Getting Ready for Take-Off

Knowledge is power and power corrupts. So study hard and be evil.

We’ve been getting ready to leave the Phoenix area for a couple weeks now.  Our original plan was to pack up and be back on the road February 20th.  Then, it was delayed by one day when we discovered Tammi had a business meeting in town.  Then, it was delayed when I flew up to Portland to sit by the bedside of my Aunt Jenny.  Now it’s delayed again as another trip to Portland is in the works but this time for the funeral.  I dread the trip.  I don’t want to go but I know there are times we need to do what we should and not what we want.  This is one of those times. My aunt was an important person in my life.  She was like a second mother to me.  When my kids were little she was like another grandmother.  ‘Nuff said. Sometimes we do what’s right.

 --- Our new grand-nephew arrived on February 21st!

Saturday was a whirlwind day.  We had no relative commitments but had a list of things to accomplish.  The best way to get everything done was to load Duchess in the car with us.  That way we didn’t have to come back or feel guilty about leaving her unattended … again.  Besides, she was also on the list for a stop at the groomers to get those nails shortened again.  The first stop of the day was the airport for the ticket, then laundry, American Legion, groomers, Winco, Costco and on and on.  We crossed things off the list as we went.  By 6:30 PM we were finally finished and felt good that most of the items on that list had been handled.

One thing we did was call around trying to find a place to store our Jeep Liberty until sometime in late May.  We plan to return then and drive it back to Washington via Mesa Verde.  Bingo!  The American Legion will allow us to park it on their lot if Terry is a member.  That was a great deal and it didn’t take long for us to decide that’s what we’d do.  Now we need to put a good wax job on the car since we’ll be leaving it behind.

Another plan that didn’t work out right was the one where we thought we’d stop at the Avondale Camping World  which is west of the Phoenix area.  We wanted to get our motorhome serviced.  We figured we’d spend the night before on the lot and after an early morning appointment be on our way.  Well, they were filled up for the next 3 weeks.  It’s not that we didn’t try to make an appointment before but with our dates constantly being moved backwards, any appointment we had been able to make would have been cancelled.  However, the Mesa Camping World was able to accommodate us and now that’s the plan even though we have to go east to go west.

I don't see pink.  Isn't Joe know for the pink attire?

We’re not quite sure where we really will be going though.  It’ll either be due west towards Palm Springs or northwest towards Lake Havasu.   That’s the plan but we know we’re not good with plans either.  I’m sure there will even be changes to that.  We do know we won’t be going south or east.

The Army Reserves schedule meetings at the Scottsdale Elks.  Some weekends the parking lot is packed.  In addition the lot is used for the sale of local fresh fruit including grapefruit and oranges this time of year.  Sheriff Joe is in charge of this.  The truck pulls into the lot and unloads.  His guests handle everything.  Proceeds from the sale used to go entirely to the Humane Society.  However, we were told that there were some complaints about this.  Now the proceeds are divided between the Humane Society and the Boy Scouts.  Hmmm ….

Today … it’s waxing the car, packing again and adding movies to my iPad for the flight.

‘Tis a busy life on the road.

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