The Adventure Continues.

Donna sizing up the Massive earth-movers.  Four of them push and pull thousands of Tons of earth each hour.  The City Ordnance requires they remove earth 8ft down to ensure no clay then to replace it all. 

It was ten days or so after our last post that the silence we had enjoyed at the rear of our Mesquite home for the past five years was suddenly broken when massive earth movers turned up and began levelling the ground behind us in order to begin work on the services, sewers, roads and sidewalks for the next village in Sun City Anthem.  


These incredible machines wasted no time in moving tens of thousands of tons of sand (the composition of the land here in the Mohave Desert) each day.  

We knew this was inevitable when we built our home on this land.  We also realized that further construction behind us would in all likelihood take place when we were gone which is probably still the case.      

Birthday Time  

Donna managed to get us a king suite at the Rio for $20 a night

It was also Donna's birthday during that same week.  She asked to celebrate it in Las Vegas so without further ado, off we went.  It was much like any Vegas trip.  We both enjoyed ourselves and made the most of the visit.  

On the morning of the third day, we checked out of the hotel/casino and headed to an East Indian grocery store as we required some spices we could not find at any of the conventional grocery stores in Mesquite or Las Vegas.  A quick Google search brought forth an address so we jumped into the truck and five minutes later we arrived at this well equipped East Indian grocery store just of Tropicana Blvd.     

As we entered, the various aromas emanating from the many fresh spices the owners had in stock had my imagination racing as I conjured up fresh ideas for future meals.    

Prior to leaving Mesquite, we had organised a cooking course on Indian food which would take place at our home a week from today.  

Between us, we had planned out some recipes and food we believed our guests would find interesting and tasty.  We quickly grabbed what we needed and headed out for the 1 ¼ hour drive back to Mesquite.

The Indian Cooking Class.

Vegetable Pakoras  

The day of the cooking class arrived and a Co-ed group of 20 of our neighbours turned out.  This all began when one of our neighbours….no names (Liane) made an innocent remark mentioning how much she enjoyed curry.  

There aren't that many restaurants in Nevada that serve Indian food, and very few Americans have tried it, so it would be a balancing act as to what to cook.  In any case, It was decided to tone down the heat and go for more fragrant dishes as a good curry dish, does not have to be hot to be tasty.    

There are lots of clubs at our Sun City location - even a Gourmet Cooking Club but we believed that it was probably out of most of the club members comfort zone to cook such food which is very specialized and labour intensive.  As it was, two members of the club would be in our midst today.    

In order to introduce everyone to the type of food we were about to prepare, we had set out on our kitchen table many of the spices used in Indian cooking.  Passing them around so the participants could smell the various spices which resulted in lots of ooohs and ahhhs.  The participants were unfamiliar with many of the spices but they liked the different aromas and could not wait to get going.   

Once everyone was present and they had poured themselves that customary drink, we began by explaining what the spices were and how they should be used.
  

The list included Besan or Gram flour, Saffron, Cumin, Ajwain, Garam Masala, Cloves, Dhania Jeera, Red Chili Powder, Fresh Curry leaves, Fresh Coriander, Green Cardamon Pods, Cinnamon, Aesafetida or Hing and a litany of other spices we would use to create what hopefully would be some tasty dishes that day.

The menu was relatively simple for beginners:  We decided not to do all the work, but rather have the attendees participate by preparing and cooking the items under our supervision.  We had completed the donkey work before everyone arrived i.e. slicing onions, peeling potatoes etc.

On the Menu were: Pappadams that had to be fried, Vegetable Pakoras sometimes referred to as Bhajias (we made them from scratch), Beef Curry, Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken plus a highly flavourful Saffron Rice dish prepared with aromatic Basmati Rice, cinnamon, cloves and other condiments.

The girls enjoying the fruits of their labour in our kitchen sampling the dishes after they were cooked. 

If any of our followers want to try these recipes themselves, simply click on the links above for each dish.  Hopefully the sites we obtained the information from have not changed but if you have the name of the item, a Google search will bring forth recipes and YouTube Videos too.  

Also note; some of these dishes vary slightly from the dishes I cooked because as you get used to cooking them, you experiment by adding different spices, but they are all basically the same.  

