Penny’s Dog Show

Avondale, Arizona                             High 70 Low 54

Yesterday we went to some more of the Talks/sales presentations. Some were very informative and others not so much.

Last night they had a group called Ticket to Ride. They were a group from Arizona that sang Beetles songs. They even used the same period instruments. When they talked, they even had an English accent. We thought they were very good.

This morning they had a dog show. I wanted to take Penny to it. When she was there, she was all excited to see all the other dogs. Unfortunately I entered her in show, not knowing exactly what to show her in. They announcer told everyone that if your dog was entered show, they had to show with the costumes.  Penny didn't have a costume and doesn't like them anyway, so she did the dog show more for the experience than anything else. I thought some of the costumes were clever, and perhaps Penny would have done better in the trick category, but she only knows a couple of tricks.

This afternoon they held the drawing for the prizes for the people that had found matching numbers. As it turned out, there were a lot of people there. Some of the prizes were very good prizes. They said they gave away over $20,000 in prizes, including lots of gift certificates to Camping World. First prize was either an 8 day infield spot at the Albuquerque Balloon Fest, or a 14 day Music Tour in Nashville and Memphis, plus $1000 spending money with either trip. I didn't get called for any prizes so all I won was a tee shirt.

I had found a second number match at the dog show, and the man I matched with first won a bobble head doll and a chance at a $500 gift certificate. All he won was the doll!

It rained later this afternoon for a while and right now it is cold, so we decided not to go to tonight’s entertainment.

Thanks for visiting. 

Renewing Our Wedding Vows.

Avondale, Arizona                 High 72 Low 45

Today lots more RVs came into the Rally. Yesterday there was no one behind us and now it is full. Yesterday there were 6 tram stops, and now there are 12 stops.

 All morning and a good part of the afternoon there were lines of RVs coning in to the grounds.

This is a long line of RVs parked at the Rally. There are several rows just like this one.

This was taken from the third floor of the bleachers. We could see two of the trams and some of the RVs.

This shows how big the infield is.

The large field behind us is wired to have electrical with several large portable generators. We found out that they charge $50 per day for a total of $200 to have the electrical for 4 day of Rally. We thought it was kind of high when we could be in an RV Park for $20.00 per day with Coast to Coast.

One of the tram conductors told us that there are 16 trams running constantly. They always seem to be full of people either going to the Rally or going home.

Cindy and I both went to some presentations today. While informative, they were trying to sell you on their product.

Tonight they were trying to set a new world record for the largest number of couples renewing wedding vows. They needed to beat 1087 couples and to participate you had to have a copy of your wedding certificate. They also gave prizes for the best dressed couple. The grand prize was round trip airfare to anywhere in the continental US. I got some pictures of some of the better one, but they didn't win. Cindy told me I didn't seem to take it too serious and I told the two couples that some people dressed up for the ceremony and some of us (me) didn't even shave this morning. It was still a lot of fun. There were also prizes for longest married (65 years) and shortest time married (3 days).

Cindy has her hand up at the top middle of the people.

We watched some entertainers tonight until we got tired and started to leave. They have issued a number to each person at the Rally and as I walked out, a man with the same number as mine was walking up the stairs. If you could find the person with the same number, both of us win some kind of prize. Tomorrow we are going to get together and go to the Camper World booth and see what we won.

We will be going to some more classes and they are having some more evening entertainers.

Thanks for visiting.

Made It To The Good Sam Rally

Avondale, Arizona                    High 73 Low 46

Last night we drove to Ed and Barbara’s in the Foothills. There were 5 couples there for a barbecue. Three of the couple are from Riverton, Utah, one from West Jordan, Utah, and one couple, I didn't find out where they are from. We had a good meal and spent some time visiting.

The couple from West Jordan and Cindy and I were staying at the same RV Park and we both planned on leaving this morning.

We got away at about 9:00 and arrived here about noon. We had good driving conditions all the way with no problems.

There was a steady line of RVs coming into this place and I don’t think I've ever seen so many RVs in such a small area before. There is actually a lot of room her, but there are a lot of RV’s.

We had to wait a while till we got our packet from the Rally people and then went to a craft show that was going on. Cindy got some picture of one bracelet that was really striking because of the colors and was made so it wasn't just a straight line. The Rally officially starts tomorrow, but there was some things going on.

After the craft show, we went to one seminar on how to make your RV storage more efficient. Neither Cindy nor I thought it was very good. A lot of people must have felt the same way, because a lot of people left early.

After we got back to the trailer, I called Jan to see if she was here, and found out they were here and where they were parked. We went to see her and Bill, and they had some other people visiting them. I’m sorry, but I didn't get their names. We talked for a while until the group started to break up.

The lady on the left is Judy Lawless and she writes a travel blog. They are from Ontario, Canada.

We have some other seminars we want to go to tomorrow, and there is entertainment in the evening.

Thanks for visiting.

Penny’s Afternoon Carry

Wellton, Arizona                      High 72 Low 50

I took care of some small repairs today. Our outside Smartlight had sun rotted lenses and I called and the company said they had some trouble with the first ones, and they sent new ones to Riverton which I was able to get while there.

I had to take the whole lamp off the trailer, because I was afraid I would lose the tiny screws that held the motion sensors in place. It wasn't too bad a job and I got this repair taken care of. I was afraid water would get into the light and ruin it like happened to Greg.

