The First Name Basis Sinage Project

A sometimes hobby of mine is The First Name Basis Sinage Project which involves taking photos of signs advertising businesses/places, etc that are named after someone's first name, such as "Jim's Barber shop" or "Shorty's Pizza". It all began several years ago in the 90s when I began collecting photos of such signs just named "Larry's Whatever" thanks to my friend "Kevin Fenner" who gave me such a picture as a joke. However I later discovered some other folks (The Stakhanovite Twins) that had organized an online photo group that were seriously doing the same thing but not restricted to just one name.
It can become somewhat obsessive and Teddy thinks it to be a little bit crazy and refuses to accompany me on my occasional photo safaris to find such places. The photos are all on Flickr, which is an online photo storage site where one can upload photos so that you can share with others. I have also kept on collecting my more narrowly defined "Larry" pictures and have started an open group for just those picts here. I also have started another group reserved just for pictures of people named "Larry".
When there are enough of us, We will rule the world!  he...he....he....he....he

Havasu Falls RV Resort

We are now in Lake Havasu City, Arizona at the Havasu Falls RV Resort where we intend to spend the major part of this winter. This will be our fourth winter at this park, first stopping here for two months in Februrary '06. We have made many friends with the other snowbird regulars here and it is always good to see them all again to catch up on their summer adventures.
We arrived here on Tuesday October 14th after an uneventful four hour trip from Pahrump, Nevada where we had been for the last month. Our friends Rob & Sharon from Kenosha, WI, Jerry & Barb from Bronson, MI and Buzz & Linda from Custer, SD were already here. Don & Carol from Wheatland, WY arrived an hour before us and Jim & Carol from Terrebonne, OR arrived yesterday, Friday. So the past few days have been filled with hugs, kisses, hearty handshakes and inquires as to each other's health. After all, we are all pill poppin' old farts. ;-)

Pahrump

Before we leave Pahrump and head on down to Lake Havasu City, we want to let you know a little about the area. Pahrump is 60 miles west of Las Vegas over the Spring Mountains. About 45 miles east of Death Valley, and about 100 miles from Area 51. Pahrump serves as the eastern gateway to Death Valley National Park. Tucked into a long, narrow desert valley, Pahrump is surrounded by public land with Charleston Peak and the Spring Mountains to the east. The mountains to the west of town are the Nopah Mountains which you drive thru on your way to Death Valley. From Vegas you drive the Blue Diamond highway west, and climb up to 5,400 ft and go over the Spring Mountain range. Once over the summit there is a long valley ahead of you leading to Pahrump. The town is at an elevation of 2,725'. The name Pahrump comes from the Southern Paiutes. Pah meaning water, Rimpi meaning rock. Pah Rimpi became Pahrump, the Paiute description for springs or flowing water emerging from rock. There are springs here and at the turn of the century they grew cotton in the valley. The valley is 26 miles long and about 12 miles wide. The population of Pahrump was 24,631 as of the 2000 census, and is presently estimated to be in excess of 32,000. There are several large casinos, and gambling is available just about everywhere. Pahrump is also the location of the closest legal brothels to Las Vegas, including perhaps its most famous, the Chicken Ranch. However brothels are not allowed within the city limits. At one time Heidi Fleiss wanted to open a brothel here for women! We are staying at Terribles Lakeside Casino & RV Resort with 159 RV sites surrounding a spring fed seven- acre man made lake, about 5 miles from downtown. Modern Pahrump is a rambunctious little city, one of the fastest growing communities in the west. It attracts refugees from Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and much of it is still the modest pioneer amalgam of mobile home, cinder block and crackerbox homes. Lately, though, new urban features are conspicuous — there's a two-story bank building, three bright casinos now compete for attention along the highway (Nevada 160), and the tasting room at the Pahrump Valley Winery on Winery Road is busier than ever. There are three traffic lights, city-sized supermarkets, a Wal-Mart Supercenter, and a brand new Home Depot (can Lowe’s be far behind?). The first light is bordered by the Nugget Casino, Terrible's Downtown Casino, Walgreen's, and the Bank of America on the 4 corners and that is the main intersection. The Casinos have on-going buffets which are quite good and very economical. Teddy and I had dinner at the Nugget Casino on Wednesday evening 10/8 (2 for 1 night) for $9.60 total. There is also a sizable retirement community here. Honeysuckle is highly recommended by local nurseries as a great plant for your yard. Grows easily and likes the desert! The mountains are rock, rocks of all colors, no vegetation, and they loom so beautifully. The light bouncing off the many colored rocks changes the colors. It is never the same. The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. The mountains show them off so well. Few houses have "lawns." Most yards are landscaped in desert rock, cactus of all kinds, mesquite, and cowboy/western motif! Very low maintenance! No wasted water here.
We really like this park and have already made reservations for the month of April after we leave Lake Havasu City.

