6/14 - 6/17

6/14

We finally got out of Adventureland RV park around noon on Monday. We were having problems with our electrical so Dave had to fix that before we could leave. On our way to Eagan, MN we saw a sign for the Spam Museum, so we went a little out of our way to stop and see it. This time on our travels we are not rushing and if we see something that catches our eye then we are going to stop and see it. We got to the Spam Museum at 4:30pm and it closed at 5 so we didn't have a lot of time to see the whole thing. We did the walk through and then purchased some Garlic spam. We got to the Wal*Mart in Eagan and set up camp. Since we got in so late, for us, we ended up eating out at a place called Old Chicago, what a great restaurant. We shared Italian Nacho's and a pizza, great food.

6/15

Tuesday we drove the RV over to Ikea, across the street from Mall of America, they had parking for RV's and trucks. We then walked the MOA for the next 3 hours. I know people say it can take a day or more to get through the whole place but Dave and I aren't shoppers so we just walked and checked everything out. Lots of rides there but a bit costly, to much for us anyway. While there we saw a Casino shop offering all kinds of things, plus, they had an RV park. We decided to stay another couple days so we headed over to the Casino.

6/16

The weather was nice so we decided to go to the Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee, MN. Wanted to see what it was like to go to a amusement park without it raining. :) They had just about the same rides that Adventureland did plus a lot more. Some of those rides are just crazy, their water park is up and running too. I just heard that the rain is still coming down in Altoona, Iowa and now the farmers are worried about flooding, thank goodness we left there. I don't know when Adventureland will ever finishing putting in their water park.

Dave went up and brought the amusement park tickets and had gotten 2 seniors for 15.99 each. MOA was going to cost us about 85 for both of us, no thank you.

6/17

The drive from Shakopee, MN. to Sioux Falls, SD was a short drive, 4 hrs., but winds the whole time. Dave looked like he was constantly making a left turn. We got set-up in another Wal*Mart then headed out to visit the falls. They have been having so much rain, the week before, that the falls looked so dirty from all of the run off. All the lakes we kept seeing along the drives have been very full. I feel for the farmers out here in SD. too even their fields are under water.

6/9 - 6/13/10 Last Iowa Post

On our day off we went to Winterset to see the house John Wayne was born in and then toured around the "Bridges" of Madison County. It started pouring rain for like 1 1/2 hours, driving back to the RV Park you couldn't see 3 car lengths in front of you. I was driving on the freeway with my flashers on, unbelievable. Work has been slow and when the rain comes it comes in buckets. It seems to pour either late at night or 1st thing in the morning. The amusement park has been closing early every night, 8pm, instead of 9 or 10 pm. Saturday, Dave gave notice that we were leaving here on Monday, today. Our electrical quit working and that was the straw that broke the camels back for Dave. With all of this rain and our awnings not up our coach is leaking, electric quit, ants in coach, physical labor for $7 an hour, this place just isn't worth it. We are heading out and going to do some site seeing now that we are out here. 1st stop is Mall of America, will keep you up dated on our travels.

Did get a call from my doctor last Friday and the calcium in my blood is high. She said I couldn't wait until next October to have it checked, so we will have to stop somewhere and sit for awhile to have this checked out. The possibilities could be a tumor in my thyroid. Will keep you undated.

June 4th - June 8th

June 4th - Friday

Dave got a hair cut then had an appointment with a Chiropractor, his left shoulder blade is really bothering him. They took x-rays and want to see him 3 times a week for I don't know how long. Work was busy until around 4:30pm, that's when the school buses all left. Boy, I sure don't remember our schools taking us to amusement parks when I was in school. Marilyn came by later and asked if I wanted to work a double on Saturday, Ferris Wheel Assist, I said sure. She then tracked Dave down and he got a double shift too, working Space Shot.

June 5th - Saturday

In the a.m. I assisted on the Ferris Wheel which was fun. Work was slow though for a Saturday, the weather report said rain all day, but it didn't happen. On my p.m. shift I was still in the Underground. The rain finally hit, rather came down in buckets, about 5:30 p.m. which we then really became busy. Since we are in a covered building we don't really know what is going on in the rest of the park. They had closed down all the rides but ours, so everyone ran to us to get our of the rain plus ride a ride. 20 min. later the rain stopped and the sun came back out. The rest of the weather was fine until we closed at 10 p.m. We had started work at 9:40pm and got off at 10pm, long day but we both felt fine, won't make a habit of doing that though.

June 6th - Sunday

When we went into work we got our new job assignments which starts on Monday. Dave got days off cover, which means he goes to a different job everyday covering for the people that have that day off. I got G-Force no big deal until when I went on my break and looked at the sheet again. I had to be the operator on G-Force. For one thing I don't know how to operate the ride, and I never wanted to be an operator only an assistant. The worst thing of all was the operator has to speak into a mike, which I don't like to speak in public. Glenn trained me for the ride, Sunday night, and I let him know I wasn't happy at all. He said "Oh Jeri" you can do it, if I really don't like it come see him later and he would see what he could do.

