Catching Up....

Things are a bit hectic here but I know everyone is wondering what's up so here's the short version.

• Drove from White Sulfur Springs, MT to Colorado Springs, CO with only one teensy little defugalty. Hadn't towed in a while (almost 2 months) and forgot to turn off the key at night. Ended up in northern CO with a dead battery in the car. Got that taken care of at the Longmont Camping World where I stopped to get tire covers.
  
• Spent a quiet night in the campground, got gas, argued with the bottle of Sta-bil that didn't want to transfer to the gas tank, moved the RV to the storage lot.
  
• Unloaded the rest of the stuff out of the RV into daughter's car, stored my bicycle in the RV, then got the winterization done.
• Went to visit some old friends who stored my rifel & handgun and took possession of the spare set of keys (in case I need something shipped to me) and had a great lunch at a local Chinese restaurant (best Chinese food in years).
• Went to the airport to pick up the rental car (daughter took possession of my old car), found out their lot was off-site, finally got the car, headed to the hotel for a rest before dinner.
  
• Nice dinner with some other friends, almost closed the restaurant while we chatted (daughter & grandson there as well), headed back to the hotel to find about 30 kids in the lobby registering.
• Woke up realizing that 1) I had forgotten some food in the pantry and 2) the generator never got serviced. Called the RV folks to get the generator done and headed back to the storage lot. Had hoped to meet some friends in Colorado Springs but by the time this was all done it was too close to time to turn in the rental car (2pm deadline).
• Plane took off for Chicago on time, not full so I got to move to an empty seat with no one beside me. Flight attendant gave me the wrong gate, fortunately I checked the monitor. Walked - LONG walk - to the next concourse.
• Half hour late out of Chicago to Baltimore (BWI) and full...cramped flying but finished reading my book. Arrived close to on time, met Stu in the baggage claim.
  
• Since then it has been a whirlwind of sorting my stuff into his stuff, finding spots for everything, mailing another box of stuff back to my daughter, tossing a few things topped with meeting a TON of family & friends. Been eating out WAY too much. Tonight? Out to meet more friends for dinner....LOL!
• Tomorrow we load everything up and head to Gettysburg. We'll be meeting up with other retired firefighter friends for a weekend of fun as well as a lunch with some of my motorcycle friends on Sunday. Monday we move to a different park in Gettysburg and relax a bit before heading to Highland NY to meet with my late husband's youngest daughter & her family (Micki, Eric & the kids - Matthew, Abbi, Zoe & Luke). After that we'll wander somewhere in eastern PA till the 24th when we get the RV serviced in Pottstown, PA.
  
• Back to Stevensville where we have another motorcycle friend lunch in Prince Frederick on the 27th, will attend the Renaissance Faire on the 28th (something I've never done but always wanted to), do the Red Hats ride in honor of Fallen Firefighters on 10/4 and somewhere in the middle of all that have a homemade pizza night for the family (Stu makes it from scratch....).

I will blog when I can but for a while things will stay pretty hectic...as you can see! Having an absolute blast....LIFE IS GOOD!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

Halfway.....

Just a quick travel note....I left White Sulfur Springs at 3:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon. I spent Tuesday night at the Old West RV Park in Reed Point as planned. I got an early start (for me) and hit the road at 7:45 am.

Traffic was light, skies clear for most of the day, comfortable temperatures and I made good time. I ended up in Wheatland, WY for the night at Mountain View RV Park (after my GPS lied to me...LOL!).

This put me about 80 miles ahead of my planned stop for the night so I can sleep in a little tomorrow. I'll stop at Camping World in Longmont, CO to pick up tire cover for the rig. Then will meet with my daughter at the Park and Ride north of Denver and close to her house. We'll load up the car with refrig/pantry/cleaning goods and take them to her house. She'll take me back to the RV and I will head to Colorado Springs. She'll arrive later in the day after picking up my grandson from his 4H meeting.

Friday and Saturday will be FULL-FULL-FULL days so I doubt I will be posting again before Monday (at the earliest). I don't arrive in Baltimore until almost midnight on Saturday. In the meantime, just know that I'm having FUN-FUN-FUN!!!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

70th National Folk Festival - Butte MT (7/12-13/2008)

When I hear the words "Folk Festival", I envision Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Kingston Trio and Peter Paul and Mary. Well, the 70th National Folk Festival completely changed my mind. Take a look at the list of performers and you'll see what I mean.