Gunplay in Pahrump

On Friday night Sept 19 I was awakened at about 2:30 am with what sounded to me like gunshots. Nah, I thinks to myself, can’t be must be some over enthusiastic fireworks fan.
Then about five minutes later there were several reports in rapid succession accompanied by police sirens and fast moving car engines that left no doubt in my mind. “What the hell is going on”, I sez to myself as I got up to investigate. Stepping from the trailer I witnessed several muzzle flashes from behind the rest rooms (about 100 yds away) and about that time an officer yelled at me to get back inside. Thinking that that was an excellent suggestion, I immediately complied and by then Teddy also was up. For the next 45 minutes we (stupidly) sat by the window and witnessed that turned out to be a gun battle between the local police and a well armed nutcase. He evidently had been drinking and got into a violent argument with his wife, shot up her computer and his motorhome and then armed with two automatic handguns and a carbine rifle took a position behind some rocks for the ensuing gun battle where he ambushed and wounded two police officers.
We later found out that he was a “Gulf War” combat vet so he definitely knew how to fight. He was eventually shot and captured and as of now, was released from the hospital and is sitting in jail under a two million dollar bond awaiting prosecution. The two police officers that were shot are also recovering in a Las Vegas hospital.
Several campers suffered bullet damage to their Rvs and or trucks/cars from either direct shots or ricochets but no campers were injured. Thankfully we were spared. The camper across the road from us got two bullets in his motorhome including one into his refrigerator and an Alfa fifth wheel got a bullet through his large rear window. The motorhome where it all started is one of those several hundred thousand dollar models and is still sitting there about a 1/2 block from us. I understand that they can’t move it as he shot up the engine as well as the hydraulic system so that they cannot raise the landing jacks. It appears that they will have to get a large wrecker in here to move it. The police tend to get really pissed when one of their own gets shot in the line of duty so I don’t think that he will be using it any more as he will in all likelihood be spending the rest of his days in the greybar hotel.Here is a scan of the newspaper account that came out the following week. (Click on it for a larger image) (The local Pahrump paper only publishes once a week)
All I can say is, "Things just get weirder and weirdier."

Home Improvements (counter extension)

From time to time we come up with an idea to modify and/or improve on our home on wheels. Last week I embarked on a project to add a foldable counter extension on the back side of our kitchen sink counter.Here is a pict of the finished project. We just finished it today and are pleased with the result. I purchased a pine table top at the local Home Depot, cut it to size with my skill saw and Teddy stained & varnished it. Now we have a breakfast nook in addition to our dining table. I attached it to the underside of the sink counter with a long piano hinge; I then made a fold out support on the right side as I could attach the support to the vertical end of the counter. However, the left end of the shelf ended in a portion of the the sink cabinet where it was too flimsy to attach a support to.



At first I intended on removing the back panel and beef up the counter but with a sudden burst of creative insight, came up with the idea of making a table leg from a baseball bat.











I found this Louisville Slugger at Amazon.com for $24.95. I attached a leg leveler on the handle end and a table leg stud on the other end and...VOLA! A cute table leg support.








Here it is in the travel position. It has to be folded down for travel so that the TV/Computer slide can be retracted.









The final step was to find two counter height (24") stools. A Google search came up with these European designed birch bentwood stools. A big bonus for us is that they are remarkably light, weighing less than ten pounds each and stackable for space saving storage when we travel.

All in all Teddy and I are very pleased with the way that this project turned out....
...and we had dinner on our new countertop tonight.

