Category: Food

NASCAR stands for National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing.

Sunday 03/06/22 NASCAR race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway! We had watched some RVers on Youtube and saw that they camped AT the race. That looks like a lot of fun. A few weeks ago, we decided to get tickets. Not for camping, as we didn’t know the set up for work and such.

Off we went early in the morning. Got to the speedway with ease since we were early. The race starts at 12:30 but we were there at 10:00. Fun to walk around the Fan Zone outside the gates and see all that was going on. Then inside, we walked the length and saw a lot of food vendors.

We found our seats…literally on the very end of the entire seating and next to the last from the top. Seats 1 and 2, row 81. We thought these were perfect as we could see the entire race track. Thankfully, no one sat in the three rows in front of us so the view was completely clear. Later, we both commented on how both of us thought we would see some rowdy and drunk people. But we didn’t see anyone like that at all. Kevin said the price of beer was too much to get drunk on. HAHA It was clean, the bathrooms spotless, there were stadium seats with armrests and they were clean. Very impressed.

For lunch, Kevin got one sausage dog with peppers and onions on it on a regular bun. It cost $13! I got pizza and we didn’t even look to see how much that was. HAHA

The race was great. Everyone had ear protection on. Of course being deaf, I couldn’t hear the engines but I could feel it and it was incredible. It felt like a big ole pipe organ, playing a chord of low notes and it would swell and get bigger and bigger. I loved it!

We didn’t have anyone we wanted to win so we picked #11, FedEx, since Kevin receives and sends a ton of stuff with them for work. #11 was doing great..until he blew the transmission lap 219 or so (out of 267).

We decided to leave after the FedEx car was out. Where did we go? Well, don’t forget to read last week’s blog to see where we went after the race. Kevin wanted a desk! 🙂

Rest Stop, on in the middle of Golden Valley, AZ. Isn’t that hilarious? We just laugh out loud every time we see it.

As you read in our post last week, we are now traveling full-time. We sold our house, quit our jobs, Kevin got a new one (so he can work remote from anywhere), and we are starting our new adventures. Since we want a home base, we are having a house built in Fort Mohave, AZ. Home is “where you park it” and our home is named HOWE. It is our 25 ft travel trailer, named for Home On WhEels and pronounced How-ee.

We decided to start our full-time travels in Needles, CA. The campground is named Desert View RV. The picture above was taken from inside HOWE. You can see the blooms on the Oleander bush and this is February!

This area’s growing season is October – March. I found a farmer’s market at Triple Farms Produce. The fresh salsa I made was delicious. Again, in February. I smile.

We got tired of locking and unlocking HOWE with a key. So Kevin researched and found this keypad. He bought it and it makes locking and unlocking much easier. The install was pretty easy with great instructions.

Kevin order a “Bak-Flip” for our truck. He had thought about buying a shell but we looked at them and decided this other way was a better way. Since Kevin had to work at home (Home Is Where You Park It), I went to Lake Havasu, AZ, about 40 minutes away. We had been to this place last week so I knew where I was going. He was nice to tell the worker on the phone that I am deaf. As I got there, I parked across the street because the tiny parking lot was full. As I went through the front door, the nice man walked out with another customer. He smiled and I handed him the keys and pointed to the truck. Then I plopped myself at the end of their counter where there was a bar stool. I got out my pad of paper, my iPhone and my iPad and started reading my book. The guy gave me a thumbs-up when he came in. It was very nice and it took about 1 1/2 hours, which we knew. After I paid, I wrote on my pad is there anything I need to know about the new thing. He wrote did I want him to show me how it works? Yes, thanks. Back at home, Kevin was very pleased with it and started loading up totes for the “warehouse” – what he called the back of the truck. 🙂

