Barb,Bill, and Buddy

The weather is very nice now here in the desert even though the temperatures start out at 38-40 degrees. Just as soon as the sun comes up though it warms right up.

Yesterday we left about noon on our quads to see some friends who just got here from Oregon but ended up going on a neat neat ride. Barb and Bill were on their way to town with their motorhome for some inverter service so we headed to the mountains in search of a geocache. Well! The search took us above Quartzsite and up a very exciting trail. We actually parked the quads 1/4 mile from the coordinates of the cache and hiked up another 1500 feet, sometimes straight up, or so it seemed! But the view was worth the trip. We got HOT with all that exercise! We are looking forward to more rides like that one.

Today, we didn't ride because I had to go to my new 'job'. I have been volunteering at the Quartzsite Chamber of Commerce and today was my day to work. I actually like working there and meeting and greeting all the people that come in. I especially like seeing the first timers to Quartzsite. I get excited all over again as I feel their excitement to be here. Many of them are parked in the desert but lots are parked in the many RV parks here. I love sharing not only the local info they are seeking but also my and Terry's experiences here.

So we will ride another day. This entire week is supposed to be nice. And even when it is 60 degrees here in the desert it is much warmer than when it is 60 degrees in Indiana with the higher humidity.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Quartzsite,AZ!

And what a nice Christmas it was. The temperature was 65 degrees and the sun was out a lot. We drove 30 miles north to Parker,AZ to the BlueWater resort and Casino for Christmas dinner. It was a very nice meal and the place was packed. We didn't gamble, just ate and then took a nice peaceful drive along the Colorado river. I really love the area and always enjoy going there.

In the morning we got and made phone calls to friends and family located EVERY WHERE. We wish all those we did not get to talk to a Merry Christmas.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Well, it is not 75 degrees here in Quartzsite but it is not 16 degrees either like it is in Coffeyville, KS. We hope to hit 60 degrees today and that is okay for now. We won't let that stop us from enjoying ourselves. I mean, we're not cold for Pete's sake, we are just not hot!

We will probably jump on the quads and take up where we left off last Spring, searching for one of the many geocaches hid around Quartzsite and surrounding areas. We rode last week with some new friends and neighbors who showed us some interesting places we didn't know about. We found what was left of an old WW II camp and some interesting intaglios. Although it was cloudy and overcast it was still fun just to be out in the desert once again.

Quartzsite isn't too busy yet. There are a few vendors and of course the big tent is not up yet. Businesses tell us that business is down from last year but they hope it will pick up after Christmas. There is still plenty to do though. It just depends on what you like to do. They still play a lot of Desert Golf, there is a music jam everyday at one RV park or another(sometimes two a day), ATV riding, and activities and dances in town. And if you are a rockhound, there's that. So, it is not boring!

Better go. More later.

Sunshine update

Since I have blogged we have spent some time near Algodones, Mexico and Yuma. We are now in Quartzsite at Pyramid Lane RV Park where we will stay until April. We are enjoying the wonderful sunshine and the desert view from our front windshield.

Near Yuma we were parked in the BLM 14 day area and saw that the downturn in the economy had affected the number of RVs visiting this area. This parking area is probably 5-6 acres in size and during the 3 days we were there there were never more than 6 rigs parked there. It is usually much busier than that at this time of year.

While we were there we did our Yuma shopping and also went to Algodones, MX. In Mexico we went to our favorite outside resturant and ate fish tacos... yum yum!! We also visited our friend and Terry's General Surgeon, Luis. We have known Luis for 4 years now and always enjoy visiting with him. Instead of Doctor on our first office visit with him he told us to call him Luis. We have met his entire family and they all treat us like family. We were sorry to hear that he and his family are moving to Sonora Mexico in February. I guess we will just have to go there to see him! I wonder how their fish tacos are !?

We're not in Kansas anymore!

We are back on the road again and it feels great! It took us two days to find warm weather!

We are in New Mexico at Dream Catcher RV, an Escapees park that we always enjoy visiting. While we are still at 4,000 feet elevation it isn't 75 degrees but it is still very nice. We came in yesterday and are leaving today chasing those 75 degree temps!

