Travel Time again!

We left Florence, AZ on Friday, April 3 and went to Quartzite to stay the weekend with Doug and Kay, and her families that are there also. Had a great visit, lots of wind, of course, it's the desert after all, and Pam finally got to start relaxing again, not worrying about work!!!

We left there on Sunday, heading to Vegas and a night at Sam's Town RV and had a great late lunch with Jerry and Laura at their son's house, then back to the rig for an early wakeup the next morning as we had an appointment in Vegas for having the axles on the rig aligned. Well, that didn't happen AGAIN!! This time it wasn't a bearing, it was the shocks (Big rubber things) on the rig were pulling away from the steel walls they are mounted to. Called MoreRides... Let's see, $218 each, plus installation and there are 4 of them that are all doing the same!!!!ARGHHHH!!!

Oh well, that's a first of the month expense, good thing Pam worked all winter for money!!!!
So, we are now in Pahrump, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, for the next couple of weeks, then will head up to the Pacific Northwest and away from the sunshine and dryness. We'll miss the sunshine, but not the dryness at all!!!


Pam managed to get her 1st quilt done over the winter, with much encouragment from the quilters at Desert Gardens!!! It's now been over to the long-arm quilting machine (thanks Ken) and is ready for it's binding!!! Here it is!!

Sorry, can't make it any larger, this is from a friend that emailed it to me and it won't allow me to make it larger@#@#@#

Hi Everyone...

Well, we are about to end our stay in Florence for the winter and start heading back up to Seattle. We have to be there no later than the 15th of May which is about 2 months too soon!!!! Oh well...

Pam ends her stint as the Activities Director here on the 30th and we will be heading over to Quartzsite to visit with Kay and Doug for a couple of days on the 1st of April. A couple of days there and then we will be going to Las Vegas to have the axles worked on and then over to Pahrump until the end of the month when Jerry and Laura can join us for the trek up to Seattle.

While here in Florence Pammy got some new experiences including: getting to ride an ATV for the first time. She went four wheeling all over the desert one day...

Actually we had gone out to visit the 80 Arm Cactus, a Saquaro (sp?) that is estimated to be over 500 years old:

when we got locked into the land management land we were on and had to go out the "hard" way over ATV trails. I'll let her tell about that trip when she gets on here next.

At any rate we are looking forward to starting north but not too fast... See you all soon...

From Pam: It was GREAT Fun!!! The 2 wheel drive truck that had the ATV's got stuck one, so they unloaded them and asked if I wanted to ride on!!!! Do Rattlesnakes bite!!! YESSSS

We were both in shorts, sandals, and no helmets (they hadn't planned to go atving) but we put on hats, sunshades, and bandanas and had a great time. Sue is very experienced at riding and was a wiz, I took some time getting used to the drive, it's not a Harley after all, then finally relaxed and had a GREAT FUN time!!!!

We all eventually got out, even the two wheel drive truck, but the 2 hour trip turned into 5 hours, something like Gilligans Desert Retreat!!! Some of us kept waiting for someone to yell "You're on Candid Camera!" or that we were in Senior Survivor!!

Just another day in paradise...

Just to let you know, it's been in the mid to high 80's for the past 7 days and expected to stay at least in the mid to high 70's for a long while.
The managers that are here have decided not to come back so we are trying to get Doug and Kay an interview with the company. We still don't know if we are going to get to come back next year since the current outgoing managers are not committing to hiring for next year so the the new managers can make their own choices. If Kay and Doug get the job, then we will definitely be back next year.
Oh well, life goes on... Have a great day one and all...

Catching up...

Gee, here it is almost the end of Feb. My how time flies when you are having fun... We have been enjoying our stay here at Desert Gardens and really hope that they will have Pam back next year as the Activities Director. Alot has happened since we started here, but most of it is typical of "owner" parks. We really liked the new managers but now they will not be back next year, for family reasons they are going to Colorado to work. So, now we don't know whether Pam is going to be invited back or not. The new management company isn't much on passing along information to the workkampers.
We have an end date though, we will be leaving here sometime after the 10th of April and starting our slow trek north. We have to be in Fall City no later than the 15th of May for Pam to start her new "volunteer" job there. Me I'm going to just continue to be a "kept" man. Actually we expect to know whether the doctors can do anything for my breathing issue by the end of June and will decide then if we are going to continue staying in the Northwest or start doing some traveling.
The current plan is to leave here on the 11th or 12th and head to Las Vegas. I still need to have the axles aligned and I want to have the fellow who was so good last time we tried do the work. Then we will head over to Pahrump for a stay, probably be there the 15th of April and stay until the end of the month. At which time, Jerry and Laura should be joining us for a trek north. We are hoping to go up through Utah, Idaho and into Washington from the tri-cities area.
We'll try to remember to post more often and keep everyone up to date... Take care everyone!!!

Merry Christmas to All and a Happy New Year

Just thought I'd add my 2 cents worth out here before the end of the year. It's been a crazy year and we've had a great time going with the flow. Right now, if you don't know already, I'm a kept man and Pammy is working herself to death... Actually she's having a great time but putting in a lot of hours. We are at Desert Gardens RV Oasis in Florence Az and would welcome anyone who wants to come by and visit. The sites rent for $30 a night and are large sites. Or come by and stay the day and visit. Lots of people here but they aren't our friends yet. Have made a few new friends but generally the "cliques" stick together and we are just the worker bees... Mostly nice folks here with your normal few exceptions, but that's to be expected...

Anyway, just wanted to say Merry Christmas and wish everyone a great New Year... so far we have had one job offer for the summer but turned it down and are still planning on being in Seattle for the a good part of the summer...

See you soon

Slight change of plans for us

We have accepted positions at http://desertgardensrvoasis.com/index.html for the winter as Activities Director (Pam) and Jack-of-all-trades (Rick). We will leave the Pahrump/Las Vegas area on Wednesday, Nov 19 and arriving at Florence, AZ on the 20th or 21st and are scheduled to stay until April.

We haven't made any changes to our reservations yet, especially those for December and January as we've had changes before that we needed to have a site right away and want to make sure that since those are the busiest months, we have a place to go if we need it!!!

We'll be working 12 hours each for our site, then Pam will work another 28 for a total of 40 hrs per week, and we'll get that flat screen tv sooner or later!!! This just helps out with the shortage that we have for the winter's purchases since we didn't get the seaon-end bonus as was origianlly promised from the place in Alaska.

That's all for now, more to follow as we get to our new position/place and see what it's like!!!

We're Working on our new Web Site!!

One of our sons has created an awesome new utility for creating your own websites and we are in the process of updating ours to the new format!! Go take a look at it, it is still in progress but the Itinerary page is up-to-date FINALLY!!! We're having problems making reservations, but are slowly getting some of them made.

Hope your Presidential candidate won, ours did!!!