Oh, oh, Help!

Yesterday I was driving out of the campground area and when I got onto the exit road, I heard thump, thump, thump coming from my right rear wheels.  Oh, oh, that didn't sound good.  I thought I probably had a flat tire. 

I stopped on the side of the road and got out.  I checked the rear tires with my eyes and hands, all around, and didn't see a flat tire or rocks stuck in the treads.  I got back in and drove on.  Thump, thump, thump.

I stopped again and pulled over by the Visitor's/Registration Office.  I got out and checked the right rear tires again, and this time they were in the right position to see this:

I tried and tried to get it out, tried to leverage it out with a crow bar, but it wouldn't budge at all.  Just then a young couple stopped and I asked him if he could pull the rock out.  They were so nice to try to help, but even though he got some tools out and tried until his face was RED, he was unable to dislodge the rock.

I could have called Good Sam Emergency Road Service and had the outer tire loosened, but instead I made a call to the Dingbats.  Hazel checked to see who was in camp, and soon Don and Gary drove down to see what the problem was.  Gary, shown below, brought a box of tools with him and using his super power strength, was able to get the rock out from between the tires. As I said to him, "Gary, you're the MAN!"

See the rock on the ground to his right? 

Here is is again, on my kitchen counter, see how it's a little curved on the sides - that's how it was lodges in between the tires.  It had to be sitting just like this to be squeezed into the space when I drove over it:

Bad Rock!

Just a few minutes ago I figured out where I picked up the rock.  It was on the end of the line of rocks I put out around my site.  When I left my site before, I was going out toward the left but I have a new neighbor who is parked in the place I drove through, so yesterday I turned in the other direction and drove over that last rock.  I didn't even see it.  I put it back at the end of the line of rocks - but a little further in.  Next time I'll give myself a little more room for the right hand turn.

Santa and some of  his helpers are again parked in Quartzsite, resting up from their very busy Christmas Eve travels.  Katie and I asked for a photo, and here we are:

I'm the one who is squinting - as you can tell, the sun was very bright! Notice I'm on the "Nice Side." Santa is on the "Naughty Side."  I wonder what he did?

I wanted to get more photos of Santa's Vacation Home, but the next day he traveled to Mexico, so these are photos from a previous year:

The little red car above fits into the lower blue door of his rig, and he just drives away with no toad.

See ya next year, Santa.

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Karla Ledtje!  Karla you don't have anything listed about yourself, so I can't share any info, but if you have a blog let me know and I'll share it with our readers.  Thank you for following along with me and Katie.  Welcome aboard to you!  :)

Look at this beautiful moon from Saturday night:

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

Wordless Wednesday - Carved crayons

Click on the photos and then click again for close-up details, and click HERE for link to The Pleasure of Tiny Things: Artwork.

Crayon carving key:

A is for Aquilegia (Columbine)
B is for Bald Eagle
C is for Cougar
D is for Dogwood
E is for Elk
F is for Fox
G is for Grizzly Bear
H is for Heron
I is for Iris
J is for Juniper
K is for Killer Whale
L is for Lynx
M is for Mountain Goat
N is for Northern Spotted Owl
O is for Otter
P is for Painted Turtle
Q is for Quinault Tribe
R is for Rhododendron
S is for Salmon
T is for Timberwolf
U is for Urchin
V is for Viola
W is for Wolf Eel
X is for Xanthogrammica (Giant Green Anemone)
Y is for Yuma myotis (Vesper Bat)
Z is for Zapus princeps (Western Jumping Mouse)

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

Have you seen this helicopter in the trailer?

There's an interesting story behind this photo.  A few weeks ago Bill, the owner of the above Class A and trailer, pulled into the Dingbat area and joined our group for a week or so.  When I walked down to the campfire and saw his trailer with the helicopter, I told him I've seen him on the road.  And also parked in an RV park.  He said it probably wasn't him, and we talked about where exactly I saw it.

Turns out, his rig and trailer were stolen for about 8 months.  I finally remembered that I saw the RV and trailer at Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde two years ago, and he said that was during the time it was stolen, and yes, it was in that area at that time.

One day in April, 2012, while I was camped at Distant Drums a woman just pulled into the resort and parked the rig near the office.  Katie and I walked by on our way to the dog park and I stopped and commented on the helicopter and asked if she was checking in.  She said no, she just stopped to have a kind of "garage sale."  I asked her what she was selling, and she said, "Just about anything you'd want."  I didn't want to take any more of her time, she was busy and I didn't want to buy anything, so Katie and I continued on with our walk.  Later they were gone.  

Turns out, according to Bill, she stole the motor home and trailer and was selling everything inside both, and then tried to sell both the trailer and the motor home.  That's when she was caught, and Bill ended up getting them back, minus quite a few things.  There was more to the story, but it's his story to tell, not mine, and I'll leave it there.

