The Wilsons

2012-01-19T07:48:00.003-07:00

Hi all, I finally remembered that I should probably post something here for all to read. We have had a busy January and it's only half over.

We enjoyed a great New Years and celebrating Allan's 60th birthday. Yup, he is officially a senior citizen and to prove it he will be receiving his first Canada Pension Plan (CPP) cheque next month. Yeah! More money.

More money! Yeah! We have now spent his 2012, 2013 & probably 2014 alottment of CPP cheques. We went to Redlands last week to have some new MCD blinds installed in the motor home and then we decided we should get a different brake system for the car/motor home so we had the SMI break system installed while there.

Next off to Indio to enjoy the annual FMCA rally. We met up with several of our friends at the Spotlight 29 Casino so we could enter the fairgrounds together so we could park together. Done and done. We enjoyed much laughter and beverages while at the rally every day with our friends. First time we have ever bought liquor by the case. Bought a case of Margaritas from Costco ($9.99 per bottle). Spent days visiting the vendor areas.

Allan ended up chatting with the Redlands folks again about our noise in the front end of the motor home and they sent a rep down to take a look. Oh! oh! It was the shocks that needed replacing, but not only that we found that a rear seal was leaking and we need to have a brake service (lube brake parts and change fluid) . . . so . . . after the rally is done - off we go - back to Redlands to have new shocks installed, the rear seal replaced and the brakes cleaned, flushed and whatever else they needed to do. WOW! what a difference new shocks makes, no more clunk! clunk! clunk! when travelling. We just need to get the rear shocks done at Quartzsite.

We made it back to Blythe for 2 days so that we could empty the holding tanks and refill everything for our trip to Quartzsite this week. We will be heading out today for another rally with most of the same friends we were with in Indio. They are great and lots of fun.

We will also be meeting up with some other friends from Alberta. They are parked a half mile down the road, so we will be dropping in to see them while they are in the area.

Busy, busy, busy!

2012-01-02T14:08:00.009-07:00

Man oh man, it really is true. If you want something done, you have to do it yourself. I love my wife , but she obviously is really busy because she has not taken a turn at updating the Blog. Now, I know that I am going to hear about this, but, I gotta be me.

We got the flooring all done in the Park Model and it looks great. It shows the dust really easy, but you just keep it dusted.

Sue went with her friend and delivered her husband to the airport. Then, on black Friday, he was scheduled to come back. So, the girls got up early and headed back to Phoenix. They were going to do some shopping before Bob got back at 2:30. Well, Bob phoned and said he missed his connecting flight in Detroit because he spent some time with Immigration. Bob's flight arrived at 6:30, so the girls had an extra 4 hours of shopping. We kidded Bob that he was walking funny (you gotta love them body cavity searches) when he finally got here.

Before the return to Phoenix, about 10 women from the park had gone to Bells (Bealls) for a 95% off day. One lady had about two shopping bags full and was pulling out her credit card to pay when the cashier said that will be $4.47 please. Oh heck, I can afford to pay cash was her comment.

We had an excellent Thanksgiving Dinner with about 170 of our neighbors.

We went for a day trip to Yuma and saw Beth and Chris (Sue's gourding girlfriend). They have bought a house in Caldwell, Idaho and will be spending their summers there rather than traveling. So, they are going to give up their rental house in Yuma and live in their Motor Home in the winter. Just like normal winter folk.

December just flew by and it was Sue's birthday, then Christmas. Again, we had dinner with about 160 of our neighbors and food was great. Sue made some candied yams for our table to supplement the vegetables done by the social committee.

New Years eve had the comedy duo of Bernie & Red performing. This is the third time that we have seen them perform, and they still keep us laughing so hard we get tears. We hung around after the performance to see the New Year come in and then headed home. We were planning a desert run in the morning.

There were a total of 4 buggies and one jeep.

We got out there and set up a little day camp because we were going to have a BBQ wieners.

Before lunch, we went out a couple of times, The first time out, I got stuck, but was able to back up and continue on. The second time out, I was going to go left off the top of one dune and all of a sudden, the buggy went right. Stuck! I tried to back up, but only succeeded in showering myself with sand. I was high centered. Sue got out of the car and had to hang on because she was sliding down the hill in the soft sand. On the radio and asked for help and a shovel. Bob and John went back and picked up the shovel. This is the second attempt to get me out. You can see some ruts in the sand where Bob dug down and we had to pull him out to try again.

This didn't work to well. as you can see by the flying sand.

We need Bob to change positions again, but he needed to disconnect first.

I think it was about the 5th try that I finally got pulled off the sand. We played abit more and then went back for lunch.

After lunch, Bob and Jeanette went for a run. The people that did not get stuck were the ones without the sand tires. I guess they made Bob and I too confident.

As you can see, at least he was not to far from camp.

All in all, it was a good day. We all got home safe and sound, tired and dusty.

2011-11-10T21:09:00.006-07:00

Well, that did not last. Here it is two weeks later and no updates.

We did get the motor home washed and it looked really good.

We spent a busy week hosting the rally at the Bakersfield RV Resort.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and it looks like we will be going back.

We spent the day after the rally relaxing at the resort. The next day, Friday, we headed out to Blythe. We stopped in Redlands at one of the rally seminar presenters company and have ordered new blinds for the front of the motor home.

Then, on to Blythe. We arrived about 4:20 and parked the motor home.

We had ordered soft water installed, but they were not available until Monday, so we stayed in the coach.

On Monday, we also went down town to look at flooring for the Park Model. So much for moving in. Tuesday, all the furniture got moved out and Wednesday morning, new flooring started to go in. The phrase "If your out door furniture used to be your indoor furniture, You might be a Red Neck" really came into play. It looks like tomorrow, Friday, we should be able to move the furniture back in. We should be able to start enjoying the Park Model then.

Sue is off tomorrow with one of our friends and headed over to Phoenix. The husband, Bob, is flying to Quebec to see his grand children. Jeanette did not want to drive in Phoenix and wanted someone to go with her. Sue volunteered.

Not much else is happening (as if this has not been enough) right now, so I will sign of again. Maybe we can update sooner.

2011-10-27T20:12:00.002-06:00

It is the start of another season and I am already behind. We left home the middle of October and travelled to Powell Butte, OR. We spent some time with John and Jeannie Martin. We then headed out to Canyonville and the Seven Feathers Casino RV Resort. Here we met up with Bruce and Michele. We hope we have convinced them to come down by Christmas.

Now, we are sitting in Bakersfield RV Resort where we will be hosting the Safari International, Western Region rally. I know that we will have pictures.

Speaking of which, I need to take a picture of the Motor Home as we had it washed and waxed. WOW.

This year, we are going to try an update the blog more often. No promises, though, just try.

2011-03-22T08:51:00.002-06:00

Hi all, I just realized it's been over a month since I posted something on the blog - boy have I been remiss about that or just plain busy. Yup I will go with busy. Let's see what have I done ...

Well I have been working hard doing a little bit of work every morning, then it's get dressed, make breakfast, do a little bit of housework and then get ready to play cards in the afternoon with the girls.

Jo-anne and Whitey came for a 2 day visit so I got to gourd with her for 2 days and got 3 other girls involved in gourding so now I have more friends to play with. Broke one of of my dremel bits and Allan bought me a whole bunch of dremel drill bits so I should be good to go.

I made a visit to Yuma to go play with Beth my gourd mentor and finish my Buggy Club Eh! gourd that I started last year. I needed Jo-anne and Beth to help me out as I am not a painter/artist and I needed their input in order to turn our right. I liked it, the girls liked it, but most importantly Allan liked it. I will get him to post a picture of it later.

It's now that time of year when everyone is thinking of heading home so there are lots of happy hours and good bye parties as everyone is trying to eat up all of their food. We can sometimes get really creative.

Jeanette had a happy hour/birthday party for Bob's 60th birthday pool side. Can people here cook up great appetizers or what and then there was hot dogs and cake. On Sunday we were in Quartzsite and helped celebrate 5 peoples birthday - OMG! Talk about food and then there was hot dogs, chili and lasagna. I ended up being the designated driver for Keith and Lee.

Bob and Joan have moved over from Salome to Blythe onto our other lot, so Allan has been busy getting the shed ready for the washer/dryer and fridge that were going into the shed and now we are having the back area laid with blocks in order to make a little patio for them that is in the sunny hot area. It should be finished any day now - just the sand to be spread over it.

We finally went on 2 buggy runs last week and with the new suspension it was great - my back didn't hurt at the end of the day. It was great fun, lots of laughs and we just happened to pick the 2 hottest days 92F and 97F to spend in the desert. Oh well, that's life.

We will be heading back to Alberta on April 10 so I'm hoping the snow will be done and the heat turned on.

2011-02-10T06:28:00.003-07:00

Where does the time go! I can't believe it's almost the middle of February.

Started off the month with a visit from a friend from Canada Andy and his wife Lynne dropping in for a visit.

Then our next door neighbours (Bob and Joan) from up home came over and that same day we received an email from Bob's brother that they were in the area so they came over as well. Had a great lunch of hot dogs and wine for the gals and hot dogs and beer for the boys.

Great news about Bob and Joan, they are going to be coming to our resort in a few weeks to stay here for their winters instead of staying in Salome.

Allan and I just got back from a great trip that has been planned since the summer. The annual Wuertz Farms Gourd Festival in Casa Grande. My friend Beth got me into decorating gourds and I love it. So earlier this summer I registered for some courses at the festival. We packed our bags and all of my tools and other stuff that I absolutely need to gourd with and headed out on a day that promised to make driving an RV a rotten day. Weather warnings through California and Arizona, the rig wanting to go sideways due to the intense cross winds but Allan fought his way along and we arrived in Casa Grande with 10 minutes to spare to meet up with Beth so we could park along side each other at the festival.

Dang, it was cold but fortunately for us we had power - granted only 15 amps - but it was enough that we could run the furnace and a little heater as well without blowing the circuits. We ended up lending our second little heater to Chris and Beth so they could stay warm as well.

The first day arrives and some of the classes are outside and the organizers ended up having to move those classes inside - it was only 23F or -2C. My class got moved as well but for some reason our classroom had heat so I was nice and toasty warm.

My first class was spent playing with paper clay - I am not good with this medium - my cactus looked like a six year old did it and that is not being very nice to artistic six-year olds (sorry). I will try one more time just so I can say I did try.

My second class was spent using alcohol paints and doing something called couching (later nicnamed grouching). I liked using this medium and my gourd actually turned out very nicely and I'm actually proud of something that I did - next time I do one though I will be using some very long needle nose pliers (hence the grouching term).

Day 3 was spent learning tricks on wood burning. My instructor was extremely good in giving pointers on what I was doing wrong and by the end of the class my burns were a lot better. Again I was really happy with my gourd - it turned out really nice.

Day 4 - the hard class - wood burning and carving with a dremel tool. I stole Allan's dremel that he inherited from his dad so it is going to great use BUT it's really hard to do. It really needs a slow and gentle touch. Learned some great skills from my instructor so I was really happy with that gourd as well. Now I just need to finish it them all and put them on display.

Every evening Chris and Beth and Allan and I would get together for happy hour and we would discuss what Beth and I did in class. It was great to have her there - she gave me some great ideas which she always seems to have and I learned so much from her from before the festival and during the festival - she is an awesome gourder.

Time to come back to Blythe. The weather had been gradually warming up all weekend so it was a nice trip back.

We stopped in Mesa for lunch with our neighbours from up home (Bill and Dean) and spent a great afternoon with them laughing and swapping stories. That evening we dropped in on Derek and Janis, some former neighbours from the lake who live in Apache Junction. We went out to dinner and again spent the evening laughing and swapping stories.

The next day, we started our trek home and stopped in Anthem for a visit with more friends (Lorraine and Jim). They met us at the local Safeway parking lot and took us to their place for lunch. Had a great time visiting with them until it was time to head back to the motor home to go to Salome for the night.

Arrived in Salome in time for happy hour with our Canadian neighbours (Bob and Joan). Joan bless her heart invited us for dinner so spent time meeting their friends at Salome during happy hour and then spent the evening with Bob and Joan. We talked more about their move to Blythe as we will be in the desert when they actually move in.

Arrived back in Blythe around lunch time yesterday. Got the motor home unpacked, made Allan lunch and then called Susie and told her to come on over for cards. Spent a lovely happy hour catching up with friends (Jim and Carolyn) that arrived in the park while we were gone. It is so nice to have them back in the park. Carolyn is a gourder so now I have someone locally to play with.

Oh well - time to go - got to go back to work sometime. More later.

2011-01-29T06:27:00.003-07:00

Hi all, well I have been bad about not posting stuff here, but then again I have a really good reason. I have been busy.

First came Christmas - Santa was really nice to us - remember that cruise on my previous post - well Merry Christmas to us.

Then Allan and I celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary (okay 33 years together actually). Had a nice dinner out.

Then came New Year's Eve - enjoyed a nice time at the club house with our neighbours, good music, good food, lots of laughs and even managed to stay up past midnight to welcome the new year in.

Spent a quiet New Year's Day at home celebrating Allan's birthday while also trying to recover from the lost sleep.

Next on the agenda was getting ready for our trip to the FMCA Rally in Indio. That was a week of fun in the sun. The weather got hotter and sunnier for the rally. We even managed somehow to get parked with a number of our Safari friends. It was really funny how without even trying a number of us all got parked together. Spent far too much money buying stuff (can't remember what we did buy). Of course we enjoyed many enjoyable hours around the happy hour table enjoying cold beverages and most nights we seemed to go out to dinner. Yeah! I love it when someone else cooks dinner.

Once the rally was done it was head back to Blythe for a week or so and then plan it so that we head out to Quartzsite for another rally there. This was the big trip - you see Quartzsite is only 20 miles away from us in Blythe, but we were going.

We packed up the motorhome again after unpacking, then cleaning and packing up again. Headed out to Quartzsite to park with our Safari friends again (most were new friends at this rally) but we were also meeting up with friends from the FMCA rally in Indio again. The rallymaster Patty and Frank put on some incredible meals. The first night was Wahdingers and then we had Whiskey Crab soup the next night...mmm! Spent time with other friends from the Alberta Wild Rose Chapter of FMCA - another group that we belong to - went to their camp for their potluck night and had some incredible food. WOW! Even though we are boondocking it we sure can eat well.

Finally saw some friends from Visalia (John and Ruth) and some other friends from Yuma (Chris and Beth) joined us in the desert for some fun.

We are back home now for another week before we head to Casa Grande. Beth and I are attending the Gourd festival there. Can't wait! Beth is my gourd instructor. She does some incredible work. I can only hope to have a fraction of her skill - oh well! Sigh!

I'll tell you more when we get back.

2010-12-25T08:40:00.002-07:00

We were good this year Santa left no coal at our home.

Merry Christmas everyone.

2010-12-21T07:30:00.005-07:00

Hola amigos, we went to Mexico on a 7 day cruise and fell in love with Mexico all over again. Bob and Jeanette came with us and we even had adjoining rooms on board ship. The ship itself was magnificent. The rooms were spacious, the bed comfortable and you could almost turn around in the showers.

You can so eat 24 hours a day on board a cruise ship - we didn't, but you can. The meals in the main dining room in the evening were wonderful and we all enjoyed all the various types of entertainment they offered on board ship. We had no bad weather so it was smooth sailing both ways.

We had a day at sea after we boarded to familiarise ourselves with the ship - finding all the places that were on board as well as where they were. Spent the day by the pool enjoying the warm sunny day.

Our first port of call was Cabo San Lucas - it felt like coming home. We walked quite a bit on the Malecon (boardwalk), window shopped as this area is really the diamond district and then wandered in the downtown area. We finally decided that it was time for lunch so we took a taxi up to Latitude 22. This is a restaurant that other friends introduced us to on our very first trip to Mexico and we have made it there at least once a year when in Mexico. Enjoyed some great food and some even better margaritas.

Our next port of call of Mazatlan. This is the first time we had ever been to mainland Mexico so we were pretty excited about arriving. When we arrived it was very foggy which apparently is very unusual, but it was still hot and extremely muggy with humidity.

We happened upon a van driver who spoke English extremely well and for $20. each he would give us a tour of his city. I think that was the best $20 we ever spent. He told us 3 hours - it was more like 6 hours by the time we made it back to the ship. We met another couple from another ship and we were joined by another couple from our ship. The nine of us piled into his van and went touring around the city. Every so once in a while we would say - we want to see this and there we went. He took us to a great jewellery store that supplies free margaritas while you shop - the more you drink - the more you buy - great sales pitch - oh and the margaritas were delicious. I purchased some pretty metal hummingbirds for our bathroom and Bob bought Jeanette a beautiful ring.

We were taken to watch some cliff divers and Bob was able to get a good picture. When I tried with our camera, I pressed the button when he jumped, he landed in the water and then our camera took the picture. Thanks Bob. Time for a new camera.

Off we went to this great restaurant that Lalo (our driver) recommended and the 8 of us sat together for our meal and talked and laughed. The other couple from our ship were celebrating their wedding anniversary so they were given balloon hats and sang to by the waiters. We made it back to the ship on time to board - gave our driver a great tip.

We even made arrangements for his cousin in Puerto Vallarta to pick up Bob and Jeanette and the other couple from our ship to take them around in PV.

The next day was Puerto Vallarta. We had made plans before we left Alberta to meet our friend Glinys from the lake when we arrived. We got off the ship, saw Lalo's cousin Hector for a minute and told him the others were coming and headed out to see if we could find Glinys. Well the smart lady that she is figured out which gate we would be leaving by and there she was to welcome us to her Mexican home. I had told her that I wanted to see her Mexican home that she shares with another friend from the lake Judy. Unfortunately Judy had already gone back to Canada for Christmas so we missed seeing her. Glinys has a lovely little house there. All we really saw was the living room and her bedroom as the rest of her place seemed like a warzone as it was being painted. We stayed there for a while visiting before heading out.

We told her what we wanted to see and she told us what she wanted to show us about her area.

One of the things that our ship did was to stay on Pacific time no matter which port we were in, so when we arrived in PV it was 7:30 am to us but it was actually 9:30 am to Glinys. Before we left to go to Bucerias where some of here former neighbours live she gave us shot of some really, really smooth sipping tequila (at 8:30 in the morning for us mind you). Does that give you an indication of how the day went?

Caught a taxi to take us to Walmart where we caught a bus to take us to Bucerias where Garry came to get us to drive us to his house. We visited with them for our 1.5 hours before it was time for Garry to drive us back to Bucerias to catch the bus to go downtown to pick up the final free gift that we could get from the diamond store.

Ran into Bob and Jeanette at the diamond store. They told us the other couple from the ship never showed up so Hector turned them over to another driver and they got a great tour of the city. They decided to go back to the ship while we still had one last stop. Benjamin's restaurant. Glinys met Benjamin a few years ago and they became great friends. He has opened a restaurant and Glinys has helped him at times so we wanted to meet him and see the restaurant.

What a wonderful group of people they are. We started out with margaritas - grandes of course. I think there were 3 of them in our glass that is how big they were. Then David made up some salsa right at our table - WOW was it delicious.

We then drank some of our margaritas - awesome but difficult to pick up so we drank from straws.

We then ordered some food - I believe it was called 3 Mexicans and a Gringo - starting to get the idea of what was going on. Had another margarita each, talking with Benjamin and David, taking pictures and then Glinys decided (I think) that we needed something else to eat - I know it had cheese, torillas and chorizo in it (can't remember the name though sorry) and another margarita each.

Glinys at one point left us to find a place that sells beer and brought Allan back 2 big beers that he wanted. Shortly after that we jumped or should I say fell into a cab to go back to the harbour to board the ship. It's a little fuzzy for me after that but suffice it to say we got back on board on time and the ship left PV and started the trek home.

Wow what a great day, the city of wonderful, the food was great, the people incredibly awesome and of course the margaritas - loaded for bear!

We spent the next 2 days on board ship cruising back to San Pedro (just south of Los Angeles).

It was very windy outside so Jeanette and I tended to stay inside and play cards and recover from the 3 days of sightseeing (no hangover or feeling ill for me thank goodness).

We arrived home on Sunday morning to rain and wind and cold weather. It is now Tuesday morning and I have a wonderful head cold. Oh well it was great while it lasted.

I will post more about on board the ship in the next few days or so.

Take care all.

2010-11-24T08:32:00.003-07:00

Hi remember me, the one who forgets to post stuff. Well let's see. We arrived safe and sound. We enjoyed the first 3 weeks here with really nice hot weather but then crap, someone forgot to pay the heating bill cause 2 days ago it got cold. Okay cold is relative. It's not -20 C like it is back home in Canada, but 10 C is cold for this area.

I am back to playing cards with my friends in the afternoon and doing a little work every morning. Life is good.

Allan got the dune buggy back from having some work done on it and it looks fantastic. Now it's ready for the sand dunes at Glamis. It is American Thanksgiving this weekend and we are going to the desert at Ehrenberg, AZ this weekend for a few days to play. We should have some fun.

More later.

2010-11-02T07:15:00.002-06:00

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!! Yes we are in Blythe finally!

Spent a great few days in Paso Robles, CA attending a Safari rally there. Saw some friends that we met at the Newport and Redmond rallies this past summer. Enjoyed some seminars (learned stuff) and of course ate, drank and made merry!

Allan is now the Western Region Vice President of Safari International and the one job he must do while VP is put on a rally somewhere in California or Hawaii. Any suggestions anyone for a nice park with a nice clubhouse that we can go to.

Oh well - time to get dressed and continue unpacking.

2010-10-28T08:48:00.002-06:00

We left the park on Tuesday afternoon and headed for Calgary. Left Calgary on Wednesday morning for the US. Can you tell that we got anxious about heading south?

We arrived at our friends in Powell Butte, OR and had a nice visit with them. We left Monday (you know, friends and fish - three days) morning and headed to the Safari Rally in Paso Robles, CA.

We have met many of the people that I had seen in Newport this summer and the discussion is now about the FMCA rally in Indio, CA in January.

2010-10-16T20:25:00.002-06:00

It is Saturday night and as I am sitting here, I can almost taste it. The original plan was to leave here on Wednesday, but I may change that. I am getting anxious and we may change D day to Tuesday and then be on the road on Wednesday.

2010-09-30T20:02:00.002-06:00

Well, we are less than three weeks to D(eparture) Day. Currently our plans are to winterize the Park Model at Gleniffer on October 20 and head to Calgary. There, we will leave anything that we do not want to freeze in the apartment.

Currently, we (me) plan to be at John and Jeannie's on the 23rd. If we leave there on Monday morning, we will be able to get to Paso Robles Wine Country RV Resort for the Western Region of Safari International's Rally.

Our friend Beth has already contacted Sue about the Gourd Festival in Casa Grande in February. It sounds like it could be a busy winter this year. And, I have not even talked about the Dune Buggy.

Dan, the guy that is redoing the suspension, had invited us to go "camping" with him for Halloween. What that really means is "Playing in the Dunes". So, the Dune buggy will be ready.

So much to do, and so little time.

2010-09-11T13:44:00.002-06:00

Hi all, it's been a while since I posted something here - I have been a bad girl and having been letting Allan do it all. Well it's almost mid September and our thoughts are starting to turn to heading south for the winter - where it is warm. I can't believe the summer we have not had this year.

Allan is outside at the moment with Bob our next door neighbour and they are re-greasing the bearings (I think) on the new trailer that we just bought to take our older golf cart down to Blythe for the summer. Looks like we may need to get new tires for it. Oh well - it's only money.

Last night Bob and Joan our next door neighbours had us over for a great dinner. It was Friday night and I hate cooking dinners on Friday when I come in from Calgary and with the restaurant at the resort here closing for the season, Joan thought it would be nice to treat us to dinner. What fabulous neighbours we have.

Oh well - I'm going to go and have a nap now - just because I can. Take care all.

Sue

2010-08-23T10:32:00.002-06:00

Well, it is Monday and I arrived back home on Friday.

During the rest of our stay at the FMCA Rally in Redmond, our internet was very slow. It may have had alot to do with the fact that many people were using their cell phones to connect to the internet and the cell towers were probably overloaded.

We wandered around the park and saw most of the exhibits. We even spent money, probably too much. We now have a "Tens" unit (Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation), but by another name. We also bought some folding bikes and a brake system for the car (toad).

We helped Jim and Chris Guld in their seminar "Get to know your laptop". Boy, that made us think about how to do things on the computer. But, I think everyone learned something.

I took Sue to the airport on Sunday morning and dropped her off at 6:45 for a 8:00 flight. Honest, she said just drop me off, you do not have to come in. I went back to the RV and got ready to head over to Bend Service Center to have some additional work done. I arrived at 8:50 on Sunday morning and there were only two spots left with power in their parking lot.

On Monday, I got a four wheel alignment. It took about 5 hours to do. The front Tie Rod was frozen. Probably a result of the Motor Home being drive in the winter in Canada with ice melter on the highways. But, in the end, we now have toe-in on the front wheels. I also had the generator checked as it would not run the last day of the rally, a spring replaced in a window awning, a fresh air intake system installed for the engine and a tank flush installed for our gray water tank. All in all, the coach is now in great shape.

I left Bend Service Center and went over to John and Jeanne's place. I have left the Motor Home there for a couple of months. It is cheaper to drive the car 3000 Kms, round trip, rather than the motor home.

When I left their house on Wednesday, I headed for Spokane and Cour de Lane. I got to about 40 miles (60 Kms) south west of Spokane and the car started to act up. Parked at a rest area, I called Ford Road Side Assistance. About two hours later, I was loaded on to a flat deck truck and taken to Spokane. It was after 6:30 when we got there and one of the service writes was still there. Filled out the paper work, and he even drove me to the hotel. The next morning, by 8:20, I had been told what was wrong with the car. It need a new Throttle Body. By 11:15, I was back on the road home. All the surging that the car used to do on cruise is now gone. I got to Calgary about 9:30.

So, I am now back at home and the plan is to be here until the middle to end of October.

2010-08-10T08:12:00.003-06:00

I did not take any further pictures at the Safari Rally in Newport. There were just some really nice coaches there. I had scheduled to get the motor home washed on Saturday, but the lady phoned and advised that she was sick. So, time to bring out the brush and bucket. I did not use any soap, but washed the motor home with the brush and then wiped down with a cloth. Not great, but it looks better.

I left Newport on Monday morning and made my way over to Sisters, OR where I meet up with the others that were going to caravan into the FMCA Rally. We ended up being 20 coaches. Sisters is about 30 minutes from the rally. After about 10 miles, after we had made the first turn off the original hi-way, we managed to pickup a police escort. They took us right to the County Fairgrounds, through traffic lights and stop signs. Neat!

So, now I am parked in Lot 16. The Safari caravan leader requested from the parking crew a space to have our happy hour get together. It is right next to our coach.

