It's Not That Cold

All our years at Tahoe I had tried to avoid prolonged time spent IN the lake but now that I have the skills to breath under water I'm always looking for someplace new to do it.
Thanks to the gang at Strictly Scuba in Carson City Nev. and a chance meeting with Dan from Indiana I now have a high altitude dive and can honestly say"It's not that cold!"
Here s Dan, Dive Master Barnacle Bill and I at Sand Harbor before our dive.

Woody's RV Park and Spa

We are back in Nevada and there is no better place to start out the winter season than here with good friends.

Our site here outside Virginia City Nevada at Jack and Anita's is so cool.


Bright blue skies and mmm the smell of sage, something I always miss when we are back east.
The wild (or not so wild mustangs come right up to the house)


And of course thier are all the recreational activities.
Quad riding

and exploring a mountain of petroglyphs.

The Buffalo Returns

Before leaving Evanston this morning we did a bit of geocahing (Jim and Chris have created monsters). There are great hiking and biking trails. The perfect blue sky , fall colors and cool air didn't hurt the overall good vibes.




This is a hint. We found the cache , had a nice stroll and are now snugly tucked in for the night at the Wally World in Elko Nv.
Tomorrow we will be" livin la vida loca" at Woody's RV Park and Spa in Virginia City Nv. EEEEE HAA!!

Independence Rock

Hwy 220 heading SW from Casper takes you past the same red bluffs, along the Platte River to Independence Rock and Devils Gate , the natural points of navigation for the thousands heading west along the Oregon and Morman Trail .


Its amazing that even after all these years the names carved here are still so easy to read.

Visitors are encouraged to climb up the rock (thats where most of the names are) and experience a most awesome view! That is the west behind me... The Promise Land ( sorry I guess I am a" west coaster" no matter what)
Tonight we are in Evanston Wy. (almost Utah). The Chargers are playing tonight so although we don't need to clean-up or out we do have our creature needs.

1st National Monument

99 years ago today Teddy Roosevelt created our 1st National Monument, Devils Tower.
What does that mean? Well for one thing it was free park access and even tho it was a little smoky because of control burns , we hiked around and found another Geocahe.
This is a favorite of John and I but being here late in the season the KOA that shows "Close Encounters of the Third Kind " in the evenings was already closing for the season..
The sky is grey and we are trying to get to Casper Wyoming by nightfall.

If We Had An RV Park

Right off I 90 and close to everything the Black Hills has to offer The No Name City RV Park is just what we like. Not overly fancy (the required hot tub and wifi are here!!) but everything is clean and can accomodate just about any type off camping. This time of year is quiet but come the Sturgis Rally every summer ... Watch out!

One More Stop For Hugs

It is always to short a visit when we are here.
I keep telling John "Just one more stop". We met my Aunt Betty and Uncle Dave for lunch and spent as much time with Ry and Steph as possible but it is fall and we are taking a more northern route this year...Just one more stop. Earl and Shirley Reid.
They are Ry's grandparents on his Dad's side( yes we are a true american family...very extended!)

I asked for a couple tomatoes!!
We'll be seeing them later this winter when they arrive in southern Arizona for a break from all that cold and snow.

Minnesota

Here is the Muffin in one of our favorite sites.

It's fall and both Ry and Steph are especially busy. Ry is in agribusiness and Steph has gone back to college but they found time to have a BBQ with Steph's parents Rhonda and Doug.

Did I say they have only been in thier new home for a couple months?



Thier entire home is a hotspot. I love it.

3 WEEKS NO CELL PHONE;NO INTERNET

We just spent 3 great weeks at a campground on a lake in northern Wisconson .

The "Wolf's Den" is its own small town, alot of the same people have been going there for years, no...generations. There is fishing and camping in the summer and ice fishing and snowmobiling in the winter. There's BBQ's ,parties and a bar thats always hoppin' especially during a Packers/Vikings game.
As part of our"Sleepin-around-pay-4-your-stay" we spruced up the shower house with new paint and shower stalls.
Its never all work and no play with us. Ryan, our youngest son arrived from southern Minnesota for a few days.
There's time for a game of golf or"Where's the ball?"


A road trip to Lake Superior

And plenty of time for catching up.

The Louisville Slugger

One reason we took this route was the Louisville Slugger Museum.

The tour was great but remember it is downtown old Louisville and parking is tricky.
From here its just trucks....and lots of them and a couple nights at Wally World


before reaching our first big stop, "The Wolf's Den", good friends Trish and Barb's camground in northwestern Wisconsin.

Kentucky

We woke yesterday in the Georgia welcome center to a free wifi signal. OOHOO that means a couple quick emails and check out some future Geocaches for us to hunt. Its really fun and gives us an excuse to get out and explore some of the country that we would otherwise just cruise thru. We found one!(can't tell you where tho)


We are spending the night at Jellystone RV Park ,one last clean-up and clean-out before quite a few days of boondocking and they sometimes have free wifi (like this one).

Turn the Page

We are heading west...once again. Saying good-bye to Jim and Chris and everybody and everything we love in Florida, for awhile. Luckily its early in the year so a more northerly route is in the plan.
A road not traveled. Once we get north of Macon Ga. on I75 we are in new territory.

Quality/Quantity

The time you spend with good friends is always great no matter how short.
lets take a stroll and do a little geocahing in the morning.


and go on a boat dive with the Kayuba club in the afternoon.


