Our Life on Wheels

Surgery is over.

2012-01-24T13:26:00.001-07:00

Thank you all so much for the overwhelming love asnd support! Just want you to know, Suzy is out of surgery, still in recovery (so I haven't seen her yet). Surgeon says all went very well!

AN ODE TO MY WIFE

2012-01-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

NOTE: If you are looking for an RVing blog. don't bother reading this. This post is dedicated to my lovely lady who is about to undergo a life-altering surgery.

And as far as "odes" are concerned, I'm not much of a poet, but I will confess to writing a number of rather bawdy odes during my adolescence, which I must admit lasted well into my college years.

Now, for my Lady Suzy, and my ode:

Here's to my wife, the light of my life!

'Nuff said -- how can I go on? As most of you know, Suzy is scheduled for bariatric surgery Tuesday. Tomorrow, Monday, she goes into a day of liquid only diet: chicken broth, herbal tea, sugar free clear Jell-O (and you thought only RVers plans were carved in Jell-O!), sugar free Popsicles, clear high-protein drinks, and lots of water. Tuesday, there's absolutely nothing from midnight except two small sips of water to down a few of her necessary prescriptions.

For the past two weeks, Suzy has (1) totally abstained from alcoholic beverages, (2) cut to decaffeinated coffee for one week, then to herbal tea for the second week, (3) ignored white foods such as potatoes, rice, bread, (4) measured her input of everything else. This evening, for a truly "last hurrah" -- the last real full meal she will ever eat (yes, that's entirely accurate), Suzy ate 2.5 ounces of New York Steak, a big plate of raw veggies dipped into a little bit of light balsamic dressing, and one third of a medium orange for dessert. And she reports that she was completely satisfied!

What's the future after surgery? Well, at home she will drink lots of non-caloric fluids, gradually adding some high-protein supplements. At the end of the second week, she'll start taking some vitamin preparations and one half of an egg. You read that right: one half of an egg (not fried, not hard boiled) every day for a week.

In the fourth week, and through the eighth week after surgery, she'll be able to eat (for one meal a day) 1/4 cup of certain soft foods, such as tofu, canned chicken, black bean soup, or broiled tilapia. (I'm exaggerating here for emphasis, but not very much.).

By week nine, and for the next four months, she can have up to two meals a day, each consisting of a quarter cup of the same soft food, but also adding to the mix (for a total 1/4 cup per meal) maybe some steamed vegetables, calf's liver, or peeled apple.

After six months, the world is hers, in very small doses. She will learn what foods she can tolerate. She will find that she has little appetite for some things, and seldom will feel hunger. No alcohol will still be the rule. I expect neighbors will hear moans of "Not Fair!" "I want to eat more than this!" or "How did I get into this position." Suzy herself may join into these moans from me, but I think she won't, as she is going into this with her eyes wide open, expecting a new lease on life to be the result.

So, join me in this ode to My Lady, and enjoy this evening's sunset, from the road out in front of the vehicles of ... Our Life on Wheels.

Our NEW Life on Wheels

2012-01-15T20:36:00.004-07:00

Hey, everybody! Thank you all for your strong support, encouragement and prayers in response to Suzy's two posts about her upcoming surgery. That was awesome and overwhelming!

You can imagine, perhaps, that our life is going to be focused for quite a while on two things: Suzy's new life and my term on the Saguaro Co-op Park's Board of Directors. I still have two years to go on the Board, and my expectation is that I will be adding some significant new duties starting next month.

For Suzy, we'll be taking baby steps, moving through the stages of recovery, learning what she can eat and what she can't. We've been to classes, we've read the books, we've joined an online support group, we've talked to others who have been through it. Now it will still be baby steps, but we are encouraged about taking them.

In the meantime, our RVing life will have to change. We have a major goal of getting to Nova Scotia in 2015, or at least starting our trip to there that year. The way we look at it, it will be a two-year trip. But first, we have to take a different set of baby steps. Suzy won't be driving the motorhome for quite a while, of course, and I haven't had much experience recently, so I have to re-learn the skills of handling the beast. We have to find places nearby where we can take short trips as soon as Suzy can handle them.

That takes us to our little journey Saturday. We had heard about Roper Lake State Park here in Arizona, so we bundled ourselves into the car and made the 175 mile round trip to check out Roper Lake, and to see what's is in that neighborhood.

Roper Lake, what a neat place! The lake itself is fairly small, but attractive; no, I didn't take any pictures, because we had a 15-minute pass -- no fee for that -- to simply drive through and take a look. There are three campgrounds within the park. One is a group campground with a few cabins and no hookups at the RV pads. The other two have nicely designed RV sites with electric and water connections. We made notes of the best looking sites, and will try to reserve one of them for a future visit or two. Those sites are near the lake itself and have great views of nearby Mt. Graham, which is currently decorated with the winter's snow.

From Roper Lake we drove a few miles further north to the town of Safford. We passed the Elks Lodge (small but no RV parking we could find) and ended up at the Manor House, probably the nicest restaurant in town.

The Manor House, with snowy Mount Graham (elev. 10720 feet) in the background

The Manor House was well appointed, decorated in an Old West theme. There were even big old wagons, three of 'em, hanging from the ceiling!

This lamp, showing an Apache couple in stained glass, sat on the end of the salad bar.

Here Suzy got to practice her temporary new eating style in a restaurant. We both ordered a Poncho Villa Burger -- topped with pepper jack cheese, green chili pepper, tomato slice, lettuce and onion. But Suzy ordered hers without a bun, because she is not to be eating any bread, potatoes, rice, noodles, etc. prior to her surgery. As a side dish we each ordered a cup of pinto bean soup. Suzy is to be concentrating on protein the rest of her life, and those beans are high in protein. The burger was wonderful, the soup delicious. Suzy took the veggies from her burger and set them aside as a salad, which she topped with a very light balsamic dressing.

The past six days, and for the next nine, my lady gets two protein drinks a day, plus one "light" meal, for a daily input not to exceed 1000 calories.

One of Suzy's protein shakes -- 30 grams of chocolaty protein, lots of vitamins and minerals, and only 160 calories.

Yesterday we calculated she managed to get lots of protein and all of 989 calories! She is not suffering from major hunger pains, and in these six days has lost 9.1 pounds!

On the way home from Safford, we noticed a wonderful cloud formation, and had to get a picture.

Suzy has mentioned going with other surgery candidates to a pre-operative meeting led by a registered nurse who had similar surgery many years ago. It is Gayle who was a major force in developing the hospital's bariatric program; she serves now as the Bariatric Coordinator of the hospital. She told us that she hears complaints from some people about all the stuff they have to give up to get this procedure: desserts, mashed potatoes and gravy, coffee, eating out frequently, drinking. Gayle's response to that is: what have you had to give up to get here? Mobility. Breathing well. Walking more than fifteen feet without having to rest. Pain-free days. You'll give up some other things, sure, but look what you will gain back: mobility, walking, freedom from at least some of the pain, buying clothes in normal sizes. And before long you'll be eating what you like, in very small portions.

Sunday morning we awoke to a gorgeous sky. I grabbed a couple of quick shots before my battery died, and by the time the battery had been replaced, the color was gone!

So that's what we are seeing this week in ... Our Life on Wheels.

What a Day We Had Yesterday

2012-01-10T18:45:00.002-07:00

Suzy again ---

Let me tell you about our day yesterday, when I got the final word about my surgery schedule.

First of all, I had my six-times-a-year visit to my pain doctor in Tucson, for an epidural shot to control my overall pain level. This helps with the spine problems and polymyalgia rheumatica. Next, Jerry and I had our annual appointments with our ophthalmologist; good reports on both of us.

Because I'd be going on my mostly liquid 1000 calorie per day program for two weeks, we popped into Panda Express for a farewell lunch. Goodbye to restaurants for a while!

The next stop was a delight: we pulled into the only Safeway store in the area that sells gasoline and took advantage of a $1 a gallon discount! That discount saved us $11.40 on one tank of gas.

Then across town we drove (and in Tucson, across town can be 15 or so miles) to my surgeon's office for more information on what's coming up. This office has a bariatric team that can't be beat: two surgeons who specialize in minimally invasive surgery and in bariatric surgery in particular, with a psychologist and a nutritionist on staff; and two patient advocates dedicated to making things happen for the patients. My advocate, Patty, has been working very hard to make schedules work for us to reduce the number of trips we have to make from Benson to the far side of Tucson.

Patty handed me schedules and maps so I would know where and when to go for a three-hour pre-surgery class (this Thursday), my pre-op conference with the surgeon (next Monday), and the surgery itself, January 24. Then she gave me a thick book prepared by the Bariatric Center at Northwest Medical Center hospital, where the surgery takes place. It is a comprehensive manual covering nearly every possible condition for the two weeks prior to surgery, the time in the hospital, and the months afterwards. Jerry and I are enthralled by the many details included in this book.

Patty also provided samples of several flavors of the special protein meal replacements that are for sale either in their office or on-line. There were shakes in many flavors (such as chocolate, banana, orange creme, vanilla, and strawberry) and one that's supposed to be a chicken broth thing. Patty told us she doesn't get many positive reports back on that one. There are other protein drinks we can buy at Costco, Wal-Mart and Trader Joe's, so I won't have to worry about lack of options. I had my first go at these this morning for breakfast, a delicious chocolaty 11 oz. shake containing 30 grams of protein and scads of vitamins and minerals. Quite satisfying.

We said goodbye to Patty and returned the 60 miles home, stopping at our local Safeway for some salad makings, stopped at our mailbox in the park for the weekly package from our mail forwarding service, stopped at another rig to drop off some papers, and hurried on home. We had invited some dear friends to share my "last hurrah," and we were running short on time. Jerry threw some chicken breasts into a marinade (olive oil, tequila, and some great southwest seasonings), and I tossed a big mixed salad. Shortly Chuck and Dee arrived bearing carrot cake and some deviled eggs. They also brought their own beverages.

Beverages! Oh my, we had 'em! Jerry and I had a round of strawberry margaritas which were very sweet. Couldn't take any more of that, so we switched to Black Velvet and water, our usual choice. The four of us talked and talked and talked, solving many of the world's problems (and possible creating some new ones to work on later). It was 8:00 before the chicken hit the grill; while Jerry was grilling, I whipped up a batch of mashed potatoes. "Last hurrah" for sure! What a fine evening, and we capped it off by putting out yesterday's post.

Thank you to all our readers who responded so positively about my decision to move ahead with the surgery. We'll let you know what happens in this phase of ... Our Life on Wheels.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

2011-12-29T05:19:00.000-07:00

This is Suzy! Jerry told me I should write this one, so here goes.

I am scheduled for surgery January 24, 2012.

I don't want to go into a major "organ recital," but this is pretty exciting for us here in Benson. My surgery is something we have been working toward since our recent summer trip, after a long talk with our daughters. Deb and Kathie actually focused our attention on this, which we had heard about but had not explored. This is bariatric surgery to enable significant and lasting weight loss.

Once a person gets to a particular point, considered "morbid obesity," (and yes, that's where I am right now) there is virtually no way to real sustained weight loss. I've done most of the regular diet programs and some of the odd ones as well, with no lasting success. So we investigated what is called minimally invasive bariatric surgery, and learned there are three basic options, each with its own success rate, each with its own potential risks.

The original option was a gastric bypass, in which the stomach is drastically reduced in size (imagine a golf ball), with the results of digestion re-routed to the small intestine.
The next development was the gastric band, or "Lap-Band," which can be compared to a noose around the stomach; it can be adjusted by means of a port installed in or under the patient's skin.
The most recent option, which I have selected with the concurrence of both Jerry and the surgeon, is the vertical sleeve gastrectomy. In this procedure, the stomach is reduced in size, but the food is still routed through the regular tract rather than being shunted into a detour. This leaves a sleeve-like organ about the size of a medium banana, with the full digestive program at work.

Because this program calls for a complete change in life-style (for both of us really, but mostly for me), there is a comprehensive six-stop clearance process:

The first step is to attend a seminar conducted by one of the surgeons, so you understand what it is you are considering. Since the seminars are conducted in late evenings in Tucson, we were offered a DVD of an earlier seminar.
The surgeon conducts an interview to make the initial evaluation that you are indeed a candidate for this procedure.
The candidate undergoes an upper GI endoscopy to check for any problems in the esophagus, duodenum and gullet.
The candidate meets with a nutritionist, discussing future eating processes and procedures.
The next step is a visit with a psychologist, to determine if the candidate is psychologically prepared to take on the lifestyle changes.
The final step is a heart study with a cardiologist, to determine if the candidate's heart can withstand the rigors of the surgery.

I passed all the steps, except that the cardiologist wanted me to have a stress test, since I have been leading a rather sedentary life due to other medical conditions. That test was completed Wednesday, December 28, with no red flags apparent. And how I have the go-ahead!

For the next two weeks, I will be on a restricted diet: two protein drinks and one small meal each day, total not to exceed 1000 calories. I am totally off alcohol, and will stay away from many starches. The purpose of this short diet is to get my stomach ready for its change, and at the same time to reduce the size of my liver so the surgeon will have better access for the laparoscopic surgery.

Next, there is a pre-op session with the surgeon, pre-op testing at the hospital, and a 3 hour class for both of us to attend. Surgery is scheduled to begin at 11:00am January 24, with hospital check in at 9:00am. I'll be in the hospital two or three nights.

How will all this turn out? Well, we've all heard the scary stories of what somebody else's cousin's friend's uncle went through. But we've also been hearing wonderful stories of success, including one of our park residents and the daughter of another.

All we ask is that you guys hold good thoughts for me, and if you are the praying kind of person, we could use some of that also. It's going to be a major change in the way we live ... Our Life on Wheels!

Christmas is Over Again

2011-12-26T12:59:00.001-07:00

Yes, it's over for another year. A weary Santa has hung up his cap, fed his reindeer, and collapsed in front of the fireplace with a cup of cheer in his hand. Mrs. Santa had a busy time too, keeping all the elves fed, pressing Santa's travel suit, and all the other important details wives are so talented at handling -- and that Santa hadn't given a thought to. She even used her computer skills to plan Santa's route and schedule. Now they can rest for a couple of weeks before firing up the factory again for next year's presents.

Here at home, we'll keep the Christmas lights burning for a few more nights, let the spirit wind down slowly.

What a shame to let that Christmas spirit wind down at all. Let's remember that love and caring and sharing is what Christmas should mean (as well as being the birthday of the One Who came so long ago), and then hang onto that spirit every day of the rest of our lives.

We'll try to do just that for the rest of ... Our Life on Wheels.

A Blessed Christmas

2011-12-25T07:31:00.001-07:00

However you celebrate Christmas, we hope this is the best one ever. 2012 is just around the corner with it's own joys, trials and delightful surprises. May your joys be abundant, your trials few and easy, and your surprises delightful!

Have a Wonderful Christmas!

2011-12-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

So it seems that the Christmas Season is upon us. The stores are packed, and already people are returning their early purchases because they found the same item at a lower price somewhere else. Churches are getting flowered up, the manger scenes are in place, and we've been singing O Come O Come Emanuel for four weeks now. Gets the juices flowing, doesn't it!

So, the LeRoys have started posting Christmasy pictures on their photo blog, One Shot Leads to Another. And did you see our header photo today? This is one that we posted yesterday on the other blog. It is a manger scene that was built by German Prisoners of War during World War II. It is on permanent display at the POW museum in Algona, Iowa.

We spent quite a bit of time in Iowa in the summer of 2006. Those days we did our writing on My Trip Journal. This is an excerpt from that time, telling about this museum:

In Algona, Iowa, we visiteda museum dedicated to the former WWII Prisoner of War Camp nearby. The camp was"home" to a total of 10,000 German POWs during the period of itsexistence. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, the POWs were assigned to laborin the area, working on farms, in brick and tile factories, and clearingditches. They earned ten cents an hour which they could spend in the campcanteen. In a spectacular operation involving seven POW camps, 2400 prisonerssaved an estimated 65% of a record-breaking pea crop. A contemporary reportstated that, without the prisoner's efforts, 2,594,150 cases of canned peaswould not have been made. I don't know your opinion about canned peas, but asimilar loss today would not have affected my taste buds at all.

