The End of Another Year

Last year at this time, we were in staying at Valle del Oro in Mesa, a huge 2000 plus RV -- mostly park models -- site. While we were there last spring, we did some driving around, more and more on the outskirts of the Phoenix metropolitan area, looking for a spot we might like a bit better. Valle del Oro is larger than Ritzville, the town where Forry and I both went to school. We both like the country and we were hoping to find something a little more rural, somewhere we could actually see a bit of desert.

We left Phoenix in mid-April, finally making that jaunt to the Meteor Crater that Forry has been wanting to return to since he was a little boy. We spent a night in Gallup, New Mexico on our way to spend time with our good friends Tom and Juni in Albuquerque. As usual, we had only planned to stay a couple of days, but ending up spending two lovely weeks with them. Their two little Yorkies, Idgie and Cassie and their very dignified Toy Poodle Tica are special little dogs.

Our next stop was to spend a couple of days with my friend Tina and her daughter Delcherie and Granddaughter Kaili near Farmington, New Mexico. Tina serves on the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board with me and her family has become some of my favorite people.

We worked our way north through Utah and Idaho, finally spending a couple of nights in mid-May at Wildhorse Resort Casino in order to sneak in a quick visit with Sister Sherry and the slobbery dogs. We ended up at Uhlmann's RV in Chehalis for another repair of those damned hydraulic hoses and got in a few days mooching off of Sister Roxy and Rich.

We spent most of June in Dawn and Todd's driveway while we helped prepare for Granddaughter Havela's high school graduation and celebration and family time, then helped pack moving boxes for their more to Keizer, Oregon. From there it was to Daughter Mary Mae and Scott's for a month of NW Shakespeare and Claire's rehearsal for Pan, the Musical along with more family time.

We spent the last part of September taking care of doctor and dentist appointments in Spokane and Moses Lake, visiting with Son Sean, getting in a visit with our friend Mary, catching up with Brother Pat and his fast-growing grands and the annual AHEC reunion. We spent another week and a half with Sister Sherry getting to watch Keiko San win his Chanpion points. Then back to Chehalis again for another hydraulic hose replacement and a new set of tires for Auntie Violet in Woodburn.

We worked at the Mennonite Country Auction the first Saturday in October, then started heading our way south again. We made a stop at Seven Feathers in Canyonville, then down through California to Mojave, then to Kingman, Arizona, and finally to Fort McDowell. We are definitely out in the country and can here coyotes howling most nights. There are no park models in this park and it has less then a two hundred sites. We'll spend the rest of the winter here at Eagles View, then once again head north.