Free Kindle book - How NOT to RV

Just a quick post today.

I mentioned in a previous post that I get a daily e-mail from Amazon for free Kindle books.  I have almost the limit on my Kindle again, so I'm very careful now which books I download. Until I delete more, I don't have much room for new books.  But when I saw this book this morning, I had to get it.  I haven't read it yet, and don't know how long it will be free, so I thought I'd let you know, if you have a Kindle, it's available free at Amazon.com.  The reviews are good, it sounds like a good, fun read, and the price is right.

How NOT to RV; The Rvers Guide to RVing in the Absurd (The How NOT To Guides)

By: Jennifer Flower (Bumpity Bump Publishing)

(24)

It's a beautiful Sunday morning - I don't know what it is about this RV park, but I'm waking early, ready to get up and make that coffee.  I must be getting a better sleep?  Even Katie is getting up early most mornings. 

I have a long list and will be driving to the closest Walmart this morning to replenish food and paper products.  It's only about 14 miles away - I overheard some people in the office talking about going to the Walmart, and asked the volunteer. I was surprised there's a Walmart in this area.  Nice!

The scab finally fell off Katie's nose.  I'm taking her to the Vet next week for her Rabies and annual shots, and will see if there's something I can put on her nose when it's hot and dry to stop that from happening again.

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

Good News! and a visit with another full-timer

The good news is, my condo recorded today!   It kept being put off for one reason or another, and was set to record on Monday, but they funded the buyers' loan today and had a special recording, so it's done.  I used to work (in  one of my many jobs) as a loan coordinator, and also as a real estate agent, and I don't remember ever hearing that phrase, special recording.  But I have to say, it sure was a special recording to me!!  :)

I had a meet-up with one of our fellow full-timers, Lloyd, this morning.  What an interesting man!  He's really easy to have a conversation with, which seems to be the norm for RVers.  We drove to a local Starbucks and talked for a while, then back to The Palms where we sat outside in the sun and continued our conversation.  Thanks, Lloyd, for coming over and visiting.  I really enjoyed meeting you!

That's about all the news or information for today.  My son, Tom, sent me an e-mail with the latest two cars he's restored, and if you are interested in cars, here are the photos.  I always enjoy seeing his restored cars and houses, they are usually junkers when he buys them, and jewels when he sells them.  He is not selling these cars, at least not now.  He likes to keep them for a while and drive them.  Might as well enjoy them after all the work to get them so pretty!

The first one is a1968 Rally Sport Camaro.  He has much of the original paperwork as well as ownership history back to the original owner.  Tom found some 8 track tapes to play in the restored 8 track AM/FM radio. The tires are original bias ply (non radials) from the 1960's. He found a guy who had a small inventory of these original Red Line Firestones. 

Here's the other one.   Tom said it's the rarest and most valuable car he's restored. It has all of the original factory paperwork as well as all of the original CA registrations since 1970 when it was first sold (it has the blue CA license plates). It has been seen recently driving down the Coast Highway with two small boys in the back seat enjoying the view from their car seats!  (My two grandsons, Graydin and Gavin.  Gavin is a real car guy at 7 years old, and knows all Dad's cars.) 

Today was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the breeze very light, and it was warm, not hot!   It would be nice if every day was like this, except for an occasional storm.  Plus my condo sale is done and I had some good company.  What more could I want?

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

Backing up your blog and FREE Word Press Guide Kindle book

Thank you for your comments - thinking my blog was gone was pretty stressful.  Not only is this a blog that I enjoy writing and hopefully you enjoy reading, it's my travel journal with all the facts and photos of my RVing experience. I often use the blog to find things by using the "search" gadget on the right sidebar, so it's a good resource for information I need, too.

It would have been nice to get a message from Blogger when I logged in stating they were transferring accounts over to the new format, "Please come back later when the transfers are complete.  Your blog will be up and running in a few hours."  Or something like that. (I had already moved my blog back to the new format.)  Instead of:

My first thought was, "My Blog has been REMOVED!!!  OMG - what did I do?"

I do back-up my blog from time to time on Blogger, and I have also opened a Word Press account and transferred all my posts, comments and followers to that blog so if I ever do want to switch, some of the work will be done. It doesn't take long to set up a Word Press account.

I've had comments and e-mails asking me about backing up the blog.  Rather than re-create the wheel, please check Rick's blog post, Back To Normal And How To Backup Your Blog, from June 5, 2010.  Quoting Rick, "If you are a Live Writer user, then your blog posts are saved automatically on your HD."  That's  nice - I don't use Live Writer, except for a few times when Blogger was giving me fits, but that's actually a good reason to use Live Writer.

As much as I, and some of you, complain about Blogger, I have to admit I like using their program. I find it easy to use for the most part, and the fact that it's free - well, what can I say, IT'S FREE. We all use it every day, either posting or reading others' posts, or both, and seldom is there a problem.  So, although I'm sure I'll complain and rant about Blogger again, I do appreciate having a blogging program that doesn't cost me anything. (Except for the info they are gathering about me, I guess.) I just have to remember to back up on a regular basis.  That way, if it DOES get removed for real, I won't lose much.

