Safe and Sound in Greeley

Well, I got to Greeley yesterday afternoon, just in time to see some serious winds arrive. I had just pulled to a stop at the local Moose Lodge when the winds started. I'm so glad I wasn't on the road, because it was a southeasterly wind, not quite a tailwind.

The weather has been crazy everywhere. This area is getting tornadoes, Show Low had a blizzard, even snow in Durango, according to Lloyd's blog. Summer should be here soon, and look at all this crazy weather. The tornadoes should be over here, now, though.

Joey and I drove to Cheyenne last night to have dinner with another RVing friend who was passing though, Shirley Bradley. Of course I forgot to take the camera. I am shirking my duties as a blogster, I know. I'll do better. Honest.

I'll be here for a few weeks, just hanging out and waiting for the diesel prices to go down. How long can I hold my breath? Yeah, I know, it isn't going to happen. It's 312 miles from here to Gillette. Man, I hate to pay $4.50 for fuel, even though Wyoming has the cheapest gas in the country, according to gasbuddy.com. I'm debating whether to go to Gillette for the Escapees RV Club 30th Birthday Party and Escapade, but I suppose in the end I will go. Because, after all, if I change the way I live, they've won. (Oh, wait, is that terrorists or gas companies?)

Still in Denver

I am going to Greeley, Co. to visit Joey. I was going to go this morning. But yesterday they had a lot of tornado activity near there, and more severe weather forcast for this afternoon. I'm safe and fine sitting in a lovely Eagles Aerie in Aurora, waiting for the weather to pass.

Joey is fine, the tornado didn't come anywhere near her. In that area, though, they had a lot of hail damage and high winds. Semis and a train were blown over. Compared to that, I would be in sorry shape in a tornado.

So I'm waiting it out. May go up later this afternoon, after the storms move through. It's only 58 miles from here, and it's light until 8pm. So don't worry about me. I try to stay out of tornado areas.

Brenda's Poop Problem

I left Show Low because I was ready to move on, and ... well, my black tank was REALLY full and I needed to go to town to dump. I jokingly said to Randy, "I can't poop!" meaning the tank was too full to accept any more offerings, but I don't think he got it. We laughed, and then he wrote a poem about our misunderstanding.


Brenda's Poop Problem

When Brenda said she had a poop problem
I jumped with the easy solution:
Three prunes a day will clear things up;
It’s part of my constitution.

So I gave her the prunes and went away,
Confident the problem was deep sixed.
When I saw her early today
I asked if things were fixed.

She said, I trusted your advice;
Now I think you’re full of bull.
Last night I dropped three prunes in the toilet
And my holding tank still is full.

Randy Vining 5/12/08

I'm not in Kansas any more

I've stayed at Fraternal Organization's lodges quite often, usually in cities because it's the best, cheapest, safest thing around. I've seen my share of police activity in those urban settings. Once in Payson, AZ, once in Mesa, AZ, and most recently in Henderson NV while I was parked at the Elks.
I didn't quite understand why it took five vehicles and 9 policeman to get one guy. They even brought out a dog.

The activity in Mesa was the most spectacular. Starting around midnight, and lasting for at least two hours, there were no less than eleven vehicles, a set of dogs, a helicopter with spotlight hovering above, shotguns, and riot shields, all to catch one guy. I'm guessing they were looking for another one, but didn't get him. When the one guy was laying on the ground with his hands on his head, I was wondering if they were going to start beating on him and whether I should get the camera. I was relieved to see that not one blow was taken. Hat's off to the Mesa police and sheriff for taking the high road on this one.

I don't want to give you the impression that I park in bad areas. I don't. Unfortunately whenever you get lots of people together these days, there will be crime. I wasn't anywhere near the action, just safely in my RV watching out the window.

Anyway, I'm not in the city any more. I'm sitting now at a casino just north of Albuquerque, on the edge of the property. And suddenly I see police activity here too. Am I never going to get away from it????? But wait! What have we here!


Escaped cows! Two black and seven brown cows (I'm a city girl and can't tell the gender). They're out and running free. Corral those doggies!!!! And to the rescue comes the security guy in his pickup truck to herd these wayward kids home.
Finally he got them all rounded up and went ... somewhere. All is quiet again here on the edge of the desert. I guess I'm not in the city any more. I'd much rather have this kind of capture.

Awesome People

There are people in this world of whom I am in awe. Great Awe. And when it's someone I know, it's even more impressive. I'd like to tell you about a couple of them.

Pat VanZante was my freshman college roommate. We've sporadically kept in touch over the years. I knew she'd actually gotten degrees (unlike myself) and was active in her community, had grandchildren, was in the community theater, and the like.

And now, when she could be looking to a well deserved retirement (like some of us slugs), what does she do? She runs for the Iowa State House of Representatives. I'm impressed. I'm really proud of her and I only wish I could vote for her, but alas, I am a Texan now. Sorry, Patti, I hope you win!!

Note: I shamelessly stole this picture from her website: http://www.patvanzantehd71.com/ So if you live in Iowa, vote for her!!!!

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Randy the Poet is another awesome chap. He's 70 years old, and has never, never worked on a computer before. But now in the age of blogs, email, the web, and more, he wants to become computer savvy. So he asked me if I would teach him the computer.
Now in our little world of RVers, people are doing things for me all the time. I'm so grateful for their help, and when someone asks me to do something I'm actually capable of doing, I'm more than pleased to do so. So I said sure.

