and we were holding our breaths that they would make it, and they both did.
We had lots of wind yesterday, so the other breath holding was for a nice day! It was, and it all came together very nicely. DH collected a little money from all..then he and Jim went to Sams and got supplies. They made the marinade and started the Beer/Pepper/Onion Brats soaking yesterday.
I put the cole slaw together this morning and the rest just fell into place. Turned out to be a very good meal, and a good time was had by all...
we had Marita's Sirius Boom Box - Led Zepplins "Immigrant Song" - while The Marine Corp Air Station provided us with a 4 copter Fly over while we sat out and enjoyed the afternoon.
I think we ended up with 45 people and one staff from the resort came and joined in. While this park is made up largely of Canadians...we were represented by Missouri, Montana, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota today.

DH is having a blast here.

Car Show and Burger Bash

2011-01-31T21:28:00.009-06:00

The Palms RV Resort is doing a real good job this time providing us visitors with plenty of activities and entertainment. Every Saturday they have a "Burger Bash" around the pool with some type of theme.
This past week was Elvis week and they had an Antique Car Show and Elvis impersonator for the music around the pool.
It was open to the public and in talking with some folks, they said that 1800 burgers were sold and they went through 29 kegs of beer.
More people than I've ever seen around the pool and in the courtyard.
It was a real nice afternoon and everyone had a good time. The car show was excellent, and lots of great cars to drool over.
Once again I was pleasantly suprised with this resort and feel very fortunate to be here.
This Friday they have an "Abba" concert. The Burger Bash will be In Park and Guests only so the crowd will be much less, but
I think we'll still have a good time.

Day Trip to Quartzsite

2011-01-29T22:48:00.015-06:00

We left home at daybreak and made our way north up Hwy 95 about 80 miles to the town of Quartzsite.
It is located at the junction of 95 and I 10 just east of the California border.
During the months of December January and February the population of this very small place explodes by many thousands, as it becomes the biggest RV meeting and Swap meet in the nation. A big top tent is erected and holds different events on different weekends. This weekend is the last of the RV Show and they will have an Arts and Craft Show and Rock and Gem show in February.
About 5 miles south of town we began to see lots of RVs "boondocking" and the closer we got the greater the masses became! The town itself was a bit overwhelming and it had not even begun to wake up yet. We stopped off at the edge of town to get our bearings and turned in behind the Main Street Traders location to find a central place to park.

We happened onto the cemetary and learned a little of the history and lore of the town's beginnings and the camel herd that used to roam the area.
A legendary gent, Hi-Jolly is explained in a plaque at the cemetary.
After spending some time and money in the Hardies bead store..we browsed through some of the other trader's tents in that central location until it was time for lunch.
We met some of our Escapee friends that moved up from Yuma last week. Silly Al's is notorious for their pizza, so we sat around a table for eight, swapped some more stories and made up some new ones.
Enjoyed lunch and all too soon had to say good-bye once more for now. I'm sure we will meet again!
DH and I went back to the Main Street merchants for a while, and then finally made it to one of the RV Stores....RV Lifestyles....and back. The traffic at this point was a bumper to bumper crawl both ways. We drove down the main street by the bigtop....stopped and browsed the outer booths, and never made it into the Main Big tent!
The whole place is rather overwhelming to me, and it would take days and days to see it all. I'm sure it's the place to be if you are in need of anything for the RV lifestle from Rigs to tools, kitchen gadgets to rocks, beads and crafts. There's even portable Service Bays set up for repairs. Everyone should experience that event, and I think I'll go back before it's over this year and probably go again next year too! About 17 miles south of Q is a place that we spotted along the highway in the morning...
The Stone Cabin....it was the perfect place to stop as the afternoon sun was going down. I was in the mood for a cool drink...DH headed for the ice cream....however will I keep his cholesterol in check? lol The traffic was heavy for while, but thinned out soon after we started for home.
I think quite a few rigs are starting to leave the area. We saw lots on the roads, but it still leaves many for miles and miles around Q. It's definitely going to be worth a repeat visit, but for now, I can say that I definitely survived my very first trip!

Pizza Party at DeBoyz

2011-01-26T15:39:00.008-06:00

Although the Escapees Reunion in the desert has now passed, a few folks stayed behind here in the city of Yuma. Was in contact with a couple of folks wanting to get together again.
We headed downtown yesterday to DaBoyz, which is in Old Town Yuma to meet with 3 other couples from the Escapees KOFA COOP park. That place has turned in to one of my favorite places! I love the atmosphere there and their food is excellent. Although no reservations were made, and there were 8 people, they gave us our own room, the Elvis Room, and we were seated around a round table, a great set up for visiting with a bunch. The wait staff was excellent and they have gone out of their way to make us comfortable.
We had so much food brought into that room, I thought we'd never get through it!It just kept coming and coming! The small salad is big enough to feed four easily and ours had a funny face looking back at us! If you have the chance...please take the time to have that experience when you're in Yuma! Our friends from the Reunion invited two other Canadian couples to dine with us.
It was fun to meet and visit with them. The bonus of the evening for me was that Toni had been the benefactor of some local lemons and made a lemon meringue pie, through the forum I had mentioned that it was my favorite pie of all times, and she brought me a piece! I had it for lunch today and it was very yummy! Thanks Toni! Seems like our whole existence the last few weeks has been food based and I guess thats what happens when you have gatherings with new friends and they don't drink or play sports!
It seemed like just a short time, and we were back on the road for home and on to play Cribbage in our Tuesday night group. Today I have been takin it easy, doing some mundane financial stuff and getting some cleaning done. DH is busy organizing a block party for us in a couple weeks to honor one of our neighbors for their anniversary. Once again we will eat! I'm thankful I don't have to organize or cook or anything, just show up! This week is in honor of Elvis here at The Palms. The dance tomorrow night and the Burger Bash will use that theme. It should be another fun weekend.

All Good Things

2011-01-23T16:14:00.009-06:00

Well, the time has come...the 2011 Class of '08 Reunion in the Desert has ended. It was such a blast getting together and meeting with everyone. We had some pretty good visits and great food.
Looking forward to seeing some of you that stayed around here for a few days, and will catch some of you on the move...somewhere down the road. We are staying put here at The Palms in Yuma until April. In March we will be attending Nick's Gypsy Journal Rally here at the Fairgrounds, which is right down the street from us. Once again we will not relocate our rig, but go in on a day pass. Our days have continued to be busy. This week we had a Country Western dance, the Canadians had a parade Saturday morning to Salute Canadian Week here at the park.
Check out the goggles on this dog riding in the parade,what a hoot!
It was fun to see all the Canadians dressed in their National Colors,representing their different provinces while displaying flags. In February they will have America Week....don't know what we'll do for that. Saturday, our neighbors here on Antigua street, and ourselves got together for the weekly Burger Bash by the pool and this weeks live entertainment was a comedian/auctioneer.
After an entertaining lunch we decided to give the ground shuffleboard courts a try. There's just enough for two teams, and we not only played in the afternoon, but returned to the courts for another game after supper under the lights.
Yes we got our butts handed to us both times! It's really not as easy as it looks. Today I'm spending some quality time with the dog and getting some laundry done. DH went to Yuma's Gun Club, joined the Club and shot blue rocks so he's keeping his aim polished up for next year's hunting season. It's almost hard to decide what to do next. One of our neighbors went to an Orchard down the street and picked a ton of Oranges and divided them between us, so I got busy and made fresh orange juice this morning.
The produce and citrus is fantastic around here.

