Happy 90th!

Last week, my sister Diana and I flew to Pennsylvania to help our father celebrate his 90th birthday! Our wonderful cousin Linda and her daughter Rebecca, along with their spouses who are both named Terry, planned and executed the most wonderful party ever! The food was amazing, the decorations were very clever, and over forty people attended.

This must be the place - his picture is on the door.


Here's Rebecca putting the finishing touches on the refreshments.


Linda's husband Terry really did a fine job printing some old pictures of my father to set the mood. Terry really married into the right family being a camera buff himself. I believe Linda was the creative scrapbooker who put the pages together that decorated each table.


My father had a great time and never sat down. You can see him in the background 'working the room.'


We managed to get a picture of him with his direct descendants who were there. From the left, we have my daughter Christine, me, my father, Diana, and my daughter Laura. We missed seeing Diana's son Mark and daughter Corrie, and the great-grandchildren (Corrie's two.) I know what you're all thinking - "Wow! What a small family."


Here's his baby sister Beatrice looking cute as always. Middle sibling Millicent lives in Florida.


On the way home Laura was buried under all the balloons.


Since he was busy at the party, he waited until he got home to open his loot.

I can never thank my one and only cousin and her one and only daughter enough for putting together this special and very memorable celebration. Let's do it again at 95!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Quartzsite

Quartzsite, Arizona, is a sleepy little town in the desert most of the year, but in the winter and especially in January, it hosts hundreds of thousands of RVers. Maybe host is not quite the right word, since most of those RVs are parked willy-nilly on BLM land outside of the town proper. Ron and I decided to pack up the RV and go for ten days. We met up with our WIN friends - about 175 of them. The WIN gatherings are always busy with activities, but we still had time to shop at the various swap meets that spring up around town during this busy time.

This was taken a few years ago when we climbed 'Q' mountain to get the bird's eye view. In the distance you can see some of the RVs that take over the area in late January.


You just never know what you're going to find for sale. These skulls didn't do much for me.


And although I'm not much for hanging dead animals on the wall, I did think this fox was kind of cute.


The WINs had their annual desert golf tournament. You get one golf club and a tennis ball. Good form, Ron!


And just look at Carolyn's follow-through. I was the slacker on our team.


This seems to be a good place for ultralights. Almost every day they buzzed right over our rigs.


In addition to seeing all our WIN friends, we even met up with fellow RVers Carol and John for lunch at Sweet Darlene's. To check out their blog, click here.


Ron was too busy shopping, but I joined Phil and Diana for a 4-wheel trip to Swansea - an abandoned mining town.


Although we missed the arch on the way, we did see this mountain that looked to me like a monster. Is it just me, or do you see the eyes, nose, and mouth?


Our first sight of the ghost town rally surprised me. What's with the modern-looking buildings?
It seems the BLM people have erected tin roofs over the buildings to help preserve them. I'm not wild about the reconstruction mindset. At what point do they stop being ruins?

Ah, this is more like it. This was the train station.


I think I found my new truck - it's a fixer-upper.


We also drove down to the river along this very pretty canyon.


Ah, water in the desert - always a welcome sight.


Most of the others saw wild burros along the way, but the only animal we saw was Bubba and he wasn't too wild.


Although pictures never look as scary as the reality, but this was the worst part of the road.


It's the end of another day (and year) at Quartzsite with sunset over Phil's rig.
For lots more on Quartzsite, see Diana's blog - click here.