Somehow in The Grand Scheme of Things, Tumbleweeds got somehow immortalized as a kind of cool thing. There is NOTHING COOL about tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds are the bane of our return to Second Chance Ranch. When you drive up to this place all you see is a sea of tumbleweeds, some of which are easily as big as a compact car. If you have ever had any kind of a relationship with tumbleweeds you know just how wicked they are.
Meanwhile, we have that famous song that has given tumbleweeds a degree of creed. Our commentary continues below the lyrics cited here:
I'm a roaming cowboy riding all day long,
Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.
Nights underneath the prairie moon,
I ride along and sing this tune.
See them tumbling down
Pledging their love to the ground
Lonely but free I'll be found
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.
Cares of the past are behind
Nowhere to go but I'll find
Just where the trail will wind
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.
I know when night has gone
That a new world's born at dawn.
I'll keep rolling along
Deep in my heart is a song
Here on the range I belong
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.
Well, folks, you might hear this song and think there would be some endearing quality to tumbleweeds. Trust us, there is NO VALUE to tumbleweeds.
Anyway, we post this tirade about tumbleweeds in celebration of the fact that we beat them today. Every single tumbleweed on our property has been killed, burned to death, destroyed, smitten and driven back to....well, it's a place all tumbleweeds eventually go. A red-faced guy with horns can tell you its name.
Beautiful views of Four Peaks from Windy Hill Campground in Roosevelt, Arizona.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
Tuzigoot Stars
NPS Supt. Dorothy FireCloud was the most recent superintendent at the Wyoming Devil's Tower National Monument. That's where she met Pacholka. She told him about her new appointment as supt. of the three Verde Valley monuments and asked if he could make an image of the stars over Tuzigoot. Pacholka obliged. Supt. FireCloud then had the photo made into beautiful cards at her own expense. She then gave a card to each person who attended her installation November 15.
Naturally, we were immediately smitten by this remarkable image so we emailed Pacholka last night. He replied about midnight and gave us permission to use a small digital version of this photo on our blog and Facebook. The photo is copyright 2012 by Wally Pacholka and may not be reused without his consent.
Pacholka has taken the "Picture of the Year" for TIME-LIFE three times. You can see his amazing astro photographer through his website. is photo of the stars over Devil's Tower can be seen on this webpage: http://astropics.com/Top-10-Photos/
THANKS, Dorothy, for the Gift of that great card! THANKS, Wally, for allowing us to use your awesome photo!
Arizona Evening Routine
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Dorothy FireCloud
Susun and I attended Dorothy FireCloud's installation today. It was actually a very special event. We were both touched in special ways. We also are kicking ourselves about all the photo-ops we missed.
GOOD LUCK, Dorothy & Best of Success!
Click here for the NPS News Release on this event.
GOOD LUCK, Dorothy & Best of Success!
Click here for the NPS News Release on this event.
Snowbird weather
Believe it or not, our low temperature right now as we write this is 23 degrees. That's 12 degrees colder than Idaho Falls which is currently 35. (NOTE: Our original draft said the Idaho Falls temps was 335 degrees. Astute DF & LBR Terry M. caught that typo like a hawk dives on a hapless field mouse. Thanks, Terry, for keeping our gaffes in remission.) However, our low temp here doesn't matter because we know it's going to be in the 70's today. Yesterday, the low was 21 degrees and the high was 81. We worked outside from 8 am to 5 pm, spending most of that time in a short sleeve shirt. It was borderline "hot" to both of us. Meanwhile, the temperature in Idaho falls never got out of the 30's. That''s what's called "snowbird weather."
Sure, it's going to get cold here and some days will struggle to get out of the 30's as well. But those days are few and far between in a typical Arizona Snowbird Season. We're actually quite far north. Most snowbirds land in the low country where an overnight temperature of 23 would be headline news. If the daytime high in the low deserts dips into the 50 (or heaven forbid, the 40's) Ma and Pa Snowbird come unglued. Up here in the high desert, we don't care about a 23 degree overnight low because we know the afternoon will be so glorious.
Speaking of this afternoon, we are heading to The Big City today. No, that's not Phoenix--it's a little city named for a riparian tree: Cottonwood. In the grand scheme of cities, Cottonwood is small. In the grand scheme of our lives here, Cottonwood is large and therefore easily qualifies as The Big City. Flagstaff is a much larger city but it's also much farther away.
Today's agenda is to stock up on culinary water, do some laundry, visit Friends, buy groceries, do some misc. shopping, visit the Habitat ReStore and witness an installation. Installation? What's up with that?
Well, our Dear Friend Kathy D. stepped down as Superintendent of Montezuma Well National Monument earlier this year. Her position was filled almost immediately by a Native American, Dorothy FireCloud. Ms. FireCloud has been on the job for many months now. Today she gets officially "installed." We've never heard of an installation of a superintendent before so this is news to us. Anyway, we're going to Cottonwood today to witness the installation which will take place at Tuzigoot National Monument from 1-3 pm We suspect the mechanics of the installation will take place right around 1 pm.
Yesterday was one of those typical grunt days we always face when we return to this place. The weeds own the place and good ol' hand-to-hand combat is the only way to regain control of our property.We'd estimate we cleared perhaps 20 percent of the land. It's truly hard work and as we age, that type of work becomes even harder. That's why were real glad there's a valid excuse to skip work today and go witness an installation. Tomorrow will be back to more of the same grunt work.
Many Cheers, jp
Sure, it's going to get cold here and some days will struggle to get out of the 30's as well. But those days are few and far between in a typical Arizona Snowbird Season. We're actually quite far north. Most snowbirds land in the low country where an overnight temperature of 23 would be headline news. If the daytime high in the low deserts dips into the 50 (or heaven forbid, the 40's) Ma and Pa Snowbird come unglued. Up here in the high desert, we don't care about a 23 degree overnight low because we know the afternoon will be so glorious.
Speaking of this afternoon, we are heading to The Big City today. No, that's not Phoenix--it's a little city named for a riparian tree: Cottonwood. In the grand scheme of cities, Cottonwood is small. In the grand scheme of our lives here, Cottonwood is large and therefore easily qualifies as The Big City. Flagstaff is a much larger city but it's also much farther away.
Today's agenda is to stock up on culinary water, do some laundry, visit Friends, buy groceries, do some misc. shopping, visit the Habitat ReStore and witness an installation. Installation? What's up with that?
Well, our Dear Friend Kathy D. stepped down as Superintendent of Montezuma Well National Monument earlier this year. Her position was filled almost immediately by a Native American, Dorothy FireCloud. Ms. FireCloud has been on the job for many months now. Today she gets officially "installed." We've never heard of an installation of a superintendent before so this is news to us. Anyway, we're going to Cottonwood today to witness the installation which will take place at Tuzigoot National Monument from 1-3 pm We suspect the mechanics of the installation will take place right around 1 pm.
Yesterday was one of those typical grunt days we always face when we return to this place. The weeds own the place and good ol' hand-to-hand combat is the only way to regain control of our property.We'd estimate we cleared perhaps 20 percent of the land. It's truly hard work and as we age, that type of work becomes even harder. That's why were real glad there's a valid excuse to skip work today and go witness an installation. Tomorrow will be back to more of the same grunt work.