From the website: "Music and dance traditions from every part of the nation are represented, performed by the country’s very finest traditional artists. Audiences are treated to authentic blues, gospel, jazz, polka, cowboy, bluegrass, klezmer, old-time, Cajun, rhythm and blues, mariachi, western swing, zydeco and more. Continuous performances on seven stages celebrate Native American, Celtic, Acadian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Hispanic, Eastern European, African and Pacific Island cultures."

What a wonderful eclectic gathering of extremely talented and passionate musicians. With only one late afternoon/evening and one full day, we saw only a small smattering of the performers. But what we saw....oh my!

The main reason for out attending was so Stu could see his retiree friends, Bill (mentioned yesterday) and Freddie, who plays in the bluegrass band, The Seldom Scene. When we arrived on Saturday afternoon, it was just in time to catch the band and meet up briefly with Freddie. When they were done we managed to meet up with Bill & Cindy (remember that proverbial needle in a haystack, thank goodness for cell phones) and headed off for drinks & something to eat. Here is a pic from Sunday after the festival ended. From left to right, Stu, Freddie & Bill.



Let me interject a little about the setting for the event. We were quite impressed with how well Butte had this set up. There were multiple stages but they were scattered throughout the closed downtown area. Rarely did the music from one stage impact that playing on another. There was a lot of walking and most of it up or down hill, but we just took our time. Parking was provided at community parking center with free shuttles to take you back & forth. The food tents were all in one location with drink tents scattered around. Another area contained souvenirs and other items to purchase.



There were people of all ages.....young and old, from babies to the elderly. Everyone was having a good time and often there was spontaneous dancing in front of the stages. At one point Cindy dragged Stu out to dance and I soon followed. First time I'd really danced in 10 years. LOL! What fun...well, except for trying to fast dance on an uneven rocky surface. We both felt it the next day.



The closing act for the night was Shemekia Copeland....she hosts Sirius Blues and I have listened to her for several years. Wonderful to see her perform in person!



From there Freddie invited us to the hotel (where all the performers were staying) to have a few drinks at the reception. We walked into the lobby and listened to a jam with folks from at least 4 different bands while we waited for Freddie. Once back in the reception area we saw the same thing repeated several more times. These people are truly passionate about their craft. Eventually we saddled up the trike and headed back to the campground, taking an interesting back road scenic route picked by the GPS.

We got a bit of a slow start on Sunday and missed the first couple of acts that we had hoped to catch. We did see The Seldom Scene performing again (different stage).



Then we wandered around, enjoyed the beautiful views as well as historic sites, ate a little and eventually caught my new favorite group, Le Vent du Nord. They were the closing act for Sunday and the crowd was very appreciative. Dancing galore....everyone getting into the act. (I have already downloaded some of their music from iTunes). We didn't understand a word they sang, but we sure enjoyed the entertainment!



So what was the cost for all this? Three days of professional music, morning - noon - night? Nothing...nada....zip...zilch...zero! Needless to say, we've already put the dates for the 71st National Folk Festival on our calendar, July 10-12 2009 in Butte. Hope to see you there!

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

Lots of miscellany....

First, thank you to everyone who had commented, 'shouted out' and sent emails with good wishes for Stu and I. It is really appreciated and I made sure Stu read them as well.

Few miscellaneous ramblings & musings for today.....

Thought I'd pass along a great blog named "Tyler's RV Tips" - written by Mark Polk's son when he was six. It's fun reading and oh so true...out of the mouths of babes.

On Sunday some blog reading friends, Mike & Janna, rode over from their home about 70 miles away to meet me. They arrived on a gorgeous Honda Shadow (hope I'm remembering that right) and after introductions we sat and chatted for over an hour. It's always great to meet new friends, especially ones with so much in common. They hope one day to be able to travel with a toy hauler but settle for simpler travel now. Turns out we have mutual friends, Ellie & Jim and Doug & JoAnn, definitely a small world. They were all in the same park in Tucson last winter...Mike & Janna left before I arrived and visited though.

Speaking of small worlds, turns out the husband in the rig parked beside me was one of the folks that worked on my solar installation last February in Quartzite. In these photos, he's the one in the plaid jacket working on my battery installation. He thought I looked familiar as did my rig. When he came in to pay for an additional night, the campground owner mentioned that his was the rig parked next to mine. When he went back he looked up and noticed the solar and it all clicked. We both got a good laugh out of that one!

We've had several wildfires in the area recently, one to the north of us was put out fairly quickly. A new one started two days ago close to Townsend, MT, about 50 or so miles from here. We could see the huge plumes of smoke over the ridge and have been keeping up to date with the news since the wind comes from that direction. We had a severe thunderstorm alert yesterday but all we got was wind...not a good thing. The temperature has dropped from 90 to the 70's and we are due a rain tonight or tomorrow. Hoping it comes and helps the firefighters put out the wildfire.

