Visiting Friends

On Saturday, Bob and I took the RV east to Tucson, AZ to spend a few days with our friends, Chuck and Linda. They purchased a park model last year and have been just loving it. We can certainly see why. Their little home is in a park that has similar amenities as the one we are in, in Mesa, and the layout is pretty similar, too. Seeing them in their house has gotten us even more excited to move into ours.

On Sunday, while Bob and Chuck worked on replacing a shed door, Linda and I sat outside on their delightful deck and did some band weaving.

Her loom is so neat! Originally a card loom, she has adapted it to use with a Stoorstalk Sunna heddle for weaving Baltic bands. Afterwards, she gave me a tour of this lovely park. Check out the great Halloween display in the ballroom.

I visited the exercise room on Monday (and Tuesday as well) to use the treadmill and stationary bicycle. I was happy to see that I could continue my exercise program here. Bob and I drove to the SKP park in Benson to pick up our deposit that we had given them, and picked up our mail as well. When we got back I joined Linda at a crocheting group in her park. I showed off my recent shawl and Linda showed her current shawl project—beautiful!

Tuesday morning was the park’s “Howl-o-ween” Pet Parade, so we gathered in the courtyard to be judged. Auggie won “Scariest Costume” while Chuck and Linda’s Tucker won “Greatest Costume.”

Auggie went as “Jaws” while Tucker...

...was a hot dog in a bun. Such fun!

After the parade we all four (minus our fur kids) went to eat at Pita Jungle, a restaurant in Tucson with health-oriented Mediterranean fare. They were able to accommodate a vegan meal for me and I feasted on a Portobello “burger,” which was so yummy. Everyone else enjoyed their meals, too. We also stopped into Grandma’s Spinning Wheel to fondle some yarn, and the West, a needlework store with a lot of really neat items for embroidery, cross stitch, and needlepoint.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to our friends and head back to Mesa. We’ll be in a site that is quite close to our new house, and I don’t know if that’s going to make it easier or harder for us, being so close. With any luck, we’ll be moving in about November 25 when the previous owners move out.

Homeowners Again

This has been a good week for us. Bob and I went to a Meet & Greet on Wednesday where we had a very nice time talking to new friends and nibbling on a veggie platter. There was an excellent entertainer, too, and even though we didn’t win one of the door prizes we still had lots of fun.

We had our walk-through on the little manufactured home on Thursday and we didn’t see any real problems. The former owners are leaving a lot of stuff for us, some of which will save us a lot of money because we won’t have to buy new. On Friday we had our closing which took about ten minutes. Bob got a mailbox in the park to use temporarily until the former owners leave (right after Thanksgiving is the latest.) The earlier departure date will give us a few days to get all our things into the house before we have to put the RV into storage.

And I called Direct TV to find out about satellite TV.

Oh my goodness. They gave me such a hard sell. All I wanted was to find out cost and after over an hour on the phone with this annoying salesman we were signed up with a satellite TV/internet package. The next morning I cancelled the TV service. We get basic channels over the air, neither of us will watch 150 channels, and we will save $55 by just getting the internet service. And if the former owners leave their router, we’ll save another $10/month.

I’ve spent a few hours this week working on my class sampler for the Susan Foulkes band workshop. This is my favorite portion of the band so far.

Today (Saturday) we are driving a couple of hours to Tucson to spend a few days with our friends, Linda and Chuck, and their dog Tucker. We are looking forward to seeing them again and to seeing their park.

Catching Up

We have been busy little bees this week. I’ve been going to the fitness center every morning for 30 minutes on the treadmill and another 15 minutes on the stationary bike. Plus a little machine work on my knees and stretching. 

I then bike home and walk with Bob and Auggie to the dog park for a little playtime. Auggie is enjoying some of the agility equipment and is learning them one by one.

We always enjoy house hunting when we are in a nice park. Most of the time the homes are out of our price range, or we just aren’t ready to make any commitment. But this time we found something that seems just right. It’s an older model in good condition...just needs a little cosmetic updating. We made an offer, it was accepted, and we close on it next week. The owners will be staying in it until December 1, when we take possession. We will be visiting Chuck and Linda as planned in Tucson, then will return for November 1 in an RV site for a month. It’s rather amazing how things have fallen into place. Bob found a storage space for the RV for the next few months and the park in Benson, AZ is refunding our deposit and letting us out of our contract. 

For folks interested in this process, it was quite easy. The salesman, Rick, took us around to a variety of units, from real fixer uppers to brand new models. It had to be in the pets-allowed area. We wanted an Arizona room (a bonus room) for my weaving studio. We also wanted some kind of shed space for Bob to putter in. And we hoped to find something that didn’t face into the sun. Our unit has all that. It will need a coat of paint throughout, but that’s no big deal. We are hoping to polish it up without costing us too much. Bob would like to build a deck to sit on, and add a washer/dryer. It comes furnished right down to the pots and pans and silverware. I suspect there’ll be a lot of stuff we’ll want to toss out, though.

So that’s our big news! We plan to be here in the winter, but travel in the RV as usual for the rest of the year, visiting NJ as we have been doing.

Weaving Bands

We are having a very nice time here in Mesa, AZ, swimming in the pool and naming friends. I’ve been going to the fitness center daily and using the treadmill. I’m hoping to rehab my knee so that I can walk with less pain.

I’ve also been weaving a band sampler of designs through an online course thatsbeing given by Susan Foulkes. Susan is a renowned Baltic band weaver and has offered this course through the Yahoo Braids and Bands group. Here are some of the designs I’ve woven so far, using my Seidel Card Loom and Sunna heddle from Stoorstalka.

This is such a relaxing place to be. Tomorrow we may take in a movie. Life is sweet!

From Moab, UT to Arizona

After Bob and I came back from Canyonlands National Park, I got the urge to check out the local yarn store. So Bob dropped me off for a half hour and I had a delightful time talking weaving with the shop owner (whose name I unfortunately forgot to get.)

 I found some treasures, too—a lovely pendant with wool roving in the center...

... and some yummy yarn to play with.

The last couple of days have been travel days, with quite a few miles behind us.  We stopped for one night in Cameron, AZ at the Cameron Trading Post, where we had no Verizon signal and no wifi. No over the air TV channels, either. How primitive! We watched a movie from our pile of $5 movies from Walmart. I thought you might enjoy seeing the changing scenery between Moab and Cameron.

We have arrived in Mesa, AZ and will be here for the next two weeks. It will be nice to stay put for a little bit. We were in this park 2 1/2 years ago, and our smart little Auggie dog remembered how to get to the dog park this morning. He was happy to be back here, I think. Bob and I took advantage of the beautiful park pool on Saturday night which felt great since the temperatures were in the high 90s. 

So now you are all caught up with our activities! Today Bob and I will be looking for a Halloween costume for Auggie. We'll be visiting our friends, Linda, Chuck, and dog Tucker, after we leave Mesa, and will need a costume for the "Howl-oween" Pet Parade.

Islands in the Sky, Canyonlands National Park

If Arches National Park is about giant sculpture-like rock formations, the northern part of Canyonlands is all about holes in the ground. Immense, gob smacking holes.

There are four sections to Canyonlands National Park. They each have their own entrance and are not connected to one another by any roads. It can take all day to drive around to each of them. So Bob and I chose to go to Islands in the Sky which features beautiful canyons.

In the early morning light, the canyons looked ghostly.

There are rock formations that rise up from the canyon floor.

The Green River flows through this park on its way to meet up with the mighty Colorado River. Remember John Wesley Powell? He was the first white man to see this area.

Words fail me when I try to describe this place, so I'll have to let my photos speak for themselves.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Arizona. We'll be spending two weeks outside of Phoenix.

Arches National Park

We got up before dark on Wednesday morning to visit Arches National Park, less than 10 minutes from our campground. It was about 7:45 when we arrived and we pretty much ha the park to ourselves for the first hour. I love feeling like we are the only ones around!

This park makes me think of a sculpture museum for giants, set in a giant’s backyard. The scale is magnificent and everywhere we turned we saw another breathtaking sight. Here are some of my favorite photos.

There were all sizes of arches...

...and arches in the making.

I loved this one--so perfect.

I can imagine mountain lions living in this one.

There were other formations as well, like these thin sheets of rock, colored like candy corns and pressed side by side.

Seen from a distance, these formations look tiny. But they are many stories high.

This formation looks like figures standing back to back and looking out over their domain. They are hundreds of feet tall.

Looking back at the figures as we left the park.

We are so glad we visited this park. It is an amazing place.

Green River, UT to Moab, UT

On Monday, Bob and I checked out the John Wesley Powell River History Museum, which centers their displays around the story of one of the greatest expeditions of discovery in American History, a one-armed Civil War veteran-led expedition into the great unknown.

In 1869, all of the US had been mapped. Except for one area: where the Green River and the Colorado River meet, and where the Colorado passes through the Grand Canyon.

John Wesley Powell chose 5 men and, while three men left the expedition early, the remaining two plus Powell made it out alive. The other three were never seen again.

They faced brutal rapids. Powell is depicted in the rear boat seated in his chair.

On Tuesday morning, we left Green River for Moab, only about an hour away. What a beautiful ride!

In this photo, above, you can see caves.

The town of Moab was bigger than we had expected, filled with the usual touristy shops.

This is our view from our campsite. Tomorrow we will pack a lunch and drive through Arches National Park.

We Move to Green River, UT

I believe I’ve solved my difficulties transferring photos from my digital camera to my iPad. Bob and I popped into an Apple store yesterday and I asked for advice. The salesman suggested a Lightening to SD Card Camera Reader and I tried it out today. It took ten seconds for my photos to appear on my iPad, and I could erase them off the card at the same time (or choose not to.) It’s going to make my life so much easier.

Our drive southeast from the Salt Lake City Area was beautiful.

 We saw lovely autumn colors on the hills, which gave way to...

 ...dramatic rock formations.

Around every curve was something new to see. 

And the mountain ranges that we passed were beautiful.

Utah sure has some gorgeous scenery. We are looking forward to exploring the Moab area this week.

Bob's back was feeling achy earlier this week but is doing much better now. And I am coming up for air after spending an entire week focused on genealogy. I discovered that, through my father's side of the family, my siblings and I are indeed descended from royalty. Edward III, King of England is our 19th great grandfather. King Edmund I (Plantagenet) is our 20th great grandfather. Queen Elizabeth II is our 17th cousin. And Vlad IV (Dracula) is the 12th great grandfather of the wife of our 15th cousin twice removed. That just trips off the tongue, doesn't it? I shall work to remain humble.

I offered to research Bob's side of the family but he declined, saying he is who he is and knowing his ancestors won't change anything. I think it's fun to find out, though.