S ‘23, Ep 2- Vallecito CO (07-12-23)

 This is a short post because we weren’t in Vallecito that long, and nothing much happened.

Once we knew our friends Tom and Dianne would not be in Bayfield, we needed to find a campground to stay at for the 4th of July week. Riiiight.  I went online and did a search- I started with a campground we had stayed at before, years ago, and lo and behold they had a spot (they actually had lots of spots- it should have been a warning to me). Once we arrived, nothing seemed to go right. Check in time is 3 pm, but the office closes at 2 pm. Hmmm. We got to our site, which says it includes an internet hot spot. But it didn’t. And there is no cell service here so unless we could be in a spot with internet, we were going to have to leave. Our neighbors tracked down someone who works there, and another neighbor offered us her password for her wifi. We can’t be without cell signal for that long right now, so we were very appreciative.

Instead of leaving, we settled in. Our first night there, a country band played, right in front of our rig. A very nice time was had by all.

The next day we were walking the campground and met a couple trying to check in. It’s very tough to reach office people when there is no cell signal, so we hung out with them while they waited for someone who works there. We all hit it off great.  Turns out they were in a site very close to us. As we were chatting with them, their adult son drove up,  looking for cash because he had found a nearby forest service campsite but they only take cash, and wouldn’t hold the site. Paul was the only one with cash, so we gave it to him in a “pay it forward” kind of way.  She repaid me via Venmo later in the day.

We did one hike in Vallecito, Cave Basin Trail, which was about 2.5 miles and not bad, but nothing of great interest.

On July 4, we decided to head in to Durango for the day. We got there early and walked Main Street, doing some shopping. We found a distillery (what a shock) and bought some moonshine.

The Elks lodge opened at 2 pm, so we went there for a drink before heading back to Main St.  There , we had a late lunch and waited for the parade that started at 5 pm.

It was definitely not the best parade we have ever seen, but the price of admission was right. 

 

There was a drone display after dark but we didn’t want to drive back country roads in the dark, so we skipped it.

And then it was on to Pagosa Springs, CO.

Summer 2023, Episode 1 (06-30-23)

 With all the issues we were having with the house and trailer, I was pleasantly surprised that we actually left Lake Havasu the day we were supposed to.

Our first stop was El Paso, sort of.  It takes us two days to drive that far so we have to stop overnight in the Tucson area along the way. Our good friends Tom and Dianne, up until extremely recently, lived in Bayfield CO, and staying with them for a few days was already in our plans.  But then they sold their house! Not to worry though, they bought one in Sierra Vista AZ, relatively near Tucson.  They arrived there on the 20th, and we arrived on the 21st, about an hour after the moving truck left.

It was nice to get to see their new place and always fun to spend time with them, plus as a bonus, we saw our friends Jeff and Tina. Unfortunately we could only stay one night, but  we will try to stay longer next time.

From there we landed in El Paso, where we spent a few days with Paul’s mom. I wish I could say that all our bad luck was left in Havasu but at least a little bit of it followed us.  I occasionally have episodes of Atrial Fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, and wouldn’t you know, my heart “kicked out” while we were in Sierra Vista. My handy dandy Apple watch alerts me, and also does an EKG. I sent a PDF of the EKG to my cardiologist, and let her know what my plan was- as long as the heart rate stayed low, I would wait it out, if it got too fast, I would head to the Emergency Room.  She agreed with my plan, so, wait it out I did. It’s not a lot of fun since I can’t walk very fast or do very much.  This bout lasted longer than usual, but finally resolved after about 5 days- after we left El Paso.

The small town of Bernalillo New Mexico, just north of Albuquerque,  was our next stop on the way to Colorado. Our original plan was to spend 6 days hiking and with my heart back to normal and my foot getting better, I was itching to get back on the trail.

My first, and really only hike here, was the 2 mile Capulin Peak Trail at the top of the the nearby Sandia Mountains. The temperature at the rig was 97 and at Sandia Peak it was 67- a huge difference.

There were nice views at the end of the trail, plus we drove further up the road to get a view of Albuquerque.

Although my foot did ok, I didn’t want push it, so the following day we elected to explore the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The first section of the museum  was about World War II, The Manhattan Project, and The Atomic Bomb.

As I was reading through the displays- and it’s a LOT of reading- I began to wonder how Germany didn’t beat us to the punch with the atomic bomb.  There are several reasons as it turns out- they lacked resources, Hitler didn’t make it a priority because he was more interested in instant gratification rather than the long game, and the German scientists focused more on theoretical physics rather than experimental physics.

