Getting back in the groove

Maxine and I hope everyone had a nice Christmas and enjoyed the time with their families and friends. We spent the day at Betty and Randy’s house (Maxine’s sister). Mom was there along with Betty and Randy’s son and his wife and son. We had a very nice day with the temps around 70 degrees. I could get use to this kind of weather.

Before dinner we watched as Betty and Randy’s grandson opened his gifts. He was not disappointed with the train set Betty and Randy got for him.  It was fun watching him open his gifts. After all it is not Christmas without the children. After all of that excitement I must have found my comfort zone because I sort of zoned out. And this was before dinner!

After dinner and dishes we visited for awhile then called it a night so Betty and Randy could take mom home and to look at Christmas lights along the way. We made it back to the rig around 9pm and watched a little TV until we got sleepy enough for bed.

Sunday was football day so I attended my usual Sunday televised church service at Our Lady of Arrowhead. The Chiefs were in fine form and won against Tennessee. Cincinnati beat San Diego so that means the Chiefs have clinched the AFC West division and we will get at least one playoff game. I do not expect the Chiefs to go very far in the playoffs but am excited about the turn around that they are going through.

After the game we went back over to Betty and Randy’s to spend our last Sunday afternoon with them before we leave Phoenix. Randy was working on his pickup when we pulled in on the bike. Betty and Max had their sisterly conversations while I watched Randy go through his maintenance. Randy is an Aviation Mechanic by trade and works at the Shy Harbor airport. He does all of his own mechanical work on all of his vehicles and is meticulous in their care. He was rotating the tires as I was commenting on how clean the underneath part of his truck was. It was cleaner than the outside of any of mine.

Betty and Max supervising 

Randy getting the jack in place

With the mechanical stuff done we went inside and fired up the grill and opened up a bottle of Port wine. Since we have been here they have opened up several varieties of wine for us to sample. They gave us a wine carrier that will hold six bottles of wine in a Styrofoam shell and is perfect for traveling. So naturally we had to buy some wine that we liked to fill it up so we will be well supplied for when we are on the road. With dinner completed we visited for a little while longer then we headed home since Betty had to get up early for work.

This was our last weekend to spend with them and I want to thank them for everything they have done for us since we have been here. They went way out of their way to make us feel welcome, they took us on touring trips, exposed us to some great restaurants and cooked us some great dinners. They really spoiled us. Thanks Betty and Randy for everything!

It’s Monday and now it is time to get in the groove of getting ready to leave Phoenix on Saturday morning. We will be headed to Benson Az to the SKP Saguaro Park. It is an Escapees park and we can stay up to 30 day’s. We will only be there for about 9 day’s before moving on. They will be closed on Jan 1st so we will have to dry camp in their dry camping area until they can check us into a site on Sunday. This will be our first dry camping experience since we bought the rig. Hopefully the furnace will work on 12 volt as designed. The temps at night will get down to the mid 30’s.

This week will be spent getting back into the groove and spending a little more time with mom and Betty and Randy before we depart. We have a lot of little things to get done along with the normal things like house cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry etc.. We might even have to pick one more restaurant to tryout!