When all you can do is Laugh!

Hello Family & Friends,
Well, we had a Monday on Tuesday -- so here's the tale:

Headed up the mountain to prospect and found a beautiful spot (streams are going down so better places to setup the sluice).  We unloaded gear and went into the stream to get it setup, I was trying to dig buckets of dirt so I asked Darrel for the scoop.  He looked at the stream bank and then the leg of the sluice and realized that one scoop had floated off the sluice and was somewhere down the stream!!!

Two weeks ago we lost a snuffer bottle (what you use to suck up the gold from the sluice ripples) -- that, too, had gone down the stream.  We actually stopped at the Rock Doc in Buena Vista on the way home from his brother's to replace that item.

Well if you know Darrel, this irritated him quite well and I thought OH BOY, this is going to be a day -- but finally he saw reason that sometimes these things just happen!!!  So now my turn!!!

As I was exploring the bank for a path back to the truck, I leaned over the water and my camera fell out of my vest pocket smack dab into the water (yes, the one that was deserted on the desert and found, WOW, do you think you could ever put those two words together in one sentence??) -- It was off and inside its case BUT..... so I quickly headed to the truck, popped out the battery and the SD card, wiped off what moisture I could see and left it drying on the seat.

When I got home I put it into a bag of rice and will keep it there for the next 2 days -- so my pictures are once again on hiatus until I figure out if it will still work??  I am hoping it has 9 lives and that I have only used 1 that I recall (lost in the desert) and now dropped in the stream (life 2).   I guess this is where I remind us to LAUGH!  Because, really, what can you do?

So being a glutton for punishment, when I got home I called Verizon and spent 2 1/2 hours of my life I will never get back talking to them about the poor service.  I did get them to credit my account for limited data use and have another repair ticket in about the network issues in the area!

So a couple of days ago, I found a couple of "funnies" to share and since this post is about Laughter I decided to add them (and since I don't have any new pictures to share).

Made you smile, didn't I?  I vote, no, don't tell her 😀

OK, how awesome is this?  Carry a rainbow on your back?

If we all could practice this advice, we would have it made!!!

So, on to a better day and I am hopeful that my camera in rice will be working soon!

Sending love and hugs,

Susan & Darrel

Wrapping up July???

Hello Family & Friends,
This will be a this and that post, catching you up on the last week and into the new week!

We headed out on Monday, July 22 to Darrel's brother Mike in Windsor, CO.  We sang Happy Birthday to Aiden (3 phone calls full) and he was delighted to talk to Great Uncle Mike on his birthday!

On the way up to Windsor, we stopped at the Mattress Insider showroom to look at new mattresses, and I've blogged before, RV mattresses are much to be desired when you have a Tempurpedic mattress and are getting old and creaky.  We purchased a new one to arrive by August 5th (possibly August 2nd) and then on through Denver traffic north to Windsor (between Greely and Fort Collins).

Had a nice visit, spent time just goofing off and shopping, the guys went to the gun range and Johnette and I took walks (when the afternoon showers didn't pop up) and caught us with cousins Dale and Bonnie who did the RV lifestyle, too.

We left on Friday, July 26 and received notice that the mattress was to be delivered on Friday, July 26 -- after losing an hour of my life I won't be back with FedEx, we got it re-routed to Monday, July 29 (today)!!

On the way home we sat on Hwy 285 north of Buena Vista at a car wreck (thankfully it didn't look too serious but some pretty good fender bender damage, one was towed).  We arrived safely in South Fork around 4:00pm and brought the rain with us overnight.

Saturday sang Happy Birthday to my mom and caught up with her on happenings in Kansas.  Sister Shari was hosting a party with sister Carol bringing meatballs.  Sister Linda had visited earlier in the week so we all were up to date!

Sunday we spent catching up and getting the bedroom ready for the new mattress.  We ordered a slightly smaller mattress and needed to cut the bed frame down to get ready for it.  So I managed to squeeze in a walk this afternoon and snapped some pictures to liven up this post!  Enjoy!

New Mattress, it comes squeezed up in a roll and then you release the compression, and stand back for the spring loaded mattress.  We are letting it decompress to full size and then will try it out tonight!

 I have been challenging myself with walking up this really steep grade street call Pintada -- I have provided pictures of the up and the down, and looking out of the Rio Grande National Forest -- I am getting better, I can climb it 2x and my goal is to make it 5x before the end of September.

Pintada Up

Pintada Down, you can see the Rio Grande at the top, inline with the road.

Pintada at the Top, looking to the southwest -- beautiful clouds today!

The Rio Grande has really dropped in level and speed -- it is almost calm today.

You can see the bridge reinforcement without water flowing all around in a rapid.

