Chasing around Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert and Apache Junction.......

As I have explained before, we have been thru the process of building a home from the bare lot at least six times before.  Some of these properties were partially constructed when we joined the project, and others were bare lots.  And in one extreme case, I was the accountant for the builder when we acquired the farm property and developed the lots and streets.  I was much younger back then!

One of the biggest things to get done is the selection of most of the decor, and that is what is holding us here in the Mesa area now.  And perhaps the 80 degree weather............. do you suppose?

Today however we are to meet with the low voltage wiring people and decide where outlets and such will be located in the walls and rooms.  The builder's agent made an appointment over in West Chandler for us at a security company.  It took the best part of an hour on the cross town freeways to find and arrive on time.

And when we got there, the fellow wasn't there.......  Seems he wanted to meet us over in the housing development, in the model house.  That was 26 miles back to where we had come from!  Now maintain your calm  Rod.......  You are retired,  start back.   But then as we were driving back, we needed gas and had to stop.  Gas here is $3.79 now, so even 12 gallons requires a bank withdrawal.

But what we found somewhat frustrating, was that we received a call from this fellow wanting to know where we were.....  Loyce told him he had run us out of gas and we were at the station purchasing more.

When we did arrive at the model home, he was falling all over himself apologizing for sending us on a Phoenix goose chase.  We did decide to install several TV cable and data wires and the security system with its up link.  We had to sign up for three years of service to get it put in for free.  But since we will not be here for much of the year, we felt it was a good thing to have.

Also we went thru another model where we had not been inside before and liked the color scheme.  This will give us some more ideas for our meetings on Thursday.  And yes that is the same day that we have to move parks.

We are going to be busy on that day......

It was very sunny again today, but the wind died back to just a breeze.  Quite cool as well with a high temperature of only 63.  Tonight it is to be in the low 40s which will require the heaters again.

Retired Rod

Never a slow time.....

I knew from reading the weather forecast that we were to have significant wind this afternoon, and from earlier forecasts it was to come around dawn this morning.  Last night, I went out and removed the canvas from the dinning canopy so it wouldn't become a wing.

The day dawned with sun and no wind at all....   But, the weather now forecasted about noon for the pickup of the blast.  So I went outside and began removing the dinning canopy frame.  I had staked it to the ground with aluminum tent stakes and they refused to budge..

Using a vise grip to grab the end of the pegs  and water pump pliers and a hammer, I still couldn't get the pegs out of the ground.  Then a bucket of water to soak the ground and a long screwdriver........  Somehow it came out.

Eventually the the awning was sacked in its storage bag and stowed in the under side bins.  That's when the neighbor pointed out that we had a flat on the Honda.   Eww, I broke out the air compressor under the back end of the RV.  It didn't take very long and I had re aired the tire, but also noticed that somewhere yesterday I had picked up a rather large carriage bolt in the face of the tire......

I could hear the hissing of the air as it was venting the tire.....  I blew it up about twice the pressure that it regularly carried.  I wouldn't have long to find a tire place..  I reasoned that main street Apache Junction would be the quickest ticket.  Of course everyone drove as slow as they could and waited out every yellow light.

On Apache Trail, I could feel the tire becoming spongy, when luckily I found a tire store..........that was completely outside..... under a canopy in between stacks and stacks of tires.  There was a small office building with some waiting chairs and a desk but the work took place out front in the driveway.

By now the tire was almost flat again, so I had no alternative.  I explained that I had a bolt in the right rear, and the fellow was at it instantly.  The wheels are fastened by locking studs so they won't be stolen, and there is a key socket somewhere on this car.  But not in the glove compartment as I exhausted that alternative  first.

It dawned on me that it was under the rear deck with the spare tire, but.......... my wife uses the car as storage and everything needed to be unloaded right there on the deck of the repair drive.

Now in the middle of this stuff is a big doll house...... must have come from a garage sale, but I never ask these questions.   And suddenly the Mexican fellow that runs this tire store become quite interested in the doll toy.  He quickly plugs the tire on his machine and returns to try and bargain me out of the toy house.

I explain that I would be killed if I let the toy go, but suddenly he begins in Spanish that I only half understand.  I return in Spanish me muerte de esposa!!  He laughs heartily and charges me $5.  I gave him $8 and was on my way, tire repaired..

Back home, my wife explained that she would have indeed murdered me if I had traded off the doll house!!   And about then that's when the wind began........

It kicked up a nasty amount of dust.  The horizon was lost in an orange cloud.  Loyce left on one of her famous shopping trips suggesting that I could ride the bike over for lunch........and eventually I gave up and did just that.  Chewing gravel in my teeth all the way, I noticed that the famous sign on the Usery Mountain North of the East valley that says "Phoenix" with an arrow pointing to Sky Harbor Airport was completely obscured.  I had to look quite a while to discern where it was.

The wind is flapping the slide awnings as I type this blog post, but that is to die out after midnight.  It will give way to the mud sprinkles again with temperatures falling.  Highs for tomorrow are in the low 60s.

It is to warm back into the 70s later in the week but the wind is to come back.  I think that will be the day we have to move........  I still have a bunch of things to pack up, but at least during the tire pump fiasco, I did manage to check all the tire pressure on the motorhome.

Will the wind ever quit???

Retired Rod

Visiting the Ranch!!!

What a nice day we had today!  We were invited to spend the afternoon with John and Brenda Brown and their other residents!  You know the dogs and the horses............  We had never been there before, so I had recorded their address in the GPS and like usual, I drove right on past the correct corner!

But soon there was Brenda opening the big gate on the front of their place and the dogs raced out to great us.  We had never met Mac the big Rottweiler, but he is the most lovable fellow that one could find.  And Meg had to become re associated with Biscuit.  A few smells and such and all was good.

I went out to meet and greet the horses, as the sun was warm in the high 70s.   John soon came and official introductions were made to the animals.  At first they were not too sure about that fat noisy guy from Kansas, and gave me the Leary eye.  Who's this dude think he is?  But eventually Blue let me rub his head and brow.  He was after me to feed him something, but I hadn't thought to bring the carrots.

Hangin out on the Ranch House Patio!

Where did the time go?  The afternoon passed so quickly, but it was time for the late afternoon dinner, and Brenda didn't disappoint.  We had ribs bar be cued on the grill with twice baked cheesy potatoes and spinach tossed fruit salad.  Round that all off with garlic bread freshly toasted......

Ribs on the Barbie!!

And just when I thought they would have to roll me out to the truck, bowls of freshly baked warm apple pie topped with cinnamon and ice cream ala mode...........  Oh, my heavens...........!

John kept the dogs busy after dinner tossing the ball with a long arm thrower.  He was able to pitch it about 100 yards, as the dogs took off in a scramble to see who would get there first.  Meg the boarder collie anticipates the throw and runs ahead, which allows her to get there first almost all the time.  We were surprised to see Biscuit join in this game running as fast as her short little legs could carry her.  Of course she never got the ball, but I think she was just chasing the big dogs and having the time of her life doing it.

So as the sun began to fall, we said our good byes and headed back to the far East end of the city with our bellies full and our memories warm, on such a delightful sunny Sunday afternoon.  Thank you John and Brenda......

Retired Rod

Reflections and Friends

Its interesting how some folks will just say, I'm going to call the repair man when this happens and other folks won't allow the repair guy anywhere near the RV.  I think it is the difference in people mostly.  Some folks are mechanically minded and feel like they should know how to fix these things, and others want to instinctively leave it to someone who has done it before.

Now in my younger years, there was very few jobs that I would surrender to the repair folks.  Even if I didn't know how to do the work, I wanted to learn how.  But in these days of highly specialized electronic controls it is almost impossible to just figure it out!  The programming alone requires the manual.  Not just the operators manual, but the service manual that explains the service man's menu, that an operator normally doesn't see.  Yes, that is the proverbial back door.

So in my toilet scenario, I felt confident that I could get the fixture out of the rig and back in, so I tackled that part.  But I trusted the professional to disassemble the toilet and put in the new parts.  Again, he had the experience doing the job numerous times.  That way he got it back together and working at his shop.

And the washer and hose clamp are just par for the repair course.  But of course, the professional would have had the washers and things right on his truck.  It did turn out to be cheaper that I took the fixture over to his shop, but I promptly spent what I saved on an LP hose to hook up my gas grill on the fixed RV tank.  In a way I earned the hose by doing some of the work myself.  Everyone needs to make these decisions in their own case and comfort level.

At least the bathroom floor is still dry a day later, and I think that is still success!!!

Today we were out in the RV park, and ran across a couple that we were camped with last year!  Andy and Keith.  We were excited to see them again and hadn't connected our schedules yet this winter.  So they walked over to our rig and we sat out under the awnings.  We had a bunch to catch up on and the time was gone before you knew what happened.

Of course  we promised to go out for a meal and follow up, but we will only have a few more days here, but then we are only moving a couple of miles away so who knows.  We have a couple of appointments that are related to the purchase of the new house, as well as move the rig, so our plate is somewhat full on the short term.

This afternoon, we were up to 82 outside and the RV was well over 90 inside.  I came back with sandwiches mid afternoon, and Loyce was withered with the temperature inside.  So we broke down and started the A/Cs.  They only ran for about 3 hours, and then the sun went over the horizon.  Now its in the middle of the night, and I need to start the heater.....  Welcome to winter in the desert......

Retired Rod

Stinky!

I was awakened this early morning, when the awning on the side of the RV was retracting because the wind had exceeded the threshold set on the automatic retractor.  It really bangs against the side of the RV when it gets rolled up against the rig at the end.

And once I was now awake, I listened to the wind as it was flapping the flags on the rig behind us.  That's when I noticed that the wind was also venting the sewer tank on our rig.  See our ball valve in the bottom of the toilet has been leaking the water out of the bowl for about the last month or so.

I understand that this is somewhat common on Thetford RV potties that are about 4 years old.  Ours is no different, but when the wind blows just right it blows the stink back out of the tank and up the leaky valve.  I knew this was going to have to be dealt with but like all males, I figured I would do it when it really became a problem.

I have used the Apache Junction RV repair folks and parts store for several years since we have been coming here in the winter, and I had asked the repair fellow what I should do.  His service call would be $90 and parts and labor, but if I wanted to take the fixture off and bring it in he would just charges parts and a half hour of labor.

He then proceeded to explain how to get the toilet out of the rig in order to bring it in.  So because it was smelly this morning, I thought, OK, OK I guess today is the day.

There is a decorative plastic shield around the base of the fixture that comes off with a couple of rubber band like fasteners, and then it is fastened to the floor with hold down bolts in a flange just like a home toilet.  The water supply is just a threaded nut on a flexible hose. Like undoing the garden hose.

It wasn't too long and it was in the back of the SUV.  The repair man was going to fix it while I waited, until he couldn't find the right parts.....  That's my usual luck.....  So I left it.  They sent a runner to the supply house.

In the middle of the afternoon, I went back and paid for it, $65.  This is when I needed to actually know how to put it back in!  Instead of bee's wax for a seal, there is a rubber gasket that fits between the stool and the flange.  It then needs to be compressed by tightening the flange bolts.  You toss the old one away.

But where I got into trouble was the water line leaked when I put it back on.  Off and on and off and on and then a trip back for a new washer to go into the big nut, but then it still leaked.....................

The factory clamp on the hose fitting was also now loose.  I had some hose clamps in the junk box in the underneath bins.  So back apart with a new clamp as well as the new gasket, and it seems to be secure................................................................?

But this has taken most of the day.  Our temperature was 82 this afternoon at five PM and of course now the wind is non existent, but hey, there's water in the bottom of that toilet now!!!

Retired Rod

Most all of the lots are now sold!!

Butterbean points out that the Southwest is running out of water, but points out that Phoenix will be one of the areas that will get all the remaining water that is available.  From what we saw up at Roosevelt lake, there is plenty of water for the near term, and we understand that the lake is up quite a bit from the low point a couple of years ago.

Of course after that, who knows ? Life is always a gamble....

I went over to the sales office today at the new home site, and learned that almost all of the lots that were available last week were sold over the weekend.  This is somewhat surprising to us.  There are a number of lots available for the more expensive homes, but these small retired folks homes seem to be selling.  I knew we didn't have much time to make our decision...

This morning we went up to the country store swap meet here in our park, and there was no parking within two blocks of the commons building.  The entire first row of the parking lot was filled with outside vendors and their canopies.  Also several new motorhomes were in the back parking lot.

The inside vendors had an extra row of tables, and the pool vendors were stretched around the back of the pool area.  Something we have never seen before.  I had all kinds of trouble making my way to a specific vendor in the main ball room.  The crowd was shoulder to shoulder.  The lunch line was as long as I have ever seen it as well.  This place is jammed!

The park we are moving to will not be nearly so full, as there were a number of open sites yesterday and the lady at the desk said they had a lot of sites still open.  That is bound to become larger in mid March as folks start home.  I know we have no intention on moving back here to VDO.  Unless something drastic happens to drive us away...........

We can always come back here for the country store and other activities that are open to the public and a lot with hookups is a lot with hookups.  The weather will be just the same three miles east of here anyway..........

I see officially it made it to 79 degrees this afternoon.  We had the big awning out on the RV as well as the little dinning canopy.  I'm not sure how we could have more perfect weather.......

Retired Rod

Senior Living Options on the Desert

Butterbean wants to know if the parade was in the park we are going to move to.  And no this is still the park we have been at since late November.  We need to move out of here by March 1st, so that is when we will go to the new park for us over in Apache Junction.

I rode the motor scooter over there today and stopped at the neighboring site to the one we are renting, and talked with the fellow that has a motorhome on the site and his neighbor across the street from the site we will be on.  One of the fellows was from Manatoba, Canada and the other fellow was a native Iowan, but I didn't catch where he is living now.  We spent about 15 minutes talking about several subjects and the conversation flowed easily.  They agreed that our motorhome will be tight on the site, but the neighbor has a 36 footer and he fits with a couple of feet at each end to spare.

