John and Aileen sometimes on the road: OUR SEASON IN THE SUN IS NEARLY DONE

Ernie and Atha came with us to the ice cream social at Florence Gardens last Thursday and that was a great show by Dave Salyer and Daphne Anderson. He was Barbara Mandrell’s lead guitarist for ten years and was on Hee Haw and has been on the Grand Old Opry several times. His uncle Jesse McReynold’s is second oldest (86) on the Opry, the oldest being Little Jimmy Dickens at 92. Dave is a marvel with guitar and banjo. The ice cream afterward was great, eat as much as you like!

Last Friday, we headed out shortly after 9:30. Bud and Jackie (neighbours down the street from our park model) were on their machine, Wes and Sandy (Jackie’s sister) on Ernie’s, Ernie (our renter friend) who rode with Aileen in the RZR and me on my old one. We went in 7 mile gate, second left past the corral and up the wash then the little road past Dozer Hill bringing us out to the flagpole then up to Cottonwood Rd. We went over the ridges to the Ajax Hub. We’d picked up a street type Jeep Grand Cherokee lost along the way and when we got to the Hub, I pointed him toward Box Canyon which is where he wanted to go.

Bud and crew had talked about going to the amethyst mine but decided to stay with us so we had lunch at the Ajax Mine then took the back loop out of there. We came down into the top of Box Canyon wash and followed it down through the canyon. No wildlife again. It was nearly 4:30 when we got home. Aileen did very well and said she had a good time. She liked having the other ladies along. She had Ernie drive part of the way home as she got tired. I think he liked having a turn behind the wheel anyway.

We did our normal full walk before breakfast on Saturday. Aileen went to Coolidge for dog food she had ordered plus a few other things. I washed the RZR then took Mitzy out to the desert for her second run. Bud came over asking for help to move his rain gauge since I still had the long ladder here. Then, could I help Arlene with her computer. She couldn’t access her email which just turned out to be she wasn’t signed in. A few days earlier, I had been asked for help as Arlene couldn’t get any internet. I finally figured out their router had died so I dug out our old one from the shed and got her up and running again. Our friend Selma was over one day asking for help with her new camera so I spent some time with her getting things set up better. Then a few days later another friend flagged me down on my way back from the mailbox. He said he had the same camera as Selma and could I set his camera up the same.

Midafternoon Saturday, we went to Crutchfield’s with Pantel’s to play 25 then have a potluck supper. Aileen won the first game and when we quit part way through the second, I was leading and Aileen was second. We went to the dance at Florence Gardens which was pretty good.

On Sunday, we headed off to Chandler just before 9:30 and the GPS got us to the correct driveway but Gay’s directions kept us puzzled for a time. Aileen finally called her and she was able to walk us through the proper route. We sat in their condo and had a good visit with Doug and Gay, friends from Campbell River, BC, until time to head off to PF Chang’s for lunch where we continued our visiting. We all enjoyed our lengthy and leisurely meal then went back to the condo for more visiting and to return to our car.

Aileen gave Mitzy a bath Monday morning. After lunch, she went to her last Celiac meeting of the season then helped me get the trailer and load the RZR. I grilled chops for supper. Aileen made a gluten free chocolate pecan pie which we had for supper. It was quite tasty. She took a quarter of it to Pantel’s and a quarter to Crutchfields’s who gave it their approval.

Ernie and I took the RZR up to the dealer in the Apache Junction Tuesday morning for its first service as Aileen had enough hours on it. While it was being done, we went to Harbor Freight to get friend Ken a trailer jack then to Camping World to get some black tank chemical. We had a good look around the newly renovated store. This has just been a few of the things we have going on so you can see there isn’t a lot of free time. We really need more hours in the day, or maybe we just need to be a lot younger? Anyone who says they’re bored down here is not participating in life!

Cactus blossom time