Jan. 23, 2014 -- Time to move again.

We spent the last month in Quartzsite, AZ.  Like previous years, we stayed in the BLM’s long-term camping area called La Posa North where we lived without utility hook-ups.

The BLM supplies two sewer dumps and 8 water spigots for campers holding either the two-week ($40) or annual pass ($180). With careful rationing, we can last 6 days between sewer dumping and refilling the water tank on the camper.  We drive two miles south to La Posa South and then in one mile to the Sewer dump/water station.  Most of the time, it is easy.  however, during the Big Tent show, the third week of January, we can end up in line for up to 45 minutes—like we did yesterday.  But, we just bring a book up front and read until our turn “at bat.”  (See the links from last year.)

We handle our electrical needs two ways:  First we have two solar panels (thanks to Don Del Rosario) on the roof installed by AM Solar in Eugene, OR, that keep the two golf-cart batteries charged during the sunny days.  We also use our Honda friend when I need to use the microwave or the Vita Mix.  I even made waffles last Sunday morning with our friendly Honda.

I can start this little generator with two pulls!  Amazing little machine!!  I love this little guy! 

When I have to charge my smart phone or the computer, we draw from the batteries with 12-volt chargers.  We try to keep the phones charged up in the car, but sometimes I have to use the car charger in the camper—mostly when I have talked toooo long!  The computer is charging when we start the generator—but sometimes that is inconvenient, so we purchased a 12-volt charger for the computers from Amazon several years ago.  It does a great job on both of our computers—Dell Inspiron 1520.

Larry had rewired a 12-volt plug into the camper years ago—and we use it much more now that when he first installed it.

The little red heater by Mr. Heater Buddy, is our other life-saver.  The regular heater uses too much electricity to run and would drain our batteries.  Mr. Buddy runs off the canisters and provides about 4-6 hours of heat per canister.  This year the canisters have lasted two days/evenings because it has been so warm.  Other years we burned about one per day.  That still only costs us about $5.50 a day for camping.  Not bad in today’s pricey world.

Yes, I heard what you were thinking—how about carbon monoxide with a heater burning inside the camper?  Besides having an oxygen sensor in Mr. Heater, we run this in the camper:

See the zero?  That is after the heater and generator—outside the camper, have been running.  The only time the number changes is when I use the camper stove.  Making a pot of coffee can run up to 65 pp “whatevers.” IAs this meter is about 5 years old, I have ordered a new one from Amazon to make sure we operate in the safe zone.  I don’t want an alarm, I want to know what the numbers actually are—so we don’t get up to the number to trigger the alarms.

And this is how we make our daily coffee—which we really enjoy!

Again, Amazon was the only place where I could find a stainless steel stove-top percolator.

To save cooking time, I purchased a fantastic Pressure Pro pressure cooker from a booth at the Big Tent sale a few years ago.  It was terribly expensive and worth every penny according to Larry when I make him stew!

Thanks to Costco—we use reduced sodium Better than Than Bullion Soup bases.  With the soup bases and the pressure cooker, we can have soup or stew in about 45-90 minutes.  That makes Larry happy—and anything that puts a smile on his face is fine with me!

Our Q-time was fun, but Larry has some medical needs that need to be attended to in Antioch, CA.  So, we left Q-town this morning and are headed back to the SF Bay area for a week or two.

If all goes well, we will be able to return to Q for about another 5 or 6 weeks left in the season.  If the skin lesion requires further medical treatment, we may be stuck up there until it is time to head up to Salem, OR.

We are in Needles, CA, for tonight and tomorrow in Bakersfield, CA.  Then on to Tracy, CA for a few days.  I will post more either tomorrow night or when we get to Tracy.  Life on the road is filled with detours—some detours driving the camper—and some detours in our plans.  We just count every day we are able to travel in the RV as a blessing!  So until the next installment, we wish you safe and happy travels.

Dec. 25, 2013 -- Greetings from downtown Quartzsite, AZ.

We are here and settled in—at least for a few weeks.  It was a long trip across Texas, smile.  The rest of the trip was faster.  We did run into a LOT of wind after we left Deming, NM on Daturday.  If I had looked at the weather report while at Dream Catcher RV Park, we might have delayed our trip by a day—but in spite of bad weather warnings, we were able to drive west to Gila Bend, AZ in one day.  We don’t normally make 335 mile days—but wanted to get to warmer weather.

We ended up having to dry-camp at Gila Bend—missing the last RV spot by minutes.  I just figured it was practice for Quartzsite! 

Here are some of the photos I could not post along the way.  We ran into Internet connection troubles across Texas and even into New Mexico.  In Junction and Balmorhea, we barely had phone coverage, much less Broadband or iphone internet service.  Deming, NM, we had the same issues.  So, we kind of gave up until we got to Quartzsite.  Now we have to run the generator to charge the computers, so times are short.

Our site at the Llano River RV Park in Junction, TX.  What a rough life, eh?

Larry resting at Quartzsite, AZ.  Fred & Arlene’s new trailer in the background.

Merry Christmas!  We had a very quiet Christmas with our friends (& family), Fred and Arlene Cray.  We have been friends and family for almost forty years!  Wow, that makes us old people.  We met when our 45-year old sons were about 8 years old!

I hope you have had a day surrounded by loved ones—either related by blood or by choice!  I heard recently:  What is under the tree is not as important as who is around the tree.  And with that, we were blessed this holiday!  We had wonderful friends at our sides.  It just doesn’t get any better.

May 2014 be the year your dreams come true—and fill your heart with joy.  Big hugs from the Jennings.

Dec. 19, 2013 -- Out in the wilderness…West Texas

Help, we have fallen into “old times.”  Last night we stopped at North Llano River RV Park and found we didn’t have internet service!  I couldn’t log on with my phone nor the broadband card and the WIFI signal was too weak to use!  I felt crippled!  Nice park—but step back in time if you visit. 

Tonight we are in Balmorhea, TX, at a Passport America Discount park—and I am using the old dial-up phone speed on the broadband caard for this posting.  So, until we stop in El Paso, TX, tomorrow or Deming, NM, I can’t post any pictures!  We are fine—weather is beautiful but expected to get rainy and windy tomorrow.  We are 212 miles from the Texas border—and it will have taken us four days of travel since we left Livingston.  Told you we don’t travel far and fast, smile.  Until tomorrow, keep us in your thoughts!

Dec. 17, 2013 – Back on the road again…

Well, our time in Livingston, TX, didn’t last very long.  It was so nice to get out of the camper for a while.  Besides seeing wonderful friends again, these are the things that make my heart go “pitter-pat” at the house:

 

Of course, my pottery shop.  Isn’t it cute?

I made time to throw some bowls, doing a bisque fire and two glaze firings to practice some of the new techniques I learned in Salem last summer.

The Livingston Art League’s annual Art Show was the day after we got back.  I entered three bowls and two won, a second and third place.  I was very happy!  The one on the left is called Texas Red and was thrown last winter.  The other two were thrown and fired in Salem, OR.  The ribbon winner was Day Break and the other is Midnight.  It was fun!!

This is the other thing at the house that speeds up my heart—the washer and dryer.  I hate doing laundry in Laundromats!  I mean I HATE it.  I love being able to do a load of laundry every day—while I am doing other things—I miss these two already—and we are only 225 miles from home.  Boo Hoo!

We spent some time cleaning out the back of the back yard.  There was a huge Kumquat tree as well as a mangy fig tree along the back property line—which is also over a waterline.  The trees and bushes needed to come out—so Larry and I chopped and hacked and totted 10 or 12 loads down to the dumping area with the golf cart!  We had it down to a fine art.  Eventually we hired D & D Tree Service to remove the kumquat tree—I didn’t want to try “playing” with a chain saw at this stage in my life!

Now the yard looks larger and much cleaner!  Another chore checked off the list!

