LEAVING MESA, LAUGHLIN/BULLHEAD

We left the next morning, Wednesday, April 12. for Riverbank, Ca. and  our summer job. Most of the Snowbirds had gone home by now, Sun Life was pretty empty.  This will be a short trip, it is only 700 miles to Riverbank.  We will be working for the City of Riverbank as back park hosts for Jacob Myers City Park.

This will be the first time pulling Gustow with  new "Dually". 

Everything went smoothly! No problems or surprises hooking up! We were on our way again! Mesa/Phoenix  traffic wasn't too bad this morning.

I will miss Mesa, I love that city!

We are on our way to the Palms River Resort in Needles, Ca. It's a 5 star resort near Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead City, Arizona. We've always wanted to explore that area and now we have  the time, we couldn't arrive at Jacob Myers until, Monday, April 17, the day after Easter.

It is only a 250 mile drive. It wasn't long and we were back in California!

Nothing but the open road ahead!

And here we are at our destination!

We didn't like the site  we were assigned so, we picked out one we liked and called them, they weren't busy, so it worked out good.

It was a nice level site and we had 2 trees!

This resort is located right along the Colorado River.

Beautiful place, but pretty deserted! I bet the weekends  are hoppin'! We couldn't wait to try out the  large hot tub!

The next morning,  we did! It was only lukewarm when we got in, this one had a heater that you had to turn on. It wasn't too long and it was a comfortable temperature.

We had lunch at a little cafe in Needles, it was OK, and then headed over to  Laughlin/Bullhead, it was only a 30 minute drive. We got to Bullhead City, Arizona first, I was surprised it looked like a large city, all spread out in the desert.

Right across the Colorado River is Laughlin, Nevada.

We crossed the Colorado River and went to Laughlin. We crossed over into  three different states in about an hours' time.

Laughlin is just a mini Las Vegas ! Large hotels and casinos!

We crossed back over the Colorado River and headed for home.

We were right by the playground......we just had to try out the swings!

We left the next morning for Bakersfield, Ca.

BOYCE THOMPSON ARBORETUM, EASTER PAGAENT

Our last day at Decor was Thursday, April 6, we brought treats and  said goodbye to everyone. Dolores told Mikki that she and I wanted to work together next season.  We were busy getting rails on the truck so we could get in comfortably, we think this truck is taller! Darrell spent almost a whole day at Quality Bumpers getting the Fifth Wheel hitch put in.
Betty Peachey, my neighbor,  invited me to go to Boyce Thompson Arboretum  with her. She was given a years'  membership as a Christmas gift!   Boyce Thompson Arboretum is the largest and oldest botanical garden in the state of Arizona.  So, on Monday, April 10, our very  last chance to go, we took off for Globe, a half hour's drive. We left at 9:00,  hoping to beat the heat, the arboretum is pet friendly, so  Bella and Sister, her two dogs,  got to go with us.  We kept missing the turnoff................finally, we got IT!

Betty has been over here before and told me what a beautiful place it is....she was right!

 We walked around and looked by ourselves for a while and then we joined a tour. 

So many beautiful plants!

Betty went NUTS over these peach Irises! Must be the "peachey" in her!

They are beautiful!

Seems amazing these beautiful plants can grow in the middle of a desert!

We had planned on doing the whole tour, but the dogs were getting tired and it was getting hot....and it was all uphill from here..............we decided to call it a day! We stopped and rested under this shelter for a while, got hydrated and headed back to civilization.

The tour guide warned everyone it was a steep climb.

There is no way you could see all of this in a day! We will have to make a return trip!

We got back to the bathrooms, shade  and water! 

We stopped by Florence on the way home and had Margaritas and a Mexican lunch! What a fun day!
She invited me to go with her to the annual Easter Pageant "Jesus the Christ" held on the grounds of the LDS Temple in Mesa  the next evening. Connie,my neighbor,  on the other side of me, told me how to get front row seats! She said to go right up front and act like we belonged there!  It was tough to get a place to park and by the time we arrived, there was a large crowd.

We grabbed some seats about half way down.....Betty tells me  she's going to the front to see if there are any seats.....she comes back in a few minutes.....she had found us front row seat!! I said, "how did you do that?", she says, "I found an usher and told him I needed front row seats for my "elderly neighbor"....Oh,.................. that would be ME!!!!

Even though she is only a few years younger than me, I was grateful for the front row seats! I will be forever grateful to Betty for inviting me to come with her. It was a spectacular performance.

GOODBYE PARTY FOR DECOR, NEW TRUCK

Mikki told us back in January when the Decor Farewell  Party would be, but March 17, seemed a long way off, but here it was March 17! The season had flown by! We would all be going our separate ways soon.

Darrell and I went to help set up. We didn't have to bring anything.......just ourselves!

It was a fun time, but it was hot!! Dolores started feeling sick and then I started not feeling so good. We left, I couldn't get cooled off.
About a month earlier I said to Darrell, I wonder if we should be trading the truck off, he barely answered me, so I thought he wasn't interested. On Monday, March 20, he says to me, "Well, you want to go buy a new truck today?"  I said YES!!! He had researched it and Earnhart had 3500 Dually trucks,a brown one too! We decided it  was too hot that afternoon, so we planned on going the next morning. I said, you will have changed your mind by then. He hadn't! We went early and Travis was our salesman, we found the brown one, drove it and bought it!!

It was hard to part with Dually,  she had served us well. We ran home and emptied out DUALLY.

We picked NEW DUALLY up later that afternoon. We felt like we made a good deal and Earnhart treated us well.  Now, to get it ready to pull the RV!  Darrell ordered rails so we can get in ....and put them on. It's a nice truck and we are happy to have it.

Everything was coming to an end here in Mesa. Our last day of work is April 6, and we are leaving for Riverbank, Ca.  on Wednesday, April 12. We have jobs as Park Hosts in a 55 acre day use park. Meanwhile....we are still enjoying the beautiful Arizona sunsets!

PI DAY, MARCH 14, 2017

March 14 is PI day. Pieology was advertising an unlimited topping custom pizza for $3.14. We had noticed the Pieology  on Greenfield, right by the Walmart  where  we shop was having Grand Opening back in November when we first arrived in Mesa. We had  never heard of  Pieology  and I had been wanting to try their pizza. We printed our coupon and headed to Pieology........

We went early, but there was already a line, not as bad as we thought it would be.

We just ordered a plain cheese pizza.....it was delicious and only $3.14

Our new favorite pizza place!