On the drive through the fairgrounds, I saw Jim and Chris Guld's motor home. They are "The Geeks On Tour" and are scheduled to do quite a few seminars. I drove over and chatted with Chris about the course that used to be called "Computer Boot Camp" Because Sue and I have taught this course, I thought it was time we took the course. Well, it looks like we are going to be helpers, rather than class members.

Today, at 12:35, Sue flies into Redmond.

Not much else at the moment, but hopefully, I will think of more to write.

2010-08-05T22:29:00.005-06:00

Day 1 of the Safari Rally in Redmond, OR is in the books. I arrived here yesterday and the Rally started today. We had our first social hour and evening meal. There are 69 coaches with 135 people on the attendee list. We have a 1996 Safari and there are alot of similar vintage coaches here. Most of the coaches look in excellent condition. There seems to be a pride of ownership. By comparison, I think our unit is really dirty. The people around me seem to think our unit looks really good.

Here is one unit that looked quite different. Yes, that is pink and purple.

This is a shot down the street that shows a couple of very nice shorter units.
Here are a couple of closer pictures of the two units.

It is interesting, the second one had a slide.

2010-08-02T18:49:00.007-06:00

Well, it has been a long time since I posted. No Sh_t (I'd like to buy a vowel, Alex). I think it was back in April when I talked about being in Glamis. Then Sue posted about our trip home and some info about the dune buggy. Yes, it is over at Dan's and he is redoing the rear suspension and transmission so that I have more wheel travel and better power (new transmission) to the back wheels. He was going to redo the front suspension with a new front torsion tubes. This would give me some more wheel travel for the front. Once he got looking at the car, he advised that he would be able to do an A-arm front suspension. That shoulod give me close to 16" of front end travel. Result - softer ride. I just have to send "mo money".

I have started a trip to the US to go to a couple of RV rallies. The first one in Newport, OR, starting on Thursday, will be a Safari (brand of our motor home) and then I go to Redmond, OR on Monday to the big international FMCA rally. Sue is flying in on the Tuesday and will be here until Sunday. But first, I have gone to Junction City, OR.

I got some new furniture installed today for the motor home. Here is a before picture.
This is a during the install picture with most of the furniture out.
These are the after pictures.

The kitchen table chairs should be ready tomorrow.

When I get better internet, I will try and create some more posts.

2010-04-20T17:15:00.003-06:00

We made it home on Saturday night. We had a good trip with very little rain and only a little snow in Oregon but it was on the side of the road and not coming down on the road. We purchased a Captain's chair for Allan and me in the motorhome along with a new couch and side chair. We discovered the side chair leans when you extend the foot rest so alas we spent more money in Oregon. We get the new furniture when we go back in August for the rallies we plan on attending. We stopped in Portland overnight and had dinner and conversation with Bruce and Michele and then continued on the next day. We decided that since Jim and Carolyn did not come south this winter that we would stop in Sicamous and say hi to them over a cup of coffee. We ended up having dinner and stayed overnight at their place in their driveway. Glad we stopped and were able to catch up with their adventures and ours over the winter. Well we are home and now are unpacking the motorhome and moving stuff into the house and of course packing up more stuff to take to Calgary to the apartment for the summer. At least the weather is cooperating and it's been nice and warm - just wish the wind would die down. It doesn't seem to want to stop both in Blythe and in Spruce View. Oh well. Time to make dinner.

2010-04-11T17:30:00.002-06:00

Well it seems another year has come and gone down here in Blythe. The park model has been summerized (as opposed to winterized) and we have moved into the motorhome. We will be heading north via Eugene Oregon. Our (new to us) motorhome needs a little more sprucing up. The driver's chair, passenger's chair and the couch need to be repaired/replaced and apparently Eugene is the place to have it done. We will see if any one has new ones that can be installed right away or we will look at new fabrics and order some and have the work done this summer when we head back to Oregon for the Safari Rally and the FMCA Rally. Itg was a great winter down here and we haven't even left yet and already looking forward to next season.

What we are looking forward to is Allan has left our dune buggy with Dan (the original builder) over the summer to have a bunch of work done to it that will allow us to have much more fun when we go to the dunes down at Glamis. Allan will probably post exactly what he is having done. All I know it will cost us a few more pennies. Oh well it's only money.

Please let there be no bad weather for our trip home. I don't mind the cold it's the snow and rain that I don't like.

2010-04-06T11:54:00.002-06:00

Well another year is just about done for us at Rancho Ventana. We just said so long to John and Susie who were across the street from us all season and my nemisis when it comes to playing hand and foot. I lost to her again last night (seems to be the norm for me) so I challenged her to a rematch sometime in October/November. Allan found the game (hand and foot) on facebook so we said we would try it out over the summer.

We are the last of our group to leave here this year. Boy is that strange. The park is quiet and lots of space. I will miss everyone when I get back home, but then again I miss everyone from up north. We will be leaving here on Monday, April 12th and the good lord willing we will be back at Gleniffer Lake on the 15th. Wish us luck the roads and weather co-operate.

2010-03-27T08:45:00.002-06:00

Well, Sue and I either have a cold or we really came down with a case of Glamis Crud. We took the motor home and dune buggy to the Glamis Sand Dunes on last Friday and stayed until Sunday. We met up with Dan, the car builder, and had a good weekend. Dan lead us out on the dunes and kept it sort of easy. We only got stuck twice. It was really nice that everyone stopped and waited for us. That is the credo out here on the dunes. You are responsible for the person behind you. Dan took me out on Saturday in our car and drove places that I would not have thought possible.

Where we were camped, there were some smaller dunes close by and Sue and I were able to go a practise. Sue has indicated that she was able to see and feel my confidence increase.

Dan took both Sue and I for a ride in his car. place that we had to go slow because of the bumps, he flew over at about 70 mph. Amazing what a suspension can do.

Of course, we took the camera. But, we left it in the motor home.

Having now played at Glamis twice, I can see us going back.

There is still some discussion going on in our house as to how much I spend this summer for modifications to the dune buggy. New transmission, new front suspension, new rear suspension, and the list grows.

2010-02-22T08:04:00.018-07:00

It's been a while since I actually posted something on the blog as Allan has been more willing to do it than me. I thought I would help him out today and post some of our past activities.

The days pass in a blur and it seems that we just got here and now the days seem numbered as to when we are leaving to head back to Canada.

I have a new hobby along with 2 of my neighbours Jeannie and Jo-Ann. I now am a "gourder" and it's all Beth's fault. We met Beth and her husband Chris a couple of years ago at a Datastorm Rally and we hit it off as friends. She is an exceptionally talented gourder - I only wish that I could be half as good as her, but then again I have trouble drawing a straight line with a ruler. I now own a dremel tool (okay it's really Allan's that I have permanently borrowed) lots of dremel bits, a wood burner and power saw (yes power tools), ink dyes and many other sundry items. Jeannie, Jo-Ann and I are all sharing our "stuff". It will be years before we get to the stage of Beth - she has a converted trailer that she uses as her playhouse/studio. It's awesome - she has everything and is so willing to share her knowledge and stuff.

We had Beth come up and do 2 more classes at the resort and then the 3 of us needed MORE - so we have made 2 trips to her place to play with her.

In between all of that Allan and I have been to El Centro, Palm Spring, Mesa, Parker, Yuma, Salome, Quartzsite and Glamis.

We went to El Centro with our neighbours Bob and Jeanette to go shopping at Wal-Mart and Costco. Had a great day with them.

We went to Palm Springs 2 times to go to Sam's Club and Costco and Winco to do some shopping for "stuff" that we had to have.

A bunch of us girls went to Palms Springs just before Christmas to go Christmas food shopping at Winco. It was fun but 6 girls in the car and thousands of dollars of food - I can't believe we got it all in the car.

We went to Salome to visit our neighbours up home Bob and Joan - had a great visit with them.

We went to Yuma to visit the market place to pick up new water filters and of course browse the stuff they have there.

We went to Parker to go shopping at the new Wal-Mart there. Yahoo! We finally have one closer than Yuma and Palm Springs - only 40 minutes travel rather than 1.5 hours.

We went to Quartzsite to visit some other friends that we met at a Datastorm Rally - John and Ruth - they are wonderful people and we just don't get together with them enough. We also spent time at the RV show that happens every year and increases the population of Quartzsite from 300 people to 750,000 people during the month of January. It's amazing to see thousands of different RV's all parked out in the desert.

We went to Mesa to see friends from up home Wayne and Greta, they were really great. Allan ordered a new GPS and I needed some Red Rose tea bags for a neighbour and they brought them down for us. We spent several hours over lunch catching up with them.

We went over to Quartzite for a couple of days of buggying with our dune buggies about 11 of us went out the first day and saw some different sites. Below is the picture of what looks to be a size 13 foot embedded in some rock. It's awesome to see. The second time we went over there there were 5 of us that went out and had a great day.

We went to Glamis twice - once on President's Day weekend (Family Day in Alberta) to see the thousands of people who have every sort of sand vehicle possible playing on the sand dunes. We went with our friends Bob and Jeanette both times. We left our buggy at home the first time as we just wanted to get a feel for what it was like and then we went back on Tuesday with our buggy. It became a comedy for us - Allan purchased some new sand tires recently but we towed the buggy there on street tires and had to change them once we arrived. Allan was able to purchase these tires as he thought he had another blown engine as it was blowing oil like crazy. Dan (the guy who built the car) told Allan it looked like his sand seal was broken. So it was a $20 part instead of a new $1200 engine. Hence he could buy sand tires for $300. There was a savings in there - trust me on that. You see Allan has been buying me all sorts of tools and stuff for my gourding so ... I "let" him buy the tires.

He went to get the tool to change the tires and realized he brought the wrong wrench. Sue, being the brave one went to the group parked next to us and asked to borrow their's. Yup, sure, no problem and they were going to Yuma for the day so they told us to leave it on the table when we were done. Talk about a trusting group and then one of them came over and gave Allan tips on how to ride the dunes.

Allan and I made the first trip, then Bob and Jeanette went out then it was just a hodge podge of trips. I drove the buggy to the pottie station and Jeanette drove back, so everyone got a chance to drive in the sand. After lunch I was going to stay behind and the guy on the other side of us came over and told me to get in his car as Jeanette was going to be in the back seat of ours with Bob and Allan (ours only fits 3 people comfortably) and off we went. Harley was great and took me for a really good ride. Allan got stuck and couldn't/wouldn't do the stuff Harley did as ours didn't have a seat belt for Jeanette and he didn't want to risk hurting her. We had a great time. Can't wait to go back again and try it again.

Allan (mainly) and I (assisted) in putting on a Computer Boot Camp, this is a course that a great couple Jim and Chris Guld from Geeks on Tour put together for people just learning about computers. This is another couple we met and became friends with through the DataStorm Rally group. They gave us permission to use their material. We had 7 students take the course and they seemed to enjoy it and even learned stuff.

Bob and Joan (neighbours from home) came for a visit and I told Stan & Dianne (other neighbours from home) to come for a visit and all 6 of us could catch up. See Bob and Joan are in Salome, AZ, Stan and Dianne are in Yuma, AZ and Allan and I are in Blythe, CA. We had a great time seeing everyone and catching up on what we have been doing.

On the days that were were not travelling we were busy doing other things. Allan and I just came off the social committee which was a 2 year commitment so it feels great to have time to ourselves. No more breakfasts or Coffee Mondays' or suppers to help out at. We can now just attend the functions with no responsibility. It was fun - don't get me wrong - but still a lot of work. During all that time I was also spending many mornings doing work for my job and then in the afternoons a bunch of us ladies (at least 2 and as many as 8 of us) would play cards all afternoon. We have lots of fun. Sometimes we would play "Hand and Foot" (a form of Canasta) with or without partners, or we play Stix or Mexican Train or Rummy Tile or Skipbo. Lot of fun and then of course there are the happy hours and pot luck dinners.

I havent' made a dinner for the past 3 days. On Saturday John and Susie did a Shrimp Boil - was that ever good - we decided that this was the first annual boil for the neighbourhood. What this is everything is boiled in a big soup pot (in this case a turkey frier). Potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, shrimp, sausage, pea pods and various spices. Then you drain the water out once it is cooked and pour it over a table and you pick up what you want. Yummmm!

The next night Bruce and Michelle had a bunch of people over for hamburgers - WOW - giant burgers that didn't shrink once cooked and of course lots of other stuff.

Last night Betty and Bobbi had a farewell dinner for their sister Joanne (she is staying in our motor home). So again we got invited to come for dinner and we had hamburgers again with other stuff. These ladies are known for their cooking so when invited to their place for dinner you don't refuse. Came home stuffed and then went to Bingo and won $14.

Well it's time to go have my shower as Joanne is leaving today and we have to move the motor home onto Jo-Ann and Whitey's lot. They just sold their fifth wheel and are going to be staying in our motor home for 3 weeks before they head home.

Lots to do and having lots of fun!

2010-01-28T08:13:00.004-07:00

Well, so much for my New Year Resolution to update the Blog more often. We have been busy with the Social Committee with Breakfast and Beef on a Bun.

I took the Dune buggy down to a local tire dealer and had a tie rod replaced. Then got an alignment. We then took the buggies over to Quartzsite and went out for a run in the desert over there.

The "RV Show" has been in town (Quartzsite) and I went one day to get some much needed RV stuff. Then, Sue and I went back to the show and wandered around to see what other items we must have. We now have two new stools that fold up and can carried in the Dune Buggy. Sue found some bling - some ceramic red chilly peppers. She is planning to use some of them on her new Gourds.

