Frozen crystals

Before we left Ella told me she wanted a “crystal thing” like in the movie Frozen.  Well today Tom took us to visit with one of his neighbors Calvin.  He is retired and has been rock hunting and collecting for over 10 years.  He has an unbelievable collection of crystals, minerals, fossils, etc. in his house.  But on the walkway to his house are a few pieces of petrified wood.  These are about 2’ in diameter and 3 or 4’ high!  Amazing.  His backyard has piles of rocks everywhere that he has either collected himself or bought from overseas.  Quite a bit of his rocks are very rare.  We spent about 2 hours listening to his stories.  He is very knowledgeable about geology.  He let me cut a couple pieces and let Cindy polish them.  They came out quite nice too.

Not far from Toms house near Surprise are fields of roses.  They grow the bushes to sell and are beautiful to see fields of red, pink, yellow, and white roses.  Today we saw the workers on these wheeled carts laying on their stomachs working on the bushes.  There was another worker who pushed these covered carts along as they needed.  I snapped this shot with my camera while we were driving past the fields.

We’ve been busy helping Tom and Darlene move from their house in Mesa to the new one.  Saturday we had a ground breaking barbecue for Tom’s bus barn he is building in the back yard.  Had about 25 people over and bbq’ed bacon stuffed burgers.  Cindy cooked gumbo and bread pudding.  Not much was left over.

Oh yeah, clumsy me tripped and split my elbow open like a watermelon.  Had to go to urgent care.  The doctor took over 2 hours to clean it, put 5 stitches, and then apply pressure for about 20 minutes so it wouldn’t bleed.  That hurt the most.  So for the next couple days I had my arm in a sling and couldn’t do anything.  But it’s much better now and I can use it.  Just need to be careful.  Get the stitches out on Monday.
That's it for now.  We plan to leave next week, probably Tuesday morning.  We'll drive over to Durango, CO for a week or so.  Then we'll start heading back to Louisiana for a month.

Bleeding moons

It was with a heavy heart that we left Paincourtville on Friday morning in the rain.  We have enjoyed our winter stopover.  It has been fun spending time with family and friends.
Thursday afternoon we went to Ellas school to watch her perform in their Easter Angel Choir.  All of the kindergarten and 1st graders had fun singing their hearts out.  Even Eva seemed to enjoy it.

We drove the first 2 hours in rain then it cleared up.  Stopped over in Beaumont for the night and met up with Rudy and Carol for dinner.  Saturday morning drove over to Kerrville, TX for a night or two.  Cindy talked with the lady at the office and scored a free night so we stayed until Tuesday morning.  We tried to rent a car Monday to sight see but there was nothing available.  But we did stop at a rest area for lunch and saw some pretty flowers:

 Oh yeah, the truck is in the shop getting repaired from a slight mishap while I was loading the RZR in the back.  The straps holding the ramps up broke and I had no choice but to gun the throttle.  Well I made it into the truck but couldn’t stop in time.  Broke the rear windshield on the truck and dented the rear panel.  So had to leave it for repairs.

We had a nice drive as I decided to drive 60 mph.  It helped the fuel mileage since I was getting 8.5 mpg.  We stopped for the night north of Tucson in a trailer park that advertised big rig rv parking.  Yeah right, the 70’ pull through was about 20’ short and I had to back out of the spot and squeeze through the turns.  Oh well, we just need to check out our stops before we pull in.  Gotta remember that.

Thursday around lunch we pulled into Tom and Darlenes new place in Wittmann, AZ.  Nice place out in the desert just west of Phoenix.  They previously lived in a nice subdivision in Mesa and once Tom retired he wanted to leave the city.  Yep, he’s out of the city.  Chickens, horses, goats, rattlesnakes, etc.  But it’s nice and quiet out here and they love it.

Tom and I went to Canyon raceway to be the pit crew for his son in law Jon.  He has a modified stock car he races.  He did well starting in 14th place and moving up to 4th place but unfortunately blew his transmission so couldn’t finish.  Oh well that’s racing.  It was fun to watch the different classes of cars race from the sprint cars to dwarf cars to stockers.