In real life in India, the taste of a certain dish will vary from village to village due to the availability of particular spices at that time, so you can find many variations on the same dish even on the Internet or for that matter in India itself Garam Masala (a mixture of many spices) as an example, is not made the same way in every place.  

The one day introductory cooking course was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously. Literally everyone sampled all the dishes and there was lots left over.  Some even took away the left-overs they liked the food that much.

Occupying Our Time During The Early Months.

Since we have arrived, we have installed a water softener, added a great room fan/light combination, changed our dining room light fixture, installed an LED lighting system above our kitchen Cabinets to add an ambience to the kitchen, added shelving to the pantry and 12 Volt LED landscape lighting in the back yard to give an adobe look to walls we have at the rear of our home (see the pictures below).  

The landscape lighting worked well.  Now we can take full advantage of the back yard during the day and on the warmer evenings which occur 95% of the time in Mesquite, and if there is a chill in the air, we just crank up the patio heater when our friends are over.  Our palm trees are now highlighted and look great. All this, has kept us both very busy.

Adding 12 Volt LED landscape lighting really allows you to make use of the yard at night as well as during the daytime.

Now, we can sit out in the warmer evenings and enjoy our yard day or night.

Later this year, I will complete all the LED lighting to the front and sides of our home.  In December, we will take out the two tier Granite counters and breakfast bar in the kitchen and have the whole work surface redone with one large slab of Granite or Quartz, all on one  level.  It will look fabulous once it is all completed and will triple our work surfaces for parties and catering.  

Christmas Open House

Our next venture was in concert with our next door neighbours Dave and Barbara.  One day, while having our customary "it's 4 O Clock somewhere in the world" cocktails, between us, we all decided to entertain our friends and neighbours by having a Christmas Open House.  About 30 people attended the party Dec 11.  Dave and Barbara (our next door neighbours from Utah) suggested we host the Open House at their home which we did. 

Two of the four hosts Dave and Barbara - our next door neighbours - Super people, you could not ask for better more friendly neighbours.  

The two of us enjoying the party at the Open House.

What a bunch of wonderful "guys & gals" The food was delicious and we all had lots of fun.  You could not wish for a finer crowd
  

Brad (left) and Brenda (2nd from the right)  - fellow Calgarians from Lake McKenzie who also have a home only five doors away from us in Mesquite, made it down for the Party.  They are seen here talking to Jodie and Glen their next door neighbours 

A Brief Review About Retirement 

At the time of writing this blog we have been fully retired for exactly six months.  We are very happy doing what we are doing now, getting out and about and travelling to new places has been lot of fun so far.  

Do we miss the business?  I believe we are both of the opinion that you cannot drop something you have been doing for over 25 years and put it behind you.  So the honest answer to that question is yes! We do miss it…….a little.  

What we definitely do not miss, is the need to have to be here there and everywhere at a given time every day or have to be sitting open houses every weekend when others are out enjoying time-off.    

I don't think either of us are ready yet to finally give up our Broker's Licenses as the qualifying exams to obtain the license were both costly and challenging, so we will have to re-new our licences next year or lose them as quite rightly, there is a time limit or statute of limitations as to how long a Realtor® or a Broker can leave the business without having to re-qualify or update their Real Estate Skills.  When you think about it, Real Estate Laws change on a frequent basis and it would not be in the public interest to have outdated Real Estate Brokers or Associates for that matter.   

We have had a lot of fun over the past six months.  We have had a month long trip to our Mesquite home, a trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios in California with stop-overs in Pasadena, Hollywood and San Diego (where we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary).  

We had the three week trip to Ecuador, South America another month back in the US followed by a month back up in Canada - some of it spent on Vancouver Island with a cousin of Donna's.  The rest back in Calgary followed by three more months in the US. Yes, we have been busy and travelled lots and we hope this will continue to be the case into the future.  


December arrived quickly as did the change in temperature when it went from the balmy mid 70's to 16 F.   The cooler climate only lasted for a week then the temperature ever-so-slowly edged its way back to the mid 60's where it stayed for the remainder of the time we have been in the US.  

We looked at the weather in Calgary on a daily basis and tuned in to QR77 on our IPADs to get the news and weather reports.  The forecast day-after-day seemed to be snow, snow and more snow and very cold.  We were glad to be here in Heaven on Earth.  

