A New Haircut

I forgot to tell you all that I had my mom cut my hair the other day. It was getting so long that I never wore it down. It was almost to my knees. So I had 8 inches cut off. I don't sit on it anymore. It still goes to the middle of my butt though. Here's a picture to give you an idea. That's it for now. Bye, Vicki

Wishing Everyone a Happy Holiday

It's hard to believe it's Christmastime here in Phoenix. I sat out in the sun today and drove our dog, Bentley, to the dog park in the golf cart and felt like it was spring. I miss Alaska, especially at this time of year. Also my son and grandson. They are what makes this season special.

I hope all of you are having a wonderful time and not letting the economy get you down. At least gas is cheap now! Ed has a part time job as a janitor at two golf courses and one of the perks is free golf. So he is learning to golf and I'm psyching myself up to try it too.

Bentley, who is 10, got a squeaky toy for the first time in his life and he's obsessed with it. We have to take it away after about 15 minutes because he wants us to keep throwing it to him but he's panting like he ran a marathon. And even then he keeps looking for it everywhere.

Sounds pretty exciting huh? We're actually very content here and still looking to the future to hopefully do some traveling. From the bottom of my heart I wish everyone the best for 2009! Love to all, Vicki & Ed

My Trip To Alaska In October

I can't believe it's been since July that I've done a blog! It is really true that when you retire there's not enough time in the day to get everything finished that we plan to do each day. It has cooled down now at our home in SunCity, Arizona so we've been out in the yard doing some planting and trimming-there is ALOT of trimming!

Last month I finally got to go visit my son and grandson up in Anchorage. It had been almost a year since I'd been up there last. I had a great time and got alot of stuff organized in our home there. My brother and his wife live in our house now and they brought all their furniture. So between the two of us the 2 car garage was filled to the ceiling with boxes and a bedroom too. So Carla and I emptied half the garage and got the extra bedrooms cleaned out some and organized. I showed Carla how to build a fire in the fireplace which is a necessity as far as Carla and I were concerned!

My time with Little Raymond was wonderful. I got to have him several days and nights. We went to the movie Beverly Hills Chiquaua and we went bowling with his Dad, my son, Raymond and his girlfriend Amanda. The best part was a birthday party for my son at Chucky Cheese Pizza. My son thought it would be fun for little Ray to have some of his friends and it was a blast! I hadn't been there in 20 years and what a difference in games for the kids.

If anyone looks at this anymore, I just want to apologize for my lax in writing. I still can't believe it's been that long. I still think about you all at Village Inn and miss you. Have a fantastic Turkey Day! Much Love to all, Vicki & Ed

Our New House Is Ready

For all of you who didn't know, we bought a second home in Sun City West, Arizona. It was to be more of a winter home, but now that we have Ed's mom, we will be there probably as long as she is alive. That is unless we can let her stay with her other son next summer to give us a break.
The house is right down the street from my parents which makes it really nice to visit and have someone to play scrabble with. My Mom and Jack have gone above and beyond with getting our house ready for us.
First, we needed furniture for every room. They went to estate sales and estate sale stores looking for everything from pots and pans to bedroom sets. They also oversaw the installation of Pergo flooring and cermanic tile, and then cleaned up the workers mess. We also had the inside painted.
Jack worked on the outside, trimming numerous hedges, palm trees and getting rid of unwanted cactus.
I went to see the house this week and couldn't believe how incredible it looked. I'm so happy with it that I can't wait to move in! Well, that's all for now. Love to all, Vicki and Ed

View From Peterson Point

My First 4 Wheeler Ride

We actually had some fun this week-sort of. I've never been on a four-wheeler before and Ed kept telling me that I would love it, so I finally gave in. Bob and Kim, our bosses have ATVs and said we could use them. There are over 3000 miles of off road trails that are accessible from our campground, so how could I resist! The trail was called Casto Canyon and Peterson Point. It goes right through Red Canyon and some incredible scenery. I did good until the trail got rough, then I thought I was going to roll over. I did some squealing and gritted my teeth and made it. I thought I was going to have a heart attack I was so scared! I was so busy watching the trail that I didn't get to see much scenery, but what I saw was breathtaking! I'm glad I did it but I don't have a driving passion to do it again. Well, that's all for now. I don't think anyone reads this anymore, so I'm doing this as a journal as well as keeping anyone whose looking at this informed that I'm still alive and doing well. Bye for now, Vicki & Ed

Are They Really All The Same?

Our Summer in Panguitch, Utah

I want to apologize for taking so long to post this blog. Our lives has been full of adjustments and keeping Mary happy, (Ed's mom). We told her if she didn't want to stay that we would take her back to Bullhead City. So now we have satellite TV and a computer with a big screen so she can play Yatzee and Solitaire and do email. As you can see in the picture, we have our car now because diesel was using up a big percent of our income.
We've taken a couple of little rides on the motorcycle and a few drives to get away, but nothing like last year. The weather has been great, with highs in the upper 80's and lows around 50. I went to the balloon rally and took pictures. Ed says they look the same as last year. All in all, though, we are all doing well. The house that we bought in Sun City, Arizona, is coming along beautifully with the majority of the work and shopping being done by my Mom and Jack. When it gets done I'll do a blog on it with some pictures. So that's it for now. Everyone know that we think about all our family and friends often and miss you. Take care, Vicki and Ed

Change in plans

Hi everyone! You know when they say "if it can go wrong, it will!" Well, we've had a BIG change of plans. Ed's moms' roommate moved out a couple of weeks ago. He expected to buy Mary's (Ed's mom) mobile home and Ed's brother Norm didn't want to sell. Ed, Norm and Mary are all on the title. Norm just recently found out that he was on it and he wants it for a winter retirement home. So Jerry got mad and moved out without warning. Needless to say, our whole life has been turned upside down.