If you are thinking about moving your blog over to Word Press, I've done some research.  The best information I've found is at Beautifully Invisible.  This is the information I used.  I opened the Word Press account and moved all my Blogger posts over, but didn't make it "public."  It's my back-up, JIC.  I'm keeping my Blogger account because I like it.  I only opened the Word Press account and moved my posts over as a "ready-to-go" backup just in case.  As I've said before, I don't completely trust Blogger.  Sorry.  But I don't.  I also use Blogger's back-up which is stored on my hard drive, so I feel double insured.

Another resource is Grit and Glamor.  If you scroll down a bit to Moving from Blogger to Word Press, she has a lot of links concerning moving your blog.

UPDATE:  Free Kindle Book 

30 Minutes to a Wordpress Website - The ULTIMATE Guide to Getting Started With Wordpress

By: Eric Allyn

I subscribe to Free Kindle Books [freekindlebooks@ereaderiq.com] and this one came up today.  I don't know how long it will be free, but if you have a Kindle and are interested in getting a copy, check it out at Amazon.com.


My TV came in the mail yesterday, and it's all set up.  I've been listening to the radio a lot since my TV burned up, and now I don't know which to use.  My mom and dad listened to the radio all the time, my mom had her radio soap operas on when she was doing her housework and my dad listened to all the baseball games when he was out working in the yard, so it's kind of like "comfort food" to have the radio on in the background.

There has been a  Montana RV Group here since I arrived, and they are all pulling out now.  That's one row of sites that will be empty.  It was kind of neat walking past them on our walks, all lined up, looking the same.  People were sitting outside, socializing in the late afternoons. Hope they all had a good time.

Here's last night's sunset:

The clouds were coming in!

Today we're covered with clouds and it's raining and the wind is blowing - it's 69 degrees in The Palms.  It hasn't been this cool for a loooong time.  Looks like we might have the storm that was predicted - it's coming from Los Angeles where they had a big storm yesterday with power outages.  Isn't it nice not having to worry about power outages?  If the power goes out, we just carry on.  With our propane, solar panels, batteries and DC power we're little power houses.   :) 

WOW!  Thunder and lightning!!!

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

My Blog Disappeared.

Ouch!  This is kind of scarey, you know?  I logged on to read blogs, and these are the messages I got.

Blog has been removed

I was able to access my dashboard by using www.blogger.com, but when I tried dewelldesigns@blogspot.com I got the message that my blog has been removed.  I think it's an error and will see if I can get it fixed, but after being booted out of the Adsense program, I've never quite trusted Google and Blogger again. If I can get this posted, at least you will all know we're okay, it's just Me and My Dog that is kaput.  :(

Here goes...

It worked, and now we seem to be up and running again.  I'm going to leave this post here, just in case. (Time to copy the blog over to Word Press again so I won't lose it. :)

Site photos, etc.

WELCOME to our newest follower, Gary!  Gary and his wife and dog have a new 1997 Fleetwood Storm  Model 34S that they purchased in February and named the Sand Castle.   I think they are beach people, which is where they went on their first excursion.  They've made a few mods and seem to be enjoying their new motor home.  Gary is also a pilot, so he's very familiar and comfortable with checklists, which we all use, too.  Check out his blog, it's easy reading, and I enjoyed going back to the beginning.  Thanks for following along with me and Katie, and Welcome Aboard, Gary!  :)

Not really much to report today.   Katie and I are enjoying our stay here at Distant Drums RV Park.  I've taken a few photos of some of the wildlife.  I don't think I'm going to be snapping pics of burros or coyotes here.  Katie and I have been walking a lot more because it's so easy and safe for us to be anywhere in the park.  Of course, there's a lot of interest and entertainment when we have the bigger guys in the area, but for now I'm relaxing and not looking for snakes, burros or coyotes on our walks, and that's nice, too. 

This is our site - each site has either a double patio, a longer one for the rig and a shorter one for the car and patio area, or like mine, a small rock area for the rig to park on and the concrete pad is for the car/patio.  Not having a car, the patio I have is a nice size.

When I came in on Sunday, the park was pretty full, but Monday morning some rigs pulled out, leaving a much more spacious feeling.

 The Palms and an empty site next to us - Monday at dusk.

That large L-shaped concrete pad is the site across from us.  There was a big rig there that pulled out early Monday morning.  As of this morning the three sites across from us were vacant, and we had a very open feeling with no one across from us or on our passenger side.

Each time I've walked down the little road to the laundry/shower/dog park area, this little guy has run from under a rock, across the street, and waited till we passed before moving on.  He's tiny, and very pretty, I think.

 Oriole, Kingbird, or Kingfinch?  I'll try for a closer, clear photo.

Katie with her ball.  I'm re-training her to fetch and return the ball.

She used to love that, but being on the leash for the last year, 

she seems to have forgotten or lost interest in the ball game.

Sunset on Sunday, warm, calm and clear.

Sun in the Western sky with clouds Monday.

The clouds were nice, and we had a nice breeze.  Still pretty warm, though.

The weather is a bit cooler today, but still warm.   The weather forecast is predicting some rain later in the week - that will be a nice change.

From Me and Katie, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)