Life on the road

Going To Alabama

This is what it looked like as we started out on our trip this morning. Foggy. Windy. Rainy. Cold. Leaving just in time. At the entrance station, it was even foggier. A really miserable day, and I have to say I was really glad I wasn’t working out there.

PA250045 — Foggy at the entrance station.

A few miles down Highway 67, it was sleeting, and accumulating on the road. Our trailer was slipping and sliding around back there. I have never been more frightened on a drive since we started traveling full-time!

PA250047 — Icy Roads are pretty dang scarey!

We passed a couple of cars that had slid off the road and hit a tree. I know those people were not having a good day. I am so thankful that we made it down off the plateau.

Down in House Rock Valley, the desert was sunny and nice. We stopped at the scenic viewpoint and took some pictures of Vermillon Cliffs: (yeah, I know, I take pictures every time I go by there, but I can’t stop myself, hahahaha)

We got into Flagstaff around 3:30 p.m. The rain had stopped and the sun was out, and I saw a rainbow over the mountains.

After looking at the Weather Channel, we have decided to spend two nights here in Flagstaff, to let the bad weather get farther east, and we will miss most of it. We have a little bit of shopping to do in town, anyway.

Here is a short video of the drive through Marble Canyon, just to show how gorgeous it was there today:

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Getting Ready To Roll Again

Karen · 3 Comments

My last day to work for this season was Saturday. I spent Sunday doing as little as possible–all I did was work on that baby quilt. Then on Monday, I spent all day cleaning out closets, drawers, cubby holes, and the pantry. I do this every time before we leave on a road trip so that everything is all neat and clean, and to get rid of extra weight of the things we have accumulated over the season. I was planning to finish up the quilt today, but….

Last week when FabGrandpa went to town, he made an appointment for work to be done on the truck, thinking he would be off on Tuesday. Well, he is not off on Tuesday, and hasn’t been all season, so I was elected to go and take care of business. I was ok with going, but I have so many things on my “TO DO” list Iwasn’t really happy about it. This morning, I got up at 4:30 A.M. and drove to Utah to the mechanic. It was sooo foggy out there it was hard to see, but I did ok.

That photo was taken on the side of the road at about 5:45 A.M., before the sun came up. It was getting lighter outside, but still hard to see in the fog. Had breakfast at Jacob Lake, then headed on down the plateau towards Kanab. The sun was out and shining on the Vermillion Cliffs—I think this is the best photo I have ever been able to get of them since it had rained the night before and washed all the dust out of the air.

PA190020 — Vermillion Cliffs on Hwy 89A in Arizona

I love seeing this area, it looks different every day, in every light. I got to Kanab about 8:30 A.M. Utah time, (7:30 AZ time). It’s kind of like going from Carrollton, Georgia to Anniston, Alabama—it’s just over the state line, but in a different time zone. I dropped off the truck, and my friend Chris picked me up. The first place we headed was the coffee shop! I NEEDED coffee!

After a french vanilla cappucino, we went to the fabric store. Need I say more? I didn’t get a lot of stuff, but did get what I needed to finish up the quilt I am working on:

I got a batting and this solid pink Kona Cotton for the back. Now I can sit down tomorrow and finish this little jewel up!

I also got this set of fabric:

I really love that green batik, and it looks really good with the others in blues, purples, and greens. I am thinking about making a laptop bag out of it, but really haven’t decided yet. The last thing I got was 4 yards of white on white print just so I will have it for when I need it. I never have enough of solids, especially whites and creams.

After I dragged myself away from the Ace Hardware/Fabric Shop, we went to a couple of thrift stores. Didn’t find much that interested me today there. The last stop with Chris was at Calvin T’s barbecue for lunch. I had a pulled pork sandwich without the bun, and some potato salad. The barbecue was the best I have had in this part of the country (in my opinion, they really don’t know how to do barbecue here 🙂 but the potato salad was lacking. I always measure potato salad by what my mother makes, and this was not even close.

Finally, the truck was ready to go, so Chris dropped me back at the mechanic shop to pick it up. It was hard to say goodbye because I don’t know when we’ll meet again. Such is the life of a fulltime RV’er, though. There’s always Facebook!

On the way home, I stopped at the Fresh Produce sign, and picked up some corn and tomatoes:

The weird thing is, that those tomatoes weren’t cracked open like that until I got back up the plateau. It happened last time we bought some, too. I think it is the high altitude, over 8800 feet, that does this. But it is weird that ONLY the fresh picked ones do this, not the hard ones from the grocery store. Hmmmmm…….

I had to stop and take this one last picture, because the place just looked so, well, photogenic, today:

This is on Hwy 67 on the way to the North Rim, in the Warm Fire area. The Warm Fire happened in 2006, started by a lightning strike, and burned about 58,000 acres. In case you can’t get your head around 58,000 acres, you drive through the burned area for 11 miles. Those clouds, with tinge of gray around the edges, and the stark trees, just screamed “WINTER IS COMING!”. I’m glad I’m leaving soon.

