My prize for First Place in the "Mello Mike's 1st Annual Roadrunner Photo Contest" arrived today! It's bigger than I thought it would be - not only will it be great for drinks, but I can also use it for hot soups or stew; it's big enough around to use as an insulated food mug. It's really pretty, and I can't wait to use it.
I sent Mike a thank you e-mail, and mentioned that after looking at these photos on the mug, I realized one of the things I like the most about Roadrunners. They always look so surprised, or maybe very interested in something. They seem to have a real expression on their face.
I also got a new Kindle Fire yesterday! Very exciting! I've gone back and forth about getting a tablet, I really WANT one, but don't necessarily NEED one, so I just couldn't justify the cost. The one I want, with the keyboard attachment, would have been around $800 or more. So I started looking at the Kindle Fire. I have the first generation Kindle. It's good for reading and I use it all the time, but I wanted something that would connect to the Internet without setting up my laptop. I wanted it to get e-mail, access blogs, etc., and the Kindle Fire looked like a good deal at $199.
I had some points on my AMEX card to spend, and my daughter and her family gave me an Amazon gift card for Mother's Day (thanks Kristy and Matt!) and I used both toward the purchase price, so I got a very nice new electronic toy pretty inexpensively.
It came around 11 am yesterday, and I spent all day trying to figure it out, get all my books downloaded, get some documents into the "cloud" so I can download them to the Fire. I want my maps and spreadsheets about parks available when I'm on the road, as well as other information.
I had to call Verizon to set up my phone as a Hot Spot so that I could wirelessly do what I need to do with the Fire. I want to download as much as I can to the unit so I won't have to use the hotspot much. If I can download some movies and TV shows, etc., then I won't need to use the wireless feature when I watch them. I'm hoping I can download movies from Netflix.
With the purchase of the Kindle, I got a free month to use Amazon Prime to watch movies and TV shows, but I need the Internet for that, so I'll use my laptop for that feature. (Of course, anyone can get a free month - they give you 30 days free hoping you'll continue.)
I have a lot to learn about what it will do, and how things work. I was ready for a new toy that I can have some fun with, and enjoy figuring out.
I also got myself a couple of battery operated fans today when we were shopping. They'll be nice to have, for sure. I've been wishing I had some that didn't need to be plugged in. Sometimes it's not hot enough for the A/C with the generator running, but a nice little fan would be just right.
Here are my three new toys - gotta love new toys!
Roadrunner Mug, Kindle Fire, and Fan
Did I show you our new (3rd) campsite? It's a good one.
There's lots of shade by the table in the morning,
but no shade on The Palms' solar panels.
Between working with the new Kindle all day yesterday, and going to Walmart today, putting away almost $300 worth of food and supplies, gassing up The Palms, then dumping tanks and filling up the water tank, I was really tired when we got back to the campsite around 3:00. I don't plan to do anything much for the rest of the day, or tomorrow either.
Now we're good to go with everything we need, and more, until we leave here next week to travel to another New Mexico State Park.
Here are a couple of pretty sunsets from Monday evening. They were taken from our campsite; the first is a long shot and the second one is a close-up of the same place where the sun went down.
That's it for today. From Katie and me, have a great Wednesday, everyone! :)
