We are back in Riverton Wyoming to finish up our summer jobs for the season. Thank you to everyone that commented, texted and called regarding the passing of Dan’s father, Stu. We spent quite a bit of time helping out his mom, Joan, with bills, paperwork and other odds and ends around the house. Dan’s sister Linda and brother Gary were also a great help. We are grateful to Brad and Joanne, our employer, for allowing us to have the time off to spend back in Wisconsin.

The local irrigation district here in Riverton just announced they will be shutting off the water for the season on September 25, so we only have a few weeks left to irrigate. Then we flush out the pipes, disassemble them, and put them away for the winter. We can’t leave them out in the fields, because the horses that spend the winter here, treat them as toys to place with, and will break the pipes!

Currently we are trying to lose all the weight we gained back in Wisconsin! Joan and Stu’s friends and neighbors were very generous in bringing over food and lot’s of delicious baked goods!

While we were back in Wisconsin, I was able to briefly get together with my family, which I enjoyed. We stayed a few days with my brother Brian and sister in law Annette in the Milwaukee area. Wisconsin has a lot of Church festivals in the summer, and we were able to get together with my brother Jerry at one of them.

GO MADGE/TEAM PHOENIX!

The best part of getting back to Wisconsin was seeing my sister Margie (a/k/a Madge), channel her inner athlete and compete in a “Tri-ing for a Cure” triathlon. Margie (along with my other sister LuAnn, my mom, my niece Tracie, are all breast cancer survivors. And several good friends as well). Aurora Health Care sponsors Team Phoenix, which offers breast cancer survivors a 14 week training program to prepare them for their second biggest challenge, a triathlon. There were 50 women in this years Team Phoenix group participating in the 1/4 mile swim, 15 mile bicycle ride and a 5K run. In addition, there were about 350 others at the triathlon, including those in the Olympic distance division.

Before the race, I was able to get a picture of my brother in law Greg, nieces Molly and Hannah, along with Madge.

The back of my niece’s Team Phoenix shirt.

My niece Tracie was also able to attend. I have not seen her in years, so it was nice to have time to catch up on life.

The event took place at Ottawa Lake in Wisconsin, which is a wonderful state park. About an hour after the first group began the race, it was time for the ladies from Team Phoenix to warm up in the water.

Once everyone was in the water, it was hard to tell who’s who. But my sister spotted my sign that I was holding up, and moved towards me so I could get a photo before the swim.

Team Phoenix had a large and vocal group of spectators. I overheard many of the other triathlon participants comment on how happy we were there to cheer everyone on.

My sister was all smiles after she finished the swimming portion of the race, and jogged over to the staging area where all the bicycles were stored.

I have never been to a triathlon before, and was impressed by how organized everything was. A quick change of shoes, and my sister was ready to begin the 15 mile bicycle portion of the race, which took place on country roads (so no photos).

While we had time to wait, I went back down to the beach to watch additional groups start their race. After the last group of participants started, I was amused when the geese decided to participate and began lining up at the starting line!

Of course a few of them cheated and flew across the lake!

Team Phoenix had several cheerleaders in addition to family and friends.

SPAR is the motto for Team Phoenix. It stands for Strong Proud Alive Redefined.

After the bicycle portion completed, it was on to the 5K, which my sister said was the hardest portion for her. And by this time, the heat and humidity made for an extra challenge. But Madge was all smiles as she approached the finish line!

The time displayed on the finish line is the total elapsed time since the first group of swimmers took off. Madge finished her first triathlon in 2 hours and 1 minute. Absolutely fantastic!

When all the ladies began training for the triathlon, they were given a blank piece of cardboard to write their mantra to motivate them. Some had a few words written down, but my sister used up every inch of her piece of cardboard!

Another family photo at the end of the race!

And a picture of Madge and I

The entire 2025 Team Phoenix group of warriors finished the race, and posed for a post-race photo on the beach. They have battled and won breast cancer, and now they are triathlon winners!! Awesome job ladies!!

It was truly inspiration to watch these ladies. Many tears were shed by the participants and their family and friends watching and cheering them on. I’m so glad I was able to attend, and am very proud of my sister!

Quote for the day: “You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only choice.” – Cayla Mills.

