9/27/2011 Errands, Errands, Errands

A trip into town was in order today. We had quite a large list for Lowe’s, had a stop to make at Walmart and a visit to Fry’s to round out our stops.

Bob had a whole laundry list of things to get so I told him I’d meet him the garden center. I do miss my flower gardens so I hang out in this section of the store whenever we come here while Bob spends his time with tools and brackets and caulk and plumbing stuff.

Since we had come in at the other end of the store I didn’t see the display until I walked down to the garden center end. My first reaction was OH NO! OH NO! IT CAN’T BE! Sure enough, the Christmas department was up and fully stocked. There was a fifteen foot blowup snowman waving at me! Decorated trees were in place. No, it can’t be, its only September! I wanna go back to the days of when Christmas wasn’t thought of until the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie was eaten. Would you welcome those days back too?

Bob got everything on his list and we still needed to get some red lava rock to fill in our garden area as what was there needed some replenishment. We bought the broken bags for a dollar each rather than intact bags for $3.47. Quite a savings and we got the job done.

Next stop was Fry’s grocery store. Oh, have we been spoiled! We had gotten used to Commissary prices and now we were experiencing

STICKER SHOCK!

We’ll be glad to get back to Texas for awhile to a military base and you can bet before we leave that base we’ll be stocked up to the hilt! The friends we’re meeting there are going to do the same thing.

Because of what we bought at the grocery store we had to forego Walmart. We would have spent too much time in there and with 100 degree temps we couldn’t leave milk and meat out in the truck.

This afternoon the local areas jack of all trades, Rafael, came by to give us an estimate on replacing the roof on the park model. We found that we had a small leak over the summer. While we don’t think it was actually the roof leaking but a strange kind of vent we have on the roof, we decided it was time for a new roof anyway. We’re pretty sure that the shingles that were put on 12 years ago were 15 year shingles. With the relentless sun beating down on the shingles we just didn’t think they would last the full 15 years anyway. Since Rafael has the time now to do this we thought we’d better take advantage of it. Once the winter residents come in his calendar fills up fast and we could have to wait for several weeks.

The rest of the day was puttering around getting things done, playing Words With Friends on Facebook and just enjoying being here.

9/26/2011 I’ve Met the New Park Manager

Quail Run, our winter home for the past four years has a new park manager. This is good for the park. Very good.

Dee is a breath of fresh air. She’s nice. She’s personable. She seems to be a very caring individual. And she loves a good time!

I had taken a walk up to the office area and through the Cantina and out to the pool and this is where I found Dee, helping Jerry the maintenance guy clean the pool, yet again. We had met very briefly when we first arrived but it was nothing more than a “Hi, how are you?” We had a nice long talk and I walked away after an hour or so knowing that Dee reads people and can figure out their “agendas” very well. There’s no feeding her a line of bull, she’s see right through it. Not that I tried to feed her a line of bull mind you but someone else had and since it concerned me she let me know in no uncertain terms that she knew it was a line and didn’t put ANY stock into it. Dee is very much into forming her own opinions and that’s a good thing for evidently a whole list of people.

Dee has big plans this coming season and strict rules here in the park are a thing of the past! Believe it or not, in years gone by, all activities had to end at precisely ten o’clock and everyone had to go home. In the middle of the last hand of your card game? Too bad, pack it up. Twelve year olds had more leeway than us seasoned adults did in this park in the past. Now the word is, “Last one out, lock the door!” Its going to be FUN here in Quail Run now. We can even stay in the hot tub later than ten now! Our friend Wilf will be happy!

Dee has lots of fun activities planned and the Activities Director from two years ago, Ann, is coming back! This too is a good thing.

I’ve talked with about a dozen people here in the park and I’ve noticed a new enthusiasm, if you will. People are looking forward to the winter season, a new beginning and there is laughter and hope and I think everyone is going to have a new friend and her name is Dee.

Don’t get me wrong, Dee knows she has a job to do, boundaries to uphold and hard decisions to make at times, but all those things will be done with kindness and that will be new and appreciated.

