Short updaate.

A month…...it has been a whole month again since I last posted!

Not much has been happening except for the usual getting ready for the holidays, shopping, putting up the outside lights, setting up the tree and decorating it.

Clyda came home on December 7^th from Lynden, WA and spent time catching up with her friends here.

We have the usual parties and dinners to attend this month. It keeps us busy.

We both got new cell phones this week. My old Smart phone was giving me lots of problems so I updated to a new Samsung S6 while Clyda got her first Smart phone, a Samsung Core. She doesn't want all the Smart phone apps only email and texting.

It is always a learning curve with new phones but I think we managed fairly well.

I moved all the photos from Clyda's phone to a hard drive as she didn't want to lose them.

I have been trying to set up my old phone as a music player but still need an app to actually play the music. Still working on that.

We had a little rain, very little, this week with possibly more on the way. Unfortunately, all the showers are short lived and rapidly pass through our area. It's more like it is afraid to rain. I hope that changes soon.

Looking forward: I will go to Las Vegas after the first of the year to attend The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and then go down to Quartzsite, AZ for the swap meet as usual. No real plans after that.

Long delayed post.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood! Yes it is. Temp 82 degrees, sunny and warm.

Just got to rub it in a little for the folks living in other parts of the country.

It has been a whole month since I last posted and that was because of my fall trip to Death Valley. I had little time to post as we were very busy the whole time. Besides, Internet service was non-existent in DV. We did have cell service but even that was spotty. It is mainly due to the large number of people trying to access it during 49er days.

I traveled to Baker, CA on Oct 23^rd where we always gather to start our trips and where we spend the night back of the Madd Greek Restaurant, a free parking spot.

The next day we moved to the BLM area outside of Tecopa, CA also a free spot.

On Sunday I picked up son Tim in Las Vegas and we went to Lunch at Hash House A Go Go. I had heard about this place but have never been to one. It is located in the LINQ area under the big High Roller (Ferris wheel). We shared a Chicken and Waffle lunch. Way too much food even for 2 of us. Quite an experience!

We shopped for groceries, and fuel and then drove back to Tecopa.

For the next 3 days we explored the Southern end of Greenwater Valley, the Salt Springs area along Hwy 127, and attached ourselves to a local guided 4x4 trip East of Tecopa.

Some of us even soaked in the hot springs at Tecopa. Ahhhhhhh! Heaven!

On Thursday Oct 29^th we moved to Furnace Creek in Death Valley and camped at Sunset Campground. We normally don't make this move until Friday but wind was predicted so we moved early.

On Saturday we moved into Furnace Creek Campground for the next 2 weeks.

We kept very busy with 4x4 trips and hikes for the next 5 days while Tim was with us.

We finally found my rock with the petroglyphs on it on Scotties Castle Road (we looked for 2 years for it), hiked to burnt wagon point where the 1849'ers burned their wagons and then walked out of Death Valley, found the “other” Rood rock near Emigrant, and spent the day in Panamint Valley at the Early Man site and looking for geoglyphs (early man rock alignments).

Petroglyphs.

 

 

 Storm approaching in Panamint Valley.

We drove Tim to the airport on November 4 and picked up a few groceries as well before we came back.

It is really great to have Tim with us to identify rocks which are in abundance in Death Valley. We all enjoy his company.

We continued with our explorations until Nov 11 when the 49er activities started at Furnace Creek.

A great trip, but a sore butt.

We are back home after a long trip starting about 11 AM Sunday morning. Going through Customs in St Maartin was nothing like the circus we went through in New York. It is obvious that 9/11 changed a lot about the way people entering this country after visiting a foreign land are treated. Just saying.

A four and a half hour flight to JFK in New York followed by a five and a half hour flight to Los Angeles gives new meaning to the term “sore butt”.

We arrived in LA at 12:30 AM Monday morning, picked up our luggage and waited until almost 1:30 for the hotel shuttle to take us to the LA Hilton. By the time we got to our room it was almost 2 AM LA time but 5 AM St Maartin time.

I had picked up a cold on Friday which made for a miserable flight. I had trouble clearing my ears as we descended in altitude.

By 2 AM I just flopped into bed and then couldn't sleep. Too much antihistamine I am sure as I don't normally take that stuff.

We took the 11 AM Airbus back home yesterday morning arriving about 1:30 PM. A very long trip.

Don't get me wrong, we loved the trip both to Orlando and St Maartin. It is the travel that gets tiring.

I want to include one or two photos from St Maartin to finish this.

Also, as bad as I feel, there is no time to rest as I leave Friday morning for Death Valley.

I did sleep for several hours last night, thank goodness.

 I am thinking of having a 10 foot canvas print made of this for my living room wall so I can enjoy the view whenever I want. What do you think?

Trade winds, pool time, ocean, biki……

Oh, that too!

We arrived in St Maartin on Sunday afternoon after getting up at 3 AM for a 6:15 flight from Orlando to Atlanta. About a 2 hour connection then on to St Maartin. The rooms are very nice. We are in a studio with a kitchen and dinning room, a balcony over looking the pool and the ocean. Very, very, nice!

We have restaurants nearby and a small grocery for most things we might need. The roads are very hilly here at Pelican Point near the bridge from Simpson Bay. We can see the planes land and take off from the airport and it's infamous beach at the end of the airstrip.

We have spent a lot of time in the pool and lounging in the shade. When the trade winds are blowing it is really nice but rather hot and humid if they stop.

Some photos from our stay so far.

Cindy and Clyda in the pool.

 

Nice pool with ocean in the background.

 Clyda, Cindy, and Gary.

 

Cruise ship heading for Phillipsburg nearby.

 

Sunset last night.

 Dinner at Bon Appetit (French).

Waiting for a bus.

 Lunch at the beach.

At a Timeshare South of Disney World.

Our trip from home to Florida was looooonng. We took the Airbus to Los Angeles at 6 PM for a 11:15 PM flight to Detroit. We had time for a leisurely dinner at LAX before our flight. The flight was fine and we arrived about 6:30 AM. Why Detroit you ask? Our friends Cindy and Gary were flying to Detroit from San Francisco so it made sense to meet them there and fly together to Orlando.

We had only minutes before our flight left for Orlando as they were calling our name when we arrived at the gate. We actually got an upgrade to seats closer to the front to the plane. I had asked for a wheel chair for Clyda and glad that we did as it was a half mile between gates. Oh, we also had a TSA pre-check on our tickets so we didn't need to unload everything from our bags to go through security.

Arriving in Orlando, we got the rental car and drove to Mystic Dunes, a Diamond Resorts property South of Disney World. It is a big property with 23 buildings and over 900 rooms. Beautiful grounds but outdated furnishings in the units but Diamond will eventually upgrade them all.

We drove to what we thought was Downtown Disney where there is shopping and restaurants that you can visit without paying a Park entrance fee. Everything is under construction and all the close in parking lots were full so we left.

We came back the next day when there were less people and took a ride on the free boats that travel between parks. We went to “Key West” and had a leisurely lunch before going back to Downtown Disney, now called Disney Springs (The name changed last week). We saw the movie “The Martian” which was very good. 

 Disney Springs.

 

Boat ride around Disney Springs.

After the movie we drove towards Orlando and the “Orlando Eye” a giant wheel like the London Eye or The LINQ in Las Vegas. We all rode the “Eye” which takes about 25 minutes to make a complete loop. It was dark by the time our trip started but as flat as Florida is you can see a long way. As a matter of fact, we can see the fireworks from Disney if we go to the 6^th floor balcony at our timeshare.

The Orlando Eye.

 

Aboard the Orlando Eye.

Yesterday we drove to Cocoa Beach and did a 2 hour boat tour of the Banana River where we saw lots of birds but no Manatees. We picnicked at a local park, walked to the beach which was interesting as it was full of people, unlike our February visit when very few people we on the beach.

Ed and Clyda prior to the boat tour.

Cindy and Gary .

