Nicodemus

Seventy-seven people had a wonderful church service at Emerald Cove yesterday with special guests, Don and Dorene Foster. Dorene introduced her husband as Nicodemus and read scripture about him. I felt like I was transported to Jerusalem five years after Jesus went to heaven. Nicodemus was no longer a secret Christian who visited Jesus by night but was now telling everyone that he had seen the body of Jesus and assisted Joseph in burying Him. Nicodemus was convinced that Jesus had risen. If you ever get a chance to see this dramatic presentation, you will be pleased that you did.

The cross that was used in the presentation was given to the church for future services.

After our special music and communion, everyone was invited to eat birthday cake that Linda and I bought to celebrate the birthdays of our husbands (Jerry and Terry) plus everyone else who had a birthday in November.

Birth and Death

In case you didn’t read the comment from Jerry and Suzy about Uncle Don, I’m quoting it now. “Uncle Don lived his heaven while on earth, now has another heaven to wander through and enjoy. You were undoubtedly as much a blessing in his life and he was in yours.” Thank you, Jerry and Suzy. What a beautiful way to express your thoughts!

I also lost Uncle Jake during the last month. He was also a Christian and I’m sure that he is in heaven. The photo was taken at Aunt Margie’s 75th birthday party. Uncle Jake is wearing a plaid shirt and standing by his wife, Aunt Margie. My parents are sitting in the foreground.

A great memory of Uncle Jake is when Terry and I did some sight seeing with him and Margie in AZ. Jake delighted in telling everyone we met that it was his 21st birthday and laughed at the startled expressions on people’s faces. He was right. Since his birthday was on February 29, he had only had 21occurances of his birthday even though he was 84 years old.

My niece, Megan and her husband had a baby girl named Ellie on Oct. 19. My nephew, Ben and his wife had a baby boy named Joseph on November 18. Isn’t it wonderful the way life balances out? I look forward to meeting the new babies when we go to Iowa next spring or summer.

Food and Exercise

Life, where we are camped, seems to center around eating. Last week I went to the Red Hat Luncheon, Blue Water Café for prime rib for Veteran’s Day, the Early Bird Café for brunch, and the Golden Corral for a buffet. Tonight we are going to eat at Lake Havasu Springs to celebrate Terry, Jerry, Bill and Bev’s birthdays. Sunday I will bring a large cake to serve as refreshments after the church service. Our closest neighbor, Frank, made an apple pie with the apples from my son’s yard and gave me the first piece.

Terry only wanted a cupcake for his birthday. There is no way to put 70 candles on it so I only used seven candles. All he wants for his birthday and Christmas is his two front teeth. He lost his front tooth bridge and needed much work done on an adjacent tooth. He has a temporary tooth on it now.

You may have heard that traveling is broadening. To combat this, Terry takes hikes into the area around the river. I walked 3,000 steps with my women friends this AM. I also go to water aerobics on Monday and Fridays.

Uncle Don Hoven

Some things are hard to write about so I’m just going to quote myself from the last pages of my first RV book, “RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- The Confessions of Happy Campers.” My opening paragraph on page 93 reads, “The first member of our family to fulltime – was Uncle Don. He was also the most romantic person in my young life. I don’t mean the man/woman hearts and flowers meaning of the word but in the heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious or idealized sense of the word.”

Uncle Don usually wore his black Stetson hat. His silhouette reminded me of the Marlboro man except that he smoked a pipe instead of a cigarette. I wish that I had the photo in my RV but it is stored in Iowa. I found this photo that was taken when Terry and I and mom and dad visited him several years ago. Uncle Don is in the left side of the photo with the purple sweatshirt on.

We last visited Uncle Don in May of this year. As my father put it, “You don’t have to go to Lake View anymore.” Sadly, Uncle Don died of pneumonia in Oct. I miss him.

Winter Quarters

Some RVer’s think that the four letter word “work” is a dirty word. Others retire early and work to maintain their lifestyle. We have helped our kids and “worked” on occasion. This winter we are “staff” or “church staff” as the other staff refers to us. We have really been working.

Our project this week is to remove wax on the clubhouse vinyl tile floor, reapply it and then buff it. The tables and chairs were pressure washed in addition to being scrubbed. The men all traded jobs and worked hard for five days on the approximately 62 by 56 foot building. Us ladies got to scrub the perimeter of the floor with a foam wax remover, water, a putty knife and then rinse. Other work will be to arrange tables and chairs for the various activities in the clubhouse. Bill is the pastor. Opal is the linguist and will lead the Bible study. Bev is the music director. Terry will also prepare the master copy of the church bulletin (or program) on the computer. I’m sure that they will also use us to do other things but we are the new kids on the block. The other three couples have worked for the church activities for 1 to 8 years. Yes, we are the youngest too. I’m the youngest person and Terry is the youngest man.

Emerald Cove Campground has over 800 sites on a mile of sandy shoreline on the Colorado River and is located on the CA side of the CA/AZ border. Since the nearest towns are Parker and Lake Havasu in AZ, we are on AZ or Mountain Time. We have a site that overlooks the mountains and rocky desert floor. See the photo that I took from our window. Live palm trees shade the two heated pools and two hot tubs. The hot tub felt very, very good after using muscles that aren’t used to such vigorous activity.

W also have a new appreciation for the “work” that is done in campgrounds. Thanks Mike and Jo Ann for the work you did last year. We hope that you are happy in your new assignment in Texas.

My Busy Summer in Iowa

I have been asked why I didn’t put photos and blogs on the Internet this summer. I was in Iowa while Terry was in Alaska for July, August and half of September. My busy summer in Iowa included many activities that didn’t get photographed. When I had photos, I needed Terry to put them on his computer, and then put them on my hard drive in order to for me to put them on the blog.

Starting from the top of the blog, here are the photos. The little boys who are spitting watermelon seeds are at Fifield Shelter House near Pella, Iowa for the Hoven Reunion.

Grandson, Nathan Klein, blew huge bubbles when he stayed overnight with me.

Grandson, Jake Klein, had never been to Iowa. He came from Texas and stayed three weeks with me. We are pictured on the church steps where my nephew, Travis Hoven, married Samantha. Jake visited the historical village and windmill where his Great, great, great grandfather was a founding father of Pella. We had lunch at Applebee’s in Pella with two other grandsons, Matthew and Joshua Klein. I took Jake, Emily and Nathan to the Balloon Festival in Indianola. At the Klein Reunion, Jake met many of his cousins and Great grandmother, Carol Klein.

After Jake returned to Texas, I went to my father’s 90th Birthday Party, niece Megan’s baby shower and visited with some of the girl classmates of 1960. Since I attended Pella Christian High for three years and graduated from Pella community high school, I was invited to both 50-year class reunions. It was a great time to visit with class members and renew old acquaintances.

Des Moines Costco Book Signing

It was exciting to see my books included with the assorted books in Costco in Des Moines, Iowa but I was concerned that I might not sell 62 books in my three days of book signing. Also, the other employees told me that there weren’t as many customers because of the Iowa State Fair. Thursday, August 19, was okay but I needed to do better. Friday was great! Saturday was awesome! I sold out of books four hours early!

John and Kay made my day when they told me that they bought both books on Friday, read the first book and decided to return 40 miles one way to Costco to buy another six books for gifts. That only left one book for me to sell.

Summer in Iowa

I'm in Iowa. Terry is in Alaska. We will meet again in September. I've taken photos but don't have my commuter tech with me to help put them on the internet.

Good things I've done are spent 3 weeks with Texas grandson Jake aged 15, saw my classmates at a high school reunion, attended my nephew's wedding and joined a family reunion.

Bad things that have happened are my 16 grandaughter was burned on her face and left leg and foot from a bonfire. My 12 year old grandaughter was shocked from a electrical outlet and is in intensive care because of a heart arrythma .

Future events in Iowa are my father's 90th birthday party, a book signing at Costco in Des Moines, and another class reunion.
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Karol's Alaskan Trip

After the book signings, my daughter Karol visited Alaska. She wanted to see things that she couldn’t see in Iowa. There are no mountains in Iowa so that was the easiest of all to see. Mountains are everywhere. We hitched a ride with Raymond in the big dump truck and walked down the mountain road beside his place. Karol couldn’t believe the size of the flowers that grow in almost 24 hours of sunlight. Even the dandelions were hip high to her.

The Miller apartment is over the three-car garage with the deck overlooking Upper Fire Lake. Of course we wanted a ride around the lake. We followed the Little Susnita River where Karol decided to test the water temperature on our way to Independence Gold mine. I remembered the mine in much better shape. Even the visitor’s center was permanently closed. A marmot decided to check out an abandoned building. We drove further up the mountain where there was still snow by the side of the road.

No trip to Anchorage is complete without driving around Turnagain Arm. At the Portage Visitor’s Center, Karol saw an iceberg for the first time. We decided to drive the long, long, tunnel to Whittier even though it was raining. The train had already gone through so we didn’t have to wait very long but we took too much time driving around and photographing the water falls so we needed to wait about a half hour before returning to the main road. Cars were parked on the edge of the road so we stopped to see what was happening. A few feet from the road, we saw this Bull Moose.

Raymond and Teresita let us use their slide-in camper for our trip to Seward. Since we were camped along the water, we could sit outside the camper and watch waves, boats, and sea otters. We walked to the aquarium where Karol photographed the horned puffin.

The next day we took the Kenai Fjords eight and a half hour boat ride. Here we saw glaciers, humpback whales, porpoises, puffins, and sea lions and otters.

Since we booked our cruise online, we even got a free pass to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Since I have already placed a number of photos on the blog from my last trip here, I won’t use more space except for this photo of the wood buffalo.

More Book Signing

Evan Swensen, who is a distributor for my books, took the photos in Costco on Dimond St. There were as many as ten authors at the store at one time. The tables were set up in a huge U shape with the authors sitting in the middle of the U. It was very interesting to meet the Alaskan authors who wrote children’s stories such as “Alaskan Animals, We Love You” historical books such as “The Buffalo Soldiers,” personal experiences such as “Why Alaska” and novels such as “the Fraternity.” The youngest author was 10-year-old Sam Allred who wrote about his experiences with his kidney disease called IgM Nephropathy in a book called “Opening Hearts.”

La Von told me about going to an RV park and selling books there. I asked Evan about it. He called the Golden Nugget RV Park who were having a soup supper with music afterward that evening. They wanted me to give them some jokes and anecdotes and set up a table so I could sell my books after that. I said, “Yes”.

Instead of going back to Eagle River after the Costco, I headed for the RV Park. The people were very welcoming. A teenager took the photos of me. The “talk” went well and I sold a lot of books.

Two Events in one Day

Besides visiting with family and going on cruises, I have been doing book signings of my books, “RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- The Confessions of Happy Campers” and “More
RV Chuckles and Chuckholes- More Confessions of Happy Campers.”

June 5, I was at the BX at Edmonton Air force Base. They had a fire at the commissary and evacuated everyone. This is a first for me. I never before had a book signing where the place caught on fire. No it wasn’t a book-burning event. They said that a toaster caught fire. Everything was back to normal after an hour.

On June 12, I was able to do two events in one day. In the morning was the author’s meeting upstairs. It was good to see everyone again. (Some of the chapters in the More Chuckles. . . book had been critiqued by this writing group.) In the afternoon, my book signing was from 1 to 4. Pictured are some of the women from the group who also took the photos. Yes, I took my glasses off for the pictures because of the glare.

On June 17, 18, and 19, I will be with other authors at the Costco store on Dimond St. in Anchorage from 10am till 5 pm for Costco Road show event.