Wednesday February 29 to March 6, 2012

Wednesday February 29, 2012

Today is our last day in Yuma as we are heading to Mesa tomorrow for the month of March.

We didn't do much today other than pack them up for leaving. I planned on going to the farmer's market but Judy and Jan went for awhile and said they did not have Jicama's, which is what I wanted.

It seems our neighbor's are sad to see us leave as each of them have been over to talk today. Cynthia, our next door neighbor, came over to talk. I asked her to come inside as the wind was blowing and it was pretty cool. She told me to come over and sit in their screen room, out of the wind, to visit. She told me she is having many problems with her back and knee today so she didn't want to climb steps into the motor home. We talked for a long time and she said she needed to have Periodontal Cleaning so I gave her a card for Dr. Garcia as well as the other dentist we have seen in Los Algodones. I was surprised that they have lived her 8 years but neither of them have a passport. She seems so classy compared to her husband David, I wonder how they ended up together. We talked for a long time and she gave me her email address to keep in touch.

When I left Cynthia's, Judy came over to talk. They originally planned to go to Colorado to see Jan's son, wife and grand kids when they leave her tomorrow. Jan's son is out of town for a week so they have decided to go to Mesa to Ken's aunts before heading to Colorado. Ken is not happy about either of these trips as he wants to get home. They have been gone for 3 months and Ken wants to go home to start his spring planting. He loves to garden and they have a large green house that uses to start his plants.

Larry and I worked on putting our outside items away this afternoon. He drained the tanks and unhooked the sewer. We should be able to leave early tomorrow morning.

Linda and Doris who are both parked behind us stopped to talk during the afternoon. I really enjoy talking to Doris but never really got to know Linda too well. They both are very nice and said they hoped we return next year.

I cooked a roast and vegetables in the crock pot so we had a great meal tonight. After dinner Judy and Jan came back over and we sat outside tonight talking. Jan ordered another American Girl doll and it was delivered today so she brought it to show me. They both really love everything about American Girl and bought the dolls for themselves.

Thursday March 1, 2012

We took our showers and finished packing up and unhooking to leave for Mesa. I saw Patrick outside so I walked over to talk and found that the bag of grapefruit left outside our door a couple of days ago was a gift from him. I had asked most of our neighbors about them but no one had left them. He said he hoped to see us again next year as he will be located either at the Yuma or Mesa RV Dealer. He is the general manager for McMahon's RV who has multiple dealerships.

We pulled out of Los Quintas around 9:00am. Ken, Judy and Jan left about 15 minutes before us so we all had a last hug and goodbye. They said they would call during the week while in Mesa and we would all go out to eat one night.

We drove east out of Yuma and ended up passing them just before we got into the mountain pass. We drove another 20 minutes through the mountain and the winds were terrible. As we came around a curve suddenly the wind caught the awning and it deployed completely out to the side of the motor home. We were in a bad area of the highway with no where to pull over safely. We edged on around the curve and there was a short area of shoulder on the road where we pulled over. The winds were horrible and the awning was blowing so hard we were sure it was going to rip completely off. I called Good Sam's and Larry talked to them forever trying to explain our location and our need for emergency service. I was looking up the number for Arizona State Police when a patrol car pulled in behind us. I went back and explained our situation and the trooper was wonderful. He said he would stay until the road service arrived. He and I talked for a long time while Larry was still talking to the Good Sam help line.

We waited for another 30 minutes and two guys came to the door and said they came to fix our awning. I was in the motor home and didn't really hear what was going on but saw that one of the guys was on our ladder working on the awning. Larry climbed up on top of the motor home and was trying to help hold the awning while the other guy was taking it apart to work on it. I walked outside and saw a car parked behind the state trooper. My first thought was why they would come for a service call in a car without a ladder or for that matter tools as they were using our tools as well. I talked to the other guy that was basically just watching and he told me they were both customer reps for all the RV dealers. The guy working on the awning was previously a repairman for Colorado Shades, which is the brand of our awning. He told me they were on their way to Yuma to make customer calls when they saw the awning deployed and knew we must have problems, so they turned around and came back. The guy working on the awning removed the end cap on the motor side and switched it out with the one on the other end. He said the one on the motor end was worn and slipping preventing it to roll up. He told us that we could not order just the end cap replacement and the only way to get a new part was to order the entire motor. About the time he was finishing the repair, a truck pulled in and two more guys got out. They were the repair service from Sun Bum RV Repair in Yuma that got the call from Good Sam. All of the guys talked and the customer rep told the Sun Bum guy that he was not going to charge anything for his repair and that they could take care of charging for the repair. The repair guy said since they had not done the repair there would be no charge and that Good Sam would pay for the trip charge from Yuma. I could not believe what I was hearing! The customer rep said the awning was fixed and we could use it as normal and unless the motor started giving us problems, there was no need to do further repairs. I was shocked that we paid Ron's RV $175 just a couple of weeks ago and they did not repair it and we were lucky enough to have this guy show up and fix the problem in less than 45 minutes free of charge. The only thing the customer rep guy asked was that we send an email to his employer and Colorado Shades to tell them how he helped us. WOW--maybe our luck is changing after all!

During the time they were working on the awning I came back inside and saw that I had missed a call from Jan, from Canada. I called her back and she was very upset that they passed us by. She said there was no place to pull off and turn around to come back. This was true as it was a four lane highway in the mountains and they would have had to drive a very long distance to exit the highway. I told her what was going on and that they need not worry and that we appreciated their concern.

As we drove away, I kept thinking about this situation and could not believe things like this actually happen! We drove on toward Mesa and arrived at The Resort around 2:00 and were escorted to our RV Site. We parked and got set up and a couple of the neighbor's came by to introduce themselves. Ed and Eva next door are from Canada and Joan and her husband next to them are from Rockford, IL. This was surprising as we find few people in Arizona from Illinois, however Joan said there were about 7 or 8 others close by from Illinois. She told us just around the corner was a couple from Peoria. We later saw the park model she was referring to had a name plate in front with Tom Sapp on it. The name sounds familiar but will have to meet them later.

We sat outside and had a beer then decided to welcome ourselves to Mesa by going to The Native New Yorker, our favorite wing place. When we walked in it was very crowded as tonight is 'wing night'. We found a table in the bar and our favorite waitress from last year waited on us. She remembered us as she asked if we wanted MGD's. We were one of VERY few customers that drank MGD and that's how she remembered us. We explained that since we started following the South Beach Diet we had changed to Michelob Ultra. She laughed and left to get our drinks. We then ordered wings and a salad and were gorged by the time we left.

Friday March 2, 2012

When we got up we quickly showered and dressed to head to Fitch Park hoping to watch the Cubs in practice. When we arrived it was about 8:30 and found there were very few players around and none of them were on the practice field. We stood around talking to various people and were told by one guy that he heard they were having an inter squad game later today at Hohokam Park. We drove up to the main ball park and soon got the word that there was differently an inter squad game open to the public scheduled for 1:00pm. We bought tickets at the box office for Sunday, opening day and looked around in the Pro Shop for awhile. We met three people from Ladd, IL and spent some time talking to them. We decided to go over to Cindy's Restaurant for breakfast before the game. We have eaten at Cindy's several times in years past and the food is always good.

We came back to the ballpark around noon and found a seat to wait for the game. The teams took the field about 12:45 and we saw many new faces. There were several of the originals but so many new prospects. We soon saw there was a lot of new talent and watched Brett Jackson hit a grand slam. Junior Lake was also an impressive player and also an invitee for Spring Break. We watched various new and existing members in the game and came away with a small glimmer of hope for a better season if they decide to enlist a few of the prospects. During the game I walked out of the park and ran into a lady in the parking 'scalping' a couple of tickets for Tuesday's game. She dropped the original purchased price by $10 so I called Larry on cell to ask if he wanted me to buy them. They were great seats and I ended up buying them and hoped I would not be arrested for doing so. She said she bought the tickets and then realized she was scheduled to play golf on Tuesday so who knows if that was true. We are planning to return tomorrow as they have another inter squad game at 1:00.