Welcome to Quail Run Dee! We’re very, very, very glad you are here!

9/25/2011 The ATV Goes

We got up this morning and almost hated to look outside after last evening’s haboob. We put it off as long as we could and then we just had to look. Yep, it was as bad as we feared.

All the leaves that I swept up and bagged yesterday? Back! The cover on the ATV that was nice and black after cleaning yesterday, a dull brown today. The ATV that was shiny and bright red yesterday? Today a dull red with a thin tan covering of dust. We felt like we wasted our Saturday!

We didn’t have time to dwell on it. The fellow who is interested in our ATV is coming at ten and we have to get this cleaned up….again.

Bob got the hose out and I reached for the broom and we duplicated our actions of yesterday.

The fellow and his wife arrived a little after ten and were quite happy with the ATV. They took it for a ride and came back and made an offer. We countered, they countered and we arrived at a number that was pleasing to both of us.

After signing paperwork and money changing hands we talked for awhile about our lifestyle and answered their questions and they seemed intrigued.

They came in their pickup and had ramps with them. There is no way I would ever attempt driving the ATV up those ramps! He did it with no problem but my heart was thumping the whole time.

And we watched it go.

Bob hated to see it go but we’re looking at this way. It’s something that had to be done now, and you’ll know why soon, and if the day comes that he wants another one, we’ll buy one.

We spent the rest of the day cleaning up more dust. Remember that I told the truck windows were open a little bit at the beginning of the dust storm last night? In just a very few minutes the interior had a thin coating of dust.

One more thing to clean!

9/24/2011 All That Work for NOTHING!

See the lights over the roof of the park model across the street from us?

Last evening we could NOT see them. Not because it was dark, although it was dusk, but because we were in the middle of a haboob. Until last night we had only ever heard of this word and didn’t really know what it was. Now we do. The word haboob is more commonly used in the Middle East, more specifically in the Sahara Desert. It’s a desert dust storm of massive size. Now not nearly as big as the picture I showed you a day or so ago, but BIG all the same.

We heard the wind picking up and I opened the closed blind to see the surrounding trees swaying back and forth and a brown tint to the sky. I kept an eye on it for a few minutes and then realized this was going to get bad. I ran out because the truck windows were still part way down and got them closed. When I got safely inside all hell broke loose. The wind really picked up, we could hear things falling or being blown around on the carport and we could no longer see the lights across the way because the dust was that thick. We could hardly make out the park models across the street. Bob remembered something or other out in the carport area and went out and then I heard something so I went out too and then we came in at different times and that nice clean dust-free house I had,,,,,was a thing of the past. It wasn’t horribly dusty but certainly noticeable.

At one point the wind was blowing so hard that our park model actually moved and we were afraid we were going to lose the awning over the carport. And then it was gone. The wind, not the carport. All those leaves I swept up,,,,back. And then some!

9/23/2011 Our First Full Day

I’d like to tell you that we were up and at ‘em early this morning but that just wasn’t the case. Yes, we had lots to do outside to get done but we’re just plain tired. Maybe it was the comfy bed, maybe it was the cool room with A/C going full blast, maybe it was nothing more than we are aware we have TIME and nowhere to be right now. Whatever the reason, we slept in. And it felt good.

When we finally did get up and around Bob started first on getting the quad out to get it cleaned up and started. We have a listing on Craigslist to sell it. Yes, I know, we just bought it last year and he truly does enjoy it but it has to be sold. There is a reason which be apparent soon and I’ll just leave it at that.

When we arrived yesterday afternoon we noticed some creepy crawlies like this….

So we put a call in right away to the pest control service we use. They showed up this morning and sprayed for us so that’s something else we can take off our to do list. Just in case you are wondering, Bob took the picture above, I wanted no parts of it!

I swept tons and tons of leaves up and tons more of sand from our carport today. Got them all bagged up so that’s done. We’re making headway.

We got a call on the ATV this afternoon and the fella will come Sunday morning to see it. I’m keepin’ my fingers crossed.

