Thanksgiving

First, we had Thanksgiving with all our fellow hosts here…. And a better group of people couldn’t have been found. This trailer actually is able to hold ten people for a pot luck dinner with seating enough for everybody to eat, drink and be merry. We are blessed with finding some really great friends here and some fantastic cooks… the food was excellent and the company lively and entertaining.

Wind Event

The words “wind event” has meant something different in each venue that we have hosted at. In Colorado we saw some gusty breezes, with thunder and lightning thrown in for drama. In Death Valley we had dust storms and winds that rocked the trailer a time or two and left powdered sand to clean out of all the nooks and crannies of the trailer.

… but…here in Big Sur it got right down scary on December 4th when a “wind event” happened. Here a wind event is a nasty phenomenon that Mother Nature has created to scare the pants off you…..

We have a very tall redwood tree next to our site and during a strong wind there are branches that drop off from about 200 feet…by the time the branch hits ground level it has become a spear. This wind was somewhere around 70 miles an hour with gusts that sounded like a freight train coming through.

After rolling the awning up we came inside and hoped for the best. About 3:00 in the morning (unable to sleep with all the noise), we went out to see if the world was still there. The first thing we noticed was that two branch spears (about six feet long) had hit our new tent and tore right through the roof leaving large holes with the branches still stuck in them. By this time you could hear trees cracking, falling with branches hitting the ground and the wind was getting worse. We went back inside hoping it would be safer and finally fell to sleep.

At about six in the morning we heard a large crash, which woke us up immediately, and Buff announced that our trailer had taken a direct hit…. With my heart pounding in my throat, we got up and opened the bedroom door fully expecting to see half of our trailer under a tree. The damage was less severe and the trailer is still livable … but a large branch, (we are talking about 20’ long and 4” in diameter), had speared the roof leaving a hole in it and damaging an interior wall. Since it hit about two feet from our bed we were instantly grateful that nothing worse had happened.

We will be coming to Reno April 1st, to have the roof replaced and the wall in the living room repaired. Buff has temporarily patched the roof so no rain will come in, but this is a job for the experts . The insurance company has estimated from six to seven thousand dollars for repairs…….THANK GOD WE MAKE OUR MONTHLY INSURANCE PAYMENTS!!! All it will cost us is the deductible of $125.….. We feel very fortunate that we weren’t hurt as one person lost his life during the storm.

Now on to the good stuff……

Point Lobos and Carmel Beach

We took a day with our neighbors, Steve and Karen, and drove North to Point Lobos State Reserve…. Absolutely beautiful! We saw Sea Lions and Sea Otters living wild… what a thrill. We had a wonderful few hours exploring the area and then went to Carmel Beach for lunch.

The beach is a large sandy area right in Carmel so we sat in the sand and watched all the posh residents of Carmel with their expensive breed dogs while eating our boloney sandwiches and feeding the sea gulls…. We had fun!!!

Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park

A day trip south to JPB State Park was another lovely visual experience. The trail leads to the beach where a waterfall falls over the cliff right onto the beach…. The scenery was spectacular and Buff took some great pics to share…

A visit with Rob, Angela and Kali and a trip to Monterey Aquarium

Rob was able to grab a couple of vacation days (right after our wind event) and drove here for a visit. He brought his friend, Angela and her daughter, Kali, to meet us. Angela is a lovely, sweet woman that we loved immediately and Kali is so cute you can hardly stand it. We spent the first day here at the campground taking a hike and having one of Buff’s superb dutch oven stews. The next day we drove to Monterey to see the aquarium….

Now, I have never been to an aquarium and thought I would see some fish….. This place is magic and it was easy to spend several hours looking at all the exhibits and the stunning array of sea life there. My favorites were the sea horses, the jelly fish and the sea otters. It is a world class aquarium and a totally grand experience. Rob and Angela took us to dinner and it was a perfect day…..

Denise takes a break and comes for a visit
Denise was able to find the time between school and work to make a too quick visit… but a great one. She arrived Christmas Day and was here for two more days. Her choices were a long walk through the park, taking time to visit and photograph the stately Redwood trees in our back yard and a visit to Pfeiffer Beach the next day. She was duly impressed with everything and has decided that we have the most wonderful life… even was thinking of throwing the Master’s Degree away and becoming a professional camp host herself!!!

Between adventures we spent a great deal of time sitting by the fire, visiting and watching Denise get totally relaxed… she took us to breakfast at a local café which was well worth the price…the food was excellent. Denise hated to leave and we hated to see her go.

A fellow camp host from Death Valley comes to visit

Last year we had the awesome experience of camp hosting with Margaret at Death Valley and we quickly became good friends, keeping in touch through the year. Well, Margaret and her princely dog, Casper, dropped in for a visit right after Denise left. She showed up with a lovely bouquet of flowers and news of our friends from last year. We were thrilled to see her and renew our friendship and spend some time showing her the trees, etc. We had two movie nights and then she took us to dinner at the Park Lodge….

Wow, all this company has allowed us to try some of the local food fare and we really appreciate it.

While here Margaret landed a job for the summer taking our place when we leave…. Isn’t life grand!!!

Saturday we HAVE to work …. We have to join our Ranger, J. J. and do some whale watching …. Aaaahhhhh shucks…..