Looking out to the east, it seems very calm vs. the first week we arrived in June.

New walking shoes -- It was time to break out a new pair.

One last thing, I have to brag a little, I earned my 20,000 steps in 1 day and my Sahara badges for the distance of walking the Sahara desert mileage (2,983 miles) -- my FitBit and I are partners in keeping me exercising!

Better run, I've this & that'd you long enough.  We are wrapping up July and hoping our cell reception and phone issues get better.  This weekend is Rhythms on the Rio (music festival) so thinking it will be busy still.

Love to you all, sending blessing and good health,

Susan & Darrel

Finding Bolete mushrooms & exploring Seitz Creek

Hello Family & Friends,
This past week we have been mushroom hunting, exploring places to pan/sluice for gold, watching the snow disappear and checking out the stream/creek flows!  We are still experiencing cell phone reception and Internet issues, we are hopeful that come August, things will be back to normal.

One morning we were up at 4am to access the Internet to pay bills and balance bank accounts.  Whew, that is definitely dedication.  We tried the Rest Area up the road and couldn't get reception on the Jet pack for our secured Internet --- trying not to sound whiney but, hey, it isn't fun to get up that early or travel 5 miles to try to get a signal 😧 --- now for the fun stuff!!

Here's a few pics I captured along the way this past week of the FUN activities (or some of them came from Mickey as I didn't take my camera with me : (

Snow melt is disappearing fast -- don't know if it will be totally gone by end of summer, but close!

Here's the Bolete mushroom find -- Brad was the winner with 8-10, Darrel in next at 4 or so, Mickey with 3 or 4 and Susan had 2.... but they were good eating.

 Here's the 3 of us showing our mushroom find.

I took a Diet Coke break and Mickey capture the pic with the yellow wildflowers!

We headed up to Big Meadows lake to hunt for the mushrooms, I think we found one or two but I happened to see a Doe cooling herself under a outcropping, hidden by the foliage.  We didn't catch her head but you can see her body in the upper left corner -- she didn't seem alarmed that we stopped on the road to watch her.

One day later in the week, we headed up Embargo/Seitz creeks to see if we could find mushrooms at the headwaters, I actually was the winner that day, finding the one Bolete mushroom.

The water is still running but the flow has slowed considerably.  We traveled on down looking at the Agate field, eating lunch and then on to Seitz where the water was too low for sluicing so we headed to Embargo Creek to check it out.

Embargo was down enough to get close to the water, I didn't take any photos but we spent the afternoon working the sluices.  It was difficult water flow, heavy in areas and slow in spots.  Called it a day and headed home around 5pm.

So that about catches us up for the week.  It has warmed up here around 84 degrees during the day, next week predicts those pop up showers each afternoon.  I know the midwest folks are suffering hotter temps and more humidity so we are lucky to have the dryer climate and cool nights when the sun drops!

Better wrap up but here's a fun shot of Brad and Archie checking out the UTV -- I happened to see them hanging out one afternoon.

Archie is interesting to walk (yes, he is leash broke for a cat) -- he finds a spot and lays down so you get to stand there until he decides to move on 😝 --he has us all trained to his ways!

So until the next time, thanks for reading, sending blessing and love to all,

Susan & Darrel

Willow Creek and Lost Lake, really lost

Hello Family & Friends,
We have been off the grid lately with poor Internet connection and really bad cell phone reception.  We travel up the road to the rest area to make phone calls - we are told this will get better with the crowds return home (I guess we are part of that crowd :-)

We have been out and about but I haven't taken much for pictures because I cannot blog as well, but Sunday we took a jaunt up Willow Creek and to Lost Lake (I never did see a lake) and tried our luck looking for mushrooms and panning for gold.

Here's a few picks of the area -- it has really large Aspen groves and just wonderful terrain.  Of course, we had a rain shower but survived as it went by fast.

These Aspens are really tall, and just line the road!

I never realized that the foliage is at the top of the tree without branches below.  

Remember these will turn red, gold and orange in the fall.

Hunting for mushrooms along the stream side -- last year there wasn't running water in the area.

Small waterfalls are everyone in the streams -- you get a place where they land drops, a natural Waterfall

Mr. Chipmunk sat on a log and watched us go by -- there are so many scurrying around.

Another waterfall along the way.

End of the road as we would have had to cross the 2 stream beds and up a pretty good incline.

Big log dam with water rushing through.

Closer shot, the water is really running this season.

We stopped in Del Norte, CO at the Ranger station to pick up our licenses to cut down small Aspen trees for walking sticks.  Darrel lost one last year in Arizona and I need to find one for me too.  I guess I know what will be one of our next journeys.

