Meeting Westin!

Yesterday was a fun day.  We started by going to see the movie Hunger Games.  I really enjoyed the movie.  I thought it was a new and interesting plot, the characters were well casted and it kept me glued to my seat.  The violence was done in a way as to not be right in your face!  The only negative for me was that they used the "jiggling camera" effect sometimes.  It really bothers my eyes so that it made it difficult to focus and therefore was a distraction!

In the evening we picked up Kabob's from the House of Kabob and took it over to Craig and Claires for dinner.  They have gotten a lot more done on the house and it is really looking good.

We were very excited to meet the newest member of the family, Westin!  He is really a cute puppy.  He's going to be bigger than they thought.  The vet said he will be larger and heavier than both his mom and dad, probably more than 38 pounds!  He weighs 15 pounds now.  He is a very gentle sweet dog. Craig thinks he will have a stubborn streak but he doesn't act like that yet and Aunt Susan thinks he's adorable!

 Me and my buddy Ted!

 Whew it's tiring being so cute!

 Can't you see I'm resting?

 Tuckered out!

 Aren't I adorable!

What?

What a cute puppy!  Oh and here are mom and dad!

They are cute too!

Puppy cuteness..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Made it to Fresno!

Monday morning rolled around and Camping World took off the leaf spring and got the replacement spring. We finally got out of there around 3:00 p.m. Fortunately the wind had died down and we headed toward Barstow. After refueling we drove east over Tehachapi Mountain and made it to Bakersfield around 8:15 p.m. We went to our regular campground in the area and got the last pull-through site! That place had never been even close to being full. It emptied out around 9:00 a.m.

Yesterday we pulled into Fresno early afternoon, happy to be here! Today we met Clem and Judy at Chukchansi Casino for lunch. Ted and Judy were in the same class in High School. We had a nice lunch catching up on their trips to Peru and the Amazon and also a trip to Costa Rica. We did a little gambling after lunch. I was down $10 and decided to play one last game. I ended up $45.00 ahead! It's a lot more fun when you win! Ted broke even so it was a good day at the casino! We looked around the gift shop and headed for home!

Tomorrow we get to see Westin, the new puppy! Looking forward to that!

As Charlie Sheen would say...winning..."Ain't Life Grand"!

Parking Lot Camping at Camping World

Yesterday was pretty uneventful.  Fortunately we weren't blown away by the strong winds!  We are in a very large open area with mountains all around and the wind is blowing from the east!   This morning I mentioned that it seemed as though the wind was dying down and boy within 15 minutes it came back with a roar!

We each finished a book yesterday and as it was getting dark decided to go over to the Fiesta Casino for dinner and of course a little gambling.

We had a good Mexican dinner and then played for a couple of hours.  Ted won a $62.00 random jackpot and cashed in $102.00, so he was up by $62.00.  I lost $10.00 and had at least that much fun so it was a good evening.

It stayed windy all night but didn't keep us from sleeping.  It stayed in the high 60's/low 70's outside so was pretty warm even with the wind.

Here are the sunrise pictures I took yesterday...

And this is the puppy, Westin, that we are looking forward to meeting:

Pretty cute puppy and he's really gotten big since the first picture we saw of him!

Ted winning in Las Vegas..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Hmmm guess we aren't leaving Vegas after all!

This morning we got up early to a beautiful sunrise. I'll post pictures later! We got up early to get the RV packed up to head to Henderson to Camping World. We had purchased a new tire and they were going to put it on for us. Fortunately they also found we have a broken leaf spring. Not sure when or how that happened but happy they found it before being stranded some place! Unfortunately, it's Saturday and there isn't anyplace to buy a new spring until Monday! So we are "parking lot camping" at Camping World for the weekend!

We were headed back to Fresno to see the kids and Winston. He's Craig and Claire's new puppy, a golden doodle! We've seen pictures and he's really cute! We are excited to meet him! They are bringing him home from San Francisco today and last we heard he was a little car sick. Hopefully he'll make it home okay. We should be there by Tuesday, we hope!

New puppies..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Visit to the Mob Museum!

After a quiet weekend we decided to visit the Mob Museum today. The museum is housed in a historical building with the Post Office and was the site of the original court house where they actually prosecuted mobsters. They start you off putting you in a line up where they take your picture using your own camera!  There are lots of exhibits, pictures and things to read. They outline how and where the mobs began, how they got into bootlegging, prostitution, gambling and more. There are lots of short movies about the different mob activities and a movie about the trial in the courtroom in the museum.  It even has the original, restored furniture in it. They have a movie outlining the connections the mob had to the assassination of Pres. Kennedy along with why Ruby killed Oswald. They also talked about Hollywood and the mob. For example, in the movie Casino, one of the technical consultants was a former mobster and when asked about a part in the movie, told them it was all wrong and told them how he actually killed the guy. He had been given immunity so they had him play himself in the movie! It is an interesting museum.

Next we had lunch at the Main Street Station, gambled a little and ran some errands!

Hanging out with gangsters..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Still in Vegas!

We've had a good week in Vegas. Had  lunch with Howard who worked with Ted at the County for a few years. It was interesting to find out how much he walks every day. He got an electronic pedometer and found it challenged him and made him walk more and more. He averages 15,000 steps a day but has done a lot more in one day.  He can check his progress on the internet, said it gives a lot of information.  It is tiny and he just puts it on his belt! He said he has only put 40 miles on his car this year!!!


