Eleven Eleven Eleven

It will be 100 years until Veterans Day occurs on that date again. My Veteran and I went downtown early & got the best parking place for the Veterans Day parade. We could stand on the sidewalk for two & a half hours or, when aching backs (knees, feet) demanded, we could sit in the truck and see most everything. Prior to the parade start we met a nice couple from Boston; they had never seen the Las Vegas parade but had heard it was a good one. He had not been in the military himself but his father had served during World War II. We assured them it was a great parade; they wandered a little farther down the street.

The Marine Riders led the parade... so many noisy (beautiful) Harleys and their super-patriotic riders. Makes me wish I was younger, braver, crazier... I too would ride a Harley. All branches of the military were represented in fine fashion. We all cheered and waved as the four remaining members of the Las Vegas Pearl Harbor Survivors rode slowly down the street. Their president who is 96 years said this will be their last parade. Well done old soldiers... well done.

Once again, many high school ROTC groups marched by... they looked so serious, America's future. One fella standing near us was looking and looking for his daughter but couldn't quite pick her out of the crowd of youngsters. She came by later & he was so full of pride in her. Friends were taking pictures of them; someone told her to 'smile'. She replied "I'm not allowed"... come to think of it... in every formal picture of our military, none are smiling.

The Hawaii Marines are having their annual reunion here so Ray was wearing his Hawaii Marines shirt, along with his Korean Veteran hat. Many people standing near or passing by stopped to say "thank you for your service" to him. There were a lot of 'Semper Fi's shouted to him; a couple of Vietnam Veterans who were marching with their groups came over to salute him and shake his hand. Although these acts tend to embarrass him, I could not have been more proud.

Here is a guy who is so gung ho even his dogs wear the uniform:

After a while, the Boston couple came back to us and said the parade was all we had said it was, and more. The man's red-rimmed eyes told us what it meant to him.

Another fine parade and a fantastic show of patriotism. God Bless Ameria!

By the Dawn's Early Light

September 11, 2011: we remember...we will never forget.

It was an entire weekend full of memorials for those gone, but not forgotten... and memories for at least one man who was there that day. Terry Revella, a member of the Las Vegas Marine Corps League, and a survivor of that terrible day, was the moving force behind the events here in Vegas. I salute him and all those who helped him make it happen.

8:46 am: the moment the first plane hit the Tower. Today that was the moment for the beginning of the Memorial Parade in New York City. In Las Vegas it was 5:46 am, our Memorial Parade timed to coincide with the one in the city where the terrorists killed without mercy and brought down buildings, but did not even cast a shadow on the spirit of the American people.

Planning ahead for this day, Mr. Ray & I had scoped out the parade route, picked out our parking spot & mapped out how to get there. Silly me... of course all the streets in that area of downtown were blocked off & detour signs ruled in the dark of the morn. However, a quick turn onto Las Vegas Blvd... an opening into a business (which turned out to be the driveway to the Nevada State Bank drive-thru ATMs) & after 'driving thru' we found ourselves in a parking lot which fronted on the parade route & right across the street from the bleachers. How good is that?!?

About half way thru the parade it got noisy behind us. Turned out to be a guy who was marching along and shouting "911 WAS AN INSIDE JOB"...911 WAS AN INSIDE JOB" (he was wearing a matching t-shirt). Then there was shouting even louder than his: "YOU'RE FULL OF SHIT"..."GO STRAIGHT TO HELL".... oh wow... I thought I recognized that voice. It was my beloved, utilizing his right to free speech as well. While I don't happen to agree with the 'conspirator' guy, I recognize that he has a right to his opinion. It simply was not the time or place to disrespect those who perished on that terrible day, or those of us who were there to honor their memory.

I am disappointed in the quality of the still photos I got... even though the flash was working, it mostly lit up the back of the heads of the people in front of me and left the parade in the dark. I did get a lot of video but I won't attempt to include it here (I know my limitations regarding electronic gadgets).

