Working!!!! Yes!!!

Jim is finally working. Well, if you can call it that. They haven't got the go ahead and we've been here in Oregon since June 18th. They just drive around all day on the right-of-way getting to know their way around until the go ahead comes in, which should be tomorrow. They are still being paid and that is a BIG plus.

I know I know...... too long between posting. Well let's see - I'm starting this on Friday night but I don't expect to finish it until sometime Saturday.

We left Florida and headed to Bass Lake in North Carolina. Spent only a few days there and got to see both of my brothers. For us both it was a pleasure, I hope it was for them too.

From there we headed out for Ohio and Jim's family. We were going to spend six weeks at the Kenisee Lake TT park, but Jim got the call to go to work and it was shortened by a week.

We headed out on the 12th of June for Lakeview, Oregon. It was 6 long days of traveling. The only real problem we had was going across the Salt Flats in Utah. What a site that is. However, it was extremely windy. The wind got up under our slide toppers and rattled them like crazy. It kept lifting them up and out. Finally, we came upon a rest area where you can look far across the flats and there was a big semi next to us. He was kind enough to pull forward and block the wind so we could run the slides in and out to try and tighten up the toppers. We made it to Elko Nevada and found an RV place there. Gateway RV. It was very tight and difficult to pull in. Well, we didn't exactly pull in..... we parked on the side street. There was a fella there named Jerry. He looked at it and right away knew that the new toppers we'd had installed after the hail storm in Georgia the year before hadn't been properly installed. The anti-billow brake was never put on. He put a screw on the ends to hold them in place for us and we were off and gone in less than 30 minutes. We have "stupid insurance" with Camping World on those toppers until 2012, so we'll be seeing them as soon as we can to get them replaced. Besides which, they have a lifetime installation warranty and since it wasn't done right to start with, they'll be re-doing them for us.

We finally got to Lakeview on Friday the 18th of June. We had a reservation at Junipers Reservoir RV resort. What a gorgeous place! No pool, no scheduled activities - but it sits in the middle of an 8,000 (YES, EIGHT THOUSAND) acre working cattle ranch. From under your awning you can sit and watch deer, pronghorn antelope, cattle (of course) coyotes, eagles, hawks and more. There's a 6.5 mile ranch loop with waterfalls that you can walk to, or you can drive the loop. During our time there, we were able to watch a nest of Robins and nest of Western Kingbirds hatch.

The Sunday after arrival, Jim had to leave to drive right back to Elko for four days of meetings, training and testing. With just the car he was able to take a MUCH shorter route than we had to take with the RV. I'm ever so thankful we didn't take that route with the RV. Thank goodness for my truck atlas!

We left there last week and moved to Bonanza because the company Jim is working for decided to move their office to the Bonanza area. since that was nearly 80 miles, we decided to find a place in the area. I like it here better for conveniences. And now, instead of driving 90 miles to the nearest Walmart or decent grocery store, it's only 25 miles. Jim can finally buy ice cream and get it home before it's soup. ;) So here we are in the Center (east to west wise) of Oregon about 10 miles north of the California border.

I did buy a Kindle because I read so much and without a car while he's working, I can still get new books. Most of what I've been reading lately are their Free books. It's amazing how many books you can get for free. And they're good too!!! If you check weekly, there are always new ones that are free for a short time as promotions. I think one of the better free books I've read so far was "Forevermore." I've also become a Huge Greg Iles fan, devouring all his books in less than a month. The only one I've yet to read until his newest comes out in January is "The Footprints of God." (Maybe I should start a book discussion here.) Of course they didn't come out with the graphite color Kindle until after I got mine, and it looks like I only missed it by a week or so. Oh well.......if I can get Jim to enjoy the free games that you can download for it, I'll get another one for myself. I got the 6inch display instead of the almost 10 inch display. I don't think I'd want the bigger one because I wanted something that wasn't too awkward to carry around in my handbag. They also have free WiFi access, and I thought that was pretty cool. I still download my books to the computer and store them on my extra hard drive so I'll always have them. Of course, if I want one and download it straight to the Kindle I can always copy it to the computer. Kindle will hold more than 1500 books (the new ones hold over 3500). Now I have a cabinet that's going to be free because I don't have to have a place to keep all my books anymore. That gives me one more place to put other stuff that I didn't have before. And yes, if you aren't an RV'er, that means a LOT!

Monday, we should be taking delivery on a new F-150 Lariat. We traded the Hummer. Jim just wasn't comfortable in the Hummer seats. I'll facebook a picture of it whenever they get all the stuff done on it that he wants done, and we finally can take delivery. I'm thinking maybe a 4 wheel drive Escape for me on down the road. Do any of you RV'ers out there tow an Escape? Tell me how you like it, please!

OK, Donna this was for you - but for everyone that reads this, I'll do my best to keep up better than I have been. I promise! In the meantime, go shopping!