Christmas 2009

We celebrated Christmas 2009 with a grand Christmas buffet in the clubhouse. Ham and turkey were provided and the park residents bought dishes to pass. I, of course, made my famous "Spanish Deviled Eggs Supreme" and Teddy prepared her favorite, butternut squash.
Ham that I am, I read the following poem to the assemblage which I had written for the occasion and folks seemed to enjoy it.

 Havasu

Merry Christmas to all of you

Who’ve come to camp at Havasu.

Folks from Ontario & Minnesota

From the Puget Sound to  North Dakota

From Alberta and Idaho

Where the snow makes drifts and the cold winds blow

We all are known as “Land Yacht Sailors;

In our motor homes and fifth wheel trailers.

Guests of Ron and his brave crew;

Don’t miss your payment when rent is due.

Just pull right in and set up camp

Plug your cord into fifty amp.

And make real sure your sewer’s tight

And your water don’t drip, ‘cause that ain’t right;

Now here’s a word, I’m sure you’ve heard

You’ve now become a real Snowbird.

Snowbirds one and snowbirds all,

Avoiding Decembers winter squall;

We’re free of ice and blowing snow

Freedom from temps of 30 below.

Free from winter’s slushy sleet,

Arizona sun is hard to beat;

And now we’re gathered for buffet treats

Of salads, casseroles and tasty meats.

So get your plates and line right up,

Don’t forget your coffee cup;

And when you’re done…and if you’re able,

Belly up to the dessert table.

And tonight as you lie upon your bed,

When day is done and prayers are said;

On your lips a smile may play,

As you look back upon this day.

Larry Page 12/25/09

Following the dinner we had music and dancing which lasted well into the evening.

Happy Hour(s)

Every Thursday at four o-clock or thereabouts we have a whole-park happy hour in the clubhouse. It's "BYOB" and most folks bring some kind of snackey thing to share. That's not to say that we don't have "happy hours" on other evenings but they are generally composed of small convivial gatherings sitting out by someone's trailer or motor home.
The clubhouse get together, however, is generally a little bit more organized and attended by more people, friends as well as strangers (strangers being newcomers who soon become friends). And occasionally we will be treated to a special treat if someone agrees to showcase a special talent.
Such was the case a couple of weeks ago when some folks showed up with a karaoke machine which seemed to bring out the ham in a few individuals including yours truly.

As you can see here, even Teddy belted it out in a karaoke sextet.

And then just last Thursday a newcomer camper entertained us with his accordion

It didn't take long before several of us were out on the dance floor having a gay ole' time.

This is the very reason that we love the RV lifestyle

The Grey Cup

On Sunday 11/29 we had a "Grey Cup" party in the clubhouse.

For those not familiar with Canadian sports The Grey Cup is the Canadian equivalent of our "Super Bowl". It was only available on Canadian satellite so one of the Canadian campers here in the park set up his satellite dish on the clubhouse patio and ran the cable to the clubhouse TV.

There are several important specific differences between the Canadian and American versions of the game of football:

The playing field is 110 x 65 yards instead of 100 x 53 1/2 yards, the end zones are deeper, there are 12 players per team instead of 11, and a team has only three downs to reach 10 yards instead of four. Additionally there is a scoring difference in that a single point is awarded on kickoffs to the kicking team if the receiving team declines to return the ball from the end zone (at least that's the way that I understand it) and there are some other subtle differences that I don't understand.

This year the Grey Cup was between the Montreal Alouettes from the East and the Saskatchewan Roughriders representing the West. We were all pulling for the Roughriders who led the entire game against the highly favored Alouettes up till a heartbreaking loss in the final seconds. Bummer.

We all had a good time though and hope to do it again next year.

I'm becoming a big fan and might even order myself a Saskatchewan T-shirt.

LEFTOVERS

One of my favorite things
about Thanksgiving is
having turkey sandwiches
and leftover pumpkin pie
the next day.








So on "black" Friday several
of us met in the clubhouse
at lunchtime and set up this
mini buffet.

One of our camper friends, Marion Styczynski from Green Bay, WI made a big pot of turkey noodle soup. That, leftover casseroles and turkey sandwiches completed the spread.

