Cameras, Quilting, Kayaking, Swap Meet and Dixons

It’s hard to believe that we’ve had our wheels blocked and levels down for over a week now.  It actually feels good even though we really are doing one heck of a lot!

Friday we made a trip to the Mesa Swap Meet.  It seems we “have” to visit this place each year.  The swap meet here is similar to the one in Yuma.  I’m thinking we’ve probably been there often enough that there’s no need to go back again for a while.  We’ve saw it all and walked away with very little --- a couple of fat quarters from the fabric shop.  One thing we do enjoy doing at these local swap meets is checking out all the photographs the locals have taken.  There are many beautiful places to visit around here.  I just hope we have enough time before it gets way too hot.

Since we were heading in their direction we also planned on meeting Jim and Sandie at the Eastern Buffet which was just around the corner from the swap meet and not far from where they stay in Apache Junction.  It seems we’ve met them at this restaurant a couple of times in the best.  It’s a great place to eat because the seafood flows freely.  Needless to say, Jim and I love seafood.  Sandie and Terry did just fine on their own without even bothering with anything that swam or needed to be cracked.  It was great getting together again and talking about old times plus a few future plans too.

One more stop we made was at a ladies house in Mesa who has a quilting machine in her garage.  I dropped off a quilt, chatted a while and before long we were on our way back to our own little setup.  I wonder if one of those machines would fit under our awning?  I’m not sure how we’d carry it though.  I did take a picture with my “smartless” phone of her quilting machine setup.  It was pretty blurry so I had to go online and look for another picture.

 

It only takes a few days to get the finished product back.  Now I’ve got to start another one and get it finished while I’m in the area.  She’s about half the price of others and the turnaround is a lot faster.

REI isn’t far from where we are currently parked.  The other day we wandered through the store and found several things we would have liked to take home with us.  Since my middle name is really “Research”, that’s what I had to do first.  Research is not only looking for the same item someplace else at a cheaper price, it’s also reading reviews and figuring out what others are saying about it.  However, we had to make a quick trip back sooner than expected to return a broken Christmas present we had bought.  All was not lost, I did discover a pair of zip-off capris for me that were on a sale. 

That wasn’t all we found at REI.  We found a tandem inflatable kayak that we’re still contemplating (research, research).  We left our hard shell kayaks at the cabin this year.  Last year we hauled them around and only used them over one two week period on the Colorado River.  When we were close to lakes or rivers, it was usually too cold, icy or raining.  So much for that!

Check out the conversion kit on top.

We were in a tandem kayak this summer when we joined a group searching for whales and kayaking in the San Juan Islands.  Of course, the water was rough, currents hard, etc., etc.   It was very different than single kayaking but it was still in a hard shell.  I did try out an inflatable tandem once but the tracking was nothing like a hard shell kayak.  Thus, we weren’t sure we wanted to jump into a tandem and especially an inflatable one without checking them out first.  I must admit we were pretty impressed with the Advanced Elements Convertible version.  It even had a skeg and aluminum ribs from bow to stern to help with tracking. It’s a MAYBE. 

We did get a little kayak research done without researching.  We spent the other evening with another couple we're parked close to from Oregon and talked about everything under the sun.  Later in the evening the conversation rolled around to kayaking.  They just happened to have the same exact kayak we had been looking at.  Bottom line … they LOVE it.  Maybe it really is a MAYBE.   Of course, we’d have to get our life jackets and paddles from Washington before we could use it but that shouldn’t be a problem because we probably wouldn't be able to put it in the water until after Christmas anyway.

Now back to that camera dilemma …. I've probably read the specifications on a zillion cameras recently.  No, I'm not exaggerating about that.  So, far nothing has matched my must-have list.  I'm thinking I need to tweak that list.  However, I do have a  MAYBE in mind but the zoom is smaller than I really want.  Hmmmmm... I might be looking for that camera with a viewfinder other than the LCD much longer than I thought. 

‘Tis life on the road.

If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk?