A True up to date update!! O.o

19-July-2012
Sooo… hehe ya see Dear Reader? I told you it wouldn’t be long til we met again and here we are!!
So, I told you we were waiting on Steve and Jeanne to arrive from down south, well, they did. They joined up with us in Sundre, AB. Gary still had a couple of days work to do then we thought we could make our fishing/adventuring plans. Well, seeing as we own Montana rigs we of course would have to do some repairs… we managed to “develop” leaks on all 3 of our tanks while staying at one park. Pretty sure it had something to do with the guy pumping out the tanks and not having some kinda pressure relief(?) valve. Couple that with unsecured tanks sliding back and forward… So we got in touch with a local guy and he was quite optimist about getting us upgraded replacement tanks the next day all covered by our extended warranty… well, I am not saying he couldn’t get us tanks the next day, but they would be about half the capacity we have now, so in my opinion, not really an upgrade. Then he was all pissy about doing it, so we left him to stew in misery. We contacted a place on Red Deer and are now patiently waiting on the new factory style (big) tanks to arrive so we can head back there to get them put in. We repaired the tanks so we could move along and get some fishing in.
We had been scouting around the Sundre-Caroline area for some new fishing holes and we got lucky. We ended up moving towards Phyllis Lake and heading up a cut line to our newest home. During the week we were completely left to our own, the weekend however, it became an atv Mecca. We did a few daytrips to some streams and Da Boys took the pontoons out to the lake. Both guys have had some luck, us girls however… not so much. I have gotten a really good tan and also developed a decent immunity to mosquitoes! So fitting to the whole “we own Montanas” theme, Steves rig decided the refrigerator needed to quit working. We explored all the options, replace the thingie that wasn’t working or get a new fridge. He got a new fridge… the replacement thing would take 4-6 weeks to get and a new one would only (hah) take two days. Needless to say, the thing died Saturday and the new one didn’t actually make it in til Thursday. My only thought is that there was too many people involved at the dealer to get an order done right! But arrive it finally did and now he has ice storing/beer chillin’ capabilities again!! Never a dull moment when you live on the road!
After we got tired of that area, we decided to hit an old favourite, Big Horn Damsite. We figgered this would be a good spot to be to check out Banff and whatever. So here we are! We arrived on Monday and made plans to hit Banff on Wednesday. Much to my delight, Jeanne only wanted to see Lake Louise. I haven’t been there so I was looking forward to it. Banff holds no interest for me. we went there once and it was so crowded and busy, I vowed to avoid it at all costs. The drive there was of course spectacular. Hiway 93 should be a national treasure IMHO. We got to the lake and holy hell was it busy. The village was busy, the lake area was busy, the Chateau was busy!! Needless to say I was happy when we decided we had seen enough LOL. We drove back up 93 and explored some of the sights on the way north. We decided that we would go to the ice fields since they are closer to us now than when we move a bit more north. Jeanne and myself decided to walk up to the Athabasca glacier but on the way there, someone changed her mind and we just got some nice shots from the road rather than right up on it. No worries, it will be there for a few years still. We did see the markers showing where it used to be and it really has melted a lot of the last few years… makes ya think that for sure.
After the early up and long day we all hit the hay pretty early and are now enjoying a day of nothing. Da Boys have been racing cars and flying planes and Jeanne went off exploring, leaving me all to you Dear Reader! And I must say it was a good afternoon!
I hope you enjoyed the update Dear Reader. Until we meet again, love you and miss you as much as ever!!

The end of our winter playtime..

22-June-2012
WOW Did I really leave you hanging this long Dear Reader!!??!! I do apologise… It seems like we just chatted but I guess I was wrong.
So, looks like I have to scrape thru my memory banks to fill you in on the last couple of months. When we last met, we were in Yuma at some BLM, well, from there we headed into town and stayed with the lovely Joy, her hubby Mel and papa Charlie. We meant to just stay for a week and pick up some parcels and mail and get more stuff added to Steves trailer… well hehe that proved to be a very very long week! We spent just over a month with them but not just sitting around being lazy. The boys enjoyed the first week just sitting around entertaining Charlie then as the weather got warmer and warmer, the pool started looking like a nice idea. However, the solar heating for it needed some tlc and the cover for it as well. The only ones enjoying the pool was Mel and Jack. Mel loved that Jack is a huge fan of any kind of water and was forever getting him to go in the pool… the poor cleaner thingy really paid for itself then, and I got really good at using the scoopy strainer thing to collect the fur… Meanwhile, Mel talked to me about the cover and I got out the sewing machine and was busy trying to get that fixed. It seemed to be going ok, but I really wasn’t happy with how it was looking. Mel seemed ok with it, as it actually would open and close (ish) so he left it at that and merrily went back to work up in WA state. Well, needless to say Da Boys and me decided that it wasn’t quite right and got some other parts ordered. While we were waiting for that, they decided to go ahead and fix all the leaks in the solar heating thingy too. Needless to say this took well over a week lol. We did a lot of happy hours and group meals and alone time. Joy and their other guest, Sharon, and myself did a lot of crafting. The girls beaded and I stitched. We had a BBQ one night and invited some of our Canadian friends over for the evening as well. What a treat that was. We enjoyed some wonderful times with them all and really look forward to seeing them again this winter!
So, after a good month in town, we decided it was time to head back out to the BLM west of town. We packed up and us and Steve moved on. A couple of days later our other friends Bev and Max showed up and more fun was had! Da Boys got new toys and were busy racing cars and trucks and planes all over the place. Bev and me sat back and relaxed and did a whole lot of nothing! It was awesome! hehe. We spent a couple weeks there and then decided it was time to start our trip north. We parted ways with Steve and kept moving with Bev and Max. We stopped for a couple of nights near Blythe to clean up and restock a bit. At the last minute we decided to head up to Laughlin, NV with them and stay a week and relax some more! I know Dear Reader, it sounds like we do ALOT of relaxing but I tell ya, driving 2 or 3 hours to your next destination is tiring!! So, a week in Laughlin it was. We did get a good deal at the park and it was close to everything. So we did a lot of eating out and touring around and gambling. One night there was a Randy Travis concert at the casino the park is attached to and to our surprise it was at the amphitheatre that was right next to the park. We sat outside and enjoyed listening to the show. We did look into tickets but there was only a couple of single seats let. Oh well, I wasn’t too disappointed about seeing not him and the sound was actually decent where we were. All was good.
After Laughlin we decided we would all head up to the Valley of Fire for a few days. We have been there before but we were anxious to return. It would be fun to be the ones who knew the place for a change! So off we all went. We spent a couple days showing Bev all we loved there and pretty much broke her one day! I know they want to go back and spend more time there. It truly is a beautiful place.
We spent a couple extra days then headed out of the park to the BLM spot we found the other year. We figgered we would just hang out and enjoy the amazing weather till we knew the north roads were good. Needless to say the weather soon got a bit warm to be parked in with no power, the poor genny could barely keep the AC running! But it did and we decided after the 3rd day of over 100F it was time to move on. We slowly took the familiar trail home, one little storm that lasted about 10 minutes was the only interruption on the drive. We didn’t go far on any given day and stayed a couple days if the weather looked ok. By the 29th of April we were in Gibbons and Gary was busy looking for work. We stayed there for a week then headed out to the farm to repack for the summer. Grab the fishing gear and work clothes and then wait for just the right job to come up! While we were there I had to take a mini vacation and head to Hinton to spend the annual sister weekend with 3 of the loveliest women I know! It was fun, we behaved…
We finally ended up in Sundre, AB where Gary makes the commute to Shell-Caroline and I spend time walking Jack, stitching and the usual mundane household chores. We will be here for a bit more and are meeting up with our friends Steve and Jeanne next week. We finally convinced some of our southern friends to come on up and see some of our favourite places to go. Also, some touristy things that you can’t avoid, like Jasper and maybe Banff…
Until we meet again Dear Reader, and I promise I’ll try to be better again at this whole blog thingie! Love you and miss you as always!!