Quick update / No Gonzalez Zone lately

We haven't had any real mishaps lately because we haven't been doing much work, I think we got a little burnt out.
We got Kim on the Wii Fit and she came up as Over Weight, I wonder why??? :) To work out on it she will have to wait until after the baby comes because it is too much balancing and hoping around and there is no way we will let her do that in her condition. Just what we would need is for her to lose her balance, Dave and I won't even leave the Wii Fitness at the house because we don't trust her not to try it on her own. It is a lot of fun and you do get a workout from it, Dave has been using it a lot while I'm at the gym.
Monday, after we took Kim to the doctors, which came out OK, Dave and I loaded up the truck with the window shutters and hauled them to the dump. When we got back we filled the truck again this time with the rest of the bricks and cement that had been torn out. As Dave was getting ready to sweep out the truck at the dump he fell backwards right onto the bricks and cement we had just cleared out of the truck, cut his arm, more bleeding. Monday night we went to the Elks Lodge for Dave to rejoin the Elks again. Most of the Lodges have camping on the sites and it's for free, so now we will have another place to stop while we drive across the country and stay for free. Got to save money some way with these diesel prices the way they are.
Tuesday afternoon we drove down to Simi for Riley's Play at Pinecrest School. They were doing The Wizard of Oz, it was pretty cute, not what I remembered in the movie but a pretty good likeness.Riley played Bippity, one of the little witches that assisted the Wicked Witch of the East. The play started at 7pm and was over about 9pm then we drove back to Bakersfield.
That's about it for now, tomorrow we go back to working on the backyard before the gardener comes on Saturday to seed it.

I thought for sure someone would ask what "White Broccoli" was from the last blog, but you all must know what it is. When I had asked Danny about different veg; he had said that yes he liked broccoli and he liked the white broccoli too, which we all laughed about. What he was talking about was "cauliflower", but you all knew that already.

THE GONZALEZ ZONE - GET IT???

In this episode of the Gonzalez Zone Kim is still laying around moaning in pain, she is eating a little and drinking lots of water but still in pain. Danny walks in and Kim says "NO MORE KIDS" oops, I think Danny is cut off for the rest of his life. Oh well, there goes the other 3 or 4 kids that Danny wanted, I guess if he wants them he will have to figure out how to have them himself.
In the mean time, the 3 of us head outside to work in the yard, Danny and I are filling the p/u truck with all the brinks and cement that was busted away, Dave is working on the wiring. I'm sensing a pattern here, physical lifting and digging, the hard stuff, Danny and I do, the wiring and easy stuff Dave does??? Now I know why Dave keeps calling Danny and I "Manual", I thought he was losing it or just trying to be funny, I should have written about this before, drat!!!
After we filled the truck, Danny (Manual#1, he's stronger) and Dave drove to the dump. On the second run to the dump as soon as they entered the place the left back tire popped. By the time they got to where they could unload the stuff they were on the rim. They put on the spare tire, I wasn't there but my hunch is Danny did 90% of the work, then they drove to Costco and brought new tires. They were only going to buy 2 tires but they had a sale on and ended up purchasing 4. I say, can't we ever go a day on a project that something doesn't go wrong????

Change of subject, something funny for once.

The other night at dinner we got to talking about foods and different vegetables and did you know that Danny likes the "White Broccoli" too? He has no idea what Brussel Sprouts are, he is just too funny, he lead such a sheltered life growing up.
God, you have to love him, Kim is really a lucky girl to find him, we all laugh so much when we are together, or even talking on the phone, even with all the mishaps.
It's Sunday lets see what today brings, I know tonight we are going to have an old fashion "Sunday Night Family Dinner" with me cooking beef stew, salad and rolls, and Kim laying around moaning and groaning, because I haven't finished cleaning the house yet. :)

P.S. I have to make a correction from the last blog, the vet thinks it is a sinus tumor not a brain tumor. Although now that she is on the meds she seems to be doing better, maybe it was just an infection.

ANOTHER DAY AT HOSPITAL AND VETS

Talked to Kim this morning she said she was OK but stomach still in pain, I said we would be over after taking Valley to the vets.
It seems that after a couple weeks, after we left last time to go to the Bay area, Valley started hacking at Kim and Danny's. (She stayed with them while we were gone it made it easier for visiting family). Anyway, she would really have hacking attacks, so when we got back we watched her for a couple days before calling the vet. She was hacking and couldn't breath through her nose, she would sneeze and tons of mucus like stuff would come out.(That part wasn't happening at Kim's she and Danny said) Gross, I know, but I told Kim and Danny that they should practice with the baby nose sucker on Valley, they weren't falling for that. We got Valley in today, and she sneezed as soon as we got in the room and luckily the nurse was there to see it. When the doctor got in and heard how long it had been going on and the looks of the stuff coming out her nose and she guessed that maybe it was a brain tumor. She said a sinus infection wouldn't last that long, and if it was maybe a bur/sticker she would be sneezing blood by now, so she wanted to keep Valley for x-rays and blood tests.
As the vet was telling us all of this I get a call from Kim and she says she needs to go back to the Hospital. We left Valley and out the door we run, we made it to Kim's while on the phone with Danny, telling him not to leave work until we can find out what is going on with her. We got to the hospital and checked into "Labor and Delivery" and she was hooked up with monitors. She was having mild contractions the nurse said, but touching her stomach hurt her and we don't know why. Then they gave Kim two shots to stop the contractions we waited a little while then they sent us home. The nurse had done a finger test to see if she was dilated and Kim just about yelled it hurt her so bad. The nurse said she wasn't dilated at all the cervix haded even opened up yet, so she needed to go home and rest all weekend, drink lots and lots of water and see her doctor on Monday morning. I called her cousin, Marisa, to talk to her and get her mind off of the pain, which really worked, they talked for awhile and Kim sounded pretty good.
Dave took off for Lowe's to return and buy stuff and I started cleaning Kim's kitchen and doing their laundry. It was late in the afternoon so I didn't get much done, only 5 loads of laundry and only the kitchen.
I think I am slowly catching on to the game she is playing, she has been bugging me to clean and do their laundry, she said that's what Nana use to do for all of her kids, I said no I think she only did that for Marty, not the rest of us. So if she keeps me at the house all the time and "inside" the house not outside working then I start cleaning and laundry. So she wins!! :) You know I'm just kidding.

Dave called and checked up on the dog and the vet didn't find anything in the x-rays so she said now she needs to do a cat scan and an MRI, Dave said NO NO NO! What else can we try 1st, so the vet said antibiotics and steroids for 2 weeks then see how she is doing. We decided there is no way we are going to pay $1,000 for the other 2 tests so if she isn't any better in 2 weeks we are going to put her down, we love her but we just can't afford her anymore. Enough depressing news.

Danny got home from work and around 6:45pm Kim felt a little better so we went out for Mexican food, probably not the best thing to do but that's what her and Danny do every Friday night when Kim gets off of work. At the end of dinner she was in the bathroom the whole time so we paid the bill real quick just in case we had to head back to the hospital. Will talk to them later because we dropped them off, picked up Valley and headed home.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings, it seems like lately it is never boring anymore in Bakersfield, unless you think sitting in a hospital hour after hour is boring. :)

KIM was IN HOSPITAL AGAIN

Tuesday night, after Danny got home, he took her temperature again and it was 102.4, I think, and just when Danny was calling the doctor on his cell phone the doctor was calling him on the house phone. He told Danny to take Kim to the hospital where they started an IV, she was dehydrated again, low on potassium and they put her on Tylenol. Danny stayed until 1:30am then went back today, Wednesday, at 7am. Dave and I got to the hospital about 8am. They had gotten her fever down but the doctor said he would come by after his surgeries and check on her again, and if everything was OK he would release her. Dave left about 9am to work at the house. Danny didn't make it to work today, we kept trying to tell him to go to work but he has this fear that he will get a call that the baby is coming and he won't make it in time. He left the hospital about noon to go to the house and help Dave. The doctor said she could leave after she had her clear lunch and was able to hold it down. Kim and I left the hospital a little after 1pm and she went straight to bed once we got home. She has been sleeping the whole day now, Danny waking her up so she can drink water, so far so good right now.

I forgot to mention, Danny reminded me, that yesterday morning we had taken my car in because I have a "check engine" light lit on the dash. When Dave had to go over to Kim's to buy a thermometer and take her temp. then take her to the doctors, I had a hair appointment and I had no car. I jumped on the bike and had to ride over for my appointment, luckily, it wasn't miles away and the weather wasn't too hot.
They things we have to do for our kids!

BACKYARD WORK HAS STARTED/KIM SICK AGAIN

I'll start off with Kim. Danny said this morning when Kim got home from work last night she wasn't feeling well, nascea, not hungry, so she just slept. She went to work this morning and ended up being sent home. She said she couldn't hold anything down and was freezing cold, oh know the flu. I told her to take some asperin and go to bed and get rest and drink water. Dave ended up taking Kim to the doctor's because she had a fever and the doctor wanted to see her. 101.8 fever is what he was worried about so he told her to take asperin, get rest and drink plenty of water, I think that's what I told her too. He did give her a prescription for anti-neausea medicine, which I couldn't do. The doctor said no work tomorrow, she has Thursday thru Sunday off then next Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is the last work days then it's disability time.
Enough about Kim. :)

Sunday we started on the backyard, digging trenches, so we can put new sprinklers in.
When Kim and Danny got back from church Danny changed clothes and started in helping us. It ended with Danny and I digging and Dave putting the sprinklers together, so he was working in the patio and we were out in the sun. Later in the afternoon Dave started putting the sprinklers in the ground and Danny and I were by the patio. As we are digging, keep in mind, we keep running into the old white sprinklers that are already in the ground. There was this one old sprinkler pipe that was in our way so Danny ask Dave if we are going to use any of the old stuff, and Dave said "no". So Danny went and got the sprinkler cutters from Dave to get this pipe out of our way. Danny is having a hard time cutting it, but there was "NO WAY IT WAS GOING TO BEAT HIM" so after a little while Danny won and cut right thru that thing. The next thing I know Danny is cussing, which he never does, even the "F" word was used. He had just cut thru the cable for the computers and TV, when Brighthouse was out about 3 weeks ago, when the gardener cut thru the cable, when they fixed the cable they put part of the wiring thru a sprinkler line, so that's why we thought it was an old sprinkler line. I looked in the house and luckily Kim was a sleep, so she didn't know the TV wasn't working. We called Dave over to see if he could fix it, which he said he would try but he had to drive back to the coach to get the cable splicers, or something like that. Do you know he made it back from the coach and fixed the cable before Kim ever woke up, boy that was close. Danny asked me not to mention this is the blog, but you know me, miss big mouth.
Kim and Danny went out Sunday night and purchased a Wii, they liked ours so much, plus Danny was afraid we would get to good at it and he can't stand losing.

