Wife is back and heat is on.

High Life........

3/28/15
Sue flew back from Minden, Nebraska (helping her mom get into her new assisted living unit), great having my partner back.

We definitely are no longer shaking off winter chill, Phoenix is setting heat records for this time of year. Averaging 15 deg over typical, should be 80 high (nice), hitting 95 (hot). While Nebraska and Colorado are enjoying 60s and 70s. What is the deal with the weather??

Attended our 2nd spring training game, against SF......win 5 to 2. Met and visited with our old friend and realtor from Littleton. Guila, her daughter, "Tesla" and husband, "Randy". They were at the game as part of a spring break vacation.

Managed to find a softball game, courtesy of Jim Doerr a team mate from the senior team that I have been playing with the past couple of years. He has wintered in this area for several years, actually turns out to be just a few miles from our park. Had lunch with Jim which got us talking softball and Jim commenting on his playing Tuesdays and Fridays, invited me along for the ride.
Well what I got into turned out being enjoyable, but seemed like past years of youth.......everyone lines up, teams are selected and Rod is the last one to get on a team..no one wanted the new kid. I got in the last swing though, with a couple of sharp singles which set up the out field playing in on me so that the blast that went over their heads wound up being a triple. Nice bat plus some catches and a put out at third. Not a bad day considering I had not touched the gear since the last game of last August. Of course soreness set in the next day and I earned every stiff muscle.

 Jim and I

 Triple coming up....suckers

 

This next little adventure is one of those experiences that was not expected but exciting in that the opportunity presented itself and we jumped on it. Did not ever imagine that I would be checking camel racing off the bucket list, but ostrich racing on the same day..........what a score!!!!

 

And now.....a quick picture of some desert beauty. Spring blooms are every where.

 

 

Road Rash.......

 

Along with the spring blooms comes the spring pollen and am I suffering. Do not recall struggling this much with scratchy throat and runny nose..........keeping stocked up on kleenex is a must.

3/20/15  Have had a pause in the Endeavor journey due to some life changing events (good ones)!!!!

High Life......

Closed up the ship and took the shuttle (vue) to the outer parameter of space.....Nelson Nebraska. Just a few miles north of Superior (where my mom lives). The new objective.....believe it or not....to look at a home to purchase. I know at the time we were beginning this adventure, we did not have the intentions of having another home for some time, not knowing where we might like to settle. Things change.....Sue and I have felt that we should be near our mothers and spend more time with them as the years seem to be flying by. As I write Sue is still in Minden Nebraska (north of Nelson app 60 miles) helping her mom (Luella) get moved into an assisted living facility. So as the decision was feeling like the right one, I began doing web searches of available properties that would give the following...close to our moms, acreage, nice house, out buildings for storage and wood working shop, low cost. We came across what we feel will satisfy all requirements with some work to be done. The below are pics of the property that we will be closing on come May 1st. With the help of our advisory team (my sisters, mom and brother in-law), we were able to weed through some properties long distance (my brother in-law took a stack of pictures and sent them to us for the long distance review)and finally made the 1200 mile trip to look at and eventually put a contract on this place in Nelson. Has 2 acres, 3 bedroom, 1 and 1/2 bath, ranch style with full walk out basement, 1275 sq ft main, 1275 sq ft basement, built in 1978 and has been fully updated in the past couple of years.  Price is 1/4 of what we got for our place in Colorado, so have the extra change to put up the buildings that we desire and make it what we want.....this including an RV storage structure.

 Main upper level door and walk out basement

Vaulted ceilings in main living area

New kitchen and hard wood flooring

Redone main bath

Nicely finished basement

 

We had not considered Nebraska due to the winters, but we feel that we can have our cake and pie and eat them both. This being the piece of property that we were hoping for allowing us to keep the motorhome to continue travels in between the Nebraska springs and falls. We like Phoenix for winter and we still have the Colorado cabin for extended summer stays in the rockies. We feel that we now have everything, including being closer to the family when it is needed.

 

So....with the house in work and Luella making her move, we have not been around to pursue further Arizona adventures. Soon to continue though.

 

Oh yea......did stop at the Sky City casino (west of Albuquerque) on the way back to Phoenix and walked out with an extra $1100.