We like to look around the area, wherever we are. So many things to see and discover. We decided to try Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Needles. Inside there is a lot of memorabilia about Route 66. We ordered our Diet Pepsi drinks and then another lady, Kim, came over. She saw us signing American Sign Language and asked if we are deaf. We told her I am. She said she is hard of hearing, 40%, has hearing aids but doesn’t use/like them because it makes everything too loud. Her parents and siblings all have hearing loss. We connected right away. She was interested in us and we in her. Soon she took our order, haha, and then brought back her 8 year old girl, Minnie. She is a firecracker and full of life! She asked a ton of great questions. She asked me to teach her everything in ASL. HAHA I told her to give me 3 words and I would teach her the signs. She wanted Minnie Mouse, wheel, and I can’t remember the last one. After visiting for awhile, Kim said they needed to go and let us eat our food. I signed the whole time I am talking. I signed and said to Minnie that it was very nice to meet her. She said, with a dramatic brush of the hands as she pointed to my hands, “Oh, you don’t need to do that stuff…I can hear you!” Kevin, Kim, and I about fell over laughing so hard. As we left, Kim gave us big hugs and was so happy to meet us. We told her we would be back. As we left, Kevin told her “Don’t settle” on hearing aid settings. Go back, get it adjusted. It is a great speech he gives a lot of people with hearing aids and I think it is wonderful. I told Kevin in the car, “Well, there is our community.” We found out later that they have a YouTube channel. You can check it out here: RealTruthTalk

One Saturday, we got up at 5:45 AM and started driving the car to Overton, NV (2- 1/2 hours away). We went to watch our friend, Bryce, a senior in high school, play a baseball tournament. We have attending a lot of his baseball games over the years. We stopped at Searchlight, NV for drive-through breakfast at McDonalds. We had quite a shock because the total was $20. Two breakfast burritos, two egg biscuits, and two drinks. Where we used to live, that would be a dollar per burrito and drink and about two for each biscuit. He double checked at the window and the order was right. The receipt showed the biscuits were 2@$10.98, the burritos were 2@about $6. My goodness! We wondered if all the McDonalds have jumped in price. Kevin said he would put his brother, who likes McDonalds and lives in the Mid-West, on a search-and-learn mission. HAHA Bryce’s team played two games, one at 9:00 and one at 11:00.  They lost the first one and won the second. He is always a joy to watch. He has a great attitude and encourages his teammates. The weather was perfect, sunny, slight breeze every once in a while but not cold. After the games, we decided to go home the back roads and it was great. We went south out of Overton past the east entrance to Valley of Fire, which we went to last year. The road is a great, paved, two lane road. At times we could see Lake Mead. The landscape would be flat and then climb through a canyon. At one point there are some red rocks, like Valley of Fire. A lot of people where parked there. In front of us, there came a pack of people on bicycles. They were going 40 mph. We passed them and then came around a corner where the traffic was completely stopped. We could see flashing lights way ahead of us. Thankfully, we only had to sit for 5 minutes and then the traffic started up again.  We never saw what the problem was. The road ended up on the east side of Las Vegas Valley, at Henderson. I didn’t want to cook that evening, so we went to Wagon Wheel. They were very full but there was an empty table. Kevin had the western burger and really liked it. I had the roast beef skillet and let me say, it tasted as good as mine! Crockpot roast beef, shredded, in gravy, over mashed potatoes. Back home, we sat outside and read our books…in February! LOVE this weather. 🙂