Monday we went back early to Kim's for more trench digging, I think every part of my body is sore. We worked until 3pm then that was it. Although I did make it to the gym on Monday night to workout on the treadmill.

Tuesday we arrived early again, all trenches finished now, a lot of the sprinklers put in or measured out so us lucky people can go again early tomorrow and finish the sprinklers. You would die laughing if you could hear us turning over in bed at night, the screams of every part of the body hurting.

Kim and Danny's Baby Shower

 

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We went to Kim and Danny's Baby Shower yesterday in North Hollywood, Danny's sister, Bibiana and Danny's mom, Kathy threw it for them. The weather was great, the games were fun, it was an overall great party. They got lots of nice baby gifts, this baby, which everyone thinks is a boy, has enough face cloths the the rest of it's life. The game where Danny and Kim are blind folded and having to change a baby's diaper was way too funny. When they put their hands into the dirty diapers I thought for sure Danny was going to lose it. Kim won the game, Danny was still trying to get the diaper on. The cake and give aways, Bibi made, her baking is amazing, she has now started her own business called "Just in Cakes". Once word gets out about her baking, her business is going to take off. Fernando, her husband, is going to be able to retire early and be an assistant to Bibi's baking. :)
That was Saturday, we got home about 9:30pm so it was a long day. Before the baby shower we went to Ikea to buy a dresser for the baby's room, needless to say Kim's car was packed really tight for the drive back to Bakersfield.

Friday night Kim and Danny had come over after work for dinner and to play the Wii, I think they are hooked. Dave and I had purchased the Tiger Woods golf game and the exercise game for the Wii. Dave did the exercise one while I was at the gym, he said it was a lot of work, I'll have to check it out.

3D Ultrasound Pictures

Here are the pictures from Kim's 3D Ultra Sound. She says the baby has Danny's nose and lips but no comment on sex

DAVE'S FEET PROBLEMS

He went to the doctors this morning and he has PLANTER FASCIITIS so tomorrow he starts therapy, twice a week for the next 6 weeks. The doctor also gave him some kind of anti-inflammatory pills and prescribed lifts for the shoes. I guess what probably caused it was Dave not doing any activity then us jumping into pickle ball and playing a lot. Well I guess pickle ball is out for a while now, it will have to be Wii exercising for him, will find out from the therapist tomorrow.

Yesterday, on Dave's birthday, we went and got all the stuff to put in sprinklers in Kim's backyard. Saturday we will go and rent a trencher before going to Kim's baby shower at Danny's Mom's house. We will start trenching 1st thing Sunday morning. Dave and I also went with Kim to her doctors appointment, Dave wanted to meet the doctor, I had already met him. Dave got to listen to the heart beat and the doctor said everything is going great. When Danny got off work we all went out to dinner for Dave's b/day and my mother's day.

Forgot to mention that when we got back to Bakersfield, Bob and Jackie, one of the coupes we met on the Mexico trip, are back here again. They had a jr. high and high school graduation to go to for their grandsons. They are headed out tomorrow for Hearst Castle and some ocean camping before going back to Redding.

Kim came by this afternoon and played with the Wii for a little while before her hair cut, so I think she will be the next one getting a Wii. She said this is something that her and Danny could play together with, not the xbox.

Bob and Dave were playing golf this morning and Dave even beat Bob, which is really unheard of.

BAKERSFIELD, SIMI, DAVE'S B/DAY & GOOD NEWS

Let me start out with HAPPY 61ST BIRTHDAY to Dave. Danny surprised him with painting the whole house, amazing, what a great guy. I was always telling him he was too good for Kim, but now he is too good for us too, just kidding, still for Kim but not for us. Love you Danny, but I'm still not tearing up the pre-nup. :)

Now, about the good news we got today, from my niece Caryn, she got a call and work-comp is going to pay for all the medical costs from my oldest brother, Vance's, death. Something in the California law about Firemen and Policemen who die on the job from some kind of heart problem that is caused by the stress of the job. I guess a doctor re-looked at my brother's records and he had seen from the autopsy that he had a heart attack about a month before the stroke so everything is covered. What a relief for my niece and nephew, it's complicated and I'm sure I'm not saying it right but as long as they don't have to pay the 300K.

Simi Valley, we had a great time with Brad and Diane, visited El Patio, of course on Wednesday night. Thursday we went and parked at David Jr's then that night went to our friends house in Somis, Ginger and Stan. We had a great dinner, Mary and Vern were there too and we all talked till 10pm then Mary and Vern left. We were spending the night there so the 4 of us stayed up until 11:30 talking, we had a great time and they have a beautiful house, can't wait to see them again.
Friday night we went to Alex and Jacqui's house for a Jewish Dinner, food was great and company was even better.
Saturday morning we (David, Jodi, Dave and I) walked to Chef's burger for breakfast, big mistake, way too much walking for Dave and couldn't make it home. His heels are really hurting him, so needless to say he now has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, 5/29, with a doctor Kim set up for him. We had a wedding to go to Saturday night and we went but couldn't stay because of Dave's feet.
Sunday we got together with Howard and Jerry and went to a Winery in Moorpark with them. This is a privately owned winery, and we ended up going to the owner's house instead of the winery and their house was easily 6,000 sq ft, it over looked the valley, it was beautiful.
Monday, was grandgirls day, Jesica brought over the 3 girls, Dezira, Bryauna, and Jayden, Riley was at the house so we took them to the movies. Dave and the girls went in our car and David, Jodi and I went in another. We saw Indiana Jones then after that went to In and Out for lunch. Jesica and the girls had plans for the afternoon so they went home and the rest of us had a BBQ for dinner, it was a full day. With the Wii in the RV now you know where Riley was hanging out, which was great because she showed me things I didn't know you could do with Tennis, Baseball and Tennis. I'm just sorry we didn't get a chance to do the boxing because I haven't done that one yet, and I'm sure she could teach me a lot. Bryauna, told me on Monday, that the boxing Wii is a great workout, so now I really want to learn it.
Tuesday we headed back to Bakersfield, after I went to "THE HAT" for the pastrimi sandwiches, those are the best in the world, ask anyone who has been to one.

On the way back we stopped and filled up the motor home for the last time for the next 3 months and we payed $4.99. We head out again, in the motor home, about August 27th and I just hope all the diesel doesn't evaporate before then.

Back to Simi Valley

We have landed in Simi Valley, tonight we are parked in front of our friends house, Brad and Diane's then tomorrow we will be parked at the side of David Jr's house until Tuesday. We have plans for everyday we are here so I'm sure the time will go by fast, then it's back to Bakersfield.

One More Night / Blaze Update

It's Tuesday and we get out of here tomorrow, one more night, yea! It seems like we have been in these back hills forever, although the weather is cooling down now. Went to the baseball game again last night, Blaze won 10-9, Jet Hawks almost caught up in the 9th, made it a little exciting. No more news around here just wanted to give a quick update.

Sunday / Moving Day for Us

The weather has become so hot here that the last couple days we are having power surges with the RV's electrical. We have had to put on the generator to have the air conditioner on. We went to the "Meet the Manager" meeting yesterday morning and a lot of the complaints were about the electrical. This 1000 Trails park is 28 years old and needs a whole bunch of upgrading, which they are trying to do slowly. We use to park up in section "N", the highest part of the park, because that's where you could get cell service, but there are no trees there and it's pretty far from everything. Anyway, we found out at the meeting "N" Section is, or was, a land fill, that's why it is so high. Great we were parked on probably toxic crap, the only reason we didn't park there the last two times is because we can't get level anymore there. The manager said they had a company come in to try and make the sites level but they stopped because they were having to dig down to low to make it level. They said when it rains the sites will just become flooded, or maybe too toxic maybe???
Yesterday, before we went to the baseball game and after the managers meeting, Dave finally met our next door neighbor, and guess what, he has a special plug, that cost about $500.00, set up in his rig that he is able to plug into his spot and it sucks the juice out of our electrical plug too. So needless to say he isn't having any surges like us, no duh he sucked out all of our juice. I know Dave could explain the technical stuff but I'm writing and it's why over my head so we decided to move to another site this morning instead of turning our next door neighbor in. We stayed in the "N" section and went down about 20 sites, it was nice had a tree, but couldn't get the TV or satellite dish to work. Then we tried to move to another site, Dave was driving and it was a wrong angle, and we kind of got a little stuck, only because I didn't know how to Dave how to get out of the situation, so I took over driving and Dave got us back out. He got me backed out right so then we could pull almost straight into the 2nd spot we had tried to park in. Anyway, we got parked, TV working, satellite for computers working, put slides out plugged in electrical and after a few minutes the box starts smoking. It was really smoking because people across the way even saw it smoking. A couple of the park employees were out working on the electrical so Dave starts chasing one down to let him know about the smoke. Now remember there are a group of people across the way watching us move from site to site. Dave starts coming back to the rig I say we are still plugged into the electrical and he says "unplug us", I say "NO, you have more life insurance then I do, you unplug us". These people across the way start laughing and the women are saying "right on, you let him have it". The park shut the electrical down on are part of the park to check out the box. Long story short we have to move again, there was no way they could save that box today. We finally ended up, still in the "N" section but in a spot with no trees but guess what we have electrical, TV and Internet, 3 more nights here and we are gone, back in Simi Valley for 6 nights visiting with friends, can't wait.

