I'm Starting to Hate Willie Nelson...

"On the road again! (ner-ner ner-ner ner-ner) I can't believe we're on the road again! (ner-ner ner-ner ner) Late-ly my life has been moving with out end! I can't believe we're on the road again!

Okay. I guess you really have to be in my crazy head to get it, but still...SInce October, I think we have made nomads look positively sedentary. Let me summarize:

Kualapa-> Front Street-> Ka'anapali Shores-> John's Apartment-> Golden Village RV Resort-> Pechanga RV Resort-> Pechanga Parking Lot-> Pechanga RV-> Lyndie Lane (K&K's place)-> Pechanga RV-> Lyndie Lane-> Pechanga Parking Lot-> Pechanga RV-> Parking Lot-> Pechanga-> Parking Lot-> Pechanga RV-> Prescott, AZ (Don's mom)-> John's Apartment-> Pechanga RV. I think I may have forgotten a trip or two to the parking lot, but you get the drift.

The thing about moving the motorhome is that you have to go through the same routine, whether moving 20 feet or 200 miles. Setup: jacks down, sideouts out, electricity connected, water connected, sewage connected, windows and vents opened, microwave plate in (learned that after not once but TWICE having these glass revolving plates launched out of the microwave and exploded on the floor, after Don hit a pothole or speed bump or giant possum or something), set clock on microwave, put out little coffee tables, take all the little jewelry boxes and pictures off the bed and set them on the counter, take my computer, keyboard, and mouse off the same bed, and set that up on what used to be the dinette, take the clothes pole out of the shower, put all the showery-girly-hair-producty stuff in all the right places, awning out, outdoor rugs out, chairs and tables out, coffee carafe into coffee maker, knives in knifeblock onto kitchen counter, range opened up, kettle on range, start up satellite and until recently, Don would have to take the back tv off the bed and set it up in its little cabinet. And then when we need to move somewhere, it all goes the other way. I know I've forgotten something. And, yes, I readily admit this is not even REMOTELY related to camping or roughing it. But, it is pretty annoying. But, God has blessed us by letting us by getting us a spot at Pechanga RV Park until August 12! Yay and praise God!!

But in the midst of all the looney moving, we have had some pretty fun travel adventures - most notably our recent trip to Prescott (rhymes with biscuit. Don't make me tell you again), Arizona. We had to have a few thousand things repaired on the rv so we left it in what we presumed to be capable hands - more on that later. We finally got on the road early afternoon - for what was estimated to be about a nine-plus hour jaunt into the high desert.

I still love a good road trip Don and I had a blast. And blast is what hit us when we got out of our safe little air conditioned vehicle in Needles, CA. It was 6:30 in the evening and the thermometer said 111. I think it may have understated it. I also think that the name "Needles" was inspired by the feeling one's eyeballs get when hitting this kind of furnace. Juxtaposed against this dry inferno is a lush green vein of trees lining the shimmering blue-green Colorado River, and I-40 runs next to it for a short distance before crossing over into Arizona. It was dusk when we scooted through Kingman, AZ, and just before leaving the outlying areas, it looked as though there was a dust storm ahead. Well, there was, but it was caused by two young men on their quad ATV's zooming right beside the freeway, creating quite the cloud of nearly opaque dust. About a week later, the Phoenix area would experience a massive dust storm called a haboob. The cause of this dust storm, however, were just boobs. The 40 also meets up with the much-storied Route 66, and if you have seen the Disney flik "Cars", you know the story of the little town of Radiator Springs which had been left virtually abandoned by the opening of the interstate. We sort of happened upon the little town that is the living, breathing Radiator Springs when, ummmm, shall we say....the iced tea we had started consuming back in Needles prevented us from making it all the way to Don's mom's house and we stopped, in a big ol' hurry, in the tiny, charming town of Seligman, Arizona. Yes, I can see that some of you know this place, being Route 66 fans and all. We hit it again on the way back so we could take pics of the REAL Doc and Mater!! Didn't find Lightning McQueen, though. Musta had a race. We finally rolled into Prescott about 11:00 that night, and it felt good.

Don's mom, Joann, lives in the same kind of independent living/retirement community called Las Fuentes, and we met a lot of very vibrant senior folks. We met one lady who was a very young 101, and her SON was in his early 80's! Joann even joked about how someone would say that their kids were coming to visit, and who would show up but some more old people! But it is a lovely place and it was great to be a little spoiled for 10 days.

