Camping – TooBusyForWork

Almost home

We are at the Elks Lodge in Cameron, MO for the night, and we will be back in Cedar Falls tomorrow in the early afternoon. A lot of driving in 2 weeks!

But first I am going to add some pictures of the trip on I-70 heading to Las Vegas that I forgot about last time. I finally got irritated enough with my iPhone camera that I pulled out my nice Canon point and shoot. That’s where these photos come from. Note I-70 starts in Denver, CO and runs until I-25 in Utah. It goes through spectacular country in both states. In Colorado it is not completely rural, but in Iowa it goes for over 150 miles with only one spot for services. It is VERY remote there.

Note this is not a road I would want to do in the motorhome. Not only does it have a lot of steep grades up and down, but the section in Utah has waves in the pavement that would cause the motorhome to porpoise enough to make me seasick! But it is an absolutely beautiful trip for someone in a passenger vehicle, and I highly recommend it.

Now back to more information about our way home. We spent two nights in Gallup, NM. The first night we arrived late in the afternoon, and we quickly got to Richardson’s Trading Post, an historic trading post started in 1913. It is located in downtown Gallup, and I was on the hunt for an authentic Navajo rug. Richardson’s has a huge rug room with all styles of rugs in lots of sizes. We found one we both really like, and it is packaged up in paper until we get home. More pictures when that happens.

The second day in Gallup (Sunday of Memorial Day weekend), we visited the Hubbell Trading Post National Monument. It is about an hour out of Gallup, and I have been wanted to visit for a number of years. Fabulous place. Comments with each picture.

The trading post was built over a number of years as the stonework shows

I like the water spouts and the stone work here

We did buy some things at the store for future birthdays, so no more details there. I didn’t go into their rug room either because after one rug and the ukulele and the HUGE motorhome bill, my pockets were empty.. Kevin said it was smaller than Richardson’s, but that may have been to salve my feelings.

There are other historic sites nearby. The town of Ganado was built up due to the trading post. Hubbell invited the Presbyterian Church Mission Society to set up shop here in the early 1900s. The Presbyterian Church here is lovely.

There is also a nearby mission of the Catholic Church, the historic St. Anne’s. It is still an active parish, so we didn’t do anything but look at the interesting exterior.

So that is pretty much it until we get home tomorrow. We will unpack and I will make a sweet potato casserole on Saturday for a potluck at church on Sunday. Our current pastor is leaving, so there is a big party planned. Next week has some dentist and doctor appointments plus we are taking the Subaru in to get the hail damage repaired. We are also getting our roof replaced! Busy week.

Sorry if you are getting tired of “oops, no posts”

Yeah, I just got rather tied up and distracted about bunches of things. Sadly it wasn’t as warm in Iowa as it was in California and Nevada, so the sandals had to come off for a while.

We did make it to “The Lutherie” in the Des Moines area to get the ukulele crack repaired. He did a fabulous job. I am now religious about case humidifiers. I have even gotten a hard shell case which will keep the moisture inside better. The luthier recommended the sound hole humidifier shown at the bottom of the uke, so I got one of those too. No More Cracks!

Once we got home we were quickly engulfed in grandkids’s end of year activities. All three of the local grandkids had music concerts, and most had two of them! And then came a severe but luckily pretty isolated hail storm.

It came straight from the west and put holes in our siding on that side. We also need a new roof since it was damaged too. We spent quite a bit of time contacting roofers and getting estimates for the roofing and the siding. We definitely weren’t alone either. The roofing company signs were going up the next day, and some roofs are already repaired. Ours will be later in June.

Pella is a small town that was settled by Dutch immigrants. It has a strong Dutch heritage still, and the Pella Tulip Festival is usually the weekend after Mother’s Day. We had friends who visited it earlier, and they warned us the tulips were in full bloom two weeks early. We chose to take a day trip, and I am glad we did. My FB page has a full dump of the pictures , but here is a sample. The windmill is an authentic re-creation, and it is the home of a local museum. The tulips were magical. There are thousands and thousands just in the town square, and more thousands in the parking strips nearby.

For Mother’s Day I told Kevin I wanted a roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. I made the spatchcocked chicken and he did the potatoes. He also bought an adorable little tiny cake. Since I started the Mounjaro for my diabetes, I have very little appetite and small meals are the rule. We ate the chicken for 3 days LOL!

One of the things I am now determined to add to the house are window well covers. In our community, deep window wells are used as access alternatives for the basement living spaces. We have occasionally discovered mice who fell in, but sadly we are discovering baby bunnies now. We found two in the last few weeks. Both were rescued and placed back in the flower garden where they have a hole.

Oh, and I live in a very manicured suburban area without any mature trees. We were one of the first houses here, and ours is just 8 years old. We have planted trees, and neighbors have also as the other homes were built and purchased, but it will be a long time before we get any significant number of big trees. But we do get wildlife! The first year we were here, our cameras picked up a wandering mink, and we have seen possums, raccoons, rabbits, and at least 3 different cats. The deer was a first for us though.

All kind of other things are happening too. A heart murmur was discovered at Kevin’s annual physical, so he has appointments scheduled at Mayo Clinic in Rochester to further characterize the aortic stenosis the caused the murmur. He might need surgery, he might not, but we both felt more comfortable going to Mayo for a significant issue like that. I had my annual MRI to follow up on the DCIS breast cancer and lumpectomy, and a biopsy resulted showing a small area of hyperplasia. Not cancer, but it moves me into an even high risk status of future cancer. So I have an appointment at Mayo too! Lucky it is only a couple of hours away, and it is a common option for people from my small city (50,000). Sigh.

We did finally get news the motorhome was fixed, and we went to Vegas to pick it up after all the initial medical appointments. We spent one night in Fort Morgan, CO and the next night in Cedar City, UT. This is what we woke up to in Cedar City.

We were better prepared than most of the motel customers, but Kevin did go buy us some lightweight jackets the night before.

I am not thrilled with Velocity Truck Center in North Las Vegas. They did fix the engine issue, but they knocked an electrical wire out of its socket that I had to pay to get repaired (hard to prove it was all working before, but it was!). As usual with electrical issues, it took a lot more time to isolate the problem than to fix it. Then after a couple of nights at the North Las Vegas Elks Lodge again, we headed to Needles, CA for a night on our way to south of Williams, AZ where we boondocked last night and tonight. This area is full of OHV trails! We had a great ride today.

Here is a video of the smoother part of the area.

http://May 22, 2026 https://youtu.be/3bBrOCMV-zI

And another one of a bit rougher OHV section.

http://A bit rougher trail south of Williams, AZ https://youtu.be/lWPNxrN1fNw

We are gradually heading back to Iowa. We will be staying in Gallup, NM the next 2 nights hopefully to look at some Navajo rugs.

I did already make one big purchase though. I bought a new super nice Pono ukulele. It is all acacia wood with the standard goodies upscale ukuleles have – geared tuners, ebony fretboard, bone saddle and bridge. It sounds divine, and I am not yet worthy! I am an advanced beginner, and this is at least an intermediate instrument, so now I have to buckle down to be worth of it. It will be fun!

The area around Death Valley

We stayed at The Pads until 17 March. The heat wave that hit the Western US hit us hard, so there was limited sitting outside and a lot more car trips. One took us Oatman, home of the (very tame) wild donkeys. They are famous for just walking up to people looking for some of the alfalfa pellets the stores sell. The community supports them through veterinary care and just generally spoils them. This time there were more donkeys on the road into town than in the town proper.

Oatman is a fun little tourist trap. We were there during the week, and it was still so crowded we couldn’t find a place to park. Here’s a video I took of most of one side of the street. The other side is equally crowded. Sorry for the portrait mode.

https://youtu.be/p6asGj36EtI?si=NFXKj76qf8aMSi6t

We also took a trip to the China Ranch Date Farm. It is a working date farm that is pretty impressive. Their date shakes are famous, and are the best we have ever had. In addition to the farm, they have a lovely desert landscaping. They also protect part of the Amargosa River that comes above ground for a while, disappears below ground, and then comes back above ground. Fascinating biology all around it too. We bought a bunch of dates to take home.

One of the interesting views is the wash you drive through to get to the ranch. Here’s a video of that to give you just a feel. There are a number of small mine diggings all around plus a few larger tunnels that are fenced off.

https://youtu.be/tllv9mf88dU?si=Vem-iwdO-_k34t3G

We also visited Shoshone again. Obviously we ate at the Crowbar, but we also visited the old mining dugouts. Shoshone is at the southern end of Death Valley, and the summer temps are brutal. The miners in the area discovered they could dig into the soft rock for a temperature-controlled dwelling. These are mostly protected as historic structures. Note the smokestacks sticking up.