The Bakersfield Blaze lost today, 7-6, didn't go to the game it was at 2pm and it was too darn hot to sit in the sun the whole time, but we are going to tomorrow nights game at 7pm.

Bakersfield Blaze Update

We went to the game at 5pm tonight again, and the Bakersfield Blaze won, yea!! It came really close, Bakersfield 4 to 0, then 4-4, Bakersfield 8-4, then 8-8, top of the 7th Bakersfield 11-8, bottom of 8th 11-9, bottom of 9th Bakersfield 11 Lancaster 10, boy it was a close game. We were the only ones rooting for Bakersfield, we thought for sure we would get mugged when we left, but it didn't happen. We got tickets now for Monday nights game at 7pm, in the last blog I said they were playing 5 games together, sorry, it's only 4. Tomorrows game is at 2pm and it's suppose to be 101 degrees and there is no way Dave could survive sitting in that heat for 3 hours, there is no shade during the day games.

Time for Another Update

It’s been almost a week now so I guess I should do an update too, like Kim, David Jr., and Marisa, I’ve almost gotten to the point of just checking Spanky’s blog once a month or once every two months, hint hint hint!
Still here in Acton, this Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails has got to be just about the most boring of places with the most unfriendly of people in any campground. (a lot of California campgrounds are like that) Most of the 1000 Trails in the other states the people are very friendly, Californians are basically unfriendly. Enough complaining about that. We did get to play Pickle Ball with another couple on Monday, Frank and Elona. Frank has been playing for 3 years and his wife was just learning, Frank is very good and he was telling us all about the tournaments that go on in some of the 1000 Trails parks. Come to find out the one we are at is big on Pool Tournaments and not much Pickle Ball playing, no dah! Dave and I would try and go during the week but the winds here have been really bad. The wind wasn’t blowing in the morning on Friday so we tried to play but Dave’s heel hurts him so bad, he just kept limping around.
We went to the movies Tuesday and saw “What Happens in Vegas” cute movie that’s about all I can say about it, Wednesday and Thursday just hung out. Yesterday we went to the movies again and saw National Treasure, Book of Secrets entertaining but very unrealistic. After the movie we went to Costco got a Hot Dog then headed for the baseball game. Found out that the Red Sox’s have a Class “A” Affiliate baseball team here called the “Jet Hawks” and guess who is here playing against them for the next 5 days? OK, never mind you won’t guess it because I have never heard of them but it is the “Bakersfield Blaze” who‘d have thunk? He he. Our seats were just left of the batter’s box 3 rows back from the infield. Bakersfield got their butts kicked, they scored 1 run in the 1st then let the Jet Hawks score 8 runs in the 2nd, I almost felt like I was at a Dodger Game. I remember when going to a Dodger game with mom and pop and if the other team scored like that against the Dodger’s pop would be saying “let’s go home they lost already” I felt like that with the Blaze, believe me it was a long game, it ended up being 9 to 2 game. Thank goodness during each inning the park does little entertaining things for you to watch. They had lots of kids there so they had them race across the field, they had frozen t-shirts contest to see who could put it on 1st, dance contest, just a bunch of stupid stuff. At the end of the game they had the tennis ball toss, which was you purchased tennis balls, $1 each for donation, and each tennis ball was assigned a number at the end of the game they put hula hoops all around the infield and everyone at once would throw their tennis balls and tried to get it to land in the hoops. Each hoop has its own gift certificate so who ever landed in the hoop won that prize and it doesn’t matter how many land in it they all win the prize, like I said stupid stuff but fun. Then they had a fireworks show, they do that every Friday night on home games. Saturday nights are giveaway nights to the 1st 1,500 people; they weren’t even close to 1000 people last night. Sunday is Noise Maker Day, you bring a box of macaroni & cheese from Food 4 Less and you shake it to make noise then you donate the box to help fight hunger. Monday is “Feed you face Monday” which is you buy the ticket for the reserve section ($12.00) and for $10.00 you get to eat all the hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn and peanuts you want the whole game. Nothing on Tuesday, they don’t play that day but wait; Wednesday is Weight Loss Day, probably after all the crap you ate at Monday night’s game. What you get to do is walk the warning track from 6 to 6:30pm, personally that isn’t enough time walking to walk off all of those calories. :) I don’t believe they play every Thursday but this Thursday is called Education Day Game – Skip work and enjoy the ballgame. By the way, if you buy the $12.00 tickets they give you a menu and take your food order and bring it to you, can you imagine?

One more thing and I’ll cut this boring blog off, Dave fell going out of the coach the other day. He got his right foot too close to the edge of the top step and slipped right on down, the door was closed so he didn’t keep going, and he ended up on his back on the passenger sit. Maybe that’s why his heel hurts, plus the shoulder hurts because of the Wii and playing Tennis and Bowling, I don’t know I just might have to trade him in and get a younger model. The Golf Game on the Wii is about the only game that doesn’t hurt his shoulder, but it isn’t much exercise either.

HAPPY MAMA'S DAY, AND QUICK UPDATE

Quick update of what’s been going on, which hasn’t been much. Yesterday while walking early in the morning, I believe I saw a mountain lion. I’m walking towards where the horse stable and ghost town are, and I’m looking at this large tree that has bent in half and growing towards the ground I’m walking and staring at it and right underneath it is this rather large animal laying there looking at me. I stopped dead in my tracks and just kept looking at it, it wasn’t a coyote and it wasn’t a bobcat, way too big for a bobcat. I looked behind me and there were two park employees going into the storage area right behind the family pool. I turned and walked over to them and asked what kind of wild life they had around here, and one of them said all kinds of animals. I pointed to where the cat was I saw and he asked if it was a bobcat, I said NO WAY too big. He then said that some mountain lions have been spotted and then we saw it moving. He said it was waiting for small animals to attack which he said it looks like it just caught something. He advised me not to walk out on the trail by myself because sometimes they will attack people if they are all alone, needless to say I went back the other way. Damn, I didn’t have my camera with me for once.
When I got back from walking, Dave and I went and played pickle ball, and a guy was driving by and asked if we would be around in the afternoon, we said yes and set a time of 2pm to meet him and his wife to play pickle ball. We got together at 2 and played till 4, we kept switching partners so that adds to the fun of the game.
Between riding bikes, walking, pickle ball and the Wii game, I have some really sore muscles. Haven’t got to do these workouts since we left Bakersfield, man it sucks getting old, I sure am feeling everything now, but I’m not going to slow down. Plus, I have gotten some bug bites, the ones on the arms aren’t that bad but the ones on the backside of my toes really itch.

Mother’s day, I went walking this morning, with my camera and walking stick, looking for the mountain lion (if that’s what it was) again, no luck today. After walking, the restaurant here at 1000 Trails was having a free pancake breakfast for all mothers so we walked over to that. We stood in line for 25 min. got seated and waited another 10 min. for service and then another 30 min. to get my 2 pancakes and Dave’s 2 eggs and bacon. He never even got his toast, I’m not a big pancake lover so we had planned on sharing anyway, so I gave him one of the pancakes and he gave me some bacon. Wasn’t much of a breakfast but, hey, you can’t knock free, I’m all for free these days. After that we headed for Lowes and Wal-Mart, breakfast didn’t cost much so we needed to go somewhere we could spend money.
This afternoon we played pickle ball, the couple we played with yesterday had to leave this morning, so we were back one on one. The wind was really blowing, which made it really hard to play, so we quit after about an hour, if that long. While riding our bikes back, I went up one lane and Dave went up the other and as I turned the corner coming towards our coach I see Dave go down on his bike. I see the bike falling over and Dave rolling, it was kind of like in slow motion, I thought he was faking it, I should know better. I ride up and ask “what the hell are you doing”, like I said I thought he was faking it, I saw the blood coming out on both arms and he was holding his right hand, OH NO! Luckily he only sprained his baby finger and the blood was just little scratches. I told him if he didn’t want to play pickle ball anymore all he had to do was say so, he didn’t have to hurt himself.
Anyway, that’s my little recap, sorry it wasn’t so little. Dave has iced his finger and taped it to the next finger, he is having a gin martini and cooking dinner now so I guess Mother’s Day wasn’t a total loss, breakfast wasn’t great but I know dinner will be great.

YEA PICKLE BALL AGAIN AND BUYER BEWARE

We moved yesterday to Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails, it’s still in Acton about 6 miles from where we were. At least now we don’t have to pay for camping here for the next 2 weeks.
Here they have 2 tennis courts with the Pickle Ball Lines painted on, so yea, we can play pickle ball again. Which we went out and practiced yesterday and this morning we played a couple games. This TT RV Park is really big; I can get my 5 miles in 1st thing in the morning with no problem. They have an adult pool and Jacuzzi; they have a big family pool on the other end of the park. They have train rides, horseback riding, Tee Pees, western town, but of course most of the stuff isn’t open yet, Memorial Day weekend it will be.
About a month ago, Jodi Alton told me she was at Vons in Simi and did her shopping; she used her Von’s card and a debit card to pay for everything. That night David got a call from some lady saying that Von’s had messed up and rang her groceries up on Jodi’s debit card. David asked Jodi if she had her receipt and of course she didn’t. Vons had told the lady that they were going to have to re-ring up her groceries and she got pissed off at them and said forget it, but she did get the name off the debit card and did some research and found David and Jodi’s phone number and called them to tell them what had happened. Jodi called Von’s and they said she would have to come down to the store to get it all cleared up. She went down there and had asked why they didn’t take the ladies groceries off her debit card and they said they couldn’t do it unless she (Jodi) was there. Then she asked why hadn’t they called her about this mishap, and they said they didn’t have any info on her. She said she had used her Von’s ID Code and she filled out all the info on her to even get that card. They manager had no excuse for that one, I believe. Sorry, I’m getting old and can’t remember the whole story, but Jodi did get the credit back but the whole thing was just stupid. Thank goodness that stranger took the time to call them otherwise they may not have known, the way prices going up on groceries these days. Anyway, while Dave and I were in Bishop we stopped at Vons to get a couple things, Dave used his credit card and the checker was bagging everything up and then handed us the bags and said Thank You. I said to Dave did you get a receipt, and the checker said YES he had given him one. As we were walking away, I’m looking in our bags for the receipt when the checker all of a sudden calls us back. The person behind us only a couple items and had rung their stuff on our credit card. The only reason they caught it was because after ringing up the two items and hitting the total button the total was too high for those two items, NO DUH! The checker said he was so embarrassed and was very sorry, and then he took the items off our bill then gave us our receipt. What are the odds of that happening to 2 Alton’s in a month, so buyer beware, always make sure you get your receipt.