Thanksgiving 2009

On Thanksgiving the park donated six roasted turkeys and the park residents bought dishes to pass for a holiday feast in the clubhouse.

Here we are, just about ready to dig in asTeddy makes a last minute adjustment to the serving table.

I made my famous

deviled eggs,

as usual

Bacon

I love bacon and eat it whenever I can despite all of my friends & family's health warnings vis-à-vis artery clogging fat & cholesterol. In fact when we grocery shopped I had to "accidently" buy it by claiming that I had no idea how it got into our cart; someone else must have inadvertently put it into our cart instead of theirs.
So a few weeks ago while surfing the web I came across this microwave bacon cooker (shown above) that drains most of the fat from the bacon while it cooks it. I ordered it on-line...not telling Teddy, and unsure of what her reaction would be when it arrived.  She was skeptical at first but now she loves it. It took a few tries to get the cooking time(s) right but now I am allowed two strips of bacon whenever I have eggs for breakfast. 
I am a happy camper!!!   Well...happier, I was happy before. ;-))

Lake Havasu City

We are now in Lake Havasu City, Arizona at the Havasu Falls RV Resort. We have stayed here during the major part of the winter for the last three years. We like it here as we have made some lasting friendships with several other "snow-bird" couples that come back to this park annually.
We arrived here on Nov. 1 amid hugs, kisses and hearty handshakes from friends that had arrived before us. Teddy has, of course, resumed her daily walks from the park to either one of two small shopping malls each about two miles from the park in opposite directions and I and some of my early rising friends have resumed our daily coffee bull-shit session from ± 6 to 8 am. Because of the clear air and relative lack of light pollution I look forward to the amazing starry sky upon exiting the trailer each morning before sun-up. Makes getting up early worth it. Then after coffee I generally have breakfast, do my shower and then settle in for a nap to make up for my early rising lack of sleep, during which time Teddy takes her walk.
Works for us. ;-).

New Truck (well...new to us)

OH MY, OH MY!  I accidently bought a truck.

On Monday last (Oct. 26) I took our 2003 GMC 2500HD Diesel into the local Chevrolet dealer here in Pahrump for an oil change. On Sunday we are going to pull up stakes here in Nevada and head on down to Arizona for the balance of the winter and I thought that I should get an oil change before we left. I left the truck in the service department and went to the customer lounge for the wait. Buutttt...instead of settling in with my book that I had brought along to read, I decided to walk the lot first.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a big ole white truck with six forward gears.

 A 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD Dualy Crew Cab Long box.

...And, well you know the rest, it is now our truck. Oh well, I was going to have to get a set of new tires anyway and this was one way to do that, I just didn't expect that the new tires would have a truck attached to them.

Truthfully though this truck should do a much better job of pulling our  Cardinal as we were pushing the weight limits with the old set-up. We also negotiated for a new hitch as with this long bed truck we don't need the extremely heavy "Pull-Rite" sliding hitch.

We are excited & happy and looking forward to our first trip with it when we head for Arizona tomorrow.

P.S. Happy Halloween everybody!!

Friends

Last Friday, Oct. 23 our friends Jim & Carol Babcock from Oregon and Ed & Gail Bristow from Alberta stopped here in Pahrump on their way to Lake Havasu. They stayed the weekend. We went out to a casino buffet Friday evening and ...

...had a cookout at Bristow's trailer on Saturday evening.
Good times were had by all.
We will join them again next week when we migrate on down to Havasu.

Still Here

We are still here in Pahrump, NV at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort.

We really like this park and plan on staying here again next spring. It has great amenities and is beautifully landscaped.

Will be here until November first when we will go on down to Lake Havasu City for a couple of months.

We're looking forward to seeing all of our good friends that come to LH for the winter.

A few days ago I stopped to talk to a guy that was taking pictures here in the park. Turned out that he was the webmaster for the park and had designed the web site. His name is Brian Shoemake and he snapped this photo of Teddy & me.

Last Saturday our friends Don & Carol Dingman from Wheatland, WY arrived in Pahrump. They stay in a park at the Pahrump Valley Winery as they have a membership there.


Here we are having lunch with them at Terribles Casino.

Yesterday they visited us for Pegs & Jokers and afterward we enjoyed some ice-ceam. This morning they continued on down to Havasu; we'll see them again when we get there.