Some of the German prisoners were very talented.One man, Edward Kaib, started a Christmas manger scene. When the commandingofficer learned of it, he encouraged Kaib and a few others to continue. Over ayear they produced a full Nativity Scene, half life size in scale, and set itup for public display. When the camp was to be disbanded after the war, thelocal citizens asked that the Nativity Scene stay in Algona. There it is today,displayed for public viewing every December, more than 60 years after itscompletion. The scene is permanently housed in a small building at the KossuthCounty Fairgrounds. We were given a private tour, and now can share that marvelwith you.

That's what we wrote then. Some of our Followers on One Shot Leads to Another have asked how these figures were made, or whether they were hand-carved. They were constructed of plastered concrete over wooden and wire frames (we just checked that on Google!).

Here are a few more pictures we took of the manger setup. More can be found at our web album 2006 Algona POW Nativity Scene.

From us to you, have a happy, holy, blessed Christmas.

MEMORY and MEMORIES

2011-11-13T10:33:00.003-07:00

Recently, Sandie of Where are the Dixons wrote about her Aunt Happy (isn't that a delightful name?) that, "Not only does she remember her more distant past, but she remembers her yesterday and her morning. " That got me thinking about memory and memories. As I started babbling, Suzy joined in, and began remembering also. Do you remember these things too?

Mucilage and library paste when you were a kid.

Scripto ink in a bottle with a well at the top for filling your ink pens. And the little metal lever on the side of the pen that squeezed the tube then released it to suck in the ink

The dark spot on your shirt pocket when the pen leaked.

Bubble lights on Christmas trees.

(If you went to Catholic school) Sister Superior tapping with her ring on the second floor window -- and the entire playground came to a screeching but silent halt.

Valencia oranges that actually had seeds. And navel oranges were a novelty.

Grapefruit that were so tart you had to heap sugar on them to eat them.

When frozen foods were just coming on the market. You could buy peas, orange juiice, strawberries, then not much later, TV dinners.

Margarine that came uncolored, but with a little capsule of coloring that your Mom mashed into it with a fork. That was because the butter industry was afraid of competition.

Nabisco Shredded Wheat, the large biscuits packed in layers inside a box with Niagara Falls on the front.

Adding machines and manual typewriters. Slide rules.

Metal skates with skatekeys. You tied a loop of string to the skatekey and wore it around your neck.

Peechee folders, decorated with pictures of sports figures, but most importantly by your own doodling during class. Blue Books for final exams; you wrote your essay answers and tried to peek at your neighbor's answers.

Writing by hand! Penmanship classes. Multiplication tables. Long division. Diagramming sentences.

War Bonds. Three-cent postage stamps. The March of Dimes, when you brought your dimes and marched around the classroom, one dime at a time, until the richest kid in class was the only one still marching, around and around at least two times after everyone else sat down; you were always embarrassed if you had to sit down after only two rounds.

Lifebuoy soap -- that was my favorite soap. It was red, and it had s strong smell, and I loved it.

Bendix brakes on bikes; you pedaled backwards to stop.

Saddle shoes. Pedal pushers.

Saturday matinees: two features, a cartoon, and a newsreel. And a five-cent candy bar.

If you remember all those things, you are as old as I am.

That's all for today in ... Our Life on Wheels. But before we leave, I want to thank you all for the wonderful positive response to out last post, "The Times, They are a Changin'." So many people responded that they too are feeling some conflict between trying to be faithful to blogging and trying to live life full-time. Some folks can do it and do it well. Right now we can't, but we'll be here now and then, and we'll be pleased if you still ride with us!

THE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

2011-11-09T11:34:00.001-07:00

Yes, the times are changing, but before we go there, we just gotta say how much we enjoyed our get-together Sunday with fellow RV Bloggers John and Aileen of John and AIleen on the Road. They are staying at Florence, AZ, about 117 miles from us, and they asked if they could visit. Well, sure, c'mon over! We quickly became old friends, sharing stories and ideas.

Aileen brought some of her excellent rice pasta salad, Suzy made some wonderful potato salad, we grilled some chicken, and we had a fine meal. We took the required picture of us standing on our front porch, but because I wasn't smart enough to use my tripod, I didn't get a picture of all four of us. John graciously allowed me to use his picture for this post.

Now, about the times a-changing. They are doing that, and we are changing along with them. Change is inevitable, and usually for the best. People (including us) often resist change, are uncomfortable with change, but nonetheless, change is gonna happen.

For us, change is affecting our blogging practices. Our interest in some of our old favorite blogs is waning, and other blogs are gaining in favor. And with more and more blogs coming onto our list, we just can't keep up with everyone like we used to try to do. There are some blogs we simply skip over all the time. Is that bad? No, it's real, that's all. Heck, our Follower list says we have 165 followers, but we know that far fewer that that are with us anymore.

Even in our other blog, One Shot Leads to Another, where we post a single picture every other day, we had 20 Followers, but now we're down to 19, of whom only about five ever leave a comment. We're wondering if the one person who left our list was offended, perhaps, by the picture of two grasshoppers doing what grasshoppers do in grasshopper mating season.

Added to our changing interests, time is playing a major role. There are still 24 hours in a day, but how we use them is different. I'm spending much more time now involved in activities related to my Board of Directors job, and that promises to expand even further in the near future. And we are getting more active in the social / volunteer life of this park. What has to give? Blogging. As much as we enjoy writing and posting these blogs, as much as we enjoy being part of this community, we are probably going to be sitting on the sidelines much of the time. We'll read as much as we can, comment as often as possible, and put out a post once in a while just to show we are still here.

We're rounding another curve in the road in ... Our Life on Wheels.

Long ago and far away....

2011-10-26T15:05:00.001-07:00

Not much happening in our RVing life right now, so we'll share with you an adventure we experienced in 2005. We were in Alaska with a caravan, and took advantage of a day trip to Barrow. Here's what we wrote back then:

Subject: North to Barrow

Date: August 17, 2005

One of the most fascinating side trips on this caravan was the Barrow excursion. We took this trip, along with another couple (the Daltons) and Joan Benson from our caravan. Oh, and a planeful of other people we didn't know.

Barrow is the northernmost community on the North American continent, and I suspect the Western Hemisphere as well. A mile and a half away is Point Barrow, the northernmost point on the continent. We could have gone there by Hummer, but we didn't want to pay the extra $120 to go another mile and a half. We understand the Hummers had no seats in the back, and you'd have to sit on the floor. OK for kids, but not for us!

Barrow is a subsistence community of the Inupiat people. They still live much the way they have for the last few centuries, with a few modernizations (electricity, TV, etc.). They continue to hunt whales from sealskin whaleboats; men and boys as young as seven years go out on the boats. When they kill a whale, they need help to bring it in. The whale is distributed by a fixed method: the boat that killed it gets 50%; the people in the boats that help bring it in get a share; and the rest of the community gets a share as well. No one is left out. The limit these people can take is 22 whales a year; last year they took 16.

Gotta be honest -- we didn't take this picture, but wish we had!

Look around Barrow. No TV antennas, but some community satellite dishes aimednearly parallel to the earth, since they are so far north. Nothing greengrowing. They don't raise anything. No crops, very little grass, no trees. Theylive on top of permafrost, which goes down thousands of feet into the earth.Buildings are built on raised foundations, because to put them on the groundwould melt the permafrost, and they'd end up leaning and sinking. The supplypipes from the city's water system to the homes are insulated and heated. Thesewer lines as well.

Our tour bus driver and guide took us to her Grandma's house to show us Inupiatfood storage. She uncovered a hole in the ground leading to a chamber about 12feet deep, 10 X 18 feet across, carved out of the permafrost. A steep ladder,chopped from a single driftwood log, led down to the base where plastic bagsheld their provisions, safely frozen until needed.

This whaleboat sits in Grandma's yard.

In Grandma's front yard lay a dead seal, frozen solid, waiting for whatever would befall it. Also in Grandma's front yard was a sealskin whaleboat, upturned on sawhorses, and a whale's skullbone. Grandma herself shows up later in this story.

The Inupiat name for Barrow is Ukpiagvik, which translates as "The PlaceWhere We Hunt Snowy Owls." They don't anymore, because Snowy Owls are onthe endangered list, but they still hunt whales.

Barrow is modernized as well. They have a modern sports center to keep theiryoung people active and motivated. Their schools have large indoor play areasso kids can still play regardless of brutal outdoor weather. Their City Hall isclearly modern, even with a whale skull sitting on a pallet out front!

Bob and Joan Dalton at the Top of the World Hotel

The Top ofthe World Hotel is ... well, adequate. The Daltons stayed the night while JoanBenson and we returned to Fairbanks. Barrow also has a very good MexicanRestaurant, where we had lunch. (The Inupiats cannot sell their food, theyshare it; if you want to eat out, you eat something else.)

One of our friends, actually daughter Kathie's close friend from high school,lived in Barrow for several years. She moved a few years ago to Kenai, and thenback to Butte, MT. We mentioned her first name in the Mexican restaurant andimmediately the server added her last name, excited that someone from outsideknew her. He roused the manager who came to our table and exclaimed aboutNatalie. It was all very homey and positive.

At the Inupiat Heritage Center, we watched young people, and some not so young,performing ancestral dances that tell stories or express joy, accompanied bychanting and the throbbing rhythms of drums. The dancers, including those aged5 to 6, were precise in their movements.

Later we were invited to dance withthem and to participate in the age-old blanket toss game. The blanket tosscomes down from a need for early hunters to see game across the barrenlandscape. The higher they could be tossed, the farther they could see. Todayit's a game; yesterday it was survival.

What about Grandma? She was the announcer and director for the dancers. Grandma chose the sequence of dances and announced them; the dancers and musicians had to be prepared for anything.

In the lobby of the Heritage Center, individuals were offering for sale their native crafts, objects made from whale baleen, paintings, carvings, etc. Their work was beautiful and, necessarily, expensive.

What else did we see in Barrow? The "Top of the World Bridge," thenorthernmost bridge in North America (our driver said it was safe for cars butshe wouldn't take our busload across it).

A DEWLine installation (NORAD'sadvanced radar Distant Early Warning system,operated today by computer, with a two-person maintenance and upkeep team).

Thefamous whalebone arch, seen in all the ads for Barrow; and ... POLAR BEARS! No,not the white quadrupeds that eat seals, but human beings who dare to run intoand submerge themselves in the Arctic Ocean's surf. It is an official ceremonyand must be witnessed by the proper authority (who happens also to be themanager of the Mexican restaurant!). Two hardy individuals made the list thatday, both of them European visitors. Not Suzy or me! We were waiting for a hottub. After all, the temperature that July 17 never exceeded the high 30's, pluswind chill near the ocean.

(For ever so many more pictures of our day in Barrow, take a peek at our web album, Barrow Alaska 2005.

AlaskaAirlines flew us back to Fairbanks; River's Edge Campground provided shuttleservice back to our motorhome and ... Our Life on Wheels.

Grandmother Has Landed

2011-10-20T08:07:00.000-07:00

Regular readers will remember (or maybe they won't) that our daughter Kathie and her husband Shawn had brought to us, while we were in Carson City, the Grandmother Clock I built 30+ years ago, and that they had been keeping for us.

A Grandmother Clock is just like a Grandfather Clock, except not quite as big.

At any rate, Shawn and Kathie believed that we were ready, nay, more that ready, to have that clock back for our home base in Benson, AZ. So they loaded it into their pickup truck and brought it to us at our RV park.

Shawn had stuff for the dump in his truck also.lGlad he got to us before he went to the dump!

Well, what do you do with a Grandmother Clock in a motorhome? You have to keep her carefully secure so she won't fall over. And, like any other Grandmother, you have to keep her happy so she won't complain too much as you drive.

With Shawn's help, we wrapped Grandmother in comforters, strapped her in with rope, duct tape, and a cable, and let her be. For 2,103 miles, from Carson City through California, back to Nevada, then down to Arizona and New Mexico, finally back to Benson, she rode with us and sang her song, or truly, her songs. Grandmother had her "going home" song, her "Easy Travel" song, and occasionally her "Hang on there, rough road" song.

Wrapping her up like a mummy.

Why did she sing so much? She still had all her chimes intact, although her brain, her clockworks, had stalled years ago.

But now we're home, the motorhome is parked out in front of our lot, and Grandmother is still strapped in. She's not even singing her lonely song, because we have to be moving for her to sing. So we unwrap Grandmother.

Out of the mummy wrap, ready to go in the house

We cleared a space for her inside the park trailer, and recruited our neighbor, Bob, to help us carry her in.

Here's Bob helping Grandmother down the motorhome steps.

Oops, watch that opening door!

Notice Grandmother has lost her head! Can't carry her with that head attached.

Thanks, Bob! Good job.

Grandmother's head had to be removed for carrying. I guess it should be called a cowl.

Don't know why I'm scowling -- she ain't heavy, she's my grandmother!

Here she is, in her new home. We had to place a few shims so she'd stand upright. She's happy, she's home, she's with her family.

Just a little adjusting needed to get her level and centered!

What's next? Well, she needs new works, and we will get those for her (and our) Christmas present this year. Grandmother will be alive and well again, singing her hourly and daily chiming songs, making us happy that we've brought her home! She'll be a big part of ... Our Life on Wheels!

Chapter 3 of Our Book: How Do You Get Your Mail?

2011-10-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Hey, howdy to some new Followers of Our Life on Wheels! Welcome to Ron Buchner; welcome to Marsha and Paul Weaver of Where's Weaver?; welcome to T (Just call me T); welcome to Sheryl of Ain't For City Gals; welcome to Peter Pazucha; and welcome to Pam of Whims n Whispers. We hope you'll continue to find something of value in our blog!

For our longer-term readers, you have already been treated to Chapters 1, 2, and 8 our yet un-published book, Are You Out of Your Minds. Now here is Chapter 3, "How Do You Get Your Mail?"

One of the questions oftenasked of RVers is “How do you get your mail?”

Of course, each of us is different. We have metseveral travelers who have a daughter, a daughter-in-law, or a niece visittheir home daily to pick up their mail, sort out the junk, and send theimportant stuff on to the travelers at some particular stop on their journey.Fulltimers sometimes actually have changed their address to that of theirdaughter, daughter-in-law, or niece, so the mail goes right to thelong-suffering relative.

Notice that it’s always the female relative who getsthis duty, never a male. Why do you suppose that is?

We wouldn’t doit this way, because that relative might want a day off, or a week forvacation, or worse, get sick. Then where is your mail, and when will you getit?

We changed ouraddress to a professional mail forwarding service: magazines, bills, theoccasional ad or political flyer, and the even more occasional personal maillike Christmas cards now go to a business in Jefferson, Oregon.

The mail servicetosses out the ads and anything we have told them we don’t want to receive.They will forward the good stuff to wherever we tell them. Some services mailon a specific day each week, some on whatever day you request.

“But where doyou get your mail?”

A few RV parkswill accept mail for their residents; membership parks often will do this, butmany don’t. So then what? We have learned that the United States Postal Servicehas two Generals, the Postmaster General, of which there is only one, and GeneralDelivery, that exists at nearly every post office in the country. All you needto tell your mail service is General Delivery and the name of the town and itsZip Code. Presto, your mail shows up and waits up to 60 days for you.

We have usedGeneral Delivery all over the country. You just have to show proof of identity(your Driver License is all you need), and they’ll hand the mail over to you.

In May of 2006,we knew we’d be traveling into Nebraska along I-80, so we had our mail sent toGeneral Delivery, Brule, NE, 69127. Unless you have a large-scale Nebraskastate map, you’ll never find Brule. If you blink while nearing Exit 117 onI-80, you’ll miss the turnoff that leads across the South Platte River to thetiny town of 650 souls.

We were a fewdays late getting to Brule. When I went into the post office, I said to theonly person visible, “I’ll bet you’ve got some mail for me, last name LeRoy.”Her reply was, “I wondered when you’d show up!”

If you are goingto use General Delivery as you travel, the big thing to remember is to haveyour mail sent to the smallest town in the vicinity. If you sent it to a largercity, like Phoenix, for example, how would you ever know which post office inthat megalopolis to go to?

