Add 21 and 45 and it equals party.

Amado, Arizona
De Anza RV Resort

Bill's appointment was at 9 am today and when we walked into the office and all the seats were taken I figured it would be at least an hour before we were out of there.  As it turned out, Bill was called back immediately and his stitches were removed.  The doctor was pleased with the results and after a few photos of his head we were out the door and it was only a couple of minutes before 9.

Sherry and Dave were hitching up so we stopped and got the blocks of ice she froze for me.  The refrigerator is dead but the cooler held enough for us until it gets repaired on Saturday.  

We stopped in Tucson to visit some friends we haven't seen since last spring.  It was kind of a challenge as we had to park the fifth wheel in a Safeway parking lot and it was a very busy parking lot.  

I think everyone had arrived for the joint Chapter 21 and 45 Escapees rally except one other couple when we arrived.  Usually we are early so this was unusual for us.

John Knoll came over and we visited for awhile until it was time for Happy Hour.  

The beauty of this park is they do not charge for use of their many rooms in the clubhouse.  It used to be a greyhound race track back in the 50's.  It has an indoor salt water pool, library, TV lounge, spa, fitness room, craft room, billiards room, sewing room, workout room, work shop, aerobics room, pet wash, laundry, dog park, and the best part a restaurant.  

I'm not sure how many rigs are here, but it's nice to see some old faces and new faces.  There was a lot of noise as everyone wanted to know where and what all there friends had been doing since they'd seen them last.  

After Happy Hour, there was  firewood provided by the park and a nice fire.  We don't usually do campfires because of Bill's breathing but this one didn't seem smoky.  We stayed outside for a while and then came back to the Roadrunner to rest up for tomorrow's adventures.  

Turtle Safely.......

Boring, Boring, Boring

Casa Grande, Arizona
Sundance RV Resort

We haven't done much since we returned to Casa Grande. Our only social life has been with the annual doctor visits.  

Lucky for us, Bill's minor surgery was scheduled back in the spring when he received the results of his biopsy.  If we would have waited to make an appointment when we returned it would have been much later.

Bill's appointment was at 8:40 am yesterday and it had been changed once already.  I realized that my eye doctor appointment that I made this summer was the same day. Unfortunately, one was in Casa Grande and the other was in Chandler.  

I called to change my eye appointment and the earliest I could get one was the end of November.  Knowing what a drawn out process cataracts seem to take around here, I decided to keep my appointment.

Sherry was standing by to take me to Chandler if Bill didn't get out in time.  As it turned out, Bill was out before noon. He was in no pain and in great spirits.  Thanks anyway, Sherry.

I'm glad I kept my appointment as cataract surgery is filled up to January.  The girl managed to find an appointment for me right before Christmas. It presented some scheduling problems as you usually have a follow up appointment the next day, but she worked something out.  I ended up with 8 more appointments.  My doctor also told me I needed to see the retina doctor too before the surgery.  If I have the second eye done, it will be in January but in time for me to go to Quartzite.

Bill has already been to the hearing doctor.  Now he just needs to see his cardiologist, dermatologist, dentist and his general practitioner.  It's a good thing we are healthy and have no major problems.  

Bill gets to take the bandage off tomorrow.  I'm anxious to see what it looks like.  

We were planning to go a day early for the Chapter 21 and 45 rally but Bill needs to have his stitches out.  I told him Sharon offered to do it.

I'm getting excited about our plans to go to Alaska next summer.  I have all the important guides ordered but they are 2017 editions and not available until after the first of the year.  I decided to go to the library and see what they had.  I must admit I haven't been to the library in a very long time.  Where did all the books go?  Casa Grande built a new library in the new high school.  It was pitiful the few books that were in the library.  There was one very old paperback book on Alaska.  

One thing that is never boring to me is voting.  I can remember when I was old enough to vote and had to take my birth certificate to prove my age and eligibility.  That was many, many years ago.  There is always some excitement when I put that envelope in the mailbox.  I just wish they'd give you one of the stickers that you voted with your mail in ballot.

Turtle Safely.......

Great Grandparents.

Casa Grande, Arizona
Sundance RV Resort

I guess it has been a while since I blogged.  Thank you folks for reminding me.

