The wind blew hard all Tuesday night at the Pima County Fairgrounds and the slide topper awning over our bedroom slide rattled and flapped so much it was like sleeping inside a bass drum. We had the slide toppers replaced a couple of years ago by a mobile awning guy in Apache Junction and he did a terrible job, leaving way too much slack. And when given the opportunity to come back and remedy the problem he stood us up not once, but twice. So instead of getting a lot of good referrals and increased business from our readers, I think he’s probably out of business by now, and probably selling junk at a swap meet somewhere.
At any rate, we may have managed a couple of hours sleep at best, and had to be up early because we needed to get on the road. We left the fairgrounds about 9 a.m. and stopped at the new Pilot truck stop at Exit 268 for fuel. They have a dedicated RV fuel island with easy access in and out, propane, and an RV dump station. The only problem was that even though the pumps said the Visa limit was $495, it cut me off at $75 twice and I had to go through all the hassle of putting in the card in and restarting the pump again. I could have probably out in another $40 or so, but the cold wind was beating me up and I said the heck with it and stopped. Yeah, I know I can get the Good Sam card or whatever it is and fill up with less problems. I’m not interested.
We drove through Tucson on the interstate, then exited at Grant Road to get onto Oracle Road (State Route 77) and followed it north out of town to pick up State Route 79 through Florence and on to U.S. 60 and west into Apache Junction. This is mostly good two lane road with little traffic once we were outside of Tucson.
Fortunately, the wind wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been out on the interstate and we made good time, arriving at Santa Fe RV Park about noon. As soon as we got parked and hooked up in our site we cleaned up, changed clothes and hurried into Phoenix to Barrows Neurological Institute. They had taken our friend Sharleen into surgery only moments before we got there, and we spent the next few hours with her husband Jim, doing what we could to give him comfort and support. It was after 7:30 p.m. by the time she was out of surgery and recovery, and the doctors came in to tell us that they had removed most of the tumor from her brain and plan to treat the remainder with chemo and radiation. Please keep Sharleen and Jim in your prayers. They have a rough road to travel.
We stayed at the hospital until Sharleen was back in her room, leaving a little after 9 p.m., then promptly getting ourselves turned around trying to find our way back to Interstate 10. By the time we got back to Apache Junction, grabbed a quick bite to eat at a fast food joint and made our way back to the motorhome it was heading for 11 p.m. and we were both too tired to function. If that’s evident in this blog, I apologize.
Today we’ll touch base with Terry’s parents, and I’m not sure if we’ll have Thanksgiving dinner with them or go back to the hospital to be with Jim, or both. Meanwhile, happy Thanksgiving to all of you, and please, today and everyday, tell the people you love just how much they mean to you. Life is tenuous, and none of us have any guarantee of tomorrow.
While you’re busy with all that turkey and dressing, don’t forget to sign up for this week’s Free Drawing. This week we are giving away five copies of the Boggs Family Ministries’ new Christmas-themed CD He Came – The Gospel of Christmas. Produced by Dove award winning and Grammy nominated producer Ben Isaacs, the CD has eight songs and a short gospel sermon. You can listen to sample tracks here and follow the Boggs Family Ministries on their blog at this link. We’re giving them away all at once so you can get them in time to enjoy during the holidays. All you have to do to enter is click this Free Drawing link and enter your name in the comments section below. Only one entry per person per drawing please! The five winners will be chosen at random on Sunday evening and winners will have their CDs mailed directly to them.
Thought For The Day – Two things define you. Your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.
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Try Taking an inflateable beach ball or two inflate just enough to raise up the slide topper to where it is tight. Tie twine around ball and duct tape the twine to ball. with a stick push it between top of slide and topper. Water will not puddle and they will not flap in wind. If straps are humming put a twist or two in the strap before attaching..
I don’t know why I am telling an OLD TIMMER all this you probably already know it.
Oh, the twine is so that you can pull the ball out before bringing the slide in.
Tell your friends that we believe Barrows is one of the best, great staff and caring. My husband was in ICU for a week. The only down side was that I have to get a hotel room in March – Spring Training & Spring Break. Not cheap.
Jim and Sharleen appreciate having good friends like you. Happy Thanksgiving.
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Terry our prayer to Jim & Sharleen continue.
Larry likes the simple way. Just throw a weighted rope over the top of the slider.
Or…if Terry would like to fix it (because I know it would be too dangerous for you to try it, Nick, since it involves moving parts), the ratchet is just like on a pull shade. Be careful releasing it. Then you just tighten it up like a roller shade and it does not flap any more.
We hope you can still have a Happy Thanksgiving today. We are thankfull that we have friends like you folks also. Our prayers are with all of you, take care
Having our Good Sam’s/Flying J RV Plus Card has saved us a time or two from the little bumps on the road. Once the Huddle house had a computer issue & ran our card twice, a fraud alert shut us down & coincidentally our other card also had an issue because we used it once traveling through Alabama. So not only do we get 6 cents off per gallon with the RV Plus fuel card, but we have $1K in fuel fill-ups available in the event it takes time to resolve the other card issues elsewhere (the bank never called us, just cancel our other cards & mailed new ones to South Dakota, argh!). The only problem with the RV Plus card is I have to remember to sign in by the 21th every month to pay it off so there are no interest charges. So far I have been a good little boy!!! -Dave
Happy Thanksgiving to you two. We’re sending our best wishes to Sharleen also.
— jc&bev