Dan’s father had been battling some health issues for the past few months, and made the difficult decision to enter hospice care. He stated he was ready to be with the Lord.

We left our summer job in Wyoming on Sunday June 29 and drove the RV back to Dan’s parents house in Wisconsin, arriving late in the evening on Monday June 30. We were able to spend the evening at the hospital, as well as all day on Tuesday. Stu passed away peacefully in the early morning on Wednesday, July 2 at the age of 88. It was fitting that he passed away on Men’s Golf League day, as he was very passionate about golf!

Here is a link to Stu’s obituary if you want to know a little more about his life, as well as view a slide show that will be played at his visitation service. Joan and her kids, Linda, Gary and Dan had a lot of tears and laughter going through dozens of photo albums and yearbooks to make the slide show.

https://www.jonesfuneral.com/obituaries/stuart-anderson

Dan’s parents, Joan and Stu, have been married for 68 years. Here is their wedding photo:

Stu graduated from the University of Minnesota (he had a hockey scholarship) and taught Physical Education in Oconto Falls, Wisconsin. Here is a yearbook photo from his early teaching days.

They had a lot of fun looking at old family portraits, including much teasing of the outfits and hair styles. Joan and Stu with Linda in the back and Dan, lower left, and his big brother Gary.

Here’s the family photo from their 50th wedding anniversary. Linda is holding her granddaughter Leia, who is now a sophomore at Stu’s alma mater, University of Minnesota.

The Anderson family has always enjoyed jigsaw puzzles. Stu and his sister Susie, posed with their mother Helen(2nd from left) and Aunt Gladys.

I really enjoyed looking through all the old black and white photos.

Joan and Stu have stayed in Yuma the past seven years with us, and we attended many events together.

Stu practicing for one of his last rounds of golf here on Earth at Westwind Golf and RV Resort.

Dan and I plan on spending at least one month here in Wisconsin to help out Dan’s mom with whatever is needed, before returning to Wyoming to finish up the irrigation season. HIs sister and brother have been very supportive during the past two months while Stu had been hospitalized. Oconto Falls is a small town, and they have made many long term friendships. We are comforted to know that Joan has a fantastic support network around her.

Quote of the Day: “No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.” – Steve Jobs

The park we have been staying at the last seven winters, Westwind Golf and RV resort in Yuma, Arizona has a mix of RV spaces for rent, as well as park models. A park model is basically a tiny home on wheels, that is brought into an RV park, and set on a space. The wheels are removed from the trailer, and water/sewer/electric is hooked up. A skirting is then placed around the park model to enclose the underbelly. Park models are recreational vehicles and are titled as an RV.

We have looked at park models in the park off and on over the past several years, but had no interest in purchasing one. Until this year! We have been living in an RV full-time for 12 years now, and we started thinking about having a place to settle down. We did find a park model that we liked at Westwind, and it was for sale by owner. The owner was, in our opinion, asking too much money. It had been for sale for over a year, so apparently others felt it was also overpriced!

After looking at many other units for sale, and seeing nothing that we really liked, we decided to give the owner a call and see if they would come down off their price. They were willing to do so, and we agreed on a significantly lower price. But we knew that our current RV needed to sell first, so we asked for a closing date over 60 days away, which was agreed to.

We had started asking around if anyone knew of anyone wanting to purchase our RV, and it turned out the gal living across the street from our RV said her sister was looking. One thing led to another, and we sold our class A Newmar Canyon Star, and then purchased the park model. We went to the AZ motor vehicle department with the park model owners and transferred the title over to us. The total cost? Seven dollars!

So here is our new to us tiny house, at 385 square feet (it’s 35 feet long, and 11 feet wide). It is a 2019 model, with a bonus room added on. In AZ, they call it an Arizona room. In FL it’s a Florida room.

This is the front to back view, of the living room and kitchen. It came fully furnished. We will eventually bring in our own stuff.

The prior owner used the bedroom as a laundry room, and the Arizona room as a bedroom. We will make the laundry room back into a bedroom, and make the AZ room into an extra living area when we return this fall. We will probably change out the old washer/dryer into a stackable set, so we can build a closet in the bedroom.

