Monday, December 15, 2014

We woke up to a nice sunshiny day today and it was warm as compared to yesterday and the wind.  The wind was warm but it still wasn’t very nice.

Aside from yesterday, this will be our only full day here in Deming.  Our only plans were to go to the Si Senor restaurant for lunch today.  We have been enjoying their food since we discovered the place several years ago.

We had invited our new friends, Dave and Joyce Zuzelo to go with us and they hadn’t been there before.  They seemed to really enjoy the food having tried a few restaurants in town before this one, but not having been happy with the results.

Their story is an interesting one.  They arrived here in New Mexico, from New Hampshire, about a month ago and fell in love with the place.  They bought land and are now planning to move their residence here.  This wouldn’t be my first choice for a permanent move, but to each his own.  They mentioned that here would be more “centrally” located for the things they want to travel and see.

By the time we got back it was time to start shutting everything down outside and get ready to leave.  I had to dump our holding tanks and refill our water for the trip.  We spent the rest of the day and night watching TV and crafting.  Sharon has always got some crafting project to work on.  Me, not so much.

While I was out doing the tanks I noticed some damage on the car that was new.  We were driving down the road minding our own business and there was a chunk of wood in the road, that I swerved to avoid, and missed with the motorhome.  However, I may have caused the car to hit it and damage the airfoil on the front of the car.  Apparently our troubles have not ended.

We were up until about 10:30 last night before we finally turned out the lights and slithered between the sheets.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

We got a leisurely start this morning having had to stop at the campground office for propane.  We tried twice at Flying J to get propane the other day and neither of them was pumping it.  We had enough to get by for a couple of days and knew we could get it here.

We got gasoline in El Paso on Sunday so we’ll be good with that until we get to Casa Grande, AZ where it’s cheaper.  There were no incidents on our trip today.

The construction that we encountered through Tucson a couple of years ago was well worth the results.  The road was smooth and fast and the traffic was very bearable.  Before we knew it, we were on the other side of Tucson, and at our campground in Marana.  We were stopped by 2 PM and our jacks wouldn’t go down or the slides wouldn’t go out.  More trouble is just what we need.  It seemed to be a problem with the “emergency brake interlock.”  Sharon tried her luck at it and it decided to work.  Go figure.

We just sat and unwound for awhile until we had trouble with the dish again.  We still have the second receiver so we might just keep it and send the old one back to DirecTV.  Right now we have to guess what the co-ordinates are which is extremely difficult to do on a regular basis.  Problems just seem to have gravitated to us on this journey to California.

We had a date tonight with my Cousin Tom Mckenna and his wife Dawn.  We would be going out to eat with them and they chose the place since we’re not familiar with the restaurants here anymore.  We went to a place called Mosaics which is a Mexican place.  The food was absolutely delicious and we had a very nice visit with them.  They treated us to Dinner which was certainly not necessary but much appreciated.  We had gone to Dinner in their new Infinity SUV and what a beautiful piece of work that was.

We got back home about 7 o’clock and sat down to rest what was a great get-together.  We watched TV until it was time to fold up our tents and retire for the night.

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

The weatherman threatened rain today and we were going to stop and get a wash job on the motorhome.  If it’s not raining when we get to Eloy we’ll still stop and get the coach washed.

We got a leisurely start this morning cause we were only going about forty miles to Casa Grande and stay at the Casa Grande RV Resort for 4 days.  By the time we got the coach washed and traveled the 40 miles we got in and settled at the campground by 1 PM.  We experienced a Christmas miracle cause everything worked just perfectly.  The Jacks, The Slides, The TV were all working like they should be.  Finally a stop with no stress.

It started raining almost as soon as we got here.  It wasn’t an earthshaking flood but just enough to get everything wet and sloppy.  It just rolled off the motorhome like water off a duck’s back.  We were still clean.

We sat around and rested for the afternoon until it was time to go and meet Mary Milan at the Elks Club.  Mary is an old friend that we met several years ago with her husband Gerry.  We took a cruise to Mexico with them and had a great time and kept in touch ever since.  They settled in Casa Grande after they stopped Rving.

We had a very nice chat with her while we ate Dinner at the Elks.  It was only

Hamburgers and Chicken Strips but it was a fun time catching up on the last 2 years.  We went to Alabama last year so its been two years since we were here.

By the time we got home it was time for the boob tube for the night.  There really wasn’t much on, and what was on, was mostly re-runs.  We tuned in anyway having nothing else to do for the night.  We did, however, retreat to slumberland early tonight.  We were sawing logs by 10:30.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

We were up and rolling this morning to one of my favorite restaurants.  We’ve been frequenting Golden Corral for Breakfast for years.  The food is always good and the selection is fabulous.  We left there completely filled up and ready to take on the day.

We stopped at Jo-ann’s Fabrics on the way home so Sharon could pick up a couple of handles for a project she’s been working on.  I wanted to also stop at Harbor Freight but we put it off until tomorrow.  The Harbor Freight was not here two years ago.

We got back home with full stomachs and possibly a nap in our future.  So much for taking on the day with full stomachs.

I actually got started on the Newsletter this month with a story about our first month on the road.  It was a tale of woe to say the least.  I was working on it for the better part of the afternoon.

