Quilting Day

1/14/2013

It is still cold and so we stayed inside most of the time. Everyone is bundled up.

 The day turned into a quilting day. I finished another quilt top.  One more top done for Christmas. When we get home Ray will quilt it. The pattern was a free pattern that I down loaded from the internet.  

During my retirement party Larry (School Finance Director for the Office of Education), who retired about 6 months before I did, gave me a piece of advice. He told me not to try to get everything done at once, you are retired and you do not have to be of the mindset where there is a limited time frame to accomplish what needs to be done or what you want to get done in a day, as when you were working.  There is always tomorrow. I need to take his advice.
 I finished one quilt have another one almost done and two books read. (I have been retired for 15 days.  It still feels like a vacation and I need to get everything done before I go back to work.)

Here is the finished quilt top except for the boarders around the edges.

There are more rigs in today. They are saying that there are five more than this time last year. Before it was over last year, someone said that there were about 139 rigs at Boomerville. At the 4:00 o’clock get together more people braved the cold wind.

We learned a new game; we were invited over to play Pegs and Jokers.  It was fun and it sounds like it is a popular game with this crowd. It is a combination of cards and a board game, similar to Sorry with our dice.

Quiet Sunday

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sorry about not posting yesterday. It was so cold, that we mostly stayed inside all day. We did manage a short walk, about a mile.  We went to the Boomer’s daily get together held about 4:00. It was so cold that everybody started to go back to their rigs after about a half hour. One good thing was that we learned about a new app, just what Ray needs, a new app to play with! I have to admit that this app does sound good, it is a history app, called History Here (and it is free).  Today’s social lasted longer—no wind. Everyone is very friendly and more than willing to help us newbies.

Last night two more rigs arrived.  Soon the area will be filled.  There are a lot of activities planned. Some of the events are: chili cook-off, pancake breakfast, and a trip to the Desert Bar located out in the middle of the desert. We were told that it was a must see. We will have our coke.

There are now about 20 rvs at the Boomers area. There are two places with Boomers one with all solar and the other with solar and generators.  We are in the combined solar and generators area.

Today not much is going on, church and a drive into Parker to the Wal-Mart and for more propane. Last night it was 30 degrees, better than home. There it was 2 degrees. Tonight home will be -5 degrees.  I’m glad that we are at Quartzsite.  Friday the temperature here will greatly improve up to 70 degrees.

We had lunch at Burger King so Ray could get his internet fix and catch up on all the blogs that he follows.

There is a new gadget I would like to share.  It is perfect for reading or for sewing.  It is called the HUGlight. We found ours at Costco.  They come in a package of two.  It was perfect to read in bed and not use the 5er’s power.  What I really like about it is that I can turn mine off and roll over and Ray can continue to read without the light bothering me.

                                                 Here is the view outside our dinning window. 

Made It To Quartzsite

Friday, January 11, 2013

Last night we were trying to put pictures on our blog and still couldn't get them on. I got tired of trying with no results, so I email Rick Doyle. After several emails, he suggested I load Goggle Chrome and see if we could get them to load, as he had cases of Internet Explorer and Google not working with each other. As soon as it was installed, the missing button was there and we could load pictures. I admit to being a greenhorn at this blog stuff, and Rick was a real lifesaver. He also told me that the word verification was on and how to turn it off. I really couldn't have made it without him. If you don’t already read his blog, check it out at Rick & Paulette’s RV Travels.

Our day today started normally, me on the computer drinking my Mountain Dew. Cindy plugged in the electric grill to cook pancakes. We had two electric heaters going and the fireplace. All at once we lost electric power and everything shut down. I checked the incoming power and the power into the inverter. Everything checked out ok. So, then I took out one of my shelves in the basement and checked the transfer switch. Still ok.  Finally I started to look at the inverter, and found a reset I had forgotten about. When I pushed it, we had our power back. We decided that we had too much going for the reset.

 We left Boulder City at about 11:00 and finally headed for Quartzsite. I set the GPS for somewhere in Lake Havasu and went on our way. We got about 50 miles past Kingman and decided that we had gone the wrong way. When we pulled over and reset Mabel (my Garmin GPS) we found out we had added an extra 100 miles to our trip, so instead of arriving at 3:00, we arrived just after 5:00. Cindy gave me a bad time about my mistake, because she says I usually set Mabel from our house to Orem, which is about 30 miles. She was laughing at the time, so it was all in fun.

We were wondering how to find the Boomers, and I had written down the co-ordinates, but couldn't load them into Mabel. I had also looked on Google Earth and had written down directions. We were about to give up and go back to where we had seen Escapees. We pulled into where we thought they were, and asked someone if he knew where they were. His reply was: you are lost. He then laughed and said we had found them.

So here we are for the next 2 weeks. 

Thanks Von for the Sparkling Apple Drink

On To Boulder City, Nevada

Thursday January 10, 2013

Today we went to the estate sale.  It was every bit as good as Patrick said it was. He is the owner of A1 Estate Sales in Salt Lake. We see him so often, that he really treats us well. One of the things that caught Cindy’s eye was quite a large set of Lennox Holiday china. It really complements the set of it she already has. There are numerous serving pieces, lot of plates and cups. Then there was the problem of getting it home. While she was thinking about it, we found what turned out to be another large assortment of paper and kitchen supplies. Patrick finally told us that if we bought the Lennox, he would haul it to Salt Lake for us and store it for us until the end of March, when we go home to get ready to go to Alaska, so we took him up on it.

Our stash!!!