The first thing I wanted to do when we got here was laundry and what a fun laundry trip it was! Ted and Donna Walin are here on their way to Arizona and and came up to the laundry room to visit with us and we had a great 'social' all our own! Not only Ted and Donna but Andrea and Peter came too after seeing our bus in the park! It was so much fun running into these people again. All of us are going the same direction so we look forward to seeing them again in Quartzsite. We last ran into these two couples in Ohio at the Gypsy Journal rally. Ah, that is what we like about this lifestyle. Seeing old and new friends where ever we stop!

The fuel prices that we are seeing on the interstate just blow our minds! $2.16 for diesel !! Terry says "we can almost afford to drive again"!! I am pretty sure the further west we go the prices will increase but it is still a lot less than when we left Indiana in October.

More later. We are outta here!

Happy late Thanksgiving

We had a very nice thanksgiving here in Coffeyville, Kansas. We had signed up to work and did work until they shut everything down at lunch time. That was a nice bonus in itself plus we received holiday pay to boot!

Express Professionals, our employer, had a Thanksgiving dinner for all of us Workampers in a nearby Armory. Express furnished the meats, bread, and drinks and everyone else brought side dishes. It was a really nice dinner with lots of good food. There were probably 200 or so people there to eat. After we ate we went home to rest up for the upcoming 11 hour work days.

Amazon is going to trial the Shipping department on 11 hour work days (5:30 AM to 5: PM) for a couple of days and then let us know if it will continue after the 2 days. It all depends on the orders.

Friday we got up at 3:30 AM and did our 11 hour day and it wasn't too awful bad. I never thought I would say that standing for 11 hours would not be too bad but it wasn't. The Workampers have the option to only work 10 hours but we told them we would try the 11 hours and let them know how we felt after a few days.

I worked in Gift Wrap all day Friday. It is fun thinking about all the children and people getting the gifts I wrap and what they think of their gifts. Terry worked on the Toy line all day switching back and forth from scanning to making sure there were no glitches in the operation of the line. He has become the right hand man to the team leader who depends on him to help keep things running smoothly.

The weather is getting colder but we expected that to happen. We spent the day yesterday in Joplin, Missouri just shopping and exploring. It was 37 degrees and spitting SNOW !! It sure felt like Christmas! Last year at this time we were in Fort Myers, Florida and it did NOT feel like Christmas but that wasn't all bad! This isn't that bad either and it is short term so we will just roll with the flow and take what comes.

Coffeyville/Amazon.com Update

Our campground is not as full as it was. Several people have left for different reasons. Some just can't do the physical work required, some just don't want to, some left for warmer areas (hmm-not a bad idea!), and some had previously planned agendas. We're ok for now even though it did get COLD a couple of nights. We were toasty in the bus though. 18 degrees IS cold!! But now our nights are about 31 degrees and not bad.



Amazon started part of the plant on mandatory overtime a week ago and then came around to our area offering VTO-Volunteer Time Off. Doesn't really make much sense. Plus, we get to work Thanksgiving if we want to for time and a half plus 8 hours pay. I know their orders are down but having said that, then why is mandatory overtime in place!!?? AND we were told Friday that our area will start 11 hour days next week. Good grief!!



We haven't done much this week-end off. Just resting up for the week ahead. Our bodies are getting used to physical aspects of the job that they were unfamiliar to!! We can now get out of bed without groaning loudly! I did get a haircut yesterday and some of you know how I dread getting a haircut "on the road". It is usually a crapshoot but I lucked out. I just started calling numbers in the phone book until I found someone with an opening that day and I got a great haircut plus some local information. The beautician and I even know some of the same people!



I really do like learning new things and seeing how different work places operate. Every morning before we start work Area Managers conduct a meeting. We are told about safety issues, production numbers, and the back-log of orders. After the announcements someone leads us in stretching exercises before we head to our assigned stations. That is different! But interesting. And it helps. Since a lot of the jobs require squating to fill orders the exercise session includes ankle squats. When we first started, I could hardly do these but now it's easy!



So, life is good here in Coffeyville even though it's colder here than in Quartzsite, Arizona. It won't be long though until we head that way.

