Fulltiming Road Runners

We decided to go to bed early last night so we could get up early this morning ‘n get things done before it got too hot.  I got up at 6:45 this morning ‘n the trailer was still at 73F.  I didn’t even really want to make coffee because that meant turning on the burner (flames = heat).  It got up to 100F again today ‘n dear Thom just kept on truckin’ trying to get things done.  He needed to unload the truck rack so we could get the water tank down to go get water so we could do laundry.  It was 90F by 10:30 this morning.  Thom had all these things he wanted to accomplish so he just kept on going and pushing himself, and by this evening had made himself sick from being out in the sun and heat.  From now on, we should be able to take our time and do what we can when we can and not have to push.  I guess I’ll have to tackle ‘n hogtie Thom to keep him from overdoing!

We went into Ehrinberg this morning for diesel for the truck and the 2 five gallon cans for the generator ‘n while there got gas in the two 5 gal cans for the other generators.  Diesel is 3.39/gal in Ehrinberg and gas is  3.24/gal.  It’s worth the drive into Ehrinberg (about 12 miles or so) for diesel, but we find the gas is a penny cheaper here in town at the Pilot station.  We’ll gas the car locally, but continue to get diesel in Ehrinberg.

We also stopped at the contact station here to get the paperwork to fill out for our volunteering this winter.  We’ve filled them out and will take them down to La Posa South coordinators to get our permit stickers, and will start working on Saturday.  Right now, until the 15th the Contact Station is open every other day from 9 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.  We will alternate with Phyllis ‘n Larry to man the station (every other every other day. LOL).  They need a minimum of two more couples here, but until they get them we will work extra to help them out.   On the 15th we will still only be open every other day, but will go to full days from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  Then when business picks up, Thom and I will work Monday’s ‘n Tuesdays (& any other days they may need help if new volunteers don’t come in).

Today I dug out my hummingbird feeders and one of my bird seed feeders and got them filled and hung outside.  We don’t have any Ironwood trees close enough to my liking to hang the feeders, but have a couple of very nice Palo Verde trees right behind us.  I hung one hummer feeder in one of those trees and put my seed feeder on a “shepard’s crook” very near the Palo Verde tree so the birds will feel comfortable having the tree to retreat too from the feeder.  We didn’t get any traffic to speak of at the feeders yet, but I did have a Verdin & later a hummer checking out the hummingbird feeder and another bird (couldn’t see well enough to identify) checking out the seed feeder.  I imagine we’ll get some birds at both of them tomorrow.

We’re supposed to get some cooler weather the next few days, so maybe I’ll be more inclined to get out and take photos & explore.

I’ve got a couple of bracelets that need the finishing touches put on them… glue on the tied off knots, so I think I’ll go do that and then play games on the computer until it cools off enough to go to bed.  It is currently 88F in here, and that is after running the A/C for about 45 minutes.

Stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

We’ve gone full circle from last April.  We finally have made it back to Quartzsite for the winter season.  As I mentioned last night in the blog, I drove 300+ miles and did okay.  Today I drove another near 300 miles and did even better.

We knew upon arriving that our old spot had been taken by a single guy, so we parked at the gatehouse and drove the car back to find a spot to park.  Of course, we had to keep in mind that we would have Marv ‘n Deb arriving sometime in Dec. or Jan. and hopefully Kirk, Mel ‘n Brody whenever they can make it for however long they can handle.  Last year Sandy & Bob had a spot on the east side of the wash that was particularly nice and since they won’t be coming back this year we took their spot.  There’s lots of room for Marv ‘n Deb ‘n Kirk, Mel ‘n Brody, ‘n it’s an easy spot for us to save space for alla them without appearing to be saving space.  (I think that’s a no-no here).  It’s going to be fun setting up our bird feeders, BBQ ‘n alla that stuff.  I prolly will move things around a time or two before we’ve got things the way we want them.

We checked in with Phyllis ‘n Larry when we arrived.  Phyllis is totally upset with the guy who took our spot from last year.  He apparently is running his ATV on the rock walkways we made.  What a brat!  I guess some people just have to take other peoples space and make it their own and that is his way of doing so.  We don’t mind.  We see lots of things we can do where we are to make it “our space” and it will keep both of us  busy and hopefully slim.

We’ve already seen a few of the folks we met last year and were able to say “hi” and “good to see ya”.

We’ll keep ya’ll posted on what’s going on, the wildlife we see, and how we fare this year after having last year as experience to go by.

PS… I’m really proud of myself for being able to drive all the way down here with minimal stops.  I think I’m ready ta hit the east coast!!  LOL

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

The fridge was still running this morning so we decided to head out!

