Reindeer Duster

This is a picture of Duster waiting for the Light Parade to start.

Christmas Eve 2006

We returned from Houston last Sunday. It was a long hard trip (2400 miles round trip). On Saturday we drove 900 miles, from Johnson City to Casa Grande. I hope we never have to do that again. Willard's brother recovered from his double pneumonia and went home on Monday. He still has health challanges, but he is doing much better. We stayed with Barbara and Harrel in Alvin and really appreciated their hospitality. I got to see my sister and have a good old hamburger and malt at the Sonic while we "talked about nothing" (as mother used to say).

It was good to be back at Stanton. Monday and Tuesday was really cold (it even spit some snow), so we didn't get out much. On Wed. we went to Prescott to do some shopping. On Friday we had our Red Hat Tea. About 35 attended. It was a wonderful party. Saturday night were had a delicious Pre-Christmas dinner at Bill and Karen's along with Judy and Don, Judy's daughter, Janice and Charlie. It was a lovely evening.

On Sunday we had a pot-luck lunch at Janice's and Charlie's space. About 14 attended. The food was great as usual. That evening we had our light parade. About 20 ATV's participated. We paraded throughout the park. It was so much fun. We even dressed Duster up like a reindeer. He rode in the back of our ATV. After the parade, we had hot chocolate, wassail, and cookies in the Opra House. What a great time we have at Stanton thanks to so many wonderful people in camp.

We're on our way to Houston

We are in Ft. Stockton, TX on our way to Houston. Willard's brother had a heart attack and is now on one of those breathing machines. He's stopped breathing on his own. We thought we should be there, so he packed up some clothes and headed out in our truck last night. Bill and Karen, wonderful friends of ours in Stanton Camp, volunteered to take care of Duster and Worth while we are gone. That took a big load off of our minds.

Because of this unexpected trip, we are missing three Christmas parties. Our Red Hat group went to Prescott today for a Christmas lunch and tonight we were supposed to play for our Gem and Mineral Club parts. Guess they will have to use CDs for their music or have someone else entertain. Last night we missed the GPAA party. We were to play for them too along with Mary, Hollywood Don, Don G., and Ken. I'm kinda in the dumps because we seem to be missing all the fun.

But, family matters to us so much. Right now our place is with them. Some hard decisions must be made and it helps to have people that love you standing by your side. That's why we are driving 1200 miles in two days to be there for them (and for us). Anyway, right now we are so tired. We must go to bed early for we are only half way there.

You Mean It's Only 21 Days Until Christmas?

It is amazing how time flys when you are enjoying such a full life. I'll try to recap our past month here in Stanton.

• The Red Hat cookbook is finished and in publication. It should be ready by Dec. 12.
• I won $200 playing live poker at Prescott (3-6)
• We bought a fiddle and I'm learning to play it. I have a lesson tomorrow in Prescott
• We have been preparing Christmas Songs for two Christmas parties we will be playing at (the GPAA and Gem and Rock Club parties)
• It's been cold and windy as a cold front has moved across the country this past week. The water in our hose froze one night. The tent across the road blew somewhere. They had to get a new one.
• Our Red Hat group went to Aguila for lunch at Big Mama's, afterwhich we shopped at the farmer's market.
• Jeanie gave us a small breadmaker (a loaf just big enough for 4 good slices) Willard is the breadmaker and does a great job. No more bought bread for us
• I put up our Christmas tree and started decorating outside the Motorhome.
• Dan, Anna and 6 of our grandkids came for Thanksgiving. They stayed 3 days. We enjoyed their visit so much. They rode the ATV, prospected for gold and found some, rode the ATV, had a weiner roast, rode the ATV, played music, attended the Gem and Mineral Show in Wickenburg, rode the ATV, and just enjoyed each other's company. It was the highlight of the Fall.
• Don and Dee, a couple we met at a campground this past summer in Mt. Pleasent, UT, stopped by for a nice visit. They are camped just south of Wickenburg.
• We started Line Dancing in camp. It is so much fun and good exercise
• I've watercolored four paintings with Stanton as my subjects. Perhaps I can sell them or give them as gifts. Don't know what else to do with them. I'm running out of room for paintings in my Sea Breeze.
• I finished two more children's stories an am awaiting my critique from my instructor. I hope I get published by next year.
• Our camp is full (about 200 rigs and tents). Visitors come almost daily to take pictures and walk around the ghost town. Too bad they can't visit the Opera House for it is under construction (a remodel). I can't wait until it's finished so we can start Bingo again, and eat our Pot Luck meals inside. Hope it's ready for the New Year's party.
• The Red Hatters had a PJ Party over at Debbie's Place. We had so much fun: lots of food, talking, and some line dancing. It was a good thing.
• I finished the Red Hat Newsletter. I need to distribute it sometime today or tomorrow.
• Willard has really gotten interested in working jigsaw puzzles. He sits in the screen room for hours each afternoon. It's relaxing for him. They drive me nuts! Each to his own.

