Friday, September 21, 2012

Sept 18th to 20th - Pahrump to Mesa

Sept 18th – Tues – Pahrump
I made “refrigerator” cinnamon rolls this morning which were not nearly as good as the ones I make using refrigerator flaky biscuits.  We watched TV and worked on the computer a bit before deciding to head back to the casino.  As we were leaving, I noticed that the one leftover roll and plate were covered with little ants.  The vacuum & bug spray got rid of them again and I hope we don’t take too many with us tomorrow.
I continued my losing ways at the casino – you would think I would get tired of it! – but Terry won small amounts again.  We ordered off the menu for lunch and got quite cranky when it took 25 minutes to get our food.  I won a bottle of wine so I picked it up, went back to the rig and left Terry to gamble.  I had a great time watching HGTV and taking my time cleaning the cupboard under the sink.  I just turned off the TV to go see how Terry was doing when he walked in the door.
We had a drink and went back to the casino for dinner.  This time we had the steak specials for $9.99 – T-bone for Terry and New York for me.  I made the better choice!  We couldn’t leave until we took Terry’s winnings down a bit but didn’t stay for long.

Sept 19th – Wed - to Mesa
We had a longer drive than usual today – 367 miles.  We got an early start after a restless night and left at 7:15.  We stopped for fuel for us and the truck in Kingman and then made another stop for DQ Blizzards in Wickenburg.
About 2:00 we pulled into Val Vista Villages RV Park which will be home until the end of March.  This will be the longest that we have stayed in one spot since we started our full-timing adventure nearly 6 years ago.  We registered and waited for a ranger to escort us to our site – park policy.  Terry was tired from the drive and the heat and didn’t do his usual efficient job of parking.  Also, the ranger gave him “advice” rather than letting me direct him in as we usually do.  As we were parking, I noticed that a tire on the 5th wheel was low so we had to pump it up before setting up.
After we set up, we called Julie & Larry and asked them to join us at the pool which they did.  The water was pretty warm but it was still refreshing.  A lady named Mary joined us and said she recognized us from bocce ball last year.  We gave Larry & Julie ½ hour to change & walk the dog and picked them up for a trip to Fat Willy’s for dinner – cold beer and happy hour pricing on appetizers.  We were back just after 7:30 and crashed.

Sept 20th – Thurs
Terry got up early and played games on the computer so I could sleep longer.  It didn’t work – I was up shortly after him.  It was cool enough to turn off the AC and open the door.   I walked around the rig to check the tire that was low and discovered it was now flat so Terry figured he better change it before it got too hot.  We figured out the switches so we could pull in just the kitchen slide for access to the tire.  We knew that the flood lights were labeled backwards – DS should be “driver’s side” and ODS should be “off driver’s side” and we found out that the slide switches are also backwards so we got out the trusty Sharpie to make our own labels.
After looking up tire shops on the computer, I showered and went for coffee & doughnuts while Terry went to get the tire fixed.  I chatted with Mary after the meeting and then met her friend Patti and admired the job that she did fixing up a park model that she bought in the spring.  I still had time to work on the blog & emails before Terry got back.
The problem with the tire was another cracked wheel/rim so we have to get new wheels.  These are the replacements that we got a year ago in Colorado when we had repairs after a blowout so obviously they are not heavy enough for our rig.  Terry ran all over looking for wheels and getting quotes – yuk!  We spent time looking up info on the internet before I made “breakfast for lunch”.
We went shopping for a few groceries and an ice maker – ours quit working about a month ago.  Terry figures they have a life of a year and I would buy bags of ice instead if we always had enough room in the freezer for a full bag.  This park now sells 8 lb bags of ice for $1 so it is convenient and inexpensive but when we are somewhere else we would have to remember to get ice all the time.  We found an ice maker at the nearby Fry’s store, came back and set it up.  Terry went to get filtered water that we buy all the time here and it was not warm, it was hot.  He also got a bag of ice so we could put ice & water in the ice maker as it won’t work well with hot water.  Phew!!
We went shopping for a few miscellaneous items and then joined Larry & Julie, Mary & a friend of Julie’s in the pool until all us were wrinkled from the water.  It was 6:45 by the time we returned and changed out of our bathing suits so I got dinner going and relaxed.

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