Went the other day and saw Ironman, pretty good movie until the end, the fighting between Ironman and who ever Jeff Bridges was playing was a little corny.

SOMETHING I THINK DAVE WON'T DO AGAIN

We have landed again in Acton, instead of Banning. Where the 395 and the 14 fwy meet it was still 200 miles to Banning and only 80 miles to where we had to be in 4 days, so it was much cheaper to stay closer to where we had to be on Thursday.

Once we got to this RV Park, which is very nice, we unhooked the tow car and Dave followed the person to the site we were going to be on. Dave was pulling in and I pulled the car into the next site, well, I look up and can see he is going to take out the electrical hookup and this stupid broad is just looking at the box and the coach with her shoulders hunched up. I jump out of the car and yell for him to stop, which he did thank goodness, if not he would have dented his side of the coach not my side for once. :)
As he is slowing getting himself out of the mess the front tire goes off the cement slab and I heard a loud pop, honest it sounded just like the tire popped but it hadn’t. We got backed up then lined up again and managed to get ourselves parked in this not very wide cement slab.
By the way, before we had left Bishop, that morning, Dave had dumped the gray and the black tanks, as he always does. While we were driving and made a rest stop, I had pushed the black tank button to see what it said and it popped up with 50% full. I asked Dave if he had dumped both tanks and he said “yes” and I told him what the black showed and he said “oh, it has shit on the sides, no big deal” NO SHIT IT HAS SHIT ON THE SIDES” That’s why it’s called a black tank, duh.
OK, back to getting set up in Acton, that last thing I just wrote is important to the story. When Dave puts the hose in the sewer line he ask me if the black still reads 50% and I say “yes” so he dumps it again. After that he decides to rinse the black tank out, which what you need to do is fill it to the top with water and then drain it again. He closes off the black tank and starts filling it, to help it along he puts the toilet brush down the toilet to hold open the opening so water fills from the fresh water holding tank too into the black tank. We get everything else set-up then he sits at his computer and calls David Jr., I’m sitting at the table behind him sewing a button on some shorts. He and David gossip, talk shop, gossip more ect. He finishes the phone call and starts to tell me about it, I go to get up because I had finished sewing and I step in a pool of water. I say what the hell, I’m thinking its my washer because I had started a load of laundry, Dave screams OH SHIT, then I realize it wasn’t the washer. I go running to the back, take the brush out of the toilet and started grabbing towels; Dave went running outside to shut the outside water off. Talk about a mess, we still have the fans drying the carpet and the rugs hanging outside trying to get them dry. We had the rugs out all night and probably would have been dry, but the RV Park’s sprinklers came on a wet them again. Luckily it didn’t get the carpet in the bedroom just under the refrig and at the front of the table. After we got the floors dry, Dave got out the pinesol and washed the floors then took all the towels to the laundry room and got that all cleaned again.
Best thing of all, after all of that the BLACK TANK READING IS NOW 0% where it should have been in the beginning, no more shit on the sides, I guess!

More News to follow right now just a quick update

Just a quick update on our Sunday with Joe, Caryn and finally Carlee. Our travels today need a blog all by it self, watch for the next blog tomorrow sometime.

Anyway, we got together with Caryn and Joe around 11 and Dave and Joe worked on Vance's computer, Caryn and I just talked. We then drove up to Tom's Place, for lunch. When we left Bishop it was pretty warm, Tom's Place is going back towards Mammoth and there was some snow around and pretty cool. We had a great lunch then afterwards they showed us some more creeks and camping places, plus a lot more but don't want to bore you. Sunday night Carlee got back from Orange County, school outing, and they came over to the coach for dinner.(couldn't afford anymore meals out:) ) Carlee started playing on the Wii game systems we just got and she mastered all of them, she knew all the enter keys and everything, KIDS, what shits they are. After dinner she put on the boxing game and she knocked out Joe and Dave, we laughed so much, they got going about 9:30, it was a lot of fun. We did really have a good time and it was really nice to have one on one visit time, boy, I learned so much about how Caryn and Jimmy grew up with Vance and Jan.
That's it for this blog, the next one will sound like we are beginning RV'ers again. (But then again, I don't think we will ever be experts)

Saturday Night Now

It's Saturday night and Caryn and Joe just left for home, boy, we have had a great 2 days so far. I had mentioned in the last blog that Joe had called us from the hospital and that Caryn had broken her wrist while skiing. They got back into town around 3 and came by the coach before going home, we sat and visited awhile then they went home and then went over to their place around 5:30pm. We had a tour of their house, which is very nice, they sure had to do a lot to it to make it what it is today, great job you guys! We then drove over to the fairgrounds because they were having a food sampling called "The taste of Sierra" that the Bishop Chamber put on with a bunch of different restaurants. We got a good variety of foods to sample and a whole lot of different desserts. Thank goodness I was way too full to try too many of the desserts, notice I said "too many" I only tried 4 I think. Caryn was a trooper during this whole food sampling she only had one hand, thank goodness it was the left that was broke, watching her trying to hold a plate and eat was interesting.

Saturday we got together with them at the monster antique swap meet that was going on at the fairgrounds today. It seems this weekend there is a lot of stuff going on at the fairgrounds, home show, gem and mineral show, barnyard show, ect., Bishop is really a happening place :) After the swap meet Joe took us driving around to a bunch of the different lakes at the top of one mountain, with the snow all around us, it was really breath taking scenery. We stopped and had lunch then drove around some more, this place is really nice, maybe 10K people and not growing at all, which is something Dave and I wanted, a nice small community to live in, but it is still in California and that's what we don't want. We then went to their printing shop and got a tour of it, one hell of an operation they have there, and a great deal they got 3 years ago. My brother, Mike, would just love the stuff Joe has here, Mike you need to come up for a visit, and bring Trini. Of course, everyone in town knows Caryn and Joe so everywhere we go they have to stop and ask Caryn what happened to her. By the way, when she broke her wrist, she was on the easy part of the down hill slope and Joe was ahead of her so when she fell he didn't know anything about it. When he reached the bottom and waited a couple minutes and didn't see her he went right away and got help for her, he just knew she had to be hurt. As the rescue guy was going to take off in his snow mobile Caryn came down the hill and was holding her arm up. Since Joe didn't hear her or see her fall she had to pick herself up, get her skis, goggles, gloves and poles and still ski down the mountain, yea what a trooper. When they walked into the emergency room the check in person just looked at her and yelled to the staff in back they had a broken left wrist to take care of, Joe and Caryn didn't have to wait at all. OK so that's the skiing story.

After leaving the shop we went back to their place, then Dave and I went back to the coach. Later we went out for Chinese food and had a great meal together, tomorrow they said they had more places to show us, so we are looking forward to that.

Landed in Bishop California visiting more family

We arrived in Bishop today and are staying a couple days to visit with Caryn, Joe and Carlee. Dave just got a call from Joe and Caryn and Joe are at the hospital, Caryn broke her wrist. It seems like Carlee is down at Disneyland, with her school band, so Caryn and Joe closed down the office and decided to have a sky day in Mammoth. Haven't got the full info yet will either talk to them later tonight or see them tomorrow and get the low down.
I must say "Thank you" to my brother, Mike, I called him because I only had Caryn's shop number and he got me other phone numbers and even called Jimmy, who told Mike, that they were off skiing today.
The drive to Bishop was just beautiful, driving around Lake Tahoe was just breath taking, it took us quite awhile to get here because it is mostly 2 lanes roads but well worth it.

South Lake Tahoe, Nevada

We got headed out before noon and have now landed in the parking lot of the Horizon Casino in South Lake Tahoe Nevada. Snow is still on the mountains, very pretty. The drive here was mostly on 2 lane roads so needless to say we had some cars behind us that weren't to happy, oh well, we took the pull outs when ever we could.

Uncle Bob kicked us out

We drove to Oakland yesterday, left at 7:30am got to the hospital a little after 10, yes, Bob is still in the hospital. We had to wait 15 min. because they were changing the dressing on his foot. When we talked to Bob on Monday afternoon he sounded so good but then he goes and gets pneumonia in his right lung so now he has that and his foot infection won't seem to heal either. What shocked me though was seeing Uncle Bob with a pierced ear now, he said he did it a year ago, very funny looking on an 80 year old man with a hanging earlobe. Anyway, Jim showed up after we got there and we were all sitting there visiting then Bob said he wasn't feeling good and asked us to leave, well how rude :) So we drove for almost 3 hours and got to visit for 40 minutes, oh well.
Hey, forgot to mention on Tuesday we went and purchased a Wii game and Dave got it all hooked up last night so we were playing bowling and laughing so much, it is fun.
We decided to leave a day early so we are getting already now and will head out for Lake Tahoe this afternoon and spend the night in a casino somewhere on our way to Bishop.

Time To Update

Saturday we went to visit Dave’s Aunt Wilma, she is going to be 90 years old this August 19th and she is just doing great. We sat and visited then went to lunch and she just gets around like a champ, Steve, one of her sons, is having an open house for her in August , hopefully we can make it back up. OK That Was Saturday.
Sunday we got together with Dave’s half sister, Virginia, we visited for a little while then went to lunch. It was great seeing her again but it is hard visiting because she is deaf and I don’t believe she is around hearing people as much so she doesn’t speak as much as she use to when we were around her. She had lost her hearing when she was very young but use to be able to hear that’s why she knew how to talk.
After we left Virginia, we went driving around Auburn and found out they had a big time Rodeo going on at the Fairgrounds so we decided to go to it. I believe it was the first rodeo I have ever been too, even though, my cousin, Baxter, was a big Cowboy guy. Anyway, it was fun but of course I kept rooting for the calf’s to get away on Steer Wrestling, Team Roping, Tie Down Roping and for sure I was rooting for the Bull’s on the Bull Riding. It was great fun, something I would do again, but the people watching is the best past time of all, do these people not look at themselves before they walk out of their houses? Too funny and very entertaining.
Monday, we drove to Paradise California and visited with Dave’s nephew John and his wife Colleen; we got there late morning and stayed all day. John was diagnosed with a tumor, growing in his tail bone and it is cancerous, in the beginning of March, I believe. He is only 52 and going thru a series of chemo treatments for the next 9 months at UC Davis.
Today, Wednesday, we are driving up to Oakland and seeing my Uncle Bob and Jim, will write more tomorrow.

NO PICKLE BALL

Forgot to mention, this RV Park doesn't even have a Tennis Court, so there is no way we can play Pickle Ball. Our night time entertainment has been Ping Pong and Pool. I can kick Dave's ass in ping pong but he kicks mine in playing pool, although, I must say I did win one game in the last 15 games that we played.

Bodies Revealed & Marshall Gold Discovery

I forgot to mention that Tuesday night after walking around the Resort (ha ha) it started to sprinkle but the next morning it was really raining and cold. Bummer, leave Bakersfield and end up in cold weather again. It did stop raining and like I said in the last blog we went into Rocklin to Camping World and got the new dish thing so we are able to get TV.

Thursday, we went into Sacramento and went to “BODIES REVEALED” An Exhibition of Real Human Bodies, which is being shown around the world. One hell of a fascinating exhibit, look it up on the web and if you get a chance to go, it is worth the $26.00 to see it. www.bodiesrevealed.com
Kim and Danny being in the medical field would really find this fascinating but even if you aren’t in the medical field it is really something to see. One thing to remember, it is 99% men’s bodies and some are well hung and some are not, but all the bodies are of oriental descent, very small frames. It is really something to see the whole human body and I mean every bit of the human body.

Today, Friday, we went to Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park. This is where James Marshall found some gold flakes and sparked one of history’s largest human migrations. Oh my gosh, I’m back to history lessons again, Native People, Chinese Immigrants, African American settlers, how we settled some of the Mexican American stuff, enough is enough. I guess, living full time in a motor home I am going to have to learn to like history, sorry but I think I’m too old for this stuff.
At night here in this Resort(ha ha) Dave and I go and practice Ping Pong, then we play Pool. I have won 1 game so far, but I do come close, I just shoot and get lucky with the shots, Dave is really good at the game, I think he likes it better then the physical games we play because I have good eye coordination then he does, besides the age thing. Give him credit for still putting up with me though because I sure don’t give him a break. (like hell I don’t)

WE HAVE LANDED IN LOTUS, CALIF.

Sorry, I should have written yesterday, but we are now at a Thousand Trails RV Park called Ponderosa Resort in Lotus, California. It's another 1000 Trails park that is way back in the hills, with lots of trees, we were able to get our satelite dish for the computer to work, but no cell phone service and no TV. This place has one little section that has full hook-up and lots of trees and that is where we are at. The rest of the resort (ha ha) is right on, or near, the South Fork American River and it tends to get flooded. They have the snow melting from the Sierra's and lots of rain that's why they don't have sewer hookups on the lower part of the resort.
Today we drove into Rocklin to Camping World and purchased a new satelite dish for the TV, one of the ones that you put out under all the trees with a cable reaching back to the RV TV so now we have TV again. I guess after Mexico, we don't want to go without TV again? No, actually we need one because of all the 1000 Trail Parks that are so out of the way from city life it really will come in handy. Anyway, we went into Rocklin, then went to the visitor center to see what is around this area. We then went to Down Town Auburn and walked around and just checked out things. We got back in the afternoon and hooked up the new satelite dish, yea, TV again, and hung around.
Tonight, I said to Dave, we didn't get a nap today, and he said it is the 1st day we didn't work hard, we are away from Bakersfield, no dog, we could just relax for once.
That's it for now. American Idol is on, and got to see who gets kicked off.

Last Day in Bakersfield at least until May 27, 2008

It's Monday night and Kim is fixing us our farewell dinner, which I'm sure Danny is very excited to see us leave. He is getting tired of us working him to death, he seems to think we have been here 6 months already, or at least it feels that way. We head out tomorrow for the Sacramento area for a couple weeks to see Dave's side of the family. This afternoon I went with Kim to her doctors appointment and she has gained another 9 lbs. so I believe she is up about 30 lbs now. The doctor said normally women gain around 35 lbs but Kim is going to go way over that, which he said is just fine because she is tall. People have been remarking to her that she seems kind of small for as pg as she is and the doctor said to tell them "Thank you" She measures out to 28 weeks and this Friday she will be 28 weeks so the doctor said she is just fine. He also said the 1st baby is normally held in close to the body, you don't get real big, because the stomach muscles are tight and not use to being stretched out. We all listened to the heart beat and heard the baby kicking around he said everything looks good.
About the broken window, Danny was throwing trash away and noticed all the glass and kept asking Dave where all the glass came from. Danny walked around until he said the one window looked new, but he thought Dave had done it. When Kim got home Saturday night Dave couldn't stand it and pulled my blog up for her to read, shit head.
David, Jodi and Riley came up on Saturday afternoon and after lunch the boys went to the casino and Jodi, Riley and I went shopping for stuff for the baby shower. After shopping we girls went by the RV Park so Riley could do some swimming until the guys got back. We waited until Kim got home from work to have dinner, then afterward we all piled into Jodi's van and went to an ice cream parlor, it was a fun evening. Sunday Danny and I cooked a Mexican breakfast at the house then it was back to work on the house, and David and the gang had to get back on the road. Sunday night Dave and I went and picked up all the paint for the house so when we get back we will have something to do all summer long. Although Danny said he will have the facer board (don't know how to spell it) done by the time we get back, yea right, will see.

Bummer Busted Window

Every morning after I take Valley out walking we have been going over to the house and working for 2 to 4 hours, or until it gets too hot. In the afternoons we have been playing pickle ball then hit the jacuzzi at night. Every once in a while I manage to make it over to the gym. This morning while starting to clean up I was trying to take the ladder down, it's one of those ladders that can extend up really high, and I had never taken it down before. Anyway, as I was trying to get the one slide to come down, Dave made a comment about it isn't that hard to do and started to say that I should move it 1st, but of course I didn't hear that comment and the one slide came flying down and the ladder then fell forward, right thru the spare bedroom window. That was one sound I never wanted to hear, but there it was, Dave just started laughing and said "Oh well, shit happens" of course I wasn't a happy camper. Dave went in and called a window repair place and I am now sitting at the house waiting for them to show up, Dave went out to Home Depot for more supplies for the house. I don't think I will tell Kim and Danny, they will have to read it on the blog to find out about it.
The other day quess who showed up at the RV Resort, the owner of 3 Way Chevrolet again, I wrote about them last year when we were here because they were here too. They are the couple that drive their corvette to the RV restaurant just about every day and who also have 2 Great Danes that are show dogs. Too funny, there is another couple that have a red and black RV that showed up and they were also here when we were here last year, such a small world, ha ha.
That's it for now, we leave on Tuesday and Valentine is going to stay with Kim while we are gone for a month, will see how I can handle not having a dog with us, I sure hope Valley's collar fits Dave for when I take him out for his morning walks.

At least I get to keep my tan

It’s time for another posting, another week in Bakersfield and the weather is starting to get hotter. This last week we weren’t at Kim and Danny’s too much until Friday. We just stayed around the coach, did some shopping, played pickle ball and rode bikes at the beginning of the week but then on Wednesday we took our bikes in for an overhaul, got them back on Friday. Friday Dave and I started sanding the facer boards in the front of the house. Then we decided to get a big power washer and spray down the house 1st to clean it all up. Dave started the washing on Friday afternoon, then when Danny got home from work he started playing with it to wash all the mud off of his car. Saturday, Dave and I went over early to wash and sand the house, Dave did the washing and I was up on the ladder sanding the wood. Danny mowed the lawn then at 10:30 Kim and Danny left because it was baby register day, Kim has been trying to get Danny to go with her and they just don’t seem to have the time to do it. Dave and I worked until around 2pm then gave up it was just too hot. The kids got back about 4 then at 5:30 we left to go to the car races.
Sunday, Dave did some sanding and I did digging up trees and picking thru rocks to save to use when we redo the front yard. Oh, forgot , Saturday Dave got rid of the Xmas Tree in the front of the house, cut the sucker down and boy did it open up the yard. The house looks a lot better without that tree, even Kim, who didn’t want it to go bye bye, had to admit it does look better without the tree.
Anyway, at 10am, after the kids got out of church, we met them for brunch, then when we got back Dave and Danny moved the patio stuff out then washed down the rest of the house. Kim and I worked on raking thru the rocks for saving for the front yard but it was just too hot so we had to quit. See the pregnant girl doing some work. Dave went to the dump with all the bushes and trees we took out then it was back to the coach.
Today, Monday, we hung around, rode bikes and played pickle ball it was another hot day, tomorrow it is going to be cooler so we will go and finish, hopefully, sanding the wood and get it prepped for painting, which we plan on doing ourselves. We leave next Tuesday for Sacramento, David, Jodi and Riley are coming up this weekend so more than likely the painting of the house won’t get done until we get back which is on May 27th. Damn, you know I am getting too old for this stuff, we have to win the lottery so we can pay to have someone do all this work, oh well. At least I get to keep my tan going with doing all of this work.
That’s it for now, will update again before we hit the road.