…. we are hoping for a warm, clear day and lots of whales to watch….. Next post will hopefully have pictures to share…

We ended the year quietly watching a movie until a camper knocked at our door and announced that another camper had set himself on fire and needed medical care!! Buff called the Ranger and ambulance, then went to assist. I feel so bad for the camper as he had terrible burns to his back and will start off his new year in the hospital. So that took care of any excitement we thought we had avoided…….

Looking back on the past year we realize that we have survived a flood, two flat tires on the trailer, the demise of our generator, repairing the extension on the back of the trailer along a busy I-80 and a major wind event. and….we are still blissfully happy … all just a part of being a carefree gypsy…. HOWEVER, We are hoping for a less eventful 2012.….

Until then dear Blog friends……hope your new year is happy, prosperous and the best ever……

The Big Sur Gypsies

The pictures we offer this time are of Carmel by the Sea and Pfeiffer Beach. The pictures of Carmel and the views from Hwy 1 were taken last week when we went to Monterey to shop. The coast here is spectacular… nothing like the ocean that I remember from Southern California days of my youth. This coast is dramatic and wild, with cliffs that drop off into the ocean itself and enormous rock formations standing out in the surf….. Something to see!!

Carmel is a real fairy tale place… the houses down by the beach are little goblin castles or real big mansions… Denise…. The yards have “plant monsters” growing all over them… the flowers are large and colorful and plentiful… the prices in the restaurants will make you faint so we have no idea how good the fare is…..

We spent a day at Pfeiffer beach with our neighbors and co-hosts, Steve and Karen, last week so check out those photos also. There are videos on youtube of the beach…. Go to youtube and look for Buffalo1946 to check out the surf and surfers of Pfeiffer Beach. Sierra hit that beach and took off running like a wild thing…she had a real puppy party running in the sand and wetting her little feet in the ocean…. Her friends from next door, Moose and Bear (two male doxies) are wild things at the beach and wore her out quickly.

As you will see in the photos, Pfeiffer Beach is a wonderland… I think we have landed in Nature’s Magic Kingdom! I spent the day sitting in a chair and just watching the surf and thinking about how it has been rolling in and rushing out for all the time this planet has existed and it sure put things into perspective…. I came home in a state of altered awareness and can’t wait to go there again. Buff had his shoes off and was in the water in the blink of an eye… he is loving this to the max.

There are five couples here hosting and all of them are really great people that we are enjoying getting to know. Steve and Karen live right next to us and are quickly becoming life-long friends… Moose loves Sierra but she disdains his professions of love as she feels he is just a bit too young (still acts like a pup) for her mature ways. Steve and Karen are also NASCAR fans and they have a satellite dish… we have the big comfy tent… so we have joined forces – they bring their t.v. to our tent and we all sit and watch the race then usually fix dinner afterward and eat together…. This is just way too cool!!!

For those contemplating a trip to see us I want to mention that there are also accommodations – very pricey – at the park lodge and several motels and rustic cabin rentals within a couple of miles of the park… so if you don’t like a tent or crashing on our living room floor you can google Big Sur and check out the other possibilities in the area.

We are very excited to share this wonderland with any who can get the time and make the trip here… just let us know when you will be arriving….We “work” three days on and three days off but can plan on trading days with other hosts if you are here when we “work“ …. Our Rangers… Aaron and Matt -(Boy, the rangers are getting younger and better looking than what I remember……..) are very low key and easy to work with and have lots of info on the best places to see and even how to get some free tickets for some places.

So far the only flies in the ointment here is the poison oak (no encounters of the close kind yet) and the banana slugs… real creepy…. So until we have more pictures to share……love from

The sensory overloaded gypsies

Our trip from Wyoming has sure been an adventure… some good…. Some not so much…..

We spent a week in Orem visiting mom and had a wonderful time again with her. I only wish we could drag her along on our adventures so we could share all we see and do with her. We will miss her this winter.

While in Orem we noticed one of the trailer tires was flat…took it to the tire shop… no way to fix it… so one new tire for the trailer. Just a small expense we hadn’t planned on but no big deal…

After leaving Orem we drove to Elko where we spent the night and got to see James and went to dinner with him…. Good to see you, James and to see you looking so great.

Then on to Reno where we spent a week with Mart at his really nice new house. No way to live in the trailer while there as we had to just park it in the street. So we moved in with Mart and lived in a real house for the first time in years! When we drove up to his house he informed us we had a flat tire on the trailer… different tire…same story… another new tire for the trailer… oh, well, we are free-loading from relatives so we can afford it!

Also, took the trailer in for what we thought would be warranty work on the furnace… wrong… we were informed that it was dirty , a condition not covered by warranty, but for $119 per hour they would clean it.. Ha!! Not that dumb or unable to clean it ourselves … but we still had to pay for the time they had in, plus another $60 for a switch they installed (switch cost $6.00) … can’t afford much more, so we took it back to Mart’s house. Buff took the furnace apart when we got it back …. It had a very dead mouse stuck in it…removed mouse…furnace now works great.

Had a wonderful visit with Mart, very low key… watched western movies every night, went out to eat a few times and just spent quality time with him. Got to see Denise for an evening between work and studying for her Masters Degree… really enjoyed the time even if it was short.

