This has been an interesting day. We worked most of the day on getting out the Polio Echo Inc. newsletter that goes to members all over the country. Some 300 copies had to be folded and secured and then they had to have the address labels put on and kept on zip code rotation. This is one of the USPS requirements for bulk rate mailing. What a pain, but necessary. We finally finished up a little before 4pm.
The attached photos are of sr37, the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia. This highway is several hundred miles long and most of it looks about like this. The highway is only 2 lane, narrow at that. We saw very few vehicles the length of the highway. You had to slow down and move to the edge to pass an oncoming vehicle. The road was, what we call "chip and seal" and the southern half had been resurfaced the previous year and they said it was to be completed the following year. It suffered considerably from frost heaves, as most roads in this part of the country do. You just have to slow down and take your time to keep from bottoming out.
This highway runs between two mountain ranges and if you enjoy mountains, this is the road for you. We saw several glaciers on either side of the road, lots of wildlife and very little indication of any living souls. We did see two highway signs indicating we were on road 37, however you did not need any signs as there was not any other roads, only a few drives that did not appear to go anywhere and a few entrance roads to Provincial areas. There is really no where to go except into the mountains on either side. If you did come across a small settlement there might be a road that went into town on one end and out the other, back on the highway.
We did find an interesting place called Jade City. This is reportedly as the only jade mine in the world. They had all kinds of jade trinkets as well as bulk jade you could buy and cut yourself. It can only be cut with a diamond wheel and lots of water. They had a large piece of jade being cut with a gasoline powered saw. It was just running and cutting unattended. The half hour or so we were there it only cut about 1/2", so it would take several hours to finish the cut. They had a lot of old mining equipment and tools used in the mining of jade.
There was also a place there that had all kinds of animals made out of logs using a chain saw. Some very interesting items as well, all made out of wood. Across the highway was a small filling station and a place to get something to eat. You would not call it a restaurant as it was not that nice, just a place to get something to eat. As usual, we always filled our fuel tank at every opportunity. There are not that many places to fuel and when you only get about 8 mpg and a 26 gallon fuel tank, you get gas when you can. However, we never did run really low on fuel. We found fuel at every 75 to 100 miles, but you never knew how far it would be to the next.
As there was not any power anywhere down this highway, everyone had generators or various sizes to keep things running. Most places had their generators away from the place of business, but if you listened close you could hear them in the background. Just a way of life in this part of the world.
This is beautiful country and always a pleasure to travel and watch Mother Nature do her magic, even in a part of the country that is frozen for several months of the year.

The day today was taken up with one of those unpleasant tasks of attending a good friend's funeral. This was a friend of Nancy B's for many years and I had known her for only a few years as a member of the Handicapped Travel Club. It was a very nice funeral and well attended, with many in wheelchairs. June had polio at age 2 and had been in a wheelchair for several years. She was a goer and attended many functions and was a member of several organizations and service clubs. She was an active square dancer as well as active in her church. She enjoyed sports of all kinds and attended many games when the team was in town. She will be missed by all who knew her.
The photos are some more from the top of Reflector mountain. You can see the many fields of green produce growing in various stages of maturity. The one photo shows the miles of trails over the mountains to the east. Not sure where they go as they all disappear over a mountain out there somewhere. It would be interesting to investigate and just see where they go. You wonder who laid them out and how long ago it was done. They appeared to have been pretty well traveled, at least from our vantage point.
Not sure what will be going on tomorrow, but it will be interesting I am sure.

