We have had an amazing and busy week; spending quality time with family as well as new and old friends and we even slipped in a movie day. We managed to remember to take a few pictures but then forgot we had a camera on two occasions! I hate it when we do that!!
The weather this morning in Casa Grande, AZ at 6:30 a.m. was partly cloudy and 42f. The sun peeked out for a few minutes; enough to raise the temperature to 55f by 8:30 a.m. (I’m moving slow this morning) so I expect we will have a really nice day.
Newest news on my computer problems: 95% of my files have been found on back-up including my Family Tree Maker genealogy files … except for the most recent. Somehow, I also lost the program, Microsoft Publisher. If any of you good people in my family have had new additions in the past four years I would really appreciate an e-mail with the latest vital statistics. As traumatic as it was, Phil and I have learned many hard lessons from this fiasco that will no doubt protect future data and we are grateful for that.
My precious niece, Tammy, her daughter, Jessie and husband, Steve on a Spring Break vacation from Olympia, WA stopped by on 17 Feb for a quick visit. After they got settled into a local motel and took Jessie out to peruse the Promenade Mall, we treated them to dinner at the impressive buffet restaurant called the “The Golden Corral.” They stopped for a few minutes the next morning on the way out of town heading to the Phoenix area and their flight home on Friday. Steve’s parents winter in Wellton, AZ; his brother lives in Surprise, AZ and Jessie has a good friend in Phoenix, AZ—then add visiting Aunt Joy and Phil in Casa Grande, AZ and they had a busy week. It was wonderful to see them.
Later that day, RVing-blogger friends, Jerry and Suzy met us at our new favorite restaurant, “Mimi’s” for “linner” and we spent nearly two hours discovering all the things we had in common beyond being full time Rvers. I have said many times before and I will say again that the people we meet and the new friendships we build with this lifestyle continue to make these “Golden Years” the very best years of our lives!
On Thursday we enjoyed a day at the movies! We had two we wanted to see so we spent the whole afternoon in the theater. We watched, actor-icon, Clint Eastwood’s latest called “Gran Torino” and then Liam Neeson’s newest called, “Taken.” These movies are not for the faint of heart. Both were filled with edge of your seat action, ethnic slurs, horrific foul language and brutal violence but if you are a true fan of these actors (as we are), both showed their genuine talent in these flicks.
Friday we drove to Glendale, AZ and spent the afternoon with our cousins, sisters Norma and Beverly. Norma is recuperating from a serious fall that broke her left arm in three places, a TIA while in the hospital, triple shunt surgery and pneumonia just since Christmas! She is so determined to get well her courage amazes us. Her dear sister, Beverly is the ultimate caregiver and Norma will recuperate quickly with her loving attention. It was wonderful to see them both and as usual, Beverly fed us a wonderful dinner before we headed home. Thank you ladies for a great day!
Our week ended with a day at the desert home of our former hometown friends and snowbirds, Carol and John near Maricopa, AZ. They have spent their winters in AZ for many years and we were especially lucky to visit while our dear friend Don was visiting from Payson, AZ. It was a fantastic day of home cooking at its best as well as lots of fun and laughter with our exceptional and much loved friends.
Everyone who reads this blog knows about the horrific accident one of our special Rving friends, Bob Skelding was in almost two weeks ago. In response to the tragedy, my dear cousin who lives in Tennessee wrote me an e-mail. Her experience and advice regarding the highway where Bob was traveling when he was run down by an 18-wheeler is very enlightening. With her permission, I am enclosing some excerpts that in my opinion are good advice to all those who wander in their recreational vehicles across this part of the country.
She wrote: “I read all the newspaper articles and the beginning of Bob's blog, about the horses. This just sickens me. That is seriously one of the most dangerous highways in this country with a bunch of lunatics driving on it. We NEVER EVER take that highway!
I haven't read everything that Bob wrote about how he planned this trip but if he did it thru a GPS or one of the internet maps, I KNOW they routed him that way and don't even acknowledge The Natchez Trace. No one who knows anything about Mississippi would take hiway 45 unless they live on it or are trying to get to somewhere with no other options. “The Trace” is a "City/Town Free" 2–lane, beautiful highway that runs from Nashville to Natchez, MS. or beyond. It is nearly 500 miles; immaculately kept, thoroughly patrolled, with a 55 MPH speed limit that is strictly enforced!
What makes me angry is that this horrid thing could happen to this dear man and those innocent animals and he didn't have to be on that highway. If he looked for GPS alternatives, they refuse to route you on the Trace. My husband, myself, my son and my daughter all have GPSs and none will route them that way. We were lucky to have discovered this alternate route long before GPSs became in vogue and have never taken highway 45.”
My cousin continues with her well-informed, first hand opinion that, “Mississippi's highways are notoriously dangerous. Almost all with 2 narrow lanes and no regard to speed at all. When you get down in the delta area it's no mans land!
Anyway, I got this off my chest. I'm praying for Bob; this is a horrible thing to happen and what a horrible way for a dream to end. I hope somehow he can overcome this and in the future do a little better research. And, by the way, if any one of those idiots that posted how he shouldn't have been on the highway, they should drive through Lawrence County, TN and any other number of eastern and Midwest counties and see the Amish, safely coexisting (I think I know of one fatality in 30 years in Lawrenceburg).”
I don’t know about you but Phil and I have red-lined highway 45 in Mississippi and intend to avoid it like the plague from now on!
