Birthday…Holidays…Anniversary

This time of the year is filled with celebrations…we have Jerry’s birthday, then the holidays and then our wedding anniversary in January that we love celebrating.

We left the Apache Junction area to hang out for a little over a week in one of our favorite places in Arizona…Lake Havasu, but first made an overnight stop in Quartzsite. We were looking for certain items, but most of the stores weren’t opened yet since it was still too early but we did find some deals that weren’t on our list. It also felt so good to be amongst some normalcy, not a lot of RULES for mask wearing or social distancing, but there was a lot of smiles, hellos, and just decency to one another. It was the same way in Lake Havasu.

 

While in Quartzsite, we ate at Silly Al’s and it was as good as ever. We had a few Margaritas and a split pizza, half Mediterranean and the other half was Philly Cheese. Both sides were scrumptious, but my favorite was the Mediterranean side. The crust is so unique, thin, crispy but also tender and chewy on the inside and such a fresh taste. We ordered the Goliath just so we could have dinner the next day too.

Not one of our healthiest meals, but it was absolutely the best. Fried the bacon, then fried the potatoes, onions & garlic in the bacon juice. Soaked the chicken breasts in Caribbean Jerk and cooked on BBQ for the chicken sandwich with freshly made guacamole & bacon on a pretzel bun. Every part of this meal was perfect, the lime in the guacamole added a freshness to the sandwich, the chicken was tender and juicy, the potatoes were done to perfection.

For Jerry’s birthday we got a room in Laughlin, Nevada, so we could do a little play time. Let’s just say that it started out fantastic but then took an unpleasant turn. We stayed at Harrahs for under $50 and when we checked in before noon, not only were they gracious about it, they even gave him a birthday upgrade to a Suite…AND sweet it was. So much room, great shower with two shower heads, the pillows were flat and awful, but the bed was so very comfortable, and even a jetted tub.

We totally understand the mask issue, even though we don’t agree with it, we do it when we have to, but to be policed so strictly is offensive to us. We were gambling and drinking and we were told several times that masks must be worn in between drinks and there were several times we barely took our lips off the glass when we were approached. Some of the other casinos were the same, but there were a few where they allowed us to drink and converse because we were NEVER near anybody since the entire strip was like a ghost town. Just would like it all to go back to some sort of normalcy, and we hope this will not continue for much longer, and we pray this will never be the new normal. 

 

Even though Laughlin has been one of our favorite play time areas, because of all the rudeness on this trip it will no longer be on our radar for visiting any time in the near future.

 

We are back in Apache Junction for the next few months, and if all goes according to plan, we will be working some PepWear events soon. Until then we will be enjoying bringing in the New Year, just the two of us and a bottle of champagne. See you all in 2021, have a safe and blessed end of this year and may next year be filled with love, happiness, family time, prosperity, and most of all back to some normalcy.

Life As We See It

The quality of most services and products have suffered so much since all this Scamdemic began and it seems to be getting worse. Everyday items we notice are not up to the standards that were in place previously, many items that we had been buying for years, now feel different or taste different and there are several inconsistencies in the product, like tears or not the same size within the package or packaging is defective.

 

My haircuts have been the worst and I have never been too picky about them, but it seems the hairdressers heads are not in the game. They cut around the masks but since we hardly wear the masks except when absolutely forced, my cut is just wrong. They don’t cut it short enough even after I explain to them how short I want it. They are just too busy attempting to get everyone to agree with their political opinions…I’M NOT PAYING THEM FOR THEIR OPINIONS…I just want my hair cut the way it is requested.

 

As for customer service, well that left when it all began. So many people are just mean spirited and don’t seem to understand how blessed they are to be working, but instead they act as if they are doing you a favor for being there and that we are inconveniencing them by coming in. It’s almost as if we are all distancing ourselves from one another in so many ways there may not be any coming back to friendliness. We have to admit that we have even stopped smiling at others due to face coverings...we have stopped talking with strangers due to social distancing...we keep to ourselves so not to piss someone off who is about to blow due to SO MANY of us that has had ENOUGH! THIS NEEDS TO STOP TODAY...RIGHT THIS MOMENT!

 

Life has to return to people caring about each other, return to people helping one another in simple ways like holding the doors open, smiling at one another and wishing them a happy day. These masks are the cause and we all need to protect ourselves from the worst case of communism ever brought to our country.

