Shoes 24 March 2015

Last evening we were having  coffee or maybe it was a drink of some kind with two couples and one lady just had to show the ladies here new shoes. They were " Sketchers " shoes so you know they are not " Wal-Mart" prices. Anyhow, today we (mainly Carroll ) just had to visit Sketchers to check out these fancy looking shoes because Sketchers has a special sale on which is 50 % off the second pair. Apparently we were not the only ones who could see the value of the 50% off bargain. Carroll could not find the right size or (was it the right fit) and the poor sales lady was  run off her feet going back and forth to the storage area.
I also lost my patience so I meandered around the Men's shoes department  and let Carroll do her own searching. I stumbled over a pair that I liked but I need a Wide shoe and Sketchers are not known for stocking many Wide shoes. However, the salesman ( I use the word loosely as they are mostly shelf stockers ) ask if he could help so I told him that  I'd like to try a size 8.5; a 9; and a 9.5. He had to go to the store room as there was no "Wide With " shoes on the shelves. He delivered the 3 pair of shoes and immediately left as I assumed he thought I might be a "Pain in Ass" type customer. Actual one of the pairs fit so decided to take them even though I already own 3 pair of shoes and as you know I can only wear one pair at a time.
Now I had find another pair to get the 50% bargain. Luckily Carroll came along and helped me select the half price pair. We both walked out with 2 pair of shoes but with a lot less money in my pocket.
Since we did not need to do anymore shopping we retuned to the park, went for a swim in the pool and had Happy Hour  with friends in their Air Conditioned Park model. Man !!! is it ever hot here. 90 F plus every day. I know.... quit complaining . cheers

Vehicle Wash day 23 March 2015

After driving thru 3 days of rain , mixed with road dirt, literally  covered our vehicles with grime which seemed to weld itself to the vehicles, especially the tow car. When we got to Mesa I tried to wash the car at the local car wash but I barely removed the surface dirt. My plan all along was to wait until on got to Yuma where I could get " Segio "  who owns a Mobile RV wash company. ( of course he and his crew are Americans of MX heritage ) . I have had his crew wash and wax the MH last year and again in Dec when we past thru on our way to MX.
Early Monday morning Carroll  called Sergio to see how soon he could wash our vehicles. Luckily for us he was in our Park all day o he said he could squeeze us in around 4 PM , give or take an hour, whatever that means. I took that as sometime in the afternoon.
Anyway we had to run some errors in the morning such as a run to the RV Super store and visit AT&T reference our cell phone. When you own an RV/MH you always have to visit the RV store. I believe it is in the DNA. As for the cell phone, we originally had a monthly plan included calls to Canada but when we renewed it they did not include the " Canada " plan. Also we had to find out hour to check the remaining minutes. We are NOT cell phone savvy.
 About 1 PM Carroll wanted to continue shopping but my gut feeling suggested that  we better return to the Park just in case Sergio and crew where a little early. Just as we enter the Park gate we get a call on the Cell from Sergio saying we need you to close the windows on your MH  so we can wash it. I just knew they would be early.
Sergio has 2 crews of 5 men ( that I know of ) and 3 of the men " swarmed" our MH starting on the roof while 2 of his men were down the street wiping down another MH. Once those 2 guys finished, they moved to our MH to help out. I also ask to the crew to wash my car which is a given anyway.
Before the crew finished our MH Sergio arrived on the scene probably to collect the money so I ask him how much I owned him and he said 40.00 . It is beyond me how he can pay 5 men to wash a MH ( they also do Park Models for the same price) and only charge 40.00 but I always tip them 10.00. Both the MH and the car look great and they did the wash job in about a 1/2 hour.
These guys work 6 days a week and they never run out of work when the snowbirds are here but Sergio said , June, July and August are very slow. cheers

Mesa to Yuma 22 March 2015

Mesa to Yuma is a 4 hour, causual drive  so that should be a "Piece of Cake" for us experience travelers. We pulled out of Mesa Sprite RV Park and the GPS barked out " go 1 mile to Gilbert St. and take a left turn ". I said to Carroll that I would rather take Lindsay St as the both take us to Hwy 60. Wrong??? you can not exit from Lindsay onto 60 because they have not build the entrance yet and I doubt they ever will. No real problem as we know how to correct this problem with a few right /left turns and we manage to get on the Hwy 60.

As we enter onto Hwy 60 going West I again  know were I'm going ( I think ). Hwy 60 is 6 lanes with a speed limit of 75 mph so it is in your best interest to know which lane is best for you. The GPS is telling us to keep 3 lanes to they left which I realize so this time I listen to it ( actual Her ). Because Carroll punched in Yuma the GPS takes us the quickest route however I am not familiar with the GPS route so I ask Carroll to quickly punch in Buckeye as I know that route. She was quick; but not quick enough so now I'm  heading for Casa Grande which may or may not be a few mile out of our intend travel route. Since we did not follow the GPS in the first place, it (she ) decided to sent us another route which I had never heard of but this time we said OK lets follow it. The GPS ( for once in its' life) actually took us on a short cut to I-8 to Yuma. The GPS is now back in my good " Books" so to speak.
When we arrived in Yuma at Benito Mesa RV Park I ask for a specific site by number and the clerk checked but said it was taken. So I said get me as close as possible and she enquired why. I said because that " Ken " across from that site has WiFi and I need to use it so she gave me the site I had last year. I paid Ken 5.00 in Dec for 1 weeks use of his WiFi  so I was sure I could get it again. When I ask him this time he said I could have it for no charge. What a friend !!!
As we were setting a friend from our Yorkton, Sask  Days came along to say we had been invited to supper with other mutual  friends from Yorkton and of course we never turn down a free meal. When we  arrived for supper there were 3 other couples whom we know so we had a good chat along with the necessary beverages and great food. Cheers

Lazy Day 21 March 2015

This morning we had a date to visit friend ( Pat and Kay ) from Med Hat who winter in Leisure World park in Mesa. This is a gated subdivision where you buy a home and it is on a golf course (actually 2 , 18 hole courses ) and the homes are upper class. Pat and Kay's home is about 3000 square feet and is right on the golf course.  We had breakfast with our friends and chatting about our travels and their winter activities for a few hours.
We then set out to find an AT&T store because our G.D. cell phone would not allows us to send or receive a call to Canada which we thought we paid for. Our GPS took us on a couple of  "Wild Goose" chases so we gave up and stopped for lunch at Bakery/ Lunch bar. The soup and food was great and Carroll purchased another 6.00 loaf of bread that we did really need.
Since we were having supper and a "Happy Hour " with our friends ( Bob and Shirley ) at our park we headed for home. The cell phone problem can wait until we get to Yuma.
Supper was great as usual and the Happy Hour continue after supper and long past dark which I did not notice until the after effect lingered into Sunday morning. Cheers

Finally Sunshine March 2015

20 th March:  Finally, we woke up to Sunshine which is hard to imagine after being in TX. We then headed for Mesa Sprite RV Resort in Mesa. The word Resort seems to mean that they  charge more than the park is worth, however the park was nearly full so us fools just pay up. We have to go thru Casa Grande in route, so we stopped at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast and we also called friends who were camped in Casa Grande but they did not answer so we continued on to Mesa. On our travels we seen gasoline at 2.99 which was extremely high for AZ as it is usually around 2.25.
We are only staying in Mesa for a two days just to see a couple of friends so as I paid the bill I noticed a 4.00 Resort fee. I said, what the hell is a resort fee. They said company  charges a resort fee  if you are staying lees than a month, "end of question". Although we will not stay there again, I probably know why they charge the fee and that is because you do not pay a separate "power " bill and when you stay for a month  you have to pay for electricity.

After we got setup we had the proverbial beer  with our friends and got the expected supper invite for tomorrow evening. Tonight we decided to go to the "Pizza Stop" along with a "zillion" other Snowbirds. This place is a Famous Haunt of  the Snowbirds, not only for the delicious Pizzas, great salad bar, good desert bar and beer but also because they have an Organist playing any song the customer wants to hear. This place has a mezzanine floor and I would guess in would hold over 500  people. Many of the Snowbird stay long after they have finished their food just to listen to the music. Well, what the heck do you expect from seniors when they is good food at a reasonable price and Free music. That is the stuff the seniors live for.
We return to the park and went to the pool for an evening dip and there were about a dozen people there " all Canadian" . Apparently Americans have to be home before dark. ha ha. Cheers

On the road March 2015

19 March:  We pulled out of  the Stockton, TX  Wal-Mart at "First Light " which was around 7:30 AM and we had hoped to reach the Diamond Desert casino, in Green Valley AZ  about 25 miles south of Tucson. We had thought that we had run out of rain but as we awoke there was a misty rain falling but once the Sun came up,  we finally, we able to give those busy  wipers a rest. Our first challenge would be getting thru El Paso, TX as we would be there around noon and we expect that  all 6 lanes would be crowded. The speed limit is 65  so if there are no accidents or incidents we should be able to get thru the city in about 1/2 an hour. Luckily for us it was clear sailing. El Paso is right on the border with New Mexico and once out of TX we would be back to 2 or 3 lanes of traffic on I-10. The next 6 hours would be boring as we would not encounter another city until we reach Tucson which we would be on Friday morning. Also there are two time changes between El Paso, TX  and  AZ, and AZ  does not change time.

We arrived at the Desert Diamond casino around 5 :30 PM to a bright sunny day and by 6:30 we had a down pour. I can't believe that the rain was still following. This was the first rain this area has had in 3 weeks. Lucky for them that we came along or they could have had a drought.
We then called our friends Bob and Karen from Med Hat, who spent the winter in Green Valley where the golf and Bob plays ball and we dropped over for a visit. It was still raining when we went to bed but hopefully the Sun would win out by the morning. Cheers

St. Paddy's Day March 2015

17 th March: Yes ; there will be a St. Paddy's Day party tonight but first we have to start packing because tomorrow we are leaving this rain  soaked part of the US in favor Sunny AZ.  After packing up chairs, tables and the Bar-B-Q in the misty  rain we had to return our internet modem to Time Warner in Harlingen, some 30 miles away. I usually expect a line up at these establishments as people are there complaining about the service, or a Remote or Modem that doesn't work, or I should say, that has been my experience in the past.  "Eureka" there was only one customer ahead of me and since I did not owe any money I was in and out in less than 5 minutes.

 Since we were in a shopping Mall we just had to do some shopping. We eventually purchased a Magic Bullet blender as our "cheap " one quit a few days ago. We then returned to the Park to finish packing so we could get an early start tomorrow.
The St. Paddy's Day party started at 5PM with a 1/2 Happy Hour of a sort , most of us telling each other when we are leaving. Then the volunteer cooking staff  served  up a great Cornbeef and  Cabbage supper which was followed by a Dance. We decided that watching the World Curling with our Team playing Switzerland would be more of an interest to us so we returned to the MH. We also pondered our launch time for tomorrow. cheers

18 th March; Launch Day and the Satellite dish is always the last thing to be pack as we watch the news last night so it has to be pack this morning in the misty rain of course. The last thing to do is pay the power bill so I went to the office to pay it. Once people see you leaving they just have say goodbye which just delays our launch. I usually just keep working so they notice that I'm not that interested and since we have to start the diesel to pump up the air they usually get the message. Anyhow we got connected and got out of " dodge by 9:30
About one hour down the road we thought we seen a diesel sign in a Gas station that said 2.25 for diesel which is an unbelievable low price but by the time we noticed it we were past the exit.  Diesel fuel is usually around 2.75 t0 2.85. We thought for that price we are going to turn around and check it out. Sure enough the diesel price was 2.25 which was less that gasoline which is unheard of anywhere in North America. Since I was at half full I filled up at the bargain price. I ask one guy if he knew why the price was down but he did not know. I can tell you that many of the truckers where filling up.
Our next "hurdle " if you can call it that, was going thru San Antonio. I usually take the Beltway but is notorisly slow with construction and stop lights and a friend told me it was quicker to follow the Interstate right thru the middle of the cities as there was no stopping and the speed limit was 65. Although it was a bit tricking staying in the correct lane so we did not end up in Dallas or Houston but we managed to get on I-10 which is then clear sailing to AZ. I think we drove about 6 hours before we got out of the rain. It rained off and on most of the day. We reached Stockton , TZ around 6 PM and then topped up the fuel before parking for the night.  We were going to park in the truck stop but opted for a Wal-Mart in Stockton thinking we would be alone where it would be quiet. Where we wrong!!! there must have been 15 to 20 RV already parked in Wal-Mart and the jerk who pulled in beside me had his Generator running all night . I was going to check why he had it running after 10 PM but I assumed it might have been for medical reasons so with the windows closed it did not keep me awake. Cheers