Hanging out in Apache Junction

The view of the mountains from the rig.
Cute!!!
Alan working in the new studio.

We are now in Apache Junction for the month of February at Desert Holiday RV Park. Our plans are to just chill a bit and visit with friends. We did go to the Mesa Flea Market, one of those huge places that sells everything anyone could possibly want but nothing anyone really needs. Sharon and Alan Frey, who we met last winter in Rockport and who we crossed paths with several times this summer, have purchased a double wide here so they have more room to work on their pastel painting. Their new place has plenty of room for a studio and all their art materials. We have gotten together a couple of times and this week we are going to go to an art exhibit that includes some of their work. We also stopped to see Nick and Terry Russell. We attended one of their Gypsy Journal Rallies in Ohio and saw them in Texas last winter. Nick has a great blog and a RV travel newspaper, The Gypsy Journal, that is filled with good stories on all aspects of fulltiming. We wanted to buy a copy of their RVer's Guide to Fairground Camping and see their new rig. We had a nice visit swapping travel stories about this fantastic lifestyle with a couple of experts who have been on the road for ten years. Nick also gave me some good advice on where to purchase new tires. We both need replacements and he had already done the research which saved me from having to do it. Thank you Nick.

While riding the bikes in Yuma last week we each had a flat (again) and have finally figured out it's the very sharp desert thorns that are the source of our troubles. We started searching for a bike shop to get heavy duty tubes but the first couple shops we tried did not have the size we needed. We then tried Mike's Bike Chalet in Mesa and were surprised to discover that we met Mike last spring. He is the mate of Linda Rocks whom I taught with and visited last spring when we passed through the area. We are planning to see Linda again and it was another of those "it's a small world moments" when I walked into the bike shop.

We are looking forward to the weekend when Rick and Denise are coming out for a long weekend stay at the Royal Palms Resort and Spa in nearby Scottsdale. The four of us are scheduled for a day of pampering at the spa and a Valentine's dinner at T Cooks. We will have the whole weekend to catch up since we have not seen them since our stay in Vancouver, BC this past summer.

The following week Tom and Georgie will be flying out with a personal mail delivery and to spend a few days in the sun to escape the long, cold, snowy winter they have been suffering through in Wash PA. Getting to spend time with friends and family continues to be a real highlight of fulltiming.