Snowbirds Head South

Upon arriving home both Dad and I immediately came down with a nasty cold and cough, probably picked up from the ship where there were many who were coughing. Trying to recover from this delayed our departure for Arizona by a few days longer than planned. As is was, we pretty much just dumped all the freezables back into the motor home without organizing and left on December 14th to beat a predicted storm. Prior to that we did manage a trip to Idaho Falls to visit the McKnights for Travis's 11th birthday with the amazing cake that Leslie made

and to Pocatello to see Lance, Aubri and Taylor

as well as a brief visit with our dear friends, the Liljenquists and Gardners. In Utah our first night we spent with Laurie, Evan and the Ockey family in Springville, near Provo. The O'Donnals were able to come over from Provo for a while and we stopped at Brendon's school to see Leon's wife and son, Chrissy and Brendon, on the way south next morning. We were sorry we missed seeing Leon. That evening we made it to the St. George area and visited our beloved former Salt Lake City neighbors in the St. George suburb of Washington, Utah where we stayed with Murray and Collene Taylor overnight. While there my cold worsened again and I also became ill. Murray and Dad gave me a blessing and the next morning I was feeling a little better so we continued our journey. That night we stayed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona where we had many memories of our stay there last December.



While we were stopped along the south end of the lake for breakfast we also spotted a coyote doing his best to avoid us.

The following day, Saturday, we drove on to Quartzsite, Arizona where I went shopping for stones to make wire wrap jewelry at the flea markets along Kuehn Street. We then looked up and went for a visit with our old friend, Phil Mortensen who camps there on BLM land in the desert nearby every winter. After our visit we left Quartzsite and arrived at Countryside RV Park in Apache Junction about 6 PM that evening and set up camp for the next four months during a beautiful Arizona sunset.

Our first order of business after setting up camp was to dress down and head for a relaxing swim and soak in the pool and hot tub.

They were as clean and warm as last season and continue to be among the main attractions, besides our friends we have made, for us here. Since then we have made several trips back to the pool. Dad also called his cousins that live in the valley and one day while we were out and about we drove out to Queen Creek to visit Milo and Ivan Walker, whose home was our service project last winter to repair and paint the exterior. They were doing well and we had a nice visit. This morning we enjoyed the Saturday morning $3 pancake breakfast at the clubhouse. It is great with all you can eat pancakes, link sausages, scrambled eggs and a slice of orange with the trimmings. We then got in on our first shuffle board scramble. The boards are so well waxed that it is a real experience learning how far the puck travels with such a little push. It was a lot of fun and we met several new people, some of whom had been spending winters here at Countryside for the past thirty years. Tonight is Christmas Eve and there was a golf cart light parade and a party in the clubhouse. Many residents also do a nice job of decorating for the holidays.

This is our humble little Christmas tree.

Yesterday we got our internet up and running and have enjoyed Skyping with some of our kids and friends. This year we have a cell phone contract, however, instead of the prepaid plan from last winter so we are much freer to use the phones without the earlier limitations.