BIG NEWS!

As in the reality show "Big Brother", "Always expect the unexpected." you can indeed expect the unexpected with us..

 

So here is the BIG News...

 

To start with we were going to attend the reunion in Kelseyville, CA Labor Day weekend & stay at the Chalk's house.  They have over 14 acres & RV set-ups.  We went & as always it was a blast.  We also got to visit with old friends & go to the local Farmer's Market, etc.

 

Our computer died a very quick death, so we had to buy another one with Windows 8 which we will have to learn, but it is not so bad.

 

I know, the BIG News...well, Bob Chalk asked me if I wanted to be his Volunteer Coordinator  for his campaign for Lake County Sheriff.  He said we could stay on their property for the duration of the recall campaign & the campaign for November 2014 election.  Welllllllllllllll, guess what?  I/We said YES & we will be "living" here for the next year or so.

 

I actually have to say, coming in to the county from Ukiah for the reunion I became a little nostalgic & it is so beautiful here, but do not fret...our hearts belong to Oregon & we will be heading back after the election & looking again for a piece of property in Oregon, hopefully along the coast.

 

Good thing we had very little planned after Labor Day.  It is a very good thing.  Yeah, going to Nevada & Arizona was fun last year, but there was so little for Rod to do after we explored & going back this year we could do the same old same old, but here he has old friends, new friends, fishing, putzing around, just things to do in general.  Yeah!

 

Marsha (Bob's wife & long time friend) & I have plans for a lot of stuff & she has a Cricut.  We already have had one play day & went to Napa for an Arts & Crafts Festival, and went to the Wild Women Wine Fling. Her mother-in-law is an amazing Tole painter & is giving me lessons.  I will go with her to the Senior Center Wed. for painting group time.  The end of Sept. is the Pear Festival & the beginning of October is the Harvest Festival & of course fundraisers to help with & attend, etc.    It is going to be a jammed packed year for us!

 

We are just little social butterflies. We went to a Taco feed last Saturday & met lots of people.  We have a election committee meeting every Thursday night to plan.  I am going to a Lioness luncheon Thursday & will probably join for a year. 

 

I miss everyone though & you can bet your bottom dollar as soon as the election(s) are over we'll be back.  Right now we are waiting to see if there will be a recall of the current Sheriff.  We will know by Sept. 27 at the latest.  If so the recall election will probably be in Jan., so we have a lot to do before then, however, if the recall doesn't happen we will concentrate on the election next Nov. with the Primary in June.  There are so many variables right now.  Will keep you up to date.

 

Kilo is having a ball in his new home.  He can wander around the 14 acres, but he loves laying around between where we are parked & their house.  He is doing a lot of cute sighs of happiness.

 

More later...

 

Year 2

Yep, we have officially started Year 2 on the road.  We left Sutherlin after 3 days of visiting & lots & lots of errands & headed to Lakeside for 2 days.  It turned in to 3 days because Ken came over to fish for salmon.  Rod was only going to fish 2 days but we "talked" him in to another day of fishing.

He certainly was very HAPPY we did...he caught a 23.8 pound salmon.  We were worried it wouldn't fit in our RV freezer, but it did & we have enjoyed a couple of delicious meals.

Today we decided to try making Lox.  I found a real simple recipe online & Rod found the perfect rock to weigh the marinated salmon down in the refer.  Can't wait to taste it in a few days.

After Lakeside we headed to Brookings for a couple of nights & he tried surf fishing with no luck.  After Brookings, we stopped for one night at Benbow just south of Garberville, CA. It was expensive, but I always wanted to try it out.

Before we got to Garberville, we took a pit stop & ate lunch at the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, CA.  All we could get through was soup, salad, homemade bread & dessert.  We passed up beef short ribs in gravy, peas, baked beans & Spanish Rice.  Now, 20 years ago when we started stopping at Samoa Cookhouse for breakfast, lunch or dinner we were able to eat all that & sometimes more.  They give you refills.  Not anymore, but what we had was good.

The other place we checked out on the way to Garberville was Orick camping by the beach.  It has been on my bucket list like...forever.  Well, no camping there any more so scratch that off the list.  At least I scratched off Benbow.

We have a couple more stops before we get to Kelseyville for the reunion.  The lox is part of our contribution to the weekend.  I also picked up 4 bottles of wine to share since wine is so expensive in CA, I bought it before we left OR.  Smart, huh?

