Traveling Guts

Pumpkins, Trees and the Road

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About Us

Sarah and Patrick: Currently living in Yuma, AZ, United States; We are the Traveling Guts. We have learned what is important in life. It is us, Sarah and Patrick - best friends and we cherish our true love. It is our kids, our family, our friends, BFC. We moved into a 1957 GM motorcoach conversion in February 2010. Then we became the Traveling Guts. Our first gig was only a 100 mile move to Mason Lake, WA where we met very good friends and became caretakers at a beautiful private park. In September we left for Southern California driving 1,200 miles to manage a pumpkin patch and then a Christmas tree lot. Christmas day we left for New Mexico to begin our next gig, managers in training at a travel center. This was a scenic 800 mile trip. We fired her up in early March to start our new position as managers at an RV Park in Yuma, Arizona. Dolly is our home. She is 35', all aluminum, six smokin' tires and when we roll down the road we get the looks, stares and lots of photos. Dolly is named after Patrick's Mom. She has attitude and is beautiful just like his Mom! We are happy she keeps us safe on our numerous moves.

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Dolly's Facelift and Makeover!

We purchased Dolly in October, 2009. She is a little rough on the outside, but really just needs some tlc. She has a new Cummins Turbo Diesel engine, and a new Voith transmission. She purrs when we fire her up, and runs great. We decided to work on the inside since we knew at some point we would move into Dolly and wanted a cozy home. We ripped out a heinous passenger seat, an ugly bench and all of the flooring. There was a water leak in some windows so we left heaters running in her to dry out the sub floor. Patrick purchased good marine caulking, and despite the wonderful NW WA humidity he was able to fix the leaks. Yeah! Give a big hurrah for our Patrick!!! It was going to cost $1000.00 to get new flooring at a big box store so we went to our favorite site - Craigslist. A nice lady was moving to CA and had brand new oak laminate plus the padding for sale at 1/4 of the price. We also bought her new mattress set. Every free hour we were in Dolly installing flooring. It turned out so beautiful! Back to Craigslist for a passenger seat. We found a comfy leather Volvo seat from a totaled car, and Patrick built a platform so he could put his nice seat on it ready for a road trip. We sold our dining room set, and got a nice bistro table and chair set that looks perfect with the flooring. Also, stunning Yew wood slabs that Patrick sands then uses to build beautifully hand crafted shelves to hold Patrick's Mom's dinnerware set from Luxemburg. Are you dying to find out where we got all this from??? Yes, Craigslist. There was one item we did not skimp on (do not read further if you do not like potty talk). We replaced the disgusting aging toilet with a new one from a rv store. We just like a new, clean bowl lol. We finished Dolly, she was ready to move into, and we had a week of freezing temps plus winds to bring the wind chill down well below freezing and our pipes froze. Once again our Patrick, man of a thousand talents, stayed committed to fixing the pipes so we had running water. After a week of taking showers at the Y, multiple trips to Lowes for pipes, glue, elbows and t's, we had water! It is truly funny how much you appreciate the things that make you comfortable when you are without for a while. The following pictures are the inside of Dolly after her facelift and makeover. We reached our goal of a cozy home and we love every inch of our 280 square feet piece of heaven.

Surfing the 'Net

Bedroom and More!

Bistro Set, Horse Lamp, Yew Shelves...

...all you need!

Gourmet Kitchen

Driver Extraordinaire and Dolly!

Mason Lake - Paradise

We accept our first gig - caretakers at a private park on Mason Lake. It is an incredibly gorgeous area, situated between Hood Canal and Puget Sound. We leave Whatcom County on April 1 (no joke - ha ha ha insert helicopter laugh right now!!!), stopping in Bethel at the Bethel Tavern for a cold brew. We park Dolly across the street, walking in to see about six guys staring at us with looks of surprise. One says to us "you get lost?" We laugh and say we are on a long road trip and need a beer. We visit with the regulars until the glass is empty and back to Dolly. We arrive at the park to a friendly welcoming crowd of the neighbors that will quickly become our friends. This is a giving and kind group of people. Over the course of our time as caretakers we are offered vehicles to use, meals, places to stay for our family when they visit, boat rides, strawberries and veggies from the flourishing gardens, fresh salmon and halibut. The local kids are wonderful and we always enjoy their company when they stop by to see us before continuing to the lake to go swimming. We have a caretaker bbq the last friday of every month, and that became something we really looked forward to since it was time to get to know our new friends better and the food was always delicious. After almost five months we left for So. Cal. with unforgettable memories of our friends and neighbors at Mason Lake.

Larry and Patrick

Trying to recover their hearing after playing with the generator

Happy in love

Peggy and Sarah

Shucking corn for the bbq

Lovely Erin at Mason Lake

...gone fishing

Stunning Bride!

