I Did What?

As of this morning I lost 16 lbs in 11 days.  I know that’s not good, blah blah, blah, blah.  How did I do it?  I haven’t ate anything!  Just kidding.  It just seems like that.  I need to find a buffet and celebrate – NOT!  Maybe I can loose another 10 lbs in two weeks or at least 5 lbs before the Escapade.

OK, here’s an example of how I eat.  Yesterday I had cold cereal for breakfast.  Yuck…  For lunch I fixed a chicken sandwich on wheat bread with lots of Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, fake salt and lots of pepper.  The chicken was pan fried the day before and very thin sliced.  For dinner I had about a cup of Basmati rice with soy sauce, chicken pieces, lots of spices.  No snacks.  That’s it.  Yes I'm friggin starving.  No soda’s or alcohol.  Just water and Powerade.  I do take some dietary vitamin supplements.  They taste like candy.  I also take green coffee bean extract and drink strong green tea.  My system is clean and I can take any colon test without drinking that real nasty stuff.

Carol & I try to walk about 45 minutes a day or at least every other day.

Today Denny Orr gave me a call from Fairbanks, Alaska.  They’ve been setting for a few days and their motorhome would crank but wouldn’t start.  It turned out to be his fuel filters had water in them.  He must have gotten some fuel with water in it, duh.  It couldn’t have been real bad fuel because because his coach ran after fueling.  I think I will carry an extra set of fuel filters next year when we head up there.  Never needed them before.  Why not?  No bigee.

We went and played tourist on the back roads today and even did a little four by fouring near the Snake River.  Pictures another day.

See ya….

New Tires X 8?

I was leaning towards not getting tires before we head for Alaska next year.  It looks like we will be adding an additional 5,000 miles before we leave because of a change of recent plans.  Our tires were made June 06.  They have about 42K on them now and will have about 52K on them when we leave next year.  That means they would have about 62-63K miles upon our return.  That’s a little too much for me.  I tell people if they have less than half their tread left they should go ahead and get new ones before heading for Alaska, especially if they are big tires like 22.5.  Our tires are wearing even, no cracks and have about 1/2 there tread right now.  Sometime next year about Feb-March I will get tires.  Do I get 6 or 8, what brand, which type, regroveable or not, which store and in what state?  It won’t be Oregon because it will be too far out of the way.  They are big tires 305X70X22.5 load range L.  I hate to pay the price for Michelins.  Maybe Toyos M144.

To sum it up.  I was bored today and it was windy.

See ya.

So Where We’re You?

May 29, 2011

Alaska Day 16 Tok towards Valdez

Today we waited to get our mail at Tok’s Post Office. At 9AM we were headed south towards Valdez and “our spot”. We had the “Last Frontier Group” spread out over three hours and not by planning. Just Lossey Gossey departures. In the 178 mile trip we encountered some neat stuff and not to neat stuff. We saw a wolf and some trumpeter swans. They just looked like big old geese to me. They weren’t tooting as we went by. I guess I will have to do my own tooting.

   

That’s a snow capped mountain in the background.      

Steven, this girl said for you to come on up here and “stop” by.

Now the pictures to follow are at “our spot” on the road to Valdez. You can see us setting out at our 4 o’clock. “This is” “The Last Frontier Gang”, 6 RV’s and 12 people doing a Loosey Goosey Caravan. We are 72 miles from Valdez. We will make it tomorrow?  

The view out of our windshield.

An where where you May 29, 2011?

See ya…

Filled That Black Water Tank!

I don’t know how I didn’t gain any weight from all that food I ate yesterday.  Not even one pound gain this morning.  Of course our black water tank got a good work out.  Oh yea, add toilet paper to the Walmart list.  I might have to break out my skinny clothes soon.