After such an enjoyable sojourn in the Death Valley area, we decided to head out before the temps got unbearable. We took the south route to Baker, CA then up the long grade to Nipton, CA on our way to Needles where we planned to spend the night. But for only the second time in 106,00 miles, I got a check engine light on the motorhome. After some investigation, we decided we should head to Las Vegas and Velocity Freightliner service. They have done work for us before, and, while expensive, they have a good reputation. We stayed at the North Las Vegas Elks Lodge until our appointment on Monday, 23 March. It was one of those good news/bad news things. What was wrong (low pressure at the turbo) was easily fixable, but parts are on a 60 day lead time! We need a new VGT and the manifold needs new gaskets and such (leaking). Sigh. Parts aren’t awful for a diesel (just under $4000), but labor brings the total to over $10K. Ouch! But no one ever said a diesel Class A is an inexpensive hobby. We thought about it overnight, staying in Velocity’s RV spot, and decided to leave the motorhome with them and just drive home in a couple of days. We are now at the Clark County Shooting Range with FHUs and a nice view of the city lights. We got a storage unit for the RZR so we can use the pickup bed for boxes. It is a good thing we decided to get it fixed here. Even driving the 15 miles to the campground put enough stress on the engine that the AC turned off! We plan on leaving Thursday after dropping the MH off at Velocity. They have a very secure storage area surrounded by a high voltage electric fence!

On to Death Valley!

We left Quartzsite on Sunday, 8 March. We spent a night at the Elks Lodge in Needles as usual to get the laundry done and tanks cleared out. We took the route through Searchlight, NV and the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument. It has the most amazing Joshua Trees we have ever seen. They are a different species/subspecies than the ones in January Tree National Park – more branches. They look much more like trees! Of course the issue is the road is a narrow 2 lane and we had a very big motorhome towing a pickup – couldn’t take pictures. I did get one picture of a multi-branched yucca that was blooming though. The Joshua Tree blooms were very similar and very abundant.

We arrived at Death Valley and got a nice spot in Sunset Campground. It wasn’t one of our favorites (the ones on the east end of the campground), but it wasn’t too far from the end. Lots and lots of people in Death Valley for the flowers! It isn’t as big a super bloom as it was 10 years ago, but it is a really nice bloom, more than we have ever seen for sure. Tuesday we drove north towards Stovepipe Wells with a detour to Beatty. Wednesday we drove south towards Badwater Basin. Today we drove south all the way to Ashford Mill ruins. The best flowers were seen today! I am just going to dump a bunch of pictures on you though to give a feel of the area.

Badwater Basin and Lake Manley with the tiny people for scale

Telescope Peak and just a hint of the salt pan

Death Valley pictures are not complete with a view from Artist’s Drive

Swaths of colors, mostly yellow, were everywhere

Yellow, but don’t ignore the mountain colors either!

And we even spotted the lovely Desert Five Spot!

Low to the ground. There is a tiny insect inside if you look carefully

Yesterday we decided it was getting too hot in the Furnace Creek area, so we moved to “The Pads,” a boondock area just outside the park on the way to Pahrump. It contains the concrete pads used for worker housing at the nearby Billy Mine. The housing itself is all gone, but the pads remain. It is a beautiful spot and 3000’ higher than Furnace Creek. That means temperatures a good 10 degree cooler. We actually had to turn the heat on for a short while this morning, mostly because I am a wimp.

I will end with sunset this evening from our campsite.

Quartzsite then Havasu then Quartzsite

I am sorry my links didn’t work in the last post. Here they are for another try. Click on the highlighted link, then click again on the small text link. First, the Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra: “Under the Boardwalk” 29 January 2026
https://youtu.be/KjdSw8vy4N4

And what the Desert Bar looks like on a random Saturday. https://youtu.be/6OTLGvKubn8

Now on to new stuff. We were so busy with everyone visiting that we took it easy for a few days. I tried a new ukulele jam group on Sunday, 1 February, but it wasn’t quite my thing. Very churchy with praise music I didn’t know. It was nice to be able to do more than just listen though I probably won’t repeat it. One Tuesday, 3 February, we took a ride with the SunRiders that was just a half day ride. We wandered around to the Quartzsite letters, a big guzzler we hadn’t seen before, and we noted a number of military-related locations from WWII. It was nice to have a relaxing ride instead of full-speed ahead!

We then headed to an Anasazi Chapter of the FRVA rally in Benson, AZ on Wednesday, 4 February going to Gila Bend the first night. The rally began on Thursday. It was really busy, but enjoyable. One of the highlights was a visit to the Mescal Movie Site. They made a lot of old Westerns there, and it is a smaller version of Old Tucson movie set. Not in great shape, but it is now being run by a non-profit with volunteer docents who give you a great tour. They are trying to keep it from further decay plus improving it where they can.

The “hotel” was in the best shape because it was brick on a real foundation

We headed back to Quartzsite on Sunday morning early. I wanted to get back to Quartzsite to join another ukulele virtual group. This one is run by a guy in Melbourne, Australia! It is a 3:00pm MST on Sunday in the US but 9:00am on Monday in Australia. Nice group, and I am definitely going to continue with them.

On Tuesday, 10 February we drove to Phoenix to visit Costco for a hearing aid test for Kevin. Turns out that even though he has significant high frequency hearing loss, it isn’t bad enough for a hearing aid to really help. Good to hear that from a professional who was paid to sell hearing aids! We also went to the Guitar Center to look for a ukulele for Kevin. I have been having so much fun, he decided he needed to get one too. They had a very limited selection, and we didn’t end up buying one there. But he was able to try the difference between a tenor and a concert, and he decided the larger tenor worked best for him. We eventually found a barely used one in Quartzsite at a good price, so he has joined my new obsession. He is still working on getting his fingers limbered up though.

On Thursday, 12 February, we took a tough ride with the SunRiders. It was labeled “moderate, 3/5” and it probably was for wider rigs than ours. For our little 50” it was difficult. Then again, this is why you can safely ride harder trails when you are with a group; if something happens, you have a set of experienced folks who can get you out of trouble. One spot we visited is called the “Movie Set.” This isn’t a real movie set, but is a tourist spot built by the nearby town of Bouse.

https://youtu.be/tTjurF7sscA

I also liked this one looking at the volcanic cores
https://youtu.be/NTfKzsSRU8Q

On Sunday, 15 Feb, we went to Lake Havasu for a SewCation with their quilt guild (I’m a member). Had a fun time as usual. I finally finished my 2025 Kona Block of the Month with the last two blocks, sashing, cornerstones and borders. Originally I was going to add another piano key boarder, but this thing is big enough already!

I had so many of the Kona charm squares left! I cut a bunch of triangle blocks for another donation a quilt, and I started sewing the piano keys I cut into strips for the binding of the BOM. This is going to be a massive lap quilt for Kevin. He always says he is cold, and the other quilts are too small. He will be able to wrap up in this one pretty well!

We are now back in Quartzsite in a wind strong enough to keep us settled inside the MH. Minnie seems to be quite happy to cuddle on my lap. One last video of the laziest playing by a pair of cats. Silly kids. It’s a long one, so if cat videos aren’t your thing, feel free to skip it.

Lazy cats
https://youtu.be/ApOV–KTu0E

Miscellaneous around Quartzsite

We are mostly just hanging around Quartzsite. I was rally master for a small rally of the RVForum.net folks, and the last ones just left today. It was a small group, and I don’t think we will continue next year. Kevin and I have decided we will look for a seasonal RV site in town, leaving the motorhome and RZR in Arizona for October through December without us (no winterizing!), the coming back down after the Christmas holidays. It will be a lot faster drive in the truck than the motorhome even though I will have to stay in a hotel a couple of nights each way (boo).

I did get a picture of both of my quilt tops that went to the long arm quilter for basting when we did show and tell at the Quartzsite Quilt Guild meeting. Pretty proud of them actually. The jewel tone one will be for our bed at home, and the green/brown one will be for the bed in the motorhome. Note the green/brown one doesn’t have the same number of borders all around; the bed is a big odd sized.

Mystery quilt with a lot of added borders

The ukulele concert was fun. It definitely wasn’t professional, but the audience and the performers (including me) had a great time. I am going to experiment with using YouTube to post the video instead of directly on the blog. If you hold the cursor at the end of the URL, you should be able to follow the link. This is (most) of the song I led – “Under the Boardwalk.”http://“Under the Boardwalk” Greater Quartzsite Ukulele Orchestra, 29 January 2026 https://youtu.be/KjdSw8vy4N4

The crack in the ukulele is getting much better. I ordered a sponge-style humidifier and hygrometer to keep in the sound hole, and it is staying at about 50% relative humidity. The crack is mostly closed, so I am going to wait until I get back to Iowa to get it repaired. That gives me a lot more time to find a good luthier.