Update of the Update

Never, & I mean NEVER count your chickens before they are hatched!

 

The bank called with the news that the property we are buying is in a flood zone.  A "high risk" flood zone.  Then, the insurance company said we would have to get flood insurance through the government (FEMA) & we would need an engineer's elevation survey done. If we didn't get it done then insurance could be anywhere from $300 - $4,000 a year on EACH house.

 

So, we are not getting the property after all.  Can you say bummed out?

 

Oh well, wish our realtor had really looked into the flood zone when we voiced concerns 2 weeks ago.  Instead she went by the word of the seller.  A "really nice older man".  Live & learn.

 

So, we are back to Plan B.  Keep rollin on down the road, which is in fact OK.  For us anything we do is a win win situation. 

 

Damn, I had colors picked out & a slew of projects for Rod to make in his workshop all pinned on my Colors & Around the House boards.  See what getting your hopes up does to you. 

 

We are staying on the coast until the middle of August, to Roseburg for 3 days & off CA for the policeman reunion.  We found out we can get a senior's discount to go to the fair in Lake County.  So going to take advantage of it.

 

We didn't get to do our 4, 4 for FREE going up the coast this Summer (Thank you Shannon), but we will try to do it next year. One thing we have learned this Summer is DO NOT plan more than a month ahead of your travels.

 

More later.

 

News from Camp Dewey

Grab a cup of coffee, it is a looooooooong blog post.

 

Gas prices have really put a kabash on our plans to travel across the USA.  It takes a lot of money to fill up & with a large truck & trailer, well you get the picture.

 

Since March we have looked at property in different areas of Nevada & Oregon.  Fell in love with Yerington, Carson City, & Verdi in Nevada & we have always dreamt about finding something on the coast of Oregon.  We love the ocean & fishing, crabbing, going for mussels & clams for Rod & anything that's around for me.

 

In April we found a house, actually it was two houses on a large lot in Lakeside, OR near Coos Bay to the south &  Florence to the north.  Obviously it is on a large lake, it's near the ocean & one of the houses we could rent & it would pay for the mortgage, property taxes & insurance while we have the other house.  Both have large yards & outbuildings.  They are in a small neighborhood, walking to everything in town, & of course lots of fishing in the lake for Rod.

 

It was hard for Rod last year travelling because in the desert there really wasn't anything for him to do & I know he really missed having a yard & garden & his workshop.

 

Soooooooo, when we contacted the realtor on this property in Lakeside in April he really wasn't interested in showing us the property or even contacting the owner.

 

Fast forward to 4th of July week.  Our friends have a second home across the street from this property & called us that the price had been reduced.  We contacted another realtor who just so happened to be looking at it to buy as an investment property.  Great realtor, by the way so when we contacted her she said, if we wanted it she would work it for us.

 

The next day our friends called us to tell us the owner was at the property mowing the lawn & get down there (we were in Florence & 35 minutes away) there to talk to him.

 

We did & on Monday we put in a very low ball offer, never imagining he would accept.  He did.  He was going through a divorce & was forced to sell even though he didn't want to because both the houses had been amazing rentals for him.

 

Since the 8th of July we have been going through everything you have to go through to buy a house, but in the case 2 houses.

 

We have jumped & cleared all the hurdles & now we are just waiting for the appraisal & closing.  It will close between Aug. 16 - Sept. 1.  After it closes we will do a few things with the big house we are renting, then get renters.

 

The cottage we are going to fix up & redo & eventually we will live in the big house which we will remodel & rent the cottage maybe for summer rentals for people who want to vacation on the coast.

 

Our heads are swimming & we are so excited we were able to find property like this for a smoking great price!  Whoo Hoo!

 

We can still travel, but not as far as we wanted, but along the coast & there are a lot of Thousand Trails & RPI places which are free or $10 a night.  We LOVE the coast so we win, win, win!

 

We had gone back & forth going south one more year or staying & we decided to stay at our new, old house.  Frankly I am so happy & I know Rod can't wait to fish, etc.  We have plans for the cottage.  It is so cute & we wanted a fixer upper to do & my head is spinning with ideas.  We will still live in the trailer for awhile until we redo the cottage, but that is OK.  Plenty of room & storage in both houses.

 

Anyway that's it for now.  We are staying between Coos Bay (The Mill RV Park), Lakeside (Osprey RV Park) & Florence (Port of Siuslaw RV Park & Marina).  All of them are really nice, have cable & in Florence we can walk to everything!

