Ivoryton, Connecticut Day 2 (GA516)

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

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The motorhome is parked at Mary’s home in Murphys, California. I’m planning to depart November 27th.

 

 

 

 

Since my RVing life is changing (see above), I’m starting to re-visit previously visited places. So rather than constantly re-blogging past entries, I’ve decided to do something different.

  In 2011-2013, Mary and I did a 682 day, 12,679 miles in the motorhome and 8,000 miles in the Bronco, circumnavigation of the United States, which I called The Great Adventure. I called it so because other than my oldest granddaughter’s high school graduation in June in Connecticut, I didn’t know where we would be going or when we would be there!

So, unless I do something really different and unusual warranting a new blog entry, I’ll be posting entries from that trip.

This entry was posted June 9, 2013…

 

 

 

The motorhome is parked at my son’s home where I’m expected to remain until July 17th.

 

 

Mary is in Las Vegas, Nevada for her grandson’s high school graduation. Yesterday it was 113 degrees! Today’s forecast is for 110 degrees! Yowee! I’m glad I’m not there!!

 

 

Tropical Storm Andrea has finally moved on. Here’s an indication of how hard it rained…

 

 

 

 

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The driveway to my son’s home…

 

 

 

 

 

My current set-up…

 

 

Enjoying visiting with family is another joy of the full-timing lifestyle!

 

 

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Connecticut. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

 

 

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

 

 

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

 

 

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE! MARY WROTE A MANY GREAT BLOGS…SO WHENEVER SHE PUBLISHED A BLOG POSTING THE SAME DAY THAT I DID…YOU WILL BE ABLE TO READ HER BLOG BY CLICKING THE BELOW LINK! DO IT NOW!

Mary did not post this date.

 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Forecast for today is sunny and 61 degrees. No complaint about the rain, it’ really needed here in California.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet 2018

Happy Thanksgiving!

Mary is no longer available for RV traveling, but we remain good friends.
Because we have 5,000+ postings, I’ve invited her to continue posting entries on this blog.

I’m currently in my 23rd year of full-time RVing and my lifestyle is changing, For more info click Here

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

The motorhome is parked at Mary’s home in Murphys, California. I am scheduled to depart November 27th. While here, I’ve completed my cleaning, routine maintenance and minor repairs to both vehicles.

 

 

Today’s Subject…Happy Thanksgiving! See you tomorrow…

 

 

Today, Mary and I are celebrating Thanksgiving with members of her family at her youngest daughter’s home in Davis, California.

 

I took this photo of this beauty in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia back in 2010…

 

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To read all about Murphys, click this link…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphys,_California

 

 

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Forecast for today is mostly sunny and 58 degrees.

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 700 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://get.google.com/albumarchive/110455945462646142273?source=pwa

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet 2018

CHRISTMAS FUN

Christmas every year looks almost the same at my house. Endless cards and games between gnoshing.  Theo, Cedric (hidden) Kristanne and Doug play 13, the national card game of Viet Nam while…

…while Mason and Virginia play cribbage at the other end of the table. People change places, step in and out of games and in general have a good time.

We chose a Mexican theme for this Christmas. Christmas Eve dinner was home-made chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice and pinto beans with a romaine salad. As the family members grow, it’s tough to fit everyone in with one picture.

After dinner we took a walk into the night to look back at the lights and found our selves in awe of the starry, starry night. Stars so close we could see the constellations and Milky Way as though touchable. Virginia started a carol and we stood in the street and sang and gave thanks that light pollution has not blocked ancestral skies on our tiny portion of the planet.

Grandson, Stewart, home from Japan for Christmas, brought this sample of Japanese foods. He taught us how easy Japanese is to learn because the characters are so consistent. If a character means house, or rock or walk, it will always mean that no matter how many characters in a sentence.  His brother, Mason, easily picked up some Japanese words. Leave it to the young.

Christmas day was more of the same. My brother, Bill, left, joined us for the afternoon. We are playing elevator with Stewart, Virginia, Mason, Owen, Ken and myself. At the opposite end of the table, Theo, Doug, Kristanne and Laurie play RummiKub.

We played around with hats and I thought of some artists paintings as I looked at what the camera did to Mason’s arm. One giant appendage and one shrunken.

I rarely wear this hat, but I love it.

It has seven watches glued on it, plus other fascinating pins, buttons, beads and junk.

I bought a Playboy jacket at a second hand store just for the buttons. (I’m a collector.)  We had great fun with it. I liked this picture of Owen, though a bit blurry and in a distracting background.

It’s tough to get Owen to stand still for a picture, but I love this smile.

And Dad, too. I liked this one though the light wasn’t quite right.

But he liked a different one. I think he was trying not to laugh.

Stewart said, no way. The hat was too small and he couldn’t get the jacket on his second arm.

None of these pictures are in the correct order. I didn’t remember to take a picture of our Christmas Day dinner, which was chili rellenos with an apple and cabbage pomegranate coleslaw, and home made-by Doug and Virginia- Chicken, Pork and chili cheese tamales. Goodt stuff.

Before we finished Christmas dinner, the desert table was almost bare.

We had our anonymous book trade, only three to open. And, all too soon, it was bedtime for me,  the picture taker. My ears picked up hushed conversation sliding under my bedroom door as I succumbed to sleep.

The next morning, everyone was up bright and early. Ken and Laurie’s family drove back to Reno in time to put Stewart, Mason and Kristanne on an Airplane for Las Vegas. Home for Mace and Stan; Stewart will reconnect with his girlfriend before returning to Japan.

