Katie has a friend. :)

WELCOME to our new Follower, Campers4Lifex2!  I don't see any blog info on you and there isn't a profile I can access, so let me know if you have a blog I can check out.  Thanks for following along with Katie and Me, I hope you enjoy traveling along with us! :)

WELCOME also to Heather Applegate!  Heather, your photos are gorgeous, but I guess they should be since you are a professional photographer. :)  Heather is saving to buy a trailer, and has a link on her blog that you can click to add a dollar or two to help her reach her goal.  You know what they say, if you don't ask...  I wonder how that's going.   I love this, on her blog, "When I'm having a bad day, I take the change from my pocket and toss it on the ground, so someone will find it and have a better day than me."  I like that idea!  Good luck getting your trailer, Heather, I look forward to following your blog to see if you reach your goal, and thanks for the beautiful photos.  Welcome aboard! :)

I went into Dolores with Debbie and Gayle and Jim Thursday evening.  It's a cute little town, and we went to the brew pup there on the town square.  It's a little place, and was crowded and loud.  You go to the counter for service, and it was quite a wait to get our orders in.  Then we waited for maybe an hour for our food to be delivered.  This is definitely a place you want to go during slow times.  But when my pulled chicken sandwich arrived, it was super good.  I ate about half and had the rest on Friday for a late lunch. Almost as good warmed up!

When I got home Katie was waiting at the door. I'm sure she was sleeping while I was gone, and she did just fine. We always worry about our pets when we leave, but just like little kids in preschool, they make you feel guilty when you leave, and then immediately after the door closes, they're fine.

The other day while Katie and I were walking by, Debbie invited us into her rig, a Lazy Daze with a gorgeous interior. Here she is with Katie's friend, Elliott:

Elliott and Debbie

I was surprised when I went in, it's really homey and cozy inside, and Debbie said when she got it, she wanted it to be as close to her sticks and bricks home as possible. I'd like to have The Palms look  this good, but they are just different designs and colors, totally different. Love your house, Debbie! 

Friday I went into Cortez with Gayle and Debbie to do shopping and laundry and send off some packages.  I got my replacement Sirius XM radio and got the signal set up so I needed to send back my original radio.

I'm also having a problem with my camera, the Nikon S9100.  It seems to be a common problem with this camera.  When I engage the zoom lens, it often freezes and I have to shut off the camera and turn it back on again.  I have to zoom really slow to have it work right, but it still doesn't always work. I've lost a lot of good photos with that stinking, oops, I mean sticking, zoom lens. The auto focus is also off.  I'm having a problem focusing on an object - often the photo has the subject blurry and the background in focus.  This didn't  happen when the camera was new.  It's under warranty, so I'm sending it off, too, to be repaired.

Jim and Gayle have the same camera and sent theirs in for warranty work, and it took two months to get it back.  I hope I get mine back sooner. Too bad, it's been such a great camera, but since these problems have started, it's been a pain.

I'm now using my older camera, an Olympus Stylus-9000.  It has a 10x zoom lens, and boy do I see the difference.  I just can't zoom in close enough to get the photos I want, and the colors aren't as good - everything is darker and I have to manipulate them on the computer to lighten and brighten them.  I'll be happy to get the Nikon back!

I've visited a couple of times with Debbie and Gayle and Jim at G and J's campsite.  Debbie's dog Elliott and Katie get along so well.  I think Elliott is Katie's first friend - she really plays with him.  Katie won't start it, but if Elliott runs, Katie is right behind him.  She loves to "chase."  They stirred up so much dust, they were filthy when they were done, especially Elliott, who has long hair.

He's just the cutest, sweetest dog!  I can see why Katie likes him so much.  Here are some chase photos:

 Katie loves Elliott.

They had so much fun, and we all had fun watching them run around; they raised so much dust we had to get off our chairs and move back out of the way.  They were pretty happy when Gayle brought out a bowl of water for them.  Katie was first, letting Elliott know he had to wait, and he was a gentleman and let her go first.

My new friends left this morning for points north.  Katie and I took a loop walk at noon, and they were gone.  Katie spent some time sniffing around Gayle and Jim's campsite.  It was kind of sad, but when we got to Debbie and Elliott's site, Katie sniffed all over the brush and didn't want to leave.  I know it's silly, but she seemed to know Elliott was there and is gone. Sniff...

It was great meeting you guys and spending time with you all.  Thanks for including me in your activities, and Jim, thanks for the computer help. I'm still working with the program, and think I pretty much have it down.  And Gayle, the rhubarb pie was delicious!  Thank you.  I hope we will meet up again down the road!  :)

I really like it here at McPhee Campground.  We've moved to an electric site - spoiling myself, for sure!  Katie and I are staying at least until the middle of the week, and may extend our stay further.  We'll see. The Verizon signal is 4 bars, Internet is good and I'm getting 92 channels with my TV antenna.  Deer and birds, nice trees and brush, sun and rain, clouds and thunderstorms intermittently.  I can't think of anything we're missing, so I don't have the itch to move on yet. The only thing negative is that with the electric, I'm paying $13.50 a night, but...  that's a bargain when you think what an RV park would cost, and it wouldn't be in the middle of a forest.

Speaking of deer, I got some good photos of the doe and her fawn the other day, and will post them next time.

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

Photos around the campsite

Some bird photos at my seed feeder.  The Black-headed Grosbeak seems to "get it," and has enjoyed eating seeds at the hanging bird feeder. I think this feeder was made for smaller birds. I do have another one that attaches to my window, I'll have to see if I can find it for the Jays.

She is able to perch on the feeder securely and reach the feeding holes.

Then she enjoys the seeds she gets.

Yumm, chewing away (or whatever it is they do).

But the poor Jays just don't get it.  They look at the feeder, fly to it, try to hang on, and half the time they don't grab on and drop to the ground.  If the Jays do make it to the perch, they poke at the seed hole, knock some out, then drop to the ground to eat the seeds.

What IS this thing?

Okay, this is working.

 Lets's see what's in here.

   Hey, not bad - seeds!  I like it!

Oh, Oh!  This isn't working!

 Help, I'm falling!

And down he went!

I got such a kick out of watching them.  After a bunch of tries, most of the Jays got the knack of it.  Today I moved my rig around in the site, and I had to move the bird feeder so I could see it out the window.  It's like we're starting all over again, and they are checking it out again.

It was a nice day today.  It's 6:00 pm and the thunder just started and the clouds are moving in, so we might have some rain tonight.  I just saw some lightening.  I'm going out for pizza tonight, and hope Katie will be okay - she doesn't like the thunder. :(

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday evening, everyone!  :)

Walking in the rain... just waaaalking in the rain.

Katie and I took a walk on a trail today.  This is the first time since I've been traveling that I've taken a "trail" walk.  We took the one that starts behind the restroom near our site that has all the resting benches.  It's a well defined trail and was a very easy walk.  We got to bench five or six, the one past the Indian ruins/sign, and it started sprinkling.  We kept going anyway, I was hoping the rain would stop, and I wanted to see as much as we could.  Then it started really raining, big drops, and we had to turn around.

I was surprised to see a little sign describing an old rubble pile from the home of some prehistoric Native American Indians.  Not much left, but you could easily make out the "Tower."

 Rocks from the Tower

We jogged part of the way back. I was really surprised I was able to jog, considering there are times I still can't catch  my breath in this 7,400 foot elevation, but I was fine.

When we started out on our walk, we caught the trail behind our site, going through the trees until we met the trail, instead of walking down to the restrooms and starting at the beginning at the first bench.  We were soon at the second bench and I realized this part of the trail really isn't very long.  I guess it gets harder past the spot we turned around.

Katie doesn't like rain, but she just kept walking, shaking off the water, walking, shaking off the water.  Where we caught the trail behind our site is in the middle of the trees, no trail or anything, and I had no idea where it was, so I figured we'd just walk to the beginning and go back out by the restroom, right down the road from our site.  As we were walking along, Katie suddenly turned of the path into the trees.  There was nothing familiar that I could see, but I thought I'd follow her and see where she took us.  I started recognizing tree stumps and other things, and she took us right back to The Palms, exactly the same way we had gone into the forest to catch the trail. I thought that was pretty cool. I guess she has a good nose!

