Moore's on the Move

December 1, 2011

2011-12-01T00:50:00.001-08:00

Can you believe it is already December…we will be saying good-bye to 2011 and hello to 2012 very shortly. Hope you have all been making your Christmas lists and checking them twice for Santa…you gotta believe. And what about black Friday and cyber Monday? Did everyone get the bargains they were looking for? We decided that until the retailers starting including diesel, food and insurance in their holiday sales there was not one thing we needed. Flying J, Kroger, AARP…do you hear me???????

We have started the push at Amazon.com…we have started working 11 hour days, rather nights, and have also added one more day to the work week so we are putting in 60 hours a week…well, I am trying. We are “scheduled” (this is Amazon.com speak for mandatory) to work 50 hours this week with another 10 hours optional. Also Amazon.com won’t let us work more than 6 days in a row…isn’t that special. I wish you could see the Amazon.com distribution center that we work at…they have one million square feet…the original building belonged to Golden Books. I will certainly be glad when December 24 rolls around and we exit the building for the last time but there are things we will miss. Our little group that sits together for breaks and lunch is so much fun…we do laugh a lot. We are all pickers and love to find out what interesting items we have each picked for customer orders…believe me you can get ANYTHING at Amazon.com…ANYTHING. So much for work.

We had a great Thanksgiving…we actually caught a break and did not have to go in to work until 10:30 pm. That gave us enough time to have a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with friends Dan and Rita. Rita brought the turkey and pumpkin pie and I provided the rest. Everything was so good…especially being able to enjoy our time with good friends…we met Rita and Dan at Adventureland in 2005 and have seen each other at least once a year since then. Last year we had Thanksgiving dinner at their place…I think it is a great tradition.

Weather has turned cold at night…Bob has had to scrape ice from our windshield when we got off of work at 4:30 am a couple of times…lowest has been 18 degrees one night but the days are just beautiful.

Moving on.

Not Much Going On…November 20, 2011

2011-11-20T19:06:00.001-08:00

Just checking in…not much happening in Coffeyville, Kansas…we are still hanging in there at Amazon.com. Only 5 more weeks to go…they are starting to bring on more and more people…ramping up for “peak”. Pretty soon we will be running over each other…especially as we are pickers. If we are picking in an area where other people are stowing product, we pretty much have the right of way. After all, you great people placing those orders with Amazon.com don’t receive your product until we can get it picked and on the way to shipping…we have the power!

When we got off of work at 3:30 am on Saturday a group of us made our weekly trek to the doughnut shop…can’t go to a club for happy hour so it’s doughnuts for us. We probably had about 14 or so this week…as I said, there’s not much going on right now. Anyway, we got home about 5:00 and hit the sack for a couple of hours…well, I was up by 7:00 am but Bob slept on until early afternoon. There was a craft show starting at 8:30 and some friends and I wanted to go early so we could then go home and get some serious sleep. Unfortunately, Jean had come down with a sinus infection and just was not up to making the show but Deb Gray and I followed through and met at the show. It was pretty small but it was nice just to have something to do. Here we are with other friends, Dan and Rita, who were also there.

Deb and I decided to go on to Chetopa, Ok to see what was going on at the annual Pecan Festival. Did not take long to make our way through the arts and crafts and then we were on our way back to Coffeyville. So after a short nap Bob and I drove to the small…I mean really small…I mean tiny, tiny community of Liberty to have beer and burgers at a local…er, establishment called Jack’s. The real highlight is that they have a pool tournament on Saturday nights. I do have to say it was a nice time with Deb and Paul and Barb and Bubby and the burgers are wonderful.

Weather has been cold today so we have done nothing but sleep and watch TV. Back to work tomorrow evening…remember, only 5 more weeks to go.

Moving on.

Sunday October 7, 2011

2011-11-06T23:26:00.001-08:00

Things are going pretty well as we continue to work at Amazon.com here in Coffeyville, Kansas. We have both had colds but Bob is back to normal and I am almost there…quite a few of us have been sick.

Weather continues to be nice…we had a couple of nights below freezing but mostly good weather. I do have to say that yesterday we felt the effects of the earthquake that struck north/central Oklahoma. There was a quake in the early morning hours and then last night we were watching the local news out of Tulsa when the motorhome started swaying…the newscaster announced that Tulsa had just experienced another earthquake and that it was stronger than the one they had early that morning. It only lasted a few seconds and if we had not heard the news cast we probably would have thought it was a strong gust of wind. Tulsa is about 70 miles south of Coffeyville…we are right on the Kansas/Oklahoma line.

We had to work Halloween night but Cissy got to go out and parade around the RV park in her Halloween costume that afternoon…she was so cute!

Friday night we were sent home at lunch time (10:00 pm) from Amazon…there was a problem with the water, or lack of, so they closed the entire building. Several of us went to the Pizza Hut to eat and enjoy our unexpected time off.

I have to learn how to transfer pictures from my phone to my computer without them coming out so poorly…sorry guys.

Today we drove to Pawhuska, OK…did not really start out to go there but that’s where we ended up. Interesting…it is home to the Osage Nation. The town is small…around 3,000 people and not very pretty. I did think the Episcopal Church was attractive.

I think there was a church on almost every corner in town.

Pawhuska is supposedly the site of the first Boy Scout troop in America…1909.

On our way home we stopped in Bartlesville, OK and spent about an hour at the Osage Casino…not winners tonight.

Moving on.

October 2, 2011 Coffeyville, Kansas

2011-10-02T22:28:00.001-07:00

Time flies when you are having fun…now if I was just having fun!!! Awww, I can’t really say that. Tomorrow night we start our third week of working at Amazon.com in Coffeyville, Kansas. Bob and I are both picking this year and staying very busy and walking a bunch…I mean a bunch. My feet have been killing me so we made a trip to Brown’s shoe store on Wednesday and bought new shoes, orthotics and socks…well, I now have happy feet! I actually came home Thursday and Friday mornings and my feet were not throbbing…yippee.

When we got off of work on Friday, several of us met at the local Daylight Donut shop…they open at 4:00 am. My friend Carolyn says our meeting there is like most people that go to a bar for a drink on Friday afternoons…this is the closest we can get to that concept. You take your kicks where you can get them in Coffeyville.

Saturday is always great because it is a day off…I didn’t get up until around 1:00 pm, got ready and headed off to Wal-Mart. Home again and started preparing a hash brown casserole. The owners of the RV park we are in, Buckeye RV Estates, were having a cookout for everyone with them furnishing the hamburgers and hotdogs and fixings and everyone contributing a covered dish…well some of the dishes weren’t covered. There were about 70 or so people there, everyone had a good time and the food was awesome.

Dueling grills.

By the time everyone arrived the tables were loaded with food.

Our friend Rita was presenting an RVers flashlight to a couple that is leaving so they can find their way back to Buckeye…it was really cute…I believe it was a toilet paper cardboard roll with matches taped all around it. Way to go Rita.

Some of the guys built a campfire when it started to cool down but Bob and I decided to make our exit as there were several college football games on TV that we wanted to watch. Got home, we each claimed a sofa and got ready for some great football…ten minutes later we were both sound asleep. Oh well, so much for time off.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat as far as resting went. I did manage to cook breakfast about 2:00 pm, did lots of laundry and then got in some fishing for about an hour or so while Bob sat outside and read with Miss Cissy sleeping by his chair. She was very tired. It was a good day for the Moores. Back to work tomorrow night.

Moving on.

Friday September 2, 2011

2011-09-03T08:30:00.001-07:00

Our time to leave Colorado is fast approaching…this is the last weekend that our campground will be open…we lock the gates on Monday at 1:00 pm. We should be completely full for the next 4 days…this is good because it means we won’t be cleaning sites every morning…most people coming in will be here until Monday.

We have had a lot going on this summer with Bob’s situation and the passing of our sweet Little Buddy Moore but bottom line is that we have enjoyed our time here at Peak One Campground. Our campers have been wonderful…there are always one or two stinkers but mostly good. The area is just beautiful and Bob has really enjoyed the root beer floats from A&W.

My sister and brother-in-law came in from Texas this past weekend to spend a few days with us…and to beat the 100+ degree temps that are having at home. We drove over Loveland Pass and I got this picture of Tom and Bob. It was quite chilly at that altitude…I hurried back to the car after snapping the picture.

Another day we headed south of Frisco to Buena Vista, CO…a nice little town with a cute historic district…luckily Bob was able to find some Blue Bell ice cream to keep up his strength. While riding around, Tom spotted what he first thought was some yard statuary…but then it moved!

The gentleman that owned the house came out and shook more apples from the tree for the mule deer. He told us that he had lived there for 2 years and the deer keeps coming back to eat…he actually touched the deer on the antlers and got him to eat out of his hand. He said that as soon as the animal starts to shed the velvet on his rack, he would not get close to him as the deer would start to get aggressive because it would be rutting season for him. It was so cool to be able to get this close to see this animal.

It was a tough day for Tom and Cissy…

We have had no reports of any bear in our area all summer but in the paper earlier this week there were reports of 2 bear sightings within just a few miles of the campground. Unfortunately one of the bears was killed on I-70 at the Frisco exit which is only 2.5 miles from us. The other report was of a sow and her 3 cubs…the sow was also killed on the highway and 2 of the cubs panicked and climbed a utility pole and were electrocuted…the third cub was captured and removed from the area. We have hundreds of ground squirrels (look like chipmunks to us) and black crows but that has been about it for wildlife…we did see 2 rabbits late one night in the campground.

We have worked with some great people this summer…meet “the kids” Jim and Betty…they are a part of our maintenance team. They are our hippies…they live in a converted school bus named Rocket, use an outside shower and have been sleeping in a tent all summer. Jim runs the bus on used grease that he collects from a couple of businesses. They are so cool!

Moving on.

Surprise, surprise! August 15, 2011

2011-08-15T16:43:00.001-07:00

I can’t even remember when I last posted so if I repeat myself just be gracious and bear with me.

We arrived in Frisco, CO and began our camp hosting job at Peak One Campground around the 20th of May. We have had a good summer but have been very, very busy with everything that goes on in the campground…we oversee 28 sites which is just enough for me. We take care of cleaning the sites when a camper leaves, the bathrooms and lots and lots of paperwork.

We have also had some personal things going on…at 11:00 am on June 28 we had to let our Little Buddy Moore go to sleep…he had gotten to where he had not eaten in several days and was not able to even keep a sip of water down. We spent the entire day of the 27th at the vet’s office trying to make things better but by the next morning it was evident that this was not to be. Our little guy will always be with us in spirit and in our hearts.

At the same time, Bob was going through a really weird situation. He, as a pedestrian, was hit by a travel trailer that was coming into the campground. Long story short…he was knocked unconscious…had a CT scan at the ER to confirm that he had a concussion…referred to an internist because the CT scan revealed that Bob had hydrocephalus and the ER doctor felt he had had it for a long time. Internist ordered a spinal tap…then referred Bob to a neurosurgeon in Denver. He ordered an MRI and final diagnosis is that yes, Bob does indeed have hydrocephalus and was probably born with it…his ventricles are “huge” per the neurosurgeon. Final word is that they don’t want to put a shunt in as they feel Bob has compensated for this all through his life and they are afraid the shunt might do more harm than good. This is good news as far as we are concerned…at least we now know to watch for certain things that might…key word is might…take place or may never happen. They are betting that things probably won’t change for Bob…thank you God for a great report.

Now for the fun things…we actually took the time to have our first campfire last week and treat ourselves to s,mores! I thought Bob was going to OD on them…Carolyn thinks she outdid him but I am not sure. We had a great evening with our friends and co-hosts, Carolyn and Roy and friends Nelda and Jim who are hosting at another campground not far from us.

Cissy says “ Whatdyamean there aren’t any more?”

We had three gentlemen camping with us the other night from Arkansas…hope you can see the little brown bear that rode the whole way on the back of the motorcycle in the center…kind of hard to see. The gentleman said the wind caused the bears arms to flap and all the kids in cars thought the bear was waving at them…they also travelled with a gnome that belonged to one of their uncles.

