Arizona, Mesa - Saturday, April 6, 2019 - Flowers at Val Vista Villages

The weather is starting to get really hot here now.  We have to time our walks to coincide with the cooler parts of the day.  Lots of cactus are in bloom.  We decided to confine our search of cactus flowers to the resort rather than going out in the desert again – no rattlesnakes here, they start coming out in the desert when the weather gets hotter.

The flowers at the entrance to the resort are in full bloom now.  However, I can't get the pictures of them to download, so we will move on.  This view is looking down the main entrance road.

The library is one of my favorite spots.

This is a view of the patio where we work two days a week.  I work the front section which has 22 tables that seat 8 to 10 people each.

Arizona, Mesa - Saturday, March 16, 2019 - Drive to Tortilla Flat

I think we are a little early for the cactus to be blooming but we decided to stop and walk for a while to see if we could find any.  There is a great variety of cacti in this area.

Not sure if the purple ends on this one are blooms or blooms to be.

I need to brush up on cactus names since we spend more time here than anywhere else.

Superstition Mountains in the background.

We found a lot of wildflowers on the side of the road.

On the way to Tortilla Flat we stopped at the Lost Dutchman State Park for a look around.  For $7.00 we found out that they have a lot of campers there and on this particular day there were a lot of people there for a wedding in addition to the huge amount of weekend hikers – we just drove through and went on our way.

From the Canyon Lake area to Tortilla Flat there are a lot of hairpin turns, but the scenery is great.

Superstition Saloon was our supper stop before heading back home.  Actually we didn’t have much of a choice.  Tortilla Flat, population 6, is made up of this saloon and a small store.

The walls and most everything else inside the saloon is covered in $1.00 bills, four and five bills deep.  The guy behind us in line at the hostess stand asked how much money was on the walls and the hostess said they estimate between $350,000 and $400,000.

The entertainment with dinner was watching the short-legged, out of shape old people trying to get up on these saddles that serve as stools at the bar.  They took off the stirrups so that makes it even harder.

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, Mesa - Sunday, April 8, 2018 - What We Did This Winter

I’m sitting inside avoiding sunny outside temperatures in the high 90’s.  We may get out and wander around a bit once it cools down.  We’ve booked this same site for next year and have made a verbal contract to work at the grill again.  We just bought those two red recliners.  We had looked at all of the logical places to find outdoor furniture without any luck.  I was walking through Kohl’s last week and saw these anti-gravity recliners on sale for half price – WooHoo!!

I’m not sure we are ready to face the havoc Mother Nature is bringing down on our next destinations of Kansas and Indiana.  She has about 10 days to clean up her act!!  We will be leaving here next Friday going to visit with David and the kids in Kansas until the end of April.

Although this is our first post of 2018, we really have been busy and have enjoyed wonderful weather since we arrived the first of October.  Many of our days haven’t been very blogworthy, doing the same things most people are doing – working, cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc.  We each worked 12 hours a week to cover the expenses for our site and utilities.  We’ve square danced a lot – usually 4-5 times a week (for 2 hours each time).  We caught a Cubs vs. Oakland game before spring training was over.

A couple of weeks ago we saw the movie, Leisure Seeker.  It stars Donald Sutherland and Helen Miran.  It’s about an elderly couple that decides to run away from home for one last vacation in their 40 year old Winnebago.  She has cancer and he has bouts of dementia.  It will make you laugh and make you cry.

Most of our time has been spent doing some upgrades to our home on wheels.  The main one was to add a fireplace.  A cabinet previously took up this space.  We are really enjoying this one.

Replacing the bathroom vent isn’t quite as interesting as the fireplace, but I’m loving the fact that the screen comes down so I can clean it.  The screen was fixed in the previous one and was a real pain to clean.

This little cabinet tucked under the dining table is only 3” deep.  When we moved in 7 years ago it seemed the perfect spot for a spice cabinet but I have never liked the louvered doors.

Greg replaced the louvered portions with some decorative metal.  Love it, but didn’t love the way the containers looked since you could see them now.

Fixed the problem with some black spray paint and some new labels.  I’m good now.

The dining table plays double duty as a work space whenever I sew or decide to get crafty.  However, these old eyes don’t see like they used to, the light just wasn’t bright enough for me to work in the evening.

Greg replaced the two small light fixtures with some that swivel and provide a lot more light.  I’m now working on a cross stitch piece I started back in 1988, I think I might get it done this year, 30 years later.

I’ve decided that I’m not much of an interior decorator.  We’ve lived with this little non-descript picture for 7 years.

Finally decided I needed to perk thinks up a bit.  Greg installed some of the new lights above the couch too so I can see better to read and one of them makes a nice spotlight for our new art.

We updated our picture wall over the winter.  I had trouble getting everyone in the picture, sorry Desira and Dan.

Our refrigerator doesn’t have a metal exterior so I can’t display grandkid’s artwork on it.  So, I copied it, reduced it and framed it next to the family pictures, thank you Braelynn.

Another area that wasn’t working quite like I wanted was the desk area.  We had the printer sitting on the desk which was ok until I wanted to use it.  If I opened the computer (hidden in the desk drawer) I would have to reach over the computer screen to work the printer.  Greg built a shelf that is high enough for a file underneath and it puts the printer at eye level over the computer.

This closet was originally supposed to be a coat closet.  We no longer have coats (take note Mother Nature) so it is our utility closet.

Greg made it much more usable and easy to organize with some nice shelves.

We also found these great little battery operated lights you can put anywhere and they are really bright.  After we bought one for the utility closet, we got a little crazy and installed 3 more – one under the table so I can see into the spice cabinet, one under the sink in the kitchen and one in the laundry area.

I know it sounds like Greg is the only one that has been busy, but remember somebody had to think of all this stuff (that would be me).

I did make a cover for my sewing machine, which is color coordinated with the picture next to it.

This picture is one I painted around 50 years ago when Nellie Keesling was still around to make sure I was doing it right.  For 50 years I have been meaning to get it framed – mark that one off my list!  My motto is better late than never.

After I put the picture where I wanted it I realized that the Longenberger basket next to it has similar flowers.

We couldn’t let the kitchen get by without a little upgrade.  The only plug in the kitchen area was underneath the overhead cabinet.  Some of my small appliances (like the crock pot) didn’t have a cord long enough to reach the plug so I was either building a little tower of things for them to sit on or taking them to bedroom and plugging them in there.

We’ve seen pop up plug towers in newer motor homes and thought they looked really nice.  Greg installed one and this is how it looks when it is down.

When it is up, I have three very handy plugs.  I really appreciates the work he does!!