Up, Up and Away

 

Trip one is almost behind. I’m writing this on the flight back from Portland. Arrival at the airport was uneventful. We all like uneventful trips. It’s much easier to get through security now than it was even a couple months ago.

 Security requirements are changing again. There were no TSA agents yelling about liquids in the quart-sized plastic bags or removal of shoes or laptops.  Even the necessity to shut off all electronic devices prior to take-off has changed.  Yippee!!

The closest I came to SNOW!

The trip was uneventful but didn’t go exactly as planned.  When I showed up at the gate ready to put my name on the standby list, I discovered the flight was full!! I could hang around and chance it …. Or, I could opt to take a flight that went through San Jose. That’s what I did.  That was just a little hiccup.

This was my first trip taking my new little tablet instead of my laptop. I was beaming from ear to ear when I pulled my tablet and keyboard out to show Tammi and Robert. I knew they had two iPads but I like my Windows 8 tablet much better than the iPad. I was bragging but shouldn’t have been because I also know both my kids and their families are addicted to electronic gadgets. Our son even has a water filled radiator component for his computer. My little tablet was certainly beat because Robert pulled out Tammi’s Microsoft Surface Pro. With an Intel i5 processor and 4 GB of ram  in a tablet, I can really see where my laptop may become history.

It’s always nice being with family. I like that best and I got a chance to spend a little time with everyone. Our family always shows out in force for special family events. With Sandi’s induction into National Honor Society we were all there for her. Well, all of us that could be there that is. We were the biggest group of all in the very small library.

Pictures and more pictures were taken.  I haven’t had time to fiddle with many yet.  However, I’m always amazed with the pictures that are taken by others. It seems there is usually an old lady
in some of them. I wondered who the old lady was for a while. Then, I realized it was me. When did I get old? I don’t feel old inside.

See what I mean?  Who is the old lady?

Desserts were provided so we opted to eat dessert before we headed off to the local Mexican restaurant. With lots of conversation and very full bellies we eventually called it an evening and went our separate ways. The next morning was to come early and early it did. By 4:30 AM Tammi and I were at the airport in Portland. She travels on her job about three days a week so these early departures aren’t really unusual for her. It certainly was for me though.  Portland is a rough airport to go standby at.  Flights are usually full.  I needed an early morning one and then needed to hope some folks didn't get up early enough to catch their flight.  It worked.

I even had time to check on the cabin.

There were no lines getting through security. I was flying American this time instead of Southwest and had a little TSA pre-checked printed right on my security document! What a breeze it was!  Obviously, I’d much rather fly on American than any other airline. Things were looking good especially when I arrived at the gate and discovered I had been given a first class seat. Things were good until …. I also discovered I had forgotten my headphones!! I had loaded movies on my tablet but now had no way to listen to them.  . 

I even took a picture of the lake.  Can you see it?  Neither could I.  It was pretty foggy there.

It’s interesting watching fellow travelers. I’m always amazed when I fly first class at the number of people who start drinking early in the morning before take-off because it’s free and stop only when it’s time to land. It just amazes me … I’m thinking coffee and they’re thinking booze.

With all this time to write I wrote so much I had to edit out most. I had gone way beyond my self-imposed word count.  Well, the flight is almost over. I’ve pretty well entertained myself without the headphones. I wrote the blog, took pictures, drank coffee, ate breakfast and played a couple games of Spades. I even got a chance to charge my phone and tablet since I was sitting in a seat with an outlet. I have an hour layover in Dallas and I’m hoping to walk by a little store on the way to the next gate where they sell headphones.

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Flight 2 .. Dallas to Vegas -- I got an excellent aisle seat.  Thank goodness I didn't have to stuff myself into the middle. With my new headphones it was movie watching time ... well, in addition to conversing with the flight attendants and getting all the freebies that were offered.  Life is Good!  Oops ... it won't be so much when I get back to the Vegas airport.  I lost my ticket to the Jeep I parked at the terminal.  Now that won't be fun!

The rest of Thursday will be spent unpacking, doing laundry and re-packing as we get ready for Trip 2 the next day and on to Norfolk.

Tomorrow will be like Groundhog Day ... I'll be doing this all over again except different airports..

