We are Home

This will be the last post for about six weeks.  We are home now and doing no traveling until the middle of May when we go back to LA area to see Stephanie's graduation.  So, until then, I'm not going to be writing anything.  I've got other projects to work on!

We thought we would get an early start out of Las Vegas on Monday, but, despite getting up early and hurrying, it took us until 9am to get the RV ready for storage and the stuff we were bring home crammed into the truck backseat and the bed of the truck packed in around the hitch.  We parked it in the short term storage lot next to the campground and left about 9:20 or so.  It was about 10:10 when we finally got out of Las Vegas and into the desert heading north.  

The desert was quite pretty this trip - like someone had put a green carpet over the dirt and some wildflowers along the side of the road.   I'm sure it won't last with no rain and the heat coming, but it was nice to see this time.   We stopped for a sandwich in Beatty (I had nothing to pack for our lunch) and a chance to stretch our legs and let Maggie do her business.  I then gave Roger a bit of a break and drove from there to Hawthorne where we stopped for fuel.  Rog drove us the rest of the way home in some ferocious winds.  We were sure glad we did not have the RV behind us - it would have been quite dangerous.  

We got in about 6:30 and unloaded the truck.  Fortunately we had something in the freezer we could eat.  No, it wasn't there for 4 months - only since we had the quick trip home in February - so it was still good.   We started putting stuff away but ran out of steam early.  There was no hurry except to find our jammies, meds, and tooth brushes.   We've discovered a few things we forgot - my book club book and reading glasses and Roger's hearing aid case with the in the ear parts.  Oh well.  Just have to wait til May to get them.  Hope there's nothing else we forgot.

We have not had a minute of down time since we got home, literally!   Spent yesterday shopping - the fridge and pantry now do not have that starved look!  Today was the gym, laundry,  put the office together and take Maggs to the park.  The good part of being so busy is that I'm not finding myself in the kitchen snacking - I'm busy and not thinking about food.  (Also, the kitchen and the food not in the same room as I am all the time.)   So, losing the seven pounds I gained while we were gone shouldn't be too hard - I hope.

We were greeted at the gym this morning with "welcome backs" from regular goers as well as a super hug from the owner.  Now, that's the kind of gym to belong to!  

I bought a large monitor at the base exchange while we were gone.  My little laptop screen is not hacking the program any more. I think my eyes are getting old.   I do spend a lot of time on the computer so I splurged and bought the monitor at a good price with no tax.  Well, when I got home I decided that I needed to switch sides of the desk with Roger because of the glare from the windows.  Well, one thing led to another and with  a little furniture moving,  I now have a really nice space to spread out for when I do the genealogy stuff (there's lots of paper) as well as everyday stuff.  In addition, the office was filled with boxes from before we left (ones I had saved in case I needed them for mailing at the holidays).  We use the office as a dumping site when we get home from our trips - everything gets piled in there and we put stuff away a little at a time.   I spent a couple hours on it last evening and then this afternoon between trips to the laundry room.  (There is something to be said for doing laundry in a laundromat - it gets done all at one time!)  Although there is also something to be said for the stair climbing exercise I get.  

Roger put his garage back into workshop mode this afternoon while I was messing around upstairs in the office.  He's hoping it warms up enough soon so that he can start spending some quality time out there.  

I hope you all enjoyed the tales of our wintering experiences and will tune in again next time we get on the road with the RV!  Ciao.

We Made It To Nellis

Just a quick note to let everyone know we had a long, mostly boring, mostly uneventful day and are safe, sound and very tired and parked at Nellis AFB for the night.    The only issue was that the automatic trailer brake wasn't working, so Roger had to brake the trailer manually.   Made for some interesting stops.  Gotta get that fixed before we hook up again!

 My only comment on the scenery today is:   When people see the desert why do they feel free to throw their trash out the window?   There used to be a bumper sticker "Nevada is not a wasteland" when there was talk about dumping nuclear waste here.  I think it is still appropriate, although, judging by what we saw today in the way of trash, people do think it is a wasteland.  So sad.  

We were up and out early - about 9am.  Probably could have gotten away 15 or 20 mintues early, but neighbors came out to wish us a safe journey and promises to see us next winter.  David came down to say goodbye and get Maggie kisses.  She was already in the truck ready to go, but when she heard him she wanted out and jumped up into his lap and gave him lots of love.   She is so taken with him and no one else and it is so weird to see.  She rarely reacts to us the way she does to him.  Maybe they were together in their previous lives???  

I'm defrosting the freezer as I write.  We've already filled tote bags with stuff that's going home with us and loaded them into the truck.  We shouldn't have much to do in the morning.  The office opens at 8am so we will be ready to put the RV into storage and then point the nose of Big Blue north towards home.

We are ready to go!