The weather the last couple of days has been about perfect. 85 degrees during the day and near 50
degrees for a low at night. Yesterday was a day when we did not have a lot planned and therefore not a lot happened. I did pick up a spring for the brake in the van as it has a tendency to keep the brake lights on thus the brake indicator in the motor home on as well. After a couple of rough spots in the road it will go off. Just needs a little more tension on it to return to the stop. Today, we took off about noon and went to Superstition Springs shopping center to return some things and make a visit to the Dairy Queen for a bite of ice cream. Back to Walmart for a couple of things and back home. This evening we hosed off the carport floor and did some cleaning for Nancy B. Tomorrow we will go to a funeral for a good friend of Nancy's and a person we have had lunch with on several occasions, so we felt that we knew her fairly well.
The photos are from the top of Reflector Mountain taken when we took the 4 wheeler up the mountain trail. You can click on the photos and enlarge them considerably. In the top photo you can see our motor home parked next to the lake near the 4th jetty from the right. In the other photos you can see the cultivated fields where they are raising all kinds of things. This soil is rich, only lacking water to make things grow. I did notice that they would not fertilize when they planted, but would add the nutrients to the water
they irrigated the area.
The views from the top of this mountain were spectacular. You can see for several miles in all directions.
Dan and I really enjoyed the trip up and down the mountain, however Karen, Dan's wife and Evelyn got a bit concerned about the two of us making this trip as we both are wheelchair bound and if something happened, there would not be much we could do.
However, it all went well and thinking back, if may not have been the smartest thing we ever did, but it was fun anyway.

It was overcast this morning with the sun peeping out occasionally. We left Gila Bend and headed for Mesa via the back roads. A really nice trip across the Sonoran desert and through the Maracopa
mountains. We have the motor home parked in our favorite spot at the residence of Nancy B.
The photos are some of the sunsets out our dining room window while camped on Mittry Lake. Makes you think of Hawaii, a little.
We do not have a lot planned for tomorrow, some grocery shopping and other errands and just enjoying the nice warm weather. It was 85 degrees when we arrived in Mesa. It really felt good as it has been cool at night and only moderately warm during the days for a couple of weeks. Maybe spring is coming. We noticed that the desert area had a green tint to the ground, so apparently something is beginning to grow and looking like spring.

We finished packing the van and the motor home with the items from the hamfest. It was late and dark when we got back from the BBQ dinner and prize drawing.
We drove the short distance to the Yuma Territorial Prison. I had been there many years ago but this would be the first time for Evelyn. It has changed a lot since I was there. It has been commercialized with a gun fight with class C actors, if that good. There is even a hot dog cart there selling all the normal chips, etc.
The prison is still pretty much as I remembered. It was built on a granite hill/mountain. Some of the cells were actually cut out of the granite. The main cell blocks were constructed of granite stones and cement as well as adobe. The adobe walls would be about 8' thick at the base and go to about 5' at the top. Most of the construction was done by prison inmates. As you can see the locks are placed so that they can not be reached from either cell. The cells were open on both ends and with a tin roof, it got quite
hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. It gets below freezing frequently in this area in the winter months.
A cell would contain 4 metal bunks with 3 men to the bunk, 12 men to the cell. The cells were only about 7' wide so there was not much room to move around.
They had a "black cell" where they put the inmates that did not want to follow the rules. It was dark, they would be shackled and fed bread and water. There was no sanitation, only a grate floor and the cell was cleaned every 2 or 3 weeks, depending.
Many inmates died of heat stroke or tuberculosis or other maladies. It was indeed a rough place to be and certainly not a place that you would want to return. The prison was only in use for 33 years and then it was closed and all of the prisoners were moved to a new prison in Florence, AZ, near Casa Grande.

This morning we woke up to the alarm clock, which is something we do not like to do. It was still dark at 6am, but the doors open to the public at 8am so we had to get going and get opened up to do some business. We were fairly busy most of the morning and after about 3pm it was about over as far as our business was concerned. We did a few badges after that but not many. We starter putting things away about 4:30 and had things pretty well put in the motor home and van by 5 o'clock. The BBQ dinner was to start at 6pm with the drawing for the door prizes afterwards and then the drawing for the main prizes. They had some nice prizes. I won an hourly prize, a pencil torch that runs on butane. That is something I can use and it does not take much room to store. At the door prize drawing Evelyn won an ARRL handbook. That is something that we can resell at the next hamfest. We will find a place to put it until March at the Midland Texas hafmest.
The photos are from the entrance and display area of the Yuma Proving grounds. They have some nice vehicles and guns on display as well as the one helicopter. This was just north of the Mittry Lake WRA where we stayed a few days. We had the opportunity to watch them practice jumping on several occasions. We understand that it was probably the Golden Knights we were watching. We did see them using different colored smoke at times.
Tomorrow we plan to get away sometime before noon and head back toward Mesa. We will stop at the Yuma Territorial Prison and see how a real prison is to look and operate. It is supposedly much worse than Sherri ff Joe's tent city. We will let you know what we think of it.

Wednesday the 19th we went shopping and did some errands and made preparations to move to the fairgrounds for the hamfest. The top photo is of the motor home parked on Mittry Lake, only about 20 feet from the water. The photo was taken from a jetty close by. We enjoyed seeing many different birds. From the Coots and a long legged long billed bird that looked like a snipe of some kind. Cinnamon ducks, a pair of Teals, white Egrets and a couple of Pelicans as well as many Gulls. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset each evening, just like you were in Hawaii with the palm trees and the water.

The second photo is a sign along the dirt road toward "Betty's Kitchen".
As this was a dirt road toward the water you can only imagine what you would find. We of course drove the road, only about a quarter of a mile and you come to Betty's Kitchen. It is a pay area where they have picnic tables, shelters and pit toilets. There is trees, brush and reeds all around and you would not think there was anything within miles. Where the name came from, one can only surmise. But one thing for sure you would not get any ham and eggs there unless you brought them and fixed them your self. Betty was no where to be found.

Thursday the 20th we left our beautiful parking spot on Mittry Lake and drove to the Yuma Co. fairgrounds. We had to wait a couple of hours before we could get in, but at 4pm we were finally able to get in and park the coach next to the theatre building where we would set up. We got most of the equipment in before they closed the building. We continued our set up on Friday morning and got ready for the public to arrive at noon. However, before we really got completely set up we had business from the other vendors that wanted name badges for themselves. Many of the vendors we had met at Quartzsite, so we had a lot of friends to chat with during the day. We had a good afternoon and look forward to a good day tomorrow being Saturday. There will be a Buzzard BBQ tomorrow evening and they will draw for the door prizes as well as the main prizes after the dinner.

2/14/1009 - Got up a bit earlier than usual, the sun was shining and we finished preparations to hit the road. The rabbit and pig show was well underway, there were goats there as well.
We hooked up the van and left the Pinal Left the Pinal Co. fairgrounds about 11am, and headed for Casa Grande to fill up with fuel. We had filled the van the night before at $191.9 but by the next morning it was up to $195.9, but the competition across the street was $223.9, so still a good price for the area.
We headed down I10 to the junction with I8 and headed west. We stopped at a rest area for some lunch and a short nap and on toward Yuma for the evening. We decided to check the fairgrounds to see if they had a campground. They did not and the rodeo was just letting out and there were cars everywhere. We finally got out of the parking lot and back on I8 and headed west toward California. We crossed the Colorado River and pulled off at an exit we thought was where we wanted to go, but found that it went north into the country and south into Mexico. We turned north and a very short distance was a group of rv’s parked off the side of the road in a large area, some a bit old and several large class A motor homes. We just pulled in and checked with someone that was there and they said just pick a spot and park, just stay out of the sand as you would sink. Just get used to the trains as the track was just across the street. We pulled back up toward the road and leveled out and spent the night. The trains quit running about 10pm or so and did not start back up until early morning. There is only 1 track and they take turns running east and west. Otherwise you sit on a siding and wait for the other train to pass and they you get to use the main track. Sounds like our government at work.

