On The Road Again in 2013: Back in Paradise

I'm a few days late in posting this blog but we are back in Paradise RV Park in Sun City, AZ for a couple of weeks. It was a great summer and after a couple of weeks of medical/dental/visiting family here, I'll be ready to move again, however, we'll slow it down now for the winter and just stay around AZ. (We love AZ in the wintertime).

We enjoyed the last week in Cottonwood where the temps were in the low 40's in the mornings but then up into the 80's/90's during the day. Once we headed towards Sun City, you could see the temps rising and it has been in the high 90's so far this week with a slight cool down expected by this weekend (80's). Of course, if you have been here all summer, the 90's are wonderful and being able to open the windows at night, is perfect.

One of the quirky entrances to a shop
in Jerome

Our friends, John/Janis, from FL stopped to visit us while in Cottonwood on their way from CA to NM to see her children. We hadn't seen them in about 8 years so was fun to catch up. Janis requested we go to Jerome for lunch to a restaurant now called 'The Asylum' in the Grand Hotel. Many years ago this hotel was the hospital when Jerome was a booming copper mining town and Janis' sister was born in the hospital 71 years ago in September. How cool is that? Cottonwood is less than 10 miles from Jerome so it was not a problem and we had a lovely lunch. This restaurant/hotel are on top of a hill in town and from there the views are spectacular. After the mining ceased, Jerome became a ghost town and was brought back to life in the 70's by hippies and travelers through the area and that continues through today. It is quite the 'quirky' town built into a mountainside with a population of about 450 and most of them are 'artsy' in some form or another. Streets are narrow, roads are curvy to get there, (can't imagine driving a big RV through Jerome), buildings are old, but that's what makes the community an attraction. Janis was able to ride up the 'creaky' old elevator to what was the birthing room (now a hotel lobby of sorts) and take some pics to send her sister. She said it was kind of an odd feeling standing there knowing that her young mom, at the time, had given birth to her sister in that room. They were anxious to get back on the road so we didn't walk around Jerome but Dick and I have been there before so we know there are wine tastings, beer gardens, art galleries, unique gift shops, a really cool kaleidoscope store, and much more. I told Dick that next time I want to spend a day there checking out even more than what we've seen in the past.

Sunday, after getting set up here at the park in Sun City, we got together with Mike, Dick's son, and spent the afternoon/evening with him getting caught up. We took him to dinner and Walmart, and he is really doing well. Tomorrow is his appointment in Flagstaff with the surgeon and he hopes the boots can come off for good, and therapy will begin. His broken heel has only had a boot on it from the beginning and it seems to have healed just fine as he can put a shoe on with no problem. The shattered one is still swollen and no shoe for now. He can put a little weight on that one if he needs too but for the most part, he uses crutches and the wheelchair. His goal is to be back to work by mid-December so we'll see but he makes us proud that he's worked through this and seems to have a positive attitude knowing that things happen for a reason!

Yesterday was Dick's scan/MRI at Mayo's. We don't have the results yet but hoping/praying for everything to be ok. We'll continue our stay here with some dental and medical appointments, and the plan is to leave 10/13 for Benson, AZ which is east of Tucson until 12/1. Our middle granddaughter, Lauren, turns 21 today so we'll celebrate with her this weekend. Wow.......where has the time gone?

Dick is still tallying everything up from our summer travels but we traveled about
7800 miles since May 1, used about 1100 gallons of diesel, and averaged about 7.25 mpg. Worth every penny!!!!

Thanks for following along with me this summer. It has been fun to keep this blog and I have already referred back to it a couple of times. There is so much to see and do in this country that we already know places we'll return to and places we won't and things we'll do differently next time. That's half of the fun!