Plan B… C? D? W?

It looks like Turtle Lady won’t make it out here for the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous in January after all.  I don’t know how much time I will spend in Quartzsite there myself.  The predicted attendance is somewhere around 10 Thousand?  Not my idea of a good time.  I am back to thinking I’ll go over for a night in the car and see how it feels.  Bosley won’t be happy.

I’m heading to Algodonez, MX next Thursday to refill my medicines.  I want to get it done before all the snowbirds get back and make the line to get back into the US too long.

I had a nice, but quiet, Christmas.  I went up to visit Mom.  There was some sad news from Favorite Neighbor up in MN.  Her daughter, who was in a nursing home due to some chronic physical issues, died early Christmas Eve.  I’m sure she can use any good thoughts and prayers anyone wants to send her way.

No plans for New Years.  Next big thing for me is Bloggerfest.  I’m cleaning and clearing stuff and mostly just sitting on the couch with Bosley.  Oh, and still knitting on the sweater.

Bloggerfest!

Bloggerfest

I sent the letter to the BLM requesting the use of the Ramada at La Posa South on Saturday, January 26, 2019.  I have not heard back, but I did ask that he let me know if we could not use it then as quickly as possible.  I’m taking no response yet as an affirmative.  So, Bloggerfest will happen from 1-4pm on the last Saturday of January.If I’m counting right, this is the 5th time we have gotten together.

All are invited, blog writers, blog readers, those who want to ask questions, whatever.  Come on down!  Bring a snack to share and a chair to sit on.  If you are so inclined bring business cards with the info about your blog on them to hand out.  I never get that organized…

I’m hoping that George will update the Bloggerfest banner and post it so those who want to can post it on their blogs to get the word out. 

Work in Progress

This is the sweater that I wanted to finish by the end of November. It is a work in progress still. I learned a few new techniques, including knitting it from the top down. I'm to the easy part now, just knit until the body is long enough.

I went to lunch with Sandie and Jim Dixon yesterday as an early celebration for my birthday, no one I would want to celebrate with more than them.

I have low key plans for the rest of the week. I'll spend my birthday on Sunday working a jigsaw saw puzzle, continuing a family tradition with the puzzles. I haven't worked them regularly for several years. We'll see how it goes. I bought a couple from the thrift store my Aunt and Mom and I went to when we were back in Missouri. I will head up to Mom's on Christmas day for a couple of hours. In between will be house cleaning and laundry and hopefully finishing the sweater.

I spent the night out at the local Harrah's in a free room they comp'ed me. I'm going to take a shower in the large glass shower, drink another cup of coffee and head home. My urge to travel has been quenched for the time being, and it was easier than heading up to Vegas.

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Place Holder?

After I haven’t posted in awhile I feel like I need to make a really good, interesting post with a cool picture.  I have not been inspired.  I decided I’d let anyone who is curious know I am still alive.

I’m back down in the Valley.  It definitely got too cold up in the Payson area for me and for the motor home.  It is none too warm in the Valley, either.  Other than catching up with snowbird friends and eating out occasionally, I’m not doing much.  I am knitting a sweater that isn’t going particularly well.  I may end up frogging it back and reknitting it.  Or, I may just wear it anyway.  At any rate, I am not finished with it yet so I will make the decision when it is finished and I put it on.

Wildlife

This guy walked between my motorhome and my neighbor's carport. The herd hangs out in the neighborhood, but this is the closest I've seen any of them. I was sitting on my dash looking out the windshield.

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Hiking the Highline Trail

Beautiful but cool morning.

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Finished

The boomerang shawl is finished. It took longer than I intended because I dropped some stiches and had to pull it back to fix the error correctly. I will send it off tomorrow to my friend in MN.

I've been working on the motorhome. There is now an external propane tank next to the motorhome so it can be taken and filled by itself rather than having to drive the motorhome out every time I need propane. The outside shower in the back bin developed a leak and filled the bin with water. It is more or less fixed now. At least it no longer leaks I am attempting to drill a hole in a cabinet door to route the propane hose for my Mr Heater propane heater so I don't stumble over the open door like I did all last winter. Something isn't quite right with the drill (the operator?) And it has been a few years since I actually did much of this type of work. I'll get there. Jim Dixon is still back East so I have to muddle through doing it myself.

Life updates... The trip back East was hard on me. My right leg and hip start hurting now when I drive long distances. I had already committed to the Moab trip right after I got back so I decided to go even though I wasn't quite recovered from the previous trip. I ended up putting my back out after the hike and coming home early. All this points to the fact that I need to get into shape to live the lifestyle I want. I have rejoined a gym, and just going through the motions on the machines shows me how much I need to get some core strength back.

