November 26, 2011 - I Can't Find It!



"I can't find it" are the most common words used at our house this week. When we arrived back home, the kids came over and unloaded the pickup for us. Not knowing just where I was going to put everything, we had them pile it all along one side of the garage. The plan was to bring in a few containers each day, then decide if we'd keep or donate the items. I really have no need for two food processors, two mixers, two blenders.......well, you get the idea. But, you know what they say about the best laid plans of mice and men. Or in this case, of mice and Granny.

I didn't plan on getting sick, but yesterday the sore throat and achy body, chills and fever, overtook me. I went to bed at 7:30 last night, and slept for 19 hours! I'm sure the stress and long hours of work the past few weeks were partially responsible for lowering my immunity. I just hope I can shake it real soon, because I still can't find anything (including my camera)!

Do you know that Annie and Otto snuggled up to me for those 19 hours and only left once....to go outside to pee! The devotion of those two is mind boggling.

November 23, 2011 - There's No Place Like Home!



We're here safe and sound, and it's so good to be back. I have my internet again! I also have a truck filled with household goods to put away, a mountain of laundry, and I'm tired from driving 8 hours today. The rest of our trip, after the bad motel experience, went great. I'll tell you all about it as soon as I find some free time to like actually sit down at the computer. In the meantime, happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and I'll be back blogging real soon.

November 22, 2011 - The Saga Continues



What does one do when someone's diesel truck is warming up outside of your room at The Motel From Hell at 4:45 AM? For a full fifteen minutes! I'll tell you what....you give up and get up. Then you take your dogs outside in the 28F chill of the early morning, and they refuse to pee because they're afraid of the noisy truck. And then you try to pass the time by reading your email, but the connection is flakier than the one I left behind in AZ, and I cannot get a connection. By 5:45 they must have reset their router, and I can finally access my email and begin reading all the blogs I've missed recently. Do you think that might just take me a while to catch up with all of you?

What? Only 519 blog posts to read? No problem!

Now what? It's only 6:00 AM, the next hotel is just three hours away, and check in time isn't until three this afternoon. We had planned on a relaxing morning in this motel room, just drinking coffee and watching TV, but this cable system doesn't even have ABC or NBC (I missed Dancing With the Stars last night....bummer). And the spout is broken on the coffee pot, so most of the coffee ended up on the dresser instead of in the cups. I wonder how long the dogs would be happy under their big blankets, in the back seat of the pickup, while we have breakfast and play a few penny slot machines at the local casino. I wonder how long our wallets will hold out! With the time change, there is still ten hours until check in time at Jackpot. I must admit, this trip isn't going as well as planned.

November 21, 2011 - Can You Believe.....???



I'm sitting in one of the scroungiest, yet expensive, motel rooms in Ely, Nevada tonight. Don't always believe the reviews you read on line. This recommendation must have been written by the owner :-( We've never stayed in Ely before, but we wanted to break up our trip home so the drive wasn't so tiring. We usually drive about eleven hours the first day, and eight the second day. This time we decided to drive the approximately 8 hours to Ely today, three or so hours to Jackpot tomorrow, then 8 more hours home on Wednesday. Of course, we had to make sure we could reserve a room where pets are welcome, so I chose this one for the glowing recommendation.....HA! The first room they put us in turned out to have no cable connection on the TV, and no "free WIFI" as advertised. We had to pack up the dogs, their beds, the suitcase, Mr. Granny's freshly made cocktail and move to another room. At least this one didn't have a hole in the wall, and the closet door opens. I got an internet connection that lasted all of five minutes, so this may not get published tonight :-( :-(

(I'm already into double frowny faces, and I've just begun)

Maybe I should begin at the beginning...............

Two weeks after we arrived at our Arizona winter home, it sold! I didn't want to say anything until it was final, and the closing date had been set for December 5. However, both the buyer and we were receptive to an earlier closing date, which turned out to be today. The single, widowed lady fell in love with it at first sight, and would have written us a check right there and then if we hadn't had it listed with a real estate company. As it was, she made a cash offer that was acceptable to us. We didn't make money on the deal, but we had a winter home for seven years and we didn't take a loss on it. We just feel lucky that it sold in this bad economy. It's been on the market for nearly two years! She also bought the furniture, so we didn't have to rent a U-Haul to get it all home. The funny thing about the whole deal was that she actually lives less than five miles from us up in Washington (1200 miles from the AZ property)! She banks at the same credit union that we do, so the funds were withdrawn and deposited at the same bank. And.....her brother-in-law lives in LaGrande, OR. I mentioned we had lived in Baker City. Her b-in-l had (has) a Chevron service station in LaGrande. Mr. Granny had a Chevron service station in Baker City. We knew her brother-in-law well! REALLY small world.

Which brings us back to the trip home.

I've driven through Las Vegas at least twice a year for the last 12 years. No problems. This morning I missed the exit ramp to Interstate 15. I took the next exit, thinking it would eventually display a sign leading us back to the freeway. Nope. Not a single hint as to how to get back without heading south and retracing our route. We actually ended up 35 miles north of the city before stopping for directions. Directions were given to head back toward Vegas, and directions were followed. We ended up on a dead end street. We headed back to the main highway and took the next busy street heading east. Dead end. Back to the highway, inching closer and closer to Vegas, we came alongside a Nevada Highway Patrol car. I gestured for him to roll down his window, and hollered that we were lost and needed to get to I-15. He yelled back the directions (just two more blocks, turn east and it would take us right to the freeway). It only took us two hours of extra driving time to get back on the correct road toward home! The first time we drove through Vegas, Mr. Granny missed a turn and we got lost in a residential area. Our last trip through Vegas and I get lost. Now we're even!

We left the dogs in the motel room and drove to the business district for dinner tonight. We had stopped in Parker for a sausage biscuit at McDonald's at 8:30 this morning and, with our scenic tour of Vegas, had not stopped for lunch. By the time we arrived in Ely, we were starving! I downed a delicious dinner salad, a large salt baked potato with butter and sour cream, and two pork ribs from a barbecued half rack. I took out the leftovers and put them in with the frozen foods, so I'll have another treat once I arrive home. Mr. Granny had a huge breakfast for his dinner, for just $5. We'll definitely hit that place for breakfast tomorrow morning. We're ignoring our diets for these two days. After all, he's already lost 12 pounds and I'm down 16. It took me 2 1/2 months, it took him just 4 weeks. We'll get back "on the wagon" after Thanksgiving dinner at our daughter Amy's house.

Looks like I might be back on line for the moment, so I'd better get this published! Hopefully I'll be back soon, with my home connection and no more internet problems!