Resorting to a Blog

Greetings from Arizona.  While we have been sending emails to our many friends and relatives with no problems over the last several years, the demise of the company that produced the software, SendPhoto Gold, and updating to Windows 7 is forcing us to go to a Blog to stay in touch.  We will continue to alert you when we post a blog so you do not have to check in to see if we have updated our information.  So here goes....


Greetings from Arizona;  Lots have happened since we last e-mailed you; so much it has been impossible to send another e-mail. We will try to catch up on our news. Most of our time has been taken up by fun rallies.
We left Lake Havasu to drive to the RV Renovators in Mesa to have a few things repaired on the Windsor. On our way a truck passed us and a rock hit our window and cracked it. So one more thing has to be fixed. All work was scheduled, the parts ordered and we plan on returning to Mesa next week for the repairs. In the mean time we headed to Yuma for the Gypsy Gathering put on by Nick & Terry Russell, www.gypsyjournal.net. 

It was not all work and no play though. We had to check out all the best places to eat so we could honestly recommend them to the other participants. Here we are at Famous Daves having a delicious dinner with Jan & Greg White, who we just met and became friends immediately. Next to Greg is Nick and Terry Russell, organizers of the Rally and Tom with his back to the camera.  To read what went on each day check out Nick's blog, http://www.gypsyjournal.net/blog
 
One of the tasks we were responsible for in addition to setting up equipment and helping with registration, printing name badges, and misc. help... we agreed to put on a Geocaching workshop. This was truly a labor of love. Tom made 20 unique caches and we placed them throughout the Fairgrounds. This is me getting the latitude and longitude of the key magnet cache hidden in the pipe. We called this "Where did I put my keys?".

We had lots of seminars, excellent vendors, and super entertainment. The gentleman on the left is David Bradley who used to be one of the Sons of the Pioneers, and on the right is Michael Hargis, a fantastic singer and impersonator who can sing Western, 60's, or Ballads. He will be in California this fall; wish we could find a venue for him as he is fabulous. Check out his website. http://www.michaelhargis.com  


We left Yuma and our friends to travel to Tucson and the Monaco Pre-Rally. We took Nick Russell's suggestion and stayed at a beautiful park, Picacho Peak RV Resort. It was also a PassPort America park so we only paid $19 a night. 

We met up with fellow Golden Spikers, Tom & Eddie Harrison and Bob & Dottie Poole at a Tucson Wal-Mart and went into Beaudry RV Resort together. Notice the parking crew - 4 golf carts and lots of parking crew. Tom decided that's what he wants for next years' Gypsy Gathering parking crew.


We met our friends, Leta & Dennis Ward at the rally. It is always a surprise to run in to friends from your Roosevelt HS days. We are finding it really is a small world out there. 

We had interesting seminars at the Pre-Rally, too. Gourmet cooking classes, Using Velcro, Monaco Updates, Towing Information to name just a few we attended.

There was also entertainment at the Pre-Rally, but not nearly as good as the singers at the Gypsy Gathering rally.


We left Tucson and traveled north to Cottonwood to get ready for the FMCA Golden Spike Rally that the Harrison's, the Hall's, and we are in charge of. There is printing, shopping for breakfast items, confirming the Pink Jeep tour, the Verde Canyon RR ride, and the Jerome Haunted tour activities, and baking 5 Impossible Pies. We did get in some geocaching, too.

We did have one unscheduled stop, the Cottonwood ER. All that fun, walking, caching, touring, etc. was finally too much for my knee. I had a small torn meniscus diagnosed last summer, but I had it under control, I thought. It had other ideas and demanded attention. So after muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatory shots and pills and pain killers, a brace that keeps my knee immobile, I am feeling pretty darn good and will be able to deal with this when we get back to Fresno in a couple of weeks.

A final good-by from the Westerfield's and especially Pansy who really knows how to relax in a RV. We'll keep you posted as we post in this blog.