Christmas in Mesquite 

Christmas was upon in a flash.  We seated 12 for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.  Everyone helped out by preparing something for the feast, so we only had to worry about the turkey and a few other bits.

While in one of the two grocery stores we have in Mesquite, we saw a heck of a deal in a 23lb Butterball Turkey for $21.  We both agreed that a large turkey of this weight in Canada would probably cost about $60 - $70, so we snapped it up right away and it cooked up beautifully with lots left over.  

Long periods down in the US underline the fact that living here over the winter as a snowbird is so very much cheaper than it is in Canada.  Everything is far less expensive.  This applies across the board to food, clothing, gas and utilities etc.  We shake our heads and wonder how two countries so similar can have such vast differences in the price of the same commodities.  

We bid each other a Happy New Year as the ball dropped in New York which is about how it's been over the past few years.  We have not celebrated the arrival of the new year for many years, and as a result (along with probably 90% of our +55 community) we were asleep by 10:00 pm Pacific time. 

So What's Next?

We have a few things planned for 2014, but the most pressing item on the agenda right now as they say is to "get out of Dodge".  With the limit on how long a Canadian can stay in the US, we have just about reached that allowance, so to stay on the right side of the law, we head for the border in 5 days time to face the cold and the snow…….for a while.

A "Heads Up" here.  Aimed at all you prospective or upcoming snowbirds.  There is a bill going through Congress at the moment that is proposing to allow Canadian Snowbirds age 55 or older, to be able to reside in the US for eight months of the year.  The Senate and the House have both OK'd it and the President has indicated he will sign off on it but it is taking it's time going through the legal process.  We are hopeful that maybe within the year this will be signed into law.  

Jan 4, 2014.  Here we were in T shirt and shorts shopping at the newer and more upscale Town Square Mall at Sunset and Las Vegas Blvd just south of the Mandalay Bay.  We were basking in the sun and warm weather but facing the fact that in one week we would be heading back to Canada where there is currently an Arctic Clipper developed over the Calgary area and way down into the States.  

Some places have had  -30 C temperatures and some even -42 F (-40C & -40F is where both Fahrenheit and Celsius meet) with deep snow to contend with.  Our niece from Saskatchewan reported on Facebook today a temperature of -50C somewhere up there……Pretty cool. 

Well, you can't have it all ways, so it's time to suck it up and make the drive back to Calgary.  On a positive note, it will be good to see all the family and the grandchildren again.  Time to share some stories and find out what they have been doing with their lives while we have been sorting ourselves out.  

For the next four months, we will be in Calgary, house-sitting for Donna's Sister and Brother-in-Law in Parkland while they enjoy time at their home in Mesquite.  

Hopefully in mid April, we will depart Calgary.  Time permitting, we may take a trip to Saskatchewan then drive across Manitoba and into Ontario to visit with friends.  I have never driven across the prairies, so it is another adventure and more places to see.  I understand it is a somewhat flat landscape to take in by all accounts but nevertheless, it is something new.    

In late April, we will head south again, but this time, to add to our experiences, and just for the fun of it, we may drive back to Nevada from Ontario, via Hamilton, London, Sarnia, then southwest through Lansing and Kalamazoo MI, just north of Detroit MI.  Then onto Chicago IL, Des Moines IA, Lincoln NE, and on to Mile High City Denver, CO.  Denver for the benefit of those who have never been, is almost the same as Calgary with the Rockies in the background but although Pike's Peak is higher than our Rockies, the mountains there are not as rugged.  Then we will enter Utah from Grand Junction CO then turn south onto Mequite NV.  

The drive will be 3,492 Kilometres which will take us around five of six days to complete but it will allow us to see a lot of the country we normally don't get to see.

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After a couple of weeks in Mesquite, we will fly to Costa Rica from Las Vegas on our trip to find that elusive place in the sun.  We may even have some company on this trip.  Jerry and Liane Neighbours of ours in Mesquite may well take the trip to Costa Rica with us and stay for a month.  That would be great fun to have friends along too.  

We plan to be in Costa Rica for May and June of this year and will move around to find out the facts about the country and to familiarise ourselves with the various parts of the country which I am told has 27 different climate zones, ranging from desert, semi-arid areas, rain forest and tropical zones too.

