Early morning reading...

I took this picture a number of years ago while in Edinburgh, Scotland. I even had notecards made using the picture as the cover!

I've been doing a lot of early morning reading. Tim's still in bed and Lucy is curled up by me on the sofa. I've got my tea, window open with a slight breeze coming in. It's quiet...no diesels running yet and the sun is just beginning to rise. The book I'm reading is Wayne Dyer's Excuses Begone! Tim and I watched his PBS special a few days ago which prompted me to go out and buy the book. It's one of these books I'm glad I saw the special first because it's a thought provoking one and since it's about "thoughts" I'm afraid my thoughts would be lost on the book if I hadn't seen the special first. Follow me on that one???

Another book I read quite awhile ago - How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life by Mark Victor Hansen and Art Linkletter brings to mind our neighbors here. You'll need to hang with me here...there is a tie in coming. In one of the chapters Art Linkletter was talking about where one lives. He said, of course in his opinion, that living in one of those 55+ gated communities would suck the life out of you (my words, not his...I can't remember his...but it was similar). He said when you live with like people - same age, mind set, same activities - you don't grow...you remain stagnet maybe even regress. Your conversations have to do with "Did you hear so and so died last night? Had a stroke? Cancer? What's your (golf) Handicap? Those grandkids were in the pool when they shouldn't be...they were suppose to be out 5 minutes ago. And, so on and so on. Of course, I read the book while living in one of "those" communities. And, it was sucking the life out of me.

So, back to our current neighbors and the book tie in. They are a young family with 2 children ages 5 (boy) and 7 (girl) and 2 beagles. Did you know beagles howl? They have been parked beside us for the last 10 days. They are here from the Seattle area on vacation. When they first backed their 5th wheel in and piled out of the truck I cringed...especially the howling dogs. Campground sites are relatively small. You are close to your neighbors. If you sneeze, your neighbors will say "God Bless You". My first thought was this is going to be a long 2 weeks. How wrong I was. Tim and I have enjoyed every minute they have been here (including the howlers). First off, they are great parents. It's so nice to know there are still (young people) out there who are parenting well behaved and respectful children. Unfortunately, we have seen the opposite too many times. This vacation has really been for the kids because Mom and Dad have taken them to the pool, playground, pool, playground, playground, pool, lake, and playground and board games. It has been a hoot listening to their conversations. I couldn't even begin to tell you about the conversations we had with them. They are leaving today and we are sorry to see them go. However, it does reinforce for us we would rather live (and travel) where there is diversity and in this case, youth, rather than "sameness". You don't get the life sucked out of you. Lucy, however, didn't care for the howlers.

Ancestors

I have spent many hours in cemetaries looking for Tim's ancestors. He owes me BIG TIME for this trip to the boneyard...actually, 2 boneyards. We took a day trip to Farmington, WA where Tim's grandfather was born. His great grandfather - Jessie Quarles - settled there in 1873 as the plaque on the left reads. They travelled with the Wooddy wagon train with 2 wagons. We had stopped at this cemetary and Tim said this wasn't the place where the plaque had been erected. He didn't really know where it had be erected...just said it wasn't there. We were just in an old cemetary. Didn't even have a name. He backed up, turned the truck around and started back to the road. I told him to stop. Reluctantly he did still saying it was the wrong place. Something had caught my eye and I wanted to check it out. Welllll, it was the right place and the plaque he had been looking for.
Farmington is in the middle of a kagillion acres of wheat. I've never seen so much wheat in my life. It goes on forever. I thought there was a lot of corn in Illinois...but the wheat fields have it beat.
We were in another cemetary down a gravel road from Farmington. Tim wanted to check to see if he could find any relatives. We pulled in and he took one look at it and said "let's go...we'd be here for hours searching for tombstones and I'm not even sure they are buried here". Well, once again, I said I just going to take a walk toward the back and I would meet him at the back road.
Bingo! Found the mother-lode! He knows he owes me big time. I wonder how many more ancestors he still has to find? I don't mind traipsing through cemetaries...but Lucy's not too thrilled about it.

Welcome to McDonald's

Actually, this guy looks friendlier than the counter help at Mickey D's this morning in Bozeman, MT. All I asked was if they had a Dollar Menu. She looked at me, turned around, pointed up to the menu, turned back to me with a look that said "Are you blind?" and said "What do you want?" Once I was able to figure out where on the menu board the Dollar Menu was I made the mistake and asked: "Is the sausage biscuit on the Dollar Menu?" Wrongo bongo. Now I got the look: "Are you stupid and blind?" Needless to say, Tim did not get his sausage biscuit this morning.

We're Buzzed!!

Give me Wahl shears and watch me work. I got my hair buzzed today so I came home and did Tim's. You can tell us apart...I'm the one with lipstick! What one will do to save money! Watch out Lucy...the clippers are coming your way.

Been busy

Been sidetracked and therefore remiss on my blogging. Let's see...where do I begin? After we left Gillette, WY and the Fleetwood Rally we drove to Rapid City, SD to meet up with our friends, Tim and Crystal. He is the Shady Boat Dealer and she is the Shady Lady - http://www.inflatableboats4less.com/ - (he also has a "thing" for Lucy). They were wonderful tour directors taking us places I'm sure Tim and I would have never seen otherwise. They have a knowledge of the area, back roads, State Parks, small towns and great places to launch a boat.
The picture above shows us toasting July 4th. Crystal had packed a lunch and a couple bottles of wine. We really, really liked Rapid City and the area. We had such a great time with them. We hated to leave.

Our first official picture as new South Dakota residents. Yep, we are now fulltimers and have changed our residency from Arizona to South Dakota. Who would have thought Tim as a fulltimer????? Just a few years ago three weeks was the max he wanted to be in the motorhome.
Click here for pictures on the web album since there are way too many for a blog.



We are now in Cody, WY. The road from Sheridan, WY (Hwy 14) to Cody was a little nerve racking (at least for me). It's a climb and it's a two lane road. About 20 miles of it is under construction with delays due to dynamite blasting. There's about a 5 mile section where the "pavement ends" and it is then like pea gravel with cones dividing the road for two way traffic and no shoulder. A 6 inch driving error would put you over the side. The road from Cloverdale, CA to the CA coast we took a couple of years ago was a primer for this road.

A couple of days ago we drove the Chief Joseph Highway then Bear Tooth Highway to Cooke City, MT. This is the north eastern entrance to Yellowstone. Too many people heading to Yellowstone ..I'll just buy a post card. Yesterday we went to the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum. It is definitely a must see. To see and read everything would take you days. Lots of motorcyles here. There was a police escort of about 50 bikes through town on Saturday. Probably won't go to the Rodeo. I can't stay up that late. It is fun, tho, seeing the cowboys with their spurs on in town.

I've updated "Where's Lucy Now". Figured out how to do it without deploying the satellite (it's on vacation status). Between campground wi-fi and tethering the phone using Verizon's Mobile Connect we haven't needed the satellite. We'll be in Cody until Friday and then head to Cheney, WA via Montana and Idaho.

The indians on horseback almost look real.