That was something else that happened this month. Our friend Beth and her husband Chris came up from Yuma and Beth ran two days of Gourd classes. Sue now has three new gourds.

This is a before shot.

This is an after shot of some of the Gourds from the class.

We have made a second run in the desert by Quartzsite. This time, we had a total of nine vehicles. We had four Dune Buggies, two Razors and three Quads. in total, there were sixteen people. We had four in our buggy and it made the suspension work much better.

Yesterday, Sue and I worked with the material the we had got from "Geeks on Tour" and taught a mini version of the "Computer Boot Camp". We had six computers and seven students. There was a lot to try and learn in one day, so we are going to be doing some one on one with class members to help them. When Jim and Chris Guld do this class, it is done over two days. Obviously, they knew something we didn't. Thanks again Jim and Chris!

Here is one shot of our class.

2010-01-04T08:23:00.005-07:00

Well, it has been a long time since we last updated the blog. No excuses other than we've been busy.

We got our motor home ready for Wayne and Diane for Thanksgiving. We moved it over to Bruce and Michele's lot. Wayne and Dianne (Lee's Sister) arrived and enjoyed the use of the motor home for the few days they were here. On Sunday (I think), they headed off to their rental in Yuma.

We had received word from Bill and Sharon (owners of the lot that we had rented for December and January) that we could move the Motor Home over anytime.

Before we had a chance to move the motor home from Bruce and Michele's lot, the twins (Two twin sisters here in the park) were walking by our lot and Susan overheard one say to the other "It's Gone!". Sue then spoke with them and they were relived that our MH was just over on another lot. Their sister is coming down in February and they were hoping to rent the motor home for her. So, we have it rented for a third month.

When we had arrived here, I discovered that the Dune Buggy had no brakes. I filled the reservoir and we were good to go. However, after our first desert run, I noticed fluid spots on the patio. The reservoir was leaking. Off to the store and purchased a replacement. I installed the new reservoir and we were good to go again. Two trips into the desert later, the reservoir was cracked and leaking. Time to order a metal reservoir.

I installed the new reservoir, but leaking continued. Now the Master Cylinder was leaking. More parts to order. Once the new Master Cylinder arrived, I got busy installing it and the metal reservoir. Now, I need help to bleed the brakes. I had one of the neighbours give me a hand. Good to go. Well, when we went to use the buggy the next time, NO BRAKES. Time to bleed them again. Time to use my mechanic's helper from my racing days. Sue sat in the car and ran the pedal while I crawled around on the ground opening brake bleed valves. Charles from across the street came and helped out by ensuring that the reservoir stayed full. Now, we are good to go, again, I hope.

We have been busy with the Social Committee working Thanksgiving, steak nite, breakfast, Christmas diner. We had gone to the new Wal-Mart in Parker for groceries and found Turkeys for $0.40 per pound. We bought 7 18 - 20 pound birds. You know, dinner for 165 of our closest friends.

We did a road trip to Palm Springs in late November because we wanted to pick up stuff (and you know how important stuff is) from Costco and Sam's Club.

We even managed to head over to Salome to visit Bob and Joan for a day.

After Christmas, one of the residents arranged a buggy run with the owners in the park. We ended up with 11 units going out and heading to Midland.

We even had a wiener roast for lunch.

So, as you can read, we have been busy. We went to the New Year's dance, but we had been given the night off from the organizing side. Cool, we were able to leave the party before it was over.

On the weekend, we were informed that our renters have purchased a trailer in Yuma and it is scheduled to arrive by the 7th. So, they are busy trying to find a lot to put the trailer on and be able to leave it here over the summer.

Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to try and keep this Blog more up to date.

2009-11-16T08:39:00.002-07:00

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since we got here. We washed the Motor Home on Sunday and then moved over to Charles and Charlotte's lot. I turned on the inverter and setup the Satellite dish. I wanted to see how the batteries would last with all of the batteries being used instead of just one.

Susan borrowed a portable vacuum cleaner with beater bar to give a quick clean before shampooing the carpet. She did all of the vacuuming on the inverter and we would need more solar panels if we were to try boondocking on solar only. But, that is why we have a generator.

We received permission from Donna Mae to park on her lot which is next door. That way, we could plug into our shed for power.

Sue borrowed the carpet shampooer from Keith and Lee and started on the Motor Home. She shampooed the carpet twice. The first time, the liquid came up chocolate brown. The second time it came up light tan. Sue then shampooed the furniture. Now, we realize that the Motor Home had not been detailed by the dealer. All in all, it had needed a good cleaning.

Sue then spent more time using a good cleaner/oil on the wood in the Motor Home. The cleaner helped to cover up some minor scratches in the wood. Now, the wood glows.

All of this is being done in preparation for renting out the Motor Home. We were asked if we would be willing to rent the unit out for December and January. We thought about it for a few days and decided that as long as we knew the people or their references, we could do this. It will help recover some of the cost of getting window solar screens.

When I sit here in the Park Model and look over at the Motor Home, I think that we really did get a good looking unit. I will have to post some pictures so that everyone can see.

2009-10-31T21:20:00.000-06:00

We're Back!!!!

However, it was again an interesting trip. We travelled on Wednesday and stayed at Dunigan, CA for the night. The pamphlet for the park said they had Wi-Fi, but it was not to be found. On Thursday, we drove over "The Grapevine". I think it gets to be over 5000 feet. And, in a short distance. The motorhome ran fine up and over. This is getting to be a good way to travel.

We arrived in Loma Lindo (San Bernardino) at the Camping World in time to see them locking the door. We had planned to spend the night there and leave first thing in the morning. Now, we were staying and then going shopping first thing in the morning. We even found free Wi-Fi for the night. We did our shopping in the morning and got on the road around 9:00. We should be Blythe by about 12:30.

Three miles from camping World, it seemed to come to an end. The check engine light was on and the water temp was climbing over the 220 mark. Took an exit and pulled off to the side. After I was able to do my checking, I decided to use the Road Side Assistance that I had purchased before we left home. I called Coach-Net and it was decide that we were going to be towed to a repair facility. About an hour and one half later, a hugh tow truck showed up and hooked onto the Motor home. We had already disconnected the Toad. It is really neat seeing a 36 ft motorhome get the front end picked up and towed away. We got towed to a Truck center and they started on the over heating problem right away. First thing they did was to put in 3 1/2 gallons of antifreeze. We took it for about a ten mile drive and brought it back to the truck center. The water temperature had stayed right where it was supposed to. We waited for the engine to cool so that the mechanic could check everything out for leaks. Sue looked over and noticed a puddle forming under the Motor Home. After checking the engine bay out (the mechanic climbed into the bay by going thru the bed), a pin hole leak was found in one heater hose. Looks like it had been rubbing for a while. The hose was cut and replaced. While waiting for the connector, the mechanic when over the engone and reported that everything was dusty. That is a good thing, it was not leaking oil or other fluids. Just the way it is supposed to be. It is now close to 2:00 and we are on the road again. Temperatures are running right where they are supposed to be.

We arrived in Blythe at 5:30. We parked on the empty lot next to our Park Model, turned on the power, plugged into our shed. Then. off to supper. Our first meal of the season at Sizzlers. Back to the park and crash for the night.

Saturday, we started the transfer from the Motor Home to the Park Model. Got the internet turned on and life becomes good again. Tomorrow, we will finish emptying out the Motor Home, give it a wash and then move it over to the lot that we have permission to park on.

2009-10-27T19:06:00.001-06:00

Well, it is two days latter and we have again spent too much money. But, it was stuff that needed doing. The speedometer now works all of the time and keeps working even when the headlights are turned on. It was a loose wire on the back. The heater control now works. They replaced the valve in the heater and it is stiff, but works. I was curious why the chassis battery had been dead when we left home so I had them check the "echo"charger. It was wired incorrectly. Also, they noticed that rather than using 4 batteries for the "house", we were using only 1. They installed the missing wire and now we have a 4 battery bank. I had the shocks checked and they were okay. However, the sway bar had worn bushing s that need replacing. The last thing that I had them look at was the rear seal. This is a seal between the engine area and the body. If it is loose, you can get dust circulating up and depositing itself on the ceiling. This shows up as dirty marks inside the coach.

We are a couple of days latter and will depart for Blythe tomorrow morning.

2009-10-25T20:59:00.001-06:00

We left Portland on Friday morning and headed over to visit our friends in Powell Butte, OR. Drove through some more ran over Mt. Hood, but no snow. That is a good thing. We arrived around lunch time and John and Jeannie fed us lunch and then John, Keith and I went over to Beaver Motorcoach sales in Bend to allow me to ask questions. I was told that if we wanted to show up on Monday, the service had slowed down for the fall and we could get in to have a few things done.

We headed back to John and Jeannie's and John cooked up some steak (small roasts) on his pellet cooker. Man oh man did we eat too much.

We spent the weekend with John and Jeannie and are planning to head over to Beaver Motorcoach Sales/Bend Service Center to have a few things looked at.

2009-10-22T22:51:00.001-06:00

New tires for the motorhome. We went over to Les Schwab tires and parted with some money. Tom, Bruce & Michelle, friends from Portland, son in law hustled and got all six tires done in about 1 1/2 hours. When we were done, back to the RV park.

When we bought the motorhome, the dealer included a starter pack for water and sewer. Problem with this starter pack is that it has only a 10 ft sewer hose. And, as you know, the sewer connection is never within 10 ft of the sewer. So, as we drove into our stall, I stopped to empty the tanks. Then I pulled forward to park again for the night.

Bruce & Michelle came by and we they took us out to supper. Tom, the above mentioned son in law, told me that I needed to make sure that Bruce paid. We had a very enjoyable evening with Bruce and Michelle and their dog Scout. They came back to the motor home after diner. It is the same as Bruce & Michelle's previous motor home, except one year older.

2009-10-21T20:03:00.001-06:00

We left Keith and Lee's and started south to the Border. With Keith and Lee travelling in just their van, they went on ahead and we agreed to meet on the other side of the border. When we got to the border, they took our green onions. Then, we had to pull over to have a inspection done. It seems they were going through all of the snow bird RV's. It took about 45 minutes and we were on our way. We found Keith and Lee at the scheduled mall and off we went again.

We spent the night in Dryden, WA. Keith and Lee took a motel room and Sue and I spent the night in the parking lot.

Wednesday, we travelled part of the day with Keith and Lee and then headed over to Portland. We are going to get new tires for the Motor Home.

We arrived early afternoon and got our spot at the Jantzen Beach RV park located in north Portland.

2009-10-19T22:30:00.000-06:00

Time to leave. Got up this morning and it is time to head out. We left the resort and went to town to get diesel and gas for the car. Hooked up and started down the road. This was the first time that Susan had actually ridden in the front seat of the motor home. She said that it felt like a boat. Up, Down, Up, Down, etc..

Before we got to Banff, we had already experienced our first bit of sleet. I think this trip is going to be interesting.

We stopped to visit with Jim and Caroline in Sicamous before we went to Sorento. I decided that I wanted to get some fuel and stopped in Salmon Arm. The pump clicked off at $50.00. I then put another $50.00 in before we "full". We got to Sorento (Keith & Lee's home) before dinner.

Day 1 done.

2009-10-14T07:39:00.001-06:00

It got worse.

By the weekend, it is supposed to be above freezing.

2009-10-08T20:07:00.004-06:00

It is too frickin Cold!

These are pictures from the front door of the park model.

I went over to the Motor Home and the water lines were already partially frozen. I got the water to run and then went out and opened the low point drain. I turned on the water heater and furnace. It is supposed to go down to -10 C or 13 F tonight. For next few days the temperatures are as follows:
Friday High -4C 24F Low -6C 20F
Saturday High -2C 27F Low -12C 9F
Sunday High 1C 34F Low -12C 9F
Monday High 4C 39F Low -7C 18F

I did not want to do it, but I think I am going to have to winterize the motor home before we leave. In previous years, when we were living in the fifth wheel, it got this cold. But the difference was that we were in the unit and knew what the heat was doing. We just had the propane tank filled, and it looks like we will be filling it again before we leave.

2009-09-01T09:06:00.002-06:00

On Monday of last week, I received a call from Freigtways to advise that a shipment was sitting on their dock in Calgary. I requested that this shipment be directed to Red Deer, so that I could pick it up there. Done.

Tuesday morning, with the assistance of a neighbour, into Red Deer. At the freight company was a pallet from the previous owner of the motor home. Included were the sink tops, table, chairs and recliner.

When we purchased the motor home, the previous owner had replaced the free standing table and chairs with a booth dinette. This made down into a bed. This also meant that the recliner had to go. Helped him out as he had three kids and they now could have a place to sleep. When I originally was at the dealer, they had confirmed that the previous owner was willing and available to answer questions that I might have. I had contacted him in July and during the conversation, I asked if he still, by chance, had the original furniture. Yes, he did. As a matter of fact, it had been removed only about a month before he traded the unit in. He was wondering what he was going to do with the furniture. I asked if there would be some way for me to acquire it from him. No problem. We just needed to find a way to transfer it to us. I had originally thought about going to Fort St. John during the week Sue was at Indy. He said, that he would try to see about shipping it to me.

Long story short, we got the furniture and as of Sunday, it is installed back in the motor home. Now, we have a booth dinette that we need to figure out what to do with.