Next stop was Folsom where we spent a week with Rob… again, we were able to free-load as he had arranged for us to stay in the parking lot at the senior apartment complex where he works. It was better than some RV Parks where we spend $35 a night. Large lot, with grass and trees for us to enjoy next to the trailer. The weather was a bit on the hot side when we got there… time to use the generator so we can have A/C…. wrong ….. Generator blew up…. This free-loading is getting mighty expensive!!!!

In spite of all that we had a great visit with Rob, we got to spend a lot of time with him and enjoyed every minute. The people that live at the complex were so excited to have “company” and would come and visit us while Rob was busy. Invited us to come to breakfast and dinner in the dining room as their guests… some really great people live there and we were truly blessed to meet them and get to visit with them.

We even got to go to the monthly Birthday Party and see an Elvis impersonator… what a fun evening – cake, ice cream, Elvis… what more could you ask for a night out???? we look forward to our visit next spring on our way to our summer home and hopefully will see the new friends we made there.

Last Sunday we drove to our summer 2012 campground…. It is so awesome… we are really looking forward to next summer…. Check out the pictures of our host site. Rob plans on going up with us when we set-up and setting up his “Weekend” retreat camp in our space! It is about a 2 hour drive for both the Reno/Carson City and Sacramento visitors… so we expect to see many of you next summer.

Boy… do we have some wonderful kids and they actually miss us when we leave instead of breathing a sigh of relief that we are gone .. Life is good.

Tuesday we left Folsom and headed to Big Sur…. Right before we got to Vacaville the bumper fell off the trailer… another adventure where Buff gets to make major repairs alongside the freeway… however, this time there was no DOT guys to help us and give us a good laugh or two like when this happened on our way to Monument Valley! Just another adventure for the nomad gypsies…..

Last night we stayed at Sea Cliff State Park…. Right on the beach .. Listened to the sound of the surf all night… check out the pictures and feel sorry for us….. Denise – if there had been a tsunami we would have been toast!

Today we had an uneventful (thank God) trip to Big Sur… we took Highway 1 and saw some of the most amazing scenery… too beautiful for words .. Not having spent much time around the ocean I was overwhelmed by the vistas and can see why Buff wanted to spend the winter here…. Mom – if there had been an earthquake we would have slid off into the ocean!

The park is a true garden of Eden… the trees and plants are so incredible. This is a true forest primeval – we are surrounded by redwoods, sycamore, cypress, ferns, and Yikes – poison oak. Our site is perfect – the Big Sur River runs right through our back yard and as long as there are no floods we are thrilled to have it there. Looks like we are settled in for a lovely winter. More pictures to look at.

The universe has a real sense of the ridiculous humor – from Death Valley last winter to this – there just couldn’t be two more diverse places to spend a winter.

On our next trip to Carmel we will be able to stop and take lots of pictures to share… we do not start work until the 8th so we will be doing some exploring tomorrow and start the pictures for the next blog… so stay tuned for some totally awesome landscape scenes…

Ranger Aaron Gray stopped by to welcome us and we found out that in January we get to help with the whale watch…. Bingo… one more thing to mark off the old bucket list!! I just can’t believe how blessed we are and what an amazing life we have.

FYI: Any visitors we have can stay here for free and don’t need to make reservations… there is a site next to ours for anyone coming to see us with a trailer, it has water and electric.. no kidding!! We do need some advance notice so the rangers can make the arrangements.

No camper, no problem, you can set up a tent or crash on our living room floor (we are planning on buying an air mattress that will fit between the sofas)….. So there is no reason not to plan your winter vacation at Big Sur!!!!! It is about a four hour drive from Sacramento when not towing a monster trailer at 55 mph.

We found that taking I-80 past Vacaville and then Hwy 680 South through Martinez you don’t encounter any toll booths. At San Jose you pick up Hwy 17 to Santa Cruz, and just before you get to Santa Cruz you get on Hwy 1 and go through Monterey and Carmel. Hwy 17 is a winding mountain road but worth it for the scenery. Hwy 1 is a bit spooky in places but the views are unbelievable.

Like our other campgrounds we do not get cell or internet here at our site so we will be checking voice mail and email every couple of days by driving to a site down the road. We might get a Verizon throw away to keep here as the other hosts have one and get reception on it. So, as always…. Leave a message and we will get back at ya asap.

For any emergency you can call the Pfeiffer Ranger Station office at 831-667-0528 and they will contact us, we are in Host Site “A”…. Mom…be sure to write down that number and give it to Lorraine, Debbie and Sandy.

It’s been a long and exciting day… time to decompress and get ready for bed….. Love to all of you……

The most fortunate gypsies……

Since Buff is now equipped with a video camera we are going to try to post some to the blog and see how it works. Your feedback is certainly welcome…..

We arrived at our campground on June 10th and were so happy with the set-up we have this year. We are based at Stillwater campground with two other campgrounds to host along with this one. We have a total of 57 sites and TWELVE toilets to maintain…. This should certainly take off the 15 pounds I gained at mom’s eating too much good stuff. Our other campgrounds are Hayden’s Fork and Sulphur. All three are absolutely beautiful and hold many memories for me as this is my old stomping ground….it’s good to be home.

