Lee & Edie Come to Visit

We met Lee and Edie during a Boomer Rally in Buena Vista, Colorado, the summer of 2008.  After the rally 12 of us drove to nearby BLM land in Turkey Creek for a week. We spent a great time together eating, drinking and even a night of doing the can-can.

Lee and Edie are workamping in nearby Val Vista another Cal-Am resort.  We saw on facebook that they arrived in town so we arranged to meet them at Mesa Regal for happy hour yesterday.  After a drink we all agreed it was way too hot to stay under an umbrella…it was 96*.  We retired to our RV under the a/c to continue our visit. 

We had a grand time sharing were we each have traveled since 2008.  We will definitely be seeing them often during the five weeks we have left in Mesa.  Good, good to see them.

Remember, you are loved.

Trip to Ikea

Finally after “forever” we were in an area that had an Ikea.  There is one in nearby Tempe so off we went.

I’ve heard a lot about Ikea…their 99 cent breakfasts, good restaurant, taking bunches of pencils (huh???), getting lost inside cause so big and having to assemble everything.

Once inside we proceeded to the restaurant for breakfast.  Jim had the 99 cent special of scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes that he said was very good.  I had to splurge on the thin-sliced smoked salmon plate with mixed root vegetables for $4.99.  It was delicious!!!

Everything at the restaurant was so clean, sleek and stylish.  We looked at some of the menu suggestions and the prices are very inexpensive.  When we go back we’ll have lunch so we can try the meatballs.  I also want to buy their chocolate and jam.

We walked through the enormous show floor and checked out all the mini rooms of furniture.  I was impressed.  I’ve always like Danish and Scandinavian furniture…you know, the clean sleek lines without a lot of fuss added, so Ikea style furniture fits me.  Now Jim, on the other hand, prefers the more traditional style.  We are trying to meet in the middle by going contemporary.  So many of the Ikea pieces suit us both.  I took a map and one of those cherished pencils and wrote down a few stock numbers for future use. 

Yup, it’s a big show floor.  Luckily they have arrows painted on the floor to navigate by or we’d never had gotten out of there.  At the end you go down stairs and end up on the bottom floor with huge metal racks full of flat boxes ready for you to pick out, purchased and go home to assemble.

We walked around that place for 2 1/2 hours!!!  I was ready to go home and put my feet up.  But it was a fun experience.  We’ll definitely go back when we get a condo.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind this saying HERE

 

New RVillage Friends

We are members of RVillage and have used it to connect to other members who might be in our area, which is why it was created. 

Through RVillage we found Pat yesterday who is staying here at Mesa Regal.  Pat is a workamper here working in the bar/restaurant by the pool. After she got off work yesterday she joined Angela, Kenny and us for happy hour.

You’ll remember I wrote about meeting blog readers, Kenny and Angela…they are staying nearby at Val Vista another Cal-Am Resort.  Both just started working for local businesses.  I’m going to wait until all three of them have a set work schedule and then I’ll set up a RVillage Get-Together and see if other members at Mesa Regal will come so we can make more friends. 

One of the difficulties of coming to a park/resort like this is meeting people.  This place is mainly park model owners and they already have their circle of friends established, so it is hard to join their circle. I’ve joined the zumba group and knitting/crochet group so I can meet more of the regulars here and maybe make friends.  I also went to the local yarn shop community knitting gathering last Friday to try and meet others. It’s an on-going venture.

Remember, you are loved.

Oyster Bar

Yesterday we had a fun time when we went to Mesa-Buckhorn Elks Club.  This lodge building is two years old and it was done very well.

 

Inside they have a separate restaurant open every day, a large bar and dining area. 

Yesterday we went for their oyster bar.  Twice a year they bring in bags of oysters and sell them for $1.25 each. 

They offer oysters Rockefeller, raw or steamed.  They were very good (but not as good as oysters at Shucks in Abbeville, LA).  We shared 18 oysters – some of each.  Sorry the photo is so bad, but I forgot to change the setting to “food”.

Remember, you are loved.

Chicken - Chicken

Fry’s Grocery store had whole chickens on sale for 88 cents a pound …. haven’t seen that price in years.  Unfortunately, all the birds were large, 5-7 pounds each.  Really roasters and not fryers.  So we bought a five pounder and had the butcher cut it in half for us.

 

Jim barbecued one half which we enjoyed for dinner that night.

 

 

 

Then I cut off the breast meat for a separate meal and stewed the rest of the half in the slow cooker.  I shredded the meat, cooked up some potatoes, carrots and peas, made gravy from the chicken broth and turned it all into a chicken pot pie with biscuits on top.  Jim said it was one of my best meals.

I’m going to make chicken schnitzel from the breast cutlets for a third meal from that one chicken.  So for $4.40 for the chicken we will get three meals …. not bad.

Remember, you are loved.

Doing Things Early

Since we continue to be in the 90s every day, we have gravitated to doing any shopping very early in the morning.

Like this morning I took my walk right after waking, then we went shopping by 7:30 a.m.  This really works as it is cool and there hardly is anyone in the stores yet. 

By 9 a.m. we were back to the rig, produce cleaned and all groceries put away by 9 a.m.  Now we can laze around the rest of the day.

Yesterday I almost killed myself at an hour’s zumba session.  Heck I don’t even stand for an hour at a time, let alone giggle and bounce around for an hour straight.  I even slowed down and only did the steps I could, but the constant movement about did me in. But I’ll continue doing it once a week while we are here.  Don’t think I can do the three times that is offered though.  No, I’m not in shape so I’ve decided to walk 15 minutes twice a day to help myself out.

Plus we go to the pool every other day or so and although we don’t  lap “swim” per se, I do some water aerobic exercises while trying to cool off.

I figure every little bit helps….better than just sitting in our recliners.

Remember, you are loved.

Met A Blog Reader

Last week we heard from a blog reader who was also staying in a Cal-Am park here in Mesa.  They invited us to join them for lunch at Nando’s Mexican Cafe today.

It was so nice to meet Angela and Kenny and talked about our lives on the road. 

The food was really good with huge portions.

Jim’s enchiladas	Kenny’s taco plate
Angela’s bean tostado	My chicken and bean tostado

We had a grand time talking with Angela and Kenny and found so many similarities in our lives, workamping experiences and lifestyles.  We really enjoyed our time with them and do plan on seeing each other again….often.

Remember, you are loved.

Still Hot

We are still going through the heat with most with most day time temperatures 94-98* and the bedtime temps in the 70s.  We’ve been sleeping with a fan on us.  Luckily the mornings are high 60s and 70s and great for my morning walks.

Yah, I’ve been walking…really.  It’s the first thing I do otherwise I get distracted.  Then I make a smoothie of greens, broccoli, carrots, berries, celery and either yogurt or tofu.  By that time I’m all revved up and could take on the world!  Walking and my smoothie gives me a lot of energy like never before.

Somehow the walk and smoothie takes away my drudgery of doing some yucky job like laundry, oiling the cabinets, etc.

The other day after my morning routine I started washing window screens and shamed Jim into cleaning the windows and sills.  Why do I put those things off for so long?  It only took 15 minutes to complete but I’d put it off for months.

Today I think I’ll go wash clothes before the Bronco game starts at 10 a.m.  That’s another crazy thing….no daylight saving time here in Arizona.  So our Sunday early football games start at 10 instead of 11.  And for some reason Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy starts at 7 p.m. at prime time…crazy.

Well, I’m off to the laundry….talk with you later.

Remember, you are loved.  

We Met Joel

We haven’t done much the last few days.  We did take a couple of drives around town to find the location of Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, T.J. Maxx, Ross and Dollar Tree.

Staying cool seems to be the order of the day …. every day.  It has been hovering around 94-98* every day and we are just not use to that high temperature.  The evenings and nights have been tolerable in the 70s so we open windows. In the morning we keep the windows open till about 11 a.m. and then need to put the a/c on till about 6 p.m. 

Yesterday we decided to take a drive to Casa Grande just to get out of Dodge.  We have heard about but never visited Rovers Roost RV Park, an Escapees RV Club co-op park.  Three of our friends have bought lots there and we just wanted to check it out. Rovers Roost is about 55   miles from Mesa through mostly unassuming desert.

We ended up finding Joel Buchan’s rig, but he wasn’t home.  I phoned him and he was in the Phoenix area shopping.  We were there and he was here! 

We first met Joel for a week at Snider Hill BLM land outside of Tucson back in 2008, and then again at Boomerville in Quartzsite in 2010.  But like many of our friends we kept in touch through phone calls, blogs and emails.

We got home before Joel left the area and invited him over to Mesa Regal for their happy hour.  We had a very nice visit and promised to get together in the next month of so. 

Joel is so funny, always smiling and so enjoyable to be around. We look forward to visiting with him again before we leave the area.

Remember, you are loved.

Organ Stop Pizza

Finally, finally we made it to Organ Stop Pizza.  We’ve been hearing about this place from other fulltimers for years. First I remember hearing about it was from Molly Pinner’s blog back in 2008 I think it was.

On a blog post of one of my blog reader’s I saw they had gone to Organ Stop Pizza and decided we had to go this time.