Proud Daddy gave beautiful Erin a ride to her wedding reception

Bikers Fighting Cancer

http://www.bikersfightingcancer.org

Renewal of vows at the Hereford Chip

"Give me a mooch, you old bastard!"

Patrick's brother Reggie chatting with his beloved son Matt

BFC Family

Reggie's final run and transfer to President, Blue Sky Chapter, missed here every day

No Luggage Racks On A Hearse!

Patrick came up with this statement and it is painted on the back of Dolly. He once had the fancy house, the new car, the new boat. Then he was told that he had terminal cancer in 2002, and he realized at that time what is important in life. True love, and the freedom of owning less.

It's a wonderful life

Mason Lake

Pumpkin Patch

The patch was set up with fence all around, tents and rides when we arrived on Monday September 27. The day after we arrive in Dolly, hundreds of straw bales and many yards of wood chips are delivered. We spent all day in 113 degree (record breaking) temps setting it up. We designed and created a maze along with a spiral with the bales. The rest were put along the ride fences. The big day came - 600+ pumpkins were delivered. These were placed on the straw and the patch was ready. We opened for business at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The little angels came with their parents. They came happy little angels, then left the patch as sad faced little angels crying and digging in their heels because they did not want to leave. Friday we opened for regular hours 9 to 9 every day. It was hard work, but was it ever fun. We had mechanical rides, a bungee jump, blowup slide and jump house, games. Then the animals came! Our petting zoo was a treat. We had pygmy goats, a shy sheep, rabbits, chicks, bunnies and a rooster. We enjoyed sitting with them after the patch closed for the evening. As the month of October came to an end, we got busier every day. We closed the patch at 6:00 on Halloween, opened cold brews, sat back and said "whew, what a ride that was!!"

Good Luck Visitor at the Patch

Our Patch

Beautiful at night

Oreo and the chicks at the Patch

A warm place to roost at night

Playing in Southern California

We had 2.5 weeks to play after the patch closed and before we needed to set up for the tree lot. Lara and Elliot came down so we picked them up in San Diego, parked the rental car and walked to Tijuana. We asked directions to the best Mexican restaurant in town, and it was good! Luckily Elliot speaks spanish since nobody in the restaurant spoke english. We enjoyed every minute with the "kids." We showed them the area making it as far as Palm Springs. Time flew and they went back to WA. Our next visitors were Kenny and Cindy. Again we had a great time, all of us enjoyed getting to know the area from the desert to the beach. Home for Dolly and us for three months was a dirt parking lot, set up as the patch. We liked sharing our little piece of dirt with the kids and our friends.

Amigos y Amigas

Blending in with the locals in Tijuana

How do I look in this hat?

Cin City and Rat City visit the Patch

Having waaaay too much fun!

Warm day at the beach

Needing shades in Nov - perfect!

Hotel California you can check out...

...but you can never leave.

Followers

Trees!

Two days before Thanksgiving our first trees arrive. They are unique Frasers from North Carolina. Easy to unload. Thanksgiving we receive Nobels from Salem, OR - they are huge with some weighing 200 pounds! We set up our trees and we look like a tree lot. Smelled good and looked nice. We sold our first tree on Thanksgiving day, and opened officially the next day. Back to 9 - 9 for five weeks. Our third species arrive and they are Douglas also from Oregon. We start selling trees, getting busier every day. Then one day, Patrick wakes up with a severe allergic reaction. Sarah calls 911, and he is taken to ER. After six hours, Benedryl and steroids, the Doc releases him saying we may never know what caused the life threatening reaction. Patrick took drugs for a week, trying to control the hives and prevent a repeat. Then he was back to selling trees. He carried a fresh wreath for a customer and surprise surprise...his hand and arm broke out in hives. If he touched a tree, his hand would go numb. We are thankful we know the allergy. Terrible to realize we cannot go back to Mason Lake. We do not know if living in the middle of a fir forest will be a problem, and we cannot commit to our friends then have to leave after a week. Funny to watch a customer's face as Patrick sits at the register while Sarah carries the tree to fresh cut it, then ties it to their car. They always comment about why his wife does all the work. Bonus is it gets Sarah extra tips lol. The tree season hits its busy weekend, then winds down from there. We start to tear down the lot, ready to leave our dirt home yet feeling weird about moving after being there 24/7 for three months. We will miss our valued employees. They have worked hard for us, and they are fun to have around. What now? Mason Lake is out of the picture. We need to find work for 2011.

Our biggest tree on the lot - a 12+ ft. Nobel

...sold to the guys in the smallest car - a Geo Metro!

Our flocked trees under the big tent

Trees at night

Fragrant, cold, fresh...forest green.

