Wild Winds! East to Missouri

Conway Rest Area Eastbound 

On Tuesday, April 1st if there was any joke played at all, it was the high winds.  As we got about our morning routine for a moving day, we weren't laughing.  31 mph winds with up to 50 mph gusts, it could be a challenging day on the highway. 🥺

Good morning!

One last picture of the stray dogs.
I've come to think they are 'resident' guardians.
I watched them play this morning and here 
'she' sits politely while he checks out the culvert for water.
They were quite friendly, i believe, and just sat and
watched from a distance when I took Gibbs out. 💕

We signed out at the casino and pulled out of the lot at 8:50. It was a mild. 52F/10C under mostly cloudy skies. Due to miscommunication on Google maps we went a few miles out of our way until we got back on track to I-40E. 

Some pictures of our travel day.
The 'Scissortail' Bridge aka Skydance Bridge
inspired by OK's state bird.
The red earth of OK and AR.
Old Glory blowing from South,
directly into our side.

Going through OK City was busy but Bill did just fine. I hate the speeds through the cities, I usually have my hand grasping the hand rest. 🤣 I don't know how that helps but it does. Once through that mess of traffic and construction it was pretty clear sailing. There are always slowdowns but it was pretty smooth. 

A pretty drive.
The Eufala Lake
and another one that didn't have signage
for the name.

We touched in 3 states today.
One sign captured but lots of
scenic views. 

We started looking for fuel stations with 160 miles before empty and at noon pulled into a Sinclair. They are usually priced well but this was higher than we expected, but at the same time, not unusual to see prices rise as we travel eastward. No matter, we fueled up and pulled over to eat our sandwiches. When we were all fueled and filled, we set out again. The day was warm, despite the winds, making it pleasant enough for a travel day. The winds only affected our fuel and only when we were traveling east. The Suite wasn't affected at all. 

The Bobby Hopper Tunnel in Arkansas.
It swallows vehicles, we were no exception.
I love the purple blossoms in the bottom left.
You can zoom through at 75 mph.

Back on I-40E, there were rough, bouncy, patches of highway so things inside will be shook up. With traffic, we can't always switch lanes, instead staying in the right hand 'slower traffic ' lane. The rest of our journey today was quite pretty, especially when we got onto I-49 (AR49) N. Lots of hills, taking us from 400' to 1600' in elevation. Black Beauty handled them like a champ, she was happy to have her power back. 😊 Inside, yes, it looked a bit like the Royal Rumble but actually only a recliner and the coffee table had shifted. 

This time Old Glory is actually blowing from
behind us, thank you!
At the TA station, I saw this stone compass
with various cities and their distance.
The other side had the southern cities where we've spent
the winter. Kinda cool!

Our destination tonight is the Conway Rest Area. It is a duplicate of the westbound one with the same name. We have stopped there before on our route south but we can't remember if we actually stayed overnight. Memories!! It's why I write a blog. We made one more fuel stop for good measure, so we didn't have to do it first thing in the morning. This time at a TA Travel Centre in Mt. Vernon and Bill was able to use his Mudflap fuel app and get .40¢ off the $3.43 sticker price. Yay!

Another Spring picture.

Just 9 miles past Marshfield, we pulled into our rest area and pulled into one of the 9 or 10 rv lanes for the night. We opened our slides, with no worries of a semi hitting them upon their arrival or departure in the truck lanes. It happens! This was great. We arrived at 5:30 and while Gibbs and I walked around, Bill took care of offloading Black Beauty into the Suite. It is windy, but mild. Here it reached 65F/18C with a low of 60F/16C. We'll be praying for a safe night's sleep.

Here we are for the night.
A great spot and if the trucks are noisy,
our heads are on the quiet side of the Suite.
They won't keep us awake after the long day!