Many Cheers, jp
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Back at Second Chance Ranch
Howdy, Pards, we're back at 2CR. We arrived here shortly after 1 pm today and got to work about 1:30. The house was in tip top shape within an hour and within 3.5 hours we had most of the heavy lifting chores done. We had our Arizona Season Premier Camp Fire up and running by 5 pm and Happy Hour commenced at 5:10. The last light was gone at 5:20 pm but we enjoyed a nice after glow on The Rim for awhile before retiring back to our cozy, heated straw house. Life Is Good! More notes & photos tomorrow. Many Cheers & THANK YOU for all your "safe travels" wishes! Your positive energy made a real difference in our trip. J&S
Sunday, November 11, 2012
They weren't kidding
 |
| Light blue means light precip, the darker the green, the heavier and the yellow trending to orange means really heavy snow. and or freezing rain. |
Sometimes Chicken Little seems to be in charge of the NWS night shift and you get the idea there's a bunch of choir boys and girls singing "The Sky is Falling" while holding hands daisy chain style around their computer models.
Well, the NWS wasn't kidding about the snow storm in Salt Lake. They've been getting totally hammered and are still under the hammer as we write this Sunday morning. It's so bad down there we will have to think twice about leaving this morning to head south. The Central Wasatch Mountains may get as much as FOUR FEET of snow out of this event by the time it ends around noon today. That's 48 inches. We're guessing it's enough snow to open up Utah's vaunted ski slopes.
Before Utah adopted its current goofy state motto "Life Elevated," the former motto was "Greatest Snow on Earth." That's a bit of an exaggeration but it surely was the greatest snow on earth next to a major airport and a lot of hotels that happened to sit beside a giant mountain range studded with ski resorts.
Frankly, no one really knows what "Life Elevated" means but we digress this morning.
As nearly as we can tell, we would have received 4-6 inches of snow on our camper last night would we have been foolish enough to travel down to Willard Bay. Besides that, we learned this morning there was already NINE inches of existing snow on the ground at that campground.
Yesterday was actually quite a fun day here and we both feel this is the most leisure experience we've ever had in rigging for a long road trip. The city turned the water off at 3 pm and this morning we will blow out the pipes and dose the traps with RV antifreeze. What with the current genuine Winter Storm Warning along the Wasatch Front there's absolutely no hurry to leave the comfy confines of our cozy bungalow here.
 |
| We're all packed up, hitched and ready to roll. We're just waiting clearance for takeoff on good ol' runway I-15 South. |
Saturday, November 10, 2012
When Leaves Are Gone We're Gone
We are fond of repeating the motto about leaving here when the leaves are gone. The last couple of years we haven't quite been able to walk the talk. This year, however, we've nailed it. Just about 99% of the leaves are off all the neighborhood trees. Meanwhile, the seasonal winds haven't been blowing our neighbor's leaves into our yard. Meanwhile, we've stayed ahead of the leaves for weeks and they are tidily piled in the street. The city has a huge leaf vacumn and they come and suck up all the leaves for free.
Here's a photo of our three trees in their peak of color a few weeks ago followed by a picture of how those trees look now.
Here's a photo of our three trees in their peak of color a few weeks ago followed by a picture of how those trees look now.
Plan B: Yuban @ Yuba
That was easy. The more we studied the situation and thought about the pros and cons of The Lake Effect, the easier it was to decide to stay here today and leave Sunday morning.
We'd like to leave by 9 am Sunday, earlier would be better. Today we will get the water shut off, blow the pipes, load the trucks, hitch up the Samurai and be cleared for take off on Runway I-15 South tomorrow.
We will drive approximately 325 miles to the east side of Yuba Lake State Park, not far off Utah Highway 28 south of Levan. We hope to camp in the park's Painted Rocks Campground.
Looks like we will be drinking our Yuban coffee at Yuba State Park Monday morning.
Each graphic below is captioned.
Even Google is getting in on the weather act. We were checking out the Levan/Yuba Reservoir area and, lo and behold, Google Maps informs us there is a Winter Storm Warning for that area with 1-2 feet of snow.
Here's a closer look at Google's rendition of the Winter Storm Warning area. We'd be crazy to drive into that today, especially since we'd be camping right on the lake's edge up by Ogden.
Here's the general layout of the 325 mile drive from Idaho Falls to Yuba Lake.
We've camped a couple of times on the west side there at Oasis Campground. We're hoping the Painted Rocks campground is still open.
If this map is any indication, it looks like a decent campground for our purposes.
We'd like to leave by 9 am Sunday, earlier would be better. Today we will get the water shut off, blow the pipes, load the trucks, hitch up the Samurai and be cleared for take off on Runway I-15 South tomorrow.
We will drive approximately 325 miles to the east side of Yuba Lake State Park, not far off Utah Highway 28 south of Levan. We hope to camp in the park's Painted Rocks Campground.
Looks like we will be drinking our Yuban coffee at Yuba State Park Monday morning.
Each graphic below is captioned.
It's not even a mile off the state highway we like to drive.
To Go Or No?
That's the question we face early Saturday morning. Naturally, we'd like to stick to Plan A which has us leaving Idaho Falls today.
However....
It appears we'd be driving right smack into what's called "lake effect" snow in the Salt Lake corridor. We've experienced The Lake Effect before and it's neither fun nor pretty. In fact, it's downright harrowing if you happen to be driving through it. The Lake Effect brings everything with it, periodic white out conditions, often heavy snow and widely variable temperatures which can create almost instant black ice.
Meanwhile, the insane Salt Lake drivers don't bother to slow down. If anything, they speed up...and pile up.
From what we can read in the Salt Lake NWS tea leaves from their 5:18 am Forecast Discussion, The Lake Effect would seem to become even more pronounced overnight. If we happened to be camping, we'd be camping right smack on the edge of the lake at Willard Bay. That might mean we'd wake up covered with perhaps several inches of heavy wet snow.
Getting organized to hit the road early when you are sitting in a big pile of snow is one of the least pleasant aspects of traveling to and from Arizona and Idaho. We've been there, done that more than once.
Ironically, everywhere else looks good with no problems. However, since our Plan A calls for us to park right smack dab in the middle of Ground Zero for prognosticated Lake Effect Event, we're probably going to stay here. We will talk about it as the morning unfolds and make a "Go or No Go" decision no later than noon.
THE COLD UPPER TROF IS SQUARELY OVER THE GREAT BASIN EARLY THIS MORNING. A SHORT WAVE FEATURE ALONG THE UT/NV BORDER WILL LIFT THRU WESTERN UT THIS MORNING PROVIDING ENOUGH INSTABILITY TO KEEP SNOW SHOWERS GOING UP AND DOWN THE I-15 CORRIDOR.
THE CORE OF THE COLD POOL ALOFT COMES OVERHEAD TONIGHT AND THIS DEEP INSTABILITY SHOULD KICK OFF THE LAKE AGAIN WITH THE TRAJECTORY OF THE SNOW BANDS LIKELY INTO SALT LAKE
CONFIDENCE IS FAIRLY HIGH THAT AT LEAST SOME LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL DEVELOP ALTHO AS USUAL IT IS DIFFICULT TO PIN DOWN THE DETAILS. HAVE ISSUED A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WATCH TO ADDRESS THIS POTENTIAL.
OROGRAPHICS SHOULD ALSO GENERATE SNOW TONIGHT INTO EARLY SUN SOUTH ALONG I-15
THE TROF MOVES EAST SUNDAY AND SUBSIDENCE QUICKLY SPREADS INTO THE CWA BY MIDDAY THRU THE AFTN SHUTTING DOWN THE SNOW SHOWERS.
However....
