The Sandcastle

I need a January thaw. When we lived in Minnesota and were weary of the short days and lousy weather the January thaw would come along and perk us all up for a few days.

Instead of a January thaw we got the desert storm which pinned us all in our RVs for a few days. I want to go OUT!

So today we are going to Parker, Arizona, to shop at Walmart and to buy propane. Wheee! Maybe we’ll go look at bigger RVs so the next time we get pinned inside we’ll at least have room to invite friends over to play games or something.

TTYL,

Linda

We are experiencing our first winter storm in the Arizona desert. It has multiple facets. The storm Al & Nancy, http://travelswithotto.blogspot.com/, described on Jan 20th was fierce.  The one we are getting here now is just rain but it has been going all night and all day so I would describe it as relentless.

Fierce and relentless–sounds like our attack of Iraq, doesn’t it? Do you suppose whoever named that attack used to live in Arizona?

TTYL,

Linda

We are camped in La Posa South Long Term Visitor Area just south of Quartzsite, Arizona. This is where thousands of RVers gather every January to meet up with friends and, maybe, visit the big tent RV show.

This year the water pump at La Posa South broke just as the mobs arrived. That means no one here can fill the water tanks in our RVs until the new pump arrives and gets installed. This, of course, also happened at the beginning of a three-day holiday weekend so the pump couldn’t be delivered on Monday. Since we arrived on Saturday with a full fresh water holding tank we are still OK but we are using every water conservation method we know in hopes of not having to drive through the mobs into town to get water.

Friends who were already here are finding this more challenging that we are. Jeri & Terry actually drove into town where they rented showers in a semi truck. Now they have a new story to tell and I’m looking forward to hearing the details.

In the meantime, it has begun raining here in the desert! The water is on the wrong side of our RV–the outside! What do we have we can use to catch the rain and bring it inside?

TTYL,

Linda

Back in the ’60s my Mom worked with a woman who would make statements like: “Today you will see men wearing hats.” Or, “today you will see pregnant women.” Or, “Today you will see people wearing red.”

And Mom would see men wearing hats or pregnant women or people wearing red. Not that more men were wearing hats or more women were pregnant or more people were wearing red. It wasn’t even that Mom was actually SEEING more of them. It’s just that when she saw them, Mom was more aware of seeing them.

So the other day the author of a blog I read every day, which you can check out at http://gypsyjournal.net/blog/, wrote that driving I-10 through west Texas was so boring the only thing to do was count roadkill.

So today we drove I-10 through west Texas and guess what we were more aware of seeing.

Gee, thanks, Nick.

TTYL,

Linda

The Houston Space Center is an amazing place! Not cheap at $20 per adult but we enjoyed the four hours we spent there and we didn’t even take the 90 minute tram tour–too cold plus we didn’t go early enough to do it all which won’t surprise any of you who know me.

I took lots of pictures for you but somehow they got lost between the camera and my computer.

So the main thing I have to report is that living in space is a lot like living in an RV in that you you don’t have a lot of extra space in your living quarters and you have to conserve everything except personal energy. If you conserve too much personal energy you become unhealthy as my doctor keeps telling me. Astronauts have to work out a minimum of 2 hours a day just to maintain body mass. I’d like to lose some body mass but not the type they lose. I also wouldn’t like to have to strap myself to the toilet then turn on the vacuum to use it. Eeuw.

At least Dave safely landed the lunar shuttle. That’s why I let him drive our RV.

TTYL,

Linda