Still Here, but getting ready to Travel

There is so much to tell you about that I hardly know where to begin.  Saturday I baked our yummy white walnut dream cake for the pot luck dinner that celebrated our anniversary and Memorial Day.  Jerry did the BBQ ribs, Jim did the hot dogs, and I made corn on the cob and green salad.  Janice had already hard boiled a lot of eggs, so she asked me to make deviled eggs from them.  Others brought cole slaw, potato salad, soft drinks, and an assortment of other sides, and home made ice cream.  Ric arrived, and of course, he teased me terribly!  Janice's mom and her son both came.  It was a wonderful party, and I think everybody had enough to eat.  They presented us with an anniversary card signed by everybody in the park!  It was a really nice surprise!   By the time we came back home....we were exhausted, and stuffed!  
Here we are at the pot luck!  
I was happy to see that this picture shows some gray in my hair......finally!


Below is a picture of Ric and a picture of Janice's mom Myrtle.

 I don't know why this silly computer won't let me bring her picture up higher, sometimes it does, but not today.

On my last blog I included a picture of Guy Lewis, the nearsighted photographer, but now I want to include a picture of the travel trailer he MADE from a small cargo trailer.

 We have not seen the inside yet, but I am hoping he will show it to us.  Guy is a Navy veteran, and has two small dogs that he cares for......so he is a good Guy!  One of his dogs lost a leg when he was attacked by a pit bull, so Guy is trying to get a cart made to make the little fella mobile.  Kudos to Guy for his generosity!

Back to our travel plans and preparations.  Yesterday we went to TorC and did some grocery shopping.  I also ordered  curtains online for the living room window, so we picked up curtain rods for that.  Today we drove to the MVD in Hatch to turn in our South Dakota license plates, and took a small thank you gift to Becky for all of her help, and patience with us, to get the RV title, and register it here.  She was delightfully surprised!  Here's a few things we saw today in Hatch.

 






Then we went back to TorC to get Jim some new casual shoes, as the pair he had was falling apart.  On the way into town, Jim took this picture.  He calls it the saddest looking mountain around.

 Can you see the sad face?  It amazes me sometimes the things Jim sees, but I guess he sees things others of us miss because of his artistic nature.


We took the dogs with us because we also went to see Jeff Dukatt.  He has made Millie a really cute tie dyed shirt, so I needed her to try it on.  He is going to add dancing chili peppers to it, pictures to follow, of course.  He was going to do one for Willie, but the doggy shirt that was labeled extra large was only a tiny bit bigger than the one for Millie.  He's going to try to order one in 2XL or even 3XL for Willie, and he's making one to match for me too.  I already have one he did for me that says "New Mexico, not really new, not really Mexico", and another one that says
"We're all here because we're not all there".  Too true I think.  LOL.  After that, we drove to a little place called Sumthin.  

We really, really love the ice cream there, and so do the furry kids!  Besides the delish ice cream, it's a cute place. 

 


They still had their Memorial Day decorations outside.  I took this picture of Jim, just because he let me do it.  
I'll never hear the end of it if I don't include the one he took of me there.  Silly isn't it?  


Last but not least, I want to include a couple pictures of a very treasured item we have in our home.  We have to pack it away to travel, and sometimes I forget to bring it out, but we really do love seeing it.

 We bought this eagle at a Good Sam Samboree in Lancaster, CA many years ago.  This is how he looks during the day time.  At night, we turn the electric on to light the fiber optics and make his wings move back and forth, as seen in the picture below.  We think he is quite beautiful, and we love to see him lit up this way.  He is a reminder of the price of freedom.  Memorial Day is over, but the message, Freedom is NOT Free, must never be forgotten.  It is not the politicians that have given us the freedoms we all enjoy.  We must never forget that the men and women of the military fought, and many died, so we could be free.  The pastor at the First Baptist Church in TorC gave a very moving sermon on Sunday, about the importance of never forgetting the sacrifice of our military personnel who protect our freedoms.  The 1st amendment gives you freedom of speech, a freedom people in many countries do NOT have.  You are free to say what you want, worship where you want and gather wherever you want.  But this IS America, and if you don't like it, and our flag, and our national motto "In God We Trust," as Pastor Dudley pointed out, you also have the freedom to leave America and go live somewhere else.  I'm always amused during election years, by celebrities who say "If X gets elected president, I'm, leaving this country."  And yet, if X gets elected, I don't think any of them ever actually leave.  Whether they want to admit it or not, despite it's faults, America is a wonderful place to live, and we sure are glad we live here.  As a popular song says, "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free and I won't forget the men who died that gave that right to me."  I hope the people reading this are as proud to be an American as we are.  GOD BLESS THE USA.