Ketchup Time

OK, where have we been, and what have we been up to?

After leaving Texas, we headed for our home park in Monument, Colorado. We planned to be in Colorado for about 5 weeks, before heading to our summer spot in Idaho. If you have followed our blog, every post about Colorado involved "cleaning out storage". This time was no different, and we were focused on the task at hand! When we began full-timing, virtually everything in our 3300 sq ft home put into a 15x45 storage unit. It was jammed full floor-to-ceiling. Last October, we managed to get rid of enough stuff so that we were able to move to a 10x24 unit. This time, we FINALLY managed to close out our paid storage unit! Our son and his wife graciously allowed us to construct a 8x12.5 storage shed on their property last October, and we began transitioning. After bombarding Craigslist, Castle Rock Task Force, and Goodwill for the past 2 years, we managed to downsize enough to get everything to our shed. Whew! We have not been able to enjoy much of Colorado for the past 2 years, as it was "work" every time we passed through. This October we'll finally see some friends on our way through!

We had one interesting week that I can recall on our last visit. We had put a set of Caphalon cookware on Craigslist, and Donna got a call on it. After about 2 minutes on the phone, she said, "I'm going to give the phone to my husband." She whispered to me "I can't understand a word this lady is saying!". Another 2 minutes went by while I listened and tried to respond. Eventually, after a few more phone calls, we arranged to meet for a possible deal. I swore to Donna that the lady was Asian, maybe Vietnamese. We had agreed to meet at Costco in Lone Tree, by the gas station. We arrived on schedule, and waited...and waited. Finally the phone rang, and they told us they didn't know where Costco was, but they were a a big mall, outside of
"Richards". I had no clue. They spelled it: D-I-L-L-A-R-D-S, and then said "Richards". Wow, again I was speechless, but we headed over there and found them. And, they were not Asian, they were Iranian! They were very apologetic about their lack of English skills. We all laughed. And they did buy the cookware!

The second interesting thing that happened occurred while we were donating some things at Goodwill in Castle Rock. As I was backing the Jeep up to the door, I saw who appeared to be Ed McCaffrey of Denver Bronco fame. I told Donna, and she got out and said hi to him. Turns out he was trying to donate a treadmill, but Goodwill wouldn't take it. I told him about "Play-It-Again-Sports", where he could consign or sell it outright. I asked him what he thought about the Broncos this next season, but he laughed and said we'll just have to see. He thanked us for the tip and headed off.

We had a great Mother's Day with Todd and Victoria - they took us out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse in Parker. Yummy steaks and good company!

We are excited to get back to Colorado in the fall - there will be a new granddaughter waiting for us there!

Towards the end of May, we decided it was time to head for Idaho. Last year we purchased an RV spot on a golf course in Blanchard, Idaho (check out http://www.stoneridgeidaho.com/ and click on sales, then Motor Coach Village). It's hard to believe we've been here 5 weeks already. I'm playing lots of golf, and Donna has been busy with many activities, although she hasn't done as much quilting as she'd like. That will probably change! We've also started playing Pickleball, which is quite popular as a winter sport in Arizona with RV'ers. I've played a few games, and find it fun and a good workout. We traded our golf cart in this year on one of the new street-legal golf carts that qualify for a tax-rebate as an electric car. It can go a whopping 25mph, quite fast for a golf cart.

We plan on doing some offroading in the Jeep in the coming weeks. August will be a busy month for us. We have some friends who will come up and visit us for a week or so. Then we will head over to Albany, OR for an RV rally, and afterwards will drop in and visit my sister and her husband, who are living in Florence, OR while they build their new home.

The weather is warming up, and the golf is good, so if you're in the area, drop on by! Please be patient with us, and the Internet and cell phone service here suck. Verizon will be putting in a tower on the property "by the end of summer", so things will improve significantly next year.

By the way, Emma turned 1 year old on July 1. Stay tuned for a special blog entry!!

Being Texans

About 6 months before we began our full-timing, we got an address in Texas, through The Escapees RV Club. Early in 2007, we actually got to Texas, and got drivers licenses, car & RV registrations, insurance, and got registered to vote. That made us official, we were no longer Coloradans. This year, 2009, is the longest we've actually been in our state, thanks in no part to my driving mishap. After leaving the Denton area, where our coach was repaired, we headed south to Willis, which is about 50 miles north of Houston. The RV park where we are staying is on Lake Conroe. Very pretty, but it seems that there are a lot of permanent residents here, and there are absolutely no social activities. We signed up for a month, and have about 2 more weeks before we head out. Our plan is to move slowly towards Colorado, and get into Monument the 3rd week of April.


What were we doing in Willis? Hangin' out of course! Donna has been working on several quilt projects, and we've both been working on digitizing our vast assortment of cookbooks. This last item has been on our "to-do" list since we started full-timing in January of 2007. The end is finally in sight! Completing this project will allow us to get rid of a lot of cookbooks, freeing up cabinet space and weight.


We also drove over to Brenham, about 50 miles west of here, and took a tour of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. The tour was so-so, but the tasting at the end was great! It's our newest favorite ice cream. So far on our journey the best ice cream was in Tillamook, OR. The cheese factory also makes excellent ice cream.


The weather here has been very changeable. A few weeks back it was sunny and warm, in the 80's, then it changed to overcast and muggy. Then fog. Then we had severe weather. Tornado warnings, high winds, and heavy rain. Then cold weather. Just the thing when living in an motor home! Hopefully, Spring has sprung. We think so, because allergies have kicked in big-time!


We also scouted out a park for our return here in November. We'll be a little further south, in the town of The Woodlands. The park is rated a triple-10, one of only 3 in the USA. We made reservations 2 weeks ago for the month of November, and there were only 4 spots left!

After leaving Lake Conroe, we headed north to Gainsville, TX. There is a small RV park at the Outlet Malls there, so we stayed a night. The last time we were in this area, the outlets were booming. Now, with the economy, about 1/2 of them are closed.

From there, we moved up to Amarillo. I had received a campaign (i.e. "recall") notice from Cummins, indicating that our Engine Control Module (ECM) needed to have upgraded programming. When I called them, they informed me that there were 2 additional campaigns that needed tending to. No worry, they had a electrical only site that we could use. As it turns out, this Cummins dealer doesn't work on motor homes too often, and they could not figure out access to the front of the engine, so the ECM programming was all that got done. We'll get those 2 items done up in Oregon this summer.

We moved north about 45 miles to Dumas, TX, where we thought we'd spend a night before our trek into Colorado. Unfortunately, Colorado has been socked in with a major Spring snow storm. So 1 night turned into 2 nights, and 2 into 3. The storm is moving out, so tomorrow we will move northeast about 180 miles to Raton, NM, and Monday will go up to Monument, CO. We're anxious to get back and see family and friends, and get our storage cleaned out for good!

Emma Turns 8 Months!

On March 1, Emma was 8 months old. It's hard to believe, but we've had her for 5 months. When we got her, she was 2.25 pounds, and her legs were barely long enough to keep her tummy off the ground. She is now 5.1 pounds. Her baby coat was coal black, with brown eyebrows and feet. Now her head is a silvery, brown, black combination. The black on the majority of her body is changing slowly to silver, and her legs are now a light tan. She is looking more like an adult Yorkie every day.

Emma at 8 weeks (we adopted her at 12 weeks)

Emma at 8 months

Emma and bully stick

The one thing that hasn't changed is her energy level. Puppies have a lot of energy...a LOT! She keeps us hopping, that is for sure. We take her for walks several times a day. On her evening walk (here at the collision center), her new favorite game is moth chasing. Moths congregate under the fluorescent lights, get scorched, and fall to the ground, where they flop around until they get their bearings again. Emma loves to chase them. She is also proving to be quite a runner, so, like it or not, I am turning into a short distance jogger.

Emma "in the zone"

Emma doesn't eat people food, but she does love carrots. She has a ton of toys, and she uses all of them. One of her curious habits is to take her lambswool ball, and hold it in her mouth while lying flat on her tummy. It seems to put her into a trance, kind of a Zen thing. She loves the space of the motor home, and has her favorite haunts: keeping watch on top of the sofa tops the list. We are amazed at how she can walk on the narrow sill, then sit looking out the window, one hip on the sill, the other on the sofa.

Relaxing

On patrol

We are glad to have Emma as part of our family!

Tourists Without Cameras

Since we are just hanging out waiting for our coach to be fixed, we decided to make the best of it by taking in some of the local sights. Unfortunately, Dallas/Fort Worth is a huge metropolis, and going to either involves 40-50 miles each way from where we are in Krum/Denton. We've done 3 "touristy" things in the past week and a half. Unfortunately, cameras were not allowed at any of these places, so any pictures displayed were downloaded from the web.