Da Boyz

2011-01-19T21:10:00.007-06:00

Being busy has it's advantages. Time passes quickly! No grass is growing under our feet and every day so far is filled with activities. We have had several meetings of the Escapees out at the BLM land. A great pot luck Monday night. Today DH started the day off with an 8:23 tee time at Los Barracas golf course out foothills. I went to Line Dancing class at 10:00.
When the golf game ended, it was after noon and warming right up, so DH went to the pool for a while and then it was time to get ready to meet our group of friends at an Italian Restaurant in Old Yuma called "Da Boyz."
They have an excellent menu, with everything from pizza to pastas and salads to deserts.
It was great and I'm so full! Once again we had fun chatting about our different activities and taking pictures with every one.
It was nice to have our own room for our party. Tomorrow is one more trip to the desert and quick supper, before we head back into town for the weekly dance, which this week's theme and band is country western, so we should enjoy it. The weather here has been picture perfect, getting into the 80s in the day time and 50 at night. The skies in the evening are rosy and look like cotton candy!
I have to pinch myself every once in a while...it can't get much better than this!

Always Room for New Friends

2011-01-15T08:23:00.007-06:00

This week we've been burning the candle at both ends! A group of folks that entered the RV Lifestyle when we did in '08 - we call us the "Class of 08" are having a reunion gathering on the BLM land west of Yuma just across the California line.
We email and talk on a blog forum through the Escapees group but I have never met them in person....until now. It is so nice to be able to put a face with a name!
What fun. They are "boondocking" in the desert in a group, and we will be "tailgating" with lawn chairs since our coach is set up on a lot here for 3 months. Tuesday night was our Cribbage Game here at the park. We went out and visited in the desert Wednesday after DH and Ed played golf.
Thursday three couples went shopping at the Indoor and Outdoor Marketplaces. DH got a wonderful new hat! :€
Last night we met at the Quechan Casino for their seafood buffet. Thursday night we had to sqeeze in a 50s-60s dance here at the Palms with our neighbors and today we have a Harley Davidson Motorcycle Show and "Burger Bash" around the pool with a live band. Later this afternoon we will go back out to the desert and visit with our graduating class...and meet more of those folks that have showed up the last couple of days. It is warming up nicely in the daytime and not getting quite so cold at night. The wind blew pretty hard yesterday...it wasn't a day to be outside...but today is supposed to be nice. Next week in the 80s. One of these days I'll stay home and get some work done. One of these days!

Life at The Palms

2011-01-12T10:05:00.008-06:00

This morning DH went golfing and I decided to walk around the park. The sun was just coming up and the streets were still quiet. I am amazed at the amount of building that is going on here in this community, and not sure that I understand the concept but the ammenities here are wonderful and it is a very safe secure community.
There are some pretty fantastic looking structures, and then some rather ordinary ones.
The Palms is a park that is very versitile, where you can buy a lot just for your motorhome or 5th wheel, you can have a small "Casita" on the side just for storage and maybe a bathroom.
Then there are those that are bigger living spaces and garages. I have gone around and picked out my favorites, however, I think if you were going to put this much money and work down for a few months, I would look at other real estate here. We drove around a neighborhood a couple of days ago that had some very beautiful homes and when I'm done running around the country, I could be happy in Yuma.
We would have to do the exact opposite that we do to get away from the cold, and get away from the heat of the summer! I will share some pics of some of my favorites here, and the beautiful grounds.
We finally met up with some more folks that we had never met from our Escapees Retirement Class of '08. We had a nice visit with them and will be getting together more in the coming week for our reunion. Tomorrow we will meet up at the Outdoor Marketplace that is just down the street. That place has many vendors and you can get anything and everything. I wouldn't call it a Swap meet, because most of the stuff there is new. There has been a little more air activity lately with jets and helicopters from the Marine Corp Air Station about a half mile from here. They are having an open house with tours and fly overs in a couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to that. Seems like jets are not the only thing flying, time is also flying. I have to get serious about planning a trip to Quartzsite Arizona to the huge RV gathering up there before the end of the month. The first part of February we will be going to California for a few days. I have a feeling this three months is just going to "FLY" right by.

Friday before Saturday!

2011-01-07T19:58:00.007-06:00

I had really good intentions to spend the day doing absolutely nothing. At least nothing I didn't want to do! That didn't work out, and the day's almost over. I have been a little lax in posting and haven't taken many pictures since we've arrived here in Yuma. We've got set up and acclimated now. Today was a work day. I got up and made Chicken and Noodles right off the bat..even before breakfast. The neighbor across the street was having his coach washed today and when he made the appointment I asked if he would go ahead and make one for us too, so we could get the road grime washed off.
Now we're nice and sparkly clean for the moment. The same guys washed and polished us today that did it back in April last year. There's lots of activity here, sales of lots and construction of Casitas all around.
Today I watched a coach come in and I watched him turn around and leave. I think there's no vacancy here now. The helicopter unit that graced us with their training schedule last year at the Marine Corp Air Base down the street are nowhere to be heard and outside of a couple of commercial passenger flights a day, it is very quiet here.
We have spent a few hours at the Pavillion here. We played cribbage on Tuesday, did laundry, DH played pool on Wednesday night and we have gone to the Fitness Center. This week's theme is "Come Fly With Us" and we attended a very good Pancake Breakfast complete with Blueberry Pancakes and Mimosas. It's been too cold for this chick to get in the pool...I tried that last year and got sick twice. We ran around yesterday, walking around the Indoor Marketplace swap meet...it is awesome and having lunch at a Wienersnitzel outside. Still a little breezy and cool to eat hot dogs outside, but today the breeze died and it was above 70...there's hope. Tomorrow is the Up, Up and Away Burger Bash by the pool, complete with live music.
We have tickets to that and also got tickets to the Oak Ridge Boys. They will play here in February in our Ballroom. We could be busy every minute of the day with some exercise or class of some kind. This place is pretty awesome.
Tomorrow we will also try to squeeze in a walk through the huge outside Swap Meet Arena just down the street. I will spend time doing nothing....one of these days!

Enough With the Weather!

