Wordless Wednesday - Faces in Everyday Places

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

The 4th of July, 2014

Jeanne, Annie, John and I had a little bar-b-que in Jeanne's shelter on the 4th of July. It was really nice, and fun.  I was worried about the storms coming my way, but the girls have this storm stuff down pretty well and weren't worried.  We were meeting at 4 o'clock, and the weather turned out to be beautiful, just perfect.

We had bar-b-qued hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, macaroni salad, chips and dip and deviled eggs, with lemon bars for desert.  Yum.  I wish I had a plate full right now.  I took a photo right before we started to eat, but the table-of-food photo seems to be lost. 

Here are the photos of our bar-b-que:

Jake is such a leaner - here he is leaning on me:

And he also likes to stand on people's feet - below are Jake's and Annie's:

Jeanne brought out some of her home-made dog cookies for the pups - Katie LOVES them, and she got two:

Katie has never been obnoxious about taking treats from me, but for fun we practice "gentle" treat taking, and she's doing a good job as you can see:

And here she is, wanting to get out of the stroller after lunch and be down with the other dogs.  Of course, I let her down. 

Katie is reallly enjoying being with the other dogs, and this morning Renee (who we met at Bluewater Lake State Park) arrived with her two dogs, Harley and Cole.  I'll get photos of them for you to see, they are so cute.  Harley is pretty old, and the coolest dog.  Anyway, Katie wanted to meet them, and she let them sniff her, and she tried to sniff Cole, too, but he was wagging his tail so much Katie couldn't get in a good sniff.  But she did sniff noses with both Harley and Cole, and I was so pleased that she isn't afraid of them.

Which reminds me, I have to tell you what happened yesterday between Katie and Jake.  The three of us women were chatting in Jeanne's shelter and our dogs were there.  I guess something happened or someone moved behind the picnic table, and both Katie and Jake were startled.  Jake must have made a move toward Katie, she growled, bared her teeth and thrust her head and body toward Jake.  He was just sitting on his haunches, looked at her, raised his left foot and put it on Katie's neck/head and pressed down.  Totally stopped her.  He didn't make a sound or any other moves.  Katie was so surprised, she squeeled and ran behind my chair.  It was so funny.  Jake is such a cool dog.

I sure enjoyed watching Katie and Jake and Harley and Cole this morning.  We are all walking this afternoon if it doesn't rain, so we'll add Riley to the mix.  I hope to get some good photos of them all together.

One more photo - John took this of the three of us and our dogs yesterday during our walk, he's a great photographer and has good equipment - nice photo, John.  Thanks!

From me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Sunset, storm and a move

Boy have we had some weather here!  Super hot temps and the worst hail storm I've ever been in.

The other evening we had a gorgeous sunset, look at the way the sun, behind the clouds, is barely lining the edge of the clouds - it was just beautiful:

Tuesday night we had a really strong storm, lightening all around us, constant thunder, and then the hail started.  It was so loud inside The Palms.  Katie and I were in bed in our over-the-cab bunk and after a few minutes, Katie came up from the foot of the bed and crawled under the covers close to me.  She doesn't shake or show fear when it storms, but this one got to her.

I woke up before it started and saw flashing lights outside the dinette window.  I thought something with the Rangers or Police was going on near me, so I climbed down and opened the shade to see what was happening and it was lightening on the northern horizon.  Constant, flashing lights from end to end of the northern horizon.

I went back to bed and looked out the upper bunk windows from time to time.  Clear view to the lightening on the horizon.  Suddenly the rain and hail started and I pulled the curtains over again, and there was absolutely no visibility - total solid rain and hail.  It was really something. After a bit I started wondering if I was going to be stuck in mud, my site was so large it wasn't graveled all over and my front wheels were at the edge of the site.  I climbed down and started the engine and moved The Palms back, into the site more, just in case.    I also took a photo out the front window, it looked like it was snowing:

In the morning I went outside, and our tires were fine, still on solid ground, and look at the hail that was still on the ground:

See The Palms below - in the distance?

I walked over to the electric loop to check on Jeanne and especially Annie - this was her first storm in Bliss, her new rig, and I wondered if she and Jake and the kitties made it through all the rain without any leaks.  Luckily we all made it though without any damage or leaks.  (I had some tiny holes punched through some trim pieces - eight holes - but I filled them with Goop).

