Buster got a new swing!
We have hung it in the "living room" of the Deck in Alto, NM. He loves being out in the big room with us, the dogs, cat....etc. After all it IS the "family room"! lol

It was time for Nikki's nails to be trimmed, yesterday, they are too thick
to be cut, so Jimmy gets out his dremel tool and files them down...hahaha.
She is actually very good and doesn't mind , except, like all dogs, she hates
when you mess with her feet.

Just finished Breakfst at Pena's, my brother and his wife left to go back to El Paso and we headed back to the deck to watch the NASCAR race. On the way ....we saw a whole herd of deer, (not an unusual sight) BUT...they were all sleeping and resting in our neighbor's yard!! Chexk out this Buck's antler's! We'll probably be here for another 5 or 6 days, then head home to vote and get the remodel started on my bathrooms at home.

While we were here, we decided to take a drive up the ski run road in Ruidoso and watch the color changing of the trees!
It is gorgeous!
The aspens are gold! and the pine trees are still deep green.

We also decided to carpet our deck.... it is now enclosed completely with glass doors and windows and our pellet stove to keep us warm. All ready for the snow for Jimmy to go ski and I can stay inside and stay warm!

I'll put up a picture or two, in a few days.....

Nothing like waking up to pounding on your head..... 2 days in a row! 7 am wake up call!!! But it is amazing.. 20 guys attacked my house on Thursday morning (yesterday), had the old roof removed by noon, and now will be finished with the new roof by noon, today!

Last weekend was the Fall Nationals for the NHRA (National Hot Rod Assn.) for 2010, in Ennis, Texas.....just south of Dallas. The weather was wonderful and much cooler than last year, except a heck of a rainstorm on Saturday afternoon. Luckily, most of the cars had already run and qualified. Besides the amazing, LOUD top fuel and funny cars, it's always a rush to FEEL the earthquake, when they roar by! I will be posting a short clip, next! My brother drove in from El Paso, for his birthday and my friend Jan came down and spent the rainy Saturday with me. It was a real enjoyable weekend! John Force was his usual self and did very well, his daughter Ashley Force Hood just missed the finals by .3 tenths of a second! Ron Capps, who wins a lot, got beat, so that's the picture of the Napa car getting loaded back into the hauler. more later.......

This weekend was Aspencade, in Ruidoso. They were expecting 30-40,000 people.....a small Sturges, but not nearly as far to drive! The natives stay home this weekend and all the restaurants and bars get taken over...The bikers have a parade the first day, it was eleven minutes long!!

On Sunday, there was a terrible wreck in our neighborhood....apparently, one of the bikes back wheel dropped off the pavement, lost control and flipped....heard later that 2 people went to the hospital, one careflighted out. Anyway, it's all over on Sunday, so the bikes are slowly leaving town..
We're headed to the Fall Nationals - the drags in Ennis, Tx. seeya!

We decided to come to the cool mountains, after it hit 107 in Texas, so we've been here for a couple of weeks. It's been very peaceful and entertaining just sitting on the deck, in the afternoon, watching the Turkeys with babies, the deer with babies, and the myriad of hummingbirds! While we have been here, we have been having the deck enclosed so we can keep it warm in the winter. Jimmy has been painting and cutting wood getting ready for the glass doors. They came and put in the windows, then the HUGE glass doors, custom made so that we can access the bay doors of the bus arrived.......really beautiful!

Saturday night was the Cup race, beautiful sunset, weather was perfect.....the only bad thing was that brat "shrub" the baby Busch,Kurt's little brother, Kyle, won. I was even rooting for another driver, not my favorite, to win....just so it wouldn't be him! All in all, it was a nice time! Headed home on Sunday, Jimmy has a driver applicant on Tuesday and I have a doctor's appointment on Thursday.
I'm not sure how long, I enjoy my house.....then, off we go to our place in Alto, N.M.

Friday night was the Nationwide race, and that brat Kyle Busch won again..! YUK! I wish him car troubles for the rest of the year!!! Saturday night will be the Cup race....the big boys....I'll post more, tomorrow. Gotta go!

A friend of Karen's (Mike), took this video of the Hauler Parade, with his iPhone! Pretty cool looking!

Drove into Bristol, Tn. for a weekend of NASCAR racing,
on Wednesday evening. Tonight (Thursday)is the Hauler parade....the infield is so small, there is no parking, except for the haulers of the cars, so they make a big deal of the trucks going into the infield!

More Hummer pictures. Chris and Vanessa broke a ball joint on the front wheel, so everyone pitched in and fixed it on the trail. Then.... I HAD to show my "Hummer-dogs".
Notice where they like to ride when we're climbing rocks!

August 6-8, we drove up to Aztec, N.M., near Farmington, and met a bunch of friends from all over the country.Kansas City, St. Louis, Illinois, Las Cruces, N.M. and the mileage award goes to Jerry and Tracy.....from Minnesota!!
We spent the day, Saturday, playing on the trails, then Tracy called (not planned) and said that they had been up in Silverton, Colorado and were on their way to Durango.....
I beat them up and talked them into coming down to Aztec. They had been off-roading up in Moab, Utah with their new little Polaris Razr.
We decided that all future Hummer Trail rides needed a Razr for the re-con vehicle!! ha!ha!
Spent Sunday on the Secret trail, but then we had to leave on Monday.
Some of them stayed and went to trails in Farmington, Grim Reaper, etc. Lots of fun, we had no breakage (better) and got home for a few days, before we head off to Bristol, Tn. for the NASCAR race!

Here is my park bench!! Refurbished from an old splintery weathered POS.....lime green....pretty cute, huh?

It's rainy day in the mountains....55 degrees! It was a "frog strangler" and rained 4-5 inches in a hour, so our neighbor, up the hill had the ditch break and flooded his house with about 3 inches deep of mud!! Jimmy is up there, helping several other neighbors with buckets and brooms and mops!

Just sitting outside, with a camera!

Here is Jimmy's latest project.....extending the roof of the deck in Alto, N.M. The original deck is long enough for a 40' motorhome, so, after raising the roof a foot...( 1" clearance), he has extended it an extra 10 feet! (really only needed 5, but the extra really makes it nice.) He's pretty handy, like that! (sigh) At least it keeps him busy!! ha!

Well, we have escaped the heat of Texas and hustled to the mountains! Today, Jimmy played the Kokopelli Golf Course, in Alto, N.M......Wonderful, 72 degrees! The scenery was really beautiful and we finished just in time to go in the clubhouse for lunch, when a huge rainstorm blew up! By the time we got back to the deck, it was pouring and the rain on the metal roof sounded wonderful!

This is a picture of fireworks with he Dallas skyline in the background.......A picture I really thought was neat! Not much going on here, just hiring more truck drivers and getting them set to go out next week. Jimmy has been working on fixing one of his satellite dishes.....taking it easy, enjoying the rain and "a little" cooler weather! Plan to head west soon, for a few, and a Hummer rally!

July 5th....
Jimmy, Bill, Chris and Casey are going to play a round of golf, before we leave the Cliffs to go home.
Ought to be a hoot, Chris has never played this course before (very hard)......I'm waiting to hear how it went, when they get back to the clubhouse!! ha!ha!
Apparently, lots of 4 letter words were used!! ha~

4th of July, 2010!!!

Another cloudy start to the day, but it turned out great.. We had heard that The Harbor ( a new resort area on the lake) was going to have fireworks on the lake for the first time, this year. Apparently, either people had gone home, were up at the Possum Hollow fireworks show (way at the other end of the lake) or just didn't believe it, so we went out in the boat with our friends Janet and Robert and just sat in the water until dark. There were no other boats (maybe 3) and we were just a few hundred yards off the shore.....Well, it did not disappoint! beautiful, non-stop and there were other fireworks everywhere you turned on the lake.(fireworks are a big deal here!) Got home about 11:30 pm. Nice evening!

Friends Janet and Robert came out for the Fireworks on the 4th.

July 3rd, we headed out to Possum Kingdom lake, even though it was still being inundated by the rain bands coming up from Hurricane Alex in the Gulf, in hopes....and (it held true) the sun comes out! We went out to Hell's Gate (the local party cove) and dropped anchor right outside the Gate, because it is a Zoo on the inside and we have already lost 2 anchors over the last year......hundreds of boats come out for the show!

On Tuesday night, Jimmy just decided that we should pack up and go see his aunt and uncle in Horseshoe Bay, Texas, for a couple of days. W actually arrived, undetected, backed the bus down the driveway, and got settled before they heard us! Had a great visit, ate hamburgers, solved all the problems of the world,etc.! Next morning, went to the famous "Bluebonnet" restaurant for late breakfast, then, when we got back to the bus, the neighborhood deputy dawg had stuck a note on it that we had to move! The house is downhill in a cul-de-sac, you can't even see it from the road! (I suspect the neighbor, up the hill, complained!) Anyway, we moved to the little RV park near the entrance of the neighborhood...quite a chore. I don't think they were used to having a 45' long,13'4"tall coach in their park. As we backed into the spot, a monster tree limb hit the closed Internet satellite dish, on the roof and bent one of the gears, so we ordered a new one, when we got home, it's already arrived and Jimmy is installing it now......no sweat.
Then we went back to Lil and Gerald's house and visited some more....had some wonderful dinner! Played some "Farkle " and after the girls won BOTH games, we said our goodbyes and headed off to the bus. Had to get back for a drs.appt. the next day.

Jimmy has reached his 15 minutes of fame!!!!

He is on the cover of Heavy Duty Trucking magazine.

Eventually, electronic logs will be the norm in the trucking industry, so he is working with our friend, in Houston, to get these developed to put in the Fedex trucks.......keep your fingers crossed!

Amazing!
Well, we decided to escape to the cool weather for a week, and Jimmy has decided that he is going to raise the roof on the deck in Ruidoso, himself, rather than pay the $6,000.00 we were quoted, to do it.
After, about $800.00 worth of lumber and 3 days of Jimmy climbing up and down the ladder to the roof, the roof is now 6 inches higher on one side and a foot on the other! The Coach BARELY fit before, only after he dumped all of the air and moved as far to the right (high side) as he could. Even then, the little antenna on the roof would "TWANG" with each beam it went by. the Satellite dish, on the roof of the bus cleared by about a half an inch!
Now, he is on a mission to remove one of the support beams, so that we can access all of the bay doors of the coach. Hence the double I-Beams he incorporated into the roof raising. He is replacing one of the support beams, because it is split in several places, so I'm sure it is weak, and totally removing another one completely. Before next winter, we are planning to have glass doors installed all along one wall, so that we can have an enclosed, heated space.
Anyway, he hopes to get the beams done by tomorrow, so we can leave.
Back soon, tho' because the hummingbirds, deer and pretty songbirds are starting to show up. We even have a bird's nest with mama and eggs, built in the rafters of the deck!