Blacktopping it - just hanging around :(

I took a few final photos before we left Distant Drums RV Resort.

This moon was just a sliver, so pretty.  When I zoomed in, I could see the whole circle, but to the naked eye, only the crescent showed.  

There were a lot of planes overhead during the day with these chem trails - I tried to get a photo of the actual planes, too.   In this one, you can barely see the plane.

When Katie and I were taking a walk, a colorful insect flew by, with the sunshine highlighting iridescent colors.  He landed on the lawn. I wish I could have gotten him flying - he looked a little like a firefly.

We left Camp Verde, AZ on Wednesday morning, and drove toward Quartzsite, through Blythe and onward, until we arrived in Indio, CA.  It was such a nice drive!

Every time I drive The Palms, it's like a spiritual experience, I feel so free and just love seeing the countryside, whether it's desert, forest, or city, there's always something interesting to see.

This time the best part was the continual forest of flowering Saguaro Cactus.  I stopped a couple of times to snap some photos.

 Pretty flowers, see the bee on the left?

 These unopened flower buds are very pretty up close.

The Saguaros mostly had flowers just on the tops of their stalks (or arms?).

 All the arms had lots of flowers on the top, beautiful.

This one has lots of arms, and tons of flowers. 

We stayed Wednesday night at Fantasy River Casino.  The RV overnight parking is a plain parking lot right outside the regular parking lot for the casino. I called, and they said parking was fine, I didn't need to check in with anyone. I didn't see any security or casino vehicles come by.  It was very windy and super dusty. Really noisy all night. The parking lot is right off the freeway, and next to the driveway that all the cars going to and from the casino used, plus the big rigs that came and went during the night.  It was so hot, I needed the bunk window open to cool things off a bit, but that increased the noise, and I worried about dust being blown into my bed.  

 And you should have seen the gusts!

I didn't sleep well.  But it was free, and I appreciated being able to overnight there.

The next day I went to the lab to have my blood test done.  Then I went to Costco in Rancho Mirage and returned my TV. It was too big for the spot it was in. I bought a new one from Walmart a few days ago, a duplicate of the first one I got.  It's lighter and smaller and fits much better.  It also has a better picture.  So I returned the Costco one and while I was there I bought a ton of fruit and some fresh asparagus.  I have so much fruit, I can't fit it all in the fridge.  I always eat a lot of fruit, but since I've been trying to shop only every other week, I'm trying to make it last.  I was really craving strawberries and avocados, and now I have tons of both, plus blueberries, six small cartons of raspberries, bananas, blackberries, apples, oranges, etc. 

When I went through the checkpoint back into California, the Border Patrol agent asked me if I had any produce. I said, "Yes, what is not allowed?"  He said, "What do you have?"  I thought a minute and said, "Apples,oranges, bananas, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries."  He thought a minute and said, "Have a nice day."  As I drove away, I realized I only told him about the fruit. I also had lettuce, two kinds of tomatoes, an onion, garlic bulb, and other veggies.  Oh, well.  Then I go to Costco and get more! 

Right across the street from Costco was a Walmart, so I called and asked if I could overnight in their parking lot.  She said, yes, but it's best if you park by our gas station.  I didn't see a gas station, so I parked at the edge of their parking lot.  It was quiet all night, and Katie and I slept in until 9:45 this morning. 

I spent the day here, until early afternoon, checking on-line for my test results.  The lab said one would be available in a day, the other on Saturday.  Unfortunately, the first one I was able to pull up on line is higher that the February test, so that wasn't good.  Rats!  I sent an e-mail to my doctor to see if she would need to see me, or if I'd need meds, or if we would just wait and see again.  I got an answer from her staff, stating they would wait for my second test result and then forward my e-mail to the doctor.  

Unfortunately, since it's a holiday on Monday, the doctor won't get my test results or e-mail until Tuesday, so I'm stuck here until at least Tuesday.  No point in driving anywhere until I know what I need to do. 

This afternoon I needed to move to another location, and as I was driving past the Walmart, I realized there was a Sam's Club in the same parking lot, with a gas station, so that must be what the woman on the phone meant.  Since it's a completely different area, I decided to park here for the night.  There are also a few other places in the area where I can blacktop park until I need to leave.

I hate just waiting around, but really, I'm retired, it's not costing me anything, and I'm probably doing about what I'd be doing if I was in a New Mexico State Park, I just don't have a pretty view out the window.  So it's not such a big deal.

 

From Me and Katie, Have a Happy Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!  :)

Busy day and beautiful plants

Today was really busy.  I was up earlier than usual and full of energy, so I decided to defrost the refrigerator.  The fridge and freezer are pretty empty, I'm shopping tomorrow, so this was a good time to get this done.  I had some small plastic containers in the freezer (for my cold drinks - these are bigger than ice cubes), so I took everything out and put them in the sink, covered them with ice cube trays and the plastic containers, and covered it all with towels.  The freezer was already done, so I only had the fridge.

I got my hair dryer out and pointed it at the ice on the fins, and waved it back and forth.  I was surprised that it didn't take long. I put flat plastic containers on the highest shelf to collect the water, but everything that melted went into the little tray with the hole that takes the water outside onto the ground.  It was really fast and very easy.  I think, now that I know you aren't supposed to let the ice get that thick and it's so easy, I'll probably do this more often. 

While the fridge was empty, I wiped it down so it's all clean and ready for the groceries tomorrow.

Then I got all the laundry ready, rugs, towels, clothes, etc., and walked down to the laundry in the park.  I did three loads, put everything away, and then vacuumed everything.  Washed the floors.  The Palms is smiling today.

I went outside and filled the batteries with distilled water and added oil to the generator. I have a "task" pop up every two weeks in my Outlook program to do these two tasks so I won't forget, but I skipped it since I'm here in an RV park and not driving or using the generator.  I've been on electricity for 30 days, and wanted to make sure they were both topped off before I leave on Wednesday morning.  I was surprised at how much water the batteries took, and how low the oil was.  I wonder if the high heat causes this.  Anyway, I'm back on the "every two week" schedule now.

I'm finding I'm not as much in control of my rig when I'm in an RV park.  When I'm boondocking, I keep track of everything, the distilled water in the batteries, the oil in the generator, the solar, the fresh water tank, and the grey and black water tanks.  It becomes part of the normal routine.  Since I've been here with full hook-ups, I've backed up my grey water tank into my shower and my distilled water and gen oil got low.  That never happens in the desert. I'm going to have to get back into the routine again. Starting Wednesday.

I left one of my tablets (I have a few of them) at Walmart a few weeks ago when I was checking out, so I need to see it it's in their lost and found.  I put everything in these tablets.  Whichever one is closest gets written in.  Places I want to go, mile markers to look for, shopping lists, bills, people's names I want to remember, tips I hear, pretty much everything I might want to remember.  Sometimes I'll pick one up and look through, and remember a freeway I traveled with all the possible places to turn off and camp for a while. I'm always finding things that bring back good memories, or things I'd forgotten about.  I don't know what's in the one I lost, but I'm going to check tomorrow and see if they have it.  I'd like to get it back! 

So, tomorrow all we have to do is go to Walmart for groceries, and then top off our propane tank here in the park, then we'll be ready to leave Camp Verde, AZ.  I'm going to have a follow-up blood test at a lab in Palm Springs, it's a leftover from my annual physical in February.  Two readings were a little low, but in doing research on the web, one cause could be my surgery. I guess major surgery can knock the numbers off for a while, so this is just to make sure they are back to normal.  I'm going to overnight at the local casinos while I'm in that area.  Hopefully I'll have results in a few days, then I'll head to New Mexico.  WHERE IT'S COOLER.

Katie smells like lavender.  I couldn't figure out what she smelled like after each walk - when she was chasing lizards and running around bushes - until they started blooming.  I had a lavender bush at my condo, and it's a different variety, but smells the same.

 

That made me think of how unusual it is for Katie and me to walk along manicured paths with such beautiful trees and plants and flowers, and since we're leaving, I decided to take photos of them.  Most have just started to bloom, so this is a good time of year to be here.

 

   

 

It's been nice to be here for 30 days, but Katie and I are ready to leave. She must sense that we're leaving soon; the last couple of days, every time I start putting things away, just normal regular things, Katie gets up on the back of the dinette seat in her  "ready to ride" position. She starts out here and then ends up in her bed when we're on the road.  She looks at me like, "Hurry up, I'm ready!"  She's a great traveler.

From me and Katie, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

The Solar Eclipse

I took some photos of the solar eclipse this evening.  From my location in Camp Verde, AZ, and with the mountain on the horizon, I didn't get the total eclipse, but it was still pretty cool.   There was  a lot of smoke in the sky from the nearby fires, so it has some orange and peach in the sky from the smoke.

This is what it looked like to my naked eye (on the camera screen):

Then I changed to a "closeup" view and it started changing.  The changes weren't obvious unless my camera was on closeup at the 18 x zoom.
 

 It sure looks like a rising moon, not a setting sun.

