There is no Joy here today - not so mighty Argentina is out

Very disappointing game for Argentina today in their last game in the World Cup. Their coach better have guards when he returns to Argentina. Very poor coaching and choosing of players. Enough said. Now pulling for Mexico. 
We've been pretty much watching the games for a couple of weeks, now not so interested. No idea what country might take home take home the cup.
So on to NASCAR - lots of that on the TV today. It was so hot in Chicago the drivers were getting sick. A thermometer in one car read 159 - then it quit working. One driver lost 8 pounds during the race. Guess I shouldn't complain about the heat here. 
It continues to be warm here, but only in the low 100's hottest day in forecast 105, can live with that. And the wind continues to blow. Outside in the shade - 8:00 in the morning. 

I've been on a cooking kick - well kind of. Have been fixing dinner every other night. And tonight is a cooking night. Bill has been cooking too. He made 50 pieces of Milanese. Now the freezer is full. Lots of sandwiches and easy dinners there. 

 One shot of the full moon over the desert the other night. 

I've been trying to get out to walk every other morning. Been doing between a mile and a mile and a half. Have to get out early though. Waited until 8:00 yesterday and about baked, by then there are no shadows to walk in. Need to get my weight down and get my self active again. Way too much sitting on sofa reading and watching TV. 
There was a blurb on Facebook with a crocheted  doily (sp?) and I remembered the King sized bedspread I have. My Mom crocheted it for me. When we had a spare room I used it but won't put it on the bed we use all the time so it is just wrapped up. Going to see if any of our daughters -in-law want or will use it. 

Bill likes to read and nap on our bed and I'm afraid this just wouldn't hold up. It is so beautiful I feel bad not having it out. Depending on the decor of the room I use a colored king sheet under it in the rooms color. 

Guess we will be getting two new homes across the street from us. Will be interesting to watch them being put in.

Good day all around

Because I haven't done anything to take a picture of I thought I'd post one I took many years ago in North Dakota on the Enchanted Highway. Notice our car in lower left of picture. Those are some big figures.

It was just a neat side trip we took one year.
But back to today. This morning when I got up around 6:00 it was still cool enough to have the doors open and there was a little breeze. Which is always a good way to start a day.
Half of our day was pretty much planned. First soccer game at 7:00 and the really important, to us, Argentina vs Nigeria soccer game at 11:00. But...I had a doctors appointment at 10:10 with the gastroenterologist I'd never seen before. CRAP. So we watched the first soccer game then headed out to the doctor, hoping I'd get there, fill out the hundreds of forms that no one reads, see the doctor and then get home in time to see the end of the Argentina soccer game. Wishful thinking.
There was no traffic so we made good time to the doctor's office. There were only eight pages of paper work to complete, but I'd brought copies of all the tests that were done a month ago, so I just attached them. Signed everything and turned them in, and prepared to wait. At 10:05 I was called in. The doctor came right in. We were leaving there at 10:35! Also turns out my problem is minor and will eventually go away by itself - no mores tests and no new medications or anything. Great relief.
We got home in time to watch the entire soccer game and Argentina won a nail bitter in the last 15 minutes. They go to next stage of the World Cup.
And that is about it for the day. Not cooking tonight, just eating left overs or salad.

Around the house

Blogger has been giving me this message every time I go to post - as always they are making changes to the blogging format. I had no idea what this meant. 
Blogger no longer supports OpenIDExisting OpenID comments and your OpenID settings may have changed.              

   So I went to Learn More - here is what I learned - still don't understand it! Hope who ever wants to comment does understand it. 
   OpenID: Blogger previously allowed users to comment on blogs using an existing third party OpenID identity provider and has also acted as an OpenID identity provider when interacting with other systems on the Internet. Due to the low usage of this feature Blogger will no longer support OpenID as a provider or for making comments, and all comments that previously used OpenID will be anonymized. New comments can be posted either from a Google account  or labeled as "Anonymous" on blogs that allow it. 
    
    So there it is...Hope it helps. 

    Because the World Cup is still going - for many more weeks - we are pretty much watching it every morning. And by the time it is over it is well over 100 out - yesterday 111! Cooling down to 104 Sunday. So we only venture out if we HAVE to. So I'm just going to show a few things around the house. With July 4th coming up I hunted up my red, white and blue decorations. This window panel I embroidered and put together many years ago, but still like it.  

