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……