Sweet Cheeks Sings No More - Farewell to our Boondocking Bird

It is with deep sadness that we say goodbye to our cockatiel, Sweet Cheeks.

 

 

 

She showed no outward signs of being sick.  However, on Thursday, we noticed she was sleeping more.  But she still ate, drank her water, and had healthy poops.  She hissed at Mommy when she cleaned her cage, just as she did every other day since the very first day we adopted her (she was never hand-trained).  And she got excited when Mommy gave her a special treat.  Ditto for Friday.  Everything was status quo.

 

But when we woke on Saturday morning at 4 a.m., Mommy found the bird dead at the bottom of her cage.

 

We adopted Sweet Cheeks in 2010 from a Humane Society that rescued 400 birds from a neglectful aviary.  Yes, we had a choice of 400 birds of various species, colors, and sizes.  But apparently Mommy had as good luck picking a bird as she has picking winning lottery numbers.  We were assured that Sweet Cheeks was a female.  But as time went on we realized “she” was probably a “he”, especially based on our experience with our prior female cockatiel.

 

 

 

Sweet Cheeks was very smart—she could tweet “Jingle Bells”!  And when we watch the TV show, “The Middle”, she would respond to the crow call every week.  She loved the ticking of the countdown clock on the series “24”, which we have been watching via Amazon Prime these last few months.   She would say “Hello Mamma”.  And, best of all, she was a terrific alarm system, signaling to me when my parents’ truck pulled up outside the RV!

 

 

May Sweet Cheeks rest in peace in that big nest in Bird Heaven.

 

Meeting Big Tex

Despite feeling tired and sore from working so many hours at Amazon (mandatory overtime is already in effect!), my parents kept their promise of taking me to the State Fair of Texas!

The fairgrounds were really nice—paved roads/walkways, colorful flowers, clean restrooms, interesting architecture, beautiful water fountains/reflection pools, and a heartfelt memorial for Vietnam veterans.

 

We toured the exhibit booths, getting lots of free goodies and samples, including pudding, chile, even toothbrushes and toothpaste!

 

YeeeHaaa, this is the festival of all foods fried—Oreos, cheesecake, Fritos, catfish, even alligator!  It was interesting that no money is accepted at any food vendor.   Instead, you buy “tickets” from the official State Fair booths.  Each ticket is worth 50 cents, and you buy tickets in $10 bundles.  Every food item costs a specific number of tickets (Daddy plunked down 7 tickets just for my soda).  I have never seen this system used before, but think it is a great idea.  Much easier and safer for the vendors.

 

Of course, no state fair is complete without livestock, and plenty of them--cows, goats, pigs, and steer, including the grand champion steer that sold for $130,000.  That’s a lot of burgers!   We watched Yoda, a Dallas K-9 “officer” as he demonstrated his police duties, and visited Gus, Moose, and Trojan, some REALLY BIG horses used by the Dallas Mounted Police.

 

Wow--what a pair!!!

$130K Steer!

 

 

But the highlight of the day was me seeing Big Tex, who truly lives up to his name.    He is gigantic!  His boots alone are taller than I am! 

 

PoPo and Big Tex.  Look at Those Boats--I Mean Boots!

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the cost of attending a State Fair.  $15 just to park, and entry normally is $18 per person.  Fortunately, we went on discount day—bring 4 cans of food per person, get in for $4 per person.  Then, of course, food and Midway ride tickets cost extra.  Not to mention games of chance.   Boo, Hoo, I blew my whole month’s allowance in just a couple of hours!

 

We headed home on the motorcycles just in time for rush hour evening traffic.  A bit of a nail-biting experience!  But we were rewarded with an absolutely gorgeous sunset.

 

Talk to you again real soon!

Oh Fiddlesticks! The Fridge Fizzles Out

Mom and Dad completed Week 1 at Amazon!   Comprised of four floors of conveyer lines, KIVA robots, computers, automated guided vehicles, and thousands of people, the Haslet Fulfillment Center is ginormous!  And it is like Fort Knox—scan your badge to enter the facility, scan your badge at the time clock, scan your badge at your workstation, scan your badge to get supplies, and go through security scanners to leave the inner sanctuary!

