March 28, 2012 From Sugar Barge, CA to Gila Bend, AZ

We are back traveling. This post should be called: Again!

Larry’s lab work was better than February’s results, so we snuck off Bethel Island a few days early. It was hard to leave while the state was in full-spring mode. Nothing says spring like tulips and daffodils.

However, across the street, the wild mustard flowers say “It’s time to get out of Dodge”—before the dreaded hay fever sets in…again.

I spent 10 miserable days sneezing and blowing my nose round the clock when the park trees dropped their blossoms on us. I wasn’t ready for another bout. I went to W-M to buy some allergy medicine. I read the directions: One brand said do NOT to use if you have kidney disease and the other said, Do NOT use if you have liver disease. Yikes, something that harms our kidneys or liver isn’t something safe to use. I decided sneezing and blowing my nose was preferable to the other options.

Larry celebrated his 83rd birthday with dinner at my dad's house. In case you missed it, here is the dinner:

My dad on the left—who will be the same age in May and Larry on the right.

Yum yum. Diane brought macaroni salad and Karen brought a fruit plate to complement ham and sweet potatoes—again.

And of course, desert!

It’s official: Larry is in pretty good shape at 83 for the shape he is in, smile! Way to go, honey. My Timex watch…he keeps on ticking!

Sugar Barge changed out one of the electrical transformers while we were there. After 6 weeks of full hook-ups, it was difficult to realize we were without electricity for 10 hours. Everything I wanted to do that day required electricity. Here are the guys and their toys:

Because Sugar Barge is in a flood-zone (The river is higher than than Bethel Island’s ground—held back by levees) the electrical services are installed about 10 feet up in the air.

We left last Saturday morning. We stopped a night in Bakersfield, CA and then another night back at Quartzsite, AZ. We pushed on ahead of a storm to Gila Bend, AZ. And that is when our trip plans went into neutral—AGAIN.

Larry’s BP has decided to climb into an uncomfortable range—again! It went from okay to very NOT ok over night. So, we are spending a few days and tinkering with his BP meds to get his BP back into safe range.

Will we ever get back to Texas for a few weeks this year? We miss our Texas friends! I miss my pottery studio and the shower with 40 gallons of hot water and my own washer and dryer. I have boxes to open from Amazon—sent last time we thought we were headed there in February there as well as more boxes ordered last week.

In the meantime, we are trying to find beauty in the life around us here at Holt’s Shell RV Park in Gila Bend.

It is spring in the desert. The days are warm and the nights are delightful.

We drove through Gila Bend and were impressed with this little town. I have heard about a fantastic Italian resturant and it looks inviting from the outside, however, we are sticking to home-cooked meals for a bit. We may sneak out to the local DQ for a Blizzard this afternoon. We are good--but not so good we pass up good frozen treats, smile.

Whoops, this blooming cactus is a metaphor for our life—beautiful to look at, but be careful, there are some very sharp thorns hiding in among all that beauty. These darn health issues are worrisome. It is difficult to know exactly what to do……and how to keep on living while working to keep on living!

Stay tuned for our next decision. Is the BP low enough to continue east or do we have to stay out west for the summer?????

In the mean time, I noticed these two trucks this morning and had to take photos. This is the way to be a long-haul trucker:

He has better living accommodations than we do in our shoe box--at least more space!

Behind him, was this luxury RV—tractor—again, with a lot more room than the shoe box.

That his his trailer on the left. Notice the size of his tractor hauler?

That is a full-fledged RV pulling a trailer; no, not a racing-car trailer, but a commercial trailer with a load:

Gee, if they had had RV-haulers like this 20 years ago, we could have been talked into working, smile! The best of both worlds: Actually paid to drive a RV around the country and see new sights.

Check back soon to see if we head east.

Mar. 7, 2012 A quick update from frustrated computer user!

Greetings from beautiful Sugar Barge RV Park in Bethel Island, CA.

This month is labeled “Frustration to the Max” month.  First the set-to with Camping World charging us $52 when they failed to deliver the promised services and I had to call back to get the refund they owed us, then my computer locked up.  Everything worked except I was unable to bring up the Google log in page to check email and work on the blog.  I would get a message that Internet Explorer/AVG could not find the log-in page.  Larry backed-up the computer 14 days, when it didn’t work, he uninstalled AVG.  Then Larry tried to install MS Security Essentials, but kept getting a message stating it could not load because I didn’t have a genuine Windows application on my computer.  When he checked with MS, the page said my computer had a genuine Windows application.  Around and around he went for two days. 

We finally removed the Security Essential program and AVG paid program and loaded the free AVG program so I could get back on the net.  I could log in to Google again, except by now, I couldn’t get Verizon Broadband service, only 1xrtt service—so slow, I couldn’t load up the blog.

I am sitting in my dad’s garage in Antioch using the broadband card—so this will be short.

Larry’s March lab tests were back up to what he was in January—YIPPEE!  So, we don’t know if he had a bad month—or two bad test results in February!  We saw Dr. Chi last Friday and she was happy to see the results had improved.  We were VERY happy too.  If he can pull another round of similar results at the end of March, we have a window of travel of April until July!!  Yippee!  Back to Texas to do what we planned in February!  Life is good!

And in the meantime, we are enjoying spring in the SF Bay area—where the trees are white and pink and the hills are starting to turn velvet green.  This is the best of times in California!!

Aren’t all those colorful trees beautiful? 

Unfortunately, this is an ugly photo:

The price of gas hit $4 a gallon a month ago.  Diesel is running about $4.49 to $4.69 in this area.  Ugly and painful for retired folks!  We will continue to travel, just slower and with fewer meals out.  We will get by!

Enough for today. May the spring flowers brighten your world and fill your heart with hope! 

Feb. 22, 2012 Playing in Pleasanton, CA.

We left Quartzsite, AZ just ahead of a storm on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012.  We drove through some heavy winds and a bit of rain to arrive at Barstow, CA, Flying J about mid-afternoon.  After fighting the wind and rain, I was glad we weren’t  going to press on to Bakersfield like we usually do.  We had an appointment with Camping World to have air bags installed on the truck on Friday.

We got up and headed for Tehachapi Pass.  Wait, what is that white stuff on the hills??

Why it is snow, fresh snow.  Good thing we stopped in Barstow!

I had called Camping World on Monday and Tracy ordered the air bags with an estimated delivery date of Thursday.  Yeah, right!  We pulled into the Bakersfield Elk’s Club and called Camping World.  Whoops, the company didn’t ship until Tuesday and had an estimated delivery date of the 20th instead of the 17th.  Tracy agreed to call us on Friday with an updated delivery date—as Monday was also President’s Day and they weren’t sure FedEx would deliver on the holiday.  She called us Friday morning to let us know there was no hope for the Friday delivery so that the air bags could NOT be installed on Saturday.  We decided we needed to pull the plug on the transaction; it was going to drag on much longer than promised.  We needed to be in the SF Bay Area instead of stuck in Bakersfield, CA.

I am not happy--Camping World charged us for the shipping on a product they promised by Friday.  Had they told us it would take a week or longer, we would have waited until we were done in Antioch.  We ended up paying $49 to get out of the order—and almost a week later, we are still waiting for the refund of $251 from the rest of the deposit.  Camping World, we are disappointed in you charging us for your mistake!

We spent two nights at the Tracy, CA, Elk’s Club.  Once you find the way in, it is a peaceful spot for a few nights.  I  wanted to continue over to the Alameda Country Fairground, Pleasanton, CA, to see my sister, Diane.  We are here for 7 nights.

Welcome to the Alameda Country Fairground.  Campers register here for one of the 200-plus sites in the RV Campground

 

This is my sisters RV.  In addition to being very pretty, she had a bigger RV, smile. (And a prettier car too.)

And of course, us:

The sites are quite narrow.  It’s a challenge to get one of the bigger rigs into the site and even more of a challenge to find a spot to park your tow car.  We can live with this for a week.  And then on to beautiful Sugar Barge Resort for a month or two.  Larry will do lab work next Monday and by Wednesday, we will have some idea of what our near future holds.

In closing, here are two unusual RVs parked here:

They have their own patio.  And the next one has a loft:

Want to sleep up there?  Nah, me neither!  Bet it is cold during the winter months!  And so much for this week’s ramblings.  Next stop, Sugar Barge in the beautiful California Delta region.

Feb. 11, 2012 Back in Gila Bend, again.

Our life is two steps forward, one back. After leaving Gila Bend last Tuesday morning, we pulled into Dream Catcher RV Park in Deming, NM at 3 pm. that afternoon. It was a long day!

The main reason we stopped there was to visit with Jim and Penny Scott, Rainbow Parks directors and long-time friends. Penny and I chat on the phone often but we our paths only cross occasionally. They train the park managers and hosts and have been spending most of their time in Branson, MO. We were delighted to be able to meet up in Deming.

We planned on Wednesday and Thursday nights before pushing on toward Livingston, TX. Thursday is the park “dine-in night.” Jim and his helper Ralph prepared a delicious meat- loaf dinner.

Yum, Yyum. Meatloaf coming out of the oven headed for our plates.

Whoops, Penny’s salad and her plate are naked. No salad toppings or gravy. Poor Penny. Here is what the rest of our salads looked like. Aren't they pretty?

Some local musicians came and played for us after dinner. It was a grand finale to our two-day Deming, NM visit, or so we thought.

