Leaving Post Countdown

We've been here in Tucson since early December and are preparing to hit the road again on Wednesday for Buckskin Mountain State Park.  We hope to stay a week or so.  It all depends on how many days we can get a campsite there since it is a popular campground.

Leaving the park is a lot like leaving a Post when we were in the U.S. Foreign Service.  The last month or so you avoid meeting new people as they arrive at post since you will be telling them goodbye in a short time.   The other big similarity is the goodbye dinners and parties.  Foreign Service Officers don't have to have a good reason for a party and arrange them at a drop of the hat.  Always lots of good food and adult drinks consumed with the goodbyes.  Then there are the dinner dates at favorite restaurants that you want to experience for the last time.

We are in that mode and went out to dinners with Kathy &amp Martha at the Eclectic Cafe on Tanque Verde Rd.  Kathy's mother joined us and we had a very nice time chatting with them over dinner.

 Ron & Dee C joined us at the Guadalajara Original Grill on Prince Rd and as usual we had a great time.  All of us were in the mood for Mexican and having salsa prepared at the table was a nice touch.  Gerry brought along her water bottle filled with her special sauce that was added to the margaritas.  The contents add to the flavor of the drink.

We went to Montgomery's on Friday night with Ron K and enjoyed the meal a great deal.  After dinner Ron & Gerry insisted we stop by the DQ so they could redeem some coupons for free ice cream.  I was out voted so we had to stop and fill up on the great dessert.

 Monday will be another dinner with Katy S at Olive Garden.  I think with all that food we are definitely going to be overweight in the motor home.  

Saturday night we went up to the Rec Center for root beer floats and enjoyed them.  Later, we stopped by Ron & Dee's place and sat outside on their nice porch and had a drink with them.  They are leaving a day before us, heading for their home in Illinois.

Today we began putting all the "stuff" that was being used back in the proper storage bins in the motor home.  We always accumulate stuff and then have to haul it around until we can get home.  The most difficult articles to store were the recent pottery pieces we picked up for our children.  Gerry managed to squirrel them away in the motor home someplace.  Now the trick is to remember where they are when we see the children.

It is strange to see all the empty spaces in the RV park when just two weeks ago the majority of them were filled with units.  It seems Easter and tax time makes everyone hurry back home.  We do our taxes in the motor home and file them with E-file.  I hate to work on the taxes, but we finished ours on Friday and are done for another year.  That is, assuming Turbo-Tax made all the proper calculations and we don't get pulled for an audit.  In that case, it won't be a problem since we only qualify for the standard deduction.  Now we just have to wait for the refund check to be deposited in the bank.