June 7th - Monday

Started the new ride, messed up a few times when I tried to start the ride and speaking wasn't fun either. My assistant was new too, so he couldn't help me any, his name was Jerry too. Luckily it was a slow day and by the end of it I was doing pretty good. We did get some rain around 6pm but those people just won't leave the rides no matter what.

June 8th - Tuesday

In the morning we went to the Casino for the breakfast buffet, just can't beat that $3.50 price. It holds you just about all day too. Another slow day and I still had a couple mess ups on starting the ride but the people are really understanding and just said no big deal. Jerry was off so I had another new assist that hadn't worked the ride so I had to train her. Around 7pm it started raining a little, it would start, stop, start, stop. At 7:40 Dave comes over to my ride and said they are shutting everyone down. My ride was full, all of a sudden now I know why, and no white or black shirt people had told me to shut down so my ride was still going. As the ride was coming to a stop and I was talking to the people, in the mike, a maintenance man had gone in back and shut my power off, boy was I pissed. When we were walking out I let Kirby, a white shirt, know how pissed I was. He said they were short handed and just didn't make it to my ride to let me know, I said "I have a phone at my ride" just rude.

Dave's working Raging River, Dragon Roller Coaster, Inverter, Outlaw as Operator, CIA (come in anyway) they will figure out what to assign him, then on Sunday he is driving "Molly the Trolley". It goes from the Hotel and the RV Park to the amusement park.

May 29th - June 3rd

5/29

Went to the Farmer's Market and Costco in the morning.

Work was busy, after all week long when it had been slow. My ride, Red Barons, had some really heavy kids and after helping a few I finally had their parents come in and lift their kids, getting to old to lift those heifers.

I had 1 girl in the front of the plane and her little brother in back. After the ride ended her brother wanted off and she wanted to stay. Since, at that time, I had enough planes to cover what kids were in line I let her stay. When I started the ride I heard this scream and crying, I thought it was on the Space Shot, then realized it was the girl so I hit the stop button. I went running over to her and so did her mom, her leg was out straight and I was asking her what was wrong. All she kept saying is I want my mom, I unlocked her seat belt and her mom took her out. I asked what was wrong, when they walked by me and her mom said she had a spider on her leg, I didn't see anything, but her mom said she is scared to death of spiders. Boy, sure made my heart skip a beat and added some more new gray hairs to my head.

Dave said his day was busy, they had the people who took the stupid pills that day. When the people were told to get off and step to the left, they just step to the right, they kept having to stop the ride, which gets very old for them. Plus, not to mention the toll it takes on your shoulders, the sky ride is very hard work.

5/30

Sunday we got our new ride assignment for the following week, Monday through Sunday. I was going to the Underground, a very dark, old mining story about Bad Bob, not a fast ride just up and down in the dark. Dave was going to the Convoy, which is a little kids ride that has 6 very small big rigs that go around the circle 4 times. Parents can sit on top of the big rig if they want, boring.

Anyway, Sunday's work day was busy again and by the end of the day, which was at 9pm a very long day, Dave had had enough, he was ready to quit. His shoulders were killing him, the arthritis was so bad and he was really hurting. I messaged his shoulders which helped, and I kept telling him tomorrow on the kids ride you will get a break.

5/31

We started our new rides, it was a pretty slow day for a 3 day weekend, very surprised. It was nice because we had time to learn our new rides. Not like it took Dave long to learn to run the kids truck ride and it didn't take me long to learn to assist on the Underground.

6/1

Talk about another slow day, on my ride we have 2 assist's and 1 operator, the ride office called our operator and said the assist's have to relieve each other for our breaks. So I'm on the operator's side, so when I leave he/she does the unloading by him/herself. When I cover for the other side they still have to cover the unloading side. Really no big deal it was very slow.

Dave, was of course very slow, he is on a little kids ride.We started work at 2pm, he was given his break at 3:30pm for 1/2 hour, and then had to work until 7pm, on a very slow day. When I walked by him, he was at the end of his break and was very unhappy. I said give it awhile, this is only the 2nd . We ended up closing 10 min. early because we had one hell of a thunder/tornado storm going through where we were.

6/2

Wednesday, another slow day, nothing to report.

6/3

Yea! our day off. In the morning we went and picked up our fixed awning's, that go over our slides, then went into the amusement park. I must say they have some different rides that we have never been on before. They were great rides too, Disney and Magic Mountain need to add them, a lot of fun.

Talked to Kim and Madison on Skype this afternoon was fun, Kim's belly is getting so big. Madison's talked to us and Toby kept jumping up to look too, to cute.

