5/27/15- On Memorial Day, I watched my brother (Daniel) and his son-in-law (Jesse) build two nice size garden boxes.  My sister-in-law (Mary Ann) planted spearmint tea in one and my niece (Deborah) planted herbs in the other garden.  We had planned a picnic for the evening but was cancelled because of the long day with the garden boxes and Mary Ann's mother is in the hospital with a femur fracture and multiple other medical problems.

5/26/15- I was invited to my nephew's house (Weston) for dinner.  It was so good to spend time with his wife (Stephanie) and their 3 children.  We had some excitement in their yard with a turtle deciding to dig a hole in the dirt and lay 9 eggs.  She then covered the hole and left.  Stephanie told me that she will not return and the little ones are on their own if the survive the neighborhood fox!!

Today, we sorted through a lot of yarn that was given to my niece (Deborah) then off to her Aunt Polly's for a minute and then we picked 4 gallons of strawberries.  I came back to the house, made myself comfortable and started to clean the strawberries which took most of the afternoon.  Mary Ann made some wonderful cheddar cheese chowder soup for dinner and then we had strawberry shortcake and it was delicious.  Also cut some more asparagus.  With warm weather they are really growing.  Now watching some basketball with my niece (Rachel) and off to bed

5/20/15 - Today, rode with a Rachel to a doctor's appointment so I could get some cash from the bank since neither one was close.  At first we went to the wrong little town so got to the bank and then off to the next town for the doctor's appointment.  We got home and I helped with strawberries, did some weeding in the garden, cut asparagus and then played on the computer.  Mary Ann (my sister-in-law) has wonderful asparagus right now.  Tonight will go with Rachel over to her sister's house for a while.

05/20/15 - on 5/19, I went with Deborah and Rachel to Slaughter Beach, Delaware to see the mating of horseshoe crabs on the beach during high tide.  I have a picture attached:

                                              Ugly Horseshoe Crabs - mating
                                             

                                                A closer view

5/18/15 - on 5/16, after graduation we went to Rachel's apartment for a cook out and it was very nice.  As we were getting ready to leave, it started to rain.  We drove to fairly heavy rain for a good while but then cleared up.  It was a great day.

5/17 - I started with a cold so am a little sluggish but went to church, had lunch and played on the computer.  In the evening, Daniel (brother) and Mary Ann (sister in law) went to a graduation party of I stayed home and relaxed and watched TV.  I went to bed early because of the cold dragging me down.

Today, I slept very late, did a little bit of weeding in the garden and played on the computer.

5/18/15 - On 5/15, I helped make a large batch of potato salad and bake a lot of chocolate cookies since we needed the food for the cook out after the graduation of my niece.

5/16 - this was a very busy day since we needed to pack the food for the cook out and meet early in Philly for the graduation we could get a parking space and good seats.  The graduation was held in a tent with a lot of seating outside but for a while we were under a shaded tree and the temperature was not too bad.  It was a very nice graduation.

                                                             My niece Rachel and I

                                                            Rachel with a Masters in Social Work
                                                            This was her building

5/14/15 - On 5/13 I left Denver and flew to Washington D. C.  Got in about midnight and my nephew Lem picked me up and we went back to his house for the night.  It was a good flight even though we departed late because of a thunderstorm in Dallas.

Today, Lem and I got up and left his apartment at 9:00am and headed for the Bay Bridge to meet up with his two sisters (Deborah and Rachel) and then I went to Delaware with them and Lem went back to Washington D.C.  When I got to Delaware, I ran some errands with my sister-in-law (Mary Ann) and we had lunch with my brother/her husband (Daniel).  It was a very good day and we got a lot done.  This evening another niece (Christina) and her husband (Jesse) and daughter (Charis) came over for a brief visit.  Off to bed

5/11/15 - It is Boj's day off so we went back to the RV so I could clean out the frig and make sure everything is OK for storage.  Since my house batteries were dead, I had asked the storage personnel if I could do some charging before taking off for Yellowstone National Park and they told me they had 30 mp available so I had planned to charge them at least 24 hours after returning to Denver. Boj took a look at them and wasn't too hard to removed although they weigh a ton, he decided to take them to his house and charge them while I was gone since he had a special battery charging unit.  That was wonderful news for me.  So when I return, I should be all set.

