Bailey & Nic



A busy February 2014

February ….Sat., the 1st - Doug and I made a quick trip to Dad's to say goodbye & a stop at the Italian place. We left for our trip to Gold Canyon around 10am. We had an uneventful 2.... mile drive to Gold Canyon. We were pleasantly surprised when we got there, Canyon Vista RV resort is a very nice park with very large sites. We had a beautiful view of the Superstition Mtns. While there we drove to north Phoenix with Doug/Fran to pick up Angie Hebblemen's motorcycle, spent a portion of a couple of days working on 'work stuff', used the exercise facility and toured the modular homes (Superstition Views) area that was attached to the park. Most of the homes had a very large deck on the rooftop. They were very nice – only downside is that you don't own the land and have to pay a pretty good monthly fee. You do get the use of very nice facilities however! We took a drive to Tortilla Flats, north and east of us. We enjoyed the scenery on the way and ended up in the touristy little town (actually a few buildings). We did enjoyed some live music while there. On the return trip we stopped at Goldfield, an old mining town. From there it was a stop at Filly's Roadhouse for a beer and App. Doug/Fran went to Yuma on Wed. and then a bike trip with friends to Mexico and back on Fri. We drove to Bill/Gloria's park (Mesa Spirit) on Wed. We had dinner with them. On Thur. we drove back into Mesa to the WinCo. Friday Bill/Gloria visited our park and we toured the modular homes again!

Sat., the 8^th we took 75 miles of back roads with the RV's to Casa Grande RV Resort. This was one of our membership parks that was sold and fixed up. It's nice but we decided we like the park in Gold Canyon better! Sat. evening we got a call from Carla telling us that Dad had fallen twice and they called the ambulance. When it was all said in done they determined nothing was really wrong, he scrapped and bruised his arm and face pretty good. He was released around 11pm. Doug and I drove to Lake Havasu to see him on Sunday. We overnighted and came back on Monday. I think Dad now realizes that he just can't drink much alcohol anymore. It affects him much more after the stoke and with the medications. He seemed to be doing much better. He continues to go to physical therapy 3 times a week.

Doug had some issues with this bike on the trip back from Mexico so he had the wheel bearing replaced while in Casa Grande. Fran and I shopped the Goodwill/Salvation Army one day and tried out a Zumba class at the park. I also attended a couple of other exercise classes. Mike used the exercise room.

Friday the 14^th we flew out of Phoenix to Houston to meet up with Brandon, Micheala and families (the first time we have all been together at once since all grandkids were born. Last gathering was 14 yrs ago). We attended a memorial service for their Mom, Claudia who passed away suddenly in January. We stayed with Mike & Hope Enriquez (Kat's parents). We had a wonderful time visiting. Roger & Karen and their families also attended to the service so we were able to visit with them as well. We even got a bunch of family pictures taken!!!!

Sunday we flew back to Phoenix. The 1230p flight was full but we made the next one. We got back to the Motorhome around 530p.

The last week of Feb...Dixie worked on Mon/Tue, we went to the gym, did laundry, shopping and packed. On Thur afternoon we packed up our frig/freezer stuff and took it to the office for storage in their coolers. Friday at 700a we put the MH in storage at the park and headed to the PHX airport. We left on a flight to Fayetteville via Washington Dulles. The flight to IAD was pretty open but the flight out of IAD filled up. We almost got left behind, there was a weight restriction and when we asked about our bags we realized the agent forgot about us. We got on at the last minute and arrived at FAY at 645p. We had a wonderful Spaghetti dinner with Brandon, Kat and Nic.

On Sat. the 22^nd we got our temp. ID for Ft. Bragg, groceries and set up for our week stay with Nic (a freshman). On Sun. Brandon and Kat left for RDU where they flew to Kansas to Ft. Leavenworth for Army training classes. Kat will be back on Sat and Brandon 3 weeks later.

Our week with Nic went very well. He is pretty much self sufficient.... he gets himself up at 530a , leaves the house at 615a and doesn't return home until 7pm - I just had dinner ready for him when he got home and helped a bit with studying for tests. Monday we did a little shopping, Tuesday Nic was sick so he stayed home from school. Wednesday & Friday we picked Nic up from school and took him to track practice – he had to take a test after school due to his sick day. Thursday we drove to Southern Pines where we walked around the historic district and had lunch at the Downtown Grill. We then drove to Pinehurst and then back home. Friday Bailey came home from college in Charlotte. The four of us went to dinner that evening at their favorite restaurant, Miyabi's.

March 1 - Nic had school on Sat. due to all the snow days they have had this year. Bailey took us to the airport at 830a, which turned out to be the start of a very long day. The afternoon flight to IAD was full so we opted for the 10am one. We arrived at IAD around 1130 and our scheduled departure flight to PHX wasn't scheduled until 530p so we knew we had a wait. However, once we arrived we found that it was delayed until 7p due to late equipment from SFO (caused from the rain in CA). We hung out in the club – we checked flights, read, checked flights, watched a TV show on the computer and checked flights some more. It was overbooked and kept fluctuating. We went to get a Subway around 6p and then headed to the gate. The delay kept growing, then we did a gate change and waited some more. Finally around 8p we got the last 2 seats and boarded. Once on board and ready to go at 845p, the Capt announced we had a maintenance problem. We finally pushed back from the gate around 915p with a 5 hours flight ahead of us – separated and in middle seats of course! We arrived in PHX at 1215a local time. It was almost 'same day air service'! We then had to wait for our bags that were checked at the gate. We lucked out and didn't have to wait for the shuttle to the parking lot – it was there when we walked out the door. We were on the road at 1am and arrived back to the motorhome at 2am. It was in storage so we just snuck in quietly and crawled into bed – 22 hrs after we got up!