Glad February is behind us

We started Feb off with a visit to the VA to see about Larry’s shoulder issue. After hearing the three possible solutions (do nothing, go for physical therapy or surgery) He decided to do nothing for now and just ‘grin and bear it’. We did get new pads for his Tens unit and the doctor told him where to place them for the best help. That has helped some.

We went to Prescott to move the mailbox from the bottom of the hill to beside the garage for his mother. I also called the newspaper and asked them to throw the paper up by the garage door so she doesn’t have to go down the hill to get either the mail or the paper now. She is liking that very much and said on the windy days the paper has been in the paper box below the mailbox which means the paper person has to get out of their car to put the paper in the box. That is really nice!

We met friends at our favorite Chinese restaurant and were very disappointed with the food. We have been going to that restaurant for almost twenty years and learned it had been sold recently so we will not be going back. We also met ‘growing up’ friends we haven’t seen in 11 years and had a nice visit. They have retired to a small southern IN town not too far from where we once lived in southern IN. We learned it really is a small world!

We moved the MH by going to Cave Creek, AZ and doing a take out pizza shop so we killed two birds with one stone. The great pizza we bought in Cave Creek
The pizza was fantastic but Larry was feeling pretty bad and was running a fever (we stopped to buy a thermometer on the way). He spent the next few days in bed and I ended up taking him to the emergency room at the VA on Saturday because he thought he had pneumonia (which the chest x-ray showed he didn’t). Monday evening he started coughing up blood and then his nose started bleeding so we went back to the emergency room at the VA. They kept him overnight but never did figure out what caused the problem. They said he had bronchitis. He has been taking it easy since trying to shake whatever he has. We had some cold weather and hail so he didn’t want to get out anyway. Hail that came down on Feb 20, 2013


The last Sunday of Feb after church I did a shop for Black Bear Diner, something I have wanted to do for a long time. It was well worth the wait and we had enough leftovers for two more meals. Sweet!

And I thought Dec. was busy!

We started the new year off by moving the motorhome by going to Camping World in Mesa for a day trip. When we returned we could not hook up to the internet and had to move the MH three different times, still not connecting. The next day we talked to Moto-Sat to see if the sat tables had changed, not, so we had to reboot everything and finally we were able to connect. Yah!

Larry had his trailer mover listed on Craig’s List and a fellow came and bought it so that gave us some extra money. Larry bought a gun with his half and I bought a two burner induction cooktop. It is really fast and I really like it.

Jan 6 we met at Sweet Tomatoes to celebrate Dawn’s birthday. It is always good to see family and share a meal together. I baked a cake to help celebrate.

Dawn and daughter, Bethany at Sweet Tomatoes

Ellen, Dawn and Bethany Jan 6, 2013

Vince, Colby, Dawn and Bethany at Sweet Tomatoes for Dawn's birthday





Monday Jan7 Larry had a VA appt. and he had x-rays of his shoulder. After the VA I did another mystery shop for our meal and then we went to the movies (Christmas gift) to see Les Miserables. I have not seen the Broadway version so it was all new to me. It is an unusual musical in everything said is sung. I enjoyed it as it had a good story line, no sex or cussing but there was violence.

Phoenix had a four day cold spell with night time temperatures below freezing and daytime temps. in the 40’s. So glad that is behind us!

After the cold spell Larry got busy and finished several projects. He fixed one of our bedroom day/night shades, put in a new ramp for his trailer/shop, and put bug deflectors on the front fork of his BMW bike. While it was cold he replaced my old cooktop with the new induction cooktop. It was a two day project and kind of messy but well worth the effort. He had to put a switch on the front of the cabinet so I won't accidentally turn it on since it is now the counter top. He also put a new winch in the trailer under the sewing machine so we can load the BMW into the trailer easier.

Larry re-stringing our day/night bedroom shades

The new safety ramp Larry engineered to use for his trailer/shop

The bug deflectors Larry put on the front fork of his BMW. He also put on a longer fender.