9/22/2011 The Homestretch….

We were up EARLY this morning. So early that we were on the road by 7:30! THAT is saying something for Bob and me. Of course we have a long day ahead of us, after all, we have to drive all the way across New Mexico today.

With our starting point as El Paso it didn’t take us long before we saw this sign.

A going down the road picture.

This was one state line sign we were finally glad to see!

As always, I’m just taken with Texas Canyon.

As we drove through the desert we couldn’t help but notice how green everything was.

Bob has declared these small mountain peaks….The Mini Tetons.

We pulled into LeMesa RV around 1:30 which is much earlier than we anticipated a few days ago when thinking about the days drive we had. It didn’t hurt that we left earlier than we usually do and the we forgot about the time change.

Our first choice for having repairs made on our RV was the Lazydays RV dealership. Why? Because they are a Carriage dealer whereas LaMesa is not. It really doesn’t matter one way or the other I guess. At least it didn’t until I called to make an appointment with Lazydays. When I called to get authorization for warranty work I was told by the Carriage Representative that Lazydays wasn’t on their list as yet and he wasn’t even sure it was open but to call and be sure to ask if they would accept direct payment from Carriage or not, that not all dealerships did. Bob and I really didn’t think that would come into play because after all they carry the Carriage line. Well, imagine my surprise when I find out that we would have to pay up front and then get reimbursement from Carriage. I don’t think so! Do you know what RV dealerships charge per hour? I can’t speak for Lazydays but LaMesa charges $130.00 an HOUR! We have HOURS and HOURS worth of work being done. Yes, LaMesa will accept payment directly from Carriage so there was no contest in who was going to get the work. I can’t help but wonder if Lazydays isn’t shooting themselves in the foot by not accepting payment from manufacturers for warranty work when directly across the street is a dealership that will. There are practically NO RV’ers in town right now, I would think RV dealers would welcome any work. LaMesa had quite a few empty work bays the day we were there.

So we dropped it off to LaMesa Rv and were very impressed with our Service-writer, Dave. He took detailed notes of what we told him were problems, he asked questions to make sure he understood what we were saying and in instances where a problem could be demonstrated he wanted to see it. In some instances when we explained a problem he asked questions that would have taken repairs a step further but he explained he wanted to get things done right the first time. He told us it would take two weeks to get all the work done and that the time line would allow for parts if any had to be ordered.

So, we could have our house on wheels back sooner and we’re hoping so because we’re going to meet up with friends in Texas at a military base. There’s nothing going on here in Quail Run since other than permanent residents and the workampers that have arrived already, we’re the only ones here. In the time we’ll have to wait for the repairs to be done we can have our park model all cleaned and ready for the couple who will live in it during the winter season.

We arrived in Quail Run around three and we were very pleasantly surprised when we walked in. After the haboob came through this area from Phoenix back in early July, we truly expected the place to be knee deep in dust and sand.

Remember when this happened and you saw the images on TV?

Well, as big as this haboob or dust storm was, its not out of the realm of possibilities that the end of it didn’t reach to our area.

The first thing I did when we got inside was run my hand across the kitchen counter. NOTHING! I quickly swiffered the wood floor. NOTHING! We were home free! No dust! Oh. Happy. Day!

We did take notice of the temperature, in the shade, under our carport. HOT!

After dinner I walked around the park and stopped in to see friends that live here year round. I don’t know how they do it in this heat.

9/21/2011 Busy, Busy Day

Today is our last day here in El Paso and we had lots to get done.

First thing on the agenda was getting the truck through inspection. While we take care of inspection stickers through the mail it IS a requirement that if you return to Texas then you must take the vehicle through inspection. While many may think, me included, “I’m only going to be here a few days and what are the chances of me being caught” that is NOT Bob! As we crossed into Texas the first words out of his mouth were, “I have to get the truck inspected.” Thankfully, this is something we can get done on base. We drove over to the inspection lane and the inspection guy was available and no one was in line ahead of us so the whole process took 15 minutes. We’re legal. Bob is happy.