5/12/15 - it is just a relaxing day.  Annie and I went to wash my car since it was filthy.  We are taking sandwiches and chips over to a friend (Steve) house since he just had shoulder surgery.  We will pick up his brother (Bob) so there will be five of us for lunch.  This evening, Annie and Boj's son Taylor will be here and we are planning to go out for Chinese food.

5/11/15 - Continue on 5/10.  I left at 12:30pm from the Safeway parking lot and got to the storage area around 3:00pm.  Since I had not been in the RV for the past several days, my house batteries were dead but I thought the GPS would work while the engine was running but for some reason it did not so about two miles from the storage place the GPS went dead and I had no back up as to where I was going.  So I pulled off at big parking lot that was empty, went back and started the car and charged up the GPS enough to get to the storage place.  Got to the storage place, signed in, paid for the two months, unhooked the car, parked it in the stop and then did some re-packing and cleaned out the frig and freezer and took off for Annie's house.  When I was re-packing I got so up set because I found mice turds in my suitcase that I had on the cough and some torn paper of some sort so that little thing has been with me for a little while!!  At Annie's house we put things in the frig and in the freezer, did some visiting, went to see another friend who is having major water issues in his basement, to the dairy queen and she went to bed since she had to work this morning.  Boj (myfriend/her husband) watched a little TV and then off to bed.

Since I got to Pueblo, it has been raining including thunderstorms and we woke up on Sunday morning to snow!!  Denver had a lot of snow on Saturday night early Sunday morning but when I left at noon the roads were mostly dry except through the pass but they were only wet so was a safe trip.

05/11/15 - On 5/8, I got up in the morning around 7:30am and it has been cold since I left Phoenix, so got dressed, did a quick walk to the bathroom and took off since I would have the heater on in the front while driving.  I just got on the highway, when I saw something black roll out from under the passenger seat on to the steps by the door.  Of course since I was settled in to drive for a while, I knew I would check it out later as to what I had misplaced.  Well, soon after that the black thing moved all the way down the hallway and I learned it was a MOUSE!!.  I almost could not keep driving but also knew that I would not be able to catch it.  Finally, the stupid thing found a vent in the front to crawl through and I have not seen it since!!  Otherwise, I had a good trip to Pueblo, Colorado. I got there about 12:30pm at the Walmart.  I took the car off and re-parked the RV and took off to meet up with Deb Carleo at her daughter's boutique.  Deb, Katie (daughter) and I went out for lunch and stopped off at the bakery to say "HI" to Barbara (Deb's Mom) and then relaxed at Deb's house until Katie and John (Deb's Husband) came home.  We then went out for Mexican food which was delicious.

5/9 - Deb and I went shopping for gifts for her niece and nephew who had a 2:00pm birthday party planned.  After shopping we stopped off at the coffee shop to see husband, John and had a wonderful egg sandwich.  Back to the house to wrap the gifts.  We left for the party which had been moved to several different locations because of the weather but ended up in a gym at a local middle school.  We had lots of food and visited with extended family members.  It was a good time.  Deb and I went to the boutique to check on Katie and then were able to help her close up the store.  Since it was Mother's Day weekend Katie had to do some grocery shopping and cooking for Sunday so we helped her shop and do some prep cooking.  In the meantime, Katie is also a wedding planner and she had a 1st cousin that she is helping with wedding plans so we went to Jena's house to sit in on some of the planning.  It got rather late, but still did some prep cooking for Sunday when we got back to the house.

5/10 - We attended 7:30am mass, back to the house to finish some of the cooking since they were invited to a Sunday brunch at some friends.  The brunch was scheduled at 10:30am.  It was decided that I should go get the RV and drive a few miles north to a Safeway parking lot and attend the brunch and leave from there around noon.  I was little concerned about doing everything by myself since on Friday night when I went out to get some clothes and toiletries and could not open the door.  Thank goodness Katie and Deb were with me because Katie finally got it open.  So it was decided that John would go with me in case I had the problem.  There was no problem and I was able to do everything by myself except John helped line up the car and put in a few bolts.  Katie and Deb picked us up at Safeway and we went to the brunch.  The family had a very decorative table set and all kinds of different foods.  It was really neat.