Tomorrow, as bright and early as we ever get, we will be moving on.  Destination:  Nellis, AFB, North Las Vegas, NV.

Roger spent the day today putting away all the outside gear (gazebo, rugs, chairs, etc.) , dumping tanks, airing the tires, tightening lug nuts, and resetting the truck computer to towing mode.

I spent the day cleaning the inside, putting stuff in cupboards (candy dishes, silk flowers, etc.), and packing up the stuff we need to take with us to Sparks.    One of the things the Navy taught me was how to be a good janitor, so I was, once again, in deep clean mode.  It's amazing how much dirt, dust, pollen and dog hair one accumulates so quickly.  I'm sure it doesn't help that most days we have the windows open with the vent fan sucking air in and that Maggie is in getting ready -for-summer shed mode.

Remember the new sofa and us measuring it to see if it would fit?  Well, we decided we had better try and get the slider in today instead of waiting until tomorrow in case we needed to do something drastic.  It's a bit of a tight fit, but.....

Part of  the issue is that we had to decide what we can do without for the 8 weeks we will be home before we go back and pick up the RV.  That, and just how much can the truck hold?  There is limited space.  Normally, this is not an issue - we just haul everything home and schlep it back into the house.  So, lots getting left in the RV clothes-wise and dry goods - wise.

Maggs is taking it all in her calm demeanor. 

But the plants for sure are going. 

Obviously we have to empty the refrigerator and freezer tomorrow night before we put the RV in storage, so we have been  eating some very weird meals this week.  When Roger asked what was for dinner tonight I told him I had some egg substutue, milk, cheese and lots of condiments along with a prepackaged salad from Costco.  He volunteered to go get a pizza - thank goodness.   I have some potato salad and cheese and crackers along with our usual apple and chocolate for tomorrow's lunch, but who knows what we'll come up with for dinner - cereal?  PB&J?   We've always got protein/snack bars for when we get hungry on the road.  We certainly won't starve.


So, off we go tomorrow, leaving the site as we found it and on to our next adventure - getting home.

It's Been Ten Days - Yikes!!!

We just realized it has been over a week since we posted anything, but this time it's not because the time has flown by.  Quite the opposite.  Time has been dragging its feet.  

I just washed my hair and can't
do a thing with it!  Do you think conditioner
would help?  

We are really ready to head home, but have already paid for the month in this spot.  No refunds for leaving early.   Rog sat down and calculated the weekly rate vs the monthly rate and figures we will hit the break even point on the 22nd if we had been paying by the week. So, we are leaving and heading home on the 22nd!  It's been uncomfortably warm (mid 90s) and Roger's sciatica is a pain - literally - so, for the most part, we haven't been able to get out and do any zoo trips or touristy stuff.   I'm too hot and he's too gimpy!  What a team! We also noted that the weather is going to cool off and be wet  in Sparks the first week of April when we were due home originally.  We didn't want to mess with the RV unpacking in the rain, so we are going to go home while it's still nice and warm there and get comfortable in our house before the unsettled weather happens.

We will be going from here to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas where we will overnight and then leave the RV in short term storage.  We'll drive home on the 23rd, getting in late (It's about an 8 hour drive.)   The rest of this week will be planning the packing of what we will haul home with us in the car and what stays in the RV.  Clothes - no problem as we have lots at home.  We do have to eat everything in the fridge and freezer, though.  That could be interesting.  

The reason for this is that we are due back down in the LA area the third week of May for our Stephanie's graduation from Cal State Long Beach.  We will pick up the RV in Las Vegas and spend a week at the Seal Beach Naval Warfare Center RV park.  It's about 10 miles from Long Beach and will give us and Steph's dad a place to stay.  We thought about coming back in the car and staying in a hotel.  Two problems with that:  1) expensive hotels, and 2) what do we do with Maggie?  This way we may be able to do a little LA sightseeing the week we are there - maybe.  

One day this week we did take our neighbors up on their offer to watch Maggie so we could go out galavanting for a day and not worry about leaving her inside for hours on end.  We did have a nice time.  We drove out to Coronado and found a nice place for lunch, then walked around the old neighborhood for a while looking at the small 1920s houses that cost millions.  After that we drove south along "The Strand" which is a spit of land linking Coronado to the mainland.  Lots of beaches but most of them owned by the Navy and not accessible by civilians.  Once we passed that area there was a state beach and it was packed with people and their RVs.  They were enjoying the unseasonably warm weather and the beach.   We made a couple of stops and did a little shopping and then headed back to Santee.  A nice day out.

The rest of the time we have been hanging out here and going out to the Dairy Queen when appropriate!   Roger sits outside listening to his Audible book while Maggie snoozes under the RV in the cool sand.  I've been staying in the air conditioned RV doing busy work.   

One of my activities included organizing the photos in iPhoto by year and then running an app to find duplicates.  That kinda worked.  Still some photos in the wrong year and still finding duplicates.  It's a work in progress.  This activity triggered another that has been quite fun.  I can't find any photos for 2009 (well, just a relative few) and I thought we went on a cross country trip that summer.  That segued into finding my old travel journals (before the web posted ones) and figuring out what we did that year.   Got to skimming over them and found them fascinating and fun to read.  What a kick to read about how much trouble we had with WIFI, the heat, the RV, and the price of gas -  a lot of the same issues we are still having ten years down the road.   I decided to print them all out and put them in a binder.  Then I ran out of printer ink.  But, I got most of the way through 2007 before I did.  The rest (8 more years) will have to wait until I get home.  I'm having so much fun reading the journal entries, which are in some serious need of editing.  They were written in the days before Roger edited my work as they weren't meant for publication.  I will be reading along and then just start laughing aloud because of some of our antics.  It's been enjoyable and I can't wait to get to the rest of them.  I've got to figure out how to print out the web-based ones.

Yes, we did take a long trip in 2009 and, no, I can't find any photos.  I'm hoping I moved them to a CD and they are at home,  Although, on one of our trips I did have a computer crash issue and after many hours on the phone with Apple Care was told I couldn't retrieve the photos I lost.  So,  maybe that's were they are - lost.  I sure hope not.   I also spent an afternoon building a spreadsheet timeline showing our trips so that in the future when Roger asks what year we went to Cooperstown, I can whip that puppy out and tell him!!  I know, crazy, huh?  

I've spent three afternoons working on Ancestry.  My friend Cathy has come up with a couple more names of ancestors that might be Revolutionary War "patriots", so I've been working on the links from one generation to another.  I'm finding glaring errors in my data. I have one person listed as a widow in 1860 census, but her husband didn't die until 1880.  Hmmm.  I decided that I had the wrong person with the same name in the 1860 census and deleted that information.  After that things looked a bit more correct.  It's been fun, though.  Yesterday I found a name in someone's private tree on Ancestry and sent them a request for information.  Today I got an email giving me permissions to go into their tree as a guest.  People can be so generous!  I love it!!

My iPhone had decided to drain the battery every day. There was also an app that was running constantly draining our data allowance - nearly 8 gigabytes (we only have 10 in our plan) in a couple of days,  I started reading about how to stop it and one of the things the article said was to reset all of the iPhones settings   I did.  I stopped getting emails.  After a few days of fiddling around I finally took it into an AT&T store where some young tech savvy person could help me.  He got the email working.  Today when I entered a vet appointment (just a check up and shots - she's fine) that I made, I discovered that the calendar wasn't syncing with the ones on the computer and iPad.  That was another afternoon of frustration and it still isn't working.  I never should have reset the dang thing!  Oh, well, lesson learned.  Think that kid will fix my calendar?  

The bike that Rog bought at a charity shop when we got here got thrown in the trash area this afternoon after a very close call with a Honda CRV.  He didn't fall but came awfully close and was a bit shaken.  That's enough bike riding.  

A Trip to the Farmers' Market

The colors were so vibrant, and no, I don't know
these people!  

Spring has arrived and the farmers' markets are gearing up.   They happen all year here, but with the warm weather the produce looked just wonderful. 

David and Eileen took us to one today in Poway, which is the town they lived in before they became RV full-timers.  We packed up the dogs and climbed in their mobility van (David has a ramp to get up into the van behind the drivers'  seat with his power chair.  He locks it down and then climbs into his seat which is equipped with hand controls.)  Eileen, the two Maggies, and I were quite comfy in the back seat while Roger rode shotgun.

Roger talking with the chocolatier.

The sun was shining, it was 84 today, and there were lots of people like us looking for a nice day out. There were greens, vegetables of all kinds, fruit, soaps, breads, and a few food vendors.  We picked up some fresh produce, some home made doggie cookies, fresh pasta noodles, and some very expensive chocolate! 

There was an abundance of flower vendors, and again, the colors were eye popping!  Almost everyone had an armful of bouquets.

Our Maggie got tired and hot but we found a cool cement slab in the shade and took time out  to cool off her tummy while we people watched.   She did really well with the crowds and all the strange sniffs and noises.  She met other nice dogs and one not so nice dachshund who snapped and growled at her.  She just backed away and went about her business.  She was such a good dog today.  








The other Maggie got to ride around in the power chair!  You can see her head in Dave's lap checking stuff out.

     

We left the market and found a restaurant with outdoor seating and had a nice lunch while we rested and got cooled off - the dogs sitting at our feet in the shade.    From there we went to the town's dog park and the Maggies got to run around loose with some other small dogs that were there.  They chased the balls and just enjoyed being free.  They finally just collapsed under the picnic table where we were sitting in the shade and we knew it was time to take the poor tired dogs home   

It was a lovely outing and fun was had by one and all -  and Roger didn't have to drive!  

