2009 - ChrisBeth'nEmily

Oops

10 Nov 2009
Yuma, Arizona

    The good news is: We are only 4 weeks away from our cruise thru the Panama Canal. Yippee!!!

    The bad news is: Chris suddenly realized his Green Card was expiring on the 12th of this month!!! Yipes!!! He can go on the cruise; he just can't ever come back??? Okay, let's deal with the U.S. Government bureaucracy in a crisis mode. What do you suppose the chances of his getting an expedited card are? I didn't think so either...

    Stay tuned, as they say...

    It's been a busy while - yesterday was the going away party for Faye, one of our beloved neighbors from the RV lot area. She will be in southern Idaho all winter caring for her elderly mother. We'll miss her! She is one of our Cancer Survivor heroines.

      Today we met some new friends - great new friends that grow gourds!!! They are old time regular SnowBirds and brought a whole passel of big, medium and small gourds down from New Plymouth, Idaho (and sold a small quantity to me, of course.)  They also do metal/gold detecting. We may go out Sunday to their "Hunt" and inspect the troops and equipment. We've talked about getting into this before, but never had a guru. Chris thinks it could cost even more than gourds, if he tried.

    This weekend is the big neighborhood garage sale. We've all been scrounging in the back of the closets to find more "stuff" we don't need. So other people can buy the "stuff" and then find out they don't need it either. The old printer is gone; the pain in the neck floor scrubber; the old vacuum which was just replaced by the new one in Tucson; a HUGE collection of trashy novels and mystery books; and lots of "miscellaneous."

    My brother Mike and wife Dawn are leaving South Africa tomorrow morning on their way home - after 18 months of difficult and diligent work in all of southern Africa - Ethiopia to South Africa. He's been the Security specialist for the Mormon church and responsible to ensuring the safety and security of the young (and old) missionaries and the physical facilities. Their off the clock adventures and sightseeing have been incredible! He is a fantastic photographer and has documented so much, so well. It will be nice to know they are safely back in the fold, however. Their kids and grandkids are especially pleased at their homecoming.

    Chris took apart one of Eric's dead laptop computers (again) this week. He previously dismantled it while we were in Boise in July, but then, the first time he used it, it gave out a puff of smoke and died. The autopsy photos show the black spot:

     We haven't heard yet from him if he is coming for the final services, or wants the remains shipped home for burial...

    And how is your week????

-----------------------------------------

Quotes for the day:

Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?  - Clifford Stoll

A family is a unit composed not only of children, but of men, women, an occasional animal, and the common cold. - Ogden Nash

November

2 Nov 2009 Yuma, Arizona

    It's now officially Snowbird  Winter Visitor Season in Yuma - the traffic is slow; the grocery stores are packed; the doctors' offices are making appointments weeks out; the border crossing at Algodones is backed up the hill; the dress code for a formal restaurant dinner is cutoffs and a tank top...

    The annual Halloween Party at Bruce and Donetta's was fun - the kids have found out we all pool our resources and the "take" can be impressive at this stop. Mo and Mary and Bob and Jolene were absent - the "girls" contract wasn't renewed this year, so we're missing the neighborhood nurses. And Robert and Faye weren't there - they have decided to go separate ways (from us and each other - at this age relationships are supposed to last, I thought.) Don and Nancy made it in from Minnesota the day before - it must be Halloween, the Minnesota kids are here... Last year they waited until the party had started to appear.

We don't go in for elaborate costumes in our neighborhood... well, other than Bert, with his electrical tape - no duct tape for this craftsman! - shirt - this belongs on "There, I fixed it..."

    We had a bunch of them over to the house for a grilled steak Sunday afternoon, and then played with the new Wii games for a while. Methinks I must practice a bit more before taking on Bruce again in anything. They got their own Wii and are awesome competitors.

    I ran down to Wal-Mart last night to buy new printer ink for my old Canon. Turns out they not only didn't have the right one (of course) but a new HP printer cost less than what a combined set of ink for the Canon would be - and it came with its own ink. Gimme a break! The only reason I bought it (you knew I did) was because the HP refills for it are half the price as for the old one we already have. Maybe the new incompetent POS Kodak printers did some good in the world, besides costing us a lot of money a year ago. Did they bring down the cost of ink at the competition?

     Gourd Season has also officially begun - everything leading up to now was just the preliminaries. It has to be full time immersion for the next month. I ran around to a few RV resorts with my ego and brochure in hand - and now have classes to teach! Whee! This should be fun. Two different parks here in town, plus my great Blythe ladies. Methinks I'm going to use up some of the hundreds of gourds stacked in the Playhouse! Nancy laughed at the quantities... Chris just rolls his eyes.