 

My parents are in the Receiving Department doing the task called “Decant”.  Scan the package, open the package, deposit the contents in a tote/totes, and scan the tote(s).  Mom says scanners have overtaken our lives.  She thinks St. Peter probably requires us to “scan” to enter the pearly gates of heaven!  (Imagine how bad Scanner Hell must be!)

 

This week, they only worked five hour “hardening” days, giving them an opportunity to get acclimated to the processes.  Thank goodness—they came home quite pooped out!  But my parents are troopers, so I know they will survive “peak” season.

 

In the meantime, our RV fridge fizzled out.  It worked fine when we arrived, but seemed to take a turn for the worse when we switched from propane to electric.  It just wouldn’t stay cold.  Ironically, the freezer portion of the unit worked fine.  We waited several days to see if the extreme heat wave here in Texas was having a negative impact on the unit.  But alas, the temp in the fridge never went below 43 degrees.  It seemed the fridge was stuck in “defrost” mode.  This is our third fifth wheel, and the second time we needed to replace an RV fridge.  In both instances our rigs were under 2 years old!

 

 

After much deliberation, we bite the bullet and purchase a residential fridge, scheduled for delivery on October 1.    Low and behold, my parents come home from their Amazon shift on Tuesday, just 2 days before the scheduled delivery, to find the darn fridge operating perfectly, registering at 34 degrees!

 

 

 

The last thing Mom wanted was to spend 1,500 bucks on a refrigerator.  But if we cancel the order, we will be subject to a 50% restocking fee.  Screwed either way.

 
 

Mom’s been ranting and raving since the discovery (she does this VERY well), while Dad dismantles the old fridge and preps for the new fridge delivery.  This includes capping the propane tank connection, insulating the holes from where the vents were, removing the drawer underneath the fridge, etc.)  Needless to say, I’m being quiet as a church mouse, staying out of both of their paths.
 

Cap propane connection - Check!

 

Insulate the holes from the unneeded vents - Check!

 

Fast forward:  The fridge is delivered!  Dad secures it for use during transport.

 

 

Securing the fridge for mobile transport - Check!

 

It looks great!

 

 

 

 

And unlike our prior fridge, it has loads of room.  It even fits me!

  

 

 

We just returned from food shopping.  So now that our shelves are restocked, I'm due for a much needed cheese break!

 

 

Rambling Down The Road

We collected and cashed final paychecks from Crazy Horse, did our pre-travel checklist, and set out on the road to Haslet, TX on Friday.  Mike and Claudia, a wonderful couple who worked with us at Crazy Horse and who will be working with us at Amazon, traveled with us. 

 

Nebraska is a prettier state than I imagined!  Its Lake McConaughy, 8 miles northeast of Ogallala, was rated #14 by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation on its 2015 Top 100 Family Places to Boat and Fish in the U.S.    But the winds blowing across the prairie are brutal!

 

Kansas, once home to Dorothy Gale, Toto, Uncle Henry, and Aunt EM, has the distinction of having the largest watershed district in the U.S.  The Pawnee Watershed District contains 1.5 million acres!  We traversed the Smoky Valley Scenic Byway, though we didn’t see many of its renowned wildflowers in bloom.  We stopped along the Santa Fe Trail for a satisfying picnic lunch that Yogi Bear and Boo Boo would have loved to snatch!   “Skyscrapers” in these parts of Kansas consist of grain elevators.

 



What's Left of Uncle Henry and Aunt Em's Homestead  



 

The "Skyscrapers" of Kansas - Grain Elevators

 

The View From the Picnic Area


 

Picnic Area Along the Santa Fe Trail

 

We encountered rain as we entered Oklahoma, “where the wind comes sweeping down the plain, and the wavin’ wheat sure smells sweet”.  Lots of windmills here, though their blades are hidden in the clouds!  I guess this is testimony to just how massive these windmills are, how low-lying the clouds are, or a combination of both!  We entered Woodward, “Home of the Boomers!”  Didn’t know “Big Boomer” had relatives!