Still in Kansas

Coffeyville had a major flood in July 2007 which devastated much of the town especially the east side where our campground is located.The Walter Johnson Park, where we are parked is about 1/8 mile from the Verdigis river so we are hoping it doesn't rain much! The area is struggling to rebuild. I would guess that the number of us Workampers living here for a few months will help the local economy.

We have now completed our first week of 10 hour days, or should I say survived our first week of 10 hour days! I mentioned in an earlier post that this would be an adventure. Well....hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon was an adventure, kayaking down the white water of the Guadalupe River was an adventure, but this is WORK!!! It is just really physical and we are sore and tired by shift's end but we rest up on our days off and are ready to go by the time we return to work. The work is fast paced and the time goes fast as well. Yesterday after lunch we were told there were 3,000 pieces that had to be out by 4:30 and there were only 4-5 of us working on the line! So they moved more people over from another line and we got the order out with time left over.

Much of the plant is now working mandatory overtime which is 5 10 hour days a week but our department of Shipping hasn't started that yet. Workampers have the option of working the overtime and many of them are jumping at the chance. We will have to see how we feel about it when the time comes.

The weather here now is much like it is in our home town in Indiana except we do get the north winds that chill to the bone. But the sun shines and that is a plus. With us in a warehouse 10 hours a day, it doesn't really matter much. We get hot in there, in fact, many folks are still wearing shorts. But we only have 5 more weeks and then we will be in sunny Arizona. Woo Hoo!

The end of 'vacation'

We got our work assignment from Amazon.com yesterday and start to work tomorrow. We will work what is called the donut shift which is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday off. We will be on day shift and start out with 4 hour work days for a week and then will start the 10 hour days. We are ready! We have never done anything quite like this so it is somewhat of an adventure..... with pay! Everyone who has been here and working since September tells us it is not hard work but is physical and for us to expect to be tired for a few days. And sore since we will no doubt be using muscles we haven't used in awhile.

We have been staying pretty busy getting to know Coffeyville and the surrounding area. One day,we drove 27 miles on a road through wheat fields and prairie grass to a Bluegrass festival in the little town of Oswego, Kansas.

That was one exceptionally good festival! There were five bands and we stayed all day for the unbelievable price of $8.00 a ticket! The host band leader told us this was their third annual festival in Oswego and they were growing. She said that Bluegrass was kinda slow taking off in SE Kansas and that most of the music around here is either Country or Southern Gospel. Some of the groups there that day perform in Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. It was a great day where we enjoyed good food, good music, and good people.

A lot of our time is spent walking through our park and visiting with everyone and enjoying the warm sunny days. It is like we have our own little city here. Just in our park alone, (actually a city park and rodeo grounds) there are probably 80 or 90 rigs and we are all workampers here to work for Amazon.com. There are three other parks close by with more of us staying at those places as well.

Behind us,the city is finishing up a new section of this park with 60 new full hook-up sites that will be finished soon so we will have more room for more workampers. That is one reason we are glad we got put on the day shift because our friends and neighbors who work nights and sleep days are having trouble sleeping with all the heavy equipment roaring all day.

So, even though we will be starting to work we will have three days a week to play and explore. IF we can move! I'll let you all know!

Day trip to Tulsa

After an ENTIRE day of rain yesterday and being confined to the bus, we were ready to DO something! So off we went to Tulsa, Oklahoma, just 70 miles south of us. We had a bright sunshiney day starting out and a great day in the city.

Tulsa is pretty easy to get around in. Especially with Bertha, our on board GPS. We don't know what took us so long to get around to buying one of these GPSs. We bought it in Branson on our way here and it has been great.

Since we were going to Tulsa anyway, we wanted to go to the BLM office and pick up our America The Beautiful pass(Old Age Pass) now that Terry has turned 62 years old and is elgible. We just 'told' Bertha the address and she took us right there! The ladies there were so friendly and helpful they felt like old friends by the time we left the office!

We pretty much just spent the day looking around, checking out some malls, eating, and grocery shopping.( we are VERY easily entertained!) Groceries and gas are cheaper there than in Kansas. We paid $2.29/gallon for gas and that is much lower than in Coffeyville. So, while we were there we just filled up with gas and loaded up on groceries. By the time we started for home it was well after dark and sprinkling rain. We will most likely make a few more trips to Tulsa while we are here.