I’ve been helping Tom with a few little projects around the homestead.  They’re getting carpet put in today so we’ll help them move some furniture in tomorrow.  Last night I drove with Tom over to north of Prescott to buy an 8.5 x 20’ enclosed trailer.  We got back just in time to enjoy the blood moon.  The skies out here are incredibly clear and bright.

That's it for now.  We're just enjoying spending time with friends and enjoying the nice weather.  It's been in the mid 80's and in the 60's at night.  Really pleasant but DRY!

Getting ready......

To roll the wheels and head out to more adventures.  We plan (unless nothing changes) to head out on April 4th west on I-10.  Our plans are to head out to Arizona to visit Tom and Darlene at their new estate.  Tom recently retired and they are in the process of moving out of the city into a country place.

Ellas favorite ride

I think Mawmaws too!

Ella took this picture.  Pretty good photographer!

The newest addition Anna

Over Ella's Mardi Gras break we flew out to Disney World for a few days.  We have been to Disney World a few times with Scott & Mike when they were much younger but being boys we have never taken time to do "girl stuff".  So we were on a quest to see all the princesses.  And I think we did.  All were in Magic Kingdom except for Anna & Elsa the newest stars of Frozen who were at Epcot.  OK Mickie, what's the reasoning for that?  After using our last tickets to get into Epcot and finding out there were NO fast passes and the wait time was 4-1/2 hours to see them couldn't Disney figure out a better way to do that?  And NO Elsa paraphernalia for sale anywhere?  HUH?  OK, I'll play nice.
While Cindy was figuring out any way to see Anna & Elsa a dad passed by and told me that we could see them in the gift shop at the end of the line.  So we did see them but Ella didn't get to meet them and get their autographs.  But what do you do in Epcot with a 5 year old?  We made the best of the day but would have rather spend the day at Magic Kingdom.
Anyway it was a great trip and we all enjoyed it immensely.
Saturday morning we packed up and headed to the airport.  The flights were good except for trying to exit the plane in Charlotte.  We had an hour layover but someone was taking their sweet time gathering their carryons and it took us 15 minutes just to exit.  Then we had to rush from one end of the airport to the other end.  Finally reached our gate and found out it had changed.  So we rushed back 8 gates to sit down and catch our breaths.  And just after we sat down we started boarding.  Poor Ella had a tough time keeping up with us and slept the entire flight!

Oh by the way I'm officially old now.  I turned 60 on the 19th!  We spent a nice day boiling crawfish with our kids at Scotts house.  It's really nice to have everybody together.  Then we had someone come clean the carpet in the coach and we drove to Baton Rouge to have dinner with Mike and spend the night.  We ate at Romans Cafe and all had Lebanese cuisine.  Very good and even Cindy liked it.

Now we're just finishing up with items to be able to head out.  Cindy is spending the remaining time with her mom and aunt Lou and I'm finishing up with my projects and putting tools back in storage.
Today we get to pick up Ella at noon and spend the day with her.  Yay!

Disney World here we come!

I guess it’s time for another update.  We’ve been so busy I’ve almost forgotten about the blog.
Cindy has been spending quite a bit of her time with her mom and her aunt.  I’ve been keeping busy working on the coach.  And on weekends we’ve been spending time with our kids.

We took a big leap of faith when we traded up to this coach last March.  We didn’t plan to be back to Louisiana until late fall.  So any problems we would have would either have to be done on the road wherever possible or wait until we made it back south.  Luckily we had minimal problems and were able to repair those on the road.  Most campgrounds won’t allow any repairs at the campsites but we did spend time at a couple friends where we could do a couple things.  Or were able to sneak in a quick repair when needed.
But any updates or big repairs would have to wait until we made it back.  Fortunately we have a great spot here in Paincourtville.  I have access to a 40x40 barn to use as a workshop.  This has come in real handy working on things.  Thanks to the quality of Newells we haven’t had any big repairs.  The biggest update was the LiFePO4 battery system and I’m happy to say I finally have the inverter charging the battery like I want.  I’ve moved tools and spare parts into the basement where the old batteries were.  It’s really nice to gain so much more room once I pulled out 1000# of batteries!  The LiFePO4’s weight only 400# and are giving me about twice the capacity.

