Dinner with Ron & Dee

Ron & Dee are leaving for Illinois on Saturday morning and the 4 of us went out to dinner at the Guadalajara Grill this evening.  We had been trying to get together for dinner for a while however Ron had a lot of dental work this last month and wasn't up to eating out that much.

We reserved a special chair for Dee to see if she would fit into it.  She did.  I think three Dees could fit into this chair.  What do you think?

It was their first chance to have dinner at the Grill and they seemed to like it.  It is convenient to the park and if you get there early enough, you can enjoy the happy hour and Mariachi Band, cold beer and great Mexican food.  We managed to stuff ourselves and put down a few drinks and had a good time. 

They mix up the salsa right at your table and make it to your taste.  We ordered a medium salsa and as usual it was very good.  The server comes around with a cart and all the ingredients necessary to make the salsa.  She prepares it in a wooden bowl and they provide chips to go with the salsa.  Yummy!

Here are the ingredients on a table. 


It's hard to believe we have been here for 5 months already and it is time to leave.  We are among the last to leave this year and it is strange to see the park so vacant.


Ron & Dee are leaving their 5th wheel here over the summer and will come back in the fall with their van.  Makes sense with the high price of fuel this year.  Hope they have a safe trip back home.

Costco & Drs

Gerry and I have an opthalmologist here in Tucson who has worked on our eyes a couple of times and we have the utmost faith in his work.  Today was the day Gerry went in for her yearly checkup and a short visit turned into an afternoon deal.  Dr. Snyder saw something in her eye that he hadn't seen before and went back for a 2nd look.  He then told her to go to another specialist in the area for a further check.  This Dr said it looked like something hereditary and no concern, but to have it checked again next year.

After the Drs we thought we would check out the new Costco here in Tucson.  Bad move.  The place was mobbed worse than Christmas and there were people all over the place.  It seems that some people must have come here earlier and then gone back home to tell their neighbors about all the food samples being given away.  There were families there with 6-8 children, grandparents and who else I don't know.  They mobbed the food vendors for free samples and didn't believe in getting in line and taking their turn.  At least some vendors told them to get to the back of the line and most did that and others acted like they didn't understand.

It is a nice store and very clean as you would imagine.  We filled the gas tank on the car at $3.399/gallon and headed out of there.  The on ramp at I-10 was closed and we had to take a detour but finally made it home safely. 

A few more snowbirds left today and the place is almost deserted.  We are scheduled out of here on Tuesday and may make it if my brother gets here Monday.  He is on the way to San Diego with a load and will stop by and say hello on his way.

Never a dull moment out here. 

Apache Trail

Gerry, Barbara, Cassie, Darlene & I took a trip out west in the mid-60s in a popup tent trailer for 6 weeks.  We knew we wanted to go west but didn't really know what all there was to see.  The highlights were obvious but we didn't have any idea how much there was to see.  At least it was enough to whet our appetites for travel in a RV and we enjoyed the trip very much.

One place we did stop on the way was Apache Lake, AZ.  We saw the campground on the map and decided to head for it out of Globe, AZ.  It looked like a great place to go and we were in for the surprise of our lives.  The road for the first 1/2 mile was fine and then it turned to dirt and steep dropoffs.  We were towing a trailer and could not turn around so we kept going.  The road continued to get worse and was down to one lane with no place to turn or go if we met someone coming in the other direction.  We did meet two cars eventually and we clipped mirrors as we went by.  Whew!  

We camped for the night in 110 degree heat and it cooled down to 98 at night.  We didn't have a/c in the canvas sided popup and there wasn't any wind.  It felt like we were in a furnace.  No sleep that night for anyone due to the heat.  We got up early the next morning and kept going west thinking the road would get better.  No such luck.  We finally made it to a better road and hightailed it out of there and continued on with our trip.

Gerry and I remembered that trip vividly and I wanted to take the car and travel the route once again, so off we headed today.  It was 350 miles round trip and we made it in one day and came back very tired but satisfied.  

We entered the trail from the west at Apache Junction and headed east toward Roosevelt Lake.  Our first stop was at the Superstition Mountain Museum and checked it out.  Since we had a limited time frame to make the trip, we didn't go through the inside of the museum but did enjoy the outdoor exhibits.  They had more exhibits outside including boot hill but we didn't get a picture of it.

A little farther down the road was a touristy place called Goldfield Mine with old buildings, a train station, RV park, mine, and numerous other things designed to get you to spend money.  We drove through the place and took some pictures and left.   It seemed to be a very popular place so maybe one day we will return and see what we missed.

We drove through the Lost Dutchman State Park to see if it would be a nice place to camp if we were ever back in this area.  They were installing electric hookups while we were there and they also have water hookups.  There is a 15 day stay limit but I think that would be enough time to really explore the area.  It looked like a very nice park and I understand it is very popular and hard to get a reservation during the winter months.  The Superstition Mountains are in the background.

Continuing on with the drive took us to Tortilla Flats, another touristy place.  We bought prickly pear & black cherry ice cream cones there and enjoyed looking at the buildings.  Gerry wouldn't tell me how much the cones cost, but did say Dairy Queen was a bargain.

That was the last chance we had to see civilization for a long time.  We drove past Canyon Lake and then on to Apache Lake on a gravel and dirt road for 22 miles.  Overall it wasn't a bad road but they don't allow vehicles over 40ft on this section.  I would not even consider taking our motor home down there.  Very steep grades, narrow roads, switchback, one lane bridges, rock outcroppings, etc.  I loved it.  

We think we found the campground we stayed in 44 years ago but it has been upgraded and looks different.  Progress.


And yes, we did find 6 geocaches on the trip.  We were doing good until we saw the 5ft dead rattlesnake on the road.  That ended our traipsing in the cacti and weeds for the day.

We took a lot of pictures (175) and have included a few of them in an album that can be seen by clicking on the picture below.

Apache Trail

It was a long day and tiring but we enjoyed it very much.  Nice to go down memory lane every once in a while.


Good night.

Tax Time

I have been working on our taxes for a while now a little bit at a time.  Saturday was the big day to finalize them and send them off.  We have a very simple return with only a few odd ball deductions and in the past it has been simple to fill out.  What in the world have they done to the tax reporting for us?  What a mess.

I use Turbo Tax and depend on it to do the bulk of the work.  This time it said we owed money when I knew we were going to get some back.  I went over all the forms and finally figured out that one X mark was the culprit.  Once I changed it to the correct code all was well.


I think I would rather fight a grizzly bear rather than do taxes by hand.  It is way past time to simplify the tax code and make it easy enough for a college graduate to fill out their own tax forms.  Of course there would be a lot of accountants looking for other work.  I can't imagine they enjoy tax work anyway.

It rained all day on Saturday and we were cooped up and didn't get out much.  So today we took advantage of a beautiful day and went geocaching for a couple hours.  Once again we ran into some interesting caches and places we wouldn't have visited without geocaching.  Love it.  We have tried to find one cache a number of times and still can't find it.  The person who hid it even has a fake cache near the real one just to make it even more difficult.  Devious!  Some caches just aren't in the cards to add to the found list and get a smiley face.

We got home in time to see our favorite TV program, The Amazing Race.  We like the Cowboys and they were an hour behind very early and it didn't look like they would make it.  I won't tell you how it turned out in case you follow the show and missed the show this evening.  

That was our day, how was yours?

Happy Birthday Barbara

Happy Birthday to our daughter Barbara.  Three years ago she was with us on her birthday and returned to NC in the evening to celebrate it with her family and her brother.  We wish she could have made it this year also.  We will see her in a month and can celebrate it with her a little more.

We knocked out one Drs visit today after they called us and said we could come in 3 hours early if we wanted to.  Yes, we did want to get it out of the way.  All was fine with the Dr and ran some errands, shopping and had lunch at Olive Garden.  Plus, we managed to find 9 geocaches and then headed back to the MH.  

The day started at 6am with a text msg from  ATT wireless telling us they processed our automatic payment.  Thanks a lot fellas.  I just hate that when it happens since we can't fall back asleep easily after a phone call in the night.

We just watched Gary Bussey on the Jay Leno show tonight and can't decide if he is crazy or just acting crazy.  In any case he is far out there on the edge.  Interesting!