Also have stained glass for the occasion, in kitchen window. 

The place mats have the same designs embroidered on them as the window panel. Then the flowers and red and blue candles and a couple of little figurines.

Fun to change things out with the seasons. 
Even though we were only gone for a week the high heat and strong drying winds killed our potted plants. My parsley in the chicken and the herbs in front of the kitchen windows were completely dead and dried. So those pots now contain artificial flowers. The hen and rooster must be behaving cause have not seen any little chicks running around. 

You can see the stained glass in the window behind these.

The geraniums might make it, but really don't think so. Will take care of them for a bit and see. 

All of the plants in the ground have watering systems so they are flourishing.The lantana are getting huge with so many flowers. 

Got a good seedless watermelon and had to hunt for our "As seen on TV" melon cutter. Found it. Love it. Makes cutting up a melon easy work. It cuts right down to the rind in nice straight lines. Then just cross it and you get nice rectangles of melon. 

Checking out at WalMart the other day I spotted these, they are little personal fans and M & Ms - of course I had to buy them. They put out a pretty good breeze. Also using my Artic Air a lot. Both of us love it. It keeps me cool and he doesn't get near it so he doesn't get cold. 

Happened to go outside yesterday afternoon  - it was only 104 out - and looked up at the palm tree. Never saw it do this before.

 Very pretty - almost like frost.

Been cooking a lot lately, just for something to do. Had beef stroganoff last night. Pretty darn good. Also have baked some bread the day before. Tonight is salad or left overs - going to be 109 today. 
Spend most of the mornings watching world cup games. And wouldn't you know one of the most important games - for us - is tomorrow morning when I have a doctors appointment! 
Like I said nothing exciting going on here. 

Home and odds and ends

Oops, forgot to post yesterday.
We left Rachel fairly early planning to get gas and stay in the RV park in Alamo. [No gas stations between Tonopah and Alamo] But it was still early after filling the tank so we both agreed to keep going.
If you didn't check out this web page while reading the last post, I urge you to do it. Very interesting history of a tough little town.  Be sure tio scroll down to get to the stories.
My new mouse pad for the laptop. Just so the aliens don't mess with the laptop. 

Goodbye Rachel. Interesting visiting you but don't think we'll be back.

 More lovely Nevada scenery. Straight road, mountains and some bushes. 

 Oh my goodness a curve and even more mountains. There was some wind but not as bad as the day before. 

 And some Joshua trees. love them, wish we could have one.

 Hum... more aliens.

 And Fresh ET Jerky. Unfortunately we didn't stop to buy any. 

 Stopping for gas in Alamo, cheaper than Vegas.

And on towards home, not much to take pictures of.
Here is some information on the two monuments we saw in Tonopah.

By Chris English, August 25, 2012
"Big" Bill Murphy Marker

Inscription. This statue depicts Big Bill Murphy, hero of the tragic Tonopah Belmont Mine fire that killed 17 miners on February 23, 1911. Murphy went down in the mine cage a number of times to bring up stricken miners.
On the last trip he did not return.

In May 1900, Jim and Belle Butler came prospecting from their hay ranch at Belmont to stake the claims that gave rise to Tonopah. This was the first silver bonanza of the 20th century. It prompted a mining renaissance and this heritage is Tonopah's greatest attraction along with good food, lodging and all necessary services. This monument was designed and built by local artist Adam Skiles and dedicated by Tonopah citizens, May, 2007

Guess I should have taken the time to do this when I made the original post. 

We got into town around noon. No problems with traffic going through the spaghetti bowl - the main interchange in downtown. Looks like most of the work with the new ramps is finishing up. 

On our way home from Mexico we bought a new GPS - I love it. It has all North America maps on it. The graphics are a vast improvement over our old one. I don't know about the audio as I shut it off. Will try it one of these days. When getting to an off ramp it shows the exact lane you have to be in, no guessing. It is a Garmim Drive Smart 61 North America LMT-S 

 Next to our cell phone, I love the size, I can actually see it. Also shows gas stations, banks and restaurants on regular screen.

Still need to figure out to use all its features - little by little.

On the cell phone I've downloaded the "maps.me" application. Once you download the map - like a  state or area you want you can use it off line. Great for here in town. 

