I got a new job for 4th of July

Hi there everyone,

Well, this has been in the works since February, but I couldn't tell you until now. I've landed a new job working for the California Department of Social Services. I am so excited that I get this new opportunity. I've been with Volcano since 1999, but have wanted to move on for a while. I start my new job on the 25th of July. I found out about getting the job on Friday the 1st of July.

We got together with the family at Billy and Loretta's house in Pioneer for a bar-b-que. We had a great time hanging out with the family on Saturday night. Monday night, we went to a near-by Raileys parking lot to watch the Rancho Cordova fireworks display. The city of Rancho Cordova does it up right, but we didn't get to the event soon enough so we didn't get into the park to watch the fireworks, so we went to a Raileys that was about a mile away.

Also, I love getting my wife flowers when ever we have a few extra bucks. This week we had a couple extra bucks so I got my honey some beautiful flowers. I love my honey so very manies! :-)

We are leaving this Friday for a week long vacation to Zion national park in Utah. This is our first time to this part so we are both very excited to be heading out. Also, it may be the last time for a while before I can take a week off, since I am taking the new job. Ah, life is good.

Happy camping all! Eric and Carol

Brandons 27th birthday

Saturday the 25th of June was one of our busiest days to date. It started out with just a plan to go to a Rivercats game in the evening, but last week Loretta called and said they were having Brandson's 27th birthday party at a Pizza place in San Leandro. Also, Saturday is the day of the farmers market here in Rancho Cordova. So, being the ever intrepid full time RV'ers, we arose nice and early to go to the Farmers market. There must have been around 40 vendors there where we picked up Blue Berries, Straw Berries and apricots. All really tasty summer fruit. Yumm!

After we left the farmers market, we then went to the FedEx depot to ship the laptop off for repairs as the monitor has started to act flaky. :-( Then, we stopped at Kohls and picked up some new shoes for yours truly. We had some Kohls cash that was expiring on Saturday and we didn't want to let it get away from us. :-) After we finished with Kohls, we went over to WalMart to see if we could pick up a New printer for our rig. You see Rosie likes to walk across the printer as she makes her way from the floor to the kitchen counter and has trashed the old printer, so we needed to replace it. Now, we just gotta figure out how to protect the new printer so the safe fate doesn't happen to it. Un-fortunately, our local Warmart was out of stock on that printer. Oh well not a total wasted trip, we picked up some oatmeal for a morning snack. All this done by 11:15 AM. :-)

We then swung by the house and picked up Bill and Sandy to head out on the 2 hour trip to San Leandro for the Birthday party. With Brandon having M.D., we don't know how many more birthdays we will get to enjoy together, so we have to make the most of them! Once we arrived, I got to get a flavor of the area that Carol was raised in. It was so cool to see some of the old places that Carol went to every day as a kid, even the old grocery store.

We enjoyed Pizza with the entire Waite family. It was a great gathering, kind of like a mini-family reunion. Five of the six Waite kids were in attendance which was really great to see. We all so cherish the time we get to spend with Brandon. He is such a brave, smart and talented young man!

The pizza party was over around 4:30 and so then we headed back to Sacramento to the Rivercats game. We stopped at another Walmart along the way and picked up the new printer and then still made it to the game on time. :-) The cherry on top of this very busy day was that the 'Cats' won, 8 to 3 over the Reno Aces.

Well, that was a very busy day, but a good one none the less. Today, I'm going to pull the bumper off of the CRV and check the bolts for tightness on the tow bar. I haven't done that since we first put it on and the trip to Reno in May took us over I-80 where things were a little bumpy, so I think I'd better check it out before we head to Zion later in July!

Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

Lovin' our new location and Benihana

Hi there everyone,

Time just always seems to be getting away from us. Our weekends, especially in the Summer Time are always seeming to be booked. Carol has been busy with a baby shower for one co-worker and a bridal shower for her boss.

We love our new location here in Rancho Cordova. This spot, we expect to be in for the foreseeable future. It is a great spot with a lot of shad and a fenced in yard. We really lucked out with this spot.

On the 11th of June, we went out to dinner with Katie and Russ at Benihana. It was a real splurge, but you gotta do that once a year or so. We all enjoyed the meal and the entertainment from the chef a lot. Carol and I always really enjoy getting together with Katie and Russ, they are just so grown up. We are so lucky to be a part of their lives. :-)

On June 19th, we got together with them again for dinner. This time for Fathers day. It was such a special outing for me. Goodness knows Katie and I have butted heads when she was growing up, but I am so lucky to be in her life as her step father. Thank you Katie and Russ for making this fathers day so very special too me. Earlier in the day, Carol was so kind as to take me to the Northern California Aerospace museum at McClellan field, an old Air Force base. I really enjoy these sorts of places and Carol does too. The only problem was Carol had gotten a bit sun-burned at the Pet-a-palooza the day before.

The Pet-a-palooza. It is a pet fair sponsored by the local CBS affiliates. We had a great time walking around with other dog owners taking in all of the vendors, listening to the music and getting our step count up. :-) They had these 'Hydration stations' where there were water bowls and small wading pools. We took Rosie to the event and we found out just how much she really likes water. Despite the water being filthy, she loves to get into the wading pools and cool off. So, later that weekend, we picked one up at our local Lowes and filled it with water at home. :-)

Happy camping! - Eric and Carol -

Carol and I have figured out that we are going to Zion and Bryce for our Vacation this year. Unfortunately, the monitor on the Laptop is poopin' out, so we are going to have to send it in for Warranty service. That may mean that we won't have it to update the blog while we are on the road. But, we will do our best to keep you posted.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol Anderson

Stanford house

Hi there everyone,

Well, we had another busy weekend. And though we never seem to get to spend as much time together as we would like, the time we did spend together was so precious to both of us. We are just so in love! :-) This weekend did get to go to the Leland Stanford mansion in Downtown Sacramento. It was a wonderful hour long tour that was very enjoyable and informative. Even though it rained this weekend, I got the Accord a bath. There was a fund raiser for a family that has a un-born baby who has reversed heart valves.The condition is only caught 15% of the time prior to birth, but their survival rate increases by 80% when the condition is caught before birth. The community support was very wonderful to see!