We went to bed with full stomachs and happy thoughts of the great music and fun time in Deming, NM. However, we were anxious to head east in the morning.

Larry woke up about 4 a.m. with a bloody nose. I got up with him and after a few minutes, we thought it had stopped. And then the bleeding started again. Whoops, this is too much for us to handle.

Luckily I had read the park brochure produced by A.G.S. . that we received when we checked in. I knew there was a very important ad on the back of the brochure:

It says:

In an emergency, these three words could save your life: the nearest hospital—Mimbres Memorial Hospital.

In a panic, I called to make sure they had a doctor on call—and for driving instructions. I had forgotten there was a map in the brochure. I knew I needed to get dressed, get Larry dressed, as he only had one arm available with one holding his nose, get him down the steps without his leg brace, and drive him to the Emergency Room.

We forgot his wallet and had to turn around at the park exit and go back and grab his wallet with his Medicare card and insurance information. I said: We need to practice emergency routines to get this down better for the next emergency!!!!

Larry is on Coumadin, a blood thinner so it just wouldn’t stop bleeding. The doctor sprayed a nasal decongestant three times before the bleeding stopped--taking about 45 minutes. If it hadn't stopped, the next step was to pack his nose with guaze and then stay in Deming longer to see an ear, nose, and throat specialist in Los Cruses.

The Mimbres Memorial Hospital did an excellent job. We were pleased with the service and the doctor’s help. We would not have been able to stop the bleeding at home. It was definitely an E.R. room visit emergency.

The doctor suggested staying another 24 hours and getting a humidifier and saline nasal sprays to keep his nasal passages damp. Larry’s nose bleed was probably caused by the dry air cracking the blood vessels in his nasal passage. Once it started, the Coumadin kept the blood from clotting. Meet our new best friend from Wal-Mart:

In Texas, we use a de-humidifier to keep the house comfortable, but out in the desert air, we have to moisten the air. I guess we are never satisfied, smile.

While that episode was scary, very scary, it wouldn’t have changed our travel plans. Seeing the blood work lab results did. The kidney function results have declined since the lab work on the first of February.

We are returning to Antioch, CA, for his March lab work to be near his nephrologist in case things really are on a slippery slope. Larry feels good and has a healthy appetite, however, it would have been fool-hardy to Texas. We turned around this morning and re-traced Wednesday's travels. We are parked back in Gila Bend, AZ, for tonight. We will continue on to Quartzsite, AZ for a night or two before heading up to Antioch.

We love traveling around in the truck and camper. We know medical issues are going to come up, either from our ages or Larry’s chronic kidney disease. What we won’t do is sit around the house waiting for something to go wrong. Things will go wrong--whether we sit at home—or on the road enjoying life. Even though it is scary, like yesterday needing an ER in a strange town, the people we meet who help us make up the sweetener for the bowl of lemons. Life is good!

(And special thanks to the AGS representatives who got the Mimbres Hospital ad. Bless you! It was a life-saver for us!)

Be sure to read those brochures you receive at RV parks; you never know when you will need to drive through a strange town in the dark middle of the night.

Feb. 2, 2012 On the move again……

It’s time to move. We just completed 66 days living “off the electrical grid.” We have enjoyed our time in Quartzsite, AZ,--the peace and quiet in December and the super-activity in January. Now we are ready for a change of scenery.

I started this post last night. However, I have to interrupt the post to post what is really important! Showers! We are hooked up to water, electric and sewer at Holts Shell RV Park, Gila Bend, AZ, We stop here coming and going to clean the rig and do laundry. After two months of “Navy-style showers,” tonight we enjoyed long, hot, quiet showers. It was so heavenly. I just stood under the hot water—feeling blissful. No “eh eh eh” of the water pump nagging me to hurry up to save water for Larry. Friends, tonight’s long shower was heavenly! Far more enjoyable than even a big chocolate bar!

Meanwhile, back at the blog: The statistics of being off the grid for 66 days.

We kept our set of two batteries charged with the two solar panels and did computer/phone charging and limited TV watching with our Honda 2000i generator. Larry filled the 1.5 gallon red gas can three times and poured half of the last fill into our neighbor’s generator this morning, therefore using about 4 gallons. We filled one of the two 5-gallon propane tanks every two weeks—for a total of about 20 gallons of propane for cooking and heating shower water.

We use a Heater Buddy portable propane heater. We went through a canister a day (2.60 each) in December, but one canister lasted about 3 days in February because milder weather. I over bought this year and had to return some to W-M in mid-February.

Every week we drove 3 miles down to the BLM sewer dump the holding tanks and fill up about 40 gallons of fresh water. The sewer dump and fresh water services are covered with the BLM annual permit for $180. (Or, with the $40 14-day permit.)

This handy $180 permit also entitled us to see and enjoy some of the world’s most beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

The daily colorful shows are spectacular—and free to visitors—no extra charge!

Of course, to Rvers, January in Quartzsite, AZ, means the Big Tent RV and Vacation show—and lots and lots of traffic and visitors.

The crowds were heavy this year. I ventured into the tent once and it was a claustrophobic experience. Wall to wall people—inching along the aisles. I visited the Escapees booth for some hugs and the Good Sam booth to renew our towing insurance and buy this year’s issue of the Good Sam Campground Guide. I use it as my third resource for campgrounds--after the Escapees Travel Guide and Passport America’s book.

Some folks come for RV stuff and others come for rocks. Yes, that little crystal is $335!

My beautiful sister Diane looking at some of the crystal rocks on display for sale. (She is much prettier than the rocks, smile.)

And then there are flea market booths everywhere with tons of “collectibles. They count on you collecting what they are selling. I chuckled over this sign—yes, it says open. Need junk?

It was fun and and for us, it is over for this year. Enough dust, wind, flea markets, and RV shows. We are headed back to Texas. First day’s travel—145 miles to electricity, water and sewer. Only 1200 miles to go—so I will post as we have time and electricity at night.

Jan. 8, 2012 And so starts another year RVing……

The best thing about January 1 is that it is the end of the holiday season. The annual Christmas holiday season depresses me, so I am always glad to see the end of it. However, January 1 is a great day—the start of a new year! I love waking up knowing there is a fresh slate awaiting us! Where will we go this year and when? Explore the Pacific Northwest again? Go East to Maine? A cruise to Alaska or Hawaii? Wow, our options are limitless.

We still have to work around Larry’s kidney doctor appointments. We have gone from semi-annual to quarterly appointments and then back to semi-annual last year. He has monthly lab tests done to moniter how well his kidneys are functioning. We feel blessed he is well enough so we can travel.

Quartzsite is dry and warmer than Texas. The winter climate here reduces the aches and pains growing older brings. It’s a good thing we enjoy Quartzsite!

The snowbird season has started. This photo was taken at our site December 3, 21012. It was easy to get in to the laundromat, gas station and stores.

And today’s photo:

Those rigs are a very small fraction of the number of RVs dry-camping out here in the desert. More will be pouring in each day until the Big Tent show starts January 21. The 2012 snowbird season swung into action just last week—about January 3rd. The vendor booths are multiplying like rabbits and the shoppers are doing their thing--spending.

Our neighbors, Fred and Arlene arrived just before New Year’s Eve. We have been neighbors on and off since the 1970s. Arlene is my adopted sister—it is good to have our family with us.

Fred carries his four-wheeler on top of his truck. He designed and built the rack to transport his quad. Here is how he gets it down:

He used to ride the quad up—and down the ramps. Now he is working smarter—by using the winch on the front of the four wheeler to raise and lower it. Thank heavens!!! We used to have heart attacks worrying about him. Good thinking, Fred.

Quartzsite has a very active model air plane group with their own dedicated airport. We stopped by to watch one morning:.

The planes are much quieter than I remembered. Larry thinks they have electric motors/engines now. Up, up and away—soaring like a bird.

Meanwhile, back on land, we are still being challenged with fixing the camper appliances. Larry’s fix on the hot water tank only held a week and then he had to go buy a new computer board. Luckily, RV Lifestyles, up on Dome Rock Rd., has a varied complement of RV parts. They had our hot water heater board in stock, so I didn’t have to miss any hot showers! I am willing to give up a lot out here—but not regular hot showers.

A week later, the refrigerator started turning itself off every few nights—usually just after dark! We carry doses of Larry’s Procrit for his anemia—and beside being expensive, it needs to be refrigerated. We can’t be without refrigeration. He fiddled with it—like the water heater—and it worked for another week. Finally on Saturday, in desperation, we set off to RV Lifestyles again to pick up a new ignition board as well as a back-up Dinosaur computor board—and they had both in stock. Larry installed the new ignition board and it is working, yippee!. RV Lifestyles has saved our bacon (or our standard of living) this year.

We took a a photos of some of the Rvs. Next posting, I will talk about the variety of vendors in Quartzsite, but until then, here are some of the unusual RV campers. Yes, some folks do have it all and bring it, whatever their particular “it” is, with them:

The Santa-mobile above is from Canada. I suspect the car rides inside the lower door in the back.

Are the fences for privacy or wind-breaks??? That is a lot of work.

A horse trailer converted to mechanical horses? If you have anything with wheels, bring it to Quartzsite. It will fit right in.

Anyway, we hope you are enjoying your new-year’s clean slate and making lots of great plans for 2012.