2011-01-01T22:13:00.009-06:00

I think it's either a bad coincidence or we're having in a very uncommon weather pattern! They said that it was warm in Arizona! They lied!
This is what it looked like in Nebraska when we left Monday morning! We made it to Deming New Mexico, which is on the south end of the State on I 10. We had to spend two nights there instead of one, due to a Blizzard! It got down to 22 degrees,and our Aqua-Hot heating system is getting a hard workout! Before we could leave the campground in Deming, DH had to crawl up on the top of the motorhome and use my blow dryer to thaw the slide toppers in order to roll in the slide outs and get ready to go.
We were able to get on the road towards Arizona about 11 a.m. and there was snow on the mountains, hills and the desert floor all the way to the Arizona border and then it went away for a bit but then more snow on the peaks around Tucson.
The white stuff faded away the farther north we came,Picacho Peak was clear.
Only the remnants of heavy rain remained all around when we pulled in to the Desert Valley Resort at Eloy.

This is just crazy! The sun came out today and it was in the 50s but it's still too dang cold and we'll just have to put up with this until Mother Nature decides to quit throwing such a fit. We're having a whirlwind weekend, trying to fit in all of the visiting with our friends here in this area before we move on to Yuma on Monday. We will be heading up to Chandler (south Phoenix) tomorrow afternoon to meet up with one of DH's hunting buddies for supper. We will be heading farther West on I 8 Monday to our winter destination where it's always supposed to be the warmest. We will see.....

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T06:57:00.003-06:00

This past year has been fulfilling and fun.
We are looking forward to this new year and are very blessed and Thank God that our family is busy and strong. This summary of our past year .... We have enjoyed all of the fruits of our years of labor...The Grandkids are growing quickly and their parents are providing them with a good life... I think we as parents gave them a good foundation. We are very happy in our Adventurous lifestyle and have kept busy and away from illness. DH has got to accomplish more in the past year than ever before, spending the winter golfing and hunting in AZ, meeting new friends, Attending National Drag Racing events, participating in the Baja 1000 Rally and fishing in Mexico, a fishing trip to Catalina Island and walking on the beach in Carlsbad Ca. for his birthday. Hiking in Glacier National Park and lunching in Canada, catching the biggest Walleye of his life in North Dakota. Hunting this fall, he harvested 63 Pheasants from Nebraska fields. We visited several friends and a few casinos along the way too. We attended a Tea Party Rally in Iowa to be informed and learn more about the Constitution and making positive changes for the good of our country. The weather was tolerable for the most part, minus the dust storms and flooding rains in AZ. last winter. We avoided most of the summer heat but got caught in a bit of a tornadic wind by Omaha Nebraska this fall! I like to think I have done a good job keeping DH busy and interested in life. We fit together well...because some of his activities were made possible through some of my interests! I.E. my love of Drag Racing and now my wonderful drag racing family! I have gained peace and satisfaction from guiding us along and watching him play! We have a very special German Shorthair companion, KayCee Marie...that we both love and adore! People ask about what New Year's Resolutions I have! None. I just Thank God for all we have and all of you! I will just keep on keepin' on until it's not fun anymore! As we start the next Chapter of Adventures, we want to wish all of you a very Happy New Year! We'll see ya next trip!

Another Chapter Begins

2010-12-30T15:47:00.005-06:00

The newest Chapter of the adventure began this past Monday. We left the Subaru in Storage, hooked the Suburban up to the coach Tuesday morning after semi arranging things and headed south on I25. The first long day ended at a rest area on I 40 for the night. Not a terrible night but not my choice of spots, we needed to be safe after discovering we had no tail lights! Yesterday we got a head start and was on the road just past daylight. We weren't expecting to get very far due to high wind warnings and an impending storm. To our suprise, we were able to put over 300 miles on and get to Deming New Mexico before calling it a day. The wind wasn't too bad but I was ready to be done. I had watched to weather map all day whenever I had service and knew the storm was coming, so it was good to be off the road and in a park. We took a trip to Walmart to pick up a couple of things, DH found the blown fuse for the tail lights and I promptly got grit in my eyes, I had forgotten what it's like to be outside in blowing desert dust! We were suprised to have a call from some friends in the Escapees Club that we had only talked to on the net or phone. They were stopped here too and staying right down the road. They are from Oklahoma.... We have had fun chiding about the two state's football rivalry this fall and they are on their way to the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix on Saturday. We will watch Nebraska in their bowl game on TV tonight. It was nice to finally meet and put faces with their names. We went to breakfast and hung out today.
It was a blast, even if it was snowing! I really thought I was escaping from the north having not seen any snow at all this year, but apparently god had other plans!Carol taught me a bunch of things about my photos and organizing them and other stuff in my computer and the men visited as we sat in my warm cozy coach! She is a professional Photographer and I am so glad we met. We have son's that were in Iraq at the same time, among other things that we are learning about each other. The waitress at breakfast said it doesn't snow in Deming....that's why we have about a half inch on the ground and watched a blizzard! Today we had rocking winds, and then snow..and then a blizzard and now the sun is out! Go figure. I think we will continue on tomorrow to Eloy. I'm hoping the weather system will be behind us. We have 267 miles to go to get to our New Year's eve destination and tickets to go see a friend play a show in Casa Grande AZ. I'm looking forward to listening to him play and partying the night away! hahahahaha I'm the designated driver! I don't think it will be appropriate golf weather and we will continue on over to Yuma the first of the week. We are very glad to have met some more new friends and they will be at Yuma, so will see them again soon!

Merry Belated Christmas!

2010-12-26T07:52:00.012-06:00

We have been crazy busy for the last 3 days! Delivering presents, and spending a couple of days with my sons and their families. We had a fantastic time at my best friend's new house and Santa Clause was very good to everybody.

A friend shared this thought with us, and I'd like to pass it on to all of you......

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

We had a college student from China join us that is attending the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
It was nice to be able to visit with her, she spoke pretty good English, but didn't understand a lot of words. After presents in the morning, she said that our family got more presents than she received in 18 years! The culture is a lot different and more modest in their celebrations. They don't celebrate Christmas, so she was very fascinated. I got DH and both boys remote control helicopters this year. They are fascinating and it was a good time watching the boys play with something other than guns and Cabelas stuff.

We all ate too much. Many goodies and a big dinner. I had a good time in the new kitchen! Thank you Mary and Karen! We are truly blessed.
The day was complete with being able to share the day with Izzy and Emma...they are as spoiled as KayCee Marie! Good thing our travel plans are written in Jello...was planning on leaving this morning, but due to all of the other stuff I was having to remember, I forgot to call the insurance company on Friday and take the coach out of storage. Will wait til tomorrow and in the meantime, I have today to rest! I woke up as usual before 6 and looked outside to find everything covered in White! We didn't have a white Christmas, but it snowed just a skiff last night and all of the trees are frosty and beautiful this morning. We hit the road tomorrow!

