Arizona, Mesa - Thursday, January 8, 2015 - Val Vista Villages RV Resort

We’ve each put in our twelve hours this week.  The crowds at the grill are starting to increase, the snowbirds that wait until after the holidays have arrived.  I heard that there are 5000 people in this resort now, which is probably about right since there are somewhere over 2000 sites – enough for a small town.  Since the bar and grill where we work is the only one in this little “town”, it is pretty busy.  Greg is going to start working in the kitchen putting together sandwiches and salads when we are really busy.  The pedometer this week was registering nearly 3 miles a day J.  This job has given me a whole new appreciation for wait staff.

Today is a day off and I still walked right at 2 miles.  I’ve been trying to make contact with the ceramic class instructor so I made another try today, that’s a walk to the other side of the resort – no luck again.  From there I headed to the fabric store which is a couple of blocks outside of the resort.  I needed to get material for a beginning quilting class project – I’m excited to see how this goes.  I’ll post pictures of the project as it progresses. 

This week has been in the 70s and low 80s until today when it was only in the 60s.  But, since we keep a watch on what is happening with the kids in Kansas, Indiana and Washington, DC, I’m certainly not going to complain – stay safe and warm guys.  We’ve been told by the locals that winter is over here, we’ve had our three weeks of cool weather.

Today was a treat for me, I haven’t been anywhere that I couldn’t walk since December 19.  Greg has been out for his chiropractor appointments but until this week it has been too cold for me to want to ride along.  We stopped for lunch at Piggly’s Smokehouse BBQ Grill.  We had the lean brisket sandwiches with onion rings.  I wish I had remembered to take the camera, what a great lunch!!

After lunch we went to see the movie “Unbroken”.  It is based on a true story and was a well-made film so I was glad we went to see it.  However, it is a story that makes your heart heavy.  I was surprised we were able to use the AMC movie passes I got several years ago and got in free.  They were given as an incentive to give blood one of the times I was at the Indiana Blood Center in Columbus, IN.

Then it was back to the real world, we had to make a stop at Wal-Mart for paper and other non-food items for the month.  We did check out the aisles for a few food items we haven’t been able to find in this area.

·        Drakes seasoning (breading mix we use for breaded tenderloins).  We really don’t need breaded tenderloins so this is probably a good thing.

·        Red Gold Salsa (mild).  We stocked up on this before we left Indiana but we are down to our last jar.  I’ll be making salsa until we get back to Indiana.

·        Kraft Light Three Cheese Dressing.  There are all kinds of other Kraft dressings, just not the one we prefer.

·        Panda Express Orange Sauce.  Once again probably a good thing, but it is so good.