10/29–10/31/2014 Halloween in Quail Run

(Arizona City)

These few days were settling in time for our family members.  Clothes needed to be washed and a grocery store run had to be made.  Bob took Kenny to town (Casa Grande) to show him around, specifically where the VFW was.

The afternoons are spent working on their since faded tans.  We are having really warm temperatures so they are just loving this as it had already turned to fall when they left Delaware.

It’s Halloween time again!

 

The park had a Halloween Block Party.  A peak at some of this year’s costumes.

I can’t say anything about this one because I never did find out who was under this cloak and behind the mask.

Bill, he scared the heck outta me!

This was one of the costume winners.

Our resident DJ, who provided the tunes, turned into

Sheriff Lawrence

 

Cavewoman  -  Elaine

 

Yep, that’s Robert….full of hot air!

Just kidding, just kidding!  Maybe….

What’s Halloween with out a pirate?  (Ron)

Jane, our very own scarecrow!

She was also a contest winner.

Now this costume was a “bust”.

She was going for the Madonna look but couldn’t find the pointy ended cups so she settled for Dixie cups.

So there’s this years Halloween costumes.

10/28/2014 Family Arrives

(Arizona City)

Kenny and Sean arrived today.  Finally!  We have so been looking forward to their arrival.

It sure didn’t take long for them to get comfortable around the pool 

We have lots of things planned for while they are here and we started things off with a dinner in the park model.  I have to tell you, it was nice cooking in that kitchen again.

We spent the evening catching up on all things family and talking about their trip west.

I think after their weeklong auto trip they are glad to be in one place for awhile and not stuck in a car for eight hours a day.

Kenny and Sean, welcome to Arizona!

 

10/24-10/27/2014 Pool Time and a Stage Play

(Arizona City, AZ)

Sitting by the pool is taking up a lot of my hours these past few days and now Bob is working on our park model.

During a monsoon this summer we lost three screens, well, we didn’t lose them they just came down, so he’s putting them back up and making sure all the rest are secure.

He has cleaned out the shed, power washed the outside of our home and our patio is spotless.  I’ve cleaned the inside and he’s helped me with stuff over my head and out of my reach. 

I went to the store to get in stuff like ketchup, mustard, mayo, coffee, sugar, milk, things that they’ll need but I’ll take the leftovers when they leave.  We’re ready for Kenny and Sean to get here.

My friend Bonnie and I went to see a play at the Central Arizona College.  We’ve been to a couple of events there now and they’ve been good so we got tickets for Little Shop of Horrors. 

For those of you who haven’t seen this play it’s part comedy, part rock concert and part horror flick all rolled into one.  Seymour is a nerdy, girl shy, clerk in a failing florist shop.  Seymour turns this nearly bankrupt shop into a hot spot when he brings in a plant he has been growing.  What’s so special about this plant?  It feeds on human blood and flesh.  FEED ME, SEYMOUR, FEED ME!  is the call of the day as the plant grows.

This a version of the plant from a movie studio

 

Prop dept at the college version.

 

The singing cast.

I’ve seen the movie and I enjoyed it.  This version?  Eh, not so much.  The music was too loud, which having a half empty auditorium may have something to do with.  One fellow who had a pretty big part just could not sing.  Needless to say we left after the first of the two act play.

We’ll we go back?  Oh sure!  Like I said, we’ve seen some good shows here.

10/13-10/23/2014 Soakin’ Up Sunshine!

(Arizona City, AZ)

We are in heaven!  Sunshine, blue skies, warm air, but not too warm, connecting with friends, yep, life is good.  We are the happy campers you hear so often about.

Bob is puttering around, tweaking our set up, organizing our basement, cleaning out the truck and getting all the tools back where they belong.  He’s busy but working at his own pace and lovin’ every minute of it.

I’m spending my days driving here and there, lovin’ havin’ my own wheels again.  When I’m not running to the store for this or that I’m at the pool.  I’m soaking up every sun ray I can and I have color once again.

We’re going to have company!  My uncle and cousin are coming out to spend some time with us.  Bob and I are very close to Kenny and we spent many a vacation with him and my late aunt, Winnie.  So Kenny and his son, my cousin, Sean are coming out.  We are going to show them the sights while they are here.

Not many in the park as of right now so there isn’t a whole lot going on to write about.

