January 2022 - December 2022

Wow!

I can't believe we have been on the road living in our RV for over 13 years!

We started October 1, 2009 and I did 33 blogs in three months that year. 2010 I did 77, 2011-77, 2012-42, 2013-17, 2014-16, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-9, 2018-4, 2019-7, 2020-3, 2021-2 and this year 1. There seems to be a trend or pattern forming. We must be losing our oomph. We just don't seem to go anywhere new or very interesting anymore. I guess we have officially become fuddy duds. Oh no, that can't be true! Total malarkey!

I finally arrived in Yuma on January 8th, after waiting three months in Helena to get our wrecked car repaired. The farm workers were already busy picking spinach next to our campground. The oranges in the background had already been picked over Christmas week.

My first week back, I headed to the outdoor market. This little kiosk had lots of stuff made out of tires.

Cute little armadillo, just what everyone needs.

All sorts of pitchers, planters, birds, chickens, etc. Even alligators and who doesn't want a big black alligator sitting in the flower bed next to your front door?

Lots of fun t-shirts. You can find anything you need at this market, including hardware, kitchen stuff, RV furniture, awnings, upholstery, clothing, food, live music, etc. 10AM to 4PM every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I'm not sure which one my family thinks I am... but I would guess "bossy ass". Somebody has to take charge, right?

One of our neighbors must have hit someone on Halloween and never bothered to peel them off the front of their truck. 😂

Old friends Karolyn and Julie walking Julie's dogs around the lake at our campground.

This badass RV, made from an old airplane body, was in the parking lot when we girls headed down to Algodonos, Mexico for the day.

Karolyn schmoozing with the local vendors, wearing her new hat that she just bought.

When I am with my girls, the margaritas just keep coming! Julie, Karolyn and Terri are a bad influence on me, but what happens in Mexico, stays in Mexico!

Gravestone I had painted for the grandkid's dog, Digger. There are some amazingly talented people in Algodonos.

One evening we went to the oldest home in Yuma for dinner and a talk on the history of Yuma and the area. Very interesting and a good meal.

I am truly too old for more than three drinks and certainly nobody wants to see that!

With new friends at the St. Patrick's Day Dance.

Friends Craig and Terri spent a week with us at Emerald Cove on the Colorado River by Parker.

We showed them around the area a bit. This is the memorial for the Japanese Internment Camp at Poston. The buildings are nearby, totally abandoned and overgrown with weeds, but still interesting to see.

We also took them to this campground about ten miles out in the boonies on windy, gravel roads. They have this nice marina and a small grocery store, as they really are way far away from town.

They also have a nice little golf course up on the bluff overlooking the river and the burros just love the green grass. There were at least a dozen burros hanging around this campground.

Back at our campground, the burros still manage to get in even though they have fenced in the whole thing in the last couple of years except for the two entrance driveways. They do raise havoc with the dumpsters.

In mid-April we started to head north. We spent about a week in Utah seeing some of the areas we had not yet been to.

Little areas like this are usually busy with vendors, but it was pretty quiet this day.

Views from the road.

Heading into the little village of Mexican Hat along the Virgin River.

You can boondock most anywhere out here in the Valley of the Gods, so this is where we parked for several days. The views in every direction were absolutely amazing!

One day we did the 17-mile scenic drive through the Valley of the Gods.

You can see why it is called Valley of the Gods. There are many formations similar to this one.

Some of the formations look like battle ships.

Hen on a Nest from two angles.

Bears Ears

This is the road up toward the end of the 17-mile drive.

I was sure glad I wasn't on my bike, like this guy.

Looking down from this viewpoint, we could see old pueblo ruins down at the bottom.

A zoom-in view.

Back at camp for the evening.

The next day we went to Monument Valley.

West Mitten and East Mitten.

Many, many movies were filmed here starting with The Vanishing American in 1925, and especially many John Ford movies like Stagecoach in 1939, My Darling Clementine in 1946 and The Searchers in 1956. Also, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade 1989, Back to the Future III 1990, Cars 2006, The Lego Movie 2014 and Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom 2018.

Newspaper Rock has petroglyphs on it from BC times through pioneer times.

Needles Overlook

Desert Primrose

Indian Creek Viewpoint

Wilson Arch named for a pioneer who had a cabin nearby.

Amazing places to hike everywhere you turn.

We did Needles and Canyonlands National Parks and waited until after 5 PM to go into Arches National Park. You had to have a reservation to go in unless you went in before 6AM or after 5PM, and anyone who knows me would know that 6AM was not an option.

Grand Viewpoint Overlook

Goodbye Utah. Grandkids are waiting for us.

We really missed you Grandpa!

The first event after we got back was Benny's pre-school graduation.

