Thursday--August 25, 2016

Another beautiful day in Durango, Colorado!  Communed for a while this morning with a rather rambunctious Golden Lab next door named Moakie.  He is a year and a half old.  He, his owner, Bob, and "brother" Max (a little ten-year boy) moved in yesterday while Bob and I were in Telluride (last syllable pronounced "ride," not"reed" as I was calling it.  But most of my readers probably already knew that, huh?

Another doggie friend we met here is Allie.  She is a Bearded Shepard--11 years old.  I do not remember her very nice owner's name--can only remember dog names--ha ha!  Here she (and the unnamed owner) are:
In proofing this tome, Bob just told me her name was Ruth--he obviously remembers pretty women's names.

Then I met Charlee--a little black poodle mix.  Steve and Vickie across the way (they are from Phoenix--Steve is originally from Arkansas but, Ginger Blalock, he claimed to be a Bulldogs fan).  Their three dogs were Roy and Betty--both bulldogs--and Bree--the most adorable shiz zhu (hope I spelled that correctly--will NOT spell it phonetically!).  And, yesterday in TelluRIDE, I met Dane outside a real estate office.




Dane was a stone cold dude.  Inside the office was an adorable terrier named Jack.  OK, enough about all my dog friends--at least for today.

Let's talk cooking.  Keeping it pretty simple.  Just not enough prep space to do much more.  I decided the other day to make my Southern Vegetable Soup.  No fancy ingredients here.  I had bought fresh okra at the Flagstaff Farmer's Market before we left.  Just needed tomatoes (canned), salt pork, creamed and niblet corn, and frozen baby lima beans.  Never a problem in the past finding those ingredients.  Do you think I could find baby limas?  NOPE!  Had to buy a bag of frozen Fordhook lima beans--big enough to use to build a house!  I remember those giant limas from eating lunch at Laura Jones Elementary School (not there anymore--torn down years ago--some floors were condemned while I was still attending.  I think my Daddy went to school there in the twenties!).  My Mamma never served us anything but the tiniest fresh butter beans.  I had never seen the likes of those giant limas til I got to Laura Jones.  Never ate them, either, despite the patrolling "clean your plate" teachers.  Nope, I successfully hid them in the napkin in my lap and disposed of them discretely when emptying my plate.  Hah!  My Mamma didn't raise no fools!

Oz got busted the other day.  Our rig (the Catfish--as opposed to Mr. Jaws the truck) had gotten filthy during the trip from Flag to here due to all the rain storms we came through (oops--my brain is ordering me to change that to: : "through which we came."  Can't help myself.)  Anyway he decided one morning that he would wash the rig.  Good water supply with a hose right there.  He managed to get two sides done before the nice man in the golf cart came by and told him to read the camp rules which include one regarding not washing your rig here in camp.  Needless to say, Oz complied.  But he was happy that he was able to wash the dirtiest two sides before he had to quit.  Quite industrious is Oz, The Great and Powerful.

Speaking of which, we are in the process of learning to keep the screen door on the rig closed.  One morning we awoke to find numerous flies residing inside with us.  Before we were done, we had killed at least 20 flies!

I am getting lots of reading done.  Finished a book called My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.  Interesting and different book.  I liked it.  Am currently reading The Girl With Seven Names by Hyeonseo Lee.  Cannot recommend the book too highly!  It is excellent.  Cannot put it down!
Also read the short story, Brokeback Mountain, by Annie Preloux (may not have spelled her last name correctly).  I never saw the movie but enjoyed the short story.

Remember the train to Silverton I mentioned in the last blog?  Trick question for those of you not reading all the blogs.  ha ha  Anyway, Oz took a great photo of it.  Most of the photos I am posting were taken by Bob with his great Samsung phone camera.  The camera on my iPhone (4s) is pathetic most of the time.




A couple more photos of and around the RV park:







Alright, my steadfast readers, I know you want MORE (smiley face here), but it is almost time for lunch and my fingers are tired.  I actually type three times more than what you read here due to all the typos I constantly make and have to correct!  Typing on this small MacBook keyboard is not easy.  I was planning to fully describe our trip to Telluride yesterday.  Will save it for another day.  Except for this little tidbit that I must tell.  Since Oz drove us there yesterday, I graciously offered to drive us home, despite the fact that I do not enjoy driving that humongo truck named Mr. Jaws.  Little did I know that the drive home (different route than the one we took to get there) took us through some gnarly mountains that included precipitous dropoffs on the side of the road with no guard rails to save us!  I was scared shiz zhu-less!!!  Threatening to kill him when we got off that mountain.  And, to top it all off, Oz chose that time to attempt to instruct me on how to shift into manual drive and downshift into low gear to avoid braking so much!!!  To pay attention to his untimely instructions would have meant that I would have had to take my eyes off the road!  Needless to say, at my sweet request, the "instructions" ended until we finally reached a spot where I could pull off and pay attention,.

Glamgirl signing off for now.  Til next time!

Friday, August 19, 2016

Well, here we are in Durango, Colorado.  Arrived yesterday after a long day of travel from Flagstaff.  Came through some of the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen along the way.  But first, let me describe the departure process.  Some of my readers might remember how much I always enjoyed the arrival and departure procedures associated with the RV--NOT!  So, I was not looking forward yesterday morning to all the tasks involved with this process.  Much to my surprise, tho, I remembered much more about the various procedures than I would have ever guessed I would.  Things like making sure everything inside is stowed or secured so that nothing inside is flying around while the Catfish is being towed down the road.  Also, which buttons to use to pull in the pushouts.  After a short refresher from Oz, I was off and running.  Got the inside job done and actually went out and volunteered to help with the outside chores.  Again, I was quite impressed with my memory from two years ago regarding how to do what.  Needless to say, Glamgirl does not handle the sewer  disconnection.  But, I perfectly remembered those pesky leveler thingees and how to remove the boards under them.  Actually, thinking about it now, I probably wasn't that much help.  But, the good news is that the entire leaving process wasn't as onerous as I was thinking it would be.

Soooo, not long after we got on the road, Bob had reason to pull off and go inside the RV (I won't elaborate on his reason).  When he came back to the truck (which is named "Mr. Jaws"--don't ask), he informed me that "someone" had not clicked the refrigerator door shut (RV'ers will understand), resulting in him finding the butter dish upside-down on the floor!  Hmmmm. . . . who could that "someone" be?  I would have sworn on a stack of bibles that I had clicked that door shut!!  Dang!!  Good thing only the butter dish fell out.  Oh well--moving on.

But first, let's return to Flagstaff for a moment.  I think I mentioned in the last blog about our visit to the farmer's market.  No?  Fabulous market!  Lots of produce (tho not as fab as what I see at the Central Coast farmers markets) and crafts and honey and even Mead (a type of horrible sweet wine that I once gave to Greg Morrow's mom with disastrous results).  I even bought some freshly harvested okra.  But the very best thing I saw that morning--a beautiful black dog named Mandy.  Her owner told me that she was an "Aussie-Poo" that he had rescued from a shelter.  She was a year old and VERY active--like he could barely control her.  And, she was HUGE!  Needless to say, I adored her!  She would not have been a good dog to have in an RV, tho!

Now back to the trip to Durango.  Tooling down the road around lunchtime--saw a cute restaurant in a little town called Kayenta.  The restaurant was called The Blue Coffee Pot.  Their parking lot was jammed with cars (with a large dirt area that worked for parking our 30-foot behemoth).  All those cars--must be a good place, right?  Wrongo-bongo!  We went in and first thing we noticed was that we were the only non-Indian face in the place.  Well, that might be good--a nice authentic place--certainly not one of the usual fastfood places we saw all along the highway coming into town.  Let's see the menu.  Hmmmm. . . .the special of the day was mutton stew with Indian fry bread.  Mutton stew--think I will pass.  The Indian fry bread sounded good, but I opted for a cheeseburger.  Bob, being a little more adventurous than I, ordered Indian tacos.  Food comes out--my cheeseburger was very typical--meat, cheese, pickles, tomato, and lettuce.   French fries were homemade but not crisp. Not bad/not great.  However, Bob's tacos were atrocious.  They had a mystery meat (my guess would be mutton), no cheese or lettuce or even taco sauce--just Tabasco.  But, after eating them (Bob will eat almost anything except what he terms "stinky" cheese), he said that at least he was not hungry anymore.

I wish I had photos of the gorgeous scenery we saw during the 7-hour drive from Flag to Durango.  Unfortunately, it was raining off and on during the trip plus my phone battery died along the way.    Also, because we have an awful computer connection at this RV park (where we will be for the next 5 weeks!), making downloading photos very tedious.  Bad phone connection, too.  Despite being on the park's WiFi.  This blog might not be able to be published due to these problems.  If you are reading the blog, you will know that I overcame all the connection issues.

Now, back to that "faulty" refrigerator latch.  Upon arriving at our destination (the United Campgrounds), we began the set up process.  After completing my inside duties (which include pushing the various switches for the living room and bedroom pushouts), I discovered further refrigerator door-related issues.   A wine bottle with a decorative cork had been stored on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator when we left Flag.  Somewhere along the way, the cork was dislodged.  When I opened the refrigerator, the bottle fell out.  Not too much problem, tho, since most of the wine had already spilled all over the fridge shelf and into two storage bins below--which were full of various items of food.  Cleanup on aisle 4!!  What a giant mess!!  Two lessons learned here--store opened wine bottles on the fridge door and MAKE SURE the door is latched tight!

Thankfully, the rest of the evening was peaceful.  Well, almost.  We are parked about 50 yards from the Durango to Silverton railroad tracks.  That train (or trains) goes by several times a day and returns.  As it is approaching the RV park, it blasts its whistle twice.  Loud and piercing!  Thank goodness it does not run at night!!!  Oh yeah--we also discovered that our sewer hose was not long enough to reach the connection designated for our site.  First time that has ever happened.  Will have to solve that problem ASAP!  And, as I mentioned above, the internet connection is awful.  Can't get satellite TV because of a large tree next to us but thankfully the roof antenna works.  Go figure!