Flying C Ranch

We receive a call from Johnny, the HR Director for a company called Bowlin Travel Centers. They have stores with gifts, souvenirs, snack items, gas and Dairy Queens. They purchase a lot of jewelry and hand crafted items from local Indian tribes. We are excited that after an hour's interview, Johnny says we are his number one candidate for a position. He calls back in an hour and tells us we are hired. We will be managers in training at a store in Arizona or New Mexico. Our future has taken another turn. The Traveling Guts will hit the road at the end of December. We fire up Dolly and head to the main office for training in Albuquerque, NM. It was bittersweet to leave the patch. We are glad to have a new opportunity, but will miss the patch, our new friends and So. Cal. After driving 800 miles we arrive just ahead of a major snow and wind storm. After two days, we are declared ready for the fast track to a manager position at one of their stores. We fire up Dolly for an easy 80 mile drive to the Flying C Ranch. Nearest Walmart (that's an indication of civilization, right?) is 40 miles west. There is not much out here but the travel center located at exit 234 of I-40. The current managers will train us for our own store. They are very friendly, competent and successful for they have the biggest and busiest store in the company. What a great training opportunity. We have no idea where we will go in five weeks, or if we will stay here longer. Our store could be as close as 120 miles away, or as far as 450 miles. Lots to learn! The patch was good because we learned a lot of skills that we will use here. We dive in head first from day one. Patrick is learning how to do the paperwork (lots and lots!), gas deliveries and daily bookeeping. Sarah is selling, really enjoying the nice pieces made by tribal members. We live behind the store in Dolly. It is a great company, we have good trainers and coworkers, we are looking forward to a bright future.

GORE AREA!

Ever noticed that triangle shaped area where a freeway or interstate meets an on-ramp? It is called the gore area and in the dictionary a web shaped piece is one of the definitions. Makes sense doesn't it? Anyway, Sarah was driving at 60 mph on the interstate in the middle of downtown Tucson after we leave Southern CA, and on our way to New Mexico. Patrick was considering a beer since he was relaxing in his nice leather passenger seat. Sarah sees a commercial motorcoach flashing headlights right behind her. That is how professional drivers communicate in different ways. Then Sarah sees chunks of rubber flying out behind the trailer, yells OH SH*T, and completely ruins Patrick's relaxation time since he jumped about two feet. Have you ever heard Sarah yell? It can be loud lol. Good luck and timing, no vehicles were in the lane to her right. She moved over, then onto the shoulder. Unfortunately the shoulder was not wide enough to stop the bus there so she had to risk sacrificing the wheel, driving 1/4 of a mile to reach the gore area. Not knowing which tire blew, we walked back wondering if it was a dual or the trailer. No doubts anymore since the right trailer tire looked like someone had taken a machete to it cutting it into strips about 4" apart. The fender was bent up from the force of the rubber hitting it. Sarah had the important job of setting out a big reflector while Patrick being the gentleman he is, changed the tire. Lots of semis, cars, suv's, vans, etc. hurtling by at 70+ mph on both sides since we were in between that on-ramp and the interstate. It was hard not to look at them and worry that one little move on their part would have them mowing us down to create human pancakes with lots of guts and brain matter strewn about. Patrick is good!!!! Only 15 minutes later, we were back on the road. Dolly being 35', then add the 12' trailer and we do not just wander into any parking lot to purchase another tire. It took us two hours to find a place that had a new trailer tire (lots of truck stops with tires for Dolly of course). Poor guys - it took three of them 45 minutes to pry that shredded tire off the wheel because the heat had pretty much melted it, and it became one with the wheel. Good story, huh? All of it true, and now you know a new term if you did not know it already. Oh yeah, Patrick did have his beer after all. He earned it!!!

Almost at the Flying C Ranch

Not much out this way, ya reckon'?

Uncle John and Aunt Pat with Sarah Jane

Thanks for visiting us at the Ranch!

Perks at the Flying C Ranch

Our new employer really knows how to take care of their employees. The Ranch is truly in the middle of nowhere. Moriarty is the nearest town at 40 miles west. It has all the amenities you need, but it is a small town. So, we live behind the store out of necessity. At the end of December the interstate shut down due to a big snowstorm. If they did not have employees living behind the Ranch, there would be nobody able to run the store. The cost to live in our little neighborhood behind the Ranch is nominal and alot is provided. We live in Dolly, but there are single and double wides to rent. Regardless of whether we rent a place or live in our own rig, the low monthly fee includes full hookups / utilities, water, garbage and sewer. The recreation hall is nice and has a washer/dryer, pool table, ping pong table, games, air hockey, darts, full kitchen, comfy chairs, a 40" flat screen television, dvd and blue ray players. There are always snacks for us as well. We are thankful for such generous employers and store managers, providing us with a cool little neighborhood and an easy walk to work. We took pictures today so you can see how nice it really is here!

Recreation Hall

Easy to hang out at this place!

Company Car - official use only and btw, keep it clean!

For bank deposits, etc.

Storage provided!

Pets allowed too!

Guard dog's casa

Well for the Ranch

Coldest, sweetest water in the world!

Neighborhood Toilet - it's a two-seater so there's always a fresh bowl

Natural air passage - no need for a fan!

