Wednesday, March 25, 2009

We're headed for California - Thursday, 3/26/09

Monday, 3/23/09 The wind was blowing but not hard or bad enough to keep me from laying out by the pool. This was really a lazy day for us, Will puttered around the RV and took a nap while I did my favorite chore...washing clothes & laying out by the pool. How anyone could dislike retirement is beyond us. This evening we went to the Riverview Casino (where Bill Medley played, remember?) to experience casino bingo with our neighbors, Kay & Brian. Now this is truly a big time operation. They actual rent out machines that have the bingo games on them & I think the machines does everything automatically. I only know, if you have only one number left on your machine/card, the machine beeps.....they kept beeping all night. Anyway, we had a really fun time although none of us won any money. After they drove us through the casino RV park and then down "the strip" to see the other casinos.

Tuesday, 3/24/09 is a busy day. After my 4 mile walk in the morning we had planned a day with our neighbors Kay and Brian. Our first stop was an Indian gambling casino in Bullhead City/Fort Mohave area that still serves a 99 cent breakfast consisting of a slice of ham, 2 eggs, hash browns and toast and if your a Veteran, which Will is, you get free coffee! Now is that a deal. Well the 3 of them order the 99 cent breakfast and I had the expensive 1.99 oatmeal (shocking to the Retirement Breakfast group.) Just to show you what a sport Will is, he picked up the check to buy breakfast and told Brian, "he could buy dinner." What a guy!

After breakfast and a guided tour by Kay around the casino we headed off to Oatman again to see the fun little tourist town. This was the same little town we went to Sunday but left so quickly because of the rain & wind. However, this day was sunny and beautiful so Kay and I wandered in and out of all the stores while the guys had coffee and stood around and talked. Just about the time we were leaving the burro's came into town so that everyone could feed them. Finally, I got a picture with the burros and then it was time to go. It amazes me how tired you can get in a day of retirement doing not much of anything. But home we came to take a nap and rest up for......you guessed it....bingo. I bet there's not an RV park around that doesn't have bingo each and every week, so after a nap and dinner the four of us drove up to the clubhouse for a bingo session. In all the bingo games we have played, Will has one game (approx $4.00) and I have won - NONE. At least our friend Kay won 2 games this evening. After a fun filled evening we headed home and fell into bed pretty darn late for us.

Wednesday, 3/25/09 We met our Oregon friends, Roby and Ron for lunch today as they will leave Bullhead City on Friday and we leave on Thursday. It was so much fun seeing them again and we look forward to spending time with them in Oregon in the Coos Bay area June 09. After a lunch at the China Buffet we knew there would be no dinner tonight so after arriving home, Will went into take a nap and I headed for the pool, my last day on the trip to lay in the sun by the pool. I haven't laid out in the sun like this for so many years and have really enjoyed it even though I no it's no good for you but what the heck....it's my retirement. I didn't get home until 5 pm and had to take a shower to get ready for another fun night with bingo. I really can't believe that most of our life we never played bingo now it's a couple days a week. Well our record is still the same.....NO jackpots for us, but Kay won her usual two games...how is that possible.

Well tomorrow we head back for California, it's hard to believe the trip is almost over. We left Fresno on January 10, 2009 and here it is March 25, 2009 and it seems like we just left Fresno last week. It has been a great trip and we have met some wonderful people along the way and hopefully can stay in touch with all of them. Well the plan is on Thursday, 3/26 to drive to Bakersfield, spend the night and get up early Friday morning and head to Dinuba to see Wills' brother, Lloyd and wife Betty. We will have lunch with them and then head to Fresno where Will will stay in the RV at Yosemite Trailer Park on Blackstone & Sierra in Fresno. The actual park he will locate to is in Clovis on Villa Ave, very near his kids, Kim & Eric, but that won't happen for a week or so. I'm so glad he will be close to my house as it will take us sometime unloading all my stuff out of the RV.

As I said, it has been a great time and we look forward to going again June 1, 2009 which will be up the Oregon & Washington coast with hopefully side trips to Victoria and Vancouver, B.C. It will be good to see all our family and friends again and I thank you for all your nice comments on the blog, I have really enjoyed doing this and it sure beats sending postcards....Thanks Nancy for setting it up. Much love to all and Kim.....we will be there for Saturday night dinner!!!

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Bullhead City, AZ

Thursday, 3/19/09 we arrived at Fiesta RV park, a very nice park, got settled & met our wonderful neighbors across the street, Kay and Brian of Atwater, CA....go figure, real neighbors. Kay turned out to be a wealth of great information and we have visited back and forth several times. We plan to go out to breakfast with them next Tuesday.

Friday, 3/20/09 was a VERY warm, sunny day, just perfect for laying out by the pool and tanning, which of course is what I did. We made plans to meet our friends, Roby & Ron of Oregon, the couple we met in Camp Verde, AZ (they are also in Bullhead City now.) We met about 4 pm at the casino, Riverview, the first casino next to the bridge on the Colorado river. They wanted to gamble for a while so Will & I went to explore the beautiful old car collection that they have. It has 2 sections of all types of old cars (including a 54 Corvette, Rog) and was great fun walking through them. At 5 pm we met our friends at the seafood buffet and proceeded to fill ourselves with every kind of seafood possible, of course, that would be all of us EXCEPT Will, he took his usual mashed potatoes and prime rib (seafood???) and NO dessert, he was to full. Needless, to say Will has not gained an ounce on this trip.

After dinner, we purchased tickets to see the Bill Medley Family show playing in their theater upstairs. Bill Medley, for those who don't know, is the surviving member of the Righteous Brothers, a group from the 50/60's. Now I must tell you, the idea to see this show was completely Wills' and we all agreed and went to the ticket counter to see if tickets were still available. Lucky us, we were able to get 4 seats at a table in the second row.....how lucky was that! Well the show started at 8 pm so after dinner, we split up & Will & I took a walk outside on the "river walk" sidewalk because at this moment I felt like I might explode after dinner and thought it would be better to be outside. After a short walk, the pressure was subsiding and we returned to find our seats in the theater. Roby & Ron were already there and we were all looking forward to it. The curtain goes up, the Paul Revere & the Raiders (yikes, does anyone remember them????) came on as Bill Medley's son is now the lead singer for PR Raiders. Well after exactly 3 songs, of very loud rock & roll music, Will leaned over to me and said he couldn't take anymore and would wait outside for us until after the show. And with that he was gone. The Bill Medley family consisted of a 43 year old son, a 30 something daughter & a 68 year old Bill Medley. I enjoyed the show very much, especially the old Righteous Brothers music, and yes it was loud but I was rocking out & enjoyed myself thoroughly. I think Roby & Ron wished they would have stayed in the casino gambling. But it was fun being with them that evening and we look forward to seeing them in Oregon this summer. Gosh, party animals that we are we didn't get to bed until midnight.

Saturday, 3/21/09 another beautiful day that took me to the pool to sun tan & Will had as much fun washing & waxing the front of the RV. You see he does it section by section that way not having all that fun at one time. Still full from last night we decided to have a light dinner at home. A trailer that is directly across from us has several roadrunner birds that come to her house every evening about 5:30 pm to get fed. What she does, is place raw hamburger rolled up into small meat ball size on a plate and they come up & take the meat back to their nest. If the food isn't out there, they will go up on her porch & make noise letting her know, she is late! We decided to eat our dinner out on TV trays & watch this bird action, it was amazing. Right on cue they appear & take the hamburger in their mouth, roll it around in the gravel & then run off with it. I actually got a couple pictures of this & sure hope they turn out. After the "show" & the dishes were done, we sat out with Kay & Brian & spent the evening visiting. They have predicted heavy winds tomorrow, up to 40 miles per hour but today is calm and beautiful.

