Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Today we broke a week long record – we had no rain! Today was another gorgeous, warm sunny day – sure hope the weather continues like this for the next few days.

We had a great trip from Tupelo to Nashville along the Trace with very little traffic and lots of flowers along the side of the road. For years when coming through Tennessee and Kentucky at this time of the year there are thousands of little red flowers along the roadside and we never knew until today what they were – turns out they are crimson clover and they are so pretty. We stopped at a lot of turnouts along the Trace today so it was a leisurely drive but we did get to Nashville around 1:30 in time to miss rush hour traffic.

Crimson Clover


Fields of Flowers


Along the Trace


This sailboat had just come under the bridge over the Tennessee River and had to lower its mast to get under the bridge.


Then we watched this tug with the barges, it was six barges long and we had no idea how many wide it was but it was quite amazing to watch it go by.





Tennessee was in full bloom and all the trees have their spring leaves but Kentucky is just coming into bloom, still it is real pretty.

Dogwoods In Bloom


Alabama/Tennessee State Line


Life On The Trace and Old Trace



Merriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame died along the Trace and is buried there so we stopped to see his monument.


Downtown Nashville


We are at Singing Hills RV Park at Cave City, KY and will be here until Sunday. This is a Passport America Park and doesn’t have an “it” factor but at $14/night with full hook-ups and wi-fi we aren’t going to complain. There is a nice Phaeton Motorhome beside us and the fellow was talking to John for a bit and gave him a new set of leveling blocks and refused any money for them, now wasn’t that great of him. He is part of a Ministry, not sure what that is all about, so John will make a donation to the Ministry in appreciation.

There is no cable TV here so guess we will be on the computer and reading in our spare time.

Tomorrow we plan on touring the area a bit so we are hoping for a nice day and good weather.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Here it is catch up time again, last night we couldn’t get on the internet hence no blog but at least tonight we seem to have fairly decent wi-fi.

Monday morning it rained briefly about the time John was hooking up but fortunately he didn’t get soaked, just slightly damp. We had rain off and on for about the first hour of travel then the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We were mainly on back roads, no interstates, going to Vidalia LA so it was a nice peaceful, pretty drive.

We arrived at River View RV Resort shortly after 2 p.m. so had a nice relaxing afternoon.

Our Site at River View RV Resort


This is a really nice park right on the bank of the Mississippi River looking across to Natchez, MS and you can see the tugs pushing the barges up and down the Mississippi River, they go a lot faster heading down towards the Gulf as they are going with the current but they are a lot slower heading up river against the current. This is a Passport America Park so it was $20.05 for the night with a nice paved pad.

After we got set up we walked for quite a ways along the walkway on the top of the levee hoping to see some river traffic but all was quiet at that time. We found a swinging bench under a shade so sat for a while but still no river traffic so gave up and walked home. On the way back we did see a red fox along the path in front of us but he was too fast for me to get a picture.

This is a picture of the riverboat casino at Natchez - for any Greg Isles fans you will have read about the casino in his books. Unfortunately this was as close as we got so not the greatest picture.



We came back and sat outside and all of a sudden I could see the top of a tug so we grabbed our cameras and made a dash for the levee but it was traveling downstream and moving pretty quick so I had a hard time getting a picture.

Going Down River


Later we heard this one going up river and again dashed over to take a picture but it was getting dark so again not a great picture. We were surprised at how little river traffic there was as the last time we were at River View (6 years ago) there was constant traffic – guess a sign of the times.

Going Up River


This morning it rained briefly just before John went out to get things put away but it only lasted a couple of minutes then cleared off and turned into another gorgeous day, warm day.

We picked up the Natchez Trace about 40 miles east of Natchez and had a nice drive to Tupelo. The Trace was in pretty tough shape just west of Jackson and for a bit after Jackson then it got better and was a good drive the rest of the way to Tupelo.

The leaves have just come out on the trees, the Dogwood is in bloom, there are lots of patches of red clover along the side of the road and the flowering shrubs are beautiful making everything very pretty and springy – my favourite time of year.

Flowering Shrubs


Right after Jackson we drove for 8 miles along the Ross Barnett Reservoir, a 33,000 acres reservoir created from the Pearl River. There were a lot of fishing boats on the reservoir as well as a few fisherman casting from the shore, we wondered what they were catching!

Ross Barnett Reservoir



We stopped at an Information Centre to pick up a brochure of the Trace and a map of Mississippi and there were two elderly dollies manning the centre, the one was real chatty and said she was 91 years old, imagine! The other one was probably about the same age but she was very hard to understand when she talked, they sure wanted to visit so it was kind of hard to get away from them but they were a really cute pair; John figured we were probably their only customers for the day!! We read later that the Information Centre is run by the local Chamber of Commerce and staffed by volunteers.

Part of the Original Natchez Trace



We arrived at Campground at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo about 4 and have a nice long pull through site with good wi-fi. This is a strange park, the sites are on all different levels but at least we have cable TV and wi-fi. At $29/night it is kind of pricey but on the other hand there aren’t a lot of parks in the area so you take what you can get. There is another park that is Passport America but they don’t honour the PA from March to May and they have no wi-fi so we picked this one as they are both about the same price. We sat outside and enjoyed the late afternoon sun for a while before coming in for dinner. John is now watching TV while I am getting caught up with this.

Tonight's Site at Campground at Barnes Crossing


And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

We have just enjoyed a couple of quiet days and haven’t done anything very exciting. Yesterday morning it rained off and on then cleared up in the afternoon so we won’t complain too hard.

Our Site at Northshore RV


Our View of Lake Livingston


Someone Was Flying This Neat Kite Yesterday


I did laundry yesterday so that is out of the way for another week. The internet has been really hit and miss here at the trailer so I took my computer and iPod over to the laundry room and logged into the office and had a good signal so got a lot done while my laundry was doing.

When I came back from the laundry I sat outside and read for quite a while – a very quiet, lazy day.

Today we woke up to rain again but thankfully by noon it had stopped and partially cleared off. Early this afternoon we took a run up to Livingston and fueled up and picked up a couple of groceries, diesel was $2.829/gal ay HEB, the best price we have seen for a while.

When we got back I put the groceries away and did a few inside chores then sat outside with my Kindle for a while. John has the truck ready to hook up in the morning but can’t do it tonight as we are really on a down slope here so no way can he get it hooked up and leveled off again.

I have the inside ready for travel so we should be able to make a quick get away in the morning, now we just have to hope it isn’t raining for John to hook up. We have a reservation at River View RV in Vidalia LA for tomorrow night, it is now a Passport America Park so will be $20 for the night, I do like that!

There are still wild flowers along the side of the road, it will be interesting to see how much farther east we go before we lose them – they sure are pretty.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

We have just enjoyed a couple of quiet days and haven’t done anything very exciting. Yesterday morning it rained off and on then cleared up in the afternoon so we won’t complain too hard.

I did laundry yesterday so that is out of the way for another week. The internet has been really hit and miss here at the trailer so I took my computer and iPod over to the laundry room and logged into the office and had a good signal so got a lot done while my laundry was doing.

When I came back from the laundry I sat outside and read for quite a while – a very quiet, lazy day.

Today we woke up to rain again but thankfully by noon it had stopped and partially cleared off. Early this afternoon we took a run up to Livingston and fueled up and picked up a couple of groceries, diesel was $2.829/gal ay HEB, the best price we have seen for a while.

When we got back I put the groceries away and did a few inside chores then sat outside with my Kindle for a while. John has the truck ready to hook up in the morning but can’t do it tonight as we are really on a down slope here so no way can he get it hooked up and leveled off again.

I have the inside ready for travel so we should be able to make a quick get away in the morning, now we just have to hope it isn’t raining for John to hook up. We have a reservation at River View RV in Vidalia LA for tomorrow night, it is now a Passport America Park so will be $20 for the night, I do like that!

There are still wild flowers along the side of the road, it will be interesting to see how much farther east we go before we lose them – they sure are pretty.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Yesterday was not a nice day weather wise, it was very overcast when we got up and sprinkled off and on all morning, not a day for checking out the wild flowers!

In the afternoon we decided to head up to Marble Falls and get some groceries so we made stops at Wal Mart and HEB (Here Everything’s Better). We had just got into the truck when the sky opened and it POURED all the way home. Sure glad it waited till we were back in the truck or we would have been soaked! Fortunately it had pretty well stopped when we got back so John got us hooked up and ready to go in the morning.

Going up to Marble Falls Highway 281 is a four lane highway and about half way up there was some old fella driving about 30 mph in the left lane, a couple of people barely missed him as you sure aren’t expecting someone to be dawdling along in that lane. On the way home didn’t we see the same old fella heading south and again dawdling along in the left lane in the pouring rain when the visibility was greatly reduced, we wonder if he made it home safely and without causing an accident. Certainly some older people SHOULD NOT be driving!

Today dawned overcast and cool and looked like it could pour rain at any time. Fortunately John managed to get finished and get us on the road before the rain started. It never rained very hard today, but lots of little showers and drizzle.

We drove through a lot of small towns today with some narrow one way streets but John navigated them very well, there was no nail biting on my part. We had a good drive to Northshore RV Resort on Lake Livingston and the closer we got the better the weather got, by the time we arrived here it was 80F (25C) and the sun was shining brightly – oh yes, we do love this kind of weather!!