05/07/15 - Well, I am not finished with yesterday so will continue.  A good friend of mine in Phoenix (Neal) has a niece that got married and moved to Gallup and he made contact with her so we decided to go out for dinner.  Since I got there so late, I thought they might have had dinner already so I invited them over to the RV instead.  Rebecca informed me that they were having revival meetings at church and she would like to come pick me up and go to church with her.  Church started at 7:00pm.  It was a totally different kind of services but very interesting.  After church, her husband and a friend had to clean up the church and then they met us at Denny's for dinner.  We got back to the RV alittle after 10:00pm so I went to bed rather early since I was so tired.

Today, I left Gallup at 8:00am.  Stopped for gas, then stopped for lunch and now am sitting at a rest stop that has overnight parking so plan to stay here for the night.  I am about 30 miles north east of Las Vegas, New Mexico and have about 200 miles tomorrow.

5/6/15 - On 5/5 I decided to start putting things away and get ready for the departure.  I had the wheels covered for the month because of sun and heat.  When I took the covers off for storage, the front passenger tire was very low.  I could not believe it.  I called AAA to come and put air in and the guy was not very knowledge and had a small air compressor and could only get it to 85lbs and told me that should be OK.  I asked if he could check for a nail or puncture of some sort and he informed me that he could only put air in the tire.  An acquaintance that was parked about five spots down from me saw some of the commotion  and then told me that he had the equipment and would put air in up to 100lbs which he did.  He also informed me of a RV sales and services a little north of Phoenix so I would not have to do any back tracking and I called and they informed me that I should just stop in anytime after 8:30am and they would take care of me.  My friend in the park, told me he would stop off in the morning to see if it lost any air.  I told him that I am planning to leave around 9:00am.

Today, the events went like this.  First of all I could not sleep very well because I hear a beeping noice kinda like an alarm so had to get my robe on, some sandels on and check the RV out to make sure it wasn't me.  I walked down a couple of empty stops and soon learned that it was coming from across the street.  So back to bed with the window shut.  At 7:00am, I thought I heard my name but I didn't think that was possible when all of  sudden I hear this air compressor going, so got up, put the robe back on and stuck my head out the door to thank the neighbor for his concern and putting more air into the tire.  I had planned to get up at 8:00 so back to bed but I could not sleep so got up and started getting everything ready to move.  I pulled out of the space and another gentleman told me he would help get the car on the tow bar.  After everything was done, I pulled out at 9:07am.  I arrived at the RV place to quickly learn that they do not do tires and he had no idea who gave me that information.  The place was really small and crowded with RV's so I wasn't sure if I could even turn around but he took me back to the office, gave me the name of another tire guy and what row to go down to be able to turn around.  I called the tire guy and he knew where I was but informed me that I was somewhat of a distance from his shop but he had mobile service but did stated that the RV place was too small and could I please drive across to the other side of the freeway and he would meet me in the parking lot to check out my tire.  By the way, when I went down the row to get out there was an RV parked in the way, so I had to get out, go to the office and ask if they could please move it so I could get to Walmart.  Finally, got to Walmart and the repair guy arrives.  I soon learned that I had a rather large nail in the tire.  It was quite interesting to watch him take that tire off the rim, repair it and put it back on the rim.  All done and I am once again on the road at 11:08am.  Of course fighting the wind, construction on the road and time change, I did not arrive into Gallup, New Mexico until 6:15pm.

5/4/15 - Well, I am winding down my stay in Phoenix.  Yesterday, I had planned to go to church with my Aunt Ada, Uncle Lee and Cousin Robyn but instead we were in the hospital most of the day since Uncle Lee was experiencing some dizziness and fell and laceration his head which required 6 staples. It was decided to keep him overnight for observation and this morning will have a carotid test to make sure those arteries are open.  I have not heard yet regarding the results.

I have started to get some clothes together in a suitcase since I will be on the east coast for 7 weeks.  I am finding it a little difficult to pack for such a length of time.  Also, today will start to pack things away so will not have so much to do on Wednesday morning since I want to leave around 9:30am.