If you are familiar with my blogs, you know how I feel about parades. I love them, large or small. There's just something about the smell of the Harleys & the roar of the crowd... oh, waitaminit... ?is it?... (I always get those two mixed up). This parade was smaller than the 3 hour one last Veteran's Day, but it was well done and made me proud to be there watching & waving & clapping along with my fellow Americans. All together now...

GOD BLESS AMERICA

RV-ing 101

Some years ago there was a camping trip to Three Rivers, CA. This trip involved a mother & father, three children about 10, 8 and 6 and a baby. Also the father's brother and his two children, ages 11 & 13. Ages are approximate here but you get the general idea. It also involved a rented 13 ft. travel trailer, a station wagon & a 2-seater sports car.

Prior to arriving at the campground, there was a flat tire incident which necessitated that the father & his brother breeze off to Bakersfield in the sports car while the mother sat in the station wagon alongside Interstate 5 on the hottest day of the year entertaining the aforementioned FIVE children and a baby.

Now, get this. Here it is... only thirty six years later... and that mother is...going camping again! However, she has learned a thing or two in those 36 years so this trip involved a rented 25 ft. C class recreational vehicle and fewer people, although it was a much l-o-o-o-n-ger trip (2380 miles).

Here is what we learned: in a C class RV, only the driver & the front seat passenger have access to the view through the windshield. All other passengers get the view from the large side window while they are seated at the table on the bench seats in the 'dining room' of said RV. Those bench seats are quite comfy for about 30 miles (of the 2380 mile traveled); after that, they are simply the dreaded bench seats.

We tried to keep track of 'lessons learned' on our adventure. First lesson: do not place your McDonald's large mocha frappe ON the table while traveling (that's what cup holders are for). We cleaned up that spill about half a block from our house. Lesson Two: be sure to close the refrigerator door FIRMLY... that lesson came some 100 feet further down the road from Lesson One. We had to stop (again) to pick up the rice pudding cups which had spilled out of the open refrigerator door. But never mind all that...here we are at one of our three stops at a KOA campground.

Mr. Ray, ready for another day in RV Land

We ate every breakfast at a Cracker Barrel restaurant; and when we fixed our own meals in the RV, we wished we were eating in a Cracker Barrel.

Our first night out, in Holbrook AZ, we discovered that the RV heater didn't work. We knew that because it was 40 degrees outside & we were freezing our tushes.

We also discovered that it is a rule that each and every KOA campground has a furry, friendly cat to make you welcome. (Ginger was tempted to catnap this one... but reason prevailed).

(I don't think that is a real rule).

Campgrounds... I have limited experience here; however, two of them do stand out in my mind. The first would be the aforementioned Three Rivers. I don't remember much about the grounds as I spent most of my time in the 13 ft. trailer, cooking real food (like a fool) for the nine people who were depending on me to feed them. I do remember one evening (it was hot in that trailer) when I had finally finished cleaning up the roast beef dinner I'd prepared, fixed myself a tall glass of iced tea and walked out to the campfire where all of the seasoned campers were gathered. As soon as I got there, and before I sat down, my beloved informed me that "the baby is crying". So I gave him my iced tea (in the face) and went to get the baby.

Some years after that, (I must have blanked out that first experience), we went camping in MEXICO with a bunch of square dancers who all had nice, self-contained "rigs". We were in a Ford van conversion... meaning it had a couch which would lay flat & a small ice box. Of course our friends were more than generous in sharing their facilities... but I still ended up using the campground bathroom. That would be the one with a dozen toilets... none of which would flush, and all of which were full to the brim. And... showers which didn't drain, meaning you had to step into four inches of someone else's recently vacated water if you wished to even come close to bathing.

But enough of fond memories. Now it is June 2011 and here we are on the road to Oklahoma. The KOA campgrounds were very nice with full hookups and their bathrooms were CLEAN and everything worked in there. I know.. I know.. we had our own traveling bathroom but the shower was a tad on the small side. The toilet flushed fine BUT... if you use the toilet, then sooner or later you must DUMP the 'stuff' (another fact of RV life).

