Bonehead's Traveling People

2012-02-14T08:40:00.001-07:00

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY to family, friends, Dan's grands, my lost grand, and ALL of our kids! _____________________ 2/13.....Not too much happening since we went to Mexico. I'm happy with my new tooth. Hope I don't have to go back to the dentist anytime too soon. hahahaha.........Me, Dan, and friends Ken and Jerome went for a 51 mile quad ride on 2/10. It was a VERY warm day. Probably about 84 or so. We headed out towards the Colorado Indian Reservation. Followed their fence line to a place that we've been before to go rock hunting. At this place you can find lots of jasper, agates, black obsidian, quartz, and just neat looking rocks that I don't know their names. I love collecting all the neat rocks and have a couple of apple crates filled with them in my mom's garage in Bremerton, WA. Not sure what I'll ever do with them. I just like picking them up. Maybe when we go back to Bremerton for the summer, I can offer some of them to the local rock club. Other then the quad ride, we've just been hanging out at home and we went out to a local restaurant here in Quartzsite one night for dinner with friends Sonja and Jerome...........Bella did find another snake. I didn't have my camera with me, so no picture. It was a baby sidewinder curled up outside a kangaroo rat hole. At least we think it was some kind of rodent hole. Good thing that it was snoozing as Bella tried to play with it. Dan grabbed her and walked her away from it. Then he removed the snake to a place away from where we walk Bella. We don't want her to get bitten and we don't want to kill any snake, so we try and keep a good eye on her when we take her out and just find the snake a new home. She is gonna miss all her freedom when we leave here, but I guess she'll adjust......The flowers are starting to bloom. Little flowers. Tiny tiny tiny. I've started to take some pictures of them. Love taking flower pictures. ____________________ The blimp flew right over our rig. That is always cool. A couple of little flowers. Very tiny ones.

Wish I could have gotten a better picture of the hummingbird. He was about 6 feet away from me. The feeder is right at the front of our 5th wheel.

Just a neat tree we see everyday we're out walking with Bella.

Dan and Bella out walking.

A desert view of the Colorado Indian Reservation.

A view of part of the quad trail we were following.

Here are pictures of Jerome and Ken trying to get through a kind of deep dry wash.

Jerome is very happy to be out of the deep dry wash.

2012-02-06T09:48:00.001-07:00

Jan 28.......Since I last wrote, Dan has been sick sick sick. We are thinking he has the flu. I'll sure be glad when he gets better! And, thank goodness, I don't get sick with flu or colds. (I'm knocking on wood. Maybe I should speak so soon.) While he is staying mostly inside, I've been doing his chores, as in, getting propane and gas. Hes gone outside for some air a couple of times with Bella, but whatever is making him feel bad is also making him weak. No energy. Bella and I have been out walking all over the place and when I'm not out with her, I've been "people watching" near the big tent. I'll take the quad and ride through the dry wash to close by the big tent and other vendors. Its crazy with people and vehicles. Jan 30.....Yesterday afternoon the group of us left here camping had a small campfire and weenie roast. Dan sat out in front of the fire for awhile. He still feels bad, but besides getting out for a couple of walks with Bella, he needed to get out and enjoy the fire and eat with us. Usually he builds the fire, but not this time, so it was a tiny fire. Dan builds HUGE campfires! Feb 1.....Me, Dan, and our friend Sonja drove to Algodones, Mexico. I needed to get my front tooth fixed. It was cracked. They made a mold for my new tooth and I have a temporary on for now. We went to lunch and I had a great fish taco. YUM! Dan also shared his HUGE shrimp cocktail with me. We only had to wait 45 minutes to get back across the border. Thats not a bad wait. Feb 3.....Our beloved Bonehead passed away 4 years ago today. Doesn't matter how much time goes by, we miss her everyday. Feb 6.....Well, Superbowl Sunday has come and gone. I don't like football but I like the halftime. Madonna was great. I've always liked her music! Dan went across the dirt road to watch the game with all the guys that are camped here near us. When the pizza came, I walked over to eat and watch the halftime. Bad Patty not liking football. LOL LOL LOL LOL......Oh well......... Here are some pictures of Mexico. Just miscellaneous stuff. Seen this tank in the desert on the Yuma Proving Grounds. It was moving along at a good pace. One of the signs before you go into Mexico. A bunch of pictures showing vendors and the streets in Alogodones. And Sonja getting a manicure/pedicure. HUGE shrimp cocktails........ We're standing in line to get out of Mexico the first time we went. Love this sign. Like you couldn't find your way back home. LOL LOLThe second time we went to Algodones to finish up with getting my new crown, this young lady gave us a ride through the gate for 5 bucks each. We rather liked doing this and will probably do it again.

2012-01-22T08:26:00.005-07:00

Boy oh boy. Mommie nature sure can't make up her mind about what shes doing. Very hormonal I would say. Its been nice here. Pleasantly warm and still chilly at night. Chilly enough to use the heater. But yesterday sure was different from the nice day before. "Hmmmm", old lady nature says. "Everyone back up in the Seattle area is having bad weather". "Maybe I should give the Bremerton people something to talk about". She did. We had a dust storm. Oh fun. Somtimes it seemed like we were in the middle of it, wind blowing and dust thick enough we couldn't see the hills. Then sometimes we'd see dust devils heading for us caused by gusty winds and POW, right into our rig. Wind gusts that sure made Bella sit up and look all around. I got a couple of pictures of the dust coming at us, but these two pictures don't EVEN compare to other pictures I could have taken. I just wasn't ready with my camera. Guess you would have to have been here to really know what I was talking about. The wind was blowing out of the southwest so at least it wasn't the cold north wind. I was very surprised that we didn't have to lower the satellite dish. Yea for that. When the wind gusts get REAL bad, we'll lower the dish just for its own protection. The wind blew all day and up until we went to bed. The sun was peeking out through the clouds all day and it wasn't cold, just windy and dusty. We took Bella outside to play when the wind seemed to take a little rest, but then it would start blowing dust again. One of the times we had her out, she was doing her usual "checking all the holes around the brush" looking for her lizard pals. She found one hole that was interesting to her and she wanted to play with the critter laying there. Not! She had found a baby rattlesnake who was half way sleeping. He must have moved out closer to the opening of the hole to feel the warm sun. She tried to pull it out of the hole with her paw for some playtime, Dan spotted what it was, I grabbed her and carried her far away from that bush, and Dan relocated the little snake to another bush farther away from our "walking Bella area". He only did that because she remembers where shes seen critters and goes back to the same sticker bushes looking. And, thats why we go outside with her to walk and play and not let her out alone. And we have fun taking her out and about and watching her play........There are more and more people out and about in the desert now with all the RV's parked out here and we see people in the distance all the time taking their dogs for walks. So far I haven't seen anyone walking their cat. I think a few people have seen us in the desert from a distance and can't figure out why it looks like we're just standing around or moving slowly and they don't see a dog on the end of a leash. We must look funny to them because the brush is not that interesting just to stare at. Bella is small and they almost never see her unless they are close to us. Then they can see why we are moving slowly among the brush watching Bella explore all the critter holes. Ok. Enough about our Bella cat. See you all in the next blog entry.

2012-01-19T08:14:00.006-07:00

I'm thinking that Dan and I are REAL lucky to be in Quartzsite right now even though its still in the 30's and 40's at night. At home in Bremerton, WA they have snow/ice/black ice/and soon frozen rain which will make for even more ice. I've seen pictures of my great nieces/nephews and Dan's grands all playing in the snow and it looks like they are having a blast, but.........I used to love playing in the snow but as I grew older it just became cold and wet. Someday Dan and I probably won't be able to travel to warmer weather so you'll find me all bundled up staying warm and looking out the window at the snow. LOL LOL LOL..I guess everyone has their "likes" and "dislikes". I don't like the snow anymore and the dentist is right up there with snow and I've NEVER liked the dentist! Anyway, I hope everyone "at home" will be careful out their while traveling in the snow and ice. I'll be an avid weather watcher from here in Quartzsite...........Speaking of the dentist. I'm gonna be forced to go see Dan's dentist in Algadones, Mexico as my front tooth is cracked where my dentist had repaired it several years ago. Guess its time for a crown/cap. When I'm in the dentist's chair, you'll probably see and hear me cry. I'm such a wimp. Dan likes his lady dentist in Mexico though, but hes braver then I am. I'll be sitting in her chair thinking the whole time, "this is cheap" "this is cheap" "saving big bucks" "saving big bucks". LOL LOL. Thats why everyone goes to Mexico to the dentist. This will be the first I've given in as I wait until we go home to Bremerton in the summer and I'll see my own dentist. I'm guessing that I'll be saving about 700 to 800 bucks for one crown though (my insurance does not help at the dentist anymore. grrrrrrr). Anyway, I guess thats gonna happen in the near future. Ok. Guess I'm done complaining and worrying about dentists........Its VERY crowded in Quartzsite right now. The big Pow Wow is happening and people come from all over to attend. Its a HUGE rock and gen show. People, people, people wherever you go. I drove the quad to the grocery surplus vendor yesterday, I call it the dented can store, parked kind of close cause the quad is small (parking is at a premium now with everyone wanting to park close to everything), got what I wanted, then came back and sat on the quad and "people watched". It was crazy! Bumper to bumper big trucks (ya gotta pull your rig with something good sized), quads, little cars that are towed in back of motor homes, etc. You don't see many mid-sized cars or trucks here. Every year I'm amazed at the traffic from the middle of January to almost the end of February. Then the vendors leave and poof, so does the majority of people. Its totally insane. Read about Quartzsite online during this time frame. Lots of stuff happening here and the population swells to a huge number people for a tiny town......Alrighty then. See ya soon in another blog entry.

2012-01-14T07:50:00.001-07:00

Bella thinks she a very small cat. Shes on a tiny ledge and always into everything. I caught her leaning over trying to undo the little square pins. They are the pins says Quartzsite with the year we were here, a picture of a bird, and the word "Snowbird". So, this is our 6Th year of being a "Snowbird" in Quartzsite.Its getting REAL busy in town with all the vendors set up and selling their wares. Dan and I will ride the quad into town and go check out all the vendors at least one time. See if there are any new ones. Soon the "Big Tent" will be open and we'll go to that once too. Maybe after its been open for several days. Its always chaos in there. Wall to wall people and vendors. I'll write more about the big tent in another entry......Its crowded going into town to do laundry, pick up milk, get gas and propane, etc. We opted for driving to Blythe, CA so I could go to a big grocery store, wash clothes, and Dan could buy our 5Th wheel a new tire. No crowds in Blythe. Oh, and go to Starbucks twice! LOL! Well, its a treat going there during the winter for us and we're lucky if we go once a month. Everyone has favorite places and this one is mine.......Its been cold out at night again. We have the heater on all night. During the day its been ok. Warm with a northern wind chill. I sure hope the weather will be decent up in Las Vegas. We'll be leaving Quartzsite about Feb 26Th and heading to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway so Dan can work at the track again. Poor Bella will sure have to make an adjustment. She won't have near as much freedom outside and no critters to chase. Oh well. She'll be ok.....We went out on another short quad ride. Just a ride that didn't take us too far away from home. Here is a view from the top of a mine overlooking part of Quartzsite. You can see all the white in the distance. They are all RVs. The long white thing in the middle distance of the picture is the big tent that is being set up for upcoming events. Another view of Quartzsite. Out in this view is the I-10 freeway. Ya can't see it but its there. Another view from the mine. Looking at "Q" mountain. On the other side of the hill is the big, white Q letting you know you're in Quartzsite. And, yet another view looking west. You can see the quad trail or gas pipeline road. We've traveled on this many many many times.

2012-01-09T08:27:00.001-07:00

I'm really knocking on wood as ever since Dan hooked our old modem back up, the satellite dish is working just dandy. The repair guy couldn't get the new modem to register or whatever he does, so we never bought it. Sure glad because that would have cost some money to replace. Never did find out what was wrong. If it really was our modem or Hughes net was having a problem. Anyway, we're back up and working good............We've just been living everyday life. Our friend Sonja's sister Gail came to visit from Edmonton, Alberta. She went on a quad ride with us out to the dunes where General Patton had some of his troops preparing for war. Besides playing in the dunes you can walk around the outlying area and find bullets, clips the bullets were kept in, tracers, and maybe a 50 caliber casing. Remnants of days gone by when the soldiers were out in this area. Lots and lots of history here. It was a good quad ride and was fun racing up and down the small sandy dune hills. It was nice and warm out too so that was a plus.........Its been quite nice out since I last wrote. Shhhhh. Won't say that too loud. I want the nicer and warmer weather to stay for awhile. Bella sure has liked it as some of the lizards come out and play in the sun. Dan says that she is doing CPR with them. Catch/Play/Release. I'm kind of being on the lookout for rattlers when its a little warmer out. So far I've not seen any sign of them. They must be happy hiding away for the winter. Gail, Sonja, Darrell Here they all are following Dan We'll be going under I-10. You can just barely see the top to a semi-truck. Hi Dan!!!!!!! Small but fun sand hills to climb Gail, Dan, Ken View of the desert Dan and I rode the quad on Jan 7th to the annual Hi Jolly Daze Parade. Look Hi Jolly up and read about him. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_Jolly I was told that the camel was borrowed from a small zoo in Yuma. I didn't even know Yuma had a zoo. I never looked for a web-site and one wasn't listed on the pamphlet I was given, so you'll just have to drive to Yuma, AZ someday and find the Wild World Zoo and Camel Farm. After the parade there was a bake sale, some places to eat, and music. We stayed for awhile and then wandered back home.

2012-01-04T08:15:00.008-07:00

And so the new year starts with our satellite dish burping all the time. And you can't get any assistance over a weekend or holiday. Not exactly sure what was going on but it seems to be working right now. We went into Quartzsite to have our modem tested and it seemed flaky. We'll see what happens I guess. Dan will be talking to the techs for our satellite dish and to the business that has a modem for us. All I know is right at this moment its working as I'm sitting here writing in my blog. I sure do miss my computer when I can't have access to it all the time. Oh sigh....Our New Years Eve was very quiet. We had plenty of people sitting around and chatting, but it was quiet. For one thing we didn't have any music this time and I'm guessing that people aren't drinking as much anymore. Works for me. I always have fun without alcohol. Dan built a huge fire and it wasn't cold at all. Last year we all froze even when standing around the fire. So, goodbye 2011 and hello 2012. On New Years day some of us went for a quad ride. It was fun as this has only been about the third ride we've been on because its been so cold. We had someone new in the group so we went to Dripping Springs and Apache Cabin. People want to see these places when they are new to riding in the desert around Quartzsite. Everyone talking about how to get over the small but steep rock wall in the dry wash. Every time we drive to Dripping Springs this part of the dry wash gets talked about. I've never driven our quad over these rocks as I'm always taking pictures, but I've taken pictures of people getting stuck on the rocks or having their front wheels up in the air. It doesn't look bad in the picture, but it could fool you when you're trying to navigate. I better hurry up and publish this entry before the satellite decides to burp again. lol lol lol

2011-12-31T08:56:00.002-07:00

HAPPY 2012!!!!!!!!! I know. Its not today but close enough. Some of us went for a very short quad ride yesterday, 12/30. I had my camera ready in case we seen the owl again. Well, we did see two different owls but I never would have gotten to take a picture of either of them. One flew out from behind us and into the trees. Was my camera ready for this surprise? Nope. Then we seen another one fly out ahead of us, way ahead, and disappear into trees in the distance. No pictures, but it sure is neat to see them. We both didn't realize how close to where we are camped the second owl was. Dan takes Bella for walks close to where we seen it. Guess we'll be hawk AND owl watching. Little Bella could "take flight" if that owl was hungry. I think we've been really lucky to have seen the owls. And we were lucky that the day was warm. Almost short sleeve t-shirt weather. Not quite to mine and Dan's liking, but almost there.......See you all on here next year!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-12-30T09:14:00.003-07:00

Its almost a new year. 2012. And when I read the book 1984 I thought that was a long ways away! Wow! 2012! We are gearing up for a low key New Years Eve fireside gathering, conversation, food, laughter, whatever. We sat around the fire pit last night. Dan built a great fire. It was actually not too bad out weather wise. Its warming up a little during both the night and day. It would have been a perfect night to sit and watch a meteor shower...........There were only three rigs here besides us. Now there are 5 more. We are becoming a neighborhood. I'm thinking that a couple more rigs will be pulling in for our gathering. Poor Bella was totally puzzled by all the RVs and dogs. She checked them all out VERY carefully from a distance, and then when she felt somewhat comfortable, off we went in the opposite direction to go walking/playing/critter hunting/bird chasing.........I've put a couple of pictures on here of the sunset reflecting back towards the northeast across the desert. The colors were great. The dirt looks so red and its really light brown. The few clouds in the sky always makes for a great sunset. On my "to do" list is to head into Quartzsite and get a couple things I need to make a pasta salad and spinach dip for our New Years Eve gathering. Always good to have munchies.

2011-12-24T08:19:00.001-07:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS And good cheers to all of you. We will be eating outside having another desert holiday buffet. The weather is suppose to cooperate and be in the low 60's. I'll be providing ham, pistachio salad, deviled eggs, and fudge. Sounds like Thanksgiving dinner except for the fudge. Dan does not like turkey or chicken, so I always bring ham. I'm sure it will be a most excellent dinner.......Not too much else happening except for getting ready for Christmas dinner and doing regular chores and walking Bella. I did take one day and drive north to Parker so I could shop at Walmart. I think everyone and their mother was shopping that day! Guess you have to consider its the only Walmart around for miles......The days are getting a tiny bit warmer but the nights are still cold cold cold. I've been listing to some of the "locals" and they were saying that the area was suppose to have record temps. Must be record lows because its been in the 50's during the day withing the last 6 years that we've been coming here. All I know is that we sure do use our portable propane heater all alot, especially at night. Here is my flamingo "Flo" all ready for the holidays. Check out the muffler around her neck. If I would have had "leggings" for her, she'd be wearing them too. LOL LOL LOL. I do love dressing her up for different holidays And I had to put a picture of Bella in here showing just how spoiled she has become. Now, is this service or what? Let us bring the food to you miss princess cat! Believe me that this doesn't happen all the time but Dan took the can to her and it became a "Kodak moment" for me. Oh. Dan did go golfing in the desert with Diane and Carol. Golfing in the desert dirt. LOL LOL LOL LOL. I didn't go. Maybe next time I will so I can watch them hit the florescent golf balls. I think they had fun.

2011-12-18T09:10:00.002-07:00

We took advantage of a half way decent day to take a quad ride with friends Ken and Diane. I was all bundled up. Its just too chilly out for me but if you put on layers of clothes its ok. Dan took us west of Quartzsite to the Deere Run B&B. Guessing that this place used to be some one's mining camp. There is a cement slab where a building used to sit at one time or another, or "back in the day". I've never looked up the history of this cement slab. Anyway, people have brought chairs, bbqs, wood, flags, a log to sign, putting green, etc. You could actually camp here if you had a tent. Its sheltered in between the hills so I don't think it would be that windy.......Nice view on the way to the B&B. Here we are at the B&B. You can see all the stuff that people have brought in to make it a fun place to "visit". This is a turn off from the B&B trail. Its a gnarly rocky trail going up to an old mine. Dan let me off and I didn't go to the top. I just didn't wanna go on that rough ride. Hanging out on the trail and taking pictures was just fine with me. Wimpy Patty!!!!!!!! And, there they go up and up and up. And here they come back down. I could hear Dan singing all the way down. He was an echo in the hills. When I turned around from looking up the trail, this was my view. Cool. You can see Quartzsite off in the distance to the right. Its starting to look like a sea of white from all the RV's coming to "visit" all the vendors in Dec/Jan/Feb. After they all came down from the top of the "Oh poo poo Run" (LOL LOL), this is the view as we made our way back home. Another nice view with an Ocotillo cactus starting to bloom in the foreground. Can't believe it had red blooms when its so cold out! This is some one's "working mine". We came, drove by, and left. And thats all I'll say about going past the no trespassing sign. There is more then just this "working mine" in this area. Interesting to see some of them, but from a distance. And the weather hasn't improved at all for warmth. I don't remember it being this cold during the daytime for this long in the 6 years that we've been coming here. All the other years we were out riding on the quad, going places and seeing things out in the desert. Now we look outside and see lots of grey clouds and sometimes rain. When we go outside we mostly always feel a north wind so I know that I'll be wearing gloves to keep my fingers warm when out walking with Bella......And the people are starting to trickle into Quartzsite. Pretty soon it will be "wall to wall" people and vehicles. Diesel,gas,and propane will go up in price for a couple of months and it will be hard to find an "up front" parking spot so you can go peruse all the vendors with all their neat stuff.

2011-12-16T08:24:00.004-07:00

Friends from Ferndale, WA, Dennis and Sandy, arrived in Quartzsite yesterday. Always good to see them. Their pictures have been in my blog many times. They will be camping with us after Christmas.(HI KITTIE AND BRUCE! WE GOT YOUR HUGS!) They stopped by our area just as Dan and I came riding in on the quad. We had gone for a short ride to seek out a big hawk Dan,Ken,Diane,Jim had seen. I was gonna take a picture if we could spot it. Didn't see it. Oh well, another day.......It is still cold at night and chilly during the day. We are suppose to go quad riding today and if we do I'll be bundled up with lots of layers! You can tell that it gets cold at night by looking at the top of our truck. It has a layer of frost on top. I know you can't see it very good, but believe me, its there and it was cold out when Bella and I went for a walk at 9am! Bella was patiently waiting to go outside for an early morning walk. She was watching for the doves that come eat the seed Dan throws out. They didn't show up this time. See the frost on the truck? It was about 35 out and was a dry biting cold. Thats the only way I can think to describe it. Eventually it warmed up to somewhere in the low 60's with a slight north wind to make it colder. Bella is the snoopiest cat I've ever seen. I needed something in the cupboard and when I turned away from it, she jumped from the stove to the open cupboard and made herself comfortable. I'm glad she can't get to Dan's toys above the cupboards. Two helicopters and one airplane! I made some candy cane cookies yesterday and most of them ended up being "yummy in someones tummy". I won't say who Dan!!!!!! Good thing I didn't make them all in one day. I'll finish making them right before Christmas when I make fudge. Then I can share them with our desert pals for our Christmas dinner outdoor(hopefully)buffet.

2011-12-13T08:20:00.003-07:00

Did any of you see the eclipse? I got up twice to look at it. The first time was when it first started and the second time was at the end. Seeing an eclipse is always cool. I guess this won't happen for another three years. I tried to take a picture of it but that sure didn't work. I received my new used camera in the mail. WOOHOO! No more ugly scratch on the lens. I'm thinking that to get a good picture of an eclipse, my camera would have to be a better one then I have or at least have a special lens.........Man oh man. We've had some crazy weather here! Its cold at night and not very warm during the day. Cold enough that the critters won't come out of their homes so Bella can chase them around. I drove to Blythe, CA for some groceries and got caught in a good rain storm. (There aren't any big grocery stores here. You drive to Blythe,CA or Parker,AZ to buy groceries. A little info for a "first timer" coming here.) As I was driving down into Quartzsite, I could see the rain coming down in the hills. You could just see it moving across the desert. I guess Dan had Bella outside when I was gone and they were quite a ways from our rig when she took off running for home. Then he said a big wind came blowing through our area. Smart cat. She must have heard the wind coming or sense it somehow. Anyway, the desert ground is all wet. The wet desert dirt really "cakes" onto the bottom of your shoes. UGH! Might be able to make some good mud balls. LOL LOL LOL. The weather can take a "turn for the better" anytime. Maybe mother nature is telling me to stay inside and make Christmas candy cane cookies and fudge. Ya think?...........I tried playing with different settings on my camera to capture this rainbow right outside our rig. I really wish you could find a pot of gold at the end of it because I would have been on the quad driving towards some riches. ha! I like the two pictures where the trees and bushes look red. The sun was peeking out from the clouds and was in the process of "setting" in the west out to the right of the picture, so I got the sunset colors. Cool.

2011-12-09T08:45:00.005-07:00

Lunar eclipse on 12/10. I'm sure we'll see it as the sky has been clear. Our Canadian pal Diane asked me to help her "build" our other pal Jim. She calls him Jughead Jim and is saving a "camping spot" for him and wife Carol when they arrive here. Now he has a greeting party. We think hes quite cool looking. Hes just sitting here in the desert being the reservation guy. Jim and Carol will really get a kick out of seeing him sitting there when they arrive. Dan was out on the quad a few days ago and just happened upon a great horned owl. How cool is that? We've never seen an owl here before. Well, he asked me if I wanted to try and take a picture of it if he could find it again, so me and him and neighbor Ken went out on the quads looking. We found the owl perched in a tree less then a mile from where we are camped. I managed to get a picture of him watching us, then he flew off. He didn't go far because I managed to get one more picture. Although he is hidden in the branches, you can still see him watching us. Dan figured that he had about a 4' wing span. He was pretty good sized. Not too much else happening here besides Dan raising up two more solar panels on the roof. We have 6 panels and three of them are now slanted up facing west. Having the solar panels really cuts down on the generator usage. Now I'm debating if I should put our little Christmas tree up. Bella has inspected it and tried to take a bite of it. I'm pretty sure she'll leave the tree alone as she now leaves my plant alone. But, she might be tempted to think all the little ornaments hanging on the branches are cat play toys. I guess we'll see what happens. Christmas is coming soon. Pretty soon another holiday buffet dinner in the desert, if its a decent day weather wise.

2011-12-03T07:59:00.001-07:00

We had a most excellent dinner, outside/buffet style, in the desert for Thanksgiving. Yes, it was warm enough. Good food/good friends. Couldn't ask for more. No turkey. Just a juicy ham. YUMMY!......Bella is looking up at me as I was on the computer. Thanksgiving buffet The "buffet" guys waiting for dinner. Charlie/Dan/Ken Tuesday 11/29.....Dan has completed installing the gears in the landing leg. We've had a bad landing leg for quite awhile now. He always had to use a hydraulic jack set on blocks in place of our bad landing leg. The only way to get the new gears installed was to cut a hole in our living room floor.We now have a working landing leg and our rig is more stable. Charlie and Ken, our desert neighbors, helped Dan. Thank goodness they were around to assist! It would have cost a fortune to take it an rv repair. Bella discovered the hole and had fun hiding in there. I happened to get a picture of her coming out of the hole. Dan also stopped another small propane leak in a connection to the stove. No more leaks! Seems like there is always something to do. Just like on your house. Good to have some of our maintenance done.......Dan went on a quad ride with Ken and he had fun doing that. Without me on the back or Diane on the back with Ken, these two can "get up and go". They go fast when they are driving single and they both love doing that......Me/Dan and Ken/Diane on quads and Charley/Judy in their jeep are all going on a ride tomorrow. Guiding Charley in to see Apache Cabin. Here they are getting ready to leave on our ride. It was a nice day. I didn't put many pictures on here this time as my lens has a big scratch and it shows up in my pictures. You can see a fuzzy area right in the middle of my pictures. GRRRR. My "new to me/slightly used by someone else" will be here soon. Apache cabin. Old mining cabin. This poor guy was in the middle of the dry wash. Someone had run him over. He wasn't very big and he was not real happy when Dan loaded him up on a twig to move him off the quad trail. He couldn't seem to move real good. Looked like he was stuck in the sand. He was missing three legs but I'm sure hes moving around ok now. Hmmmm. I do believe Charlie got high centered. OOPS! The rocks in the dry was seemed to "grow" since we were there last. LOL LOL....I actually think that during the summer there was some bad storms here and alot of the sand and gravel washed away during flash floods. Diane gonna drive Ken back home It was a fun ride and fun day. And our last warm day. Since this ride its been cold. High 30's/low 40's at night and high 50's during the day. BRRRRR. Dan got out our portable propane heater and its been working hard. We don't have to turn on the main furnace now. Hopefully it will warm back up. Bella cannot chase lizards now as they are too smart to come out of their warm holes in the ground. She is now tree climbing...........Ok. Thats all for now. Dan and I are off to the QIA (Quartzsite Improvement Association) once a month craft show. Then fill up our gas containers.

2011-11-24T09:32:00.000-07:00

HAPPY BLACK FOREST HAM DAY lol lol lol. Thats what we have. HAPPY THANKSGIVING HAPPY TURKEY DAY Here is our home in the desert as it looks right now. Dan only has one solar panel raised. We have 6 panels and he intends to raise a couple more up. They work just fine laying down, we have discovered. Some people might not think that this is the ideal place to stay for the Winter, but if you're "set up" for it, you would love it. It is peaceful here and as Spring approaches, it "greens up" and becomes pretty desert scenery. After Christmas until a week or two after New Years, we'll have people around us. But they are people we know. We go quad riding with them, have cookouts and campfires, etc. Then they all go home and we are again left with very few rigs close by us. We love the road we're parked by because its a dead end. No one can really park past us unless their rig is small or it has high clearance. Soon as Thanksgiving is over Dan will be putting in a new line of copper tubing for our propane. Remember in a previous blog entry we had a flat tire on our 5th wheel and it damaged the propane lines. He put in new tubing but a few days later we ended up with another small propane leak. While checking this out a he accidently put a small kink in the tubing. So, new tubing going in soon with better tools to put the connections on. I probably didn't explain that too good. Our cat Bella LOVES it here. She has become a "catch and release lizard" cat. She did kill the first lizard she caught, but now when she searches for them and even reaches down into a hole trying to flush them out, she doesn't kill them. Soon as she chases it around a bit, she lets it go. Just like the "catch and release" fisherman. Catch, check out your catch, then let it go. I think thats pretty smart for a cat. She has seen one ground squirrel and chased it up a palo verde tree, but it turned on her and headed back into a hole at the base of the tree. These little critters are REAL fast and she'll never come close to them out on the ground. She hasn't seen a kangaroo rat yet as we don't take her out at night like Dan did with Bonehead. She'll probably never see one. Several days ago we were out walking Bella and Dan came across a sidewinder all curled up. He must have been cold. Bella didn't see it, thank goodness. She would have tired to play with it. I took her out and away from where the snake was and Dan went to get my camera. He took some pictures of it, then carefully removed it from the immediate area. I can't believe that this is the 4th snake we've seen in a month. We didn't see any snakes the first several years we came to this area. I think that soon it will be too cold for them to be out and about.