May 24th - May 28th Happy Birthday Dave

May 28th, Happy 63rd Birthday Dave, I hope the rest of the year turns out better then when it started this morning. Dave must have had a allergic reaction to something he ate yesterday, and I have nothing to do with it not after 32 yrs. When he woke up this morning his tongue was 2x's it's normal size. He could hardly talk, and it kind of blocked his breathing, but he said let's wait awhile before we go to the ER. He had some coffee and just kept moving around and the swelling started going down. By the afternoon it was almost back to normal. He was able to go out to lunch, his B/Day lunch, since we had to work tonight. This poor guy, he has the weirdest things happen to him, it's just hard for me to understand because most of the stuff I've never gone through. (exp. shoulders, knees feet)

May 24th, Monday - very slow day at work, enjoy it now because once school gets out it will be hell

May25th - another slow day at work but in the A.M. I went to Walmart and had my hair cut almost as short as Dave's, it is so easy to take care of. While I was having my hair cut, I dropped Dave off at the Casino/Race Track for the Senior buffet for $3.50. The special goes on every Tuesday so I will go next week, June 1st. Of course you have to be 55 to get the 3.50 special so Pat gave me her casino card to use because I'm only 52 and don't qualify yet. After my hair cut we went by the RV Office to see if we could move because we just couldn't get our TV to connect to the satellite, which we were able to do, we moved to the site right behind us.

May 26th - another slow day even worst then the other 2 days, It's OK because I know our time is coming.

May 27th - Day off. In the morning we took our awnings, from 2 of the slides, into a shop to be re-sewn, then dropped off the DVR that wasn't working at the Fedex office.

After that we drove to Pella, Iowa, Pella is the home of Pella Windows and Doors. Kind of like when we went to Amana a couple weeks ago, Amana Appliances. Anyway, Pella is a Dutch Comminity, we did a tour through there giant Windmill, visited the bakery and meat market. It was very interesting to see, the country side was just beautiful, I love nothing more then seeing the open countryside and when you do hit a community they have no fences around their yards, love it. So green and just amazing to see, Dave had to remind me just think of this covered in white, "SNOW". When we got back we went out to dinner with friends here, Bob and Pat, had a great steak dinner.

May 28th, back to the beginning, Dave woke up with a swollen tongue.

Work was a little busier today but now it's the holiday weekend, will have to write and let you know how everything goes.

One thing I didn't mention was the physical labor these jobs are, Dave said, remember when we worked we sat at computers, this physical labor stuff we haven't done for god knows how long, very different ball game.

One Funny, when we 1st got to this RV Park they gave us a tag for our "car" which read,

"32 WK" and once we got parked and set up, we were getting ready to run to Walmart I had said to Dave is the tag in the car? He said yes, 32 weeks here, I said WHAT? I said it meant"we are in space 32 and we are Workampers" he went "oh" I said if we are here 32 weeks Kim would kill us because that's 8 months. Poor guy, my stupidness is rubbing off on him!!!

May 21st - May 23rd

We started working last Friday, and lucky for us it was kind of a slow day, or at least it was for me. We went in a little early so I could go to the Red Baron ride, where I would be working, and asked the operator to show me how it worked. There are 8 planes and each plane can hold 2 kids, Jane showed me and it was pretty simple. We then checked in and started work at 1:50pm. The park was open until 6pm and we got (1) 15 minute break in that 4 hour shift. Dave's sky ride was always going, doesn't mean that anyone was riding but the ride just never stops unless the operator's stop it. My Red Baron ride I had a lot of down time, some of the teenagers, there were school buses that were full of Jr. High or High School kids, kept wanting to ride and I just kept turning them away. When kids did ride, if they wanted to they could go as many times as they wanted to or when the parents pulled them off. Before I forget, when I start my shift, on the ride, there is a check off list I have to fill out and sign, then when I get my break the person covering for me signs the time when they relieve.

Saturday was a different story, boy was it busy and that's an understatement. When I started my shift the girl told me it wasn't too busy, they came in groups then there would be nothing. So I grabbed the check off list and she asked it I wanted her to wait and I said no because I would fill it out when I had no riders, BIG MISTAKE!! It was going on 4pm and I still had not done my check off list and I was in panic mode because I knew my relief was on their way. I somehow managed to sign the sheet and put what time I started but that was it. So needless to say when I got back from my break, which I came back early, I finished filling out my sheet before my relief left. Like I said Saturday was very busy, luckily for me there was a parent on the exit side that helped me out. Some parent had lifted there kid over the exit gate and told them to run onto the ride when it stopped, the kid got close to the yellow line and the parent stopped them from going any closer. I did see him put his arm out and stop the kid and was wondering why that kid was even there. If you cross over the yellow line the planes will hit you, I'm not even suppose to walk around when the ride is going, I am suppose to watch the planes and the kids that are on them. Anyway, when the ride had stopped I started walking around and unlocking the seat belts when I saw there was a kid on the plane that wasn't wearing a seat belt, my heart stopped. That's when the guy had told me this was the kid that had come in through the exit and jumped in the plane when it stopped. I was just happy to hear it wasn't a kid I forgot to lock in.

Sunday was almost like Friday , not too busy, but this time I did have down time and would have had time to fill in the check off list but I learned my lesson.

Sunday morning, before work, Dave & I took the awnings off our 2 slides so we could see if we could get them fixed or order new ones if we have to. It was windy and cold, we were really surprised. When we left for work it was a different matter, the sun had come out and it was hot. Thank goodness I have an umbrella at my ride or I would have cooked more then I did. Dave's job is out of the sun so he is lucky there.

