Sunday January 15, 2012
I am awake again this morning at 4:15. Guess my body does not need as much sleep as I think. I went back to bed with a horrible headache and kept telling myself to relax and finally fell asleep again but was short lived. When Larry got up a short time later, I was awake again.
The morning is beautiful again with temperature of 35 already. Must be much warmer here as I saw posting from friends on Facebook talking about the bitter cold at home. Guess coming South IS a better idea than staying in Peoria.
I have been writing my blog in a word doc on my little net book and had plans to post this morning. We have an access code to use for Internet from KOA and Larry activated last night on his laptop. This morning when I tried to log into Internet was abruptly halted because it only allows one device per access code!!! Since everything is on my hard drive will have to either ask for another code for access or copy over to laptop. What a pain in the butt! I brought a new USB flash drive with me but, of course, cannot locate it's resting spot in the RV yet. It makes me crazy when I am looking for different items and can't figure out where I put them--it's the age thing I think! Larry's memory is much worse than I as this morning he asked if I had seen Tucker and he was laying on Larry's legs. Hmmmm--can't wait to get there!! Only another four short years and I'll be old enough to be THAT crazy too!
I guess we are staying another night here in Las Cruces as we didn't take much time to rest yesterday. We debated on leaving this morning and moving on toward Arizona but I think we both need another day to kick back. I saw on Internet there is an Antique Show here today so thought we might check it out. Just another sign of getting old--in the past year I have gotten into browsing the antique shops. In years past, an antique shop depressed me. I so enjoy browsing and looking at all the things I grew up with! Too bad I didn't save, which is what everyone thinks when they see the prices on all the things from their childhood. We have been collecting milk bottles for a number of years so that is basically what we shop for. The next house we buy will need an entire room to devote to just the milk bottles. We only buy the ones of interest to us, not necessarily the ones of value so not really a big 'money' collection.
We showered and went to the Village Inn for breakfast. We ate many times at the Village Inn in Mesa and their food is always good. We talked to our waitress and she suggested we drive over to La Mesilla which she told us is just 7 or 8 miles from Las Cruces. It is an old town which use to be the capitol of the Arizona Territory and was the home of Billy the Kid. This is probably another wasted trip to a touristy area full of junk shops.
We found our way to La Mesilla and when we were coming into town it started looking familiar. By the time we reached the town plaza I knew we had been there last year. It is a quaint little place and they had vendors set up all around the plaza. There was a guy who made knives from fiber optic and flint and a lot of the knives were like one I bought from a friend at work many years ago for Larry. They were all unusual and some had cactus handles and other deer antler handles. He showed us how he carves the materials for the blades which was interesting.
We strolled through the other vendors and then through the little shops around the plaza and came up to a shop that I bought some wonderful Olive Oil last year. We went in and sampled several of the oils and bought another bottle. We talked a long time to the owner who was interesting. Last year I remember we talked a lot to his wife when we stopped. The shop is very nice and all they carry is olive oil, different flavored balsamic vinegars and several types of marinades.
We left La Mesilla and found an antique shop back in Las Cruces, which was in a class below a garage sale so we didn't spend a lot of time there. We went from there to the Antique Show that I had read about on the web. Larry bought a book which I think is on the Civil War and I just basically browsed through the dealer booths but found nothing I wanted. It was mostly dishes and jewelry which I don't get too excited about.
We went back up to the big shopping area and had soup and salad at Olive Garden since we had not eat since breakfast. After eating we made our daily run to Walmart for a few items we forgot last night and waited in line to check out for at least 30 minutes. The entire city was there buying groceries, etc.
While looking on the Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce website, I did see that there was a Hot Air Balloon affair here this weekend. We knew that because as I mentioned we watched the balloon's from KOA but when I looked for it yesterday on the web I did not see it. Anyway there seems to be a lot going on around this area but I would have no desire to live here. Actually most of the Southwest would not be in the running as a place to make my home. Illinois is not the greatest but I'll take the green grass and trees over the gravel yards and dust of the Southwest.
Friday, January 20, 2012
Arizona 2012 Saturday(Jan 14)
Saturday January 14, 2012
I woke up at 4:00am which seems to be my typical morning. Why I cannot sleep later is a mystery. I can understand the evenings I fall asleep watching TV but the times I go to bed late and I still wake up around the same time. I either lie in bed wide awake or get up and roam around. After two hours, I am ready to go back to bed but never seem to make it. By late afternoon I'm beat! Larry also woke early this morning so we are both on a crazy sleep schedule I guess.
The guy who is parked next to us came outside when Larry was hooking up the water and sewer and said he was looking for the Hot Air Balloons. They evidently were up yesterday and were to go up again today. It wasn't long until we could see several rising above the city skyline. There seemed to be a number of them. I got on the Internet to find out if there was a festival but found nothing regarding Hot Air Balloons here in Las Cruces. Albuquerque always has a huge Balloon Festival but I don't think we have been there during the festival times. The first few years Albuquerque was on our route coming South. I think we must have driven to Albuquerque and dropped down from there to Las Cruces but don't recall. Anyway the Balloons were pretty, as always, to watch.
I sat down and wrote on the blog until later in the morning when we got the water and sewer hooked up and the water heater running. I then started cleaning up the mess in the kitchen; dirty dishes from traveling without water to wash them. I took everything off counters and cleaned the winter dirt off the cabinets and walls. I cleaned the shower and the bathroom and mopped the floor in bath, kitchen and hallway. Larry worked on cleaning the closet mirrors and wiping down the wood and walls in the bedroom. He also ran the vacuum while I cleaned more in living room. It's almost like I'm home with all this cleaning routine! I'm suppose to be on vacation but as always I cannot relax until things are put in order. The motor home collects a lot of dust and crude setting for months at a time so was good to get it cleaned somewhat.
I finally got a shower and was surprised that the drain did not plug from washing my body after 3 days!I have had few times in my life that I have gone 3 days without a shower. I felt so much better after washing my hair and putting on some makeup. I dressed and we went into Las Cruces. On our way into town, the Balloons were going up again and we could see a number from our route into town.
We went to the car wash first as even though we somewhat washed it on Friday, it was full of dust and dirt from being pulled behind the RV. The wash turned out to be a very good job and made the car look so nice.
We left the car wash and drove a few blocks into a huge shopping area of town. We decided to stop at Appleby's for a late lunch/early dinner since we hadn't had a lot to eat today. I ordered the Parmesan Sirloin and Shrimp with mixed vegetables.It was the best meal I have had for a very long time! Since I am not a steak lover I was pleasantly surprised. Larry ordered the Garlic and Herb Sirloin and Shrimp and said his meal was also good.
When we left the restaurant, we drove across the street to a big shopping mall and I returned a jacket for Larry that I had bought sometime back at Ross and then I went into Marshall's as I realized when getting dressed I had only brought one long sleeve top with me. As I said, my packing lacked a lot of effort this year. As always, you can buy what you don't have and since I lost some weight, a couple of new tops were probably in order anyway.
We went back across the street and pulled into our friend 'Sam's' place -- WALMART!! Three days on the road and three trips into Walmart!! It is no surprise why the Walton Family are among the richest in the world, selling all their 'made in China-or wherever' goods! Poor Sam would not be pleased since he pledged to carry only 'Made in USA' items before he died. Anyway, our throw rugs in RV are getting pretty tacky looking so I checked out the rugs at Walmart. We ended up buying two that will work but wasn't so crazy about. I will maybe take a look tomorrow at Sears or wherever for different ones. Just didn't feel like fighting the traffic tonight to stop anywhere else. The traffic in this city can be pretty heavy at times and the roads around the shopping area were enough to make you crazy the way they are designed. It was a challenge just trying to figure out which street lead to what shopping area as they were all so sliced up and seemed to go nowhere--at least not where we wanted to go. We finished up our business at Walmart and headed back to KOA.
I woke up at 4:00am which seems to be my typical morning. Why I cannot sleep later is a mystery. I can understand the evenings I fall asleep watching TV but the times I go to bed late and I still wake up around the same time. I either lie in bed wide awake or get up and roam around. After two hours, I am ready to go back to bed but never seem to make it. By late afternoon I'm beat! Larry also woke early this morning so we are both on a crazy sleep schedule I guess.
The guy who is parked next to us came outside when Larry was hooking up the water and sewer and said he was looking for the Hot Air Balloons. They evidently were up yesterday and were to go up again today. It wasn't long until we could see several rising above the city skyline. There seemed to be a number of them. I got on the Internet to find out if there was a festival but found nothing regarding Hot Air Balloons here in Las Cruces. Albuquerque always has a huge Balloon Festival but I don't think we have been there during the festival times. The first few years Albuquerque was on our route coming South. I think we must have driven to Albuquerque and dropped down from there to Las Cruces but don't recall. Anyway the Balloons were pretty, as always, to watch.
Hot Air Balloons in Las Cruces, NM---(pictures taken from RV Park overlooking the city)
I finally got a shower and was surprised that the drain did not plug from washing my body after 3 days!I have had few times in my life that I have gone 3 days without a shower. I felt so much better after washing my hair and putting on some makeup. I dressed and we went into Las Cruces. On our way into town, the Balloons were going up again and we could see a number from our route into town.
We went to the car wash first as even though we somewhat washed it on Friday, it was full of dust and dirt from being pulled behind the RV. The wash turned out to be a very good job and made the car look so nice.
We left the car wash and drove a few blocks into a huge shopping area of town. We decided to stop at Appleby's for a late lunch/early dinner since we hadn't had a lot to eat today. I ordered the Parmesan Sirloin and Shrimp with mixed vegetables.It was the best meal I have had for a very long time! Since I am not a steak lover I was pleasantly surprised. Larry ordered the Garlic and Herb Sirloin and Shrimp and said his meal was also good.
When we left the restaurant, we drove across the street to a big shopping mall and I returned a jacket for Larry that I had bought sometime back at Ross and then I went into Marshall's as I realized when getting dressed I had only brought one long sleeve top with me. As I said, my packing lacked a lot of effort this year. As always, you can buy what you don't have and since I lost some weight, a couple of new tops were probably in order anyway.
We went back across the street and pulled into our friend 'Sam's' place -- WALMART!! Three days on the road and three trips into Walmart!! It is no surprise why the Walton Family are among the richest in the world, selling all their 'made in China-or wherever' goods! Poor Sam would not be pleased since he pledged to carry only 'Made in USA' items before he died. Anyway, our throw rugs in RV are getting pretty tacky looking so I checked out the rugs at Walmart. We ended up buying two that will work but wasn't so crazy about. I will maybe take a look tomorrow at Sears or wherever for different ones. Just didn't feel like fighting the traffic tonight to stop anywhere else. The traffic in this city can be pretty heavy at times and the roads around the shopping area were enough to make you crazy the way they are designed. It was a challenge just trying to figure out which street lead to what shopping area as they were all so sliced up and seemed to go nowhere--at least not where we wanted to go. We finished up our business at Walmart and headed back to KOA.
Arizona 2012 Wednesday(Jan 11-13)
Wednesday January 11, 2012
We have been packing up the motor home for the past two days preparing to hit the road for another winter in Arizona. The weather in Peoria is so beautiful the past few weeks that I'm asking myself why we are going South! The temperature today is to reach around 60 degrees but when listening to the forecast the past 24 hours it sounds like things are going to change in a drastic way later tonight.
I left this morning at 10:00am for my first of two appointments today. I'm wishing we could have left town this morning but need to keep these appointments and when I tried to change earlier in week, could not change to a different day.
They are forecasting 1-2 inches of snow and the temperature is suppose to drop drastically after midnight. I find the weather forecasters get a little hipped with the mention of snow and tend to exaggerate on the expected accumulations so who knows what will transpire.
I arrived home at 1:00pm and everything I heard about the weather during my running this morning is painting a pretty grim weather picture for tonight.Now they are saying possibly up to 4 inches of snow.I talked to Larry and suggested we step up our packing and leave later this afternoon. My thoughts were if we leave late, we might beat the weather and get far enough South to avoid the worst. He agreed and went over to RV Storage lot and hooked up car dolly and loaded the car. He drove the motor home back to house and we spent the next 4 hours loading the last minute items--which are numerous with personnel items, refrigerator and freezer food. It is a tremendous effort trying to plan for all the needed items. I decided this year to pack the obvious and what I don't have--Walmart does!! It is such a tiring effort hauling these items out and three months later hauling them back into house, so I cut back to the bare essentials.
I talked to Dr. Brown, our Vet, regarding Raven's 'anxiety attacks' every time we put him in the RV to leave. Each time we put him in the motor home, he becomes so evil no one--not even the other two cats--can approach him. He hiss's and growls and foams at the mouth so terribly, that it is all over everything! Dr. Brown suggested rather than trying to give him a pill as a tranquilizer, that it would be easier to give him children's liquid Benedryl about an hour before leaving. He said it should mellow him out and calm him down.At about 3:00 I tried to give him an eye dropper of Benedryl
and he went into a major meltdown the minute it hit his mouth. He ran through the house growling, hissing and yes---foaming at the mouth and it was like he was having a major fit of madness. Trying to approach him is not an option as he has clawed and bit me in the past. I stupidly though that getting it down his throat would be the worst part but after he laid claw marks on my legs getting off my lap, I soon found that getting the med's in his mouth was not the worst part. I'm standing there watching this fit of madness thinking -- and this is better in WHAT way?? I left him to his insanity thinking by the time we were ready to leave he would be mellowed out.The minute I put him in the RV he started all over again with the hissing and growling and--I'm not even sure if he did the foaming thing as no one could get close enough to him to see.
We decided at 4:15 we had the majority of needed items so we took showers and left at 5:00pm.
We drove until 8:00pm and stopped to fuel and eat at a Truck Stop near St Louis. When we left we drove another two hours until we found a Walmart about an hour east of Joplin, Mo. We parked and walked across lot to Walmart and the winds were gusty and the temperature had dropped to about 25 degrees. We came back to RV and started the generator and the furnace. The furnace made a rather funny noise for awhile before we went to bed. We turned on our electric mattress pad and about the time it heated up, the breaker kicked out. Larry tried to reset but nothing was working so decided to look at it in the morning. We went to bed around midnight.
Thursday January 12, 2012
We woke shortly after 4:00am and realized the furnace had quit running and we were freezing. We got up and could hear the wind beating at the motor home and it almost felt like we were standing outside. Larry found the service manual on the furnace and the power and was able to get it all working again. We walked across the parking lot to Steak and Shake for breakfast at 5:30 and when we walked back the wind felt even worse and it was horribly cold with about an inch of snow blowing around.
When we got back to RV we realized that something on the power source was wrong as our house batteries were being drained rather than charging. Larry went outside and found a reset button somewhere in the battery compartment so hopefully our problem will correct itself. The joys of owing a motor home are too numerous to mention. Seems nothing works right when it's hot, cold or raining! If you can find a beautiful sunny warm day to take a spin go for it!!!!
Larry called the Missouri State Police for a highway report. They said there was a terrible accident on outside of Joplin and traffic was stalled. We waited awhile and decided to try driving. The highway was iced in most places and the wind was blowing the snow like a whiteout and at times felt we were being blown off the road! It was very slow driving and we kept seeing semi's jackknifed and cars and pickups off into the median and side of road. I get very anxious driving in bad weather as we are packing a lot of weight with the RV and towing the car. It took us about two hours to drive the distance to the east side of Joplin where the traffic came to a halt. They were still working on clearing the accident site. We sat for about 30 minutes in traffic before we started moving again.
We drove until around 2:00 in the weather mess and suddenly, the sun peaked through and the roads started clearing more. The winds were still pretty gusty but it was getting better. We drove to El Reno, OK and opted for another Walmart lot for the night. When we went to bed the temperature was down to 19 degrees but without the horrible wind gusts, it felt warm compared to the rest of our day.
Friday January 13, 2012
What a change a few hours make in the weather pattern. When we got up this morning it was almost actually warm. Still in the low 20's but without the wind and no snow it looks to be a much better day.
We cannot de-winterize the RV yet so we are using bottled water for everything. This marks day two without a shower. My hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket--which is typical when I get out of bed most days! I heated some water and wet down my hair and washed my body. I dried my hair and when I got dressed I felt and almost looked human. This is the worst part of traveling in the winter is not having the comforts of home for a few days.
We left El Reno, OK at 6:30am and stopped in about an hour to refuel and get breakfast. After looking over the selection at the truck stop we opted to drive until we found a real breakfast menu. Basically our choices at the truck stop were fried chicken, pizza and something they called a breakfast sandwich. Looking at the sandwich I wasn't really sure what it was.I feel for the truckers as unless they carry items for their meals, it's going to be some fatty, greasy affair for food.
We got back on the road with our attention toward finding breakfast. We drove another hour or more and finally found a Denny's in Sayre, OK that looked to be an easy area to exit. We pulled in and had breakfast and when walking back to RV we noticed a truck wash across the road. It's hard to tell what color the motor home or car is with all the salt and road grime from yesterday. Larry wanted to do the honors of washing the vehicles. I told him it was too cold so I would not be helping. I'm such a B---- that way! I have been freezing to death since we left home. He pulled into the truck wash and it was basically a VERY over sized do-it-yourself car wash. He got out and sprayed everything down and it actually looked pretty good, considering the windshield and windows were so covered with dirt we couldn't see out before.
Since I stuck him with the dirty work, I guess he figured I could do the driving. I drove about three hours to Tucamcari, NM and let him take the wheel. I don't mind driving and feel confident driving this monster but I would rather set read and relax when I have a choice. He, on the other hand, enjoys driving. In that respect, we make a perfect duo.
We headed to Santa Rosa, NM where we would take RT 54S to Las Cruces, NM. Next thing I knew we were headed east on some deserted blacktop and realized we missed the turn. There was absolutely no place to turn this rig around. We kept driving and finally saw a road sign saying we were on RT 84--differently not the right direction for our destination.
We drove and drove and could still find no place big enough to turn around. Not even a side road that looked like it would hold the weight of the RV. We were well into 25 miles beyond our designated route so decided to continue driving and cut back across to catch 54S again. We drove at least 80 miles in a big 'U' to arrive in Vaughn, NM. To say this is the 'armpit of Hell' would be an understatement! We stopped at a run down dump of a gas station and bought 30 gallon of Diesel at $3.99 a gal. This was at least $.45 higher than anyplace so far. In looking around us, I was happy to get the fuel to assure myself we would not run out in this area. No one except the clerk inside the station spoke anything resembling English. We still were not sure WHERE to catch our route so talked to the clerk and she told us to continue through town and we would catch it on the other side.
We drove on into this poor,filthy, seedy little town and kept looking for our route as we exited the other side. We slowed at the only little road but it had no signs and looked like a cow path. We drove on and decided it was the only possibility so we cut thru a paved strip that was had a dipped area to the other side of pavement. Half way through the most horrible scraping sound occurred. I panicked as it sounded like we hit bottom with RV. Larry kept going and we made it to the other side and headed back to the road we passed. On this side of the pavement there was a sign indicating it was 53S. We turned onto the road and pulled over to check our damages. Lucky for us, we had only drug the extender on the bottom of the dolly hitch. No damage was visible.
We drove FOREVER on this deserted road, through a few mountains and curves and my ears were popping so I knew we were at a pretty high altitude. The roadway began to show drifts of snow from what was probably Thursday's storm and the temperature was getting colder. There was nothing but brown fields with tumbleweed and a few mountains. I prayed we would not have any driving problems as I could envision the Drug Lords coming out of the mountains as the sun began to set. This was worse than BFE!!!
We drove and drove and I tried using the navigator on my phone to find out WHERE we were and how far before we could get off this road. The navigator would just set and grind as I'm sure even the satellites were not hovering above this area! I had no Internet connection--BIG SURPRISE I'm thinking! A while later my phone rang and it was Leslie. I started talking and lost the call. I called Leslie seven(7) times before we could finish our conversation but at least I had a cell phone connection so we must be nearing civilization! We came out of this area into Las Cruces just as though we had been picked up and dropped back to earth.
We had not eaten since breakfast and it was now 8:00. The first McDonald's we saw Larry pulled in and we forced down our fast food setting at a table that had graffiti carved into the top. Again we are the only English speaking patrons in the place. The manager luckily spoke English to us but everyone else he spoke to in Spanish! Taylor, where are you when we need a translator!!! Anyway we were both so hungry all of this rolled off our back and we continued on into Las Cruces to the KOA. We have stayed here several times in the past 3 years. It is a very scenic RV Park and sets high above the city and you can see forever. We stop here each year as the weather is warm enough that we can de-winterize and take a few day of R & R before driving on to Arizona.
Las Cruces is a nice city but like all cities, it has it's 'hood' area. New Mexico must have more poverty than any other state in the US. Lesser people could not exist in the living conditions that the majority of the people live in. The houses throughout the countryside are no more shacks! They look like they would fall in on whoever opened a door! One of the requirements also, is to have at least 5 junk cars parked in the front yard. This state is just an extension of Mexico itself, regardless that it exists within the boundaries of the US.
We arrived at the KOA at about 9:00pm. We called for a reservation earlier in the day and our packet was waiting outside, since the office was closed. We found our site and pulled in, deciding to only connect our power tonight. We will finish hooking up tomorrow morning when it is warmer. It has been a VERY long day of travel. We did not plan to drive to Las Cruces today but with our misfortune of a detour through the 'blackhole of the earth', we had no options of anyplace else that we felt safe enough to stay. I think it is safe to say we drove close to 600 miles since leaving this morning. I think we will kick back for a couple of days to re coupe!
We have been packing up the motor home for the past two days preparing to hit the road for another winter in Arizona. The weather in Peoria is so beautiful the past few weeks that I'm asking myself why we are going South! The temperature today is to reach around 60 degrees but when listening to the forecast the past 24 hours it sounds like things are going to change in a drastic way later tonight.
I left this morning at 10:00am for my first of two appointments today. I'm wishing we could have left town this morning but need to keep these appointments and when I tried to change earlier in week, could not change to a different day.
They are forecasting 1-2 inches of snow and the temperature is suppose to drop drastically after midnight. I find the weather forecasters get a little hipped with the mention of snow and tend to exaggerate on the expected accumulations so who knows what will transpire.
