More ramblings

I’m calling this trip Hot Fun in the American Summertime…with the Province of Ontario Canada thrown in as a bonus.

We need/want to venture off the beaten path more than we have but with dragging a trailer behind us it’s a bit difficult.. But if I want some different photos I need to do that.

Sister is hoping to start a blog that will be just postcards of our trip, with a few words of description by me. She came up with a great title "postcards from the fringe".

We do have an itinerary but after the Denver meet up with friends our adventure can be easily altered.

I also must mention that I am NOT one of Walmarts biggest fans, but Walmart is a good friend to RV’ers acrossed this country. When you don’t want to go more than 300 miles in a day, and no RV park in the area there always seems to be a Walmart off the hiway. I think the reason they allow RV’ers to park on the perimeter of their lot is that RV’ers always need something, ice, food, etc. So thanks Walmart for being a friend to RV’ers….wish you were that good to your employees. Sorry had to throw that in there.

Now if you are reading this and have young children, do me a favor…teach them how to read a map. We have run into people in RV parks that cannot read a map. They are clueless as to north, south whatever. I know this sounds odd but it is an observation of the directionally challenged.. To be honest I was one of those people before I married my sweet husband. But he is a lover of maps and charts, so I am no longer directionally challenged. So teach your child to read a map……please.

Oh one other thing don’t drive and talk on your cell phone. Nothing, absolutely nothing is that important and you are endangering my life as well as yours. Use your head pull over to talk. And if you don’t you’re a MORON!

So crossing into Utah you come to the Bonneville Salt Flats. Side note to mention that those of you old enough might remember that Craig Breedlove set the land speed record here at 400, 500 and 600 MPH. Think that was in the late 60’s.

Leaving the Salt Flats area we realize we are hungry, no breakfast was had because we needed an early start and Mr Doodles does not consume food much before 9 a.m.

Mr Doodles sees a road sign that says an off ramp for Knolls that is just a few miles up the road. “must be a truck stop there”. Ha I say, Rand Mc Nally doesn’t know about it cause it ain’t on da map honey.

I look at the map again to verify that there is not a stinking off ramp with services for 70 some miles……….well there’s always gummy bears!

So I got a little ahead of myself but I just had to post those two snaps of the bison.

We are headed to Yellowstone.......so stay tuna'd!

still here ........

Norm's friend we shall call him Elmer. This big dude was meandering down the hiway, with not a care in the world. We should all be this content huh!!!


Mr Doodles took this out the truck window just four feet away.

This was in Yellowstone. We were there for three nites and have some wonderful pics to post. Will try to get them on flickr the next couple of days BUT I've got laundry to do also and some site seeing to do so give me some time K???!!!

as always..............stay tuna'd!

Utah

Buddy checking out all that salt




Louie and Grace visting the Bonneville Salt Flats

Random thoughts

Leaving Elko Nevada you see a lot of agricultural land with cows, goats and a few horses.

Some lovely mountains in the distance and some with a bit of snow dotted here and there on the tops frame this.

We decided at the beginning of this trip we would not be mileage crazy but due to the 4th of July holiday and going to Yellowstone as well as meeting friends in Denver we must keep to a pretty tight schedule. What is good is that we do not normally drive more than 300 miles in a day. I know that doesn’t sound like much but it is tiring and we are pulling a fifth wheel trailer I commonly refer to as Grace.

We do stop at rest areas to stretch the legs and maybe walk a bit depending on the area. And I must say how surprised I am at how clean all the rest areas are, including the restrooms. The amount of people that use theses rest ares is a lot so keeping them clean is an admirable chore. However don’t ask me about adults picking up after their dogs, grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

On a side note when approaching the area of Mt Whitney in California, we hear Buddy, the cat, howling. Not a lot but enough to wonder what’s up. We pulled over at the next rest area so Buddy could use his box, makes sense maybe that was his way of informing us of his needs. I might also add that he had not done this before now. So a couple a days later Buddy is howling again. I think I might have figured out what was wrong with him. His poor little ears were popping with the altitude. I tried to get him to chew some gum, nope no interest.

We have been cruising in approximately five – six thousand feet and Buddy hasn’t been howling, so maybe his ears cleared and he has adjusted to the altitude. I know weird huh!!

I must also say that I have surprised myself. I have adjusted to this kind of living quite well. I can be a bit of a brat when it comes to my space and the space around me. I’m used to having room. When we pull into an RV park and after the chores of un-hooking and putting the slides out I will usually go for a walk. When we are at a spot longer than one nite I go off for me time. After all Mr Doodles needs me time also and it works for both of us.

