I am happy to report that when Chuck was able to check on the issue he found that a couple of arms had crossed and therefore it wasn't allowing the governor to operate correctly. Easy fix (if you know what you are looking for) as Chuck is pretty handy with all that stuff and spotted the issue. So glad this was an easy repair and hopefully we don't have any other problems with the generator! I say this very loosely as a man told us when we bought our first trailer "the only thing that works on a RV is the owner"!!!! I have to agree somedays.
New month and new things are happening at the casita. The murphy bed cabinet just wasn't working for us, so I listed it and sold it in a day. We ordered a new bed frame from Amazon. Got a mattress from a local company here in Yuma. We officially have a real life queen size bed, and I think it is going to work out great for us.
The drive to El Cento was only about an hour and twenty minutes. It was so nice to be out and about! Heidi spotted the Aldi's sign so we didn't even have to make a U-turn to get to it.
We got out of the car and got in line so we would be one of the first to get in on the much treasured Advent Calendars they offered in their latest flyer. I think at this point Doris and Heidi think I have lost my mind. The doors opened at 9am and the line of about 50 people rushed into the store. It didn't take Doris & Heidi long to figure this shopping thing out and we all enjoyed picking out our calendars. I think they were equally shocked at how many other "crazy" people were there to do the same thing. One lady asked me about the frenzy and exactly what was the deal about the Advent calendar. I explained as best I could and she decided she needed to buy a few as well. We met up with the same lady on another isle and she asked if we had seen any of the coffee Advents. I told her the last I looked they had all sold out.
We finish our shopping and get in line to begin the checkout. There was a line about as long to check out as there was when we came in. As we stood looking at our finds, I explained to Doris that the Coffee Advent she was getting was K cups. She didn't realize this when she picked it up, so she decided she would not take it since her coffee maker was not a pod type. I suggested we find the lady that was wanting one and see if she still was interested in it. Doris and I take off while Heidi mans our baskets. The lady we were looking for was just almost up to check out. She was so delighted when Doris asked if she would like to have her Coffee Advent. We make our way back to our baskets and wait to check out. The people in line were so very nice and friendly. Our baskets kept us at a socially accepted 6' apart.
Our girl trip even included a trip through the drive thru at a Starbucks. Heidi treated us to a "Pink Drink" Doris had never had a pink drink so it was fun to see what she thought of it. I have to say we were all smiles. It was so much fun sitting in a car chatting about everything and feeling we had no cares in the world. Brought us back to a somewhat normal time of our lives. Before we knew it we were back in our neighborhood and unloading our treasures. I think this may need to be a regular yearly thing for us to do!
I spoke about new things happening at the casita and I am totally excited about this next item. We have contracted with a local company here in Yuma to build us a wall.....not just a wall, but a courtyard wall. We are going to enclose the front part of the casita to give a little more privacy from the street. When our double doors are open to the casita there is nothing to break the direct view into our place. This "wall" will do the trick and add some great curb appeal to the front as well. The first load of brick was delivered on November 7th and I can already tell this is going to be such a great thing for us.
I had pinned quite a few ideas on Pinterest and my vision was a wooden gate on the front. That idea changed rather quickly when our friends Bryan and Sandy were getting rid of a metal gate. This gate just happens to match our drive gate and it didn't take us long to decide we needed the gate. Bryan was so nice and even delivered it to us. I think this wall thing is coming together!
November 8th we took Bryan and Sandy out for a little spin. We rode out to the east of our place at the Foothills. We rode our RZR and they had their Dune Buggy. Bryan had just purchased his toy and wanted to see how it would handle on the rocky terrain around us. Our plans were to tool around the area for a while and make our way over to Wheezies for a burger and beer. We chose to sit outside and stay away from the inside crowd. I can't say enough about this little day of fun. We really enjoyed spending time with Bryan and Sandy....I see many more exploring trips with these two.
November 9th The wall is really starting to take shape. The guys worked on it today and it is progressing very well. We talked to Angel this afternoon and told him we wanted to have a couple of window openings on one side and he assured us that he would make it happen.
November 10th Looks like Bryan and Sandy wanted to go to Mexico so Chuck, Heidi and I couldn't pass up an opportunity to go see what we needed to purchase. Chuck hadn't been over there this season and he figured he would keep Bryan company. I have to say we covered quite an area in a very short time. I was even able to find some eyeglasses and ordered them. They will be ready the following day, so looks like another trip back to our favorite town. We ate at Guadalajara. Very impressed that they checked your temperature and made you wash your hands with hand sanitizer before entering the establishment. All the waitstaff were wearing mask and seemed genuinely interested in keeping us healthy and safe. The food was great and the company of our friends made for an absolutely great day.
November 11th Heidi and I run back over to Mexico to pick up my eyeglasses. They were ready at noon and we didn't spend too much time shopping as we wanted to make sure we were back over in the USA by 2pm. Have heard some stories of people not getting back over the border in time and had to spend the night in Algodones. The 2pm closure doesn't mean if you are in line you are ok....it means if you haven't gone through Customs by 2pm, you are SOL. I am happy to report we have made our way back in time every time!
When we drive back to the Foothills and pull into our drive I am shocked to see the wall has made even more progress. It has the beginning of two openings. We are told that they will be back tomorrow and work on the archway.
November 12th The wall has officially gotten an archway. The two openings have come to be as well. They also began the stucco procedure. They will put a first coat of a kind of cement to bond the material to the bricks. It will sit and dry and then they stucco it. After that they come back and splatter the wall with stucco and trowel it so it will match the stucco on our house and garage. Since we have painted our stucco last year they will have to paint the wall once it is finished. They are also going to distress the wall and leave some bricks exposed for a little more interesting look.
Sooooo, the destressing is a little overwhelming. We will have to have them stucco more of the areas as it is just too destressed for us. It looks more like The Alamo. LOL
November 16th The workers have been busy working on some other jobs and today is the first day they have come back to un-destress our wall. Chuck and I are both happy with how it now looks. We are getting a bit concerned about the timeline on the wall. Our plans to leave and head back to Oklahoma for the holiday's is coming up quickly.
November 17th Angel and his crew show up. There are 4 guys working on the stucco and Angel is working to get the work finished so we can get the wall painted and our gate up. Angel tells us that he has to leave to handle an emergency at another job and leaves his guys working. The wall really does look nice with the stucco done.
November18th Jaime (the owner of Brick by Brick and father of Angel) comes by this morning. He tells us that his son, Angel was in a motorcycle accident yesterday afternoon. He was mediflighted to Phoenix and in good hands. He was wearing his helmet, thank God, and other than a broken hip and a lot of road rash he is going to be ok. His recovery time hasn't been determined yet, but I'm sure he's going to be off work for awhile. With all this said, we assured Jaime that the work on our project could come to a halt without any problem from us. We are leaving the next day anyway and really felt they were rushing to get it finished. Our thoughts are on Angel making a complete recovery from his accident. Our neighbors have come by and dropped off some "road" snacks for us. Jay and Pat brought over a container of trail mix. So very sweet of them. Don and Cathy come by and Cathy has made some Peppermint Patties. Everything looks yummy and I bet we eat it up quickly.
November 19th We are loaded and ready to make our way back to Oklahoma. Bronco is ready to go and find some green grass. Seems like we are always watching the weather on these trips as you never know what the weather is going to be like on I-40. Sure don't want to run into a snow storm or anything. By leaving today we are missing a front that was bringing a lot of wind. If you have ever traveled I-40 you know the wind can be terrible and driving any high profile vehicle with a side wind just isn't a whole lot of fun. Chucks planning worked well cause we didn't really experience a whole lot of wind at all. Payson, AZ we stopped and filled up. There was a Sonic next door so I used my app and placed an order for our lunch. I am a user of all the Apps that are available on my I-Phone. Makes it a whole lot easier when you can't fit into their parking lots or just choose to walk and pick something up. Bellies are full and it is time to continue our way up to I-40.
I was truly amazed at all the traffic on I-40 once we reached it. Our stop for the first leg of the drive is Gallop, NM. We probably could have driven farther, but you know we are retired and we aren't on a real time line. (other than weather) It was kind of shocking to the nervous system to get out and feel the cold air. I already miss the warm weather of Arizona!