Sunday, 3/22/09 A beautiful, sunny morning, no wind at all, we think these people are crazy, they say the winds in this area are furious, but you can't prove it by us. Will went up & bought a Sunday paper and that was my plan, read the paper & sit by the pool but somehow we decided to take a ride and see the two RV parks we were unable to get into. We did & was so glad it didn't work out & we are at the park we are at. We then decided to take a ride up to Oatman, AZ, a small town on old route 66 that is famous for burros wandering through the streets. It's only about 15 miles from Bullhead City so off we went. The town is a very, cute tourist town, lots of "junk/souvenirs" to buy, a gun fight at noon and yes, they have burros walking in the streets. They sell carrots which you can feed to the donkeys however if it's a baby burro has a sticker on its forehead that says, "don't feed me, I will choke" - don't feed them. Well after parking the car we noticed it was getting colder & after the gun fight & our lunch, it started to rain and the wind started to blow. We ran for the car & headed home. I have never seen weather change so fast like that. When we arrived home the wind was really blowing, so we put the outside chairs up & headed inside. Now I don't know if those winds were 40 mph but it was blowing. So much so that Will put the living room slide in without me even having to ask him to do so. With that we turned the heater/fireplace on, laid down to take a nap & wait for this to blow over. By 7 pm the wind was gone but we are leaving the slide in tonight just in case. It sure makes the RV feel like our old one, Will is able to sit in his chair & put his feet up on my couch......that's close living folks.

Well it's hard to believe we will be home next Saturday, 3/28 but it sure has been a great trip. I do think Will & I are ready to see our family and friends...we have missed everyone...much love to all.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

The Grand Canyon.....

Wednesday, 3/18/09, we should have know it was going to be a bad day as we had set the clock wrong and got up an hour earlier than we should have....6 am instead of 7 am. Now those of you who know me, that surely isn't a big deal but for Will....6 am is a BIG DEAL. We wanted to be at the train station at 9 am for a "good" parking spot, watch the cowboy gun fight at 9:30 then board the train at 10 am. As you can see we had a lot of time to kill. Well it all went smooth & we boarded the train and WOW it was loaded with lots of kids...the 5th & 6th grade ones probably going on a school outing. Now of course we had booked coach as first class or observation seating was more expensive, but the train ride was ONLY 2 hours so how bad could it be? Well it was bad, considering you have 2 hours up there and 2 hours back and the scenery is pretty nothing. It's not like your riding along the Grand Canyon having a spectacular view. it is nothing but juniper trees. Plus, besides the kids we had "entertainment"...that would be the conductor telling stories, of which only part of it could you hear or the strolling guitar player. Oh yes and the "train holdup" on the way back while kids/& adults were thrusting money in the robbers hands. Needless to say Will & I did not contribute to the holdup.

But we arrived in one piece & waited for the shuttles to take us to the different stops along the rim. I must say that first view of the Grand Canyon is truly breathtaking and the colors and rock formations are amazing. Looking down at that first view you could see the many hikers on various trails and they looked like ants. We even saw the mules returning from a hike down to the bottom of the canyon. Now if I was going to the bottom of the canyon I think that would be the way to go, of course who knows how long it would take to recover from being on the back of a mule for that many hours. Unfortunately, what we didn't "factor in" by taking the train ride was they boarded at 3:15 pm for the return trip home and you ONLY had 3 1/2 hours to see the canyon. What with waiting & riding the shuttles it was not enough time to see many different stops. IF I ever went again, we would definitely take the car and I will add that is a might big IF.

Our most favorite thing about the Grand Canyon was seeing the California condors soaring above the canyon on the wind currents. This was the first day they had been spotted flying at the canyon and we were lucky enough to see five condors. In the early 1980s the condors were nearing extinction with only 22 left in existence. They started a captive-breeding program that has been very successful. You can learn more about this wonderful program at www.gcnpf.org

Well we made it home safely and did survive the train ride up and back and were pretty tired when we returned. After a very quick dinner & shower we were in bed by 8 and asleep by 8:10 pm. Our most pressing concerning that night was that our water didn't freeze up as it had done the night before. During the night we got up several time to turn the tap water on and also started the heater about 4:15 am. When morning came and it was only 32 degrees we were very happy to "pull up stakes" and head for Bullhead City where the weather was forcasted to be 90 degrees.

We arrived about noon at Bullhead City, AZ which is on the AZ side of the Colorado River. On the other side is Laughlin, NV with one after another "big" casinos and NOT Indian casinos. Fiesta RV park is our new home for one week located on Highway 95 and is a real nice park of lovely park models (mobile homes) and RVs. Two beautiful swimming pools & spas plus bingo on Tuesday! What more could you ask for. We called our new friends, Roby & Ron from Oregon who are also in Bullhead City & we will get together with them this week. However, this week is going to be devoted to me laying at the pool & Will washing the RV & car.

It's hard to believe this trip is almost over but we both agree it has really been wonderful. We have met so many great people & seen & done many fabulous things and consider ourselves to be very, very lucky. Much love to family and friends.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Yikes, NO Internet since March 10th.

Yes, that's right, we have been without the Internet since our last location, Camp Verde, AZ. This RV park was located in a valley that didn't allow my fabulous AT&T card to work so I have taken a whole week off of our blog. I will try to give you a capsule version of our travels in one shot.

3/10/09 we sadly left Mesa Spirit in Mesa AZ. It was a wonderful park and we had a great time & made some very nice friends. We are already planning on returning next year to this same RV park for perhaps a longer stay. A stop at Camping World for a quick service on the RV which lasted until after lunch (which was McDonald's) then we were on our way to Camp Verde, AZ a small town about 2 hours north of Phoenix. We arrived & of course after Mesa Spirit it looked like a dump, but really is your regular RV park, we just had gotten spoiled. However, it turned out to have the NICEST people & we had a great time and made lots more new friends.

Camp Verde is located in the Verde Valley and had many interesting & beautiful places to see. I will try & list a few of the things we did.

Montezuma Castle www.nps.gov/moca a 5 story 20 room dwelling which stands in a cliff recess a 100ft above the valley. You can't enter it, just observe it from below.
Tuzigoot (pronouced Two-zee-goot) www.nps.gov/tuzi is Apache for "crooked water" remnants of a village built on a summit that you can walk through. The original was two stories high with 77 ground floor rooms but little is left but a beautiful view.
Montezuma Well was the third national park of this trio which was this beautiful lake in the desert which supplied water to the Southern Sinagua & Hohokam's. This was a wonderful hike around the lake & down to the river & canals that flowed out of the lake.
Jerome www.azjerome.com nicknamed "The City in the Sky" as it is located about 6,000 ft up and just a beautiful, historic town. You must read about this place and the interesting history. We walked around and had a fabulous $30 lunch (Will went pale when the check came) at the Mile High restaurant. Unfortunately, for us, it started to rain & we had to cut short our outing in Jerome, but we will be back.
We drove through Cottonwood www.visitcottonwoodaz.org and Cornville but never stopped, cute towns and with more time we would go back. I am saving the best for last.........
Sedona www.visitsedona.com or www.SedonaVerdeValley.org This place is spectacular and not to be missed. It's truly a tourist town, an expensive tourist town, but it sits in the middle of red rock mountains, with mountain formations that are fabulous. Our first visit to Sedona was with our next door neighbors in Camp Verde, Bridget & Mac from New York. We drove over in our car as Will now had a friend to visit with while Bridget & I hit all the tourist shops....it worked out perfect. We had another wonderful (& expensive lunch) at the Cowboy Grill and even caught the local St Patrick's parade they were having that Saturday, 3/14. Then Bridget & I signed us & the guys up for a "90 minute Time Share" visit for Sunday, 3/15.....the payoff was $100 a couple....for just 90 minutes of "listening." We couldn't resist the "easy" money so back we went on Sunday for our $100. Well it was a very long 90 minutes & there must have been at least 75 people in this large room, PLUS salesman pitching the time share. Well we both got through it & collected our $100 bill but Will said, NEVER AGAIN. It was a great two days with a very fun couple and we missed them as soon as they left for NY on Monday, 3/16. However, that afternoon we drove back to Sedona driving for several hours on some of the scenic roads and observing this beautiful place.
Well that brings us up to date....it's Tuesday, 3/17 and "moving day" which we are headed to Williams, AZ to see the Grand Canyon. We left Camp Verde mid morning and arrived in Williams about noon & found our RV park. Williams www.williamschamber.com is a cute little town which their main street is the last piece of Route 66 to be by passed. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon Railway to buy our tickets to take the train tomorrow to the Grand Canyon. I want you to know that our $100 bill from the "time share spiel" purchased our tickets.....The train leaves every day at 10 am and arrives back at 5:45 pm and then we will take shuttles up at the canyon, much like the ones at Yosemite. After purchasing the tickets we walked down this incredibly cute town, on Route 66 going in & out of shops, or I should say, Will waiting outside, while I go in (Bridget, I really missed you!) Well we found a little tourist part of the old West, which had a John Wayne museum and other places, however it was closed & doesn't open until Memorial Day weekend. But our very good luck found several of the "cowboys" out talking in front & we wandered around looking at the buildings. Buck, the guide of the museum came up to us & offered to open the museum up and give us a guided tour of the John Wayne museum. To say that Will was in 7th heaven is an understatement....Buck had sooooooo much fabulous information and this museum has a huge amount of memorabilia. The next hour or so was Buck telling stories & giving information; we only wish we would have had a recorder to play it back. Of course the "frosting" was Buck took John Wayne's cowboy hat out of the display & let Will put it on for a picture that I took of the two of them. Will had a smile from ear to ear. We told Buck he has to write a book or a CD with these stories and share them with all the John Wayne fans. It was fabulous. Well another amazing day ON THE ROAD AGAIN. Much love to all our family and friends.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Our Spring Training gig has ended!!

Friday, 3/6/09 Well it's hard to believe that spring training is over for us, actually we were planning on going to the Mariners on Sunday 3/8 but plans changed...more on that latter. Anyway it's Friday and we are headed over to the Chicago Cubs, Hohokam Park in Mesa (right next door to where we are staying) to see the Dodgers and Cubs. We are to meet Will's friend Mike there and he is going to buy a ticket to get in & then we will find 3 seats together...at least that was the plan. When we arrived at 11:30 that morning, at the park, they were just announcing that the game was "sold out" so Will called Mike and fortunately he was just leaving so we gave him the sad news.....no baseball for him. We proceeded to the VIP line to pick up our tickets, compliments of daughter Nancy and were told the Cubs tickets had not been sent down so just wait with all the other VIPs "over there." About 12:15 the tickets arrived & we all got in line and when it was my turn, they had NO tickets for Carole Willis. Actually, after 7 games and waiting in will call lines I was surprised this was the first time for a "screw up" but of course not be to deterred (right Rog?) I called our Chicago connection & got his voice mail (of course) and left a message saying I would wait about 15 minutes to hear from him. I checked the window again & they now called my connection in Chicago and wouldn't you know it....in about 15 minutes we had our tickets. They handed me 2 tickets & a receipt for $58.00 (SOMEBODY bought them, not me) and we headed for the second row, right behind home plate & Joe Torres, the Dodgers manager...yes, we sat right behind him & I got lots of pictures of the back of his head. Anyway, it was a great game, Dodgers beat the Cubs, 5 to 4 and I was able to work on my tan - on my back! P.S. Vijay, did call me from Chicago and apologized for the screw up and was glad it all worked out....me too, thanks Vijay.

Saturday, 3/7/09 didn't start out to well, Will & I were going to go to the grocery store, that morning, and as I started out the RV door, I slipped & fell all the way down the steps, bouncing my back side all the way down. Fortunately, Will was at the bottom of the steps & was able to break my fall by grabbing my arm & stopping me from hitting the ground. He helped me to the outside chair & I sat there stunned and tried to see if everything was OK....which it was. We thought I might be black & blue from the fall but I wasn't, actually the worse thing that happened, my neck is sore & it was hard sleeping that night, but I was very lucky I didn't break anything. The rest of the day I moved pretty slow and took a nap. That evening we were going to barbecue with our neighbors, Bob & Judy, but the RV park grills were all reserved for a club party so we blew off fixing dinner and went out for Mexican food to a great restaurant that Mike Cooley recommended in Mesa. It was great food and atmosphere, thanks Mike.