So hopefully, I will get a post up now and then and more in August.  Thanks for staying with me as we experience the "off the grid" traveling moment.  

Take care, hugs and blessings your way,

Susan & Darrel

On the Road Reflections

Hello Family & Friends,
I have been thinking about this post for quite awhile -- mostly trying to figure out how the first year went on the road, pros, cons, dos and don'ts --- I think the biggest revelation is that I am so fortunate to have taken the full time RV plunge and go totally out of character (maybe? or maybe not?) -- I am sure some of you wondered, what the heck are they thinking?  And to tell you the truth, I have had a few of those moments ... but instead of trying for perfection, I am trying for progress and shifting my mindset to living the moment.

So the next few paragraphs (because I cannot find a table feature and don't want to HTML code to insert a table) will address the "learning" from this experience --- the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (preferably called, Pros, Cons and Other).

PROS:

• I don't own as much stuff and acquire even less stuff -- now, Darrel?  well, we are still working on that 😊
• I follow the sun -  meaning trying to find milder temps to live in (see Cons for weather issues)
• New hobbies, like UTVing in the desert in the winter and now, Colorado mountain trails in the summer, gold panning and metal detecting, rock collecting and ravine exploration, etc. PLUS Pickleball playing
• Making new friends (see Cons for missing family and old friends)
• Seeing new sites (and there is so much more to explore, it could take years, yes, years to see what I want to see)
• Getting outside every day, relaxing more and taking care of less
• Communicating better with family and friends (which is funny that I am 100's miles away but probably text, email, blog post, call to talk more than being 5 miles away)
• I probably eat better (for the most part) -- less access to fast food or restaurant food when you have to drive to get there.
• I get to live near/in the mountains!  After being a flatlander for 58+years, that is a big difference...even the desert mountains are beautiful...
• Adapting to small living quarters early in my life so when the nursing home calls, I will be comfortable with a room 😭
• Taking our toys with us (UTV and motorcycles) -- I know that a Toyhauler is not for everyone, but I kind of like having the garage space (don't have to clean it as much) and the patio is a wonderful option in great weather!
• Having a bathroom and 1/2 bath is a great thing!  His and Hers (for the most part, I only have to share the shower with Darrel).
• Verizon Jet pack for Internet has been a great option so that we don't have to worry about secure Internet connections. (See Cons for Internet access)
• Existing with one mobile phone -- yes, some said it couldn't be done, but we have done it very well with only a few times that 2 phones would have been helpful..... if Darrel could text, we would have no worries.
• Attending different area Weight Watchers (WW) meetings.  It has been interesting to hear new coaches and meet new members.
• Reading books through online venues -- I have a library card to Congress AZ library and can access their digital collection (carrying around printed material is not weight worthy : )
• Exploring new towns and cities and hills and mountains, and trails and hiking paths, finding that small stream or raging river!
• Activities that are local, farmer's markets and flea markets, festivals and celebrations -- you just never know what will pop up around the corner.

Now for the cons....

CONS:

• I miss not seeing family and friends -- I do appreciate all the communication to keep in touch but not spending time in activities and visits is still an adjustment.
• I am not fond of driving for groceries and taking coolers in the heat or over long distances, it is a good thing I am a planner, as we keep a constant grocery list on the refrigerator and when you go to town, you have a list of what you need from eggs to nuts & bolts and your errands are a day process.
• Uncooperative weather ... Mother Nature is a force of her own, and I am the one adapting to HER needs!  If you would have told me that I would have snow in the Arizona desert, I would have laughed!  This first year has definitely been one for the weather charts, because we have had unusual weather where we have traveled -- hence, the nickname Weather Gypsies.
• Storage options are primo, you find that you can get by with a lot less clothes (and that has been a challenge with the weather extremes) -- I finally have my tubs numbered and a list of what is inside so we can get it out when needed.
• Finding a consistent, decent hair cut, which I know sounds a little prideful, but I have such wacky hair that one bad hair cut is like 12 months of growing it back out....and I still don't care for "bad hair" days!  Darrel lets me cut his with a Flowbee he bought last year, he says I do a great job, no way is he cutting my hair!
• Only having the truck for enclosed transportation, and with Bo's wide hips, he just doesn't fit well into lots of places ie, any kind of drive thru (from food, to Post Office, to ATM or sometimes, small parking lots and side streets).
• Finding and paying for fix it services, that takes some planning to locate what you need, when you need it and reputable people too.... and for Darrel paying for something that he can do will always be frustrating for him.
• Finding fuel for Bo when hauling Zoe (RV) -- that is always one of our 1st travel stresses because she just doesn't fit well into small spaces either... next comes RV sites that she will fit into as well.
• RV mattress, need I say more?  We had a Temperpedic mattress and even with the upgraded mattress in our Toyhauler, we are looking at options to replace so that we have better sleep.  We bought a foam topper and I finally convinced Darrel to put it "under" the mattress as we felt like we sunk down it it -- it is actually a better option so far since we tried it a couple of weeks ago.  Darrel even admitted, I was RIGHT??!!!??? what???
• Missing Weight Watcher (WW) meetings -- I use to attend weekly meetings and that has been a challenge on the road to travel sometimes 2.5 hrs. to find a meeting.  But I do the best I can to get there when I can.
• Reading "print" books and having limited access to libraries.  We do have a library at North Ranch clubhouse and there is a small library at Ute Bluff so I will need to checkout the collection to read.

