Oct 24th to 28th - Mesa

Oct 24^th – Sat

We golfed at 8 this morning with the Saturday group organized by Dar. We were paired with Jim & Grace. We were picking Phyllis up at the airport at 12:40 so we were the first group to play. Good thing because the play ahead of us was slow and the plane was 10 minutes early. After dropping Phyllis off we went to McDonald's for lunch as we were starving. The rest of the golfers went to OTG (On The Green) for lunch and Moe & Trish did not return until after we were back – slow service.

We went cruising around the park on the motorcycle in the late afternoon and someone called to us to stop as we went past a motorhome with 4 people sitting outside. It was Al & Brenda and their friends Leo & Lynn. Al & Brenda are from Midway B.C. and we met them briefly at Rock Creek through our friends Claude & Val. They follow our blog so knew we were in VVV and knew we had a Spyder. The 2 couples go to San Carlos MX in January and will stay here until then. We had a beer with them and a nice visit – the first of many I am sure.

Oct 25^th – Sun

Here I go again! I don't remember too much about this lazy day. We had a visit from Carolyn for a hello hug and a tour of our rig. We joined Dennis & Gloria for a drink before going for dinner. Jerry & Becky wandered by so they came for dinner at the Chinese buffet as well. Of course we had to have another drink after dinner.

Oct 26^th – Mon

After a coffee & goofing off we went to move Ralph & Elsie's 5^th wheel to their site. First we had to go to the office to request a ranger for an escort from storage to the site. They are stricter about it this year – sure had the lady in the office confused about what we wanted to do but Pat was the ranger who answered the call and she knew what we were doing. No problem backing it in and Eladio even came over with a compliment on how well we worked together. Not hard when the driver is good – and listens when I say stop. Terry was doing a bit of setup on the 5^th wheel when Rosemary stopped by for a tour of our new home.

We went to MCY at 3 with Reign-n-Country. We stayed after 5 chatting with a group until our umbrella was the only one left for the work campers to tie up.

Oct 27^th – Tues

Terry woke up with a very sore hip and was hobbling severely. No idea what the heck caused it. I picked up Ron & Mary to go to line dancing at Towerpoint. When I got back Terry was sitting outside watching TV and was still limping so I gave him a couple of pain pills that I take for headaches.

We went out for lunch and found Burger King closed for remodeling so we went to Albertsons for a few groceries and something for lunch. After lunch we were playing computer games and Terry suddenly said his hip didn't hurt any more. Sure enough when he got up he wasn't limping. Very weird.

We went to Jim & Grace's at 4 for “chili & smokies” along with a bunch of our friends. We had to leave early for a birthday party for Irene that started at 6. Rich Mancini was providing music so we got to dance. Great party!

Oct 28^th – Wed

Terry golfed today so I puttered & enjoyed my alone time. I even rode the motorcycle the short distance to Albertson's for one ingredient for dinner and picked up ice for Terri at McDonalds. When Terry got back we had some leftover chicken for a late lunch before going to MCY at 3.

Ralph & Elsie arrived today so I had dinner in the crockpot and they joined us right after MCY. Good food, good drinks, great friends!!

Oct 20th to 23rd - Mesa

Oct 20^th – Tues

It felt good to update the blog today. We went to line dancing at Tower Point, had lunch there on the plaza and then watched a demo of line dances done by our instructor and his dancing partner.

Terry got antsy mid afternoon so we made a trip to White Horse Casino which we wish we hadn't. It was the worst we have done at a casino for a long time. Dennis & Donna were here to drop off their motor home so we got hugs and they “toured” our new home before we had a drink with them, Ron & Terri and Bob & Dar.

After dinner we walked over to see the pieces that Harlan (Fatzinger) built for their park model. He is an amazing carpenter and made a buffet to replace a desk in the kitchen area, a desk for the AZ room and a storage cabinet over the toilet in the half bath. Of course we had to stay to enjoy a Moscow Mule!

Oct 21^st – Wed

Ron & Terry went golfing this morning so I went with Terri to return an item to Costco and pick up some folding chairs. Then I got a little ambitious and vacuumed & mopped the floors. From 12:30 to 2:30 was a Renters & RVers party put on by the sales department. We had a whole table of friends, drank too much wine and had a nice lunch. From there it was time to regroup and head to the patio for 3 to 5 Music in the Courtyard (MCY) where the drinking & fun was in addition to the line dancing.