Happy 53rd B/Day Marty plus Happy 29th Anniversary Marty and Dayna

Been staying somewhat busy since I last wrote. Last Wednesday Dave and I started tearing out the built in cabinet by the fire place at Kim's. That cabinet, come to find out, was put in by the builder of the house because once the cabinet was out to could see that they had never finished bricking the fire place plus it had an unfinished wall. Thursday, Dave worked on patching the wall and fixing the unfinished fire place, I was doing the kids laundry and cleaning their house, no bathrooms though, I hate bathrooms. Friday Dave primed the wall for painting and in between we ran to the park to play pickle ball. Friday night Danny painted the wall to match all the other walls, with the cabinet gone it looked really good, after all it was a 30+ year old cabinet. Saturday Danny mowed the lawn while Dave worked on something, but damn if we can remember. I took off later to Longs and Danny and Dave worked on the kid's taxes. Saturday night Dave and I went to Bakersfield Speedway for the car races, Danny said he would stay home and cook Kim dinner when she got off work, which he didn't because he was playing X-Box and lost track of time.
Sunday Dave, Danny and I went to breakfast, Kim had to work again, then did some running around for some padding for the wood flooring they needed to put in from where we took the cabinet out. When we were leaving Home Depot, Dave had bought some spray paint for the ceiling, where the cabinet was, and we were in self checkout. Of course the spray paint set off the alarm for the manager, I wasn't paying attention but the manager was asking Danny for his drivers license, Dave looked over and said the spray paint was for him, why did he need Danny's license, the manager said "Oh, are you with them?" meaning Danny, and Dave said YES! Prejudice, weird seeing right in front of your face, we laughed it off but if you really thought about it, it really wasn't funny. Brown skin, shaved head and dark sun glasses on your head, it really makes you think about how you really perceive things, does that sound right? Hopefully you know what I'm trying to say, I know with someone covered in tats, I'm very prejudice, they could be great people but I look down at them, which really isn't right. Enough of that crap.
Sunday Dave and Danny finished the floor then we started moving the desks and table around. We made the dining room back into a dining room, we moved my mom's old desk into the alcove where the cabinet used to be, now that will be the computer desk again. It looks really good with the changes that have been done, it really opens up the house.
Today, Monday, Lowes came by and measured the 3 bedrooms for new carpet, the baby's room needs to be done really bad so we might as well do the other 2 rooms too. When we get back at the end of May, Dave has this great plan, so we can save money, is that he and I will paint the whole outside of the house, because it needs it really bad. I think that's it, I'm all caught up again.

Happy 53rd Birthday to my brother Marty, and Happy 29th Anniversary to Dayna and Marty.

April 1st-Happy Anniversary to us/Happy Birthday to Jim Mello

Today is our 30th wedding anniversary, 30 years, boy it went by fast. We have had our good times and bad, up and downs, but all in all it’s been, and still is, great. Thank goodness too, with the little space we live in now it would have been over a long time ago. As my brother, Mike, said don’t leave him now he relies on the GPS systems too much and he could get lost forever if he were on his own.

Happy 68th Birthday to James Mello, Uncle Bob’s partner of 34 years.

This morning after my walk and workout we went and played pickle ball, just marked up a tennis court again and played for over an hour. Tonight we will go out for Japanese food, Kim and Danny both work late so the 4 of us will go out tomorrow. The RV Park here delivered a bottle of wine and some of their logo glasses for our anniversary, very nice of them.

Last I wrote it was Kim’s birthday and we had cooked dinner for her since she worked late. Wednesday the construction had started and he finished up on Friday afternoon. Dave primed the wall and Danny painted the wall so everything looked good again. I know they wanted to knock out the whole wall between the den and living room but it is a bearing wall and there was no way they could do it without it costing a fortune. They ended up cutting to big squares out of the wall and it looks really good, really opens it up. Saturday the 4 of us drove down to Simi Valley and met a bunch of people at El Patio for lunch. Kim and Danny then left and went to North Hollywood to visit friends and to spend the night at Danny’s parents. Dave and I went over to John and Amy’s and visited for a few hours, we even went next door to our old house and got a tour of what has been done to it since we left. The people that bought it from us just got done spending 50K redoing the pool area and backyard and they have also made some nice changes to the inside of the house too.
Dave and I stayed at the Marriott then on Sunday we met up with Jesica and the girls, David, Jodi, Kim, Danny, and Danny’s parents at Home Town Buffet for breakfast before heading back to Bakersfield.
Dave set up a blog for Kim, let’s see if she uses it, I think she will be worst then Spanky on updating it.
Berlyg.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday Kim / Back in Bakersfield

1st thing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" Kimberly Diane, 26 now, boy did you ever thing you would be that old? I know when I was younger I always said "I'll never get to 25 that's way too old" and now I have doubled that age.
Anyway, she had to work so Dave, Danny and I made dinner for her and we ate when she got home. I even got her cupcakes, instead of a cake, and do you know when we were leaving in our cars, Danny and Kim came out and said we had forgotten about the cupcakes, instead of us going back in we just said enjoy them, after all it was going on 9:30pm that's our bedtime. So Sorry Kim, hope they were good. I just have to quit lecturing you guys on managing a house and let you live and learn on your own.
Enough of that, we got to Bakersfield yesterday, 25th, and Jackie and Bob, who we had met on the Mexico Caravan were still here at the RV park. Great, great people, we brought them over to Kim's to see the house and help with ideas on remodelling, then we came back for Happy Hour and their coach. After that we had dinner at the RV park restaurant, it was a lot of fun visiting again. Bob and Jackie have a son who has lived in Bakersfield for 29 years and is a teacher, so that's why they were here, seeing the grand kids and all that good stuff.
They left this morning and Dave went to the house to watch the remodelling going on, I stayed at the coach and cleaned.
Just found out there is going to be a rally going on here at the RV park, should be fun to watch, I love rallies.
That's it for the exciting stuff, more like boring recap.

HAPPY BELATED EASTER/BACK IN CALIFORNIA

Happy belated Easter to everyone, hope you had a good one. We drove from Las Cruces New Mexico to Casa Grande Arizona, and were just to tired to do anything once we got parked in the RV Park. It must have been the 50's street dancing we did the night before, well, mainly I danced with a group of ladies, it was fun. The music they played was more of the 60's then the 50's tho.
Sunday night we stayed in AZ and this morning we got going about 7am and are now in Palm Desert, CA staying in a Thousand Trails RV Park. Dave did all of the driving today but I did most of it yesterday, the last 2 days haven't been that exciting, EXCEPT yesterday when I was driving. We had our CB Radio on, of course, and there were some truck drivers that were going to either kick the shit out of each other or shoot each other. This white guy kept using the "N" word and said he had a 9mm gun and was going to either shoot this "N" word guy or fight him, it was the black truck drivers choice, plus, the white guy said he just got out of prison for killing a man so he had no problem killing another one. The white guy then gave a description of what he was driving and kept offering to pull over. I look behind me and there he was, boy was I nervous and let him go by me. Then for awhile it was quite, next thing you here two black guys, in two different trucks are looking for this white guy. Again I look behind me and there are the 2 trucks with the black guys in them and boy I let them by me too. They kept cussing out each other and calling each other names, then when we got close to Tucson we stopped hearing them on the CB's so we don't know if they pulled over or just got out of range for our CB. Very exciting stuff, I kept wanting to get on the radio and say "guys, guys, it's Easter Sunday relax" but I don't talk on that thing.
Today while Dave was driving a couple from Fantasy RV, another touring group like Adventure Caravans, kept talking to us, he even tried to get us to become Caravan employees of Fantasy when we stopped and talked to them at a rest stop. Nothing exciting like the CB radio talk yesterday, but it is fun to talk to people over the CB, or at least it is for Dave. I just enjoy listening to all the truck drivers talking and giving warnings of the "Bears" in the area.
Tomorrow we will be back in Bakersfield right before Kim's Birthday and our Anniversary.

Weeks Recap on the WOW Rally in Las Cruces

Recap of what’s been going on here, at the rally, in Las Cruces
Wednesday was the Farmers Market Downtown, the Rally had it from 8am to noon, NOT. Dave and I went on our own and we got there about 11am and there was hardly anything there. I think it may have taken us 10 minutes, at the most, to walk thru the whole thing. The Rally also at 11am was going to caravan to the Stahmann Pecan Farm for a tour, Dave and I decided to pass on that. We took off looking for a park with tennis courts so we could go practice pickle ball. We found a park and practiced for an hour then went to PetSmart and even went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up Kim a birthday present. At 2pm they had a seminar about maintenance and service so Dave and I both went to that, which I think I slept thru about ½ of it. After that we took off on our bikes and rode to old town Mesilla, which was a pretty cute town. At night it was bring Heavy Hors d’ oeuvres to share and a talent show, not many signed up for the talent show. There was a lady that played the accordion and that was about it. Rusty decided to bring up couples that had been married the longest and play “Not so Newly Newlyweds” that was pretty funny.

Thursday at 10am we caravanned to White Sands National Monument. We had our picnic lunch then climbed the dunes and some even used the sleds to ridge down the dunes, it was pretty funny watching some of them riding the sleds. One lady wanted a picture of her riding the sled to send to her granddaughter, she said let her see what her 73 yr old grandma is doing. At 4:30 it was back to the Rally Barn for the Pony Races. They had 5 stick horses and you had to bet on who was going to win, you should have seen these people riding those stick horses, pretty funny. The proceeds were being donated to Habitat for Humanity, which they ended up raising $400.00 pretty good.