2011-11-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

On Monday, 11/14, we had our first group campfire and weenie roast. It was a nice night and Dan built a good fire. There were 8 of us sitting around the fire "chewing the fat". Fun and good company. Dan, Ken, and Ralph sitting around Dan's first small group campfire. The rest of us are probably at the food table.I am showing Linda a naughty weenie roaster. Bad Patty. Tuesday to Friday, 11/15 to 11/18, I was in Las Vegas. I drove from Quartzsite to Vegas to meet my sister Christine. She was on a working trip taking two of her developmentally challenged clients, Mike and Shawn, on their vacation. Its a long drive to Vegas when you're driving alone and I'm such a wimpy driver as I get older. I followed mostly 4 lane roads so all the people who are in a hurry can go by me even though I'm driving the speed limit. Anyway, I made it to Circus Circus where we were staying. The Vegas traffic wasn't too bad. My niece, Tonya, was in the process of picking up Christine and her "guys" from the airport. We all got to the casino in the early afternoon. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out at Circus Circus, just looking at everything and playing the slots. Wednesday Christine and I had to drive to Walgreens to get Shawns meds. Going at 10am out on the Las Vegas strip was really easy. No one in that town is up at 10am. LOL LOL LOL. I had no problems getting to Walgreens. Stayed in the casino just messing around until we decided to take "the taxi cab ride from hell" to Fremont Street so we could walk around to check out all the sights and see the Fremont Experience light show. A cab ride from the Circus Circus was suppose to be between $12 and $13 according to the Bell Hops at the casino. We all loaded into Nellis Cab and THAT was a mistake. He took us out of the way to reach Fremont Street. I know this was not the way as earlier in the day when there wasn't any traffic, I took everyone with me in the truck just to see how far it was away from Circus Circus. In the end it was easier to take a taxi then take my truck. The truck is big and parking is bad. Anyway, the cab driver went out of his way to give us a very scary taxi ride. So bad that I will be reporting him. When I said something to him about his bad driving, he made it worse. Then we seen on the meter that the fare was over $16, that was not good either. Lets just say that it was not a good experience and I'm being nice about writing this.....We had a good time on Fremont Street. Seen lots of impersonators, heard lots of different music, looked at all the vendors, watched the light shows, people watched, etc. When it was time to go we headed back to get another taxi, but not Nellis Cab. The first 4 cabs "in line" for fares told us that they WOULD NOT take us to Circus Circus because it wasn't a big enough fare. WHAT????????? The last guy we approached said no but he at least found us someone who would take us. Now, this young taxi driver was good. He drove decent, was nice and polite, and the fare was what it was suppose to be. Totally different from the other driver......On Thursday we walked around the Adventure Dome, part of Circus Circus then met up with niece Tonya. Hung out with her for awhile then on her way back home she dropped us off at the M&M Store on the strip. We walked all around that store then headed to the MGM Grand to do what? Catch another taxi cab. LOL LOL. This one was ok. The nice driver told me what I could do about reporting the bad driver and the other drivers that wouldn't take us. Thank you very much. He told us that those kind of drivers make the good drivers look bad, so it gives people a dim view of all drivers. He took us to Harrahs as Christine wanted to try the buffet there. I'd never been there. Its a classy casino. When we finished there I had my last taxi ride from Harrahs to Circus Circus. This driver was ok.......Friday was "go home" day. I left Vegas about 10:30am with stops at Costco and Chevron. Christine and guys had to hang all day at the casino until they went to the airport. All in all it was a fun trip. I got to see my sister and niece and the guys had a fun vacation. ___________________ Christine, Shawn, Tonya, Mike in our hotel room Christine and her "guys" Shawn and Mike Mike and Shawn out in front of the casino Mike and Shawn playing putt-putt golf inside the Adventure Dome Inside the Golden Nugget (I think) playing the BIG machine. Christine and Shawn Me and Shawn trying to win something Shawn and Mike getting some beads from the ladies on Fremont Street Yup. They loved the ladies. lol lol Christine liked this mime. He was good The ceiling over Fremont Street where the light shows are Part of a show to muics above your head. Just look up when you're standing on the street. Pretty cool And, so ends the Las Vegas/taxi cab experience. I did good at playing the slots so came home with money. I think the others did ok too. I sure am glad I went to see my sister. Shes always fun to be with and I love her.

2011-11-12T08:03:00.002-07:00

The below picture of the date should have been on the last blog entry, but.....We will not see this again in our lifetime. The only thing missing is the seconds. Even if my computer showed the seconds, my camera wouldn't have been fast enough to capture the moment. Anyway, I thought it was a cool shot. To end a good day, we had a beautiful sunset. I took this picture looking out one of the windows. Wow!

2011-11-11T08:16:00.001-07:00

REMEMBERING OUR VETERANS TODAY 11/11/11 _________________________________ The last few days have been cold at night where we are using our furnace and chilly to us during the day. Bella likes the chillier weather but she doesn't understand that the critters don't come outdoors from under the ground as much. The desert floor is littered with holes dug by different critters. She has discovered the holes and has been laying on her side and sticking her whole arm down into the hole. Its funny to watch. Hoping she doesn't come across something in the hole that bites her. I'm thinking that if a critter sees her paw in the hole, they go the other way. I would love to have a tiny camera inside a hole and film her paw inching it's way in. That sounds like a Natural Geographic kind of thing......A few vendors are starting to set up in Quartzsite. I'm waiting for the food surplus store(we call it the dented can store)and the veggie/fruit lady to get set up. They are my favorite stores and I can just ride the quad to them. A view of our home in the desert while out walking Bella. You can't see the dry wash in this picture. Its to the right of the picture. You can be assured that when we have a good rain, you would be able to see the water flowing. Its amazing how fast the dry washes fill up with water. A very cool looking cloud with the sun in the background.

2011-11-04T08:30:00.001-07:00

Are these pretty or what? hahahaha....This is lots cheaper then buying expensive tire covers. We decided we better cover the tires as the sun tends to do nasty things to them. This will work just fine. Dan has them tied in the back under our rig as it tends to get real windy here. I was sitting in front of our rig watching Dan and Bella way out in the distance and this was my view. Notice that Dan's "snake stick" is to the left leaning against the tripod. Bad Dan. And I say that because we had been out walking Bella earlier and I came across a small rattler. Not exactly sure what kind it was. I'll be trying to find that out on the internet. Would be easier to do this is I had my camera with me. I could have gotten a good shot of him. He was trying to eat a rat and had the rat about half way into his mouth. I yelled to Dan that I found a snake. He walked over to me and the snake let go of his rat and hissed at Dan. Bella was still off exploring where we could still see her. We didn't want her to see the snake so Dan carefully used his snake stick(which he had with him this time)to remove him out and away from our area. He was a small snake and never could have reached Dan if he wanted to try and sink his teeth into him. Snake safely removed, cat never seen it, everyone was happy. The first couple of seasons that we camped here, we didn't see one snake. Not even in the hot hot weather. Now we've seen two in the last couple of weeks that we've been here. Hmmmm. Must gonna be the season of the snake until it gets colder. We actually had some clouds that made for a pretty sunset. All the pictures were taken from the front door of our 5th wheel. I was standing on the steps outside the door. The first two are looking off to my left. Pretty rainbow colors. I turned the camera to my right and the sky was totally different. I will have to learn how to take a panoramic picture with my camera so you can see how the sky was light colored and pretty to darker colors and still very pretty. The sunsets are just beautiful here when there are some clouds in the sky.

2011-11-02T09:56:00.001-07:00

You can only guess what Flo is dressed for now. Thanksgiving is up next and seeing as Dan doesn't like turkey, we'll be using the Black Forest ham in the freezer. Yum! I was out on the quad alone a few days ago and took a picture of the new Quartzsite sign. This one is right at the road where we turn to get to our place in the desert. Not a bad looking sign. I've seen three of the signs. I'm thinking that there is a number 4 also as there are only 4 ways to enter Quartzsite via a main road. The camels are in front of the sign because of Hi-Jolly. You can read all about him at these web-sites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi_Jolly http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11284 Hes an interesting character. Bella hanging out on one of the Palo Verde trees. Shes all puffed out. Look at her tail. The wind is blowing in from the north and I don't think she liked it too much. Gonna be one of those windy desert days. Note to Bruce. The rubbing compound didn't work. We'll keep trying stuff. Going into Quartzsite to the local RV store and pick up the gears that Dan needs to fix one of our front landing legs. Always something.....Oh. We seen our first coyote. Or rather Bella spotted him first and then I seen him. He was "passing through" our area about 600 feet away. Bella just sat on the bench outside and watched him pass by. Maybe she though he was a dog. Too close for comfort for me having a cat outside. I took her inside until I was sure he wasn't gonna come back around to snoop. Dan didn't see him. I could have taken a picture of him if I had my camera handy as he was going slow enough. Not running. Just doing a slow trot.

2011-10-30T08:16:00.005-07:00

Its been so nice out here in the desert during the day. High 80's/low 90's since we've been here. Been in the low 50's at night. When the sun sets it starts to get chilly. Not quite cold enough to turn the heater on, but at about 4am we sometimes turn it on to get the chill out of our rig. I've been out and about on the quad by myself. Just checking out whats different in Quartzsite and stopped by the dollar store.......We had a small campfire as the sun was setting. The different colors reflecting back on the desert are pretty. The setting sun is to the right of the pictures. It starts getting dark so early now that the sun is totally gone by 6pm, then its dusk and we start looking for night critters and Bella goes inside. Last night Bella and I heard a thump on the top of our rig. About 9pm and its pitch black outside. Dan didn't hear it as his ears don't work so good sometimes. We heard tiny foot steps. It was too strange. I was wondering if the Quartzsite area has small owls. I thought of a bat but I don't think a bat would walk on top of our rig. I guess I'll be looking up nocturnal birds that live in the Sonoran Desert.

2011-10-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

Its Halloween Flo, the wicked flamingo of the desert.Here is our welcome flag with a "meow"Halloween flamingo witch hanging out with the roadrunnerNow, this post is all about Bella. She had been out chasing lizards, grasshoppers, and whatever moved. She was taking a "cat nap" on top of Dan's tool chest in one of the cubby holes in our 5th wheel when she heard a humming bird right outside the opening.I was sitting outside taking pictures of the humming bird when she poked her head outside the hole. Hmmmmm. "Looks like something I would like to catch". She tried several times to jump up as high as the feeder, but its just out of reach. The bird felt safe as it kept coming back. Here she is climbing Bonehead's tree. The memorial for Bonehead is right below Bella. Then Bella found a stink beetle. She had fun with this one. It tried to scurry away and Bella would tease it. She finally got tired of it and walked away to find something else to play with. You can read about this beetle below. Stink Beetles (Eleodes spp.), also known as Pinacate Beetles, are very common beetles here in Tucson, Arizona and in other southwestern desert areas. These large, black, desert beetles are members of the Darkling Beetle Family (Tenebrionidae). A Stink Beetle will defend itself from predators by first standing on it's head and elevating the tip of it's abdomen. If approached too closely, the Stink Beetle will then exude a foul-smelling, nauseating fluid from defensive glands at the tip of its abdomen. This beetle is normally shiny black, but Bella had rolled him around in the desert dirt so he wasn't so black anymore. I think he was just glad to make his escape. Glad he didn't try and stink Bella out!

2011-10-27T08:00:00.001-07:00

We had a good travel day. Hot, sunny, and no wind. Since we've been here its been WINDY!!!!!!! Welcome to Quartzsite. I personally don't like the wind, but I sure can't control mUther nature.........Bella likes it here. Shes been exploring everything the dry washes especially. She wants to stay out longer, but she doesn't like the wind either. And then it gets dark so early that she has to come in. Seems like dusk is when the foxes and coyotes seem to out and about. That the way it was last snowbird season anyway. Here are some pictures of where we are parked for the next several months. We've been parking in the same spot since 2006. It probably looks just like ugly desert to most people, but we like it here. Both my sons, Michael and Jason, and my cousin Lynn would understand what I'm talking about. They've been here. We know that Bella likes it here. Right after we adopted her this past year, we were here for about a month. I'm thinking it all looks like shes been here before in her mind. Shes not too fond of being out in the sun for very long, so shes always in the shade when I can finally take a picture of her. Shes laying in the dry wash behind our rig. This is the wash that floods when we have a big rain here. So far I've taken pictures of it with the water up to the top but never over flowing. It probably doesn't look that deep but where Bella is laying its about 5' sloping down. Other places it doesn't slope so much and its deeper. She loves wandering through the dry wash. In some places its really sandy. A ready made giant litter box. lol lol lol

2011-10-24T07:58:00.002-07:00

We are in Parker, AZ at the La Paz County Park. What a change in this park! We have always loved coming here but this time is not the best. Our favorite spot is empty but the park has changed and the county put in dry camping on the river where we like to park. We chose not to park there this time as someone in the dry camping area has dogs that bark,bark,bark. Whats with that? And, they ran a very long extension cord to plug into electric (where we would have plugged in) and they are paying for dry camping. Whats with that too???????? We heard all this from the workampers that checked us in. Hmmmmmm. The spot we could have parked in is right on the river. Oh sigh. We'll probably try and stay here again sometime and hope the barking dog people have gone away. There is an opening here for a workamper but I don't think we would like "working" here. Its pretty here though. Here are some of the pictures I've taken.Bella does not like it here. Not too sure why. She was ok with the noise of the racetrack and the jets flying over. We're thinking that maybe the sounds from some of the speed boats have a different pitch that bothers her ears and makes her wanna run for home. Needless to say, Dan will carry her to go for a walk and shes been staying inside most of the time. Views of the Colorado River and people with their play toys. Seen this coyote across the river. This is as far as my camera can zoom in. It still looks ok for as far away as he was. We both love all the different palm trees, but boy oh boy are they ever loaded with little bugs. They look pretty against a nice sunset. Dan and I were sitting outside and I noticed that I could see our reflection in the motor home's wheel across from us. I thought that was pretty cool, so of course I had to take some pictures. Too bad the guy's wheel wasn't shiny clean. We'll be leaving here tomorrow, 10/25, and heading to our "other home" in Quartzsite for awhile. Bella will have lots of room to roam around and a "giant litter box" in the dry wash at her disposal. hahahahahaha..........To Kevin who reads my blog. Dan tried the WD-40. It didn't work. We're still trying to find something to remove all the black tire marks. Thanks for the suggestion. Audrey, your dad hasn't tried your suggestion yet.

2011-10-21T08:45:00.003-07:00

Dan has repaired all the propane lines. No leaks. WOOHOO! He tried to repair the little slit in the side but you can still see it. Until we figure out how to make it look better, I'm gonna find some kind of sticker to put over it. Like an "ouch" sticker.........I haven't taken any pictures of where we are because its just parking spaces out in a big dirt lot. KOA won't let anyone take their animals onto the grass as its a small putting green. Dan was walking her and she was on the grass outside the roped off area and they wouldn't let her play on the grass there either. Oh well. Their rules. All she wanted to do was eat some grass. Guess we're gonna have to start buying wheat grass in the veggie department at Albertsons or Walmart again......Its been very warm here. Yesterday it was hot with no breeze. We finally turned the A/C on for awhile until sunset, then we opened some little windows and had the fantastic fans working. They send a good breeze from one end of our rig to the other. I personally don't like the A/C. I like having the windows open.....Ok. This was just a short blurb to say that we have functioning propane lines again. Sure am glad Dan is a handy man and can fix all the stuff that breaks on our rig! Any ideas for getting off the black tire marks on the white skirt of our rig? Dan has been trying different stuff, but just haven't figured it out yet.

