We are parked at our favorite campground in El Mirage, Arizona northwest of Phoenix. We arrived on Feb. 25 after visiting friends & family near Los Angeles. It's been an interesting trip despite sad news of the passing of loved ones and several problems with our RV which have hopefully been resolved.
We arrived in the New York area Jan. 9 after being delayed a day due to a freak snowstorm in Marseille which closed the airport, canceling our flight. We spent the first weekend with Bill's sister Linda & her family in Bayonne, NJ. and then headed up to Connecticut to stay with Carol in Westport. It was good catching up with friends & Gisele's cousins during our yearly pilgrimage despite several snowstorms.
We headed back to Bayonne the last weekend in the northeast Thurs. Jan. 22 and were glad to spend some time with Linda's mother-in-law Fran Resnick before she passed away Feb. 16. We also had a nice visit with Bill's cousin Annette several
days before her mom passed away in Florida.
Upon arrival in Dallas on Jan. 26 we picked up our RV and after a fierce ice storm and frozen roads headed towards Houston, first to pick up our mail and then to renew Gisele's green card which had expired the previous October. We rented a car there to more easily visit the area and Galveston. The devastation was still evident along the coast from September's Hurricane Ike. We had lunch there at Fisherman's Wharf along the Gulf of Mexico. The red snapper & New England clam chowder were excellent.
After our meeting with immigrations and papers filed we headed to Austin. Along the way, stopping for lunch, we were unable to shut off the engine of the RV. We contacted our mechanic and met him along the route to Dallas. He made some adjustments and we started out again, although this time we were too far from Austin so started our westward journey to California. After driving a few hours we stopped again and experienced the same problem. We decided to find a Cummins dealer/mechanic(the engine manufacturer) and stopped in Odessa, Texas. They determined that the installed part was defective and had a new one sent from Dallas the following day. After 2 days in Odessa we again headed west to Tucson to spend some time with our friend Margarita. We visited the historic mission of San Xavier and went to a great brunch with a live Mariachi band at la Fuente.
After a week there we headed to California only to experience the previous problem again. This time we made it to San Diego and put ourselves in the hands of the Cummins dealer there. Fortunately we have friends there who would put up with us. First there were
Regina and Larry in beautiful Newport Beach who despite some serious health issues showed us a wonderful time and made delicious homemade meals, then it was Bill's friend Jim and his s/o Janet who did the same for a couple of days. The RV repairs took longer than expected so we then took our rental car up to Laughlin, Nevada for 4 days. Had a wonderful time, delicious meals and a free room for our entire stay. After 12 days we headed back to San Diego at 7am to pick up our hopefully repaired RV. Thankfully it was done!
We started out again and 2 hours outside of San Diego the same problem happened!!! We called San Diego Cummins and they gave us a dealer in Phoenix to check it out. After spending most of the day there, some adjustments were made and we headed to our campground in El Mirage where we plan to spend a month soaking up the sun & 85 degrees every day. It's our 5th year back and it's good to catch up with friends we've made during that time. We go swimming every day and Bill is back to his woodcarving & golf while Gisele spends her time at ceramic painting, Qi Gong and country dance. We ride our bikes thru the park and rent a car on weekends to visit the area and shop.
The Barrio Cafe. Delicious nouveau Mexican cuisine with a 12 hour pork dish, fresh guacamole, and mouth watering chile rellenos. We decided to skip the organic margaritas this time since it was at the end of a long day but did opt for a delicious dessert flan.
Phoenix is a very dry desert region with many varieties of plant life notably cactus. Driving in the area, you cannot help but notice the large Saguero, a hallmark of western movies and native to this part of the country. With this in mind we decided to explore the Desert Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix. At the present time there is an exhibit by well known glass artist Dale Patrick Chihuly. We arrived in the afternoon and stayed into the evening to view the exhibit in the light, at dusk and at night. It was an incredible melange of desert plantings and artistic fre
e form glass 
sculpture. 
We are parked at our favorite campground in El Mirage, Arizona northwest of Phoenix. We arrived on Feb. 25 after visiting friends & family near Los Angeles. It's been an interesting trip despite sad news of the passing of loved ones and several problems with our RV which have hopefully been resolved.
days before her mom passed away in Florida.
Regina and Larry in beautiful Newport Beach who despite some serious health issues showed us a wonderful time and made delicious homemade meals, then it was Bill's friend Jim and his s/o Janet who did the same for a couple of days. The RV repairs took longer than expected so we then took our rental car up to Laughlin, Nevada for 4 days. Had a wonderful time, delicious meals and a free room for our entire stay. After 12 days we headed back to San Diego at 7am to pick up our hopefully repaired RV. Thankfully it was done!
We started out again and 2 hours outside of San Diego the same problem happened!!! We called San Diego Cummins and they gave us a dealer in Phoenix to check it out. After spending most of the day there, some adjustments were made and we headed to our campground in El Mirage where we plan to spend a month soaking up the sun & 85 degrees every day. It's our 5th year back and it's good to catch up with friends we've made during that time. We go swimming every day and Bill is back to his woodcarving & golf while Gisele spends her time at ceramic painting, Qi Gong and country dance. We ride our bikes thru the park and rent a car on weekends to visit the area and shop.
