Well, we finally picked up our "new old" trailer, and have been on two outings since. For our "maiden voyage" we went to Sumpter (Oregon) and had a ball. The refrigerator worked on and off, but the freezer was steady, so I put water bottles in to freeze, then brought them down to the refrigerator compartment. That seemed to remind the thing how to do its job, so it worked for a while and then got warm again. The water pump does not work, so we just hook up to the tank on the truck and that works fine until we get a new pump installed. The beds are extremely comfortable and we both sleep very well. Sumpter was great: the old Dredge has been leveled and restored, and we took a train ride on the narrow gage steam engine train that runs for six miles through the devastated area - absolutely stunning!

I didn't take the 4-Runner, so the Ford got its work-out on several FS roads. We camped at Phillips Lake at a FS Campground, very quiet, and we had no TV and no Internet! A real vacation!

For our second trip we went to Blewett Pass and stayed at Swauk CG. Again, no TV, no Internet, but lot of excitement nevertheless. We checked out many back roads (with the Ford again), and well, on one of them we just happened to highcenter, ending up sitting right on the oil pan! Whooo hooo! We managed to get out of there after standing on our heads in the ruts and being pretzled around the tire to place the jack in the right spot.... And then I didn't even take ONE picture of it all! I tried to talk Carl into going back but he wouldn't go for it... But this time, the refrigerator worked constantly, so we won't have to get a new one right away. We saw elk and deer and a shepherd with a huge flock of sheep grazing in the middle of the woods! I can't wait for the next outing!

Ok, so I tried my pen at story writing! But the truth is, we DID watch the tall ships "fight" each other here at Tri-Cities in the Columbia River, then we got to tour one of them at the Pasco Harbor and we enjoyed it so much that we decided to take one of the 3-hour tours. All tours at Tri-Cities were sold out already so we booked out of The Dalles. It was well worth it and we plan to do it again next year.

We have been here at Hood Park for a month now. The weather has improved, but we do have rainy days - to keep the grass green... When we came, the trees were bare; now the leaves are out, almost from one day to the next. We've settled into the 5-days-on-5-days-off routine, though it still takes me at least 2 days to "recover" from five early-morning get-ups! I'm no Spring Chick any more!

Carl's 75th birthday was on April 26th. We went out for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in Ahtanum (just west of Yakima), the "Ranch House". Besides regular good food (Carl's choice: Prime Rib), they feature a Chicken Gizzard Plate (ah,yes, I know) which is my favorite. Also for his birthday, Carl bought me a new Camera. Now I'm trying to take pictures of any of the red squirrels that we have quite a few families of here at the park. There are several pairs of Canada geese that just had chicks, and the cherry and dogwood trees in the park and surrounding area make for good photo ops. Check out my "Hood Park" album, and come back occasionally since I will be adding photos to it throughout the Summer.

Well, here we are, in Eastern Washington, and it is cold and rainy... I had applied for a Campground Attendant job at one of the Corps of Engineers Parks here at Tri-Cities and was picked for Hood Park. There were 5 days of Classes at the end of March to learn the computer reservation system and park rules and regulations, and the Parks opened on April 1st. We traveled straight from Ajo to Walla Walla (where the classes were held) and we were extremely lucky with the weather during the trip: Sunny days and cold nights, no snow or rain.

The work schedule is  5 days on, 5 days off,  and I have to spend several hours at the Gate Booth during the day after opening the gate at 6:00 am! We are not very busy as of yet, but the first 5 days were exhausting, since I'm not used to getting up this early! We worked here ten years ago for two seasons, so, on our days off we explored the old "hunting grounds" and did a lot of reminiscing. We will be here for six months and I'm looking forward to the busier time of the year. The Snake is a beautiful river and we enjoy watching the tugs and barges.

We had so much fun in Why that we stayed a second week. Joe and Cleo and Joe's brother Dick and his wife Coletta arrived in time to join us on several wild outings, "wild" referring to pretty tough 4-wheel drive roads. We had heard about Marble Mountain where you can find volcanic geodes. The road was pretty bad, but it was worth it. One evening we had the opportunity to drive to the top of Childs Mountain (not bad road) where we enjoyed a 360 degree view of the world and a beautiful sunset. Another day took us to Charlie Bell Pass, the only legal (dirt) road through Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge. Of course we visited Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and at Ajo we took a peek into the now closed copper mine pit. The weather could not have been any better and we were sorry when the time came to leave...

So, before the month is over, I want to touch on the highlights of our SE Arizona vacation. After a month at Double Adobe Ranch in McNeal, we are now at Hickiwan Trails RV Park in Why, AZ. There is a definite increase in temperature - at McNeal it was in the upper 60's and lower 70's, here we are close to the 90's. We are planning to stay a week and then move to Gila Bend to get our yearly supply of shrimp.

The month at Double Adobe Ranch went by in a flash. During the first week we went to observe the Sandhill Cranes a couple of times, explored Gleeson (an old mining ghost town), took a ride to the Slaughter Ranch Heritage Site and drove some back roads into the mountains. And of course we had to pay a visit to the Bakery Haus in Elfrida - not for the first or the last time! During the second week we did a walk across the border from Douglas to Agua Prieta, did more bird watching, drove through Rucker and Leslie Canyon and investigated the new fence between Mexico and the US from Coronado National Monument to Nogales. At Rucker Canyon we saw some deer and two Javelinas, but they were too fast for me to get a picture. Darn! During the third week we had snow overnight on Tuesday, but it was gone before noon. We checked on the Cranes and the Bakery. Last week we drove to Parker Canyon Lake and did the Geronimo Trail into New Mexico.

We had a great time and are ready for some more adventures here in Why. Make sure you check out the photos!

Well, we were home just about one month when Carl broke his upper dentures, so we had to resort to Plan 2. (Plan 1 had been to spend Winter in Meadview). We decided to go all out: go back to Yuma, get the teeth fixed and then continue on to Bisbee/Douglas. When we were here last, we found a great RV Park, Double Adobe Ranch, which is located less than 10 miles from our favorite Sandhill Crane wintering spot. We spent 10 days in Yuma, this time at Ogilby Road, and after 4 "sittings" with the dentist, Carl is all fixed up! On the way to Double Adobe we spent one night at Picacho Peak State Park and now we are here, all set up for a month. We had rain coming down and some drizzle yesterday while setting up, but today was a beautiful day, sunny with some puffy clouds and temps in the lower 70s. Perfect. We made a short visit to Whitewater Draw, but will go back during the week since there were too many people there today. The Cranes were already there, back from their foraging excursions, and I'm looking forward to spend some days out there watching them. I'm sure I will have loads of pictures. So much for today.

We are housebound with a foot of snow outside, so that makes for plenty of time to do my December write-up. The snow came down 3 days ago, and even though we've had beautiful sunny days since then, it still looks just like Christmas. It is even starting to get me in a Holiday mood! I've done all my Christmas mail (e- and snail), but no decorating inside or out. Here are some photos:

We came home on the 6th of December, and since then we had every kind of weather I can think of: first we had a couple of beautiful, sunny and mild days, then some rain. After that we had a whole day of the worst winds I can remember, and then it snowed. The first days were in the lower 70's, last night it got down to 15.8 degrees! Thankfully, due to some more insulation in the belly, the pipes did not freeze (as they used to at 25 degrees!). We are set up in the "visitor's spot", since we want to pour a cement slab so we can just roll the RV on and be done. It looks like we won't be able to get to that for a while, though. But we're warm and cozy inside and I have a supply of books from the Library: What more could I wish for?

Well, there is not much to report for November: we have been camped at CJ's RV Repair since Nov. 10th, just to get a few things fixed on the RV. Carl told them that we were not in a hurry and to fit us in-between the rush-jobs, so here we are! It is not very scenic - more like a junk yard - but we are hooked up to electricity and water and we are close to shopping and restaurants and there is a "Kneaders" (on of my favorite Bakeries) in just about walking distance, so we're doing a lot of sandwiches and soups-in-bread-bowls for dinner.

We took two trips to Algodones and got our teeth checked and fixed, and finally I got to tour the Yuma Territorial Prison (what's left of it, anyway), something I've wanted to do for years. And of course, we're watching the gas prices go down - wow, now that we're done traveling for the season, it is hitting rock bottom. Even Propane came down! Whoohoo, for the time being!                                                 

We had a great time traveling in October. We spent a week at Tulelake, CA, from where we made excursions to Lava Beds NM and the surrounding National Wildlife Reserves. Then we moved south of McCloud, CA and re-visited Lassen Nat'l Park and the McCloud River Falls. Since the weathermen predicted a cold front, we decided to proceed south via Walker Lake, where we watched the surrounding hills get covered in snow. After sitting out the cold spell there, we took a turn west to 395 and spent 3 days at Crowley Lake, north of Bishop. Of course we visited the Bakery in Bishop and traveling further south we stopped at Manzanar - one of the Japanese Internment Camps during WWII. Our next stop was one day at Red Rock Canyon State Park and then 7 days at an RV Park in Mojave. From there we got to tour the Borax Mine Visitors Center in Boron and the Tehachapi Loop, where the Railroad track makes a perfect circle and the train crosses over itself, gaining 77 feet in altitude. Then, on our way to Yuma, we stopped at Palm Springs for 3 days to visit with Carl's brother Paul. We had a great time with him and took the tram up Mt. St. Jacinto. It is one of only three trams in the world that rotates while moving up and down the mountain. We arrived at Pilot Knob (east of Yuma) on October 26th to 98 degree temperatures. It has cooled down since then and is now quite comfortable in the 80's. Don't forget to check out the new photos!

Whoohoo - I'm still on time! What a busy month September was, and still so much fun. We left Twanoh Falls on the 7th and spent 5 days at the ocean. I collected shells and took lots of pictures. Then we went to Oregon and stayed at John Day Dam, also 5 days. We watched the tugs and Paragliders and took trips into the hills to see all the new windmills there. Then we moved to Redmond (OR) where we were joined by our friends Joe and Cleo for the rest of our trip South. Next we stayed North of Klamath Falls at Williamson River CG from where we visited Carl's sister Sandra who lives in the Bly area on top of the world! Now we are at Tulelake, CA, exploring the Wildlife Refuges and the Lava Caves Monument. In all these travels we had the most beautiful weather and as the nights are getting colder we are seeing more and more Fall colors. Check out the September Travel Album.

The big (and only big) event in July was new baby Charley. He was born (as I had predicted!) on July 28th at 11:23 pm. 8 lbs 1 oz., 20 1/2 inches (altogether!) with a head of black hair. Check out the photos! So, July went out with a bang...

...and August started with a bang: Shannon's Birthday Beach Party. It wasn't a pig roast this year, but there was lots of food, great entertainment (a nice band and an irate neighbor, no less!), delicious home brewed beer and the weather was perfect. Happy Birthday, Shannon!

Well, I missed it, didn't I? That's because nothing much happened - the weather has been pretty bad, so we had very little activity here at the beach; and I didn't take many pictures, either. The only exciting thing was my  yearly physical with another clean bill of health. Oh - I started walking again. Found this little "Google Gadget" from the Cleveland Clinic called "Walk for Good". It's a 20 week program starting out with 3 days a week and then I'm afraid it will be 7 days a week by the end... I hate walking- you know, the mindless kind, up the road and back, or around the block (if there is one), but the little gadget sits in my browser and nags (just mentally) at me, so I do it. I am so strictly a couch and computer chair potato and the walking should (must? will? has to?) be good for me... Maybe in a couple of years they will find out that the best way to preserve your health is by moving as little as possible (like coffee - it used to be bad for you, now it is good for you; or red wine...). Then I will die of an instant heart attack just by thinking about how I got duped into doing all this walking, when I could have read a good book instead!

I will try not to miss July!

We are back home at Hood Canal, WA. Got here on Tuesday (20th), a couple of days ahead of schedule. We wanted to stay at a favorite spot at John Day Dam on the Columbia, but after the 1st day the weather got so bad - cold, WINDY (shucks, we had enough of that in Hummingbird) and rainy, so we decided we might as well get rained on here at Hoods Canal. And we are, but they are short showers with some sun in between. But I guess I was ready to settle down after 20 days of moving.

We went North on 93 from Las Vegas and spent the first night at Pahranagat Reservoir. From there it was a one day trip to Great Basin NP, where we stayed at a great BLM camping area at Sacramento Pass. And finally, I got to take a tour of Lehman Caverns which I had missed on both our prior visits. From Great Basin we decided to move to Spanish Fork, Utah, where we could get some recall work done on the Ford. While the truck was in the shop, we took a trip to Salt Lake City and visited the Mormon Temple and some of the surrounding historical sites. Then we spent 4 days at Bear Lake in a very nice Idaho State Park, free of charge, since it was early in the season. From there, we took a trip to Grey's Lake, but due to a late Spring the road around the lake (and Wildlife area) was still closed in places with snow.

Then we started heading West, stopping three days at our old standby Homedale, ID. From there we decided to go to Plymouth, WA, to visit friends in the Tri-Cities. We stayed at the Corps-of-Engineer Park at the Columbia River sat out a five-day heat wave, quite hot enough to run the air-conditioning most of the day, even under the shady trees, but on the day we left, it cooled down enough to be comfortable at John Day without having to run the air. We visited with friends in The Dalles and headed for home the next day.

Do you like a cell phone with all the bells and whistles? Up until yesterday, I could have cared less for any extras on my phone. A phone should be a device to use for phone calls. I don't need it to play music to  me, check my e-mail or take photos, or even wake me up in the morning...

Well, yesterday I got a bit of a change of mind. We had gone to Vegas to get Carl's special shoes repaired. We dropped them off in the morning and were told to pick them up before 6 pm. So, with time on our hands, we decided to visit Red Rock Park. It is a good time of the year, with flowers abundant, making for great photo opportunities. I snapped away until the "low battery" warning came on. No problem - I always carry spares. I switched batteries, turned on the camera and this time got a "NO batteries" warning, and of course, the camera wouldn't work. Nothing helped: switching individual batteries (there are 4 AA), shaking the camera, stomping my feet - I couldn't make it work. With nostalgia I thought of my old Canon Film SLR: all manual and no battery needed. Maybe I will start packing it again! And then I remembered my cell phone. It does have a built-in camera - not because that's what I had wanted at the time, but I had liked the phone and it happened to have the camera, like it or not.

I spent the rest of our drive through Red Rock Park aiming my phone (it does feel absolutely silly...like maybe I'm trying to call E.T.?) at the scenery and trying to figure out how to make a telephone take pictures. At least it kept me busy enough to forget about destroying the real camera. And at the time, I didn't realize that it would take me the good part of two hours to find the secret of how to get the photos from the cell phone to the computer...

Here are three of the "phone photos:

We stopped at Wal Mart and I bought a battery charger that also plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car, and it charges 4 AA NiMH batteries in 15 minutes. I tried it out, and it works. From now on, I will be prepared with more than just an extra set of batteries.

March was another fairly slow month; the exciting thing was that we had snow on the 16th, probably 2-3 inches, but only for one day. We went to Las Vegas twice for Carl's VA appointments, and got some shopping done. On the 19th, Jim arrived. The weather has been nice and warm lately, with some pretty windy days thrown in. I've been doing a lot of reading, enjoying some of my favorite authors.

And that's all for March!

Well, I procrastinated again, and if February didn't have 29 days this year, I would have missed it! Yesterday was my birthday, but I like the end of February for another reason: I can really notice that the days are getting longer again.

It was another quiet month, though we did get to go to Vegas. Carl had a VA appointment, so we got a chance to go shopping at Trader Joe's and Costco, and we had a great dinner at Arizona Charlie's Casino. Not much photography this month, so I will try and add some old photos from our October trip. I've been doing a lot of reading this month and not so much hanging out on the computer. But now I'm getting ready to do my taxes and I also want to install Open Office to see if I can live with it instead of paying for an MS Office upgrade.

So, goodbye February - hello March!

I looks like I missed December. Not physically - I know I was here, but just did not have much to write about. After last Winter's cold spell, we got busy after we came home to set up for another cold season, hoping it would not get too bad! So far, we haven't gone below 10 degrees and only once did the hot water pipe freeze, but only for a short time. Mostly, it is cold at night, but fairly mild during the day. I busied myself making Calendars for Christmas presents. And I finally broke down and bought a new comforter and an electric mattress pad: what a joy! We went to Kingman and Bullhead City a couple of times: Carl had VA appointments - and we both came down with a cold. Mine lasted only 2 or three days, Carl is still fighting it. I called my sister in Germany on New Years and we had a nice talk.  On Sunday, January 13th, we packed a picnic lunch and went to the South Cove Boat launch at Lake Mead to check the water line. It looks like it is down a good 200 feet by now. On the 23rd we went to Vegas for another VA appointment and some shopping at Trader Joe's and Costco, and then had a nice dinner at Arizona Charley's.