Love these A/C’s with heat  pumps for night time heat.  We got three and it’s nice when the temps stay above 40 degrees.  They’re relatively quiet and with three we can move the heat around when we want too.  We also have a LP heater hook up inside that Ed Kruty set up for us.  That will be used for real cold weather or no hook ups like up in Alaska.  We also have the hydro hot diesel heating system which is nice but expensive to run on a continued basis like for heat.  But we do have it.  We run it for a few minutes for real hot showers normally otherwise we use electric hot water for like washing dishes, etc.

We bought another week here at Mountain Air Force Base, ID for $90.  Buy 6 nights ($15 ea) and get the 7th night free.  From here we will go visit Dave & Brenda Neil in Thayne, WY for a week.  They have daily line dancing at their park so Carol was VERY FINE with that.  Plus Dave & Brenda are fun of course.  After that we will head for the Tetons and stay there for a few nights (boone docking).  We will use our newly installed inside LP heater system there for the first time too.  Maybe we can get that Jeep out and around there on those forest fire break back roads which can be pretty nice.  Forest fire break back roads – that’s a lot to say.  Anyway….then we will have a couple of days to get to Gillette.

Our plans after Gillette are up in the air because both of our Mom’s are having problems.  They’re at that age when a lot of things are happening and it’s a day by day thing just about.  Carol’s Mom is in Maryland and mine is in Texas.   We will see.

See ya…..

Popeye’s Day

 

Last Monday I weighed 215 lbs.  This morning I weighed 202 lbs.  Today was my day off from weight watching and I wanted Popeyes spicy chicken especially since they have a facility here on base.  Love that chicken from Popeyes! I had a 3 egg breakfast. Then Popeyes spicy chicken for lunch and Popeyes spicy chicken for dinner along with hot poppers and garlic toasted bread. For snack I had popcorn then later cookies and milk.  It was great and I’m busting at the seams.  I was lucky.  I was near a rest room all day.  My system got an overload of grease and spicy food.

This morning my computer sounded like a friggin jet taking off.  It’s really hot underneath too.  I backed it up last week for the first time since last year so I’m ahead of the game that way.  I guess just keep on using it till it stops.

The sun came out this morning along with some warm temps and so did we did.  We puttered around outside for a couple of hours doing nothing special.  Then it got cloudy and rain followed.  Are we in Oregon or what?  It rained most of the day and the sun never came out again.

We are starting to plan our schedule after the Escapade,  again! We thought we had it pretty well planned out but as we all know life keeps on changing will thought out plans.  Looks like we might have to come up with some extra fuel money somewhere or just keep going down hill to save fuel.  Maybe only travel on days when the wind is to our back pushing us.  Yea right.  I’m just glad anymore when it’s not in our face.  Everything is up in the air right now so we wait for the dust to settle along with some more trimmings off the money tree.  Our tree is pretty well trimmed back so if anybody has one in full bloom let us know.  We will prune it for you no problem.

See ya……

Memorial Day Double Header

Memorial Day – 21 years in the Marine Corps active duty, one tour in Viet Nam and 9 years in the inactive reserves subject to recall.  I don’t need to say anything more besides been there done that.  Semper Fi!

My Nikon lens needs repair.  Does anybody personally know of any repair facilities?  I got two in Illinois from the internet but I rather use one that someone has used if you know what I mean.  I more or less dropped the camera/lens at the Lodi Rally and the lens just isn’t the same.  The camera body is fine.  I used Carol’s Nikon and the lens just isn’t up to snuff.  I think it’s a ring inside of it making it a little hard to manually zoom.  It still shoots clear pictures. 

Today is a double header race wise.  We got the Indy 500 open wheel racing this morning.  These guys are really crazy with those open wheels and 220 MPH.  If they touch anything they are wrecked big time.  It was a pretty clean and good race.

Then NASCAR this afternoon.  They can bump a little and they race for 600 miles.  I know I go for 600 miles in a day but not at 180 MPH.  It was a bang up race.

Carol took these pics today.

Then the rains came and did they along with the wind that seems to stop only for darkness sometimes. 

The sprinklers with the hard water and mother nature aren’t helping me clean the Beast so I get the hint.   I 'ill stop trying to shine the Beast at least for awhile.

See ya….

Bucket Wash/Which Way Do We Go?

Well, the wind died down a little but not much.  I wanted to do some more washing of the Beast to get rid of some more Oregon wet road grime.  I looked where I did a little washing a few days ago.  Guess what?  The sprinkler system evidently has came on during the night.  Yes, the water is very hard so I got water spots on clean areas and the dirty areas of the Beast.  I went on a sprinkler head hunt.  I found five and laid big rocks on them.  I did some more bucket washing.  I change the soapy bucket water often, use a wash pad and then dry the washed area with a wet damp micro fiber.  It works pretty good.  The trick is to change the soapy water often and the micro fiber cloth too.  I’ve done about 3/4 of the lower coach where I can reach or bend over.  I need to finish the bottom then do the top of the sides on a ladder.  then I get on the roof and do the overlap.  About 4 hours left at least.  I did clean and shine 4 of my 6 wheels of course.

I watched the little boys NASCAR race.  It was OK except Kyle Bush ran off with it and won.  Tomorrow the big boys race and then there is the Indy 500 too.

Carol & I are working on our schedule for the next 2 1/2 weeks.  We were gonna go straight to Gillette.  Then we were going to go up to Great Falls then to Gillette.  Now we think we are gonna  go straight, kinda, to Gillette.  That means a another stay here of additional 7 days.  Then head for Thayne and stay 7 nights.  Then up to the Tetons for 3 nights, 1 night in Casper then arrive at Gillette.  We will decide for sure, kinda, Monday when we pay for another 7 days here.  These are full timers dilemmas – routes and when.  Ain’t it great!

See ya..

A Weigh We Go/Gone To the Birds

My weight went back up over the last few months.  I was at 215 Monday.  I was down to 190 lbs early this year.  Monday I decided it was time again to loose the weight.  Friday morning I weighed 207. I will be under 200 lbs by the time we arrive in Gillette 14 June.

The wind is still blowing pretty good here but the sun remains out so it’s still pretty nice.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Well, maybe one.

Today we are going to a place in Boise called Birds of Prey.  We could have traveled the interstate but instead went the back roads.  We found a few interesting things.

I know where this man’s castle is.  

Noah’s Ark?  Where’s the animals two by two?

There they are!

 

We arrive…

Some people have to arrive in style.  I wonder if it’s towable.

  

 

Carol found a putty cat.  A little on the skinny side.

This guy lost his head when he saw us.

 

I think this one has an attitude.

Here’s the flight room.  They brought a bird in and let it fly from one side to the other.  I thought it was restricting and should have been outdoors.

Here’s where they do their shows later in the year.

 

A turkey vulture cooling off. 

The place is located on top of a mountain.  What a view.

Then it was back to the Beast via the Interstate.

See ya….

Indian Fulltimers

I would say Indians were fulltimers for many years.  They enjoyed the freedom of movement, the land, lived in portable housing, had campfires and even ate out a lot! 

Carol & I got in the Jeep and went looking for adventures.  We came up on the Oregon Trail.  We even drove the Jeep on the actual trail in BLM land.  It wasn’t to rough in the Jeep but a wagon would have been a head banger.  We ended up at a historical place called Glenns Ferry, ID.  It’s one of the most dangerous river crossings on the Oregon Trail.  Pioneers forded the Snake River at the Three Island Crossing.  Shoshone and other Indians were peaceful at first and offered their experience and help to the settlers.  In time they were taken advantage of thus Indian uprisings.  It’s a sad part of this country’s history that is over looked even at Glenns Ferry.  My Mother’s Father was full blooded Indian from Oklahoma.   I forget the tribe.  I guess that makes me part Indian.  Maybe that's where I get the love of full timing from.  You know, the enjoyment of the freedom of movement, enjoying the land, live in portable housing, campfires and even eat out a lot!

I took the camera but forgot the SD card.  It was still in the computer.  I guess we will have to do it again.

Congrats to Kathy Ford.  She is retiring from the school system near Baltimore, MD.  They are RVers and boaters.  Now if Butch (her husband) can figure out how to take  a boat with their RV they would be set.  Their first big trip will be to Yellowstone in July.  Our paths will cross.  Hold on Butch!

See ya…..

It’s What?

30 degrees this morning.  What the hell?  Where’s that earth warming trend.    Two days ago the nights were in the 50s.  Now it’s our highs for the day.  We have soups and can make stew for sure.  You know it’s not raining so it’s not ALL bad.   The strong winds blew in this cold weather.  It will be all gone this weekend. 

So the locals are gathering during this cold spell.

We haven’t figured out how our cat sat on the back of this chair.  She sat like this for about 10 minutes.  Cats can and do some strange things for sure.

We are planning our trip from here to Gillette, WY.  Not sure when we will leave here.  It sure is quiet here.  We might go up to Montana to do some sight seeing or to the Tetons to revisit.  Rough full timing choices…smile.

See ya…

Now What!

Nuttin honey.  We don’t have anything planned, absolutely nuttin.

I forgot to mention that I weighed the rig 3 times in Oregon en route coming here.  Oregon you can weigh at the state scales if they are closed.  They leave everything turned on so you just drive on the scale an axle at a time.  The weight is up on a LED sign.  It’s pretty neat. 

We also got a good chip in the windshield.  It’s a half moon about the size of a dime (no runners) about 6 inches from the bottom on Carol’s side.  We will get it repaired when we see a chip guy probably in Gillette.

Yesterday getting here the wind was behind us and pushed us here.  That was nice.  I think we were getting 99 MPG.  the wind is still blowing today but the temps are in the 70’s & 80’s.  We can handle that.

According to second hand info the base is really cut back in flying hours.  Thus, not as many personnel are needed.  They’ve closed down two of the three on base schools.  Closed the base theater and spent money on the two gyms here.   I don’t think I’m going into a gym any time soon. 

Since I need to loose weight I shaved then went and got a haircut.   It didn’t help.  The haircut was $6.85.  I liked that a lot.  Then we went into the commissary and bought fat food.  It just don’t figure.

They say that this AFB, Mountain Air Force Base, is located 4 miles from hell.  It is out there for sure….

These little guys are all over the base. 

So are these stickers….

We’re in there some where.  Yes, near the train tracks.  These haven’t been used in many years though.

Our kitty likes to hide sometimes.  She’s next to her bud the bear.

See ya…..

Full Timer’s Day

Here’s our site last night near the Idaho state line.  Not to shabby for a rest area.  It was quiet too.

These people have good taste in colors.

And we are off and running.  We decided to go to Mountain Home AFB.  It’s a first come first serve campground that’s on base out in the boonies.  Only retired military are allowed.  Pics along the way…

I never thought about selling “BULL”.  I wonder if I could sell some of mine?  I got a little extra.

 

Look out trucker

A little fixer upper…

I like the color…

There’s two antelopes in this pic.

More open space..

After 125 miles we arrived via the back gate.  We are out in the boonies.

There is life out here…

We settled into our site which is a pull thru 50 AMP FHU with a cement drive-on pad, green grass, picnic table and a barbeque.  Not large sites but very planned out sites.  Cost is $90 for a week and we got a week for now.  Pics tomorrow.

This base is active with jets of course.  Carol and I went for a walk about 8 PM and this base was very dead.  No activity except for a jet taking off ever so often.  The Burger King closes at 9 PM.  It’s a full facility base meaning that they have a commissary (grocery) and exchange (mini walmart) stores.  The base also have a car wash and self help auto shop and a gas station.  Gas was $3.55 and diesel was $4.05.  We filled the Jeep up.

I washed the bugs off the front end the bucket method and put on the windshield cover.  The rig is dirty with road rain grime from Oregon.  Washing of vehicles is not permitted so I will use the bucket method over several days.  Too much for one day and I’m in no rush.

See ya….