Camping Fun

 We borrowed Terrys RV and took Soren camping at Spillman Campground, at Tahuya OHV state forest. He's 14 now, knows everything, still a kid at heart. 

We took the sxs and the guys took it out a few times and got good & dirty.

I stayed in camp, did a lot of cross stitching and relaxing.

BUT.

And there's always a BUT.

The neighbors were tweakers and on Thursday night they were screaming at each other for a while at about 10pm, on Friday they yelled a few times during the day and raked the forest floor...  We no longer felt safe with them there and more were showing up, plus their dog barked and barked and barked.

So we came home early.

And that was OK, since Soren had had his fill of camping, he missed his electronics and his girlfriend.

Fun was had, good food was cooked over the campfire, Soren had his Taki's and I hardly limited his eating. He also got to chop as much wood as he wanted and kept the fire stoked all day. 

Packing For Travel

We'll be leaving on another trip to Pioche in 9 days and let me tell you, I'm pretty stoked.

We'll first drive to Dugway Geode Beds in Utah, where we will dig for geodes and I thing we're guaranteed to find some. I'll be taking a shovel, bucket to carry them, spray water bottle, all sorts of things. 

They are in Simpson Springs, Utah

This is one area

This is what the area looks like. 

I've read that the BLM goes out & digs up more areas once in a while.

I hope to find a couple cool ones, I hope to find enough that I can share and give a few to Jeremy so he can cut me one.

Then we'll continue on to Pioche. There are several ways to go between the two places but the dark purple line is one we haven't taken before.

I've been planning the things I'll be doing when I'm there, one of which is painting the basement walls. Currently they are gray concrete and purple paint. I've read that you're supposed to use a certain kind of paint on concrete but I'm sure they didn't use that special stuff before so I'm going to paint over it with the paint I have, a light gray. It might brighten it up a little bit.

I'll be pulling weeds again, tumbleweeds. 

Lan will be working on the sewer lines and a bajillion things inside the house. We're ramping up for when we take down the bathroom, utility room and kitchen but there's so much to do before then; basement, clearing out the interior of the rooms, 

We also need to pay a few bills while there too, the garbage bills is $150 for the year, too bad we can't just pay for the time we're there, and the truck tabs are $741 (yikes) but I have called our local DMV and its half as much to get license and tabs in Washington than it is in Nevada.

We will utilize the town pool, its ALWAYS nice to go for a dip when its blasting hot.

We're leaving home on May 21 and heading to Utah but we'll need to sleep somewhere along the way so we got ourselves a free truck canopy and we'll build a bed in the back. The bed will need to be big enough for Lan to sleep on it, so at least 6'3" and that only gives him a couple inches leeway. 

Lan wanted to paint it but that's just one more thing to do and he's already too busy doing shit here and he did point out that it matches the SXS.

Yeah, we'll be taking the Can Am too, its why we bought the house down there in the first place.

Oh yeah, we've got the shed frame up, now just needs the roofing put back on and I'm hoping to find Costco garage sides for free that I can put on it. It has seven 12' corrugated green fiberglass panels for the roof but one is broken so I want a clear or opaque panel, for additional light.  We're going to store the new cart and Kenny inside this.

 

April Fools Day 2025

Today I'm sending these photos to my husband and telling him we're expanding the farm

I mean, who doesn't want a piggie?

And emu chicks are darling!

 

She's Moving!

I'm holding my breath & crossing my fingers, she said she's moving next week. I'll do whatever I can to help her on her way. I mean, I'm not co-signing or paying for anything, but I'll help her move her shit to her new residence.
Monday & Tuesday are the big days. yippee.
She's got 2 places, one is $800 for a bedroom in a shared home, the woman has a day care & kids are there all day and into the evening.
Second place is with a married couple and is a bit cheaper. She hasn't been to see it yet & isn't sure of the location.
I told her the handyman will be here February 3rd & she's got to be out before then.