 

Can't wait to get started.

 

 

Where has June gone?

I blinked & June was gone.  One reason for the blackout, we have been in Internet hecky-poo.  In other words, the only real Internet we have had is on our phones or if we lug the computer to a building with the Internet.

After we left Florence we went to Roseburg & stayed at the Escapees RV Park in Sutherlin.  It is absolutely beautiful.  Lots of activities & an amazing lending library!  I went to a Craft afternoon & met some really nice people.

After a week we headed to Bend, Oregon & the Thousand Trails RV Park.  It is the one we signed up with TT many years ago.  Beautiful campground, NO TV, NO INTERNET (except in aforementioned outbuildings), lots of activities, craft selling every Sat. & Sun.(I sold cards 2 Sat.), lots of rain.  Rod fished - NO fish!  Watched lots of movies!

We wanted to go to Bend before the hot weather started, but we got almost 2 weeks of cold & rainy weather.  We were able to swim at TT 1 day when we took an water aerobics class together.

We did some exploring - Peterson's Rock Garden in Redmond, OR.  Rod went there as a little boy & wanted to go back.  It was really cool.  This man made scenes, bridges, houses, the Statue of Liberty, etc. all out of rocks & minerals.  The place had lots of peacocks & peahens.  Some of the peacocks had their feathers out completely shaking them at other peacocks & visitors.

Found an amazing stamp store in Bend.  It's called the Christmas Presence (spelled exactly that way).  So much stuff it was a little overwhelming, but fun.

Rod is obsessed with "Slap Yo Mama" hot sauce ever since he saw it on Redneck Vacation.  Well, they don't sell it anymore in Roseburg, so we started looking online.  Happened to see it was at World Market (aka Cost Plus) & drove by one in Redmond on the way to the rock garden.  We stopped on the way home & sure enough they had it as a sauce, spice & fish coating.  We bought it all & I have a very happy husband.  Amazon was charging as much to ship as it cost for the bottle of hot sauce.

Before heading to the coast we stayed 3 nights in LaPine, OR, 14 miles south of Bend at Cascade Meadows RV Park. (RPI)  The first really nice day we headed to Paulina Lake.  I sat under a tree with Kilo & Rod fished.  He caught 2 Rainbow trout!  Yeah!  Wish we could have gone there earlier because I guess everyone was having luck. It was so hot that day when we returned, we went swimming & in to the hot tub. 

The last week in June found us back at the Escapees RV Park.  Next, to the coast & not soon enough.  The hot weather has been brutal.  Can't wait for the coast & cooler weather.

Hello Again...

Been off the grid for awhile if you haven't noticed.  It was fun & very productive setting up in one spot for a month in Roseburg. 

Safari RV Park is A-MAZING!  So glad we got the last spot & decided to stay for a month.  Their laundry facilities were so cool.  All you needed was to put you credit card in the slot, push the button for what washer or dryer you wanted & BOOM!  you were washing & drying...so easy.  Only place we found that set-up.

Most of May has been getting ready for our last, yes, I can finally say it, LAST Scrapbook Fun Fest.  Bittersweet?  Somewhat.

After a month in Roseburg & one place, we both got the bug to travel again.  We made plans to go to our favorite camping place on the Thousand Trails list - Florence.  Sooooooooo, we get there & realized we are not camping with a tent trailer.  It was the perfect place for a small tent trailer 3 years ago, but not a 26" trailer with a truck.  Our favorite lady who cooked breakfasts & special dinners & candy bar Bingo, etc. left 3 years ago, no gift store & small supply store & it is very rundown.  Potholes galore, & really made the driving around hard.

We drive around & around trying to find a camp spot in the other parts (A,B & D) of the campground we have never even seen.  The spots were either too small, no sewer hook-ups, or really muddy.  It was very disappointing.  We decided that we needed to move on & tried another campground.  It was YECH!

Rod remembered there was a campground near the docks downtown - Port of Siuslaw Campground.  OMG!  It is amazing!  We have a view of the Siuslaw River, it is a short walk to Old Town Florence & all the antique stores.  LOVE IT!  We are staying here for the week.

It is a good thing we found this place because it poured & we had high winds that night.  We are snuggle buggely on a cement pad.

We got a surprise email from friends of ours from CA that moved to Idaho.  They met up with us today & staying until Saturday.  Fun!

Mo's restaurant in Florence is famous & there are others up the coast.  We have never gone there in all the years we have been coming to Florence.  We went there last night & tonight.  It is AMAZING & not expensive for a seafood restaurant.  It has the best Clam Chowder & they sell a clam chowder frozen base.  All you do is add milk.  We will be bringing some with us this Summer.

Enough rambling for now.  Later.

Home...

We are back in Roseburg & it was a little whirlwind coming home.

After Lake Topaz we stopped in Verdi, NV.  We were going to stay only a couple of days, but thanks to the "Weather Bug" App, we saw it was going to snow & snow it did.  One day hail, two days snow.  One morning we woke up to 1 inch on the ground.  We ended up in Verdi for a week before WB told us it was clear to go.

Next stop was in Likely, CA.  It is a very small town south of Alturas.  We stayed at a wonderful campground off the beaten path, but huge with a golf course & lots of sites.  It doesn't open until May 1, but they did have 10 sites open.  It turned out to be a Passport America campground so it was only $16.  Score!

Next, Merrill, OR.  We actually stayed at the Stateline RV Park for two nights which was in CA.  If you went across the road you were in Oregon.  Ate at Pappy Ganders twice.  It is sort of a tradition with us.  Met up with a friend from Clearlake who owns property in Merrill and had BBQ & went over old times & new gossip.

From Merrill, we ended up in Gold Hill for two nights at the Cypress Grove RV Park.  Highly recommend it.  It is just off Exit 45A on Hwy 5.  If you are a Good Sam member it was $25 a night.

Now we are in Douglas County, actually, Winston, OR at the Safari RV Park.  I never in all the 13 years we lived here knew about this park.  It is wonderful & evidently a lot of people know this because we got the last spot.  We were going to stay only a week, but looking at our calendar Rod made the brilliant decision to stay the month & the price is very reasonable so we are.  Yeah!

We have a beautiful spot under the trees & the weather so far has been warm.

Already met up with friends in the area & went by our old house today.  The new owner has made a lot of changes some good, some we question, but it is their house. 

Love being back!  It is the start of another adventure!

Walker River RV Park and Lake Topaz

Walker River RV Park is so beautiful, 600 acres located on the...wait for it...Walker River (duh).  The only thing is that unless you have AT& T you will be in technology he--ll.  No phone unless there is an emergency, no WiFi, no TV...AHHHHHHHHHHH.

OK I lived through it & it was OK.  We watched a lot of movies & now Rod is a "Bordertown" fan.  I watched it back a long time ago late at night & found a DVD with 10 - 12 episodes.  They now have all 78 episodes on DVD at amazon.com so I am going to get it for our next foray (like that big word?) into no technology.

The series was set in the 1880's on the border of the US & Canada, therefore the name "Bordertown" which was run by a Mountie & US Marshall with a lady doctor they both were in love with.  Anyway, it is a  real good series.

We did some exploring for 2 days in Yerington, NV which we both absolutely fell in love with.  It is the county seat for Lyons County in Nevada.  about 74 miles from Carson City, 30 miles or so from Gardnerville & Minden, Nevada which we also explored Saturday & fell in love with.

We moved to Lake Topaz, Nevada for 6 days.  A real nice RV campground & we have a great view of the lake.  Very windy today so we had to pull in the slide out so the wind wouldn't rip the cover over the slide out.  We had it put on when we bought it so nothing could accumulate on the flat roof.

We are planning for a few nights Verdi, NV & then take a week to creep back to home.  Well Roseburg we still call home.

Kilo went for a walk as soon as we got to Topaz Lake & started pawing around a bush.  Rod thought it was a rat he was trying to get, but it turned out to be a tennis ball.  Go figure.  That dog can find a tennis ball no matter where it is & who leaves it.  He really would have been a great drug dog.

He is old & his legs are hurting so we give him an aspirin when they do, but when he is in the water, Rod says he turns into Johnny Weismuller.  He loves swimming in the river or ponds or lakes.

Woke up to snow.  We knew it was going to snow because of the Weather Bug App we have on our phones & computer.  Right now we are following the weather reports & when we read snow we decided to stay put for awhile.

We looked at homes in Yerington  a couple of days, & found a couple we really liked, but they were manufactured & not on foundations which the bank does not finance.  There was one we would have bought yesterday, but it was not meant to be.  That's OK, we are still loving the nomadic life.

