Monday, April 3, 2017

We got up to a nice sunshiny day today with no wind.  What a relief after the last 3 months.  There’ll be wind today but not like we’ve been experiencing.

Sharon was off on her walk this morning stopping by the office to pay for our site, and found out how much it would cost to stay here for a winter.  She and I were surprised to find that the price is $386 per month including electricity.  That’s roughly $100 a month cheaper than Vista Grande Spa our new park in California.  At this point we are seriously considering a change of venue for next year.

We had a date with Mary Milan today to have lunch at the Olive Garden.  She had stopped over yesterday afternoon just to see the motorhome and to catch up on the last year. We always have an informative and nice conversation when we get together.  We picked her up at 11:30 on our way to the restaurant, and headed across the highway.  We had a very nice lunch and on the way home we dropped Mary off at her house.

We stopped for some stuff at the grocery store before we got back home.

After we got home, we lined up the car and motorhome and attempted to rectify the light situation between the car and coach.  For some odd reason I could only get power for the running lights and not for the directionals.  We tried for over an hour and even took the plug off the “car end” of the wires.  All that did, was confirm that the wires were hooked up correctly.  We gave up the ghost when we couldn’t get power out of the plug on the motorhome.  We’re that we can find someone to check it out quickly tomorrow.

We had the air conditioning running for most of the day today.  It managed to get quite warm today and certainly warm enough to run the air.  It’s cold enough in the morning to run the heat every day and I guess it will be warm enough, during the day, to run the air.

We called Jaycee Dale this afternoon but they seemed to be too busy to see us again.  They were busy in the Fall, on our way out, so we didn’t see them then either.  Not having heard a suggestion of when to get together, I guess we’ll miss them again now.

We would be watching TV again for tonight.  We had a couple of regular shows on tonight but our main channel is still running March Madness.  We have a couple of things on tape that will take up our time tonight.  And when it was time for bed we gave it up eagerly.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

As soon as 8 o’clock rolled around this morning the search was on for a repairman who could fix our light situation on the car. After about 5 calls we finally found a place that would come out today.  They told us that they would be out in 45 minutes, and at about 9:30, they arrived.  They came from Elite Towing, and aside from the price, they were very good and efficient.  It took them about an hour to get everything straightened out including a sloppy tape job that I did last night. $175 later and we were ready to go again.

We had intended to go to Golden Corral for Breakfast this morning, along with Mary Milan, but with the wiring troubles I just didn’t feel able to go until we got that taken care of.  Mary called us, but after we explained the situation, she understood completely.

We were free for lunch so we went to In-N-Out Burger about noon.  I think this may be the only time we went there this year.  I can’t remember another time that we ate there this year.

As long as we were across the highway anyway, we stopped at the Verizon store to ask about a couple of things regarding the iphone that we have.  We didn’t, however, get anything settled from there.

On the way home we stopped at Safeway and picked up a roll of quarters for the laundry.  We didn’t need any groceries at this time.  As soon as we got back home she took off with the laundry and was gone for a couple of hours.  She’s getting everything ready for our exit tomorrow.

After our lunch neither of us was very hungry for Supper tonight.  So we snacked for most of the night tonight.

We also camped out in front of the TV for the night.  We had a couple of new programs on tonight since their season just started.  One of those was Prison Break.  We watched it on tape tonight since we had other programs to watch in real time.  We were up again until 10:30 before we headed to bed.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

We started out this morning with everything working just fine.  And then we stopped at the gas station.  The price of gas was $2.03.  The pump wouldn’t accept our Master  card because it had a “chip” in it.  So we left and went across the street where the gas was still $2.03.  Same problem.  We left and drove up Pinal Avenue to Fry’s which is usually the same price.  Well today it was $2.11.  We filled up anyway as the gas price in California was $2.37.

For the rest of the day things went swimmingly well.  We mad our second trip through the salt River Canyon.  I don’t remember it being as mountainous as it was, but it was a beautiful trip indeed.  We drove from 5000 feet down to the river almost at sea level back up the other side to the city of Show Low at 6000 feet.

