Getting Hot and Steamy (It's really hot here)

June 27,2013

Good afternoon everyone.

Although we have had fairly nice weather, high 80's to mid 90's, this next weekend we are supposed to breach the triple digits!!! I have been told once they come they usually hang around for awhile. 

Settling into life in Bako

David has now been working for 2 weeks. The first week was a little rough. There were a lot of unexpected changes and adjustments that he had to make. However, I think this second week has gone much smoother. Overall he seems to be liking his work. They have told him he will work in this area for 6 months and then go to "Ops" in 6 months. I am not quite sure of all that "Ops" entails, but I know it is a lot of work/ monitoring the oil fields, I think. haha He has also been enjoying riding his bike to work.

this is David outside of his building

I, on the other hand, have filled my mornings with going to the gym. It has been a good time filler and I can feel my body getting stronger and fitter, which is awesome! Other than that, I run errands and sit by the pool. Rough life huh?

I have submitted my nursing license request to the Board and am hoping that they are super speedy with processing it so I can start looking for a job. There is a possibility I could be an adjunct professor at a LPN/LVN school. This past Monday I went to check the school out and now I just have to be in prayer if that is where the Lord wants me. Lori and Kyle (David's parents) came by last weekend during a layover and so we were able to enjoy dinner together.

We are still at the same RV park and hoping to get the smog checked this weekend, however I don't know if we will be able to get the parts we need in time... so we will see.

I think that wraps up life for us these past few weeks. We are looking forward to heading back to Colorado on July 4th for Drew and Ashleigh's wedding and then Reese and Lindsay's wedding the following weekend! 

We love and miss you all!

Day 26: Home Base, Bakersfield California

June 17, 2013

Hello friends and family.

"Yosemite" California as soon as you can!

As David mentioned in the last post, Yosemite was absolutely breath taking. The waterfalls were breath taking and the steep granite mountains were pretty spectacular as well. During the week, we hiked and also took a photography class/walk with a professional photographer for Ansel Adams. The class taught us how to use good composition, sharpness (detail), and depth of field for the best picture possible. David and I were happy to learn a few extra tricks with our camera, making it fun to shoot in a more manual setting.

One day, we did not feel like making the hour drive into the Yosemite valley, so we drove a couple miles up the road to Rainbow Pools. There used to be a resort on the premise, but burnt down a while ago. Now there are three pools that have been taken over by the national forest and anyone can use them. The bottom pool has a waterfall overflowing into it and steep cliffs all around. The water was 30 feet deep, so for the brave and adventurous spirits, you could jump off these cliffs! It made me think of my brother, Nick, and how much he would have enjoyed the jumping!!!
 

Probably wouldn't want to jump off that particular cliff...

As David mentioned, we headed out a day early with the pressure of knowing that there were things that needed settled before the weekend hit. 

Reno made it to Bakersfield with no big glitches. He definitely was picky with when he wanted that back light to work.
 

On Friday we drove Noah to LA airport with a detour to see the Hollywood sign and the stars on hollywood blvd. It was cool to see, but I would be ok with never going there again ahah. It was busy, dirty and people were always trying to get us to join their tours.
 

Lucille Ball in Hollywood.

We are currently parked on the Southeast side of Bakersfield, which is not the best area. However, we will be relocating on Thursday to a much nicer, safer, family friendly park on the Northwest side. This is the park that we were hoping we would get. Thank you Jesus!!  We were also informed we could stay long term as long as our credit check clears and Reno is registered...

Reno reluctant to register

This is a point of stress currently. To become registered, Reno has to go through a smog test (emission check). Well... if you have been reading the posts from the beginning, you know that Reno does not run the smoothest. David is 99% sure that he will fail the test, which means that we will have to fix whatever it takes to get Reno to pass....
 

We are praying really hard that he passes, but if he does not pass, that he will at least only need minimal fixes to pass. As soon as we are registered we will be able to pay monthly rates which are so inexpensive compared to apartment rentals here!

Real life starts again

David's first day with Occidental Petroleum is today. I have not heard from him, but I know it is an HR day. So, they will be going through rules, benefits, and other random stuff. I know he was excited, but also a little nervous this morning.
 

Today, I got a gym membership and I had nice long work out with no pressure to cut it short since there was not much else I had to do. Ha. I was planning on going to the library to use their computers and printers, only to find out they are closed on Mondays. So, tomorrow I will go and work on transferring my nursing license. I am hoping I can get it done in 1 day, so I can apply for jobs ASAP. There is a possibility I will work part time as an adjunct professor for an LPN school here in town. We will see. I am excited to see what God has in store for both myself and David here in Bakersfield.

Well, I think that sums up what we have been up to! I will try to post at least once a week. We love and miss everyone. 