Lots to do here and in the surrounding areas over the next 5 weeks--Silverton being one.  Also, plan to drive back to Mesa Verde National Park and tour that area.  Plus, Cortez looked interesting as we drove through yesterday.  I was last in Cortez in 1967!

Glamgirl closing for now.  Wish me luck in getting this tome posted.
   

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

GlamGirl checking in--here I go again--traveling with the Great and Powerful Oz in the RV.  I joined him here in Flagstaff, AZ, yesterday.  My very kind next-door neighbor, Mary Grimsley volunteered to drive me here.




Having not seen each other since June, it was a very happy reunion.



Sooo, Bob has been staying in a KOA park since he got here (with the exception of a few days early on in another RV park here in Flag--what the natives call this town).  He had warned me that it was a tad funky.  Uh huh.  We are packed in here like sardines.  And not just RV's.  There are people staying in all sorts of tents and, get this--teepees!  Yes, I said PEOPLE ARE STAYING IN TEEPEES!



The inside of these domiciles are actually quite luxurious!  I mean for a TEEPEE!! A nice lady who is camped inside one not 10 feet from our rig (did I tell you that Bob calls his RV The Catfish?--Must be a story there) let us look inside.  Two beds, a lamp, a fan (that she bought herself).  Not too bad for camping--beats a tent.  This nice lady (I THINK she said her name is Carole--her grandson's name is Grayson and her beautiful English Cream dog's name is Buddy.) is taking care of her grandson while her daughter (Grayson's mom) does an internship at Glacier National Park.  Grandma is spoiling her grand baby to death!  But, isn't that what Grandma's are supposed to do? (Well, actually, I wouldn't know--I have only had grand cats--and their parents were so strict that I couldn't even give them treats!)  Buddy (the dog) is beautiful.  I had never heard of a breed called English Cream.  Mary said they are very expensive dogs to purchase.

Last night Mary, Bob, and I went to a favorite restaurant of mine from way back--Black Barts.  It is a steak house.  I have probably been there at least 4 or 5 times in the past.  What makes it special is not so much the food (tho it is perfectly decent)--it is the wonderful young people who wait, serve, and entertain during the course of the evening.  As I understand it, the kids are all performing arts students at the Northern Arizona University here in Flagstaff.   Some of them have excellent voices!

Since Mary was staying until Wednesday, she joined us this morning; and we decided to drive to Williams and see Bearizona--a drive-thru park to view bears, Dall Sheep, wolves, elk and bison in a natural setting.


Unfortunately, most of these animals SLEEP during the daytime.  However there were a few exceptions.  Now, here was the problem:  I AM A RULE FOLLOWER!!  Not so much Oz and Mary.
They are major rules breakers.  The primary rule was to NOT ROLL DOWN YOUR WINDOW UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE!  They rolled down windows over and over to take photos
(and got some darn good photos in the process).  At one point we pulled up to a manned guard shack. The shack was on the side where I was sitting.  The guy made a motion for me to roll down my window.  I did so but informed him that his very own rules ordered me to not roll down my window.  Luckily he saw the humor.  He told us to also lock our  car doors.  I asked if the bears knew how to open car doors.  He said they did.  In my best Yogi Bear voice,  I said, "Smarter than the average bear."  I actually elicited a laugh from the fellow.  Anyway, we survived and lived to tell the tale.



What appears to be a dead wolf next to the road.  He wasn't--just sleeping.



The bears also like to lay next to the road!


The only active bear we saw!

Now back to downtown Williams.  Lunch is in order.  Earlier in the day when we had spotted a barbecue (b/q for the aficionados) place (smoker a smoking--smelled divine!).    So, we found it again.   Cruisers Route 66.   Had a wonderful lunch--Oz had a fabulous rack of baby back ribs.  Mary and I both had pulled pork sandwiches.  They came with a funky little cole slaw that had walnuts in it.  The waitress has to ask everybody who orders the cole slaw if they are allergic to walnuts.  So just leave out the dang walnuts!  They did not add that much to the flavor, anyway.  We also had an interesting starter.  But a note here--wouldn't you think that a menu item that is listed in the "starter" section would be served as a "starter?"  Noooooo--the "starter" came after our main dish was served.  However, it was delicious--battered and deep-fried onion and jalapeno slices.

Alright, closing down for now.  Oh, before I forget--the Great and Powerful Oz allowed me to shower in the RV shower yesterday!  Those of you who followed this blog two summers ago might remember my many adventures with the various RV park showers.  However, having finally obtained the lofty goal of "showering in," I have to say that being able to take a nice hot shower with the water running the entire time (tried to conserve water in the RV shower by turning it on and off during the process--not a procedure Glamgirl appreciates) does have its appeal.  Who knows--I might find the RV park showers more to my liking in the future.  Stand by for more adventures.  We are here for another week then off to parts unknown!  Although Colorado is looking like it might be our next destination.