We arrived at our campground, Ranchero RV Resort in Show Low, around noon, and got settled into a satellite friendly site.  The campground was loaded with trees and we suspected we wouldn’t be getting TV in the next 3 days.  We did, however, get our signal and will have our programs right on time.

We called Mary and Dennis Ceshker and they were on their way back home about an hour away.  They had to go into Mesa for Doctor’s appointments.

They stopped over as soon as they got back to town about 3 or so.  We showed them the new coach and then sat down to have a few beers and catch up on conversation.  Conversation between Mary and Sharon goes on forever.  And Dennis and I just sit and listen.  We do respond when the BS starts flying.

They stayed for a few hours and when they left we settled in front of the idiot box to catch a few shows.  Wednesday night is really not that great a night for TV I can pretty much watch anything.  We stayed up until 10:30 tonight before we gave it all up.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

We ate our Breakfast at home today mainly because unless it was McDonalds we didn’t know the good places to eat in town.  No matter because I had a Breakfast Sandwich anyway.  It was a Sausage, Egg and Cheese on a Croissant.  A cup of coffee and a glass of Cherry Pomegranate juice and I was satisfied.

After Breakfast Sharon suggested we go outside and clean the front of the motorhome from all the dead bugs.  So we went out and in about a half hour we had it all cleaned.  The handles on my brushes and squeegee are too short so its difficult to reach the top of the windshield from the ground.  Our small stepladder is buried under a bunch of stuff in the back storage compartment., but it looks like we’ll have to dig it out since we’ll be driving through bug territory the rest of the way home.

Just after lunch we had planned a visit to Dennis and Mary’s for today and we left around 1 PM for the drive over.  We hadn’t seen their new Park Model up here in Show Low and we were invited over for a late lunch.  We arrived at the gate, about 10 miles down the road, and Dennis was waiting for us since it’s a gated community.  We followed him into their unit and it was quite a ways.  The park is spread out over a big area and they’re near the back of the park.  Their unit is a very nice one and more or less a standard Park Model with options.  The Park and its amenities are one of the best we’ve seen so far, aside from Outdoor Resorts.

We sat down for lunch around 3:30 and it was quite good.  It was Mary’s BBQ Beef, Bakes Beans and a salad.  To round it all off we had a dessert of a Brownie Mix covered with Ice Cream.  She finished it all off very nicely.

After lunch we got into a game of double-nine Dominoes.  After about another hour Sharon came out the winner.  Everybody led the pack at one time, but Sharon survived in the end.

It was starting to get dark after the Domino game so we got ourselves ready and left for home.  We said our good-byes and were hoping to see them this Summer when they come back to Milwaukee.

We came back home and settled in front of the Telly for the rest of the night.  We were watching strictly taped shows tonight since we were gone when they were on “live.”  We were up until 10:30 tonight catching up on our taped shows.  Tomorrow will be another busy day for us when we visit my Cousin Tom McKenna and his wife Dawn.

Friday, April 7, 2017

We were up this morning, but while Sharon was making the bed she pulled something in her back.  So she was calling Chiropractors as soon as she hit the floor.  She called one who actually called back, but he only comes to Show Low on certain days.  But he did recommend a Dr. Horne who she called immediately.  He could take her in at 9:15 so we hurried to hop in the car and get over there.  It was only about 5 minutes from the campground right in Downtown Show Low.

After the Chiropractor Sharon was feeling a little better but still not functioning well.  We ate lunch and ten sat around a while before it was time for us to leave for my Cousin Tom’s.

About 2:30 we got in the car, with cameras and GPS, to head over to my Cousin’s.  Having never been there before, the directions seemed confusing but the GPS got us right there the first time. Their new house, bought about 17 months ago, was a log cabin on the outside but absolutely gorgeous on the inside.

