New Adventure

We started May out with three mystery shops at restaurants, one a new one for us, one a delivery pizza and the last one a Black Bear shop. We enjoyed them all and will miss them this summer.

Dawn, Vince and Bethany met us at church on Mother's Day and then took us out to eat at Sweet Tomatoes. We had a good time and I enjoyed the food since I like salad. Larry is not too fond of salad but then it was Mother's Day, not Father's Day! The outfit Dawn and Vince gave me for Mother's Day



On Monday after Mother's Day we met Todd and LaTia at Applebee's about half way between us to celebrate Todd's birthday since he was not feeling well when we first planned the meal for his birthday. Todd and LaTia at Applebee's.


We had a really great time together. Todd was feeling pretty good and that helped a lot. We rode the bike and enjoyed the ride as well.

On May 15, just five days before we left Phoenix, Larry had the privilege of leading one of our neighbors, Tony, to a saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. He went to church with us on Sunday May 19. Our primary purpose in life is to see souls saved and encourage straying Christians to return so we are rejoicing with the angels in heaven over Tony's decision.

Sunday evening May 19 we had Vince's 50th birthday party and our going away party at the clubhouse. Todd and Vince at the clubhouse for Vince's 50th birthday party.

The "boys" at the party.

The "girls" at the party.

The birthday boy and his cake.

One big problem was two grandkids didn't make the party -one totally forgot about it and the other one set his alarm for AM instead of PM and slept right through the entire evening. I told him I was disappointed not to see him again before we left but I was glad he got the needed sleep as he has been having a problem sleeping with his roommate's new whinny dog keeping him awake much of the time. Cerét felt badly for forgetting and came to see us before her work and our leaving Monday morning. That was a really nice gesture and we are grateful she made the effort. Cerét and Grandpa the morning we left Phoenix

We spent the next eight days at St David where very few folks were staying. The section of the park we wanted to park in was closed for the summer but Larry was able to jackknife the trailer into a spot that was wide and we were able to get everything into the site without unhooking. Jackknifed in our site in St David. Another view of the site in St David.

We took just the bike out and enjoyed a nice ride to Bisbee, AZ one afternoon and went into Benson after church on Sunday for lunch. It was very windy most of the time we were there so we stayed close to home. We did join the park for their Bar-B-Q on Saturday afternoon when more folks came out for the holiday weekend. Although the days were hot the nights were wonderful with the temp. going down into the low 50's or high 40's, great sleeping weather.

We had planned to spend Tuesday night, May 28 at Sam's Club in Las Cruces, NM but on arrival found they had no place big enough for us to stay that they allowed so after shopping we moved just down the road to K-Mart and spent the night there after checking with management to see if it was OK.

Wed May 29 was again windy but we had a nice tailwind much of the day and made good time and had decent mileage for an all uphill climb from Las Cruces to Ruidoso, NM. We stopped for fuel in Alamogordo and added an additive that seemed to make a big difference in our ability to climb at a higher speed. We arrived at our new adventure, Bonita Park Camp and Conference Center, 10 miles south of Capitan, NM around 1:30 PM on May 29 and are parked in the RV park as of now as the only volunteers (the three other RV's are staff members). Bonita Park RV park.

Where the gym was before the fire.

The devastation of the Little Bear fire of June 2012 is evident everywhere. Aftermath of the fire looking south from the RV park.


All the staff members except one lost their homes in the fire. There were 248 homes/cabins lost in the fire and 123 of those were on this camp's grounds. The people are very resilient though and forging ahead. One of the perks of volunteering here is we get fed and the food is awesome! We plan to stay the entire summer. God is good all the time.