Mom did fine on the trip, better than I did. For the first time she didn't say that was her last trip once we got home. Most likely we will head back to see the family again in the spring. Hopefully we are finished with funerals for now.

Boseley was not happy to be left behind while I traveled even though the neighbor who took care of him did a good job. I have made the decision that I will take the motorhome to Quartzsite in January rather than just the car. That way Bosley will be with me. That is easier on both of us. Working on details as to how to get both vehicles there as I still don't have a way to tow the Mazda.

I'm sure there was more, but this is enough for now.

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Another view from Arches

Landscape Arch was the correct answer, however New Hampshire and New York City we're close (sort of). A group I follow on an online forum planned this weekend gathering awhile ago and I decided to join them. Exploring is more fun for me sometimes when there is a loose group to hang with. One of the guys wanted to do some hiking in Arches National Park and invited me along. It was fun.

A longer post about life in general once I'm on my computer rather than the phone

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Guess where I am

Three guesses and the first two don't count.

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Moab

I'm in Moab for the weekend. I'll catch up on life here soon. For now I'm off to walk and take pictures. Why? Because I live in the Southwest and have these awesome places close by, a fact that I am just realizing.

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Life in Progress

The bike is back in the storage unit again for now, albeit nearer the front this time.  I ran down to Algodonez, Mexico last Thursday to get my first prescription.  I’m officially an Arizona retired stereotype now.    I let my prescription for my thyroid medicine run out by not remembering that the last refill needed to be done before the end of last month.  I’ll start the Mexican drugs after I run out of what I have.  I’m not expecting any issues.

After that I’ve started getting ready for Mom and I to drive to MO again, and head up to visit our friends in MN as well.  We are taking my car.  I needed to get a lot of details sorted (the medicine was only one of them) and we leave tomorrow morning.  I’m mostly packed, and if there is a break in the light rain soon I’ll put my stuff in the trunk.  Some of Mom’s stuff is already in the back seat.  We are taking coolers, sandwiches, water and Cokes.  Bosley will be watched over and fed by a neighbor.  I have plenty of food for him in the house to cover the time I’ll be away.  He won’t like it that I’m gone.  He is supposed to be my primary focus at all times, as far as he is concerned.

I’ll try to post from the road.   I don’t expect a lot of tourist stuff to happen, but who knows.  We really don’t have a schedule.

Wednesday Progress

I’ve been knitting on the shawl, and I’m about half finished.  I am at the end of the first skein, and it looks like it will take two skeins of this yarn to get the shawl to the size I want.

For those who care, if you click on the picture it is not fuzzy in the full size version.  I’m not sure what the issue is with the thumbnail version in the actual blog text.

In my quest to go through the things in my storage unit, this is the week I took the bicycle out and set it up to ride. 

It was buried under ‘stuff’. 

The bicycle itself is now good to go, but my body is not.  I can make it a very short distance before my knees let me know it is time to stop.  I’ll ride a bit every evening or so to see if I can build up to enough distance to make it worthwhile to keep the bike.  This is the second bike I’ve bought as an adult and then not ridden.  I would really like to make a go of it this time.

I have downloaded some apps to my smartphone that I’m enjoying.  Daily Art is fun, especially as Turtle Lady is an artist and there is a chance we will make it to an art museum if/when she makes it out here in January.  Maybe I can be conversant (slightly) by then.

I also downloaded Grasshopper, which is a beginners app to learn javascript (a programming language).  It is fun so far (2 days in) and gives me something to do when I am just sitting on the couch.

I’m cleaning the car and starting the packing for our trip back East to MO and MN next week.  I do a bit each day so that by the time we leave I hope to not leave anything important behind.

Wednesday Work In Progress

I have spent a lot of the past week knitting.  I finished the shawl/lap robe/whatever it is by finally getting to the end of the yarn.  I really like the yarn.  I may at some point unravel it and make something else, or maybe I’ll just use it as a throw. The problem with having it on the couch is that Bosley likes to play with it, and has already gotten one stitch kinda pulled out.  I’ll fix that.

I grabbed some more of the thrift shop yarn and wanted to make a more structured shawl with it.  I went to Ravelry and found a free pattern called Favorite by Lisa Doherty.  It is what is called a boomerang shaped shawl and is just 2 rows repeated.  I like to have a mindless knitting project that I can pick up and put down while I knit other things and this works very well for that.

This will just grow as I add rows.  The yarn is a fuzzy acrylic and is very soft.  I have 5 skeins of this yarn and so I may be making several of these wraps/shawls. 

I also completed 2 more of the preemie hats.  I’m tired of the small yarn I’ve been using so I’ll switch up and make the next hat from something else.  I have so much thrift shop yarn that I have plenty to choose from.  I am excited about these smaller projects because I can use up the odd skeins from my stash.  Now if I could just stop buying more yarn.

Then again, I’m wanting to start a top-down seamless sweater, and I’ll buy yarn for that.  There are 2 techniques  I want to learn, the easier being to do a top down raglan sleeve. The I want to try something called a contiguous (or set in) sleeve.  Not sure which I’ll tackle first.  This seems more like something I’ll do this winter.

Sorry, Big Foot, I know this was all gibberish to you.    Also, I’ll pull out my actual camera and start using it again.  The phone pictures don’t work so well lately.

Tanks for the memory…

In Arizona the term ‘tank’ means a natural depression that tends to hold water.  They are more common in the Northern part of the state.  If you click on the blurry pictures in the previous posts you see there is water at the bottom of the sink (short for sink hole, bear with me).  The water has lily pads floating, and it is really a pretty place.  I keep trying to get back to these tanks when the lily pads are in bloom, but I go in August, and they bloom earlier in the summer I think.  The quality of the pictures is related to wanting to get a blog post out and grabbing the first thing I’ve done lately worthy of posting.  At some point I will go back and try to do the area justice.  I may have mis-spelled Pomeroy Tanks as well.

I ended up driving home last night.  The weather was getting even more rainy and I just wasn’t feeling like being in the Grand Canyon area on a weekend.

I’ll try to post more of my day to day stuff.  One of the reasons I go on these trips is because I get bored with staying home.  I do have stuff to get done before the season ends.

Speaking of ‘season’.  I have decided to stay here at this park through the end of the year.  I talked to the manager down in Apache Junction and she is ok with me only being there 3 months, in that she will hold my spot for me.  I do have plans B and C in case that falls through.

I also plan to have Bloggerfest again.  I have the instructions Rick gave me on how to reserve the ramada at La Posa South.  I know where the signs are.  So far, all systems go.

More tanks

More tanks in the area. This is Northern Arizona.

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Pomory Tanks

Got out hiking g with Mike today up near Williams. I may spend tonight camping up near the Grand Canyon.

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Beartooth Highway

Yesterday we drove through Yellowstone and on to Beartooth Highway. It was totally awesome. We had tacos at Mas Tacos in Red Lodge and headed back. I may try to put a few more pictures up once I'm back on my computer.

I'm heading south this morning but taking my time. Probably not do much site seeing as I'm wanting to be home. This has been a really good trip and a step in the process to traveling more, as well as connecting up with friends I haven't spent time with for far too long.

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Exploring the National Forest

I'm exploring around in the National Forests outside of Yellowstone. This is where a large section of the mountain at the edge of the canyon gave way during the earthquake in 1959 which flooded the Madison River and created Quake Lake.

I spent Wednesday afternoon and night up in Helena at the NSS convention seeing folks I haven't seen in years. A couple of the folks were not at the convention I went to 2 years ago and so I hadn't seen at least one of them in about 40 years. Nice to reconnect. On the way back to West Yellowstone I stopped in and visited Jim and Sandy Dixon. Jim and Rockey were out fishing but I got to see Sandy and Skittlez in there summer habitat.

Tomorrow my friend and I will head out for more site seeing. She works for the Forest Service here so I'm sure it will be fun.

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Montana

I spent the night in West Yellowstone, and now I'm headed to Helena to spend a day at the convention seeing some friends I haven't seen in awhile. I'll be back at my friend's in West Yellowstone for the weekend when she has time off work. Definitely cooler here, in all senses of the word.

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Lake Powell

Headed north. Perhaps I should look at a real map rather than depending on Google to get me there... This is all new territory for me and I'm enjoying it anyway. There is a smoky haze hanging in the air since north of Flagstaff. Staff at the welcome center say it is probably the fires in California. The camera makes it look clearer than it is.

North! To Montana!

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Being a hermit

I spent a week at my Aunt’s place in MO.  I’ve been home since, getting things done.  I am now bored and hot.  I am in need of a road trip.  I’ll be loading up the Mazda3 and heading north in a few days to visit friends.  There may be more drive-by pictures as I head north.  If I stay true to my usual way to travel I’ll just head on up.  I will be passing some really pretty places and I have my Golden Geezers pass to get into the National Parks, so who knows.  This is part of my on-going experiment with how to travel now that I have no real time constraints.

I will ask a neighbor to come check Bosley.  She is an animal person so I’m sure he will be taken care of.  I bought bunches of cat food when I was last in the Valley, so he should be set.

Now to pack and clean the motor home so I can be gone a week or so.

Family

I decided this is where I need to be, my Uncle Bob's military funeral. I decided that around 1pm Tuesday, knowing the funeral is Thursday afternoon. An hour later I was on the road. Pulled into my their driveway yesterday about 25 hrs later. Stayed up talking with (listening to) my Aunt until late last night. We are sitting in line for the procession to head up to where the ceremony will be. This is where I need to be.

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To Everything There Is A Season

My Uncle Bob died this evening.  He was at home, I assume.  I had called my Aunt earlier today and learned he started going downhill on Monday.  He made it through Father’s Day able to walk with his walker and sit at the table and enjoy the meal with the family who came to see him.  On Monday he started the quick slide down.  Earlier my Aunt was going over the signs of impending death with me from the list given to her this week by hospice, and said he had most of them.  This isn’t the surprise it would have been if I hadn’t made the call earlier.

I don’t know if I’m going back to Missouri for the funeral.  The point of going when I did was to see him while he was still alive.  I’ll play it by ear.  If I think my Aunt wants me there I’ll go.

Those who watch my side bar see that Doug Begley, the author of Strolling Amok died this week as well.  He went lying in his bed in his truck camper.  His son went to check on him when he wasn’t returning phone calls.  He had just made it back to the area where his kids are.  I never met him in person but I had made notes to check out some of the places he camped.  He put a lot of detail about the places in his blog which makes them seem findable.  I’ll leave Doug’s blog up on my side bar for quite awhile.  I think I left Rod Ivers’ blog up at least a year after he passed.

I have no words of wisdom.  This is the season of my life, when I’m losing the folks who have been a part of my life.  It isn’t easy.

It was a.good trip

As a shakedown trip it went very well. The North Rim is beautiful but very different than the South Rim. The Canyon is pretty much the same, but the infrastructure is different. I only spent one night in the area, so that may be part of my opinion. I do like that dispersed (read free) camping is available closer to the Park. I also like that due to the higher elevation there are trees around the outside of the park which makes the camping much more enjoyable. I'll go back at some point.

The car works well for camping. I can sleep in it just fine. I do need to tweak a few things, but they are minor. All things considered, I hope to do more traveling in the car now.

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Made it

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On the road again

Taking the car out camping to see how I do. Off to new places. Just an overnight this time.

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Another city park

I am again killing time between shuttles. I'm at another of the city parks here. A frustration with this job, if you call it that, is that I don't feel like I can walk around the lake now as I need to head out for the next appointment soon.

Weather has been nice up here. Sweatshirt temps in the mornings, but I run the air conditioning for a few hours in the afternoon. It is still dry as there has been no rain.

My Uncle is back home from the hospital. I fly back to Missouri for a couple of days next week to see him. Told him he needs to get stronger so we can go out dancing while there. Part of the joke is he doesn't dance, ever.

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Some things don't change.

I'm sitting parked in the shade in one of the town parks. I have dropped off one ride and I'm waiting to pick up the next appointment. That raised area with a fence is the town swimming pool. I can hear the music playing and it is pretty much the stuff we listened to at our town pool in the summers growing up. I've even heard YMCA. They still play that some places, apparently. I just heard some mumbled talking, so it seems to be a local radio station. Given the average age in this town, I guess they know their audience.

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New places

My part time shuttle job, if you can call it that, has me learning about new spots. Typically I'm seeing parts of town I had no idea existed. This past week a guy who was camping out in the forests came in to town for supplies and his truck threw a rod. He called for a shuttle back to his campsite and Jerry had me do the run. I ended up finding out about a while new area of cping spots that is right on the rim. I probably won't take the motorhome up there but I may run up and camp overnight sometime to get out of town. Living in the trees now makes that not as important, but I want to get a car camping setup that I'm comfortable with for future trips back East.

So far I've talked myself down from the addi knitting needles. I found a set the right size and length (100 cm) to finish the shawl in my sets of bamboo needles. For some reason I had given up on the bamboo sets and gone back to the metal ones, but for now it is working ok. I'm 2 skeins of yarn in out of 5, so it won't be finished for awhile. This project is to relax between the baby caps.

I will do laundry today and start packing and getting sorted for my quick trip back to Missouri to see my Uncle. He is back in the hospital again as they try to get his medicines sorted out. I fly out on the 12th. I had told him I'd come out every couple of months to see him.

I'm settled into my summer.