Forgot to mention on Saturday morning we drove to down town Des Moines and went to their Farmer's Market. They close down a bunch of streets and they had a lot of vendors, with a lot of good looking veg. and fruits.

We got our schedules and we will have Thursdays off and this following week we will still be on the same rides from 1:50pm until closing. All summer long I believe we will always be on the closing shift, at least it should be cooler in the evenings for us.

Update since leaving Branson, MO

The last night in Branson we went to dinner at Landry's Seafood House. We had gone there 3 years ago on April 1st, it was our 29th wedding anniversary. I had been so sick and had such a high fever but I still thought I could make it through dinner, wrong. While sitting at the table I had a seizure of some kind and when I came too I couldn't figure out why all these people were around me. Dave ran and got the car and some man helped Dave get me out to the car and on to the ER we went. I kept telling Dave I felt fine, I mean I was really feeling great, the best I had felt for days. He didn't care we were still going to the hospital, which we sat in the waiting room it seemed like forever. When I got in the doctor said he couldn't find anything wrong and I had no fever, so I think what happened was my fever broke while sitting at the restaurant. Anyway, this time we think I even ordered the same thing I did the 1st time and let me tell you the dinner was great.

Driving from Branson to Altoona, Iowa there were so many armadillos dead on the side of the road, some even laying on their backs with their legs sticking straight up in the air. After stopping and getting some fuel, Dave jumped back on the freeway and was going to turn over the driving to me when we got clear of all the construction, when he hit the brakes a little and felt something funny. He looked at our backup camera and the car was turned kind of sideways, he turned the camera down and could see that one of our tow bars had unlocked. We had to get pulled over right away, and had to do it slowly. I could see ahead there was enough room between the on ramp and the freeway for us to fit in. We managed to get pulled over and Dave went to the back and we tried to get the arm to lock again. We used the walkie talkies and tried different things, and in the process a city policeman pulled over beside us on the on ramp. We needed him with his lights flashing on the freeway side or call State Troopers to cover us on the freeway, but he didn't do that. I kept watching in the mirror and praying that the trucks had enough time to get out of the lane so they didn't hit Dave while he had to keep getting in and out of the car. Dave ended up having to unhook the car, back up, go forward and re hook up the tow bar again. I pulled the rig forward and the tow bar locked again. Dave jumped back in the RV and we took off again, Dave watching the tow bar in the camera the whole time. It was making me a nervous wreck after about 10 miles we got off and rechecked the tow bar and everything looked fine. I took over driving after that and drove until we were almost to Altoona. We arrived in the RV park got setup and that's when we discovered our bat wings, which is the manual antenna you put up for local TV Channels, was bent. All we can figure is when we hit the winds in New Mexico or Texas, when our awning was torn so bad, it must have bent the bat wing too. We don't always put up the wings but in Iowa we wanted to see the local weather.

We start work tomorrow on the rides, I'm on the Red Barons, which is a ride for kids 54 inches and shorter and I'm all by myself no assistant. Dave is doing the Sky Ride he is an assistant, lucky him. I will be trying to update more often so I can keep you all updated on how it is working as an amusement park carnies.

One trip we did do last Sunday was visit the Amana Colonies, in all there are 7 Amana villages in a 20 mile radius.

WEATHER WARNINGS

Saturday, 5/8, we arrived in Mesa Arizona in the afternoon and parked in my cousin, Jeanette's driveway. What a super large house she has and a lot of land. We visited for hours then went out to dinner, it was really nice to see her. Sunday we left about 7am and headed for Walmart in Edgewood New Mexico. Hell of a drive, the wind was blowing so hard that we had to keep the steering wheel turned to the right to keep the rig straight. When I was driving there was a dust storm, I could see ahead and when the big rig drove into it, it just disappeared. Needless to say I slowed down because I didn't know if I could see an accident through all the blowing dirt. Once I drove into it you could see just fine, better safe then sorry. While driving I passed a trailer that had flipped over, the SUV was fine but the trailer was on it's side. We discovered when we got to the Walmart the awning from one of our back slides was torn up, will have to fix it once we get to Iowa.

Monday morning we headed for a Walmart in Yukon Oklahoma and arrived in the late afternoon. While sitting in the coach watching TV all of a sudden the City sirens started going off. A tornado was on it's way, Dave started yelling at me to get out of the coach and run inside Walmart. He started pulling in our slides while I ran outside to see the tornado, which was amazing to see. Some Walmart employees were outside watching it too, I got 2 pictures, the sirens were just blaring then Walmart wanted everyone in the middle of the store so everyone ran inside. I looked around at everyone and prayed that the tornado didn't hit us, I didn't want to die with some of those scary looking people. After about 10 min. the alarms went off and we were cut loose but they warned us that we were still under a tornado watch. If you saw the news a tornado in Norman OK, 50 miles south, did a lot of damage and 5 people died I believe. Luckily the alarms never went off again that night.

Tuesday we left early in the morning, no wind or rain it was a beautiful drive all the way to Branson, MO where we are right now. While writing this blog we are under a severe thunder storm watch. Got so bad that we lost our satellite signal for our TV, plus, rain is coming down in buckets.

Tuesday night we went and saw The Texas Tenors, great show, I thnk last year they made it to Semi Finals in America's got talent.

Wednesday at 10am we went and saw Jeerk another great show. This is 5 guys from Sweden that did Rock 'n' Rhythm/Tap (think Stomp). At 2pm we went and saw The Hughes Brothers, great show again. These brother's have more then 25 kids between them and they all are in the show. They aren't done having kids either so I think they are going to need a bigger stage soon. 8pm we went and saw SIX, 6 brothers that have amazing voices, no band but you would swear there was a band there. They are dubbed "An Orchestra of Human Voices" really a fabulous show. One story they told was that at 17 their mom was told she could never have kids. However she went on to have 10, yes I said 10, all boys. They said that the other 4 brothers were normal and had real jobs.

The RV park we are staying at is right in the middle of town, so all of the touring and shows we have seen have all been in walking distant. This is great since we haven't really been able to walk any since leaving Simi Valley.

Today we just went driving around checking out the area, walked around an outside mall then came back to the rig to relax. Tomorrow we are heading out to either Kansas City, MO but if we still feel like driving we just might go all the way to Altoona, Iowa where the amusement park is.

Need to get back to posting

We left Arizona early to surprise Kim and Danny. We hit the road at 3:30pm April 24th and thought we might stay in Laugnlin, wrong. When we got there it was the weekend of the River Run by Harley Davidson, 50K motorcycles there. We ended up driving to Needles and staying at the Elk's Lodge. Got going and were in Bakersfield by about 1pm. Drove over to Kim's and surprised all 3 of them. We were at the house everyday, I was Madison's playmate the whole time there. When the weather was warm we played in the backyard and the days it was cool we played together in the house, she would not let me out of her site, except when we went back to the coach at night. Kim had class on the following Thursday and Friday so I watched Madison and then on Friday night we all left to San Diego when Danny got home from work. Saturday we took Madison for her 1st visit to Sea World, boy did she love that place. We got there when it opened and didn't leave the place until 5pm. Madison took no nap and walked almost the whole time, well kind of. She loved the kids section and did get to go on some rides with Danny. Sunday morning we drove back to Bakersfield. The weather was great the whole time. We moved the RV in front of Kim's house on Monday and then hit the road to Simi Valley on Wednesday. Right now parked at the side of David's house. Tonight is El Patio with the Simi Valley friends and get on the road tomorrow morning for Mesa Arizona. I promise to start updating every few days since our new adventure starts out tomorrow. Iowa here we come.

What has been going on???

Not a lot, staying busy working on computers, jigsaw puzzles, killing the weeds, playing Wii, working out, walking and watching TV. We did have friends, RV friends, come by and stay Easter weekend, we toured around Sedona and Jerome, which was a lot of fun. Easter Sunday, Judy and Marty, across the street from us, invited a few neighbors over for Easter Dinner, which was really nice. Dave and I got to meet some of the neighbors around us, late that night David Jr., Jodi and Riley arrived. So Monday we went to Sedona and did some hiking around so Jodi and David could take some great pictures. Riley and I hung around and hiked faster then the others, it was fun. Tuesday we took them up to Jerome and toured around then had lunch at the Haunted Hamburger, great place to visit, hamburgers are very good. David had to go to work on Wednesday so they left our place around 3:30pm that afternoon.

On Friday afternoon, Danielle and Chad came by, ex-neighbors from Simi, which we were very happy to see. Danielle is in the service and station in Hawaii, she got vacation time, flew into Calif. and her and her brother were during a long road trip.

Dave and I started doing this new thing, Geo Caching, which is a lot of fun, look it up on the web. Dave's phone is our Geo tracker, so that really helps us. In a nut shell, people hide things and give you the coordinates and you try and find it. The hidden thing could be big or very small, a tube drilled into a dead tree, and fake screw in a sign post, hidden under a rock you just don't know, that's what makes it fun. Hiking or driving to the coordinates are places we would have never seen otherwise.

We leave leave in 9 days for Calif. then on our way to Iowa, to become Carney's. Boy, am I stressing now!!!

Sharing a joke

Dave's Aunt Wilma just sent us a joke in our 32nd Anniversary card.

Title is "A Day In Court"

An attorney was questioning a "little old lady" and asked her, How old are you? She replied, I'm eighty.

He then said, will you please tell me in your own words what happened the night of April 1st.

She said, there I was sitting in my swing on my front porch on a warm spring evening when a young man comes creeping up on my porch and sat down beside me.

Attorney asked, did you know him?

She said no but he sure was friendly.

He asked, what happened after he sat down beside you?

She said that he started rubbing her thighs.

He asked, did you tell him to stop and if not, why not?

She replied, it felt so good, nobody has done that since my Albert died 20 years ago.

Attorney asked, what happened next?

She said, then be began to rub my breasts.

