At the Beginning

Talk about being out of the loop, I have definitely been out of it.  The question I asked myself was where would I start if I tried to blog about everything that has happened since the last blog.  I decided to start at the beginning and leave 99% of it out.  Since I cap my blogs at less than 1,000 words, I figure I have no choice but to leave most of it out.

I left off hoping I would be able to find an empty seat on the first Alaska flight out of town.  I was lucky because even though it was just before the Christmas holiday, there was a seat waiting for me. I thought things were good.

After that it was run, run, wrap, wrap and get ready for Christmas.  As usual the Christmas we shared with family was awesome.  It always is the best time of year.  Other than the fact we were all exhausted from the activities, we had a great time together.  Terry flew back to Arizona on Thursday.  After all Duchess was there in the motorhome waiting for his return.

That was the fun part. However, into every life there sometimes come things that aren’t so fun.  I must have ticked Mr. Murphy off at sometime because I sure seem to end up with more problems than I care to deal with. 

My brother has now been moved into hospice.  That in itself was quite an unpleasant adventure.  Getting it done and everything agreed upon sometimes is the most difficult part.  His apartment still needs to be moved out of and other arrangements worked out.  I’ve literally worn myself out with all the hours I’ve spent at working on his affairs and sitting with him.  Thus, that’s my excuse (plus feeling lousy) for not blogging or commenting on other blogs.  My brain has been fried.

I had expected to head back to Arizona before now but I'm not sure when I will be able to do that.   Hopefully, it's sooner than later.  We have plans for January that we sure hope to be able to keep.

That’s my report.  The good thing is that Justin flies in tonight.

‘Tis a break in the life on the road.

The heaviest thing to carry is a grudge.

Home For the Holidays

We moved into our first real RV park of the season on Tuesday.  I really had to think about that.  It’s true.  We hadn’t stayed at an RV park since …. since … since …  golly, I can’t remember.  We’ve done a lot of overnighting at many Elks and we’ve stayed at casinos but not a real park.  Geez .. it’s been a long time.  However, we do have plans for a couple REAL parks with swimming pools and hot tubs in our near future.  I can hardly wait for those.

Elks Parking

We pulled into the RV park in a slot in Casa Grande right next to our friends, Toni and Doug.  We were here exactly one year ago and in almost the same spot.  Duchess remembered.  She knew exactly where the dog walk was and she led the way.  It’s amazing what dogs remember.

Toni had us over for a fantastic dinner one night and the next we were off to Creative Café.  This is a little hidden treasure off the beaten path in Casa Grande.  It’s not a chain restaurant and well worth the visit.

Our planning was good because the next day we had one heck of a wind storm come through and it brought buckets of rain.  The whole park lost power and we even got to test out our new batteries with the solar.    We were actually thinking we might need those kayaks to glide down the roads but thank goodness the rain stopped before the floods were high enough.

The week has flown by.  Saturday night we had our own little Christmas party with our friends.  We pigged out on pie, told stories and talked about everyone we know.  We also talked about Duck Dynasty -- a very hot topic right now.  It was a great evening but soon came to an end as Sunday was expected to be a very early morning for us with a jaunt to the airport.  The good thing though that early morning departure didn’t turn out to be quite as early as I thought because I changed flights.  I figured there was no sense trying to get on a flight that was already oversold … there was no sense in that at all.

No matter where home really is, home is always with family over the holidays.  If we didn’t spend it with them, it wouldn’t seem right.  However, the problem with this is lots of other people feel exactly the same way.  This, of course, means flights aren’t easy. I’ve had to consider one flight only to have it fill up and lean another way.   Since Terry really has to be in Portland early on the 24th for a doctor’s appointment, we actually broke down and bought him a ticket.  Eeek!!  We don’t like doing that at all.  That meant I would be the only one left to struggle on getting from point A to point B and back again.  Oh well … Sunday is the day and I hope I don’t spend all day at the airport looking for just one empty seat  --  been there, done that.

So, now here I sit overlooking the runways.  Watching the take offs and landings has always been interesting to me.  First there was a US Airways flight, then an American, followed by a United and Southwest.  I'm just hoping that the next Alaska Airlines jet that heads down that same runway has me on board.

Tis life on the road.

Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations.  When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.

Unplanned Adventures

We all know that sometimes we get to do just what we want to do.  Then, sometimes there are things we need to do that we didn’t plan on doing.  Life steps in. It seems we’ve had a lot of unplanned adventures this year. 

The cold weather was finally leaving Arizona.  Warmer temperatures were back where they should be.  I was pretty happy about that.  Cold weather clothes were put away.  Then, I had to dig them right back out again.  I discovered Friday night I needed to make an unplanned flight back to Portland the following morning.  The coats, long pants and everything else I had to keep me warm was quickly packed in a little suitcase.

