Time to be thinking of Utah

My winter in the 5th wheel seems to be coming to an end.......I find myself getting homesick and a bit excited for all the honey does on my wife and daughter's lists.

It is looking like it will be a busy summer in n Northern Utah....fences for the ducks, finish repairs on the garage and my cars that got hit with a wind storm that blew the storage garage a part....literally!!

 There was not a roof above all that mess!!!!

Thanks to Randi, my daughter and right hand woman, Sandy, Matt and other friends and family the garage is better than before or so I'm told......the insurance said they would wait for me to return soI could handle what ever the repairs are to the cars.....a few scratches, but they were such nice cars and had been so babied !!!!!

Thanks to all who helped, it means a lot to me......more than I can really say given how things have gone the last 10 years......for those who do not know this, I spent most of the last 10 years hibernating  locking myself  away and have not spent a lot of time with many who jumped in and helped out...so THANK YOU !!!

Minor repairs, but with my plans to sell most of them.....I would have rather avoided the whole thing.

Sister - in -Law is not for sale

1926 T did 127mph last time on the salt!!!  Could not find a better photo sorry

I'll be selling two of my old tractors this one and the John Deere M

 

 

Besides the cars I have family who I want to spend as much time as possible with.....Grandsons

Derrick tells me he wants to build a baja bug....

We have two to choose from...his dad worked wonders and scored both of these and a ton of parts for a price I could not pass up....just trade something I have not used for years and never would have.....Thanks Matt for all you did this year for me !!!!

Dino another grandson who loves cars like his Papa......calls dibs !!!

Between Matt and me we have at least 3 bugs and more to come......I plan to have the 69 ready for next winter since Sandy will join me and the Triumph just won't cut it!

I also want to get started on my last big project......

Met Bob, Bob is a 1966 Ford Anglia Panel Van GT.....one of one....the only known of left hand drive GT!!!!

I have all the parts and could restore him, but I have no soul......I have decided to cut him up and put him on a standard VW pan, build myself a baja Bob!!!!


Stay tuned for the fun......

I have many family members too look forward to seeing.....here is the newest.....my Great grand son Elmer Fud

Elmer is a car fan too if his attempts to break into my collection of old toy cars is any indication.

Elmer was born last year while I was away, but we spent a lot of time together while I was back in Utah.....Papas lap was often in the recliner from where I took this photo just before I left last November....he just started walking about 2 weeks ago and should be a real hand full when I get home.

Sandy gave me her list but I forgot what was on it..... '] maybe she will forget too !!!!!

This pretty young thing is my grand daughter Cobra....Elmer's mother. Shelby lived with Sandy and me most of her life and was a great joy....she has made me so proud as I have seen her step right up, get a job, get an apartment, do a fantastic job raising Elmer on her own....no parent could ever ask for more....as I look at the children Sandy and I raised they all turned out pretty good.....pretty good considering.

Older photo, but I could not find another photo of Jeni, my tall daughter....this Me as a much younger guy, my daughter Randi at her wedding and Jeni

Michelle, Jewelle and Tyson. Michelle is no older but the kids are like High School aged now......man I better update my photo files !!!

Mark, Shelby's dad and Payton another Teenager !!!Mark has a son, Tristan but I cannot find a photo....I have one I promise.....

I have friends to visit....one thing I'm also proud of it that I have friends who have been friends for decades....all the way back to Beatlemania days.

These are a few surgeries coming up with them.....and I would like to be around if they need any body around to drive them nuts while they are bedridden and can't get away!!!!


And lets not forget the love of my life.....who has managed to love me through it all....

Sandy I love you!!!!!


You owe me one now......I hate it when I have one coming!!!!!

WIND.....did I say WIND!!!!

I do not mean to complain, but, man am I getting tired of this wind!!!!!

As I learn to live with TBI better i am learning what they call triggers, triggers are the things in our lives that effect TBI survivors like myself. We all have different triggers and we all have different reactions to these triggers. Combinations of different triggers get real hard to figure out and this is just part of our lives. i am learning to manage my environment rather well and am both proud and grateful.

The quality of my life has become so greatly improved that it amazes me.....I only wish every survivor could have the same gift and anything I can do to encourage or educate such would be wonderful.

Back to the wind....for me I have found it is one of my biggest triggers....wind and clouds are the worst....I can be feeling great one day and the next the wind blows in and I can find myself rolled up in the fetal position on the couch just hopping for a break....we just had such a wind storm and the worst part of it for me was that I missed a great big rainbow just across the lake from me....bummer....Rainbows are special to me ever since I read in the Bible Genesis 9:13 where God gave us rainbow as a reminder of a promise he made us.  In my opinion every child should be taught this little story.

