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IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!

We left home on Saturday, and after Dave worked a Blazer broadcast, we spent the night at Lara's place in West Linn.

We started out on our road trip to Phoenix, Arizona (land of sunshine) bright and early on Sunday morning. We headed south on I-5 and eight hours later we arrived in Redding, California. We made it over the Siskiyous in time to see the sun set over Mt. Shasta.

The next day we traveled farther south and arrived at our next stop - "beautiful" Barstow, California where we stayed at the Ramada Inn. Unfortunately, when we made our reservations they failed to mention that the Inn was right next to the busiest railway in the western United States. There were trains that ran every 10 or 15 minutes and they sounded like they were thundering right through our room! I finally got to sleep and slept fitfully until we peeled ourselves from the ceiling when a VERY loud clock radio playing Mexican music went off at 5:00 a.m. It was kind of funny (I have a wicked sense of humor) to see Dave scrambling around trying to get the alarm turned off (it turned out the switch was broken) and when that failed, trying to move that huge King-size bed so he could yank the plug out of the wall. What a rude awakening. We managed to fall back asleep to the sound of more trains coming and going. Needless to say, breakfast came early and then it was off to our final leg of the trip.

We had an easy day and Dave did all of the driving while we listened to audio books on DVD that I had checked out at the library before we left. We didn't get along with our GPS however. First, it took us forever to dial in the address we wanted at the beginning of every leg. Then, every time we shut the engine off on the car, the GPS would stop tracking our trip and no amount of coaxing would get it to start again. We had to resort to a good old fashioned paper road map a couple of times, only to have the GPS decided to pick up the route at the last moment before we really needed it. We were so desperate to keep the GPS working that one time, we left the engine running while we filled up with gas! And even when it was working, it seemed like "Never Lost Nancy" - the name I had given to the female voice on our GPS - would lead us the wrong way. We had gone to Barstow so we could connect with a route heading east into Arizona - and the "Nancy" had us heading back southwest to LA and going east from there - a hundred-mile detour. Once we figured out what she was up to (with the help of the road map), we turned around and headed the right way on our own. Sometimes you have to be smarter than those electronic devices.

We made it to Phoenix by late afternoon on Tuesday. It was great to finally get to our destination and soak up some sunshine. Bob and Jeanne are renting a house in Anthem (which is just north of Phoenix) until they leave for England the first of March. They have sold most of their belongings and have borrowed a TV, couch and chairs so the place is pretty sparse. We have even been eating off a card table and paper plates at times but that's okay because we do have a bed to sleep in and a roof over our heads. After we're all "talked-out", there's not much else to do but entertain ourselves on the computers. One photo here is almost a duplicate from one when we were all together a year ago - everyone concentrating on some kind of electronic device!

We had their grandchildren over on Wednesday as everyone was out of school so we packed everyone up and headed for the park so they could burn off some energy. The park has a great playground and skate park so the kids had a great time. Bob and Jeanne have nine grandchildren, five of them live in the Phoenix area and the others live in Colorado. Later that afternoon, after three of the grandchildren were picked up, we delivered the other two to where their Mom works and she bought us dinner. I ordered a salad that was so huge that I couldn't have possibly eaten it all.

I might as well forget about my diet while I am on vacation. On Thursday, we went with Bob and Jeanne and another couple and had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, "Cracker Barrel". The other couple was from England/Scotland and Bob and Jeanne had met them while they were there last year. They have been visiting relatives in Phoenix and were getting ready to go back soon. It was fun talking with them. Then, Thursday night we all went to dinner at a steak house where we overdid it again!

We are hoping to get together with some friends and relatives who are down in Casa Grande over the weekend. Bob and Jeanne have to go to Scottsdale on Sunday and that may give us the opportunity to do that. We have no definite plans for next week, just to sit around and take in the sunshine and relax. We are having a wonderful time and wish you were here!