Just hanging out in Coffeyville

Our work date got moved back due to the downturn in the economy. All the workampers due to start work 10/19/08 will now start 11/2/08. The orders for Amazon.com aren't coming in like they have in years past. They expect it to pick up soon and have assured us we will start work 11/2/08.

In the mean time we are having fun meeting folks and seeing the area. The weather has been nice so we can't complain.

A 'social' was held on Saturday and probably 75 people attended. All workampers. We are scattered in 4 different areas but managed to get together for friendship and networking. All the people already working tell us the best thing we can do while we wait to start work is to walk...A LOT. They tell us we will be better prepared for all the walking that goes with the job. So, that is what we have been doing.

We drove about 25 miles to Little House On The Prairie to a homestead where Laura Ingalls and family lived from 1869 to 1871. There we saw a log house that was a replica of the one the Ingalls lived in while here in Kansas. We also took a walk through the prairie grass to Walnut Creek that Laura mentioned in her books. It was pretty neat to walkwhere the pioneers did 150 years ago while they made their journey west. It was so quiet there we could almost feel like we were there back then. We hope to visit DeSmet, South Dakota where the Ingalls family settled in 1879 and was the inspiration for many of the books Laura Ingalls wrote.

If we hadn't accepted this workamping job we would probably never have had seen this area which is what we have found many times with other assignments. It is a pretty nifty way to see the USA.

Coffeyville,Kansas

Well! Here we are in Coffeyvile, Kansas getting ready to start a new workamping adventure.

Coffeyville is in the southeast corner of Kansas just 5 miles north of the Oklahoma line. It has a population of 11,000 people and believe it or not some industry. It is the home of Amazon.com's largest fulfillment center in the world which is what brings us here to this little corner of the world. Other industry includes a John Deer plant, a refinery and nitrogen fertilizer plant, American Craftsman, and several others.

This little town also has a lively history, the Dalton Gang robbed the Conder bank in 1892 and the bank has been preserved and is very interesting to tour. The old jail is standing too with the dead gang members laid out on the floor! We will tour it all again on a day when we have more time.

We are actually employed by Express Professionals, a staffing agency located in Independance, Kansas. Express has hired 600 RV workampers made up mostly of retired fulltime RVers. Our campground is paid for by them and we get a salary! Cool! Express trialed a few workampers last year and were very pleased with the work ethic and have kicked it up several notches this year. We have met people here that we have run into(not literally) on the road. In fact, the people we parked next to turns out to be people who helped us put on an RV rally last Feb. in Casa Grande, AZ. We also had lunch with a couple we met while we all were helping out with the hurricaine Katrina disaster. It is so much fun running into old friends and making new ones. It will hopefully be a fun as well as a busy 9 weeks.

Today we will do more exploring and will go to a Senior Health Fair and probably get a flu shot.

Calm and Serene near Branson, MO

We really are enjoying Branson after not being here for 6 years. Our site here at the SKP park, Turkey Creek Village is right on the creek and very relaxing. A nice place to return to after a day of being in town with all the excitement and chaos it provides.

We started one of our days off with breakfast at Mels Diner, home of the singing servers and it was a great time for all! For $5.99 we had a complete fresh buffet breakfast and the servers sang to us. They were very talented and friendly and we could have sat there all day. The two servers working the day we were there were Jason and Tammy who visited at each table sharing info about themselves all the while never missing a beat with getting the food delivered. As you will notice Tammy was quite pregnant (37 1/2 weeks) but it never slowed her down and she could belt out the songs. Reluctantly we gave up our table and went out to completely wear ourselves out walking and exploring.

ON The Road Again!

Well! After a long dry spell we are on the road again. Yippee!

We left Indiana after going to an annual Pancake fest with our daughter and family. The bus was ready to go with the fuel tank being filled yesterday to the tune of $548.00!! We traveled 400 plus miles to Branson, Missouri. Actually we are in Hollister, MO at the Escapees RV park. Hollister is just across the lake from Branson. Within walking distance if you like walking a mile or so.

It feels like home here, just like Raccoon Valley does in Eastern Tennessee. Several people are here that we know and it is fun meeting up again with old friends. The park is pretty full but there are a few open spaces. We are parked near the creek in a very nice space. Did I mention that if feels sooooooo good to be on the road again??!!!