After that, we went back to the bus garage to visit with Launie and Jackie. Launie invited us to go to lunch with her, so we took her up on that. We went to Dickie’s BBQ, which we had never been to before. Cindy got the pulled pork and I had the turkey breast. They were both excellent. But the best part of it was visiting with Launie and catching up with each other lives.

 Washington School District's Bus Garage

We left St George at about 1:15 and headed south. It was sure windy to drive coming into Las Vegas. It blew from when we entered the Virgin River narrows. A lot of it was a pretty strong side wind, which made driving kind of difficult. Once we reach Interstate 515, we had the same wind but it was a tail wind, so driving was not as bad. We arrived at the Elks RV park in Boulder City at about 4:00 our time (3:00 their time). It turned out to be a very nice, small RV park. It’s hard to beat for $20.00 a night. It has full 50 amp hook-ups. We may stay here if it’s still blowing tomorrow, otherwise on to Quartzsite.

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This is a picture of the Elks campground.

Start of Our New Life

Wedneday January 9. 2013

Today was the start of our new life. We left home about 9:30 this morning.  It was about 19 degrees. We arrived in St George about 3:30. It was 62 degrees. What a difference! We filled the fresh water tank, and parked the 5er at the school bus garage. We waited till St George to fill the water tank because it has been too cold at home.  Launie, the transportation director was kind enough to invite us to stay at the bus garage, as Cindy was the Transportation Auditor until she retired. On the way down we stopped in Cedar City so Cindy could see Danny the Iron County Transportation Director, as he was unable to get to Cindy’s retirement party.

Tomorrow we are going to an estate sale at 9:00. Our friend that puts on estate sales, has been telling us about this one for at least 3 months, and says it should be a good one.  We shall see.

After the sale we will hook back up and drive to Boulder, Nevada and hope to stay at the Elks RV Park in Boulder to stay ahead of the bad weather. We want to be in Quartzsite on Friday.  

Two Hundred Dollars Later

Wednesday I went out in the snow to hook the truck to the 5er. When I tried to start it, click, click, click. OH, ----. I put the trickle charger on the batteries and the first thing Thursday, the charger said it was fully charged. It was so cold, (5 F) that I decided to wait until afternoon to try to start it.
I told Rob, the mechanic in the repair shop by my shop about it. He said that with 6 years on the batteries, he would bet that they were bad, and he would come over and check the batteries for me.
He put his tester on them and part of the test is to try to start the truck. It still wouldn't turn over and the tester printed out that I had a dead cell. Oh joy! Like the title says, $200 dollars later, I had 2 new batteries. I guess better now than in Quartzsite. The good part was, I didn't know I had a block heater on the truck, or where to find the plug. Rob said he had never seen a diesel with out one, and helped me find it. After putting new batteries in and plugging in the block heater, the truck started like it would in July.

Friday was officially my last day to work. In my former life 40 years ago, I was a construction company mechanic. I had my tool boxes in my shop and decided to bring them home. I used to move the boxes by myself, but I had to get help to load them onto my pick-up. I really don't remember them being so heavy. They must have gained weight sitting in the shop for all those years. It was about all two of us could do to load them.

Anyway, I think all we have left to do to leave on the ninth, is to load the trailer. It has been so cold and icy out, that Cindy has been afraid to load the trailer. Last time she slipped on the ice, she broke her elbow and was laid up for a month. She had to sleep in a chair for that month because she also wrenched her back. Her elbow is still wired together, as her doctor said it wouldn't hurt to leave the wires in as long as they didn't bother her. I used to kid her about the metal detectors at the airports, but she hasn't had any problems with that.  Our back yard is a sheet of ice, but we are supposed to get a heat wave starting tomorrow, clear up to 23 F and 40 F by Wednesday.  I personally am more than ready to leave for warmer weather, while Cindy is still nervous about retiring.

One Week to Go!

 

 

It is almost time to leave.  The last few weeks have been so busy with retirement party, Christmas, and New Year’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 One of the highlights was going to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas concert and seeing the lights at Temple Square.  The guest performers this year were Alfie Boe and Tom Brokaw.  Mr. Brokaw told the story of Colonel Gail Halvorsen known as the "Candy Bomber".  During the Berlin blockade, Halvorsen started by giving candy to the children outside the base. He wanted to do more, so he told the children that he would drop candy as he flew over the children. He would wiggle the wings of his aircraft so the children would know it was his plane out of the many that were flying overhead. The children nickname him “Uncle Wiggly Wings” At the end of Tom Brokaw’s tribute, Colonel Havorsen walked on stage.  As he walked on stage small parachutes with candy fell from the ceiling. Everyone in the audience was on their feet, some with tears in their eyes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My co-workers gave me a nice retirement party.  What was a surprise, was my son who lives in Phoenix walked up behind me. I have not seen Scot for about two years.  (My Christmas present from Ray.) I would like to say thanks to my co-workers for the great send out off.

 

 

Christmas was hectic! We are not use to having grandchildren on Christmas morning.  Children are what makes Christmas fun, to see their excitement and enthusiasm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like Santa was here...

 

 

 

 

 

After presents were opened, it was off to my mother’s home.  That is  where the family meets; my other children, grandchildren and two great-grandchildren that live in Orem and my sister and her husband.

New Year’s was spent watching movies and veg’ing out. Not too exciting.

 

 

Now it is time to gather up items to pack the 5er so we can leave.  We are scheduled to leave on the 9^th for St. George then on to Quartzsite to meet up with the Boomers.