Tuesday, September 22 through Friday, October 9, 2020: Camping, California Friends, and Follow-Up Appointments

Tuesday after pickleball, Tom and I took the dogs and the travel trailer to nearby Kaibab Lake Campground. It is about a ten minute drive! We fell in love with campsite #28 in June. So, our reservations was back at the same site.

At this campground, the sites are not close together. So, we have plenty of privacy and views of the lake and forest.

That evening, we sat outside and enjoyed adult beverages.

Since we are only camping for three nights, we brought easy dinners with us. The first night was green enchiladas with chicken. We had prepared the meal in advance.

 

The next morning, I got up early and walked the dogs. We were out and about before the sun!

It is so very peaceful here. There are no hook-ups, so we brought our own water and conserved energy. The first night was quite chilly --- 48 degrees. We did not turn on the propane heater. The heater drains the trailer battery. So Wednesday morning, Tom made arrangements to borrow a generator.

The generator recharges the trailer battery, so we can use the propane heater if necessary. Tom owns a generator, but it is at a Flagstaff shop being fixed.

 

I brought my dear Libby's remaining ashes. So, I placed the rest of her ashes on a tree stub near the lake.

Libby always loved walking at Kaibab Lake. It will be a nice memory. Kelsey and Jamie enjoy walking around Kaibab Lake too.

That afternoon, Jesse from Atomic Pest Control was scheduled to begin his service. He called 30 minutes out and Tom and I met him at the house around 3:30 pm.

Initially, we will have the pest control service scheduled every other month. We will see if we need it more frequently.

The trail around the lake is about three miles. So on Thursday, I walked in one direction around the lake.

Friday was our final day. We had to vacate the campsite by 1pm. So, I walked the dogs around our section of the campground. I then walked in the opposite direction around the lake. While on this walk, I saw a Bald Eagle flying over the lake and then stopping to perch on top of a bare tree.

I walked by two black cows enjoying the northeastern part of the lake.

I also noticed an Osprey nesting high above a barren tree.

After my hike, we packed up the trailer and left Kaibab Lake. Such an easy 5 mile drive! We parked the trailer in front of the house. It look less than an hour to take everything out of the trailer.

Tom then capably backed the trailer into the RV Barn. That night, we decided to treat ourselves to dinner at the Grand Canyon Brewery. We sat outside and there was a nice half moon.

Tom and I got into our home routine. I walked the dogs and made my Fitbit celebrate daily. Tom played Word with Friends with his sister, commandeered games on his Kindle, and read some books on loan from the Williams Library. At 5:00 pm, we set aside time together on the back patio for some Amazon music and adult beverages. Saturday night, there was a very nice Arizona sunset.

The next morning, I took an early walk in the neighborhood. There was a delightful sunrise!

Even though it was a Sunday, we were able to scrounge up enough people to play pickleball.

Monday, I took an early walk to nearby Cataract Lake. I enjoyed seeing a heron wading near the shore.

Later in the day, I stopped by the Rodeo Barn to see how our taped pickleball lines were doing. With all of the weekend Rodeo events, the tape takes quite a beating.

I wrote a letter to our city Mayor, asking if perhaps we could have permanent lines painted in the Rodeo Barn. It was wishful thinking, but worth a try.

My home mortgage is interest only for seven years. It then become a 30 year jumbo mortgage. The seven years is up October, 2021. The 30 year jumbo mortgage has an interest rate cap of 8%. With this low interest rate environment, I decided that I need to refinance my home. I talked with son Rick who is in the mortgage business. He is not licensed in the state of Arizona, but Rick put me in touch with a highly recommended gentleman in the Phoenix area. I contacted Bob Gillespie and the refinancing process has begun!

On Tuesday September 29, I was expecting the arrival of Connie and Ramon Young. Connie and I used to work together at Union Bank in the late 1980s/early 1990s. Connie and Ray have retired. They turned in a Lance travel trailer for a large 5th wheel. They were on their first "other than weekends" 5th wheel adventure. It was fun having them hook-up their 5th wheel alongside our home.