In Indiana, Remembering Arizona

There is not a lot going on here at home. We had 29 degree temps last night. Brrrrrr. (and why did we leave Arizona?!!) But today the warm up begins. Yeah!
I was looking through my photos of the desert so decided to post some of those since pictures of Southern Indiana are not quite so interesting...yet. It will be though. The flowers will bloom and the trees will finish leafing out and it will be beautiful.
Our daughter has tons of plants in her greenhouse just waiting for the soil to warm up. I can't wait. Of course I get some of those! She also has something like 181 tomato plants but I don't think we will be putting those in the ground just yet. Soon though. Maybe I will post photos of all those tomato plants!

Back Home Again in Indiana

We are home now and it is good....and a little bad. The good part is seeing our daughter and her family. We have only been gone 6 months but the grandkids have changed. Taller and more grown up.

The bad part is the humidity but I will get used to it. In time. We left humidities of 10 to 17% and here it is 89%. No wonder I have a headache! But it is sunny and will be 72 degrees today so all is not bad. It will be a good day to get all the limbs picked up that the winter storms have strewn all over the yard.

We traveled 7000 thousand miles this winter. Good grief! That is a lot of miles. And we sat still for a lot of that time. We traveled 2400 miles just to get home. But it was fun and we had a safe trip. The ole bus did just fine getting us around. Now, we will sit still for awhile and hope that the gas prices go down by the time we travel again.

Leaving Tennessee

This is our last day in East Tennessee. We love this area and always hate to leave but we really need to get back to Indiana.

The grass and trees look absolutely beutiful to us after being in the desert so long. Even though we like the desert, it is always a welcome change to see the trees leafing out and the Redbud and the Dogwood in bloom when we return.

It has been rainy most of our stay here but we really haven't minded. We have still been able to get to the music jams we like. There are jams here at the SKP park Thursdays and Sundays, and at the Volunteer RV park Tuesdays and Fridays. The Volunteer RV park is just about 1/2 mile east of the SKP park so we don't have to drive far. There is another one we like on Mondays at the Volunteer Fire Dept. of Paulette but we will have to miss it this year. We will hit them all when we return in the Fall. We have a lot to look forward to.

Easter Dinner In The Desert

Easter Dinner In The Desert

We took our last quad ride for the season and went on some awesome trails. We will miss this area!

It is Easter and we had a WONDERFUL Easter dinner! Yup. Crackers, cheese, and summer sausage with tasty lukewarm spring water from a plastic bottle!

Goodbye Quartzsite

Today we left Quartzsite headed for California(well.....JUST inside California)where we are boondocked in a 14 day short stay area of BLM. We like this place so we always come here instead of the Long term area 4-5 miles east where we have the permit. We will be here for a few days to visit Yuma which is just 10 miles away and also to visit Mexico which is even closer.

Diesel fuel here by our parking area is $4.46/gallon!!! Ouch! Needless to say , we did not buy fuel there! Just 10 miles from here in Yuma it is $3.96/gallon. It is hard to believe that it has gotten so high but if you are going to live this lifestyle you have to cut other places so you can afford the fuel!! Like, get eyeglasses in Mexico! And Tequilla!

We won't have internet hook-up for a few days while we travel so I will catch up with this blog as I can.

80 Miles Of Desert Beauty

Today we set off to find a geocache and went through areas of this Sonoran Desert we had never seen. We were very near the Colorado River and went through the Ehrenberg-Cibola OHV area. We ate our packed lunch in a sandy wash with flowers all around and other than birds chirping, silence. It was very nice but we still had at least a 2 hour ride ride back to the bus, so we headed back and ended up putting 80 miles on the quads for the day! Whew!
It was a great day, sunny and just a little breeze that made wearing shorts quite comfortable. We really enjoy this desert.

It's not just more of the same.

We had a great day to ride. We had been in this part of the desert but found new trails and new sights. We rode about 30 miles and got back to the bus just in time for a nap!

More of the cacti are in bloom along with many more flowers.

We are still in the desert in Quartzsite,AZ. The desert flowers are beginning to bloom and we are trying to see them all as we ride our quads pretty much every day.