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My Turkey Hunt Was A Success!

Karen · 5 Comments

There are lots of wild turkeys here, but they are hard to find for most of the season. In fall, th0ugh, you may see a whole flock of them in a meadow, taking advantage of all the seeds falling from the grass and wildflowers out there. And while hunting is prohibited at the Grand Canyon National Park, but I went hunting today anyway–with my camera. My quest was a huge success!

(if the video doesn’t show up, click on the link to it. )Turkey Hunt

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Gluten Free On Sale?

Karen · 7 Comments

We went over to Utah to buy groceries today. While I was in town, I picked up a newspaper. This is the grocery ad on the back page of the first section of the newpaper:

gluten free sale — In a newspaper in Utah!

I have never seen an ad for a sale on gluten free products in a newspaper. I know I have been able to find gluten free items in most grocery stores in Utah (which is NOT the case in other states, like Alabama, Arizona, and Georgia). I think it is wonderful! I just wish there were one of those stores near me.

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This Reminds Me How Blessed I Really Am

Karen · 3 Comments

Tara is a young mother of four, whose husband, Mike, is in the Army. Their youngest son, Isaac, has been diagnosed as autistic. I don’t know Tara personally–she was looking for another person with the same name as mine on Facebook, we started chatting, and reading each other’s blogs. Her story is amazing–you can read what she has to say at Red, Green, Lellow. Tara spends a great deal of her time fighting for her son–first to get a diagnosis, now to get treatment and help for him so that he can return to a normal life. I sincerely hope that her efforts pay off and that he will be a healthy, happy, normal little boy again.

In the mean time, Tara’s husband is being deployed somewhere again. I don’t really know where or for how long, but this means that she will be by herself again with four children until he comes back. They are planning a ONE DAY “vacation to Virginia Beach before he goes away. I would like to see them be able to go for two or three days, and for them to be able to take the children to see some of the wonderful sites in that area, like the Virginia Aquarium .

I am so interested in her story, I guess, because it is one that is repeated so much here in the United States. Our health care system is NOT the best in the world. Even if you have insurance, like Mike and Tara do, that does not guarantee that you will get the health care or services you need and deserve for your family. Tara has had to fight tooth and nail every step of the way. It shouldn’t be so darn hard. Can you imagine how much harder it would be with no insurance? I surely can’t, but there are many many people just like Tara and her family, who have struggles like this every day, who do not have insurance to help pay for it, who get nowhere in their struggles.

Tara has no idea I am doing this, but if you would like to make a donation via paypal, to help they have a much needed few days at the beach, send me an email or make a comment and I will send you her paypal address. Let’s make this a great trip for this little family that is trying so hard.

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Got A New Camera. Not The One I Wanted, but a camera. Caution, don’t look if you are squeamish…..

Karen · 6 Comments

41Js8c2V1cL._SL160_AA115_ — Olympus SP-600UZ

After studying the different cameras available on the market, and talking to several knowledgeable people, I had decided to buy a Nikon D5000. It is a digital SLR camera with good reviews and a lot of good features. At around $700 for the body and two lenses, and a battery charger and an SD card, it would have been a good camera for me to use while I learned how to use a digital SLR because it would also take pictures in automatic mode. That’s where the camera does all the settings automatically so you don’t have to think about it. But, alas, it was not in the cards for me to get that camera right now.

That is because the night before last, after dinner, I broke my partial plate. For anyone who wears dentures or a dental device like a partial plate, you know how expensive that can be. I got the plate in 2005, when we were still living in south Texas, 8 miles from the Mexican border. I walked across the border, had six teeth extracted, and had the partial plate made, for a total expense of $400. That included an antibiotic and pain meds to take after the extractions. I never thought about the thing breaking. Heck, I didn’t even know it COULD break. And I didn’t know you could only expect a partial plate to last for five to seven years!

After my initial shock, I did what any other sane person would do–I googled the internet for “repairs to partial plate”. The most important thing I learned from that search is that MY partial can not be repaired, because it broke on the metal part. They can only make repairs if it is the plastic part that broke.

My next search was for what it would cost to get a new partial plate made. In the United States, a partial plate like mine would cost me a whopping $1500 to $2000 at a regular dentist’s office! I know dental work is expensive, but this is not even a full set of teeth we are talking about here. At discount denture place I found, I can get a new set of teeth for about $650, but I would still have to drive down to Phoenix, twice. And that would also involve staying in a motel overnight both times, because it is just too far to go there and back in one day. So, we are still trying to decide whether to go to Yuma and walk across to Mexico, go to Phoenix, or wait and go to the outlet they have in Georgia in November. I CAN eat, just not a steak or a pork chop. And it would be sooo much easier to wait and go in Georgia when we get back east.

At any rate, in anticipation of having to spend at least $650 out of pocket, I decided it wouldn’t be prudent to also spend over $700 for a new camera, even though I really really want it. So, when we went to Kanab today, I bought an Olympus SP-600UZ. It is NOT an SLR camera, but it is a pretty good digital camera for under $200. It has lots of good features, including taking pretty good videos. The pictures come out clear and with good color. Which is what I want a camera to do.