We closed on the sale in April, so we only had one month living in the unit before we left for Wyoming. We quickly discovered we had more storage space in our RV than in the park model!

So we have some work to do when we return in the fall. Once we get closets built back in the bedroom, that will give us more storage space. We already know almost all of our neighbors on our block. It’s a good mix of Canadians and Americans. I’m sure there will be plenty of happy hours this upcoming season!

Once we were all settled with the sale of the RV and park model, we started looking for a nice used Class C RV. We found several in AZ that we liked, but they were either overpriced or already had accepted offers. We did find an RV that we liked, but it was in Colorado. It was from the same dealer we bought our Newmar from. They had just gotten it in on trade, and decided to sell it since it was in good condition. Since we had a positive experience with this dealership before, we decided to road trip to Colorado and pick it up.

We made sure to stop and visit with our nieces on the way up. First stop was with Jasmine and Ryan, they are living in Fountain Hills, AZ, a very pretty community.

When we got to Colorado, we got together with my niece Breanna and her husband Lorenzo for dinner. It was great catching up with them!

And now for the new to us RV. It is a 2018 Forest River Forrester GTS. The dealership has a parking lot campground where you can stay overnight and try everything out in the RV.

A few photos of the inside

Makena now sits up front between the seats when we travel. We had her kennel on the booth dinette, but she couldn’t see us, and barked and barked and barked while we were driving. So we had to find a new solution. She’s happy now that she can see us.

So that’s about it for now on our two new homes! We hope everyone is having a good summer, and staying safe from this heat.

Quote for the day: “Moving doesn’t change who you are. It only changes the view outside your window.” – Rachel Hollis

We have arrived in Yuma, Arizona but I still have a few things to post from our summer in Wyoming. When you are working on 400 acres, you never know what type of wildlife you will see. Last summer (2023), I spent several weeks watching a family of owls, before the babies got big enough and left the nest. They were about 50 yards from our RV, so I would spend my mornings drinking coffee and watching them from the RV. It was a perfect way to start the day! I was hoping the adults would be back this summer, but they must have found a new location. These owl photos are from 2023.

The adults would take turns in the nest with the two little ones. In the photo below, the adult in the back seems to be giving me the “stink eye” with the two little ones. My guess is the owl on the left is female, and the little one is male. From what I have read, the only way to tell them apart is size – females are larger.

Here’s a shot of the two baby owls.

Even though we did not have owls to entertain us this summer, we had plenty of other birds around the RV. Sometimes, a little too many!

The elusive pheasant chickens that we saw early in the summer, had babies. At one point, I was able to count a total of eleven pheasant chickens running around in the morning. They would run, not fly, whenever I opened up the RV door. But I did manage to get a few photos of them. There are seven of them in the photo below.

This is the best close up shot I could get, taken through our window.

One morning when driving out to the fields, we were greeted by some cows that had wandered on to the property. A neighbor raises cattle, and apparently doesn’t fence in his property. The water level in the Wind River was low this summer, so the cows wandered off, down the river, and tried to get on to Brad and Joanne’s property.

The cows hung around for about a week, before they left.

We had a mother and two baby deer all summer. It was fun watching them grow up.

And we had two separate moose sightings. One female moose hung out for a week.

And a few weeks later, we were greeted by an adult and small bull moose. The photo is hazy because of nearby forest fires.

One morning I kept hearing a strange clicking noise in the RV. It took a minute of searching, and discovered a pigeon walking on the skylight in the bathroom. He’s a peeping pigeon!

In the fall, the sandhill cranes arrive. We had hundreds of them.

We kept seeing a lot of wasps/bees around, but they didn’t really bother us. I did discover, in the tree above our RV, a giant wasp nest. It was too high up to do anything about it. I was actually impressed by how big it was.

My favorite animal sighting this summer, slightly surpassing the moose, was seeing a giant porcupine right outside the RV.

Even the pheasant chickens were curious about it.

All in all, a great summer of wildlife viewing, without even leaving the property. We also saw elk with little ones when we were out in the fields, but we stayed far away from them as they were passing through the property. Never mess with mama when her kids are around!

Quote of the day: “We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.” – Steve Irwin