Swap meet Mesa, Az

Very poor picture of the swap meet in Mesa Arizona yesterday. My cousin came over from Carefree Az, and we went out and shopped around. I just can't seem to nail these indoor shots. Have to drag the other camera out I guess. Went back to Arizona Opry last evening with my cousin, had a great time and lots of music.
I worked most of the day on our two computers trying to set up a hard wire network where one computer talks to the other and relays my Verizon card info to the other one. My neighbor is a pretty good computer tech but this one stumped him. Finally gave up and will try it again on another day. I should have contacted Sally Hayward right away and probably wouldn't have a problem with this. She's a "puter" whizz and helps me a lot when I get in a bind.

Big Superbowl party here in the park tomorrow, I'm in one of those football pools but have never been lucky enough to win one.

I won't tell everyone that it was really warm here today and we had to kick the A/C on for a couple of hours. Just checked the temp in Pinedale and was 10 degrees. Still 63 here at 8:00 p.m.

Florida Pelican

Took this fellow's pic when we were in Florida in 06. Nothing bashful about him.

My cousin is coming over today and we're headed out to the Mesa flea market. Oh Great!! More gadgets. And we have reservations to the Arizona Opry tonight (again). My cousin has never seen it. should be fun.

Arizona Cardinal Fever

Yep, the cards are in the superbowl, these fans down here really are rabid about their "cards", I too have been stricken with a mild case of Cardinal fever but my heart is still with the Broncos. And I want the Steelers to win also....so many teams so little time..

Bob Havens

My neighbor told me this guy's name is Bob Havens and he used to play trombone on the Lawrence Welk show. This digital camera of mine doesn't take very good indoor shots, or I haven't figured out how to take the pictures properly. He was signing an autograph for my neighbor.

Nice day here, about 65 degrees, headed over to the local library to work on my ipod (it picks up internet in a browser through any wireless service) That's all I need is another gadget.

Camping world

You can't RV and not end up at Camping World once in a while. They're a bit pricey but there's just some stuff you have to get from them. Most stuff you can get at a lower price at Walmart or Target or???

Had to get a new water filter. The old one plugged up for some reason?? This new filter takes almost all of the chlorine taste out of the water. Says it will work for a year. We'll see. We had been buying drinking water (.15/gallon), with the chlorine taste out of the water it's tolerable now. Darned water is so hard you have to beat it with a sledge hammer before you can drink it. We have a water softner in the water line coming in to the 5er, it does help.

You'll all be glad to know it is much colder down here, almost freezing this morning (poor thing). Went to the "emergecare" place this morning, I have a re-curring sinus infection and had to get some antibiotics. The good Doctor told me I better get in and visit with a Ear, nose and throat specialist to see if I can get this dang thing from getting infected all the time. It's caused by allergies etc. Eardrum hurts like heck today. Will be better tomorrow.

Big Band music

Went with our neighbors to the Jan Garber "sweet music" orchestra last evening. Again, Debi and I grew up in a later era but enjoyed the music anyhow. Some guy was "featured" who played with Lawrence Welk as a trombone player, I have his picture and may post it after I find out who he is. Our neighbor knew who the guy was and got his autograph after the show. My cousin is coming over here Friday from their RV site in Carefree Az. We're going back to the Opry as they have a new show and one of the features is the two time Arizona "fiddle" champion. Should be a neat 2 hours.

Settle in and do some "maintenence" on the "5er" today. Had a water leak a couple days ago but got it fixed before it did any damage. These RV's are like "a woman's work", never done.

Key West Florida

Our winter travels in Jan 06 took us to Key West Florida. This and a bunch more butterflies and other critters were in an enclosed place with peaceful music etc. playing. I wasn't quite over my type A personality at that time and fidgeted (sp) a lot but did enjoy the critters and music.

Off to the Opry again tonight with some neighbors. This is a different bunch of musicians and play mostly 50's and 60's stuff. Debi and I are a bit younger than some of the crowd here and are not quite so familiar with some of the 50's music. I cut my teeth in the 60's and all the wild and crazy musicians of that era.

Supposed to be nice today (70's) then a bunch of rain later in the week. This place is getting crazy over Arizona Cardinals football. This is the first time ever (I think) that the cards have gone to the super bowl. Not sure which team to root for , my head says Pittsburg but my heart says Cards....(spoken like a true politician)

Portable TV

Walking through Walmart parking lot and noticed that someone left their TV in one of the baskets, drew a lot of attention from folks walking by. There was a "repair estimate" sheet attached to it, one can only assume that whomever owned the unit thought it would be cheaper to buy a new one. Just left the old one there...

Hurricane Katrina damage

When Debi and I traveled to Floriday in 05-06, stopped by Foley and Gulf shores Alabama. We were there a couple months after Katrina and saw lots of damage to houses etc. This particular "stilt" house sustained a lot of damage. The picture shows some damage to the left side and some shingles missing. Some were much much worse than this one. Somewhere I had a picture of a 35' fishing boat that was blown inland about a mile. It was sitting in a field. I assume they've towed it back to the water by now.

Still cloudy and a bit of rain here today. Priced some new glasses at pearl vision, cost $425.00 So went to Costco and bought a pair for $179.00 Jeez, didn't realize that there was that much price disparity in glasses.

New Fork Lake Fire

Until I get some new pics to post (I think I have a cd full of them somewhere), I'll post this pic of New Fork Lake fire from last summer north of Pinedale. I think this was day 2 or 3 of the fire burning kind of north and a bit west of the upper lake. Some of the locals and local bloggers posted some really good pics of this fire.

Rain today, getting kind of dry down here, it's really good for the desert.

Florida 2006

This was Wildwood Florida in Jan. 2006. We were traveling with the Sutherlands at that time. Stayed there about 2 months before we began the long treck northwest back to Wyoming. We still had the Dutch Star diesel pusher motorhome then (foreground) The screen tent was our daily coffee and get together and plot strategy place. Florida was fun.

80 here again today but rain tonight (a little bit). Shopped at some big mall in Scottsdale Az.

Rest stop, taking five

Sunday taking 5 at a rest stop near Phoenix. Lots of RVers out traveling today. Snowbirds everywhere. Hard to believe that we've been gone from Pinedale since early October. Less than 2 months left here before we head on up towards Laughlin Nev and on to Hurricane Utah. Last year we got home May 8th and bout froze to death. Think we'll get home about Memorial day weekend this year. Can't wait to get the boat in the water and go catch a Mac. It's 80 degrees here today, looks like it might hit 40 in Pinedale. Let me see....do I miss that cold and snow....nahhhhh

Always hunting rocks

Debi never misses an opportunity to look for a rock. Better to do that than throw them at me. This is at a rest stop between Phoenix and Quartzsite yesterday.

Hot today, 80 !

Quartzsite and Havisu

Picture of London Bridge over Lake Havisu, a church steeple at some hamburger joint just north of Parker Arizona and a couple of pictures of some over-ambitious campers. Made it back to Apache junction about noon just in time to get the slides out and watch Arizona beat Philadelphia. I think this could be classified as our winter vacation.

Garbage can Ham

Cousin Hank and one of his assistant's taking the garbage can off the coals after roasting a 1/4 of a pig. Was tasty but the center didn't get done too well. It's on the same order as a dutch oven, put coals around the sides of the garbage can and coals on top and cook the thing for about 4 hours. A turkey you cook for 2 hours. Very good.

Went to Lake Havisu today and looked around. Will post a pic from that tomorrrow. We leave in the morning to get back to Apache junction. I suppose traffic will be a hassle as we'll go by where the Arizona Cardinals play the Philadelphia eagles. Oh well, when you're going slower there's less chance some guy will hammer you going 75 mph.

Downtown Quartzsite

Wow, talk about thousands of people. This "cheesehead" was handing out free cheezie french fries. Quartzsite is at it's yearly peak for desert snow birds and tourists. We shopped till we dropped.

Camp Quartzsite

Arrived in Quartzsite Az shortly after noon, uneventful trip, everything worked ok. The rigs in the background belong to my cousin and his friends. Bout the same temp here as it is in the Phoenix area. Nights may be a touch cooler.

Gulf Shores, Alabama

Took this pic of Debi in Dec. 05 at Gulf Shores Alabama. We were on a few days rest on our way to Florida. Gulf Shores had sustained quite a bit of damage from Hurricane Katrina. It was windy this day.

Nice here in Apache junction today, may reach 75. Finishing getting ready to travel tomorrow.

Cool little hill

Found this interesting looking hill in the superstition mountains. Kind of looks like that bottleneck peak up above Green river lakes north of Pinedale. Prepping the 5er for travel Thursday. aired the tires up today and will do a checklist of stuff to do tomorrow. Hope to head out Thursday morning after rush hour traffic clears a bit.

Thanks to Sally, I have my hit counter back. The little bugger disappeared and Sally used her usual computer savvy and magic to make it come back.

Big ole wheels

Debi spotted this picture north of Apache junction today, it was 70 degrees and sunny out so we went out and enjoyed the nice day.

Cousins

My cousins from Colorado Springs are here for a while. Hank and Carol are headed for Quartzsite Wed Jan 14th and we'll be headed over to join them for 3 days on Thursday. They have a friend of a friend who has some property in Quartzsite and will let us camp on his lot. apparently it has electric and possibly water. We can camp for about 3 days on our fresh water tank but the batteries need to be charged regularly (furnace takes quite a bit of electricity). It will be a nice break from being near the "city".

Windy this morning but nice. Watching football and takin it easy.... I do that a lot

Arizona Mills

Deb-Today was bright and sunny, still a little cool. We went to a mall called Arizona Mills and met up with Hank's cousin Carol and her husband, Hank, and a couple of their friends. Went to lunch, of course, and did a little shopping. It was good to see them again. We will meet up with them at Quartzsite next week for a few days. Quartzsite is a hoot this time of year.

Light rail Phoenix Az

Went with several folks from the RV park to try out the new "light rail". Top two photos is where the Az diamondbacks play baseball. Photo 3 is some castle we went by near downtown Phoenix. #4 is the inside of the light rail train and the last photo is a poor photo shot into the sun (I know better than that) showing the light rail train itself Or at least the front of it. Nice sunny day here