He asked, did you try to stop him then and if not why not?

she said, his rubbing made me feel all alive and excited, I haven't felt that good in years, in fact by then I was feeling so spicy that I just laid down and told him, "take me young man, take me now".

Attorney asked, did he take you?

She replied, Hell no, he just yelled, "April Fools" and was running away and that's when I shot him, that little S.O.B.

Time flies when your having fun

Can't believe it's been 3 weeks since I last posted anything. I even forget about this blogging stuff because of Face Book and Twitter. On March 12th we headed down to Victorville to meet up with some old neighbors of ours, like from 24 yrs ago. They found us on Face Book and we found out Steve & Jill are still doing promotions of Monster Trucks, Bands, Car Racing ect. all over the states. They were having a Monster Truck show going on in Victorville, where they live, so Dave & I thought it would be a great idea to go, see the show, see Steve and Jill, plus, it was a great excuse to go and see the kids in Bakersfield too, while we were down that way. The Victorville thing turned out to be a bust. The Monster Truck show was OK, it's just it was freezing outside so we just walked back to our RV and didn't finish watching the show. We got to visit with Jill Friday night but Steve had to stay home because he had another show going on, in another State, and had to make sure nothing went wrong. Saturday Dave and I just hung around waiting for the show which didn't start till 7:30pm that night. Didn't see Steve or Jill until right before the show started. They came by the coach and gave us wrist bands so we could get in for free. We never got invited over or anything, so needless to say, don't rush to see someone you haven't seen in 24 yrs. We headed out 1st thing Sunday morning and went to Bakersfield. Kim was working at Little Feet but Madison and Danny were home. Thank goodness it hadn't been that long since we had seen Madison, she wasn't afraid at all. We parked the RV in front of the house, hooked up the electrical and stayed for 3 nights. The weather was nice, so Madison and I went into the backyard. Dave was off doing Home Depot stuff and Danny was doing a deep cleaning on their bathroom shower. While in the backyard Madison found a hole with water in it, and started doing Happy Feet, where she splashed mud on her shoes and legs. Danny got the movie camera and filmed her through the bathroom window. She then fell and now her butt was all muddy, she didn't care but Kim wasn't too happy when she got home. Kim said she wanted her to do girl things not play in mud. Monday we did the same thing in the backyard, but this time I covered the muddy spot, Madison filled and dumped Toby's water dish so many times, then she figured out if you keep dumping water in the same spot you can make new muddy holes and do the happy feet thing. Tuesday morning Danny and Dave went and got Madison a 2 slide climbing thing. She couldn't wait for G-Pa to put it together for her. After it was put together she was all over that thing, the little turd even figured out how to climb up the slides and not have to use the stairs. It also has a climbing wall but we didn't show her how to use that. With the sun beating down the slide would get hot, so Kim ran out and got a 10 by 10 easy up canopy. That worked out really great for cover, keeps the play thing in the shade and Madison too so she won't get sunburned.

We headed out Wednesday mid morning to Laughlin NV for the night. Lost $20 on the slot machines and that was my limit. Thursday got back to Cornville unloaded the RV and put it back in storage. Since we've been back we have just been hanging around, last weekend we went to a hot rod car show in Cottonwood and saw Old Time Fiddler's in Cornville, boy was that boring. Still hitting the estate/garage sales, last Friday we went to an estate sale in Sedona 6000 sq ft house, amazing to see, and was up for sale for almost 2 million dollars.

Dave has wanted cabinets for the garage so he started that project the other day. The weather is starting to warm up so I have been able to sit outside, in the lounge chair, read my book, while working on my suntan.

All caught up now.

Kim, Danny and Miss Madison's visit

We had a great visit with the kids, it was a lot of fun having them here. They drove up Wednesday afternoon and Dave and I tried to stay up but no go. We both kept waking up now and then and looking at the clock. At 2:30am I told Dave we needed to call them, they should have been here by now. Dave got up and walked into the hallway and noticed the bedroom door closed. They had arrived around 1:30 and didn't call us, like they said they would, and just went straight to bed. Dave and I went in the morning at 8am to go pick up trash with our group, thinking they would sleep in, but as soon as we started Kim called me and said that I should get home and child proof my house. Dave said he would help with the trash and that I should go home and be with the kids and Madison. Dave had put some locks on the cabinets and drawers, I had picked up a lot of stuff so we thought we were pretty much child proof, but not enough for the smarty pants Miss Madison. There really wasn't much stuff I had to move, it was just the stuff I thought was high enough that she couldn't reach, but she is so darn tall, we keep forgetting that.

Madison loved the gym room I have, she was always getting on the treadmill, the bike and elliptical were too much for her. The exercise ball was another favorite for her, it had to be in the living room everyday. In the mornings we would open the shades and the hot air balloon would be out and she loved watching it. She also loved being in the backyard, the crunching of the rocks under her feet, she loved hearing it. She would even do the fast dance on the rocks. Getting bored walking around the backyard with her that's when I got the idea to put her in our wagon, she was in 7th heaven. She would ride around the back and front yards then I would take it to go get the mail with her. She would just sit and ride until the last day, she only wanted to ride for a little bit, then all she wanted to do was walk in the rocks of all the neighbors houses.

While the kids were here we drove up to Jerome and had lunch at the Haunted Burger, then let Madison play at the playground, we did a little walking around shops too. Another day we went to Sedona and did some walking around there too. Miss Madison has developed some nice temper tantums, plus, if looks could kill she can throw a few of those at you too.

Kim had brought down my Mom's jewelery bag with her, it was so weird because when we opened the compartments you could smell my mom. Dave, Kim and I all agreed on that, and after the kids left for home I went through the whole thing and matched up all the earrings. I went from owning only 4 earrings and now with all of my mom's I have like 35 now. I even remember her wearing the Christmas ones, Santa, the Snowman ect. God how I miss her.

Anyway, hated to see them leave but glad they made it home safe. We are looking at driving down to Victorville in a couple weeks to go to a car race that an old neighbor of our's is promoting and we haven't seen them in at least 20 years, so on the way back to Arizona will stop by and see Kim again. Our big trip, to remind everyone is in May, we are headed for Iowa, but before we get there we are planning on visiting, Kim, Mike, Aunt Evelynn, and Marisa. Will know more details later and let everyone know.

Posted new pics under our picture albums

Just remembered another thing, while Kim was brushing her teeth, one morning, Madison managed to empty the bottom drawer of the cabinet climbed inside then stood on the side and was asking mom if she could wash her hands, little shit!! 1st time said she had done that, that's only because of all of Kim's cabinets are child proof and our's aren't.

I'M TELLING I CAN'T HOLD IT IN ANYMORE

CONGRATS TO KIM, DANNY AND MADISON, WE HAVE ANOTHER GONZALEZ ON THE WAY!!

Still hanging out in Cornville Arizona and plan on staying here until around the end of April. Know we have to be in Bakersfield on April 28th because the next 2 days we are watching Miss Madison. We are debating now about making a quick trip to Victorville, Calif. because we just got in touch with some ex-neighbors of ours, from Simi Valley, Steve and Jill Quercio, who are promoting a car race at the fairgrounds. When they lived across the street from us, in Simi, we use to help them with working the car racing stuff, sold tickets, did their flyers ect. it was great hearing from them on Facebook.

On my last blog I had mentioned about renting our house out for the summer but the rental company said it isn't worth it for 1 summer, they would make all the money we wouldn't. So I guess if anyone wants to come to Cornville during the summer just let us know and we will leave the key somewhere, MAYBE.

Yes, we are still going to Iowa for our summer job, Kim's baby is due around September 15th so I will either

1. fly back for the birth of the baby and Dave can drive back by himself

2. fly back for the birth then fly back to Iowa so I can drive back with Dave

3. after our jobs are done, Sept. 26th, drive back and see the baby when we get to Bakersfield and not be there for the birth. What do you think, they plan on having 4 kids couldn't I miss 1 birth?

We did get some shocking news the other day, the amusement park we will be working at was on fire. Judy, across the street from us and is from Iowa, sent me a link about the fire. It was contained to 3 buildings, I believe, on main street but nothing happened to the rides. Today the news from Iowa is that the park will still open as scheduled and since Dave and I are working on the rides part we still have jobs.

The weather since we have been back has been pretty good, last week I was wearing shorts all week but this week it took a turn for the worst. Rain and very cold.

My knee hasn't been doing very good lately. After the surgery I did bike riding and alot of walking but since getting back to Arizona and the treadmill being fixed I started jogging again. My knee doubled in size and Dave made me call the doctor and get back in to see him. The doctor had told us after the surgery that my knee was so tight that he had never seen one like it before. When we went in and saw him he was surprised how swollen it was and was talking about 1/2 knee replacement but 1st wanted to start with steroids. So he did a steroid shot in my knee and it's been a week now and the knee has gone down but it is still not up to par. I believe I will have to go back for a series of shots to lubricate the knee, it's 3 shots in a 2 week period, will see. Last resort is 1/2 knee replacement, the doctor did say my knees are not made for running, both are just too tight. I guess it's a good thing, I've never been told I was too tight before. :)

Kim, Danny and Madison are driving up tomorrow, Tuesday, for a visit and staying a couple days. Will see how child proof our house is. Just wish we had better weather, although it is suppose to clear up for a few days. Will write more after their visit.

Congrats to Spanky for getting a job, Congrats to Kim and Danny, let's just hope this 2010 turns out better for everyone.

Love ya enough talk for now.

Cornville Arizona, Back Home Again

We had an OK time in Quartzsite this year. With the storms that hit at night it made it so Dave couldn't go do any playing around in the desert with the jeep. We were able to get our sun shade fixed while there, and just finished our interview with The Adventureland when another wind storm hit and everyone had to evacuate the tent area. We did get hired so we will be leaving for Des Moines, Iowa on May 10th, have to be there by the 16th because there is a meeting on the 17th for everyone. Last day of work is September 26th, if we stay until then it will only cost us $165.00 for parking in the RV Park the whole time. The scary thing is if we like it and want to do it every summer Kim or Madison will kill us because that would mean we would always miss Madison's b/day. We look at this as an adventure, we will get to new states we haven't been to yet and see more of the USA. We got to do it now before we get too old. At The Adventureland Dave and I will be ride operators, In May they are only open on weekends. June, July and August 7 days a week and open until 10pm, then in September it is only weekends again until September 26th which is the last day of operations.

