The Class-less Class

[Onthego]

Good to have a telephone chat with you yesterday, Jeff. Did you get more snow there overnight? We woke to another two inches! Enough! Hoping the sun returns soon, and the weather is to be as great in the week ahead as forecasted!!! Thinking we will arrive at Cherry Creek on Sunday... will keep you posted, and look forward to seeing you and Tina soon!

You and Tom come on down. There's maybe 3" and snowing lightly. Weather channel say its 18 but feels like 8. Weekend looks very nice though. See you Sunday if not earlier.

 

Tina and Jeff

[IYQ]

I think I made a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in siberia. It's 1:30 PM and still in the 40's. I woke up to ice on the windows and the rig still rockin' in the wind. The wind is down to 15 MPH gusts now but it's still too cold for this boy who was wearing a jacket at 85 degrees yesterday. My first chore this morning was to go get a propane bottle filled. The Blue frame heater ran all night. If the weather stays like this Steve can keep his darn ice cream machine.

[hdrider]

Dang!!! And we are headed out in the morning headed in your general direction IYQ!!! Maybe I will make a "wrong turn" and head to southern Texas instead LOL!!

Hope ya catch a break soon.

[soos]

FYI everyone. Hard to believe but Paul and I actually made some plans and booked a VIP spot at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in October. Anyone planning on being there?

 

Sue

[desertranger]

I'm heading for Joshua Tree for a week. There are a couple of nice place there and it will be cooler than Palm Springs. Take my rig in for it's maint cycle in May so that's getting close. Not sure what I'm going to do while it's in the shop. I may return to Glendale. Don't know yet.

[IYQ]

The wind has died down to under 10 MPH but it is already down to 35 and the night is just starting. I'm afraid there'll be serious frost on the punkin in the morning. Burrrrrrr and I don't have my red flannels any more. Oh well that trap door in the back was always coming open anyway. I'm sure glad I got LP this morning.

[steved44]

OK, just for the record, there's NO SNOW in Oklahoma right now! My sister, who lives in Denver, says she is getting a blizzard every week. Doesn't look like spring can fight it's way through the drifts. (or they moved Siberia)

 

Met up with Linda Sand for a late dinner last night at the Grand Casino. (we dropped the firelake to throw IYQ off). She was with Rae Crothers, a Canadian, who pens the blog "travels with Miranda", and although I have been following her blog since about 5 years ago, had never met her in person. We had a great dinner and chat (we did talk about most of you), and heard a lot about the challenges of being a "full timer" in Canada.

After dinner/supper, we took Linda back to her rig and got a tour of the new "Sand Castle"! Nice rig and really shows Linda's knowledge of traveling in a smaller space. I think she has more counter space than we do. She even has a diesel furnace like BessyBus! It was pretty cold out, 36 degrees and windy, so she needed the furnace for sure! It was nice to see Linda again, as it's been quite a while since our last meeting. I think that was in her Colorado River Adventures home park.

Today is sunny with just a light breeze, so Linda should have a good driving day north to Kansas.

 

My project for today is working on my outboard motor. Saturday I inflated the boat, put it in the water and tried out the new (to me) outboard. Well, the wind was a little too brisk to make things easy, and also the boat ramp was way too shallow and I had to get my feet wet launching. Water temp is not good yet (cold!!), so the launching process was not good. Also we were camped with a number of Carol's photographer friends, so all of my audience had 500mm lenses trained on me to record the event. Then I tried to start the motor. It did start, but stalled and when I went to restart it the starter rope broke . Nice! luckily, it has oars, but because of the wind it was a pretty good struggle to get back to the boat ramp. Now exhausted with wet feet, cold and Po'd, I climbed back out of the boat with a defining sound of "clicking" going on and slunk back to the campsite. Sigh! I just hope everyone else had fun watching that fiasco!

 

Now to fix it. Mutter mutter!

[Wanderin]

Steve - I know you've told me this before but I'm asking again. What kind of little boat did you get that you can attach that motor to? We looked at a little electric motor that can be attached to some "blow-up" boats. Did you get the Sea Eagle like Paul and Marti?

[steved44]

No, we have the sea eagle 10.6 RIK sport boat with the high pressure floor. Bigger than a kayak, but it will tow 4 of them at a time. Paul and Marti know about that one. It will take up to a 15 hp outboard, but anything that big would be too heavy to handle. We have been using a 5.5 hp Johnson for the last couple of years, but even that one (60 lbs) is a little too heavy to move around a lot, plus it is a little underpowered. The motor I just got is a 7.5 hp Sears Gamefisher. It is a 1985 and weighs in at 35 lbs. It has neutral and forward, (you turn it all the way around for reverse). The size (weight) is fine, but so far I haven't been able to try it out. Successfully anyway!! I'll let you know how that goes. seaeagle.com

[IYQ]

Gentlemen, I think we can now do a lot of those things we've been told we could do when Hell freezes over. It was 18 degrees here in eastern New Mexico last night So I'm sure Hell froze over. (Good Luck Mr Gorsky) Now Steve sould give me access to that Ice cream machine. He said he would when Hell froze over. However he better do it fast because it is forecast to be in the 80's all the rest of the week and that will not only melt the ice cream but also make access to Hell a lot easier.