I arrived home at 1:00pm and everything I heard about the weather during my running this morning is painting a pretty grim weather picture for tonight.Now they are saying possibly up to 4 inches of snow.I talked to Larry and suggested we step up our packing and leave later this afternoon. My thoughts were if we leave late, we might beat the weather and get far enough South to avoid the worst. He agreed and went over to RV Storage lot and hooked up car dolly and loaded the car. He drove the motor home back to house and we spent the next 4 hours loading the last minute items--which are numerous with personnel items, refrigerator and freezer food. It is a tremendous effort trying to plan for all the needed items. I decided this year to pack the obvious and what I don't have--Walmart does!! It is such a tiring effort hauling these items out and three months later hauling them back into house, so I cut back to the bare essentials.
I talked to Dr. Brown, our Vet, regarding Raven's 'anxiety attacks' every time we put him in the RV to leave. Each time we put him in the motor home, he becomes so evil no one--not even the other two cats--can approach him. He hiss's and growls and foams at the mouth so terribly, that it is all over everything! Dr. Brown suggested rather than trying to give him a pill as a tranquilizer, that it would be easier to give him children's liquid Benedryl about an hour before leaving. He said it should mellow him out and calm him down.At about 3:00 I tried to give him an eye dropper of Benedryl
and he went into a major meltdown the minute it hit his mouth. He ran through the house growling, hissing and yes---foaming at the mouth and it was like he was having a major fit of madness. Trying to approach him is not an option as he has clawed and bit me in the past. I stupidly though that getting it down his throat would be the worst part but after he laid claw marks on my legs getting off my lap, I soon found that getting the med's in his mouth was not the worst part. I'm standing there watching this fit of madness thinking -- and this is better in WHAT way?? I left him to his insanity thinking by the time we were ready to leave he would be mellowed out.The minute I put him in the RV he started all over again with the hissing and growling and--I'm not even sure if he did the foaming thing as no one could get close enough to him to see.
We decided at 4:15 we had the majority of needed items so we took showers and left at 5:00pm.
We drove until 8:00pm and stopped to fuel and eat at a Truck Stop near St Louis. When we left we drove another two hours until we found a Walmart about an hour east of Joplin, Mo. We parked and walked across lot to Walmart and the winds were gusty and the temperature had dropped to about 25 degrees. We came back to RV and started the generator and the furnace. The furnace made a rather funny noise for awhile before we went to bed. We turned on our electric mattress pad and about the time it heated up, the breaker kicked out. Larry tried to reset but nothing was working so decided to look at it in the morning. We went to bed around midnight.
Thursday January 12, 2012
We woke shortly after 4:00am and realized the furnace had quit running and we were freezing. We got up and could hear the wind beating at the motor home and it almost felt like we were standing outside. Larry found the service manual on the furnace and the power and was able to get it all working again. We walked across the parking lot to Steak and Shake for breakfast at 5:30 and when we walked back the wind felt even worse and it was horribly cold with about an inch of snow blowing around.
When we got back to RV we realized that something on the power source was wrong as our house batteries were being drained rather than charging. Larry went outside and found a reset button somewhere in the battery compartment so hopefully our problem will correct itself. The joys of owing a motor home are too numerous to mention. Seems nothing works right when it's hot, cold or raining! If you can find a beautiful sunny warm day to take a spin go for it!!!!
Larry called the Missouri State Police for a highway report. They said there was a terrible accident on outside of Joplin and traffic was stalled. We waited awhile and decided to try driving. The highway was iced in most places and the wind was blowing the snow like a whiteout and at times felt we were being blown off the road! It was very slow driving and we kept seeing semi's jackknifed and cars and pickups off into the median and side of road. I get very anxious driving in bad weather as we are packing a lot of weight with the RV and towing the car. It took us about two hours to drive the distance to the east side of Joplin where the traffic came to a halt. They were still working on clearing the accident site. We sat for about 30 minutes in traffic before we started moving again.
We drove until around 2:00 in the weather mess and suddenly, the sun peaked through and the roads started clearing more. The winds were still pretty gusty but it was getting better. We drove to El Reno, OK and opted for another Walmart lot for the night. When we went to bed the temperature was down to 19 degrees but without the horrible wind gusts, it felt warm compared to the rest of our day.
Friday January 13, 2012
What a change a few hours make in the weather pattern. When we got up this morning it was almost actually warm. Still in the low 20's but without the wind and no snow it looks to be a much better day.
We cannot de-winterize the RV yet so we are using bottled water for everything. This marks day two without a shower. My hair looked like I stuck my finger in a light socket--which is typical when I get out of bed most days! I heated some water and wet down my hair and washed my body. I dried my hair and when I got dressed I felt and almost looked human. This is the worst part of traveling in the winter is not having the comforts of home for a few days.
We left El Reno, OK at 6:30am and stopped in about an hour to refuel and get breakfast. After looking over the selection at the truck stop we opted to drive until we found a real breakfast menu. Basically our choices at the truck stop were fried chicken, pizza and something they called a breakfast sandwich. Looking at the sandwich I wasn't really sure what it was.I feel for the truckers as unless they carry items for their meals, it's going to be some fatty, greasy affair for food.
We got back on the road with our attention toward finding breakfast. We drove another hour or more and finally found a Denny's in Sayre, OK that looked to be an easy area to exit. We pulled in and had breakfast and when walking back to RV we noticed a truck wash across the road. It's hard to tell what color the motor home or car is with all the salt and road grime from yesterday. Larry wanted to do the honors of washing the vehicles. I told him it was too cold so I would not be helping. I'm such a B---- that way! I have been freezing to death since we left home. He pulled into the truck wash and it was basically a VERY over sized do-it-yourself car wash. He got out and sprayed everything down and it actually looked pretty good, considering the windshield and windows were so covered with dirt we couldn't see out before.
Since I stuck him with the dirty work, I guess he figured I could do the driving. I drove about three hours to Tucamcari, NM and let him take the wheel. I don't mind driving and feel confident driving this monster but I would rather set read and relax when I have a choice. He, on the other hand, enjoys driving. In that respect, we make a perfect duo.
We headed to Santa Rosa, NM where we would take RT 54S to Las Cruces, NM. Next thing I knew we were headed east on some deserted blacktop and realized we missed the turn. There was absolutely no place to turn this rig around. We kept driving and finally saw a road sign saying we were on RT 84--differently not the right direction for our destination.
We drove and drove and could still find no place big enough to turn around. Not even a side road that looked like it would hold the weight of the RV. We were well into 25 miles beyond our designated route so decided to continue driving and cut back across to catch 54S again. We drove at least 80 miles in a big 'U' to arrive in Vaughn, NM. To say this is the 'armpit of Hell' would be an understatement! We stopped at a run down dump of a gas station and bought 30 gallon of Diesel at $3.99 a gal. This was at least $.45 higher than anyplace so far. In looking around us, I was happy to get the fuel to assure myself we would not run out in this area. No one except the clerk inside the station spoke anything resembling English. We still were not sure WHERE to catch our route so talked to the clerk and she told us to continue through town and we would catch it on the other side.
We drove on into this poor,filthy, seedy little town and kept looking for our route as we exited the other side. We slowed at the only little road but it had no signs and looked like a cow path. We drove on and decided it was the only possibility so we cut thru a paved strip that was had a dipped area to the other side of pavement. Half way through the most horrible scraping sound occurred. I panicked as it sounded like we hit bottom with RV. Larry kept going and we made it to the other side and headed back to the road we passed. On this side of the pavement there was a sign indicating it was 53S. We turned onto the road and pulled over to check our damages. Lucky for us, we had only drug the extender on the bottom of the dolly hitch. No damage was visible.
We drove FOREVER on this deserted road, through a few mountains and curves and my ears were popping so I knew we were at a pretty high altitude. The roadway began to show drifts of snow from what was probably Thursday's storm and the temperature was getting colder. There was nothing but brown fields with tumbleweed and a few mountains. I prayed we would not have any driving problems as I could envision the Drug Lords coming out of the mountains as the sun began to set. This was worse than BFE!!!
We drove and drove and I tried using the navigator on my phone to find out WHERE we were and how far before we could get off this road. The navigator would just set and grind as I'm sure even the satellites were not hovering above this area! I had no Internet connection--BIG SURPRISE I'm thinking! A while later my phone rang and it was Leslie. I started talking and lost the call. I called Leslie seven(7) times before we could finish our conversation but at least I had a cell phone connection so we must be nearing civilization! We came out of this area into Las Cruces just as though we had been picked up and dropped back to earth.
We had not eaten since breakfast and it was now 8:00. The first McDonald's we saw Larry pulled in and we forced down our fast food setting at a table that had graffiti carved into the top. Again we are the only English speaking patrons in the place. The manager luckily spoke English to us but everyone else he spoke to in Spanish! Taylor, where are you when we need a translator!!! Anyway we were both so hungry all of this rolled off our back and we continued on into Las Cruces to the KOA. We have stayed here several times in the past 3 years. It is a very scenic RV Park and sets high above the city and you can see forever. We stop here each year as the weather is warm enough that we can de-winterize and take a few day of R & R before driving on to Arizona.
Las Cruces is a nice city but like all cities, it has it's 'hood' area. New Mexico must have more poverty than any other state in the US. Lesser people could not exist in the living conditions that the majority of the people live in. The houses throughout the countryside are no more shacks! They look like they would fall in on whoever opened a door! One of the requirements also, is to have at least 5 junk cars parked in the front yard. This state is just an extension of Mexico itself, regardless that it exists within the boundaries of the US.
We arrived at the KOA at about 9:00pm. We called for a reservation earlier in the day and our packet was waiting outside, since the office was closed. We found our site and pulled in, deciding to only connect our power tonight. We will finish hooking up tomorrow morning when it is warmer. It has been a VERY long day of travel. We did not plan to drive to Las Cruces today but with our misfortune of a detour through the 'blackhole of the earth', we had no options of anyplace else that we felt safe enough to stay. I think it is safe to say we drove close to 600 miles since leaving this morning. I think we will kick back for a couple of days to re coupe!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Fishing in Morson Ontario Canada June 2011
Saturday June 4, 2011
We left Peoria at 3:00pm Friday afternoon and drove all night. We arrived at Red Wing Resort at 8:30am Saturday morning. We waited in line at International Falls for an hour to cross the border. There were trucks pulling boats as far as the eye could see behind us waiting in line. We hauled in and unloaded all of the groceries and our other essentials, had lunch and the guys went out to fish.
Debby and I drove back into town which probably has about 300 population and picked up a few small grocery items and then stopped at the liquor store to buy vodka and rye whiskey for Kevin. We bought a 1.7 ltr of vodka for $57.00 so needless to say we will NOT be having 'cheap' drunks while here. We started back toward the lodge and had to stop on the road to let a tiny little black bear cross the road. He was so cute and chubby and he was just hauling ass across the road. Didn't see mama on either side of the road so don't know where she was. We were telling the maid here at the resort about seeing him and she said that they had 3 bear literally tear off the back wall of their garage and when they got inside they destroyed everything. She said they had to kill them to stop them from their coarse of destruction. Anne who owns the resort with her husband Mike, told us the bear and timber wolf have been terrible this year around this area. They always tell everyone here at the resort to not put out any garbage until early morning when they come around to pick up.
The owners have bird feeders out everywhere and yesterday we saw the tiniest humming bird that I have EVER seen. It was probably less than an inch long. It was feeding at the feeder and it was hard to believe it was a bird and not just a big bug!
We fished most of the day today and caught our limit during the day. We came in at 2:00 and had lunch then went back out. I think we caught 3 walleye, a perch and a northern. When we came in we fried fish and they were just absolutely WONDERFUL!!! We had rain off and on while out fishing but it wasn't too bad and would quit and then start lightly again.
