Karen At Work

In the Bear Lake KOA store where we
work.

Snow

The way to get between Garden City
and Logan is by driving the Logan
Canyon. The road through the canyon
tops out at 7800'. As this picture
shows there's still snow up there as of
today. It will be interesting to see how
long it lasts.

Funny Sign

Sign in the men's restroom at the Bear
Lake KOA.

Oh Oh - Cute Cat Picture!

Here's Jake in the Casita looking
outside.

We had to take Jake to a vet last
Saturday. His right eye was closed
and he was hiding under the bed.
It turned out to be a scratched cornea
that required a few days of eye drops.
You haven't really lived until you've
had to give eye drops to a cat who did
NOT want them! But Jake is all better
now.

By the way, the closest vet to us was
an hour away in Logan, UT.

New Way To Post!

I've "discovered" a way to post entries and pictures on our blog. I'm sure it's been there for a while but it's new to me. I take a picture using my iPhone and e-mail it to the blog. Pretty simple really. This should allow me to post more frequently.

Ross

This is the Garden City, UT post office

Trip To Utah - Las Vegas

We left Mesa on Sunday, May 17, heading for Utah via Las Vegas. We spent a couple of days in Las Vegas and stayed in Sam's Town RV park. As usual we played the nickel video poker machines in various casinos. Ross hit a royal flush that paid off 250 to 1 or $12.50. Not bad for a $0.05 bet! During our time in Las Vegas we pretty much broke even. We also ate (and ate and ate) at the buffets at both Sam's Town and the Las Vegas Hilton. It was very hot in Las Vegas, hitting about 105 degrees, but the A/C in our Casita was up to the job and kept us and Jake cool and comfortable.

Our Casita at Sam's Town RV park in Las Vegas.

Quick Update - We're Now In Utah

It's been a busy few weeks! We're now in northeastern Utah for the summer. The town we're in is Garden City. We'll be working at the Bear Lake KOA. We've been here a week now and have only good news to report. Check back for updates soon!

Casita Battery Wiring Project

The wires that connect the "house" battery to our Casita are not very flexible. Removing the battery from its compartment causes the wires to bend and start breaking. We decided to replace the wires with more flexible "boat" wiring. This is made of many, many strands and flexes very nicely. Since a complete rewiring job wasn't something we wanted to tackle we simply cut off the last couple of feet of the old wires and connected the new wiring to it. The total cost of the project was exactly $20.00. Here's some photos from the project:

	One of the original wires showing that about half of its strands have broken over time. If enough strands break it could potentially cause a fire!
	The original wiring bundle pulled out of the battery compartment.
	It's a good idea to keep wiring as short as possible. Here are the original wires cut off and ready to be stripped for attaching to the butt connectors.
	Butt connectors attached to the original wires. The white tags are labels saying "TO POS" or "TO NEG" indicating where they go. You don't want to get them mixed up!
	New wires connected to the old wires. Everything is tie wrapped to keep the original wires from flexing (the tie wrap tails haven't been cut off yet in this picture.) All connections have heat shrink over them. All wires are clearly labeled and the wire that goes to the positive terminal has been wrapped with red electrical tape to avoid any confusion.
	The completed project. We also added a piece of blue webbing material to make pulling out the battery easier.

Repeat Hike, Repeat Snake

Yesterday we went hiking with Ross's sister Lee at Usery Park. Lee did the Merkle Trail while we did the Merkle/Vista Trail. While driving out of the park Ross spotted a snake along side of the road. It turned out to be a bullsnake that posed for a couple of pictures before scooting off into the brush.

	Karen climbing up a steep section of the Vista Trail.
	Bullsnake on the side of the road.
	Closeup of the bullsnake heading off into the brush showing its beautiful markings.

Brown Bag Lunch Programs

While we're sure they've been going on for some time now we just recently discovered the "brown bag lunch programs" at Usery Park. They're one hour long talks on a variety of subjects presented by Ranger B. Our first question at the first one we attended was "why are you called Ranger B?" We had imagined that, maybe, he had succeeded "Ranger A" and would be followed by "Ranger C" but in reality both his first and last names begin with the letter "B," hence the name. He's an excellent presenter and makes the talks very interesting. So far we've attended 3 talks; "All About Desert Edibles," "All About Rattlesnakes" and "All About Saguaros." Many more are scheduled and we'll try to attend as many as possible.

