Visiting the Boogie Monster

This morning was a little unsettling. Savannah and Daddy went out this morning (off leash) while I dressed myself and the bed. They hopped back in to help me make the bed; I was laying in the bed fixing the blankets, Savannah was in the passenger seat and Daddy was in between the bed and the chair and all of a sudden I hear J' say, "Whoa...look!" About 15-20 yards from our back window was a loner coyote. We searched for my camera while keeping an eye on him...where the heck is that thing!? I can never find it when I really want to use it! He hung around the back of the van for a good 7-8 minutes, little by little walking further away. The wheels started turning in J's head like they did mine the other day when I didn't have Savannah on a leash...all of the oh my god's and what if's. Phew, we're not even letting her out of the van without being leashed up first and without either of us at her side. My little pot belly pig is a meal waiting to be had out here!

Actual rain clouds rolled in as well this morning. We haven't seen rain or dark clouds like this in months, it's kind of cool to see something different.

[caption id="attachment_2951" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Moisture![/caption]

We figured if it was going to rain, we might as well run into town and get some things to refresh our stock and we also needed to pick up a multi-meter...always good to have one of those on hand. After picking up a few things at Albertsons and K-mart (no Wal-mart in this town) we did a little discovering on the other side of town. We saw more towers, so we thought we would give them a try...you never know until you try!

We found a spot back on more BLM land but it seemed a little "shady" to us. Oh, we're still camping here but it's pretty close to I-10, the ground is pretty soft (may turn into a big mud pit?) and there are a lot more trees and bushes around here. The one thing I like best about being in the desert is I can see what's ahead of us for miles when I'm walking Savannah. Here I feel like the Boogie Monster and his wild animal friends are going to jump out and attack me at any moment, it's a little creepy and the huge black clouds in the sky are not helping.

[caption id="attachment_2953" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Déjà vu of the Mangroves[/caption]

Almost as soon as we got parked and settled, it started pouring down rain. It was nice to smell the rain again, something we both miss terribly. With the rain came the wind and the cold...the not yet freezing but pretty darn cold! The rain stopped long enough for me to do one last potty walk with Savannah...even creepier at dusk!

[caption id="attachment_2954" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Like a scary movie[/caption]

I think tonight we will all just be cuddling together, not cold enough to get the heater down...yes, Savannah is back in the bed. The whole crate thing lasted like 3 or 4 days total because as soon as we got the grand idea, it started getting "too cold" for her to be down there by herself. I woke up one morning about 2 a.m. and could hear her teeth chattering...she's just a baby! haha Cute lil pig! So far, our internet is pretty good here and we don't know yet if it's our antennae signal or the rain as to why we're having problems getting channels, but there's nothing like snuggling in our fort with the boob tube getting heat from all the dutch-ovens! haha Savannah...that lil' dickens!

Cuddle tight homies!

PEACE

 

 

Ready for some excitement

I haven't been posting due to a lack of events to post about. Our days always seem to consist of the same thing and the last thing I want to do is bore you in reading about us sitting in the van. I'm coming to the conclusion that Winter is going to bring a lot of this...not sure I'm diggin' it too much. I truly enjoy my time outside, even if it's sitting in my chair watching Savannah be a nerd...I enjoy that.

[caption id="attachment_2934" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Such a lady![/caption]

There are so many days when I tell J', "Man if I could go back in time to re-pack my bag..." He just nods for this sentence comes out of my mouth a lot these days whether it's about clothing choices, entertainment, jewelry, accessories or anything that I miss. I would have brought some books instead of absolutely none, I would have brought DVD's, I would have brought my sewing kit (that I had packed and put back due to lack of room) and I would have definitely packed my clothing bag much differently...but you have to life this lifestyle before you know what you want and/or what you need. Maybe, just maybe it's a sense of longing for things that are comfortable to you as well.  Now, with the holidays being so close and us being so far away from everything we know, I find myself yearning for my things, but yet when we were packing them up it was just another thing that I may or may not ever see again. Anyway, with all of this time on my hands I've been trying to get Savannah a little bit more exercise then she's been getting because of the cooler temps.

