A new normal

We started out the month of March by going back to I-HOP after church. We were disappointed

and will not return for anything except pancakes which were great.

Larry is set to get posts to hold his lower dentures in and he has everything set to go except now the dentist cannot do the work! They will call him when they get the go-ahead as all they can do now is emergencies. He did get his new hearing aids and really likes that he can listen to TV thru them without using earphones.

March 13 we celebrated Colby's birthday by having his favorite meal at Dawn and Vince's and afterwards we played a board game called “ Exploding Kittens”, a game that requires strategy. We only had time for one game and Bethany won at the last minute.

Colby and his birthday cake

Dawn and Vince are having a pool put in and they started digging at 7 AM on March 18. They hit a hard dig and it made an awful noise as they jack hammered the rocks. It took them two days. Larry had them leave a pile of dirt for him and he has been going out every day digging and spreading the dirt in back of the storage trailer, leveling off that area. He also worked on the carrier for the 55 gal diesel barrel so he can fairly easily move it in and out of the back of the truck. He is much happier when he has 'projects' that keep him busy! He also sleeps better.

Larry working behind his Man Cave

Larry again working on the 55 gal barrel so he can easily remove it from the truck

I continue to walk nearly every day and we have had some wonderful weather for that. One day I saw a snake in the road and another day, came upon a turned over concrete truck full of concrete. Larry had seen it drive down our road onto the unpaved part and commented how dangerous it as for something so top heavy to drive that way. That afternoon as I walked I found it had indeed turned over!

Snake in the road as I was walking

Concrete truck that overturned from being too top heavy on a narrow steep road

We are doing fine and staying home as asked. We 'attend' church on line and do miss our weekly Sunday dinner out but otherwise are getting along fine. We keep remembering that 'This too, shall pass' and God is in control.

Beautiful AZ sunset that reminds me that God is still in control!

Marching onward

We started the month out with a nice visit from Todd. He was visiting for my birthday since he was not able to come on the day.

Todd visiting us

On the 13^th I had my remaining two wisdom teeth removed and it was done in 20 minutes. The recovery went very well and I had very little pain.

We ended up going to Mesa to visit Camping World only on the way we learned that they moved six years ago and are now called Gander RV! We bought 29 tubes of caulking and a battery powered caulking gun that worked like a champ, saving Larry's arm. He had scraped the roof of his Man Cave and re-sealed it using 24 tubes of caulk. With the rain we had this winter, he had found several places where the roof was leaking so it was a necessary evil.

Larry working on the roof of his Man Cave

Larry using the battery powered caulking gun

February 25 we visited I-HOP for the first time ever to enjoy their Free short stack of pancakes. We checked out the menu and plan to return for a lunch in the near future.

We have had several doctor visits, something I'm not too keen on but decided it is needed as I have had some issues.

Yesterday I went on a hike at Apache Wash Trail with 8 other ladies from church. It was a lovely day and I had a nice walk although I forgot to record it on my Runkeeper app. We did see a rattle snake beside the trail but he 'rattled' and slithered away from us. I didn't have my camera handy so by the time I was able to get it out, he was well hidden in the bushes. My walking pardner did get a nice picture however. The wild flowers are lovely as was the scenery.

Lovely wildflowers along the trail

The tail of the rattler we saw while hiking

Red Robin month

We started the month out celebrating our daughter's birthday at Red Robin and then returning to her home for cake.

Dawn and Bethany with her birthday cake

Jan 6th both of us ended up with nasty colds that lasted two weeks so we didn't get much of anything done.  It was the first time in seven years I've had a cold and it made up for the seven years I missed!

Once we were feeling better we bought a 55 gallon drum for diesel fuel and Larry built a carrier to put it in the truck so we could buy diesel without moving the MH.  We use diesel for heating our water as well as our furnace.  The day we bought the diesel Sams' Club and Costco were having a price war so we ended up at Sam's for 3¢ less per gallon than Costco at $2.43 a gallon.  Nice they were 'warring"!

55 gal drum with fittings installed

Drum mounted in the truck

filling the diesel tank on the MH

We were able to re-connect with family we haven't seen in several years and it was a good afternoon.  We met for the first time our fourth great grandbaby, Dominic and his momma, Lorena.

