I am now moved down to the Valley (Phoenix metro) and this year started living in the same park as Jim and Sandie Dixon. It is good to have friends close by. This year I have been having a bit of mixed feelings around not feeling a center, or home. Probably because while I'm in the same area I've lived in for 3 years, within a few mile radius, this is a new park for me. I don't want to go back to my summer location, but here doesn't feel quite 'right'. That feeling is getting less as I spend time here and walk around for exercise in the park while meeting and talking to those who are outside. I'm starting to think I need to really explore the idea of a more permanent base camp. Not sure what that looks like right now. It is more a direction to look into for a long while.
Bosley is happy being back where it is warm(er). He naps in the windshield area again. He seems content enough living his life in the motorhome. I wish he was more able to tolerate a harness so I could take him outside. He laid forlornly on the floor and didn't move for almost 12 hrs. last time I put a harness on him.
My immediate goals for now are to continue to comb through my possessions and winnow them down. Also I am still trying to get into cooking for myself, healthy if possible, foods that are less carbohydrate filled. It is not easy for me. I hope to cut up a potato and put it in the air fryer to see how 'roasted' veggies might work. If that works, next up will be a sweet potato. Along with it I'll have a pork chop. I'm getting good at pork chops in my small skillet, and for breakfast bacon and eggs in the same skillet. I do know 'how' to cook. Finding things I 'will' cook is the problem.
I went on Medicare today, December 1. I turn 65 later this month. I have Medigap Plan G insurance as well as Plan D prescription. I will contact Mayo soon to make appointments I've put off while I was on insurance they didn't recognize. I made it through the year and a half between COBRA insurance and Medicare using the Affordable Care Act subsidized insurance, but I didn't want to fall into the abyss of finding doctors and networked care unless something major happened. Mexico for my one prescription and ignore the small aches and pains. In January I will find out if that was a good long term plan or not
My Home
Sunday, December 01, 2019
Friday, November 08, 2019
Part 2
I stopped by the Chapel of the Holy Cross to light candles. Several of my online friends are having health challenges. I decided that all I can do from here is light candles at the Chapel while sending healing prayers their way.
This is especially for you George.
Friday, November 01, 2019
Baby its cold inside
I knew my external propane tank was getting low. Sure enough around 4 am I woke up to realize the furnace fan was running but it wasn't very warm outside of my down comforter. I crawled out and verified that it was blowing cold air and so I pulled on layers of clothes and turned on lights. I decided not to call my neighbor who is my propane guy until 6 as I wasn't that cold yet. Mom had given me her small electric heater just yesterday and it was out in the car. That is also where my down jacket was since I hadn't fully unloaded the car when I got home yesterday. Muttering, I went out and got those along with the heavy duty extension cord from an outside bin.
Once heat was coming from something I checked temperatures. 40*F outside and 56*F inside. I fixed coffee and some instant oatmeal and called my neighbor at 6 am. He came over with a full tank within 5 min and now it is again warm in here. I gave him extra money for the quick response. The guys here really do spoil me.
Bosley cat still isnt sure why we are up out of bed so early.
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
I am alive
Currently I am in a free room at Harrah's casino outside of Phoenix. I made a run to Algodones for a last batch of medicine. I went through Quartzsite on the way (sort of) and visited friends who are already camped at La Posa South for the season. I was surprised how mamy rigs are already set up there.
I enjoyed Moab last month. Mostly I just stayed around the campground and walked around town so there wasn't much to post about. The evenings were spent sitting talking with the friends from online who had met up for the week there.
I have gotten lucky in that my name came up on the wait list I put my name on last year and soon I will move into another 'resort' RV park down in the valley. It has the usual amenities of laundry room, pool, community room and such. I will move down at the end of November. Bonus is that friends already live there.
Top priority for the rest of the week is to send off for the permit to use the shelter at La Posa South for Bloggerfest in January. Several of the Canadian folks won't make it down this year. I will be there for whoever shows up.
I think this catches up most of what has been going on.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
Monday, September 23, 2019
Part 2
Here is another picture from the Petrified Forest. It may be in the Painted Desert part, I'm unclear about that. This is after it had just rained in that area.
Once I got up to I40 I pretty much just drove on to the Route 66 Casino. The loop that Sandie had suggested started with the Wolf Sanctuary but it was closed on Mondays so I postponed the entire loop. Later I tried to do a blog post but the size of the pictures stopped that again. I didn't want to pull out the computer and hot spot in the parking lot of the casino, so my intention was to find a New Mexico State Park with showers and cell signal for the second night. That first night I slept in the car in the casino parking lot. I've done this before and I have so far never had an issue. I just plan such that I enter the car after dark, and leave before daylight.
Around daybreak the next morning I left the casino and went to the Flying J gas station on the east side of town. I get a discount on Pilot and Flying J gas, so I try to stop there if there is a station any place on my trip. They usually have decent coffee as well. While there I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go next. I decided to follow the Turquoise Trail as I've wondered for years what the signs were talking about. It is a state highway that runs from Albuquerque to Sanata Fe. I stopped at the ranger station on the south end of the route and had a nice conversation with the ranger there. She made some suggestions on places to stop, including a thrift store that sounded interesting.
The thrift store was not interesting to me at all, it turned out. I am a thrift store junkie, but this one didn't cut it. In fact, nothing on the route seemed very interesting to me. Madrid, a usual highlight(?) of quirky art shops and restaurants just seemed like a crowded, junky town. Nothing seemed to tick any boxes with me on the entire drive up to Santa Fe via this Trail. I found a Taco Bell once into Santa Fe and felt a bit better after eating.
Next box to tick was to find a place to camp for the night. I chose Hyde Memorial State Park as it is just outside of Santa Fe. The reviews were outstanding. Google Maps took me through downtown Santa Fe to get there. I would not want to take an RV on that route. I later found no good direct route that did not include narrow busy streets on the way to go in or out of the park. The park is in the middle of Santa Fe National Forest, which makes it a great get away for the town folks. For me, it didn't work well as there was zero cell signal and no showers, or any water that I saw. The vault toilet was clean, and the site was nice, but I was in a grumpy mood so just crawled into the car and slept for many hours.
The next morning I decided to head up to Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument. In Los Alamos I enjoyed a tour through the Bradbury Science Museum, but there isn't much that I could find in the town otherwise. tI looked like a cool place to live, but not any touristy places. I had been to Bandelier about 10 years ago. My Golden Geezer pass came into play again, so it was free for me to enter. I got over heated in the sun on the walkway, so headed back. It is a cool place that has cliff dwellings that people can actually go up ladders to visit inside. I did a lot more of that 10 years ago. Here is a picture that you have to zoom in to see the people.
I decided I was too grumpy and tired to do any more site seeing. I headed for home. I'm concerned that I am becoming too jaded to enjoy running around like this. I live in an area that folks come from far away and spend big bucks to have a weekend to enjoy. Amazing scenery is part of my daily life. I even have a herd of elk that I am almost on a first name basis with here around the small RV park where I live. What other folks find exceptional doesn't look any different to me that what I see out my window.
I am starting to wonder if I need to see a doctor again. I go on Medicare in December so I will get everything checked out. I think this jaded/hazy mood can be a sign my thyroid medicine needs to be adjusted. I truly hope I'm not this old and grumpy permanently.
On a related note, I leave Wednesday morning for a week in Moab, again sleeping in the car. This will be a meetup of on-line friends from a forum I hang out on. I was asking myself a lot of deep questions when I got home (in between naps...). I decided that the reason I hang with these folks, and the reason I need to push myself off the couch and go, is that I need to hang with folks so many years younger than I am to keep from being that grumpy old person. The forum keeps me a bit in the loop of what 30-50 yo folks are doing and reading and thinking about. I'm hoping I can absorb some of their energy that seems to have left my life currently. I won't try to keep up on hikes, and may just hang at the campground or go off by myself . Last year I put my back out after a short hike in Arches National Park. I will most likely put it out again this year. I'm hoping I can hang for most of the week anyway.
Wow, this got long. Hopefully I'll post more often so it isn't such a wall of text. I do need to figure out a way to do the posts with pictures from my phone again. I'll have to find a smaller resolution to use. Testing will commence in a beautiful area of the world at least.
Once I got up to I40 I pretty much just drove on to the Route 66 Casino. The loop that Sandie had suggested started with the Wolf Sanctuary but it was closed on Mondays so I postponed the entire loop. Later I tried to do a blog post but the size of the pictures stopped that again. I didn't want to pull out the computer and hot spot in the parking lot of the casino, so my intention was to find a New Mexico State Park with showers and cell signal for the second night. That first night I slept in the car in the casino parking lot. I've done this before and I have so far never had an issue. I just plan such that I enter the car after dark, and leave before daylight.