Oh my, the last one! Oh well, maybe there will be some great-grandbabies coming in the not-too-distant future. You can't blame a grandma for hoping for more snugglers, right?

The next event was the annual Vigilantes Day Parade.

All sorts of floats from the 1950's....

and 60's....

and 40's maybe?

All the sports teams were represented including golf, tennis, wrestling, baseball, basketball, football, rodeo and more, both boys and girls from all the schools and the marching bands, of course. Even the preschoolers marched in costume. It's an excellent parade. One of the floats was even driven by an old friend from my hometown, Jerry Christman Roofing. and we exchanged a wave as he went by.

Back through the days when Joe Lewis was here....

when ski resorts were more rustic....

when there were still bordellos, gambling, mining, etc.

Ten Mile Creek Park is about a mile from the kids' house right down the bike path, so we ride over there quite often. It is a mountain fed creek that is pretty much freezing all the time, but they almost always wear their swimsuits and get in and splash around. It's only about waist deep, so perfect for them.

Glued to the TV. They don't get to watch very often, but when Mom and Dad are gone, all bets are off. Grandma and Grandpa are in charge!

My big accomplishments for the year, I finally put up my magnetic knife holder...

and paper towel holder to get them both off the counter and I love them both!

We also finally got a new couch....

and Carter finally got a haircut!

The Wild Bunch

The first week in June I took the kids out to the Lewis & Clark County Fairgrounds just to see the animals and other exhibits and have snow-cones and cotton candy.

In mid-June we made a special trip to Iowa to help John's Aunt Helen celebrate her 100th birthday and had a nice visit with several of his cousins.

We also stayed at Dawn's for a few days and made a short stop at my brother's and my Mom's.

Back at Hilary's, the kids were playing a little baseball. Benny was still in his pajamas and showing off his new haircut, with a sun on one side and his initials on the other side.

Keira's 7th birthday August 10th. She has been planning this party and her presents about every day since last year's birthday!

What Keira wanted for her birthday was for Hilary's friend Connie to take us to the lake.

So John and Connie took us all out to Cannon Ferry Lake one afternoon.

Hilary trying out the new inflatable SUP. It's harder than it looks.

Mini Mr. T.

I made three trips back to the Dakotas in August, two for jury duty and one to see my family while my brother and his son and daughter-in-law were all back home from Ohio. My Mom came back to Montana with me between jury duty trips for a visit.

Mom tried out this massage chair at Costco and thought it was pretty amazing. The look on her face is in response to the price $10,000.

Benny's 5th birthday August 28th. He was so excited to open his presents!

Cool, a dragon puppet with a fiery tongue that goes in and out. Awesome! Thanks Tally!

He also loved his spider man outfit and his remote-controlled Batmobile.

But the best was his Lloyd costume from the ninja turtles. I hope I got that right because I have no idea who that is.

Labor Day Weekend I was back in North Dakota for various family gatherings. One brought us to the DeLamere School House Bar. An old one room schoolhouse was moved into town across the street from the bar my parents owned when I was growing up. Their bar was torn down a few years ago and this is the only business in town anymore.

Lacey, Gary, Adam, Tiffany, Jake, Dewey and Jim.

The weekend party continues as the boys go for a ride around the lake.

I know they say there is no such thing as too much fun, but by Sunday night we were pushing the envelope. Lucky for us, my baby brother was in charge and keeping everybody in line. 😇 Thank you Claude and Jodi for putting up with all of us. So much fun and great to see everybody!

Almost back to Helena and more of forest fire season. Hilary and I went to the Josh Turner concert on September 10th. Very good. He is one of my favorites. Third time I have seen him.

Just a block from the kids' house where we turn onto the bike path, these people had a whole row of Halloween blow-ups.

Tierney's (14) and Tallia's (11) family birthday party. They each had separate sleepover nights with friends. From now on all they want for gifts is money. Tierney wants to buy a dog and Tally wants to buy a horse. Tally has been going to horse care and riding lessons all summer. I guess we have Robin to thank for that obsession. 💘

The kids' house with the new two-story addition in the middle joining the house to the garage. Our RV spot is under the birch tree to the left side of the house.

View of the back side. There is a small deck in between the addition and the original house.

From further back you can see our old car parked behind Carter's garage apartment and a few of the outbuildings on the right side. Just behind me was just a big weed patch. I have been working on it for the last 3 or 4 years pulling monster weeds and planting flowers.

They are finally starting to spread well and I planted a bunch more this fall, so they should be amazing next year. This was taken kind of late in the fall, so a lot of them had quit or slowed down blooming already.

A few close-ups.