As you know, we have been looking at park models for the last couple of years, but are not impressed with the height of the trailers and the permanence of the trailer once an Arizona room is built on.  Perhaps the price of about 90 K has slowed me as well.  Even with the Arizona room you only have 6 to 700 sq feet.  Add that to the fact that you can't purchase the lot, but will need to pay $5,000 a year for as long as you own this property.........  In 15 years that is 90 Thousand!!!  Completely gone.  That simply doesn't make sense to this accountant.

We also looked at manufactured homes in a retirement village just South of the Superstition Freeway about 2 miles South of us here.  These homes are essentially double wide park models that have the wheels removed.  They are set right on the concrete foundation at ground level.  Again this is in the retirement village with the club house and swimming pool and tennis courts.  A zillion activities are scheduled to keep the seniors busy.

The price of this place is the purchase of the housing unit somewhere between $100 K and $200 K and the rental of the lot which includes all the fees for the park and club house.  One lady that I talked to a couple of weeks ago told me her rent was almost $800 per month.  Ya.......... like 9600 a year.  $96,000 in ten years.........

And folks over there have oooodles of places for sale, and very few sales.  I guess it is better this year than last, but still you can expect to wait for two years on average to sell a place once you become an owner............

You could very easily spend as much in rents as you did to purchase the place.  Let's face it, people are making their living running these operations.  And the developers have an annuity due for as long as the village exists.  You can't just pick up and leave..  This option seems to make even less sense to an accountant.

Because of the handicap I have been left with after the cancer surgery this fall, we need to have hookups almost all the time.  Also this motorhome doesn't have any laundry facilities, which is a problem for us now as well.  We are getting by, but spending quite a bit of our time just living.....

So that leaves more permanent forms of housing.  At least you can deduct the interest and taxes and not suffer overwhelming depreciation on the property.  Its value may go down, but not in half like the motorhomes do.  In ten years you are lucky to recoup 25 percent of a RV purchase price on a trade in.. And that's after paying the camp rent to park it.  Camping has become EXPENSIVE!!

Since we are not full timers, and do not intend to sell our home anytime soon, the idea of an Arizona property is not at all frightening.  So we have been actively looking at small ranch homes here in the Valley.  And now you know why we can't leave this area, because we have found what we were looking for.

If you are with me this long, you can see that we need to decide almost everything possible.  And this will need to be mostly complete before we can go back to Kansas.  Even then we will be coming back to inspect things before the dry wall goes up.  And who knows how many more times before we finish.

As real estate owners, we have been thru this several times, so it doesn't seem as daunting....... But we have never tried it from 1300 miles away...........

Ya, we are certifiably nuts..........

Retired Rod

Mardi Gras at Valle Del Oro

The Big Parade!!!

Some of the crowd across the street.  And this lady in the center gave me a bunch of trouble for taking her picture. So I said heck yes I'll take your picture, but I don't think she understood how much zoom my little camera actually had.  LOL

All you need is a couple of flags on the back and your ready, especially if you have a big cow boy hat!!

These folks were throwing beaded necklaces to the crowd!

Tossing more necklaces..  Cool car!

I had no idea!

The Red Hatters are always there!!

 Mr Ford had no idea his little car would be so popular so many years later......

 Oh my!!!  Why!



Mr Ford again.......

Were these men really enjoying themselves?

The quilt ladies have been hard at it this year!!

Hawaii?   Well not exactly.....

Of course what is missing here is a picture of me on the motor scooter with my fold up lawn chair bungee corded across the seat behind me headed to the parade route.  I waited until the red shirted ranger parked one of the Cal Am golf carts across the intersection to block the route.

Then I pulled along side with the bike and sat the chair down in front.  Before long we had an entire contingent of chairs and golf carts filling in the entire street.     

Silliness in the Desert!!

Retired Rod

Staying in Mesa

OK, some where over the weekend, we decided that we really do need to stay right here in the Mesa Apache Junction area for the next few weeks.  We have managed to get ourselves into activities that require our presence here.  I'll explain that in the next few posts, but for now it was Monday morning and I needed to go see about renewal of our site.

I buzzed right up to the office on the scooter...  And then the man behind the counter dropped the bomb shell on me.....  Our site was rented to another fellow on March 1st...  "Well, can't you put us somewhere else?"  He looked and looked, but because we have the doggy that limits us to only about a third of the sites in the park.  "Nope, not an available pet spot in the park until about the 9th......." " I guess you are just going to have to leave........."

I sped home to pass that bit of information on to Loyce, as we tried to decide what we needed to do about this outcome.

Now first of all, it is our fault that we didn't make a longer reservation into March when we paid the down payment.  But that was way last year in February of 2011.  It never even dawned on me that I wouldn't be able to extend into March.  I guess I am much smarter about staying at the popular  RV park in Mesa for the winter.  The winter does include March for folks that come from farther North than we do.

But when you are uncertain about your health and ability to even be here, and then do have to return for surgery in December and January when you were not expecting it, your plans are very up in the air.  So here we are on the 20th of February having just received the boot from our RV park........... With money and time all used up...   So in a little over a week the idling diesel truck next door will not be a problem for us any more.

I rode around the area checking out other parks on the scooter.  Same deal, we have a few spots, but none in the doggy area.  Then I hit a stroke of luck, as one of the encore parks suggested his older sister park in Old Apache Junction.  I rode there straight away.

The thing about this park is that it has changed to be all pet friendly.  It is older and even tighter than most of the other  parks, and so the spots are not deep enough to handle rigs over 35 feet.  But the lady sent out a caretaker to measure one spot that had folks leaving on the 1st.  And......he said up to 40 feet would work if we were right against the motorhome behind us and didn't mind the nose really close to the street.

Actually the site has more concrete on it than we have here,  as it used to have an older park model situated on it.  I took Loyce over with the car.  Her reaction to the whole place, was that we were only going to be there a couple of weeks so just get on with what you have to do.......  I know she wasn't a bit excited..........

So with a small deposit, we are now in possession of a reservation at the Golden Sun RV Park in Apache Junction.  You can't miss us, as I think we will be one of the biggest rigs in the entire place........

And be careful what you tire of, as you may just get your way and have to leave, just like your original plan..............

Retired Rod

Roosevelt Lake, Arizona

Today we drove up to Globe and then to Roosevelt Lake.  I took the camera and snapped a few shots of the Arizona afternoon on the lake...

The dam doesn't seem like much from this side, and it has been extended quite a bit higher in more recent years.....

On the back side, you can see how much of a big project this really was.  Again this dam has been rebuilt all the way down the back side, which makes the dam seem really new..

After leaving the back side of the dam, we decided to take the back way back to Apache Junction.  Its a gravel road!  That's kind of interesting since it is officially marked as state road 88.  The gravel begins right behind where I was standing to take the picture above.

Much of the road is so narrow that only one car can pass at a time, but we never had to back up anywhere as we could mostly see when someone was approaching from the opposite direction.  The road clings to the cliff sides of the mountains and follows the creek inlets into switchbacks.  Meanwhile the salt river snakes along several hundred feet below.

