January, 2005
Happy
New Year!!!! We began the new year with "brunch" at the home
of good friends Kathy and Dennie Dew where we had "crashed" for the holiday
weekend. Having been good friends for many years, they have opened their
home to us whenever we visit the Toledo area since we became "homeless street
people." Then it was on to visit old neighbors, Dick and Liz Lehto
and later to Tom's sister and brother-in-law, Judy and Ron Kaminski's, for a
traditional New Year's dinner of spare ribs and sauerkraut with a good visit
thrown in. We weren't flying back to Arizona till Wed. Jan 5,
so we had several more days to run errands and visit a few more people. On
Tuesday night we drove to Kenton, Ohio to meet Ann, Matt and the girls for
dinner and get our good-by hugs.
True to
the weatherman's predictions, we awoke on Wed, Jan 5 to several inches of ice
covered with snow. All of the Toledo area schools were closed and the
earliest flights from the airport had been cancelled. But, the airlines
assured us that our flight was still scheduled, so we made it to the
airport. And, believe it or not, our plane to Chicago departed as
scheduled. However, the 35 minute flight took almost 2 hours and we did
miss our connection to Phoenix. So, we spent a good part of the day at
O'Hare watching the snow plows continually working on the runways. We were
able to get on a much delayed flight to Phoenix and arrived there around 7pm
(mountain time). We noticed that the later arriving flights had been
cancelled, so we were glad we'd made it.
On
Thursday, back at Palm Creek, we tried to get back into our "normal"
routine. Our friends tell us that we missed lots of rain and cold and the
news reports tell us that the Arizona rivers have water in them for the first
time in many years.
Matt
and Ann, Merrick, Close and Coffey
Early on Tuesday, January 11 we
unhooked our utilities at Palm Creek and traveled in the Dutch Star with a
neighbor couple, and their Monaco, to Indio, CA to attend the FMCA
Western Region Rally at the Riverside County Fairgrounds and National Date
Festival. The weather the previous week had been terrible in Southern
California. Heavy rainstorms had created mudslides and floods and much of
the storm had passed on through to northern Arizona. In Casa Grande, we
had been spared the worst of it - having only cool cloudy days. But we
were worried about what we would encounter as we drove into California. It
was about a 6 hour drive across the desert which, thanks to all the
precipitation in the last weeks, was somewhat green. We encountered only a
few sprinkles near Quartzsite and then as we approached Indio we battled some
pretty stiff winds, but were greeted with sunshine.
During
our 6 days at the rally we had pleasant weather...days around 70* and nights
around 40*. The RVs were packed in tight on the fairgrounds. They
said about 1800 were registered. We were parked about a 10 minute walk to
the center of the activities, so we got our exercise going back and forth to
seminars, vendor shopping and entertainment. Indio is in the Coachella
Valley near Palm Springs and we were surrounded by palm trees and mountains...a
scenic view. The fairgrounds is also the home of the National Date
Festival. About 95% of the US grown dates are grown near here. We
had to try the date milkshakes, and we learned a little about the different
varieties of dates (and also picked out our favorites).
RVs,
palm trees and snow capped mountains from the Riverside County Fair and National
Date Festival in Indio, CA.
We
returned to Palm Creek and Casa Grande on Sunday, January 16. Many rigs
have come to the park in the last several weeks and it is beginning to "fill
up." We were parked in our site in time for "happy hour" with some of the
neighbors and caught up on what we'd missed. We seemed to have brought the
California weather home with us, so on Monday we started cleaning
chores inside and out. Starting with the roof, the coach got washed and by
the end of the week it had also been waxed. A few cloudy mornings made a
perfect time for that chore. We managed to get in some golf and tennis in
between waxing sessions.
Our
Palm Creek neighbors and travel companions to the FMCA rally, Art and June
Nelson, full-timers originally from Iowa.
Tom's
cousin, JoAnn Blair and her husband, Don, live in an RV resort in Tucson.
We drove down to visit them on Saturday, January 22. They have a nice site
with a huge awning over the RV and a patio and a big shed with a washer and
dryer inside. But, they have decided that although they really like the
park and all its activities, they'd like some more space. So, they have
purchased a modular home to be built in another section of the park. The
modular homes are finished on the outside with stucco just like "regular" houses
in the area and we really like the model they have chosen. We also went
out to lunch and had a great visit with them. We'll be anxious to visit
again after their house has been delivered and finished.
Friday
afternoon, January 28, we drove up to Sun Lakes for a delicious dinner at the
home of Rex and Nancy Wilsen. We used to sit at Springfield High School
football and basketball games with them. We shared RV tales with them and
their neighbors, Kathy and Frank Miller, who have an Airstream trailer and will
be taking their first long trip this coming summer. It was a fun
evening!
It
was an early start on Saturday morning...we were on the road by 7am,
driving the car across I-8 to San Diego, California. There the plan was to
meet Kathy and Dennie Dew and Bonnie and Don Wolfe for a cruise on the
MS Oosterdam along the Mexico coast. Check next month's web
page to hear about our trip.
Don
and JoAnn Blair at the Voyager RV Park in Tucson
Nancy
and Rex Wilsen and Kathy and Frank Miller in Sun Lakes, AZ
