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Spring/Summer: 2 0
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to "Fall/Winter" 2024-25 |
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Thursday,
May 22, 2025: After traveling from Eureka, California we
crossed the Oregon border and are spending the next four
nights at the Brookings Elks Lodge. We were able to get
our favorite spot in their RV park. It is the
corner lot surrounded with grass and the most private
space in the park.
While away from Oregon their are two stores we miss the
most. Those stores are Fred Meyer and Bi-Mart. We both
visited Fred Meyer today but I also visited Bi-Mart.
Brookings has a unique two story Fred Meyer, the only
two story Fred Meyer that I know of. Bi-Mart is in
Oregon, Washington and Idaho only and is employee owned.
We prefer Bi-Mart over Walmart. Click both photos for
another view.
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Wednesday, May 21, 2025:
Our day began with laundry again. This laundromat
was very expensive. $6 for the cheapest wash but $9 for
a larger machine. When I looked at reviews on
Eureka laundromats, they all said expensive.
The afternoon was spent getting ready to go early in the
morning. We had roast beef sandwiches and cole slaw
along with soap and dessert. We will be leaving
for Brookings Oregon early tomorrow morning.
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Tuesday, May 20, 2025: Gwen,
Abby and I drove to Arcata which is just a few miles north of
Eureka. Arcata is the home of Humboldt State University now
known as Cal Poly Humboldt. When I was in college in the 60s
Arcata was known as a "Hippie" town and it still is that kind of
town. The shops are unique and reflect the Hippie style. The
house on the right is actually in Eureka and belonged to the
owner of the local lumber mill a century ago. Click that photo
to see a record shop of the style I visited in the 60s during my
college days. Click all the photos for more views. |
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Monday: May 19, 2025:
Yesterday I turned the battery on in the car to roll
windows down for Abby but then failed to turn the
battery off. So it meant a call to AAA to get us started
again. Shawn arrived quickly and within minutes the car
was running again.
Abby and I took a walk around old town then onto the
wharf. We passed many interesting shops but only window
shopping. The old buildings made us feel like we had
stepped back in time. Many of the shops were closed
apparently because it was Monday. Eureka happens to have
a Costco where we bought only food items since
California does not tax food. We will be in Oregon on
Thursday where there is no sales tax. Click all the
photos for more views. |
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Sunday, May 18, 2025: We
drove north today on Highway 1. It is a very scenic road
with views of the ocean then through the huge trees on
the California north coast. It also has more 10
and 15 mph hairpin turns than any other road we have
experienced. I was in second gear while climbing
and in first gear while descending most of the time.
This Elks lodge is one of the nicest we have scene. This
lodge has more than 1400 members while the Tucson Lodge
we just joined has 450. This Elks lodge has been here
more than 100 years. Their RV park is one of the
nicest with full hookups and still charging only $35 per
night.
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Saturday, May 17, 2025: Abby and I
take a good walk into the Noyo Headlands Park across the bay
from our RV park. The Harbor RV Park is just to the right of the
bridge in the left photo. The Noyo Headlands Park is a popular
park with lots of people walking and riding bicycles. The views
of the Pacific Ocean are wonderful but wind is blowing pretty
hard. I'm not seeing any wildlife on the rocks and saw only one
seal in the harbor a day ago. Click the photos for more views. |
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Friday, May 16,
2025: After breakfast at the Egghead restaurant, we drove to Mendocino,
just a short 8 miles south of Fort Bragg. There are lots
of cute shops, restaurants and bakeries. It is an
exclusive area on a small peninsula into the Pacific
Ocean. From what I can see, their only business is
tourism. I picked out a birthday gift for a granddaughter
and later found a used clarinet for a grandson. Click the
photos for more views. |
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Thursday, May 15, 2025: My day
began with laundry at Lucy's Laundromat. After laundry Abby and
I went to the Pomo Bluffs Park to see the views. After our
hike, Gwen and I visited the Noyo Fish Market for lunch. Gwen
had Clam
Chowder, I
had Fish and Chips. Click the photos for more views. |
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Wednesday, May 14, 2025: Driving
from Petaluma to Fort Bragg, California. Fort Bragg is in a
remote area along the northern California coast. The road to get
her is a narrow two lane road with many switchbacks. Perfect for
a bicycle or motorcycle ride. Not so great when pulling a travel
trailer. But the drive is worth the trouble. We passed through
Boonville and stopped at the General Store. I found an apple
scone, Gwen found a chocolate Cookie. We have reservations
at the Harbor RV Park. Our space is only 100 yards from the
cliff overlooking the harbor entrance. We drove to Old Town and
found a farmer's market. The number of bakery booths outnumbers
the farmer booths. Click the photos for more views. |
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Tuesday, May 13, 2025: My morning
began with a trip to Mike's Bike shop. My front tire was not
holding air, I suspected it needed sealant, so far I believe I
was right. Next, I show Gwen where son Ben and the kids like to
come to Windsor for a few days of swimming. We drove on to
Healdsburg Plaza to walk the streets looking at unique shops and
the central plaza. On the return to Petaluma we stopped at
Costco for gas where we saved 40 cents per gallon. Click the
photos for more views. Abby got to walk the Healdsburg
Plaza with us. |
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Monday, May 12, 2025: This was a
wet and windy day so Gwen decided she wanted to visit thrift
stores. We actually found four to visit. I liked the Hippy
Thrifty store pictured in the center. It was the least well
organized but the most unique items. My son Joe still owns
a turn table and this store had thousands of vinyl records. The
Alphabet Thrift was the best organized and cleanest. It's the
photo on the right. Tomorrow the plan is to visit Healdsburg
nearby. Gwen found some $5 ear rings, I found a shirt at the Old
Navy Outlet store.
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Sunday, May 11, 2025: This ws a
hard driving day. We took an Apple Navigation short cut
which turned out to be an awful road. The navigation continued
into heavy traffic just to get from central California ovre to
the coast north of San Francisco. Petaluma is on Highway
101 north of the bay area. Our goal was the Elks RV park
in Petaluma. We arrived about 1:30 but were exhausted from
the traffic and strong winds. We had time to take a quick
drive through historic downtown and found an area we hope to
explore. |
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Saturday, May 10, 2025: Merced has
a very nice Elks RV Park in the rural area west of Merced. That
made for a very quiet night. I unhitched to visit Costco for
gas. Much of Merced was also getting gas which made for a long
wait time. This was another hot day so we sat much of the
afternoon in the grass under a large shade tree. Abby had a
chance to enjoy grass again. Click on the left photo for
another view. |
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Friday, May 9,
2025: Our time at the Needles Elks Park was not
comfortable due to the noise of the I-40 traffic and
trains, both only 1/4 mile distant. The heat was also a
problem since our AC makes so much noise it would be
impossible to sleep under it.
Today was another travel day from Needles to Tehachapi,
California. We like the Mountain Valley RV Park in
the foothills next to a Sailplane airport. This
will be much more quiet than what we experienced last
night. It has been nine
years since our last visit to this park. We
have nice shade trees here and the House Finches are
always singing. The temperature was very
comfortable making it easy to sit and relax in the
shade.
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Thursday, May 8, 2025: This was a
travel day from Cottonwood, Arizona to Needles, California.
Needles can get hot this time of year since it is only 496 foot
elevation and right on the Colorado River. It was 95 degrees
when we arrived at the Needles Elks Lodge RV Park. It's a very
nice park with full hookups. On the drive to Needles we passed
several small towns which market Route 66 as a tourist
attraction. There are many places you can exit Interstate 40 to
drive sections of Route 66 which still exist. When we checked
into the Elks lodge we learned they were serving a
make-your-own-burger dinner tonight. We joined them because we
were too tired and hot to fix something to eat. Click the
photos for more views. |
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| Wednesday, May 7, 2025:
This is the view from our Dead Horse Ranch State Park
campsite at 3 pm. The last two days has been pretty
steady rain but nothing today so far. At 5 pm,
however, that changed to a downpour. No doubt all the
desert plants are loving this rain. Here is a short video showing the action at 5
pm. |
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Tuesday, May 6, 2025: Gwen, Abby
and I drove 20 miles to Sedona, Arizona just to see the red
mountains surrounding the town. It has been raining all day,
welcome for this dry desert but not great for photographs of the
red cliffs around Sedona. WE drove toward the cliffs and found
ourselves in a residential area of beautiful homes. The town is
built in this mountainous area so the elevation varies but
average elevation is 4,600 feet. For that reason it does
not experience the excessive heat which hits Phoenix. I
once lived in the California side of the Lake Tahoe basin, a
tourist area. Tourism during certain months was very annoying.
Tourism in Sedona never stops so living here could be
frustrating. Click both photos for more views. |
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Monday, May 5, 2025: Gwen and I
took Abby for a hike to find the Verde River. We were surprised
to see as much water since all of southern Arizona has had
little rain fall in the last 6 months. We were also surprised to
see evidence that the river can be much higher. The beavers are
active however we did not see a beaver dam nor a beaver house in
the river. Click all the photos for more views. |
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Sunday, May 4, 2025: Abby and I
took a short drive to Jerome, Arizona while Gwen stayed home to
do some artwork of her own. Jerome is an old mining town built
on the side of a very steep mountain. It is now a popular
tourist attraction as you will see in the video I will share.
Abby and I enjoyed the views but did not stop to walk the town.
Click these photos for more views. Here is the video I took
while driving the city. |
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Saturday, May 3, 2025: Gwen and I
walked Main Street of Cottonwood during a Harley Davidson Rally.
We learned there are many nice gift/tourist shops in Cottonwood.
Click on the photos to see some of what we saw. |
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Friday, May 2, 2025: We
visited Cottonwood this morning where we discovered a
quality art fair. This was all very nice art, mostly
painting, photographs and jewelry, all high quality.
Abby found and enjoyed the grass.
From Cottonwood, we drove to Clarksdale, the home of the
Verde Canyon Railroad. The 1 pm train was getting ready
to leave on a 4 hour excursion. It was fully booked. We
though we might return in the winter months next fall.
The train left the station just as a thunderstorm
arrived so no one chanced the open air cars. Click the
photo for another view. Here is a short
video of the art fair and train departing.
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Thursday, May 1,
2025: We drove as far as Chandler, Arizona where
we met Joe for breakfast at Cracker Barrel . After an
enjoyable visiting time we drove further north to the
Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood. This is our
second time here. We were here 19 years ago with
our first fifth wheel. We are in spac 54. This is
a very nice park with wide and long spaces and a good
distance from other campers. This site has electricity
and water making it very comfortable. We are expecting
some cold weather beginning Sunday so the power and
water will be helpful. Click both photos for more
views. |
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Wednesday, April 20,
2025: While cleaning the carport I found this
little guy just behind the water faucet. I say little
because I estimate it was not longer than 2 feet. You
can get a better idea of its size by clicking the photo
on the left. It shows me dropping it into a 5 gallon
bucket. I am always careful not to squeeze the grabber
too hard, I don't want to injure this little guy.
It was pretty lethargic, perhaps because it had recently
eaten which you can see the bulge in its abdomen. Click
the photo on the right to get a better view of the bulge
in the abdomen. I took it far into the wash and let it
go near a shady bush and rodent ground hole. Both photos
on the right are after I turned it loose. It looked at
me, acted defensive then felt safe enough to turn and
disappear into the rodent hole. This is my fourth
Diamondback to relocate away from our house. |
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| Tuesday, April 29,
2025: We went to a favorite restaurant, The
Barnyard, for a last meal of the season
together. Clockwise around the table starting with Mary
on the left, then me, Dale, Daryl comes next, then Gary
and Jeanne and finally, Gwen. Daryl and Mary are moving
to Mesa, leaving tomorrow. Gary and Jeanne are staying
until the end of May. Gwen and I are leaving on
Thursday. We all have mixed feelings about leaving
since it is so enjoyable here. It was perfect weather
for sitting outside on the Barnyard patio. |
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Saturday, April 26,
2025: This morning I was working in the carport
and began to hear a strange bird song. I turned on my
bird identifier APP which did not work. I followed the
sound of the song and found the "bird" sitting
in the branches of our tree out back. It was
pretty high in the branches and I began to wonder how it
got there. Soon I notified our neighbor and Gwen then
both went out back to get a closer look. They found
momma and another kitten, this one was gray and in a
lower branch. Low enough so Gwen tried to pick it up
learning that it hissed at her. I took photos and
posted a notice on the "Neighbor's" APP I keep
on my phone. That APP is a place to notify those
living nearby of neighborhood happenings. I
immediately got replies with advice and two offers to
"help". In the meantime, I had taken a bowl of water and
bowl of dog kibble (I have no cat food) placed under the
tree. It is unfortunate we are leaving soon because I
would like to keep them around to be sure we don't have
a rodent problem. I'll talk to our neighbor about it.
Click both photos for more views. Oh! The brown
triangular house under the Calico kitten is a bat house
I hung.
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Friday, April 25, 2025:
Rincon Country East Summer Buddies are having a picnic
at the Aqua Caliente (Hot Water) County Park today at
noon. We have never been to the park so wanted to visit
with the Buddies. We learned there is a nice size
lake which was warm at one time due to a hot spring,
hence the name. The park property was given to the
county several years ago. This was a private ranch at
one time with an adobe house. Since first established
the subsequent owners added onto the one room adobe
house to make it into a really nice ranch house. We
enjoyed the paths, shade and took a tour of the ranch
house. Click both photos for more views.
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Wednesday, April 23,
2025: After our morning Summer Buddies meeting Gwen and
I drove to the Amazon Bin Store for dollar day.
Click the left photo to see what the bins looked like
today. While searching the bins I found the
package at the left. All I could read was
"Ear-Care". The box had no lid so was in a sealed
plastic bag. I decided to take the chance and pay $1
(Wednesday is dollar day) for the package. Gwen found a
package with two decks of UNO cards, a package of
stickers and a notebook. So our total investment was $4.
After arriving home I opened the mysterious Ear-Care
package. What I found was the "bebird kit", photo
at the right. Be sure to click that photo to see the
whole kit. It is a tiny video camera you put into your
ears to search for wax and other foreign items. The kit
includes tips to drag the wax from inside the ears. I
found quite a bit of wax in my right ear and much less
in the left ear. The kit also has attachments to look
inside the nose and throat. Amazon sells it for $49. I
am very pleased with my $1 investment. |
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Tuesday, April 22, 2025:
This was a busy day. I donated some clothes to a thrift
store, deposited cash to our bank then visited Costco.
My main reason for the Costco visit was to have the tips
changed on my new hearing aids. But of course I found
many food items we just had to have. After Costco, I
drove to the Tucson East Elks Club. After 17 years of
Elks Membership in Susanville, California (that's a long
story) I transferred my membership to the Tucson East
Club. We use the Elks Membership to camp at the clubs as
we travel. We already have reservations as we drive up
the California coast on our way to Oregon.
I learned this Rincon Country East will allow us to park
in an RV space for two weeks at no charge unless we
connect to power. That gives us water and sewer for
cleaning. I set out our solar panels which keep the
batteries charged. The refrigerator is on propane and I
run one ceiling fan to keep the inside cooler. This will
be our summer home beginning May 1. Our first stop
beginning May 1 is the Dead Horse Ranch State Park in
Cottonwood, Arizona.
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| Sunday, April 20, 2025:
There are only a few people left in the park but nearly
100 showed up for the Sunday Easter Luncheon. One of the
park residents catered a chicken and ham casserole with
coleslaw plus a dessert. We had lunch with our friends
Gary and Jeanne. We enjoyed the meal and company.
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Saturday, April 19, 2025: Gwen and
I participated in a resistance rally objecting to the actions of
our current administration. It has always been my belief that
government should be making life better for the citizens of
their country. Government helps educate, protect from foreign
aggression, rescue from natural disaster, regulate and
provide food and water when needed and maintain the rule of law.
Our current administration is doing none of that, in fact doing
the opposite. I found a quote from Ben Franklin stating
government should not be "despotic". I had to
look up the meaning of that word. I describes our current
administration perfectly. "Abusing power, tyrannical, a cruel
and oppressive ruler, using power unfairly, unjustly, harmfully
and cruelly, caring little for the welfare of the people." I
estimate 2,000 at this rally. Click all three photos for more
views. |
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Thursday, April 17, 2025:
Yesterday I bought a TV stand at the Amazon Bin Store
for $1. I opened the box today and found all the parts
except the base. Apparently the base was glass filling
the box with 1,000 pieces of broken glass. All other
part were fine. I had a piece of plywood on hand so I
made my own base. It would actually look OK if I had
routered the edge and painted it black. But I have the
TV outside to watch while I ride Zwift on my
bicycle. I didn't feel I needed to do the extra
work to make the base look nice. Now the top of my
workbench is clear of everything and ready for me to
work. Click both photos for more views. |
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Wednesday: April 16,
2025: On the spur of the moment I chose to visit an
Amazon Bin Store. I have never visited a store like
this. On Thursday, the store is closed for "cleaning"
and installing new selections. Friday the store opens
and the price of everything is $15 each, Saturday $11,
Sunday $8, Monday $5, Tuesday $3 and Wednesday $1. The
photos show what the interior of the store looks like on
a Wednesday. I browsed a small fraction of the tables
for about 30 minutes. I found an unopened box of ear
plugs, a broken box of a TV stand and a furnace filter.
My thinking was ear plugs for Gwen (she wears them to
sleep), a TV stand to get the tiny TV off my outside
workbench and the furnace filter for our HVAC system. My
total investment was $3. When I got home I looked up the
ear plugs, $17, then the TV stand, $40. I think Gwen and
I will go again on Friday just to see the store after
"cleaning". We have nothing in mind that we need just
curiosity. Click the photos for more views. |
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Tuesday, April 15, 2025:
A few
days ago I added a storage shed to our carport. I
wanted the shelves, which I had on hand, to be inside
the shed but they were slightly too wide. Today I
brought the shelves out of the shed, took them apart and
cut 1.5" off the width. I reassemble the unit and
installed it back into the shed. The photo on the right
shows a close up of the shelf unit clearing the hinges.
Before I reduced the width the hinges would be covered
and not allow the door to close easily. Click both
photos for more views. |
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| Monday, April 14, 2025:
Gwen and I invited Gary and Jeanne to go with us to
another movie at The Loft. This time we saw "The
Ballad of Wallis Island". It was a slow moving
script which gave the viewer the time to understand and
become sympathetic with the characters. I could identify
with a couple of the characters. For example, the
awkward musical fan who didn't understand what to say or
how to say it. And the musician which was surprised to
learn his past musical partner didn't feel the same as
did concerning their relationship. The story was about a
musician finding a new identity after breaking from his
past success which included his past musical
partner. If they ever though alike, they didn't
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Sunday, April 13, 2025: Our
wonderful neighbors, Daryl and Mary have moved to Mesa, Arizona,
a 2 hour drive from Tucson. We drove there today to see
their new home and to take a tour of the Mesa Marketplace.
The Marketplace is four half mile long buildings with sales
booths on both sides of the building. In general, the items are
unusual and/or priced well. This reminded us of the Yuma
Arizona Marketplace we visited many years ago. The
Mesa Marketplace is probably four times the size of the one in
Yuma. Still, all the same products. The parking lot was full but
the inside did not seem that crowded. Did we buy anything? Nope,
we have no place to put anything else in our little travel
trailer or park model. We ended up at BJs restaurant for lunch
which we all enjoyed. Click the last photo to see Daryl and Mary
deciding on their lunch. Click on the other two photos for
more views. |
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Saturday, April 12, 2025:
Our park has a "Walk Around Sale" once each month. Today
was the day to walk the park looking for treasures. I
found this painting for one dollar and knew right where
I wanted to hang it. This painting is 2 feet
square. The door blackout curtain is on the left
and the window shade is on the right. |
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Wednesday, April 9, 2025:
Lots happening today. I first went to the last Wednesday morning
Park meeting hosted by the Activity office. They will be closing
next Tuesday. The Summer Buddies with take over the Wednesday
morning meetings. See the photo by clicking on the far left
photo. Next, I helped paint Gwen's craft room. Note the new desk
with multiple drawers given to her by our neighbors, Mary and
Daryl. Lastly, my vertical storage cabinet arrived so I
spent the rest of the afternoon assembling it. I don't have it
organized yet but this little shed will help to keep our carport
clear of clutter. Click all the photos to see today's projects.
