Yuma Mardi Gras 2-21

This required its own entry today...the Las Quintas Oasis Mardi Gras Parade!

The Grand Marshall arrives!

The crowd!

The anticipation!

The Traffic Monitor!

Here they come!!!

Some of these were very scary!

There they go!!!

Hibernating 2-20

We are still in hibernation mode...the sun is rising a bit earlier everyday and we seem to want to stay asleep longer everyday. We walked today...I did two and Larry did his four laps.

Then we walked over to Canada row and found that some had gone to Mexico and we stopped at Jim & Dorothy's and caught up with them. They had been gone a week for their granddaughter's wedding up in the Vancouver, BC area. Then it was home for toast.

Before we had left for our walk I had put a roast in the crockpot and it finished earlier than I had planned so we had dinner early today..about 2. The roast was really good with garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables...I didn't make gravy just used the meat juices...yum.

I spent time on the computer, tidying up my knit projects and working on my current project. Larry went over to Don and Linda's to help LInda with her computer and fill our water bottles again. We took another little walk after dinner and that was about it for today. The low was 49 and the high was 74 and it was windy again.

Laundry Day 2-19

It was quiet here in the park today...the entire Canadian Coffee Contingent went off on a desert field trip to an old ghost town. We were invited but we chose to take a pass.

Just another sunny day, Larry spends a lot of time sitting out in the sun, but I dislike the wind immensely so if there is a cold breeze clipping I opt for staying inside, but at least we could keep the door open today. The high was 71 and the low today was 49.

Larry went off and found a car wash to wash the truck and fueled up...diesel was down to $1.83 and then when we went by there to go to the store it had dropped to $1.81. The Motorcoach that was stuck in the mud yesterday was gone of course, but the ruts were really deep. It must have looked solid to them, and I'm sure it looked dry...it has been over a week since it rained here...what a shocker that must have been.

I fought with my blog for a couple of hours trying to figure out why things weren't working the way I wanted them to. I dug around and changed some settings, so I'm hoping its good for awhile. Then I spent time trying to educate myself about Feedburner, RSS, Feedreader and other assorted things associated with online publishing, blogs etc. I am going to have to keep researching until my brain absorbs the information.

All that kept me busy right through doing the laundry and Larry fixed dinner. It is always nice getting the laundry done. We decided to go to the market, Larry saw online that Fry's had watermelon on sale and he had a yen for one so off we went. We ran into Don and Linda Leivers and chatted with them while we waited in the checkout.

I finished another scarf..its a varigated pastel with some snowy white thrown in with a little shimmer. Now I've started a new one, single strand, but with a new yarn new to me...I am excited about seeing how it turns out.

Purple Flowers 2-18

Yes, this looks familiar, but I changed some settings and re-posted this and it looks the way I wanted it. So I am done tinkering for today!

Today's low was 45 and the high was 68. I did one lap with Larry and he did his usual. We hooked up with the Canadians for a short bit and then it was back home for toast.


Today seemed like a nice day for a little road trip. Lots of sunshine but that blasted breeze was cool. We drove out through Dome Valley over to Wellton and after cruising around Wellton it was back to the Foothills.

All out through Dome Valley was agricultural, there were some citrus trees, but mostly lettuces and lots of stuff we couldn't see well enough to identify. It is amazing to see all this flourishing in the desert. Amazing what water will do and there are irrigation canals criss-crossing all over the place.



Almost to Wellton and we hit some desert where there were a lot of the purple flowers that I have mentioned before, so we stopped so I could get some pictures. I think I had the camera on the wrong setting so they aren't as good as they should be.



After we got back to the Foothills we stopped at the farmers market at the Catholic church...we wandered around in there and didn't find anything we needed so it was on down the road. We stopped and got something to eat and then back to home.


In this lot adjacent to our RV park we saw this poor Motorcoach stuck in a mudhole, soft sand or quicksand, we couldn't tell, but they were in a world of hurt. The back end was in so deep the back bumper was on the ground. The driver wasn't having any luck.


After we got back we took a walk to settle our dinner and the big guy was still stuck but it appeared that he had some help. Unless they had some plywood and shovels they weren't getting him out of there...


So that was our day. It is supposed to start warming up by the end of the week...bring it on, we say!

A Work in Progress 2-19

I'm tinkering still. I don't like how the sentences and words were getting broken up with the last template. I've been pulling my hair out and pounding on the poor keyboard in my frustration.

I get the whole entry the way I want it...but in the preview it runs all the paragraphs together...so I go back into edit and it all looks the way I want it....but it doesn't preview or post that way, so now I just look like an idiot who can't tell where a paragraph should start. Then it was also breaking words apart...weird....so more research and pounding will be in the works until I get this figured out!

