Classes of 2008 and 2009

[steved44]

Jim & Sandie, glad to see you guys back posting again. Jim, I do have a "can opener" I'd lend you so you can get in and out of your bus!! I don't know if I could climb back into mine if that happened to me. I'd have to sleep under a tree or something. Have a nice dinner with J & T. Steve

[John & Diane]

Diane....We (Paul and Marsha class of '09) are in site #90 across from Activity Center. We haven't met but would enjoy saying hello. If you're up this way....give a yell.

 

Paul (and Marsha)

 

 

Hi Paul & Marsha!

 

We're in Site #45. We'll look for you when we get out & about today

 

Diane

[John & Diane]

Ooops...Double Posted

 

Diane

Edited April 19, 2011 by John & Diane

[palamine]

It is so good to catch up with everybody again. I feel like I've been out of touch for a lifetime even though it's only been a week. The Walk was really great and I'm sure glad we helped out. We're back in Las Vegas and going to have dinner with Jeri and Terry tonight. Now onto blog reading for the next couple of hours.

 

 

HI FRIENDS

 

We are going to be out of touch for a while. We are in Merritt at the lake with Doug's brother and sister-in-law (mine too I guess). We have no cell phone service or internet service. We have two local channels of tv and some radio. We will have to listen to our beloved Canucks on the radio. Canucks can sweep Chicago tonight (sorry Eric). I will be listening on the radio, wearing my new jersey.

 

Talk to y'all in a couple of days.

[steved44]

About a year ago I got a PM from Jay, (an escapee) who was traveling through Oklahoma and said he wanted to meet us. Well we tried to connect, but it didn't work out. Fast foreward one year. Here we are at the casino, and I got a PM from the same person. He was south of Shawnee coming to OKC, and wanted to know where we were. I managed to get in touch with him before he got to the casino and had him stop and see us. Jay was driving a earth-roamer expedition vehicle, and it was really neat setup. It was based on a Ford F-550 chassis, and was equipped with 4 wheel drive and winches on the front and rear. It had a large solar array, and the rest of the unit was powered by diesel, ie: stove, furnace and water heater. You could camp anywhere you wanted to with that rig. It even had a king sized bed! We had a nice visit and lunch at the casino. If you see a gray Ford earthroamer, in your travels, say hey to Jay!! He'll be the one camping out waaaay up on the mountain

 

Buy the way, we have a new house closing date, so now we can hold our breath again until Monday April 25th. this is sooo much fun!

Edited April 19, 2011 by Steved44

[sandsys]

Buy the way, we have a new house closing date, so now we can hold our breath again until Monday April 25th. this is sooo much fun!

Close. Close. Close. Close.

 

Chanting on your behalf.

 

Linda

[weaverworks]

"Buy the way, we have a new house closing date, so now we can hold our breath again until Monday April 25th. this is sooo much fun!"

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh how familiar that sounds to Marsha and I! It will get done, eventually.

 

Hang in there.

 

Paul (and Marsha)

[Sandie & Jim]

 

Buy the way, we have a new house closing date, so now we can hold our breath again until Monday April 25th. this is sooo much fun!

 

Not sure I can hold my breath that long but I'm going to give it a try. Hang in there guys, it's almost over with.

[John & Diane]

We had a nice visit with Paul & Marsha this morning...it's always great to meet our fellow Escapees, especially classmates.

 

We leave Livingston tomorrow on our way to Wisconsin.

 

Diane

[sailbad]

Close. Close. Close. Close.

 

Chanting on your behalf.

 

Linda

 

UMMM. UMMM. UMMM. UMMM.

[Wanderin]

I received a voicemail from IYQ today evidently when we were out of cell range. That's exactly where he is now too. He has no cell or no internet and wanted me to let you all know so that no one would worry about him. He's going to be putting that vanishing cream on for about two weeks while he's someplace in New Mexico. I guess that means he probably won't appear again until about the 3rd of May or so. He said everything is good and he'll be back on line in a couple weeks.

 

We had a great dinner last night with the Dixons and the Hyders. I think that's what we do best .... eat and socialize. Then, this morning we turned our Jeep into a limo and took the Hyders to the airport in Las Vegas AT 6:00 AM!! They were heading to Texas for a week. Next, we hit the road and 450 (or was it 500) miles later we arrived at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno. It used to be the Reno Hilton with a KOA park on property. Oh my lands .... we didn't know how much it was a night just that it was here and available. We were too tired to look for anything else so in the morning when the little collector of funds is back on duty, we'll dig out $50 for the night. Ugh!

 

What a day! It certainly has different terrain around here than what we've been used to over the last many months. Heck ... there's even mountains all around with snow on them!!

 

Steve -- my fingers and toes are crossed for April 25th and that everything goes as planned without anymore surprises!!

Edited April 20, 2011 by Wanderin'

[Sandie & Jim]

$50 A NIGHT!!!! Holy cow. Hopefully you can find something cheaper tomorrow. Glad you made it safe and sound though.

[sailbad]

Thanks for the heads up on IYQ. I thought maybe he was upset. I thought $45 a night was reasonable.