Tom was grilling Ribs for Dinner tonight.  He had a couple of racks of baby backs, scalloped potatoes and corn on the cob.  The ribs were made by his special recipe and they were quite good.  Dawn finished off the meal with a Chocolate Banana Cake that was very good.

We stayed til after sunset and were hoping that we’d be able to find our way out of this housing division in the dark.  But with the GPS with us we just found our way back to the campground.  We got back home about 8:30 and settled in to watch a couple of our favorite shows on the Telly.

We were up until 10:30 tonight by the time we got finished watching our tapes and playing Jeopardy.  We had had a busy day today indeed.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

We were off this morning at a gentle pace hoping that the traffic out on the highway would slow down by the time we got there.  We’ve had trouble getting into the traffic over the last couple of days it’s been so busy.  And driving the motorhome and pulling a car will be even worse.  But as it turned out, when we got to the highway, we got a rolling start and slipped right into the flow.  We got into the middle lane, and then just drifted into the driving lanes.  We were about a hundred miles from Interstate 40 and found ourselves on bumpy, winding, narrow, 2 lane highways with no shoulders.  It was a slog no doubt.

We were looking for a restaurant almost as soon as we hit the Interstate.  It was lunchtime by now and we stopped a couple of times before we found a Mexican place up the road.  While we sat there and ate, there must have been 20 Indians who came through the restaurant draped in necklaces, bracelets, dolls, watches, arrows and just about everything else they produce in this area.  It was almost a steady stream of vendors and it was almost like being on the beach in Mexico.

Sharon decided at that time that because we would be arriving to our campground late, we should call them to make sure we would have a site.  As it turned out, she was right because this campground, Enchanted Trails RV Resort, in Albuquerque, New Mexico  was bursting at the seams when we arrived, around 4 PM.

Being satisfied still from our late lunch we just snacked for Supper tonight.  Because we arrived late some of our programs didn’t record this afternoon.  We had a regular slate tonight but Saturdays are generally lousy for TV anyway.  Tonight was really no different than any other Saturday, so we were mostly watching stuff from the DVR.  Deadliest Catch is also back on the air and we watched a couple of old episodes of that during the night.  We stayed up until 10:30 tonight even though we both had a long day today.

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Sharon was off to church this morning and I was off to my Sunday morning political shows.  I’m sure that her morning was more exciting and worthwhile than mine was.  She was also going to stop and pick up a few groceries on her way back home if she found a store to stop at.

She was back by noon and we decided to go to the El Pinto Restaurant today instead of tomorrow.  Thinking back on it we probably made a mistake by going today.  They had no lunch menu today being that it was the weekend.

The restaurant was 17 miles from our campground but it was also featured on Drive-Ins, Diner and Dives on the Food Network. Guy Fieri had made a stop here in the recent past.

The food, was what we seemed to be a little pricey except that we both took half of our entree’ home.  So we’ll get two meals out of our lunch today.  And the food was very good.  I had a Beef Burrito and Sharon had a Quesadilla.  They also brought us free Sopapillas for Dessert.

After eating we drove home looking for a grocery store since Sharon didn’t have a chance to stop this morning.  But again we didn’t find a store on the way home.  We did find a Golden Corral to have Breakfast at tomorrow morning, however.  We haven’t been to Golden Corral since we were in Yuma when we were too late for Breakfast.  We’ll see if we finally make it tomorrow.

By the time we got back home we were only interested in sitting back and relaxing for a while.  And that’s what we did.

Tonight was going to be a lousy night for TV since CBS was now playing golf in the afternoon.  Their programming was delayed for exactly an hour tonight.  They even cancelled Elementary tonight cause they were running late.  There isn’t a sports program that they won’t run, be it basketball, football, golf or any other two bit show.  And they cut into their regular programs to do it.  So it becomes necessary to adapt to their screwing around with the schedule if you want to watch your regular programs.  And a DVR is just the thing for getting most of your entertainment regardless of their schedule.

We were up tonight until closing time at about 10:30.  We had had a relatively good day today having done most of what we intended.