Through the Valley of Death...

.... We shall fear no evil. Though there do seem to be many things named for the devil in these parts.

Drove from Laughlin NV to Panamint CA today. Pretty much across Death Valley.

Stopped at Furnace Creek, quite the landscape there!

After driving 250 miles, and 7 hours later (with a stop for gas and groceries) a well deserved beer at the Panamint Springs Cafe was in order. They claim to have 170 kinds, tho we only tried one each.

Jim is trying his luck with the wifi on his iPad in the above photo. Very spotty here. So I am posting this via email on the iPhone. Hoping for better wifi up the road.

More later....

A meeting of the anipals

Today in Laughlin we met up with Pierre and Laci (with their mom and dad, Cindy and Bruce) and Ody and his dad Les. Ody and Les came to meet TSK first here at the RV. Ody had never met a kitty before but both did great, and had 'nose taps' even!

Then we went to see the rest of the gang at their hotel. All of the doggies met for the first time and had a good time sniffing and getting to know each other. The humans went out to get a bite and left the dogs to have a pawty in the room.

Pix from the tweet up: Anipal Tweet Up

Cindy's pix here

It was really great meeting everyone!

Dana with Petie, Bruce with Laci, Cindy with Pierre, Les with Ody

Later in the afternoon Jim and I walked along the Colorado River Walk.

Jim at the Colorado, Bullhead City, Arizona across the river

Tomorrow we pull up stakes and head back towards home. We are taking a different route, this time going through Death Valley. If there is wifi, we will update you on our whereabouts.

Until then.....

Part ll....

ahhhhh... the joy of wifi. Or not.

Here at the Riverside Casino RV Park, wifi isn't free. You have to pay for it, but they tell you that even if you pay for it there is no guarantee that you will have any connection where you are. 

Geez.... well, we can get on it on the MacBook, but not on the iPads.

And even then, on the Macbook, it's very slow. Took 30 minutes to upload one photo.

Anyway.... where was I in our journey....ah yes, on our way to Las Vegas to meet Les.

Yikes!

Dana and Les

Laughlin, NV and BullHead City AZ

Kitty waiting for Jim to check in....

Multi-tiered RV park

Laughlin Strip

Now, for today. Woke up to gale force winds, so strong that it was shaking the RV! Not the best conditions for a bike ride, but we brought them with us and needed some exercise so off we went. Our final destination was the Big Bend Colorado River state park. 

Came across an Off Road Race course

The Colorado River

The Windy Winding road....

Tomorrow we will be meeting Les and Ody (they will be driving from LV) and Cindy and Bruce, with their dogs Pierre and Laci (who came from New Mexico today). We are really looking forward to it and hope to post lots of pix!

Stay tuned!

On the road again...

A couple weeks ago we found out that some friends of ours were going to be coming through Nevada on their way from Illinois to Palm Springs CA. @PierrethePoodle and his family
 AND
Another friend, who lives in Las Vegas was going to meet them in Laughlin, Nevada. @LBonser and his doggie @OdyMaltese
So we thought this would be a good opportunity to do another RV trip.
We wanted to try a Class A RV this time.

So we rented a 26' Winnebago Vista, the smallest Class A they make.

We packed up the cat and the bikes, and left from Reno on Wednesday.

Drove down 95 to Tonopah, NV as our first leg.

Much of the scenery looked like this

Jim driving the 'rig' looking pretty pro!

Our rental rig, 2009 Winnebago Vista

Kitty is such a good navigator, loves the big dash.

Our first stop was Tonopah, Nevada.

Back on the open road, next stop las Vegas

Due to very spotty wifi we are having trouble updating the blog... but stay tuned, we will post more pix when we can.
Have lots more to share with you!

Of Snow and Crocs

Woke up this morning to snow... which is ok, but the weather forecaster dude on the tv said nothing about snow last night. It's lovely nonetheless.

Here are a couple short videos taken from different windows.

While we were deciding what snow activity we should do today, tsk amused us with his morning activity 'Bite the Shoe'. He bites the heels of our running shoes (I'm sure it makes us faster!) and these old orange Crocs.

And a short video of tsk in action.

So after all that excitement we decided to head out. There wasn't quite enough snow to ski so we got the snow shoes out and took a walk about our neighborhood. Here are some photos from our outing.

Mr & Mrs Goober, bundled up.

running, and kicking up the snow

snowy creek

hippity hoppity! many critter tracks in the snow

a snowy vista

Dana in the snow

another vista

The aspen grove, sans the golden leaves

Another nice day in the mountains, and the best part was our kitty greeting us at the door.

Baking on a Stormy Winter's Day

A short time ago I was chatting with my friend on twitter...not sure how the conversation came around to it, but I had mentioned that I was 'yeast challenged' when it came to baking. And I do love to bake but when perusing recipes if it calls for yeast it gets tossed out. So my friend sent a link to a recipe of theirs which sounded really good. 

I gathered up all my courage and thought today with it's howling winds and blowing snow was a good day to attempt to 'conquer the yeast'. Of course, with the added difficulties of baking in high altitude.

Here is the link to the recipe: Pull Apart Sweet Potato Pie Cinnamon Roll with Orange Liqueur Icing

There are many good recipes there so I hope you take a look.

Ok, here we go......

Ingredients have been gathered

 

Sweet potatoes peeled, cubed, steamed... ready for mashing.

 

 

Ready to add ingredients together

Jim helping out with the kneading. It's hard work for sure!

Ready for the first proofing

Holy Cow! It worked! It doubled in size!

Dough rolled out, filling added to top

Rolled up and sliced

Ready for second proofing!

After second proofing, has risen more! ready for baking!

Hot out of the oven! Smells so good, now for some icing.

Iced with some chopped almonds on top.

A warm piece of Sweet Potato Cinnamon Roll..... Bon Appetit

So all in all I would say that this recipe was a success! In the difficult conditions of high altitude with yeast it turned out really well. You can taste the spices and the orange and it's not an overwhelming sweet kind of roll either. I'd make it again!

Since it is just the two of us we cut it in half and wrapped it up. Jim bundled up and in the howling blowing storm ran it over to our neighbors the Sherpas. Hope they like it as much as we do.

Thanks @yassysgdk for sharing your recipe!

Snowy Mountain Bike Ride

Even though it hasn't snowed in over a week here, it's been so cold the snow we got hasn't melted. In spite of that we thought we would check out the trails in the neighborhood....

I will tell you now, we need 4-wheel drive for our 2-wheeled bikes!

Jim trying to stay upright. Snow is so slippery!

Even with these knobby tires, no traction!

Soon we will be Nordic skiing to this hut.

 

 

Paw prints a-plenty

Even the beaver pond is starting to freeze over.

Our other activity today was wrapping up all the small and young trees around the house. Soon the snow will be at least to the bottom of that window!