Three day recap.....

 7:20 am - Saturday - November 29th - TWW - 34° F, humidity 46%, wind 4 mph out of the southeast.....partially cloudy today with a forecast high of 59° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were boondocking 8 miles outside of Borrego Springs near Rock House Road....

....we spent around 5 weeks at this spot.....daily temps in the 70's.  We sat outside on the 'lido deck' for hours each day reading.

As you have probably noticed I have been AWOL for over three days.  I will attempt to catch you up on the happenings in our life in one blog post, so here we go.

Wednesday - November 26th - The day before Thanksgiving:

Before we headed south to Phoenix to celebrate Thanksgiving with Charles, Phyllis and their extended family we had a few things left to do at TWW.  I had washed the VW a day, or two earlier, but still needed to vacuum, which I had not done for far too long, remove the dead battery from the Champion 7.5 kw generator to exchange it for a new one, get the Igloo ice chest in the car as we would be going shopping before returning to TWW, then lock up everything before we left (house, CONEX, Phyllis' Newell, the garage, the shed, the trailer, the Rubbermaid box in which we shelter the Bluetti AC200P solar charger, all of the storage bins on our Newell, and finally the Newell itself).  By the time all of this was accomplished it was 11:45 am, and time to get dressed, stow our travel bags in the VW, and hit the road.  

We were in the Beetle by 12:10 pm, and on our way south.  The distance to Charles and Phyllis' home is around 185 miles, and takes about 3 hours and 15 minutes depending on traffic.  We made one stop in Ash Fork (intersection of I-40 and Arizona 89) to top off the VW tank.  From there we headed south on 89 to 89A, which took us to I-17 southbound to Phoenix.  We arrived at their home around 3:30 pm without incident....just the way we like it.

Our niece (Charles and Phyllis' daughter), Christina, and her daughter Malena (Mălēna) had driven up from Tucson, where they live, for Thanksgiving.  We haven't seen them since May of 2020 when we were in Flagstaff, where they used to live.   We spent the afternoon talking, and catching up with their lives.  Their other daughter, Heather was also there to great us, so it was like old home week.  I don't think we've seen Heather for at least 7 years, so it was good to spend time with her, also.

Thursday - November 27th - Thanksgiving Day:

As is our habit we slept in until after 7 am Thanksgiving Day.  I usually don't sleep well the first night in an unfamiliar bed, but I actually did this time.  Go figure.  Christina (who was a barista in another life) took our coffee orders and quickly delivered them.  I had an Americano with steamed milk, which is the best one of that description I've ever had!  She hasn't lost her touch.

The rest of the family was not slated to arrive for Thanksgiving dinner until after 1 pm, so I watched some NFL football, and read until it was time to get out of my pajamas and get dressed for dinner.  The expected family members began arriving just after 1 pm.  There was Christina, Malena, Heather, Ron (husband), MacKenzie (daughter), boy friend Dillon, Sean, Dawn (Heather's daughter), and their son Mason, Georgia & Becky (Charles' sisters), Richard (son of C and P) and Patricia, Richard's wife.  In all there were 17 of us at the table....

  

....we ate on the backyard patio.  The outside temp was in the mid 70's, just they way they like it in 'The Valley of the Sun'.  Of course, as is the case with most large families, there was non stop conversation.  Eventually, following dinner we broke up into smaller groups and continued conversations.  Ron, Dillon and I watched the Cowboys (at home) defeat the K.C. Chiefs 31-28 in a back and forth game.  By 6 pm pretty much everyone had headed for home leaving Charles, Phyllis, TLE & I, Christina and Malena.  It was good to spend time with Phyllis' side of the family.

Friday - November 28th - Black Friday: 

TLE and I were up a little earlier Friday morning in anticipation of beginning the return drive to TWW.  Christina was our barista once again, and by 8:30 am we were dressed, packed, and saying our 'until next times' to everyone.  We made a quick stop at the local Fry's supermarket (Krogers) to do our weekly grocery shopping, and on our way home by 9 am.  Once again the drive back was uneventful.  We made another stop in Ash Fork to top off the VW tank (we'll be heading back to Flagstaff next Wednesday for my annual dermatological appointment), then stopped off in Seligman to have coffee at The Commodore, then across the street to Highway Hot Dog for for a scoop of their delicious ice cream, then drove the final 25 miles back to TWW where we arrived around 1:30 pm without incident.

I remembered last night that I had not yet provided pictures of the new rope lights, so here you go....

....for solar rope lights they are pretty bright, and should do the job in helping repel the constant onslaught of the local rodent population.

Thanks for stopping by!