Showing posts with label Bob Wells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bob Wells. Show all posts

Thursday, January 7, 2016

The RTR is in Full Effect!

Happy New Year to all of you! We hope you brought in 2016 in a happy, healthy, jovial way!

The 2016 RTR (Rubber Tramp Rendezvous) has officially begun.


On January 5, there were already many rigs here and even more started settling in. The day was not the nicest of days, with rain, which brought in cooler temperatures, but we're all still here getting our camps set-up for the next two weeks. 

January 6, we all gathered for our first meeting, which some people call an orientation, others call a meet & greet. The first meeting is mostly Bob Wells giving everyone information about what the RTR is about, what we will be doing, the seminars that will be held, where things are in the town of Quartzsite; laundry, water, propane, trash, etc.
 
Bob Wells
 
There were quite a few people that gathered for the first meeting, I counted 95 and that was towards the end when some people had already left, plus more will be coming and going for the next two weeks.

The picture isn't perfect but you can get the point of how many people are here.


We were fortunate to have very nice weather for the first official meeting, lots of sunshine, no rain with just a little bit of wind....much better than the past few days!





There are going to be some really great, informational classes/seminars as well as some fun things to learn. If you are you new to the life or maybe just wondering about it and want to network and make new friends, we'll be here for the next two weeks (until January 19). Come on down and join us in Quartzsite, AZ, there's plenty of room!

Here is the calendar of events. 
(There may be changes along the way or more things added)
**One thing that has been added are haircuts by me and manicures by Pish on Saturday, from 11-sunset at our rig.**
Someone may have to bring me some chili, since I'll be working hard!!! 
 


If you are here, we hope to meet you if we haven't already and if you're not here, we hope to see you soon or maybe next year!

PEACE

Monday, December 21, 2015

Life is Ruff! The dogs of the van life

Even though I already have two of the BEST dogs in the world...I could take on one, two or twelve more! haha
My Chili Moon is a Deer Chihuahua with the sweetest temperament you'll ever see in a Chi. She loves to sit with you and feel the warmth of your love...and your lap. If you're ever in our camp, she'll be greeting you with a wagging tail and sandy paw prints on your pants...don't say I didn't warn ya!


My Savannah Butterscotch is a Doxle; Dachshund/Beagle mix and thee most beautiful dog I've ever had. She is super smart, a big weirdo and loves the boys! The love of her life is Jamie, she melts like butter when she's with him. 


In this life, we are always surrounded by dogs, most are just awesome and amazing and then, of course there are a couple that I could never be around again and be just fine...but let's get back to those other ones!

We always joke around about "stealing" our friends' dogs! 
"If you can't find your dog and our rig is gone...we probably have them." 
Of course this would never happen but it's still fun to joke around and to let our friends know their furry lil' animal spirits are safe with us.
It's also fun to see what kind of dog we like and could have in our rig without the "investment"...and we can always give them back! 
This year it's a toss-up between a few and this post is about them. Anyone who knows me, knows I love my girls like my own children, well... because they are, so I'm always posting pics of them and talking about them. This post is about the dogs that run the van-life, plus, it's always fun to look at pictures of cute dogs!
Enjoy looking at and reading about some of the coolest dogs we have around camp!

Our first beautiful girl is Miss Rain Barrels, a 1/2 Australian Cattle Dog/ 1/2 Border Collie mix. The first time I met her was in 2012 and I fell instantly in love, she reminded me sooo much of my beloved Roxy Love, that I lost unexpectedly a couple of years prior.


We try to camp with Rain and her family a couple of times a year but you know how it goes out here. Rain is probably one of the smartest dogs I've ever met and also one of the most emphatic when it comes to sticks, you could throw a stick for her all day and she would chase it...all...day...long!!


  She watches over my girls, as if she is their mother...another thing I love about her.
She loves long walks and is a much better hiker and climber than I am!


She definitely lives her life to the fullest!



