Arizona, Mesa - Friday, November 23, 2018 - Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to our family and friends!!  We have so many reasons to be thankful.  

Yesterday we were sitting outside in shorts enjoying mid 70 degree weather.  Today it was overcast and in the mid 60’s this morning so we felt the need for the fireplace.

We decided to stick to our Nutrisystem plan for the holiday.  We had Nutrisystem roasted turkey and mashed potatoes.  We added our own salt free green beans and a glass of wine.  It was actually pretty tasty.  We have been very pleased with the quality of the food we have received. Greg has lost 20 pounds and I have lost a little over 13 since we started this.

We spent the afternoon depositing some money at the Talking Stick Resort Casino in Scottsdale, their slot machines were not very friendly.  Once we got back home we walked a couple of miles.

Thanksgiving is a milestone for us – 7 years ago today we moved into our motor coach fulltime.  The little frame that sits on the ledge next to our table says it best, “The Best Things in Life are the people we love, the places we have been and the memories we have made along the way.” And oh what memories we have made!

God bless all of our family and friends, you are so special to us.  Even though we may not be close at hand for special celebrations you can be assured that you are in our thoughts every day.  Lots of love!!

Arizona, Mesa - Monday, October 15, 2018 - Enjoying the Sunshine

In my opinion we are having perfect weather here right now.  It’s in the upper 70’s to low 80’s, just a bit breezy with lots of sunshine.  On the news they are saying that a cold front has come through.  When we got here toward the end of September triple digit temperatures were still hanging around. 

After the triple digits we had some major rain, which gave us time to get a few little things done inside.  We had been hauling this little cabinet around since we found it in our travels earlier this summer.  Greg got it up and installed a couple of shelves to go along with it.  This is in the hallway – I’m loving it!

Our fall decorations are up.  We don’t do much, just the trays that sit on the dash and our flower pot outside.  The outside picture is taken through the screen door because it is pouring down rain.

I’ve tried houseplants a couple of times in the RV and didn’t have much luck.  I got the urge to try them again so I researched for plants that prefer low light and humidity.  The red glass ball and the jar of sand and shells came from our Oregon coast travels – loved that area.

This time instead of having all of the plants together, I spread them around.

Obvious photo fail on this one, you would think I could get a non-blurry picture when the plant and I are both standing still.  You’ll notice our new mini freezer to the right under the desk.  Since we picked the Nutrisystem program that allowed us to select from their frozen options we found out that we didn’t have enough freezer space.  Mini refrigerators are found all over the place, not so easy to find a mini freezer.

We’ve completed our second week on Nutrisystem.  Greg is down 8.8 pounds and I am down 5.4 pounds.  The first week which was very restricted on what we could eat wasn’t as bad as we anticipated.  We have actually enjoyed the food.  Greg is on the men’s program and he is owning it.  He makes his own choices keeping his sodium requirements in mind.  I think this process is easier since we are doing it together.  The second week we were able to add exercise so we have been walking two miles a day.

Wednesday we start square dancing and we start work at the grill on October 22, we will be working Monday and Friday.

Arizona, Mesa - Saturday, September 29, 20018 - Nutrisystem Preparation

Greg and I made a commitment this past summer that after we were done with our travel through the western states we would start the Nutrisystem program when we got back to Mesa, AZ for the winter.  We’ve spent the last week or so getting ready to fulfill that commitment.  We signed up for the Uniquely Yours programs, Greg signed up for the men’s program.  We picked this program because we have to try to keep his sodium count below the normal 2300 mg. per day.  The sign up process was pretty simple until we got to the part where we entered our shipping address.  For the initial shipment the program did not want to accept our site number.  That was going to be a problem because this RV resort where we stay has over 1,000 sites.  We did an online chat and still couldn’t get the problem resolved.  Greg talked to customer service and we were still left with no site number on our shipping address although we had tried to enter it several times.  We finally decided to just deal with FedEx to let them know our site number, which worked well for the first three parts of the shipment when our regular driver was delivering.  Didn’t work so well today when we had a weekend driver, we had to go to FedEx to pick it up.  It looks like the problem is solved for future deliveries by doing an edit to our shipping address which we couldn’t do on the original order.

Two years ago we lost a lot of weight on our own but I was spending nearly every waking hour cooking and calculating calories and sodium.  We think the Nutrisystem plan will allow us to have more variety without as much time consumed.  So, we have some of the things we need like a scale for us and a food scale for the things we will need to add to what we get from Nutrisystem.

