Where OH Where have Tami and Ricky been ?

Hi, Happy new year ! Ricky and I are going to have a realy great year and we want to share it with you.I know its been a long time since we've blogged but we've been busy.
We left Arizona quite quickly.I was not having fun.My dogs were having a hard time with the pokey grass stuff in their paws and their fur.it was difficult to go for walks or have fun. I had to take two of them to the vet for severe bites from creatures unknown.We asked to leave our duties and they were very kind and said yes.We left the next morning,but did take time to buy some beautiful pottery before we left.Just a small souvenier(300 pounds or so)We were headed east to an Airstream park in Georgia for the winter.We took I-10 in to southern Mew Mexico and then up to i-40.We were excited to go to Roswell New Mexico and were sadly dissapointed. Unless your looking for blowup aliens and fake alien poop in a can, don't feel bad if you just keep driving.We changed our minds about the road we wanted to take and got off the hiway. Texas has these very cool little free rv parks along the way.the parks department maintain them and they do ask for a donation.A #10.00 donation is a big difference to $78.00 a nite at tha KOA ! We dodged another tornado in Louisianna. I about had heart failure driving through Atlanta,and then.......We were finaly here. It was Thanksgiving Day about 5:00pm We rounded the bend and the sky lit up with 50 million twinkling lights!!!! All the rooftops were red and every inch of town was decorated like a swiss village at Christmas! There were at least six horsedrawn carraiges pulling people through town.The place was so full of people we could barely drive down the road. People were reaching up to pet Montana throught the window and Tia was barking and louie was just smilling at everyone.As we drove through town at 5 miles an hour we must have been a sight,our big silver bus was reflecting all the lights.People were pointing and waving all the way. This is a town I suggest you stop for at the holidays.Stay in one of the beautiful cabbins with a hot tub on the deck,eat good German food and do a little trinket shopping.Oh yah.. The name of the town is Hellen, Georgia.We bought a minivan and drove to N.Y for Christmas and had a great time. By February we had traveled again to Cleveland,Tn. We are 20 miles or so north east of Chattanooga.Now that its January we've been here almost a year. Imagine that ! We found aplace for rent all to ourselves, where the dogs run free,just 2 or 3 miles north of town.The only thing we dont like about the place is that we get very little sun because of the trees and hills surounding us.
In April Ricky and I started a small fleamarket bussiness. We sold lots of fun old housewares and our wine bottle lights.We had a great time and met alot of new friends.We closed up shop after Christmas because we will be working on new products and things around the bus that wont leave us enought time for the fleas. We bought another airstream in August. Its a 1974 Tradewind.We will completely gut it and create a one of a kind trailer to take to shows and antique trailer rallies. We bought all new floors for the bus and hope to have them in soon.We have done a bit of remodleing and will send new pictures when we are finnished. We moved Kiel down here over the summer. We bought him his own little place and he lives about150 feet to the left of us.He's working two jobs to keep afloat and seems to be managing. He got his first puppy and I named her Myla.She's a handful but is finaly starting to grasp potty training !!!!
I started a new website to sell my wine bottle lights and it is starting to catch on.I will be creating new things and working on enhancing my website this month. I would love for you to visit it.I need to get it up closer to the top of the list in GOOGLE and I wont pay to do it.I put a link over there so you can get to it.
Well, thats deffinetly not it but it gives you the just of it. We will be out doing some more traveling this year and lots of other fun things so I will start to blog more frequently.Thanks for listening and I wish all of you a great New Year!

Rattle snakes,Gilla monsters and Scorpions..OH MY!