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Work In Progress Wednesday

This odd picture is the shawl, or whatever it ends up being when I run out of yarn, that is frustrating me right now. I really like the yarn and colors. I decided on size 11 needles and garter stitch to give it a lighter weight and drape. That part is working. It is much wider than it will be long before I run out of the thrift store skeins. I think I got 5 and am 1.5 in currently.

The frustration is that the needle I was using is an interchangeable set that I have had for years. The set has been showing it's age and I've had my eye on a really nice set on Amazon. In the past 2 days I managed to break 2 of the connecting cables. There were dropped stitches each time, and a scurrying to get the stitches on to a smaller needle to use as a stitch holder. I don't know if in my collection of circular needles I have any long enough in a size 11. If I do, they are in the storage unit.

Excuse me while I head to town to the storage unit before it gets dark. Then I will sit down and pull out the credit card and buy the new shiny set of addi needles I really want. That is if they come up as far as a size 11.

Thrift store yarn is not always as inexpensive as it seems at first...

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Changes

I found a nice out of the way park on the edge of Payson to move the motor home and set up with full hookups.  There are also trees for shade. I feel more at home here than I have any place else for the past few years.  For now that means that I am going to get my patio chairs out of the storage unit and put them on the patio.  That feels settled for me.

I had a nightmare this morning.  It was time to get up, but I almost involuntarily fell back asleep.  The content of the nightmare isn’t too important, but it tells me that I have some parts of myself to confront.  I want to get out more and do more and tie up loose ends.  It is hazy in my mind the details, but I know there are a few areas I need to pay attention to.  My body is one of them, my mind another.  Diet and exercise and maybe some more supplements so I don’t hurt as much.  Learning and  off-loading some stuff that doesn’t serve me anymore are on the agenda.

I’m out in the country-ish, and saw elk bedding down for the night as I drove home in the early evening this week.  The area is good for walking.  I have time.  It is time to change gears in many ways.

Part of seeing so many elk even in town is that it is extremely dry.  The forest roads and campgrounds are closed, and more will be closed as we go along until there is a substantial amount of rain.  Driving back from Mesa yesterday I saw that the northbound side of 87 at the brake check area at Mt Ord had burned recently.  More and more spots are turning to ash as the small (and larger!) wildfires start burning.  No one is even supposed to smoke cigarettes or pipes or anything outside of a building or vehicle.  Of course out of towners think the rules don’t apply to them, so we have the burnt areas that are increasing.  Last year it was the end of July before the monsoon rains arrived.

Part of my changes are to attempt to do stuff that I can blog about.  Maybe I’ll post a bit more often.

Yeah, I’m still alive

I started a part time job this week driving for a local shuttle.  He calls, I go pick someone up and take them where they are going, usually go pick them up again after awhile.  I couldn’t live off this if I had to, but it keeps me out of trouble.  I’m probably saving more by not spending because I’m bored than I am making in money.  It is almost a service for folks here as there is little or no public transportation here.  Just a couple of these small shuttle services.

I had new tires put on the motor home, so some things are progressing.  I’m still putting things back in place from moving the motor home to get tires.  If I was moving around more I’d have to come up with a better plan for things to not move around while traveling.  Right now I just dismantle the table and move the computers someplace safe.  I’d do built-ins if I had to do this every day.

Trips away are on hold while I take advantage of making some small amount of money.  Mom is doing well.  We have our evacuation plan in place where she drives to the motor home and I drive it while she follows me driving her car in whatever direction we are told to go.  This is important as just this morning I heard bunches of fire trucks headed up the Rim.  It is wildfire season from now until the monsoons come.  I hope those rains do show up.  We didn’t get the winter or spring rains and it is very dry.  This is another reason for not leaving the area right now.  Mom can drive and follow me while I drive the motor home but she doesn’t want to drive outside of town by herself.

Summer up in the pines.

Where was I…

I have no scheduled commitments for the next few weeks.  I have offers out to help folks, but so far haven’t heard if I’m needed.  I have the most pressing maintenance and cleaning done on the RV.  Other than thinking about the next trip out to see my Uncle in MO and other trips I want to take this summer, I’m free to do what I want.  I’m trying to remember what that was.

There is more maintenance on the RV that chould be done (when is there not?)  I need to totally replace the windshield washers, and price and schedule replacing the tires as well as the batteries.  I haven’t replaced the GFI outlet yet as everything works when I parked and plugged in to shore power.  I bought a kit to fix the rock chip in the lower windshield.  In other words I have stuff to do if I just do it.

There is also some hikes I meant to do last year that I could do before it gets hot here.  I have my inflatable kayak that could float in some of the National Forest lakes around here. 