 

"Big Boomer" Apparently Has Relatives Living in Woodward, OK

 

 

We parked in Walmart and walked over to Big Dan’s for a hearty dinner.  The NY Strip was perfectly sized, succulently seared, and just plain old lip-smacking good.  Combined with a salad bar any rodent would drool over and a side order of onion rings, my entire dinner tab came to only $20!  Excellent food, service AND price earns Big Dan’s a 5-cheese rating!

 

 

We arrived in Texas to sweltering temps.  Though most of the campgrounds offered by Amazon are small, “low budget” RV parks, we are satisfied and thankful.   Unlike the facilities at Crazy Horse/Heritage Village, Texas Star has WiFi AND cable, and our Verizon phones and personal MiFi have excellent service!  (At Crazy Horse, we were blowing through our 20 gigs of data simply searching for a signal.  We never had more than 2 bars on our phones.  Ironically, Mommy got better service when walking in the ravines on Mickelson Trail than anywhere at Crazy Horse/Heritage Village!)

 

We did some exploring with Mike and Claudia to get the “lay of the land” of the Fort Worth/Dallas area, and found all the mainstays we require.  So far, so good.  Well, time to go.  I've gotta get to bed early--tomorrow is our big “orientation” day at Amazon!

 

So long, farewell, auf wieder sehen, goodbye Black Hills!

Hard to believe today is our final day here in South Dakota!  Mommy and I took our last walk along the Mickelson Trail, saying good-bye to all our animal friends. 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the Black Hills area immensely, visiting wonderful places and meeting some pretty cool folks!  Not to mention my best doggie friend at the campground, Bella.

 

 

 

Bella, my best doggie friend!

 

 

 

But alas, it is time to travel on to our next work-camping adventure in Haslet, TX.  We are becoming Santa’s elves—we will work at Amazon.com for the next 3 months to fulfill holiday gift orders!

 

Rambling RV Rat, an Amazon Elf!

 

Amazon requires pre-employment drug testing.  We thought Amazon had a contract with a lab within Rapid City, which would mean a one hour drive each way.  Unfortunately, the CLOSEST lab was 214 miles away in Casper, Wyoming!  So we left at 6:15 a.m. on Monday, our day off from work at Crazy Horse, for a four-hour “road trip” to Casper.  We fulfilled our pee-in-a-cup requirement within 20 minutes from the time we walked in the door.  Not to pass up the opportunity to explore a new area, we began our tour of Casper, Wyoming’s second largest city with just under 60K people.  First order of business, feeding Daddy’s belly!  So we took the recommendation of a “local” and went to Johnny J’s Diner.  What a blast from the past!  Complete with nostalgic posters, décor, and juke box, I felt like I was starring in an episode of “Happy Days”.    Very reasonably priced, tasty food, and friendly and efficient service from our waitress Trinity!   So far, so good.  We asked Trinity for a suggestion on what to see in Casper for a couple of hours.  When she suggested The Mall, we knew we were in one VERY SMALL city.   This was confirmed after driving through “downtown”.  By unanimous vote, we rejected The Mall idea.  Instead, we consulted Trip Advisor and opted to visit the Fort Casper Museum. 

 

 

 

Situated in the North Platte River Valley, the area served as a gateway for the Oregon and California Trails as well as a route for the Pony Express.  Interestingly, Brigham Young and the Mormons, enroute to Salt Lake City in 1847, established a ferry service for future emigrants to traverse the North Platte River.   We enjoyed learning about Central Wyoming’s history, then headed back for the long trek to Custer.

 

 

And now we return to the road for the Lone Star State.  So as the Family Von Trapp would say, so long, farewell, auf wieder sehen, goodbye Black Hills!

Always Remember...