Keeping busy in between work days by finishing up the boxes of stuff to be shipped to Maryland as well as what I will be giving to my daughter in Denver. I can't leave anything liquid inside so there are a lot of open items (cleaning, laundry, etc.) and well as the contents of the pantry, refrigerator, freezer that will get passed to her. Since she's setting up a new household post divorce, it will come in handy. She will also be the recipient of my car so I don't have to worry about putting it on consignment. One less thing to worry about.

Last major item is 4 totes full of paperwork - receipts, instruction books, etc that I have to go through. I'm way behind in entering things into Quicken so once I've sorted & tossed what I don't need, then will spend a couple of days getting Quicken caught up to date...just in time for a tax appointment. LOL! It never ends....

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

Reading between the lines....

Since I have been staying too busy to quickly catch up my back travel blogs (will still do, promise!), I thought it was time to update everyone....at least those that haven't been reading between the lines.

You may remember my mentioning meeting Stu at the Escapade and doing some traveling together. Shortly after my workamping started, Stu headed east for the birth of his second grandbaby (born 8/7/08 & a beautiful baby girl). Being separated for a while was good for both of us, but it brought out the obvious. We wanted to continue our relationship to see where it goes.

So, once I am done workamping, I will put my RV in storage in Colorado Springs (reason being that 1) I have friends there who can retrieve & ship me anything I've forgotten and 2) it's an area we can see us visiting next summer), sell my car to my middle daughter and hop a flight to Baltimore.

Yup, we are officially a couple! We're both widowed so this is the start of a great new adventure for both of us. We've notified all our kids & other family as well as good friends. Everyone is anxious to meet the new person in our lives. This means we will be spending the fall in the east because that is where most of our family is located.

We will be traveling in Stu's 41' KZ Escalade toy hauler, pulled by a small Freightliner (no, I don't know any more details about the truck than that...LOL!) He rides a Harley-Davidson converted trike and I'm perfectly content on the back. We discussed my getting another bike but for many reasons I've decided that it's just not what I need or want right now.

Here are some photos of us, the trike and my new home...I promise some inside photos at a later date. It's really nice, lots of amenities.



So the next few weeks will continue to be busy as I get through the final sorting of stuff to stay and stuff to ship to Baltimore. I'm getting down to the wire, I will leave the campground the afternoon on September 2nd, make it as far as Reed Point, MT (where I have already stayed twice), then halfway to Colorado Springs on the 3rd, finishing the trip on the 4th.

In closing, here is a shot of the full moon over the campground that I took this week. It was the first time I had played with the shuttering settings and left it open too long so it almost looks like daylight....until you notice the lights that are lit around the campground. It was beautiful!!



Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna

Gillette WY to Reed Point MT

When you last left our heroine, she was at the Escapade in Gillette, WY and was having TOO MUCH FUN riding around on the back of a gorgeous Harley-Davidson trike, driven but a very handsome gentleman. story continues....

Well, after much discussion about itineraries Stu and I decided to head to Reed Point, MT. There was a Passport America campground there and it was close to Billings where I needed to get some service work done but also close to Stu's next stop which was Yellowstone.

The drive there was breathtaking....starting out with rolling hills covered in wildflowers and then on to mountain vistas you dream about and then back to softer hills with even more wildflowers. All the photos were snapped through my windshield while driving so forgive the quality.



Reed Point, MT is one of those little beside the highway towns that is interesting as well as fun. We enjoyed out time there, relaxing and enjoying a visit to a local watering hole. You know it's country when you ask for a white wine spritzer and get told, "We got pink sh!t in a box and white sh!t in a box." LOL!! Here are a few pics of the town including the inside of the bar we visited (and enjoyed).



And here are a few pics of the Old West RV Park campground & our rigs (mine looks miniature next to Stu's). We really enjoyed the little park, the owners were fabulous and helped us out with logistics with a late stay. We plan to visit them again.



While taking a break at the park and waiting for my service appointment to arrive, we discussed the trip to Yellowstone. Stu got the bright idea that I should just leave me rig a couple of extra days (store at the RV place) and we'd go together in his rig. Sounded like a plan to me...

So the morning of my appointment Stu followed me on his trike to the dealer in Billings, MT and we came back, picked up his rig and headed south towards Yellowstone.

Stay tuned, more story to come...

Till next time - keep on rollin',
Froggi/Donna