Purple Flowers 2-18

Today's low was 45 and the high was 68. I did one lap with Larry and he did his usual. We hooked up with the Canadians for a short bit and then it was back home for toast.

Today seemed like a nice day for a little road trip. Lots of sunshine but that blasted breeze was cool. We drove out through Dome Valley over to Wellton and after cruising around Wellton it was back to the Foothills.

All out through Dome Valley was agricultural, there were some citrus trees, but mostly lettuces and lots of stuff we couldn't see well enough to identify. It is amazing to see all this flourishing in the desert. Amazing what water will do and there are irrigation canals criss-crossing all over the place.

Almost to Wellton and we hit some desert where there were a lot of the purple flowers that I have mentioned before, so we stopped so I could get some pictures. I think I had the camera on the wrong setting so they aren't as good as they should be.

After we got back to the Foothills we stopped at the farmers market at the Catholic church...we wandered around in there and didn't find anything we needed

so it was on down the road. We stopped and got something to eat and then back to home.

In this lot adjacent to our RV park we saw this poor Motorcoach stuck in a mudhole, soft sand or quicksand, we couldn't tell, but they were in a world of hurt. The back end was in so deep the back bumper was on the ground. The driver wasn't having any luck.

After we got back we took a walk to settle our dinner and the big guy was still stuck but it appeared that he had some help. Unless they had some plywood and shovels they weren't getting him out of there...

So that was our day. It is supposed to start warming up by the end of the week...bring it on, we say!

Whoops! 2-17

Wow...it is 10:38 p.m. I had turned off the computer...when I realized...OH NO,....I had forgotten to blog....ahhhh, a fate worse than death....crap....so here I am...with my heart racing over the close call!

Just another day in Yuma. The low was 48 and the high was 66, but it was breezy again. Larry did his laps...I skipped exercise today. We got a late start today and Larry didn't get back until almost 10:30 so we skipped coffee over in Canada this morning. I got caught up on my journal, worked on my scarf and did some reading. Spent some time out in the sun, but the coolness of the wind sent me back inside. After dinner we took a walk and wound up over in Canada with our friends and we sat and visited a bit and then back home. Posted a couple more scarves up on my web shop and edited photos.

So that is it...my head is empty of any witticisms and my nose is getting cold so time to dive under the electric blanket! Ta ta for now! Over and out!

New Look and Cold Day 2-16-09

Well, as you can see I was busy today. I've been wanting to update the blog since the first of January but I just never got to it. I have to be in the mood, because I know I will be tweaking and customizing...God forbid that I should just use something un-edited. So I puttered around on this most of the day. I went through all the templates, then picked one, decided to try another, completely customized it and then decided I liked the first one better and so the day went. As I learned what I could change I would find I had to keep tweaking, but I'm done......for now. I have needed to update my template so I could use the upgrades they have now...not that I'll really use that many of them.

It was a good day to be inside on the computer again; cloudy, cold, very windy and after dark, rain. The low was 47 and the high was 66. It was windless when we got up. Larry did his laps and I did my Shred. After our toast we went over to Dave and Nancy's, visited for awhile, but we didn't linger today, the breeze became a wind and it was not fun any more sitting outside. So that was our day, me on the computer, knitting and reading and Larry did our taxes....I'm sure I had more fun than he did....tee hee.

Five Year Anniversary on the Road! 2-15-09

Five years ago today we hit the road to begin our lives as full-time RVers, boy has it flown by; we knew it would, even during those periods when we felt like time had stood still. There were piles of snow all over the place and a storm coming in so we got ourselves out of the mountains quick! Our first week was horrendous and I will save the telling for my book….tee hee, that first week would take up a whole chapter!

In the five years we have been in 30 states and stayed in them all except for Wyoming. We have put on a little over 90,000 miles in that time and watched the price of fuel climb the whole time. Which led to many statements about diesel fuel being junk fuel, cheaper than gas, waits until we decide to hit the road to go crazy…yada, yada, yada. We have had two flats, both on the trailer due to puncture, but really no other mechanical malfunctions. The trailer needed its furnace fixed in Colorado, but that has been the only major problem…leaks fall under the nuisance heading for the most part. We have been really pleased with the truck and the trailer.

We have stayed at approximately 169 different places over the five years. In 2004 we were in California, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. In 2005 we spent six months hosting in six different State Parks in Oregon and Washington and spent time in California, Nevada and Arizona.

By 2006 we were wanting to cover some country. At the beginning we were thinking we would head to the east coast and spend two years exploring over there. We left Arizona, spent time in New Mexico and from Colorado we flew to Oregon to see the girls and their families for Seth’s second birthday. Then we went through Nebraska into South Dakota where we stayed over a month, from there we had taken a day trip into Wyoming to see Devil’s Tower and then we carried on into North Dakota.

