10th Anniversary On The Road (Sturgis, SD)

In May 2009, we sold our house with most of our belongings in it and started traveling in our motorhome.  Hard to believe that we have been full-timing for 10 years!  Let's see if we can do another 10 years before we retire from the road.

Leaving Albuquerque May 2009

This seems to be the year for record-breaking weather throughout the US.  We have managed to be in a couple of the areas with higher than normal heat indexes during fall/winter in Florida and the cold, not to mention, very soggy spring in South Dakota.  We have been very lucky during our 10 years of traveling when it comes to weather.  No complaints about what we have experienced over the years.  

Just a couple of weeks ago, we woke to 5 inches of snow in Piedmont.  Not too bad considering the other areas in the Black Hills received over 10 inches.  Welcome Spring?

Dusty, of course, had to be convinced several times during the day that the snow was not gone by opening the door for him.  He would stand on the steps, look around, and stomp back in with his back twitching.  He looked very depressed at times.  Then he figured out he did not have to walk in snow if he jumped from the bottom step to the underside of the coach.  What a smarty cat! 😸

We moved to Sturgis a week ago.  The weather is starting to improve and the Sturgis RV Park is a little more sheltered from the wind, but we are still exposed to hail from severe thunderstorms.

This storm came down fast and furious with nickel-size hail.  It was deafening to have it hit directly on our roof and yes, we did end up with some damage to two of our vent covers and a side signal light.  I'm just glad we were not driving and the hail did not get bigger!

We have been getting flood alerts to stay away from the creeks during the storms.  A couple of days ago, the downpour developed several runoffs on the hill behind us. 

We are not in any danger of our coach being in high water, but it was amazing to see how fast the campground turned into one big muddy pond.

On a brighter note, we spent one sunny day driving through Spearfish Canyon.  A good time to visit some of the waterfalls in the area.  Our first stop was at the Roughlock Falls Nature Area with easy paved walking trails and plenty of viewing decks.

Roughlock Falls

There is some green vegetation, but the trees haven't quite filled out yet.  I bet the Fall colors are spectacular in the Canyon.

Roughlock Falls

 I loved the view looking in the other direction from the falls.  Look at those canyon walls and imagine trying to travel through here with a wagon and horses.

I had to have some photos of the wildlife.  We did not see a lot of activity.  Just a few deer near the road.  

Baltimore Oriole

No luck with sighting a Mountain Goat, but I did get a good kink in my neck.  Saw a mouse, sort of.  I did know that I had company in the bathroom until the field mouse ran to the door.   By the time I turned around, he was halfway under the door.  All I saw was a furry grey behind, a tail, and two back feet scrambling fast to squeeze under the door.

Dan spotted this feathered guy eating a berry in the tree.  I was hoping he would clean his beak for his photo op.  Oh well, the berry did match his feathers.

He did pose and did not look alarmed to see me walking closer to him.

Yes!  I am a pretty boy!  Did you get my good side?

The chipmunk wasn't skittish either.  He ran down the sidewalk in front of us.  I tried to get a photo of him running with his tail straight up, but he was too fast for me.

We played peek-a-boo in the grass until he decided sitting on a rock would be better to keep an eye on me while he munched some food.

We stopped at Spearfish Falls but decided not to walk down to the lower end of the falls.  The last stop was at the Bridal Veil Falls.  This one can be seen from the highway as you drive by, but it still makes for a nice stop.

Bridal Veil Falls

My fingers are crossed that the warm weather will hold out so we can enjoy more of the area.

On The Cutting Board
I had my own record-breaking moment this year.  I haven't worked on a single quilt project since we left Florida in February.  Well, I have been embroidering on quilt blocks, but no sewing, cutting, or quilting.  No New Projects!  That is the longest I have gone without quilting in over 20 years.  I'm trying to finish projects that I have started before starting others, but it doesn't seem to be working out too well.

I was stuck big time with the quilt blocks below.  The pinwheel blocks were driving me crazy, so I just put them aside where I could see them every morning and growl at them.  I could not get the points together or get the blocks sewed to the correct size which is 4.5 inches.  Talk about some wonky looking blocks!  I thought about sewing them by hand and just could not find enough energy to make and mark new pieces to sew together.  Finally, I decided to paper piece the block.  I made my own pattern in EQ7 since they did not have a pinwheel-on-point block.  It took me a couple of tries to figure out why the seams were not laying right.  Once I got the sequence correct, the blocks ironed flat.

Soooo much better!  I turned our snow day in Piedmont into my quilt day and set up 4 stations and managed to finish 20 of the 35 blocks needed for the quilt.  Plus, I got a few steps in walking from the bedroom to the living area.

I'm still working on my A to Zzz Snowman quilt.  Here is R for Reindeer....

and my favorite block - Q for Quilts.  I did not realize until I started working on this one that the word 'Quilt' was not included in the block's pattern.  

I'm tempted to add it in using letters from the other blocks.  I'll have to think about that one.

In the meantime, we better get the cats outdoors.  They know it is nice outside and are gathering at the door.

Happy Quilting!

Moved to Kansas (Coffeyville, KS)

We said our good-byes to Hot Springs, SD on September 2.  We found Hot Springs to be a unique and tranquil town.  We will miss our new friends and many of the friendly locals.  

I wanted to share a photo of the Hot Springs Library.  Isn't it gorgeous?  The library allowed us to sign up for a lending card since we were doing seasonal work for USACE and they also offered free WiFi.  I loved visiting and wandering around to look at the log home structure as well as being surrounded by books.  A real book lover's haven!  The back side in the main area has floor-to-ceiling windows with plenty of comfortable sitting areas.  Very inviting.  I found out on my last visit that a group of women would meet on Friday morning to work on a variety of hand made items.  I wish I had learned about this group earlier.  It would have been fun to join them for a couple of sessions.

Another thing I waited too long to do was to stop by Ace Hardware to see Fall River Fibers.  I had read about a spinner/weaver - Terry Slagel in the Country Register.  Every time we drove by, I thought about how I needed to stop in to see her shop at the back of the hardware store along with the basement area where a variety of classes are held or people can use the area to work on their projects.

photo from Fall Rivers Fiber

I was lucky to meet Terry on one of our last days in Hot Springs.  She was happy to show me around her shop and basement.  She spent time explaining to me about collecting bison hair and what spinners did with the bison hair.  She told me about one fiber/yarn maker and showed me some of her items.  I also have the bison fiber links:  About the fiber artist and her products.  I even got a chance to feel and squeeze a ready-to-be-spun ball of bison hair mixed with 85% alpaca.  It was very soft.  I was tempted to buy it except I did not have a clue of what I would do with it.  If we make it back this way, I hope to have an idea of a way to incorporate it into one of my projects.  I feel a fiber art project in the making.  So, if you happen to be in Hot Springs, SD make sure you stop by Ace Hardware and walk to the back to visit with Terry and her shop.  Also, don't forget the friendly quilt shop - HeartSong Quilts!

Traveling

It took us four days to get to Kansas.  The weather was decent with blue skies and no rain.  Thanks to one ranger's suggestion, we stayed at a couple of USACE campgrounds.

On the road

We were a little envious of the campground hosts because of their shady spots and lovely locations, but they also had 100+ sites and too many day-use areas to maintain.  I bet they were very busy during the summer between campers, fishermen, and boaters.

A short walk from our site in Nebraska

I preferred being the camper to being the host.  We and the cats enjoyed all the campgrounds along the way.  You can't beat the views!  All our sites were large, shady, and close to the water.  The Corp of Engineers do an excellent job of building nice campgrounds.

our second site in Kansas

We're in Kansas Now, Toto!

We settled into our new site last week.  The campground management is working with Amazon to make our stay here a little more pleasant by assigning alike shift workers together.  So all our neighbors work the same night shift as us.  Yep, we are working from 5 pm to 4 am.  I'm not sure how much sleep I will get since I'm not use to sleeping during the day...not even a cat nap...hmmm.

We started work this week.  Since we are starting with orientation, safety, and training, we are only working 5 hours a night.  Not bad, but I was feeling my feet and legs when we came home.  I'm feeling fine this morning - no soreness - yet.  I definitely plan to keep my yoga schedule.  My muscles were very stiff and the stretching felt very good this morning.  We are getting a lot of advice and warnings from experienced employees on how to survive our first 40 hour week.  One of my friends has a motto: One Day At A Time.  I think I will take it one hour at a time with this job!

Our WiFi is very spotty here which is our biggest disappointment right now.  We thought being in town would give us a stronger signal and that is with four different broadband sources to choose from.  I will try to post when I can.