10/11–10/17/2014 Settling in Week

(Arizona City, AZ)

It’s been a busy week.  We are completely set up now.  Nick-knacks are out, family pictures are unwrapped from towels and T-shirts they were wrapped in for traveling.  Rubber shelf liner is pulled from in between the dishes and put away and our computers and printer are set up in their normal places for the winter.

Our park model made it through the summer with no problems other than 3 of our screens being blown off during the high winds associated with the monsoon season.  Thankfully, our friend who lives here fulltime found them and put them away for us.

My car was also a mess!



Our cactus grew a lot while we were gone!  All of our landscape plants made it through the monsoons and it looked it pretty good.

 

Three years ago this was on “leaf” or “ear”.  Look at it now!

 

 

Cactus are not friendly plants!

I got my wheels back!  Bob put the battery back in for me and brought it to the RV site from the park model.  I haven’t driven, not once, since we left here last April.  I never drive when we are towing the rig and once we got to Virginia the road up and down the mountain was so twisty and winding that I didn’t care if I drove or not.  Besides, when one of us had reason to get off the mountain, the other was just so glad to go too.  So I have wheels and I am a very happy camper. 

I took advantage of having a car at my disposal the very next day.  I went to town and I took as long as I wanted in the grocery store and then I went to another one.  I wasn’t on anyone else’s schedule, I didn’t have anyone waiting on me and I wasn’t waiting on anyone else.  I enjoyed it so much that I went again the next day!

Towards the end of the week we attended a get together with friends of ours and others who are in the park.  It was a nice chance to catch up with everyone who is here so far.

(Elaine, Bonnie and Marilyn)

(Bob & Al)

(Bev & Babe)

 

(Ron, Lawrence & Earl)

 

It is so good to be back in Quail Run.  Home.

10/9/2014 Quail Run at Last!

(Arizona City, AZ)

We couldn’t wait to get on the road this morning. We had just a few hours drive and we’d be back in our winter perch.

Quail Run, you never so looked so good!  We wasted no time in starting to get set up.  It will take several days before everything is done but the rig was stable by the end of the day.

There aren’t many people here at all.  Very few RV’s so there is lots of open space.

It was great to connect with girlfriends, Bonnie and Bonnie and Sandy.

We are so glad to be here!

10/9/2014 Don’t Blow Your Breaker!

In the past few weeks that we’ve been on the road we have come across several people who blamed the campground or Famcamp or RV park for having inferior electrical supply.  Their breakers kept tripping and surely it was not their fault.   Hmmmm,,,,,I wonder.

 

Let’s take a look at how many AMPS you could be using in your RV’s 30 or 50 AMP electrical systems.  I think you will find it surprising how fast the AMPS add up which causes your breaker or the RV Parks breaker to “trip” or shut down.  Knowing the AMPS of all the electrical appliances in your RV can help you manage electrical use and prevent the inconvenience of “MY ELECTRICITY WENT OUT!”  This list is the typical appliances used and the average AMPS required to operate them.

Air Conditioner                12.5 amps
Electric Water Heater       12.5 amps
Microwave Oven              12.8 amps
Electric Coffee Pot             9.0 amps
Toaster                              10.0 amps
Hair Dryer                        10.0 amps
TV                                      2.0 amps
Dirt Devil Hand Vacuum   2.0 amps
Electric Frying Pan          10.0 amps
Iron                                  10.0 amps
Food Processor                  6.0 amps
Crock Pot                           1.5 amps
Heating Pad                         .5 amps

 

Example:

In the morning if you start your air conditioner and hot water is on, then you start your coffee pot, make some toast and watch TV – you are pulling 55 amps when all appliances are operating at maximum, if you cook your bacon in the microwave at the same time – LOOK OUT!  Most RV’s have a switch so that you can run only the microwave or the water heater at one time.  That said, not all RV’s have this feature.


Most electrical products show how many watts or amps it takes to operate them on the product itself or on the instructions.  If it shows the watts, divide the watts by 120 (volts) and that will give you the amps.  to get the watts multiply the amps by 120 (volts).  It’s worth your time to take an inventory on the AMPS each of your electrical appliances uses.  then you can manage your total usage at one time and this greatly reduces the “MY ELECTRICITY WENT OUT” anxiety.

I hope this helps our RV friends get a handle on just how many AMPS everything takes and prevents some unnecessary breaker tripping.