About two days after we arrived we were taking our evening walk through the campground when we found a big hairy Harley-riding biker dude sitting in a site close to ours…. My inclination was to just ignore him and continue our walk…as far as I was concerned he could stay there as long as he wanted and even pee on the table if he so desired!! But, Camp host Buff walked right over to him … determined to collect whatever fee biker dude owed… and asked him if he was planning on spending the night … (mental note: make sure our gun was loaded if he was).. Biker dude says he is getting too old to sleep on the ground and had just stopped to eat his dinner….(I breath a sigh of relief and start walking on) …. But Buff wants to collect the damned six dollars for the day use fee….he asks big biker dude where he is from…. Big biker dude says…
“Evanston”……
Buff tells biker dude that I’m also from Evanston and asks him his name…
Big Hairy Biker dude points to me and exclaims….”She knows my name”…
Now, I am certain (even with some blank areas in my memory) that in my wild wicked youth I sure didn’t hang out with the Harley crowd… so I peek around Buff to take a better look and …..

It is my cousin (?) (we share the same great grandparents) that I’ve known since he was a kid!!!!! What a pleasant surprise and after getting used to the beard, tattoos, leathers, etc. I found him to be the same dear and kind person I had always known. We had a great visit remembering the past and catching up on family news. A few days later he came for the evening and brought his daughter to meet us. We visited for awhile and then promptly bored them to death showing them our DVD’s of our travels…… not sure they will return for another round but we have extended the invitation for them to spend a few days here…..

When we arrived the Bear River was already at high water level and overflowing it’s banks all along it’s route…. We stuck a stick in our “front yard” and decided if the water got past it we would have to sand bag our site…..

A few days later the stick floated away …. we spent a couple of hours sandbagging… we decided if it got past the sandbags we would have to move to higher ground….

A few days later the sandbags had been breached so at 11: p.m. we realized that we needed to move…. I quickly put stuff anywhere I could find for it to be safe and we hitched up and moved about sixty feet to a higher area…. Got to bed about 1: a.m. and hoped the river was as high as it was going to get… we were running out of room at our site to move any higher….

The next week all looked good and I got all the stuff out of drawers and closets and set-up housekeeping again…. We loved the new area we had moved to and decided that even when the river returned to normal we would just stay there…..

Then we had three lovely days of warm weather… in the high 70’s … we celebrated the lovely summer days, danced our happy dance, cooked outside and joked about “how high is the water mama/papa every time one of us went outside….with not a thought of what was happening on the snow covered mountains above us….so… continuing on in our joyful innocence…

We were finally able to get to our last campground as all the snow had melted out of it …with the warm weather and all….so we happily spent the day cleaning fire pits and toilets…. When we got back to our site we were really tired and looked forward to dinner, a movie and early bed

Right in the middle of the movie some campers knocked on the door and told us the campground was flooding….YIKES…. Buff ran off with them and came back with a pretty concerned look on his face and told me to get the trailer ready to move … then went back to sandbag and trench to see if he could stop the water coming in…..HA!! By 10:00 when I went to find him I was driving through water…told him we had to get out NOW!!

The two couples that were camping here ran over and helped us get our stuff ready to go…even though their trailers were also in harms way…they had also been helping Buff sandbag and trench… what great people!!! By the time we got out we realized that they also needed to be evacuated …so everybody is moving trailers to higher ground in the middle of the night!! By midnight we were all safe and ready to drop!!

It was a pretty scary experience and I was very upset that I had to pack up again in a panic… then I realized how fortunate we were that we have a “home” that can be moved out of harms way and didn’t have to sit helplessly by and watch it destroyed by a flood like so many have this year.

So, we are now living in a temporary site (a large group site we have on much higher ground) and are waiting for the river to subside so we can return to our “home” site…. They expect the river to peak in the next day or two… we are hoping we can move back by Thursday as the site we are now in is reserved for Friday and we will have to move from here anyway!!!! We are becoming more Gypsy than we had planned….making little moves and not even leaving our campground!!!!!

For those of our friends and family that are thinking of visiting us this year … there is a lovely lodge about four miles from our site… (www.BearRiverLodge.com) … the cabins have kitchens with dishes and utensils, big screen TV w/DVD players and dish network, living room w/gas log fireplace, gas BBQ grills on decks and patios, outside hot tubs and a heated swimming pool…. Needless to say a bit pricey.. Sun – Thurs $229/night… there is also a small convenience store that serves burgers, etc. (and much to my dismay they have soft ice cream… drat!).

Rob, Mart and Denise…. This is where the old Bear River Station used to be where you would go on rides with Mammy and Popeye… Rob… I couldn’t find the ca-ca rock!!

Of course, there are less expensive motels in Evanston which is only 30 miles away…… or bring a tent and camp with us here for free…..

So, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise…. (again) we will keep posting on a regular basis with news and pictures…..

The Gypsies,
Buff, Frances and Sierra

To the West we can see Utah Lake and the surrounding mountains and from the East a view of the Wasatch Mountains….

We have had snow off and on with some nice days in between recently, I know that compared to many parts of the country our snow is meager… but to us “Snowbirds” it is more than sufficient. I have finally decided to look at the beauty of it (from inside) and quit complaining about it …. Change of attitude helps to enjoy each and every day here.

We are completing the projects we wanted to do for Mom while we are here and now there is time for reading, television, (NASCAR racing started last Sunday) movies, crafts and a nice afternoon nap!! We are truly enjoying our time here with Mom … lots of family stories, good food to eat…yup.. I’ve gained back the weight I lost and will be doing hard time the first couple of weeks at the campground working it off… we go out to dinner once a week… a couple of great buffets near by.. And apparently in Utah you put whipped cream on everything before you eat or drink it…… when in Rome…. Alas…….