[caption id="attachment_2935" align="aligncenter" width="300"] No, I will NOT put my shoes on![/caption]

This also gets me out of the van and I can rock hunt. I found the coolest rock the other day to make into a necklace for my niece but am now on a true hunt to find my other niece a rock that's just as cool...so there are no fights! It's definitely a mission. We are in the right place for it though, there are amazing rocks everywhere. I just wish I knew what they all were, I'm sure I'm stepping over some pretty cool stones out here...but I'm picking up a lot of cool stones too! I'm hoping to be able to polish them in Quartzsite or at least clean them up just a bit...but if not it's all good, they're still awesome!

[caption id="attachment_2943" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Green stones...but what are they?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2944" align="aligncenter" width="300"] What if this is Turquoise and I don't even know it?[/caption]

And we are in a really pretty place, it seems like we are the only ones out here. We drove down the street about a mile up from where we usually turn off and there are only about 10 RV's scattered about up there, don't know how it goes every Winter but we thought there would be more peeps out here!?? Don't know but we like the privacy and the room.

[caption id="attachment_2937" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A.M. walk with Nana[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2936" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Clouds rolling in[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2938" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Turning everything Red[/caption]

Oh, we have also seen something we haven't been seeing this whole time...Coyotes! We were laying in bed the other morning and J' said, "Look!" We all looked out the window and there was a group of three larger 'yotes all walking about 20 feet apart then about 10 minutes later two smaller ones followed behind...couldn't find my camera, dangit! Then a couple of days later, I was walking Savannah (without a leash, but keeping a very close eye on her) and J' yells out of the van..."Babe, there's a coyote right there!" I never even saw the "lil" guy, but J' said it was so close he thought it was Savannah, then was wondering why she was all by herself, that's when he got out of the van to look for me. Yes, she does not go anywhere anymore without a leash on. I started going through a million scenarios in my mind of what I would do and the crazy thing is even though I didn't see it, the hackles on her back were a foot high and she had her nose in the air smelling like crazy. They blend in so well, I never saw him, even after J' told me where he was (he was only about 20 yards from us)...he just disappeared behind the hills...creepy! I have yet to get a picture of the lil buggers...I guess they're camera shy!

[caption id="attachment_2939" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Pot Belly Pig![/caption]

 Just bear with me for a couple more weeks with the not so fun posts, I guess there has to be some down time where there's not really much to do. I think we are both excited to go to Quartzsite for many things: 1- It's something different, that we've never seen or done before. 2- We get to see (and hug) some people that we met over the Summer that have become like family to us. 3- The R.T.R. 4- There are going to be RV shows, Gem shows, classes, and tons of stuff I don't even know about. 5- There is going to be so much going on, period. I'm totally stoked! And Savannah's going to get to meet new friends...hopefully she's not too bossy. Wait, who am I talking about here!? I apologize way ahead of time for her bad manners, we try and try to break her but she is her own dog and we are not the boss of her! Brat.

[caption id="attachment_2940" align="aligncenter" width="300"] I'm not that innocent![/caption]

I hope everyone is getting everything together whether it's for the holidays, family coming into town, work or even your kids having a few week break! Oy... and if it's none of that, good for you and we hope to see YOU at the R.T.R. in Quartzsite, Arizona January 8-22,2013.

PEACE

 

 

BLM in Blythe is muy Bueno

Well, Parker only lasted for a whole day! We slept at the Wal-mart last night after watching the fights...Benson Henderson won against Nate Diaz. It was a great fight, so glad we found a place we could watch it at. We woke up semi-early, walked Savannah...boy was it cold out this morning!

[caption id="attachment_2929" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Chilled to the bone[/caption]

We started driving around 9 a.m., we're not in a rush to get anywhere...where are we going? We figured we would just drive over to Blythe, CA and see what our options were over there.