2011-10-19T14:00:00.001-07:00

We are now in Laughlin, Nevada at AVI Casino and KOA. It was quite the travel day as you can see in the pictures below. We were almost to Searchlight, NV when we heard a thump. I glanced out the side mirror on the passenger side and seen something flapping in the wind. I told Dan to pull over ASAP. Luckily we were right at a spot along the road that he could pull over safely. Before he pulled over, what had just transpired was done in about 4 seconds. It happened real fast. I didn't even have a chance to tell him that I seen something flapping in the wind. Our #1 tire on the passenger side of the 5th wheel blew out. Totally destroyed. Here are some pictures of the "Great Tire Adventure" along side a busy road. When the tire blew, it tore the propane lines off. We got to the KOA, set up, and headed to Lowes so Dan could buy the stuff for repairs. He is working on that right now. Almost done. Hes checking for leaks in his work. Hopefully there won't be any. The blow out loosened up screws that are holding on the white part of our rig that is partly over the tires in the picture below. It also caused the steel belting in the tire to cut about an inch slit in the 5th wheel wall. While this part of our rig isn't thick, that was still a good enough hit to the inside wall to make it pooch out. And you can see the wavy damage it did below the slit. Dan will make it look good again.

2011-10-17T07:14:00.006-07:00

October 16, 2011. Today was a very sad day at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Dan was out working and I was just leaving to go take pictures at the track. As I was leaving I glanced at the tv and decided to turn it off while I was gone. I was recording the race for Dan. Just before I turned it off there was a horrible crash on the screen. The announcers were saying as many as 8 cars. By time I got to the track it was 15 cars. Without going into alot of detail, the number 77 Indy car driver, Dan Wheldon, died from his injuries. I'm sure you can all hear about it on the news. There are alot of news people here..........After Dan got off work we moved our rig to the inside of the track. We're parked in the owner/driver lot. Dan will be working an extra job with a few other workampers and we had to move from where we were parked. The drag race people needed our area for their event. Dan will work today, we'll spend the night again, then head for Laughlin, Nevada for several days so he can rest up..........I DID NOT take pictures of the crash. It just wasn't the right thing to do. I'll leave that to the media. I DID take some cute pictures of Bella when I caught her with a paper towel roll. __________________________________ Miss Innocent. I had a loose almost done with paper towel roll laying on the kitchen island. Guess she decided she was gonna have some fun with it because she ripped it all to shreds. I know this looks like shes sticking her tongue out at me but she had paper towel stuck to her tongue and was trying to lick it off. It looks like she really did stick her tongue out though and its too funny.

Ok. Almost done ripping it apart. When the cardboard finally came apart, she lost interest and left the mess for me to clean up. I took these pictures in about a 3 minute time frame.

2011-10-14T16:45:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures I took before we moved to our other spot. Pretty cool full moon and I loved the sunset reflecting off the hills. And, of course, Bella always looks pretty. No more hookups. We are officially dry camping. I've only used the generator once. Our 6 solar panels work really good so far. The weather has been great. In the high 80's to low 90's. Dan is getting really dark. Gotta keep slathering that sun screen on!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heres a picture of the speedway from the paved parking lot we are now in. All of us workampers parked together except for two. We are the rig on the far right. I walked across the street to the track and went into the Neon Garage. You ride and escalator down, down, down that takes you to a walkway under the track. Then you ride the escalator up to the Neon Garage. You can see all the garages with the race cars. You can stand at eye level with the cars and watch the crew do their thing, or you can walk up a level and look down at them. I walked up a level. Took a picture of Danica Patrick's car and of her signing autographs. She didn't look like a happy camper. It bothered me that she didn't make eye contact with anyone. Her public. Her fans. Hmmmmmm. Not even a smile. I realize the drivers are busy and have lots on their mind, but they gotta remember they have fans. When they come out of their hidey holes, they need to remember to make eye contact and at least give a little smile. I know she has sun glasses on but she kept her head down, looking at what she was signing the whole time. I didn't even see her talk. Oh well. If they don't wanna make an effort, they shouldn't come out at all. Just my opinion. These are views of the race track looking across to motor home hill where we first parked. Left, middle, right. In the middle picture you can see part of the Neon Garage, where I just was, to the right of the building that says Las Vegas. Looking back to where we are parked while walking back from the race track. I am so sad to say that Dan was working with a young man that is stationed at the air base and he told Dan that the stealth bombers are deployed. Shoot. I won't be taking pictures of them this time. Oh well, I guess they are off serving their country somewhere.

2011-10-11T15:26:00.007-07:00

Oh geeeeeeezzzzzzzzz. Dan corrected me on the last blog entry. We didn't see the Blue Angels fly over us. It was the Thunderbirds. Here are some pictures that we both took on 10/11. And it was in the mid 80's today. I have a tan going on a little bit of a sunburn on my face. Dan starts work tomorrow 10/12 at an extra job. Putting out signs and speed bumps, getting ready for the races. When hes done working tomorrow, we have to move to another spot where we'll be dry camping. Gotta let the "people with money to burn" have their spots here on upper and lower motor home hill.....A view of lower motor home hill. We are the second rig from the bottom. A good view of the speedway

Looking kind of southwest across the speedway with Las Vegas in the background. Sure looks hazy. The sign says it all Looking back at lower motor home hill. Part of Nellis Air Force Base is in the background. A couple of the cars from the Richard Petty Driving Experience going around the track. I think someone paid to drive the first car and someone follows them in case something happens. Some big Air Force plane that flew over us I think this is a Warthog. Cool jet.

2011-10-11T07:50:00.002-07:00

10/9/11.....We have arrived at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Its nice weather so far. We're parked on lower motor home hill for a few days. Full hookups in the $3000 spots. Can you imagine paying that much to park your RV? And upper motor home hill is $5000!!!!!!!!!! Dan will get his assigned working area and we'll be moving to dry camp the rest of the time we are here. Bella is not too sure of the noise here. The drags were happening when we arrived and there were some race cars out on the track. We are right next to Nellis Air Force Base and because it was Sunday, it was pretty quiet for things flying around in the air. She only looked up when something flew over us. The drag races finally ended and she was happy being outside to explore. No green grass or trees here. She did explore the boat that someone parked here. Seeing as today, 10/10, is Columbus Day the air base might not be doing alot of flying. We'll see. On a regular work day poop Bella is gonna find that the jets are REAL noisy! Hoping she doesn't wanna go hide. 10/10/11.....It was such a nice day! We didn't have to do anything but just enjoy the day. Dan took Bella outside and she did real good. She went for a walk with him almost all the way from our rig to the grandstands. You can see the end of the grandstands in the picture. I'm so glad she doesn't try and run away. She does real good walking with him.. We did some socializing with the other workampers that are here and most of us went to dinner last night at a place close by called the Poker Palace. An older casino. I sure love camping on lower motor home hill! I'll be out taking jet/big plane/stealth/etc pictures. I love watching them go over the top of us. The Blue Angels were out yesterday but I didn't have my camera with me. They did a couple of maneuvers, practicing I guess. It was cool. ___________________________________ HAPPY BIRTHDAY Amelia. Dan's youngest grand. One year old!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-10-08T12:30:00.004-07:00

We've been in Pahrump, Nevada since 10/6. Staying at a "mom and pop" park called the RV Ranch. This is a nice little park. Bella sure does like it here. She can go for good walks with Dan and she still has some green grass to chew on. We're about 3 country blocks from Terrible's Lakeside Casino and RV Park. Its a nice little casino. We went there for the Friday seafood buffet. It was not the best buffet but not worst either. It was only $11.99 a person, so what does that tell ya? Very small with fewer selections. We won't do the buffet again but we had to try it once anyway. Glad we're not closer to that snow. UGH!!!!!!!! Bella has been having problems with her left ear for several days. Now that we're in a town that has veterinarians, shes gonna go see one today to see whats wrong. Tomorrow on 10/9, we'll be heading for Las Vegas Motor Speedway and after we park there I don't really wanna leave to take her to a vet. The only place I'll be going is to run out to the gas station on I-15 to pick up some milk. I'm sure her ear will be ok and its nothing serious. We'll see..........We finally left the winds and rain behind for now. Hoping to have warmer weather at the races. _______________________ When we drove into town for fuel I seen this eagle sitting on top of a casino at the Chevron station. Looks like this is a popular perch for the pigeons. lol lol We were both loving the price of diesel fuel. Better then over 4 bucks a gallon like in Bremerton.

2011-10-05T08:09:00.001-07:00

The last couple of days have been uneventful. Except for Monday night,10/3. We had BIG winds!!!!!!!!!! I sure do hate the winds. Makes our 5Th wheel rock and roll way too much! We sat out the windy night in Hawthorne, NV at Whiskey Flats RV Park. We've stayed here before. Its right across the street from a big Army ammunition depot. Bella is such a good traveler. She lays in her cat bed on the console between us. I think she really tries to sleep but she mostly ends up cat napping and dozing. On the floor back of the front seats is litter box, food, and water. So far she hasn't used any of this stuff. We're thinking eventually she'll use everything just like our other cat Bonehead did. It also took her awhile to do this. We both thought this dust devil was cool. It lasted a long time. Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of something like this when you're going almost 60 mph???????? lol lol According to the weather we were supposed to have more wind Tuesday so it might have been a bad travel day. We traveled anyway and it was all good. Even up over 6000'. We are now in Beatty, NV at Beatty RV Park. Its a little "mom and pop" park. We've also stayed here before. Bella is pretty much a happy cat camper here because she can go walking with Dan out back of the RV park. Lots of room and lots of little critters to chase. We'll be here two nights. We are so lucky that Bella seems to mind us. I think that we've both become her comfort zone and she doesn't stray too far from either one of us, especially Dan. She knows her name, she knows "stay", "stop", "outside", "nummies", and a few more important words. For a cat, she seems to listen really good and shes learning. Since she became a part of our family in April 2011, it feels like we've had her forever. Shes come a long way in such a short time. Dan does sometime have to put the pink harness on her and use a leash and she doesn't like that, but its mostly because there is too much noise, traffic, people, and dogs around. We gotta remember shes just a young cat and although shes pretty good most of the time, every animal "spooks" at one time or another.

2011-10-02T10:37:00.001-07:00

Mom and Christine watching us get ready to leave. Mom, Dan, and Christine Mom, me, and Christine Welcome to Oregon Our spot at Phoenix RV Park in Salem, Oregon Welcome to California. Home of REAL crappy roads. I-5 sucks UFO cloud Heading into the rain Oh sigh. Rain. Glad it didn't last long Taking a break on the road to Reno Bella exploring in the woods Going into Susanville, CA. Not my kind of roads Welcome to Nevada Boardertown RV Resort Sept 29.......We have vacated Bremerton, Washington. We only do short travel days. Why hurry? We drove approximately 220 miles. LOL LOL LOL......From Bremerton to Salem, Oregon. We are SO whimpy. hahahahaha......We're staying at Phoenix RV Park in Salem. We've been here before. I got to looking at the date we were last here and it is exactly one year ago. Sept 29, 2010!!!!!!! Didn't plan that for sure.....The drive was good. Nice weather and no wind. The farther south we drove, the warmer it got. WOOHOO for warm weather! Its been awhile since we've been out in traffic pulling our 5th wheel and we both were amazed that the drivers out there on I-5, in Washington and Oregon, have gotten worse. And the freeway is more crowded. We planned our day good, missing morning rush hour traffic in Tacoma,WA and missing afternoon rush hour traffic in Portland,OR. Ya gotta take advantage of that window of opportunity. Like from 10am to 2pm. Bella traveled really good. I think she tried to sleep but most of the time just kept her eyes closed and was of "cat napping". Dan took her outside after we set up and now shes in here sleeping pretty good. Sept 30.........HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my long lost granddaughter Trista. She is 20 today. I would love to see her again someday. I guess time will tell.......We had another good travel day. We actually went 287 miles today! WOOHOO! Thats good for us. We are Yreka RV Park in Yreka, California. We're stayed here several times before. Seems like its always windy here. Bella sure liked going outside here. October 2.........We are spending two nights, last night and tonight, here at Bordertown Casino and RV Resort. We're just over the Nevada border, about 16 miles from Reno. I'm weather watching as its suppose to be windy. Sometimes windy doesn't make for a good travel day. We ate in the small casino last night and I came out 10 bucks ahead on playing the penny machines. Rather windy here today. Gonna take Bella out soon but I know she won't like the wind. This is a nice park but the streets are a little narrow. And now the wind is picking up more and more. Oh boy.

2011-09-29T07:04:00.002-07:00

Today is travel day! We'll be heading down I-5 for right now. We might go to Las Vegas via Reno or might not. Undecided until we get down into Oregon. Anyway, I will try and write as we travel. Should be "interesting" traveling with Bella again. We had just gotten her when she traveled with us the first time and that was only 3 months ago. Shes had a pretty cushy life here at my mom's house. Playing outside and chasing squirrels. She knows that something is happening. Guess she'll learn how Dan and I roll.........So long Western Washington/Bremerton until next year!!!!!!!!

2011-09-24T07:27:00.001-07:00

Its been BUSY since I last wrote. I've been driving Christine to a few places seeing as she can't turn her neck yet because of the stitches, Dan's mom was here for several days, we got the new tires on our truck, etc. Just busy busy busy.....Dan's mom is back home now and Christine has gotten her stitches out. She still can't yank her head around to look at something. She'll have to be careful for awhile, but shes feeling good and can breath good again. When I took her to get the stitches out, Dr. Rice told us that the goiter was softball sized, not mushy feeling as I had asked him that, it was a harder mass, it was wrapping around her windpipe, pushing down on her lungs, and looked like a big cluster of green grapes. YUK!!!!!!!!!!! I believe he was amazed when he seen it and told us that he wished he would have taken a picture of it. I guess the research people will be having fun "playing" with this goiter, doing their researching and testing stuff. No wonder my poor sister couldn't breath or talk right. I personally am SO glad she had this done!!!!!!!!!!! She should be feeling pretty good by time we leave on Sept 29th. _____________________________ Dr. Dan took such good care of her incision. Dan and his mom just before he took her back home.

And somewhere along the way Summer turned into Fall. I didn't even notice as the weather is still the same except for it getting darker a tiny bit earlier. Oh, and the squirrels that Bella chases around the yard are REALLY storing up the peanuts. And I finally got the garage in our 5th wheel cleaned out so the quad can be loaded in soon. I was putting that off all summer since we took the quad out and parked it in my mom's garage. You know how your garage can become a "catch all" for everything? Thats what happened to our garage. It looks so good now. Dan finished up doing stuff to the outside of our rig. Except for some odds and ends, we're pretty well "road ready".

