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 8th
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 14th
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 22nd 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!
