HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

Greetings to all and Happy New Year

David calls this my 'Q-Tip' look. It has been so cold here in Sacramento that a couple of days have been warmer in the mountains with the snow. We did see a little sun yesterday but for the most part it has been foggy. The whole Sacramento-San Juaquin valley is known for it's fog. I have seen it go 90 days in Sacramento without any sun.

We are looking forward to the New Year and hope to be able to travel as much as possible. We do know that we will be in Red Bluff for the next few months and then who knows. We have thought about maybe Alaska, east coast, or Mexico. Of course I still want to see Mt Rushmore.

We will be spending the evening at our Daughter Michelle's tonight with their family and my Sister Lenette and her Husband. We hardly ever make it to midnight so figure we will celebrate the east coast New Year. Tomorrow we will go to my Mom's to spend the day with her.

I make no New Years resolutions because I just can't stick to anything. So all I can say is that I hope each one of you have a safe New Years celebration and that the new year treats all with kindness and health.

Happy Campers

David and Carol

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Even Molly has Holiday Spirit



















David's Sister Mary and her husband Steve















David, Mary, and all the Nephews















David, Steve and our Granddaughter Allison















Carol's Mom

It has been a wonderful Christmas for us. We were very fortunate this year to be able to spend so much time with family. We are still in Sacramento so we have been able to spend some quality time with everyone.

Christmas Eve we went to David's Sister's. Mary and Steve have a very nice home in Folsom. Of course it was raining. Our Granddaughter, Allison went with us. Mary had invited family and friends for food and drink and so we ate and drank. David's nephews all came by with their families. He has not seen them in about 20 years so it was very special to him. As you can see by the pictures, David is the runt of the family. They have all grown up to be such nice men, have very nice and pretty wives and children. It was really the highlight of this Christmas for David and I think for his Sister also. All of this family rarely sees each other so it was very special. Thank you to Mary and Steve for having us and for making this time of year what it was meant to be.

On Christmas day we went to Carol's Mom's house where another special gathering was underway. Carol's Sister, Lenette and Husband Todd were here from Missouri and they brought Carol's Great Nephew, Kirk from Kansas with them. Our Daughter Michelle and her family were there and Carol's Nephew Eric, his Wife Christina and their little girl were there. Not only was it a great day for us but it was a wonderful time for Carol's Mom who had not seen her Great Grandson for about 7 years. Of course we ate and drank again. It was good for Carol's Mom to have 2 of her children and spouses, 2 grandchildren and spouses and 5 Great Grandchildren.

We have been able to do alot of things while we have been in Sacramento. Carol has been able to spend some time alone with Michelle and enjoyed every minute of it.

We will be here until Jan. 6th when we will be leaving and going to Red Bluff, CA. We took the job there at an RV Resort and will be there for at least 3 months. It is only 2 hours away from Sacramento, close to Shasta and MT Lassen and only 6 hours from Carol's Brother, Charlie and 6 hours from Paso Robles.

We hope everyone has had a great Holiday and pray for all to have a wonderful New Year.

With Love, David and Carol

Happy Campers

FAMILY

Hello from Red Bluff. We are here looking into a workcamping position.
We were driving in Sacramento and saw a car with Durango RV Resort on the side door. We decided to call right then and see if they were looking for workcampers. The person that answered the phone said she didn't think so but would give our number to the manager just in case. 3 minutes later Bill called and said he may be interested and to please send a short resume. We emailed one off and he wanted to meet us. We made arrangements to come and visit 2 says later.

When we got here, Bill explained the whole place, took us on a tour, made hotel arrangements for us to spend the night and said he and his wife Donna would pick mus up at the hotel that night and take us to dinner.

The resort is fairly new but is very pretty and clean. It has a message room, lap pool, dog wash, beautiful club house with a huge fireplace and all leather furniture. The is an outside bar-b-que with fire rings and ponds with waterfalls and the best part, it is right on the Sacramento River.

We would work 2 days a week for full hookup, free laundry, cable, free propane and free wifi. If we like it, we could become full time paid employees.