We thought wewere doing just that in 2008. We were going to be in Devils Den State Park southof Fayetteville, so asked to have our mail delivered to the little dinky postoffice at West Fork, AR, using West Fork’s Zip Code. On the appointed day, wedrove the thirty miles to West Fork, but the mail wasn’t there. That’s happenedbefore, so we waited a couple of days before making the return trip, only tofind that the mail still hadn’t arrived. The postal person asked us what Zip Codewe had used. When we told him, he replied, “Well, that’s the Fayettevilleoffice.”

Now,Fayetteville is another 20 miles at least from West Fork. We asked where thePost Office was located, and neither person at West Fork could tell us. Thebest they could do was to say it was downtown, right near the Walgreen’sdrugstore. They didn't even know what street it was on.

We drove to Fayetteville,found the Walgreen’s drug store, found the Post Office where we were told ourmail had never arrived! Not wishing to continuously make a 100-mile round tripevery day, we asked for and received the phone number of the Post Office so wecould call in advance.

Back to DevilsDen State Park. Devils Den is remote, cut off from telephone service, radio, TVor Internet access. To make a phone call, we had to drive seven miles. Forthree days, the Fayetteville folks told us there was no mail for us. Finally,after extending our stay at Devils Den twice, we had to leave, and drove themotorhome to the Fayetteville Post Office. Guess what? They found our mail stashedon some odd shelf over there instead of over here. It had been there the entiretime, according to their records!

It’s all part ofthe adventure!

For more pictures of Devils Den, visit our web album, 2008 Devils Den State Park.

And that, dear friends, is another Chapter in ... Our Life on Wheels!

What a Summer!

2011-09-30T18:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a great summer we've had! Different in some ways from what we had planned, but what is it we say about plans in Jell-O?

The main events went exactly as planned. We attended daughter Kathie's graduation from University of Nevada, Reno, at the young age of 46. And we got to see her receive the remarkable Senior Scholar award for the College of Journalism (senior in GPA, not in age, although that too).

Kathie with husband Shawn -- two tired but proud and happy people!

The second big event was daughter Deb's 50th birthday celebration. She had rented a large home outside of Fiddletown, CA, for the event, and just about the whole family was there. That's only a dozen of us; we're a small family. GeeGee (that's Great Grandma Suzy) played the piano for a singalong, there were group meals. games on the lanai, and excellent wine.

Deb had a visit from Father Time

Deb baked some greaseless donuts

And we sang

Cousin Carol in a Minute to Win It minute

Along with all of that, we had several days visiting Yosemite National Park, with the greatest water display in 50 years.

We spent a day at the epitome of ghost towns, Bodie, CA.

We spent a few nights at the splendid Oh Ridge National Forest campground near Lee Vining, CA, including two nights in the snow!

We spent two nights boondocked at Harmony Wynelands Vineyard in the Harvest Hosts Program, meeting the winemaker and his mother, and ending up with two cases of wine to carry home (still have most of it, too!).

As kind of a surprise, we were invited to stay at daughter Deb's house for the July 4 holiday (which we enjoyed immensely).

Deb and her pal Albert with us at dinner.

And another surprise, daughter Kathie had back surgery which we stuck around for in Carson City, trying to offer help wherever we could (no pictures of that time!).

Of course, there was plenty of time spent with great grandson Darren!

Some folks like statistics, so here they are. We left Benson April 17, and arrived back in Benson September 30, a total of 166 nights out, 35 of which didn't cost us a penny. We stayed in 17 places we've never stayed before, and overall spent an average of $13.87 per night (or $17.57 per night for the nights we paid for). How far did we drive? 2,663 miles in the motorhome, and however much more in the car. We bought 456 gallons of gas for the motorhome, at a total cost of $1,687.45, or $3.70 average per gallon. Highest priced gas was in Bishop, CA at the Von's Supermarket (after a 10 cents per gallon discount) at $4.17 per gallon, lowest prices at Travel America in Tonopah, AZ, at $3.41 / gallon. Miles per gallon overall? A measly 5.8. but we have to remember that we were towing a heavy car most of the time, did a lot of mountain driving, and part of the time had the generator running (for heat at Oh Ridge, for A/C going down the highway).

Now we are home. Now we get ready for Chapter 21 activities, and the Board of Directors has an executive meeting Monday, Now we hear Gene Autrey's theme "Back in the Saddle Again," as we resume the day to day part of ... Our Life on Wheels!

Going Home

2011-09-27T13:15:00.001-07:00

We can hear the music in our heads. About five months ago we heard Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again." A lot of RVers hear that song, and a lot of us sing along with it.

What we're hearing now is different -- We're hearing the main theme from Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony," the "Going Home" theme. We can't identify the singer, but we can hear the voice, tired but filled with longing and excitement. "Goin' home, goin' home, I am going' home."

Dvorak began writing that symphony, or at least parts of it, while living temporarily in the second floor apartment over the Bily Clockworks in Spillville, Iowa

The Bily brothers were farmers and carpenters. They built their hand-carved clocks as a hobby during the long, harsh Iowa winters. To learn more about the Bily Brothers and their clocks, see this site.

But that was another trip. Today we are heading back to our own home base, the SKP Saguaro Park in Benson, Arizona.

We're feeling good about that. We've been away for about five months. In 51 years together, Suzy and I have never before spent that long a period away from whatever we called home. Yes, for over seven years we were 100% full-timers, on the road without a home base, but the motorhome was home, and we weren't away from it very long at all.

Going home means picking up the traces of the jobs we left behind: both of us are officers in the SKP's Chapter 21 (Suzy Treasurer, Jerry VP), and a rally is coming up for which we are co-hosts. In addition, I'm on the park's Board of Directors; the Board is facing some interesting challenges, which I won't go into.

Going home also means catching up with our friends at the park, getting back into a social life.

Going home also means: turning on the water (we turn it off when we are gone for any period); re-lighting the water heater (that's going to have to be replaced soon, we fear); dusting the inside of the trailer and the casita; bringing back into the trailer and casita all the stuff we loaded in for our trip -- clothing, some food items, computers and peripherals, etc.

But we'll back in this wonderful place we call home.

And that's just fine at this stage of ... Our Life on Wheels.

Quite a Contrast!

2011-09-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

Light and Dark. Old and New. Right and Wrong. Man and Woman. Hot and Cold. You can think up many more contrasts, and they don't necessarily have to be opposites.

We found an RVing contrast within a period of less than 24 hours this week.

You may remember one of our earlier posts about stopping at Peggy Sue's Nifty Fifties Diner on our way into this summer. You can read our post about that, if you want, at Thoughts from the Road, Part II. Again, for some reason some of the photos have disappeared from that post. Gotta look into what's happening.

We stopped at Peggy Sue's again last evening for dinner, a free parking spot, and breakfast this morning. Last evening, a car towing a trailer pulled up next to us and the folks went in for their own dinner. I took some pictures while they were inside.

I thought it was probably an early model of an Airstream, until I saw this:

Have you ever heard of a Bowlus travel trailer? Neither had I. Did you notice the unusual characteristics? Front entry door, aerodynamic shape of the rear end. Tiny porthole windows.

As soon as the owners came out of the restaurant I was on their case. The man, John, could not spend much time with me, as his wife was not feeling well, and he wanted to move on. But he told me that this was indeed a Bowlus travel trailer, 1935 model (no wonder I didn't know about it -- it was built three years before I was born! John had purchased the old trailer and restored it and now uses it for "camping." The trailer weighs about 1100 pounds.

John also told me that the Bowlus trailer was the inspiration for the later Airstream models. Hawley Bowlus was an air frame designer -- in fact, it was he that designed the Spirit of St. Louis, the plane Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the ocean. Bowlus built these trailers for a year (1935-36), and the Airstream predecessor company sold them. According to John, Airstream took over Bowlus' design, built the trailers but went bankrupt. They came back from bankruptcy, and the rest in Airstream history.

How much of that is fact, how much is embroidered? I don 't really care. I just wish I had been able to take a look inside, and if John's wife had been feeling better, I might have. I Googled Bowlus and found that there were originally 80 Bowlus Road Chiefs built (another source says 200), of which perhaps 40 remain, and of those about a dozen are roadworthy.

But where's the contrast, you may ask, since that's the topic or this post. Right here. Along I-40 we stopped at one of the few Roadside Rest Areas that remain open these days. Right up next to us came a pickup towing another unique travel trailer, this one called an "Earthbound." Again I got in the face of the owner, who explained that he had once owned a motorhome, switched to a fifth wheel, and then "downsized" to this Earthbound Travel Trailer. This one's "dry weight" is 3600 pounds.

I wasn't smart enough to take any pictures at that point, but I connected with Earthboundrv.com and got this photo:

I learned that this company makes essentially "green" RVs. In fact, the trailer I saw had the official
"green" seal of approval!

I also learned that this relatively new company will produce only 200 trailers for 2012, and of those, 100 will be available for customers in the United States. They range in length from 23'6" to 30'. They are lightweight, there is no wood at all in the trailer, and if you want to order one, the "start at" price is $84.900. Before adding any options. A side benefit, I suppose, is all the attention and questions you get at roadside rest areas, like the one today where we paused during ... Our Life on Wheels.

What Reward Are You Looking For?

2011-09-21T20:48:00.001-07:00

So we said goodbye to Oh Ridge! What a gorgeous evening sky for a "Farewell, please come back soon!"

We headed south, hurrying home, along US 395, tracking the Sierra Nevada range.

Our next stop was Lone Pine, at the same park we had stayed in on the way north. But we didn't just sit there, we went out. Carl's Junior was calling us with their Guacamole Turkey Sandwich, and we ordered it "Lo-Carb Style," which means "No Bun, Wrap it in Lettuce." Feeling so righteous, we added a couple of Hand-Scooped Milkshakes (2 for $4) for dessert. Oy!

Feeling adventurous, we moved north to the Manzanar / Reward Road. This road is directly across US 395 from Manzanar National Historical Site, where Japanese-American citizens were held in "protective custody" following the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941 (See our post about this place: "Have You Seen Manzanar").

The road leads east five miles across the Owens Valley to the ghost town / mine site called "Reward."

The Reward Mine operated in the 19th and early 20th centuries, bringing gold, silver and assorted minerals out of the Inyo Mountains east of the valley. Now it is a target for ghost town / mine site afficianados. But for us, we were looking for rocks, and we found them! Here in this tailings pile, and many other places!

We wanted some rocks for our cactus garden back in Benson. Maybe we'll show you when we get there, but right now they are tucked away inside any space we can find in our Suzuki!

Here is a little about the mine:

Looking north from the basic mine site.

Heading back to US 395, we stopped to watch a fisherman at work. You may remember that the City of Los Angeles has "appropriated" most of the water from the previously prosperous Owens Valley. Some of it is channeled through the middle of the valley, and our new friend Rick told us that he was catching bluegill and small big-mouthed bass in this pond.

Worms, the best of bait!

A bluegill and a small large mouth bass Rick was keeping alive and "fresh".

Further on, we shared the road and the valley with a few cattle.

Now, we are headed home to Benson, AZ, as fast as we can. No telling when we may be able to contact you again, so please stay with us, be patient. We're heading for home, and very soon thereafter an SKP Chapter 21 Rally, which may have it's own ominous results!

So now, be content with this visit to ... Our Life on Wheels!

Oh Ridge Revisited

2011-09-20T18:38:00.003-07:00

Some of you folks may remember that, while we were early on in this family summer, we stopped at a place called Oh Ridge. A spectacular place. A National Forest campground. And it looked like this on May 8:

Then a couple of days later it looked like this:

We stopped back at Oh Ridge again, this time on our way home to Benson, Arizona. And in September, Oh Ridge looks like this:

Still plenty of "Oh!" left at Oh Ridge. And this is how we like to spend our afternoons!

For those who might want to review our earlier posts about Oh Ridge, You can try this one Oh!, but all the photos from that post have inexplicably disappeared! The pictures are still at our web album 2011 Oh Ridge. To read about the snowy part of that visit, look at And on the Third Day.

Before we sign off, let's give a tip of our cowboy hats to our newest followers: Jan of Whims 'n' Whispers, and Bob M (his "following" name is "bobm"). Sure glad you folks are with us, and we hope you'll still be glad you joined after reading some of our stuff! Welcome to ... Our Life on Wheels.

Chapter 8 - He Cooks

2011-09-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

You guys asked for it -- more of "Our Book!"

But before we go there, for those who have asked, Kathie is doing well following her recent back surgery. She plans to go back to work Monday, which is when you'll probably read this.

Suzy iswriting this chapter

I'm a good cook, and Jerry, my husband, is no sloucheither. He has watched me over the years (51 of them) while I measure things bythe “handful,” the “pinch,” and the “skosh,” and he hasn’t understood a word ofit. So Jerry cooks his own way, by the “just about” or “more or less” method.The galley in our 36’ Itasca isn’t big enough to store a lot of measuringdevices, so he guesses the quantities, and it almost always comes out prettygood.

Breakfast is Jerry’s strong point, andherewith are some of his recipes. Remember, of course, that all thesemeasurements are “just about” or “more or less.” Also, many of the ingredientsare interchangeable, optional, or at your discretion. So, have at it!

Jerry’s Oatmeal (Serves two)

In a microwave-safe mixing bowl stir together:
·       1/2 cup Old-fashioned oats (nutritionally superior to quick)
·       1/2 cup barley nugget cereal such as Grape-Nuts (if you are concernedabout fat content, read the nutrition statements – the brands differ a bit!)
·       2 Tbsp brown sugar (or a good dollop of honey)
·       ½ cup or more (or less) of dried fruit such as apples, cherries,apricots, raisins, cranberries, dates, prunes. Sometimes I prefer to use freshfruit as available. Be adventuresome: mix two or three varieties of fruit.
·       Nuts, if you like. Walnuts go well with apples, almonds are a goodcompanion for cherries or apricots.
·       Sprinkle of cinnamon
·       1½ cups fat-free or reduced fat milk
Cook uncoveredin microwave oven on high setting for 5 minutes. Remove and stir. If too dry,add a little milk and cook another minute; if too moist, cook another minute.Spoon into bowls and serve.

For extra fiber I sometimes put in a teaspoonor so of flaxseed meal prior to cooking. Wheat germ would be good too. No saltis necessary, as everything has its own flavor, and salt gets in the way (aswell as being a detriment to blood pressure).

As with all ofmy recipes, the measures are approximate and variable depending on personaltaste.

Jerry’s Omelet (Serves 2)

Mix well together and set aside:
·       4 Eggs, OR
·       2 Eggs and ½ Cup egg substitute (such as Egg Beaters), OR
·       1 Cup egg substitute
·       I usually add a hearty dash of Turmeric to my egg mix, because it issaid to have antioxidant properties. It also adds a bit of yellow color to theegg mix and to any plastic bowl you might use. You have to really whip it in,because it doesn’t want to dissolve.
·       (Optional) Salt-free seasonings (Mrs. Dash and McCormick offer severalneat varieties). With a good selection of the foods below, you won’t needadditional seasoning at this stage.
  Accumulate a nice variety of the following:
·       Leftover ham, salami, lunch meat, roast pork, chicken breast (you getthe drift – whatever’s left over in the refrigerator)
·       Chopped onion (green onions work well, as well as yellow or red)
·       Sliced mushrooms
·       Chopped tomatoes
·       Chopped olives
·       Canned diced green chilies
·       Grated cheese (nearly any variety will work well)

Saute the meat,onion, and mushrooms in a little olive oil in a large skillet, then set asideand keep warm. Spray the skillet with cooking spray, heat until fairly hot,then pour in the egg mixture. As eggs firm up around the edge, gently lift withspatula and let uncooked eggs run beneath. Continue around the pan in thismanner until all the egg is set. Then scatter the sautéed ingredients acrossthe top of one half of the cooked egg, followed by the cheese, olives and/ortomatoes. Turn the heat low.

Now comes thefun: with your spatula (use two if you have them), gently fold the undressedside of the omelet over the other side. Once in place, allow the folded omeletto sit a minute or two, then cut in two portions and serve. Turn off the fireunder the pan.

Jerry’s Chili Relleno Omelet

The procedure is the same, with these specifics: in the egg mixture,use Mrs. Dash Southwestern Chipotle seasoning or a liberal dose of Tabasco’schipotle flavored sauce.

After the egg mixture is nearly cooked, spread one 4-oz can of dicedmild chilies, drained, over one side of the eggs, top the chilies with slicedor shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack, pepper jack, or soft mozzarella cheese.Fold the unadorned half of the omelet over the cheese, and let cook a littlelonger on a low fire to warm the chilies and cheese. If you warm the chiliesslightly in your microwave before adding them, it will be better.

Divide in twoand serve onto plates, top with warmed green enchilada sauce, more shreddedcheese (we like to use cheese made from 2% milk), chopped green onions, slicedolives, whatever you like, and light sour cream. Serve with refried beanssimilarly topped with cheese and sour cream.

Jerry’s Mistake

Yes, I do makemistakes! One time I was cooking up a very special omelet (baby Portobellomushrooms, chopped bacon, shredded cheddar). As I mixed up the eggs and the eggsubstitute, I grabbed the jar of turmeric for the antioxidant value, and addeda healthy dose. As I began to whip it into the mix, I noticed it seemed to be adarker shade than usual. That’s when I realized the jar of turmeric wasactually the jar of cinnamon! Not being one to waste food, I added the realturmeric, and proceeded to cook my omelet. It was delicious! I won’t addcinnamon regularly, but the additional flavor was not at all out of place.

Jerry’s Skillet Breakfast

This isessentially the same mix as the omelet, but you cook it this way if there areleftover baked or roasted potatoes in the refrigerator.

After sautéingthe meat, onions and mushrooms, remove them from the pan and replace with the(cut up) potatoes. Heat the potatoes, return the meat mixture to the pan, thenpour in the eggs. Stir.

When the eggsare nearly cooked, add the tomatoes and/or olives and let heat briefly. Turnoff the fire, add the grated cheese, and serve.

Jerry’s Baked Apples

For twoservings, wash, core and coarsely dice two apples. Many varieties will work, weprefer Granny Smith, but also frequently use Fuji or Gala. Rome Beauties arethe traditional baking apple, but I never use them. Can’t tell you why.

Place cut-upapples in a microwave-safe baking dish, sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugarto taste. (See the oatmeal recipe about adding fiber. Same thing here!) Stir insome raisins, dried blueberries or dried cranberries if desired, maybe somechopped walnuts, and microwave on high five minutes. Divide into serving bowls(be sure to include the liquid) and top with shredded cheddar. Allow to coolbefore eating, or you’ll burn your mouth.

Bananas Foster -- “Children, don’t try this at home.”

For years I havebeen fascinated with tableside cooking in restaurants, where the maitre’d wouldregally flambé Steak Diane, Cherries Jubilee, Bananas Foster and the like,drawing gasps of astonishment and appreciation from the two of us as well asfrom half the patrons in the restaurant. I watched carefully, notingingredients and processes, and building up the courage to try it myself oneday.

One day I didtry it myself (in the motorhome, of course), and Suzy was ready to run for thefire extinguisher! First I assembled the ingredients, carefully slicing twobananas in half lengthwise. I selected a sauté pan, set it over a portablebutane burner on a table in front of the couch before my rapt audience of one.I melted the butter carefully, then stirred in the brown sugar; next I addedthe bananas and the Triple Sec, heating to just the right temperature.

At the rightpsychological moment, I measured the brandy into the pan, tipping the pan justenough so the brandy crept to the rim, and voila!, a flash of flame! They weredelicious. And the fabric ceiling wasn’t charred in the least. My eyebrows,however, took a while to recover their fullness.

Now, of course,any time I even mention flaming something, Suzy immediately responds,“Outside!”

And. out of the book, that's how it is, living ... Our Life on Wheels!

We're a Little Late With This One, Folks

2011-09-12T15:07:00.001-07:00

On Labor Day weekend, we were headed for Reno to visit Kathie in the hospital following her back surgery.

To get to Reno, you follow US 395 north until it runs off to join US 50. Right at that intersection, as we were about to turn, we noticed that the Nevada State Railroad Museum was having a special event. The antique engines were on display, puffing and blowing.

Of course, we were the the right turn lane, and the Museum was on the left, so we wheeled into a parking lot, made a big fast circle and ended up headed back into the Museum's parking lot.

Now, we had been here four years ago, and visited these antique engines inside the museum. The major display piece is good old Number 22, the Inyo.

The Inyo, built in 1875 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works, at a cost of $9,065, has a colorful history.

In 1937, Paramount Pictures acquired the Inyo, starring it in High, Wide and Handsome in 1937, and other films later. More recently, it was featured in the TV Series Wild, Wild West." Number 22 has made appearances at Promontory, Utah (for the Gold Spike Centennial in 1969), and appeared as the Central Pacific's Jupiter (one of the two original engines) at the Gold Spike National Historical Site.

But this year, Number 22, and its less colorful partner, Number 25, were out on display, and were even being used for passenger rides! We pulled in and parked, I grabbed my camera and headed out to the other side of the station to get some pictures. Suzy is not as agile, and stayed in the car to watch from the comfort of the front seat. Here's some of what we saw:

Number 25 did most of the passenger trips around the museum track.

Number 22 made only one trip while we were at the museum.

Another event was in full swing while we were at the museum, and if we had known about it, we would not have eaten lunch at home that day. The Carson City Fire Department was holding a hamburger cookout, open to the public. And they had this old Fire Engine on display.

For more pictures of our two visits at the Nevada State Railroad Museum, take a peek at our web album, Nevada State Railroad Museum. An interesting hour in ... Our Life on Wheels.

Down the Rabbit Hole

2011-09-11T16:55:00.001-07:00

Did you ever read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland? Alice's adventures began when she fell down a rabbit hole, ever so slowly, so that she could take an item from a shelf, examine it, and put it back onto a shelf a little lower down. Once she landed softly in a pile of leaves and twigs, her adventures became "curioser and curioser."

Paintings by Leif Hatlestad. More about him in a later post!

Sometimes we feel that our life is being lived at the bottom of that rabbit hole, growing curioser and curiouser.

Back in early April, each of us got a message on our laptops that they had been infected with an Evil Empire virus, so please enter your name and credit card number here. Rather than do that, we took the laptops, one by one to Tucson, about 45 miles away, to Best Buy for service. Of course, it was necessary to put a bunchabucks into a Protection Plan so that future services would be free.

Turns out the alleged virus didn't actually exist; the whole thing was phishing to get us to give out our credit card number. At least we didn't fall for that.

Three weeks ago I purchased a 4-position hub to connect several devices to my laptop at once.

Shortly thereafter, things started to happen, or to be more precise, started to not happen. For example, my laptop would not boot up. Simply refused. Wondering if it were the hub's fault (I'm really a detective, and I notice clues!) I unplugged EVERYTHING including the power cord. Computer started up fine.

That worked for a while, then I started getting strange messages, requiring that I hit F8 while whistling a cheery tune so that the computer would start. That worked a few times, and then came the ominous blue box message that said something was seriously wrong and Windows couldn't fix it. It said something like "If you see this message again, you are totally screwed." I got it again. And again. And again, and never saw the Windows emblem again.

This time, Best Buy was about a mile away in Carson City. And thank goodness, we have the contract that gives us free service.

However, Dom, our personal Geek in the Geek Squad, pointed out that it would be a good idea to back up what's on the computer "just in case." We could do a serious backup or a "User Only" which would cover just our data files, photographs, documents, etc. The backup could be copied onto DVDs or onto an external drive. We opted for DVDs, and gave Dom some money (the backup is not one of the free services).

Next morning we received a phone call from Dom. There's a problem (isn't there always?). To do a User Only back up, he explained, usually involves about 10 gigs of data, and if it goes to about 11 gigs, that's OK too, but we have 97 gigs of data which would require about 20 DVDs, and they can't do that. If we want the backup, we'll have to have it put onto an external hard drive, which will cost a bunchabucks more. But wait, by paying that bunchabucks more, we actually receive the external hard drive for free! While we have to pay a bunchabucks, we get something free. Like Ginsu Knives, maybe?

Paying the bunchabucks more involved two phone conversations with Customer Service later that day. And oh yes, we have a memory problem. I explained that for several years I have been developing a memory problem, but I couldn't remember what it was. Unimpressed, Dom went on to say that my laptop sports two internal memory sticks. Maybe only one is bad, maybe both. So, I needed, please, to purchase two new memory sticks. If both were needed, they'd both be paid for already. If only one was needed, why they'd refund the cost of the second one. More bunchabucks changed pockets.

This morning there was a message on our phone: Dom wanted to talk to us. Called back, Dom wasn't there, but Geek Joshua told us that that the two memory sticks Dom had picked out and charged me for weren't the right memory sticks at all. They would refund the cost of them. That's the good news? The other good news is that only one memory stick needed to be replaced, not both. The bad news was that this Best Buy Store doesn't have any of the memory sticks they need to fix my computer. Neither do any of the other Best Buys in the northern part of Nevada. They are on back order, and will take a week or two to come in.

We checked BestBuy.com, found the same thing, except that the memory sticks are quite a bit cheaper there than at the store. Oh, and they come in 2GB and 4GB. That is, they would if they had any. I called Joshua, asked him whether, if I were to buy a new stick, could they put it in as part of their free service. Sure. I then explained that there were two sizes. He was impressed, checked to see if my laptop could use the larger size. Why yes, but I shouldn't have unmatched sticks. They should both be 2GBs, in which case I would only need to buy one, or both 4GBs, in which case I would need to buy two.

Suzy got into shopping mode, went to Samsung.com (the memory sticks are made by or for Samsung); there was a listing where in Central California we could buy them. We're in Nevada. Amazon.com has them, in stock, shippable today. We ordered two, and will have them early this week. By the way, two 4GB sticks, including shipping, will cost just a tad more than one 2GB stick would cost at Best Buy, if Best Buy had any.

Time will tell whether the Geek Squad will have any more surprises to make our Rabbit Hole "curioser and curiouser" for... Our Life on Wheels?

Chapter 2 - ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MINDS?

2011-09-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

Thank you to our readers who were so receptive to Chapter One of our book! And thank you, and welcome, to our newest Followers, Jeff Simmons who, with his lady Shirley, runs scooters On the Road with Bloomers and Drawers; Ellie Great, an author from New Zealand; and Jeff Simmons. We hope you guys find something you'll like in our blog. You might also want to take a look at our other blog, One Shot Leads to Another, on which we display one picture every other day.

While we are here in Carson City, we're mostly visiting with daughter Kathie, who had back surgery last week, and daughter Deb, who came up to spend a week with her sister. So we aren't out and about much. Instead, we offer you, along with a few pictures of our motorhome in some neat places, our book's Chapter Two -- "Are You Out of Your Minds?"

Rosie at Randlett City Park, Anadarko, Oklahoma

We were ready to retire in2002. Actually, we were READY a lot earlier than that, but not PREPARED.

Rosie at Tenkiller Lake, a COE campground in Oklahoma.

Our financial advisor had told us we weregoing to be comfortable in retirement, but only if we got out of California.That helped convince us to move into a motorhome and go full-time. Ourdaughters, Deb and Kathie, were puzzled but supportive. Some of our friends,however, weren’t so sure. They asked all the usual questions:

·       “How will you get your mail?”
·       “How will you do your banking?”
·       “How will you handle medical care?”
·       “Won’t you get tired of camping all the time?”
·       “When will you come home?”

The biggest question we heard was, “Are youout of your minds?”

Rusty's RV Resort, Rodeo, NM

The first questions were the easiest toanswer:

·       Mail comes through a mailing service on a regular basis.
·       We’ll bank on-line using our computer.
·       There are doctors all over the country (more about that later.)
·       We won’t be “camping,” we’ll be living in our home on wheels, with allthe facilities we need.
·       We will be “home” all the time; maybe we’ll come and visit you whereyou live some time.

The last question, "Are you out of your minds?" was tougher to answer. We had often beenaccused of being a little crazy, but we didn’t think so this time. We had goodreasons for going full-time in an RV: it’s the best and easiest way to see thecountry; we’d been RVing in one form or another for years, and we knew what itwas about. Most important was what our financial advisor told us: we had plentyof retirement income … as long as we got out of California!

On Cousin Kevin's driveway in Washington State

The time came to sell the house and, like somany others in that time period, we found it sold a lot faster than we hadexpected. We had to close in thirty days! And we had a house full of STUFF!Kathie and Deb initially didn’t want to take the stuff: they told us they wouldfeel like vultures, and we weren’t even dead yet! We told them, “Take it or itgoes to the dump.”

They took a lot, storing some of it so that, if and when we came to our senses, we could have it back. Our adult grandchildren tooksome, and we sold our leather sofa and easy chair to nephew Andy.

Construction zone, Alaska Highway, sitting on thawing permafrost.

Then we had a major yard sale, virtuallygiving away a lot. Next, we contacted St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, andGoodwill. They took what they could. Finally we contacted “Bob,” who would takethe rest of the stuff to the dump.

After “Bob” left, we swept the driveway anddrove away from what had been Jerry’s family home for over fifty years, and ourown home for the previous fourteen years. We’ve never looked back, neverregretted our decision.

County park at Lime Springs, Iowa

It had been Suzy’s dream, when the motorhomesat in front of the family homestead, to load her up, put it all away, anddrive into a totally new life. Alas, it was not to be.

That first day on the road, September 5, 2002, we drove17 miles to the local Elks Lodge to spend a few nights. Daughter Deb came andtook one look at the piles of clothing, the stacked boxes of goodies we had brought with us. Sherolled up her sleeves and said “C’mon, Mom, let’s get to work.” With her helpwe cleaned out a lot more STUFF, and were able to be on our way for real.

City of Rocks State Park, New Mexico

Now, nine years later, we still wonder ifmaybe we’re out of our minds. We had to handle a lot of problems long-distance in the firstyear: a bank refused to believe we had paid off our loan on themotorhome; health insurance got cancelled; Suzy’s Mom (living in our motorhomewith us at age 95) became seriously ill and needed to go into a nursingfacility; our cell phone service had been sold to us under false pretenses and wehad three $300 monthly bills in a row.

Rosie serving as grandson Jason's bride Crystal's dressing room near Coeur d'Alene Lake in Idaho.

We weathered those storms, solved thoseproblems. But every once in a while some other silly situation pops up thatrequires all of Suzy’s problem-solving skills over the phone with customerservice representatives. Computers develop serious cases of hiccups or “I don’twanna work no more,” and Jerry is on the phone with someone in Turkey orPakistan trying to get some help.

But we realize that these same problems usedto occur when we lived in our house in California, and it still took the samekind of persistence and creativity to get them solved. We’d have been out ofour minds there too, but we wouldn’t be having the fun of RVing full-time whilewe were at it.

Are we out of our minds?Decidedly not!

Mile Zero, Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, British Columbia

Nope, we are not our of our minds. Our Rosie has carried us some 56,000 miles, to 31 states, Mexico and two provinces of Canada, who knows how many campgrounds and RV parks. She was our only home for seven years, and we love her just as she is, and she loves us! And we love ... Our Life on Wheels.

A Little LeRoy History

2011-09-04T13:06:00.002-07:00

This post is actually Chapter 1 of a book we started to write a few years back. Since we aren't making any progress on that book, we thought we'd share this little part of it with our Blogland buddies. We've updated it a little bit, as we would if we were back to writing the book.

It’s amazing that Suzy ever wentcamping with me again after that first experience as a young bride, yet here weare 50 years later, still RVing, and full timers at that.

We had borrowed myparents’ old canvas nine-by-nine umbrella tent and taken off for California’sBig Basin State Park to spend a week camping in the redwoods. Although myfamily had camped together since dirt was new, Suzy had never been closer tonature than a country mile. To make it more exciting, she was eight monthspregnant and was, in the biblical phrase, “great with child.”

All redwood photos taken years later along the Northern California Coast.

We had sleeping bags and air mattresses. Of course,only one mattress went flat in the night: Suzy’s. Like the fabled Princess andthe Pea, she felt every piece of gravel as though it were a rock, and the smallrocks as if they were boulders. Although we traded air mattresses nightly, itwas always hers that deflated while I blissfully slept on. About 2:30 Wednesdaymorning the wind arose in the redwoods. It sounded to me like a hurricane and Iknew that these trees, these leviathans which had stood in place since the timeof Christ, would likely come crashing down upon us that very night. In myexaggerated sense of responsibility for my burgeoning family I panicked. Idragged Suzy from her hard, unyielding bed and threw her, along with thedew-dampened tent, the Coleman stove, our sleeping bags and otherparaphernalia, into the car and sped homeward through the dark and stormynight.

The followingsummer we camped again, this time in Yosemite National Park, with a nine-monthold daughter along for the ride. Today’s child protection authorities wouldhave blanched at the arrangement: we had taken one of those folding aluminumframed baby carriers that hung on hooks over the front seat of a car andattached it to my brother’s home-made wooden pack frame. For sun protection weattached the shade from an old baby stroller. As we hiked Yosemite Valley andthe high country, our Debbie and her backpack throne attracted a lot of attention.Remember: this was 47 years ago, before many of today’s commercially availablecomforts had been invented.

Since those days, we havecamped and RVed our way around much of the United States, into Canada andMexico by tent, tent trailer, travel trailer, pickup camper, van conversion andfinally by motorhome.

22-foot travel trailer, Superstition Mountains, Arizona

During our first full year of full-timing we were stuckin vacation mode, trying to see everything everywhere. We rallied ourselves toa frazzle with three major rallies. We logged 11,391 miles in the motorhomeplus another 12,070 miles in the little green car we towed behind. We spent oneor more nights in 59 different RV parks, two RV dealers' parking lots, onechair manufacturer's parking lot, two Elks lodge parking lots, on a friend'slawn in Arizona, and at both of our daughters' homes. We found ourselves campedin 18 states, 14 of which we'd never seen before.

We've eatenCreole in Louisiana, pasties in Michigan, Russian in Kansas, Amish in Iowa,cheese in Wisconsin, grits in Mississippi, and "original" barbecue inat least four states. Suzy learned how to cook jambalaya. We boat-toured theAtchafalaya swamp in Louisiana and the upper and lower Dells in Wisconsin. Webecame friends with a man who was decorating the outside of his motorhome withillustrations from Alice in Wonderland.

Leif Hatlestad decorating his coach

More about Leif and his pictures in Chapter 2!

So, that's Chapter 1! Maybe some day we'll update Chapter 2 and tell you about some of the nice people we have met ... in Our Life on Wheels.

LICK MY RIBS

2011-09-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

Where are yuh gonna find the best darned-tootin' BBQ ribs in America?

Why, at the 23rd Annual Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off in Sparks, Nevada! How do we know that? We were there!

Daughter Kathie had back surgery Wednesday, and we visited her both Wednesday and this afternoon, at the Northwestern Nevada Medical Center in Sparks. On the way home today, we stopped off at In-N-Out Burger for a quick lunch. As we were eating, we were watching folks going into a street fair just opposite, and decided we'd take a look. We found a perfect free parking spot within a half block of the fair, and headed in.

At the first booth we asked what was going on and learned it was the BBQ Rib Cook-Off we had read about. And there were rib samples to be had (Tickets were available, $7 for four samples), and 24 of the best high-volume BBQ cookers in the country were there offering sandwiches, plates, full- or half- racks! And we had just eaten a double-double at In-N-Out!

Not to worry, we had a fine time walking around, taking pictures, and drinking a strawberry margarita. While I was ordering the margaritas, a lady walked up to Suzy and asked if she was having a good time. When I got back, Suzy introduced me to Irene, part owner of Paddy and Irene's Irish Pub, whence I had just come carrying a brace of margaritas. Just then we were joined by the other owner, Irene's husband Paddy, so I had to take a picture!

Irene and Paddy giving Suzy a big welcome!

On the other side of the street (about four blocks of the street were closed off for this affair, sponsored by John Ascuaga's Nugget, but the saloons and restaurants and many other stores were open for business) I asked a lady handing out advertising fans about the ribs she was promoting. Turns out this lady was Donna Rice, owner of Desperado's.

Donna Rice, owner of Desperado's, the Pride of Ohio!

When I asked Donna if she were the boss, she said, "Yes, it's mine. I'm the Pit Mistress." At my reaction, she commented, "If the guys can be Pit Masters, I can be the Pit Mistress!"

Here are some of the other competitors at the Cook-Off:

Some of Famous Dave's trophies

In addition to the major BBQ competitors, there were the usual street fair vendors:

This fellow was air brushing original tee-shirts to order!

What else did we do? Why, we bought a full rack of ribs to bring home for dinner!

One full rack from Famous Dave's

Were they good? You'll have to come and taste them for yourselves. The Cook-Off will be in effect from now through Monday!

Will we visit again? Golly, we are thinking about going back Sunday, this time BEFORE lunch!

Oh, daughter Kathie's surgery? It went off like clock work. I can't begin to tell you what all they did for and to her, but she is up and walking around the place like she owns it, and will come home Friday! Fortunately, her son Sam will have a football game in Pocatello, Idaho. so he's out of the picture for a few days while Kathie recovers at home. Our daughter Deb will be up to spend several days as major caregiver, so husband Shawn can get back to work, and we'll be on the sidelines for a while to assist where we may.

So here we are, celebrating another day in ... Our Life on Wheels!

Blogging about Blogging

2011-08-31T19:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, you are the best! You, our readers, our followers, are simply the best!

It took us a little time, but we put up three posts about Bodie Ghost Town, and you guys came back with the fastest 40 comments we've ever received! Thank you! No more about Bodie, but we hope you all have a chance to visit it yourselves.

Now, did you see our new header photo? We call it "Monarch of the Desert." It's a lone saguaro (pronounced suh-wah-ro) cactus, standing tall and surrounded by more lowly desert scrub. It's located in Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona. We recently featured this photo in our other blog, One Shot Leads to Another, in which we post one picture every other day. We try to select what we feel are our best pictures, or something a little out of the ordinary, pictures we hope others will enjoy.

Our inspiration for this photography blog was John Souva, whose new post Connected to the Vine Photography recently caught our eye. John has some excellent pictures to display. And now we are also enjoying the photography of blogger Erin Erkun, whose Two to Travel's Viewfinder photo blog displays her very artistic eye.

While we are discussing blogging, have you noticed that it seems to be mostly women who are doing the writing? Why is that? Now it can't be (I hope) that men are less able to express themselves well. Golly, Al of Travel with the Bayfield Bunch is one of the best expressers in the business! It can't be because men don't have much to talk about: check out Rick's blog Rick & Paulette's RV Travels. Rick has plenty to talk about, with day hikes, doggy parks, and tech tutorials. Me? I ramble on about anything and everything.

Do you have an opinion about why more women than men write blogs? Or am I imagining things?

Maybe it's just the opposite of driving RVs. Looking around, I see a lot more men than women driving motorhomes or towing trailers. Certainly many of you ladies out there drive your rigs around, and I'm not referring only to the solo ladies, bless your little hearts. My own lady, the lovely Suzy, is virtually the only driver of our Rosie. I can drive it in an emergency, but she's the one who steers Rosie down the highway, backs into parking spots, navigates the narrow back roads, and thunders across bridges. We are often amused by comments such as "She's driving the motorhome?" or "I envy Suzy's ability to do that."

We'd be interested in hearing what you think -- not a survey, just an open discussion! Kind of low key, just like ... Or Life on Wheels.

BODIE - Remnants of an Era

2011-08-29T08:03:00.000-07:00

BODIE - What more is there to say? Bodie is a relic. a reminder of a past era when men mucked for gold, when women followed them as wives, lovers, or whatever. When gunshots in the tavern or gambling hall or street were nearly a daily event. When people tried to make a life for themselves wherever they landed, when civility was a tough challenge.

Today Bodie is a relic, being maintained in a kind of arrested decay, a reminder to all of us of what went before, where some of us may have sprung from, where others would dare not go.

We've shown you some parts of Bodie, and with little further comment, here are some more views, in no particular order.

Bodie - Is it dead? No, not really, but it is slowly returning to to the earth from which it, and all of us, have come. Even the little cemetery is returning to nature.

The last burial here was in 2003, surprisingly. The gravestone reads, in part: "Hello God, I just got here.... I'm the last of the old time miners."

Goodnight, Bodie, sleep well.

For even more of Bodie, you are invited to visit our 2011 Bodie Ghost Town web album, or just Google "Bodie Ghost Town." You also have an invitation to follow the footsteps we recently took in ... Our Life on Wheels.

BODIE - an intimate view

2011-08-27T11:46:00.000-07:00

Bodie! The name of the town brings images of lawlessness, the stories of the infamous "Badman from Bodie." The Badman stories seem to be based on a composite of men like Tom Adams, Washoe Pete, and several others. Bad men, bad whiskey and bad climate were endemic to Bodie. But the streets are quiet now, with the possible exception of an occasional ghostly visitor. We didn't see any of that in our visit.

What we saw was the town, home to as many as 10,000. People who had a life that didn't include such niceties as trees and birds and rivers and lakes. People who didn't really mind too much when the baddies among them killed each other off over perceived wrongs in gambling, boozing and womanizing, as long as they didn't bother the good citizens.
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Before going to the story, we got a question from Marsha of Where's Weaver. Marsha wondered why the town was named Bodie when the town's namesake spelled his name Bodey. According to the official $2.00 reference book: "The change in spelling ... has often been attributed to an illiterate sign painter, but it was a deliberate change by the citizenry to ensure proper pronunciation." So there, you illiterate sign painter!

Suzy on Big Red and I on my two feet and a stick had differences as we toured. Angles of pictures differed, and points of reference were different. I did a lot of looking into buildings through cloudy windows and wire fences. Suzy stayed back a little and focused on building exteriors, often just pointing the camera in a direction and shooting a great picture! Herewith are some of our memories of that day:

The museum (former Miners Union Hall):

Old time hearse, Suzy'e eye level

Firehouse:

What I saw inside

Also in the firehouse.

Boone's Store (owned then by a direct descendant of good old Daniel Boone):

Suzy's proud of this one! And she should be -- I never even saw it!

1927 Dodge Graham. By then, the town was on shaky ground, and a fire destroyed most of it in 1932.

Through the window

Through another window

Barber Shop and Gambling Hall:

Gambling Hall on left, Barbershop on right: two clip joints side by side!

The Hoover House - owned by the brother of President Herbert Hoover, who later became director of the School of Mines at Stanford University:

We weren't allowed to get close to this one: sign says dangerous grounds

Detail of picket fence and porch

Mr. Hoover had a nice gate

There are so many other scenes to show you, so we'll try one more post about Bodie, then refer you to our web album, once we get it better organized. Just not enough time in ... Our Life on Wheels!

BODIE!

2011-08-24T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last time, we said we'd talk about two days of exploring south of Coleville. The first day kind of got cancelled, although we took a little trip out a side road into the Slinkard Wildlife Range. It is a winter retreat for deer, but the only wildlife we saw that day was one coyote.

The big trip was Tuesday, down to Bodie State Historic Park, a genuine California gold mine ghost town.

First view of Bodie - four photos stitched together.

Bodie was named after Bill Bodey who discovered gold here in 1859, and a lot of gold was taken out over the years. Bodey never got rich, however, as he froze to death in a blizzard three months after finding his gold!

First order of business, after a few pictures, was to watch a 30 minute movie about the history of the town. One thing was stressed in the film: Bodie was a wild and wicked mining camp for sure, but more than that, it was home to as many as 10,000 citizens (in 1879). It was a real home, where people went to church, joined the Masonic Lodge or the Odd Fellows. They had cultural events, they attended theater, they went to dances sponsored by the Miners Union. We were urged to remember this and to look on Bodie as a home as well as a wild west town with 65 saloons, a number of gambling halls, and a row of one-room cabins called "cribs" behind Main Street where the miners and others could spend the last of their money with the loose ladies!

J.S. Cain residence. Cain was Bodie's principal property owner.

Kept in a state of "arrested decay."

The iconic view of Bodie: the Methodist Church, erected in 1882. The only other church in town was Catholic, also built in 1882 but destroyed by fire in 1928.

Seldom have we ever spent five and a half hours in any single activity, but this was one that could have taken us many hours more. Our regular readers will remember that Suzy's mobility scooter, Big Red, has had some problems lately, but new batteries and a new motor / transaxle took care of that. Big Red did the job all day long with power to spare.

Readers may also remember that I've had trouble with the knee that was replaced over a year ago, and walking is not always easy. With my handy walking stick (I hate to use the word "cane") I stumped around that town and its cemetery without a hitch.

Early in our visit, we were greeted by the local Ranger, whom we call Ranger Jim. He probably saw these two elderly handicapped individuals bravely facing the day and took us under his wing. Ranger Jim talked to us quite a while, pointing out this or that feature, making suggestions for easy access.

He pointed out the metal siding on many of the buildings, explaining that it was old tin cans, opened and flattened out, then nailed or screwed to the wooden walls. Winters get so cold in Bodie (down to minus 20 degrees) that the residents used anything they could get their hands on for insulation. Fruit and vegetable cans, oil cans, 5-gallon kerosene and gasoline cans from Carson City, big cans, little cans. Waste not, want not for sure!

When Suzy began to drive up the ramp to the boardwalk to get into the museum and visitors center, Ranger Jim jumped to help push her up the ramp (not necessary at all) and again up another ramp into the building itself. And when we exited, he was right there to guarantee that she would not drive straight off the edge of the boardwalk and crash to the ground below!

Ranger Jim and Suzy in front of the Miners Union Building, now the visitors center and museum.

Toward the end of our town visit (and before our picnic lunch and visit to the cemetery) we met up with Ranger Jim again. I commented that it sure would be delightful to be able to tour more of the old buildings; most of them are closed, but "through the window" views are available in some.

Closed building, but note the large sheets from old tin cans.

Through the window" shot at a residence. I had to hold the camera tightly against the window glass.

I was able to get into the Methodist Church, but only as far as the vestibule, the Miller Home, and the Miners Union Hall, which housed the museum and visitors center. With more access, visitors would actually be able to count the poker chips, see the poker hands, and look at the whiskey bottles. Ranger Jim agreed that it would be splendid. His response was, "That's why I'm glad I have all the keys! In the winter when I'm often the only person around, I can enjoy myself."

Then I commented that I had noticed a new roof on one of the buildings. He told me that their maintenance people continue to take necessary steps to preserve the buildings in a state of "arrested decay." We had heard that phrase the first time we visited Bodie with our kids some forty plus years ago. The town is kept in pretty much the shape it was in when the last residents left. Ranger Jim said that they do try to not even blow the dust off the artifacts inside. Visitors aren't allowed to touch them, and even the outdoor piles of rubbish are off limits. Nothing is to be moved from where it is found, certainly nothing is to be taken except photographs.

Looking back into Bodie from the cemetery.

We'll be showing you more of those photographs and telling about our Bodie visit in future installments of ... Our Life on Wheels.

Coleville, CA

2011-08-22T10:20:00.000-07:00

Dateline: Coleville, CA, August 21, 2011

Coleville is a dot on the California map, just south of a tinier dot called Topaz, and just north of a slightly larger dot called Walker. The three communities boast a total population of 1,266 laid back but hard working people. Yet the communities are able to host California's only rally for all-terrain vehicles and sport-utility vehicles! And the East Walker River that flows past offers fantastic fishing for rainbow, brown and Lahontan trout. Just to the north about ten miles, Topaz Lake has an extra long fishing season: January 1 through September 30, as well as a "major" resort community with RV park, hotel, gas station and casino.,

What are we doing in Coleville? Catching up with ourselves, kind of relaxing, but doing a little looking around. We are staying at Meadowcliff Lodge and RV Park just south of Coleville, and in front of Centennial Bluff.

The owners live next door to the park and lodge offices.

The monument out front on Highway 395 was built in 1951 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the installation of a flagpole and American flag atop Centennial Bluff in 1876, the first centennial of our country's existence. The pole has probably been replaced at least once, and Meadowcliff's owners Tim and Mary replaced the flag for this year's Independence Day.

The RV park here is only three years old, has 34 FHU sites for even the largest rigs, and they honor Passport America, CampClub USA, and Good Sam discounts. The park has a sparklingly clean laundry facility and gleaming private tiled bathrooms, each with toilet, sink and spacious shower (big enough for a buddy shower if you are so inclined). They provide DirecTV, free wifi, have a moderate sized swimming pool, and a small clubhouse. (We don't do separate RV park reviews, so this will have to suffice.)

To the right is the club house with adjacent laundry and rest rooms.

This area is called the Antelope Valley, and is an agricultural center for cattle and hay, among other things. We took a tour our first full day in the valley, visiting all three towns and driving up Eastside Road, the farm road on the other side of the valley.

To the left of center, looking not at all large, is Centennial Bluff, where our RV park sits.

Interesting patterns.

Always nice to have a red highlight in an otherwise monotone photo!

The people here, we learned, who need to shop for more than the little market can offer, drive 35 miles north to Gardnerville, Nevada.

While they are there, we suspect, they also work in their haircuts, doctor visits, car repair, and other personal necessities. Just north of Gardnerville is Carson City with Costco, WalMart, Target, Staples, Best Buy, Lowes, Home Depot, and nearly anywhere else you would want to visit.

Monday and Tuesday we are heading south a ways to do some exploring. We'll tell you about it next time you visit ... Our Life on Wheels.

We're Not Slugabeds!

2011-08-18T17:46:00.000-07:00

Dateline: August 18, 2011, Coleville, CA

Just because we haven't posted recently about a lot of wonderful activities doesn't mean we are slugabeds! Nosiree -- we've been very active.

For example: on Tuesday we visited daughter Kathie's home and did four loads of laundry. Turnabout is fair play: usually the kids come home to Mom's house to do laundry -- now as RVers we go to the kid's house to do laundry!

While we were there, we began to work on the repair job on our aging folding chairs -- had the camera, didn't use it. Also while we were there, I began printing out the fourth installment of our "Blog2Print" record of Our Life on Wheels. We learned about Blog2Print from another blogger some time back, and it sounded like a good thing. Our daughters had wanted to be certain all our blog stories weren't ever going to be lost, and a printed book is the way to go.

At www.blog2print.com we are able to design and print out a series of blog posts, more or less to our own specifications. They will take your blog posts (this time we are using all of our posts from the first six months of this year) and reproduce them in a book format, including text, pictures, and (optionally) comments. You are given editing possibilities, choice of cover design, and a few other options. Then come the printing options: they will produce and ship a hardcover book (too expensive for our budget), a soft cover book (quite a bit more reasonably), or our preference, a PDF format that they email to us for just $7.95. We can then print our own book, at our leisure. Yes, it uses a lot of paper -- this edition is 244 pages -- and printer ink, so buying the soft cover might really be a better bargain. Especially since we also shove those 244 pages into sheet protectors and a big binder. But we prefer it that way.

Back at the park, we found some problems with this Blog2Print printout, however, and were quick to sleuth them out. There are a number of pictures missing in the printouts that were originally on our blog posts! What good it that? No good, that's what! But before we jumped on Blog2Print's back, we wanted to get the details. Turns out that Blog2Print printed everything that was available on Blogger, but Blogger had dropped our photos! That's the story -- we went back to our blog posts of April 29, April 30 and found that several of our photos had disappeared from Blogger! So --- do we go back to Blogger and yell and scream? Do we go back and see what can be done to fix it? Whatever we want to do -- where do we go? To whom do we go? Any ideas?

On the way back to our RV park from Kathie's house, we saw this plume of smoke to the south.

It's called the Ray May fire, because it first threatened homes along Ray May Way south of Gardnerville. It's burning along US 395 south of Gardnerville; and 395, the primary north-south route in this part of the world, was closed in both directions Tuesday evening for six hours! Why is that important? Because on Thursday morning, we were to leave Carson City for a week at Coleville, CA. which is south of Gardnerville on US 395, that's why!

We later learned on the news that two 15 year-old boys had been arrested for starting the fire. They had built themselves a campfire and then abandoned it while it was still burning. The wind and nature took their course, and hundreds of acres have burned or are burning.

Now it is Thursday and we are safely in Coleville, just 43 miles from where we had been in Carson City. We'll tell you more about this place later. But you gotta see the fire! This first picture was taken as we traveled south through Gardnerville. The rest of the shots were taken as we moved further south.

The fire had burned right to the edge of the highway. No wonder it was closed!

The heavy black smoke was from the very oily and dry pinon pine that was burning.

Helicopters were circling back and forth from nearby Topaz Lake and other sources with water to douse the fire.

We could still see this from the outskirts of Coleville.

More pictures of the fire can be found in our web album, 2011 Ray May Fire.

That's enough excitement for this edition of ... Our Life on Wheels.

That Was Fun!

2011-08-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday's mini-rant post about organic food was fun to write! I had to actually exercise my brain cells a little more than usual. We got a dozen responses right away, from serious to chuckle-worthy, some recognizing the value of organically raised foods, some admitting that a certain amount of chemical treatment (including genetic alteration) was valuable. Even our good friend "Anonymous" chipped in with a reasoned and thorough analysis.

The comment we liked most was from Merikay, who stated, "I WANT my foods to have lots of preservatives. Maybe they will keep me from decaying quite so fast!

Now there's a woman who knows what she wants! If you check out her blog posts for the past few days, you can see what she wants in her soon-to-be RV!

In one our other favorite blogs, Semi-True Tales of Our Life on the Road, Laurie tells us about her 21-year-old granddaughter Carrie and a project she is spearheading. I won't try to go into it here, but I strongly recommend you click on that link and read about Carrie for yourself. Then, if you are so inclined, go on to Carrie's blog (Reading for Uganda) and decide whether you would want to participate.

Sunday was another day spent with family, at least part of the day. Here in Carson City area we have our daughter Kathie, husband Shawn and our grandson Sam, plus granddaughter Renee, husband Adam and their son Darren (our first and so far only great grand). We all got together at Shawn and Kathie's home for grilled burgers (Shawn's) and grilled corn (ours). As a salad, Kathie cut up an ice cold, ripe, sweet, delicious watermelon. Delightful.

When we arrived at their home, Suzy pointed out the large juniper in their front yard; it was loaded with berries, so I reached for my camera and found that I had left it in the motorhome! So no pictures of the day. Sorry! But here's the family.

Today we are off to see the doctor -- Suzy is way overdue for her epidural shot for spinal pain. See you next time along ... Our Life on Wheels!

What's the Opposite of Organic?

2011-08-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

When did "organic" change?

In high school science classes, we learned that some things (plants, animals, Aunt Gertrude, and motor oil) were essentially organic. Things like rocks, minerals, and Aunt Gertude's annual Christmas fruit cake, were inorganic. That was simple, although nylon stockings and plastic wrap had me confused, and still do.

But now it seems that "organic" means something else entirely, and I wonder if they teach that in high school science classes. (Do they still teach science classes in high school, or do kids have to learn about that on YouTube?)

We went to a Farmer's Market in Carson City today, and most of the fruit and vegetables they had for sale were labeled "organic" (which in our day would have been ANY fruit or vegetable -- I would have hated to try to munch on an "inorganic" peach, even though they all came with stones!).

There were organic honey, organic leeks, organic pluots (which we had never heard of in high school), organic beef, organic corn, organic everything.

I suppose the guy who made these birdhouses could have claimed them to be organic, and I wouldn't have blamed him!

In the grocery stores you can find bananas sold for 69 cents a pound, and right in the next bin you'll find "organic" bananas for 99 cents a pound. Organic peaches cost more than inorganic (?) peaches. Organic beef in the meat counter is way more expensive that everyday beef, unless you are buying USDA Prime Beef from Costco, which is more expensive than inorganic diamonds.

When did "organic" start to mean "anything other than what you grew up eating?"

I started to think about this. It's usually dangerous when I start to think about anything; that's why I stopped thinking some years ago except in idle moments. I believe I have come up with what happened. A certain group of farmers decided to stop using pesticides and chemicals on their farms. They proclaimed it was healthier to eat food grown without chemicals.

Now, stop and think about this. What are chemicals? A quick look into "about.com" gives the answer: "Everything is a chemical." Longer answer: everything is made up of chemicals or chemical compounds. A definition of "organic" reads: characteristic of, pertaining to, or derived from living organisms. We grew up believing that anything that was carbon-based was organic. Okay, I guess that included Aunt Gertude's fruit cake.

So, even those less expensive bananas and peaches are really organic. And the leeks. So it was a hard sell for the farmers who wanted us to believe that they had found the keys to the kingdom. So they hired a major public relations firm to convince us that it was healthier to eat food that was grown without "chemicals."

Now the American public is gullible, which has nothing to do with those birds down at the seashore. We will believe almost anything if someone shouts it long enough and loud enough or gets a major Hollywood star to mention it casually on the Tonight Show. Coffee is bad for you. Coffee is good for you. Alcohol is bad for you. Red wine is good for you. Eggs are terrible. Eggs are necessary for health. You'd better drink only bottled water. Bottled water leaches nasty "chemicals" from the plastic and will lead to imminent death. You know what I mean. you've seen it, you've heard it, you probably have believed some of it some of the time. So have I.

You want to know the truth? Here's the truth: those farmers who have stopped using "chemicals," and therefore have reduced their cost of production, can now charge MORE for their produce than the farmers who still use "chemicals," and therefore have been able to produce a larger crop that will stay fresh in the market for a longer time, so that you can take the stuff home and use it day after tomorrow instead of tonight!

And that's my opinion, and that's it for today in ... Our Life on Wheels!

A GIRL TURNS 50 ONCE IN A LIFETIME, OR IS IT TWICE?

2011-08-09T16:45:00.000-07:00

We've been building up to this celebration all year: Daughter Deb's 50th Birthday!

Being a practical gal, Deb knew that, if she wanted to celebrate the way she wanted to celebrate (and there's not a thing wrong with that!), she'd have to plan it herself. She wanted all the family there. There aren't many of us, but we are scattered in different states and (especially us) in different lifestyles. Deb's first announcement asked us all when we could plan to be free during this summer / fall. The weekend of August 5-8 turned out to be favorable. Then she spent days / weeks on the Internet locating a site we could all get to reasonably easily. She was looking for some place that could handle the group (expected to be a dozen plus one toddler) and especially a place that we could set up our motorhome.

Deb found a VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) near Fiddletown, California. It's called Manzanita Ranch, largely because of the native manzanita bushes that grow in the area. The house is a log lodge: two stories, with three bedrooms, a huge deck, and a carriage house with an additional apartment, and a Murphy Bed in the downstairs "great room." We would have complete access to the home, it's appliances, the grounds, the grand piano, the hot tub, from Friday afternoon until noon on Monday.

For us, it was perfect! We had planned to be at our other daughter's (Kathie's) college graduation in Reno in May, and to spend time with Deb at her home in Silicon Valley over the Fourth of July. We love to visit California's Gold Country. What more could we ask?!?!?!?

The whole family showed up, except for Grandson Jason's wife, Crystal -- conflicts with her work situation -- and we had a ball.

Here we are parked in front of the house, with water and 20amp electric.

Suzy had to BACK the motorhome down this narrow curved driveway. She did fine!

Deb's guy Albert and Grandson Jason enjoy the view from the read deck.

Evening is coming.

We won't go over day-by-day activities, because you don't care about that. Let's just say we feasted (steak sandwiches, prime rib, grilled salmon, delectable French toast, superb omelets, and plenty of California wines!). Deb and her man Albert provided a "Colombian Special" breakfast -- tri-tip beef, onion and tomato topping, capped with a perfectly done egg-over-medium. (Albert is a Colombian by birth, has lived in the US for many years.)

Preparing ham for my famous omelet -- made enough for 12 people!

Renee and Adam prepared a wonderful French Toast breakfast.

We had an afternoon of games (bite-the-donut-on-the-string with homemade greaseless donuts)...

The target.

Great Grandson Darren sees it ...

...and really wants it!

Grandson Sam gives it some lip.

Granddaughter Renee's Adam just about has it!

Darren gets a little help from his Grandpa Shawn.

... and "Minute To Win It" tasks like stack six dice on a tongue depressor,

Jason has only one more to go.

Cousin Carol closing in on the prize.

... sort the Skittles.

Let's see -- the red ones go to the left,and the green ones go to the right. Where do the yellow ones go?

But mostly we were together. Our family doesn't often get together, not all of us. And that was the best thing.

One special birthday request was that Suzy play the piano for a family sing-along. The girls even bought sheet music of the songs we and they love. With a beautiful instrument like the grand piano, there was no question.

Warming up for the singalong

"Sing, sing a song, make it simple to last your whole life long"

There even was a special visitor to the party: Father Time came in and did his bit with the "Sands of Time" hourglass, the scythe, and the key to Deb's future.

Now, here's the background. One helluva long time ago, I celebrated MY 50th birthday with some family and friends at a restaurant in Phoenix. Deb was living in Los Angeles at the time, a single mother with not a lot of spare money. She couldn't come to the party. However, shortly after we were all seated for dinner, Deb came in, dressed to the nines, followed by a character actor she had hired to play Father Time. He did a wonderful and somewhat ribald bit. I could do nothing this year but provide payback! My routine was hardly "wonderful and somewhat ribald," and my beard was awful -- but Deb was totally caught up in surprise and laughter.

Deb, Jason and Albert enjoying the show.

Did you ever see such a phony beard?

And a word about those greaseless donuts. Suzy's Dad, Papa Tiny, was a baker and a chef and a restaurant owner and a gold miner and a whole lot of other things in his lifetime. At one point, he decided to capitalize on "electro-baked" greaseless donuts in his little coffee shop. He purchased a machine that would bake up to 14 donuts at a time in what looked like odd waffle irons. Suzy eventually ended up with the donut baker and the recipe, and that has passed on now to daughter Kathie. She brought it, made donuts for us to eat ... and for the donuts on a string game.

Kathie pouring the donut batter into the cooker.

Deb had her turn too.

Donuts with a choice of frostings!

All too soon it was time to go. Nobody took pictures as we loaded cars and drove away. But we hold the picture in our hearts.

Now about a birthday only coming once ... or twice -- Deb's actual birthday is next month, so I'm a-guessing there will at least be birthday cards, and maybe her pals at work will sing her a song! She'll have two 50th birthdays!

We'll be moving soon, back to Carson City (for Suzy's next epidural shot), then we'll mosey around in Nevada until the end of the month. That's when daughter Kathie goes in for back surgery; we'll stick around then to see if we can be of any help, or just be in the way. In either case, we need to head back to Benson, AZ to pick up the more sedate portion of ... Our Life on Wheels.

The Gold Country, Revisited

2011-08-08T17:33:00.000-07:00

California's Gold Country holds many treasures, some quite fancy, some just a hole in the wall. While we were homing in on daughter Deb's 50th birthday party, we did just a little touring. And found Volcano.

Volcano has got to be one of the Mother Lode's most picturesque towns. The town is named for its setting in a bowl-shaped valley which early miners thought was caused by a volcano. The town dates back to the late 1850's and was originally nicknamed "Crater City". Volcano's heyday was short-lived, however. By 1867 most of its mining operations were idle.

The Volcano Hotel, on three levels.

Nonetheless, Volcano had significant "firsts." This limestone building, the Clute Building, was originally one building on one two lots, divided by a partition, with two owners, a sash and door factory on one side, a saloon on the other. However, the basement housed the first public law school in California!

The ruins of the building were acquired in 1980 by the Volcano Theater Company, successor to the first theater group in California, founded in 1854. Today the building serves as the facade for the theater company's striking outdoor amphitheater.

The Volcano Union Inn, still serving as lodging and a restaurant

According to Wikipedia, Volcano also was the site of these firsts: first debating society in California (1854); first circulating library in California (1854); first private school in California (1855); first legal hanging in Amador County (1856); first astronomical observatory in California (1860); first solar still in California (1978)!

We were "just passing through" and didn't get a chance to do any exploring. But what a find. Because Volcano isn't on California's Highway 49 ("The Golden Chain Highway"). it is often overlooked, and has escaped much of the commercialization of other towns. As of the most recent census, the population was a whopping 115! Nice quiet little place.

We found two new Followers recently: Kitty of Pirate and Kitty, and Russ_stickacres, whose blog is called (by coincidence) Russ-Stick Acres. Welcome, kids! Hope you enjoy our little contribution to blogging society!

We'll see you again real soon, as we continue ... Our Life on Wheels.

Firsts and Firsts

2011-08-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

We have had some splendid "firsts" on this trip!

While we have subscribed to the Escapees' Day's End listing for a few years, this was our first year to actually use the listing. As we left Arizona, we were looking for a place to spend the night; Day's End suggested Peggy Sue's Nifty Fifties Diner in Yermo, California. We had no idea where Yermo was, but looking up from the map (Suzy was driving, of course) I saw a sign for Yermo, and right after that was a signboard for Peggy Sue's! For those who, like us, don't know Yermo, it's on I-40, just east of Barstow. You can read about that experience HERE. That was our first significant first.

Our second usage of Day's End took us to the home of Phil and Patricia in the little town of Inyokern on Highway 395. They invite traveling SKPs like us to park in their yard for a night or three. You can read about that stay HERE.

Another "first" was to purposely stay a few nights in snow country at beautiful Oh Ridge just south of Lee Vining, CA, on Highway 395. That story is HERE ...and HERE.

Our latest "first" is our first use of the Harvest Hosts program, wherein owners of farms, vineyards, and other agribusinesses invite RVers to spend a night at their facility, at no cost. So here we are at Harmony Wynelands outside of Lodi, CA, for two nights.

Harmony Wynelands is a small family-owned winery producing about 4000 cases a year, with a goal of 8000 cases before long. We are parked in the vineyard, right next to acres of "Old Zin" vines - vines that are 40 or so years old. (Most vines begin to lose their vitality around 50 years of age, so these are currently at their best! And the Old Zin wines we tasted were superb.) We were told their current holdings include 18 acres with approximately 10,800 Old Zin vines!

Winemaker Shaun MacKay was our host Sunday afternoon; his mother and step-father own the place, but Shaun is in charge as far as wine making is concerned.

Shaun and his wines were the cover story in the May issue of "D'Vine Wine & Visitors' Guide" covering this part of the California wine country. He has some wonderful "outsider's" views that he is confident will make a major difference in wine growing and wine making in the area in the future.

Suzy asked Shaun her favorite wine question, "How do wine makers decide the flavors to look for in their wines, such as blackberry, currant, apple, and so forth." Shaun's answer: "It's purely subjective, a way for wine makers to suggest what people might look for in their wine. To me, wine should taste like grapes, but you'll never read on a label 'This wine displays the taste of grapes!'" Suzy finally got a truthful answer!

Shawn went on to show us a cluster of zinfandel grapes he had on the counter. They ranged in color from a flat, pale green to reddish purple,

like these grapes still on the vine.

All the grapes start out that green; they change color as sugar develops in them. It's the process of photosynthesis, which he says is in full swing right now.

Since today is our wedding anniversary, we purchased a couple of bottles of their sparkling California Champagne, displaying a Wedding Celebration label. We had tasted it in the tasting room, and Suzy pronounced it "splendid, the best we've tasted in a long time."

That's Shaun in the jaunty hat, the same one he wore during our visit.

So we have had an interesting contrast in recent days: Shaun MacKay -- young, self-described Generation X'er wine maker in Lodi, versus Mario, the third-generation wine maker, with a marked Italian accent, at Hecker Pass Winery near Gilroy, making wines the old country way.

This is Mario from Hecker Pass Winery.

Who is right? Who has the best idea, the best wines? It's every wine drinker for himself to make the choice for himself (or, of course, herself!). For us the decision is easy. These wines, all these wines, are superb. We buy the ones we like, we don't buy the ones we don't like. And when we're home, we'll probably go to WalMart for Oak Leaf wines at about $3.00 a bottle.

One feature of this winery is very special. Many years ago, Shaun's stepfather, Bob Hartzell, purchased a fine old pipe organ that had outlasted its welcome at San Francisco's Castro Theater. He always planned to install it in a proper setting, and eventually Bob and Shaun's mother Linda set up their Harmony Wynelands' tasting room to actually be an integral part of the organ! While it is still fully functional, and Bob plays it often, most of the organ is operated now through a computer; an organist played the magnificent instrument, the computer recorded every key touch and stop setting. Now the same music can be played back through the organ's pipes, percussion, and affiliated baby grand piano. Hearing that this was our anniversary, Bob selected a trio of appropriate songs, including I Love You Truly, Just a Song at Twilight, and Love's Old Sweet Song. The walls of the building were quivering with the depth of the sound. And so were we!

Monday while we poked around the grounds, we met Dave, the all-around Jack-of-all trades. He was trimming some bushes, moving some barrels, doing whatever.

Dave told us he's been working around the winery for a couple of years, and proudly declared that the 2009 bottling that is just being released is the first one he ever helped make! We mentioned the ripening color of the grapes, and Dave declared that to be "veraison." You can look that up on Google, just as we did. It's too complex to describe here.

Our visit is coming to a close here. If you want to see more pictures of this delightful place, please go to our web album 2011 Harmony Wyneland (Suzy particularly hopes you will enjoy the beautiful flowers and gardens!) And so, it is twilight and goodnight at Harmony Wyneland and in ... Our Life on Wheels.

Old Music

2011-07-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Al of the Bayfield Bunch likes to be introspective sometimes, and just ramble on about his feelings. Well, y'know what? That's not all bad! While we are "marking time" here, we are listening to music from our IPOD, music from the '50's and '60's, music we grew in love with, music we made love to. Many years back, daughter Deb was listening to our music and sighed, "That's music to commit sin to!"

Our favorite of all is "I Love How You Love Me" by Bobby Vinton, as it has a special meaning for us.

But we're hearing Nat King Cole, Oliver, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Doris Day, Louis Armstrong, Patsy Cline, Connie Francis, The Righteous Brothers, Helen Reddy, Anne Murray, Andy Williams

And what we are hearing is ...can you believe it? ... words! Words enunciated, words that carry meaning, words that are unhurried. "We'll Sing in the Sunshine," "Ebb Tide," "As Time Goes By," "Love Letters in the Sand," "Where Do I Begin?"

"Honey" by Bobby Goldsboro. That'll tear your heart out.

"It's Impossible" by Perry Como.

Kenny Rogers and "She Believes in Me."

"Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific.

Patti Page and "The Tennesee Waltz."

Ed Ames singing "My Cup Runneth Over With Love."

"You Belong to Me, " Jo Stafford (Fly the ocean in a silver plane....")

Melissa Manchester, "Through the Eyes of Love."

Those were the days when a singer actually had to have a decent voice, when a song had to have a meaning. It wasn't good enough to cram a microphone into your mouth and mumble, or make angry noises. They made each word important, they made each word touch their listeners.

I could go on and on, but those of our readers who are, let's say "mature," will remember their own special music, their own favorite musicians. If you'd care to share your favorites, put in a comment! In the meantime, we're heading back to the bedroom! Our favorite place during ... Our Life on Wheels.

Marking Time

2011-07-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

The LeRoys are currently marking time at the Thousand Trails park south of Hollister, CA. The big event is still over a week away, Deb's big birthday bash with the whole family. In the meantime, we are working on some maintenance projects, selecting pictures for our other blog (One Shot Leads to Another), and making plans for the SKP Chapter 21 rally in October.

But before we left the Morgan Hill Thousand Trails park, daughter Deb and pal Albert visited once again, this time bringing cousin Carol with them. We had a restaurants.com discount certificate ($25 value that cost us just $2!) at Giancarlo's, a local Italian restaurant, so the five of us took advantage of that.

Giancarlo himself came out to greet us and keep us entertained. Carol loved it!

Giancarlo even took our picture.

When I asked him whether he had run out of orange paint, Giancarlo explained they are trying out different color combinations for the restaurant. The blue stripe is painter's tape and will be removed.

If you are interested in those restaurants.com certificates, take a look at their website. Right now they seem to have a special going -- usually a $25 certificate costs $10, but with the promotion going on, a $25 certificate goes for $2. We frequently get that offer through AARP, but this one is open to anyone. Just type the word SAVE in the promo code box at the "checkstand."

Our two projects are the result of wear and tear. First is the under sink cabinet in our kitchen. Nine years of wear and tear, plus a serious leak last winter, left the cabinet floor looking like this. It was badly worn from sliding the garbage can, trays of pots and pans, etc. in and out. Then last winter it got soaked and stained.

On a trip to Lowe's we bought some sheets of a thin clear acrylic, along with a cutting tool, a long straight edge and some clamps. Suzy had some leftover nonslip shelf lining. A little judicious measuring and cutting on both materials resulted in two better looking, clean and hard surfaced cabinet shelves!

First the nonslip had to be cut at the proper angle.

So glad the acrylic was bendable to fit inside the door frame.

Somebody help me up!

Job is finished. We didn't put the nonslip all the way to the back. Just enough to cover the damaged shelving.

The next project is to re-cover our two outdoor folding chairs. A few years of exposure to both Arizona sunshine and our own bottoms has resulted in torn fabric and nervous sitters.

We bought this nice heavy duck material, and Suzy will soon be cutting and sewing.

Not all is work, however. At a nearby fruit packing company we found these trays of apricots drying in the summer sun. I suppose they know what they are doing with this very open process, but will the birds flying over the place show the proper respect? And local rodents? And what about the dust from the cars rolling along the highway!

We may never eat another dried apricot as we continue ... Our Life on Wheels!

Wine Tasting in Silicon Valley

2011-07-25T10:38:00.000-07:00

There are at least two dozen premium wineries in Santa Clara Valley (also called Silicon Valley, for the techies out there). Being folks of limited exposure, limited capacity, and most of all limited budget, we visited only three. However, we managed to increase the profitability of all three!

The first was right next door to our RV park. Sycamore Creek, like so many wineries, is small, but produces excellent wines.

Sycamore Creek's tasting room is inside their storage warehouse; the oak barrels were calling to us!

Sycamore Creek offers up to six tastings of their regular wines at no charge. The other side of the wine list shows their estate wines, higher quality perhaps, and limited quantities. To taste those wines will cost $5 for six samples.

Our second visit was to Kirigin Cellars, another small but excellent producer. They produce primarily red wines, but also offered a splendid white. Their knowledgeable tastemeister described each wine as we sampled it. He sounded so proprietary I asked if he were part of the ownership of the winery. He said he was a part-time employee but really enjoyed the Kirigin wines so much that he felt a kind of ownership. He is actually a graduate student working toward a career in forestry, perhaps as a ranger.

We have often wondered about the practice of planting rosebushes at the end of rows of grapevines.

Turns out it is partly tradition, but also very practical. Grapevines are particularly susceptible to certain diseases, particularly fungus diseases. Roses are not only susceptible to the same diseases, they are early warning devices, as they are more susceptible than the grapevines! If you see the disease on your roses, you have time to spray the grape vines and save your crop!

And that's what we have learned during this part of ... Our Life on Wheels!

Bringing Life Up To Date

2011-07-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

This was a quiet day, so we will just do a little catching up.

Item #1 -- You may remember the story about Suzy's CoachLift incident. She was riding up the lift when it suddenly tilted forward and sideways, leaving her at a precarious angle, held in place only by her seat belt. Thanks to quick action by daughter Deb, her pal Albert, our neighbor Mr. Smith, and two of the park housekeeping staff, Suzy was rescued, scared silly but not seriously harmed. Without that seat belt, she could have fallen face first onto the motorhome steps and done some real damage.

Next day I took some photos of the swing-arm affair showing that one part of the arm had twisted at a weld. Thank God it didn't totally break the weld! I called the CoachLift offices and told them what happened. The sales rep was aghast at our story, promised that it would be promptly and properly dealt with. I offered to email our pictures, and he was anxious to get them. The owner was not at the office that day, but he would be brought into the picture as soon as he returned.

When Steve, the owner, called the following day, he also was astounded by the failure; he said that had never happened before, and promised to send a replacement swing-arm the same day, along with a prepaid shipping label to ship the damaged one back. He asked a few questions about details, and said that they would tear the old arm apart to see what might have caused the failure. The new arm should arrive at daughter Deb's house early next week.

Item #2 -- "Mr. Smith" and his family across the road seem to be having a wonderful gathering. They are gone most of the day each day, after breakfast in their screened pavilion. They are a quiet group, considering there are five teenagers, along with two of their mothers and one father, plus the two grandparents. They told us they have been doing this annual get together for twenty years, and as many of the family as possible are there each year. There are older grandchildren off on their own now, with jobs keeping them away. What a great tradition; we sure hope they can keep it up for another twenty years, eventually organized and sponsored by the next generation.

Item #3 -- Some of our readers probably have seen blog posts and comments about a current challenge that is by invitation only. It's called the 7 Links Challenge, and Laurie and Odel wrote about it in their blog, here. Laurie declined the challenge and explained why. We also were nominated for this challenge, and were ready to accept it, but, as Laurie wrote, it's too much like homework. So we can sit and ponder at our own ease, which of our 340 or so posts were most popular, most helpful, most controversial, etc.

Item #4 -- This is a new item. We have started a second blog, with its first post today. This blog is called One Shot Leads to Another; it will display just one picture a day with nothing but a title, and sometimes a link to a Picasa Web Album. We got the idea for this post by following John Souva's excellent Connected to the Vine Photography blog. You can find our first post at One Shot Leads to Another. What do we hope to achieve with this new blog? Well, as John explained to me, it's a way to do something with the thousands of pictures we have sitting quietly on our hard drive.

So now, you are up-to-date in ... Our Life on Wheels.

Yoga among the Redwoods

2011-07-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Pacific Ocean isn't very far from us here at Thousand Trails in Morgan Hill, just over the Santa Cruz mountains, so we decided to have a picnic at the beach. The beach wasn't far away, true, but it took us quite a long time to get there. State Highway 152, the Hecker Pass Highway, is largely two lanes twisting through agricultural land and up and over the coastal mountains between here and Watsonville, the Artichoke Capital of the World.

At the Hecker Pass Summit we found Mt. Madonna County Park, sitting on a former cattle baron's estate among open meadows and coast redwood forest. Always open to explore, we ventured into the park and found three campgrounds with many sites accessible to good-size RVs. As we moved deeper into the park there were group campgrounds, picnic sites and youth areas. Finding ourselves confused as to where we were and which way to go, but fortunately finding ourselves next to a park map, we chose to take Summit Road, to exit the park and find the top of Mount Madonna to see what were supposed to be splendid views.

Never found the views, but we saw a sign that announced a Buddhist Temple some distance ahead. Never found the Buddhist Temple, but we did find the Mount Madonna Center. The Center is a "residential private retreat and conference center" established by students of a particular monk from India, "a master yogi." "The Center offers a wide range of programs on self-development, health, and well-being, including the many disciplines of Yoga."

For us, the heart of the Center was this Hindu temple, the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Tenple.

"Hanuman" is one of the three primary aspects of the Supreme Being - more into below.

The temple is a quiet peaceful place, yet, we were told, on weekends there are so many visitors that reservations have to be made to accommodate them all! Here is a pictorial tour of the temple and its grounds.

This small lake provides swimming opportunities for the Center's residents and registered guests.

Visiting the Lion Fountain

Because Suzy and I are woefully under informed about a lot of things, I began a Google search into Hinduism. I learned that Hindus worship a single Supreme Being, or Ultimate Reality, just as Christians (and others) do. That Supreme Being is recognized, however, as having three primary aspects (the Hindu Trinity): Lord Brahma, recognizing the creative principle; Lord Vishnu, who maintains and preserves the earth; and Lord Shiva, representing the principle of dissolution and re-creation.

On the topic of the many gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion:

A Hindu deity (god or goddess; note small g) represents a particular aspect of the Supreme Being. For example, Saraswati represents the learning and knowledge aspect of the Supreme Being. Thus, if a Hindu wants to pray for acquiring knowledge and understanding, he prays to Saraswati. Just as sunlight cannot have a separate and independent existence from the sun itself, a Hindu deity does not have a separate and independent existence from the Supreme Being. Thus, Hindu worship of deities is monotheistic polytheism and not simple polytheism.

We are certainly not going to describe or identify any of those gods, but we'll show you sculptures from the temple area:

We believe that some of these sculptures may represent Hanuman (remember, the Temple is in his name).

From our research: Hanuman, the great monkey hero, also called Maruti, assists Rama in his battle with Ravana to rescue Sita, who had been kidnapped by Ravana....Rama said, "There is nothing I can give you that would match the service you have rendered to me. All I can do is to give you my own self." Upon hearing these words, Hanuman stood by Rama, in all humility, with hands joined together in front of his (Hanuman's) mouth, and head slightly bent in the pose of service for Rama. To this day, this picture of Hanuman, as a humble devotee of the Lord, is the most popular among the admirers and worshippers of Hanuman.

The worship of Hanuman, therefore, symbolizes the worship of the Supreme Lord, for acquiring knowledge, physical and mental strength, truthfulness, sincerity, selflessness, humility, loyalty, and profound devotion to the Lord.

For more pictures of our visit, we invite you to visit our web album 2011 Hindu Temple. The main article we found on Google is here.

Finally, we mention our newest Follower, WestieWaggin'. Glad to have you with us -- we hope your tail will be waggin' as you follow us along on ... Our Life on Wheels!

ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH

2011-07-18T20:10:00.000-07:00

We have always believed in angels. No, not necessarily those creatures in white robes, wings and a halo, playing a harp, although we don't discount the possibility. We believe angels are scooting around where we don't expect them, looking over our shoulders, and guiding our judgment in many areas. We also believe they show up in human form at just the right time.

An example: on February 4, the day I joined the SKP Saguaro Board of Directors, the whole Board went out to lunch. After the meal, the Board President's husband suddenly collapsed. At least three or four angels appeared, in the form of Board members or spouses who were retired nurses and knew exactly what to do. Coincidence? They were there anyway when it happened? Perhaps.

Jim and Sandie Dixon have been stalled in Billings, Montana, with one after another service problem with their rig. Two friends were recently hospitalized; Jim and Sandie took the opportunity to visit them in the hospital. To me, that's angels at work. They didn't have to do that; lots of folks consider hospitals depressing places and would never think of visiting people who are sick.

We had our own angels here Saturday evening. Daughter Deb and her pal Albert were visiting for dinner and Mexican Train.

We had eaten outside at the picnic table (right next to the grill where I had prepared a dinner deluxe!).

Suzy was feeling tired, so she used her Coach Lift chair to go back inside, rather than taking the steps. That Coach Lift has been a real blessing for her. She would usually rather struggle her way up the steps on her own steam than have to rely on a mechanical device -- most of the time. This time she took advantage of the lift.

Suzy' first Coach Lift ride, February 4, 2010.

Deb, Albert and I had come in first; Suzy got herself seat-belted into the lift. Deb and Albert were watching the process from the living room couch, when all of a sudden, in Deb's words, "Hell broke loose!" Something gave way in the structure of the lift, and Suzy suddenly tipped forward and started yelling; she was beginning to pitch over the edge of the chair, held in position only by the seatbelt. Deb and Albert, in Suzy's words, "flew out the door." Me? I was in the kitchen area involved in something and didn't even hear the hubbub.

Once I realized something was wrong, I rushed to the door and saw "Mr. Smith" (you remember him as the man who moved his site three times to accommodate his family gathering) and two of the park's housekeeping staff, along with Deb and Albert, cradling and comforting Suzy as someone (I don't know who) was pushing buttons to lower the damaged carrier to ground level. I was unable to even get out the door with the crowd pressing in, and felt helpless. All I could do was look those five angels in the eye and mouth my "thank yous." Suzy was on the verge of hysteria, but one of the housekeepers continued in soothing tones to provide comfort.

Once down and stable, Suzy was helped up the stairs, and we moved on to a rousing game of Mexican Train (Deb won that game, a fitting victory for our #1 angel!).

Sunday was a day of mild discomfort for Suzy, but by evening she was hurting from all the physical trauma. Fortunately she has no psychological effect other than being terrified of that Coach Lift! I went out today and took pictures to demonstrate what seems to be the problem. As you can see, there is a significant frontwards and sideways slope to the chair's seat.

This picture shows the divergence that should not be there, between the two parts of the support arm.

Those two sticks should be parallel.

We will be in touch with the manufacturer of the Coach Lift, and we expect they will make things physically right with the equipment. That's all we want, make that right so we can go on and continue to enjoy ... Our Life on Wheels.

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We mentioned Mr. Smith. After we posted about Mr. Smith's odyssey to find the best accommodations for his family group, some readers asked to see a picture of the final setup. Here it is: one motorhome with awning extended. one dining pavilion, and two family tents. Those guys seem happy, the kids aren't yelling and screaming and tearing around, so we can't complain. Especially when "Mr. Smith" turned out to be an angel in human form!

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New Follower! Welcome to Gypsy Boho, number 146. We hope you'll find us engaging and enjoyable!

FUNNY GOINGS-ON WITH THE NEIGHBORS

2011-07-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

We've been here at Thousand Trails in Morgan Hill about 10 days, with this elegant site, #214. The grassy area is about 25 feet between us and the neighboring site, lots of room, plenty of shade for us.

We came into this site backward in order to be able to use the grassy area, which would otherwise have been devoted solely to the neighbor on #213, and we'd have had a tiny plot of dirt. Since the sites here do not have sewers, it was easy enough to stretch our water hose and 30amp electrical cable underneath Rosie and hook up to the pedestal "out front."

The neighboring site is pretty nice, sharing "our" yard. It is open to the sky for satellite reception for those that want that. There's not much shade, but the weather has been cool for the most part.

We've had a succession of neighbors, none that stayed very long. One couple hauled their picnic table up under their awning, no big deal. Then they set up their lawn chairs close to the table, and turned their backs to us, with hardly a hello. They stayed that way for a couple of days, then pulled out. Others came and went.

Then came in the BIG rig. I went out to greet the new neighbors, as I like to do. The fellow (call him Mr. Smith) told me that they had family, daughters and grandchildren, coming to join them, and asked whether we would mind if they set up a couple of tents in the grassy yard. That's fine, I told Mr. Smith, we'll try not to make too much noise and keep them up at night. Mr. Smith explained that this is an annual affair, and the youngest grandkid was 17, so there wouldn't be little ones running and yelling. Now we don't mind kids, used to be kids ourselves, but the news was welcome indeed, and I promptly slid our picnic table closer to Rosie, and moved a couple of other items as well.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith proceeded to unload scads of stuff: a barbecue grill and a camp stove, each with it's own stand and side table; folding chairs, a colorful banner; colorful spinning gizmos to catch the errant breeze; a sun screen hanging from their awning and tied to ground stakes. Next they got the park maintenance staff to bring them a second picnic table, which they placed adjacent to the first. Out came the measuring tape, to see the total width of the two tables. After some table movement, out came a screen pavilion, which they spread above the tables and staked to the ground. They took absolutely hours making sure everything was picture perfect.

Once the Smiths were fully set up, we admired their array. But during the next day, we noticed them surreptitiously glancing over at the rest of the grassy area, that part that we had shrunk our stuff into. We did not budge another inch.

Two mornings after Mr. and Mrs. Smith had labored over their set up, we noticed their BIG motorhome drive slowly away, followed by their toad. Half an hour later, they returned in the car, and began tearing things down, loading them into the car! Being a nosy neighbor I walked over and commented, "You're leaving us so soon?" "Yes," came the reply. "There's not really enough room here for two more tents, and we found a larger site over by the big ditch. We'll put the tents in the ditch." My Arizona training immediately took note (stay out of the washes; you never know when there could be a flash flood, especially in summer), but Mr. Smith said the ranger (that's what we call them here at Thousand Trails, or we used to call them that, anyway) told him there's no chance of rain.

The next day, we wandered past their new location. Every single item was back in place; must have taken them another two or three hours.

Next morning, guess who showed up right across the road from us. Mr. and Mrs. Smith, once again painstakingly establishing base camp #3. They explained that their site by the ditch was too noisy (after all, that's where the families with young kids want to camp, right near the big swimming pool). In addition, a huge fifth wheel had just pulled in next to them, crowding their site.

This will have to be it, however, as the young families will be arriving, one today, the other tomorrow. This is the Smiths' set up as it stands right now -- the pile at left is one of the tents laid out and held in place by lawn chairs.

And across from them sits this 1972 travel trailer done fetchingly in dull blue. I chatted with its owner briefly, then took this picture.

The Smiths aren't the only ones having family company today. Daughter Deb and her pal Albert will be here this afternoon, itching to play a game of Mexican Train. After they unceremoniously beat me, as I'm certain they will, I will graciously grill a fine dinner for them. Not gonna tell you what it will be, as I've spent too many words on food recently, writing about ... Our Life on Wheels.

Grilling With Some New Ideas

2011-07-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Another new follower joined us -- welcome to William McKibbon!

We got a new grilling how-to book a little while back.

It's full of picture-packed chapters on how to grill everything from simple garlic bread to filet mignon to beer can chicken to tofu to creme brulee. Back in May we told you about learning to grill PINEAPPLE (click the link to see that post). Now we've learned a couple of new tricks from this book: Corn on the Cob is one, Portobello Mushrooms is the other.

We have grilled corn on the cob for years. What is different is now we grill it with the husk pulled back and tied to serve as a handle! When the corn is ready to go on the grill, I brush it lightly with an herbed garlic butter, then place the corn so that the tied-back husks are away from the fire. Roast the corn for 8 to 12 minutes, turning as needed and brushing with the garlic butter, until the kernels are nicely browned.

We have forever sworn off stove-boiled ears of corn!

The Portobello mushrooms are cleaned gently, then the gills are studded with whatever pleases your imagination. The basic process calls for gently making a series of small holes into the gill side of the mushroom and inserting pine nuts, slivered garlic, and tiny slivers of a hard cheese such as Parmesan.

The mushroom is then slathered in a marinade of balsamic vinegar, olive oil, coarse salt, ground black pepper and assorted herbs. The next step is to cover and refrigerate for up to three hours.

Grill the mushrooms gill side down for the first three minutes, then gently turn them over, ladling more of the marinade over the gills; grill for four to six minutes longer.

We accompanied the corn and mushroom dinner with some grilled sausages, and a glass of red wine. We topped it off with Suzy's wonderful peach and strawberry cobbler. Gastronomically a hit, but oh! the grill needs a lot of cleaning today!

What other delights await us in the new grilling book? Certainly not such delicacies as eggplant, whether whole or sliced; nor whole lobster (the book explains how to kill a lobster by plunging a knife between its eyes ("This kills the lobster instantly, although it may continue to twitch!" No thanks!). Or tofu!

But I imagine we will grill baby back ribs on the rotisserie (back home in Benson), or stuffed pork chops, or pizza. Now that we have mastered corn and mushrooms, we are set to go where no man has ever gone before -- at least not THIS man, grilling his way along ... Our Life on Wheels.

California, the Source of Food?

2011-07-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Spending as much time as we recently have in Arizona, we begin to lose track of things like how food is grown. We are in California now, and it's all coming back to us.

As we drove, a couple of weeks ago, from Santa Nella toward the San Francisco Bay Area, we started to pass fruit stand after fruit stand after fruit stand. The displays we could see from our motorhome window looked very colorful and appealing, so we decided we'd have to come back and take a closer look later, and take some pictures as well.

So we did. As with gas stations off the Interstate, the first one you see will have the highest prices -- you just have to understand that. And sure enough, when we returned to this one, we found less than top quality fruit, and the prices later proved to be somewhat higher than at the stands further along CA 152.

But as we visited the stands, we managed to be inveigled into buying some of California's wondrous bounty. Nectarines, peaches, cherries, strawberries, even garlic (the Gilroy area being the world's garlic center). Never mind that we already had strawberries in the freezer, bananas, peaches, cantaloupe and grapefruit in our fruit basket. No, we NEEDED this new stuff!

Nectarines are Suzy's all time favorite fruit!

And very near our Thousand Trails park there is a mushroom farm! They sell mushrooms to the public at spectacular prices. So, we bought mushrooms. Two lovely portobellos to grill, and two pounds of Criminis (which are young Portobellos, and full of lovely fungus flavor!).

Back in Rosie's sanctuary, we realized what we had done, and began to take action. Suzy made two cobblers, one with peaches and strawberries, the other with nectarines and cherries. One of those went into the freezer, the other became the delight of the evening! The mushrooms? The Portobellos will be grilled soon, and some of the Criminis became part of a wondrous beef stroganoff.

And me? I took pictures! Actually, I did a slicing thing with the beef, the mushrooms, and a big red onion.

I'm the chopper, Suzy is the chef! She even tossed in some diced green New Mexico chilies for an added kick to the stroganoff.

California is a great place for food, and my Suzy is a great cook. And that's pure enjoyment in ... Our Life on Wheels!

Update on "Catching Up in California"

2011-07-10T16:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, we have been remiss in not welcoming our newest Followers, but believe me, we appreciate their presence! These are folks who have joined us recently: Sue Malone, Gypsy Boho, Jana, Laurie and Odel, Steve DePree. If I missed naming a new Follower, I apologize, and promise to do better in the future!

We probably have left you regular readers wondering, and many of you are thirsting for knowledge. So let me fill you in on the latest:

Water situation in Thousand Trails: we got home today to find a notice that our water is safe for human consumption! Two days earlier than predicted! We are having a water fest here, making new ice, drinking good water, taking showers, flushing the toilet -- OK, we did those last couple of things anyway!

Camera: Panasonic has sent us a "reconditioned" Lumix camera to replace the one that had died just before the one-year warranty ran out!

So we are having a photo fest! We went out today and took a lot of pictures. OK, we had taken pictures with the low-level-but-only-one-available-at-the-camera-shop Coolpix. Now the Coolpix has been relegated to "backup" camera, by which we don't mean we can use it only while backing up.

Some folks wondered about the Rok Restaurant we visited.

We think it is a one-and-only place, not a chain. No, there is no discount for having to cook our own meal -- that's part of the mystique and the fun. HOWEVER: if you are a member of AARP, you probably have been invited to use Restaurant.com with an AARP discount. Using this discount, we were able to purchase a $25 gift certificate to Rok for only $2! Two catches: (1) you have to run up a total tab of at least $35 to use the $25 certificate (easy to do!), and (2) you can only use the certificate Sunday through Thursday, and we were there on a Saturday! Dammit! We actually bought four such certificates for Rok, and gave them to daughter Deb for her future use.

Along that same line, we have purchased several certificates for other restaurants for our own use, and have used them favorably. On one occasion, the restaurant had stopped accepting the certificate, but Restaurant.com quickly exchanged it for an open-end certificate. Good service once again.

Back to the water situation. Yes, we are making ice. Rosie, our 2001 Itasca motorhome, has an ice-maker built into her refrigerator, but we are such voracious ice users that it can't keep up. We found ourselves buying a bag of ice every day or two, and sometimes that ice is of poor quality and/or very expensive. Suzy went on line and found us a portable ice maker to buy. It arrived while we were at daughter Deb's place. We put it to immediate use, and WOW, the ice it makes! It delivers the first ice within about 9 minutes of being turned on, and can produce as much as 28 pounds of ice every day! That relieves the necessity of buying bags of ice, and will certainly be an advantage back in Benson, Arizona!

"Suzy went on line" is a common phrase around here. Another of Suzy's recent buys was a grapefruit knife. At home in Benson, we have a great grapefruit knife that we have used for years. It has an easy curve to its blade, a rosewood handle, and a perfectly tapered and serrated blade. Here in the motorhome, we have been using (and trying to replace) this silly plastic handled, awkwardly curved, salaciously serrated blade that tears the grapefruit to shreds.

After literally weeks of research, Suzy found this near-perfect replacement, closely matching the one at home. This baby cuts the grapefruit as it should, with little effort, carefully separating the segments, and leaving them intact with all their juices set to leap onto our taste buds at first chomp. Delightful, if slightly expensive (it was the shipping costs that really hurt, but none of the retail stores we visited had anything like it.).

Doesn't look that much different, but boy! does it work better!

That's enough nonsense for today. Come back and see us again, next time, living ... Our Life on Wheels.