Hot in Mesa

Well, it's been a little more than a month since our last blog. Since then we left Arkansas and spent 7 days traveling to Mesa Arizona. Our first day out we traveled as far as Oklahoma City; what a HOT day for traveling! 2nd day out, we made it to Amarillo, TX. Made it just in time, as a big storm came blowing through the Panhandle! We thought it was a big dust storm coming at first; well, until we got pelted by the hail!! Next morning we left for Albuquerque, NM. Very pretty area & we decided to 'rest', and stay 2 nights. On to the KOA park in Gallup, NM, on Saturday morning. Sunday morning we finally made it into Arizona (Cottonwood). We pulled into Mesa, AZ, on Monday afternoon. Good to be back. We're staying at the Mesa Regal RV Park, which we stayed at for a week back in March. We'll be here until the 2nd of January, at which time we expect to move to another park in Mesa; probably staying through January and February.  After that, we've haven't made any future plans.

So the total trip was 1385 miles, and as previously said, it took us 7 days of uneventful travel, Thank God! Gunner travels well, other than at potty stops, he easily get distracted by truck and car traffic noises; having a lot of difficulty finding that sweet spot!

Spending time with my parents was really a good experience. It allowed me to spend a good deal of time helping with repairs, doing some of the cooking, and trying to give my mom a break. It also gave me the opportunity to see the slow effects of Alzheimer's on my father. When I have visited before over the last year or two, my mom has asked if I could tell the difference in my dad. I always said he appeared to be about the same. When you spend 6 weeks with him on a daily basis, then you start seeing some of those things that my mom was referring to. Meal times with dad were always interesting. I don't say this to embarrass him, or my mother. Things that he has eaten for years suddenly, he didn't like anymore. One day he put macaroni salad in his clam chowder. My mom looked at him and said, why did you do that? He said just thought I'd try it. So, it was little things like that which provided some insight into the things that my mom had been experiencing that I would have never picked up on. So the time spent with both of them was very special to me; and I'm sure Sally also. Of course, Gunner just loved my mom. If he had his way; he'd be right under her feet all day long.

Since being here, Sally has re-familiarized herself with a couple of the malls, and re-trained the baristas at the local Starbucks'; we've gone to two Diamond Back baseball games, gone to a shooting range, and met several neighbors here in the park.   Gunner has made some new friends over at the dog run as well! We're waiting for some of Sally's relatives to arrive the first week of October. The weather has been hot; with today being 105. Hopefully in October we'll be in the 80's.

Diamondbacks vs. Padres

Today was the day Sally and I should have received our new IPhone 5's. We had pre-ordered last Friday at an AT&T store in a nearby mall. Unfortunately, the two phones didn't come in today... Of course the AT&T store opened at 8:00 AM this morning and sold out of the new stock that they had received. The pre-orders supposedly have priority, but apparently NOT! The AT&T representative had no status other than "Pending".  She said she didn't know what "pending" meant. It seems today, that customer service becomes worse and worse.  AT&T has millions of customers; one more disgruntled customer is not a big deal! We're just a phone number, and two years guaranteed revenue to them. So, unless I want to go and port two phone numbers to Verizon, then my only choice is to just wait until they come in. Of course, Verizon wouldn't be any better; although my brother Mike just loves them!