Fulltiming Road Runners

Ya’ll get to hear me complain today.  I’m COLD!  We’ve woken up to spitting snow the last 3 mornings.  The daily hi temps haven’t been above 47F and I don’t even have a heavy coat.  Maybe I wouldn’t feel it so much if we were working, but we don’t open the park until May 7th, a week from today.  The weather forecast says rain/snow the next 3 days and then partly cloudy, cool and slight chance of rain for another whole week.  Oh well, we’ll survive just fine, and I’m sure we’ll have warm weather to enjoy and hot weather this summer to complain about.

Yesterday we went down to Harmon’s in Ogden to do some grocery shopping.  We spent more money and brought home less.  Prices are higher here than in AZ.  Going down the canyon we drove thru almost a white out it was snowing so hard.  The snow was frozen ice pellets instead of floating flakes.  We expected it to be warmer in Ogden than with rain instead of snow, but it was colder down there than up here.  None of the snow stuck though so no pretty white photos and no slogging thru snow in tennis shoes.

Yesterday another couple moved up here.  They have worked Cemetary Pt. 4 years.  We have 2 more couples to come in and they, like us, are newbies to this place.

Last year when we left Perception Park, we left a bunch of firewood.  We are thinking about going up there to see if any is left.  We didn’t bring a lot with us this year.

That’s about all for now.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles

We’re in between high winds at the moment so I’m going to try to get a post in before they get back up to 40 mph again.  Yesterday and last night were super windy and more is expected today and tonight, so my time online is limited.

We’ve been busy the last couple of days getting things set up and organized.  Today we had to go down to Ogden to get propane.  We have two 20 gal (100 lb) tanks and one of the 9 gal tanks to fill.  Wednesday is the day AmeriGas in Ogden gives a  $0.20 discount on propane.  It still cost us $115 to fill the 3 tanks at $2.05/gal.  In Quartzsite we were paying $2.55/gal.

We woke up this morning to 33F temperature and snow falling.  We didn’t have any accumulation tho.  It was kinda pretty, but a bit colder than I like.  We’re supposed to get snow all the way thru Sunday.  I think I’ll be ready for warmer weather by then.  Heck!  We need to get down to Marv’s and work on the motorhome!  We don’t start work until May 7th, so we have all of next week to do it.

Right now there’s not much to report other than the weather, which isn’t being kind.  We did get a visit from Mike, Tiff and Coen on Monday.  It was so wonderful to see them again!  Coen is growing up to be quite the young man.  Cute young man.

Will write again when weather permits.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Tah!

Since we weren’t in any hurry we didn’t leave Nephi until about 10 a.m. and arrived at Anderson Cove around 1:30 p.m.  A bit more wind than yesterday but still not too bad.  We were told at Anderson Cove that Larry and Sue had gone on to Cemetery Point, that it’s plenty dry for parking.  We headed on to Cemetery Pt and are parked and semi settled.  We still have a lot of unpacking and putting away to do, but there’s no hurry now.  We’ve found the important things like the TV Satellite dish, and the little portable electric heater so we don’t have to burn our propane except when it gets really cold.  We have full hookups here so we can run the fridge and water heater on electricity instead of propane.  We were told we won’t have the water turned on until May 1st, so we have another 5 days of conserving water and NOT doing laundry.  I’m afraid I’m going to run out of clothes before we can get the laundry done.  Actually, we could go to a laundromat, but we try to stick it out until we can use our own machines.

Our spot here is totally different from the campgrounds in the canyon.  We are on a spit out into the Pineview reservior.  We see water from all of the windows we look out of.  Here is a shot of the 5th wheel shortly after we parked it and before setting it up.  Pretty view, eh!

And here’s a shot taken from the other side of the trailer (our front yard).

That thing on the grass to the left is the communal fire pit and the pile of wood is the communal firewood.  We did bring our own fire pit  so we can have fires on our own if nobody else is out.