The first site we got here was really uneven, imagine concrete pads that are at least 2” off from side to side! We walked back over to the office and the gal there said to pick any site we wanted so we did and are now level side to side with no problem but front to back is another story. I can hardly reach the door handle from the patio as John had to jack it up so high in the front to get level back to front - LOL! Guess that is what happens when they develop a park on the side of a lake.

The next problem was the internet, I’m not sure if it is fixed, guess I will find out when I try to post this. I went to the office and the gal reset the modem a couple of times and before dinner it was working, will see now if it still is.

We do have TV tonight so John is happy, he is watching Gladiator, I will probably read as I have seen it a couple of times already.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Here I am a couple of days behind again, but there hasn’t been anything exciting to post about.

Yesterday morning it was very overcast and looked like it could rain, plus the forecast was for showers, so we decided to drive to New Braunfels and then back to San Marcos as Nan wanted some stuff from Bath and Body Works if we were back that way. As it turned out the sun came out shortly after we got on the road and it turned into a nice day with a high of about 74F (22C).

I had hoped to walk around the old square in New Braunfels but it was all roped off and construction going on, so much for that idea. We ended up heading north to San Marcos with a stop at Olive Garden for lunch and Camping World. There sure wasn’t anything at Camping World we wanted to pay their price for; we find it a very expensive place to shop!

At the Prime Outlet Mall we went back to the Columbia Sportswear place and each got a couple of things there, then I did a quick run into Bath and Body Works to pick up some stuff for Nan and a couple more things for me and then it was time to head home.

We had a light dinner after a late lunch and a quiet evening of reading seeing how our TV doesn’t work.

This morning John was out of here shortly before 8 a.m. to go to Marble Falls to get the car seat repaired. I didn’t expect him home much before 12:30 so figured I had lots of time to do some cleaning and read my morning news on the computer etc. Just as I was about to start the cleaning around 10 a.m. he returned home, turns out he drove all the way up there to have the guy figure out he didn’t have the right material to fix it – grrrrr!!! When we were there on Monday he said he had the material so needless to say John wasn’t a happy camper as it is about 25 miles each way.

Today was pretty overcast and dull so we decided when he got back to have a lazy stay at home day. I got my new phone this afternoon so after getting it activated I spent time getting it all set up again, fortunately my contacts were backed up on the Verizon site so I didn’t have to sit and put them all in again. Tomorrow we will have to find a FedEx drop to send the old one back.

Tonight the park had a meatloaf dinner, it was $3 each and was a good meal with meatloaf, garlic mashed potatoes, beans and rolls. Desert was chocolate cake and chocolate brownies – I got my chocolate fix for a while! Dinner hour here was more to our liking being at 6:30, sure beats the 5:00 dinner time at most parks in Arizona but like any other park dinner it was a case of eat and run, nobody sticks around to socialize.

This is one of the few parks that doesn’t have cable TV but there are about 5 channels you can get off the antenna but we haven’t been able to pick up anything. After checking everything out we figure our TV is analogue and not digital and can’t pick up the new DTV signals that the US instituted in 2009. We are surprised as we bought the TV in 2005 so figured it would be okay but we can’t pick up any signals, and the antenna and cable seem okay, so we figure that is the problem. There is a modem or something we could get but for the few times we might need it we haven’t decided if it is worth the money. It doesn’t bother me in the least not to have the TV as I am quite happy to read instead.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, lots of sun with a high of about 22C (74F), my kind of weather!

Our Trailer & Looking Down the Road



Paul, the owner of the park, had had his truck seat repaired in Marble Falls last week so John asked him where he had it done so we headed up there this morning to check out Ed’s Classic Upholstery. We got a quote and John made an appointment to get his seat repaired on Wednesday morning. We stopped in Marble Falls for lunch then headed out in search of wildflowers.

We drove almost back to Johnson City, then picked up a rural road that went to the village of Willow and boy, were we in luck, as the flowers along that road were totally awesome. I will post some pictures and you will notice a butterfly having a lovely feast in a couple of them. The wildflowers came right to the edge of the road in spots and they looked like a thick purple carpet going along the side of the road, I am sure the pictures don’t really do them justice.







We chatted for a few minutes to another couple from the Dallas/Fort Worth area who were also checking out the wildflowers and taking pictures and he said he has never seen them right out to the edge of the road like they are this year, guess all the winter rain had one good benefit – the wildflowers.







There seem to be a lot of goat farms around here and at one point we came across a goat feed lot, and oh yes, there were also cows – hundreds and hundreds of goats and cows and the smell was absolutely vile, I don’t know how anybody could live in proximity of that smell but on the other hand maybe it is the smell of money to them!