‘Tis life in the air.

Drive into your future looking at the open road ahead
rather than into the rear-view mirror of your past.

All Stressed Out From Travel Planning

Traveling by air isn’t what it used to be. There was a time when it was easy to just pick a flight and take a bag with the bare essentials ...  a camera, film, clothes and toiletries.    However, electronics has changed how I travel.  Perhaps, you could say I wasn't addicted to electronics in the past.  At least not as much as today even though I did have a Sony Vaio Picturebook laptop.  Anyone remember those?  At just over 2 pounds with a huge 12GB hard drive and a long-life 5 1/2 hour battery it was before it's time ... kind of like a tablet.   It was a great little machine for storing digital pictures on the road. 

With three trips on the horizon within the next two weeks, I've been stressing with the flights.   Sunday I started looking for cords, chargers and other necessary gadgets.  My laptop wasn’t going but my tablet was.  The difference with a tablet is I needed to pack gadgets to make other gadgets functional.  So, into a bag went the charger, bluetooth keyboard and mouse.  Since it only had one mini-USB connector, I needed a converter and a 4port hub.  Then, I threw in a thumb drive plus an AC charger. Since the flights were long I figured I better also put in a  DC to AC plug.  I wasn't done though.   Next I tracked down batteries, SD cards, my camera and iPhone charger.   By the time I finished I had two little Ziplock bags filled with miscellaneous paraphernalia.  I couldn't take everything and figured I probably wouldn't use much of this stuff either.  My goal on the first trip was to travel with one backpack only.

The worst part of the planning was making sure I could get to the desired destination when I needed to be there. I could have actually bought tickets but buying three sets of tickets within a two week period was actually not what I wanted to do.  Since I knew I didn't have to .... I didn’t.  The chore was finding flights that I’d be able to travel standby on without worrying too much about not making a flight. Obviously,  I needed a little creativity in my travel plans. This was the plan from Las Vegas to Portland and the return but with all plans I'm good at writing this stuff in chalk and erasing if it doesn't work out.  

A change of clothes, cosmetics, electronics and the added snacks for in flight travel, were soon stuffed in the backpack.  My first flight is scheduled to leave Las Vegas on Tuesday and arrive in Portland nine hours later.  I know . .. I know.  It’s not that far.  Well, it is if you have to travel to Dallas, Texas first!!  That’s what I have to do both going and coming.  Arrival time in Portland will be close to midnight allowing the next day for Sandi’s National Honor Society initiation with a before dawn return flight the following morning.   It sure would be nice to be able to stay a little longer but that's impossible.

It will be back to Vegas for one day to do laundry, secure the coach and get Duchess settled in with cousin, Shelley before we rush off for another flight the following day.  Destination --  Norfolk, Virginia. Yes, that's right ... Justin's ship will be arriving back from Syria's coastline.

Going

Returning

The flight we hope to take leaves just before midnight and arrives about 12 hours later.   That’s certainly a long time for that distance but again we aren't going direct.  We're going by way of Miami. The return flight isn't quite so scenic.  Thank goodness.

Do you think our grandkids realize all the effort and stress that goes into these trips?  I'm betting not but I can guarantee you that they will always remember that we were there.

We get a break before the next flight which is over Thanksgiving and back to Portland.  Some of that time will probably be spent doing catch up from all the lack of sleep the next few days will bring.

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After I wrote this blog and just before posting I decided to make one more change.  I may agree to the return flight from Portland to Dallas to Las Vegas but I really didn't want that same itinerary on my way there.  I was tired just thinking about it.  Thus ... this is what I decided to do instead.  I changed the plan.

Going

Returning

Could you keep up with this?  Those flights aren't actually so unusual for us.  We've been known to go west from Dallas to catch a flight from Los Angeles to head east to London just to get good seats  .....  I bet you’re thankful you don’t travel with us. 

‘Tis life on the road … or, is it the air?

When all's said and done, all roads lead to the same end.
So it's not so much which road you take,as how you take it.

Techatticup Mine and Nelson, Nevada

I’m sure most of you know who this good looking young man in the rescue swimming gear is.  Some of you have even met him personally.  It’s been almost a year since we’ve seen him.  That will soon change.  We’re certainly looking forward to seeing Justin again.

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We took a short ride Saturday to the town of Nelson, Nevada.  Ever been there?  Ever heard of it?  Well, our GPS hadn’t even heard of it.  Thank goodness the directions were easy and I already knew how to get there.  It’s an easy drive .. just 25 miles south of Boulder City.  The town of Nelson has canyons on all sides.  El Dorado Canyon is just a few miles farther down the road.

Of course, we had to visit El Dorado Canyon first.    The road is mostly paved except for just the end which connects at the Colorado River.  I had read online that deserters from the Civil War used to hide in this area.  The deserters were from both the North and the South.  Now neither of us could figure why they would travel this far to hide.  It was certainly a long way from any battlefield.

We were glad we hadn’t counted on needing any fuel in Nelson.  By the looks of the gas pumps, we figured they had been dry a mighty long time.



We also didn’t need any lodging.  These soon to be totally converted buses will eventually be used as overnight lodging for guests.  Pretty cool, huh?



There were plenty of water troughs around but I had my own bottle of water and Terry had his Diet Coke, of course.  Thank goodness we weren’t thirsty.



We were also thankful we didn’t need any local transportation.  Some of them didn’t look in the best of shape.  .

Obviously, this place is a photographer’s paradise.

Quite a few movies had been shot in this little town.  When we looked around we could certainly see why even though we had never heard of it before.



Nelson is also home to the old Techatticup Mine.  Lots of gold has been mined from this place.  However, no souvenirs were given.

The mine was interesting but I much preferred the town. 

After a while it was time for us to get into our own wheels and head back to the modern world.



‘Tis life on the road.

Drive into your future looking at the open road ahead rather than into the rear-view mirror of your past.

Update: Hanging Out in Vegas

Actually, this isn't much of an update.  I just thought I'd post since I hadn't in a few days.  There really isn't a lot to add since the last one. Things have been peaceful and we’re still hanging out in the Vegas area. The weather has been cycling between nice days and not as nice days.  We’ve also had a bit of wind.  The weather changes often but it’s not cold and we’re thankful for that. 

We had a crew stop by and wash our dirty motorhome.  It was very windy on the day they came but it didn’t seem to hamper the job especially since they hand dried it.  Since Terry didn't want to wax it with extra sand or dirt on the rag, he put off giving it a good wax job until the following day.

Mary Jane and Tom in front of both of their rigs.

  

The most excitement we’ve had this week was meeting a good friend.  Friends come and go in the RV world. After all, that’s why they have wheels.  Mary Jane was one of the first people we met when we started our journey on the road.  On Friday she was traveling through with a group but made plans for lunch with us and a hug or two on the way by.  We’ll be doing a little more catching up when we see her again in Quartzsite in January.

Guess what they have with them?  Kayaks!

Our meeting place was the Railroad Pass Casino.  It was an easy place for them to pull off the road with their rigs.  Since I had already donated another $20 to that casino a few nights before I had figured I wouldn’t be donating again.   However, we had to go since we were meeting them there.


What else have I been doing? Well, I’ve been riding my bike. It's funny how you don't realize there are hills around until you're on a bike. The only hills I like are the ones going down.  Then, of course, I took my sewing machine out of hiding and played with it a bit.  That was while I was taking a break from reading history books, scanning census files and fiddling with my genealogy and DNA matches.

Can you tell that I’m ready to move down the road?   We’ve been here a whole two weeks and the hitch is itching.    Our dog-sitter is here and we need to hang around at least until we get back from Virginia and our grandson’s Homecoming.  Then, we have Christmas ahead of us …. what to do?  what to do?   Will we move before then?  We know we need to think about it.

‘Tis life on the road.

Dieting is murder on the road.
Show me a woman who travels and I'll show you one who eats.

Pigging Out on Seafood

One thing you can count on in casino country and that’s a great seafood buffet on Friday nights.  That’s exactly what we found at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas.  We jumped in the Jeep with Joe and headed into town.  Our plan was to meet friends, Steve and Carol.  In addition to plenty of conversation we chowed down on lots of succulent crab, shrimp, clams, mussels and a whole lot more.  Actually you could say we really did pig out.