Closer...

Left Pahrump for a stop in Beatty, NV.  Cute little town.  We went to Rhyolite ghost town today.  Rod got caught trying to go into the ruins of a brothel.  LOL. 

Tomorrow we will head for Hawthorne.  Following the weather & it looks like thunderstorms this weekend so we want to get closer to Carson City.

One of the things that has been really fun, at least for me, is the book exchanges that are at about 99% of the RV Parks we have visited.  I have read lots of books over the past 7 months.  Found some new authors & read fave past authors.  In fact, I read one mystery novel, & there was a part of it I quite couldn't figure out.  I emailed the author & she wrote me back.  Seems it was a novel she wrote a long time ago & couldn't remember how she had worked out the part I had a question about.  It was cool that she wrote back though.

Plans for after Hawthorne will depend on the weather.  We would like to go to Walker River before we head in to Carson City.  We'll see. 

Can't wait to see everyone back in Oregon.  Don't forget to root for the Ducks tomorrow night.  They are playing Louisville Friday night.  Wouldn't it be cool if they upset the #1 team predicted to win the NCAA championship.

GO DUCKS!

...we are on our way...

Do you all remember the movie "Paint Your Wagon"?  Clint Eastwood was in this a musical. He sang the song "Mariah"?  As in they call the wind... Anyway one of the other songs that started the movie went:

• Where are we going?
• I don't know?
• When will we get there?
• I ain't certain.
• All I know is we are on our way...

Well folks, we are finally on our way back home.  Well, technically we don't have a home without wheels (LOL) but you get the picture.

We are now back in Pahrump & what amazes us right now is it is so quiet.  There is no constant traffic, planes flying in, sirens, which by the way seems to be a constant in Las Vegas.  All I hear right now is Kilo's heavy breathing & Rod starting his snoring.  It is soooooooooooooo quiet.

Tomorrow, for grins we are going to get in touch with a realtor to see what kind of property is available. We have kicking around the thought of finding some base place for the winter & go north to Oregon & Washington for the Summer or base it in Oregon for the summer & travel south in the winter.  We also want to look in Carson City since we have narrowed those two areas as our faves & about as far south as we want to go.

Since gas prices continue to rise we have had to rethink how far & how much we want to travel.  I would have loved to go across the country, but that is probably NOT going to happen anytime soon.  There is still a lot to see in Nevada, Oregon & Washington, even Idaho.  California, not so much.
Gas is the highest that we have found.

We plan to roll in to Roseburg around April 24 or so.  Lots going on in May so it will be a very busy & fun month.

A Little Delay...

They say the best laid plans are...going to get messed up?  Well, ours did & I did it.  I contracted some bug with a 103 degree fever, swelling on the right side of my face to chipmunk size, a very swollen glands.

It started Sunday night & we both knew I was sick when I couldn't stay up to watch "Once Upon A Time" or eat!  When I woke Monday it was at its worse with the fever so we went to an Urgent Care.  They said I needed to go to the Emergency because what they would have done for any normal person, they couldn't do for me.  I am allergic to tons of antibiotics & they only had penicillin, my worse nemesis.

Off we go to University Medical Center.  We got there at 3:30 pm & we were finished at midnight.  Yep - 8 and a half hours, blood test, CAT scan, 7 stations, and God only knows how much we will be billed for, I can safely say everything is AOK.  It is cellulitis of the face & where it came from...Who Knows!!!???

Today is Tuesday & since I have to have a follow up check in with a doctor, so we are staying an extra week.

On the happy side?...it is so heating up.  Rod broke out the shorts & his "Jesus" shoes/sandals.  Today - 79 tomorrow - 80's, they are even talking 90 this week.  Air conditioning here we come.

6 Months

I can't believe we have been full-timing it for 6 months.  Where has the time gone?

Our last weekend here in Las Vegas & then off we go back to Oregon.  We will take about 6 weeks & have decided to go back through Carson City & maybe look at some property.  Actually there are a couple places we will look at property this Summer.  Maybe a winter base & then north for the Summer or a Summer base & south for the winter.  So many possibilities!

Nascar fever is here in Las Vegas so we are going to wait to do anything until the "tourists" are gone. LOL 

I have been doing some crafting & have made some samples for the classes I will be doing in Roseburg in May.  I am getting quite adept at making a huge mess, but everything is back in place when I am finished. 

My new passion is Pinterest. Who knew.  I have found lots of great recipes I can actually cook in the RV.  Our favorite is Sweet & Sour Chicken.  Check out my boards.  I can also pin my photos from my phone to my boards & then upload them to the computer.  I really want to do some kind of a memory book about our first year travelling.  I plan on copying my blog entries & mixing in photos of what we have done.

More later...we have a lot to do in the next week to get ready to hit the road hard.  Rethinking what we really need & getting rid of some stuff & adding other stuff.  One thing for sure we are going through the storage unit in Roseburg & getting rid of boxes of "I think I might need these things someday" when we were packing up.  It is amazing how little you really need & everything else is just stuff.

Our RV is our home & it really does feel homey.  There is stuff on the counter, photos & a calendar on the refridgerator, pillows on the couch, Kilo's blankie on the floor, you know the usual.  There are so many nooks and crannies of storage that we have everything we need & want.  It feels natural to live in the RV & call it home.

I don't know how much travelling we will do.  I know going across country is pretty much out because of gas prices, but there is still a lot to see in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, and maybe Arizona.  California, not so much because it is so expensive, especially gas.  I have an app (I love apps) called the Gas Buddy.  All I have to do is type in the city and state & it tells us where the cheapest gas is at.  Then, we plug in the address with OnStar & we can go get cheap gas.  Cool huh? 

Another fave app is theWeather Bug.  We will use this a lot on the way home to check out weather conditions in any city.  Again, plug in the city and state & you have the weather for 7 days. 

Getting Ready...

We are fast approaching the next faze of our adventures.  Heading back to Oregon probably March 13 to finish preparations for Scrapbook Fun Fest, May 25.  I am also planning on teaching classes at Roseburg Book and Stationery in May.

Planning our route home is changing constantly.   We have several different ways we will go depending largely on the weather.

Rod went to Sacramento & was gone about 10 days helping a friend of ours move to Las Vegas.  After moving the majority of his stuff, they went back to CA to pick up one more load.  Kilo & I house sat with his two standard poodles - Claude & Edy.  They are so sweet & so good.  All of the "kids" got along just fine!

I am working on Scrapbook Fun Fest stuff & finished adding to the website.  It took about three days to get it just right & I still made a real "oops".  No matter how much you check and recheck and re recheck you still make mistakes.  One of the teachers is using Duck Dynasty product, which I accidentally typed "Dick Dynasty".  Oops!  Glad she caught it.

I will be posting class info & photos of the classes here.  They really are some of the best classes we have had, but I say that every year.

2 More BFFs

OK, this is the last in the series of BFFs we have encountered on the road.

Mr. Sirius XM radio started out as a FREE but considering we do not have cable or satellite TV & our favorite station is gone...Fox News...we found it on Mr Sirius.  So lately we have been paying for him because when we go out as much as we do we turn to Fox News which is exactly what is playing on the TV.  However, Mr. Sirius may become a very bad boy.  Mr. Sirius is saying it is going to take Fox News off the its service.  So we will have to say Bye, Bye to this friend if he does.  He would no longer be  a BFF.

The very bestest friend we met & believe me they have become a life saver.  I say they because we never know if he or she will talk to us.  Who are they?  Mr. & Mrs. OnStar.  They have a lot of functions, but we contact them whenever we need directions either to or out of places in every city & town we have travelled. 

Seriously, OnStar has bailed us out of a couple of scary places. We realized our old GPS is not that reliable.  So if we are ever in doubt where to go...OnStar button is right there for us!

Saying Goodbye, Saying Hello

When we embarked on this journey we had to say goodbye to old friends.  Friends we have known for 6 years or longer.  It was hard, but new friends have taken their places.

For instance, we had to say goodbye to the Kenmore twins - Washer & Dryer.  We were friends for 11 yrs. & really didn't know what we would do without them.  However, new twins have taken their place: The Laundry-Mat Twins, Washer & Dryer 2.  I never thought I could cozy up to these new twins because I have always been a snob about Laundry-Mat Twins.  I have found that they are a lot nicer & cleaner than the others I encountered in the past outside of an RV Park.  You know the PUBLIC Laundry-Mat Twins.

Another old friend we said goodbye to was - Mr. Direct TV.  All our satellite TV channels & programs gone.  We were hoping that we could strike up a cable TV relationship at the various RV Parks but found out that very few have cable TV.  Why?  Because most people travel with their satellite TV friends Direct & Dish TV.

How are we coping?  There was a great new friend waiting for us we didn't expect & she travels with us no matter where we go.  It's Ms. TV from the Antenna on our rig.  Who knew?!  Granted she has limited stations: CBS, NBC, ABS, Fox, but she has channels we have come to know & love.  Most places call themselves MeTV & AntennaTV.  What's so wonderful about these stations is all the oldie shows like: Bionic Women, 6 Million Dollar Man, Adam-12, Emergency, Dragnet, and on and on.  We watch more of those show than anything else.

Yes, we miss HGTV, Discovery, History channels & especially Fox News, but Ms. TV from the Antenna on our rig has given us hours of enjoyment.

Next time I will introduce you to our last 2 new BFFs we have made on the road.  These two are probably the most important friends we could have made.

New BFFs

 Since we began this adventure I have made a few new BFFs.  For those of you who do not know what BFF is: Best Friend Forever

For my other BFFs no worry, they will never replace you!  Anyway the first BFF:
Her name is Febreeze.  She has been especially helpful & much loved here in Las Vegas.  Why?  Well, we like to go to different casinos for low cost eating and occasionally a little Kaching.  Since I believe all the smokers in the world are here in Nevada,  we always go home smelling like cigarette smoke.  Thanks to my new BFF I immediately spray down our clothes before they go in the hamper and VOILA no more smoke smell.

Another BFF: His name is Players Club Card.  Why he has 3 names I will never know, but he is very generous especially every time we are introduced at a new casino.  He finds free money for us or 2 for 1 dinners or dinner credits or movies for $3 and the list goes on and on.  We do love him for just himself, but the freebies aren't to bad either.

More BFF's later.

On the Road...

When we started out I thought staying hooked up through the Internet would be a breeze. HA!  Lots of the places we have stayed at have not caught up with the real world.  We usually hear..."We are trying to work out the kinks."  Lots of kinks out there.

If we had consistent Internet it would be so much easier to stay in touch.  Our one saving grace to stay somewhat in contact is that we have Smart phones & Internet through the phone service which we really rely on most of the time.

We are now at a RV park that has free Internet & it seems to be pretty good so far.

Staying in the Las Vegas area for awhile.  Our friend is definately moving here & Rod is going to help him drive some of his vehicles.  I am going to stick close to home & take care of the dog.  His new place is amazing & the view is to die for.

I think the one most important thing we brought with us has probably saved our marriage.  LOL  OK, picture the wife helping the husband back in to the tight RV space.  Picture her yelling..."Go right, No, go Left, go Slow..."  I can't tell you how many times we have witnessed this sight.  How have we avoided it?  Simple...Walkie Talkies.  Yep, Walkie Talkies.  It has made moving in & out of RV resorts simple & fast.  We have it down pat & hook up is a breeze along with backing in. 

I bought the Walkie Talkies for Rod as a Christmas present years ago.  I threw them in the pile of the things to pack in the RV & it has proved to be the best thing we could have ever packed.  You must ask to watch the ballet of machine & couple dancing through something that could have been more difficult.

The Desert

Who said the desert is hot? Whoever said that has not been to Las Vegas in January. It has been the weirdest weather ever in the Southwest. We have had hard freeze warnings the past 5 nights & one morning we woke up to icicles hanging from the bottom of the windows.

It is supposed to warm up to low 60's by the weekend, but whoo hoo has it been cold!

We will hang around here for another 5 - 6 weeks before taking our time heading back to Oregon. Scrapbook Fun Fest is looming ahead & we will getting into gear in the next few months.

Missing the coast a whole lot! Getting restless to move on over & explore.

We were able to meet up with my BIL at the Wynn for breakfast last week. He looked great & it was fun to catch up.

Our friend was able to buy his dream house here in Las Vegas & sell his house in Sacramento in less than 24 hours for more than he was asking. We will be helping him get all his stuff down here. Fun times & busy times a'coming.

Went to Senior Tuesday movie day last week at Sam's Town & saw "Lincoln". It really was amazing although Rod fell asleep during some of the longer oratories.

Heading out to a new area near here next week. More on that!

I have been posting photos on Rod's facebook page. Didn't get a photo of it, but we went to "Amore Taste of Chicago" for Chicago style pizza last night. It was amazing! Definitely going back to try some of the other items they have.