Topsy Turvy

I haven't been very good at updating this blog as I don't think I have even tried since we were in Arizona. We did get a new awning put on the Motor home tho, and after being home for a couple months, came to Minnesota where we are now. We got some of the summer things out and cleaned the place up a little as we were here for a couple weeks before going back to Pontiac for Rhys' graduation and a few other things. One being our Veterinary class group reunion which we had in Oglesby at the Best Western. Then Curt's wife, Vicky, had an aortic valve replacement on June 7, so we spent that day at St. Joe Hospital in Bloomington. She got along fine so we came back to the lake on June 9th.

One of the main reasons for bringing the blog up to date is to show some of the pictures from Minnesota that our granddaughter, Emily, has helped us with, and, the main one is to show our progress with our Topsy Turvy tomato plant. We started it about the middle of May when we were here, then hauled it home with us, and brought it back in June. Mainly because it has to be watered every day and fertilized once a week. To date it has consumed approximately 70 gallons of water and a half pound of Miracle-Gro. At last count one of the neighbors thought there were almost 60 tomatoes ranging from pea size to the ripe ones plus it is still blooming. It has been a great conversation piece and of interest to everybody who sees it.

more pictures of Minnesota coming soon...

Windshield picture

Don't know why this one didn't go on at all.

Up to Date

Haven't put anything on here for a while and we are in a park that has wireless internet so and going to try to put on a bunch of pictures. The first Dolores insists that I put on of me dealing cards for a sequence game we were playing with Short and Sharon in Mesa. We played a lot of sequence and euchre while there. The pictures may not be in the order they are supposed to be so hopefully you can figure them out.

The next ones we took on a trip we took one day to Sedona, which is up by Flagstaff. The first is one at Montezumas Castle which in the 1300 or 1400 AD's cliff dwellers lived in the caves at the top.

The next 4 are actually in Sedona, the first just a scenery shot, the second a Catholic church up on the hill, the third is a picture of a house taken from the area where the church is, and the fourth is one of Short and I from the front of the church just looking out over the area.

The last is what happened to us on our second day on the way home. We were just east of Albuquerque and heading for Santa Rosa, New Mexico when the traffic stopped about 5 pm. It was snowing and there had been a whiteout ahead of us with a major pile-up. We were told there had been 6 semi's and 4 or 5 cars involved. The interstate was completely full, both lanes, almost immediately. We sat there until almost 1 am before we were able to move and then we crept along about 3 miles to a crossover where they sent us back about 20 miles to Moriarty as the road was closed on east. We got back there about 3 am, pulled into an Alco store and slept for about 4 hours. The road was opened mid-morning yesterday so we started out again. We had had a reservation for that night here at this park but since we couldn't get here, we called them and asked if we could use it for last night instead, and they said we could. We came here yesterday and stayed last night, then decided to stay another night, so we are going to leave early in the morning. The weather should be better for us thru Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri by waiting this extra day. Hopefully I will be able to get these pictures on.

Correction

I don't know how the picture of our TV with the Wii golf game got on instead of the awning, but, it did!! Will try again.

Wind Damage!!!

We had a little wind storm along with the rain yesterday and it blew our awning up over the roof of the MH. Have heard that we had wind gusts of 45 mph here in Mesa and up to 65 or 70 mph in Apache Junction, which is right next to Mesa on the east. We were able to get it off and rolled back up, but will probably have to have a new one. We took pictures of it and hopefully, I will be able to get one on here.

Herb and Margie were here for 4 or 5 days with her daughter, and we took them on the train one day and to the Arizona Opry last night. They were leaving to go back to Vegas this morning.

We got off the train and went into Chase Field, where the Diamonbacks play, and took this picture in front of the stadium.

