Fulltiming Road Runners

It’s been 6 days since I last posted. I’ve no excuse other than when I had the opportunity to post I just couldn’t seem to gather my tho’ts.  I decided today that gathered tho’ts or not, I’m going to post even if the words are confused ‘n disjointed.

The weather has been a bit cool since my last post, but not really cold except when the wind blew steadily at 7 - 10 mph, it felt quite cool.  Today we had a 30% chance of rain, but the clouds hung out around the mountains that surround our area to the east, west and south.  We still have a 30% chance tonight, but again the clouds are hung up on the mountains around us.  Tomorrow is 20% chance, but that just means wind and cooler temps, less sun on the solar panels.

Last Tues. we had our yearly BLM Volunteer Orientation meeting and potluck lunch.  The meeting was okay.  Except for one of the BLM employees, all of the “presenters” have personality and are fun and interesting to listen to.  Unfortunately the one without personality is t he one who wants to rattle on and on and on and…  For the potluck, the BLM provides Polo Asada and cooks it on a BBQ right there in the park.  I wanted to make cookies anyway so on Monday I cooked up some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and kept about 1-1/2 dozen for us and the rest went to the potluck.  Potlucks are kind of tough to do for RVers.  Our kitchens are small, our ovens are small and it’s hard for us to fix something fun and yummy.  Most of the volunteers just buy potato/pasta/cole slaw salads, or a bag of salad and a bottle of dressing.  We also see a lot of store bought brownies or cookies.  Since we live in our RV fulltime, I’ve learned to make my kitchen work for whatever I want to cook so I try to take something homemade.

Wednesday I did whatever I could do to pre-prepare for Thanksgiving dinner… cooked sweet potatoes for the candied yams, threw together the dry ingredients for the stuffing, & dug the roasting pan out from the bowels of the pan cupboard.  The cupboard is quite deep and less used pans are kept in the back.

Thanksgiving was a pretty easy day.  The 10 lb. turkey was stuffed and in the oven by noon.  When the turkey came out of the oven the candied yams went in.  There was quite a bit of drippings in the pan and I got a whole lot more gravy than one would expect from a 10 lb bird… yummmmmmm!  It was just Thom and I this year.

Normally we work on Thursdays ‘n Fridays, but, of course, Thursday was Thanksgiving and a holiday so we only worked on Friday.  How wonderful it was to get home from work and have a whole dinner just waiting to be warmed and set out.  Thanksgiving dinner the 2nd time around.

Today I took the turkey carcass from Thanksgiving dinner out of the freezer, threw it into a big pot and made a soup.  The turkey cost about $5.  Sweet potatoes another $1 or $2.  Fresh Veggies were on sale… maybe $1.50.  We got 3 dinners, 2 lunches and whatever leftover soup we’ll have tonight for less than $10 plus propane to cook it all.  We also still have enough sliced turkey for a couple more sandwiches.

Since I cleaned the doggy spots on the carpet Willow hasn’t gone potty inside.  I’m hoping the cleaning has taken away the “invitation” and is encouraging her to hold it.  I use some stuff we bought at the big tent 2 years ago.  It gets stains ‘n spots out of carpets beautifully.

I’m pretty sure I’ve told ya’ll that I love sharing info about the critters I photograph.  One of the interesting things I’ve learned about the White Crowned Sparrow is the difference between the Juvenile and the adult is enought that they were originally thought to be two different sparrows.  The juvenile’s “crown” is more gray than white and has brown bars rather than black on his head. Here is a shot of the juvenile, then the adult.

Here’s a shot of the Anna’s hummingbird showing how the top of the head as well as the throat is red in the right sunlight.

I’ve been waiting and waiting for the Costa’s Hummingbird to show up.  The males has the most beautiful purple throat and head.  The one that showed up happens to be a female though.  She is beautiful in her own right.  Look how creamy white her throat and belly are.

About a week ago I bought a honeydew melon from a street vendor.  I let him pick it out for me and he told me to wait 3 days  before cutting into it.  I did, but when I cut it, it was far from tasty, not ripe at all.  We didn’t want to eat it so I cut it into pieces and put them out for the critters (not all at once, but over a few days).  The Cactus Wren love melon, and this little guy, the Harris Antelope Ground Squirrel does too.

I’ll try to post more often.  There may be things keeping me from doing so though.  Our friends Marv and Deb will be arriving here next week, Thurs or Fri.