MOST RECENT CON:  Poor cell reception and network availabilty -- for all the traveling we did last summer the only place we had issues was Pelican Point in Jamestown ND and we knew about that going in.  

This year at Ute Bluff Lodge in South Fork, the month of July has been horrible with dropped calls, or the network unavailable or time out responses.  We now know this will happen in this area when the heaviest of vacation time appears -- many reasons for this we are finding out but mostly just not enough bandwidth for all the people that visit the area.

Thanks to everyone that has kept up with us through texts and emails and we appreciate your understanding -- it would almost be funny, except when you get frustrated 😒trying to make sense when talking, pay bills or even just check online orders!! 

So I think that about covers the highlights, I am sure I have more floating around in my head to pluck out when the moment is right.... am I sorry we took this journey?  Absolutely not, and I try hard not to plan when we might come off the road, or find a edifice to settle into .... we took a big leap to purchase a RV lot in Congress AZ, North Ranch so that wintering isn't a travel issue and we don't have to rely on someone's lot for lot sitting each year. 

I really don't have a Dos and Don'ts -- I think everyone needs to figure it out for themselves.  We did so much research to try to make it as least problematic as we could but even with the Pendergast planning, we had lots of obstacles to hurdle and even though they have gotten easier, we still have things that don't work (UTV), things to fix (like refrigerator doors not closing correctly) but that is just part of living and really, what other options do you have?

So thanks for all the supportive people in my life, from our family members, friends that are there to catch up on the news, RVer friends and new friends that have tips and how tos, and complete strangers that loan you a ball hitch so you can haul your UTV to the service shop!

We love you all and miss you more than you know,

Susan & Darrel

Departing Seitz Creek in rainstorm

Hello Family & Friends,
It was bound to happen, getting caught in a rainstorm in the UTV.  After we got the UTV back (it is still having some issues and we have it back at the repair shop to checkout additional mechanical issues) but we took a trip up to Seitz Creek area to metal detect and pan for gold.  Mickey and Brad are here and we hope we have better luck with Midas Mickey!

As we setting up sluices and checking the area for "material to run", we are just settling in for about 30 minutes and then we hear the thunder -- OK, we should have left right then (that is Brad talking) but we were running material and decided to see how what we could find.

Well, when the drops starting falling, the ladies started packing up what wasn't needed and hurried the guys to finish up the buckets of dirt.

So on the way home, we are in this mess (compliments of Mickey's video of our dilemma --- hope this video does OK, I haven't posted a video before so here goes!  Rain, hail, grapple and maybe slushy snow???  We are just wet and cold!

Do you hear her laugh at the end?  I'm glad someone had a sense of humor 😏  You might have to double click the video to get it to play -- I tried it out and got it to work, hopefully you can too!

So we are in a rainy days right now but hope to dry out before 4th of July!  We are ready to get dried out for awhile and head to the mountains to gold find!

Sending love and blessings, 

Susan & Darrel

Park Creek is Open

Hello Family & Friends,
Finally Park Creek is open and we decided to check it out to see where the water rose too and how fast the creek was running.  Darrel took his metal detecting wand to see what he could find along the way.  We found a spot we have panned for gold and met a camper, Bob from Florida, and visited a moment.

This is Darrel detecting

Digging for treasure

Further down the ravine -- still digging for treasures

Here's the treasure (with my cellphone shadow and hand) -- 2 casings and an old nail.

Here's the water pics of Park Creek -- we were amazed to see how much water was still running.

This is the ravine we walk down with our equipment to find a spot to pan for gold -- it is a way to carry but even shorter this year as the water has come up the bank.

So we headed home with our treasures and to check on the UTV repairs -- Mickey and Brad are headed to Colorado this week and we wanted to let them know how the area was water running.

We had a good day and enjoyed the sunshine.

Catch up on our next adventure,

Sending love and blessings your way,

Susan & Darrel