We spent the afternoon working on our separate projects and Sharon whipped up an “experiment” for our Supper tonight.  It was Chicken Breast pieces in a Pan with several different veggies and dumplings covering the top.  It turned out to be very good except I would have wanted more juices for gravy.

After Dinner and Dishes we settled into our perspective chairs and tuned the TV to fabulous entertainment and watched for the rest of the night.  It didn’t happen exactly that way because the “fabulous entertainment” comment was exaggerated.  But we were satisfactorily amused for the rest of the night til 11.

Friday, December 19, 2014

Today was going to be a shopping day.  We really didn’t have anything specific to buy but we had a day that we had absolutely nothing to do.

We went to the clubhouse for Breakfast this morning.  They provide a FREE Belgian Waffle on Monday-Friday with coffee and orange juice.  We met and sat with a couple from Northern California who had some stories to tell about their travels.  We had a very nice Breakfast and it certainly offsets the daily price of the campground. ($21)

After Breakfast we took off for Michael’s on the other side of I-10 to the shopping center.  Sharon wanted to just browse for awhile and see if she could spot a project to do over the next couple of months.  She was in there for about a half hour but couldn’t find a thing that she wanted.

We left and headed for Harbor Freight to find a pry bar that I wanted to buy to manipulate the jacks in case they start acting up again.  It’s a new Harbor Freight and it’s a beautiful store with wide aisles and tons of merchandise.  It took me awhile before I found what I wanted, and my back was killing me by the time I got back to the car.

We headed home to rest up for our date at Barro’s Pizza tonight.  We were planning to meet Jayce Dale, a friend from home, and her friend Rod at the pizza joint for Dinner tonight.  The pizza place was about a mile from our campground so it would only take us about 5 minutes to get there.

We headed out for Dinner about 5 minutes before 5 and when we got there the place was jammed.  We managed to find a table and sat down to wait for our Dinner companions.  They arrived about 10 minutes later and it was lucky that we already had a table cause it wasn’t getting any less crowded.  The pizza was absolutely delicious and we sat and had a very nice conversation for about 90 minutes or so.

We came back home afterward and camped out in front of the idiot box.  We were there tonight until about 10:30.  We’re starting to stay up a little later over the past week.  We’ll get used to the late hour just in time for another “time change.”  I guess we’re older than we thought we were.

Saturday, December 20, 2014

We had nothing to do today except get ourselves ready to leave here for Mesa tomorrow.  We stayed home and had our own Breakfast this morning even though it was a little late.  Breakfast almost bled into lunch it was so late.

By the time noon rolled around Sharon took off with the laundry and I went outside and dumped our Gray water tank to make room for the showers we’ll take tomorrow morning.  We’ve been filling that tank since we were in Deming.

Sharon was gone for a couple of hours before she got back for lunch.  I already had half of our leftover pizza from Barro’s the other night, and when Sharon finally got done she had the other half.

She got a chance to sit down and take a break for a couple of hours before she headed off to church.  She would be stopping at KFC for our Supper on the way home.

I checked the oil on the coach while she was gone and estimated that I should put another quart of oil in it.  This second quart should bring us up to the right level for the time being.  I got caught by surprise the other day when I finally remembered to check the level.  The coach has been running so well that I forgot it sometimes needs care to keep it that way.

We had KFC for Supper tonight but I didn’t care for the way some of the big pieces were cooked.  I like my chicken somewhat dry and this was just too juicy.  Sharon has already said she’d cook it some more before we eat the leftovers.  Apparently she didn’t care for all the moisture either.

We spent most of the night surfing the channels on the TV tonight.  Saturdays are notoriously bad for TV but tonight was the worst night in a very long time.  If it wasn’t for Lockup, Cops Reloaded and a repeat of the CMA Christmas Show we wouldn’t have had anything to watch. We did, however, stay up until 10:30 before we headed off for Slumberland.

Sunday, December 21, 2014

We were both up early this morning but in no hurry to get on the road.  We don’t know what time we can check in at Sun Life RV in Mesa so it makes no sense to get there early.  Besides our GPS says the trip is only going to be 42 miles.  We were headed north by 9:30 but our first stop was only a mile up the road at Fry’s Gas Station.  The price was set at $2.119 and we were getting a piece of that action.  We’ve been lucky in that every station we’ve stopped at has had a lower price than the one before it.  But our next part of the trip is in to California, the land of fruits, nuts, and high gas prices.

We picked up a quick Breakfast at McDonald’s this morning that was right next door to the gas station, so we filled up with gas for the motorhome and for ourselves.

We pulled into Sun Life RV Resort about 11 and took off almost immediately.   We had to get to Dennis and Mary Ceshker’s to watch the Green Bay Packer game.  Mary is a school age friend of Sharon’s and we’ve been getting together for several years now.  As luck would have it, the Packers scored a touchdown almost immediately after we got there.  They also won the game which was a nice touch.  Dennis’ Chicago Bears lost to the Detroit Lions which was a disappointment for all of us.  The Lions and Packers are tied for first place in the division.  They’ll break the tie next week when they play against each other in the last game of the season.

We had Dinner tonight at the Ceshkers and then just sat around and chit chatted til about 7 when we went home.

It felt good to just sit around and relax for a change.  We’ll be here for a week and by the time we leave we’ll be ready to move on.

Sharon caved before me tonight but I wasn’t far behind at about 10:30.