Defrosting, Shopping, Cactus Nov 28-30, 2008

Every so often our ice maker freezes up and makes this low groaning noise. That means it needs to be defrosted. We find it happens when we have not used the ice maker for some time, then turn it on, that is what happened this time. So we empty the contents into the sink, cover up the frozen food with a towel, get out the hair dryer, start the generator, and in about 15 minutes it is defrosted, food has been returned and the ice maker turned on and best of all it is not making that groaning noise.

About once a year, we do an inventory of the under the coach bays. That means everything comes out and each box is gone through. The question is asked, keep it or give it away. Then a list is made of each box's contents and this year, for the first time, I made a diagram of where Bob put every box back in the bay. Near the end, he kept rearranging them and moving them to get them all to fit, I thought my eraser was going to wear down, but I got it. I then came into the coach and typed up the list so NOW we know what we have and where it is also.

We went shopping on Friday morning to see if we could find any Black Friday specials, we did quite abit of looking...but did not buy much--small cutting board.

We did see the famous cactus that is in Prospectors Panorama, they have paved so close to its base, I am afraid it might not make it. You can see on the ground on the right of the cactus one of its arms.

We both love to look and look at the kitchen stuff that have at the Rada knife tent. I think Bob is giving me a hint for Christmas.

Our our way back from shopping, Bob stopped so I could get a photo of him and our distant camp spot, and the beautiful mountains in the background. There is no one parked close to us, yet.

Saturday: On our walk this morning, it warmed up, see my vest tied around my waist and also my sleeves pulled up. Where we are parked here at Quartzsite, you don't see many of these saguaro cactus, this one actually looked pretty healthy.

During our campfire tonight, I brought out the old Master Mind game I had brought from home. As you can see here, Bob was solving the game on this move, it had been a struggle. All in all we had fun, actually got him to stop reading his book!

Today's weather was just wonderful, warm with a slight breeze. We had a fire, just to look at and burn some of the wood Bob brought, the entire Explorer full.

Happy Thanksgiving from Q, Nov 27, 2008

The forecast for today was not too good, but when we woke up this morning the sun was shining brightly and did off and on for the entire day. I had wanted to wash the windshield since we arrived, so with the bonus of a bright sunny day, today was the day. I also washed the front of the coach, it had been some time since I had removed all the bugs and parts--sure does look better.

This is our Thanksgiving Bird, it is or was a 22 oz cornish game hen. We grilled it, turned out very moist and delicious. We also enjoyed stuffing made from two whole wheat english muffins, sweet potato, whole cranberry sauce, and sweet corn pudding. The scrumptious meal was topped off by pumpkin fluff with pastry squares.

Hiking Shields, Clouds and Artwork, Nov 25-26, 2008

Thanks Abby for this colorful Thanksgiving turkey.





The sky has been changeable today, rain, rainbows, and a beautiful sunset. The glints you see in the distance are water puddles from the rain we had today.

It did stop raining this afternoon for a walk and we actually saw a dry wash with water flowing in it, a first. I guess now, we must call it a wet wash?



Does this mean the pot of gold is right behind our coach?

Bob was busy yesterday tacking on all the hiking shields we bought in Europe this summer. Each staff now has about 20 shields.

Solar Panels & Solar Screens, Nov 23-24, 2008

While were visiting home and had an address to use for UPS, we ordered some Solar Shades for the coach. They were from www.RVSunShades4Less.com. You install them on the inside and use suction cups to attach them to the windshield. There is a selection of colors and sizes you can order, but we felt black appeared to have the look of tinted windows from the outside.

We had to cut them to fit our specific windows, here is Bob using the tile grout lines for a straight line.

The photo of the caladium and our newly planted Amaryllis is taken looking out of the front window through the Solar Shades.

This front view of the coach shows how they look from the inside. They take about two minutes to take down or put up. I also like the fact they do not require you to use a ladder to install them and they will never be wet from rain as they are inside. So far we are pleased with them.

With all the sun shining brightly here, it was time to wash off and tilt up the solar panels on top of the coach. The key words here are 'on top of the coach', that means that is Bob's department. So out came a bucket and clothesline rope to lift up the needed tools to the roof. The bucket also was lowered after the tools were on top to be filled with some wash water and rags. There was also a repair job to be done before the solar panels got their care. The cover over the bathroom vent had moved slightly, thus blocking the fan-vent cover from lifting. It did not take Bob long to fix that problem, and before you know it, three of the four solar panels were tilted towards the bright sun. The 4th panel was not installed to tilt, but it got a much needed wash job.

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Bob and I both carry Emergency Cards in our wallets that says we are traveling in our RV, it lists where we are staying-the RV park name, our RV and car info with license plate numbers. While staying in Quartzsite, we have no camp site number, so this is the first time we have used our GPS coordinates as our site number.

Getting Settled in Quartzsite - 11/23/08

Our first morning in Quartzsite and we needed to to some housekeeping chores, like fill with water and get propane. We first paid for the long term stay at the LTVA, $180.00, we had done the math and know it will pay off as we plan to here for most of the next two months. We got our stickers so when we went for water at La Posa South we would not be stopped. Here is Bob filling the RV with water, of course, we overflowed the fresh water tank so it leaked out for most of the drive to get our propane.

We filled with propane today for the first time since leaving Fredericksburg in early March. Put in 26 gallons at The Pit Stop, even got the red carpet treatment.

We filled with diesel yesterday, $2.47 per gallon, the posted price was 2 cents more than we paid??
Bob outdid himself this morning, he fixed a champaign brunch, huckleberry pancakes, canadian bacon omlet, strawberries and grapes with cheese and chocolate morsels. The best part we ate it outside, beautiful weather and NOT windy for our first full day in Q. Yes I am in shorts!!

We had a very relaxing day, the temps did get up to the lower 80's, but not bad.

Notice our new aluminum table, Walmart purchase, it works well and seems very sturdy.

Heard today I am a great great aunt, my great niece had a baby boy today. Best wishes to this new life.

Journey to Quartzsite, Nov 21-22, 2008

We left the RV park in Rio Vista with the plans of staying at a Walmart in Hanford CA, then onto Joshua Tree National Monument. Well, you know what they say about best made plans...we actually found the Walmart, but the parking lot was full of Friday night shoppers, no room at the inn for our RV, so we drove on to stay at a Walmart in Barstow. We decided not to drive to Barstow and stopped at a small truck stop, it was our first night at a truck stop. You can actually get used to the din of the trucks!!
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About 10 am on Sat. I called the ranger at Joshua Tree National Monument and was told that all the campgrounds were full, so onto Plan B, drive directly to Quartzsite. 410 miles later we did arrive in Q.
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This photo is somewhat confusing, as we were heading south about 4:30 pm, so how can the sunset be in the east?? It is actually a reflection in Bob's window from the west. Pretty cool I thought.










Here I am at 5:30, 30 minutes after arriving in Q with a fire. We brought the Explorer full of wood from the house, so we expect to have many many fires!

The temps were in the low 70's when we arrived, and there was NO wind blowing, that is a first!!

Rio Vista, CA Nov 18-20, 2008

We left home and drove to Rio Viento RV Park near Rio Vista CA. We arrived after dark, as we had the oil changed at a Camping World in Fairfield. The RV park was down the very narrow levee road, it was only 2 miles, but seemed like 20!! We planned to stay here a couple of days as we had a task to accomplish. We drove into SF today to the National Archives at San Bruno to do some research on the lighthouse keepers from the Umpqua River Lighthouse in Oregon. We found some info, but nothing earth shattering. The only earth shattering was the 2.5 hours it took to drive in the 66 miles and the 1.5 hours back to Rio Vista.

We took a walk down the levee road and saw some wind surfers doing their thing, the wind seems to always blow here, so these fellows were flying.

Love the sunsets!

Visiting Home, Nov 9-18, 2008

We visited our sticks and bricks home from Nov 9th to Nov 18. While we were home we watched our yard be transformed into a nicely groomed yard. Our daughter Jenny had contacted a landscaper that our other daughter Megan worked with, met him at our home, did a walk around the yard describing what work needed to be done, sent us the estimate. We immediately agreed to the work. It took two full days of work with three men. We were just glad not to have to do the work ourselves!!

All the greenery they cut was piled out on the street for a Once-A-Year big trash pickup through our county trash pick up, thanks Jenny for coordinating all the timing for the yard work and trash pick up.

We also had an old TV antenna on the roof, and it finally fell over, possibly just a week before we came home. Our son Rich, and grandson Zach helped disassemble it and bring it down off the roof. It was a big deal for Zach to be up on the roof!

Two days of our time home was spent watching three of our grandchildren. Below are some photos of our time at their home.

We also had a annual family group photo shoot. Below are a few of the shots.