Back of the Flying C Ranch store

Ever wonder why it's called a ranch?

Exploring around the Ranch

The Flying C Ranch is high desert at 6,000 feet. It "warmed" up today to 45 degrees so we went for a walk to explore the ranch land that borders the travel center. Oh, it was cool! Some cactus plants had pretty yellow flowers at the ends. There were numerous ant hills, but they are covered over with a mound of dirt and small rocks since they are not leaving the nest in the winter. We found an animal trail and followed it, seeing lots of antelope tracks. There are pinon trees scattered about, with a pinon forest in the distance. Typical of this area, the wind picked up and we quickly walked back to warm Dolly. We have more to explore, but it has to be on a day the wind is behaving. Enjoy the sunrise pix. Some sunrises are even brighter and more colorful, if you can imagine. The stars scream out of the sky, due to being so far from any city there is nothing to inhibit their brightness. It is 40 miles to any city, and they are really just small towns so we receive the benefit of having clear skies most days and nights. This is a special place to live for Dolly, Patrick and Sarah Jane.

All the sunrises are spectactular at the Flying C Ranch

A benefit of being away from the city lights

Sunrise to the south of the Flying C Ranch

Sunrise to the east of the Flying C Ranch

Snow at the Ranch

Sky is always changing here at the "Ranch"

I-40 in the background

Prickly Cactus - don't get too close Patrick!

Flying C Ranch

Click on locations (Map) - see??? We are in the middle of nowhere

Snow!

Woke up to 1/2" of snow, hoped for more since we walk to work!

Sarah Calamity Jane

Run!!!!!! She has a gun!

Santa Fe - special city!!!

As managers and on-site security for the Patch and the Tree Lot, we needed to be there 24/7. It was fun and each day was different. Now we are at the Flying C Ranch and we have five days on, two days off in a row. Talk about a cushy schedule. K, it's just your typical work week but after ten weeks of 24/7, it feels cushy, it's our story and we are sticking to it. About 1.5 hours, and a pretty drive away and we arrive in Santa Fe. Now this looks like the pictures you see of the Southwest. Adobe houses and buildings, beautiful red rocks and cliffs, old architecture and lots of pride to maintain the history of this area. We head to Old Town first. Very narrow roads because the town was not designed for motor vehicles, instead it was built for horses and wagons. Our goal is a good sw meal, and the restaurant we researched on the internet came through for us. They have quality menu items - homemade quacamole, red or green chili sauce and salsa, baked chicken, blue corn tortillas, dark microbrews (it's 5:00 somewhere). Is your stomach growling??? It should be, because the food was excellent. We rolled out the door, very pleased with the lunch. The stores and galleries are good with some exquisite pieces of art. But, it was much more fun to walk down the row of Native Americans selling their hand crafted work on the sidewalk next to a park. Silver, torquoise, coral, onyx, pottery, rings. Many tribes represented. They all had a story. We will be back to see them, and look forward to the kids coming to see us because that is where we will take them. Our last stop was unique. We went to The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. It is the oldest Parish in the USA, founded in 1610. Welcoming and educated caretakers, amazing stained glass windows, eye-catching arches and a well maintained courtyard. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Cathedral and hope you enjoy our pix of Santa Fe. We look forward to the next time we can visit this incomparable city.

Do you know the way to Santa Fe...

...doo doo doo doo doo doo doo dooodooo

Genuine Adobe Home

Built of clay, staw and bricks

The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Cool cliffs on highway 3 headed back to the "Ranch"

Small town, USA Mural

Trying its best to be a big city

Church in small village off highway 3

Village had church, p.o., dirt roads and a car chasing dog - all you need in small town America

Flying C Ranch - inside the store

The Ranch is the largest and busiest Bowlin store. This makes it a good training place for us since we are exposed to all of the merchandise the company sells. The Native American artists are talented and we are proud to show their work to the customers. Three tribes are represented here - Zuni, Navajo and Hopi. There are dream catchers, bow and arrows, medicine bags, pipes, knives, stunning jewelry with stones and intricate silver complements, Kachina dolls and pottery. There are lots of souvenirs with many from NM, AZ and SD. The fireworks section has a lot to choose from, and some are quite spectactular displays. We sell stuffed Jackelopes too. They come out at night in the field behind the Ranch. They are difficult to spot, but you can hear them singing after midnight. They sound almost human. There are many employees that have been at the Ranch for years. Our coworkers and the store managers are very helpful, guiding us through the training process. It is a fun and interesting place to work. The customers come from all over the USA, and from other countries as well. They always have a story which adds to making this an enjoyable job.

Hopi artists make our Kachina dolls and pottery

Cost of my pet buffalo? Priceless!

Diamondback rattlesnakes from S.D.