Trip to Las Vegas

Hello everybody,
Haven't put anything on lately so thought I would let you know about our last week, or so. We left Mesa last Tues. and drove up in the car. Left the MH on our spot at Mesa Spirit, and came to Herb and Margie's here in Vegas. We had planned to stay with them Tues., Wed., and Thurs., and go to Rito and Lucy's for Friday and Sat. Then Lucy had a free room here at the Red Rock Hotel for us tonight. Rito has had a bad week and we weren't able to stay with them so we just stayed at Herb's until today. Rito is so subject to any type of infection and he has been running a fever and vomiting so we didn't want to take him any other type of germ. We came to their house this afternoon and Lucy had a couple things for me to do for them, one was put a new valve in a toilet and another was to fix the light on their house number, which just took a new bulb. Only had to go a short distance to a Home Depot to get the parts and while I was fixing them, Dolores and Lucy ran over to this Hotel and registered for the room. We were able to talk to Rito from a distance, briefly, as he was in his hospital bed in their room, and we were down the hall. We also picked up some things that they wanted us to bring back to Illinois for their girls.
This room at the Red Rock is probably the fanciest room we have ever had. We are on the 11th floor and our window is to the east and we can see the entire valley with all the lights of the city and the strip. We are probably about 10 miles west of the strip and in the Summerlin area.
We fixed some things in the house that Herb and Margie are renting, and ate out a lot. Played some Bingo and slots but didn't do very well. We did get to see another friend who lives here plus a couple who gave us all the freebies a couple years ago. Dan and Jan came out from Minn. on Tues. also and took the Dunnes out for supper on Thurs. night. They let us know where they were going so we were waiting for them when they got there. The Dunnes were really surprised because they didn't know we were in town. Delmer and Eleanor Walden got out here today, that's Fleta's sister and her husband, and called, and we are going to meet them for breakfast in the morning. Then we plan to head back to Mesa.
We might stop over in Laughlin if we don't get out of town here very early, as we will go thru there, but doubt it.
We didn't bring our camera with us and are disappointed as we would have liked to have taken some pictures from here tonight to try to put on here. Guess we will have to do it next time.

Trip to Las

Mesa, Az Market Place(Swap meet)

Hopefully, I will get some pictures of this place on which we went to on Friday with Jerry's brothers and their wives. It is 4 pole buildings, each approximately 300 yards long, connected at each end, all divided into approximately 12 x 20 sections, with just about anything you could imagine, for sale. Some are craft items but most are new things. Lots of clothes, many printed shirts, kitchen utensils, tools, artificial flowers, lawn ornaments, you name it and its there someplace. Your caplights came from there last year. Short and I had breakfast there yesterday, 2 eggs, toast, a pile of hash browns, and coffee for $2. It is something that I would recommend anyone coming to the area should go to see. It is open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Here's the picture

Made It To Mesa!

Here is our home away from home in Mesa. Same spot we have been on for the last 3 years. The piece of the park model you see behind the front of the Motor Home is Short and Sharon's.

Last Day in Vegas

Well, this is our last day in Las Vegas, we played Bingo this morning and didn't win. Did win a little playing around in Sam' Town on penny machines, but didn't get wealthy. Just recovered the money we spent on Bingo.
We took supper out to Rito and Lucy's last night. We just finished watching the Ill.-MSU game and Illinois played their usual. Started good and finished good but was miserable in between. We are going to Al and Shirley's house now to see them. Shirley has been sick and isn't going out but wanted to see us so we're going by there. They are a couple we met thru Herb several years ago.
Leaving tomorrow for Mesa. Plan to go down thru Kingman as the computer says that is the shortest way. It says it is 335 miles, so, we should be there by mid-afternoon.

HERE'S MY SHIRT!

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

My birthday celebrations actually lasted 3 days! On Thursday, we were invited to Herb and Margie's that evening for pizza and to watch the Texas-Alabama game, which they had bet $20 for me on Texas. But, as you probably already know, we didn't win.

On Friday we went out to Rito and Lucy's and checked on some things that we wanted to get for the house when Rito comes home from the hospital. We took Lucy to lunch at the Red Rock Hotel and Casino, which is near their house, and I won $15 playing Keno in the cafe, which helped on our bill. After lunch we played a little in the casino and won a little more. We stopped at Home Depot and got a couple things before taking Lucy back home. We were to meet Herb and Margie at Willy and Jose's in Sam's Town at 6 for supper since Sam's Town had given me a free meal for my birthday. Even tho I don't particularly like Mexican food, since it was free, it was hard to turn down. When we went in the hostess said, oh, you also get a free Margarreta(sp?) and a tee shirt. I ordered a ribeye which was very good, and then they brought me a dessert also.

Yesterday, on my actual birthday, we started with Sam's Town's first session of Bingo, where we also get free donuts, coffee, and juice. (However they cost us $10 apiece since we didn't bingo)

We were to be at Lucy's at 1pm so we went to Lowe's where we got some things to use at their house also. We picked up Lucy and went to the hospital to see Rito where we had to wear gowns, masks, and gloves, but he seemed so good compared to how he was when we were here in Sept., that I told him seeing him was the best birthday present I could have! He is getting to go home again today. We stayed a couple hours, then went back to Red Rock and went in the buffet. It had to be the nicest and largest buffet we have ever been in, and everything we tried was very good. It was a little expensive, I think it was $16.95 for the evening meal, but Lucy paid the bill with her points. We played a little then but didn't win, and went back to their house where we hung a valance in their bedroom, and a full length mirror in one of their bathrooms.

We had gotten an apparatus to put on the toilet, which we had done, and also a grab bar to put on the shower wall.

We left there about 8:30 and stopped at a Target to get some weightwatchers desserts but they were out of the one that Dolores wanted so went to another on the way back and they did have some. We had a little problem with them as the price was 85 cents higher at the second store but we complained enough to get them to mark them down, plus, with buying 10 of them, we got a $5 gift card.

We got back to the motor home and watched part of the Illinois-Indiana game, which we had taped, before going to bed. It was going so bad for Illinois that I just couldn't see how they would ever win, but, when we watched the rest of it this morning, were pleasantly surprised!

So, after 3 days of celebrating, I'm exhausted!!!

Okay, it took me forever to get that picture on here, and I know that it's not the way I wanted, but I am learning, and I think I'll get better at it. Grandma keeps telling me to call one of the girls but being stubborn as I am, I'D RATHER DO IT MYSELF!
I have another picture of Grandma and me that I hope to get into our "profile".
Also found a picture of brother Jim and I on his 90th birthday that I would like to have on someday.
Well, it is now 1:15 in the afternoon and we are still in our pj's. We are supposed to go to Herb's at 5 and watch the Texas-Alabama game so best get going.

WE MADE IT!!!

I planned to write a lot about our day to day travel on the way out but after being a day late getting started because of snow and ice on the roads, having a cross wind and wet road from home to St. Louis, stopping at 5 on Monday night so we could set up the satellite dish to watch the Vikings-Bears game, only getting to Oklahoma City on the second day because it was snowing for the next 100 miles and we pulled in to a campground at 4 in the afternoon, left the next morning in the fog and when we stopped to get LP gas the attendant had trouble filling our tank so that took an hour, then when we got almost to Albuquerque it started snowing again so hard that we drove the next 40 miles in blizzard conditions at about 20 mph for at least 30 of it, the next morning it was so windy it was rocking the MH when we got up so we waited a while before taking off, and then there was a traffic accident on I40 that held up traffic for 2 and a half hours plus another construction stop for 30 minutes, but we did get to Williams, Az where we stayed for the night in about a foot of snow and it got down to 13 degrees, I think we were the only overnighters in the RV Park, the next morning was yesterday morning and we got the earliest start of the trip, so we made it to Las Vegas to our RV Park at noon, but I thought that would be kinda dumb and nobody would really care anyway, so just decided to write that we made it.
We couldn't tell what color the car and MH were when we got here because of all the road dirt so found a car wash up the street that we went to and cleaned them up a little. We did get the lot that we asked for as we had been on it before, and liked it. We met Herb and Margie last night for supper at TGI Fridays, and went to the sports book today to watch Illinois get beat by Gonzaga. We have the MH all set up now and even did a load of laundry today. Now we are going out to the super walmart across the street for bread, milk, etc.
Guess that is about it for now, hopefully the next time we will have a picture or two to add.
Bye Bye