Here we are, on the road: We’re in Vado, New Mexico

Sunday, February 07, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Hello from the small New Mexico town of Vado. We left Tucson, AZ yesterday, heading farther east.

Last Sunday was another easy day. Chuck took me to breakfast, we ran errands; then visited friends, Sharon/TJ. I needed down time after finishing the root canal on Saturday afternoon in Mexico.

Monday, Chuck was up early and took Misty, our dog to the Vet’s office. Misty had been having problems peeing. They kept her until 4:30 when we picked her up, after they determined she had a bladder infection, and gave her medicine to take. I had your normal household chores to do around the coach. Misty is better now.

Tuesday, it was back to Mexico and Dr. Ramos. Dr. Ramos set ten caps in my mouth that day. After all the pain from the root canal, I have to report I have NO pain in my mouth, I’ve finished the antibiotic, and the new teeth look great. It sure was hard to go through, but I’m happy I did it. I don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t found the infection in my jaw. It was all worth it!

We came home and called Sharon/TJ and went over to say goodbye. We ended up going to dinner at the Texas Longhorn Steak house with them, since I hadn’t been eating any meat since I started at the dentist on January 22. We had a wonderful meal and visit with them. It was sad to say goodbye to such nice friends.

We came home and saw that Jag/Bev still had their lights on behind us, so we stopped in to tell them good bye. We didn’t get home until late.

Wednesday, we left Yuma and headed over to Tucson, AZ. We arrived around 3:30, set up and called a friend from Bellingham. John and his brother, Charles, own a really nice store called Bayside Coin and Jewelry, in Barkley Village in Bellingham. Anyhow, they recognized my sister, Thelma, when she went into the store, and asked where we were in our travels. She told them in Yuma, and they told her to have me call them, they were going to be in Tucson, until the fifth or sixth of February at the big Gem Show there. I called and we met them at the show then went to dinner with them. We found a very quaint Mexican Restaurant and had a nice visit with them.

Thursday we decided to go to the Pima Air and Space Museum. Chuck really enjoyed seeing all the planes he worked on in the Navy and before when he worked at McDonald Douglas. We were there over 3 ½ hours, then had to let Misty out. Then we headed over to Diamond Bay Casino for the Buffet. We played for a bit before we ate; that casino really liked me, and dinner was good also.

Friday we stayed home in the am, and had to restock at Costco, Walmart and I went to Lane Bryant’s to get some jeans that fit. We got back and neighbors, Jim and Sue came over to see the Bus. They had a two year old Westie, named Lilly. They liked the coach a lot. We had a nice visit with them.

Saturday we left Tucson, the town was full of people and coaches for the Gem show and came on to Vado, New Mexico. About 3 pm, we had a call from our friends, Steve/Sandy. They were scheduled to meet us in Texas in two days, but were only three hours away from us; they decided to drive here and got in about 6:15 pm. They set up and we went to eat. We ended up eating at a Flying J truck stop. The food was good, but we sure had fun catching up and visiting with them. It was great to see them again.

That was our week; I hope this finds everyone in good health. Till next time, Go Saints….Lorraine

2/7/10 Chuck’s report

Let’s see, Lorraine had Sunday and Monday off and returned to her dentist on Tuesday to set the permanent caps on her teeth. But to keep with our needs to visit a doctor or dentist everyday, I had to take Misty into the vet on Monday. Appears she has a bladder infection and needs some anti-biotics. She is getting better however.

Lorraine’s dentist was able to finish up with all the dental work she wanted on Tuesday. She ended up going to her dentist 7 times in two weeks and to the root canal specialist on three of those days. I think in the past three years she’s had all her teeth capped, a bridge replaced and two root canals done. Lots of work but she is very satisfied with the work they did. She didn’t know she had an infection and abscess on one tooth and now that it’s repaired, she reports no pain, yea.

Her dentist back home wanted over $20,000 to do the same thing, I think we spent about $3,600 and there was no insurance involved. Don’t understand why so much $$ in the states, guess part of it is the insurance and government regulations. Anyway, all done now except for yearly checkups.

After leaving Mexico (we had to wait in line for 1 1/2 hours this time), we headed over to TJ/Sharon’s place for a visit. I tried to take pictures of their new house that is under construction but the pictures didn’t turn out, too dark. Anyway, we went to dinner with them and had a very good visit once again.

After leaving them, we went over to our friends Jag/Bev for a visit with them. They are from Canada and have traveled and seen more of the USA than we have. But we are working on fixing that! They are thinking about having some upgrades done to their coach, I don’t think it would take a big push for them to purchase a new one, we’ll see.

Wednesday we got on the road, headed towards Tucson. We had planned to stay at Justin’s RV Park but when we called, they were full. We ended up finding a place on the NW side of Tucson and stayed for three nights. Not a resort but had space for us and full hookups

The first evening we went into Tucson and met with our friends, Charles and John. They are brothers who own a jewelry/coin shop in Bellingham. They are on a buying trip I think, getting stuff for their shop back home. Lorraine has bought a couple of pieces from them and we’ve gotten to know them. They told Lorraine’s sister, Thelma, that they would be in Tucson and asked us to track them down if we were in the area. We went to dinner with them and had a very good visit.

The next day we headed out to the Pima Air and Space Museum. This is one of the biggest in the US, they have lots of planes on display, however, you can’t get into most of them. They have four big hangers with lots of planes on display and information about each plus lots of volunteers who answer any questions. Then they have lots of planes outside that we could walk around. Lastly, they have tours, both on foot with a guide and on a tram that goes out to the plane graveyard. We didn’t have time to do either tour but will return another day. A very nice place, I enjoyed it more than Lorraine however. We were able to see a type of each of the planes I’ve worked on in my prior life.

The next day was a shopping and replenish day. We went to Costco, Wal-Mart and a couple of malls. Not my cup of tea but we needed some stuff and Lorraine wanted to do some shopping while we were in town too.

Once we got stuff put away and cleaned up, I took Misty out for a walk and met Jim/Sue who own a Westie also. They were walking their dog and I invited them to come in a visit with Lorraine and me for while. They are a very nice couple, he was a pilot and she was a school teacher. They retired from Chicago and moved to Michigan and travel South in the winter. Once again I say, we sure do meet lots of nice people in this lifestyle. We didn’t get a good picture of them but did get a couple of their dog playing with ours.

Yesterday we got on the road and headed out for our planned stop at Vado. Our plans were to stay here overnight then head out this morning to Fort Stockton for a visit with our friends Steve/Sandy. We got a call from them yesterday and their plans had changed a bit and they were actually closer to Vado than Fort Stockton and wondered if we could stay here two days and they would meet us here vs. Fort Stockton. With our jello schedule, it wasn’t a problem so we checked in, waited for them and then went to Flying J for dinner. We plan on getting together today and watch the Super Bowl later.

So our plans for next week are pretty much the same as listed in our report last week. We will be heading to San Antonio, visiting with our friends Manuel/Connie and seeing the area for the first time. They will allow us to stay at their place, they have extra hookups, and they will be our tour guides too. Can’t beat that and we are looking forward to visiting with them. It’s been raining there and I hear we will be bringing good weather with us.

The following week we will be in the Houston area. We haven’t figured out who we will be able to see or what we will do but will be working on that soon. Texas is a big state and when our friends say they live close to - - - , that seems to mean within a couple hundred miles, ha. Some of them live North of Houston, some South so we have to decide soon.

So with that update of our week and look forward to next week, I’ll close this and add some pictures.

TJ/Sharon and their two dogs Coco/Gidget