Monday, December 17, 2018
We were up and ready to go early this morning since we were heading to Casa Grande, a move of about 60 miles. But we had a lot of time to kill, since we didn’t need to be in Marana, until 2 o’clock, so we decided to take in another Breakfast at the Horseshoe Café. I had the pancakes today and Sharon had the French Toast. It was the same Breakfast except for the French Toast and Pancakes. Needless to say we left there loaded to the gills, again. When we left town, we did so at a leisurely pace, leaving plenty of time in case we got caught in traffic. We did not want to miss the appointment at 2 PM with Desert Satellite and Patrick Rodda.We never got stopped at all breezing through Tucson and arriving in plenty of time for our appointment. We called him as soon as we arrived and he told us he would be on his way shortly. We had been without DirecTV for 40 days, almost a month and a half while we were still paying for it. We’ve been so disgusted with their handling of this matter, with no tech support what-so-ever that we’ve thought of canceling our account several times. They finally sent us a new receiver but it’s so different from our old one, with no instructions for hooking it up, I have no idea how to do it. After several calls to RV places and several calls to DirecTV, we finally found Desert Satellite who would take care of our problem immediately. We made the appointment last week and now here we are. It took Patrick about 30 minutes to untangle the mess that I had created in my zeal to get our TV working again. He stayed and we talked for about an hour after he was done with the TV. Apparently he comes to the U.P. every year to snowmobile in February. When he found out that we were from there, it was like putting a quarter in him. We had quite the conversation going on for awhile. After we left Marana we arrived at our campground, Safari RV Park, at about 3 o’clock. There was some confusion about where we were going to park but we got that straightened out and got settled in in just a few minutes. It was a welcome relief to see DirecTV come right up on our TV. To celebrate we decided to go out for Dinner tonight. I thought there was an Outback Steakhouse in Casa Grande and I was wrong. Not finding an Outback we settled on Olive Garden instead. Nothing wrong with Olive Garden, I just felt like Coconut Shrimp tonight instead of the Raviolis we actually had. After we got home we settled in front of the TV for the rest of the night. After this day I was ready for bed when the time rolled around.Tuesday, December 18, 2018
We officially had a do nothing day today. We had nowhere to be and nobody to see. My days always look a lot like today. Sharon left to pay for our campground and got a good deal. Instead of paying a daily rate for the time we’ll be here, the lady gave her a monthly rate divided by the days we want. It saved us about $50. Fifty Dollars that we can certainly use somewhere else. She also dipped her foot in the pool, while she was over at the office, and reported it was very warm when she got back. It kind of fell on deaf ears as today was not a day that I felt like floating in the pool. I spent most of the afternoon just sitting around and playing games on the computer. I watched Fox News while I was entertaining myself, and the afternoon just flew by. For Dinner tonight I had the last leftover Pasty from the batch Sharon made the other day. Sharon had an egg salad sandwich for Supper and I think she was just cleaning out the fridge. We had our regular schedule on TV tonight. We got all the way to 10 without having to search for any shows. In the last month we haven’t had it that easy to find our shows.Wednesday, December 19, 2018
After getting up this morning Sharon announced her plan to wash the motorhome today. She made no bones about me being involved in her plan. I didn’t object even though my idea was to take it to the truck wash and take care of it that way. Over the last 10 years, we always took it to the truck wash cause it just got to be too much of a hassle to wash it ourselves. Campgrounds don’t like you washing on their sites and finding a place to take care of it was just too difficult. When Sharon went over to pay for our stay here she asked about washing the coach on the site. The manager seemed quite amenable to the idea so that’s how this idea came about. And now here we are.We went outside and started about 9:30 and got to it. It’s never a fun job to have to wash anything this big but this motorhome is quite a bit smaller than our last one. 9 feet to be exact and that’s quite a few square feet. Even so, we worked hard to get the whole thing washed and dried. We got the whole thing done before noon but we were bushed when we finally finished. We were both ready for a nap when we came back inside.Sharon conjured up the energy to go to McDonald’s for lunch and we had that to carry us over. By Suppertime I had a small dish of Rigatoni with a couple of meatballs and Sharon had a yogurt and an apple. There wasn’t much activity going on tonight except sitting and watching TV. We missed another episode of Jeopardy tonight cause it only recorded half the show. That DVR is getting to be a pain in the ass, and it’s a new DVR. One of us will have to call DirecTV again and see if we can get it straightened out. I am so tired of dealing with those people. We’ll see who has to call them tomorrow. For tonight I’m headed off to bed for the night. It’s my regular bedtime. Sharon will stay up for a while again tonight.Thursday, December 20, 2018
