Tuesday

Happy birthday to a special 9 yr old, Daniel. We hope your day was special and filled with much love. We wish we could have been there to share it with you. Cool & windy this AM. Marg & most others in the park had shorts on, but not me until after lunch. I will wear no shorts before it's time. Stayed close to the park today as we were expecting the Canuel's. I played pool after lunch, same bunch of pirates as yesterday. Had fun and lots of laughs. We met Wayne, Martha, Gerry, Deb for dinner at the #1 Eastern Buffet. It's easily the best chinese buffet around. They had crab legs today & the crabby people had their fill - oops sorry not you Marg. LOL. This was the first time there for Wayne & Martha and they seemed to like it fine. Martha informed us they are coming for 4 - 6 weeks next year and would like a place in this rv park if possible. That would be pretty cool, so we will start looking for something. We will need to be lucky as this place is full most of Jan - Mar. The ladies played bingo, no winners tonight, but apparently they were all close. The guys played pool & pretty much the same story, we were all close - Hah! Early to bed tonight as everyone has an early morning tomorrow. The girls are going on the bus to Payson & the casino. The guys are going golfing in the AM at Apache Sun.

Monday, Feb 6th

Got off to an early bike ride this AM, went for a ride almost double my normal. It crossed my mind that perhaps we should have the paramedics with the crash cart on hand in the park for my return - LOL. Marg did a major cleaning today, can't really call it house cleaning; coach cleaning I guess. I went and helped Almyra put some new wheels on her kitchen chairs. She's one of Marg's friends and is on her own. Sometimes you need a man around, come ladies, admit it! After lunch I played pool. The guys I played with today were a good bunch, but I think their family crest might be a pirate flag. I'm not sure how many times I was on a winning or losing team, but it was fun. For supper tonight, the tenants association provided free hot dogs. Everyone brought a pot luck dish to make it a supper. We normally don't do pot luck, but took a chance tonight. Marg contributed a coleslaw & a nachos & dip thingeee. I took beer, which was the right accompany-ment with my meal. It was a pleasant surprise, really good and we sat with some of our regulars as well as some new people. A funny thing group dynamics in rv parks. On one hand you are always tempted to sit with your group of friends, but on the other hand it's nice to be open to new arrivals. We've gone to places or events where there tend to be established groups & it's hard to fit in. Most of the people in this park are pretty good about making an effort to make new people feel welcome. In fact, the friendly nature or the residents is probably the most common comment of new people After supper we went for a walk with Kenny & Doris to see how the reno's in their park model are coming along. The place is looking pretty good. They have offered us the use of it when Bill & Patti get here on the 24th, which is nice of them.

Sunny Sunday

Got in an early morning bike ride up to Idaho & back. It was windy on top of being up hill both ways today, so I was really puffing when I got back. Road trip after that. Marg & I got off early and went to the outlet stores at Arizona Mills. As usual, I missed the turn from the freeway, but we managed to get there, while the gps unit stayed in the trunk. As we were leaving she said - if Bill & Patti come, she would love this place. I must confess there were some impressive deals. The Nieman Marcus store had a last chance store and in it were some deep discounts on dining room chairs at $2,200 each. Needless to say we could hardly wait to get them wrapped up - NOT! Who shops at NM anyway? All of the other stores were great, though. She got some hot deals in other designer stores, oh yeh she did buy a shirt in NM. Patti, you can count on a trip to Az Mills when you get here. The only complaint I have is that they need more seating in the mall. I always take a pocket book along while she shops & spend most of my time outside the stores, although this time I got a couple of golf shirts. We got back to Carefree in time for the Super Bowl party in the rec hall. I had agreed to help Ron sell the squares for a raffle on the scores. As it turned out Marg won on a 3rd quarter score and some of the guys thought the fix was in. It I'm going to fix a pool, it will be for a lot more that $12.50. LOL! At half time we had ice cream & banana splits, so had a decent crowd in there tonight.

Saturday Feb 4th

Happy birthday Anna. It was nice to be able to talk with you today. We both love you!

An early start to the day. It was our morning to work on the Canadian breakfast crew. We were up and in the kitchen by 7AM. That is a serious commitment for us, who rarely set an alarm. Anyway Marg scrambled a dozen dozen eggs, none of which turned green. That may seem odd to you, but for some reason in this setting, eggs will turn green & then it's hard to get people to eat them. I think it must be the water, LOL. I was back on pancake detail & made a couple hundred of them. The starter batch of batter is an entire bag of the Costco pancake mix. The menu is: bacon, sausage [or links as they call them here], scrambled eggs, pancakes, biscuits & gravy and orange juice. We never had to medi-vac anyone, so assume the food was OK. We all dislike the clean up, but in my case, I have to clean the grill. It's a job & a half, I can get about 18 pancakes going on it at a time, so a big hot cooking surface.

