Wet in Wyoming

It has been refreshing to have some rain showers.  Especially since we are landed for a couple of days in Wall, SD.  Cute little town.  Has the famous Wall Drugs that still gives free water to travelers.  Interesting story, interesting town that we plan to visit tomorrow (cannot take the dogs in the rain ya know).  Jasmine is really enjoying the cloudy day and watching all the activity in the park.

I have to say, when we got this RV I was not that thrilled to have a washer and dryer (it came with the unit we purchased).  Well, I have definitely changed my mind.  It is SO amazing to be able to do a load or two of laundry while we are hanging out at the RV.  Clean sheets are my passion (sick I know).  Remember our dogs like to snuggle under the covers early in the morning, so being able to wash them is a real bonus for me.

On the stitching front, I decided to take out all the work on Inside the Box and redo it.  I had used the wrong thread, was a thread off on the count, just a big mess.  So, I am redoing some of it.  Here is where i am right now.

Also have been working on both my Americana project and Halloween projects.  It does not feel like I have making much progress, but they are coming along.

I am really loving this piece.  I think it will be very cute in my RW&B room in Blanco.

As much as I do no enjoy backstitching, I am thinking that the hat needs it.  I don't know.  Maybe.

Tomorrow we are going to visit the Bad Lands and the city of Wall so I should have something interesting to report.

Thanks for checking out the blog.  Hope you are not too bored.

Rocky Mountain State

We are now in Colorado Springs for a couple of nights.  We plan to do some sight seeing and, of course, find a needle shop or two for a visit.    The trip has been wonderfully uneventful.  Once we got out of Texas the weather cooled off a little bit.  I am hope for some cool nights so we can sit out... speaking of which......

No sitting out tonight as it is really windy and dusty.

I gave both the dogs Benadryl for the climb since both have had problems with altitude changes in the past.  They both did well, no head shaking or whining....until it got close to dinner time of course and they are not good at time changes!

Now to the important stuff.


I gave the Canadian Flag project the college try.  I just could not get the hang of counting it correctly so it is shelved for the trip.  I think, perhaps, I need to mark the lines on the pattern so I can count correctly.  I will do the project, but not this trip.  It was a litte more work that I want to do while I am traveling.


Here is my progress so far:

Lilac Time, Laura J. Perin Needlepoint

The photo is not great, but it is kind of overcast at the moment.  Now, you would not think that those lattice portions on the four sides would not be that hard.  As usual, I nearly wore the thread out getting it right and there is one part that is off just a little.  I am leaving it!  I have to remind myself constantly to count THREADS not HOLES.

Wicked is as Wicked Does, Waxing Moon Designs

This is a new start since I got frustrated with the Canadian Flag piece.  It is on 32 county Linen in Copper Penny.  I really like the fabric and hope this turns out well.  I will probably move it to a Qsnap (the one the flag was on) to finish it.

I am still trying to figure out why comments are not showing up on the blog and I cannot find a way to answer them.  Please do not think you are being ignored.  I can read them, I simply cannot answer them.

That is it for today.  Thank you so much for visiting.  I appreciate all your kind words and hope you are not too bored!

Heading East at Last

Since our first park did not have internet access, these are the first two days of our travels.

Day One

It has been a heck of a day.  

We were less than two miles from the house and all the dashboard electronics went haywire.  Telling us we had no gas, no turn signals, no other things that we are supposed to have.  

So, we went straight to Santa Maria to the RV repair and spend a couple of hours there.  Finally they figured out they just had to reboot the computer.   All worked fine and we headed out.

We got about 5 miles to the highway and the repair shop called saying we left a dog there!  WHAAAT.  Sure enough, little Jazz left the coach while I was prepping to leave so we had to go back to get her.  What a dufus.  She was pretty contrite for a couple of minutes.  The manager said she had wandered into the shop area (thank goodness she didn’t just wander out of the area) and, although he said she would not come to him, he got her to follow him into his office where she whined and barked until we got back to pick her up.  What a ninny.  I, of course,  was having a spell.  I could not believe it.  I am SO careful when we are traveling.  Whew.

Finally we were on the road for sure only about 3 hours later than expected.  Tonight we are in Mojave.  We did not take the route through the LA area this time.  Although the roads are smaller and windier, it is a lot less stressful than going through the LA area for three hours of traffic.  Especially with the late start we got. 

This is a very nice park with lots of trees and that lovely desert breeze blowing.  It is fantastic.   We got in too late to get the WIFI code so this post will be done tomorrow.  

I got some work done on my needlepoint project Autumn Leaves by Laura J. Perin.  It is one of her on-line classes that I started last year during our trip.  Since I usually only do needlepoint while we are traveling the projects go a little slower than my others.  I am looking forward to finishing this by the time we get to Texas.  Here it is so far.

  

And this will be our first trip with our new recliner seating.  We replaced the couch that made into a bed with the two recliners and are anxious to use it.  Of course, based on this photo it does not look like we will get much chance!  