My brother is still the happy grandparent. From time-to-time, he sends updated photos of little Sophie. She is beginning to smile 😊

The first night that Connie and Ray arrived, I made a large Chinese Chicken Salad. We wanted to watch the Trump/Biden presidential debate. We ate our dinner with TV trays.

The debate was disappointing, but we had a good dinner and we drank some nice wine! Fortunately, Connie and Ray shared our Republican/conservative values!

 

We had a lazy Wednesday morning and then I took Connie and Ray to Bearizona. We arrived at about 3pm. The timing was good. Most of the animals in the drive-thru park were active. Of course, we needed a photo of the three of us by the bear.

That evening, the four of us met for adult beverages at 5pm. But, we went our respective ways for dinner.

The next day, we had scheduled a trip to the Grand Canyon. Connie and Ray boarded their King Charles Cavalier dog, Chloe, at the Grand Canyon Railway Kennel. We got to the Canyon just after 10 am. First stop was the Rim Trail --- a walk from Bright Angel Lodge to the El Tovar Hotel.

This was the first visit to the Grand Canyon for both Connie and Ray! Both of them knew of the female architect, Mary Jane Coulter, as they had lunch recently in Winslow at La Posada. So, it was fun showing them some of her other works --- Bright Angel Lodge, Lookout Studio, and the Hopi House. We had a very nice lunch at the El Tovar Hotel.

Before leaving the South Rim Village, I asked Ray to take a photo of me and Connie.

Our next stop was the Yavapai Geology Museum. Then, we drove to the parking area for Shoshone Point. It was a one and one-half mile walk to the point. We were at the point by ourselves. Ray took some videos of the vista.

Indian Head Rock is a great landmark for photos.

Just before we headed back to the parking area for Shoshone Point, a wedding party arrived and was setting up for photos, the wedding vows, and a nice catered dinner.  We got back to Williams by 4:30pm and picked up little Chloe at the Kennel. It was a very fun day --- with Grand Canyon virgins!

Early Thursday morning, I took an early walk to nearby Cataract Lake. There, I found a number of Trump/Pence Keep America Great signs tossed into the lake. Two signs were still standing.

A neighbor was walking her dog at the lake. She told me that four teenage girls had been caught stealing Trump signs and disposing of them. I knew that my neighbor, Gus Beatty, was a victim. I walked back home, got into my truck, and went back to the lake to salvage some of the signs. Several were too far in the lake to be rescued.

 

I had made arrangements with handyman, Ron Cook, to have the shale rock on the front of my house re-grouted. An appointment was set up Friday for this to happen. One of Ron's associates did the task!

On Saturday, Connie and Ray originally planned to go to Flagstaff and visit the Lowell Observatory. But, they decided to have a leisure, lazy day. They are leaving the next day for Lake Havasu.  Tom and I played pickleball in the morning and we joined Connie and Ray at 4:30 pm for music at the Wild West Junction.

And, of course adult beverages!

We had 6:30 pm dinner reservations at the Red Raven Restaurant. After arriving at the restaurant, a couple sat down at a table kitty corner from our table. It was my sister-in-law's brother and his wife!

Howdy Doan, and his wife Colleen, have a second home in Pagosa Springs. They were going back to Southern California from Colorado and stopped in Williams for a night. What a chance meet-up!

The dinner at the Red Raven with Connie and Ray was a lot of fun. Tom and I were actually treated to the meal --- as a thank-you for their stay at Casa Ebbert RV Park.

Sunday morning, Tom and I bid farewell to Connie and Ray. We had another morning of pickleball play. In the afternoon, I had Tom drop me off at Holden Lake and I walked home. When I got home, Tom and I headed over to Safeway to get our annual flu shots.

Monday afternoon, I had an appointment with Dr. Anthony Rosales. He is the podiatrist who attends to my right foot --- shaving the corn calluses between my feet.

Later that afternoon, I found Tom absorbed in a project of getting the pine needles off of the roof and out of the gutters.

The gardeners come every Thursday. So Tom stacked the pine needles away from the house --- for the gardeners to haul it away.
 

Tuesday, I thought it would be fun for the two of us, Tom and me, to go on a trip "out in the woods." That afternoon, we drove out Devil Dog Road to find a place called Devil's Hole. Tom's son Jon has mentioned it before. We parked the car in an area that appeared close to where we could walk to Devil's Hole.

We walked about a mile and one-half --- to the edge of the forest. We saw some beautiful vistas.

But alas, we found nothing that looked like a Devil's Hole. It was possible that the trees were too full of leaves to see it.

Wednesday, our cleaning lady Colleen came to service the house.

Tom and I took advantage of her arrival and we went out for breakfast. A great restaurant, Anna's Place, is a perfect for breakfast and lunch. It closes everyday at 3:00 p.m.

Thursday, I had an appointment in Flagstaff to be fitted for some new hearing aid devices. My one hearing device was five years old and I knew that my left ear hearing was starting to decline. Technology has improved so much that I was able to buy two hearing devices for the same price I paid for one hearing device five years ago!

Friday, October 9, was a scheduled power outage for our town. The Arizona Power Service (APS) was substantially upgrading the electrical system in our Highland Meadows community.

Tom and I took this opportunity to go "leaf peeping" near Mt. Humphreys. On the way out of town, we stopped by the Gateway Sandwich Company for picnic sandwiches.

Our local paper mentioned areas to view the fall colors. We selected one on Forest Road 151. For our first stop, we parked off the road and climbed up a hill to view Mt. Humphreys.

Most of the leaf changing trees are Aspens. Our second stop was a picnic area near the Bismarck Lake trail head. We sat on cut tree limbs made into chairs. Imagine us sitting where our drinks are stationed.

The final "leaf peeping" stop was near the junction of Forest Road 151 and Highway 180.

Deciding to bypass Flagstaff, we took a longer route back home. We arrived home at about 5:00 p.m. The power was still off. I walked the dogs around the block and found out by several neighbors that their electricity had been back on for several hours. Then, I noticed a gaggle of electric company workers focused on one box.

By the time I got home, our electricity was back on. Whew!
 

Tuesday, August 25 through Monday, September 21, 2020: Pickleball, Doctor Appointments, and Daily Life

Tuesday was a day of errands. Tom and I decided to take a day off from pickleball. The first order of business for me was to go to Flagstaff and talk to Steve the Upholstery guy. The five leather cushions of my couch and love seat are getting very worn. I talked to Steve about recovering them.

 

Ah, the challenge of finding a matching color! I brought home a sample book to compare with the rest 

of the couch and love seat. Maybe I will postpone this project for now.

 

Our front porch has a nightly visitor --- a bat enjoying insects! This bat leaves bat scat on the porch. Tom googled the problem and he decided to put up moth balls in each corner of the porch. We'll see if that deters our little visitor.

One adult beverage I like is a dirty martini without the vermouth. So, finding Queen green olives is important. Costco's Kirkland has a brand I like. The challenge is getting them delivered without damage. The seller used by Amazon did not do the job.

 

Fortunately, Amazon quickly reimbursed me for the damaged goods. I think next time I will use an eBay provider.

Wednesday morning, only five of us showed up for pickleball. It was a solid group of players, so we had a lot of fun and worked on our skills.

That afternoon, I had Tom drop me off in town and I walked home along Cataract Lake Road. On the east side of the lake, I walked through the Kaibab National Forest day use campground to the west end of the lake.

Once a year, I have to get an MRI of my brain. In 2004, it was discovered that I have an acoustic neuroma --- a very small benign tumor between my brain and my inner ear. It has not changed in size over the years, but my ENT doctor likes to monitor it with MRIs. Dr. Alex Lund's office set up a Televisit appointment. The ENT office sent me a link --- and with the use of my computer camera --- the patient and doctor have a face-to-face conference.

I completed a questionnaire and shared my vital signs before the call. I was surprised how easy it was to make this happen! After this call, Dr. Lund sent in a request for my MRI.

My niece Molly delivered the first "grandchild" in the Shelton family. Molly and her husband Matt took little Sophie up to Santa Barbara for a weekend getaway.

