Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Back home again

After dumping tanks, we headed back to Quartzsite, arriving around noon. After unloading the Lazy Daze, we had lunch, and then set up the Direcway again (Earl moved it back to it's original location). Had no problems with it this time (yea!).

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Cotton Lane RV Resort, Day 3

Earl and I had breakfast at Cracker Barrel, then went by Home Depot to pick up some water filters -- one for our refrigerator at home, and a couple more for our canister filter we use for the RV. We had stopped first at Lowe's to find the water filter, but got a very rude reception when we asked the location of the filters, so we left and went to Home Depot.

We did some additional shopping at Costco, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart.

Monday, November 28, 2005

Cotton Lane RV Resort, Day 2

We got up early, had a quick breakfast, and left for my 9:00 AM eye doctor's appointment by 7:00 AM. The traffic wasn't as backed up as it had been the last time we'd gone to Dr. Bloemker's office at 5th Avenue and Thomas, so we were there by shortly after 7:30 AM! We went by the Safeway store to pick up a newspaper, and read it until time for the appointment.

My eyes were dilated again so that pictures could be taken of both eyes. I was given copies of the pictures for my records while one copy will go to Dr. Wong's office, and another copy will stay at Dr. Bloemker's office. We were back to our car by shortly before 10:00 AM, so we drove by Dr. Wong's office to pick up our new glasses.

Since we still had some time before we met Mom for lunch, we stopped by Glendale Pet Shop at 51st Avenue and Northern to pick up some dog food and a new stick-on-the-window hummingbird feeder.

We met Mom at noon at El Paso Barbecue for her birthday lunch. We had a very enjoyable lunch and a nice visit.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Cotton Lane RV Resort

We left Quartzsite about 10:00 AM and arrived at Cotton Lane RV Resort in Goodyear shortly after noon.

After setting up, we had lunch at Chili's, then drove across the street to buy a gift card from Barnes and Nobles for my mother's birthday tomorrow. We then went to the new Wal Mart that had recently opened on Estrella Parkway, south of I-10. We bought a couple of microfiber blankets to put on the couches in the Lazy Daze, some new bathroom rugs for our house, and some storage boxes for the Lazy Daze.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

The Direcway almost goes into the trash!

After having breakfast and bidding Kate and Terry goodbye, I hooked up my phone to the laptop to download email. Well, Margo's email wasn't there! After having her send it a second time, and still not receiving it, I finally figured out that her subject line contained the word "software" which was one of the words I'd set up in my filters so that I didn't get spam. After changing the subject line to "Linda," I received the email just fine.

But then I had trouble with the files until talking to Margo again. When I finally got the problem with accessing the program fixed, and ran it, I then had to go through the entire registration process again. That's when I ran into the final problem -- even though I passed the Cross Pol test, I couldn't proceed through the entire registration. Another call to Margo (at this point, I'm sure she was sick of hearing from me)! She figured out what the problem was, and FINALLY, I was online again!

And to top the day off, I received a call from my mother telling me that my half-brother, Dick, had died! Although he'd had some health problems recently, his death came as a shock.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Direcway problems

We had a really nice time visiting with Kate and Terry. I took Kate around Quartzsite trying to find a flag pole for her, but to no avail. I told her that she and Terry will just have to come back in January -- certainly there must be someone here selling flag poles then! In the evening, Earl barbecued chicken, I cooked veggies, and Kate & Terry provided potato salad -- a sumptuous repast was had by all!

My Direcway problems continued. I was on the phone to Margo several times, and we tried lots of different things: Margo walked me through making several changes to my computer setup; we unhooked the cables from the side of the Lazy Daze and ran them directly to the modem; Earl tried boosting the signal strength more; but nothing worked. It wasn't until Margo had me go into the Direcway System Control Center and tell her the date of the most recent software update (August 2003), that she realized what the problem was: Direcway had deleted my account! Margo says that it doesn't happen very often but it does happen. She has a file that will correct the problem which she said she'd send me via email (fortunately, I have my Verizon phone set up with a Mobile Office kit that allows me to access the Internet with the phone hooked up to the laptop). I couldn't get the email until after 9:00 PM without using my monthly minutes (Verizon's America's Choice offers free night and weekend minutes), but I just couldn't make it to 9:00 PM, so decided to put off doing anything further until tomorrow.

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Adventures at the eye doctor

We got up r-e-a-l-l-y early (5:30 AM) to make the trip into Phoenix for my 9:00 AM eye appointment. Even at that, we still ran into gridlock once we got closer to Phoenix! We made it to 5th Avenue & Thomas around 8:00 AM...and tried to find a place to park, which we had no luck in doing. All the parking lots around the medical center and hospital are permit parking areas (i.e., you have to have purchased a permit and have it displayed on the windshield) except for a small lot which was completely full. There is the parking garage, but since we were driving our Lazy Daze, we couldn't park there since it has a 7-foot height limit. We finally found a Safeway parking lot about 1/2 mile away, so Earl dropped me off in front of the medical building, went back to the Safeway parking lot, and then I called him when my appointment was over.

After having my eyes dilated, Dr. Bloemker took a look at the spot and came to the conclusion that it wasn't anything serious. He told me that malignant melanomas can start out as spots, but if it was that, he wouldn't be able to see through it -- which he could. He did want to have a picture taken of the spot for future reference, but since the person who takes the pictures was booked up, I had to make another appointment to come back!

My next appointment was made for the Monday after Thanksgiving. Since it will be the end of November, we've decided to stay for a few days and do Christmas shopping.

While waiting for Earl to pick me up from the doctor's office, I called Kate to find out if they'd found our place in Quartzsite OK -- that's when I found out they had spent the previous night at Saddle Mountain RV Park. They were on their way to Quartzsite, and since they were about 50 miles or so closer to Quartzsite than we were, they made it to our place before we did.

After we returned, I set up my modem so that Kate and I could download email and surf the web. We were doing fine until suddenly I noticed that a couple of lights were out on the modem. This happens occasionally when the NOC (National Operations Center) is doing some maintenance, or is having bad weather, so I didn't pay any attention to it at first since it usually comes back online within a half hour or so. When it didn't come back up, I started looking at the modem more closely and noticed that the "Power" button was flashing -- not a good thing!

I called my installer, and Margo walked me through a few things, none of which worked. Since it was getting late, I decided to try again tomorrow.

In the evening, we all went to dinner at Taco Mio.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

To the Valley again

We left Quartzsite after lunch, stopping first to fill the Lazy Daze with both gas and propane, then drove the 77 miles to Saddle Mountain RV Park in Tonopah. This is a Passport America park, so it cost us only $11.00 to stay here. As we learned later, Kate and Terry (fellow Lazy Daze owners) were also here, but since they were parked in a different section of the park, we never saw them.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Back Home Again

We left the campground around 10:00 AM, stopping at the Visitor's Center to say goodbye to Ken and Debbie. We then went to Costco to do some shopping (splurged and bought a new LCD TV), and then stopped by PetsMart to pick up some food for Maxx.

On our way back to Quartzsite, we stopped at the Travel Center of America in Tonopah to have lunch.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

White Tanks Regional Park

We took a trip into Phoenix for a visit to our eye doctor, Gilbert Wong.

Since our appointment wasn't until in the afternoon, we had lunch with my mother at Takamatsu restaurant located in the strip mall on the north side of Dunlap, east of 43rd Avenue in Phoenix. This is our favorite Japanese/Korean restaurant, but we don't get a chance to come here very often anymore since, when we do come to the Valley, we usually stay at Cotton Lane RV Park in Goodyear, and limit our shopping to the Goodyear/Litchfield/Avondale area. But, since Dr. Wong's office is at 36th Avenue and Bethany Home Road, Takamatsu was on our way!

The eye appointments went fine, with both Earl and I ordering new frames and lenses. Dr. Wong did find a spot in my left eye that he wants an ophthalmologist to look at (Dr. Wong is an Optometrist), so he made an appointment for me with Dr. Bloemker for next Thursday, the 17th...which means another trip to the Valley.

After our exams, we made our way out to White Tanks Regional Park located in the West Valley in the White Tank Mountains. Our friends, Ken and Debbie Toth (the couple who bought our New Horizons fifth wheel and Freightliner FL-60 back in 2003) are camp hosting there (well, actually, they are working in the Visitor's Center), so we had a nice visit with them, catching up on everything going on in our lives.

White Tanks Regional Park is located in a beautiful desert setting. And, at night, you can see the lights of the city.