Burgers and Goldwing Road Riders...

I've been sitting here trying to remember what I have done in the last two days.... And the short answer is not too much....  Didn't start the Jeep at all on Friday, but rather relied upon the motor cycle to take me out for supper on Friday night...

One of the favorite spots to go out for supper for Loyce and I was Fuddruckers over at the Superstition Springs Mall...  I've been sort of avoiding going over there because of all the memories it would bring up, but gave in when I rode the cycle past last night...

And while they have raised all of the pricing structure, the food was as good as I remembered...  The burger and sweet potato fries with all the trimmings filled me up to medium bloat... And I sat in front of one of the many TVs along the wall, to keep my mind busy and not over think the experience...  A couple at another table were interested in the fact that I was riding a Goldwing and related that they had ridden one for several years...

And then this morning early, I went back over to the area to meet with the Goldwing Road Riders Association chapter from Mesa..  They meet at the Old Country Buffet which is about a block away from Fudd's.  There were about 40 folks there this morning at 7:30...

We waited outside until they opened the restaurant, so the food in the steam tables was completely fresh..  They have a program during the meal, and it included several raffle ticket drawings..  Buying these tickets is how they support the cost of the activities...

That seemed to work out fairly well for me as I won the Holiday door prize....  A 12 pound frozen turkey...  It was rock solid... And then I managed to win a lesser prize from the purchased tickets...  A sewing kit in a decorator tin box...  Just what I needed, some more sewing stuff...

Later this afternoon, some of the Flag presentation team did a colors presentation with their motorcycles at the Mesa Swap Meet..  And since that is only a couple of miles North of me here, I went up to watch and see what that is all about...

It was an interesting tribute to prior service members, with each branch of the Armed Forces Flags mounted on the back of their Goldwings... I didn't think to take a camera...  It was in the mid 80s and the desert sun was bearing down, so I rode back home without spending any time at the swap meet...  I've been all thru those booths time and again...

I have enough of that stuff around here now.....

So that catches me back up to the present...

Retired Rod

Just who I am....

Loyce always told me that without her to do the cleaning and organizing, our house would become a pig sty....   And with that thought in the back of my mind, I have been religiously spending each morning attempting to clean myself back up from yesterday's activities.

Of course I always shirked any of these responsibilities in my former life as the husband of the house...  Partially because she would always  seem to come behind me and do most of the stuff over again should I become domestic....  I didn't have her ability to care for every little spot....

So my days are increasingly domestic..!  And it seems as though I am loosing the battle.. But my sheets are clean and the guest room is back ready for its next visitor...

I spent yesterday afternoon driving around looking for the specific type of dog treat that Biscuit is used to eating....  We visited several pet stores..   Never finding the exact brand...  It must be a local thing in Missouri or Kansas....

Loyce always used Pet Land back in the Midwest...  I think because they did sell pets...  Of course that has become a big no no..  She didn't see it that way, as long as the animals were cared for and sold in a timely fashion...  But that is another debate.  I know we got Biscuit on the second day that she was in the store....  But yes she was bread for the pet market as a designer puppy..

Because of their selling of pets, Petland was drummed out of the business out here in fashionable Arizona...  Screams of puppy mill supporter and the like were amplified into a law suit that stained the companies reputation beyond their ability to come back...  So they went broke...

That is a long winded explanation for why I can't find certain branded dog treats....  But at Pet Club, I found something that was reported as popular and a good seller...  Baked with peanut butter of all things....  And nothing healthy, but then they aren't her food, just treats....

Once we got out in the car, I gave her one of the biscuits.....  And..... she hated it...!  Broke it all up in her teeth and spit it back out in the cushion...  She did eat some of it in the 20 minute ride home...

Today I mixed some of the new treats in with the old ones and put them on the top of her food bowl... She ate them all, so perhaps........

My friend Roger was in a toot to get on the highway Tuesday morning, and tossed his stuff into the car early in the morning..  Thanking me for letting him stay here, he was out the door...   Of course he knew that I would talk his ear off and not let him leave otherwise...

But in that hurried departure, he left his tennis shoes and ball cap out in the garage... We had gone on a morning walk the day before and they were right where he had removed them...

So today I was looking for a box and the tape to seal it up....  Again this required digging thru the myriad of stuff in the sewing room..  But I found things right away and got myself off to the UPS store...

And on the Jeep subject,  Roger and I had decided that the carpet fabric floor mats that came with the vehicle were not appropriate for the Arizona desert..  The gravel just gets ground into the fabric almost immediately...

I had searched the computer web sites but didn't find anything made specifically for the vehicle unless they were $150 plus shipping....  Toooooo much...  So I stopped at local auto parts stores....  Where the solution was to cut generic mats to match the oddball shape....

But the guy at O'Reiley suggested going back to Jeep...  Saying that they weren't all that expensive and would be made exactly for the application.....

So after the UPS store, I went back to Jeep..  Where I found that the row of 20 Jeeps from last week had been reduced to 4....  That was amazing... But the parts counter guy knew exactly what I wanted and said they had them in stock for $85...  Sold!!!

That included the longer one piece for the back, and both front mats...  They are rubber and curve up to catch the spills of a bouncy bad road.....    I saved the carpet ones for the day that the vehicle is sold on to its next owner....  And you know that I will get a wild hair, sooner rather than later and trade it on down the road......  Its just who I am....

Retired Rod

Coming Clean

Ok, what has really taken place since arriving in Arizona...?    Long long term readers of this blog will remember that back in the spring of 2009, Loyce and I were out on a drive to Gila Bend and had a bad day...

We ended up rolling over a Toyota Corolla when a roll of  reinforcement wire came off of the back of a truck we were following....  We were banged up but survived.... At that time we purchased a Toyota Camry mostly with the insurance settlement...  Car Accident  Pictures

Last winter, that car still served us well but became 4 plus years old...  We had used it as a chase vehicle on countless RV trips... and it has been all over the country...   In short, it was getting long in the tooth and needed traded...

With too much windshield time on the trip out here, I made the decision that it should go now while it was still desirable enough to bring a decent trade...  So, during much of last week I was attempting to trade off that car...

Going to dealerships, getting bids and arguing for a better deal..  Using the last bid to get a better one.

And while I know that Loyce would not approve, I decided to replace it with a Jeep...  A traditional Jeep, not a new trendy SUV kind of a Jeep..

On October 31, and Halloween there were Sales for end of the month numbers and I managed to make it all work...  So, meet the new Arizona Car....

My friend Roger arrived just as I was taking delivery of the vehicle and closing the money application part of the deal..  He had to stop off at another friends house while I got things all settled...  That night, I couldn't even find the electric window switches or the mirror adjuster knob in the dark..

So now you understand why we were out driving up and down Fish Creek Canyon...  Just had to try out the new toy...  Roger asked if I was really going to take a two day old new car on this overwhelmingly dusty gravel road....???  Why heck yes!!  Its a Jeep Thang..!

We even had the front half of the hard tops out....  Remember that new pressure washer?  And with a commercial car wash up at the local station, it was clean as new...

And before anyone says it, yes I know I have toooo many vehicles...  It is my intent to make this Jeep the new Toad!  That will require selling Loyce's CRV, which has a base plate and the additional tail light bulbs installed....

Getting rid of her things is hard for me right now, but leaving a perfectly good Honda in the garage for ever because it is sentimental doesn't seem prudent either..  Do you need a 2011 Toad?

Retired Rod

Tourist stuff

Ok, lets be clear here, my friend Roger is looking at the real estate in the Tucson area....  I do NOT need another home to try and take care of....  It was bad enough with both of us doing the maintenance stuff and cleaning....

Other than that, we have been doing tourist things, driving out to Fish Creek Canyon thru Tortilla Flat.  And then again today driving out to Roosevelt Reservoir around thru Globe...  And no we did not drive the gravel between the Canyon and the Roosevelt dam... We went North out of the lake area and came back around on the road from Payson.

That was farther, but didn't require any backtracking.... We are kind of sight seeing anyway so why turn around....?

I'm not sure what else we have done, other than attending the Lutheran Church this morning here North of our home on Signal Butte...  And then needing some brunch, I surprised Roger by taking him to the Iowa Cafe up on North Higley...

This restaurant is themed with Iowa Universities sports memorabilia..    Both Iowa State and Iowa are represented with a smattering of other schools from within the state as well...  The menu is hard working farmer or farm hand all the way...

The main offering for breakfast was a 4 egg omelette.... with hash browns, sausage, toast and coffee...  I had grits and an egg over easy...  Yep, just like library paste....!

We were aware that it was time change weekend, but of course that doesn't happen here in Arizona. So it only means that changing back to central time when I go home for the Holidays will only be one hour.

Otherwise, we have no new news....

Retired Rod