Around daybreak the next morning I left the casino and went to the Flying J gas station on the east side of town. I get a discount on Pilot and Flying J gas, so I try to stop there if there is a station any place on my trip. They usually have decent coffee as well. While there I was trying to figure out where I wanted to go next. I decided to follow the Turquoise Trail as I've wondered for years what the signs were talking about. It is a state highway that runs from Albuquerque to Sanata Fe. I stopped at the ranger station on the south end of the route and had a nice conversation with the ranger there. She made some suggestions on places to stop, including a thrift store that sounded interesting.
The thrift store was not interesting to me at all, it turned out. I am a thrift store junkie, but this one didn't cut it. In fact, nothing on the route seemed very interesting to me. Madrid, a usual highlight(?) of quirky art shops and restaurants just seemed like a crowded, junky town. Nothing seemed to tick any boxes with me on the entire drive up to Santa Fe via this Trail. I found a Taco Bell once into Santa Fe and felt a bit better after eating.
Next box to tick was to find a place to camp for the night. I chose Hyde Memorial State Park as it is just outside of Santa Fe. The reviews were outstanding. Google Maps took me through downtown Santa Fe to get there. I would not want to take an RV on that route. I later found no good direct route that did not include narrow busy streets on the way to go in or out of the park. The park is in the middle of Santa Fe National Forest, which makes it a great get away for the town folks. For me, it didn't work well as there was zero cell signal and no showers, or any water that I saw. The vault toilet was clean, and the site was nice, but I was in a grumpy mood so just crawled into the car and slept for many hours.
The next morning I decided to head up to Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument. In Los Alamos I enjoyed a tour through the Bradbury Science Museum, but there isn't much that I could find in the town otherwise. tI looked like a cool place to live, but not any touristy places. I had been to Bandelier about 10 years ago. My Golden Geezer pass came into play again, so it was free for me to enter. I got over heated in the sun on the walkway, so headed back. It is a cool place that has cliff dwellings that people can actually go up ladders to visit inside. I did a lot more of that 10 years ago. Here is a picture that you have to zoom in to see the people.
I decided I was too grumpy and tired to do any more site seeing. I headed for home. I'm concerned that I am becoming too jaded to enjoy running around like this. I live in an area that folks come from far away and spend big bucks to have a weekend to enjoy. Amazing scenery is part of my daily life. I even have a herd of elk that I am almost on a first name basis with here around the small RV park where I live. What other folks find exceptional doesn't look any different to me that what I see out my window.
I am starting to wonder if I need to see a doctor again. I go on Medicare in December so I will get everything checked out. I think this jaded/hazy mood can be a sign my thyroid medicine needs to be adjusted. I truly hope I'm not this old and grumpy permanently.
On a related note, I leave Wednesday morning for a week in Moab, again sleeping in the car. This will be a meetup of on-line friends from a forum I hang out on. I was asking myself a lot of deep questions when I got home (in between naps...). I decided that the reason I hang with these folks, and the reason I need to push myself off the couch and go, is that I need to hang with folks so many years younger than I am to keep from being that grumpy old person. The forum keeps me a bit in the loop of what 30-50 yo folks are doing and reading and thinking about. I'm hoping I can absorb some of their energy that seems to have left my life currently. I won't try to keep up on hikes, and may just hang at the campground or go off by myself . Last year I put my back out after a short hike in Arches National Park. I will most likely put it out again this year. I'm hoping I can hang for most of the week anyway.
Wow, this got long. Hopefully I'll post more often so it isn't such a wall of text. I do need to figure out a way to do the posts with pictures from my phone again. I'll have to find a smaller resolution to use. Testing will commence in a beautiful area of the world at least.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
After trip review
I was (am?) in the end of summer spinning in circles. I feel like doing Something but it isn't time to move to the Valley yet. My trip down where I visited Jim and Sandie, on the excuse I came down to buy coffee, helped. I decided to take a trip East. On my trips there are places that I keep thinking "I should stop and check that out sometime". Since the weather is cooling off now seemed like a good time. Sandie gave some excellent suggestions of places I didn't even know about.
I left last Monday. Unfortunately the Wolf Sanctuary is closed on Mondays. Ok, I'll stop there on the way home. I took the long way towards Albuquerque, heading on the back State Highways to check out a couple of free campgrounds I found on Freecampsites.net on the way. First up was going back to the Fish and Wildlife campground at Concho Lake. I decided to go through Snowflake rather than Show Low as it looked like it was a more direct route. It was, right up until the sign said that that State Highway 277 ended. Turned out, after a McDonalds stop to confer with Sandie via text and much staring at Google Maps, that a road does indeed head on out, it just isn't 277. Snowflake is larger that I thought, so it was a detour that showed me new things. The campground at Concho Lake is ok for smaller rigs, as in vans or tents. The lake is almost not a lake anymore. The boat ramp ends in weeds, far from the receding water line. No pictures as I couldn't figure out how to take one that wasn't a bit depressing given the state of the lake.
On to Petrified Forest. I stopped at the museum/gift shop/campground located before the actual entrance to the park.
The campground looked fine for larger rigs. The reviews at Freecampsites.net mention NOT to try to camp if you aren't self contained. The on-site manager gets almost psycho on folks who think they might just car camp. Electricity is available for an extra charge, again according to the reviews.
Also mentioned are the several cars parked outside that all have flat tires. Apparently it is to make the place look popular. Until the condition of the vehicle is noticed it works.
On to the actual park. I got in free with my Golden Geezer pass. As I was walking the loop behind the south Visitor Center I noticed a very large dark cloud in the distance. The workers were packing their tools and leaving. I, of course, decided that there were probably some dramatic pictures to be had from the higher points ahead on the trail.
About this point I made some realizations. Not about safety. I realized that I am not an exceptional photographer. I also realized that there are many, many bloggers who have given wonderful trip reports with pictures that eclipse anything I choose to do about anywhere I might visit. So, no iconic pictures from this, or probably most other, parks or public gatherings places. I also realized that with the approaching rain this would not be an in depth visit, but I live close enough to come back pretty much anytime I want. With that, I got back in the car (after buying a nice top in the gift shop...) and drove through the rain to the other end.
This picture shows the storm back in the middle of the park that I drove through. It also shows that not a lot of folks were visiting that day.
I need to get moving today, so I'll do the short version of the rest of the trip tomorrow.
I left last Monday. Unfortunately the Wolf Sanctuary is closed on Mondays. Ok, I'll stop there on the way home. I took the long way towards Albuquerque, heading on the back State Highways to check out a couple of free campgrounds I found on Freecampsites.net on the way. First up was going back to the Fish and Wildlife campground at Concho Lake. I decided to go through Snowflake rather than Show Low as it looked like it was a more direct route. It was, right up until the sign said that that State Highway 277 ended. Turned out, after a McDonalds stop to confer with Sandie via text and much staring at Google Maps, that a road does indeed head on out, it just isn't 277. Snowflake is larger that I thought, so it was a detour that showed me new things. The campground at Concho Lake is ok for smaller rigs, as in vans or tents. The lake is almost not a lake anymore. The boat ramp ends in weeds, far from the receding water line. No pictures as I couldn't figure out how to take one that wasn't a bit depressing given the state of the lake.
On to Petrified Forest. I stopped at the museum/gift shop/campground located before the actual entrance to the park.
The campground looked fine for larger rigs. The reviews at Freecampsites.net mention NOT to try to camp if you aren't self contained. The on-site manager gets almost psycho on folks who think they might just car camp. Electricity is available for an extra charge, again according to the reviews.
Also mentioned are the several cars parked outside that all have flat tires. Apparently it is to make the place look popular. Until the condition of the vehicle is noticed it works.
On to the actual park. I got in free with my Golden Geezer pass. As I was walking the loop behind the south Visitor Center I noticed a very large dark cloud in the distance. The workers were packing their tools and leaving. I, of course, decided that there were probably some dramatic pictures to be had from the higher points ahead on the trail.
About this point I made some realizations. Not about safety. I realized that I am not an exceptional photographer. I also realized that there are many, many bloggers who have given wonderful trip reports with pictures that eclipse anything I choose to do about anywhere I might visit. So, no iconic pictures from this, or probably most other, parks or public gatherings places. I also realized that with the approaching rain this would not be an in depth visit, but I live close enough to come back pretty much anytime I want. With that, I got back in the car (after buying a nice top in the gift shop...) and drove through the rain to the other end.
This picture shows the storm back in the middle of the park that I drove through. It also shows that not a lot of folks were visiting that day.
I need to get moving today, so I'll do the short version of the rest of the trip tomorrow.
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
I Tried
I tried to give an update on the trip I'm currently on but I failed doing it on my phone. I'll set up my computer later and give it another go. I'm in Albuquerque right now contemplating options on where to go next.
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