Still hanging in Cornville

We head out of here next Thursday morning, getting very excited. I've got my Christmas Cards done, only mailing to people who I don't have an email address for. Between the stamps and the cards the cost is getting ridicules for something that will be thrown away. Unless you are like my daughter-in-law, Jodi, who keeps them taped up all year long. :) Why, I couldn't tell you.

Like I said we head out on Thursday for Redlands, Ca. where the RV will be worked on, I think it is just a tune up on the 11th. So once we get to Redlands we will leave the RV at the Repair place and then drive to my Brother Mike's house. We will spend the night there then leave Friday morning and drive back to Redlands to pick up the RV. Then we will drive to Simi Valley to park the RV at the side of David's house for the rest of the week. We leave Saturday morning for San Pedro where we will catch our cruise ship. We are going on a 7 day cruise to the Mexico - Riviera, Puerto Vallarta, where we will go Kayaking and Snorkeling Safari, then on to Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. We get back on the 19th and will stay at David's until the 21st. The 20th we will get together with almost all of the grand daughter's, Madison won't be there. We will then head up to Bakersfield and stay there until Dec. 30th. Bob and Jackie, RV friends, will be in Bakersfield too visiting their son and family, then the 4 of us will head out to Las Vegas for New Years. We will leave on the 2nd and head back home, Bob and Jackie coming along because they want to see our new house and stay and play. Anyway, enough of the future stuff.

Went and had my stitches removed from my knee, doc said everything doing OK, riding the bike better then jogging right now. Treadmill still not fixed anyway. Dave figured out that when I ride the bike 20 miles I limp when we go walking, when I only do 15 miles I don't limp. So needless to say, I don't want to push the knee too much so 15 is fine right now.

Dave had his colonscopy and has to go back in 5 yrs. and this Monday, tomorrow, he goes back and gets the stitches removed from his neck and back then we are done with doctors until next year, we hope.

Went and saw the movie 2012, it was OK, a lot of computer work done on that thing.

Yesterday we went to the Cottonwood Christmas parade, I posted pictures so you can see what a small town parade looks like, very funny stuff.

That's it for now, Happy Holidays!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Hope everyone has/had a nice Thanksgiving. Dave is going to smoke the 11lb turkey we got in the BBQ this afternoon. I'm making Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta and Balsamic Vinegar, never tried it before but looks really easy to do. We will also have a salad, stuffing, red potatoes, and Dave is baking a Pumpkin Apple Pie. All of it sounds like good diet food, but who cares.

Anyway since I last updated the blog I have had my knee surgery and a colonoscopy, Dave had some cysts removed from his back and neck. It seems like either both of us or at least one of us have been to the doctors every week. Next 2 weeks are no exception either. On 12/1 I see the knee doctor again, 12/3 Dave has his colonoscopy and on 12/7 Dave has his stitches removed. We live here on the 10th so the rest of December we hopefully will be doctor free.

Dave and I went back to walking after a week of letting my knee heal, I'm back to riding the bike but am waiting until I see the doctor again before I get back to jogging on the treadmill again or using the resistance on the Elliptical.

We went and saw The Blind Side yesterday, very good movie.

That's about all that is new with us, been doing the garage sales but haven't had a lot of good luck on buys, I think we might be getting burnt out on things we need for the house. Dave finished with the table and chairs, from garage sales, and now have them out in the front yard. Will post pictures of it later. My new treadmill finally showed up and it's broken already, I should say we received it broken, so Joaquin, the repair guy, ordered the new part for it, maybe it will get fixed next week. The treadmill still works for walking or jogging it just can't elevate at all.

Boy, I'm behind in posting anything/new addition

I'll start out with our New Addition to the Family, we have purchased a Jeep. They say you can't live here in Arizona without a jeep or some kind of off road vehicle. So many off roads to drive and you don't want to do it in your primary car, although, we have seen some people do it now that we can drive on the dirt and rock roads. It's a 1991 Jeep Wrangler with 137K miles on it, it's in really good shape and we can tow it with 4 wheels down on the ground. The paint was good, notice the word "was", the seats and interior are great, the best part is the price $4,700. We had planned on buying a 1981 Jeep from Mac, David Jr. and friends but after agreeing to buying it we found out we couldn't tow it with 4 wheels down, we were going to have to buy a tow dolly which we didn't want to do. Thank you guys so much for letting us back out of the deal. Although the 81 jeep was only 2K we were going to have to put another few K into it to make it really drivable so the 1991 worked out well for us. Yea, 2 vehicles again.

The paint is still good except we have been doing some off roading, climbing rocks, dirt roads ect and we now have what they call "Arizona Pin stripping"

I was hoping to have my knee surgery done by now, but no such luck. Last Monday, 11/2, I went to the surgeon's office and set up the surgery again for 11/5. I then went by the doctors office to get a note that said it was OK to have the surgery. The receptionist said she will send a note to the doctor and let me know.

The doctor called me Tuesday morning and said she wanted me to take a stress test before she would write the note. I went in Wednesday morning and did the treadmill/Xray 1 1/2 hour test, with and without Dye. Wednesday afternoon Dave and I got together with the Doctor and she told us the stress test was great, no problems with the heart or valves. I then mentioned about the new medicine that the surgeon had put me on since my kidneys had no blockage, and she didn't know a thing about it. She didn't know that I didn't have the stint put in until I told her. I had even called the doctors office the Friday after the procedure to tell the doctor about the new medicine but she was out until Tuesday and her assistant said she would run it by the doctor when she got back, if there were any problems they would call me. Since no call I figured everything was OK, no, the doctor wouldn't let me have surgery while being on the new medicine. No one had told her I had called and she hadn't seen the DVD taken of my kidney or seen the surgery report. I left my copy of the DVD for her to look at. We ended up going by the knee surgeons office and cancelled the surgery and they then said they would not reschedule again until they had a note from my doctor. Can't blame them, I had cancelled the surgery 3 times already.

Anyway, I'm on new blood pressure medicine and it has really controlled it, I'm having readings of 125/70 which is great. Tomorrow Dave and I see the doctor again and hopefully she will give me the OK to have the surgery next Monday or Thursday. Although, this coming up Monday Dave and I have consultations with the colonoscopy doctor, going to have that done next, but of course not at the same time.

That's about all that is new with us, been going to garage sales and estate sales and purchased some good cheap things, will post pictures soon. Did post new pictures of Madison the other day, remember to go under "our pictures".

The Rally is almost over

Today is the last day of the Rally, it's been fun seeing people again that we haven't seen in a long time. Getting together again with Stan and Ginger from Camarillo has been fun, hadn't seen them for a long time. So far they have sold 10 new Motor Homes, which I think is pretty darn good. Of course you can get good deals on them right now. We even found one for Kim and Danny for only 89K, it is 34 ft long it has a queen bed in back and 2 bunk beds on the side, it was pretty cute for a starter up one.

Before we left for the Rally, I don't think I mentioned, we had to get 2 new front tires, $500.00 a tire, ouch! We have 4 more to replace, but hopefully not all at the same time, they still look pretty good so far but RV Tires need to be replaced every 6 yrs, or are suppose to if you want to be safe.

Still all bruised up from the procedure that was done in Phoenix, the nurse said it will be like this for a couple weeks. Don't know why now though, I have bruises down lower on my leg, will check with the doctor next week. Good thing I didn't have it done in Bakersfield because I'm not suppose to lift anything over 10 lbs for 2 weeks, and that sure wouldn't have worked out well with Miss Madison.

We will head out tomorrow morning back to Cornville, and we plan on staying put until around the 11th of December. I think if we make it until then it will have been the longest we stayed in our house.

By the way, we got gas here in Tucson for $2.07, haven't seen it that low in I don't know how long.

No Blockage to Valve in Left Kidney

We are in Tucson, Arizona a couple days ahead of time for the RV Rally. They have 530 coaches showing up for this Rally, they had not expected such a turn out. It's the new company that took over part of the Monaco Coaches that had gone under like most of all the rest of the manufacturers. People showing up wanting to know what kind of service we can expect from this new company for repairs ect.

Wednesday night we left for Phoenix to spend the night in the parking lot of the John C. Lincoln Deer Valley Hospital. Thursday morning I had to check in at 7:30am for my stent procedure, which ended up not being needed, which is good. When I finally got in the operating room and they started I was just beginning to get the drugs when they stopped them. Doctor stood up and said I had no blockage, I'm like what, what is causing the high blood pressure? He said probably the family history, but my kidney's are working perfectly, which he had told me the week before that the ultra sound can be wrong at times. I just thought for sure more then 70% blockage the ultra sound couldn't be that wrong, but it was. He prescribed another medicine to take and we will go from there. Still he had started the procedure through the groin checked both kidneys and it is sore now, need to take it easy because of the plug he put in to the main artery, don't want that puppy opening up with my luck I'll bleed to death. One good thing is now I don't have to wait 30 days for the knee surgery. By the way, the little bit of drugs they gave me brought my blood pressure down to perfect levels. If the knee surgeon just gives me a little something the blood pressure would be fine and he wouldn't have to worry. :)

Got our flu shots today at Wal-mart no H1N1, shots aren't available here right now.

Test Results are back

Saw the Doctor yesterday and even talked to the Surgeon about what is going on with the high blood pressure. The heart exam came out great but the Kidney one did not, it seems I have greater than 70% stenosis in the proximal and mid renal artery. In other words 70% blockage to my left Kidney valve, due from Family History. Luckily we have caught it in time before any damage is done, so more then likely next Thursday I will go to Phoenix and have a stint put in to open the valve back up. It will be an over night stay in the hospital then after that we leave for our Rally in Tucson. I asked both Doctor's what causes this and they both said "It's your Family History" nothing I can do about it. If nothing is done though it could lead to kidney damage and a stroke, and we don't want that. After that surgery I have to wait 30 days before I can have my knee surgery because of the meds I'll be on.

