J01W1

Monday, December 10, 2018

Before we got on the road this morning we stopped for Breakfast at McDonalds and for fuel at a Circle K for $2.24. Other places in town were selling for $2.49. We finally beat the system. It’ll be more expensive as we go into Arizona today.

We finally got on the road by 9:30 and headed West. We didn’t have any incidents on the road today except for some people passing us 2 and three times

after they stopped for some reason or another.

The day was pretty uneventful and we didn’t even stop at Texas Canyon which is a Rest Area after you enter Arizona. It’s a beautiful outcropping of huge boulders and rocks that they eventually turned into a Rest Area. You drive right through the center of it.

We only had about 179 miles to go today and we arrived at Valley Vista RV Park at about 1 PM.

We got ourselves set up and ready “to stay” very shortly afterward. We’ll be here for a week before we move on to points further west.

We watched TV for the rest of the afternoon and including through the night we got ourselves situated to deal with DirecTV which is still working incorrectly. I also have to connect with Homestead so that I can get my Journal published. While I’m still writing it, I can’t publish it to my website.

I was still dealing with the kidney stone that I’ve had since last week. I keep taking the drugs I’ve been prescribed but even they don’t seem to be working as well as they have in the past. We stayed up until 10:15 tonight before I headed to bed before Sharon. I was tired from the drive today even though it wasn’t a very long one.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

I woke up this morning and there it was. The stone I’ve been trying to pass since last Thursday, when I first noticed it. It was a 3/8" beauty. It was the same size as the stone in the “broken leg” ring. All of you insiders know what that meant. Sharon joked about having another ring made. I found that mildly amusing.

Sharon took off with the laundry this morning and while she was gone I decided that I was going to settle this situation with DirecTV today and called them again. I was on the phone again until Sharon got back but this time I got some constructive help. They explained why I should call Kingdome and have them troubleshoot the problem. I did and found out that the receiver was the problem. Exactly what I had suspected 3 weeks ago when I first contacted them. Sometimes DirecTV can be such a pain in the ass. They’ll send me out a new receiver by Fed-EX and it should be here in a couple of days. Hopefully that will solve all our problems with TV. I’ll wait and see.

We had egg salad sandwiches for lunch today. Sharon threw it together when she got home with the laundry. It was quite good indeed.

Sharon finished up the laundry after we sat down for lunch.

Sharon read a book for most of the afternoon and well into this evening. My forte is TV so I sat with that for most of the night.

I was ready for bed by 10 and so was Sharon. We both were exhausted for the night.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

I got up this morning having produced two more stones, which of course were considerably smaller than the one yesterday. I hope this is going to be that, at least for the time being.

We were scheduled to go to the clubhouse at lunchtime today for the free Brisket Dinner the campground was offering. It was actually quite good for those folks that would like a Brisket Dinner. I went because Sharon wanted to go. We had a good slice of Brisket, Red Potatoes, Cheese and Macaroni Casserole and Applesauce for Dessert. It was really a nice little lunch.

After we left the clubhouse we left to go downtown to see if there was a Wal-Mart in town. We suspected that there was but didn’t know right off-hand where it was. We drove past the restaurants that we had Breakfast at a couple of years ago and they were still open. And, of course, we found the Wal-Mart on Main street almost all the way up the hill. We stopped and picked up a few items before we came back home for the day.

We spent the rest of the day in front of the television. I watched TV and Sharon was reading a book. The weather is in the 60's so it’s still not really nice enough to do anything outside for any period of time.

I had Macaroni and Sausage for Supper tonight and Sharon had the leftover Cream of Broccoli Soup. Neither of us was into a full meal so leftovers suited us just fine.

Our DVR is still operating sporadically. We never know what’s going to record and what’s not. But so far we haven’t missed many of our regular shows. If we can get that straightened out we’ll be in better shape.

We gave it all up at 10:30 tonight and headed for the feathers.

Thursday, December 13, 2018

I got up this morning knowing that we still didn’t have our regular schedule on the TV. The new receiver from DirecTV was not hooked up right and I was hoping to get it working. It seems that each time you get another receiver it’s more complicated than the last. It has less connections to make it work and what do you do with the “extra” wires. I worked on getting the damn thing working for most of the day today until I finally gave up later this afternoon. We called Lames RV to see if we could get in on Monday when we move to Casa Grande but their service department was going to be off until after Christmas. They did, however, recommend a place called Desert Satellite that we could call to see if they could work on it. We got hold of Patrick at Desert Satellite and made an appointment to meet him in Marana at 2PM on Monday at the Wal-Mart Store. We’re very familiar with that store and have been there, including one overnight stay, in the motorhome, in the past several years. So for the time being, I’m done messing with that damn satellite receiver and Antenna.

