Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Friends, Family, Fireworks, & Flat Tires

That’s about all I can say about the month of February.  I finished the last blog with the tire damage sustained on Hwy 95 traveling from Quartzsite to Yuma.  We did a lot of caching (for us) in Yuma very near the border and went to our first Mega Geocaching Event, S*W*A*G.  We had a wonderful time with our SKP Geocaching friends and even ran into a geocacher, Ron Smith, that we met several years ago at Cattail Cove SP at an event and helped introduce to the hobby of Geocaching.

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We stayed in Yuma for about 5 days then traveled back up Hwy 95 stopping in ‘Q’ for propane and Parker for diesel and checked into Cattail Cove SP for the 4th year in a row to see the 24th Annual Winterblast 3 nights of shows.

Family and Fireworks

Our daughter, Jennifer, is a member of the Western Pyrotechnical Assoc, WPA, that puts on the shows.  Not only do we love having Jennifer and my Mom drive from Fresno to join us, but those who know me know I LOVE FIREWORKS!  I will share a couple of my favorite pictures; I took close to 500 pictures, but I’m not going to include them all Winking smile.

Friends:

We went to “Ed’s Birthday Party again at “The Steps”, part of the BLM land south of Cattail Cove S.P.. It was a delicious potluck with 2 big birthday cakes.  This celebration started a number of years ago when Betty Anderson wanted to buy a birthday cake for Duane and the only cake available was one that was inscribed Happy Birthday Ed. Ed’s wife did not want to pick it up as Ed had passed to the Great Beyond. Betty got it half price and the tradition of celebrating Ed’s Birthday began. This year the cake was inscribed, “Here’s to our favorite Mr Ed. Even though you are quite dead, we celebrate your special day. Sorry that in the ground you lay. But Thanks for the Cake!”  We sang the theme song from the old TV series, Mr Ed, took the picture with the whole group, and sat and talked to friends.  Even our very old friends, Dennis and Jill Curtin (Dennis was one of Tom’s groomsmen in our wedding 50 years ago), came by as they were staying at the Fairgrounds to see the fireworks.

More Friends

The Cool RV’ers, Judy and Luke, moved into Cattail Cove and we were once again neighbors. Laughing out loud.  There must be some kind of vortex or something at Cattail because we once again ran into Ron Smith and who should we spot walking by but 2 of my high school buddies, Larry Meacham and Ron Schreiner and their lovely wives.  Ron and Teri Schreiner and Larry have a singing group and were performing at the Park Amphitheater two evenings that week.

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We did have a little problem, well it was a big problem, with our King Dome Satellite Dish. It would not find the signal. We got on Amazon and found a Winegard at a good price and had a terrific local installer, John Pacifico, to the installation. It was the most careful, neat, and thorough installation I have seen.  We would highly recommend John for any electronic installation work. We now have a two feed satellite DVR so we can watch one station and record on another.

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Friends and Family

We traveled to Boulder City thinking we would continue to Carson City, drive over I-80 or I-50 into Sacramento for a meeting for Tom. We stayed at the very nice Boulder City Elks Lodge. We wanted to take a disc with the Golden Spike Newsletter, Telegraph, to Anne Slavicek. She is the new Editor and we see her first edition is gorgeous.  We then met my cousin, Pam and hubby, Ed, for dinner. We talked, talked, talked all about our families (I think that might be called gossip in other circles) and it was super. We really need to see our extended families more often.

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While in Boulder City we rode the Nevada Southern RR as guests of CEO, Peg, because our Golden Spike Chapter donated a Sustaining Membership a couple of years ago. We did continue our support by purchasing a couple of shirts and a pin.

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We also did the Zappos,com tour in Henderson. What an amazing business philosophy. Customers first, Open communication, Embrace change.

We had to shake the “travel Jell-O” and change our direction to Sacramento from I-80 or 50 to I-15. There was a blizzard forecast for Donner, CA, and our home does not travel in a blizzard.

Flat Tires

We were just passing Cactus Jack’s Casino at the Nevada/California border when we AGAIN heard a very loud bang, flap flap flap, and the tire monitor started screaming.  Tom pulled over and inspected the damage and determined we needed to pull way off the road into a gully next to the road.  The Big Rigs were whizzing by at 70+ MPH only a couple of feet from DA PAD. I thought DA PAD may just go over as he pulled down the slope to the gully. I prayed, God answered and he made it down safely. Pictures say it all.

Family

After a couple of hours waiting for the tire service to bring out another tire and change it we were on our way to Bakersfield. We parked at Wal-Mart after a very long day. The next day we met cousins, Ellen, her boyfriend, Dennis, and cousin Susan for another long lunch. Were we gossiping? I’ll deny it if you ask.  Boy did we have fun though.

Family & Friends

Finishing this long blog… Fresno – Sushi with Jennifer, Greg and Julie, Sacramento – EPT dinner with Dept. of Education colleagues, Ceres – lunch with neighbors who lived near us 30 years ago Gale and Phyllis, and finally back to Fresno where we sit now waiting to get DA PAD in for needed repairs at Central Valley RV next Monday.

 

While we wait we took Tom’s sister, NanCy, on the Blossom Trail ending up at Exeter to see the Murals.

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Saw Logan play baseball this evening. He is a good catcher (and also a good cacher).

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We will be caching (5 yesterday) while we wait to be On the Road Again, caching places that we’ve never been.