What makes it even more interesting is we are getting ready to buy a house in SunCity West, AZ. The closing is May 13th and then we all go to Panguitch, Utah. We already committed ourselves to work at the KOA there, so Mary is going to be with us. If she doesn't like it or can't handle it, Ed will bring her back to Bullhead City and stay with her. I will stay up there and work and come down to visit.

As you can see from the picture we also have a dog in our lives now. This is Bentley, and he's Mary's dog. I take him for walks and he wants to be petted all the time (typical dog!)

That's it for now-thank God! Take care everyone, Vicki & Ed

Death Valley National Park

We are finally taking a vacation! Sounds funny for retired people. We have got a month before our next KOA job in Panguitch, Utah. Our first stop is Death Valley for a little warmth. The temperature was around 90 degrees and 60 at night. It was great! Also, alot less wind! We saw alot of stuff and some unique scenery. It's a worthwhile place to see, but not in the summer. In the year 1913 was the highest recorded temp-134 degrees, also in the same year the coldest temp for there-15 degrees and this year was also the wettest-4.54 inches of precipitation. we did miss some things because alot of the special things are on dirt roads and we were on the motorcycle with the little trailer doing some true camping. On to the nextstop.

Camping at Lake Mead

After Death Valley, we continued on to Lake Mead, where we were excited to find a beautiful campground and a spot open with a view of the lake. We stayed here for 3 days and had a great time. Right by here is the Hoover Dam and a neat trail to get there. It's called the Railroad Tunnel Trail and is 3.7 miles one way to the dam. We went on it and it goes through 5 tunnels and old railway bed. When the dam was being built they made a railway to the dam site to carry supplies and materials. This was in the 1930's and in 1961 they finally took it apart. It makes a great trail. After that I had to recuperate for the rest of the day. It doesn't take long to get out of shape-again! On the 19th of April I will be heading up to Anchorage. Ed will join me where we will drive my Subaru to Panguitch, Utah where we will be for the summer again. We enjoyed it there so much and didn't get to see everything. We will be at the KOA and enjoying the cool weather. So Long For Now, Vicki & Ed

Using ingenuity to finish drainig pool

New vanities for our Campground

Well, it took us 2 months to redo the sinks in both restrooms. The top picture is the before and the bottom is the after one. We did the women's first. It took forever! The walls weren't straight-either was the floor! All the plumbing was from the dark ages and was different sizes. After at least 10 trips to the hardware store which is 70 miles one way and of course getting our days off, we finally finished. If you don't look close, it looks good-which is a miracle since we didn't know what we were doing.

Now we are working on the pool. It should be dug out and redone but that costs $54,000.00. So we are doing the cheaper version in which we do alot of the prep. A vinyl lining is going to be put in and new pavers around the outside. That's going to be around $27,000.00. We broke the tile up with hammers and are taking off the ladders and other stuff on it. We had to drain it with too small a hose on the sump pump so that took a week. Now Ed is pressure washing it and then he has to grind the rough spots. Thank God we won't be here when the lining arrives! That will be something for the new workkampers to have fun with.

Oh well, all in all, we've had alot of fun here and learned alot of practical things to help us in the future. So long for now, Vicki & Ed

Hanging out in Seligman

All's I can say is "I'm sure glad I brought Alaskan winter clothes!" We got alitttle snow a few days ago and it looks like the high might hit 40 degrees today. At night it's been right around 15 degrees. We are surviving, though, with 3 small electric heaters and 1 more in our 5th wheel hatch to keep the water lines warm.

Last week we took a motorcycle ride with our little trailer and stayed at the Needles, CA KOA. It was about 60 and low 30's at night. It took me about 10 minutes to get dressed and undressed. I was wearing 2 pair of socks and then fleece snow machine ones. And then I had on two long underwear under my levis and two long underwear shirts on plus two more warm shirts with my leather jacket. Also leather chaps, boots, fleece neck protector, and snow machine gloves. Needless to say, we almost needed a crane to get me on the bike! It was fun though, and we saw Quartzsite on a ride the next day. There had to have been 10,000 rv's at least parked out in the desert. Alot of people go there every winter to meet up with friends and have fun.

Well, that's all for now-I just wanted to say Hi! and let everyone know that I still think of all of you and hope you are enjoying your lives too. You got to do it while you can, because you never know what the future holds. Love you all, Vicki & Ed

Winter in the Grand Canyon

Hi everyone! We went to the Grand Canyon a couple of days ago because I've always wanted to see it with snow. And as you can see by this picture it was spectacular! Enjoy the view! Vicki

My Christmas Vacation

I arrived in Anchorage a day after they got 4 inches of snow. Before that the grass was showing and my son was afraid it was going to be a brown Christmas. It snowed a few times while I was there, but just an inch or two each time, which was perfect. Of course the day after I arrived I got a terrible head cold and it lasted to just before I left. So needless to say I didn't venture out alot. I never made it to my old work, Village Inn, I just didn't feel up to it. I did get to spend alot with my son and grandson, and that made the trip great. As you can see, Little Raymond is growing up fast. His birthday was December 28th and he lets anyone and everyone know that he is now 4! That's all I'm going to write for now because this program is making it hard and my patience is running out. Ed and I wish everyone a Happy 2008!