[Wanderin]

$50 A NIGHT!!!! Holy cow. Hopefully you can find something cheaper tomorrow. Glad you made it safe and sound though.

I read the RV Park Reviews and the last one indicated the price was $27. However, (there's always However), the price went up the first of April. We planned on stopping in Hawthorne at the Elks. That's as far as I checked. I know I've said I'd pay that if we ever found the perfect spot. Believe me ... this isn't a perfect spot.

 

Sailbad - Actually it is $45 a night but I guessed that the tax would be $5 making it $50. Ugh!

[Striper]

Oh my lands .... we didn't know how much it was a night just that it was here and available. We were too tired to look for anything else so in the morning when the little collector of funds is back on duty, we'll dig out $50 for the night. Ugh!

 

Steve -- my fingers and toes are crossed for April 25th and that everything goes as planned without anymore surprises!!

 

 

Well then your gonna be down right tickled PINK when you get to Columbia Riverfront RV Park and they only charge you $ 43.00 per night.

 

Joe

[Wanderin]

Well then your gonna be down right tickled PINK when you get to Columbia Riverfront RV Park and they only charge you $ 43.00 per night.

 

Joe

We won't go there since we know better parks with better locations anyway!! Are you going to be heading to coast anytime soon?

[rmcf308]

We enjoyed eating out with Jim, Sandie, Jeri and Terry. We had to go to Terrible's Casino in Vegas for the brisket again. Of course Jim only ate the shrimp.

Thanks Jeri and Terry for getting up at 5:30 am and taking us to the airport. We are now in Beaumont, Tx visiting our grandsons for a week and then back to

Vegas to continue into Utah or somewhere.

After the closing we hope to see Carol and Steve on the road again.

Jerry

[IYQ]

I got this thing to work a little bit on my amplifier. So I'll send what I wrote in MS WORD a couple of days ago. This campground is really sheltered by the cliffs. We get very little wind and I went into town the other day to get some lunch meat and it was blowing like gang busters in there.

 

Well I got off to a good start this morning and was on the road by 7:30 AM. As I past Dave’s place I honked the horn and waved but he must have been sleeping. (Or Millie didn’t like the taste of his ear) There was no wind all the way to Villanueva St Park, NM. In fact there was no nothing. Boy is that lonesome territory out there on US 60. I was able to get gas in Mountainair not too far past Dave’s place. It was so lonesome out there that I saw a shoe laying beside the road. I got out and smelled it to see if it had been recently occupied. Fresh as a daisy. I saw an Antelope (pronghorn) lying beside the road. I’ll swear it raised its right hoof and waved at me. Or maybe it was trying to hitchhike and I just didn’t see any thumb. My GPS was trying to take me down every cow pasture lane it came to and some that it didn’t come to. In no way did it want me to go down Highway US 60 or NM 3 . I tried to talk me into going up to Santa Fe until I got within 20 miles of the park and there were no other roads turning off. The park is a pretty park. It’s on the Pecos River and has tall sandstone cliffs on both side of it. That should keep the wind at bay. I can see branches blowing up on top of the cliffs but it’s calm down here. The area is covered with Juniper trees about 15 to 20 ft tall. I don’t think they will shade my solar panels but the high cliff might make the day a little shorter on both ends. And you guessed it. I’ve been nipping on the vanishing cream again. There is absolutely NO PHONE SIGNAL. So I won’t be doing much posting for the next couple weeks. The ranger said there’s a Grocery store in Town but no gas station. So I’ll be conserving my gasoline while here and attempt that trick of putting 10 cu ft of food in my 6 cu ft frig again. The Stay limit here is two weeks instead of the 3 weeks in most NM State Parks. That should let me get by with one trip to town for food and wait till the day I leave to dump and refill the Fresh water tank.

I typed this the first day I got here but I typed it in my word processor. So Lord knows when I’ll get a chance to paste it into the Forum post thingy. I ask the Ranger how I was supposed to contact the outside world with no phones in here. He said do you have a blanket and a match to light a fire. I don’t think smoke signals will work. There is a fire ban on.

While setting up I broke the telescoping rod with the magnet on one end and a yellow ball on the other end. I use it to keep from busting my shins on the tow bar that I store in the hitch on my trailer. I was filing the end of the tubing to see if I could get it back in the tube it had been attached to and slipped and cut another finger on the sharp metal I went through the TP and bandaid process again and this time I checked at least 5 times before I was satisfied that I had bandaged the right finger. A few minutes later I was typing and I spotted a drop of blood on the tip of my finger. I was about to run outside and stick my head in the sand but I saw that it was just oozing out the end of the bandage where it wasn’t big enough to cover the whole cut. Wheeeeewww. I just knew the boys in the white coats were going to be knocking on the door any time now.

