Howdy from Second Chance Ranch

Greetings!  It's great to be back to bloggin' again.  As of lunch time today, we will have been here for two full days.  As usual, the first couple of days are entirely devoted to unpacking and making the straw house tidy and cozy again.  Susun likes to call our arrival here a "re-entry."  She has said numerous times already, "This was our easiest re-entry ever."

The drive south was easily the best ever.  Getting off I-15 at Nephi was a great idea.  We're scratching our heads wondering why we never do so before.  Spending the first night at Bryan's and second at Lone Rock campground near Page made the trip so much more relaxing and fun.  The drive along the Sevier River from I-70 to its headwaters between Panguitch and Kanab is truly beautiful this time of year.  They don't call that area "Color Country" for nothing, ya know.

The drive from Page to Rimrock seemed downright casual.  We arrived at our place at 12:30 pm.  Normally, we arrive much later in the afternoon and then have to rush as fast as we can.  Thursday was different.  it was fun.  We had the house unboarded, the electricity on and water pumped a mere 45 minutes after we drove up.  Within a couple of hours we were mostly settled in.  After a full day unpacking yesterday, it feels like we've been forever.  Only our sheds remain to be organized.

Turns out that our internet connection was really, truly dead.  A phone installed "robbed" our DSL jumper thingie from one of the upstream switch boxes.  Our connection is functioning just fine now, thank you.  We didn't post up yesterday because we were in constant motion messing with our stuff.  We did take time for one quick trip to the Camp Verde Basha's.  Our timing on that trip sure was right as the very first person we saw inside the store was Wes G.  What a fun chance encounter that was.

We enjoyed a great campfire our first night here and didn't expect to have one last night.  The weather forecast was for really high winds--like in the 50 mph range.  The wind did definitely howl most of the day--blowing tumbleweeds hither and yon.  Oddly, however, the wind laid down right at Happy Hour and, poof, quick as a wink, we had a fire up and running.  We were able to enjoy about an hour of campfire ambiance before the thunder, lightning and rain came.  It was pretty spectacular seeing a big thunderstorm here.

During the night, it really rained hard.  We're guessing at least a half inch fell, maybe more. (It was an inch!) It will be days before the weeds dry out enough to tackle with the weedwhacker and torch.

This afternoon, we're gonna go visit Jodi & Dex in Camp Verde. At six pm today we will be over at Bob Rothrock's house in Old Town Cottonwood for his hoop-de-doo 60th birthday party.  Their little place will be packed with people.  Tomorrow, we hope to get together with Pa Goatherder, Katie and son Joshua.  That's when we'll Josh' "new" kayak.  Nah, it ain't really new--it's an OBB, as we are fond of saying.  OBB=Old Beater Boat.  Hopefully, it will serve Josh well.  Monday, Susun heads off to breakfast with Betty while Wes and I mess with painting stripes at the shooting range.  The Winter Social Season has begun!

Everything is going very smoothly so far.  We're pulling in off-the-air TV better than ever before. Our mail is being forwarded properly. The trash people left our collection bin.  Only the delivery of the morning newspaper remains undone.  That one always seems to take awhile--no matter how early and often we call to remind the newspaper people about it.  Oh, well.

That's about all we can say as far as The Daily News goes this morning.  We're glad to be here.  Life is good.

Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp