More Spring Adventures in Pahrump

 Welcome back. Our last chapter concluded on Easter Sunday, April 17th, while we were at our spot in the SKP park in Pahrump. Monday my brother Ken and his wife Susan came over about 10:30, picked us up, and the four of us went to Las Vegas to visit with one of our other brothers, Russ and his wife Zen. Russ has lived in Las Vegas since the mid-80's and works as a supervisor at the Golden Nugget Casino in downtown Vegas. Zen cooked a fabulous lunch and we all ate our fill. We all sat and talked and caught up until about 4:00 when we left and headed back over the hill to Pahrump. Ken and Susan dropped us off about 5:30 and went back to their coach up at the Wine Ridge RV Resort. We changed clothes, fixed a cocktail and just relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, April 19th, we left the coach a little after 1:00 and headed to our dermatologist's office. I try to go at least every six months for a “body check” since I have a history of skin cancers. Over the years I have had all three of the most common skin cancer types removed. Jackie also goes because she has occasional small items of concern on her skin. Today I was mainly concerned with my eczema, an issue I have dealt with on and off all of my life. The doctor told me my skin was exceedingly dry and I needed to moisturize it. He gave me a prescription for the eczema break-out on my legs, and recommended a good moisturizing cream. For the first time in a long time he didn't find any other issues on my skin and I didn't even get sprayed with the liquid nitrogen. Jackie had two little lesions that he sprayed. After the doctor we went to Walmart for some supplies and then stopped at Walgreens to pick up my prescription. We also stopped at the bank so Jackie could get some nickels for the games she plays at the clubhouse. After our errands we went back to the coach and relaxed until 4:00 happy hour at the clubhouse. After happy hour we went home and spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Wednesday, April 20th, we had a stay at home day. About 11:30 we went over to the clubhouse for a pot luck luncheon followed by a show put on by a local group called the Pahrump Valley Silver Tappers. This is a group of about fifty local women who sing and dance and put on a pretty good show. Everyone in the group is 50 or older and the leader of the group, who still performs a little, is 97. Our friend Debbie Forrest is a member of the group. She didn't dance today because they were in Yuma for a few months and she had not had enough time to learn the new numbers the group was doing. She was behind the scenes, helping with the dressing changes of the performers. Our other friends from outside the park, the Howells, also came. The show went about 90 minutes, after which we went back to the coach. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in. Thursday was a stay at home day. We went to the clubhouse at 9:00 for the monthly meeting of the Co-op Board of Directors. That meeting went until a little after 10:00. Shortly after we got back to the coach I got a phone call from my son Roy Jr. that he had arrived at the SKP park and was up front waiting for the office to open. A couple years ago he sold his condo in Phoenix, bought a motorhome and has been full time since. He is not even 50 yet, so he can't retire, but he has found his niche doing work camping. He has done several stints with the U.S. Forest Service in Northern Arizona and for the last four months or so has been working in Death Valley National Park as a maintenance guy for the contractors who run the hotel at Stovepipe Wells. He has finished his contract there and is on his way back up to Northern Arizona to work at one of the Forest Service campgrounds near the Grand Canyon. He stopped here at the SKP park to visit for a week or so. We managed to get him parked in the spot right next to us. Jackie played Pokeno with the girls in the clubhouse in the afternoon. We had pork chops on the BBQ with Roy for dinner, then sat and talked with him until about 8:00, after which we watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, April 22nd, I left about 8:30 and headed off to the Sheriff's Office for my second training class for my work on the Peace Officers Advisory Review Board. This session was on the ethics, culture and code of conduct for the Nye County Sheriff's Office. The class was taught by the Undersheriff, the second in command of the department after the elected Sheriff. In Arizona this position went by the title of Chief Deputy. It was interesting and lasted until 1:00. After I left I ran some errands, picked up mail and a newspaper and headed back to the coach. We relaxed for a few hours and then at 5:00 some friends who live in the park, just down the street from us, Dale and Sue Vice, picked us up to go to dinner. We have known Dale and Sue, who came in the SKP park about the same time as us, for a while and I have worked with both of them on various committees. They are very pleasant people and we wanted to get to know them better. Jackie mentioned this to Sue a week or so ago and she invited us to have dinner with them on their anniversary. We went to the Mountain Falls Country Club and had a very nice dinner. We learned a lot about their history, having been married for 27 years, and truly got to know them better. After dinner we came back to the park and sat with them in their park model for another hour talking. About 8:00 we walked back to our place and spent the rest of the night with the TV.