At one point this cow meandered across the road in front of us, no fencing in that area!



We came back along the road that borders the LBJ Ranch, which was known as the Texas Whitehouse when Lyndon Johnson was president, then on home. All in all it was a nice day and we certainly enjoyed the beautiful wildflowers.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Yesterday we woke up to overcast skies and expected it to rain but fortunately it cleared off in the late morning and was a beautiful day, but quite windy – hey, we’re in Texas!

I did laundry in the afternoon and John went out and got fuel, that was the extent of our busy day – hah, hah. I sat outside for quite a while and read – nice and relaxing.

For the last three days I have charged my phone and by the next morning it is dead so I thought it best to visit a Verizon store and have it looked at, I figured I probably needed a new battery but thought it was a bit soon to have it go as I just got the phone in November. We decided to go to San Marcos and do the Verizon thing as well as go to the outlet malls so after a nice drive through the country we arrived in San Marcos. Fortunately we went to Verizon first as the tech there told me he needed to keep the phone for 2-1/2 hours to get it charged then check it out. Well, okay, how do we get to the outlet mall from here.

There are actually two outlet malls side by side, one is the Tanger Outlet Mall and the other is the Prime Outlet. We did the Prime one first and my first stop was Bath and Body Works, wow did they have a good sale going so I stocked up on some stuff there. Then it was a stop at the Columbia Clothing outlet where I got a pair of shorts and a top and then to a Cosmetic place where I got a real deal on my Estee Lauder makeup and perfume – I am one happy person tonight!! We went over to the Tanger Outlet Mall but there was nothing too much there, I wandered through the Kitchen Store but that was about it.

On the way back to Verizon we stopped at Best Buy to check out the new iPads, heck it is just a huge iPod Touch and the Touch is much easier to carry around, I sure won’t be changing any time soon. I did get a gift card for the App Store and John got one for iTunes so we are now good to go with those.

Back at Verizon the fellow told me that my charging port was not working so they would be sending me new a new phone – they didn’t have one in stock so it should arrive here by FedEx on Tuesday (fortunately it is still under warranty so there is no charge). Of course I didn’t have the address of the park with me, but they had charged my phone and as I had called the park a couple of days ago to make the reservation I still had the number in contacts so I was able to call them to see what their address was so I could tell the fellow at Verizon – he must have thought I was a real nut bar!!

Today we woke up to overcast skies and a bit of a drizzle, not real wet, just kind of yucky but by the time we got to San Marcos it was dry, but still overcast. We hit the drizzle on the way home again so we aren’t complaining about the weather and the wind had died down by this morning so it was a not too bad day weather wise.

We don’t have phone service here (no signal) so I did talk to our oldest daughter and son on the way home from San Marcos and my sister for a couple of minutes, but will have to wait until we are somewhere where we have phone service before we talk to our other daughter and I still could chat with my sister for a while longer. Oh technology!! I am not a real phone talker but do like to talk to the kids and my sister on the weekend so it is frustrating when I can’t do that.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a nice day so we can get out and get some pictures of the wildflowers.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Today wasn’t real sunny but not totally overcast either, a good driving day. Today’s drive was pretty boring, the south west end of Texas is pretty sparse with no scenery to speak of, the only saving grace today was that the landscape was all so green, usually when we have made this drive it is brown and dull but not today.

Fredericksburg was a real zoo when we drove through town, it looks like it will be a good place to stay away from this weekend!! The wildflowers are beautiful but I didn’t take any pictures as they don’t seem to turn out well when taking them while in motion.

We arrived at Miller Creek RV Resort shortly after 3 p.m. and my how it has changed; Paul, the owner, has done a lot of work in the last couple of years and the park looks really good and is very busy. The gal who checked us in told us he has opened up some sites across the creek and turned the silo there into a washroom, she said it is the largest RV washroom in Texas so we will have to drive in there and check out that new part. The park was given a 5 Star Ratings in 2009 by Woodalls, needless to say they are very proud of that.

Next weekend is Wildflower Weekend so it will be really busy here and I guess that is why Fredericksburg was so busy, although I recall that it is always a busy little place. The gal in the office said she had been told the best place to see the Wildflowers was the Willow loop out of Fredericksburg so we will do that early next week. She also said that the wildflowers here are the nicest in memory because of the terrible winter they had, guess something good always come out of something bad!

I think tomorrow and Sunday we will stick close to home then do our touring starting Monday, tomorrow I have to do laundry so that will take some of the day to get it done.

And so ends two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

We woke up this morning in Deming to a temperature of 38F (4C), that sure isn’t something we have been used to lately!! Needless to say the furnace came on real fast and we were toasty warm in no time.

