The Pumpkin Patch

We have been busy this week around the park so we have not had time to post.Last weekend we headed to Sacramento as we were invited to go to the Pumpkin Patch with Jackie(our daughter) and grandson D.J..It was a great day. We went on the hayride.D.J. also rode a pony.And of course,lots of pumpkins.
Saturday evening we Babysat D.J.My most tiring day at work(before I retired),can't compare to a night of babysitting the grandson!Playing trucks,wrestling,bath time,and trying to get him to bed.Whew! We slept like a baby.
Sunday morning we headed out early for park sierra as we had a barbecue to go to.
With the onset of fall,the park members are
flocking back to the park.Where we only had a
handful of volunteers at the pole barn this summer,we have had 18 to 20 volunteers this week.With more people in the park there has been more activities going on.Saturday night is Halloween potluck dessert and movie night.Costumes optional.Were going as "pirates" RRRRR matie!
We have a month left here as workampers and we have really enjoyed it here.Hopefully when we come back next summer we will be members.We heard back from the rangers at Folsom lake. We are accepted and cleared to start Dec. 1st.If you are in the area Dec. to April,stop in and see us in site#54
When we were in Sac. last Saturday I took a couple of pictures of our old house.It is my Daughter Jackie and her husband Dustin's house now.They have done a wonderful job of remodeling it.They have redone the inside and out and brought the old dinosaur to code.What caught my eye as Jeni and I drove up to the house,the new paint job.It's amasing what a paint job can do.

harvest festival at park sierra

Howdy partner. Me n Jeni Lynn have been sprucing up the "ole" golf cart for the Harvest festival.Thursday afternoon we decorated the cart and had it ready to go for the decorating contest and poker run on Friday.Thats us in costume in the picture with our cart.in the back of the cart we had pumpkins,boxes of apples,pears, and tomatoes.also flowers and straw.


Well to our surprise, we won first place for the best decorated cart. We were thrilled!


We have had a ball these last three days with the harvest festival.It started Thursday with the annual meeting.Then elections for the new president and board members and a patio cocktail party at 4pm. Jeni and I didn.t attend the patio party as we were decorating the cart and the time got away from us.But we did make it to the Wii bowling tournament Thursday night. The girls kicked us guys behinds.


Friday morning we headed the cart over to the clubhouse for the poker run and deco. contest(which as I said earlier we won). I took a picture of the parking lot it was full of carts and cars.They had all kinds of activities going on in the clubhouse and outside Jeni and I were competing in the golf cart "poker run" They give you a map with 5 stations marked on it.you drive to each station where they give you an envelope with a playing card inside(1-10 jack queen king). After going to all 5 stations, you head back to the club house where you turn in your 5 cards and make a poker hand out of it. The highest hand wins.we didn't even have a pair.I think the winning hand was 3-eights.


Back at the clubhouse we were in the cake walk which I won a very nice sour cream peach bundt cake.yummy!Another event we enjoyed was the pony races.Six people held wooden horse heads (made by my buddy Gary) and stood at the starting line,then the the race official(my buddy Gary) rolls two different color dice. One color is for the number of the horse and the other is how many spaces the horse moves.We didn't win a race.I bet it all on the horse the clown was riding (see clown in pic.) but that horse must of been lame!All in all we had a great day.


Friday night they had a delicious pork dinner with mashed potato's and mushroom gravy and veges.They served over 200 people.The clubhouse was at capacity.The hard working volunteers had us all fed in no time at all.This park runs on it's hard working members and our hats are off to all of them.Jeni even volunteered Friday pulling K P duty at the hot dog stand(I ate 2 foot longs!yummy)and she played security guard at the raffle prize table for a couple of hours .
Me, I just played games and ate hot dogs.But if somebody needed something I was their Man!The guy who runs these dinners for the members is Ed George(in the blue apron)He does a great job.The pork loin he prepared for the dinner was the best I've ever tasted.The price of this gourmet dinner including coffee and dessert,5 bucks,what a deal!

