Thar she blows!

Yesterday afternoon, I was sitting outside in my rocker enjoying the sun (for a change) and reading a magazine.  Along about three o'clock the wind suddenly blasted out of the northwest catching me by surprise.  That really put my nerves on end as I quickly jumped up to roll up the awning.  A similar gust of wind ripped my awning this summer before I could get it rolled up.  I was lucky yesterday...no rips.  That initial gust turned into high winds for the rest of the day, overnight, and today.  It has been one "whale" of a wind storm.

After spending yesterday relaxing, I got busy today with my chores of cleaning the rig and doing the laundry.  I can't believe the improvement in my Internet reception since I got my new laptop.  I don't think I've ever had such fast reception.  I'm thinking it's a combination of the new computer and taking my son-in-law's advice to go to a Sprint store to have them install my air-card software.  When I plug in the air-card, I get a totally different small window on the screen than before and it says 3G.  I remember being at this same location last year, and it could take up to 30 minutes to upload one picture to the blog.  Now I can upload five pictures in just a few minutes.  I have to say that this has been money well spent!  ;)

There are several games that I enjoy playing on the computer like spider solitaire and scrabble.  A year ago, I purchased a $7.00 game called Flip WORDS2.  It is a word game similar to Wheel of Fortune, where you solve phrases only there is no wheel.  In order to get a letter, you have to form a word beginning with the letter you want from a grid of jumbled letters.  With it installed on my old laptop, I had used up about 60% of the phrases in a year's time.  When I reinstalled it on the new laptop things started over.  That means I'll probably have another two years of playing.  Talk about an entertainment bargain!  Anyway, the game also offers an online version that you can play against others over the airwaves.  I've occasionally tried to sign into the online game, but never had a strong enough connection to be able to play.  So today while the clothes were drying, I gave the online game a try, and wonder of wonders, it worked.  Oh boy, there are players all across the country that play this game, and are they ever fast at finding words!  In no time at all, it seemed, ninety minutes had gone by and I was still enjoying myself.  I'm thinking this could be addicting.  :)  I'll just tell myself that I'm keeping my mind nimble and warding off Alzheimer's!

I must say Happy Birthday to my granddaughter Avery Jade.  She has now embarked on her terrible twos!  If they are terrible, I'll be surprised.  She has been such an easy going baby for my daughter. 

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

One heck of a cold front

Shortly before five this morning, I was rudely awakened by thunder, lightening, a deluge of rain, and winds so strong I felt like the rig was going to roll over. I literally jumped out of bed, and in less than three minutes, I rearranged things and brought the slide-outs in! Then Emma and I sat in the living area and watched the news. What else can you do at five in the morning? Actually, I was surprised that I still had electricity. It seems anywhere I've been that the electric goes out with a storm of this intensity.

Eventually, the front moved through, the rain abated, and the skies cleared. The wind, however, continued to blow at an average of 32mph with gusts much higher. I had to make a decision....do the salinity tests and bird survey today, or try to get it done tomorrow morning before starting to cook for our Christmas Dinner at the RV pads. I decided to get it done today, so off I went.

I have two places that I stop to do the salinity tests, and this is the first one. I hope you notice the muddy conditions. I donned my rubber boots, stuffed the salinity meter into my pockets, grabbed my walking stick for stability, and began the challenge of sloshing through the muck and mire.


This is the view looking back through the mud that is spiced with plenty of cow pies. :) A fragrant and boot sucking trek to say the least. This is where the cattle drive, that I posted pictures of last week, ended up. The cows had moved off to another section, so at least I didn't have to deal with them up close and personal.


Once I got to the culvert that has locks (as in water locks, not combination/key locks) on it for increasing/decreasing water flow, I took out the salinity tester. It measures salinity in parts per million.

My job is to submerge the sensor to several inches above the bottom to get a reading. Today, the reading was 4.4; last time it was 3.3, so things do change.

After I tested in four locations, I drove to the Shoveler Pond Loop to do the bird survey. Since the hurricane, there has generally not been much to see on the loop bird wise. I thought it might be a little different this afternoon because of the high winds. The slightly inland location of the loop would afford some protection from those winds. I was right! While the variety and number of birds was not astronomical, it was probably the best count for this year. It took me two hours to do that 2.5 mile loop.

I'm really glad that I did the tests and survey today so I can just enjoy the holiday tomorrow. The winds are still blasting away close to 40 mph, but they're supposed to subside to around 20 by 9:00. Maybe these conditions will keep the rodents flying past the rig tonight????

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Oh baby it's cold outside...