2/15/2009 – After spending our first night in California, we were ready to head back towards Yuma and a more permanent place to stay. We found a place they call Mittry Lake WRA, north of town in the mountains. On our way out of town we found acres and acres of vegetables, Head lettuce, Cabbage, Bibb lettuce, Red lettuce, Romaine lettuce, Broccoli and some we did not recognize. We did see one field of green onions planted as thick as hair on a dogs back. We did learn a few things, the head lettuce is cut from the stalk, trimmed and put in a plastic bag and put in boxes ready for shipment. The next time it is touched by human hands is when you buy it at the market and take it out of the plastic wrapper. They use big machines with conveyor belts. All one guy does is assemble boxes and put them on the belt, one going to his right and one to his left where there are maybe 15 people on each side cutting and bagging the lettuce and putting them in the box. They all have to be a uniform size as there are a certain number of heads that go into each box. The boxes were sealed and put on pallets and hauled to a semi to be shipped to wherever. The odd sized heads are left in the field, ground up and the field is prepared for the next crop. The crops are in all stages of development. We saw fields that were just seedlings, some that were maybe a month old and older, on up to mature size ready to be harvested.
We wound our way through the fields and finally to the end of the pavement and into the WRA. The road was dirt/sand and lots of dust and very rough in spots. We found out that the dam and irrigation system dated back to 1907. There were several places next to the water where you could park your rv. We found one that was quite large, large enough for 3 or 4 units, with handicapped parking area and 3 jetties, one paved for handicapped fishing. On down farther is a very nice boat ramp, dock and shelter house for public use. You are limited to 10 days use per calendar year, the sign says, but no one seems to be checking or knows when you come or go. I guess it is on the honor system.

2/16/2009 – It rained during the night, only a couple of showers but enough to settle the dust and make a mess of the vehicles. We went into town in the afternoon to get our e-mails and mail some letters. It was a holiday, so there was lots of traffic. Where we are parked, there is not any phone or air card service. We are down among several mountains and that is apparently why there are no signals. Evelyn wanted to go shopping so we went to a huge shopping center near the junction of I8 and US95. It covered maybe 4 square blocks of area. I talked with Dan Critten and they are in the area. We wanted to get together with them for a visit. We had not seen them for a couple of years. Dan knew exactly where we were and he said they would come by sometime on Tuesday. They are staying at an RV park out east of Yuma off of I8. We returned home and stopped to watch some harvesting operations and on back to the coach after picking up some gas for the Honda generator. We learned that we can start the Honda and plug in the motor home power cord and the Honda will run all of the electronics including the TV’s and charging the house batteries without out a sweat. It will not run the microwave of high current items, but will handle everything needed during the day for a very small amount of fuel.
It is interesting to watch the birds. There are several species here from quite small to large Egrets and Gulls down to a few Humming birds. There area lot of Coots that are a diving bird looking for something to eat on the bottom of the lake. We watched some Loons that are a diving bird as well, somewhat bigger than the Coots. The Loons dive and swim looking for fish and the Coots will dive to the bottom and come back up near where they went under. They are always busy.

2/17/2009 – The sun came up over the mountains bright and warm. The temperatures at night do not drop as much down here as they do in Mesa, only down to the upper 40’s. We went for a trip to the boat launch where there is a trash bin so we took the trash and spent some time on the boat dock watching then launch some boats and then came back and did some cleaning in the van, there is certainly a lot of dust from the road, but the rain helped and then they came this morning and watered the road and graded it, so it is really smooth now and the washboard areas are gone, at least for a while.
Dan and Karen Critten and a friend came by on a big red 4 wheeler. They had been to the top of Reflector Mountain and enjoying the surrounding countryside. Dan had hand controls on the 4 wheeler so he could drive it. He asked if I could get in and I assured him that I could. So with some assistance I got in, strapped down and we took off. Boy is this unit fast. The speedometer goes to 70 mph. Dan says that 40mph is fast enough for him. We went down the road to the trail that goes up into the mountains. It is quite steep in places and there are a lot of ruts and large rocks you have to negotiate, but we were in 4wd and in low gear and it just kept climbing over the rocks and moving forward. I would estimate some of the grades were 45 degrees at least and maybe more in some areas. We finally made it to the reflector and what a view. We could see the whole lake and see our motor home where it was parked. Many field of vegetables some growing and some being harvested. I would estimate the height of the mountain at 2,000 feet. The trip down was even more exciting as you had to be careful to go slowly but keep the wheels turning as if you started to skid you could easily go over the edge and then who knows what would happen. One area you would go up a steep grade but you had to stop at the top and make a sharp left turn of you would go over the edge, directly in front of you, and down the mountain side and the results would not be pretty. This was probably one of my most exciting adventures in many years.
The rest of the day was relatively uneventful compared to the morning.