I left off with our staying in Portales, New Mexico.  The next morning we decided to put another long day in (for us).  Bill drove to Dreamcatchers in Deming.  We wanted to try out the new restaurant Forgitaboutit, but they were closed Saturday afternoon.  We then walked over to the Pizza Hut.  One employee was playing with his phone, another was napping in a booth.  We saw enough and walked over to Denny's.  

When we returned Bill went to get a glass of milk and the milk was warm.  We really hadn't been in the refrigerator much since we left Goshen.  Marilyn had fixed us food for our travels while we were in Poplar Bluff which we just heated up.

Of course this was Saturday night.  Our plans were to stop in Benson and visit with Don and Sharon and also Frank and Gloria.  We debated what to do all Saturday evening.  When we woke up Sunday morning, we decided to just boggy down I 10 and get back to Casa Grande.  

The time change has wiped us out.  There's a quick three times zones between Oklahoma and Arizona because Arizona doesn't do daylight savings time.  

It was a great summer and I think we'll stay put for a couple of weeks.  I think Bill said we put on over 12,000 miles from the time we left in April until we returned to Arizona.  We saw many different things this year and revisited many others.  

Bill did most of the driving the entire summer as I was having trouble with my cataracts, which I will have taken care of as soon as possible.  We were high tailing it back here for Bill's minor surgery, but they changed it to Monday. It's okay we need a couple of days to rest up.

Now that the boring news is over let me tell you about the exciting news.  Our granddaughter, Taylor, and her husband, Justin, are the proud new parents of a daughter which they named Piper.  Piper weighed 5 pounds 14.5 ounces and is 19.25 inches long.  It really makes you old when the grand kids are having kids.  Since I'm just learning texting, I'll try and post the photos later.  

Turtle Safely........

We passed up eight of them

Portales, New Mexico

Oasis State Park

When we left Clinton, Oklahoma this morning the wind was really blowing.  We were both happy to be out of that RV park.  It wasn't much but some expensive coaches stayed there.  

It rained and stormed last night but the skies were cleared when we woke up this morning.  It would have been a nice driving day if it weren't for the wind.  

I thought we would stop in Amarillo, but Bill wasn't ready to stop.  We thought we'd stop in Clovis as there were seven RV parks in town.  When we pulled into the first place, there were all seasonals and we didn't see an empty site.  It was the most expensive park in town, so I thought it would be the best.  We drove to another one in town and the man waved us off before we turned into the driveway.  Another one near there didn't look very good.  From there the parks went downhill and turned into trailer parks. 

We drove on into Portales and found the first park full.  Now I'm starting to wonder if we are going to have to drive all the way to Roswell.  

It was almost 2 pm when we pulled into Oasis State Park. What an Oasis it turned out to be.  The sites have 50 amp electric long pull through, covered picnic tables, and water for $14.  If you wanted sewer it was $18.  

Once we were set up, we drove back to town to fuel up.  This was one day, Bill was happy he had an auxiliary fuel tank.  With all the strong winds, we were only getting about 11 miles to the gallon.

Bill and I stopped at a great place to eat.  It was called El Rancho and I've added it to my favorite restaurants.  It's the best Mexican I've ever had.  Our waitress was also excellent.

We gained an hour when we crossed into New Mexico.  I think every bug in the state came to greet us.  The front of the coach is covered in bugs as well as the truck windshield.

We are piling up the miles and just stopping to sleep.  Not our usual style of travel.  Two more long days of travel and we should be in Arizona.  

We'll be ready for bed early tonight.

Turtle Safely....... 

Har-Ber Village

Clinton, Oklahoma
Hargus RV Park

Yesterday was such a wonderful day, seeing the Van Nuy's again and meeting the Peine's and also touring the Har-Ber Village.  It just doesn't get much better.  

There were so many photos to go through, I waited until today to tell you about the Har-Ber Village that the Boyer's told us about.

We wanted to tour the Village first thing in the morning as the weather forecast was predicting windy and stormy weather.  

When we arrived at the village, we looked at the visitor center and it didn't look like the village was very big, but it's a case of looks can be deceiving.  The admission fee was $7.50 for seniors.   