People in Houston are excited with the possibility of snow on Friday. To them I say "Bah Humbug!" I came south to avoid snow. ;) Boy am I happy, though, that I arrived yesterday. The winds today have been more than blustery. It sure feels like the wind chill is below freezing. I questioned Stephanie, the volunteer coordinator, today about this since she had promised me warm temperatures if I would come to volunteer. She had the audacity to insinuate that it was my fault for bringing the bad weather with me. Well, let me tell you that I am used to that. Many people have commented that they like me, but really hate to see me come in person because inevitably bad weather follows. Hey, I'm beginning to feel like Charlie Brown's friend Pigpen that has a cloud following him. ;)

I had my re-orientation to the refuge today. If the wind dies down tomorrow, I'll get some pictures of the new volunteer community building and the interim visitor's center. Looks like I'll be doing salinity checks, bird surveys, and visitor's center work besides helping to organize the education programs. I'm happy to have a variety of things to do.

I was assigned a refuge vehicle today so I can start checking out the birds soon. Tomorrow I have to go to town to buy a water jug. The only drinkable water is in the community building. It is a reverse osmosis system and presently, you can only get two gallons of water at a time. I'm thinking a two gallon jug will do. The water at the sites is OK for showers and dishes, but not for drinking. This is really not a big deal to me. I just need to get a new jug because my last one, that I used here before, finally bit the dust last week.

Since I have a full tank of propane, I'm going to give the furnace a good work out for the next three days or so. I hate being cold. I'll deal with possibly having to get it filled before I leave later.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Cochitti Lake COE Campground

When I left Lathrop State Park in Colorado yesterday morning, the forecast was for increasing winds throughout the day in Colorado. So I stopped to dump the tanks and pay for my Sunday night stay, and then was on the road by 8:30. The first 100 miles was smooth sailing except for the steep grades getting through Raton Pass (7,834') on the New Mexico border. Then, about 136 miles from Santa Fe, the winds hit with a vengeance! It was pretty much two handed driving the rest of the way. At times my hands went numb from gripping the steering wheel so hard.



I had decided to stop at a campground in Santa Fe with full hook-ups, laundry, and propane. This was probably the most expensive park I've ever stayed in. I couldn't believe how many people were staying there. The distance between sites was under ten feet...slide to slide. Not my kind of park, but I badly needed to do laundry and fill the propane tank. I was also very tired of driving. I did several loads of laundry, and got the propane filled on the way out this morning.



I drove a whopping 28 miles to get to Cochitti Lake Corps of Engineer campground. I have electric and water and the scenery of the New Mexico mountains and the lake in the distance is 1000 times better than looking out at pavement and my neighbor's rig. The water hook-up is interesting. It is over 50' from the rig and on a hill. There are 13 steps to get up to the picnic table and water hook-up. The water spigot is also about 5.5' in the air. I had to use a 50' and a 25' hose to reach it. I decided to just fill the fresh water tank and then roll up the hoses and store them. At this elevation, the temps at night may get low enough to freeze the hoses, so this seems a smarter idea to me than leaving so much hose out. A point of interest: I will be able to stay at this campground for five nights for less than the price I paid for one night yesterday.



By the time I got everything set up...including the DISH, filling the water tank, and erecting my trucker's internet antenna, a storm front began rolling in with determination. Since I go about these chores at a liesurely rate, I ran out of time to investigate the park or take any pictures before the rain began. I also tried a couple of times to register, but was unsuccessful. The rain is supposed to last through a good share of tomorrow also.



One of the blogs that I follow is written by a fulltiming couple that have been at this park for a good share of the last month as they wait for a closing on a sticks-n-bricks (townhouse) they are buying in the area. My plan is to meet them in person tomorrow and pick their brains about things to see in the area, and to find out where to go for groceries since we're pretty much out in the middle of no where here. Grocery shopping is a good chore for a rainy day. The sun is scheduled to return on Thursday through the weekend, so I've settled in for a six day stay.



Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Time to blow this popsicle stand!

I think I'll finally be able to leave Avoca, IA, tomorrow. Tonight will make three nights of weathering rain and wind gusts up to 50 mph! The first night I was here, the wind took hold of my door and whipped it into the door of the storage area I had open, which resulted in a break in the fiberglass door lining. I'm not sure what to do about that. It didn't poke all the way through, but I don't know how to repair fiberglass.

Sitting here puts me a few days behind my intended schedule, but after getting blown off of the road in New Mexico back in '08, I'm very leery of high wind gusts. I'm amazed at the number of RVs that travel under these extreme wind conditions.

On the bright side, this is a Passport America campground, and I have water and electric for $13/night. I tried the restaurant on the campground the first night, but it's a little too greasy for more than one meal.

I'm hoping to make a sizable dent in getting across Nebraska tomorrow. Apparently there is another storm front approaching, so I want to "make hay while the sun shines." I sure wish I'd get a tail wind for a change. ;)

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy