Arizona, Mesa - Sunday, March 1, 2015 - Val Vista Villages RV Resort

It’s been a busy week.  We were back to our regular work schedule of Monday thru Wednesday from 10 to 2:00.  On Wednesday evening we met our friends Michael and Susan from Indiana at the Sheraton Downtown Phoenix for dinner.  They were starving by the time we got there at 6:00, their Indiana stomachs thought it was 8:00.  We ate at the District restaurant there at the Sheraton.  Sometimes high priced meals don’t quite meet my high expectations, not this time – it was amazing.  Susan and I had cedar plank grilled salmon with parmesan asparagus risotto and the guys had steaks with chimichurri (not sure I spelled that right, its herb sauce) on top of sweet potato hash.  We had stuffed dates and crab cakes for appetizers.  Everyone but me finished up with bread pudding and whiskey sauce, I had some kind of wonderful chocolate thing.

Michael and Susan, their sons and their families are in Phoenix for a few days attending an agricultural convention.  Michael is receiving a distinguished award from the Corn Growers Association.  It was so good to see them again.

On Thursday we attended the Good Sam Rally in Phoenix.  We have attended these rallies in Syracuse, New York and Louisville, KY.  I think Louisville has been the best venue yet.

 

 

We checked out the new motor coaches.  We found one this year that we could definitely go for, the Winnebago Itasca Ellipse Ultra 42HL is gorgeous and they have managed to maintain that all important storage space.  However, we’ll still stick with what we have, we love it and its home.

I’ve been looking for bamboo sheets, they are advertised to be cooler than most other sheets.  Have you priced nice king sized sheet sets lately?  Talk about sticker shock.  A vendor at the Rally had bamboo sheet sets, blankets, etc. for sale.  The sheet sets were normally $99, still a pretty good buy for some I have seen.  Just before we got to their booth their charge card machine went down and they were going to have to get another one sent in from somewhere.  I guess they thought they were going to lose a lot of sales so they started offering the sheet sets for $30 if you could pay cash.  I was a little leery but I’ve probably wasted $30 on some other poor decisions so I went for it.  I love them, they are so soft and luxurious looking.

On Friday our big project was to dismantle the bed so we could redo the bed skirt.  When we sold our house the bed skirt I decided to bring with me was the one from our queen sized guest room bed, I liked it because it was black satin.  But, since we have a king sized bed in the motor coach it never fit exactly right.  After redoing it, it fits great but it’s kind of hard to get pictures.  We are done with all of the issues I had with the bed, now I just have to get some more pretty pillows made.

I left Greg on his own for most of the day Saturday, he didn’t mind since NASCAR had two races that day.  I spent the day at the Fiber Arts Center here at the resort finishing up the top for my sampler quilt.  Here it is up on the display board so I can decide where I want each of the twelve blocks.  It might look a little off because none of the strips and small squares between the blocks are sewn together, they are just clinging to the flannel on the wall.

 

 

Since I had my camera to take a picture of the quilt, as I was walking over to the Fiber Arts Center I took some pictures of the beautiful flowers here at the resort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we made a grocery run.  This is the first time we have had to buy much meat since we got out here.  Sons David and A.J. made sure we had a nice supply of beef and pork when we visited with them.  We got lucky, they had a buy one, get one sale today so we are stocked up again.  I’ve got pork chops in the crock pot and apple crisp is ready to come out of the oven.  I’m probably not going to do much else the rest of the day.

Arizona, Mesa - Sunday, February 22, 2015 - Wild Horse Pass Motor Sports Park

Our work schedule this past week was Monday and Tuesday morning and Friday evening because of some people being off.  We are so used to the Monday thru Wednesday morning schedule that the change kind of messed with me.  Hopefully, we’ll be back on the regular schedule this week.

On Saturday we headed out to the NHRA drag races at the Wild Horse Pass Motor Sports Park.  It’s about an hour away from where we are staying.  The weather was beautiful so we enjoyed the ride.

 

Walking around before the races started we noticed this bright orange car – this picture is for you Kyle.

 

We also saw a new team from Ray Skillman Ford out of Indianapolis.

Of course we were rooting for all of our favorites.

Brittany Force

 

 

Courtney Force

 

John Force

 

On Sunday I finished up the alterations to the bedspread.  I took out a huge chunk on each side and bound the cut edges.

 

 

Taking the excess material out of the sides makes it much easier to get the bedspread tucked in next to the cabinet and the cut out doesn’t show.

Maybe now I’ll “make the fancy bed” more often.

Arizona, Mesa - Sunday, February 15, 2015 - Val Vista Villages RV Resort

I’ve been saying for some time that I was going to do something about a couple of problems with our bedspread.  One is the way the corners stick out, not a big problem but they take up some of the “visual” space.

 

 

The tailored corners were my solution to that one.

The other problem is this – it is very hard to get the sheet, blanket and bedspread all tucked into the tight space between the bed and the cabinet beside it.  Most of the time I don’t even try, I just fold them all back halfway neatly and put all the pillows on the bed.  But, sometimes I like to do what Greg calls “make the fancy bed” where everything is all pulled up and tucked in neatly.

 

 

The solution to this one is going to take more time than the tailored corners.  It will involve taking out a part of the bedspread corner and then binding an inside corner.  So, more on this to come.

We’ve talked before about getting a patio screen, but it wasn’t a priority until the sun started messing with Greg being able to watch the outside TV J.  I know you folks up north don’t want to hear this, but it also helps cut down the heat – it’s been in the low to mid 80’s for a while now.

 

 

We got the motorcycle back late yesterday, the problem was caused by a faulty TCA pin – something to do with the throttle.  The pin was $7.00, labor was $150.00 for knowing where to put the pin.  It seems to be running fine now.  We took a short ride after we visited the Commemorative Air Force Museum here in Mesa.

 

 

This is a McDonald F-4N, “Phantom II”, a fighter aircraft that was the workhorse of the Viet Nam conflict.

 

 

Many other of the planes on display were from the WWII era.

 

 

We saw a rescue plane just like this one when we were in Sioux Falls, SD.

Lots of work going on in the restoration area.

We were able to go inside this WWII C-47 troop carrier.  Greg said he didn’t think it looked like this when troops were being transported.

 

 

This 1939 Spartan Executive originally owned by Standard Oil really caught my eye.

The 1939 Stinson Model SR-10G “Gullwing” was beautifully done.