Cozy Mystery Readers

Before I close, I thought I would share this website I found.  Cozy-Mystery.com is an excellent source of every kind of cozy mystery that has been published as well as a list of soon-to-be-released.  I can tell this website is a real labor of love.  I usually browse through Amazon's suggestions, but I find this site to be more organized.  Not only can you search alphabetically, you can search by theme, country, hobbies, holidays with descriptions and links to Amazon.

I have been searching by theme for something from the British-English Cozy section.  I had seen M.C. Beaton's books in a store, but there were so many that I could not pick just one, so I decided to wait.  Now that I have this list, I can start a whole new series!  Well, after I finish the Sheriff Longmire series which isn't included in this website, but J.A. Jance is listed.  The website owner says she is more than happy to add suggestions from other readers, so if you don't see your favorite cozy mystery author just let her know.

Even Jan Karon is included in the list just because "Her Mitford series is very cozy, but isn't a mystery series" according to the description.  I believe I will be spending quite a bit of time looking through this site when I am able to enjoy the internet.  Oh, and I am getting a little sewing done every day.  I'll try to post a few project photos next time...

Happy Quilting!

Only Two Weeks Left (Hot Springs, SD)

We are down to our last two weeks here.  We will leave after Labor Day weekend.  Usually I am counting the days until we leave.  I blame my travel bug for that antsy feeling to get on the road again, but it did not show up this time.  Our stay here has been pleasant and our co-workers have been great.

On The Cutting Board

This will probably be my last order for this year.  I will not be listing my new projects or renewing the old ones until next year.  I have decided to close the shop while we are working at Amazon.com.  I will open the shop back up in January.  Between 40 to 60 hour weeks, it will be very hard to find time to mail orders.  I do plan to keep sewing during the winter, so please stop by to see what I am working on this winter.

I finished this custom order today for a friend.  I might make a couple of more Happy Campers in this shape and a few in the shape of Class A motorhome (like ours) for next year's listings.

I was a little worried about the deep inward curve puckering from the stiff fabric when I sewed the layers together.  It came out so much better than I had hoped for.  Nice and flat.

I plan to spend the next two weeks putting together projects for this winter.  I need to cut out more mug rugs and mark them for embroidering.  I have a few wall hangings, but I would love to add to the pile.  Oh yes, I should also put together a couple of quilt kits for those energetic evenings when I feel like sewing.

Happy Quilting!

How High Is The Water, Momma? (Hot Springs, SD)

I barely got setup to sew a border onto this bunny quilt when the park's flood siren went off.  We thought that was a little strange since the sky had cleared up after a heavy rain/hail storm and the grounds was starting to dry out.  Campers were busy building fires and getting meals ready.  It was turning into a nice evening.

Dan called the ranger and soon the ranger was calling back to say that they would be evacuating low lying campsites!  Wow, really??  Apparently the rain had caused a flash flood from a connecting canyon and it was on its way to our area.  While Dan spread the news to start packing, I went out back to look at the stream behind our motorhome.

campers packing in a hurry

Well, the small stream was now a fast moving little river.  I never see the water from our site, but I could see it quite clearly at that moment!  The head ranger had all the campers and day use people out within a couple hours.  Some of the road was already covered in 6 inches of water and still rising.

fire pit is still smoking from the campers

We did not have to worry about moving since our site sits up high enough, but we did pack up our outside items just in case of more heavy rains.

20 ft below and behind our site

Gosh, this is the first time the campground has been so quiet!  We wandered around picking up some trash that was left behind and watched the water level.  Then I got that song by Johnny Cash stuck on repeat in my head - "How high is the water, Momma? Well, it's 5 feet high and risin'!"  Well, we did not have to worry about the water rising too much.  The photo below shows the highest point.  Not too bad for us or for the park.

road to wildlife area

They opened up the road gates this morning.  The day use area is back in business, but the campground only has one camper so it will be another quiet evening for us.  You know what?....I think I'll get that border done tonight.

Happy Quilting!

Driving Down Memory Lane - Sturgis 1998 (Hot Springs, SD)

We drove to Rapid City last Friday.  We were seeing quite a few early arrivals with their loaded down motorcycles on the road heading for Sturgis.  The annual Sturgis Motorcyle Rally started on Monday, August 4.  Seeing all the travelers brought back memories of our trip to Sturgis in 1998 so I thought I would share a few photos and memories.

 A quick rest from icy roads and photo op in the Colorado Rockies
Far right:  Dan and I

We planned our trip with two other couples and riders from Albuquerque. One couple rode double while the other two rode their own Harleys.  I had spent almost a year learning to ride my own motorcycle - a Yamaha Virago 350, so we could have more space for packing tents, sleeping gear, and clothes.  My bike wasn't as powerful as the smallest Harley, but I had no problem keeping up with them.  I also found this more entertaining to drive my own motorcycle than to ride on the back with Dan.  Although, it was hard to look around and view the country side as we drove from Albuquerque, NM to Sturgis, SD (around 800 miles one way).

The weather did not want to cooperate.  We ran into hail, heavy rains, ice covered mountain roads, and one mud filled road along with high winds, but we made it all in one piece with no incidents.  Funny, we are having about the same weather this time too.  We had over an inch and a half of rain last night from a thunderstorm that shook our motorhome and had our cats sitting wide-eyed.   

Devil's Tower, WY before the downpour blocked our view

Dan had reserved a campground between Sturgis and Rapid City near the highway.  The campground claimed it was a couple of miles from the highway exit.  We thought it meant 'away from' the highway too.  No, that was parallel which means we could see and hear the highway all night long.  That turned out to be no problem after a day of activities with eating and drinking too much, I don't think a single one of us had a problem going to sleep at night.

staying dry was a challenge for the first part of the week

With overcast skies and threat of more rain, the guys setup the camp by circling our three tents with a makeshift awning to keep the center dry.  This worked well once the sun came out giving us some shade and relief from the humid heat.

Welcome to Sturgis

Once we started touring around the Black Hills and the Rally, I decided to park my bike and ride with Dan.  I did not want to miss a thing!  I think I gave myself whiplash from rubbernecking to view people and bikes.  So much to see and so little time.  Crowds everywhere.  Sounds of music, smells of food....

....at times it was almost overwhelming so we would head out to the Black Hills for a quiet ride and serene views of wildlife except the buffalo were running down the road the day we drove through.  We don't know if it was all the noise from the bikes causing them to run or if someone told them it was dinner time.  Either way, it got a little iffy with us being so exposed to the huge critters.  We had heard that it wasn't unusual to have a buffalo flip a motorcycle with its driver.

Buffalo Jam

All in all, we had a great time and have some wonderful memories.  Would I do it again?  Traveling exposed to the elements on a motorcycle was fun when I was younger, but  I have become a creature of comfort.  I like traveling with our own bathroom and kitchen with a solid roof that doesn't leak when it rains.  I love sleeping in a bed that doesn't deflate during the night leaving us to wake-up on the cold hard ground with stiff backs.  I will stick with our home on wheels.

I'm almost done with all of the new Happy Campers and the Sweet Dreams quilt.  I'll try to post some photos when I get ready to list them on Etsy.

Happy Quilting and Safe Travels to All!

Where Did Summer Go? (Hot Springs, SD)

I can't believe July is almost over and summer is starting its second half.  Where did it go?

Water fall in downtown Hot Springs

I know I don't have a whole lot to show for my time.  I know I have been spending a great deal of time reading or listening to books lately.  I do spend more time sitting outside watching the cats.  Other than helping Dan clean up the lake area and the campground....well, I'm just not too sure.

Side view of the water falls,
Hot Springs in the background

We have done a little sightseeing plus we are driving to Rapid City once a week for groceries.  It is hard to find good hummus and almond milk here.  Not to mention, it is nice to getaway from here for the day.

VA building

Dan drove to the VA hill so I could see their unusual buildings.  The VA has facilities on top of two hills in town.  One hill has a VA retirement home and the other has a hospital, some housing, a National Park Cemetery,  and other medical buildings.  We drove around the medical facilities hill.

We are not sure what this building is used for, but I find the architecture very interesting especially the dome.

On The Cutting Board

Here are four more Happy Campers ready for layering and quilting.  I have been taking my time with my latest projects  to give them a little more detail.

I embroidered lace to the curves to match the curtains on the pink polka dot top.

I made the heart into a windsock with beads and attached it to Happy's 'P'.

And...I added bullion stitches and beaded fringe to the awning below.

I should start sewing some of these up soon.  I have about eight of them ready to sew and layer.  I guess it is time to pull out the ol' sewing machine and get busy!

Happy Quilting!