We went to the Fall Harvest and Corn Maze about ten miles south of town along the Missouri. Dallas left Grandpa in the corn maze, so Grandpa spent an hour in the maze trying to find him. 😡

Everybody had fun on the huge bouncy thing.

Next was the huge slide. The two little ones were too scared to go by themselves, so Hilary had to go with them.

After that we couldn't get them off the slide!

They also had a hay bale maze and steers made out of hay bales, so the kids could try roping them and some target shooting things that shot potatoes and apples.

Then there was the hayride along the river to the pumpkin patch where you pick out a pumpkin to buy.

One day we went to DQ for treats and Benny pointed at the picture of the banana split and said that's what he wanted. The look on his face when they brought it was priceless. Needless to say, I had to eat about two thirds of it. The next time we went, he said, "I don't want that banana thing again."

The kids finally got the

5th bathroom almost done, the master bath. Jeff moved a door and put two new windows in the old family room. Carter and his friends put up sheetrock on the walls and ceiling, so just flooring left to finish.

Hilary and Jeff went out for the evening. Keira came running out of the bathroom yelling "Grandma, Grandma, come quick! The toilet is smoking!" So, I come running and there she stands, the little turd. No pun intended. 😍

The little turkeys were very proud of their turkey crafts.

Annual pumpkin carving day

The meticulous artist at work.

A Christmas wreath Tierney made from stuff she picked up outside. She takes scraps of fabric and starts cutting and sewing and just designs new clothes. Some of the pictures she has drawn are on the wall behind her. One of her drawings below. She is quite the artist.

You can never take a picture without this kid trying to ham his way in.

Dallas was very excited about basketball camp that started about a week before we left to go south.

They finally walled in a corner upstairs next to the bathroom, so Tierney could move up and they could split up the boys into separate rooms.

Tierney decided to go trick or treating as a bar maid, so she made a beer mug out of two ice cream buckets bottom to bottom.

All ready to go, Keira hanging upside down from the apple tree.

People really go all out decorating for Halloween. One place the couple was sitting out front by a campfire with a full bar and offering Mom and Dad shots. When Hilary and Jeff said no thanks, I stepped up and asked if they had any Grandma shots. They gave me some kind of yummy caramel green apple shot that kept me warm all the way home. 😅

For John's birthday he got a Roy Rogers shirt.

and three copies of Mike Lindell's book. Wait?!?!?! What?!?!?! The story is that Jeff's folks have ordered them some sheets and stuff from My Pillow and every package comes with a copy of his book. 😂 The kicker is that I read it and it is actually a pretty good book, in spite of him being a total nut case. Three days after John's birthday we headed south to escape the winter storm that was moving in.

We stayed the first night at a rest area near Cedar City, Idaho and found our favorite spot here in the desert at Quartzsite the next day.

The sunsets out here are amazing! John says the sunrises are also amazing, but I will probably never know.

We stayed for a few days and did some hiking.

Cholla Cactus

Saguaro Cactus

People live out here in absolutely any kind of rig you can imagine. If you haven't seen the movie Nomadland, check it out. It's about people living in the desert here.

All this guy needed was solar panels and an antenna on his little car. And he's still way better off than millions of people in the world.

We stayed for three nights and had lunch at our favorite place in town, Silly Al's Pizza. We also ate at the Yacht Club for the first time, and it was good, too. Who ever heard of a yacht club in the desert?

From here we headed to our usual spot at Yuma Lakes Resort.

Hiking around the lake at our campground.

Someone painted the flat river rocks to look like M & Ms.

Someone had this little RV made out of 7-Up boxes with a tow jeep made out of coke cans sitting on their picnic table.

View from our window

We had Thanksgiving dinner with old friends from Brookings, Rick and Donna. Rick made a turkey in his smoker and his specialty stuffing. Both were delicious!

John wore his new birthday present for the occasion, and I think Rick was a bit jealous.

Funky clouds over the orange grove. It's very unusual to see so many clouds. 🌞

Hiking along the canal. I have been to seven movies in the last few weeks. My favorites were She Said, Till and Devotion.

Oleander bushes surround our campground. In English dramas people often use oleander tea to poison their spouses. I know what you're thinking, but John hates tea, so it would never work. I would be worried, but John also doesn't make tea and or wait on me, so I would totally be suspicious if he started making me tea.

Some people sure bring a lot of stuff along to decorate for Christmas. Before these went up, they had a big blow-up turkey on top of their rig.

My decorations are little more understated.

Your palm trees are still alive Karolyn, but that's about all I can say.

Kickin' back for happy hour and watching a little TV.

Rick and Donna invited us over again for Christmas dinner, barbequed meatloaf in the smoker, potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie. Yum, Yum! You are the man, Rick!