'Bout Time to Leave

 Its close to time to begin a new adventure, but there was still work to do around here. 

I showed you pictures of our new trailer; we continue to make adjustments. 

I thought it would be nice to have a separation between the bed and the rest of the trailer. The curtain and track are hospital grade... however, it took awhile to get the curtain. I called the company only to find out that the curtain material was on back order. Installation was really easy, some screws, and it was done.

Lately I have been focused on the park septic system, and I will not pain you with some of the photos. The only one I will post is: 

We had one of our residents pass recently, as usual, the community turned out to honor him.

Whenever one of our members passes on, we memorialize them with a plaque under the flags. We lower our flags for three days in recognition one of our family.

It is not always serious around here, sometimes there is a bit of fun and games, and a few of us are having that fun "clowning around".

This little clown head can be found in various places. Once someone finds it, they can move it somewhere else to continue the game of "where's the clown".

As some of you may have already seen, I do sometimes enjoy shopping.

No... I did not buy the glasses, they were $30.00 daisy glasses. 

That $30.00 was better spent renewing my drivers license. I started applying for my renewal and found out I needed to provide a current (within a year) eye exam, which I couldn't; my last one was two years ago. We solved the problem, Carol and I both went for exams and new glasses.

Remember me just speaking of one of our recently departed. A month or so passed and an opportunity arose to grow the family...

We were in the right place at the right time. The night before we bought it, one of the community asked if she was ready to sell her husband's cart, she replied no. The next morning there was a Facebook post that she was selling it. We were the first ones to show up with cash... we won the "Black Friday" sale. This cart has been around the park for many years, and multiple owners, and we are going to carry on the tradition.

We wasted no time making it our own...

Look close... I added a five section mirror to the cart. When we leave here this year we will cover it up until we return. There are some neat plans for the cart after we return for the winter. You will have to stay tuned to see what we do to it. To answer your wondering question... yes, it is Carols... for the most part.

We have definitely about the wind around here. Most days are not more than the usual breezes, with a gust here and there. Then there are other days. The last few days have been very windy, usually steady 30+ MPH, and gusts above 50 MPH.  How's this for the power of the wind...

This is the roof of the park water building. Our winds were averaging 40 MPH, with gust near 60 MPH. I got a class this morning, and a couple of us went into the wind to make some kind of temporary repair.

The quick repair between high wind gusts... cinder blocks and tie down straps. Fortunately I had just bought a new four pack of tie down straps, 'cause it took all four straps and two ratchet hooks to secure the roof. With that emergency taken care of it is time to find some other trouble to get into.

Something I was able to accomplish without getting blown away. The other hose holder looked like everyone else's. The park has a rule that every lot must have a hose for fighting a fire.

The weather has been warming up enough for the plants to start their blooming show. We have been anxiously waiting for our cactus to bloom before we leave... it did not disappoint us...

There are still many more blossoms to happen.

Earlier I showed you the wind damage to the roof on the park's water building, look at it now...

BEFORE and AFTER

Looks a whole lot different doesn't it.

The "newbies", all of us new leaseholders, in the park are having an affect on the old timers. Things that happened are being revived. For example, the folks in the park once tossed horse shoes, and for some reason it died out.

The "newbies" decided to have a sport day the Saturday before Easter. There was axe throwing, corn hole, horseshoes, and a couple of other games, the turnout was pretty doggone good. The old timers were pleased with the revival of fun activities.

From the sport activities we moved into an Easter meal. The park decided to have the meal on Saturday vice Sunday because many people had other plans.

This was only one of the desserts for the feast. While the sporting activities were goin' on outside, some of us were preparing for the feast. Carol did a lot of the planning and preparation, which included cooking two 14 pound hams, and I came in with knife in hand to slice them. 

We did two different toppings for the hams, one was a traditional glaze, the other was my concoction, liquid smoke and pineapple juice.

Along with the hams, there were fresh rolls made with mashed potatoes, various salads, multiple desserts, mac and cheese, bean casseroles, all made by various cooks. Over 40 people enjoyed the meal, with very few leftovers.

CONTINUING TO BLOOM

NOTHIN' MUCH BETTER THAN THIS

Other things are changing around here as well.

I got my New Mexico license before I registered the truck. I like the fact that my license is good for 8 years. We are working on getting the trailers registered here in New Mexico too. The nice thing about the new trailer is its weight. When a trailer is under 6,000 pounds, you can get a permanent registration for it... meaning I don't have to think about registering it ever again. When I registered the truck I had the option to register it for two years, and I'll be able to the same for the 5th wheel too.

I did a little re-work on the golf cart a few days ago...

I added daisy solar lights around the roof.

Let me tell you a story of frustration. As you know, we bought the new trailer back in February, and we figured to register in South Dakota. The dealer did all the paperwork, we shared the money from our wallets, off the paperwork went (registered mail). March rolled around and no plates yet. April came like the wind, still no plate. I contacted the dealership for an update. The dealer called the DMV in South Dakota and their reply was the all-American shoulder shrug. He then quizzed the post office, and they had no idea where his tracking number was, come to find out later, they couldn't even find it in their system. The dealer checked his bank to see if the check had been cashed... nope. Carol and I went back in to sign papers to register the trailer in New Mexico, should see the plates tomorrow. I should have suspected something wasn't quite right when I had NFCU asking me to prove we bought the trailer. If I couldn't prove it they were going to raise the interest rate on the loan... no fear, I sent them prove of purchase.

Whether we have plates or not were heading out for a maiden voyage for a couple of days. The answer to your question is yes, we have a temporary paper plate for the trailer. There will be more on this trip later.