------------------------------------------

Quotes for today:

My husband lets me have all the craft supplies I can hide! - unknown source, but quoted by millions

Wisdom does not necessarily come with Age. Sometimes Age comes alone. - unknown

Dieting Religiously does not mean Preying on Sundaes and Worshiping Chocolate. - unknown

Dust thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of. - Benjamin Franklin

Monaco Rally

29 Oct 2009
Tucson, Arizona

    The good news is: we didn't feel the need to purchase a new home at the rally. The other good news is: other people did feel the spirit - 17 of them! - the dealers were pleased! The sales board was updated at the last minute by one more sale.

This is not one of the Beaudry's employees - it was from "decor" not "sales"...

 

    We had really terrific food during the rally - too much, too many calories, too many carbs, but good. We had breakfast provided each morning (hmmm, we may have missed that...) and dinner each night.

    Thursday night we sat with friends, for a change - Lowell and Sandy from Southern California, that we've known for most of the past 10 years of RVing. During our conversations, they reinforced everyone else's good words about cruises. And then proceeded to tell all the horror stories of trips gone bad. Gee thanks, guys.

 

    Oh, and one more acquisition from the rally - and this one didn't cost anything! - was several starts from a beautiful little green plant from Iris. It's been a long time since I had a green living thing in my home. Let's see if I can keep it that way...

---------------------------------------------

Quotes for the day:

Food is an important part of a balanced diet. -Fran Lebowitz

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world. - J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 - 1973)

 

And then we went to Tucson

28 Oct 2009
Tucson, Arizona

    No sooner do we arrive at Yuma than we leave! What kind of life is this???? Oh, yeah, we are RVers and can leave any time we want! We love this lifestyle!

    We're in Tucson, at Beaudry's RV Resort for a week - basking in the sunshine (well, the first few days were warm and sunny... and then the wind and cold arrived!) and partaking of the RV Rally Lifestyle with 450+/- of our closest friends. Or at least 100 of our best Beaver Buddy friends, plus a lot of Monacos and Holiday Ramblers and other such assorted people. Beaver was purchased by Monaco several years ago. I don't believe they didn't realize at the time what a Brand Loyalty the Beavers had. One of my favorite stories is the rally bags handed out at one of the first "Monaco-Beaver" rallies, when many, many of the participants returned the bags embellished with the Monaco name because "I bought a Beaver, not a Monaco!!!!" And yes, I kept my bag, but I gave it to the grandkids...

    Anyway, here we are - no longer "Monaco" but a division of Navistar, the truck and tractor people. Hmmmm. This certainly seems to fit. LOL  We came, primarily, to  see what the Navistar people had to say. It was interesting that the first night Kay Toolson was introduced (the old CEO of Monaco and leader during the bankruptcy and acquisition) he did not get a standing ovation. In fact, there may have been scattered applause. Not a lot of owners are pleased that Monaco sold its name, but not its warranty problems, to Navistar.

    They now promise everything is fantastic. The coaches will be built with no problems, therefore, there is no need for Service Centers ever again. As Chris says, "Si, Pepe." I'm sure glad we didn't buy a new model in the last couple of years and have the struggle to get the glitches fixed.

    But, the best part of being here is the terrific group of Beaver owners - we've seen old friends we haven't run into since Minnesota last year, or Alaska 3 years ago, or Wyoming the year before... We really, really, really like this group of people!

    And I bought a fantastic new vacuum at the vendor tent. Whee! This one is going to replace two others!!! Cool. (How can one get excited about a new vacuum???)

New Years

21 Oct 2009
Yuma, Arizona

    My mother taught school for years and years. Her idea of New Years was September - that's when summer ended and school began. The calendar New Years was just an arbitrary date that came in the middle of the Christmas break.

    I sorta feel the same way. We've been and done all summer - now we settle into our little nest amongst friends in Yuma for most of the winter. It's a whole new year.

    And the past summer was a very good one!

*January - Nancy and I played Family History at Mesa at a great conference; I initiated gourd instructing at friend Sue's camp in Blythe. (Hey, this is fun!)

*February - we gorged on gourds for almost a week at Casa Grande...

*March - ?? What did we do in March???

*April - we left Winter Quarters way early and did a forced march to Indianapolis, where we gorged on Indy 500 for a month (hmmm two gorges in one year.) It was a WOW! Never to be forgotten experience. We did stop in Oklahoma City on the way for a couple of days of sightseeing on the way...

*May - the rest of Indy and the Big Race. Then the race to get out of town and back to full hook-up parking spots...

*June - we explored parts of central Oklahoma, including Muskogee and Indian history... and then on to Texas - our "home state". I flew to Boise for the granddau's graduation before we spent a week or so in the Fort Worth area which included parts of a ballgame, a visit to the zoo and the running of the bulls; a stop in Waco to see the Texas Rangers; a couple of weeks in the Hill Country with family and friends looking for property and taking painting lessons

*July - there was a week in Abilene, just because it was on the way; a swing through Boise, Oklahoma; a couple of days in the NRA camp at Raton, NM; several days in Colorado Springs at a fantastic state park and a visit with a favorite niece and family; a quick stop in Boise, Idaho to hug a kid and grandkid; a couple of weeks in central Oregon - John Day for touristing and Bend for motorhome repairs; Portland to visit cousins and gourd gurus...

*August - was Washington... three weeks or so on the Olympic Peninsula, where we kept (deliberately) running into Howard & Lynda; two weeks in Bothell, where we visited friends and family and played a lot with gourds..

*September - was more Washington! We settled down for over 2 weeks in Chelan in a great city park by the lake; we cheered on Todd, Lisa and Taft as they ran the marathon...

*October - back to Boise, where we finally got the fridge fixed and spent time with the youngest grandkid and then split town when the winter weather reports started coming in... we didn't escape the weather entirely, but by the time we hit St. George it was beautiful. We ran into groups of friends and relatives in St. George and Las Vegas, and then beat feet for Yuma...

    All in all - all 7,800 miles of it - it was a good summer. Hope yours was also!

Yuma, as in "Warm Yuma"

15 Oct 2009
Yuma, Arizona

    You know it's been a bad week when I haven't even had time to update the blog! Fish to feed, tanks to scrub clean, animals to buy and breed, trees to shake, zookeepers to buy 'cause I don't have enough friends - life is tough!

    Even worse, I've been in the throes of moving back into the house from the motorhome. It should be a piece of cake - I have duplicates of almost everything; we park the beast right outside the front door for a day or two; the weather has been beautiful with no wind nor sandstorms; my neighbor found me a very nice lady to help with the heavy cleaning. So why do I feel like I've been abused? It has something to do with my general attitude about housework, I know. We've spent several days cleaning up all the dust and tossing out all the little dead bugs - and vacuuming, and cleaning the fridge(s), and the cupboards, and trying to find place for all the food from Pugs into the tiny little areas in the house.  

    Oh, well, in a day or two it will all settle down. And then it will be time to load up the necessaries for a week in Tucson at a Monaco Rally the end of the month. No food will be moved! We're going to eat out every night!!!! So there. Well, except for breakfast stuff... and bird food...

    We had some great and almost unexpected company this week. Pam's mother Zeta and her friend George were on their way from San Diego to Harlingen, Texas and stopped by to see us. We've only met Zeta a time or two - this was a way better visit. We went to the Elks Club for chicken dinner and then to Parrish's for fish and chips the next night. I'll insert a photo tomorrow sometime - the miserable computer has been nasty to me today.

    A lot of the SnowBirds have obviously made the migration already; the town - and its streets and parking lots - is filling up. I guess we were slow this year. I talked with Deane the other day - she is just leaving Seattle area, so we aren't the very last ones in. And we have a couple of new neighbors on our house street - real people that are nice and have jobs and kids and such. 

    The weather has been perfect, but is heading for the 100s this weekend in Yuma. At the opposite extreme - Trevor reported the first snowfalls in New York this week. Says it's a bit cold also. Poor baby...

   

Less usual quotes for the day:

Did you know people study our lifestyle???

Snowbird Studies

And write free-flowing prose about it???

Snowbirds by Peter Conners

My maternal grandparents were snowbirds; the scent of their plumage an evergreen air freshener dangling off the rearview mirror of a Cadillac. As with all snowbirds, they were white. This helped them blend into their creamy plush interior, a southwest trajectory taking them farther into lands of brown and green. The flight of snowbirds flaps to a bossa nova beat: snowbirds, shuffleboard, snowbirds, shuffleboard…

There are outposts across America down every alcove into the Baja peninsula; RV nests snug under striped awnings, wafts of hibachi smoke and prime time tv shows an outlet away as gray whales breed and breech a mile offshore. It is amazing what we have learned we need to live with. As a boy perched atop my grandparents' enclosed patio the snowbirds sang out to each other forty feet up through spiny courtyard trees. The call of the snowbirds. Their names have long since turned into historical references - Agnes, Mabel, Cora, Mina - feline frames on swinging link chains, ankles thick with water and weight. Children, grandchildren, signs of the cross: signify the snowbird.

My family flew with the snowbirds for years; six of us drafting on eighteen wheeler currents. A paneled station wagon stuffed with swimsuits, snorkels, eye drops and playing cards; despite daily divisions, united in flight. And my grandparents, those snowbirds, greeted us in powder blue plaids, pastels, seldom seen elbows and knees. Lovingly showed us their pool, their games, tidy early bird food and flock. The world of the snowbird. My maternal grandparents were snowbirds, now gone, so forgive me if I see a vision of them through these snowy poem branches: side by side, taking flight, slipping this cold winter cage for the comfort of warmer climes. - Copyright © Peter Conners

> Are you a 3-month SnowBird? or a 6-monther?

> Did you know Derek Jeter is a SnowBird???

   

I don't think we're in Washington anymore...

8 Oct 2009 Las Vegas, Nevada

    As we drive across the desert from Mesquite to Las Vegas, we smile with relief. There are no mountains. There are no green hills. There are no leafy trees. There are Joshua Trees and cactus. There are palm trees in town. There is sand. There are open vistas of land and contours. WE'RE HOME!!! It's the desert! And we love it. 

Checking in at the Oasis in Las Vegas.

    Yesterday was a fun day. We thought we had the surprise of the week in running into AJ and Irene, but no, on the way out of town we pulled over in a crummy little truck lay-by to kill some time so we wouldn't be too early for our reserved spot in Las Vegas. Suddenly great huge bellowing Beaver coaches started appearing and pulling in beside us... full of friends! It was the end of a multi-week rally through the national parks of Colorado and Utah - all of them heading for the same RV park in Las Vegas as we were. We exchanged hugs and stories of the summer and continued on. Cool!

    We made reservations with Gene & Brenda for dinner Thursday night; the Beaver banquet was reservations only -  months ago - and we had nothing to do. My cute and wonderful husband came up with a brilliant idea - why don't we go see Lion King?  WHEE! We may be the last two people on earth that have not seen it; it was live at the Mandalay Bay theater; we had motive and opportunity. It was a marvelous evening!

    I may have sneaked one or two small unauthorized non-flash photos....

 

    We ate dinner at Mandalay Bay before the show and laughed - a little different than the McDonalds in St. George from the night before; a whole bunch different from the pasta in the motorhome in Snowville a couple of nights before that. We do enjoy living with diverse means of fun and food.

Quote for the day:

Hakuna matata. What a wonderful phrase.

Hakuna matata. Ain't no passing craze.

It's a problem free..philosophy.

Hakuna matata. -- The Lion King

The Opening Ceremonies

7 Oct 2009
St. George, Utah - "Dixie"

    The Huntsman World Senior Games opened with a flourish last night - parades, skydivers, enthusiasm galore, dancing girls - and boys, American Idol cast-off singers, national flags, inspirational talks, balloons, a torch lighting and lots of fireworks - in addition to the 9,000+ athletes, all over 50 years old. Life is good!

"The Huntsman World Senior Games have come a long way from that first year in 1987 when St. George, Utah, USA, welcomed a few hundred athletes competing in a handful of sports.  From those humble beginnings, the Games have grown into the world’s largest annual Olympic-style sports festival for men and women ages 50 and better."

    Dixie College was the scene (did you know the climate is moderate enough here for cotton to grow? and why do you think this area has been called "Dixie" since the late 1800s? but then it turned out SnowBirds are a better cash crop.)

    The PickleBallers did themselves proud in the parade (they are trooping right behind the double flags. the camera with the good telephoto lens gave up its battery life at the improper moment, of course, so these are cell phone photos - hmmm, not bad! at twilight from too far away...):

    My favorite parts of the gala were the flag-wrapped girls - each country represented had a butterfly-like costumed girl dancing about (that's what the one on the left is, and the ones below) - and later they were introduced one at a time for "their" country - it was cool! Too bad I didn't have a decent camera... grrrr...

    The listing of events one could enter at this festival of sports is amazing: PickleBall (the most important group), Softball (the biggest group), Golf, Shooting, Tennis, Lawn Bowling, Square Dancing, Archery, Volleyball, Chess, Cowboy Action Shooting, Swimming, Triathlon, Bridge... there are 25 different "sports."

    Now, aren't my loyal readers pleased we happened into town and were able to educate you also???

Quotes for the day: (hmmm - do you note any prejudice here?)

“I have never taken any exercise except sleeping and resting.”  Mark Twain

“Exercise is bunk. If you are healthy, you don't need it: if you are sick you should not take it.” - Henry Ford

“It's very important to have the right clothing to exercise in. If you throw on an old T-shirt or sweats, it's not inspiring for your workout.” - Cheryl Tiegs

“I don't exercise. If God had wanted me to bend over, he would have put diamonds on the floor.” - Joan Rivers

Life is Better!

6 Oct 2009
St. George, Utah

    Life is Great! We slogged through the wind and rain and sleet and snow (well, some of the above - definitely the wind and rain) heading south toward light and sun and warmth. And we found it! St. George is all of the above. 

    Even better, as I walked toward the clubhouse in the Temple View RV Park yesterday afternoon, I ran head-on into AJ, a marvelous friend from our old days of being Real People Who Own Stick-Built Houses - they also succumbed to the call of the open road, 4 years ago now. He and Irene are here for the Huntsman World Senior Games - they are PickleBall players extraordinaire. It's almost as addicting as computer games, I understand, but we mouse potatoes don't have to have knee surgery and rotator cuff remediation... We were immediately invited to a pot luck dinner last night and were able to meet some of their pickle-y friends. It was a great group. Tonight we're looking forward to the Opening Ceremonies - all the old guys carrying flags and marching around the field. Cool.

    We haven't seen AJ & Irene for a year or so. Again I have to love our lifestyle - running into old buddies anywhere in the country is so fun. 

    We'll go on to Las Vegas for a couple of days to visit with Gene and Brenda, and then it's on to Yuma... Is the summer over? We've been almost six months on the road. Time to vegetate for a while.

This is named the "Temple View" RV park, but you have to stand in the exact right right location... or be willing to do some creative cropping...

We've never "spectated" PickleBall before, but now we know all about it!

The court -

 

The players and paddle:

Earrings optional... and you should see the awesome tattoo of fly fishing on his head and back.

     

The opening gun has sounded for the Winter Potluck Season!

Quote for the day:

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself. - A. H. Weiler

In my experience, it is rarer to find a really happy person in a circle of millionaires than among vagabonds. -Thor Heyerdahl

Boise is cold...

1 Oct 2009
Boise, Idaho

    We moved over to a "real" RV park in Meridian. Our favorite - Boise-Meridian RV - it was designed and built by engineers, with straight lines, concrete and grass, diagonal parking and a nice clubhouse...  And then the temperatures dropped! This morning was 37 degrees! Yikes! Time to head south!!!

    Tuesday I went over to visit Eric's new quarters - he sold the house and moved into an apartment. His new front yard looks over at the fantastic Boise Train Depot and its gardens one way, and down at the city below in another direction. Another plus is the 15 minute walk - down the hill - to Boise State, where he teaches part-time. The trip home might take a few minutes longer... He is definitely on the "Bench" - one of Boise's neighborhoods. This apartment is sorta like our RV lifestyle - the living room and kitchen are small, but the front yard is fantastic!

    It was an overcast day - I'll try to get a better photo to replace this one - the depot is beautiful white stucco in the mission style (??) (Is this another similarity to RV living? We almost always have trains nearby.) None - or few - trains come through here anymore - Amtrak gave it up.

    We had dinner at Pam's the other night - without Pam, she was working - but enjoyed the time with Addison and Bailey.

    Let's see, other family news - another of our good looking grandsons is heading off to do the two-year service as a Mormon Missionary. Taft, the marathon runner, will leave the first of November for his tour in Buenos Aires, Argentina! Hmmmm. Methinks I can feel a trip to South America coming on for Chris and Beth sometime in the next few years.

    Unfortunately, Private Caitlin is heading home - she did not make it through boot camp for medical reasons. Now she has to decide what to do with the rest of her life. She'll be back in Boise within the next week, it appears. The Army takes longer to undo than to do, seems like. We are disappointed for her - she really wanted the training and job opportunities they offered.

    All our spare time this week has been totally wasted on STUPID computer games!!! Why do I let myself get roped in? I have barely enough time to plant and harvest my FarmTown fields, let alone feed my fish and clean the tank, and then along comes this fantastic Zoo... Does anyone want a Siberian Tiger? Sorry, I have to go train my Bald Eagle now...