November 20th Time to get on the road again and make some miles. I said we were taking it a little slower going home and today we will stop in Amarillo and spend the night. I even drove some of today so Chuck wouldn't be so tired when we stop. He can be a passenger for awhile. I really don't mind driving McClassC. She drives really good and just like always you just have to pay attention to the other guy. Drivers were really pretty nice today and have to say we didn't have any scary moments. We got to Amarillo around 4pm and pulled into The Big Texan RV Park. I went in and got us registered and before you know it we were pulling into our site. We were told that The Big Texan would deliver food to our spot so we took them up on it and I placed orders for Chuck and I to have a steak. The delivery was quick and easy. Our food was so so. It was just nice to sit and relax and watch some TV for awhile. Again, the cold temperatures sure make me miss our little casita.
November 21st Woke up to 34 degree temps this morning. Say it isn't so! I took Bronco out for one last walk and had to take a picture of the 5th wheel that we parked next to last night. It was a Road Warrior. Thought that was interesting, cause in Arizona you really don't see a lot of the Heartland Road Warriors. We were on the road by about 8:30am and still ahead of the severe weather event coming tomorrow to Oklahoma. Uneventful trip!
We were home a little after noon and was amazed at all the tree debris along the sides of our roads in our neighborhood. I am so glad we had our trees cleaned up before we got home so we didn't have to deal with this mess. Our trees really did take a bad hit with the storm but so did everyone else. By the late afternoon we had the rig unloaded and ready to pull into the barn. The 2-1/2 day trip was now over and we can get things done around the house.
The peppermint patties that Don & Cathy gave us to eat along the way were now all gone. I text Cathy to get her recipe as I think I want to make a batch. I got the recipe and started making some. I was using my hand mixer and after it basically burned up I decided that the batch had to be mixed by hand. I later ask Cathy if she hand mixed hers and she said she did. The recipe didn't say that.....Oh well, I guess it was time to get another mixer. I made my patties a little smaller than Cathy's. She said later she would make them smaller next time as well. They were easy and I enjoyed making them, even if I did kill a mixer.
November 26th Thanksgiving Day! Mother, Louie, Anthony, Heather, Cooper, Cash and Olive the Doodle will be coming over to celebrate Thanksgiving today. I actually cooked the turkey the day before and we have really cut down on a lot of the foods we would normally have. I had ordered everyone a Thanksgiving mask to wear. Our concerns today were with Mother and Louie. Sure didn't want to give them Covid if that was even possible. We kept our distance and enjoyed spending some much needed family time together. Heather was pleased to see that I even remembered to get the newspaper for her to look through. We failed to get one last year and it about ruined our Thanksgiving (only kidding). We took our usual Thanksgiving pictures and we took them with our mask on just so we would have something to laugh at when we look back at this crazy year. I know for sure that I am thankful that we are all healthy and hope and pray we continue.
The Advent Calendars were given out to everyone and I think they were excited for December 1st to roll around so they could start opening them. Bronco and Olive even scored one.
Since my birthday is the 29th, mothers is the 30th and Heathers is December 3rd I told them we might as well celebrate them today as well. It was a very nice day and we really enjoyed spending time with everyone.
My birthday present from Chuck was a new Surface Pro computer. The battery on my old one was expanding and we weren't sure how much longer it would make it. I am so excited to have a computer again. I am always so nervous when we change out a computer as I am always afraid something will happen to the programs that are on the old one. Not sure why it makes me so nervous but it always has. Chuck handled all the transfers and I am so happy to say it was flawless. I had all my passwords and everything. Life is good for this "old" lady! Just glad to make it another year!!!
Since mothers birthday was the following day, we ordered Mexican food from Chelino's, picked it up, and took it over to them for lunch. I think they really enjoyed the lunch. I know I am so very lucky to still have my mom around at her young age of 92! Between her and Louie they are the poster children for the 90's. They have handled the Pandemic quite well. They have even handled not having electricity for 4 days earlier during the October ice storm. They are so blessed with good health and the ability to still live at their own home and enjoy their yard. Mother stays busy in the Spring and Summer with her flowers. Louie just sits and watches her stew over them. What an awesome couple they both are. Louie will be 95 in January....they are just amazing!!!
I close this November post with a heart full of thankfulness and continue to count my blessings.
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