After we chowed down it was time for entertainment.the members put on a variety show called "Hillside hillbilly hoedown".What a hoot.They have some very talented people at this park.

after the play we headed home very tired but with great memories of the harvest Festival of 09.

Saturday morning we went over to the clubhouse for the "hitch up" breakfast. this is the end of the harvest Festival and all the guests will be hooking up and leaving today.What a great three days we have had.

Today also happens to be our wedding anniversary. 39 years! wow it seems like just yesterday.We went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant in Oakhurst called Decicci's.On hwy 41.I highly recommend it. Then we headed home to watch a movie Jeni bought earlier this week.We curled up on the couch and snuggled.and enjoyed the movie.I think it was called "the proposal".Life's Good!

Beautiful Weather

The weather here at Park Sierra has turned from summer to fall.The leaves are turning Autumn colors,the acorns are falling off the oak trees,and we have crisp cool mornings here.
That cool red golf cart that we are sitting in,well it's ours! I bought that baby from one of the guys here I volunteer with. He moved out of the park so I made him an offer he couldn't refuse(actually Jeni did).It gets us around the park and even has an enclosure that drops down from the roof and zips up to keep you warm and dry when it rains.I have been driving it to the pole barn in the mornings and Jeni takes it when she works in the office.
Speaking of work; it has cooled off weather wise so the working has been easier and not as physical as during the last few weeks when it was so hot.It's something different every day so you never get bored.I also like the fact that you work with different people each day so you get to know pretty much everyone.
The weather has been so nice that Jeni and I have been having our morning coffee on our deck enjoying the birds and the spectacular views of the park.Our site is elevated so we look down over the surrounding area.The picture I took gives you an idea of our vantage point.It doesn't get any better than this!What a life we live.
next week the park is having a three day event called "Harvest Festival" in conjunction with their annual meeting and board election.They are having a "poker run" and decorating contest for golf carts,(Jeni and I are entered in both) a silent auction,games and contests,food, a Fri. night dinner feast,and movie night sat. night.It is going to be a ball.Jeni has signed up to volunteer at various venues during the festival.I will have pictures for this on the next blog for sure!
The park is filling up now as with the bad weather up north everybody is headed south.Jeni and I have been keeping busy after work as Tuesday night is "dinner out with the escapees" as the park members eat at a different restaurant in the area each week.Friday night is card night at the club house with two nice couples we have met.We play a variety of card games but I've been very lucky so far,no "hand and foot"! Saturday night we play a game called "pegs and jokers" it's kinda like "Chinese checkers" but with more twists and turns.All in all we are busy little bees,today we went in to Fresno to get some material for decorating the cart."Stay tuned" for the outcome!
Tuesday of this week we took the RV to Oakhurst to get it smog ed.Now I had called ahead to make sure this place could do it and there would be no surprises when we got up there,RIGHT! the first thing out of the guys mouth was he wasn't sure as we might have a rig that needs an "enhanced smog",WHAT! you have got to be kidding me just smog it!He would check my Vin number but everything was probably OK.YEA!,after about 20 minutes he let me know he couldn't smog it!!!.........After Jeni pulled me off the guy(just kidding) we headed back down the hill to the park.Lets see ,a 32 mile round trip,20 bucks in gas,and 2 hours shot,what a deal.another place I won't be going back to for sure.As I" steamed",Jeni reminded me of the beautiful park we are at,and the beautiful weather,I could feel the "ole"blood pressure coming back to normal. Lifes too short i'll put it behind me.OOOMMM-OOOMMM,

Timber!

Well we spent the week recouping from the wedding and I could hardly get out of my cart to work on Monday.We really enjoy volunteering here at Park Sierra.Every day is a different duty. the only thing that is the same is breaktime with cookies.Jeni has been working in the office and cleaning and raking the rental sites.I have been backfilling where we replaced the water valves, building wooden covers for aeriator pumps,replacing the plywood floor in one of the rental sheds,and my favorite, trimming trees! They have some volunteers that have been sealing asphalt cracks in the roads and they have scheduled a truck to come in next week to "fog seal" the main roads in the park. I have managed

to avoid the "crack sealing" crew so far.