Here is a link to the latest articles about Bob with news about the horses. If the link doesn't work, just hilight, copy and paste it into your address line. It takes a minute or two to load so be patient.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&channel=s&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107101990786163263085.00045ff14c3d20dce8acf
The weather this morning in Casa Grande, AZ at 6:30 a.m. was partly cloudy and 42f. The sun peeked out for a few minutes; enough to raise the temperature to 55f by 8:30 a.m. (I’m moving slow this morning) so I expect we will have a really nice day.
Newest news on my computer problems: 95% of my files have been found on back-up including my Family Tree Maker genealogy files … except for the most recent. Somehow, I also lost the program, Microsoft Publisher. If any of you good people in my family have had new additions in the past four years I would really appreciate an e-mail with the latest vital statistics. As traumatic as it was, Phil and I have learned many hard lessons from this fiasco that will no doubt protect future data and we are grateful for that.
My precious niece, Tammy, her daughter, Jessie and husband, Steve on a Spring Break vacation from Olympia, WA stopped by on 17 Feb for a quick visit. After they got settled into a local motel and took Jessie out to peruse the Promenade Mall, we treated them to dinner at the impressive buffet restaurant called the “The Golden Corral.” They stopped for a few minutes the next morning on the way out of town heading to the Phoenix area and their flight home on Friday. Steve’s parents winter in Wellton, AZ; his brother lives in Surprise, AZ and Jessie has a good friend in Phoenix, AZ—then add visiting Aunt Joy and Phil in Casa Grande, AZ and they had a busy week. It was wonderful to see them.
Later that day, RVing-blogger friends, Jerry and Suzy met us at our new favorite restaurant, “Mimi’s” for “linner” and we spent nearly two hours discovering all the things we had in common beyond being full time Rvers. I have said many times before and I will say again that the people we meet and the new friendships we build with this lifestyle continue to make these “Golden Years” the very best years of our lives!
On Thursday we enjoyed a day at the movies! We had two we wanted to see so we spent the whole afternoon in the theater. We watched, actor-icon, Clint Eastwood’s latest called “Gran Torino” and then Liam Neeson’s newest called, “Taken.” These movies are not for the faint of heart. Both were filled with edge of your seat action, ethnic slurs, horrific foul language and brutal violence but if you are a true fan of these actors (as we are), both showed their genuine talent in these flicks.
Friday we drove to Glendale, AZ and spent the afternoon with our cousins, sisters Norma and Beverly. Norma is recuperating from a serious fall that broke her left arm in three places, a TIA while in the hospital, triple shunt surgery and pneumonia just since Christmas! She is so determined to get well her courage amazes us. Her dear sister, Beverly is the ultimate caregiver and Norma will recuperate quickly with her loving attention. It was wonderful to see them both and as usual, Beverly fed us a wonderful dinner before we headed home. Thank you ladies for a great day!
Our week ended with a day at the desert home of our former hometown friends and snowbirds, Carol and John near Maricopa, AZ. They have spent their winters in AZ for many years and we were especially lucky to visit while our dear friend Don was visiting from Payson, AZ. It was a fantastic day of home cooking at its best as well as lots of fun and laughter with our exceptional and much loved friends.
Everyone who reads this blog knows about the horrific accident one of our special Rving friends, Bob Skelding was in almost two weeks ago. In response to the tragedy, my dear cousin who lives in Tennessee wrote me an e-mail. Her experience and advice regarding the highway where Bob was traveling when he was run down by an 18-wheeler is very enlightening. With her permission, I am enclosing some excerpts that in my opinion are good advice to all those who wander in their recreational vehicles across this part of the country.
She wrote: “I read all the newspaper articles and the beginning of Bob's blog, about the horses. This just sickens me. That is seriously one of the most dangerous highways in this country with a bunch of lunatics driving on it. We NEVER EVER take that highway!
I haven't read everything that Bob wrote about how he planned this trip but if he did it thru a GPS or one of the internet maps, I KNOW they routed him that way and don't even acknowledge The Natchez Trace. No one who knows anything about Mississippi would take hiway 45 unless they live on it or are trying to get to somewhere with no other options. “The Trace” is a "City/Town Free" 2–lane, beautiful highway that runs from Nashville to Natchez, MS. or beyond. It is nearly 500 miles; immaculately kept, thoroughly patrolled, with a 55 MPH speed limit that is strictly enforced!
What makes me angry is that this horrid thing could happen to this dear man and those innocent animals and he didn't have to be on that highway. If he looked for GPS alternatives, they refuse to route you on the Trace. My husband, myself, my son and my daughter all have GPSs and none will route them that way. We were lucky to have discovered this alternate route long before GPSs became in vogue and have never taken highway 45.”
My cousin continues with her well-informed, first hand opinion that, “Mississippi's highways are notoriously dangerous. Almost all with 2 narrow lanes and no regard to speed at all. When you get down in the delta area it's no mans land!
Anyway, I got this off my chest. I'm praying for Bob; this is a horrible thing to happen and what a horrible way for a dream to end. I hope somehow he can overcome this and in the future do a little better research. And, by the way, if any one of those idiots that posted how he shouldn't have been on the highway, they should drive through Lawrence County, TN and any other number of eastern and Midwest counties and see the Amish, safely coexisting (I think I know of one fatality in 30 years in Lawrenceburg).”
I don’t know about you but Phil and I have red-lined highway 45 in Mississippi and intend to avoid it like the plague from now on!
Here is a link to the latest articles about Bob with news about the horses. If the link doesn't work, just hilight, copy and paste it into your address line. It takes a minute or two to load so be patient.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?client=firefox-a&channel=s&hl=en&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=107101990786163263085.00045ff14c3d20dce8acf
Until next time,