It's noon now and the temperature is up to 52 with bright sun and no wind. I took a walk a little while ago and it was very nice. I'll now do a little investigating around here to see what's going on and maybe make a trip to Cannon Air Force base about 7 miles north of here this after noon. I need a new pair of shoes from the BX.

Edited April 25, 2013 by IYQ

[hdrider]

Those Sea Eagles seem to be the hot thing. Since we hit the road we have met at least 4 people that have them plus you Steve. I don't swim so I don't think one will be in our future LOL!!

We moved from Elephant Butte NM to Alamogordo today Staying in the Oliver Lee State Park. Nice here today.

[Wanderin]

Those are sure heavy motors to lug around, Steve. Others seem to be able to "float their boat" and paddle in those things without a motor. However, the last time we were kayaking we kept tipping the thing over and being spilled in the water. Then, it wasn't so bad since we were in the Caribbean but here *(&^@# !! No way. Perhaps, we should try one out first so .... when you bringing yours this way? Actually, we looked at the Minn Kota electric motors and even though they have attachments for hard shell kayaks I'm not sure they would fit on one of the Sea Eagle kayaks. Seen any with them ????

[steved44]

• Jeri, when we were in South Carolina with Paul & Marti, we went on a boat outing with their group. There were 15 Kayaks and us, but two of the other kayaks had electric trolling motors on them. They were the double hull types and looked pretty stable. They might have been a little easier to handle than ours as they were in two pieces instead of one, but I didn't get a chance to see them being "set up". Ours has the wheels option, so once you get it aired up you can move it fairly easily. I'm in the process of making a hitch for the back of the truck to be able to tow it short distances. We have an electric pump, so it is pretty easy to inflate. It takes about 20 minutes or so to unload it, install the two seats, the oars, air it up and sit the motor on it. It's better if you can park the truck near the launch site as now we have to roll it to the water by hand. Once I get the hitch made, you will be able to tow it to your campsite with the truck. It was nice along the Hudson river when we had a campsite right near the dock. We were able to leave it inflated for a week and just tie it up to the dock at night. It does take up most of the room in the bed of the truck though. When we had the trailblazer we could store the boat in the back, but had to put the motor on a carrier on the rear. Now we can carry the boat and motor in the truck bed (locked) and still have room for a couple of other things (bicycles) on the back. We don't get to use it a lot, because you really need to be at a campsite near the water to make it worth setting up, but whenever we were in a good place it worked great. That's all I know. Steve

PS: The name of that boat was a sea eagle "paddle ski"

Edited April 25, 2013 by Steved44

[steved44]

Hey, Dave, If the water gets too deep, I'll paddle over and get you

Those Sea Eagles seem to be the hot thing. Since we hit the road we have met at least 4 people that have them plus you Steve. I don't swim so I don't think one will be in our future LOL!!

We moved from Elephant Butte NM to Alamogordo today Staying in the Oliver Lee State Park. Nice here today.

[steved44]

Hmmm, looks like I'm in the weed eater business all of a sudden. One of the neighbors here gave me a weedeater yesterday. It was an electric one and she said she didn't need it anymore. I think she was trying to tell me something (like my weeds are too tall). We are going to be here for three months or so, so I took it and decided it would look a little better around here if I cut down a few weeds. I set it on the ground beside the bus, and when I came outside after the Thunder game (GO OKC!), there were two weedeaters sitting there. Seems the electric one found a gasoline powered friend. I didn't know where it came from until this morning when my other neighbor came over and said "if you can make it run, you can have it. He saw me working on my outboard motor the other day and figured I might be able to get it going. Well, it was easy to fix, so now I have two of them. If this keeps up I may start a lawn care business. NO wait a minute, that's work, and I'm allergic to that. Maybe just a lawn equipment business. Ok, all this talk about work is making me tired. Got to go take a Steve ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Edited April 25, 2013 by Steved44

[hdrider]

LOL!!! Even though I can't swim a stroke I tried one of the torpedo thingies you pull behind a boat. All was good until it came to a stop and I fell off. The boat pilot said,,, swim over here,,,,,. There was NO WAY I could take my hands off of the life vest. I could just see me slipping out of it and going straight to the bottom. I made hime bring the boat to me. He almost had to hook me and drag me in like a fish.

Not one of my better memories,, and it was one of those,, done that don't need to do it again things.

[td12class]

Glyn & Diane... liked your post, "I walk out the door turn around an I see home. For me that is nice. Same home different yard that doesn't need mowing."

 

Yeah, we kind of think that way and feel blessed every day to be always "at home." Life as fulltimers is great... no packing up and unpacking.