2011-09-16T08:13:00.002-07:00

Tuesday 9/14...Well, my sister Christine is in surgery right now having her thyroid/goiter removed....Surgery is done and everything is great. She had a good doctor, Dr. Rice, and we both really like him---------Wednesday 9/15...I brought her home today. Her neck is MUCH smaller then it was before and she has a chin again. This goiter was on the left side of her esophagus and was just about choking her. It was starting to press down onto her lung. She was having a hard time taking a breath and her voice sounded like crap. Raspy, gravely, grasping for words cause she couldn't breath. It was awful. The goiter was the size of a softball, a tiny bit bigger then the plastic ball I have in my hand. Can you imagine some mass like this choking you? CRAP!!!!!!! The doc showed me with his hands about the size of it and this is ball is pretty close. Of course her voice is not all the way back to normal, but we all can understand what she is saying and it sounds at least 80% better. I'm sure after she heals she'll sound even better. I'm SO happy she got this done. Especially before Dan and I go back to Arizona. She should be ok by time we leave. I'll be doing the driving for her for about 8 to 10 days cause she can't turn her head, but after that she'll pretty well be back to everyday life again. Dan is being Dr. Waller and taking care of the incision for her, applying stuff and cleaning it(its only about 3 inches long). Dan is a good guy............So, Dan has been working on the waxing of our 5th wheel. Its slowly getting done. We leave Bremerton about the 28th or 29th of September, or so that is the plan..........Did ya all watch "America's Got Talent" and the guy who sounded like Frank Sinatra won? Was he good or what?!!!!?? Next on our TV agenda to watch is "Dancing With The Stars". I really wanna watch Nancy Grace compete on there. Its gonna be a fun show to follow.

2011-09-13T10:36:00.003-07:00

Dan is back from seeing his daughter and grands. He had a good time seeing them and hanging out. And 9/11 has passed again. What a very sad time that was........The sun has decided not to "grace itself with it's presence" the last couple of days. The good ol clouds are back. I picked blackberries yesterday because they still looked happy on the vine. Froze two bags. Bella was having a problem yesterday while I was picking berries. She ended up vomiting 6 times and was running a 104.5 fever. Thats high for a cat. We got her into the vet and she had some sort of gas pocket that was blocking something inside her. We're almost positive that she didn't swallow a small cat toy or a piece of string. But when shes outside, and even though we watch her, I'm sure we don't see everything she puts in her mouth. I don't understand it all but Dan and I could see the gas pocket on the xray. The vet gave her a couple of shots, antibiotic and another steroid type shot, (we trust this guy completely as he took care of Bonehead too), and gave he an "under the skin" IV drip. She was kind of dehydrated. She ended up with an pocket of fluid under her skin and then I guess she absorbed the fluid into her body. It was interesting and didn't bother her a bit. Her fever came down last night and is still good this morning. Shes moving around more like her normal self this morning and is "asking" to go outside. Dan will take her out for some fresh air in awhile. Last night all she did was sleep. We both think that she'll be ok. Anyway, thats the Bella story. Tomorrow we start the Christine story. My sister is having her thyroid taken out. And, so life goes on........We intend to leave Bremerton in two weeks. We'll see how Christine does in recovering. Then off we go to Las Vegas so Dan can "work" the Nascar truck series race and the first Indy 500 to be in Vegas.

2011-09-10T08:19:00.006-07:00

Remember 9/11/2001.......and HAPPY BIRTHDAY KITTIE!!! ______________________ Its been SOOOOOOO nice out that I've neglected my blog. Been outside with Bella most of the time. Shes been chasing squirrels and assisting Dan with waxing our 5th wheel. She climbed up the ladder and sat there for quite awhile. We are slowly in "count down" mode for leaving here. Don't have the exact day yet as it will depend on how soon my sister Christine mends from her surgery. She is having her thyroid taken out. That will be in the next blog entry probably......We've been enjoying the ripening tomatoes and blackberries. Hope the sun sticks around for awhile. We're overrun with blackberries so one of mom's neighbors has been over here picking too. She makes yummy blackberry jam.......Dan has been gone for a couple of days and will be back soon. Hes gone to Everett, WA to spend some time with his youngest daughter Audrey and the grands. When he gets back he'll probably finish waxing our rig. Sure is lonesome here without him. Different anyway. _______________________ Bella "hunting" squirrels. LOL LOL...She has fun chasing them. Queen of the ladder. She likes being up above us, but I think all cats like being up high. She was quite content to sit there and make Dan wait to have his ladder back. Busy, busy, busy. Not easy work for Dan. Hes very careful as hes working and I'm always close by. Our 5th wheel is looking good all shiny. Hey Ryan! Heres that funny weenie dog....Christine's little mutt, Max. This puppy is "busier" then Bella has ever been! I can't keep up with him. His short little stubby legs carry move his little weenie dog body along VERY fast!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hes into everything. I'm sure Christine can't wait for him to get out of the beginning puppy stage. lol lol lol

2011-09-03T08:35:00.001-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my son JASON!!! -------------------------------------- Its hard to believe that its September 1st!!!! Did we ever have summer here in Bremerton, WA??????? I'm thinking not. We've only done two pickings of blackberries and there are so many ready to ripen if only the sun would stay out long enough. I finally picked some tomatoes and they were quite yummy, but there are so many green ones waiting to ripen. If the it would be sunny for several days in a row, everything would ripen! Other then waiting for the sun to stay out, we've kept busy. I had the last doctor appt, the eye doctor, so no more doctors this summer. Our 5th wheel now has two new tires. Replacements, under warranty, for the ones that fell apart when we were on the road. Dan has managed to wash the 5th wheel. It looks so much cleaner. Now he has to buff the front so the bugs won't stick so bad. The screens have been washed. No more desert dust.......And I started writing on this a couple of days ago and guess what? We are suppose to have sunny days for the next 6 to 7 days! WOOHOO!!!!!!!! Blackberries will be picked. This is Labor Day weekend and the Blackberry Festival is happening in downtown Bremerton. We might go walk around the Bremerton boardwalk and check things out. Yesterday we moved our washer/dryer combo out of our garage and into our storage unit. I wasn't using the washer/dryer that much. Its so small and is mostly only good for dish towels, underwear, etc. So, its gone now and I intend to put get a light weight plastic storage thingy to store cat food, etc. Working on that. The garage will have more empty space now. Dan changed the oil in the truck yesterday too. Our "to do" list for getting road ready is starting to dwindle.............

2011-08-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

We FINALLY are seeing some blue sky and warmer weather! At least the blackberries and our one tomato plant are loving it. Seeing grey and cloudy skies really gets ya down after awhile. We've been outside with Bella in the nicer weather......We've been trying to get our "to do" list done on our 5th wheel. Its slow going but it will all get done in the next 4 weeks. Then we'll be ready to travel right on out of Bremerton. I guess that I'll start downsizing our rig for travel. Yup! We even have to downsize a 40' 5th wheel after being parked for awhile. At least we'll leave here a little lighter because all the Arizona desert rocks that we pick up when out riding the quad, will be left here in my mom's garage. Hoping that family members will come pick out some rocks for their flower gardens. They are pretty cool rocks. Maybe I should see if the local rock club wants them to play with.......My sister is now the proud "mommy" of the little mutt in the pictures below. A weenie dog, aka, as a Dachshund. His name is Max. Hes a cute little rolly polly guy and keeps Christine busy. Bella and him are not the best of buddies sometimes, but they play a little bit. Hes funny to watch. His short little legs can't keep up with how fast his brain wants to go! I'm sure he'll be good company for Christine and Mom during the winter months. He'll be very entertaining. Christine is now officially a member of the "poop and scoop" club. Maybe I should buy her some small baggies for the scooping part as a "little weenie dog baby gift". LOL LOL LOL Bella wondering why "Aunt Chris" put Max on her cat perch. Hmmmmm. It should be interesting traveling with this cat perch in our living room. We have two slides up front in our living room so I'm guessing when they slides come in, the cat perch will have lay in the middle on it's side for travel. Sure don't want it standing up when we're going on down the road! I guess that will work. Bella has to have her place to sit/lay/play too and she loves her cat perch. One small weenie dog at play Heres the first blackberries of the season. The sun had been out for a couple of days and the berries were liking that. Think I'll be making a cobbler soon. I put some pictures of Bella eating the new shoots on the blueberry bushes, but she was getting some help here from Dan. She pulls the branches towards her with her paws and then starts chomping. Shes too funny. Have you all been listening about the news on the earthquake back East? Must have been a real eye opener for people that have never experienced one. We seem to always be waiting for another "big one" to hit the West coast and then a quake hits in a place where its "not the usual thing" to happen. Interesting. Mother nature sure is a brat sometimes!

2011-08-22T13:00:00.002-07:00

The Red Elvises! YOUR FAVORITE BAND!!!!!!!!!! Me, Dan, son Jason, and his Teresa went to see The Red Elvises in Port Townsend, WA. on August 17th. We LOVE listening to this band. Check them out at www.redelvises.com. You might like them too. Port Townsend is a neat little town with lots of old buildings. Dan and I stayed the night after the concert while Jason and Teresa drove back to Bremerton. We stayed at the Belmont Hotel right on the main street. Our room had 12' high ceilings and old brickwork on part of the walls. Old doors, woodwork, etc. I like old stuff. The small concert was at the Upstage Restaurant. We ate there which we really didn't like but we did like the inside of the place as it was in another old building. We had a great time and will go see them perform any chance we get. Dan looking out our hotel room window. Inside our room.Love the old door and bricks.No elevator in this building. Just this old, long staircase. Jason and Teresa looking up at me.The Belmont Hotel with the high windows.Ferry leaving Port Townsend.Jason and Teresa on the lower part of the dock.Jason and Teresa on the dock with some of the old buildings in the background.The Upstage where we seen The Red Elvises. The building is old. You can see a door on the side of the wall. I don't think you'd wanna walk through that door to the outside.Red Elvis flyer outside the building.The Red Elvises!!!!!!!!!!Dan, Oleg, and me. We met Oleg through our friends Jim and Carol Butcher. He brought his family to visit them in the desert in Arizona where we camp. What a nice guy!Jason and Teresa dancing. They play the kind of music that you either have to get up and dance or yell/sing/clap/or all. I know that when I hear them playing I can't sit still. The hands are clapping, toe is tapping, and my voice gets pretty weak from yelling and singing. I love it!Red Elvises. Over the weekend of August 20 and 21 we stayed real busy. On the 20th we drove to see Dan's mom Mary. She lives in Maple Valley, WA. Dan's younger brother Ed came to see us there. That was cool. We ate lunch with her and just hung out visiting her and Ed. On the way home we took a little drive along the waterfront in Tacoma. It was a long day, but a good one. Brother Ed and Dan. I couldn't resist this picture. To the right of the hall is the dining room. You can see the mode of transportation.Ed, mom Mary, and Dan.We were along the waterfront in Tacoma and I snapped this picture of Mt. Rainier. Too bad the power poles were in the way.August 21st was Nicholas' 7th birthday, one of Dan's grands. We gathered at a park for eats and cake. I think he had a good time. Can't believe hes 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Birthday boy is in the camo helmet.Do I look like I'm 7 now?Dan's oldest grand, Caleb. I think he was out in the field throwing a football with someone.Dan with his grand, Tiffany. They were watching a black bug crawl on her arm. She likes bugs. LOL LOL LOL After the gathering we drove to his daughter Audrey's apartment, stayed for awhile, then ventured to the ferry boat for a ride home. Thank goodness it didn't rain! As I'm writing this, it is raining out. Oh sigh. We did go alot of days without any rain.

2011-08-16T08:10:00.001-07:00

Our weekend was good. The sun wasn't out but it didn't rain and it wasn't cold. Dan's grands were over and he had a blast with them. He was on the quad alot of the day. Sure glad his body felt well enough to do that. Dan even cooked the main meat for dinner which was fine with me. Some Costco pork tenderloin. Yummy. Nothing really to write about so putting on a few family pictures. Tiffany, Dan, Nicholas, Ryan Ryan and his Papa picking blueberries Dan and the grands picking blueberries My mom watching Dan and Ryan riding on the quad Drawing and playing in the driveway Tiffany found a "pretend horse"

2011-08-15T08:13:00.007-07:00

My son Jason, his lady Teresa, Dan and I all took a drive to Port Townsend, WA to the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. Our friends, Chris and Connie, were setting up their concession. We hadn't seen them in 2 years so it was a fun trip. Dan ended up helping in the curly fry wagon and we stayed for a bbq. It was good to see Dan being active after all the problems hes had with his sciatic nerve in the right leg. Guess things are feeling more normal for him. Check out the Hood Canal Floating Bridge as we were traveling across it. Always cool to go across this bridge. Dan, Connie, Chris Teresa and Jason Connie and Dan Here are just a bunch of misc pictures taken around the yard. Bella was "stalking" the squirrel. Bella loves blueberries. I've never seen a cat eat the berries and the new shoots on the bush. I decided that our 5th wheel needed a change inside. Dan and I bought new drawer pulls and cabinet knobs. Different ones for the bathroom, living room, and kitchen. The two pictures below are what the old knobs looked like. Getting old and ugly to look at. The bathroom now has crystal knobs/pulls and the kitchen has the cute white ones. I haven't taken a picture of the living room ones yet, but they are just like the kitchen knobs except they are not white. They are black. Looks really cool as it offsets the whole room. Anyway, we're both happy with the change. Bella was trying to help in the kitchen. Along with playing with the knobs, she got "into" the drawer spaces and helped.

2011-08-08T07:46:00.002-07:00

Seattle Seafair has come and gone. Dan stayed glued to two different tv's for 7 hours watching the hydro races on one and the nascar race on another. LOL LOL. Then Jason and Teresa came over for dinner and hung out. That was cool. And it was actually a nice day out and we could see blue sky unlike this morning where its all cloudy again.........We'll be getting ready to start our countdown to "we're leaving Bremerton again and going southwest" soon. We both have lots of work to get done before we can leave here. Then we'll be back on the road again until next summer. Our health and our family member's health allows us to be able to do things like this. We'll travel until something serious stops us......We are heading to Port Townsend, WA in a few days to see old friends Chris and Connie. They have been on my blog several times before. They will be setting up their concession (aka as the "curly fry wagon") at the Jefferson County Fair. Its hard work helping out in their concession and we sure know that! Its fun though. I'll try and take some scenery pictures, like when we're going across the Hood Canal floating bridge. Suppose to be sunny out. We'll see.......The picture below is Bella out in the distance in my mom's orchard. Shes patiently waiting for the squirrels to come down out of the huge oak tree. Teresa and Jason. Cute. I can see that they have fun together. Uncle Dan and my great-niece Grace. She LOVES her Uncle Dan and stays right by him the whole time shes with him outside. If he lays on the grass, she lays on the grass. If he squats, she squats. Shes a real copy-cat and fun to watch. When she was eating dinner with us she said her prayer before she ate and said "please make Uncle Dan's back feel better". LOL. Out of the mouth of babes. Shes done that twice now. Thank you Grace!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-08-02T08:43:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone. I took some flower pictures and decided to put them on here. And I am putting a picture of my son Jason and his new lady friend, Teresa. They have known each other for a long time. Jason is quite happy and I have someone besides Dan to "hit" Starbucks with! LOL LOL LOL.......The four of us are gonna go see the Red Elvises in Port Townsend, WA. "The Red Elvesis! YOUR FAVORITE BAND!!!!!!!!!!!" As you can tell I like them. Check them out on Facebook or www.redelvises.com Jason and Teresa Wishing the weather would stay sunny for more then 2 days in a row. Maybe I'd get some red tomatoes. I think they are gonna stay green forever. This coming up weekend, 8/6&7, is the Seattle Seafair hydroplane races. Dan will be glued to the tv watching them. www.seafair.com

2011-07-30T08:12:00.002-07:00

I went shopping at Costco and bought a Black Forest ham. YUMMY! And now I have a ham/cell phone story. The ham won. I was getting the ham ready to bake. I sliced it into pieces and layered the pieces in a baking dish with pineapple and brown sugar. First of all I had the ham, pineapple, and some other stuff in a plastic bag that I brought to my mom's house from our 5th wheel. I had also thrown my cell phone in the bag. I took everything out of the bag except my phone. Had a big brain fart there. I took the ham out of it's wrapper and put the wrapper back in the bag, juice and plastic, and threw the bag in the garbage. You can now guess where my phone was. At the bottom of the bag laying in ham juice. I didn't miss my phone until it was time to go home after dinner. Well, the poor phone lay in the ham juice for about 2 hours. It finally dawned on me where the phone was. DUH! Needless to say it DIED! DEAD! NO MORE RINGING phone! I killed my cell phone in a ham juice bath. I guess thats one way to get a new cell phone. Just throw it away in some ham juice. LOL LOL LOL.....Good thing Dan insured both our phones. And talking about insurance, last time we had a phone die, Verizon took care of the dead phone right in the store. Not anymore. I was handed a pamphlet and they told me I had to do it myself. "Call the 1-800 number or go online and you can get a replacement". What happened to customer service? I came home and got online and ordered my replacement phone. That worked ok. The thing that irks me is that the pamphlet said I had a $45 deductible and when I got online I was charged a $50 deductible. Hmmmmmm. 5 bucks is 5 bucks and I'll be writing an email to the third party insurance and taking the pamphlet back to Verizon and telling them they better get updated pamphlets. Whatever. I'm done bitching now. Just don't ever try and become a mini-Darwin award. "Phone Dies In A Bath Of Ham Juice". LOL LOL LOL...............We've been back to the Seattle VA. Thats the most depressing place to go and spend your day, but Dan has to do it sometimes. Got his eyes checked, which are just fine. Then turned his new? hearing aids back in so he can get replacements. The aids that the VA keeps sending him just don't work. We're beginning to think they are not new when they get sent back. We think they are just being repaired and the VA is hoping for the best that they will work. Hmmmmmm. Doesn't that just sound like our government???????? Gives ya a warm and fuzzy feeling..........I took a few pictures of Bella's first "kill". Seeing as she can't get a bird or squirrel, she settled for an earthworm. LOL LOL LOL. It was actually pretty gross when she chomped into it, but she had a good time playing with it first. Bella, fearless hunter of earthworms. And, so life goes on until next time..........

