Busy

I will be posting soon I hope. Been busy and tired. Trying hard not to get sick. Getting ready for Christmas. Hope all is well with all our friends and family. Love you all.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving Day. We hope you stop and reflect on all that you have to be thankful for. We are thankful for our health and our families. We are thankful that we are in the position to meet so many great people. We are thankful for the kindness and patience of our Lord when it comes to our everyday lives. Our prayers go out to all that cannot be with family at this time of year. But know that you are in our hearts everyday. We will start tomorrow out by hopefully sleeping in. Then we will be off to Rick's uncles house to visit with them. His Aunt Mattie and Uncle Tom are in from PA. It was good to see them the other night. Plus Rick's cousin Kelley will be giving birth here within the next week. Keith and Mary are so excited! We will visit and eat a little and then come back to the park here for Thanksgiving dinner. Then we will probably be resting for the rest of the day. (From eating way to much!) The weather has been great. Cool at night and then in the 70's during the day. Tomorrow it should reach 80. Then on Sunday we get a cool down and it will be in the 60's during the day and into the low 40's at night. Jeans weather, not shorts. But that is to be expected at this time of year. At least it won't snow on us here. One of the guys here in the park is putting up a Christmas Village. It takes him about 3-4 days to get it up. It is on his patio. I will take pictures of the progress. I forgot to get a picture today of the very start. It sounds really neat. He even has a Quail Run Rv Resort complete with campers and everything. I do want to ask for prayer for a young man named Sam that was shot 3-5 times in OH. He is a friend of my daughters. A robber was chasing his girlfriends son and he stepped between them and was shot. He saved the life of that young man and now he is in ICU fighting for his life. God be with him. Well, I don't know how many of you are going shopping on Black Friday, but we are not. I have to work anyway. But if you are, be careful and make it back home in one piece. LOL!!!! And do not run over any little ol ladies! Again, enjoy your day tomorrow. Love to all.

RAIN Yea!!!!!!

Last night it rained enough to get the dust out of the air. Rick was upset because we had just washed the truck a couple of days ago and now it looks like it hadn't been washed in months. But we needed the rain. It is also cooler this weekend than usual. In the 60's. Not bad. But the clouds remind me of the snow clouds from back home. Thankfully, it does not snow here. This morning was a slow one at work and we were supposed to close the office for lunch and participate in the Welcome Back luncheon at the park. We were so slow, that after lunch we did not have to go back to work. Yea! But during the luncheon, it started to rain again. This time it poured. I mean it was coming down fast and furious! It even came in under the doors around the Carnival Room where we were eating lunch. It rained hard for a bit and then it let up. By the time the luncheon was over, it was only sprinkling. But there was water setting everywhere. I had to tiptoe thru some good sized puddles to get home. Not very pretty when you are wearing sandals. Rick was out on the golf course in the neighboring town. Haven't heard if he got soaked or not. But it really cooled down after the rain. But now the sun is back out and it is back up to a whopping 61! Tomorrow we are dog sitting for the gal I work with in the office. Beth and John are going up to Phoenix to the races and we are going to let their dog, Digger, out while they are gone for the day. He is a little cutie. I will take a picture of him tomorrow to put on the blog.

My how time flies

This past week has flown by. Just one more day and back to work. Where did the time go? We played golf, visited with friends, went to the Mesa Flea Market, church, more visiting with friends and the list goes on. Today Rick is working at the golf course and I went up and did the line dancing. One full hour is such a great workout. Two of the ladies had pedometers on and we walked a mile while dancing. And then it was time for horse shoes. I was on a team with Lil and we won! 103 to 98. I even had a ringer!!! Yea!! And I am tired. Cleaned up some paper work here at the house, (cleaned house yesterday, ) and got caught up on e-mails. I even had time in all of this to go shopping yesterday and I actually bought a Christmas present. I am on a roll! We love this life style and we have been so blessed to be able to do this at our young age. Yes, our young age. A lot of the people call us the youngsters because they are older than us. We have to laugh about that one. More and more people are coming into the park everyday. Another sign that winter is just around the corner. Glad we are here where the sun shines 99% of the time. We could use some rain though. Everything is so dry. They did not get the rain this summer like they should have. A little bit of rain would help keep the dust out of the air. But we will enjoy the sunshine while it is here. Talked to my mother this past weekend and she is doing well. She was working outside trying to clean up the leaves when I called her. My brother and sister-in-law will be heading out that way on Thursday for a few days. Mom will enjoy that. Trying to get that same brother to come out here for a little bit this winter. I haven't taken very many pictures this fall so far. Not sure why, just keep forgetting to take my camera with me. LaVon, it's catching!! Oh no!!! LOL!!! Hopefully I will start taking pics again soon. Take care and hope this finds you all well.

Hurray for Answered Prayer!!!!