 

Pelicans roosting in the Mangrove trees

We drove North of Titusville to a Manatee viewing area the boat captain had told us about and saw numerous Manatees feeding in the shallow water of a boat launch area. There were large and some quit small Manatees along with one who appeared to be very large. It was snorting and showing its flipper. Quit interesting.

We then took a 7 mile drive through the St Johns National Wildlife Refuge and then drove to Christmas, FL where we had camped in February while on our Florida trip. We went to the Orlando Wetlands Park nearby which we had also visited last February.

Today, Thursday was a pool day.

Update on weekend trip.

Weekend trip to Pismo Beach to celebrate our friend Don's birthday.

A great weekend with friends and lots of good food. I cooked brats Friday night for about a dozen people. They are best cooked in beer with a sliced onion for about a half hour then grilled for a few minutes. Serve with sauerkraut and condiments.

On Saturday I helped grill tri-tips for 18 or 20 people. We cooked outside then wrapped the tri-tips in foil to finish cooking. We ate in the RV park club house which has a nice kitchen with lots of counter space to serve from. The meal was finished off with a birthday cake for Don.

On Sunday morning Budd and I cooked bacon, sausage, eggs and pancakes for everyone. We have this breakfast down to a science as we have done it so often. Budd does the bacon and eggs to order and I do the pancakes.

Later, Sunday morning we drove to the Lompoc Elks club for a one night stay. We have friends who live next to the club which is convenient. After visiting for a while we drove to Buellton for a relaxing wine tasting at Alma Rosa winery followed by a very nice dinner at Industrial Eats next door to the winery.

I had read about Industrial Eats in this months issue of Sunset magazine. They featured wine and food on the West coast starting in Santa Barbara and ending in Southern Oregon. We each ordered something different to eat. The restaurant menu is printed on brown paper hanging on the wall and features PIZZA and NON-PIZZA items. The meats are outstanding as they do their own butchering. I had probably the best burger every which was the Sunday special menu item. It was a perfect way to end a Sunday with friends.

Saturday afternoon Clyda and I are off on a two week adventure with our friends Cindy and Gary. We will spend a week in Florida at a timeshare then another week in St Maarten in the Caribbean before flying home. The flying portion of this trip will be a strain on Clyda to be sure. I always book her an isle seat so she can get up and move around. This trip has us in the air 4 times with each time made up of two flights. Lots of air time.

A work week.

This was more of a work week. 

I need to step up the pace as I have things to do on and in the RV before we go to Pismo Beach next weekend followed by our trip to Florida the 1^st week in October, (non RV trip). When we return from that trip, I only have 3 days to finish everything before the start of the desert trip.

This week I ordered 4 new shocks from Amazon for the RV as the last time they were replaced was 2010. I had pulled one and there really wasn't much “shock” left. They had been checked last year when all of the under carriage was replaced and I was told at the time that they still had some “life left in them”. Of course, the mechanic didn't know at the time that we were planning to drive to the East coast of Florida.

Replacing the shocks is not a hard job if you don't mind laying on your back with a wrench in your hand for an hour. Job done!

The next thing was to replace the bathroom ceiling fan with a Fantastic fan that my friend Budd gave me. Originally, I started to replace the fan blade last summer on our trip to Lynden, WA but every blade I bought blew air in not out. I now have 3 or 4 fan blades, all wrong, and one new fan motor because I thought I could run the motor in reverse to use the fan blades I had already bought. WRONG!!! The motor ran for 10 minutes then quit.

I was about to order a Fantastic fan from Amazon but during a conversation with Budd he reminded me that he had one which was removed from the bedroom of his RV when an AC unit was installed in the opening. Perfect!

So today I removed the old fan and vent and replaced it with the Fantastic fan. It really went in fairly quickly after about 10 trips up and down the ladder to check the fit. Even the old screw holes lined up ok. I still need to put in the ceiling trim piece inside but I need to remove some of the edge on one side as the roof of the RV slopes in that area.

I used a butyl rubber strip under the fan flange on the roof to make sure I have a good seal to keep out water and then I used Dicor Self Leveling caulk over all the screws and around the flange. I will recheck the caulk tomorrow to make sure I have no problem areas.

