Seeing America with Ken and Shirley: September 2022

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Chicken on the Pit Boss :) Woodstove hooked up, J and K's anniversary and my sister's too!

Other than a trip to Walmart and Raley's in Gardnerville this week we've mostly been home. Nice to go, but nice to come home too!

Fill your gas tanks! 2 days ago in town gas was $4.77, yesterday was $5.17 and today $5.47 ! So ridiculous and I'm sure it's higher in the bigger cities and other states like CA. 😱

Monday, Ken decided to try cooking some chicken thighs again on the Pit Boss. He marinated in the sugar free barbecue sauce we like, G. Hughes, original. Cooked them up to perfection!

He's got it down! I don't like thighs, but these tasted awesome!

After Walmart on Tuesday we stopped at Dini's in town to have some lunch. We've always had great service and food there. Food was awesome but the service was terrible and us and another couple were all that were in there. They had 5 girls on, but sounded like they were all in the back flirting with the cook. Very disappointed.

We thought we'd try breakfast and not our regular girls on and again horrible service. I know they changed hands a few months back, hopefully these were just 1 time things. We shall see sometime down the road.

Ken has a couple of projects going. He wanted to get the wood stove hooked up in the outdoor kitchen.

It's been sitting in the corner for a few months..

He got the hole cut just like he wanted. This is temporary until we find 2 metal
signs to go around the pipe, but it works!

We both agreed that straight is boring LOL. Just need a chimney top for it!

Got our Midtown Marketplace find hung! Can never

have too many hearts!

We had awesome skies 💙

Love our lights, but I told Ken we need another strand to brighten it for
when we eat out there.

A little closer view of the chimney and he's got the fire bricks in too!

I love watching smoke come out of a chimney..really can't see it much
but trust me, it was there! 😊

Of course, we HAD to have a fire to see if it works, and yes it does!

Today, Ken scraped and caulked the far side of the garage, that we never got to last year when we painted the house and everything else. Looks like tomorrow is painting day to get that side done. We have the backside wall of the garage to do too but Ken's got a lot of wood and stuff out there, so we'll see when we get that done.

John and Karen's 10th anniversary is today, so I put together a little package for them to send with her to Coarsegold for the weekend. We are babysitting the hairy kids until Monday. They stay at her house and we go visit and spend a couple of nights or more depending on how depressed they are LOL.

My sister, Wendy and her hubby are celebrating 38 years today. Happy Anniversary you two. 💗

Can't believe another month has gone by already. Looks like Saturday we'll be going to the Outhouse Races in Virginia City. We really enjoy those races! LOL.

Enjoy the weekend! Happy Hour coming up with the hairy kids! 🍷🍺🐩🐶

Sunday, September 25, 2022

A little trip to Bridgeport, CA then to Washoe Lake Camping, Candy Dance, now we're home :)

Last Monday morning we were getting ready to leave for our little vacation to Bridgeport when Ken discovered the hose on one of the propane bottles was leaking. We made the decision to leave on Tuesday and run to Reno to pick up a couple of hoses. Quick stop at Total Wine too.

Tuesday, we left home around 1100 so we'd be at the campground around 1300 to have lunch. Worked out perfectly. A coupe of the NFS campgrounds were pretty full with people but lower Honeymoon Flat had quite a few open spaces. We picked a pull through and got set up.

Once we got to Bridgeport we had our long awaited champagne from Bryan
and Cheryl along with our bologna sandwiches..YUMMY!

Bridgeport Reservoir is really low..we need rain!

The skies looked threatening but nothing happened until overnight

The little town of Bridgeport, CA

# 8 at Lower Honeymoon Flat..a huge pull through!

You could fit a couple of RVs here along with huge tent pad. With our
America the Beautiful pass only $12.50 a night.

Tuesday night it rained so Wednesday morning awoke to this beautiful view below.

Beautiful view from our site

Let's enjoy the view while we have a mimosa and a bloody mary, just
because we could! 😊

We took a drive to the end of the road..Twin lakes so beautiful!

Last time we were here with the grandsons, we tried to rent a boat and they had
none available..guess that wouldn't be a problem now..

Tuesday night it rained so Wednesday morning we awoke to some beautiful snow on the high mountains. Never tire of that view! We definitely enjoyed a few days there!

We decided rather than head home on Thursday we'd head for Washoe Lake State Park and camp there until Sunday. 😀 Both campgrounds were full. Luckily we spotted someone that was leaving, so we pulled in as they pulled out. We like this side of the campground as it is equipped with electricity and water. With Ken's State Park Pass ($30.00 a year) it only costs us $10.00 a night, or if we stay in the other side that has no hookups, it's FREE camping. Nice bathrooms and showers too. 😃

This weekend is Street Vibrations in Reno, so there's a lot of Harley's in the campground and all over! Quite the party going on at Carson City Harley Davidson.

Friday morning we headed to Casino Fandango for a yummy late breakfast. Then off to Reno so I could do some shopping. It's been awhile since I've treated myself to some new clothes. Good thing Ken is VERY patient as gong through the mall, I found nothing. I like simple things and could't find anything I wanted. :( Guess I'll try Ross in the near future.

After a few hours, I suggested going to Midtown Marketplace in Carson. A little antique, collectable store. There we did find a couple of things LOL.

This beauty will hang on the outside of the outdoor kitchen 😊

Back to camp for some of Ken's yummy burgers and a beautiful night by the fire.

Saturday morning I set the alarm for 0500 so we'd be ready to leave a little after 0700. We ate our breakfast in the truck on the way to the Candy Dance in Genoa, an adorable little town set back by the mountains. It's Nevada's oldest settlement.

This weekend it's a huge craft and vendor fair, that brings in thousands of people. By 0800 the streets were packed. We spent a few hours walking the streets and vendors. We did support the Genoa Volunteer Fire Department by buying a new long sleeve shirt for Ken, a couple of glasses and a couple of Bloody Marys along with a new wine glass for me (wine included) A great way to finish the morning! LOL.

About 0800..crowds not bad

A couple of hours later..people everywhere LOL.

Traffic coming in as we were going out.

Luckily Ken parked the truck going against the traffic in the
am. Made it much easier to get out!

On the way out we did buy one of the last 3 sandwich boards that we had seen earlier. Amazing how quickly these sold!

We got back to the campground early afternoon and just enjoyed. Late afternoon we headed for Betsy's and had an early, delicious dinner with leftovers coming home. :)

We have enjoyed our little vacation, but today we're heading home. First things first though, a yummy breakfast along with a mimosa!

Supporting the local fire department! I wish I would have bought more of

these as they are the perfect size and plastic too!

It was cool so Ken lit the campfire! Perfect!!

Got home early afternoon, unloaded The Mansion and now she's in her parking space ready for the next trip! We thought it might be mid October, but we'll see.

Well, looking like it's almost Happy Hour time again..LOL. Enjoy your evening!

Sunday, September 18, 2022

Our "real" Anniversary, Old high school friends visit! A mini vacation tomorrow!

Friday, September 16th was our "real" 50th wedding anniversary. I swear it feels like we've been celebrating all month LOL. If it's our anniversary then we know what's for lunch.

These were yummy! LOL. Bologna sandwiches!

50 years ago 💙

We are normally gone somewhere on our anniversary, but this year we had some very special company coming for the weekend. Jim and Dave, high school friends of Ken's were coming out on Friday. Jim and his wife Leslie stopped by in 2015, but I was in New York and didn't get to see them. So I hadn't seen Jim (and had never met Leslie) in 22 years, at the last high school reunion of theirs. Dave and his wife Debbie had never been here so it had been 22 years since we had seen them too.

The timing worked for them to be able to come out and have all three of the "boys" together on Friday.

Jim and Leslie got here first and we visited for awhile before Dave and Debbie showed up with their new trailer. They are headed out on a 6 month adventure and we were the first stop!

Dave and Debbie's new trailer

We all visited and enjoyed each others company.

Jim on the left and Dave on the right

Ken, Jim and Dave 💙

💙

Jim, Leslie, Ken, Me, Dave and Debbie along with their Whiskey

I had made some enchiladas, cole slaw and rice earlier in the day so just had to throw them in the oven. We actually enjoyed eating in the outisde kitchen and visiting. Sure different than two weeks ago when it was so hot and the flies were horrible.

The evening ended too soon, as Jim and Leslie were heading back into town to the stay the night. They needed to leave early on Saturday and head back to CA. We said our see you laters to them. We all realize we need to get together more often. No more waiting 22 years LOL.

After they left we stayed up way too late visiting with Dave and Debbie. A few adult beverages were consumed along the way. 🍷🍺

Saturday morning I made breakfast of biscuits and gravy, eggs, potatoes and bacon. Debbie and I enjoyed a couple of mimosas too. 🥂 Christina and Holly were enjoying mimosas online so we crashed the party too! LOL.

After some more visiting we took them on a tour of the town. Those of you who have been here, know that doesn't take too long haha. As it turned out Karen had texted telling us there was a car show in town. Not as big as the one in June, but a nice one anyway. It was titled "Take a kid to a car show". We stopped by Karen's store before coming home and she gifted us with 3 bottles of wine 😃 Jim and Leslie left a pretty full bottle of red wine that Debbie enjoyed. I can't drink it because of migraines.

Gorgeous 61 Chevy!

Debbie said this was her first car..

Dave and Debbie checking out the goodies

Karen took off work early and we were all invited to her place for dinner. She picked up some meat from the Mexican store in town and made some awesome tacos and fixings on the side.

It was cool enough for a fire outside so we enjoyed that for way too long LOL.

This morning after coffees and a little snack our company left for their next stop in Elko, NV. We're excited for them and their new adventure.

After they left Ken and I enjoyed a couple of mimosas and decided tomorrow we're going to take the Mansion and head for Bridgeport CA for a few days. The campgrounds are only a little over 70 miles away, so why not?! It's beautiful over there and we have an anniversary bottle of champagne to drink too!

Two new champagne glasses along with a $50.00 (CHOKE) bottle of champagne
Thank you, Bryan and Cheryl! 💕 We will enjoy it tomorrow

Thursday night Ken used the Pit Boss for the first time. The chicken cooked quickly and it was done, but not done enough for me. Guess I'm used to drier breasts. It was very moist and tasty. He's anxious to use it again! Thanks again to our great friends!