In Lodi Again (But Not Stuck)

Rolled into Lodi California abou 5:30 this evening. It is aboit 64 degrees and feels pretty good. Made a small booboo today and left the fan switch on in the low position in the tow car all day, so we now have a dead battery. As I write this I am waiting for somebody to stop by and jump start it.
We crossed the Siskiyou's this morning with no issues. Temperatures were in the 40's and 50's. Pretty smooth sailing all day today. Tomorrow there is supposed to be some rain here in the morning, but as we head south we will be leaving it behind. We should be somewhere in the Southern California Desert region tomorrow night. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid 80's to low 90's when we get to the Phoenix vicinity on Monday. Did I lose anybody with today's title?
As they say in California, Adios,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Ernie

Myrtle Creek Oregon

Left the house at 9:00 this morning, and crossed the mighty Columbia into Oregon just after noon. Our new windshield made it just short of 300 miles when we picked up a nice "starburst" rock chip. The damn thing is a rock magnet! I will get it repaired when we are settled in Arizona. We made it to the campground about 4:45, got set up,then went for a few groceries.
Tomorrow we cross the Siskiyou's and drop into California. The weather forecast looks good as the freezing level is up at 6000 feet. So no snow or ice on the highway!! The motorhome is behaving well and is much happier riding on the new shocks. The view was great for the first 6 hours looking out the new unblemished windshield. The new chip is on the lower left corner of the passenger side. So, once it is repaired, it probably will not be noticeable.
Such is "Life On The Road" Ernie

Getting ready to head south

Well, here we are at the beggining of the week that we will be heading to "The Valley of the Sun". It was 81 degrees in Phoenix yesterday, and we are hoping that the weather holds up. I'm sure that it's not going to be 80 every day, but if it were we wouldn't complain. The Motorhome went in for an oil change and it got a new set of gas shocks last week. What a difference the new shocks make! I wish I would have had them installed before our "Big Adventure" last year. It is almost a night and day difference in the ride and the handling. Tomorrow (Monday) the motorhome gets a new windshield. We got a rock chip in Colorado that started growing into a crack in Texas. We had the crack repaired at that time, but when we got into the below freezing temperatures and the snow (not to mention turkeys) in South Dakota, the crack took off again. So we will set off with a view devoid of cracks and rock chips. We are picking the motorhome up in Stanwood on Wednesday, so we can get everything in it's place to hit the road Friday morning. We will be in Central Oregon Friday night, central California Saturday night, southern California Sunday night, and Apache Junction Arizona Monday afternoon if all goes well.
I am very excited about the spring training games that we have tickets for. Our seats are mid way between third base and the left field wall, and are only 2 or 3 rows from the field. Patrice and Paul got tickets for 2 of the White Sox games also durring the week that they will be out. I ordered 2 sets of tickets for a 16 game package today for the regular season. They are in the "nosebleed" section, but they are right behind home plate. I'm hoping that Joyce will go to half of them with me, and that I can find somebody to go when she can't. All of the games I selected are on a weekday, and a couple are day games.
So that's it for now. The next update will be comming at you from either Oregon, California, or Arizona!! Stay warm,**************Ernie

Hallelujah!!!

The official word came down about 10 minutes ago that Junior is officially back as a Seattle Mariner!! It's been a long time since there has been any positive proffesional sports news in Seattle. I'm sure that 90% of the people here are as thrilled as I am. Ken Griffey Junior is a class act. When he made his first return to Seattle last year, after an 8 year absence, he was greeted with a 4 minute standing ovation. I was there. When the anti Griffey, a.k.a. A-Rod returned to Seattle with the Texas Ranger's, he was greeted with boo's and people throwing Monopoly money. I was there. When the Mariner's open at home against the Angels on April 15th, I hope to be there. I know that I will be in Peoria Arizona for 8 spring training games. I can't wait! Junior will not be taking the Mariners to the World Series this year, and nobody expects them to make the playoffs. But, we have the opportunity to say thank you to the man responsible for major league baseball in Seattle. We have the classiest act in baseball playing in one of the classiest parks in the league. I plan on being there as much as possible!!
Hallelujah!! Ernie
P.S. WOO HOO

Anticipating the return of Junior.

For the first time in the last year or so we have a positive sports story in the anticipated return of Ken Griffey Junior. Since we are heading down to Arizona for Spring Training, I will be very dissapointed if the deal doesn't happen. We have tickets for 8 games over a 4 week period with seats 3 or 4 rows from the field. So we should be able to get an up close view of one of the greatest players in the history of baseball!!
We spent some time over the past week investigating the possibility of upgrading to a new 08 motorhome. There are some incredible deals on new 08 coaches due to the current economic mess. Unfortunately, we were not able to get what we felt was a fair trade in for our Pace Arrow, so we are standing pat for now. We may advertise our rig for sale after the Arizona trip and see what happens. We went up to Stanwood on Saturday and pulled the cover off of the motorhome, and fired it up. Everything looks good! I will make an appointment for an oil change next week, and spend a day or two getting it ready to head for the sun!!
We had lunch with Sheila, Keith and the grandkids on Saturday. All are doing well.
Monica and Chandler got their report cards, and both did very good. 3.8 and 3.2 GPA's respectively. Way to go!!
I have no new pictures, so this is all you get. Ernie

Snow Again??

Woke up to about an inch of snow this morning. We had hoped that we had seen the last of the snow a couple of weeks ago. Took a few pictures of the flowers blooming in the snow, and I had to take a couple for Ron and Diane of my new shirt. So, this is just an excuse to post some pictures!
Ernie :)

Thunderstruck!!

Thanks to my Tulsa Oklahoma friend, I am now the proud owner of an "OFFICIAL" NBA Oklahoma Thunder T-Shirt!! It's probably the only one in town. It's the first one I've ever seen. Joyce asked what I was going to do with it, and I guess it will hang in the closet for a while. I'll take it to spring training next month to see if it gets a reaction. They're the 27th best team in the NBA now!!
We wasted our afternoon by going to the Seattle RV show today. I would have thought with the economy the way it is that the RV show would have been bigger and better than usual. Wrong! Altho the admission price went up this year, the number of Motorhomes on display was about half of what it was last year. I did talk to one of the local dealers, and will go take a look at their inventory on Monday.
We finally got our battery charger for our camera back, so I will take a few pictures and get some posted over the weekend. There will not be any turkey or chicken pictures tho.
3 weeks from today we are heading off into the sunrise/set. It's been in the upper
70's and lower 80's in the Phoenix area this week.(I wore my Mariners jacket today)
Patrice(Joyce's sister) and Paul(brother-in law)from Chicago will be joining us for a week in Arizona. Life is good!!
The weatherman is predicting rain and snow mixed for us next week. We hope that he is wrong on the snow part. We've had enough of that this year.
It's time to eat, so.........................later, Ernie

T.G.I.F. (Thank God it's February)

We made it thru January, and I am begining to see some signs of spring. The daffodils and tulips are popping up, and the trees are begining to bud out. Tomorrow is Groundhog day, and I am rooting for NO SHADOW!! February is usually a month where I become a little more optimistic about the weather, The signs of better things to come are there. It's almost time to start getting the motorhome ready for our adventure into the southwest. Four weeks from today we will be motoring thru central California. We have tickets for 8 Mariner spring training games. 2 game a week, which will give us plenty of time for exploring.
We got my mom moved back into her independent living apartment on Friday. She is very happy to be back. I'm sure that she had doubts about being able to go back and be on her own.(as did we) She now has someone come in daily to assist with medications, and to assist with bathing if she feels that she needs assistance. We convinced her to use her microwave oven for her cooking (heating up)rather than the stove. So far so good.I talked to her this morning, and she told me that she was together with her Pinochle group on Friday night, and she was the big winner.
Today is Super Bowl Sunday, and I still don't care. If I did, I would have to sit thru countless replays, and listen to John Madden expound on the obvious over and over. In the newspaper this morning, they're still whining about the Seahawks loss to the Steelers a few years ago. Thank God Spring Training starts in a couple of weeks.
I have no pictures to post this time around, as we left the charger for the camera in Hawaii, and the battery is dead. They are mailing it back to us, so I hope to have pictures for the next installment.
Stay Dry {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} Ernie