  The TSA PRECHK has made security at the airport easier  -- no coats or jackets off, shoes remain on and no unloading of liquids or laptops.

The trip north was uneventful. I took off when I hoped and landed right on schedule.   As usual, Sabrina was there at the airport in her little limo to pick me up.  It’s always good visiting with family but there were a few other good visits on this trip too.  One of my  high school buddies just happened to be on the same flight.  That was fun.  I also knew Joe Spiker would be around. He was heading back to Washington from Arizona to get ready for his fishing trip to Mexico.  We had already planned on getting together for lunch.  However, I didn’t expect to see him this early or this soon.  Here he was just ahead of me on a turn around in Washington.

Another good visit  was with four of my brother’s granddaughters.  Three had driven down from Seattle to see their grandpa.  They were just there for the day but it was nice seeing them again.

There is a huge tree farm by Woodland.  This is what one of the fields looked like as I drove by.  I had to pull off and take that picture.  It definitely looked like a winter wonderland … and not someplace I had planned on being.  I had been a little concerned about discovering ice on the road as I climbed in elevation so this didn’t help that concern at all.  The only difference is these fields were iced over because the sprinklers had probably been left running.

I was on the way to our cabin.  I  wanted to pick up a couple things plus check on the three dehumidifiers we had left running at our place and also those at Tammi’s.  When I stopped to check on Tammi’s place, I had three greeters run over asking for a handout.  I felt bad that I didn’t have a thing with me.  

I had a few things to do while in the Portland/Vancouver area.  These weren’t planned adventures but as long as I was there it was easy to take care of them.  The good thing was that my granddaughter, Sandi, offered to wrap most of my Christmas presents for me.  That was a huge help.  I don’t mind wrapping a gift or two but I certainly don’t like wrapping a bunch. 

When I left Arizona I had no idea how long I would be staying.  I hadn’t planned on staying long.   I knew I needed to get back to Arizona so I could get back to Washington for Christmas.  We also had a motorhome to move before that could happen. 

Before the motorhome was moved we had a little business around the BIG CITY to take care of.  Then, we needed to get the kayaks off the ground and get them back on top of the Jeep.  The next plan was washing the whole contraption.  Our move wasn’t to be a big one.  It was only about 35 miles but we wanted to go in clean even though we knew the dust would soon take care of that.

‘Tis life on the road.

The longest journey begins with a single step not with a turn of the ignition key.

Heading Back to Portland

Boy we’ve been busy.  We’ve been running around at shopping centers and casinos with Terry’s mom.  We’ve also been visiting lots of different restaurants.  Since she lives alone we thought it best to get her out and run her ragged so she wouldn’t just sit at home waiting for her stitches to come out.  She had gotten pretty depressed.  The problem is that we haven’t been running her ragged.  It’s been the other way around.

Then, we were back at the casino after her stitches were out.  Aargh!  Terry doesn’t care if he ever sees the inside of another casino.  He thinks standing behind someone at the slot machine and watching for four hours is just two long.  He’s done that twice now and says … NO MORE. 

There are lots of fun Christmas toys out there.

We’ve also helped his mother finish up her Christmas shopping.  We were thankful that the gift wrapping tables were set up at the mall otherwise we knew we’d be wrapping them.  The malls aren’t so bad since she only visits a few stores like Pottery Barn, Nordstrom, Coldwater Creek and Godiva Chocolates.  It’s the time that’s spent in each store.  Now if it had been Best Buy or Fry’s Electronics, we might have been more enthusiastic about the shopping.

Yesterday we made a stop at the Tempe Outlet Mall and were surprised to see the huge JC Penney’s Outlet going out of business.  That store has always been packed with lots of good priced goodies!  The items really aren’t just Penney’s items.  You find items from Kohl’s and many other stores. In addition to it being an outlet, items have been marked down and marked down and then priced at 50% less than that.  I needed a swim suit.  I bought 4 without trying them on … just in case.  Two of them turned out to be perfect and two not at all.  However, each swim suit was $2.49 each, a reduction of about 97% each. 

Friday we had our six house batteries replaced in our motorhome. We had hoped to be able to pass the two fairly new ones along to others.  However, with a $30 per battery core charge, we figured others were better off buying new ones. It’ll be interesting to see if we can tell a difference in how long the new batteries hold a charge.

We all know plans tend to get changed more often than we like.  Friday night I got a call.  My brother’s not doing so well.  So … Saturday morning I’m back on my way to Portland. I’ve certainly discovered things rarely work out as planned.


‘Tis life on the road.

Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.