Then it went behind the mountain.  Since I've been full-timing, I've seen a lunar eclipse at Quartzsite, AZ and now a solar eclipse at Camp Verde, AZ.  I'd never seen either before.

From me and Katie, good night.  :)

The Fires

There have been some bad fires in Arizona, four that are being reported on in the news, and when I went outside the other morning, the sky was dark with smoke. I went to the office to talk to them about it - I wondered if we were in any danger if the fires kept moving.  They weren't worried, but were watching it. They said they'd let us know if there was a chance of the fire getting too close to us.  Wow, I took one of my usual short walks with Katie and I could see a difference in my breathing when we got back, and it was a short walk. We stayed inside the rest of the day, except for short potty breaks for Katie a few times.

The last few days haven't been as bad - I know the smoke is there, but it's not as thick.  I guess it depends on how the winds are blowing.  Today is windy, and I can see more smoke in the skies.  I'm glad I'll be leaving on Wednesday.

This was the sky in the East yesterday evening. The smoke was swirling, very unusual looking.

This morning a big rig came in towing a large trailer.  Look at the size of this duo, and the neat graphics on the enclosed trailer.

I asked her if they had a helicopter inside and she laughed.  They have a Jeep in there and a golf cart, and a bunch of other stuff, but no "bird."  I think her husband flew helicopters in Vietnam.  Cool cargo trailer.

I ordered some of The Solution and also a spray bottle of Amaze, which is for getting bugs, black streaks, etc., off autos and RVs.  I ordered it on the 7th, and I've been waiting for it since then. I finally checked my AMEX account on-line, and there have been no charges. Then I checked on their website and I don't see anything about a pending order for me.  I must not have completed the on-line order form. Rats!

I'm afraid to order it now, I'm leaving in five days.  I guess I'll order it again when I know I'll be somewhere for a couple of weeks again.

I think this time of year I drive more and get more bugs and road dirt on the rig.  Now that The Palms is so clean and shiny I want to keep her that way!  Once the season for the LTVAs (Long Term Visitor Areas) starts again in September, I'll get an LTVA Permit and drive less.

 Smokey sunset on Wednesday

 Thursday's Sunset. Can you see the smoke?

Laters.  (Anyone else read the books?)  From Me and Katie, have a great Friday!  :)

One more week...

Just want you to know Katie and I are doing fine.  We have one more week here at Distant Drums RV Resort; we leave next Wednesday morning. Things have been pretty quiet around here, it's been hot in the afternoons, but the mornings and evenings are perfect. With the A/C on in the afternoon when we need it, the temps in The Palms are perfect, too.

I folded up my chairs and laid them on the patio the other day because of the wind.  When I put them back up, this little stick critter was stuck inside the chair.  Isn't he cool looking?

Walking Stick

I don't think I posted about the night last week when a noise woke me up, just as Katie was jumping down from the overhead bed onto the couch.  In the middle of the night!  She jumped off the couch and went into the kitchen where she vomited on the little throw rug.  WHAT A GOOD GIRL!  Thank you for not vomiting in my bed. :)  I got up and cleaned it up and put her little bed on the couch and got out the little down blanket that we used to put on the couch for her to snuggle in. I covered her bed with it, which makes a nice little nest, with the rest of the blanket on the couch.

Katie's bed is under the blanket.  At night, I cover her up with the extra.

I used to put her bed and blanket on the dinette bench seat during the day, then move them over to the couch at night.  Then it got cold and I put her bed on the dinette seat all the time, put the blanket away, and Katie slept with me in the overhead bunk.  Of course, I had no way to know she missed that blanket.  When I got it out the other night, she acted like she found an old friend.  I'm going to have to keep it out all the time, she really likes it.

Afternoon nap on her favorite blankie, totally zonked with her tongue peeking out.

Since I got that blanket out for her, she's hardly gotten off it.  I had forgotten how much she loved it and layed on it all the time.

So Katie is sleeping on the couch at night now - as long as it's warm enough.  When it gets cold at night, I'll bring her up into my bed again.

 Katie is making a friend.

Katie is really getting socialized, as far as small dogs, but some of these little guys are playful, and Katie doesn't want or know how to play with them.  It seems to scare her.  She's really friendly with people now, though. She will walk right up to someone, even walks up to them sitting in their chairs in front of their rigs if they look friendly. People seem to love her.

When I took down the bird seed feeder for the finches, they kept coming to the window.  Some of them even tried out the hummer food.

Hummmmm - this doesn't look right.

But I'll try it!

 I'm not sure they get anything - their beaks are so short.

That's it for now - from me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)