Today we had to come into Denver…getting new tires on the motorhome in the morning. We are staying at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds which is located in Golden, CO…a suburb of Denver. Nice camping area and easy to get to. We will return to Frisco as soon as we are done tomorrow…the company we work for, Thousand Trails, is having an employee appreciation dinner tomorrow evening.

Moving on.

May 19, 2011 Frisco, Colorado

2011-05-19T06:25:00.001-07:00

Good Thursday morning…it’s about 6:30 am Mountain Standard Time in Frisco, Colorado. Frisco is 80 miles west of Denver just off of I-70. We are in the White Mountains National Forest…our campground is Heaton Bay. Frisco is where we will be spending the next 4 months working as campgrounds hosts but Heaton Bay campground is not going to be our location…we will be about 5 miles from here at Peak One. Peak One is on the other side of Frisco on the road to Breckenridge, CO…Breckenridge is less than 7 miles from Frisco. But I digress…

This is what we woke up to this morning.

We have had temps at or below freezing at night since we got here last Sunday. We have predictions of snow/rain for the next few days and have had snow flurries off and on all day yesterday.

Today is our first actual day of work…at least being on the payroll. We are not at our campground, Peak One, because they are having a problem with the water. We have 3 loops at Peak One…Bob and I are hosting loops A & C and our friends Carolyn and Roy Trout are hosting loop B. We drove out and checked out our loops on Tuesday and Carolyn & Roy are not even able to get into their host space due to snow. Roy was able to drive through it because his truck has four wheel drive…there is only one bad area of snow but there is no way they could get their motorhome through it right now. Not sure exactly when we will move…right now we have electricity but they have to bring us water and pump our tanks. We will have full hookups once we they get Peak One up and running.

After spending last summer in the Black Hills National Forest in Hill City, South Dakota I have to say we were shocked when we saw this area. We had heard that the forest here had been devastated due to pine beetles but we were not quite prepared for what we found. Heaton Bay looks pretty good…Peak One looks worse…it is not a pretty campground at all. I would be hard pressed to find a suitable area to pitch a tent at any of these campgrounds…they are filled with tree stumps where the Forest Service has had to cut down trees to try and stop the infestation and to clear dead trees.

I guess I should tell you that these campgrounds are located on and around Dillon Reservoir which is very pretty. The water is low right now but the folks in the area are worried about the run off once the snow melts in the surrounding mountains and reaches the “lake”.

The towns of Frisco, Dillon and Silverthorne sort of all run together and are very pretty…I will have more pictures soon.

This is a picture of the Dillon Lake (reservoir is too hard to keep typing) that I took the other day from one of the public areas.

A large portion of the lake is still iced over.

When Bob came back in from taking the dogs out a few minutes ago, he commented that it did not feel like it was only 26 degrees…I am thinking it feels warmer because the air is so dry…but 26 is 26.

Moving on.

Kentucky April 2011 Part II

2011-05-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

While in Kentucky drove to Columbus where a battle between the North and South took place. The Confederates laid a chain across the Mississippi River with the idea that when the Yankee ships would be stopped by the chain…did not happen. Here is James with the anchor and a part of the chain…the links were massive. James said when he was younger, he and his friends would prove how strong they were by how many of the links they could lift off the ground…I think he said his record was thirteen. This is a beautiful park and they also have a campground.

These young men were to be part of a battle re-enactment that was taking place later that day in the park.

We then went to Clinton, KY where we attended the first annual Chicken Festival. They had several vendor booths and lots of food plus live music. Here are Bob, James and Sandra checking some of the wares.

And Bob makes friends wherever he goes.

James and Sandra used to sell funnel cakes at festivals such as this. James thought this booth looked so much like the one he had built…and it was! It looked much better when James built it but this is the second or third owner after he sold it.

And so it was time to say goodbye to the Chicken Festival…we hope to be back again. Thanks to Sandra and James for all their hospitality, great food and friendship. James even prepared homemade ice cream Sunday afternoon. We left on Monday morning. Goodbye Kentucky.

Moving on.

Kentucky, April 2011 Part I

2011-05-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

I know I am going backward in time…such is my life.

After leaving Red Bay, AL we headed north to visit our friends Sandra and James at their home in Fulton, KY. We met them at a Mardi Gras parade in Foley, AL 3 years ago…they spend the month of February on the beach in Gulf Shores, AL…actually the stay in a condo on the beach.

They live outside of town so we had room to park the rv next their house.

Their place is just lovely…I forgot to take a picture of their pond that is stocked with catfish and crappie.

Sandra had a great dinner prepared for us the night we got there and James even prepared homemade ice cream one day…what wonderful people and hosts they are.

On Saturday we travelled north to Paducah, KY for their annual quilt show. I have to say I was truly overwhelmed by the beautiful quilts I saw…we spent most of the day there and still did not begin to see all of it. There were quilts from all over the world but a number of them that won ribbons were from Japan…this is truly an art form.

This was one of my favorites…

I had told Sandra that we have friends, Mary and Wayne Wolz from Caldwell, TX who have a business called Mary’s Patterns. I knew they were involved with several really big quilt shows but wasn’t sure if they were still doing Paducah. Well, golly…we turned a corner and guess who we found!

Mary is so creative and talented with all of her designs.

Missouri May 2011

2011-05-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

We left Kentucky on May 2, driving in rain, rain and more rain. We decided to head south into Tennessee even though we wanted to end up going north. By doing this we were going to be able to come out west of St. Louis and it only added a few miles to our route.

I feel so sorry for all these folks in this area that are experiencing the flooding…there was water everywhere and we went by several roads that were closed to traffic. We were getting a bit worried at one point…the rain just would not stop. Our goal was to make it to Sikeston, MO before stopping so I called the Missouri Dept. of Transportation at one point to get a road advisory. The gentleman I spoke to told me that he lived in Sikeston and so far I-55 was open. He advised that he could not make any promises as to what was to come but that once we got to Sikeston we might want to go on to Cape Girardeau which is about 25 miles north of Sikeston…so we plugged ahead to CG. We ended up spending Monday and Tuesday night at Cape Camping RV Park. It was an okay park…folks in the office were very nice. CG is located right on the Mississippi River…duh…what were we thinking! There is a wall that blocks the city from the water…yeah. We bought a few things at Walmart and I was able to get a haircut…not at Walmart…and we had some pretty good Mexican food at El Torero.

Now about the Walmart…been there, done that. There are not many places that we have been that we have not cared much about returning to…Rapid City, SD is the only one that comes to mind, hate, hate, hate that Walmart, and now I am adding Cape Girardeau, MO to that list…their Walmart runs a close second to RC. The old downtown area is really cute but on .

the whole there is just too much traffic in a small area. I am sure there are some really great things about CG that I did not get to experience that might change my mind…but again, maybe not. I asked the woman in the campground office about what we really needed to see in the area and it took her a while to think of anything. The only thing she could come up with were the seawalls or I guess they are riverwalls. There are murals all along the wall and they were nice but it took about 2 minutes to see them.

So how many people have I offended? Sorry if I did not have more positive things to say about CG but I have to tell it like it is…possibly someone could give me some idea of what I should have seen and done while we were there.

We drove across the Mississippi River into Illinois. Water everywhere. These guys were building a levee to try to keep the water out of their business.

A number of smaller roads were totally closed.

Moving on.

Red Bay, AL… April 2011

2011-05-10T07:13:00.001-07:00

This post is backtracking…trying to catch up.

We left Coastal Haven RV park on April 20 and headed north to the Tiffin motorhome service center in Red Bay, AL to have a couple of things done to our Phaeton motorhome. As we did not have an appointment, we were not sure just how long we would be there before being able to get into a service bay.

But, as usual, we met some great people and formed new friendships. And we got to eat at our favorite breakfast place in Red Bay…Jack’s. Here we are starting with the lady in the black top…Barb, Don, Lucy, me, Bob, Carol, Mike and Tom. Barb, Lucy and Carol are all quilters.

After we had breakfast, we met with these folks again and Bob asked Don, the gentleman in the red shirt, if they happened to have been in South Dakota last summer. Don said they had…they stayed at Sheridan Lake campground where we were the hosts. Small world department…they are from Maine.

For you Tiffin folks, this is one of the large trees at the park in downtown Red Bay. We spent most of one night and the next day in the designated storm shelter at the Tiffin service center due to siren warnings. Just about the time it was all clear we would start to leave and then another siren would go off. It was a tiring experience but thankfully no one was hurt and only minor damage in Red Bay.

This was taken in Belmont, AL, where the Tiffin paint shop is located. There was more damage to buildings here but again no injuries.

Next stop…Kentucky. Moving on.

Fulton, MO May 5, 2011

2011-05-06T05:20:00.001-07:00

I will have to backtrack after this post but I wanted to get this entered before I forget. From Fulton, KY on Monday to Fulton, MO today…Thursday. We are staying in Mexico, MO for a few days and today traveled about 25 miles south to Fulton, Missouri the home of Westminster College and the National Churchill Museum...that would be Winston Churchill. Oh, did I forget to mention that the museum is located in the basement of a church designed by Sir Christopher Wren…in London, England. Doesn’t every small town have a church that was built in England way back in 1667. The church was bombed during WWII and was described as an “eyesore” afterwards.

From Wikipedia:

Westminster College is a private, selective, liberal arts institution in Fulton, Missouri, USA. It was founded by Presbyterians in 1849 as Fulton College and assumed the present name in 1851. The National Churchill Museum and Library are located on the campus. The National Churchill Museum (formally known as the Churchill Memorial) is a national historic site and includes the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury. The church, designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1667, was rebuilt on the campus to commemorate Sir Winston Churchill, who made his famous "Iron Curtain" speech at Westminster College in 1946. As a bookend to history, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech in 1992, declaring the end of the Cold War.

On November 9, 1990, the one year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, former President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech dedicating a major section of the Berlin Wall, which now stands as a permanent monument on the College Quad, as a backdrop. The monument, named "Breakthrough" as designed by Winston Churchill's granddaughter, Edwina Sandys. See photo below for a visual of the Church, Library, and Berlin Wall monument.

This is a beautiful campus with enrollment of 1300 at this time. We arrived late in the afternoon but luckily, due to a private function, the hours at the museum had been extended. To do the museum justice one would need to spend several hours…it is a great museum and a beautiful college campus.

The museum was truly wonderful…too much to even try to show. We will have to go back someday when we have lots of time.

Moving on.

Time To Go…April 20, 2011

2011-04-21T10:00:00.000-07:00

Each day more of our winter folks were leaving Coastal Haven…

Jeannie and Vern…they are just going to the beach in Florida for a week with their family. Later they will be heading for Vermont.

Joan, Ron and Kyra on their way to Wisconsin.

Kyra says “What’s the holdup…let’s go!”

Rosanne, Bill and Oliver are on their way to New Jersey and then Wisconsin.

This is our new space…we will be here next winter also. We are now much closer to the clubhouse and we really like it.

We stayed in Fairhope long enough to see our friends Alex and Don who live in Brazil. They are in the states for a few weeks…we were so glad to be able to spend a few hours with them. We met them in 2005 when we were all working at Adventureland in Iowa.

We all had lunch at Big Daddy’s along with Pat Gloyd who is their host while in the area. Pat also worked at Aland with all of us.

Don, Pat, Alex, me and Bob.

The next morning we pulled out of our winter home in Fairhope, AL bright and early. We made a 2 hour stop in Daphne because Bob wanted to have the motorhome tires inflated with nitrogen. Then we were headed north to Red Bay, AL via Mississippi because we like Hwy. 45…up to Tupelo, MS and then a few miles east into Red Bay. We have a couple of things that need attention on our Tiffin motorhome and Tiffin is located in Red Bay.

Hey Mark…my location on the map is now correct!

We had to go into a site with water and electric only as the campground was full when we arrived but this morning we were able to move into a full hookup site. As we don’t have an appointment we have no idea how long it will take us to get into a service bay. We only have a couple of items to be done so we are hoping to get into a 3 hour express bay real soon.

We had really heavy rain last night but we were so tired we slept through most of it. More rain predicted for today.

Moving on.

Winding Down April 17, 2011

2011-04-17T13:42:00.001-07:00

As the weather continues to warm up, more and more of our winter group are starting to pull up stakes and heading for their summer destinations.

Linda and John are heading back to Chester, Illinois. They take wonderful care of all us in the park…they keep things running smoothly and Linda organizes so many social activities. Thanks Linda and John for your great work!

Here Linda is saying goodbye to Oliver Curran. He is going to miss his morning treats that he gets from Linda.

Jim and Phyllis Gudgalis…fulltime RVers. On their way to Florida/Georgia and then Illinois.

Then it was Isobel and and Aaron Work heading out to Ohio. What a charming couple…they celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary while here. Our daily group at happy hour is very tiny now and getting smaller. We have two more couples leaving tomorrow, one on Tuesday and then Bob and I will be leaving on Wednesday. We will turn out the lights when we leave.

We had dinner a week or so ago with 2 couples we met while in Cody, Wyoming last summer. Byron and Glynda live in the area and Dale and Sharon were going from Florida to Texas.

Good times and good friends will be missed…moving on.

Elberta Sausage Festival March 2011

2011-03-27T20:08:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning Bob and I left fairly early and drove to Elberta, AL…a small community about 20 miles from where we are in Fairhope. It was the day of their semi-annual sausage festival that is put on the the Elberta volunteer fire department…at least I think it is volunteer. Elberta is very, very small…but it is home to The Road Kill Café and a great cheese farm (can you call a place where they make cheese a farm?).

Okay so back to the festival. We got there early so there were no lines to get our sausage that was served on a bun with sauerkraut. It was pretty good but I was raised on some of the best sausage ever that is made about 15 miles from Caldwell in the little town of Snook, Texas. Okay, okay…anyway we had our sausage.

They had lots and lots of vendors…many of them were selling commercially made items but there were quite a few that had items they had made…lots of jewelry…some of it was lovely.

This man was grinding corn.

Bob ran into a couple of old friends.

Of course they had an oompah band.

Some of the crowd.

There was another band performing called The Stumpfiddle Band. They are members of the Moose Lodge in Pensacola, FL. They were outstanding…would love to hear them again. Their instruments were unusual.

Most people were having a great time…

But not everyone…he was so cute.

It was a fun morning but now we’re…moving on.

It’s Mardi Gras…February 27, 2011

2011-02-26T20:10:00.000-08:00

The Mardi Gras season is in full swing with parades and activities happening everywhere. I know a lot of folks believe that New Orleans is the home of Mardi Gras but it actually began in Mobile, Al which is just a few miles from our park in Fairhope.

We went to our first parade this afternoon in Fairhope…the Mystic Mutts of Revelry. It is certainly my favorite parade. Here are a few pictures.

Snooki and The Situation from The Jersey Shore…er, I mean the Eastern Shore.

We then hung around for the night parade put on by the Knights of the Ecor Rouge…this year’s theme was Toyland. Unfortunately it is very hard to get pictures after dark. We ran into friends from our park and had a great evening.

Chris, Larry and I are waiting patiently…

I wanted this gentleman’s big beads but he wasn’t giving them up.

Dottie, Barb, me and Chris.

And here came Ron, Vern, Jeannie and Joan.

These find folks are ready to attend one of the balls following the parade.

It’s been a long day…more to come.

Moving on.

Robertsdale Quilt Show February 3, 2011

2011-02-06T17:49:00.001-08:00

This morning 13 ladies from our RV park, drove a few miles to Robertsdale, AL to a quilt show at one of the local churches. This was not a juried show and evidently all quilters were encouraged to submit quilts for viewing.

The folks that were running the show could not tell us exactly how many quilts were on display but they knew they had at least 300 and probably closer to 400. I don’t think I have ever seen so many quilts in one place before…I should say so many beautiful quilts.

This show is presented every other year. I asked one of the ladies that was selling the tickets why they don’t do it every year and she say because it would kill them!

Here are a few of the quilts.

There were quilts everywhere…here are the ones displayed in the sanctuary. Not a great shot…you can’t really tell just how many were in this room. The quilt just to the left of the yo-yo quilt is circa pre-civil war. There were several dating back to the 1800s.

They even had quilts in the area where they were serving lunch…along with live music.

I did not get a picture of it but there was a quilt made up of about 1” squares of fabric…it was very large and contained 20,000 squares! I took their word…wasn’t going to count them. Jeanie told me she would give me $500.00 to make her one like that so I agreed to do it if she would cut out the squares.

This lady, sorry, did not write her name down, was presented as a master quilter and had a room just for her quilts. And here she is.

This was my favorite from her room…a glorious peacock.

These were done by one gentleman including all the embroidery.

And then there were the quilts made from a man’s ties.

We left the quilt show to have lunch and most of the ladies returned to the RV park but Jeanie, me, Eleanor and Lois went back to see more of the quilts.

It was a great day to be inside as it is soooo cold in Fairhope, AL.

Moving on.

Happy Birthday to Bob in Fairhope, AL.

2011-01-24T16:24:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow, January 25, is Bob’s 70th birthday…yipee! We decided to celebrate his birthday today along with Martha who is celebrating her 79th…wow. We had a cake and ice cream for each of them at the clubhouse where we were joined by quite a few of the folks that are wintering here also.

Here is the birthday girl and boy. Bob’s cake was really not crooked…just looks like it.

A good time was had by all.

Moving on.

It’s Been Quite A While…January 1, 2011

2011-01-01T10:13:00.000-08:00

First of all, Happy New Year to each of you. I have been so lax in posting that It will take several postings to catch up. I may actually work backwards…I seem to function better that way.

We had a wonderful Christmas even though Bob and I were apart for the first time in 22 years. Bob flew to Atlanta to spend some time with his son, daughter-in-law and grandson Owen. Grandpa had so much fun playing with Owen…he has been trying to get Cissy and Buddy to build caves with him but it doesn’t seem to be the same.

I spent the holidays in Georgetown, Texas with my sister, brother-in-law, nephew and our cousin. Karen lives in Vail, Colorado and it had been around 20 years since I had last seen her. Susan, my sister, prepared so much wonderful food for all of us. We enjoyed shrimp gumbo and king crab legs on Christmas eve…my nephew, John, even got all of the meat out of the shells for us…what service! My sister, Susan, cousin Karen, brother-in-law Tom and nephew, John.

On Christmas day we had a beautiful meal of turkey, ham and all the fixings which included a traditional Texas dish of tamales. The tamales were made by Mrs. Gonzales in Karnes City, Tx. They were really good. Everything was wonderful!

Bob returned on Dec. 28th. We left Georgetown on the morning of Dec.30 headed to Texarkana, Tx. with Sue and Tom following in their car. We stayed at a beautiful park in Texarkana called Shady Pines RV park…they have an RV dealership located next to the RV park. This was one of the nicest parks we have ever stayed in…forgot to take any pictures.

We went into Texarkana, had dinner at Red Lobster and stopped at Best Buy to return my Nook (an ereader put out by Barnes and Noble). Had problems with it and thought the trouble had been resolved in Georgetown but not so. They did not have another one in Texarkana so just had to get my money back.

Left Texarkana headed for Little Rock, AR. We had planned on getting there early enough to see the Clinton Presidential Library but began hearing about the horrible storms in Arkansas so we stopped at a rest area for a couple of hours watching the Weather Channel to see how long it would take for the Little Rock area to be clear. We arrived in LR about 3:30 which did not give us enough time to do the library…and it was to be closed on New Year’s Day.

We stayed at Downtown Riverside RV Park in North Little Rock. The park was not the best but we certainly had a great view out our front window facing the Arkansas River.

Left North Little Rock this morning, New Year’s Day, headed for Tunica, Mississippi where we will stay for a few days then on to Red Bay, AL for our yearly service appointment at the Tiffin motorhome service center.

Moving on.

OHMYGOSH…Oct. 21, 2010

2010-10-22T07:17:00.001-07:00

Just a short post. We are now and have been in Coffeyville, Kansas, for a little over a week. We are among 600 or so workampers who have come to southeastern Kansas to work the Christmas peak season for Amazon.com…this is our third year to do this. We will go for our meet and greet on Sunday afternoon and then actually start working on Monday with an all day orientation. We have worked the night shift the past 2 years but won’t get our assignments until Monday.

Anyway, we are staying at an older mobile home park, Buckeye MHP, that has opened up to us RVers. We are in the back of the park with 9 other rigs and we still have room for 3 more rigs in our area. There are probably 12 other RVers scattered among some of the mobile homes that remain. The owners are super nice as is the lady that works in the on site office for them. They are putting in bathrooms and a laundry room that will be super nice for the RVers that don’t have laundry facilities in their rigs. This is a picture of our space.

The biggest plus for me, besides seeing friends, is the fact that they have 2 ponds on the premises…yippee! I found a bait shop where I was able to buy minnows (my bait of choice) and have been fishing the past 3 afternoons. I was not even getting a bite for 2 days but yesterday was rewarded for my patience…see my bass Mark!

Then a short time later my friend, Natalie, hauled in this monster.

Her catch was soon followed by my last catch of the day…mmm, perhaps not a trophy fish. Whoops, forgot to take of picture of the 3 inch monster.

The weather has been absolutely beautiful…warm fall days with cool nights…just doesn’t get much better plus we are only 60 miles from Tulsa, OK where we can get a Whataburger hamburger, 50 miles from great barbecue brisket in Joplin, MO and only 3 miles from some of the best Mexican food we have ever had…El Pueblito right here in Coffeyville. We are also within a short distance of several casinos. Life is good.

Moving on.

Backtracking A Bit October 4, 2010

2010-10-17T08:15:00.001-07:00

I am going to be jumping around a bit trying to get caught up on some of the things we have done and places we have been.

When we left Hill City, SD we travelled to Pierre, the capital of South Dakota. We learned early on that Pierre is pronounced “Pier” and not “P-air”…hope you understand that. We stopped at a rest area on our way and saw the folks below. Sorry it is such a bad picture but I had to take it through the screen because I did not want them to know that I was taking their picture. I have never seen anyone with their laundry hung out to dry at a rest area before. I thought it was okay to post this picture since you can’t identify the people.

We stayed at a really nice city park in Fort Pierre which is just across the river from Pierre. We had full hookups with 50 amps for $10.00 a night. We stayed 2 nights and we were right on the Bad River. They probably have about 15 spaces. Would definitely stay there again.

At this location, Lewis and Clark made the first contact with the Teton Sioux.

This is the covered pavilion located at the park.

The leaves were starting to show their brilliant fall colors as we made our way into Minnesota. We are starting to stay at small city parks when possible. As we are totally self contained we don’t need hookups for at least several days.

Moving On…

Minnesota Sept. 30, 2010

2010-09-30T19:25:00.001-07:00

Well, I am skipping over some things I want to blog about that happened earlier but wanted to get this done while it is fresh on my mind.

We arrived in Wadena, MN yesterday. We are here because Bob has a brother and sister-in-law, John and Jan, that live not far from here and Bob is seeing a dentist in Staples, where they live.

Wadena is a small town of around 5,000 people. It has a cute downtown area…which we will visit in the next few days. There is a community college here and they had a tornado that came through in June doing quite a bit of damage to the residential area.

I left the motorhome early this morning because a farmer’s market was advertised to start at 7:00 am at the train depot…well, the farmer’s were still asleep I guess as there was no one there. I snapped this on the way.

We wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River so we headed north today, driving through several small towns before arriving at Lake Itasca about 2 hours away. We stopped at two city parks that offer RV parking.

We went to Bemidji first and stopped to see the Paul Bunyan statue with his blue ox, Babe.

Here’s Bob signing the visitor register at the Welcome Center…he had to borrow Paul’s pencil.