Day 20: Catchup Post

We are yet again sorry for falling behind on our blog posts. Our excuse would be that not a whole lot of interesting (read that embarrassing or stressful enough to be funny) things have happened in the last 4 days.

I (David) am still a bit scarred from the crapy-ness of the other day, but we have had some good days. The travel from Lodi, CA (just outside of Sacramento) was especially hot. Jen drove the Honda separate since it was a pretty short drive and I didn't want to bother hooking up the car. Plus, with the steep inclines and high temperatures, Reno could use a little break. Besides, Jennifer was happy having a working a/c while we were driving through some 100+ degree temperatures. Noah and I, however, enjoyed sweating it out.

Don't forget about me! -Reno
We went the wrong way for a good bit, and that only added to the frustration from sitting in a mobile sauna. Somehow, the rear door that holds the electric hookups had flung open and we drug the wire for a bit. Thankfully Jen was driving behind us and we were able to spot it and get it fixed. That process pulled us through a tight pull off where I unfortunately jack-knifed the trailer. All of this occurred shortly after Jennifer mentioned one of my break lights wasn't working, making me a bit worried about getting pulled over. The trailer lights still work, and I don't know if that's a sufficient technicality to keep me out of the police's way... I hope.
 

Nonetheless we made it to our RV park (quite a bit further outside of Yosemite than we had thought) and made haste to get the a/c running. The travel basically sums up the most interesting parts. Don't get me wrong though; Yosemite is beautiful. It is super crowded during the weekend and only nominally so during the week, but still gorgeous. The views of the shear granite cliffs, glacial cut U valleys and waterfalls are picturesque in every sense. We have enjoyed swimming in a few pools, scrambling on rocks, and making a few hikes, but we are nonetheless getting antsy about getting back to real life. We will probably end up heading out a day early (Thursday) to start getting things settled (mail, gym memberships, new plates and registrations, etc.). I hope we can get into an RV park! 

Day 16: A Crappy Day

June 6, 2013

By about 1 am David was feeling sleepy, so we pulled off at a Rest Area to get some Zzzz's. Noah was already sound asleep and I had been asleep in the front. David and I crawled to the back and fell asleep. David woke up about 5 hours later, rested and ready to tackle the dreaded Nevada desert with no ac.  He started cruising and went to pull off for some gas when Reno started stalling. We were literally 100 feet from the pumps.  At this time I was still asleep, but could here David trying over and over again to get Reno to start.

Reno says hello
I finally pulled myself out of bed to see if there was anything I could help with, knowing full well that I was of little use other than moral support. David began searching on the Web why Reno might be acting this way. The two conclusions, based on Reno's symptoms, that it could possibly be was the timing belt being too loose or bad gas. We were praying for the latter. So, David tried starting him up again and he started. We pulled up to the pump and David bought some booster for the gas. Meanwhile,, I was in the car praying praying praying that Reno would start and that this timing belt thing would not snap and ruin are engine out in the middle of the desert. Yet again, God is faithful, why do I doubt, and Reno started up with a lovely purr.

We continued on through Nevada and were trucking along pretty well. It increasingly became hotter and hotter the farther and longer we went and without ac, we were all soaked with sweat. Our goal was to make it to Sacramento and then park and cool down. We found a park south of Sacramento to park for the night. We pulled into our spot and began hooking everything up to the RV, our typical routine.  Electric was the first thing hooked up, so we could cool off the RV with AC, YESsss!

"this is nothing, you just wait and SEE"
We had bought a new sewer hose since our other one was a little flimsy and grossed David out. We were all relieved that this was going to be a clean and easy hookup since it had never been used. Noah and I were gathered around and I commented by saying, "oo, I hear it going into the tube" to David's response of "this is nothing, you just wait and SEE." When all of a sudden the flood gates were opened and ALL our sewage spilled over the ground!!!!
ick ick ick uugggg.... NOT fun!
Noah and I ran away like little girls gagging and kind of laughing all at the same time while leaving David alone, woops! I finally returned to see David frozen there holding our poop slinky making the same exclamation over and over again (The word chosen was quite fitting I might add ahaha). Ha I then went over to help  figure out how to re-attach the poop slinky! After flinging and touching our waste long enough, we were able to get everything re-attached. As best as we could, we sprayed the grass where it all dumped to at least thin it out... good fertilizer, right? We all washed up still grossed out and yet laughing about the occurrence.

We ended the day by heading to a wonderful sushi dinner at Oz Japanese Restaurant. mmm. 

For those with weak stomachs, do not proceed!!

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Compliments to Noah who took the time to snap a picture: Now you all can see the mess we made HAH. 

Day 12...and 13-15: Yeah, sorry we were slackers

Good morning everyone!

Well, we have been slackers and for no really good reason. The two days after the last post were pretty slow. We still were able to enjoy some outdoor activities, but not a whole lot. The first day, David's back was causing him tremendous pain, which now, praise The Lord, he has been pain free for 4 days now! The second day I had been up all night with nausea and threw up, ick :/ (lets just say  I will not be eating tuna for a while).
 

June 4th, we left the Grand Tetons to make our way down to Salt Lake City Utah. We would stay there 2 nights and pick up Noah.  Fortunately, we do not have anything to report from that travel day. Other than the fact that Reno felt the need to either be a sail boat or Tigger, from Whinny the Pooh, bouncing all over the place. Everything ran smoothly and we got there in good time. Unexpectedly, our RV park was right next to an amusement park. However, the amusement park was not opening yet and we were the only people in the park. The grass there was wonderful!! They also had some nice showers. (I have realized I have come to appreciate some of the simple things in life).

More the merrier!
On the 5th we picked Noah up and spent our day driving out to Antelope Island. This is an island in the middle of the great salt lake. We thought it was be fun to go swim and see how well we could float. I was anticipating a nice sandy beach to relax and play in the water... HA yeah right. We got there and were greeted with smell of rotting, dead, fishy, poop (thanks to Noah and David for the adjectives).  It was gross! None the less, we still headed down to the "beach". Due to a drought, the water had evaporated and the beach was no longer the official beach. We had to walk 1/4 mile, no big deal, to the water line. When we got there, we were greeted by literally THOUSANDS of gnats!!!!!!!!! ugg, gross. I was skeptical and did not want to get into the water. Noah still went for it and when he finally got the a place that was past his shins (200-300 feet away from shore). He did report that he couldn't sink (pretty cool).

Shortly after arriving at that beach we decided to explore the island and see if there were any better spots to take a dip, preferably with fewer gnats! To our dismay, we did not find another spot and returned to the same spot just a little further down to try again (hoping this time it would be better....) We got out and started walking down to the water again. David and I had taken our shoes off to my stupid, stupid suggestion. The ground over there was harder, pricklier and smellier. This was a bad, bad idea. We finally made it to the water and David and I got in, but only to our shins. We saw in the water that there were little shrimp swimming and mating all around us. I decided I had my fill and started heading back.
 

That night after playing frisbee golf around the empty RV park we got everything settled and headed out. Since there was no wind, David thought it was best to get as far as we could with a calm cool night....

(We took a video for Donevon and Jory Loewen's birthday. Props compliment to Ashleigh Rude and Drew Meyers).

 

Day 11: A peaceful day

June 1,2013

The rain is definitely behind us! We have now had 2 gorgeous days.  Today was even better than yesterday! Not a cloud in the sky. Warm and with a slight breeze, just enough to cool one down from getting too hot.  After waking up slowly, we made breakfast and headed out for a hike. The hike we choose was to Two Oceans lake. Little did we know that to get to the trail head we would have to do some off-roading, ha. This made us a little nervous, David mainly, since our Honda is set pretty low to the ground and the ruts in the road were pretty big. We eventually got to the tail head and, after reading our bear spray directions, headed out on our hike.

The hike began with a steep incline but soon placed us at the summit which overlooked the beautiful "two oceans lake" and the surrounding mountains.  IT was so peaceful and serene. As we were basking in the sun and enjoying how quiet and peaceful it was, until... ring ring ring, David's phone goes off, really?! It was not even an important call, a telemarketer got us. Ridiculous! haha but it was funny at the same time. After tossing rocks for awhile, we headed back down.  Fortunately, no bear spray was needed.  We then took a very relaxed afternoon sitting on a picnic table, reading and playing cribbage. The view was yet again breath taking and left us in awe of our Great God who created the Tetons.

We went bear watching again, but did not see any movement. We realized how blessed we really were to not only see bear, but also see all the activity we did the night before.

The rest of the evening we made dinner and played 2 person Pepper, a family game that is similar to Euker.  You really need 4 people to play, but David and I made it work with 2. We, us verse our "opponents", are now tied 1-1. haha We are weird, but it was fun! :) (One of the most important abilities necessary to play with two people is the ability to forget things. I, David, have a unique knack for this. I can pretty easily look at my 'opponents' cards and play as if I hadn't... who knew that would come in handy?)
 

Two more days left here in the Tetons and then we will be heading to Salt Lake City for 2 days to pick up  David's brother Noah. He will be joining us for the remaining portion of the trip to Yosemite. We decided to reduce the amount of driving and cut out Oregon and Northern California.
 

Only 16 more days until David will start his job at Occidental Petroleum! 

We would appreciate prayers for finding a decent (and near-work) RV site to be able to park!