Wednesday we are taking Ella to Disney World for a couple days.  We fly out Wednesday morning and will spend Thursday and Friday at Magic Kingdom then fly home on Saturday.  We surprised her last weekend but like any 5 year old it took her a while to understand that it would be more than a week before we would take the trip.  Yesterday she was really excited talking about the trip and looking at maps on a guide book.  It’s gonna be a fun trip!

Eva is really growing and becoming more aware.  She is starting to “talk” and look around more.  And Ella is such fun to watch how much she loves her little sister.  After her soccer game last weekend when we got back to her house Eva was crying so she ran into the bathroom to wash her hands.  She told me she had to hurry because “she had baby work to do”!  She ran to Eva and calmed her down by talking to her and consoling her.  So much fun.

It’s getting almost time to pack up and start traveling again.  We’ll leave sometime after my birthday.  I’m going to hit the big 6 oh in a couple weeks and hope to boil crawfish with our kids.
We’re thinking of going east this spring maybe over to Richmond and then D.C.  but we’ll be back in June for a few weeks for Ella’s birthday and dance recital.  Then we head out where it’s cool for the rest of the summer.

Ask and you shall receive

        I would like to officially welcome the newest member of our family:   Eva Kate Olivier.  Eva was born to Scott and Bevi on December 10, 2013 at 10:42 am and weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce and was 17.5” long.  We’re so glad both Bevi and Eva are healthy and beautiful.  Thanks guys!

Our plans are to spend the winter in Paincourtville.  We’re about halfway between Thibodaux and Baton Rouge.  Works out great to spend time with Scott and his family and Mike.
Thanksgiving was very nice at Cindy’s sister Rhonda and Dave’s house.  Almost all of the Landry family was there.  A few out-of-towners couldn’t make it in but we should see them for Christmas.  Plenty of good food and drinks.

I’ve been working on a few updates to the coach since I have access to my tools and the tractor shed to work in.  I put a couple shelves in the basement to make storage more manageable.  Got a few more to build.  Put in a new rearview camera since the original one was giving me problems.  But the biggest project will take a couple more weeks to install.  I’m replacing the 6 huge 8D batteries for the house system with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries.  The old batteries weigh about 900 # and the new ones will weigh only 400#.  They should also give me a bit more capacity and recharge in a shorter period of time.  That’s pretty important when you’re using the big 20KW generator.  Best thing is the cost will be about the same as buying AGM batteries and they are expected to last 4-5 times as long.
The batteries came in this week and I still have some work to do in the compartment before I install them.  Hopefully I’ll have them working in a week or two.

Yesterday we spent a nice day in Thibodaux.  Started out at Scott’s house.  Then we all went to church.  Eva was very good and slept the entire time, Ella was very good also and enjoyed going to children’s liturgy.  After we made paninis for lunch and just enjoyed the afternoon.  Such fun to spend time with family.  Unfortunately unca Mikie couldn’t come in.  He had his office party Saturday night.  He should come down next weekend.   Ella is such a good big sister to Eva!  She has been helping mom and dad take care of Eva.  And she loves to try and share her "friends" with her.  We are all so very proud of Ella.

Life is good!

Factory visit and back home!

After Salt Lake City we headed east on I-80 and spent the night in Rawlins, WY.  Not much there but an easy campground and lots of wind.  We left the next morning trying to outrun the snow that's on its way.  We arrived back at Pepperpod Campground and hooked up the coach, packed some clothes, and drove over to David & Denise's new home in a 55+ retirement community.  This place makes the Greens look small.  There are over 800 homes and they have plans to double that in a few years.  A gorgeous clubhouse with views of the mountains just makes it special.  We spent a few days, took a drive out to see the aspens turning colors then stayed in the next day to watch it snow.

Then we started heading east again for our service appointment at Newell factory.  We arrived on Friday afternoon to find the spots with hookups all filled.  Fortunately one of the managers was there and moved a coach that was waiting to be picked up for us to hook up.  We spent the weekend getting to know a few other Newell owners and re-connected with James & Carol who we met earlier in Spearfish.
Monday morning at 6:30 they rang the doorbell and pulled the coach into the shop where we spent the next couple days having a few things repaired.  While we were there we drove over to Bentonville, AR where I saw another "Blair Doc" that the chiropractor in SLC recommended.  After examining me he said the procedure looked like it was holding.  Still feeling good so far!
Wednesday around noon we headed out and spent the night in Russellville, AR then arrived at Steve Magowns on Thursday.  We spent a few days there working on a few things and just enjoying each others company.
Tuesday morning we left Steve's and drove south and arrived at our "winter quarters" near Cindy's mom.  It's nice to get back (except for the humidity) and re-connect with everyone.  So now we're getting into our winter routine.  We plan to be here until March.  Of course we may take a short trip to Florida or somewhere.  I have a bunch of projects to do to the coach and Cindy is spending a lot of time with her mom and aunt Lou.
Saturday we watched Ella play soccer and were happy to see her actually enjoy the game.