Throw in the odd Volcano or two and the diverse flora and fauna, and you have an interesting country to see.  While we are there, we will also meet with other Ex-Pats who have taken up residence there to ask their opinions on the pros and cons about Costa Rica.

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Then, It's Off To Panama 

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The country of Panama is bordered by Costa Rica to the North and Columbia to the south.  We plan to be in Panama for July and August of this year.  Inevitably, we will go through the same exercise there as we will in Costa Rica.  We have already made contact with people in both countries (Costa Rica and Panama) - many of them through dedicated groups on Facebook or chat rooms.  Some are Canadians, others are from the US and Europe all trying to chase the same dream as us.  

By the end of the trip, we should be able to make a well thought out decision as to whether one of these two countries in Central America will suit our needs in terms of a retirement destination and if that is the case, we will in all likelihood  apply for permanent residency.  It goes without saying that both countries are vastly less expensive to live in than Canada and in particular Calgary which will allow us to save more and to travel in the future.

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And After That

Well, that's a difficult question to answer at the moment….We aren't sure yet.  Maybe Europe or Australia and Asia should be on our bucket list.  

In closing it would be fair to say we have had the very best visit to our Nevada home we could have hoped for.  We have wonderful neighbours and great friends down here.  We also  believe we have achieved a nice balance and in an Idilic setting whilst getting used to the pace of retirement.  No regrets…….Not one so far.  I don't even regret the fact that my cell phone has not rang for weeks.    

When we return to Calgary next week, we will re-new old acquaintances and meet up with a whole bunch of people because now we have the time on our hands to do so.

Now that the winter solstice has been and gone, we can feel the days getting longer.  Inevitably the snow will give way to green grass and the snowblowers will be replaced by lawnmowers and life will be back to normal, especially for those of you locked up in the terrible cold right now.  

As we bid you all goodbye in this blog and prepare for the trip back north, we will in the next month or two, begin honing the details and planning our next adventure.

Keep safe, smile and do a good turn for someone this week and most of all, stay optimistic about the coming year.  We both wish you good health and happiness…

………....and the adventure continues. 

Ken and Donna.  

Just In Time

As I eluded to in my last blog, the weather in Calgary in September and October was gorgeous until that is, the weather forecasters began strutting their stuff on TV mentioning not only the likelihood of deteriorating weather coming soon, but also the increasing use of the "S" word was what really made the decision for us to get on the road and head south again as soon as possible.  

Prior to leaving, we had arranged to meet up with some of our good friends for lunch at the Danish Canadian Club.  We had a pleasant unhurried lunch with them and after some goodbyes in the parking lot, we let the rubber-hit- the-road and headed south towards the US border.

We decided to drive as far as Lethbridge, Alberta - grab a hotel room and go for supper with Donna's son Steve who is finishing his university courses in Lethbridge.  We had a good visit with him, and after bidding Steve goodnight, we headed back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

It was around 4:00 am when I turned on the bedside lamp and started clanking around the room trying to ever-so-gently pry my lovely wife from her sleep.  She got the message pretty quickly and after a groan and a few frustrated puffs later, she ever so slowly alighted from the bed, and was "up and at em" as she always is when she is going on vacation.  I reminded her that this vacation is hopefully forever.  By then the coffee maker had done its stuff and by 5:00 am we were on the road heading for the Coutts Border Crossing.

I love to drive in the dark, but over the years we have seen a lot of road-kill in northern Montana and Idaho and this early getaway would bring these points home once more.  

As we left the safety of the well lit roads of Lethbridge and disappeared into the darkness, it was not 15 minutes later that I saw through my peripheral vision, a gathering of large shadowy objects which turned out to be mule deer barely visible through the darkness grazing off to the side of the highway.  The radio was off to allow me more concentration, and I thought to myself, it's time to switch onto full beams and be extra vigilant as we sped silently through the darkness.

I could not imagine the amount of damage that would result from a collision with one of these magnificent animals.  We had just paid off the truck, so it was doubly important to keep my concentration on the road as we drove onwards toward the border.     

We pulled up to the US border customs at 6:08 am.  It was still pitch black.  We greeted the customs officer with a positive "hello how are you today" but it fell on either deaf or tired ears.  I wondered to myself, how long the gentleman sat inside the booth had been on duty at this relatively lonely outpost.  