The bigger adventure lay in our side trips and mini-adventures around the area. Our visit also happened to coincide with July 4th weekend, which is Prescott's big rodeo weekend, as well. Couldn't swing a limp lasso without hitting someone in a cowboy hat or a big truck pulling a horse trailer. Downtown Prescott has a really cool old town feeling, and we cruised along there and checked out some very nifty shops. Our personal favorite? Young's Farm Candy and Ice Cream where they have the crazy best and most unique flavors of candy and homemade ice cream. I paid a return visit the day before we left so I could send a sampling of their unique brittles and bark to my girlfriends back home in Maui. And if you CCW girls are reading this....yummies await at the next Bible Studies....

Our little mini-road trips took us north three different times. We set our sights on Sedona first, to catch up with the parents/new in-laws of the bride and groom, Autumn and Tarkus (look to one of my previous episodes). Tarkus' mom and stepdad, Holly and Robbie, live in a charming and peaceful house just blocks away from the charming and not-so-peaceful heart of Sedona. I think I kind of want to be these two when I grow up - except in Maui, not in the high (but gorgeous!) desert of Arizona. The both have young and creative hearts, with vibrant spirits to match. H&R treated the three of us to some of the best Mexican food I have had in quite a long time in - get ready for it - Tlaquepaque. Pronounce it. Dare ya. And you thought Hawaiian was challenging!!! Rough phonetics: tla (I know, those don't make a normal sound, but just go with it) -kay-pah-kay. Anyway, it is a cool set of shops, restaurants and galleries that I'm sure are inspired by something cool and historic, but I am woefully ignorant of its history. But suffice to say, the setting, the food, the company were surpassed only by the surrounding mountains and cliffs of layer cake in various shades of red, with tufts of dark green adding punches of contrast. We left Sedona and our friends with our hearts as full as our tummies!

Don and I shot back up north for a day at Grand Canyon. If you haven't ever been to see this overwhelming and enormous piece of God's artistry....WHY NOT!?!? It more than exceeds the hype, so no worries about being disappointed. It is considered the most visited National Park in the world - and I think that was just on the day we were there. It was right after the July 4th weekend, and there were still about 2,945,921 visitors making a long weekend out of it. We had observed some rather ominous clouds to the northeast during the drive there, and then heard the unmistakable deep rumble of distant thunder shortly after our arrival. It didn't take long for the rumbles became cracks and boom, with the accompanying strobes of lightning - followed by the beginnings of a gully-whomper (sorry - left over form Rodeo Days). We managed to get under a shelter before it really opened up. Unfortunately, it was an short A-frame between two rows of restrooms, and open at either end. About 3 dozen more folks came into join us as the skies completely opened. Already a small space, it was made all the smaller by the wind blowing in sheets of rain on one end. We were all so soaked and ridiculous that pretty much everyone was laughing - at each other. Once the rain cleared, the day was ours to just explore and wonder. I never get tired of it. I have been blessed to fly over this amazing place a couple of times in my life, and one can almost see the hands of God pulling the land apart, exposing more of the ribbon candy cliffs and the powerful Colorado River looking like nothing more than a tiny deep sea-green thread. It is the very definition of Awesome.

One of the most astonishing thing about our one-day visit is the multiples elk-sightings!! Now, this would not mean much to anyone but those who know of Don's and my remarkable record of oh-fer-768 on wildlife sightings - humpbacks, dolphins, and barracudas excepted. The great thing about these elk is that they are so accustomed to gawkers like us that they don't move anywhere, even when the rangers do the woop-woop with their sirens to shoo us gawkers along. So, after a wonderful day of rain and elk and zillions of fellow awe-inspired canyon-lookers, we headed back to Prescott, more thunderstorms and cah-rrrraaaaaaazy lightning straight over us

We took another quick trip back to the area close to Sedona to meet up with Don's sister and brother-in-law as they headed off on a long road trip to Wisconsin. What makes this note-worthy is that this was after that mind-boggling sand tsunami that rolled over Greater Metropolitan Phoenix. Kathy and Howard live in the Southeast corner of that particular area, and like literally millions of other Phoenixians (yes, I made that up), they were trying to get 17 layers of desert of their vehicle. When we headed out of Prescott to meet them, we noticed that there was a decidedly thick haze, of the dust variety. This is over 100 miles away. Yikes. Every car - including ours - had a mottled layer of this dust, with some thicker than others. Yes, this was some big haboooooob!!