Friday morning we went into the room where our group was and Don Lange, regional president, had invited us to sit with him, shocked the shit out of us because no one had really talked to us the whole time we have been here. Dave got to talking to him about the way we have been treated by everyone and even said the 1st night, Don himself asked us to stand and never asked us our names. Don said he didn’t know our names that’s why he didn’t introduce us, Dave said that’s why these chapters aren’t getting any new blood everyone stays in their click. Don said he was very sorry that no one had talked to us and said they will make it a point to do better on this. I guess after we left he must have had a meeting with everyone because now everyone is talking to us. I can hardly walk Valley around without someone walking with me, Thanks a lot Dave. They are even asking me to come by and see them when we are in their area, yea right. Too bad they weren’t that friendly at the beginning.
Friday we caravanned to Sunland Race Track and Casino had lunch there, gambled a little then went and bet on the horses. Lost at gambling but won on the horse races. Friday night they had a BBQ dinner, good shredded beef, then had a Western Band play for a couple hours.

Saturday, today, is the final day of the rally, so tonight it’s a hamburger cookout and street dance to the 50’s. This morning we went to play pickle ball then went to the farmer’s market, a lot more people there this time but still no vegetables or fruits.

That’s about it our exciting week at the WOW (Way Out West) Rally.

Juarez Mexico and the beginning of the Rally

We went this morning to Juarez Mexico by ourselves, getting thru the border, into Mexico, was fast and no big deal, now coming back was another thing. Once we got there we parked and walked around but most of the stuff we saw was commercial made nothing handmade. We decided not to stick around so I think we actually sat in line longer to get thru the border to the U.S. then the amount of time we stayed in Mexico.

Today at 4pm the Rally really started, it began with a margarita party with a Mariachi Band playing, which was pretty good. After that we went to the Rally Barn for a "Welcome and Mexican Dinner". After dinner we did the "Pledge of Allegiance", which was suppose to be done before dinner but the Master of Ceremonies, Don Lange, had forgotten to do it, I guess he was in a hurry to eat. Then they did some announcements of the up coming events then introduced a new couple to the group. Don then looked over at Dave and I, which we were at the head of a table closes to him and he said, "Oh, you guys are new too, please stand", which we did, do you think he asked our names or even asked us to tell everyone our names "NO". Needless to say we won't be joining this chapter of the Holiday Rambler Group, so far the South Carolina Chapter still has my vote, but we still need to meet up with more chapters before we start paying them any dues. I guess we should try and find the Arizona Chapter and give them a try, since someday we will be moving there.

Happy St. Patrick's Day-Las Cruces New Mexico

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to everyone.
Yesterday Dave and I took off and went and got haircuts, Fantastic Sam’s, well, they cut my hair a little shorter then the picture I gave them, so they aren’t that Fantastic, but no big deal it will grow out. You only live once why sweat over a short hair cut. After that we took a drive thru Saguaro National Park, which was just beautiful, the cactus were just amazing to see. After that it started raining a little, no big deal, and then we headed for Costco, needed lettuce, oranges, and grapes. We got back to the RV in the afternoon and it started pouring rain, and getting really cold, we even got hail. For dinner we went with, Cheryl, Dean, Charlie, Gayle, and this time Herb and Anne joined us, they were on the Mexico Caravan too and were staying somewhere else in Tucson. We all had a good time and a good visit, plus gossip about the caravan.
The night got pretty cool and when we took off this morning we were driving thru snow, it wasn’t on the roads but it was on the sides. At one point it started to sprinkle again then the next thing you know it was snowing on us. We had our CB radio on and you could hear the truck drivers saying, this is Arizona what the hell is doing snowing now, it was pretty funny. Once we got to Benson Arizona the sun was out and the sky was blue it was hard to believe it was snowing on us 10 minutes earlier.
Anyway, we are now in Las Cruces, New Mexico for the Holiday Rambler Rally “WOW” which stands for Way Out West. The rally really begins tomorrow but we wanted to get all set-up and check things out. They are having a golf tournament tomorrow besides check in there really isn’t anything to do until the 4pm margarita party and Mariachi Band. Dave and I decided to drive to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and check out the border area, it might be a bust but we still have peso’s we need to get rid of, if you don’t hear or see any postings from me in a couple days, send help, because we are probably either stuck/jailed/ or dead somewhere in Mexico and Valley needs to be rescued from the RV and be fed.

P.S. I did do some driving today, I haven’t said that in months, but driving Hwy 10 seems to be my calling.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

So sorry, I forgot to say "Happy Birthday" to Tracy Doria, Kim's best friend and our very good friend too.
Love you Tracy

Now in Tucson Arizona

We left this morning about 7:30 am to meet up with Jeff at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Phoenix. We got there early but just walked Valley around till about 9:45 then we starting calling Jeff. We were suppose to meet him at 10am, we got a table and waited, and Dave kept calling. As you can guess, Jeff never answered the phone or showed up, Dave and I had a good breakfast anyway. We hope everything is OK with him, maybe he will call us sometime and let us know what had happened.
We got to Tucson, at Mission View RV Resort about 1:30pm got all set up then went visiting. Cheryl and Dean, our Wagon Masters on the Mexico Caravan we went on who had to leave early because Dean got sick, are here in the RV Park.(Dean looks great now) Charlie, Gayle, and Dinah(their dog) are staying here in the RV Park too. We sat and visited then went to the Casino around the corner for dinner, it was a good time visiting again. Tomorrow night another couple on our caravan, Herb and Anne, are coming by and we are all going out to Olive Garden for dinner, that should be fun too.
Only got in about 3 miles walking today, and NO pickle ball, having withdrawals already. Tomorrow I think we are touring around Tucson and see what it has to offer.

Friday Night and House Inspections Done

After my 7 mile walk, Dave and I rode our bikes to the pickle ball courts at a little after 8:30 this morning. The last few days when we get there at 10 a few people have bitched, since they think we are the youngest, that we only showed up after the old folks were tired. We showed up early this time and got to play a lot because some people didn't show up, that normally do. Dave and I don't play as partners, everyone just keeps switching around, that way you learn more. My biggest hang up is serving, the underhand is killing me, otherwise, they are amazed at the way I play. If they hit it short, I will normally get it, long I get it, but don't get me wrong I still miss some of the stupid ones that I shouldn't miss, but I have to admit I am pretty good at it, but Dave is really good. Anyway, it is a lot of fun and one hell of a workout. By the end of the day, at least the last few days I have been getting in about 10 miles a day if not more. Maybe if I keep this up I could possibly lose some weight some day, if not at least I might be in shape, don't know what the shape is called, but it is some kind of shape.
This afternoon we went and did an inspection of our rental units in Cottonwood and Cornville. Everything is looking pretty good but some work still needs to be done by the rental company for the Cottonwood house. The work that was ordered to be done last year when we did a walk thru was done horribly and we have told the rental company to have it redone, which they agreed to do. The renters knew it was bad work but never said anything, they didn't want to bitch about the work because they want to stay in the house, but we told them the work will be redone and if it doesn't get done right this time, call the rental company. But really the rental company shoulc come out and inspect the work to make sure it was done right.
Enough of that, we leave tomorrow and will be in Tucson for 2 nights, we will meet Jeff, on the way, for a late breakfast/early lunch, haven't seen him since Kim's wedding last August. Then on the 17th we are headed for Las Cruces, New Mexico, which I'm sure I'll mention a few more times on by blog from Tucson.

The Mind is 25 but the hurting body is 50

Wednesday morning, Dave and I were sore, but I managed to get in about a 7 mile walk, Valley went with me for about 3 miles, and Dave joined us and walked about 2 miles. Dave and I then went over to play pickle ball with the better players about 9:45am. There was another couple, Rick and Shirreen, that showed up at 11am for lessons. After their lessons, we, meaning, Lee, Audrey, Dave and I asked them if they wanted to get together at 4pm to practice playing, which they did. But before any of us left we played another 6 games and didn’t leave the courts until almost 1pm, and we were going back at 4pm, we must be crazy. We got back to the coach, had a little lunch then for me it was lay out in the sun and nap, and Dave just snoozed away in the coach. When we all showed up at 4pm, since there were 6 people, and it’s only 4 on a court, Linda and Rick (yes, another Rick) said they would play with us too. We didn’t get back to the RV until 6pm. Boy, were we exhausted, and sore. I told Dave when we go tomorrow there is no way I am staying and playing that long, we are leaving soon and I have things to do in the coach, like rest. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing this and Dave is pretty good at this sport, but I have a problem, I keep running and trying not to miss any of the balls, when everyone else says “if you have to take more than 2 steps you just let it go” I just don’t follow that saying. In my mind I am still 25 but the body says “No Way in Hell”. I feel kind of bad for Valentine, she has to hear us moan in pain all night long, no wonder she sleeps all day long.

Thursday, I got in about an 8 mile walk before we left for pickle ball. We got to the courts and played for 2 hours and said that was enough for now. The other 2 couples that were beginners with us, Audrey, Lee, Rick and Shirreen , didn’t show up at all. I know Audrey and Lee the night before had caught colds, so I kind of knew they wouldn’t show, but the other couple are in their early 50’s so they should have shown up, must have been too sore. Anyway, Dave and I went back at 4pm, and no one was there, so we played 2 games by ourselves then came back to the coach.
Our next door neighbors, here in 1000 Trails, stopped by and told us they had just gotten back from town and diesel fuel was selling for $4.29 a gallon. What the hell? This is getting ridicules, now because of the fuel prices, plus the way the stock market is going, we are thinking about maybe we should stop travelling around and just settling down in one of the houses in Arizona. We can put the RV in storage and just use it when we have put enough money away from the part time jobs we will need to get. (Just kidding, hopefully, but then maybe not)
This fuel stuff is really putting a damper on our future short term plans, after New Mexico, then Bakersfield we had thought we would travel to Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Redding, Sacramento, Oakland, all to see family but now we have to rethink everything. We might only make it to Oakland and Sacramento then just park our butts in Bakersfield, Yuk, because of the heat, until next October when we go to the balloon festival in New Mexico. We just don’t know, and we may even have to cancel our Louis and Clark trip next May 2009 if the fuel prices don’t improve.
OK enough wining, tomorrow morning after my walk we will go for pickle ball again then we have an appointment at 2pm to do an inspection of our rental units, need the write off for our taxes. Saturday we head to Tucson Arizona for 2 nights then on to Las Cruces New Mexico for the Holiday Rambler Rally.