 

Road Rash.....

 

Have been missing my partner, comrade, team mate, navigator, co-pilot, hiking buddy, etc. She will be flying in this Monday..so I will again be complete.

 



3/5/15   Geeeeeez.....March, it has been nearly a month since I have updated, regretfully......time is flying.

High Life.......
Have not made it to Cave Creek or Sadona quite yet (as I had mentioned in last post), but lots going on to keep us busy.

On sight......we did a biscuits and gravy breakfast with a couple that all of a sudden had us introduced to everyone. Sue now knows the Monday sewing club gang. She has been invited to come and share her sewing experiences (might wind up teaching the group).
Myself, I simply was asking about some possible tournament activities and now have been throwing horseshoes most mornings with the horse shoe group which includes the past Wisconsin runner up state champ.  He throws "V" shaped horse shoes. I commented on them not looking like the game name (horse shoes??). He came back with them being "camel" shoes. Again I mentioned "horse" shoes and I was immediately made aware of the fact that they are legally sanctioned shoes....no matter what a person might want to call them. I think they had magnets in them.......

The park being named "Pioneer" RV park, of course there had to be a "Pioneer" days celebration. The activities group had several days of happenings. We did a pot luck, poker run, the mentioned breakfast, represent your state parade, Liberty wildlife birds of prey presentation.

The Nebraska entry was very interesting

Peregrine Falcon

I Want a Screech Owl

 

 

The gun range next door (Ben Avery Gun Range) to the park had 3 days of a national shooting competition. Sounded like the 4th of July on the other side of the hill for those days. We went to check it out and found that all competitors were required to dress in historical dress of the old west for the competitions. Was way cool in the way the competition was held. There were several settings of staged old west scenes (as shown below) that had the shooters running from window to window, a couple shotgun blasts, then grab the lever action rifle for a few shots and then finish with pistols. Was way better than what we saw at Tombstone. Cool quick draw contests.

 

 

 

Thought I had a UFO sighting the other morning. I am generally (OK always) up kinda early (OK really early) so I go out for a "before sunlight" walk. As I was returning, I caught what seemed to be a very bright flash of light in the darkened sky out of the corner of my eye. I gazed at the spot that I thought the light came from and nothing......I guessed that I was delusional (nothing new). Continued walking and after a few minutes thought I saw it repeat, again out of my full vision, but was sure that there was something. Then in the sky at where I was looking this time, a very bright flash, then nothing. At last, this is the real deal. Another flash........cool, only this time I detected an audible kind of roar. Then it dawned on me.....I was experiencing my first night balloon flight. The light and sound was the burner activation as it was maintaining altitude. A little dis-appointed in that the object was no longer "unidentified" but it was another first and still kinda cool.     

 

Spent 3 days at the PIR (Phoenix International Raceway) to partake in our first RV rally. Another great time and very educational for "still" newbies. To many seminars to be able to attend them all but the ones that we did attend were very helpful and thought provoking. The best was the last when the freightliner manufacturer had some reps to go over our motorhome chassis makeup and some good dos and don'ts. Now know that I have some further maintenance to get done plus some things that I need to stay aware of.  Also was able to get some minor pieces/parts at some great discounts. Another first was attending an outdoor concert in February. Temp was 66 deg for Super Diamond, a tribute to Neil Diamond.

Have never been a NASCAR fan, but I must say that the facility was very impressive. There is the first race of the season here in a couple of weeks, might attend so it can be added to the "done it" list.

 

Road Rash.......

Having some issues getting my blood testing done. I had been told by various medical folks that I would be able to go into any lab and get a simple INR (blood coagulation test) as long as I paid out of pocket. Well......not so, I could not get a test without a drs written request. I did get it done finally utilizing a close urgent care unit. Wound up costing me $150. I can get tested over the next couple of months for around $5 so that will not be so bad. I will be on my own if my testing should come back out of whack, which luckily it has not. But.....even if it did, I have been at this long enough to know what I would need to do.  Will get through this for now, at least until we get back to Colorado in May to meet up with our new primary care physicians. One of the many things that we are experiencing and learning from as we go.