Happy Birthday Baby Buddy

Today Carol, my buddy, turned %$#&! years old.  Her choice of breakfast this morning was Denny’s Restaurant.  Denny & Susie came along with us.  Carol like’s her Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream.  After showing the waitress her ID her breakfast was free ($6.49 credit).  Now that was something.  When we returned we visited Mark.  It was the meeting of the minds or at least a meeting.

Here’s Denny & Susie’s place.  The Beast is along side in the second pic. Denny’s rig is in the background.

Later that day Denny & Susie had a Birthday Party for Carol.  It was a lot of fun.  Whenever someone would show up everybody sung Happy Birthday to her – again and again.  Susie cooked pizza for everyone and then we had cake & ice cream. Carol was in her glory.

When the sun went down everybody moved inside to the warm house.  During the evening we got entertained by Mark’s famous Scottish song.  He had to be asked only once.

The evening was over by 7 PM (Walt’s bed time).

Patches our cat has been staying at the local vet due not eating/drinking/lost of weight.  The vet said she was doing better and we could pick her up tomorrow.  She was looking/acting pretty bad beforehand and hopefully she has recovered fully.  We had our doubts there for awhile.

Denny & Susie leave their MiFi on overnight so I can get this blog out.  They know I have a tendency to do it in the middle of the night.  Thank you…

I’m in the middle of fighting a losing battle with Verizon about their bait & switch offers.  This concerns their plan for a 2 GB MiFi for $30 a month.  They have advertising at their stores that says it’s available during the 2011/2012 winter.  When you call them they say they only have the 5 GB for $50.  That my friends is called bait and switch by anyone’s definition except theirs. Hey, I’m letting them know what I think.  I’m suppose to get a call tomorrow from some Verizon muck a muck person.  Let’s see how concerned they are really about keeping to their advertising.

See ya………..

Enough Boone Docking

We’ve spent 21 days in the desert with no hook ups. It’s time for us to go.  We got 117 miles to the Escapees park North Ranch.  We will be staying at Denny & Susie’s lot there.  First we have to stop at the Wickenburg vet because our cat Patches is pretty sick.

We stopped at the ZIP and got fuel at $3.79 a gallon and LP was $2.95.

We took some pics but they really are rough. Plus here’s a couple from a few days ago.   

We arrived at the vet around noon and they took Patches right in.  Later that day we got a call and they didn’t find anything so far but will observe her over night.

We arrived at Denny & Susie’s.  Denny arrived earlier and got situated.  We pulled right in and got all situated.  Carol started doing the wash right away.  Today was a try and recoup day after a short drive.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Carol’s birthday…..

See ya…………

See Ya’s Abound

We don’t say good bye, we say See Ya because we will.  At least we better….

The day started with the gathering of the guys at the fire pit at 8 AM.  Then it was off to the Subway at the Pilot truck stop for breakfast.  Subway has a pretty decent breakfast for a fast food place.

Then we went to the big tent.  I talked with Verizon about getting the internet.  They now want $50 a month for the basic WiFi.  I can see $35 but not $50. I just don’t see it right now.  So, I will become one of THOSE people who are always looking to sponge off  people or find hotspots.  If you don’t see a daily blog entry that is why.  I will do a blog for each day but they might not get entered for 3-4 days and all at one time.

Back at the Beast and a few people have left.  Tomorrow it’s going to be like a big suction when we all leave.

Silly Al’s for diner we thought.  This was usually a time when we celebrated Carol’s and Walt’s birthday with friends.  Due to a lack of communication and last minute changes that we were not informed of, we skipped Silly Al’s.  We decided it was better to have a quiet diner by ourselves at a small restaurant.

Later that night we had a real big fire and burned the rest of the firewood. 

See ya……

Friends, Chili & Prizes

I started my chili at 6:30 AM this morning.  I think I will have some strong competition.  Great…

We ended up with 24 RVs here for our last hosted RV Driving  School Get Together.  George & Valerie got us  going away cakes. That was very nice….

The sky was blue all day and set the standard for a nice day.

We had more than enough food to include chili.

Then the rest of the food was coming out.

And the people…..

The sun was setting….I gave a farewell and thank you oh rah.  George then gave a welcome to all and I think he said porterhouse steaks next year.

It was then time for the fun give away prizes.  We also gave gold coins out to RV Driving School students and the wives of the instructors.  Wow, I didn’t notice but just about everything was orange.  Now ain’t that something. 

 

And the fire is started. 

