Happy Thanksgiving

We have been in Phoenix for over 3 weeks and have been extremely busy. Mary Ann has worked quite a bit and we have been to Las Cruces, NM, Tucson and San Diego. Our son arrives from Las Cruces today and we are having Thanksgiving Dinner at our daughter's house. Our son will be here until Sunday. Monday afternoon we fly to Nashville as we close on the condo we bought on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon we fly back to Phoenix. We will then have about 9 days left before we fly to Nashville for about 4 days and then back to Virginia for about 5 weeks before our cruise in January. Mary Ann and I have taken 25 flights in the 7 months I have been retired and 3 of those months we were in Yellowstone working and did not fly at all. It gets real confusing trying to remember where I am. We now have a car in Arizona, a car in Virginia, a home in Virginia, and a home in Tennessee and we don't seem to spend a lot of time in any of those places. A Happy Thanksgiving to all.

If anyone needs help moving, do not call me

We helped Mary Ann' sister move 2 weeks ago in Nashville and spent the last 2 days in Las Cruces, NM helping my son move. If anyone else needs help moving, do not call me. We had a nice family reunion in Virginia. The food was great and I saw some people I had not seen for a while. We arrived in Phoenix on Sunday and spent a few days in Phoenix before we left to come to Las Cruces on Wednesday. I did have a chance to play golf on Tuesday and Mary Ann worked on Tuesday. I think I got the better end of that day. We leave today and drive to Tucson and will spend the night with friends. On Saturday, we drive back to Phoenix. On Sunday, we fly to Nashville as we have purchased a condo in Nashville and need to take care of the contract. It was a for sale by owner and we got a good deal at $125,000. It is in the same neighborhood as Mary Ann's Mom. The people we are buying it from are going to rent for 1-2 years from us. They brought it for $120,000 2 1/2 years ago and have spent at least $40,000 in imrovements. It is like a brand new home. Maybe when we are there on Sunday, we can take some pictures. After we take care of the condo and visit with Mary Ann's Mom, we will fly back to Phoenix on Tuesday and be there until 11 December. We will be staying at the Extended Stay Hotel at Country Club and Baseline. I found a great deal on line at Sublet.com. We are paying $648 for the month. We stay with my daughter when we visit for a day or two, but a month would be too much to ask.

Niagara Falls

After 4 days in Phoenix and then 10 days just relaxing in the condo in Virginia, it was time to hit the road again. We left Norfolk on Sunday to spend 3 days in Niagara Falls. We stayed on the Canadian side in the Embassy Suites and have had a wonderful time. These pictures are the view from our hotel window. Tomorrow we fly to Nashville to help Mary Ann's sister move and then on Saturday we fly back to Virginia. On Sunday we have a family reunion and then fly back to Phoenix on Tuesday

Back to Civilization

We left Yellowstone Sunday morning at 4:15 AM and arrived at the Holiday Inn in St George, Utah at 2:15 PM. They upgraded us to a King Suite with a Jacuzzi Tub. It seemed strange to be able to watch television and have a King Size bed. I think our double bed in yellowstone got smaller the longer we were there. We spent some time in the hot tub and then went next door and had a nice mexican dinner. It was a real treat. We left the next morning and arrived in Gilbert, AZ about 4:15 PM on Monday. Today I played golf at the TPC in Scottsdale with my daughter's boyfriend. I won't say what I shot but it was obvious I had not played in the last three months but had a great time and it is a wonderful course

A week to go

Well we did a very nice hike today with friends. Stella(the one to the left of Mary Ann) hit her 500 miles of hiking since she arrived in April today about 1.7 miles into our hike. Of course this woman goes on a 12 mile hike before she goes to work in the afternoon. This is not a marked trail and you really have to know hwere you are going. We had to detour once as there was a huge Bison in our way. Mary Ann and I leave on Sunday, Oct 5 and will drive as far as St George, Utah. We have reservation at A holiday Inn and are looking forward to a King Size bed, TV and a soak in the Hot Tub. We should arrive in Phoenix Monday Evening and I am looking forward to playing golf on Tuesday. On Thursday I have a dental appointment and we will fly back to Virginia on Friday. It will be weird as we have not been on an airplane since the 1st of July. I am sure that is the longest for both of us not to have flown.

Almost Done

Well, we have 18 days left before we leave. Last weekend we did a total of about 15 miles on 4 different hikes. The weather has been unbelievably warm. We are hoping it stays nice for the next 18 days. When we leave here we are driving to Phoenix. We will spend a few days in Phoenix and then go to Virginia for a few weeks. I think we may spend the month of November inb Phoenix. We are considering going to Hawaii in December and have a cruise planned for January. I am pretty sure we aree coming back here next April and will stay until July. We have made a lot of new friends and there is still a lot of the park we want to see

First Snow

We had a great time on our last weeekend. On Thursday we drove to the northeast part of the park and we did a western cookout. They take you in covered wagons to pleasant valley and you have grilled steaks, cowboy coffee and a singing cowboy. It was quite fun. We spent the night in the northeast part of the park and on Friday we drove to Bozeman, Montana and spent the day in the big city. We went to Costco, Wal Mart and Target and also went to a musuem. We ate dinner in a Mexican restaurant in Bozeman and the drove back to the Old Faithful area. It felt really strange to be in a city with traffic, stop lights and lots of people. On Labor Day we got our first snow in the park. We did not get any snow in the Old Faithful area but we did get sleet and the low was in the 20's. I think it may be a sign of things to come.