An old friend from Junior High and High School has recentlyretired and moved back to Arizona.  Greg and his wife Brenda have been RVing for awhile but are now free to go more full time or close to it.  Their home base is Arizona for now. They have recently purchased a new RV and had asked us to share some of our favorite places to go, which we were happy to do.  A couple of weeks ago I receive a message from Greg stating they had made reservations at one of our most favorite places, Burro Mountain Homestead, and asked if we would like to join them.  Once we checked our calendar I called and made our reservations!

Of course you can guess we ran into issues when it was time to leave, do I sound like a broken record yet?  In fact Greg jokingly said , ” so if you say we will leave at 9 that really means like 10 or so?”  He doesn’t know how right he is.  So we arranged to meet at 10 at the abandoned outlet mall in Casa Grande (those of us who have lived in Arizona for a long time know exactly where that is located) .  I put in my head we needed to be ready at 9, just to be safe.  We picked up our coach from National Indoor RV Centers, where some repairs were being done, on Saturday and brought it home.  We have been loading stuff in it, when ever we find a spare minute in our crazy busy days. So Monday evening we attempt to test the satellite which is one of the big reasons it was in the shop.  At first all seems good, but after about 20-30 minutes and the system has still not locked in on satellites, Tracey gets very frustrated and we all it a night.  Hoping for better luck in the morning with a clearer head. He texts with the Service Tech at NIRVC and they call it a night stating they will talk in the morning.

So Tuesday Tracey spends trying to get it to work with no luck only for things to get worse by late afternoon.  Suddenly we have no power to any outlets in the RV.  Tracey works and works and can’t find the issues, he alternates between coming inside and checking forums, asking questions to other RVers and going back out to the coach to attempt to find the issue over and over again.  He sends a text to the Nicholas at NIRVC and they try some different things.  No luck, it is so bad that a service tech that is with Nicholas offers to drive all the way out to our house and try to diagnose the problem.  That is service on a whole different level.  Pete arrives about 9:45pm at our house and he and Tracey dive into the coach.  About an hour later, nothing is fixed but Pete is pretty sure one of the inverters is bad.  SO of course there is nothing Pete can do as he doesn’t have a spare inverter with him LOL, you see he left a company dinner and drove to our house, so he doesn’t even have tools with him.  Good thing Tracey has a plethera of good tools!  So we end the late night, we appreciate to Pete and a promise from Nicholas that he will get to work early tomorrow and see if he has an inverter in stock, or a rig on the lot with the same inverter that he could “borrow” to replace ours.

I message Greg letting him know we are going to be much later than expected as we will probably have to drive all the way to Cave Creek to have the inverter installed before driving southeast to New Mexico.  What a bummer but we tell Greg and Brenda to plan to go without us, but we will keep them posted.  

Wake up in the morning and finish my last minute errands and packing those last few things, and Tracey gets the dreaded but expected all that NIRVC does not have an inverter for us, they will have to order it.

Not much keeps Tracey and I down, so we decide we will rough it in our glamper for the weekend.  Frig works, AC works, water heater works  we should be good to go.  I text Greg and tell him the bad news but that we are still going but will be closer to 11 (hahahaha there is that hour delay) so they can still go on with out us.  He says they have already left so will meet us at BMH.

By the time we are loaded and driving away, the outlets are working!  no idea why, we didn’t touch anything, but we are not holding out hope it will remain that way throughout the weekend.

We stop for fuel near the house and I think Tracey is going to come unglued and a lady who pulls out in front of us to exit the gas station we are attempting to get into.  She is now blocking our way, yelling at us to get out of her way because she can’t see.  Tracey is yelling back that he is blocking the lane, she just needs to pull out and get out of our way.  She is throwing her hands in the air and yelling and pointing, so Tracey lays on the air horn and pulls in within I swear an inch of her car.  I would be surprised if that lady didn’t have a heart attack from that air horn!  We get diesel and DEF fluid and we are on our way. Drive is good and we are only about an hour behind Greg and Brenda.

The dirt road into BMH is in great shape.  We can’t decide if the road is that good or if the new coach makes that much difference.  Entering into the homestead all of the trees are trimmed way back and we have no problem getting in. (need to remember to tell Jim what a good job he is doing).

