Mardi Gras--a Day Early

It was one day early, but our resort celebrated Mardi Gras yesterday. There was a parade--which we watched--followed by a party, lunch and later a dance--none of which we attended. The parade was fun and creative.

This guy juggled the entire time the parade passed by.  How on earth he was able to watch the goings on and not drop anything, I don't know.  But he didn't.

I guess you would call this woman the drum major for the parade.

Musicians rode in the bed to a pickup and serenaded us.

One street of residents worked together to present the Calendar Girls of Canyon Vistas.  Here we see April, May and June.

The temps were in the low 60s with a brisk breeze.  I'll bet Ms September was freezing.

This golf cart really looked like it was from New Orleans.

Here we have the November calendar entry.

There were cave men and women.

And the geocachers were very evident.  I especially like the sign being carried in the second photo below--I use million dollar satellites to find Tupperware in the woods!

Time With Family for a Funeral

Over the past week, we have driven to and from Canon City, Colorado, where we attended the funeral for John's sister Kendal. We saw some nice scenery on our trip north.

For two days we had lots of good family time before and after the Saturday funeral.

Kim and Jennifer talked with Cindy.

Tim, Mike and John shared time sitting on the couch.

The three Johns got together for a photo op.

Jennifer and her daughter-in-law Emily had time together.

Some of John's family came from Minnesota for the funeral. They visited with John and Todd and some of the other family in Canon City.

We spent time talking to Todd.

Scott insisted on getting some work done.

Saturday morning Mark took a group of the family to breakfast.

Becky and Tina shared a story.

Andy and Todd had some time to talk.                                                                                         

Kendal and John's grandson Brian and his wife were there.

Whenever John and his siblings get together, we take a picture of the group. This time Kendal wasn't there. Her suffering has ended and the rest of us grieve.

Now we are back in the world of saguaros.

A New Kind of Phishing

We are traveling by car—actually truck—to Colorado, staying in motels. Wednesday we were at the Comfort Inn in Las Vegas, New Mexico.  After checking in, we never left the motel.

At a little after 11 pm, the  room phone rang.  What could that be about?  We were both sound asleep. John handed the phone to me since he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids. The man on the other end identified himself as the hotel manager and said their computer had crashed.  They are required by law to keep information on the adult registered in each room, their address and the credit card on record.  I refused to give out the information over the phone and said we would come to the front desk with the information.

“Oh, no, there would be a 45 minute to an hour wait.  Give it to me now.  We will bring you a receipt in a little while and a refund of 40% of our hotel charge.”  Again, I refused and said we could come to the desk first thing in the morning. Again he said no.  “Forget it then.  I am hanging up,” I said.  And I did.

I called the front desk and they were appalled.  The clerk said the man had called the motel and asked for Carol in our room.  That is why they put the call through.  She said they would not put any calls through to us that night and she would report it to the manager in the morning.

It was really eery, someone knew what room we were in there.  We hadn’t told anyone.  We were in a place we had never been before, no one but Expedia and the motel knew where we were.  How did that happen?

It must have been someone on the hotel staff who gave out the information.  The caller wanted our credit card number. You can bet we will never stay there again.  But it still feels like we were in the midst of some thriller novel.  And it wasn’t a good feeling.

Hiking With Family

The Hieroglyphic Trail is probably our favorite trail in the nearby Superstition Mountains.  Our niece, Tina, and her husband, Vance, wanted to go on a hike when they visited us earlier in the week, so that is where we went. The mornings have been pretty chilly, so we were all  dressed warmly.

Tina and I talked and talked while we hiked. Here you can see us lagging behind John and Vance. The Phoenix skyline is in the background.

There are beautiful saguaro cactus along the trail.

We encounter a bunch of horse back riders along the way.

When we finished the hike and returned to Superstition Views, we had lunch at the Cactus Grill before Tina and Vance returned to their trailer in Picacho Peak State Park. It was a great visit and a good hike. Come back anytime, Tina and Vance.

Been Phishing Lately?

Or maybe I should say, have you been phished lately? Twice in the past couple of weeks we have received an email with a receipt for a book we supposedly bought from Apple. It contains two links to the order and the document. I knew I hadn't purchased the book. At the bottom, there was a link to iTunes support and one to "manage your password preferences."

The first time I attempted to manage my password, then realized what they wanted was access to my Apple ID.

I then went to my settings and found how to look at our Apple purchases and saw there were none. So, I proceeded to change our Apple ID password--going through the proper place in settings.

This time, I immediately checked our Apple purchases, found none, and junked the phishing email. Wonder how many more times they will try to get me?

Hoping for Good Results

You've all seen the ads, "Just Eat the Food and Loose the Weight."  It was time.  We have each put on at least 5 pounds since we arrived in Arizona in September and even more over the years since our last serious diet.  So we decided to give Nutrisystem  a try.  The food was delivered in November--when we decided on this path we didn't want to change our minds so we ordered food for a month.

Most of the food came in boxes that can be stored about anywhere.  We kept those in the covered bed of our truck while Eric and his family were here.  Then we moved back into our house and put the food in the trailer.  Some of the food is frozen.  That picture is further below.

We are in the first week of the diet. This is one day's food for one person.  Breakfast, morning turbo shake snack, lunch, afternoon Nutricrush snack, and dinner.  We add at least 4 servings of vegetables to round out lunch and dinner.  Our daily allotment of food will increase for the next 3 weeks.

Here is John's scrumptious lunch for today. Actually it is pretty tasty.  Many items are flavored with chocolate which makes us feel we aren't being deprived.  Do you know how long it takes to chew 2 celery sticks?

Here are most of the dinners for the next 3 weeks.

And breakfasts.

Snacks.

Lunches.

We don't know why, but John's food includes frozen items--dinners

lunches,

 breakfasts.

We are hoping for good results by the end of our first month. During "boot camp" we have each lost almost 5 pounds. Hope to keep it up, though at a slower pace.

Family Time

We had visitors to celebrate the new year. On January 1 our son Eric and wife Liz and our grandchildren Kylie and John came for a two-day visit. They were headed to Mexico so they flew to Phoenix, spent time with us then drove to Mexico. On Friday that week they returned to Phoenix and flew back to Colorado.

Since today is Eric's birthday, we celebrated on the night we arrived. We haven't been with them for his birthday for years so it was good to mark the day this year.

The weather was warm enough we could sit outside before dinner, something you can't do in Colorado at this time of the year.

Kylie is on two swim teams, her high school team and a club team. One of the coaches wanted her to keep up her pool workouts while they were on their trip so two days she swam laps in our resort pool--for an hour each day!

John has been spending a lot of time turning pens and he taught grandson John how to do that while they were here. Papa showed John where to hold the turning gouge.

Then he demonstrated how to do the work.

John learned quickly how to change to square piece of wood into a found pen body.

After sanding and putting on a finish and waxing the pen, here he proudly shows it off.  Papa and John and a good time together.

We enjoyed the family visit and were glad they were able to spend some time here.  We just wish it happened more often.

2017 in Review

The year 2017 has been full of contrasts.  We spent 6 1/2 months in our winter home in Gold Canyon and 8 weeks in 4 Colorado state parks and we still managed to drive a little over 17,000 miles, including 8,139 miles towing our Airstream.  Part of the year we were really on the move.

Our travels included 47 campgrounds from Arizona to New Hampshire to Colorado and back to Arizona.  We stayed in two of those campgrounds twice.  As we traveled, we stayed in 9 KOA campgrounds and 2 Corps of Engineers campgrounds.  We try to avoid KOA because they are often overpriced but there are just times when they are the only or the best place available where we want to stay.  Unfortunately, the Corps doesn't have campgrounds all across the country.  In fact, the majority are west of the Mississippi River.

We were in 20 states as we traveled.  Five of those we stayed in for the first time--knocking one item off our bucket list.  We have now slept overnight in our RV in all 49 continental states.  It has taken us 29 years to make it to all of the lower 48 and Alaska. This shows where we have been this year.

We didn't drive to the East Coast just to complete an item on our bucket list.  We traveled to New Hampshire to watch our son Doug graduate from Nashua Community College.  We also spent some time with our 2 granddaughters, Rachal and Samantha.  Since we were in the neighborhood--so to speak--we also visited New York City and Washington, DC.

We were able to see family and friends as we made a somewhat slower return trip west.  In Colorado we had more time with family and friends.

At least at this point, we don't expect 2018 will bring as much travel--at least in our RV.  We are hoping to fly to England and spend 6 to 8 weeks traveling there.

Tucson

We are spending the week of Christmas in Tucson, at Justin's Diamond J RV park. It isn't a resort by any stretch, but the sites are large, the hookups full with 50 amp and there are trails right outside the gate through the beautiful Arizona desert.

There are cholla, saguaro and prickly pear cactus thick in this part of the Sonoran Desert.

The nearby trails were developed and are maintained by the campground staff.  They are labeled with neatly printed signs on the rocks.  At one time the signs must have been different.  In 2 places we saw this old tin baking sheets with long faded arrows marking the way.

The have a sense of humor, as well.   Here are two "graves" along the track.  The jug at the head of the right-hand grave reads "Platte River."  It comes from Missouri.

These folding chairs once provided a resting place along the trail.  There have long outlived their usefulness.

The day after Christmas we went hiking in the nearby national park.  Can you guess which one it is?  We are near Saguaro National Park West.