Granddaughter's arrival!

This last Friday, the 20th of March, our daughter Amanda, and her husband James, took the awaited trip to the hospital around 8 PM to deliver their 2nd daughter, Shelby Marie.  Shortly after Mom and Dad got situated at the  hospital, she arrived, all 7 pounds, 2 ounces of her.  There weren't any complications with mother or daughter, so it was a blessing to have a quick, easy delivery.  Yesterday, Mom, Dad, and Shelby were visited by Katie, Riley, Avery, Aubrey, and myself in three different shifts as we couldn't all fit in our car at one time.  

Not quite sure how Shelby likes the bow in her hair right then.  Then again, maybe she just doesn't care about it either.  Looks cute, huh?

The good, (bigger) brother, Riley, enjoyed his visit and holding her, as did the other good, (not quite as big) brother, Avery.  I see lots of educating for Shelby taking place with these two boys.  Not sure how much teaching of life went on with their visits, but it's probably only a matter of time.

And finally, the old man showed up and James took a picture of Shelby and me.  He said I wasn't smiling, I thought I was doing a pretty good job of it.  Maybe I was more concerned with not dropping her, ya think?  Or keeping my eyes open with that bright light from the flash. 

Other than the expected arrival of Shelby, can't say that we've done a lot of other stuff.  Mostly we've been filling in for Amanda by taking the boys to and from school, having fun with them and Aubrey, and doing other stuff.  Right now, we're awaiting the homecoming and just taking care of the three other kids, which can be a challenge at times.  Luckily, Riley and Avery are doing the boy thing in the basement with the computer, and Aubrey is inspecting the carpet for things that I didn't pick up when I vacuumed it yesterday.  You know, grandparent stuff.  So this blog isn't gonna have a lot in it.  As a matter of fact, this is about it!

So have a blessed day!

Back in Clearfield for Grandchild #6!

We had a nice, relaxing time at Ridgeview RV Resort in Bullhead City, Az for three days.  Can't say that we did a lot as Katie was still recuperating from her eight days of classes at Creative Painting in Las Vegas the previous week.  Got to enjoy a really good thunderstorm on the 3rd which filled up all the washes that went through the resort with fairly fast flowing water (go ahead, say that quickly three times!).  As a lot of the resort is on hills, there was quite a bit of dirt taken away by the downpour that ended up in the Colorado River.  

On the 4th, we packed up and headed for Carefree Manor in Apache Junction, Az., a few miles east of Phoenix, and not far from the Superstition Mountains which can barely be seen in the picture below.

Carefree Manor is like a lot of other resorts in Arizona with a lot of folks that come to the warmer climate of Arizona in the winter time and then head back home.  Or some may live there all the time.  The photos above and below show that not all of the dwellings are RVs that move with a lot of the homes being manufactured homes, or RVs that no longer travel.  It's an older, but nicer, resort that has been kept up fairly well through the years, and we could tell that there was a community there of folks have known each other for some time.

We traveled around a little in Phoenix and the surrounding area and noticed that the traffic lanes of the streets and freeways seem to be narrower than they are in most of the other places we've been too.  Made for some exciting moments of driving there.  

We left on Saturday, the 7th, to go to Pima County Fairgrounds southeast of Tucson in preparation of going to the Escapade.  After disconnecting our car from the moho, we headed to a spot at the end of a row that wasn't all that far from the exhibit halls, so it was fairly nice.  While we were boondocking with no hookups, there was plenty of room for us to take us and our dogs for a walk when the time was right.  Once we were set up, we found our way to the registration desk to take care of the needed paperwork that comes with a rally.  All the folks that helped us were quite friendly, and we felt at home quickly.  As it was our first Escapade, we were given hugs by all the folks who'd been to previous Escapades.  Then we wandered around a little, taking in the sights and sounds of the RV show section that was hosted by Paul Evert's RV.  There were some rigs there that were kinda interesting, but as we didn't see the one that had the flashing neon sign saying, "Get Me!  Get Me!" over and over, we didn't spend anymore time there than necessary and headed for home.  Darn the bad luck!

When Sunday morning rolled around, we headed for Tombstone, 55 miles to the southeast, to meet up with Rayn & Jon, who worked with us at Amazon.com this last year.   Yes, they really do smile a lot.

We had a good time with them going wandering around Tombstone, and eating some great food at Big Nose Kate's Saloon.  Big Nose Kate was the common law wife of Doc Holliday, who was a friend of Wyatt Earp and his brothers, and took part in the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  Then we wandered around the town some more.  It was interesting to think that if Tombstone hadn't had a 30 second shootout on October 26, 1881, Tombstone wouldn't have as much tourism as it does now.  There were lots of tourists from out of town there as evidenced by the number of cars in the various parking lots and on the streets.  There were a lot of folks dressed in period clothing, like this woman,

or, these two folks.

A few of the streets were blocked off so gunfight skits could be put on.