Ranger B during a recent "All About Saguaros" talk.

Our Work Is Done

Spring Training 2009 for us is now over. Things were a little slower this year than last year due to the economy so we weren't scheduled to work the last 2 games of the season. But our employer, Aramark, wanted to make sure we would be around to attend the employee party after the last game so they got us tickets to that last game! And not just any old tickets but pretty prime seats! We were thrilled and had a great time watching the game. Unfortunately the Texas Rangers beat the LA Angels 5-4 but it was a good game. The party afterwards was a lot of fun. The only bad part was saying goodbye to all the new friends we made working this season. Most of the kitchen staff we worked with won't be back next year but hopefully we'll see them sometime, somewhere down the road.

We had a really good time working this season. We already signed up to work at next year's spring training.

	Karen cooking hotdogs. Yummy!
	Concession Stand #3 kitchen staff. From left to right, Vicki (stand lead), Sharon (runner), Howard (runner), Karen (cook), Ross (cook) and Gary (head cook). Best team ever!
	View from our seats during the last game of spring training 2009. Great seats!

New Socks

Ross's hiking socks had worn out. Not just frayed, you could see through them at the pressure points! So it was off to REI for a new pair. (Yes, we could have used plain old cotton socks but experience has taught us that anything other than real hiking socks are a recipe for blisters.) The most affordable were the REI brand at $10.50. But we went during the 20% off any item sale. And we used our REI "dividend" to get the cost down to $3.50. That made our day!

The new socks. No forgetting they're from REI! The white rolled up parts are the liner socks. If you're really interested in the details of hiking socks then e-mail us and we'll educate you. :-)

2 Days - Same Hiking Trail

For the last 2 days we've started out with good intentions of doing a long hike. Both days saw us getting to Usery Park MUCH later than we had planned causing us to do our standard short hike on the Merkle/Vista Trail. Yesterday we did the hike in "reverse" by starting on the Vista Trail, going up and over the hills and then returning on the flat Merkle Trail. We were treated to some wildlife on our climb up the first hill. A snake sitting in the middle of the trail scooted off before we got any good closeup pictures. We're not sure what kind of snake but it wasn't a rattler. Immediately after that we came across a chuckwalla. Not a creature you're likely to see in the "cute and cuddly" section of the zoo! On the hike today, going out on the Merkle Trail and then up and over on the Vista Trail, we only saw small lizards and, of course, the bees flying in and out of the hive at the top of the trail. One of the joys of hiking is that you can hike the same trail over and over and, if you keep your eyes open, see something new every time.

	Snake on the Vista Trail.
	Chuckwalla. This one was about 8" long.
	Ocotillo in bloom.
	Closeup of ocotillo flowers.
	A red barrel cactus in a group of chollas.
	View from near the top of the Vista Trail. Guess which way Phoenix is.

Another Snakey Hike

Today we went hiking at Usery Park on the west side of the Pass Mountain Trail. Hoping for a repeat of the rattlesnake sightings, Ross has been carrying his Canon XTi DSLR camera on our last couple of hikes. Today it paid off when Karen spotted a snake just leaving the trail. It turned out to be a beautiful bullsnake. This one was about 4' long. Bullsnakes are non-poisonous but can imitate rattlesnakes when feeling threatened. This one didn't do anything but pose for a few pictures and then slither away.

	Body of the bullsnake showing the beautiful markings.
	Head of the bullsnake. This picture shows how well they can blend into the landscape.
	A Cholla with dropped pieces around its base. These are the things that latch onto you and never want to let go.
	Karen on the Pass Mountain Trail. Note the yellow flowers.

HDR Photography

My friend Don Stedman introduced me to HDR (high dynamic range) photography. It's a method of handling photographs with different exposure elements. For example, you might have a scene where a regular photo would have part of the picture exposed correctly but another part would be over or under exposed. In HDR photography you take multiple (3 in my case) exposures of the same scene. One is normally exposed, one is under exposed and the last over exposed. Using HDR software you combine the 3 to produce a photograph that has all parts correctly exposed. The results can be quite striking! Below is a somewhat less than dramatic example but it does show how HDR photography works.