 

Matt just completed his doctorate dissertation from Princeton University. He is now Dr. Kumar. Matt was hired as a professor at California State University Bakersfield. His first class was on Monday, August 24 --- all virtual.

 

Friday morning, I walked the dogs over to Cataract Lake. There were beautiful wet cloud formations.

That night, Tom and I went to South Rims Wine and Beer Garage for dinner. Our friend, Kerry-Lynne Moede, was singing on the outdoor patio. We shared appetizers and a delicious hamburger. Kerry-Lynne was her usual --- superb!

 

 Later that evening was a gorgeous sunset.

 

 Saturday morning, a small group of us played pickleball.

  

Once again, an out-of-town couple joined us for several days in a row. Sandy and Bob Mills are from Surprise, Arizona.

They have a park model home at the CalAm Sunflower RV Resort. They were full-time RVers for some years. We coincidentally know some mutual friends.

Later in the afternoon, I had Tom drop me off at Holden Lake. I wanted to walk from there home. There were some beautiful clouds.

I even ran across a cow heading back to the dry lake.

 

Before I was able to get home, the clouds turned dark and it began to rain. I called Tom for a pick-up. He jumped into his Subaru and headed to where I was. Thank you, Tom!

 

My home is 19 years old. Slate rock is a decorative feature on the front of my house. It needs to be replaced or repaired. I called a company that does decorative rock. We are in a housing boom, so many contractors are too busy to look at smaller jobs. I spoke to Matias of Ortiz Custom Stone Masonry. We'll see what happens, if anything.

The Williams Pickleball Group is starting to focus on the Rodeo Barn for pickleball play. I ordered some sport tape to be used on the concrete floor. It arrived and now it is time to tape court lines. So Tom, Jon, Gus, and I went to the Rodeo Barn on Wednesday, September 2. I re-taped one of the original courts.

Tom, Jon, and Gus worked on creating a new court. We are no longer able to move the Rodeo Barn bar, so we had to move the second court.

 The final lines looked really good.

 

 On Thursday, I played pickleball on the tennis courts. We had another "drop in" couple. This time, it was Lisa and Wayne from Wickenburg.

That afternoon, I drove to Flagstaff for my Wildflower Salon appointment with Shawna. Don't you love the masks?!?!

 

Friday afternoon was my scheduled MRI at the North Star Medical Offices. Covid-19 has had some positives. Most medical appointments are on-time, with little waiting. This was true of my MRI appointment.

 On the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, Tom and I walked the dogs at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. We were hoping to see the "first Saturday of the month" steam engine. However, it was not running. I asked an employee why there was no steam engine. Since Covid-19, they stopped running that engine. Too bad. I love steam engines!

After our walk with the dogs, I joined Tom and Jon in a car ride out Williamson Valley Road. We started in the town of Seligman and drove 45 miles on a primitive road to Prescott. Jon was interested in looking at a "For Sale by Owner" property. The owner was out of town, but the property had too many close neighbors for Jon's liking. We went back to Williams on a different primitive road and joined the paved Perkinsville Road, Highway 73.

On Sunday, we played pickleball on the tennis courts. A friend of mine from my 2007 El Tovar Hotel front desk life was coming to Williams for one night. Laura Dillon wanted to escape the heat of Scottsdale and she wanted learn pickleball. That afternoon, Tom and I took Laura to the tennis courts and showed her the game.

 

Laura used to play competitive tennis, so she caught on fairly quickly. She also played one pickleball game the next morning --- before driving back to Scottsdale. Since it was Labor Day, I picked up some steaks at Safeway. Tom and I enjoyed a nice barbecued steak and corn on the cob dinner. 

 

On Tuesday, I went to Flagstaff with Tom. He had an appointment with Rotech, getting a better fitting mask for his bi-pap machine and an evaluation of the added oxygen machine. The oxygen machine was right next to our bed --- making too much noise. Garrett, the technician, gave us 50 feet of extra tubing and suggested that the machine be placed in an adjacent room. Done!

 

My annual pass to Bearizona expired over the weekend. So, on the way home from Flagstaff, we stopped at Bearizona to renew the pass and to see the wildlife. We did the drive-through portion of the park.