Anyway, on a brighter note, Dave and I got done planting 12 Sage bushes along the back fence, boy was that a lot of work. Our backyard is all rocks, plus, once you move those rocks and try and dig there are even more rocks underneath.

We have been doing the garage sales and estate sales and made some pretty good buys this past weekend, lots of fun.

Dave's got another new job, non paying, he is now the Cyber Assistant to the Secretary of the Elk's Lodge in Jerome. Now he is a Cyber Assistant and Chairman on the Architectural committee.

The lady across the street from us, very unfriendly, let's her dog run around and yesterday the dog crapped in my yard and then the dog had the nerve to come running and barking at Dave and I when we got back from our walk. I chased the dog down, the lady came running out of her house and called her dog back, I told her to clean up my yard too! This is the 2nd time this dog has attacked us so this time I wrote the HOA and they said to call the Sheriff and report it, which I did this morning. The Sheriff called me back and said they will be out this afternoon to talk to her about the leash law. If she isn't home they will write her up, will see. If she can be so unfriendly so can I.

That's it for now, heading out for Bakersfield tomorrow for a few days, will come back to Arizona on Tuesday. We need a Miss Madison fix.

Back in Cornville

We finally finished cleaning out the RV and put it in storage, hopefully, no mice, snakes or anything else get in. Dave thinks he filled all the openings, will see when we get it back out of storage on the 22nd of Oct.

My car's front end has been shaking a lot so we had to take it in to get checked. With having only 1 car you either hang out at the repair place, take your bikes so you can ride home or just walk home. We choose walking home, it was almost 4 miles no biggie, just a little bit further then we walk every morning. When it was done we decided to ride our bikes down to go pick it up, never again. It was a lot more work riding the bike then walking, plus, not much of a bike lane and lots of cars use that road. The car ended up just needing an alignment and rotated the tires, thank goodness we thought it was going to be something major since the car has 120,000 miles on it.

This past Thursday we started finding the garage sales and estate sales again, Dave has found stuff to buy but I haven't yet. Friday we went to the Prescott Fair, very small, then on to Costco.

Saturday, in Cottonwood, we went to the Rhythm & Ribs fest, 4th year having it. With the price of admission you got 3 free sample tickets to try from any of the vendors. After that for a $1 the other vendors would give you a sample. They had a big stage setup for all the bands that were going to be playing. The best restaurant ribs, we thought, were Hog Wild. We have been wanting to try the place but just haven't done it yet, now we will be. Still haven't found out yet who won.

Dave is now Chairman of the Architectural Committee here. Since he missed the last meeting they voted him to become the Chairman, oh yea! (when you belong to a committee you better not miss a meeting) Plus, he will be working on the website for the Elks Lodge, so he should be keeping pretty busy. I don't think the Elks have done anything to their website since 2006 or 2007. There isn't much to do as Chairman except go to the meetings once a month, and if someone submits something they want to change on their house everyone has to look at it, if it is turned down then Dave has to write the letter.

My brother, Mike, did great through surgery and is doing good, my surgery was cancelled until November 2nd. Got to find out about this high blood pressure, am going tomorrow for a Echo Cardiogram with Doppler and a Renal Ultrasound test, will get results next week. I might also have a stress test next week if the BP is under control.

That's about it, Dave is starting to set water drips in the backyard so we can start planting things.

End of the Trip Blog / New Pics

Before I forget, in my last blog I said I had posted 4 or 5 new pic albums under Jeri's Picture Albums, now I have posted new pics and video's of Madison under "Our Picture Albums". I guess my pic albums are full and Dave had purchased more space under Our Pics.

OK let's get the end of the trip blog done.

We arrived in Bakersfield on Thursday 9/17, and it took Madison only a short while to get use to us, after that she was always wanting me to pick her up. We made it a point to see her, Kim and Danny everyday, it was great. Anyway, Saturday morning Danny, Dave, Madison and I drove down to David Jr's, us, for David's 40th b/day party, Danny and Madison were going to Danny's folks. When we got to David's Madison needed to eat and take a nap so Dave and I borrowed Danny's (really Kim's) car. We drove over the 1000 Oaks to Mac's house to look at the Jeep they are selling. Dave drove around with it and then we left, we needed to talk before buying it, so we had asked Davey (Mac) to drive it to the party at David's that night. We decided to buy it for driving the back roads in Arizona but Davey showed up he had forgotten to drive it over, no big deal we would get it in the morning. David's party was a lot of fun, Pirate theme, Saturday the 19th was Pirate day??? Everyone had a good time anyway, check out the pics I posted, plus you have to see the cake Stephanie made, unbelievable, it looks just like a Pirate's treasure chest. Boy she does great work.

Sunday morning, Dave and David drove over to Davey's to get the jeep, and Danny & Madison came by to pick us up and to go out to breakfast with us. Well, the guys didn't come back, and didn't come back so we finally called. They couldn't get the jeep in reverse so they left and said they would check it out and get it fixed. It ended up being a loose bolt, the transmission was fine. They wanted to get the front end aligned(?) too, I think, I don't know Dave and the boys deal with all of that stuff. All I know is when we drive down in October for Dezira's 18th b/day party we are picking the jeep up then. We will end up towing it behind my car, not bringing the RV down for that short of trip. We will stay in Bakersfield and Simi while we are down from the 16th to the 19th.

When we got back Sunday, in the late afternoon, Kim had a nice weekend being able to sleep while all of us were gone. Danny needed to do some grocery shopping so when Kim left for work he came over to the coach and dropped Madison off, did his shopping at Smart & Final then came back and visited with us.

Monday morning was coach cleaning time, boy in a month that place sure was dirty, plus, since it was going into storage we really wanted to clean things up. In the afternoon Dave dropped me off at Kim's, after Madison's nap, so I could watch Madison and Kim could continue napping. Madison and I ran all over the house and played, when she gets really excited she has a really high pitched scream. I would cover her mouth, and tell her "no screaming" she would just smile and stay playing again. We had a good time and was really surprised that Kim never woke up once, lucky us.

Tuesday, we cleaned the basement of the coach, then an RV coach cleaning company came by and washed the whole outside of the coach and our awnings. Kim and I did some shopping in the afternoon.

Wednesday, the air conditioning people came by and put in our new bigger air conditioner. We went from a 13.5k to a 15k, what ever that means. I just know it cools the coach off a lot quicker. While that was being installed I had driven over the Kim's to hang with her and Madison until it was nap time for both. That night we all went out to dinner when Danny got off of work.

Dave and I got on the road before 6am on Thursday and were back in Cornville, AZ by 3:30pm. Long drive but we kept switching off every 2 to 3 hours. Once we got to the house we starting emptying out the coach. It was going to be going into storage at 1000 trails and we wanted everything out, hopefully we won't get any mice this time. By 5pm we drove it over to 1000 trails and decided to finish taking everything out on Friday, which we did.

Forgot to mention, on our way back to Arizona I got a call from my brother, Marty, and he just purchased a Travel Trailer, so he has joined the ranks as me, he will now be known as Trailer Trash, as our older brother, Mike, calls me. Sorry Mike, now you can tell your friends that you now have a younger brother and sister that are trailer trash, are you sure you don't want to join us?? :)

That gets me caught up from our trip, next blog is what has been going on since we got back to Cornville, boring I'm sure.

Tomorrow, 9/30, my brother,Mike, is having surgery, everything will be OK I know, but say a little prayer for him and say a BIG ONE for TRINI, his wife, she will need it while he is recovering. :)

IT'S GETTING HARDER AND HARDER TO BLOG

With posting every day on Facebook it is getting harder and harder to do the blog. You feel like you have said everything already, but you really haven't because not everyone is on Facebook. OK enough of that, I need to recap the Yellowstone blog.

But 1st, Happy belated birthday to Kelli Miller, Inara Tomlinson, and David Alton Jr.

Yellowstone

The 1st day we drove into the park to the 1st visitor center, just to find out all the things we need to see. The Ranger we talked to said you will see most of the animals early in the morning and at dusk. We asked it he knew anything about the RV Parks inside the park and he told us to go next door to 1 of the RV Parks and they could help us. We went there and made reservations for Sunday and Monday night at the Grant Campground. Then we drove back into the RV Park we were staying at, which was right outside of Yellowstone Park. We toured around and went to the Imax Theatre to watch a movie on Yellowstone. The next day, Saturday, we drove to Grant RV Park to check it out. On the way we stopped and took pictures of the Elk and Bison, the Bison were right next to the cars, Elk's you had to walk out a little bit. When we got to the RV Park and checked out the sites there was no way we were taking our rig to those little sites. So we ended up cancelling the Sunday and Monday night stays. The only reason we were trying to find another place to stay was because Yellowstone had closed down the road from Madison Junction to Norris Junction. To try and see all of Yellowstone we needed that road to be open and since it wasn't it was going to be very long driving days to see the whole place and to try and not drive when it is dark. As the Rangers said, the Bison are on the roads all the time and they guaranteed that if you hit one of those 2 thousand pound Bison, the Bison would walk away but you would not. They said the Bison might die later but your car was not going anywhere. We ended up making reservations at a motel, Travel Lodge, at the North Park entrance for Sunday night.

Driving to the Grant RV Park, on Saturday, we had passed "Old Faithful" and all the other Geyser's. So we backed tracked to "Old Faithful" and walked the area for 2 hours, at least. We did touring around all the way back to our RV Park we were staying at. The pictures we have posted show the Bison and the Elk we saw, Yellowstone is amazing to see, everyone has to make that trip. We left early on Sunday morning and did the touring around the sites closest to the North entrance of the park, plus that was where our motel was. We did the Mammoth Hot Springs loop, now in Mammoth Hot Springs the Elk are right there in the community. As said by one kid that lives there, the Elk are great lawn mowers but very loud. The male elk are always making howling noise. Monday after leaving the motel, another early start, so much for retirement, we drove back in the North Gate and stopped in Mammoth Hot Springs for breakfast. When we got out of the car there were 2 Bull Elk right in front of us fighting it out. If you look at the pics I posted we only managed to get them running after each other, it just all happened too fast. Monday, after breakfast, we drove the Canyon ridge of Yellowstone, ran into 1 Bison, didn't hit it thank goodness, but we saw Elk, Bison and Antelope. Yellowstone was just amazing, we actually need to go back and stay inside the park, at Fishing Bridge, which can handle something our size, for about 7 days if you really want to see everything.