Today was a real milestone for me.  The last  time I was driving during a distance run (over 30 miles in one trip), it was shortly after I found out I was diabetic and hadn’t learned how to control it yet.  I was driving, just south of Flagstaff at the speed limit, 70 mph, and blacked out.  I totally destroyed the truck and was told it was a miracle we survived.  Since then, I’ve not driven distances until today.  We drove a little over 300 miles and I did quite well.  Poor Thom is exhausted… he had to pull the big 5th wheel, watch me in the rear view mirror and make sure I wasn’t “over-doing”.   I just had to follow him and pull the 8′ trailer with stuff on it.

Being in the Salt Lake Valley does things to my sinuses (smog) and I had a very mature headache from that today, but a couple of tylinol ‘n positive thinking kept that under control.  I asked to stop every 1-1/2 hours or so, and that worked great.   I’ve learned that if my head gets woozy, I can eat a bit of carbs ‘n do fine for an hour or so.  Playing music I can torture my birds with by singing along is great for keeping me going too.

Hopefully, I can post again tomorrow evening to let ya’ll know we arrived safely in QZ and are “home” for several months!

Ya’ll Stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

You wouldn’t believe what’s happening now.  We are still at the dealers.  Yesterday we had a short in the 12 volt electricity in both of the back slides.  The slides will go in and out, but the fridge and antenna controller won’t work in the kitchen slide, nor will any of the lights in the slides.  Last night we went to the store and bought a couple of chunks of dry ice to keep the food in the freezer solid and the fridge cool.

They pulled the trailer into the service bay today and our tech started looking.  He wiggled some wires… doesn’t know which one, but it quit blowing fuses and the fridge and all worked again, so they took us out of the bay, and parked us in front of the dealers since we wouldn’t need electricity for just one night.  Everything seemed to be working just fine, then I looked at the fridge and lights showing it was working had gone off.  Thom checked the fuses and, sure enuff, one had blown.  Oh rattzlefratz and snagnasties!

Of course, it happened right at lunch time, so we are waiting for the tech to get back from lunch to come check it out.  What’s scary, is he couldn’t find anything the first time he looked.

We certainly can’t head south with a dead fridge!  I don’t know when it will be fixed, or when we’ll be heading out of here.  I hope it’s fixed today, and we can leave tomorrow morning.  Thom was just told the blinds for the bathroom will be here tomorrow around 11 a.m.  I haven’t talked it over with Thom, but I’m inclined to leave without them (before 11 a.m.) and they can install them when we are back next spring.  They’re going to have to do the carpet then anyway.

To top it all off, this morning Thom had to take the truck in to Discount Tire to have a flat tire fixed.  When it rains, it pours……. which it did on Saturday, which makes me wonder if water got into something it shouldn’t have and caused the short in the 12 volt.

Watching the weather reports for Quartzsite, it’s supposed to be back in the hundreds this Wed, Thurs and Friday.  Yuck!  I’m not looking forward to setting up “camp” in that heat.  As they say though, “at least it’s a dry heat”.

I’m off to do my banking ‘n other internet “stuff”.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

…but we’re not having much fun.

Thom got word yesterday that our parts (without the carpet) should be arriving today.  Hopefully it will be before noon and they can work on the trailer this afternoon.  If not today, then Monday for sure.  We’re hoping to be on our way to Quartzsite on Monday or Tuesday.  We plan on stopping at the Virgin River Gorge campground again.  It’s only about 15 miles from St. George and the Campground volunteer coordinator is in the BLM office in St. George.  He wants to meet with us regarding our hosting the winter of ‘09/’10.

I called Phyllis at QZ to tell her we should be arriving by the end of next week.  She said for us not to worry, they’re still not very busy.  They are looking for two more couples to host down there, just in case anyone is interested.  It’s only 2 days a week and is really a lot of fun.  You get to meet all kinds of people.  Of course, they do expect you to stick it out at least until the end of March.  If you’re interested, just stop in at the host site in La Posa North LTVA and ask about it.

Phyllis told me the guy who took our spot went to them to complain about someone walking in the wash behind his unit at 1:00 a.m..  She just told him that he has to expect that kind of thing if he’s going to park along the wash.  Of course, we’re thinking it’s probably the Honda thieves at that time of night.  Hopefully, this guy will move to a “safer” spot, and we can have our spot back.  It’s a nice dream anyway.

It looks like this Sunday will be our last visit with Mike, Tiff and Coen.  Just writing about it makes me feel weepy.  I’m going to miss those 3 so totally!  I hope and pray they really can make it down to Quartzsite for a visit this winter.

