Good news, Ben shared some photos with me that are darling!
Wednesday, January 14. My work week is over and now I'm going to get ready for a weekend of camping with friends from Brentwood (Chuck & Kathy, Jan & Jim, and Connie) and for Carol's visit next week. It's going to be busy, but a good kind of busy. The weather is going to cooperate too, low 70's are predicted for the next week or so.
Sunday, January 18. I had 2 appointments on Thursday. First, I learned that my eye is completely normal again and I will continue the regiment of frequent applications of eye drops. And then I had a haircut appointment and had it cut pretty short again. When I was done, I hooked up the camper brought it to the house. The last time I was camping, a couple of the guys were telling me to get this contraption for aligning the trailer to the hitch. I went to Harbor Freight and bought the thing, and I am really impressed. What an invention, it sure made the job easy.
We couldn't check into the campsite at McDowell Mountain Regional Park until noon on Friday but I was ready to go long before that. I busied myself with housecleaning, since Carol will get here in Monday evening.
We got to the park, got setup and what a gorgeous place this is. To the north, we see Four Peaks, to the east, the Superstition Mountains, and to the south, Red Mountain. There isn't a bad view, no matter what direction you look.
Four Peaks
The drinks were going down pretty easy for me and I guess I entertained the girls around the campfire. We laughed and giggled and had a great time. Jim and Chuck disappeared and left us to solve the worlds problems on our own. Needless to say, my head was hurting a bit the next morning, but not bad.
Pat and Roger came out and the 3 of us plus the dogs headed out on a 2-hour hike along the Granite Trail. The terrain is a little different from other hikes we have taken, not as many trees or Saguaro, so the views of the surrounding mountains were unobstructed. Off in the distance, we saw the fountain go off in downtown Fountain Hills (an hourly occurrence). It was beautiful, with the north side of Red Mountain in view.
That white vertical line is the fountain, about 8 miles from our campsite.
Jill called me this afternoon for a Facetime conversation with her and Camille and Norah. That technology is so cool! Having the opportunity to see those guys now and then makes it a whole lot easier for me to be away from them. It's not quite like picking them up and hugging and playing with them, but it is surely the next best thing.
Max and Cookie (friends from Brentwood) came out for the afternoon and they brought lots of BBQ ribs, so we had a yummy lunch when we got back from our hike. Jeannie (Jim and Jan's daughter) and her boyfriend, Ken, also joined us. The evening of was quiet, sitting around the campfire. We were all pretty full from lunch, so Connie brought out dessert - strawberry shortcake and that is what we ate for dinner. That is until Jim mentioned potatoes cooked in the hot coals and that was a yummy snack before going to bed. I was the first to retire - imagine that.
Breakfast this morning was yummy and then we all got to packing up to head back home. Jim and Ken both crawled under my computer to make sure that everything was ok (I learned on a blog to check for cracks in the frame) and they were both impressed with the construction of the thing. Now that makes me feel good and like I did the right thing. I was emptied, cleaned, and parked in the storage lot by 1:00 this afternoon.
