Mexico

We are in Mexico now, but I will try to update you on our travels before getting here.

We did see the Oregon State Womens basketball team play Arizona on Friday, the 10th.  It was a hard fought game but OSU came out on top with a last second layup by Mikayla.  We got to talk to her after the game and wished her well on the next game on Sunday at AZ State in Tempe.

We did travel up to Mesa on Saturday, the 11th and got checked in at Towerpoint RV Park.   My cousin, Gary, and his wife, Shirl, came over and we watched the Viking game.  Bummer!! Went out to dinner later.

On Sunday we went to church and then to the basketball game in the afternoon.  It was rather ugly as OSU was cold the entire game.  I think they lost by 8 or 10 points.  But we did get to see many of the Pivec clan.  Some were right behind us.

After the game we all went out to where the bus was parked and waited for Mikayla to come out.  We got a picture.

Sunday night we had dinner at Gary and Shirls along with some friends of theirs (and ours I guess) from back home.  Had a nice time.

On Monday we met for lunch with some friends of ours from New Hampshire (Ray and Karen).  They now have a condo in Mesa that they stay in during the winter months.  We went back to their place and visited with them for the afternoon.  Real nice condo.

That evening we were back at Gary and Shirls for dinner with the friends. Had a nice time again.

Tuesday we left for Mexico - actually we only got to Why, AZ where we met up with the two other couples that we will be going with.

This was our site for the night.   Glad we didn't have to unhook for just one night.

On Wednesday we left early - around 8:30.  Nice scenery along the way.  Even though there are mountains all around, we never had to drive in them.  It was basically flat the entire way.

Here is our caravan -  Jeff and Susan in the front (Susan is actually driving their car), and Murray and Shelle just in front of us.

Sign at the border just in case you don't know which direction to go!!!

And, the border.

It was very quick - all 3 of us were thru in about 10 minutes.  One of the guards went into the trailer and was out in no time.  He did wonder what that box was in our kitchen - it was the toy box that we have to move from the living area into the kitchen because our slides come in.  Anyway, I opened it for him and that was it.

Beautiful scenery in Mexico as well.

We got to the campground around 10:30 and were surprised that they were ready for us and had beach sites for all 3 of us!!

Here is ours from the beach.

Some pictures of the beach.

Because we are here earlier in the year, the sun sets sooner so we start our happy hour around 4:30.  This is the first sunset (of many I suppose!!!).

We had happy hour at our site the second night and sat between the trailers due to the wind.  Judy had setup this for snacks.

They had an International Chili Cookoff here on Saturday on the beach.  For $5 you got a small cup and could then sample all the chillis you wanted - 26 different chillis.  It was good.  All the proceeds benefited a local childrens'
home.


And our second sunset.

They do have wifi here and here are the passcodes!!!  Works pretty well too.

Saw these signs on Facebook and thought they were funny so thought I should share!!

Today is Monday, the 20th, and on Monday's, Dukes restaurant has a special of cheeseburger, fries, and drink (pop or beer) for $5.  So that's where we are headed.

Trip out West

On January 6th, we left Plano and headed out West.  The first day we drove to Midland, TX. about 350 miles.  We got good gas mileage for about the first 250 miles (11.7).  Then we ran into winds that got stronger and stronger (between 25 and 30 MPG) and our mileage dropped to 10.2!
If you are not familiar with the Midland and Odessa (20 miles away), you will miss seeing oil well after oil well and all the supporting businesses and equipment required to find and pump oil.

The temperature dropped down to 27 degrees which was unexpected for us, but we dealt with it.
Anyway, the next day we drove to Deming, NM (406 miles - a long drive for us).  Along the way we saw several trains carrying containers.  Not an unusual sight but what was different was that in addition of engines at the beginning and one at the end, there were two in the middle!!

We did stop in El Paso at a Walmart to stock up on a few things.  When we arrived at our RV Park in Deming,

they mentioned that this was Taco Tuesday at the hotel next door and we were welcome to come.  So we got parked and had dinner with about 20 of the other campers in the park.  Good food and good conversation.
Deming's elevation is around 4,400 feet, and, as a result, the temperature dropped to 21 degrees at night so we put water in our fresh tank and didn't use the campground for water that night because our hose would have frozen and maybe split.  And it would not have coiled up for us to put away the next morning.  Fortunately, both mornings were bright and sunny and it didn't feel that cold.

We are now in Tucson, AZ for 3 nights.  Very nice park and a great site with no one behind us, just desert.  I think it might be the same site we were in last March when we were here.
We are here for 2 reasons - 1) the daughter of good friends of ours from church is here now.  Rebecca is a Lutheran Campus Pastor at the U of Arizona.  We are going to meet up with her on Saturday morning for breakfast before we head out for Mesa for 3 days.  We knew Rebecca when she was still high school in Plano and Judy and I would go to the youth gatherings and she was part of the group.
2)  We are also here to see Mikayla Pivec (Oregon State) play basketball against the U of AZ on Friday night.  If you are following our blog, you will know that we watched her and her team last year when they came here to play AZ and AZ State.  We will be watching OSU play AZ State on Sunday afternoon in Tempe.

That should catch you all up on our travels.  But we will be leaving Mesa on Tuesday and driving down to Why, AZ to meet up with some friends before going into Mexico on Wednesday (Puerto Penasco).  Our plans are to be there for about 6 weeks so I'll be updating the blog again after we get settled there.

At Home in Plano

This is long overdue, but here goes anyway...

We got home from our summer travels in September.  Enjoyed being home and visiting with Julie and family, Oklahoma grand kids and great grand kids, friends, and church.

In October Judy and I went to the Dallas Arboretum and walked around.   A beautiful fall day for it.

They had carousels showing the 12 days of Christmas.

On Thanksgiving Eve our church has a service and then a 'PIE FEST.'  Everyone brings pies and we share.  Good fun and delicious pies!

We spent Thanksgiving Day at Julie's house - turkey and all the fixings.  Gehrig was home from Nashville, and, Kelsi and Kyle came down from Oklahoma.  Between eating and watching football we managed to get in several games of cards.

Celebrated Judy's birthday in December:

On December 13th we did fly up to Connecticut to see Larry and family.  Hannah and Jon had moved out to their own apartment so we got to see that.  Very cozy.  Jon's parents from MA came down for supper with us.

And they are now engaged!!

We also celebrated Hannah's 21st birthday by going out to a Japanese restaurant for sushi.  (Actually Judy and I had something else from the menu!!).  Both are doing very well in their jobs.

The Sunday before Christmas we all (including Belinda and Bailey and Larry) drove up to Ada, OK to Kelsi and Kyle's house to celebrate.  We actually went to Morgan and Nick's church first in the morning to see the little ones (Elyse and Nickolas) sing a song.  It was very cute.  Kelsi had made a great ham lunch for everyone and then they all opened presents.  We had a great time.

Before Christmas we celebrated Bailey's 13th birthday.  It was actually on 11/6 but we couldn't be with her back then.

On Christmas Eve everyone went to church and then had pictures taken.

On Christmas Day we were at Julie's (again!!) to celebrate the day and enjoy being with family.  We opened gifts in the morning, had a great ham dinner prepared by Larry, Emma, and Bailey.

Again, more football and card playing!
A very special day...