I don’t know where the time goes but it has passed faster than I could ever imagine. We have six weeks left here and then we head north to the frozen tundra. I do hope Des Moines has thawed out by then.
Here is a recap of what we have been doing since the last post.
January 24 the park had the fifth and last of their manager’s meetings welcoming everyone to Val Vista. I didn’t want to go but Sarah dragged kicking, screaming, to the event and me. I won a door prize, a nice blanket; Sarah quickly took it from me. It wasn’t a bad meeting we sat with friends which helped me get through the bad music and having two brownies, the person next to me didn’t show up, helped also.
We went to the Lost Dutchman mine, with Steve and Teresa, to see a Native American dance show and see what they had there. The dancers were very good, the rest of the offerings were ok, mostly vendors selling items you could buy elsewhere a bit cheaper. We stopped at one of the many orange grove stands and bought some delicious oranges. In all it was a fun day.
Steve and Teresa invited us over for dinner one night. Steve is a very good cook. The meal was delicious and we enjoyed being with them for the evening.
Bob and Judy Dumcum, they work the morning shift on the Décor Team, invited us to go with them to see a free concert at the Mesa Art Museum. The Burchfield Brothers were playing, I had never heard of them before but they were excellent. I bought several of their CDs and we listen to them in the car. We had a great time.
Rick Klingburg and Pam Hamilton, Rick works the afternoon shift with me, asked us to go to the Wrigley Mansion Club, http://www.wrigleymansionclub.com/, with them for lunch and tour of the club. It is quite a place, the view is great and you can see for miles. We stayed until sunset and it was spectacular. The food is very good and the portion size is good, it is all ala carte and pricey. We are hoping to go back to listen to jazz on Thursday or Friday nights.
February 1 found us at Kathy and John Evans place in Casa Grande. We had wanted to get down to see them since we arrived here. John showed us a cane he made and was going to enter it into a competition here in the Phoenix area, we haven't heard how he did but it was a beautiful cane so in my mind he should win first place. We also went to the airport in Eloy, AZ to watch the skydivers, http://www.skydiveaz.com/. They tell me there is a 225 lb limit for tandem skydives, so I don't have to worry about anyone talking me into trying it. I don't believe there is enough money to get me to try it, well maybe there is. As always it was good to see John and Kathy, we will see them again in April in Des Moines, hopefully without the cold and the snow.
On the sixth we headed south to visit Debbie Baker, my brother in law Darrius' sister, she has a townhome in Tucson. We arrived before lunch; she had hot beef sandwiches with au jus, very good. We then headed over to Lazydays RV, http://www.lazydays.com/; they have many new and used rvs. We looked at some used motor homes, nothing we really liked that we could afford. FYI Lazydays in Tucson has sold their campground to KOA.
Friday the 7th, my birthday, we went to Tubac, AZ, http://www.tubacaz.com/, to their annual Arts Festival, it was big, lots of people, and everything was overpriced, Sarah and the others loved it. We went with Debbie and two of her friends Al and Elaine, I believe were their names, I apologize if I got them wrong. It was interesting seeing the different displays but as I said there wasn't anything, I couldn't live without.
That night we met Delaney, Kendall and Kiley, great nieces who are attending the University of Arizona, http://www.arizona.edu/, a very nice school. I love the campus but then any campus you can walk and not freeze you tootsies off is a good one. Anyway, we had dinner at the Congress Hotel, http://hotelcongress.com/, we sat outside. Now I thought it would be to cold but the restaurant put out heaters that did a great job of keeping me warm, I don't know about anyone else but I was warm. The food was great, Sarah and I shared a steak, it was done perfectly, the fish and chips were very good and the other dish we had was clams and sausage. The meal was just great and the company was even better. The three girls really have their act together; they are enjoying the college life and are still able to be honor students. I guess maybe I should have spent more time studying when I was in college; just maybe, it would not have taken me over forty years to get my degree. It was great to see them. We spent two great nights with Debbie and enjoyed every minute of it.
Saturday we went to see Sarah's brother Bob's widow Judy, she has a park model at one of the many parks in Tucson. We visited her and Bob there a couple of years ago. We had a nice visit, went to lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, stopped at Wal-Mart to get a few things I did get to help Judy with a couple things on her new IPad, before we headed back to Mesa. We had a nice visit.
Last Tuesday at work we were picking up a wooden trellis, it was located in our storage compound with some another trellis and wooden structure thingies. We got one out and I was standing there waiting to put the tarp back on the remaining pieces when the other trellis fell and hit me on my right hand. It hurt like h--- and I couldn't move my fingers. The middle finger swelled up and I couldn't bend it so I told Mikki our boss and she had me go get it checked out. I didn't understand totally what the doctor said except he didn't see any broken bones, so they splinted it and said put ice on it and come back to see them in a week or sooner if it seems to be getting better. It is better today, I have put ice on it and will keep it splinted until tomorrow, and we'll see how it is then. Sarah says she is not going to work for me again so I guess I had better heal quickly.
That is all for now, until later,
Dreams Do Come True