It was tough going at first. The first day he wasn't sure how to plug the computer in. But we had short lessons every day, and he got it. And enjoyed it. He got his own aircard, so that he can access the internet whenever he has a Verizon signal. And now he does email, and the web. And more. He uses a word processor to put his poems to paper. And he's bought a small digital camera and has learned how to get pictures to the computer and uploaded to his blog. Together we even figured out how to do Yahoo instant messenger. Although I still haven't figured out how to do it with anyone else, so if you know that, let me know!

He still calls with questions (gives us a good excuse to stay in touch), and he may never be as competent as some of us, but the awesome thing here is that at age 70, he is willing to learn something so completely foreign to him. Having no background at all, he just jumped right in and learned. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I'm proud of you, Randy. Keep up the good work.

Note: his blog is http://mobilecodgers.blogspot.com/ so go there and check it out.

John's Nest

While I was in Show Low (AZ), I was able to see my friend John Clairmont build his summer nest. He and three others went together to buy a lot. Then he and Jon Tremellen laid out the four pads. In two or three weeks, these guys, and others from the neighborhood, did an amazing amount of work to make an empty lot a summer home to four RVers.

He bought a water tank, so that water can be hauled in. In the winter, the tank will go into the container for safekeeping until the spring.

This the John's Tricky Post. When he's out in the middle of the desert, he sets this outside, and connects the electric and water to it. Makes people go crazy: "Where did you get electric out here?" they'll ask. What a deranged sense of humor.

This is his front yard. Easy care, no watering, no mowing, doesn't even have to paint the cinders. How nice is that. Has a pull-through driveway.

He has been looking for a summer place for a while, and he just loves the area. Lots of nice folk to see, lots to keep him busy. I'm happy for him.

WARNING: Beading pictures ahead

I should have warned you that there'd be beading pictures. I finally have had some time this spring to get back into beading, on of my favorite hobbies. I finally finished this piece, which surprised even me.

I had started this last year, and made so many mistakes that I didn't even want to finish, and wondered if it would come out even with that many mistakes. So finally I picked it up and completed it. And it almost came out even. Sort of. But don't look too close, you'll see the many mistakes.

I really really liked the pattern, but I didn't like the colors, so I make up new colors, and in a very short amount of time, I completed this.

Much better. Only one or two mistakes, and like the ancient Persian rug makers, I prefer to keep the "humble" bead to acknowledge my humanity.

I'm working on another hatband now. Always something new to do.

I'm here in Show Low

Well, I finally made it to Show Low. Been here about a week now, so what do I think?

Here is what I see out my front door. Left, right, and center.



The A frame next door is abandoned, with a big hole in the skylight. I'm told it's been ransacked for any good parts, so what's left isn't worth much. But still the owners apparently don't want to sell. Interesting.

Well, it's pretty here. The junipers are tall, taller than the bushes at the Slabs; good for privacy. And shade, I'd imagine in the summer. But they aren't so tall as to block the southern sky, so my satellite dishes function well.

And it's quiet. Very quiet. I like that. At night, it is very dark and the stars are just wonderful. Since it's high, at about 6700 feet, the nights are still quite cold, but the sun is warm. We've had bad wind most of the days I've been here, but everyone says that's only in the spring. I've had to bring down the dishes and bring in the slides and just hibernate until the winds stop.

The gravel roads are pretty badly washboarded (is that a word?), and four miles of them until you get to the main road. And then it's another 15 miles into town. I'm not very happy about that.

Did I mention I can't breathe too well here, it's 6700 feet in elevation. They say I'll get used to it. Somehow, I don't think so.

I can see coming up for a couple weeks in the spring or fall, but so far I'm not burdened by an overwhelming urge to buy land here. Maybe I'll feel differently after I've been here a few more days.

My friends who have purchased are very happy here. Taylor is siding her little house. Carol loves it up here and is becoming the local real estate tycoon. And John, who was very skeptical, has fallen in love with the place and is as happy as a pig in mud, doing all sorts of work on their little lot. I'm very glad for them, but for me, I'm not ready to think about settling down.

As long as I have friends who will let me come for short visits, I'm very happy.

The Predator Bird

There has been a bird stalking my cats. Making them crazy, poor things. It's blue, does that mean it's a bluebird? Mrs Bird is kind of brown, but Mr. Bird here is very colorful.

And it's stalking Chloe, too.

It seems to know that the cats aren't able to get him through the window, so he just taunts my poor animals. Bird is a coward, though. I let the cats out, and he was nowhere to be seen. So there.

MORE Refrigerator Woes

I say MORE because this isn't the first refrigerator in my motorhome. The first one died after 3 years and 5 months. This one, which was purchased new, has lasted now 11 months. Yes, so it's still under the first year's warranty. I guess that'd be the good news.

I first noticed that the light wasn't on when I opened the door, and my little brain took the first explanation it found. Oh, the bulb must have burned out. It wasn't until two days later I figured out that it wasn't working! At all!! It is very quiet here, and I realized on Sunday that I couldn't hear the burner ignite. It's not very loud, but I hear it. Not today, though. None of the buttons on the front panel would work. I couldn't even turn it off. Rats.

I'm in Show Low, AZ, which actually has two RV repair facilities. I called American RV, which I must say was very prompt in it's dealing with me. And they did come out the very same day. However, they had the wrong board. So they had to order the correct board, they call it an eyebrow board. It is in the module with the buttons on the front of the unit.

I, of course had to pay through the nose for next day shipment, and the repairman installed the new board on Wednesday. Carol Berry offered her freezer for a few things, and loaned me a big ice chest for the stuff out of the refrigerator, so I managed to get by. Thanks, Carol!

I'm not happy with Norcold, though. Their units should last longer than this. I must admit the words "piece of crap" floated though my brain when I think of the quality I've seen. Norcold, are you listening? Do you care? Huh, didn't think so.