The actual July 4th (yes, I'm aware that I am out of chronological order) started with hearing a clorp-ca-clorp-ca-clorp outside the window. I finally caught sight of the source: a buff-colored Belgian Draft Horse pulling a wagon filled with residents of Las Fuentes and their guests! Sweet! The first loads were kind of full, but then we saw the wagon with one lone lady and her walker, so we figured the crowds had thinned. Sure enough, we got the last ride of the morning, and had to share with no one! Double sweet! We were enjoying our very relaxing ride behind the mellow Edward the Horse (Mr. Ed!) when around one corner we came horse-to-headlights with a big, loud garbage truck. This loud smelly beast cause our quiet, not-as-smelly beast start skittering around quite nervously. We three, in turn, felt our insides start skittering around just as nervously. I replayed every When-mellow-beast-go-nuts video I had ever seen and made the decision that should Edward go from Riverdance to Chariots of Fire I would leap protectively on my diminutive mother-in-law, and prayed that my husband would then leap protectively on both of us. Fortunately, the brave resolve of either/both of us was not tested, as one of our drivers led Edward the horsey quietly past the noisy, trash-eating behemoth - only to have us come horse-to-headlights again at the front of the building. It was our time to get out. We did.

After escaping being the next you-tube feature about crazed horses and wagons, we, and the others of Las Fuentes, were entertained by cloggers. No, these are not people who stuff wrong things down potties or drains, but country-style tap dancers. Very energetic and fun! I loved the little girl who did her solo dance to Lady Gaga. Cloggin' to Gaga. What a great way to celebrate this country!!!

And then, we were off to the highlight of the day. While we were headed to a July 4th BBQ at a Lavender Farm about 30 miles away, and that was fun, that wasn't the highlight of which I speak. Not even close. Our treat for the day came in the person of a proper British lady named, Grace - Joann's best friend. Having heard so much about her from Don's mom, we were eager to meet her. Since we were giving her a ride to the dinner, we would have that blessing! Now, how to describe the lovely Miss Grace....picture, if you will, a mash-up of Mrs. Doubtfire, Queen Elizabeth II, and Dame Edna. Rather tall, a shock of white hair, and a lively face was my first impression of the 80-something-year-old - and than we heard her speak. Her speaking voice has more pitch and volume changes than Jay Leno. Grace and Joann chatted like schoolgirls in the back seat while Don and I were just enjoying the entertainment. We headed north on US 89 to Chino Valley - the location of the lavender farm and dinner party. As we headed into the more open country areas on our way, Grace said that we should be looking for....and she couldn't quite remember what the animal was, but it was kind of a deer....but not a deer....but smaller.... Having grown up on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, and then grown semi-old on watching Animal Planet and Nat Geo, I said "do you mean Pronghorn Antelope?" "oh, no no no, that's not it," Grace assured me. A few miles more of Grace trying to remember the exact name of the animal, I offered again, "gee, it sounds like a pronghorn antelope." Suddenly, at a decibel level normally reserved for Heavy Metal bands, came from the back seat "AUNTILOOP!!! YEEES!! THAT'S IT!! AUNTILOOP!!" My beloved demonstrated exceptional control of the car and kept us on the road despite the heart stoppage and intense ringing in his ears. So, we now knew to look for auntiloop- uh, antelope to and from our lovely dinner at the lovely lavender farm. We never saw any, but the enthusiastic search made the trip pure joy! We arrived back at the gate for Grace's community, and it was then she realized she had forgotten her gate clicker. She also realized that the majority of her neighbors were at the community clubhouse 4th of July party. After a few profanities (somehow, when they are spoken with proper British enunciation, they are just not as offensive), and a few attempts at finding one neighbor's number on the directory, we managed to get buzzed in and take this wonderful lady to her home. Lest I give the impression that Grace is some kind of caricature of a British Lady, I should tell you that she was once a tennis player of championship caliber and she was a Traffic Safety Engineer. Grace is quite something. And she was, indeed, the highlight of our adventures!

Our return home was just as much fun - but not so fun was the phone call from the RV place where our coach was supposed to be READY!! Essentially, Don's side of the conversation was like this, "Really? What about the shower. Not til when? Well, how about the jacks and sideout? Uh-huh. How much? What about the inverter? Really. How much? So you not only need my left kidney, but my wife's as well." Yeah. Fortunately, our son opened his comfy apartment, and 6 days after the coach was supposed to be done, we picked it up with only half of the stuff done. Egad. But, PRAISE GOD, Don was able to convince these yahoos that we really shouldn't pay for stuff that wasn't done. Imagine that. We now have called on our favorite mobile RV guy to fix all these things that were going to cost us a few internal organs and a couple gallons of blood. We can actually pay this wonderful guy and stay financially - and physically - intact. God is sooo good.

So, we get to sit still for a while these things get handled. I can get the last chapter of my novel finished. Maybe I can throw some paint on these canvases I've had for about three months. But not tonight. I have to stop now. I bet your eyes are happy to hear that.