Arizona Winter

Do I ever have a lot of catching up to do but I certainly don’t intend to detail everything.  I like summaries better anyway but this summary is really going to be brief considering it encompasses almost two weeks and it’s over the busy, busy holidays. 

We were spending Christmas in Washington state and not in Arizona.  My last blog was about our journey north.

This was the year snow was not only predicted over the holidays but it actually fell.  The weatherman kept predicting it for SW Washington but kept moving the day it was supposed to be icy, have freezing rain or snow.  Snow and ice finally arrived Christmas Eve afternoon.  Obviously, the festivities that evening were cancelled. We were still able to get in a little time for cooking making and decorating cookies.  

(Not a picture I took but one of the pictures posted on the snow level where our cabin is located.  Thank goodness we pulled out before it arrived.)

Christmas day started at Tammi’s house.  Everyone took turns opening presents including Sandi.  Sandi wasn’t there in person but we had her with us on Skype.  Next we moved on to Lee’s place and did presents again.  That was followed by an amazing dinner which included smoked ham!  What a great Christmas day it was!

In addition to quite a few little gifts to the kids we usually give cash or a gift card.  This year we gave them a “money tree”.  Everyone talks about a money tree.  This year they got one.

Terry was also thrilled to be finished with stuffing all the little “dammit” and “dang-it” dolls I made for everyone.  I made a bunch and he stuffed most of them.

I made a bunch of potato/microwave cookers.  These were also handed out.  Terry was okay with these because he didn't have to stuff anything!  

Pinterest is an amazing site with lots of creative ideas and I found a couple.  One was a basket of “everything but the ice cream” and another was everything blue in a jar to represent “It’ll be a blue Christmas without you”.  Once finished cello wrap was added.

The day we were heading south was Tuesday, the day after Christmas.  The roads were fairly clear in the morning through SW Washington but a little icy south of Portland.  Traffic was light.  There are always some stupid drivers and we saw a few.   Most of the icy spots on the roads disappeared the farther from Portland we got.  Soon the Siskiyou mountains and California was close.  The mountains were clear.  There wasn’t much snow even on Mt. Shasta.  It was ideal driving conditions for wintertime in the mountains.

Sunrise on the road!

The only real hitch we encountered was through Los Angeles.  The planned route was intended to be through Tehachapi but Terry wanted to go through the Grapevine.  Need I say MISTAKE?  We sat in traffic close to 3 hours.  Well, we weren’t always stopped.  Sometimes we got as high as 12mph until we finally got far enough east for it to clear.  What a mess.

We stopped at Camping World on the way into Phoenix and scheduled another repair appointment for the 5th wheel.  This time we were a little more explicit with what we wanted plus we didn’t want to drive through Phoenix while dark or during work traffic either in the morning or in the evening.  Last time we got stuck both times.  I think they set all appointments at 8 AM.  That’s when we were there last time but they didn’t start work on our rig until close to 5:00. 

It felt good to get back to the 5th wheel.  Even Buck was happy.  The weather was warm and day trips were over.   Things were good for him.

Now that January is just around the corner it’s time to start thinking about what plans we should make for the rest of the winter.  January marks the beginning of Snowbird movement and we’re thinking it just might be time for us to move on too.  We’ve discovered if you stick around too long, the grass starts growing underneath the wheels.  Not sure we want that to happen.  People have come and gone in the RV park over the last few months.  The groups change.  Some we’ve really enjoyed and will certainly miss.  Others …… well, not so much. 

First, I have a lot of catching up on blog reading.  That’s next!  (Maybe tomorrow).

Happy New Year !

‘Tis life on the road.

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