Fulltiming Road Runners

Crawford’s Law??  It seems that every time we head off on a project, it turns into an “Adventure”.

Yesterday my brother, Russ, called us to tell us he had more stuff to move than would fit in our flatbed trailer, so we should take the pickup.  We store stuff in the pickup like big Costco packages of TP and paper towels, etc. because we almost never use the truck.  Soooooo… last night after work, we moved the stuff out of the truck and into the car, moved the hitch to the pickup from the car, and loaded tarps, cargo net, bungie cords, tie downs, etc in the pickup.  Then we hitched the flatbed trailer to the truck.  Now we had the room in the bed of the truck not taken by the 5th wheel hitch AND the rack on the top of the truck, as well as the flatbed trailer.

We got up at 5 a.m. this morning, loaded the last minute things in the truck, and headed to California by 6 a.m.  Entering I-10 we noticed the truck wasn’t shifting into 4th gear (overdrive).  Thom tried several different things to get it to work and no matter what he tried it wouldn’t go into overdrive.  The tranny started getting warmer than it should but not overheated.  It was running at 160 degrees and should be around 130.  Too hot would’ve been 180 or more.  We were only 10 miles down the road so decided to turn around and go back home, switch over to the car and trailer and make do.

We moved things from the car back to the truck, things from the truck back to the car, moved the hitch back to the car and hooked the trailer up to the car, then headed for California a second time.

We’d lost 2 hours time.  We got back home with the first load tonight around 6:30 and decided to wait until tomorrow to go back for the last of Russ’s stuff.  I will stay home and let them handle the rest of the move while I put together a New Year’s dinner of Shrimp Coctail (jumbo shrimp), salad (with homemade ranch or honey/mustard salad dressing) , sauted Mushrooms ‘n grilled T-Bone Steak.  Russ ‘n Thom don’t know I’m planning this and they won’t have time to read this until after tomorrow, so I hope it’s a pleasant surprise for them.

Now it’s time to button up and go to bed.  They guys plan on getting up early and I’m tired from my 5:00 wakeup today.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!  AND have a wonderful 2009!

Toodles.

I’ve only got about 5 minutes to give ya’ll a quick update.

We only have 2 days now to go help my brother move here.  I can hardly contain my excitement.  Russ has always been a special person in my life and I’m thrilled to be able to share our life/lifestyle with him.

We worked today.  It appears that business is picking up.  We’re consistantly getting 6 registrations per day for the last 4 days.  People are coming in mentioning the Big Tent events (RV Show, Car Show, Crafts Show, etc).  We’re hoping business picks up as expected.  Last year we were registering 100 to 150 campers per day for a week or so.  We’d sure love to equal that.

Since there’s not a lot to share and I’m ready to sit on the couch, put my feet up and watch whatever Thom’s watching, I’m going to say g’bye until tomorrow.

PS… the weather is slowly warming up.  Highs are supposed to be in the 60’s and lows in the 40’s.  Yay!

Stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!

On Dec. 31st (maybe even the 30th) we get to go to Riverside, CA to help my brother Russ move to the motorhome here in QZ.  I’m so excited.  THEN, just a few days later, our friends Marv & Deb should be showing up.  They’re leaving Ogden, UT on Jan 1st.  THEN, our friends Scott & Mari will be here Jan. 18th for a few days.  It’s going to be a wonderful month!

I didn’t blog yesterday because the winds were fierce and we had stowed the internet satellite dish.  The winds didn’t die down until sometime in the middle of the night.  So here I am now.

We didn’t get any of the rain that was predicted, but I understand it’s raining pretty hard this morning in Scottsdale, east of here.

We took a drive yesterday out into the desert behind our camping area.  We got right up to the foothills behind us.   Here’s a shot of a few Saguaros and the foothills.

Here’s a saguaro up close.  It’s a very healthy one with many arms.  The fuzzy looking plants at it’s feet are Teddy Bear Cholla.

A closeup of Teddy Bear Cholla

Another desert plant - a young Fishhook Cactus

This is a shot of the sun on some pretty rugged hills to the northeast of us.

And last… a shot of the sky towards the end of the day.  Sure looked like rain, it just never happened.

The sky is clear and beautiful blue today.  I hope to get in a long walk when it warms up a bit more.  It’s only 51F right now.  In the meantime we’ve got some errands to run, so I best get in gear.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

A very Merry Christmas from our house to you and yours

Our Christmas looks like it may be a wet one.  Sounds good to me.  I love the rain and I love a lazy day sitting and reading and listening to the rain.  Can’t think of a better way to spend Christmas than chilling with Thom enjoying the day.

Ya’ll have a wonderful Christmas!  Do what you want, the way you want and enjoy every minute.

Stay healthy ‘n happy.

Merry Christmas!

We had a very successful trip to Algodones today.  Both of us got new glasses at a total cost of $258… that includes exam, frames, transitions lenses, the whole ball of wax.  The glasses were our Christmas this year.  We can go back within a month and get second pairs for 1/2 price.

We did some wandering around and picked up a few other things.  I take Glucosamine - Condroitin and pay about $25-$40 for a bottle of 150 pills depending on the brand.  I found them in Algodones for $3.60/90 pills.  I picked up 3 bottles and will get more next month when we go back for our 2nd pairs of glasses.

I also found a bronze & copper road runner I can hang outside on my window when I take down my wreath, and Thom picked up a couple of packages of those huge Mexican marshmallows he loves.  They are about 1/2 the sweetness of ours.  We dropped in to the liquor store to check prices (Kahlua for $7.50, large Cuervo Tequilla for $15).  We bought some Kahlua and Bailey’s Irish Cream filled “bon bons”.  They are wonderful!

It looks like we may get rain today.  As a matter of fact, it looks like it did rain a bit while we were gone.  From the Noah weather report it looks like 20% - 30% chance of rain through Christmas.

We work tomorrow and Wednesday morning, have Wed. afternoon and Christmas off.  Not sure what the schedule will be after Christmas because we will be going to Calif. to get Russ.

Time for me to think about dinner again.  I didn’t plan anything, so I guess I’ll be digging in the fridge to see what’s available.

Stay healthy & happy!

Toodles!

A few pics of Algodones

Colorful Mexican blouses.  I love them!

Christmas in Town Square, Algodones, Mexico:

Square filled with shops, you’d walk into one shop and it blends into the next and the next and the next; you walk out of one of the shops and find yourself in this square:

I was right.  It was a busy day today.  We laid in bed staying warm until around 9 this morning.  Weather report for the day:  sunny all day, low of 34F and high of 57F, very slight breeze most of the day, but we did measure a gust at 11 mph.

We went to get Thom a new fanny pack after getting ourselves awake and put together.  Most of the zippers on the old one broke and he didn’t want to be wandering down in Mexico with wide open pockets.  We found the right one downtown, good price too.

There are several new vendors open down there now, out behind the stree front shops.  Hey Mom!  They’re back and Thom is smiling!  The vendor who sells cheese curds is back.  We fell in love with their deep fried jalapeno cheese curds last year and were worried they wouldn’t be back this year.

After we got back from shopping, Thom dumped the tanks & started the laundry.  As many of you know, we have a washer and dryer set in the trailer.  It’s very economical with water, only uses 9 gals per load and the cost of running it with the diesel generator (needed for 220 electricity) is pretty comparable to going to a laundromat.  The Asko washer ‘n dryer get things twice as clean as laundromat machines and we know exactly what’s been in our machines.  Guess I got sidetracked explaining why we do laundry at home.

While Thom did the laundry I made another batch of peanut brittle, some date nut bread with the last of last years dates from Bard Farms (down by Yuma), and after a short rest made an apple crisp with some apples that were ready to be eaten or baked.  All day I kept wishing Mom were back here to help.  We have so much fun cooking together and we get lotsa talkin’ done as well.  Heck, if our cookin’ sessions were publicized (filmed?), we’d probably have half the world problems solved as well as yummy food!

As mentioned yesterday, we’ll be going to Algodones tomorrow to get new glasses for both of us.  Our appointment is for 10:00 a.m. and having never been there before, we plan on leaving at 7:00 so we have plenty of time if we mess up somehow.  If we don’t mess up, we’ll have time to browse around until the appointment.  If there’s time on the way home I want to stop at Bard Farms for more dates.  The price is totally reasonable.  I think last year we paid something like $1.50 to $3 per pound where we’d pay $8 per pound in the grocerly stores.  If we can’t stop this time, we’ll do it another time.  I sure don’t want to go back to Utah without a stash of dates!