Moe & Trish and Duane & Sue arrived today so Terry decided we needed a happy hour at our place and started inviting people when MCY was done. I have no idea how many showed up as I was busy with tours of our home for a while. When everyone left I made a sandwich for Terry for dinner & we were done.

Oct 22^nd – Thurs

We started with coffee & doughnuts in the ballroom and then hit the laundry room. Terry helped Ron set up his satellite dish and I did some cleaning up & organizing here & there in the rig. After lunch we relaxed & goofed off – lovely!

Gloria & Dennis had a happy hour(s) at their place to properly welcome Moe & Trish and Duane & Sue. The weather was perfect to sit out of the sun in the carport and still be warm. This is a lovely time of year here. A small group of diehards stayed until 9:30 and of course we were part of that group.

Oct 23^rd – Fri

We went to line dance lessons/exercise class at Towerpoint from 10 to noon. The instructor actually calls it Happy Hour as he is not teaching entire dances all the time but rather sequences of at least 3 different steps that we do to music. The instructor is excellent and we get a lot of exercise in the 2 hours. Today it was outside under a big canopy and some of us were partly in the sun which was pretty hot. When we got back, Bob and Harlan helped us remove the cover from Ralph & Elsie's 5^th wheel in preparation to move it from storage in a few days. Leftovers for lunch and then some down time.

Doug & Delores came by for a visit and then Dennis & Gloria stopped in and had a drink with us. We went to MCY from 6 to 8 for 2 more hours of line dancing. Some of the music in the courtyards have been changed from 3-5 to 6-8 as it is cooler. We have been getting good turnouts.

Sept 8th to Oct 20th - Mesa

So - another catch-up blog entry for “only” a month & a half but what a busy time!
We had to get a new back tire on the bike and then we took it in for some modifications so hot air doesn't blow so much on your feet. Luckily the hot air modification was covered by a Cal-Am recall. Each of these things involve Terry riding the bike and me following in the truck to pick him up and then the reverse when we got the bike back. On one of the trips we stopped at Famous Footwear and were lucky enough to find a pair of sandals on clearance for Terry. Considering how much he likes to shop for shoes this is a great deal.

We were still looking for a new rig so we made a trip to Surprise to look at a Momentum that we had seen in Mesa but was advertised for a lower price in Surprise. Unfortunately it was a 2015 with only 2 axles and the salesman was obnoxious. As all my facebook friends know, we did buy a new toy hauler which was a huge undertaking.

We traded in both the Montana and the little toy hauler so we first had to empty everything out of the toy hauler and were lucky enough to be able to stash it all in Neal & Robin's storage trailer. We unloaded everything from the underneath storage in the Montana and made a huge “Beverly Hillbillies” pile under, on and around the round table on the patio. Then we covered it all with a couple of tarps and tied it with rope. We packed up most of the Montana – except clothes, toiletries & stuff in the fridge and put the boxes in the underneath storage so we could just move from there to the underneath storage in the new rig and put away when we got parked on our site.

We “signed on the dotted line” on Monday Sept 14^th and took the toy hauler in on Tuesday. There was someone looking at it to buy before we left the lot. We took the Montana in on Wednesday with the intention of leaving it there for the day so they could move the satellite dish to the new rig and then we would move stuff over and take our new house back. We were eating a late breakfast when the salesman called to say they could not move the satellite as it involved more than they thought (we asked if someone wanted to come and see it beforehand!) so we hustled back to figure things out. The whole deal was going to blow up if we didn't pay another $1000 so we offered to pay half (which was supposed to buy a back up camera!) and they said OK. Unfortunately, by now it was too late to move the satellite and the best installer was off on Thursday so we ended up grabbing some bedding, clothes & toiletries and hauling the little toy hauler back so we had a bed for a couple of nights. When we got here we discovered that we didn't have a 30 Amp outlet on our site and had no conversion plug (packed in the Montana) but we had enough cords to reach our neighbors' (Ron & Terri) power box so we were good.

On Thursday we went back to move stuff over to the Momentum. It was being prepped and had a space beside it so they could pull the Montana up in the opposite direction so our doors were together. When the fork lift set down the Montana and went to back out it got stuck in loose gravel and it took a couple of guys over an hour to get it out. In the meantime, we were moving everything – Terry lugging the boxes from underneath storage and me moving clothes, etc that had not been packed up. Do I need to say that it was close to or at 100 degrees? At least the AC was on in the Momentum but had a hard time cooling things down with the door open all the time. Back to the little toy hauler for the night and then in to pick up the new rig on Friday. Of course it wasn't done when we got there but we did get it late in the day and Terry put it into our site with no problem.

Now the real work started with trying to figure out where everything was going to go. We had to put in extra shelves in the kitchen cabinets – LOVE Home Depot being so close and being so obliging about cutting lumber – get towel rods for the bathroom and cut down the board under the mattress since we had a king replaced with our queen and the dealer won't cut down the board as “it will void a warranty on that part of the rig”! Yup, I got the same information when I emailed the manufacturer about it. Talk about CYA! We built a simple desk in the garage for the computer and assorted papers that need a home. I have a stainless steel fridge so I can finally use magnets to post necessary items such as the monthly activity calendar and a grocery list. I will have to try hard not to let it get too junky!

We had a lovely break when we joined a bunch of friends on a music cruise on Saguaro Lake. We had dinner first – on land - and enjoyed music by Saguaro Sunset as the sun set (how appropriate!). Tons of fun. Lots of people were returning for the winter season so it wasn't all work. We had music in the courtyard a couple of times from 6 to 8 since it was so hot.

Dave & Phyllis and Ron & Terri showed up later in September so it was nice to have neighbors on the street. Actually Eladio Guiterrez was here early and is just a few sites down from us but leaving at the end of December. Bob & Dar are also here on our street now.

We had to make a trip to Total Wine with Ron & Terry and then we took them and Joe & Jean to At Home as they had never been there. We bought blue rope lights which turned out to be greenish so we had to return them. We got more blue at Big Lots and they were less greenish but still went back and exchanged for white. We are kind of picky about the color as we have blue lights on the Momentum and the others clashed.

We had to get someone to complete the satellite TV hookup as the RV dealer just installed the dish and hooked it up to the input but didn't hook up the boxes to each TV. The installer at the RV dealer also thought he was doing us a favor by putting in a splitter so we could easily switch from satellite to antenna to park cable. Direct TV's Genies don't work with splitters so it took a couple of guys nearly 4 hours to figure everything out. Luckily they had given us an estimate and we paid only 50% more.

Canadian Thanksgiving was October 12^th so Terri & I organized dinner for 38. We had a bit of a challenge finding frozen turkeys but Smart & Final had them. Dinner turned out excellent as usual. We moved tables for eating onto the side of the street that was shaded by a couple of park models as it was still very hot.

We had a hectic few hours on Friday the 16^th. We were supposed to move a trailer from storage to a site at 4:00 and we got a phone call a 3:10 from Barb Fatzinger saying they were stranded in Wickenburg. Their car developed engine problems and they were towed into Wickenburg. They had a Uhaul filled with stuff and their Suburban was full including a wire kennel for their 2 dogs. They couldn't rent a vehicle that would tow the Uhaul so they wondered if we could possibly come get them. Terry went down the street to Eladio who agreed to move the trailer from storage. Then Terry left for Wickenburg and I stayed to coordinate the trailer move which was a good thing since there wouldn't have been room for one more passenger coming back from Wickenburg. I had dinner ready when they returned about 7:00 (rush hour traffic!) and then we helped unload everything so the Uhaul could be returned the next day. I don't believe there was a 4 cubic inch empty space anywhere in that trailer. It was a marvel of packing!

We had the first golf outing of the Whiskey Row Hackers on Sunday the 18^th. It was followed by lunch at the Duchess bar & grill as The Hub messed up Dar's plans for us to eat there. So nice to get back into some of our fun activities including line dancing at Tower Point a couple of times and hopefully the rest of the winter.

Thanks to Claude & Elaine for kicking me in the butt to catch up the blog!! Once again I will try to keep up but I am sure that once again I will fall behind!