 

Will we be seeing you at Cherry Creek or somewhere as you head to your summer job? We are at the Northglenn, CO Elk's Lodge for a few day, and then down to Cherry Creek on Sunday. Travel safe!

[IYQ]

I went to Cannon AFB this morning. I found the Exchange and Commisary with out any problems but when I started looking for the Post Office it was another story. I drove all the roads in that place and never did find it. I asked several people and they all gave me different directions and street names. I finally spotted a drop box around the side of the exchange. I sure hope its still active.

 

So now I have pretty white shoes. To bad they won't stay that way.

[desertranger]

Got fed up with Palm Springs and moved to Joshua Tree Lake Campground in the high desert. Beautiful place that's mostly empty. Nice rate for the week and a weeks internet. Water and power but you have to use the dump station. Nice little lake to fish in too. Best part is I have a close friend I haven't seen for years 2 miles from here. A lot of you would like him. He's at Prospectors Depot dot Com. Spent the day there and got a couple of very nice pickers of crystalline gold and a couple of small pieces of hematite from him for an art project.

 

I digress This is a big park. Lots of space and right now not more than 10-15 rigs in the whole place. The middle of May the Joshua Tree Music Festival will here. When I got here I I parked away from everyone else with a beautiful view of the Morongo Basin. That was until this afternoon when I returned from my friends place. There was a fiver parked right next to me blocking my view of the basin.He had an entire campground to choose from and he parks right next to me. I would never do that to anyone/ With this much space around I would at least parked a cople of space away from somebody else. At least their rig will block the morning sun whcih can be pretty fierce. Still it's a poor display of manners. The only explanation I have for it is the license plate,. New York. Maybe he misses the crowds. The only satisfaction I shall get form it is knowing that the will prance about likea typical tourists half naked in the desert sun and tomorrow night they shall be lobster red. This will be especially true if it;s a rental and tey;re from Germany.

 

And I am not a grump.

 

 

[dlcarsonak]

Tom and Dianne

 

I am not sure if we will stop at Cherry Creek. Diane would like to stay here as long a possiable (daughters house in Ohio). We are on I-80 and that goes to Wy. We are taking a back road to miss Chicago. We could go to Indy. and catch I-70. You need to talk to the boss and we could be there.

[td12class]

Hey Glyn... though we would love to have you and Diane join us at Cherry Creek for a day or so, we certainly understand time with kids and best routes chosen. If things change and you might come our way, that would be great so just give a call! Otherwise, we will look forward to seeing you both down the road. Have a great summer!

 

Hugs, D & T

 

Tom and Dianne

 

I am not sure if we will stop at Cherry Creek. Diane would like to stay here as long a possiable (daughters house in Ohio). We are on I-80 and that goes to Wy. We are taking a back road to miss Chicago. We could go to Indy. and catch I-70. You need to talk to the boss and we could be there.

Edited April 27, 2013 by tdhomestead

[IYQ]

Hey. DIANNE & TOM. Get an Ice Cream machine and I mighr show up at Cherry Creak. LOL

 

After freezing my posterior, the forcast for today is 94 degrees Man, I don't think this old bod can keep up to those changes.

There was a very spectacular pass of the International Space Station last night. I invited a neighbor over to watch it. It was the first time he had seen it. He was very impressed, so I showed him how to use "Heavens Above" so he can get the predictions him self. The pass last night was at magnitude -3.4 which is very bright and it went straight over the center.

[hdrider]

The first time we saw the ISS was while at City of Rocks State Park. It was really something. I'll have to look into that Heavens Above thing. Is it a phone app?

[td12class]

Lee,if you come to us, I will promise to have ice cream waiting Actually, know you must head on east... maybe sometime this summer! Hang in there with the weather changes. We sure are enjoying the blue sky and warm sunshine after so much cold and snow. Take care of yourself!

 

[Wquote name=IYQ" post="617431" timestamp="1367079989]Hey. DIANNE & TOM. Get an Ice Cream machine and I mighr show up at Cherry Creak. LOL

After freezing my posterior, the forcast for today is 94 degrees Man, I don't think this old bod can keep up to those changes.

There was a very spectacular pass of the International Space Station last night. I invited a neighbor over to watch it. It was the first time he had seen it. He was very impressed, so I showed him how to use "Heavens Above" so he can get the predictions him self. The pass last night was at magnitude -3.4 which is very bright and it went straight over the center.

[IYQ]

The first time we saw the ISS was while at City of Rocks State Park. It was really something. I'll have to look into that Heavens Above thing. Is it a phone app?

No Dave that's a web site www.heavens-above. I can't remember wheather it's .Com or .Org. Google it first. Remember the Dash between heavens & above.

It's .COM. I just looked it up.

 

I went out for Italian tonight. It wasn't the best but ok. I enjoyed it anyway. When I got back home I took a Stevezzzzzzzzzz and didn't wake up until 10:30. Now I'll be up half the night. I want to watch the Iridium Flare tomorrow night so thats OK too. It will have a magnitude of -6.2. Thats bright.

Edited April 28, 2013 by IYQ