Just a Little Clean Up and Posting Of Past Events on My Blog

It's been sometime since I am posted on my blog for a lot of reason I won't go into. So today I  I am going post some past events and thought of our travels.

March 28, 2011

·         Left boondockers at Safford, AZ. Heading toward Red Bay, Al with a stop in St Louis to hopefully get my knee looked at and then on to Des Moines, IA to work this summer in Adventure Land.

·         Stopped in Lordsburg, NM at Flying J for Fuel ($3.93 pg) get water and to dump. Good Travel Plaza with large parking for RV. Dump was $5.00

·         I drove for about an hour and half

·         We took the US Highways and out of Las Cruces we took US 70 towards Alamogordo

·         We had brake / drive axle problems 43 miles from Alamogordo and are waiting for coach net to tow us to Albuquerque, NM which is the closest anyone has with a tow vehicle for a motor home. Look for breath taking photos of how to tow a 42 foot L 13' 8" H Motor Home 43 miles and then thru downtown Albuquerque. Breathholding experience and scary

·         We spent the next several days at the Cummins Factory in Albuquerque, they have been wonderful. We went to dinner at the Church Street Café, located here in Old Town New Mexico. It was some of the best Mexican food I have had in a long time. There were several local vendors along the street and Art bought me a gorgeous turquoise necklace, handmade by an Indian and earrings. It’s an early birthday and anniversary gift. It was kind of spontaneous on his part.

·         Headed to St Louis to see about my knee pain.

Dinner at Church Street Cafe and the Largest Plate of Beef Fajitas I have seen

OUR  TIME SPENT WORKING AT ADVENTURE LAND IN ALTOONA, IOWA

    (Like I said this is a review of places we visited in worked, even though it's been several years)

We were scheduled to work a family owned amusement park called, Adventureland Amusement Park. That was fun but the upper level management much to be desired. Park supervisor were no better. We were not given the hours we were promised. We worked in rides and we rotated rides we worked daily or after several days. I really liked working rides. It was pretty fun. The down side was. You had to call for a bathroom break and at our age sometimes that was rough. On really hot days you had little relief from the heat/sun. There was little support from park supervisor. We also had to buy our own  Amusement Park uniform we did get a reimbursement at the end. We also had to pay for two months of camping fees. We did get a bonus after completion but it was per couple. There were Ice cream social with friends and other planned activities for the campers but I would not go back. It was not a pleasant experience when management is poor. I fell off the platform of one of the rides I was operating and re injured my knee that I just had surgery on. Ouch – that was not good. More physical therapy. Getting old is so much work and filled with lots of old and new ache and pains each day. 

Entrance to Adventureland

Get together

First Day of Work All Deck Out in Our New Uniforms - Right Pants for Men. 

    

Late September 2011 saw us leaving for Coffeyville, KS to work at Amazon.com the online shopping company. This would be our second year. Amazon is all about the money. Great fellow workers and enjoying Workamper’s friends that come back repeatedly for the money. It’s a job, not a career. Enough said.

The following thoughts on working at Amazon pretty much sums it up. It is not mine. I don't know who wrote it but it is spot on. So to the author who was creative to write such prose kudos.

How much would you pay to:

• - Have a physical training coach for 60 hours a week, who whips you into shape with squats, miles of walking, weight training, stretching and more?
  - Have your fingers literally on the pulse of consumer trends in your industry ?
  - Have access to figuring out the operations of what makes one of the world’s most successful companies tick?
  - Get your mind into a month-long zen state of meditation by doing receptive tasks, and feel grounded to take on the world?
  This sort of hands on transformational coaching and experience is worth thousands.
  But act now.. and you’ll not only get all this for FREE.. you’ll be paid to have it!
  
  

Then the year comes to an end with returning to St Louis for the holidays. This is the first time in about 5 years 

that I have had both my boys and now their wife’s home for Xmas Eve. I prepared (2) 15 lb turkey on the 

stove top of my RV for the family celebration. Plus I prepared our traditional Italian type of turkey dressing, 

so as another year comes to an end, I wish good health & happiness to all my friends and family both near 

and far, new and old.        

Summer of 2013

July 16 

We left on a Monday morning about 10 am – weather was cloudy and overcast but no rain. We drove up in our  truck, planning on staying at Arthur’s. We were planning on driving pretty much straight thru with switching on and off driving and pulling over when needed at night at a rest stop. Well we picked up rain outside of Chattanooga, Tn and it rained pretty much all the way up to Connecticut. We got in pretty late Tuesday night and just pretty much unloaded, visited briefly and went to bed. Arthur had a company dinner on Wednesday, so we would not see him till latter that night. Genie probably would also be working late. Arthur had made plans to off Friday and Monday. Genie could only get off Friday. Claire’s, my niece, in Sparta, NJ whom we also was coming up to see had a graduation picnic on Sunday. So plans were to spend time site seeing and then and then go to the graduation picnic and drive back Sunday night.

We visited the Vanderbilt Mansion, Culinary Institute of Art, we had an impromptu lunch there which was totally unexpected because usually it's booked. We also did a wine tour. It was a great time. The next day we did went a Farmers Market, which was planning an Open Air Shakespeare Play, which was wonderful
There were plans to go to a Farmer’s market in a town a little ways away. Nicole ( a neighbor I in the complex) who bakes has a stand there and then we planned on staying for  Shakespeare in the Park play. I was astounded that I found some rhubarb, they have a latter growing season being up north, and I bought about 2 lbs, to make Art a pie the next evening. It was a really nice Farmer’s Market. We seemed to be early for the play and not much to do so we stacked out a spot and then went to grab lunch at Valencia’s, a favorite Mexican restaurant that Arthur and Genie like. We had eaten there on our last trip. It is a nice place

Wednesday June 19, 2013

We spent most of today just sleeping and relaxing. I did manage a one mile walk down to the mall. The Town Mall is about a nice one mile down hill walk from his apartment. It had all the major stores I had missed and I needed a refill supply of my Clinique from Macy’s. The walk back was up hill but luckily a little shorter because I came out the back end of the mall which put be on the end of the  uphill and walk wasn’t too bad. Got in lots of reading

June 24:

A quick trip to Mystic Seaport to checkout Mystic Seaport and KOA and a short visit with fellow Tiffin Owners and current camp host, John and Jane Lacerda. We have often contemplated looking into the KOA camp host system. So this campground is about 2 1/2 hours from Arthur's condo. We love to visit opportunities that might be available when we are in new area. The KOA was clean, had a great kids area, nice pool, and large sites. The area for workampers was sit away from campers and was nice. I was pleased with. Wish it was closer to Arthur. Traffic on the highway was awful.