Goodby 2006--Hello 2007

Today is the last day of 2006. The guys have a morning coffee every morning from 6:30 to 8 am and I took this picture at about 8 this morning as I was coming back.
It is now about 5 pm and we just finished dinner. Yesterday we were at the grocery and they had these great looking NY strips. We wern't dissapointed, they were delicious.
Tonight we are going to have a New Year party in the clubhouse from 7 till......? Everyone is supposed to bring munchies, I'm bringing hot pork cracklins and pickled eggs (I love "bar food"). Teddy is bringing some little pizza squares.
"Till.....?" will probably be no later than 10 pm as most of the "senior" set here in the park are usually in bed by then. Now that I think of it, the ball in Times Square will drop at 10 our time anyway.

Waffles

Every Saturday from 7 to 9:30am we "Snowbirds" here in the park make breakfast in the clubhouse. We staff it with volunters and charge a $5.00 (donation) per person to cover expenses. We offer scrambled eggs, sausages, biscuts & gravey, pancakes, waffles, coffee and juice. From the profits we have been able to buy two restaurant style waffle makers, hold Christmas & Valentines dinners and sponsor other various activities. Ross Peterson (from Ontario) and I are the waffle makers. Here we are hard a work this morning. Photography by Teddy.

Country Music USA

Last evening a bunch of us here in the park carpooled up to Laughlin, NV to go to the "Country Music USA" show at the Ramada Casino. I think that there were 25 of us in five vehicles.





But first some of us went out to dinner. Teddy & I had dinner at the "Colorado Belle" casino with Jim & Irene Over (on the left) and Ross & Carol Peterson (far end and far right).

The show consisted of several sets featuring country music star impersonaters including...
Hank Williams

Garth Brooks


and Shania Twain.

Had a real fun time.

Morning coffee

Every morning from about 6:30 to 8:30 a bunch of us guys get together for a BS coffee session in the clubhouse. Conversation usually centers around trucks, fishing and lies about our sexual prowess. Clockwise from the Christmas tree are Jerry Brown, Michigan; Laverne Schumacher, Iowa; Larry Weber, Minnesota; Ross Peterson, Ontario; Jim Babcock, Oregon; and the empty chair in the back is mine as I'm taking the picture.
Wednesday morning the park springs for sweet rolls and the pastry of choice are these apple fritters. They are huge, loaded with grease and unbelievably good. I always bring one back for Teddy. She tells me not to bring one back for her but I notice that she always eats it.

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Christmas is icummen'

Sunday afternoon some of us got together and decorated the clubhouse for Christmas. Here are a few shots of us plying our artistic talents.



Some of the guys hung lites outside









While the rest worked inside.


















This was a long reach for Teddy
Afterward we all got together for a chicken (turkey?) soup supper.

$$$

Teddy has an uncanny talent for finding money. She enjoys taking long walks and usually takes walks of from three to six miles every day. She often walks round trip from the park to the Wal-Mart plaza which is about three miles south of us or about two miles north to Home Depot. Without fail she always comes back with money that she has found along the way. It is usually small change but twice she has come back with folding money. Once it was a twenty dollar bill and the other time it was a ten. She has been keeping track of her finds on her computer and so far this year she has found $57.21. She also sometimes comes back with various new items (towels, clothes etc.) which have apparently flown out of the back of pickups after they leave Wal-Mart.
Her secret...keep your eyes open and your head down!

Brrrrrrrrr!

It has been unseasonably cold here in Lake Havasu with nighttime temps dipping into the 40s. Fortunately becasuse of the cloudless sunny skys it usually warms up during the day. However.............................. Yesterday when I got up it was really cold! And today it was worse!
But I see on the TV news that folks back in the Great Lakes area are really getting hammered so I'm not complaing too loudly, at least I don't have to shovel snow.
???? Hmmm...come to think of it...I didn't much shovel snow back in Wisconsin..........TEDDY DID!