From there it was to the Commissary to pick up a few things. Fort Bliss has the BEST Commissary. It’s my most favorite of all the ones I’ve been in. For one thing its fairly new, its huge and it has everything you could possibly want. I would liken it to the Army’s version of a Whole Foods grocery store.

Now the hard part of our day starts. The packing. While I would like to pack up all of our clothes that’s just not a smart thing to do. I had to keep reminding myself that there are clothes in storage back in the park model, to just pack a week’s worth plus I can do laundry. I thought about taking my favorite knives from the kitchen but I reminded myself that I have perfectly good knives in Arizona already. Bob, on the other hand, had to go through all of his tools to make sure he takes everything he may possibly need. We don’t have duplicates at the park model like we do knives and serving spoons.

This is the day that the small upright freezer we have has to be emptied and defrosted. This takes no time at all as I have been using whatever I could the past few weeks out of this freezer so there really wasn’t a whole lot it in to begin with.

By the end of the day we were pretty much packed. We’ll empty the fridge into two coolers in the morning, put our suitcase in the truck, do a final sweep to make sure we aren’t forgetting anything, hook up and we’ll be on our way. In a perfect world that is.

9/20/2011 A Day to Rest….and Think

We didn’t really do a whole lot today. We hung around and watched some TV, we sat outside, Bob started re-organizing the basement of the rig, I thought about what I had to take out of the 5th wheel to take with us. And we had dinner from Subway again. Bob told me he liked his sandwich from there last night so much that if I didn’t mind he would just as soon get sandwiches again. Oh Darn! I was so looking forward to slaving over the stove and I was especially going to miss doing the dishes….but hey, if he wants to eat sandwiches from Subway who am I to say no? So we did.

We’re dropping the 5th wheel off in Tucson to have some warranty work done and I have to pack up all the things we’re going to need out of the rig. All fridge stuff and freezer stuff has to be packed up, canned goods that I’ll want, clothes, medicines, toiletries, its like packing for a two week vacation!

Bob had to gather all the tools he thinks he may need while the rig is in Tucson and not handy to run to.

It’s hot here in Texas! The temperature is almost at 100 degrees! Better than the last days we had in South Dakota, that’s for sure.

9/19/2011 Fort Bliss, We’re Glad to be Here!

We got on the road pretty early this morning and it’s a good thing we did as you’ll read about in just a bit.

It was an easy drive today. Most of the time we had the road to ourselves. This is absolutely the best way to travel!

Even the scenery was peaceful.

The road just seem to go on and on and on. Forever.

We had pulled over at one point, I don’t remember why, most likely a pit stop, and this “vehicle” passed us coming from the other direction. We both did a double take as we just couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. There are two sets of handlebars, one heck of an engine and seating for four????

We were glad to see this sign!

….and even happier to see this one!

Yes, somehow we managed to get through New Mexico and Texas twice this trip. I don’t ask questions I just go along for the ride.

A common roadside scene…

We finally pulled in to Fort Bliss in El Paso and were lucky to get a spot. We have never seen the FamCamp so full in our previous visits. There were just four sites left and all but one went within just a few hours of our arrival.

We’re going to settle in for a few days here. As can be imagined, we’re tired of the being in the truck. We also have some business to take care of here since are legally Texas residents. On paper that is, in our hearts we are Delawareans through and through.

Dinner was Subway tonight. Easy, fast and right across the street. We also filled up the fuel tank with diesel at $3.61 a gallon. We had seen it as high at $4.09 out on the road. We always appreciate fuel prices on a military base.

9/18/2011 Halfway to El Paso

Did you ever have one of those days where nothing, but nothing, seems to go right? Welcome to Bob’s day. It seems everything he touched today broke or fell apart or was already broken when he found it. What a heck of a day he had.

We got on the road around nine and headed, once again, south. It actually got quite warm today. The temp in our truck read 89 degrees. It was welcomed!

So long Oklahoma!

Hello Texas!

Goodbye Texas.

We were in and out so fast I didn’t even have time to get a picture!

Hello New Mexico!

Well, as expected we found another one! Actually, the campground isn’t that bad. It’s a dozen sites all in the row and the last four are pull thru’s. Un-level as all get out, but pull thru’s all the same. Something we look for when in travel mode. We don’t like to unhook the truck if we don’t have to.

It took us a while to set up and when we did get inside and I set up the computers we found we didn’t have Internet. No Internet and NO PHONES! We are in this tiny little pocket of New Mexico that Verizon hasn’t planted a tower in and the satellites can’t find. As you can well imagine there is no TV reception either. On a happy note I turned on the radio to the sound of Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise. All is not lost!

After dinner Bob put in a movie and on par for his day,,,,it was chick flick! Not Bob’s favorite kind of movie.

Did I mention we can see the train track from here and can HEAR the train like its in the same room with us?

I might also mention that we are the ONLY people in this campground right now and that’s at 7:30 p.m..

It’s gonna be a long night.

Fort Bliss, here we come! Yes, cable, WIFI, a commissary, people in Army uniforms! We’ll be glad to get there!

9/17/2011 Gettin' on Down the Road

We made short order of getting everything we had taken out stowed again. The road was calling.

So we pulled out of Buffalo Hills located in who knows what town in Colorado and headed south.

Thankfully we were back in shorts and tees again.

On the way we passed this windmill farm.

We also passed a sunflower farm. Funny, I never gave it a thought that a farmer somewhere actually grew acres and acres of sunflowers! I would have taken a picture but the heads of sunflowers were all weighted with seeds and the picture would have looked like, well, sad sunflowers.

We soon say hello to Oklahoma!

I didn’t see much of what was going on at eye level because I couldn’t take my eyes off of the sky. It held the most amazing clouds. Not that the clouds themselves were all that but I had a great game of “What Do YOU See in the Clouds? going on.

So LaVon, my friend, I thought of you when I played this game and took some pics for you. Tell me, what do you see?

#1

#2

#3

4#

C’mon, all of you reading this, tell me what you see!

So we pull into Wild Bill’s RV Park in Boise City, Oklahoma. I don’t know how we find em’ but we do! I had called ahead to see if there were any spots left and the lady assured me there were plenty. Uh-uh. We found three open and one of those was halfway blocked by the neighbors truck. So we found a pull thru site and we got all set up and then it happened. The wind shifted and the flag pole across the street started clanging. Actually, it was the metal rope that was clanging against the metal flagpole. Incessantly! Clang, Clang, Clang went the flagpole. It wasn’t until some time later that the wind died down and then the trains started. One. After. Another. Chuga-chuga, chuga-chuga, chuga-chuga, whoo-whoo. All. Night. Long. Oh yea, we can find ‘em!

9/16/2011 Farewell Ellsworth…

Everything was packed away, some things not where they should go, but away all the same. We were ready, no, make that anxious to hit the road. We were finally scratching that itch,,,,hitch itch.

So at 9:38 this morning we bid farewell, said so long, sayonara, adios, catch ya on the flip side,,,,to Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Val and Jerry were already on the road and Joy and DeWayne would be within the hour or so. Yep, time to go.

As we pulled out Joy came outside of her rig camera in hand. Yes, we had already said our so long’s to these two just moments earlier.

See ya next month Joy,,,,safe travels to you.

Shouldn’t all friends have pictures of each other taking a picture of them? Yes, I thought so too.

As you can see by Joy’s mode of dress, its still chilly here and its overcast and we’re glad to be heading south!

So we left South Dakota, sailed through Nebraska,,,,

,,,,,and ended up in Colorado for the night.

I’ve said it before and it still cracks me up every time I see it, I just don’t “get” the Colorado state sign. There is nothing colorful about their sign and points to what it proclaims…COLORFUL Colorado. I’ve decided, when they make me boss of the world, Colorado state signs will be painted in a rainbow of colors!

We stayed in the Buffalo Hills Campground.