By this time we were noticing we were getting a little cranky, so we spent a week talking over everything and decided we were getting crankier the farther we were getting from the kids and with the Grandson’s being so young….which are the best years to spend with them before they get busy with school and their own lives we decided we would continue on to the east coast but we would head back before winter.

So the rest of 2006 was a whirlwind tour. From North Dakota we traveled on across the northern most states into Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and into Ohio. We spent a month in Ohio with my sister Lori and her family and then it was eastward ho. We went through Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas (through the panhandle…we felt we didn’t really need to see Texas), back through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and back to seeing the kids in California and Oregon!

In 2007 where did we head first thing after leaving the kids in California? Well, Texas of course…Houston, so apparently we needed to see Texas after all, because Houston was waaayyyy across to the other side of that big state. We had planned on heading up to Washington for the winter, which we later learned was probably nothing we ever really want to do. So Texas it was, helping out family and then when we were done in Houston we just took our time going across the southern and western parts of Texas and enjoyed the areas we saw…we never went to the Gulf. Then we wandered through New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada, California and Oregon and then decided to see Idaho and Montana.

This past year, 2008, we started out in Nevada for a few months, and then spent time in New Mexico, Utah, California and Oregon.

And here we are back in Arizona. We have spent 3 of our 5 anniversaries here in Yuma…the best place to winter over in a trailer! Last year’s anniversary was in Nevada and the one before that was in Texas.

We are ever thankful that we have been able to, as trite as this sounds, live our dream while we are together and healthy. We hit a few walls over the past five years wondering if we had made a mistake, but during our in depth analysis we always came back to the same conclusion, we would still have made this choice. We could have tweaked a few things…hind sight always being 20/20, but in the tweaking we might never have gone….so as always things always work out for the best.

This next year will be different. We have wanted to find something to do the past couple of years. For us, being retired and jus traveling has been a little boring but to work somewhere along the way tied us down too much to somewhere we weren’t sure we wanted to be for very long. Now the tied down part has been taken out of our hands for now. Our house in Fallon hasn’t sold and until it does it will be our second home. Larry has committed to working for Stockdale Incident Support out of Greenville, Ca. It is mostly seasonal and ties in with what Larry’s business was and involves traveling which we still want to do.

If I don’t want to travel to a fire incident with Larry, I’ll have the house to stay at and not worry about having to haul the trailer to where ever he’ll be. BUT, our direction can change drastically, whether due to our decisions or outside forces so who knows what I’ll be writing about a year from now! I guess you’ll just have to “stay tuned”!

I have no control how these pictures line up in the final posting and they may not fall in the order I will have listed, so hopefully you can figure out what picture is what!

1. Leaving Chester, CA.

2. San Diego (if you look close you'll see a sailing ship, a cruise ship and a battle ship)

3. Gila Cliff Dwellings, NM

4. Gulls in Atlantic Ocean, NC

5. Texas Yucca

6. Clifton, AZ

7. Lake Superior, Upper Peninsula, MI

8. Death Valley, CA

9. Hearst Castle, San Simeon, CA
10. Glen Canyon, Utah

11. Cosmosphere, Hutchinson, KS

12. Lake Okatiibee, Meridian, MS

13. Zion NP, UT

14. Zion NP, UT

15. Hampton Plantation, SC

16. Oregon Coast

17. Vermillion Cliffs, AZ

18. Rattlesnake, NM

19. Grand Canyon, AZ

20. Mt. Rushmore through tunnel, SD

21. Fort Simcoe, WA

22. Devils Postpile, WY

23. State Capitol, Montgomery, AL

24. Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC, Canada

25. Oak tree, Drayton Hall, Charleston, SC

26. Ferry, NC

27. Glacier NP, MT

28. Saguaro cactus, AZ

29. Fall colors, UT

30. Palm Canyon, Yuma area, AZ

31. Carlsbad Caverns, NM

Today's weather here in Yuma was overcast all day...no sunshine...boo hoo. It was a good day to be inside at the computer all day, which is what it has taken to get this post done! The high was 63 and the low was 43.

We both woke with weird feeling tummies this morning and neither of us slept very well, but Larry still did his walk and I did a slow Shred 3, but I did it. Then I put a pot of Cliff Dweller bean soup on to cook and that was pretty much it for us today. I talked with my friend Mary and daughter Andrea on the phone and after we ate our Cliff Dweller soup, which turned out great, we took a little walk. It is dark now...about 6:30 and no wind, but still cloudy...supposed to be like this for a few days...but it beats snow!