Boy we are going into a hot time - lowest daytime temp for the next seven days is 105. I found some interesting things I want to see here in downtown Vegas but will have to wait for a while till it cools a little. Also we are watching the World Cup games - three games a morning, by the time they are done it is too hot to go anywhere outside. 

Bill finished his eye drops yesterday and everyday he is more pleased with how he can see. He still reaches to take his glasses off to change clothes or wash his face. Habits are hard to break. 

Adventure in Rachel

We got to Rachel around 2:30 [had stayed in Tonopah to watch a soccer game.] The wind was blowing like a son of a gun! Bill's arms were tired.The welcoming sign of the Inn and RV park. 

A little space ship out front. 

 Being towed by a wrecker. It was swinging around some from the wind. You have to be little to fit in there. 

The Restaurant/office.  

Mural on the side of the building. 

Hum...

The back side of the restaurant/gift shop/office. Our view from front window. Notice the tree leaning left.

 The RV park - 4 sites. 30 amp electricity, no dump. I think it had water but we didn't need any so didn't hook up. WiFi was okay. $20 a night paid for when I made the reservation the day before. By evening only one space was empty.

We pulled forward enough that the trees weren't rubbing on the RV. The velocity of the wind seemed to be increasing by the minute. Almost lost the door to the RV when I opened it. Luckily the wind was hitting directly on the back of the RV. 

Both hungry by then so went to the restaurant. Here is Bill being watched over by an Alien. Wonder if they are thinking about studying him? He looks so different without his glasses.

All kinds of posters and photographs in the restaurant. This is the menu.

We ordered the Alien Burger, came with choice of coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad or chips. We both got the coleslaw. The burger was very good. Forgot to take picture until I'd already taken a couple of bites. It was not on a regular hamburger bun which I liked. Bill said he wished it was bigger. 

This family was hanging around by the wall next to us. 

The ghostly alien right behind Bill.

Just some of the decorations and things for sale in the restaurant. 

I remember reading something about the dollar bills on the ceiling, but don't remember what it was. Sure are lots of them. 

I love this quilt, it was for sale. 

Small restaurant, it had a pool table but while we were there it was covered in clean sheets that were being folded for the motel rooms.

Didn't see anyone I knew.

Oh Yes! The souvenir shop. You can bet I went there before we left. 

What every house needs.

What I bought - actually I bought this t-shirt and a new mouse pad with the same design and a couple of pins for our collection.

More pictures. A quote from a web page. to read the rest of the web page - it is very interesting click here.
"Rachel would be unknown to the world if it wasn't for the UFO claims. Since 1989, people from around the world have come to Highway 375 to look for lights in the sky they think are extraterrestrial. The visitors talk about "Area 51", the top secret military base 25 miles south of here, but the base has little real connection with Rachel aside from its proximity on the map. "You can't get there from here," the locals might say about the base, so it could just as well be a million miles away. Most residents have never seen any UFOs and are generally skeptical of the fantastic claims made by tourists. No more than 5 or 6 residents still work at the "Test Site"--meaning any of the restricted government areas to the south or west--and those who work at Area 51 won't discuss it. Most of the UFO and Area 51 talk is limited to the bar, which caters to the "UFO-tourists" and where no claim is too fantastic to be exchanged as truth. The rest of Rachel's population hardly ever thinks about UFOs except when asked by reporters."

Interesting picture. I saw one of the last flights when they did a fly over of the San Fernando Valley in CA when the plane was on it way to a museum.

Where are my people? Are they coming back for me?

The wind continued to get stronger. Finally we pulled in the slides. The motion wasn't too bad, just felt like little earthquakes. But the NOISE. it sounded like we were in a bowling alley with all lanes being used. 

Rachel -the red X - is pretty close to the infamous Area 51 - at bottom of picture near Groom Lakes. Bill didn't even unpack his drone, knew it would not work. To read more about Area 51 click here. Again an interesting read. I think the circles are a crop of some kind.

If you stay overnight at the Little A'Le'Inn in Rachel, or camp nearby, you get to see the most amazing night sky, far away from the light-pollution of the cities. However we didn't get to see much of the sky lots of cloud cover and dust in the air. Beside I could barely stand up in the wind. 

Sometime during the night the front passed through and the wind let up some, thank goodness.
We left in the morning before the wind picked up again, were planning on stopping in Alamo, but just gassed up and continued on home.