This afternoon I was pouring some Jelly Bellies into a little jar and dropped one on the kitchen floor and it rolled down onto the rug where she was. (No comments on how level ARE we, anyway?)  She looked at me and picked it up in her mouth.  I never give her any of my food.  She has kind of a delicate stomach, and I don't want her begging or grabbing my food off the table if I walk away.  She knows she's not supposed to eat anything except what's in her bowl.  She just sat there and looked at me with her mouth closed tight around that jelly bean.  Then she came into the kitchen and sat at my feet.  I reached down and tried to open her mouth, she wouldn't open her teeth, but I could see the jelly bean.  I told her she could have it, and she ran back to her blanket and ate it.

It sounds silly, but I felt she was asking me if she could have it.  I guess it didn't hurt her, because so far she's okay.  I was pretty stunned, though, that she didn't just gobble it up while she had the chance.

WOW, am I ever glad we came back when we did!  As I'm writing this, it started raining again, then hailing!  The rain was so hard it came into my MaxxAir vents, the first time that's ever happened.  I had to close all my vents.

 Really neat hail storm.

 Hail on the ground and my chair with the umbrella in the background.

Thunder, heavy rain, hail - I love it!

We met a full-timing couple who are also bloggers, Gayle and Jim, shown below with their gorgeous Lazy Daze RV.  They have been traveling in Colorado for a little while, and we e-mailed back and forth a few times about this park I'm at now - McPhee.  They decided to stop at this campground for a few days, and I'm glad they did.  It was really nice meeting them, and we've chatted the last two days, and taken some short walks together.

They are traveling with another full-timer, Debbie, who has a really nice Lazy Daze RV, too.  She also has a really cute dog, Elliot.  Next time I'll have a photo of Debbie and Elliot and her rig, too.

They all went to Mesa Verde yesterday to see the Indian Architectural Ruins, and said it was really interesting.  Check out Gayle and Jim's blog for info and photos on that, I didn't travel up the mountain to see them, so I'm going to enjoy their post on that outing. The post about Mesa Verde isn't up yet, but it should be the next one. :)

After we got back from our walk, I put Katie's muddy feet into the sink and cleaned the mud off, and wiped her down with a towel.  She was so hyper after that, running around back and forth in the rig, playing with her "baby," and wanting to play ball.  Notice another smiley face!

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

Baby Pictures

This morning I saw one of the does walk across the street and she was acting different.  I watched for a minute and suddenly out of the trees bounds a little fawn - running and jumping and prancing across the street to it's mom.  It was so cute!  The mom would move forward a little and then the fawn would prance to catch up.  It was just darling.  I grabbed my camera and was able to get only one pretty good shot of the fawn as it was crossing the street. Then there were too many trees in the way to get a clear shot.  So cute.  I hope I get to see them again.  I just talked to the camp hosts, and they said a camper in the group camping area saw the fawn being born last week, so this little critter is only a week old! :)

Fawn running across the street.

When Katie and I were walking yesterday, I heard lots of chirping and rustling in the grasses along the road.  We waited, and out popped a baby Black-headed Grosbeak.  It looked too big to be a baby, but I'm pretty sure it was.  It tried to fly when it saw us, but couldn't and hopped back into the grasses where it hid. It was making a lot of noise. We finally walked on so it wouldn't be afraid.

Can you see him hiding in there?

 

He saw us and then he went back into the brush. 

When we got back from that walk, I put out my bird feeders, the seeds and hummer feeders.  We already have a hummer that keeps coming by, but he's fast!  Not a particularly pretty guy, pretty much brown, unless maybe the sunshine will bring out more colors.  I haven't been able to get a picture yet.

This morning I heard a tussle coming from the tree where I hung the seed bird feeder.  There were a couple of Blue Jays and three Black-headed Grosbeaks on the various branches chirping away.  They finally flew away. Venita said at her feeders there's one Grosbeak that rules - if any other birds come by, he scares them away.  This is the one left in my tree when the rest flew away, but I didn't see anyone getting seeds from the feeder.

