Happy Thanksgiving

It has been a busy couple of weeks for Jeni and I

The park had a breakfast a few Saturdays ago and we helped out as they were shorthanded. We were on the "egg crew".Jeni cracked and I cooked about 250 eggs!It was yummy.They served biscuits&gravy,eggs,and sausage.

Last Friday we headed to Pasadena to meet up with the family for our annual ASU college football game.This year they are playing UCLA in the Rose Bowl.Saturday before the game,we had breakfast at a delightful little diner called "Russell's."Clockwise from the left that's our son Dan and grandson Nevin,me,Jeni,my sister in law Martha, brother Gary,grandson Aiden,brother Larry,and Dans friend Mark.What a "motley "crew.ASU lost but we still had a great time.

Our plans have changed for Thanksgiving.We are staying at the park instead of going to Riverside as we had planned.This is our last week here at the park.We will leave Monday for Folsom and our winter job at Folsom lake state park.We have had a wonderful time workamping here at Park Sierra.We have made some great friends here and when we become members we will already know the ropes.

This week the Maintenance dept decided that since this was my last week here, we will pour concrete!Tuesday we poured two slabs and some footings.The slabs were for containment pads for

their gas and diesel tanks.The footings were for

a cover over the parks historic stagecoach by the clubhouse.It was the first time I actually had to "finish" concrete in a long time.Jeni took some pictures of our "motley crew'.I really enjoy working with all the guys here.For me, work has to be a part of my life.that's why the park will be a perfect fit when we are members.Jeni and I can't wait to become members.

Wednesday,Jeni helped prepare the turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner here at the park.They cooked 11 turkeys in all.The clubhouse had the

delicious smell of thanksgiving feast.Thanksgiving day we are helping out again,serving turkey dinner to about 130 people in the park.
To everyone,from Jeni and I,HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Bird Watching

If you know us,you would never think of us as "avid" birdwatchers.Believe me we don't go around the world in those "kacki,Bwana"jungle outfits with big binoculars around our necks,"craning" our heads for that rare shot of the"yellow breasted"sapsucker!But we do enjoy sitting at our site,wherever we may be staying and viewing the wildlife in the area.At Park Sierra, we enjoy sitting on our porch

watching the" locals.Jeni took a few pictures of the residents at our site.We have California Quail,White crowned sparrows,Red headed woodpeckers,California Towees,and a big ole Swainson Hawk.Also ,Jeni"s favorite resident....The Deer!The camera didn't add ten pounds to the birds,Jeni did!She feeds them every morning.Before we know it,we have"covey's,and gaggles and flocks"of birds.

Fall is here.Cool days and frosty nights.The park has really" greened"up with the showers we have had a month ago and today.The rosemary is in bloom, the "live" Oak leaves have turned dark green, and the sycamore tree leaves are bright reddish orange.What a beautiful place!

Our time is growing short here as we only have a couple of weeks left. We have really enjoyed it here at Park Sierra.We now know this is where we want our "Homebase"where we will live.We should be in by next summer,but until then,we move to our new adventure at Folsom Lake St.Pk.for the winter.

We will be leaving the park for Riverside,Ca. to have Thanksgiving with our son and grandsons.Then up to Folsom for our winter job.

Tonight we are"Wii bowling" at the clubhouse.A lot of fun with our new friends.There is a lot to do here as every night something is going on at the clubhouse. Tuesday night is "bingo night",Thursday night is "Wii bowling",Friday night is "playing cards",Saturday night is"pegs and jokers",and Sunday afternoon is the ice cream social.Lots to do here.

At "break time",the other morning over coffee and cookies,my"pole barn buddies" and I discussed the pros's and cons of retirement.We decided unanimously that it was great! The only dissenter....a guy that used to worked in real estate.his complaint.....he couldn't make 200,000, a year anymore.YEA!He got some mean looks from the other guys!We got all types here in the park!

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Halloween Party

" RRR matie",happy Halloween. from Capt Phil and first mate Jeni.Park Sierra had a Halloween party, Dessert potluck,and movie night.It was a blast.We have so much fun at this park and have met so many people it will be hard to leave for the winter.We will spend more time here when we finally become members.We OD'd on sweets as they had every goodie you could think of and I have no idea how these people can stay so trim with all the desserts! Of course one look at my physic and you know I fit right in with the"Dessert people".Yea, another piece of cheesecake please!
The movie was "Frankenstein"the Mel Brooks version.Jeni and I had seen it before so we didn't hang around for the movie but we sure had a great time.
The picture of the "white haired"Wizard and his assistant is my buddy Wally and his wife Verna.And his purple hat does talk! They had the best costumes at the party by far.Everybody that wore a costume received a gift........what else,a big candy bar!More Sugar!Jeni and I both went to bed that night with "electric legs".
Speaking of Wally and Verna,The productions and plays they put on at the park here,Verna directs all of them and Wally stars in most of them.They are the type of people that keep the park young and active.Wally is also at the Pole Barn almost every morning with maintenance
crew doing what he can.They just two of the great group of people that makes up this great park.
You gotta love RV's and the" morons" that make em.I have had a water leak under the refrigerator in the drawer below it and at the entry stairs.I suspected the fridge so I pop ed the cover off the compartment outside.After I removed a ton of ""spray on installation"(you know the stuff that expands 50% after you spray it on) it occured to me that somebody(the morons) didn't read the can!Anyway, I found that the drain line from the fridge was never connected just "nuzzled" up close to the vent cover so that maybe it would drain out the vent(if the coach was slanted that way.)I fixed that! And the ice maker line where it goes in to the regulator was leaking.........the problem.............the" paper thin "supply line has a bunch of pin holes in it! Couldn't they put in a standard supply line that your home fridges come with?......MORONS!
OK I'm off my soap box for now.Jen and I have been enjoying the great fall weather here.Sunday we took a drive to a little town we heard about,Raymond Ca.Jeni had visions of quaint little shops and gourmet eateries but alas,it was a one horse town.just a little farming community.But the drive was nice.One thing,my wallet is still intact(no shopping)but we made the mistake of checking out a casino we heard of just northeast of Fresno."Table mountain Casino".Oh yea!that was a great idea.My poor wallet!

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!