[steved44]

Hey, Lee, I thought I could detect a little of that vanishing cream. We stayed pretty close to where you are a couple of years ago at Story Lake. There is a pretty good mexican resturant in Las Vegas in the old part of town. I can't remember the name, but one of the things they served was "cheeze tacos". The tacos themselves were made out of cheeze and stuffed with the regular stuff. I had never seen that done before. Place had seen better days, but it was clean and the food was good. I need to loan you my motosat so you can stay in contact with the rest of the world. Steve

 

PS: the house closing has been put off another 4 days, so it will be Friday the 29th at 10:00am. I think I'll just park the bus across from the closing place and have them knock on the door when they're ready

[Striper]

We won't go there since we know better parks with better locations anyway!! Are you going to be heading to coast anytime soon?

 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA and nope, I'm involved in something that is considered a 4 letter word around these parts. Maybe in June/July time frame.

 

Joe

[dlcarsonak]

Hi

 

We are in Rock Springs, Wy. waiting to start camp host at Waren Bridge BLM. This is a real change from NM. Cool temp. and snow on edge of the mountains.

 

IYQ we were in Las Vages, NM. on Monday 18 of Apr.

 

Steve, I hope your house sell soon. I know what a drag waiting is.

 

I don't remember who got locked in their MH. The latch broke on our 5er back in Feb. D keeps tools in kitchen drower so we took the latch apart and got out.

 

Don't buy cheep!!!!! I bought a cheep master switch for Dream. It cost $275 for tow. $160 for shop to tell me the switch was bad. 38' tow truck + 30' Dream + 38' 5er = a sight to see.

 

Happy trail and safe travel

[Guest coldsmoke]

AN UPDATE from nanook of the north and his misses. well we finally are above 0 , actually got up in 30s yesterday. woo hoooo. Denali park is plowing snow to get the road open for may 18th opening.

moving out of this rental unit into the MH next week. final plans are we hope to be on road by summer end here, which could be june, july august or september. no hard cut plans just head south. DEB WENT BACK TO WORK IN THE pARK FOR THE SUMMER.. need gas money to get out. gas here is at 4.30 diesel at 4.60, and still on the rise.

 

so what is every one doing for the summer and where do you hang out ?

 

mike and deb and smokey

[Wanderin]

AN UPDATE from nanook of the north and his misses. well we finally are above 0 , actually got up in 30s yesterday. woo hoooo. Denali park is plowing snow to get the road open for may 18th opening.

moving out of this rental unit into the MH next week. final plans are we hope to be on road by summer end here, which could be june, july august or september. no hard cut plans just head south. DEB WENT BACK TO WORK IN THE pARK FOR THE SUMMER.. need gas money to get out. gas here is at 4.30 diesel at 4.60, and still on the rise.

 

so what is every one doing for the summer and where do you hang out ?

 

mike and deb and smokey

So good to hear from you folks again and glad all your surgeries are finally history!! We'd love to see you again and certainly missed you the last couple of years. Hopefully we can reconnect in 2011!!

 

Keep us posted and your map peg current. If you head south, we can always meet at the same place we did on your way north!

Edited April 21, 2011 by Wanderin'

[IYQ]

I don't know if I can get this to post. It took me about half an hour to get the page up. But I'll give it a try and at least I got to read everyone elses post. I'm still down in the hole at Villanueva State Park. I like it down here but do wish there were a few more creature comforts like a good store and a gas station. A Verizon signal would sure help also. Without my Wilson amplifier on I don't get any signal at all. When I turn the Amplifier on I get a connection but it doesn't show any bars on the phone and only one bar on the Data Card. It take about 10 minuted to change pages and half the time it times out and I have to start all over. I took the loop walk yesterday but was warned that the return side of the loop has a lot of loose rock So I went up to the Lookout wandered around on top for a few minutes then came back down the same way I went up. It's a pretty steep trail but I took it real easy. I walk about 50 feet then just stand and look around for a while then walk another 50 feet. The space I'm in is a nice space with a shelter and an extra picnic table outside the shelter with plenty of shade and the roof of my trailer gets sun all day long for my solar panels. There is a drive coming down from the main road and a loop around a couple of trees to drive back out. The only problem is my truck and trailer is longer than the loop is wide so I'll have to back out up the hill. That might be a little tricky. Thank God for 4 wheel drive. I'll tell you all about it in about a week. I notice people are not very open in this park. All the sites are arranged where you are blocked from view of your nearest neighbor. The walking paths are about 75 feet away from the sites. Today I went down and stood in the walking path by the foot bridge that takes you across the river and nailed the first couple to come past just to have some one to talk to. I've be carving then walking then carving then walking. I'm beginning to loose weight. I don't know if it the raw veggie diet or if I've just lost that much blood cutting my fingers. But, since I start to eat all my veggie raw I've gone from 223 pounds to 208 pounds. I can actually get my belt fastened and have about 3 holes left over.

[steved44]

Mike & Deb, sure glad to hear from you guys again. We are still here in Oklahoma selling our house (damn house), but if that happens next week, which we have a new closing date of April 29th, we will be heading north to Wisconsin sometime the end of June. Then we will be heading for Seattle for our nephew's wedding on Aug 20. So it looks like we will be in the north central or northwest part of the country until it starts to get cold, then head south. Love to meet you guys along the way somewhere. Steve