Winter 2025-2026 (5/20/26)

 Winter is typically not a time when we do a ton of exploring. That was even true when we were full time RVers, but its more true now that we have houses.

Highlights of the fall and winter include the following:

Paul’s close friend Kirk turned 70 and had a blow out party at his cabin near Shaver Lake in California.

The weather was perfect. and the live band was awesome.

In October we joined our daughter Jess for a weekend in Palm Springs. We hadn’t seen her in months, and it was a destination we could all easily get to.

The rest of the month was pretty much spent packing up some stuff from the house in Lake Havasu.

We were supposed to close on our new house in Green Valley at the end of October, but it was delayed a week. Not too bad though.  We aren’t selling the Havasu house at this point, so in addition to packing some stuff, there was some shopping going on.

We are lucky enough to have very good friends. Once we closed on the house, Liz and Randy came to Green Valley with us and helped us move stuff into the house and install a bunch of things like light fixtures.

Of course, it wasn’t all work and no play!

Thanksgiving was in Havasu- a pretty quiet one for us, with Liz and Randy and my brother Ray and his wife Dawn.

Most of the winter was spent going back and forth between the two houses, with the holidays being in Havasu.

Christmas was also more quiet than usual with just a few friends. What was different was that Liz and Randy’s daughter and granddaughter flew in for the holiday, which added to the festivities for sure.

January and February brought more back and forth between the two houses, and also some prep for a big party in Havasu.  Paul turned 70 in February, and wanted a birthday bash. So he got one.

Friends came from all over the country- and even though quite a few couldn’t make it, we had a blast!

Along with the invited guests, we had some UNinvited guests. A swarm of bees decided to plop themselves down on our bougainvillea bush for the afternoon. And they did NOT like the band warming up. Might have been the bass.

The fire department was called, but of course they couldn’t do anything about them.  I was getting nervous because all bees in AZ are Africanized and usually aggressive. I was hoping we weren’t going to have to move the entire party inside. It turns out they settled down, much to my relief.

So the party moved forward, with much eating, drinking, and dancing….

Because most people came from such a distance, we actually partied for several days before saying goodbye to most of the guests- but not all of them. We sort of just moved a smaller party down to the new house in Green Valley so we could show the house to our friends Mike and Julie, who had flown in from Florida.

We hadn’t been there very long when I got a devastating phone call from my brother Ray, who has a winter place in Mesa AZ and was at our party.

 

Our younger brother Richie had gone into cardiac arrest and we initially got no more details. Richie lives in Massachusetts and was born with intellectual disabilities, so Ray and I are his guardians.  We both got the first flights out that we could. We went straight to the hospital and met up with our sister.

Unfortunately the news was not good. After determining that there was no brain activity, we made the only decision that felt right. We decided to donate his organs so that others could live longer and healthier lives.

 

That is the only reason I really shared that personal story. I have been amazed at how many people realize of course that organ donation is a thing, but never really thought about it in terms of themselves or other close family members. Although the decision was an easy one, it was not an easy thing to go through. However.....

Thinking about the people he helped, helped all of us cope with our loss. His kidneys went to two different people in their 50s, and his liver went to a woman in her early 20s. His heart was used for researching valve transplantation.

So, anyway, if there is anyone out there who has thought about organ donation but hasn’t done anything about it per se, it would be a great idea to let your immediate family know what your wishes are, and to find out what Their wishes are.

After spending a couple of weeks in Massachusetts, we all returned to Arizona.

The Beginning of summer? (04/20/25)

 

Paul and had already decided to head to Massachusetts this summer- our son is there, and we still have lots of friends and my family there. We don't drive all the way back very often anymore, but I sometimes fly on my own.

So, it was time for a longer visit.

With all that in mind we decided to leave for the summer on April 3rd. That's a full two months before we usually leave Arizona.

We made the most of our time with Liz and Randy before leaving,  getting in one boating day and a couple of pool days.

Just before we left, we went out to dinner to celebrate 75 years of marriage. 25 years for us, and an impressive 50 years for them.

Paul also finished one of his projects that he was working on in his spare time- a stained glass window for the trailer. It came out awesome.

I sorta promised Paul that we would stop and see new things along the way to MA,  and not make a beeline for the coast. By leaving early, we will have plenty of time to explore. We also needed to be in Green Valley, AZ for a week in April to pick out flooring, cabinets, granite etc for the new house.