Lots of fireworks to buy at the Ranch

Paul and Guy

Unique Zuni jewelry

Jackelope - only seen at night

Danny playing with a replica gun

Excellent work from the Navajo

Come on, pick out a pretty ring and take it home

Arctic Blast!

We will make this a long story short - record low temps (minus 40 degrees farenheit with the wind chill!!!), six inches of snow, high winds, all exposed water turned to ice. Dolly was cold! She is all aluminum, so she gets cold outside and inside. Ever seen the movie Dr. Zhivago? Look it up on YouTube if you have not and see the big house they lived for a while in the Russian wilderness. The winter was so harsh and they only heated a small part of the house so the rest was covered in ice. Although not so extreme, poor Dolly did have ice on the inside because the heater could not keep up with the windy, cold temps. We hope you enjoy our pix. P.S. We are warm again, it is a balmy 32 degrees outside today, February 5.

Dr. Zhivago revisted

Ooooh, what cold handles you have on your door!

Frozen casserole!

Left on Dolly's steps overnight - no need for a fridge in -40

Icy wheels!!!

Kind of a cool look for Dolly - unique right?

Dolly's icicles!

Huge icicles to match the huge tires

Hey Dolly, get us to Yuma!!!

The Flying C Ranch in Nowhere, N.M. is a great place to work with wonderful coworkers and store managers. But it's just too cold for living in an all aluminum coach. Not to mention we had record breaking low temps which did not help. So after nine weeks, we fired up Dolly to head to Yuma, Arizona. We have a job offer to manage a 55-plus RV park with 80 spaces. This will be good experience for our resume. The owner has three parks in Yuma so we choose the one that has a nice swimming pool and a small home he provides for us with all utilities. On Wednesday March 2nd we take Highway 3 heading south from I-40. We see no other vehicles for 30 miles! Lots of old homesteads and antelope though. We stop in Hatch to purchase a huge bag of dried red chilies to make sauce, and arrive in Deming, N.M. This is our longest day on the trip at 300+ miles. The next morning we fire up Dolly and get on I-10 to Picacho, Arizona. Oh, what a nice park it is! We are by far the oldest and most interesting rig in the park but they welcome us. We plan to stay two nights to relax, enjoy the view of Picacho Peak and the swimming pool. Saturday a.m. we are back westbound to I-8 for a leisurely 175 mile day into Yuma. We arrive at our new home and job. It is nice here, and the residents are friendly and welcoming. The home is being rented through the end of March so we will live in Dolly for a few weeks. For the first time since the end of December, we jump on the Harley's to explore Yuma. We are naughty and "forget" to wear our helmets, but we are staying close to the park and decide to ride without them. Feels so good to have the warm sun on our skin. We are thankful to be here safe, Dolly was a reliable and comfortable ride, and we are settling into our new town.

Highway 3...

...somewhere west of Nowhere, N.M.

Striking rock background

Faithful Dolly

Mom's good luck hat - worn on all road trips

Too bad Sarah Jane is so goofy

Picacho Peak

View from Dolly - impressive!

Patrick the Navigator...

...more beer = better directions lol!

Arizona Mountains

Rough desert country out there

And you thought Patrick was tall?

Cool Saguaro Cactus grow all the way up to top of Picacho Peak

Hello, Mr. Handsome

Rugged good looks to go with the rugged rocks

We are officially YUMANS!!!!

Once you become a resident of Yuma, you become a Yuman. We have been informed that we are Yumans. Ha Ha Ha insert helicopter laugh here! After just four days of training by the previous park managers, we were declared ready to take over. They left the next day for Texas. We are responsible for cleaning - restrooms, laundry room, clubhouse. Very important is the pool! The residents enjoy the pool every day and they let us know in a nice way if the water is not sparkling clear, or the temperature is under 85 degrees. They are very great neighbors! Or should we say "neighbours" since we have about 75% Canadians here. We also collect deposits and rent since we have both seasonal and fulltime residents. It is an interesting job since each day is different. Yuma is not a large city and right now full of retirees that will be heading to their other home soon. We are told that it gets very quiet here about mid-April. Once again another adventure for the Traveling Guts. We hope you enjoy the new pictures.

Block Party!

Patrick is kickin' back for sure

Cool neighborhood "art"

Perfect cactus from beer cans

Ghetto move with golf cart and trailer

We moved from Dolly to a cute park model

Wanda, our mailroom guru and...

Judge Hattie, retired District Court Judge

Block party spilling into the road!

A lot of fun for the park!

Sign Here

No forgeries either

St. Patrick's Dinner

Oh, what a delicious meal it was!

Yes, that's my drinkin' glove

Cold beer, warm hand thanks to my glove

Patrick on his favorite Irish Holiday

Drinkin' glove keeps a callous from forming (too much beer = callous lol)

Our first visitors in Yuma - yeah!!!

At the end of April, Lara and Elliot came down to see us at our new crib in Yuma. Oh, we had a good time! It was hot, but we went to the desert anyway and they were troopers. We surprised them with the Valley of the Names, and they designed their names with large black rocks. The next day was milder, and we went to Mexico. That was fun as always. We took them to our favorite street-side cafe for $1 tacos. The tacos come with a huge platter of cucumber slices, pickled onion, pico de gallo, fresh lime and shredded cabbage. Total of $12 - what a bargain for a delicious lunch! We took them to the tea shop. They are really into holistic healing and naturopathic medicine in Mexico. They have a tea for any disease or ailment from high blood pressure to kidney problems, hyperactivity, skin issues. Truly anything you need to feel better or heal. It's neat there and the shop owner is very knowledgeable. We all bought tea and we made sun tea the day we got home. Tasty and refreshing! Then we stopped at the Territorial Prison. We had a tour this time by a volunteer and she had all sorts of interesting information to share. Then we blew their minds by taking them to the breathtaking sand dunes. Yuma serves as the gateway to one of the nation's largest mass of inland sand dunes, which extend for more than 40 miles along the eastern edge of California Imperial Valley. They have served as a backdrop in movies including Star Wars. They are five miles wide, extending for 40 miles. Being the young people they are, they climbed to the top of a very tall dune and ran down the other side. Cool to watch from the bottom of the dune lol. We did a lot, but never too much so we had pool time every afternoon of course. Time flew and they left with goosebumps at 85 degrees since they acclimated in the warm sun. The next treat - Patrick's sis Peggy and his brother in law Larry came to visit. First we went to Mexico for...oh, you are so smart to guess $1 tacos! They loved Valley of the Names and really felt the vibes there. Kind of hard to describe but it is a sacred place in a way. The names are not vandalized or destroyed. This Valley was started many decades ago so how cool is it that the names are respected? They found the Prison fascinating too. We had a wonderful Mexican breakfast at a local restaurant and the food was excellent. They make homemade tortillas, salsa and one omelette comes with cactus which was unusual and tasty. Once again time flew too quickly but they left us with great memories of a good time in the Southwest.

Tea Shop in Mexico

Note the big bags of tea behind Lara

Territorial Prison

There were both men and women locked up here

Sweet face...

...don't let it fool you he's locked up at the Territorial Prison

Let me out! I'm innocent!

It's too hot in here!!! The food sucks!

Prisoner #674

She robbed a stage coach

Local bad guy

Territorial Prison inmate for now

Climbing to the top of the dune

Getting ready to run down the backside

Sand in the ears, hair, clothes...

...shoes, armpits, mouth. Priceless!

Homemade tortillas, chorizo, chips and salsa, cactus pieces...

...your stomach growling? Ha ha!

Larry, haggling for a leather vest.

No Senor, I want a genuine HD vest.

Perusing jewelry in Mexico

Nice silver and stones here.

Peggy at the Valley of the Names

Just a small glimpse, goes on far as the eye can see.

Seven Weeks in Yuma

We arrived in Yuma seven weeks ago, and the park has changed so much since our seasonal residents have gone back to the snow and rain. Ha ha!!! We are still here, riding our Harleys every day. We miss them, and look forward to their return in the fall. There are about 12 year-round residents so we still have our daily duties - cleaning the pool, laundry room, washrooms. Our highlight was a visit from our friend Angie from Mason Lake. We had so much fun exploring the desert, watching the airshow courtesy of the Marines, and hanging at the park pool. We went to the Territorial Prison, and it is extremely interesting. It is a very old western prison set up high on a hill above the Colorado River. Prisoner's crimes ranged from murder to polygamy, with grand larceny being the most common. Cells were made from rock, with strap iron bars. The graveyard is intact, with mounds of rocks to mark the 111 people buried there. K, little more on the desert. Park residents took us to the "Name Place." Since the 70's people have left messages, memorials, love notes and more - all made from rocks. These are in the middle of the desert off of a rough dirt road. Our best guess is hippies started it, and it grows every year. No vandalism - people respect this place and leave the rock art alone. Very cool! After she left we had some interesting temporary job opportunities. Sarah was a bartender at the local bar up the street from the park. It was a busy Saturday night, and her bartender experience is, well how do we explain this, it is exactly no experience lol! Since she is a good saleswoman, and full of BS, she made it through the night including making her "best drink" per two different requests. Sarah looked at the bottles of booze, make up a drink on the fly and it was a hit. Woo hoo, BS sells booze in Yuma! The only authentic German restaurant for 200 miles had a Now Hiring sign in the window. "German Speaking a Plus." Patrick speaks German, so we walked in and said we were interested in working there. Next day, Sarah was washing dishes, and Patrick was serving while speaking German to the customers. What a hoot! Bonus is the food is excellent. It is authentic German food always freshly prepared to order, all from scratch. They close in the summer due to the snowbirds being gone, and the AC bills are way too high. We hope to be back in the fall, working on Friday nights when they have live German music. Patrick will be leading the Chicken Dance to live accordion music. Thumbs up to Yuma, and being Yuman.

Angie lookin' good and joinin' in...

...on the local jam!

Beavertail Cactus

The desert blooms after spring rains

Territorial Prison

First prisoners arrived in 1876

Ocotillo Blossom

Lots in bloom from spring rains

Angie and Sarah

Waiting for the air show

"Valley of the Names"

in the desert

One of the largest messages

At the Valley of the Names

The Chicken Dance

Don't we look good?!

German Beer...

...get a pint served in our Steins!

ROADTRIP!!!

It's time for a roadtrip north because Lara is graduating from high school on June 10. She is so excited to graduate, and we are excited to be there. We get up early on Tuesday, June 7 to clean the park and the pool. Then we hit the road. We take our '96 Explorer which has shocks on their last legs, and it's kind of fun - like a roller coaster when you hit bumps. We make a real push the first couple of days and make it to Patrick's sister's house in Portland. Thursday was an easy 175 miles to Mason Lake. We have "treasures" we left there since last fall we thought we would be coming back as caretakers but that changed with Patrick's intense allergic reaction to fir trees. Our good friend Angie has our stuff at her house, and our good friend's Jason and JD picked up the rest from a storage shed and have it in the garage. We were shocked at how much we have at the lake. We got rid of 75% of our things when we moved into Dolly. Why do we still have so much stuff??? So, we purge again and the local thrift store receives a bunch. What is left will fit into the car with only two front seats left open. We head to our old watering hole, JR's Hideaway for our favorite dark beer - Irish Death. We enjoy our time with our friends from Mason County and it felt like we never left although we have been gone for almost nine months. We finish our roadtrip north to Bellingham on Friday for the graduation. Man, it was worth every mile!!! The student speakers were wonderful, Mr. Clarke the Principal was a funny and eloquent speaker as he always is, and our Lara had her big grin on when they called her name and she accepted her diploma. The next day is Lara's graduation party at Mom's house in Mukilteo. It was perfect! It was a graduation party, brother Eric's 40th birthday party and a family reunion all in one. Eric lives in L.A., we are Yumans, the kids live in Bellingham and the rest of the family in the Seattle area. We just don't all get together that often so it was a treat. It was also Mason County's Relay For Life, so Patrick joined our good friend Teri and his daughter Erin to walk the Survivor's Lap. "Powerful, emotional, very good" was his description of the day. The pictures reflect the emotions. Patrick joined the grad party in the afternoon. On Sunday we fired up the Explorer to head south. We need to be home on Tuesday, but we decide not to push so hard and we really enjoyed our trip south. Once we hit Northern California we take the interstate to Reno for a different route home and that was a scenic drive. It was all quiet interstates, small towns and backroads until we hit I-8 with only 20 miles left to drive home to Yuma. We talked, laughed, enjoyed the views and had a nice roadtrip home. Seeing the exit sign to Yuma, we both exhaled a big sigh of relief. Our roadtrip was priceless and worth every minute! It was seven days and 3,250 miles. It took a case of beer, a couple dozen cups of coffee, countless jokes, teasing and laughter.

Irish Death and good friends...

...a great time for everyone at JR's

Lara and Mom

Graduation Night!

Lara with her diploma

WOO HOO!!!

The Graduate - day after...

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's

Patrick and Lara

"Congratulations, honey"

Eric the birthday boy and Leslie

And one little angel's hand, thank you very much

Look at these smilin' faces!

Grad Party

Patrick and Elliot

Why wear shades indoors, E???

Quatro Amigos

What is that in the background, sunshine?

Two beautiful ladies and one handsome man

Relay For Life - Survivor's Walk

Erin and Dad

Together at the Survivor's Lap

"Never Give Up"

BFC represented at the Relay

Mohave River

Not much tubing on this river

Mountains on our roadtrip south

John Muir Wilderness - spectacular

Welcome home you...

...Yumans!

Pooltime!

Floaty with a cup holder, perfect!

Aaaaaah, all road trips should end in the pool

Noodles keep Patrick afloat

Dolly has a new family now

We have settled into our new home at the park in Yuma, and will not be living in Dolly anymore so we listed her for sale on Craigslist. We are surprised after a couple of weeks that we did not have any interest from people in Arizona. The most hits came from the San Francisco area, I think it's the hippies wanting to go back to their bus living lifestyle. We get a call from a family in L.A. that is doing the same thing we did - sell everything, get rid of the treasures, downsize and move into a rig. They decide to buy Dolly and will move in - Mom, Dad, two boys, a dog and three cats. Whew! The Dad, Kelwin, has driven trucks so we are glad to know Dolly will have an experienced driver behind the wheel. Kelwin arrives with his son Ryder on a Thursday, and spends two days getting familiar with Dolly. Patrick and Kelwin fix some minor issues, fill the tank with diesel and hook up the car which will be towed home behind Dolly. Kelwin assures us that he understands how special Dolly is to us, and he will take care of her. He gets it, that she is so much more than a bus. We belonged to Dolly for almost two years. We worked in four different states, traveled over 3,000 miles through WA, OR, CA, NM and AZ. She joined us for once in a lifetime memories. Saturday morning we hear Dolly fire up, and our eyes tear up. We wander over to see them off and take pictures. After big hugs, they leave for home and the beginning of their adventures in Dolly.

Kelwin and Ryder

Ready to hit the road!

Bye Dolly

See ya around the next bend

A Cold Shower and an Ass

Front page Sunday news in Yuma - city is named hottest in U.S. According to The Weather Channel, we are number one in the top six hottest cities. We get it!!! The heat is one issue at 110+ degrees most days now that we are in July. The second issue is the humidity. Not in Yuma, but in the mountains that surround Yuma. It rains all around town, then we get the benefit of the humid air. When the humidity gets to 50% or higher, it feels like you can drink the air. Wow! It is warm. We get our work done at the park by 9:00 in the morning, because after that it is too hot outside and we overheat quickly. When it gets very warm in the afternoon, a cold shower is the way to cool off. NOT! There is no cold water! The closest we get is lukewarm and this is when the faucet is turned to the coldest it gets. Funny, huh? So we take a "cold" shower, then stand in front of the fan to dry off. It's refreshing, and good as it gets for now ha ha! Do not take this the wrong way, for we still love living in Yuma. We just have to adapt to the heat and it will stay this way through August. For July 4th weekend, we escape to Bullhead City on Saturday since it is almost ten degrees cooler than Yuma (only 110 degrees versus 120 in Yuma lol!). It is right on the Colorado River across from Laughlin, NV. On Sunday we head to Oatman. This is a former mining town in the Black Mountains of Mohave County. It is a cute rustic town, famous for the asses. Oh sorry, they prefer to be called burros. They are wild, yet roam the town begging for carrots from the tourons. They came to the area with the prospectors in 1915, and then turned loose after the mining was finished. It was a hoot to see the cars come into town, then honk at the burros to move, then finally give up and drive around the animals. The burros know who really owns the town, and it's not the humans. We drove home on a less traveled road like we usually do to see different scenery. We spotted two kit foxes crossing the road which was a treat. They are darling with big ears and a bushy tail. They are common in the southwest, but new to us. We get home to a mess in the park! A big wind storm came through and the bottom of the swimming pool was covered with fine sand. In the pool and throughout the park there were long seed pods from the local annoying mesquite tree. The pods dry up, then when they break open it looks like watermelon seeds have been thrown all over the ground. On Wednesday we realize we should not be complaining since we avoided the massive dust storm called a Haboob that hit Phoenix Tuesday evening. Wow, what a mess! If you missed the incredible pictures, google Phoenix dust storm or Haboob. You will be impressed, promise.

Cute boutique

In Oatman

Janet with Sarah

Friendly bartender in Oatman

What do you think about the hair Patrick has grown?...

What a 'do!

Oatman is surrounded by stark mountains, desert and old buildings

Lots of mining equipment too

A fresh carrot

For Patrick's new friend

Feed me through this hole...

...so my treat is a surprise

Drive through dining

For the discriminating burros

Cactus is bigger than the pub door!

A fine cold one in the heart of Oatman

Arizona Rocks

Off the "road less traveled"

Agriculture in Yuma

Yuma's economy has an important driving force - a $3.1 billion agriculture industry. The soil is rich with deep and fertile river bottoms. There are approximately 150 different types of crops from citrus and melons to greens and grains. Plenty of water from the Colorado combined with sunshine 95% of the year and we have excellent growing conditions. The other fascinating fact about this area is the African plants and crops. We share the same types of arid and desert conditions, so you will find plants along with animals that came from Africa now flourishing here. Next to our park is a huge field of Sudan grass, native to tropical and subtropical regions of Eastern Africa. It grows to eight feet tall, then is cut, aged for about a week then baled for cattle feed. No sprinklers are used, instead they flood the field with water about once a week. We enjoy watching little seedlings grow to large stalks that tower over us when we leave the park. All over Yuma there are majestic Date Palm trees. Take a quick guess where they came from? You are so smart, yes they came from Morocco, Africa. This is the Medjool date palm, considered such a delicacy that the royalty of Morocco hoarded all the fruit for their families. Sometime around the turn of the century, a disease killed most the their date trees, but there were some saved that were shipped to Yuma. This is an important addition to the local agriculture industry, and trust us that this "king of dates" is very sweet yet intensely rich. There are burros in many places in the southwest because they are such a hardy animal in arid country, and perfect to carry prospector's equipment. Burros evolved from the deserts of Northern Africa, and were brought here from Mexico or Spain. We find this area interesting and educational. What a bonus for us!