Well, Vegas here we come again....but first....

.....we'll be driving south to Laguna Beach, Ca for Christmas eve night & part of Christmas day. It's only about 1 1/2 hours from here in Hollywood.

My cousin Babs & hubby, Bob, from Seattle, have a grown daughter that recently moved from her houseboat in Seattle to a hilltop view house in Laguna Beach. That houseboat was fabulous & had wonderful views. She would paddle around the bay right from her front porch. The view from her houseboat had front row seats for the lighted boat Christmas parades. Unfortunately we never made it for any of the parades but were lucky enough to have seen this bit of what I think of as a paradise location.

It will be really nice to be together after way too much time. Her son Jamie from SFO will be there as well.

I'd never used Priceline before and found a pretty good deal for the one night in this High Priced area. It's only a 2 star hotel, Laguna Cliff's Inn but we'll not be spending much time there anyway. We never spend much time in a hotel/motel room.

The following week we'll be on our way to Las Vegas for another 6 nights...with the trailer.
Enroute we'll be attending Joey's son's wedding in San Bernardino, Ca. That's a one day, one night happening.

I'll post later about the already booked 4 shows we'll be seeing . Three of them are Cirque du Soleil's & one is Bette Midler, one of the Cirque's is a repeat for us. KA.

We also plan to get tkts for "Menopause the Musical" but haven't done that yet. A couple of years ago we saw the play Menopause (not musical) & laughed our fool heads off so I hope we can get tickets that fit into our already tight show schedule.

Heads up: Something I learned about the Vegas show FEE'S....they're going up quite a bit beginning January 1, 2010. ALL of them. That's on top of the 10% sales tax. The room tax went up from 10% to 12% already. That includes RV spaces.

Las Vegas NV Shows we saw in November

Wow, I'm really behind in my postings but I want to add these shows for our records.

1) Defending the Caveman @ Excaliber $84.90 for 2. A one man show expressing his opinions of the differences between men and women....it WAS funny. Sort of a Men from Mars, Women from Venus type thing.

2) Neil Sedaka @ The Orleans $115.50 for 2. Nice oldies and his backup musicians were really terrific. Good music all around and Neil still Has-IT. He must be 70 plus & is as good as ever.

3) La Reve (the dream) @ The Wynn $250.35 for 2. No adjectives to express how very great this show was. It's a Cirque du Soleil with water as in "O" the other water Cirque du Soleil.

4) So You Think You Can Dance (on tour, 1 night only @ Orleans Arena) $135.80 for 2 We follow the Tv Competition of this show every season & really loved this live performance. This was our 1st & we'll try to see next seasons touring show too.

5) Cher @ Caesars $360 for 2. YIKES , eh? And THAT was with a deal! Her Bob Mackie costumes were truly incredible!!! As was her grand ENTRANCE over the audiance!

6) The Jersey Boys @The Plazzo $297 for 2. the Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 2006 It takes you behind the music of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. SO glad we decided this one too. The whole cast was so much fun to watch & hear.

All of our seats were in very good locations. I like to see the costumes...I mean BUTTONS & SEAMS! as well as the makekup so that's why the seats we got were all pretty pricy....well worth it.

As if we didn't have enough we'll return for another week, the first week in January to see: Bette Midler, Love, Viva Elvis, Ka...all Cirque shows except Midler. Viva Elvis is in preview at the new CityCenter that just opened today. The new theater is called Aria.
We actually saw Ka a few years ago but it's good enough to see again. Plus we got a good deal on the price.

Las Vegas NV

Arrived here early because it was only about a 40 min drive from Henderson Nv, if that.
We decided to try Sam's Town Boulder Hwy (not the Sam's Town Nellis Rd ) It has been voted best Vegas RV park by some group anyway, I see why. As a Sam's Club member (no relation to the park) the rate including taxes, for full hookup is $25 & change! It is a beautiful park and only 15 minutes from the shows. We're paid for through Sunday night but will probably stay longer than the 4 nights booked.