It takes pretty decent photos of people:

It does pretty good on close-ups:

Landscapes:

P1010041 — The cliffs behind the hospital in Kanab, Utah

And zoom:

P1010042 — Zoom to the top of the cliffs

Full sun does not wash out the color of the sky and forest:

P1010074 — A meadow on Hwy 67 this afternoon in full sun

And just because I like this photo:

P1010088 — Aspen bones at the North Rim.

So, even though I didn’t get the camera I wanted, I DID get one, and that is a good thing. Now for those teeth…..

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The Long Ride–The Rest Of The Story

Karen · 6 Comments

So, if you are following this story, you know I took a long ride down the Kaibab Plateau in the back of an ambulance, and then I went to Flagstaff to visit Dr. Wani, the cardiologist. We went back to Flagstaff this week to get the results of all the tests that Dr. Wani and his crew did. And the results are: I have no blockages, no leaky valves, no enlarged heart, no high cholesterol. Nothing. I am very happy to say I am a normal, healthy 58 year old woman who obviously had stress induced chest pains for no reason.

Except that I think I may have been too worried about FabGrandpa. But you see, he had oral cancer in 2001. Specifically, Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the tongue. So, any time he has a sore or an ulcer in his mouth, I freak out. I can’t help it. It is my way to worry about the man I love. So, when he showed me a place on his lower gum about a month ago, a place that looked like an exposed jawbone to us, I of course immediately thought it was a recurrence of his cancer. That is why we went to Prescott to the VA Medical Center two weeks ago. And they sent us to see the ENT Cancer Specialist in Phoenix on Monday of this week.

When we got to Phoenix, we were taken in to the ENT Cancer Specialist’s office for him to examine FabGrandpa’s gum. And when he did, he smiled and said, “I think it is a tooth!” And in fact, it WAS a piece of a tooth that was embedded in FabGrandpa’s gum from 10 years ago when he had all his teeth extracted. So, he was given a referral to the dentist on the other side of the hospital to have it removed.

We hurried over there, where they took him right in and took that piece of tooth right out of his head. They didn’t even have to do a biopsy, because when they removed the tooth, they didn’t see anything else there. What a relief! FabGrandpa and I were so relieved, in fact, that we were so silly and giddy and happy that we practically danced on the sidewalk for the rest of the day. Except that we had to be in Flagstaff the next day for my appointment with Dr. Wani. So giddy, that we actually went to Denny’s just for dessert after we got checked in to our motel in Flagstaff. DENNY’S. A place where FabGrandpa usually refuses to eat. And I was so happy that I ate some pie, gluten and all. On purpose.

The next day is when I went for my appointment with Dr. Wani. They did an ultrasound of my heart too, also known as a Echocardiogram. It was uncomfortable but did not actually hurt. I was very glad we had not checked out of the motel yet, because I had to go back there to take a shower after it was all over with. It seemed like they used an excessive amount of that gel. Ick! It was interesting to see the images of my beating heart, showing all the chambers, but I kept thinking, “How much is this going to cost???”

So, we are both fine. While getting all those heart tests is not my idea of fun, at least we know my ticker is working just fine. And we know for sure FabGrandpa is in his second childhood, as he is teething, hahahhaa! The only thing is, I am “heartbroken” because somewhere along the way, I lost my camera. The new one, the one I bought in November. So I can’t show you the picture of silly, giddy FabGrandpa. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

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Why, Yes, That IS a Gluten Free Cake!

Karen · 4 Comments

I haven’t been cooking much lately, other than the regular meals all hum drum, like meatloaf, baked chicken, catfish (yes, still eating it), and pork chops. I haven’t been experimenting with recipes, or making up my own, just because I have been working so much and just want to get it on the table.

So, today, I had a day off. I was yearning, craving, something sweet and gooey, so I looked in the pantry and found a gluten free cake mix, some frosting, and gluten free raspberry filling (I usually use that to make a sort of cobbler). And then my brain started swirling and spinning, thinking, “A gluten free lemon raspberry cake would be soooo goood!” I also thought to myself, “I better make it and eat it before that doctor down in Flagstaff tells me I shouldn’t eat crap like that anymore, gluten free or not.

I baked the cake according to the directions on the package for high altitude. It came out great, except for being a little lopsided. I fixed that by using a huge knife and cutting off the bump (it made a delicious treat for me!). Because this mix only makes one layer, I cut it in half to make two layers for half a cake. I spread a generous portion of the raspberry filling between the layers, then frosted the whole thing with the lemon frosting.

DSCN4987 — not as pretty as I imagined, but it is gluten free.

The finished product did not turn out as pretty as I had imagined in my head, but it tasted very good. The raspberry filling squished out in places through the frosting. Oh, well…..

DSCN4988 — Raspberry Lemon Gluten Free Cake

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