All the while, there are stagecoaches or horse drawn wagons cruising up and down the other streets with the driver telling about the history and lore of Tombstone.  In the photo below, the driver of the stagecoach looks like he's "asleep at the wheel", but he was just so animated in his story telling, that I wasn't able to get a picture of him with his head up, which it really was at times.  Other times, it was kinda lolling around, but all the while he was lettin' the riders of the coach know what he was supposed to be lettin' them know.  BUT those riders were missing the show that the driver was putting on outside that bystanders, like Katie, Rayn, Jon and I, could see.  Not gonna say it was hilarious, but it was certainly more entertaining than just listening to him talk. 

On our way back to our moho, we had ice cream with Rayn & Jon back in Benson, which is between Tombstone and Tucson, at The Old Benson Ice Cream Stop.  There were ...I dunno, like 50 flavors of soft serve, but less than 10 flavors of the hard stuff.  Which was kinda backwards because most ice cream shops have it the other way around, ya know?  ...That doesn't mean that it wasn't outstanding ice cream still the same.  It was yummy!  If you're ever in the area of Tombstone, or Tucson, or other towns in the area, go the distance to Benson and have some ice cream at The Old Benson Ice Cream Stop, I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy it a bunch if ya have any desire at all for the cold, sweet stuff.  As Rayn & Jon are ice cream aficionados, they said they'd be coming back there again during their stay since they were camped fairly close by.  Can't say that I blame them, we would've also except that we were further away.  That, and we don't really need ice cream to make us look much better than we already do!  LOL!

So the Escapade started for real on Monday morning and ran through Thursday.  We saw several seminars on various topics that interested us and quite a few other folks as well, be they full time or part time RVers, and I suspect there were some wanna-be Rvers as well.  The entertainment on Sunday evening was something I'd been looking forward to seeing ever since I heard what it was.  Ron and Kay Rivoli of the Rivoli Review, who are also full time RVers, sang songs and told jokes, and everyone enjoyed it. They were outstanding, and there was many a time I had a tear in my eye during their songs.  A couple of years ago, they had a song "Press 1 for English" which was very popular.  Wednesday evening's entertainment was a talent show featuring those of us who were brave enough to get up in front of over 1,000 folks and perform musically or verbally.  I was one of them after being urged by both Katie and Rayn to enter the show.  The ovation I received after I was a real blessing, and I'm putting more time into playing my accordion now as a result.  Who knows, maybe I'll get up enough nerve to actually start playing in public more now.  

Thursday morning, we packed up and headed north getting as far as Cedar City. Ut., before we stopped for the night at Camp Walmart.  On the way up, we saw snow on the ground around Flagstaff, and it was in Cedar City as well.  Luckily, those two places were the only places that it was cold.  Bright and early Friday morning, we left Cedar City for Clearfield, and we got here around noon.  There was salt all over the car and the bottom half of the moho, so we stopped at a car wash to get it off of each vehicle.  We got to Amanda's home expecting to have her fourth baby be born at any moment.  However, here we sit, it's Wednesday, and Shelby hasn't decided it's time for her to get into the real world yet.  James helped me get the moho situated in their driveway that night, so I think we're pretty well set. Since our arrival here, we've been busy, but I can't say that it's been non-stop.  It's not like we're on vacation as we're doing things to make Amanda's daily routine a little easier, as well as spending time with everyone.  

A couple of things I didn't mention previously because I don't remember exactly when it happened.  We were notified of our summer employment at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND somewhere along the way.  Katie's gonna be cashiering at the Chuckwagon Buffet which is less than a mile from where we'll be staying (Medora Camp Ground), and I'll be mowing the greens at the Bully Pulpit Golf Course about five miles south of Medora.  It pays a little more than our gig did last summer at Red Stone Cabins, and we won't be on call all the time, so we're thinking it'll be better for us.  The next item is that we're gonna be employed at the sugar beet harvest the first two weeks of October in Glendive, Mt.  This gig is gonna be kinda hard as the days are 12 hours long, and there are no days off during the harvest.  But it's only about two weeks and the pay is pretty good with time and a half being paid after eight hours Monday - Friday, and all day Saturday and Sunday.  So we're hoping to make somewhere around $6k for those two weeks.  Both of these gigs pay for our full hookup sites, so that's an added blessing.  

Now then the reason for us going back to work like this is that our mighty Chieftain is 16 years old now, and things are not staying quite like they are when it's new.  In addition, it doesn't fit our needs anymore.  So we're hoping to pay the balance down on the moho and hopefully pay off the car as we're gonna need to be as much in the black as possible when we trade things for our new rig, which at this point, seems that it'll be a 1-ton pickup pulling a long 5th wheel trailer.  Don't know which brands yet, but we're looking at the heavy duty rigs and trucks (which can be a lot of fun, ya know?).

Be good and blessed!

It's been that long? Wow!

I know that it's been a long time since I put ...fingers to my computer (as opposed to pen to paper), and I've meant to put my thoughts and our travels on the computer, but I just never quite got to it.  I'll try to fix that now.

We left Desert Hot Springs and went to Lake Havasu Colorado River Adventures (CRA) on February 1 to stay there for 14 days.

