Books and Wine

Yesterday I took the truck by myself and finally made it to the Reader’s Cove here in Deming, NM. It’s been a long, long time since I have driven myself anywhere and it was a nice treat. The Reader’s Cove had been recommended to me back in 2008 when we first passed through this area. Reader’s Cove is a used bookstore that buy and exchange used books.

It’s a cute place with a lot of non-fiction books from esoteric studies to seafaring to serious literature. The converted house has beautiful wood shelving that goes from floor to ceiling and even across doorways.

Rooms of wooden shelved books. All sorted by categories and authors’ name

The north side room is a bright and sunning for reading.

In the afternoon a bunch of us went back to St. Claire Winery to refill my 1/2 gallon jug with my preferred mix wine. Last time we were here Bill and Lesle and I decided we liked the 80/20 mix of dry to sweet ratio of St. Claire’s bulk red wine. So for $6 I got my jug refilled.

Lois K. and Jim C. check things out.

Jim M., Linda M. and Jim C. look up prices.

We went to Si, Senor for dinner last night and it was as good as ever. Linda and I had the Taco Salad and it was full of meat instead of full of lettuce as we have had at some restaurants. Jim C. had chili relleno that were very nicely traditional with an egg batter; Jim M. had the green chile plate with chunks of beef and corn tortillas. We all left full and satisfied.

TV wasn’t that good last night so we watched Mama Mia! that we bought recently. It was wonderful!!!! Although we have seen it before, it’s one of those few movies we bought and replay often….it is such a happy movie it puts you in a good mood instantly. Another movie Jim and I watch over and over is 50 First Dates.

Today we are driving up to Silver City to play tourists…and maybe I can get to visit Yada Yada Yarn, a favorite yarn shop of mine.

Remember, you are loved.

Hall of Flame & Five Guys

Last Friday the Mossmans and us or we (which is correct English?) drove to Mesa area to go to the Mesa Marketplace and Swap Meet.  Glad we went this weekend as it was the last of the season.  It’s much like the marketplace in Yuma but a bit more upscale.  The four buildings featured many of the same exact things from one building to the next.

But we did find a couple of nice rugs for the rig.

This one at the entrance

A 36” round one in living area

We found a Five Guys restaurant close by and Jim M said we had to stop….it’s one of his favorites.  And now we can see why!!! It was great! As much as we like In-N-Outs, this was much better. The two patty burgers were flavorful, but the fries were the bomb!  They were crisp and crunchy and the small order was huge.

Look at the palm trees and green

Next we went to the Hall of Flame, the largest firefighters museum in the United States.  I heard about it when we went to the Firefighters Museum in Oklahoma City and wanted to make sure we saw it next time in Phoenix area. There are over 100 motorized and non-motorized vehicles displayed, along with various equipment.There were a lot of fancy fire trucks that we built just for show and to use in parades. Each station trying to be more ornate than the other…big competitions. Click on “View Full Album” to see all the photos.

View Full Album

A couple of photos I want to highlight.  This one is a piece of the World Trade Center and a tribute to the folks lost that day.

All firefighter museums have badge displays. Firefighters donate badges from their own stations, so we had to find if Alamosa, Colorado was there. They have an alphabetized listing by state and city so you can look them up. Yup, sure enough there it was.

Then I remembered our friend Chuck Geno, who is a retired firefighter from Michigan.  This is for you, Chuck, the Dearborne Heights badge.

Sorry, Bill Schmitz, I tried to remember the name of the station you retired from as a firefighter but it escaped me, and I tried to call you to find out….no answer.

We really enjoyed the museum and Jim C thought it was excellent.  So any firefighters out there listening, we’d highly recommend making the Hall of Flame a “must see” when you are in the area.

Need to button up and hit the road…..next stop the Escapees park in Deming, New Mexico.  See you there………..

Remember, you are loved.

Rockies Spring Training

We were so happy to be able to go to a couple of Colorado Rockies Spring Training baseball games this week.  Now a days the rosters change so much from year to year, so this gave us a chance to see the players in action and get acquainted with them and their capabilities.

Our friends, Jim and Linda, have folks they worked with “in their previous lives”, Sam and Eula Reynolds. Their son, Matt, has been brought up to play with the Rockies during spring training as a left-handed pitcher. Sam got us all tickets to last Saturday’s game.

We had good seats and the game was fun.

While watching the game we had a good view of the air show also going on in Tucson.  The aerial maneuvers of the Air Force Thunderbirds could be seen pretty good right from our seats at the ball park.

Here’s Matt getting ready to come on the field.

 

 

 

And then“doing his thing” on the mound

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately it was so HOT that we finally left at the eighth inning with the Diamondbacks leading 10 to 6.  Sam asked us back to their hotel for happy hour so we waited in the lobby. Boy did Sam and Matt have big smiles when they got there as the Rockies pulled out five more runs in the bottom of the ninth inning and won with a score of 11 to 10!!!! Dang!!! We missed it.

It was fun to talk to Matt and tell him about Coors Field in Denver where the Rockies play, as he has never been there. So we filled him in on the area, the great fans, things about the stadium, etc. He shared about the game, his advancement through the ranks and what it was like trying out for the team. We had a great time with him, his friends and family. Matt was gracious in offering Jim and I tickets to Saturday’s game also…we jumped at the chance.

Matt did good in getting us GREAT seats for the Tuesday game…behind home plate.  Here was our view

 

Jim wanted Matt to know we got the tickets so he went by the Rockies dugout before the game and was able to see Matt and thank him for the tickets.

 

This was a “promo” day and they were selling $1 hot dogs, popcorn and sodas.  Of course, we partook of the offerings :) 

In great contrast to Saturday’s game, on Tuesday it was 73 when we arrived but by the sixth inning it was down to 60 degrees and sinking fast…oh, then we felt rain drops, so we hurried off. Sadly, the Rockies lost to the Padres 6 to 9.  But we had fun sitting in the great seats and enjoying most of the game. 

Last night we made dinner for the Mossman’s as part of our “thank you” for all their work.  We had barbeque ribs and I made potato salad and coleslaw.  Linda made brownies and as I was putting on some whipped cream I remembered how Jim M likes whipped cream so I made him open up and filled his mouth full with the stuff.  Fun stuff!!I use to do that with our daughters when they were little and they always thought it was such fun.

As we were driving home we saw this cute car decorated up like a mouse. See the ears on the roof? Kind of funny don’t you think?

Well, that is our last few days’ activities.  Today Jim is reorganizing the basement.  Later on Jim will be attending a Oaxacan cooking class while I go with Jaimie B to a Zumba Latin rhythms fitness class. I’ll then join Jim for dinner and eat what the class cooked…should be fun.

Remember, you are loved.

We are in and set up!

It took us two hours to move out of the Challenger as we had so  much already boxed and bagged up.  But this is what it looked like while we were getting things organized.  Pretty sad….Notice the pups sleeping on the chair, oblivious to all the commotion.

When we got the rig back to the BLM land we couldn’t release the rig from the hitch.  So we went back to the Pedata RV dealership Saturday morning and they were very good to us and spent a good deal of time trying to figure out what was wrong.  Seems it was a combination of having a new hitch and the correct positioning of the Trail Air. They took everything apart and reassembled it and finally got it to release properly.

Our friends, Linda and Jim Mossman, have been so wonderful during this move.  Linda is a super organizer and I handed her stuff and she found the places to store them.  She was gentle in her suggestions or moving something and she was correct in every instance.  Jim has converted a few vans and is a hobby carpenter.  He spent all day Sunday and most of yesterday using the back of his pickup as a shop bench and built shelves for all over the rig.

Jim M built an extra shelf in the pantry, five shelves in the hat and key panel by the entrance, a shelf in the pot and pan cabinet for the pot lids, a shelf in the kitchen cabinet and lastly, a shelf under the desk area for all the card stock, copier paper, etc.

Here is Linda putting in shelves	This is the finished product.
Look at the before	And now the after project

A shallow cabinet for keys and ball caps has been transformed with shelving into my baking and spice center.  Look at all it will hold!!!!

We are indefinitely in debted to Jim and Linda for all their hard work – we can’t thank them enough for all the time they have spent helping us look at rigs, helping us decide, packing us up, moving us in and then creating all the shelves. We love you, Jim and Linda.

We usually each together every night. Each cook our own meals, but then have been going over to the Mossman’s to eat.  After the last of the modifications we both made pizzas and ate together, but this time in our rig.  This was my first attempt at making pizza and it came out very good.   I used the Pillsbury refrigerated thin crust pizza dough in the peel and roll canister and Trader Joe’s Pizza Sauce adding pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.  We found a 13 inch Teflon pizza pan at the Yuma Marketplace and the dough fits a 15 inch pan, so I rolled up the edges and they puffed up really pretty, don’t you think? I’ll definitely do that again; it’s actually more convenient than going out for pizza.

So it took about two days to get everything put away and we are now at in and at home in our new rig.  We are so happy and I haven’t found anything I don’t like.  We love it!!!

Remember, you are loved.

Just for Carol Crandall

OK, Carol, here is a picture of me with my new nose piercing just for you. See tha little red dot on MY left nostril.....on your right side. I like it better than having my piercing on my right nostril.

Moving Day

Good news!!!  Just read Jaimie Hall Bruzenak’s blog and saw that the Forest Service will NOT change our Golden Age Pass benefits.  See her blog for more information RV Home Yet? 

Jim and I were up at 3 am this morning….too excited to sleep. We finished up the last minute packing.  Our little rig is so cluttered with boxes and garbage bags being used as storage.  Another 8 hours or so and we will be IN our new-to-us rig.  It really won’t take too long to transfer the last minute things over and then come back here to Snyder Hill to put things away at a more leisurely pace.  Figure by Monday I’ll have everything pretty much organized and set up somewhere.

So I might not be posting for a couple of days to concentrate on putting things away. 

Remember you are loved.

Old rig in cluttered state

Yesterday, Linda and I went hunting for king size sheets for the new rig.  And, yes, Lesle, Tuesday Morning had the best prices.  Got 350 count percale, deep pocket sheet set for $40.  I don’t like the higher count satiny-like sheets that are available…I like the feel of good old cotton.

We check out a couple of Ross stores and enjoyed a jaunt through a World Market kinda looking for decorating items and a new off the floor dog dish, but no luck this time around.

I cleaned the refrigerator and defrosted the freezer.  Today we are off to the laundromat to wash the new sheets and then clean the oven.  In our “stick and brick” I had a self-cleaning oven, so I haven’t had to use the Easy-Off for a long, long time.  Reading the directions, they sure have improved this product.  You don’t even have to wear rubber gloves now and the one we bought doesn’t produce any fumes.  Hopefully, leaving it to foam off the gunk for two hours will be enough time….I don’t want to have to put on a second application.

The rig is in a cluttered state with boxes and bags of our stuff stacked everywhere in anticipation for tomorrow’s move.  It should be pretty easy with Linda and Jim helping us….at least that is what I’m holding on to…..we’ll see.

Remember, you are loved.

We have a new-to-us HOME!!!

Yesiree…..we bought a new home.  It’s a 2005 Heartland Landmark Mt. Rushmore model, 36 footer, 3 slides, light maple wood, side kitchen with 2 pantries, Corian counters throughout, really open feeling with lots of storage, desk area with large sliding drawer for the laptop, side-by-side refrigerator/freezer (even has a stupid ice maker which will be taken out in short order), electric rear stabilizers, and a freakin 92 gallon fresh water tank.  It is in very, very good condition; well cared for and loved. 

OK, here are the photos that everybody has been asking for since I made a comment about our purchase on our Facebook page yesterday.

The closet in the bedroom is short, but fine for hanging our clothes.  There are 4 large and very deep drawers below it.  The cubby hole for a washer/dryer is HUGE and perfect for my sewing machine and general storage.  The vacuum will fit in the little closet between the bed and the shower as well as hold our jackets and coats.

We pick it up Friday morning and with our friends, Linda and Jim Mossman, we will park the two rigs side-by-side and maybe put a plank across the two and start transferring our belongings to the new rig.  We started this morning taking down wall items and will get boxes from U-Haul and start packing up the kitchen area first.  Hopefully it will only take us about 5 hours to move everything over and have most things put away….at least in their first location, which I am sure I will be changing around as I work with things and finally decide where things work best for me.

Remember, you are loved!