A Church front at the Desert Bar!  Go figure

 Happy Birthday Mike!!!

Dixie's crunched finger....the purple is gone but it still hurts & the feeling is not all back yet!

November 2013...AZ & CA

November...Our week at Ridgeview was pretty busy. Our first night we got together for dinner with Gene & Susie and Tom & Diane (couples from our FMCA chapter in Montana). We went to the movie 'Captain Phillips' that was very good. We attended the BBQ cookoff where we had some great 'Montana' BBQ and listened to some music. We visited with Gene/Susie and Frank/Katherine (Susie's sister). On Sunday with golfed with them as well. The golf game wasn't great as we haven't played since June! 

Tuesday, the 5th we moved down the road 95 miles to Earp, CA to Emerald Cove RV Resort. It's on the Colorado River and looks across the river to Parker, AZ. We lucked out and got a site on the second row from the river. There is no one in front of us so we have a great view of the water. 

Fri. we visited George & Gail (friends from Canada) at their park (Riverland). It turned out they were only about a mile from our park.

On Sat. the 9^th we started celebrating Mike's Birthday a day early! We drove to the Desert Bar...the 6 miles drive off the highway is still as bad as it ever was. We had a fun time listening to the band. We did however decided not to eat there as the lines were long. We opted to stop at the Casino back in Parker where we had a sandwich outside overlooking the river. Later that evening we went over to the RV parks outside bar and listened to some karaoke.

Sunday, Dixie went to church at the park and then cooked a Cornish Hen dinner with all the trimming for Mike's Birthday. Of course we also had to have Birthday cake!

On the 12^th we drove the 47 miles to Quartzsite, AZ . We parked at our friends, Bob & Cheryl's. The sold their motorhome and bought a house in Rainbow Acres, a subdivision about 7 miles out of Quartzsite and they had an rv hook up. We stayed their until the 21^st. While there we made a few trips to town so Dixie could stock up on jewelry making supplies. We also shared a few dinners and happy hours! On the 15^th we went to Silly Al's with Bob & Cheryl and had pizza.

On Sunday, the 17^th we got up early and drove to Lake Havasu City. Danny flew to Great Falls on Friday and drove Dad down to LHC. We all went to brunch and then got Dad stocked up and settled into his park model. We left about 3p to drive Danny back to Rancho Mirage. We had dinner & overnight at his house. It was a 300 miles day!

On the 18^th we spent the day helping Ross pack up his condo in La Quinta. Since I was the only female helping, guess who did all the packing – never dreamed you could get so much stuff in a one bedroom condo??? The 3 guys carried it to the 'pod'. We left there about 530p and headed back to Quartzsite.

On the 20^th we spent our last night having dinner with Jim/Linda, Rick/Judy and Bob/Cheryl. We had great time visiting on the patio! Their place is very nice.

On Thursday the 21^st we drove 143 miles to Desert Pools near Desert Hot Springs, CA. Also that day back home Doug had back surgery back. The day didn't go too well..Doug had complications and a lot of pain, we had car problems and Dixie crunched her finger!! After our arrival when we unhooked the car it would not move forward or in reverse. The only way we could get it to move was to put it in Low gear. We got it to our site and talked to our friends, Glen/Henrietta from Edmonton. They suggested a mechanic they used in Indio. We called and he could look at it the next day. We called our Good Sams roadside service and set up a tow for Friday. Also on Thursday when setting up Dixie smashed her finger in a folding coffee table we have. It immediately turned a dark shade of purple and hurt a lot! What more can go wrong in this one day?

It was late morning on Friday before a service came with a flatbed truck to take the Tracker to Han's Auto Service in Indio 26 miles away. He called later that day and gave us the bad news that the Transmission was bad. We opted to have a used transmission put in and he thought he could have it ready by Wed....(not going to happen)

On Saturday we rented a car for a week in Palm Desert. Danny came and got us to pick up the car. From there we all went to the Beerhunter to watch the Bobcat/Grizzly football game.

Back in Montana on Sunday Doug had to go back into surgery to remove some blood pooling that was causing tremendous pain. He finally got out of the hospital on Wed. (7 days later).

On Monday the 25^th we decided to take the rental car into Palm Desert to do some shopping but guess what???? The keys had gotten locked in the car when we came home on Sat. Here we go again...we called Good Sam's roadside service only to find out our plan didn't cover keys locked in a car! We found a garage in Desert Hot Springs that came to the park and were able to get a rod in the window and push the door opener button. $25 later we were on our way to grocery shop.

On Wed. the 27^th we drove to Aunt Marge's in Riverside. We went to visit Uncle Don at his assisted living house. He was under hospice care and not expected to live. Mike and I went to Marge's where I made pies and a salad for Thanksgiving while Marge stayed with Don. Late that afternoon we also went to visit Mike's sister and family, Buster/Sandy in Corona. We went to dinner and came back to have the desert Dixie made. We overnighted with Aunt Marge.

On Thanksgiving, Don passed away around 130p. Marge had prepped the turkey and dressing so I cooked it all. We had 9 for dinner...Shelly, Lexie, Danny/Lexi, Bob/Connie (friends of Marge & Don), Marge and Mike/Dixie. It was a wonderful dinner and time together, just sad without Don! We went back to the motorhome that evening.

We wanted to purchase a small laptop on Black Friday but didn't want to venture into the crowds so we went online on Thursday evening and ordered it from Best Buy. The car was to be ready on Friday but of course it was not. They had a harder time than expected getting a used tranny. Should be ready on Monday. Our car rental was due back on Sat. AM.

