Boise, Id to Las Vegas via OGDEN, UT.

Isn't traveling fun...the truck stop food, the $3.28 per gallon gas with an out-of-order restroom...the snow on October 3? It is just a barrel of monkey flying down the road...really! Now if you do not have a sense of humor or are not grounded in the fact that life is not a smooth road to the sunshine, then you may not be able to laugh at what a trip will throw at you. I have a friend that says that my husband and I should not be allowed to leave our home. She may be right but we love the adventure. We were on trip near Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Penn. when it malfunctioned, we lived through black outs in Boston, we were in Spain with visas to go to Saudi Arabia when the war broke out in Iraq, we were on Koh Samui, an island in the Gulf of Thailand when the tsunami hit in the Indian Ocean, we have been on the destination part of our trip when the airline we had booked to come home went on strike...and the list goes on. But we have never seen it as a bad thing (well the broken down rest room was not good but still)...in fact we like the hard as well as the easy parts. We boldly call our mishaps bragging rights. I guess you can see what is coming...right?

This trip is no different in any way. We had planned to go to Estes Park in the Colorado Rockies but because the weather forecast called for sleet and cold wind, we decided to change our plans. We go to Arizona to escape just that kind of thing. We changed our booking with our time share and we are going to Las Vegas instead. Never did we dream that it would snow all the way from Boise Idaho well into Utah on I-84 going south toward Salt Lake City. Today is October 4, 2009. The temperature lingered at about 34 degree for most of the day. I can just imagine someone saying, "Here is the deal, you will be getting snowed on in October...no matter which way you go missy. Just tough up!" (that's cowboy talk in case you didn't know, only a cowboy would say just cowgirl up lady.)

We are now at a World Mark resort outside of Ogden, Utah. We traveled about 13 miles east of Ogden up the Ogden Valley. The resort is called World Mark Wolf Creek and is near the little community of Eden. If we were skiers this would be perfect in the winter. Powder Mountain is very close by. The resort ad touts "Over 7,000 acres covering three mountains adds up to the most skiable terrain in the US. With this much space, you won't share any of the 124 runs with a crowd." In the summer fishing would be an option. The large Pineview Reservior is just a short drive away. Utah.com says "Pineview Reservoir provides outstanding opportunities for boating, fishing and other water sports."

Or, if you are a golfer and would like a luxurious lodge to be your home for a few days, Wolf Creek Lodge is just next door to the World Mark Resort. They want you to come and enjoy all the services. "Your lodging reservation includes full access to our many mountain resort amenities that include championship golf, restaurants, lounge and bar, outdoor pools, spa, concierge shuttle service, plus special free and discount perks."

Our room is beautiful here at our time share. We pay less that $50 dollars to use 'bonus time' or that time that is not booked. We call about 10 days ahead to find a spot. Our room has a kitchen with everything we need to fix small meals...including a dishwasher. A separate bedroom allows one of us to go to bed early or even sleep in late while the other can rattle around.

So we ate a turkey dinner at a small restaurant called JC's in Tremonton (not really good) as we came down I-84. I will fix toasted cheese sandwiches later on this evening. We have a bottle of wine, a gas fireplace and a queen sized bed. Until tomorrow morning we are in a very wonderful place.

But best of all IT IS NOT SNOWING....YEAH!!!!

I just thought you would want to know!

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Insurance Agent...a real person might have the best rate!!!

I only have a few words of advice...when you are shopping for insurance, don't forget the old fashions "Insurance Agent". My husband spent a great deal of time online, searching for the right insurance. In the end he found that, when he began to talk directly with an agent using our existing policy as a comparison, we were able to get car insurance with what we wanted for what we could pay. The company that had accident forgiveness, gave us a better deal because we were educated and did not punish us for being "senior citizens". Liberty Mutual was the company.

So my advice is, "TALK TO YOUR INSURANCE AGENT AND THEN TALK TURKEY!!!"

Just thought you should know.

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Oregon to Arizona...the long way!

Image by Always at Home via Flickr

We are moving toward our selfish time of the year. In summers we come back to Oregon where we spend time with our children and grandchildren. Our days are filled with family. Then, as fall approaches, we begin to wander mentally to our little "doll house" in the desert of Arizona. The condo makes the transition from a busy center of life with a black cat to an empty cold shell. The black cat gets to go live with our daughter, the condo is shut down and we load our little Subaru with all the things we think we will need. Over the years we have managed to accumulate two of almost everything. I only want to take my big Mexican mortar/pestle set and a wonderful collections of spices/condiments. Golf clubs, computers and clothes (some very warm clothes for the Estes Park stay) are crowded in and we are ready to travel.

We will travel east from Portland along 1-84 across Oregon with a stop in Ontario. On day 2 we will continue I-84 to Twin Falls, ID and on south on Utah HWY 79 to Eden near Ogden. On day 3 we will go east again to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Day 4 will find us at our midway point in the trip, Estes Park, CO. We will just be tourist for a few days in the Rockies before we hit the road again. We have a time share with World Mark so our condo awaits our arrival there. Then we will go south through New Mexico on to Tucson, AZ where our park model is waiting to come back to life.