Day Two

An nice, uneventful day of traveling.  The weather is fantastic.  Warm and dry.  Every time we make this trip I remember how much I love the desert.  Weird I know.

I worked on Autumn Leaves today.  I had a real hard time.  You would think that it is simple but those zig zag parts in the upper right corner made me crazy and I ripped them out a couple of times.  Good thing I ordered some additional thread!  

Anyway, I have decided that counting in needlepoint and counting in cross stitch is distinctly different.  It has to be.  I had all sorts of trouble and finally ended up just adjusting the pattern to fit what I put in the third time!  Crazy.  I also did not even attempt to do french knots with Krenik metallic braid.  Seemed like a better idea to do little crosses.  I am still hoping to get this finished by the time we hit Blanco, but I am having a few doubts now.  I am having a little trouble with the bottom right corner zig zags but perhaps a fresh look tomorrow will get that section finished up at least.  Then I can work on adding more of the gold braid and perhaps tackle the middle section.  

We landed in Tonopah (you should hear the GPS try to pronounce it).  A really nice park and all is well.   We are all fine and looking forward to a good night of sleep.

  

Thanks for visiting.

Day 2 of the Journey to California

Had a really good travel day.  The weather is just about perfect.  Tonight we are in Deming, NM.  I have always loved the desert, and it is just beautiful here. 

We are staying in a new park (new to us anyway).  It is a 55 and over park (for which we are well qualified).  They have some funny rules, and a lot  of goat heads, but it is really nice and they allowed us to park so that we have shade on the passenger side of the coach.  I do not know what the secret is to get shade, but we often have sun on the side where we like to sit out in the evening. 

 And the dogs are pretty comfortable I would say.

Am still working on getting a comfortable place to stitch while we are in route.  I have moved from the front to the living room area and it is a little better. 

Am working on Bay Dunes mostly.  Got some decent progress made.  Still over half way to go, but I am enjoying the colors.  I have to constantly remind myself that I am doing the half crosses the opposite of my usual way. 

I finally gave up on the Santa stocking that has been a WIP for what seems like ages.  All the fractional stitches just drove me nuts.  I have not totally given up on a WIP that I can remember, but I have so much more that I want to do.  I decided at my age not to stress about it.  So I took it off the frame and will start another project I want to do.

Bye santa

On to Arizona tomorrow. 

On the Road Again

Yep, we are headed West at last.  Our first night is outside Fort Stockton.  Not very picturesque, but it IS West Texas after all.  It sure doesn't feel like fall out here.  Hoping the night will cool down.

Have been trying to see if I can cross stitch while we are going down the road.  I usually do a needlepoint project while we are traveling.  I have, on the first day, found that it is not bad if I don't need to do a lot of detail and if it is 14 count.  The 25 count was WAY to small to see while going down the road.  It is certainly a lesson in discipline.  I have so much I want to work on while we are traveling.  I will try some different places in the RV tomorrow and perhaps a different set up in the passenger chair.  I am also thinking I need to put a lap frame in the RV somehow.  I can't seem to get the angle comfortable so far.

The dogs are doing really well.   I think they are ready for a trip.  I am so lucky that they travel well.  I can't imagine if they were bad travelers!


More as it happens. 

Stitching on the Road

So what is up with the stitching you ask: 

Well, here it is.

While I take cross stitch projects to work on once we are parked for the evening (posted earlier in the week), I work on needlepoint projects while we are moving.  Here are the photos:

The two large projects are works in progress from prior trips.   Both are supposed to be pillow tops, and both were purchased at thrift stores.  The two smaller projects I threw in because I know I will finish the project on the left in the first day or so. 

This is an Ehrman 2005 canvas and I was thrilled to find it.  There is no chart, and it is really easy to follow ....perfect for working on while we are moving.

I am thinking I may use this for the top of that cube in the earlier post.  Might work.

I have to say that the hydrangea project is a little tedious.  I find the chart difficult to read and very confusing so I tend to avoid it.  Hopefully I will get inspired to work on it. 

 

  These two little guys were on sale and should go pretty quickly.

Getting our rig packed up and ready to go.  The saga of how we ended up in this beautiful Discovery by Fleetwood is long and tedious, but we love our new travel home.  This will be our first major trip in it so it should be interesting, to say the least. 

 

This is, by far, the fanciest thing I have ever traveled in.  The thing has more room that some apartments I have rented.  We are truly blessed and lucky.

 

I have not yet figured out how to post to this blog with my Ipad.  That is really a pain, but the laptop will be traveling with us.  Most places we stay have WiFi. 

 

The other challenge I have is getting the pictures from the camera to the laptop.  This laptop is Windows 8 and I recommending avoiding Windows 8 at all costs.  It does very strange things, and is way above my head when it comes to using it.

 

It looks like we will be headed out on Thursday morning, so I will post photos of the interior once we are all settled in and on the way.