When we left Yellowstone on Tuesday we stopped in Idaho Falls and saw my Aunt Ann, had a great time. We went out to lunch and visited for a couple hours, she has lost 40 lbs and what really surprised me was that she looks like my deceased Mom, just blew my mind, and when she turned around you would not have been able to tell the 2 apart. Dave even was blown away.

After lunch in Idaho Falls we drove to Wal-Mart in Taylorsville Utah and spent the night there. Wednesday we drove to St. George Utah and spent the night at the Elk's Lodge and had dinner with my Aunt Evelyn. We went in the late afternoon to Aunt Evelyn's and the talking never stopped. We all laughed so much I thought my sides were going to split. Would you ever think I would be talking with my Aunt Evelyn about Viagra, boy that's when I almost wet myself. Boy it sure is fun getting together with my Aunts, Mom's sisters, just wish I had more time with them.

After leaving St. George on Wednesday we were headed for Simi Valley, on the way we called the Simi Elk's Lodge and they were full. I was driving at the time and when I saw a sign that said "Old 58, Bakersfield" Dave was in the bathroom and I yelled that I had changed my mind and we were going to Bakersfield, I was just kidding. When he walked back up to the front I asked him if he had heard me and he said no. I repeated what I had said and he said let's go for it. We can drive down to Simi from Bakersfield on Saturday for David Jr's Birthday. So I ended up driving from Baker, Ca to Bakersfield Ca. long drive but well worth it. It was really a shorter drive then driving to Simi, I think.

We called Kim and she and Madison came by the coach later that afternoon. It took Madison a little time to get use to us again, but that's to be expected.

By the way we added 2 more states to our travel log, to be in the travel log states you have had to either sleep in the state or had sex in the state, we added Idaho and Montana, you guess what we had done to get that state, maybe both.:)

Next update will be the Bakersfield and Simi Valley visit.

Please remember I have updated the Pics

Part 1 of New Update

Tuesday, 9/8, we drove to Bob & Jackie's friends house in Priest River, Idaho. What a place, right on the water. Gary is still in the process of building their house, they hope it will be done by this time next year. Right now the 3 of them, Gary, Alana and their daughter Christy are living in a 2 story garage, that Gary put together. Anyway we had a great time with them that night. As a matter of fact we just talked to Bob today and they are still there.

Wednesday Dave and I stopped in Anaconda Montana for the night. We toured around Butte, saw the Washoe Smelter Stack, where they use to process Copper/Ore. Right next door was the Fairmont Hot Springs Resorts. You pay 6 bucks and you can stay and swim all day. They have 2 Olympic size pools(1 indoor and 1 outdoor) and 2 soaking pools, also inside and out. They cool the water to between 88 and 104 degrees. The pools are natural hot springs so that's why they have to cool them. Thank goodness it wasn't a hot day, cool outside so the pools felt good but boy were you cold when you got out. The day we went the pools were at 93/94 and the soaking pools were 103/104. In Anaconda and Butte we noticed there is just about a Casino on every corner. Also in Butte we got to see "Our Lady of the Rockies". You can read about it on the web www.ourladyoftherockies.org.

Friday we arrived in Yellowstone Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone MT.

I'll recap that in the next blog.

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN

It's that time again for another update.

Last update we were in Port Townsend, that was on 9/1, Wednesday we were at Mount Vernon Wa. at a very nice RV Park, where we stayed a few days. Thursday we took our car and got on the ferry for San Juan Islands/Friday Harbor. There were 6 of us and my car only seats 5 so guess who got to ride in the very back of the car, ME, they said it was because I was the youngest. We drove around the hole island, stopped and did site seeing, looked for whales but no luck there. Then we took the ferry over to Orcas Island. Didn't get back home until almost 9pm, very long day. Friday, we all got caught up with our laundry, just hung around. Linda and Doonie drove down from Bellingham to have an early dinner with us, it was also a surprise early birthday celebration for Linda. Saturday Lou and Sharon hit the road for Wenatchee, so now we are down to just 4 of us. Bob, Jackie, Dave and me. We also hit the road on Saturday to Okanogan, Wa. to the Fairgrounds there. It was a long driving day, just 2 lane roads, so we had to keep pulling over to let cars go by. We also made a lot of stops for site seeing and picture taking, it was a beautiful drive. Then on Sunday we hit the road again and ended up in Sandpoint Wa. staying in a Walmart parking lot. Yesterday, we drove around Canada and did site seeing, but before crossing the border I couldn't find my passport. I know I had put Dave's and my passport in my purse. The Canada border guy said as long as I had a drivers license I could come in but we were more worried about getting back into the U.S. Dave made a u-turn and we went and asked the U.S. Border guy and he said he can't stop me from coming back into the U.S. as long as I can prove I am a U.S. citizen. So we made a u-turn again and went into Canada. We toured around there and took a ferry ride, with the car across Kootenay Lake. We found this Broom Shop, which made the Brooms for the Harry Potter Movies. When coming back into the U.S. they only asked me where I was born, it was no problem getting back and when we got back to the RV there was my passport on the floor board right before you walk out the door. The problem was I hadn't zipped up my purse and the darn thing just fell out, we were just happy we found it.

Bob and Jackie have friends here in the area so we will be going and parking the RV's at their place today.

Hole in "1" / No Sugar Beet Harvest

We are now in Port Townsend, Washington at the Elk's Lodge. Dave, Bob and Lou went to play golf while Jackie, Sharon and I went into town. Linda and Doonie (Linda's BF/sister-in-law) took off for the San Juan Islands, will catch up with her later in Bellingham. When the guys got back from golf, they were so excited to tell us that Dave had got a Hole in One on the 2nd tee. Bob and Lou have been golfing forever and had never had a hole in 1 and had never been present with anyone that got one either, so they were all excited. Congratulations Dave.

We had been calling about the Sugar Beet Harvest and were told that they were still working on the invites. While we were gassing up in Tillamook, they called on my phone and said they were sending out the invites. Well, we never got one, so now we will be back at the end of September instead of the end of October.

I need to recap what this last week has been. We were in Lincoln City Oregon on the 23rd and 24th then headed for Fort Stevens State Park in Hammond Oregon. What a nice State Park, we got to do so much walking, it was wonderful. Before we got there though, we stopped in Tillamook, Oregon and went through the cheese factory, you know Tillamook Cheese. They seem to be famous for their ice cream too, so we had to have ice cream and also picked up some of their cheese too. While in Hammond we took a day and went driving around New Port and Long Beach, Washington touring Light Houses, and just checking out the area. Linda took off to pick up Doonie so it was just the 6 of us touring around. Friday, the 28th, we drove to the Bremerton Washington Elks. Saturday Linda, Doonie, Dave and I took the ferry over to Seattle and walked Pikes Market and took the Under Ground Tour of the city. It had rained all night long be once morning came it didn't rain again, figures since Dave and I had our umbrellas with us. Saturday, early evening, we drove to Linda's friends house in Hansville. It's a neighbor of hers from St. George Utah, they live in St. George in the winter and Hansville in the summer. They are right on the water, beautiful spot, beautiful house and they have their own dock and boat. Larry and Linda had a fantastic dinner ready for all of us. Larry had gone out that morning and caught lots of crabs and salmon. You get that stuff that fresh boy the flavor is something else. Oh, forgot to mention, Dave and I were driving with Linda and Doonie, while flying down the road this goat, with a rope hanging from it's neck, runs into the middle of the road. The 3 of us starting yelling stop, which Linda did do, and luckily Bob and the rest of them weren't too close behind us. Linda wasn't happy with us, she said it was just a damn goat on a rope and it was better to hit it then us get hit from behind from all the other vehicles. While driving home that night, after dinner, it was dark so we had to watch out for deers and goats on ropes. :)

At least now being in Port Townsend we finally have TV again, yea!! Still haven't seen a Walmart in a week and we are out of Walmart bags for our trash, if anyone finds out we will be kicked out of the Trailer Trash Club. :)

That's it for now, will update more later.

Recap of Trip so far, plus, Happy Birthday Marisa

We are in Elkton Oregon right now, arrived on Friday afternoon. Went to Marty's for dinner, what a fantastic dinner. We kind of made it a surprise 50th anniversary for Bob and Jackie, Marty made a special cake for them, it was very nice.

Linda showed up on Monday in the afternoon. we had all gotten together Monday night at Bob and Jackie's to talk about the trip. Headed out on Tuesday and stopped in Eureka, at the Moose Lodge, the Elk's Lodge was full. Stayed for 2 days and went touring around, Bob and Jackie use to live there so they were our tour master's.

Wednesday we left for Coquille, Oregon and stopped at the Elk's Lodge there. It was an all day drive, only because we made a lot of stops on the way. Our windshield wiper fell apart so we stopped at Walmart to try and get a new one. We are driving on the coast and with the fog we needed that windshield wiper. Walmart only had a 28 inch one and we needed a 32 inch one. We got it anyway, it was better then nothing, will get the right one later. Anyway, Coquille Valley Elk's Lodge camping is right in front of the golf course the Elk's own. Friday morning Dave, Bob, Lou, and Linda played golf, Jackie and I walked the course with them. Sharon, Bob's girl friend, wasn't feeling too well so she stayed in their RV. (there are 7 of us travelling together, soon to be 8, Linda's sister in law will join us on the 26th)

We left Coquille Valley on the 21st and landed in Elkton Oregon in the afternoon. We had dinner at Marty's, like I said before, and yesterday we drove into Winchester Bay and toured around and picked up Oyster's to BBQ for dinner. This morning we head out again and will end up in Lincoln City Oregon, another Elk's Lodge we hope.