Have you ever had a car have a vapor lock? Well we did and we learned something very valuable. We have an extra large fuel tank on the truck as well as the main fuel tank. We were on our way to Mt Witney and Mr Doodles switched over the fuel tank from the large installed to the main tank in the truck. He had let the large tank run almost dry when switching. Bad move we discovered and learned a valuable lesson. Stranded in the middle of NOWHERE I called Auto Club cause we weren’t that far from a small town. Come to find out our truck is considered commercial because of the danged size and they won’t tow. The man that was going to come out called and said to call Ford Road Service since it’s a new truck. Long story short I did and the conversation with the fema\le went something like this…..”Mam I think we have a vapor lock. Mam says oh OK easy to fix, do this….remove the gas cap. HUH??? OH OK I removed the gas cap. Now she says put it back on when I tell you. OK put it back on and start the truck. Mr Doodles did as he was told and low and holy crap it started. So lesson learned if you ever have a vapor lock, follow those instructions before calling AAA. Life is good


a lovely little trout stream beside our RV.

As promised.........

Yosemite Falls.....as you can see it's not very big and the reason for that is they had very little snow in the area. However I think it is beautiful.






The famous wall climbers love to climb - El Capitan. You must be joking to climb that. Many do and when they do they sleep while hanging from their ropes cause it's a 2-3 day climb. GET OUTTA HERE!!!





If you look real close you can see a few black dots on the photo. Those my friends are elk. There were five in that grouping and one was a baby. Made Mr Doodles trip because the only wild animals we had seen to this point were squirrels. Hope his snaps are better than mine of the elk.

When I get some free time I will put all my pics over on my flickr page for all to see. But if y'all wanna see some gorgeous pastels my sister has done, pop on over to her site when you have the time. She's making some lovely pieces. I was blessed and received an ORIGINAL from her.

Oh for those that are interested we are having Chamber of Commerce picture perfect weather so far.

Off to Salt Lake City.......stay tuna'd

Mr Doodles get five gold stars....

Mr Doodles drove up Yosemite all the way thru the park and back yesterday. And for those of y'all that don't know this is a BIG DEAL. Cause this man is very uncomfortable going up the third rung on the ladder. Ask my sweet brother-in-law cause when we were there he was kind enough to get up and install new vents on the roof of Grace (the RV).

So a warm round of applause Mr Doodles, I'm proud of ya bunky!

I'll post some snaps tonite when we get to better coverage area, soooo......stay tuna'd

My trip is complete.........

No our trip is not over just got the exclamation mark on it however.

As y'all know food is an important part of our lives and growing up we have such fond memories of favorite foods.

Mine is fried chicken. Well sister made fried chicken and potato salad tonite for dinner. Damn she fries chicken good. It isn't what you use it's how you use it, the technique is the key. Some folks got it and some don't. I don't sister does. However we make the exact same family potato salad. Nothing fancy, but potatoes, celery, hard boiled eggs. a bit of finely diced onions and mayo. That's it...oh salt and pepper.

We have had just the best time at sister and brother-in-laws. The boys did projects, lord only knows what those were. While sister and I just do what we always do when we are together have just the best time. We did play a lot of scrabble, our favorite game to play.

So off Mr Doodles and I go to Yosemite/Sequoia for a few days. And then from there we aren't sure BUT y'all will be the first to know when we get there

I'll get back on track posting I promise but time with family is very precious. Stay tuna'd.......

The celebration party.....

Just so ya don't miss out on all the food goodies that we had for the celebration........scoot on over to PBE and read up on the goings on.

Sorry to say few snaps were taken cause we were all too busy cooking and eating and drinking OK!!! stay tuna'd...

there's just something about...

waking up at the beach. And the smell of the Pacific Ocean is all to itself in some odd way. Has a different smell than the Atlantic or the Gulf, which are the two bodies of water I have been used to for the past many years.


Sister and I walked the beach a lot the two days we were there. This body of water was an inlet that was caused by the mouth of the river up the road a piece.


Anyway the gypsy caravan moved northwest for a few days and went to RV at the beach. Good lord it was a state park and had no hook up, water, electric etc., but oh so very nice and peaceful. Sister and brother-in-law and their dog Buddy in their small trailer and the Doodles entourage with Buddy the cat all went off mid week to the beach for a few days. We lucked out in the weather department. Some morning haze/fog moved in but burnt off quickly. Then some afternoon haze/fog moved in, however by the time we were ready to roast marshmallows it was a lovely clear evening.

How lucky we were to have such wonderful weather to toast our marshmallows.




stay tuna'd there's more..........

If we moved any slower posting

By the number of post you can tell we are busy, busy, busy. What you say, we need to relax. Well we've been doing a bit of that, as well. Check out PBE for an update.