Next up, we have Rain's 'brodder' Snowden.


Handsome. Smart. Cuddly. Playful.
And the perfect size to sleep right in my arms every night...haha
His color and markings are amazing, he is an Australian Cattle Dog.


Every time Jamie gears up for a ride, it's like he knows he can get rough and for Snowden, it's Go Time...they will play rough for a few minutes, he gets so into it. He loves to chase balls, sticks, frisbees and he can do these small little flips, it's the cutest thing.
Snowden is much harder to get pictures of because he's always on the move, although I manage to snap a couple here and there. He and Rain have the greatest lives, they get to live freely and are very loved.



The next dog we're going to kidnap...I mean love on 😉
is Cody, Bob Wells dog.
I don't have many pictures of Cody because he, too is always on the move.
I believe Cody is an Australian Shepherd and pint size! 
He is one of the sweetest, lovable dogs in the community.
When we camp with Bob, Cody makes a point to come over and say, Hello, every morning. We hug and have a small cuddle session and sometimes, if I'm cooking, he'll get a piece of chicken or sausage. Some mornings I wake up and he's laying on our mat waiting for us and the girls to get up...he's a lover! He is always keeping us company.


Cody and Snowden are new besties and love to play!


These two babies are the newest, sweetest and probably oldest of the group. They belong to my darling friend, Debra. You can read her blog here:

Miss Nonni, a ten year old Rhodesian Ridgeback. She loves her momma and is a really well-mannered dog. Food can be a little bit of a tease for her but she's just 'so hungry'...haha


and Bentley, the softest, sweetest, cutest, 13 year old Wheatable~ a soft-coated Wheaten Terrier mix!
He doesn't hear or see too good but he LOVES to swim, be with his momma and lay around being cute! I snuggle with him every single chance I get. Debra knows I would take him in a heartbeat if she needed me to.


The 3 Amigos. Nonni, Bentley & Bear

I'm sure I'm missing some amazing dogs, but these are the dogs that have stolen my heart over the past 3 1/2 years.
The last one, that I have for sure not forgotten, is our dear Bear. Bear left us way too early but was able to live an amazing last part of his life out here on the road; meeting new fluff-friends, taking long walks with his daddy, Roger every morning and getting chicken surprises in the mornings from me. Bear was so soft and fluffy, it was hard not to hug and hold him for as long as possible when you saw him. His heart was pure gold and he loved everyone that came into his camp. Bear you are very missed but not forgotten. I hope my Roxy girl is showing you the ropes and you're getting to play to your hearts content. 
We love you.


These dogs live the best life possible. They are never stuck in a house, crate or small space for hours upon hours of the day. They get to spend all day with the people that love them most as well as other fur-babies. They get all kinds of treats, cookies, biscuits, what have you, from all of our friends, even the ones without dogs. I couldn't imagine any better life for my girls than the ones they're living right now.

We hope to meet you and your dogs some day.
I'd love to see pics of your fur-babies in the comments.
Maybe I'll fall in love with your dog next!


PEACE

(**Dang it...as soon as I posted this I remembered many others...guess there's going to have to be another post!
Miss Cheri and Tony, you're the first ones!
We need to camp together more often! Love you**)




Monday, November 2, 2015

Old Life Meets New Life!!

Like I said in my last post, I'm going to try something a little different with my blog and NO, I'm not changing the name again! haha

I thought this way might make me want to post more and also make it (mentally) easier for me. 
Let me know what you think!!

We went up to Camp Harris and watched football, as we've been doing for the past 3 Sundays. It's been a blast, hanging with everyone, gabbing, eating, watching ball. Yesterday was a special day for me though, because one of my best girls came for a short but sweet visit!



My old life meets my new life!!! They met Bobby!!


My beautiful Barbie!!!



It was great to see them. It was my first time meeting Paul and he is just thee absolute sweetest guy, they play well together! I told her if she keeps this visiting stuff up, we may have to make this an annual event, since she drove all the way from Denver last October to visit us in Georgia....now that's a good friend.
I love you Jess, see you soon!!!

PEACE

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Monday, October 12, 2015

All the time in the world...No time at all!

Time has been slipping through my fingers lately. I feel like I just wrote a post, then when I come to catch up it's already been a month or over a month since my last post. It's funny how when you start living this lifestyle of freedom, you think you're going to have all of this time...haha, well for us, that's not so true! It seems like we still don't have enough time in the day, but it's all good because at least it's stuff we would much rather be doing. I don't know how we ever got anything done when we worked actual jobs!

We were camped around the Flagstaff area for the last month or so moving a few miles apart every couple of weeks.
My high school swim coaches were traveling through where we were camped and stopped in for a visit. 


The night they camped with us, they were in a tent and wouldn't you know, it rained sooo hard, it flooded their tent! Between the highway noise, the 50 trains that went by during the night and the rain, they ended up leaving first thing in the morning...and it ended up being a beautiful day! 
 Figures! 



It was so great to see them, catch up and hang out, it had been almost 15 years since we last saw each other and it felt like absolutely no time had passed. 


Over the past month, we were able to visit with many old friends and make some new ones. We usually don't see this many people until the RTR, so it was nice to be able to spend some one on one time together. And as I'm sitting here typing this, I'm also looking for pictures of those friends....guess we were too busy catching up and laughing I didn't take any...next time!


One of our friends, Dan, came to up to Flagstaff for a visit but also for the Lunar Eclipse of the Blood Moon. Not only did we have a great night, we watched Football (Bronco's won!), had some drinks with lots of laughs and tons of photography talk. I had to get all the tips I could, since Dan is THE man when it comes to photography!  Most of mine were a little grainy due to not enough light, but I was surprised I even got what I did. Here are a couple of my shots of the moon that night:






I am trying to learn how to draw and paint. I used to love to draw when I was growing up, but kind of lost the creative draw as I've gotten older. After watching Jamie do this oil painting on a Pronghorn skull, 


I decided it was time to re-train my brain. I'm starting small and easy with things I like or that I'd like to see every day. Here is a picture I drew for my "Desert Dad" or "Papi"...he was so proud he even hung it on his fridge in his camper! haha


The critters are getting their fill of the last couple of weeks of nice weather. We went on a walk one morning and the ground and air were just teaming with movement. 






Guess we're all taking it in while it's awesome out!
The weather changed from being beautiful every day to raining on and off for a few days. We figured we would leave Flagstaff when it started getting cold, but sometimes that doesn't always happen like you want it to.
It didn't happen as soon as we wanted it to because, pretty much out of nowhere Jamie got the stomach flu. He was really sick for about 2 days and then was on the mend. I thought I was going to be free and clear because I wasn't having any symptoms and felt fine....until late in the day a couple of days later. It wasn't fun but I didn't get it half as bad as he did, thankfully! I think it also helped that we were camped with Bob & Judy and they rescued us with half of the pharmacy and some good "sick" foods. If it weren't for them, we probably wouldn't have healed so quickly. THANK YOU again you two, you're the best!!
While we were sick, the weather turned for the worst getting down to the low 30's at night and even wrapped in the warmest of clothes during the day, we were freezing in the mid-low 60's.  Oh, and it was raining!


We stayed in bed a couple of days watching football and movies but once we both felt good enough, we packed and moved South to warmer weather.
Now we are sitting in 90* degrees, not a cloud in the sky. We have some friends that are meeting us here and saw some other friends on our way in. The next few weeks should be filled with fun, lots of laughs, learning, creativity and who knows what else. I do have a lot more to share but I'll keep that for the next post, which I will try to write in a couple of days. 
Thanks for hanging in there with me, we'll see you soon!
PEACE


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 to find out more about how to live a better life.
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