It was time to say good by to the “Dick” Reed work shirt for many reasons.   A lot of good memories and only one bad one. That’s pretty dog on good record for 5 years. The one bad memory was a down fall of a legacy of a once great person. Too Bad…..  

And the night burned on…..

Oh what a friggin GREAT DAY!

See ya…

First Day of Get Together

Today officially starts the RV Driving School Get Together.  Carol & I have been doing this for 6 great years.  I think this has been the best weather we have ever had over all.  One year we almost got washed away because of the real bad thunder/rain/wind storms here.  It’s something to see a monsoon rain and water running across a desert in an RV in the middle of no where.  It got a little scary that year and we still managed to have fun.  It’s the attitude that wasn’t discouraged.

We pass the torch on to George & Valerie and wish them well.  Oh, we’ve told everybody next year they would be preparing steaks, porterhouse of course! Tell your friends.

Carol & I went into town before 9 AM today.  I wanted to get some solar lights at K & B Tools.  K & B has a lot of good “Stuff”.  After Mickey D’s we parked right in front of K & B before 9 AM.  I got the lights and then we went to the laundry mat.  I dropped Carol off and I went to the big tent.  Here’s Denny & Susie working it. It wasn’t crowed so I got to walk around and meet some fellow vendor friends.  About 10 AM I decided it was time to go to the Post Office and start to wait.  They hand out General Delivery starting at 11 AM.  I got there about 10:15 and was mentally prepared to wait.  They are so   s - - - l - - - - o - - - - w - - - - ! After 10:30 or so it becomes an 1 1/2 hour wait.  I was 4th in line.  I walked out about 11:10 with mail in hand.  I went and got Carol and we went back to the Beast.

I think I counted 23 rigs before the end of the day.

We had a pretty big social hour and then a pit fire later that night.  We went out to diner with Gary and Mary, fellow Loosey Gosey Gang members from our Alaska trip this past summer.  We went to a Mexican restaurant.  I can’t talk Spanish or read their menu’s even though they are in English.  It just don’t click in the brain housing for me when it comes to Mexican food.  I need a child’s menu that is descriptive.  I ordered a mini samboro (?) with ground beef and crossed my fingers.  It came and they must have thought I was a rabbit.  There was a lot of lettuce and I never did find the ground beef. It reminded me of a taco salad with no sidewalls or beef. It was outstanding if you are a vegetarian.

Another good day.  Damn wind picked up again.  The weatherman changes his report as the weather changes so he’s never wrong.  Just a little off on the timing.  Tomorrow is predicted to be in the 70’s with no wind or clouds….hope so. 

The pot luck/chili cook off will start about 3:30.  Hope I don’t see those mega food trays.  Come on folks let’s don’t go down that road.  I’m expecting about 75 or so people again this year. We will see…. I got to go start my chili – it’s now 6:30 AM.

See ya……

Datastorm Dish Gone

Well good ole old Steve came over this morning to give me a second opinion on our datastorm being broke.  He has a little puller that is really neat and set up for long distance traveling and boone docking. His diagnosis was “Yep, it’s broke!”  We unbolted it and tossed it off the roof.  Surprisingly the dish didn’t brake. No pics because I was working and I don’t need to spread those kind of pics around.  People might think I actually can work.  Steve wanted it for parts and so be it. He owes us a big fat hamburger due some day.  And he and Nancy are off…..

Now Don needed supervising.  He was cleaning his base plate for his datastorm to go on their NEW RV. Yes they are getting a new 40 foot farton.  Congrats.  Tommie Sue and & Harrell are getting a a new Tiffin also.  Victor and Tarri are getting a new RV too.  Thank goodness it’s not a Tiffin.  We might have to go look again.  The bug didn’t bite us this year.  Again thank you all for buying those new RV’s so we didn’t have to. It’s more fun watching you all spending your money and MOVING and RESTTING UP everything….

A few more rigs came in today and I can no longer keep track of everybody's name.  We had a real nice 4 o’clock get together and had some great laughs.

That evening Frank Hinman started the fire and we had a nice group outing.  Mark brought the stuff that was need for smores and we put a hurting on them.  Buy this time it was joke time.  Wow, these people hurt my Marine Corps ears – NOT. 