The old cooktop just before Larry replaced it

Starting the cutout for the new cooktop

The cutout with the new brace ready for the new cooktop

The new cooktop in and ready to go

The switch Larry put in the cabinet so I won't accidentally turn the new cooktop on since it is now the counter top.

The new winch to help load the BMW in the trailer. It is located under his sewing machine on the wall.


We had planned to go to Prescott on Jan 21 with Dawn and Vince to celebrate Larry’s mother’s 90th birthday but she called us on the Friday before saying she would not be alive on Monday and please come. By the time we gathered our things together and arrived in Prescott, she was feeling better. We stayed and Dawn and Vince came up on Monday as planned to celebrate her birthday. We returned to Phoenix on Tues. the 22nd.

Vince, Dawn and Larry in Prescott for Mom Clarks's birthday

Not 90 candles (that would burn the house down!) but celebrating 90 years

This shows the flowers that the lady who gets Mom C's groceries brought to her







On Sat Jan 26 we went to the park Chili cook-off and enjoyed our meal especially since Larry went for free since he won the door prize from the monthly breakfast two weeks before.

Dawn and Vince invited us out to Genghis Grill to celebrate my 70th birthday. She baked a cake and when the server, Tim saw it, he wanted a piece of cake too. Then he asked if we wanted ice cream to go with it. When Dawn asked, ‘how much?’, he replied ‘nothing’ and brought out five bowls of ice cream. How cool is that?

celebrating 70 years at Genghis Grill in Phoenix,AZ




We ended up going back to Prescott on the 30th because Mom Clark’s phone was busy for two days (she left it off the hook) but one never knows about that sort of thing, especially since she seems to be going downhill very fast. She has shortness of breath, swollen legs and no energy, all signs of congestive heart failure. We are planning to go back on Monday Feb 4. It makes it very hard when she will agree to go to a home one minute and the next minute be adamantly against it.

Happy 2013!

We started Dec. with an emergency call from Larry’s mother so we headed to Prescott. She had a blood clot in her arm and was in ICU for a day until the blood clot dissipated. She was moved to a regular room until she was strong enough to walk and on Sat they let her come home. She had agreed to go to care facility for week or so until she was stronger but when the time came to go she refused to sign the papers so we ended up taking her home instead and the county has been checking in on her since she refused to abide by the doctor’s recommendation. It is a situation we are not happy about but when older folks get so stubborn and won’t listen to any kind of reason, you just have to let it go.

I did all my Christmas shopping on line and it was so easy. I for one, dislike shopping of any kind so on line is the least painful.

The weather turned cold so Larry did not spend much time in the trailer working although he has several projects he wants to do. He does not like the cold and I am not overly fond of cold weather either. It is hard to get motivated to go walking each day when the highs are only in the 50’s.

We had our family Christmas get together in the clubhouse where we are staying. Everyone was able to come which we are very grateful for. We had a White Elephant gift exchange and had a lot of laughs over some of the gifts.

Waiting for others to arrive

Enjoying our meal

Ceret opening a gift she doesn't like

Us on Christmas Day


I found some puzzles for the holidays on line and printed them out for anyone/everyone to work on to help pass the time while we were waiting for everyone to arrive. We did have a very nice day. We also were able to get a good “family” picture with one addition, Alex’s girlfriend, Karen.

Back row: Colby, Vince, Alex, Todd, Adam, Shane, Larry
Front row: Bethany, Dawn, Karen, LaTia, Ceret, Ellen

We ended the month with another mystery shop at a pizza place just half a mile down the road. It was very convenient and we enjoyed the pizza. It is nice getting paid to eat out!

Busy, busy November

We started the month of November off with my first mystery shop and then ended the month with another mystery shop. One could never ‘live’ off the income from those mystery shops but they are a nice way to get a meal paid for.

I had my mammo and bone scan with a good report from the mammogram and a not so good report from the dexa scan so I am starting on a regiment of vitamins and minerals to try to reverse my numbers without using big pharma meds.

