Good Morning everyone. I thought I’d start a new blog because the last one was getting too long. So here we go now……..
Yesterday, we fixed the garage door:
We had to replace the bottom rubber piece. It was a BEAR to do but we finally got it done after about an hour of pulling and straining.
The floor of the garage has a low spot on the corner by the 40 so Jack is going to put something on there to tighten it up a bit. Not sure how he is going to do that, but I’m sure he has some idea how to do it. He’s pretty inventive when it comes to stuff like that. Better him than me! But I’m glad we got the rubber thing finished yesterday. Quite an accomplishment if you ask me!
So later in the afternoon I took the bike out and rode her to Read Hall. That is the other clubhouse that we can utilize as a member of Dreamland Villa. Here are a couple of pictures:
There is also a lap pool:
In the heat of the summer, I MIGHT go there to swim – who knows. There is a “locker” room to use to change clothes so I might do that. We’ll see.
This is where the meetings take place. I met a woman named Bea who is a volunteer and she gave me “the tour”. It was great! They have card rooms and a library along with art studios. I didn’t see the workout room, but I think there is one.
One thing I definitely want to participate in is: CARD BINGO!
This is an old poster – masks are NOT required. I contacted Sydney and she called me right back. Everyone has been so friendly and helpful here. I am really happy that we moved here. Our house is JUST RIGHT for us. And the cats are happy too!
Went for my 11th walk today. I’m listening to PODCASTS while I walk. It’s a great way to pass the time!
I think it is helping. I need to lose about 10 pounds – so far I’ve lost 2. It’s a struggle!
Great news. I got a thumb drive to work in Jack’s old APPLE computer so I can transfer his pictures over to it. So once that is done, he can get rid of his old computer. That is HUGE! It will be a good project.
Starting this on Thursday, March 7th and DAISEE2 and Metaxa and I are travelling to Lost Dutchman State Park. It’s only 12 miles from my house. We aren’t supposed to get there until after 2PM so I’m leaving about 1:45PM. I need to take my taxes to the Post Office. So we’ll do that little trip before I go. I’m debating about taking a shower today. We’ll see. I wanted to put pictures of my office on this blog. It looks pretty busy, but I love it. Jack not so much. I’ll put pictures of his office here too and you will see the difference in our personalities. We both have a bit of OCD – I think his is worse than mine:
I wasn’t going to put the mirror up, but I like it there now. It reflects the bookcase and other items. I love the little cactus scratching post. The kitties like it there too.
I finally got a place to put my stain glass window. You can see DAISEE2 out of the window. I love this room because there are two wonderful windows that let a lot of light in to the room. If you remember my old room in Tucson, it was really DARK and the carpet was dark too. I needed to leave the light on which was on my desk all day. This room is so much better!
This is a picture of the other window in my room: I love that the blind has that little shelf on top for the RVs.
I love that the Florida Everglade Pictures look cool on this wall. The third one of the Naples Pier I put in the bathroom over the toilet. Jack thinks it’s weird, but oh well. The armoire looks great in that corner I believe. So happy we had a place for it. Now for the desk:
So now you see all 4 of my walls in my new (and last) space. I LOVE IT!
Now here is Jack’s space:
Here is the other picture:
He also has the table in there under his window that I used as the bedside table in the other house. It is the “card table” that belonged to Aunt Marjorie. It works well as his worktable. His Apple computer is “going away” but there are many photos that need to be copied on to the thumb drive. I’ve done about 30 of them – but there are around 300 more!
Starting this again on Thursday, March 7, 2024. I made it to Lost Dutchman State Park. I left at 2PM and was at the gate at 2:30. All parked and level by 2:45. Taxi is with me and is exploring. I need to get her a snack. Oops, stepped on her tail and she yelped. Now she is under the front seat – that I need to turn around soon.
3:30 and it’s stopped raining – I see blue sky!
Look at this:
In honor of Jack – I shined up the front of Daisy after the rain. She looks very good. Still dripping off of the overhang, but basically she is cleaner. I had a big bath towel in the storage area – must be for the kayak – to use to dry it off. It’s 63 inside Daisy – 55 outside. It will be interesting to see how the Bluetti works with the computer plugged in and the weather station plugged in. There is electric under the ramada so I can recharge the Bluetti if necessary.
In honor of Jack’s OCD – I shined up the front of Daisy with the beach towel. It looks GREAT! Here I am tucked in between Alice and Ulna and Sue Shaw:
What is nice about gathering like this, I can open my door and keep the screen door closed without feeling like I have to lock everything up. I just love these little weekends. Genie has arrived from Santa Fe!
It looks like a great group of women – probably 40 of us.
I think that is about all for now. I’ll continue this tomorrow. I’m going to unplug the computer to save battery power.