At times the river is dammed again creating canyon and saguaro lakes.  The water fills the canyons at the foot of the mountains in these locations.  The road is washboarded and deeply rutted in every turn, jarring the suspension of the car to its very core.

 Loyce tired of the experience fairly quickly and badgered me as to why we hadn't gone back on the much longer pavement, but we wouldn't have had the experience in the mountains that way......

After enduring about 22 miles of this nasty ride at about 15 miles an hour, much of it in second gear, suddenly the road becomes paved again just outside of Tortilla Flat. The road is still too twisty to increase your speed much over 25, but at least it is now smoother.

Not too fare East of Tortilla Flat is the Fish Creek Hill and Canyon.  I found this video on You Tube taken by folks traveling East toward the dam. Its six minutes, but after about 2 minutes the road narrows to the cliff hanging one lane experience and then they meet a car coming from the other way.

It is too bad that their little video camera wasn't capable of taking the enormously beautiful canyon as they crossed the little one lane bridge at the bottom.  There was absolutely no where to park, so I was unable to get any pictures.

I know Loyce was very relieved to reach the pavement, and I am certain she will not let me go again with her along for the ride anyway.........

Retired Rod

Word Verification and The RV Park.....

I see that most everyone is blogging about Google's new double word puzzle on the, prove your not a robot word verification.  Perhaps the robots have become so adept at reading the little puzzles that it must be made impossible for humans to read the hidden words as well.

Years ago, when I was taking the flight exam physical, the doctor would present me with round pictures of blotches to test for color blindness.  A number would be hidden within the picture of the blotches.  Sometimes you were supposed to see the number which proved you could see the colors, and other times if you saw the number, it proved that you were color blind.

That exam now seems just like bloggers word verification. On our blog, I turned off that verification about a year and a half ago and haven't looked back.  Sometimes the automatic spam filter will quarantine things that are really valid comments, but I have never had it allow the spam stuff into the blog.

I also have the settings set to moderate comments that are on posts that are more than 14 days old.  This is usually how the random comments appear.  On old posts.  Older than you would normally notice or watch.

With that said, be sure to go look for actual comments that folks have made on your blog, as sometimes the score they earn tosses them into the spam bucket.  Rick over in Desert Hot Springs will often use technical terms that the filter doesn't recognize, and that will get him tossed almost every time.

More often than not now days, I refrain from commenting on blogs with the word puzzle.  If I can read the words presented then I might go ahead and comment, but otherwise it isn't worth my time to make an off hand comment when I have to work so hard to get it accepted.


We have determined that we do not want a park model.  We seem to become tired of the RV Resort experience after we are here for about 6 weeks.  Things are too tight in here for us not to become claustrophobic.  We don't really mind our neighbors, but we mind that they are right over there beside us.  Our neighbor this year starts his diesel pickup every morning to go up to the coffee at the shop.  Of course he has to let it run to warm up in order to make the half mile trip to the common area......

Since we are late risers, and mostly night owls, he wakes us up every day.....  This wouldn't be any different if we were in a park model because he would still be right beside us.  Perhaps 5 feet from our big slide, or the side of the 12 wide park model.  This seems to get to Loyce more quickly than it does me, but still we are very ready to leave this park when the time comes.

We have made a reservation for next year on this site, but.................  Misgivings?

Even if we go purchase a big new motorhome for really big bucks, it would still have to be parked right here in one of these RV parks.  How does that change anything?

Retired Rod

We? Laundry,,, Maybe not....

Oookay,  this is going to get me into trouble.........  Loyce loaded all the laundry in the bags that we use to take it to the laundry house.  And then I carried them outside and stuffed them all into the car.  She put it off for quite a while, because that was when she was noticing that she too had the dizzy headache.

Eventually. as it was becoming way late in the afternoon, she drove over and loaded up the machines.  I had gone to the bank and found the cash necessary to run the machines.  And I went up during the washing time to see if she needed any thing to continue the task.........  But, please understand that I am not allowed to touch the actual laundry process in any way!!!

I simply do not do things her way and she feels that I am untrainable.  I have never complained about this unfortunate turn of events.  You know, I have weakly objected to this opinion of my skills, but have never protested with any vehement veracity.......

When she returned with the clean clothes in the bags, I was in the process of making the evening supper, with noodles and burger beef, creamed with cream of mushroom soup and sour cream.  She didn't even suggest that I stop cooking and help sort clothes.  I hope that explains laundry day and how "we" might even be plausible as  a description.  Otherwise no I won't be allowed to do the laundry by myself...

The big excitement here on this street of the park, is that our neighbor from SF, Calif decided to get his  motorhome washed and waxed today.  Of course that meant we had to go move the car and the motorscooter.  The scooter is black and water spots on the drop of a hat.  We had just washed the car yesterday,  So the crew was nice enough to come knock on our door and warn us that water was about to fly.

Several of us men gathered out in the street to watch this spectacle.......  You know deciding what was being completed correctly and of course what was totally wrong........LOL

We never had the nerve to ask Gordon our neighbor what it all cost, but last year this treatment was about $250.  The wash pickup truck pulls a trailer with a gas power washer and a large water softener.  Also there is a soap tank, and various reels to power coil the wash wand hoses.  The company is called Tubbies RV Wash but no one was seriously fat.......

There were four men, and they started on the roof with the wash wand and scrub brushes on the long handles.  It took about an hour to wash the entire rig with several of the fellows drying with towels.  But the big job took place later in the afternoon as they came back and waxed the entire coach.

Wax on into a glaze, and then towel buff off the wax until the shine gleamed.  They even used the tire black stuff on the wheels, so for now it looks like showroom perfect.

We spent some of the afternoon looking at housing alternatives here in the valley again.  Long term readers know that we seem to do this every year, and dream of not being confined to the RV parks, but then there are always park models here as well.  Then we argue that trading the RV for a significantly nicer one could make us a new alternative.......

Usually the time here expires before we get overly temped by all these alternatives ......
   
Retired Rod

Sick, but not completely!

We seem to have some sort of a malady here at the RV.  First it effected me, and I thought it was surgery related, except it bothered my digestion.  I took off and went to Yuma anyway thinking it was only short term.  But it has caused a dull headache and nasty feeling of low energy.

Then on the day I went over into Mexico, I was dizzy and off balance.  Loyce drove the car, and she just wanted to go back to the RV.  But she didn't feel bad, yet...

I kind of got over it on Wednesday, and we did some little stuff but late in the afternoon Loyce was complaining of the head ache and not feeling well.  So we have been laying low......

Today was country store again, but Loyce only ducked up to talk to one of the lady vendors for a few minutes.  And after a little while we went over to Wal Mart on Signal Butte, to pick up her prescriptions. Then on to the car wash across the street to see if the catsup would come off of the car.  It didn't come off completely but most of it is gone.

It really looked like it was going to rain on the newly washed car late this afternoon, but somehow we escaped.  But the dull head ache thing caused us both to nap until after a normal supper time.   It was cool today with a high in the mid 60s and as the sun expired over the West palm trees, the wind thru the open rig door became too cold to sleep thru.

So way late tonight, we were out in the car looking for a different burger for supper.  We settled on Whataburgers way back over into old Mesa.  They are big and quick and we skipped the french fries.

Not an exciting day, but then someone had to be laid back, with a half sickly aching body.  And we had flu shots to boot.  But perhaps it would be much worse if we hadn't!!

Tomorrow its supposed to be warmer.....

Retired Rod

Cooler but out with the bike..

The day started bright and sunny, but the temp gauge on the dash of the motorhome only read 44 degrees even though it was 10 AM.  The wind was still whipping the flag on the back of the motorhome behind us.  They have the big flag pole that has a US and Oklahoma full sized flag flying well above their rig.

On windy nights we can hear those flags in our bed a full site over and across the back of the lots.  I can't imagine how much noise that would make with the flag pole fastened directly to the roof ladder of the coach.  Wouldn't those flags make quite a racket?  In stronger winds anyway?

But before long I couldn't stand it and was out with the dog.  She was on her airplane cable at the front of the coach attacking the folks that walked by on the street and I was uncovering the motorscooter.

I rode in the park for a while and went to the office to pick up some mail,  and messed around some more.  Before long it was out in the neighborhoods, but I had put on a light jacket and then the motorcycle suit and helmet.  It was now almost 60 but at speed it still was cool.

After some time, I ended up over on Signal Butte, and went to the IN and OUT Burger.  I love watching the employees as they clean and skin the fresh potatoes.  Then they smash them thru the long handled french fry cutter.  It was almost comical, because they had the very smallest gal in the entire place ramming the long handle home as she expertly dispatched each potato in machine like fashion.

I watched her cut 25 spuds as I was counting, but then my double double came up......  A serious departure from a Wendy's little junior cheese, that I normally eat.  I took one home for Loyce but not the big bag of fries.

We spent most of the afternoon in the laundry here in the park, not exactly exciting......  So there went the rest of the day.  The poor bike just sat for the afternoon..

Retired Rod

Heck yes we got some rain...

Commenter Renee, don't blame me, I'm not the one that wants to leave Yuma so fast, and I will pass it along that there is now a Jo Ann's in town.  But that wouldn't have changed the fact that Loyce wanted to go back home.  It is the motel experience and the fact that the dog never goes to sleep all night that causes us to be so out of our element when we are on the motel road.

I'm certainly not sure why we needed to get home so fast because we didn't do a thing here today.  Remember that forecast rain?  It was overcast as the first light came up but no rain.  But as we were having our breakfast it began to do the mud sprinkle bit.

I thought that it would be over in a minute or so and I would have a big mess to contend with.  But to my surprise, it began to really rain.  The temperature hadn't changed all day.  It was 55 when we got up and it was 55 late in the afternoon.

It was all day boredom.  Computers blazing and rain running down the windshield.  Finally at about 4 PM I declared a Wal Mart run was needed.  Loyce jumped at the chance.

Not much interesting at the Wal Mart, but at least it was a different store down in Queen Creek about 9 miles away from here.  Usually that store is not so jam packed, but this afternoon the lot was very full.

We both take a basket and go make our selections, and then kind of compare to see if we have duplication but also we agreed on milk eggs and bread ahead of time.  I was done and back out in the car fairly quickly.......

Quick enough to have a family pull in beside the car and toss a whole tray of McDonalds burgers and fries out the window right beside the door of our car.  There must have been 25 of those little catsup packages that were partially opened and squirted into a red slimy mess.

Before long the folks were back out of the store and jumped over the mess on the ground like it wasn't theirs and left.  Not me man, I didn't do that.........

The next car that pulled in slammed into the packages and squirted the entire side of our car with red slime, clear up to the middle of the driver's window.  By the time Loyce came out, I was fuming.......  Not at her but at peoples inconsideration...

Tonight we are back into winter conditions as the forecast is for 41 degrees and tomorrow night it is for 37.

Retired Rod

A very quick Mexican shopping trip.

We were up at 8 AM, which is way early for us......LOL.  Biscuit was hearing all the other campers in the other rooms, so she was acting like an alarm clock.

Loyce took her outside a few minutes later, and she refused to go potty.  She can be rather unpredictable that way, if it doesn't smell just right, she isn't about to pee there.  I am certain there are a lot of different smells all over the Southwest that we as humans cannot detect......

Then back in the room, she begins to whine again.  This time Loyce had to get forceful with her and she finally went.  She was holding a flood back.  Good thing that didn't happen in that non doggy room  Would have cost me another $100 to get it cleaned up.

Anyway we drove over in California and then South to Algodones, Mexico.  It was before 10AM in Mountain time zone, and before 9 AM in Pacific where we were now located, but the parking lot was jammed!   And we were part of  a steady stream of cars that were arriving.

By now it was in the mid 60s and the car was beginning to be warm inside.  And Loyce doesn't really like to go into Mexico anyway, so she told me I was going across by myself.  She would stay with Biscuit and keep the windows down.  So off I went.

I was the one that needed a few prescriptions and we don't really drink all that much booze, so I opted for vanilla instead.  I keep a couple of bottles in reserve as gifts back in Kansas where real Mexican vanilla is valued much higher.

I only walked about two blocks into the city from where the crossing is and then made my purchases.  It only took about 20 minutes total.  When I arrived back at customs, the line going back had gone from nil when I went in, to back to the corner where the gate starts.

That still wasn't all that bad, because as the day becomes afternoon, the line gets about 4 times that long along the fence to the East.  I got right in line as I arrived, and was surprised that it wasn't moving all that fast....

As I finally got up to the shack, I could see that they only had one agent running passports.  Someone mentioned that the line was clear back to the street in Algodones, and he buzzed a button and in a few moments a second agent came out.

That sped us right thru, and yes I did tell the guy I had the usual stuff, prescriptions and vanilla.  He compared my passport picture to me and told me to move along.  The picture is now 8 years old, so I'm not sure he thought I was me......

Back at the parking lot, I phoned Loyce and she came to the front of the lot and picked me up.  The next thing I knew she was speeding thru Yuma heading out the East side.  She can never wait to leave that town when we stay there with the motorhome.

I think it is small and doesn't have any fabric stores or Jo Ann's fabric outlets so it is of little use to her.  We did find a quilt store several years ago, but she didn't like the projects that they were showing as completed ideas.  So there is no reason to stay there in her mind.

Next thing I knew, we were in Gila Bend stopping at the McDonalds on the West end of the main street.  The town hasn't changed much since we were there on the day that we ended up rolling over the Toyota Corolla back in 2009.  

This is the first time that we have actually taken Az 84 South of Maricopa as a short cut, since that afternoon when we turned turtle in the desert.  There was a big roll of concrete reinforcement wire in the middle of the road.  I swerved to miss it and lost control of the little car's back end.  It was totaled.

Tonight we are back in Mesa just in time for the cool temps that are forecast for the next few days.

I think we are to be in the low 40s for the next few nights and tomorrow will struggle to make 60.  But compared with snow and freezing rain that is happening back home, I think I will just shut up and enjoy the days.  The folks on the TV are all excited that it might rain since there has been no moisture here for weeks.

Retired Rod

Happy Valentines Day!!!  And also Happy Birthday to my younger son Ben!

Slipping away....

I get these hair brained ideas, and the next thing you know it were off.  Well, Loyce does a lot of complaining about me not telling her the night before so she could plan and pack up and all that sort of stuff, but hey, I didn't think of it until this morning.

So with it becoming cold and unbearable, in Mesa at 60 degrees for the day's high, what else is there to do but go farther South and West.....  Yuma!!! That's it. But we didn't take the motorhome, and only packed an overnight bag.

So here we are in the motel that I reserved on Hotels.com as dog friendly.  And when we arrived they tried to make me sign that I would pay $200 penalty if I brought a dog into the room.  Well folks, that's why I used Hotels.com to reserve a nicer dog friendly room.

Seems that they have recently changed their policy......  And evidently without giving the online folks notice.  So the manager made the exception and here we are.

We hope to slip over into Algodones in the morning for all those things that us seniors seem to want from Mexico.  You know, drugs, booze and vanilla............  LOL

I'm not sure we will stay her another night as this place was $100 for the night....  But who knows, there is always Motel 6......

Retired Rod

Kicking back Saturday.

After being all over the last couple of days messing around at the swap meets, today we sat around and enjoyed the weather.  The second that the sun came out, it was already warm...

We sat and had breakfast but no one had anywhere to go..  Loyce was working with her patterns and the folks that were sending them to her on the Ipad, and I was laying low.

I'm not sure where the day went, but by about three in the afternoon we were up to 82.... Man that it was hot!!!   LOL  Lets see, my friend Rick would say "its frying pan hot!"  Well anyway it was really nice, and the motorhome was quite a bit hotter than it was outside.  We had to turn on the stand fan, but never started the AC.  I sat outside under the dinning canopy as the palm trees waved in the warm breeze.  I had a cool lemonade.

So I knew how the remedy that warm, SCOOTER RIDE!!   And of course it was air conditioned in Wendy's, but after that I rode around South of Wal Mart over on Signal Butte.

The sun went down and it began to cool off for the night.  But according to the weather forecast it is to be much cooler in the morning.  We are expecting much cooler for the next week.  They are calling 59 for a high by Tuesday and back into the 30s that night.    Maybe it will change before we get to Tuesday  one can hope....

Retired Rod

Friday is Country Store at Mesa Spirit

Since we were in the business of going to country stores, we decided to go back over to Mesa Spirit today and see what was up this year at their swap meet.  It takes about a half an hour to get back over there, and we were quite late when we arrived.

It was almost noon, and all the folks were in line to get the day's soup.   It appeared to be a beef vegetable.  They do  hot dogs and chili dogs every week, but the soup changes from week to week.

We stayed in the park for two years, but that has been two years ago, and even though we recognized several of the folks that were our neighbors and in the clubs that we attended, we were surprised to find that not a single soul recognized us.  I directly spoke to one of the fellows that were our neighbors, and there was not a single sense of recognition.  Sad......

From the swap meet, we went out exploring a different part of town over South of Chandler where we have never spent any time.  It is a Robson development from many years ago, called Sun Lakes.  We didn't get too far on this endeavor as most of the area is gated with guards.  The actual Sun Lake area seemed kind of old.  But we were free to drive thru this development.

This afternoon we had 79 degrees reported by the airport South of our park here.  But as we were driving about, the car was reporting in the low 80s.  Actually ran the air conditioner for a while and it felt good.

Tonight we again grilled outside doing chicken breast on the BBQ.  Marinated in oil and wine with honey and Italian seasoning.  Steamed about a ton of fresh veggies to go along too.  Man were eating like kings.

Retired Rod

Country Stores

Thursday is country store day here in our park, and as I learned two weeks ago it is also the same up in the View Point RV Park a couple of miles North of here.  Loyce wanted to see the View Point flea market first, so we set out.

It isn't all that far up there, and we were our usual un punctual selves arriving about 11ish.  We spent about an hour looking at everything on all the tables.  Loyce purchased a few items, but I wasn't following her, so I have no idea what she bought.

Eventually I went back to the car and brought it up to the back door where we had entered the ball room.    It wasn't long and she was out of there and walking toward me.  We drove around the newer part of the park to remind us of the alternatives to the campsite here in Valle Del Oro.

But soon we were back here at our home park and conveniently our country store lasts until 1 PM and was still in full swing.  So we parked and went inside of our ball room.  The store here at Valle Del Oro is atleast twice the size of the other park.  The entire parking area has outdoor vendors the full length of the parking lot.

Also our pool area in the center of the buildings are filled with tables as well.   Again, I didn't find anything that I wanted but I did find my hat man back outside by the pool.  So he has returned to VDO rather than setting up at View Point.

Later in the afternoon, I copied Loyce's pattern PDF files to a thumb drive.  After about an hour over at the local Staples store, I had a pile of 100 plus pages of pattern.   Together with a Valentine card she had her patterns and I had a gift that she really wanted, but had given up on receiving until we got home.

Oh, and I stood in line for over an hour over at Wal Mart to pick up that prescription, only to stand some more to have the pharmacist explain the prescription to me.  I have taken the pills for several years, so waiting for another 15 minutes for the gal to finally get off of the phone and weed thru the second line of us waiting, seemed like quite a waste......

Retired Rod

Another fine day on the desert.

Rain?  We ain't got no stinkin rain!!  And some of the folks around here want some in the worst way!  We didn't get the normal big rains that come in the third week of January this year.  I remember a couple of years ago that the desert looked like a flood when we headed South to Tucson for the quilt show.  Now they are talking about how far behind we are in moisture.

This morning it was gray and overcast, and I was sure we would get wet before the morning was over.  We hung around and did the slow morning thing making a big breakfast and then getting showers. But as it became late morning the clouds began to break up and evaporate.

Here in the desert, the clouds don't blow away like they do in the Midwest, but they seem to just evaporate into the blue sky.   And that was the cue, to go uncover the motorscooter.

This time it was off to Wal Mart over on Signal Butte Road, to wait in line at the prescription window and turn in an order for a refill.  Wal Mart out here is not same day service, at least this one is not.  Longer time readers will remember me fighting with them over faxed in orders and phoned in voice recorded orders.  They are simply not filled at all, or perhaps they might be ready in a couple of days.

We do have a bunch of other Wal Marts here within a ten mile radius, and perhaps I should check into their turn around times, but usually we have most of our prescriptions filled in Kansas before we come, so we have just put up with the occasional script that needs filled, on the oh so slow basis.

You can write the rest of my blog for me as from there, it was back to Wendy's and off on an hour or more scooter ride in a big circle around about a five mile radius of the park.

And yes we could probably go purchase a printer, but we have so much stuff that we haul all over the place now, that we really need to keep these purchases under control for space and weight concerns.  I may copy the files off onto a stick memory and go see what it will cost to get them printed.

