Wild & Three Thursday!

Happy, happy Thanksgiving. I've said it before and I will say it again My absolute favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. And I don't even like turkey! It's all the food (cause there is ALWAYS lots and not just turkey at our gatherings), family and fun but without the pressure of gifts and the weather is usually mild so everyone can get there. What is NOT to like! This year however, family is limited to just MiRV and I. It's still all good but being with family for this one is a favorite and I certainly do/did miss it.

There is so, so much to be thankful for ANY time but I am especially mindful of how blessed we are during this particular time of the year. We are so fortunate to live in a country where we can have so many freedoms and do not suffer from an oppressive government. We personally do not suffer from war or poverty. Thank a service member for that whydontcha! Cause that whole no war thing on our soil, that's a biggie and everyone should ALWAYS be thankful for that. Not gonna get much deeper but suffice to say we are fully aware of the abundance and liberties that we experience and we are beyond thankful for that.

The Daughter and family are safely back home. We are spending our turkey day in Tucson eating hot off the grill steaks. It's cool, rainy and windy. We decided to just take a three day break before moving on to let the weather settle down. They have closed some roads right behind us so to speak and they are closing roads in the higher elevations all around us. So we will be stationary as this bit of weather moves on. We hope to pull out on Saturday a.m. but we are flexible enough to be respectful if the weather is still an issue we can stay put if needed.

Oh, the zoo trip was a resounding success! What a delightful day with perfectly beautiful weather. We nearly opened and closed it. Saw all kinds of animals. I loved the koala's best. Feeding the giraffe was a hit as well as getting to see the baby gorilla nursing.  Watching the cheetah walking by on a leash right in front of us was a pretty cool bonus, too. And riding the sky tram (twice) as well as the double decker bus was a nice break from all the walking. Oh, and let's not forget the chuckle of seeing "Save the Chubby Unicorn" shirts (rhinoceros, need love, too) Stopping off at In and Out Burger on our way to the hotel was a great ending to our full day; love me an animal style burger!

OH em GEEEEE I would be remiss if I did not mention our visit with ThreeDoorsDown! They were incredible host and we enjoyed sitting round the table catching up. Great to spend time with such good people. And MiRV was so stoked to get wet. He was pretty dry! Be able to to surf with RocketBoy in Redondo on the same board he learned to surf on in Cocoa on he couldn't have been happier. :)

Words with Friends

It was a fantastic chat session! We exchanged a lot of words in a short amount time, it was glorious. How awesome to re-connect and it not even feel like you've missed a beat. That's friendship right there and the best possible kind. We don't do Christmas cards anymore but we do try to do meet ups when we are in the local area. MiRV is really good about keeping up via email and texting as well because believe it or not everyone is NOT on Facebook. So we have developed other means. I also randomly drop cards/small gifts/trinkets/post cards/ in the mail every month to various folks we've met along the way these past 30 years or so. It's just fun to keep in touch no matter the manner. Especially, those not on Facebook. It's fun! Keeps them updated, too. I have pulled back from the Facebook game he past several months though MiRV still finds it highly fun and entertaining. I do love the aspect of keeping up but oh me there is the drama...it can really wear on ya! Just sayin'...

Anyway, so a fun, fun, fun evening we had with the Ws. We enjoyed an awesome good meal on their back patio and an even more funtastic evening of chatter over coffee. Seriously, my throat was sore from talking and laughing so much. That didn't compare to just the great feeling of getting to share the evening with good people who are still doing the Lord's work and serving in the Blue. It's nice to know that even though so much has changed in the USAF there are still folks out there daily encouraging, instilling and making good happen. We will have better Airmen for it; I know that for sure!!

The next friend meet up was lunch with the Cs. Wow, they are smokin' the moves. Just found out they will head to DC in May. They have only been here in TX since June. With a smile on their face, they both said, "yes" we are excited and happy the USAF thinks we can handle this billet. Awesomeness! Our girls were friends in Italy and then again in Nebraska so it was good to catch up and fill in the blanks on their whereabouts and happenings. So proud of the young women they have all become.

We will meet up with a couple more good folks in the next few days so the fun is not over!

#OWT

THE Global Hawk picture

It's been awhile but we were still excited to get this picture a few days ago from the tour we were privileged to go on back in June 2015! Neat stuff getting to be there and have an up close and personal look of this pretty cool bird! I blogged our trip here in case you missed it or need a refresher! I

 The long awaited for picture!

