Mesa Regal RV Resort

Thursday the 9^th we went to the Arizona Coyotes NHL game, the first pro hockey game I have seen. We met everyone at Val Vista, another Cal-Am resort, there were twenty plus people so we had a bus chartered to take us to the game. We arrived at the arena an hour or so early which gave us time to go to Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville. Nice place, a bit over priced but the food was good.

Saturday the 11^th it was Roller Derby night. Now I have never been to a Roller Derby and if it wasn't for the $5 Groupon tickets I still would have never been to a Roller Derby and I am not sure what it would take to get me to go to another one. It was a lot of fun though; there were ten of us from our Workamper group that went. We met at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, http://www.pappadeaux.com/location/?id=36, they have great food, I would give it $$$ on the menu cost but the food was worth it and the portions were huge. After dinner, we headed over to the Roller Derby, which is held on an ice hockey rink, http://www.azderbydames.com/. I remember watching Roller Derby on TV many years ago, I didn’t watch it much but I did see it a couple of times, so I was expecting to see a banked oval and the participants pushing and shoving each other over the rails, didn’t happen. There was some pushing and shoving but I believe most of them fell over one another or just plain didn’t skate well. Now I am no skater and could never do what they do but in my opinion, it isn’t worth a $10 admission. Overall, we still had fun and it was an enjoyable evening.

Sunday we were up bright and early to begin our trip to Las Vegas, it was put together by World Span Tours, this is a group who has a booth at the vendor’s market each Friday here in the park. Anyway, we parked the truck at the office and met up with our traveling companions, John & Cindi Cline they are from Omaha, and we walked about three blocks to the pickup point for the trip. We boarded a bus and left at 6:30 am headed for Las Vegas. It had been 30 years since Sarah & I had been in Vegas so we were excited to see what was new. Actually, the newest thing isn’t in Vegas it is the new bridge for crossing the river at the Hoover Dam. We didn’t get any good pictures of the dam etc. because the bus had to be in the inside lane of the bridge but the view of the river and the canyon was spectacular. It was a great trip up with two rest stops to stretch and get something to eat. I had to get a key card for each casino, some of them have banded together, must be common ownership, and you get one card good for several casinos. Of course, I am never going to gamble enough to get anything out of them but it is a good souvenir. We stayed at the Fremont downtown, nice hotel and clean. Monday we bought passes for the city transit bus, rode to the end of the strip, and began walking toward downtown, we walked from the end to Treasure Island hotel and we were all beat so we got back on the bus to go back to the Fremont. We ate with the two for one coupon everyone gives out and these provide a good value, and more important the food was very good.

Here are some pictures.

You can see the top of the Hoover Dam, this is from the new bridge.

No this isn’t New York, I took this picutre and the next at a place called New York New York, http://newyorknewyork.com/

I don’t remember where this picture was taken but it is good of Sarah.

This was taken at the Coca Cola place Sarah & Cindi are with the bear. You could take pictures with your own camera and they took pictures also but charged for them.

John & Cindi on the bus.

I love this picture, the scenery on the drive was spectacular.

We left Vegas at 1 pm Tuesday the 14^th and had an uneventful trip home, stopping at the same places as going up, we got home about eight. Great trip, great time, we saw a lot and had great traveling companions.

Wednesday, tonight we got home from work and had no power in the camper. The electric post had no power so I called the resort emergency number and a person came over. He verified we had no power at the post and called Raul, who works for the resort; he came over and determined we had power; someone had messed with the breakers. I had flipped the breaker for our camper and the others that are in the panel but all of them went to the same location. It seems the resort had a power outage yesterday and I have a feeling someone messed with the breakers. However, we still did not have power. Therefore, I get on the internet, on my phone, and began looking for a mobile RV service. The first one I called three times to no avail, the second one I called and left a message, I didn’t hear back from them. The third one, RV Eagle Mobile RV Service, Nick answered and said he would be right over. He was there within 15 minutes, determined the cause and had it corrected in five minutes and diagnosed a refrigerator problem for me, cost me $80 dollars but we had power back and I have another option to look at if we lose power again.

I figured since I had Nick here I would ask him about the fridge not working on gas, he checked it out and it seems I have a bad circuit board so I will have to have it replaced, not cheap but a whole lot less expensive than a new fridge. Therefore, I have to get back with him so he can order the new board.

The rest of the week didn’t have much happening until Saturday.

Saturday we headed for Tucson. Sarah’s brother Bob was celebrating his 80^th birthday and we were going down to help him celebrate.Sarah, Bob, Judy.

Bob & Judy

We couldn’t get a fire permit so there is only one candle on Bob’s cake and the candle played Happy Birthday.

We got there around noon and visited for a bit. Bob had just gotten a new phone and was having trouble hearing it ring so we adjusted the volume and he needed a new carrying case for it. Since the Sprint store was in the same area as the Olive Garden, we went there for dinner. We had the soup and salad, always my favorite, and had a great time. Then it was back to their place for cake and ice cream. Bob and Judy live in Far Horizons RV Resort, http://www.tucsonvillage.com/, it is a nice place with several hundred units, the majority of them are park models.

After cake we headed over to Deb Baker’s townhouse, this is Darrius’ sister, where we were spending the weekend. Deb has lives in a great development, it is a gated community with pool and clubhouse, we would love to have a place there for the winter. There are some one bedroom for sale but we would want a two bedroom and there are none of them available I would want.

Sunday we went to church at St Thomas Moore Catholic Newman Center, http://www.uacatholic.org/, this is a small church, which ministers to the students and locals alike. We met great niece Delaney there and her friend Emily. After church, Delaney showed us around campus. I was very impressed with the campus; it wasn’t intimidating like some are. I really liked the open mall area, which extends for a couple blocks. The thing I found very interesting is the number of eating choices they have. I remember when I was in school you had the dorm cafeteria or the student union had a café of sorts. Delaney has a choice between ten or more eating establishments. Of course, some of you are going to say when I was in school you wrote on papyrus but in fact, it wasn’t THAT many years ago. Was it?

This is Delaney, she is standing on the mall and the area below her are classrooms that built with the mall as their roof.

I am not really sure what this was except I thought it looked great. It seemed to have all the plants that grow in the desert.

This is the Old Main,http://www.arizona.edu/, the original building built some 100 years ago and still funtioning as part of the campus.

Picture of the mall facing east, you can just make out some mountains in the distance.

Just off campus, as it is with many colleges, there were a couple blocks of business district, which caters to the student’s needs, more restaurants, drink places, clothes and the like. We ate at Gentle Bens, a microbrewery, http://gentlebens.com/, the food was not bad and the service was good. We finished the tour with a visit to Delaney’s dorm, she is in the honor’s dorm, it is a building that is over a hundred years old but has been updated to accommodate the needs of today’s students. The only thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the size of the room, it was very small but Delaney and her roommate seem to manage. We also visited the awesome fitness and rec center the university has, it is something to see. There is no excuse for the students not to be in great shape.

It was then time to say good-bye, Delaney walked with us to where we had parked and with hugs, we took off.

As were driving down Speedway Street toward I-10 I remember Lazydays RV had taken opened a park in Tucson so we headed for it. I wasn’t sure where it was but I had an idea of the location. I hit it lucky and found it. The location is the old Beaudry sales and RV park. We stopped at the registration and visited with the folks. It turns out the park has been open since last Sept, after being closed for a year or so, and they use seasonal workers in the RV sales area and only had one couple who were workampers in the campground. We drove through the park and it seemed quite nice, http://lazydaysrvcampground.com/.

Then it was back to Deb’s place with a stop at the Foothills Mall, Sarah’s idea not mine. We were there about forty-five minutes and the to Deb’s. Deb fixed a delicious roast in the crock-pot for dinner; I love this type of meal because I like the little potatoes you use in it. Therefore, I ate more than I should but it was so good.

The rest of the evening we visited, watched TV and Deb beat my scores in Bejeweled 2 on the IPad.

Monday was a beautiful day and we spent it at the Pima Air & Space Museum, http://www.pimaair.org/, this is a must visit if you are in Tucson. We spent over four hours there and didn’t come close to seeing everything. I wanted to see the airplane bone yard, also called AMARC, http://www.amarcexperience.com/AMARCDescription.asp, at Davis Mountain AFB but because it was a federal holiday, they were not open. So that is for my next visit, which won’t be until fall, but I am guessing it will still be there.

We left the museum and went to Frost Gelato, http://frostgelato.com/, you talk about good this stuff was great and there were twenty different flavors to choose from. It was great.

Then it was back to Deb’s to pack the truck and head home to Mesa.

We had a great weekend in Tucson, great weather, it was fun visiting with everyone, and seeing the University of Arizona was a treat too.

We are down to less than six weeks left here. Where does the time go?

So remember – Dreams Do Come True.