I handed the customs agent our passports and Nexus Cards.  He stared out of his window at us and after issuing us a sharp and unfriendly lecture on why we did not need to hand him our passports AND our Nexus Cards he went on to say that we had obviously not read the Nexus Card Rules or we would have known better.  

I stared blankly back at him choosing to keep my mouth firmly shut.  He handed back our items and with a half smile on his face that resembled the stucco on the side of our house in Mesquite, he bid us a safe journey and we headed south on the Interstate 15 Highway.  As dawn took over, we switched on the radio and began to relax a little.

We drove to Pocatello Idaho, a 950 Km drive which took us about 8 ½ hours, and after a quick bite to eat in the bar we headed off to bed.  

The now all-too-familiar early morning shuffling around the room, again produced the desired result and we hit the road by 6:00 am pulling into Mesquite, just after noon - a record for us.   

It was 82 degrees Fahrenheit when we arrived as opposed to the forecast -20C (with the windchill) and 10 - 20 cms. of snow (4 - 8 inches for our US readers) expected in Calgary the same day.  

We were happy to be back at our desert home once again.  After calling in to Smith's Grocery Store en-route, and stocking up with the bare essentials for the next few days, we headed to our home and now looked forward to over two months of bliss.

      

The next couple of days would be spent renewing acquaintances with neighbours, catching up on the local news, vacuuming and dusting, and generally getting the house back in shape after a months absence.  

Two days later, would see about 20 of us set off for the one hour drive to Las Vegas for two evenings of Halloween fun.

We all arrived at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street at about the same time.  All but two couples were housed on the same floor in the same tower……….now there's trouble waiting to happen.

We arranged to meet at Jerry and Liane's room at 4pm.  As more and more people gathered and the hum of laughter and conversation increased, we must have attracted the attention or the ire of one of the other residents on the same floor.

Donna and Carol with Sam……being Sam

 

Carol, Donna and Lisa discussing how much they plan to win in Vegas

Gary, Liane, Frank and Lanny 

Cydni with Anne and Carol

Sam, Carol, Frank, Bill and Judee at breakfast at the Golden Nugget on Halloween

As I was taking photo's of the gathering, I remember looking out of the open door and saw an unknown person talking to a few of the group.  With all the laughter in the room, I could not hear what was being said, but it did not look good.  

A couple of minutes later, I learned what was said was if the hotel staff had to come  back up to the room once more because of the noise, the occupants of that room would be evicted….Oh oh, not good.  

Immediately half of the room was transformed from Laughing couples to everyone creeping around the room, with index fingers held close to their lips shushing everyone else into quietness and explaining why.  

We all decided that maybe a better option would be to pack up our drinks and munchies and meet in one of the bars downstairs rather than cause someone grief.  

Liane and Jerry having a chat with Donna at the breakfast buffet.

Halloween is always a fun time, but Halloween on Fremont Street is something special.  Literally hundreds of people had put an awful lot of work into costumes for this night.  We walked up and down the street amazed at the amount of effort people had made to look the part for Halloween.

And then there was this!  Yup, Jerry is definitely into Halloween and ever so slightly outside his comfort zone.  

As they say…..Only in America.  

Jerry and wife Liane (his pimp)
on Halloween at the Golden Nugget

Jerry was getting dollar bills shoved down his cleavage or into his pockets from appreciative onlookers and in Jerry's inimitable way, before he left Fremont Street, he walked along handing those dollar bills to the homeless, and those down on their luck.  That's who Jerry is.  

Inevitably, we all ended up back inside the Casino later on and once more were reminded as to why they call Las Vegas, "lost wages".  Few if any of us came out with more than we went with.

Upon our return to Mesquite later that week, the girls went for their traditional slot tournament while the men went for the breakfast buffet at the Virgin River Casino as we do each week.  

Donna came back home excited she was on the list of the top ten and possibly therefore, in the prize money if no-one else beat her score on the slots.  

We had to return to the Casino around 3pm that day as the last of the slot players were winding up their games.  Sadly, we looked at the list and saw she was out of the running for cash that day.  Oh well, she enjoyed it as she and her friends always do every Thursday.  