This was another long day, one I didn't think we'd repeat but it went smoothly with no worries or concerns. 😁For supper, I had thawed ground beef so made hamburger helper with mixed vegetables. It was tasty, easy and required no appliances = no generator. For dessert, of course, we treated ourselves to the 'long day' reward of a drumstick. 

Supper was quick and good.
Good night!

Thank you for stopping around. I appreciate each of your comments. Have a good night!

A Lazy Windy Day, New Craft

Park Place RV Park

On Thursday, Mar. 6th it was 7 o'clock when Gibbs and I got up and made the bed. I decided to change it up today and skip the floor blocking. I stretched in bed and then hopped in the shower. Bill followed with his shower while I came down for cereal and tea. There would be no flying today and not even worth visiting the field. Every pilot would be of the same mind. it was windy right off the get-go.

Good morning!

Gibbs was keen to walk this morning.

I had no commitments either so we did the family thing, here at home. Bill was on his laptop across the table from me and I did a bit of paper quilling. At 10:30, I went to the clubhouse to work on the puzzle. It was a quicker finish than I thought it would be and was out of there an hour later. 😀 I loved this puzzle and will be taking it home with me. I forgot to mention that our neighbour, Walter, returned yesterday from another one of his adventures. Goodbye sunrises. I won't complain, he is a really nice man.

All done!

I took Gibbs out for his walk and felt pretty good. He didn't go the whole way but it was good enough and he walked really well. Maybe the winds were pushing us! For lunch, I heated up some pizza and Bill had a sandwich. The afternoon just got windier and windier, windy enough to pop the top of the gazebo down! Checking our anemometer it said it was a 28 mph gust. We left it down and carried on with our day. 

Leftover pizza - reheated is
the only way to go for me!

Until I get some backing paper for some of my paper quilling projects, I decided to do some cross-stitching for a while. It's nice to be able to move from one craft to another but when my butt got tired of sitting, I moved to my recliner with my book. 😊📖

A dust storm blew through a few
times. We're thankful to be where we are.

For supper, we'd decided on 3-egg omelets. They were loaded and they were very good. Bill had his in a toasted sandwich. We cleaned up the strawberries for dessert.

The gazebo popped down on its own

The winds are dying down to between 12-16 mph overnight with possibly a bit of rain here and there. We'll see. Weather here does the same dance as it does everywhere else. Who said change is good? We reached 69F/20C today. This has been a pretty quiet day and we've enjoyed it. 

Supper

Crazy clouds this evening after sunset.
Good night!

Thank you for stopping in.

Yo-Yo Winds

Park Place RV Park

On Sunday, Mar. 24^th we were up before 7, laundry was sorted and by 7:10, clothes were in the 2 machines. I walked back to do the transfer 25 minutes later and then returned home to finish my tea and take Gibbs for his walk. No Gerald this morning, although the little guy waited a minute before moving on. 😊 He truly won’t know what to think when we leave here. The air was cooler this morning, and the winds were still evident. We did get another dumping of rain at 10 pm last night so there was about 3" in the inverted roof on the gazebo this morning. Enough rain!!

Leaving Gibbs in my chair when I walked
over to the laundromat, I wonder if I could teach
him to sit the other way?
I could dictate my blog to him........look at that posture!

Good morning!

The laundry was drying, today two dryers didn’t heat up at first, so it took longer than usual. In the meantime, while waiting, I stayed at the clubhouse, and put a few pieces in the puzzle that Adele and Susan started late yesterday. It seems pretty easy, the pieces were finding their slot without too much difficulty. A beautiful picture of the Grand Canyon. They might finish it tonight.

Since Christmas, this is toy #3.
It started with 6 hard rubber balls. As he chews them,
we cut them off so he doesn't eat the rubber. LOL
Now he has a boring rope to toss with Mom and Dad. 😂

Bill and I relaxed at home and we sorted through receipts and purchases over the winter. Time to make our list of items to claim at the border. With that done, we had lunch and went about our day. Bill worked outside on putting our string of ground lights away and had a nice chat with our neighbours to the west. They are pulling out tomorrow, heading home to Wyoming. Seems a lot of us will be doing the same thing over the next week or so. ☹

A better choice for chewing.
Patti and Rick gave him a hard bone.
It has been buried inside, a few places and then
outside and then back indoors

We have to pretend we aren't watching.
but it's so fun to watch, I took a video.♥

If you can't see it, then he did a good job.