Nasdaq

Ever since our cat Simba passed away last summer Teddy has been wanting to get another cat. I have been resisting saying, "I don't want to get another pet that will outlive me!" However I finally caved in and today we went to the local humane shelter and adopted a 6 month old black and white kitten which we named Nasdaq or Nazzy for short. He is a frisky little fellow and has quickly made himself at home, running up and down the trailer with full kitten enthusiasm.














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Anna's Hummingbird

We have been feeding some visiting Anna's Hummingbirds since arriving here in Lake Havasu last month. Snapped these picts through the window yesterday.

Pack Rat...the rest of the story

We at first thought that the Pack Rat that we encountered when we first arrived here in Havasu was a local guy. However, it soon became evident that, NO...he had hitched a ride with us up in Colorado and was living happily in the ceiling of the trailer. Every night we could hear him running around up there. This proved to provoke a lot of discussion among us and other RVers here in the park as to our best course of action. We knew that he came out on nightly raids for food, water and shiny things so we visited the local Home Depot and armed ourselves with snap traps, sticky traps and DeCon snacks. This was war and we were determined to win. For the first week he snapped the traps w/o getting caught, avoided the stickys and ignored the DeCon. However he must have been getting hungry as the DeCon disappeared one night and several days later we stopped hearing from him. So now, a fortnight later, we assume that he has gone to Pack Rat heaven and is now enjoying the pleasures of seven virgin Pack Rat ladies. We haven't noticed any odor but were told to not worry about it as out here in the dry Arizona air they mummify so quickly that it isn't noticeable.
Thus ends the saga of Larry, Teddy and the Pack Rat.

Pegs & Jokers

We played cards last night (Pegs & Jokers). More and more of the "Snowbirds" are arriving so we had enough players for two tables. I played at a table of six players and Teddy played at a table of eight. As you can see, she holds her cards close to her chest...no-one is going to get a peek at her hand.

Sunsets

The sunsets here in Lake Havasu are georgous. Brilliant reds and yellows usually reflected off the clouds over the California mountains.This is from last night (Sun 11/5/06).
**The mountains across the river are in California.***

Football

Another lazy day in Lake Havasu City. Watched Wisconsin at Camp Randall beat Penn State 13 to 3 this afternoon. We generally don't get to watch many UW or Packer games here in Arizona but we were able to watch the Packers last week as they were playing the Arizona Cardinals.

Teddy took one of her long walks today and found $10.00. It's amazing how she manages to find money all the time. Last week she found a $20 dollar bill somewhere between here and the mini mall about 3 miles down the road. She generally walks there and back every day. I generally ride my Segway over to the clubhouse and back every day. But...guess what...my cholesterol is lower than hers. Go figure!

Ribs

Tonight (Wed.) was ribs night at the local American Legion hall. We went with two other couples, Jim & Carol Babcock and Don & Carol Dingman. They were falling off the bone good.




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Neotoma cinerea

Suprisingly (at least to us), we were once again visited by a Neotoma cinerea aka Bushy Tailed Wood-rat aka Pack Rat. Albeit this time it was a somewhat pleasant & amusing encounter. We were sitting in the Cardinal last evening about 8:00 p.m. with the door open including the screen as there are no misquotes or flies to worry about. Teddy was working on a jigsaw puzzle and I was in the midst of the daily newspaper crossword when out of my peripheral vision I saw a little furry animal scamper into the door. I yelped at Teddy, "What was that!". She turned just in time to see him turn around and hightail it back out of the door. We chuckled in amazement & thought that that was the end of it, but to our amazement he/she popped in and out three more times in the next ten minutes as we sat quietly and watched. At that point I fetched my camera but as is always the case when you are ready with camera in hand, he didn't appear again. They are cute little animals but can be quite destructive with their nest building activities so we aren't going to invite him back again. Needless to say, we closed the door before retiring.

Lake Havasu City

We arrived at Havasu Falls RV Resort in Lake Havasu City, AZ Tuesday afternoon about 4:00PM. http://www.havasufallsrvresort.com/
Drove about an hour through a snow storm south of Salt Lake. There appeared to be about five inches on the ground near where I-70 ends at I-15. It wasn't a lot of fun but at least I didn't get sleepy driving! Anyway we were happy to get here with mid 70s temps. and hugs from friends that we met last year here. (Snowbirds are starting to arrive)

Pack Rat Woes

Last Friday I went out to start the truck and oops! the batteries were dead. So I got out my trusty battery charger and opened the hood. And...what did I find...a nicely built pack rat's nest stuck down in the engine compartment made with insulation material from the firewall, insulation from a wire and lined with cacti, ouch! I pulled the nest out, wraped the wire with black tape and charged the battery. Then I borrowed an animal trap from one of the rangers, baited it with a piece of shiny tin foil and caught this little fellow the next morning. We were going to Vernal, UT the next day so now he is a resident of Utah. I released him at a rest stop in Utah about 20 miles from here. Here is his picture.Pack Rat aka Bushytail Woodrat (Neotoma cinerea).

We're still here!

We are staying another two weeks here at Dinosaur Monument. Will be leaving Oct. 16 and will probably wander around the southwest and finally end up in Lake Havasu City by Nov. 1 at the latest. Dinosaur Monument is truly a very special place. The park encompasses over 210,000 acres and the dinosaur aspect is a very small part of what the park has to offer. On the Colorado side where we are, there are astounding canyon views and on roads into the interior of the park some of which take a 4 wheel drive vehicle on descents into beautiful valleys.
Here is a pict. that I took last week of a feature called "Split Mountain".Split Mountain"

Dinosaur Update

What a wonderful place Dinosaur Monument is. We are continuously awed by the beautiful mountain scenery. The only drawback is the remoteness. In order to get on-line we have to drive 40 miles here to Vernal, UT. Our days off are Sat., Sun., Mon. and we generally make the trip every weekend. Diesel fuel has come down to 2.99 from 3.45 when we first arrived so that helps some.Here is Teddy pointing out some of the topographical features of the park to some visitors. They have asked us to stay on into October so we might stay an extra week depending on the weather. If it turns to freezing conditions for very long though, we are out of here as I don't want to damage the water lines in the Cardinal. We had our first snow yesterday as you can see from this picture but it has now melted off except for the mountain tops.



...and here is a pict that Teddy took of ice on a cactus.





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News from Dinosaur

We are into our second week working at the Dinosaur Visitors center. Our hours are 8:30am to 4:30 pm Tue thru Fri. We can split our time any way we wish. right now, Teddy goes in at 8:30 and I relieve her at 12:30. We greet the visitors, answer questions, tell them about the geological features of the park, and show a short 12 minute film if they swo desire. Day b y day we are getting better at it.Here's Teddy hard at work.
On our days off last weekend we drove around the interior of the park park. Here are five of the hundred or so picts that we took.





































































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Where have we been for the past two weeks???

Today is Saturday 9/2/06
We have been traveling for the past couple of weeks so had no opportunity to update.
Here is a recap of where we have been and where we are now.

On August 17 we left Leelanau County and headed down to Manistee, MI to attend Larry’s 50th High School Anniversary. We parked in a nice park at the Casino and were joined in the park by two other classmates. Jerry Ayres and his wife camped there too as well as Fay Murphy and her friend. Jerry had made arrangements with the casino to reserve the parks shelter house for a Friday night buffet; over one hundred classmates and spouses from the MHS class of ’56 showed up. Then on the following evening, Saturday the 19th, we had a social gathering ending with a sit-down dinner at the Manistee Country Club.
It was great renewing old friendships, however I did make the remark though that “It seemed to me that I was the only one in my class to attend, everyone else having sent their parents”. But I guess that everyone else thought the same thing, especially when they last saw me in HS, I probably weighed only about 135 lbs.