Needless to say I didn’t feel like doing anything for the day except get the TV fixed. We talked about going to Tombstone or Old Tucson in the last couple of days and perhaps we’ll get there on another day.

We stayed pretty much close to home for the day today although it didn’t do much good since our dish never got fixed.

Sharon spent the afternoon making pasties for Supper tonight. A Pasty is meat, potatoes, onions and salt and pepper all rolled up in a sweet crust and then baked in the oven. They are quite good and they’re kind of a Northern Michigan thing since most of the Cornish Miners settled in that area when they came over.

We were back on digital TV for the night but I didn’t much care cause we were getting CBS. Most of the shows we watch are on CBS.

At 10 we both headed for the padded room for the night.

Friday, December 14, 2018

We woke up this morning to a nice sunshiny day and If all went well this morning, we were planning to make a trip to Tombstone this afternoon. And as luck would have it, everything went hunky dorey all morning and we took off for Tombstone about 12:30. We got to Tombstone about 1PM and found a good parking place near the café at the end of town next to the O.K. Corral. For the next couple of hours we walked and shopped through the whole downtown, and even stopped for lunch at the Longhorn Restaurant toward the center of town. We watched as several stagecoaches passed by us on the town tour. We even heard several gunshots as there must have been something going on at the O.K. Corral. We also managed to find an embroidered T-shirt for me to replace my old one that has since become threadbare.

We left Tombstone about 4 and headed back home. Our last act was to pass the Boot Hill Cemetery on the way out of town.

Just outside of Tombstone we passed through the Border Patrol Checkpoint. An agent came out to meet us with a dog but they waved us through before he could give us the once over. I guess we looked harmless enough.

By the time we got home it was Suppertime but neither of us was very hungry. I had a bowl of Cream of Broccoli Soup with Ritz Crackers and Sharon had 4 oreo cookies and an apple.

We settled in front of the TV for the night to watch digital TV off the antenna. We still don’t have our satellite working but we have an appointment on Monday when we pass through Tucson. It’s just lucky we’re getting CBS on the TV cause most of our shows are on CBS.

We headed for bed tonight about 10 since the only thing on at that time was news. I can’t stomach network news so I just don’t watch.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

We were off this morning to the Horseshoe Restaurant which is at the bottom of the hill in Benson. We noticed right away that there was a couple of huge murals on the side of the restaurant. We don’t remember them being there the last time we were here. But that was a few years ago, since we don’t stop in Benson every time we come out. The food is very good at the Horseshoe and the price is very reasonable. The only complaint we had was that we were seated about 20 feet from the door and every time it opened we got a cold draft from it. But we survived and had a great Breakfast.

When we left we went next door to a guy who was selling geodes to pick one up for our Grandson for his Birthday. Sharon’s been collecting little things to add to his Birthday present this month. The guy actually went home to find a small geode since Sharon didn’t want a big one. As it turned out he came back with one rock intact and another piece of one that had been split. Sharon was happy with the results.

After Breakfast we headed up to the Post Office which is located near the top of the hill in Benson. Sharon wanted to get stamps for Christmas Cards of which she still had to purchase. The post Office was closed and there would be no stamps today. Also on the way home we stopped to pick up some cards that she could send out this year. She managed to find them and we were shortly on our way back home.

She spent the rest of the day writing them out and getting them in envelopes. She mailed them on her way to church tonight.

When she got back we fended for ourselves tonight for Dinner. I had a leftover pasty and Sharon had cereal.

We watched TV again tonight until 10 o’clock rolled around and then we headed off to bed.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

We were up this morning with a promise of a Breakfast Burrito from Sharon. We had a lump of J.D. Sausage that we had brought from home and Sharon was going to whip it into burritos. They turned into a quite delicious Breakfast.

This was also going to be a “get ready to go” day for us. We’ll be moving on to Casa Grande with a short stop in Tucson to get our DirecTV situated. We’ve had an appointment for the last few days to meet the technician from Desert Satellite in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Marana, AZ.

After Breakfast I went outside and dumped our holding tanks and refilled our water. We’ll be self-contained over the next few days until we reach our campground in Casa Grande.

We watched football most of the afternoon when we saw the news that Green Bay had lost again. How depressing a season this has been. At least the other two games that we watched were exciting. One was the Patriot/Steeler game that went right up to the end of the game before it was decided.

After the games Sharon decided we would be having Rigatoni and Meatballs for Supper tonight. We didn’t have many leftovers cause we mostly gobbled it up almost.

We watched our regular schedule on TV tonight. Even though it was digital reception, one of the channels we were getting was CBS. We even caught an old episode of Columbo tonight before we headed off to bed.