Worth is wanting some petting, so I guess I'll pet him awhile, then take him for a roll in the dirt. Duster is asleep. Willard is working on a puzzle. Life is good.

You Mean It's Already November 7?

I can't believe time is passing so fast. We have been in Stanton for over a month. Unbelievable! Things that have been happening during the past month: (1) Lois (see last post) went back to California. I enjoyed visiting with her. (2) We started having Pot Lucks again on Friday nights. Willard and I played for the first one. Hollywood Don played his Johnny Cash songs, too. I was really nervous. (3) We started Bingo again. Willard called the numbers when Carol was out of camp. We won enough to play the next game. (4) The Opera house is closed while it is being remodeled. We are having to stop Bingo and have outside Pot Luck dinners for awhile. (5) We bought a new mattress. It is soooo comfortable. (6) Our Red Hats went to the Ranch House up in Yarnell for brunch. Some rode their ATVs. About 20 attended. It was fun getting together again. (7) Mary and Allan arrived. I went over and looked at all the jewelry she has made. It was impressive. We wire-wrapped several pieces. I sure needed a review and she has become an expert. Yesterday, we went to Burrow Creek to look for purple fire agat for Allan to make cabs from, then Mary will wire-wrap them. It was a jeep trip I'll never forget. This morning I was so sore I could hardly get out of bed. (8) Debbie had a yard sale. Willard sold a dry washer he bought in Blue Bucket this summer. It was at a price he couldn't refuse (even though he didn't really need another one). Anyway, he sold it at the yard sale for what he paid for it. (9) I sold my A clarinet on Ebay for $700. I still have my B flat clarinet. (10) We bought a fiddle to try to play. Hope to get in a few lessons just to know how to hold it correctly and get a good start. (11) We've had several jam sessions in our screen room out back. Don, Hollywood, and George have been jamming with us some. I still like it when Willard and I play together though. (12) I made flyers for Mary's Jewelry business, the Camp Art Club, and for our Red Hat Outing next week. (13) Today we had a meeting over at Jeanie's to finalize the Red Hat Cookbook. What busy lives we lead......now I've got to wash the clothes and fix supper. That never ends!

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.

Breakin' Wind Again

We left the Western Horizon St. George, UT RV Park this afternoon with Bill and Karen. Right now we are sitting in the parking lot at Casa Grande Casino in Mesquite, NV. In the morning we will head for Stanton, AZ. Hopefully, we will be able to take the primative road into Stanton. It seems that there was a lot of water coming down one of the washes and washed the road out. Hope it is fixed by tomorrow afternoon. We plan on unhitching our truck and checking out the road before we take the motorhome down it. If it isn't fixed, we will just stay at Escapees' North Ranch in Congress until it is.

Last night we grilled steaks and invited Bill and Karen over for dinner. Then we went to the clubhouse to hear Dr.A play his sax. After that we all got into the hot tub. It was a cool night and sleeping was good after that. We had breakfast in the club house this morning, then toured the immediate area before we left the park. It's been a long day and I'm ready for bed. Night, night!

Dan was going to bring the kids down for a visit today, but they couldn't come, so we left. We don't plan on being back in Cedar City until next year. Our plan is to take a long trip down south, back east, then up north, before coming back out west.