We had some more friends show up for their first trip to Quartzsite, and, of course, we had to go to the Desert Bar (aka Nellie E Saloon) north of Parker, AZ. It is only 4-5 miles off the highway on a rough grave/dirt road, but it feels a lot farther than that. The place is completely off-grid with no cell service and no electricity except what is generated by the huge number of solar panels. There are backup generators just in case, but they aren’t used much. They have really good food, but only a so-so bar. They also have live music each weekend. They are only open Saturdays and Sundays from October through April. Here’s another YouTube video to give you an idea of the inside. There is also a LOT of seating outside in the sun.

http://Desert Bar outside Parker, AZ on 31 January, 2026 https://youtu.be/6OTLGvKubn8

And since I love pictures of my kitties being adorable, here you are.

Hanging around Quartzsite

[I somehow didn’t publish this on, just left it in draft. Not sure why, but here it is.]

We have just been doing normal Quartzsite stuff. Kevin has been doing some 3D printing too. I now have a nice setup to keep my new jewelry box on the shelf while traveling instead of having to put it on the bed. He’s also made a some small fit samples for some more things he wants to print. He really loves his printer!! And the one we have with us is just his original Ender 3 printer, not one of his newer and nice ones which are at home.

After the “design choices” I made in the October Block of the Month (code name for “mistakes”), I figured it couldn’t get much worse. It did. First, I seem to have lost the pattern for November. I cut pieces for it a week ago and sewed a few components, but now I can’t find the card with the design. Oh well, I’ll just work on December. December did not like me! I can’t tell you how many components I sewed wrong. I ended up putting the block into time out for a couple of days before finally finishing it. I’ll get a picture of it and the November one together later. I have arranged for my two king sized quilt tops to be based with water soluble thread by the quilt shop in Havasu I like, Fabrics Unlimited. She is going to use a wool batting for them. One is for our bed at home and the other is for the bed in the motorhome. I have them carefully folded up, so no pictures of those either.

And for yet more disasters, the surface of my ukulele had a rather rough feel, and I realized it was getting really dry. Duh! Humidity has been running around 15-20%, so of course it is dry! I put the humidifiers I bought at the guitar shop before we left Iowa in the case, but they are really too big to fit in the sound hole. I ordered a new one which shows temperature and relative humidity too. But it was too late! The day after I added the humidifiers I found I had a tiny crack in the front of the ukulele! It runs from the bottom of the guitar to the bridge. I am heart broken. I am looking up luthiers now, and I will be calling one in Yuma tomorrow morning. The ukulele orchestra is going well, and I am even going to lead one song – “Down on the Boardwalk>” Turns out the leader didn’t know it very well, and I started singing out on it. That was enough to get me to lead that song LOL! Our concert is in 9 days, and I am hoping to get the ukulele fixed right after that.

One of the interesting things that we have seen here is a Vandenberg AFB satellite launch. Interesting views of the first stage coming back into the lower atmosphere for recovery. It took a 2 second capture to get this view, but wow! There are two other launches this week. I am hoping they have a better launch angle.

Kevin and I took a ride northeast of Quartzsite to a mining area north of I-10 that was quite nice. I prefer mountains to dust, and this trip delivered.

A saguaro being very classically “saguaro!”

Cabin ruins. Note the little side rooms on the right.

We went on a UTV ride the SunRiders today after I went to quilt guild. We took a very round about route to the Cyprus Mine then drove around it. It is a big mostly open pit gold mine that is still actively being worked. It was HUGE! It was 2-3 miles to drive around the pile of overburden they had piled up. Sadly you can’t see the pit; that would have been nice. There were a few nice flowers like the sand verbena below, but it was mostly driving on sand/dust that wasn’t my favorite locale. Oh well, the mine was nice.

Water is pumped from the tunnels to here.

And I will end with a classic Arizona sunrise. Absolutely stunning.

The things I forget each time we start a trip

I know I said I didn’t plan on posting again, but I thought this topic would be a good one to write down so I can look at it before our summer trip. Of course, I’ll probably forget, but I will attempt it anyway.

1. The clothes hangers in the close need to be hung backwards. If I hand them normally they fall off with the first big bump. I am not sure why the direction is important, but it is. Maybe my physicist son could tell me, but I sure can’t figure it out.