Small Hen Party

2010-12-22T21:18:00.005-06:00

Today was the day for the annual hen party. The day that I called a get together with three of my old high school friends. We've remained friends for a lot of years after high school and try to get together whenever possible, which isn't real often since I spend a lot of time away from here now.
A good time was had by all...we had coffee and cinnamon bread and fruit....I'm glad I have some recent pictures to take with me on the road, and it's great to have cell phones and computer access to keep in touch through the year.
I'm baking two dozen Cinnamon rolls in the morning and then tearing my kitchen apart. Lots to do tomorrow.
All ready for Christmas and I am holding my breath that the weather will not make it difficult for those who have to travel tomorrow and Friday. I'm getting excited to see everybody and trying not to think about all I have to do to get ready to travel. DH had his last hunt today, he took our old neighbor and went on a goose hunt to Grand Island but didn't score any. The end.

Road Trip in the Sandhills

2010-12-17T13:39:00.006-06:00

We've spent the last couple of days visiting our Grandkids in St. Paul Nebraska. While the kids were in school yesterday we went for a road trip north into the sandhills of Nebraska and made a circle on some of the roads that I used to drive when I worked as a Food Vendor in this state. That job gave me the opportunity to see a lot of country in 4 states and although I had a lot of windshield time traveling from one account to another, I enjoyed the countryside and vowed to revisit these places one day when I had time to stop and look at things and could share them with DH. The bad deal of the day was that I forgot the camera, but got a couple of pictures with my phone that I needed to share with my son. This is Richard B. Abbreviation for T. Brown. My favorite drummer. He has played in a hard rock band for years, and now has mellowed some and their music is the proof of aging like a fine wine!
The opportunity presented itself and we dropped the kids off at school and treked north on State Hwy 11, a small two lane highway to Burwell NE, the home of Nebraska's largest rodeo. On the way, we stopped in the town of Ord and drove around a bit. There has been tons of changes there since I have been there. On up the road, we took a break at a working Chalk mine, but didn't have time for a tour. Then on to Burwell for lunch and also just a few more miles out to the Calamus Reservoir. I thought that even with the freezing temps and frozen water, we may find wildlife and birds. There was still an open place on the water in the center, and it was filled with geese. On the drive across the dam, we spotted a bald Eagle soaring around, scoping out the edges of the lake for morsels of food. We stopped at a old fashioned 50s diner for lunch and then since we were passing through the town of Sargent, we stopped to scope out the venue that will host my sons new band, Whiskey Richard, for New Years Eve.
It seems like a long way up there to play for one night, but it is his hobby and passion to play the drums. What ever makes him happy.
I haven't heard this new group of guys, and I won't hear them this time and we will be in AZ by then, but at least I can say that I have been there and the advertising is proof! He couldn't figure out why we were in Sargent yesterday! That's just me, ya never know where we're gonna turn up! We traveled over 200 miles and back to St. Paul in time to pick the kids up at 3:30...we headed back home last night, another 100 miles that seemed farther late at night and in the dark. At least it wasn't freezing rain like it was the night before. Needless to say, I'm not getting a darn thing done today....I'm wiped out!

Wind is Definitely NOT My Friend!

2010-12-11T21:01:00.003-06:00

I wonder if anybody has ever gone crazy from listening to the wind blow? Well let me tell ya, I think I'm pretty close! We have had severe winds and gusts up in the 50mph range today...all day! I'm getting pretty sick of listening to it. It was about 19 degrees this morning and the others in this house went hunting anyway. I think they are already crazy. They didn't get any birds, and I thought they would probably end up in Kansas for sure. I took a trip around town to do some errands, and on the way back home I had to dodge a big red plastic box blowing through the air! I didn't stick my nose out the rest of the day. It's getting a little (lot) too cold for me now. Temps are dropping lower and lower at night. Down to 7 tonight and maybe 3 in the morning. It's hard to believe that a friend and I went shopping on the 10th of December and didn't wear coats! It was a beautiful day. I am starting to track the weather patterns and I'm holding my breath that things remain calm from Colorado south, so we can make a run for it. If the winds blow like today, we won't move. Too many things get broke and it's too expensive for my liking, it's easier to sit it out. I'm hoping we don't have to back track to the east and then south to avoid Raton pass...but if we do, it'll take us into Amarillo and I kinda like to stop there anyway! Our schedule is pretty full from now to the 25th. We got all new tires on the Suburban on Friday and have an appointment to get some issues repaired on Tuesday next week...just another thing to check off my list. Getting my ducks in a row! I have baking to do for the next few days and a little shopping to finish up. I won't attempt stores on the weekends now, they're much too crazy. DH is getting a new toy if I can sneak away long enough. (shhh!!)He's fascinated by these remote control helicopters that he's seen in the mall....and I figure it's something you get someone who has everything!An inside toy. Me? I'm wishing for an I Pad and a Kayak!!!!!

Endings and Beginnings

2010-12-05T11:01:00.009-06:00

Pretty quiet on the home front these days. We attended one of our Grandson's Christmas Music and P.E. Program. He is in the 3rd grade.
It was interesting to see how they combine different activities now and back when our kids were in school all we did was stand there and sing. They really had fun and it was more enjoyable for the spectators. Our Granddaughter Addison kept us entertained all evening too! She wanted to go down and help Jaron juggle in the worst way! He doesn't like to sing, but he sure can perform! !

This week here it was announced that we would lose our Duckwalls store. I am sad, this is one of the only stores left in town and it was nice. Kind of a small Walmart. The future of this community is becoming more uncertain, thank you recession and downed economy. We lost yet another important person in our community this week. An employee of our convenience store passed away. Pat was always friendly and helpful and she had lived in this town as long as I can remember. We are most definitely seeing an end to a generation and it's sad. I hate to see all these endings. On she beginnings front, it's a mere 20 days until Christmas and 21 days until we hit the road again. I'm starting to gather, organize and store things away. I spent the day yesterday fixing a complete Thanksgiving dinner...nevermind that it was a week or two late. I didn't have any left overs and found a recipe for a brined turkey, soaked in Apple Cider, Salt, sage and vegatables for 3 days, then dried off, rubbed with butter and seasonings and roasted. Not difficult and it is delicious. After all that work we spent the evening watching the Cornhuskers play in their final Big 12 Championship game against Oklahoma. A really close game and the Huskers didn't perservere in the end. The only word I have for that is Frustrating....Good game Boomer Sooners! They played the Oklahoma Fight song so much I woke up with that in my head....now it's time to move on. I have almost 60 days until NHRA Racing begins. The first race of the season, the Winter Nationsls are in Pamona California, and I may go that weekend. DH likes the motorcycles and I like Thunder Alley and the smell of Nitro in the morning! I'm looking forward to our next adventures.

The Day After...