Today is Friday, March 8, 2024 and I’m at Lost Dutchman State Park. Here is my view from inside sitting at my computer:
I’m next to Sue from Green Valley and that is her new (to her) rig. She used to have a Casita so this is a big step up for her but she travels with a dog now so she needs the space. I ran my engine this morning to charge my batteries. It will be sunny today so let’s see how that goes. The batteries are showing 2/3 full right now – it’s 7:15. I’ve been up since 5:40 – the alarm woke me. I didn’t sleep all that well last night, but Metaxa was good and kept by my side. She is sitting by me now. She pooped ok too so I know she is eating and drinking. So all is well. These were our temperatures this morning:
Off to coffee with the ladies. I’m going to turn this off to save battery power.
I’m using this for battery power and charging things. Seems to work great!
We went on a hike this morning. It was so great. I’m still out of shape but I’m working on it. Here are a couple of pictures from along the way:
It was a beautiful day for a HIKE!
Today is Saturday, March 9, 2024. I went to an RV Shop open house in Mesa at State Trailer RV & Outdoor Supply. I’m going to call them next week to get an appointment to find out about why my batteries keep discharging and to disconnect the radio from the house batteries. Don’t know why Freedom RV set it up that way – if they did. Anyway, I’m hoping they will honor my warranty. La Mesa is in Mesa but not the service department – if they are anything like the Tucson service department I know why!
That is Genie in the picture. They were having an open house and we could win an eBike or a generator. We’ll find out early next week. Here is what the service bays look like:
This is what the inside of the store looks like. It reminds me of Camping World only better:
So yesterday we had a bit of a rainstorm and look at this beautiful picture:
Starting this again on Sunday, March 10, 2024. Yesterday, I played poker and it was so much fun. Look at my winnings: $9.70.
Last night I met Tina – the girl I reached out to for RVW. She is younger, has a Little Guy teardrop, 2 dogs and a cool set up. We sat by her place last night for a fire:
That is one of her sweet dogs. It’s the sweeter one. The other is a bit vocal and not as nice.
Every morning, Madeline would get up and do breakfast. She had a griddle and she would fry muffins, English Muffins and bagels on the griddle. It was really good.
Last night at the fire at Tina’s we watched sunset through the cactus – reminded me of Joshua Trees:
I went for a bike ride today and found a nice site for next time I come – with electricity. Site 125:
We are having trouble with the Park Ranger here for our group area and so we may not come back here as a group. The website said we could have up to 35 rigs here and the Head Ranger said we could only have 29. We had 30 women coming so we had to refund money to Mary Goulet and tell her she couldn’t come. It worked out better for her anyway, but that wasn’t the point. Everyone got all wadded about the Head Ranger making up her own rule with no notice. It pissed everyone (especially Madeline) off so we probably won’t come back here again – at least next year.
Found out about my batteries. Maddie said my batteries are NOT self contained. I need to put water in them. The way they are installed, you can’t get to the cells. SO that is why they aren’t holding a charge over night. So now she said we could go with 2 6 volt in series and it will make 12 volt which should be enough for this rig and the solar should work on it also. SO that is what I’ll tell the folks next week when I take her in for the repair. I’ll need to get 2 6 volt batteries instead. Or 2 new 12 volt ones. We’ll see how it works!
Beginning this again on Monday, March 11, 2024. I’ll be leaving here in an hour or so to go home. I’m charging my batteries with my generator. I’m glad I have that. When the batteries go down, I just start the engine and as soon as the batteries charge a bit, I can turn on the generator. I now have my fridge on for the trip home and the temps are 15 & 43. The freezer gets warmer overnight when I have to turn it off, but the fridge stays cold enough. So I only lost 1 Amy bowl so that was fine.
This morning we woke up to:
This is such a pretty place. I’m so happy that it is so close to me now. I’ll come back on my own and get a site with electric next time. We can come out here easily. I may even invite Jack to come next time. I think he would enjoy it. But we’d need to leave the cats at home so we would probably only spend 1 night.
Last night we went to dinner together – there were 22 of us. Our waitress was Brooke and she did an amazing job! Cost me $25 and I had a great meal – the tip was included, but I gave her more. I think Jack would like the place:
Here we were – outside on the patio:
Shirley, Genie, Robbin, Madeline, Carline (?), someone?, Meg, ?, & Karen Borowski. Other end:
Linda Elliott, Sherrie, ?, Tina, ?. Sue Shaw, Janice Joyce.
This was my dinner: It was delicious and very filling. I ate the whole thing because my fridge wasn’t working.
So now I’m thinking about leaving soon. I had a great time, but I think 3 days is long enough for these trips. Although when I’m facilitating at 10X, I may stay an extra day or 2 – it will depend on whether my battery issue is resolved. It needs to be or I’ll not be going. Time will tell. Just called Dee at State Trailer and she is going to call me back to get on the schedule. We’re on for Thursday at 1PM. Got home and Jack discovered that we “cooked” the batteries – battery acid in the battery area. So I guess we’ll need 2 new batteries.
Suzee
Mar 10. 2024
Looks like a great little adventure