Time for me to concoct dinner.  I’ll have lots of dishes to do tonight what with baking, candy making, and dinner, plus I’ll need time to take a shower before bed, and need to get to bed before 10 so I can get up at 6:00.  Curt is going to dog sit for us, but we still need to get all her stuff ready to go out with her.  We’re going to stake her out by Curt’s tent and he’ll see she stays untangled.  She’ll have her carrier with blanket to keep her warm.  It’s almost like having a kid again.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

As Ron (from Fulltime HitchItch) said in his blog today….  We volunteers for the BLM rival the Maytag repairman for being lonely.  We had two registrations for 14-day terms today.  Other than that, I was very grateful for my computer games, the book I’m reading and my crafts to fill the rest of the day.  It was pretty cool, so we didn’t even want to sit out in the sun.

We may be having warm weather compared to the rest of the world, but to me it’s cold.  I went to work today wearing 3 layers (tee shirt, pullover sweatshirt, and zipper sweatshirt).  I kept 2 layers on all day.  The high today was 55F and our low this morning was 34F (according to the weather station).  We’re used to 60’s down here.  We have lots to do tomorrow so I hope it warms up like it’s supposed to.  At least we can lay in bed, warm and cozy until the sun shines bright thru our windows.  That is, if Willow doesn’t start whining that she needs to go potty…. or the birds start screaming it’s “good morning” time.

Tomorrow is catch up day - laundry, dump tanks, get fresh water, etc.  We also have to go shopping for a couple of things at the vendors.  I love it when we can support the vendors here.

‘Nuff rambling.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!

Looks like the rest of this month is going to be really busy for us.  One of the volunteer couples at the contact station is no longer working here and the other couple has to take 2 weeks off.  Soooooo… for the rest of the year it’s just Larry & Phyllis and Th0m and I.

Today we went in to Parker to get money from the bank so we can get new glasses in Mexico on Monday.  We did some grocery shopping while we were there.  We’ll work tomorrow, Larry and Phyllis will work Sun & fill in for us on Monday, we’ll work Tuesday and 1/2 day Wed.  Off Wed afternoon, and Christmas day, then we’ll split the rest of the week with Phyllis & Larry.  At least we all have Wed. afternoon and Thursday off for both Christmas and New Years.  Hopefully we’ll find people to volunteer for the rest of the season by the end of this Month.

Somewhere between now and Jan. 1, we’ll be driving into California to pick up my brother, Russ, to bring him back here to stay in the motorhome for the rest of the season.  He said he will love to volunteer at the contact station.  Yayyyyy! We just need 3 more people.

We’re going to postpone Christmas Dinner until Russ is here.

I’m off to work on another earring I started this afternoon.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

The sun is shining and our desert world is all bright and clean.  We got a total of .83″ of rain yesterday for a season total (Oct thru now) of 1.75″.  I imagine if we counted the rain they had in Sept. it would be above 2″, but we weren’t here, so we didn’t have the weather station to gather the info.  We should get a lovely spring bloom in January or February.  The Ocotillo are already turning bright green with leaves.  Here’s a shot of the rain puddles outside yesterday morning.  And a shot of Thom ‘n Willow out for morning walk.  You can tell it was quite chilly… see how Thom is all bundled up.

It was a very relaxing day.  I even made peanut brittle.

Last night I went to the Wire Wrapping class at the Gem and Mineral club.  I’ve never done anything like it before other than making my trees, which are very different than making the jewelry.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Our project last night was a pair of earrings.  There were only 3 of us and I was the only TRUE beginner, the other two had done wire wrapping before but wanted to take the beginner class because this was a new project for them.  They brought their own wire which was gold filled, and I bought sterling silver wire from the clubfor mine.  I think I did pretty good with them.  I definitely want to do more.  I’m going to take another beginner class after the first of the year.  It will be a different project.  In the meantime we were given two other sheets of instructions for simple wire wrap so I can practice.  Looks like another trip to the craft stores for supplies & tools.

Here’s a couple of shots of the earrings I made last night.

It’s nearly 11 a.m. and I haven’t even eaten breakfast.  It’s kinda nice to just be lazy once in awhile, but I really think I need to get back into active mode now that the rain is done.

Thom and I both need new glasses, ours have decided to come apart at the same time.  We’re just waiting for Sandy to let us know which shop in Algadones she went to so we go to a reputable place.  If anyone of you people can recommend one to us, we’d appreciate it very much.  Soon!  LOL

Time to eat a bite and get busy.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!