Sunscape Christmas Lights Float

Oh the things I get I get myself into. No one was volunteering to coordinate the building of the Christmas Lights parade float so I took it on. Course I had lots of help. The theme was Disney in the Desert so I decided we would build Cinderella's castle. So first we started painting the many pieces.

The brick castle walls required that we draw the lines first....

then we started painting. 28' of wall is a lot of bricks.

Of course we had to have a sign on each side with the theme on it.

Turrets and a saguaro.

Outside erection begins. The float bed is a 30' fifth-wheel camper frame someone donated to the park. It has signs permanently mounted on the sides with Sunscape written in rope lights.

The castle starts going up.

This gave us an idea to have a Jack-in-the-Box on the float next season.

The tops of the turrets going on.

Castle completed.

Getting the castle guard walls and the tree ready.

Getting the fringe put on. The bottoms of the palm trees are already wrapped in burlap.

Our trial run through the park. All the fringe is not on yet and the characters aren't lit as well as they will be for the real parades.

The characters at their photo shoot. LOL

The trailer hitched to the truck and ready to go.

For the second parade, we put on 18 more strings of lights but then we had generator problems.... it kept quitting. So we made the most of it and acted tragic when it went off and estatic when it came back on. We won first place at the Coolidge parade.

Loved the Eloy fire truck. That's a lot of lights.

You can just barely make out the green saguaro on the back of the trailer.

Tie-died shirts

Tie dye shirts we made.

We decided we ought to leave the tie dying to the professionals and just buy the ones we like. At least then we know what we are getting.

What we've been up to

We are at our winter home at Sunscape RV Resort by Casa Grande, AZ.

We got a sunscreen on our back window.

A dust storm rolling in. The wind hasn't been an issue so far this winter.

I dressed up in my version of a dirndl for Oktoberfest here at the resort.

London Bridge

We were in Lake Havasu City, AZ on September 19th and took these photos of the London Bridge. Yes the actually London Bridge that was dismantled and shipped here. Interesting huh?

North on the Tahoe Rim Trail

The last time we took Hwy 50 up to Spooner Summit I noticed this odd looking tree. Then I realized it was a cell phone antenna.

The start of all three of our Tahoe Rim Trail hikes.

This time we walked up the Tahoe Rim Trail and we were way above Spooner Lake. We did get a few glimpses of Lake Tahoe too. The trail started out really wide but it narrowed down. It was also real dusty like the other times we have hiked.

At the first viewpoint we stopped for a rest. I found a chair, or should I say throne. Most of the hilltops had jumbles of stones like these.

Nolan enjoying the view.

The view.

The second viewpoint showed us Hwy 50 and the Carson Valley.

I think this plant is commonly called pussy paws.

Found this sitting on a log about 45 minutes up the trail. We hauled it back down and threw it in the trash. The plastic bag was bad enough to have in the forest but who know if the substance within was dangerous to animals - besides humans.

Spooner Lake

We went on another hike in the Carson Mountains. Started out on the north side of Spooner Summit intending to hike north on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

Saw this loop trail and decided to take it instead.

The trail lead downhill first. It was a sandy trail that lead us out of the pines and into an aspen grove.

I thought this tree was interesting in the way the main truck kept dividing in two.

Of course we couldn't get the whole tree in one photo.

Where the trail started its loop around the lake there was a boardwalk to get across areas that were probably wet earlier in the year.

There were ducks on the lake and fishing was allowed.

We walked all the way around the lake. Lots of people out enjoying this trail.

Nolan even spotted a blue heron.

At one point the trail met up with this road that we think used to be part of an old railbed. The loop trail turned and I wanted to make sure Nolan saw where it turned, so I was making faces at him here. Glad you can't see that in the photo.

This trail was much easier than the one we did a few days ago but the uphill climb at the end was enough to make me tired.