We left Quartzsite and drove to Bakersfield on January 23rd. Went to Kim's everyday and even watched Madison a couple times. Madison got a runny nose while we were there and Kim managed to catch it, it hit Kim pretty hard but Madison's cleared up. Luckily Dave and I didn't catch it this time. We left Bakersfield on the 28th and stopped that night in Quartzsite, spent the night and hit the road at 7am back in Cornville at 11:30. Got the RV all unpacked and that afternoon we put the RV back in storage at 1000 Trails. We won't get it back out again until May when we hit the road for Bakersfield then on to Iowa.

Judy, across the street from us, is going to make us up a list of things to see and do while we are in Iowa. Judy and Marty are from there and drive back quite often, their daughter and family still live there.

We are debating now if we should rent out our house while we are gone. The rental company we use handles furnished vacation homes, still just not sure yet. Dave will talk to Tricia and see what it entails.

Posted new pictures, go under our photos, there are 3 new sets. Our trip to Mexico, Christmas and Las Vegas and Bakersfield.

Quartzsite Arizona

Made it to Quartzsite, AZ yesterday. The storms that are hitting all around, California, Arizona ect. hit here in Quartzsite last night. Looking at the weather report it should be OK here during the day today but a big storm is suppose to hit again tonight.

We had fun in Tempe with Bob and Jackie, did a lot of shopping around but not buying anything. They have a monster swap meet that runs Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that alone took us 2 days to go through.

Here at Quartzsite there is a monster RV Show going on and this is where we will find out about working in Iowa this summer and hopefully get my sun shade fixed. It's actually the drivers sun shade because once it quit working Dave took the passenger sun shade and turned it around and set it up on the drivers side. It's better to have the passenger looking into the sun then the driver. Dave has been really looking forward to coming here with the jeep so he can go play out in the desert. We did a little driving around yesterday but I'm sure he will have more fun without Jackie and I in the back sit.

We decided when we leave here we are going to drive to Bakersfield, have to get my Madison fix, will stay a few days then should be home in Cornville by the end of January now. Boy, we just keep changing our plans at the drop of a hat.

That's it for now.

Catching Hell

I knew I was way behind in posting, like I said in another blog this Facebook stuff is killing me on posting my blog. My brother, Mike, emailed me and asked if I was still hanging out in Cornville because I haven't posted for so long. He must not look at Facebook everyday because I am always making comments on that, especially from his daughter, my niece, Marisa. It seems like we have been so busy since we left Cornville way back in December.

OK RECAP TIME!!!!

We left in December and went to Redlands, Ca. to have the RV worked on and stayed with Mike and Trini for a night. After that we drove to Simi Valley and stayed 1 night at the side of David Jr.'s house before our cruise. David, Jodi and Riley took us to our cruise ship and we were off for a 7 day cruise to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. The weather and cruise were great, started getting a tan again but then lost it once we got back to Calif. When we got back we stayed a couple more days in Simi. We had an early xmas with the grand daughters, except Madison, and met up with our financial advisor. Got to see Brad, Diane, and Joann while we were down in Simi too which was very nice.

The Monday before xmas we went to Bakersfield. Madison was not a happy camper to see us, all she did was cry and cry. Kim finally said, "Mom just take her" which I did and within a few minutes I had her smiling. Boy, not seeing her for 3 months was way too long. That's not happening again!!!

Dave fixed xmas dinner and Danny's family came up which was really nice to see all of them again. I got to babysit a couple days while we were there and Madison has really changed, boy did she keep me busy. We then left on Dec. 29th with Bob and Jackie, who were also in Bakersfield having xmas with their son and family, in their motor home, and headed for Sam's Town, in Las Vegas, for New Year's. Jackie's sister and brother-in-law also joined us at Sam's Town. While there we went and saw Avatar in 3D Imax, what a great movie.

We all left Vegas on January 2nd, Jackie's sister went back home and Bob, Jackie, Dave and I went straight to Cornville. We got home Saturday night, Bob and Jackie stayed at the house, we just parked both RV's out front, then on Sunday they went to Crazy Horse State Park, where they stayed until today when they left for Tempe.

While Bob and Jackie were here we did site seeing just about everyday, it was a lot fun. Dave and I saw things we hadn't even seen yet, it was great.

We head out tomorrow for Tempe and will meet up with them again at the Elks Lodge and see Jackie's sister again. Then we are all going to Quartsite for the big RV Show. Should be back home in Cornville by January 26th.

By the way, I have lots of pictures to post to my blog, but since we are leaving again, I can't do it until we get back at the end of Jan. or even after we get back from Bakersfield. Boy, I just want to stay home and get back into a routine again.

Still hanging in Cornville

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's it for now, Happy Holidays!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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