Anyway, for some reason today I'm really struggling  with attention....my mind keeps wondering off and I get lost from my train of thought.... lol!

It usually take me a few days to recover, but lately I recover sooner and that is great.

Yesterday morning the wind was gone and I woke feeling great, I thought I might get a chance to go visit Paul and Nina who also blog and it's not often I get to talk to RV blog celebrities.

I went outside and had some company 4 burros were standing just outside......

 These guys were not too willing to be friends or anything....would not even accept one of my carrots...

I saw one of my fellow campers out side so I yelled over to see if he could see the burros from his campsite....turns out he was a she....lol ! The wind had my eye site pretty fuzzy !!!

Karen a teacher from Colorado ran up to get photos of the burros and ended up sticking around for about an hour while I drank my coffee....she is single and rides a 650cc Kawasaki.....I told her what little I know about the area and she ran off to get ready to spend the day riding.....

I went it to work on the blog when I saw an old friend from the Steps pulling into the area....

Lew is a boat builder who has had some health issues and decided to build this home on wheels, sold his house and is now living the dream.....this is a nice trailer with many boat like features including a wood stove....nice!

After saying hello and catching up Lew introduced me to his hometown friends Hal and Loretta.  Some how I thought I would get a chance to take photos, but everyone left before I got any.... lol!


Karen rode into her camp after hours of riding.....from the distance I was struck by how much she reminded me of seeing my mother ride her old Honda 550 cc 4cyl.

Well we all ended up sitting out talking, Lew showed Karen his trailer and to my surprise they came right back....I kind of had the idea they were hitting it off....oh well at least I have my partner, even if she is 600 miles away for now.

Woke up this morning and everyone had decided to head out of here.....Lew could not get his human powered kayak into the lake from here and Karen had already stayed one day longer than she planed.

These things are much like the lay back bicycles, Lew tells me they are every easy to peddle and that they move along pretty quickly......hope to get a chance to try it out....he said he would let me know if he finds a good spot near by......the beaches here are like quicksand!!!!

I still plan to get over to visit with Nina and Paul later today.

I just went back to see what my last post was all about.....it's been awhile....I have some fun things to share.

Last Sunday this Navy Plane started practicing landing in the water, filling up with water for firefighting and takeoffs....the first few times he flew over he was just checkinng out to make sure no boats where in his way.....me being and old Vet stood and saluted them....they flew right over me and gave a wave.....cool....I'm getting weird!!

They flew by so close I could see them in the cockpit.

They must have made 40 or so runs over the next few days, and one nice thing was the noise was not to bad on me....i even enjoyed the whole thing......photos were hard without my camera, but I have some to show.

I got this one as he was flying over head with a wing wave!!! After than he landed in the water and never flew over any campers again.....it would be one heck o a shower!!!!

This 1989 Silver Streak showed up....Tom had just restored it.....it was beautiful....he had redone the interior in Olive green, black and stainless steel.....looks much better than it sounds.....Tom a young man who lives in Las Vegas and works in the medical field as a neurologist helped me understand how it is my lungs give me so much trouble with the TBI......never made sense to me why I can suddenly feel like I just ran a sprint just leaning over to tie my shoes or clip my nails.....if you ever want to help a survivor or old person for that matter.....offer to clip their toe nails   :] 

Airplanes, donkeys, motorcycles, vintage trailers, boats and toenail....what more could you ask for!!!!


Thanks so much for following along, please pass my blog on to others, subscribe and if possible leave comments.....

I took the liberty of borrowing this photos from Nina"s blog Wheeling it   http://www.wheelingit.us

I would like to give a big shout out for her and Paul's blog.....Nina puts a lot of effort into her posts and it shows, just promise I will not loose you all as readers.

My first big ride with the Triumph was a real kick

What a mess....I forgot to unload the bike where it is easy to ride off before I set up my camp and that left me with a few options....leave the bike on the trailer was not a option as the roads around here are some of the best I have ever seen and I did not want to miss a chance to ride like a kid.

One thing I thought of was park the truck near the trailer and use the ramp to load the bike into the truck and then go look for a place to unload....I emptied the truck, pulled the 5th wheel trailer hitch and put the ramp where it would work....two problems....1st I was then real tired and 2nd it was a backwards uphill move and I was afraid I would not have the energy to pull that one off!!

My 3rd option was to use my firewood and milk crate to make a forward ramp.....this is what it looked like.....it was not as difficult as I thought it would be to ride the bike forward, but I did have to make a scary move and lean the bike to the left ( where too far of a lean and I would tumble off the trailer onto my side....that would get me into trouble with many people, not to mention it might hurt.....).

Once off I had a ball.....I rode the bike around the beach where it handled more like a dirt bike that a road bike.....my Harleys could never do that!!!!

A quick wash job and off I went...

These roads beg to be ridden.....hard!!!!

I was so blown away by the scenery....I wanted to stop every 3 feet to take another photo.....

As it turned out the best photo ops were in areas that are almost impossible to pull off and take a photo even on a bike.

What I will say is if you ever get near Las Vegas this is a must see!!!
If you need to rent a car, rent a convertible.

I have blown this photo up as large as possible so you can see the road.....it was like this and better for miles.

This is a small arch I noticed....that is my helmet sitting in front of the whole....a small child could crawl through it but not an old fart like me!!!

I did remember to take a few photos of things other than this crazy road, but as I look at the photos, I need lessons or something, my photos do not serve justice to the area.

Sorry just had to show off this road........I tried to take a photo of the road runner as he ran from the coyote, but I was too slow.... :)

Do you remember I found a King snake a few months ago....this one is a lot bigger....I used a nickle this time instead of a dime to give scale.

Probable a good thing I did not keep the baby....I have a hard enough time finding crickets to fee Ed....just don't know if I want to chase down mice.

 This is real hard to see from this angle, but that is a balanced rock, this rock sits on a small support just at the foot of the platform you can walk up to look.

They call these beehives...I spotted some that I liked better as I rode around, but there was no place to pull over????

This is the road out....Lake Mead sits between the red mountain and the blueish mountains....I'm camped pretty much straight ahead in this photo as the birds fly....but who would want to miss all those curves.

 There are a few petrified logs in the park.....this thing is the biggest one I have ever seen...there is a petrified knot hole just above my hand's shadow!!

That's my 5th wheel as seen from the restrooms.....I walk the walk every morning....it's a slight uphill climb, but not so bad as to be too much for me, and I hope it does me some good.....it does beat having to empty the holding tanks.

As you can see I pretty much have the place to myself...there is only one other rig in this photo....the roof can be seen to the left of the concrete box to the left of my rig....

As the week comes to an end......I can't help but be very grateful for what I have going on right now.....family and friends who love and care about me....fun things to do every day that I feel up to it....I also have to start thinking about heading back to Utah for the summer.

Thank you everyone for following me along my travels, please pass it along to others, watch for me out on the roads.

God Bless

Wind has died down and I got out to look around today

With the wind not blowing my energy goes way up so today I got out and drove over to Overton, Nevada.

 


Not at all what I expected.....it's a very nice little town with Family Dollar and McDonalds if that is your thing.

There is a laundry, Ace Hardware, grocery store and much more......I'd say it would be a nice place to live and raise a family if you can find work.

 I spotted this 4x4 rig at the hot springs....it is a French couple who are retired. They rode a ship over to Canada's east coast from Belgium last year. They drove across Canada and into Alaska before heading south to Montana,  Yellowstone, Utah and then Las Vegas where they parked the 4x4 in storage and flew home. Sunday the flew back and got back out on the road. They will be here for 6 months this year. Very nice people who speak very little english....LOL

They have a blog....www.aventuren4x4.com   it is in french, but you can use a button to translate some of it into English and it has lots of photos.

This another little hot springs I found today .... here is the head of the spring... it is much smaller than the other spring and hotter too.

I was able to take a video of the water as it gurgles up through the sand but do not know how to download it into the blog.


A few days back I mentioned I had misplaced some photos I took up on top of Big Wash Road which  twists up to the crest of the Cerbat Mountains.

It is a nice view, but I could not advise pulling a trailer up the road as the drive down would easily overheat the brakes and that would not be good.

 That is Cloride at the bottom of the above photo

 There is this nice picnic spot at the top of the mountain...overnight camping is around $8 a night or $4 if you are an old fart like me.

Well is has been a very nice day today....little wind, nice drive found other spots to camp with communication signals, I got a very nice message or two from a daughter who usually has little to say ( that was a very nice thing ) and I spoke on the phone with two of my grandsons who were home with their mom with food poisoning...can you say "pizza pizza" not going to give any names, but their pizza last night tasted funny!

Take care everyone, glad you are here with me!