I guess it’s time for me to get to work getting the trailer ready to close up and move in to the service bay… just in case the parts really do come in today.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Until next time…. Tah!

Actually, I called them.  Since we’ll be running behind on getting down to Quartzsite, I called Phyllis (she and Larry are the campground coordinators) to let her know.  It’s not a problem as far as they are concerned, “business” is slow right now and will be for the month of Oct.  She did give me some disappointing news though.  Just yesterday someone came in and parked in the spot we had last winter.  They parked on the other side of the two Ironwood trees from where we parked.  Technically, we could still park where we were last year, but we wanted the whole thing, not just half. *whine*

Maybe it’s a good thing.  Maybe we’ll find a really nice spot along the wash somewhere else.  Sandy had a pretty nice spot last year, maybe we’ll look and see if we  can park on that side, but get a bit closer to the trees and shade.  We’ll see.  At least this time we have the car so we can drive around looking for the perfect place.

Another thing about someone else having “our spot” is Thom stashed a bunch of firewood, so if it stayed stashed during the summer, they’ll have some pretty good campfires.  If they don’t find it, we can still go in and get it.

I had a wonderful time Friday at lunch with Polly and Barb.  It was fun catching up with things at the office and sharing my experiences with them.

When I got back from lunch Thom asked if I wanted to go north to Ben Franklin’s Crafts and then to Mike & Tiff’s to pick up mail.  Of course, I said YEP!  Ben Franklins had quite a beading department, but not the kind of beads I want… not at a decent price and quantity anyway.

Mike was in Washington at his friends wedding and Tiff and Coen were about to leave to go to dinner with her two sisters, so we just picked up our things and left.  We stopped on our way home to visit with Melani, Kirk and Brody for a bit.  It’s going to be hard to leave those three.  At least we can keep in touch by phone and email.  We both have Verizon Wireless, so we can talk forever at no charge.  They also said they’ll be going down to QZ for a visit (probably in January), so that’ll be really nice.

I’m getting restless just sitting here waiting for things to come in so they can finish up the trailer.  It’s not good when I get restless…. I have a tendency to shop and spend money when I can’t afford to spend money.   I downloaded a couple more free beading patterns, so maybe I can keep occupied with those and stay home.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

It’s now been 12 days of living behind Camping World.  11 of those days have been spent sitting and waiting for parts.  We were told yesterday the fuse block and fuse for our inverter should arrive by Thursday.  I’m hoping the other things come in before that and the service dept. will install them as they come in and not wait for it all to get here.  We’re supposed to be in Quartzsite the first week in October and once again we’re pushing the envelope!  The inverter fuse block won’t even be here until Oct. 2nd.

At least I have something to look forward to today.  I’m going to meet a couple of gals from the office I retired from.  It’s going to be great to be able to sit and talk and catch up.

It’s time for me to get a few things done.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

We’re still sitting behind Camping World waiting for parts.  Right now, I’m enjoying the sitting… have a hot cup of coffee beside me, rain on the roof and an occasional clap of thunder.  Lovely.

Utah really needs this rain.  It rained half the night and at 10 a.m. is still raining.

Yesterday we drove to Mike & Tiff’s to pick up our mail and my new cell phone.  We stopped in Kaysville to go to the Ben Franklin Crafts store, but we forgot we were in Utah, where many stores are closed on Sundays because Mormons aren’t supposed to shop on Sundays and they make up a large part of Utah’s population.   We’ll just have to take a drive up there in a day or two.  Maybe even this afternoon.

I got a few pics of Coen yesterday.  I’ll share one at the end of this blog.  He’s growing like a week and is soooo cute!  He’s going into his shy, Momma’s boy phase, so he wasn’t happy at all on my lap, but as long as he was on Momma’s lap he was more than happy to smile, laugh and talk with me.

Back to my cell phone.  It’s part of the “new every two” plan, where you get a new phone every two years when you renew your 2 yr contract.  I have no intention of leaving Verizon or the plan the were on, so I take advantage of the new phone when it’s time.  When you’re retired and living in your RV fulltime the cell phone is very important.  I couldn’t believe the variety of phones and functions available… phones that would download and play music, phones that would do your email and browse the internet, phones that take still photos, phones that take video pictures, and phones that do all of the above.  I could have gotten any of these phones for free.

I didn’t want any of the above functions.  I couldn’t find, online, a phone I wanted so I had to call Verizon to find out if what I wanted was even available anymore.  I told the gal I wanted a “dirt garden variety” cell phone.  I wanted to be able to make calls on it.  I wanted it to have a speaker phone.  I wanted to be able to text message on the very rare occasion and I wanted it to have external antenna capability.  It’s the antenna that was the stumper.  I had to talk to 3 people before I got one who even knew external antenna was even an option in the past.  Verizon has two models with the capability, one is a reconditioned phone.  I ordered the other one.

Being in the Meadows campgrounds this summer taught us that we want to do whatever we can afford to do so we are not without phone again.  Of course, the antenna isn’t a guarantee, but it should help in spotty areas.  I just hope that the capability on cell phones doesn’t go away completely.

Here’s the shots of Coen.

This is Mr. Funny Face

and this is Mr. Cute Stuff

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

Well I guess its about time I gave an evaluation of the summer camp hosting job with American Land and Leisure at the Meadows camp grounds , Ogden canyon, Utah.

            In the beginning the camp ground was a mess due to storm damage over the winter and probably winter visitors after the campground was closed last season, I don’t want to think it was from the previous host not taking care of the place. Most of the work was accomplished the hard way due to the lack of proper tools and support by the area managers. Several things they said we would receive in a few days never did show up even after several requests for the stuff.  The days were long and pretty demanding,  We worked closer to 70 to 90 hours a week way more than the 35 we were paid for. I probably shouldn’t whine much because it was my standards, and my wish to have the campground meet them that caused a good part of the extra hours.  The only real problem with the hours was the lack of a real day off, any time we took off just meant more to do before we left and after we got back, I think the longest we were gone from early May till September was about 7 hours at a time maybe 8 once.

            The worst problem though was that there was no dependable method to get help in an emergency when you had one. The closest phone was at the campgrounds above and below us, both a bit more than a mile away. When they were not there, there was not an option other than to drive down the canyon 10 miles or so to where cell service was available.  We did have radios (we bought our own because the ones they provided were more like toys and simply did not work well at all)  when you did call on the radio the odds were that no one else would hear your call. That is one condition that I do not think I will be willing to work under again

            I truly believe that if the area managers had been better suited for the job things could have been much better and most of the problems we had with getting things done would have gone away. I think that they were simply overwhelmed and not suited for the size of the area as well as not as equipped to deal with people as they should have been, their reliability and ability to communicate and follow through were severely lacking. Part of that responsibility should fall on the company’s management because of a seemingly lack of training and oversight to ensure that the area managers could do and did the job properly.

Do I regret going there, not really? It was quite a learning experience and if we do this kind of thing again my expectations and standards will be much lower, as sad as that is to say it will be the reality. I don’t think I will ever work myself that hard for nearly as many hours again for anybody, Yeah, right.

            The things that make the summer stint worth it was the opportunity to meet so many really neat people and to be close enough to Judy’s Son so that she / we could spend some time with them and her new grandson. I also don’t want to forget to say that when all is said and done I think the pluses out weighed the minus stuff and the lessons learned will help prevent getting or letting a job get into the minus stuff as much, to bad about letting standards slide though

Thom

We’ve been getting a lot of spam comments on our blog and it’s a pain in the neck to have to go in and mark them as spam or delete or whatever else I want to do with them, so I just set our comment section so you have to be registered before you can comment.  I hope this doesn’t cause any hardship for our readers who like to comment.  It’s quite simple to register… just go to the bottom of the menu to the left and click on “Register” under Meta.  Follow instructions and it’s done!

The service department just got word that all the work they need to do has been approved by the factory, parts have been ordered and the things that are coming from the factory will take 2 weeks to get here.  That puts us up against the timing issues again.  At least this time we can maneuver  our arrival time in Quartzsite a bit if needed.  We still want to get there as early in Oct. as possible so we can hopefully get the same spot we had last year.  Thom says he doesn’t want to build another rock walkway. 

We took the birds down to have their wings clipped this morning.  Mucuy’s beautiful blue flight feathers are all gone, but at least we don’t have to worry about him flying out the door.  The last time Kirk, Mel and Brody came up to the campground, Mel was outside, walking to the door, talking, and Mucuy heard her and immediately flew to the door to greet her.  Luckily I didn’t open the door until he went back to his cage.  Mel and Brody are his two favorite people.  We had the guy clip Lymon’s toenails as well as his wings so Lymon isn’t feeling real secure on his perches right now.  He’s used to his long needle sharp toenails gripping things.

I ordered my new phone today.  With most cell phone companies, you get a new phone when you renew your 1 or 2 year contract.  It’s time for me to renew our 2 year contract so I did that and ordered a new phone.  I don’t use any features most of the cell phones offer other than speaker phone and speed dialing, so I ordered a “dirt garden variety” phne.  One thing I did make sure it had though, is external antenna jack.

Gotta go fix lunch.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles!