Sunday, November 10th., 2024…… We worked on cleaning up the house
this morning. As I mentioned, Penny and Cherrelyn are staying here this week,
starting tomorrow. We have our clothes packed and only have one or two items to
add tomorrow morning. We are going to be flying to Mesa, driving to Glendale to
our hotel, then Chris and Angie’s for the day. Tuesday, looks like we’ll be
driving to Prescott, to see Ashley and family. Cathye has packed all of the
sweatshirts she bought as well as the paint that she will use to ‘hug’ the
grandkids. I think she has 4 more to go and only Felix in NH will be left.
Probably will have to give that one to Terisa when she comes to visit next
month.
Boy, we seem to be sleeping a lot
more lately. Pretty sure it’s the weather, but neither of us could go to sleep
last night, even after some time in the spa! So, we slept in again. I walked
the dogs then headed out to get breakfast while Cat showered and got going. She
is still trying to catch up on her sleep. Today was spent straightening up the
house and what was left on the back deck. I had our old pumpkins in the
truckster and took them out to throw on the burnpile. We expect the animals to
come pick through to get them. Better than garbage! Later, we went to our
class. I had one badge to deliver and tried to do that! Jo wasn’t there tonight
so I gave it to Charlotte to give to her on Tuesday. We
decided to go to pizza tonight even though we will be up early tomorrow. Always
fun to afterparty! Pizza Hut just doesn’t seem
to want us there on Sunday nights! They said last week they didn’t have staff
and this week they made us come to the counter and order and pickup. No one was
happy so we are going to try the bowling alley next week. Since we had 28
there, they will be losing a lot of revenue! Later, we got home and went to
bed. We have a full day tomorrow…
Monday, November 11th., 2024…… We were up at 6:00am this morning and on the
road at 7:15am. Our flight today leaves out of Eugene so we had only 51 miles
to drive. I let her off at the terminal and drove out to the long term parking
area and walked back in. We got checked in and had a quick breakfast at one of
the food eateries there in the terminal before we boarded for our 9:45am flight
out. Cat booked us exit row seats and although the flight was only 2 hours, it
was nice to have the legroom! Problem was, when she booked the outgoing flight,
she chose row 15, which looked like an exit row on the diagram, but turned out
it wasn’t! So, we (ok, I) was cramped
for the flight. But, no worries. Once we landed, we stopped at the counter and
got our paperwork for our rental car (Mitsubishi Mirage) and then got our bags
and walked just down the road and got the car. The drive from Mesa to Glendale
took just over an hour. We drove toward The Holiday Inn Express in Glendale,
but searched for a Cracker Barrel for lunch beforehand. Turns out it was next
door to the hotel! Once we got unpacked, we headed over to spend the rest of
the day/evening with the McCracken family. Besides Chris and Angie, they have
their youngest son, Brandon, with wife Emily, and their sons Royal and Liam,
and daughter Khali living there. Oh, yeah, Angie’s mom, Farrell lives there
too. Since they have all of those family members living there, we opted for the
hotel. We had a fun time. Oldest son, Dillon, came by and visited and we all
played with the kids. Later, we went over to the boys’ soccer practice.
Royal in yellow, Liam in red. Khali was off playing somewhere!
There she is!
Brandon
is head coach for Royal’s team and assistant coach for Liam’s. Their
practice/scrimmages were about an hour apart but Angie stopped on the way and
got 5-6 boxes of pizza and wings for everyone. We were still pretty full from
lunch, but we ate a few anyway. With my years of coaching my boys, I really
enjoyed seeing these kids play. They are two of the best on their teams and
both definitely have skills! I’m sure Khali will be active as well. Emily is a
gymnast and Khali has skills already, so maybe she will get into that!
We left after about 2 hours and
went back to our hotel. A little tv and then bed – without the dogs!
Tuesday, November 12th., 2024…… Even though the hotel has
breakfast, we were up and out and on the road to Chris and Angie’s and got
there before 9:00am. We went with them to breakfast at ‘Our Place’, a local
spot. It was good. After that, we came back to the house and played with Khali
a bit. A little later, we left with Chris, and he drove us 65 miles north, to
Cordes Lake, just south of Prescott. That is where his daughter, Ashley lives. Hubby
Caleb, was at work. We got to visit with her and her daughter Sophia, and
newest baby, Olivia, who had just woke up and was a little crabby. Cathye had
Ashley do her ‘hug’ sweatshirt while we were there.
After a fun visit, we headed back
to Glendale and sat with C & A until the kids got home from school. Later,
outside, Cathye rested in the sun and Chris made hot dogs and bacon burgers,
which were tasty. Later, Cat had Brandon and Dillon do their hug sweatshirts
with her. That takes care of six of the seven grandkids. Working on getting
Felix done soon! Later, after fun and games and videos with the great
grandkids,
we said our goodbyes and came back to the hotel. The plan was to sit
out in the spa for a bit – but we found out they only had a pool. So, we passed
on that and walked over to Cracker Barrel to have dessert. Then it was back to
our room where we watched Dancing With The Stars before calling it a night.
Wednesday, November 13th., 2024…… We got up around 7:30 or so and
showered and packed our stuff, then headed down to the hotel’s breakfast. Even
though they had a buffet with eggs, and sausage, and pancakes and such, it was
typical and just ok. But it helped us get fed for the morning! We checked out
and headed to Tucson. The plan was to meet up with Frances, who would meet us
between her home health clients, on her lunch break. She chose Barro’s Pizza
and we found it with no problem and went in. We were shocked when three littles
came to greet us at the door - Hera, Cora, and Luke. They were on ½ day school
and mama Tiffany works nights, so they all could be there to see Uncle T and
Aunt Cat. Frances got there just after that, and we sat down to a good lunch.
Just as we got our food, in came Kyle!
He works at Big O tires and took a lunch break to surprise us. It was
nice to have all of my family there. Thanks, Frances for surprising us!
Tiffany, Frances, and Kyle
Luke, Cora, and Hera
After a
nice visit, they left and we went across the street to Kohl’s. Cat had a gift
card and we had time to kill before meeting up with Cat’s sister Mary at 4:30pm
at their American Legion Hall. We also had time to stop at a vintage store and
roam around there for a while. Later, we
got to the Legion hall and found decorations were well underway. They are
decorating for Mary’s husband, Jim, who turns 70 today. Once we were done, Mary
left to go get him and we changed clothes and waited with the other guests for
his arrival. Well, turns out he was sure surprised when she got him through the
curtains into the room.
Between the Legion, their church, their Benson rv park
friends, Jim’s chiropractic family, and our family, there were probably 50
folks there. Jim’s band performed (without him tonight)
and were very good. We had a nice meal
and danced
and talked with everyone
and had a real fun night! After the band finished and we had cleaned everything
up, we followed Jim and Mary back to their home. We got set up in their guest
room and since we were all pretty tired, we called it a night.
Thursday, November 14th., 2024…… The plan today was to take them out to breakfast.
They chose IHOP and then see what the day would bring. We decided to go to the
Pima Air and Space Museum. AKA the ‘boneyard’. We read that they no longer take
vehicle tours through that part of the base, but they have 400 aircraft on
display, both inside and outside, so we were good! Among all of the aircraft,
we got a special
treat today! They have a separate bldg.
inside the museum, just for the B-17. When
we went in, we were told that today was one of the days when 101 yr old retired
USAF B-17 commander, Col. Richard Bushong, would be a guest speaker. He
was commander of the 390th squadron and he, and his 10-man crew,
flew 28 missions on the B-17 during the war. He was very articulate and
succinct and enamored us for over an hour with his stories of his time on those
missions. He said he was very lucky not to have had any crashes or injuries
during his career. He said he was in three wars – WWII, Korea and Vietnam - and has flown 43 different aircraft. What a
thrill to catch him there!
POWs
Grant and John McCracken among pow - not sure if they are related to Cat's husband
USAF B-17 commander, Col. Richard Bushong
We bought his book and he autographed it for me! Afterwards, when we finally left
the museum, we headed back home and rested before heading out again! This time we were driving to dinner at Texas
Roadhouse. We met up with Mary and Cathye’s aunt and uncle, Paul and Dolly. It
was fun to sit with them and the food was excellent! Cat and I split a ribeye.
After that, we came back home and visited (and played on our phones…
Before calling it an early
bedtime. Tomorrow we fly home.
Friday, November 15th., 2024…… We were up and going early. After
showering and packing up, we followed Mary to breakfast. Jim had to stay home
to meet up with a guy who was looking to buy his old golf cart. I had invited
Frances to join us if she could get away, and she could. We went to Jethro’s
today. It is a bar/grill that serves home style food. Jim joined us (sold the cart!)
and both he and Mary got to meet and visit with Frances. We left there and headed off to Mesa. I had
to stop and put 4 gallons of gas in the car. We rented it prepay and just
needed enough to get back to the airport. On the freeway we saw this guy...
a bike rack on a motorcycle!
The gps took us off I-10 and
zigzagged through residential areas on the way to Mesa Airport. That’s ok - we
had time to stop and get a drink and kill some time anyway. Along the way, we
found an interesting store that we just had to go see. It’s called The Potato
Barn. It’s a furniture store – unlike anything we’ve ever seen! This place was
huge! Room after room, area after area – packed with interesting and unique items. Kinda pricey but fun to look
at. If we lived close by, we might find something we couldn’t live without! Here
are some pics….
Once we made our way to the
airport, I dropped Cat off with the bags and headed over to turn in the car. I
walked back and joined her and we checked in went through check-in and security
with no issues. Cathye told me that since I was now 75, I didn’t have to take
off my shoes. I’m not sure what else (belt, watch, etc.) that applies to but
next time I will! No worries there and we
got seated in the waiting area before boarding and had time for a snack before
boarding. We sat next to a lady who lives in Shedd, about 20 miles from us. She
would have been in row 1 on the other side of us if they hadn’t moved our
seats. She had a cat in a carrier and the agent came over and told her she
needed to have a seat where the carrier could be stowed under the seat ahead
for takeoff. She would be moved to another seat. In that conversation, she
mentioned she also had moved seats to have a service dog in row 1 for the
flight. So, of course I had to ask her, “What seats?” Yep, those were ours! The dog needed a large
place to lay down. No worries – we understood! When we were prompted online to select new seats,
I chose exit row for this trip. We were good! That made the flight seem shorter.
We got in on time (4:59pm) and got our bags. It was cold enough for me to open the luggage and get my hooded sweatshirt out when I walked back to the lot to get the Honda! We
got home around 6:30pm and I got my bag unloaded. Cathye is leaving next week so she kept hers out so she can repack for that trip. After that, we were able to rest for
the evening. It was a long day but we wanted to watch the finale of The Golden
Bachelorette. Cathye’s Facebook had popped up a picture of Joan with Chock, so we already knew her choice. Bummer, but it was still fun to watch the
show. A lot of folks thought it was kind of tame – no arguments, no fights, no
drama with the guys. They even called it a ‘bromance’ for the fellows this
season. But we enjoyed it. Joan is a genuine person, and handled everything with class and fairness.
Chock wasn’t our choice but he seems like a good fit for her. We read later
that they haven’t set a wedding date yet, which is good. They both want to get
to know each other better without all of the pomp and circumstance and tv
cameras everywhere. Don’t blame them for that! It didn't work for last season's Golden Bachelor, Gerry - and Theresa to marry so soon!
Saturday, November 16th., 2024…… Today we slept in. I got up and walked the
dogs. It was also the first day I broke out the gloves and earmuffs! Temp was 39°! Since I was in 85° average this week, I was
cold! Later, the kids came over. Here’s
a story! Last week, Baylee unknowingly scribbled on mom and dad’s $300.00 cashier’s rent check!
It was no longer cashable so they are making her pay back $100.00 of it. So,
she called Grandma Cat to see if she had work for her to earn $. Well, we scheduled that for today. The whole
family came over and, even though the weather was really chilly, she and Corey
worked on the tasks I found for them. They cleaned and raked out and weed-whacked
the ditch, then cleaned up the island out front to the right side, which hasn’t
been touched in years. All of it looks great! Vikki and Brandyn stayed inside with us where it was
warm. Later, Vikki showed us the latest sonagram of the twins.
Both A & B babies are doing
well. They are planning a gender reveal when everything is confirmed. Maybe next
week. After they left, I finished my blog through yesterday and then went to
KFC to pick up dinner for us. Later, we left for our Club dance. We were both
pretty tired, so neither of us danced a lot tonight. We left early and came
home to bed.