2011-07-23T09:10:00.001-07:00

July 22nd has come and gone. It was my mom's birthday and mine. WOOHOO! Happy birthday to us! We both had a good day. The sun was out and me,my Mom,sister Christine,and Dan went out for Chinese food. Thats always good. The people in the Chinese joint know all of us and made Mom and I each a little birthday rice mouse. He had peas for eyes, peppers for a tail, mushroom ears, carrot tongue, and a cashew nut for a nose. Cute!!!!!!! The flowers are for me and Mom. Hers is the big bouquet and mine is the little one. I love the flowers in the little one. In a couple of days we'll be going to Red Lobster for another birthday dinner. Can't wait. I LOVE Red Lobster because I can get shrimp there that isn't breaded and deep fried. Yummy. So, now the July birthdays are done with and we'll continue on into the August birthdays and all my "once a year" doc appointments......Life is getting better for Dan. His sciatic nerve seems to be easing up on him. I'm so glad. He can drive now so thats a plus. Hes really had a hard time with the stupid nerve......The weather is being nice for a change. Its actually getting warm. The blueberries are loving the sun. I've made blueberry muffins from the first picking and the neighbor across the street picked yesterday. He was a happy camper. Bella is loving it outside. Dan has been letting her go outside our rig alone but only right outside the door. She knows that she can go in and out the door as it stays open for her. Shes been doing good so far. We'll try this when we're back in the desert in Arizona during the daytime. We're hoping that she likes the freedom and will stay close to our desert home. Of course she won't go out at night alone because of the coyotes and foxes. Time will tell..........Now that Dan is starting to feel better, some of the "to do" list has to be started. He won't be going up on the roof anytime too soon to finish up solar panels, but soon as we get another new motor for the front jacks, he can get that installed. He can be doing stuff that won't bother his leg. By time September gets here, we'll really be getting "road ready" like replacing the bad tires on our 5th wheel and getting new truck tires. Anyway, we have lots to do.

2011-07-14T11:30:00.001-07:00

Ya know? Sometimes life just sucks. Since I last wrote my sister Christine has been in the hospital with the same problems she had two summers ago. Kidney stones, ecoli infection, fever, GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since we got her in there early shes back home and seems to be doing ok so far. It just sucks that things like this happen to someone like her. Shes nice, kind, compassionate, loving, and the most patient person I've ever met. Hopefully she won't go back........Dan is still having BIG problems with his sciatic nerve. Hoping that will ease up soon. Sure hope I don't start falling apart anytime too soon. I don't know though. The big 62 is right around the corner. It can't feel much older then 61 but it sounds alot older. LOL LOL LOL LOL........If summer ever gets here and decides to stay I'll be out picking the blueberries in the back orchard. I've been watching the blackberries too and they are screaming out for more sunshine. There will be lots of berries this summer is the sun would stay out for more then a 1/2 a day........My nieces and families went out crabbing here around Puget Sound. They gave us some crab and me, Dan, and my mom sure did love eating fresh crab! That was a treat as I've been wanting to buy some but not wanting to pay the price. Free is most excellent!!!!......7/14. Took Dan, on this grey and rainy day, to the VA for a checkup with his general doctor. She could look in the computer and see his other VA visits and knew about the problem with his sciatic nerve. We're still waiting for pills that he should have already gotten in the mail from the VA for that problem. She told us that she see that the Seattle VA "sat" on the order for meds for 5 days before they took care of filling the order. Not good when he really needs the meds to help him. The GOV is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO slow, especially the VA! His pills only come from Seattle. Geeeeeezzzzzzzzzz. Christine has been resting and sleeping sleeping sleeping. Shes doing good so far. Nothing else happening around here. Just everyday life........Hi to all our family and friends out there!!!!!!!!

2011-07-06T09:08:00.002-07:00

IN MY OPINION..........I am totally discouraged with our justice system. Casey Anthony got away with murdering her little girl Caylee. I am crying inside for Caylee. She now becomes a Cold Case.............. Things have been slow around here. Dan's sciatic nerve is REALLY hurting him and the VA has not called him back. He is playing the waiting game..........I guess we have a couple of good things happening. The weather hasn't been too bad. It didn't rain on July 4th anyway. We hope ALL our family and friends had a good 4th. And we are picking up a new toilet today for our 5th wheel. The original one kept having problems and its now easier and cheaper to just purchase a new one then to keep repairing the old one.........A crow is really having a good time teasing Bella. The pictures below show her up on a tiny ledge. She can see out over the awning of our slide. The crow sits up there on the awning and pecks at it's reflection in the window. Its too funny. I couldn't get a picture of the crow. He moved around too fast.

2011-06-29T10:13:00.002-07:00

Well, Dan is still recouping from the shot he got in his back. Now on top of that his sciatic nerve is giving him hell. Hes been VERY uncomfortable. Trying to do what he can, resting when he can, and trying to keep a smile at the same time. I'm thinking that I'll be taking him back to the VA docs in Seattle again soon. His youngest daughter, Audrey, brought three of his "grands" over for a couple of days. He had a very hard time trying to play with them. Being the good "Papa" that he is, he "grinned and bared it". I'm sure that he'll be back to "his" normal self soon. It was good seeing Audrey and kids again.....We have been following the Casey Anthony murder trial and it has us both "sucked" in. We feel the "need to know" if Casey Anthony murdered her little girl Caylee. We both feel that she did, but we'll be waiting for the jury to decide that eventually. Other then watching the trial and Audrey coming over, life has been slow and lazy. Dan really can't start working on his "to do" list until he feels better..............Here are some pictures. Bella was up on the garage roof chasing a bird. Shes becoming quite the climber. Airing out the awning. We don't use it that much so we air it out a few times a year.The next two pictures are of Dan pretending to pierce Tiffany's ears with his power drill. LOL LOL LOL.....She thought that was great fun. Silly Papa things. Trying to play wiffle ball with Nicholas.My son Jason with Nicholas.My great-neice Grace with Tiffany.Dan giving Tiffany and Nicholas a ride on the quad around my mom's yard.

2011-06-21T18:30:00.005-07:00

Today is the first day of summer and it actually didn't rain and the sky was mostly blue. WOOHOO for blue sky. We had a very nice lazy day. Since I last wrote Dan has been to the Seattle VA once and I've been to the dentist. Two appointments out of the way. Dan got a shot in his back and is recouping from that. Soon as hes feeling good it will be time to start on 5th wheel maintenance. We have a "to do" list for the 5th wheel. New front jack motor, setting up the other two solar panels on top, taking care of two bad tires, greasing the slides, and washing/buffing the outside. Probably other stuff too, but I can't think of it right now. Also on our other "to do" list is to put new tires on the truck and try and downsize our storage unit some more. We always have lots to do when we're home for the summer and lucky we get some of it done. In between our chores we see the kids and grands and play with Bella. Of course I put some pictures of her on here. She loves climbing the trees. Sometimes she wanders places that she shouldn't. That is why she has the pink harness on. It makes her think about staying real close to either of us. I love this picture because she is sucking up to Dan. "Oh please take the harness off". LOL LOL LOLSome more pretty flowers around my mom's yard.

2011-06-12T07:51:00.001-07:00

I've neglected my blog for several days now. We've started to take care of stuff we need to do for the summer. Bella has been to our regular vet for a good checkup, we've gotten a new 3/4" hose for our rig, we're in the process of getting a new motor for our front jacks(ours broke and needs help),and the doctor appointments start in a week for each of us. Thank goodness for that! Dan has also pressure washed the truck and my car. My poor little Pontiac Sunfire collects all kinds of crud from sitting all Fall/Winter/Spring waiting for me to come home and drive it. We won't be going anywhere this summer. Not after putting a new engine in the truck. We'll just stay here and take care of downsizing our storage more, doing maintenance on our 5th wheel(it really needs to be buffed out), and hanging out with our families. Bella is loving it here. Lots of stuff for her to explore out in the orchard. Heres a few pictures out having fun with her "papa". Shes a real kick to watch. My niece Jennifer and her little boy Mason are here at my mom's house visiting. She flew in from Illinois for her friend Tabitha's wedding........This is Jennifer and Mason. Niece Jennifer, great-nephew Mason, niece Melinda, and great-niece Gracie. Jennifer, Mason, and my sister Christine. Jennifer and her grandma, my mom, Mariane. LOL LOL LOL. Ya even have chores when visiting your grandma. I didn't ask her what she was cleaning up but I'm assuming she was following the "Mason trail" doing her mommy chore. Hey! Look at that picture on the left side of the row of pictures hanging on the wall. Hmmmmm. Looks like my graduation picture from a VERY long time ago. hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Typical 60's pose and typical 60's hairdo. I'm feeling old with all these little "GREAT" nieces and nephews around.........We're missing the hot weather. While its been not too bad here, we miss seeing the sun almost everyday. I'm still running the furnace in the morning. It hasn't rained very much. People think it rains all the time here in Western Washington. Not true. Its just cloudy alot of the time and its a damp climate so you think its always should rain.

2011-06-05T10:50:00.001-07:00

Well, life has been slow and easy so far. Dan has been sick so nothing much is happening. Hes getting better as he went with me to the vet for Bella's checkup and hes been outside with her going for walks. Think he had a touch of the flu that lasts more then 24 hours. Maybe he'll stretch out not feeling well as he has maintenance chores to do on our rig. LOL LOL LOL. And we need to get into our storage area and do some stuff........Its actually been nice outside. I've taken some pictures around my mom's yard of the flowers and stuff. Never got my car out for the oil change the other day. I discovered that I hadn't renewed the license tabs so I had to go take care of that. I got brand new license plates as we get them every 7 years in Washington State. I am now legal. hahahaha. Its strange to drive it after driving the truck all Fall/Winter/Spring. Gotta stop and think about what I'm doing..........Here is Bella with a small bouquet of lilacs from mom's yard. I love the scent of lilacs! The back view of our home in my mom's side yard. My little Pontiac is in the right corner. Ahhhhhhhh. Home is where the 5th wheel is!!!!!!!!!!! The back of my mom's house where I grew up and part of the orchard. Bella up in one of the apple trees. Shes wearing her harness in this picture. Dan uses a leash sometimes as its noisy here and we don't want her to get spooked and run the wrong way, like out into the road. She sure does love climbing the trees. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh. Pretty girl. Here are several pictures of flowers around the yard. Love taking pictures of flowers. They sure are different then the desert flowers. Dan and Bella putting together her new cat hotel/cat toy/cat climbing thing with shelves/cat scratching thingy. All of that. LOL LOL LOL Is this cat spoiled or what???????????? Shes learning how to "work us".

2011-06-02T09:50:00.002-07:00

Finally parked in my mom's yard in Bremerton. And I actually see some blue sky this morning. Dan has been sick the last few days but has tried to take Bella outside to explore anyway. Way too many noises here for her so far. City noises. She'll get used to it though. Soon as Dan feels better I'm sure he'll have her outside so she can explore the orchard full of trees to climb. My mom's yard has lots of places for her to explore. He has felt so bad that we still don't have the water hooked up. I'll be glad when he feels better......Today I'll be out and about. Just put the insurance back on my car and gonna take it in for an oil change. Back to everyday life for the summer in Bremerton. I'll have to take some pictures of the lilacs here in the yard. They are so pretty and I already have a small bouquet in our rig.......Ok. I'm off to start my day!

2011-05-31T08:09:00.006-07:00

What a great picture of Bella! Here is Dan and his mom. We went to pick her up from the assisted living place where she lives and she spent two nights with us. Took this picture on his 63rd birthday. All his grandkids were here except for little Amelia as she lives in Florida. We were very lucky to have had half way decent weather. Cloudy and chilly but it didn't rain. No rain is always good. Here is Ryan, Dan, Caleb in the back, Nicholas, and Tiffany. I think they all had a good time. Dan and his youngest daughter Audrey. All in all, it was a good Memorial weekend. We'll be leaving here tomorrow, June 1st, and heading to Bremerton, Wa for the summer. We liked staying here at the Puyallup fairgrounds and Bella loved it. She was able to play in a big area. We'll stay here again I'm sure. We'll take care of doctor appointments this summer, try and downsize our storage area more, totally clean our 5th wheel from top to bottom every nook and cranny, and take care of any maintenance that needs to be done on our rig. It could be a busy summer.

2011-05-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

This seems to be Bella's favorite spot while I am playing on the laptop. Good thing I have my can of air to blow away all the Bella hair. lol lol lol WOOHOO!!!!!!!! We got our truck back! We now have a new engine with less then 100 miles on it and those miles were put on by the Ford dealership. Our 7.3 should last for a long, long time. We'll be heading out on Wednesday 5/24 going west over Snoqualmie Pass to Puyallup, WA. We are gonna park at the fairgrounds in Puyallup for a week. We NEVER travel pulling our home on a holiday weekend. We'll just hang out until we go to Bremerton on June 1st............5/24..We have arrived at the fairgrounds. Had an uneventful travel day. And, welcome home to us. Its grey and cloudy and raining and dreary and the ground is mushy where we are. We had to find a place to park where we wouldn't sink. Bella loves it here at the fairgrounds. Even though its raining out, we've been out with her and shes just going crazy out in the wet grass! We thought that she wouldn't like it but we sure were wrong. Shes had a blast out playing. We all got pretty wet but it was fun. Today is Friday 5/27. Its still raining. Yesterday my son Jason, sister Christine, great-nephew Gabe, and great-nephew Caleb came to see us. Christine brought about a months worth of mail. Woohoo! Love going through all that mail, even if its junk. We were excited to see everyone and we had a good visit. Before they left to go home, we all went to the Old Country Buffet for dinner. I know we'll see family next week when we go to Bremerton, but it was cool they came over..........We were gonna go to Camping World today but we are having heavy rain and its miserable out, so we'll stay home.