#USAFgoodstuff

Dontcha Know!!

We recently did a road trip to the land of youbetcha and we had a good time!

Neatest of all and the reason for the trip was to attend the Change of Command for our good friends. It was so nice to see them again! MIRV and Mr&Mrs Bud had not seen them since we left The Big O but I got to see them a few years ago in Vegas. My, oh my how those girls have grown! And it's just a good thing this was a summer event cause I don't think I will be a visitin' in any other season! 

What a neat reunion and special event to attend!!!

The fellas!

Bud got three new states-SD, ND and MN. The rest of us enjoyed adding a new check on the states visited list-ND. I'm now only short 5 (VT, MI, AK, WA & OR) more to have visited all 50! MiRV only needs two (UT & VT).

The ceremony was cool but the private tour of the Global Hawk afterward was the coolest! Oh my!

While it was a super fast trip and it would have been fun to do more sightseeing it was a fun, however; plenty of pretty orioles to see and be careful of mosquitos as they are VERY plentiful! The snacks they sent us down the road with came in handy on that long drive back!

Chocolate covered potato chips and leftover reception cakes...no complaints from the traveling crew!

#GlobalHawk

Another extraordinary evening!

Again, one of the top bennies of this nomadic lifestyle is being able to go and do pretty much as we please. We were already in MO and got the invite to attend the wing commander change of command at Whiteman AFB. While going to the CoC was neat...being able to see our adopted Eastsiders was the best part!

 Such a great evening on the back patio catching up over a bottle of vino! It was just like we were back on the Eastside!

Really neat to see how the oldest A-Team member has grown...we got to see the smaller one but she was not up for a picture as she woke up with teething discomfort...

 

 

Godspeed as you make your way to your new southern home in the next few days and who knows we may just show up in AL while you are there!

#EastsidersRule

Twenty nine and counting...

Today marked 29 years that MiRV and I have been married. Not an easy feat with all of the things we have been through but we took our vows seriously and still do to this day.  It's not all rainbows and sparkly glitter but it's a lot of real life fun and we go to bed at night content with our life choices. We are not just what you think you see on the outside, we have had many ups and downs, we have weathered storms, we have  laughed together a lot, we have had spats and we can trust in the fact that when the baby needs to be called ugly we can do it and still love each other. It's work but it's rewarding work and worth it to keep our relationship together.

Today MiRV made a Facebook post and then we bantered a little back and forth throughout the day. His post is below.

Happy Anniversary!!!!!
In the past 29 years, we've traveled to 44 states and 16 countries while living in 8 states and 3 countries. I'm looking forward to topping that in the next 29 years and I could never imagine doing it with anyone else.
Thanks for the adventures!!! You are simply "THE BEST"
143

‪#‎lovemywife‬ ‪#‎lovetotravel‬ ‪#‎hittheroad‬ ‪#‎vandweller‬ ‪#‎militarymoves‬ ‪#‎ParliItaniano‬ ‪#‎NaoFazMal‬




My response was

It's been awesome good! Let's not forget those 3 states you have slipped into w/o me along with the 14 other countries and 1500 plus days you were away in these last 29 years! It's a good thing we have going, wouldn't want to be Living the Dream with anyone else but you!

He chimed in with this-

Living the Dream...with many more years (and miles) to go! 

And then popped back on to add this-

BTW: that's still about 9,000 days next to you smile emoticon #rightthere



My post to him was not so in detail, it simply said this -

Happy anniversary to myMxxxxx! We've definitely had the life and I look forward to many more years together on this road called life...what an adventure we've had!

We didn't have too big of a day. We did go to the movies over the weekend, Pitch Perfect 2 is hilarious, but honestly also somewhat crass; however there was lots of fun head bobbin' music! Tonight we did go to dinner at my favorite local Mexican restaurant. But the real pièce de résistance was me starting to burn the brush pile while MiRV was on the phone, I thought it would be our 30th anniversary before that thing was torched to the ground. It's so wet here, which is great and things are lush and green, but it made it hard for me to get the brush pile burning. Once he was off the telly he of course charged right over and started flames on the opposite side of the pile then made some adjustments to the flames I had going and before long he's got singed hair on various limbs and his head!! This man of mine certainly does nothing half way. After a nice bowl of potato soup for lunch we were going to burn pile number two. Easy, right? Yeah, no, he decides we will just move pile two over to hot burning pile one..UGH! Did I mention the yard is saturated? Yes, well, hey, there's been a lot of rain here and the yard is saturated. I did mention that about the yard being saturated, right? Sooooooo my shoes got soaked and my jeans were muddy but we moved that pile and got rid of three of the four stumps from a previous job we did.

