Time in a bottle

Hey guys! How is everyone?  It's our day off! Now, before you get to thinking that means we're doing all kinds of exciting stuff let me share a secret with you.  While we do not have "normal" house maintenance any more (no lawn mowing, or big house to clean) we do have certain chores that need to get done and today has been that day.  We emptied our black tank today and did a back flush.  I have not spent a lot of time talking about black tanks (or poo) because so many blogs out there already cover that.  It is an important aspect of RV life but is really for the most part simple and not anywhere near as gross as you imagine it would be before you learn.  We back flush by running a hose through our bedroom window and into the bathroom.  There is a system that does it on the RV but that takes about 4x longer.  This is much quicker...you just need to be paying attention.  Jay and I do it together and make sure we don't get distracted while it's happening.  Basically after you open your black tank and dump, you close the tank back up and refill it with hose water to flush it out.  Then you open it and dump it again.  We did this twice until it ran clean through the elbow joint.  That's it.  Job done.  Super easy.  Of course, I've heard stories of people getting distracted and ending up flooding their whole rig or having a fountain come out their vent on the roof.  We're trying to make sure that never happens to us. ;)
The rig also needed a cleaning so I did some of that.  Let me tell you, I love that we only have about 200 square feet to clean!  I even cleaned the hardwood floors on my knees...all 3 feet of it! ;)

I did start off by taking a walk in the desert this morning.  I took the camera to share some images with you. ;)  First the sky last night and then this morning...

 Yes, we actually do have clouds occasionally.  Today we have our windows wide open and that is a double edged sword as many things are in this world.  Life has trade offs.  There is a breeze and nice fresh air, but there is also a fine powder of sand that lands on everything.  You can dust and it settles right back on your surfaces.  Luckily, there aren't many surfaces to dust!

Neighbors have some pretty landscaping...that first pic is what they call a "wash"  where rain water slams through when we do get rain.

You see these signs quite often by a wash...if you do go in and get stuck, you have to pay the bill to get rescued.
Something caught my eye while I was walking and I came upon this amazing pet cemetery.  It has obviously been much loved.

 We also have a golf course out here...yeah, I was surprised too...

It is a beautiful 83 degrees  Here at La Paz as I type this.  There is a breeze blowing and the clouds have come in some.  We're expecting some winds due to the weather that will be effecting the north western states.  We are not expecting snow. ;)  However, we have taken down all of the awnings to be on the safe side.  We're read gusts up to 25 mph+ are expected by tomorrow.  And, there is actually a 20% chance of rain on Sunday!  I am not looking forward to the rain.  I know that seems weird, but the ground here is so hard it does little to absorb and you end up with flooding.  Also, I'm told everyone's roof leaks here.  Crazy, huh?  Like I said, trade offs.

The park is still pretty quiet.  We have had a couple of Passport America people come in.  Some of them find they like the park and stay extra.  We've done that a few times.

In case I haven't mentioned it, we love Denise and Phil (our assistant managers).  They are just super nice people and since they have been a maintenance team they are learning the computer stuff from us and we (Jay) are leaning the more technical stuff (electric, plumbing) .  It seems to be a really good mix for the Park.  We are all thinking we'd like it if they invited us back next year.  Now, don't get me wrong.  We have bad days.  We miss family.  The internet stinks and definitely  would need to improve for us to come back.  Yesterday we had a site that kept blowing their electric.  Jay, Phil and Denise dug a hole by hand yesterday for the new water tank. 7 foot x 7 foot by 12 inches deep.  They had to start it with a pickax and Phil used his truck to pull up the pole that was cemented in.  It's not even the busy season yet.  We'll know more after we deal with the craziness of January.  Most days are more enjoyable than not.

I know I haven't mentioned the title yet:

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day till eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you 

 If you've been paying attention you know that we live our life in song titles. :)  I know I've mentioned we need a cool new name for our RV adventures and the other night while we were listening to tunes and enjoying the night we decided the lyrics to "Time in a Bottle" really sum up our feelings about this lifestyle.

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do, once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go through time with

As we move forward, we'll be using this more and more.  Hopefully we'll get our youtube channel going soon.  I'll keep you posted.

Oh, by the way, I've lost 5 more pounds.  Officially lost over a 100 now.  Thank you all for your support and comments along the way.  It's certainly a privilege to share this journey with all of you.  happy November!

~Mikki