This was the last day of the rally. The sun came up bright and there was practically no breeze. A first for the rally. We had coffee and donuts and visited with several of our new friends and said our good byes. We had won a couple of gift certificates, one to a restaurant and one to an ice cream factory. We needed to use them before we left Casa Grande.
We had decided to stay another day so we paid our fee at the office and Evelyn headed to town to do the laundry. I had some work to do so I stayed and completed it and got it ready to go into the mail. Most of our group has left for other places and later this afternoon people started coming in with horse trailers, etc. We understand that there is a rabbit show this week end, however we are seeing sheep and goats come in as well, so we do not really know what is happening. We will be out of here tomorrow and head for Yuma for next weekends hamfest. We will be there probably on Thursday and look over the facility. Nick and Terry Russell will be there on Friday to look it over as well. They wanted our input on the facility for next years Gypsy Journal Rally. We will see how that works out. Have a few days before we need to be there however we have some friends we want to meet up with and catch up on things, some we have not seen since Thanksgiving and othere not since the last Handicapped Travel Club Rally. It will be interesting to see how that all works out. This has been an interesting week and rally. Met lots of very nice folks and some that we had met at the amateur radio gathering out in the desert 9 miles south of Quartzsite. As we travel around and met people, we are finding that we see them again and again in different places and tell one another of our fun times, where we had been, and where we are headed.

This morning was sunny but cool but it warmed up quite a bit. Still cool for this part of the country and this time of year. This is the final full day of the rally with many seminars and meetings to attend. Attended a seminar on things to see and do in southern Arizona. Quite interesting things to see and do. Several wineries in the southeastern part of the state as well as a very nice accessible cave not too far from Benson. We may check that out when we are in the area. It is reportedly much nicer than Carlsbad Caverns, however not as large.
We still have some people to see in the morning so that will take a while. We will stay here another day and then head toward Yuma. The insurance man had given us some ideas on coverages and limits, so we will look into that.
After the door prizes and the 50/50 were awarded, we went to the card room and played Mexican train and really had an enjoyable evening. It will be near midnight before we get to bed, so not sure how early we will be getting out and going.

Another cool morning, but sunny however the wind was nearly gone. The sun was warm, but the air was cool up into mid-day. Ed P. and Nancy B. came by for a couple of hours. we toured the vendor area and got a sandwich at the food stand. Pretty good food for a fair grounds.
The photos are of an old White coe tractor, probably from the 50's and a drop frame furniture van from the same era. I could not get behind the trailer to see the brand as there was too much mud, but as a guess I would say it was a Fruehauf. It appears to have been refurbished and in good condition. The trailer had been converted into living quarters, so I guess you would consider it a 5th wheel trailer. Pretty neat rv for its age and condition. There are rv's of every make and configuration here. From the smallest to the biggest, it appears.
There were several interesting seminars going on during the day. We had a Pizza party this evening and the crowning of Ms. Cactus Queen. This is 6 guys dressed up as women, if you can call it that, and as suspected modesty was not one of their attributes. What a good time was had by all. We went our ways, some staying for music and dancing and others off to another building to play Mexican Train and Hand and Foot, a card game. More seminars during the day and door prizes tomorrow evening along with another 50/50 drawing. This will be the 3rd 50/50 drawing of the rally. The other two resulted in winnings of nearly $300.00 each. Probably a similar amount for tomorrow's drawing. Tickets were 6 for $5.00, so nearly everyone bought $5.00 worth of tickets. We have won a couple of other prizes so not a bad take considering our usual luck.

