Snow in April

After two beautiful days of 70 degrees and sunshine, we woke this morning to snow--just a dusting, but snow all the same. A bitter wind blew all day making us wonder what happened to spring--welcome to Montana!
We spent today unpacking and putting away stuff and Michael cleared a garden spot for me and dug a hole for compost. We put our phone on vacation while we are away and I had to re-setup the voice mail.
And, best of all, I ordered a new computer today. Ours is almost 4 years old, slow as molasses and starting to have some problems. I ordered another Dell and can't wait for it to get here.
We both gained some weight over the winter, I think all we did was worry about Jazz and eat, so we are trying really hard to lose it. We take a 2-3 mile walk every morning on the major hills around our place, it is really a workout!
I also spent a large portion of the day guarding the birdfeeder, chasing away the squirrel and the red wing blackbirds.
We are so thankful for this Montana home.

Jazz wanting to come in out of the snow

That pesky squirrel
Pesky red wing blackbird

Out of the Tin TeePee into the Log Home

It is so good to be home. While we love to be out in the RV, we also love to come home and I guess that says we are not ready to fulltime although by the time I get that RV unloaded, I think I will be wishing I was fulltime!
We made it home Monday afternoon after stopping in Bozeman, MT and buying out Costco to restock the cupboards. We also stopped in town and visited with Nat, Michael's 85 year old father. Jazz was so glad to see him and he her--he has been very worried about his "little black friend," as he calls her.
Everything in the house works, no water leaks or other disasters. Our little creek is running, the horses look great and the weather is wonderful for today--70 degrees and sunny. It is spring in Montana and as you can tell from the photos, it is a little bleak still. We have the beginnings of green grass and buds on the trees but we won't really be warm until the end of May.
A squirrel has taken up residence with us, hanging out on my bird feeder literally! The bird feeder hangs out over the creek on a wire to keep it away from the bears in the summer but the squirrel is smarter; he climbs a little tree next to the feeder and helps himself to lunch! Today, we had our first Cassin's Finch--we saw lots of them in AZ and we usually have a flock that hangs out here in the summer time. Our resident Downy Woodpecker visited today, too. We also are expecting our little Lazuli Buntings, they arrive every year between May 1 and May 15.
We made many, many trips from the RV to the house today and both of us are exhausted. Michael also went over to the ranch his son manages and helped him with a water pump problem so it will be early to bed for both of us tonight!

Our Log Home, notice there are no leaves on the trees, yet

Cassin's Finch
This is what spring looks like in Montana, notice the snow covered mountains and the lingering snow drift!
Downy Woodpecker

Traveling North and Boondocking

Yesterday, Saturday, we packed up and pulled out of Parhump stopping at Terrible's for breakfast and to cash in my $1.75 gambling ticket I won there on Friday (I'm a big spender gambler). We started out to make it to Wells, NV and decided on the way to try boondocking on BLM land. We found the perfect spot about 6pm, drove about 1/2 mile off the highway and parked in a grove of cedar trees with awesome views of all the mountain ranges around us covered in that nasty white stuff. After a long day in the truck, we were ready to take a walk and set out up the road toward the mountains. Jazz was in heaven, off the leash and running everywhere, smelling and doing her thing. After our walk we came back, had a great spaghetti dinner and toasted our boondocking experience with a glass of wine.
We have always talked about boondocking and had made tentative plans to do a lot of it next year while down south in warm country. We enjoyed the scenery and quiet so much last night, I am sure we will try it again.
It was a very cold 24 degrees this morning when we woke, took the furnace a long time to heat us up. We took another long walk, had breakfast and started up the road again. We were trying to make Dillon, Montana tonight. We stayed off the freeways and on back roads, much more relaxing. In Arco, ID, we saw a hillside covered in white painted rocks with the date of graduating classes. We picked out 1927 as the oldest date we could see--they have been doing that a long time, there were lots of dates up there. We took lots of rest breaks and arrived in Dillon about 5:30pm, ordered pizza delivered and relaxed with a glass of wine. There are two other miniature Schnauzers here in this RV park who used to be black and are now mostly silver. They and their owner had been in Helena, MT competing in agility trials.
We will make it home to McLeod tomorrow, we are both ready to see home but not all this white stuff!

Jazz exercising Dad on one of our rest breaks

The view from our windows while boondocking outside Wells, NV
Graduating class numbers on the side of the hill in Arco, ID

A Drive and RV Shopping

We slept so well last night. In Montana, we live 22 miles from anything; no gas station, no grocery store, nothing. We can't see nor hear neighbors. It is absolute silence at night except for the coyotes and other animals. We try to seek out quiet RV parks and absolutely hate to stay in one near a freeway or railroad track unless we are just traveling. This park, Charleston Peak RV Resort has been very quiet at night, it borders BLM land on one side and a neighborhood on the other.
After our walks and a couple loads of laundry, we headed out for a drive stopping first at Terrible's Town Casino for their Friday seafood buffet and it was actually very good. After lunch we made a stop at another RV park we wanted to check out, Seibt Desert Retreat KOA. Oh, my!! What a swanky place. It is entirely asphalt and concrete with big sites, lush plantings of greenery and flowers including rose bushes, and even a dog bathing station! At the dog bathing area, they had a fire hydrant set into recessed concrete with a flush like a toilet after you convince your dog to potty on the fire hydrant! The grounds were amazing, the pool was gorgeous. It was probably the fanciest resort we have ever seen. They have lots for sale too, starting at $83,000.
Then we took a loop drive around the Pahrump area out through some very desolate desert, getting back to Pahrump in time to go to the KZ RV dealership. We have always wanted to look at KZ Escalade and Montego Bay toy haulers. They had a 37 foot Montego Bay with cherry cabinets that I have put on my wish list.
We are heading farther north tomorrow having seen as much of Pahrump as we want.
Life is good.