Update

We left Ogden, UT Sunday and went to Karen's retirement party in So. Jordan, UT. They asked us to play our music for them, and we did. They seemed to like it. We had some sound problems, but worked through and around it. Willard sang great as usual. Afterward, we went to a beautiful AOR RV park in Mt. Pleasant for two days, then moved on down to our Western Horizon Home Park in Hurricane, UT just north of St. George. We will stay here until Sept. 21 when Jean has her (I hope) last eye examination. After that we will head toward Stanton. We will probably stay at North Ranch a few days before moving to Stanton. We can stay at Stanton for 6 months and we don't want to leave until the end of March, so we don't want to get there before Oct. 1.

We went to Mesquite for supper tonight. The Virgin River Casino has a great seafood buffet on Friday nights. When we lived in Cedar City we ate there a lot. We met and dined with a lovely couple from Los Angeles. They are headed for Nebraska on a 10 trip. When we got back to the RV park they were having a Karaoke Night. Willard sang a few songs. It was fun. We are scheduled to entertain at the Ice Cream Social on Sunday afternoon. I think it will be good for us. We love this lifestyle. Never a dull moment. But, tomorrow we MUST do the laundry!

Willard's Knee Surgery

Willard injured his knee on the boat in May and has been hobbling around since. He finally decided he did need to have Knee Arthroscopy surgery, if he was to keep up with me. So, on Tuesday he reported for surgery, came home four hours later, and he has been up and down since. It hard to keep a good man down. As you can see, Duster helped him relax.

The most difficult problem we had was keeping Willard on the couch with his leg propped up.

Willard was on his crutches about 20 minutes. Then he put them away.

Wendover ATV Ride for Make-a-Wish Foundation

Note: These pictures are not necessarily in order.

Getting ready to leave from the Larry Miller Raceway near Grantsville, UT

This young man is dressed for the awsome ride.

Headed out.

Finally on the way!

Don't forget to turn on your lights!

Waiting to leave. What's the hold up?

This is what the ride is all about.

Some are ready to leave.

We had a wonderful experience with the Utah ATV Association last weekend. Karen and Bill invited us to tag along with 150+ATV's and support personnel on the annual Wendover Ride from Grantsville to Wendover (abt 110 miles across the Utah desert and The Great Salt Flats). We made three stops to eat, drink, fill the ATVs with more gas, and share experiences. We left at 8:00am and arrived in Wendover about 3:30. Everyone was on their own the rest of the day at The Nugget Hotel and Casino. Needless to say, we donated a few bucks to The Nugget before we had dinner with Bill and Karen. Since we drove our motorhome, we spent the night in The Nugget RV Park. The next morning we joined the group in the conference room for breakfast, door prizes, thank-yous, and recognition of those who received wishes and who helped support the program. A photographer took over 300 pictures and a slide show was prepared for us to enjoy. We heard from two Make-a-Wish receipants. One delightful and inspiring young lady with Cystic fibrosis wished for a trip to Thailand to ride an elephant. Make-a-Wish sent the entire family. The parents of a young man who passed away this year thanked the group for giving their son his wish, which was an ATV. Of course, I shed tears and was so thankful to Bill and Karen for inviting us to participate in this wonderful cause. We were surprised to learn that the ATV Association had raised over $40,000 for Make-A-Wish last year and would probably raise as much or more this year which would be enough to grant about 11 wishes. Amazing! Bill and Karen started this drive 22 years ago. At first they donated their money to Muscular Dystrophy and later directed their monies to Make-A-Wish Foundation. Indeed, we had a wonderful weekend. Thanks Bill and Karen!

Back in Blue Bucket

Well, we experienced the Oregon Coast. Willard picked delicious black berries along the beach. Jean ate most of them. Yummm. The water was too cold to even stick your toe in, but we enjoyed the beautiful evening sunsets and the soothing sound of the waves rushing toward the shore. We visited the Redwood National Forest. We felt so small amongst the giants of nature. Nearby, we spied a herd of elk grazing in a meadow. We slowly worked our way back to Blue Bucket for awhile. Willard prospected for more placer gold there. He's found some, but nothing to brag about. However, it does add up. We are still practicing our music and have about 38 songs ready to perform. We will head for Ogden, Ut in a few weeks for Willard's knee surgery and my eye check-up. Then we plan on moving on to Stanton arriving about Oct. 1. We need to get there before Bill and Karen, so that we can move our stored items out of the way or they won't be able to get their Quads out. We stored our things together to save money, so we can have enough to play later on this winter. All is well.