My Heart Is Full

We had a GREAT time in England & France

In Annecy they had a parade for us

This castle ruins was really cool

Scotland didn't let us down one bit

London

Someday we'll go again & next time we'll know more about what we will do in advance. This was such an awesome trip and we saw so many amazing things.

Next time we go we will have a lot more things planned out in advance. 

We'll do a lot more research (we did tons!!) into the things we want to see and places we want to go. 

In the past I've always had a plan, with a map & predetermined points of interest. This time it wasn't always like that. We knew our phones wouldn't work perfectly but hadn't planned on NO phones unless we were getting free wifi. I hadn't planned on so many people, since last time I was there it was shitty weather and this time it was FABULOUS most of the time.

Next time we'll have a hotel room in a central location & take day trips from there. Not another trip where we're driving most of each day to get to our next destination.

We stayed at a hostel in London, the White Ferry House, above a pub;

they had 9 males & females in our room, there were 8 rooms all together with only 2 bathrooms w/5 stalls in each. That's 10 toilet/shower/sink tiny rooms for 72 people to use. You couldn't get dressed in your room because there were people of the opposite sex in all the rooms and the bathrooms had an hour long waiting line and there were no toilets that weren't in the tiny shower rooms.

Next night was in France at an Airbnb in Montpellier.

It was hell getting into the room because of no phone service but nice people spent an hour helping us. The room was small & had a fold out double size futon. Check out @ 10am and no time to enjoy the cute little outside garden.

The 2nd night in France was another Airbnb studio with another fold out bed. Much cuter than the first place, this one was in Cannet, the old town just above Cannes. So beautiful, with tiny streets that everyone whipped through in their cars. parking was scarce, motorcycles & scooters everywhere.

This window looked out over the tiny alley, into & through the neighbors yard. It took us about 2 hours to find this place & another hour to park.

This is the stuff I wanted Lan to see & he loved it.

Tourettes-sur-loop village. 

This place was AMAZING. People still live there & work in the small buildings & run shops. 

 On Saturday we were in Annecy, where they had a freaking parade for us!!!!

The Return From the Alpine Pastures.

First there was delicious food, sausages & scalloped potatoes cooked in HUGE flying pans.

Then the parade.

We went to the Museum of the French Revolution

Back I n the olden times, Lans ancestors were 'ROYALTY' in France but were on the wrong side of the people & suring the revolution they had to leave France for America in the dark of night.

This chateau used to be a castle so while visiting it I made up stories of what Lans great-g-g-g-g grandparents would have been doing while there.

On Sunday we went to Chamonix, rode the gondola up to the top.

We spent 3 hours up there, 12,602 feet in elevation. Can't say enough about this place, LOVED IT.

Glass floors with nothing below you for 1,000 feet

When we were leaving the Alpenglow on the French Alps was oh, so gorgeous.

Then we headed back south Monday; this is the Carcassonne Castle.

We got there too late in the day to go inside but the church was still open & it was beautiful

We also enjoyed a vry nice dinner in one of the squares, I had blackened escargot in a tomato sauce. YUM.

Tuesday we were flying back to London but not till 2:30 so we had several hours in the morning to explore. Decided on a castle ruins 2+ hours northwest of the airport.

Stopped for a pee break along the way and found this gem. An old swimming hole with this OLD bridge over it. You can see where the old bridge was added to to make it fit present day cars.

Château de Peyrepertuse

next post will be all about the UK portion of our trip.

SIR ELTON JOHN

SIR ELTON JOHN

He's been my one true teen heart throb my entire life 

and last night I was delighted to see him again, my third time, in concert.

Tacoma Dome, 

September 17, 2019

Seats 211 HH 5 & 6

(we were sitting straight across from the stage, a long way but it was perfect)

FAREWELL YELLOW BRICK ROAD TOUR

This street sign was outside, pretty cool.

Inside on the way to our seats

This one is pretty cool, Lan took it

Near the end

I absolutely LOVE the man