My cup runneth over.

CHALLENGES.

Blogging is going to be sporadic as I recuperate from rotator cuff surgery. Therapy once a week for a total of 16 weeks and remaining in a sling for those weeks necessarily hampers my activities, as in NO driving. Count down, 13 weeks to go.

I’ve been fortunate to have Jim take care of me, drive me around to my appointments and even give a private serenade on the side. He has taken up harmonica as you can tell from an earlier blog. Quite challenging for him. I face the challenges of getting well, obeying doctor’s instructions and limiting activities-hard for me.

One of the real treats of my “down” time was having Kathryn, my husband’s daughter, bring her husband Hank to meet me. Catching up with family matters, pictures mostly, since we have shared by email necessary dates and information for the family genealogy. A natural  interest in our respective ancestors is a fascinating subject. Now Kathryn has married into a large, active family with plenty of exciting new faces, including Hank’s mother who lives near them. She is 94 years old.

And we cooked. Hank knows his way around the kitchen and loves fixing breakfast. Here he is testing one of Kathryn’s waffles.  And I managed a couple of crock pot dinners with their help. We ate, and snacked and toasted a glass of vino or two. Hey, isn’t that what family gatherings are all about? In part, anyway. It tickled me to see Kathryn with her nose in the papers while eating, a habit she must have inherited from her dad. She loves crosswords and Hank prefers sodoko.

Kathryn has a friend in Angels Camp she and Hank are also visiting. Hank spent time in the Motherlode as a kid with his family, so the area is familiar to him.

Jim took our picture before they left. Her half brothers and sisters were working and unable to visit while here, but we expect to see much more of them in the future and fix that.

Kathryn’s children live in Southern California, and like all adult children, they have their own busy lives, too.  But, someday, we hope to all get together. Isn’t that cool?

 

COUSINS AND COUSINS-A REUNION

Toni Moore is my cousin by marriage. Her husband of 26 years, Commander James Moore of the Sheriff’s Department (deceased) is my first cousin. Our fathers were brothers.  But, our relationship goes deeper than that. I attended High School with Toni and introduced her to Jim. While visiting the archive, I discovered she was planning a family reunion and she asked me to join them. The afternoon of the Archive meeting, March 16th, I went with her to Costco to shop. Toni is handicapped and can’t drive. On the 17th, it was St. Patrick’s Day, she took me out to dinner for corned beef and cabbage. I think we licked the plates clean.

Her oldest son is Kurt Moore. He and my son Ken are close in age. We raised our kids together, often camping since no one had any money in those days. We all lived on tight budgets.

Her middle son, Todd, was closest to my son Doug’s age, and the two of them were pals growing up. Toni’s youngest son, Barry recently died and everyone is still trying to heal from loss. Todd lives nearby and is indispensable, taking Toni to her appointments, shopping and helping Todd keep up the place. He has one daughter, Briana, and I somehow failed to get a picture of her and her boyfriend.

The relationships get complicated for me to keep straight. Kurt’s youngest children Teddy and Alex, with Gramma Toni are the reason for the reunion. They live on the East coast with their mother and visit twice a year. They normally come for Easter vacation and this year came early. So, Toni planned an early Easter.

Always smiling, Leslie Nolan, is Bob Moore’s partner, who is a brother to Jim.  He doesn’t like having his picture taken and ruins your picture, if he has a chance to.  You have to get one surreptitiously.

Here he is with his nephew, Teddy.

Kurt’s oldest daughter, Sandy arrived with her husband Josh.  Kurt’s son, John is serving in the Army and couldn’t attend.

Now, this is Grandpa Kurt, hauling Sandy’s two newest members of the family over his shoulder into the back yard. He knows a little about how to handle young boys. They are Caleb and Jacob ages six and four, recently adopted.

It rained off and on all day, but no one melted. The kids played bean bag toss. Emma, Sandy’s daughter teamed with Teddy and Alexandria, Sandy’s half-brother and sister, and her father Josh.

Emma gets a big jump closer because she is the shortest and youngest in the game. Cousin works as well as any moniker, and “cousin” Teddy doesn’t mind.

As the day went on, the kids turned to hunting for treasure. Caleb is trying to figure out how to get up in the tree holding an egg.

An egg hiding in plain sight, up high, gives the older kids a shot at the eggs. Some contain money, some contain candy or little toys.

Heavy competition comes with a smile as Bob and Josh pair up with…

…Todd and Kurt.

Looks like Josh nailed it. The rules are much like horseshoes.

The kids enjoyed their treasures. Emma, in Easter finery, with a full bag.

Jacob enjoyed a green chick that is special because it has a squeaker inside.

Caleb liked his rubber Easter chick, too.

After dinner, everyone enjoyed dessert. Emma looking sweet 16 instead of 12 with frosting pink lipstick.

Alexandria, kissable in blue, is a freshman in High School.

Emma with her frosting lipstick plants one on cousin Alexandria.

Caleb wanted to try my camera. A quick learner, he took a bunch of pictures and did quite well.

 

This picture by Caleb is a tad blurry. But, not bad for a six year old’s first time with a sizable camera.

This one was my favorite, where he caught his little brother taking pictures with my phone.  Maybe photography in his future, but without a doubt, a good time was had by all. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE.

 

 

EACH FAMILY UNIQUE-THANKSGIVING 2015

The games, the thankfulness, the feast, winter fruit,a giant slide, and Frisbee…

Check it out at:

http://marysramblins.blogspot.com