Our Site at Deming


We were on the road shortly after 9 a.m. and stopped for diesel in Deming – it was $3.199/gallon – GULP!! We stopped at a rest area just west of Las Cruces and I took a few pictures of Las Cruces in the valley below and one of the Roadrunner at the rest area and a sign there (just for you Margie!).







El Paso TX was the usual horrid drive with heavy traffic for the 20 miles through the city, man, I hate going through there and heaved a sigh of relief when we had cleared it. From there to Fort Stockton was a long, boring drive with little traffic, the long and boring gets to you after a while but I sure do like the little traffic bit. We stopped just east of Van Horn for fuel and it was $3.019/gallon, much better than this morning, and I hope it gets cheaper as we head east.

South West Texas


We lost another hour today, yesterday we lost the hour because Arizona is one of the few states that doesn’t do DST so when we crossed into New Mexico we were on DST and then today, about 135 miles east of El Paso, we crossed into the Central Time Zone, hence another hour lost. I think it will take a few days to get our bodies used to this!

Tonight we are at Fort Stockton RV Park and have just come back from having a delicious rib dinner at the Roadrunner Café here in the park. We found this gem a few years ago and always make a point of stopping here if we are in the area as the dinner is delicious and the cost, including desert, a bottle of wine and the tip was $30 – a great deal. Right now I can’t get the internet, hopefully I will be able to get on later but if not I will have to wait until tomorrow to post this. I was on for a few minutes and downloaded my e-mail and even sent one but since then I can’t get a thing – oh well, I have a good book to pass the evening with since we can’t pick up any TV channels either. Guess this is what you get when stopping in the middle of nowhere Texas!!

Our Site at Fort Stockton RV Park


And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Well, we’re on the road again and so far the drive has been good with not a lot of traffic.

Yesterday we got away from Yuma around 10 a.m. and had a good trip to Casa Grande. When we got to Sundance 1 RV Park in Casa Grande we discovered we would have to unhook as we were too long to fit into their pull thrus – grrrr!!

Our Site at Sundance 1 RV Park, Casa Grande AZ


We were just getting ready to head into town, we figured we might as well take a quick tour around if we had to unhook, when Bob and Denise came by. We chatted for a few minutes and said we would see them shortly. We headed for the Palms Resort to see if we could say hello to a couple from our home park in Kincardine, we found their RV but they weren’t home so we left them a note saying we had stopped by and would see them at Green Acres. We made a quick stop at Fry’s to get some wine to take for dinner and get diesel then it was back to the park to Bob & Denise’s.
They have a beautiful park model that they just bought a couple of weeks ago, It is a really nice layout and has a nice living room, something that a lot of the park models don’t have. We sat outside and visited until it was time for dinner then moved inside and enjoyed a wonderful roast beef dinner – thanks so much Denise & Bob for a great meal and a super visit! We hope we see you in Kincardine this summer.

We got away from Casa Grande about 9 this morning, on the way out of town we had to wait for a train at a level crossing, it had 143 cars with 3 engines on the front and one on the back – talk about a LONNNNNNG train! We had a good drive to Deming, NM and the drive through Tucson was great and there wasn’t a lot of traffic. We stopped in Wilcox at Subway for lunch, gotta love those $5 footlongs that we split, and arrived in Deming around 4:30, that was the time after losing an hour when we crossed into New Mexico. We will lose another hour tomorrow when we get to Texas – wow, 2 hours in 2 days takes a bit of getting used to.

It was cool today with a high of about 17C and tonight we have the furnace running – hopefully it will warm up again in Texas.

Picacho Peaks ( You can see these from miles away)



We were really surprised at all the snow covered mountain tops we saw today from Tucson east, we have never seen so many snow covered peaks at this time of year. On the other hand there was a lot of wildflowers in the desert today, something else we have never seen before, so even though the drive was long and pretty boring there were some things to brighten the day.

Snow Covered Mountain Peaks




Wildflowers



And so ends a two more great gifts of days and we look forward to another great day tomorrow.

Monday, April 5, 2010

I just wanted to do a short update as we are returning our internet modem this afternoon in preparation for our departure tomorrow morning.

Saturday morning John headed out early to see if he could find a fabricating shop to straighten the hitch bar and after much searching, and finding everything closed on Saturday, he found a place that was open and a guy who said he would give it a try. Thankfully, he got it straightened so we are now good to go tomorrow and we will probably order a new part when we get to the park in Texas where we are going to spend a week. Our new brake controller was delivered Saturday afternoon so John now has that installed and just has to calibrate it tomorrow once he gets the trailer hooked up and on a flat surface.

Late Saturday afternoon we made a quick grocery run to Fry’s and Wal Mart but I think I will still have to make a quick stop when we are out today.

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day, I did a lot of reading and started getting packed up for the road but there was a lot of stuff I didn’t want to do until after we had dinner last night.

We were sitting outside about 4 yesterday afternoon, I had been reading and John had just sat down when the ground started to rock and roll – real scary when you literally see the truck bouncing up and down and the trailer awning going nuts! We realized real fast that there was an earthquake some place close and we sure were feeling it and it lasted about 45 seconds – seemed like forever. We heard something crash inside so I came in, which wasn’t easy with everything bouncing around, and found the pepper mill had been shaken off the table. I turned on the TV and the earth quake was south of El Centro in Mexico, at first they said it registered at 6.9 but by last night they had upgraded it to 7.6, a pretty good earth quake! We heard last night that one person had been killed but they were still waiting to get to the scene to determine what all damage had been done. We felt a few earth quakes here a couple of years ago but nothing as bad or as long as this one, I can’t imagine what it would have been like in places like Haiti!

This afternoon we will return the internet modem, get fuel and propane, do some last minute shopping and then we are going to go out for dinner tonight - I’m looking forward to that.

And so ends a few more great gifts of days here in Yuma and we look forward to getting on the road again and our trek home.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Happy Easter to everyone, it looks like it will be a nice weekend back in Ontario so we hope everyone enjoys the nice weather on this Easter weekend.

It has been another uneventful few days, but as usual we have enjoyed them. On Tuesday we went to Janet & Dave’s for our final visit of the year as they are leaving on Thursday. We ordered a pizza for dinner so had a nice visit with happy hour snacks then a good pizza, what more could we ask for. We are looking forward to seeing them next winter down here in the sunny southwest.

Tuesday the temperature was 92F (30C) so I wasn’t in a real fast moving mode, I really don’t do well with high temperatures like that and even Janet, who loves heat and humidity, said she was almost moving in reverse that day. Thankfully there was no humidity to deal with.

Wednesday was our son’s birthday, hope you had a great day Mike! It was a nice day and not as hot, I was going to do some cleaning but the forecast was for high winds so I figured it would be a waste of time to do it as I would have to do it again after the wind as the dust blows through any little crack when it is windy, now that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The wind started in the afternoon and in the early evening the temperature dropped like a stone, 10 degrees in less than an hour. We had to turn the furnace on in the evening to take the chill off! We went to Wal Mart for a grocery fix but other than that we didn’t do anything too exciting.

Thursday was cloudy in the morning and they were calling for rain but in the afternoon it cleared off and was beautiful. Our smoke detector was beeping, time for a new battery, so while John went out to get that and do a couple of other things I took advantage of his absence and cleaned, nice to have that out of the way for a few days again.

Today was another beautiful day, it was my last day for aquafit (I think) so I said my goodbyes to everyone and see ya next year. After lunch I headed out to do laundry and the place was just about empty, sure no problem getting washers and dryers today.

When I got home John said he had found a problem, oh no! He was greasing the Hensley hitch and lo and behold, one of the bars is really bent, we have no idea how that happened but it isn’t good. Tomorrow morning he is going to try to find a fabricating shop and hopefully they can straighten it out, if that doesn’t happen he will have to call the manufacturer in Michigan on Monday morning and get them to send us a new bar and we know from experience that if we pay about $22 in shipping we can have it in 2 days but hopefully it won’t come to that. We have also been waiting on a new brake controller from them but thankfully that arrived this afternoon so he also has that to install. As he said, he should have started the greasing earlier in the week – isn’t hindsight great!

Right now we are planning on stopping in Casa Grande on Tuesday night to visit friends so hopefully we won’t have to cancel that, it depends on how he makes out with this bar tomorrow morning.

Ben & Diane stopped by to say goodbye today, they are heading out at 5 tomorrow morning so we wished them a safe trip and a wonderful summer. Two trailers behind us left this morning, and one left Thursday morning, so the park is starting to look pretty empty and a lot of the park models homes look closed up for the summer. There are a few people who live here year round but most people are seasonal so I imagine it is pretty quiet, and hot, here during the summer.

And so ends a few more great gifts of days and we look forward to a couple more wonderful days here in Yuma.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Catch up time again, the time slips by but there isn’t too much exciting to write about.

On Thursday I did the usual, laundry, and it was much quieter than the week before so I got it done as quickly as possible. John did some running around while I was doing the laundry and arrived back just in time to help me fold it. We came home, put the laundry away and I read for a while – not a very exciting day.

Friday afternoon we went to the market, I hadn’t planned on going again but figured out I was just about out of my Avon face cream so wanted to get another jar so off to the market we went. I got my cream and another sun visor and that was the extent of my purchases. John ordered a new brake controller for the truck so hopefully it will be here before Easter and he will have a few days to get it installed.

Saturday I did a good cleaning as our house on wheels needed it badly. Diane & Ben came over in the afternoon for happy hour so we had a nice visit with them. They head back to Edmonton on Saturday so we wanted to have one last drink and visit with them before they leave. The rest of the day was reading and relaxing and we ordered a pizza for dinner.

Sunday my energy level was pretty well zero, I didn’t have any ambition at all so I spent most of the day reading and on the computer. John wanted to go to the market again and I didn’t need anything so he went and I stayed home. I did go for my walk but that was about the extent of my ambition.

The park is quickly emptying, John did his bike ride by himself this morning and there were only 6 at aquafit so a lot of people have headed for home.

Today I needed a hair cut so we went to Wal Mart and while I was getting sheared John got the oil changed on the truck so we are good to get home with that now. We stopped at Fry’s, CVS Pharmacy and Lowe’s on the way home so it was about 5 by the time we got back.

And so ends a few more great gifts of days and we look forward to more wonderful days here in Yuma.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

What nice days we have been enjoying, warm and sunny during the day but it cools down nicely at night so it is good for sleeping.

On Monday while I was at aquafit John noticed that the people behind us were having their carpets steam cleaned so went over and asked the fellow if he would do our bedroom carpet (that is the only carpet we have). Because it isn’t a large area no one will make a special trip to do it but because he was already in the park the guy said okay, so I came home to a nice clean carpet – thanks John.

In the afternoon we went to a place that replaces/repairs truck seats to see about having something done with the truck. John has worn out a large piece on his seat where he slides in and out, so something needs to be done about it. They quoted us $158 to have it replaced with what is there but there was another couple there and he told us he had had friends have theirs done at a place in Somerton for a lot less so if we gave him our phone number he would call us and let us know the name of the place. He did call later with the name and address so we will check it out.

When we left there John dropped me off at Beall’s while he went to Lowe’s and Pepboys. Beall’s was very busy as it was seniors discount day but I did manage to find a couple of tops, which was what I was looking for. The rest of the day was quiet and uneventful.

On Tuesday we met Janet & Dave at the Crossings for lunch, their special on Tuesday and Thursdays is wings so we split a large order of wings and they were very good. After lunch Janet and I went to Wal Mart where I got a badly needed pedicure and she got a manicure. We spent the rest of the time shopping until we met up with the guys again. As always, we had a fun afternoon together.

Today I went to aquafit and John went for his bike ride. The ranks are thinning out, quite a few of the gals at aquafit are leaving this week and some of John’s riding friends are leaving, I think by the time we leave here we will have to lock the gate behind us – tee, hee!

This afternoon we went to Somerton to check out the seat repair and the place there was considerably less than the one in Yuma so we will probably get it done there, we’re just waiting to hear if he has the material on hand.

On the way home we stopped at Wal Mart for a couple of things then on home where I sat outside and read for quite a while.

And so ends a few more great gifts of days and we look forward to more wonderful days here in Yuma.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Oh, have I ever gotten behind in my blog, but on the other hand there isn’t really a lot of interesting things happening to write about.

Monday morning Liz, the aquafit instructor, was away so we did the exercises on our own, it was quite funny with everyone trying to remember what all we did, but we did manage to do them and as usual had some good laughs. Some of the gals were saying that Liz won’t be here until January next year so I suggested we should get her to tape one of the sessions so we have something to work with in the fall.

Monday night we went to Ben and Diane’s and had a wonderful dinner and evening. There were 12 of us so lots of good conversations going on and the meal was scrumptious – cold turkey, salads, veggies and dip as well as some yummy appetizers and mini cream puffs for desert. Everybody made a contribution to the dinner so it made less work for Diane.

Tuesday was cleaning day and Janet & Dave came for dinner so after the cleaning it was getting things ready for dinner. It was quite hot on Tuesday so we cooked a ham and then I made potato salad, coleslaw, deviled eggs and a tossed salad with cherry pie and ice cream for desert. I don’t think anyone went away hungry! As usual we had a good evening and lots of yakking.

Wednesday morning Glenda, the real estate lady here in the park, called and said she had just gotten a new listing and wanted to know if we would like to look at it. I said, sure, we could meet her at 10:30 to take a look so that John could get in his bike ride first. It meant I would miss aquafit but knowing Liz wouldn’t be there again didn’t make it a big deal. The park model that had been listed was nice but didn’t flick our bicks, so to speak. It was a bottom of the line model but nicely kept and furnished. It was a very weird setup as they had added a “cool room”, not an “Arizona room” and the “cool room” was very small, it had room for a washing machine and a long table that the lady used for quilting and that was it, sort of a useless room. And, they were asking way too much for it as far as we were concerned.

Wednesday afternoon one of our neighbours stopped by for a visit, which we enjoyed, then after she left we went out and mailed a parcel and stopped at Wal Mart, and that was about it for the day.

Thursday was HOT and laundry day. I went over around noon, which usually is a good time and not busy, but this week it was packed, I wonder if a lot of people were doing laundry before heading out. By the time I got home I was drained from the heat so got everything put away and headed for the pool to cool off.

While I was doing the laundry John took the blinds off the back bedroom window and cleaned them all up and cleaned all around the window, then took the fantastic fan apart and cleaned it. He said he would rather have done the laundry than what he did!! Still, he wasn’t interested in a swim to cool off – silly man!

Right after I got back from my swim Glenda called to say that a new single wide manufactured home had arrived and wondered if we would like to see it – why, of course we would. It is a really nice home, but that was the problem, it was more like a home and way too much money for us; always fun to look at them though.

Just for clarification, Park Model Homes here in Yuma are homes that are 400 square feet or less and then most people add a deck and Arizona room as they are quite small without that. Manufactured homes are anything over 400 square feet (the one we looked at was 802 sq. ft.,) and most of the manufactured homes here in the park have a deck and some also have an Arizona room

Friday I went to aquafit and again, no Liz, so we managed to work our way through another time without our leader, it sure makes us appreciate her more! Her daughter has been here visiting so she was enjoying a visit with her but apparently we will be back to normal on Monday – yeah!

We went to Brown Bag Burger for lunch and then to the Arizona market. I had wanted to buy a couple more tops and they had been 3 for $25 so I was waiting for the price to come down and by golly they were $5 each on Friday – needless to say I got a couple!

Saturday was a pretty quiet day, I didn’t do a lot but did manage to finish a book that I was reading. We took a run over to Desert Paradise in the afternoon to see if Jim & Sonia were still there and say goodbye but they had gone - I thought they had said they were leaving on Saturday as they have to get back to Calgary and then fly to the Dominican on the 25th for their granddaughters wedding there.

Today we went to Brownie’s for breakfast then stopped at a couple of places before going to Fry’s for groceries. Fry’s had some really good sales on so I picked up a few extra things that were on sale but not on my list.

We have had a good weekend talking to friends and family, something I always enjoy and it is nice to keep in touch.

And so ends a few more great gifts of days and we look forward to more wonderful days here in Yuma.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Where does the time go, it just flies by and it’s hard to imagine that in a couple of weeks we will be on the road heading home!

Thursday I did laundry and John did some running around while I was doing that then we went over to Del Pueblo to see if we could touch base with Irma & John as they hadn’t been home the last time we were there. This time they were gone so we were disappointed that we hadn’t got to see them. We stopped at Brenda and Steve’s for a minute just to firm up our dinner date for Saturday then came home and had a quiet rest of the day.

Friday morning John had an appointment for 7:30 at the Dodge dealer to get the new differential cover put on so he was out of here bright and early and didn’t get back until noon, what a fun way to spend the morning. He also had asked them to rotate the tires and when they went to check the pressure they determined that the valve caps were seized to the valve stems, not something we had ever imagined happening. Apparently they were aluminum valve caps and the salt from the ocean caused the aluminum to react with the brass valve stem and corrode – not good!! Now what do we do as the Dodge guys had no clue.

Meanwhile I had a rotten day not feeling well, probably spent 75% of the day in bed sleeping and the rest laying on the couch reading – a real write off of a day for me. Poor John even had to figure out what he wanted for dinner and make it as just the thought of food made me feel worse.

Saturday I felt much better so was thankful for that. John went out to try to figure what to do about the tires and went to Big O Tires where they said they could fix it so he arranged to be back on Monday morning to have them done.

Saturday night we met Steve & Brenda at Texas Roadhouse for dinner and had a great dinner and visit then they came back here for a while – a nice evening.

Today we went out for a bit and looked around at park model homes to see what there is and at what cost. We want to stay at this park so looking at ones for sale in other parks isn’t an option and we aren’t even sure we will buy one but it is always fun to look around.

Ben and Diane had invited us for dinner tonight, they were doing a turkey dinner for about 16 people but cancelled it this morning until tomorrow because of the wind. As it turned out the wind died down in the afternoon but with that many people you have to do it outside and the wind could make it quite uncomfortable so I don’t blame them for postponing. So instead we are having steak and shrimp so we will fare just fine.

And so ends a few more great gifts of days and we look forward to more wonderful days here in Yuma.