Wild Horse visit

We went to Wild Horse yesterday to see Jill and Glen.  Played a little pool, drank some beers, and had one of the best hamburgers again in all of Arizona.  They are the best.  If you live in Arizona, you have to go there. Located in Peoria off the Carefree Highway. We dragged Jim and Cindy with us.  After chow, we went back to their house and taught Cindy a little Pinocle.  After playing ten years myself I am starting to figure out the bidding now.  We went back to playing hand and foot also. You have to understand that Jim and Cindy are two of the nicest people I've ever met. Dee did go to high school with Cindy and has always stayed in touch with her.  Now that we are living 10 minutes away, it is great to see these two enjoying each others company so much.  We met Jim last year, and he also is a great guy. Laid back, and very enjoyable to be with. I'd say that Dee and I lucked out by having such good friends.  That said though, Cindy is just so sweet and quiet, soft spoken, and all that.  I was surprised yesterday that after playing just two hands of hand and foot, that the team of J&J Destroyers were up by only 500 points when it should have been like 4,000 points.  It seems like Cindy made a slight error in arithmatic. Got me wondering if she's played with Marines before as we are known to make slight errors in adding scores. I also wonder now that when the destroyers have lost by just a few points, if we really had. Hmmm!!! We'll just have to let this pass for now; but will have to break out the calculater for this sweet innocent person.

On Friday, the day before, Dee and I went out and about exploring posssibilities for coming back next year. we went to a few 55+ parks and may come back to one of them.  Looked at some homes that were new, and crazy in asking prices the way the market is.  We went to an old housing development called Farmsworth. One house was $65,000. Kind of beat up though. Some decent houses were like in the very low 100's.  Only thing is that they are at least 40 years old, so there would be a lot of work that would need to be done. Oh well.  At least these houses aren't in Cali-fornia...

Enjoy the pictures. (Glen, me, and Jim)  ( Cindy, Dee, and Jill)

Old mining town

Dee and I went to the old mining town the other day.  Seems like they are the same all over thwe weatern states.  Sort of like Calico up in Barstow; only a tad smaller.  Plenty of shopping though. Took some pictures of the Bordello, and the view of the town from there. Chapel was nice and small.  Mountains surrounding the town are fantastic to look at. As you can see, Dee is using the out-house, which was right next to the explosives !! Lastly, the car shown is what my Titan will look like in a few years if I continue to "bump" into things. We didn't go down into the mine as it's been cold enough outside. Couldn't see going below the ground since it's been raining since we got here. Will be checking more places before Kaitlyn and Devin come next month. Going to Renaissance festival this weekend with our friends. (supposed to rain of course) Will keep you updated.

Weekend in Payson,AZ

On Thursday, before taking off to Payson on Friday, we went to lunch with Dee's parents at the Bass Pro shop. The restaurant was great again, and that place is so huge.
It rained most of the time in Payson, so we stayed inside. Played hand and foot again, and as expected, the team of (Jim & Jim), the J&J express demolished the girls again. Jim & Cindy has a feeder in their backyard for the elk. Of course they came up and ate,ate, and ate some more. I got really close to take pictures. Princess had a blast and was playing cat & mouse with one of the spikes. When the antlers came down though, I called Princess back so no damage could be done. Also, a herd of Havelin's(?) came up to their back door. (basically, greasy dirty pigs). I made some of those fall off the bone ribs on Saturday, and they came out great. Had some overflow in the oven, so it seemed as though we were trying to burn the house down, but you all know that's just me cooking again in the kitchen. We went to a nice breakfast place in Pine called the "nifty 50's" on Saturday morning. It rained again,so we didn't get too much sightseeing in. Got some nice pictures though of the mountains. We stopped yesterday on the way home to look at Lake Sorrero (?) just inside Mesa limits. One of Dee's old stomping grounds.  Also passed by the river where she used to go tubing. Back home again in Mesa. Srill raining on and off.  Enjoy the pictures.

Out with Dee's brother

After a month, we finally had the chance to meet up with Dee's brother Jimmy and his wife Cindy.  We had a good time. Whe leaving the restaurant, of course I went over one of the curbs and thought nothing of it.  Jimmy called right away to let us know he saw that. For Dee and I now though, that's just old news. At least I didn't take anyone out. Last night we went out with our friends, Jim and Cindy. At least we haven't gotten confused with all the Jim and cindy's yet. We went back to their house for a quick two hands of hand and foot. The girls did a beat down on us. Serious beatdown. It was very ugly. No mercy. All this on Ash Wednesday.. I could hardly drive home, being so shaken up. I told the girls they would get their time on our page today. Dee and I are going up to Payson this weekend with Princess to Jim and Cindy's other home.  We'll play some more, and do some more sight seeing. It's going to be cold though. Probably in the 60's during the day and 30's at night.  Here's some pictures of Dee's brother and his wife when we went out to dinner.  Enjoy!

Tempe - Scottsdale walks

Dee took me sightseeing on Friday and Saturday. First day we went to the Tempe Riverwalk park, and city park. Plenty of lakes for fishing, and lots of views while walking along the canal.  We also went into the Bass pro fishing shop.  It was huge. We spent like 4 hours in there. I think this is where we met Glen and Jill for the first time after a Dallas cowboy game against the Cardinals.  Saturday, we parked at the Scottsdale zoo, a,d walked over to the "hole in the mountain" mountain.  We did go up it very gingerly and slowly; but did make it.  Afterwards, we walked arount old towwn Scottsdale. Then we picked up Princess and went over to our friends house, Jim and Cindy and played some cards. Hand and foot card game.  I really enjoy this new card game. Of course it helps that the J&J (Jiim and Jim) express has spanked the girls unmercivily the past twotimes we've played. I sort of feel bad for them....

Sunny and Ben

Our daughter(Jennifer's) sister-in-law Sunny and husband, ben had their first child Rosa on 2/11/10. Sunny wasn't due for a while, but Rosa was ready to make her appearance to the world.  We understand that baby and mother are healthy and doing well. Great news....

Back home in Mesa?

Our trip lasted only one week,but we packed a good punch in there. Traveled 1760 miles with Princess, Dee and I. Dee caught a really bad cold on Super bowl sunday and is still recovering. We also spent a few extra days to surprise my friend Bill who also retired from the County of San bernardino. We were going to spend the night in Yucca Valley at a hotel, but that did't work out. We went to three hotels. First one, the clerk came out to greet me in a dirty old sweatshirt and PJ's on with slippers. That was my first hint of what the room would be like.  2nd hotel, had no rooms left, even disabled rooms. Third one had musty carpeting in it.  So, we decided to visit with Bill and his wife Bev before the dinner and then drive home.  Dee was still ill; Princess had little room in the back seat, and I was definatly done with the rain. It's good to be home again. We did see our old neighbor, Louisa. Her dog, Rocky was sleeping, so Princess didn't get to play with her.  Our annual golf tournament was rained out onSaturday with our son James. We did get to see three of four grandchildren while there.  Short blog here, as this is the third attempt.  Attaching some pictures though of visit. Enjoy.

Bill and Jim

James(son)                             Dee and Bev

                                                                     Granddaughter: KaitlynGrandson: DevinChris(son) and wife, AngelaSon-in-law, Forrests' hammer. Size of a small travel coffee cup. Can someone please hook this boy up with a real hammer?  It's like a "Bob the builder" hammer....

Roadtrip to California

We went to Fudruckers on way out of Mesa, and stopped at Famous Dave's in Yuma,AZ.  Ribs were okay.  Nothing like the ones I make; but I forced myself to chow down on them.  Dee stayed with Carter while I went to San Bernardino for my retirement board meeting. He's enjoying himself at his table. The board almost had mein tears when I left.  I was asked to explain myself on why I felt I was disabled.  I spoke for about one minute when I was interrupted, and told the information was not pertanent. Someone made a motion, 1st, 2nd, and I was no longer considered to be there.  I didn't even get a chance to stand up before I was disc'd and they moved on. So, we basically drove over 500 miles so I could be treated like a old piece of meat, and trown to the side of the road.  On the bright side, I found out that not only was I approved for social security disability, my case went to reconsideration, and benefit was backdated from November 2009 to June 2009. That is supossedly unheard of.  So, again social security states I am too disabled to be employable. VA physician states same thing.  Snotty people at board of retirement didn't have time to hear me out.  Nice.  We are staying to see our grandchildren, so the heck with them.  That's a good thing.

Lunch w/ parents/ Aunt & Uncle/weekend

We went with Dee's parents and her Uncle Jack / Aunt Joan for lunch on Friday. I have a picture attached. Left to right. Dee's dad, Aunt Joan, Dee, Uncle Jack, and Dee's mom. Saturday, we picked up our new sign for the motor home. Then, Dee went to a baby shower, and I went over to Jim and Cindy's and did laundry. Jim started making dinner when the girls started on their way home. We had a couple shots of Patron, and when the sun went down, so did I.  I got the shivers, and couldn't stop. Wound up having a temp of 103.5. This went on for two days. I'm finally over it today.We are going on a road trip to California also on Wednesday. I have to go to a meeting with the County of San Bernardino regarding my claim for disability retirement. Seems like although I am considered 100% disabled from the VA, and tentivly going to start receiving SSI disability for medicare from11/09 starting in 11/11,  and my physician states I am no longer employable, the county disagrees with all that. So, we can now drive the 395 miles to go to this meeting. Amazing. At least we'll see the grandkids for a couple of days. So, I really have no complaints. Enjoy the pictures.