Gratitude

Apache Junction, AZ  High 68  Low 42

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

We are blessed with dear friends, like Eric and Karla who made time in their busy plans to have dinner with us before they left town. One of the best things that has come out of our full-time lifestyle are the friends we have made on our journeys. We had a few friends when we lived in a sticks and bricks but now we have an amazing number of people that I consider great friends. Hopefully we will be seeing many of these wonderful folks at Quartzsite in January.

Then there are all of you out there in blogland – some we’ve met and many others that we hope to meet in the future. When I need help, you are all there with suggestions and ideas and Rick takes his time to help me out. Thank you so much, especially Rick who was able to remove some suspicious programs on my computer.

Because we have chosen this lifestyle, we were able to spend time this summer with almost all of our families. What a great time we had. Our family is doing well and are happy. What more can we ask for.

Todd and Michaela

Being able to explore this beautiful country of ours at our own pace and in our own home on wheels. In our six years on the road we’ve barely put a dent in my list of places to see.

We also are able to spend our winter months in the Southwest. And this year I am really grateful for our sunshine and warmth. Snow is beautiful in pictures but definitely not in my yard. Desert sunsets are so incredible.

I am especially grateful for the wonderful doctors we have here and for their abilities. We saw Jim’s oncologist on Monday and his PET scan was great. We don’t have to go back for six months. We definitely did a happy dance in their parking lot.

We are going to be sharing Thanksgiving dinner with Jan and Bill down in Casa Grande. We have so very much to be thankful for this year. We wish all of you a very wonderful and joyous Thanksgiving.

Need Help

 

I am going through my gigabytes faster than ever and I can’t figure out why. I have almost given up reading blogs or commenting. Jim hasn’t been on his computer for almost two weeks and yet we are still over 50% of our 8 gigs.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what might be wrong? We got along just fine with 5 gigabytes for many years and now 8 isn’t enough.

Thanks guys.

Checking in with Folks

Apache Junction, Az   High 81  Low 58

After recovering from our mad, cross country dash, we headed out on Monday to visit with Aunt Happy. She is really glad that we are back. She fell a couple of weeks ago and spent the night in the hospital. Unbelievable that she didn’t break any bones at her age. But the doctor told her that for being 101 she has incredible bone strength. Lots of bruises and needs some physical therapy but is still going strong.

Tuesday we headed over to see Dianna. She needed some help with her computer and printer and she wanted Jim to check out a couple of things on her travel trailer. Also had lunch with her and Bobbie at Lin’s Chinese Buffet. So good.

Wednesday Jan and Bill came up from Casa Grande. They had to drop off their rig for some smaller repairs that needed to be done. We went to the Escapees Chapter luncheon at Mickey D’s. It was good to see everybody again.

Thursday morning we finally got laundry done. Thursday afternoon, Betty and Joe came over for a visit. I have enjoyed Betty’s blog for a long time and it sure was fun to finally meet them in person. The couple of hours they were here passed so quickly because we had so much we wanted to talk about. They left last Saturday to head further south to St. David. Safe travels.

On Friday we had to take Scooter to the vet. We weren’t impressed with the vet here in AJ (they seemed a lot more interested in money than in our girls) so we went to Dianna’s vet in Gilbert. Everyone was wonderful and definitely put Scooter first.

 

Scooter has a heart murmur and has been on a heart medication for over a year now. But we noticed that her breathing was very shallow and noisy. The vet took x-rays and did an exam. Her heart is enlarged somewhat and that pushes on the lungs and doesn’t allow them to expand as much as they should. The valves in her heart aren’t working as good as they should either. With these problems, she had some fluid in her lungs.

The doctor put her on an additional heart medication as well as a diuretic. We noticed an immediate improvement in her breathing and in her energy level. The vet said she should live several more years as long as we keep her in good shape weight wise. Right now she is at a perfect weight between 14 and 15 pounds.

Skittlez can’t be left alone at home. She would probably collapse from a broken heart. So she got to go to the vet with us.

On Saturday, Carol and Doug came to see us. They have been “camping” in the RV Renovators repair shop like forever. They are having some major repairs made on their fifth wheel. Check out their blog at Carol to see what they have been going through. Sure hope things are looking up for them this week.

We had some root beer floats and then headed for dinner at Tom’s BBQ in Mesa. They have some of the best bbq in town. Jim had their Italian beef sandwich and loved it. I went with the brisket and it was fantastic. We will be meeting up with Carol and Doug later on this winter.

This week, Jim is working on getting the boat ready to go in the water. We also have several doctor appointments including another one for Scooter.

A Summer Summary

We had one of the best summer’s ever. It started with our journey north and our visits with friends, Steve and Peter, in Las Vegas; Sharon and George in Hawthorne, NV; and Dianne and Tom and Jeff and Tina in Wyoming.

We then got to spend the week-end in Bozeman with David, Kelly and Katie Bug and watch Katie compete in her track events.

From there we headed to Helena and got set up for a couple of months. Jim had good luck fishing for walleye which makes him a very happy man. We had lots of fun with my sister and her hubby going out to dinner, garage sales, and just visiting. While there we also got to see Tara Jo and Emmett.

After leaving Helena we ended up in Todd and Michaela’s drive way. Major hail damage needed to be repaired on the house. A little over a week later the work was done and we were ready to head East to Virginia.

Met up with Nan and John in South Dakota. Jan and Bill in Indiana. John and Peg in Illinois. It really is so much fun to meet up with good friends all across this country.

We spent a week in Fredericksburg with Jimmy and his family. We finally got to meet Jenetta and Angel. Also got to spend some time with Madison and Juliet and their Mom, Jessica. Our friend, Linda, came down from Maryland and rented a cabin at the campground for a couple of days. Visited lots of Civil War battlefields and stood on sacred ground. Also got to have dinner with Jim’s sister, Nancy, her hubby, Jack, and Jim’s niece, Patti.

Moved on down to Mechanicsville into our friends’ driveway. It had been years since we last visited with Tom and Patsy and we won’t let that happen again. We ended up staying almost two weeks and had a fantastic time.

Headed west to Appomattox to experience the surrender of Lee to Grant and the end of the Civil War.

On to Roanoke and good times visiting with Jim’s family.  His sister, Janet; his Aunt Ruby; his cousin, Sandra and her hubby. Nancy and Patti were able to come down to join us for dinner to complete the family reunion.

Time to head West and a stop in Atlanta. There was someone I really wanted to meet. Nancy and Master Jack Nimble. After following Nancy’s blog and feeling a strong connection with her, we landed in her driveway and thanks to her daughter, Susan, had a fantastic dinner and a wonderful visit.

Most of our days west were to pull into a campground, not unhitch, and leave in the morning. We did spend two days in Albuquerque so we could visit with Steve and Jen.

Then down the mountainside into Apache Junction.

I am so happy to be back in the desert. I did not like the feeling of being so closed in with all the trees in the East. They are all you can see. I like being able to see for miles and miles in all directions. I hated the humidity – everything always felt wet. Thank goodness the friends and family more than made up for that.

Now that we are settled back in our spot in AJ (Petticoat Junction), I probably won’t have a lot of blog posts. At least until something fun or exciting happens in our lives.

I forgot to add that we covered 11,686 miles this summer. And Jim drove all but maybe 100 of them. He is such a great guy.

Steve and Jen

Albuquerque, NM

We stopped in Albuquerque for two nights so we could visit with our kids. This was a great summer for Jim because he got to spend time with all four of his sons. That doesn’t happen very often.

Steve and his Dad

We let the kids decide where we were going to dinner and they made a great choice. Cracker Barrel. One of our favorite.

Jen is really tiny and we all decided that the child’s rocker would be the perfect size for her.

We had a fantastic visit with the kids. A really nice way to spend Halloween.

The next day we were going to go as far as Holbrook, AZ but when we got there the weather people were predicting 50 mph winds and possible snow flurries for the next day. Jim looked at me after we got fuel and said we’re going down the mountain into the valley. So over 400 miles later, we arrived in Apache Junction.

Saturday morning we got up early and unloaded the Bungalow into the fiver. We parked in Ron’s spot since they hadn’t arrived from Canada yet. We got everything moved and sat down for a minute. I asked Jim when he wanted to move the Bungalow to it’s storage spot and he said right now. As he started to pull out, a motorhome came rolling down the street. Talk about perfect timing. Yep – Ron and Theresa.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday are just a blur because we were exhausted. Sure feels good to be back in the desert.

Our first Arizona sunrise.

Heading West

Across the USA

I don’t have too many pictures of our trip West. All we did was drive, pull into a campground and head out in the morning. We didn’t do any sight seeing.

Virginia weather. 

Some Fall colors.

Bright sunshine.

The Gaffney Peach

Atlanta traffic.

Beautiful clouds.

A barge on the Mississippi River

A hitchhiker.

A prairie sunset.

Master Jack and Nancy

Atlanta, GA

You all know those folks who immediately become a friend even if you haven’t met them. I have always felt a connection with Nancy of  Jack Nimble. We have corresponded through our blogs and I knew that we had to make a stop in Atlanta to meet her and Jack.

 

Nancy suffers from extreme pain in her hips and yet she welcomed us into her drive way and home with open arms.

Jack is the biggest sweetheart. He cracked me up when he went into the kitchen and started banging the stool around. That’s his way of telling Nancy that he wants his sweet tater treat.

Nancy is as wonderful a person as I thought she would be. Truly a special friend. Because we were delayed a week in Virginia (couldn’t find a campground near Roanoke) we could only stay one night. But I definitely see a return trip in the future.

Nancy’s daughter, Susan, made the best lasagna for us for dinner. She also made a homemade salad dressing that was incredible. Thank you so much Susan. Sure wish we could have met you. We love your Mom.

Thank you again Nancy for being the person you are.

Battle of Hanging Rock

Roanoke, VA

Roanoke was the site of a small Civil War battle (if any battle can be considered little) on June 21, 1864.

After the Union defeat at Lynchburg, Union General David Hunter withdrew his troops towards Roanoke. Confederate General Jubal A. Early ordered his troops, led by General Robert Ransom, to pursue the retreating Union soldiers.

They caught up to the Union troops at Hanging Rock near Mason Creek. Because General Hunter’s force included a wagon train of ambulances and supply wagons, they got hung up in the steep bluffs and the Confederates were able to destroy wagons, confiscate weapons, and took prisoners.

Union calvary and infantry reinforcements arrived and were able to repel the Confederate forces so that General Hunter could continue his retreat.

Jim is checking out the creek for any signs of fish. I think he is starting to suffer from fishing pox.

Time to start heading west. In fact, we are actually back in Apache Junction. I still have a very special blog to post about our visit in Atlanta. But we ran out of gigabytes and we mainly just drove, pulled into a campground for the night (without unhitching) and kept going.

Granddad Waggoner

Roanoke, VA 

Before Jim’s hair turned gray, he was a redhead. In fact, of the six siblings, he was the only redhead. His Granddad Waggoner used to tease him unmercifully about being the red-headed milkman’s son. It just so happened that their milkman (remember them) was a redhead.

When Jim went to his granddad’s funeral, he saw his Mom and Grandma looking at a photo album. In the album was a hunk of red hair. Jim asked who’s that was and his Grandma told him it was his Granddad Waggoner. Jim had never known him without gray hair. That’s when he finally figured out that he truly did belong.

Janet had this picture of Granddad so it was really neat to be able to see this man who loved to tease his grandkids.