Visit with Friends

We spend our winters in warm and sunny Arizona. Many of our friends from Colorado also like Arizona, but they only come for a short visit. Friday we enjoyed lunch and a good visit with friends Larry and Betty.

This is the second or third time we have seen them here in the winter warmth and sun. They have spent a week or more nearby this year, visiting lots of friends. We also try to get together with them when we are in Colorado during the summer.

John and Larry worked together on the Boulder Police Department even before our older son Doug was born, and that was 47 years ago. So we have lots of history with Larry and Betty. It is always good to see them and catch up on their lives. We'll see them again in June up north, we hope.

On another note, today as we drove back to the resort after church, it took almost 25 minutes to travel the last 3 miles. Not fun. The traffic on US 60 is very heavy in February and March because the Renaissance Festival is held a few miles east of here. To top it off, there was an accident in the west-bound lanes and there were so many looky-loos, we just crept at 1 to 5 mile per hours most of the last 3 miles.

Life is never dull in an RV resort. We were out walking after lunch and watched a motor home back into their site without getting out to see the layout. They created this geyser. Glad we have never done that. Hope we never do!

Not Fun

Driving through the Chicago suburbs to Wisconsin is not fun. The traffic is terrible.



The tolls are expensive. Even though we paid for the privilege to drive the road, it was really rough.



It may be the fastest route (that is what our GPS says), we still had to stop for toll stations--costing 85 cents, $2.80, $17.00 and probably others I can't remember.



Finally, we made it to Wisconsin. After driving through Milwaukee, we saw the beautiful, neat farms we remember from when we lived here in the 1980s.







We are glad to be here.

What a Mess!

Today we drove to Mesa to meet friends for lunch. Earlier in the day, just about dawn, a tour bus was involved in an accident on I-10, south of Phoenix. It was a really serious accident, with six people dead and several in serious to critical condition as of the evening news. We were glad we didn't have to drive up I-10 to get to the restaurant.

As we drove north we experienced heavier traffic than normal on Hwy 87. Eventually, we were caught in a 1/4 mile or longer stream of traffic just crawling toward a stop-light. We wondered why so many 18-wheelers were in the left-hand lane as we approached the light. Finally it dawned on us when we saw a detour sign. I-10 must still be closed and these were the trucks that had been forced to leave the interstate and make a long detour through Chandler to get back on the highway. And this was about 11:30 am.

We had a delightful lunch at Famous Dave's BBQ with Jim and Jeri, a couple we worked with at 7th Ranch RV Camp in Montana last summer. Their home base is Arizona and we finally connected for a visit. We had a great time talking about our lives since then and our plans for the future. Of course, I forgot to take their picture, but here is one I took last September.



We finally said goodbye about 2:30 or later. To our amazement, the traffic was still heavy. The Chandler police were still directing traffic at three intersections, trying to keep the detoured trucks and cars moving as smoothly as possible. We must have driven by a 4/10 of a mile back-up where the vehicles were turning back toward I-10. Hwy 87 was a mess. We were so glad we were not in the stream that had to make the entire detour. We learned at 6 pm that--finally--one lane of the west-bound road had just reopened.