This RV camp uses an outside vendor for WI FI , $5.95 24hrs or $19.99 for a week. I paid for a week. We're able to watch our slingbox recorded things from home on our DVR with this good server.

Oh, there was another unable to find geocache here. I guess the first five were just lucky.

We will definitely stay here next time we come to Vegas.

This RVing life is so much fun. We're all so lucky, I think!

We had planned to go home from here but now there's a possibility that we will spend a couple of nights in Havasu City.

We'll spend at least one night in Palm Springs where I have a girlfriend that used to live next door to me in Holllywood, Hadwig, & I haven't seen here in several years.

My problem is only with choices here for shows.. HA.
Cher will be here beginning Monday the 19th & Bette Midler is here & then there's Neil Sedaka. No tickets yet except for the "So You Think You Can Dance" show tonight.

The Sedaka show not pricy but the other 2 are , however, we're seriously considering it anyway...can't take it with u! Right!.
Oh yes...then there's a new Cirque show at the Wynn. No decisions today....yet.

Joey's wiping down the rig, we have now named "The Shoe Box" thanks to our French friends Jean-Marie & Francoise & I'm doing hair etc...relaxing.
PS We're both feeling much better & I'm sure the worst of the colds are over.
PPSS Weather turning colder here, tomorrow , Sumday expected to only reach a high of 59...windy too.

Over Hoover Dam at Night

Nov 12 Thursday
We both needed to rest so we got a late start leaving Dazzo's Restaurant & RV Park in Wikieup, AZ. Especially Joey, but his cold does seem to be getting better.

Before we left we checked the iPhone app for GeoCaching & found that there is one only 1/2 mile from us in our planned direction. It took us about an hour to find it. It was nice being out in the fresh desert air. Beautiful views all around.

This was about our fifth found GeoCache. This is a new fun thing for us.

Anyway, this late departure meant we couldn't make it to the RV Camp in Las Vegas before dark...even though it's only about 160 miles from here. It gets dark now at 5pm-ish.

There was a lot of construction en route due to a future Hoover Dam bypass.
It was already dark as we came up highway 93 to Hoover Dam & all vehicles and RV's needed to be inspected....security. The look inside the trailer was a snap. Just an in-n-out thing, no big deal BUT then the guard wanted to know what was inside the zipped carrier on top of the car. Joey couldn't remember. I knew there was a collapsible ladder but was unable to remember what else. We hadn't opened it for over a month.

Joey needed to use a ladder of the guard to be able to get up high enough to unpadlock, unbongee, unstrap, unknot before he could unzip it. It took at least 1/2 hr. What a hassle.

The drive across the dam at night, with all the lights on and all around it was beautiful & the 15 mph speed limit made it easy for us to see as much as we wished.

We then drove about another 1/2 hr & made it as far as the Railroad Pass Casino & boon docked there. The next morning we searched for another geocache near where we parked but we were unable to find it. This was our first failure. Boo hooey.
We gave up when we were hungry & just walked into the casino for their special $1.50 breakfast! 2 eggs, 2 sausage or bacon, toast and hash browns. The coffee cost more than a single meal @ $1.75...HAH.

More from Vegas soon.

Middle of nowhere, Elton John

Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Joey has caught my cold & it’s REALLY worse for him. We were unable to meet up with our Alamos friends , Jayne & Mike, in Phoenix , as planned. We do not wish to spread our germs to them. We spoke with them several times by phone.

We have no idea how many miles we’ll be able to cover today…it depends on how Joey feels. I offered to drive but he keeps saying, “Not yet.” ….then it never happens. He hates being navigator & I love it so it works out well….usually. I say usually because I made about a 50 mile out-of-our-way blunder today.

The plan was to get past Phoenix , at least, in our route to Vegas. Phoenix to Vegas is about 290 Miles….way more than we currently feeling like doing.