But that is what FULL hookups mean; electricity to run the A/C without sucking up all your gas, water aplenty (if you should desire to bathe in a claustrophobically confined space), cable TV and a place to dump your stuff. To accomplish that, all you need to do is put on your rubber gloves, drag out the 4 inch dia. hose (knowing full well what has recently passed through it), sit on the ground and reach up under the RV siding to connect the hose to the outlet valve, etc. etc. I'm really not complaining here... Ginger did all that.

Anyway, in spite of traveling through the smoke of the worst fire in Arizona history, and in spite of constant winds which forced the driver to maintain a death grip on the steering wheel, and in spite of being pulled over by an Arizona Trooper (for no good reason), the RV trip was... OK. And the two days of family reunions in Oklahoma made every minute of it worthwhile... and then some.

A Granny Story

In July 2002 after the Mr. and I had both retired from the work force, we moved from Simi Valley to Bear Valley Springs to "test the waters", so to speak and see if we really wanted to live in a rural environment. We did. So, in 2004 we expanded our rural-ness and bought a house situated on one acre which included a chicken house WITH chickens and a goat named Effie. The animals were a great source of entertainment to us (most of the time), and the grandkids loved to come to "the farm" and help with the chores. I remember Grandson Cody at about age four, introducing himself to the chickens: "Hi, I'm Cody"...
Soon, the animal antics inspired me to write stories for the grandkids; I called them the "GRANNY AND" stories and I will occasionally post some of them... I hope you enjoy.

GRANNY AND THE NANNY (GOAT)
A story for my grandkids

You kids all know that here on the ranch we have 10 chickens and an old goat (two if you count Papa Ray). The chickens go in and out of their house through a little opening with a door that slides up and down to open and close it. At night we must close them in so the varmints won’t come and eat them up… (varmints already did that to 4 of my hens and our beautiful Blackjack the rooster). And then in the morning we must go and open the door so they can run out and scratch and eat worms and other interesting things. And of course, each opening and closing requires that someone go tromping all the way across the barnyard, through rain, snow, mud and other unpleasant things underfoot…

So, one day I was thinking how nice it would be if we had a remote control to open and close that chicken door from the back yard (close to the house)… and I figured out just how we could do it with some rope and a few eyebolts and pulleys. So on Saturday, Papa Ray and I set to work and with Uncle Steven’s help, got everything into place and got the rope all threaded through the holes with the end of it attached to the shed right out in the back yard. And the little door slid up and down just like magic.

Well, about that time, Effie the Nanny Goat saw that rope waving in the breeze. You probably know that Effie just loves to eat… and also loves to scratch her head on just about anything… fences, bungee cords, people’s legs & butts… and ROPE!! Before we could say SCAT… there was Effie up on a rock and gnawing & scratching away like we had put that rope up there just for her!!

So we (well anyway me) had another bright idea. We would put a post in the middle of the barnyard and run the rope through an eyebolt at the top of the post, and that would put it high up out of Effie’s reach. So today, Uncle Steve dug a nice hole for the post got that all set into place. Once again we threaded the rope in all the right eyebolts and pulleys… and then watched as Effie (the goat from H---L) reared up, put her front feet on the post and proceeded to gnaw and scratch her head on the rope. Several times she got so enthusiastic about the scratching she got the rope around her neck and almost choked herself… and I almost let her!!

Well, back to the drawing board, as they say. Steve and Emilie have a really good idea to make an electric chicken door opener and I’m pretty sure we can do it. It will require a small electric motor such as you would get with a Gilbert Erector Set (which are no longer in production, but can be found on E-bay for mere hundreds of dollars)… So that will be our next big project… and if that doesn’t work, we will take care of Effie and you are all invited to the BBQ.

So that’s what’s happening on the ranch… Love, Gram December 19, 2004

Curious Effie