We already bought our tickets for the New Christy Minstrels show on Jan 15th.  This year the New Christy Minstrels have talked the Fireballs into doing a show here on Jan 27th.  The Fireballs claim to fame is the song Sugar Shack.  I think we’ll probably get tickets for them too.  Next year we will not only have these 2 groups, but the NCM’s have talked the Brother’s 4 into doing a show here as well.  They’d be here this year, but January is the month the Brother’s 4 all chose to take off for vacation.

Boy!  Have I rambled or what?!  I think it’s time for me to say g’nite.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

It’s a shame Thom doesn’t post more.  He does so much research and noodlin’ on things that would make life easier for us.  He prolly could tell you all about L-16 batteries, solar panels, etc, but doesn’t want to share info until we’ve tried it and discovered if it works or not.

If you have questions regarding 6 volt batteries, solar panels, portable tanks, etc, feel free to send an email to us at judy@jggrafx.com or thoma@jggrafx.com and we’ll do our best to let you know what we know.

We worked Thursday and Friday… business slowed down, we only did total of 6 signups each day.  I worked on my DVD writer; I played games…. I played more games… I did jigsaw puzzles on the computer.  I’m gonna hate it when we get “busy” and I can’t bring the computer in!

I gotta tell you about our dinner last night.  Albertsons had some good buys this week so we bought pepsi at 4 12 paks/$9.00, King Crab legs at a tremendous price of $7.99/lb, and Ribeye steak at $4.99/lb.  I bought 4 King Crab legs… equaled about 1 lb.  Thom doesn’t like crab, so I thawed out a bunch of cooked shrimp we bought a week ago at a good price  and dressed up bottled shrimp sauce with celery, green onion and a touch of horse radish for Thom.  I cracked 2 crab legs and had them with melted butter, and was at the point of being totally satisfied and full, but in the amount of time it took to crack and pull meat from the last 2  legs, I was ready to eat more.  How do you describe tastebud heaven?  It was soooo good and I felt so decadent in eating it all!  It’ll be another few months before we  do this kind of thing again… but it’s so much fun to be decadent now and then.

In spite of the slow-down in business this week, things are filling in out here.  It appears that most people coming into La Posa South are here to be near the dump station and fresh water.  This is a photo of campers along the road leading out to the dump and water station.  We’re lucky, we don’t have 1/3 the number of campers near us.

La Posa South has the only dump station and potable water available in all the LTVA’s in Quartzsite.  Yesterday, we had both dumps busy with the little Class C motorhome in front and big 5th Wheel behind it, as well as one waiting behind to come in to dump.  It’ll get worse than this in the days to come… at least  4 or 5 waiting to dump.

A bit of the RV’s filling in our area.

Now for some shots of my favorite subject… the Anna’s hummer.  This guy is THE protector of the feeders at the garage/shed.  He often perches on the rope of the tie-down in the front of the shed.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!  We appreciate ya!

Toodles.

We worked the contact station yesterday and today… didn’t get much business, but still managed to be entertained while “on the job”.  These last two days we’ve had a lot of people come in asking questions… like… how to get to mine claims back behind the legal camping area in La Posa South.  Our answer… “Duhhh.. I don’ know”  We do have a map that gives a vague idea so we drag that out when the question is asked.  We’ve had a lot of folks asking how the LTVA works, what the season pass cost covers, and the short term pass covers, etc.  Yesterday and today we spent more time answering questions than we did registering campers… and that’s okay, we are here to answer questions as well as sign up campers.  I love being able to share information with those who want to know.
The reason I said blogs are fun is because we had a truck going by the station today and the guy in the truck yelled out to Thom “are you Thom?”  Thom, of course, said yes.  The guy got out of the truck for a minute and came in to say he reads my blog daily, enjoys it, and saw a picture of Thom a while back and when he saw Thom at the station he sure looked familiar.  I’m sorry friend, but I can only say, I think you said your name is Jerry and last name a McSomething. My memory is terrible and if I don’t write it down, I forget it instantly.  We’d love to see more of you.  If you are camped in La Posa South, feel free to come by.  We are directly across the wash from the Blue Boy Dump.  We’re in the Mobile Suites with a 10 x 20 garage/shed.  Of course, you can stop by the contact station on Thurs or Friday every week, that’s when we work.