There is a lot of sculpture on the streets of Bemidji…this fish was stolen several years ago and the paper publicized the theft and the fact that the piece was worth $10,000 (yeah right). The thief returned the piece and they have kept it in the Welcome Center since. It is constructed out of old tools.

I got to see my first cranberry bush or tree or whatever.

Chicago has it cows and Bemidji has it beavers.

Bemidji is also know for its woolen mill called…are you ready…are you sure…The Bemidji Woolen Mill! It was much smaller than I expected…it would have been neat to see all the ladies at work…where the heck were they?

They had a great store…but not much there for people that spend less than a month in cold weather. Interesting.

Finally we arrive at Lake Itasca. They have had so much rain that the water was really up. When we were here in 1991 or 1992 you could literally walk across the Mississippi. It was just lovely today as we were here around 5:00 and there were only a few other visitors. Hard to believe that the might Mississippi starts right here. We have now visited the headwaters of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers.

I had to put a toe in…hey Lorraine North I know you would have.

The portion of water in the background is Lake Itasca and the water in the foreground is the start of the Mississippi.

It was a special moment for Bob also…he has his phone glued to his ear!

And a good time was had by all.

Moving on.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

2010-09-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

The last 2 days have flown by…that’s because they were our days off. We seem to stay on the road the whole time running everywhere but not getting much done.

We will be closing our campground on Sept. 13 but Bob and I are going to stay in the area for another week to 10 days so we have been checking out all of the campgrounds in the area. I told Bob we had to have internet even if we can’t get one where our AT&T cell phones work.

The weather is starting to turn cooler…we are turning our small heaters on each morning when we get up and today it was jeans and sweatshirts…yippee…my kind of weather. They tell me they have had snow as early as the middle of September up here.

We spent some time some time in Custer State Park yesterday. We ran into some burros, mules, donkeys…we are not sure which. They had no problem going right up to the cars. Unfortunately some people were feeding them…right in front of the signs that said not to feed the animals…go figure.

This little guy was all legs and he was kicking up a storm.

We saw a few prairie dogs but were once again disappointed in the number of animals we saw throughout the park.

Today we took Buddy and Cissy to the beauty shop in Custer where they had a spa day. We then met Dave and Betty in Keystone to ride the tram up the side of the hill. We had tried to do this once before but it was raining buckets by the time we got there and they were closed. Today they were closed again…the sign said they would be open for Labor Day. It’s just not meant to be. So, we had lunch at the local DQ and got to have a nice visit.

Right across the street from the DQ we saw this sign about the Alfred Hitchcock movie.

Another view of part of Keystone.

This evening we met Larry and Rosalie, friends that we had worked with at Adventureland in 2005, at the Alpine Inn in Hill City for dinner. Also joining us were Rod and Marsha Schultz. Rod and Marsha are one of the couples that run the campground office at the Tiffin service center in Red Bay, AL. Rod and Marsha invited Joe and Jan Dabney of Houston, TX to join us. They have an Allegro Bus made by Tiffin. A pleasure to meet such nice people and find out they know other Tiffin owners that we too know. Small world. The food was great as was the company. Unfortunately I didn’t not have my camera on the right setting.

It’s back to work tomorrow…getting ready for the Labor Day weekend crowd we are expecting.

Moving on.

Sunday, August 15, 2010 The Black Hills of South Dakota

2010-09-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

We are still working at Sheridan Lake Campground near Hill City, SD. We have 4 weeks left and counting. This has been a very quiet weekend for us…we only had 12 of our 39 spaces occupied…the other 3 loops were pretty full. Sunday is always nice because most of the campers are leaving…I think we will only have 3 spaces with campers tonight unless someone else comes in. The weather turned quite cool yesterday…high was 65 degrees. It is supposed to start warming today and we should be back to about 80 degrees within a few days. We had to turn one of our small heaters on early this morning but it looks like it is going to be a beautiful day. We are working the beach/day use area as we do 5 days a week. There are a few people fishing across the lake from where I am sitting…that is a free parking area right next to the highway. This is the view I get from the booth. Sheridan Lake is 385 acres…this is just a small part.

I really wish I could just pick up my rod and reel and walk the few feet down to the lake but don’t think our employer would like that. Because of the cool weather we probably will have very little activity…we normally sell around 50 parking passes on a good day…yesterday we sold 4. I can’t being to tell you how many books we have read in the last few weeks.

Last Tuesday, one of our days off, we drove over to Custer which is less than 15 miles from here. As previously mentioned, the Sturgis, SD motorcycle rally is in full swing and there are bikers everywhere. This is downtown Custer which is probably about 80 miles from Sturgis.

Sorry, I was snapping these thru the windshield as we drove thru…I am wondering where this guy put the crutch when he was riding.

We had dinner at the Blue Bell Lodge in Custer State Park. It was built in the 1920s by an executive with Bell Telephone. It is a beautiful location.

Sorry I did not take any pictures of the interior of the restaurant. The setting was lovely…the food was so-so. We are having trouble finding really good food in this area…but it is just as well as we don’t have much time to eat out. Hard to believe I am cooking almost every day. It can’t last forever.

Moving on.

From The Black Hills of South Dakota

2010-08-09T12:49:00.001-07:00

The following was written about 2 weeks ago…I just have not had the internet time to get it posted until today, 8-9-10. Sorry, vm.

We continue to enjoy mostly great weather in The Black Hills…we have had thunderstorms the last few days and nights and even some hail yesterday but nothing bad. We have had a few days in the 90s but then we get some rain and it cools things off. Where we are near Hill City the temps are about 10 degrees cooler than in Rapid City…Rapid, as the locals refer to it, is about 30 miles north of us.

We took yesterday to do some sightseeing with our friends Betty and Dave. We took a short drive to Keystone before going on to Mount Rushmore. In Keystone there is a museum dedicated to Gutzon Borglum…the man that began the Mount Rushmore project. As we entered, there was a man working that was giving information to the people in front of us. I really was not looking at him but when I heard his voice I looked up and told Betty that I knew him and I knew she did too. It was Bob Griffiths and he recognized us also. After watching the movie about Borglum we went into the gift shop where Bob’s wife, Eddy, was working. I had asked Bob not to tell her that we were there. What a surprise for all of us. My Bob, Betty and I worked with Bob and Eddy at Adventureland in Iowa in 2005 in the retail department. We are running into so many people that we know! Here we are, Bob and Eddy, Dave and Betty and Bob and I. We have made plans to get together in a couple of weeks for dinner in Keystone.

Then we went on to Mount Rushmore. Bob and I had been there once before several years ago but having been to the Borglum museum we got so much more out of it this time.

And you know, you just can’t get away from those Texans…these guys are from Austin…could you guess? We had talked to an Aggie while lunching in Keystone.

Talk about a small world, while in Keystone we got a phone call…yes, my phone actually rang…from Chuck and Lorraine North. Chuck and Lorraine were one of the couples that were part of the Alaska group last summer and we had not seen them since. They are in Rapid City for a few days so we were able to have dinner together last night. We always seem to work food into whatever we do.

It was so good to seem them…wish we had more time to visit with them but we are hampered by that darn work thing.

Today we just hung around the park until it was time to come into Rapid City for Bob’s appointment with the oral surgeon to have 2 teeth removed. He is having that done as I write.

Here in South Dakota

2010-07-05T09:44:00.001-07:00

Okay, so the job in Cody, Wyoming did not work out for us. Betty and Dave were going to work for the Black Hills National Forest near Hill City, SD and told us about an opening just a couple of days after we gave our notice in Wyoming. So long story short…I know, you can’t believe it…we applied, got accepted and arrived on June 14 to work at Sheridan Lake.

It is a beautiful area and we are hosting one of the loops in the campground with 39 spaces plus we work everyday at one of the day use areas that has fishing, picnicking and a small beach area. I figure we are putting in about 10 hours a day total with 2 days off. I don’t mind the day use area at all but I am not fond of being the police force in our loop. Most people are very nice but you always have a couple that want to buck the system. These are campsites with no utilities at all. Fortunately we have full hookups at our site except for the fact we have no phone reception, no internet and we just got Directv a couple of days ago. We have to drive into Hill City, about 6 miles away, to make a phone call.

Last Monday Bob and I and Betty and Dave rode the 1880 Train from Hill City to Keystone, SD. I have no idea how far it is in miles but the ride is only one hour and it goes really slow. Bob and I have done several of these types of trains before but I have to say this was the most pleasant. The train going from Williams, AZ to the Grand Canyon was so slow we threatened to walk back.

When we reached Keystone we went into the gift shop and a woman walked up and called me by name. What a small world…it was Rosalie and Larry…another couple we worked with at Adventureland and had not seen since 2005 or 2006…I can’t remember which. How funny is that. They are staying about a mile down the road from our campground and they work for the 1880 train but this was one of their days off. They had friends visiting so we all got a picture together.

That’s Larry hiding behind Rosalie on the far left. Way to go Betty with the hat…cowgirl up!

Here are a few pictures taken from the train and in Keystone. This house was almost hidden from view.

This is the Lazy 2, Crazy 2 ranch.

Betty was trying to mimic the way this dear old lady was shaking.

The next day we had to take Little Buddy, our Yorkie, to Sturgis for an appointment with an orthopedic specialist. Sturgis is where the huge motorcycle rally is held every year in South Dakota. It is a lovely little town that swells to thousands and thousands for the rally. This tree was at the florist shop…someone had carved it with a chainsaw I suppose.

Back to the train ride…it was enjoyable but been there, done that. Keystone is pretty much a typical tourist town. There are places everywhere selling Black Hills gold jewelry…the problem is that none of the gold comes out of the Black Hills anymore. The area is really lovely though.

Moving on.

Bit by Bit June 25, 2010

2010-06-29T13:58:00.001-07:00

While still in Cody, we were in touch with an old friend that some of you will remember from our first year at Adventureland, Betty Bowers. It seems that she and her husband Dave were working on the other side of Yellowstone Park in West Yellowstone. We made plans to meet them in the park for lunch. It was so good to see Betty again and meet Dave.

When we met Betty, she was a single lady that was workamping and traveling on her own. We have had so many laughs about the famous car she bought while we were in Iowa. She was traveling in a class C camper with no other transportation. She decided that she really needed a car so she found one for about $350.00. It was something to see but she only needed it for her stay of several months and thought she would sell it when she got ready to leave Iowa. I think this was the car that kept taking…I know Don and Alex spent a good bit of time keeping it running for her. More later about Betty and Dave.

I never tire of Yellowstone in it’s winter attire. Even though it was the end of May when we got together with them in the park winter still had a hold in the eastern portion.

This is my favorite…Yellowstone Lake starting to thaw.

On our way back we came across a female moose and her calf…the calf was in the bushes so I did not get a good shot of it.

I must warn you that the next shots can be disturbing. We saw this bison being moved down the highway. I am not sure it it was dead or just tranquilized but this was outside the park boundary. I certainly have never seen anything like it before. Sorry about that but I warned you didn’t I?

Moving on.

Surprise, Surprise June 19, 2010

2010-06-22T17:34:00.001-07:00

Well, a lot has happened since our last posting. Our job in Cody, WY. just did not work out for us. There was such a high level of stress that the morning after I left work at 1:30 am (I should have gotten off at 11:30 PM) we decided to give our 2 week notice. We loved Cody and most of the other workampers and our boss but it was just not the job for us. Our employer was so nice and asked it we would consider another position but we were over it by then. So, we worked our 2 week notice and left there on the 10th of June.

Just a couple of days after we gave notice, we were told of a position with the company that manages the campgrounds for the US Forest Service near Hill City, S.D. We applied and were told they had already filled that position but there was a volunteer position open that involved 20 hours of work a week for your site. That sounded great so we accepted and told them we could start on June 14. Well, before we even got to the job, we were notified that a paid position had become available. So here we are at Sheridan Lake in the Black Hill National Forest near Hill City, South Dakota.

