Joan on the Road...of Life

I made a deal with Jim. I'll go "play" with Laura while you clean the carpet! What a deal!

Laura had some beautiful linen material to make a skirt and just wanted a bit of guidance from her mommy before she cut into it :) So we spent the afternoon doing errands, having lunch and then cutting out the skirt. We had a yummy lunch at the cafe in downtown Stevensville and then went to the drugstore to mail stuff and get sewing supplies. The drugstore is really the General Store of the town...a litte bit of a lot of things.

On the way back to Laura's we spotted this little Bambi munching his way along the road.

And then when we turned in Laura's drive there were a couple of turkeys with a dozen babies. Couldn't get a good shot because the grass was too high. Seems the turkey flock has multiplied to about 80 adults that wander the area. The neighbors are looking forward to a plentiful Thanksgiving :)

Posted by Joan at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In general, Jim and Mary's is a quiet RV park...except for the nearby train and firestation. So I was surprised to wake up to a rat-a-tat sound right outside my window at 8 AM. Jeez, it's my own hubby! Jim got up, made coffee and was outside pumping up the tires to max pressure recommendations. He's getting ready for the Pressure Pro Tire Monitoring system that should arrive tomorrow.

We've been here a week already and are sure enjoying the cool evenings and mornings. I'd hoped to do more touristy stuff but I'm still nursing the bum knee. It's on the mend after Dr. Steve got it aligned but I need to walk on it to bring down the swelling and that is pretty darn painful. But today I think it feels Much better :)

We've chatted with a few neighbors over the last few days....interesting stories. The next door couple came in last week to stay one night and suddenly the hubby had massive abdominal pain. Phone service is poor here so fortunately they have OnStar. She punched the button and said get us to a hospital. Drove him there and he had an emergency appendectomy! He's on the mend. We met them outside while he was showing her how to do the dumps and hook ups. She said she'd felt so helpless because she's never done that nor has she driven the coach. That will change.

A couple down the way are here from New Zealand traveling the country for 6 months. They bought a new 42' diesel pusher in Indiana and have had nothing but problems! Four slides that all had water leaks, inside water connections that leaked, panels that fell off outisde...and this is a $200K motorhome. We haven't had that many problems in 5 years :) They stopped over last night and Jim invited them in. I was surprised when they were so complimentary about our little home. Cozy, functional, well laid out, lovely wood! Gosh! They are here for 2 weeks and we hope to visit with them again.

Jim and Mary's put up the "sorry we're full sign" every day about 4 PM. If you want to stay at this lovely park...call ahead.

Posted by Joan at 08:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Time to get ready for the Open House at Laura and Steve's! We dropped in to see if we could be helpful in last minute preparations. Here's what we found.

Laura, the Electrician and Steve, the Carpenter. They learned sooo much in this build out of the garage into an office for Dr. Steve. You can read all about it right here.

Although the temps only reached mid 90s these tents really helped keep the office, patio and guests very comfy...and don't they look festive!

The caterer delivered yummy treats and the hosts were ready to party on!

(Dummy me...did a backlit photo without a fill flash so I had to lighten this a bit so you could see faces :)

We really enjoyed chatting with the guests. I should have recorded all the many complimentary stories we heard about Dr. Steve. He's a very special healer. We also heard some good stories about how Laura and Steve managed to survive the trials of remodeling together :) But...all's well that ends well!

The party wound down around 10 PM so we helped with a little clean up and tent collapsing. Turns out that the office reception room has another use...great party headquarters!

Posted by Joan at 07:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The fourth and final day of our 1200 mile trek from SoCal to Missoula, Mt was long, uneventful and varied between miles of flat wheat covered plains to rolling foothills and mighty mountain peaks. We crossed the Continental Divide twice at around 6500'.

We played a little music using the Zen player and the Bose system. That worked pretty well and we enjoyed a Gordon Lightfoot concert. We cruised along the flatlands at 65 to 70. Jim was making up time for the 40 mph uphill climbs through the mountains :) Mr. Banks, our engine power system, really does a fine job although slower than a big diesel pusher. Jim sometimes suffers from diesel envy but then remembers how well Mr. Banks and Ms. Blue have served us!

Jim was entertaining me with conversations between Mr. Banks and Ms. Blue, the motorhome. If you know Jim, the analytical engineer, you'd be amazed to hear these conversations...high squeaky voiced Ms. Blue and gruff voiced Mr. Banks :) I guess the RV life has let the closet expressiveness in him come out. He keeps me entertained!

We arrived at Jim & Mary's RV Park about 4 PM. We'd changed our reservation several times so the owner laughed when I arrived. I think they were taking bets if we'd actually make it. I was quite adamant about wanting our special spot and she didn't understand why but they'd managed to keep it free for us. The park is full so I'm sure it took some juggling to make us happy.

But I love this spot. When we were here in the spring the trees were just leafing out. Now we have full afternoon shade on Ms. Blue! No need for the awning...we just enjoy our little tree house.

Jim did all the setups and then cooked us a wonderful steak dinner (I'm still nursing a twisted knee). Then we sat down to watch The Blues Brothers and were asleep within 10 minutes! It was a long trip and we're happy to be here in town.

Posted by Joan at 07:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today's trip, from Fillmore, UT to Ft. Hall, ID on I-15 took us through Provo, Salt Lake City and Ogden, Utah. I was not looking forward to this section because last time through there was a lot of construction. In fact, everytime we've been through SLC there's been awful construction...until today. Traffic was a bit heavy but we breezed through. Even the other long sections of highway repair were well laid out, except for one stretch of nasty concrete dividers. Utah must have a really short measuring stick when they put those things out because it looks to me like there's about 2" to spare on my side :). But I'm much calmer than I used to be!

Our Nest Exit book (check it out at RVBookstore) showed a good gas station near the Utah state line so we exited and Jim made a B-line for the RV friendly pumps. However, he didn't look closely at the big trucker parking lot we pulled into and WHAM! The bumps were horrendous! Then CRASH! CLATTER! SMASH! Dinner plates came flying out of the overhead cabinets. I couldn't believe that only one broke :) Little Sony TV, sleeping on the bed, slid around and almost met up with a closet. Now that would have been expensive.

We've been in lots of bumpy trucker lots but this was awful. No wonder no one was parked there. As we left we spotted the nice paved drive where we should have turned in.

It's funny to me that after the 100 or so miles of urban sprawl around SLC, as soon as you cross the line into Idaho the scenery and land changes. Here's some beautiful Idaho.

There's lots of volcanic activity evidence in southern Idaho. One little area has always caught my eye because there is a long shelf of upthrust lava, maybe 30' high that tracks the 15. Here's a view as we went through Inkom, Idaho (an appropriate name) and a closeup of a lava pile by the road.

The pictures are taken on the fly through my IMax window. We have a 180 degree view as we travel and these shots capture maybe 15% of what we're seeing. Pretty fantastic!

The day ended at the Ft. Hall Casino in Idaho. The campground has 37 long pull throughs and costs $20. Works for me! It's 10 PM and still pretty hot outside although I think it will cool enough to sleep with fresh air :) Tomorrow, after many delays, we'll arrive in Missoula, MT.

Posted by Joan at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sleeping in a bit was great and then we enjoyed coffee and coffee cake outside. Been awhile since we did that. But pretty soon it got hot and sticky so we retreated to our cool abode and being really decadant we watched a movie....at noon!

The campground emptied out and was pretty full again by 5. We had a lazy afternoon, watched ANOTHER movie and enjoyed my Spanish Rice for supper. Our movies today were part of the cheap ones from WalMart...Rocky 2 and Rules of Engagement with Tommy Lee Jones. As usual I needed a tissue at the end of Rocky :) Check out the WalMart cheap bins for these great buys!

We chatted with a few campers and met a couple of fulltiming families. I commented to Jim that I'm enjoyng being in a campground with kids and dogs, after several months of "geezer" campgrounds. Although today a big toy hauler came in and is parked across the street. They have 3 large dogs and put a wire around their grassy space with a "Beware of Dog" sign hanging on it! I wonder if they think the little kids running around the campground can read?

Tomorrow looks like a good travel day so we're off to the casino in Ft. Hall, Idaho, not to gamble...just to park :)

Posted by Joan at 08:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What a difference 200 miles made today. When we left Mesquite, Nv it was 95 degrees at 9 AM. The heat was overwhelming. I guess that's why the casinos are so popular...a great escape!

By the time we reached Fillmore, UT to stay at the KOA it was 95 in mid afternoon with the prospect of a cooling evening. In less than an hour the sky darkened and a storm rolled in but very little rain actually hit the ground. More thunderstorms predicted tonight...I hope it pours :)

The Utah fire between Beaver and Fillmore is still smoldering in spots. We could sure see why the freeway was closed for miles. The burn covered 300,000 plus acres, jumping the freeway in many places. Fortunately, the air is clear and there's no lingering smoke odor. Here's what the burn area is like...miles and miles.

For the first time in days we have the AC off and the windows open. Yeah! I think we're stopping here for 2 nights, just need a sleeping in day.

Posted by Joan at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yeah! We got off to an early start, for us, at 8 AM. We had an uneventful trip starting from Hemet going north on 79 to I-10. We took the 30 cutoff around San Bernardino which eliminates a lot of the hectic traffic and interchanges on 10/215. At Devore we joined up with I-15 which takes us straight to Missoula, MT.

Our plan worked well because we got to Las Vegas about 1:30. Sunday afternoon traffic going north was very calm :) We bought The Next Exit book at Camping World and it proved verrry useful. It tells the RV friendly gas stations at each exit, along with lots of other businesses. We checked out two recommendations and scoped out many others as we whizzed by. Looks like the book info is great.

The problem that gas RV's towing a car have is being able to find a long enough pump pull through to accomodate our 55' and then have enough room to get out. So I'm real happy to have this book.

We're stopped at Desert Skies RV in Mesquite, NV overnight where the temp at 8:30 is still hovering around 100. Overnight price is $40 but today that was worth every penny. We pulled straight in , plugged in, turned on two ACs and did all the rest of the set up from inside....level, slide out, and open a beer :)

The sites here are very wide and level. It would be a nice place to stay for a month in the winter ($450) except no Verizon cell coverage. That would be a pain.

Posted by Joan at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was sitting quietly having my coffee and gazing out the window when a little glimmer caught my eye...water! A tiny drop where water isn't supposed to be, running down the cupboard. UH oh...I think we have a problem! We looked inside the cupboard door (the new one Jim build to access the water connections) and there was a drip, drip from somewhere near the sink connections.

Long story short he spent the whole day finding the leak and ultimately replacing the faucet. Couldn't figure out where the problem was but the new Delta faucet is verrrrry nice. It was $150 but included a soap dispenser that we'll put in later. He bought it at Lowe's. No need to get it from RV suppliers.

With plumbing supplies laying all over I just sat in the recliner and played plumber's assistant until about 2 PM. By then it was too late to head out as planned so we delayed our movin' on until Sunday. Then the family found out that we were staying so lots of them showed up for a last minute hug :) We sat around outside on the concrete patio in a circle like we had a campfire :)

So today we're doing all the prep things we missed yesterday...put on the towbar, pack the bikes and chairs, plan the meals, fill the pantry and fridge. Get ready for a five day trip where we don't unhook the car.

We'll be on the road again!

