I know I have said it before but “Where does the time go?” We have two more weeks of work and then back on the road. I am ready for it, I have enjoyed the time here, we have met a lot of great people and hope to stay in touch with them and hopefully work with them again next year. In this life style, the tendency is to meet a variety of individual personalities, some you like some you don’t. I have to say though, like Will Rogers, I haven’t met anyone I didn’t like in our traveling so far.
To bring you up to date about our doings we go back to April 4 and a delightful dinner with Nikki, Jack and Meredith. We went to Sweet Tomato restaurant, now I am not one for a full vegetarian meal, ST is mostly veggies, but they do have a few things that are more to my liking. If you have never been to one, I don’t know what the Midwest has to compare to it, but it is one big salad bar plus soups and breads and it is all very good. We had a great time and have enjoyed being with them. Nikki, Jack and Meredith we hope to see you next winter.
Monday, the 5th, Colleen and Darrius came over and we had lunch at Midwestern Meats. They have the best tenderloins you will find down here, in fact I believe only two places, MW and the Iowa Café, have tenderloins, that rival any I have had up north. We had a good time and I am glad Colleen has finally made it to the East side.
The 6th we headed for Casa Grande to see John & Kathy Evans, friends we met in Des Moines, they have been going to Casa Grande every winter for the last 10+ years. They took us to Eloy, AZ to the airport there to watch the skydivers, http://www.skydiveaz.com/. This was something I had wanted to see and I was not disappointed. So no one will ask, there isn’t enough money in the world, well it would take an awful lot of it, to get me to jump from a perfectly good airplane. I watched in amazement at the control the jumpers had with their chutes. The wind began to pick up around noon and so the powers to be suspended further takeoffs but there was one plane still in the air. Evidently when the wind got too high to safely send more jumpers up those, already up had a choice to jump or not to jump. We saw about six come back on the plane. Those that chose to jump had a tough job landing. We saw some land about a quarter to half mile from the landing zone, so a vehicle was dispatched to pick them up, others landing in dust clouds, I don’t know how they knew where the field was but they made it back. It was quite a sight to see the jumpers skid across the grass before coming to a stop and it always looked like they were coming in to fast to avoid injury but they all made it safely. A few pictures:
The rest of the week, it was nothing but work, work and more work. Actually, we still like doing the job and the great group we work with makes it even better.
Friday night found us going to Colleen & Darrius’ for dinner and the next day a trip to Tucson. Colleen fixed a great dinner of cod with panko, a Japanese breadcrumb, the salad had prosciutto and melon and of course wine. As always, it was delicious. Saturday we headed for Tucson, we left exactly at 8:30; we wanted to be in Tucson by 10 am. Darrius’ sister Deb lives in a gated community for 55+.
There was a townhouse I wanted to look at, it needs too much work inside for the price they want but we will keep an eye on it. The rest of the day was spent with Deb. We ended up for lunch at a Mexican restaurant, http://www.minidito.net/main.html. President Bill Clinton ate here in 1999; in fact, they sat us at the table he ate at. The food was fabulous and very good quality for a modest price. In fact, I have paid more for Mexican food that was nowhere near as good.
We left there and went to the Anita Street Market, http://www.yelp.com/biz/anita-street-market-tucson, they don’t have a website, and I guess their reputation speaks for itself. We bought some green chili, tortillas and em piñatas, I don’t remember ever having the em piñatas but they were fabulous, they are a pastry with filling. The green chili was beef in a broth with green chilies in it and you put the meat on tortillas, fabulous. It was a good thing Darrius has GPS in his car because I don’t know if we would have found it otherwise.
We had a great time seeing Deb and I like Tucson more each time I go there. Deb we will see you in the fall.
We got home around five or so and spent the evening watching TV. Thank you Colleen & Darrius for everything this winter, we have enjoyed every minute of it and look forward to seeing you next winter if not before.
Monday the 12th was transmission service time for the truck. They changed both filters and did the service, I was in and out in a bit over two hours and they washed the truck for me.
Nothing much happened the rest of the week until Saturday. We went over to Steve & Teresa’s; along with John & Cindi Cline, Mickey & Venita Holbrook and Brad & Suzanne Abernathy, we work together on Wed, Thurs and Friday afternoon. Steve made jambalaya and everyone else brought an appetizer etc. We had a great time sitting around eating a delicious meal and some very interesting conversation, what fun, we will miss these folks, although Brad & Suzanne are working in Rapid City this summer, John & Cindi live in Omaha, and Steve & Teresa and Mickey & Venita are expected back to Mesa next winter so maybe we will get to see everyone again. As with a lot of the folks you meet on the road given enough time your paths will cross again.
Pictures of the group,
Saturday found me putting on the tailgate I bought for the truck last January. I kept putting it off and finally decided I needed to get it done so I bought some items I needed and did it. I had to drill four holes in the truck and two in the gate but I got it done and it looks pretty good.
The next time I write we will be in either Omaha or Des Moines.
Remember – Dreams Do Come True
1 comment:
Looks like you have had a great winter. It is hard to believe that spring is here and summer not really that far off. Perhaps we will connect somewhere in Iowa this summer. We will be in the CR area for June and July.
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