It Was A Very Good Year 2013 Our 1st 6 Months

We hope you had a good year, we did!  Following is a recap of our 1st 6 months.

January: We left Texas and head to Quartzite, taking our time to stop in Benson, AZ at the Escapees Park we are hoping to buy a lot when one becomes available.  We were than on to Quartzite where we relaxed with fellow Escapee’s from ‘The Boomer’.  This is a group with $6/year dues and very few rules.  I’m pretty sure this photo was taken at 4:00pm which is the start of our Happy Hours.  Charlie and Ed seem to be too deep in discussion to bother them now.

February: The Mexican Connection tour this year was to San Felipe where we dry camped on the western beach of the Sea of Cortez.  Oh my it was unseasonabley cool and windy. Note on the picture taken at low tide it is about 1/4 mile to the water line!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What does the ‘Mexican Connection Do?  From Left to right below:  We eat and drink a bit. 

Our 50 units donated $5,000 and lots of gifts to the several schools and orphanages we evaluated.  Charlie has to be watched he’ll take one home if Sues lets him!

We visited The Valley of the Giants along with several other attractions.

We had our annual meeting {required to be held in Mexico per our bylaws}.  Guess who was elected to 2nd Vice President, her last name rhymes with Arnold.  She will organize the tour in 2015!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We than went to Lake Havasu AZ which hosts an annual 3 day fireworks display that was wonderful.  We dry camped across the road from the event which is held in an auto race track.  Each of the 3 nights there was 3 compete shows as various manufacturers showed of their biggest bangs.  In addition there were activities in town, my favorite being a huge car show and oldies concert that requires about 8 hours to enjoy!  Thank-you Charlie Bowles for telling me about this!

March:  We had to skittle back to Austin, TX area where I had a spinal fusion which was a great improvement.  I can’t say enough about the great medical services I received at Saint David’s Hospital.  My friends know that I’ve a bit of experience here, this was the BEST X 5!

April:  We left Texas and slowly moved west and north, stopping for layovers in Deming, NM and the Escapee’s park in Benson, AZ.  Going North, we spent a week in Salt Lake City, we liked that so much we spent another week there on our was south bound in the fall. A trip the The Hill Air Force Museum was a major attraction to us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May:  Teton Mountains and The Grand Canyon, we spent about 6 weeks here.  A friend of mine equated the first view as almost a religious experience.  I have to believe this John, views from the South Rim took our breath away.  How about the couple that we meet that were on a world tour with a 1915 Ford Model T Touring Car!

 

Tomorrow I will try to put the second 6 months together.  To do justice to our Alaskan Adventure, I am trying to put together into a Power Point.

 

Happy New Year, Pete & Anne-Marie

Windy and Cool {I didn’t say cold!} in Texas 2013

We drove 3 days from Detroit to Texas.  Our only stop being in Nacogdoches, Texas.  We stopped at Motorhomes of Texas where I spent more than a little time looking at this.  This is a 40’ U320 coach that was about the best you could buy when it was made.  After checking our Mega-Million tickets I settled for a fish dinner at a local restaurant that came in at $40.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I always get a kick out of the method used by our southern neighbors to move 3 cars with one driver.  They are usually chained together with a front pate on the lead car and it’s mate on the back car.  Stacked on top are various bumpers and sheet metal parts.  Who knows, maybe they have a 4thcar up there!

 

 

 We were very happy to see our home parked and waiting for us when we got to our storage lot.  I went inside, closed the ‘fridge and drove it 20 miles to Berry Springs where we will stay while we settle up a few medical issues.

Our Friend Charlie Parfitt sent me a copy of this photo taken during our rafting trip in Denali, AK this summer. Thank Charlie!

 Stu Flood sent us a CD with a photo compendium of our Alaska Adventure.  Too many to post here, I am planning on making a powerpoint presentation which will tell the story.

We sure hope that you and your families are having a Happy Christmas as are we while we are sung as bugs in a rug in out little tin box!

 

 

Not a Routine Day on the Road. 2013

Sunday was scheduled to be a short drive (250) miles to Noblesville, IN. where we would have dinner with our Escapees friends Charlie & Sue Schaffer.  Than the 5 P’s got in our way.  You know the 5 P’s: Prior Perfect Planning Presents Pretty Poor Performance.

To start, the roads were still a mess from our small storm yesterday. ‘Small’ as in 6” of fluffy snow should not bring a northern urban are to it’s knees in this day and age.  Well, when I was a kid…….

Than we got a late start due to my auto awake system had not been activated.  Our Motel had an unusually nice breakfast buffet that begged us to linger for awhile.

About 20 miles later, I sneezed and started a deluge of a bloody nose.  My med ‘Plavax’ slows my clotting so much I could cut myself shaving and have to take a dirt nap.  When I could not get it to stop after 45 minutes, we ended up at Henry Ford Hospital where I received immediate attention.