We leave you with this beautiful sunset. Or…maybe we will make you hungry –

🙂

33rd trip – days 157-159,  Nov 5-7, 2021 Snow Canyon State Park, UT

Friday 11/05/21 For several reasons, this day took longer than most. Of course it starts at the local Maverick gas station for gas, drinks, and ice. Since HOWE (our travel trailer’s name, short for Home On WhEels) is at the storage spot in St George (4 hours south), where it is nice and warm, we need to take a cooler. Once we get to HOWE and the fridge is cold, we can transfer the items. As we passed Rowley’s Red Barn, in Santaquin, UT, we decided we should stop. I grew up with Rowley’s as neighbors and in school. They had fresh apple cider donuts and I just had to have a box. We also got fresh apple cider and some apples. The “barn”-store has ice cream, candy, boxes of meat, all sorts of breads made in that town as well as a variety of salsas, spreads, you name it, all made locally. We like to support things made and grown locally. Down the road we went, eating our  just-out-of-the-oven warm donuts. At Cedar City, we saw the remains of a van that had rolled off the side of the road. The emergency responders were there working. Usually when you pass a wreck the speeds will pick up. But they didn’t. We moved a few yards, slowly, and then came to a complete stop. So stopped, that I turned off the engine. 35 minutes. I even saw people walking around the center median looking ahead. Finally we got moving again. We saw the police standing by a barricade that stops people from going into a construction site on a bridge. On the tow truck was a pickup that was completely smashed, who obviously hit the barricade. We aren’t sure someone could survive after what the pickup looked like. We finally got to St George and HOWE. Then, the jack wouldn’t raise because the batteries are dead. Why? We don’t know. Kevin got on the ground and checked the fuse; it was good. Thankfully Kevin was able to charge it from the truck. Standing there watching him, I felt this red-hot stab of pain on my left hip. Oh, that was weird. It didn’t take long at all to get the jack going and get all hooked up. As I was getting into the truck I felt a red-hot stab of pain at the top of my right leg. Ouch. That was weird. As we were driving, I felt the pain still on the left hip and right leg. Soon I felt the red-hot stab of pain on my left shin. I pulled up my pant legs and there was this huge black ant! I squashed it immediately. I was surprised how big it was. I started squashing movements all around my body! When we got to Snow Canyon State Park and our campsite, I went in and checked and yes, there were bite marks! Ugh. We thought it was strange that Kevin didn’t feel any since he had laid on the ground. Kevin decided he wanted pizza so we drove down the canyon to the city (only a few miles). We drove to a pizza place we had been to before with our friends, Bryce and Heather. So sad, it was out of business. It was #1 on Trip Advisor. Probably couldn’t hold on through Covid, but not sure. Okay, looked up #2, drove some miles to that place and nope it was closed. Remodeling, the sign said. Looked up #3, drove around the city and this place was so packed, we couldn’t even find street parking for more than 6 blocks.We are sure it would have taken forever to get in. Keep going. The next place we found, around the city, was Pier 49 Pizza. There wasn’t a wait and the dining room was empty. Yes! We had the Dinner for 2 which included Cheese bread, our pizza of 1/2 bbq chicken and 1/2 combo, and then a dessert pizza. Very good. Not our favorite pizza but it was good for tonight. 🙂 We made many circle 8s around the town. 🙂 Back at HOWE, we sat outside and watched the stars. Too bad a large motorhome next to us kept their bright outside light on all night. It made a difference in how we could see the night sky. As Kevin went to bed…he said he had several ant bites!

Saturday 11/06/21 We skipped the lemon poppy seed muffins I made, :), and had more apple cider donuts with apple cider for breakfast. Snow Canyon State Park had a 1/2 marathon this morning. The runners start at the top and go down the canyon, which is good because it is pretty steep. We walked out to the road and saw a lady there cheering everyone on. A guy had a sign “You can do it” and was cheering. I was so impressed with the lady, she is older and a little humped over with arthritic hands. But boy, she was so encouraging to each and every person passing by (1500 people did the full length). Kevin and I cheered, clapped and did thumbs up. Kevin signed to me that the lady is the campground hostess. Pretty soon she camp over and started signing American Sign Language! Her name is Nancy, she signed. She had a friend who was deaf so she became interested and learned ASL. She went on to Rochester School of the Deaf in New York! She even taught ASL and became an interpreter. I was so happy and excited to be able to communicate with someone in my new language. She signed beautifully and I was able to understand it all.  Made my day, week, month! After the race, we set up our camp chairs in the large grassy area with huge trees. It is a place for anyone who is in the canyon to sit, eat, and relax (not just campers). It was fun to watch people: trailers pulling in and waiting until check in time, bikers stopping for a bathroom break and fresh water, families who are camping here passing by us as they go on a hike (over 30 people all in a line!), and we saw 2 couples on dates who brought up picnic baskets. No matter which direction we look, we see the awesome views of the red rocks so close. Soon, Kevin was taking a nap after reading his book for awhile. We were there so long, we had to keep moving our chairs to be in the shade. 🙂 Oh, for lunch, I heated up pulled pork shoulder that I had cooked at home. I had shredded it and sealed it with my Food Saver. So in HOWE, all I had to do was heat it up. I served it on hoagie buns. I took our lunch outside and we ate right where we were sitting.

