Monday, December 21, 2015

We got a leisurely start this morning.  I went out and dumped the black water tank this morning and then we just watched some TV until lunchtime.  While I was outside Sharon put up the Christmas decorations.  I had my share of the decorations waiting for me in a bag near the steps.  I have to hang two big red plastic bows on the windshield wiper arms and put a couple of santa hats on the mirrors.

We had planned to go out for lunch today with Mary and Dennis to a place called Souper Salad.  Needless to say it was a soup and salad place.

We left home and drove over to the Ceshker’s and they took their car over to the restaurant.  They’re house was between ours and the restaurant.  It was indeed a soup and salad place but it was also a buffet.  No matter what kind of restaurant it is, if it’s a buffet I can always find enough to eat to fill me up.  And today was no different.  It was actually quite good and very reasonable.

We went back to their house for a while after we got done eating.  We watched a little TV while we talked.  After about an hour we started the drive back home.  Our campground is about 3-4 miles away from their house.  It’s just a short jaunt in the car.

By the time we got home it was late in the afternoon and the both of us were ready for a nap.  We didn’t take one but instead we planted ourselves in front of the Telly.  We had some stuff on tape that we caught up on tonight.  But we really had some surfing to do before we finished out the night.  We lasted til about 10:30 before we folded up our tents.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

We were off on a slow start this morning as we only had a couple of things to do.

Our first stop was at McDonald’s just up the street.  I asked Sharon last night if we could go out for Breakfast there this morning.  She knows how much I like going out for Breakfast so she agreed.  The McDonald’s seemed relatively new but it had unusual seating.  And it also seemed like most of the seats were taken by seniors “just drinking coffee.”  That wouldn’t have been bad except the place didn’t seem to have much total seating.  People were walking around and eventually ended up in the playroom.  Breakfast was good even though it was more expensive than home.

Across the street was the Wal-Mart that we intended to do a little shopping at this morning.  By the time we got there the parking lot was full.  And apparently so was the store.  I sat in the car listening to Rush while Sharon did the shopping.  I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to find an electric cart on the inside anyway.

We were there for about 45 minutes before we came back home.  Sharon came up with a brilliant idea in the meantime.  We had planned to see Bill and Jan Dieckman while we were here and they’re coming down on Wednesday.  She found a campground up near Sun City and we could stay there Sunday night and see them then.  Unfortunately we couldn’t get into the campground Sunday night for one day.  So the plan for them to come down was still on.

When we got home Sharon took off with the laundry and I was going to work on my scooter, but that never materialized.  It was nasty outside so I just did the dishes instead.  I think we had every glass in the joint dirty under the sink cover.  I was just finishing that up when Phil Bach called, just to check on us, and see where we were at.  We talked for about 15-20 minutes and by that time Sharon was back from the laundry.

For the rest of the day and night we just relaxed in front of the TV and were expected to be entertained.  We had our leftover KFC for Supper tonight and it was still quite good.  We did find enough on TV to make it to 10:30 and our final destination. (Bed)

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

We got up this morning with expectations of the arrival of Bill And Jan Dieckman at sometime this morning for our annual visit.  We’ve been going up there for the last couple of years and they decided to come down this year.  They live in Sun City West in a new home that they purchased a few years ago.  In any event they arrived about 11 AM and we sat around for awhile just talking and catching up.  We always manage to have lunch together before we part ways and today was no different.

Sharon managed to find a little place called the Handlebar Pub and Grill not to far from us up on Apache Trail.  It was a little “hole-in-the-wall joint with a very rustic interior.  In fact the ceiling was decorated with hundreds of beer tap handles mounted horizontally between the rafters.  The staff was very friendly and the food was superb.  We had brisket sandwiches and I had a Pizzaburger that was smothered in a spicy tomato/meat sauce.  We also had Blue Cheese Potato Salad and Handlebar potatoes which are sliced Sweet and Regular Potatoes and baked with onions and Green Peppers.  The food was not just different but very tasty.

After lunch we came back home and continued our conversations for another couple of hours or until about 3:30 when they though about leaving.  They had stayed long enough that now they would get caught in the rush hour.

After Bill and Jan left, we assumed our usual positions in front of the idiot box and camped out for the night.  We actually had plenty to watch tonight including a couple of episodes of “The curse of Oak Island” which were on tape.

We hung in there until 10:30 tonight before we called it quits and headed for the security of the homeland.

Thursday, December 24, 2015CHRISTMAS EVE

We had planned yesterday to go to LaMesa today and look at motorhomes.  We’re not in a “buying” mood but it doesn’t hurt to look at the new stuff.  The best laid plans fell right through the floor, however, when we drove to LaMesa and they were closed today.  Who would’ve thought they’d actually be closed on a family holiday.  They have no consideration.  We did see a couple of nice units through the gate though.  And quite a few that were out of our realm.

On the way home we stopped at McDonald’s and picked up some lunch for the two of us.  Sharon also had a Hot Fudge Sundae and I had an Apple Pie.  It was all quite good.

When I got home, after lunch, I got my scooter out of the car and started working on it.  The handlebars wouldn’t fold down anymore and I suspected there was something wrong with the mechanism.  As suspicions go I was right about the mechanism.  For some reason it was locked in place and I couldn’t fix it as it was.  It took about 20 minutes to smash the mechanism and remove it from the bike.  Everything worked just fine after that.  I think it was on there as an additional lock.

After fixing my scooter I plugged it in so it would be all charged up for Saturday when we’ll go to the Mesa Marketplace. 