On Nov 10 the park had a Veteran’s Brunch with veterans getting a free meal so we paid just $3 for my meal. After church on Nov 11 we went to Olive Garden with Vince, Dawn and Bethany for Veteran’s Day and the fellows each had a free meal. We had leftovers which is always good. On Monday Nov 12 we again got together with Vince, Dawn and Bethany and visited Golden Corral for their Veteran’s Day free meal for vets. Golden Corral always seems to have good food and we came away stuffed. On Tues Nov 13 we went to a free Bar-B-Q at a sister park just a few miles from us. It was supposed to be at our park but not enough folks signed up so we joined the other park. It was really good Bar-B-Q! Sat Nov 17 the park had their free Thanksgiving Dinner for residents and we enjoyed that meal too. On Sunday Nov 18 after church we joined the Pot Blessing for the Silver Saints. I took green bean casserole and again, we ate too much!

Larry had a chiro appt. at the VA on Nov 19 and afterwards we stopped at the DAV to have Larry’s rating re-evaluated. It will take two years since there is such a backlog of returning vets ahead of him. That’s OK because by then he will really need it.

Thanksgiving we spent the day at our granddaughter’s home and had a wonderful time. Her new in-laws were there also and it gave us a chance to get to know them since we just met them at the wedding two months ago and didn’t really get a chance to talk with them then. It was great seeing the family again and having everyone there. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any “everyone together” pictures. Reading back over this it sounds like all we did all month was eat!

Cerét and her new mother in law fixing Thanksgiving dinner

Cerét and Adam carving the turkeys

Shane and Adam on Thanksgiving

Todd relaxing on Thanksgiving. Note how 'relaxed' the dog is!

Larry and Vince on Thanksgiving

Dawn, Alex and Cerét

Colby, LaTia, Shane, Ellen, Bethany and Dawn after we had our main course on Thanksgiving

Bethany looking great

Shane, Colby and Katrina (Shane's girlfriend) enjoying a nice fire after we ate on Thanksgiving



Larry kept busy when he wasn’t eating, fixing a generator for Vince that a friend had given him. It is 35 years old and needed some ‘loving attention’ so now it runs like a champ! They don’t make them like that any more. It just won’t quit. He also found the overflow tank on our Aqua-Hot was cracked all the way down the side and a new one was $189. He ‘sleep on it’ and figured out how to replace it for $15 which made me very happy.

The old cracked overflow bottle from the Aqua-Hot

Larry's "fix" for the Aqua-Hot overflow tank









Our front door prop also broke and a new one of those was $139 plus shipping but again, he ‘slept on it’ and figured out how to repair the old one for less than $5. I think I will keep him around!

Larry fixing the door 'prop' on the front door. He is so talented! .........................

We moved the coach for the day to Countryside RV in Apache Junction on Nov 26. We ended up in a different site that we usually get that was quieter but very hard to get into so we have decided we are just too big for Countryside and in the future will take just day trips to rotate the wheel bearings and “exercise” the engine and transmission. We stopped at Camping World in Mesa on the way to AJ and bought new A/C shrouds since our old ones are cracked and brittle. Only trouble was we didn’t open the boxes until we returned to Sunrise Heights and found they are the wrong ones! I ended up calling Camping World and talked to the manager and Nov 30 they sent their parts runner out with the correct ones and picked up the wrong ones. That was a real PTL since it is a 70 mile round time run and the shrouds are too big for the car so we would have had to take the motorhome. God is good all the time!

The November full moon over a neighbor's place all decorated for the holidays in Phoenix




Have a Happy Hanukkah and a very Merry Christmas!

Busy October

We moved 10 miles down the road to TTN Verde Valley on Oct 4 and promptly saw friends we have not seen in a long time. It is such fun to again meet up with friends! After the chapel service on Sunday at the clubhouse we went for Chinese at the Ming House in Cottonwood with Art & Faye and Beau & Becky. It turns out those two couples met this summer in Florence, OR and we have known both of them for many years! It really is a small world! Larry ended up working on both couples’ MH. Art and Faye’s 2007 Monaco turn out to be quite a challenge but Larry figured out how to make it work. The part that broke is no longer made and with Monaco out of business, things did not look too good. It did take several days but they had over a week and Larry finished the job and everything worked perfectly. PTL!

The part that broke on Art and Faye's MH and Larry's "fix"

Our site for three weeks while at TTN Verde Valley, AZ xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx





We went to see the Hired Hands again on Friday night only this time with Art and Faye. We stayed until they closed down. We always enjoy hearing them and they played my request, a song Jesse composed several years ago that I think is awesome.

Oct 15 we rode the bike to Prescott via Jerome and Mingus Mountain to see Larry’s mom. We did several errands for her and ended up bringing her truck back to Cottonwood to try and sell it for her. We returned on Thurs. and a fellow who has helped his Mom in the past stopped to say he wanted to buy the truck. We rode the bike back to Cottonwood and I decided to count the curves on 89A between Prescott National Forest and the city limits of Clarksdale—there are 185 of them! We made arrangements to return Monday morning Oct 22 to first get a new mattress and box springs for his Mom and then take her to the bank to sign the truck title and deposit the check. Since then she has had “seller’s remorse” even though she has not had her driver’s license for 10 months. She will be 90 in January and we don’t think she should be on the road anyway as she does not have good reaction time.

Thursday Oct 25 found us on our way back to our leased lot in Phoenix. We stopped for diesel a few miles from our lot and God was looking out for us as we would not have been able to get into the station if there had been any other cars there. We had to turn right and go around the block to get back on our planned route but were very grateful we were able to get fuel there as it was the cheapest station around. Vince came over and helped us get everything arranged and worked like a real trooper! Since we turned off the water before we left all the plants were dead (Larry was happy because he doesn’t like ‘green’) and Vince took two of them out and put them in the trash. He then took us out for German food in Glendale. How’s that for a good son-in-law?

Saturday night we ate at the clubhouse for the monthly dinner, October fest food again. It was nice being welcomed back to the community.

Sunday Oct 28 Dawn and Vince surprised us by showing up at church and then we all went to the AZ State Fair. Colby and his girlfriend along with Bethany and a girlfriend met us at the fairgrounds. We watched the dog handling competition of many branches of peace officers which was very interesting. I would not want to be on the “receiving end” of a dog’s teeth!! We ate lots of greasy fair food but were disappointed that the Dole Pineapple ice cream stand was not there. Of course I had to have Indian Fry bread! We spent eight hours there and didn’t spend any money for anything except food. Of course the kids bought ride passes and spent much of their time riding the rides. We did catch up with them for food. (Thanks to cell phones—what did we do without them?)

Larry, Vince and Dawn at the AZ State Fair

A new exhibit at the AZ State Fair called "World of Giant Bugs" really quite interesting xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Monday Larry had an appointment at the VA to see if there was something other than age that caused his altitude sickness back in UT in June. He did a test of his lungs and he has the lungs of a 64 year old so that is very good. The doctor did give him some pointers on how to acclimate to higher altitudes in the future.

November will be even busier!

From Oregon to Arizona

September really seemed to fly by as we were busy all month. On Labor Day, our across the street neighbors in Merrill stopped to see us as they had business in Bend and stopped on the way home. What a pleasant surprise! We had a good visit before they went on their way home.

We took the bike to La Pine for our chiro appt. and then brought back 50 lbs of table salt for our water softener. We split the bag in two using black garage bags and put half in each saddle bag. Worked out well—who would have thought we could do that?!

We had supper with the folks in the Prevost in front of us and what a feast it was! They have a garden in Portland and nearly everything was from their garden; fresh corn on the cob, big Brandywine tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cabbage, onions and pork loin from their butchered pig. Their have a care home and are used to cooking for sixteen people so there was lots left over which they shared with us. What a blessing that was!

Our friends, Rosie and Forrest, came to visit for two days staying in the rental log cabin at Cascade Meadows. We shared our meals and had good visits each day. It is always good to see them especially since Rosie nearly died in Jan. 2011.

Our friends, Forrest and Rosie.>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
On Tues before we left, our friend, Ron, stopped to see us on his way to Gold Beach. We seem to catch up with him often as he winters in Yuma and we have seen him there the last few winters.

We left Cascade Meadows on Thurs Sept 13 and stayed overnight in the old WalMart parking lot in Fallon, NV. There is a new Party Store in part of the building but we parked away from it. We like parking there as Safeway and Bank of America are in the same shopping center and we ‘visited’ both of them. We stayed in Pahrump, NV for six days as we like to visit the Nugget 2-4-1 buffet and Larry gets his years supply of fried bacon! It also gave him time to adjust to the altitude change as the doctor said to take it slowly as we went from 4,100 ft to eventually 1000 ft in Phoenix. While we were in Pahrump we discovered we had a leak in the kitchen sink drain. Actually we discovered it while on the road from CM to Pahrump. Larry poured something down the drain and it all ran on the floor! That kept Larry busy while we were at Preferred RV in Pahrump. The drain pipe broke in half right where the slide goes in and out. After sleeping on it and trying to figure out how to fix the pipe without tearing the coach apart, Larry again did a great job and reinforced the connection with a welded brace to hold the pipe up so we won’t have that problem again hopefully. The brace keeps the pressure off the drain pipe when the slide goes in and out and nine years of use was too much for just a plastic pipe with no support.

Where the drain pipe broke in two.

The fixed drain pipe, better than new! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> We arrived at Camp Verde, AZ around 4 PM on Thursday Sept 20 to find the office closes at 1 PM in the summer season. The night host was very nice and we ended up in a pull thru non-sewer site so we have been using the restrooms behind us and the laundry. We will be leaving here on the 4th to head to TTN Verde Valley (10 miles down the road) and we are doing well with our waste water tanks and won’t have to dump until we get to TTN. Friends, Art and Faye, who we haven’t seen in four years were here when we arrived and are now at TTN so we will get together with them after we move on Thurs. They have a new MH so it is a good thing they recognized us!

Saturday Sept 22 we went to HOT (107º) Phoenix for our granddaughter, Cerét's wedding. She was a lovely bride and it was great seeing the family again. The wedding was outside at the Japanese Friendship Gardens which are lovely but would have been nicer if it had been cooler. There was absolutely no breeze and I really felt bad for the guys in suits! The reception was very nice, again outside, but we managed to stay inside much of the time in A/C. (The Japanese Gardens had no buildings except restrooms and they were not air conditioned.) We arrived back home about midnight and enjoyed watching the temp outside going down as we left the Valley of the Sun. (It went from 90º as we were leaving Phoenix around 10:15 PM to 68º as we arrived at Camp Verde.)

Cerét pumped up coming down the aisle with her Dad, Todd

Cerét's brothers were her attendants and Adam had his brother and a cousin as attendants

Grandma and the new bride

Adam signing the marriage license and the radiant bride posing with her bouquet of yellow roses

Dad and daughter dance at the reception that got to both of them.>

The wedding cake. It was yummy!>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> On Thursday Sept 27 we went to Prescott to see Larry’s mom. We took her a piece of wedding cake and some mints from the wedding. We also showed her all the pictures Larry took with his i-phone. She had wanted to go but realized she just won’t be able to last all day (we left at 2 PM) and she would have ended up in the hospital because of the heat. She has a defibulator/pacemaker combo and the doctor told her to avoid extreme temperatures.

Our campsite at Camp Verde RV Park with the laundry and restroom building in the back.>>>>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Friday night Sept 28 we went to Valley View Restaurant in Camp Verde to see the “Hired Hands” and enjoy the Friday night ‘all you can eat fish fry’. We have followed the Hired Hands for twelve years as they used to perform at TTN Verde Valley and Camp Verde RV Park but with the recent changes in the economy and RV park ownership, they are no longer performing in RV parks. (They would go to UT, OR and WA in the summer and we have seen them in the northwest also.) We learned another one of our friends had died and his funeral was Sat the 29th so we were able to go and encourage his wife. He was diagnosed with liver cancer and three weeks to the day he was diagnosed, he died. Larry said, just don’t get diagnosed and you will be OK!