There is the ever present desire to go through the stuff in the storage unit and pare it down.  So far more has been going back into storage than out of it as I clear out the motorhome and clean and organize it.  I could get back to all that.

Ok, guess I have my list of what I was planning to get done this summer.

MIA

I haven’t meant to be quiet for so long.  It just kinda happened.  We had a good trip back to MO.  The Uncle I went back to see is doing well.  The husbands of 2 of Mom’s 1st cousins died during the time we were traveling.  Well, one died right before we left, and we went to his funeral while we were there.  The other died in his sleep the first night we were there.  We couldn’t stay for his funeral.  We ended up seeing most of the remaining family at the funeral.  Mom got most of the things she wanted to do done.  I was mostly along for the ride.  I will probably fly out a few times this summer to spend more time with my Uncle.  Between Southwest points and free nights at the Harrah’s in Kansas City I can do it low budget.

The day we flew back in to Phoenix I drove the motorhome up to Payson.  I’m boondocked at the Lodge, waiting for my spot in the park to be empty.  The GFI in the bathroom that controls the outlets in the front of the motorhome keeps tripping when I run the generator and try to have anything on.  I have the coffeemaker in the bedroom as the outlets there work.  I’ll replace the GFI outlet and see if that fixes it.

I’m in one of those phases that a lot of little things aren’t flowing very well, just enough to keep me annoyed.  I’m trying to chill. 

Why am I so busy again?

I keep thinking that I don’t have much to do until we leave for MO in 3 weeks.  However, when I was thinking about getting out of bed this morning I realized that this was the first Thursday in the month, so we have a meeting tonight up in Payson.  Which means I need to load the car up with the first haul of stuff I want to put into storage to get this place ready to clean.

I also need to officially let the manager know that I will leave at the end of the month.  I already told her, but we decided I’d do it officially on the first.  That is today…

I’m working on baby hats again.  I finished one for Turtle Lady’s new-to-be grandbaby, but I’m not happy with it.  Working on a second, and I’ll probably reknit part of the other one.  Then I’ll start again on the preemie hats to donate to the Elks’ project.

Ok, up and at ‘em.

Nope, didn’t go

Since the main draw of going to Lake Havasu is kayaking in the lake for me, I decided to put the trip off until it warms up again.  I also had forgotten when I made the original plan that I have to be at the Lodge on Friday night.  The schedule got a bit to crowded.  If it warms up even a little next week I’ll go then.  In the meantime, I will get out around here.

A Trip!

It hit me a day or so ago that I have no (well, few) obligations right now.  There are no disasters happening currently.  I am way too wound up over a trip I have completely planned for near the end of next month.  When I started pondering starting to pack for that trip 6 weeks out, I immediately decided that I need a shorter trip to keep me occupied.

In a discussion with friends earlier Lake Havasu came up, and I decided that was a good place to head for a night.  Take the kayak, camp or sleep in the car.  It is the stuff I’ve been saying I’m looking forward to when I have time.  Well, right now I’ve got a lot of time.

I then looked at the weather.  What happened to our sunny 70-80 degree days?  And nights in the 30’s???  I will have the kayak with me, but I’m not sure it will get in the water.  I have 2 down sleeping bags, and a down under quilt for the hammock if I decide to use the hammock and stand.  I have thousands of dollars of camping gear that I have not used in maybe 10 years. 

All of that gear is up in Payson in my storage shed.  I’m heading up there today to get it.  Soon.  After I finish a second cup of coffee and have some breakfast, and load up some stuff to put into storage, and…  This is why my body hurts when I move.  I’m putting off getting out and doing things.  I need to just get up off my redacted and get going.  If not now, when?  I’m running out of time.

I read, therefore I am (an adult?)

I feel like I read a lot.  Most of it the past 15 or more years has been on a computer screen, but the idea is the same.  I think.  I have a friend who doesn’t think it counts if it isn’t a ‘real’ hold it in your hands book.  I am under-educated by his calculation, as I don’t read BOOKS.

Mom reads books.  A lot of them.  She mostly finds them at thrift stores or free ‘take one, leave one’ exchanges.  She mostly like biographies.  She has sent a couple home with me, but I can’t get past the first chapter.  Just not interesting.  She found one, ‘Accordion Man’ by Myron Floren.  He was the smiling accordion player on the Lawrence Welk Show.  I sat down this morning and read it in about 2 hours.  So, I am still a fast reader.  It was light reading, but I enjoyed it.  If you didn’t grow up watching Lawrence Welk it might not be nearly as interesting.