Posted by Joan at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We continued our music management adventure and after lots of problems and spasms with Yahoo Music we were ready to give up. Then I opened up Windows Media Player (version 11) and was pleasantly surprised at all it can do and ai the SPEED! Looks like that's what we'll use because of it's simplicity and speed, plus you can play colorful "skins" for a multimedia experience :)

In the heat of Hemet we've been inside more than usual so it's books, music, movies and sudoku. Jim was shopping at WalMart and picked up 7 new movies for $5 each. They are good stories, good actors and we'll watch them many times i'm sure. One of them is Rocky 2. I think that was the last, good Rocky. I'm not even considering seeing Rocky 7.

Son JIm and Jimbo came over last night and Jim showed me how to put custom ringtones on my phone. I won't go into details because I doubt that it's the proper thing to do. But I'm having fun picking out special songs for people, cutting out the first 20-25 seconds, and sending the ring to my phone. Ahhhh...technology. Lots of fun if you know what to do.

We are starting to put away and pack in all the stuff that accumulates when we sit still for awhile because we are heading out on Saturday. Hopefully the fires in Utah will be under control, the freeway will be open, the sky will be clear and once we get through Las Vegas maybe it will cool off a bit. One can only hope :)

Posted by Joan at 05:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I opened up Musicmatch on the computer yesterday to play a few tunes and got the message that I would have to "migrate to Yahoo Music"! Well shoot. Just when I was feeling all computer settled :) We've actually used Musicmatch to manage our computer tunes for many years, probably since it first came out. So we're used to the look and feel...didn't really want to change but it is kind of a funky program.

So last night we began the process of changing three computers over to Yahoo Music and then reloading our Zen MP3 player. The transition on the first computer went fine but the second and third one were a little trickier. Figuring out how to get our "playlists" on all three computers was more than we could tackle last night so about 1 AM we called it quits and went to bed.

This morning we find that the playlists have appeared on the other computers. So it looks like the playlists are actually out on the Yahoo page somewhere in cyberspace, accessible by all our computers (and who knows who else!)

Playlists are collections of songs that have a name so you can just click on the list and hear the whole collection. Some of our playlists are the result of DJ nights so we name them for that evening. We have one called Salamonie Reservoir that we put together in Indiana when we had noisy neighbors so we compensated by playing our own music along with a few glasses of wine:)

Tonight, when we got back from dinner with Naomi, Brad and little Evan, I started to play music and found one of the playlists gone! And Jim has 6 missing from his listing. What on earth happens? So this may be a little wacky. Thankfully, all the music files are resident on the computers (3 different places, backup paranoia) so it's just a matter of what we use to play and manage the 5800 files.

Today it was 10 degrees cooler! What a relief! 95 seems almost pleasant after 108. More adventures tomorrow. Maybe new electronic gremlins or fun in the laundry room :)

Posted by Joan at 09:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What with one thing and another we've stayed in SoCal longer than we expected and find ourselves in a heat wave that covers a lot of the western states. Temps of 108 are a little too high for me :) So how do we manage to stay cool in our little white box house.

We have two roof-mounted ACs and they are pretty noisy if we run them full blast. So we've learned that running the rear AC in the daytime and the front at night keeps our indoor temp in the low 80's and that's comfy for us.

But in this deadly heat we find that mid afternoon we need to run both ACs. With the rear on HI fan and the front on LOW it is comfy and fairly quiet. We only have 30 amp service though so if both ACs are running I need to turn one off to run the microwave. For some reason our energy management system doesn't "manage" with the microwave. Hmm...life is complex.

Since we're paying for electric here ($600/month plus electric) we try to conserve and turn off the AC when possible. Depending on how quickly it cools in the evening we can turn it off and sleep with open windows and a fan. But when it's 80 at 2 AM ....AC is required :)

Whe we do take off next week and head up I-15 through Las Vegas we'll run the generator as we drive so we can run the front AC to keep us cool. The dash AC just doesn't cut it when we get into the 100s.

I was looking forward to cool Montana but ...yikes...it's hot there too! Maybe the heat will break in a week :)

Posted by Joan at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today (I think) begins our fifth year of full-timing. We sold our house in June of 2003 and lived in the MH in Anaheim for a few weeks then took off for Idaho right after July 4th. So this is our freedom week!

We've found the perfect way to beat the heat (100 plus for several days here in Hemet, CA and most of the west). Our wonderful son Jim gifted us with a selection digital music...40 CDs/ 800 plus songs that range from Bing Crosby singing Too Ra Loo Ra Loora to The Theme from Chariots of Fire. There are dozens of songs that we never got on CD as we transitioned from records to CDs. We are delighted with this music! We now have 5755 songs on our Musicmatch Jukebox.

So we've spent the afternoon with Gordon Biersch beer, music, 2 ACs pumping out cool air, relaxed in our loungers. No Way am I going to be outside today. We plan to head for Montana but it's in the 100s there too!!! Yikes. So we're flexible. We'll just stay here with our ACs running and wait for a break in the weather :)

Posted by Joan at 04:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We all (but we missed you Hilly) gathered at Jim's house in Corona to watch the Main Street Parade. We played a new game, not Pass the Baby, but Pass the Camera! Several of us have the same Canon Powershot so shooting is easy. I wound up with 140 pictures and 6 movies on my card. I have no idea who took each shot! It was also fun to download all the shots onto Renee's and Jim's computers so everyone has the same shots. (Well Naomi and Brad will have to get them on a DVD.)

Jim and Jimbo started us off with an Omelette and Pancake breakfast. Cooking for 14 is no easy task, especially when making custom omelettes.

We walked a few blocks and set up our chairs and umbrellas on Main Street for the parade.

How many millions of little kids stood by their Grandpas' and watched the parade go by? How many learned that you stand when the flag goes by and remove your hat? How many Veterans saw images of times spent defending that flag and our freedom?

I had the camera when these wonderful pipers came by and I totally forgot I could take a movie!

We moved from Jim's house to Renee's where we swam and then had an early dinner of KFC. Evan, at 22 months, is jumping into the water, trying to dive, floating on his back...what a fishie!

This whole day was HOT! While watching the parade it was in the 90's. By mid afternoon in the 100's. Somewhere in here I got tooooo much sun and suddenly felt really ill. Couldn't eat, got the chills, yada yada. So we skipped the fireworks show at the high school. I was bummed and sorry I missed seeing Evan experience this spectacular. But all in all it was a great day and "I'm proud to be an American!"

Posted by Joan at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Grandson Zack was born on July 3. That's sort of like having a birthday on Christmas Eve...it's gets lost in the holiday celebration. So on his special day we took Zack to Olive Garden and pigged out on Italian food. They have a new summer special, Grilled Shrimp Caprese, that is verrry good. Too bad we ate so much entree...no room for dessert.

Here's the birthday boy (cooling off on the 4th of July)! We love you Zack! Happy 16th Birthday!

Posted by Joan at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kitchen demolition only took a couple of hours! When we arrived the crew was debating the best approach. Grandpa got out his new Black and Decker screwdriver and with Zack's help took all the cabinet doors off. This gave a good view of how everything was attached.

The microwave came down with a few loosened bolts. Then son Jim arrived, all 6'4" and 200 plus pounds of muscle. He started rocking the cabinets a little so the guys could see that with a few sledge hammer whacks the cabinets would loosen up. Renee and I agreed that this is truly and man's job. Vive la difference!

The teenage boys really enjoyed using the huge sledge to crack the tile countertop! Ryan went at it with full steam. Baby Evan was in awe of all the crashing and banging. The testosterone must have passed to him! He found a big plastic stick and started banging on stuff so we took him into the kitchen and let him get in a few licks.

Amazingly, the kitchen was stripped quickly, the trailer filled with cabinets and the trip to the dump was launched. After all these labors in 90 degree temps the kids enjoyed the backyard pool.

We headed for home and enjoyed a huge salad and a movie in our cool little house. Looks like we'll be here through a 100 degree hot spell. I keep thinking I'm glad we have two ACs in case one of them goes out. Well knock on wood :)

Posted by Joan at 01:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)