Jim’s Aunt, Dottie, is a hard core genealogist and has been helping me track down my family that immigrated to Wyoming from England in the late 1800‘s… it’s really interesting and we have been able to track some of them to the 1600’s in England. My great-great grandfather, great grandfather, grandparents and mother are all buried in the Evanston City Cemetery ….. Also found out that one of my great grandmothers was the second of three wives of a polygamist in Coalville, Utah. Found a picture of her and my grandfather and his siblings!! Very touching to see a l890 Census with my grandmother’s name on it when she was a child…

So, all in all, this is turning out to be a great experience…even with the snow….

The Gypsies

p s
Full video on U-TUBE @ buffalo1946

We have realized the importance of Green Energy… so to support that concept we have found a new truck that runs on electricity… do you think we will make it to Wyoming with it??????

As my last post indicated… it was really hot when we got here and we spent the first month sitting under the air conditioner most of the day…but we would venture out in the evenings and it was grand. The first event we attended was a “STAR PARTY”. This event was held in our campground and was hosted by some astronomy amateurs from Las Vegas. They brought their telescopes and knowledge and shared with anyone that attended. One of the telescopes was so large you had to climb a ladder to look through the eyepiece….but the view of the universe was amazing!! We saw a “dying star”, the rings around Saturn, the Andromeda galaxy, the Milky Way and learned more about the universe than my poor brain could take in!! (Like the dying star… it is five million light years away…. Tried to grasp that the light we were looking at left that star five million years ago…gave me a headache!!)

Our next event was the Death Valley ‘49ers Encampment…it started with us and the other host having to chalk in all the parking lines in this campground…. 536 sites, 235 in the main lot, and another four “overflow” lots….. Lots of hard work and remember…. It was still really hot!! But we got it done … actually finished the day this campground opened and by golly…there were rigs lined up at the entrance to get in while we finished up. There are a string of pictures showing the empty campground, then through the next few weeks as it filled up. At the peak of the event we had 534 rigs parked in here!!!!! It took us about three hours to do our compliance check and another couple of hours in the evening to take a count for our paperwork…..thank God this campground does not have fire pits!!!!

We had a great time with the folks that attended the event… and by the time it ended we felt like a couple of youngsters…most of the attendees were in their 70’s, 80’s and even in their 90’s!! There are lots of pictures included in this post and even a couple of videos of the band, wagon train, etc. Buff has also posted some of it to YOUTUBE under BUFFALO1946.….

Our friends, Jeff and Amy, visited for a couple of days during this time and we really enjoyed their company. We all went to see the wagon train come in … it looked very authentic and was thought provoking to think of that as a means of traveling across this country. This train had traveled 125 miles and everyone looked tired already!!

During the encampment “George” the roadrunner was very busy mooching from the campers…. He had a regular run each day as he figured out who was feeding. One lady had cooked some chicken for him and he really liked that… guess it tastes like lizard or snake (his regular diet). One camper told me that George had wiped out about a half pound of shaved turkey!!!

We took the drive to Dante’s View one day which overlooks the whole valley… there is a video of that on our photo stream. It was awesome up there and much cooler than in the valley that day….

Buff was able to take a guided hike into Copper Canyon… this canyon is so valuable with prehistoric footprints that it is closed to the public and the only way to see it is with a guided tour. It is a seven mile round trip hiking a very steep grade…. The old Buffalo is still prime as he made the trip without passing out. He was however, very, very sore for the next few days…. The canyon contains fossilized footprints of prehistoric camels, horses, birds, wildcat of some kind and a mastodon, all about five million years old. Of course there are pictures in our photo stream…

This campground goes from a small city to a ghost town… feast or famine. The ‘49ers filled it up and we had about 80 campers during the Thanksgiving holiday….. Now we are lucky to have 10 campers in here at any given time…. We are getting bored with nothing to do … but, in another couple of weeks we will be moving over to Furnace Creek Campground where there is a fairly steady flow of campers. The campground itself is much nicer than this one, which is basically a parking lot. Furnace Creek has trees, great campsites and there will be fire pits to clean…. We are actually excited about having some work to do that will give us some exercise!! Now you understand just how bored we have been…..

We will not be able to get the WiFi at that campground but will still have cell phone connections. We will go back to checking our email once or twice a week after we get moved…

The weather continues to be ever changing…. Right now we are experiencing glorious warm days and cool nights… but it can rain at the drop of a hat and even worse it can get windy… and believe me, when the wind blows here it is NASTY. There is nothing to slow it down in this valley and so it can get bad enough that we have trouble opening the door and getting out if it is coming from the North…… So, it is a mixed blessing being here…. No snow…. Temps in the 60’s during the day… but a real wind tunnel from time to time…

We just got our contract from American Land and Leisure and we got what we wanted so we will be going back to the Uinta Mountains next summer. We will be in the Evanston Ranger District this time.. About forty miles from Evanston. We will be hosting from Stillwater campground (totally beautiful site) and will have a total of three campgrounds to care for plus administrative duties as assistant managers. This will give us a 45 hour workweek and the chance to make some good income…. Once again we will be close to visit Buff’s mom, sister, and sons…we are hoping someone will be able to come and camp with us while we are there. Needless to say, I’m very excited to go home again.