I also put up the little finch feeder, but I don't think there are any birds in the forest that will try it out.  The only place it worked was in the Distant Drums RV Resort.  They  had lots of finches and that's where I bought this feeder.  I keep trying it in other places, but so far, no takers.

Lots of rain and thunder yesterday.  So far this morning it's been cloudy and cool, perfect. The sun pops out once in a while.  I really like this weather, and I don't have to feel guilty loving the thunder and lightning as long as there's rain with it.  Just in case lightening strikes and starts a fire, hopefully the rain will put it right out.

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

Enjoying McPhee Campground

WELCOME to our new Followers, Sandra and Crystal!

Sandra has two blogs, one is in another language that I can't read, I and the other is about quilting.  The quilting blog is in English, and then again in the other language that I don't think is Spanish, but looks like it might be one of the romantic languages.  [NOTE: Per Bob and Gypsy, it's Portugese. That's where my maternal grandfather was born - on the island of Pico in the Azores. :)] If you scroll down through the posts, there are some interesting things to read other than quilting, one is how to easily stretch tight shoes.  So easy, but I wouldn't have though of that method.  Thanks for joining Me and My Dog, Sandra!

Crystal doesn't appear to have a blog, but from her Google + page, is definitely a dog lover.  Katie and I are happy you are traveling along with us, Crystal.

Welcome aboard to you both!

This morning I woke up to sprinkles on the roof.  Such a nice way to wake up.  When I go to bed at night, at least lately, Katie is in her bed and it's too warm to cover her up.  Usually when I wake up she's sitting on her brown and white blanket right below me, looking up waiting for me.  I usually ignore her and she goes back to sleep on her blanket.  I think she's a little cold, so after I've felt guilty for a little while, I climb down and cover her up with a corner of the blanket, and she'll sleep for another hour or two, nice and warm.

This morning after her potty walk, she snuggled right back up into her blanket and I covered her up again.  She is now sound asleep, warm and snugly in her blanket.

It feels cool in The Palms this morning, although it's 72 degrees.  I actually had the heater on for a few minutes to take the chill off.  It's raining really good outside right now.  I'm in heaven. The weather forecast for the next four days is for thunderstorms and at least 30 percent chance of rain.  :)

I was so sorry to hear that Donna and Russ's wonderful dog, Rusty, died yesterday.  He would have been  15 years old this month, and was one of those super special dogs that made their lives a happier place.  I was lucky to meet Rusty when I visited Donna and Russ at their home last year.  I was in tears at the end of Donna's blog post about Rusty's last day - I was very stoic when I put my last dog and cat down, but for some reason Rusty's death really affected me.  Rest in peace, Rusty, and my best wishes go to Donna and Russ.

Here are some photos I took yesterday at our current location, McPhee Campground.

Lots of Blue Jay's around here.  I think this one is a Western Scrub Jay, a juvenile according to my bird books, because his head isn't blue yet (I think) :

Our first deer sighting - I think she was as surprised by us as we were by her:

There's just something about having deer in your yard, you know?

This is a bush with weird spirals growing out of it - not a flower, but...?  I've never seen anything like this.

NOTE:  Per Gayle on 7/15/12 this plant is Mountain Mahogany.  She saw it at the Anasazi Heritage Center, "where many of the trees and shrubs along the trail are labeled."  Thanks, Gayle! 

 Close-up of the feathery spirals.

We have taken a few good walks so far. Venita, our camp hostess, said our loop is one-half mile, so if we do that a few times a day, we're getting in a lot of steps for an altitude of 7,400 feet.  At least it's good for me.

There is a sign near one of the nearby restrooms pointing to a trail, so last evening Katie and I went that way for a little bit.  The sign said it's a one-half mile walk which doesn't seem like much, but it said it's a very strenuous walk, and it probably is.  It ends up at the boat ramp which this campground overlooks, so there must be some pretty steep areas.  There are four or five rest stops with benches at intervals along the way.  Katie and I only went to the first bench, which was pretty much right behind the restroom. :)  Really pretty views from there, though, of McPhee Reservoir.

Looking to the right.

Looking to the left.

This is the first bench.

Sunset walking back to The Palms.

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