We are the Hosts for one of the loops in the campground…that would be Smokey loop. We also work at the day use area that they call the south beach. Our days starts with Bob driving through our loop inspecting our 39 camp sites around 8:00 am. At 9:00 we meet the other hosts and our area manager at the main entrance booth for our morning meeting which usually lasts anywhere from 3 minutes to 30. We then proceed to the day use area which is at the lake itself and has a small beach. We sell parking passes to anyone entering this area for swimming, fishing, boating or just picknicing. We spend a lot of time sitting and reading. It is a beautiful area and we can watch people fishing.

We close up shop at 5:00 pm and return to the campground which is only a short distance away. We drive through our loop just to be sure everything looks okay. Then we have some free time until the main booth closes at 8:00 pm. We make another round about 8:30 pm and again at 10:00 pm. Between rounds we may have people coming over to buy firewood or as happened tonight some campers wanted to plug into our electrical outlet to blow up a couple of air mattresses. This campground has no hookups (water, electric or sewer) except for the host sites. They don’t even have a dump station here. We have 5 loops within the campground so you can see it is a fairly large area. Then we have the south beach area (which we cover) and the north beach area on the other side of the lake. The north beach area also has 5 group camp sites.

Now for the real corker…WE HAVE NO CELL PHONE SERVICE, NO TELEVISION RECEPTION AND NO INTERNET!!!!!! Bob says it’s a good thing because we don’t have time to watch television anyway. We have to drive 6 miles into Hill City for cell service and to use the wifi at the library. I am slowly getting used to it. We have no idea what is happening in the real world. We will be off on Monday and Tuesday and plan to go into Rapid City which is only about 25 miles from here. There is NO fast food in Hill City. We went in to eat at a Mexican restaurant one night and they wanted $6.95 for chips and salsa…we passed on that and should have passed on everything. I am cooking often! I hear they have a Safeway grocery store in Rapid City…I am so excited.

It’s late and we get up fairly early, especially for me, so more later.

Moving on.

Yellowstone National Park

2010-05-16T10:52:00.000-07:00

So, we have left Cooke City and traversed the 4 miles to the northeast entrance to Yellowstone Natl. Park. It would have been much closed had we entered through the east entrance but we had already made the drive from Cody to the east entrance so we wanted to see something different. As of that time, not all the entrances were open due to snow.

It did not take long before we passed a herd of buffalo…we saw so many that day. You reach the point where you have to say “Oh yeah, more buffalo” and keep driving.

A lovely little stream. I love the water, especially rivers and creeks.

Anytime you come upon a group of cars parked along the roadside you just know there is a bear in the area…usually there is at least one park ranger in the group. We were not disappointed…we got to see this mom with her two yearlings. They will stay with their mom until next spring. Black bears only keep their young with them for 2 years but grizzlies keep theirs for 3 years. We watched them graze for quite a while. The rangers made sure everyone stayed about 100 yds. back.

Bob spotted a grizzly that was running across the road in front of us but by the time I looked up from my map all I saw was his rear end going through the bushes. He was moving very fast.

We made our way up to the Mammoth Hot Springs area of the park. This is where the park headquarters is located. The last time we were at Mammoth there were lots of elk there. We were not disappointed. These guys just walk and lounge around everywhere…they are not intimated by the people at all.

We wound around inside the park on our way out the east entrance that would take up back to Cody when we spotted this wolf. There was so much snow on the way out and Yellowstone Lake was still mostly frozen over. The prettiest part of the trip was between Fishing Bridge and the east entrance but by that time my tummy had enough of roundy round and up and down so the puppies and I were laying down in the back seat.

So glad we got to see a lot of the park while there was still so much snow.

Moving on.

May 13, 2010 Cooke City, Montana…on our way to Yellowstone.

2010-05-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

Yea, we have 2 days off so we decided to do some sightseeing. We left the coach about 11:00 with Buddy and Cissy in tow. We headed northeast out of Cody to make the drive along the Chief Joseph highway. Chief Joseph led the Nez Perce people out of Oregon trying to flee the US troops who were attempting to place them all on reservations. He and his people were able to elude the troops until October of 1877.

This was a beautiful drive. I love the snow and we began to see deer very quickly.

We had to stop for Bob to throw a few snowballs. You can take the boy out of Indiana but you…

This little guy was scurrying along. It was so strange to see snow…and no snow.

As we went further, we entered the Shoshone National Forest.

The snow banks were so high in some areas it was hard to see over them to get some pictures.

While we are traveling northeast we are also climbing…our destination was Cooke City, Montana. The northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park is located 4 miles south of Cooke City.

Notice the top of the rail fence…what little you can see peeking out from underneath the snow. We have now made it to Cooke City, MT.

So do you think this is a car under the snow?

Cooke City has a population of 97 people. It swells to 120 during the summer. We ate at a little place called the Bistro and had one of the best homemade hamburgers/fries that I have ever had. This was a shot from our table.

Doesn’t everyone have a snow blower on their roof?

More to come about Yellowstone.

Moving on.

May 07, 2010 Cody, Wyoming

2010-05-07T06:45:00.000-07:00

We have just finished our first week of our summer employment. We are working the front desk at Buffalo Bill Village here in Cody. “The Village” as it is commonly referred to is owned by Blair Hotels…they also own The Comfort Inn and The Holiday Inn. The Village is made up of 83 cabins in downtown Cody. These cabins were built by Buffalo Bill Cody to house the workmen who came to Cody to build the town structures. Cody is a lovely little town of about 9,000 people. When it warms up a bit I will actually get out to take some pictures. I look forward to visiting all of the cute shops we have here.

But, speaking of weather we have been having a bit of the white stuff. They were predicting 3-6 inches of snow night before last but we got barely a smattering. It has been very cold…we have been in the mid 20’s the last few nights and it is not going to get much better for a while.

We started today off by having breakfast with friends and fellow workampers, Brenda and Bill Alderman. We then headed for a drive up Southfork Road. Bob and I had done some sightseeing last week on Southfork but we stopped when the pavement ended and the road turned to dirt. Today, Bill traveled to the very end of the road and I have to say that they last 11 miles on dirt where spectacular.

We must have seen at least a couple of hundred deer…they were everywhere. And we saw lots of…okay, not it gets tricky. Earlier I had called these animals mountain goats or highway goats, but today we saw a couple of them with the big horns…so…maybe they really are big horn sheep.

Then there was this little guy…Look close, he is kind of hard to see…that white stripe down his back blended right in with the snow. We did not want to spend too much time trying to get a great shot.

The further we went, the prettier it became. We were in the Shoshone National Forest. It was hard to believe that people really lived in this remote area but there were some beautiful homes. We later found out that the small school building we went by…sorry no picture…has an enrollment of 5 students.

And finally, as we were making our way back to Cody, these guys appeared on the ridge above us…elk. Still no bear but we know they are out there as others have pictures of them that have been taken in the last couple of weeks. We will keep looking.

Moving on.

Sunday May 2, 2010

2010-05-03T10:49:00.001-07:00

We left the campground around 7:00 am headed west on Yellowstone Highway. This road takes you to the east entrance of Yellowstone Park which is about 60 miles from Cody. We knew the entrance was not yet open due to road conditions but we were hoping to see some wildlife. The warmer the weather gets the higher up some of the animals go so we did not want to wait any longer. As you will see, it was a beautiful drive. The temp was 47 when we left Cody and by the time we got to the Yellowstone gate it had dropped to 26…we were definitely climbing. So here goes…hope you enjoy.

This is Buffalo Bill Reservoir just outside of Cody.

This is the Pagoda House, or Smith Mansion, in Wapiti, WY. It sits above the Campground/Motel where are friends Carolyn and Roy Trout are working this summer.

A nice little homestead.

Mountain goats…or highway goats.

The only bison we saw.

The closer we get to Yellowstone, the more snow there is and the colder it gets.

Finally we get to see some elk.

Some cabin roofs peeking through the trees. This area was not yet open for the season…it is still just outside the park.

Looks like these guys did not call to see if the park entrance was open yet…long drive for nothing.

So we started back and now I got to look on the other side of the road and saw this ski lift that I missed on the way up.

We saw lots and lots of mule deer.

Too bad I only caught the eagle as he took flight…look for the little white dot in the middle, just above the rocks. You might be able to see his wings.

You know, the water is never too cold for some anglers…boy, was I jealous! What do you think Mark Didelot? This doesn’t look like the combat fishing we did in Alaska last summer.

Do you think this guy is an avid hunter…or just very lucky at finding discarded antlers. He could give the guys in Jackson Hole, WY a run for their money.

It was a great morning…home for a nap before heading to work.

Moving on.

April 27, 2010 Part 2

2010-04-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is pretty much going to just be a lot of pictures. We drove the Southfork road that everyone here said we needed to do. We had hoped to see lots of animals but pretty much all we saw were deer and one rabbit. Perhaps if we had gone earlier or later in the day we might have had better luck. I have to say it was a beautiful drive of about 50 miles. I am not sure what altitude we climbed to but we were definitely going higher…not like 8,000 feet or anything.

This was as far as we went as it started getting dark and the wind really started blowing.

Can you imagine why there might be livestock on the road? Notice the open gate and I got out to check and there was no cattle guard. Duh!

We did see deer…they almost looked like mule deer but not quite. They were beautiful and jumped the barb wire fences like they were not there.

Moving on.

April 27, 2010

2010-04-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

We were up and about early this morning as we planned on doing some sightseeing. We drove about 31 miles to Meeteetse, WY. Meeteetse has a population of 351 people. This very small community has only a few businesses one of which is Lucille’s Cafe. We had eaten breakfast at home but decided to go in for coffee and a soda. And as this was the only business open it was a good thing we chose Lucille’s. The gentleman in the picture below seated across from our table is a local rancher. Remember we are in Wyoming…lots of cowboys and ranches. He was very nice and answered many questions we had about the area. He was the only other customer that came in the whole time we were there.

It seems Lucille ran this cafe for many years but has since gone on to the big pancake flipper in the sky. Her daughter now runs the place. Meet Lucille.

And this was where she ruled from when she was unable to be in the kitchen.

Some pictures of Meeteetse.

The outdoor museum.

What drew us to Meeteetse originally was the idea of visiting the shop of the Cowboy Chocolatier, a young man by the name of Tim Kellogg. He is a real cowboy that works on a ranch in the area and is a rodeo bronc rider. As a young boy he learned the art of making truffles from his grandmother. A few years ago he needed money to buy a new saddle and his mother suggested he make and sell his truffles to his friends. Well, long story short, he has opened his own shop in Meeteetse…which happened to be closed yesterday. Story of my life, a day late and a truffle short! He still works on the cattle ranch and continues to grow his business and is making quite a name for himself in the world of chocolate. Please Google Cowboy Chocolatier for more information. We will return to Meeteetse soon. This is Tim’s store.

So this was our morning. Gotta go but will return with the afternoon’s adventure later.

Moving on.

April 25, 2010 Cody, Wyoming

2010-04-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

We spent last night night in Billings, MT. Montana you say…we thought you guys were in Wyoming! Well, we were but…in order to get to Cody we would have had to traverse a mountain pass that none of us wanted to try so we headed north to Billings. Billings is the last large town we would see…it is about 2 hours north of Cody. Goodbye Red Lobster, Fuddruckers and Sam’s Club. See you soon. From Billings we went south to Cody skirting around the mountains. Buddy and Cissy are always ready to move! Bud says he thinks he can drive this thing.

Want to see why I love Wyoming?

And Sunday afternoon we finally arrived at our destination for the summer, Cody, Wyoming…population just over 9,000…elevation just over 5,000 feet. This is our space at the Blair Hotel campground for their employees. Kind of tight but okay.

This is to the front of us. There are still empty spaces waiting for more workampers.

We start our training on Wednesday morning and it ends on Wednesday afternoon. We are going to be working the evening shift for Blair Hotels at the Buffalo Bill Village cabins. BH owns BBV, the Holiday Inn and the Comfort Inn. They are all grouped together. We are supposed to have a full house this weekend and our boss will be gone…pray for us.

Can I still say…Moving on?