10/8/2014 A Visit with a Friend

(On the Road & Fort Huachuca)

One more stop before we’re back in Quail Run but we’re looking forward to this stop.  We’re heading to Fort Huachuca to meet up with our friend Richard.  We met him our very first year in Quail Run and have kept in touch ever since.  We haven’t seen him in two years now so this will be a nice visit.

This is a sign I’ve been looking for!

It was good to see the long trains again.


You know, I never get tired of the scenery, especially when the clouds are a big part of it.




Bob was watching the GPS and said, “Snook, get your camera ready, you are going to want to get a picture of this!”

This never looked so good!

We found ourselves in a short downpour as we were getting set up for the night.

Richard came over and we ordered pizza in for dinner.  It was great to catch up with our friend and we’ll see him again this season as he is also in Arizona for the winter.

Tomorrow….home for the winter!

10/7/2014 Fixed At Last!

(Albuquerque, NM)

We were up and ready to vacate the RV so that the technicians could get started fixing our wheel problem.

I found a little lunch room inside the building and settled in with my book, which I never cracked open, and my laptop, which got a good workout. Bob started out with a walk so that he stayed out of their way.

Right at 8 a.m. the work commenced and just over three hours later we were done.  All is well, we’re ready to roll.

Even though our extended warranty took care of the one wheel, parts and labor, we were responsible for having the other wheels looked at and part replaced.  We were expecting a bill around $400 to $450.  We were extremely pleased to be handed a bill for $248.00  They didn’t use all the time allotted for fixing the wheel that the warranty covered so the excess pay for labor time was applied to our portion of the labor bill for the extra work we wanted done.  We were very pleased that Tom’s RV worked this in our favor.  He didn’t have to but he’s a fair business man.  It was a pleasure doing business with this man and his technicians.

We wouldn’t usually start out on the road this late in the day but this whole ordeal just took too much of our time as it was and were ready to head west!

On the road again….


We noticed lots of standing water on the roadsides which means the area got a boatload of rain!




And of course more rain was in the forecast and the clouds were rolling in.



It did spritz a little bit but we didn’t have a real downpour.  We hadn’t seen one of these in a long while.  Kinda felt like home seeing the border patrol checkpoint.


We got as far as Truth or Consequences today and we were happy with that.

Oh, its good to be on the road again!

10/6/2014 What Goes Up Must Come Down

(Albuquerque, NM)

Well, we made it through the night.  Dry ice is still keeping everything frozen and the batteries didn’t go dead on radio.  All is right with my world.

We sat outside this morning to pass the time and talked to the occasional people that passed by.  I read more of my book and was paying total attention to the pages when I heard somewhat of a commotion.  I looked up and saw a balloon flying kind of low.


A small crowd is starting to gather because we know its coming down and there is a busy road very close by.

And it got lower and lower….


It was one rough landing!


The air caught the balloon and the gondola was just dragged across the rough terrain.  Having experienced a jarring landing myself when we went ballooning, I can’t imagine what it was like for these people to be dragged across the ground.




The chase car arrived and seemed from our vantage point that everyone seemed unscathed and none the worse for wear.

Soon everyone who had gathered to watch went on with their days and I returned to our home.

Bob and I were bored to death after awhile.  We couldn’t go to the dealership until 4 o’clock this afternoon and we needed something to do.  I suggested we hook everything up and take off.  We did and here is where we landed.


Now, as a rule, Bob and I would not go to the casino.  I’d just as soon take a match and set twenty dollar bills on fire, the end result would be the same.  But….desperate times call for desperate measures.

Its been quite awhile since we’ve been in a gambling establishment and I got caught up in the bells and whistles and colorful machines as soon as we walked in.  There was a very convenient bank of ATM machines just inside the door.  I felt like our bank account had been pillaged with the ATM fees charged!

It had been so long since we had been in a casino that we heard to learn how things were done nowadays.  The days of buckets with quarters are gone now,,,,at least they are at this casino.  Everything is done by paper money and slips of paper.

I sat down at one machine and it wasn’t long before I hit something.  What, I didn’t know but the bells and whistles and flashing lights were going.



I was hoping for big bucks but ended up with only free games.  I have to admit, the free games did keep me going for awhile.

Since we hadn’t had breakfast this morning we took a break to have lunch.  Of course we had to “cash out” our machines.  Here’s what Bob had won so far.


Of course, I had my own cash out ticket. 


Don’t laugh!  Don’t you dare laugh!
 
We both decided to just hang on to them because we were coming back after lunch.