On Sunday we pulled out and headed for Wisconsin and after spending the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Petosky, we again stopped for a visit with our RV friends Dan & Pat Martenson in Escanaba. We had a great time and stayed up until after midnight playing Mexican Train.

Monday we continued on to Appleton where we had an appointment at Appleton Camping for some minor warranty repairs scheduled for Tuesday morning. We spent 5 days in Appleton getting our RV repairs done, doing laundry, getting the truck serviced and visiting Mike & Toni. Had lunch w/Becky & Tony and were invited for dinner on two consecutive nights at the Welhouses and the Orrs.
Saturday afternoon we had our "Blessed Event" of watching our Monarch butterfly emerge from his chrysalis.
She spent about 20 minutes drying out and then we released her outdoors, so once again we are "empty nesters".

Sunday the 27 found us heading west as we had to be at Dinosaur Monument in NW Colorado by September 1 to begin our month long stint as volunteers working in the Visitors Center.
We arrived Thursday afternoon the 31st crossing Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Wyoming to get here.





At the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD Teddy met up with this guy, but lucky for me, it didn't work out.











Our boss, Sue Walter has spent the last two two days training us and taking us on an extensive tour of the park. It is spectacular with awe inspiring views. I will tell more about the park in subsiquent blogs.
Right now Teddy and I are in the public library in Vernal, Utah. About 35 miles west of Dinosaur on Rt. 40. This is the closest place that I can get on-line so probably won't be on line more than once a week. :-(.

Monarch Chrysalis

Teddy bought home a Monarch caterpillar yesterday and put it in a jar w/some milkweed leaves. We then went out for dinner and when we returned it was gone. However this morning we discovered this chrysalis firmly attached to the end of our kitchen counter. Sooo...now we just have to wait about ten days for the metamorphosing.

The Chameleon House

We found this "Extreme Home" named "The Chameleon House" located in here Leelanau County approximately 3 miles south of Northport on M-22.
Apparently it was featured in "Home & Garden" TV
I lifted this quote from the architect's web site at www.andersonanderson.com/WebsiteAAA/CHAMELEON.htm#
"This house is a tower rising above the rolling topography of its cherry orchard site, peering outwards toward spectacular westward views of Lake Michigan and the surrounding agricultural landscape. The site is left minimally disturbed, other than the mounding of two earthen enclosures adjacent to the tower, utilizing the excavated earth of the foundation and offering a ground bound contrast to the tower experience above the treescape.
A house would appear as an unsympathetic intrusion in this pure landscape, and with its singular vertical presence rising above the orchard, the tower is intended to reflect the austere, scaleless non-particularity of the occasional farm buildings dotted elsewhere on the hills. To help mask the scale and house program window requirements of the structure, the building is wrapped in a skirting wall of recycled translucent polyethylene slats, standing two feet out from the galvanized sheet metal cladding of the wall surface, on aluminum frames that serve also as window washing platforms and emergency exit structures. The translucent polyethylene material set out over the dully reflective wall cladding is chosen for its ability to gather the light and color of its landscape, dissolving the finely shadowed and inexplicably haloed structure into the seasonal color cycle of snow and ice and black twig tracery; pale pink blossom clouds; pollen green leaf and grass; golden straw and vivid foliage,"

Schools

As a young lad from Kindergarden through 3rd grade I attended two different small country one room schools near Shelby, MI. Yesterday Teddy & I drove around the local area and photographed three such schools here in Leelanau County.


Shetland School on M-22 near Good Harbor. Now converted to a private residence.







Solon School SE of Cedar on Hoxie Road. Now vacant.









Standard School in the village of Cedar. Now converted to a private residence.



...and finally, here is a school photo that I really like which Teddy captured last summer in southern Illinois.

Grandma's Party

Last Saturday evening we all took Teddy's Mom out to celebrate her 90th birthday.Clockwise arounf the table are Johanna, Denise, Teddy, Mom (Pearle), Deborah, Jason, Freddy, Fred, & John. That's my steak in the forground; I'm missing because I was taking the picture.