When we pulled in and drove around the loop we said over and over, “It’s only for one night, it’s only for one night.” Had we not put in such a long day we probably would have kept going. We finally found a site we could fit in to. There were not many sites available as this campground seemed to be mostly permanent residents. From the looks of the some of the RV’s they had been in place a long, long time.

So we get all set up, jacks down, leveled, electric hooked up and Bob yells into me, “Guess what? There’s no water!” Since it was only go to be overnight and we were nuking leftovers on paper plates for dinner, we decided we could get along with two gallon containers of water and a five gallon bucket filled three quarters of the way full. Ok, we can do this.

But wait, it gets better. There is no TV reception. None. Nada. Zilch. Ok, no problem, we can watch movies. After all Bob just got a half dozen new ones for his birthday that he wasn’t watched yet. Ok, we can do this.

Well, lo and behold, the long day really hit me and I was, how shall I put this, a little testy. Oh who am I kidding….I was in full bitch mode. I don’t even remember what, now as I type this, set me off but I found myself in bed at 7:30 p.m. because I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with HIM another minute! So there I am in the bedroom, no TV to watch, couldn’t find a talk radio station to save my soul, was too mad to read my book, so I just went to sleep. Big mistake! HUGE mistake. At two a.m. I was WIDE AWAKE! I had had approximately six hours of sleep, a normal nights sleep for me. Wide awake, no TV, I could only get one radio station that played today’s TOP 40 and that faded in and out. Have you heard what the kids today listen to? Makes me glad I was teen in the late 60’s and early 70’s! So I just laid there, wide awake. The longest night of my life!

9/15/2011 Packin’ Up

We are officially done work now but we both spent part of our day going over to the office to help out the young lady that is taking care of the office,,,for now. Jessica normally works in the Outdoor Recreation Office and was pressed into service. She has no idea what we do, how our office works, the procedures we use, nothing. It was like she was thrown to the wolves. We tried to help her as much as we could but at the same time we had things to do.

We would think of things that she needed to know and drop what we were doing and go over to write notes for her because there was no way she was going remember all there was to learn in such a very short time until she was completely on her own. Not an ideal situation to say the least.

We have so much to do but we don’t pick up the truck until this afternoon and the tools Bob needs to what he has to get done are in the truck of all places! Frustrating to say the least.

9/14/2011 Bicycle Bells & Handlebar Streamers

Note: It was a lousy day weather-wise today. Cold, rainy, windy, high of 42, just miserable. Jerry & Val decided to stay another day rather than travel in this. Joy and I were quite happy about this as we could get another Mexican Train game in.

Full Circle. At age 58 things have seem to come full circle for me. Joy, Valerie and I were in the laundry room this afternoon, playing a game of Mexican Train on the laundry folding table, when the conversation turned to who had a bicycle. I told the ladies that I had one and want to get a basket for it. It’s hard to ride a bike and keep your camera strap connected to a pricey camera on your shoulder and carry the ever present Pepsi all at the same time. Yes, indeed-y a basket is a must have. Joy said she’ll be getting a bike this fall and she wants a bell on hers and we both decided we want the streamers on the handlebars like we when we were kids.

A few minutes later Joy started chuckling and said, “Listen to us, we’re talking about trickin’ out our bicycles, we play games all day (we do!) and we’ll be playin’ all winter and going on day long excursions much like field trips. Yep, full circle and I think I’m enjoying it a whole lot more this time around. Yeah, its not as carefree as when I was eight years old but I’m not complainin’!

We are all thoroughly enjoying retirement!

Keeping with the retirement theme….this was our last day as FamCamp hosts! We are once again footloose and fancy free!

Now not everything is unicorns and glitter this last week in South Dakota. We have friends here who we wanted to catch up with but it just didn’t work out that way. George and Nancy, we’ll see you in Arizona. Steve and Nancy, see you there too friends!

Also, the truck is in the shop. Bob has been getting things taken care of such as an oil change and fluids checked and he took it in a few days ago to have our brakes checked out to make sure they were safe for us. Well, the brakes are in great shape but we have two shocks that are shot and rear seal leak. Can you say four figures? It’s always something isn’t it?