From I-10 W out of Phoenix we took AZ 101 N to 60 W/NW. 60 & 93 run together for many miles & then split @ Wickenburg, AZ. We were supposed to take 93 when they split but we continued on 60….WRONG!
When I realized it we needed to make a big triangle route to get back to 93. Oh well, we got to see some more AZ desert.

Notes for hwy 60/93 nw of Phoenix. There’s a whole new area build up with not only Walmart, Golden Corral and anything else one might need. There were quite a few traffic signals for several miles but that was no problem for us.

Notes for hwy 93 FABULOUS road….way better than some of the freeways. Wide, smoothe & no traffic. We will take this road again whenever possible.

I checked the Passport America book to see if there were any of their RV parks on 93 & Voila!...ah yes in funny named Wikieup, AZ., Truly in the middle of nowhere we camped @ Dazzo's Restaurant & RV Park. All of $10 plus tax. Great Wi FI and when we went inside the restaurant to pay for our site there was a signed photo of Elton John on the wall. I asked, half jokingly, if Elton had been there. YES, he ate there exactly one year ago yesterday.

It was just after dark when we arrived; tired & weak from our damn colds. You can imagine how much fun it was when we needed to back-in to our site. I think this was the first back-in site for the whole 2 months! It took us several miscommunicated trys. I'm the director & he's the driver and both of us were badly in need of practicing our parts.

I always like to watch others go through this stressful learning process & wondered who was peaking at us now.

We surely must practice more before we get back to our busy Hollywood street & need to back uphill between house & fence.

Here I am typing at midnight. Nuts!

BoonDocked in South Tucson Walmart

Nov 10, 09 We Boondocked in South Tucson Walmart on Valencia Rd. Actually the security guard asked us , and others, to move to a different area in the huge, multi-store parking lot. We all moved to an area in front of the Goodwill store & Big Lots. (just notes for future travels)

Ft Wilcox Rv Park AZ

We camped @ Ft Wilcox RV Park just 1 ,mi from I-10 W @ exit #336. EZ on/off.
It’s a Passport America camp for $12 but with tax & $2.50 extra for Elect it came to $15.61

BoonDocking Van Horn, TX

We boon docked in Van Horn, TX next to a Motel with WI FI & we were able to get online with their signal….not too shabby, eh?

A Fun BoonDock in Kerrville, TX

Nov 7, 2009 Saturday night we boon docked at a Texas rest area at exit #514. It had WI FI as well as a dump station and potable water. The Texans know how to DO things, eh? This rest area is about 6 miles East of Kerrville TX where our friends Bill & Emily Preece live part of the year. We know them from Alamos, Sonora, Mexico.
I gave them a call & I chatted with Bill a bit & told them we were not going to unhook the trailer but just wanted to say hello.

About ½ hour later there was a knock at the trailer door. Joey opened the door & a man told him that overnight parking was not allowed and that he saw our plates were from California. He said he checked & it was registered to our names. Then he mentioned Alamos…..it was Bill playing a joke on us. It WAS Bill but Joey had only met him a couple of times in Alamos & didn’t recognize him. Then we saw Emily & we all laughed at their fun joke & nice surprise. They had brought some wine & we had a nice visit. We still smile when we mention it.

We’ll be pretty much hurrying along the I-10 until we get to Phoenix where we might have a short visit with some more Alamos friends, Jayne & Mike Williamson.

3 Nights in New Orleans

3 NIGHTS in NEW ORLEANS (Nov 3, 4 5, 2009)
We didn’t take Hwy 20 through Shreveport but took the shortest route to New Orleans.
We stayed at another Passport America RV Park: Ponchartrain Landing $31.61 a night. Wi Fi and on a canal. They have a free shuttle to the French Quarter at 10am & returns at 4pm & 7pm.

We always meant to catch the 4pm shuttle back to camp but always stayed until the 7pm one. We LOVE New Orleans & hope to return & spend at least a week there.
. The camp was about a 15 minute ride away from the French Quarter.