If we were having some much fun, why leave? Well, we wish we could have stayed another month or two, but Larry developed another suspicious spot.  We had it looked at and the specialist prescribed an antibiotic/anti-fungus medicine that we have applied faithfully for three weeks.  While the spot looks better, it isn’t gone.  If it needs a biopsy, we want it done by our doctor in California.  The weather has been pretty rough across the US and we don’t want to risk staying another month and running into more severe winter weather.  There is a slight lull, and we hope we can make it to Casa Grande area before the next freezing weather.  If not, we will just hunker down and wait out the bad weather.  If we wait until mid-January, we won’t have that option if we are trying to make a scheduled appointment.

Tonight we are at Riverbend RV park In Luling, TX.  We have stayed here before as it is a Passport America Park as well as an Escapees’ 50% discount park.  It is close to I-10 and easy in and out.

This is the laundry room and showers:

There is an on-site pool and fishing pond.  It is located along the attractive San Marcos River.

Tomorrow night we will be in Junction, TX again.  Hey, we were just there in November—and this is December!  Yikes!  Our travel stops along I-10 through Texas are pre-determined by the number of RV parks in the few towns between Houston and El Paso.    So instead of 250-300 miles a day, we will be doing about 200 for the next day or so.   We could comfortably drive 250 miles—but the lodgings are to slim to do it.  We aren’t in any hurry—so we will just mosey toward Quartzsite, AZ, for a few weeks until Larry has his doctor appointments.

See you tomorrow night.

Nov. 10, 2013 -- Home at last! (On Friday)

Just a short note for tonight—we got home Friday about noon—and I will slow down enough to write in a day or two!  Between cleaning the house so we can move in, moving all the food and clothes into the house, cleaning all the camper stuff to have it ready in an emergency, and tidying up the yard, I manage to stay busy!

So, hang tight, I will be back to write about the last days of the trip—and then winning Two ribbons at the Livingston Art League’s annual art show on Saturday.

Nov. 7, 2013 – Almost home!

We are about 130 miles from home!  Had we been 20 years younger, we could have continued on up to Livingston, but we aren’t—and we didn’t. Age has bestowed wisdom on us—why drive until 4 p.m. through rush-hour traffic and arrive exhausted??

Yesterday we stopped early to visit Harrell and Tommie Sue’s new house in Bulverde, TX.  It is located just off Hwy 46 around San Antonio, TX.  Wow, what a nice place!  They were so lucky to find this gem in the Hill Country:

 

Isn’t it nice?  Their new house came with built-in pets—lots of deer!  This morning, this guy was enjoying his breakfast just past their deck.

Down hunters, down!  No guns allowed! These are pets!!  (Not pests!)

Don’t they look happy in their new house!  We had a wonderful visit with Tommie Sue and Harrell and some of their friends who live in the areas.  We all went to dinner at a place called Antlers.  The food was some of the best food we have eaten in a restaurant all year!  Larry was in heaven with his Chicken-Fried Steak dinner!!  He has really missed that since we left last December.

This morning we were finally able to get the truck and car car inspection stickers done in Spring Branch—so 2 of our 3 vehicles are done!  Yippee.  We tried in Junction, Segovia, and Bulverde yesterday with no luck.  Each inspection station was either out of stickers—on the 6th of the month, ill employee, or wouldn’t do it on wet streets.  It is a battle every year to find someone to do the inspection.  Why? 

We are in Brookshire, TX, at Houston West RV Park for the night.  We just have to get past the morning rush hour traffic coming into Katy and then pick up the toll-road around Houston for the last leg of the 2,000 mile trip!  I estimated 10 days for the trip, but because we stopped to visit with friends, it will have taken 11 days—not bad for two old folks traveling East!

Nov. 5, 2013 Stopping In Junction, TX, tonight.

Just a short note.  We ran into rain and fog just before Ozona, TX.  The weather report for the San Antonio area looked too iffy for us, so we pulled in to Junction, TX, to the North Llano River RV Park.  It is a very nice park and we have started staying here coming and going through Texas. 

Tomorrow night we will be stopping in Bulverde, TX, to visit Harrell and Tommie Sue Hicks in their new home.  We expect to do about 200 miles toward Houston the next day—stopping in Katy, TX.

Then if all goes well, on to Livingston!!  But, like all our plans, it is subject to change—due to any number of reasons, smile!  Check back to see how far we get Thursday.