Having a great time so far, will recap more of our trip later on.

Happy 36th Birthday to my niece, Marisa.

Happy 2nd Anniversary Kim and Danny/Happy b/day Uncle Renzo

Just posted an update the other day but wanted to say to Kim and Danny "Happy 2nd Anniversary" and "Happy Birthday" to Uncle Renzo.

I did the 5 miles by myself today, Dave took Bob to the Dealership so Bob's car could be looked at before we leave. I did mostly walking but included some jogging which I am paying for with my knee tonight. I am going to have surgery when we get back to Arizona, I can't handle being layed up.

We are headed out tomorrow for Eureka and staying at the Elks Lodge there, plan on being at Elkton, Oregon on Friday the 21st.

There are 4 of us rigs travelling together right now, but we have been in touch with people from the Mexican Caravan we were on, and some of them are in Oregon/Washington now and want to meet up with us, so this should be interesting.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

We are in Redding Calif. now, got in at 6:30pm last night. Staying at the Elk's Lodge, after setting up we headed for Bob and Jackie's house for a visit and dinner.

Recap time.

We left Arizona on Monday, 8/10, and made it to Simi Valley around 2pm. We stayed at David's until everyone got home from work. We visited with Jodi and David then had a late dinner at Macaroni Grill. Dave and I got on the road Tuesday morning and headed for Bakersfield to pick up our RV, yea it's fixed. The new bigger air conditioner hadn't come in yet so will have to get that installed when we get back in October. We parked the RV in front of the kids house for the next 3 days, and stayed in the house. One way to save money. Miss Madison wanted me to hold her every time she saw me, hold her and walk around as she points to everything. While there every morning Dave and I told their dog, Toby, walking with us, he needed the exercise. Danny told us that the week before Madison had been playing with his phone and even though it was locked Madison managed to somehow dial 911. Danny said he was sitting there then he heard "911 operator what's the emergency" Danny grabbed the phone and said it was a mistake and he was sorry, too funny.

We left Friday and headed for Sacramento but before we got going one of back tires was low on air so we had to fill it. We stayed at the Elk's Lodge in Carmichael and on Saturday visited with Dave's cousins for a little bit then went to his Aunt's house and took her to lunch. As we were getting ready to leave and head for Redding the back tire again was really low this time. We filled it with air again, hooked up the car, then we noticed the back tire on the car was low. We had to unhook the car, drive to the front of the coach and fill the car tire. We stopped a couple times on the way to Redding to check on the tires and they seemed to be OK. Dave thinks the stem on the back tires was loose and that's why our tire kept getting low, he tightened it and it seems to be holding. The car tire seems to be doing good too. I had purchased a book on tapes so listen to on our drive but the radio doesn't seem to be working now. Dave pulled the radio out and there were sunflowers seeds everywhere so we thought maybe those mice, before we killed them, had chewed through a wire but we couldn't find anything. Dave had something to test the speakers and they are working so it is the radio. Now headed for Best Buy for a new radio, this RV is slowly starting to turn into the money pit. :)

That's it for now, Linda will show up tomorrow and we will all head out (4 rigs) on Tuesday. Will be at Marty's on Friday.

I posted new pics

Recap of Grand Daughters visit

It's Sunday night almost 9:30 pm and the girls and I just got back from the pool. They are now taking turns getting showers and getting ready for bed. Dave stayed back at the house to finish packing up the food and getting a shower and starting the last of the laundry. We went to Clarkdale for Mexican food for dinner. Did all the dishes and don't want to dirty the kitchen again. Dave mopped this afternoon and I vacuumed and cleaned bathrooms. When we head out tomorrow for Simi Valley we won't be back to the Arizona house for almost 3 months. I know coming back after 3 months I won't be a happy camper because of the spider webs and stuff like that, goodness, lets hope a family of scorpions don't move in while we are gone.

Last I wrote we were headed for the Grand Canyon, it was a long drive and we saw some beautiful sites, had a picnic lunch, stayed maybe 2 hours then back to the house because the girls wanted to swim. While driving they each had their own DS's (what ever that is) and both of the batteries died. Do you think either one of them brought their chargers from home in Simi? Noooooo! We had to stop in Flagstaff at the Best Buy and buy a new charger that they could use. They must have those games for the long drive back to California. Friday we all went to Slide Rock Park. The idea is you get in the ice cold water and ride the rocks down. There were lots of people and not many spots with shade for you to sit in. You just plant your butt down were ever you could which of course was sitting on rocks so it wasn't very comfortable. Dave went with the girls to the top of the slide area, I stayed and watched our stuff. They got back and Dave said it was fun but some of the slide areas weren't wide enough for him to get through so he had to get up and walk around it. The girls had fun but after a while Bryauna didn't want to do it anymore because she was getting like a rash on her legs, it was just because the rocks were rough. Riley put her shorts on and went a couple more times, we ate some lunch then headed back to the house so the girls could go swimming again at the club house. Dinner that night was a bust, they said my enchiladas were too hot, I used mild sauce, but they liked the rice and beans and salad. Dave had taken them to rent movies, they got 3, because there would be no night swimming, too burnt out because of the sun at slide park. We wanted to have them watch the movies through out the weekend, but our fault, Riley stayed up all night and watched all 3. Bryauna had gone to sleep. Needless to say we had to make Riley get up so we could go to "Out of Africa" on Saturday, we needed to be there by 11am because the shows started at 11:30am. Thank goodness the park was only 15 min. away.

Bryauna is not a late sleeper at all, every time Dave and I got back from our walk in the morning she was always up watching TV and waiting for us. She was always up between 6 and 7am, Jesica (her mom) is lucky she won't have any problems when school starts for Bryauna.

Out of Africa was a lot of fun, the Tiger Splash was great and the Bear splash was fun too. Amazing seeing the trainers in there with the animals being chased and jumping in the pools and the tiger and bears jumping in the pool after them. One time one of the trainers was in the pool trying to fix the light one of the bears had torn off, the other trainer was running and the bear was chasing him the bear saw the trainer trying to fix the light and he turned and jumped right on top of the trainer. That was scary but all the trainers ran to his rescue, no one was hurt. We stayed for about 4 or 5 hours walking around checking out the animals and even went on the bus tour where the giraffe sticks it's head in the bus trying to get the food from you. The giraffe licked Riley's and Bryauna's hands, gross!! Then back to the house so the girls could go swimming.

Sunday, today, was Montezuma Castle National Monument, boring for the girls. Now if they could have gone up to one of those caves, that would have been fun for them, needless to say we left after about 1/2 hour, if that long. The girls wanted to hang around the house so they watched TV and played while Dave and I cleaned. Around 2 we all went over to the pool to swim for a while. I must say my tan has gotten a lot darker since the girls got here, I have been trying to stay out of the sun, or not tan as much, because of the big "C". I am starting to think about these things more and more now that I am getting older. With the girls here we have been out in the sun doing things all day long, it's been fun.

PS I've posted pictures of the girls visit.

Update Time

Way past due for an update.

Let's see, last Wednesday, 29th of July, we drove down to Garden Grove, Calif. to stay with my brother, Mike, and family. Marisa, Shawn, and Inara had flown in from Colorado the week before for a 12 day visit. We arrived early afternoon and had a great visit with everyone. Kim and Madison showed up on Thursday and at 1st Madison and Inara had their little differences but it didn't last long. I've posted pictures of our 3 days with family. Always a house full at Mike and Trini's, Rob, Kelli and Alex even flew down from Washington, it was really great seeing everyone again.

Kim left Friday morning because she had to work that night. Dave and I left a little after 12pm and headed for Joyce's funeral. (Dave's ex wife) The service had a pretty good crowd, Laura, David Jr.s, ex wife, officiated the service. After that Dave and I headed back to Simi Valley but made a little house hunting trip 1st before we left Long Beach. We went hunting for the very 1st house we bought together, 30 years ago. Don't know how he did it but Dave ended up remembering the street address and name, amazing. Boy, the neighborhood didn't look that great and the house was very small and needed paint badly. Once in Simi we went to David Jr.s house and waited for them to get back. That night we did Costco pizza and visited with David, Jodi, Riley, Jeff, Carolyn (Jeff's girlfriend), Bryauna, and Jayden.

We left Saturday morning and headed back to Cornville, Arizona. After an 1 hr on the road we realized we had left our computers at David's. So we turned around and headed back, Dave called David and we met 1/2 way to get the computers. THANK YOU SO MUCH David for jumping in your car and bringing the computers, your Dad owes you big time.

Yesterday, Bryauna and Riley flew into Phoenix to visit us for the next 6 days. We left the airport and took them to a Waffle House, neither had been to one before. They are just about on every corner and just cute little restaurants. Then to Costco for gas and to return a mixer. Next stop was Sedona so they could see the Red Rocks and we stopped at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is a church built into the side of the red rocks, just pretty neat to see. We then drove into Sedona and walked around the shops, stopped for ice cream and soda, very hot out 102 I believe. They wanted to go to our house after that. They both really liked the house and we hung around a little bit then on to the pool. We stayed for a couple hours then back to the house to fix dinner and at 7ish we did the phone and camera thing with Danny, Kim and Madison. The girls thought that was great, talking and seeing Madison at the same time and Madison seeing us. Around 8 it was back to the pool until 9:30pm then back home again. When I went to bed at 11 the girls were sound asleep.

Today we are headed for the Grand Canyon, another long driving day, but the last long driving day until Monday when we head back to Simi Valley.

P.S. Happy belated Anniversay to Marisa and Shawn 5 years and counting. 7/30

Baby Scropion in Closet!!!!

