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!  :)

The Fix

WELCOME to our two new followers:

JudynEd Rice, who are showing no information.  JudynEd, if you guys have an RV blog, let me know!  NOTE:  Judy left a comment - and she does have a brand new RV blog: Woo Hoo! What a Ride!. Check it out. :)

Sam Livingston, who loves to eat and hike, and lives in Gig Harbor, WA with a sweet dog by the name Bonnie.  Sam, I don't see a blog listed for you, either; if you have one let me know.

Thanks to you both for following along with me and Katie on our full-timing adventures - we're happy to have you aboard.

Remember when I was coming out of the gas station on my very first trip (north to my daughter's house in Vacaville) and I scraped the drivers side of  The Palms on that pole in the gas station as I was turning?  I ordered a new cargo door and decals from Forest River and my son fixed and cleaned up the fiberglass damage, and re-installed the new door and decals.

Later I noticed this in the front corner of The Palms:

I didn't think much about it, but in the last few days, two different people told me I was going to have some water damage if I didn't get that trim piece back where it belongs.

Gary told me when he was waxing that area how to do it, but I needed a longer screw than the original one.  I planned to go to Walmart this week and added a package of different sizes and lengths of screws to my list.

He said to tap it with my rubber mallet from the center of the trim piece down to the edge, and tighten the screw a bit with each tapped area, as it goes in closer to the corner.  Hopefully when I got to the bottom of the corner, the piece would be flush where it belongs. 

THE FIX

Today Katie and I drove to Walmart, and I got some longer screws so I could  fix the gap.  It turned out pretty well.  I couldn't get it to sit flush, but it came in pretty close, so I put some clear silicone gel along the edge and in the small opening that was left.  It's supposed to be dry in three hours.  I checked it a couple of hours ago, and it was good.  It' water tight, and that should take care of it. :)

Pretty flowers along our walk in the RV Resort.

 Our gorgeous sky at sunset this evening.

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