At any rate, I still have ‘it’, when I’m at an age where I’ll take any and all ‘its’ that I can claim.  I am a reader.  I just choose to mostly do my reading on a computer.

It’s raining. Sort of.

Night before last I was awake for a few minutes just in time to hear rain on the roof.  I think it had quit by the time I fell back asleep.  Then today after I had been out running around I’m sitting here at the computer and I heard rain!  Only for about 5 minutes.  It is cloudy outside, heavy rain type clouds, but that doesn’t usually translate into actual rain here.  It is just enough to splash dust up on my car and make it speckled.

My running around included actually going to the gym and walking.  I don’t have a place to walk here in this RV park, and so I haven’t been getting much exercise.  This is a step(!) in the right direction at least.

I have a bit more than a month to clean and clear out the motorhome.  I want it basically empty of anything I’m not actually using so I can clean it well.  I’m tired of so much stuff just sitting around.  Mom and I are flying back to MO later in March to see my Uncle who has just found out about health issues.  Then I move to Payson.  Then a friend of Mom’s is flying out for a visit with her.  So, this is the calm before the storm.

Laundry day

It has been awhile since I've done laundry. One of the conveniences I gave up by moving to the less expensive RV park is the on-site laundry room. I found this Laundromat last time I did laundry. No more searching for quarters, this place uses a refillable card. Seems to be a busy place, but I found room. There is a pizza place on one side, and ice cream for sale on the other. I am still compliant on my Whole 30 diet, so I can't I dulge this trip.

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Maiden Voyage

Yesterday I went kayaking in my inflatable kayak for the first time. I met a new friend from RTR at Canyon Lake around 10am. He has a hard sided kayak, and is more experienced than I am. I made a lot of beginner, in a hurry not checking details type of mistakes, but even with that I enjoyed it. There weren't a lot of people around, probably because the road out there is in really bad shape due to road construction. Once we got back in the cove, though, there were several folks in kayaks paddling about. After about 2 hours I could tell my arms were going to just get weaker, so we headed in. I was also sitting in water for a couple of reasons to do with seat placement and forgetting to put the rings on the paddles to stop water from running down the shaft into the boat while paddling. It was a really nice day, not much wind and mostly sunny with just enough cloud cover to keep the sun from being too bright. As we bobbed along slowly, leaned back using the front of the kayaks to rest our feet in the sun, we wondered why anyone lives anywhere else. Happy Groundhog Day.

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List of Bloggerfest Attendees

Quick is no where in my lifestyle.  I am just now getting organized to post the list of the folks who attended Bloggerfest.

George & Susie Yates    Our Awesome Travels

Red & Kay Smith   Blog readers from East Texas

Paula/Shadowmoss   In the Shadows

Steve & Jane   RollingFromWasaga.wordpress.com

Gaelyn/Geogypsy    GeogypsyTraveler.com

Rick & Kathy   It’s About Time

Tome & Deb  Celebrating the Dance

Bob & Stacie  Maxx Trails

Dave & Cheryl  Our View From Here

Pat & Bill  Chilling With Patsy & On Our Way

Shirley & Ken  Seeing America With Ken & Shirley

Doug Laning  & Yuma   MissAdventure Travels

It would be nice if I had managed to provide links to everyone’s blog, but that would have put this post off another week they way I’m going.

I started the Whole 30 food elimination diet yesterday.  I have succeeded for a whole day so far.  I am not doing it to lose weight, but to see if I have a reaction to any foods I tend to grab to eat.  This will hopefully force me to actually buy real food and cook. 

I ran up to Payson yesterday to get my inflatable kayak out of the storage unit and visit with Mom.  A friend I met at the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous is also staying in this area and invited me to go kayaking this week.  I did get hungry while up there.  Nothing Mom had to offer was on my diet.  I went to Walmart and as I walked out with my small bag of carrots I did whimper a bit walking by the table staffed with Girl Scouts selling their cookies.

Y'all come on

I'm here and set up.

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Location Added

The last post ended up ugly since I copied it from Live Writer rather than retype it.  At any rate, here is a new banner for BLOGGERFEST!!!


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Turtle Lady goes home, and BLOGGERFEST IS COMING

(I couldn't post this from Live Writer, so I'm trying posting via email.

This morning I took Turtle Lady to the airport.  Her flight was 45 minutes late leaving, but she is winging her way home as I type.  The time flew by.  She brought a book to read while here, I had my knitting.  Neither one saw any attention at all while she was here.  Rubber Tramp Rendezvous was fun, even though everything I touched seemed to break, starting a few days before Turtle Lady even got here.  We are already making lists of things needed for next year.

BLOGGERFEST!!!