Today we learned that our daughter-in-law just landed a nice job working 40 hours a week with good benefits. And also, our grandson Jay, will be going back to the Christian Day Care he was in before and even in the same class. They have been struggling to make ends meet since she lost her last job. But the Lord is good and he does answer prayers. We are just so excited for her! Keep them in your prayers that things continue to go well for them. We have been having a great time here in Arizona. We love the people in the park we are at. And we are close to Don and LaVon Baker, who we hung out with this past summer. We go to listen to Don preach every Sunday. Well, almost every Sunday. We did miss one because of our stupid "smart" clocks. You see, we have clocks that automatically change time when we "spring" ahead or "fall" back. But here in Arizona they do not do the Daylight Savings Thing. So the time stays the same here. So we got up to late to make it to Church that day. That is our story and we are sticking to it. LOL!!! We had a cold spell here for a few days last week. It got down into the 30's at night and up into the high 50's and low 60's. Thank goodness that only lasted a couple of days. Now it is getting down to the 50's and up into the 90's. The 90's are not supposed to last. We will be getting back to normal, which is around the upper 70's to lower 80's. That is just perfect weather for out here. Tomorrow we go over to Rick's Uncle Keith's house for a cookout. His other Uncle Joe is in town and family friends are in town. Will be a good time. I was instructed by Uncle Keith to bring my pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing. So that is what I made. We were a little busy at work today. I am working in the office of the Resort we are staying in. People are starting to get here for the winter. Only 2 more days to work and then I am off for 7 days. Not a bad schedule at all. We haven't been doing a whole lot lately. That is why I haven't posted. Rick got the bikes down off the ladder rack and found that one of my cables was broke. He replaced that and he put the lights on them and we are ready to ride. We did ride a little bit tonight but need to start riding more. The neighbors on one side of us are people we met when we were at this park 2 years ago. That is neat because they are very nice people. George and Janet. George plays the accordion. We love to listen to him play! Our other neighbors will not be here till Dec or Jan., I can't remember which. Well, it's time to go for now. Hope all is well with all of you. Take care.

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Today was my birthday. Will not tell my age, but sometimes it just stinks getting older. I wouldn't mind so much if everything keeps on working. Actually, I do not feel older at all. What's another day? We had a Workamper meeting first thing this morning. Then on to work. But I got out of work early, not because of my birthday, but because I worked 4 days one week instead of 3 so I was able to leave early. We went out for an early dinner at Mimi's in Casa Grande. We have not eaten there before, so thought we would try it. The food was great! I had baby back ribs and the meat was falling off the bone. Yummm! Rick had a chicken and spaghetti dish that was yummy also. We were able to bring enough home for dinner again tomorrow night. The portions were big. We stopped at Walmart to pick a couple of items and actually walked out with only 2 items. Amazing!! Then home for the rest of the evening. My son called to wish me happy birthday and then he put me on speaker phone. I got a great Happy Birthday in unison from both grandsons. The youngest sang me the happy birthday song. I had a great conversation with the entire family. Pray for our daughter in law that the funding for her schooling comes thru so she will be able to teach in the fall again. She needs to update some courses for her certificate. My daughter had called me yesterday to wish me happy birthday. Talked to her and JT. He is still doing good in school and he likes it this year. Thank you Lord. Got lots of birthday wishes on Facebook and on e-mails. Had a very good day. Tomorrow is a short day at work also. Rick will be working at the golf course tomorrow. He has been helping them out getting the course ready for the overseeding and some general clean up. But he will get free golf, so it is worth it. Hope all is well. More people are coming into the park every day. We will be having a Halloween Party on the 31st. I think I have our costumes figured out, but not totally sure if it will work. Will have pictures of that. We really like the people at this park. They are so friendly. I had a lady come into the office today and she is from Canada and as she sat at my desk, she said, "You have been here before haven't you? And it wasn't working in the office." She said welcome back. And she was the one that just got here for the season. I really like the people here. Can't wait till more of them get here. Well, I have to go for now. Take care and keep on praying. Our country needs it.

Wonderful weather

It is starting to get cold and fall like back home. But here, it is in the upper 80's and lower 90's and very low humidity. We are loving it. The bad part is that the pool is going to close next week for a couple of weeks. It has a few cracks that need to be taken care of. But the last couple of days I have been going up to water aerobics. Will miss that. Of course, I have been working and am now on my week off. I don't go back to work until next Thursday. It took a couple of days to get back into the working mode again. Not bad at all. The people of this park are great and that is why we are back. Golfed the other day. Will not divulge my score, but I did do better than I thought I would. The last time I golfed was in April of this year. The golf course is going to close for a couple of weeks for reseeding. A few of them in the area are closing for the same reason. Most of the snowbirds get here in November, so the courses will be up and running full time by then. Got good news the other night that our grandson, JT, is doing very well in school this year. So glad to hear that. We have met up again with Don and LaVon Baker, whom we had spent 2 months with this summer. They are in the next town over and it was so good to see them. We will be over to their park again this Sunday for Don's sermon. The pastor for our park will not be here until the end of November, so we will be over listening to Don. We love his sermons. They are always so personal and forthright. Rick is working at the golf course today. They are having a tournament and he is the Ranger. Will be grilling steak out on the grill tonight. Can't wait. Take care and will write more later.