By 9:30 this morning we were off to Cracker Barrel to meet Mary and Dennis Ceshker who were coming down from Mesa to have Breakfast with us. They beat us to the restaurant this morning which is located right at the Interstate on Florence Boulevard. We had a good conversation even though Mary said her food was not really good. She had a pork chop that she said was dry. After Breakfast we came back to the campground and sat and talked for the next few hours. Dennis had brought some vegetables from his garden and Mary had brought some parts that I had ordered from Winnebago at Mobility RV. $16 for two short bolts with rubber tips on them. Life is getting tremendously expensive. The other part was a piece of stamped metal that cost $79. We sat and talked for hours today and really caught up before Dennis and Mary got tired and decided to head for home. They’d be another hour on the road before they get back home. At Suppertime tonight Sharon whipped up a salad with the cukes, green peppers and radishes that Dennis gave to us today. We also had the remainder of the Cabbage Rolls that were leftover from the freezer. We got down to our usual entertainment for the night in front of the TV.Our DVR has worked all day today recording Jeopardy and all our evening shows tonight. I hope it continues in the future.Friday, December 21, 2018
We left home this morning to go to my all-time favorite Breakfast place. Golden Corral is the perfect place to have Breakfast. I like their buffet very much and their food is always good. The only other place that even comes close is the Grand Country Buffet in Branson. But for today, Branson would be a long commute.Every one who knows me knows that my favorite meal is Breakfast and whenever I can have it in a good place, I do. Unfortunately, this will be my last chance to go there until we either come back this way, or go again before we leave the area. After Breakfast, we came home and Sharon decided to call Mary Milan, a longtime friend who we took a cruise with several years ago. We decided that we would meet this evening at Eva’s Restaurant and have Dinner together. Eva’s is a Mexican Restaurant on the corner of Florence and Pinal that we were at several years ago when it was another Restaurant. We met Mary and had a wonderful Dinner and a lot of pleasant conversation. We always have a good time with her whenever we meet. And tonight was no different. Since we hadn’t seen her for the two years since we were out here last, we had quite a few bases to cover. We seemed to cover them all, however, before we left.The food was very good even though we didn’t eat it all. Sharon and I both took half of it home. I didn’t care for the real stringy cheese they used in the enchilada, but the flavor was excellent. We came back home and sat in front of the tube for the night. Unfortunately after we went to bed I was back up again at 3:30 having a visit on the toilet. It got to the point eventually where I puked my guts out. I was quite sick for awhile. I didn’t blame it on the food, however, even though I won’t eat the leftovers.Saturday, December 22, 2018
Having been sick for awhile last night, I postponed our plans to go to the Mesa Market Place this morning. But by 9:30 I was feeling pretty good so our plans were back on again. We both got cleaned up and we were on the road headed north about 10:30. It took us almost an hour to finally get there, and the place was very crowded which was evident by the number of cars in the parking lot. I got a chance go use my scooter for the first time this year. It worked fantastically well for the 3 hours that we were perusing the vendors. I’ve had trouble with the batteries in the past and it never did run right after the first year. But today it ran flawlessly and the batteries held up perfectly. In fact the meter showed that the batteries were still on full after about 2 miles. We stopped and had a spicy sausage for lunch today at the Market. It was quite good and it held us over the afternoon. Before we left we also had a hot pretzel, with cheese, that we shared. It was good but we’ve had better. Specifically in Philadelphia. We timed our trip back to the campground this morning from the Marketplace and it took us 45 minutes to get back. It used to take us just over an hour before they changed the Speed Limit to 75 on the Interstate. So people are traveling 80 on the Interstate and 70 on the side roads. You get everywhere pretty quickly now. Except in the motorhome where we drive a consistent 60 all the time. After we got home Sharon decided to make a Meatloaf for Supper tonight. We ate a little late tonight because of our late arrival home from Mesa. We also had Fried Potatoes, Peas and Green Beans(not me) and bars for Dessert. It was all quite good. It was a Saturday night tonight and the TV programming hasn’t gotten any better so far. We surfed for the night to find some decent shows to watch. We managed it nicely until it was time for bed, and then went quietly into that dark night.Sunday, December 23, 2018
We called my Cousin Tom McKenna and his wife Dawn yesterday and made a date to see each other today for awhile. We left Casa Grande about 12:45 and covered the 50-odd miles quite quickly. With the Speed Limit set at 75 it doesn’t take long to cover those miles. And, of course, every car on the road is traveling at 80 miles an hour. We made the distance in just under 45 minutes and were greeted with dogs barking our arrival. We hadn’t expected to have anything to eat there so we both had a sandwich before we left home. It was just enough to almost carry us over to Supper but Dawn surprised us with a Rice and Chicken Casserole, a side of tomatoes and Carrot Cake for Dessert. It was a very nice little spread and the food was delicious.
We stayed in Marana/Tucson almost until dark and then said our good-byes and started home. We had a very pleasant visit and it had been two years since we had seen them. By the time we got home it was pitch black outside. We had attempted to record the Packer game to watch later if they won but the DVR failed again. It didn’t record any of the game although Green Bay did win 44-38. It was the most points they had scored all year. The Jets ran into a buzz saw today, but I guess the Packers won in overtime. Sharon took off for the grocery store after we got home. She wanted to pick up Cornish Hens for our Dinner tomorrow night. We both love the hens and we usually have them right around this time every year.When she got back I explained about the Packer game and we just sat and watched what remained of the TV schedule for the night. And of course, CBS was running late like they always do on Sundays during Football season.