Yesterday when I got the vacuum out of the closet I noticed something on the floor, like a odd shaped piece of wood or something, said to myself I'll pick that up later. Put the vacuum back and still didn't pick it up so this morning while getting the vacuum out again I must have knocked the thing a little closer to the door. When I pushed the closet door closed I could see the think so I bent down and started to pick it up. Then I could have sworn it moved a little I bent down closer and still couldn't tell, and I had my glasses on. So I went and got the magnifying glass and yelled for Dave. I said is this a scorpion and Dave said if you have to use a magnifying glass to tell then it's not a scorpion. I said bull you come look, he told the magnifying glass and sure enough it was a baby scorpion laying on it's back with its little legs moving, it was dieing but it was still moving. Dave stepped on it to put it out of it's misery, but where did it come from and where is mama and papa? I am really not a happy camper now, needless to say I'm getting the inside of the house sprayed again!

Last Thursday we had one heck of a Monsoon, there was so much rain, hail, and the lighting was all around us. I was talking to Kim on the phone and she couldn't believe how loud it was. Dave had to run out to the club house for a meeting and he said it was a river running down the road. It is Monsoon season here so just about every afternoon we have rain, but this was the 1st time is was right above us, very scary.

We have been doing swap meets, garage sales and estate sales this last week and have gotten some great buys. We found a dresser for the spare room, Dave needs to paint it which he is in the middle of doing right now as I write. We found a soda fountain like table set that we will put in the front yard. Dave is going to build a bridge that will take you to it so you don't have to walk through all the rocks. I got some great deals on pots for the kitchen cabinets, and a pretty basket thing for our bedroom. I'll post new pictures.

What is weird here is seeing guns being sold at the swap meets, plus seeing people with guns hanging from their sides. I guess if you walked around with a gun showing no one is going to mess with you.

I was going through picture albums, looking for stuff for David Jr. and ran across Kim's baby book, she was walking when she was 10 months old, so I guess that's where Miss Madison gets it from.

MRI Results Are In

Dave and I both had appointments with the Orthopedic doctor, Dave's knees have been hurting again so he thought he would let the doctor look at his knees too. The only problem is you have to have a different appointment for each knee, the doctor will only look at one knee at a time, you know they have to make their money. Anyway, Dave picked his right knee so they took x-rays of his right knee and also they take a picture of both knees side by side. When the doctor came in he started with Dave, he took one look and said his knees are gone. He needs both whole knee replacements. (They 1/2 knee replacements now, who knew?) The doctor was amazed to hear that Dave and I walk 2 1/2 to 3 miles every morning. He said "on those knees, boy you must have a high pain tolerance" as long as they don't hurt I won't do knee surgery. When you can't stand the pain anymore then we should do surgery.

Then it was my turn for the MRI results. Well it ends up being a torn meniscus, which everyone thought, but I also have a moderate-sized Baker's cyst, which is what my mom had. A Baker's cyst is a condition in which you experience a bulge and a feeling of tightness behind your knee. The pain gets worse when you fully extend your knee or when you're active. Well, we have a problem here, I must stay active, the doctor and the therapist said to keep moving, as long as it doesn't hurt, so that's what I am going to do.

The doctor still said to go to therapy but when the pain is too much we should go in and fix the torn meniscus but that I was also a candidate for a 1/2 knee replacement. What the hell is he talking about I'm too young too even talk about knee replacement, my mind still thinks that I am in my late 20's early 30's, but my body sure isn't agreeing with my mind. Hell, in my younger days, I thought I would never live to be as old as 25, now at 51 could I live to be 70, 80, or 90, I sure don't think so, but the closer you get the more you think about it.

Last Saturday, 7/18, Joaquin showed up to fix my treadmill, well that didn't happen. The parts they had sent us, they were guessing what was wrong, were not the right parts. Now they think it is the counsel, so that is on order now. Darn, I what my treadmill back soooo much. Once the new part shows, that they are shipping us, then again we have to set up an appointment for Joaquin to show up again.

Monday night we went to the Verde Santa Fe board meeting, Dave is going to volunteer for one of the committees. It's another way to meet more people. It's funny, since this town isn't that big, we go places and see people you have seen before, which means we have to start remembering everyone's name. Simi was so big we never had that problem, and with me I have a real problem remembeing names, I just don't listen, that's my problem. People say to repeat the name and then spell it, that helps you to remember, I guess I'll try that. (but 1st I have to try and remember to listen)

The Mexican statue I had sitting on the wall, fell and broke, so I got a bigger one. When Dave was out working out in the garage the other day he heard a crash and realized the wind had knocked over my second Mexican guy. Needless to say if I get another one, which I will, I will need earth quake glue, which I'm sure we won't be able to find in Arizona, or I'm nailing that sucker down.

I mentioned earlier that Dave is working in the garage, boy, is he in 7th heaven. If it wasn't for the heat (98 to 105) he would probably be out there all day. He has so many projects going on right now they all involve the garage. Work bench, cabinets, addition to his table saw, but I have to admit he cleans up everyday so the car can be parked in the garage. In 30 years that has never happened, except maybe Oxnard, cars just were not welcome in Dave's garages.

Happy Belated Birthday to my brother, Mike

61 years young, Happy Birthday, Bro. One Day Late!!

Follow up from the last blog, the farmer's market was just as strange as the last time, it was very hot still at 5pm. The band was setting up and people started setting up their seats to sit and listen to them. They were selling home grown stuff like little heads of lettuce, diff. veg. they also had wood built products, and Tye dye shirts. We stopped at one booth and the lady was spinning wool, which she had gotten from her Alpaca's. As she was talking to another couple we listened in and she said the person that was helping her was her best boy. Well, this best boy had arm pits you could braid the hair, legs were very hairy and when it turned around it was wearing a bra and had boobs. Best Boy???? It(he/she) was covered in tattoos and was wearing the pants down to the knees with the long shirt, you know the guys you see now with that if their shirts weren't long enough their ass crack would be hanging out. Dave decided that with all the girls/ladies that we saw, I now need some tattoo's if I want to fit in here. The guys aren't covered in tats but the females are, so now I need to decide on what I want and how many. (JUST KIDDING)

This weekend I cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed the house and dusted the place. Boy, now I know why I had a maid in Simi. It wasn't bad in the motor home, although I didn't do the bathroom or floors. One thing that is good, after living in the motor home for 3 years you got use to making the bed every time you got up and when you took a shower you wiped down the shower. I decided when we moved back into the house we would keep up the same routine which has really helped with shower/bathroom cleaning.

Sunday we went garage sale browsing again, we found an estate sale and got a paper shredder and file cabinet (government style 2 drawer) for 1 dollar each. Believe it or not they both work, great. Discovered if you go to an estate sale on the last day they will wheel and deal on anything.

Today was the doctor appointment for my knee. They took their own x-rays and this doctor said I do have some arthritis, he believes I have a torn meniscus, like the Bakersfield doctor said, he doesn't think I need surgery yet(and either did the Bakersfield Doctor) He believes I just need physical therapy, which I will be starting. We still are going to do an MRI, our decision, because we are leaving in a month and just want to really check things out. After leaving the doctor's he gave me a prescription for an MRI, which is scheduled for this Friday, and a prescription for physical therapy. The physical therapy place said I couldn't get in until next Monday, but they would call if they had a cancellation.

Dave and I left and went looking at the Polaris Ranger's, off roading vehicles. We drove in the Polaris Ranger 700 together around the place, what fun, then Dave drove the Kawasaki, lower grade, which was very noisy.

The Ranger had the off road stuff we would like to do, plus had a small pick up bed that we could haul stuff in. Pipe dream right now for us, maybe in the future, although they had a six passenger, used 2008, on sale for 8K. Can't really do it right now because we are going to be heading out on the road again, plus just can't afford it right now.

When we were getting ready to leave after looking at the Polaris's I got a call from the Physical Therapist, they could see me now so we went there right away. I was there about 1 1/2 hours going through my evaluation and then was sent home with exercises to do. I now am going to see my new Therapist 3 days a week, starting tomorrow. Chas believes I have a torn meniscus too but not bad enough for surgery yet, so seeing him will hopefully help me get my knee back in shape.

One quick update on Madison, Kim will follow up on her blog but Madison has another tooth coming in, thank goodness Kim isn't breast feeding, the kid is only 1 years old and has 7 teeth.

I have a jigsaw puzzle on my kitchen table now, haven't done one of those for years, boy is it fun and keeps the mind active.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS MADISON

1 year old today, finally. It seems like we just had a 1st birthday party for you just a month ago, oh yea, we did. :)

We got back to Arizona yesterday afternoon and decided it was a lot cheaper driving in the car instead of the motor home. We only had to stop for gas once and it cost 40 something dollars vs. the motor home fill up which is 250. We had the car packed with everything and so far we haven't missed anything yet, but then again we have only been back 1 day.

Yavapai Fence Inc. came by this morning and started putting in the post for the new fence. They just dug the holes and cemented them in and will be back tomorrow to finish the job. Tonight at 5pm is Cottonwood's Farmers market and band, will have to go check this out. We went a few years back and strange people showed up and were dancing around, will go a see if they still do the same thing.

My right knee is not getting any better, the swelling just won't go down so I have an appointment with the surgeon next Tuesday. I've got to get this taken care of before we leave on our 3 month trip, don't want to be on the road and needing surgery, that's for sure.

Kim starts back to work tomorrow night, her baby bonding is over, Danny has one more week left. All the girls they had all week go back this afternoon. Kim had to go to CPR class all day so Danny had all the girls all day, he took them to the Wild. That's a place where there are jungle gyms and other things the kids can play on. Kim said she will give a run down on the week in her blog tomorrow.