A visit from Abby aka "Ridin' the Dawg"

Last week we were pleasently surprised to get an email from Abby Welhouse, daughter of our good friends Tony and Kathy Welhouse of Appleton, Wisconsin.
Abby, a recent graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY decided to take some time off and explore the USA via a Greyhound bus pass. ("Ridin' the Dawg")
She has been to the south and central US and has now decided to explore the west. So Thursday night Teddy and I drove to Las Vegas and picked her up at the bus station there.
On Friday we showed her around the Resort and then took her to lunch at Sheri's Ranch brothel, a unique experience for anyone that hasn't been to Nevada before. We had lunch in the restaurant/bar and then Abby & Teddy went on a tour of the brothel guided by one of the fille de joie ladies. I declined as I had been on the tour twice before.
Following that we visited the Pahrump Valley Winery where we engaged in wine tasting of their many wine varieties.

After that we returned home and spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the pools and spas here at the resort.

Then, Friday evening we treated Abby to a dinner buffet at the Nugget Casino here in Pahrump and after dinner Abby was able to try her luck on the "Penny Machine" slots. She did well as a first time gambler and walked away with a $2.16 profit.
My advice to her was to never gamble again and that way she would always be ahead, something that few Nevada visitors can claim.
This morning, Saturday we dropped her off again at the Las Vegas bus terminal so that she could resume her "walkabout".


Abby is a delightful, articulate young lady and it was a pleasure getting reacquainted with her.

September...where did it go?

Sorry to have not blogged for a while but Teddy and I havent been doing anything particularly interesting beyond enjoying our stay here at Nevada Treasure RV Resort in Pahrump, NV.Our days have been filled with going to the fitness center every morning (well every morning for Teddy and most mornings for me) and relaxing by the pools in the afternoons, and reading books on our Kindles. It has been very hot here during the month of September with daytime highs often reaching 100 degrees however a quick dip in one of the pools soon cools you off and quite truthfully it just doesn't seem that hot. At night the temperature quickly cools down to the mid sixties by morning.
A couple of times we also tried our hands at bowling. One of the amenities that the resort offers is a six lane bowling alley so we thought we would give it a try.




Neither of us had bowled for over 20 years and it sure showed. On our first game I got 96 and Teddy got 84.  Oh well....

Here Teddy attempts to pick up a spare.

And look at the grim determination on my face as I attempt to stare down the pins.









It became apparent that we weren't going to be invited to join any bowling teams in the near future but we had fun.  :-)

Nevada Treasure RV Resort

We are in Pahrump, Nevada at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort. This is one of the nicest RV parks that we have ever stayed at. It was originally built as a class A motorhome park with individual sites to be sold to RV owners, however the recession forced it into a change of philosophy. So now fifth wheels are not only encouraged but are in the majority. They are still marketing the individual sites but we like the freedom of not being tied to one spot.

It is a marvelous park with a fully equipped health club/fitness center. They sell memberships to local area residents but are free to RV residents.




The fitness center has a large workout room with all of the usual machines and individual men and womens locker rooms each with a steam room, sauna, massage room and whirlpool.

There is an outside pool area with three pools, a colder waterfall pool, a large intermediate temperature pool and a smaller whirlpool. Other amenities include a bowling alley, a restaurant, a large banquet room with a stage and a game room with pool tables. We are also provided with a daily newspaper and individual locked mailboxes.
The landscaping is gorgeous with many tropical plantings and palm trees. We truly love the place and would stay here longer but are told that it gets quite cold in the winter frequently dipping into the 30s.


So...
come November we still plan on continuing on to Lake Havasu, Arizona, and then in January plan on moving further south to Florence, AZ. However if things go as planned we expect to come back here in March or April before heading back east to "The Farm" for the summer.

Pahrump

We buttoned-up the farmhouse and began our annual westwardly migration on Saturday August 22. We again spent Saturday evening at the home of our good friends Dan & Pat Martenson in Escanaba, MI. Pat again treated us to a lovely dinner. We then stayed up late playing dominoes, swapping lies and catching up on the activities of mutual friends.
On Sunday we continued on to Appleton and set up for the night in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Mike & Toni visited us Sunday evening and then we retired early as we had to get up early Monday morning. Rose at 6am, dropped the Cardinal off at Appleton Camping so that they could replace the damaged fender skirts from lat spring's tire events and then hurried on over to Appleton Medical center for Teddy's 7am appointment for her annual mammogram. Had lunch with our friend Becky Welhouse, then back to Appleton Camping to retreive "The Roadhouse". We set up for another night at Wal-Mart and then attended "Monday Night Martinis" at Dick & Jenny Orrs. There we saw Wes, Greg, & Kate as well as Dick & Jen. A nice party with hors d'oeuvres by Jen and a fine selection of cheeses donated by Greg.
Tuesday August 25 we continued on West spending nights in succession at Albert Lea, Minnesota, Grand Island, Nebraska, Laramie, Wyoming, and Payson, Utah and arrived here in Pahrump, Nevada Saturday afternoon. We are at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort and plan on staying here through the month of October.

"Remembrance of things past."William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

Now that Teddy and I have finished our farmhouse remodeling projects for the summer we are taking some time to relax and enjoy ourselves before heading back west for the winter.
With that in mind we took a day trip downstate to visit some of our old growing-up stomping grounds. We traveled south from Leelanau county on Hwy M22 which skirts the eastern shore of Lake Michigan from Northport in the Leelanau peninsula to Manistee in Manistee county. Our first stop was in the village of Frankfort where Teddy lived in this house until moving here to the farm in the 10th grade. Teddy enjoyed driving around the town pointing out friends homes and various POIs.
From there we continued down M22 passing through Elberta, Arcadia and Onekama in succession.

Just south of Elberta Teddy snapped this pict of her Grandmother Gilbert's house, now abandoned and in disrepair. I can remember having dinner there when Teddy & I were first married; it is amazing how quickly mother nature takes back what's hers if there is no human intervention.

Onekama, on Portage Lake, is where my parents lived while I was in the 7th and 8th grade. I pointed out to Teddy the hills where my brothers & I sledded in winter and where I swam and fished in Portage Lake. My father worked for the USDAs Soil Conservation Service. his office was in Manistee some 15 or so miles south of Onekama. When I started the 9th we moved to Manistee so he could be closer to his office and we lived is a succession of rental homes there.




This is where we lived when I graduated from HS in 1956. Surprisingly, some fifty odd years later, the house looks pretty much the same now as then.

I joined the Air Force soon after graduating HS and shortly afterward my parents purchased this house three miles south of Manistee. I'm pretty sure that they weren't trying to hide from me as they did give me their new address. ;-)
It was an old farmhouse and through the years my father transformed it to a beautiful country home. It lay pretty far from the road so he built a connecting road dead-ending just past the house and donated it to the county with the provision that they pave it and build a circular turnaround at the end.



That road ended up being named, ...TA DAH...
"PAGE ROAD"







We returned home via US31 stopping in Beulah, MI for an ice-cream. It was a perfect day filled with pleasant memories.

Done with remodeling (part 2)

Continued from previous post
...then, after the concrete had hardened they came back and finished the framing of the old cellar entrance.

They tore off the old outside entrance...









...and then boxed in the cellar stairway.



















Complete with a door to the cellar.







Now we have a nice room to store our bikes, etc. while we are on the road in the winter.

Here is a final accounting of our expenses in remodeling the farmhouse (click on image for larger size). We spent $17,111.71. It turned out to be more expensive than we originally expected (isn't it always), but we feel it was worth it as we have a nice home base for summers and it will eventually become our permanent home when we can no longer full-time in our RV.
We plan on relaxing a bit and then start west for the next winter season on August 22. We will stop in Appleton for a few days and plan on arriving at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada on September 1.

Done with remodeling (part 1)

We have finally wrapped up our remodeling efforts, at least for this season, here at "The Farm". The final step was to pour a concrete floor and enclose the entrance to the cellar. The area was previously enclosed with a dirt floor and covered the old outside cellar entrance. It was filled with old dried out fire wood from when the house was heated with a wood/coal furnace.










Our contractor, Gerard Belanger and his son Jason had to wheelbarrow the concrete to the entrance as there was no way that the concrete truck could get to the rear of the house.