I walked over to work on the puzzle for an hour or so and Susan joined me before I decided to return home at 3. When Sheila went over to prepare the morning’s coffee, I joined her for a walk around the residential area and the block. 

                                                    The puzzle of the day.

3 of us working on this one.

Our time together is shortening as each day passes and we enjoy each other’s company. The wind was quite gusty but the sun kept us warm in short sleeves. Back home, I took Gibbs for his walk and then sat outside with my book until I got cool in the shade.

A beautiful Angel to hang in our
window.
Thank you, Sheila!

My book is good, did I tell you the title? Another Stephanie Plum story called Twelve Sharp. The pages are flipping by. 😊 Supper was fish and chips so Bill looked after the Fry Daddy and I popped the fish in the oven. The sky outside is half dark, to the north, and half blue with white fluffy clouds to the east. Not sure what it is doing. I think the clouds are winning, the dark ones.

The sky has been lovely all day until early evening
when dark clouds moved in. 

Supper was goooood!

We enjoyed our meal and after clean up, Bill popped the gazebo roof down again for the night. 26 mph at 6 pm gave us the warning. Not sure if I’ll read or watch tv tonight. The series called The Village is interesting but I don’t want to binge watch it. This was a very nice day and despite the winds, we still reached a nice high of 69F/21C. 

This was looking out our window to the east.
Then it was gone. 

One of my commenters asked for the
rhubarb recipe from yesterday.
Here it is. I substituted flour for almond flour
in the crust and
and Splenda for sugar throughout. 
Enjoy and good night!

Thank you for the visit.

Winds Pick Up, Coffee Hour, Pleasant Afternoon

Park Place RV Park

On Wednesday, Mar. 13^th we were up with the sun. Well, the sun rose at 6:39 and I was up just about the same time. Needless to say, I missed it. 😊 We had our showers and since Bill wasn’t flying this morning, he took a bit more time getting ready. He did have his last Q.D.F. club meeting at 9 so left in plenty of time for that. The President can’t be late, right?

La Posa South LTVA is looking pretty empty

Gibbs and I walked and with my hoody, only to cover my bare arms, it was almost too warm. I was happy to get it off. Gibbs barks, most of you have heard me say that. He barks at loud voices, vehicles, passersby and well, just about everything. But, he does stop (mostly on command) eventually. Our friends, and his, pretty much know him and if he pulls me towards them, they oblige and give him a pet or two. 😊

Today, we met a man that Gibbs just plain did not like. As a people person, I expected him to bark but then let the stranger pet him and be done with it. Not this guy. He wanted to get close to the man but at the same time – didn’t, and stopped about a foot away. Still barking and growling like I've never heard. 

We dropped our cans here
even though the owner wasn't around.

Susan reminded me of their sixth sense or whatever it is – they get a feeling about people and it is usually for a reason. I guess he was trying to protect me. 

Flowers in the washes
I've never seen that before.

I decided to join others for coffee hour at 9 today. Something different. I’m glad I did, as I enjoyed the small gathering. It was interesting to meet Brenda, a newcomer to the park, only here for a night but a really pleasant lady. Later, I popped by to give her one of our cards in the event she needs a place to stay in Ontario. She gave me one of hers too. What a cute little ‘home’, Rover, is. She is from New Jersey.

Our water station.
Love the price here.

After lunch with Bill, we drove out to La Posa South to drop off the pop cans we’ve been gathering for a fellow out there who collects them for recycling. They just don’t recycle here, which is strange and yet the reason we see so many cans and bottles along the roadside. Sad, huh? The LTVA is looking pretty bare, compared to the last time we were out. We stuck to the paved road, drove in a bit and turned back for home.