We drove over to Camping World to check on a replacement for the sink in the RV. They said it had to be ordered but decided to check at Al's RV Repair first. Maybe we will check.

We ate dinner tonight at Fuddrucker's who mostly serve hamburgers. This is also one of our favorite's while in Mesa.
Saturday March 3, 2012

We got up early as we wanted to go back to Hohokam for the inter squad game at 1:00. I thought we could stop at Costco to activate our membership card that Kyle and Taylor bought us for Christmas but we ran out of time. When I walked outside to wait for Larry our neighbor Bill, started talking and when Larry came out we spent the next hour talking. We wanted to grab breakfast and went to IHOP first but it was packed with people. We drove over near the ball park and ended up eating again at Cindy's.

We arrived at the park about 12:30 and watched the game. The weather was perfect with the temperature around 73 degrees and the winds were calm today. Again we were treated to a home run by Brett Jackson. He is really a powerhouse hitter or so it seems. Also Tony Campana entertained us with his base stealing expertise!

We didn't get home until almost 6:00. I had a chicken in the crock pot so started finishing dinner. Joan, whom we met when we first got here told us about a neighbor that was from Peoria. While I was working on dinner the neighbor came buy to introduce herself. As it turned out, Larry knows her husband who owns an accounting firm in Bartonville. When they had the dairy stores they used the firm for their accounting. Their names are Tom and Carol Sapp and they also live in Bartonville. Carol said Tom flew home this week to work on taxes and will be gone a week. The more we travel, the more we find people we either know or have mutual friends. It is a very small world!

Sunday March 4, 2012

We woke up to another disaster this morning. When I got up at 5:15am I was welcomed to a floor full of water. Evidently when the shower was last used the faucet did not get totally shut off and it dripped all night, filled the holding tank and then began to spill over onto the floor. Luckily it only got into the carpet about a foot around the kitchen area. Larry opened the sewer line to drain the tank and we mopped the water from the hard services of the bath, hall and kitchen. We got dressed and went to Walmart and bought a small wet/dry vacuum to suck the remaining water out of the carpet area. It could have been so much worse so we were lucky to have found it early. This has definitely been the 'trip from Hell' as we have had so many problems.

We left for Hohokam Park around 10:45 for the opening day of Chicago Cubs Spring Training. We bought a couple of sweatshirts on Friday that ended up being too large so we needed to return. When we got to the club house it was standing room only so knew I was not standing in line at that point to make the return. We found our seats, which were in the second row directly behind home plate. What a wonderful view we had and I think these are the best seats we've had over the years coming to Spring Training. Most seats at Hohokam are good seats, even if they are in the upper deck as it is a very well laid out stadium.

We met Bev who holds a season ticket directly in front of our seats. She was a very interesting person and a true baseball fan. She said she has been coming to Spring Training for 35 years and she comes alone. Her husband is a golfer and many years ago she decided to start attending the games while he golfed and has attended faithfully each year. They split their time between North Dakota, their original home, and Mesa and they have a home both here and in North Dakota.

The Cubs played the Oakland A's today and our new favorite, Brett Jackson hit another home run. We left after the 8th inning and the score was tied 10 up. It was a beautiful day today with a temperature of 73 at game time. At times, however, it got very warm setting in the sun. They announced Chicago had a high temperature of 32 today, which the announcer always likes to brag about at each game.

I was planning to have hamburgers for dinner tonight but Larry wanted to go to Native New Yorker for wings. We saw Diane, our favorite waitress, and she gave me a hug and told me she was so happy we were back in Mesa for awhile. I told her at the rate we come in, she would be sick of seeing us by the time we left town.

We came home and Carol Sapp, our neighbor that is from Bartonville, had left an invitation to their St. Patty's Day Party on our patio table. We later saw her and talked to her for a while and she said her husband, Tom, would be home Sunday. She had told Tom we were here and he was surprised and said he wanted to see Larry as he has known him for quite awhile. Bill and Charlotte behind us put their dogs outside and it was the first time I had seen the dogs. They are chowawa's and the female (Sierra) weights 2.5 and the male (Jake) 3.5. They are so tiny but produce big attitudes as when they saw the cats they started growling like they were ready to take them on. Bill picked Sierra up and brought her over to see the cats and suddenly the fight went out of her as I think she realized how large they were. We visited with Eva, our Canadian neighbor next door and Joan and Paul who is next to Eva. This whole little neighborhood is so friendly. It is a much more welcoming place than Silveridge was. I think Silveridge has many more Canadians and the majority of them are basically unfriendly. A lot of the residence of Silveridge are unfriendly as well and only mingle with their own group so as a snowbird, it's hard to be accepted. I love the area we are in here at The Resort but wish our site was a little nicer. Most of the sites have concrete patios and drives and gravel filling in the rest of the space. Our site has a nice sized patio but the rest is pretty much basic dirt with little rock. I'd like to suggest a little improvement to this site for the future as they seem to have plenty of cash flow for other items. Another item that does not thrill us is that both our resort as well as Silveridge have no WiFi at our site. This means a trip to the clubhouse every time you need to get on Internet. It's strange they cannot not figure that issue out as every other RV Resort we have been has on-site WiFi. I expressed my displeasure last year to the man who owns both of these resorts about this issue and he argued that they had tried several times to resolve and could not because of all the metal in the park, which of course is BS! I think he is too cheap to put the money into it since the residents have accepted this arrangement.

Monday March 5, 2012

We did some running around today and  stopped at Great Clips on Ellsworth for both of us to get a hair cut.

I emailed Stacy Coats, the Customer Rep who stopped to fix our awning on the way here from Yuma. I asked him for some names and email addresses for his management that we could send an email regarding his service. He sent me back the names and I sat down and composed an email to tell them how wonderful his services were. I copied Stacy and he sent me a 'Thank You' for sending the email. He seems like a very nice guy and obviously is because he went above and beyond to help us.
 
After dinner, I talked to Jan and Judy who are still here in Mesa. We tried to find a time to get together one more time before they leave on Thursday. Later in the evening Jan sent an email asking if we could meet them on Wednesday for lunch. I sent back an email saying we could meet so just need to decide on where we all want to go.
 
Tuesday March 6, 2012
 
We stopped at The Village Inn for breakfast before heading to Hohokam Park for the Cub Game. We were a little later arriving at the game today and had to park in the far back lot. The price of parking raised $2 this year to $7.00. I was counting the parked cars in just the one lot to the side of the stadium coming in and figured just for this small area, they collected in excess of $6,000. There are at least 4 or 5 other lots the same size or larger so work the numbers! By the time we purchase tickets, pay for parking and drink our beer, we have spent  more than $100 for a day of Cubs Baseball. The new stadium which is planned for 2014 will no doubt be more expensive yet. May have to decide to give up a few of my much loved Cub games in the future.

The Cubs played the Colorado Rockies and beat them 11-4. This is their first win of the Spring Training season as they  lost the first 2 games to the Oakland 'A's'. They do have some great looking prospects, however, so wishing for a much better season this year! Our chosen favorite from the 'invitee' group is still Brett Jackson. He is a strong hitter and a well rounded player. Alphonso Soriano whom no one likes, hit 2 home runs today so maybe since the Cubs have to pay him, he can produce something this year in return!!

We sat next to a couple from Ames, IA who were very friendly and Larry talked to them the entire game . The weather was beautiful today with a temperature of around 83 degrees. The forecast was for the winds to pick up early afternoon to around 40MPH but it did not get that windy which was a good thing.

We got home late again today and cooked brats on the grill for dinner. After we had dinner, I called to talk to the Jackson's from Canada about when and where they wanted to meet for dinner on Wednesday. Ken was the only one home at the time so he said Judy would call back.

Judy called about 9:30 and we decided to go to The Native New Yorker as Ken was in the mood for wings she said. We plan to meet them at 1:00 tomorrow. As I've told Larry a dozen times since meeting Judy, if I closed my eyes, I'd think I were talking to my dear friend Sandi from home. I love talking to Judy so much as she is such a character and onery, just like my friend Sandi whom I love so much!