Lorena, Dominic and grandson, Alex

Trying a selfie of everyone but Vince is covered up behind Larry

We ended the month cleaning out our storage trailer and found what we were looking for as well as others things we had wondered where they were.  It was a fun and fulfilling afternoon and now we have the truck full of items for Goodwill as well as the dump.  We then went to Red Robin again to celebrate my birthday and returned to Dawn's for cake.

My birthday cake

Enjoying the angel cake

Happy New Decade as well as New Year 2020!

December 3 we took the truck to Tempe to buy a Craftsman Radial Table Saw Larry found on Craig's list.   He feels it was the buy of all buys since the fellow didn't really know what he had.  It included several hundred $$$ worth of additional blades and other attachments.   Since it was made in the 60's and belonged to the fellow's grandfather, he didn't know how to set it up correctly.  That was Larry's 'era' so he knew exactly what to do and he is thrilled with it!   Once set up he finished making the finishing edges for the front TV install and it looks even better completely done.

Larry setting up his new table saw

All set up and ready to go

Again we had many doctor/dentist appts. We even went out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, something we rarely do, because my treadmill appt. was so early.

December 8^th we went to a going away party for friends Mike and Irene who are moving to TX to a much lower altitude as he is on oxygen full time. We have known them 25 years or more and saw them in both AZ and OR where they lived for 10 years, just like us where we had our place in Merrill for 10 years.

Our friend Irene at the going away party

Our friend Mike, sans oxygen

We do live out in the desert and we saw four coyotes in the neighbor's driveway.  They were there a good five minutes.  Hopefully you can see them in the picture as it is a ways away.  They were 'singing' much of that time.

Four young coyotes in the neighbor's driveway across the street. 

We added another great granddaughter to the family Christmas Eve, Anna.  We have not seen her yet.

We had a lovely Christmas with lots of good food, laughs and fun, playing Farkle before going our separate ways. Dawn does a great job of decorating their home and the best present was the wreath she made for us. Once she retires she should make them to sell as all the ones she has made are beautiful!

Lovely decorations  at Dawn's

Awesome wreath she made for us for Christmas

Family before the gifts were opened

We ended the year by going to the movies to see “Ford vs Ferrari”. We seldom go the movies but the place was packed and we had to sit in different rows.   Larry enjoyed it thoroughly as he said he felt he was behind the wheel during the many racing scenes.

Lots of projects

I started off November with a visit to my primary care doctor and as a result have done not much else but visit specialists all month. I am getting lots of things taken care of though.

Larry needed to move his Man Cave trailer sideways about a foot so bought some neat 'heavy machine movers' and with the help of a hydraulic port-a-power it went very well so now he can have the awning out on his Man Cave and still open the the door on the storage trailer which he could not do before.

Machine mover under one side of the Man Cave

Port-a-power that easily moved the trailer sideways

Another project was to remove the internet dish off the top of the MH so we can have the roof coated some time in the near future. We had everything set up and decided to be on the safe side,  I should ask Vince to help us and he showed up just as I was heading his way! God is good like that!

Getting the dish off the roof of the MH

Internet dish on the ground

Another project for Larry, since we now have Netflix and it didn't work on our front ten year old 32” TV, was to replace the TV with a new, bigger 'Smart' 40” TV. Only trouble with that is it doesn't work with our old analog surround sound speakers so he has another 'project' in the works!

With the old TV out

New bracket to hold the new TV that Larry welded

New TV in and working

Phoenix received three days of much needed rain but as a result, the driveway once again was very soft so Larry parked the truck across the driveway along with several red cones, so no big vehicles like UPS or Fed-EX could drive through. We can still get our Smart between the truck and the cones so we can come and go easily.

Blocking the driveway from big trucks

We ended the month with a nice Thanksgiving meal and day with family, watching a movie and playing 'Farkle' well into the night.

Lovely Thanksgiving table ready for dinner

Return to Phoenix

We started off Oct. traveling from Fallon, NV to Beatty, NV with no problems on the road. However, once to arrived at Beatty RV Park our big slide would not extend. Then the next day when we arrived at Preferred RV in Pahrump, NV the washer would not work! We ordered a new control board for the washer and Larry put it in after we arrived in Cottonwood, AZ on the 9th. While we were in Pahrump I walked to the bank (and was very thankful I did that since I learned the B of A in Cottonwood is now closed!) two different days as well as Smith's grocery, traveled to Front Sight and we also enjoyed the Chinese Wok Buffet.

Front Sight rappelling towers

We left Pahrump a day early so we didn't have to drive so far in one day and stopped at Mohave County Fairgrounds in Kingman, AZ for the extra night. We were the only ones there so it was extremely quiet.

At Mohave County Fairgrounds in Kingman, AZ

Once in Cottonwood we visited Camp Verde and checked out Zane Gray RV for a possible visit next summer. We discovered our favorite Chinese place in Cottonwood was out of business but we found another one by the Safeway and it is almost as good. They even serve eggplant which is something I have not seen at a Chinese Buffet before. Our friend, Margaret, came to visit us from Chino Valley and told us that the forest service was having prescribed burns and Larry immediately said we needed to leave for Phoenix as he didn't want to breath any more smoke so we left 8 days early the next morning, Of course we had another problem and had water coming over the drive tire on the passenger side. Upon investigation, Larry saw the pressure relief valve was bad (after 16 years) and was leaking so we had to turn all the water off to the coach. We stopped at Loew's on the way in to get repair parts and Larry fixed it as soon as we arrived in Phoenix. Seems it is always something!

Larry again working on the washer

Control board for the washer

Pressure valve that went bad (under Larry's sink so that's why it was leaking on the tire)

Fortunately the weather in Phoenix is beautiful and Larry has been busy setting us up for the long haul since we don't plan to move anytime soon.

Somehow the time shuck up on me and I missed the 1^st! It was Larry's brother and SIL's 60^th anniversary and our 2^nd great granddaughter's 1st birthday.   Nov 2 we went to her birthday party. It was good to see everyone again and she was such a good baby and never cried once while we were there.

Heading south early

Larry had another sleep study and because he didn't get to sleep until nearly 3 AM he ended up taking two more sleeping pills and they were unable to wake him up when the study was supposed to be done. Then they would not let him drive home so he ended up taking Uber home They told him if he tried to leave on the bike before 24 hours they would call the police on him! One of the nice neighbors in the RV park took him to get the bike the next day. When he arrived home after the study he said he did feel a bit woozy so maybe they knew what they were talking about! As a result of the study and the doctor prescription he now has an oxygenator that is continuous since he needs it only at night. It has taken several tries but I think he finally has the pressure right on his C-Pap machine as well as the pressure on the oxygenator since he received an email from the doctor saying his numbers looked the best in several weeks.

Since we were planning on leaving Bend Sept 29 I began washing all the rugs, blankets and anything else I only wash a couple of times a year. We ended up extending at the Ranch for another week since the doctor wrote Larry 'a note' requesting that as we were waiting on the oxygen equipment. On Sept 22 we learned that SNOW was forecast for the Bend area on Sept 28 and 29 so we decided to leave on Friday Sept 27. We stopped at Basin Tire in Klamath Falls for two front tires and again they gave us far more than we expected for our old tires so the stop was much less painful than we thought. We stopped at Taco al Mexican in Merrill for our favorite chicken burritos and then overnighted at Tulelake-Butte Vally Fairgrounds in Tulelake, CA. We took a slightly different route south and skirted Susanville, CA. About 20-25 miles north of Reno (Doyle, CA) we were hit by a sudden white out snow storm!! The snow was packed on the windshield so Larry could not see out the left mirror­ and then we lost our GPS signal and I was concerned about our upcoming turn onto I-80 but PTL! God sent rain and washed all the snow off the windshield so we were able to see to make the turn. The wind was fierce as we drove east on I-80 and it nearly blew us off the road a couple of times. We made it safely to Fallon, NV and we spent the last three nights there (to make up for the two days early leaving).

Snow covering the mirror

Definitely what we try to avoid!

We are in Beatty, NV for the night and our big slideout will not go out.  Larry thinks it is the switch but we are thankful it is stuck in the "in" position instead of the "out" position as we could not drive with the slide fully extended.  Once we get to Pahrump tomorrow Larry can get a new switch.