10/6/2009 Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety, Jig

We are back in Arizona!

For the last twenty miles or so of our trip I thought about where “home” is for Bob and me. Are we “home” now because this is where we spend six months of the year for the third year in a row? Or is Texas home? After all, that’s where our mail goes, legally we are residents of that state. Or if the old adage, home is where your heart is applies to us, then in that case we are still Delawareans. Then again, no matter what state, or country, we are in when we drop the stabilizing jacks we are HOME. I guess it would be correct to say we are residents of NORTH AMERICA!

This is Phoenix from I-10.

Southwest Airlines coming for a landing at Sky Harbor Airport.

At 12:30 we pulled into Sunscape RV Resort, about a 20 minute drive from Quail Run.

My dear friend, LaVon, lover of dead trees, dirt roads, clouds and the occasional old barn, was there to greet us.

Just our luck, the office was closed for lunch so we had a half hour to waste before we could check in. LaVon took us on a tour of the place since this is “her” park and our “home” for the next week. We’re staying here because its a Passport America Park and will only cost us $13.50 a night to stay here versus forty something per night if we stayed in Quail Run while we got the park model ready to live in and then got the 5th wheel ready for storage. Its so complicated. At first we thought we would leave the 5th wheel somewhere up north on a military installation. Then the more we thought about that the less sense it made because we’re not sure what all we’ll need out of the rig and would want it close by just in case we really do need something. Then we thought we might trade it next spring and in that case we would certainly want it close by. So we ended up bringing it all the way here even though we are going to live in our park model. We’re using this year as a learning experience if nothing else.

LaVon’s husband, Don, soon joined us and he and Bob went off for a walk to talk Alaska fishin’ and LaVon and I walked around and took pictures of the gardens.

It’s so good to see palm trees again!

It was finally time for us to check in and get set up. While in the process of getting everything in place I noticed that these clouds had so much color in them. Can you see the pink and blue?

After grabbing a snack we headed over to Quail Run. We had heard through the grapevine that there had been a four hour sand storm over the summer and we had no idea what the place was going to look like inside. Piles of sand? Gritty counters? We just didn’t know how airtight the place was.

Well, we had a very pleasant surprise. No sand at all got in and there was just a trace of dust on the countertops, what you would expect after six months. All the jugs we had placed around last year for moisture were still 1/3 full! It was rather warm in there so we turned on the air conditioner even though neither one of us cares for AC. Tomorrow we’ll go through every drawer and cabinet and closet and really get to see what’s there, what we want and what has got to go!

We went down the street and visited with friends Al and Carol Winters for about a hour or so while the AC cooled the place down. We wanted to make sure it was working.

I took this picture of an orange on the orange tree in our yard. Its got a ways to go.

I took this at approximately 4:15, in the shade. I’m so glad to be back in Arizona!

We’ve got a few busy days ahead of us, I don’t know if I’ll get to post or not. Stop back and see.