On Saturday, the 31st of January, we drove up to Phoenix (actually Glendale, a Western suburb) to visit my daughter, Tye and her family. We got there in time for lunch and had a nice visit with
Tye and her three daughters, as well as three of my granddaughters from my other daughter, Tracie. I also got to see, for the first time, Tyrell, my first great-grandson. Tyrell is the son of my granddaughter Crystal, Tye’s first child. Crystal and her husband, also named Tyrell but with a different middle name, have another child, a girl named Cristin. Unfortunately, they were living in Texas at the time they had her and were having problems, so Tyrell’s parents took custody of her. They have not relinquished custody back to the kids yet, although Tye seems to think they are working on it. I have not yet seen my great-granddaughter, who is four, except in pictures, but hope to soon. At least Crystal and Tyrell are living in Arizona now. We also got to visit briefly 
with my son, Roy Jr. after he got off of work. Because of our traveling lifestyle we only get to visit the family about once a year, but it was good seeing most of the kids again. The middle daughter, Tracie, is living back in Illinois.Of course, on Sunday, the First of February, we watched the Super Bowl! Since I grew up in Arizona, and we were IN Arizona, we were rooting for the Cardinals. We watched the game with several dozen other residents in the park’s recreation room. They had a nice big screen TV and snacks. It sure was a good, exciting game. We actually thought the Cards were going to pull it off - but, alas, it was not to be. Maybe next year.
On Monday, the second, we headed up to the Phoenix area again, this time to Goodyear, located on the far West edge of the Valley. We were up here to visit with my youngest brother, Ken, and
his wife Susan. Ken works for the City of Avondale and Susan works for Southwest Airlines. Ken is 20 years younger than I am. In fact, he is only about six months older than Tye, my oldest. We spent a very nice afternoon visiting with Ken and Susan and went out to an early dinner with them before heading back to Casa Grande. The 5th of February was my 62nd birthday! Yippee! Lest you believe me crazy for such celebration of 62, it means that I can now start drawing my Social Security checks. An increase in our annual income of about 25 percent!! I applied several months ago, have already been approved and my first check arrives in the bank the second week in April. HOORAY! Jackie and I went out the Olive Garden for dinner to celebrate.The next Saturday, the 7th, we headed up to Sun City, Northwest of Phoenix, to visit with my brother Dennis and to see my mom. Mom, who has late stage Alzheimer’s, had some recent
health issues and had been hospitalized in Boswell Hospital, up in Sun City. We first met Dennis for Lunch in Sun City, near the hospital to visit. Dennis is the next youngest after me - he is eight years younger than I. We had a good visit during lunch and caught up a little. After lunch we all went to the hospital to visit mom. She is much the same as she was the last time we saw her, about nine months ago. She is nearly totally nonresponsive and contracted into a fetal position. We didn’t stay too long since she can’t really respond and it is very difficult to see her that way. One tries to remember the good times, and seeing her in this condition is very sad. After our visit with Dennis and mom, we headed back to Casa Grande to celebrate our wedding anniversary which is the 7th of February. This was our fifth wedding anniversary! Five wonderful years. After we got back to Casa Grande we went to a local Mexican restaurant for a great dinner to celebrate.On Monday, the 9th, we left Casa Grande and started toward our next stop, Salome, Arizona. Salome is located in Western Arizona, on Highway 60, about 35 miles from Quartzsite. We have never been to this resort, Desert Vistas, which is one of our Resorts of Distinction affiliated parks. Since our reservation at Desert Vistas didn’t start until Tuesday, we stopped for the night in Tonopah, Arizona. Tonopah, about 50 miles West of Phoenix on I-10, isn’t so much a town as a wide spot with a couple gas stations. However, it is "famous" as the closest community to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. Palo Verde is the largest nuclear power plant in North America. It has three nuclear reactors and produces a total of 1.25 Gigawatts of power when all three plants are fully operational. They were building the plant during the last 10 years that I was with the Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix, so I was able to visit the plant several times during construction, even going into the containment buildings, prior to the introduction of nuclear material of course! We (the Sheriff’s Office) also had to participate in annual emergency drills required by the Federal Government. We would practice isolating and evacuating the area in case of an emergency. The last couple of years I was with the Office I served as an evaluator for the exercise.
The next morning we finished the trip to Salome and checked into the Desert Vistas RV Resort. For those with a map, we are 35 miles Northeast of Quartzsite and 45 miles Southwest of Wickenburg on Highway 60. It is quite literally out in the middle of nowhere and very pretty. We are surrounded by the Sonoran Desert and several mountain ranges. The weather since we got here on the 10th has been spotty, pretty cool with some rain and windy days, but the weatherman says it should get better. We haven’t done too much since we have been here except cache and be lazy around the house. We did play Texas Hold’em on Friday night. Saturday they had a little Valentine’s dinner party. Some of the residents and employees put on a really funny skit. It was a very nice, sociable get together. On Sunday, the 15th of February we drove up to Wickenburg for the day. Wickenburg is a very western type town 50 miles Northwest of Phoenix. When I was a kid Wickenburg was a very small town known mainly as the dude ranch capital of the west. Now it has grown into a small city, but it still has a distinctly western atmosphere. We discovered after our arrival that we were there during Rodeo Week, so we spent several hours visiting the arts and crafts fair set up downtown. We also did some local caching prior to heading back to Salome.
On Wednesday, the 18th, we drove to Quartzsite, just to have something to do. It is amazing the difference between now and three weeks ago when the RV show was in town. We went to the
area where all the vendors set up and found only about 10 percent were still there. Everyone else had packed up and left town. After a nice lunch, some shopping and a couple of caches, we headed back to Salome. One of the caches we did was really cute. It was a large plastic dinosaur hidden in a tree.We will be here in Salome until next Tuesday, the 24th, when we will head back into California. We will be going to the Yucaipa Regional Park again, located about 50 miles West of Indio on Interstate 10. We will be there for 12 days and then up to Desert Hot Springs, North of Palm Springs, for two weeks.
I will probably update our little chat site sometime after we get to Desert Hot Springs. Until then, stay safe, enjoy life and keep happy thoughts!!
