Back to Work, Nomads-Style

We had a few days of resting at Paula and Tom’s place before moving south and west about 12 miles to Epworth United Methodist Church.  Six rigs, with 12 people, are parked in a corner of their parking lot.  In addition to the usual church functions, the local facilities are also host to a small high school for at-risk teens.

 

Much of our work during the day is outside where the only weather concerns are possible sunburn, with highs in the low- to mid-70’s and very few clouds.

 

Our evening work is continuing to get the hang of this new Toshiba with Windows 8.  It is taking some time but we are getting more programs and files move over.  At the rate we are going, it might take another week to get comfortable.  This posting is our first here with the new system.

 

Back to Sunny and Warm Arizona

This is just a quick note to advise our readers that our trip back to Minnesota for a delayed Christmas went as planned.  We got to see all our kids and all of our granddaughters, Paige’s sister and Ron, and her mother, but only a few family friends since time was short.

 

We got just enough winter during that week, and returned to Arizona yesterday.  It is about 70 degrees warmer here.  We went to Quartzsite today to get ideas for our next motorhome, but didn’t see anything better than what we currently have.

 

We took a look at the new Toshiba laptop with Windows8, but got too frustrated to continue.  This note is being added using the old HP with Windows7.

 

Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday

Last Wednesday we arrived at Paula’s compound in Glendale AZ; this Wednesday we will be flying back to Minnesota for our delayed Christmas with our family; Wednesday of next week we will have a flight back to Arizona.

 

Here at Paula and Tom’s place things are busy, which is normal.  Niece Tomie was home from college for Christmas break until yesterday when she returned to USC to complete her Senior year.  Uncle Phil and Elsie are here in their motorhome also.  There’s always a lot of activity around. 

 

We are having an issue with our blogging system no longer accepting photos, since our system is getting out of date.  We had planned to look into buying a new computer system, so now it has become a higher priority.  We’ll pick up our new computer tomorrow, but since we’ll be leaving for Minneapolis on Wednesday, we won’t get it up and running for a week or so.

 

On Saturday, we participated in a pot luck luncheon for any Nomads in the area.  Nearly sixty people were there, including some we haven’t seen for years.  It was good to see them again.

 

The big news this week is that Paige’s mom got the call that there is an apartment available for her at The Pines senior housing in Duluth.  It’s a 2 bedroom/2 bath unit on the third floor with a deck looking towards Lake Superior.  She will also have an indoor parking spot.  Pam and Ron went to Duluth this past weekend to look it over also and sent pictures to us.  It looks great and mom is real excited.  She plans on moving in early in February with Paula’s help.  We’ll work on cleaning the house and getting that ready for sale this spring.

 

Today we will clean up some loose ends and begin packing some things for the trip north.

Anxious to see the granddaughters!

Into the Desert

We left southern California on Thursday without going through the metro Los Angeles traffic by staying north of the San Gabriel Mountains.  However, this was not a scenic drive.  We followed Interstate 40 across the Mojave Desert to Needles, which often has the highest summer temperatures in the nation and then crossed the Colorado River into Arizona.

Our plan was to spend three days in Lake Havasu City with Bob’s cousin Darlene, like we did two years ago.  The first part went as planned with some shopping, sightseeing, and a couple of “happy hour” gatherings with her neighbors.  It was good to see Darlene again! 

A respiratory infection hit Paige on the third day, which had us find the local Urgent Care facility, and extend our stay to a fourth day for further recuperation.

 

After Sunday’s round of medications and sleeping, we headed toward Phoenix along US93, also called the Joshua Forest Parkway, which is quite isolated and scenic.  We stopped for 2 more nights of recuperation at another Escapees park, this one in Congress Arizona.

 

We plan to get to Paula’s tomorrow mid-day.  It will be good to see everyone there!

Happy New Year

The Escapees RV club has really kept us busy and entertained while we have been here in the northern Los Angeles area.  Since we last posted on Saturday, we have been to many different activities. 

 

We spent most of Sunday at a horse arena operated by the City of Los Angeles where many of the units in Wednesday’s parade were able to perform with their horses.  They showed off lots of horses, costumes, carriages, and performed many acts.  This was a real horse-lovers dream event.  One highlight was the performance by the Budweiser Clydesdales.  The 8-horse team turned 90 degrees to its wagon a couple of times to show sharp turns in the beer delivery business.  After the parade, they are off to a secret location to film their Super Bowl ad.

 

Monday’s activities were split between a full morning at BandFest and a quiet afternoon at the Huntington Library.  Bandfest is the chance for the high school marching bands to perform their routines on a football field.  Fifteen high schools and the host Community College bands played during shows over a few days.  We saw 5 schools including the only marching band in Alaska from Palmer. 

 

The Huntington was a showplace of art, horticulture gardens, and a historic library of English literature.

 

Tuesday was a quiet “Free Day” allowing us to do whatever we’d like and preparing for our New Years Eve party.  Now keep in mind that most of us are retired seniors, and we had to leave early for the parade on Wednesday.  As a result, the New Year was rung in at 12:00 midnight EASTERN time (based on TV’s NYC’s Times Square broadcast).

 

On New Years Day the bus left our RV park at 5:00 AM, allowing an hour to drive about 40 miles to a large parking lot.  We found our seats around 6:30 a.m. and waited for the parade to start at 8.  People watching was very interesting while we waited.  The parade was wonderful!  The weather perfect – sunny and in the 60’s.  Here is the band from Rosemont MN

         

We viewed the parade with 700,000 of our closest friends!  Yes, it was packed – but we got in and out surprisingly fast.  Obviously, they have done this before.

           

After the parade, the floats are all taken to a park nearby where they are on display for 3 days.  We went to the park for the afternoon and walked around there in the 70 degree weather and took more pictures.

         

 

Last night was our final dinner with everyone on the tour.  We had another great catered meal of barbecued tri tip, lemon chicken and other fixins with carrot cake for dessert – yum!  We met lots of new people, including some other Nomads who were here, and got to spend time with Dave and Nancy.  All in all, a good 6 days!  Now is our time to recuperate.