Karen

I’m Not Having What You Would Call Good Luck With Ordering Online

Back in February, I ordered some gluten free stuff from an un-named company, who took For. Ev. Er. to get my products to me. I did get them in good shape, but it took from February 11th, the date I placed the order, until March 3rd to receive. I said never again from that company.

When we arrived at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on April 26th, to begin working again, I decided to order some things from Amazon.com. The package was delivered in good time, less than a week, actually, which is amazing because of where we live right now. But, when I opened the box of Amy’s Tomato Bisque Gluten Free Soup, more than half of the cans were bent.

I don’t eat foods that are in bent cans, especially if they contain tomatoes. I was always taught that it was not a good idea to do that.

I went online to do a return, and found out that Amazon does not take returns on groceries. So, I sent them an email, telling them that I have to eat a gluten free diet, that I live in a remote area, that I ordered this product from them so I would have something to eat for my lunches, but that the order was received damaged. They replied that they are sending a new case, free. That sounds like good customer service to me.

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I Don’t Think The Trailer Is Level…

Karen · 14 Comments

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Settleing In At The North Rim

Karen · 3 Comments

We arrived here last Saturday in the afternoon. We set up the trailer and rested on Sunday. I started working on Monday morning. For this week, there was just me and my lead (supervisor), Kathie, here. Training starts tomorrow, but we were busy all last week getting things ready. It was my job to make copies, tons of them, to make the training manuals.

When I finished making the training manuals, the two of us went through all of them to make sure they are all the same. They were, thank goodness.

Then, I went over to the campground to clean and stock the campground office. The building was new last year, and has lots of cabinets and drawers in it. Last year, none of them were labeled, so I took a couple of hours to making labels and attaching them to all the drawers and doors. Now we will be able find things quickly!

The next task was to inventory the signs at the various bulletin boards around the campground, and make new ones. Printing was pretty quick, but the laminating took a while as there are lots of signs.

Meanwhile, the volunteer camp host was busy splitting wood from trees that fell over the winter for us to use in our wood stove out at the entrance station:

Doing all that stuff involved a lot of walking around. Our office is about a hundred yards from the admin office, and every time I had to make copies, or print in color, or use the laminator, I had to walk over there and back. Walking around the campground taking inventory of things was another long stroll, too. Combine all that walking with getting used to an altitude of over 8800 feet, and I was pooped out at the end of every day!

(A stand of Aspens near the group sites in the campground)

On Friday, when all the campground stuff was as done as we could get it, Kathie and I drove out to the entrance station to start the process out there. The entrance station is 10.5 miles from our office. We had been hearing co-workers from other departments telling us about seeing a couple of turkeys out at th 7 mile marker on Hwy 67, so we both had our cameras with us, ready if we saw them. Sure enough, we DID run into a couple of turkeys out there on the side of the road, just not the ones we were looking for:

(Fabgrandpa and Harry)

Finally, the week was over, and I had two days off, Saturday and Sunday. Yesterday, I did all the laundry, cleaned the trailer, cooked dinner, and read part of a book I found in the library here. Silent Witness by Mark Fuhrman is the story of Terry Schiavo’s death. It is very interesting, written by a retired homicide detective.

Today, we got up very early and decided to drive down to Jacob Lake, about 45 miles away, to have breakfast, but the main reason for the drive was because it was such a beautiful day. The sun is shining and there are fluffy white coulds floating by. We saw a few deer, but I still did not see the turkeys. On the way back, the combination lock on the gate was messed up and wouldn’t open. I was going to drive back 5 miles to the nearest pay phone and call for help, but I passed a law enforcement ranger who stopped, and he had a key to let us in. Hooray for that!!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent baking. I made some blackberry and some strawberry muffins, with real fruit in them:

Also, a dozen Kinniknick rolls:

I should be set for a week or two on breads. I am also thinking about making one of those yummo Lemon Cakes. It sure would taste good!

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Scenic Sunday

Karen · 3 Comments

I took this photo today in the Kaibab National Forest in Arizona on Hwy 67, on the way back up to the North Rim. We drove down the plateau to Jacob Lake for breakfast, just because it was a gorgeous day.

For more Scenic Sunday photos, click here.

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We Have Arrived

Karen · 7 Comments

A balanced rock in Marble Canyon

Just wanted to come by here and let you all know we arrived safely at the Grand Canyon on Saturday afternoon. The wind died down a bit in the morning, so we left Flagstaff. Everything was fine until we rounded the bend in Marble Canyon, and were in a head wind. It was blowing about 45 miles per hour, and made it feel like the brakes were on. I have never experienced anything like it! That was the worst of it though, for about 20 miles, then it was fine the rest of the way. The trip up the plateau went smoothly.

There was one tree blown over and lying in the road, but we went around on the other side with no problem. There was not nearly as much snow on the ground as last year when we got here.

The weather has been warmer, too. I started working on Monday, after sitting on my behind all winter long. Let me tell you, with the high altitude (8800 ft) and the lazy winter, I am wiped out when I get home! Add to that the 15 pounds I gained over the winter, and well, I have to get into better shape. My pants are way too tight! Training the newbies starts this coming Monday. Can’t wait to meet all the new co-workers. It is going to be another fun season, I just know it.

I had ordered our telephone service way back on April 14th, with a requested installation date of April 24th, our planned arrival date. When we got here on Saturday, the 25th, the phone wasn’t working. Repair service told me there was “trouble on the line”. So when they sent someone out, they discovered they had installed the service at the wrong address. They fixed all that yesterday, so now I have my telly and am back on line. Yay! But why on why can’t a telephone service get it right???

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Scenic Sunday

Karen · 3 Comments

This is just one of the many beautiful rock formations we passed on our way up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon yesterday. It is at Marble Canyon on Highway 89A in Arizona. These cliffs are HUGE! There a few houses at the base of the cliffs, that look so tiny next to them.

Click here to see more Scenic Sunday photos.

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Time To Confess: 55 Days Since The Last Big Shopping Trip

Karen · 5 Comments

Way back on February 27 was the last time we made a big grocery shopping trip. I had made a personal goal to post a recipe for what we ate for dinner every night until the next time we shopped, but as you know, THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN. I am not so good at sticking with the program on things like that, but I DO enjoy this budget thing. It helps me stay somewhat on a grocery budget when I have to publicly report how well or how bad I did with a goal.

So, here are the results of this last venture:

Wal-Mart and Frye’s 2-27: $416.33
in-between trips thru 4-20: 222.35
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total grocery bill 55 days $ 638.68

That comes out to $11.61 per day, or $81.62 per week. Not as good as I wanted, but not as bad as it could have been. We bought a ham for $10.00 the week before Easter; I bought some chard, artichokes, asparagus, and avocados at various times when we were out. This also includes shopping at some small stores that had high prices.

I also have to say, that we had about 1/4 of the ham left, as well as the ham bone; some tilapia; and a couple of other things that could have made about 6 more days of meals. I would have stretched it out that far if we hadn’t been getting ready to go to our job at the Grand Canyon. So, what do you think? Good or bad?

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Flagstaff, Arizona

Karen · 7 Comments

Yesterday was a beautiful day for a drive, and that is just what we did. It was 143 miles from Cactus Ranch to J & H RV Park in Flagstaff. The trip was pretty much uneventful. The sky was so blue, with puffy white clouds. This is the first view of the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff from I-17.

We pulled into J & H RV Park around 1:30 p.m. and set up the trailer. We had forgotten about the higher elevation of the area–it’s around 7,000 feet. By the time we got done, we were worn out, huffing and puffing. This is the same park we stayed in last year when we were on our way up to the canyon. We like it because the sites are very level pull-throughs, and it is pretty. However, is is $40 a night. That’s us, in the trailer between two motor homes.

The sunset yesterday was beautiful, again. This is looking out toward the San Franciso Peaks:

Today was a busy day. It started out with breakfast at our favorite Flagstaff restaurant, Miz Zips. They serve breakfast all day for a pretty good price, and their coffee is good. I like places that will serve me eggs any time I want them. It’s just not right not to. It always seems like a penalty to me for sleeping late when a restaurant closed up the egg carton at 10 a.m. Anyway, Miz Zips is on Route 66, that famous highway. I just like the idea of eating my eggs on Route 66.

After breakfast, I got a haircut, a manicure, and a pedicure. The girl did a good job on my hair. she only took off about a half inch, and cut some bangs. I had wanted to just let it grow all one length, but the front was growing funny, with just a little bit that was too long to be bangs, but too short to stay back with a hair band. So, I went ahead and cut the bangs, “fringe” to my English daughter-in-law. It looks ok. Keep in mind it was a windy day and I let it air dry instead of using a blow dryer on it, and I didn’t have a brush in the truck:

After all that was done, we went to the game store for Fabgrandpa, and to Joann Fabrics for me. You know I had to get my fabric fix. I got five coordinating prints in chocolate browns, teal blues and creams, for a project I want to work on. Can’t wait to get started on it.

Next, we went to Wal-Mart for a stock up of toiletris, paper goods, and part of the grocery list. It took quite a while, but we did get about half of the planned shopping done today. Then we went home and unloaded the truck and put everything away, ate some lunch, and took a nap. A looonnng nap.

When I woke up, I offered to take FabGrandpa out to dinner, so he suggested the Swadhe Thai Restaurant in the old town part of Flagstaff. Yum! I am ready for thai food anytime. I ordered Woon Sen Soup and Pineapple Shrimp Fried Rice. The soup had those clear bean thread noodles, chicken, and bok choy, and was delish. And what can I say about the fried rice except, if you have never had it, you do need to try it.

He ordered Won Ton Soup and Spicy Seafood Fried Rice. The waiter asked him “How spicy do you want your rice?” They have from 1 to 5 on the spicy side, so he ordered “3”. It was so hot it made his whole head turn red, and it had squid-y, octopi looking things in it, along with the shrimp and scallops. I told him to never order “seafood” in a Asian or Italian place, you just never know what you are going to get. He ate it though, and said it was good.

Here is the sunset we saw when we walked outside to go home:

Tomorrow, there’s more shopping to do. The last time we did a big shopping trip for groceries was on February 27, so it is about time.

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