Saturday, April 23rd, we left the coach about noon and went out for lunch at the Pour House. This is an Indian restaurant that also has excellent pizza, thus pleasing both Jackie and me. Roy went with us to lunch and the two of us shared a pizza while Jackie had a lamb dish. After lunch we all did a Walmart run before heading back to the coach. We relaxed for a while and about 5:00 Jackie, Roy and I left again and headed for the Elks Lodge for karaoke. Roy doesn't sing, but wanted to go along to hear me and do some gaming with Jackie at the bar. The usual crowd was there, including our friends Tom and Phyllis. Roy and Jackie both hit jackpots at the bar and both walked out with over $60 more than they came in with. Karaoke ended about 8:30 and we went back to the park. We relaxed with the TV for the rest of the evening.

Sunday, April 24th, about noon my brother Russ came up from Las Vegas, and my other brother Ken and his wife came over from Wine Ridge RV Resort up the road, for a family get together. This was the first time that I have been with more than one of my four brothers at the same time since my mom died back in 2009. I have seen all of them at least once over the years since, but only one at a time. We had a great time sitting on the patio and talking. Later in the afternoon I did some hamburgers on the grill and we had a great cook out. Russ and Ken left around 5:00 after which we went in the house and relaxed for the rest of the night. It was good to see family together again. Monday we went out about noon to have lunch with some friends of ours from the Escapees, Les and Kim. We had planned to go to an Italian place, but Kim called us just before we left to say it was closed for the day. We ended up going to Romero's, a pretty good Mexican place here in town. We had a very nice lunch and learned some more about our friends. After lunch we did a couple of errands and then headed back to the coach. About 4:30 we, along with Roy, drove up to the Wine Ridge RV Resort to have happy hour with Ken and Susan. They are leaving on Wednesday to continue their travels, so this will be the last time in a while for us to see them. We had a nice happy hour and headed home about 6:00. We stopped at Lakeside resort for dinner since we had not planned anything at home. After dinner we went back to the SKP park, Roy went home and we watched TV until bedtime.

Tuesday, April 26th, we both were up and out of the coach about 8:30 when we went to the medical center to have our blood tests done. We have our annual physical next week with our primary doctor and needed to get the lab work done. I again left the park about 12:30 and went to the dentist. Last year, when we got decent dental insurance for the first time, I went to a local dentist here and started a process of fixing some issues I had. That was almost exactly a year ago and today I started the final part of the process. I had some decay under a crown that I had in my lower jaw. The tooth had a root canal years ago, so I had no pain, but the dentist said it needed to be addressed before the tooth got too weak to support the crown. They had to remove the crown, then fix the decay, then build the stub of the tooth back up, take some molds and have a new crown made. I was in the chair for two and a half hours and left with a temporary crown, no lower partial, but at least no pain. I have to go back in two weeks for the final fitting of the new crown. After I got home we just watched some TV before Jackie made a nice chili relleno for dinner. Roy joined us for dinner and watched some TV with us afterwards until he went home about 8:00. We watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, April 27th, we had a quiet morning. Jackie went over to the clubhouse about 12:30 to play Pokeno with the girls. Roy came over with his bass guitar and he and I spent a couple hours jamming in the shed/music room. After Jackie got done we all went to Walmart for a few things. After we got home we had happy hour and then watched TV until bedtime. Thursday Jackie left about 10:30 and went to the DMV Office to renew her drivers license. After she left I used the golf cart to run back and forth to the laundry room here at the SKP park doing our laundry. I was done with laundry by about 1:00, sadly, Jackie was not done with DMV. She ended up not getting home until almost 4:00, sitting all that time waiting in the office. I spent another couple hours in the afternoon doing some work in the yard putting up shade screens for our gazebo. We had happy hour with Roy in the coach and afterwards we had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Friday, April 29th, I left the coach about 8:30 and headed to the Sheriff's Office for another training session for my Peace Officers Advisory Board position. The instructor was again the Undersheriff and the topics were the Nevada laws regarding the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, Nye County Sheriff's policies regarding discipline and internal investigations, and a review of the labor agreement between the Deputies Association and the County. It was interesting in that in my day, the mid-80's, when I was the Commander of the Internal Affairs unit, there was no such thing as a Peace Officers bill of rights and certainly no labor agreements. The session ended about 12:30 and I headed back home after a quick stop for lunch. We spent the rest of the day hanging around the coach, doing a few chores and relaxing. We had happy hour and dinner with Roy, then spent the rest of the evening with the TV.