Some before and after from today's project.

 

Fantastic fan and trim piece.

 Old vent cover. Really dirty because the Max Air cover made it hard to clean.

 

 Old vent and all caulk removed.

 New fan with self leveling caulk applied.

Thanks Budd for the fan.

Back home from Wisconsin trip.

Another trip to Wisconsin done. This one was only 5 days to attend an All School reunion for Dorchester High School. About 200+ people came to the afternoon social time with a very nice sit-down meal at 4 PM.

Saw lots of people I know. Talked to some I hadn't seen in years. Had a really good time.

Also met some of my cousins from the Goessl side of the family on Friday after a mass for their mother at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Medford. Was really nice to visit with Joyce, Betty, Margaret, and Norb for a few hours. It isn't something we get to do very often.

Also visited my aunt Beatrice who is one of only two remaining sisters of my mother. I try to visit her whenever I am in Wisconsin.

I have a “thing” for cemeteries. To me they are pure history. I walked 2 this trip looking for particular people. I was successful on all counts. I love walking the rows, reading names, and remembering something about the people, friends, neighbors, relatives. I take photos of the headstones and eventually these photos will be added to my genealogy files along with photos of the people represented.

On Sunday my sister Judy, husband Art and I were treated to a tour of the Dorchester Historical Center by Jim Jantsch who is the force behind the center. It contains all things Dorchester. All of it donated. I suspect Jim started the center as a place to store all of the things his mother collected. Jim has also written a book called “Dorchester.” It is a complete history of Dorchester and it's people.

Two of the people on the tour were our next door farm neighbors Sharon and Arlene and two neighbors across the highway, Jeanette and Greta. I once worked for Jeanette and Greta's family during the summer and lived in their house. It was good to see them again after all these years.

I drove to Milwaukee on Monday (Labor Day) and had lots of traffic between Wisconsin Dells and Madison. My rental car this time was the same as last month, a Chevy Spark. Blue this time, not yellow. It got 41.5 MPG. Not bad.

New orchid trellis.

I have been working on one of my many “Summer” projects. This one was to replace the shade trellis over Clyda's orchids. The old one was built with lumber I had on-hand and of course the termites loved it.

The new one is made with all pressure treated lumber which should last longer than I will.

The units are basically two 4x8 frames covered with nursery cloth and that is covered with 4x8 sheets of white plastic trellis. The trellis is needed as the racoons walk on top of the unit and fall through the nursery cloth if there is no support provided. The cloth is 6 feet wide so 2 feet of it hang down on the front to provide more shade.

Her are some photos.

 Posts set.

 Frames complete.

 Some termite damage!

 Completed project.

A short blog.

A short blog this morning.

A thunderstorm moved through about 6 AM and it has continued to rain this morning. The rain is really needed as the crops were suffering with the lack of.

My time here is winding down and it has been a busy one. I have met with most of the people on my list. Lunch today with a relative and then a visit to the Dorchester library.

Tomorrow morning I will check out and drive to my sisters for the last two days. Tomorrow is the surprise 25^th wedding anniversary for my nephew Chris and his wife Ann. Sunday all of my sister's kids will be at her house for the day.

Monday morning I will drive to West Bend and briefly visit a cousin and drop off a family history pack to her. Then it is on to the Milwaukee airport and home.

It has been a busy but good trip.

Oh, here is a photo of my rental car, a Chevy Spark. Not much luggage space but adequate for my needs.

I must be lazy.

I guess I must be lazy as I can't quite get up the energy to write a blog more often.

Although I have been busy with household stuff like cooking, watering the yard pulling weed, etc, and, oh yes, spending way too much time on the computer. That doesn't count does it?

I have been working on family history stuff in preparation for my upcoming trip to Wisconsin. It is like a disease, once you start with a known fact and dig up more information about a person, the more you want to know.

At one time I had so many papers scattered around it looked like a whirl wind had gone through the room. Now I have copied, corralled, and filed most of what I want to take with me.