The Grand Canyon

We are staying in Williams, AZ so we can spend some time at the Grand Canyon. We have never been here before and I am so glad we decided to take the time to see this magnificent scenic wonder. I won’t be writing much, just putting pictures on here.   The Colorado River was real muddy when we were there.  If you look at the above picture, you will see 2 rafts on the river.   We saw a small herd of Elk on our way out of the park. The next day we went back to the park to see the sunset. As we were on the bus going to the certain point we wanted to be at, we saw this guy. It was almost like he was posing. There were so many people taking his picture, that he would eat and lift his head up and eat and then lift his head up. He was not afraid of the people. He has had it with his photo op. Off he goes into the woods. This was his mate that was just across the street from him. Hey, LaVon, I did not forget your dead tree. This was in the evening. We headed back to the camper. Tomorrow we will be heading down to Quail Run where we will be spending the next 6 months. The pictures do not do this justice either. It is breathtaking and a must see sometime in your lifetime. We were so glad we spent the time here. We loved it and may even go back up when the snow is on the ground to see what it looks like then. We will keep you posted. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

The Past Month III

I am getting caught up a little bit at a time. You may want to start at the blog titled The Past Month to start getting caught up with us. We stopped in Gallup, NM for a night on our way to The Grand Canyon. I did do some laundry as the Laundromat was just down from our campsite. The place we stayed at advertised large lots. With our slides out, we were just a couple of feet from the ones next to us. Not large lots. But we were only staying one night, so we survived. We got up the next morning and headed to AZ. We decided to stop at the Meteor Crater since we had plenty of time to get to Williams, AZ for our 4 day stint at the Grand Canyon. This place was nothing fancy but it was amazing. You can look thru different viewers and you can see a large American Flag and a picture of a 6’ person. You cannot see them with the naked eye. Our camper looked so small from up on the crater rim. We also saw a thunderstorm heading our way. That was neat. Had no idea how far away it was. After an hour or so looking around the crater, we headed to Williams, AZ for our stay there. We did hit rain on the way in but it was gone by the time we got to the park to set up. Thank goodness for that. I hate setting up in the rain. We got to Williams on Sat and on Sunday, we went to the Grand Canyon. That will be in a post all by itself. But I will show you the town of Williams. This clock is by the visitor center. Williams is such a quaint town to walk around. It has a great deal of charm. Plus it has the Route 66 running right thru the middle of it. A nice little outdoor cafe. The next picture is of the guard rail that goes around the cafe. We also took a trip down to Sedona and the scenery there was beautiful. I’m not going to put pictures from there on the blog. Pictures just don’t do it justice. You need to go there yourself one day. The next blog will be of the Grand Canyon.

The Past Month II

Alright, we are pulling out of his brothers place. Rick’s brother was so gracious to allow us to park back by the barn. We had 50 amp service with water and cable. Sewer wasn’t a problem since we spent most of the time at his sisters house being with Dad. Here is our rig by the barn. We headed out and the first major stop was in Chatham, MO. Once LaVon found out we were there, she said you have to go to the Precious Moments Chapel and museum. So we decided to stay another day. So glad we did. This place was great. Bigger than life. This was awesome, or so we thought, until we went out to the Chapel. This place is amazing! Some of the pictures and stained glass windows. This was so awesome to look at and to hear about the creator and how he was inspired by God. The path of trumpeters. I would recommend this place to anyone who passes thru this area. We greatly enjoyed it and was so glad we decided to spend another day in Chatham. The following morning we headed out again and as we were traveling thru OK, we thought back of all the fun times we had in that area with Don and LaVon Baker. We ended up for the night in Amarillo, TX. I was so looking forward to using the hot tub. As we were checking in, I noticed the sign saying the hot tub was closed. I asked why and was told they were waiting on a part to repair it. I was so bummed. Oh well, we decided to go to the steak house for dinner instead. Got a limo ride to and from the restaurant. Food was great. After dinner we walked outside and started a conversation with Becky, who is head of the HR department there. We had a great time talking with her. She told us that we had to stop in Adrian, TX at the Midpoint Cafe. This cafe and it’s owner Fran was the inspiration behind the movie “Cars” by Disney.  We did just that. We stopped and it was amazing. We met the owner Fran, who is Flo in the movie. This pickup was parked right next door to the cafe. It has tons of signatures all over it.  

Inside the cafe. Can you tell they are the midpoint on the Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles?   All the time I was talking to Fran, the owner, I never once thought to take her picture. By the time I did think about it, she was real busy cooking for the breakfast crowd that had come in. Almost all were tourists, except a couple of local older gentlemen that were in there eating. It was a great place and we are so glad we stopped. Then on to NM.