I looked at the brochure as we started the one mile walk through the village.  There were 102 exhibits listed on the brochure.  

The name Har-Ber came from Harvey and Bernice Jones.  
There is a video in the building that tells the story of the couple.  I'm going to save that part of the story, for when you visit the village.

This room is a collection of Harvey and Bernice's private collections.

There was a place for you to play checkers or dominoes.

This building was the stagecoach inn saloon.    Look at all the details in this room.

Bill loved the back bar in this saloon.

The next building we went into was the native american museum.

I thought this Papago basket was beautiful.

I always think of Vicki Allen and Rondo when I see these post offices.

The Rural mail delivery wagon was outside the post office for a photo op, but the wind was whipping so hard, I thought we should keep moving.

I suppose I forgot to mention that the village is bordered by the Grand Lake O' the Cherokees. 

The building had plexi-glass to protect the contents. This building was the doctor's home.  In the front of the building was C. P. Sisco's doctor office which displayed period medical equipment.

Bill can always find a barber pole somewhere.

Notice how they have the mustache curler labeled so you know what everything is in the barbershop.

The original buildings in the village have been dismantled and reassembled. Each one is furnished consistent with the time period and use. There were benches and chairs everywhere so you could stop and rest.

 We always find a school in these villages.  The children only went to school about 3 months during a year because they were needed at home.  The blackboard was the original one from the Mt. Home School near Goshen, Arkansas.

The  brick bank building fixtures came from a bank that went out of business during the depression.

I'm sorry the photos didn't come out better, it was a beautiful bank.

The bank had an interesting safe.

The village grounds were beautiful and well kept.

I must say the walk was very steep, but we kept stopping to look at things, and didn't realize how far we had walked.  The walkways were all concrete and a lot of the buildings had ramps.  There were benches everywhere so you could sit and view the village.

When you walked into the church, an audio played telling you about the church.

Even though the church was small, it was well appointed with beautiful stained glass.

The sewing shop had these beautiful wedding dresses. 

Of course, every village has a hat shop for that time period.

The laundry had all kinds of different equipment.

I remember the wringer washer that I used.

Now you know how they made lye soap.

The other walls of this photography shop were covered with old cameras.

The still had a sign that said a squirrel took up residence in the building.  

Smoking was very popular in these days.

The mercantile had a great assortment of supplies.

The sign on the wagon says "This 1928-29 Fruehauf trailer is the type used by Harvey Jones when he went from horse and mule drawn wagons to trucks, and became one of the largest privately owned truck lines in America and later incorporated as Jones Truck Lines Inc."

Bill joked with me about the Kodiak bear.

There was a huge collection of dolls on both sides of this building.

Bill has always been fascinated with fancy canes.

Bill can usually spot a firearm that has been incorrectly labeled, this day was no exception.

There was a huge collection of military history covering every war from the Civil War to present day.

I thought this exhibit was the best.  There was a door inviting kids inside to play here.

Can you imagine the fun kids would have climbing up in the loft?

How about a cuff link collection?

Another medical collection was in this building.

The music building had some beautiful instruments.

Of course, every village has a gallows.

There were many fine watches displayed here.

This jail cell came from Springdale, AR.

No, I didn't pose for a mug shot.

Remember me saying that I wanted to revisit Fort Smith?

I was really surprised to see this exhibit here.

Needless to say, this is just a small sampling of the exhibits we saw in this village.  It wasn't crowded and other than the strong winds, was a perfect day.  The village is open from March 15 to November 15.  If you plan on a visit to Oklahoma, I'd put the Har-Ber Village on the bucket list.

Thank you again, Marilyn and L. C. Boyer for telling us about the village.  We loved it, and it's someplace we'd return to.  

We had a lot of rain last night and there were puddles everywhere.  We had no rain, but the winds were strong. We left Grove this morning and drove to Clinton, OK.  I told Bill it was a shame we had an empty black tank or he could have left the contents here in Clinton.  

This is not our normal driving but we are in a hurry to get back to Arizona.  We've been gone since April and the desert is calling.  We'll probably spend the night in Texas tomorrow.  

Turtle Safely.......