Today was bright and sunny, but last night the wind was very gusty and we were rockin and rollin all over the place. It started to rain about 9pm and rained until early morning. The wind had settled down considerably from the night before and this evening it is almost calm, but the weather is cool. Things are drying out and most of the units are out of the mud they were in a couple of days ago. Some areas of AZ got up to 2 inches of rain. The higher elevations up near Flagstaff got almost 2 feet of new snow. Something unusual for this part of the country.
I found the guy that owned the truck in the photo. It is a 1959 Morris Minor pick up truck. A very rare vehicle indeed. The owner said he had been looking for one for years and finally found this one. It was in pretty good mechanical condition so he has been driving it, pulling this little camping trailer. Since he has been driving it, people have come up and told him of others that they had seen. Since then he has purchased two others. One in undergoing a frame up restoration and the third one he is using for parts. This one is celebrating its 50th birthday. He said there were only a few of this model imported. This one, as you can see, has a serious rust condition. The grille is being held on with bolts and the hood held down with bungee cords, but it is still running and doing its job. A cute match for the trailer that it pulls.
The rally is going well, we did win a $10.00 certificate for a local restaurant, so we will have to go out and eat before we leave town.

We woke up this morning to clouds and a little sun. The wind was still blowing and gaining in momentum. The water around the motor home had subsided somewhat but we were still in a sea of mud. The parking crew had been watching our unit since yesterday and wondered if we could get out once our parking spot was available on the hard surface. Finally they came and ask if we were ready to try to get out and we were but doubtful that we could get out on our own. As we suspected we could only move about 4 or 5 feet back and forth. They were gone a few minutes and came back with a John Deere tractor
that was not very big, but a 4 wheel drive. They hooked on to the tow bar mounting and started pulling, I was in reverse and we moved out of the mud hole without any problem.
The soil in this area is quite different than that in the midwest. It is very sandy and dusty and apparently there is a hard pan down a few inches, so hard that the water does not filter downward as one would imagine. It stays on top until it evaporates, which apparently takes some time.
We are parked on hard surface and have been out to the orientation and the drawing of door prizes and back to the coach. The wind is still quite strong with gusts to 40 mph or more. If in Indiana I would consider taking cover and watching the sky for storm clouds. But windstorms and tornadoes are very rare
in this part of the country.
We have about 125 units registered for the rally. All the way from 1 million dollar units to this one of a little Burro and its tow vehicle. I am not sure what it is but will attempt to find out and let you know. It is old and apparently rare as I do not remember ever having seen a pick up that looked like this one.

Today was mostly cloudy with a few light showers. We had rain during the night and we woke up in the middle of a lake of a few inches of water. We could not tell that we had parked in a low area of the lot. We have not attempted to move as the hard surfaced area has not been cleared yet. The Goard Festival are still in there. There have been many units come in today. They are parking them where ever they can find space that is not muddy. After the Goard people leave then we can all repark and get our rally underway.
We accomplished a few things we had been wanting to do inside the coach. We installed a full width sun visor across the windshield. It can be raised and lowered so that we can drive into the sun and still see where we are going. I think it will work out quite well. We will see when we get back on the road next week.

The rally is supposed to get started tomorrow aftertnoon so hopefully all will be here and parked and ready to enjoy the rally.

Friday we kept busy getting the motor home ready to hit the road again. After setting still for a while you forget what all needs to be stored away and fastened down. The first few stops and corners soon indicated what you forgot to take care of. We cooked steaks on the grille for supper and had baked potatoes and all the trimmings. A really nice meal with good friends as well.
Today, we moved the coach out of its parking spot and on the street. Finished with the hitch and hooked up the van and checked out the lights and brakes and hit the road. We traveled south on Gilbert Ave. and on through all of the small towns and finally hit the highway to Casa Grande. We took the small highways and stayed off the Interstate. We arrived at the Pinal Co. fairgrounds. The parking lot was full as they were having a Goard festival. Friday through Sunday. We were due in tomorrow but came early to help with the Gypsy Journal Rally.
The photo is of antique tractors that we found here at the fairgrounds when we were here some time back. They looked probably better than when they were new.
Tomorrow evening or early Monday am we will move to our parking space up by the buildings where they park the handicapped units, on the pavement, not out in the dirt and dust. This afternoon the wind was blowing and the dust was everywhere and dust devils frequent. Everything will have to be cleaned after we get moved.