It's been a fine day! Happy Anniversary to you myMiRV and to me, here's to 29 more!!

A little "art"

Wall space is not exactly plentiful in Roada and we have been hesitant to hang "things." However, it has reached a point I'm ready to make it a little more "us." So when we did finally decide to hang something we knew it would be our "Crystal" painting. This painting was a going away from our Commander's spouse in Italy. We have remained in contact since our assignment together and I certainly consider them friends. I am pleased and proud to have one of her paintings. And now it is hanging in Roada.

#RoadtrekDecor
#LoveItaly

Quilt Museum and a Veteran's Memorial

I have several friends who are quilters, I love quilts so when I saw that there was a quilt museum near where we were I thought we should go. Upon further investigation it is the ONLY quilt museum in the state of Florida. I did not know there hours so we set out to go one afternoon. We arrived and they were closed. Since it was a bit rural and there was plenty of parking we just spent the night and waited for them to open the next morning.

It was a pretty nice quiet night!

We were greeted by the volunteer staff and invited in...

 

 

 This was a quilt sofa...quite unique!

 

One of my favorites was  that star, MiRV liked this star one best.

So many beautiful pieces and really such works of art. While I do think this star one was one of my favs; it was hard to have only one favorite. I mean seriously these things were just beautiful. Some were so very different and extremely unique that there really was just no way to choose only one favorite! Can't do it!

Lots of eye candy and much history and a little bit of heritage mixed with some pride of their institution as it should be. And it all started with one lady's dream for a place that quilter's could come together, learn from each other and work together. What an enjoyable morning we had!

After a nice lunch with a wonderful water view we made our way to Perry, FL.

We stopped at the Forest Museum which was pretty neat and then drove through town and stumbled into the town Veteran Memorial. Well done, Perry, Florida, well done!

 Love the permanent yellow ribbon round the tree

Truly one of the nicest tributes to Veteran's we have ever seen.

#QuiltsNOTjustblankets
#Veterans

Avon calling...

Avon Park that is...Avon Park Air Force Range to be exact. It's a hidden gem, another one of our priceless USAF retiree benefits. We have read about this location and since we were sort of in the neighborhood we felt like we should check it out.

For a VERY reasonable price we could stay for a whole week, we could also pay a reasonable fee for all year long access. We went with the week pass. This is not a glamping location and would really not even qualify as a campground in some eyes. However, it was just fine for us. There are no hookups...no water, no sewer dump, no electricity nor is there a bathhouse. That's was okay with us, though we did find it very convenient and considered it a boon when we found there was a portapotty on scene.
 
Another bonus was they allowed fires and the site we chose already had a start of a fire pit we could work with. MiRV cleaned it out, made it a little better and we were good to go! The nights were dark, stars were bright and it was quiet, awesome all the way around. We were pleased that the bugs did not eat us up as we star gazed and enjoyed our fire pit.

The last night we were there we had a neighbor, they were nice and not too noisy, our other neighbors during our stay were the cows. Yep, there were plenty of cows! We got in lots of bike rides and a few walks. With no cell service to speak of and using the electricity sparingly we both got lots of reading time in.

While it is remote and there are no amenities to speak of we enjoyed it quite a lot! It is NOT big rig friendly, it certainly worked for us and Roada! Now we are headed up to Lakeland to have some tweaking done on Roada, it's been a great trip!

#AvonPark

Seein' the Judge!

What a treat when we are able to meet up with those from our past. This particular reunion was especially near and dear to MiRVs heart since this guy was a rock and true friend when they were both on deployment together. I have heard much about this man. Finally meeting him in person after all the stories I have heard was just awesome.

 MiRV & the Judge

 

The Judge is a genuine gentleman and we enjoyed breakfast with lots of good conversation that lightened our hearts from the heaviness of the week. Thank you Judge for making the time to meet up with us, we were definitely blessed by your visit! Hopefully our paths will cross again someday...

