Dec 16th to 18th - Mesa

Dec 16th – Thurs – Mesa
Terry took Dennis & Gloria to the airport at 8 this morning while I made a fruit salad and cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Friends Gary & Carie (from Victoria, met them in Savannah GA) are staying in Casa Grande and came to see us today. We had coffee & breakfast with them and Bill & Lauri and all caught up on each other’s news.
Even though the forecast was for showers and it was cloudy, we decided to go ahead with plans for a bike ride along the canal. Bill & Lauri turned back after a couple of miles as Lauri has not been feeling well and at the 5 mile mark where we were going to turn around, the sprinkles turned to showers so we were pretty wet when we got back to the park. We parked the bikes under cover and toured the main building. After drying out back at our rig, we made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby for a couple of items for Carie and then Ernie & Dianne joined us at Fat Willy’s for beer and appetizers. Back to the rig for a drink, loaded up the bikes and Gary & Carie left just after 8.

Dec 17th – Fri – Mesa
We played bocce ball this morning and then went to Best Buy for a new wifi “modem” to replace our air card. It is still with Verizon but can handle up to five wireless enabled devices (computers, printers, etc) and costs $35 a month rather than the $60 that we have been paying. It only allows 3 gigabytes of usage instead of the 5 gigs of the previous unit but we never used 3 gigs a month.
From there we went to the Ak Chin casino in Maricopa and played the slots until 6 when we met Gary & Carie for the seafood buffet. We had won back some of our losses before dinner so of course we had to stay and get rid of the winnings before leaving at 9.

Dec 18th – Sat – Mesa
I tried to set up the new modem this morning (over and over again) and finally Terry decided we better go back to Best Buy. We signed up at the Geek Squad desk, waited our turn and a very busy tech got us connected to the internet. We shut down the computer while we were there and restarted it to make sure everything came up OK.
Back at home, Terry booted up the computer and it would not recognize the modem and connect. I was making an early dinner so after we ate, I tried everything I could remember that the tech did but to no avail. An error finally included a support number and about 40 minutes with a nice guy in Salt Lake City was successful in getting everything working. I think the problem was caused by our previous air card and not everything was removed when the old software was uninstalled.
We had time for a well-earned drink before going to a dance here at the park. A new friend – Phyllis – got tickets for herself and Larry & Julie and happened to be at our table. The couple providing the music was good and played very danceable songs so we all had a great time. We walked back with Neil & Robin and ended up playing cards with them until about 11:30.