In the meantime, the United States was secretly working their way towards creating an atomic bomb. There were three sites in the U.S. that were involved- Oak Ridge Tennessee produced the uranium, Hanford Washington supplied the plutonium, and Los Alamos New Mexico was home to the design and production centers for nuclear weapons. The project was called The Manhattan Project and Los Alamos  was referred to Site Y.

It actually became pretty much a secret city.  The scientists, as well as their families, were essentially sequestered in this make shift military base/town.  Initially, living conditions were very primitive, but as time went on, many improvements were made, and life was more “normalized”. In fact it was so normal that they experienced a baby boom in 1944, creating a severe shortage of diapers and hospital beds. 

The birth certificates of children born there during this time listed P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe NM, as the place of birth. Also creating a sense of normalcy were things like a youth center, a school, a church, a playground, etc.

Drivers licenses of people living in Los Alamos were secretive, listing a number as a name, and on the signature line the typed words “Not Required”.

After years in the making, on July 16, 1945, the atomic bomb, called Gadget for test and security purposes, was successfully tested at the Trinity Site in New Mexico.

A very short time later, August 6, 1945, Paul Tibbets Jr. and his crew aboard the Enola Gay, dropped the Atomic Bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima Japan, changing the course of history and the nature of warfare forever.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki Japan. The reason for the short time span between the two bombs was to create the illusion that the U.S. had plenty of bombs and was going to keep dropping them, with the hope that Japan would surrender. And they did. Fighting ended on August 14, 1945.

The museum didn’t just focus on warfare and bombs, it also had sections about other, less deadly, but just as important,  uses for nuclear power- such as nuclear power plants and nuclear medicine.

There was even a display of the DeLorean from Back To The Future- a car that was “actually” a plutonium fueled time machine.  The use of the car in the movie increased sales of DeLorean cars for a while, but not for long enough to keep the company afloat.

Our final outing in Albuquerque was a trip up Sandia Peak, via the tram. With us was our friend Teresa.

Once at the top we started out on a hike, but my foot wasn’t up for too much so we cut it short and headed back for lunch. The wait for the restaurant at the peak was way too long, so we headed back down to find someplace for a late lunch.

And then, we moved on to Colorado.

Before Summer 2023 (06-26-23)

 After returning from Mexico, we didn’t let any moss grow under our feet.  We headed home for a brief few days before heading to our next destination- Southern California.  We originally planned this part of our trip in order to meet up with Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Sue- we call her Sue1, and I am Sue2 because we are both Sue Porter, but she was in the family first.

Anyway the plan was to meet up with them and head to the Zydeco Festival in early-mid May. It also was Tom’s 70th birthday so we planned to arrive early to celebrate that. Then Paul and I found out that Jimmy Buffett was playing in San Diego the first weekend of May, so we added that into the mix.

So, plans were made.

We arrived in Chula Vista CA on the 5th of May- the Buffett concert was on the 6th.  We loaded up the truck with everything we had that screamed “It’s 5 O'clock Somewhere” and drove out to the stadium. This is a brand new stadium and Buffett is the first concert to be performed there. We had never tailgated before but we were quick learners. We set our food and drink up in the bed of our truck and of course, posted on Facebook. 

Then we took off to wander around drinking a margarita while observing the crazy antics of our fellow parrot heads.

Unbeknownst to us, after Paul posted on Facebook, some friends saw the post, and they were a 2 minute walk from us. So as we were walking around enjoying the ambiance, they were at our truck looking for us. Too funny. We did catch up to them and chatted for a while before heading in to the concert.

The weather was perfect for an outdoor concert. Jason Mraz opened, followed by a set by Mac McAnally who was joined later by Jimmy Buffett. I am not much of a concert goer but we definitely enjoyed it and yes, the tailgating was really fun and crazy- but it didn’t speak to me like the Eagles Concert did.

 I think the only performer I am interested in seeing perform live now, is Garth Brooks, if I get the chance.

Ok, so, concert over, we moved from Chula Vista, CA up to Oceanside, a couple of days before Tom’s birthday.  Our first day there, the guys were looking for a project to work on together, so they headed off to Sue’s son Shad’s house. Years ago we spent a few days working on projects here, and this was another smaller project.

 UNFORTUNATELY, while the guys were outside looking at water sprinklers etc. I was inside the house and managed to take one BAD step. I knew immediately that something was wrong, and called Paul on his phone. Fast forward to Urgent Care, and I have two broken bones in my foot, with doctors orders not to put any weight on it until I see a surgeon.