The next night we returned to the Brewery Pub in Boulder City.  Joe, Toni, Doug and cousin, Shelley, joined us for another meal out.  The weather’s been gorgeous and sometimes when it’s nice, we pick the restaurant by whether or not it has outside seating.  That was our last meal out for a while.  We’ve more than contributed to the local economy and the restaurant business.  We also don't want to pack on more pounds so we’re back to eating in for a while.

We figured it was time to get our little Treks down off the bicycle rack and do a little riding.  We definitely need a little exercise especially with all that food we've be putting away. At least they say that exercise helps.

We’ve been wondering what to make of this truck.  Notice that it is plugged in.  Temperatures haven’t dipped below 45 at night so why does he plug it in?

I mentioned a while back that my laptop has developed a problem.  I really, really hate changing laptops.  It’s not just transferring all the data.   It’s also hoping you can re-authenticate all the software loaded on it. My laptop is only two years old but the flashing screen isn’t fun.  The drivers are up-to-date, the registry clean and there are no viruses. I even connected another monitor to my laptop.  Now if it were a software issue, the other monitor would probably flash when the laptop flashes.  It didn’t.  Thus, it's probably hardware.  How long will it take to really give out?  That's a big question.

The good news is it doesn’t flash all the time.  The other good news is if my screen totally blacked out,  I’d be able to use a monitor.  When Terry upgraded his laptop last month we thought we would give his 3 year old laptop to someone who needed it.  Now I’m just going to hang on to it for a spell.

Things will be quiet around here for a while.  Steve and Carol headed off to Zion.  Joe left for Yuma and the Lairds will be heading a little farther south on Monday.

‘Tis life on the road.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Travel Mapping on a Tablet

A while back I mentioned that Terry “borrowed” by iPad.  He’s had it long enough that I can’t say he’s borrowing it.  He actually stole it.  He loaded all his audio books, games and other stuff on it.  It works perfectly for him and I had a feeling I wouldn’t get it back ….. so, what did I do?  I started looking for a replacement tablet.

Thank goodness I’m a researcher at heart.  There are so many tablets out there with so many different options that I knew I needed to do the research. I think with any purchase like this since there is such a range of options and prices, I needed to decide exactly what I intended to use it for.  Next, I needed to figure out what was needed to be able to use it like I intended.  I knew I didn’t intend it to be my main computer but I wanted it to be functional enough to take along as a replacement for my computer when I did travel.  In addition to watching an occasional movie or playing a game or two, I really wanted it to have a great mapping system.  Actually, I’d really like it if I could use Microsoft Streets and Trips.  That’s what I’d really like.  I knew the ones I intended weren’t big powerhouses but I wasn’t looking for a powerhouse.  I was looking at a tablet.

That decision alone made the difference whether I would be looking at Android systems, Apple systems or one with Windows.  It had to have a Window OS and most of the tablets with Windows 8 also included programs I really liked such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. 

I set up spreadsheets to collect and compare specifications including the CPU, ram and price.  Only tablets with a Windows operating system were compared.  I like the apps that come with iTunes but have never been a fan of using it for transferring files of any kind back and forth from my computer.  I was glad that would not be in my future with a tablet.

A very popular tablet with the Windows operating system is the Microsoft Surface.  After I charted the specs for several tablets, I looked a little harder at the Surface and decided that wasn’t the way I wanted to go.  It offered a lot of the functions I wanted.  I just wasn't sure I wanted a 10" tablet.   Was that a mistake?  Only time will tell.

Another advantage of having a tablet with the same operating system I was used to is that I was familiar with what I could do with it.  For example, these tablets had USB ports, HDMI ports and were even upgradeable by using mini SD cards.  The SD card could be used to install any additional programs I wanted on the tablet while taking only minimal internal space.  A few accessories that could be used included keyboards, a mouse,  an external monitor, portable hard drives and even a CD rom or DVD player could be connected to the mini USB port just by using a USB converter and adding a hub.  Now that sounded perfect to me.

I’ve had the little tablet I purchased about a month and so far I’m still thrilled with my purchase.  I find many times I’ll use it if I just want to surf the internet for a bit.  I’ve watched movies on it, surfed the net and even added the mapping program to the tablet.  However, had I realized at the time I was doing all this research that I might have to replace my faltering laptop sooner than later, I’m guessing my intended use might have been different.  My laptop?  Well, that’s another blog on another day.

What was my deciding factor?  That’s an easy answer.  Once I compared the tablets I eliminated the ones that I didn’t want.  Then, it was down to price.  Office Depot was running a sale and one of the tablets I was considering was on that sale  … that was the determining factor.  I ended up with a 64gb Acer, a bunch of accessories and so far I’m happy. It’s working and functioning exactly as I hoped. It's worked as an eReader, a mapping program and even goes to the laundry with me so I can be entertained while waiting for the loads to finish.  I can access all my favorite RV forums, blogs and reviews without turning on the laptop  -- easier and faster.   So, there’s my update on the tablet purchase.

PS .... even Windows Live Writer is loaded on it!

‘Tis life on the road.

Save the Earth, it’s the only planet with chocolate.

Snowbirds Moving South

The cold front that followed the wind has finally come and gone.  Temperatures probably won’t be pushing the middle 80’s here again until 2014 rolls in but at least they are pleasant in the mid 70’s for now.  However, even those temperatures aren’t expected to last as another cold front is due in next week with temperatures plummeting down to the 50’s!  It’s expected to be a short lived cold spell as after a day or two our trusty little weatherman is telling us we’ll be basking in the sunshine as they zoom way up to the mid and upper 60’s again.

The floor in our RV has finally been repaired and replaced.  It hasn’t been all play and no work.  Terry has finished most of this project.  At least the flooring that got soaked with the leaky hot water heater and leaky bathroom pipe is no longer there. Why is it you can never buy everything you need for each project in just one trip to Home Depot?  We ended up going back at least four times?  Why is that?  

This is the time of year you reunite with folks you've met in the past.  It's the time Snowbirds start their migration south.

Okay, so this picture isn't the best but it was the best out of four our waitress took. Two of them had her fingers on the lens and the other one was so blurry even sharpening didn't help.

Wednesday we met Denise (Sassy’s blog) at the Railroad Pass Casino for dinner.    She’s been working her way south from British Columbia since about the middle of October.  It was just six months ago we said “goodbye” to her in Arizona.  Not only did we eat a little we also had to check out those slots. After all this was a casino.  Neither of us left much behind.  It’s just entertainment and she had a lot of entertainment for the 85 cents she left behind.  On the other hand the casino paid me to have fun as I left with $56.98 more than I started with.  I’d much rather win than lose.  

We finally said “See Ya” to Denise.  She's on her way to Quartzsite.  That's where we'll see her again in January  …. along with a few thousand more people.

The town of Boulder City is full of  little shops and fun places to visit.  On Thursday we decided to check out some of the antique stores in the historical district.  It’s a great walking town.with a lot to check out.  In addition to all the unique shops, there are also several museums, lots of eateries and even the Lake Mead information center.

Ever see one of these?  The featherweight machines were pretty popular for many, many years.

When Halloween rolls around we always wonder if we’ll have knocks at our door with the familiar “Treat or Treat”.  Should we buy candy or should we not?  That definitely is the big question on Halloween.  Well, Thursday was the day and we didn’t have a knock on our door.  We had a text instead.   Joe had finally arrived and pulled his motorhome in fairly close to ours.   

Since it was way past lunch time and none of us had eaten, it didn’t take long to decide to head into town and look for a place to eat.  We ended up at the Boulder Dam Brewing Company.   We sat outside and basked in the gorgeous Nevada sunshine while we chatted, gossiped and caught up on our activities over the last year.

 

We felt since it was his birthday we had no choice but to appease him – you have to blame someone!!    So, next stop was the Elks Halloween Party.  The place was packed, food was served and entertainment was in the form of a professional karaoke team.  In other words, it was a great evening.   

 Next party on the agenda is that on Friday night with Steve and Carol.   They will only be in town a night or two but we couldn’t let them get away without sharing a meal even though we know it won’t be long until we’ll see them again in Quartzsite too.

‘Tis life on the road.

It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say the opposite.