My Birthday Week

For two people that dislike snow as much as we do, it amazes us just how much we had to deal with this year. This is NOT what was predicted, and it just keeps giving…

 

If we knew it was going to get this much snow and be that frigid for so long, we would have made our way down to Mesa before it came, but none of this was predicted. It was supposed to be 50 day highs and 20 night lows with no snow accumulation, and for only one day, but instead it never made it past freezing for day highs and the lows were in the single digits and we got a few inches of snow for 3 days. How can they always be so wrong and still have jobs? Why give us false predictions that we plan for and then they are so way off? 

Even though the snow, wind and frigid temperatures came and went and we were prepared this time. We unhooked our water hose and ran from the tank and we had plenty of propane to get the chill off and our Dyson Heater worked great this time, it was still pretty miserable. We don’t like hibernating.

For my birthday, we got a room at Comfort Inn in Payson, a short 90 minute drive off the mountain. Great customer service, Jody at the front desk was very accommodating. We got there before noon, but they had a full house the night before but said if we came back in an hour we could check in. The hotel is a bit worn, but it was clean, a little less than our standards of clean in our room, but not to the point of dirty. We moved the chair closer to the table and vacuuming was not done for awhile under there. Also, we did not have a shower curtain and was missing a face cloth which was taken care of immediately by the front desk.

We had lunch at Chili’s while they finished our room. We both had the Fajitas, Shrimp & Chicken and it was all scrumptious, the beans especially. We asked if they had any birthday specials and she explained just a scoop of ice cream and a sing along. We got the ice cream, no sing along and then they charged us $1.49 for it. Now it did get taken off our bill, along with an overcharge for lunch Fajitas verses dinner Fajitas, but we felt it was almost an insult to charge us for a birthday treat.

We had some playtime at the Mazatzal Casino & Hotel and broke even, but it’s on our list of NOT returning. We were going to book a room but their rate was twice what we paid for just about a mile away. The biggest issue was that they allow smoking in the casino, it’s hard enough having to wear a mask at all times but our masks reaked of smoke and it was harder to breathe. They also advertise $10 free play on birthdays and new signups, but apparently we were there back in 2008 so we didn’t get either free play. We just weren’t happy with our experience at all and won’t be back.

 

We are moving to Mesa on Monday and will be there for a few months back and forth from two weeks at our Thousand Trails resort to a paid resort. We have work lined up with PepWear for the month of November and hopefully further if Arizona continues to allow the young athletes to gather. Unfortunately, there won’t be fans at these events but hopefully we will be busy enough with just the student athletes. It’s a start and we love setting up these stores and selling the merchandise and always looking for more work like this to keep us busy all year long.

 

We have most certainly been blessed throughout this entire Scamdemic, and all we can hope for is that our blessings continue. Stay safe and we hope you are all doing well!

Getting Back to Normal

All this rest is definitely getting our bodies back to normal, or as normal as we could get at our age. We definitely worked hard over the summer and are trying to take care of ourselves much better by resting and eating better. More veggies, seafood, chicken, less red meat, pork, processed and fried foods…so far our tummies are agreeable with the changes.

This was our week out of the Thousand Trails membership parks, so since we are still trying to stay cool, we opted to stay at HonDah RV Park in Pinetop, Arizona, just a short drive from Show Low and still in the mountains. With our Thousand Trails Membership we are allowed to stay two weeks in and then one week out, ends up being cheaper then paying monthly rents in these areas. For some, it may not be the way to go, but we love moving around, keeping ours and Maggie’s body parts moving and having a fresh experience each move is what we enjoy.

 

Two more weeks, actually only 12 days back to Venture In RV Resort in Show Low since we got a few assignments from PepWear to work beginning the first week in November, all the way to the end of November. Looking forward to be back with the sports kids championships, one event is swimming, a cross country, a soccer and a football, we are so excited!

 

We have been blessed through this entire Scamdemic, we have not been unemployed at all during the entire time. We have several opportunities going forward and it is not harder finding work as many have complained about, but then again we have always been able to find work through our years of traveling and even prior to coming out, even when others told us it would never happen. We are not getting rich, never have through all our years on this earth, but we are happy and we are totally blessed with our experiences. We are both blessed with finding one another and sharing this life with one another, neither of us could have done it without each other. We are both blessed with easily learning new things, both professionally and personally. We are especially blessed that we maintain our positive attitudes during all the good and not so good times. It’s life, our lives and we are living every moment as if it were our last and enjoying every bit of it.

 

There is snow forecasted the beginning of this week up here in the mountains for a few days, going down to frigid at night and we don’t plan to head down to Mesa until next week…brrrrrrr! It’s all good, we will be just fine, at least it’s not inches or feet of that white stuff predicted as it was in Colorado in the Spring.

 

We had an enjoyable drive through Petrified Forest and Painted Desert this week. We wrote a separate entry with loads of photos, but have hundreds more to share. It’s amazing how we have passed through the area so many times in our stays in Arizona and never drove through. If you ever get the opportunity, please do yourself a favor and take the 28 mile drive, you will not regret it.

Painted Desert & Petrified Forest Adventure

Even though we had lived in Arizona for over 20 years prior to us full timing and visit this area almost every year, we had never adventured into these parks. They cross I40 that we have passed many times and felt we had seen it all, but we were definitely mistaken because there is so much more to see.

We came into Petrified Forest from the South entrance, stopping for some souvenirs at the little shops prior to the entrance. 

Once we entered the 28 miles of park roads, our first stop was at the Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center.

Had an interesting conversation with one of the Rangers who was also a newbie full time traveler. They had been traveling now for a tad over a year but only put on about 600 miles, they were staying close in a familiar area to them for now. Not us…we continue to travel to different places as often as possible, but that’s what makes this life so interesting, we all can do it our own way!

There are several stops along the park drive that we thoroughly enjoyed…Crystal Forest was our first stop and it did not disappoint…we walked the short walk to get a great view.

Agate Bridge was next and it was a very busy stop so we just took a few photos before moving onward…

The next was Blue Mesa, and it was breathtaking and a bit freaky for me while driving at the edges, but Jerry was fine and got out to take photos…

We then just drove through the Teepees…

We stopped at the Newspaper Rock…

Then about 5 miles of vast open land to cross I40 into the Painted Desert…

The colors were spectacular in every direction. There are several “Points” to turn off and take in the breathtaking views.

We exited the park onto I40 back to Holbrook and then onto Show Low. What a fantabulous drive day!