Hey Scott, my OLD friend… I had an un-birthday card to send you.  I know you are still only 39, but I wanted to help you celebrate the non-happening of a 40th b-day.  Somewhere in the bowels of the storage spaces of my 5th wheel is the no-way-are-U-having-A-B-day card.  When I find it, you’ll get it.  How’s that for a non-event non-B-Day?

I know I said I had pics to share, but working 2 days keeps me from editing pics and posting them.  You’ll see them within a couple of days.

Thom and I both have loved the Bad Boy’s cafe in Rice Ranch down here.  The last two years they have set up with canvas tents and a cook trailer.  One large tent/shed had a heater in it for cold mornings and they had open patio area as well.  Until this year they were in Rice Ranch.  This year they are across the street from Rice Ranch and have a building as well as their tents and patio area.  Today was their opening day!!  We went there for breakfast this morning.  Thom had their famous sweet potato pancakes and I had their very good biscuits ‘n gravy.  I usually have one of their omelets, but today was hungry for “not good for you” stuff.  First day open and they totally lived up to expectations and past reputation.

If you look back into the archives of Oct, 2008, you’ll find a post about Thom falling and cutting his knee open, me driving him to Blythe’s Palo Verde Hospital emergency room, etc.  In the last few days we’ve received phone calls from a collection agency saying we owe the hospital still for that visit.  Today we drove to Blythe and talked to thehospital about it.  Things aren’t settled yet, but we hope they will be soon, after a couple of faxes and possibly a phone call or two to our insurance company.  We totally discourage anyone from going to California for any medical issues.  We’ve found they take liberties in billing insurances and individuals and if you question it, they just say “well, it’s allowed in California”.  We were double billed by the emergency room doctor.  The bill was canceled after our phone call to them, but just think of the number of people who just pay it not knowing to look things over carefully.

Yesterday I mentioned a little exercise for our dog Willow.  Willow is a cross between a Whippet and Blue Heeler.  The Whippet is a racing dog and the Blue Heeler is a herding dog with tremendous stamina.  Ya just gotta know this gal needs to run and exercise at her young age of just 2 years (or so).  Living the life we live, all pets have to be on leash at all times.  We have to admit that when in Ogden Canyon, after the campgrounds closed up, we let her off leash a lot, but kept her well contained by voice command.  Here we let her off leash when we are sitting in the shed and she stays in the shed with us.  She’s been really good at staying right with us.  We still recognize her need for running and exercise.  When we put the leash on her she jumps and leaps and acts like she has springs.  Sooo… at least once a day Thom will wander out beyond the flag pole a bit (about 120 feet) and I’ll keep Willow with me until Thom is in position.  Then I tell her she can go and Thom calls her… she runs like you wouldn’t believe to Thom.  He settles her down and I call her to me and she runs to me full out.  We do this about 3 times and she is ready to settle down for the night.  We don’t have a yard for her to run in, so this is our alternative.  We could get fined big time for doing this (letting her off leash), but it’s something she needs and if we drove out into territory she doesn’t know, she’d probably run off.  At least here, she stays under our control in familiar territory and we’re all happy.

…now, if I could just get her to quit peeing on our carpet in the middle of the night (not every night, but enough to totally tick me off).  For some reason she won’t whine or let us know she wants out.  Actually, I suspect she whines a bit, but it’s so quiet it doesn’t wake us up.  Today, I was on my hands ‘n knees for at least an hour scrubbing the pee spots on the carpet and my back is now so achy I may not be able to walk normally for a few days.  Tonight, we’re giving Willow another chance, but if she pees on the carpet again, she will spend every night from now on locked in her kennel.  The product I use for spot cleaning the carpet totally clears the smell so Willow won’t be able to smell the spots and recognize them as “bathroom” areas.

If you’re thinking about going Fulltime RV’g, AND have pets, keep all this in mind.   If your pet is active, remember, it will have to be contained and controlled 24/7.  You’ll need to take it out in the boondocks to let it run free, or like us, break the rules, kinda.  Willow is quite controlled by voice, but that doesn’t make it legal.

I have a couple of pics showing how we are filling in with RV’s now, and some of the type of folk we get here, but they will have to wait for another time.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

We appreciate all our readers.  Thank you!

Toodles!

