Thursday, December 4th

No post yesterday as we never had a connection, so will recap it for you.
  We got away from Vegas pretty early, as they are an hour later.  To us it was 7:30, but that was 6:30 local time.  As soon as we crossed the Colorado river we lost that hour again.  It rained pretty hard all morning, right through Kingman, almost all the way to Wickenburg.  We were fortunate to make the cut-off just south of there that took us over to highway #17, so we managed to miss all the traffic tie-ups in Surprise, Sun City, etc.  We arrived in Phoenix just after 2:00 & the 101 was really busy, pretty much bumper to bumper right to the 202 junction.  After that it was better and we got in to a car wash to clean off the truck and trailer, both of which were black after all the road grit and rain.  Pulled in to Carefree about 3:30 and passed the bunch we usually happy hour with & they were at it, trying to lure us over.  We no sooner stopped than we had a welcoming party, so it took quite a while to unload.  In fact the living room and bedroom were full of boxes, bags and various containers full of god knows what. 
  The place was in pretty good shape.  The carport was full of debris and spider webs, but inside was relatively clean.  Got about half of the stuff put away and visitors showed up to go to dinner.  Well we had to eat anyway, so off the Village Inn with 9 others.  Wouldn't you know it, free pie night, so the place was bumper to bumper with old folks -- anything free is a big attraction.  Nice dinner and back to the unit where we continued to sort through stuff.  Parked my trailer with only the Rhino left in it behind the shop and called it a day.  Rained all night and into the morning.  Larry said he had an inch in his rain gauge.  It doesn't rain often in the desert, but when it does, it doesn't soak in, rather it ponds and runs everywhere.
  First night in the park model and I slept like I was in a coma.  Marg was up by the time I woke and it was 8 already.  Had to hustle to get in my shower in as it was Thursday AM, you know coffee and donuts at 8:45.  Got hugs and welcomes from a the group, everyone kept saying -- welcome home.
  By noon the rain quit and by the end of the day you could barely tell it rained.  After coffee we started our errands.  First stop the bank, we had a draft to deposit and my PIN on my debit card didn't work again.  The very nice bank guy said if cuts out after about 3 or 6 months.  Well I only use it about once every 2 or 3 years, so ....  Anyway he got me going again.
  Then off to Mediacom to get TV & internet service.  Got a better deal than last year and they are coming to connect us tomorrow.  This creates another problem, can't connect us without a TV set.
  Went out looking for furniture.  Marg got everything put away, so time to get more stuff, I guess.  Marg wanted to try the orphanage store first and we didn't find anything there.  They sure have a lot of furniture stores here, and we went to lots, looking for recliners and a love seat.  There are lots, but they are: too firm, too soft, wrong colour, wrong shape, wrong kind, wrong material.  We have a pretty good idea what we don't like now.  We did manage to get a TV - 32 inch Samsung as that is all the room we have, so now they can hook it up.  We also got a DVD player, they are so cheap now, they must be getting ready to phase that media out.  Also got the SIM card and rate card for the second cell phone and got it working.  This time I did it myself, called the 800 number and got it all going.  Bought a one year card, so this will let us keep the number from year to year & not have to do this again.
  Got back in time for happy hour.  There are some new people there.  One lady, Rita is from Grande Prairie - now this is a small world.  Nice to spend some time with old friends and make new ones.
  By that time it was dinner time, so off the Dirtwater Café.  Usually great food, but the menu changed from last year and it was OK, but not like last year.
  And that's the kind of day it was.