They had to wade into the concrete to do the leveling and then do the finishing through the window & door with a long handled float.

Then it was wait for a day for the concrete to harden before boxing in the cellar entrance.

To be continued...

"The Farm"

I know, I know, I haven't blogged in a while. We've been very busy working on the farmhouse upgrades. What with daily 40 mile round trips to Traverse City and working on the house I just haven't had the energy. ;-(
Although, I'll admit that most of the grunt work has been done by our contractor, Gerard Belanger, and/or Teddy. My contribution has been for the most part with my checkbook.
We have replaced the flooring in the dining room, bedroom & living room and Teddy painted the kitchen, dining room & bathroom. In the kitchen I replaced the ceiling light with a ceiling fan/light fixture and built a microwave shelf over the range. We had our contractor completely redo the bathroom, replacing the vanity, toilet & shower and had a plumber move the washer & dryer from the bathroom to an adjacent utility room. Our contractor then built a linen closet in the old laundry space. We also tore down and rebuilt the old "bricks & boards" bookcase in the living room; put a glass top on Teddy's antique round table and I replaced six living room wall sconce light fixtures.
Along the way we also purchased a 40" digital HDTV, new kitchen appliances and several furniture items including a floor lamp, digital TV stand, white iron beadstead, wine/liquor butler and a 3 piece sectional loveseat for the living room. We also rescued our artwork which we had in storage from our Appleton home to decorate the walls.
Outside jobs included putting up a flagpole, installing shutters on all of the windows, purchasing a John Deere lawn tractor and since our DirecTV dish is permanently installed on the roof of the Cardinal I had to purchase an alternate DirecTV dish and install it on the outside of the house. Running the cable from the dish to the TV turned out to be a difficult job and I finally had to install crown molding in the dining room to hide the cables.
Click here for a link to a photo album showing before and after photos of some of the remodeling projects.

The Wedding

Our niece, Kathy Lawrence got married on Saturday July fourth. It was an outdoor wedding held at the Greystone Mansion Wedding Venue near Honor, Michigan. Kathy is the daughter of Teddy's sister Deborah and her husband Dr. Fred Lawrence. The groom was Ian Camp who with his parents, Elaine and Richard Camp, emigrated to the US from England when he was very young so the other side of the aisle was packed with visitors from the UK.











An unusual aspect of the wedding which I had never seen was the "sand ceremony" in which the Bride & Groom co-mingled two different colors of sand to represent the blending of the two families.





















After the ceremony the guests were treated to a buffet dinner...

...followed with an evening of celebration in Greystone's spacious ballroom.








Followed by the obligatory dance. :-)






As I write this, the happy couple are now somewhere in the Caribbean enjoying a honeymoon cruise.

Farm Progress

Painting the porch and adding shutters has really dressed up the place.
Whaddya' think?

The Farm

Teddy and I are moving part-time into the farmhouse on the Schlueter Cherry Farm here in Leelanau County, Michigan. Teddy's brother, John has his own house across the road and her sister, Deb lives just three miles from here. In fact the backyard of Deb's is where we have parked our trailer summers since 2005 when we first started fulltiming. So, as the farmhouse was going to be vacant, Teddy and I have decided to make it our summer home. I guess this means that we will no longer be official fulltimers but 3/4 timers instead.
The house has been in the Schlueter family for over three generations and dates back over one hundred years. Somewhere within the walls is an original log cabin, long ago covered up and encased within the walls of the current house. This is Teddy's girlhood home where she grew up so it's sort of a homecoming for her.The house though, needs a lot of work and TLC to bring it up to modern standards. Teddy's father and grandfather before him, being the thrifty German farmers that they were, were loath to spend any money on improvements that they considered unnecessary, instead investing their profits into improving farm production. We have been hard at work for the past two weeks, cleaning, sanding, painting, wiring, and plumbing. We still plan on redoing the bathroom this summer and perhaps the kitchen next summer. On the outside the house looks pretty good. Has vinyl siding and a fairly new roof. Next week I intend to enhance it's curb appeal with shutters on all of the windows. There is approximately an acre of grass to mow surrounding the house and to that end we have purchased a John Deere garden tractor/mower. As I have often said, "As long as I can keep Teddy working, I intend on furnishing her with the very best tools available." ;-)