Thursday, December 31, 2009

Last Post For 2009

This has been a very memorable year. Cheryl retired on January 5th and on the 8th we left Oregon for an extended winter vacation in Arizona. We met a lot of new friends that showed up again this year. Upon returning home in April, we joined the local chapter of FMCA (Family Motorcoach Assocation) called the Rim Rock Roamers and went on 4 rallys with the group over the summer and again met new friends. In June, we took another extended trip, this time going back to Siouz City to see Keith and Caroline and their families. While there, we hooked up with Tony and Dutch Ball that we met here in Arizona and spent time with them also. That took up most of our summer.
In November, we left Oregon again for the warmer climates of the southwest and arrived in Mesa on the 1st of December for our winter stay and will be here until the 10th of April and then head towards home and do it all over again. We haven't done much exploring yet. We are waiting for Keith and Caroline to show up in February so we can show them the sights.
The more time we spend here, the better we like it. We have looked at several houses, but won't commit to anything until we decide what we want to do with the house in REdmond. We do have the winter to think about it, but we are leaning towards selling it and relocating to the southwest for the winter and then using the motorhome for summer travels to the "north" country. Time will tell.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas In Mesa, Az











What a nice and relaxing Christmas day in sunny Arizona. We both slept in and discovered that Santa made a visit during the night. The morning was spent opening a few gifts and enjoying a Mimosa or two on the patio. Our Christmas dinner was anything but traditional. It started out as a hamburger barbeque with Dutch and Tony Ball (friends from Sioux City that we met here last year) and it quickly evolved to a full blown potluck barbeque in the pavillion. We were joined byEd and Donna (from Ontario, Canada) Mike and Sharon (from Colorado) and Ken and Judy (from Ohio). Our dinner consisted of Bloody Mary Burgers, potato salad, baked beans, chips, all the condiments, and ice cream, blueberry pie and lemon merangue pie. Of course there were the usual libations before, during and after the meal. Although the temps weren't that warm (only in the mid 60s) the sun was warm and it was a wonderful way to meet old and new friends. Now, we have to decide what we want to do for a non-traditional New Years dinner.
We also got to see Toni and Jim via SKYPE. She flew back to Williamsburg, Va to spend Christmas with Jim before he deploys to an unknown location where there is a lot of sand. He knows, but can't tell anyone. All in all, it was a very nice day.



Saturday, December 19, 2009

One More Week Until Christmas














































It's hard to get into the Holiday spirit when the sun is shining and everyone is in shorts and t shirts. We went into downtown Mesa last night and saw the LDS Temple Square light display. Wow, what an impressive sight. Over 750,000 lights. They start the middle of October placing the lights in the larger trees and the 1st of November, over 3000 volunteers show up and approximately 10,000 hours to get everything in place and lit up. These are just a few of the pictures of the displays. A lot of my nighttime pictures just didn't turn out well enough to post. They estimate that over 1,000,000 visitors tour the grounds each year. Concerts are free and are different every night. Tomorrow, we will go again and listen to the Holiday sounds from Tonga and Samoa.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Sunshine At Last (And No Wind)

Finally, after a week of cooler than normal temperatures, the sun is back out and shining. It is now shorts and t shirt weather. At least for a couple of days and then the forecast is for a day of rain before the weather warms up again.
Believe me, I'm not complaining about wearing a sweatshirt outside when I look at the weather in Redmond and see the sub-zero weather and snow on the ground.
Tomorrow we will go out to Cardinal Stadium to look at new motorhomes. You notice, I said look and didn't say buy. LaMesa RV is going to have over 100 motorhomes on the lot and it will be fun to just look and drool over the new models.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Stormy Weather

Rocking and a rolling all night long. We just didn't have blustery winds, but we had gusts upwards or 50 MPH throughout the night. Today is just exceptionally cool, but the skies are clear and the winds moderate. I expected to see torn awnings this morning when I looked around the park, but all I saw were overturned bikes, and chairs and of course the patio mats were not where they were left yesterday. I did have to bungee the dining canopy down to the picnic table to keep it in place and did have to crawl under the coach to retrieve a tire cover but that was all. The weather is suppossed to start clearing today and tomorrow and get back up to the normal temperatures again. I'm ready!!!!!!!!

Monday, December 7, 2009

A Dreary Day In Arizona


Rain, rain and more rain to come. It's not even close to short and t shirt weather (yet). Cool, breezy and rainy. That's been the norm for the better part of this last week, but next week looks more promising. But looking at the weather at the "sticks and bricks", this is downright pleasant.

Yesterday we went to Mesa Marketplace. It's billed as a swap meet - flea market. Really, it's all retail stores of every kind imaginable under 1 1/4 miles of cover. It's always fun to go and see what is there as it changes every week as new vendors come in and others leave.

It's hard to believe that it soon will be Christmas. Palm trees decorated and yard decorations in the sandy yards aren't quite the same as up "north". But, it will do for the forseeable future.

We did decorate the coach with a cute little tree that was made for us by good friends, so it is rather cheery.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

The Winnebago Has Landed


Cheryl and I were both getting a little antsy and wanting to be stationary so we called Mesa Spirit and asked if anyone was in our spot and the answer was no, so we told them to hold it and we would be arriving early. It felt good to be getting "home" again. We spend part of yesterday and today getting everything set up for the winter. Dining canopy, hammock, barbecue and cleaned the inside of the coach from top to bottom.

The dogs even remembered how to get to the dog run. I guess they were happy too and not have to be on a leash all the time when outside.

When we left last spring, we left our bicycles next door along with our large garbage can. The only thing we had to do was to wash the dirt and dust off and pump up the tires and now they are ready to go. There are several of our friends from last year that are already here and when checking in at the office, inquired about several others and they are due in prior to the 15th of the month. I can see the Mexican Train Domino games starting up. Tomorrow I will call Qwest and get hooked up on DSL and not have to fight the slow internet at the park.
We will spend the rest of this week relaxing before we take the little car and go exploring the area again. We may have seen it before, but we will see it again.