One thing I did get in on this week was the tree cutting crew. There was an old oak tree that was dead in the park, and we went out and cut it down.It was pretty big and probably yeilded a couple of cords of firewood. The picture shows the final remmnants of the big oak."monster"tree.Timber! That was the hardest I worked all week.I got 2 cookies that day!

We have been trying to decide where to end up this winter and as luck would have it we will be "camphosting" at the very place we started volunteering 5 years ago.Beals Point State Park at Folsom Lake. The Ranger contacted us about needing help this winter,and when we went to Sacramento for the wedding we met with him and finalized the deal. We will be there from Dec. 1st. til may 1st. If your in the area stop in. Jeni and I think that by next summer we will be members of Park Sierra as we are 24th on the list.

Jeni is upset as we haven't been able to play cards on Friday night at the clubhouse.Friday we had to head back to Sacramento as Jeni had DR's appointments so no cards again.I don't know how long my lucks going to hold!

We came back Saturday and the weather at the park went straight from summer to winter.It was 41 degrees last night and 65 degrees today.Fall is here!

A moment in time. The wedding

Friday morning my brother and his wife and my son and my grandson all met Jeni and I at Park Sierra for a trip to Sacramento in the RV for our Daughter Katie's long awaited wedding.We got into Sac. about 1pm. Our sister in law Martha had to get certified as she is doing the honor of marrying Katie and Bill.The rest of us were busy hustling and bustling about in preparation of the ceremony at noon Sat.Friday afternoon was the rehearsal and that evening we had a dinner for all the family at "Hacienda Del Rio" in Folsom. One of our favorite places for Mexican food, except this occasion where our 6:30pm reservation turned into an 8:45pm "fiasco" including "sub par" food and a "surly "manager that looked about 17 yrs. old! If your ever in Folsom Ca. on Sutter St.Pass that place up! We won't be back! Anyway At 7am Sat. morning our son and daughter,my 2 brothers,and our sister in law Martha headed to the park to decorate for the festivities.Oh! did I mention that is was a Thousand degrees outside.Well it felt like it but we managed.Jeni had this ice chest the size of "Omar the tent makers"coffin and she sent my brother Gary and I to Costco for the food,water, and Ice.Once we got that "Behemoth" loaded the car was trying to "pop a wheelie" all the way home.That "sucker" was heavy! Jeni was smart, all the water(140 bottles), soda stored in the RV,and soda,beer brought in all toll probably topped 700 drinks and it was basically gone by 3pm.All in all it was a great time had by all and Daughter Katie,She was Beautiful in her wedding dress and that "million dollar" smile.It was her day to shine.

The thing that made this very special for Jeni,myself,and Katie was that Katie's aunt Martha did the ceremony and married them.Kate and her new husband Bill are now Mr.and Mrs. William Hise. Katie has lots of friends as she is very "social". She gets that from my Father.He never Knew a stranger, as they say.One of her best friends that shes known forever is Jamie.That's them in the picture 2nd pic.from the top of the page.they and their kids are very close.
Jeni and I would like to thank our family for all their hard work to make it a special day for Bill and Katie".Through thick and thin,good times and bad,you are always there for us;THANK YOU.

All the pictures we posted are very special that we wanted to share but my favorites were my grand kids. Me sitting with Aiden(with glasses) my son Dan's son and DJ my Daughter Jackie's son.Also the picture of the lovely bride and her beautiful Daughter Alyx,my granddaughter.I love them both.(top pic.)

You know in life when you have something that seems to become a snapshot in your mind,an image that is there forever.Saturday,watching everyone celebrate,looking at my Daughter's smiling face,watching my family,my wife,kids and grand kids,enjoying themselves,that was my "moment in time".I will remember that image forever.

Good luck Bill and Katie.

er

site seeing

Sunday Jeni and I decided to do some exploring so we checked out the little town about 5 miles up the road. Coarsegold, it is an old mining town like so many in the foothills of the Sierra's.It has the old western flavor of the small shops and restaurants.on weekends they have lots of vendors selling almost anything you can think of. Jeni was looking at this little "condo" thinking we could put it on our lot for guests,or for me when I'm in trouble.......I don't think so!

Next we headed for Oakhurst, a bigger town about 13 miles from Park Sierra. It has a Vons and Raleys grocery stores, banks, lots of great resturants, and a huge "true Value" hardware store. We checked out the stores but we didn't try the restaurants this time.Hwy 49 intersects hwy 41 right in town where it dead ends but you can take 49 and head north towards Mariposa and on north.

Before we started our adventure we had Breakfast
at our favorite place, "Chukchansi Gold" casino.

It is a pretty large casino for an Indian casino. It has a resort hotel where the rooms start at $150 a night. An indoor outdoor pool with swim up bar and all sorts of great restaurants and a "killer" buffet. We love the Wed. night seafood buffet for $8.99. They also have live entertainment on the weekends and have an outdoor stage for "top name" talent. "Three Dog Night" was here last week and Regis Philbin is here in a couple of weeks.

Monday we woke up to rain showers and much cooler weather. Once the rain cleared we sat outside and enjoyed our coffee on the little deck. It's been hot here this last week or so the cooler weather has been a welcome break.

We have met some great people here at the park and we have started playing cards on Friday nights in the "club house" with two other couples.

Tuesday nights the members have a "dinner out" where you sign up and they all meet at a different restaurant each week. We went this Tues. with them to Oakhurst to the "Sweetwater Steak House". We had a ball and the food was great.
When we first came into the park a couple of months ago,there were 150 people out of the park traveling,but now the park has more people in the park so more social activities have started. We now have bingo night and on Thursday evenings we play a game called "Peton", it is like "boccie but not as precise.after the game(men vs woman) we have a"potluck"barbecue.Lots to do here at Park Sierra.
Next week on Friday we are heading to Sacramento for Daughter Katie's Wedding. We are so excited! It will be an outdoor wedding and it will be an honor for me to walk her down the isle.
We should have pictures to share the following week.

Fitting in

Well Jeni and I have been getting used to life as a member of Park Sierra although we are not members yet. We are still workamping and volunteering and attending meetings to learn about the park. We have met a lot of nice people here as with us working here ,you interact with everyone.
As with any community, fitting in and doing your share is essential to a great "park sierra "
experience.I enjoy going down to the "pole Barn" in the morning to meet up with my "peeps" and pair up for our "chores of the day".A quick cup of coffee and load up the Golf cart and we are off. I'm usually paired up with the other workamper Sean. His mother is a member of the park. He is about 20 years younger than I am and a great worker. We have been working on upgrading the water system at the park and that translates into lots of "hand digging".Combine this, the hot weather lately,and your coworker that is 20 years younger,"ole Phil" is having trouble keeping up! It is the hardest work I have done since Jeni and I started fulltiming!
I got a little too much heat yesterday and this morning Jeni said "only work til break time today'. I told her I would see how I felt,Hey, I'm "the man",I don't want to be embarrassed in front of my "peeps"right! Well I worked til break time,then me and my fellow "peeps"(workers) went to the clubhouse for cookies and coffee and I was confident that I could work til 1pm. I felt pretty "cocky"As we all walked through the doors at the clubhouse.Suddenly my "cocky attitude" took a turn straight south! There was Jeni sitting at our table!!! "What is she doing here!"Why is she sitting at our table!"Everybody set down, had a cookie ,and chatted with her as.I sat squirming in my chair,"what is she doing here!"As break time was over we all headed back toward the door when I felt these"eyes"boring into the back of my head.I turned around and Jeni was giving me "the look!"I knew I had to make a tough decision fast."Sorry boys I won't be going back to work with you today." My wife cares about my well being.that is not a bad thing.I had her take me home.I sure love her.