April 23, 2010 Battle of the Little Big Horn

2010-04-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Before going our separate ways, Joy, Bo, Bob and I stopped at the Battle of the Little Big Horn National Park where Custer’s last stand took place. Markers have been placed where Custer’s men fell. Custer’s is marked in black.

The remains of the soldiers were placed at the base of this memorial. Custer’s remains were moved to West Point, NY.

And of course there is a memorial to the Indians that were involved in this battle. It was a very nice memorial but I am afraid my pictures don’t do it justice.

There is also a National cemetery here.

Not much to say after that.

Moving on.

April 22, 2010

2010-04-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

Last night we stayed at the Kimball RV Park in Kimball, NE. We had a beautiful sunrise. This morning we headed west to Cheyenne, WY. It is very foggy. Within minutes of crossing the state line into Wyoming the scenery changed dramatically. Gone was the flat farm land and hello beautiful country. We stopped at the Wyoming Welcome Center to get some information. These two little guys had stopped for a break also. This is the old governor’s mansion. It was beautiful.

The Wyoming state capital building. Great sculptures.

The old depot downtown.

Chicago has it bulls, Lindsborg has its….do you remember…right, it’s horses and Cheyenne has it boots.

There was so much to see we decided to spend a second night in Cheyenne. Ok…does anyone want to guess why…what do you think I found…you are getting warm…yes, yes!! The quilt shop!

All of the ladies I meet at these shops are so nice. Thanks Erma Parkins and Marilyn Brittain for all your help at The Quilted Corner. Now if I just had time to sew!

And then we have beauty…and the beast. There are lots of refineries in Wyoming…lots of oil.

Before leaving Cheyenne we found out that our dear friend, Joy Ethridge, was traveling the same route only about a day ahead of us. We changed our plans a bit and instead of heading directly to Cody we went due north to meet Joy and her friend, Bo, who was traveling with her, in Buffalo, Wyoming. We had not seen Joy in a year so we had a great time spending the evening with her and Bo.

It is always so good to meet your RV friends in different parts of the country…you never know where.

Moving on.

April 20, 2010 On The Road Part 2

2010-04-21T06:10:00.001-07:00

Great Platte River Road Archway Monument

Kearney, Nebraska

Like brave 19th century pioneers who settled this wild land, the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument has endured horrible adversity, and also celebrated day-by-day victories. A victory is when the parking lot fills and the gift shop is abuzz with souvenir seekers. Or when Jack Nicholson was filmed in a scene here for the movie About Schmidt.

Adversity? Try attracting speeding drivers to stop at a privately-owned, $64 million "log bridge" arching over busy I-80 -- when there's no exit off-ramp.

The Archway is a relative newcomer to Great Plains tourism, installed in grand style one night five years ago and opening in 2000. Using giant multi-wheeled transporters, the 1,500-ton, 309-foot structure was rolled across the highway in one piece on the night of Aug. 16, 1999. The interstate was closed for eight hours while the archway was locked onto its support platforms. (Team Roadside was caught up in the tangle, on our way from the Birthplace of Kool Aid in Hastings, Nebraska to the Ice Replica of Sonja Heine's Heart -- now melted -- in Omaha).

Wow, until a few minutes ago when I did this research I never realized you could actually walk in this structure. vm

We are headed west on I-80… pretty apparent isn’t it? Our friend, Margaret Bushon, had told me a couple of days ago that we needed to make a stop in Paxton, NE to visit Ole’s Big Game Restaurant. We arrived in time for breakfast and what a great one it was for very little money. I will let you Google this for further information…I have so many pictures. Just let me say that Ole bagged each of these creatures himself…there are over 200 in the restaurant area. I have to admit I cringed when I saw the beautiful polar bear…Ole what have you done!

We pulled into the Kimball RV Park in Kimball, NE to spend the night. It is a small town of about 2500 people but it does have a Dairy Queen and at least 5 bars. There were only 3 rigs, including us, in the park. I get the feeling we have stayed here in the past…will have to check out some old pictures.

We had a thunderstorm last night after a beautiful sunset. The sky was magnificent. I am sure my pictures don’t do it justice.

Wednesday morning April 22

Got up early and was able to catch the sun coming up. God is good.

Gotta run…we will be in Wyoming in a few hours. I’m excited.

Moving on.

April 20, 2010 On The Road (Part 1)

2010-04-21T05:35:00.001-07:00

We left Concordia, KS on April 17 and drove north to I-80. Bob is so relieved as he doesn’t think there will be any quilt shops on the interstate. I love to travel the state highways and smaller roads while Bob likes the interstates so I have to thank him for indulging me.

We did go through Hebron, KS before getting to the interstate. Hebron is home to the world’s largest porch swing. This swing will seat 32 feet long and will seat 32 small children or 16 adults. It was a cute little city park and Hebron also had…are you ready? can you guess? You got it…a quilt shop! They were participating in a thingy (can’t remember what you call them) where quilters go from one shop to another all over the state of Kansas. I think there were a little over 30 shops involved. I talked to several ladies that were traveling together and they said they would make about 20 of the shops over a 2 day period.

We stopped just off of I-80 at Henderson, KS to spend 2 nights at Prairie Oasis RV park, a Passport America park. The rig next to us has gotten there shortly before we did. As is customary with most RVers we introduced ourselves to Bob and Jill Wolf from Cody, Wyoming…can you believe it…their home is in Cody…our destination for the summer. After we all got set up and the laundry started, we joined them in their beautiful coach for a beverage. What delightful people they are. Jill and Bob are headed to Tennessee for a wedding but we look forward to seeing them again in Cody.

Sunday we did not leave the rig…we never even detached the car from the coach. It was just a very relaxing day and we had Wi-Fi and satellite TV.

Monday we were off to North Platte, NE. We decided to overnight at the Walmart Bed and Breakfast. I’m a happy camper! I went in to pick up a couple of things and asked the cashier about a restaurant near the parking lot called Runza. She said they served runzas…well, what the heck is a runza???? She looked at me as if I had just landed from outer space! She started to explain what a runza is…you take homemade bread…Stop, you don’t need to go any further! And she said they had the best homemade onion rings she had ever tasted. Well, I could hardly wait to get back to the rig and grab Bob and make the short walk, to our first RUNZA (can’t you just hear hot rods revving their engines). So here you go: According to Wikipedia, a runza (also called a bierock) is a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. They are baked in various shapes such as a half-moon, rectangle, round (bun), square, or triangle. In Nebraska, the runza is usually baked in a rectangular shape. The bierocks of Kansas, on the other hand, are generally baked in the shape of a bun. (These were baked in a rectangular shape.)

Bob ordered the, I guess, “original” runza that had cheese and I ordered one with mushrooms and Swiss cheese and we both had the “best I have ever eaten onion rings”. I can now scratch eating a runza off of my bucket list. It was not bad, but I should have not ordered the mushrooms…they were canned. I ate half of my sandwich but it did not go to waste…guess who finished it off. The onion rings may be the worst we have ever had. They had absolutely no taste. If someone had cut them into pieces and fed them to me with my eyes closed I could not have told you what I was eating and Bob was in agreement. It was back to the rig for a movie from the Red Box in Walmart. Nighty, night.

Moving on.

April 16, 2010 Concordia, Kansas

2010-04-20T11:38:00.001-07:00

We are staying at the city park campground in Concordia, KS. which is about 32 miles south of the Nebraska line. This is a pretty little park but the RV spaces and water/electric hookups are a bit funny. Most of the hookups are on the wrong side of the pads but you get what you pay for and they don’t charge us wandering folks anything…donations are appreciated.

Concordia is a friendly place but there doesn’t appear to have been any new construction in a number of years. Yet there are several sites to see.

One of the most interesting things we have encountered yet is the old depot. Concordia was one of the points that the Orphan Train came to sometime between 1854 and 1925. We had heard of these trains but had not ever seen as much information or memorabilia as we found here. If case you are not familiar with these trains, just a brief bit. There were so many children in New York City that were orphans or that parents could not care for during the above stated years that it was decided to basically find homes for them in other parts of the country. It was felt that if they were removed from the poverty and life they were living on the streets of New York, they could be given better lives. So they were matched with families that were willing to take them in. The families were checked out and precautions were taken because the people in charge were truly trying to find good homes for these children. And of course farm families were looking for help. The final trains ran in 1929. Anyway, for more, and better, info Google away. This also led the way to the idea of foster homes.

We also traveled just a few miles outside of Concordia and saw what remained of the POW camp that existed here during WWII. This is all that remains.

Then of course we had to eat and Gambino’s Pizzeria was right down our alley….or on the main street. We visited with the young lady who was waiting tables…we were the only patrons as it was about 2:00. People are always interested when they find out we are full time RVers and as in any small town, they know when you are not locals. The pizza was yummy and luckily we have enough left over for dinner.

We stopped by to view the mural that has been sculpted out of the brick facade of one of the buildings down town. Please notice the children and the nun you can see in one of the train cars.

Bob was having a bit of discomfort with a tooth so I brought him home to rest and I made my obligatory visit to the local quilt shop, FABRIC ESSENTIALS. OH MY GOSH…there were more bolts of fabric than there are people in Concordia. The owner, Marsha Doyenne, was kind enough to help me select some fabrics that will go forward with us on our travels. (Rosanne, do you see the buttons laying on top of the fabric?)

Only one more thing I wanted to see and that is the convent of the Sisters of Saint Joseph at the Nazareth Motherhouse.

A brief stop at Walmart and home for the evening with a movie from Red Box. We have no satellite as we are in the trees and I have no internet so will post this ASAP.

Moving On.

April 14, 2010 Hillsboro and Lindsborg, KS

2010-04-20T11:28:00.001-07:00

We were back on the road again to visit yet another small town, Lindsborg, KS. Lindsborg was settled and continues to have a large Swedish population.

On our way to Lindsborg, we went through Hillsboro and guess what…yet another quilt shop. Hillsboro has a lot of Mennonite and I was lucky enough to meet two lovely Mennonite women who do hand quilting for Quilts and Quiltracks. Meet Ms. Irene Seibel and Ms. Lucille Klassen. What fun I had visiting with them and watching them demonstrate their art of hand quilting. These ladies make such tiny and beautiful stitches that they can “load” so many stitches on their tiny needles that there is no room left for fingers to grasp the needle to be able to pull it through the fabric. Enter a pair of needle nose pliers that rests next to each of their hands. I commented to them that I had never know before that grasping the end of a needle was the actual purpose of needle nose pliers. These ladies were so friendly and they invited me to join them at the quilting frame. I declined stating that I felt the customer that was paying to have this beautiful quilt top quilted probably would not appreciate the stitches that I would be able to contribute. But…I did take one of the needles and poked it into the fabric just to be able to say that I quilted with these two lovely ladies. You can rest assured that the next time I am near Hillsboro, KS on a Wednesday you will find me at the XXXXXXX shop as this is the day these ladies are wielding there needles back and forth to create these lovely works of art. Thank you Ms. Irene and Ms. Lucille for making my trip thru Kansas a memorable event.

On to Lindsborg. From the Mennonite community to the Lutheran’s. Here we met the Dala horses…remember the cows in Chicago…well, Lindsborg has horses. There were quite a few of them around town…notice the lack of a tail. We had a nice lunch and then after visiting several shops we drove about 4 miles to an area called Coronado Heights. It seems Coronado believed he had found the cities of gold that he had been searching for when he was atop this knoll and looked out on a sea of gold as far as he could see. I suppose to some folks wheat is gold. This structure was not erected until sometime in the 1930s.

Whew, all that climbing of the stairs made us hungry so back to Lindsborg to sample some of their famous Swedish pancakes at The Butcher Baker Candlestick Maker. We had them with lingonberries and sour cream. Yum, yum…they were excellent…good thing we shared an order.

Some shots of Lindsborg.

So with tummies full and our purchase of Swedish pancake mix and a jar of lingonberries we returned to the Phaeton and headed north to Concordia, KS.

Moving on.

April 14, 2010 Hesston, KS

2010-04-20T11:01:00.001-07:00

Well, we made it safely through Oklahoma and have landed in Hesston, KS at Cotton Grove RV Campground. It’s a Passport America park and we are staying for $10.00 per night. We have full hookups but as were are in the trees we can’t get satellite reception…TV withdrawal! We have made a couple of side trips from here. So many of the places we are seeing are really small towns…which I enjoy.

In Peabody, KS I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Sally Matz. She was kind enough to allow me to use the “facilities” at the Senior Center and she invited us to come and have lunch with them the next time we are in the area. Oh by the way, it is blue jean and sweatshirt weather.

Some of old buildings in Peabody. This was my favorite.

On our way to Council Grove, KS for lunch at the Hays House, we passed these 2 old school houses about 10 miles apart.

Then there was the Hermit Cave…this weird dude lived in here for several months way back when. Do you get the idea I am not much of a history buff. You’re laughing…this is serious!

Enough for now.

Moving on.

April 12, 2010 Gainesville, Texas

2010-04-18T10:13:00.001-07:00

We decided to see what downtown Gainesville, TX had to offer before we left Texas. We read that Bumpy’s offered Czech kolaches and homemade baked goods so that was our first stop. As you can see Bob does have a couple of bags in hand. I have to say that my friend, Barbara Drgac in Caldwell, can leave these people in the dust when it comes to making kolaches. We did each buy one buy I did not finish mine. It had so much filling that it overwhelmed the bread part…not for me.Our search continued for the breakfast we were seeking. The next stop was the Fried Pie Restaurant in downtown Gainesville. This was a winner. Besides a great breakfast they sell an endless variety of fried pies that they make. We were tempted but decided to save the fried pies for another trip. And of course I had to make a stop at the local quilt shop. Notice the courthouse in the mural.And here is the courthouse.This young woman is a Gainesville native. She got her degree in art from UT Austin but returned to north Texas to be able to afford to live and paint at the same time. She and her Mom make these one of a kind hand bags from vintage fabrics. You are only seeing a few of the bags in the shop. She has made quite a business for herself…sorry I did not include a picture of some of her art pieces. I thought this alarm systems was neat.

In 1862, 40 men suspected of Union sympathies were hung from this tree by a “citizens court” of which the majority were slaveholders. North Texas was the center of opposition of secession from the Union. Two men were shot while trying to escape.

We returned to the coach and pulled out with our last look back at Texas. We crossed the Red River into unfriendly territory, Oklahoma, about 1:30…Hook ‘em Horns!

We spent Monday night in the small community of Tonkawa, OK. They allow RV parking for no charge at Ray See City Park. There are no hookups and you just pull in but it is a pretty little park and we walked a couple of blocks and had some good Mexican food downtown. Thanks Tonkawa.

Moving on.

April 13, 2010

2010-04-13T20:03:00.001-07:00

We left the Rio Grande valley on April 8 headed north to Georgetown, TX to visit with my sister and brother-in-law. The Texas state flower, the bluebonnets, were looking spectacular. Unfortunately I did not get the best of pictures.

As it was approaching rush hour, we were determined to take the toll road that would lead us around Austin. Only one problem…we never saw the blamed thing…welcome to Austin!

Once we made it through Austin, we came upon this trailer that appeared to be full of scrap wire and…and…flamingoes!

We had a wonderful time visiting with family and only gained about 5 pounds from the great food my sister provided for us.

On Saturday we made a flying trip to Caldwell to leave/pick up some items from our storage building. We also wanted to see our house to see what it looked like since we had put the new roof on and had all the trim painted.

On the way back to Georgetown, I called my dear friend Barbara Zalmanek and she was kind enough to meet Bob and I for a very quick visit. Sorry Barbara, I deleted the better picture. I actually look so much younger than this.

From Georgetown we continued north and pulled into a small RV park in Gainesville, TX. Gainesville is only about 5 miles from the Texas/Oklahoma border. Bob’s brother Jim and his wife, Gayle drove over on Sunday from the Dallas area to have lunch and visit with us. It was so good to see them as it had been over a year since we last saw them.

Well, we are almost caught up…just another post or two and we will be there…hang in there with me.

Moving on.

April 12, 2010

2010-04-12T15:41:00.001-07:00

So we’ve left Louisiana headed for the Rio Grande valley in south Texas. Bob needs dental work so off we go. We stayed at a Passport America park in Mercedes, TX which is only about 10 miles to the Mexican border. We had actually made an appointment for Bob a month or so ago. Our good friends, Meg and Terry Moore (no relations) had us out to their house for a wonderful meal. Other good friends, Darlene and Jesse Curtsinger were also there. Great friends, wonderful food, good times. Darlene is practicing her famous “see me close my eyes” routine.

The next day we made the border crossing into Progreso, Mexico…I think it may be Nuevo Progreso in Mexico…Pregreso is on the US side. We walked across the bridge, parking on the US side.

And we have Dr. Alatorre checking out Bob’s mouth. Good news was the he did not get 2 crowns that we were anticipating but the bad news was that he had to pull one of the teeth…a molar. He was able to repair the second tooth. But not to worry, we are going back in December to have some other work done on Bob.

My sister and brother-in-law, Sue and Tom, joined us in Mercedes for a few days. We met up with the Moores and the Curtsingers again on South Padre Island for seafood at Dirty Al’s. We also visited the turtle place where they keep turtles that have been rescued and are nursed back to health or given a permanent spot if they are unable to be released. You can also volunteer to help keep predators away from the turtle egg nests. You just have to be able to breathe in south Texas during August when it is 110 degrees and like being covered with sand. It was very interesting…thanks Meg! See how well Darlene is getting her “see me closing my eyes” down! She is planning on taking this show on the road real soon. On Sunday Bob and I went by a pulga (flea market) and decided to stop. It was quite an experience. I haven’t seen colored baby chicks since I was a little girl. This was Easter Sunday.

We Texans take our beer seriously…if anyone has been looking for a beer holster we can tell you where to find one.

The day before we left the valley, we went back across into Mexico for me to get my teeth cleaned and met the Moores and the Curtsingers for lunch and a bit of shopping. What do you think…is it really the right one for Bob?

I can’t top that one so all I can say for now is we’re…

Moving On

April 11, 2010

2010-04-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

Right before leaving Fairhope, AL where we had spent part of January, February and March our friend Margaret Bushon arrived for a short visit. Our friends Dan and Rita Desmond drove over from Panama City, FL to join us also. It was great to have all of us together for a few days.

Once we left Alabama we headed west for Lake Charles, LA. but stopped for a couple of nights in Lafayette, LA. Margaret and her daughter-in-law, Gerri (sorry if the spelling is incorrect) were taking in the sights and we had never spent any time there. We were able to tour the Tabasco factory which was very interesting. The factory is located on Avery Island. They also have gardens that were amazing. They have everything from alligators to a huge Buddah.

The factory was so interesting. They age the pepper “mash” in oak barrels that have been used and discarded by the Jack Daniels brewing company. They use them for years but when they can no longer use them they chop them up into charcoal…nothing goes to waste.

Enough for now but I will post more tomorrow…I am playing catch up as you can tell.

Moving on.

February 26, 2010…Atlanta

2010-02-26T15:59:00.000-08:00

Upon leaving Texas we made our way to Atlanta, GA. We arrived there on December 23. You may remember that we lived in Atlanta for 30 years before retiring. We were able to visit with old friends which we really enjoy. We even got to spend a weekend in the north Georgia mountains with 3 other couples. Helen, GA is a cute little town designed to look like something out of the Swiss Alps. We had done this every year before leaving Atlanta so it was nice to be able to get together one more time with “The Group”. Here are Jim, Blair, Ron and Bob at our rented cabin.

And here are the girls…Suzanne, Donna, Anita and yours truly.

The guys traditionally make the 3 mile hike from Unicoi Lodge into Helen where we join them for lunch. They looked like street people…see their empty cups. All they needed was a sign that read “Will work for food”. After lunch they hike back to Unicoi.

We were able to spend time with our good friends Linda and Richard Shepherd. During our stay we had a delicious meal that Linda prepared for us at their home. She is a great cook. Linda and I have know each other longer than we have known our husbands. And we’re not telling everything we know about each other!

Sorry I did not get a better picture of these good friends.

We spent a wonderful evening at Deb and Richard Boswell’s visiting with our friends from the church we used to attend, McKendree UMC. Deb and Richard are so gracious to always get everyone together at their home when we are in town. We really appreciate it and had such a great time. As always, the food was outstanding. Thanks Deb and Richard.

Connie & Bill, Gary in the back, Bob, Bob and Karen (they are also past neighbors), Patty, Dick and Sandy in the back and Richard and then Debbie, B.J. and Lloyd. We are so blessed to call them friends.

We also had the opportunity to visit with friends Lisa and Phil Collymore and Dan and Carol Finch. We met these folks when we attended Crossroads Community Church in Lawrenceville before going to McKendree. It has been several years since the 6 of us have been able to get together. Here are Lisa and Carol.

Bob, Dan and Phil. Dan was and is an associate pastor at CCC which has been renamed Twelve Stone…which now has a congregation of about 10,000 people. When we attended there were probably about 300. (Again, sorry for the photo quality.)

Okay, we are half way thru the Atlanta trip. More to come.

Moving on…

We’re Alive…February 15, 2010

2010-02-15T20:47:00.000-08:00

Yes, we actually are alive and well…hard to believe. Since coming back from Alaska in September we have spent 3 months in Coffeyville, Kansas working for Amazon.com during Sept, Oct and Nov. We hooked up with Mark and Susan Didelot and Dan and Rita Desmond while we were all working. We had not seen the Desmonds for probably a year or more. We met Dan and Rita in 2005 while we were all working at Adventureland in Altoona, Iowa.

We spent an afternoon with Dan and Rita visiting the site near Coffeyville where Laura Ingalls and her family lived for about a year or so. Remember the TV show…Little House on the Prairie?

We left Kansas on November 28 and headed for Texas. We spent a few weeks in Caldwell while we had work done on our house which included the removal of the original slate roof that was put on in 1941 and the installation of the new roof that we hope will last 20 years…it sure won’t outlast the slate. We also had all of the outside trim repainted. Hopefully we won’t have to do much for the next few years. This was before the trim was done.

We always try to spend a few days with my sister and brother-in-law. While there we drove out to see a winery…this area is outside of Austin. It was really pretty there but none of us even tasted any of the wine. But, we did enjoy the Christmas decorations and the winery itself.

We said our goodbyes and our thanks to T&S for being great hosts…as usual my sister prepared lots of great food for all of us to enjoy and we were off to Shiner, Texas for a few days.

We stayed at a really nice city park in Shiner where our friends Janie and Vince joined us for a day. We had not seen them for almost a year. Shiner is a very, very small town that is known for the Spoetzl Brewery that produces Shiner beer…the most well known being Shiner Bock. Vince says “We’re here!”

When you enter the gift shop area you are asked to choose to sample one of several beers. Then you are given 3 wooden coins which you can trade for additional samples. They ask that you only sample 2 before the tour and the final two after the tour…who were we to argue. I do think Janie was showing a bit of attitude!

The tour did not last very long but was interesting, especially the copper vats…they have someone that shines them all the time…they were beautiful.

After leaving the brewery we found the Sts. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church that is know as one of the painted churches…it is so pretty and attracts many visitors each year.

Janie and I left the boys on a park bench and we visited some of the little shops downtown…I should tell you that Shiner only has about 2,000 inhabitants.

We were able to visit with friends while in Texas including Bob and Joanne Srutka in Willis, Tx. We had not seen them since we parted ways in Alaska…we headed for work at Amazon and they continued with their travels. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch that they prepared for us at their beautiful home in Willis, Texas that was so beautifully decorated for Christmas.

It is always good to see Precious also…especially when she is calm enough to actually get a picture of her.

And then it was time to say goodbye to Texas and head for Atlanta, GA to spend Christmas with our family and friends there. Stay tuned for further updates.

Moving On.

We’re Back!

2009-10-17T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well it has been quite a while since my last post…lots going on and yet not much of anything.

Just to sort of catch you up…on our way back to the lower 48 states we spent a couple of days at Banff and Lake Louise. They are both beautiful places and I am so glad we had the opportunity to see them but “been there, done that”. We saw more tourists in these 2 locations than we dealt with in all of Alaska. Our last stop with Susan and Mark was at Wheat Montana in Three Forks, MT. We had separated in Calgary but caught up with each other again for one final picture.

Bob and I were going to head for Yellowstone National Park to meet our friends Janie and Vince Fleckinger. Janie and Vince had been working in Utah this past summer. Then our plans were to head to Kansas where we would be working for Amazon.com starting on Sept. 27. But, after talking to friends that were already at Amazon, we decided to forgo the Yellowstone trip and head straight to Coffeyville, Kansas. We found out that the only part of the RV park that had full hookups was starting to fill and we did not want to be stuck with only 30 amps of electricity for the next several months. We left Calgary, Alberta on Monday, August 31st and arrived in Coffeyville on Thursday, Sept. 2. We visited the Express Personnel office on Friday and were able to move our start date up to September 13. We secured our space at River Crest RV Park and got settled in for a few days. On Monday we took the rig to Joplin, MO…about an hours drive…for an appointment with Freightliner to have some routine maintenance done. We spent 4 nights in the Joplin area…actually we were in Quapah, OK…at Downstream Casino. Downstream is a casino that was built last year. They have an RV parking area for about 20 rigs with water and electricity…at no charge. And, they don’t care how long you stay! They even encourage you to use the pool and work out area at their lovely hotel. We returned to Coffeyville on Friday and started working on Monday the 13th. We had lunch at Cheddars one day and were seated next to this little darling who was really enjoying her food. How cute is she!

We are working nights on the donut shift…we work Monday, Tuesday…off Wednesday…then work Thursday and Friday. We work from 5:00 PM until 3:30 AM. Bob has chosen to work overtime on Wednesday nights…yours truly has chosen not to.

It is good to see folks that we have not seen since last year. Last year they hired 300 workampers and are hiring 500 this year. Amazon has had such good results from the workampers that they have started the same type of program at their Campbellsville, KY center. I believe their goal is to hire 50 workampers at that location for this peak season.

Moving on.

Thursday August 27, 2009 / Friday August 28, 2009

2009-09-12T09:53:00.001-07:00

We have spent the last 2 nights in Prince George…a city of 70,000 people. We felt like we were uptown…had a Costco, Walmart and a Canadian Superstore. We even had a casino that we visited a couple of times…it was pretty much a break even situation for us at the end. It was not a huge casino but the entire building is smoke/alcohol free. I believe there was one bar area but no drinking allowed at the machines…we liked it. Not much else to report about Prince George except that we were able to get our car washed…that is a big thing up here. Our vehicles get so dirty but that should improve now that we are in Canada and the roads are paved. I choose to call the dirt a “protective covering”.

We are on the road to Jasper, Alberta to the Canadian Rockies. Again we went through some construction…here is one of the flagmen.

Cissy tried to catch a nap.

But it’s not always easy.

We arrived in Jasper National Park. We did not get in until early evening so we did not venture out from the campground. At 8:00 a program on some of the animals we might find in the park was presented at the amphitheatre by one of the park personnel. She involved several of the children in the audience in the presentation. She did a great job and the kids were outstanding as they took on the roles of cougars, fish and birds. An hour well spent. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera.

Friday morning Bob and I poked around some of the shops in town and then drove out to the canyon for a bit of a walk. The pictures do no begin to show how beautiful this place is.

Before leaving Jasper, Mark takes time for a needed oil change on their Phaeton.

On the Icefield Parkway bound for Lake Louise.

Moving On.

And More Bears Sunday August 23, 2009

2009-08-24T21:19:00.001-07:00

Sunday we drove back into Hyder to hopefully see some bears at Fish Creek. Needless to say it was raining again…not that it has ever stopped. It rains so much here but never a hard rain…more like a really soft rain. I stayed about 30 minutes at the viewing stand and was cold and bored so I left Bob there and I got in the car and starting driving the road…notice I did not say roads…there is only one road…looking for bear. I did see one small black bear but he was moving pretty fast.

Then I spotted this little guy…it was my day for black bears.

More pictures of Hyder.

We decided to give it a break so we came back to coach after a couple of hours and took a nap and ate lunch. We went back to the viewing area about 7:30 or so and were on our way out when a large black bear entered the creek from the other side of the bridge. This one was so big and everyone was pretty much running trying to keep up with him/her as she moved up the creek.

Unfortunately, my camera was not able to do a good job. I knew I was having trouble while trying to take the pictures. I must have needed to change the setting because it was dusk and getting hard to see. But…it was a thrill and worth all the time we spent looking. We did see a couple of other bear while on the roads but did not get pictures. I am so disappointed in the pictures but was so thrilled to see this beauty.

Moving On.

Bears, Bears

2009-08-24T21:17:00.001-07:00

We arrived in Stewart, British Columbia on Friday afternoon and check into Bear Creek RV Park. We were tired and had been rained on for so long that we decided to stay in and get some rest.

Saturday morning we ventured out and had breakfast in Stewart at the King Edward Hotel. This is where we had our first bear sightings.

Stewart is a town of about 700 people. The reason most people come to Stewart is because they have to in order to be able to get to Hyder, AK. Hyder is 3.5 miles from Steward on the canal. The population of Hyder is 100. They don’t even have an American customs office at the border. I guess they figure you can’t go anywhere from Hyder.

Hyder is a rather sad little community. The paved road ends at the border and Hyder’s streets are gravel and mud. We haven’t seen the sun in quite a few days but this weather is typical for this region.

Did you notice how high the buildings are from the ground? I think this is because they get so much snow in the winter. Here is a picture I took of a picture taken one winter.

As I said, people come to Hyder to see the bears…they have grizzly and black bear. We spotted this big guy on our way to the viewing area. He was grazing on the side of the road and was no more than 20 feet from us.

There is a boardwalk area maintained by Fish & Game, National Forest that is used for viewing. Fish Creek is where salmon come to spawn so it great eating for the bears. The water is so clear but it is sad to see the fish dying after they have deposited their eggs. Bob keeps reminding me that this is a life cycle for them.

Photographers come with their fancy cameras set up and wait all day hoping the bears will come to feed…and they do this for days and days at a time. They have more patience than me.

This is on the other side of the viewing area from the creek. The water is so blue because it is glacier water.

We drove another 20 miles up to see Salmon Glacier. It was magnificient. The road was something else but we made it.

And I got my puppy fix along the way. And we finally made it to the glacier.

The surrounding area.

On our way back to the RV park we stopped in Hyder and ate at The Bus.

Oh yes, this is the other bear we saw on Saturday.

Moving On.

Headed South..boo hoo!

2009-08-23T12:49:00.001-07:00

Valdez – Glenallen – Tok – Haines Junction – Haines – Whitehorse – to Hwy 37 – to Stewart/Hyder.

Upon leaving Valdez we headed to Tok going through Destruction Bay. …this begins our trek to the lower 48 states. We caught up with Bob and JoAnn Strutka at the Tok RV Park where we spent 2 nights and got to eat at Fast Eddie’s 3 times. We were so excited because their food is wonderful.

We left Tok, again picking up Highway 1, and made our way to Haines Junction. Aftekr walking around HJ for a bit with Bob Struka, JoAnn and Bob pulled out for Haines and we hung around waiting for Mark and Sue to catch up with us. Haines Junction is in the Yukon and Haines is in Alaska. Mark & Sue, Robin and Paul (another Phaeton owner couple) pulled in and we all stayed one night in HJ. The next morning Bob and I drove our car down to Haines for the day and the others rolled into Haines a bit later with their rigs. We all got together at Mosey’s Cantina for lunch and to celebrate Mark and Sue’s 36th wedding anniversary

Sarah was cooking at Moosey’s. Here are some shots from the cantina.

I visited the quilt shop and got lots of help in choosing some fabric from Dianne and Rhona. The shop is called Material Girls and they have beautiful fabrics for such a small town.

Haines has a center where the Native Americans do beautiful work in different mediums. We were able to see a man doing some silver engraving.

Some gentlemen had been working on a totem pole that was started in 2007…it was finished just last month so we did not get to see any work being done but their plans for the project were still up.

This little guy was the official greeter for the center.

And this is his helper. Good help is hard to find these days.

A couple of random shots around Haines. It is part of the Alaska Water Highway System.

Late that afternoon Bob and I headed back to Haines Junction where we had left our rig and our little guys. We were to spend one more night in HJ before moving south to Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK.

Moving On.

Catching Up…August 17, 2009 #2

2009-08-20T21:21:00.001-07:00

As stated earlier, Valdez is a port and everything is geared to fishing. We visited the area out of town where there is a fish hatchery and saw thousands of salmon. The pictures are dark because our first day in Valdez was pretty and all the rest were wet and cool…highs in the 50s.

Notice the dark areas in the water…those are salmon…there were so many they made the water look dark.

There was a very shallow area where the sea gulls were having a field day with the salmon. The first day we came to this area there was a black bear right in the middle of the gulls having his dinner…wouldn’t you know it, my camera battery had gone dead minutes before. We went back the next day and spent and hour or so watching but the bear did not return. This is one of the ferries that is part of the marine highway. View from our RV space in Valdez. This, whatever it is, is actually sitting in the water…the fog was so bad and the cloud cover so low you could not see it.

Upon leaving Valdez, Mark and Sue headed by to Anchorage to get Vic to the airport for his flight back to Lake Charles and Bob and I struck out for Tok.

Moving On.

Catching Up…August 17, 2009 #1

2009-08-20T20:50:00.001-07:00

It has been so long since my last post I hardly know where to start…I probably can’t even remember all we have done.

While in Palmer we did a day trip, actually several, into Anchorage to do some shopping. One evening we splurged and ordered king crab legs at a restaurant. My plate is one on the left and Bob’s is on the right. Guess who did most of the cleaning and the least of the eating. I am no expert at getting the meat out so my hands were bleeding in places by the time I was done. But I had better luck than Bob did…hmmmm, maybe he was just smarter…I was getting all the meat out for him. Our waiter even felt sorry for me.

Mark and Sue’s friend, Victor, flew into Anchorage to join them for a week. We all visited the Wrangell-St. Elias Nation Park. That’s Vic on the left.

Vic is a professional photographer…I caught him while he was in action.

The next morning we headed for Valdez. It was very cool, wet and foggy…and then also clear!

We stopped at this cute place for lunch. Notice the fog in the background.

There is not much to Valdez…of course it is know for the Exxon Valdez oil spill…except for fishing. This is the winning catch for the Halibut derby that was in progress.

Shots around town.

I will post further pictures of Valdez on my next entry…too many for this one.

Moving on.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

2009-08-07T01:18:00.001-07:00

We pulled up stakes at our nice little turnout at Portage and headed for Palmer which is about 30 miles northwest of Anchorage. We had to stop and get fuel and propane so Bob and I decided to have breakfast at a small cafe near the station. Met the most delightful lady working there…she is from Yugoslavia. She works the front part of the cafe and her daughter does the cooking. Sorry I did not take any pictures.

It was a rainy morning but we pushed on. As you come into Anchorage from the south you will see Turnagain Arm…this is part of Cooks Inlet. The tide was out and evidently this boat got caught. Notice the people walking around it. I suppose it had to wait for the tide to come back in to be able to move.

We are now staying at Fox Run RV park with a Palmer, AK address. We are less than 4 miles from Wasilla. Hello Sarah! After getting settled Bob and I backtracked to Anchorage…the babies were out of dog food. We splurged and went to Outback for a steak for us. The cities are my least favorite part of the trip but that steak was goooood!

When we got back to the park, Jag and Bev had arrived…another Tiffin motor home couple…so we spent some time visiting with them.

Not much to report for today.

Moving on.