Stay tuna'd.

Not forgotten.......

but been having waaaay too much fun and being busy doing things. So I thought I would post a couples of photos for my friends and loyal readers ;\o)


gorgeous California Poppy ...absolutely one of my very favorites.


this lovely Echeveria Cacti was at the Getty Center


Now Sunday is the BIG Get Together Birthday celebration, Tuesday we are going camping on the beach for a couple a days...........that you must come back to see pictures and of course there will be a story of three.

Hope the beginning of your summer is as great as ours.........but stay tuna'd

a nostalgia trip today...

What a great day! Started off by wanting to eat, it's always about food, what is it with this family. Anyway it started off by Mr Doodles wanting to go to one of our fav Mexican haunts called Tito's Taco's.

Tito's is located in the town we all grew up in and a place that we frequented a lot with
good, simple food. A tad bit of history when we first started going to Tito's the tacos were 24 centavos and if you wanted cheese it was five cents more. Now they are $1.45 and w/cheese $1.85. And ya know something you can go home again, this place has not changed one bit in all these many years they are are as good today as they were many years ago. So if y'all ever in Culver City, California look up Tito's, you'll be glad you did.

Next stop on the nostalgia tour was to go by all the houses each of us had lived in. BIL's parents home looked almost the same as it did 40 years ago.

Mr Doodles and I lived in this house the first two years of our marriage. It was called the party house and we just had the best time in this house. Obviously it looks a lot different, but still has the same bones.

Next as we are driving over to the house sister and I grew up in we passed by the apartment where my Mr Doodles lived prior to our marriage, danged apartment is still there next door to the Catholic Church Convent.

Then we toddled on over to the house sister and I grew up in....and BIL and Mr Doodles knew quite well. Gosh it hasn't changed much.

Then we drove around Culver City, saw all the places we all worked and played.
It was a great day....but then any day with sister and BIL is a great day.
stay tuna'd...........there's more

for your viewing pleasure

little yellow to brighten the day...




still life in sister's kitchen

As you can see...

the three of us wasted no time in putting a meal on the table. Once we arrived at sisters we of course need lunch, a snack, a smidgen of food. So Mr Doodles captured sister Moon, niece lil bird and meself on film doing our task. I love this snap.



For more pics take a look at my flickr page

In the Golden State woo hoo!!!

So here we WERE in the lovely area of Lake Havasu City, AZ. Now this area is known for it’s recreational activities and high heat!!! I mean hot, 109* yesterday! The temps here during July and August gets up to 120-130 degrees no I’m not kidding. But ya know when it reaches over a 100* it’s just damn hot….oh yeah and it’s a dry heat

My Dad and his wife lived in Rancho Mirage, which is in the Palm Springs area of the California desert. They lived there for 30+ years, in fact M still lives there. Sister and I were down visiting once during the summer, I believe it was August and took of peek at the thermometer and it showed 120*, no wonder we dried off so quickly. However having said all of that, I love the desert weather and yes even in the summer. Just have to know how to handle it.

Now about Lake Havasu and the reason we drove out of the way to come here. Mr. Doodles had ordered a 100 gallon extra fuel tank for Big Louie, the truck. That was done on Friday and a pretty much all day event. So I hung out at the RV park, picked up and re-organized the RV that I now call Grace. Then I toddled off to the pool, which was a wonderful spot to be lazy. I’ll post some pics…. Mr. Doodles came back to get me for lunch, boy does love to eat. We then decided to go on a boat trip out on the lake that takes you over to a small Indian Casino on the California side. Well as all plans go the above didn’t quite pan out. Mr. Doodles decided that since the fuel tank was done, “let’s go put some fuel in it and make sure it works before we leave”. Ooooooohhhhh such a good idea Mr. Doodles, cause the sensor that tells you how much fuel is in the tank didn’t work. Not good huh?!? Mr. Doodles dropped me off and back he went to the install dudes. I in turn hopped on the boat and went to the Indian Casino and promptly came back with $50.10 more than I came with, thank you very much. I had to buy dinner.

All was well with the sensors, fuel tank and Mr. Doodles and even better when I told the sweet thing I was buying dinner.

Sunday a.m. we will land on the doorsteps of sister and brother-in-law....so stay tuna'd.

OK we are off to Rancho Mirage, which is the home of dear M, Daddy’s wife…we will spend the nite there and head off to sister’s house on Sunday a.m. That will be our base camp for about two weeks and happily so I might add.

On our way to Rancho Mirage, I am sure dear husband will want to stop at the General George S Patton museum. Let’s see if he remembers where it is. I know he wants another t-shirt cause he has literally worn out the two I bought him years ago.