It appears we'd be driving right smack into what's called "lake effect" snow in the Salt Lake corridor. We've experienced The Lake Effect before and it's neither fun nor pretty. In fact, it's downright harrowing if you happen to be driving through it. The Lake Effect brings everything with it, periodic white out conditions, often heavy snow and widely variable temperatures which can create almost instant black ice.
Meanwhile, the insane Salt Lake drivers don't bother to slow down. If anything, they speed up...and pile up.
From what we can read in the Salt Lake NWS tea leaves from their 5:18 am Forecast Discussion, The Lake Effect would seem to become even more pronounced overnight. If we happened to be camping, we'd be camping right smack on the edge of the lake at Willard Bay. That might mean we'd wake up covered with perhaps several inches of heavy wet snow.
Getting organized to hit the road early when you are sitting in a big pile of snow is one of the least pleasant aspects of traveling to and from Arizona and Idaho. We've been there, done that more than once.
Ironically, everywhere else looks good with no problems. However, since our Plan A calls for us to park right smack dab in the middle of Ground Zero for prognosticated Lake Effect Event, we're probably going to stay here. We will talk about it as the morning unfolds and make a "Go or No Go" decision no later than noon.
THE COLD UPPER TROF IS SQUARELY OVER THE GREAT BASIN EARLY THIS MORNING. A SHORT WAVE FEATURE ALONG THE UT/NV BORDER WILL LIFT THRU WESTERN UT THIS MORNING PROVIDING ENOUGH INSTABILITY TO KEEP SNOW SHOWERS GOING UP AND DOWN THE I-15 CORRIDOR.
THE CORE OF THE COLD POOL ALOFT COMES OVERHEAD TONIGHT AND THIS DEEP INSTABILITY SHOULD KICK OFF THE LAKE AGAIN WITH THE TRAJECTORY OF THE SNOW BANDS LIKELY INTO SALT LAKE
CONFIDENCE IS FAIRLY HIGH THAT AT LEAST SOME LAKE EFFECT SNOW WILL DEVELOP ALTHO AS USUAL IT IS DIFFICULT TO PIN DOWN THE DETAILS. HAVE ISSUED A LAKE EFFECT SNOW WATCH TO ADDRESS THIS POTENTIAL.
OROGRAPHICS SHOULD ALSO GENERATE SNOW TONIGHT INTO EARLY SUN SOUTH ALONG I-15
THE TROF MOVES EAST SUNDAY AND SUBSIDENCE QUICKLY SPREADS INTO THE CWA BY MIDDAY THRU THE AFTN SHUTTING DOWN THE SNOW SHOWERS.
Friday, November 9, 2012
Departure status
As predicted, it snowed overnight here but has melted off. Meanwhile it continues to snow but isn't sticking. The temperature hovers around freezing making for near-perfect black ice conditions out on the highways.
We have made great progress in the last couple of days and things really started coming together today-Friday. However, with the weather forecast, it's highly unlikely we can leave as planned tomorrow.
Luckily, we received two Big Bonus Breaks--one from the city and another from Cable One. The city let us in on something they don't publicize. We can actually have them come to turn off the water on a weekend--it doesn't have to be during business hours on a weekday. That's HUGE!
Why HUGE? Well, once the water was going to be turned off today, we would have had to stockpile water to pour into the toilet to flush it and we wouldn't have been able to shower and it would have been a big hassle. Now we can continue to live with the comforts of civilization until we depart.
Secondly, a guy named Roy out at Cable One was in a really good mood today and is going to let us bring our modem in after hours and he's adjusted our account and so we aren't going to lose internet in a couple of hours as we expected to. That's HUGE!
Why HUGE? Well, imagine being stuck here one or two extra days with no internet. Talk about deprived! In all seriousness, we DO need to keep an eye on the weather and the road conditions and there's no better way to do that than via the internet.
So, Life is Good and things are proceeding nicely. Interestingly, it also looks like we will ahve oru leaves in complete 100% remission this time around. Plus, since the neighbor's leaves will all be sodden, wet and possibly snow covered, it's unlikely they will dry out enough to blow into our yard until the city sucks them up from the streets. Things are definitely working out.
Well, lots more to do, gotta run. Many Cheers, jp
We have made great progress in the last couple of days and things really started coming together today-Friday. However, with the weather forecast, it's highly unlikely we can leave as planned tomorrow.
Luckily, we received two Big Bonus Breaks--one from the city and another from Cable One. The city let us in on something they don't publicize. We can actually have them come to turn off the water on a weekend--it doesn't have to be during business hours on a weekday. That's HUGE!
Why HUGE? Well, once the water was going to be turned off today, we would have had to stockpile water to pour into the toilet to flush it and we wouldn't have been able to shower and it would have been a big hassle. Now we can continue to live with the comforts of civilization until we depart.
Secondly, a guy named Roy out at Cable One was in a really good mood today and is going to let us bring our modem in after hours and he's adjusted our account and so we aren't going to lose internet in a couple of hours as we expected to. That's HUGE!
Why HUGE? Well, imagine being stuck here one or two extra days with no internet. Talk about deprived! In all seriousness, we DO need to keep an eye on the weather and the road conditions and there's no better way to do that than via the internet.
So, Life is Good and things are proceeding nicely. Interestingly, it also looks like we will ahve oru leaves in complete 100% remission this time around. Plus, since the neighbor's leaves will all be sodden, wet and possibly snow covered, it's unlikely they will dry out enough to blow into our yard until the city sucks them up from the streets. Things are definitely working out.
Well, lots more to do, gotta run. Many Cheers, jp
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Rest Rotation
We finally had this thought tonight that what we do by migrating south and north is the equivalent of "rest rotation" in grazing pastures.
The Latest
Tomorrow afternoon The City turns off our water. We will still have electricity until Monday. We will stockpile water for toilet flushing, etc.
Our Game Plan harks back to the days of childhood football games on the grass lawns of people whose names we will never remember. Anyway, here's what the quarterback told us in the huddle: "Parsons--run a fade and when it clears in the middle run deep and long for the end zone--I will hit you over your right shoulder."
That's what's going on here with out "X's" and O's." When the "X" zone hits the "O" Zone, we come our of our fade fake and run deep to the Arizona Goal Line. The quarterback is gonna hit us the shoulder with a soft high ball as we score.
We're pretty much loaded--not quite locked. Lots to do but things are progressing well and we are happy. There continues to be no hyperventilation. Life is Good. Many Cheers, jp
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Trip Prep Status
Where do we stand? How's it coming along? When are we leaving? These are all good questions. A Status Update is in order.
Last year, we arrived in Arizona on November 4th so the extra time we have this year is really a great bonus. We haven't yet had to hyperventilate about anything. Nor do we feel rushed or harried.
Each day we look at the Big List and just try to cross a few things off. Things are going quite well and we are easily on schedule to leave this coming Saturday as planned....except. Except for what? Weather.
Yep, wouldn't you know it. The weather is almost certain to throw the typical monkey wrench in our plans. It's highly likely that Saturday will be a really crummy travel day with cold, snow, ice, high wind, all the typical Idaho fall squall scene.
We're simply not set up to leave any earlier than Saturday. If Sunday looks good, we will probably make a run for it then, hoping to get through Salt Lake with somewhat reduced traffic flow. We both loathe driving through Salt Lake on a weekday but this time there may be no choice if the weather is bad on both Saturday AND Sunday.
We wrote a post on the Geek Weather blog about the upcoming changes. You can read it here:
http://geekweather.blogspot.com/2012/11/say-bye-bye-indian-summer.html
Arizona isn't going to get any of the precipitation expected this far north. However, the temps are going to be MUCH cooler, if not downright COLD by early next week.
Well, that's our Status Update. Many Cheers, jp
Last year, we arrived in Arizona on November 4th so the extra time we have this year is really a great bonus. We haven't yet had to hyperventilate about anything. Nor do we feel rushed or harried.
Each day we look at the Big List and just try to cross a few things off. Things are going quite well and we are easily on schedule to leave this coming Saturday as planned....except. Except for what? Weather.
Yep, wouldn't you know it. The weather is almost certain to throw the typical monkey wrench in our plans. It's highly likely that Saturday will be a really crummy travel day with cold, snow, ice, high wind, all the typical Idaho fall squall scene.
We're simply not set up to leave any earlier than Saturday. If Sunday looks good, we will probably make a run for it then, hoping to get through Salt Lake with somewhat reduced traffic flow. We both loathe driving through Salt Lake on a weekday but this time there may be no choice if the weather is bad on both Saturday AND Sunday.
We wrote a post on the Geek Weather blog about the upcoming changes. You can read it here:
http://geekweather.blogspot.com/2012/11/say-bye-bye-indian-summer.html
Arizona isn't going to get any of the precipitation expected this far north. However, the temps are going to be MUCH cooler, if not downright COLD by early next week.
Well, that's our Status Update. Many Cheers, jp
Saturday, November 3, 2012
A Happy Story
Friday, November 2, 2012
Vandalism Retrospective
We don't normally talk about negative stuff here at Live Simple. Even though the title to this blog post infers something negative, that's not the way this blog post is going to unfold.
It was three years ago on Halloween that our straw house's windows were vandalized. We learned about it three years ago today when Goatherder went to check on the place and discovered the extensive damage.
Three years ago today we were both in somewhat of a state of shock about the vandalism. As Goatherder was describing the details of the vandalism to us we remember saying "Well, something positive will come out of it." However, at the time, it was quite literally impossible to see how it was going to turn into a positive experience.
As chance would have it, we had already planned a trip to Rimrock only a mere few days later. As we drove south, our thoughts and conversations were dominated by what had happened to our house there. We sold the place on contract back in February 2006 and the buyer defaulted on the contract during the summer of 2009. That's how we got the place back. Now we were both dismayed that we had a vandalized house on our hands with no real idea of what to do about it.
That's how the story began three years ago today. What transpired in the days and weeks ahead actually changed our lives. The whole story of those changes would be far too long to retell here. Essentially, our initial fear and loathing was transformed to gratitude and glee. Yes, we worked for weeks to mitigate the damages and find creative ways to protect the place from future such incidents. Yes, it was long, arduous and taxing work to say the least.
However, as the days turned into weeks which turned into almost two months, we began to see an entirely new future for ourselves that simply wouldn't have evolved unless the place had been vandalized!
We arrived back in Idaho Falls just before New Year's Even 2009 and promptly started this blog. As time and the ensuing chapters of our lives have unfolded, we can now look back to those sad and perplexing moments three years ago and realize the juvenile vandal did us a great favor. It's highly unlikely we would have our current Snowbird lifestyle had that damage not occurred. Chances are very high we would have resold the place in November 2009 to a guy named Adam so indeed wanted to purchase the place. Because of the fact we were forced to spend so much time staying onsite to fix up the place once again, we rediscovered our many awesome and enduring friendships there, as well as our love of "all things Arizona" during the Snowbird Season.
It's always difficult to see how something positive can come out of something negative but that's almost always the way it happens. It's our challenge to have Faith and Believe that the positive outcome will eventually makes it way into our lives.
We're sure looking forward to heading south soon. You can bet we will be talking often during that journey about those events of three years ago.
It was three years ago on Halloween that our straw house's windows were vandalized. We learned about it three years ago today when Goatherder went to check on the place and discovered the extensive damage.
Three years ago today we were both in somewhat of a state of shock about the vandalism. As Goatherder was describing the details of the vandalism to us we remember saying "Well, something positive will come out of it." However, at the time, it was quite literally impossible to see how it was going to turn into a positive experience.
As chance would have it, we had already planned a trip to Rimrock only a mere few days later. As we drove south, our thoughts and conversations were dominated by what had happened to our house there. We sold the place on contract back in February 2006 and the buyer defaulted on the contract during the summer of 2009. That's how we got the place back. Now we were both dismayed that we had a vandalized house on our hands with no real idea of what to do about it.
That's how the story began three years ago today. What transpired in the days and weeks ahead actually changed our lives. The whole story of those changes would be far too long to retell here. Essentially, our initial fear and loathing was transformed to gratitude and glee. Yes, we worked for weeks to mitigate the damages and find creative ways to protect the place from future such incidents. Yes, it was long, arduous and taxing work to say the least.
However, as the days turned into weeks which turned into almost two months, we began to see an entirely new future for ourselves that simply wouldn't have evolved unless the place had been vandalized!
We arrived back in Idaho Falls just before New Year's Even 2009 and promptly started this blog. As time and the ensuing chapters of our lives have unfolded, we can now look back to those sad and perplexing moments three years ago and realize the juvenile vandal did us a great favor. It's highly unlikely we would have our current Snowbird lifestyle had that damage not occurred. Chances are very high we would have resold the place in November 2009 to a guy named Adam so indeed wanted to purchase the place. Because of the fact we were forced to spend so much time staying onsite to fix up the place once again, we rediscovered our many awesome and enduring friendships there, as well as our love of "all things Arizona" during the Snowbird Season.
It's always difficult to see how something positive can come out of something negative but that's almost always the way it happens. It's our challenge to have Faith and Believe that the positive outcome will eventually makes it way into our lives.
We're sure looking forward to heading south soon. You can bet we will be talking often during that journey about those events of three years ago.
Travel costs
Basically, we assume it's going to take 100 gallons of gas to travel the 800 miles between our Snowbird roosts with three vehicles loaded with all our stuff. You can quickly tell at a glance our upcoming trip beginning a week from tomorrow will cost us roughly $365 in gas costs alone.
Now it would be nice if our Western USA gas prices were as low as those you see back east. However, even if we were paying the the cheap Texas prices, we'd only be saving perhaps $50-$60 on the overall trip fuel costs.
We generally mentally round the cost of each migratory trip to $500 total. Typically, the costs add up to less than that but $500 is a good place to start. The costs above gas include camping fees and food, etc.
While $500 might seem like a lot of money, consider what it would cost for two people to fly from Idaho Falls to Phoenix and then take public transportation to Rimrock, with a total of only four checked bags. We might be able to get there for less than $500 by using Allegiant Airlines. However, the fares at any other airline would easily exceed $500 for the both of us as this current calculation from Kayak. Com shows.
Also, we wouldn't have the availability of three vehicles, a poptop camper that doubles as a guest room and all our stuff all winter long.
Meanwhile, by turning off the water, electricity and heat here in Idaho Falls, we save an estimated annual cost of approx. $1200, depending on how cold the winter turns out to me. That estimate could be as high as $1500 during a really cold winter but $1200 is a very solid baseline.
Essentially, our utility cost savings here more than pays for the two road trips to get back and forth, plus our electricity and propane for the Arizona season. We're paying the same amount of money either way but, by being in Arizona, we get to enjoy all the great Snowbird Benefits of the place and see and have fun with all our Family & Friends there.
So, even though our upcoming gas costs always seem like a big hit to the wallet, if you put into perspective, it's really no big deal--the money's going to come out of the wallet sooner or later no whether we are here or there. It's "six to one--half a dozen to the other," as Hoosier Old Timers are wont to say.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Final Farmers Market
It was C-O-L-D Saturday morning for the last Farmers Market of the season. Temps were hovering in the upper 20's and the humidity was around 90%. It has snowed overnight and it was just flat C-O-L-D.
Actually, there were very few hardy shoppers perusing the few vendors who braved the chilly morning. Well, we go to the market no matter what the weather whenever we are in the city. It's always special to greet the marketeers on their first and last days. It's a long six month season.
Actually, there were very few hardy shoppers perusing the few vendors who braved the chilly morning. Well, we go to the market no matter what the weather whenever we are in the city. It's always special to greet the marketeers on their first and last days. It's a long six month season.
Keith wanted to give me some Special Kudos for all the help I've given the
Market over the years and especially during the past few weeks.
Keith was effusive in his praise and it made my blush redder than my jacket!
Yea, verily, the frost was upon the pumpkins.
Keith and his wife, Stephanie, the Market Manager, share a smile with Susun. It was a fun morning.
Sunday, October 28, 2012
The Other John Parsons
Nah, I don't have a secret ego. I just get email from all The Other John Parsons around the world. You'd be amazed how many emails I get intended for guys with my name. There's two in Australia, one in Wales, one in UK and many Americans whose addresses span coast-to-coast.
I get all sort of personal details, bills, tax statements, you name it. In the Old Days, I simply deleted these emails but as the years passed I developed a "conscience" and have decided to do an "intervention" with each and every one of their emails. It's been quite fun and I've interchanged a lot of followup emails with people who KNOW a John Parsons someplace. However, NONE of the John Parsons have seen fit to thank me for helping them avoid tax delinquency or their golf clubs dues or whatever.
The reason I am putting up this blog post tonight is because this a SUCH A CLASSIC PHOTO! One of the John Parsons lives in Australia and is a member of the Upper Crust Society there. He's part of a polo club and you know how totally upper crust polo clubs are wont to be. Anyway, over the years, this guy's polo club email has been pretty straight forward--until tonight. I just got the photo an hour ago and it is definitely recent. The guy at left is the John Parsons "Down Under."
Oops.
You gotta love this photo, even if you suspect it probably caused life-changing injuries to the polo player shown. Heck, they are Aussies, they can deal with it. In the meantime I say, "This Bloke ain't no Bloody Bludger!"
I get all sort of personal details, bills, tax statements, you name it. In the Old Days, I simply deleted these emails but as the years passed I developed a "conscience" and have decided to do an "intervention" with each and every one of their emails. It's been quite fun and I've interchanged a lot of followup emails with people who KNOW a John Parsons someplace. However, NONE of the John Parsons have seen fit to thank me for helping them avoid tax delinquency or their golf clubs dues or whatever.
The reason I am putting up this blog post tonight is because this a SUCH A CLASSIC PHOTO! One of the John Parsons lives in Australia and is a member of the Upper Crust Society there. He's part of a polo club and you know how totally upper crust polo clubs are wont to be. Anyway, over the years, this guy's polo club email has been pretty straight forward--until tonight. I just got the photo an hour ago and it is definitely recent. The guy at left is the John Parsons "Down Under."
Oops.
You gotta love this photo, even if you suspect it probably caused life-changing injuries to the polo player shown. Heck, they are Aussies, they can deal with it. In the meantime I say, "This Bloke ain't no Bloody Bludger!"
Friday, October 26, 2012
Two Week Warning
The Two Week Warning point was reached today. Two weeks from today we will have already have had our water shut off. We will be going through the last 18 hours of our departure routine.
When we arrive at the "two week warning," it is almost analogous to when a pro football game comes down to the "two minute warning." You know the game is almost over when time runs that short. Likewise, we know our Idaho Season is almost over. Time to go into the "hurry up offense" to get all the remaining nit-picky chores and tasks done
We're planning on leaving Saturday so we can drive through Salt Lake on Sunday morning. But it's really two weeks from today when the pedal hits the metal.
Tomorrow is the last Farmers Market of the season--always kind of sad to see it end. Once we return from the last market, it's time to roll up some sleeves and dive into some grind-it-out-style football action here at the homestead. Looking around our place, there's so much to do..
The snow sure hasn't cooperated. It's still here and, in fact, snow is still sifting out of the gray evening sky.
This is when we look at all those leaves piled high in our yard and start to get a little concerned. Will there be time to deal with them? If not, who will? And when?
Before we started our semi-annual migrations, we never gave such things a second thought. Everything got done when it got done and it was no big deal. Now, it's a whole different ballgame and we're down to the Two Week Warning. First and Ten. Play Ball.
When we arrive at the "two week warning," it is almost analogous to when a pro football game comes down to the "two minute warning." You know the game is almost over when time runs that short. Likewise, we know our Idaho Season is almost over. Time to go into the "hurry up offense" to get all the remaining nit-picky chores and tasks done
We're planning on leaving Saturday so we can drive through Salt Lake on Sunday morning. But it's really two weeks from today when the pedal hits the metal.
Tomorrow is the last Farmers Market of the season--always kind of sad to see it end. Once we return from the last market, it's time to roll up some sleeves and dive into some grind-it-out-style football action here at the homestead. Looking around our place, there's so much to do..
The snow sure hasn't cooperated. It's still here and, in fact, snow is still sifting out of the gray evening sky.
This is when we look at all those leaves piled high in our yard and start to get a little concerned. Will there be time to deal with them? If not, who will? And when?
Before we started our semi-annual migrations, we never gave such things a second thought. Everything got done when it got done and it was no big deal. Now, it's a whole different ballgame and we're down to the Two Week Warning. First and Ten. Play Ball.
Voted
As we grow older, each election cycle seems to becomes ever more tedious. We read that the two presidential candidates are spending a combined $2-billion. Well, today we voted so, as far as we're concerned it's over. WHEW! We will be even more glad when all the hoop-la ends. Hopefully, it won't be a tie vote.
The Bonneville County elections Dept. was totally swamped with early voters this afternoon. There were people everywhere--waiting lines, the whole thing. Four clerks processed voters in one room and then voters went into the rotunda where perhaps 6-8 other employees moved through with assembly line precision. The Clerk who processed our paperwork said it had been that busy for three full weeks. She said there a lulls "now and then, but then another busload of people show up."
We've voted early often (not early AND often) and we've never seen such a crush as the polls as we did today. Usually, it's the oldsters who vote early. Today, it was people of all ages and the oldsters were at best half of the participants.
Perhaps voting early this time around is a collective exercise in mentally getting it over with.
Twenty years ago, I was running in my last of four consecutive elections, none of which I won. In the 1992 election I was running for Yavapai County Supervisor. I knew going in there was no chance to win. My only purpose for running was to keep Tommy M. from beating incumbent Carlton Camp. Carlton was the first Yavapai County elected official who cared about The Verde River. He sincerely wanted to help everyone collaborate and work together to resolve their differences by forming some sort of broad-based organization. I knew if Carlton lost, efforts to preserve the Verde River would be seet back into the Dark Ages. No one has ANY doubts whatsoever that Tommy M. would have been totally against ANYTHING pro-active on behalf of the Verde River. We had been singularly instrumental in getting Tommy and his Bubba Boy Buddies out of the Verde River instream sand and gravel mining operations, thereby earning Tommy's everlasting enmity.
The fact that I was running to keep Tommy from winning only rubbed salt in those festering wounds. It was quite the arduous, tiring election process. After three prior losing elections, I really wasn't in any mood to run again in 1992 but felt I had no choice. Whenever you run in an election, you really have to act like you plan to win, even if you know you won't. It's a strange charade. It's not easy. It's just plain old hard work.
Well, I gave it the best effort I could and got somewhere around 5000 votes--can't remember the exact total. Anyway, in the strange calculus of elections, those "in the know" had no doubt I succeeded in my goal and prevented Tommy from pulling off a narrow upset victory over Carlton.
In hindsight, it was the right thing to do and I am proud to say I stood up and did it. However, after that last election 20 years ago ended, I wanted nothing ever again to do with running for elected office. Looking back, it seems so strange to me that I was actually almost a career political in that past life long ago. How odd.
Anyway, my heart goes out to all the candidates who have to travel those rough partisan paths in this day and age. I know from personal experience just how difficult the whole process is on an individual level. When it's over, it leaves you completely and totally mentally exhausted.
Many Cheers! jp
The Bonneville County elections Dept. was totally swamped with early voters this afternoon. There were people everywhere--waiting lines, the whole thing. Four clerks processed voters in one room and then voters went into the rotunda where perhaps 6-8 other employees moved through with assembly line precision. The Clerk who processed our paperwork said it had been that busy for three full weeks. She said there a lulls "now and then, but then another busload of people show up."
We've voted early often (not early AND often) and we've never seen such a crush as the polls as we did today. Usually, it's the oldsters who vote early. Today, it was people of all ages and the oldsters were at best half of the participants.
Perhaps voting early this time around is a collective exercise in mentally getting it over with.
Twenty years ago, I was running in my last of four consecutive elections, none of which I won. In the 1992 election I was running for Yavapai County Supervisor. I knew going in there was no chance to win. My only purpose for running was to keep Tommy M. from beating incumbent Carlton Camp. Carlton was the first Yavapai County elected official who cared about The Verde River. He sincerely wanted to help everyone collaborate and work together to resolve their differences by forming some sort of broad-based organization. I knew if Carlton lost, efforts to preserve the Verde River would be seet back into the Dark Ages. No one has ANY doubts whatsoever that Tommy M. would have been totally against ANYTHING pro-active on behalf of the Verde River. We had been singularly instrumental in getting Tommy and his Bubba Boy Buddies out of the Verde River instream sand and gravel mining operations, thereby earning Tommy's everlasting enmity.
The fact that I was running to keep Tommy from winning only rubbed salt in those festering wounds. It was quite the arduous, tiring election process. After three prior losing elections, I really wasn't in any mood to run again in 1992 but felt I had no choice. Whenever you run in an election, you really have to act like you plan to win, even if you know you won't. It's a strange charade. It's not easy. It's just plain old hard work.
Well, I gave it the best effort I could and got somewhere around 5000 votes--can't remember the exact total. Anyway, in the strange calculus of elections, those "in the know" had no doubt I succeeded in my goal and prevented Tommy from pulling off a narrow upset victory over Carlton.
In hindsight, it was the right thing to do and I am proud to say I stood up and did it. However, after that last election 20 years ago ended, I wanted nothing ever again to do with running for elected office. Looking back, it seems so strange to me that I was actually almost a career political in that past life long ago. How odd.
Anyway, my heart goes out to all the candidates who have to travel those rough partisan paths in this day and age. I know from personal experience just how difficult the whole process is on an individual level. When it's over, it leaves you completely and totally mentally exhausted.
Many Cheers! jp
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Snow Globe
The Good Ol' Boys and Gals at NWS said it was gonna rain last night. Now, lookie here at what we woke up to this morning. That ain't no rain--that's SNOW and lots of it--enough to have to shovel or blow the sidewalks. YIKES! Here's the pix with captions:
And, so...Here It is, Indeed!
The little bungalow.
Shedding snow off its metal roof.
The neighbor's Halloween tombstone this morning...
...and how they looked just yesterday afternoon.
'Tis typical Idaho!
We're figuring 3-4 inches out of this deposit. It will be gone by tomorrow or Saturday.
Imagine our surprise when we opened the front door to pick up the morning paper!
Just yesterday, we were wearing short sleeves when we took this photo.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
She's In Her Habitat
Susun's daughters coined the phrase "She's In Her Element" to describe camping trips, road trips and other experiences Susun enjoys. Well, this blog post title is a new phrase to describe Susun's when she's volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. Yesterday, she helped Karen, the woman in the display at a popular event called "What Women Want." Today, she will again volunteer as Habitat conducts the formal dedication of their latest "build," which is lingo for completion of yet another house for a deserving family to call home.
Fast Forward Fall
Last Camp
Even though it's pretty nippy in the high country, we traveled this week to the Stoddard Creek Campground up near the Continental Divide to overnight at 6,400 feet and ponder possibilities. Naturally, we forgot all sorts of important stuff necessary to a smooth, pleasant trip south in early November.
We did tow the Samurai and took a 50-mile loop trip into an intriguing portion of the Beaverhead Mountains west of the Opal Capitol of American--Spencer, Idaho. It only got down to 34 inside the camper overnight. Our 12 volt forced air furnace took the chill off nicely that morning. There's a few kinks and bugs to work out of the poptop rig but all is well and we will soon have it ready to roll south once again.
All Nines
Ah, the stories those odometers could tell!
Thursday, October 18, 2012
30000 pageviews
We just happened to check into the Blog's control panel this evening and--POOF, it registered its 30,000th pageview! Here's proof:
That's not bad for a totally unlisted blog that blocks search engines, robots and spiders. ALL those 30,000 page views are from our Dear Friends and Family members. THANK YOU for reading! John & Susun.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Ten Years Ago
Everyone knows we occasionally launch off into a retrospective. It comes with the turf here. So, how about the Year 2002? What was happening ten years ago?
Ten years ago today, we were preparing to embark on a huge road trip. We did a huge road trip earlier in the year and that's part of this story, too. We spent most of the summer on the Oregon Coast.
Meanwhile, our straw house was flooded and we were temporarily homeless.
We'll try to keep this relatively short. It all began on New Year's Day 2002 when we "discovered" Secret Shopper volunteering for the Forest Service. Our very first duty was at the Barnhart Trailhead on the Tonto NF south of Payson the first week in January. By the time May rolled around we were headed off on our first epic road trip. We traveled thousands of miles by mid-July and were in Bend, Oregon, preparing to head to The Dakotas when our Supervisor told us the program was out of money to pay our mileage. Undaunted, we returned to our favorite spot of that trip--Gold Beach, Oregon, and set up our tent camp in the Huntley RV Park alongside the Rogue River maybe 8-10 miles inland from the Pacific. It was a great summer and we were on one of those "hiking streaks." The hiking streak ended at 125 consecutive days in Red Bluff, California, on our drive to return home.
Neither of us will ever forget the moment the streak ended. We were in the Red Bluff Library doing some historical research when we checked our voicemail and received an urgent message: "CALL HOME!" It was a neighbor in Rimrock telling us our straw house had flooded. We hurried tore down our tent camp rig and drove through the night. I'm pretty sure we set a record time driving from Red Bluff to Rimrock, arriving early the next morning, September 12th.
Our house was uninhabitable. A thick coating of gooey, sloppy wet mud covered most of the brick floor. The adjacent wash had flooded and water reached nearly two-feet high on the front side of the house. The water pressure forced its way through the front door. The water that entered wasn't deep, it was just almost purely mud. What a mess.
We knew there was no way to truly tackle the mess. We knew our only hope was to leave it alone, open the windows and doors and go someplace else. So, we went up to tent camp at the Kaibab Lake Campground just north of Williams, Arizona. That's where we were when we got the call from our Supervisor asking if we wanted to do another Secret Shopper Road Trip. This one was a genuine epic. We got the call on a Tuesday, October 15th, and we had to be in Southern Indiana by Saturday night, the 19th. Of course, we received this proposition while sitting in camp chairs amid the ponderosas north of Williams.
We knew we wouldn't be able to mess with our house for weeks and we also knew cold weather was destined to come soon so we agreed. Since we were basically all rigged to tent camp out of our pickup truck, we took off right away. We headed east ten years ago today, October 16th, and drove from dawn to late evening dark each day.
We arrived in Southern Indiana late Saturday night and found a state park in which to tent camp. It was raining and nearing midnight. By that time in our tent camping career, we could each set up our tent blindfolded. We didn't want to wake all the sleeping neighbor campers so we set that tent up in the dark in a rainstorm without so much as a word to each other. It was stealth camping at its best!
Then we had to break camp practically as soon as we made camp in order to be at our first secret shopping appointment in a fake wilderness area in Southern Indiana. After that interview was over, we had to drive through the hoots and hollars of hill country to be interviewed at a campground we never camped in. We faked our way past the interviewer by telling him we left a "family heirloom" Swiss Army knife at our campsite the previous night. He fell for it and we got our interview. After that, we could take a breather and regroup.
Thus began a 30+ day, 7,000+ mile road trip that spanned almost a third of the country. We were all over the map and visited 15 states as far east as West Virginia and Virginia, doing Secret Shopper volunteer work in most of them. It rained almost the entire trip. There was no actual budget for us to stay in a motel but we had no choice. Our Supervisor said she might be able to get us reimbursed if we stayed in the cheapest possible motels. Susun became The Negotiator and, believe it or not, we stayed mostly in motels for the better part of a month for far less that $1000. I think our nightly average was something like $27.65. You can imagine the types of flea-bag, dive places we slept in.
Speaking of flea bags, we had to spend a couple of days in the capitol of West Virginia and we went to this funky state museum where they actually had preserved and put on display a FLEA CIRCUS! Apparently, the dead fleas on display were once very famous, well known fleas, so much so that there was a public hue and cry when the fleas died that they be preserved wearing their circus top hat and tails. I am NOT making this up! Susun can vouch for my veracity here.
Long road trips really wear you down and we limped back to Rimrock over a month after we had departed., thoroughly worn out and somewhat numb from being cooped up in a pickup truck and cheap motels for the more than a month.
Luckily, by that time, the mud had dried out to dust in our straw house. Since we laid our brick floor directly on the earth itself (not concrete) the water had drained out of the mud back into the earth and had not molded or mildewed. By keeping the windows and doors open, the air flow had prevented a biological disaster that would have destroyed our home. All we then had to do was spend the remainder of the Year 2002 cleaning the dried mud and dust out of the house. If you look closely at our floor, you can still see traces of that mud caked into some of the bricks.
Well, there you have it, Ten Years Ago.
Ten years ago today, we were preparing to embark on a huge road trip. We did a huge road trip earlier in the year and that's part of this story, too. We spent most of the summer on the Oregon Coast.
Meanwhile, our straw house was flooded and we were temporarily homeless.
We'll try to keep this relatively short. It all began on New Year's Day 2002 when we "discovered" Secret Shopper volunteering for the Forest Service. Our very first duty was at the Barnhart Trailhead on the Tonto NF south of Payson the first week in January. By the time May rolled around we were headed off on our first epic road trip. We traveled thousands of miles by mid-July and were in Bend, Oregon, preparing to head to The Dakotas when our Supervisor told us the program was out of money to pay our mileage. Undaunted, we returned to our favorite spot of that trip--Gold Beach, Oregon, and set up our tent camp in the Huntley RV Park alongside the Rogue River maybe 8-10 miles inland from the Pacific. It was a great summer and we were on one of those "hiking streaks." The hiking streak ended at 125 consecutive days in Red Bluff, California, on our drive to return home.
Neither of us will ever forget the moment the streak ended. We were in the Red Bluff Library doing some historical research when we checked our voicemail and received an urgent message: "CALL HOME!" It was a neighbor in Rimrock telling us our straw house had flooded. We hurried tore down our tent camp rig and drove through the night. I'm pretty sure we set a record time driving from Red Bluff to Rimrock, arriving early the next morning, September 12th.
Our house was uninhabitable. A thick coating of gooey, sloppy wet mud covered most of the brick floor. The adjacent wash had flooded and water reached nearly two-feet high on the front side of the house. The water pressure forced its way through the front door. The water that entered wasn't deep, it was just almost purely mud. What a mess.
We knew there was no way to truly tackle the mess. We knew our only hope was to leave it alone, open the windows and doors and go someplace else. So, we went up to tent camp at the Kaibab Lake Campground just north of Williams, Arizona. That's where we were when we got the call from our Supervisor asking if we wanted to do another Secret Shopper Road Trip. This one was a genuine epic. We got the call on a Tuesday, October 15th, and we had to be in Southern Indiana by Saturday night, the 19th. Of course, we received this proposition while sitting in camp chairs amid the ponderosas north of Williams.
We knew we wouldn't be able to mess with our house for weeks and we also knew cold weather was destined to come soon so we agreed. Since we were basically all rigged to tent camp out of our pickup truck, we took off right away. We headed east ten years ago today, October 16th, and drove from dawn to late evening dark each day.
We arrived in Southern Indiana late Saturday night and found a state park in which to tent camp. It was raining and nearing midnight. By that time in our tent camping career, we could each set up our tent blindfolded. We didn't want to wake all the sleeping neighbor campers so we set that tent up in the dark in a rainstorm without so much as a word to each other. It was stealth camping at its best!
Then we had to break camp practically as soon as we made camp in order to be at our first secret shopping appointment in a fake wilderness area in Southern Indiana. After that interview was over, we had to drive through the hoots and hollars of hill country to be interviewed at a campground we never camped in. We faked our way past the interviewer by telling him we left a "family heirloom" Swiss Army knife at our campsite the previous night. He fell for it and we got our interview. After that, we could take a breather and regroup.
Thus began a 30+ day, 7,000+ mile road trip that spanned almost a third of the country. We were all over the map and visited 15 states as far east as West Virginia and Virginia, doing Secret Shopper volunteer work in most of them. It rained almost the entire trip. There was no actual budget for us to stay in a motel but we had no choice. Our Supervisor said she might be able to get us reimbursed if we stayed in the cheapest possible motels. Susun became The Negotiator and, believe it or not, we stayed mostly in motels for the better part of a month for far less that $1000. I think our nightly average was something like $27.65. You can imagine the types of flea-bag, dive places we slept in.
Speaking of flea bags, we had to spend a couple of days in the capitol of West Virginia and we went to this funky state museum where they actually had preserved and put on display a FLEA CIRCUS! Apparently, the dead fleas on display were once very famous, well known fleas, so much so that there was a public hue and cry when the fleas died that they be preserved wearing their circus top hat and tails. I am NOT making this up! Susun can vouch for my veracity here.
Long road trips really wear you down and we limped back to Rimrock over a month after we had departed., thoroughly worn out and somewhat numb from being cooped up in a pickup truck and cheap motels for the more than a month.
Luckily, by that time, the mud had dried out to dust in our straw house. Since we laid our brick floor directly on the earth itself (not concrete) the water had drained out of the mud back into the earth and had not molded or mildewed. By keeping the windows and doors open, the air flow had prevented a biological disaster that would have destroyed our home. All we then had to do was spend the remainder of the Year 2002 cleaning the dried mud and dust out of the house. If you look closely at our floor, you can still see traces of that mud caked into some of the bricks.
Well, there you have it, Ten Years Ago.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Gal Pals
Then,. Susun spent the afternoon readying all sorts of fun dinner food. Her other Gals Pals began arriving about 6 pm. After enjoying sushi and all the trimmings, the foursome headed off to the Symphony shortly after 7 pm and the proverbial "good time was had by all." They were all dressed to the "nines," of course, as gals are wont to be when they trot off together to a symphony.
This evening over dinner we learned the "rest of the story." Women have being women since time began. (Ditto men, of course.) Anyway, one of the time-honored things that women do is try to find mates for their single gal pals. It goes with the female turf thing.
Turns out Susun has been attempting to engineer a connection between our Macho Mailman and one of her Gal Pals. Oh, you should have heard all the details. Turns out the mailman is a whiskey drinking goose hunter so it's going to be "very interesting" to see how all this "special delivery" shakes out in the days ahead.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Mid-October
Here we are once again bumping up to mid-October. "Time keeps on slippin'"....as the days dwindle down to departure. The current Plan A is to leave on November 10th. That's a Saturday. Yep, you guessed it--we'd drive down to Exit #357 on I-15 and spend the night at Willard Bay State Park just north of Ogden. Then we'd beat feet through the Salt Lake gauntlet on Sunday morning when The Faithful are in church.
Plan B would be to leave during the week and visit with BTB and Friends. Either way, we'd be heading out of the Salt Lake area on Sunday morning, Veterans Day. That would put us in far southern Utah by Sunday night. Last year, we made it from Bryan's house to Lake Powell in a single day. From there it's a leisure cruise into the Verde Valley on Monday. We're not sure if that's the route we're going to take this year.
We might hold up farther north Sunday night and then drop down over the North Kaibab to Susan Kliewer's Place at Vermilion Cliffs. It might be fun to make that a "going and coming" tradition. We know for certain sure that if Susan is hosting a late-April party at her Place, that's where we are going to be. Our trip north this year was easily The Best such migration we've yet enjoyed. A few days at Susan's; a few days at Bryce; a nice Saturday night camp at Utah Lake near Provo and then a pleasant Sunday morning drive through Salt Lake to arrive home in late afternoon.
Naturally, there's lots to do before we can drive out of here in early November. One thing we've learned is that there will ALWAYS be lots to do twice a year as we prepare for our semi-annual migration. There's no way around that fact. We just can't magically put on our fairy slippers and flit south or north. However, after a few years, things are becoming somewhat routine and we're confident we can handle the typical crush of last minute details.
We've had many hard freezes here since early October and Susun put her vegetable garden to bed yesterday. Today will be the last mowing of the yard and then the annual application of fall fertilizer. No, the leaves have not yet started to fall to the ground. However, the colors are now becoming brighter and more vivid with each passing day. Chances are we will have the leaves under control by ourselves this year and not have to pay someone to deal with them.
We're taking the poptop out for a shakedown cruise next week to the Stoddard Creek Campground up near the Continental Divide about 70 miles north of here. We will spend at least two nights making sure the truck is rigged properly for its upcoming road trip and the Arizona Season Guest House duty.
That's really about all there is to report about our impending road trip. Things are going well. Many Cheers, jp
Plan B would be to leave during the week and visit with BTB and Friends. Either way, we'd be heading out of the Salt Lake area on Sunday morning, Veterans Day. That would put us in far southern Utah by Sunday night. Last year, we made it from Bryan's house to Lake Powell in a single day. From there it's a leisure cruise into the Verde Valley on Monday. We're not sure if that's the route we're going to take this year.
We might hold up farther north Sunday night and then drop down over the North Kaibab to Susan Kliewer's Place at Vermilion Cliffs. It might be fun to make that a "going and coming" tradition. We know for certain sure that if Susan is hosting a late-April party at her Place, that's where we are going to be. Our trip north this year was easily The Best such migration we've yet enjoyed. A few days at Susan's; a few days at Bryce; a nice Saturday night camp at Utah Lake near Provo and then a pleasant Sunday morning drive through Salt Lake to arrive home in late afternoon.
Naturally, there's lots to do before we can drive out of here in early November. One thing we've learned is that there will ALWAYS be lots to do twice a year as we prepare for our semi-annual migration. There's no way around that fact. We just can't magically put on our fairy slippers and flit south or north. However, after a few years, things are becoming somewhat routine and we're confident we can handle the typical crush of last minute details.
We've had many hard freezes here since early October and Susun put her vegetable garden to bed yesterday. Today will be the last mowing of the yard and then the annual application of fall fertilizer. No, the leaves have not yet started to fall to the ground. However, the colors are now becoming brighter and more vivid with each passing day. Chances are we will have the leaves under control by ourselves this year and not have to pay someone to deal with them.
We're taking the poptop out for a shakedown cruise next week to the Stoddard Creek Campground up near the Continental Divide about 70 miles north of here. We will spend at least two nights making sure the truck is rigged properly for its upcoming road trip and the Arizona Season Guest House duty.
That's really about all there is to report about our impending road trip. Things are going well. Many Cheers, jp
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Columbus Day in The City
Traditions are traditions because people continue to practice them over and over again. That's what makes an activity a tradition. And so it was this past weekend that Susun and John and Spudboater continued practicing their annual tradition of camping at City of Rocks on Columbus Day weekend. The trio feels "practice makes perfect" when it comes to this tradition and a perfect weekend it was.
Even though the overnight temperatures dipped into the low 20-degree range, the Blue Bird Days were picture perfect as golden aspens frames the photogenic pluton's iconic outcrops.
After each trip, we always say we are going to post up a lot of photos and then we hardly ever do so. This trip is a refreshing change from past slacker behavior. Below you this post you will find four others. We think there's probably a couple dozen photos included. Captions are below each one. Thanks, Spudboater--It was a Great Trip!
Even though the overnight temperatures dipped into the low 20-degree range, the Blue Bird Days were picture perfect as golden aspens frames the photogenic pluton's iconic outcrops.
After each trip, we always say we are going to post up a lot of photos and then we hardly ever do so. This trip is a refreshing change from past slacker behavior. Below you this post you will find four others. We think there's probably a couple dozen photos included. Captions are below each one. Thanks, Spudboater--It was a Great Trip!
There's such a thing as a "tradition within a tradition." We've decided opening each year's trip report with a photo of our shadows on the granite will be a most fine and fitting thing to do. We almost look Anasazi-like in this year's picture.
Once again, Spudboater met us right on time at The City's Visitor Center.
Here, Susun and SB pose as hard-working pioneer women on The California Trail.
Ah, The City!
Fall is easily the best time to visit The City.
Spudboater shows off the progress of her rehab
for the broken ankle she suffered in Lave Falls.
Home Sweet Home in Site #56.
Where the Tent Troll Toils.
Hiking in The City
A visit to The City was kind of a "coming out party" after a summer of rehab for Spudboater's ankle that was broken in Lava Falls on a Grand Canyon river trip this summer. What could be a better "rehab graduation exercise" than a hike in The City?
Golden aspens along the winding trails.
Grand vistas in every direction.
Plenty of pluton to ponder.
Needles to thread...
...and narrow places to pass
Friends to share the grandeur...
of The City's many glorious views.
No matter where you look...
...there are many a scene to stir the soul.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)