Up, up and away...

One of our snowbird friends (Jerry Brown from Bronson, Michigan) is an RC airplane hobbyist. He belongs to a very active RC club here in Havasu City. The club has built a mini airport complete with a paved runway and control tower in a public park south of town. The other day Teddy and I drove over to watch Jerry fly his Plane(s). His main plane is very large being 30% in size to the plane from which it is modeled. It sports a 5 hp gas motor simular to those used in weed whackers. It is truly amazing to see him put the plane through its paces with barrel rolls, loop the loops, dives and vertical climbs.
Before takeoff they start the plane in this starting block for a preflight controls check.




Then it's takeoff!







And Off We Go...

Quartzsite

Yesterday we drove down to Quartzsite, AZ for the day to attend the annual RV Show as well as the Craft & Gem Show. We first broused part of the Gem & Mineral area. I bought these agates, amythists, & hematites with the intention of attaching them to the top of golf tees for custom P&J pegs. Teddy bought some quartz crystal specimens.Then we drove over to the "BIG TENT" area where the RV show was being held. We oohed and aahed several expensive MHs and 5W trailers.

Then tireing of that we went (Teddy walking, me on my Segway) into the big tent to brouse some of the vendors. There are literally thousands of vendors hawking their wares and I don't think that we saw half of them.
Finally tireing of the croud we ducked out and headed back to Havasu City; stopping on tha way back at Parker, AZ to dine at a delightful little Scottish restaurant called McDonalds.

Steak Fry

Last night the park had a steak fry at the clubhouse. Been planning for it for a couple of weeks and ended up with over 100 people signed up.











For $5.00 you got a steak, baked potato w/choice of toppings, grilled bread, salad & coffee.








Then afterward we had live entertainment followed by dancing.

Entertainment was provided by The Korte Family Singers. They are a family group of 5 natural sisters from Saskatchewan, Canada. They regaled us with folk, gospel and old standards, interspersed with humor.At one point they picked Jim Babcock (shown here) from the audience to pantomime a song with them.

Cuckoo

Back in Appleton before we sold our house we had both a Grandfather clock & a Cuckoo clock and we sort of miss the hourly announcements of the passage of time. We realized that we now cannot accommodate a Grandfather clock...but... what about a cuckoo clock? Well, I researched cuckoos on the web and we found this owl cuckoo that we liked, ordered it, and it arrived this Monday. We like the carved owls & log design in that it is a little different from the traditional "chalet" style cuckoos.
Nazzie was quite interested in it at first but thankfully, like me, his attention span is quite short and he has gone back to his ongoing study of the hummers that daily visit our feeders.

Margarita Monday!

About once a month or so we have what we call a "Margarita Monday". The ladies all go down to a local watering hole for Margaritas at 4 pm and then we men drive down and join them at five.
However last week the ladies proposed that we do it in the clubhouse and the men would come at five and cook dinner.





So last evening we accepted the challenge. We bought burgers, cooked (heated) up a "Nesco" cooker of beans, bought chips, etc. As you can see everyone appeared to have a real good time. Afterward we played cards for the rest of the evening.
Of course the ladies got to eat first. You can see some of the guys lurking in the background waiting for their chance to belly up to the bar.
Click on photo to enlarge and see if you can find Teddy.

IT's COLD!

Snapped this pict when I got up yesterday morning. Had to break out the long-johns. Seems that the world has turned topsey-turvey. Unseasonably warm in the north and cold in the south. I told Teddy that if this keeps up, folks from Arizona will be going to Canada for the winter. Oh well... as Mark Twain once said, "Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it."

Memory Foam Mattress

The mattresses that manufacturers put in new trailers are generally bottom of the line mattresses and the one in our new Cardinal was not an exception.
Teddy had been complaining of backaches and I was waking up with my arms going to sleep. So we decided to upgrade to a better mattress. After extensive internet research and talking to other owners we decided to go with a "Memory Foam" mattress. If you aren't familar with memory foam it is a foamlike material developed by NASA, that contours to your body and temporarily holds it's shape when depressed. I researched brands & vendors and we finally purchased on-line from Healthy Foundations.
The mattress that came with the Cardinal was king size but we decided to go with a queen so before the new one arrived I had to cut down the bed platform to queen size. The mattress ships vacuum packed and rolled up so that it can be shipped by UPS. When I cut the binding, it rolled flat still in it's vacuum pack and was about two inches thick. Then when we cut the plastic vacuum sleeve and removed it, the mattress swelled to 10" thick in a matter of minutes. It was an amazing process to behold.
Well...we have now slept three nights on it and are quite pleased. Back in Appleton we had a "water bed" for many years and it feels something like a waterbed on steriods; sort of like a waterbed that you sink into. The feeling is hard to describe...It feels firm but yet soft, which doesn't make sense but I cannot think of another way to describe it. At any rate we think that we are going to enjoy our new mattress and look forward to many restful nights on it.

BCS Bowl

Last night we had a big "BCS Bowl" party in the clubhouse.






We had snacks & drinks with the game between Florida and Ohio State projected onto the big screen.




There were two "dollar a square" pools going that payed $25.00 per quarter as well.






Needless to say, neither Teddy nor I won anything.







From these picts you can see that everyone was having a real good time.











.

Shopping

Teddy made her daily walk down to the Wal-Mart plaza and back today, a distance of about 6 miles round trip. She isn't much into shopping but always comes back with a few small incidentals. Today, though when she came back she asked me what I had been doing and I said that I had been shopping.
She said, "Where?".
Me, "Maine".
She, "Maine?".
Me, "Yup, L.L.Bean."
Gawd, I love shopping on the internet. I was able to buy a couple of polo shirts and never leave my chair. And they'll be delivered right to my door. In the past three months I've bought a TV mounting arm, shoes for Teddy (twice), a camera, computer software, some books and a mattress. All over the internet. Welcome to the 21st century, folks.
And yet...I feel that I was born a generation too soon...what wonders will my son, Mike see in his lifetime?

Da Wind she blow, blow, blow

It was a beautiful warm day yesterday...high in the 70s. Sat out and basked in the sun, warm overnight but high winds and cooler temps moved in today. The trailer was rockin' but alas, it was only the wind! ;-).
When I came back from morning coffee this morning I snapped these picts of the sun coming up.Looking southeast from the park across Hwy 95.
"Dawn's Early Light"
Looking due west from our trailer. The Colorado river (not visable) is just the other side of the houses in the forground and the mountains in the background are on the Californis side of the river.