2010-11-27T14:34:00.008-06:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Turkey Day, eating, relaxing and visiting with family and friends. We drove all day on Wednesday to Kansas City, and spent a wonderful day in Missouri at my Sister in Law's house, even though it never got over 35 degrees.The hearty kids took advantage of the sprawling 6 acres and still played outside most of the day.
We had a big turn out with over 20 adults and about 20 children. The house is nice and big, and a full basement..thank goodness.
The adults had their usual Pitch marathon and we had a wonderful meal.
Our nephew returned from Afghanistan and it was wonderful to at least spend the day with him. He looked healthy, fit and had great news that he wouldn't be re-deployed for at least 3 years, if he stays in at his reinlistment time.
Our family has grown leaps and bounds, most of the nieces and nephews have children of their own. It was a great day to be Thankful. After a nice breakfast with our oldest son and his family in K.C. we spent the better part of Black Friday driving back home. Once again we have hunters here and DH is gone hunting and will continue well into this next week.
I'm spending the time organizing our photos and completing some projects. It's hard to believe that in 30 days it will be time to hit the trail again!
We are truly blessed.

Goooood Morning Nebraska!!!!

2010-11-19T09:50:00.008-06:00

The frost is most definitely on the pumpkin, and on my back yard, the sunrises are pretty awesome too!
The time change is still getting to me, or at least that's what I blame it on. It could just be my motor mind is in gear and I don't want to miss anything. I've been waking up at 5:30 and always up before 6.
Its still dark! It has ben a good start to my days, in that I get my exercise in and morning chores and still have a lot of the day to do things I need to do.
The rolls are in the oven this morning, as I'm getting ready for grandkids and their mom to arrive this afternoon.
They will spend the weekend here with us, hunting with grandpa and we will watch the Cornhuskers on tv. There's a front coming in bringing some freezing drizzle for tomorrow but Sunday is supposed to be nice.
We've been invited to a special shopping event Sunday evening at DH's beloved Cabela's, so I'm browsing and making a list. Just one of the benefits of a black Cabela's card. The discounts won't hurt a bit this time of year, when we will be buying from them anyway! I have all of my medical appointments done now. A very good report from the Doctor at least.
I sent DH off to see his Dr. this morning. He already had his bloodwork done so it should be a short appointment. Now I am planning for the trip to Missouri next week and our Thanksgiving gathering. Time is definitely marching and as soon as we get back from Missouri, it'll be time to start planning for the move southwest. I better get up and do something, the day is getting away from me!

Hunting and Hibernating

2010-11-12T17:46:00.009-06:00

DH is busy with the first one, and I'm handling the hibernating part! The weather here is a lot colder now. We dodged a big snow bullet, as it was forecast for last night and I got up this morning expecting a white ground but was pleasantly suprised to find that it missed us.
We did however get a nice rain last night and we need the moisture here, it's been really dry the last couple of months. I'm not ready for dreary days like it has been today, and is very chilly.
It makes me want to curl up in a blanket and I don't get anything done. Corn harvest is officially over, and the hunting season for Pheasant is in full swing. This is DH and our friend from CO. The little dog is his King Charles Spaniel, Henry. DH won't admit it, but he is quite partial to this little fella! Every picture I have seen, he's holding Henry! Deer season opens in the morning and my son will be in his blind before first light.
DH and KayCee are busy hunting with my oldest son at Dan's brothers place so I have a weekend of peace and quiet. The last couple of weeks have been tedious ones as I've had dentist appointments a week apart and am so glad that's over as I want to feel like doing things again. I need to get busy and create the yearly Pheasant recipe, but haven't felt like it. Today I baked cookies in my new oven and trying to get used to it. I'm heading out to do a little shopping tomorrow. Everybody is boasting big sales like black friday. I did the black friday shopping thing once a couple of years ago, and won't do that again! I can't believe how crazy some people are. This time here in Nebraska hasn't been all fun and games, as we've really been busy going through drawers, nooks and crannys and getting rid of old papers and junk. DH has shredded 20+ Walmart bags full of old paper. I dismantled my old office. Now that I'm not working and I have a laptop that's portable, I don't use my office only to collect stuff. I can't believe I've saved all this! Trying to get the boys to take their stuff home that I've saved for them...and that's like pulling teeth! Stuff is the nice word! So far no luck. Several small repairs inside are in the works and by the time we go to Yuma, I will be ready for a break.

Beautiful Sunday Drive

2010-10-25T09:33:00.010-05:00

Every year in the fall I like to take one last ride on a nice day and get some pictures of the Harlan County Reservoir and the Republican River Valley. Yesterday was a beautiful day. I fear they are numbered now, and things are only going to go downhill weather wise.It is a stark contrast to last year when we were already dealing with cold wet weather.
We drove to all of the familiar places, stopping off at a bridge over the Republican River. Plenty of water running this year. It's been an exceptionally good year for the river. The sun always gives the trees such a dramatic look.
The Methodist Corp of Engineers Campground is very empty now, but one boat was just leaving the dock to take advantage of one of the last days on the water.
The Rotary Club has taken the time to adopt an area by the campground and make an Arbortorium.
One lonely dandelion peaked through the leaves and I spotted one of the prettiest Maple Trees ever. It looked as if it was on fire!
We carried on across the dam, and up to the Patterson Point Shelter House, where we had a picnic lunch in the sun! Where does the spoiled brat KayCee sit?
Anywhere she wants to, obviously! She is getting very excited now to be outside and she loves to run and hunt, but there's always time to stop and share mom's lunch! There's still lots of leaves on the trees, and crops in the fields.

A cold front is sweeping across the state today and tonight, so this week will start to feel more like fall. I'm beginning to prepare for a weekend full of company, and the next month will be extremely busy for us. Yesterday was just a nice way to commemorate another beautiful day in Harlan County!

Fall in the Sticks... n Bricks

2010-10-20T15:39:00.009-05:00

We're having an absolutely great fall season here in South Central Nebraska! The leaves are falling and that's lots better than ice and snow!
That will all come soon enough. We could in fact use some precipitation here now. Corn harvest is in full swing and ahead of schedule, if the weather holds for the rest of the week, they will be farther ahead than ever!
Sunday we spent the afternoon with our twin grandbabies, walking around a lake, feeding ducks and playing at the playground.
They are about 18 months and growing like weeds. You can't tell they were premies. Here at home I have been busy cleaning up and cleaning out.
I can't believe how much junk I have. DH has been busy with all kinds of small projects around here, plus a few rounds of golf and preparations for the Pheasant Season. Last weekend he helped our chapter of Pheasants Forever with their Youth Mentor Hunt. It's nice that they take time out with kids that don't know about hunting to keep the sport alive.
Our son in Colorado called just now, and he is just returning to Colorado Springs from Elk Hunting in the mountains above Glenwood Springs....finally successful after 4 seasons. Way to go Kyle!
It's another beautiful day, our house looks good on the outside from the new paint job, I took a walk this morning and got some pictures. Yesterday I didn't have the camera ready and had a herd of 17 turkeys walk next to the house. Gotta love small town America!

Summing up the Summer

2010-10-06T19:40:00.010-05:00

It was a blast! We had a very good travel season. On the way out of Arizona this year, we took time to stop at the Grand Canyon and tour the top part of the state. We still have things that we need to see, but there's always next year.
We experienced our first Earthquake that was a 7.3 at Mexicali Mexico, and felt it south of Phoenix. DH got to drive race cars in a Vintage Car Rally down the Baja Penninsula, and we both used our passports to go into British Columbia north of Kalispell Mt. this summer.
Stopped over in Kansas for DH to have a 40th high school reunion and stopped in Colorado to have a small family reunion and get our Aqua Hot heating system it's annual service. We have done a lot of maintenance and updating to the coach this year. All new tires, all new shocks, 4 chairs recovered and new windshield drape. All fluids and filters changed before putting Betsy in the shed this year, and carpets and tile steam cleaned. The outside polished and sparkling. She's ready to go down the road the end of December. Lets see, we stopped in the northern part of Wyoming for a month. Loved the Deer Park in Buffalo and the Chris LeDoux Dedication in KayCee. Traveled across the southern part of Montana, looking for wildlife and tried our hands at a wet process mining for sapphires around Philipsburg. Just found small ones. We made our way to the Northern Part of Montana, and of the whole season, Kalispell, Big Foot and Glacier is my favorite location. I love the weather and sights in Glacier National Park and the surrounding area.
Cruising on Flathead Lake and meeting up with a musician friend of ours for a visit. We pressed down and back to the east across North Dakota where about mid way through the state, DH caught the biggest Walleye he's ever hooked into! Continuing on East, we traveled into Minnesota where we stopped at a couple of casino rv parks and made a nice donation, helping with the fact that they didn't build those places on winners! The trek from east back to the west into South Dakota occured right before some severe storms and flooding. We barely escaped! Then on through Iowa to attend a freedom Rally/tea party event in Onawa Iowa with a good friend from home.
It was very good to see him and the rally was pretty interesting and entertaining. It was a good reminder for all of us to vote no matter what or who for, and I have already got my absentee ballots filled out ready to go in the mail.
On our way back across Nebraska we got caught in a nasty storm by Omaha, and the angels must be looking over us, because we escaped that with no damage, and several other rigs in the area sustained damage. We touched base with kids on the way across the state, dropped into Kansas and slid into McBs along Interstate 70 for the annual service work...on down the road into Colorado and hung out in Colorado Springs for a couple of weeks before tucking Betsy in the Shed.
It's been a full and active summer. My stint as "Julie the Tour Guide" is over for now. Here at the Sticks and Bricks, we are doing maintenance, cleaning and repairing little things to get ready for the upcoming hunting season. My title has morphed into "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer." Flathead Lake and Nothern Montana is on my favorite's list. I could go back there in a heartbeat. I have learned a lot about my Native American Heritage and much about history and geography of our beautiful land. We are looking forward to the next wave of adventures and great experiences in this grand country of ours. We are extremely fortunate and counting our blessing to have experienced so many awesome things this year.

Last Day in Colorado

2010-10-01T09:00:00.004-05:00

Our last full day in Colorado yesterday was spent in Denver, Lakewood and Red Rocks.
It was an absolutely glorious fall day! It started as a second trip to my Interiors lady who made the new windshield day for our coach.
After installing them I decided we needed to have a couple of alterations so we headed back to her shop. RV Interiors by Donna does an absolute great job with every aspect of the interior of the coach.
While she was working on the drape, we had some free time, so I decided to take DH to one of my favorite teen age haunts. Not a bad childhood when you grew up with a perfect view of the mountains every day and the backdrop of Red Rocks Ampitheater as a teen hide out!
We decided that the exercise walking from the back parking lot would be good since we are conditioning KayCee for hunting.
She did fine, but after 40 years OMG! I forgot how many stairs it is to the top and today my legs are definitely reminding me!Oh the memories! You haven't lived until you've attended a concert in this place!
A lady was singing from the rock ledge at the back of the stage and many were running the stairs.
One guy was jumping down the bleachers side to side, aparently conditioning for skiing. Such fantastic views, but disappointed that the city was overcast with a thick smog...:( No matter how many years go by, I still miss the Mile High City! We stopped at the Red Rocks Trading Post and Visitors Center, then followed up with a lunch at an outdoor cafe in Morrison.
I had to take some pics at Bandimere Speedway, even though no dragsters were present! All locked up? :( I definitely want to catch a national event there.

We took KayCee to a dog park on Alameda Parkway and stopped to get her a treat at a new pet store.
Then it was time to head back to the shop and pick up the drape, head back down C470 just in time for rush hour! I don't miss that. I 25 moved more swiftly than the day before, just as we headed into Colorado Springs, there was a bad accident that caused us to barely move along for over an hour. YUK. Our son and his family grabbed a bucket of Chicken and headed down for a nice sunset supper on the patio. We were just beginning to pack the vehicles. We said our goodbyes and we won't see them again til the end of the month when they will visit us for the opening weekend of Pheasant Season...a wild weekend! This morning I woke at 5 a.m. here..stepped outside and heard the bugles of revoli at Fort Carson. Another great fall day and I am finishing last minute details and getting ready to move out, dumping tanks and cleaning up for the last time for a while. At noon we will be NEBRASKA bound!

Busy in the Springs

2010-09-28T21:18:00.007-05:00

We have had a very busy week, and it isn't nearly over yet!Glad to be out here, and I never get tired of the mountain view!
We are really enjoying the Indian Summer weather and have delayed our departure a few days.
It's great to use the grill and cook out and then sit outside til dark! We haven't been able to do that too much this summer. Between visiting with our son and family and getting our ducks in a row, we haven't had a minutes peace!
It all started in Goodland Kansas when we stopped in at McB's Motors and had the annual service work done to our coach. What would take a couple of hours turned into all day..and kept us there over one extra night. It's okay, as we met another couple that had been stranded there for a few days broke down on vacation and waiting for parts. They were from the St. Louis area, and it really helped pass the time visiting with them. We exchanged info and will keep in touch, hopefully to cross paths again. DH and the gentleman had golf in common so they went to play 9 holes at the golf club and we set off to pick up some parts at the Diesel Place in Colby! We went our seperate ways after having supper at a good restaurant downtown called "Krazy Rs." The next day we ran into rain showers on the way into Colorado Springs and it really dirtied up the coach.
It was time to polish it up anyway, so last weekend we hand polished all of Betsy's 102 feet. She really shines now! So proud of the Mr. getting up on the ladder and re-taping the corners of the slide outs. Today I had the carpets and tile steam cleaned and it look like new in here! Tomorrow a couple from here will come over and look at Betsy because they may be interested in buying her! Isn't that just the way it happens. We were not looking to sell and as soon as we get her all up to speed with new rubber and shocks someone calls! Well, everything is for sale for a price, and if it's meant to be it will be! Then we will be homeless and looking for another coach, but if not, this one is ready to go down the road for another season. My car came out of the shed today, so I will start packing it up tomorrow. We even got our flu shots today because our arms are already sore from polishing so we wouldn't feel any pain! We are waiting for the call from Denver RV Center to go pick up the new windshield drape I had made and for a package in the mail to arrive and we will take Betsy to the shed, bid the kids goodbye til the end of the month when they will trip to Nebraska and then we will head east....

In My Old Backyard

2010-09-19T18:04:00.009-05:00

We have spent the weekend here in Central Nebraska visiting with family and friends. We are staying at the Windmill State Recreation Area, right off of I 80 at the Gibbon NE. exit. It is very nice here, the drive in sites are right along the roads, pretty narrow roads, but paved and adequate. We only have Electic hook up and will have to visit the dump before we leave here this morning. Got to watch the first Nationally broadcast Nebraska Football Game yesterday, way to go Huskers! 3-0 now. We had a nice visit this morning with a friend of ours, who works for the same company that DH retired from and is contemplating retirement this next year and getting into the RV lifestyle on some level. I love showing our coach off and sharing what ever information that I can to help by sharing our experiences, both good and bad. Had a call from a couple that has wintered with us in AZ. They were heading to Casper Wy from Gilette in their motorhome, towing a pick up yesterday,and a Chevy Cobalt crossed two lanes of traffic and took out the whole drivers side of the motorhome. They weren't hurt, but the other driver was life flighted to a hospital. Totaled their pick up and coach, so they are now shopping. Every time you enter that highway you take a great risk, and you may be robbed of a safe trip through no fault of your own. I thank god they are o.k.
No plans for this afternoon and the family was busy, so we drove into Kearney and had lunch at Culvers, then went to tour the Nebraska Firefighters Museum and Education Center, which is along the interstate right before the Great Platte River Road Archway that spans Interstate 80 just east of the city of Kearney.
The Fire Museum is new and just opened this past year, and since DH is a fire fighter, having over 30 years in the Oxford Volunteer Fire Dept.so I knew he'd enjoy this. Although this is a small museum, theres a lot of history from many departments. Nebraska is lucky to be the home to Smeals Fire Apparatus Manufacturing plant. We enjoyed seeing the collection of fire fighting equipment and fire safety education displays.
This spring several Native American Tribes from surrounding states met for an annual Pow Wow at the Archway.
It went so well last year they have decided to make it an Annual Event.
This May on some adjacent ground to the Arch, they built an Earth Lodge by hand and some Shade supports, a garden of Sun Flowers and Corn.
The local paper did a big story on this and I read about it, but wanted to visit it in person, so today was the day. It's pretty cool. Nick and Terry Russell also visited the Arch this summer and the story is in this month's Gypsy Journal. All of these things are about an hour from where I used to live. It's always nice to return here and see the changes. We will be heading south into Kansas tomorrow.

Moving On to the West

2010-09-17T20:04:00.007-05:00

We did make the opening of the new Wal Mart just west of Omaha at Exit 339. Great location. It was a very nice clean store and suprisingly enough, everything seemed to be going real smoothly.
Everyone was super friendly and bending over backwards to be of assistance for us to find things. The layout of the store was a little different, and they provided us with a store map at the door. They had cake, cookies and punch with the celebration, but the prices were normal and didn't get anything free or real bargains. We picked up everything on the list, and stopped for a Subway Sandwich on our way out. On the way home, we detoured and drove through Mahoney State Park. Looking at the campground. Don't think we can stop there, the sites just not big enough or located where our satellite will pick up a signal.
Took some pics of some mama turkeys and babies. Must have been a late hatch. Before returning to our campsite, we went to the south side of the Interstate and got a look at a motel that lost their whole roof and a convenience store that had a lot of damage from the storm.
On the way back to the RV Park we discovered another building with the whole side caved in and once again I count my blessings in escaping the damage that occured. We witnessed some beautiful sunsets while we were there too.
Yesterday we made our way west and stopped at the east Grand Island KOA...never again. Was really disappointed. Expensive and couldn't use the laundry or the water! Rusty brown, yuk! Rigs so close together that I felt we had to whisper in the bedroom and their bedroom slide where they slept was really close to our rig. Not real easy access and trees on part of sites that they wanted to put us in and then put us right beside an electrical pole and street light that if DH hadn't backed up, we would have hit getting in and out of the rig. Not good. Tonight we are at Windmill State Park Recreation Area at the Hwy 10 exit. A really nice park. Long enough Drive In sites. Not used to being this close to the road, but our slides and electric are on the drivers side next to the curb, so it'll be okay. Will be stopped here until Monday when we will make our way down into Kansas.

A little bit of Normal...

2010-09-14T16:50:00.012-05:00

OK..now then. Walked around this place this morning early and got lots more damage pics. Made up a CD and gave it to the owner for her insurance agent.
Our electricity and water are back on and after the survey, we escaped unscathed. I feel very fortunate that we were not on the receiving end of any tree limbs and debris that is laying around.
Metal Fire rings were flying around and big plastic vent covers. We could have really sustained damageThis picnic table used to be flat!
DH walked the fence and found the little trash can, about 1/4 mile down the corn field in the trees. We left this morning and took the trek back into Omaha and went to the RV Store to get some supplies. Stopped and had lunch at Cracker Barrel and drove up to the new Walmart going up off of exit 439 on I 80. The parking lot was full of cars....so I thought I'd ask...the Grand Opening is tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. Guess where I'll be? You betcha....I'll be there!Yea! I'll take pictures :}

Before we got down here, we were stopped at the Tea Party/Freedom Rally in Onawa IA. It was a tribute to those who perished in 9-11, thanks to veterans and several good speakers to educate folks about becoming motivated to learn about their political candidates and no matter who for, we all need to get out and vote!
We learned about this rally from a friend from our home town and attended the Rally with him.
It was a very informative and fun afternoon, a couple of musical groups and vendors selling buttons, constitution materials, books and food booths.
I'm glad we went. We all need to be responsible and vote for the changes and direction that we want our country to go in. Otherwise we shouldn't complain!

No Good Welcome Home to Nebraska

2010-09-13T20:42:00.003-05:00

We made the trek from Onawa Iowa through Iowa and stopped here in Greenwood Nebraska. Not having been in Nebraska for 10 months. Got set up in a really nice campground and was going to blog about our visit to Onawa Iowa and attending a Freedom/Tea Party Rally, but instead I will share some photos of our campground following the latest storm. We are o.k. and no damage to our coach that we can see. The awning over the door had rolled part of the way out, but went back in and we lost a small trash can. The water is off tonight, as the well pump is off. Only limited electricity...and maybe more storms on the way. I am watching the radar and we will load up in the Suburban and go somewhere...I won't ride it out.

Short and Sweet

2010-09-02T10:25:00.003-05:00

I can't believe I'm in here! Haven't had enough signal to do hardly anything. Due to the fact that campgrounds in Sioux Falls are either full or wayyyy too expensive for the holiday weekend, we chose to hang out here until after the weekend. I got a weekly rate that would have only given us two nights there. Not much to do though, and horrible connections for internet. I'm taking the time to finish up some projects around here and will get all my photos onto CDs from the last couple of states. We will move to Sioux Falls next Wednesday...until then, we're just hanging out..this is a very small nice little park in the town of Welcome, MN just off of I 90 at exit 93. No highway noise to speak of, we have an end site on grass and is very comfortable. Looks like the temps are going to cooperate and it'll be a relief after the 90s. Raining this morning but no storms. Our trip to Arnolds Park was pretty brief. Everything is pretty much closed up there for the season...we stopped in a couple places and they said it pretty much dies when school starts. Bought a new flag to display this weekend, and we had lunch at a small park by the lake before heading back into Minnesota from Iowa and over to Worthington where we witnessed a 5-car pile up at an intersection. Caught I 90 and finished the loop. Lots of corn, and a few Ethenol plants in this area, and......a good Walmart only 8 miles from here so we're set...Hope everybody has a good Labor Day Weekend.

Southwest Minnesota

2010-08-29T19:11:00.003-05:00

We arrived this afternoon in Welcome Minnesota. Left the clutches of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Prior Lake and the Mystic Lake Casino this morning in very little traffic. We had a nice visit with our nephew and his wife and daughter while there. They don't build those casinos off of winners and we helped them out A BUNCH. It's the weirdest thing...no alcohol in the whole place! But the cigarette smoke will about carry you away! I wish they would ban that too! The Dakota Meadows RV Park that is adjacent to the Casino is very nice. Paved and Landscaped. I did some shopping in a Sioux Craft Shop. Bought some very nice beaded pieces and finally decided that if I'm going to take up a craft, it's going to be Woven beading. Hope I have the patience, and my eyesight will hold out. I taught myself to cook and sew, so I guess it'll be my newest learning experience! Right now I'm just in the research stage, and will be trying to acquire a small loom in the near future. We are going to be here at Welcome until Wednesday, and I am going to be trying to secure a place for us to set down over the Labor Day Weekend in Sioux Falls South Dakota. I can't believe the month of August is gone....Pretty much ends the summer. We are going to Arnolds Park Iowa tomorrow, Spirit Lake and Lake Okoboji. Another one of my favorite places. I'm in search of a few state pins for my collection. No pictures from here. This is an alright little park..on grass and gravel, lots of worker rigs, but no internet service to speak of, not enough speed to download pictures. Sorry! Stay Tuned.

All This and............

2010-08-21T15:30:00.009-05:00

A Casino right next door!
We can just have fun until we can't stand it anymore! That is if we can survive the Storms, 99% Humidity, Heat Index of 106 and seclusion.
We got here to the Prairie View RV Park and Campground Thursday afternoon and about 11 pm a storm brewed up, they opened the storm shelter and we had a thunderstorm that provided awful strong winds and driving rain.
We didn't go to the shelter, but several did. We have been over to the Casino several times. No big winners here, but I imagine they didn't build this place on winners! The buffet was good and 99 cent breakfast was very good. We have access to the indoor pool, sauna, hot tub and fitness center in the hotel....I have been over there, just not to use it yet!
The humidity last night and this morning was 99%! Fog so thick you could cut it with a knife so we didn't get a very early start on touring the areas of Granite Falls
the parks along the Missouri River and Monte Video..with a nice new Wal Mart. I don't have much energy today to do anything, and if I get a sudden burst, I'm going to the fitness center and try out the laundry, washing rugs!They have nice commercial front loaders, so I will be able to get that done. I have been busy planning our next move. Provided that my mail gets here, we will move on next week and go to another RV Resort at Mystic Lake Casino over closer to Minneapolis. We have a nephew and his family over there and we want to stop in and say "hi" to them. It's really quiet here, even with a farm painting crew in here and a rather large family reunion going on this weekend.
This place is very relaxing and I highly recommend it. Nice cement pads and patios, great landscaping and paved streets.
One would never think they are sitting out in a field right next to a farm.

North Dakota Facts and Folks...

2010-08-18T17:19:00.007-05:00

As we get ready to say good bye to North Dakota, I have a few finishing thoughts. I have observed every where we have been that the people here are very friendly and accomodating. The pace here is a little slower and we have had a good time exploring this state from one end to the other.
I think this state has gotten a bad rap in that it isn't nearly as flat as people say. The Native American History is very abundant here, and people here are hard workers. Much of their tourism is based on Pioneer Days,
The legendary White(Albino)Buffalo,several Native American Tribes, The lakes and Golf Courses.I feel very fortunate that we got to see the whole herd and all three white buffalos in one place close to the museum the first day we went. The folks at the Museum and some at the Village said lots of folks come and are disappointed because the buffalo roam all over the pastures in the area and some days they are not out where they can be seen. They stay in the bottom of the draw in the trees because their eyes are sensitive to bright sunlight. People have asked me why we want to spend so much time here? Well there's a few reasons, I have learned some more about the Native American Culture and my husband has caught the most and the biggest Walleye in his entire life here! Thanks to the folks in Hazen N.D for making us feel welcome and including us in activities. We have enjoyed the beauty of Wheat Harvest close up and met some more friends! It's all good. Medora has a lot more going on than I gave it time or credit for. Jamestown in the middle of the state has everything you could want and more, history, crafts and products made right here in N.D. I went back to the Village today and bought a hand carved shoe!(picture later!) I love shoes and wanted something made in North Dakota. I got to visit with the artist and he signed my little shoe!
Jamestown is also the notorious home town of Loius L'Amour, the famous Western Artist. He wrote 120 books, including the "Sacketts" series of 18. Some of his books were made into wonderful movies with actors like John Wayne and Tom Selleck. Even though he passed away in 1988, the town keeps his memory and his stories alive!
As we will go down the road in the morning, headed for Minnesota....I'm really glad we spent this time here and hope you all get here some day. It's worth it! Some more facts:

Population of the state is 641,481

Bismarck is the Capital City The Capital is known as the "Skyscraper on the Prairie"
State Tree: American Elm
State Bird: Western Meadowlark
State Drink: Milk
State Fruit: Chokecherry

AAA deemed a ND vacation the most affordable in the U.S.
N.D. is one of only twelve states with a growing economy

N.D. has the highest number of millionaires per capita of any state, and not a yuppie to be found anywhere!

Agriculture is N.D. top industry, the leader in the flaxseed, canola, pinto beans, and wheat to name a few.

N.D is the 4th now the most producing oil state in the U.S.
having a huge exploration going on in the Northeastern part of the state.

The explorers Lewis and Clark spent more time in ND than any other place on their journey.