We’re spending our time putting things away such a decorative items, stuff we know we won’t use anymore, making phone calls to get copies of prescriptions and such.

Speaking of prescriptions, I took Bob’s prescription for Nexium to Walmart to get filled. When the lady told me how much it was I could have been knocked over with a feather. $561.16! Ninety pills and just over $550! What do people do without prescription insurance do? We are so fortunate to have the insurances we do as I ended up paying $9.00 for the ninety day supply. We are so thankful.

9/13/2011 Another 19 hour Day.

A little after four this morning Bob woke me up to tell me he was having a tightness in his chest and he was having a hard time breathing. I shook the sleep off in two seconds flat and started asking questions. It seems he had been up awhile monitoring his blood pressure which was giving high numbers.

Bob wanted to go to the hospital. This was déjà vu’ all over again. The same thing happened in July of ‘08 when we were in Idaho. Nearly the same symptoms sans the tingling fingers.

Dressed, in the blink of an eye, we got in the truck and headed towards Rapid City. The street signs weren’t matching our GPS directions but we opted for the street signs. After all, these people know where the hospital is! Those blue signs are always a welcome sight. Before you all start typing let me explain that I did question him about calling an ambulance. I think that when anything involving the chest and pain one should be called. Tell him that! Then again, he knows what he’s feeling and how serious it is.

There were only two people in the waiting room and I think they were doing exactly that,,,,waiting.

As soon as they heard his symptoms they whisked him away and I stayed and took care of all the paperwork. By the time I got to him which really wasn’t all that long the hospital staff had him hooked up to enough machines that they could have probably monitored the growth of toe nails!

Of course the first thing they did was an EKG which came back perfectly normal. After asking lots of questions, taking of lots of blood, reading lots of printouts it was determined that Bob had acid reflux which can mimic a heart attack.

They gave him a Nexium, the purple pill, and within 20 minutes he felt much better.

Finally, around nine they discharged him. We went home, both exhausted, but it was a work day. I had called Joy and DeWayne from the hospital to let them know we needed help until we could get home and DeWayne stepped right up and told us not to worry about the FamCamp, that he had it covered. When we got back to the base Bob did go lay down for awhile and I relieved DeWayne, much to his dismay.

To all of those who wrote in on the Facebook page, your concern for his well being,,,,,THANK YOU!

Tuesday evening, after a steak dinner at Dewayne & Joy’s we played our last Mexican Train game. Jerry and Val are leaving for Wyoming tomorrow so this was our last chance. It was bittersweet playing that game. We are going to miss these two so much. They have become such good friends in such a little bit of time. We’ll see them again in December when they come in for their winter roost.

Come to think of it, Jerry and Val came to Ellsworth in early June for what was supposed to be two weeks and they just never left. Friendships were formed fast and for forever!

9/12/2011 A Little of This of A Little of That

This post will cover several topics as a lot has been going on the last two days.

I didn’t write a post on Sunday. I don’t know why I didn’t, it just happened that way.

Sunday afternoon us girls played a card game called Hand and Foot and Valerie won. Then we played a game of Mexican Train and she was leading that when I reminded her that I was cooking her meal that evening for dinner and that she better play accordingly. She didn’t.

Dinner time came and since I had a made one pot crock pot meal I took some out for and put it in a bowl just for her. When everything was taken out to the picnic table I then brought out Val’s dish with a flourish and presented it to her.

She got quite the chuckle out of that and darn if she didn’t play it in true Valerie fashion. When I went into the house to get something I came back out and found Valerie on the ground and Jerry trying to revive her! Only Valerie!

We have so much fun with these two!

We really like these group dinners that we have. I can see that this is something that will continue all winter long as soon as Jerry and Valerie join us in December along with Pat and Dann and Joy and DeWayne. This is going to be a fun winter!