Yesterday we got the truck washed and waxed, the RV carpet cleaned and the oil and fuel filters changed in the truck! Very productive day! Since June 2011 we have put 25,552 miles on the truck!


Today we took David and Debbie to the Eiffle Tower Restaurant for lunch. We had a great view of the Bellagio Hotel water show (minus the music), the food and service are very good! Debbie had the salmon, David had trout, Ted had chicken and I had the fresh ocean salad with lobster, shrimp and crab! When you get off the elevator they have a lite cheese puff sample and you can see them working in the kitchen. Ted and I shared the creme brûlée for dessert. David and Debbie shared the cute little chocolate mousse dessert they brought David for his birthday. They also brought us some chocolate and jelly candies with the bill! It was a fun lunch!  I didn't bring my camera so took a couple of pictures with my phone!

Lunch at the Eiffel Tower..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Movies & Dinner!

Yesterday Ted and I went to see John Carter at the movies. We enjoyed the movie, lots of action and interesting characters.

David Hawkins(my boss at the CPA firm where I worked for 18 years) and his wife Debbie came by and took us to dinner at the steak house at the Cannery casino last night. We caught up on their travels and life since we saw them last. I had a delicious halibut dinner. It was fun visiting with them. After dinner David played craps for a few minutes while Ted looked on and Debbie and I sat at a couple of Wheel of Fortune machines. I walked away with an extra $15 and Debbie also won a couple of bucks. David made enough to pay for our dinner and put some extra in his pocket! As Debbie tells David, they are planning to die broke. David said they failed again! Lol

Today we ran some errands and had a pretty relaxing day!

Seeing good friends..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Las Vegas March 2012

Where I last wrote, we were about to go have our "hot fudge sundae lunch" at Furnace Creek Ranch.  Unfortunately, we were all disappointed...they took it off the menu!  They were pretty large and we think it was because they took so long to make.  We had lunch but it just wasn't the same!  We also visited the general store and the visitor center after lunch.

On Monday Jim and Della Crownover and Ted and I went to the Inn at Furnace Creek for lunch for the annual luncheon!  We were not disappointed, lunch was as delicious as always!

After lunch we visited the gift shop.  Ted and I bought a picture of the charcoal kilns that were mentioned in the previous blog.  It was just as we saw it but there was a lot more snow on our picture and only a little snow left on the ground when we were there!   These are some pictures I took going up to the kilns, at the kilns and heading back to the campground.

After lunch and shopping at the Inn, Ted drove the truck home and Jim, Della and I walked back to the campground.  The great thing is that it's all down hill and not too far!

Monday night was our last evening in Death Valley.  The wind was supposed to be really bad all evening.  We were able to sit around before dinner with the group, have our barbecued ribs and sit around the evening camp fire!  It was actually a beautiful evening and the wind didn't start until the next morning!  I took some pictures of the pretty sunset!

On Tuesday we left the campground around 9:30 just before the wind really started to blow!  We had a pretty good cross wind most of the way to Las Vegas.  When we came over the hill to drop down into Las Vegas, the wind was blowing enough dirt around that it looked like Las Vegas had disappeared!  That would be quite a magic trick!  Karen Royer said "we blew in" to Las Vegas and we sure did!  Fortunately it calmed down Wednesday morning.

Wednesday afternoon we went over to the Boulder Station casino for lunch and some gambling on "senior day!"  I lost but Ted won enough to cover me so we broke even for the day!  Today we took Max to the groomer and rather than come back we went to the Fiesta casino for lunch and more gambling.  Ted just about broke even again.  I had lost all my money so Ted gave me one last $5.00 bill and I made up all of my losses for today except for $5.  I won it on one machine just a little at a time!  It was a fun end of the day!

Having a bit of good luck..."Ain't Life Grand!"

Fun in Death Valley!

We arrived in Death Valley Saturday afternoon. The weather was perfect. There are 10 of us here this time. We couldn't get in Furnace Creek campground because it's closed so they can add electricity and water, so a few people cancelled. Fortunately our wagon master, Mike, arranged for us to be parked next to the fire ring because it's the only place you can have a charcoal barbecue and a fire. We've been enjoying happy hour and fires in the evening. The wind came up around 8pm so no fire, but the weather's been great since and we've enjoyed two fires!

Yesterday we drove up in 4-wheel jeeps to Mahogony Flats, 8,133'. It was a narrow dirt road and we were driving over some snow. It was a lot of fun! We also saw the charcoal kilns built in 1879. They were designed by a Swiss engineer and built by Chinese laborers. They only used them for 3 years! There were 10 of them and they were really built well. They were larger than I thought they would be. I'll post some pictures when we get to Las Vegas!

Kelli, one of Ted's high school classmates, is staying with Jim and Della's in their RV, they are also classmates, and she brought her bike. Yesterday she road an impressive 46.5 miles with steep grades. She's been riding bicycles a long time but that is still quite an accomplishment!

Today is our third annual "hot fudge sundae" lunch! Yay!

We leave here on Tuesday for Las Vegas! More later!

Nice weather in the Valley..."Ain't Life Grand!"