In the afternoon, we decided to go on a hike. We drove down to Johnson’s Canyon trailhead and walked. It took us to a very unique place. A very narrow canyon with big trees with green leaves and willow trees. This is something you don’t normally see around here. But alas, it is because there is a little spring of water and it made green things grow. What a sight to see – the straight up red rocks with green down in the bottom. Gorgeous. The hike was very easy and we are glad we took it. When we got back to the truck, Kevin said we needed to get antifreeze for the pipes. I suggested, strongly!, some sort of ant replant, as we don’t want them in HOWE and obvious got them at the storage spot. We went to our favorite Ace Hardware (I wrote about it when we were in this area before).  It has a large fabric section – bigger than a lot of fabric stores! Plus, it even has a Post Office in it. HAHA Kevin sent me to look at fabric while he got supplies. After that, we decided to find a place to eat. Hopefully not the double-8’s around the city like last night! HAHA We found a sports bar and went it. We we able to watch the Jazz play and the mushroom burger Kevin had was one of the best, he said. I had a California club sandwich and it was yummy. My favorite was the seasoned fries (tasted like Red Robin) and fry sauce. We will definitely come back here again. Back at HOWE, Kevin sat outside for a bit. I came inside and organized my Paprika App on my laptop. Soon, off to dreamland.

Sunday, 1107/21 Breakfast was the last of the apple cider donuts and some juice. We did another walk-about this morning. This is our 2nd time camping here and is a favorite place. We like the sites with hook-ups and they have a dump station. The scenery all around is breathtaking. Checkout is at 2:00 and we plan to stay until then. We will drop off HOWE at the storage spot and then plan to stop at Mexican Restaurant in Beaver. This is getting to be a tradition or habit. HAHA

NEXT BLOG POST: it will be trip #32, which we skipped here. We have some VERY EXCITING CHANGES to tell you about. 🙂

24th trip – days 126-128, Aug 13-15, 2021 Mountain Valley RV Resort, Heber, UT

We picked this campground because Kevin is on call this weekend and we know the internet is great here. When we were here before, we enjoyed the luxurious campground and the adults-only heated swimming pool and hot tub. 

Friday, 08/13/21 Got a little later start this evening due to Kevin needing to do some more things for work. But that was just fine; didn’t bother us at all. We knew we were camping pretty close to home. Ah, this place is luxury personified. 🙂 Lots of green grass, picnic tables and our site backs up to beautiful trees with great shade. When we checked in, Kevin asked if there were any entertainment things going on this weekend. She said, no, because the guy who does it (setting up the movies, for example) broke his collar bone and some ribs. Ouch! Poor guy. While I was helping Kevin back in to our site, a worker driving a golf cart came up and started talking to me. I said, “I am deaf, please talk to him.” I was using our walkie talkie and so Kevin knew what was going on. The guy said they had two trailers booked for this spot and to wait. I saw the second trailer behind him. So we waited in the road for a few minutes. Then he came back and said everything is fine, He misread the paper and the other trailer goes in F3, we are in F2. No problem at all. He was very nice. We got backed in no problems. The F3 trailer is from Sandy and they are here for their boy’s 8th birthday, Grandparents were coming over to celebrate. We ate a simple meal of pasta salad that I made this morning. We also had a roll with it. We realized that we didn’t bring Diet Dr Pepper and Diet Coke and there was only 1 each in the fridge. After reading and playing on our laptops for awhile, we drove 5 minutes away to Walmart. As we went to check out, we saw there was 0 cashiers and no check out lanes open. Not one! The line of people was waiting for the self check out. How weird is that?! Of course we didn’t have cold drinks, so a stop at Maverick was a must. Kevin said inside there was only one person working. Made us wonder, is there not enough people working at Walmart and Maverick? Must be due to Covid. Back to HOWE, we sat in the shade under the trees at the back of the site and property. We didn’t feel like swimming but plan to tomorrow.

Saturday 08/14/21 I had been feeling dizzy at times. It seems to be getting worse. Sometimes I have to take a step to the side to balance myself. Today we just rested. Kevin was on call and ending up on the phone for quite a while to help out some people. I enjoyed the time reading.

For lunch we went to Chick’s Cafe. My dad drives 40 minutes to eat here a couple of times. He said the Chicken Fried Steak is delicious. I tried it and he is right.

We ended up not swimming. The campsite next to us had a boy who was turning 8 and he was having a party with his family and friends. One of the family friends had to leave quickly because Parley’s Canyon caught and fire and they lived near there. Later, the parents offered us food and cake and ice cream. They said they had plenty because so many had to leave to check on the fire. They were so very nice. We had just eaten. Kevin cooked sausages, peppers, onions, and zucchini on the griddle. I was too full for dessert but Kevin had some. 🙂 

Sunday 08/15/21 I woke up at 5:00 AM with severe vertigo. I ended up sitting up in bed and not moving my head at all until the sun came up. I felt nauseous, too. Thankfully, I didn’t throw up. We headed home around 11:00 am.