So we are meeting with them tonight to give them an answer.

Last night we went to my Mom's to help wrap more gifts and to see my sister and nephew who just arrived from MO. We had a little dinner and talk then went back to our 'home' to get ready to come today.

That's all for now, we will let you know how the job thing comes out.....

Still Happy Campers, David and Carol

GREETINGS FROM THE HAPPY CAMPERS

Snow started falling in Placerville

Yesterday we took a ride up to a place called Volcano. We went to look at a place that is looking for work campers. The bottom picture is the spot we would have. It is a little too primitive for us. It is near a town called Pine Grove. There is nothing there and it would be a little tight to get the 5th wheel in there. So, we decided that we wouldn't go there. While we were there it started to snow so we thought we should get back down the hill. Now there is really nothing wrong with a little snow but we know our luck. We took highway 49 and went to El Dorado. I grew up in this area so it was interesting to see the changes. We stopped at Poor Reds to eat lunch. Poor Reds has been there for as long as I can ever remember and is known all over the state. They have great bar-b-que. They are also known for their drink, the Golden Caddilac. When I was pregnant with Sarah, David would occaisionally go to Reds and get me pork dip. He would bring it home and we would sit on the floor and eat and watch soap operas. So, we went there for some pork dip. After that we went to Diamond Springs, the town I grew up in and lived the first years of my adult life in. Sarah was also born in Diamond Springs, at home. Diamond Springs holds alot of memories for me so it was nice to be there. We left there and headed to Placerville. As we were going down into town, it started to snow again. We ended up getting on the freeway and heading back down to Sacramento. Davids sister, Mary lives in Folsom so we stopped and visited on our way back home. It was a full day but we ended up staying up way too late and didn't want to get out of bed this morning. We got up to rain and it is still raining. Oh well, I guess I can't have summer weather all year long. Molly has been sick today. David bought her a new bone and she ate the whole thing. I think it made her sick. So she is now sleeping it off. Hopefully she will feel better tomorrow.

Hope to hear from everyone.

David and Carol

HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS

I guess this about as close to home as we are going to get. The weather has been nice but a big storm is supposed to be coming in...snow and everything. Yesterday we went to my Moms. She had me wrap everything she had in the bottom of her hutch. These are all the things she has been saving for years. Last year we wrote everyones name on the bottom of each thing so it was easy to know who to make the tag out to. These were all placed under the Christmas tree. She has been telling all the family that she was having a big party on the 19th so I asked her about it. She didn't remember she had said it so I guess we'll do what we can to help her with the party. She is very happy right now and that is really good. My one brother that was coming from Oregon will not be able to come. He got layed off and is trying to get another job. So, I guess the party will be a little smaller. Well, we are off for the day, going to take a ride.
David and Carol

SUNSHINE

This morning I woke up tp actual sunshine. This is the first morning since we have been in Sacramento that we haven't had fog. Of course, that is so typical of Sacramento. When we lived here, there were times when we wouldn't see the sun for 90 days. This time of year makes me think about those days when we lived here. We were so broke all the time that we had to go to the Salvation Army to get Sarah a Christmas gift. We also got a bag of food for our Christmas dinner. One year we gathered sleeping bags, coats and blankets from all of our neighbors and took Sarah downtown to the Greyhound bus station and handed them out to the homeless. I think that is something that Sarah will never forget and it gave her a more compassionate nature. We also went caroling with our church here in the foggy, cold weather. Sacramento is the place David and I met each other. That would be 30 years ago. Geez, I'm old....

Yesterday we perused the mall just to be somewhere warm. Too many people, too much stuff. I'm not sure what we are doing today but I'm sure it will be another exciting day. The good part is that we enjoy being together and I always have plenty to do. I'm making several Christmas gifts this year. Hopefully, I'll be done in time.

My brother, sister and nephew are coming to Sacramento for Christmas. My brother lives in Oregon and my sister in Mo. and nephew in Kansas. My Mom will be happy to see them. My Mom has dementia and we never know if she remembers if we are going to visit or not. Most times she does not remember. So the day they are going to arrive, I'll have to remind her. In alot of ways God has been good to her. I think sometimes it's a blessing to her not to remember everything, she is always happy.