Or both full days we bought the $5 all day on/off ticket for all of the street cars & busses & we really used them. They also have $0.40 tickets but each time you get on you need to show ID & have the exact change so we just wanted to make things easier with those regular rate $5 all day tickets.

Just notes for us along the way

Nov 1, 2009 Boon docked @ a Wal-Mart
Nov 2 2009 Camped in Gulfport MS @ a Passport America park
Southern Oaks $22 had great WI-FI & lots of trees.

At Jake & Jamel's in Alpharetta, Ga

Haven't posted in a LONG time. It's now Oct 31, 2009

Yes, we're still on the trip. We've been in the Atlanta area for 10 nights & we leave tomorrow , Sunday.

We've only encountered 2 days rain so far and both days were here in Atlanta. It's supposed to only be cloudy tomorrow for our departure. We've been so lucky weather wise. (nope , just remembered another day’s rain in Shipshewana IN )

I just got an email from a friend in ABQ where we spent 2 nights back in Sept. She said they had snow which was very unusual at this time of year. But it was beautiful.

For sure we'll NOT be taking I-40 again on our trek back to Hollywood. Because on I-40 are the high altitude cities of Albuquerque and Flagstaff. I do NOT think towing in snow & ice would be a fun thing to do. no no no

I guess from this Atlanta area we'll take Hwy 20 southwestward towards I-10 (the Southern route). This will take us through Birmingham, Al,

Jackson & Shreveport, Mississippi and we've never been to any of these cities before. However, I don't think we'll have much time for those cities because we need to be in Las Vegas NV on Nov 14th. We have tickets for the "So You Think You Dance" show on tour . This is the first trip where we've had a deadline to meet. It will cramp our lack-a-daisical-way of traveling. (Surely I misspelled THAT word!)

We've been able to see lots of beautiful fall colors. That's our reason for traveling in the autumn every year that we can.

Here in front of kids house is a bright red one too. Probably a Maple tree. I do not know one tree from another. INSERT PHOTO later

One Saturday we rode with our kids Jake & Jamel & the two grandsons Oliver age 3 & Cameron age 8 to Helen, Ga about 1 ½ hours north of Alpheretta where they were celebrating Oktoberfest. It was a fun day & the boys behaved very well. We got lots of videos of them.

Another day we went with Jamel &Oli to get his hair cut. That was really entertaining! The place is colorful & lots of fun things to keep the youngsters thoughts away from the haircut itself. As in a Magic trick….misdirection! It usually works. I’ll try to paste a short video here if I remember & can figure out how to do it.

One other day there was a run-for-charity at Cameron’s school. Cameron ran 36 laps as we cheered them all on. Kids everywhere. More videos, of course.

Guess we'll be heading south but really haven't planned where our next stops will be. Thinking about New Orleans in a few days....Joey's never been there.

Oh, I want to remember our last night in Alpheretta,Ga. The neighbors next door to Jake & Jamel are Pakastani-Americans & they invited all of us for a lovely family dinner with them. The food was delicious!!!. A lot like Indian cooking. (Indian is our favorite cuisine of all time anyway )

We had a goat dish which we didn’t expect to like…boy were we wrong about that ….and a chicken dish & Basmati rice and of course naan. We really liked the food but having time to talk with Ayeesha & CamRON about “things” was lovely & interesting. This couple & their 3 girls are truly nice & gentle people.

They made the point that when they like someone it’s an honor to invite them for a home made dinner. Never in a restaurant. Restaurants are for business meetings but not for personal sharing. We felt honored. We learned the correct pronunciation of Basmati rice…the accent should be on the last syllable…basmaTI I’d always misplaced it on the MA. It’s fun to learn!.

ABQ, Branson, Mo & Effingham, IL

All is going well. Good weather all along except for about 40 minutes one afternoon in Branson MO..It rained cats & dogs but went through quickly.

Spent 2 nights in Albuquerque NM. 1st night had a really nice dinner that our friend Stevie prepared in her new condo. It was wonderful to see Stevie (Stephanie) again.