King Tut's coffinette

On Tuesday last week, we drove down to the Dallas Museum of Art, and took in the King Tut exhibit. I think it was back in the 70's when we went to the King Tut exhibit back in Los Angeles. We vaguely remember seeing lots of gold, including KT's gold coffin. This time around, we found the exhibit completely different. The museum's description is as follows: "The Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition displays works of art from royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings from the late 18th Dynasty (14th century B.C.). The main themes of the exhibition are Egyptian ideas of the afterlife; divine kingship; the Egyptian gods, including Pharaoh Akhenaten’s worship of the Aten sun disc; ritual objects of splendor; and the luxurious lifestyle of the ruling class in ancient Egypt, which was perpetuated in funerary art in order to ensure that the dead person lived well forever. The key role played by royal women and the importance of the family to Egyptians are also featured." Yawn...OK, we saw a lot of neat bracelets, necklaces, chests and chairs, but no bling. All-in-all, it was an interesting day out, but didn't quite live up to our expectations.

Brings back memories of Helms Bakery!

Last Thursday, we took a trip down to Fort Worth, to take a tour at Mrs. Baird's Bakery. Mrs. Baird started selling bakery goods in 1908 to supplement her income after her husband passed away. The business grew into a large local bakery. The tour itself was interesting - talk about rules and security: no cell phones, no cameras, no jewelry (including rings), no shorts, no opened toed shoes. And, we had to don hairnets (I got 2, one for the hair on my head, and one for my goatee!). The tour brought back memories of my college days, when I would often work a graveyard shift at the Barbara Ann Bakery in Pasadena, CA. They were making honey wheat bread during our tour - at the rate of 2000 loaves an hour! An interesting fact we learned was that each loaf of bread goes through a metal detector, just to ensure that nothing but bread is in that loaf! After the tour, our guide brought in 5 loaves hot off the line, cut them up, buttered them, and gave us a chunk. Very tasty! We've been buying Mrs. Baird's since we've been in Texas - they sell a loaf with very thick slices, just perfect for French Toast! The Baird story is quite interesting, check it out at: http://www.mrsbairds.com/ourstory/meet.html

Fort Worth Bureau of Printing & Engraving

Today we journeyed back down to Fort Worth, this time to visit the US Bureau of Printing and Engraving. This is where money is printed! As you can imagine, this tour also involves very tight security. No cameras or cell phones allowed here, for obvious reasons. The Fort Worth facility is on of two in the US; the other is in Washington DC. We really enjoyed this tour, and saw millions of dollars...of course, just out of reach!! They told us that most of what they make is just to replace what is out in circulation already. It's actually a very complicated process, and is getting more-so, as the government tries to stay ahead of counterfeiters. The design of denominations over $1 are changed every 7 years. Right now, they are getting ready to roll out a new $100 bill, and they have giant drapes that are put in place at various workstations so that tours can't get a clue as to the new design. We found the security features embedded in each denomination to be quite interesting. The inking machines are capable of using 14 colors, 7 on each side, at the same time. Check out this website (http://www.moneyfactory.gov/) for details. And, believe it or not, no samples after this tour!!

Money money money

This week we're also thinking about taking in a tour at the original Dr. Pepper factory and the Texas Motor Speedway. Hopefully the coach will get done and we can go someplace a bit warmer!

Stuck!

Well, here we are...stuck in Lodi...no, just kidding, that was an old CCR song. We're in actually in Krum, TX, waiting on parts for our coach. Hopefully, they will be here on Wednesday, and repairs can begin. We are camped at the RV collision place - they have a water/electric hookup, so we are reasonably comfortable. Krum is about 45 miles north of Dallas, and it's a mite chilly and windy here. It will be down in the low 30's tonight, and was only in the low 50's today.

Way back when we lived in California, Donna and I worked at Southern California Edison. One of our friends from that time in our lives, Gayle, moved to Rhome, TX, which is only 30 miles or so from Krum. We got together with her and her hubby Pat last week, and went out to dinner at Babes, in Sanger. Babes is a chicken and catfish place, and the food is very good. It's served home style, with green beans, mashed potatoes, and corn. Mighty good eatin', although it's definitely NOT low-cal!!

While we are here, we plan to do some sightseeing. A couple of days ago, we went down to Fort Worth, and went to the Stockyards. It is in the historical part of town, and has some very interesting old buildings and museums. The streets are made of brick, which isn't fun to drive on, but it looks cool! At 11:30am and 4:00pm, they have a min-cattle drive, complete with longhorns.

Here come the longhorns!

Horny little devils!!

The Dallas Museum of History has the King Tut exhibit going, so we are going to do that this coming week. We also have a trip to Mrs. Bairds Bakery planned for Thursday. It should be interesting. They are a local bakery that's been around for a 100 years, growing from a 4-loaf oven in Mrs. Bairds home to a huge company (the bad news - the Bairds sold the company to a Mexican consortium a few years back). They make the famous "Texas Toast" bread. Each slice is about double that of a regular slice of bread. It should be an interesting tour - you have to get a reservation, and fill out waivers, etc. Stayed tuned for an update.

The Terrible Three's

They (who are they, anyway?) say that bad things happen in three's. We just had our three. Each was progressively worse, and we hope that this will be the end of it, for a long time.

Thing 1. Donna lost her cell phone when we were in the Tucson area. It was a real mystery: she talked to her sister one afternoon, and a while later, we couldn't find it. We searched the car, inch by inch, the coach, also inch by inch, and our RV site. Nada. So we searched again, and then several more times. I tried calling her number, but it immediately went to voicemail. Hmmm. I checked Verizon online for usage. There wasn't any after the call to her sister. All we can figure is that she got out of the Jeep and it fell under a tire. We ran over it and it was crushed and no longer worked. I disabled the phone online, then called Verizon. Next day, she had a replacement. Very very strange.

Thing 2. After we left Benson, AZ, we went to El Paso and did some visiting. Then we headed for Kerrville, TX, with an overnight stay in Fort Stockton, TX. We stayed at a terrible park, but it was just for one night, so no big deal. When we got there, the temp was in the high 70's. That night a storm came in, and the temp dropped to mid-30's, with drizzly, cold, yucky weather. I went out to stow the hoses and electric, while Donna buttoned up the inside. She decided to empty the trash. As she came out of the rig, you guessed it, she slipped on the step, which had iced over. Yes, a repeat of November 2007, when she slipped at our son's home in Colorado. This time she has a couple of cracked ribs. They take a while to heal, but she knows the drill, and is doing pretty good.

Thing 3. This is the big one. We left Kerrville after a week, and headed over to Canyon Lake, where we had a week booked at a Coast to Coast park. This is the same park we stayed at our first winter in 2007. The park where ants got into the 5th wheel. The park where I hurt my wrist cutting the branches off the roof of the rig. I'm not sure why we came back here. Anyway, the road into the park is a narrow 2-lane road, with a narrower bridge over the Guadalupe River. About 50' after the bridge, the road takes a sharp, blind, 90 turn to the right (the lanes on this curve are a measured 10'). The coach is 8-1/2 feet wide. You get the picture. As we finished the crossing, and I began the turn, two cars came around the corner. I had 3 choices: 1) jam on the brakes (we were going 10mph) and hope that the car tailgating me didn't hit the Jeep; 2) hit one of them; or 3) try and cut the corner and avoid them. I chose the latter. Unfortunately, the last 15' of the coach decided not to cooperate with my plan, and ended up scraping the guard rail. We were sick - neither Donna or I have had an accident in at least 25 years. The insurance adjuster came out, inspected the damage, and later put a check in the mail. Now we are up in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, and, the body shop has revised the amount - and it's 2-3 times the original estimate. Yow. The good news - other than our egos, no one was hurt. And it will take 4-6 weeks to get it done.

We also found out that the rally we were going to attend on Jekyll Island in Georgia in March was cancelled. So, we'll be hanging out in Texas for a while before heading back to Colorado.

Reunions

Almost 2 years ago, I retired from Great Southwestern Construction. Yes, "work" is but a faint memory now. While the daily grind is behind me, I do miss the friends and camaraderie that went with working (and the $$$). Fortunately, I know where some of my former co-workers live! I contacted Sal, who lives and works in El Paso, Texas. Since we were headed that way, and it was the right distance for a layover, we made plans to have dinner with he and his wife Margie. As fate would have it, there were two additional project managers working in El Paso - Mickey and Vern. And the safety manager was also around. Wow, it was going to turn into a festive event!

We decided upon Mexican food (duh, easy choice!), and met up at 6:30pm at one of Sal's favorite places. Donna and I really enjoyed reminiscing with Sal, Vern, Kurt, and Mickey. One person had a change of heart, leaving for Albuquerque earlier in the day, so we didn't get to visit with him. I think it was a Keno thing. Maybe next time Jerry! After dinner, we headed over to Sal and Margie's for some excellent homemade cherry and pecan pies!

Saturday morning, Sal, Mickey and I met for an authentic Huevos Rancheros breakfast. Afterwards, Sal took us on a tour of two properties he fondly calls "Money Pits 1 & 2". Don't worry Sal, they'll be finished "soon".

Later in the day, Donna and I did a little sight-seeing in El Paso. Sal had told us several times not to cross over the border into Juarez. Evidently the drug-cartels are doing battle with each other and the Federales, and the crime level is up significantly.

Tomorrow we're heading northeast, back into New Mexico, to visit Carlsbad Caverns. After that, we'll head southeast back into Texas.