Go Navy!

We are at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center! It's the only base that does Navy basic training. There were recruits EVERYWHERE. It's a beauty of a base. Love the clock tower and the parade ground is gorgeous.

We are also RIGHT on Lake Michigan. The view in amazing. The campground seems quiet. It's a basic rustic camp (electric only/no bath house) but again the view is amazing!We will be calling this home for a few days before making our way to I-80 and OMAHA!

Panoramic of our view!

#GoNAVY

Ugggh - Sinus Infection!

The sinus infection from heck is still plaguing MiRV...another afternoon, evening in urgent care as soon as we arrived garnered another script ($5 co-pay since the base pharmacy was closed) and we are certainly praying that this will knock it out. It's a bad one that has really grabbed hold and is not letting up. He has already done one round of antibiotics (z-pack that just laughed at him with no real improvement). He has a horrible, horrible cough that has prevented him from getting much sleep at all, which who are we kidding if he's coughing I am not getting much sleep either. So instead of hitting the ground running when we arrived we are being still, trying to rest and heal.  Tomorrow is a new day!

Let me just add that navigating the medical world as a retiree is one experience I am not taking kindly too. But I also don't want to harp on it too negatively since we do at least have some measure of health care. However, with our current situation of not being in one locale we had to do the big switch from Prime to Standard and it's a whole new ballgame ladies and gentlemen. One I am learning about on the fly and not really excited about the experience. Nope, not excited about it one bit! It is more out of pocket expenses and deductibles, which in turn our now a part of our budget.

Life is never dull that's for sure! Take care and get plenty of rest and keep up with your liquids it's never good to be under the weather...

#chronicsinuscondition
#medicalcareforlifeisamyth

V I R G I N I A

Our visit here was even more fun because we knew someone in the area. M&M lives here now and it was great to spend the weekend with him.

He has a H.U.G.E love of ducks so when I saw that THE big rubber duck was debuting here I knew we would end up there to see it...

 There was MAJOR excitement over the duck!!!!

 

Ahhhhh, he had a little tail too!!!!

That duck was incredibly BIG and cute! While in the area we also decided to do the Chrysler Museum. Very nice, it has just reopened after renovations and really a well done venue! It was a gloriously beautiful day, we walked all over and as KJ would say our "dogs were barkin" when we finished. 

In the museum gardens!

After such a great day we headed back to the RV to hang out for the evening and dinner. Again, just a very wonderful day with a great friend.

Sunday dawned another gorgeous blue sky day and we trekked on out to his neighborhood for the afternoon to get our grill on and had scrumptious steaks with all the fixings and ice cream to boot! Oh yeah, it was a pleasant, relaxed afternoon. It was sad to say goodbye so we decided to meet up one more time before we leave. 
 

 

 Major Griller :)

We set out to meet for dinner the next night and we didn't end up at the designated location because there was a Cheesecake Factory that got me all distracted. I'm a cheesecake lover and was like it you aren't deadset on restaurant X would it be okay to go to the CF? He was like sure! Awesome and after a piece of lemon raspberry cheesecake my world was wonderfully complete!

About the famcamp we stayed in, it's on a training base and right next to the ocean. You can't see the ocean from our site but you can hear it. Loved the windows open and hearing the waves crash over. And might I add the moon was out and gorgeous every night. MiRV has been battling a horrible sinus infection since NC (I think he actually started getting it in SC) we didn't take in any sunrises nor did he surf. We did however take in several beach walks and enjoy the mild temps. It was a nice stay, of course our first full day was rain, rain and more rain with flooding in the local area that thankfully did not affect us at all. Oh, so back to we are at a training base, yes, that was a neat aspect and seeing/hearing active marching going on every day was very cool. Both Navy and Marines are well represented here! It's not an area I would return to but it was a great visit!

 The troops marching and singing "jodies"!

Next stop our Nation's Capital...

#DamNeck
#cheesecakefactory
#bigrubberduck

And for the avid reader with an inquiring mind, laundry was $1.00 and I did two loads so glad I waited!