Saturday, April 30th, the last day of April. We left the coach with Roy about 12:30 and went out for lunch and some errands. We stopped at the mail store to pick up some packages that had been delivered, then went on to the 5280 Mexican Grub, a Mexican restaurant and bar in the northwest portion of the valley. This is a fairly new place and we were first here last fall shortly after it opened. They have really good food. They used to run a food truck in Las Vegas before they decided to move to Pahrump and open a brick and mortar restaurant. They still use the truck for special events. We had a really nice lunch, then headed back to the coach. I did some chores around the place and we decided not to go to karaoke at the Elks tonight since none of our friends were going to be there. We had leftovers from lunch for dinner and then watched TV until it was time for bed.

Sunday, May 1st, May Day, May Day! We had our usual relaxing Sunday morning and I did a few chores in the early afternoon. At 2:00 we went over to the clubhouse for root beer floats. After our snack the three of us went to Home Depot to buy some chairs for our patio in the front yard. We bought six relatively inexpensive stack chairs that fit nicely under the gazebo. After we got home we put the chairs on the patio, then relaxed for the rest of the day. We had happy hour with Roy, then watched TV until bedtime. Monday my son Roy left about 9:30 headed today for Mesquite, Nevada. He is going to overnight there, then go to St. George, Utah on Tuesday morning to have some service done on his motorhome. After he is done in St. George he is headed for his summer job on the North rim of the Grand Canyon. Jackie left about 12:30 and drove into town for a pedi appointment while I stayed home and did some chores. We went to happy hour at the clubhouse about 4:00, then after we got home we had dinner and spent the rest of the night watching TV.

Tuesday, May 3rd, we left about 1:30 and drove to my ophthalmologist appointment for my annual exam. Basically my eyes are good, no glaucoma, mild cataracts which are not severe enough for corrective action yet, and 20/20 corrected vision. I do have viscous floaters in one eye, but the doctor was clear that there isn't much that can be done about that. He did recommend that I consider having my drooping eyelids corrected. This is the second time he has brought it up and I asked some questions to be sure that it was covered by insurance and not a major surgery. He said it is an outpatient procedure, twilight anesthesia, and short recovery period. He also said that they do some standard testing to be sure I meet the Medicare requirements to have the surgery. I made an appoint to go to their Las Vegas office for testing in a couple of weeks. Since they had dilated my eyes for the exam Jackie had to drive home while I kept my eyes closed to avoid the bright light. We did go to the clubhouse for happy hour, then came back, had dinner and watched TV until bedtime.

Wednesday, May 4th, May the Fourth Be With You! We left the coach about 11:30 and drove to the Intermountain Medical Center for our annual visit with our primary physician. We got in fairly quickly and had a good examination and time to talk to our doctor. All in all we are pretty good shape, the labs were mostly good as were the vital signs. He did send me for an xray of my hip because of some pain I have been having, but other than that we got our prescriptions renewed, recommendations for pneumonia shots and covid boosters and we were on our way. It was about 2:00 when we got done, so we went for a late lunch to Chatthai, one of our favorite Thai restaurants. After a great dinner we went and picked up mail and then headed back to the RV park. We went to the happy our at the clubhouse at 4:00, then back home and the rest of the evening with the TV. Thursday, May 5th, Happy Cinco de Mayo! We a mostly stay at home day, doing a few chores and relaxing. Jackie went out for an early dinner with some of the other women in the park at Romeros, one of the Mexican places here in town. She was back about 5:30 and we spent the rest of the evening relaxing with the TV.

Friday, May 6th, I had a day off from my Sheriff's training because they had some sort of drill scheduled for today that would keep all of their people busy. I did a few chores in the morning and about 2:00 we did a Walmart run for some supplies. After we got home we put stuff away, then went over to the clubhouse for happy hour. After happy hour we went home, had dinner, then watched TV until it was time for bed. Saturday we went out about 1:00 to the Roadhouse for a late lunch. After lunch we gamed a little, but neither of us had much luck. We went back to the coach until about 5:00 when we went to the Elks for karaoke. The usual crowd was there, however our friends the Forrest's couldn't make it and the Howell's are out of town. We did meet a group of younger Escapees, members of the Escapers group, one of whom is actually on the list for Pair-a-dice. Karaoke was over about 9:00 when we went home and watched a little TV until bedtime.

Sunday, May 8th, Happy Mothers Day. We had a relaxing morning and about 11:30 went over to the clubhouse for one of our friend Millie's “Dilly Muffin” party, the name being a play on her name, Millie Duffin. Today was a fairly small group, only about seven people, but we had fun. We played some games and just spent a couple of hours chatting and enjoying the company of friends. At 2:00 we had cake and ice cream as a Mothers Day celebration courtesy of the park. After the cake and ice cream we went back to the coach and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing with the TV.

We are now three weeks into this episode and it is time to get it online. Until next time, ponder the words of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard . “Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” See ya soon.