Leaving Douglas Arizona to ,,,,,,,,

4 a.m.????????

Why the heck did I wake up at 4 a.m.?

You'd think waking up at 5a.m. and being retired was bad enough, but 4? c'mon !!!  I know that I am in that excited / sad moment of leaving one place and headed down the road to another.

But I'm RETIRED !!! That means that I have no time of departure nor time of arrival. But here it is 4a.m.

It's true that I am stopping by an old friends house for breakfast with her and her family, but that's not until 9 and it's only an hour drive, on the way, I look at the clock and it's 4:01. What the heck? LOL

So, like any normal, retired person would do, I looked at the bed and ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

started getting dressed, darn it. I made some coffee, that would be breakfast as Donna and clan awaits with a great breakfast.

Donna and her two kids (Missy and Chris) use to be neighbors in Patagonia when the girls were younger. Now Donna is reamrried to a really nice guy Mike who is also a car buff and very knowledgeable in that area. Missy is also married and has 3 kiddies in fact Ellise is celebrating birthday # 5 today so not only a great breakfast but some birthday cake as well.

I drank some coffee, looked at the clock, 4:10 uhggggg. 8)  Dumped tanks, cleaned them as well since this new unit has automatic wash downs for the holding tanks (remember this for later) filled fresh water tanks, put stuff away etc. etc. Hooked up little box and headed into the sunset. It was morning but I "headed" into the sunset.

As I said I had a wonderful breakfast and a very sweet cake at Doona's, said Hi gave / received hugs, etc. then headed on towards Tucson. I had avoided getting gas in Douglas because it had gone from $2.99 when I arrived Feb 8 to $3.59 yesterday so figured I would get it in Tucson at Triple T. Imagine my surprise when I arrived at TTT and saw the price of $ 3.55. Oh well cheaper at least. Then I get to the pump and it's $3.62 (seems the $3.55 was for cash). When I got off the highway later I saw that in town gas was $3.42.

I was a bit disappointed when the mpg was exactly what it had been in Box 1 but then remembered Box II is 5 feet longer, wider, etc. thus in effect the mileage was better. That was at a steady 55 so when I head East I will try 60 for a tank then 65 and see what, if any, difference there is. Hoping for 27 but then the Jeep only gets 20 so ,,,,,,

I pulled into The Wishing Well RV Park in Catalina Arizona where i had made reservations a month ago when I had Box 1, the idea being that I could do some work / upgrades on it and have parts etc. readily available. Now I have Box II so will go exploring in the Jeep instead. Of course Nick is in a park about 10 miles down the road so I can visit him, and oh yeah a friend from High School Days ( WOW, that made me think of when High School Days were, I graduated 45 years ago, WOW. Alice is getting old.LOL) Anyway when in town we usually try to have lunch and she usually tries to drag me to artsy fartsy stuff that her husband wont go to. LOL So, it will be a fun month.

I found a space under a huge tree which means lots of shade which means sitting in lawn chairs under the tree on those hot sunny afternoons in the Arizona Desert.

I went for a walk to see the surroundings and when I returned the new neighbors and Park Manager was at my space. I though how nice, it's meet the neighbors time. I had heard that RV parks were really friendly places. 8) As I walked up the manager said, your not going to be happy as I looked at Box II and saw water leaking from the under floor storage bins and running oiut the door. Must have broken something said my new neighbor Rick from Seally Lake Montana. WOW, I thought, that stinks and just this morning everything was fine. So, I waded inside to look around and saw where the toilet had flooded, ???????, what the heck and then DING, DING, Ding the elevator finally went to the top and it dawned on me.

Remember I said to remember that automatiic rinsing / flush thing for the holding tanks? Well it seems I had left it on, but closed the drain valves so when I connected and turned on the water ....... Get the picture? Well, worry not because if you dont get the picture you can certianly smell it LOL. Not yucky just smelly. Remember I had already flushed the tank out this a.m. so all the yucky was gone but ,,,,, anyway my evening just got a lot busier, and now I had to jump off the entry steps because I had a lake outside the door and hardwood floors and ,,,,,, now you get the picture.

I sent a message to my ex-sister-in-law Debbie and told her where I was because she drives this way daily to work. She wrote back saying that the van stopped at the circle K next door at 4:30 a.m, so guess what? For two days in a row. 4 a.m. what the heck LOL

Everyone has been asking about Jimmy. Here he is and he says Hi. He's hanging with a couple of friends that have been with me for over 20 years, and a lego RV that Sammy made for me.

He had a great time working at Keebler, he even said that Leonardo let him paint some of the Fudge stripes but they were a little "off" so if you happen to buy any Keebler Fudge Stripe Cookies and the stripes seem a bit "off" then maybe, just maybe, your eating a Jimmy cookie.

He was telling me about some of the new equipment he helped install for the new offerings but I cant talk about them because Keebler hasnt announced it yet. He made a "ton" of Elf Bucks. Which of course means that he buys stuff, they dont take Elf Bucks" so I pay. LOL A really good savings account he has figured out.

It was really nice to see the Little Elf Dude and hear him yell out hey Big Human Dude. LOL