The view out our back window--I think that is Charleston Peak with the snow on it

Pahrump, Nevada

Blooming Cactus

At least Desert Palms RV Resort was quiet, we both slept like babies. It is a beautiful place with lots of BLM land around for hiking but their pet policy put a damper on our enthusiasm for the place. When I checked out, I discussed the pet policy with the person at the front desk and explained that making pet owners feel like lepers was not going to encourage repeat business. As usual, I got the , "well some pet owners spoil it for everyone," statement and while I know this is frequently true, don't penalize those of us who do follow the rules with our furry children, penalize the culprits by not allowing them to stay in your park. OK, I'll get off my soapbox!
We pulled out of Salome, AZ about 9:30am and headed for Pahrump, NV. We have always wanted to visit here and decided to make it one of our stops on our way home to Montana.
Charleston Peak RV Resort and Winery is a beautiful spot; a Western Horizon resort but with our new CampClubUSA membership, we can stay for 2 nights at half price. Our site backs up to the desert with a beautiful view of the mountains which have snow on them! There are great places in the desert to walk the Jazz dog, too. Tonight we went to the ever present Nevada casino and tried out the Mexican buffet. It was not too bad. There is also a RV resort at Terrible's Casino that has a beautiful setting on a small lake with sites that back up to the lake. We may try there after our 2 nights are up here at the Winery if we decide to stay and explore the area some more.
We drove through beautiful desert today, lots of Joshua Trees and blooming cactus--another wonderful day.

Heading North

We spent many hours researching traveling in Mexico, reading forums, blogs and books. We discussed at length whether or not we could endure the noisy culture of the Mexican people and whether or not I had the patience for the slow pace of Mexico. In December, we left Montana with high hopes of finding a warm, sunny place in Mexico to spend the winter. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico was our first stop and turned out to be our last stop on that trip. Jazz, our 7 year old miniature Schnauzer became very ill in Mexico but even without that major problem, I don't think we would have lasted the entire 4 months in Mexico. The weather was perfect, the town of Alamos quaint and, the American population there was welcoming. But, we could not get past the incredible noise from loud music, roosters crowing night and day and traffic without the controls we have in the US. I could not get past the multitudes of starving dogs, the dirtiness and the poverty. We came back into the States with Jazz in early January and got her on the road to recovery again and returned to Alamos, this time renting a house. While the house made us more comfortable, the same noise, poverty, starving dogs and dirtiness was still present. I don't think we are cut out for Mexican travel and it is a disappointment for both of us.

While the granddaughter Laci and her friend Brittany were visiting, we rented a house in Puerto Penasco, Mexico. The neighborhood where the house was located was a largely American establishment with large beachfront homes and was cleaner, quieter and there were no starving dogs to speak of, only a huge population of feral cats. But, it was still Mexico in our eyes--in the downtown area of Puerto Penasco there was the filth, starving animals, loud music and guys trying to sell my granddaughter pot!! I guess we are still on a quest to find that warm, sunny and now quiet place to spend winters.

I took the girls to the airport at the ungodly hour of 5am this morning, returned to the RV and began packing up. We pulled out of Beaudry's about 9:30 and headed to Salome, AZ, an area we had read about with multiple RV parks. Well, we hit the jackpot when we discovered Desert Palms RV and Golf Resort. The park is a palm tree oasis with large sites, a few park models and a golf course. Its only drawback is its very restrictive pet policy; more than one half the park is totally off limits to pets. The park is very empty this time of year but the people we did meet were very friendly and welcoming. It could make a very nice place to spend some time in the winter. Salome is a small town with not much in the way of stores. Wickenburg, AZ is about 50 miles away and the outskirt of Phoenix is about 100 miles east of Salome.

I could not believe how beautiful this cactus was here in the RV park at Salome

The Puerto Penasco feral cats were very brave and came right up to the screen, Jazz would just go crazy! Here she is waiting for the next one to appear.
Seagull on the beach in Puerto Penasco
We are starting home to Montana, today was the first leg of the journey, hopefully I can keep Michael on a slow and easy trip north, reminding him that we are retired and in no hurry to shovel snow!

A Day on the Beach

We awoke to a beautiful morning in Puerto Penasco. Everyone was on their own for breakfast and early morning activities. After enjoying our coffee, Mike, Jazz and I headed to the beach for a long walk. Jazz ran and ran, found something extremely stinky to roll in and just acted like her Schnauzer self before her illness.
The girls elected to go shopping this morning so we dropped them off downtown at the old port and Mike & I took a little driving tour of some of the neighborhoods deciding that the one where our rental house is located is the best. We picked the girls up and came back out to the house for lunch. After lunch, the girls headed to the beach for some intensive sunbathing--you know they must have some color of some sort before going back to Montana. I think my lecture on sunscreen went out one ear and in the other as we say in Arkansas. Mike played on the computer and I took a wonderful nap--I could get used to this beach living!!
After Laci & Brittany came back, we headed out for more shopping, this time on Rodeo Drive, Puerto Penasco style.
Dinner and another long walk on the beach finished out our day. Laci and Brittany definitely have some color as in red as lobsters in places. We tried to fly our kite on the beach this evening but there was not enough wind. Tomorrow we pack up and head back across the border--much too short beach time!

A Dolphin, we think