After lunch, anybody wanna guess what I had (?), we hit the slot machines again.  Bob did pretty well overall.  He left with what he started with but I, on the other hand, walked out with my wallet $40 lighter.  It was worth forty bucks to be in the air conditioning, having a good lunch and sharing a bunch of laughs with Bob.

We finally made our way to the RV dealership where the work is going to be done tomorrow.  They moved some rigs around to make room for us so that we could hook up to their electric and water.  They gave us a key to the gate in case we wanted to go out.  Had we known that we would have come over Friday but declined their offer thinking we would be locked in all weekend.  We should have really thought it through more and we would have figured out that they wouldn’t just lock us in and leave.  Oh well, it all worked out in the end.  We’re here and we’re going to get fixed, well, our wheel is going to get fixed.

We spent the evening watching TV, turning lights off and on, using our laptops and enjoying the electricity.     :-)

10/5/2014 We Have to Leave the Campground

(Albuquerque, NM)

We had to leave our campsite in the Famcamp today because we have reached the end of our 14 day stay.  Normally, if the campground wasn't completely full like it is now we would be allowed to extend our stay.  However, that isn’t the case during Balloon Fiesta week.  I spent the morning on the phone trying to find a space somewhere for us.  There wasn’t one to be had.  Every single campsite within a 25 mile radius is filled.  So we’ll have to “boondock”.  Exist without electricity.  Oh, how we hate this.

We didn’t have to be out of our site until 11 o’clock and we were determined to use every bit of electricity we had coming to us and we were going to stay until the very last minute.  The reason?  Our standalone freezer. The freezer over our fridge wouldn’t be a problem because we turn that one on using propane.  Our little freezer is also filled with meat.

After filling our fresh water tank so that we had water and could flush and getting the rig ready to move, we took our place in overflow.  We so don’t like this.  We like our electricity!

After setting up in the dusty field we took off in search of dry ice.  We found a grocery store about twelve miles away that had it.  Because it was pretty warm we had to add the dry ice so that the freezer contents didn’t start to thaw.  We won’t have electricity again until about four o’clock tomorrow afternoon.

We noticed these sticker things that we kept walking on as we walked barefoot in the house.  Little buggers hurt!  It wasn’t until I was sitting in the truck with my foot up that we discovered they where they were coming from!

We had dinner in the food court since there would be no cooking in my kitchen tonight.  That definitely worked for me.

The evening was spent using our batteries on our laptops till they ran out, then it was reading

I have to go to sleep with noise, the TV on or a talk radio station.  If its too quiet I can’t get to sleep and if I do fall off then I toss and turn.  I was so thankful that Bob reminded me that we had a battery operated radio.  I found a talk radio station and drifted off to dreamland.

10/4/2014 Balloon Fiesta

(Albuquerque, NM)

We were up at o’dark thirty this morning.  We had to be at the other end of Albuquerque by 5:30a.m to get a parking space and be out on the field before the Mass Ascension of the hot air balloons started.

Traffic was moving great and all of a sudden we came to a dead stop.  It seemed several roads from all directions were being funneled in a two lane road to the parking areas.  It was a good thing we got the early start that we did.

It was only in the 50’s so I was glad I wore a sweatshirt.  Bob forgot his jacket so the first order of business was to get him something long sleeve.  We went into the big tent where all the souvenir t-shirts, jackets and sweatshirts were on display.  Of course they were all dated with the year and this year’s clothing line was expensive!  One of the young guy’s must have heard me complaining about the high prices because he showed me where all the sale items were.  T-shirts, long sleeve T’s, jackets, all greatly reduced  We’re talkin’ pennies on the dollar reduced!  I held up a long sleeve shirt in Bob’s size and started looking for holes or something that would reduce the price so drastically.  It didn’t take long to figure out.  Balloon Fiesta 2013.  It was last year’s shirt.  Who cares?  It would keep him warm until the sun came up.

There were soooo many people.  Thousands!

Getting’ ready for liftoff.

Then the balloons lifted in to the air.  What a sight to behold.  Five hundred and nine balloons took flight this morning.







There were lots of oohs and aahs to be heard all through the crowd when another wave of balloons took off.






This is our second time at Balloon Fiesta, as unplanned as this trip was, and I find the Mass Ascension just as thrilling and exciting this time as I did back in 07.












We’ll end this with a wise owl.

We’re were so glad we went to this once again.  Its something you never tired of.