Caldo Verde - Portuguese Green Soup

Portuguese Green Soup

8 oz linguica sausage (see note below on sausage)
1 T bacon grease
1 med onion diced small, nearly minced
4 Cups cubed potatoes
4 Cups chicken stock more or less (see note below)
2 t minced garlic
6 Cups kale sliced thin (I use my kitchen shears, remove the hard middle spine)
1/2 t ground black pepper
Healthy dash of Italian Seasoning
Healthy dash of red pepper flakes
1 C 2% milk 

In dutch over over medium heat, render sausage in bacon drippings with onion. Remove only the sausage to drain on paper towels. Leave drippings in the pan, add potatoes, garlic, 2 cups of chicken stock bringing to a gentle boil and cook until potatoes are fork tender (about 12-17 minutes). Stir as needed to assure they do not scorch. Turn off heat and fork mash 2/3 of the potatoes right in the pan without draining. Add remaining chicken stock, cooked sausage, pepper, Italian seasoning and red pepper flakes return to a boil, and add the kale simmering gently for 10-17 minutes, until kale is tender. Reduce heat to low, add milk, stir to combine and serve. I do not increase heat after adding the milk it tends to separate. If it seems to thick add more stock.

KEEP READING for a bit of dialogue on the recipe itself with pointers and tips...and I am not responsible for errors, I am not a professional; you are taking your life in your own hands following my words. LOL

Waaaaay back when we lived in the Azores, Portugal we love, love, loved green soup. We have such fond memories of living there and someday hope to return on a Space A flight! We'll see! Anyway, one of the things we enjoyed was eating on the economy. It was pretty reasonably priced and the food was really awesome. I don't think we ever missed ordering "green soup" when we ate out. It was something we really, really liked. It never occurred to me to try and make this soup until I had the good fortune of having a Portuguese neighbor when we lived in Italy. She made it for me and told me how easy it was. I told her it was just easier to eat it when she made it for me! When we moved on, I missed that soup! That's when I decided I needed to learn to make it myself. 

I have tried several different recipes before finally loving this one which is really just a compilation of many of the others I have tried minus a few things here and there and additions of a few things here and there! I didn't realize I would blog it or I would have taken more photos! It's a really forgiving soup, so make it your own. We are not big meat eaters but there is something about putting the sausage (can be linguiça, chorizo, kielbasa, Italian whatever you prefer/like) in it that just makes it so much more flavorful that I kind of miss it when I don't use it. So we definitely prefer it with! 

And on the chicken stock, I use powered chicken stock with water. If you haven't tried this or don't use this, it is a lovely addition to any kitchen. I much prefer it to those bouillon cubes! The powder in the Hispanic markets (or that section of your favorite grocery store) is cheapest and the most flavorful in my opinion! It comes in a jar and keeps for a long time. A jar last me 3-4 months. They have it in beef and tomato too! I also use a little more then the directions say on the ratio to water because we like it rich and flavorful. AND and this is a BIG if so please don't miss it...the measurements in the recipe below are really loose in respect to the chicken stock since I don't measure anymore and I am going on memory. You may need more chicken stock to cook your potatoes, don't be afraid to add it, just add more chicken stock flavoring to match whatever amount of water you add within reason!  I just put the potatoes in and then add water to cover them and dump in the stock powder!

Oh and lastly, I buy my kale in the bag; it is cheaper and already chopped up! You will need to remove the tough spine though. It's good in salads, on pizza or just steamed alone. And you could even make kale chips! I did and blogged about it here! They are tasty,  I have heard you can do it in the microwave too, but I've read mixed reviews so haven't given it a try yet! I can get a huge bag of kale for less then 3 bucks at the commissary, you can't beat that!

#PortugueseFood
#AzoresPortugal 
#Kale

Road Trip

Today we were so pleased to be able to attend the Change of Command for a really great guy, former neighbor and true friend! When we arrived at BAFB two years ago this was the very first official function we attended. Turns out we would be neighbors with this commander, become friends and thoroughly enjoy our times together. It was only fitting that we make it back to his Change of Command as he transitions out and heads off to VA. A sort of last act, closing the book sort of thing for us and him! So we made the drive back down to LA on Tuesday and now we are already on our way back to the BIG O as I type! I am exhausted and we still have miles to go...but oh so worth it! Would have been fun to stick around a little longer but the soon to be new M.R.S. is signing for the new apartment tomorrow and we need to get back and help with the move in!

A good looking bunch!!

Oh and some things will just NEVER change!!! It was a constant error and even in retirement continues...

 There is only ONE L in our last name, ONE!