Most people living in Quartzsite would go to Blythe, CA or Parker, AZ to get the oil changed in their vehicle, but both Thom and I were hungry for Chinese food, so we headed to Lake Havasu City (LHC) this morning around 11:00.  We went to Anderson Chrysler/Dodge and they were tied up for a couple of hours so we decided to go have Chinese Buffet lunch at the China Buffet on London Bridge Rd. then back to get the oil changed.

On the way to the China Buffet, we spotted a drive thru car wash and decided to get the car washed for the first time in a bit over a year (I know, we’re BAD!).  Our car is once again red!

We got back to Anderson Chrysler/Dodge and checked in.  It took over an hour to even get the car into the bay.  We didn’t leave there until 3:30 ( a little over 2 hours).  I think we’ll try another place next time.

I absolutely love broasted chicken and there is a place called Scotty’s in LHC that does broasted chicken.  We have a phone book for the area so I called Scotty’s and ordered 8 pieces to go and we dropped by to pick it up on our way out of town.  When we got home and settled, we had a coupla pieces of chicken (we were both still pretty full of chinese buffet), and still have more than enuff left for tomorrow lunch AND dinner.

To get to LHC from Quartzsite, you have to cross the Bill Williams River Bridge.  They are working on the bridge so it is down to one lane and often you have to wait for up to 15 minutes to get across.  We got really lucky both ways today… the light was green when we got there going north and going south, it turned green within 2 minutes of our stopping.

I got a phone call from my son, Mike tonight.  It’s always a joy when I get to talk to him.  Thank you Mike for being such an attentive son.  Luv ya!

Remind me to tell you about our latest “exercise” with our mutt, Willow.  It’s part of RV life.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

Actually, for us, it feels downright cold!  The high today was about 64F and the low this AM was 44F.  We’ve had winds all day of 5 - 13 mph with gusts in the 20’s now and then.  The winds kept us feeling chilled.  The winds will be just a breeze tomorrow, but the temp will still be in the 60’s.

We’re slowly getting more campers in the BLM Long Term Visitor Areas .  We registered 9 on Thursday and 15 on Friday.  It looks like the Lo Posa North and La Posa West are filling in more now, especially the north edges near Hwy 95.  That area is easy walking to the vendors in Rice Ranch and Tyson Wells.

Last Thursday evening we had a little excitement across the way from our site.  There were 4 police cars with lights going and a lot of yelling going on.  Thom, using his binoculars, watched them handcuff a person wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, and take them away.  Yesterday Bob dropped by and between us we determined this was the same guy that walked past Bob’s site, very drunk, weaving and yelling obscenities… very foul and very loud.  He apparently walked all the way to our area and one of the campers out here called the police.

We have a new camper across the wash from us.  It’s a style of trailer that hasn’t been out too very long… it has a loft.  That’s our site behind the loft trailer.  We’re really further away than it looks.  I took the shot from behind the Contact Station.

Nearly every week while we are working at the Contact Station, we see a Road Runner either on Thursday or Friday or even both days.

And this week while working we saw this Walking Stick insect.  I’ve never seen a green one before and never one so long and fat.  This one had to be at least 6 inches long, counting the antennae he was 8 inches.

One more photo.  This one was taken at home.  This is the Cactus Wren pair in the ironwood tree in our backyard.  (I told ya, you’d be seeing a lot of these guys).

Now I’m off to start getting dinner ready.  I’m going to make a chicken stir fry ‘n rice.  Not sure what kind of sauce yet, but it will probably include a tiny bit of brown sugar and Chinese 5-spice.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Tah!

Just a short note to let you know I intend to send a real post in a day or so.  We worked yesterday and today, did okay and are just wanting to chill and relax tonight.  A real post tomorrow or Sunday… I promise!

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

Temps dropped today to the low to mid 70’s.  I wore long pants to work.  Granted, I got a little warm around 3 p.m., but not for long.  It cooled off quickly even before 4 p.m.  Tomorrow is supposed to have a high of 73 and the next 2 days in the high 60’s.  As long as the wind stays down it’s perfect cooking weather.  I can use the oven and stove top if needed, but still cook on the Weber BBQ and not heat up or stink up the trailer.

You guys are getting the female twist on full time RV’g, which often is kinda frivolous.  I’m sorry Thom doesn’t post more, but he spends most of his time online researching things we need to know to make this fulltiming work.