A Restaurant Adventure

When we leave the house to go somewhere,  we tell Maggie, "We have to go to the store.  Maggie has to stay and be a good girl."   This is the pitiful look we get every time! Maggie feels left out and wants us to know she's been wronged - poor Maggie.  Our punishment for leaving her is that we find she's been in the trash in the bathroom (you'd think we would have learned to close the doors by now) and has chewed tissue and other assorted items and left them all over the floor.  "Take that" her look says.  

Yesterday, between the heavy cloudbursts, we went to lunch with the ladies visiting from Nevada.  We went to a Vietnamese restaurant where they make excellent Pho noodle soup.  It was a perfect day for a hot bowl of soup.  We've gone there often and felt it was a safe bet for taking someone to lunch.  WRONG!!

To begin with, the waitress (whom I think was the owner) came to the table and offered to bring us hot ginger tea to "warm you up."  OK, we all agreed that was a good idea. (Mind you, the whole scenario is played out in broken English.)  She came back a few minutes later with the cups and asked if we wanted hot water because it was cold.  I said yes, thinking she was talking about the tea water. Judy also thought that was what she meant.      She then brought me a glass of hot water to drink.  We all kinda stared at it and started laughing.   Then she came back with the tea pot and poured our tea.  It was brown and cloudy and not like any ginger tea I'd had before, but it was hot, sweet, and gingery.  After a cupful, Roger read the tea bag - Green Tea.  She must have added ginger in some form to the green tea - hence the cloudiness.  Of course, the tea would have caffeine.  Rog said he could feel it almost immediately.  Then things got really fun.  

Judy wanted B2 - a seafood stew.   "No, no, no good - you want B14.  Is same thing."  Judy was a bit stunned and sort of agreed, but not really.  

I ordered the vegetable Pho from the front page - build your own soup.   "No, no, you want V3 (or whatever it was) - is vegetable soup."   OK.  

Roger ordered something with vegetables and noodles but not the soup.   She had no comment about that.

Betty ordered Spring Rolls but hadn't decided on what else.  The waitress took off saying she would put our order in and be back.  Now, she has not written anything down at this point.   We wait.  We wait.  Betty finally decides to go find her and order the rest of her meal.  After hunting the waitress down (she was in the back somewhere), Betty asked for whatever it was she wanted.  The waitress asked her if it was to go.  After explaining, no, it wasn't, I'm with the party at the corner table, the waitress said OK.  

After a while the meals started coming.  First Judy's showed up.  She got a shrimp Pho with rice noodles.  She told the waitress that's not what she ordered.  The waitress argued with her pointing out that she had agreed to the change.  At this point Judy capitulated and took the soup rather than create more of a scene. 

My soup came.  It was vegetable broth, I think.  It had the vegetables and rice noodles, but it was full of tofu, which I don't like. (It's a texture thing.)   I told the waitress I had ordered the vegetable soup without tofu.  "No, you order this."   

Then Betty's spring rolls came.  No meal - just the spring rolls.   

Then Betty's meal came and it was what she ordered and she said it was very good.  

Roger is still waiting on his meal at this point and we are all curious as to what he's going to end up with.    The waitress then brings me a bowl to put my tofu in.  

Roger gets his meal.  It's some kind of noodles in heavy soy sauce, a couple of pieces of broccoli and lots and lots of tofu pieces.  Not what he thought he ordered.  She argued again and Rog capitulated and kept it. 

Now, by this time, we are totally embarrassed to have brought someone there for a meal, but we are all laughing so hard at the situation it became an adventure.  

At some point I asked for the bill.  It didn't come and didn't come.  Roger finally got up and went to the counter and it took the guy there about 10 minutes shuffling through orders to find ours.    Roger paid - and left no tip.   The whole thing was just so unbelievable.   Obviously we won't take anyone there in the future and we won't go back again.  

By the time we got out of there Roger said his blood pressure was on the rise.  The caffeine, the salt in the meal, and the general craziness of the situation.  Sure enough, when he got home and took it and it wasn't pretty.  

We got a nice email from Judy this morning thanking us for lunch and saying that what fun lunch could be when you don't get what you ordered.   Oh, yes!!

It cleared up just after dinner.  The clouds broke and the moon was full.
Santee got 1.2 inches of rain in the 36 hours of rain.

It was so nice this morning to see sunshine!

Did I Mention It Was Going To Rain?

Yes, well:

It has been since last night.  

It is still going strong. 

It's only got 24 more hours to go!!!!   

One of the joys of owning a dog!  (We do take turns, though.)