So, I guess that's enough for today. Now I know every reader of this can hardly wait for the next post, being that we have such an exciting life. I'll try to spice it up a bit...maybe I can make up an exciting adventure..who knows.

We hope the sun shines on you today.
David and Carol

CHRISTMAS IN SACRAMENTO

MY MOMS HOUSE

MY MOM AND STEP FATHER, JIM

Grandson Chris, Daughter Michelle

Grand Daughter Miranda

We have finally landed somewhere for awhile. We know we will be here for at least a month.

David came to our house to pick me up but we found out the laptop that was now in San Luis Obispo was not ready yet. He decided to leave me there for the Thanksgiving holiday since he would be done with his job and back in a week.

The company doing the new jacks on the 5th wheel finally came out and got that job done. So the next week, David packed everything up and headed for home. About 100 miles down the road he had a blowout in the middle of nowhere. He called Good Sam for assistance but we did not fall under their roadside assistance program (my fault, I signed up for the wrong one). So, Terry and his dad left our house and drove all the way to David. The tire was so torn up it in turn tore up some of the underneath part of the 5th wheel and wrapped itself around some bar up there. Anyway, between the Terry and David they got it fixed and drove to a place to put air in the spare. They ended up getting home around 3 in the morning.

David was able to go and get the computer and then we were on the road to a town called Meridian, near Sacramento. We were pretty excited to go to this place because it was on the delta and only about 1 hour from my Moms. So of course we went according to mapquest (worse map program ever) and soon found the map to be wrong. After driving the hour from my Moms, the map said to turn onto 3rd street. We passed 4th and thought 3rd would be on the other side of the river, it was not. I called the RV park and they said to turn around and take 4th. Now turning around a 5th wheel on a 2 lane road is not an easy task. David finally found a wide spot in the road (he is getting quite good at this) and he made a u turn. We went back to 4th and went forever on this road. I called again and they said yes, we were on the right road. We finally got up on the levee road and saw the sign for the park. The problem was...off of a levee road, the RV park entrance was up a hill and then a horseshoe turn down into it. Of course with a 5th wheel the size of ours, there was no way to get in there and looked like there was no way to get out. We passed it by and decided to go back to Sacramento. The main problem was that we didn't know where we were. We continued down the levee road winding back and forth on a 1 lane road. After about 20 miles, we saw our first car and pulled it over to ask directions. They gave us directions back to Sacramento.

We had planned to set up and then meet my son Michael, who was in town, for dinner. Michael, Michelle, and Allison met us at the new RV park. The plug here was different than any one we had come across so we had to go get an adapter. We finally made it to dinner and had a nice evening with our family.

The next morning David wanted to change spots because he couldn't get the 5th wheel level. So we moved to another spot. When he set up he still couldn't get it level and after some investigation found out we had a broken bracket on the suspension and the 5th wheel was resting on the tires on one side. He called Good Sam again (this time I had gotten the correct plan) and they sent someone out to fix it. $150 dollars later it was fixed. The guy that worked on it said it was pretty rare that it happened and usually when you've been driving on very winding roads. So them night before on the levee road must have done it.

After it was fixed we moved to a spot I really like. We are at the Cal Expo RV park and the new spot is right next to the horse race track so we can watch the harness races. Yesterday we went to see my Mom and Step Father and take them a Christmas tree. We stayed and decorated it and had a good visit.

We are again Happy Campers.

David and Carol

IS IT EVER EASY?

I'm sorry it has taken me sooooo long to get to this. Of course, know us and our Faber luck, we have again fallen into the world of repairs. I will write more about this later. Right now we are in Sacramento for the month so we will be able to spend the holidays with my Mom and the rest of the family. It has been a hard go but we thank God that we are safe and we reached a destination where we can recoup for awhile. After we get a little settled, I will write more.

TO BE CONTINUED.......