This is where we originally bought into membership camping a few years ago.  We've used our CRA membership resorts, along with membership resorts in the Thousand Trails system, in our travels with us paying a yearly fee and then camping in those resorts for free.  I like free.  The Lake Havasu resort had a pool and a hot tub that we used just about everyday.  We spent several days playing Pickleball in the city of Lake Havasu after finding out where it was played.  The folks there really enjoy their Pickleball, and you may enjoy this link to a youtube.com video telling about the beginning of Pickleball if you don't know it.

Half way through our time in Lake Havasu, Katie's sister, Karen, and her husband, Bill, came from Lakewood, Ca., to join us for a couple of days.  It was good seeing them, as it is always.  In the picture below, Katie's on the left, Bill is in the center, and Karen is on the right.  Just so you know, Bill is able to stand up straight, he doesn't always lean to his left, ok?

  

We went down to London Bridge to check out the sights and sounds of the village there.  Part of the sounds was this cornet player under the bridge where there was excellent acoustics.  The trumpeter played older songs, and did it quite well.

Another sound to hear was the owner of a hat shop who bringing in just about anyone who could hear his voice to sell them ...what else, hats!  Because I was looking for a hat that I could shade my eyes with and kinda mold it to whatever else needed to be covered for whatever reason, I got one.  Here's a picture of Katie and I with me wearing my new hat.  Ain't I dashing?  Ok, use your imagination, ok?  Oh yeah, that's the London Bridge behind us, that was bought and brought over here by Robert McCulloch as in McCulloch chain saws, in 1971, you can read about it here.

We went back to the moho and spent a couple of hours visiting with Bill and Karen having a good time.  It was sad to see them go home the next day, but we were very grateful that we were able to see them as we don't see them as often as we used to.

On February 15th, we went to Las Vegas Thousand Trails for two weeks.  Now, Lake Havasu CRA and LV Thousand Trails were similar in that they both were gravel with a little grass in designated spaces.  But LV 1K trails is smaller so the space for each rv is smaller.  With no disrespect, I'd say that it's like a gravel parking lot with rv hookups, which isn't unique among a lot of rv resorts.  Lake Havasu was larger, and the rv spots had a little more segregation in that they weren't all on the same level, with a little more room.  Las Vegas 1K Trails also has more noise as the planes from McCarran Airport would take off each night passing over that area of town, and the noise from emergency vehicles going up and down Boulder Hwy was enough to keep me from sleeping as soundly if we hadn't been there.  We rarely heard sounds like airliners or emergency vehicles in Lake Havasu. 

The first week, we spent time seeing friends and just kinda taking it easy.  The second week was a week long learning time for Katie at the yearly Creative Painting convention held at the Tropicana Hotel.  She took a lot of classes in the various aspects of painting or drawing, as well as being excited about what she really loves to do.  It was a hard week for her as a couple of the days she had classes were from 8 AM until 9 or 10 PM, kinda for me also as I missed her.  But I was able to spend time singing with the choir of Grace Presbyterian Church for their rehearsal, as well as taking part in worship on Sunday morning.  It felt so good to sing again, I'm very thankful for that talent.  Overall, we had a good time in Las Vegas, and it was good to see and do all the things we did there.  The moho is even more full of her paintings as she painted another painting in each class she took.  I do wish that we could've seen friends that we'd been looking forward to seeing, but weren't able to as things just didn't work out.  But that gives us a good reason to come back.

Thinking about all the wet paintings that Katie's brought home, it got me to thinking how artists carry and protect their wet paintings.  So I came up with an idea for a carrier for wet canvases that I think that other artists could use.  It didn't quite come out as well as I'd hoped, but it's merely a rough draft right now.  Hopefully, down the road, all the rough edges will be smoothed out, and it'll look a whole bunch better than it does right now.  Stay tuned for the exciting showing!

We left for Ridgeview RV Resort after Katie's last class on Sunday, the 1st of March.  It was supposed to be after 5 PM, but it worked out that it was closer to 7 PM, which meant traveling in the dark.  I don't mind driving in the dark, but if we're moving from one resort to the next resort, I prefer to do it when it's light out rather than dark.  Something about being able to see as much as possible while moving our home, ya know?  Having called the resort earlier in the day, I knew what site was going to be ours by the time we got there, but it was late and dark, and the rain wasn't making it fun to set up.  So we found our spot, pulled in, hooked up electricity, extended the slides, moved stuff off the bed so we could sleep, and went to bed.  Leveling, hooking up water and sewer, and connecting the Dish Tailgater were put off until the next day.

When I did get up the next day, there was a drizzle coming down softly enough that we couldn't hear it hit the roof inside the moho, but when I stepped outside to walk the doggies I knew very well what was going on.  It's rained off and on all day for the most part.  Even had a good thunder storm.  Around 4 PM, it cleared off some and the ground semi dried out.  Here is what it looks like here.  The mountains in the background in the top photo are in Nevada.

We're gonna be here for another day and a half, and then head to Phoenix for another three days, before we go to the Escapee Escapade in Tucson.  Lookin' forward to that.

Be blessed and good.