 

And we also did some of the walk-through part of the park. We were eager to see the three Grizzly cubs. My how they have grown!

They are getting too big for their current enclosure, so Bearizona is re-configuring another area and investing $1 million dollars to complete the project before the end of the month.

I invited Tom to join me for an adult beverage at the Canyonlands Restaurant at Bearizona.

 

It has almost been a year since we lost sweet Libby. I decided that it was appropriate to lay to rest most of her ashes. So, the dogs and I left Libby's ashes at Cataract Lake, one of her favorite neighborhood walks. I'm holding Libby's remaining ashes for Kaibab Lake, when we camp there later this month.

Later that afternoon, Tom dropped me off at the dry Holden Lake and I walked home. This time, there was no rain!

 

When I arrived home, the FedEx truck had just delivered Jon's pickleball machine. This machine throws pickleball balls for drills and practice. The Simon X is a beast of a machine! Jon carefully separated the packaging from the machine.

Kelsey is due for her Bordetella shot and I had a 4:00 p.m. appointment. So I took both dogs to the veterinarian office.

 

On Thursday, I drove to Flagstaff for two doctor appointments. The first appointment was with my audiologist, Kerry Beasley. Kerry has one child who is still a toddler. Her office wall had a cute collage of little Ellie. And, Kerry is expecting daughter #2 early next year.

The second appointment was with my ENT doctor. Good news! The MRI showed no growth in the acoustic neuroma tumor. In fact, Dr. Lund recommended that I get an MRI every other year, not annually.

 

On Friday, Jon brought his Simon X pickleball machine to the tennis courts. We spent some time practicing drills and techniques.

 

Saturday, our town of Williams had its First Annual Patriot Day Parade. It began at 11:00 a.m. We adorned red handkerchiefs on Kelsey and Jamie.

 

The parade was very nice and very patriotic. There was a Marine Color Guard team from Barstow, California.

 

There were over 30 entries.

 

And, there were many, many Trump flags and banners 😀😀😀

 

After the parade, our American Legion Post 13 held a "Back Our Blue BBQ." The BBQ was to honor our local Law Enforcement and the proceeds were donated to the Williams Police Department.

While walking the dogs on Sunday, I ran across several deer in the neighborhood.

Since there are homes near our house with barking dogs, we haven't recently had deer pass through the empty lot next door.

 

The Petco Foundation has a contest to award monies to various Pet Rescue organizations. Dalmatian Rescue of Colorado asked me to submit my story of how Jamie has made a positive impact on my life. I drafted the story and incorporated many photos. Hopefully my contribution will be beneficial!

The Highland Meadows ladies group has not met since the Covid-19 situation. It has been six months. So, some of us met for an outdoor lunch at Anna's Cafe.

 

It was fun catching up with the ladies. Later that afternoon, I took a walk from my house to the east end of Cataract Lake and back.

On a walk around the block with the dogs, I saw a pest control truck. I talked to the driver about their service. We have been having issues with spiders this year. I took a photo of the truck.

When I got back to the house, I phoned the company and set up an appointment the next week.

 

Thursday morning, I took a long early walk in the neighborhood. I left the dogs to sleep. The sun was rising by the time I got to the "north forty" area of Highland Meadows.

Friday morning, there was no pickleball. So, I had Tom drop me off at the dry Holden Lake. I was going to walk home.

For variety, I decided to walk out of the forest a different way. I was a nice hike, but I ended up in a small residential area and had to crawl under a barbed wire fence to get back on a road!

Saturday night, Tom and I had a date night. We went to the Best Western Plus for dinner and music by Omar. With the Covid-19 situation, Omar only plays three nights a week.

My neighbor, Jim Ramsey, has been wanting to get a new driveway and porch for four months. On Monday morning, the local cement company, Mechtly Concrete Construction, attacked the project.

The first phase was to tear up the existing concrete. Then, to pour new concrete.

Tom and I had reservations at the Kaibab Lake Campground for three nights. The rest of Monday's activities was pulling out the trailer and loading it up.