While we were there we took a drive up into nearby Mt. Wrightson wilderness in the Coronado National Forest. This area is on the migratory path of an  incredible amount of birds, including hummingbirds.

I saw two New to Me varieties of hummingbirds-

The Rivoli Hummingbird

and the Broad Billed.

I didn’t get to spend too much time looking because Paul couldn’t find a spot to park the dually so he dropped me off at the visitor center. I can’t wait till we live here and can spend more time bird watching.

Of course, I put up my feeders as well, and in addition to hummingbirds, we were visited by Hooded Orioles, both the male (pictured) and the female.

Leaving Green Valley, after a short visit with friends in Sierra Vista, AZ,  we landed  just outside Las Cruces New Mexico. The nearby Organ Mountains- Desert Peaks National Monument has some hiking we were interested in. We drove up to the Dripping Springs (note to self, it is barely dripping) area and did two hikes. The first was 3 miles, to Boyd.

The story behind this building is that Dr. Boyd agreed to rent this area from the owner at the time, Eugene Van Patten, for $25 a year, but shortly thereafter, refused to pay, and refused to leave. Van Patten sued him, but in the course of the court battle it was discovered that Van Patten had described the area incorrectly, so his homestead patent was actually for a different area. He got it straightened out, and was still owed all the rent from Boyd, but trying to collect it  for 13 years forced him into bankruptcy and he ended up selling the area to Boyd for a dollar.  Very Strange.

The other hike we did was a 1 mile hike to La Cuerva, the Cave, which is really just a rock shelter. Apparently I deleted all my pictures of it, oh well, I guess that tells the story of how interesting it was.

Next up on our journey was Mayhill New Mexico, which is near Cloudcroft. This is one of those spots we like to stop for a day or two to do some exploring and hiking. The Lincoln National Forest has a lot of hiking trails, but with only one day, we chose the 3 mile loop, Little Apache Trail. I really enjoyed the smells of the forest.

Of course we also stopped several places to watch the wild horses.

Our final visit with friends for this leg of our journey was in Abilene Texas where we spent a few days with friends Wil and Gayle. While showing them pictures of our house project on the big screen, Gayle became our own version of Vanna White…

After a couple of days and lots of camaraderie, it was time to move on from Texas to Oklahoma.

The Holidays and Beyond (2/22/25)

 

Back home after our adventure, we had just enough time to get ready for the holidays. Our friends Brad and Marilyn from Canada arrived in their RV for a few weeks, and our daughter Jess came for Christmas, bringing our soon to be son in law with her. A fun time was had by all….

One of the highlights for me was the night we went out to the bars the night after Christmas and Justin, who is the lead singer in a band, sang a Karaoke song, just for me. Very cool.

As soon as the holidays were over,  as hard as it is to believe, we got busier. We left in the rig mid January, with our first stop being Mesa, where we spent two weeks visiting my brother and his wife, who were staying a park model for two months, at one of our favorite RV resorts.

We managed to see other friends and family while we were in the Phoenix area as well.

From there we headed to Green Valley, south of Tucson. In the last year or so we have been looking at our next step, house wise, and Green Valley is on our short list for a location-specifically Quail Creek, the 55+ Robson community there. We booked a 3 night stay in one of their villas to see if we liked the “vibe” of the community. We have been here before and are pretty sure it’s where we want to be.

After meeting with our sales rep, he showed us the new lots that are now available- and we did a thing. We bought a lot before we even stayed in the villa! Our new house, once it’s built, will be on the golf course which we don't care about but it will afford us a great sunset view.

Decision made, we relaxed and enjoyed all the amenities in the complex.

We happened to be there the night of our 25th wedding anniversary, and were gifted by Robson, dinner for two at the resort restaurant.

We started with a shot of our favorite sipping tequila, Fortaleza before enjoying an awesome dinner.

We were given a golf cart for our use which was great because driving the dually everywhere would not have been fun. It didn’t even fit in the driveway of the villa!

After a quick stop in Phoenix for doctor appointments, we were back home the second week in February.

The Winter Blast pyrotechnics event is Presidents weekend every year and this time Paul’s brother Tom and his wife Sue were coming with their RV club.

We parked our rig at the site so we could relax and enjoy some time with them.

Once they left we had about a week to unpack, spend some time with Liz and Randy, and of course, take Paul out for his standard birthday celebration.

And then….. it was time to leave for Los Angeles for our daughter’s wedding.