We unhook the jeep in front of the office and pull into our spot.  We get out and hug hello with our friends, they are all set up and enjoying the mountain air.  We take a tour of their new rig, love their flooring and it really feels like home.  We meet Chase before heading back over to set up our camp.  We get set up, move the jeep into our spot and take Ki’oni over to meet Greg Brenda and Chase.  Ki’oni makes himself at home on Chase’s bed right away, silly dog.  Chase isn’t sure about having this other dog around yet.  Tracey checks on the steaks we brought and they are still frozen 🙁 so we decide that even though it is Greg and Brenda’s anniversary they will prepare dinner tonight and we will tomorrow.  We sit outside and enjoy a yummy dinner and great company. Greg cleans up and we continue to visit for a bit before calling it a night.

Thursday morning I sit outside with my tea and my bible study books.  Enjoying the quiet, oh it is so quiet here. There is a very gentle cool breeze blowing.  It isn’t long before I see Dewey peaking around the end of our rig. I get a big hug from him and we chat about his new trailer and our new coach.  He has to run as his sister is leaving today and he wants to see her off.  Of course I had to give him a hard time about the Cowboys star I caught a glimpse of on his nail.  He laughs and says everyone is giving him a hard time, but he did it for his brother in law.  He tells me to tell Tracey hello and he is off.

A bit later Tracey comes outside with me, he sits and reads up on our wifi booster as I continue my study,   It isn’t but a half an hour or so later when I see Jim across the road putting something back in the shed.  I whistle and hollar over at him, I think it might have taken him a few seconds to figure out who I was due to the new rig, but he comes right over and gives me a big hug and shakes Tracey’s hand and they do the bro hug thing.  We sure love being here, these folks are like family.

Tracey and I finish reading, have breakfast, shower up and are just enjoying ‘being’, when Greg pops over and asks about checking out Silver City. We decide to take two cars as they want to go on to a hike that we don’t want to do.  Our first stop is Little Toad brewery where we had an amazing lunch and some good beers.                                             Tracey even buys a growler and brings some beer back with us.  After lunch we spend some time walking up and down the little streets, popping into a few shops, window shopping at others, and mostly reading the historical plaques at each building.   We got a good laugh at this window.  I know the glare is bad but this artist has a tough time with proportions it seems.  This cowboy is a little large for this barn wouldn’t you say? He is sitting down eating and his head is above the top of the barn door!!

Greg and Brenda head off on their adventure, and we stop at the store before heading back to let Ki’oni out.

After walking the dog I am ready for a nap.  I am not usually a napper but I am so tired.  About 2 hours later we are waking up to the puppy needing to go outside.  Can’t believe we slept that long! We get up walk the dog, and start dinner.  Can’t let our friends down two days in a row LOL

This time we enjoy dinner outside our rig under the lights of our awning.  The food was good but the company better.  After dinner we spend time chatting.  At one point Tracey turns off the awning lights so our solar tiki torches come, and I am sure that Greg will be ordering some of those if he hasn’t already done so.  It gets a little chilly and we put on jackets while we continue spending time outside. About 11 or so we call it a night and head in to bed.

Friday morning is calm, perhaps the calm before the store as it is the beginning of a holiday weekend.  Tracey and I left the windows open last night and it was much nicer than the AC the night before.  I think we both slept pretty well.  We lounge around, chatting, playing with the dog.  Tracey figures out how to make our phones receive texts via wifi, so I feel a little better.  I don’t like being out of communication with my kiddos.  They are kids and not much into emailing, so being able to at least text them makes me feel better.  It isn’t long before we hear and see Greg and Brenda packing up camp, they are head off on their next adventure today.  We go on out to say our goodbyes and thank them for camping with us.  They take off and we chat with Jim for a little while longer.  I head inside to write and Tracey puts up our cell extender and before long he is chatting with his brother and his bff Robert.  YAY phone service!!!!

I think I will put away the computer and enjoy the mountains.  Be sure to check back in and see what kind of trouble I mean fun we get into.

We spent the rest of Friday playing Rummikub outside, chatting with Wayne, making new friends two campsites over from us and relaxing.  We cooked up some dinner and sat outside watching the movie RV.  About halfway through the movie it was cold enough for a jacket, and shortly thereafter I needed a blanket!! So it goes to say that when the movie ended we moved inside to warm up.  Fire danger is high so no campfires allowed.  We call it a night, with me reminding Tracey to set an alarm so we are not late for breakfast in the morning.

Saturday morning, finds me in a rush ugh.  Why is it that after asking for an alarm to be set I get awakened 5 minutes before breakfast?  I mean seriously we have been married long enough for him to know that I need and WANT more than 5 minutes. (did I mention he has been up for an hour!!!)  Well thank goodness I took a shower before bed last night, so I throw some clothes on, wash my face,  put on a hat and off we go.  We are the last to arrive at breakfast, but are greeted warmly.  Tracey pays our $5 fee and we get in line.  We are served eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, biscuits, juice and coffee by some of the friendliest people you will ever meet.  We find an empty end of a table and enjoy our breakfast.  We converse with a couple seated next to us, and with some of the residence who pop over to say hello.  Before leaving breakfast we check out the baskets that will be raffled off Sunday night.

Back at the RV we take Ki’oni on a long walk around the campground.  We are surprised on this holiday weekend there are still quite a few empty sites.  Tracey doesn’t want to be gone too long, actually walk too far, as my bronchitis has been acting up.  Once back at the RV, we clean up a little inside and settle in to watch a movie.

After the movie we move outside and play some games.  After a couple hours it gets a little warm, the breeze is blowing hard enough that it caused the awnings to retract, so we retreat back inside.  We do a little reading, napping, snacking and chatting. I even got enough cell signal to chat with Caitlynn!

We have been so relaxed that we suddenly realize we are late for dinner!! We blame it on being on Arizona time.  Tonight is bring your own, and cook over the open fire pit in the corral.  We pack all our food, drinks, cooking and eating utensils and head to the corral.  We are greeted by a table full of folks eating.  We set up on the table behind them and Tracey throws our burgers on the fire.   While the burgers are cooking we are joined by our new friends from a couple camp spots over and they share our table.  They introduce us to their friends, they are camped between us and they are all from Sierra Vista.  We share some side dishes and enjoy some fun conversation.  After cleaning up from dinner Tracey and I head up to the lodge for Karaoke.  This is one of our favorite events here at the Homestead.  Not as many people as we are used to but the night proves to be a ton of fun and we close down the joint!  Thanks to Jersee Pete for always putting on a great night.  Anna, my friend what a voice!! and thanks for singing a duet with Tracey.  I was so blown away that I forgot to take pictures!!  Tracey enjoyed singing some solos , his duet with Anna, and closed out the night with some duets and group numbers with Jim, Woody and Pete.

Sunday was a lazy day for us!  We took a couple walks , did some reading, took a nap, cleaned up the RV, and packed up our stuff from outside.  We joined a good size crowd in the corral just after 5pm for social hour.  We bought our tickets for dinner and some raffle tickets.  Kathy invited us to sit at their table, which we did and had some fun conversations.  Dave and Kathy are the camp hosts until October and we have enjoyed getting to know them.  We shared our appetizer we brought over with our table while we chatted.  Tables were called to line up for dinner by different wars our country has been a part of, there were cards on each table with a date or date span on them.  Our table was called first as we were 1775!!  A quick little history lesson while waiting to eat, such a great idea.   Dinner smelled so good and tasted even better, thanks Jim for all the effort to prepare the roast for all of us.  We saw our new friend Anna and Wayne at dinner but didn’t have a chance to visit.

After dinner, the drawings began for the baskets they were raffling off. We were worried when out of the first 5 winners we were called twice! We didn’t want to win them all LOL.  Tickets were cheap and we love supporting a place we love to come to but we definitely didn’t expect to win, let alone win more than one.

 We stayed for a bit after dinner and the raffle just visiting. We then took our baskets back to the RV and stowed them in the jeep.  Hopefully we don’t forget to safely stow them before taking off tomorrow!  We put our dinnerware inside the RV and took Ki’oni on another walk.  While on the walk Anna and Wayne stopped in their RZR to let us know they were able to find Jack’s Peak early today and really enjoyed it.  They were headed out on a short ride with their friends and would catch up with us when they got back.  The drove off and we finished our walk.  We decided the weather was so nice we would sit outside for while. Ki’oni did his usual sniffing around while getting tangled around my chair.  Tracey put a few more things away in the under compartments. Otherwise we just sat and chatted.  I spied the moon on the rise above the trees, it was so beautiful and peaceful and this picture doesn’t do it justice.

When Anna and Wayne returned from their ride, they came by and we chatted about meeting back up here at Burro Mountain in July for some more riding. We chatted about doing some riding down by them in Sierra Vista and perhaps in Tucson and up near us in Chandler.  We gave them a tour of our RV, come to find out we both bought our rigs at National Indoor RV Center in Phoenix!!  We both received great service from Robert Easley!!  It was getting late, so we said goodbyes and agreed we would meet at the flagpole in the morning for the Memorial Day celebration.

I am writing and planning our next adventure, Tracey and Ki’oni are relaxing and watching a little tv.  Good Night.

#weareentegra  #journeyfor2  #loveourlife  #SheRVs