I met her in Alamos, Mexico in the early 90's.

Time passed, she got divorced from an Alaskan fisherman that played my husband in an Alamos stage production way beck when.

Stevie then moved to Panama City, Panama for a few years. She returned to ABQ where we had a reunion along with another good Alamos friend, Kay,who now lives in Taos NM where we all got acquainted again for a few days at Kay's beautiful adobe home. That reunion was Oct or Nov 2008 I think. Anyway, it's now been a year since & it was SO good to see her again.

We spent 4 nights in Branson, Mo...saw 4 shows...all good. We met up with Peg Cantwell & Larry Earp there (yes he IS....as in Wyatt )

It was truly a serendipitous happening. Thanks to another friend in Alamos, Dolores Parker. We had met Peg & Lar in Dolores' house last March when we were in Alamos. They told us they were full-timers living in San Diego. They had been there 2 years & decided that if they were going to fulfill their "bucket-list" they'd better get moving. In an email, on our way to Branson, Dolores told us that Peg & Lar were also on their way to Branson. Anyway, it all worked out & we were in their RV when the cats & dogs downpour happened. Hey, they even have a fireplace in their RV 38' home. We call our RV the "breadbox" & theirs the mansion!

Now we're in Effingham Illinois of all places. Guess what? This is one of our very favorite RV parks!

We didn't leave Branson until about noon and after just a few hours driving, interrupted only by an 1 1/2 hr lunch & gas stops....we were tired & just picked a Good Sam RV camp out of the book close to where we were when we got tired. There were no Passport America RV camps when we were ready to call it quits for the day. That was about 4pm.

It's called Camp Lakewood they do have a website...I'll see if its any good...if so I'll past it here. Well it's not a bad site.

http://www.camplakewoodcampground.com/reservations.php

We'll be leaving Camp Lakewood after 2 nights & 3 loads of clean laundry and on our way to my family in Coldwater MI about 500 miles from here.

But before we get there we plan to spend tomorrow night, Monday, & maybe Tuesday night in night in Shipshewana, Indiana . ship-she-who? We've passed through this lovely Amish area before but it wasn't on a day when the huge Shipshewana Flea Market happens. That's on Tuesdays & Wednesdays. There's now an RV park right adjacent to the Flea Market & , what the heck, we're going to just do it. We do NOT need any more "stuff" but it will be fun to look. Are you taking any bets? Ha ha.

http://www.tradingplaceamerica.com/fleamarket.php

By the way, cheapest gas so far was NW of St Louis about 40 miles West of the Illinois boarder on I-70. $2.09 per gal all over the place. Too bad we'd filled up earlier @ $2.19 gal and only needed about 1/4 of a tank. We were happy anyway. PS we had gusty winds from Branson to St Louis but tightened up the sway bars a bit tighter than normal & that helped a lot, we think. Gusts up to 27 mph were being reported.

--
Trish

Ah Memories: Our French Friends

Our friends Jean_Marie and Francoise from Paris were here for 3 days in a hotel right behind the Kodak Theatre here in Hollywood & within walking distance to our house. We hadn't seen them in 8 years & had a LOVELY, simple, family-type time. We went up to the Observatory & out to Venice Beach; Ate Indian food and at Baja Fresh. They brought us a can of Foie Gras made by her family in the south of France.

We miss them already but happily we both have Skype and WebCams so we were able to see and speak with them this morning ( 11am here) the "Magic" time there in Paris....meaning late in the day when everything turns a lovely yellow/orange color & long long shadows are magical. Best time for photos. Jean-Marie is a fabulous photographer & has take photos all over the world.

I met them in Japan over 27 years ago when we were all traveling there. We ended up traveling together in Japan for about a week & staying in Minshukus and Ryokans...yikes don't remember how to spell those but they're similar to a B & B or a guest house or some even like Hostel. It was a good time many years ago.

Over the years since then they've visited us in the states two or three times & we've seen them inParis several times as well.

OH my, the craziest trip with them in, maybe, 1984 was from Paris through the south of France to have an al fresco dinner & Foie Gras with Francoise's family. This is the trip where some dumb Americans learned the difference between pate & Foie Gras. WOW, what a difference!!! and THEN , and THEN on to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain !

We slept on a blanket in a park because there were no rooms to be had. It was hot and noisy 24 hours a day. I don't thing ANYBODY slept much. I know WE didn't. No, we did not run with the bulls but had a great viewing spot on top of a fence. I would never be able to climb up on that fence today. Sure glad we did it when we were able to.

Note: Francoise told me that a Fig Chutney is especially good with the Foie Gras on top of a "good" , slightly toasted bread.

Well, I got carried away on memory-lane. It felt good !

BitterSweet PickUp

Today's the day! We weren't due at the dealership until 0730 but we got up at 5:30 am. Nerves!

The dealership's service dept fellow , Mark, spent over one hour showing us MANY things. We NEVER would have been able to remember most of it. I took our little FlipVideo camera & really used it. Mark was so good. Every time I'd stop recording to save time on the 1 hr video's built-in memory, he would say..."Nope, not yet...you'll want to have this for later viewing. " He was a fast talker but welcomed questions....dank gawd. I don't know WHAT we would have done if we'd gotten a non-personable or worse a poorly informed guy. Mark is the "sweet" part.

We picked up the trailer an hour south of us in Irvine, Ca ; practiced backing up for 3 hrs in a huge lot then drove to our house in Hollywood where we knew we were not going to even try to get it into the driveway today but hoping to at least to find a spot on our street where we could park it overnight.

Because we live within walking distance to the Hollywood bowl I think everyone was parked on our street for the night’s performance. There was no parking of any kind to be had!

The Bitter part is because we haven't towed a trailer since our trip toAlaska in 2007. That means we have totally forgotten how to maneuver backing up......meaning after practicing those three hours with orange cones to replicate our uphill driveway on a busy street in Hollywood we needed to then drive up to Castaic , Ca where my stepson, Stuart, has room for it. It was a VERY long day. . 1 hour south to Irvine, 3hrs parking practice, one hour north to Hollywood, 1 hour more north to Stu's & finally one more hour back home to Hollywood. Got home about 9:30 pm after a quick bite.

Rush hour in all directions...fun eh? Well, surprisingly, the traffic wasn't all that bad BUT when we were almost @ Stu's we heard the low-gas-beep signal & needed to get some gas with trailer in tow which put us to Stuart's house after dark.

Fortunately, Stu has over an acre of lighted, cemented parking for his own rigs (film industry 18 wheeler-type trailers) So we had almost no problem having a straight-back-up area to park our new "kid" between Stu's 40' RV & a boat. It was disappointing to not be able to get it into our own backyard so that we could pack it up for our anticipated first new-rig trip in September.

We currently have plans on waiting until Monday when there is street cleaning on our street from 11-2pm when there are no cars parked on one side. Hopefully, that will afford the maneuvering space we need to make-it-work! We've noticed that on other mid-week days the street is fairly clear of parked cars too...when people are at work, I guess. We'll play it by ear.

Well, we didn't wait to buy the new Trailer in Indiana!

Today is Sunday. I called the only Dealership , somewhat near us, for our chosen

Fun Finder X 189 FBS to see if they had received any of the new 2010 models. Yes, they did have two but they were both the 189 FDS.

The FDS is almost like the one we want except that it has a slide out with a dinette.

Even though we didn't want a slide out, more weight, more expensive, more possible problems in case of a failure we figured we drive the one hour drive down to Irvine, CA to see how the new 2010 models look anyway. There are new choices in upholstery & we wanted to check that out too.

All the Fun Finder X's made of fiberglass but we heard that the front panel with the window is now all one molded piece....sounded good. In addition, we wanted to take some measurements to see what needed sizes of various plastic storage bins for stowing things. There is a big sale for these storage bins now....gotta take advantage of that but not without measurements.

We lost lots of storage from our old 8' wide Wilderness....the Fun Finder X's are 7' wide so we can maybe now get it in our driveway without bumping into the house or the fence!

Cut-to-the-chase: We DID it. We bought our new trailer WITH the slideout. I'd told the salesman about the deals in Indiana without the shipping charges to the west coast. I also told him that the Indiana dealerships do not add on the extra charges for the trailer "prep" & the new owner one hour-ish orientation walk through. $700 in Calif!!!! He ended up waiving the $700 walk through charge & added lots of other stuff. Yes, we paid about $1500 more for the "slide" model than the NON-Slide price that was quoted from Indiana!

He added an extra battery with case so we have two 12 volt ones & an electric Jack AND they welded on or bolted (what ever they do) our removed-from-the-Wilderness trailer the load levelers & the sway control unit. They threw in the new "ball" for the connection..the one we had was too large.

As in the non-slide one from Indiana it includes the "fun pack" which has the BBQ that mounts on the trailer that quick-connects to the propane, a 15 inch digital HD TV on a wall-mount arm (so we don't need the new box thingy to use when we don't have a TV cable connection available in a park, an AM/FM radio w/ DVD/CD player & an MP3 connection port..cannot think what else. Oh, yeah, internal & external speakers. Of course heater & A/C.

No oven and only a 2 burner stove...yeah..I cook a lot...not. It does have a microwave & a large stainless 2door fridge & freezer. Bathroom is quite small but we prefer it like this to allow more living space.

It's pretty.

We also changed our mind from the Harmony White cabinets to the light wood color ones. That happened because the two units they had were side-by-side so it was easier to get a better comparison. The white looked so nice & bright & clean but somehow the wood color just seemed cozier...to both of us. It was hard to believe that we both felt the same way after going crazy about the white cabinets in the older models. So here it is.

The box part of the trailer itself is only 15'10" & the slide-out is about 9' long & goes out about 16". We don't yet know what date we'll be picking it up. More later.

A stranger in our midst.

This little Fella or Stella showed up on our front patio while we were sitting there two days ago.
We are NOT keeping her as our own because we are pretty sure she has an owner. No collar but clean , healthy & very tame & friendly.

So much so that Ki Ki (kee kee) we call him/her leaves her hair on my black sweatpants as she walks by ....leaning as only cats do.

We will NOT feed her (but we did put some water out) I'm hoping she belongs to a neighbor but likes to sleep on OUR patio furniture for some reason.

Our First Blog...TAH DAH!

In Dec 2008 we sold our little travel trailer we called "The Kid". Yup, we sold our "Kid" after having many wonderful trips as a free-wheeling retired couple.

I sure wish we'd begun this blog for our 4 1/2 month Alaska trip in 2007. Maybe when we learn about adding a GoogleMap to trace our travels we might just go back & put Alaska in anyway.

We're looking forward to buying a new trailer this autumn in Indiana.
We've chosen a Fun Finder X 189 FBR made by Cruiser RV It's only 7' wide so hopefully we will now able to quit backing into the side of our house & our iron gate. THAT is more than bothersome!

The "Kid" was 8 ' wide as most units are & we got tired of tying up traffic on our city street in Hollywood Ca as we needed to back it in , uphill, through a narrow iron gate , & between our house & a chain-link fence covered with ivy. There were only about 4 " of space on each side. Yeah, fun...not!

One time it took us 3 hours because of the impatient traffic honking & complaining. We would go around the block & begin all over again! Several times.

The new rig will have a 60" x 80" Queen size bed up front so we will no longer need to do the "dinette-thing" every night. We will miss our really huge hanging closet but what the heck it seemed like we keep wearing our same favorite clothes anyway.

We may or may not end up with this red color...it IS a happy color though!

Well, that was a longer than expected first post.