We've had a chance to get to know some of our neighbors now that we have moved to a new sight within the park. Their are some really wonderful folks that we have gotten to know. We continue to be very happy with our choice of our new home.

There is a white Dodge Neon that Scott and Cheryl gave us. This car is one they were going to have towed off by a non-profit 'cause the transmission was shot. After Carol and I put $2,500 into a tranny, gear shift lever, Tires, cooling system work and alignment, the car was good to go. I drove it to work for about 6 months and this week we gave it to Katie and Russ so they would have a second set of wheels. Katie and Russ just love it. The little car gets great gas mileage. We are hopeful that it will give the kids a reliable second car for a while.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol Anderson

Reno for Memorial day

Hi there everyone,

We came to Reno Nevada this Memorial day weekend to hook up with Karen and Mike who are on their final leg of their 'Southern Safari' which has taken them all the way to Key West Florida. They embarked on the trip in February and have seen some wonderful sights of this great nation of ours during their travels. Check out their blog at http://www.oursouthernsafari.blogspot.com/

On Saturday, we went around the Reno and Sparks area looking for a few RV parts, having lunch and then taking the dogs to a local dog park. This was a great dog park in that one side of it was boardered by a lake. Guiness and Rosie had an absolute blast running and playing. Though Lilly and Nigel were active, they were more subdued due to their more 'Senior' status. In the afternoon, we snuck in a nap for a little bit. We caped off Saturday with the first 'Home cooked' meal that Karen and Mike have had since February where we had them over for dinner which consisted of Lasangna and other tasty stuff. Carol, as always is the consumate hostest with the mostest!

On Sunday, we made the trek down to Caron City to walk around inside the Rail Road museum. Though this is a smaller museum than the Rail Road Museum in Sacramento, the restoration work that they have done here is fabulous. It really gives you a sence of how our nation was built by the rail roads.

After we finished checking out the rail road museum, we drove to Virginia City for lunch and to do some window shopping. It is amazing that in late May we could find our selves in a snow storm, but we did. Virginia City is a cool little town that survives only on the tourist trade. Except for cars being on the streets, it is very much like the town of Columbia in California where you step back into time.

Saturday was caped off with a tasty dinner at a resturant called 'Brew Brothers'. The food was excellent, the service by Shad, was lousy. We haven't felt like we were putting someone out in such a very long time. Oh well. None the less, we had a wonderful dinner together.

Despite all of the good times we have had this weekend, we have not lost sight of the fact that many of the things we enjoy, we do so because of the sacrafices our service Men and Women have made since our great country was founded. We salute each and every one of you who have served our contry with honor. THANK YOU!

Happy camping! Eric and Carol Anderson

A trip down town

Sunday May 22nd, 2011

Hi there everyone,

Yesterday Carol spent the day hanging out with Scott and Cheryl. I worked all day on chores around the motorhome. I got Carol's car washed and detailed inside and out. I painted the roof on the Neon, Fixed a screen on a window; cleaned house, did four loads of Laundry and two or three other items on the 'Honey do' list; so, it was a very productive day.

Today, however was a lot more fun. We had a leisurely breakfast and then sat outside and read the paper. After we finished the paper, we rode the light-rail downtown and walked around 7th and P streets as well as the K street mall. I got to see where Carol takes the train too when she rides it to work. All in all, we feel pretty safe on the public transit, but you do see quite the eclectic collection of folks.

We did a lot of walking around town today. So, it was a major cheat day. We had lunch at Jonny Rockets. In general we were really bad, but we had Veggie burgers. We didn't really have any money to spend, but we had enough for lunch.

Stay tuned for other new developments.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol

Speed trip to pick up our sign

Sunday the 15th, of May, 2011

A couple of months ago, we went on a trip down to Coursegold California and spent a 4 day weekend at an Escapee's park. On the first full day that we were down there, we stopped by a booth where there was this guy that made wood signs with your name or what ever you would like carved on them. We asked him if he could do a sign with a motorhome on it. He said sure, no problem. We asked him if he could have it done by the end of the weekend. He said 'Sure, no problem, I make a habit of under promising and over delivering'. Three days later, we went by to pick it up, and the sign wasn't ready. He said that he would ship it too us in two days.

A month later, after calling over and over again, he finally sent us a picture of the sign and said he would send it too us in the next couple days. Another month went by, and still no sign. So, I called and left him a message saying we would come down and pick it up. This finally got a response. He said he would send it to us the following Monday. We told him, no, that's alright we'll come down and get it. I asked him if he had also finished the three dog bones (Roxy, Rosie and Lilly). He said yes he had finished all of that.

We arrived at Eddie's business the next morning as promised. He dug the sign out, but the dog bones were no where to be found. He said, if we came back in 30 minutes, he would have the three dog bones completed. We came back 40 minutes later and the three dog bones were completed. Why is it he could complete three dog bones in 30 minutes, but could could not complete the sign and get it shipped to us in less than 2 months, no one knows, neither does Eddie.

At any rate, we got the sign and we are very happy with how it looks. We also got a chance to check out the city of Mariposa in the process. This included the court house. It is a very cool little town.

Happy camping! Eric and Carol