We will always remember this tragic day, and we keep those whose loved ones perished forever in our thoughts and prayers.  We only wish that the spirit of patriotism and heartfelt compassion shown during the sorrowful events of 9/11/01 were still visible.

the 9/11 Memorial at Crazy Horse

PoPo's Pursuit of the Perfect Pizza

Other than family and friends, there are only a few things I miss about living in the New York Tri-State Area:  apple, strawberry, and blueberry picking; visiting New York City at Christmastime; dining quarterly at our all-time favorite restaurant, Benjamin’s Steakhouse in Midtown Manhattan; and PIZZA!

Our hometown was only 10 square miles, and we had 9 pizza joints from which to choose!  If you had a hankering for a pizza, one was just a phone call away, anytime from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.!

And our hometown wasn’t much different from others within the NY/NJ/PA area.  Whether we were visiting Saugerties (New York Mid-Hudson Region), Lodi (North Jersey), Stroudsburg (Northeast Pennsylvania), we found terrific pizza parlors, all which ran “specials” where you could get a 16-18 inch hot, bubbling, delectable cheese pie with the perfect crust for 10 bucks or less!  It was a dream come true for a cheese-eating rat like me!

We have been here in the Black Hills for nearly four months, and since the day we arrived I have been in pursuit of a perfect pizza.

Our first stop was Lintz Bros. Pizza in Hermosa, which came highly recommended by several folks.  My first thought was what does someone with a German surname know about pizza?  But my pizza craving overtook my good senses.  We traversed in pouring rain and high winds to arrive at 5 p.m. on a Sunday evening, only to find the place packed!  Popular joint—a good sign that the pizza is good!  A review of the menu shows there are lots of decisions to make:  thick crust, thin crust; gluten-free; extra toppings; 12”, 14”, or 16”.  Then we reviewed the “specialty” pie list, which included:

• Taco Pizza.  Lettuce, tomato, refried beans, salsa, and everything you put on a regular taco.  Looked like a salad on top of a Boboli when we glimpsed the order of the folks next to us!
  
• Flaming German Samoan.  Canadian ham, sausage, pineapple, sauerkraut, and jalapenos.  WHAT!  Sounds like they needed to clean out their fridge and instead of throwing stuff away, threw it on a pizza!  And these “specialty” pies cost about $24 each!

We settled on a thin crust, 16” pie with just one topping, CHEESE.  It arrived hot, but oddly cut into “squares” rather than “slices”.  It was tasty, but couldn’t compare to what we have enjoyed in the past, not to mention we were still hungry after we left.   And it cost us $16 for this pizza!  I initially awarded this pizza just a 3-cheese rating.  However, after our next stop, Lintz Bros. Pizza moved up to a 4-cheese rating.

Pie for the People in Keystone boasts that its two owners hail from California and New York, so they know everything about good pizza.  WRONG!  WHAT A FIASCO!

We ordered the Margherita Specialty Pie.  We are pizza purists and have enjoyed this type of pie at numerous other places.  Everywhere we ordered this pizza previously, it contained Fresh Mozzarella, and most times it consisted of Buffalo Mozzarella, which has a completely different texture than regular mozzarella.  So being here in the Black Hills where buffalo are abundant, we were looking forward to getting the “real deal”.  The pizza arrived so dried out, you could use it as a frisbee, throw it at the wall, and it wouldn’t even crack!  Not only was it not buffalo mozzarella, it wasn’t even fresh mozzarella!  And for this we paid $23, $6 more than a regular cheese pie!  This place gets my Rotten Tomato Award—the absolute WORST pizza I have ever eaten in all my life!

When Aunt Laurie and Uncle Rob visited recently, they took me to Eno’s Pizza in Keystone for lunch.  They knew how frustrated I was and how much I was craving a good pizza.  Once again, very disappointing.  Not to mention we ordered a calzone and it didn’t even have ricotta cheese in it!  A travesty!

A pizza consists of only 3 parts:  crust, cheese, and tomato sauce.  How hard is it to get it right?   Apparently, it is no easy feat for the pizza establishments in the Black Hills.

Bottom Line:  If you want a decent-tasting, reasonably-priced pizza in the Black Hills area, stop in the frozen food section of Walmart and buy a DiGiorno’s !