We worked today… signed up 7 season passes and 2 two week passes.  We’ll work tomorrow too and have at least 3 to sign up that came in after hours tonight.

Yesterday I bought a Parker, AZ newspaper with all the grocery ads and after perusing those ads quickly told Thom we needed to go there to do some shopping.  Safeway had turkey on sale for $0.49/lb if you spent $25 and T-Bone steak (family pak)for $3.99/lb.  Definitely had to go take advantage of those prices!  We now have Thanksgiving dinner in the freezer and a few special meals for special days (steaks).

Nuff ramblin’ on my part.  Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

After posting yesterday, our friend, Marv, read the blog and called us.  He told us we were pretty much crazy to drive that distance for booze, he would pick up a case for Thom on his and Deb’s way down here this month and we could pay him back when they get here.  As for the bird seed, we could go to the Costco in Phoenix only a little less than 2 hours away.  So that is pretty much what we’ve done.

Marv ‘n Deb will do the booze shopping for us in Utah and we went to the Costco in Avondale about 20 miles west of Phoenix for the things we needed to pick up.  The bird seed they carry in the Avondale Costco is NOT what I wanted, but was so inexpensive I bought 100 lbs anyway.  I know the contents in this seed will bring in the dove and quail and probably the cactus wren, but the finches and sparrows may not be real happy with it.

Anyway we’re happy with the arrangements with Marv ‘n Deb and saved a bunch in gas money.

We’re really looking forward to seeing Marv ‘n Deb in 2 or 3 weeks.

Anyway… just wanted ya’ll ta know we didn’t do a crazy today after all.  We had a good day.  Got home from Phoenix by 1:20 and I finished another beaded hummingbird, thinned my turnips, and Thom dumped the gray tank.  (Think I got better end of the afternoon activities)

Stay healthy ‘n happy.

Tah!

I spend way too much time on Facebook and therefore don’t have time to blog.  Forgive me please.  I’ll try to do better.

Starting Nov. 1, the Contact Station is now open every day, so Thom and I work both Thursday and Friday now.  Thursday we signed up 5 season passes and two 14 day passes and Friday we signed up 12 season passes and two 14 day.

The weather has been perfect.  Highs in the 80’s and lows in the 50’s.  When the temp is at it’s high, there’s a lovely breeze so it’s quite comfortable.  We usually spend our time at home in the afternoons sitting in the garage/shed with both ends open and the side door open so we catch the breeze.  I’ve been beading birds.  I did another All American Hummer, modified a bit and I wrote down the pattern.  I’ve almost got the pattern all written up on the computer.  I’m working on another hummer now, different from any of the others.  When I finish this one, I think I’ll get my lapidary tool out and see if I can remember how to make the cabochons.

It’s been so nice here, we don’t really have much to talk about in the blog.  We did get new neighbors on Friday.  We know one couple and the other couple is their friends.  When they came in to sign up we suggested they setup out our way.  They’ve left plenty of room between them and us for Marv and Deb, and any visitors we get (Like Scott ‘n Mari).  We’ve got the perfect spot here this year.

We’re planning on doing a crazy tomorrow.  Thom drinks Rum, and the only rum he’s found that he likes is Montego Bay.  Unfortunately, we can only find Montego Bay rum in the state of Utah.  Sooooo… we are going to drive to St. George, Utah tomorrow to get him his brand of Rum and while we are there, we’ll stop at Costco to pick up a couple of boxes of wild bird seed.  This is the best bird seed ever!  It has very little milo (round brown seed) in it.  The only birds that really like the milo is the dove.  This seed has sunflower in the shell, sunflower kernels, shelled peanuts, and lots of other seeds the birds love.  The woodpeckers love the peanuts & sunflowers in shell, the cactus wren loves the sunflowers also, the finches and sparrows and Quail eat the seeds.  Anyway… back to the St. George trip… it’s about 6 hours to St. George from here and we are going to try to make it a one day trip.  We’ll leave the birds home, but take Willow with us.  If we can’t make it home tomorrow, we’ll stop in Mesquite, NV and get a cheap room in one of the casinos.  Crazy, huh!

How about a couple of photos…

This is another shot of the Cactus Wren.

This is a Male Lesser Goldfinch

And this is the full Harvest Moon.  It was fantastic watching it rise from behind the mountains.

I’m going to roast a whole chicken on the BBQ today and it’s time to get it started.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles