Once in awhile-now and again-this is us

I had the pleasure of getting a comment from one of tony’s co-workers, maria. thank you maria for taking the time to view the blog and leave a very nice comment. I love it when something will spark a person’s interest.  and what good would it be to do a blog, if no one left comments? so thanks to all of you.

yes, we are living the dream. jerry worked all his life for us to be able to do this. well, of course I helped by budgeting and spending wisely and using coupons whenever I could. oh boy did I use coupons. and shop at thrift stores. (I’ve quit using so many coupons but still shop at thrift stores.)

now we have the luxury of splurging and getting to do the things we’ve always wanted to do.  I plan the trips and jerry gets us there. planning a trip is half the fun you know. I use every resource I can find. micrsoft’s streets and trips being one of the best. too bad they don’t sell the software any more. triple a is another good one.

we finally got the coach unloaded. I twisted my ankle and jerry caught a cold, so it took  a  l  o n  g  time to get it done. so now it’s all ready to pack up and go again.  can’t wait to see what’s next. we do want to see the rest of the California missions, more national parks and monuments, tracy’s brand new house in north Dakota, and while there see the last two capitol buildings. some day i’m going to get all those pictures of us on the steps put together in an album. I guess 50 pictures in one blog would be too much.

most of our travel now will closer to home now. the days of driving across country putting 10,000 miles on the coach in one trip is over. the coach has served us well the last 23 years. I think those long journeys are getting harder for her, as well as us.   we’ll save those for train and cruise travel. yeah, we kind of liked that cruise more than we thought we would.  and the ranch close to home was wonderful.

I wish I hadn’t accidentally deleted all those long trips on the blog so you could have seen those too maria. it was a nice way to look back on them for us too. we’ve done some amazing things. and there’s still more to come,

so stay tuned.

love, jill and jerry

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we stayed up until midnight, that’s when the show would start. we both started looking to the skies to hopefully see a meteor. and about 12:45 we both said “i see it” at the same time. it was brighter and lasted longer than a shooting star. it was magical in a way. it wasn’t a fireball as they said you might see, but it was definetly something we had never seen before. we were happy to go to sleep after that.

the next morning we went into calico to have breakfast. we walked through the town. not much has changed over the years. for us that is.

as it looks now

this is the way it looked at one time. there was no date on the photo.

look at the miner on bottom row, third guy on the left. he has a cat on his lap.

this looked kinda like an elephant.

this formation looked like wood.

there are three things we always visit on any trip.

#1  the bank

#2 the dump station

#3 the gas station. I didn’t take a picture of that, but the gas was a lot cheaper this year.

Martha this is what it looks like driving through a cloud.

we ended the trip to a visit to the capri deli in Covina. home of the best pastrami.

sorry we didn’t call you Sharon, it was a last minute decision.

we’re all settled in now. i’m glad we got the coach unloaded before what looks like rain coming our way. I see on the news carol, you have a major storm headed your way. good luck with that. hope you got a chance to check out the blog.

thanks again to all of you for comments. I had fun hope you did too.

don’t know yet when the next trip is so stay tuned.

love, jill

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after doing the post at starbucks yesterday, jerry looked at the msn news page. he read that the 11th was a good night to see the ‘north taurid meteors’. we decided to go back to calico where it is pitch black at night and try to see them.

but first we went to the route 66 museum and it was closed. darn. the railroad museum was right next door, and it was closed. darn. but they had some trains out we could look at. great. it’s at the amtrack barstow station.

we went over to take a picture of the bridge and found some neat rocks and railroad spikes where we parked. we’re just rockhounds at heart.

we drove back to calico and checked in.  we had the campground to ourselves again.

here’s to you ted for a great visit. thanks for everything. we wanted to call you but we didn’t have any signal. we bought some more cheer beer.

let’s get this party started.

sorry midas. be patient, we’ll be home tonight for sure.

again I might do one last post.

stay tuned.

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like i said it was very windy here yesterday. it was hard to do anything so we checked in around 3 at the texas spring camp. (one time we were here we saw the northern lights.)

this motorhome looks like the first one we ever camped in. it was jerry’s parent’s winnebago. we went to clear lake in the late 70’s. look familiar tracy and tony?

we watched this tent flap and fly in the wind for a long time before the owners came back.

jerry went ove to help them get it back up. it turned out they were people we had met at the vendor’s area earlier in the day. i had bought something from them. they were from quartzite. we tallked for a long time about all the changes that have happened there over the last 20 years. they are very unhappy with what the city has incorporated.

i watched this cloud as it stayed in the same place all evening. it went from this-

-to this.  it looks likes a blue whale to jerry and i.

we ended the night with a game of scrabble. i won, but look at one of my tray of letters i had at one time. try to make something out of that.

we headed out yesterday morning and stopped at one last point of interest. I wish my pictures could do it justice.

we stopped at the campground in calico last night. we didn’t go in the town, we’ve been there so many times.

we are at the starbucks in Barstow now. we might check out the ‘route 66 museum’.  our neighbor, kara, has had a lot to do with the club and has a lot of stories about the road from childhood on.

it was another good trip. we saw a lot in a short time. but it ends this evening.

I might do one more post,

so stay tuned.

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it seems we came to death valley at a bad time. it underwent major storm damage last month. a lot of the roads are closed and you can’t get to some of the things we wanted to see.

we did see the sand dunes. ted said he has walked all the way out there.

we walked to here. I think we’ve taken our picture on the branch before.

I guess this is what a mirage look like. there is no water.

this is the old borax mine.

we didn’t get to see this. i took this picture in the visitor center.

that’s why we didn’t go see it.

a few more facts from the visitor center.

the young men from the civilian conservation corps who helped develop the parks.

it is a very stange and mysterious place. it’s very quiet and calm. except when it’s windy like it was yesterday. we checked in to our campsite and watched as the tent next to us did a dance in the wind.

i’ll put that in the next post.

stay tuned.

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we saw snow on the landscape all the way to mono lake. also strange and beautiful clouds

this one is a cloud we’ve never seen before. it was floating on water.

.and you could drive through it.

we saw patches of color but mostly it was all gone.

people filming a movie with dozens of trucks.

and a military jet that buzzed us three times. actually i think it was part of the movie.

in this picture the little speck in the air is it. it’s hard to catch a jet in a picture.

the valley is filled with unusual rock formations.

we drove into the park and checked in at stovepipe wells campground.

stay tuned for more of death valley,

if your interested that is.

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we woke up to ice on the windshield. ted had it too. i guess you know that means it was cold.

we went in to get ted and enjoyed seeing all teds crystal doing their thing on the walls.

ted had to scrape off his windows as he’s done thousands of times before we could go to breakfast.

look at the speed bumps in ted’s neighborhood chris. there not as high as other ones. it makes you have to slow down but doesn’t give you that bounce. something to shoot for on our block.

last year we had brought ted the Chinese fortune sticks, and we all picked one.  this year we did it again at homage as ate our delicious quiche. this is jerry’s.

mine.

and ted’s.

i liked mine the best.

we sadly left ted and headed south down highway 395.

a few more days left though..

so stay tuned.

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we met at ted’s around 11. first we had to make a stop at a thrift store to get Christmas hats and sweaters. I forgot our stuff at home.  jerry’s sweater was a little small but the only one they had. I got a chico brand blouse that still had the price tag on it. $98, and I paid $3, and I really like it.

ted had all his old photos out and gave me a lot of them. some the cousins might like to see. also, he gave me some of the prints he’s made over the years. it was a lot of fun as we tried another variety of german beer. ted likes to drink his beer from a champagne glass. i might try that. speaking of beer, i know you don’t drink any more frank, but you’ll  have to take a Benadryl and join us for a beer made in bourbon barrels. you too linda.

we went downtown so ted could take our Christmas card photo this year with a reno feel to it. i’ll save that one until Christmas.

we headed for the casino next. it’s grown since we all were in reno and had lunch there. remember cousins?  it was more of a coffee shop then.

we tried betting on a few horses in the sports book. del mar was running it’s last 2 races. ted made all our 2 dollar bets for us.

it was a  lot of fun. we got close but no one won any money.

that’s jerry’s horse in the lead but another one came from behind and won.

then we went to the Friday night seafood buffet.  this is our third trip in two months that we have been tempted with so many choices of food. the salmon was really good, but I liked the cheese enchiladas that I had the other night the best. I had a spinach salad that was delicious too.

jerry pigged out on all the things that came in shells.

we went back to ted’s and jerry and ted had some cognac as we visited. I had a glass of wine we brought from our gift basket at the ranch. we were going to have a fire, but never got around to lighting it.

we had checked out of the campground and spent another night in ted’s driveway. good-bye keystone rv park.

tomorrow the sad part comes.  we have to leave.

stay tuned.

ps. I saw in walmarts ad last week that next Wednesday, veterans day, we should all put one green light on our porches or somewhere in our home visible to the outside, to honor our vets.  you can go to ‘greenlightavet.com’ to find out more. also don’t forget to put your flag out.  thanks, jill

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thanks for all the birthday and anniversary wish’s on the blog and on the phone.  and no celia, I don’t remember which piece I used to play with. now I would pick the ship. I sure don’t remember that bankers tray.  it’s a date to play monopoly ray.   I think grandpa and I are opal and earl Emily.    did you get the job at Disney chris?    do you have snow yet tracy?  i’m glad you liked the pictures of the p.i.e. truck. it was parked in a lowe’s parking lot, still being used.  I told ted everyone says hi.

we were on our own today so we  cleaned up the coach, took showers, and just hung out in the coach.  we ate very little so we can pig out at the buffet tonight.

ted showed us were all the tattoo parlors are.  all along Virginia st.  we all agreed the ‘aces tattoo’ was the best looking one. it got good reviews online too. so that’s where we went.

look at the bottom left of the sign. that’s not true.

I went first. with sean.  he did a really nice star.  on the bottom right.

since he had the ink in his hand, I had him touch up last years star. the one on the top. it had blown out in his words, in my words it was fuzzy.

much better.

jerry went next. his start turned out good too.

I got jerry’s image in the glass door next to him while sean was working.

we’re good for another year now.

we have a lot planned for today.

stay tuned.

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we got to ted’s house around 3 o’clock Tuesday. we had a nice visit over a new shiner beer he found. octoberfest. very good. we always go the buffet on the first night. we are going again on Friday night for the seafood buffet.

we spent that night in his driveway. it was cold outside but we were warn and cozy in our multi blanket layered bed. in the morning we saw that it had snowed a little.

we made our way to our favorite place the homage coffee shop. and here’s another picture of that bus on top of the greyhound bus terminal we always pass. ted said a lot of people don’t like it.

this is another good way to start the day. breakfast with your brother.

we went to a couple of thrift stores, found some good stuff, and then went back to teds to talk over plans with another beer ted had found, jubelale. also very good.

bob it still hanging out at ted’s house.

he’s making progress on his collage. still cutting out intricut images of very colorful fish. no set date for it to be finished. artists are very interesting people. in no hurry.

his beautiful Christmas cactus wasn’t in bloom yet, but it has a bud on every stem. he’s has this plant for years.

we brought ted a rock from pt. magu this time. we’ve bee collecting this rock for years there. it’s all over our yards. it’s very interesting with little fossil type things in it. I put it right near the heart rock we gave him last time. i see now it’s a little off balance ted. please put it where you like it to be.

i’m glad he has something to remind him of me. and see’s it every day.

we got the coach and checked into the campground. ted came and picked us up and we went to his favorite Mexican restaurant. the fish tacos were great.

ted’s doing errands today so we’re going to get our third star tattoo. ted pointed out the best place.

before I close I want to put in a picture for Martha and Sharon. as we left chico I saw this out of the corner of my eye and said to jerry “look at that truck, can you go back so I can take a picture”?. so he did some maneuvering and got us right down where the truck was parked.

I hope you guys enjoyed a peek in to the past of your father’s truck.

stay tuned for a picture of our new tattoo’s.

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