Out of the past.....

I've known the Kuipers family since 1962, but haven't seen any of them since the late 70's.  Out of the blue last Sunday I got a Facebook message from Ivan.  He and his wife, Regina, have lived in Cottonwood, AZ for 28 years.  He was reading my blog (I had no idea he even knew about it) and saw we were in the area, so contacted me to see if we wanted to have lunch with he and his wife.  Of course.....absolutely!  So we set a time to get together for Wednesday at 11 am at Jerona Java Cafe in Cottonwood.  Ivan was 3 years behind me in high school, and is the sole male of 7 siblings....I remembered he had a lot of sisters, but had forgotten how many.  His sister, Janice, and my sister, Jill, were and are still very good friends.  Ironically, I went to college with Regina way before Ivan knew her.

Jerona Java Cafe

We left the coach around 10:30 making a stop at the UPS store to ship an item back to Amazon, and then over to Jerona's.  We got there a few minutes early, and Ivan and Regina were not far behind.  We had a lovely lunch, and great conversation.  I had the Chicken/Pesto sandwich which was out of this world delicious, and TLE had the Broccoli Cheese Soup, which she loved.  Yelp rates Jerona at 4.5 stars, and we would have to agree.  Getting together with Ivan and Regina was one of those unexpected delights that just makes life a little bit better.

Eventually it was time for Regina to get back to work, so we said our "until next times".   TLE and I then headed over to Larry's Antiques and Things.  Their sign says "Two Acres of Antiques" and that is pretty accurate.  I wish it had been a little warmer because a lot of the good stuff was outside in sheds, but I didn't have my jacket with me and it was barely 50 degrees........rain was forecast with a 30% chance, and the cold front moving in with the rain is very cold......there is a forecast of snow up in Flagstaff where we will be Thursday....hope it doesn't stick.

I found 6 license plates I didn't have yet, and paid an average of about $8 per plate.

6 more plates for my license plate wall!

Next we went back to "Checkered Past" where I had seen 3 open/closed end wrenches I needed....well, okay.....WANTED......a 1 & 1/4", a 1 & 1/8th and a 1".  New these wrenches would have cost close to $70....I got them for under $30.....they are not a matched set, but they are just what I wanted.

We made one more stop at a used book store so TLE could get her paperback fix, and then home for the afternoon.

The rain eventually came, but only for a few minutes.....we could see it raining across the Verde Valley to the north and south, but we never really got very wet, just a few sprinkles now and again the rest of the afternoon.

It's been a nice week here in the Verde Valley, and we plan to be back at some point, but it is time to roll our wheels north toward on new to us highways and views.  We'll be off for Flagstaff Thursday, which is really less than 60 miles from our current position.  We had planned on dry camping just south of town, but the forecast for the next few days will see lows in the mid 20's.  I think we'll want to be plugged in.

Thanks for stopping by!