Sat. morning Dixie took her jewelry to the weekly craft show in the park that morning but there weren't many there so 'no sales'. We took the rental car back and Danny picked us up. We shopped a bit and had lunch with him. He took us back later in the afternoon and we barb-b-cued steaks.

 A balloon tribute to Cousin Jay - several more were released and could be seen for miles!

 Oct. 17, 1967 ~ Oct. 18, 2013

Cousin Jay's Memorial

Butte and Our Drive South

October 25 – 31...We arrived at the Butte KOA around 230p on the 24^th. We got set up and then went to Jim and Shelly’s for the evening. On the 25^th Mike stayed at the motorhome and I went to Shelly's where I spent the day. Denita and Family and Doug, Fran and Dad arrived around 5p. Danny flew to Idaho Falls and then drove from there arriving around 8p. On the 26^th we attended Jay's funeral where there were over 500 in attendance. It was a beautiful service and tribute to Jay! After the funeral there was a lunch at 'The Depot'. We stayed there until 530p and then spent the evening at Shelly's. We had a nice time visiting with family and friends...it was just very sad but we reminisced and heard many wonderful stories about Jay.

On Sunday the 27^th we left at 815am in 20 something degree weather (just in time as it snowed later in the day). We drove for 465 miles to Springville, Ut where we stayed overnight at the Walmart. Monday's drive was only 295 miles but it was all in high winds. It made for a very long day. We overnighted at the Casablanca Casino...a good place as the traffic noise wasn't bad. The downside of the day, in addition to the wind was trying to get fuel at the Smith's station. We had to unhook and when exiting the RV I somehow dropped my phone (2 months old) on the pavement....well of course it didn't fair well – the screen shattered in the corner and has a diagonal crack covering it. It does still operate however! All that and we weren't even able to get fuel there as it was too crowded and impossible to get at the pump.

We fueled up the next morning (Tue) next to the casino and hit the road just before 10am. We stopped at Camping World in Henderson where we met up with Bill & Gloria. We visited with them awhile before heading down the road to our destination of Bullhead City, AZ. Today's trip was only 180 miles. We arrived at Ridgeview RV park around 3pm.

Nephew Levi's red Mohawk in memory of cousin Jay!

Most of October 2013

October 1-24...What a busy month it has been! We kept very busy packing up all our stuff to move into the motorhome. Our trip to North Carolina to take care of the grandson got canceled due to the government shutdown. Brandon & Kat's classes in Leavenworth were canceled! We could have still gone to visit but we decided we still had a lot to due to get ready to go south.

On the 4^th we took the motorhome in to Martin's RV to have the motor replaced in the jacks. Dad came back from the farm and we went to dinner at Borrie's in Black Eagle.

On the 10^th I went back to the dentist due to increasing pain in the tooth that I had a root canal/crown on in Mexico last Feb. Well, he x-rayed it and determined that it was abscessed. We made the decision to extract it so I had to start antibiotics and come back on the 15^th to have it removed. It was a difficult extraction (of course) so I had a lot of pain afterwords...in fact still having problems. I went back on the 22^nd and he said it was probably a 'dry socket' so he packed it with Clove Paste and sent me home with more. At this time I am still packing it as it is the only thing that gives me relief.

On the 11th we drove out to the farm. We stopped at the courthouse in Chinook to get Mike's 'carry license' but the person wasn't there to fingerprint him. I guess it will wait until next spring. We attended Tyler's football game in Harlem that night. It was a bit cold but fun! We spent Friday afternoon at Howards house helping Gita go through some of his stuff so they could take it back to Seattle. We also took some stuff to storage. We took a few more jewelry pieces over to Denise's shop in Turner on our way back home on Sunday afternoon.

On the 16^th I took Dad to his hearing test. Denita and Steve came to Great Falls that day to attend Tyler's football game in Chouteau. They stayed overnight with Dad. Doug & Fran also came to town as Doug had an MRI on the 17^th on his lower back. It's sounding like he may need some surgery to fuse some discs. Also on the 17^th we had a meeting with Jodi at H and R Block to find out some tax info. We decided that since we are now leasing out condo we will no longer be doing our own taxes! We all went out to the OP for dinner that evening.

On the 18^th we received very tragic news that my cousin, Jay Bickford was in an accident at work. Him and another guy were trying to reposition a cherrypicker on a flatbed.   It tipped off the flatbed throwing them both out of the bucket. Jay fell 20ft and suffered severe injury’s- head, ribs, lung. Surgery was done on him to stop internal bleeding in Butte and then he was air lifted to Missoula. He died of his injuries that evening. He had just celebrated his 46^th Birthday the day before. It is just so hard to believe he has been taken from us.

On the 21^st we moved into the motorhome and parked it at Dick's RV park for 3 nights. We needed to be able to put the slides out so we could go through everything. We found more 'stuff' to put in storage. We were also waiting for a sensor for our jacks (somehow they didn't have that when they installed the motor). Well of course the part didn't come in so we will be leaving without it and they will send it to us.

On the 23^rd Doug and Fran come to town and we took them out for dinner at the Willow Creek Steakhouse in the Heritage Inn. Steve Keller was playing at the Blue Max lounge so we ended up eating dinner there but with the dining room menu. Fun!

It's Oct. 24^th and we pulled out of town at 1115 am. Destination – Butte KOA for 3 nights. Jay's funeral will be on Sat. and we will head south on Sunday.

 Nephew Shay in the Missoula Children's Theater.  He's the one with glasses