Our Tour of Oregon

We camped in Blue Bucket LDMA Camp just south of Baker City, OR for three weeks. It was so hot Willard prospected for gold between 6am and 8am on days he felt like getting up early. Needless to say, he didn't get much gold, since he didn't move much dirt. It was about 104 degrees in the early afternoon. We usually left and spent the day touring the area. I bought me a Bass Guitar and took a few lessons in Baker City. My plan is to back up Willard as he sings and plays rhythm.

We left Blue Bucket last week and headed for Sisters, OR in the center part of the state where we came face to face with a forest fire. We could see the flames from our camp. We left early the next morning for the coast. Several days later we heard that they had to evacuate several outlying neighborhoods because of the fire.

We have been on the Oregon Coast for about a week. Our camp in Lincoln City was right on the Siletz River with boats filled with fishermen moving quietly up and down the river. The only problem was that the wind never stopped and it was cold the entire time we were there. It was never above 68 degrees in the daytime and it got down to 45 degrees at night. We have enjoyed some wonderful seafood, kite watching, casino games, glass blowing, and sea side views. This morning we left Chinooke Camp and headed farther south along the awsome coast to Coos Bay. It is still cold and the wind is still blowing. It is now 57 degrees outside. We plan on staying 3 days in this beautiful Midway RV Park before moving farther south to Golds Beach looking for a calm warm day. Forget the swimsuit and laying out on the beach. I did venture over to the water's edge and put my foot in the freezing water for about 10 seconds at a public beach in Lincon City the other day. Portland had a .3+ earthquake last Wed. This year we have skirted a hurricane, tornado, now an earthquake. Amazing! I wonder what will happen next?
(check back to this post because I plan on adding some pictures later)

Our Travels Brought up to date, finally!

So much has happened since my last entry. First, I went to New York City with my granddaughter and daughter-in-law. We left the "boys" home to golf and fish, and eat out all they wanted for a week, while we attended six broadway plays, toured NYC (Times Square, Grand Central Station, Central Park, Ground Zero, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Boat tour around Manhattan, etc.) Needless to say, we had a wonderful time.

After our trip, I had my eye surgery. Everything went fine. I should have my vision back in about four months. Right now my vision is 20/200.

The next week we had our Family Reunion. Eighteen attended (see pictures). Three of the young adults had to stay home and work. SOMEONE HAS TO WORK! We had a wonderful reunion with lots of catching up on family news, playing games together, watching movies, playing music, and just reconnecting. We had three new attendees, Anna & son (new additions to Dan's family) and Hamilton (Tayna's boyfriend who is in the Army and will leave for Korea next week).

After Willard's physical and my visit to the doctor to give me an ok for travel, we left Ogden headed for Blue Bucket, which is where we are now. Several of our friends were already here.

Last night we celebrated our 48th wedding anniversary by inviting our friends over for hamburgers. We enjoyed the evening, I hope they did. Today we headed for Baker, OR to do some sight seeing. About half way Willard had stabbing pains in his kidney. I took over the driving and headed to the emergancy room at the hospital. The doctor confirmed that he was passing a kidney stone. After about an hour of observation, we were sent home for him to actually pass it. He is now asleep after taking some strong pain medication. Now we play the waiting game.

I think I will take a walk and go visit with Penny and Don. Hollywood (another friend of ours) is in the hospital in Ontario, OR being treated for a bladder infection. I hope he recovers soon. Don and Penny (another Don) will be leaving camp on Saturday. We will surely miss them, but plan to catch up with them somewhere on the road.

Update on Eye Problems and more...

Well, I have to have more eye surgery. It's my 5th in two years. My retina is now swelling in one area. But, the good thing is that I can wait until after my New York City trip with my granddaughter and daughter-in-law. We should still be able to spend most of July in Oregon at Blue Bucket (a gold prospecting camp).

Picture on above left: This is us enjoying a KFC lunch just before soaking in the Hot Springs at Honeyville, UT, one of my favorite places to go. I just love hot springs.

Willard is enjoying golfing and fishing(see pict upper right - one of many fish caught on Willard Bay, UT) with our son and grandson. We are all going boating this weekend. I am just relaxing and writing. Some of you might not know that I write children's stories. I'm also catching up on genealogy and digital scrapbooking. I must find time for practicing my clarinet and painting. Whenever did I ever have time to work????? I should get my Class of 2005 Yearbook tomorrow. Can't wait to see it. Perhaps I can put some names with faces. I can remember faces, but names are beyond me at times.

Ogden, Utah

The picture on the left is our boat which we keep at our son's home in Ogden. There are several fishing and waterskiing lakes nearby for family fun.

The small picture on the right is our son's family. Not sure how to enlarge it. Too bad.






The poor picture on the right is of us and our grandson just before graduation.










The picture on the right is our "home" at our son's home in Ogden, UT. We are planning on staying here until July 4, after our Family Reunion.

Harrisburg, Utah

Last Sunday we arrived at the Western Horizon RV Park in Harrisburg, Utah just north of St. George, UT. We have been driving to Cedar City every morning for Willard to golf with his old golfing buddies and I have been putting new merchandise in the Ancestors Market. Since we closed our antique business (Hunter House) last June, I have my "treasures" on consignment. It's been a good thing. Willard finished up some dental work, too. Six of our grandchildren and our youngest Dan and Anna treated us with a visit several times this week at the park. It was so good to visit with them again. They are all growing up so. Our son is expanding his food business in Cedar City. If you are in the area, check out the Gyro Stand. Yum, yum!

We just returned from a cookout that Wendle and Rachel had at their home. It was so nice to visit with "the guys" and their wives. Tomorrow I am planning to clean out and close our storage unit. I will take the important tax papers, my oil paintings, and family genealogy records to our son's home in Ogden, Ut. We will be heading to their home this weekend. Jason graduates from high school on Monday. Our plan is to park in their driveway until after July 4. Melissa, Beth and I are going to New York for a week in the middle of June. We will have a family reunion in Ogden July 1-3. Then we will head for Blue Bucket in Oregon. In the next few days I plan on adding new pictures to this Blog. Just haven't had time this past week. We still love this lifestyle!

Grand Canyon Escapees HOP

We finally made it to Williams, AZ to attend the Escapees HOP. We are all staying at Railside RV Ranch, a great little park with the most friendly managers. There are about 44 rigs in the group. And everyone we have met are just wonderful people. Many started fulltiming about the time we did. Some have been on the road for 10 years or more. We have had delicious catered meals and entertainment each evening. Yesterday we took the train from Williams, AZ to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. (Pict to upper left is Jean and new friends waiting for the train ride.) (Pict in upper right is Willard enjoying the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a long slow trip up and back. Even though we enjoyed the day, we were glad to get back to camp. Today we are resting up for the bus tour to Sodona tomorrow. Tonight we have a potluck dinner. I'm taking Apple Crisp that I made from apples I picked from our trees in Cedar City last year. They have been in the freezer taking up valuable space all of this time. This morning Willard and I had a little jam session just between ourselves. I think we are sounding pretty good. Anyway, it is fun. Duster is to be groomed today. He sure needs it. While he is having his bath we will take a little tour of the area.
PICTURE Below:This is the Escapees HOP group on the train from Williams, AZ to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. There were about 88 of us in the passenger car.

Flagstaff, AZ and Williams, AZ

So much for staying in the WalMart parking lot in Flagstaff last night. The signs said, "NO OVERNIGHT PARKING" so we had to go to plan two. Figuring it was a city ordinance, we decided to stay in an RV park even though we didn't need to hook-up only needed a good night's sleep and some groceries. Anyway, that's when we learned we can't always trust "Gretchen." We asked her to take us to the closest RV Park. Well, it wasn't there. So, we told her to take us to an RV park we had stayed in before (JH RV Park) out on Hwy 89. She took us right down the middle of the old part of town with their narrow streets. And she didn't realize that they were all one way streets. Oh my! She kept screaming,"Recalculating" everytime we made a wrong turn. We finally turned her off and followed our own noses. No more little pink road for us in this town! The park we stayed in was $32 a night (with the Good Sam discount), and the gas was $3.17 a gal. for regular. We decided not to spend another penny in Flagstaff, EVER. Besides, we've never driven on I 40 between Albuquerque and Flagstaff without the wind trying to blow us off the road. "Breaking Wind" has always been a REAL effort.