Today was perfect Quartzsite weather in that it was in the 70’s, not one cloud in the sky and no friggin wind.  Damn it don’t get no better out here.  The next few days is suppose to be the same.  Life is good…………

Now you ask how am I getting this blog out if I don’t have no datastorm.  Denny dropped off his MiFi thing for me to use early this AM (4 AM).  It’s a pretty neat little device. I don't have to turn on the inverter for the datastorm equipment.  I just turn on this little gizmo and log on.  It’s faster than datastorm at least right now it is.  In crowded areas I’ve been told it slows down.  The computer I just run on battery.  How sweet it is……

My blogs might be a little slow getting on line but I will have one for each day but they just might not be published for one or two days.  In other words go back until you come up on a repeat….

See ya………………….

Nice Day – Pot Luck And All

Today……I’ writing this at 3 AM and it’s a little hard to remember the do nothing day I had.

We started of by having breakfast with George & Valerie at the Q town Cafe across the street from the Qsite Yacht Club.  Their regular cook was off.  I noticed a difference in the omelet and commented to the waitress.  She said their regular cook was off today.  My omelet was still good but not as good as the other day.  Denny stopped by and we had a good time.

Then we…then we…. I don’t remember.

A few more people arrived during the day.

Later Denny and I went over to Victor’s new rig.  We helped him with reinstalling his solar stuff.  Well, Denny did.  I was like a federal supervisor.  I didn’t know what they were doing but I was telling them how to it.  As long as they kept moving I was doing my job.  He installed an extra two batteries for a total of 6 house batteries.  That’s nice.

 

Here’s some other RV’s he was near on BLM north of Qsite out Pomosa Road. 

On the way back I thought it would be nice to have one of those last minute pot lucks.  These throw the girls into a frenzy because they don’t know what to bring.  I remembered we had a couple packages of smoked pulled pork in the freezer so that took care of that.  We called the girls who immediately went into the panic mode. It all worked out very well thanks to the girls…brownie points……… We ended the day with a nice little campfire plus no wind.  I think we got 7 rigs here now with more due to arrive tomorrow.  Five of us parked like a circle of the wagons as possible wind barriers.  

Tomorrow as all days will be an interesting one.  Carol has it all figured what we have to do and I’m just going along for the ride.  Not to much thought for this boy.. 

I published yesterday’s blog a day late(same time as this one) so you might want to go back one day. It has some funny pictures.

See ya….

Last Official Responsibility As Owner

This morning I completed the 1099’s for the instructors.  Turn on the lights the party is beginning what ever that means.  People have been asking why did you sell the school and what are you going to do now. Why sell?  The timing was right for us to sell and no real special reason.  We just knew it was time.  Now what are we going to do?  Nutin. How’s that? We’ve agreed to help the new owners the next few months at different venues and Carol wants to attend a couple of line dancing rallies in California.  We will leave the west coat about mid March and head for FL with a stop in Livingston, TX.  After visiting some real good friends in FL we head for an Escapees rally in the Carolinas.  Then a slow pace to the Newmar factory in IN to get the roof replaced on the Beast under warranty.  It’s sagging like we are all doing. Then……..?

Anyhow back to the hear and now.  Today it’s suppose to be windy and near 70 degrees.  Then the rest of the week in the mid 70’s and sunny…….hopefully.

The day was a normal busy due nothing day.  Then it was time for Silly Al’s with a bunch of friends.  It was……it was…….it was….it was…well you figure it out…

Then the day ended I think……

See ya…………….

Out Of Food ?

No not really.  We got milk the other day.  We do need some regular “stuff” that we might have to go to Blythe.  Carol wants to make some corn bread for the chili this weekend.  I need some stuff for my chili. 

Today it got to near 70 degrees ,  clouds and wind later and even a quick rain shower. 

I dropped Carol and Marline Hinman off at line dancing and headed for Blythe, CA about 25 miles away.

AT……

Killer donuts…   

Downtown Blythe…

 

I washed the car for $1.25

 

In Az Milepost 5 this is the place to get fuel .  10 cents cheaper than Flying J, not as crowded and it’s even larger.

Northbound on route 95 about 2 miles out going into town about 12:30 ……no thank you!

Later we connected up with Denny & Susie and went to the Families Three (?) Restaurant.  Not too shabby. It was our third restaurant where we didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes.  The others looked longer.  We fixed some world problems and spoke about our future plans. When we finished and went outside we noticed it had rained.  There went my clean car.

Lesson learned probably – don’t go into town between 9:30 AM and 4 PM.  It’s a friggin zoo. Bumper to bumper traffic with parking spaces few and far apart. You know, Quartzsite just ain’t the same for us anymore.

See ya……