Morning and afternoon progress

I walked over to the puzzle and put in quite a few pieces. Back home at 4, Gibbs and I went for our walk. Today, we walked along the road and on the return trip, I saw these beautiful orange flowers. They were so pretty and shiny that they looked waxed. ♥ I used an app, that Sheila told me about, to name them but it was in Latin so I can’t remember. I can’t pronounce those names! 😊

I'll have to go back tomorrow and get
the proper name of these beauties.
Just one clump of them.

I made my cup of tea back home and Gibbs dozed on the floor as I started my blog. Supper is a mixed meal. Liver for me, cooked inside, and a pork chop for Bill, grilled on the Weber. I had some frozen mashed potatoes that I fried up and cooked us each a vegetable. Too bad we don’t like a lot of the same veggies but that is the way it is. The weather today has been lovely although a bit breezy. Those March winds! Our gazebo has been flopping but no need yet to pop the roof down.

The sky was pretty again
this afternoon.

We’ve had a good day. I started my next book by Sue Grafton and it is gripping right from the start. It’s called Friction.

The liver was delicious and the swiss chard
was pretty good too.
Good night!

Thank you for the visit.

Puzzle Help, Winds Return, Visit with Bob

Park Place RV Resort

On Saturday, Mar. 19^th we slept in. It all started with Gibbs, he didn’t stir until 6:40 instead of his usual 6:15. I was appreciative since it was after 11 when I went to bed last night! The evening zipped by since our supper was so late and I didn’t even realize the time. 😊 Gibbs and I got up closer to 8 and went for a short walk.

Good Saturday morning

It was a nice morning, a bit windy and on the way, we stopped to check on Lori and Roland. She’s so cute when she says ‘yup, we’re still here!’ For having so much dumped on them, their attitude is incredibly good. ♥ Why not, EH? Life is too short to whine and complain about things that can’t be helped. They are still in my thoughts and prayers every day.

Not many pictures were taken today
so Gibbs fills in the gaps

Bill had decided not to go flying but then after a phone call home to Donna and Gerry, the winds seemed to have died down. I walked over to work on the puzzle and Nancy joined me. We made good progress and it will be done tomorrow, I’m thinking. Well, that just means I will have to start one more! Boy, was I surprised when Bill joined us and worked on it too! By then, the winds had increased again.

Sorry for the discreet photo, I didn't want to forget
and I didn't want to interrupt the conversation
Nancy, Bill, Bob

We’d been invited to Lori and Roland’s this afternoon for a visit but it wasn’t firmed up and when Bob dropped in, we confirmed with Lori that tomorrow would work instead. It was nice to see Bob again and even nicer that Nancy got to meet him, fellow bloggers and readers. 😊 Those are good experiences. We sat outside buy those winds were playing havoc with not only our hair (Nancy’s and mine) but I watched as things blew around the park. It will only get worse come Monday.

I was in my recliner, reading and thought
Gibbs was upstairs with Bill
Then I saw him on duty again 💗

After Bob took his leave, I made a cup of tea and Gibbs, Bill and I had a snack. Bill had a couple of Nutter Butters ♥, Gibbs had a ‘good for him’ chew stick♥ and I had a few chocolate-coated peanuts and raisins ♥. The boys went upstairs so it was a good time to start my blog post for today. The temperature today reached 86F/30C before it started dropping off after 3:30 so shade is where you wanted to be.

Supper, leftovers + olives!

Tonight’s supper is leftovers. Roast beef, carrots, mashed potatoes, green olives (teehee), with rhubarb crisp for dessert. Nice and easy prep and it tasted almost as good as last night. ‘Almost’ because food always tastes better with company, right? 😉 After loading the dishwasher, I finished my blog and sat and watched my vet shows. Bill went upstairs to watch a movie.