Salt Lake City

First a couple pictures from around Arco.  We took the truck to do the Arco Loop and found this small cave.  It looked interesting so we parked and hiked (climbed) up to it.  At the entrance there was a wooden ladder tied together with really old rope.  Wow, must be treasure or something up there right?  I tried climbing up but couldn't reach the upper level or quite see into it.  So the treasure is still there if anyone wants to find it.

Taking a break after the climb

We left Arco and had a nice drive to Salt Lake City.  The campground is really nice and convenient to the airport.  We hooked up the coach then caught a flight home to Thibodaux.  
We had a nice flight and picked up our rental car.  Drove to St. Joseph and surprised Ella at aftercare.  She had no idea we were coming in and when she saw us she wasn't sure if she was seeing things or it was really us.  She was really excited then we took her to gym practice.  After visiting with Scott & Bevi we met some friends in Houma for seafood.  Had a nice visit with Mike & Linette.  Then Friday afternoon we went back to school for Grandparents Day.  After we took Ella for ice cream, yummy.
Saturday we spent the day at their house and Ella spent the night with us at the Carmel Inn.  Sunday we all went to Unca Mikie's new house for a BBQ.  Got to see Sam, Jake & Laura's new son.
Then Sunday afternoon we said our goodbyes until November.
But, Cindy said Scott told us to have lunch with Ella at school Monday.  So we did and surprised Ella again!  What a great weekend spending so much time with our family.
Back to Salt Lake.  Tom & Darlene came in later in the week for a few days on their way home.  We enjoyed spending time again with them.  They took us to Temple Square which is like the Vatican to the Mormons.  Really nice architecture and I have to say some of the nicest people you will ever meet.
Of course we had to drive out to see the Salt Lake.  It reminded me of home to smell the salt air.

Yes it really is salty!

We also visited the Cathedral of the Madelaine and took a few pictures.  Very pretty but not as large as our Cathedral in Thibodaux.  Guess there aren't as many Catholics here.

Wish they were playing the organ

Such a beautiful Tabernacle

Then David & Denise came in for the Habitat build.  I worked Monday and Tuesday until my back started hurting so I quit.  Cindy hung in there and is finishing the week out today.  One of the projects is to help tear down a Mormon church.  The church was donated to the American Cancer Society who wants to build a Hope Lodge there.  The ACS donated the lumber to Habitat.  
While here I had another vertigo incident so went to an ENT and he said I may have Meniere's disease.  After researching it and finding there is no cure I started looking into alternative care.  There are some supplements and diets that have been effective for some people.  I also found out there is a special Chiropractic procedure call the Blair Procedure.  Just so happens there is a Chiropractor nearby that specializes in the Blair Procedure, or is a "Blair Doc" as he calls it.  He claims an 85% success rate with vertigo sufferers.  So Friday about 11:30 I call his office explaining that we are fulltiming travelers.  They told me to come in and the doctor would see me during his lunch hour.
So I did and after examining me and taking X-rays he scheduled me for a treatment on Saturday morning.  After having the treatment on Saturday I have felt better than I have since I had the first vertigo attack.  My balance is as good as it was before the attacks.  One interesting thing is before the procedure he laid me on a table and said my left leg was 1/2" shorter, Cindy said she could see the difference.  After the procedure my legs were even!  Cindy said it was amazing to see the difference.  Only problem is there are no "Blair Docs" in Louisiana, closest is Dallas.  So if or when I need another procedure I'll need a road trip.  He has given me a list of "Blair Docs" he knows in different areas of the country if I can't get back to Salt Lake.
Last night we went with David & Denise to watch the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice. Really nice performance.