Collared Peccaries

Collared Peccaries also know as the Javelina (or Javelin as my family like to call them), are very hard to find. They are called the Ghosts of the Desert, now I know why. Nate and I hunted hard for 2 straight days and didn't even see a single animal. We saw plenty of sign (tracks, poop, eaten vegetation) but we did not see any animals at all. We had a good time and look forward to chasing them again next year. We were able to ride Qaud runners and covered a lot of territory in 2 days. We did see tons of birds (bluebirds and Cardinals included), Mule deer, squirrels, jack rabbits, cottontails, lizards and lots of cat tracks.

The hunt goes for a few more days but I will need to plan on next year. If you want to go, start planning on it now.

Back and Forth

Well I haven't posted too much lately. I have been traveling back and forth from Phoenix to SLC quite a bit. I think I have traveled more on airplanes this calendar year then the past 10 years combined. I think today was my 9 flight. I will be headed back down next weekend.

It is great to be able to spend time with my family on the weekends. We have been doing a lot of fun things and just spending time together. We have been to museums, state parks, botanical gardens, olive farms and ghost towns. Everything down there is a new adventure for us.

We are starting to see the end of the road for this little adventure. Kim and the kids will be back home on March 15th. I hope Kim and the kids will be able to adjust back.

5 favs

I have been tagged by Kaylee. Here is my list:

5 fave things
Family
Friends
Hunting
Outdoors
Boating

5 fave movies
Casino
Star Wars (all of them)
Stand by Me
Tommy Boy
Wayne's World

5 fave TV shows (sorry I don't read much)
Utah Jazz Basketball
American Chopper
Mythbusters
Deadliest Catch
Little People Big World

5 fave foods
Sushi
Coke
Pizza
Chocolate
Steak

5 fave places
Moab
Disneyland
Caribbean
Mexico
Japan

who do I tag?
Mindi
Scott
Tanner

Cold

I am home now and it is 25 degrees and everything is snow covered. I am freezing. Now I understand why so many people move to Phoenix in the winter.

Arizona - The setup

Here are few pictures of what is going on down in Arizona:

The trailer park in Mesa The homestead

The front patio

The fire hydrant I almost hit pulling in and the truck parking spot

The view from the dinning room
Close up of the view The playground/workout area/firepit

Typical sunset

Another life adventure

Well, we have made it to Arizona. Here is an update:

Wednesday we left around 3:00 and drove to Mesquite to spend the night. We had planned on staying in the Walmart parking lot, but it was clearly marked that you could not spend the night in their parking lot. We then drove over to the Casablanca where the parking lot was full of RVers. We setup in a small quite corner and grabbed a bite to eat and went to bed.

Thursday morning we woke up, grabbed some more McD's food, packed up the RV and hit the road. We arrived at the RV park around 6:30 and started setting up. The campground host and another RVer help me back in our 5th wheel without hitting the fire hydrant or any other cars or RV's. We then leveled out hooked things up and had a nice dinner with Jen, Nate and the girls at Olive Garden. When we were done eating, Nate asked our server if his wrist was OK, well Anthony went on a 10 minute story about how he had been cut in a drunken brawl. We could barely contain our laughter.

Friday we spent the day driving around getting familiar with the area and going shopping. The dogs freaked out and so did Kim for a little while. At this point I thought we may be driving home in the morning. Jen and Nate invited us over for dinner, had some really yummy chicken and watched the Sugar Bowl. Huge win for the Utes. When we arrived back at the trailer we found a leak in the toilet, so we had to turn off the water for the night.

Saturday we woke up and headed over to Camping World to get a replacement hose for the toilet and a few other supplies we needed. I swapped out the hose on the toilet and it was still leaking. Turns out the toilet had a crack and I had to go back to Camping World and buy a new one. Once that was fixed, we finally cleaned up and had dinner over at Oregano's Pizza. Mmmmmm. After dinner we came back to the trailer and played the Office game and settled in for the night. The weatherman told us that a winter storm was coming in on Sunday.

Today, we woke up and had brunch at Sweet Tomatoes. The we drove around some more. BTW it is 50 degrees and raining, I guess that is a winter storm down here. I am still in shorts and a t shirt.

Tomorrow, I will fly home in the morning. I will work for a week and fly back down on Friday morning. It will be hard to leave my family, but I feel like they are in a good situation. Kim seems to be doing better physically and mentally. Phoenix is a nice area to live. Even in a trailer park.

Just some thoughts

Last night, Kim came upstairs and took a hot bath (she does this almost every day now). When she got out, she came over to show me her fingers, they had turned black. This is one of the symptoms of her illness.

There are so many unknowns right now. How will my family be without me being there? Is where they are staying safe? Will Kim be able to stay warm enough to start the healing process?

Kim and I are not sleeping much right now. Hopefully the warmer weather will make up for some of the stresses. Cold weather can make Kim's symptoms flair up but so can stress. I hope this is the best thing for everyone. I guess we will see.

Change

There are going to be alot of changes in our lives over the next few weeks.

On Wednesday, we will be leaving to head down to Phoenix. We are going to spend New Years Eve in Mesquite, probably in the WalMart Parking lot. We will drive the rest of the way to Phoenix on Thursday. The weather right now is looking good. I think once we get down to St. George, the weather wont be an issue.

I will be flying down at least every other weekend. I will be heading down there the first 2 weekend to make sure everthing is Ok, ease into the trasition.

We have a very close family so having us be away from each other will take some getting used to. Good thing for texting, email and IM.