​(Trying to post pic via email...)(unable to post the Bloggerfest banner, same issue others are having with Live Writer and Blogger…)

It is this coming Saturday at the Ramada inside the La Posa South LTVA that is a couple of miles south of Quartzsite on 95.  I will be there a bit early.  My plan is to get to Quartzsite around 10am and run around the Big Tent as it is the last day for it.  Then I'll go out to La Posa South to the Ramada or shelter house as I usually call them.  There should be a sign at the turnoff to the Ramada once you are in the LTVA.  I left the signs in capable hands to be set out. 

Bosley and I may sleep until then.  It has been a whirlwind of activity for the past couple of weeks.

Virus-free. www.avg.com

Jim Dixon to the rescue again.

When we got back to shore power today the outlets still didn't work. The microwave light still did. The 12V was working, at least for the time being. No electricity from the wall outlets, even on the shore power. So, I did what I usually do when I'm out of ideas. I called Jim Dixon. After some troubleshooting over the phone he mentioned the GFI switch in the bathroom. It was indeed tripped. Reset that, and all was good in my world. Jim strikes again.

In a few days I'll work on the rest of it, but it seems that most of my generator issues may be resolved. Not sure about the coach battery.

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Added to the list

Several things have broken this trip. My solar panels blew over. Luckily only one ended up with broken glass. It turns out that my generator is putting out 110V, but most of the sockets aren't. The microwave does work on generator, but it doesn't sound healthy so I'll wait until I'm back on shore power to check it out more. The display never worked so I didn't realize it works until I opened the door while someone was helping troubleshoot the generator.

I have a long list of stuff to cruise YouTube for directions on how to fix. Door latches, generator, furnace fan that wouldn't shut off last night and is also losing a bearing from the sounds of it. And maybe the coach battery as it got run down to almost nothing last night. Which is why I was in a hurry to set the solar panels back up this morning...

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Charged up finally

I have been not posting from here in Quartzsite because not only have I been non stop busy, but I've had issues with keeping my phone charged and connectivity in general. My AT&T Mobley hotspot quit working. Luckily it is the aftermarket power supply that died. It is done for until I get back to civilization. My other hotspot works, but the tower is jammed so access is slow.

Around Thanksgiving Home Depot had a sale on solar panels and I bought a couple of 100W panels. Once I got here I got the rest of the parts and I now have a way to charge my coach batteries as well as using the two USB ports on the charge controller. Just in time as for some reason my generator no longer gives me 120V electricity when it runs. I'm guessing it also is not charging the batteries. A friend checked it out as best he could, but I see a trip to a shop once I'm back.

Turtle Lady and I (mostly her) gave a talk on hammocks yesterday. It was well received. I am now totally spent from everything. I'm seeing a trip to town for a shower and to cruise the flea markets.

I went to K&B Tools to get some things to pit the solar stuff together. I was told they are no longer in the tool business (?) And are moving to being a RV supply place. Parking is already difficult in that area.

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Food storage.

I came in the motorhome yesterday and Turtle Lady had found a solution to storing the fruit. Normally a mirror hangs there but I take it down when I move.

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Catching up

I was basically sick for a couple of weeks. Not horribly sick like a lot of people, for which I'm grateful. Just sick enough that I sat on the couch with Bosley and didn't go out unless I had to.

Turtle Lady flew in on Monday to go to the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous with me. We had planned to drive to Quartzsite on Tuesday, but the storms were forecast to move through, and we had shopping for groceries to do. I made the command decision to put the move off to Wednesday. We had great fun hitting Costco, Ranch Market, the 99 cent store, and Walmart. I have more food in my fridge, shelves, car, tied to the roofs (ok, maybe not that far) than any other time. At least since the last time she and I went shopping together.

Wednesday morning we headed out with Turtle Lady driving my Mazda and me driving the motorhome. We stopped at the Chevron station to gas up, get propane and air up the tires on the RV. It took awhile as I had to move the RV around for each step. Finally I started to drive out and saw Turtle Lady running after me yelling that the Mazda wouldn't start. Que a detour to buy a new battery.

We did get here and friends had found a great place to set up where we can run the generators in the morning for a half hour or so.

Tomorrow we head back to Payson in the Mazda to overnight at Mom's. My friend will take care of Bosley, making sure he is fed and his ears scratched so he doesn't feel abandoned.

And so another day winds down here in the desert.

Made it

I'll give more of an update tomorrow.

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Headed to Quartzsite, sort of.

The motorhome is gassed up, propane topped up, tires aired up. Then the Mazda wouldn't start. Once we have the new battery in, hopefully we will get on the road.

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