Fun at Petersburg

There are 15 of us here now!  A good group of fun ladies.  We had 
great weather in the beginning and then a day of rain, which 
brought in a cold spell.  Now we're having lows in the 30's and 
daytime highs only in the high 50's.  But it's sunny and that helps.
I did not take advantage of the warm weather to try out my new 
Jackson Riviera kayak, and now I think it's too cold.  I'll have to 
wait til I get out to AZ. Yes, there are a number of lakes in Arizona;
who knew?!!  

I sold both my old kayaks, a PFD and kayak cart. It more than paid 
for the new kayak, so that's a big help.  I got a bunch of small 
projects done, and some bigger ones too.  Jenni, bless her, helped 
me (that means she did it and I watched) install high wind straps on
the camper to keep the roof sections from flying apart in high wind,
add a second propane tank and additional propane line with 
adapter so I can now run my Coleman catalytic heater off the 20# 
bulk tanks instead of the expensive 1# cylinders. She even gave me
the second 20# tank! I still need to replace some weatherstripping 
on the camper and make a barrier in front of the heater so Roxie 
won't get too close and burst into flames with all that bushy hair 
she's got. I sorted and got rid of even MORE stuff, and now am only
carrying two big plastic bins in the car instead of the three I took 
to Michigan this past summer.  

I am devastated that my Fresh Roast 8 coffee bean roaster died!  I 
love my fresh-roasted coffee.  A new one is $85 so replacing it is 
out of the question, I will just have to make do with store-bought 
coffee beans.  Sigh.  I have a dandy little compact backpacker 
hand-crank coffee grinder and I love the BonaVita porcelain coffee
dripper that my friend Cyndi gave me.  It uses #4 filters and brews 
the coffee & keeps it warm until I'm ready to release it into my 
cup. It makes 2 cups of great coffee. and is super easy to clean. 
http://amzn.to/1NxXPsR
 
We leave on Monday!!  Yikes, now that it's almost here, it's a little
scary.  I sure dread that 7 day drive out there. once I get to Bosque
del Apache National Wildlife Reserve in San Antonio, NM I'll slow 
down and start meandering.  At the reserve there are 10,000 
Sandhill Cranes and 30,000 Snow Geese, Golden and Bald Eagles, 
and other birds! They all fly in at sunset and back out at dawn. I 
can't wait to see that.  My friend Tam said to be sure and not park 
under the flyways, and I guess it'd be smart not to stand under 
them and look up, either!  Imagine the "fallout" from that many 
huge birds!  Eweeeeee!  Guess I'd better wear a hat.