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Monday, April 7, 2025:
Gwen and I went to The Loft theater again to watch a new
movie, "The Friend". It is a movie for people
who love dogs otherwise I think you would find it long,
boring and not understandable. This dog happened
to be a Great Dane which is not a popular breed so also
made the movie more interesting. I owned a Great Dane
many many years ago and found it to be a lovely dog
except they do not live to be very old. It was
refreshing to see this kind of movie where the only
tension came when Naomi was threatened with eviction
because her building had a no-dog policy. |
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Sunday, April 6, 2025: My
friend Gary and I rode our bikes to Cyclovia (30 miles
round trip). It is a family event where three miles of
Treat Bike Blvd is blocked off of vehicles so bikes,
skaters, and walkers could enjoy the activities along
the Blvd. There were a hundred booths to choose from
plus activities, games and music groups for
entertainment. It was enjoyable to see the families
riding bikes and enjoying the day. The weather was
perfect, no wind and mid-70s. Every street crossing was
controlled keeping the participants safe. One of the fun
things I tried was to load my bike onto the bike rack on
a transit bus. I'm thinking of taking the bus to the far
northwest part of Tucson then riding back. I learned bus
fair in Tucson is free. Click on all photos for more
views. I also made a video
of our day. |
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| Saturday, April 5,
2025: March Madness is coming to an end. The two
final four games happening today. Florida is moving to
the final game. Auburn was in front by 8 points in the
first half but just couldn't keep up in the second half.
In the second game, Duke took control early but Houston
made an incredible come back to win by 3 points. The
NCAA final game with be Florida vs Houston. |
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Friday, April 4, 2025: I have reached season two of the
"Cruising the Cuts" British documentary. The
narrowboats cruise the English canal dug 300 years ago.
The boats are only 6 feet 10 inches wide hence the very
narrow locks at left. I know this is as close as I
will every get to England, the main reason I'm watch
this documentary. It is RVing on water.
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Thursday, April 3,
2025: I called Arizona Propane only two days ago
to remove their huge propane tank. They surprised us by
arriving this morning. We use very little propane now
because the gas furnace was removed last fall. We have
only two appliances using propane, the cook stove and
clothes dryer. Neither seem to use much propane. I have
two portable propane tanks. The smallest tank is 4
gallons, the largest is 9 gallons (the maximum weight I
can move). I believe we can easily make due with those
two tanks. I have a plug for the propane line when
we leave for the summer months. Click both photos to see
more views. |
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Wednesday, April 2, 2025:
I made waffles today. That's why I'm getting the look
from Abby. She wants me to share with her. |
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Tuesday,
April 1, 2025: I have gotten hooked on what my friend,
Glen, calls a "SNOOZE". It is a documentary created by
David Johns titled, "Cruising the Cuts". David
quit his job, liquidated all his property then bought a
"narrowboat". A narrowboat is 6'10" wide and
David's is 56 feet long. They are used to cruise the
2000 miles of canals in England. He cruises at 3
mph over canals, thru long tunnels (some as long as 3
kilometers) and under the many bridges. It is basically
an RV on water. A cruising day may be no more than 7
miles but at 3 mph is 3.5 hours of cruising plus delays
to pass through locks and tunnels. I find the show
interesting because it is as close to England as I will
ever get so it's like I'm on the cruise with David. Glen
says it boring. Click both photos for more views.
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