Of course if it's Saturday, it's BINGO night in the RV park and fall or no fall I wasn't going to miss my last night and chance at bingo. So after dinner, we headed over to our reserved spots (Bob reserves them about 11:00 am that morning) and I'm sorry to report, we didn't win again, but we had fun, I think I'll have to find a bingo game next Saturday....somewhere in Camp Verde, where we are headed. After a long day it was good to lay down and try & get some sleep. I can't believe our time here in Mesa Spirit is almost over, we leave next Tuesday morning, 3/10/09.

Sunday, 3/8/09 we were suppose to go & see the Mariner game & Garrett Olson, he was going to have 4 tickets on hold for us but because of the fall we decided to pass on that long drive & just stay home & relax. Which is what we did, Will washes the car to relax and I head out to the pool for a little sun. It was a slow day at the pool, the sun tan ladies must have been busy because only two others showed up. So a day in the sun, a nice nap & a bowl of soup for dinner....that sums up our Sunday. I feel much better and the rest did me good. Thank you Lord I didn't break anything.

Hope all is well with family and friends...we miss everyone and look forward to seeing "you guys" in a couple of weeks..much love to all.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Baseball...it's hard work!

Tuesday, 3/3/09 Well it's back out to Peoria today for another baseball game with the San Diego Padres and the LA Dodgers. It was a good game and the Dodgers won 5 to 4, yoo-hoo. Will is still trying to collect Dodger autographs on his Dodger baseball for Uncle Lloyd, (his brother) of course he is up to the grand number of 3 signings so I'm thinking I better take over the job at this Friday's game as it is our last chance. I have been the official photographer with my "throw away" Kodak camera. Peoria is a great baseball park, with the best hot dogs but we wondered why we were always so tired when we got home from a game....well, Peoria is 100 miles, round trip to our RV park in Mesa. I also must take a moment to apologize to my "son in law"....Billy Boy. He called me at the game today, and due to all the noise, I didn't recognize his voice and didn't know who was calling. He kept saying, it's Bill, my reply....Bill who? Then he yells out to the family, "she really doesn't know who I am." OK Bill, I'm not loosing it, I promise, I just couldn't hear that well and I must have been having a "senior moment." I'm so sorry my dear....I did promise them this evening, I would write in the blog exactly where we are just in case it becomes necessary to find us.....Mesa Spirit RV Park, 3020 So Main Street #L65, Mesa, AZ...(do you feel better Kim?)

Wednesday, 3/4/09 was a day of total relaxation. Our only outing was to Costco as I am almost out of popcorn and of course that CANNOT happen. The only other thing we did was I laid in the sun for a couple hours and Will took a nap. The weather is cooling down to the high 70's so it was a day of rest.

Thursday, 3/5/09 Well it was back out to Peoria (the 100 mile trip) for a baseball game between the Seattle Mariners and the Los Angeles Angeles. And just for Cheryl Gerety, the Angels won 4 to 2. The most exciting thing was before the game we spotted Garrett Olson, a LHP for the Mariners. Garrett, the son of my former boss, Ken Olson, was traded this spring from the Baltimore Orioles to the Mariners. We both ran down to the stadium section where he was on the field and I started yelling (with no shame, I might add) Garrett, Garrett....he looked up and was so surprised to see me, he got a big grin on his face & came right over & gave me a big hug. Will & I talked with him and he is soooo happy to be with the Mariners and very excited about this team. We took our picture with him and talked about coming back on Sunday, 3/8 to see him as he will probably pitch a few innings that day. So it looks like another trip to Peoria...it's a good thing the Saturn is getting over 30 miles to the gallon and we aren't driving the RV.

We had great front row seats and sat next to a nice guy, John from Payson, AZ who is an American League baseball fan and a Yankee fan to boot. We enjoyed talking with him at the game. We also were sitting about 15 feet from Mike Holgrim, the recently retired football coach of the Seattle Seahawks. I even convinced Will to go sit down next to him when his friend left the game so I could take "their picture" together. I must add before doing this, all afternoon, people were coming up to him asking for autographs on baseballs, hats, jackets, pictures so it's not like I was the only one. We also were so impressed how nice and accommodating he was to everyone.

Well we are back home in the RV and have even "blown off" going to see the country music jam session in the activities hall as we are just too tired to move. I keep saying this life is hard work but one we are loving. Much love to our family and friends.

Monday, March 2, 2009

And the Baseball Continues...

Friday, 2 /27/09 has been a day off from baseball. I know you're thinking, how hard could it be to go to a baseball game everyday, but it is HARD work. Remember, it's double duty for ME, as I am not only watching the game but suntanning at the same time. It's the constant putting on the sun tan lotion, almond oil over that & try to keep from burning in this 90 degree weather! Trust me, I'm not complaining just telling you like it is and I LOVE every minute of it. Today was wash clothes early, take a 3 hour nap (gosh, I hate telling that to my friends who are still working) and then we went out to dinner (Chinese buffet) with our next store neighbors, Bob & Judy from Maine. It was a nice evening and they are lovely people.

Saturday, 2/28/09 was a baseball day in Peoria, the home park of the Seattle Mariners who were playing the SF Giants. The Mariners are the team that Ken Olson's son, (my former boss at FCC) Garrett Olson was traded to so we left early in hopes of catching a glimpse of him pitching in the bull pen. However, sadly to report, we did not see Garrett warming up nor did he pitch in the game that day. It was a good game as the Mariners beat the Giants, 6 to 4. The stadium is a one hour ride away from our RV park so by the time we got home we were beat, but of course you must remember Saturday night at our park is BINGO and we were not going to miss that. Not only do we have bingo markers, our neighbors, Bob & Judy, were treating us and buying our games. So after a quick shower we were off to the bingo hall to get our seats as it fills up fast. I am sorry to report we did not win again but we had a lot of fun and can't believe that next Saturday will be our last night of bingo here.

Sunday, 3/1/09 was a very special baseball day. Today is the official opening of the new LA Dodgers and Chicago White Sox club. These two teams are sharing this beautiful park in Glendale, a suburb just outside of Phoenix. LA moved from Florida (Grapefruit League) and the White Sox moved from Tucson, AZ (Cactus League) to this new facility. We left our house at 10 am that morning, with the gates opening at 11:30 am and the game starting at 1:05 pm. We had expected it would sell out as Dodger fans from Los Angeles have been waiting many years for this. The park holds 13,000 and they said the crowd was 11,500. This is the newest park in the Arizona area that has a huge lake, waterways, separate sets of practice fields for each team and a beautiful shared stadium. The governor of AZ & many dignitaries were there for the opening ceremonies and Tommy Lasorda accompanied Joe Torres, Dodger manager out to the mound. There were many Chicago fan that flew out for the game and lots of Dodger fans that drove up from LA, it was another 90 degree day and more opportunity for suntanning. The only thing I didn't like was the final score, White Sox 3, Dodgers 2.

We arrived home tired, as usual, then after a quick shower & I think we ate dinner, we headed off to the activity hall as the men's choir was giving a concert at 7:30 pm and our neighbor Bob is in the choir so we wanted to be there for him. It was a lovely concert and lasted only one hour so we could come home & fall into bed. Another good day in AZ.

Monday, 3/2/09 - I just can't believe it's already March and we plan to be home April 1st, this trip has gone by so fast. Will had made plans with Mike Cooley, the retired Kastner teacher who is now living in AZ, to come over and see the new RV and have lunch. I decided to leave them alone so I gathered up the dirty clothes and headed for the laundry room. By now you must realize this is one of my most favorite "chores" because as soon as the washing machines are going, I am laying out by the pool with the other sun tan ladies. After about 3 hours in the sun, and the clothes were really done I headed home and got to visit with Mike & Will for the rest of the afternoon. After Mike left, Will & I had our dinner outside, on TV trays and watched the evening news on our outside entertainment TV....that was a first for us and really fun. Well that just about catches everyone up with the "Lyon on the road again. " Oh no, I forgot, Will has been rating the baseball hot dogs on a scale of 1 to 10.....10 being the best, so here goes his official ratings:
Chicago Cubs - 4 - sitting to long & dried out
SF Giants - 7 - very good
Seattle Mariners - 7 - very good
LA Dodgers - 6, not a Dodger dog it was a Home Run dog & small
Will also wants me to mention......Costco rates a 9 in hot dog ratings.
Much love to family and friends.