We are not sure if we will be traveling through Reno or just go from here to Salt Lake … it is about 350 miles extra to make the trip to Reno then Salt Lake… We will just have to see what we can afford at that time. We are determined that summer of 2012 we will land a campground in the Sierra Mountains close enough to spend time with family and friends….

So…. That seems to be it for now….

The Gypsies

We left Marsh Lake Campground on September 7th, with plans to reach our winter assignment in Death Valley by October 1st. After cleaning 70 campsites, 10 toilets and loading all our stuff into the trailer we drove into the sunset (literally) and made it thirty-two miles to Fort Bridger where we decided to spend our first night on the road. The R.V. Park was lovely and it was good to wake up the next morning knowing we didn’t have any plans, schedules or toilets to clean for the next three weeks!!

Our next stop was Pocatello, Idaho to visit with Jim’s brother, Stoney and wife, Susan, so we took off early (10:30ish) to make the four hour trip and we would have done it except we had to drive through a little town called Lava Hot Springs in Idaho…..with huge billboards advertising the hot spring pools available there…needless to say the brakes were screeching and the navigator (me) was instructed to look for the first R.V. Park available!! AAAHHHH, the R.V. Park was pricey and definitely not first class but the hot pools were heaven and we soaked our sore muscles and tired bodies for the rest of the evening.

The trip into Idaho was beautiful and we were amazed at the miles of wheat fields we passed on our way. The agriculture business seems to be very sound there and along with wheat there were fields of corn, sorghum, alfalfa, potatoes and stuff we didn’t recognize. The Port Neuf (sp?) river is spectacular as it winds its way alongside mountains and through canyons into the Pocatello area.

Arriving in Pocatello a day late we met up with Stoney and were told we should be able to park the rig in his yard…just a little hill to get it up first….understatement of the week…BIG bad hill to drive up and then the final push in four wheel drive (backing up) to get the trailer into the yard!! But it was worth it…. As you can see from the pictures Stoney and Susan have a magnificent yard, with a view and a hot tub.. and hospitality that was amazing. We had a wonderful visit for the next four days, ran up their electric bill, filled their dumpster, used their hot tub, ate tons of excellent food prepared by Susan and generally loafed around. It was a real highlight of the trip.

From Pocatello we wandered to Wells, Nevada for the night and then on to Reno… nothing much to report on the scenery… Nevada desert and lots of it….

We arrived in Reno in late afternoon and spent a couple of hours trying to get the rig into Denise’s driveway, before acknowledging that is was just too steep and other plans would have to be made. About that time her neighbors across the street, a really nice couple named Phil and Cindy, offered to let us use the R.V. pad on the side of their house as they were going to be on vacation for a week. Now that was the deal of the century so we quickly accepted and that was our home for the next seven days.

We had a fantastic time visiting with our children, Rob, Martin and Denise. Since we were just across the street we were able to spend as much time as possible (with Denise’s hectic schedule … working on her Masters Degree and two jobs…. Martin working the regular forty hours at his job and Rob living in Sacramento) visiting. Rob was able to drive up from Sacramento and spend the weekend with us so there was only one thing to do…. Make a Baugna Cauda and eat until we fell into a stupor!! Which we did!! The day before we had cooked some Wyoming trout we brought with us and we were all grateful to the fishermen who had donated their catch to us at Marsh Lake…. It was delicious…. We were also able to spend a lot of time in Denise’s beautiful home and enjoy a break from the trailer. The weather was just perfect while we were there so we broke out the summer clothes and took in some sun while laying around.

We drove over to Carson City for a day and visited with good friends there. We spent a lovely morning and went to lunch with Geri and Thelma, and Sierra got to go for a walk with her friends Missy and Maya. Unfortunately, Sierra got to spend the rest of her day at the groomers and then the vets for her check-up…she was not pleased with that turn of events!!!! We spent the afternoon with Jeff and Amy and then on to dinner with Kathy and Gary…. Buff was able to get in some time visiting the Starbucks Plant and everywhere we went everyone was amazed at how much weight he has lost and how great he looks…. All agreed that this lifestyle seems to agree very well with us.

We left Reno and drove to Fernley where we spent the night with Suzy and her new “guy” Tyson… a six month old – very active – Boxer pup…. Again, Sierra was not pleased…but her people had a great visit and another wonderful meal that Suzy cooked (Jambalaya, Cajun Chicken and tons of salad)… with lots of catching up on all the news.

The next morning on to Lahotan Lake where we met up with friends , Gary and Becky and Becky’s mom, What an excellent day we had the weather was lovely, the company was outstanding and the conversation stimulating … as it always has been with them.

There is nothing better in life than to visit with old friends who have known you a long time and know your history….We met Suzy when I went to work for her in 1987; Amy and I worked for the same jerk in Dayton in 1989; Gary and Becky were our neighbors when we lived at the ranch in Empire, NV in the mid 90’s; Geri and Thelma became good friends when our little dogs became buddies; Jim and Kathy worked together at Starbucks from the start up of the plant. We have shared the best of times with Suzy at NASCAR races and Red Hats, horseback riding and a memorable vacation with Jeff and Amy, all night Pinochle games and terrorizing the country in jeeps with Gary and Becky; lunches and dog walks with Geri and Thelma.

These friends have also been there to support us during the difficult times that life hands out and we don’t know how we would have survived those times without them. We are so blessed to have so many of them and to have the opportunity to spend time with them while we are traveling from one place to another. Most of them are planning to visit us while we are here this winter and we look forward to the time we will get to share with them…..

The next leg of our journey took us to Beatty, Nevada where there is a little R.V. Park that has……. Hot spring baths….. Jim spent three days of soaking all hours of the day and night… then finally off to Death Valley.

On our day of arrival it was somewhere around 107° when we got to our site…..YIKES!!! The first order of business was to get the air conditioner on and start cooling the trailer down so Sierra and I could survive. The next three days were just as hot, plus windy and it sure didn’t cool off at night enough for this hot weather wimp…. Now it is absolutely clear why this is called Death Valley!! How did people live here without air conditioning????

Yesterday, we drove to the little town of Parump to scout out the shopping, etc…. It was about an hour drive through parts of the park we haven’t seen before… amazing country!! On the way home we drove through a major rain storm with raindrops the size of walnuts, the sun was breaking through the clouds and the raindrops looked like diamonds falling to the ground. One of natures moments that take your breath away. Ah, then there was the part of the road that was starting to flood….but wait, it gets worse…. It started to hail … not just a little but a pounding that we were sure would leave dents in the truck…. And just when we wondered what was next we hit the heat and wind again…… what a wacky weather day!!!

Just when I had about decided that this place had thrown enough at me and started looking at Workamper to find another winter job …. There was today … and this is why we wanted to come here…the weather has been perfect all day with the high this afternoon at 89°
And a GENTLE breeze, sunshine, blue skies and white fluffy clouds to decorate the world. This morning while having our coffee outside we had three coyotes (looked like a mom and her half grown pups) right across the street from our site… then later when we were getting ready to clean some campsites a road runner came right into our camp and hung out with us for about an hour….. The sunrise and sunset were spectacular and the night sky is breathtaking… guess we’ll stay!!!

So, that is what we have done for the past month… an excellent adventure in every way … and now we are looking forward to meeting our campers and other hosts … and more adventures to share with you from…..
The Gypsies

As we start getting prepared to end this wonderful summer in the Uinta Mountains I realized that we have a few more pictures to share… a little of this and a little of that….

A few weeks ago we drove to Evanston then up Hwy 150 to Mirror Lake and it was such a great day for me to be back in “my neck of the woods”. Mart, Rob and Denise….you will recognize the pictures of Hayden’s Fork Campground and I hope have some great memories of the times we spent there when you were kids.
The next week we drove to Flaming Gorge… all the years I lived in Wyoming and this is the first time I have seen it…spectacular!!!! We made the loop from Lone Tree, Wyoming through the gorge and Dutch John, then on to Green River and dinner at Little America…. Great scenery and a great day!!!

It is definitely moving into autumn at this altitude…the days are still warm enough but the nights are getting down into the low 30’s… the trees haven’t started changing yet and we will probably be gone before the fall colors, but damn…..what a great summer we have had!!!

We have been working our butts off, with the campground filling up every week…we are both skinny and fit once more. This past week things have finally slowed down and we are enjoying a bit of a respite before the Labor Day weekend – which will be hectic. The day after Labor Day we start the final cleaning of all our campgrounds … approximately 70 sites (all the sites have to have the fire pit cleaned to the ground, all trash picked up and raked) and eight vault toilets….YIKES!! We are expected to complete this by October8th and be ready to leave our site!! We will be two tired old seniors when we leave here…..

We are going to travel to Pocatello to visit with Jim’s brother and family for a few days then on to Reno/Carson for a couple of weeks prior to heading for Death Valley…. Hope we get to see all our friends and family while there….

So, until we are on the road again…..

The Gypsies

Since Sierra splits her time between chasing squirrels and the ATV’s that drive through here she was totally amazed when one came right into her yard …I think she thought she had finally bagged one! Well, as you can see Buff was the first to get on it and take it for a spin.

But Sierra figured since she had caught it she should be able to ride it too so she just climbed right on with him….so then it was Buff and Sierra’s new toy….

It took a couple of days for old nervous Nellie to get up the nerve to climb on …. But one ride and I’m hooked…what a blast!!!

As you can see from the pictures … Sierra (riding right on the gas tank with her front paws on the handle bars) is the Navigator…Buff is the driver… and I am the screamer!!!! We haven’t lost it completely.. Sierra is securely attached with a strap from her harness to Buff and she just loves having the wind in her ears and flying like an eagle!!

So here is how our days go by….Buff gets up around 6:30 and makes coffee and then sits outside and watches the day get started. Sierra and I stumble out about 8:30 and catch up on what’s already happened. About 9 Buff heads over to China Meadows to clean the bathrooms and any campsites that need it. Sierra and I leisurely wake up, take a shower, get dressed, tidy the trailer, then head out to clean our bathrooms. By the time I get these bathrooms done Buff is back and we clean any campsites that need it here.

By then it is time for lunch and a quick nap…. About 5 in the evening we all load up on the “hog” and do our evening rounds in all three campgrounds. It is about a six mile round trip …. The scenery is beautiful, the air is cool, it is totally relaxing and oh, so much fun. Then home for our evening walk around Marsh Lake, dinner and then I get the bookkeeping done…. You read it right…. I finally retire and here I am doing bookkeeping again!! We handle all the fees we take in and then I have this double entry form that has to be filled out for every fee envelope we collect. Thank God it is a simple one and real difficult to screw up.

Tonight on our ride I took the camera and shot some pics of the ride to China Meadows, the horse camp and the nice people who rescued us when we ran out of gas half way there!!

Do not expect the beautifully executed pictures that Buff spends hours getting to perfection… I totally believe in the point and snap method of getting a picture and tonight it was from the back of the moving ATV…. But it gives you an idea of how pretty it is here. (The beetle kill does take away from it but I have learned to overlook that and still see how lovely these mountains are.)

The little deer that comes and sees us every night is getting very used to us and practically comes right into our “yard”. One night we were sitting watching the fire and she just suddenly appeared on the other side of the fire pit….she looked like a spirit deer through the smoke… it was one of life’s magic moments.

Oh, and I have to tell you about the good old Wyoming cowboys that use the horse camp! These guys are the real deal and are amusing us to no end. One of them got all pissed off because he had to pay $10 to camp overnight there….now, for that ten bucks he gets to use the fire pit, picnic table, horse corrals, park his rig, have a clean toilet close by and ride the trails there….. But to his way of thinking that “damned Obama and his gang in Washington have just ruined everything” …. Cowboys, you just got to love ‘em.

But the best is yet to come….that evening when we went up to make our rounds this old boy had realized that he had a senior access card entitling him to a 50% discount….he actually made us give him back five bucks!!!

Included in this batch of pictures are a couple of the folks that were our neighbors for a week…they had just bought their first camper and were having the time of their lives, and one of the hail storm we had here during the 4th of July weekend……

So, there you go….. Life in the fast lane in Wyoming… until next time..

The Gypsies

The last time we drove to Mountain View we found ourselves in a real traffic snarl as you can see from the pictures!! The little girl on the black horse (that turned his head just as I snapped the picture) was riding drag and looked so proud of herself….growing up in Wyoming offers much more than computer games and television……

Boy, we have had a very eventful and busy two weeks since we arrived here….not only are we working hard at keeping both campgrounds clean, plus six toilets, but have …..

….found a camper up to his hubs in mud and stuck real good off the road. Of course, Buff stopped, pulled out the chain he always carries, hooked it onto the stuck truck, put our truck in four wheel drive and pulled the other truck out just like that… then we decided to drive up to China Meadows and look at that campground where we….

…..had a tent fall on one of the sites - completely destroying the campers tent. Thank God, the campers were out fishing when it happened and no one was injured. We really felt sorry that their weekend had been ruined so I gave them a voucher for two nights of free camping that can be redeemed at any campground operated by American Land and Leisure…..then…

…..Last Saturday a woman came tearing into our campground on an ATV and found us just as we were finishing our evening walk around the camp. She was almost hysterical and told us that “up at the horse camp a little boy had fallen off a mule and caved the side of his head in”. We told her to drive down to the ranger and let him know and tell him we were already on our way. When we got there we found out that the father and brother were bringing the little boy out on the horses and were still about five miles out. Buff grabbed his first aid kit and took off walking up to meet them. That old boy is tougher than nails…he walked all the way to meet them and then walked all the way back with them. By then the Ranger was there and had ordered a care flight. The little boy had a large gash along the side of his head and seemed to be in shock…hopefully he will be alright.

…..rescued a dog that had been left for whatever reason at China Meadows campground, he had been there four or five days that we know of and was very starved and weak. We loaded him into the back seat of the truck (much to Sierra’s dismay) and drove him the 25 miles into town to the Sheriff’s office where a deputy took over and delivered him to the local shelter. He was a beautiful Sheppard mix about a year old and so friendly and grateful for some biscuits while we made the drive….if we had room for another dog we would have kept him……when we returned from town we…..

….helped some campers that had hit a big rock and put a hole in the oil pan of their car. They made it to the campground but were stranded here and didn’t have enough money to cover the cost of the repairs to the car. Buff, of course, drove them to town, paid for the parts, drove them back and made sure they could get home……a few days later we…..

As you can see from some of the pictures we have had visits from some of the little forest creatures and see deer everyday somewhere in the campground. The birds are returning and we have seen lots of different ones. There is a Robin that has a nest in one of the trees in our site…we are waiting to see some little heads sticking out so Buff can get some pictures of the little family.

The Fourth of July Weekend was BUSY and we finally finished cleaning things up today (Tuesday)…tomorrow we are going to town to do laundry and then to the library for books and computer time to post this blog and catch up on our email…..

Oh, and this year’s fat farm is definitely working…Sierra has slimmed down to puppy size and I have dropped ten pounds so far…..Alas, it is the same ten pounds that I lost last summer – then regained in Tucson eating the great food that Leesa cooked and…of course…Ice cream was always just a small drive away and then there was this place called EEGGIES that had frozen lemonade…….the pitfalls of living in the big city!! If Buff loses any more weight he will disappear!! His new jeans are falling off of him again and one more size down he will be wearing the same size as when we got married!!!!

We are feeling great, getting our muscle back….have adjusted to the high altitude (only 9400’ this summer) and are enjoying life to the fullest…what more can you ask for????

Rob….included in the photo stream is the picture of the old house we spoke of….Popeye always claimed it was a outlaw hideout from back in the day…I have never been able to find out anything about it from the old timers I knew, so maybe it was….

Until next time………