This morning Joy and I were playing a morning game of cards in the FamCamp office while she was on duty and she brought a pack of peanut butter crackers for each of us to munch on. When I finished mine I accidently knocked the empty pack which had cracker crumbs in it onto the floor. When I leaned over to pick it up all the cracker crumbs fell on the floor and I figured I would just clean it up later after we were done playing. A short while later I happened to look down and was quite surprised to see a cricket, actually two crickets, chowing down on the cracker crumbs.

I didn’t have to clean one crumb up, there weren’t any left by the time they had their fill! We have crickets everywhere here! And grasshoppers! While I don’t mind grasshoppers and am not afraid of either I am so thankful that these pests aren’t spiders instead! We’d be outta here if they were considering how many of these two bugs are all over the place here.

We had a camper come in today that wanted to know if we would knock $5 off the nightly fee if he didn’t use water. Uh, no!

We had a another camper come in that gave us a piece of paper with lots of information on it because they were leaving for the day. Let me explain further. Actually, this is a very good idea for RV’ing pet owners. I’m going to type it just as she did without last names, phone numbers etc.

We, Jim & Becky F. are currently living/staying in our 2002 Newmar Dutch Star motor home. Alaska License XXXXXXX, at Ellsworth AFB RV park, near Rapid City, SD.

Our third family member is a male blonde cocker spaniel, Zach. He is 17 YO and requires no meds, just TLC.

If you find this note, please call the campground to make sure that someone can take care of him in the event we are incapacitated to do so. XXX-XXX-XXXX.

Our cell phone numbers are XXX-XXX-XXXX and XXX-XXX-XXXX.

If no answer/response from either of them, please contact one of our daughters, (Names, phone numbers, email addresses)

If we have been in an accident , please check the surrounding area first as we frequently have Zach with us in the vehicle. He is wearing a collar with a Alaska Rabies Tag and one with his name & our phone number.

Sometimes we may have him boarded at a kennel. If so, this information will be filled in: he is home today as we are touring around the area.

Their automobile description and license plate # was provided here.

I thought this was such a good idea for a pet owner to do. I shared it with Valerie as she is mom to Ghost their dog and Cinderalla their cat. She in turn shared it with Jerry and his wheels started turning!

It wasn’t long before we were presented with Jerry’s version.

NOTICE

We, us, the QUINN’S, Good Olde Bob and Snookeeee, The Gambler, are currently, living, residing, evading the law, on the lam, in our new 62 foot Rhapsody, Country Roads with no plates at an Air Force Base in SD. Its near one of those monuments and is also close to lots of gambling places.

We sold all our horses and donkee’s and pets, BUT, we still want you to make sure, IF, good Olde Bob leaves home, that you will take care of Snookeeee, if she is let ALONE….

If you find this, Bob went to Mexico and so Snookeeee is left on her own. Oh MY!!!! Please call gamblers annonamous, or a good looking young surfer dude to take care of her. She is on lots of MED’s but can be approached by just telling her, YOU CAN WIN, YOU CAN WIN.

Our cell phone numbers are unlisted, unpublished and really hard to get.

If you can find the dam numbers, Call Snookeeee’s best new number one friend, Deadwood Sally, or Panhandle Hadee or Valenico or Lucky Lou or Rouxwinallthedamtime.

If you find that Snookeeee has been in an accident, get Bob a beer and a good ‘57 “B” movie to watch. Make sure his new chair is clean and comfee. Call his on call chef, Jerry. Get him another beer, balance his surround sound and ensure his blankee is clean. Sometimes Bob checks Snookeeee in at the local AA chapter, so check there to. She does not wear any identification but may be wearing her rabies tag from Alaska.

She is knowN for her film work in Kenny Rodgers movie, The Gambler. She was the black jack dealer and also the local blacksmith. Please don’t call Bob, cause him and his new sidekick, TV Tim, will be upgrading something electronic and Bob will be very busy. Did you know the difference between interface and progressive scanning can cause blindness or least piss you off when you see how much more you gotta spend?

I guess you all know that the warrant for her arrest and the blanket and cricket caper is just not true. So please help Missing Bob and ALL (LOL) HER friends need her back.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

One of her best friends…. (Number not available)

WOW….WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE……