April 2019

April was a month of highs and lows.

It started on a high note, as my early birthday present arrived on April 1st. I turn 60 in May, and Paul and I decided to celebrate with a new Mustang convertible.

Half the fun for me is to let other people drive it, which means, I have had a lot of fun with it!

The girls and I had a Thelma and Louise day, taking the car up to Oatman for lunch.  We decided we are all Louise, and the car is Thelma.

Liz and Randy, and Mike and Julie were still in the yard, so we had a great time just enjoying retirement.

Although the boat didn't get much use, due to the constant winds, we did have a few good days on the water.

My favorite was the day we brought everything to make quesadillas, and stopped at one of the many picnic spots for lunch.

Mid April brought more first time visitors to the PPP.  Two of my childhood friends made the trip out here for vacation.  Paul and I picked Linda and her fiance Alan up in Vegas, and the 4 of us made an overnight stop at the Grand Canyon.






By the time we got back to the house, Rita and her husband Ed had already arrived and been greeted by our stand in hosts, Mike and Julie.







I was looking forward to a great time, and I wasn't disappointed! Although the weather didn't cooperate, we still had a great time-

More outings in the Mustang...

Dinners on the back deck..

A game night that had us laughing ourselves silly..

And a Dance Party..

They even surprised me with an early birthday party !

We had a great time- I hope they come back soon!

Unfortunately, as soon as my friends left, the month went from the high to the low.  We knew our cat, Dozer was having problems eating, and things got worse in April. Finally we knew it was time to let him go.

 He had plenty of adventures during his 16 years with us, and was more well traveled than many people.  He even wrote a blog post about his Alaska adventure.

From Newfoundland to Alaska, he had lots of opportunities to explore the great outdoors.

Of course, like most cats, he had to check everything out...

And usually managed to be in the way....

But mostly he was a great companion, and his loss will leave a large hole in our lives.

Yellowstone, Part 2 (08-18-17)

Yellowstone is a huge park and is definitely NOT what you would call a “one trick pony”.
In addition to the wildlife viewing, there is tons of great hiking. While poor Randy worked, we hiked several trails with Liz.

Hellroaring Creek was a 6 mile round trip hike to….Hellroaring Creek.  To get there, we descended about 850 feet into the canyon.  The problem with that, of course, is that what goes down, must come up!

The views of the Yellowstone River were spectacular along the way, and once we were at the bottom, we crossed over the river on a suspension bridge.













Ordinarily I am not a huge fan of suspension bridges, but this is sturdy enough to handle horses, so it wasn’t an issue.














Far below, the Yellowstone River was a sight to behold!

We were all tired, but felt like we accomplished something after hiking that trail.













The other trail we hiked was to Petrified Trees.  If we had done the whole trail it would have been 1700 ft of elevation gain. 













Lucky for us, there are petrified trees to see after only 1000 ft of gain.

We took a break and had a snack while we enjoyed the spectacular weather and views..

Yellowstone is also known for its geothermal activity.  In addition to the impressive geysers like Old Faithful, just driving down the road you can see the hot spring and geyser activity.

The Old Faithful area of the park is extremely crowded, but we did brave it one day, hoping to see our favorite geysers erupt.

Old Faithful is not the most impressive geyser, its just the most predicable decent sized one.

Our favorite is the Beehive- It spews 200 feet in the air and the base is shaped like a beehive.  The wind shifted during the eruption, and we got pretty wet!

It was early enough in the day that we decided to eat lunch and then walk down the boardwalk and wait for Grand Geyser to erupt. There was plenty to see along the way.





As beautiful as these pools are, their blue color means that they are about 190*- too hot for most living organisms to survive.

After an hour and a half of waiting (Patience is necessary when waiting for geyser eruptions) Grand Geyser did not disappoint.

We took the loop road back to the RV, which took a while due to traffic jams of all kinds.

We are not the only ones who like to explore.  Dozer loves it when we are in a place where he can explore outside.

Naturally, all that exploring is exhausting!













Things became a little dicey when we had a couple of days of not so great weather. One day the sun didn't shine at all. As I mentioned in my last post, we are totally reliant on our two solar panels in this campground. If our batteries got too low, we were going to have to leave.



We were extremely careful in our electrical use, and took more extreme measures than we ever had before. We charged our phones, computer, and cameras either while in our truck or at Liz and Randy’s.

The furnace was kept off because even though it is propane, it uses some electricity. One morning it was 45 degrees when we got up- IN the rig!

Luckily, making coffee isn’t an issue- its almost as easy to boil the water and pour it into the coffee maker as it is to make it regularly ( or, maybe I just think that because I never have to make the coffee?)



Anyway, soon enough the sun came back out and our batteries were back up to 100%!

We ended up staying in Yellowstone just over a week.  We had a great time with Liz and Randy, and really enjoy this park.  (I stole this picture from Randy- thanks Randy!)

Next up is the eclipse…..were we in the path of totality?  You betcha we were!

Dozer’s Take on the Alaska Trip (09-15-14)

Warning- if you aren’t a cat lover or aren’t interested in reading a silly blog post- just move on.

Ok look, people with two legs get to do a lot more fun things on a trip to Alaska in a small camper than people with 4 legs.  Yeah, I guess I had a good time.  I got to go out a lot more often than I usually do, but most of the time, I was left behind.

I would sit and wait for hours for them to come back and feed me.

While they were gone, I searched for the food.  Eventually I found it, not that it did me much good.  It was on a shelf I couldn’t reach, and in a sealed container.  Drat.

I could see the food, and practically taste it, but I couldn't reach out and grab it.

That’s ok.  Little did they know that the minute they were gone, I ran up to the bedroom to snooze on their pillows.  They hate that. 

That’s what they get for bringing me in this tiny little camper.  I mean, really.  Look at the size of this counter!  And there are no food crumbs on it either!

I’m a CAT for crying out loud!  I need my caves!  They had to empty out most of this cabinet just to make room for me to lay down.  Hey, that’s not my fault!

I mean, really….  I don’t ask for much.  When Paul flew to California for a wedding, I wanted to go with him.  Was that too much to ask??? Apparently it was because I sure didn't get to go.













I’ll give them a little credit for trying to keep me entertained. They actually managed to find my favorite toy in a store in Canada.  That was good for about 5 minutes of fun.












Somehow they thought it would be “fun” for me to work for my food so they put it in a little ball that would spew it out one piece at a time.  But only IF I rolled it around.  Boy, did that get old fast.

Of course, occasionally  they would let me outside, and I would supervise whatever activity happened to be taking place. I’m a great supervisor.

I guess the scenery was pretty good in Alaska, when I got the chance to pay attention to it.










A lot of times I was too busy untangling the leash from the rocks and chairs that someone was inconsiderate enough to leave lying around.

When I had the chance, I liked trying to catch the squirrels  that live near the river and I almost got one.

There sure were lots of mountains and tons of lakes with fresh, clear water in Alaska.

I love drinking from the lakes.  I even learned how to stand on the rocks, so I didn't get my paws wet  (ok, someone may have shown me  how to do that).

Sometimes the lakes were really small,-I think someone called them “puddles”, but the water was still good!

I had a really good laugh the day I escaped.  I headed over to a nearby bush and tried to get to a nest of little moles.  I just wanted to play with them, but someone figured out that I got out, and put me back in the camper before I could introduce myself to my new friends.  A little while later, I watched the mommy mole pick up her babies, one at a time, and move them to a different bush! Gee, was it something I said???

One day there was an awesome jungle to explore.  I didn’t find anything to play with, but I heard lots of noises!

Mostly it rained.  I hate the noise of the rain on the roof, but at least it means the three of us can have fun together.  Sometimes I just practice my fishing skills so I can catch a salmon when I get the opportunity.

When I get bored with that, we play cards.  I like Phase 10 but I never win.  They won’t let me play when they get the Rummikub tiles out.  I thought I was supposed to mix them up!  How should I know that they are in a specific order?? Geez.

All the activity tires me out and I have to take a nap.  I take a lot of naps.  They call them “cat naps”.