Ross

	Scene normally exposed.
	Scene under exposed.
	Scene over exposed.
	Output of combined photography from HDR software.

Snake!

We were hiking in Usery Park last week with Ross's sister Lee who was in town for a visit. Karen spotted a rattlesnake crossing the trail in front of us! This was the first rattlesnake we've ever seen here in Arizona. A couple of days later we were hiking in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Lee had turned back early so we were alone on the trail. Ross was behind Karen when he spotted a rattlesnake crossing the trail only about 20' ahead of us! He shouted "stop, stop, stop" and Karen stopped in time. The snake was moving fairly slowly most likely because it had just "woken up" from hibernating. The snake must not have felt threatened because it never shook it's rattle. Ross got a few pictures of it with a spare point and shoot camera he carries in his pack. Unfortunately he didn't have his DSLR camera with him. He didn't get any closer than about 10' from the snake. This snake, a western diamondback rattlesnake, was about 3' long.

	The snake crossing the trail.
	Closeup of the snake with it's head raised from about 10' away. That was more than close enough!

And Now For Something Completely Different

We like trying new things in life and recently we felt it was time for something new! Friends here at Sun Life told us about working at the concession stands at a local stadium during spring training. As baseball fans know Phoenix is the home of the "Cactus League" with over a dozen teams doing their spring training here. Our friends work at the Tempe Diablo Stadium where the LA Angels train so we applied for jobs there. We were accepted and went through the training. In order to work as "food handlers" we had to take a test and get licensed to work in food services in Maricopa County. We both studied the test material and passed the test on the first try. These are short term jobs as spring training only runs a little over one month. We have now worked at 3 of the games. Both of us were assigned to be cooks. We make hot dogs, french fries, corn dogs, pretzels and nachos. It's a hectic but fun job!

	Tempe Diablo Stadium.
	Karen in the kitchen at Concession Stand #3, our workplace at the stadium. We are 2 of the 3 cooks in the stand.
	Gary, the head cook in our concession stand. Besides being a great guy he taught us everything we know. Thanks Gary!
	Vicki, our stand leader. She and her husband Ed are the friends who told us about these jobs. Ed is in charge of several stands. Yes, we do have friends in high places.
	French fries cooking. Healthy? No. Tasty? You bet!

Tennis Tournament

Today was the Cal-Am tennis tournament. Unlike the poker tournament (see prior posting) there was no qualifying. Anyone who plays tennis was welcome to attend. This was a real low key event. The only scoring was on games (no sets) and they even said that you could switch partners if the teams weren't even. This was a just for fun tournament. Like the poker tournament Cal-Am provided a nice breakfast and lunch free for all players. We both had a lot of fun and we were successful in not embarrassing ourselves too much on the court.

Karen on the court at the Cal-Am tennis tournament.

Poker Tournament

We play Texas hold em poker twice a week here at Sun Life. A couple weeks ago they held a playoff to determine who would represent Sun Life in the Cal-Am tournament. Cal-Am owns several parks in the Phoenix area and each park got to send 8 players to the tournament. Luck was with us on the qualifying night and we both made the top 8. The tournament was held on February 20 at the Canyon Vista park. Cal-Am put on a nice tournament providing free breakfast and lunch to all the players. Ross went out early but Karen hung in there and made it to the final table. All 7 players at the final table got nice shirts. The top 3 players received prize money but unfortunately Karen went out 4th. She was the top player from Sun Life. Everyone had a great time!

The final table at the Cal-Am Texas hold em tournament. Karen is to the right of the lady in pink at the table wearing her winner's shirt.

Today's Hike

There was rain in the forecast for today so we decided to do a quick hike and hopefully not get caught in it. We hiked the Merkle/Vista Trail and stayed dry. The rain earlier had cleared the air so the views were pretty good from the top of the hill.

	The Superstition Mountains in the distance.
	Something we don't see very often here in the Valley of the Sun - clouds!
	The ocotillos have started getting leaves and will soon be in bloom. We'll make sure to get pictures when they do.