The next repair was to replace two of our floor heat registers with heavy duty cold air return grills, which do the same job but are way heavier and sturdier. The new one didn't come with holes to mount them down and I had to drill mounting screw holes. I only had carry-on bags on the planes and was afraid TSA might not let me take them on the airplane, so as I left the terminal last Wednesday, I stopped and asked the TSA guard if I would be able to take them in carry-on, and he told me that if I took them out of the bag and had them where they could see them, I would have no problem. Yesterday I got them through without a hitch.

Cindy has got into a routine with Penny. She takes her for a walk in the morning, and then in the afternoon, she tries to go for another walk. Penny will walk for a little ways and then will walk no further.  At that point Penny gets picked up and is carried the rest of the walk. Cindy says she is all excited to go out, but sometimes won't even take the first step. Penny might not be getting walks, but we are walking a lot more. Penny seems to like her afternoon "carry". You don’t think she’s spoiled or anything do you?

 

This evening I was hoping for a nice Arizona sunset, but all I got was a very feeble bit of red.

We are only here for two more nights and then are headed to the Good Sam Rally near Phoenix.

Thanks for visiting. 

Back in Arizona

Wellton, Arizona                 High 73 Low 54

I spent three days at the Statler Retreat. The retreat was mostly about the new Creative Studio’s 6 program. Statler offers free upgrades to 4.2 and 5 users. The problem is that my computer is a Windows XP, which will not support Creative Studios 5 or 6. The classes and dinner after got me home kind of late at night. 

My options are live with what I have or get a new computer with Windows 8, which is a fairly big investment.

There are a lot of really nice features on the new program which I really like, but I have to wonder if I really need them since I’m not home running the quilt machine all the time.

The classes did show how to use what I have better, and there are some things on it that I didn't know I had.

Decisions, decisions.

The classes and dinner after got me home kind of late at night. They fed us breakfast, lunch and dinner plus all the snacks you cared to eat during the day.

Friday night they had show and tell, and I took Cindy’s embroidered Santa quilt to get some ideas on how to quilt it, but of course the final decision is Cindy’s.

My birthday was Friday and since I got home late on Friday, Tammy took me out to eat last night. We decided on Village Inn, and I had fried shrimps. The two kids had a breakfast which is served anytime.

I really missed Cindy while I was gone and am glad to be back with her. Also Penny acts glad to see me. I was glad to hear that they didn't have any problems while I was gone.

Any time I was outside while I was in Salt Lake City, I was suffering from the cold. The people there told me how unusually warm it is, and has been, but I’m use to Arizona weather, where it only gets to the low 50s 0r high 40s at night, not where it only gets to the high 50s during the day. Now I know why we go south in the winter.

Today I had flights that would have got me into Yuma at 6:30. I talked to the ticket counter at the  Salt Lake Airport and they told me I could get on earlier flights, but it would cost me $75.00 to change the ticket. I decided to ask the agent at the gate and she told me the same thing. I told her I would have to think about it, and finally decided I wanted to get back to Yuma three hours earlier, so I went up and talked to the agent again. She went ahead and made the change and when I tried to give her my credit card, she said she wasn't going to charge me. I was happy. On both flights, the first into Phoenix and then into Yuma, there were three empty seats, so it really didn't hurt US Airways to let me make the change. I remember a long time ago that if the airline had empty seats, they didn't even hesitate allowing you to go on earlier flights and it was always free. How times have changed, but I managed to get a nice agent, and I was glad for three hours I didn't have to sit in the airports.

Sorry, no pictures again. Thanks for visiting.

Made It Home and Penny Update

Riverton, Utah                High 55 Low 34

I flew home today without any glitches. For the people in Salt Lake, the weather is warm, but to me it is chilly. The high here is about the same as the low in Wellton. There is rain predicted for Friday and snow Saturday and Sunday. It will be good to go back to Arizona.

Cindy is on her own until I get back on Sunday.

I came home to go to a Gammill Quilting Machine retreat. They have a couple of national quilting instructors coming in to, hopefully, teach the attendees something more about their machines. It should be good to learn more.

I leave to go back to Arizona on Sunday and fly into Yuma. Yuma has the smallest airport I remember flying out of. TSA didn't even open until 45 minutes before our scheduled departure and there was no one at the airline counter until about an hour before. It was kind of laid back. There only seemed to be one gate for departures, but there might have been others.

Penny got over being mad at us and is her old self. She was fine on Tuesday. The only thing is now when I take her out in the morning, she shivers the whole time she is out, But she seems to be handling the warm days better. I sure it is only going to get warmer in Arizona.

That's it for today, thanks for visiting.

Arizona Sunset and Penny's Haircut

Arizona Sunset

Wellton, Arizona              High 82 Low 54

We finally had enough clouds to have a nice sunset.

Saturday night there was a team trivia challenge at the Rec Center. It ended up with 7 teams of 6 people each. It lasted 3 ½ hours, which didn't seem that long. It was a lot of fun. I got in with three Canadians and a couple from Maine. We did pretty well and were in the lead for about half of it, and then we got some questions that none of us had any idea what the correct answer was, so we ended third. This meant that our team did not get the fun size candy bar each………………Ahh……….

Today we went to a little Mexican food stand in Wellton called the Mad Mexican Restaurant. We had one breakfast burrito, which we had been told was very good. One was plenty for both of us and was good enough that we will probably go another time. It probably weighed 2 pounds.

Penny’s hair is getting so long that she is suffering from the heat, so we are taking her to the dog groomer. Also her hair is getting quite matted again. I know she will hate the experience, but she will be better off when it is over. Here are some before pictures.

And here are some after ones. She is so upset that she acts like she doesn't like or trust us. We feel like we only have half the dog we had before.

Thanks for visiting.