We travel using our timeshares a great deal. The World Mark has a wonderful feature that allows us to use those rooms that are not booked as bonus time with a charge of less that $50 dollars per night. We usually stay in a 1 bedroom condo. We will keep you posted on how that works out this time. We already have one night of bonus time booked outside of Ogden at a place called Wolf Creek (Eden, UT.)

So here is the wrap up. We will travel through Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and into Arizona. We will travel approximately 2200 miles. We will take a little less than two weeks.

Did I see that the price of oil went up again the morning? Sigh!!

Stay tuned!

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Health Net: Ciprofloxacin Side Effects!

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Medicine Net When we think we need to self-diagnosis, the local coffee clatch is not the place to get your information. I found Medicin Net and think the information they have is wonderful. It is worth placing this in your book marks on you computer. Your doctor is a very busy person so every piece of documented information we take with us to an appointment can only work in our favor.

I recently suffered from a kidney infection severe enough to require a talk with my nurse practitioner. He prescribed CIPROFLOXACIN for the infection and the infection went away...a wonderful side effect to say the least.

But that is not my story...in this particular case I read the side effects carefully. I think I am just becoming more cautious as I grow older or maybe just wiser. One of the side effects it mentioned was tendinitis! Surprise. Since the drug is used to treat infections in the joints who would imagine that is would do damage to that area too. This is what Medicine Net said:

Ciprofloxacin as well as other antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone class of antibiotics, has been associated with tendinitis and even rupture of tendons, particularly the Achilles tendon. Some physicians recommend that their patients discontinue vigorous exercise while they are taking fluoroquinolone antibiotics.

I forgot the warning totally because I was feeling well, several weeks had passed and I was busy with grandchildren day after day. Then I was making my bed one morning when I twisted my knee slightly and a sharp pain went down my left leg. Within a few hours the knee was noticeably swollen. But the pain was not severe and I went on with my life. I did not even take an aspirin or anyother pain killer. Still, what was that? I racked my brain for a cause for my knee to suddenly be wounded. It had felt fine that morning!

After several days of ignoring the ache and searching my brain for a cause, I remembered the warnings in the Cipro information...the part that came to my mind was the part that said the injury may not occur until several weeks have passed (I paraphrase).

It has been quite a while now, maybe over a month. I have begun wearing a brace, applying heat and taking an antiinflamitory I can buy over the counter. I did try resuming my long fast walks without the brace but that was apparently a bad idea. I am leaving for Arizona in a few weeks so I will wait to see if it gets better before then. You and I know that a visit to the doctor is a good thing so I may even do that if I don't get better with the application of heat and the brace.

(Medicine Net also had information on tendonitis, strains, sprains and some suggestions for relief before you visit the doctor. You might take a look at that too.)

If I do go to the doctor, I will go armed with the information I need. Self diagnosis can be very dangerous but information and knowledge always work in our favor. Or at least I think so.

Just a thought!

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Traveling Western Europe Travel Book...Karen Brown's Books

Traveling western Europe? When we did that we needed some advice...some really good advice! I found this information this morning while drinking my smoothie and trying to convince myself to walk (the second day in a row) . This is what the 50 Something Info Blog had to say:

....I asked a former travel agent what she uses to get recommendations for accommodations and itineraries.

“Without a doubt,” she replied, “I use Karen Brown's Guides. The hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts aren’t inexpensive but they are always great.” She further explained that Brown doesn't cover every single country.

The books cover Italy, the British Isles, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and France. They are available at Amazon and I am sure that your local Barnes and Noble has it or can get it for you. We always travel with several guide books and this may be one we will add to our collection.


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Only the Good Fridays!!!

Friday is a good day in the week...
It is the one where young people work
They know that Saturday is tomorrow.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if it worked
that way all the time...that we knew work
brought a rest, lovely bites of things we love or time to do
"just what we wanted"?

I am oldish
and I can tell you now
it does work that way.
It is called retirement.
The Friday is your work life
The Saturday is that time we
Get to take all those lovely bites
of thing we love.
Surprise...!!!

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Car or Rv In Storage...you can save on insurance. But if you don't ask, they won't tell!!!

While we're far from home the other car sits waiting...and insured to the max. Or it used to be. Now we know better.

Tortilla Flats on the Apache Trail, Arizona.


You've all seen that commercial where the man offers the little girl a horse and when she accepts, he gives her a plastic horse. She loved it until the man gave her friend a real horse. When she says, "You didn't tell me I could have a real horse" he answers, "You didn't ask!"

So this is the way our insurance company operates. We have GMAC insurance on our two automobiles. I suppose the rates are comparable with other companies but we are finding there is more to those policies that we realized. The problem has been "We didn't ask...and they didn't tell"

We are just now discovering after 12+ years of travel that we could have put our extra car on a "storage option" and would have saved several hundred dollars over that number of years . But, when you read the information, there is no mention of this option...none that we could find anyway.

Snowbirds, if you are traveling south and leaving one car at home in the garage, put it on the storage option. If you fly home for a holiday, you should be able to call and have it insured for the 10 or 14 days that you use it and then put it back on the storage option again. When it is being stored, you are left with only comprehensive insurance but don't pay for collision or any of the other coverage you need when you actually take it back out on the road. You can also do this with your motor home if you store it for long periods of time.

I just thought you would want to know.

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