We drove past a ton of farm land, many many stacks of hay with no animals to feed and for the first time in my life...cotton plants!

[caption id="attachment_2918" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Do they sell this?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2919" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Miles and miles of Cotton![/caption]

We drove out of the "country" and hit a frontage road that had a Flying J on it...haven't seen one of these since June! We stopped, filled the tank up just a little bit and went inside to look around. If you've never been to a truck stop, especially a Flying J, they have so much stuff in there to look at and it's all stuff people in this lifestyle use so it's fun to see what they have. Since we hit the road this morning without putting anything in our bellies we did a 'horrible horrible' thing and bought coffee and Cinnabon! I don't think either of us had actually ever bought a Cinnabon in our lives...not something we would normally buy or eat but today felt different. Get ready for the biggest freakin' sugar high!

[caption id="attachment_2920" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Sugar Fest 2012[/caption]

It actually took me half the day to finish it...going back in a few times until the whole thing was gone. My stomach can't handle that much sugar all at once...my goodness! And of course, Savannah helped a little bit!

[caption id="attachment_2921" align="aligncenter" width="300"] She had a pretty firm grasp on it![/caption]

We drove over into California and found towers almost instantly...yep, follow those towers! We headed out to what looked like the desert but found ourselves in a neighborhood type area then into an RV park called The Hidden Beaches. We didn't see any water but maybe that's where they got their name from!? We stopped and asked the Ranger/Host (Steve) if he knew of any BLM and after a very nice conversation I had the name of a couple of places we could camp. We headed back out and with the directions he gave me, within about 10 minutes, we were on BLM land looking for our next spot!

[caption id="attachment_2922" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Wide Open Spaces[/caption]

There is a TON of open space out here and it doesn't seem like anyone is out here...kind of weird for this time of year. Where is everyone? We drove up the trail a few miles, we like being more off the main road than right on it and since we have a good vehicle we can go a little further back. We found a great spot and were level right away...perfect!

[caption id="attachment_2925" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Happy Huntress[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2924" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Panorama[/caption]

 Now that we're parked for the day...this girl needs a shower so I'm off to get 'so fresh and so clean'. Hope you have a fruity fresh day!

PEACE

 

Knock-Down-Drag-Out with Parker but we T.K.O'ed and got the Win!!!

As I write this post (on paper) we are sitting on the side of the road, actually just over the California border, on the opposite side (or outskirts) of Parker, AZ. We left our BLM spot in Lake Havasu this morning, due to a majorly slow 3g wifi connection and not being able to get much done due to how slow it was. It's funny, it seemed like we either had a great spot with great internet and NO tele or a great spot, amazing tele (21 channels) but barely any internet. Even in the heart of town yesterday, we were hanging on a slow 3g connection. Anyway, we decided since we've done everything we wanted and needed to do here, maybe Parker would be the change we wanted right now. So we got up, a.m. rituals...along with the rest of the pumpkin pie! Then we were on the road.

[caption id="attachment_2899" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Good-bye LHC BLM[/caption]

We stopped off at Hobby Lobby first, still on a search for that zipper. My mom offered to fix it for him when it broke, but it's J's only jacket and he loves it, so it's been hard to tear it away from him long enough to send it to her. We've been searching for a zipper now for a few months! When we go to Wal-mart they are either always out of the longer ones or they don't have the good ones at all and we're never near an actual fabric store. About a week ago, we stopped into Micheal's but they don't sell zippers. Hobby Lobby would be one of our last options for a minute...fingers crossed. They actually have a fabric center...with zippers! Hooray!! We got a zipper, matching thread and some needles, $8.00 later we were back on the road. We drove through Lake Havasu City, past the London Bridge and what seemed like a million miles later were passing where we spent the first few days. It felt so far out of town, but still a cool spot, we would definitely camp there again...especially if we ever get satellite! We kept driving and it just kept getting more beautiful the further South we drove. Although the scenery doesn't change drastically, it changes enough to make you stop and stare.

We started crossing over the Bill Williams River where there's a National Wildlife Refuge. We pulled over to take in the view...to us, it felt as if we were in a different country. The view was amazing, the land and water were interesting, it was just really neat.

[caption id="attachment_2900" align="aligncenter" width="300"] National Wildlife Refuge[/caption]

The strange part of it was there was a couple of small modular home-hoods right on the river. They certainly have one heck of a view!

[caption id="attachment_2902" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Paying for the view!?[/caption]

Down the road we detoured to The Parker Dam. Yep, it looked like a Dam.

[caption id="attachment_2903" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Parker Dam[/caption]

We rolled on down to Parker. We were trying to find the BLM land around Parker on our cool BLM map, but since I'm not having such a "hot" day today, it wasn't turning out so well. First, I have a hard enough time reading regular maps as it is. This BLM map has NO street names, NO landmarks, it's just a map of the land.

[caption id="attachment_2905" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Stupid map[/caption]

Let's just say it got a little ugly for a moment, I told you I'm a friggin' hot mess today and it doesn't help when our GPS doesn't know where she is either! We decided, after we both had no idea where to go, to just drive South. After driving, turning down roads that looked like they went somewhere and seeing "towers" (that we assumed were TV/Radio/Internet towers),

[caption id="attachment_2907" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Follow the towers[/caption]

we finally found Shea Road...the road we were looking for this entire time, geez mon! We saw an RV pulling off onto an asphalt road going toward mountains and sand aka desert...we followed.

[caption id="attachment_2904" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Follow that RV![/caption]

The road went up quite a way, all asphalt, the RV in front of us pulled off to meet another camper. We decided it best to do the same, but we drove up a little further to pull off...didn't want to pop the privacy bubble. We found some really good spots, but a lot of them were either right on the main asphalt road or on the main dirt bike/buggy road...plus the sand and rock was super soft there.

[caption id="attachment_2911" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Too shady for this tribe[/caption]

We thought we found a "super" spot, pulled in, got the grill out, had lunch...then J' decided to see what channels we got, to be ready for the fights on Fox in a few hours. Although we are right in the line of sight of about 6 towers, we do not bring in one single channel, not even a Spanish channel! What's going on!? J' looks over everything. Everything seems to be good, nothing is broken.

After about 20 minutes, we end up loading everything in and driving with the antennae up and the TV on. We drove North, South, East, West finally realizing the towers we were near were NOT TV towers!

[caption id="attachment_2908" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Oy[/caption]

We drove closer to town, into town, out of town and now are on the side of the road taking a closer look at the antennae...maybe it is broken. J' is also on the internet looking to see if Parker even has "off-air" antennae channels/towers.

....It's been about an hour since the above was written 

We left the spot on the side of the road and drove to Wal-mart. We have 21 minutes before the fights start on Fox. We went inside and bought another antennae, thinking ours was broken in one way or another.

[caption id="attachment_2910" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Who wants to get used today?[/caption]

We didn't pick up one single channel with the new one either so we went back in and returned it. We are still in the Wal-mart parking lot trying to see if we can pick up McDonald's wifi (from across the street) because it will chew up all of our data if we go the streaming route. From where we are, it's slower than damn molasses.

...Fights started 7 minutes ago

I drove over to a huge lot right behind the McDonald's and we are picking up a clean, quick, free stream from good ole' Mickey D's! The fights are on, we are excited and I just got back from getting us some cheapy hot fudge sundaes to celebrate! I don't know if Parker is going to be any good for us due to the lack of internet strength and absolutely no tele in the whole entire city...seriously!?

[caption id="attachment_2912" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ...I'm not the only hot mess![/caption]

Now, I'm going to go enjoy the fights that we fought so hard to get today. I'm a big fight fan and am totally stoked for this fight tonight, there's actually a couple of good ones. The main event is Nate Diaz vs. Benson Henderson...here we go!

PEACE

Spice up your life

The night before last, we kept hearing a tapping on the side of the van. It was windy and thought maybe it was the cord to the antennae, after checking everything the only thing we could come up with was maybe it was the trash hanging from the shovel. We took the trash, only two small bags, off the shovel and put it on the ground. We didn't really think anything would happen with the trash, because we hadn't seen or heard any animals, so we went to bed that night with the trash on the ground. When I woke up this morning to go potty, I was just happy that it was two small bags and not a lot more...the trash was totally torn apart and running all the way down the hill we were on. Guess I'm getting up earlier than expected...to pick up trash! Lesson learned: Even if you don't see the animals, they are there...and if you don't think there's anything around, just wait! I got Savannah out of her crate and we went for an early walk and trash pick-up.

[caption id="attachment_2864" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Good Morning![/caption]

Whatever got into our trash also got into the cookware that was left outside and carried our spatula down into the sand at the bottom of the hill...so I had some cleaning to do! After clean-up, we got daddy up and headed out to the store to get just a couple of things and maybe find a nice spot to chill for the day. The other day when we were out driving, J' had seen a park and we thought, why sit up here when we might get better signal in town and we can have different scenery!? The road we drove down dumped us into the State Park, but they wanted $15...just to park! We turned around and drove down the road. About three miles down the road, we came across another park. We pulled in and parked right in front of the water on the Bridgewater Channel for FREE! We were pretty happy of our decision to move on, this place was beautiful!

[caption id="attachment_2865" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Free never looked so good![/caption]

We parked and had our early lunch of Rotiserrie Chicken. J' tried to put one of our water jugs on top but with the weight and awkwardness of it, it slipped and fell and busted the top of it off so bye-bye 5 gallon jug.

[caption id="attachment_2866" align="aligncenter" width="225"] We didn't want that anyway![/caption]

After lunch and clean-up, we went for a nice stroll down the awesome path they have on the Channel. Lake Havasu knows how to do it right! On this path they have benches, all kinds of trees, a playground, even a dog park! The path walks you all the way down to the London Bridge...I was super stoked!

[caption id="attachment_2867" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Babes @ the Bridge[/caption]

We walked around the stores taking in the view of the Channel...super clear water and The London Bridge. There were even hundreds of those Mudhens aka Coots aka Black Ducks! We walked all the way up to the top of the bridge, it was chilly up there but very beautiful.

After walking around on the bridge and over the bridge and back down we mozied on back down the trail to the dog park...gotta get The Bug some exercise!

We spent more time running around with the other dogs because we all know Savannah just hides behind us the whole time! She's funny, we let her in the gate and she takes off running and barking after the biggest dog...that dog turns around and barks and runs after her and she cowards the rest of the time. She's not the boss anymore! haha The remainder of the time is spent running around like a crazy person trying to get her to run after us, but really it just gets the rest of the dogs all riled up! What I would like to be a good hour at the park always turns out to be only about 10-15 minutes. Oh well, at least she gets that. We walked back to the van ...work time.

[caption id="attachment_2876" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Great view[/caption]

 We all know Savannah was hard at work. Someone has to perfect that sleep thing! I wrapped some presents so we could get them out to our baby Owl and then I took Savannah over to the ole' 'ship wreck' for a photo shoot.

[caption id="attachment_2888" align="alignleft" width="150"] Camera Shy[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_2887" align="alignright" width="150"] Captain Nana[/caption]

It was a great day. I'm so happy we did something different today. We had pretty good signal in town...still 3g but better, we didn't get kicked off as much! I was able to put my tootsies in the sand again, almost making me feel like we were at the beach and Savannah got some good exercise. I would love to come out here in the Summer time and get the real feel of what Lake Havasu is like when the sun is giving you heat stroke and you just can't get enough of it!! It doesn't get much better than this in December. Another good day in the books...no complaints here!

Oh, I almost forgot....I got pie today! And not just pie...Pumpkin Pie WITH Pumpkin Spice creamer. I told you it's been a great day!

[caption id="attachment_2878" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Got Pumpkin?[/caption]

Spice up your day with whatever makes you smile!

PEACE