We've been parked on our Lot #360 at North Ranch (Congress, AZ) for about a month. During that time, we met our wonderful neighbors, attended several social events at the park, built a retaining wall, started a desert garden, put in insulation and air conditioned our Studio, and put windows in The Workshop.
We had a photographer come out and take some 50th anniversary pictures in the Cactus Garden. Willard worked three jigsaw puzzles and I went line dancing and for long walks around the park. We played music with a group in Rick's garage and several afternoons a week Charlie came over and we jammed.
We've become close friends with Graceann and Charlie who has a lot across the street. They left the other day for Oregon to become camp hosts for the summer. I had several long visits with Julie and Bob, who are wonderful people. We found out we have been living near each other for years and didn't know it. They lived near Houston, in Colorado, just down the road from Loa, UT in Capitol Reef, not far from Cedar City at Bryce Canyon, and now in Congress. I find that very interesting. Betty lives across the street and is in her 90s. I just hope I'm as active at her age. She's a delight to talk to. Arlo and Polly just retired and moved onto their lot across the street. It will be great getting to know them this winter. We didn't see much of Mike while we were there this time. Paula was in Calif. helping her daughter, I believe. We haven't gotten to know John and Willa Mae very well, yet. They said they would keep an eye on our place for us.
We had dinner with Jeanie and Jon one evening. Sue and Larry, Don and Katy, Keith and Irene, and Mark were there. We had a wonderful time. I hope we don't lose contact with them after moving over to North Ranch. Don had by-pass surgery, but Katy is nursing him back to health. When he gets an okay from the doctor they will head for California. Jeanie and Jon are spending part of the summer in Nome, Alaska, and Mark has already gone back to Mich.
I've been writing some, but haven't been contributing to my critique groups lately. I just hope they don't kick me out of the group. I learn so much from them. I got another rejection letter the other day. My child. lit. teacher says she got about 70 rejection letters before anyone bought her work. Now she's written several children's books and had them all published. I guess I'm just going to have to toughen up, if I hope to have any of my children's stories rescued from the slush pile. The critique groups keep me inspired. I'm hoping the writing group is active at North Ranch this winter.
Jane invited me to a drawing class in Wickenburg. I'll probably become a member when we return in November. I really enjoyed it. I got to be a model for about 20 minutes while the group sketched me. Then we all got to sketch two other people. I think I'll learn a lot working with such talent. Most of them oil paint too. I'm looking forward to the classes they offer.
I've been doing some genealogy on the Raines line. I'm corresponding with several others that are working on the same line. I think we've discovered a little hanky-panky going on several generations back. One of the researchers had his DNA analyzed and it seems our gggrandfather was the next door neighbor. Now, we need to see if we can discover the rest of the story. It may be innocent enough, but it does flood my mind with "what-ifs."
I couldn't believe how cool it was in Arizona during May this year. We turned on our air-conditioner only twice and had the little heater on the next morning (54 degrees). We will definitely be spending more time at North Ranch in the Spring. It's beautiful with all the cacti blooming along with the wonderful weather.
We decided to hitch-up and head North and discovered one of our new tires losing air pressure, so we packed up and took our rig into Big O Tires in Wickenburg to do some troubleshooting. They are the ones who put the 6 new tires on our rig in March. After they found the problem, we went back to North Ranch to get our Tacoma. There we caught up with Don and Penny for a short visit. They will be spending the summer at an archaeological dig near Sedona, AZ. It was so good to see them again.
Now, I'm sitting at the Oasis RV Park in Mesquite, NV. We left North Ranch #360 yesterday about noon. Tomorrow we will be in Hurricane, UT parked for awhile before moving on up to Ogden. We are planning on stopping off in Mt. Pleasant to visit with Dixie and Ken first. We need to be in Ogden by the first of July for we are scheduled to fly up to Anchorage, AK and cruise down the Inside Passage to Vancouver, BC the first part of July. I would have never believed we would be spending our 50th Wedding Anniversary on an Alaskan Cruise ship. Because of such high fuel prices we cancelled our reunion and wedding celebration in Colorado. It would cost just too much for the kids and grandkids to miss work and travel that far. I know they would beg, borrow, or go into debt to get there, and I just couldn't live with that. So we decided to just go to them and celebrate all summer long. We'll celebrate in June with Dan and family, Joey and family in July and Robbie and family in October. We will try to have our reunion during a better economic climate.
Our health is good, we look forward to tomorrow, and we are enjoying our lifestyle. What else could we ask for? All is well.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Can it Really be May Already?
What a whirlwind of a life. I can hardly get my breath. I'm going to reach deep down into my memory in order to bring this blog up to date.
After leaving Johnson City, TX we moved over to Montgomery, TX near Lake Conroe to attend an Alfa Roadrunner's Pre-Rally. It was a full week of meeting new friends with the same kind of motorhome and that live in them fulltime as we do. There were about 40 rigs. We had a wonderful time. We ate many of our meals together, had a social hour each afternoon, visited, and shared ideas. One day we went over to our nephew, Randy, and Lisa's house in the Woodlands. We got there early in the morning and had a chance to visit briefly with the girls and Lisa before they were off to school and to work. Willard and Randy headed for the golf course. I dog-sat until Willard's brother, Harrel, and Barbara came over. We had a nice visit until the golfers returned with a wonderful BBQ lunch, We visited some and said good-bye. We had to get back to the RV park for dinner. One day we rode to Clear Lake on a tour bus. Willard toured the Johnson Space Center, while I visited with my sister.
Then the Alfa National Rally began. About 140 more Alfas move into the RV park. There were workshops to learn about our motorhomes, more delicious food, great entertainment, social hour each afternoon, a pet show, and more visiting with our new RV friends. Willard golfed in a Scramble and his team won first place. They were awarded trophies at the closing ceremony. We will definately attend the next rally. On Wednesday we said our good-byes and headed for Junction, TX,which is on the other side of Austin, just before a storm moved into the Montgomery area.
We decided to go to Bracketville, TX where we discovered and stayed at Fort Clark. The fort was established in 1852 to protect frontier settlers from Indians and bandits. Virtually all U.S. Cavalry units and many Infantry lived, trained, or visited at Fort Clark while patrolling West Texas and the Mexico border. During WWII German prisoners were housed there too. It is now owned by a homeowners association. They are restoring many of the common buildings and homes. There is a golf course, a motel and an RV park. It was such an intersting place that we just happened on. to
We visited Alamo Village just out side of Bracketville. It seems that John Wayne built the movie sets for his movie The Alamo. Over the years they have filmed over 50 movies and documentaries there. We went into the Cantina for lunch and Willard was invited to play and sing several of his songs. He was accompanied by a great piano player who is on their staff. Great food and wonderful entertainment.
The next day we went back to Van Horn, TX where we spent the night before moving on to The Dream Catcher RV park in Demming, NM. While in Demming we went to City of Rocks. It was so interesting seeing what weathering from wind and water can do. It is a great picnic and camping area.
The next day we returned to North Ranch and our new RV lot. We have now completed about half of the retaining wall and started organizing the scattered rocks. We stopped working this weekend and attended Yarnell Days. Yarnell is about 10 miles north of here. They had a parade, venders, music, and food. We met several of our Stanton friends, as we roamed main street. It was good to see them. Today we went to a Jam Session over at Rick's house at North Ranch. It was so much fun. Then after supper we went to the ice-cream social in the club house. While we were sitting outside on our patio just enjoying the cool evening some neighbors came over to introduce themselves. We had a nice visit. Now we are back in the rig...Willard watching TV and, of course, I'm at the computer.
Tomorrow I have to get up early and meet with the Beautification committee to do some gardening. I want to learn all I can about the plants in this area. Then line dancing is at 9:00. We need to go to Prescott on Tuesday for more retaining wall blocks then back by 1:00 so I can go to an Art Workshop in Wickenburg with Jane. I scheduled a perm on Wed. Life is full and good here at North Ranch.
After leaving Johnson City, TX we moved over to Montgomery, TX near Lake Conroe to attend an Alfa Roadrunner's Pre-Rally. It was a full week of meeting new friends with the same kind of motorhome and that live in them fulltime as we do. There were about 40 rigs. We had a wonderful time. We ate many of our meals together, had a social hour each afternoon, visited, and shared ideas. One day we went over to our nephew, Randy, and Lisa's house in the Woodlands. We got there early in the morning and had a chance to visit briefly with the girls and Lisa before they were off to school and to work. Willard and Randy headed for the golf course. I dog-sat until Willard's brother, Harrel, and Barbara came over. We had a nice visit until the golfers returned with a wonderful BBQ lunch, We visited some and said good-bye. We had to get back to the RV park for dinner. One day we rode to Clear Lake on a tour bus. Willard toured the Johnson Space Center, while I visited with my sister.
Then the Alfa National Rally began. About 140 more Alfas move into the RV park. There were workshops to learn about our motorhomes, more delicious food, great entertainment, social hour each afternoon, a pet show, and more visiting with our new RV friends. Willard golfed in a Scramble and his team won first place. They were awarded trophies at the closing ceremony. We will definately attend the next rally. On Wednesday we said our good-byes and headed for Junction, TX,which is on the other side of Austin, just before a storm moved into the Montgomery area.
We decided to go to Bracketville, TX where we discovered and stayed at Fort Clark. The fort was established in 1852 to protect frontier settlers from Indians and bandits. Virtually all U.S. Cavalry units and many Infantry lived, trained, or visited at Fort Clark while patrolling West Texas and the Mexico border. During WWII German prisoners were housed there too. It is now owned by a homeowners association. They are restoring many of the common buildings and homes. There is a golf course, a motel and an RV park. It was such an intersting place that we just happened on. to
We visited Alamo Village just out side of Bracketville. It seems that John Wayne built the movie sets for his movie The Alamo. Over the years they have filmed over 50 movies and documentaries there. We went into the Cantina for lunch and Willard was invited to play and sing several of his songs. He was accompanied by a great piano player who is on their staff. Great food and wonderful entertainment.
The next day we went back to Van Horn, TX where we spent the night before moving on to The Dream Catcher RV park in Demming, NM. While in Demming we went to City of Rocks. It was so interesting seeing what weathering from wind and water can do. It is a great picnic and camping area.
The next day we returned to North Ranch and our new RV lot. We have now completed about half of the retaining wall and started organizing the scattered rocks. We stopped working this weekend and attended Yarnell Days. Yarnell is about 10 miles north of here. They had a parade, venders, music, and food. We met several of our Stanton friends, as we roamed main street. It was good to see them. Today we went to a Jam Session over at Rick's house at North Ranch. It was so much fun. Then after supper we went to the ice-cream social in the club house. While we were sitting outside on our patio just enjoying the cool evening some neighbors came over to introduce themselves. We had a nice visit. Now we are back in the rig...Willard watching TV and, of course, I'm at the computer.
Tomorrow I have to get up early and meet with the Beautification committee to do some gardening. I want to learn all I can about the plants in this area. Then line dancing is at 9:00. We need to go to Prescott on Tuesday for more retaining wall blocks then back by 1:00 so I can go to an Art Workshop in Wickenburg with Jane. I scheduled a perm on Wed. Life is full and good here at North Ranch.
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