2. The things you think should stay on the counter won’t stay, but the things that seem movable will stay exactly put. This is another thing I don’t understand at all. I will put two items on the bathroom counter, one of the most stable spots in the motorhome because it is over the back wheels. One of them will stay exactly where I put it, and the other one will be on the floor. Can’t figure this one out either.

3. It takes a lot, lot, lot longer than you think to rinse the RV antifreeze out of the water lines. Kevin tried to do it at home before we left, and he swears he left each faucet on at least 5 minutes. They all still taste like antifreeze! Luckily RV antifreeze isn’t harmful, but it sure doesn’t taste good. We really do need to plan on staying in a full hookup campground the first night so we can get the lines really flushed.

4. Don’t be in so much of a hurry to start on your trip that you say “I’ll put that up when we get to our first overnight spot.” No, no you won’t. You will be tired and thinking about those water lines. Put things in their place first.

I am sure I will think of even more things soon, but this is a good start.

Oh, and I re-sized the pictures I got of the cats that I didn’t have available for the last post.

Look at the pouch on Luna! She is 11.5 pounds

Minnie loves her treats. She is just 7.5 pounds.

As for where we have spent the nights, we spent Boxing Day (26 December) at the Elks Lodge in Cameron, MO. The advertised electric sites were no where to be found, and the two other rigs there had obviously be there a long time. Not a fan. The second night we spent at the Elks Lodge in Chickasha, OK. It was a long day since there was a big storm coming in behind us. This was another dry camp, but the parking lot was big enough we didn’t have to unhitch. No drinks at the lodge because they allow smoking – ugh. Tonight we made a 400+ mile drive to get to Monahan, TX, staying at SJ Family RV Park. It looks like we outran the storm at least. We wanted to spend the night at the Monahan Sand Dunes State park, but they were full. This place is a real dump, but it is also only $25/night. I would gladly have spent twice the amount for a nicer place, but Kevin had already arranged this one. It is the first time in a long time that we have locked everything up tight! Tomorrow’s plan is to be at the Elks Lodge in Las Cruces, FHU hopefully. We want to do laundry before arriving in Quartzsite, so I am hoping we can get that done tomorrow.

Now back to practicing the ukulele. I still have trouble transitioning to an F chord.

And we’re off!

We had a lovely Christmas get-together with most of the Iowa family. Lots of good food and lots of fun. After all the practicing I did with the ukulele and Christmas songs, I lost the book of the songs! So not really much music which was disappointing. We did have a really lovely Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve service at church, so I got to sing a bunch there.

But let me back up. I finally recovered from my sinus surgery only to find out my pre-diabetes diagnosis got moved to real, true, gotta take medicine-type of diabetes. Sigh. Since this was just a few days before Christmas and our snowbird trip, it was a real hassle getting things with my PCP and the pharmacy. My PCP gave me a choice between Metformin, a pill, and Mounjaro, a GLP-1 injection. Since my A1C has always been related to my weight, I chose Mounjaro because I should lose weight on it in addition to being good for the diabetes. I took my first shot on Monday evening, and my fasting blood glucose went from 160ish (pretty high) to today’s reading of 102 (normal!). No side effects so far, so I am hopeful.

Back to getting out of Iowa… We packed yesterday, Christmas Day, after pulling the motorhome in front of the house. Our town allows such parking only for 48 hours, but that wasn’t going to be an issue. Our weird weather patterns continued, and we were above freezing the entire day so Kevin was even able to fill up the water tank and flush all the lines free of antifreeze. We then went to Camping World and used their dump station to get rid of the gray water from flushing. Took the rig back home and re-filled the water tank. We finished packing everything except toiletries yesterday, and we were on the road by 9:00 this morning. We are spending this first night in an Elks Lodge parking lot in Cameron, MO. We still have quite a few things to put in their correct locations, but everything did fit LOL! Tomorrow we will have a long day trying to get well southwest of Oklahoma City to miss a storm coming in on Sunday. No matter where we end up, we will still need to be on the road by 6:00-6:30 in order to not get held up by wind gusts. If we make it past the wind, we should be good to get to Quartzsite by New Year’s Eve.