I suggested we have steaks for Dinner tonight and we bought them the other day at the store.  I got the grill out and replaced the screws that had rattled loose and attempted clean the grate to no avail.  I was in charge of cooking the meat and I was ready to go.

We would treat ourselves to a little egg nog before we ate tonight with a smattering of Captain Morgan spicing up the mixture.  We finally sat down to our steaks and baked potatoes with a hollandaise/crab sauce over the meat. We washed it down with whiskey old-fashioneds and everything was very good indeed.

After Supper we lounged in front of the TV digesting our special Dinner.  We eventually stayed up until 10:30 by the time our shows ran out tonight.

Friday, December 25, 2015MERRY CHRISTMAS

We awoke this morning with no presents to open.  We had planned on going to the Mesa Flea Market and finding something there for each other.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to go before Christmas.  It’s only open on Fri, Sat and Sun.  We’ll go on Saturday but that’ll be after Christmas Day.

Sharon was off to church this morning and when she got back she said she found it right away.  Not like last week in Casa Grande even though she’s been to that church a few times.  By the time she got back I was ready to go to the Ceshker’s for Christmas Dinner.

We packed up my scooter in the car since it had been sitting out overnight to charge the battery, and we were off.

Mary’s son Curtis and his wife Melissa were staying with them and would be joining us for Dinner.

We had a couple of glasses of eggnog before we sat down for the Dinner.

We had a grilled Pork Tenderloin with Red Potatoes and Corn along with a 7 layer salad.  We also had Angel Food Lemon bars for dessert.  Everything was very good and there was several sleepy eyes by the time we got done eating.

We stayed for awhile after getting done eating and then we finally said our good-byes and headed back home.  We won’t see them again before we leave on Sunday.

When we got home we just relaxed and got ready for the night’s entertainment.  With Christmas being in full swing, the programs on TV are going to be all repeats until well into January.  The CMA Christmas show was on tonight and we watched that for most of the night.  We were up tonight until just after 10 and figured that this had been a long enough day.

Saturday, December 26, 2015

We were up and off to the Breakfast in the clubhouse today.  Apparently they do it every Saturday and we just found out about it yesterday.  We had a note delivered to our door.  The Breakfast was a good one with Eggs, Bacon and Sausage, French Toast, Pancakes, Biscuits and Gravy and Coffee.  Juice was .50 extra.  But the whole load was only $4.

After Breakfast we came back home and just sat for about an hour before heading off to the Mesa Marketplace.  The Marketplace is a huge Flea Market that we try to get to at least once a year.  This year we almost missed it.  We thought it might be open on Thursday since the Friday fell on Christmas.  No such luck.  So we made a plan to go there today and spend a couple of hours.

We finished up at the Market in about 3 hours and then we returned home again.  We thought about going to LaMesa to look at motorhomes, but then decided against it.  We had enough to do at home today since we’ll be moving again tomorrow.  We’ll be headed toward Quartzsite for a couple of days.

We got home and the Christmas decorations had to come down and put away.  We had to clean up our site by putting the grill away and the grill table.  My scooter was already in the car from the marketplace, but I still needed to dump the holding tanks and put away the hoses.  I waited until Sharon took off for church to dump the tanks.

By the time she got back home I was done and ready to go tomorrow.

We just made our own Suppers tonight since neither of us was very hungry.  I heated up a bowl of soup and Sharon made herself a lunch meat sandwich.  It was enough for both of us.

For entertainment tonight we watched Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” that was on network TV last week.  It was quite good and she was a feisty little thing, and for the most part, still is.  We stayed up until 10:30 tonight before we decided to call it quits.

Sunday, December 27, 2015

We were both up early this morning but for the most part got a leisurely start at about 9:30.  We were only traveling about 160 miles today to Quartzsite so we’ll get there sometime early today.  We found a couple of Cracker Barrels just outside of Phoenix and decided to stop at the second one near Buckeye.  We had a couple of pieces of toast before we left and we both thought we could stop at a Cracker Barrel for Breakfast.  So we stopped and found it very crowded but we were still ushered to a table.  In fact our table was next to a group of 5 kids dressed in Packer jerseys.  At least 4 out of five were.  It didn’t become an embarrassment until later when the game started.  The Packers got their asses handed to them in a very unceremonious fashion.

We arrived in Q early in the afternoon and had decided on the way over that we’d spend our two days in a campground rather than on the desert.  This cold snap would make our furnace run almost constantly and we haven’t had good luck with batteries lately.  We pulled into Tysons Wells Campground, a place where we had stayed many times before, including a month several years ago with Len and Rose Schultz from home.

As I mentioned before, we sat for the afternoon watching a miserable performance by the Packers against the Arizona Cardinals.  It was so bad that we left for Silly Al’s Pizza before the game ended.  A “Hail Mary” wasn’t going to save this awful game today.

We usually go to Silly Al’s for pizza while we’re here since both of us love the pizza.  We ordered a medium and we couldn’t finish it again.  Although we never manage to finish it.  It’s a very filling pizza along with being very delicious.

We drove around town on the way back home just to see if we could see anything new.  It was dark out by now and nothing jumped out at us.

By the time we got home there was a marathon of “Alaska: The Last Frontier” on the telly tonight.  We sat and watched a few of the episodes that we had never seen before.  I was surprised at how many episodes that we had actually missed.  But I think we saw most of them tonight.

We were up until 11 tonight gazing at the idiot box.  Sharon was mostly gazing at her nook, with furtive glances at the TV.