This morning we were in no hurry to leave the RV park. We didn't have to leave until 11:00 am and we wanted to get our money's worth. Besides Williams was only about 30 miles away. We arrived here at Williams about 12:00, hooked-up, and headed for Denny's for lunch. It is cold and windy today. Hope the weather warms up for our HOP which begins tomorrow. I'm going to crawl in bed and read my book probably snoozing between chapters. Willard is reading, Duster and Worthless are sleeping. It looks like it will be a quiet afternoon.

Albuquerque, NM

We left Hidden Valley Resort this morning and are now in a Casino parking lot near Grant, NM. Willard is inside playing nickle Keno. I spent my limit and decided to catch up in this journal. We are killing time before the Escapees HOP in Williams, AZ. Guess we will stay here tonight, at a Wal-Mart in Flagstaff tomorrow night, then on to Williams to an RV Park. We have had cool nights (40-50 degrees) so drycamping will be fine to save a little money. If it gets too hot for a good night's sleep, then we will stay in an RV park for the electricity to turn on our air conditioner.

Last Friday we had a wonderful day visiting Old Town in Albuquerque. Some of the buildings were origional (since 1700's). We had lunch at a nice restaurant, visited shops (I bought another hat pin), toured a church, and relaxed at a sidewalk cafe while enjoying beautiful music from a group from Ecuador called Amauta HAC. We then visited the Rio Grande Botanic Garden and Aquarium. What a surprise! Both were so interesting we spent the rest of the afternoon there.

Thanks to Mickey and Patty we purchased a Garmin StreetPilot 2620 GPS system. We rode with them to a restaurant near Rend Lake, Ill last summer and they had one. "We have to have one of those!" Willard exclaimed. "Oh, no," I thought, "not another toy! Will we ever have everything we NEED for this lifestyle?" Anyway, we bought one and I can finally enjoy the surroundings on our trips instead of keeping my nose in a map trying to figure out where we are, where we're going, or how we got on the wrong road. We named our GPS system Gretchen. She has been really patient with us as we get used to her telling us what to do. When we do what we are told and turn at 500 ft. we don't get lost. When we don't listen carefully, we inveriably get off route. "Off route," she screams at us "recaculating!" I am just waiting for her to yell, "Ok, Ok, just go where you damn well please then," and turn herself off in disgust! Thanks to Gretchen we saw wonderful parts of Albuquerque that we never would have on our own. We asked her to direct us back to "home" the short way. So, she took through some beautiful neighborhoods. There wasn't much traffic either. We returned safely home and enjoyed the trip without looking a map even once. I love Gretchen...

Yesterday, we just stayed home and relaxed. Willard watched golf in TV and I read my John Grisham book. We took Duster for a walk through out the park and later Worthless took me for a walk around our rig. He got disgusted with me because I wouldn't let him catch any birds, so back into the Rig he went. I actually cooked three meals (Belgian Waffles for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and one of my creative hamburger meals for supper). We had a little jam session before popping popcorn and watching a movie in the evening. We were beginning to have "hitch-up itch" so it was good that we planned on hitting the road this morning.

Of course, we met some new friends. I met Doug and Betty while I was doing laundry. I introduced them to Willard, as they were walking by our rig later that afternoon. They just started fulltiming this year. We found that we had a lot in common. They are from the Houston area, joined most of the same RV clubs we belong to, and are headed to the Western Horizon park in Harrisburg, UT (our home park). We are both going to spend the rest of the summer in Washington and Oregon. I hope we meet them on the road and get to know them better. They seem to be wonderful people. We exchanged personal info. cards. Now, I think I will finish reading my new Gypsy Journal, a little newspaper I love to read. I must subscribe to it for it is packed with so much information on the RV lifestyle and great places to visit.