The Trip West

We are now safely ensconced at Terribles Lakeside RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada. We left Michigan on August 31 and drove through Michigan's UP to Escanaba where we stayed overnight in the driveway of our RV friends, Dan & Pat Martenson. They took us on a sightseeing drive around the Escanaba area after which Pat had prepared another of her wonderful dinners complete with homemade rhubarb pie. In the evening we played "Mexican Train" dominoes and stayed up talking until well after midnight.
The next morning, Sept. 1 we continued on to Appleton and dropped anchor at Appleton Camping to have some warranty work done on the Cardinal. They kindly let us park in the back of their lot and provided us with electricity. Since it was Labor Day weekend we had to wait until Wednesday the 3rd before they could start the repairs. We didn't mind the wait as it gave us time to visit with our son and daughter-in-law, Mike & Toni. During our stay we also were treated to a dinner with our friends, Dick & Jenny Orr, Tom & Carol Sykes, and Wes Evans at the "Orr House" Jen, as usual put on a great feed. During the week we also had lunch with our friends, Tony Welhouse and his sister Becky Welhouse.
Our repairs finally completed, we again hit the road in the afternoon of Sept. 9 and after overnighting in Tomah, WI, arrived at the Comfort Inn in Sioux Falls, SD on the 10th.
As we are fulltime RVers we have established residence in South Dakota for legal reasons and had to spend a night in a motel/hotel there in order to register to vote. We will now be able to vote in the upcoming November elections by absentee ballot.
I have always wanted to go over the Rockies on I-70 through the famous "Eisenhower Tunnel" so on leaving Sioux Falls the following morning we dropped down to I-80 at North Platte, NB and from there on to Denver and I-70.
It was a hard climb up to the tunnel with an approach grade of 6 percent for several miles. We were glad that we had our GMC diesel but even so we were down to 30 MPH and there weren't many trucks or other RVs passing us.The Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel is located approximately sixty miles west of Denver, Colorado on Interstate 70. It is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world, located at an elevation of 11,013 feet at the East Portal and 11,158 feet at the West Portal. Verified here by our GPS just after entering the East Portal.We saw snow along the road on the east side but although hard to see in this pict., we were surprised by spitting snow upon exiting the West Portal.The 6 percent climb on the east side was replaced by a 7 percent descent on the west. As you can see from this pict., in order to save the brakes I put the truck into low gear to hold us back and still had to gingerly tap the breaks every so often to keep the engine from redlining.
After overnighting one night in Rifle Colorado and another night in Cedar City, Utah,...

...we arrived here at Terribles RV resort in Pahrump' NV on Sunday the 14th.












We paid for a month so will be here till Oct. 14 when we will head on down to Lake Havasu City, Arizona for the balance of the winter.

On the Road Again

Fall is approaching here in Leelanau County, Michigan and it's time for us to pull up stakes and join the annual snowbird southern migration. 

Here we are, all hooked up and ready to pullout tomorrow morning, Sunday August 31. We will spend tomorrow night parked in the driveway of our good friends Dan & Pat Martenson in Escanaba, MI. Then, Monday we will continue on to our former home town, Appleton, Wisconsin where we will spend a few days visiting "old" friends (smile) and our son and daughter-in-law. After we leave Appleton we will travel west to our 'legal home of record', Sioux Falls, SD where we have to spend a night at a hotel in Sioux Falls in order to satisfy residency requirements so that we can register to vote in the upcoming November election(s). Leaving Sioux Falls, we will then continue on westward and plan on staying for a month in a lovely park in Pahrump, Nevada. Then in mid October we will head for Lake Havasu City, Arizona to join up with our many snowbird friends at Havasu Falls RV Resort. Between now and then I'm not sure what internet connections we will be able to connect to, so this blog might be silent for a few weeks. :-(

Till then....

Larry & Teddy (traveling America in order to help the "big oil companies" remain solvent)

Final update on my arm

These photos chronicle the healing progress of my left arm from April to present. I am slowly gaining more momentum to the point that I can now bend my elbow enough to reach my face. I'm told that it might take up to a year before it stops improving. I cannot yet close my hand all the way and my little finger is semi paralyzed, but I don't need my little finger except to dig earwax from the inside of my ear and my elbow still doesn't bend enough for that anyway. I can close the other three fingers enough to comfortably grasp the truck steering wheel so driving is no longer a problem. Teddy is relieved that she will not have to drive the rig back to our winter digs in Arizona.

Clafouti

Clafouti
Originally uploaded by .Larry Page

Today Teddy, made this delicious Clafouti (kla-foo-TEE), a traditional dessert from the Limousin region of France. During the peak cherry season it is often served as a breakfast dish. In France, the dish is often made without pitting the cherries because the pits are thought to enhance the flavor of the batter with a perfume faintly reminiscent of almonds. Whole cherries are also less likely to bleed into the batter.
When other kinds of fruit, such as plums, prunes, apples, cranberries or blackberries are used instead of cherries, the dish is more properly called a "flognarde".

The Birth of a Monarch

Teddy went out looking for monarch caterpillars feeding on milkweed leaves and bought six of them back to the trailer so that we could observe them metamorphose into adult butterflies. The Monarch is a common poisonous butterfly that eats poisonous milkweed in its larval stage and lays its eggs on the milkweed plant. Animals that eat a Monarch get very sick and vomit (but generally do not die). These animals remember that this brightly-colored butterfly made them very sick and will avoid all Monarchs in the future. The monarch gets its poison (cardenolide glycosides) when it is a caterpillar, from eating the poisonous milkweed plant (genus Asclepias) while in its larval (caterpillar) stage. The poisonous Monarch is mimicked by the non-poisonous North American Viceroy butterfly (Limenitis archippus), which has a similar shape, coloration and patterns. Predators who have learned to avoid the Monarch will also avoid the similar-looking Viceroy.
Some groups of Monarchs migrate for over 2,000 miles during August-October, flying from Canada and the USA to overwinter in coastal southern California to the transvolcanic mountains of central Mexico; this was determined by the Canadian scientist Dr. Fred A. Urquhart in 1975. Females lay their eggs along the migratory route. This migration takes up to three generations of Monarchs to complete.
Other Monarchs stay in one area their entire lives. The life span of the adult Monarch varies, depending on the season in which it emerged from the pupa and whether or not it belongs to a migratory group of Monarchs. Adults that emerged in early summer have the shortest life spans and live for about two to five weeks. Those that emerged in late summer survive over the winter months. The migratory Monarchs, which emerge from the pupa in late summer and then migrate south, live a much longer life, about 8-9 months.

I took this series of photographs of the metamorphic process.

(click on picture for a larger image)

CLASSIFICATION
Order: Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)
Family: Nymphalidae (over 5,000 species of butterflies with dwarfed front legs)
Subfamily: Danaidae (milkweed butterflies)
Genus and species: Danaus plexippus

Breakfast

I just love breakfast, it’s my favorite meal. Eggs, bacon, ham, spam, grits, breakfast steak, toast, biscuits & gravy, sausage, French toast, waffles or pancakes in any combination. All washed down with strong black coffee and a side of V-8 juice. However, unlike Jerry Seinfeld I rarely eat breakfast cereal & milk. Just not a cereal guy.Here is my breakfast from this morning. French toast, bacon & coffee with maple syrup and PB. Spread a generous amount of PB on the FT and then mix in maple syrup to a gooey consistency. Mmmmmm! I can’t eat like this very often though or I’d blow up like a balloon.

Here are some other breakfasts that I have enjoyed in the past.



Spam 'n eggs









Boiled egg, toast & coffee













Soft boiled egg in an egg cup & coffee














Fried egg, bacon, toast & coffee.















Hard boiled egg, tomato slice, banana & coffee

Creepy Crawlies

This summer I have been skulking outside in the yard & garden taking close ups of various insects. Then I try to identify them using the internet. Here are some of the results.

Six-Spotted

Tiger Beetle

Ant

Antlion

Bee on a Lion

Pallid-winged

Grasshopper

(Trimerotropis

pallidipennis)

Photo taken in Arizona

Common Fly

Garden Chafer

Grasshopper

Mayfly

Daddy Longlegs

Another

Mayfly

Stink Bug

aka Shield Bug

Another member

of the Shieldbug

aka Stinkbug

family

(Banasa dimiata)

Inflated Beetle

(Cysteodemus armatus)

Photo taken in Arizona

Japanese Beetle

Stag Beetle

Dining on

a Fly

Cherry Bounce

Teddy's brother, John Schlueter has now started harvesting this years crop of cherries. Teddy and I took the opportunity to produce 10 liters of this years "Cherry Bounce". It is an infusion of vodka, sugar and red tart cherries. We got the original recipe from Teddy's Mother and have tweeked it to our own through the years.



Here is a pict of the bounce aging in gallon jugs.
















Just before we leave here for our winter digs in Arizona we will rebottle the "Bounce" in 750 ml bottles.