 

IF these masks are so great in protecting us from this virus, then why are the numbers rising dramatically in the past few weeks when almost everyone we see has one on? Because they ARE NOT effective! Instead they are meant to continue to put a wedge between us citizens so that the government can take our rights away. It’s plain to see and so hard to take, but we are all bowing down to the system, even when we know they are dead wrong. 

 

Why is that and what can we do about it? 

 

We are tired of fighting a losing battle, we are tired of being ridiculed when we don’t abide by what we thought was “suggestions “, but instead people feel they have the need and the right to demand that we go along, and if we don’t, they make our lives very uncomfortable. We are distancing ourselves from the media as much as possible so not to get caught up in all the drama, and for us it feels like that’s helping our minds, bodies and hearts.

 

We were off this week and just did all sorts of honey do’s. We washed and waxed Maggie, fixed most of her blemishes, and shined her tires. We found a resort in Apache Junction using our Thousand Trails Membership that appreciates Maggie that we will continue returning to for this winter. We will be asking them to move our next reservation to a different corner due to the drama this corner has brought with a few of the permanent residents. It sounds like an ugly breakup that we want no part of at all, but otherwise the resort seems really good.

 

This was our last event this past weekend with PepWear for a short time, and depending on just how long that will be, will determine what we do next. The next month we will take some time to enjoy the holidays, Jerry’s birthday, and our anniversary before finding other work. We have a short trip planned to one of our favorite areas in Arizona that we will tell you all about it next update.

We Just Don’t Get Some Things in Life

Our Thousand Trails Membership, Mesa Spirit RV Resort and Monte Vista RV Resort, has now put a stipulation on how old our rig can be, and trust me she’s showing her worn out age everywhere, so they found she is not suitable for their resort…well crap! Maggie’s getting older and has seen better days, but to discriminate against her is just wrong. Yes, she now has several areas with bandaids on her since her skin is cracking and we just can’t afford a full paint job nor a newer model, so we continue repairing the best we can. We are taking this very hard due to us feeling as if we are unworthy, a feeling we have both shared in our hearts for a very long time and has been difficult to erase from our internal tapes that play continuously. 

Our biggest concern about this recent experience is when that happens it makes us feel like we are white trash, and we’re not, we’re just not financially savvy. We have worked hard all of our lives for what we have, we do the best we can, but it’s never good enough for others and we get judged that we are poor. We are not, we are rich in so many ways, we just have never been able to really handle our finances and that is why we stopped everything on credit and for the past 17 years there have been no notes, no debt, and if we can’t pay cash, then we don’t get it. That has been tough because we would love a new RV, but we don’t want to have a note.

 

How dare they discriminate against us because we don’t drive the best RV...DISCRIMINATION in any form is just not right...OPLM Old People’s Lives Matter too!

 

WHY IS IT????? All the new programming EVERYONE is social distancing (sort of) BUT NOBODY is wearing a mask...SERIOUSLY, but WE HAVE TO wear one everywhere! NOT LIKING THIS CRAP AT ALL! We are so over this nonsense, we want to just live again

 

We had a hotel night at Vee Quiva Hotel & Casino…What a nice room with the exception of the bed and the toilet, they were both so low to the ground it hurt to get on and off of them, other than that the bed was comfortable. The shower was fantastic, with room and the pressure was perfect, strong but not feeling like needles entering the body. The casino was a good size with a variety of slots and no smoking at all in the buildings. There were several take out restaurants, Fatburger and Panda Express, and several others were open and serving. We were upset that they didn’t feel our face shields were good enough and had to wear a mask they gave us, so we left and do not plan to return.

We are just so appreciative that we are on our way out of our lives instead of just beginning them, because if things continue in this ridiculous manner, our future of our country and freedoms are heading in a communism state of mind and we want no part of it. It’s hard enough following ALL these new recommendations, but now people are just being ridiculous about it all. People are getting nasty and are going crazy because the media is telling them to be the police eyes out there if others are not wearing their masks or not social distancing…stop this madness and let’s all go back to living our lives without all the judgments. 

 

It’s sad that our President elect doesn’t know what holiday it is… Everybody needs to take their Turkey back, get a ham and start coloring eggs since there is no reason right now to be thankful! What a dumbass…OMFG...4 Years of this with nobody knowing what day it is or where we are...we have been part of the Fugowee Tribe for years, but we’ve been happy there, never knowing where the fuck are we, but now the dumb ass and all his followers will be there too! NOT FAIR! Just remember all you Dems voted him in…

 

We worked a Girls Volleyball Championship in Gilbert, AZ for PepWear last week. These events are so much smaller than we are used to, but at least we’re doing what we love. There were so many parents that the stands were full and everyone wore masks, but nobody was social distancing. Personally we would prefer social distancing, washing hands and cleaning surfaces over wearing masks, but it looks as if we don’t get that choice and we are certainly tired of it ALL!

Our Thanksgiving was spent for the first time in a long time cooking a turkey, we have not had turkey and all the fixings in a long time. We had deviled eggs, stuffed celery, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy, and of course pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Oh my, we are stuffed and we have enough leftovers for days, let’s hope we can be as creative as our mom’s were back when we were kids and they created wonderful leftovers.

For Being Such a CRAZY Year...

We have most definitely been blessed…our life has been pretty awesome through it all and we can’t be more grateful.

We hung out in cool Show Low for as long as we could, then we made our way to Mesa, where we will hang out for the next few months. A tad warmer for the first few days but then the weather shifted to the way we like it, warm days and cool nights.

 

With today’s technologies, it’s harder to keep personal things personal. We believe that there are several things in life that should not be broadcasted to the public, voting is one of those things…who, when, where, why is nobody’s business. Our income, salary, what we negotiated in our contract for our work is nobody’s business. There are several other things that we feel are nobody’s business and this seems to be getting harder all the time with the technology of today. We received very personal text messages, phone calls and emails from everywhere asking some personal questions and even just making very personal comments about our rights as citizens. Election Day and the results couldn’t end soon enough for us so we can get back to just living our lives. Whoever wins is out of our control, but we have learned so many lessons through it all. 

 

The best lesson is that people can really be stupid and we are so glad we chose and continue to choose the high road and not sink to their destructive level. When and why has rioting and looting become normal for winning or losing? Why do people believe that rioting and looting will solve any issue? So very different than a peaceful demonstration, but they turn ugly and then become worse then what they began to protest. Yes, there are injustices in this country, but rioting and looting is NEVER the answer.

 

No matter who is our President this election or how this Scamdemic plays out, our lives will continue and we will continue living our lives to the fullest as possible. We fed into some of the chaos and it stops now, it actually stopped weeks ago for us, but now it truly stops. We will not feed into the fears and doom and gloom pattern too many have fed into. We stand proud to be an American and our freedom to choose our own lifestyle still exists and we plan to grab it with all the strength we have and live our lives to the fullest.

 

We worked our first event, a Swim Competition in Mesa, and even though it is not close to the way it was, it is much better than it could have been. No parents or fans were allowed in the Aquatic Center, heck we weren’t allow to sell our merchandise in the Center, but we had a great location right outside where parents could get to us, so it wasn’t so bad. It was so good to see kids again being normal, or as normal as possible during these times, they all kept their masks on and social distancing was always attempted. We have competitions every week going forward through November, possibly through May, and we hope things get easier and stay on this path of recovery from all the harm this Scamdemic has caused us. 

Our 2^nd event was Cross Country in Gilbert, Arizona and it went even better. 

We just need to hold on to our faith that it WILL get back to really living our lives once again. We feel it already has for us since we turned off our media feeds and are just relaxing and not being overwhelmed by all the crap they are trying to feed everyone. 

 

Life will be great again, we all have to keep believing and praying for it and it will happen. Keep focusing on the greatness, knowing we will come out of it having a much brighter outlook if we just stay focused. Life is grand once again as we let go of 2020 and move forward with 2021!

Venture In Encore RV Resorts

270 N Clark Road

Show Low, AZ 85901

928-537-4443

5/2020, 10/2020

We used our Thousand Trails membership for a water, 30/50 amp, sewer back-in site on gravel with a patio. They offered free WiFi and cable that we did not use.

This is a resort with Park Models around the outer rows and RV sites scattered within the middle rows.

Well manicured and kept clean.

All the buildings were closed except the laundry room, which was only open a limited time Monday through Friday.

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.