It all has to fit in a small nylon briefcase along with my laptop, kindle, and shaving kit for the trip. It will be heavy but I don't feel comfortable putting it in my carry on bag but would rather have it right with me under my seat as it were.

I have been making appointments with friends and family members while I am in Wisconsin to maximize my time there. My list is rather long of those folks I want to see.

I have little else to contribute tonight so will close with some flower photos I took in our yard.

 Bougainvillea out the back patio.

 Agapanthus also out the back patio.

 Trumpet vine off the side pario.

Progress!

Yes, progress is being made.

Clyda no longer uses the walker and all the equipment borrowed from the Visiting Nurses Closet has been returned.

She has also stopped wearing the heavy nylon brace and is reduced to using a cane when she leaves the house. BIG progress. It has been 6 weeks tomorrow since the surgery and if it had not been for the ligament repair I am sure her recovery would have gone smoother.

Clyda has physical therapy 3 times a week which requires trips to the clinic for that.

Yesterday was the funeral for a neighbor from our cul de sac. She passed away during the night a few weeks ago from an aneurysm. It was a real shock as she was only 53. It is still hard to believe she is gone.

On Thursday we have another funeral to attend of an ex neighbor also. In fact he sold the house to the neighbor who just passed away.

On another subject: I have been working more family history and the more I do or I should say the more facts I collect the more confusing it becomes. For one family member I have so many different birth and death dates that I am not sure which is correct. I need a birth certificate and death certificate to prove what is correct. Still working on that.

We had a brief spattering of rain yesterday afternoon from some tropical disturbance south of us. I barely managed to wet the patio bricks.

In the mean time the drought goes on.

Clyda updare.

Clyda is progressing in her healing. She now only uses a cane when outside the house for her walks. She still has the knee brace and that may be for some time yet.

She has physical therapy 3 days a week at the clinic. So we are running back and forth to that.

I have done some backyard weeding after our recent rain last week. We only got about 7 tenths of an inch so it didn't soak in very much. It did help the lawn but not much else.

I have been looking at some of the genealogy data I have accumulated. I need to sit down and try to make some sense of it all. Looking at one small piece of information leads to another and another, until I get thoroughly lost. It is so much fun however.

I need to wash and wax the RV soon before all the old wax peels off. Maybe yet this week.

Update.

Much has happened in the last 2 weeks.

On Monday the 18^th Clyda had her left knee replaced. The surgeon also found that the Medial Collateral Ligament had been stretched at some point. He had to take 2 sutures in it and form some sort of a sheath around it. Also her knee cap was very worn. This complicated and lengthened the surgery.

However, she was released on Wednesday morning and has continued her recovery at home with the help of a Visiting Nurse Physical Therapist. She is up frequently and even takes walks down the street using her stroller of course. Progress is somewhat hampered by the very heavy knee brace she must wear to keep the knee stable until the ligament has a chance to heal.

Of course this means I am again the Chief Cook and Bottle washer as well as the Head Nurse. Actually things are progressing quit well. It's not as if we haven't been through this several times already.

Other than that, I have done very little around the house.

I have puttered around with my list of to-do's for the RV but it still has items to be attended to.

Clyda has an appointment with the surgeon on Tuesday so that may give us an indication of where things stand.

Update time.

Time for an update.

My 10 days at Rancheros Visitadores passed rather quickly. There were no significant problems and thanks to my co-workers who have both been there many years, we sailed through the encampment.

 

Our campsite.

 

Looking out the gate.

Looking up the road toward camp from the gate.

The first several days were very warm and nice but then the wind came up the last 4 days and we spent much of each day in heavy jackets. On Thursday night, the last night, it rained. This caused the road to become very slippery and big trailers full of horses couldn't climb the hills Friday morning to get out of camp. An alternate route was used but it too became impassable. By then the wind had dried the road somewhat so vehicles began leaving.

I didn't finish packing until almost noon which allowed my stuff to dry out. I finally left about 12:30 after closing the gates.

I drove to Pismo Beach and checked in at Pismo Beach Resort where Budd and Brenda had invited us to spend Mothers Day weekend again this year. Our neighbors Paul and Kathy arrived shortly also and Clyda had ridden up with them. Another couple we like, Joanne and Tony joined us later in the day.

The weather was sunny but the wind was cold so we spent much time between the RV's talking and playing games. We all took turns preparing and sharing meals and at night we played games in the club house. It was a great 5 days.

On Wednesday we drove to Lompoc and camped at the Elks Club while we visited our friends Larri and John. They live next to the parking lot so it is very convenient to stay there.

On Thursday morning we drove home and only unloaded a few things from the truck as it had started to rain and I also had a Company picnic to go to.

We managed to get the picnic in between rain showers. Lots of old fellow workers to chat with and lots missing who have passed on. The crew that put man on the moon is rapidly disappearing.

Today I unloaded more of the RV and put things away for another year.

Getting ready for the annual Ranchero Visitadores ride.

The yard is looking much better after lots of weed pulling, pruning, and general cleanup.

My large to-do list for the RV is also looking better. All of the major items have been taken care of but that still leaves 15 items or half of the list remaining to be done. These remaining items will need to wait until I am done with Rancheros which starts on Tuesday for me. After all, I will have all summer to work on them while Clyda rehabs from her knee replacement in May.

The biggest item on the RV was getting the peeling wax on the front and back caps removed. This is just elbow grease and time. All of it from the top of a ladder. I then waited for a cloudy day to put the new wax on.

The peeling is caused by the suns ultraviolet rays and could be taken care of by a cover. I can't use a real RV cover as it is too heavy for me to haul up the rear ladder. I may try something else as a cover.

Tomorrow morning I will go over the mountain and mow all the grass in the area we park our RV's and which will be our home for 10 days. I do this because of the “fox tails” which get into everything if they aren't mowed. I also remove all the “cow pies” or at least as much as I can remove from the cattle who for some reason like to spend lots of time right where we need to park our RV's. I guess they like the large oak trees in the area for the shade.

On Tuesday afternoon I will drive over the hill and start setting up the camp. There are a few days of not much activity before everyone arrives and we are then going full tilt for a week.

I took a few photos of some flowers Clyda had as a bouquet on the kitchen island.

 

 

 

Spending time on my knees.

Hard to believe we have been home for two weeks already.

The most pressing thing was getting our yard back in shape. Even with the small amount of rain here in the last 3 months the weeds were tall and thick in the garden. I have spent part of every day on my knees pulling weeds. I have filled nine or ten trash cans with them.

I finished the farthest back part of the yard today so now just need to spot check a few places more where some weeds are hiding. I had mowed the garden when we first got home but that has left stumps from the largest weeds. I need to keep an eye on those and hope they don't grow again. I also had a gopher.

 

 We did have about four tenths of an inch of rain the other day but it didn't help much. We need lots more. With the drought we are on water rationing. Of course, with us gone we had very little usage for 3 months. However, now, that will go up as I needed to water all the trees. I fertilized all of them, soaked them, and added mulch out to the drip lines to help hold the moisture in. I do not intend to lose any of my fruit trees.

I also worked on the sprinklers in the flower beds and the lawn. It is the usual job that needs to be done every spring. I know some of them need to be replaced as they are old.

I also started on my to-do list for the RV. It is a full page long, 30 items to be done.

I removed two of the window cranks the other day, both need to be replaced. I found replacements on-line and have them on order. They should be here in a few days.

Whenever we drive in the rain we get a wet carpet about where the wheels are located.

Today I added a wide rubber stripe under the large slideout. I removed some vinyl trim and then unscrewed the metal strip under it. I slid the new rubber under the metal strip and then replaced all the screws. The worst part of the job was working under the slideout in a very awkward position. By taking a break now and then to let my muscles relax I got it done. Hopefully this should solve the problem but we won't know until we drive in the rain again.

Rubber stip ready to be installed.

Strip installed behind the white trim.

I need to get some of these things done before the 28^th which is the day I report for duty at Rancheros. This will be my 18^th year gate guarding for them.