Casino Time and Airline Mergers

We decided Monday would be the day we’d take Terry’s mom out to lunch.  Well, we decided we’d ask if she wanted to go out to lunch.  We weren’t sure if she’d feel self-conscious going out.  She jumped at the chance.  She had guts and wasn’t self conscious at all.  She just told folks if they thought she looked bad, they ought to see the other fella!  In other words, she was quite a trooper.

While we were out and about she figured we could also do a little grocery shopping for her.   We did the shopping and she stayed in the vehicle.  We had discovered a few days ago that getting in and out of our Jeep was quite difficult for her.  It’s not that we had a choice of vehicle to take since hers was in the shop.   I think she would have preferred the motorhome over the Jeep.  By the time we got back to her place, she was pretty excited to see that her vehicle had been returned and was sitting in the driveway.  I’m guessing she’ll never get in our raised Jeep again.

Tuesday was casino day.  His mom LOVES casinos.  We had her vehicle to take and even though she had trouble reading the menu with the one eye, we knew she wouldn’t have any trouble making out the display on the slot machines.  She didn’t.  We spent several hours pushing the buttons on the slot machines.  It’s hard to leave a machine when you continue to win.  Well, we won a bit and lost a bit.  The only thing I can say is that I ended up walking out of that casino with a lot more money than I walked in with.  I can’t say the same about his mom but it wasn’t her  fault really.  It was mine. 

We only left the casino because we were very hungry.  We ended up at at Monti’s in downtown Tempe.    The restaurant occupies an adobe hacienda that was originally built  in 1871.  A lot of history has happened over the years in and outside of this adobe structure. There are many historical displays on the inside walls. 

In 1954 it was converted to a restaurant. It is now the largest full-service restaurant in Arizona with 14 dining rooms and 5 banquet rooms.  Ghosts have been known to visit and even paranormal investigations have been conducted here.  We didn’t see any ghosts but maybe they wait until evening to come out.   It’s a great place to eat with a lot of history in its walls.  I don’t know why we keep forgetting to stop here on our way through the area but the last time we visited was when I was pregnant with our daughter and that was many, many years ago.  However, we will most certainly put it on our “must stop” list for future visits.

Well, that was it for our Monday and Tuesday adventures.  Wednesday we plan on hitting the mall with Terry’s mom.  If we keep her busy, she doesn’t sit inside her home stressing about the removal of her bandages on Thursday.

We've also had our little calendar and map out recently.  Planning where to go and when to go there isn’t as easy as one might think.  Well, it’s not easy when you have other things you need to work around.  We’ve certainly had a lot to work around this year with no change in the near future.  Terry’s aunt and uncle will be in this area in January and February and his brother is making a trip out in January.  Then, our grandson, Justin, will be in Washington after we head back after Christmas.  Things can sure get difficult. 

In the meantime we’re still hoping to get reservations at our very favorite RV park after it re-opens again after being total rebuilt.  The original reopening was supposed to be in October.  That was changed to January.  Now it’s supposed to be mid-February.

Tuesday was a day for dancing in our motorhome.  If you were outside and noticed it rocking, it was because that’s exactly what I was doing.  I was dancing.  Why?  Well, my reason probably would not excite you.  Maybe the news even made some folks unhappy.  I was dancing because the merger between US Airways and American Airlines was finalized.  It’ll probably take a couple years for the full transition between the airlines.  After all, that’s about how long it took when American acquired Reno Air and then when they acquired TWA.  This is a little different.  This is a merger with American bringing close to 72% of the assets and US Airways about 28%.  I wouldn’t have liked it so much had it been the other way around.

Union employees will probably not be happy as one group is merged into the other.  They weren’t with Reno Air, TWA or even US Airways previously.  On top of that many management jobs will be lost as the two airlines consolidate their headquarters and airport staffs.    The Phoenix area will lose as the headquarters for an airline.  However, they will gain as a major hub for the world’s largest airline.  They went through a similar situation when America West bought US Airways several years ago.  The big difference is that the headquarters remained in Phoenix.  Some gates at major hubs will be lost which will also mean a loss of jobs in other places.

+

=

No one else may care about this but we do because it is a positive change for us.  Our costs go way down on the routes US Airways previously served.  Many more planes and locations are also now open to us.  Yippee!  Whoppee!

‘Tis life on the road AND in the air!

It takes 8,460 bolts to assemble an automobile and one nut to scatter it all over the road.

Seafood and a Massage

This is December and winter is still ahead of us.  However, many places have already had major winter storms. We’re hoping most of it is behind.  We head south hoping to find warm weather and we haven’t found much of it yet.  Well, I guess the weather we’re in would be considered balmy to those even a few hundred miles north.  Our favorite weather man is predicting that soon it’ll warm up.  Sometimes “soon” doesn't come fast enough.

When we are in the Phoenix area we have a list of favorite restaurants we like to go to.  Everyone has favorites.  One of our favorites in Apache Junction is the Eastern Buffet.   I sent a message to Jim and Sandie because we know they like that place too.  There were no arguments from them and we met there on Saturday. 

Normally we don’t really care for buffets because it seems many of them allow the food to sit out too long. Well, with the seafood at this place, the food doesn’t sit very long at all. 

This was just one of my plates 

Not only did we feed our faces, we also sat and planned events for our upcoming group adventure in Quartzsite.  So many groups meet there each year. We look forward to seeing familiar faces and making new friends.  We will certainly miss those that are not close enough to attend.

I mentioned we had a list of restaurants we like to visit when we're in this area.  These include the Texas Roadhouse, Joe’s BBQ, Elephant House, Cracker Barrel and, of course, the Eastern Buffet.  We’ve got all those covered now except for the Texas Roadhouse.  I feel a steak coming.

Terry had a different type of appointment on Sunday.  He scheduled a massage at the Arizona School of Massage Therapy.  For $25 he received a super 50 minute massage!!  He was certainly a happy camper when I picked him up.

We have another week to stay at our current location.  After that we’ll probably be moving a little south but just a little.  Eventually, we’d like to put our kayaks in the water but now we’re having trouble figuring out when we’re going to be able to do that.  Our little calendar is filling up too fast and not necessarily with places that are kayak friendly.  Maybe we need to bring out our little eraser and start using it.  After all, we brought the kayaks along for a reason.  

‘Tis life on the road.

Bored? Who? Me? Never

It’s definitely winter.  Winter seems to have taken a grip on most of the country.  The fleeting snowbirds are feeling it just about everywhere.  Even sunny Arizona did not escape the cold temperatures.  Looking at the forecast for the next few days, relief does not appear to be coming soon enough. 

- Phoenix area

Not all RVs are equipped to withstand extremely cold temperatures or extremely warm temperatures.  When temperatures dip below freezing there is a good possibility pipes may freeze along with the water pump and anything else exposed to the cold, cold air.  It’s not fun.  We’ve never had pipes freeze but we’ve had friends stuck in cold areas who have.  We did wake up this morning to a temperature of 48F in our motorhome.  Now that’s even way too cold for me!  Someone turned off the furnace last night.  I’m not going to mention names but it wasn’t me.

Friday we stopped by and visited with Terry’s mom for a while.  She hopes to be back in her own home later today. She’s recovering nicely from her surgery but still has a huge patch over her eye

.  Only time will tell if doctors were able to remove all that they hoped to remove.  She’s a feisty lady for her age (almost 86) but things like this definitely take a toll.  I didn’t dare take a picture of her.  That would not have gone over well at all.

Even Duchess needed covers -- 

I’m thankful that it’s Christmas time.  With the colder than normal temperatures and being around an area that we’ve spent a good deal of time at in the past, it’s easy to get in the dumps.   At least with Christmas I have shopping to do, presents to wrap and holidays to look forward to.  In other words, even though I’m keeping pretty busy I could get pretty bored right now.  Oops … actually I am.  So, what did I do? I sent Jim and Sandie an SOS and now we're meeting for an early dinner.  I'm going to eat myself into a good mood after a stop at the Mesa Swap Meet.

The kayaks are sitting on the ground in back of the motorhome.  We took them off the Jeep because it’s a little difficult to maneuver in parking garages with them on.  Most parking facilities are limited to a 7’ clearance and with the kayaks on top, we definitely go beyond that.    Our journey south this year has had a few disruptions … some good and some not so good.  In addition the weather hasn’t been warm enough to think about paddling in a lake or river.  So, why did we bring them along?  I can’t fly them back to Washington.

Have you ever noticed how Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer formats blogs differently?  You may think it looks good on Chrome but not so good on IE.  The spacing may (or may not) be different on the other ones.  I've noticed differences at times and then at other times .... not at all.  What one do you use?  I normally have been using Chrome but am having a little trouble with it on the Surface Pro.  I hope change isn't in the air there .... but it might be.

‘Tis life on the road.

  Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.

Gucci, Prada and Microsoft

Now what do Gucci, Prada and Microsoft have in common?  Well, actually a bit.  They share space at the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale.  They’re neighbors.

Terry and I were on a mission.  The mission took us to the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale. Ever been there?  Well, we hadn’t been.  We entered through Nordstroms. The Nordstroms at this mall isn't quite like any other Nordstroms that we’d been to.  The store had a reputation to keep especially since it was in the glitzy area of Scottsdale and right next to Prada, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and even the Microsoft Store.  This mall had them all.

Our mission took us to the Microsoft store but we still had fun window shopping at the other stores and looking totally out of place peeking in at Gucci merchandise.  However, I have owned a Gucci purse before.  Yes!  I have but I didn’t buy it direct from Gucci.  It took a little detour to get to me.  The detour was via Goodwill when I found it while looking for bargains to put on EBay a few years back.  The little sorters had let the purse slip by.  My $5 purchase brought me $75 for the older and scuffed up Gucci bag.  That’s about the only treasure I found there.  The Goodwill sorters do a pretty good job of taking expensive items out of the normal inventory.    Then, the items are put in glass cases and the price is jacked up after that.  

However, we really didn't go to the mall to visit any of the other stores.  We went to the mall to visit the Microsoft Store!  I bet you already figured that one out.

About a month ago I bought an Acer Windows 8 tablet.  The tablet was even more than I hoped it would be.  There was no need to lug along a computer on my trip to Portland or to Norfolk.  Instead, the Acer went with me.  It was perfect  ….   except I soon discovered the 8” screen wasn’t quite as perfect as I originally thought it would be.  The screen was great for watching movies, reading and playing games but not so much for writing a blog, updating spreadsheets or cruising the internet.  It was just too small. 

I was fretting about this while Terry was drooling over the possibility that he might become the new owner of the little Acer.  However, you know I wouldn’t have given away the tablet without first replacing it with something else.  You know that … and that’s what I did.  I replaced it with another Windows 8 tablet but this time it had a 10.6” screen and was the Microsoft Surface Pro. 

Now I bet you’re thinking that’s why we wanted to visit the Microsoft Store.  That wasn’t it.  It was to buy the missing pen for the tablet.  My new-to-me Surface Pro was a nifty Craigslist purchase for the nearly new tablet but the pen wasn't in the box.

The 2 1/2” screen difference wasn’t the only difference between the two tablets.  To begin with the Acer has an Intel Atom CPU and 2gb of ram while the Surface has an Intel i5 CPU with 4gb of ram.  Unlike the Surface RT either of these tablets can virtually run anything on them that a full-sized laptop can.  That’s the beauty of having a tablet with Windows 8.1 on it.  The Surface Pro at 128gb also has a larger internal hard drive plus utilizes a magnetic pen that can draw and write notes directly on the screen … amazing!   I love new gadgets and gizmos.  Now if my ailing laptop does bite the dust, it won’t matter so much.  There is always a downsize.  The downsize is that the Surface Pro is a little bigger and a little heavier and won't fit in my purse .... oh well, only time will tell how that works out.

And, yes, Terry’s tickled pink to give up his iPad and listen to his books on the new-to-him Acer.  Soon we'll be putting iTunes to rest as the only gadget using that program now is my iPhone. We've found a new owner for the iPad.  My new tablet also replaces my Nook tablet as a reader so we'll eventually be passing that along too.  Is that what everyone means by downsizing?

The temperatures in the Phoenix area have taken a big dip.  The nighttime lows are reaching into the 30's and even the daytime temperatures aren't as warm as we would like.  We know Christmas is just around the corner but we still want to be able to venture outside without a jacket .

‘Tis life on the road.

Good things do not come easy.  The road is lined with pitfalls.

New Spot … Old Friends

With my feet back on the ground, we had things to take care of.  Moving was our first priority.  I mentioned that in my previous blog so this time I just thought I’d post a picture of our new site.  The best thing about it is that we’re very close to Terry ’s mom.  We figure we’ll hang around the area for a couple of weeks or so.

Private, shrubs, bikes are down and finally our BBQ is in place.

Next we had an engagement we were looking forward to.  We had dinner plans at Logan’s Roadhouse with some of our “oldest” RV gang members.  I’m not saying these folks are OLD because we’re really only as old as we act and feel.  I’m just saying that we’ve known these RVing folks about the longest of any others in the RV crowd.  We’ve tolerated each other the most and learned so much from each other.  Well, maybe we’ve learned the most from them and not necessarily the other way around for sure.  We even shared our first official boondocking with them in Quartzsite.  What an experience that was.

It was quite a feat getting the waitress to take this picture.  Not that she didn’t agree to because she did.  The difficult part was getting her to figure out when and how to press the little button.

Monday we ended up doing a little more Christmas shopping and Terry even got us our own little Christmas tree.  It's tough shopping for Christmas with Terry.  It's hard for him to realize it's not him we're shopping for but that's another blog.  It was also hard for me not to shop for me too ..... so I didn't  (double negative there .... get it?)

Next get together was with Terry’s Mom and her early morning appointment with the doctor.  She's scheduled for surgery on Wednesday.  Afterwards, it was off to Denny's for breakfast.

How is that for a short blog?

‘Tis life on the road.

The best car safety device is a rear-view mirror with a cop in it.

Black Friday Bargains, Fun and Travel

 

Our traditional family
birthday decoration. 
All it takes is a little hot air!

The Thanksgiving weekend sure went by fast.  I can’t believe it’s behind me.  For such a short period of time, there was so much rolled into it. Here is my summary of the last few days.

Thanksgiving Day was a special day. This was the day of “Stuffing” because we were the ones who got stuffed.  We enjoyed a fantastic meal but I’m glad we don’t eat like that every day.  It was also my birthday.  About every four years my birthday falls on that 4th Thursday of November.  It’s kind of special because with the holidays, it usually means I get to spend it with family.  That makes it the best birthday of all.

I tried to get a picture of this gang but Michael hid and a few others tried to cover their faces.  I think they get tired of me taking their picture.

Wal-Mart --  People waiting for 6 PM event.

We didn’t just eat and party.  We also tore through the Black Friday ads.   Black Friday now starts on Thursday.  Even though most of the ads are on the internet now, the thick newspapers are still fun to go through. That’s what we did.  After all, Christmas is just around the corner and we still had Christmas gifts to buy.  Not only did we go through the ads, we also took advantage of some.  Well, at least, Sandi and I did after our big meal was over.  We figured that we’d get lots of exercise fighting the crowds.   There were a lot of people but we didn’t have any trouble getting the few items we wanted and out the door within 20 minutes after the start of the sale.

The following morning we were off to the Vancouver Mall.  The plan was to people watch as well as catch some more Black Friday bargains.  We had no desire to get into the opening rush of the morning.  Thus, we didn’t arrive until after 7.  There were no lines at check-out and not a huge amount of people left at the mall.  However, we did manage to snag some of the door buster bargains.  I figured the more I bought then, the less I would have to ship.

Christmas Bazaar

From the Vancouver Mall we headed towards Jantzen Beach and then on to America’s Largest Christmas Bazaar at the Portland Expo Center.  This bazaar has been running for close to 30 years and takes up both of the Expo’s huge halls.   This year there must have been at least 500 vendors. It was huge, huge, huge and packed with vendors and shoppers.

With the bazaar behind us, we weren’t through.  Portland is home to Stash Tea.  Thus, we were off to one of their tasting rooms. We tasted, we bought and we each left with about ten 1 oz. bags of loose tea.  What fun. that was ….. but the day still wasn’t over.  It ended with dinner at my favorite Chinese restaurant, the Lucky Dragon in Kalama.

You pick the tea you want to try.
Stash will make you a cup to taste.

With several busy days behind, Saturday morning meant departure.  Traveling over the holidays usually means lots of kids and lots of seldom-travelers.  Thus, security lines move slower and backups are just about everywhere.  People forget to take things out of their pockets or wear stupid clothes which requires lots of undressing at security.  They also have bags that don’t fit well in airplane bins and often sit in the wrong seats.  I knew to expect the havoc and I was right.

Instead of going via Dallas back to Phoenix like I did on Wednesday, I decided this time to hop a ride on US Airways and go direct.  It made the ride shorter and left more hours in the day upon arrival.  It also gave Terry and I enough time to move the RV.  The only hang-up on that decision would be if I didn’t make the flight …. but I did. 

Everything worked out as planned.  Terry was waiting at the airport and it was a quick ride back to the RV to be greeted by Duchess.  It took about an hour to decide we were really going to move.  We had time.  We could do it and we did.  After all, we only had about a 7 mile drive to a new RV park.   Once set up in our new location we were off to the Claim Jumper for dinner.

Sabrina’s Cheese Ball  --- decorated leaves are
spinach tortillas. 
She always comes up with something.

Wow … what a busy four days they were.  Actually what a busy month November was.  I know that December will probably be just as busy as we already are talking about other things and plans are in the making.  The good thing is that our plans are always made in chalk.  That way they’re easy to erase and move on to new ones. 

 

Since our arrival in Portland for Christmas won’t leave much time for gift wrapping, I just may take another trip up there between now and then to finish off that task.  It’s not fun but it’s better than a panic attack on Christmas Eve.  We will have to see how things go first.  Then, Tammi has a business trip planned in the middle of the month to Dallas.  For me that would be a free hotel and an opportunity to have the best brisket ever at Colter’s BBQ or visit Catfish & Company for their luscious catfish.  Decisions … decisions.  Having lived there for many years, I know where the great food is.

‘Tis a busy life on the road.

A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs.It's jolted by every pebble on the road.

Happy, Happy Day

Happy Thanksgiving.  Today is the day some of us will eat more food in one day than we have in the last week. So, I want to wish you all a very happy eating day.

SNOW !!

My flights yesterday were like a breeze.  Everything worked as planned even though going through Dallas made for a very long travel day.  There were empty seats on both planes and even one first class seat from Dallas to Portland that I laid claim to.

 

My Private Limo 

Bags didn’t take a detour and end up in some far away airport.  There was no damage to contents.  Even my private limousine showed up at the right airport, at the right time to whisk me away.

Yes … it was definitely a good travel day.  I'm thinking Mr. Murphy was busy with the nasty weather on the east coast.  Now I hope Saturday morning will be just as good when it’s time to return.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!   And, Happy Birthday to me!

‘Tis life on the road.

You’ve got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.

Not Happy Campers And Another Flight

We finally found the sunshine.  That’s what we wanted to find when we started south about six weeks ago.  It feels more like we crossed the border from Washington into Oregon months ago and not just weeks ago.  Obviously not everything has worked as planned.  We didn't go where we thought we would and we didn't get the weather we hoped we would.

Thus, when we pulled into the Phoenix area ... we thought things were coming together.  We also figured we’d dig out the monthly fee and settle in for a WHOLE month.  However, once we pulled in to where we had planned to stay, we changed our mind.  We decided we weren’t going to do it this time either.  We were a little disappointed with what we saw.  It’s not that we hadn’t been here before.  We had.  Then, we had been content with the RV facilities, pleased with the location and the price.   However, everything seems to have gone downhill.  Other than the sunshine, that is.  The sun was shining and that we were happy about.

Utility trucks have moved in and junk has been allowed to accumulate around other sites. We can tell by the flat tires on the RVs that some have no plans to move in the very near future.  We paid for a week.  That’s enough time to get back from my Thanksgiving travels and look for another place to stay.    Are we Happy Campers  …..  nope but it works.

First on the agenda is figuring out my flight to Portland.   As Mr. Dahl reminded me, the busiest travel day of the year is just ahead.  There was a time I would refuse to fly during this period.  However, revenue  passengers don’t stand-by as often for earlier flights because they now get zapped with a big fee.  Obviously, I like that because it means I can usually tell how full a flight is before I decide to “try” for it.  However, bottom line …. if there isn’t a seat available, I don’t go.  There’s a good chance I might be hanging around in Texas waiting for the last leg of my flight north. 

Justin sent some souvenirs back with us so those souvenirs need to get to his folks.  Thus,  I have to check bags.  Some airlines charge extra for those bags.  Since I don’t want to pay that fee I’m limited to the airline I can hitch a ride on.  The last 7 legs of flight this month have worked as planned so maybe the next 4 will too. 

Of course, there may be one more problem tomorrow …. it’s called storms in the east.  That may work in my favor or it may work against me.  Here’s hoping the planes get where they’re supposed to but not necessarily the people who are booked on them.

My fingers are crossed.

 ‘Tis life on the road.

You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.

Leaving Vegas’ Nasty Weather

Our idea of spending the winter in one of the Southern states had everything to do with escaping the cold and wet winters of the northern states.  We wanted beautiful sunshine, clear blue skies and warm temperatures.  Most years that’s what we’ve found … most of the time.  This year has been very different.

When we pulled out of Washington state and headed to the Oregon coast, we had nice weather.  Our timing was perfect.  It was just like we hoped it would be.  However, as we traveled farther down the coast we ran into very dense fog.  We actually didn’t say goodbye to the fog until we were south of South Francisco.  From there we made a mad dash towards Bakersfield.  Finally, the sun was shining down on us and it was definitely nicer traveling under the blue skies. Finally.

We enjoyed many nice days in Las Vegas until recently.  After all this is fall and winter is just around the corner.  Sometimes we tend to forget that.  However, the recent weather has reminded us of that. It’s been cold, the wind has been blowing and the clouds opened up with buckets of rain.   We didn’t like it one bit.  Thus, once we returned from our trip to Virginia, we decided it was time to head a little farther south. 

  

First we needed to find an opening in the weather to reload the kayaks on the Jeep.  Well, we never really found that opening but at least the rain slacked a little and the winds weren’t as strong.  By noon on Saturday we were ready to get on the road again.  It wasn’t a nice day but it was better than the day before.

Our drive was to be a short one.  We were only going as far as Kingman.  We really did have a mission.  A prescription was waiting for Terry at the Wal-Mart in Kingman. 

 

We did see a break in the clouds and even a little blue sky in the afternoon. We were just hoping it would stay that way.  It didn’t.

Yes.  Christmas is coming----

 

The Wal-Mart in Kingman has signs posted in the lot indicating that overnight camping is not allowed.  However, we had stayed  overnight before at that Wal-Mart.  We knew the city ordinance against RVs spending the night was not enforced.  .Besides if we got kicked out, we figured the other dozen RVs would be kicked out too.  Needless to say, we didn’t worry about it and parked the motorhome in their lot anyway.  Then, we went down the road and had dinner at Cracker Barrel. We hadn’t seen one of those since we pulled out of Arizona in the spring.  I love their catfish!

Sunday morning rolled around and we woke up to more fog.  Go away, Mr. Murphy!  We figured the next 200 miles would put us in the weather we had hoped for. Well … not quite.  it took almost the full 200 miles to get out of the dark clouds.  The good thing was that we were behind the rains.  We could tell we were following them by the puddles all over the roadway.  All in all it was an uneventful drive.  We like uneventful drives. 

Finally we pulled into the Scottsdale Elks.  Hmmm …. not sure how long we’ll stay though.  One of the first things on the agenda is for Terry to call his mother and let her know he’s close.  The second thing will be to figure out how I’m going to get to Portland for Thanksgiving.  Then … after that what’s next?  We have yet to figure that one out.

‘Tis life on the road.

It finally happened.  I got the GPS lady so confused, she said, "In one-quarter mile, make a legal stop and ask directions."

Williamsburg and End of Visit with Justin

 

After gathering up Justin on Monday at the pier, eating and changing clothes, it was soon time to tell Terry’s brother good bye.  He was heading back to Roanoke and the three of us were left to entertain ourselves.  We found that was no problem at all.

Justin wanted to pick up his bags as there was no way he intended to stay on base while we were just down the road at the Navy Lodge.  It seemed all we did for a while was eat.  I mentioned we had eaten at Joe’s Crab Shack for lunch.  Then, we at at Ruby Tuesday’s for dinner.  We definitely ate and ate.

He wasn’t used to a BIG bed!

Tuesday we took another little ride a bit north.  The sun was shining but being outside was still a little cold.  The wind was blowing and we bundled ourselves up.  Our trip north took us to visit Colonial Williamsburg.  After getting the program for the day, the first thing Justin wanted to see was the “storming of the Governor’s palace”.  We toured some of the old buildings and watched reenactments of the times.

Phone needed to be reactivated

Shield’s Tavern was where we had decided to go for lunch.  We had to eat there because the founder of the Colonial tavern, James Shields,  was an ancestor of Justin’s.  He actually wanted to reclaim the tavern but thought it best to not make a scene.  We wandered around the town checking out the different stores and displays but soon headed back to the hotel.  It was just too cold to hang around as long as we had originally planned.  

We hadn’t made any plans for the evening but soon came up with a plan.  It had been a long time since Justin had been to a movie so that’s where we decided to go.   There was a movie theater right down the road.  Two of the movies were thrown out for consideration … Gravity and Thor.   We opted for Gravity.  MISTAKE!!  There were great reviews for Gravity and two great stars so how could that be a bad choice?  It was.  Graphics were great but all three of us were very disappointed.    Matter of fact, there were only two people in that whole movie and most of the time was spent breathing.  Since we were all very disappointed with it ….. we decided to stay and also see Thor.  That one we liked.

Time was getting short.  Wednesday was departure day.  We decided not to make any plans for the day.  Hanging out and more eating was all that was on the agenda.  Boy, I’m going to have to start another diet just to get rid of all the food I’ve piled on over the last few days.  At least I decided to get on the scales when I got back just to see how much I needed to lose to make up for the last four months when I've been diet free.

 

Eventually, it was time to think about heading to the airport.  Justin dropped his bags back off at the ship but we dropped him at the local NEX.  He still wasn’t ready to spend a lot of time on base and on the ship. 

The flights looked good so we weren’t too worried about whether we’d get a seat or not. We knew it would be a very late night.  Our body time zone was really confused.  Arrival in Las Vegas was 11:00 pm but were our bodies saying it was much later?  We were definitely tired.  

We still weren’t through for the day.  Instead of driving the 90 mile round trip later in the day to pick up Duchess, we checked to see if we could pick her up then.  We figured Shelley’s cats would be happy to see her leave.  We finally crawled into bed around 2:00 AM (PST)  … regardless of the time zone, it had been about a 22 hour day.

Shield's Tavern

Restaurant area

What’s next???  Well it’s time to start thinking about another flight.  This one will be the flight to  Portland for Thanksgiving.  First we need to think about moving a little farther south.  It’s raining and the wind is blowing and it’s downright nasty here.  We have one little issue.  We took the kayaks off the Jeep while we were in Las Vegas because parking garages around here don't accommodate that height.  In order to leave we need to get out in that nasty weather and put them back on.  Like I said, it's nasty and cold outside.  However, there is a little window according to our trusty weatherman.  It's arriving around 10 AM today.  So, on top the kayaks will go and we'll be heading down the road around noon  ..... we think.  A least that's the plan.

Time to head back to the ship 

.
‘Tis life on the road.  

I'm all about sharing the road with other drivers—as long as they use the part that's behind me.