Guadalajara Original Grill - Tucson

Gerry spent the morning at the rec hall practicing her knitting in the round.  She is making some hats for all the great grandbabies that we have now in the family.  We need to slow the grandkids down a little so she can catch up with them.  Grand daughter Stephanie is expecting twin girls in April.

It was time to get our Guadalajara Grill fix and we met friends Kathy & Mike there for happy hour on Friday night.  It is a busy place so Gerry and I arrived early enough at 4:45pm to get a table for the 4 of us.  Kathy & Mike are still working and arrived a little after 5:30.  By that time we were on our second drinks

and had ordered the salsa that they make at your table.  I don't do well with spicy salsa so we got one mild and a medium salsa.

When we arrived I was surprised that they weren't that busy, but it started filling up really fast right after we got there.  During the course of the evening all the tables were occupied and it was very loud.  I loved it.

Kathy & Mike

 We all sat around and got caught up on what's been going on with us all over the past 9 months.  Mike recently accepted a new position and is doing well, while Kathy continues to work for the University of Arizona.

 They make all their tortillas in full view of the customers.  You can really tell they are fresh when you bite into one.  I'd like to buy a couple dozen of them while we are there but I don't think they would go along with it.

  
They have a mariachi band that starts playing at 6:00pm and takes requests.  We only know a few songs and usually just listen to them play.  For the most part they sound great and are entertaining.

We spent about 2.5 hours at our table chatting and having a great time.  We left the waitress a great tip for occupying the table so long and headed for the bar area.  We managed to get a table out there and ordered another round of drinks.  It is a nice bar area but  we soon decided to call it a night.  After all, we still had to drive home.

Now we have to work on finding a place to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  We met Kathy & Mike 5 years ago on St. Patrick's day and have made it an annual get together in addition to the other regular get-togethers while we are in the area.

That was our Friday, how was yours?

Back On The Air

My computer operating system (OS) crashed on me last month and I tried to fix it but it was too far gone.  I looked into buying another computer but laptops have gone up in prices quite a lot.  I finally bought another copy of the operating system and installed it today.  Now I have to bring all my programs up to date and that is going to take some time.

I think the problem with the OS is that Windows 10 downloaded and I installed it last year.  I didn't care for Win 10 and backed it out of my computer as instructed.  Over time Win 10 loaded some updates and one of them clobbered my computer.  All my data was there but the OS would not work.  That's my story and I am going to stick to it.

We did have some good news last week.  Gerry managed to win $200 on the slots at the Casino del Sol.  She stopped playing and walked away a winner.  All of this as a result of putting $1.00 in the slot machine and winning on her second spin.  She was one happy gambler to say the least.  Now she has hidden the money and I'm not sure she is going to share it.  (Note from Gerry - but he made me buy dinner with my winnings, so I shared at least that much.)

Once I get the computer settled I plan on updating the blog.  We haven't been doing a lot of interesting things so it should be easy.  

Gerry's cousin Joanne is now on Facebook and it will never be the same.  LOL


 

Quick trip to Yuma & Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

January 20-21, 2017

We left Las Vegas Friday morning heading for Yuma to visit with friends Debbie & Dale.  It was an unusual drive in that we had miles of fog and mist to go through.   Usually it's sunny and clear in that part of Nevada.  At least it was a cool drive.

We arrived in Yuma just about the same time that Debbie & Dale returned from Phoenix after taking a visitor to the airport there.  They drove over & picked us up and then headed to Pizza Hut for dinner.  That was an experience in that they were out of beer and others basic.  We ordered chicken wings as an appetizer & they brought it after the pizza arrived.  Other restaurants in the area had a long wait but there weren’t that many patrons there.  I wonder why.

After dinner we went back to their rv park to visit & have a look see at the park.  They are spending a couple months at the Carefree Village rv resort in Yuma.  It is a very nice park with large sites and a super clubhouse with all the amenities.   If we decide to return to the Southwest next winter it will be high on our list of where to stay.  Debbie & Dale will be moving to our park later this month & we are looking forward to showing them around Tucson.

Saturday we left early for Organ Pipe and took the road through Ajo & Why on the way to the park.  Ajo looked nice and is next to a huge copper mine.  Why is just a spot on the road and not much there. 

We stopped at the visitor center at the park to read up what is there.  They have a nice campground at the visitor center area & a small campground for tenters & small rvs.  No hookups.

The hillsides are covered with Organ Pipe Cactus along with Saguaro,  Barrel,  Ocotillo and other cacti.  It was well worth the long drive to see these beautiful cacti.

We took a number of photos and I've included a few of them.  The photos don't capture how pretty the area is.  

It turned out to be a very long day but it was worth it.  If possible we would like to take the motor home there and spend a couple days exploring the area.

Joanne, this one is for you.