Chris getting things ready for a dive.
Once again....Pinch me ...am I dreaming?

Ahhh. Does it get any better? We still have the use of Jim and Chris' kayaks so we went out with Dick and Sue from "Kayuba" . No lobsters but what the heck, we were diving! Then back to the "Muffin". I'm so happy its scarey.

The post scuba big rinse and dry!

Sleepin Around and the Extended Family

This is Marilyn and Chris.

Chris you know and Marilyn is her mum. A pretty great lady that is enjoying life and sharing a bit of it with the rest of us in"Marilyn's Planet".
In our travels we like to park in the yards of friends and families, in trade we do a little work on their homes whether it is a house,motorhome or condo...This is what we call sleeping around.
This last weekend we had the opportunity to spend a little time at Marilyn'(not her yard she has a townhouse)but making her kitchen floor more beautiful and just hanging out.

It was fun. Jim and Chris were out of town and we had her all to ourselves. We aren't to sure if she is very excited about being adopted by us, but tough...we like her and we are going to keep her!!!

Lobster Season

Well the day has finally arrived. John has his Green Stick, lobster bag and fishing license( with the necessary spiny lobster stamp). Now its just paddle out, dive down and round yourself up a bunch of lobsters ha!!! They are elusive little critters.
(Honda, Honda, kayak,kayak,kayak,kayak,Jim)
Dick and Geri Trodick were so cool and lent us their kayaks for the day. The weather and water was terrific and John did catch A lobster but SHE had eggs so we couldn't keep her. No matter any day diving is better than any day not! O Yeh KAYUBA!

Playing With Others

Thanks to Jim and Chris once again we get to try something new. Boat Diving. You dive off the boat not for a boat and its really alot of fun. Unlike kayak diving you must share your space with quite a few other people. Our group was not overly large so you could move around and they were all there to have a good time. We dove on barracuda reef but didn't see and barracuda. Visability was good and I kept trying to take pictures... do you see any here? Lesson #1 Get close to your subject. It was a blast and if I figure out where I put the pictures you'll see for yourself.

The Mothership

This is it! The inspiration for Desdemona's "rocketship/boat/home" in Jimmy Buffet's best selling book "Where Is Joe Merchant?"and thus when a couple of "Parrotheads" with a traveling jones aquire thier very own rocket ship to the stars the name would be obvious.




We first took off on our adventure in "Desdemona's Cosmic Muffin"which later grew to be "HMS CM2" (Her majesty's sevice cosmic muffin 2).


The Muffins.

July 4th

The celebration continues. It's Jim and Chris' anniversary. Thanks to them including us in an invitation to a party on Deerfield Beach we were able to enjoy the fireworks with them and Marilyn(Chris' mom) in kayaks right under the action...We were even escorted by a couple dolphins...pretty cool.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY KIDS

PIRATES !!!!

It seems like forever that we left Quartzsite and our good friends Chris and Jim in the care of our parents(or vice versa).
It's 4th of July weekend and we are all going "kayak diving". ( the act of scuba diving from a kayak.) It's a 1st for us but with the help of Kayuba it was an awesome day...We are now Nevada representatives for the club.

Pirates preparing to set sail(kayak)

BBQ Target Style

A pleasant suprise. Target threw a BBQ this week for everyone involved in the remodel. I love being cooked for!!

Memorial Weekend

We have hardly returned to Naples(We were in Cassleberry Fl installing a Starbucks/Food Ave) and we get a 3 day weekend.!!

ohoo! A dog beach!!!!! and not far from the RV Park.

Naples Florida

A summer on the gulf coast should be pretty nice. The beaches are known for white sand and No waves. We are a bit farther from the beach this year at Kountree Kampin Rv Resort. It's a laidback place where the people are friendly and there's a POOL. Of course with us the big determining factor is" are larger dogs allowed as Ariel is ... a healthy girl!

Starbucks/ Food Avenues

Every once in a while Jesse sends us to a different store to install Starbucks/ Food Avenue millwork and equipment. It is our favorite part of fixture installations. You go to different places, it takes about a week( if all rough construction is complete) and the finished product is very satisfying.

Food Avenue.
If we had the chance we would specialize in strictly these.

Back at the Beach

After an all too quick stop to visit J.D. and Cheryl in Mims(we all work for J H Vaughn but on different stores) we are at the beach , last years home when we weren't running from hurricanes. Alot of the same people are here.

Like Scott and Carmie ,still having more fun than 2 people should be allowed.

Shenendoah Valley

We are once again heading south. This time with a few stops to explore underground in the Shenendoah Caverns

and at least a few miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Not always the best route for an RV thats towing but man could you see far!

Gettysburg

Say Gettysburg and every kid past 3rd grade knows it was a battle during the Civil War but you have to see it to believe it. It's big! Big in area and big in the numbers of men killed and wounded. It is very depressing but the countryside is beautiful. All green and flowering when we were there with monuments of every size and description dotting the fields.

Washington DC -so much so little time

A girls best friend!! Diamonds..Hope Diamond. We really enjoyed visiting all the museums but there are just so many and 3 days just wasn't enough time. So we skipped the galleries in order to have time to tour the Archives and Library of Congress(what an amazing building...inside and out)

And this little babe is the famous Treasury duck that chose the sidewalk in DC to hatch her eggs.