 

This place was so neat.  You walk in and you place your order at the counter.  Then you turn the corner there’s the salad bar. Next you purchase your drinks and then go find your seat.  You can sit downstairs in picnic tables for an up-close-and-personal experience.

 

or go upstairs for a louder experience and sit at a table.

There are 5,500 pipes in the whole set up, with sections placed behind different glass area so you can see them being used as you hear the notes played.  The bottom sections are the bellows used to force air through the pipes.  Absolutely a-m-a-z-i-n-g !!!   The organ is a Wurlitzer and is ji-normas and gorgeous with gold-leaf embossing the sides.

We went to dinner with newly-met-friends, Martha and Don from Colorado Springs who are here on vacation. What fun they are to pal around with.  They are big-time bicyclists and bike 20-30 miles a day! I can’t even imagine.

Not only was the variety of the music wonderful, but the pizza was mighty good as well. Crust was thin and crispy, just like we like it.

We really enjoyed our dinner and the music and topped the evening off by going to Culver’s and having a custard ice cream.  That was another “first” as we’ve never been to a Culver’s before.

Remember, you are loved.

See Family in Arizona

Jim’s brother, Don, and his wife, Debbie, flew into Phoenix to finalize the paperwork in purchasing a condo in the area and do a walk-through.

We had to go to Scottsdale to drop off our financial paperwork to get pre-qualified before we start looking for a condo somewhere down here.

Finding ourselves in close proximity to each other, we decided to meet for dinner together at Firebird Wood Fired Grill.  Boy, what a nice place. 

The guys had steak while Debbie and I had an interesting Strawberry and Shrimp salad (with goat cheese, jicama and pecans)…amazing!

[Can anyone tell me why the flash doesn’t work when you change from “automatic focus” to “food” or any other mode?]

Here we are enjoying each other as families do.

Poncho was sure happy to see us when we got home, although it had only been five hours and he’s usually good for eight hours by himself.  But we forgot to leave a light on inside and he was hiding in our bed, under the covers.  Such a cutie.

Remember, you are loved.

Mesa Regal RV Resort

Wednesday we arrived at our destination for the next two months.  After Jim got everything attached outside in the 89* heat, we were both pretty hot so on went the a/c.  This is a pretty large RV park…oops, resort.  We got here pretty early in the season so there aren’t that many people here yet. 

Since we have a pet we are in the “Pet Area” on the extreme west end of the park.  I was told they “prefer” we take our dog to the dog park “to do his business”.  But that is a quarter mile away and Jim drives it so Poncho doesn’t start to do his business as we walk to the park.  We cheat for the last trip at night…preference or not.  Plus when we take him in the truck Poncho doesn’t get any exercise.  So Jim drives US down to the park and leaves us there and after Poncho is through he and I walk back to the rig.

So yesterday we thought we’d check out the resort’s Happy Hour by the pool.  Wow….it is pretty grand.  Lovely furniture, a huge lap pool, two small “hanging out” pools and a separate hot tub that could hold 20 people easily.  The bar drinks are $2 each so it isn’t too expensive to go a couple times a week.

After we sat down another couple squeezed by to another table, so I took the opportunity to introduce myself.  Well, low and behold Don and Martha were from Colorado Springs!  There are here on a ten day vacation, renting one of the park models.  So we had a lot to talk about.  What an enjoyable evening.

We are lucky that the evenings here are nice and cool with temperatures in the 60s, perfect sleeping weather.  The mornings are also cool so we don’t have to put the a/c on till around noon or one till about 6 p.m. and then we open the windows and door and it is very pleasant.

There is a whole lot of activities at the Mesa Regal RV Resort, but most haven’t started up yet.  I see they do have a knitting and crocheting group that meets once a week, so I’ll check that out next Tuesday.

There’s a Fry’s Food store behind the park which is great but the closest Target is ten miles away, so that is a bummer, cause you all know how I feel about Walmart….not. 

So we are driving around to familiarize ourselves with the area….maybe even look at a condo to buy….time to limit our traveling.

Remember, you are loved.
Read the story behind this saying HERE

Tucson with Other Friends

Tuesday we went over to Patty and Russ’s home.  In the summer they are the camphosts at Highway Springs Campground in South Fork, so it’s only been a month since we saw them. They have a lovely double-wide in a 55+ park.

We had a good time touring their home and talking about options for “slowing down” from fulltime RVing.  By then it was time for lunch so we went to Olive Garden for their wonderful soup and salad with the guys having the meatball sandwiches.

We will see them again, as well as Jim and Marcie Cumberland, next March when we return to Tucson for the Escapees RV Club’s Escapade rally.

Remember, you are loved.