Grandson, Hagen Brinkerhoff, from Gillette, Wyoming was working in the area for Komatsu during February and March. It was great that he could come by a few times on Sunday evenings for dinner and a visit. Great because he was working 14 hour days, 6 days a week and it was great to see him.

Also got a surprise visit from Ed’s 2nd cousin Lia, and friend Jerry, traveling through from Klamath Falls, Oregon in their new motorhome. They were on their way to Florida, with a stopover in Stephenville, Texas to visit Ed’s sister Alice. Ed and Lia hadn’t seen each other since Lia was a child.

Weather has generally been nice enough to eat on our little patio. Its especially appreciated when we have more than the four people. Four is about all that can comfortably sit at our inside table. This evening we enjoyed having our local Arizona family: Connie’s sister Carol and husband Roger, Carol’s son Marshall and his wife Amanda, and their daughter Mackenzie.

You meet a lot of new friends when living the RV lifestyle. A couple new ones are Janet and Allen Hlady from Beauseliour Manitoba, Canada. Not shown is their cocker-poodle dog Leo that Connie fell in love with. They are a a fun couple and invited us to stop by when we travel that way the summer of 2019. In case you’re wondering, Allen is not drinking a strange brew, but winterizing their trailer. He knows that it will certainly be freezing, even before they get back to Manitoba.

We also have some old friends we met up with. Jeff and Jann Fox have their 5th wheel trailer parked at an RV park near Goodyear, Arizona. Nearly an hour away, but close enough to arrange a visit. This day we fired up our dually and drove them out to St. Anthony’s Greek Monastery near Florence, Colorado. Note the special attire required to tour the grounds. Only face and hands should be visible. Men may leave the top of their head exposed.

Connie and Jann go back over 40 years to their friendship in Cheyenne, Wyoming! Jeff recently retired (again) and they enjoy their new freedom to travel in their RV. Jann is working through some serious medical problems and we continue to pray for them.

Other friends we met RVing are Don and Doreen. Both retired Navy and avid Carp fishermen. Lots to tell about their story, but Don rebuked me when he saw I posted a picture of him fishing the canal, but didn’t include the picture of one of the fish he caught. So here it is. Wow!

But wait! Just learned that Doreen caught this 34 pound carp on the fourth.

Excursions included a visit to the Wood Carvers gathering at the Mesa Convention Center. We were invited by Doris Trinko, an RVer that parks here. Doris is a widow and active in the wood carving world, specializes in wood burning art. The carvings were fantastic.

Our excursions also included riding the Light Rail to downtown Phoenix. We boarded at the last station east, and found we had most of the train to ourselves, but after passing Tempe and Arizona State University, the train was packed. We enjoyed walking around town some, but didn’t push it as Connie’s ankle has been giving her pain problems from her ankle break.

We stopped in Tempe on our return and enjoyed a short walk down Mill street. Lots of restaurants and shops. A fun excursion for a $2 ticket to ride all day.

Another excursion was to the owner of our RV Park’s home to pick oranges and relax with a cool beer. Picked several bags of oranges that we’ll share with guests at the RV park. Steve and Jenni have 30 orange trees that remain from the original orchard. Great navels that everyone enjoys.

Not really an excursion, but we do need to provide a little labor around the park from time to time. Ed has been working on insulating, or re-insulating all the water risers on the park’s 15 spaces. So far we haven’t had a freeze, but always good to be prepared just in case the temp drops to the high temp back in Colorado 😉