Peachy. Our daughter Jess had already made plans to come and stay with us for a couple of days while we were in southern California. Luckily we were still able to enjoy our time with her, and spent a wonderful two hours sitting outside a restaurant on the water, enjoying the smell of ocean air.

The three of us went to Tom’s house for his birthday and had a great time celebrating the fact that he is getting old, haha.

The Zydeco Music Festival (Gatorbythebay) was out for me, so Paul and I called it a day and headed home instead. We found an orthopedic surgeon in Kingman, about an our from our home in Havasu, and headed there to get X-rays, CT scans, and the news that unless the piece of bone sticking up from my foot causes me a problem later, I should be ok. However, I still had to do two weeks of no weight bearing, followed by incremental weightbearing, as tolerated.

Although I consider myself a crutches Pro, apparently that was many years ago because crutches are not fun. It took one day for me to order a knee scooter, so I could zip around the house to my hearts content. Weirdly, I received two scooters from Amazon, although I only ordered one. They kindly told me to donate the extra, which I did, when someone local on Facebook put out a call for a knee scooter because she broke her foot.

My birthday weekend was spent at the house with my cousin Linda and her husband Michael. Although quieter than usual, the 4 of us still had a great time, hanging by the pool and playing games.

I love my daughter’s sense of humor. She made this card for me for Mother’s Day: And yes, I opened it again on my birthday, lol. 

Next up on the agenda was Memorial Day weekend. This is always a fast paced crazy drunken weekend. We called all the participants to let them know that I might be a bit of a Debby downer, but they all decided to come anyway.

The good news is that my foot was never put in a cast, so I could lounge in the pool as much as I wanted. I already own a walking boot, so that made life much more tolerable. I wasn’t up for going on the boat, but I heard they all had a great time.

Memorial Day over, life settled down, for a few days.

We had made some plans for June that were now impossible to do. I was supposed to fly to MA on my own, to spend time with my family, and our son Stephen, but of course, now I can’t drive, so I canceled my flights etc. Very disappointing. Paul had planned to go to Fresno CA during that time frame, to help our friend Kirk build a deck. Since Kirk had bought all the wood, Paul still went, but for a shorter time, leaving me home alone for a few days.

It was around this time that all kinds of things started going wrong, actually. 

The dryer broke.          

          
            

The front landing gear in the Mobile Suite let go, tilting the front down “on its knees” as we say. Unfortunately the fridge was running, which caused the cooling system to fail (due to being off level too far) and we had to order a new cooling unit. It took two tries to get one here and in fact we only got the fridge fixed 3 days before we were scheduled to leave for the summer.

Paul bought new tires for the Mobile Suite, since they were close to aging out and we are taking the trailer for the summer. 

 While the tires were off he noticed that the leaf springs were in bad shape, and the Trailair center point suspension was not working, or had frozen, or was cracked, (actually, the bushings were worn out) or something.  I can’t keep up with all the lingo. 

Anyway, many thousands of dollars later, the trailer is back into ship shape condition. Whew.  I am extremely grateful that my husband is so mechanically inclined!

In the meantime, Paul got up one morning and broke his glasses.  On the same day, one of his hear aids stopped working.  Luckily we were able to get appointments at Costco for both, the next day, so off we went. That turned out to be the first of many trips to Las Vegas over the next few weeks.  I needed to go there for a CT scan of my foot (all clear), Paul’s glasses required several trips because the first pair arrived scratched, and the eye dr. at Costco wanted him to see a specialist to check on his cataracts, so we went back again for that. Turns out he does need cataract surgery, but we will wait till fall for that.

Soon after Paul arrived back from California, our daughter Jess arrived with some of her friends. Brooke and Matt have heard about the PPP (Porter Party Place) but have never been here.

They arrived with my favorite 2 year old, Noah. Noah is the first toddler we have had in the house, which took some extra thinking and precautions.

We thoroughly enjoyed their company and Noah found plenty to do. He did great swimming in the pool, and his favorite saying seemed to be “beep beep car”.  Beeping the horn on my Mustang was definitely one of his favorite pastimes. 

He reminded me a lot of my son at a similar age, “driving” my brother’s Firebird.

Once they left it was yet another run to Las Vegas, and then serious packing so we could leave town on June 21.

Because we are taking the trailer, we decided to book campgrounds in advance. We have the entire month of July booked at various campgrounds in Colorado, but we will stop first in El Paso to check in on Paul’s mom.