Yesterday, Wednesday there was not much going on. I did go to the hardware and purchase a couple of bolts for the tow bar mounts on the front of the van. The adapters were loose in the base plate. They were secured with the cross pins but would rattle and you could feel them move when the van brakes would be applied by the motor home. I installed a bolt in each side in place of the padlocks. They are now secure and can not be moved. I will know Saturday if that solved the problem when we go to Casa Grande.
Today we went shopping. The girls wanted to go to a big mall in Scottsdale. We found the place and it is scattered all over. We did go into the Dillards and went around through the center. There were all kinds of up scale stores, Macys, Neiman Marcus and stores of that calliber. We did stop at a pet shop and found some really cute puppies. One was a Yorkshire Terrier. The price had been marked down from $2999.oo to only $999.00. I do not know anyone that would pay that price for a dog, any dog.
We went then to Superstition Springs Mall and to the Sears and J.C. Penney and some other stores. Found some items for the motor home. Finally we stopped at a Walmart super center and found the rest of what we were looking for. Probably could have found it all at Walmart if we had just went there first. However, it was interesting to see how the other half lived and where they shop.

Yesterday was a nice warm day. We worked around Nancy's house and the motor home. Not really a lot going on but we stayed busy. Nancy had a Dr. appointment so she took her scooter over there, only a few blocks away. Today we worked on paper work until about noon and then we went to lunch with the Mesa Lunch Bunch at Mimi's Cafe. A very nice restaurant with really good food. I had a Western style Ruben Sandwich. It is made with sliced turkey, slaw, Swiss cheese and 1000 island dressing on Rye bread. It is quite tasty but did not have that sauerkraut whang you normally get with an Eastern style Ruben. We had a nice turn out with about 15 there and lots of good visiting. This was our second in a row to be with the group and looks like we will be with them again in March.

We will be leaving on Saturday and not be back in Mesa until about the 23rd of February. We spent the evening composing correspondence and the schedule of events for the National Rally in Pigeon Forge, TN. We already have 10 units saying they will be there. We have received one application back already so they are coming in and it is not until June. Hopefully things will go well with our plans and everyone will enjoy the rally. Next year we are to be in the West region, so we will wait and see who brings a proposal to the rally in June for next year. That is when we vote on next years rally location.

Yesterday was a busy day. We left early and went to our friend Clark's house in Sun City, AZ. It is quite a drive from Mesa to Sun City. We checked our Clark's house and as it was about noon we went to the local club house to eat. Had a nice meal and then we went to another friend, Rolland Winters who lived on farther out in Surprise, AZ. They have recently moved from Placentia, CA into a new home. Very nice and all accessible. We had a short meeting of the HTC officers to make some decisions about the upcoming national rally in Pigeon Forge, TN. We left there about 4pm and back toward Phoenix a short way to Happy Trails Mobile home park also in Surprise. We visited with the Vail's for quite a while and then decided to go out to eat at Italian Gardens. Being Saturday night we had to wait about 45 minutes for a table, but once we got in, it was well worth the wait. Another very nice meal. We finally got home at 10pm and we really had a full day and way too much to eat.
Today we slept in a bit and had a cook out for lunch, burgers on the grille and potato salad and all the fixings for a Super Bowl Sunday lunch. Nancy and I made a be - boppin trip to Wallgreens to pick up a couple of things and I had a prescription refilled. When we got home it was about time for the big game. We watched the first half and then had our half-time snack of hot wings, veggies and dip and all of the goodies that you eat at half time. We had fresh lemonade from lemons that a neighbor brought from her lemon tree. They are large and full of juice and we are certainly enjoying them. We watched the last half of the game and were a bit disappointed that the Cardinals did not win but it was certainly an exciting game and they had their chance to win but the defence just could not hold the Steelers. I must say that this was one of the most enjoyable games I have seen in some time, just did not turn out the way I would have liked.
Tomorrow I have some work to do and some supplies to order and think about getting back on the road on Saturday headed for Casa Grande for the Gypsy Journal Rally that starts the 9th of February.