Seeing as we were there, we decided to play the penny slots for a while then Donna disappeared off into another part of the Casino.  I continued to play and she re-appeared about 15 minutes later.  

How are you doing? I asked.  "I have $40 here" she said, showing me the redeemed ticket from a slot machine.  I am down $40 I replied, then she smiled and said AND….. she then pulled out of her purse almost $1000 in hundred dollar bills she had just won the jackpot on a minimum bet of 35 cents on the penny slots…..Yahoo!  We're in the money.

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As I write this blog, it is almost mid November.  The sun is up and it is almost 75 degrees outside at 11:00 am.  The forecast is for temperatures to cool a bit to the low and mid 60's then rebound in five days time.  What more could one want.  

As we head toward US thanksgiving on Nov 28th, there is just one more celebration to prepare for - Donna's Birthday Nov 25th.  As anticipated, she has chosen to celebrate it back in Las Vegas which is fine by me.  She always manages to find us free rooms.  This time, she found us a king suite in the Rio for two nights.  Yes free rooms.  They are out there if you look hard enough.  Good on ya babe!

In early December, we have agreed to have some friends around to learn how to cook East Indian food.  We will cook saffron flavoured basmati rice, beef curry, vegetable pakoras, batato wada and butter chicken.  It should be a fun time.  Our friends will all meet at our house.  Donna and I will show them the various spices and tell them where they originated from and how to use them.

They in turn will prepare the food and cook it at our home under our guidance and of course ably assisted by heaps of East Indian cookbooks and some great recipes we have down here.  After the food is all cooked, we will all sit down together and hopefully enjoy what we have made.  

These are great times for socializing  laughter and fun and needless to say, it's something different for them to do, as Americans are not as used to East Indian food as is Canada and the UK.

In anticipation of that, we have to find an Indian grocery store that stocks what items we need.  Thank God for Google.  I have found an East Indian grocery and food store in Las Vegas where I can pick up all the fresh spices and gram flour etc, that we will need to create our dishes  in early December.  Donna and I will pick up the supplies when we go for her birthday in two weeks time.  

On Dec 11th we and our neighbours next door are also planning a neighbours Christmas "open house" which are always fun gatherings at this time of the year.    

This will be the last of our posts for 2013.  The next one will come from Calgary in January sometime as we settle in to re-adjust our clocks for the time spent in the US and do some house-sitting for our friends who are going down to their home in Arizona for four months.  

While we are in Calgary, we will book our flights to Costa Rica for a two month stay beginning sometime late April or early May.  After that, we may head to Panama for a couple of months.  We are still looking for a place to retire too in the sun.  

One last thought before we go.  I just had an email from one of our former Realtors®, clients and a good friend who moved back to Ontario.  Jane was driving her vehicle out to the farm to walk her dog and on the way there, was injured in a very bad crash in Ontario recently.  Some idiot decided to overtake two vehicles in a no overtaking area and collided head on with Jane at 60 kmph.  

She has some breaks and cuts and bruises but is now recovering in a wheelchair.  Indications are, that she will be OK eventually, but looking at the car I am amazed she got out alive.  Thank god for the "Jaw's of Life" and for the wonderful Police, Fire and EMS Services that helped cut her out of the vehicle and got her to hospital and help.

The picture above is that of her vehicle, another reminder that accidents sometimes happen that aren't caused by the driver of the vehicle. 

We sincerely hope that Jane fully recovers as soon as possible and can get back to living a normal life.  We are thinking of you Jane.  I am sure that all who read this will be too.   

The reason I have included this is that It is also a reminder at this time of year, that if you are going to have a celebratory drink over Christmas and live in Calgary, please don't be tempted to drive.  We care about you all.  All you need to do is to call "Keys Please " by clicking on the link you can get the number.  It's a great service to use and they are just a phone call away.  They will drive out to where you are partying, pick up your vehicle, and drive it and you, safely back home for roughly the cost of a taxi.  It doesn't get any better than that.

So, as we close out our blogs for 2013 we would both like to wish you all the very best of the season be it Christmas or Hanukkah and to you all, have a Happy New Year and a fruitful 2014.  

For those of you reading this from Calgary, we will see you again sometime in the new year.    

Ken and Donna