Wednesday, May 30, 2012

A solar elipse - May 20th, 2012



Hi there everyone,
We were fortunate enough to be able to experience a solar eclipse, not only in North America, but also on a weekend so that we could enjoy it without having to take time off work. :-)

This is the first time in Eric's adult life, that he has been able to take time to see this unique phenomenon. We learned how to view this event by watching Mark Finan, the local weather person on the NBC affiliate here in Sacramento. He explained that by using a pair of binoculars, you could project the image of the sun on a piece of paper. WARNING, don't try looking at the sun through binoculars! You have to guess when trying to point the binoculars at the sun.

At any rate, over the course of about an hour, we were able to watch the eclipse take place. This wasn't a complete solar eclipse. It was is called an annular eclipse where you see a 'Ring of fire' around the Moon, during the eclipse, because the moon is so far away from the earth, that it doesn't block out the entire sun.

We found the event very fascinating. And as you can see, we had our whole little 'Observatory' set up so that we could watch the event unfold before our eyes. The event started about 5:30 PM, and the sun was obscured to the maximum at about 6:30 PM. Because we were south of the prime viewing spot, we didn't see the entire 'Ring of fire'. If we had been in Redding, we would have seen a perfect ring of fire around the moon.

Even though we live full time in our rig, we are still able to partake in just about anything we want too! :-)

Happy camping! Eric and Carol

Saturday, May 19, 2012

A video about our lives full timing

Hi there everyone,

Sorry I haven' t posted to our blog in a while, but I got this crazy idea to do a video about our lives full timing. Please check out our YouTube video. It covers from the time Carol and I got together, living in various stick and Brick homes all the way up through our current home, a 2003 Allegro Bus Motor home!

Happy camping!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Riverpoint RV Resort

Well, April is almost done, but we did get a get-away in the books for the month. This month, we took a short trip south on I-5 from Sacramento to a new RV park called Riverpoint RV park. Riverpoint RV park is in the city of Stockton, alongside the deep water channel. It just so happened that when I made the reservations, it was for the same weekend as the Stockton Asparagus festival. Though attending the event was not part of my plan, the two coincided just the same.

For good, bad or indifferent, Carol and I don't think of Stockton as a destination spot, but we used this opportunity to get away for the weekend just to relax. This was a great place to do it! It was so nice to get away and do nothing! The vast majority of the sites at this rv park are water front sites that back right up to the Stockton Deep water channel. One of the things that surprised us was to be woken up on Sunday morning at 7:00 am by a passing cargo ship blowing it's air horn. We don't think this is the norm because he was traveling much faster than most ships that passed. We think they realized they were going too fast and was blowing his horn while trying to slow down.

We enjoyed just sitting and relaxing all weekend. We did get a modest stroll in while we took in the Yard sale at the Marina where those who hold storage units and boats there, were unloading some of their surplus stuff. We picked up a bug zapper and a fan, both for use outside. We did venture away from camp a couple times, Friday for dinner, and Saturday for lunch, but for the most part stayed close to camp. One of the things we came away with from our stay here, was that Stockton has a un-deserved bad reputation. Much of Stockton is a nice area. Like any many large city, there are the 'Bad parts of town'. And there is crime, in Stockton, but again, this is true for any city of any size.

As we were out looking for dinner on Friday night, we found a beautiful Public school that was done in a farm style. Big classroom buildings that looked like barns at farms and even an archway that looked like a grain Silo.
We are so happy for Katie, she just bought her self a new car. We are so proud of her, that she managed to buy a car despite her marginal credit. But, you gotta start fixing that credit some how! She loves her little Chevy Aveo. We both think it was a very 'Practical' purchase!

We hope you all are doing well and are safe. We can't wait for our next adventure where it may take us.




Happy camping! Eric and Carol