Also, yesterday, we spoke with Don from the Datastorm Users Forum and have cancelled our attendance at the Rally in Buelleton, CA in October. This will allow Sue to attend the AGM for the racing organization (it is probably the last year for Race City Speedway) and then will give us a chance to head to Portland to get some tires for the motor home (the rear tires are the original and are 13 years old).

2009-07-29T21:27:00.003-06:00

It has taken a couple of days to get ready for this post.

While we were in Edmonton, I used our new Telus Mobility Internet USB. It seems to work OK. Just not ready to use it for surfing. Had to remember to change the settings for windows updates. One computer did a download without me knowing about it. Oops.

We got the Star Choice dish installed with no issues. Now, with the GPS, you just press a button a couple of times and you have TV. When I remembered to check the signal strength, we were at 95%. Wow!

We got to Edmonton Monday afternoon and arrived at Rudy's about 5 minutes before he got home. When I went to disconnect the toad (TaurusX), I had a dead battery. Our booster cables are in California (Naw, I don't need to take these home). Rudy gave the car a boost and we were good to go again.

Sue went off on Tuesday morning to work at the Indy Race. I got to go shopping for electronics. Nothing in particular, just shopping.

All week long, it was warm. It got up to about 30C or 86F every day. Because we had no hook ups, I ran the generator. Our generator runs on propane and by the end of the week, we had run it for about 25 hours. So, the generator has had a good check out. The two air conditioners worked well. The one thing that we will need to learn how to use is the convection oven. Neither Sue or I have used one before.

The trip back home taught me a very important lesson. When you see a speed limit sign on a corner, you need to obey it or even go slower. A Motor Home does not turn like a sports car. Lesson learned. I hope. When I got back to the resort, the Taurus even started. After talking with one of our friends here, the toad having a dead battery has happened to them a couple of times and he had no explanation.

Today, Wednesday, I went into Red Deer and had a Sirius Satellite Radio installed. Now I can listen to the same channel every where we go.

2009-07-20T07:29:00.002-06:00

I tool the MH to a local heavy duty mechanical shop to check out the transmission. I had been able to get fault codes before I went. The codes pointed to a problem with the power. So, the transmission was good, and I ended up having a oil change done on it. On of the fault codes said that I was low on oil. No visible leaks, so that is good.

Power problems were another thing. The reason I had low power was a burnt wire on the alternator. Got that fixed and then the batteries were checked. The chassis batteries failed the load test and the house batteries showed as poor. Six batteries latter, we should be good to go. I also got the heater fan fixed. They removed the resistor that runs the lower speeds on the fan and then reset it. Fan works on all speeds.

We are off today to Edmonton. Sue is working at the Indy race in Edmonton, and this will be a good trial run for the MH. Before we head to Edmonton, I am getting a new automatic Star Choice dish installed. It really is amazing the amount of stuff that I had got rid of and now am buying again.

I have decided that normally I do not give names to my vehicles, so I am just going to refer to the motor home as MH. Of course, the opinions of the husband are not necessarily the opions of management.

2009-07-12T21:17:00.003-06:00

We got the motor home back on Friday from having the out of province inspection done. It passed with no problems. I then drove into town to get plates for the unit. Plates installed and back to the park. As I was pulling into the park, Laureen, the receptionist, saw motor home and thought "Gee, that is a nice looking unit" and then noticed our car in tow. She was very kind and opened the gate for me so that I did not have to get out. I waved at her as I drove through the gate. Then I phoned her and said thank you. That is when she told me what she had thought.

I parked over by the General Store. This was to allow us to start loading the motor home for our first trip in about 10 days. Sue is working at the Edmonton Indy race and we are going to take the motor home up for Susan and maybe me to live in for the week. I am also going to have a automatic Star Choice dish added to the roof. I never was very good with a dish on a tripod.

When I was taking the motor home back to the storage compound, I had some trouble getting the transmission to stay in Reverse, so I will probably call on of the local shops to inquire about possible solutions.

While writing this entry, I am starting to think about getting a "name" for the motor home. It just seems so ackward trying to type motor home all the time. There is a mural of horses on the back, so maybe we will try something like "Whinny or Giddy Up". Time will tell.

2009-07-02T17:39:00.000-06:00

Well, it is a done deal. Now comes the drive home. Should be fun, I have only driven about 15 kilometers before.

This was what everything looked like before I started down the road. The dealer had finished installing the tow bar on the Taurus X about 5:20. So, I spent the night in the dealer's lot. I went out and found some supper and stuff for breakfast. I actually picked up a coffee at McDonalds in WalMart and kept it in the fridge overnight. Heated up in the microwave, it was not bad. Hey, at least I had some caffeine for morning.

I headed out about 9:30 Alberta time, or 8:30 in BC. The first stop was the Mohawk gas bar accross the street. $166.00 latter, I started down the road. At least the traffic was light. I slowly started getting used to the motorhome. About every 1/2 hour, I would remind myself to unclench my jaw.

I drove up to Sicamous and decided to get a new coffee and maybe grab a burger. I also phoned Jim (one of our neighbours down in Blythe). After a relaxing coffee and burger and visit, on the road again.

I drove next to Golden. I spent about 1/2 hour in line to get fuel. While I was fueling, the phone rang. When I checked my messages, it was the credit card company calling to verify activity on the card. Yes, I am travelling and using the card for fuel purchases. Yes, I used it twice at Mohawk. Their pump only allows you to purchase $125.oo at a time. I guess if I had gone in, I could have got all the fuel at the same time. In Golden, I put in $99.00 more. When I got home, I calculated my mileage and it was 9.9 mpg (Canadian Gallon).

Back on the road again and I was soon back in Alberta. Not time to stop now. I am almost home. Well, sort of. I pulled into the park about 9:30. I even had to drive through a small rain shower.

Home safe and sound.

2009-06-29T22:07:00.000-06:00

I drove back to the dealer today and we finalized the deal. Our offer was sort of accepted. We had to add GST. So, we now own a motorhome. We even have the bill of sale that says so.

I left the car with the dealer so that he could start the process of wiring and installing the tow hitch on it. They are going to do the wiring today and then install the base plate when it comes in tomorrow.

We had left a list of questions with the salesman on Saturday and when I got there, the motorhome was already in the shop getting some of that stuff addressed. I picked up the manuals and have browsed through them. I just need time to organize and read them.

They lent me a car so that I could go back to Keith and Lee's tonight. I will head back tomorrow and hopefully, it will be ready to hit the road tomorrow night. The only problem is that it will be July 1 (Canada Day) eve. In Kelowna. Boy will there be a lot of traffic. All them D___ Albertan's coming to BC for vacation. School is out and the population is going to explode.

Not much else tonight, so I will sign off for now.

2009-06-28T07:34:00.010-06:00

I think there is a country song that best describes what Sue and I have done - "Well, we gone and dun it".

This is our newest expenditure. Maybe Monday, we will find out exactly how much we have to pay for our silliness. The dealer owner was not in, so we could not get an approval on our offer.

We finally got to have a look at the motor home yesterday and took it for a drive. Actually, our friend Keith took it for a drive and then I brought it back to the dealer. It will take me a while to get fully comfortable with it, but I was able to drive it. To say the least, the drive home should be interesting.

2009-06-20T15:17:00.002-06:00

Well, if things did not change, it would be a boring world. But this is good, I think. Keith and Lee had dinner with our other friends Ben & Barb and Jim & Carolyn. They have asked that if our schedule permits, they would like to see us during the weekend. So, good thing our plans are written in Jello, we are having Sue stay until Sunday afternoon.

2009-06-19T20:49:00.003-06:00

Well, I got word today from the RV Dealer. He has indicated that the Motorhome should be delivered from Freightliner tomorrow. As Sue and I are both working this weekend, we are not heading out. Currently the plan is for me to head to Calgary on Thursday and then head to Sorento on Friday. We will head to Kelowna on Saturday. If the unit talks to us and we decide to go for it, Sue has a ticket to fly home from Kelowna on Satruday night. I will stay in Sorento and finalize the deal during the week.

More to come.

2009-06-13T09:01:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone, I decided that maybe I should give my two cents worth. I am looking forward to go to BC whenever the rig is ready for review and maybe buy it if it "feels" right. Both Allan and I have a tendancy to walk into something and we will be say yes or no right away from the feel of it - so far that has never let us down.

It will also be nice to see Keith and Lee and everyone else who lives in that area again. Sometimes I feel like I'm going through withdrawals. It will be nice if we purchase a motorhome so we can do some small trips when we are south. Go for a visit to Mexico, go see friends in the LA area and take trips to areas we haven't seen before.

Anyways we are off to Pine Lake for the day to see Bob and Jeanette.

2009-06-11T13:04:00.001-06:00

I convinced Sue that we could drive out on Friday, look at the coach on Saturday and if we decided to go ahead, she could fly back on Sunday. Got the ticket and everything. Then the dealer phoned. The part was not shipped to Kelowna by Montreal. Heck, Montreal does not even have it. It was back ordered to them. Maybe next week.

Thankfully, it was less than 24 hours since I booked Sue's ticket, so I was able to get a complete refund. By the way, the reason I am trying to get Sue to go out and have a look is because, even though she has given me permission to purchase this, if anything is not right, I would probably never heard the end of it. As a male, I am just covering my ass(ets).

2009-06-04T13:02:00.000-06:00

During further discussions with the RV dealership, all of the parts came in except one. That should be here the middle of next week. So, no travelling this weekend.

2009-05-30T12:50:00.001-06:00

Left bright and early Friday morning. Got my coffee, the car filled with gas and on the road. I got to Canmore when the phone rang. Oh yeah, the other couple decided not to take the coach. The phone call is from the sales rep. They had sent the motorhome over to Freightliner on Thursday to get it checked out. Friday morning, it is still there. Apart and in pieces. They have discovered that it needs rotors and one brake line. I can come out and see it, but not drive it. The salesman and I decide that we will wait for parts. We will check next week to see when the parts will be in.

2009-05-28T16:39:00.001-06:00

I emailed the ad for the motorhome to Sue and had her have a look. At the price that they are aking, Sue's question was "what's wrong with it?" I told Sue that I was thinking of contacting our friends in Sorento to see if he would go have a look.

The salesman from the dealership called and told me more about the motorhome. It is a 1996 Safari Sahara 35 1/2 ft. It has about 70,034 kms on it. But, another couple form Kamloops is looking at it and has a deposit down until they can see it. Rawlin, the sales rep, has sent me 36 pictures of the rig. I then forwarded the pictures to Sue. Her comment was "Maybe you need to ge see it for yourself.

Many emails latter, with alot more information, a good report from Keith and Lee, I am off to BC for the weekend. It is one way to crash Lee's birthday - Hi, I'm here, got a bed?

2009-05-25T09:17:00.000-06:00

We left Blythe on Easter Sunday. Travelling by car sure makes travelling quicker. We arrived home safe and sound April 14. This was earlier than we had planned/expected and we caught our neighbours off guard. Bob was going to fill our water tank on Wednesday, but we arrived on Tuesday.

We had a nice couple of weeks at home before Sue went back to work on May 1. She immediately ran the driving school for the Car Club that weekend.

I starting looking around again at used motorhomes. Not really planning anything, but I need to see what was out there. After all, we had really like the Safari the Bruce and Michele had sold in Blythe. I did find an ad for one on Kijiji for a 1997 40 ft Safari Continental. I requested some pictures and received about 25 via email. The said that I could come look at the unit any time after the long weekend in May as they were going camping in it. I sent another email requesting some additional information, but never heard back.

Continued to look for Safari's, but was not able to find anything that said "Hey, What about me!". I then decided I would see if I could find any Allegro Bus's similar to our friends in California. Well, I found one in BC. And they also have a Safari Sahara. I chat on the computer with the "dealer" and I am told that a sales rep will call. We will see.

2009-03-08T08:28:00.002-06:00

It has been an interesting month in the "Buggy World". Back about the 7th of February, I pulled the spark plugs out to do a compression check on the VW motor. When I pulled one spark plug out, it pulled out the heli coil in the head (a heli coil is an insert that repairs a damaged spark plug hole). Compression on two of the cylinders was 120 pounds (good) and on one was 90 pounds (not good) and I was unable to get a reading on the damaged 4th cylinder.

I placed a call to the man that we located thru our friends who rebuilds VW engines. "Bring it on up on Thursday and I can check it out" was his reply.

Thursday, we headed off to Fort Mohave (2 hours north) with the buggy in tow. When we got there, Norm (the guy) pulled the bad plug and it came out with no problem. When he looked at the plug, it was badly fouled by the carbs. He said that one option would be to run the motor until it died. I decided to have him install a new motor and try and rejet the carbs.

The motor was installed by Sunday, but it was taking a while to rejet the carbs. It was decided to pickup the buggy on Friday (20th).

When we drove up to get the buggy, it ran really good on the streets around Ft. Mohave. Back to Blythe.

So, new motor and time to go to driving. I took the buggy over to Ehrenberg, AZ. I got up to 76 mph driving on the interstate. So far, great running motor. I came home and parked on the patio and a few friends came over. One pointed out a few drops of oil on the concrete. Checked the motor and found that the rear of the engine case was broken and was damp with oil. Back on the phone to Norm. He said that if I was not happy, he would build up a new motor for me. He had purchased this motor from one of his clients. He said to check back in a week and see how it was progressing. But, in the mean time, drive the buggy and see how the new jetting in the carbs was working.

When we went out into the desert, the buggy ran well on the flat. When I tried to climb some hills, the carbs flooded and the engine started to miss. Not great power to play on the rough in the desert. I tried various trips into the desert and put on about 150 miles trying everything out.

The new motor was ready for install on Monday March 2nd. So, back to Ft. Mohave. When I arrived, I asked if Norm would mind if I assisted him in the engine transplant. Time to get greasy. A few hours latter, back to Blythe with new motor and the carbs back to stock. Time for further testing.

I reinstalled the back bumper and created an oil leak at the filter. Off with the bumper and over to a machine shop to have it "modified" (bent). Back home, reinstalled and no leaks. Now, off to the desert. I tried a few of the hills that I had had problems with and everything seems to be running okay.

Now, it will be time for more field trials.

Al

2009-02-10T08:33:00.004-07:00

Hi everyone, well I finally remembered to sign in and say something. Wow almost mid February. The weather has been great for the past couple of weeks - nice and warm - close to 80 F everyday. This week is another story - cool, windy and rainy around 60F everyday.

We have been keeping busy, I have been spending a few hours every day still doing some work and then finding time to take time off to go out to the desert for a day long desert run. Four of us went out to find the famous Paton's cabin. Our friend Joe thought he might know of it, so we packed up and went out. Joe estimated we would do about 100 miles for this run - that is alot for the desert. Anyways we travelled and travelled and travelled, through dust, sand, rock - BIG ONES, more dust, more sand and even more BIG rocks, and we finally made it to an old settlement of some sort.

It was fascinating to think that people used to stay in this area with absolutely no amenites. We travelled in by dune buggy (which they didn't have) in the "old days" and the rooms were extremely primitive with just stone walls.

We even stopped at one point and had a weenie roast - best weenies I have add in a long time.

Last night we had a pizza party at our house for those people who are leaving the social committee after serving their 2 years. It was extremely cold and windy last night but we put our sun shades down and lit our table heater and of course dressed warmly and we had a great time. Lots of chatting with people and of course delicious pizza. Would you believe that we had ice cream for dessert - yup - and we weren't even cold cause by the time dessert came around the wind had finally died down.

Well it's time to get dressed and get on with the day.

2009-01-15T20:45:00.004-07:00

I'm really trying to remember to post something on the blog every now and then, but it seems that I tend to forget. Does that mean that since I have had another birthday back in December that I am now getting older and can't remember. Oh well!

We survived the New Year's Eve Party and of course Allan's birthday on January 1st. This year was very low key, I even forgot to given Allan his birthday cake and let me tell you he keeps reminding me every now and then. We did have a good party to celebrate Allan's birthday on January 1st and Caroline's birthday on January 2 by having a hot dog happy hour that started at 12 noon and continued on until around 6:30 pm. It turned out to be a great day weather-wise - it was so nice and hot and sunny after so many cool days with cloudy and even overcast skies. We sure enjoyed sitting outside with all of our friends eating hot dogs and other fun stuff all afternoon.

Now that we are into the new year, I have decided it's time to spend some quality time on the computer doing stuff like real work so I force myself to spend at least 3-4 hours a day doing real work. Yeah! I can hear the groans now - 3 to 4 hours a day of work - tough life.

I have been taking time off to do things like enjoy our Monday morning coffee socials and our Thursday morning crafty sessions making neat items. Then of course there are the evening happy hours around Keith & Lee's place or the fire pit at Joanne & Whitey's. Oh and I nearly forgot our time spent in the desert running around in the Dune Buggy.

Oh well as I have always said - it's rough life, but someone's got to enjoy it. Take care all.

Sue & Al

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2008-12-31T07:09:00.010-07:00

Happy New Year!! I hope 2009 greets you all well. I can't believe it's the end of the year and we have been in Blythe for 2 months. My how time flys when you are having fun.

It seems most everyone is finally down here for the season. Some friends went home for Christmas but are now slowly returning. I'm hoping everyone received something from Santa. I must have been a good girl as I didn't see any coal in my stocking.

We have been keeping busy doing something every day. I'm not sure what but I'm busy. Being on the social committee down here is fun but lots of work. So far Allan and I have helped out at 2 breakfasts, a soup night, a wine & cheese - church choir and Santa visit,

Christmas Dinner and now tonight a New Year's Eve celebration. A friend (Lee) and I are co-leads on tonight's fun so today we will be busy putting decorations out, blowing up balloons, and organizing food. We have some great friends down here and everyone is pitching in and helping out. Who ever penned the phrase "many hands make light work" sure got that right. They all offer help and then are right there when it's time to do the work.

Allan has been working very hard trying to finish off our outside space. We have a lot of wind down here and it seems to come up around happy hour time and usually comes from the north making it very cold. Yes I know cold is relative - it may not be -36C but 16C is cold for down here when you have a cold drink in your hands. (Boo hoo!) Allan has built a door in our breezeway area to close it off and we purchased a heater from Keith and Lee (they purchased a bigger one). Now when we have pot lucks we do them at our place and it is nice a toasty warm for everyone.

We decided that we needed to try out some new recipes and our friends were happy to sample the treats. Now we know what food we will offer for our light dinner for new year's eve. Then Larry and Nema brought over their karoke machine and a few brave souls got up and sang a few songs.

They were actually pretty good/bad depending on your point of view. The bottom line was a good time was had by all and we were nice and toasty warm on our patio.

2008-12-29T09:27:00.002-07:00

As you can now see, it has gotten colder on our buggy trips. What happened to the shorts that we used to wear?

2008-12-29T09:23:00.001-07:00

As time went on, we made a trip to Patton's Cabin. This is apparently a cabin out in the desert that General Patton had and ran some of his desert exercises at.

2008-12-29T09:15:00.002-07:00

A little latter in the month, another neighbour went out and bought a dune buggy.

So, they have now become members of the "Buggy Club, Eh!"

On the first trip to the dessert, he got STUCK!

The next day, we did one of the first manditory trips to "The Desert Bar". This is a bar out in the dessert that only is open on weekends during the day. They run on solar power.

2008-12-29T08:07:00.007-07:00

Well, it has been a looooong time since anything was added to our blog. So, I thought I would give it a try.

Back in November, we had the opportunity to go on a run in the dessert. One of neighbours here in the park told us about the run. Sue was/is having an issue with her sciatic nerve, so she decided not to go bouncing across the desert. Jim, one of our friends from down here came with me. So about 9:00 off we went to meet at the college. By the time that the run actually started, there were probably about 80 vehicles. Most of them were side by sides and Keith and I were the only fiberglass dune buggies. There was a Baja Bug, a few Jeeps, but mostly side by sides.

We left about 10:00 and drove, follow the leader style, for about 10 miles. Then we stopped and let the group regather. We had a couple of exotic buggies join us here.

Onward we went. We crawled along over some interesting rocks and came around a corner to find one of the group (driving an Escalade) sitting on the top of hill watching the trail. We soon discovered why. It was a sharp and deep ravine and it meant driving really slow to ensure that we did not bottom out or high center. Then, off we went again. Had another stop to let the group regather again. Then off to the middle of the dessert for lunch. The organizer of the run had camped out the previuos night and had a BBQ all set up. Hot Dogs and Smokies.

After lunch, we headed back home. When it was all said and done, we had travelled over 50 miles (80 Km)

2008-11-10T07:50:00.003-07:00

Hi everyone I guess I will try and keep everyone up to date as to what is happening with us now that we are back in Blythe.

As Allan indicated the trip down was good and uneventful. We had no weather at all, no snow, no wind, no rain. I even drove a bit of the way as we have a new vehicle and it's not a large 1 ton dually truck. I really enjoy driving the Ford Taurus X.

Yesterday 4 of us women decided to go on a little road trip to a place called Bouse, that is house but with a B. Apparently on remembrance day weekend they have a huge flea market (Sunday is not a great day to go though). I guess the majority of the market is open on Friday and Saturday. We did find 2 places still operating and were able to pick up a few items for our Christmas Adopt a Family function.

We then decided that since it was early that we would head to Parker, only 25 miles away, and go to the dollar stores there.

We had a really nice lunch and then hit the stores. I didn't find anything that spoke to me but everyone else did find something they couldn't live without.

I have one more week of my self imposed holiday before I start doing some work again so I need to enjoy myself this week. Only one slight problem my sciatic is acting up. Boy I have never know such pain in all my life. So instead of enjoying life in the pool and other activities I am having to take it really easy - I know - taking it easy is rough but don't forget that too is painful. I will have another massage on Friday and hopefully I will be starting on the road to recovery.

More later as it is time to get dressed and have breakfast.

Sue

2008-11-06T19:42:00.002-07:00

We're Baaaaaaaaack!!!

Well, it is about time to update everyone. The funeral on October 28th for Dad was good, if you can call a funeral a good event. My son and his kids were there. Heck, even my X-wife was there. Dad's sister, the only surviving sibling from that generation, attended. It really took me back when I got to the cemetery. The grave stone that I had ordered two weeks prior was already in place. We left Lethbridge on Wednesday morning.

We got to the border at 8:12 and were through and leaving the border by 8:13. That night, we had travelled all the way to Ogden Utah. Thursday, we were up early and on the road again. We stopped that night in Lake Havasu. We stopped so that I could get NPG cable to check our Canadian cable modem checked out and set up for us in Blythe. When we were checking into the Hotel, I noticed that the time was 4:00. If we had kept going, we could have been in Blythe by 6:00. We had a leisurely morning and left after the modem was activated. We arrived in Blythe at 11:42.

The House and Dune Buggy summered really well. A little bit of dust (we do live in the desert), but really good. The park seems to be fairly full already. A Lot of people were here early this year.

That is all for now, so I will sign off and hope that Sue gets creative with an update.

Al

2008-10-19T07:31:00.003-06:00

Again, it has been over a month since I last posted. I was spending quite a bit of time still in Lethbridge with Dad. Near the end of September, I started to not see him as much. I was sort of trying to get him used to not seeing us for the winter.

About the 6th of October, I got a call from the nursing home that indicated that he wasn't doing all that well. They were recommending that his care level be changed to Level 1 which would keep him comfortable. So, I got hold of my brother and the two of us showed up back in Lethbridge to spend some time. I spent the week there and had said my Good Byes and also gave him permission to just relax and let himself go. He is 94, after all. My brother had done the same. I left for home at lunch on Friday and Ian (my brother) was staying until Saturday morning when he was leaving to fly back to Vancouver.

I got a phone call in the middle of Friday night that said he had taken a turn for the worse and they did not expect him to last the night. In less than 1 hour, I had got a second call that said he had passed away. Ian, my brother, had got to the nursing home about 5 minutes after he had passed away.

This past week, I have been back in Lethbridge arranging for his funeral and atarting all the proceedings for his will.

All in all, it has been a very busy summer. This may sound cruel, but we are looking forward to heading south to try and get some relaxation in.

Al

2008-09-02T18:37:00.003-06:00

It has been a while again since I last posted.

Dad seems to have settled into Long Term Care Facility. He is still losing weight, but that may be just the changes he was going through.

When we got back from Toronto, I told Dad about Bryan and he took it rather well. He replied that it would sound terrible, but it was probably the best for him. He would no longer be suffering and besides, he was not in a Good Carma space. Where Dad came up with Carma, I do not know.

We had Bryan's funeral on the 26th and my other brother from Vancouver was there. My son, Tom, was also there.

Dad had a lot of visitors that day, and he did well.

Ian is spending some time with Dad after the funeral, so I am taking about 2 weeks off from visiting with Dad.

That is all for now, so I will sign off.

Al

2008-08-12T20:37:00.002-06:00

Well, it is funny how time flies when you are busy. I think I have managed to get in one, maybe two more games of golf since I last posted. I have been busy spending time with Dad. He was approved by the Health Region for Designated Assisted Living. But, they have a policy of first available bed. A bed came available in one of the Long Term Care Facilites in Lethbridge. I moved Dad over on Wednesday August 6th. I have spent quite a bit of time with him there as he is easily confused now.

We also had some bad news on August 5th. My oldest brother, Bryan, passed away in Sidney, B.C. I have not told Dad yet because I did not want to confuse or depress him any more than he already is. Sue and I will probably tell him this weekend.

On the Good side (I Think), Sue and I are in Toronto to celebrate her mother's 80th birthday. We will be back in Alberta on Thursday night. Just a quick trip.

Al

2008-07-07T06:54:00.003-06:00

Well, it has been a long and wet two months since we posted. My plan was to have lots of golfing in by now. That has not happened. I know, what a wimp. Just a fair weather golfer.

We went out to Sorento for a weekend to help Keith (Neighbour in Blythe) celebrate his 65 birthday. Since then, I have been down in Lethbridge quite a bit. Dad's condition has slipped and has ended up needing a lot of help. He is 94 and has been living mostly independent. He lives in a facility where he has his own apartment but they have a common dining room. It looks like we will need to move him into a new facility that has help.

Al

2008-04-20T09:35:00.006-06:00

We are finally home! We left sunny, warm California and travelled back to Canada via BC this year with our friends Lee and Keith. They had purchased a pontoon boat while down south but had no way to bring it back to Canada so... since we didn't have a fifth wheel to bring back they asked us if we would do it - so we said yes!

We had a great trip home - we had about 5 minutes of sleet in Nevada and about 5 minutes of blowing snow in Washington. Other than that it was cool but clear and sunny. We spent 2 days in Sorrento where Lee and Keith live making sure the boat was parked where it needed to be.

When we arrived back in Alberta it was a beautiful 23 C and sunny. WOW - it almost felt like California. Our neighbours Joan and Bob had us over for dinner that night and that was nice not to have to cook dinner after travelling all day. What was even better was that Bob even filled our water tank for us so we had water too! They are great neighbours and even better friends.

I found another nice item about our trip home this year. It only took us under an hour to unload the truck. Not unpack mind you, just unload. Last year I took 4 hours back and forth taking stuff out of the trailer into the house. This year maybe 15 trips into the house and we were done. I am still unpacking mind you, but that is okay - most of it is done now.

I have decided I HATE SNOW AND COLD! For the last 3 days it has been cold and snowy here. I was going to go into Innisfail yesterday and I couldn't even open the doors to my car - they were frozen shut. Allan had to go out and open then for me. Then to add insult to injury while I was on my way, the roads were like crap. I could only get up to 50 kph without sliding all over the place so I decided nope I'm not going into town, it can wait and turned around and came back home.

Here I am on a cold and snowy Sunday morning wearing long pants, a sweatshirt and fluffy slippers and planning to light the fireplace cause it's cold, overcast and STILL SNOWING! I HATE SNOW!

I wanna go back to California - I know - stop whinning this is nothing compared to what everyone else had to put up with all winter.

Oh well at least I have lots of wine to keep me company while I read a book and enjoy our fireplace.

2008-04-01T21:17:00.003-06:00

Wow where did the winter go. We are leaving Blythe in one week and I have decided I'm not ready to go home. The weather has finally warmed up so that air conditioning is needed and floating in the pool in the afternoons are a must do. Oh well life goes on.

Lots of going away parties are happening down here as everyone is trying to clean out their refrigerators so they don't have much to pack to take back with them. Happy hours are turning into happy dinners. I have made a third trip today down to the Food Pantry (Food Bank) to take down food that people are leaving behind. They certainly do appreciate everything we are bringing them.

The park is just about empty as most people have already left to go head back home. We have decided to stay as long as possible for 2 reasons 1 - the road reports are coming in that they are terrible and 2 - there is still SNOW up home - Yuk!

All for now!

2008-03-11T22:24:00.011-06:00

Well, it has been a long time since Sue has updated our blog, so I thought I would try. I had talked with one of our friends (via email) and indicated that we were about done with the new Park Model.

I will try and add some pictures of the outside.

This first picture shows the screens on the east side of the park model. This shows screens that block 90% of the UV and as a result, the sun and heat.

East Side

The second and third pictures are of the west side of the Park Model. Here we used a 70% screen as these will allow some of the winds to flow thru.

West Side

West side with all of the screens down.

Al

2008-02-12T06:40:00.000-07:00

Hi all, we had a little excitement here last. About 8:30 pm we had an earthquake that shook the park model for about 20-30 seconds. It doesn't sound like a long time, but when you are experiencing it, it seems to go on forever. It was kind of neat to go through. It was a rolling sensation. It wasn't violent or anything as we didn't go running outside and I don't think it did any damage to our park model or anyone's property (at least in our area). Apparently it was down by Mexicali which isn't too far from us and it was a 5.0 quake. There was a previous earthquake in that area last Friday so perhaps this was an aftershook. Anyways I'm sure lots of us will be talking about it this morning.

2008-02-03T10:40:00.000-07:00

Hi all, well it's another sunny day in Blythe but the wind is sure blowing today. All of us down here have been spending a lot of time watching the TV and congratulating ourselves on not being home at this time of year. All of you who had to live through the minus 50 or more degree temperatures I salute you. Believe it or not, most of us do remember when it was that cold growing up.

Allan has spent all week painting our shed so that it matches the park model and it does look nice, even if I say so myself. Tomorrow Ron is coming over and he will be installing our awning and then we will be finished with all of the construction. After that Allan and I will be cleaning out the shed. It has been rough having everything in there. Everytime you need something you have to move a ton of stuff to get at it. On February 17 there will be a garage sale so we are hoping to sell the rest of the trailer stuff that we don't need anymore like a 38 gallon water tank.

Oh well, I guess I will try and do some work today. Take care all and those of you in the north please stay warm and safe.

2008-01-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

We finally have furniture and it looks great (that of course is my opinion). We went to Yuma bright and early on Saturday morning to pick up our couch, recliner, 2 end tables, 3 chairs and a kitchen table. Only a couple of minor hiccups happened. The couch was too big to just take the one sliding glass and screen door off, but we had to remove the stationary door as well. That was an exercise in caution. When we were putting the door back on Allan was using a rubber mallet to bang it back into place and I thought for sure he was going to break the glass, but the bad luck didn't happen.

Then the final item that we went to put together was the kitchen table and there we were, all the wooden pieces were there (I just realized we never did see any instructions) but there was no hardware in the box. So we couldn't put it together until we got the screws. Oh well, so close.

Here are some pictures of the park model with the furniture.

Sunday was a great day here. We were up early in the morning and I was helping the social committee put on a breakfast, I cooked scrambled eggs (me and 2 other people) for about 150 people, then I was the hashbrown server. Breakfast was great, lots of fun and laughs with some great people.

Finally got out of the kitchen around 10 am and went over to Keith and Lee's as everyone was sitting outside enjoying the sunshine and warmth with absolutely no wind. That seems to be a rarity these days here with the Santa Ana's always blowing. Anyways we sat outside, drinking wine and playing Mexican train all afternoon. Lots of friends, lots of wine, lots of laughs.

On Sunday night I decided to go an play bingo at the clubhouse. I wasn't quite sure what to expect for $5.00. Actually it was $5.00 for 10 games, $2.00 for the 3 special games, $1.00 for the 50/50 draw and $1.00 for the dauber (since I didn't bring mine from Canada). So right now the evening is costing me $9.00 (almost double than I thought), BUT lady luck decided I and my table mates needed some help.

Of the six of us sitting at the table, I won 4 games, David won 3 games, plus the 50/50, Collette won once, Joanne won once, Sybil won twice, but Ron and Donna didn't win at all - so when you add that up 10 out of 13 games were won at my table. I came home $70. richer. Not a bad evening of playing with about 35 other people.

Wish I would have the same luck when I play with my friends up home. Today everyone was calling Allan - Lucky's husband and then they were rubbing my shoulders trying to have my luck rub off on them. I bet you that I will go again from now to the end of the season and I won't win again.

Monday came along far too fast, spent the morning with Lorraine (a friend from Anthem), in between visits I decided to become really boring again and went back to work.

All for now.

2008-01-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

We have moved into our park model - yahoo! It's done. Johnnie and JT (our contractors) did a great job of pit mounting our unit (meaning droping it in a hole in the ground). Now we are just waiting to have our concrete pad cut in 3 spots. This is for the support beams for the awning and then have the concrete poured over the area they cut out and to pour new concrete over the front. All we will have left to do is to paint the shed the same colours as the park model. I tell you it never ends. Work, work, work oh yeah and then of course happy hour. It's rough life, but what the hey!

It will be a busy week for us coming up. Right now we have friends from Calgary, Doug and Trish, staying in the park for 2 days while the blues festival is going on, then on Monday we will be taking our fifth wheel into Casa Grande, then Tuesday Lorraine from Phoenix is dropping by for coffee on her way to San Diego, then on Wednesday Bob and Joan will be stopping in to say hi, on Thursday Janet, a racing friend of mine and her son will be stopping in for coffee. Oh well my mom always said no rest for the wicked so I must be really bad.

All for now - busy - busy - busy.

2008-01-05T22:38:00.000-07:00

It finally arrived! Our new park model is here. It arrived a day late due to the driver not receiving the transport permit from California until too late in the day to come out. But it's here now and looking just fine. Johnny and TJ, (our contractors) Allan and Charles (one of our neighbours) have been working hard getting it installed on the outside. Another neighbour, Geni, even offered to help with the clean up inside. Someone who cleans windows - WOW - and let me tell you what a great job she did. She even helped to wipe out cupboards and sweep the floor.

Here it is still on the truck getting ready to be backed into the hole.

Here it is going into the hole.
The front view of going into the hole and finally from the side - it's now in.

Tomorrow I am going to start the big job of moving stuff from one trailer to the other. It's a lot of work especially when we only have 2 boxes to work with and a bunch of grocery bags. Oh well, I guess I will pack a few bags, walk them over and unpack them. A few of our other neighbours have offered to help move stuff - that would be great if they did. I will end up owing a lot of our friends a big dinner.

Oh well, it's late, maybe tomorrow I will post some pictures.

2008-01-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year everyone! Wow! 2008 is here already. I was thinking this afternoon about when we spent the milenium in Cabo San Lucas and I can't believe it is 8 years later. Where has the time gone?

We had a great New Year's Eve party last night in the park. Rocky Watson was the live entertainment and he is great - lots of old rock and roll and county music. He kept everybody dancing or tapping their feet. I helped to put on the midnight feast (we actually called it a lunch and served it at 10:30 pm). Lots of work but it was worth it. Then we went back to the clubhouse today to clean up and take down all of the Christmas and New Year's decorations.

Took it easy today at home as well by taking down the few decorations that I put up in the trailer and let Allan do his thing today after all it is his birthday. I am going to get out of making dinner again tonight by taking Allan out for his birthday. After tonight I won't have any more excuses for not cooking dinner so I better enjoy tonight.

Two more sleeps and our new park model will be here. I can't wait, but I'm not looking forward to moving out of the trailer and into the park model. Fortunately a lot of our friends at the park have offered to help us move so that should be good. I will put on a nice happy hour for everyone who helps in a few days once we are settled.

Time to go for dinner.

Take care all and have a safe and healthy and prosperous new year!

2007-12-26T10:58:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you and yours had a great day yesterday and that no one received any lumps of coal. We had a great Christmas day. We spent the morning at home enjoying our morning coffee opening the few gifts that we get for each other over flavoured coffee. Then we went around to a few people around the resort and wished them a Merry Christmas.

Around lunch time we drove over the Parker, Arizona to spend the afternoon and dinner with our friends Bob and Joan. Joan, as usual, put on a great feast of turkey with all of the trimmings. As the song goes, we drank a little wine and had a little fun. The wind was blowing hard all day both here in Blythe as well as there in Parker. I hope Bob and Joan's awning made it through the night intact.

Allan and I are getting ready to welcome our new park model home to Blythe. It is supposed to be here on January 3 (yahoo!) . Right now we have moved off of our lot onto another space so that Johnny (our contractor) could dig the hole that our park model as to sit on. (see attached picture above) Here in our park all park models must be pit mounted so a hole must be dug as the wheels and axles must also remain on the unit. Some California ruling about they must stay movable. I'm not sure why, but then again this is California, they do things differently here.

The weather has been cool down here and that is relatively speaking - it is generally nice and sunny during the day and then like most desert areas, it gets cold at night with no clouds. Last night it was around freezing so I'm not sure if the oranges still on the trees will be any good anymore. Not that I am complaining at least there is no snow.

I guess I should go as I haven't been doing too much work lately so even though it is Boxing Day here, I will put in a few hours before happy hour hits.

Take care all and have a safe and happy new year!

Sue and Al

2007-12-04T09:34:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I posted something on the blog. I must be busy doing something, but I'm not sure what that is.

I know that I have been busy every day trying to put in at least 4 hours of work - yes work and some days I succeed and some days I don't. I guess that's what semi-retired actually means.

We had a nice Amercian Thanksgiving dinner down here with all of the residents in the park. It only cost us $5.00 per person and everyone brought a salad, vegetable or dessert. The park supplied everything else. Then after dinner we played "name that tune". Everyone at our table were too young for a lot of the songs. We didn't even recognize some of them.

It has been a little cold these days. Most mornings when we get up it is anywhere from 3 to 6 C, BRRRR!!! Then during the day it is only going as high at 17 or 18 C, but at least the sun is shining. We had a rain storm the other night. We were at the clubhouse having a steak night and when we left to go home it was pouring. Remember this is the desert it's not really set up for getting almost 2 inches of rain in one evening. We stepped off the curb by the club house and the water was up over my ankles and damn! it was cold. At least the trailer proved to be leakproof. We didn't have any leaks so that was good.

Anyways I should go and do some work. Take care all and stay warm.

2007-11-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hi all, well on Sunday we decided that to take a little tour in the desert in our new dune buggy for a 4 hour tour. There were 2 other couples that went out with us so we packed up some beverages (water) as we are venturing into the desert and a few snacks to tide us over and then we were off.

We let Ketih and Lee be wagon master as they have travelled around last year in their dune buggy. Well the first thing they did was go right instead of left and 2 of the 3 buggies got stuck. Bob and Jennie werent' so bad they only needed 3 people to push them out of the sand, but Allan and I were so far down the engine was buried in the sand and it took 5 of us to push us out and then lots of manipulation to turn us around so we could get out. We went a little way further and then had our first real stop. We all got out and stood around and laughed about that little adventure. We decided that yes, having a GPS was good, otherwise all we could tell a tow truck was that we were at the corner of cactus and bush. Decided next time we needed to bring out the FRX radios so we could talk to each each. We decided to continue with our journey. We travelled along the railroad tracks (the left turn instead of right) and ran along for quite a ways. We were now seriously lost(in my mind) in the desert in the middle of now where and having a great time. The sand was hard packed and easier to run on. Made another beverage stop so we could decide if we were going to travel to the copper mines that were a ways away. Yup - off we went to the mines. Travelled along for a while and started to travel a path that started to climb a mountain. Got to a point where it was very rough going and yup - you guessed it - wrong turn again. Had another beverage break and Keith continued up the hill on foot to see if we could get around but we decided no we wanted to head back. From where we were standing we could see where we wanted to go so back we headed and again we took another wrong turn so started to reverse our track in reverse until we could turn around and finally made it to a point where we could see 4 openings to some old copper mines. Decided we didn't want to trek up the hill this time so had another beverage break before heading back. We had already been out for 3 hours - it's amazing how quickly time flies when you are out travelling in the desert. Anyways we are about half way back when all of a sudden we start to slow down - oh oh - we have run out of gas. Because of the road we are travelling on we are quite a ways back due to the dust so our companions don't realize we are no longer with them. No worries for us as we just happened to think to bring a gallon of gas with us. So we fill our tank and we are off again following the railroad tracks. We finally catch up with our friends and continue on home. We arrive back home after 4 hours in the desert - got lost 3 times, 2 of us got stuck and needed each other to get out of the sand and then we ran out of gas. Man was it fun! Monday morning woke up and decided I needed a new back and we must install air suspension in the dune buggy. Spent the afternoon in the pool and hot tub to sooth out the back pain. We can't wait to go trekking in the desert again.

2007-11-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Sue mentioned that we picked up the buggy. We picked it on on Tuesday, but before we went to Tucson, we had requested Dan to build a "Cage" for it. This is what it looks like now.

Our neighbour invited me to go play in the dessert on Friday. We got out about 25 Kms and I broke. The inner axle joint (CV Joint) came loose. I was able to sort of put it back together and get back to home. Sure reminds me to carry a tool kit and always travel with someone in the dessert.

Al

2007-10-31T20:15:00.000-06:00

Allan picked up our dune buggy today and we had some fun driving into town and doing some shopping. I am not going to drive it for a while as I have a small fracture in my left foot (clutch foot) so I am waiting the 6 weeks until it heals to try driving it. We are really happy with it.

2007-10-30T14:48:00.001-06:00

We are finally back in Blythe for a while. On our way back from Tucson yesterday we stopped in Phoenix at the Chariot park model factory and took a look around. It looks like we might buy a park model for down here. The model that we saw and liked is, of course, the most expensive one. We will be looking at some of our neighbours ones here in the park before we decide which one to go with.

We had another shear pin go on the trailer so that is 2 shear pins and 2 rims. Time for a new trailer. The trailer is only 2 years old so it shouldn't have that many problems. We are thinking about not taking the trailer to Mexico in case we have another problem with one of the new rims or another problem with a shear pin. Those are not the type of fixes that are easily done in Mexico. I guess we may drive down and stay in a hotel for a few days. Only time will tell what we decide to do.

One more day to go before I go back to work with a vengance. I decided to take the month of October off to relax and just check work emails and do what I had to get done. Time to get back to work.

It's almost happy hour so I need to go an get myself a drink or two.

All for now.

2007-10-30T14:48:00.000-06:00

2007-10-28T11:37:00.000-06:00

Wow, the Datastorm Users Rally 2007 is now offically over and we have had a day to relax and recover. The rally has been offically dubbed a success by all attendees and the rally committee met yesterday to debrief. It sounds like we have all officially been recruited for next year's rally to be held in Tampa Florida in November regardless of whether or not we plan to attend or not.

Met lots of people and make some very good new friends. We hope to keep in touch with them over the next while even though we may not seem them until next year's rally.

Tucson has been very hot but we are not complaining. We are heading for Phoenix tomorrow to look at some park models and then hopefully we will be in Blythe by tomorrow night.

Got to go so I can do some laundry.

2007-10-19T21:38:00.000-06:00

Sue and I travel together in the truck and we are less than 5 feet apart. I did not know that she had been updating the blog until I happened to click on it yesterday.

Sue talked about our car for the US. I am trying to upload a picture in this space. It worked. When we get back to Blythe, after Tucson, we will pick up the car and then in about 1 1/2 weeks, we should have a roll cage for it.

Al

2007-10-17T07:42:00.002-06:00

Finally made it to Tucson and not a moment too soon. Pulled into the RV park and 2 salesmen came up to us and told us a tire on the trailer was flat.

After some time and a few phone calls, it was determined that another rim cracked (different tire this time and different side) but because we had driven on a flat tire (for how long no one knows) we also wrecked the tire sidewalls - they separated.

We will be calling Travel Supreme to see if they will send us a new rim as we were able to get a new tire and the spare was perfect just dirty from being stored under the trailer. The one good thing is that the tire was really inexpensive here compared to other places. Last time it cost us over $300 and this time just over $200.

We are at Beaudry RV for the next 2 weeks helping to organize a rally and some of the co-organizers pulled in one and two sites over so it will be easy to get together with everyone.

All for now.

2007-10-17T07:42:00.001-06:00

2007-10-15T08:32:00.000-06:00

We have arrived in Blythe. We decided to do some long driving (I should really say - Allan did some really long days of driving and we arrived in Blythe in just 3 days. It is so nice to be back here. The days are hot and sunny and the nights are warm. There are only a few people here so far so it is nice and quiet. We are heading to Erenburg today to go look at the dune buggy that we purchased last year and had a guy working on over the summer.

We will be heading out to Tuscon tomorrow to get ready for the Datastorm Users Rally (our satelitte internet dish). It will be lots of work and lots of fun. I'm still pretty busy working on the racing convention and awards dinner - thank goodness for the internet which allows me to continue to work on both at the same time.

Oh well time for breakfast.

2007-10-09T19:23:00.000-06:00

On The Road Again

We left Gleniffer Lake today to start the trip south. We are spending these next 2 nights in Lethbridge to see Allan's dad and then we hope to be in Salt Lake City by Friday so we can have some repair work done on the Datastorm internet dish. Apparently one of the wires is buggered up and needs to be fixed.

All for now.

2007-09-05T07:44:00.001-06:00

Where did the summer go? It's early September, the mornings are cool now and the days aren't getting as hot anymore. It seems those are the first signs of fall.

Oh well, that's good news for me as that means I'll be leaving Calgary and work behind for a while. I finishing off at work on September 28 and heading back to the lake for a while and then heading down to Tucson Arizona for the DatastomerUsers Rally 2007.

For those of you who don't know what that is - Datastorm is the internet satellite system we use while travelling. There is a rally each year for DatstormerUsers and we enjoy going and meeting other people who live our lifestyle and enjoy the benefits of internet on the road. Last year was our first time and we had so much fun that we joined the organizing committee for the 2007 Rally.

Oh well, I suppose I should go to work.

Sue

2007-08-03T07:52:00.000-06:00

Well, I've gone and done it now! I said that I would never chase a little white ball with a stick. But, I guess I had to do something this summer. I have now taken up Golf. Won't talk about my scores, but I am having fun, and that is supposed to be important.

Al

2007-06-20T21:03:00.001-06:00

Something that Sue has not mentioned in her post. We have finally moved forward with our internet. We have changed providers at the lake and are now able to use VOIP without the 2 - 3 second lag from the satellite internet. We have loaded Skype on our computers and we are able to talk to each other over the internet. Oh yeah, I got internet hooked up for Sue in Clagary.

Al

2007-06-18T17:09:00.000-06:00

Hi everybody, it's been a while since I came here. I must be busy. Actually I have been very busy. I am back at work and putting in over 12 hours a day and then going home in the evening and trying to get things organized for my race events.

So far we have put on a high performance / competition driving school with 50 students enrolled. Everyone had a great time - another successful school with lots of students planning to go racing this year.

We had our first race event. We had quite a few normal first weekend hiccups, but we managed to get through it okay. I was exhausted at the end of the weekend - probably due to stress.

Now if the rain would stop. It seems that we need to revamp theold expression "April showers, bring May flowers". It seems we have "June rain, the lots of mosquitos". I know it doesn't rhyme, but what the hey!

It's Monday at work and I don't feel like I have woken up all day. Maybe I should just go home and sleep some more, but I have lots of things that need doing.

Allan is enjoying himself at the lake as usual and I get to see him and the lake on the weekends. The royal "We" meaning Allan is spending lots of time on the internet with the people we are planning the rally with in October to try and sort of meals and pricing. He seems to be enjoying himself.

All for now.

Sue

2007-05-06T05:30:00.000-06:00

Well I survived my first week back at work. Considering it was only 3.5 days I put in 46 hours. My partner Linda was extremely grateful for my return - all she could say my first day back "am I glad you are back". I can't believe how much work she has done over the winter, the long hours and she still looks great and has her wonderful smile on her face. She is looking forward to her time off starting at the end of June. I will miss her again when she leaves, but then again it's her turn.

Allan seems to be recovering from his 2 trips to Lethbridge and back in one week. He arranged, at his dad's request, to list his house for sale and then had to turn around and go back then next day as he had 3 offers on it. So it's sold to an old neighbour of Allan's dad. Another chapter in Lindsay's life closes. He seems to be enjoying himself at his new home so he has no rejects that he finally decided to sell the house.

Take care.

2007-04-18T16:39:00.000-06:00

We are home - Yahoo! We finally arrived home on Tuesday around noon and spent the afternoon unloading the stuff from the trailer into the house. We carry far too much stuff. I am vowing here and now that we will be taking half the stuff next year. I decided that I need to do a spring cleaning of stuff in the house as well. Allan and I went through our closet and I will be taking 2 big garbage bags full of clothes to goodwill. Now we have room for the clothes we took with us in the closet.

The house is finally starting to get back to normal. Most of the stuff is put away. Now I just have to find all of the stuff that I need in Calgary for that apartment and for racing and I will be all set.

I can't believe I am going back to work on May 1st. I'm really looking forward to that - did I actually say I was looking forward to going back to work. I must be sick. Not exactly I enjoy the people I work with and will enjoy seeing them all again.

All for now.

PS - Would somebody please pay the heating bill. I really don't like this cold wet weather.

2007-04-14T05:37:00.000-06:00

We are half way home. We made it to Casper Wyoming. Our butts are numb from spending 11 hours in the truck yesterday. Today we are heading for Great Falls, Montana and then on to Lethbridge to see Allan's dad. With any luck we will be home by Tuesday. We are looking forward to no more trips for a while.

2007-04-11T17:49:00.000-06:00

The final stage of our trip home is going to start tomorrow morning and I'm not looking forward to it. We are leaving Elkhart Indiana and will start the trek home. It promises to have something for everyone but not what we want. We will have snow, rain, wind. Oh and did I mention snow, wind and rain. Yuk! No sun cloudless days - oh how I miss them.

Our satelitte dish is acting up again. It took about 45 minutes for us to find the satelitte. That might have something to do with the weather, but then again you never know, so people if you don't hear from me over the next few days it's because we are traveling and not fully setting up at night due to the weather.

I'm hoping the big guy upstairs and mother nature take pity on us and get us home safely.

Take care all and see you all soon.

2007-04-04T16:30:00.000-06:00

Happy Easter, I hope the easter bunny likes you enough to leave you lots of chocolate eggs on Sunday morning.

Allan and I are in Elkhart Indiana for another week. We are at the Travel Supreme factory having some warranty work done on our trailer. The awning needs to be replaced but they won't get in the one we need for at least a week.

That's okay though as there is a current weather system here in Elkhart making it extremely cold, windy and snowy and then by Friday another one is supposed to move in. So hopefully by the time we are ready for the return trip home the weather will be better.

Anyways trying to stay warm.

Take care all.

2007-03-16T08:33:00.000-06:00

Well folks, it's almost time to leave. Where did the winter go? And another question, who turned the heat up. Wow is it hot here now? It's going to be 100 F tomorrow. I'm hoping we don't blow a circuit today in order to keep the air conditioning running. The pool will be crowded as that is the place to be in order to stay cool.

We are watching the weather very closely about what is going on further north as we will be heading to Elkhart Indiana starting on March 26. We are going back to the Travel Supreme factory to have some warranty work done on the trailer then heading home for the summer.

2007-03-06T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well what can I say - March 1st rolled around and bang it got warm outside. Today was a balmy 28 C and even the pool was hot - not that I'm complaining or anything. It's after 7 pm and our outside door is still open, the windows are open and the fans are running - I love it.

I can't believe in less than 3 weeks we will be leaving here and starting the trek home via Indiana of course. It seems that no one wants to work on our slide problem as it probably has to come out so we are having to take our trailer back to the factory where if there is a problem taking it out or putting it back in then those are the guys to do it right.

Our shed is all insulated (against the summer heat) and now we are putting boards up inside (rather than drywall). After all it's only a shed.

I have finally finished the work project I had while down here so now we can go places and visit people and be guilt free cause I'm not working. I enjoyed working on the project but I like visiting friends as well.

Take care all.

2007-02-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, well it's been a while since I have posted anything here for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one is that I have been working very hard with work-related work. The internet is a wonderful thing when it works.

It has finally started to warm up down here and we have actually had days where the temp reached as high as 86 F. We even had a day of rain recently and that was different as I am not used to cloudy wet days down here.

We enjoyed a really nice Valentines day dinner here. The social committee organized a really nice potluck dinner including entertainment and dancing. Allan got up once and danced as well.

Allan has been very busy building a nice shed for us to store stuff down here rather than taking it back and forth. He purchased a patio set for me for Valentines day and I got him a new BBQ. We will take a few new pictures in the next couple of days of the shed. Allan is in the process of wiring it then he will be insulating it. We will probably paint it next year.

All for now as I must go to work.

2007-02-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

This is a test from Sue's computer. We were having trouble trying to sign in. I have no idea what exactly I have done, but we seem to be able to do stuff again.

PS: this is posted by Al

2007-01-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

This is the second picture that I had tried to upload.

This is a picture in December with the trailer on it. We do not have the awning or screen up now because it is too cold and windy. We need the sun to stay warm.

For you keeping track, these are the second and third posts by Al