We cleaned up the rhubarb crisp

This was a pretty great day, however, I forgot about the Western Days 2-day event down at the town park. Woops! Maybe next year! Before I forget, Happy Birthday to our brother-in-law, Bruce! Hope it was an awesome day!

Good night, everyone! 💓

Thank you for stopping by.

Finishing the Puzzle, Thinking Ahead, Wild and Windy

Park Place Resort, Q. Az

Monday, Feb. 21^st is Family Day back home in Canada (most provinces) and President’s Day here in the US. We woke up to warnings of strong winds and gusts so Gibbs and I slipped out for our walk as soon as we were up. That was late today, we slept in until 7:45. I thought, since we normally feed Gibbs his breakfast at 8, that maybe we could feed him and ‘then’ go for our walk. 😊

The first clouds we've seen in a long time
Makes for a pretty sunrise

However! We all know who is in charge here and although I thought he might go for a longer walk after eating, he has his routine. He wouldn’t go near the dish, instead hopping up on my recliner with me. He was telling me in no uncertain terms that we had to get out there. Bill and I laughed at this as I got dressed and away we went. I’m glad we went when we did because the winds had increased by 9. Gibbs knows best!

Walking before the wind picked up but the clouds
were moving around pretty good

I had my tea and Bill and I each had some of our own cereal. I’m still enjoying the homemade keto ‘oatmeal’ and only eat it when I feel hungry after our walk. We found it quite cool inside the Suite this morning so turned on our Blue Flame heater to take the chill off. Surprisingly, it was a nice temperature of 50F/10C but it was the winds that played havoc. Bill watched some tv upstairs and I sat downstairs and crocheted.

The winds were crazy this afternoon but
the clouds moved out by noon
Notice the dust blowing across the road from the SW

We had bacon and eggs for lunch and then before 1 I went over to the clubhouse for some puzzle work. It was nice to see Patty and Rick the hosts back in the office so Bill and I talked to them about next year. With minimal conversation, since we’d talked a lot about it, we reserved for 3 months next year. Staying here longer is still an option but we’re up in the air about it.

Our hosts are saying all the right things, “lots of puzzles to be done” (Rick), “we’re so glad you’re coming back” (Patty). Anyway, with that out of the way, and out of our minds, we feel content we’ve made the right decision based on us, regardless of what or who next year brings. 😊 I sat and finished the puzzle by 3:15 and even though there are 5 frustrating pieces missing, it is pretty. When I break it up in a day or two, it will be fire fodder.

So, here it is - 5 pieces
Can you find the holes?

How about now?

Sitting around at home nearing 5 o’clock, our time, we called the next to last of our offspring, with the exception of one who was away for the weekend. My daughter was available and we had a nice chat to catch up on both ends. They also are digging out from the weekend snowfalls but are doing well otherwise. We’ve talked to the them all, which is not something we manage often but it is always gold when we do. ♥

Because last night, I felt that our lasagna
was not quite enough to fill us, but 2 pieces
would have been too much, we added a veggie.

For supper, we finished up the last of the lasagna. Too windy to barbecue anything and this was simple. Simple wins every time with me. 😊 The dust was blowing around pretty good today but the sun managed to rule the day for the most part so we used our solar panels while we could. Not much change is expected tomorrow and we’re in for some cooler temps but we reached 69F/20.5C before the sun began dropping.

My sister, Donna, took a drive out to their two properties
The Acreage to check for mice at their trailer
(there were none)

The evening was spent watching a few of our programs, others were put off because of the holiday, we assume. This was a nice day spent at home together and we’ve successfully made some permanent plans for next year. That’s positive thinking on our part. I hope you’ve had an enjoyable time in your neighbourhood too.

And at the Ridge, the best news
"No tracks up the lane" and "things look good up there"
😃
Good night everone!
Happy Family Day and Happy President's Day

Thank you for your visit.