Really strange that he and I would be parked in the same place two years later having this discussion.  I think his trailer is pretty cool looking.  Of course, it's not really a helicopter inside his trailer, but it looks pretty realistic in person  - he explained how the graphic on the door was created and applied.  He was a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam, hence the helicopter on the trailer.  :)

Mello Mike is having a giveaway contest.  Click on this link to find out how to enter.  This is what Mike is giving away to the lucky winner:

Very nice - and I've entered!  If I don't win, I hope you do.  ;-)

We're still having the best weather here at Quartzsite.  I keep talking about how great the weather is, but it's by far the most enjoyable so far in my three years of camping at Quartzite.  Cold nights and mornings, but nice warm days, not hot, mostly clear skies for my solar panels and very little wind this year.  So far.  I think the clear skies and lack of wind are what make it so nice for me, even more than the temps.

I've finally re-installed my Adobe Photoshop Elements program.  In case you don't know about Elements, it's like a little sister of Adobe Photoshop.  Cheaper and far easier to learn and use, more for someone like me who is not a professional graphics person.  I would definitely need lessons to learn Photoshop.  So, yesterday I was playing around with the different options in the software, many of which are pretty neat.

I took one of my House Finch photos and added one of the options to it and this is what I ended up with.  Original photo:

"Hey, get your beak out of my seeds!"      "Sorry, baby, what was I thinking?"

This looks like it was created using colored pencils:

I haven't had this program installed in quite a while, and it's going to be fun trying to learn it. Again.

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Karen!  Her blog, Karen in the Woods, is one of the most interesting blogs I follow.  She and her husband, Steve, are camp hosts, boon dockers, have a large Sheltie, Duke, and just adopted a new rescue Sheltie pup, Finnegan.  They are doing all sorts of wonderful upgrades to their new house in Wisconsin.  Karen is also a fabric artist and Steve seems to be able to make, fix or restore ANYTHING.  I love reading about their house and grand kids, and everything else they do.  Check out her blog, trust me, you'll find something to love there, too! Welcome Karen, thanks for following along with me and Katie!

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

Wordless Wednesday - Welcome to 2014!

From Me and Katie, Happy New Year's Day, everyone!  :)

Hmmmmm, what's up with Katie?

Last night I was visiting with the Dingbats around the campfire with Katie in my lap.  I was petting her and noticed something soft on her ankle.  Since it was dark, I carried her over to Hazel's nearby motor home and asked her to check Katie to see what it was.  Hazel has a nursing/medical background and has a lot of knowledge in the area of dogs, too. 

We laid Katie down and checked out the inside of her right ankle and this is what we saw (the black marks are permanent marker I put on the lump).

This is her other ankle, you can see how skinny and boney her ankles are:

It didn't seem to bother her, she was eating, drinking, walking fine, acting perfectly normal.  Hazel said she thought it was filled with fluid, and was not a tumor, and to keep an eye on it.  She gave me a permanent marker to mark off the four sides of the lump so I'd know if it's growing or getting smaller.

I took these photos last night when I got her home.   When she was laying on her back on our couch, I took this next photo of both her ankles.

And this morning:



It looks bigger, but it's the way she's sitting.  I think it's the same as last night.

Weird, huh?  I can't imagine what would cause something like this.  Any ideas?  At least she doesn't seem to be bothered by it.  I hope it will go down and we won't need to see a vet.

On another note...

I subscribe to a website called Living Life Fully.  Every day I get a quote in my e-mail box, and I liked this one - it kind of fits me the last few years, and probably some of you, too:

Living life fully doesn't mean having it all, going everywhere, 
doing everything, and being all things to all people.  
Many of us are beginning to see that too much is too much.
                                            --Elaine St. James

It continued with these questions to consider: 

• Is there anything that you have too much of?  What?  What do you do about that?
• Why do we tend to fill all of the spaces of our lives?  Why can't we let space be space?
• How do we go about recognizing what's essential and what isn't?

Living in our small spaces, I'm sure most full-timers have asked themselves the same questions.

Speaking of small spaces, here's our "small space" in it's new campsite - I don't think I've posted photos of our new site.

We have a nice view of the mountains to the west.

Behind us are the Dingbats.  We're close enough to easily walk to the campfire and visit, but still far enough away from the wash that we get TV channels.  We couldn't get any channels in the first space by the wash.

Below is is the wash that's behind our first campsite in La Posa West.  The parking lot that will be the location of the Big Tent is on the other side of the wash from the camping sites.

Every day more and more RVs arrive.  I wake up in the morning to more and more campsites filling. 

This is my last post for the year; 2013 will be history in 12 hours.  I've had a really good year, 2013 has been good to me - and I'm looking forward to 2014.  I'm expecting it to be even better!

Thank you to all our readers who have ordered items through our links this year.  We've generally had a tiny amount of income from our links, and we appreciate every penny, but this month has been different.  I'm sure on-line Christmas presents are the bulk of the purchases, but as far as normal on-line buying, whatever you're all doing, please keep doing it.  :)

Here's to better health and more wealth and tons of happiness for all of us full-timers, part-timers, friends, families and followers.  And a more peaceful world for everyone.

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everybody, and a fun and safe New Year's Eve tonight! :)