Another year in the life - Gourlay's in Arizona --winter of 2016/17

Monday, November 7, 2016:  Although this post is early for our winter retreat, it is late in our process.  We left GP on Thursday, Nov 3rd but owing to spotty internet service I have been remiss in posting to our blog.  I tried to provide some benchmark data on our travels on Facebook, but kept it brief - just like the old TV series Dragnet - nothing but the facts maam.
  We put in some long days to start, 1,200 on day one, 950 on day two, then a couple of days just over 600 or 700 km's so that we could play a bit on the way down.  Our main focus is to get through Alberta and Montana where we have the greatest risk of poor weather.
  Most of the trip went very well.  One of the troubling parts was the number of road killed skunks we saw, more than a half dozen.  No these were not politicians or anything of that ilk, but real black & white skunks. A few were particularly nasty, but fortunately we didn't pick up any of the smell on the truck tires.  The other harrowing part of the trip was the lengthy traffic jam through Salt Lake City.  It was Friday, so lots of folks leaving work when we got there.  The first half driving into the city was great, the second half not so great.  On a good day at 65/70 mph it is over an hour to get through, but Friday was 8 southbound lanes bumper to bumper.  Marg suggested we try the HOV lane and it worked much better for us, although stopped dead at times.  Most of the road travel was uneventful, but I did get the finger from a trucker in Utah. I think he was Mormon and pointing out there is only one way to heaven, but not sure.
  We had a box of Timbits from our stop in Devon for lunch.  We ate a few, but the rest came south with us.  By the time we reached Las Vegas and found them under the pile of baggage they would have made good ammunition for an artillery unit.  I wanted to give them to some homeless people but Marg said they might throw them at us and damage something.  Las Vegas was our only locked bathrooms in a MacDonald's, the lady had to come out and punch the code in to give us access.  They really do have a lot of homeless people there and after our evening in the casino we know why.  At each overnight location I was able to have a dram or two of either the Chivas or the Glenlivet Founders Reserve that I picked up in Duty Free.  That was all we bought there.  The border crossing was the quickest ever.  It was supper time and we drove right up to the agent, no waiting.  He asked us where we were going and for how long and how much cash we had on us and told us to have a nice trip.
  We got into AJ shortly after 2 PM on Sunday and came in to our lot via the rear entry.  We were trying to avoid letting people know we were here until we got unpacked and things straightened away.  There was a lot of dust and crud in the breezeway to clear away, but the park model was in pretty good shape, except for some hard water build up in the bathroom.  It was a good plan, until about 3:30 when Kenny spotted the nose of the truck sticking out of the carport.  He and Doris came right up and asked if we were going to happy hour.  Well that was a loaded question.  [A pun?]  We had some confusion at that point because it was set clocks back an hour in Nevada and they never change them in Arizona and we weren't sure what the time was when were in LV.  As a result I had 4:30 and Marg had 2:30, but the local time was 3:30.  I think that would qualify as a senior moment.  We had no intention of going and no beer, but even that could not get us off, so Kenny brought me a brewski and we went.  Nice to see a bunch of friends again.  Then we went out for supper with Kenny, Doris, Darryl and Rita.  We have to travel 3,500 km's to spend time with them, they live in GP as well.
  After it was Walmart for some groceries, foremost of which was the 30 pack of Miller High Life, for $18, no can deposits here.   There was also a buggy full of less important stuff.
  That gets us up to Monday.  Early in the morning we went to Mediacom to find out that we can't have TV, internet or our land line until Saturday, so any internet stuff will be spotty until we get that connection.  We had the carport all cleaned out and most of the stuff out of the truck, so we went about dealing with all the loose ends.  The door at the back of the breezeway wouldn't open, then once opened wouldn't close.  The calcium mark in the toilet and bathtub were treated with CLR and some kind of scrubbing thing Marg bought.  Then I put new screen in the sliding screen door, new weather stripping on the patio door, a new screen in the Arizona room door so that made 3 trips to the hardware store.  Sheesh, well I never started out planning to do all those things.  Pulled the weeds in the flower bed and on the back patio.  Some of them looked like grass but had sharp spiny ends.  Poked myself on several of Marg's cactus out front; while putting the awnings up.  Had lots of drop by visitors and a nice pastrami sandwich at lunch, not all at the same time.  I'm not sharing that nice fresh bread and delicious pastrami.
  By then it was happy hour, there are still only a small number attending.  It's kind of different when you can actually hear what everyone is saying.  Turns out our host is having trouble with his patio door and asked me to have a look and see what I thought.  I did and was able to confirm beyond a doubt that he is indeed having trouble with it.  After we bbq'd and had a nice supper.  Just about time to relax, well we had some more visitors and got really caught up on most of the gossip.  Whew that was a long dissertation.  Will try and be more regular, with posts that is.
  Good night mrs kalabash where ever you are.