That's it for now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADISON

We love you

New Photos and New Update on Mice

To begin with, new photos have been posted. They are of Aimee's wedding, one of Kim's best friends, and all of our grand-daughters plus Danny and Kim's niece's, Karla and Jessica. In other words Madison's cousins. Got to give Kim and Danny credit, they took on 5 niece's plus Madison, which they have to take on! Kim thought it would be a lot of fun to have Danny and Kim's nieces, Karla, Jessica(Danny's sisters kids) Bryauna and Jayden(Jeff's daughters) and Riley(David's step daughter) up for Madison's 1st birthday. 6 girls, maybe having them for 5 days will change Kim's mind about having 4 kids, which she had mentioned in her blog. There are pictures too of all the girls swimming in the pool at the RV Park that we, Dave and I, stay at.

There are also pictures of the fruit place we went to today where we got a hay ride and you got to pick your own fruit. All the kids got to go to the petting zoo after we had lunch that Kim had made for everyone. I'm very impressed, Kim is really handling everything very well, I still hope she changes her mind about having 4 kids tho.

Let me back track, since we have gotten back to Bakersfield on 7/1. After setting up the mouse traps, the smart little thing had managed to get the cheese out and not set off the trap. We stopped and bought a couple different mouse traps. These were a little bit bigger and round, you are suppose to put peanut butter in the middle of the trap and the mouse has to climb inside to get it and that's when they are caught. The top of the trap says, set, not set, and caught, well when we got up Sunday morning the trap said "caught" and when Dave picked it up he said it was heavier then when he put it in. You can't see inside the trap you are only suppose to through the whole thing away, which we did. So, the other traps we had set we changed from cheese to peanut butter, and the next morning we had another mouse. Hopefully, we only had 2 because nothing else has been touch or seen around the coach since catching the 2nd mouse.

There is one picture of Bill and Karen, Dave had grown up with Bill and they haven't seen each other for 40 years. We met up with them in Pismo Beach and had lunch at one of my Mom and Dad's favorite places "Fat Cats". We visited with them for a few hours then headed back to Bakersfield.

I mentioned in the last blog that we had over heating problems driving down. We took the coach today to Cummins and it ends up we have a leak where the pipe & hoses connect to the radiator, so we need a new radiator, luckily we have an extended warranty, not through Monico but another company, and it is covered, thank goodness. The bad news is the new radiator won't show up until Friday, maybe, and Cummins still needs 3 to 4 days to install. We leave Bakersfield on this Wednesday for Arizona so Cummins said they will just store the RV on their lot, no problem. My biggest fear is leaving something in the RV that a week down the line we might need. Before if we had forgotten something we just went up to 1000 Trails to retrieve it, but with the RV in Bakersfield we just can't make a quick run to get something. Needless to say our car will really be packed when we drive back to Arizona.

Another problem is, which Dave reminded me of, when we come back in August to pick up the RV is when we leave for our travels for 3 months. We will be going to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, North and South Dakota. We need summer clothes and for the Dakota's we need winter clothes, remember we are doing the Sugar Beet Harvest. He didn't need to remind me of that, I am now already stressed.

Back in Bakersfield

We got back to Bakersfield this afternoon, and when we got here there was 100 degree temperature awaiting us, ung!! It was getting close to 100 degrees in Cornville but it just has a different feel to it, like at night it goes down in the 70's but not here in Bakersfield. 8:30pm and it's 97 degrees now.

We went by Kim and Danny's after arriving and visited with Miss Madison and Danny, Kim was with one of her girlfriends chatting. We then went over for dinner tonight, Danny BBQ'd hamburgers, grilled zucchini and asparagus and also grilled onions, excellent dinner Danny, thank you.

Let's see, since picking up the RV from 1000 Trails, on Tuesday, and loading it up and getting on the road you just know we had to have some mishaps. If you looked through my last set of pictures, I posted. you saw the rattle snake that was near our coach, now we know what he was after, a MOUSE. Yes when loading the RV and before we got going I asked Dave where the sunflower seeds where and he said in the bottom drawer in the front on the RV right between the driver and passenger seat. As we were leaving I opened the drawer and saw sunflower seeds everywhere, or I should say it was just the outside shell. I thought maybe the seeds had spilled but Dave said "oh sh_t" we have had a mouse in here. Sure enough the little rodent had eaten through the plastic bag and after eating that many seeds he left his little turds everywhere. Once we had a fuel stop we cleaned out the drawer, trashed what was left of the seeds away and thought OK he/she are gone now.

On leaving Cornville, by 11am, we had planned for no later then noon, so 1 hour ahead of time which was great. It was rather warm when we left and we started having trouble with over heating, we have never had this problem before, we turned off the air and put the generator on to run the air conditioner and just drove in lower gears and slower. When we stopped for fuel, Dave ended up putting 2 things of coolant in so he thought maybe we have a leak and would check when we got back to Bakersfield. Good thing we got going a littler earlier because when we stopped in Needles, at the Elks, we were still in time for dinner. By the way the temperature in Needles was 114 degrees, so needless to say we sweated all night long, so not a good nights sleep.

Before I forget, we learned something new when storing the RV, besides trying to find all the places a mouse can get into and blocking them, you must also dump the black tank. We had full hook-up at 1000 Trails but no one was there to flush the toilet, run water or anything so everything just sat. Needless to say as I was driving down the road and Dave went in back to use the bathroom that just set the smell off, I guess. I'm yelling what the hell is the smell and he said it was because the tank hadn't been dumped. Another lesson learned, when we get back on the 8th we are actually going to put the RV in dry storage, so we will be dumping everything!!

After leaving Needles we stopped in Barstow to fuel up again, and when we opened that bottom drawer again to get the key for the fuel door, we had noticed our little friend was still with us. This time the little mouse had gotten the life savers out, I didn't move those because they hadn't been touched before only the sunflower seeds, I thought those were safe, wrong. This afternoon we went to Wal-mart and got mouse traps. Dave put 2 in the front drawer and put one in the bedroom bottom drawer, just in case. Then he decided to put one in the bottom drawer in the bathroom, when he opened and took out that drawer the little bastard (or bitch) had started building a nest out of the carpet he/she scraped with their nails. Dave vacuumed it out and set up a trap, tomorrow morning we will check the spots and see if we have caught our little friend.

One more thing on the coach that I believe I forgot to mention, I know it's old age I just can't remember all the mishaps that happen to us, especially when it happens on the road. The last trip to Cornville, 5/31, the driver's sun shade came down but we couldn't get it back up. We were going to be driving into the sun when leaving Needles the next morning so Dave, he is so smart but I came up with the suggestion, he turned the passengers sun shade backwards and hooked it up to the drivers side, after we took the broken one down. It looks pretty weird but works, the passengers side didn't have any protection from the sun but the drivers need is more important. Someday will have to get that fixed, Dave tried working on the shade at home but couldn't get it to work.

After seeing Miss Madison she is walking so much better but still needs help, the girl is on constant go, busy busy busy. She has 2 more teeth coming in, the ones on each side of the front teeth. Eye teeth I believe they are called, 6 teeth before 1 year of age, I think that's good, been to long for me to remember. I am taking pictures and will post them when I get a few more. Kim and Danny are doing great and the house looks really good too. They got rid of the glass top tables and have some nice new tables, plus, a new 50 inch TV. They sold the old TV and tables through Craig's List.

They go in 3's or it seems like they do

Ed McMahon, expected, Farrah Fawcett, expected, Michael Jackson, what a shock!! The guy was really strange, in his later years, but to die so suddenly and take the shine off of Farrah, how rude! I heard that the BET is having some kind of awards tonight, which was already scheduled, and are really going to make a big deal out of Michael Jackson. My only question is "Michael is White now" what the hell do they care. JUST KIDDING :)

Recap of the last week in Cornville. We did the Pink Jeep Tour, what a thrill, I had no idea jeeps could climb rocks like that. I sat in the very back of the jeep and was told I had the best sit, it was very exciting. Watching those rocks and hills that the driver thought she could climb, and did, especially since she couldn't even see over the steering wheel(she was very short), was a lot of fun. I was totally amazed and surprised, it was so much fun. Actually, I wish we had done more climbing and less stopping and talking about the area, but that's what the company's do here and anywhere.

This last week we have been going to estate sales, garage sales, and store sales, We have gotten more decorations for the house at very cheap prices, which has been a lot of fun. I've posted more pictures of the house.

To go a long with our Wii games, this week, we got the Wii active which has been fun. Dave and I try and do it every afternoon, notice the word try? We compete with each other in the afternoon, which is a lot of fun. We go walking for an hour every morning, and I mean every morning. We started out going at 7am but since it is getting hotter here we are now going at 6am. Yesterday, for a change, we walked down Cornville Road, instead of the complexes neighborhood, and saw so much trash. Today we took our gloves and trash bags and walked the Cornville road again but this time we picked up trash as we went. We had people riding bikes thanking us, and a couple cars went by and put there thumbs up to us, which was nice that people acknowledged you, but they could have joined in!

It got to be 100 degrees today and we decided to take the last weed/tree out of our backyard. The other one we had I took out yesterday. My job was to cut it down and cut it up in little pieces and Dave would plant the new stuff we bought today at Home Depot. The weed/tree yesterday was very small, compared to the one today. I cut it all down but Dave's job was digging out the root, I helped a little, but it was one hell of a root. We started today's work around 1pm and finished up about 4:30pm, in between we took an hour nap. We got the new plants planted then headed for the clubhouse pool. The pool is kept at 85 degrees, so it wasn't much for cooling off, but once you got out the breeze really cooled you off.

One other thing that is in with the new house pictures, I posted, is a picture when we went back to check on our RV at 1000 Trails. As we were leaving I saw a very big snake, and Dave said it's a rattle snake, he got up close to try and take pictures. Needless to say, I will not be staying at that RV spot again.

We have 2 more days here in our house then we head back to Bakersfield, I have my hair done on 7/2, in Bakersfield, then I have to go to a wedding in the Simi area on the 3rd. Dave will have to fly out on the 3rd to go to his nephew's funeral in Paradise, Ca. Dave will fly back on the 4th to Burbank I will pick him up and drive back to Bakersfield. We will stay in Bakersfield until the 8th then back to Cornville Arizona.

Happy Birthday Shawn, a day early.

Happy Farther's Day / Some sad news

New pictures have been posted.

We got back to Cornville last Monday and have stayed pretty busy. Since coming back we have had our other dresser and spare bedroom mattress arrive. No more ordering furniture, we do garage sales for now, which we did on Thursday and Friday. Dave managed to find a latter, clamps and some other things really cheap, I found a picture and a pot. You can see them in the posted pictures.
Kim, Danny, and Miss Madison gave us a Welcome Mat and Nana's Kitchen sign for house warming gifts, which you can see.
There are pictures of our dishes too, after Marisa's blog about saying how much she loves their home, I have felt the same way. It really is different starting out fresh again, you feel like a new comer. OK enough of the mush shit.
The Saturday before we got back there was a black bear walking our streets, 700lb cub, I don't think of that as a cub. They ended up killing it instead of drugging it and taking it somewhere and the city is having a fit about it. Too late now.
We drove to Phoenix today and found bar stools for our counter, plus got the stuff for the surround sound for the TV area, I'm telling you I am maxed out on shopping.
Tomorrow, Monday, we are going to do a Pink Jeep Tour Ride in Sedona for 2 hours, that is Dave's B/Day present he asked for since we have never done one. Will update on how the ride goes.

Sad news, Dave's nephew, John, died last night at 7pm, 52 yrs old, covered with cancer. John died from the same thing his Dad died from(Dave's 1/2 brother) when he was 51 yrs old.

Forgot to mention, Miss Madison is putting her tongue out to the side when she is doing things, walking crawling ect., just like Grandpa Dave does, and Danny is saying NO NO put it back in your mouth, too funny!!
Plus, you will see a broken vase in the pictues I posted, Dave did it, we are just not use to living with things that are breakable. In the motorhome everything was plastic, but we haven't done the house that way.

Great B/Day Party for Miss Madison

Posted new pictures, Madison's Birthday Party turned out great, tons of people. The 2 jumpy/water slide things that Kim got was the hit of the party for the kids. We were all amazed to see that Kim had so many friends. She had a lot of her stroller stride mommy's and work employees show up, Danny had work and school people show up, it was a nice turn out. Some of the gifts were doubles and triples but Kim can just return them, Madison made out like a bandit and got some really nice stuff. The weather was perfect, around 80 so not too hot and perfect for the kids to use the water slide.
I even posted pictures of Kim and Danny using the slide before anyone got there. Madison was OK at 1st but once the place was packed she turned shy. When she was in her little hippo pool she was in 7th heaven, she played in there for a long time.
It was a long day and we were all exhausted by the end of it.
PS
Mike, the pig you painted looks great, thank you so much.

Back in Bakersfield

We got back to Bakersfield yesterday afternoon. We made it over to Kim and Danny's around 2:30pm, and I must tell you Miss Madison looks like she has been really growing. We had only been gone 8 days and she has changed while we were gone. Now I understand what Trini is talking about when she sees Inara every few months and the changes that have taken place.

Before I keep going on there are a few things I forgot to mention on the last blog. The one big thing was when Dave and I stopped at a Flying J for gas for the U-Haul I was driving he had radioed to me that he couldn't get out of the RV. He was on the truck side and I was filling up on the car side. By the time I was done filling up he had started taking the door apart, again, from the inside because he couldn't get out. After he got the panels off and sliced the shit out of his hand I tried the door on the outside, it opened right up. We don't know if he had fixed it before I got there, or if I maybe could have opened it up from the outside the whole time. Doesn't matter now because it opens up now. That was basically what I had forgotten to mention. You know how I love to tell the RV mishaps.

Before I forget, I posted some pictures of the house in Cornville, not very good that's for sure will post better ones next time.
By the way, Kim's ticket for talking on her cell phone was, I believe, $128 so don't get caught talking on your cell phone in California.

Dave and I have noticed that now being back in a house you tend to walk a lot more then being in a motor home. If you forgot something in the bedroom in the RV you only, at the most, took 10 steps to get it, but being in a house the rooms are quite a bit apart. We are not having any trouble getting out 10,000 steps in. We have even started walking every morning for 1 hour trying to get to know the area.
As you will see from the terrible pictures I posted of the house it is still pretty empty. We went to Ikea the other day and got a rug, end tables for the chairs and a table for behind the love seat. The dishes we bought, the plates are too wide for the cabinets so they are in a lower cabinet, everything else is in the higher cabinets. I must say there are so many cabinets and drawers in the kitchen that there is no way I can fill them all, most at this point are empty, but just give it time. It is so much fun having a dish washer again, and it's not named "Jeri", plus the shower and the King Bed is the best. Dave and I don't beat up each other, as we some times do in the Queen in the motor home, and that's just turning over while you sleep. Dave isn't now having to go though my "Hot Flashes" with me anymore.
One thing that worried me was when we got all the gym equipment put together and I used it the next morning. I'm on the treadmill and winded only after a few minutes, then Dave reminded me about the elevation, I was thinking what the hell was wrong with me.

We are here in Bakersfield and helping Kim and Danny get ready for Madison's B/Day party. They have been working really hard on fixing up the house, the new windows look great, plus all the touch up painting Danny has been doing. Danny has been doing all the outside stuff and Kim has been doing the inside stuff, it just really looks great. Thank goodness they have the 6 weeks off for the baby bonding otherwise they could never get this much stuff done.

Cornville Arizona - We have arrived

Last Saturday we drove to Simi Valley, had dinner with Brad, Diane, Joann, David Jr. and Jodi. We had a great dinner then Dave and I went back to our hotel. Staying at the same one we had booked for Kim and Danny's wedding.

Sunday, we had breakfast with David Jr., Jodi, and Riley then went and picked up the U-Haul pickup truck. We got the tool chess back from David and our wine refrig. from Brad and Diane then headed back to Bakersfield. Kim was working Sunday so while I watched Madison, Dave and Danny packed up our stuff we had stored there, well almost everything. Monday morning Dave and I went to Weatherby's to pick-up the mattress and head board, then back to Kim's to pick up the rest of the stuff we hadn't packed.

Dave and I finally got on the road about 1pm and stopped at the Elks Lodge in Needles about 5:30pm. Dave driving the RV and pulling the car, me driving the U-Haul pick-up.

We arrived at the house about noon on Tuesday and the bug spraying guy was here to spray the outside and inside of the house. We unpacked what we needed from the car and the RV then headed for 1000 Trails to setup the RV. Once done with that we stopped at the store where we bought the furniture from and set up the delivery time. We got back to the house at about 3pm and unloaded the U-Haul. We got done about 5pm, turned the truck in and went back to 1000 Trails to cook dinner. Boy, were we tired and hungry.

Today, Wednesday, we left early and went to breakfast, then to the house. At 9am sharp the delivery truck showed up with the furniture we had ordered, the Dish TV guy showed up at 9:10am, the computer guy showed up about 10am. Dave and I managed to get stuff washed and put away while all this was going on. Dave got more involved with the workers we had there and I did more of the putting stuff away, which was fine by me. The dish guy seemed to be having the most problems. At one point, after being up in the attic, he said he couldn't do what we wanted done and told Dave so. Dave went up in the attic to show him he could, well Dave was right, and the guy kept saying how sorry he was. Then in the afternoon the cable dish guy asked if he could use our bathroom, (for the second time) when he finally came out he had asked Dave and I not to go down the hallway or into our bedroom for awhile because of the smell. He did say he left the fan on and he did feel a lot better, so gross!!!

By 7pm Dave and I got to have dinner, cooked on the new grill, which was very nice. We are spending the night for the 1st time in the Cornville house. We have a list going for all the stuff we still need, god you just don't realize all the stuff you need to operate in a house again, a lot different then a Motor Home.

HAPPY 62ND BIRTHDAY DAVE!!

Happy Birthday Dave, hope you have a great day, but once again it is going to be another hot day here, but not as hot as yesterday.
We went out last night to Shogun, Dave wanted sushi and boy did he get his fill, which is good. Kim, Danny and I have to work today so that's why we went out last night. Dave's last day working was last Tuesday, he has retired again, this time from the RV Resort, which was nice for the rent, but he wasn't to happy near the end of his working for them. Seems he had 7 bosses and neither of them talked to each other, very confusing. Anyway, that's over and done with, next job should be the sugar beets in October.

Kim has, since selling so much, got a dining room table about 1/3 the size of the last one, Danny got a new BBQ, and their 2 new lazy boy chairs showed up yesterday, so the house isn't looking so empty anymore.

This weekend Dave and I head down to Simi, visit with friends on Saturday then pickup the U-Haul truck on Sunday and pickup stuff that people have been holding for us. We then drive up to Bakersfield and empty out Kim's spare bedroom and our shed. Monday we will pickup our mattress then in the afternoon head out for Arizona, stop 1/2 way and finish the drive on Tuesday.

I've started exercising more and my knee is doing great so far, ya!

Yes Marisa, from your comment on the last blog, Madison is wanting to walk all the time now, my back can only take so much bending over and walking with her, I swear the girl is always busy busy busy. Laterly she has been waking up at 2am then 5am, Kim and Danny are getting very tired. Let's hope while they are off work for their baby bonding they can get her setup on a real schedule.

Weekly Update

It was another busy week for us. The week started out with Kim and Danny's jury duty, which I already mentioned. Wednesday, Charlie and Gayle arrived at the RV Park, they are a couple we caravan with in Mexico. They had a dog named Dina and Valley and her were friends, Charlie was actually known as Uncle Chunky to all the dogs on that trip. If it was a shopping day in Mexico Charlie always stayed with the RV's and babysat the dogs, and boy he had good treats for them. They arrived late morning on Wednesday we did lunch at the RV restaurant then did dinner with Kim, Danny and Madison.



