Nomads2

Every male and every female have had these expressions at least once  and probably more than once in their life times. Guys have this look as our grandson Leo has right now when you find out that you all of a sudden have a girlfriend, and of course, you have no idea how that could happen. The next time for sure you look like this is on your wedding day. By obvious contrast, Amanda has the look that says, “We will be getting married soon and have a house, a garden and two and a half kids.” She will have the same look on her wedding day. Just to seal the deal and to make sure Leo knows exactly what is going on, Amanda painted a portrait of the two of them in happy harmony. I’m sure this is true, I think.

Truthfully, we just picked this park out of the RV parks book we have. My what a travel park! Restaurant, RV wash, repair service (maybe the first photo was one of their training jobs?)  carpet cleaning and storm shelters, a must in West Texas. One of the nice items can be seen in the second picture, a concrete pad, very level. A bit pricey at $28.00, it had everything we needed and more than we would use. The weather was windy, and the low was around 37 degrees.

We are off on our first RV trip of the year. Departing ground zero in Congress Arizona, elevation 2800 feet around 0830 hours. We climbed steadily for four hours topping out 7100 feet before pointing the nose of the truck east bound. Little wind and warm temperatures were a welcome relief from the snow showers encountered in 2010. Fuel mileage was nothing to brag about, fueling in Winslow ( no we did not stand on the corner, but it is on the ‘To do’ list) showed 10 mpg. We like the truck for a lot of reasons, gas mileage is not among them. As we drove we debated about where to stop and finally decided on a favorite from the past, the Bar S, exit 81 on I-40. This is our fourth or fifth stay and they are always friendly, low price of $21.00 got us a nice spot, 50 amp service, wi-fi and cable TV. We feasted on grilled cheese and soup. The down side was that night, we paid for our warm day time weather with a cold 30 degrees the next morning. Burr!

Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

Photo’s by Norm…

My father-in-law and I watch this station which is just outside of Wickenburg with some humor. Always, it seems, when the weekend approaches, the price of fuel goes up and after Monday the price slides down. I don’t think I have ever seen a business deviate in price so much. It is a great location to make a legal (extra) buck (I guess it is legal), I think if you are not local to the area it would be the first place in a while and people just buy there. This establishment has been there for more than a few years, and I have only been in once, I bought a bag of ice. And , if I remember right, the ice was a little pricey.

This is an outstanding 1974 Yamaha 250 vintage racer with many custom and trick parts, some of which cannot be seen from this photo. In the first shot, all the expert racers are staging for the money race, 14 riders in all. Bruce captured 3rd place and a good chunk of the purse. Easily winning his two moto’s for the overall win in his class, it was a really fun day for us all. Thanks Bruce!

Bruce at speed.  In both his moto’s he was never challenged having the most horsepower and riding skills, no other rider could hang with Bruce. It also seemed that every racer from Colorado was riding a bike that Bruce built, many from a box of parts. He is a master mechanic (every one looks for the ‘Power by Sass’ sticker), a legend in Colorado motorsports, and a great brother in Christ.

Norm is so talented in so many ways, I am very blessed to have her as my wife. She made this light for her beautician’s son, an Oregon Duck fan.

We purchased this video to try out different routines for our kettlebell workouts. We had been using programs that I could find on the web and decided to take a leap and invest in a new video. The “Kettlebell Boomer” dvd is our fourth instructional video from Dragon Door.com. If you are new to KB’s and need detailed instruction on the exercises, this video is for you. So far we have only managed 2 weeks of consistent training, three days a week. I think we will use the program till we hit the road  in March. Just as a side note, it is hard to think of ourselves as boomer’s.

My father-in-law built this house for his little tomato plants to live in.I am really surprised that Norm has not named each plant.

“I was a young man with uninformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.”  Charles Darwin writing about the religion of Darwinism

My beautiful Norm built this cruiser for me to enjoy here in the desert.

WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;– for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish

Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;– for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;– and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;– to enable us all, whether in publick or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shewn kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

“When I am weak then am I strong,
Grace is my shield and Christ my song.”   Charles Spurgeon

There was no rest for the ‘roping dummy’ as kids of all age roped him without mercy.
Sunrise on Friday morning.We worked in the food booths this past weekend and had a blast.