As I was walking over I stopped to talk to the man in the site next to Jeanne's, and he mentioned he was leaving that morning.  I was anxious to get into that campground area, so after checking on the girls, I went back and packed up and drove over to Jeanne's site and parked with her, facing the neighbor's site.  When he pulled out, we pulled in. (I've been keeping my eye on the sites here and hit pay dirt.) 

(Although I liked the site I was in and felt lucky to get it, there were two more thunderstorms predicted and I wasn't crazy about the possibility of getting stuck there.  Also, it 's such a large site and within the site is a "day use" area with a picnic table.  With the 4th of July coming, I was a little worried about a crowd coming in.  I would have welcomed them - and usually these large family groups are really good neighbors - but I'd rather be alone and have it a bit quieter.)

I love the site I'm in now, it has wonderful views and so far it's great. It looks really pretty in this photo, but it's actually kind of plain.  Here at Storrie Lake the sites have water and garbage cans in each site, and that's very convenient.  These sites are also pretty level.

I have a couple of photos of me and the dogs, the first one Annie took for me with my camera, while I was sitting in the shelter  holding Katie, and Jake and Riley were close enough to get all three dogs in one photo.   As you can see, they are all looking in different directions and ignoring each other, which is what usually happens.  They all get along, but don't interact much or play with each other.

This next photo, I've been wanting to get for a while.  Lately when I'm busy at the dinette, eating or on the computer, Katie will come up on the bench seat and force her nose under my arm and rest her head on me, wanting to snuggle.  I actually took this picture of the computer screen in front of us, acting like a mirror.  She will close her eyes and go to sleep if I don't make her move.  She's such a little baby sometimes.  :)   I was eating an English muffin when she snuck that little nose through (notice my cool locket?).

Tomorrow is the 4th of July and we're having a bar-b-que pot luck.  Should be fun!  We've had huge black clouds coming our way all afternoon and the storm just started - I can hear thunder and see lightning, and hear occasional hail.  I'm hoping we won't get a lot - they are predicting penny-sized hail and that could really do some damage, the last storm had pea-sized hail. :(

From me and Katie, have a safe and fun 4th of July, everybody!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - little sleeping cuties

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

Storrie Lake revisited....

After leaving Cummins Rocky Mountain shop, I drove to Santa Fe to spend the night in the parking lot of a new Wal-Mart.  The store is huge and the parking lot was very nice.  As usual I found a nice spot in the rear corner of the lot and we were settled.  The plan was to drive on to Storrie Lake after we woke up Saturday morning.

When I woke up in the morning and looked out the window, this is what I saw:

Well, crap!  This was a HUGE parking lot, and it was almost empty.  I immediately thought of Denise - this happened to her once, too, right Denise?  (I tried to find her link, but couldn't.)  Anyway, I took Katie out for her morning potty break and took this photo, then walked over to the car and bent down to peek into the driver's window (the windows were dark and I couldn't see into the car).  YES!  Someone was asleep in the passenger's seat!

I went into The Palms, cleaned up, made coffee, and got ready to leave. I set my GPS for Storrie Lake, started the engine, and immediately the car backed up and drove off.  Whew!  That was lucky, what if they were gone for the day?  Did I notify Wal-Mart security that a car that was legally parked was in my way?  Did I call the police with the same info?  The Palms was the one taking three spaces sideways.  Would I be here all day?  I felt so lucky he was in the car and woke up right away!  I'll bet he saw me peeking at him.

When I told Jeanne about this, we discussed different ways of blacktop parking for overnight stays.  She gave me a good tip:  pull forward more than I did in the photo above so my rear bumper was still in that left-most space and no one could squeeze in.  That would put me over the line into the space the car took during the night.  Then if they did  park right next to my front bumper, I could back up quite a bit, since the rear of the cabin overhangs quite a bit before my tires would touch the sidewalk edge (and before I would squash a bush with my rig). Of course that would take up four spaces, but in a large empty parking lot, who cares?  And I wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck.

The other option, of course, is to take up two tandem spots, and then I'd have the driveways front and rear to drive out in either direction.  That's how I park when I shop, but it's my second choice when overnighting, because I seem to have more privacy parked as I am in the photo above. 

And so off we went down the road and about an hour later, "Hello Storrie Lake!"

It is so good to be here again.  It's been windy and a little hot from time to time, but the wind and breezes seem to cut the heat, so all in all not bad right now.

The park has been busy, but I was able to get one of my favorite spots, all by itself and across from the showers.  It's a really big site.

When I arrived, I checked in with Jeanne and Annie, who were dry camping down by the lake.  There was only one open developed site left and another in the lower electric circle that was a dry camping site and Jeanne knew it was emptying before noon so she snagged it when the camper left.  I nabbed the large site across from the showers to share with Annie, who was hoping an electric site will open up soon. She is in her new-to-her smaller rig with no solar panels yet. Luckily she has a good generator, so when it's hot, she can run her air to cool things off for now, and she was right next to a tree that gives her some shade for part of the day.  (The Palms on the left, Bliss on the right - this was taken yesterday, and this morning Annie was able to grab an electric spot, so she's settled.)

Sometimes when you get to a new campground you just get a great spot, no problem.  Sometimes you have a choice of great spots.  But other times it's like musical chairs.  Get ready, get ready, get ready - DRIVE!  Get that one open spot before anyone else sits down in it.  I like the second option best.  :)

Annie made a big pot of chili Saturday and invited Jeanne and me to share it with her, so Jeanne made some cornbread muffins and I put a green salad together and we had a nice late lunch.  I'm not a chili eater, but I did try some, and it was so good I went back for seconds.  I guess I do like chili!  And Jeanne's cornbread was perfect - warm, soft, and crisp around the muffin top edge.

As you can see from my bowl below, I was being very cautious with the chili serving.  LOL  When it was gone, I went back for more.  I loved the grated cheese and sour cream on top, too. Annie was nice enough to let Jeanne and me take a bowl home with us for dinner.  That was BIG pot of chili!

I was out of tomatoes, but added artichoke hearts, avocado, raw carrots and croutons to the lettuce, and Jeanne brought some Greek olives that added a lot of flavor, too.

Great lunch, thanks!!

We've been doing a fair amount of visiting back and forth, sitting in our shelters and chatting.  Katie has been such a bear lately with other dogs, she is especially not nice to Riley, Jeanne's dog, and then yesterday she snapped at Annie's dog, Jake.  So embarrassing when your dig is the bully.  When they took a walk yesterday morning, Katie and I met them on the way and walked with them a bit, and Katie did fine, of course she was in the stroller most of the time.

Then Saturday late afternoon Annie and Jake and Katie and I walked over to Jeanne's shelter.  She has a fence across the opening to keep Riley inside, so we took our dogs off their leashes and Katie did great!  We were there quite a while chatting, and the dogs just did their thing.  Katie even sniffed Jake's butt (at least she tried, he's lots bigger and taller than she is, and she couldn't reach much more than the lower part of his tail to sniff, but she tried).  I was glad she got that close and was okay.

I thought Jake was a super shy dog, and he is somewhat, but the main reason he's that way around us is because Katie barks at him and he's afraid of her.

Riley is a "chill" dog - he does his own thing and if Katie bugs him, he just walks away and lays down and ignores her.  I wish I was like that!  I think Katie is getting more used to him, too, just being around him more.  Things are getting better, so that's a good thing for the dogs.  And for their moms, too.  As usual, like most RVers, Annie and Jeanne are super polite about Katie's bad manners.  We're working on it.  And being around dogs more is helping.

Before I end for today, I wanted to show you our other Wal-Mart neighbors.  They drove in a little after we did and stayed for an hour or so.  Three or four large horses, one yearling, I think, and two babies.  They were snorting and clumping their feet, moving around, making "I want out of this trailer" noises.

When Katie and I were out walking and checking them out (staying quite a bit away from their trailer; the horses were nervous when we were walking in their vicinity) a cowboy-looking young man walked by and I asked him if those were his horses.  He said, "Yes, Ma'am," just like you hear in the movies.  I said, "They are just beautiful - you made my day!"  and he says, in that cowboy accent, "Thank you, Ma'am!"  So cute.

And guess what?  Caught a mouse in the engine.  When I checked yesterday morning there he was.  I added two additional snap traps.  And that was with two sets of my solar flashing lights covering the top of the engine and a small, bright light shining down the middle of the engine to the ground all night long.  The lights might deter some of the critters, but obviously not all, and they only flash at night, so not such a good deterrent during the day.  This morning, no mice.  :)))

NOTE:  If you're thinking about changing out your current batwing TV antenna for a Jack antenna, I noticed this morning they are priced at $48.56 today on Amazon.com. Click HERE for my post on how easy they are to change out.  (I paid in the low $60s for mine)  :)

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