Update

Today Bill and Karen reminded me that I had not updated my Blog. So, here goes...
So much has happened during the past 12 days. The camp is filling up with many of our Stanton friends and some new ones. One new friend is an 84 year old lady who wandered into camp late one evening almost two weeks ago. I met her as I was walking in the late evening. Lois was walking with her cane toward her car. I stopped to talk with her. She arrived in camp after the office was closed and planned on sleeping in her car. She would rent a rig in the morning. I told some friends about her and Kent volunteered to disturb the managers and asking if she could rent a rig after hours. Of course, they helped her to settle in for the night. I checked in on her the next morning and she adopted me immediately. Since then, we have shared our life stories. Her's is a lot more interesting. I have been spellbound by some of her stories. I hope I am as alert and full of life as she is when I'm her age. She is quite the inspiration.

The other night I played Texas Hold'em. There were about 11 of us playing. I ended up winning the tournament. Last night, I was the first one out. That's the way poker is, but win or lose it is a lot of fun. I don't take it too seriously. It gets me out of the motorhome for awhile, Willard can watch whatever he wants on TV, and I've made a lot of new friends. We don't play for much money, it's just considered recreation.

I finally finished my non-fiction article and sent it to my instructor. She made a few suggestions. I had several sentences in the passive voice, which I changed on my rewrite. She is facinated by the idea that Willard prospects for gold and wants me to write a really fresh article about it. That's what I'm working on now.

Sunday morning Bill, Karen, Willard and I rode up to the Ranch House in Yarnell (about 5 miles up a primative rode) on our ATVs for breakfast. Then on the way back to camp we decided to follow an ATV trail. It was a little rough, but we found two abandoned gold mines. Of course, we didn't go into them, but it was a great find.

Today we rode with Bill and Karen to Prescott. I had to have my Bass guitar repaired and shop for a few needed items. Willard had an eye exam for new glasses and, of course, we had to have lunch at the Chinese Buffet. While shopping at Wal-mart Willard found a screenroom. We bought it. Now we have a new room to enjoy.

The weather has been great: cool nights and warm days.

We're Back in Stanton

We arrived in Stanton last Monday. It was fun traveling with Bill and Karen. The road into Stanton was really rough, but that's to be expected on a primative road. Several weeks ago there was a lot of needed rain, but it washed out part of the road. Our motorhome took a beating through that wash. Now, we are parked for the winter. We are in the same site as last year (across the road from the flag pole). I washed clothes and hung them out to dry. We have to wash with cold water and there are no dryers here. About once a month I take the clothes to the laundrymat in Congress.

Willard dry washed Wednesday morning and came home with some gold, as usual. This morning Bill and Willard rode their ATV's to look over some new claims. They felt really good about prospecting the area. Willard says he will use his metal detector more this year.

We went to Prescott yesterday to shop and to visit Don and Penny, who are camp hosts at a state park in the area. It was so good to see them again. Today we had Bill and Karen over for supper. We ate outside, but the flys were so bad, I was wishing we had eaten inside the rig. Afterward we played a game then sat around and talked well into the night.

It was a good day. Dan called and brought us up to date on his challenging life. Willard called Joey and talked football. And I finished my non-fiction assignment. Tomorrow I have to rent a postoffice box so that I can send for children's magazines and study the kinds of articles they like to print. Hopefully, they will print some of my work. My instructor says I should expect lots of rejections before I sell an article. I'm bracing myself for that.