I’ve already seen Grebes, seagulls, & ducks of some sort in the water, and a pelican fly by and a seagull fly over with a fish in his beak.  I think I’m going to like it here.

We went into the little town of Eden with Larry & Sue to Alpine Pizza and had dinner.  Pretty good pizza.  Hopefully I can cook dinner tomorrow night.  It’s certainly not so hot I can’t cook indoors.  Today the inside of the trailer pretty much stayed at 64F.  What a change!

We’re supposed to get rain and/or snow starting Tuesday night, definitely snow on Wednesday and Thursday, but no accumulation.  I just hope the snow holds off on Wed until we can get down the hill to get one of the big (100 lbs) propane bottles filled.

My son, Mike, is going to try to get up for a visit tomorrow.  It would be wonderful if the whole family can make it, but if not, it will still be a real treat to see Mike again after so many months apart.

Not sure when I’ll have something to write about again, but it should be within a couple of days.  The winds will be high on Tuesday and we’ll have to put the dish down, but after that I might be able to share pics of the snow.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

We drove a bit more than 5 hours to Nephi, Utah today, from Mesquite, Nevada.  We are now in sweats, t-shirts ‘n jackets and don’t expect to get back into shorts for a few weeks at the least.

It was a pretty easy drive today other than a few gusty winds that wanted us to be where we didn’t want to be on the road.  It was harder on Thom than it was on me due to the height and length of the 5er, but both of us handled it well.  Tomorrow should only be a 3-1/2 to 4 hour drive, assuming we don’t hit church traffic through Provo and Salt Lake City.  We plan on going all the way to Cemetary Point (CP) tomorrow, even though we may have to stay at Anderson Cove (just down the road) for a couple of days while our sites at CP dry out.  We won’t have to be on duty cleaning and getting ready for opening for a week or so, so we’ll have time to go down to Ogden to work on the motorhome to get it ready to sell and I’ll have time to make that mandatory Dr. appointment.  It always seems the beginning of the season when we get to our destination, north or south, is always a bit muddled.

I, for one, can’t wait to get up there and see my son, Mike, Tiff and Coen!

I gotta say, I’m ready to get settled again so I can start cooking again.  I miss “real food”.

Time to say g’bye ‘n I’ll post again as soon as we get semi settled.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

We stayed here in Mesquite one day longer than we originally thought… party because the weather in Utah is still spitting precip, but mostly because I really wanted to do the Friday seafood buffet at the casino here.  Lots of seafood of every kind (except lobster).  Shrimp on ice (have to peel it), peeled shrimp, shrimp (cooked) sushi, all with accompanying sauces; stuffed sole, stuffed crab with hollandaise sauce, oysters on the half shell, cooked oysters, another oyster dish, clams in many forms; and my all time favorite crab legs (both hot and cold) with melted butter.  Of course they also had chicken, prime rib, cooked veggies, salads and desserts. Oh so yummy!

We’ve been coming to Mesquite and staying 1 or 2 nights in the Casa Blanca RV free parking area for several years now, but this is the first year we’ve chosen to sign up for the casino playing card since we’d be here for 4 or more days.  When you sign up you get $5 comp playing money and if you give them your email to get monthly newsletters you get $5  more. Thom and I both won on the slots before we’d used up the first $5.  He hit a quarter slot for$115 and a bit later I hit a quarter slot (Wheel of Fortune) for $265.  So we’ve been playing with casino money all week with nothing out of pocket.  We’ve even eaten meals on casino money.  We’re still taking home $300.  Not bad methinks.

We’ll be hitting the road tomorrow with pretty full holding tanks and only about 25 or 30 gallons of water.  We’ll be stopping at the Flying J in St. George, Utah about 35 miles from here for fuel, and then a few miles more up the road we’ll be stopping in Hurricane, UT at the Texaco station to dump tanks and take on water.  I know… most people travel empty to conserve fuel, but we don’t want to take the chance of not having water available when we need it.  There is often a problem with the water system in the area we are going to work in this summer, so we want to start out full, just in case.

We’re traveling from Mesquite, NV to Nephi, UT tomorrow and will make a short day of it getting to Ogden on Sunday.

I fear today is the last day we’ll have of wearing warm weather clothes for a while.  I just read that they are expecting snow storms in Huntsville, UT next week starting Tuesday.  Huntsville is where Cemetery Point is.

We did get pretty high winds this week, which is why I haven’t blogged for a few days.  We even got a few drops of rain, but only a very few.  Wed, and Thurs, the high temps were only in the mid 60’s and with the winds it wasn’t very pleasant.

All in all, Thom and I are doing very well.  This 6 day break in Mesquite has been really good for us and we should arrive in Ogden ready and willing to work our butts off.  Willow is getting better and better at this RV living.  We’ve found we can leave her loose and alone in the trailer for a couple of hours and she doesn’t chew up or tear up anything.

Time for me to say goodnight.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Mom… I love you!

Toodles!

We’re still sitting in Mesquite, NV waiting for the storm to pass.  Today we just got a bit of wind, tomorrow is supposed to be have higher winds which keeps us from attempting the Virgin River Gorge and…

As I’m typing this I’m going back and forth on the NOAA weather site and the weather .com site and realized the storm warnings have been lessened considerately.  Wednesday the winds will still be more than we want to travel in, but Thursday it looks like we can get through the gorge and to Nephi with little to no problems… assuming it doesn’t snow too much in Cedar City Wednesday night.

This is one part of being a fulltimer and on the road with a definite destination AND time frame that you need to adhere to that can get complicated and mind numbing - Weather.  Nobody wants to drive through snow pulling a heavy 35+ foot 5th wheel, or even me pulling a flatbed trailer with my 4 cyl. Saturn Vue.  That’s why I probably bore you to tears with weather reports and my concerns about the weather.  Face it… I’m a wuss!

Days like today pretty much take most of the stress out of it though, at least for the time being.  The temps got into the mid 80’s (both inside and out), but there has been a nice stiff breeze of about 9-15 mph out of the southwest.  With the higher winds being predicted and our not having a way to anchor our satellite dish and tripod, we don’t have TV, so we entertain ourselves by watching people and critters.  There are plenty of Grackles here to entertain a person if you don’t vehemently hate them.  We don’t because we don’t have to live with them much.  I think they make more different sounds than a Cactus Wren, and all of them loud ‘n noisy (especially at 4:00 a.m.).  I took some photos of a few of them that entertained us for quite some time.

This is a Male Grackle posturing because the female was teasing him.  There was a younger male nearby that was trying to attract her attention.  They point their beaks straight up in the air when there are more than one trying for her attention.  The female is in the back and the male in front.

This is the younger male Grackle doing what the Grackles do best… making lots of noise.

Yesterday I mentioned the Momma duck and her babies crossing the parking lot.  This is one of the shots I got.  Their colors blended in so much with the parking lot and gravel I only got 1 shot worth sharing.  Did I say they were Mallards?  If so, I was wrong or they are one of the crossbreeds.

The geese also enjoy visiting the pond.  Here’s a shot of a couple of them flying by.

Last shot for the night.  This is a sight you don’t see very often in Nevada in early or mid April…. snow, which is why I’m concerned about the drive north.

Here I am blogging about today while texting with my super friend, Mari, about last nights blog.   Ain’t technology wunnerful!

Time for me to go.  I’m sure we’ll be putting the internet satellite dish down either tonight or tomorrow morning so don’t expect to hear from us for a day or 4 or 5.

Thanks to all of you for following us, sharing your thoughts with us and, just generally, being friends.

Stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles

We left Quartzsite around 8:00 a.m. today and stopped in Mesquite at 2:30 p.m. (all in the same time zone).  It was a pretty easy day.  We stopped in Searchlight, NV for gas because I did some searching and found that gas & diesel are cheaper there than Las Vegas, Mesquite or St. George.  It’s really nice going through Las Vegas with nearly full tanks and no worries about having to stop there for gas. I expected the drive through Las Vegas to be gruelling because one of the Music Awards (country music, but not CMA) is happening tonight in LV.  It was not bad at all.  Much less traffic on Sunday than on week days.

When we got to Mesquite the free RV parking was full at the Casa Blanca where we usually park, so we went around to the parking on the east side of the now defunct Oasis casino and parked.  After parking there, but not setting up, it was so depressing looking we hopped in the car (trailer still hooked up) and went back around to see if anyone had left the Casa Blanca or if there might be other options.  Someone had left the spot we almost always get so we parked the car in that spot and Thom hoofed it back to the truck ‘n trailer to bring them back.  We’re now where we wanna be and have 72 hours to stay.  As I said last night, we’re going to play it by ear.  The weather is supposed to be windy and wet after tomorrow (windy tomorrow) and we don’t want to drive through the Virgin River Gorge in that weather.  If we have to leave our parking spot before we’re ready to leave Mesquite, we’ll just move to another spot and stay that one day more we may require.

It’s quite warm here, but not as hot as QZ was yesterday.  It was 87F when we got here and is cooling down nicely.  Inside is around 84 but outside is probably 80.

I need to call Marv and ask him how much the Oasis RV park charges for dumping.  We won’t need to dump before we leave here, but I’m pretty sure we will need to dump before we get to our destination.  We might as well take advantage of a sure thing rather than searching and hoping we can find a dump site between St. George and Kaysville.

This casino has a pond with a waterfall and the water birds love it.  Today I got photos of a momma Mallard duck taking her babies through the parking lot to the field on the south side of the casino.  Our neighbors got shots of a pair of Canada Geese with babies at the pond.  The Grackles are out in full force, but I’m thinking they are done breeding.  We’re not hearing the males do their deep GRONK mating call, though they are still doing their posturing for the females.

Usually when we drive from Vegas to Mesquite, the landscape is barren and boring.  This year it appears Nevada also got plentiful rainfall.  I saw more flowers along the road than I’ve ever seen… actually I’ve never seen much in the way of flowers before.  We saw Brittlebush, Apricot Globe Mallow, Desert Marigolds, Desert Dandelions, Prickly Poppy, Sand Verbena, Chickory,  huge Jimson Weed (Sacred Datura), desert pin cushions, Desert Gold, and about 3 others I couldn’t identify.  I’m so sorry I had to drive and couldn’t take shots.

I think tomorrow we’re going to unhook the flatbed trailer from the car and take it exploring before the rain starts falling to see what’s available here in case we need it.

Now it’s time for me to do my email and check my bank account to make sure everything is cool, then settle down either outside, if the bugs aren’t too bad, or on the couch.

Ya’ll stay happy ‘n healthy!

Tah!

We didn’t do much of anything today, mostly because it was too hot (got up to 93F)!  We did go into town to do a last check on the PO Box and get a couple of gallons of gas for the generator.

I went for a walk (short) today to get shots of the Palo Verde in bloom.  It’s such a gorgeous tree when it’s blooming,

but the rest of the year it’s pretty nondescript other than the green trunk and branches.  The green branches and trunk have a purpose.  The Palo Verde is a true desert survivor.  During times of drought the tree will drop it’s leaves and even small branches to require less water.  During these times the green trunk and branches will take over the job of photosynthesis. The Spanish words Palo Verde mean Green Stick.

The individual flowers of this tree are quite lovely and dainty even.

As I said earlier, it was pretty warm for us today.  The breeze was kind of intermittent  so there were many moments of still air, and at 93 degrees that can feel pretty warm!  I, personally had moments of wishing to heck the sun would go down and a breeze would kick up.  It did start cooling down around 6:30 this evening, but it takes forever for the inside of the trailer to catch up with the outside.  I’m guessing it’s about 80 or so outside and inside it’s still 86.

This afternoon we had some people drive real slow past the trailer, then came by again and stopped.  They too are MobilSuite owners.  They even have the same model as ours, only a couple of years newer.  We must have stood and talked for nearly an hour.  Interesting people we’d like to see more of.  We’ve been fulltiming 4 years and they have for 2 years.  We’ve invited them to join our small group next year when they come back in late Dec. or early Jan.  We exchanged cards so we can stay in touch.  As a matter of fact, Pam just left a comment on our blog from yesterday.  Thank you Pam.

Being in the packed and ready to roll mode, I’m taking the easy road for meals.  Tonight’s dinner was chicken salad sandwiches.

We hope to leave here fairly early tomorrow morning… like 7:00 or so.  I’ve still got a few things to put away again and a few dishes to clean up, so I’m gonna say g’nite and am making no promises as to when I blog again.  We plan on being in Mesquite, NV tomorrow, so should have the internet up, but ya never know when plans will change.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

We drove all of 6 miles to the 14 day area north of Quartzsite called Hi Jolly.  We may or may not head north to Mesquite, AZ tomorrow.  It’s going to be hot here 90+F, but it’ll be hot in Mesquite too, and it’s a bit more humid there.  We might just choose to stay here for one more day and just chill and rest and then head for Mesquite on Sunday.  Thom hates driving thru Vegas on week days.  Traffic is a bit lighter on Sundays.  I just hate driving thru Vegas period!

The weather reports are showing poor weather in Utah starting next Tues or Weds, so we are really going to take our time getting up there.   Both the NOAA and Weather.com show that it’s between 30% and 60% chance of rain for almost a week.  YUCK!  We’ll play it by ear and decide as we go.  We’ve got plenty of time.

Yesterday afternoon while sitting in the shade in the breeze I caught some movement out of the corner of my eye.  What do ya know!  A new critter (for me)!  There was a sleek, slender, snake that had stopped to sniff the air with his tongue.  He was about 2-1/2 feet long, and really fast once he moved on.  It wasn’t a rattlesnake at all, this guy was slim and beautiful, and best of all, not poisonous.  Well…. I think rattlesnakes are beautiful too, but they kinda scare me.  After taking the photos I looked it up on a Sonoran Desert Reptile ID page and found it is called a Glossy Snake, or Arizona Elegans.  This pic is kinda small, so I hope you can see how pretty he is.

It’s cooling off now (86F), so I think I’ll go sit outside near the bug zapper and enjoy the breeze.  I’ll probably post again tomorrow.  After a bit of discussion, between typing thoughts for me,  we have decided we will stay here another day.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

PS.. Looking at the photo of the snake, I’m sure you notice all the rock.  Many of my pictures have that rock.  Out here, they call it Desert Asphalt.  It’s really kind of nice because it keeps the dust down, though some of the rocks are big enuff to throw you off balance and twist your ankle if you’re not careful.

Tah, again.

… Both of us!

Yesterday we took down the garage/shed which meant a lot of lifting and using my back muscles.  I could hardly sit up last night, but managed to get comfortable and make my  back comfortable.  My back is still sore today, but I’m able to keep going.  We should be all ready to hit the road tomorrow, but plan on only going as far as the dump station and fresh water spigots.  We’ll dump, get water and park near there for the night.  We both plan on showering and doing whatever we need to do that uses water, then re-dumping and filling on Friday, then hitting the road.

We took our last load to the storage shed today and this is what it looks like.  Heaven forbid we ever need to take it all with us!

This is a shot with Thom in it showing how high that pile of pallets is.   If you look carefully, you can see Marv ‘n Deb’s bikes hanging from the ceiling behind the pallets.

Today Thom started loading things into the flatbed trailer and the truck.  We’re nearly done with all that and I just have a few things left to stow inside to be ready to hit the road.

We’re still getting our bits of beauty even if we are a bit tired to enjoy them.  The other night (last Sunday) we had a gorgeous sunset.

I’ll say g’nite for now, will post again as soon as I can.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.