Their was a perfect rainbow tonight when we were out. The end of the rainbow looked like it went right into the water. It was really beautiful. We met a guy and his wife who are both veterinarian's from Wyoming last year. I found out in talking to them last year that Terry is a brother to Bill Kreager, a guy I worked with at Cat for years. He and Julie, his wife, are here again this year and was asking us if we saw the rainbow. A lot of people return year after year on the same week but so far there is only about 4 cabins rented this week. The weather has not been good for fishing here in the weeks past so that may have something to do with why they don't have a lot of people this week.
Monday June 6, 2011
Today was absolutely beautiful. Probably reached the high 70's and the sun was out all day. Terry(the Vet) told us this morning that we would really have to work at catching fish today and he was right! We caught several small walleye but only 3 walleye big enough to keep and Kevin caught a perch again today. Larry caught a really nice walleye and Debby caught 2 medium size large enough to keep. I had a really nice walleye on my line and got it all the way to the boat and it got off. Otherwise all I caught was little buggers that did nothing but steal my bait. Pretty much the same with everyone else. We came in at 3:00 and decided to cook fish and potatoes for our lunch rather than wait till tonight as it ends up being pretty late by the time we cook after going back out in the evening. Debby and I opted to stay home tonight but the guys went out around 6:30. Tomorrow and Wed are suppose to be rainy and cooler but may be our best fishing days!
Tuesday June 7, 2011
Rainy and cold is the word this morning. Black clouds and still raining some after it rained last night. Larry and Kevin scheduled Lenny, the camp guide, to take them out for walleye and muskie. Debby and I could go for the same price but we decided having to pee in our bucket in front of Lenny was not an option. The guys left and I went up to the lodge to talk to Anne for some ideas of where Debby and I could drive to shop. She suggested Bemidgi, MN which is 135 miles. We got ready and left around 10:30am. We drove about half way and stopped in Black Duck, which is on Red Lake, to buy gas. The lady at the station told us they had horrible storms there this morning with high winds and hail. She also said that the weather forecast was for more bad storms later today.
When we left, I .took over driving and as we drove a little farther we had a deer come out to the roadside. I slowed down and gave him plenty of time to decide where he was going. Luckily, he choose the woods.
We arrived in Bemidgi at about 1:00. Anne told us how to find the Paul Bunyon Mall--please note--I am using the word MALL loosely!! The 'mall' consisted of maybe 15 stores which is 15 more than Morson has. They did have a Hersbarger's, which is part of the Bergner's group. It was basically exactly like Bergner's and we actually found several bargain's. I found Ruff Hewn Carpenter Jeans for 50% for Larry and lightweight sleep pants and a shirt for summer for lounging around the house.
Anne had said there were shops down by the waterfront also so we drove down there. The only thing we found was a boutique that was also a furniture store. The boutique had some very cute dresses that Debby and I thought would have been very nice for Leslie's wedding trip. I was thinking of buying one for her and then I ask if it could be returned and the lady said only for exchange. Oh Well----guess you just lost a sale--probably their only one for the week since we were the only people around.
We came back to mall area and stopped at Gander Mountain to buy a new real for Debby, since her's is screwed up. We found the real then ended up buying Larry and Kevin some zip-off pants. We found a couple of shirts on the clearance rack that we also bought.
We went to Penney's and I found about 7 shorts and tops for Morgan and about 4 short outfits for Addy. Everything I bought there was on sale and when they totalled it up the sales clerk informed me I saved $218.00--WOW---I only had to spend $201.00 to save that amount! Some of Morgan's will be part of her birthday gift and Morgan happens to have grown out of all her summer cloths. Addy has plenty of summer cloths, however, I enjoy buying her new things now and then.
We both called our kids while we were in Minnesota. I got to talk to Addy two times. She is so sweet when she talks on the phone. After I talked to her Taylor got on the phone and asked me if I heard what she called me. I said I didn't notice and she said Addy called me Grandma. Normally Addy calls me Mama but when I was there babysitting in May, she was calling me Grandma now and then. I love hearing her say Grandma. Morgan use to call me Mama also until she was about Addy's age. All my baby's are growing up so fast. Morgan will be 7 in July, which is so hard for me to believe. I'm looking forward to Pete and Leslie getting married and making us grandparents again. I think my wishes are probably over for Taylor and Kyle to have anymore. I feel so blessed with the two I have. There is nothing as wonderful as grandchildren!
We finished our shopping spree and headed home. We came back across the Canadian Border at Baudette and had no issues . Last year Debby and I went to Baudette and the Canadian Border Guards searched the truck from top to bottom when we came back . We stopped at the grocery store in Rainey River and picked up our sweet treats--homemade pastries. We did not get back to Red Wing until almost 9:30pm.
When we arrived back at the resort, Kevin showed us a picture of the 46 inch muskie that he caught today on their trip out with Lenny. At this time of the season, all muskie's have to be released. After the third week of June you can keep the muskie if it falls into a certain slot.
Kevin's Muskie
Ben, the resort owner's dog is a buddy to all. He has really latched onto Kevin as his best bud. He is a Polar Lab and is totally white. Anne told us he weighed 98 pounds and he is like a big teddy bear. Everyone in the resort loves him he loves all the attention he gets from everyone. Anne asked us not to feed Ben as all he does is eat. She feeds him and then he muches off all the camp guest. It is hard to say no to Ben as he is such a beautiful dog and so gentle.
Kevin and Ben playing fetch
Wednesday June 8, 2011
Well another morning like yesterday except the wind must be blowing 40 mph. We again decided it was not a day for us to fish. We gathered up our laundry and headed to Baudette to do our laundry and to look in the shops in town--which is a grand total of TWO! We bought some sweatshirts for all of us and a long sleeved shirt for each of the guys. We went to the Laundromat and did three loads of cloths and it took us probably an hour and a half to dry them. The place was a rip off as one washer did not spin the cloths out well, which meant more money to dry them. We met a guy in the Laundromat that was a hunting guide and a part time fishing guide. He has a house near Red Wing Resort. He was Canadian born in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario. He was very interesting to talk to and he gave us his card in case the guys were interested in his guide services.
We finished our laundry, refueled the truck and headed back to resort. We had to stop once again for our pastries at Rainy River. I will weight 300 lbs by the time I reach Peoria as all we do is eat wonderful food. We got home about 6:30 and Kevin was frying fish. We had dinner and sat and looked at the lake and talked about how calm the water was. It is so changeable here--this morning the whitecaps were terrible with the wind and now tonight the sun is shinning and the lake looks like glass. Much like when I lived on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan as 15 minutes was like a whole different season with the weather.
l
Thursday June 9, 2011
When Debby and I got up the guys were already cooking breakfast. WOW that was a surprise but I'm sure the reason for that was they were wanting to get out early fishing. We gathered everything for fishing and packed lunch items so we would not have to come in for lunch. Debby and I put ham and beans in crockpot for our dinner tonight. We were out I think by 9:00 this morning fishing. We ended up catching our limit but had to work to catch them today. Larry is the hero of the day as he caught a 26" Walleye and it weighed about 6.5 lbs. It looked huge and it fought him tooth and nail getting him in the boat. We caught a lot of Walleye but threw most of them back as they were small. Debby caught two Perch today; one this afternoon and one tonight when we went back out fishing.
Larry and his 26 " Walleye
We ate lunch in the boat while fishing and didn't come in until around 3:00. When we came in we had several beer and the guys cleaned the fish while Debby and I played with Ben. Anne came out and was throwing a stick out into the lake for Ben to swim after. She kept trying to make Ben jump off the dock to fetch the stick but instead he would run back to the yard and go down the side of the dock to swim for the stick. We had such a good time watching Ben. He is just a gentle sweetie. This morning Kevin gave Ben a plate of sausage gravy, biscuits and an egg so Ben has been hanging tight with us most of the day. Larry gave him a piece of ham this afternoon when we came in and later Debby gave him a very small portion of ham from our dinner. Anne had asked us not to feed him as he is getting so fat but Ben just has the saddest eyes and has us all wrapped around his paw(??) I guess you would say. Debby went up and asked Anne if Ben could have the ham bone out of the beans and Anne asked us to wait till tomorrow morning to give it to him so we have it wrapped and waiting.
Anne trying to get Ben to jump off dock
We talked to Terry Kreager this afternoon and he told us about the black bear that visited the resort last night. He said it walked right up where they were setting outside around 9:30. He yelled at it and chased it off toward the cabins on the other side of the lodge. Anne said there are 5 guys staying in cabin 11 next to the lodge and one of them walked right up on the bear and almost filled his underwear. He was talking on the phone to his wife and he yelled so loud his wife kept yelling over the phone wanting to know if he was ok. Two of the guys in cabin 11 are big bruts and are both policemen. We were all still up but didn't hear anything other than Debby heard Ben barking.
We went back out fishing around 5:45 but only caught one walleye and a perch. Hardly worth the effort but we are trying to get enough fish to take home. Came in about 7:45pm from fishing and had our ham, beans and cornbread. They were fabulous1 If we have done nothing else this week we have had plenty of good food to eat. Most of the time I feel like my stomach is so full I can hardly breath!! Time to go home and slow down on the food before I gain another 50 lbs!!!
Friday June 10, 2011
Catch of the day at Lake of the Woods
Today is our last day at Red Wing Resort. We had a huge breakfast and headed out to Garden Island. This is where we fish most of the time and have had our best luck. Yesterday Larry caught his 26 inch Walleye just off the point of Garden Island. We were there less than 20 minutes and Debby pulled in a 26 inch Walleye. Everyone was amazed that we caught another fish of that size. Less than 10 minutes later I had a 'hit' on my line and it felt like a whale. I kept reeling it in and it was fighting pretty hard. Believe it or not Larry actually dipped it with the net without loosing it Last year he lost a huge fish I had on my line because he put the net down too soon and the fish saw it and broke the line. My Walleye was a little short of Debby's at 25 inches. So we have caught three big Walleye in almost the exact spot in two days. We all were catching Walleye today. A lot of little ones but several \'keepers'. We probably caught our 8 fish in less than an hour. We kept catching 'keepers' but kept measuring which were the largest and throwing back the smaller ones. We came in around 12:30 and took our pictures with the fish and then the guys cleaned the fish to freeze for home.
We went back out to try fishing for Northern, since we have our limit of Walleye to take home. We tried fishing near the reeds with bobbers. Larry and Debby tried casting but none of our attempts were fruitful. We came back to cabin and packed and loaded the truck and boat with everything we could do without tonight. We are ready to hit the road early tomorrow morning.
We all walked up to lodge and chatted with some of the guys that were here last year that are from near Gary, IN. We also paid our bill and made a reservation for next year starting June 2. Anne talked to Debby and I for awhile and told us she was so proud of us for the fish we caught. She is just the greatest person I have ever known. She is so jovial and makes us laugh a lot. She is diffently the 'PR' person for Red Wing.
The guys are packaging fish for the trip home. They have to be marked for taking across the border. We are having pizza tonight for dinner as we still had two frozen that we brought with us. We did very well on our food supply. Debby and I do a very good job planning our groceries. We rarely take much home.
We left Peoria at 3:00pm Friday afternoon and drove all night. We arrived at Red Wing Resort at 8:30am Saturday morning. We waited in line at International Falls for an hour to cross the border. There were trucks pulling boats as far as the eye could see behind us waiting in line. We hauled in and unloaded all of the groceries and our other essentials, had lunch and the guys went out to fish.
Debby and I drove back into town which probably has about 300 population and picked up a few small grocery items and then stopped at the liquor store to buy vodka and rye whiskey for Kevin. We bought a 1.7 ltr of vodka for $57.00 so needless to say we will NOT be having 'cheap' drunks while here. We started back toward the lodge and had to stop on the road to let a tiny little black bear cross the road. He was so cute and chubby and he was just hauling ass across the road. Didn't see mama on either side of the road so don't know where she was. We were telling the maid here at the resort about seeing him and she said that they had 3 bear literally tear off the back wall of their garage and when they got inside they destroyed everything. She said they had to kill them to stop them from their coarse of destruction. Anne who owns the resort with her husband Mike, told us the bear and timber wolf have been terrible this year around this area. They always tell everyone here at the resort to not put out any garbage until early morning when they come around to pick up.
The owners have bird feeders out everywhere and yesterday we saw the tiniest humming bird that I have EVER seen. It was probably less than an inch long. It was feeding at the feeder and it was hard to believe it was a bird and not just a big bug!
Red Wing Resort Morson, Ontario, Canada
Sunday June 5, 2011We fished most of the day today and caught our limit during the day. We came in at 2:00 and had lunch then went back out. I think we caught 3 walleye, a perch and a northern. When we came in we fried fish and they were just absolutely WONDERFUL!!! We had rain off and on while out fishing but it wasn't too bad and would quit and then start lightly again.
Their was a perfect rainbow tonight when we were out. The end of the rainbow looked like it went right into the water. It was really beautiful. We met a guy and his wife who are both veterinarian's from Wyoming last year. I found out in talking to them last year that Terry is a brother to Bill Kreager, a guy I worked with at Cat for years. He and Julie, his wife, are here again this year and was asking us if we saw the rainbow. A lot of people return year after year on the same week but so far there is only about 4 cabins rented this week. The weather has not been good for fishing here in the weeks past so that may have something to do with why they don't have a lot of people this week.
Monday June 6, 2011
Today was absolutely beautiful. Probably reached the high 70's and the sun was out all day. Terry(the Vet) told us this morning that we would really have to work at catching fish today and he was right! We caught several small walleye but only 3 walleye big enough to keep and Kevin caught a perch again today. Larry caught a really nice walleye and Debby caught 2 medium size large enough to keep. I had a really nice walleye on my line and got it all the way to the boat and it got off. Otherwise all I caught was little buggers that did nothing but steal my bait. Pretty much the same with everyone else. We came in at 3:00 and decided to cook fish and potatoes for our lunch rather than wait till tonight as it ends up being pretty late by the time we cook after going back out in the evening. Debby and I opted to stay home tonight but the guys went out around 6:30. Tomorrow and Wed are suppose to be rainy and cooler but may be our best fishing days!
Tuesday June 7, 2011
Rainy and cold is the word this morning. Black clouds and still raining some after it rained last night. Larry and Kevin scheduled Lenny, the camp guide, to take them out for walleye and muskie. Debby and I could go for the same price but we decided having to pee in our bucket in front of Lenny was not an option. The guys left and I went up to the lodge to talk to Anne for some ideas of where Debby and I could drive to shop. She suggested Bemidgi, MN which is 135 miles. We got ready and left around 10:30am. We drove about half way and stopped in Black Duck, which is on Red Lake, to buy gas. The lady at the station told us they had horrible storms there this morning with high winds and hail. She also said that the weather forecast was for more bad storms later today.
When we left, I .took over driving and as we drove a little farther we had a deer come out to the roadside. I slowed down and gave him plenty of time to decide where he was going. Luckily, he choose the woods.
We arrived in Bemidgi at about 1:00. Anne told us how to find the Paul Bunyon Mall--please note--I am using the word MALL loosely!! The 'mall' consisted of maybe 15 stores which is 15 more than Morson has. They did have a Hersbarger's, which is part of the Bergner's group. It was basically exactly like Bergner's and we actually found several bargain's. I found Ruff Hewn Carpenter Jeans for 50% for Larry and lightweight sleep pants and a shirt for summer for lounging around the house.
Anne had said there were shops down by the waterfront also so we drove down there. The only thing we found was a boutique that was also a furniture store. The boutique had some very cute dresses that Debby and I thought would have been very nice for Leslie's wedding trip. I was thinking of buying one for her and then I ask if it could be returned and the lady said only for exchange. Oh Well----guess you just lost a sale--probably their only one for the week since we were the only people around.
We came back to mall area and stopped at Gander Mountain to buy a new real for Debby, since her's is screwed up. We found the real then ended up buying Larry and Kevin some zip-off pants. We found a couple of shirts on the clearance rack that we also bought.
We went to Penney's and I found about 7 shorts and tops for Morgan and about 4 short outfits for Addy. Everything I bought there was on sale and when they totalled it up the sales clerk informed me I saved $218.00--WOW---I only had to spend $201.00 to save that amount! Some of Morgan's will be part of her birthday gift and Morgan happens to have grown out of all her summer cloths. Addy has plenty of summer cloths, however, I enjoy buying her new things now and then.
We both called our kids while we were in Minnesota. I got to talk to Addy two times. She is so sweet when she talks on the phone. After I talked to her Taylor got on the phone and asked me if I heard what she called me. I said I didn't notice and she said Addy called me Grandma. Normally Addy calls me Mama but when I was there babysitting in May, she was calling me Grandma now and then. I love hearing her say Grandma. Morgan use to call me Mama also until she was about Addy's age. All my baby's are growing up so fast. Morgan will be 7 in July, which is so hard for me to believe. I'm looking forward to Pete and Leslie getting married and making us grandparents again. I think my wishes are probably over for Taylor and Kyle to have anymore. I feel so blessed with the two I have. There is nothing as wonderful as grandchildren!
We finished our shopping spree and headed home. We came back across the Canadian Border at Baudette and had no issues . Last year Debby and I went to Baudette and the Canadian Border Guards searched the truck from top to bottom when we came back . We stopped at the grocery store in Rainey River and picked up our sweet treats--homemade pastries. We did not get back to Red Wing until almost 9:30pm.
When we arrived back at the resort, Kevin showed us a picture of the 46 inch muskie that he caught today on their trip out with Lenny. At this time of the season, all muskie's have to be released. After the third week of June you can keep the muskie if it falls into a certain slot.
Kevin's MuskieBen, the resort owner's dog is a buddy to all. He has really latched onto Kevin as his best bud. He is a Polar Lab and is totally white. Anne told us he weighed 98 pounds and he is like a big teddy bear. Everyone in the resort loves him he loves all the attention he gets from everyone. Anne asked us not to feed Ben as all he does is eat. She feeds him and then he muches off all the camp guest. It is hard to say no to Ben as he is such a beautiful dog and so gentle.
Kevin and Ben playing fetchWednesday June 8, 2011
Well another morning like yesterday except the wind must be blowing 40 mph. We again decided it was not a day for us to fish. We gathered up our laundry and headed to Baudette to do our laundry and to look in the shops in town--which is a grand total of TWO! We bought some sweatshirts for all of us and a long sleeved shirt for each of the guys. We went to the Laundromat and did three loads of cloths and it took us probably an hour and a half to dry them. The place was a rip off as one washer did not spin the cloths out well, which meant more money to dry them. We met a guy in the Laundromat that was a hunting guide and a part time fishing guide. He has a house near Red Wing Resort. He was Canadian born in Sault Saint Marie, Ontario. He was very interesting to talk to and he gave us his card in case the guys were interested in his guide services.
We finished our laundry, refueled the truck and headed back to resort. We had to stop once again for our pastries at Rainy River. I will weight 300 lbs by the time I reach Peoria as all we do is eat wonderful food. We got home about 6:30 and Kevin was frying fish. We had dinner and sat and looked at the lake and talked about how calm the water was. It is so changeable here--this morning the whitecaps were terrible with the wind and now tonight the sun is shinning and the lake looks like glass. Much like when I lived on Lake Superior in Marquette, Michigan as 15 minutes was like a whole different season with the weather.
l
Thursday June 9, 2011
When Debby and I got up the guys were already cooking breakfast. WOW that was a surprise but I'm sure the reason for that was they were wanting to get out early fishing. We gathered everything for fishing and packed lunch items so we would not have to come in for lunch. Debby and I put ham and beans in crockpot for our dinner tonight. We were out I think by 9:00 this morning fishing. We ended up catching our limit but had to work to catch them today. Larry is the hero of the day as he caught a 26" Walleye and it weighed about 6.5 lbs. It looked huge and it fought him tooth and nail getting him in the boat. We caught a lot of Walleye but threw most of them back as they were small. Debby caught two Perch today; one this afternoon and one tonight when we went back out fishing.
Larry and his 26 " WalleyeWe ate lunch in the boat while fishing and didn't come in until around 3:00. When we came in we had several beer and the guys cleaned the fish while Debby and I played with Ben. Anne came out and was throwing a stick out into the lake for Ben to swim after. She kept trying to make Ben jump off the dock to fetch the stick but instead he would run back to the yard and go down the side of the dock to swim for the stick. We had such a good time watching Ben. He is just a gentle sweetie. This morning Kevin gave Ben a plate of sausage gravy, biscuits and an egg so Ben has been hanging tight with us most of the day. Larry gave him a piece of ham this afternoon when we came in and later Debby gave him a very small portion of ham from our dinner. Anne had asked us not to feed him as he is getting so fat but Ben just has the saddest eyes and has us all wrapped around his paw(??) I guess you would say. Debby went up and asked Anne if Ben could have the ham bone out of the beans and Anne asked us to wait till tomorrow morning to give it to him so we have it wrapped and waiting.
Anne trying to get Ben to jump off dockWe talked to Terry Kreager this afternoon and he told us about the black bear that visited the resort last night. He said it walked right up where they were setting outside around 9:30. He yelled at it and chased it off toward the cabins on the other side of the lodge. Anne said there are 5 guys staying in cabin 11 next to the lodge and one of them walked right up on the bear and almost filled his underwear. He was talking on the phone to his wife and he yelled so loud his wife kept yelling over the phone wanting to know if he was ok. Two of the guys in cabin 11 are big bruts and are both policemen. We were all still up but didn't hear anything other than Debby heard Ben barking.
We went back out fishing around 5:45 but only caught one walleye and a perch. Hardly worth the effort but we are trying to get enough fish to take home. Came in about 7:45pm from fishing and had our ham, beans and cornbread. They were fabulous1 If we have done nothing else this week we have had plenty of good food to eat. Most of the time I feel like my stomach is so full I can hardly breath!! Time to go home and slow down on the food before I gain another 50 lbs!!!
Friday June 10, 2011
Catch of the day at Lake of the Woods
Today is our last day at Red Wing Resort. We had a huge breakfast and headed out to Garden Island. This is where we fish most of the time and have had our best luck. Yesterday Larry caught his 26 inch Walleye just off the point of Garden Island. We were there less than 20 minutes and Debby pulled in a 26 inch Walleye. Everyone was amazed that we caught another fish of that size. Less than 10 minutes later I had a 'hit' on my line and it felt like a whale. I kept reeling it in and it was fighting pretty hard. Believe it or not Larry actually dipped it with the net without loosing it Last year he lost a huge fish I had on my line because he put the net down too soon and the fish saw it and broke the line. My Walleye was a little short of Debby's at 25 inches. So we have caught three big Walleye in almost the exact spot in two days. We all were catching Walleye today. A lot of little ones but several \'keepers'. We probably caught our 8 fish in less than an hour. We kept catching 'keepers' but kept measuring which were the largest and throwing back the smaller ones. We came in around 12:30 and took our pictures with the fish and then the guys cleaned the fish to freeze for home.
We went back out to try fishing for Northern, since we have our limit of Walleye to take home. We tried fishing near the reeds with bobbers. Larry and Debby tried casting but none of our attempts were fruitful. We came back to cabin and packed and loaded the truck and boat with everything we could do without tonight. We are ready to hit the road early tomorrow morning.
We all walked up to lodge and chatted with some of the guys that were here last year that are from near Gary, IN. We also paid our bill and made a reservation for next year starting June 2. Anne talked to Debby and I for awhile and told us she was so proud of us for the fish we caught. She is just the greatest person I have ever known. She is so jovial and makes us laugh a lot. She is diffently the 'PR' person for Red Wing.
The guys are packaging fish for the trip home. They have to be marked for taking across the border. We are having pizza tonight for dinner as we still had two frozen that we brought with us. We did very well on our food supply. Debby and I do a very good job planning our groceries. We rarely take much home.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Tuesday April 5 - Thursday April 7, 2011
Tuesday April 5, 2011
We went to The Trump Hotel to pick up Pete and Leslie to take them to the airport. We were early so Leslie wanted to have a Caipirinha at the bar. When I was in Brazil we drank MANY Caipirinha's so I was anxious to taste the Las Vegas version. Larry, Leslie and I all ordered a Caipirinha but with my first sip, I could tell it was not even close to what we drank in Brazil. I asked the bar tender if they used Pinga as the liquor for the drink and he said no and told me what they used but I don't remember the name The drink was ok--just not as good a a real Brazilian Caipirinha AND he let us buy three of these for $33.00. In Brazil a fifth of Pinga sells for $1.00 so perhaps he should use cheaper liquor or perhaps we should quit drinking in the bars in Vegas!@!
We loaded the luggage and took Pete and Leslie to the airport about 12:30 and their flight was at 2:00. By the time we got off the 'strip' headed home, they were boarding their plane.
After talking to Pete, he suggested we wait until after dark to go to Freemont Street as they have many light shows. We came back home and I laid down for awhile as I still have been feeling really lousy.
When I woke up I cleaned up and dressed and we headed to Freemont. We were able to drive all the way down and found a self park near Freemont at one of the casinos. When we got to Freemont, we found the 4 Queens Casino so we could make a reservation at Hugo's Cellar, which is inside the casino. They told us the earliest would be 8:30 so we put our name in and headed back outside. Freemont Street is closed to traffic so the entire area is for walking with stages for entertainment and lights galore! The entire street has a cover over the top and about every hour 45 minutes they do a light show that lights up the entire cover. It is all set to music and is just amazing. When the light show comes on, all of the casino's outside lights go off so as not to detract from the show. We saw the show several times and each one was different. They also have a zip line that people ride from one end of the street to the other. Looked like fun but I think I am a little too old to try it out. I am really surprised Leslie and Pete did not ride it.
We walked around and right away found that several of the gift shops sold single bottles of beer as well as wine and hard liquor. We went in two times for a bottle of beer before our dinner reservation. The beer was something like $2.00 for MGD and you just go outside on the street and drink it while walking around. Vegas is really a different place. You drink on the street and smoke on the street--just about anything you'd like to do.
There was a guy doing drawings so we stopped and watched. He asked us if he could draw us and I said no it was too much money. He dropped his price to do both of us for $20.00. I'm glad we did not spend the full amount as the drawing was like a cartoon drawing of us. Pretty Lousy!
We went back to Hugo's and they took us to our table. There were three tables of VERY loud party's. I think two of the tables were wedding party's and one was just 6 guys that were just as loud. It was very difficult to hear our waiters or to even hear each other. Leslie and Pete had eat here on Monday night and raved about the food so that is why we decided to try it. I had prime rib and Larry had veal. The waiter comes to the table and prepares the salads at your table. Then they bring out sorbet or gelato ice cream in a very small cone. The main meal was then brought out and both included potatoes and green and white asparagus. My prime rib was enormous! There is no way I could have finished it all. It was very tender but I didn't think it had a lot of flavor. Larry liked his veal but said the veal he had at The Mesa Grill at Caesar's Palace was better. I became more irritated the longer we sat there as the noise level was unbelievable! I think the couples setting behind us must have asked to move as they left. We finished our meal and it was $133.00 and as usual -- was not worth the money but when in Vegas--throw your money away like everyone else! On the way out I told the manager that I just had the most UNPLEASANT meal of my life. I told him in the future when they have private parties, they need to locate them away from the other patrons. He apologized and told me he wished we would have asked to be moved. WHATEVER!
Lightshow overhead Drumner
We went back out on Freemont and walked around more and watched some guy playing drums with 5 gallon plastic buckets and pans. Larry said his brother Art could come down and make some extra cash as he is a drummer. Then there were a group of six on one of the entertainment stands singing and they were pretty good. We roamed around for a while and decided to head back home. Out of every place we went in Vegas, this was without a doubt the best as Pete had told us it would be.
Wednesday April 6, 2011
We packed up and left Las Vegas around 9:00am. We drove quite a distance and stopped to fuel and we had a Subway sandwich. We got back out on the road and drove the rest of the day--probably 450-500 miles. We stopped in a little town called Green River, UT. There was not much in the town but the lady at the RV Campground told us there was a nice restaurant up the road. We took the car off the dolli and drove down to eat. It was a nice place right on the river and we could see the mountains from where we sat. Larry had his fried chicken that I have been hearing about since we were in Arizona. No place in Arizona has fried chicken --of course other than Kentucky Fried--which we bypassed. I had chicken strips but neither were to rave about. He said his chicken tasted like the ones in the frozen dinners.
We came back to motor home and I went to bed to read as it was getting pretty late.
Thursday April 7, 2011
Today was pretty much more of the same. Drove all day but did see some beautiful scenery. The mountains in Utah are pretty amazing and reminded us of Sedona, AZ , as they are mostly red rock. They are such unusual shapes that as you look at them, it hard to imagine how they ended up to be formed this way.
Mountains of Utah
We drove on into Colorado and drove through passes in the mountains that were too high to see the tops. We had a lot of wet highways up high and there was still a good amount of snow everywhere. We drove by many ski areas, Steamboat, Vail, Breckenridge and many, many more. We switched drivers and I finished the drive through the rest of the mountains. At times, I wondered if we were going to make it to the top as the peddle was to the floor and we kept dropping speed. It was a hard pull going through the higher elevations but we held our own with the semi's. It was a beautiful drive today but we had no breakfast, no lunch and finally about 30 miles out of Denver, I pulled into a Love's truck stop to fuel up and our big meal for the day was a Carl's hamburger. And as everyone knows, we are both just skin and bones!@!
We drove another 75 or 80 miles to Sterling, CO. We found a campground and stopped for the day around 6:30. The wind was terrible driving the last hour or so and as I set here in the RV tonight it feels like it is going to blow us off the map. Hope tomorrow is better as it makes it harder to drive and also cuts the fuel mileage. We are paying from about $4.05 to $4.20 a gallon for diesel. It would not surprise me if Illinois is not higher than here.
We went to The Trump Hotel to pick up Pete and Leslie to take them to the airport. We were early so Leslie wanted to have a Caipirinha at the bar. When I was in Brazil we drank MANY Caipirinha's so I was anxious to taste the Las Vegas version. Larry, Leslie and I all ordered a Caipirinha but with my first sip, I could tell it was not even close to what we drank in Brazil. I asked the bar tender if they used Pinga as the liquor for the drink and he said no and told me what they used but I don't remember the name The drink was ok--just not as good a a real Brazilian Caipirinha AND he let us buy three of these for $33.00. In Brazil a fifth of Pinga sells for $1.00 so perhaps he should use cheaper liquor or perhaps we should quit drinking in the bars in Vegas!@!
We loaded the luggage and took Pete and Leslie to the airport about 12:30 and their flight was at 2:00. By the time we got off the 'strip' headed home, they were boarding their plane.
After talking to Pete, he suggested we wait until after dark to go to Freemont Street as they have many light shows. We came back home and I laid down for awhile as I still have been feeling really lousy.
When I woke up I cleaned up and dressed and we headed to Freemont. We were able to drive all the way down and found a self park near Freemont at one of the casinos. When we got to Freemont, we found the 4 Queens Casino so we could make a reservation at Hugo's Cellar, which is inside the casino. They told us the earliest would be 8:30 so we put our name in and headed back outside. Freemont Street is closed to traffic so the entire area is for walking with stages for entertainment and lights galore! The entire street has a cover over the top and about every hour 45 minutes they do a light show that lights up the entire cover. It is all set to music and is just amazing. When the light show comes on, all of the casino's outside lights go off so as not to detract from the show. We saw the show several times and each one was different. They also have a zip line that people ride from one end of the street to the other. Looked like fun but I think I am a little too old to try it out. I am really surprised Leslie and Pete did not ride it.
We walked around and right away found that several of the gift shops sold single bottles of beer as well as wine and hard liquor. We went in two times for a bottle of beer before our dinner reservation. The beer was something like $2.00 for MGD and you just go outside on the street and drink it while walking around. Vegas is really a different place. You drink on the street and smoke on the street--just about anything you'd like to do.
There was a guy doing drawings so we stopped and watched. He asked us if he could draw us and I said no it was too much money. He dropped his price to do both of us for $20.00. I'm glad we did not spend the full amount as the drawing was like a cartoon drawing of us. Pretty Lousy!
We went back to Hugo's and they took us to our table. There were three tables of VERY loud party's. I think two of the tables were wedding party's and one was just 6 guys that were just as loud. It was very difficult to hear our waiters or to even hear each other. Leslie and Pete had eat here on Monday night and raved about the food so that is why we decided to try it. I had prime rib and Larry had veal. The waiter comes to the table and prepares the salads at your table. Then they bring out sorbet or gelato ice cream in a very small cone. The main meal was then brought out and both included potatoes and green and white asparagus. My prime rib was enormous! There is no way I could have finished it all. It was very tender but I didn't think it had a lot of flavor. Larry liked his veal but said the veal he had at The Mesa Grill at Caesar's Palace was better. I became more irritated the longer we sat there as the noise level was unbelievable! I think the couples setting behind us must have asked to move as they left. We finished our meal and it was $133.00 and as usual -- was not worth the money but when in Vegas--throw your money away like everyone else! On the way out I told the manager that I just had the most UNPLEASANT meal of my life. I told him in the future when they have private parties, they need to locate them away from the other patrons. He apologized and told me he wished we would have asked to be moved. WHATEVER!
Lightshow overhead Drumner
We went back out on Freemont and walked around more and watched some guy playing drums with 5 gallon plastic buckets and pans. Larry said his brother Art could come down and make some extra cash as he is a drummer. Then there were a group of six on one of the entertainment stands singing and they were pretty good. We roamed around for a while and decided to head back home. Out of every place we went in Vegas, this was without a doubt the best as Pete had told us it would be.
Wednesday April 6, 2011
We packed up and left Las Vegas around 9:00am. We drove quite a distance and stopped to fuel and we had a Subway sandwich. We got back out on the road and drove the rest of the day--probably 450-500 miles. We stopped in a little town called Green River, UT. There was not much in the town but the lady at the RV Campground told us there was a nice restaurant up the road. We took the car off the dolli and drove down to eat. It was a nice place right on the river and we could see the mountains from where we sat. Larry had his fried chicken that I have been hearing about since we were in Arizona. No place in Arizona has fried chicken --of course other than Kentucky Fried--which we bypassed. I had chicken strips but neither were to rave about. He said his chicken tasted like the ones in the frozen dinners.
We came back to motor home and I went to bed to read as it was getting pretty late.
Thursday April 7, 2011
Today was pretty much more of the same. Drove all day but did see some beautiful scenery. The mountains in Utah are pretty amazing and reminded us of Sedona, AZ , as they are mostly red rock. They are such unusual shapes that as you look at them, it hard to imagine how they ended up to be formed this way.
Mountains of UtahWe drove on into Colorado and drove through passes in the mountains that were too high to see the tops. We had a lot of wet highways up high and there was still a good amount of snow everywhere. We drove by many ski areas, Steamboat, Vail, Breckenridge and many, many more. We switched drivers and I finished the drive through the rest of the mountains. At times, I wondered if we were going to make it to the top as the peddle was to the floor and we kept dropping speed. It was a hard pull going through the higher elevations but we held our own with the semi's. It was a beautiful drive today but we had no breakfast, no lunch and finally about 30 miles out of Denver, I pulled into a Love's truck stop to fuel up and our big meal for the day was a Carl's hamburger. And as everyone knows, we are both just skin and bones!@!
Mountains in Colorado
We drove another 75 or 80 miles to Sterling, CO. We found a campground and stopped for the day around 6:30. The wind was terrible driving the last hour or so and as I set here in the RV tonight it feels like it is going to blow us off the map. Hope tomorrow is better as it makes it harder to drive and also cuts the fuel mileage. We are paying from about $4.05 to $4.20 a gallon for diesel. It would not surprise me if Illinois is not higher than here.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The Jersey Boys-Las Vegas April 4, 2011
Erich Bergen, Rick Faugno, Frankie Valli, Jeff Leibow and Deven May
Frankie Valli visits the Jersey Boys in Las Vegas(above)
Tonight we attended the most amazing show--tthe Jersey Boys Show at the Palazzo-Las Vegas. The tickets were pricey as everything in Las Vegas seems to be, but the show was such a wonderful experience, I would spend the money again to see it.
Our afternoon started out by going to eat before we hit the 'strip'. We finished our dinner by 5:00 and decided to drive on downtown, park and shop for awhile before the 7:00pm show. We parked in the Aria Casino deck and thought we would walk around awhile and then walk on to the Palazzo for the show. We certainly walked around--for an hour and a half but we did not leisurely walk around. After we started walking toward the Palazzo we realized it was much farther than we realized. We were slapping ourselves because we have driven past the Palazzo several times since we've been here. We walked and walked and still did not catch sight of the casino. We walked for 45 minutes through the crowd and I finally asked a doorman on the way, how far we were from the Palazzo. He informed us that we had a 45 minute walk left to get there! We picked up the pace as we were within an hour of the show. Walking through the crowd is crazy, those who walk slow prevent everyone else from even passing them because of the crowd coming the other way. If we were not green country folk, we might have stopped and thought about taking a bus or the metro or whatever. We were given correct information because we walked at a very brisk pace and arrived hot and sweaty at the Palazzo at 6:40pm. We were both exhausted and my mouth was so dry I had a hard time swallowing! I think we were both near cardiac arrest!!.
We found the Jersey Boys Theater and paid $25.00 for two drinks at the bar. I weighed the idea of paying $5 for a bottle of water or $12 for a drink--easy choice! We walked into the theater and found our seats and sat and relaxed for the few minutes before the show. A couple came in and sat next to us and I was blowing my nose over and over as I still have the same stupid DISEASE--whatever I've had since Thanksgiving. I turned to the lady and told her that I wasn't contagious--just terrible allergies or WHATEVER! We talked for awhile and she said she had seen the show in December with her friend and insisted her husband see it with her as it was so amazing. She said the Las Vegas show was really the top rated one of all the Jersey Boys shows because they had such a choice of talent here.
As my heart was coming to a normal heart rate, the show began. I don't think I remembered to breath through the first act as it was so all consuming! The acting and signing was so wonderful. The story is about Frankie Valli's life and his climb from being a young man of 15 on the streets of New Jersey to his claim of fame with the Four Seasons. We took an 8 minute intermission which allowed everyone in the theater to stand in line for the bathroom. When I got in line, I noticed there was a family restroom, which was empty, so I told some of the ladies in line that I was going to make use of it. I came out and the line was forming to take my place. If not for taking advantage of that restroom, I would not have had time for anything.
We went back for act II and it was just as all consuming as before. The story was happy and sad as well. It told how he and the rest of his group basically lost their wives and children because they were on the road their entire career. Near the end of the show, Frankie Valli lost his daughter at age 22 to drugs. During the show his daughter had run away from home a few year prior to her death. When they found her she told him he had never been there for her during her life as he was always chasing fame.
The group eventually broke up and Frankie Valli went out on his own for awhile before he replaced the original group and was then known as Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.
So I was not disappointed as I was worried I would be. I have talked about seeing this for so long but was still hesitant about spending the money and insisting Larry also see it. Larry was also very pleased with the show, which I mostly worried about. It was spell bounding to say the least!
When the show ended we walked out of the theater thinking about facing the 2 mile --or more--walk back to the car. I had seen a metro station on the walk down so we asked the doorman about riding it back but he said it would not get us where we needed to go. We started walking away and I decided to ask him about the bus. He told us how to get to a bus stop. We were nearing the bus stop and there was a bus there so we hurried to get there just as the bus pulled away. I found a bus schedule and it showed the buses run every 15 minutes. While waiting I received a message from Leslie about going to Richmond Street but didn't know what she meant. After catching the bus, a lady told us we could not miss Richmond Street. She said it was the best part of Las Vegas. Larry said when we drop Pete and Leslie at the airport this afternoon, we would go down and roam around for the afternoon. One of the other ladies setting next to me said their are wonderful little shops and live entertainment.
We had a great bus ride and arrived close to our parking deck. Again, my mouth and throat were so dry I had to have something to drink. We saw a CVS Pharmacy on our way to the parking deck so we stood in line for 20 minutes to purchase a bottle of water and a coke for Larry. Walgreens and CVS are very popular on the strip because they sell liquor and everyone is there to purchase it as they eventually gets smart about how to drink cheaper in Vegas.
We retrieved the car and got home about 11:30 ---exhausted!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Thursday March 31 to April 3, 2011
Today is Leslie's 32nd birthday. We are traveling from Mesa, AZ to Las Vegas, NV to meet Leslie and Pete tomorrow. The trip is a gift from Pete to Leslie for her graduation in December from Bradley. He made the mistake of asking her what she would like to have as a gift from him. I really am not sure he was thinking quite so big but they are to be here tomorrow. Pete has been in Seattle all week and rather than fly home to Peoria, he decided to fly to Las Vegas. He is due to arrive around noon tomorrow. He said he would make his way from the airport to the hotel so for us not to pick him up. Leslie does not arrive until 9:45pm tomorrow night so wel will pick her up --at least at this moment that is the plan. I'm sure we will spend money here on her as part of her birthday as well.
We arrived in Las Vegas around 3:00pm and we left Silveridge around 8:30am. It is around 330 miles from Mesa to Las Vegas so we did not make bad time getting here. We are staying at Oasis RV Resort which is absolutely beautiful. It is a huge park and spotless. There are two swimming pools, one for the children with a sandy beach and one for the adults. This is really nice to have an adult pool so those who do not have children with them can relax without being bothered by the kids. I don't mind it when I have my grandchildren but I don't like dealing with everyone else's when I want to relax.
We had to buy Internet service for a week which really is a rip considering what we already paid for our RV Site. If you want it you have to deal out the cash. I cannot stand being without Internet. When we went up to the office to pay for the Internet, we asked for a recommendation on a place to eat dinner. They highly recommended Deans Place which was on Dean Martin Blvd and just a few miles from resort. It was an Italian Restaurant so we had pasta again. It was good but nothing too special we didn;t think.
After we left the restaurant, we went to find a grocery store. The only one we found close was one called 'Food 4 Less'. It was actually a decent store and not at all what the name sounds like. As we were looking at the meat, we realized it's some form of a division of Kroger. There were many Kroger brand items in the store but could not use our Kroger card. The prices on the food was not what I considered cheap. We paid $11.00 for a 12 pack of MGD cans. We wanted canned beer to take to the pool tomorrow but MGD is much more expensive than any of the other brands here. It was the same in Mesa as well.
Came back to the resort and all the palm trees on the entrance drive are lighted. It is so pretty everywhere in the park with lots of palms and grass.
Friday April 1, 2011
Got up this morning and cooked breakfast then pick up and cleaned up motor home some as it was a mess from traveling. We got ready and drove down to the 'strip' to look around. We found that all of the Casino's have free parking in their parking garages. That is a break for sure as I assumed the parking would cost us our pension check for the month. We walked and looked at the Casino's and went into several of them. They are very up class places and inside most of them is lots of shopping. I felt like a farm girl arriving in the city with cow shit still on my shoes!@!! In all the places in the world I have traveled, this is my first trip to Las Vegas. It is quite a sight and everything is pristine from the landscaping to the spotless side walks. When we were walking on the elevated bridges and sidewalks. there was a lady with a mop scrubbing the concrete. We went into several of the gift shops as Larry was trying to find a hat or visor as the sun is terribly hot and very bright. The prices in the shops seem to be pretty normal for a tourist town.
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| New York New York Casino |
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| New York New York Casino |
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| MGM Casino |
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| Pool at Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort/ Kids Pool has Sandy Beach |
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| Pool at Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort/Adult Pool |
We walked a long distance and I suggested stopping for a margarita at an open air bar. We each got a 'house' margarita, which means it is less than a gallon glass--I could not believe my eyes when I saw the size of the glasses of the other margaritas. I do not exaggerate when I say a gallon glass--they were huge. Our margaritas, however, were very normal sized and if anything a little small compared to most I've had. I took a drink of mine just as the bartender collected from Larry for the drinks. I almost spit across the bar when she told him $26.00 for the two. As you probably have already guessed, we had exactly ONE each! Larry said he thought we made a down payment on the entire bar!!! I expected expensive but we could have had a beer and a hot dog at Wrigley Field cheaper than we paid for the two margaritas. I really didn't think anyplace was much more expensive than Wrigley. So the country girl had her first lesson on Vegas. We sat at the bar and nursed our drinks while watching the Chicago Cubs fall flat on their face on opening day! Two disappointments in less than an hour!
While watching the Cub game I kept seeing signs in the crowd saying 'This is the Year' --NOT! While watching them at Hohokam in Mesa, I saw nothing more than the same ol' Cubs. I think they had a record for spring training of something like 14-20. Not even close to 500 and they won't be any closer during regular season unless someone sets fire under them. It certainly looked cold, however, at Wrigley today. It was raining most of the time we watched and everyone looked like they were freezing--all of this while we are smothering in 93 degrees today. It amazes me how the weather can be so diverse throughout the US when at times there is only a hundred miles difference from 90 degrees to 30. This is true of Mesa and Flagstaff, which is a little more than a hundred miles apart. I guess we should be soaking up the heat because next week we will no doubt be shoveling snow when we reach Peoria.
We came back to motor home and Pete called. He arrived around 1:00 and went to their hotel, which is the Trump. He said he was going to go down and workout and take a short nap and call us when he woke up to see if we want to go to dinner or just have drinks with him. Leslie's plane does not get in until 9:50pm. We will meet Pete and all go to the airport to get Leslie. We told Pete before he arrived we would pick him up at airport and he said he would find a way to the hotel. The airport is right in the middle of Las Vegas Blvd where the strip is located.
We left before 7:00pm to pick up Pete. We got to the strip and it was bumper to bumper traffic. It took us an hour to get to the Trump Hotel to get Pete as it is on the far end of the strip. We were going to stop someplace along the strip for a drink but each time we saw the 'self park' areas they were either full or we did not make the right turn to get into them. The 'self park' areas are owned by a casino and are free parking. Anyway we spent so much time in traffic and trying to find a parking place, we decided we'd go on to airport and have a snack and drink there. When we got there, only one bar was open and they had no food. Larry and I had nothing but breakfast, which was several hours ago so we were getting pretty low on food. We had a huge draft and a bag of pretzels and a bag of nuts that we shared between us all.
Leslie's plane was on time and we found her without a problem and claimed her luggage. We got to the car and she changed her shoes and cloths--yep inside the car. The windows are pretty dark when it is dark outside so I guess her privacy was safe?? Her feet and ankles were very swollen so I hope after a good nights sleep she will be ok with that.
We left the airport and went back to the strip and parked in the Aria parking deck, which is where Larry and I parked earlier today. We went into the Aria Casino and bought a drink and walked around for awhile in the casino. They had several shops and restaurants inside. Larry bought four beer and a mixed drink for Leslie and paid $37. I guess that was pretty cheap compared to our two Margareta's earlier today. We left the casino and walked along the strip while drinking our beer--which is actually LEGAL in Las Vegas. Wild place here--seems just about anything goes. As we walked awhile, Leslie suggested we call it a night as she was very tired. I assume part of her being so tired was her big night out on Thursday night with the girls for her birthday. I don't think she got much sleep Thursday night. Anyway we made our way back to the car and took them back to the hotel and headed back to the motor home.
When we arrived at the RV Resort and drove down to our street, the fire department and a couple of security cars were blocking the street. One of the security guys told us that someone got lock.ed inside their motor home. How weird is that??? I guess one of the dead bolts stuck and they could not get out. I think they ended up breaking out the door window to get the door open. Kinda sounds like a blonde joke that they were locked IN??!!
Saturday April 2, 2011
Leslie called about 7:30am wanting us to come to the hotel to swim with them at the pool. I told her I'd talk to Larry and get back to her. Larry never did say yea or nah so we did nothing about calling her back. Then she sent me a couple of text messages wanting to know where we were. I just couldn't get excited about driving through the traffic to swim at that hour. When I lay around the pool, I like a beer and it just didn't seem right at 7:30am, however when she called me later, she said she paid $11.00 for a bloody mary so I guess it IS alright to drink at 7:30am as long as you are in Vegas--not to say I've never done it in my younger years!!! The next time she called, she said her and Pete would like to go to Hoover Dam since today was going to be overcast and possibly rain.
We left the resort to pick them up and I suggested we travel route 15 down to almost the end of Las Vegas Blvd, in hopes we would cut out the traffic issue. We made it to their hotel in about 15 minutes going that route. So at least we learned a better way to get there. We picked them up and headed to Boulder City which is technically where the Hoover Dam is. It is about 25 miles from Vegas. We crossed over the dam on the bridge and couldn't see a road that looked like it took us down to the dam. We turned around and headed back to the bridge and saw a sign pointing to the dam. We drove down the mountain and ended up parking on the other side of the dam. We had to walk quite a distance to get back to the visitor's center. It was terribly hot and the sun was out in full force when we got there. We walked up farther to a snack shop and got something to drink as we were all hot and dry. Leslie and Larry both wanted to take a tour of the dam so before I could tell Leslie that I preferred to just wait for them, she had bought us all tickets.
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| At Hoover Dam | <><><><>
We got in line and they told us we needed to watch a movie about the dam before the tour started. We watched the movie and then got in line to wait to take the elevator down to the bottom of the dam, which was something like 500 feet underground. I am a little claustrophobic, so I was a whole lot anxious while down there. They took us through a tunnel into a room where the water flowed through HUGE pipes that ran under the floor of the room. We then took the elevator up a ways and this room overlooked the big generators that create the electricity for park of Arizona, Nevada and I think some bordering states as well. There were seven huge generators on the Nevada side and the guide said the Arizona side had six. It is hard to imagine that this was all accomplished in 1937. Even with our modern machinery, it would be a very complicated project. The workers worked 7/24 and were paid $4.00 a day. They indicated that was very good pay for that era but these people had to work like slaves for their pay. Also the pipes that carry the water were so huge, they could not transport them so they made them on-site. I was impressed by all the information and what it took to accomplish. It's not something that I would have had a problem with had I not seen but it was another 'tic mark' on Larry's 'bucket list'. So one more down and who knows how many more--we have been working on his 'bucket list' for quite awhile now.
We got back to Vegas around 3:00pm and the kids wanted to go back to their hotel. Again Leslie begged us to come swim but I told her that when I laid around the pool I'd like more than just one drink and couldn't afford it at their pool. I told them to come to our pool and we could bring our own drinks but they just decided to go to the hotel to rest awhile. They called later wanting to know if we were coming back to the strip and both of us said no. Guess we sound like old fuddy duds but I don't enjoy gambling and spending half my pension on the crazy priced drinks. We are going to go to dinner tomorrow with them so will probably do the strip again tomorrow. They were going to try to see a show tonight and they already have tickets for a show on Monday night. My 'bucket list' has included seeing the Jersey Boys for a long while now. I had checked on tickets before we got here and they are quite expensive. I checked again this afternoon and talked Larry into spending the money, then could not purchase the tickets on-line. We will probably just check while downtown tomorrow about tickets for either Monday or Tuesday night.
Pete had a few things he needed laundered so I did all my laundry as well this afternoon and tonight. Almost have it all done and just waiting for my towels to dry.
I think the weather is going to cool down some tomorrow and quite a lot on Monday. It was much too warm today so I'm ready for a little cooler weather. I say that and each time I think about how cold it will be when we get back to Peoria. I am trying to enjoy the heat but I have a hard time when it gets in the high 80's and 90's.
Sunday April 3, 2011
Went to breakfast and then to Walmart--OH DUH--isn't that an everyday trip??? We needed chemicals for the motor home and a few grocery items. We headed back home and let our wonderful kittys outside for awhile to brake their cabin fever. Sat outside with them and had a beer then got changed and walked up to the pool. Since we have an adult pool they allow alchol and smoking! That's relaxing!!! Had our beer and sat around the pool for a couple of hours and read.
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| Ceiling in Caesar's Palace |
We came home and showered and left to pick up Pete and Leslie for dinner. We went to the Mesa Grill inside Caesar's Palace. Don't let the word 'grill' fool you into thinking it is a snack shop type restaurant!! Our bill for 4 meals was $256.00 PLUS TIP! The food was good but not too sure it was THAT great! I had salmon, Larry had veal, Pete had pork tenderloin ,which was very different and Leslie had some type of chicken with a sauce. We had appetizer of shrimp which was prepared in a corn husk like a tamale which was very unusual and tasty. Everyone liked their meal and we were so full we could hardly move when we left. We walked through Caesar's Palace, which is just a huge place and so beautiful. Leslie and I saw the cutest nightgown that was in the style of a Greek goddess. It was sheer material in white with gold trim. They had the gold slippers to match so Leslie bought the gown and I bought the slippers to give to Morgan for her birthday in July. We walked forever looking at all the decor in the palace. The place we bought the things for Morgan had a high domed ceiling and the ceiling was painted to look like the sky. It was hard to imagine you were not outside on a sunny day with the clouds floating overhead. It was beautiful.
While we were in this area, I noticed a desk that was selling show tickets. I have been on the Internet trying to buy tickets for The Jersey Boys but could never complete through ticketron. We walked over to find out what was available either for Monday or Tuesday evening. We bought two tickets for Monday night at the Palazzo for $260. Money just flows from our hands here. I didn't really care how much the tickets were as I have been wanting to see this show forever. They were in Chicago several times and again in Phoenix while we were there, so I decided if I was ever going to see the show now was the time.
We must have walked a mile or more just inside Caesar's. Every room in the place was different with unimaginable decor. We went upstairs and when we came down we rode a curved escalator. I have never seen an escalator that curves around like this. There was a thousand shops inside from all the top designers, ones I've never heard of, which is not surprising considering how many designer items I've purchased in my life. Leslie and I could not resist going into The Kid's Kastle, which was a clothing store and when we came out our knees were buckled. OMG, I have never seen prices like they had attached to their clothing. The clothing was just adorable, of course, not like 'off the rack' items from WALMART!!! We really enjoyed looking at all the beautiful little outfits for the girls. I don't think my lovely granddaughters will be able to enjoy anything from this place --at least from their grandma Stafford!!
We finally stopped at one of the bar's inside the palace and had a drink. I was getting to the point that I didn't think I could take another step. It is just hard to imagine how huge this place is. After we sat awhile, we headed out again. Leslie wanted to take us to the Balligo Casino to see the flowers. I had no idea what she was talking about but even being so tired of walking, I told her we would go see them. When we walked outside it was like a winter blast! It was freezing. It was very warm when we first went into Caesar's for dinner earlier in the night. Larry had on shorts and I had capri's and a top with medium length sleeves, which felt good. Pete and Leslie had long pants but Pete had a short sleeve shirt and of course, Leslie had on Pete's jacket, so needless to say, we were all freezing.
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| Swans standing in water with flowers in The Ballagio Casino |
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| Carousel among the flowers |
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| Butterfly is made of flowers also |
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| Musical Waters in front of Balligo Casino |
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| Eiffel Tower where Pete and Leslie dined on Saturday |
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| Pete's first gambling rage! Spent $2 on penny slots |
We FINALLY found the car just as I was placing my last foot forward! I don't think I could have walked another step!!! We got in the car and started to exit. Each time Larry would take an exit, we would end up back in the same place. Of course Leslie and I started laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes and Pete said that this is what Larry gets for being too cheap to have the car parked by the valet. We always go for the 'self park' area because it is free. Of course Pete was joking as he and Larry and I had just talked at dinner about HOW expensive it was to be in Las Vegas. Anyway around and around we drove and FINALLY we accidentally found the EXIT!@! All of us were laughing to the point we couldn't breath and probably most of it was that we were exhausted so everything was so much funnier than normal. It was one of those things you had to be there to appreciate! Anyone who know our daughter Leslie, knows she should have been a comedian as she has been this way her entire life. Pete kept asking each time she'd say or do something stupid--'Is this YOUR daughter'!! We love Pete as he is such a great guy! He treats our daughter so wonderful and is so respectful to everyone!
We took Pete and Leslie back to Trump Tours and dropped them off and headed home. It was almost midnight--LATE for the old farts. We had a cup of coffee and I headed to bed. Read probably 25 words before I was sound asleep!
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