Yuma, AZ

 We arrived in Yuma on October 25, and will be here until sometime in March. We are staying at the Sun Vista RV Park here which is a large RV park with 1200 sites. They have a theater area, a library, outdoor and indoor swimming pools, pickle ball courts, miniature golf, RC car race track, shuffle board, horseshoes, a two story fitness building, etc. There are loads of activities and games scheduled every day, plus concerts and dances. Most residents travel around on golf carts or electric bikes. It is a very nice park, with easy access to most of the town. We came here because they had a first timer special this winter for $450 a month including electricity. 

We have spent time here exploring the town, putting together puzzles in the library, playing bingo and other games, and working on the motorhome and Jeep. We had a lift kit installed on the Jeep and tried it out in the desert last week. Now we are installing some insulation in the Jeep roof. We added a screen wall to our awning for more shade and added outside shades to the windshield and front windows. We have replaced most of the other window shades with new day/night roller shades and really like them.

They have a wood shop here for the residents to use, and I am starting a lathe class tonight. Hope to learn how to make bowls, etc. on the lathe. They have a quilting and an embroidery group here so hopefully Janice will get to join them.  

Janice spotted this scorpion on our Jeep trek in the desert.

Looking through an old mining tunnel.

Looking down in an abandoned mine shaft.

A nativity set at our RV park

A picture of the sunset taken at the pool at the RV park next to ours.

Tucson,AZ

We stopped for the night at the RV Park at the Pima County fairgrounds. They really have a nice set up here. Low cost, level sites, and they escort you to your site. Great view of the mountains out the windshield.

Deming, NM

Spent a quiet night at the Walmart in Deming, NM.

Van Horn, TX

We spent the weekend at the Wild West RV Park in Van Horn. Small, no frills park but very quit and comfortable. Went to Mass on Sunday at a small church 2 blocks away. We ate lunch Saturday at a Cuban restaurant across the street. We are enjoying weather in the 70s here.

(Temporary Backup) Winstar Casino at Thackerville, OK

We stayed at the RV park at the Winstar Casino last night. Very nice park and by signing up for a player’s card when we checked in, it was all free. Wow! Nice pull through site with full hookups cheaper than staying at Walmart. (Because I didn’t go in and buy anything.) Tonight we are stopped at the Walmart in Sweetwater, TX.

Wellington, KS

We stopped at a flying J yesterday and used the Rv lanes to fuel, dump tanks and refill water.  Stopped for the night at Walmart in Wellington, KS. We have reservations for an Rv park at a casino tonight.

St. Joseph, MO

We stopped for the night at the Walmart on the north end of St. Joseph. Both of us are still fighting a caugh and not feeling well. We are heading out again this morning.

Bismarck, ND

We arrived safely at the KOA in Bismarck for our month long visit with our oldest daughter and her family. We enjoyed our time there and it seemed too short as usual. Fall arrived and the weather turned cooler before we left. Our rear a/c heat pump died so I was fortunate to have my son and son in law there to help me get the new one up on the roof. Our door latch broke the day before we left so we had a new one shipped to meet us in Sioux City. Our coach batteries gave us trouble in the way so I pulled them out and replaced them in Sioux City also. We have been here in Sioux City since Friday afternoon and plan on continuing south tomorrow morning. The weather is cool here, but the trees are still mostly green.

Sauk Center, MN

Late publishing this, but our next night was spent at the Walmart in Sauk Center, MN. A quiet night there and off to Bismarck, ND.

Chippewa Falls, WI

We are stopped for the weekend at the Eagle Ridge Campground in Chippewa Falls, WI. Staying for two nights makes for time to go to Mass on Sunday morning and have a leisurely afternoon before going back on the road Monday. Doing my walk around after lunch, I noticed that we were missing a bolt in the bottom of one of our shock absorbers on the motor home. We went to the hardware store here and bought a replacement so I can fix that while we are here.

Escanaba, MI

Yesterday we had to tell my son and his family goodbye and head for North Dakota. We stopped for the night at the Walmart in Escanaba, MI.

Caro, MI

Made it to our son’s house in Caro, MI. We parked in the driveway there for a month. We put a 50 amp outlet in the garage to power the motor home and used our macerater pump to drain our tanks while we were there. Our newest grandson was born a few days after our arrival. We spent our time there holding the new grandson, playing with our granddaughter and working on their new house. It was a long drive to get there with a good visit at the end of it. One day they took us to Frankenmuth, a small touristy town near them. After a great lunch, we spent some time shopping in the largest Christmas store in the world and then went for a carriage ride.

Portage, Indiana

Stopped for the night at the Bass Pro Shop in Portage, IN. Spent some time looking around inside and then had a quiet and peaceful night.

Waterloo

Yesterday we left Sioux City late because the motor home had no turn signals when we checked the lights after hooking up the Jeep. It took me awhile to find the problem so we only made it as far as the Southern Hills McDonald’s for lunch. Janice thought that she had left her purse at the Wilson’s but we found it in the Jeep. After that, the day went smoothly and we stopped for the night at Walmart in Waterloo, IA. We are on the road again after fueling up at the Flying J in Waterloo.

Sioux City

After our overnight at the Cozy C in Bowling Green, we headed on toward Des Moines. We stopped for lunch with and old friend at Mount Pleasant and had a good visit with her.

Then we traveled on to overnight at the Walmart in Pella, IA. The next morning we drove on to Des Moines and had the oil and transmission fluid changed on the motor home. Later that day we finally arrived at Volunteer Village at Saylorville Lake, our home for the next 2 months.

 I volunteered in natural resources again this year, with much of the time spent on the zero turn mowers. We enjoyed our time there visiting our kids and grandkids there along with a new grandson and volunteer friends.

We drove the Jeep up to Cherokee one weekend and had a celebration of my oldest sister Kathleen's life. We had a lot of good visits with family and enjoyed the weekend. 

My remaining sister and me.

 The time at Saylorville Lake went by much too fast and we were off to Sioux City where another new grandson and his family awaited our arrival.

It is good to spend time here with family and old friends. There are always projects there to keep us busy. One of the big ones this year was new carpet for the motor home. /We weren't sure what we were doing, but we tackled it anyway. We are happy with the way it turned out.

Time passes quickly and we have a little over a week left here before we head out to Michigan to visit our son and his family there.

Bowling Green, MO

We have stopped for the night at the Cozy C Rv Park. We have stayed here many times before. The previous owners had been trying to sell it for a few years and now it’s has new owners. They seem very nice. The husband’s name is Santos. They gave us some freshly baked chocolate chip cookies when we checked in! Yum!

It was very windy on the drive today.

Sikeston, MO

We stopped at Lambert’s RV park in Sikeston, MO yesterday and went to tne 5:00 Mass. we are going to spend an extra night here to have a relaxing Sunday.

Yesterday we stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant on highway 412 near Bells, TN. It was really good food and since I haven’t posted any food pictures for awhile, here is our lunch.

Filled us up with leftovers for later.

We went over to Lambert’s Cafe for supper. They are famous for “throwed rolls”. You order your entree and they they bring around fresh baked rolls that they toss for you to catch. They also bring around apple butter and sorghum to put on the rolls and fried potatoes with onions, macaroni with tomatoes, fried okra.

Carrollton, GA

I started this post almost 2 weeks ago so the first 2 paragraphs were written then in Carrollton, GA

We were originally going to leave Ordway at the end of March, but we decided to stay through Easter Sunday. After weeks of working out details, a man from the Virgin Islands purchased our old Jeep. We stayed a few more days after Easter waiting for his shipping company to make arrangements to pick up the Jeep for shipping to the Virgin Islands. Friday morning we got a phone call that he was on his way. 

We left Ordway after lunch and drove to Tifton, GA. and overnighted at the Wal Mart there. Towing the new Jeep went well, but we found out that our fresh water pump on the motor home had quit. That meant that we had no water for the sinks or toilet while traveling. Picked up some extra bottled water at Wal Mart and we were fine. Saturday, we drove the rest of the way to Little Tallapoosa Part where we stay at Carrollton. We have one of our favorite sites here and will be until a week from this Thursday. We have a new water pump ordered so hopefully we can have water again when we leave.

It is now Friday April 28 and we are overnighting at a Walmart in Corinth, MS. We drove from Carrollton to a Walmart in Gadsden, AL yesterday and from there to here today. We stopped at a little country restaurant on the road for lunch near Cullman, AL called Graves General Store and it was good. Mom liked the chicken and dumplings a lot, so the lady gave here a container of it to tale with her.

Ordway-Swisher

We had some rain and a little wind in Albany and then we headed on to Ordway-Swisher.  The Jeep transmission continued to act up and gradually got worse so we had it towed to a shop in Palatka. Pete, one of the volunteers who lives near here loaned us their spare pickup to drive while ours was in the shop. After a complete transmission overhaul we got it back and it worked for a few days and then started acting up again so we took it back and they fixed it again. It has required so many repairs in the last few years we decided it was time to replace it. We found this 2018 four door and we liked it so it went home with us. We are still trying to sell the old one. 

We are still trying to get used to all of the electronics in it, but so far we like it.

Work here at the station has been mostly the same as last year, Mowing the roads with the tractor, fence removal and repair, moving logs with the grapple tractor, and raking pines. The other Bob got here after New Year's so we are a team again now.  Andy, the station manager who has worked here since the first time we came is leaving for a new job, so we had a combination good bye and Christmas party. The man in the background is Sinjin who is our supervisor this year.

Bob and I has an interesting day last Thursday. We had to deliver the tour trailer over to the Austin Carey unit of the University and we had some extra time there to have lunch and tour the exhibits. Most of the exhibits are telling the story of the history of tapping pines for turpentine and distilling it. Of course they needed barrels for shipping the final products (turpentine and rosin). So barrels were made near the processing plants.

A press to compress the staves together to put the hoops on.

Some of the tools used to make barrels.

Some of the tools used to tap the pine trees.

One of the wagons used to haul the sap from the trees.

A reproduction of a turpentine still.

Tools and containers for collecting sap for turpentine.

Some of the pots and containers for collecting sap. The clay pots in the top row are called Herty Pots

We spent this past weekend with our friends and fellow volunteer Bob and Pam Taylor at their home in Titusville, FL. We had a great time sight seeing and playing games with them. We hope to go back again for an air boat ride while we are here.

 

An alligator and a turtle sunning themselves on a rock together.