After we went and checked out a couple of park sales. There was one at the next park over as well as a good one at Eastgate. Marg got a few good things, I think.

Onward to Costco, we have never seen it that busy. It was crazy in the parking lot, in the store, at the gas pumps. This will be our last Saturday to go there. We do have 7 days a week that we could do this.

Got back to the park just after lunch time & I played pool while Marg lounged in the pool Nice day for it and the pool was 94F, she said it was just like a bath. Being Saturday, it was not crowded - everyone was probably at Costco!

Just before supper, Binger's stopped in for a cocktail. Sue & Betty were passing by and stopped for one as well & Blanke's just got home in time to join us. It was impromptu, but we had quite a bunch - I think the sound of a popping cork attracts them. LOL

Friday Feb 3rd

After a bike ride, went out to pick up some stuff this AM. First to Walmart, we went to the one on Signal Butte in Mesa, the city tax structure makes things cost less in Mesa than here in AJ & it's not much further. After that we stopped in at Kohls where I got 2 pair of shorts, a jacket & shirt. For those who know how little I wear shorts at home, you probably have a difficult time believing I wear them out down here. Some great deals were had today. Back to the rv for a quick lunch and then I played pool for a couple of hours. Today they were going in. It's funny but some days nothing seems to be working. My reputation here is that I am better at a hook than making a shot however surpirsed them by making some shots today. After pool I traded westerns with Gary, he had a great selection, so we were both happy. Marg went out to the bank and then Bells, one of her favourite places. After out last visit to Wells Fargo they were kind enough to send us more paperwork. That reminds me, the good news is that the Cdn dollar is again above the US dollar. That usually gets me a lot of comments from the guys down here. After that we had to go and do prep work for tomorrows breakfast. It looks like I will be flipping flapjacks and Marg scrambling eggs tomorrow at the veritable crack of dawn. Patrick, our team leader [from Saskatchewan] is attempting to change the name of our team to: Juva & the Canadians. Juva is our honorary Canadian on the team. We will probably serve breakfast to 100 plus people from in the park. A quick bite to eat and out to bingo with the Canuels. We met up with Ron & Sue at Happy Days where a large jackpot was the main attraction. Good bunch of friends to spend an evening with. Lots of laughs, no cash. Well better get to bed early, now where is that alarm clock?

Hello Dolly

Day started off with coffee & donuts in the rec hall. We were in luck this week, second last. The last 2 weeks we have been last. I told the people at the table, I might have to jump ship. Anyway it was good as they still had a few blueberry fritters & I got one. At the end they asked if anyone had anything for the good of all & I said - happy groundhog day everyone, but the groundhog said there will be 6 more weeks of winter, so we will not be leaving for at least 8 weeks in case he was wrong. Got a good laugh anyway.

Went with the Canuels to Canyon Lake & Tortilla Flats. At the marina on Canyon lake we took the Dolly steamboat ride. It's a 1 1/2 hr boat ride up the lake with an interesting narration. The lake is about 12 or 13 miles long and the average depth is 100 ft. We saw a couple of bighorn sheep on the cliffs, a bald eagle and many wonderful sights. At Tortilla flats the girls did some souvenier hunting & sight seeing.

When we got back it was a buffet at Golden Corral. We hadn't been there before, but it was great food with lots of selection. There was a wonderful salad bar & you could even get steak or seafood cooked to order. We'll go back there.

After we came back to Carefree where we played cards for a few hours. Lots of laughs. We played golf and Martha won, then kings down and Wayne won. A great evening.

Wednesday, Feb 1st

After a late night with the Canuels, it was an early morning, I think it was an hour or two after midnight before bed. Marg had to meet up with the ladies to go to Globe at 7:20AM, so she was up and about at 6:30AM. I had to leave for the golf course at 8:00AM, so we both slept fast last night. Marg had a great day at the casino and came back about $160 better off, after her costs of going and what she spent. I played golf with Wayne & Gerry and we had a great day. We were all pretty close in scores: 49, 50, 51. It was such a nice day that I wore the golf sandals from the first tee and they were excellent. No one won money today, although I ran what easily would have been the long putt, through the cup and it stopped about a foot away. Wayne drained a putt from the fringe that would have won as well, but he did not enter the contest for long putt. After golf the boys came back to our park and we played some crib and swapped stories. After Marg got back from her road trip & sharing the good news of her big win we went to the rec hall for hamburgers. They had one of the big burger events, where you pay $3 for a great cheeseburger and chips. A short walk after and I had to play poker. Had a pretty good night, we had two tables tonight, the most players we've had since I've been playing. I about broke even, Gerry Binger & played with the newcomers, 2 of whom are from Ft McMurray. Marg said she had a great time with the 5 ladies she went with and this is going to be a regular monthly event for them, so a fun time I guess. Good to see her getting involved in things she really enjoys.