We decided to purchase an air fryer to try to take advantage of the small amount of oil we will be able to have.  Hope this adds some extra flavor to the four servings per day of vegetables we need to add to our meals.  There is going to be a learning curve to this.  We tried to make some panko crusted chicken fingers in it the other night and they came out crispy, but a little dry.

We cleaned out cabinets to get rid of what we shouldn’t be eating and to make way for our new food.

Same with the freezer.  Even though we have a double wide refrigerator/freezer things are packed pretty tight.  We decided to purchase a small freezer for additional space.

All of our veggies are prepped.  Today I made vegetable soup with the non-starchy vegetables we can have this next week.  Also made salsa and cucumbers and onion.  The cucumbers and onion had to be made without oil or sugar so that one is iffy.  I think we will be able to put them on top of a salad until we can use salad dressing next week.

So tomorrow we will weigh in and start the program – wish us luck.

Arizona, Page - Monday, September 17, 2018 - Grand Canyon North Rim

A few years ago we visited the South Rim of the Grand Canyon – it was magnificent!  When we visited then the day was cold and overcast.  About 90% of the 5 million per year that come to visit the Grand Canyon go to the south rim, so it was also crowded.  The north rim is harder to get to, in fact from the time we left Page until we returned we had been gone 9 hours, about 6 hours of that was driving – thank you, Greg.  The north rim is definitely less crowded, we could find parking at every pull off and didn’t feel rushed to move on, we could just stand and enjoy.

Scenery is good even before we get close to the Grand Canyon.

This section of 89 south is not one of my favorites, the views are great but the steep inclines and sharp turns make me nervous.  We’ve taken the motor coach this way several times and we will do it again tomorrow as we head to Flagstaff.

We are headed to Lee’s Ferry, a short detour, before we go on to the Grand Canyon.  This photo shows the Vermillion Cliffs which run for a good ways between Lee’s Ferry and the Grand Canyon.

The area around Lee’s Ferry is wonderful.  At one time the Lee family ran a ferry across the Colorado River.

These huge boulders lay at the base of some of the mountains, it looks like they came from the very top of the mountains.

The water of the Colorado River is calmer here, guess that is why it made a good place for a ferry.  I was very tempted to take my shoes off and walk in the cool water.

It always amazes me where wildflowers pop up and bring a smile to my face.

More views of the Vermillion Cliffs.  When the sun is shining on the cliffs the abundance of colors is amazing.

The boulders around the cliffs.

Going into the Kaibab National Forest all you can see is small shrubs and open plains where buffalo used to run.

My guy and the Jeep with the Vermillion Cliffs in the background.

As we get to higher elevations in the national forest we start to see pine trees.

I caught this sign as it was between words.  What it says is “wild fire in progress, don’t report”.  We saw some faraway smoke as we were headed to this area.

The aspens are starting to turn yellow and make a dramatic contrast to the pine trees.

We stopped for lunch at the Grand Canyon Lodge before heading out to explore the north rim.

You can view some of the canyon from the lodge area.

Point Imperial is the highest point in the canyon and has the deepest view.  If you can’t take the time to stop at the rest of the viewpoints at least get to this one, it brought tears to my eyes.  Sometimes something is so beautiful that it just takes your breath away.  Although I like my pictures, they don’t do the view justice.

More views of the canyon as we visited other viewpoints.  I don’t think we will ever make the trip to the north rim again since it does take so long, but I am so appreciative that Greg was willing to drive all that way.  What a great day!

Arizona, Page - Sunday, September 16, 2018 - Antelope Point

Antelope Point wasn’t what I was expecting.  I thought the Wahweap Marina was the main marina around Lake Powell, I think I was wrong.  Looks like this is where more of the action takes place.

When we pulled in lots of big speed boats were loading up.  These were the ones we saw on the lake yesterday.

Now we find out why they were here – the 10^th Annual Lake Powell Challenge Poker Run to support finding a cure for type 1 diabetes.  That is a cause that is close to our hearts.

The view from the visitor’s center.

A view of the visitor’s center.

We are having lunch at the Point restaurant which is a large floating restaurant at the marina.  The Asian combo platter appetizer is wonderful.  3 pot stickers and 3 small egg rolls with dipping sauces.  We should have had one of those apiece and forgot the turkey bacon, avocado wrap we split.  The wrap was ok but kind of bland, and it was huge. 

Boats of all sizes are coming in and out.

After lunch we were glad to catch one of the courtesy shuttles back up the hill.

There is a public ramp, but there is also a “valet” ramp.  There must be more people in the world like me who can’t back a trailer worth a darn.

Scenery in the area.