Good Trick here; 2 tongue depressors are very securely taped together at one end making a very effective clamp to hold pressure for about an hour.  I won’t leave home without these as this is a reoccurring exercise in my life ;-(

Back on the road, it is almost 2:00 and we have 200 miles to go.  How can it get worse?  I missed an exit in Toledo {busy tuning radio} and was forced to detour.

Than Serendipity Happens when we least expect it!  We are in front of Tony Packo’s Café a Bar and Famous hot dog emporium!  Not famous to you?  Read the link above and if you had a pulse in the 70’s it will come back to you.  The dogs and chili were great as usual.

We  lingered over lunch, went back into retirement mode.  Call the Schaffers and told them that lunch tomorrow was just as good as dinner tonight.  We stopped about 50 miles north of them in Gas City, IN.

 

Hope for a better day tomorrow!

Almost Snowbound 2013

Yesterday was just plain crappy as far as driving was considered, time would have been better spent chilling out in our Motel room in Akron, OH.  Being a ‘Self-Determined’ {Some pronounce that Hard Headed} Yankee, I was not about to allow 6” of Wintery Mix to put our train off the tracks.  So we spent 8 hours traveling to 205 miles from Akron to try, MI.

Other folks who would not be deterred from they tasks at hand included the volunteers who distributed 500,000 wreaths and our veteran's cemeteries around to country.

The Annual Army vs. Navy football game was played in the snow.  The navy won the contest 34 to 7, it appears the Army never showed up!

 

We had the pleasure of being the guests of my cousin(s), Dean and Onora Smith.  Dean, a Korean war veteran was one of the top seller’s of GMC trucks since he started in the 50’s.  Outstanding? Several years ago he was helicoptered into the Indy 500 to sit in the GMC sky booth. He retired about 3 years ago after receiving Social Security for about 17 Years! 

Today we have an easy day, about 300 miles to Indianapolis are where we hope to have dinner with Charlie & Sue Schaffer.

A Busy Week Here 2013

Note:  I am uploading this from Akron after a long but uneventful day on the road from Vernon, CT where the I-net would not cooperate.   Maybe it was taking a snow Day?

It’s a good start of a busy week when we are able to start at our ‘Home’ Church, Christ the King in Windsor, CT.  We’ve been there on the last 3 Sundays when I requested help with our collection of toddler’s clothes to assist our friends in Mexico.  Here is a picture of Pastor White and Warren Miltimore who is holding just 2 of the boxes donated. Warren is a boyhood chum of my extreme youth on Victoria Rd.  Warren’s dad was a State Trooper, warren painted his State Motorcycle one, or maybe is was one of his brothers, Steve and Joe.  I asked Janet Burke to step into the picture, a pretty gal never hurts!

Time to play!  We were invited to the Christmas Party put on by The Grand Court of Amaranth.  The Royal Matron and Royal Patron hosted the event which was held at the Windsor Masonic Hall.  Gwen Rochette is the Royal Matron, shown here with Wayne Rettburg who is the Royal Patron as well as our Son-in-law.  Our daughter Grace worked the kitchen which tested her veracity as she had several equipment failure to contend with.  A good time was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday, Anne-Marie and I went to The Chowder Pot in Hartford where we feasted on fried seafood platters.  We had both be yearning for whole belly fried clams.  We would normally accept no substitute for buying them sea side, due to the weather, this had to do.  Good?  Yes!  Expensive, think about it.  North East is the sole source for great Whole Belly fried Clams.

 

 

Here's a picture of ‘Uncle Jimmy’ with his lady Barbara Jean Mangano.  I’m thinking that 70 is the new 40 by the smiles they give each other.  We’ve known ‘BJ’ for 25 years as her husband Mike was the Grand Patron of Anne-Marie’s first grand Family in O.E.S.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From A FB Friend comes this.

Here is a piece eye candy for you that disproves again the effectiveness of 100% visual inspection. Which of these two blocks is the darker color.  Top?  Bottom?

Now place your finger over the horizontal joint in the center.  Yes, the are in fact the same color.

 

We leave for points west as I post this….

Turkey is gone, time to move on 2013

We had a great time during our stay at Tom & Kathy Moody’s home in Bristol, CT.  Kathy is my Sister, she and tom have been married 47 years {best of my memory) and have two children: Nancy and Mike.Nancy is married to Chad, they live in Glastonbury.

 

 

Did I forget to mention Polly?  She is the 14 year old springer that serves as a roaming night watchman.  Non union job but has good benefits!

One of Tom’s hobbies is feeding birds.  Note the 6 squirrels that are having a ho-down under one of his bird feeders this morning.

 

 

On this trip, I introduced a bunch of folks to the wonderment of ZieganBock beer.  This was kind of cruel in that Zieganbock is brewed only in Huston and distributed in Texas. The 4 cases I transported across state lines did little but tease the taste buds.  I’m thinking Carl Larson likes this!

Our Thanksgiving dinner was at the Rettburg’s home with the whole family represented.  Nobody went hungry here!

We will stay in eastern Connecticut while we visit with friends there, than travel to Texas via Detroit where we will have another family visit.

I leave you with this thought that I found posted on a wall in MayBerry where we spent a night in Andy’s town.