Mardi Gras in Alabama May 9, 2012

 

Okay, so we are back to Alabama…it’s February and it’s Mardi Gras!  (Remember I am still trying to catch up.)  First you need to remember that Mardi Gras did not originate in New Orleans but in Mobile, AL. 

Bob and I decided to join Escapees…a club made up of RVers…yeah I know, another one.  To try to make a long story short…the Escapees have a park in Summerdale, AL which is about 8 miles from the park we winter at in Fairhope, AL.  Escapees are, to put it mildly, a fun loving group of people who are never idle.  Mardi Gras is the largest celebration the park, Rainbow Plantation, has during the year.  They elect a queen and a king…and here they are making their entrance to one of the activities.

And the jester…

Our great cook that plans and oversees all of our meals at Rainbow Plantation…you can see what a sophisticated group this is.

Why, we even had The Chenilles performing one night.

Besides fun and games, this group does a lot of charitable work.  Some of the ladies got together and made 15 quilts in one day and donated them to the sheriff’s department for the boy’s home that they sponsor.

Some of the guys pitched in also as you can see.  It was a busy day.

Moving on.

We’re Back May 4, 2012

 

I can’t believe I have not blogged since December of last year but it seems that is the case.  So here we go…finished working at Amazon.com on Dec. 23 and headed for the Dallas, TX area where we spent a wonderful Christmas with Bob’s two brothers and sisters-in-law and Gayle’s children and grandchildren…had a wonderful time. Just so you know the Moore boys…John, the youngest is on the left, Jim the middle boy is…drum roll…in the middle and of course my sweetie Bob, the oldest, on the right.

Then down to the Austin area to visit with my sister and her family.  Got some doctor stuff done and headed to Lake Charles, LA to see our good friends, Susan and Mark Didelot, not sure why I did not get a picture, it was so good to see them…then we were off to Red Bay, AL for our annual service appointment with Tiffin Motorhomes and Red Bay Diesel.

Friends, Art and Geri (on either side of me) were starting their new job as campground hosts at the Tiffin service center CG…we worked at Amazon together.  Then we discovered that our friends, Joe and Jan Lawrence who we had not seen in several years were also in the Tiffin campground.  You just can’t get away from us RVers.  We all enjoyed dinner together one night. 

Finished up with all of that and pointed the Phaeton south to spend a few months at Coastal Haven RV Park in Fairhope, Al. 

When we got there we found our fearless leader, Linda Saunders, whipping up goodies for us…Linda doesn’t quilt but she makes sure we don’t hungry during our sewing sessions…thanks so much Linda.This was our fourth winter in southern Alabama.  Had a wonderful time visiting with friends, eating so much shrimp and quilting with the ladies at CH.

Elise and Margie showing off one of Elise’s quilt tops. 

Bonni and Linda making some big decision…like where to go for lunch!

The Wiz and me showing off one of the quilt tops I finished.

Joan, Dodi and Sandy with one of their quilted hot pads.

Deanne and Eleanor sharing a machine during one of our classes.

The Wiz is helping me work on my “mystery quilt”. 

Mary Lawrence giving Rosanne some further instruction during one of our classes.

Sally…where are you…I don’t seem to have a picture of you with one of your beautiful creations…my bad!

More to come so stay tuned…Moving On.

December 1, 2011

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

 

     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

 

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

 

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.

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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

 

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.