2011-05-21T09:52:00.001-07:00

We had to move out of our RV space in the park as people had reservations for our spot for the weekend. A nice man in the park moved us out to the back of the parking lot by the golf course shop. We'll be dry camping for a couple of days. Then he'll come back and tow us back to a regular spot with hookups. The people in this RV park have been very accommodating with us. No charge to dry camp in the parking lot. When you are traveling and are in Yakima, Washington remember Suntides RV Park and Golf Course. We are suppose to get our truck back late Monday afternoon, 5/23. Hoping that everything goes ok and that happens. We'll stay in the RV park until 5/25, then venture on west heading over the Cascade Mountains. It has been rather nice, but now its raining. Guess all the people that are out here golfing will get wet today. Just putting some pictures I took of Bella on here. She is my new interesting subject for pictures. This is what she does to me every morning when I get on the computer. She just kind of gets in the way. Fearless tree climber. lol lol lol Deciding to come back down but she doesn't want Dan's help cause she finally took the plunge and jumped this time. Big long stretch. She sure has long legs!!!!!!!! She figured out how to get into the nummy bag. She chewed a small hole in the side and can get treats out that way, but I opened the bag and she figured out that she can stick her paw into the bag and pull the treats out.

2011-05-15T07:20:00.001-07:00

Since we left Utah, our days have been rather uneventful until we got almost to Yakima, Washington. We spent the night at the Yakima Indian RV Park by the Legions Casino. We went into the casino to eat at the buffet and play the penny slots. We were only in there about 1 1/2 hours. When we went into the casino it was nice and sunny outside. When we left the casino we could hardly get out the door. We managed to get back to our rig and then found out that a major storm was coming in from the east side of the Cascade Mountains. It was WINDY, DUSTY, and then is rained. I thought we were gonna blow over. Sure glad it didn't last long and that we wouldn't have to travel in it on our next travel day. Bella has been learning how to climb trees. Shes good climbing up but still has a problem coming down. Living in a controlled environment for the first 10 months of her life didn't prepare her for everything out in the real world. Shes learning and she loves it! Well, we're not in the flat Sonora Desert anymore. Not when you see the ramp sign. LOL LOL This was coming down the grade from Deadman's Pass. Hows that for a name? I thought this was just a pretty shot of the different colors. We stopped on an on-ramp for a break. Yup. We are definitely not in the desert anymore!!!!!!!!!! I believe this is Mt. Hood down in Oregon. I didn't take the time to make sure I was right or wrong. Just chillin. Well, today 5/12 we didn't get very far at all. As we were leaving Yakima on I-82 we were driving up a hill and the truck broke. BROKE! Smoke was coming out of the engine. Oh boy. We had to call AAA to have them send out two trucks. One for our broken truck and a big truck to pull our home. We are now parked in the back lot of the Ford dealership while they check out the truck. They offered to let us park here while the truck is being worked on, but we can't stay but a couple of days. We need to be in an RV park where Dan can dump the black/grey water. That fun chore he has........Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. We're broken. AAA sent two two trucks to get us. A smaller one for our truck and a bigger one for the 5th wheel. I didn't like being stopped right along the freeway. The vehicles go by so fast and it was rather scary. And no cops showed up to see what was wrong and no one stopped to see if we were ok. So much for brotherly love. Oh well. Hood was up, we were in trouble, no one cared, and life goes on. Parked at the Ford dealership in Yakima with the red van they gave us for a loaner. We had two choices after they checked out our truck. Buy a new truck or buy a new long block. A new truck? I don't think so. And be stuck with getting hardly nothing for our truck cause its broken? And being stuck with high payments for 72 months? Not! We opted for the new long block. Was the best choice for us. Dan says we blew a hole in the number 5 piston. Oh sigh. And here is the guy who towed our rig off the freeway. He came back to tow us to an RV park here in Yakima. What a nice guy. We got out cheaper this time. Works for us! Cheap is good. Pulling into our new spot that we have for 6 days. Nice park at a golf course. Bella doing the tree climbing thing again. Again she did good going up but didn't quite navigate quite so good coming down. Dan got the step stool and assisted her. She is so funny to watch. I'm so glad we adopted her. And, thats whats happening with us now. Waiting for the Ford people to make our truck happy and hanging out in the RV park in the rain, rain, and more rain.

2011-05-08T07:50:00.006-07:00

Ahhhhh. What a life. Bella chillin' with Dan and helping him on Farm Town on Facebook. On our way up I-15. Just some of the scenery before we drove through Salt Lake City. We still can see blue sky. I know that gonna end soon. And, look at the nice surprise we got today while traveling. Not sure how it happened. Maybe when going through all the construction in Salt Lake City. Or maybe just a bad tire. Its only a year old. Here is Bella checking out where we are staying for two nights. Lottie-Dell Campground in Snowville, Utah. We've stayed here before. Everything is done on the "honor system". We like this place because it just gives you a comfortable feeling being here. Bella eventually went outside. Chased birds and ate grass. She really liked the grass. Then she went walking with Dan. Life is good for Bella. We will be leaving here May 9th depending on the weather. Heading into Idaho next.

2011-05-05T15:19:00.005-07:00

Isn't he/she cute? It just popped it's little body over the fire pit and I happened to be sitting outside, had my camera, zoomed in and snapped this pic. Dan and I went for our last quad ride here at Sand Hollow. This is a trail we were following for awhile. Heres another trail that was almost like a paved road. The rock was so smooth.We rode through a whole bunch of dunes to get to this place. We were sitting on the quad while it was still running just getting something to drink and looking at the view. All of a sudden around the side of the hill came a jet kinda sideways. Of course my camera was not on and we didn't hear him coming until he was right on top of us. The sound had been muffled when he was flying low on the other side of the hill. Well, ZOOM, right by us he went and we could tell he was gonna go past us again, so on came my camera. This guy was FAST and I almost didn't get a picture. I managed to snap one picture and thank goodness it turned out good and not blurry. I know he seen us sitting there on the quad. It was way cool. Dan said the jet was an A-10 Warthog. Here is a website to read about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-10_Thunderbolt_II Seeing this jet really made my day. I hoped he would come back but he didn't. We're thinking that he was just doing routine stuff, part of his normal work day, and that he came from Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. Don't know. I just know that it was too cool. We sure didn't expect to see a jet flying this low and sideways. He was more sideways the first pass he made by us coming around the hill. Not as much sideways in the picture I took. We are leaving Sand Hollow tomorrow, 5/6, and will miss being here. We REALLY like it here in southern Utah. This is the third time we've stayed at Sand Hollow and we'll be coming back here again.

2011-05-04T18:00:00.001-07:00

Here is the entrance to the sand dunes and many, many trails. We've been out riding a couple of times together and Dan has gone out to play in the sand a couple of times alone. The first time he didn't go very far and I could look out one of the windows in our rig and could see him in the dunes playing around. This is the best place to ride and the scenery is spectacular. We came across this guy just hanging out on the fence. He never even blinked. Ya think this could be Easter Island in Utah? LOL LOL LOL LOL The scenery sure is different from the scenery in Quartzsite. We thought this rock formation looked like a yacht. Hey! Its a rock yacht! A far away picture showing strange rock type thingys. Now look below at the close up picture. I still need to look up somewhere on the internet about what would cause rocks to look like this. Our home way in the distance. We are the one on the far right. You can see how high up we are just by looking at the mountains in the background.And here is the tunnel going the other way, heading back home. Dan and Bella were out hunting lizards. Dan seen one, pointed it out, and she seemed to know what he was doing and in the picture below this one, she took off after it. She found a little bit of shade. Lizard hunting is hard work!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-05-01T07:39:00.005-07:00

We are now in Hurricane, Utah at Sand Hollow State Park. After we left our couple of days in Las Vegas we spent a couple of days in Mesquite, Nevada before we arrived here. We had reservations for here, so we had a "set day" to show up. Nothing much has happened until we got here. Just travel days and hanging out at the Oasis Casino RV Park. The Oasis Casino is closed but the Casablanca Casino is open and a nice casino. They run the old Oasis RV Park. We ate the seafood buffet and that was good. We won't stay here again as its just a big parking lot, full hookups, but mostly small spaces and rather tacky. Just my opinion. She loves it here at the park. We're parked right at the dunes with electric and water. Not many people here as its during the week so Dan has let her outside without harness and leash. She romps around our area and when she hears an ATV or any other noise that spooks her, she comes running to the steps of our rig. Shes learning. Lots of bugs for her to catch here. I'm hoping she'll see a big jack rabbit. Heres a few pictures of the trip into Utah and the place where we are parked. We will be out riding in the dunes and trails here at the park and I'll post pictures other then Bella soon. Putting a few pictures of her having fun with her bird that chirps every time she moves it. Drives her crazy. She just can't kill this bird. Shes a kick to watch. We're in a different time zone again. Kind of throws ya off for awhile....Well, off to Costco in St. George, Utah today. Then we'll come back and go for a putt in the dunes.

2011-04-28T08:02:00.002-07:00

Man oh man! I can't believe the winds we've had. The high winds have a high rating of "not liking" right up there with snow, ice, and thick fog, in my opinion. Anyway, at least our travel day wasn't bad. Warm with blue skies and a few wind gusts, but not that bad enough to make us pull over. We are in Las Vegas for two days then we'll venture up to Mesquite, NV for another two days. We are en route to Hurricane, Utah where we'll spend 5 days playing on the quad in the rocks and sand dunes. We'll be wearing heavier clothes again. Its already cooler here in Vegas then it was in Quartzsite and I'm thinking Hurricane will be cooler yet. We really need to win the lotto so we can buy some property to park our rig, then just fly home every summer. In a perfect world that would happen, but guess what, the world is not even close to being perfect. And, so life goes on and we will be home in Bremerton, WA for the summer living in our 5th wheel in my mom's yard. Watch out family! We're on our way home for the summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol lol lol

2011-04-24T08:30:00.005-07:00

HAPPY EASTER everyone!!!!!!!!!!! We are not having the traditional Easter dinner, but my slow cooked navy beans does have the ham in it. Deviled eggs, jello, corn muffins, tapioca, and fruit. Yummy. Our friends Jim and Carol are coming for dinner. We can eat outside and watch the boats and people on the river. Bella is recovering from her surgery. She slept solid for the first day and night that we got her back, but shes slowly starting to feel good. Shes eating and wants to play a bit. Shes not into jumping up on things all the time yet, but shes getting there.....We have moved and are now sitting at the county park in Parker, Arizona. We are so lucky to be this close to the Colorado River. We are the only people parked this close to the river in an RV. This space isn't on the park map and last time we stayed here a camp host told us about it. You can see from the pictures how close to the water we are. Dan took Bella outside on her leash for some fresh air and three loud speed boats came up the river. That was enough for her. She broke free from her leash, she caught Dan off guard, and headed back home and was sitting on the steps waiting for him to let her in. At least she knows where home is.......There are lots and lots of all kinds of boats on the river and jet skis. And the big speed boats are noisy. Good thing they go by fast and its only noisy for a few seconds. Lots of party boats going up and down the river. Here are some of the boats we've seen out on the river so far. Interesting assortment. We'll be here until 4/27, so I'll be taking some more pictures of the boats and neat sunsets.

2011-04-22T10:15:00.001-07:00

We had to put a harness on Bella and attach a leash to it. She came into "heat" and shes just too fast when she wants to chase something. And we didn't want a male cat to pick up her "scent". She didn't seem to mind as she would still go walking with Dan. Shes going to PAWS soon and they will take her to Lake Havasu to the vet they use and she will get spayed. She loves laying outside and watching everything. She was hanging around Dan when he was putting the spare on our rig. One of our tires has ripples along the outside. Like waves. Didn't look so good, so he changed the tire. We wouldn't have felt very safe leaving that bad tire on our rig. My son Jason works at Les Schawab and advised Dan to change it. We'll be giving the tire to Jason when we get home to see if has a defect. Dan and I went on a very short quad ride so we could check on one of our geocaches. On the way I took pics of the flowers that were planted outside the fence at the RV park. I tried to look up the names of them, but do you think I could match them up with anything in my book? Nope. So, you have pink, white, and yellow pretty flowers on desert bushes. hahahaha I'll figure out the names eventually.......We seen a young coyote when we were out and about, but he was too far away to get a clear picture. Hmmm. That must mean a new camera will be put on my "to buy in the future" list. I can zoom in quite good right now, but wanna be able to zoom in better. Dan put the quad into the garage and we're almost all ready for travel day on Saturday 4/23. It will stay in the garage until we get to Hurricane, Utah. We'll go riding in the dunes there for about a week...........We picked Bella up yesterday, 4/22, from PAWS. She had her surgery and we got back a very tired and groggy kitty. A traumatic experience for our little girl. Shes been sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. She only moves to go visit the litter box and get a little water. She'll be staying inside for a week or so until she feels better. Seemed to take most of her energy away. I'm sure she'll be ok in a few days.

2011-04-18T07:43:00.001-07:00

We have moved from our nice quiet place in the desert to an RV park in Quartzsite that someone in the past tried to "make a go of". I think it could have been an ok. Probably the economy got it. Most of the RV parks are closed now for the season. This one will close on May 1st. Nice to have full hookups. That always means that we can take long showers cause we don't have to go haul water. And having electric means that the pc and laptop can stay on all day if we want. And the tv can be on too. All treats for us cause when we turn the inverter off for the day, nothing is on. I took some pictures of Dan pulling our home to the park. I was on the quad. How cool to see our rig on the move. Almost to the Ranger station. You can see part of Quartzsite in the background. We park almost at the end of a long dirt road. We'll miss not being there, but it was time to go. I rode the quad across the desert and was just in time to get a picture of Dan driving over the top of I-10. Had to zoom in a long ways to get this pic before he went over the top. Just a neat yellow in the desert. So, we will be at this park for a So, we will be at this park for a week, then venture on. From what I've been seeing on the internet, I'm not so sure I wanna go back to Bremerton, WA for the summer. The mountain passes still have snow and its cold. Hoping things will warm up within the next 3 weeks. I'll be "weather watching".

2011-04-13T17:26:00.000-07:00

It is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO windy again. I think thats the only thing I really don't like about the southwest. The wind. It just doesn't blow. It BLOWS!!!!!!!!!!! I'm sure glad it doesn't happen everyday. Other then it being windy today, the weather is nice and warm and we've been outside with Bella everyday. She came across a rattlesnake all curled up sunning itself. She really wanted to play with this snake, but Dan grabbed her and put her inside our rig. He then went out and removed the snake about 1/2 mile away. It hasn't come back yet. Too many snakes this year. Maybe next time it will be all scorpions!......Here is our pretty girl. What a silly place to chill, but thats what she was doing. Bella and Jim/Carol's dog Daisy (our neighbors) checking out Bella. Bella didn't care at all that the dog was nose to nose with her. Jim/Carol's cat Bam checking out Bella. Now, Bella hissed at Bam. Guess Bella thought Bam shouldn't be in her territory. hahahahaha Bella and Dan chillin'. Bella really wanted to get this quail. Shes getting better at sneaking up on the birds. She sneaks around and under the brush getting "ready for the kill". hahaha.....The quail are way too fast for her. She has a good time trying though. The next several days we'll be getting ready to move our rig. Our time is almost up living on the BLM land. I always find it sad to leave the area we camp in, but this time its not so bad. There are just too many rattlesnakes here right now. I don't like always being on "rattlesnake watch" all the time.

2011-04-08T09:58:00.001-07:00

Wow! Its been WINDY! We had to lower the satellite dish on our rig because of the wind gusts. We kept it down for about 6 hours, then the wind gusts seemed to die down, so back up the dish came. Woohoo! We got our internet and tv back. The weather has been crazy. Only a few days ago it was in the low 100's. For our ride it was in the low 80's. Now the weather is gonna be cooler yet with possible rain and thunder and lightening. From one extreme to another. Well, if any rain comes that will make the desert bloom some more........Before the big winds came, we went out on a quad ride with pals Jim/Carol and Jerry/Pat. This was an easy ride in search of blooming flowers. And it was nice and warm even with the winds picking up. It was a most excellent quad ride. We hadn't been out riding since we got Bella. Been sticking around home with her so she could get used to us and her surroundings. Anyway, I snapped a few flower pictures and here they are...........These two pictures are of Fairy Dusters. They have real pretty colors and are light and delicate. I read in my trusty "Wildflowers of Arizona" book that they have a fruit that is in a pea pod shape thing. Here is the might Saguaro Cactus with some Ocotillo. The Ocotillo is starting to bloom and they are a real vibrant when the sun shines on them. They are my favorite cactus. I'm confused about the hedgehog cactus because there are several kinds and colors. But the best thing we seen was a Gila Monster. Yes! A Gila Monster! This is the first time we've seen one out here in the desert. We were driving through a dry wash, just ambling along slow over all the big rocks, when this guy came walking across in front of us. He didn't run when he spotted us so if afforded us all a "Kodak moment". In fact, he wasn't in any kind of hurry. He hung out on the rocks and I was able to snap several pictures of him before he got bored with us and decided to leave. I'm guessing he was about maybe 15 to 17 inches from end to end. And he was brightly colored. His colors were much more brilliant then in my pictures. I think we were all so lucky to see him as we'll probably never "chance" upon one again.....Ok. I know I put lots of pictures of this little critter on here, but am I ever gonna see one in the wild again? The odds are against that. So, if you're looking at my blog, you're stuck with a bunch of Gila Monster pictures cause he was just so facinating. Also, here a website to read all about them. I read it and learned many things I never knew. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gila_monster

2011-04-05T08:19:00.001-07:00

We've pretty much kept a low profile since we got the cat. She goes in the truck with us when we go into Quartzsite for propane/water/gas and shes doing good so far. We drove north 32 miles to the Parker Walmart and left her at home. First time shes been alone for more then an hour. She didn't destroy our rig. LOL LOL. Ya never know what would have happened. If we wanna go to Walmart, the one in Parker is the closest. We don't go there too often, but they have a better selection of cat food and we bought groceries. And I can go across the street to Safeway and hit the Starbucks. We'll be leaving the Quartzsite area in about a month, so she'll have new places to explore..................We are so enjoying having Bella in our lives. She is so active and keeps us on our toes. Shes learning how to "work" us and its fun watching her try. So far she loves going outside with us. Dan takes her on walks and she exploring everything. Shes getting better about staying along side Dan for longer periods of time. I know I'll probably be repeating myself talking about her but its all about the brain remembering and not having to go back and read previous posts.

Wonder if she'll be interested in riding on the quad? Wouldn't that be something? She hasn't heard it start up yet but she doesn't seem to be afraid of anything so far except for the sound of the generator the first time she heard it. Shes fine now. She just might go for a short ride with Dan as he holds her in his arms. That will be a Kodak moment I'll be sure to catch! We've had some very hot days and Bella and the heat didn't get along so good. I fixed her an ice pack, wrapped a pillow case around it and she discovered this neat little package real quick. She lay on top of it, beside it, and wrapped around it. When she wasn't hot anymore, she move away from it. I've made her three ice packs so you know when the ice starts melting everything is wet. Only three ice puddles to dry. This how she is when not being over heated. On the go! She does stay with Dan, but if she sees me coming, she takes off running to me. And, of course, shes chasing after the doves, quail, and lizards.Shes walked to Bonehead's tree several times. Bonehead is not buried here but we spread some of her ashes under her favorite tree. Bonehead didn't have front claws so she couldn't climb the tree so good, but Bella has been climbing higher and higher each time she visits the tree. I guess shes discovering that her claws are good for something other then playing with the scratching post. Thank goodness she likes her scratching post!!!!!! Here are some tasty morsels that she was watching. Shes not too sure about the hummingbirds, but the dove get real close to her. I'm thinking they might be a real stupid bird cause they keep coming back even though they've been chased by her. I'll have to read about doves on the internet. Maybe they don't feel threatened by her. Our friend Debbie and husband Russ adopted their cat when she was very young. They got her from PAWS too. Debbie started thinking about the ages of both cats and called PAWS. She found out that her cat and Bella are sisters. We decided to let them see each other again. They just kind of stared at each other and Bella hissed. Hmmmmmmmmm. Wonder if they knew each other? It was hard to tell. Bella doesn't have all the white on her and she was the runt of the litter. Interesting how they have the different markings.

2011-03-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

Check out this guy. He was right outside our 5th wheel. I'm pretty sure he is called a Sonoran Collared Lizard. If this is wrong, someone please correct me. Dan and I went out for a "flower ride" on the quad. Here is an old stone cabin by the dry wash. We've been by this place many, many times.Beavertail Prickly Pear Engelmann Hedgehog I think. Looks like the picture in my "Cactus of Arizona" field guide book.I'm thinking that this might be Brittlebush. It sure is all over the place. This a picture of the trail we were on. Looking east and heading back home.

2011-03-31T10:50:00.000-07:00

Dan is starting to take Bella out for walks. She has lots to learn about going outside with him. So far she has stayed pretty close to him and when she spots me, she knows who I am and comes to me. Shes fast and has ran from him a couple of times. All in all, shes been pretty good. Shes fascinated with everything outside. She had been living at PAWS in a mobile home with other cats all her life so being outside is a new adventure. Her nose is sniffing everything and shes curious about everything. She is fun to watch. I think she'll be ok going out with Dan once she used to the sounds and scenery around her. Shes learning her name and learning the word "no" with the clap of the hands. She seems to be very smart. Shes been watching tv with us. She really stares at the screen. Must be the movements on the screen. We were watching America's Funniest Videos and I just happened to catch her looking up at the screen as the show was advertising for "Pet Lookalikes". Too funny. I was in the process of doing prep work for dinner and walked away. When I came back she had taken over my area, all stretched out and sleeping. Needless to say I had to clean and rinse before I could continue with the prep work. Pushy little broad she is. I didn't mind. She has tried crawling into every space she can find. The fridge was no exception. I turned my back to the fridge door and when I turned back here is a cat liking the cool air. We love watching to see what she'll do next. We've had one learning experience with her so far. She had an allergic reaction to the flea stuff Dan put on the back of her neck. And he only put a half vile of it on. Her hair fell out where it had been applied. I called the 1-800 number to ask what kind of soap to use and we were advised to not just clean the affected area. I guess the meds spread out on the skin, so we gave her a full bath. She was very good and it didn't seem to bother her at all. She just went along with what we were doing. Our desert neighbor, Carol, held her and me and Dan bathed and rinsed her real good. She gave herself a cat bath, got dry, and is now sleeping after playing for awhile.

2011-03-31T07:00:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Ryan!!!!!!!!!!!! We love you! Papa and G'ma Patty

2011-03-25T13:54:00.003-07:00

I figued out how to put Bella's picture on my blog permanently. Right under Miss Bonehead. Now everytime anyone reads the blog, Bonehead and Bella will be the first things you see. Cool.

2011-03-25T09:30:00.001-07:00

This is Bella........Bella Dani-Ann Waller After a little over three years since our beloved cat Bonehead passed away, we decided it was time to bring another cat enter our lives. We rescued her from the local animal shelter here in Quartzsite, AZ on March 21. We walked into the shelter and she went to Dan right away, so she chose us. She is a very pretty grey colored domestic shorthair cat, very petite as she was the runt of the litter, and will be one year old April 27Th. She and her siblings had been abandon in a local RV park when they were only 4 weeks old. Way to young to not have a mama. The shelter took care of her and so far she is a very loving girl. Shes funny and friendly and very active. She isn't afraid to ride in the truck with us and was very good when Dan clipped her nails. So far she doesn't like it when the generator is running. Shes either afraid of the noise or it makes a high pitch noise that bothers her. Something we can't hear. Soon I will try and put her picture beside Bonehead at the top of the blog page or underneath Bonehead's picture. Just gotta remember how to do it.

2011-03-19T08:25:00.002-07:00

Me, Dan, and our friend Kathy went for a quad ride on Friday 3/18. What a nice ride it was. It was very warm out most of the time. We had a place in mind to where we were going. Back to a place where Dan had found a really neat crystal. Heres a pic of it in case you didn't see it in another blog post. This is something you would find at one of the vendors in Quartzsite. I guess you just don't find nice pieces like this laying around all the time. This is the view from where we went to "crystal hunt". The view of Quartzsite is real hazy and dusty. Not the nicest view this time. Not quite sure why its been so hazy out lately.

You can see Kathy out looking for treasures. I snapped the next couple of pictures because you can see the quartz veins in the side of the hills. I think they are really cool looking. Dan and I have seen a place where someone took a huge vein of quartz right out of the side of the hill. It was a wide vein and after it was taken out, we could see an long empty trench on the side of the hill where it had been. Facinating to know there is a machine that can do that. We really didn't find any real treasures this time out. Just some pretty quartz and some crystal "wanna be" stuff. As always I had to put a few flowers on here. They are starting to bloom. I am gonna guess at the names of these flowers. This time while writing I have my "Wildflowers of Arizona" book in front of me. I'm just comparing my pictures with what I see in the book and hope I'm writing the right thing here. This is a pink-flowered hedgehog. Not sure what this is. Eventually I'll figure it out. Beavertail Prickly Pear Now, we have been lucky enough to have seen 3 of these guys in the 5 years we've been coming to Quartzsite, Arizona. The first two were very shy, hid in their shells, then as we ventures away from them, they moved on. This guy was not shy at all. I took some pictures of him as he was just going about doing his "tortoise day". We never bothered him and I guess he didn't think we were a threat. He just "did his thing" and we watched. Here is a website to read about him or her. http://www.southwestwildlife.org/pdf/TortoiseGlance.pdf.

Good thing I have a decent camera so I could zoom in on him. I have no idea how old he is and don't know how to tell such a thing.

Sometimes he blended right in with the rocks. We did some geocaching on the way back home. There was a cache right by the cactus in the picture above. And we all loved this huge Palo Verde tree. See? Just because we are in the desert doesn't mean that we don't have trees. This one was a beaut! As it was sitting on the edge of a dry wash you can see where limbs and debre had washed up to the tree roots. And under the tree were homes where pack rats lived or had lived. This also the Arizona State tree. I sure hope anyone who reads this blog will enjoy the pictures. We just love being here and miss it when we venture back home to Bremerton, WA for the summer. I tried to get pictures of the little cotton tail baby bunnies, but they were way too fast. They sure were cute and there are lots of them now running about with mommy and daddy. They don't stop when they see us coming on the quad. At least the jackrabbits just stop and freeze thinking that we can't see them if they don't move. I get lots of good pictures of them when we're lucky enough to see one. Mostly we all keep our distance from each other and us and the wildlife just goes on about "life as usual".

2011-03-18T17:25:00.001-07:00

Just been enjoying the nice weather. On this day we went quad riding with friends. It was shirt sleeve weather and we loved it! I'm behind on my blog. The warm weather makes me real lazy so I'm not thinking much about writing. This entry will be just pictures.......Doug, Sharon, Bob, Dan, and Canadian Ken. I was way below them on another trail. Flower pictures of course. We rode our quads to the Colorado Indian Reservation. Dan calls this place the "moon" because of how it looks I guess. Its quite a change from the regular looking desert with cactus. We came across these guys looking at us driving by them. Just some more scenery pictures coming home from the "moon" ride. This is one of the tunnels that goes under I-10. We squeeze our quads through them and it sure is a good shortcut. Doug and Sharon coming out of the tunnel. I love how Canadian Ken went through the tunnel. He almost sat on the running board of his quad.

2011-03-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

We left Las Vegas and the race track on March 8th. Dan worked hard and I think he enjoyed most of it. We headed for Laughlin, Nevada for some R&R. Dan's needing some chill time. We're at the AVI Casino which happens to have a KOA RV Park here. So, we get full hookups for several days before going back to our "spot" in Quartzsite out in the desert. We went to check out the casino, store, pool, places to eat in the casino, etc. We ate dinner one night at an Italian place. Not bad. If ya wanna read about where we are, go to www.avicasino.com. I asked the guy who gave us our players card what AVI meant. It means "wealth" for the Mojave Indians. Interesting.....Its not a bad place so far.............It was REAL windy when we got here. It finally went away. Thank you mother nature........On March 11th we drove into Laughlin, about 12 miles away from this casino, and went to a movie at the Riverside Casino. We seen "Battle, Los Angeles". Good thing we get a senior rate for the movies. It was ok but not ok. We seen the advertisements for it on tv and after seeing it, I wouldn't go out and buy the DVD. After the movie we walked over to the Aquarius Casino and ate at their most excellent seafood buffet.....We left the KOA on 3/12 and are now back in Quartzsite until I don't know when. Called our friend Debbie and invited her to dinner and she brought our box of mail to us. That was about a months worth of mail! Its nice and warm here. Finally some WARMTH! Suppose to be 88. Today we are gonna go pick up our last two solar panels. Dan will eventually put them on top of our rig so we'll have a total of 6. Ahhhhh, we love life in the desert.

2011-03-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

People are filling up the RV lot. Lots of partying going on at night. The Las Vegas police patrol through the lot sometimes just to let people know they are around. And the speedway has their own security. Most everyone I seen going in and out the gate that Dan is working are pretty friendly and abide by the rules. Only a few have been not very nice. Everyone is here to have a good time at the races. Dan and his co-workers have been busy busy busy. The weather is actually nice except for some wind this morning. The sun is out and Dan's face is getting tan. I have a wrist band and can go anywhere around the track if I want, but I haven't so far. I can hear the race cars practicing and qualifying. The last two nights the "World of Outlaws" sprint cars have been racing. They are LOUD and we are not that close to where they raced......The lot over from us had a dumpster fire. I had to walk over and check it out. Not exactly sure what happened, but the black smoke billowed out of the dumpster. On the previous post I took two pictures of the empty RV lot. Check it out now. Its almost full. Dan got another golf cart. The one he was driving was leaking oil all over the place. This one is nicer. Him and one of his co-workers, Louise. Just a view from the back of our rig showing the golf cart and the check-in tent. After the last couple of blog posts, did ya really think I wouldn't put more pictures of the jets on here????????? LOL LOL LOL