October 20, 2009: Home at Last!

It was a looooong eleven hour drive from Jackpot, NV to Bouse, AZ yesterday. It was made even longer than usual by a detour we decided to take to bypass downtown Las Vegas freeways. We'd always wanted to try taking the route by Nellis AFB over to Boulder Highway so, since we had arrived in Vegas at least an hour ahead of schedule, we gave it a try. Bad choice. Although the traffic was lighter, and the drive less stressful than Vegas freeways, I think I hit every stop light! And with a speed limit of 45 mph, it seemed as though we crawled through town at a snail's pace. I can normally go completely through Vegas in 30 minutes or less, but this little ordeal took more then an hour. Oh well, at least we know now! The weather was sunny and hot. It's always a bit of a shock to leave on a cold morning, then be running the air conditioning by noon, but sure nice to have such good weather this late in the month.

We had just upgraded our DISH receivers before leaving home, so took a chance the dual recievers would work with our old antenna down here. Would you believe it was actually an easy setup on TV #1, and we had reception in just minutes. But the second receiver, set up in exactly the same way to another cable, gave me nothing. I got a dual signal from the first receiver, so thought we could just move that cable the next morning, but it turned out that, although I could view a different channel, the remote would not work with TV #2! If I don't figure out how to fix it, I'm destined to watch FOOD TV all winter, 'cause I can't change the channel! Actually, by now, I'd probably be watching the DISH screen saver. I ended up watching the only video tape I had in the house, the movie Cold Mountain. We'll try to get a technician here soon to set up the system correctly.

Annie was so happy to be "home"! She went belly up on the living room floor for nearly two hours, with a big smile on her face. You haven't lived until you've seen Annie sprawled out belly up and smiling! Otto ran around for a bit, then settled into his favorite chair. They seem to remember this being their home, and are joyfully running in and out of their doggy door to play in the front yard then jump on the sofa.

We ran into the same-old-same-old when we got here. Extremely tired, hungry, having to unload at least the necessities, hooking up the TV, the innards of both toilets having weakened and disintegrated from the summer's heat. At least the house was nice and clean, the beds only needed to be turned down to air out a bit, and a jug of water set in each bathroom for flushing. I cooked some bacon in the microwave and made toasted BLTs for a quick dinner. Of course, I had a good sized basket of tomatoes!

In the past, we've had to drive all the way to Lake Havasu City, 70 miles away, to get to the nearest Super Wal-mart. But this year we have a brand new one right over at Parker, just 25 miles away! We already checked it out this morning and donated a couple hundred dollars to stock the pantry, fix the toilets and purify the drinking water. It makes all the difference in the world to finally have some nearby shopping, and it cost about half of our normal winter stock-up. Maybe I won't sell this place after all!

I do have intermittent WIFI, same as last year. It's via Hughes satellite from the neighboring RV park, slow and unreliable. If I'm lucky I can stay on long enough to blog and get email, but it's iffy.

The rosemary plant and lettuce seedlings made the trip just fine, but I have a lot of yard cleanup to do before I even think about starting my tiny veggie garden. In the meantime, the plants should be happy in their pots on the front porch.

Well, back to work. The pilot lights have to be lit on the stove and water heater, the bathrooms have to be cleaned after getting sprayed with broken flusher parts, and the puppies need a bit of people time after that long trip.