Our high this afternoon was 77 degrees, and that lasted for about 5 hours.  And even after 10 PM it is still 61 outside and the door is open on the side of the rig.  We grilled steaks out on the Webber Q tonight after dark, and man they were good....  Steamed broccoli and hand mashed potatoes rounded out the meal.  I'm stuffed even now........

Retired Rod

Today is my oldest son's Birthday, so Happy Birthday Chris!

Computer files and shopping on the scoot

Loyce and I spent the morning downloading some pattern files that she had purchased from a sewing web site.  We only had one time to download these files, because once downloaded, they are turned off and you can't go back again.

We were both nervous that we would not get them correctly.  I did manage to get the files saved on my hard drive and then emailed them back to Loyce's computer so she could look at them.  She needs them printed out somehow, but we don't travel with a printer.  I am not a member of the computer club here in the park either, so perhaps I can take the files to the local office max or something.

Then it was outside to wash the utility trailer with the brush and long handled pole.  Its white, and never seems too dirty, but the water ran very black as I soaped the white sides.  It is much cleaner now....

By then it was mid afternoon, and a Wendy's trip on the scooter was in order, with a sandwich in a bag to be returned to Loyce.  The remainder of the afternoon was spent out on the scooter.  We reached 73 today and the afternoon was breezy but quite nice for riding.

I stopped at various stores and did some grocery shopping at the Wal Mart way up in the North part of Mesa where we used to shop when we stayed at Mesa Spirit.  Is there such a thing as becoming attached to your local Wal Mart?  It seemed quite like home in that store......  Strange......

Tonight we had spaghetti and meat sauce as the results of my shopping.  I have other meals in reserve now as well.

We are to have a storm that is coming from Southern California tonight.  It is rainy over the area South of I 10 and over to Yuma.  The question is whether it will pass over Mexico or over us here in Arizona.  The weather folks seem to think it will go to our South and not give us any rain.  But most likely we will get those big blotchy mud sprinkles that will trash all of my washing on vehicles around here.

I just went out and covered the Scooter with its parking cover.......

Retired Rod

Stalking bloggers!

Isn't it amazing how us RVers seem to be on the same page and book even though we have never met in person.....?

Today that was exactly how it was!

For several years I have been reading Gordon and Juanita's Seeing the USA in our Chevrolet  on My Trip Journal.  Gordon has been writing the blog off and on for several years, and we have sent comments and emails when the mood strikes us but nothing overly serious.

Gordon did drop a comment once about getting together sometime this winter, but then I had to go back to KC and get worked on.  Before we left, I had driven thru the little park they are staying in, so I knew where it was, but they weren't home on that day.  So as I was out and about on the scooter looking at items down in the San Tan Village Sam's Club, I came straight North up Val Vista.

I thought I would slip thru their park again and see if they were home.  Well..........the truck was gone again, but the door was open....  I don't like coming un announced, so I thought well maybe later, but as I was going around the end of the row, there right in the middle of the street was Gordon.

Now keep in mind, we have never met in person........  And I pull up on a motorscooter, and open my visor on the helmet and say here's the fellow I was looking for!  And he's walking Abby too.  Gordon kind of stared at me and said your Rod!  And I still had the full face helmet on....

This began the full on conversation that lasted for a couple of hours.  The bike was parked and went cold.  Juanita came home from quilt shopping and then we started over again.  But it was beginning to be late, and supper time was approaching.  Remember, I was un announced and was just going to shake his hand and introduce myself.

So, with the blogs, its like we have known each other for several years............  I hope we can put together some additional time with these folks, and perhaps have Loyce get to know Juanita.  They are both quilters, so that shouldn't be too hard.  But schedules of us retired folks are complicated you know........

Retired Rod

Sunday chores and the Super Bowl

This morning, I finally filled the bucket with soapy water and got after the rest of the motorhome.  It doesn't seem all that dirty, but it has been since November that it was washed.  In previous attempts, I had washed the front and driver's side.  Then the back and some of the back passenger side.

So in a couple of hours this morning the rest of the motorhome got scrubbed with my brush on the telescoping pole.  Washing and rinsing with the hose and nozzle.  Of course the water here in Mesa is overwhelmingly hard.  And as things dry, the white water spots appear.  But at least it is clean......

As I was cleaning up, I decided that the mat on the concrete was looking ratty and old.  That spurned the trip to Camping World.  I drove the Honda, as it is about 100 blocks back to our West, and bringing home a large door mat on the bike would not be easy.

The one that was advertised in their flyer turned out to be the woven plastic kind that I already had.  The lawn chairs seem to hook into that kind and trash it.  So I purchased one that looks more like outdoor carpet.  But not the traditional green stuff.  This is gray and shaped 6 x 15.  I wanted something wider, but the 8 foot wide was 20 feet long and cost twice as much.

Perhaps I will return and purchase a second mat that will make things 12 feet wide.  But for now, I was able to cover the concrete outside our door, and move the older mat to the rear of the coach.  These mats work wonders in keeping the inside of the rig cleaner.

Later in the afternoon it was out on the scooter to go to Wendy's and the grocery store for some chips and cheese dip.  You have to have some finger food for the Super Bowl, and usually we stay out of the cheese dip.  But not today, as this is special watching the game...........  Your buying that aren't you??

Anyway we enjoyed the game, especially because it went right down to the final play of the game.  Because we are from the Midwest, we didn't have a team in the race, so it didn't make any difference which team won, but the Patriots must be somewhat shell shocked to loose again after four years ago's loss after a perfect season..  That's sports!

We reached a high of 73 today as I was riding the scooter around in the housing sub division to our South over the divided expressway.  It is what causes so much noise if we sit here with all the TVs and fans off.  But now at 11 PM it is back to 50.   Again it will be in the low 40s by morning.

We are looking forward to each day as it will become warmer little by little......

Retired Rod

Slow

A slow and easy day, that started in the low 40s but with lots of sun.  It was kind of cool when I went to the bathroom complex in the morning.  I wimped out and drove the car up there.  The scooter still had its cover on and I didn't disturb it until mid afternoon.

We had that slow morning where taking Biscuit out became the highlight of the day.  But eventually Loyce declared that she was going on a shopping trip, and as usual, I bid her a "have a good time!"

I was determined to go ride the bike some more, but somehow after she left, I was reading the computer and fell off to sleep.  I hate it when that happens.  Well once back incharge of things, I ran into some fellow outside that were discussing the problems of Tiffin motorhomes and Red Bay experiences.  That wasted another half an hour......

Motorhomes are anything but perfect and Red Bay folks have their fair share of problems.  Everyone needed to tell their tales of how things need to be made better.  Oh, and how they had to pay to get stuff fixed that should have never gone wrong in the first place.

Eventually I did get out on the scooter, and rode over to the Mesa Swap meet.  This time I wasn't accosted by inconsiderate drivers.  So with an improved attitude, I walked more of the first two aisles of shop booths.  Of course I have seen all these places many times, but I wasn't finding the  shops that I wanted.

But eventually in aisle B I found the cell phone accessory store.  I was certain I was in aisle A, but its in  B now.  Anyway I purchased a new cell phone charger for the car.  My old one still works, but the insulation on the wires is broken.  Its only a matter of time before the wires themselves give up and it is right at the ends where repairs can't be made.

I looked at all the other stuff in these two front aisles, but didn't find anything that couldn't be left behind.  With the late start, shop owners were packing up their tables for the day anyway, so I made my way back to the scooter.

Everyone was leaving at the same time, and the row of cars was backed up all the way to the back lot.  Stop and go traffic on the motor scooter is not a fun thing.  You sit there holding the bike upright, rolling forward a few car lengths and then stop and sit some more.  I just came back home thinking that Loyce would be back, but she wasn't.

So I enjoyed sitting outside under the dinning canopy.  It really never warmed up all day, but the airport recorded 70 for a couple of hours in the late afternoon.  Later as the sun was dropping out of the sky in the West, I went again on the scooter for some groceries that we had forgotten, and it was quite cool by then.  Once the sun is down, it is time to put the scooter away here in early February.......

Retired Rod

Drug store cruising!

After talking to our nurse assigned to follow me by the insurance company today, she had suggested a certain kind of a product.  She told me to go get it at the drug store....

So I hopped on the scooter and went to the local Walgreens.  Never heard of it......  Then to CVS which was a little farther......  Nope never heard of it.  By now I was completely up town in old Apache Junction, where I stopped at an older Walgreens.  And of course they didn't have as many products as the new stores had, but!

The pharmacist knew exactly what I needed and told me that no drug store would carry that product.  Heck it is just a little alcohol style pad in a foil pack, but it has different chemicals than alcohol on the pad.  But still it is special and needs to come from a medical equipment place.

A second pharmacist told me to go to the very center of the old part of town and in an oldest shopping center there would be a DME company.  Next to Fat Daddy's Pizza..  That took a bunch of time to go find.  But eventually I spotted it.

This is back on the main street thru town where the expansion joints of the road are buckled from the summer sun.  They are like driving over little speed bumps every ten feet. Eww..  But eventually I found the place and the product.  Not cheap!!!  $25 a box for some little wipes.......  Anything medical is bigggggg $$$$$$$.

So after the shock of the price, I rode over to the local Wendy's.  Ordered the smallest burger as I thought it was all I could afford after the DME store.   But then I remembered that I had a Fudds yesterday and John B bought, so I felt all better about the cheap burger...... LOL.

Anyway after riding all over Apache Junction and parking numerous times, and taking off the helmet and jacket to go into the stores, I was just happy to arrive back at the motorhome.  I finally could relax again..

Not much else happened around here today, and it was much cooler as our high temperature was only 66, but my friend in Des Moines was quite quick to point out on skype tonight that he would gladly trade that for his rainy snow and below freezing temps scheduled for tonight and tomorrow.

I guess I wasn't getting much sympathy there............  But we are supposed to be back up into the 70s again tomorrow.  No rain in sight on the ten day forecast............... Ya....

Retired Rod

Friends and Lunch

We were hanging out here at the motorhome, when all of a sudden a couple of good friends arrived.  In all fairness, they had been trying to announce their intentions on both facebook and my cell phone.  But, the cell phone was completely discharged.

I had plugged it in and made that call to the watch vendor down in Florida, and explained that the watch was broken.  Not the vendor's fault, because they sold it to Shop NBC up in Minneapolis.  But I don't trust sending it back to Shop.

Well anyway I was up town in Apache Junction all morning looking for a shipping place.   And I found one too, but it was going to cost a bundle......  I finally mailed it USPS insured.  Heck its already broken.......

We still hadn't turned on the computer to any of the social networks, rather deciding that we would go over to the other swap meet in the park where I bought my hat last week.  Just as something different.

But then John and Brenda Brown came around the corner!!  Yea, now we have something good to do...

For a while we sat out under the awning and caught ourselves up on what we didn't know from our blogs.  You RVer's out there, can you feel your ears burning???  Loyce caught a couple of candid shots.

Brenda and Biscuit are buddies.  Biscuit was going nuts, not knowing whether to go to John or Brenda or her mom, so she just ran around in circles.

JB wasn't exempt from Loyce's camera either, but took a pretty good shot so all was well.

Once we had the world's problems solved, we decided to go over to Fuddruckers, since we had planned that on the blogs a few days before.  But I had to go and mess it up by going early last night........

Well now a burger is good to go any time with Retired Rod, and Loyce just had a salad last night so we were headed out again.  NO Problem!!

We stayed over there well past lunch time and well into the afternoon, but we all had other things that needed to get done, so after promising to get back together again in the upcoming days, we parted for other errands.

I'm not sure what we did for the rest of the afternoon, but Loyce wanted to see where that park was that had the other swap meet.  So we buzzed up there......  The second we entered the place, she was instantly reminded that she didn't like the place..........Oops,  I was encouraged to leave right away.

One thing I didn't do today, was get the bucket out and wash on the RV.  Yep, had enough of that yesterday to keep me satisfied for a couple of days anyway.

Oh, and a big thanks to JB for spreading some of those Canadian  $$$ on the counter to pay off our lunch.  Loonies buy lunch just fine, I am here to report.  But now we have to figure out how to get even on this deal.  But I have a few ideas.....

Retired Rod

Coach washing causes big hunger.

I've been tryin to be good here in East Mesa......  Just goin over to Wendy's and buyin a double junior burger and the smallest fries........  And on some days, I manage to not go get a burger at all, rather stayin home and eatin sweet taters and the like........

And I was a doin real well today, until about 6 PM.....  An I gave in........ headed the car out to our West on Southern Ave, over past Power Rd...... and the local Fuddruckers......

Ordered the big un too.....  Well not the biggest but the half pounder and fries..  Took a lot of the fixins too.  Peppers and peco de gallo and all the rest.    Boy am I a full fellow tonight!!!!    Like I said I was tryin to be a lot better feller than that.....

I found out yesterday that washing the motorhome with the long handled brush tended to irritate the incision on the front of my abdomen.  Kind of makes it hard to sleep because of the uncomfortable irritation caused by the work.....

So, upon getting outside today, I .......  wasn't any smarter, and got out the brush and soap.  But I did kind of pace myself, washing a little slower and not stretching out so far.  My neighbor on the driver's side was gone with his black truck so I washed all of that side.

I was going to quit when I got to the back, but I still had soap in the bucket........  So the back got washed too.  I started up the passenger side, but came to my senses and poured out the remaining soapy water.  By now it was about 2 PM.

That watch I ordered was supposed to be here this afternoon, so I didn't head out on the scooter.  As I was waiting for the UPS driver I nodded off in the warm afternoon sun.  Around 4:30 the truck stopped right in front of the RV.  I was awake in a flash.

My excitement was drowned upon opening the package.

See the second hand over on the side between the two and five o'clock position?  I wonder how hard they had to drop kick that package in order to knock that hand off like that?

So now you know why I gave up and headed on out to the big burger place tonight.  Have to make a few calls in the morning.......

Retired Rod