PickleBall

Went tonight and met up with Lee and Audrey and played 3 games of pickleball, and Dave and I won all 3 by a long shot. We said we would go down tomorrow at 9:30am and hope the pros are tired by then and maybe we can play against them. You need to play against better people if you want to get better, but it sure is good exercise.

Back to Cottonwood, AZ

Time to get caught up again; it’s been a week since I last wrote.
I forgot to mention in my “Welcome back to Bakersfield” blog besides the other good news I wrote about, Kim in hospital, Valley with heart murmur, and having to take Chelsea in to have her put to sleep, I had forgotten to mention that we got a notice that they are thinking about putting in a Freeway right where are house is in Bakersfield. They were having a neighborhood meeting Tuesday night and we couldn’t go to it, so someone that Danny works with lives in the neighborhood and was going to keep us informed on the outcome. The meeting turned out to be nothing so far, so we didn’t miss anything yet, Kim and Danny will just have to keep their eyes and ears open for what is going on.
Last Tuesday, late afternoon, Dave and I drove to Ontario to stay at a hotel so we would be near the church for my brother’s funeral the next day. David Jr. drove in late that night and stayed in our room too. Kim had called earlier and said she was feeling better and was done with the IV’s at the hospital and asked if she could come to the funeral and we told her NO she had to stay home and rest.
Wednesday was totally amazing to us, my brother had over 1,000 people who attended his funeral. There were fire engines, fire trucks, fire service trucks, hotshot trucks, you name it and it was there. Governor Arnold couldn’t make it but he sent a representative to come and speak on his behalf. They had so many Fire Chiefs speaking and everyone else that spoke, the church was packed. The service itself was over 2 hours long then the family had to wait for all the service personal to leave the church so they could all line up and we then walked single file thru that line, very interesting. They had another small service outside, with bagpipes playing, then a service guy playing the trumpet, and then they did a helicopter fly by, where one veers off for a fallen firefighter. The highway patrol blocked off the streets and closed the 10 freeway for the funeral procession, which was probably 3 miles long. Once we got to the cemetery the family lined up and they had every fire engine, trucks ect. Drive by for us to see. I am just so very sorry I didn’t know how important my brother was to the community, it’s too bad our communication was basically cut off years ago, but we all still did love each other even though we weren’t close. He is a lucky man now because he gets to be with our parents now.
Because they listed his death as a stroke, work comp is now not going to pay the hospital bill, which is about 235,000.00. They pay for everything else just not a stroke, so the fire department top guns have drafted up a bill which was being presented to Governor Arnold last week to have the Work Comp wording changed so strokes are covered, the bill is called the “Tomaselli Bill”. Let’s hope everything goes well with that, after all he was driving to a fire when the stroke happened, it work didn’t cause it I don’t know what else would. After the funeral on Wednesday, Dave and I went to my nephew’s house, Jimmy, to eat then we headed back up to Bakersfield. Once we got to Bakersfield my brother, Mike, called and said my 94 year old uncle, who had just gotten out of the hospital the day before, he had a pace maker put in, had fallen and broken his hip, great more good news. Then Mike called again on Thursday and said that my brother, Vance’s, house was broken into probably the police said when the funeral was going on, please can’t this family get a break. Speaking of break, my niece’s husband, Shawn, was playing soccer and broke his ankle right before they were moving to Colorado. Enough of the bad news.
Dave, Valley and I drove back to Cottonwood on Friday morning; it took another 8 hours to drive it. Saturday, we went walking in the morning, played a little pickle ball then went to Costco. That afternoon we did bike riding for awhile, it just feels so good to be able to get out and exercise again. Sunday was cleaning the rig again, this time Dave emptied out the underneath and vacuumed and I emptied out the inside cupboards and cleaned them all up. Finally getting all the dirt from Mexico out of the RV, what a mess it had gotten. Monday, Valley and I walked our 5 miles, I think it was a bit long for her, and Dave took the car to the dealership because the “Service Engine Soon” light starting coming on again. Well it was due for 90,000 mile check-up, the car has 98,000 miles on it, plus they said the warning light means the fan clutch is bad. We had to have that fan clutch replaced while we were in Canada last September, and the work was done by a GM Dealer in Canada but Canada’s computer doesn’t talk to the US computer so it doesn’t show the work being done. I couldn’t find our receipt from Canada so Dave called the dealership there and they faxed the work order over. Thank goodness too because now the new fan clutch they put in is under warranty, so it only cost us $450 for the rest of the work that needed to be done. When the car was done Dave and I decided to walk over and pick up the car, which was only about 2 1/2 miles away, the only bad thing was it was all uphill to get out of the 1000 Trails RV park, then at 3pm we rode out bikes over and played pickle ball again.
This morning Dave had cramps in his legs, his sides are sore, shoulder hurts, me, my legs are sore because I must have walked 10 miles yesterday and my sides are a little sore. I did take Valley out for a 5 mile walk then I dropped her off and walked another few miles, no pain no gain, right? At 11am Dave and I went over and got pickle ball lessons, at 4pm tonight another couple that is learning how to play we will meet them and practice together.
Go to Goggle and put in Vance Tomaselli and all the articles should show up
or go to www.vancetomaselli.blogspot.com and watch the video

House boat trip

We took a house boat trip while on our Mexico trip




Everyone on board
Not much water

Welcome back to Bakersfield

We drove 544 miles yesterday and got to Bakersfield about 2pm and Kim wasn't feeling good. She said she was going to call in sick on Tuesday so she could come down with us to Riverside on Tuesday afternoon for Vance's funeral on Wednesday. You shouldn't plan on calling in sick because you sometimes jinx yourself and you really do get sick. Well, it happened, Kim was sick, she ended up calling into work sick on Monday night, she couldn't hold anything down. All night long she was sick so 1st thing this morning she called the doctor and they told her to get to the hospital. Dave went with her to the hospital, Valley had a vet appointment so I took her there, better me then Dave. They mainly wanted Kim in to get an IV in her for fluid and Dave could handle that one. Anyway, Valley had ear infections and now they found a heart mermer (can't spell). Danny left school and met Dave and Kim at the hospital where she is now on her second IV, but doing fine. Today Dave was going to take Kim and Danny's dog, Chelsea, in to have her put to sleep, but guess who's shoulders it falls on now.
Boy, this is turning out to be a great week for all of us, welcome back to Bakersfield.

All Alone

Yesterday we got going from Amado, Arizona and headed for Cottonwood, Arizona and the drive was about 5 hours long. We got to 1000 Trails and while just starting to drive around and look for a campsite Dave cut a corner too sharp and we hit a bolder and wood post, oh well another dent. Luckily I spotted the post in time or else we might have really done some damage, as it was we hadn’t finished the turn yet. We had to get out and unhook the car, then I got behind the wheel of the RV and Dave guided me on how to get the RV out of that situation. Most of the dents, so far knock on wood, have been to this one panel on the RV so it looks like we will just have to replace the one panel, but we will hold out for a while just in case. We got all set up then had to make a run to Wal-Mart, remember we had just about eaten everything that was in our refrig and freezer except all the seafood we had brought back. We just got enough for Saturday night’s dinner and for Sunday. Will restock everything next week when we get back from Bakersfield.
While sitting around it had donned on us that this was the 1st time since January 13th that we were alone. Since January 14th, we have either been with family, friends or our new friends from our Mexico Caravan. I guess we should get use to it since we really don’t have any friends, or at least that’s what our daughter tells us. When we stop motor homing and move into a house in Arizona then she can say we really don’t have friends, because the only person we know in Cottonwood is the real estate agent, who I do keep in touch with.
Today we are alone too, so I’m doing laundry, emails, pictures and blogging and Dave is shopping at Home Depot, things are back to normal, god we are exciting people. We do have TV back so at least we don’t have to stare at each other, and I must say I sure didn’t miss those stupid commercials. Plus, we have phone service back too, we are so use to not using a phone that every time we leave now we forget our phones, or at least Dave does, I had no problem hooking that to my side again.
I must say it is nice being back in the U.S. and being able to go walking around with Valley again, there aren’t tons of lose dogs running around like there were in Mexico. I must say though the people in Mexico are a hell of a lot friendlier then they are back in the states. In Mexico everyone says Ola(Hi) you need any kind of help they stop and help you no questions asked. We get back here and walking around the park and say Hi to someone and they ignore you or a void eye contact, weird how that works. That’s alright; I’ll take the U S of A any old day.
This is the last blog for a week, not taking my computer down to California with us, will get all caught up when I get back.

Back in the USA

We made it back safe and sound, and that's a miracle in itself. The road to get to the border was horrible, I have never seen so many holes in both sides of the roads before. Nancy and Dan had emailed Bob before we left and they had popped 2 tires when they left a couple days earlier, now we know why. Thank goodness none of us had any problems but it really was a nightmare. We were thinking about going back to San Carlos next October but if we have to go on that road again, forget it.
It took us 1 hour and 25 minutes to get thru the border, heck of a long line. They did come in and take the ham lunch meat, salami, and frozen turkey lunch meat, they never asked where we had been, what we purchased or anything, weird. All but 2 RVs stopped at De Anza Trails RV Resort to spend the night, it had been a long day. We had left at 7:20am and got all set up by 5pm, just in time for 1 more happy hour then dinner. We head out today for Cottonwood, Arizona where we will leave the RV and drive the car to Bakersfield on Monday.