I'm sure everyones mother taught them that if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything.Right? Tucson,hummmmmm.What could I say about Tucson ? Oh screw it ! Anyone that new my mom would know that even though she taught us that lesson, she didn't always live by it.(specialy in restaraunts and the line at the cash register at AJ Wrights) TUCSON SUCKS!!!!!! IT's ugly,and everything is poisonus! There is no such thing as grass here. The ground is covered in brown prickery stuff that we can't let the dogs walk on 'cause it hurts their feet.Lizards crawl all over the trees. We kill moths day and night, endlessly. Do you know how annoying it is to have a moth fly around your face when it is 94 degrees and your trying to cook dinner in a big silver baked potato in the desert that has been sitting in the sun allday?????? Do you even have a clue???? Ok I'm done. That felt good. Don't be allarmed if you don't here from me for a few weeks. I probably wont blog again until after thanksgiving. I sure hope the Maccaroni Grille is open for Thanksgiving,'cause thats where I'll be !! LOVE TAMI

We're not in Kansas anymore TOTO..I mean TIA

A series of unfortunate events

Hi. We finally made it to Tucson ! After we left Colorado Springs we Headed for Durango Where we wanted to spend some time but the weather was really bad. cold and rainy so we just left and figured we would make it back there next time. It is 94 degrees here today. Needless to say, we are shut up indoors with the ac on.Being that itis the desert,the temperature drops like a rock the second the sun goes down. That is when we will again attempt to find the Costco and gather much needed supplies for the rest of the week. Our unfortunate events began in Co. Springs when we had to have new brakes for 1,300.00 . A rock hit our windshield in the painted desert and made a little chip. We stopped in Flagstaf to get it fixed and the guy made it worse and still made us pay 55.00 . It is now a ten inch crack with six little holes in it right in front of the drivers face. Next we lost all 12volt power in the bus and couldn't figure it out for two days.This meant that the TV antenna amplifier did not work. NO TV. The ceiling fan in the bedroom froze up and kept poppin' fuses. The fan is still not fixed. Next ,Ricky left the toilet water running on accident and we didn't notice it until it had filled the poop tank and the toilet and flooded the entire back end of the bus.For some reason, this also triggered a water pump valve to go that also caused headaches I'm not going to list.Ricky had a bright idea to hook up his little coleman cooker to the bus propane so we wouldn't have to buy anymore of those littlte tanks.Now,if your getting the picture yet, you would know that he broke the propane supply line to the bus.This means no cooking, no hot water.Cold showers.So.....last night we prepared to go for supplies to fix the bus and to have something to eat. We started to drive away and the steps wouldn't come in.Ricky tried for about an hour to fix them and couldn't so we said screw it we'll go tomorrow. Mind you,we had very little food on board.The best we could do for dinner was Ramen Pride noodles and Margaritas. Those margaritas hit the spot! Miraculously the steps worked fine when we got up this morning. Like nothing was wrong with them.We are considering this a gift from God.I guess we weren't supposed to leave yesterday. We have an hour and a half befor the sun goes down and we try again. Wish us luck.

The painted Desert

Catching up.

Hi everyone.I've been sitting here trying to download some rodeo pictures and cant seem to get them in because of the poor internet reception I'm getting.So......You'll just have to listen. We are in Colorado Springs Visiting family.Thats mainly what we've been doing for several weeks now.After we left the big Pendleton , Oregon Roundup Rodeo we headed for Colorado. We stopped in the thriving metropolis of Rifle to see Toni and Doug and Susan(father and step mother). We went to the HotSprings pool a few times but not much else. Its Rifle,Colorado....theres realy nothing eles to do.Yesterday we went to Cripple Creek with my aunt GooGoo and lost our shirts at the slot machines.That was a bummer. Later that night we went to dinner with a long lost aunt and uncle from my fathers side.Uncle Don and Aunt Cathy Toft.We went to a great mexican restaraunt where girls in big pretty dresses did traditional mexican dances balancing candles on their heads.It was cool.We'll be here for a fwe more days because we need to get the bus brakes checked out befor we continue our journey through the Rocky mountains and it may take a few days to find somewhere to do the job.I'll try to get some pictures on in a day or two and let you know. We hope all is well for all of you and welcome to our blog,Greg Turner,Mike and Jackie and Don and Cathy !

Hi Camdyn and Camillah !

After the trip up and down the coast we pulled in to Boni and Cory's front yard and stayed a week.They have a beautiful piece of land far up in the clouds in Hillsboro,Oregon which is south west of Portland. They also have three very friendly dogs we fell in love with.Well, Ricky and I fell in love with,our dogs not so much.Oh yah, did I mention these two realy cute kids ? Most mornings they would show up at our door and come in and try on all of our hats and sunglasses and push every button and turn on and off every light. Millie would drive and say "ready guys" and we would say "ok" This would go on for about an hour. We enjoyed our stay and maybe next time we go Boni's business will be bought out for 3.7million and we can spend more time together.

Thank heaven for good old boys with beers and 4 wheel drive fords !

A quick overview of Ricky's first "uh oh".  We were looking for a certain campground on the Rogue River, east of Gold Beach Oregon. We happened upon a different campground that looked cool. You just find a good spot on the now dried up river bed. Mind you, the river is still there,just receded about 50 yards. Everyone else was there. The most important thing we keep forgetting is that "they" are made of twigs and tape.We are made of oak and steel.As long as we were moving we were kinda ok. the minute we stopped to deliberate about where to go we started sinking alittle.Then we started to move and spun tires big time. This is where the good old boys with beers and 4 wheel drive fords come in. I'm sure they were having a great time watching us try to get out if only for a moment because we were smart enough not to dig ourselves a hole.Anyway..... cutting to the chase. They latched on to the back of Laverne, we gunned it,they pulled with all there might and we went up the boatramp backwards in a cloud of dust.YEEEHAAAWWW!!!!  They got a heros welcome back at their riverfront parking spot and we went back where we should have stayed anyway. New Yorkers, what are ya gonna do ?

Here we are in The Wenatchee National Forest,Washington. We are currently being held hostage by massive armys of unusualy large and fierce mosquitos. Our new plan.....never plan on staying longer than one night until the first night goes well.Anyway, it has afforded me time to learn how to watch the news and other shows I've been missing on the internet because on occasion, I do have internet and not T.V.I finaly saw The Hells Kitchen final episode today.What can I say about South Dakota ? I guess they don't call it the great plains for nothing.When about a 1/4 of the way through the state I read a map that said the population was approx.745000. i asked Ricky if that could be a typo because that is also the approx. size of the syracuse area.About 1/2 way through the state I realized it was true. There are truly no people there. Rapid City was a welcome sight as they have a Wallmart and we needed supplies. Oh yah, for those of you that dont know yet, I broke my foot while walking the dogs in Sioux City,Iowa.Its not severe,just the two small bones that are in front of or behind,if you will, the two smallest toes.It is getting better now, that was two and a half weeks ago. I can walk a little now.Ricky had to get me a wheelchair at Mt.Rushmore and Wall Drug. That was a bummer. He also has had to do all of the dog walking lately. thats alot of dog walking for one person.Speaking of Mt. Rushmore, we were a little dissapointed. call me unpatriotic thats ok. I was expecting to be wowed. It is much smaller than I had anticipated.I was feeling as duped as the two teenage girls standing in front of me kicking rocks and pulling on their bubble gum.Oh Well, I guess national Monuments aren't my thing.We headed out to Devils Tower,Wyoming in the morning trying not to get too enthusiastic so we didn't get let down again.I gotta tell ya,We rounded a bend and went "whooooaaahhhh". Its that cool.Its really big,strange colors,quite erie,and seems to have a dark presence about it.Large buzzard type birds fly around the top even.Ricky asked me if I wanted to stay at the campground there and I told him he was out of his mind.I wasn't even staying there after dark!! We enjoyed some awsome national Forests in Montana,oh yah,and spent way toomuch money at The Springs Bath House in Hot Springs,South Dakota.But after days of nothing but grass to look at the full body scrubs and massages made it all better.We are on to Seattle Washington for a while.We might stay a while so I dont know for sure when we will make it to your house Boni.I'll call you this weekend and keep you posted. Thats all for now,we miss you all and if anyones sees Kiel, give him a big kiss and hug for me.Love tami and ricky

New meaning to wildlife on the road. Black Hills,South Dakota