I don't believe I mentioned before that I had hurt my right knee about 6 weeks ago, right before we left to Arizona. I was lifting weights with my legs and heard/felt something happen. I then got on the treadmill and was jogging when the knee gave way. The next day I couldn't walk very well on it and Kim and Dave said ice it and take aleve. Needless to say I took it easy a couple days then would go back on the treadmill and hurt it again. It's been six weeks now and I haven't gone back on the treadmill but still walk and finally got in to see the doctor. Dave said don't be surprised if it is "the A word" arthritis, but it wasn't. The doctor said he believes I have a torn meniscus and the only way to fix it is with surgery. He said though they don't do the surgery unless you can't stand the pain anymore and since I'm not in pain right now I can go ahead and increase my exercises and see if the pain comes back. If it does, then call him and they will schedule an MRI of the knee and probably do surgery, just what we needed to hear right before we move.



My doctor's appointment was on Thursday, 5/21, at 9am so Dave went with me to help entertain Madison because it was a babysitting day. When we got back I started working with Madison again on crawling using her knees and not the army crawl. In the afternoon she did it, I was so surprised and excited. She was moving slow and she figured out that if she went back to the army crawl she could move alot faster, but we worked on it. Kim got home early Thursday and Madison was sleeping in her crib but when she woke she crawled from one side of the crib to the other, so Kim got to see that. Friday night when Danny got home I got to show him how she crawls, he was so excited to see it and thought she looked like a little frog crawling so slow. Danny gets home before Kim on Fridays.



Yesterday Dave and Danny poured cement on the rest of the patio. Kim was working, so I had to watch Madison, I did try to help as much as I could. The two of them worked really hard, it sure would have been alot easier if they had more people, but they did the best they could. Dave said Danny did alot of the work, which it should be because Danny is 34 years younger then Dave. They were both hurting after the work, we stayed long enough for Danny to take a shower before he went back to watching Madison before Kim got home, plus it was Laker Baskerball Day, which thank goodness they won. Dave and I went to the Jacuzzi so he could relax his muscles. So between the Motrin and Jacuzzi Dave felt great, Danny was still sore.



Today, Kim was working again, so Dave and I went over to the house so Danny and Dave could go shopping for BBQ's. Oh by the way, Danny and Kim sold their old BBQ on Craig's List, I guess as home owners they need everything needs to be new now. They have to have a BBQ for Miss Madison's birthday party, since they will be BBQing hot dogs and hamburgers.



I think that's it for now, this weekend, Sunday, we pick up the U-Haul truck in Simi get some stuff from David Jr. and from Brad and Diane. We are going down on Saturday will drive back up on Sunday and load the rest of our stuff. Hit the road on Monday for Arizona. Dave will drive the RV and pull the car, I'll drive the truck from U-Haul with all the stuff in it, fun fun. We decided when we come back on the 10th we will bring the RV, it's much easier and more peaceful for me.

I've posted new pictures too!

Congratulations to Kim and Danny

Last Friday the house in Bakersfield closed escrow, Danny and Kim are official home owners now. Dave and I have no more ties to California, except family, but they say once you sell you can never come back because of the cost of houses, oh well. California's taxes are way too high for Dave and I anyway. Seriously tho, CONGRATULATIONS TO KIM AND DANNY.



Miss Madison is starting to walk, 10 months old and walking already, well kind of. Last Friday her and I were playing in her bedroom with a toy of her's that you can either stand at or sit and play with. It was set-up in the standing position so I sat behind her while she was playing with it. She got bored with it and managed to turn herself around to face me and I said "walk to me" and she did. It was only 4 steps but she did it, dummy me had forgotten to tell Danny when he got home from work. While Dave and I were having dinner that night I remembered and called them and told them. Kim said No Way, and I said yes just work with her and they did that night and have been doing it ever since. I swear she will be walking before she is a year old, we have also gotten her to use her knees a couple times but she still mainly crawls on her stomach (army style). It's cute, she has 2 little bruises on her knees from the crawling.

I know I mentioned before that her 2 top front teeth are coming in, well, she bit her Mom while we were at Bed,Bath and Beyond last week then she bit me on Thursday, let me tell you it really hurts. Needless to say she is getting little swats on the behind when she does it. As if she really can feel the swat through her diaper but she knows when she hurts you. She seems to understand the word biting now too.


Dave and I have been having fun shopping for household items for the AZ place. We are using our points we have earned on our visa card which adds up to about 3k, so thank goodness we don't have to use our cash for the stuff.



Today, Kim and Danny had jury duty, they got called into a court room in the afternoon and because they hadn't finished picking a jury yet they have to show up again tomorrow. When I got to THEIR house this morning I noticed the dining room table was gone. Good old Craig's list, they sold it, I said they should be getting rid of the glass tables in the living room, she said they are going tonight. The house is empty now, just about, I said I hope she keeps something for me to sit on while I babysit. Hopefully they will have new stuff by the time they have Madison's Birthday Party.

Happy Mother's Day / Coach Mishap, again!

Sorry, I just couldn't seem to get a picture with Kim and Miss Madison both looking at me. There are 4 pictures I posted and this was the best. We went out to dinner Saturday night to celebrate Mother's Day. Danny has to study all weekend for his final on Monday night, then he is done with school. We figured it would be too crowded anywhere we went on Sunday so Saturday night was best.



HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY



Happy 10 month birthday to Madison too. Now speaking of Madison, she is getting so good in her body dragging (her version of crawling) and in her walker. I put her on the carpet in her room, she now knows how to lean forward, from the sitting position, and get herself on her belly. She is no longer throwing herself backwards, thank goodness because you didn't dare leave her sitting without you or a pillow behind her. The 1st thing she does is, if you aren't in the room, take off body dragging looking for you. She can make it to the door jam before I get back, unless something attracts her attention like the changing table, which is right before the door jam. Toby is always following me but when we get back all Madison wants is to get to Toby and he doesn't want anything to do with that. She gets close and Toby is gone, too funny. This dog is starting to lose weight because when Madison is in her walker she is, most of the time, going after Toby. He is getting real good at squeezing by even in the smallest places she corners him in. Toby wouldn't do anything to Mady, when she is quiet and sitting on your lap, all he wants to do is lick her feet and hands and she just smiles.

Friday morning while Madison was having her bottle I had on Rachel Ray, she had to sit up when the audience was clapping and she clapped with them, too cute. That afternoon Madison was in her walker, Toby sleeping and me doing my exercise bands and we were all in the living room. I remembered I was suppose to check something on the computer so I took off into the other room and right on my tail was Toby and Madison, as a matter of fact they almost beat me to the computer. All I thought was "Me and my Shadows", which is a joke with us because when Valley was still alive, even when Chelsea was still alive all three dogs would follow me where ever I went, I couldn't make a move without them. Here was Miss Madison right on my tail too, I just had to laugh about it.(No I'm not saying Madison is a dog, Danny! she just loves her Nana) Madison can move anywhere she wants in that walker without hitting any walls too, amazing, there was No Way Nana was getting away from her.

Oh, before I forget, Kim got a Mother's Day present from the Bakersfield Police, a ticket for talking on her cell phone, I'll let her explain that one.



OK, now the coach mishap, why is it that when we have a mishap with the BLACK or GREY TANKS it's always me that finds it? Probably because if Dave found it he wouldn't say a thing and none of us would know the difference. Last Tuesday the black tank was at 90% full so it was time to dump again, which Dave did, but I didn't know he was doing it because I was at the doggy parade which the Alfa Rally was having. Well, he had dumped the black and joined me at the doggy parade, but before leaving he started filling the black tank with clear water. Normally when he does this we put the timer on the microwave on so the alarm goes off to remind us to check how full it is getting. Anyway he hadn't done that and I didn't know he was filling anything so after we got back we both started working on the computer down loading the pictures I had just taken so the RV Park could put them on their website. We then put on a show we had recorded, no big deal, until I got up to go to the bathroom. Dave is so damn lucky I just went pee otherwise he would be dead right now, let me explain why. When I go #2 I step on the foot peddle right away while I am still sitting on the pot, I don't want to have to look at it. (Kim will get mad at me for that, she says you should look at your poop because you can tell if something is wrong with you) Being in the motor home the toilet just has a big hole so it's not like you have water running around the bowl. When I just go pee I stand up and step on the peddle, sorry I hope this isn't to graphic for everyone. Back to the story, I went in to go #1(pee) and when I stood up and faced the bowl and stepped on the peddle there was an explosion and water, pee and toilet paper flew up about a foot from the toilet seat. Now let me tell you that bathroom is small and seeing me flying back and hitting the wall trying to miss the flying stuff was just too funny, but not at the time, I was not a happy camper. I opened the door and yelled what the Hell is going on and Dave said "oh shit" and ran out the RV door. Can you imagine what would have happened to me if I had gone #2 and had that explosion, like I said earlier, Dave would be dead by now. I could have had my 1st colonoscopy and god only knows what else could have happened to me.

So I asked Dave what had happened, at first he wasn't going to tell me because he didn't want it on the blog and because he had done this once before. I can't seem to remember if I wrote about it, but I'm sure I did, I do remember the toilet exploding on him once but it was a long time ago. What he did was fill the black tank with water and when it gets full it automatically goes into the grey tank and starts filling it. If the Black and Grey fill then it goes up the pipes that go to the top of the motor home, then if it still doesn't get empty then it starts coming out the shower drain, which happened the last time, what, just a couple months ago. This time the black and grey were full and just starting to fill up to the top when I stepped on the peddle and that's why the explosion. Pee, Water, Toilet Paper flying, you just try and duck that stuff, needless to say Dave had a lot of cleaning to do.
I wonder if we will have any of this exciting stuff happening to us when we settle in Arizona, I'm sure we will. Dave and mishaps seem to walk hand in hand. Just kidding dear!!