Foul Balls and Hot Sunny Days In Mesa

Well, it's been about a week, since we've provided any updates. This week, we are still in the Mesa Arizona area, but have moved to a different RV Park. Last week, was one of those challenging weeks, with good things, and bad things that happened.

Thursday 3/22/2012

My USAA Debit card got hacked; used on Amazon.com in Germany. They managed to execute five transactions before Amazon.de suspected fraudulent activity, and shut it down. Of course, all the email traffic from Amazon.de were written in German. Made it a little difficult to figure out what they were saying, or to follow the instructions they were providing to deal with my Amazon account. I immediately checked my bank statement online, and sure enough they had hit it. I suspect Russian or Cheznian  hackers hit some company or vendor credit card database. The fact that it was used overseas in Germany kinda points to that scenario. The card was cancelled, and a new one was Fedex'd on Saturday. Of course, now I have to wait for the fraud investigation to get the funds returned to my account. The interesting thing is, we have Lifelock and Experian ProtectMy ID. Neither company has contacted, or alerted me to any fraudulent activity with that card. Both companies claim they are constantly scanning the internet for use of your bank and credit card numbers. Maybe, I'll deal with them this week.


 Later Thursday, we had to opportunity to visit with some of Sally's relatives in the Queen Valley and Apache Junction areas, that was a good thing. On Thursday we visited Sally's cousin(s), Don and Patsy Hoffman. The Hoffman's are retired snowbirds from western Iowa, and have a winter home in Queen Valley; a little east of Apache Junction. Don took me on a ATV ride through the desert, which was pretty exciting, and the first time I've ever rode on and four wheeled ATV.

The Apache Junction area is a beautiful area; part of the Superstition Mountain Range. 

Superstition Mountains

On Thursday evening we had a 'mini' Fahrenkrug reunion at the 'Mining Camp Restaurant' in Apache Junction. No one could remember the last time we all saw each other! (too long!) Let's see...David & Diana (new residents & empty nesters of Scottsdale, AZ) were there. Looking good (& very happy with their good news about Justin & Noah - Hawaii here they come :) Of course Don & Patsy who have been enjoying the good life out in Queens Valley this winter, resting from their visit with 2 of their grandkids. Yet ready to head  back to Iowa to meet a new one later this summer (Congratulations Dave & Lauren! You've brought many smiles to Grandpa & Grandma :) We didn't get to visit with Dan, but we understand he was working hard that day; maybe next visit?! Finally, "Thanks" to Glen & Carol (Dave & Courtney can't decide if we should call them "Glen & Carol #2" or "Glen & Carol - Squared', so they don't get confused who we're talking about!) for arranging this get-together! I get the feeling they both really (no REALLY!) like Arizona! Carol say there's nothing a good book & lounge chair that can't make her love retirement more! And Glen, well, he could sit back & breath-in the beautiful scenery & dry weather forever :) The bonus was, that Carol's daughters (Kristin & Kaleigh) were in town, taking a 'moms-only' vacation to visit their mom, and joined us for supper as well. What lovely girls you have raised Carol :) Did I mention they love to shop?! (I knew I liked those 2 girls! I knew we shared some kind of family bond :) Save travels Carol, for your family trip to Chicago. Lookin' good everybody! 'Til we meet again...

Glen, Patsy, Kaleigh, Carol, Kristin, Sally, Dave  3/22/2012

Twilight at the Restaurant

Friday 3/23/2012

On Friday we decided to explore the area around Apache Junction again, and traveled back to the area close to where we had had dinner with the group. Up the road we found the Goldfield Ghost Town.  This town dates back to the 1890's and includes many attractions; Mammoth Gold Mine,  a narrow gauge train, Museum, and other shops and eateries. We walked around; each had a terrible slice of pizza, and visited the reptile Museum.

Goldfield Ghost Town

We left the Ghost town and continued heading up highway 88  to visit Lake Roosevelt. The lake was another 38 miles, so we figured probably an hour drive of two lane highway.  About a half an hour later we has just traveled passed Tortilla Flats and suddenly the nice asphalt highway changed to dirt road. A sign said "Dirt Road next 22 Miles".  We quickly decided that Roosevelt lake could wait, rather than driving 22 miles of washboard dirt road.

The Long Dirt Road

Of course after we get home, I notice there are two more routes to Lake Roosevelt, each that are fully paved all the way. Each is an 85 mile trip; I haven't convinced Sally to give either of those a try! Don't think she's going to change her mind.

Monday 2/26/2012

Today we decided to attend a Baseball game at Hohokem Stadium here in Mesa. Of course this is spring season down here, with half of the baseball teams doing their spring season training in Arizona. The other teams train in Florida. Hohokem is the spring home stadium for the Chicago Cubs. Today they were playing the San Diego Padres. We attempted to go to the game on Saturday, but I had received my new Debit card, and per one of Murphy's Law, it wouldn't work after I activated it. So I spent most of Saturday on the phone with USAA,  ATT, and others trying to determine the problem with my card. Still hasn't been totally resolved. Anyway, back to the baseball game. It was a beautiful day for a game. We got to the stadium, got pretty good seats, and spent 6 innings watching the Padre's give it a good try, but no cigar!

 But I did end up with a foul ball!  I heard the crack of that bat; the ball flew backwards through the air. I couldn't believe it was heading right for us??? I jumped up, and snatched it right out of the air! What a day. Now, do you want to hear how it really happened? I was getting bored, decided to do a call to nature; then go out front of the stadium for a smoke. I was standing there in front of the stadium smoking.  Of course, I was thinking and trying to solve some world crisis! All of the sudden a baseball hits the sidewalk two feet from me! Startled, I looked around and thought, who threw a baseball at me? I turned to look back up at the stadium, and there were people on the second level rushing to rail overlooking the front of the stadium. By this time, the ball had rolled to the curb; I walked over picked it up and put in my pocket. As I came through the gate showing my ink stamped hand; the guard said "aren't you glad you had that cigarette"? I just smiled! When I got back up to my seat, I asked Sally if they had just hit a foul ball? She said, yea, we kept waiting for it to roll back off of the roof. I pulled the ball out of my pocket and said "this ball"? Her eyes lit up; it was the first time she had ever reached for my ..... I just can't finish this sentence, it wouldn't be inappropriate! Anyway, that ball had flew all the way up and over the top of the stadium. It happened again, about a half an hour later!

My Ball and I

Well, that catches us up for now!

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Hope you enjoy!

Dave & Sally

Well, we've been in Mesa now for a few days, and this area seems to be a nice area. We're staying at Viewpoint RV and Golf Resort, which has 1952 sites. Many of those sites are permanent mobile homes that are either full time residents, or snow birders. There are several of these type of RV parks in the Mesa area. This coming Sunday we move to Mesa Regal RV park, which is about 3 miles away. With some of our memberships, we're typically limited to 7 days at a park under the reduced membership rate.

For those who know me, know I love fixit projects. I could spend everyday coming up with, or working on projects. Now, Sally on the other hand, pretty much loves sightseeing, or investigating the design architecture of Shopping Malls; paying particular attention to the arrangement of counters in the cosmetic departments. So, I had a list of projects that I had been working on, off and on; but still needed to be addressed. So, when Sally said she thought she would check out the Mall here in Mesa, I thought oh boy! Projects!

The Dishnet Box Saga

A couple of weeks ago, we decided that we would purchase another VIP 211 dish net box for the bedroom. The 211 box only has one tuner, but it has the capability to add a hard drive and it becomes a DVR. We often have problems with the current box with trying to record different things that are on at the same time, but with only one tuner, prevents recoding two programs at the same time. We currently have one in the living room, and it works great. I went on Amazon and ordered another one for $99 from a Dishnet vendor in Indianapolis.

We received the box, and I hooked it up in the bedroom after some cabling changes throughout the RV. Of course, cabling changes aren't very easy in an RV, compared to a typical house. I then spent about three hours on the phone with Dishnet trying to activate the box. After many attempts, including swapping cables with the other box, I was unsuccessful in getting the box activated. Dishnet recommended returning to box to the vendor.  I sent the box back to the vendor, and tried to communicate  with them for a replacement box to be sent. The vendor failed to return voice mails or emails, so after about three days, I ordered another box from a different vendor. The first vendor finally emailed me, and he agreed to refund my money plus $15 for my troubles. So I only really lost time on that fiasco.

Well, apparently when I ordered another box, a senior moment occurred during that ordering process.  I ordered a VIP 222 box by mistake. So on Monday, when I received the new box, I noticed it was a VIP 222 box.  I thought the new vendor had screwed up and sent the wrong box. No, I screwed up and ordered the wrong box! This 222 box has two tuners, but unfortunately no DVR capabilities. I contemplated sending it back, but by this time was just tired of the whole dish box experience.  I went ahead and installed the box and got it activated without to many further box problems.

Then I went to use the box, and found out that there are limitations to using both boxes at the same time.  Dishnet has two satellites; one at 119 degrees, and one at 110 degrees. My "Carryout" dish antenna apparently only has one LNB, with two coax cable outputs. The ad says supports two receiver boxes. Depending on which channel your watching, it may be receiving the signal from the 119 deg. satellite, or from the 110 deg. satellite. When you change channels, it may slew to the other satellite. The bottom line is, if your watching a program on one box, you have to watch a program on the other box that is supported by that same satellite; and of course; no DVR capabilities on the new box!  Ah, lessons learned, and gave me something to satisfy my creative output!

The Bedroom TV Saga Continues!

When Thor designed the mounting frame for the TV in the bedroom, I'm not sure what they were thinking? The bedroom TV also had a DVD player in the cabinet behind the TV. The TV was mounted to a solid sheet metal plate which attached the TV to the frame. The only problem with the solid plate is when using an IR remote for any component that is in the cabinet behind to TV. The sheet metal plate blocks the IR signals that could go between the wood frame and the TV. Duh!!!!!

Solution! Remove the sheet metal plate and mount the TV using two flat brackets. So, I bought a piece of flat bar and made two brackets. I removed the flat plate and used the new brackets to mount the TV to the wooden frame. Problem Solved!

New Brackets Installed

Slide Moulding Saga:

For about the last two months we've had a problem with a stupid piece of moulding on the top of the 18' dining room/bedroom slide. Each time we run the slide in, the moulding is pulled away from the slide frame with a nice loud bang! Scared me to death the first time it happened. I've stapled it back twice, but still continued to pop off. I hate when that happens! I'd had it, and was determined to solve this problem once and for all! So, a little block plane; touch up staining, and I hopefully am good to go. We'll see the next time I run the slide in? If it pops off again, It's probably going to get taken off!

Stupid Moulding!

Sally got home from the mall; I was worn out from thinking so hard all day; but in the back of my mind still thinking about my next new projects; and another shopping trip for Sal. On top of all of that, I still had to fix dinner, and pamper Sally for the rest of the evening!  She's a Lucky Lady!

The rest of the week we're going to try and see a baseball game between the Cubbie's and Padre's. Tomorrow, we're going to out to see Sally's relative's who are snow birds from Iowa in the Apache Junction area. Haven't seen them in a long time, so we're looking forward to that. 

Dave

Arrived in Mesa, AZ

Up early; ready to leave the desert! Decided not to tow the car this morning, so I followed Dave onto I-10. Dave had 'Co-Pilot' map his way on his iPad; Google maps was my direction-of-choice. Did pretty good until we got into Phoenix. Dave crossed 3 lanes of traffic to make a last-minute change (Thank-You St. Christopher!), while I was still on I-!0, eyes wide-open, grabbing my phone for some explanation!

Decided to 'trust' my iPhone & mapped directions; and, as Dave eventually called to find out where I was (just pulling into the RV Park, Thank-You), he was 20 some blocks away!

Settled into our RV space, just in time, as the rain (correction - hail) started falling!

Now trusty iPhone, lead me to Starbucks!

A Blogging We Go

For approximately the last three months, Sally and I have been experiencing a change in our lifestyle, relationship, and experiences, unlike anything during our thirty seven years of marriage.  We purchased a 2011.5 Thor Challenger motorhome last July in preparation, of my planned retirement at the end of December. Sally, cautiously agreed to support full time Rving for a couple of years. We would explore, sightsee, and take the opportunity to look for a possible location to plant roots again. My argument was, the RV would allow us the time to spend time in different areas, and really determine a good location to buy hopefully, our last home.

Our last 18 months of my employment had been spent in Bath Maine, with me supporting the installation of two new Advanced Gun Systems (AGS) on a new class of Navy Destroyer. The new ship was being built by Bath Iron Works shipyard in Bath.  Prior to that, we had spent 15 years living in the Minneapolis area. After nearly 17 years of that environment, we had determined that between Minnesota and Maine; we were tired of snow and winters!

February 2011 Bath Maine

We finished up my work assignment in Maine the week of Thanksgiving. We packed up and left Bath the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, reluctantly saying goodbye to the close friends, colleagues, and neighbors. I had spent the last 18 months watching the New Navy Zumwalt Destroyer being build section by section, unit by unit. I repeatedly reminded myself during that 18 months of the fantastic opportunity that I had spending that period witnessing that once in a lifetime experience.

Fore Body of USS Zumwalt DDG 1000

We headed to Arkansas, where my parent and our newly purchased RV was located. We spent three weeks doing upgrades to the RV, adding solar panels, inverter, satellite receiver, tow bars, base plates, wiring harnesses, backup braking systems, and all of those amenities that you never envisioned when you first had to hair brained idea to purchase a Class A motorhome!

On December 21st we took off on our maiden voyage heading for San Diego to spent Christmas with our daughter Courtney. What should have been a three day, 1700 mile trip, exposed us to the challenges, surprises,  and exhaustion for newbies of RVing. We made it to our daughters on the afternoon of the 25th, a little later than anticipated, but safe and sound.  Our brand new rig wasn't as fortunate; no longer in one piece, but as I said, we were safe and sound!

First Night on the road at Love's Truck Stop

We hope our blog provides an opportunity for friends, relatives, and anyone else to follow and hopefully enjoy our experiences, lessons learned, and testing of a mature marriage! Hopefully Sally will do most of the blogging; she's the creative writer in the family; I tend to write like a third grader! I'll just talk about techie things like repairs, problems, and dealing with Thor Customer Service.

Dave