The cats are doing great! Shy, hesitant, anxious Minnie is happily exploring everywhere. She even sat on my lap for a while, and she is demanding lots of cuddles. I think Minnie thinks the small quarters are less frightening. Luna is Luna; nothing much bothers her, and she is behaving quite normally. I took a couple of cute pictures of the two of them with my iPhone, but the photos aren’t syncing quickly for some reason. Here is at least one of them.

Ignore the mess and look at the kitties!

See how they are both just strutting around?

I probably won’t post again until we get to Quartzsite unless something weird happens. Let’s hope 2026 is a LOT better than 2025.

Not much going on

It has been a slow time around here. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner with my oldest son’s family. I ordered a fresh turkey from our local meat-specialist grocery store (Fareway, for those in the Midwest), and they even spatchcocked it for me for free! They really do have great service. Good thing I had them do it, because even on a small turkey the ribs are strong. Cooking it that way was really a good idea – faster, gave lots of crisp skin, and even the breast meat was lovely and moist. We also had an Amana smoked ham. You can never go wrong with an Amana ham, and it gives us lots of leftovers. Leftovers are a critical part of Thanksgiving!

We did have dinner on Friday instead of Saturday as planned due to a huge snow storm that hit us Friday night into Saturday. We got 14” of snow, a huge amount for us. Sadly it has been added to significantly since then, and I doubt it will thaw anytime soon. The kids are all happy for snow sledding and snow boarding, but Kevin and I are not nearly as pleased. I have basically just been hibernating. I had some sinus surgery a week ago, and it threw me for a real loop. I had no idea I would feel as bad as I did, and it didn’t help that I had terrible insomnia for the first two days. The surgical center just said, “Well, that happens sometimes with general anesthesia.” I just wish someone would have warned me. I am hoping it eliminates the horrific sinus infections I get on a regular basis. I go back for a post-op appointment tomorrow, and I am expecting more antibiotics since the pathology report identified there were a lot of bacteria still around. Note I already had one full course of Augmentin, based on the culture and sensitivity from a swab taken a month ago.

The ukulele practice is going well. I still have trouble holding it correctly so I strum the lower neck rather than the sound hole like I did for a guitar, so I bought a ukulele strap and pulled it tight. It does help my positioning, so I guess I will keep using it. I also bought a page turner for my iPad. I have some PDFs and some Kindle books, and it works fine with either source. It is a Lekato brand, and it runs off Bluetooth. The most recommended brand is Donner, but it doesn’t work with the Kindle books. I hope this one lasts for a while.

I did get my 830 Record into a local Bernina shop that has a great repair guy who loves older machines. The buttonhole mechanism was really seized up, and I was just too lazy to keep working on it. While he had it, he also worked on the electrical system so the light wouldn’t keep burning out. It runs like a charm now. I also took my DILs 1031 in for just a clean and adjustment since it hadn’t been done since I gave it to my DIL 15+ years ago! He said it was in great shape too. I used it to sew some lovely lavender sachets that will be a stocking stuffer this year, just to make sure I remembered all its quirks.

All this snow and really cold weather is quite depressing. I re-followed the Quartzsite FB groups I have joined, and the fact they are having 70 degree days is really rubbing the weather in my face. The below zero weather and the snow depth is something Iowans would expect to see in January, not November and early December! I just hope it warms up a little before Christmas so we can get the motorhome packed more comfortably.

Regarding the lots behind our house and the HUGE swale for water, I finally got hold of the city Planning and Engineering groups. The lots behind me will have a 25’ wide easement for the swale, so they will have to mow it and such. I am slightly worried it is too abrupt at the edge of my lot, but we will have to wait until the snow is gone to see what needs to be done. It is supposed to be graded to a 4:1 drop (4’ linear, 1’ drop), but it sure seemed much steeper than that to me. However I have registered my concern, and I am pretty sure the city will make sure the developer follows the plans.

We are firming up our plans for next summer’s RV trip. We hope to head to western Canada, spending 6 weeks or so there. But since the US government seems firmly determined to piss off every ally we used to have, we will have to keep an eye on the border crossing situation. We do have some plans for this winter other than Quartzsite. We are going to the FRVA rally at Indio, CA in early January, then at least one rally with the Anasazi chapter of FRVA we joined. That will be in Benson, AZ at a spot with lots of astronomy action. We decided to not go to Death Valley for their Dark Sky Festival since the US government has also decimated the public relations budgets that funded the speakers. We will still get there (it is one of my favorite parks), but we have more flexibility of timing now.

I don’t anticipate any more posts until we are on our way to the Southwest.