Safe Return to McCall

July 27, 2015, Monday, day 43

We have a few things to do today before we head up to McCall. 

Start with breakfast in the motel, yuck. 

To Walmart to pick up a few necessaries and more. 

The Costco run, got that down to perfection. Meat, produce, a few clothes, need something warm, McCall high today 63, no wine this time, happy hour supplies. 

Lunch complements of Sharon, Chick Fil A salads.  She has another gift card plus a monthly prize.

Get fuel, checked around. Norm was $3.099. Found $3.079 at Maverick. 

Then 100 miles to McCall arrived about 3. Time to unpack and get ready for HH. Franz was off at tennis, but Marcia came over. Too chilly to be outside, 65°, so we came inside, much more pleasant. Franz joined us around 6:30. We all decided that cooking was not in the plan and chose to head for Hometown Pizza. Problem there was too many people had the same idea and there was no inside seating. So we packed up our meals and and headed back to the park and ate inside in our respective units. 

My friend Jim Schubert called yesterday.  He is on a cross country air plane trip with one of his friends, which included EAA at Oshkosh, Rafting in Montana with son Gus, a fuel stop in McCall and then on to California.  The call was to say that they might have to miss the fuel stop in McCall because of bad weather they ran into in route through Rapid City, South Dakota and a time constraint to get to California. 

Weather man says a low of 36° tonight, I'll report back to you. 

Back to Boise

July 26, 2015, Sunday, day 42

Moving day, packing up to get on a plane and head back to Idaho, Boise. 

Filled up the rent car and headed for the Sun Port. Breakfast at Gardinuos in the air port and then you wait for the plane 2 plus hours, should have left at noon but was 20 minutes late. With the late departure we had to really rush in Phoenix to make our Boise connection. They held the plane, but we left as scheduled. Worried a little bit about checked luggage, but not a problem. My main concern was my truck keys were in my luggage. 

To the motel in Boise around 4:30. Then off to the state owned liquor store for happy hour supplies. 

Reunion Time

July 25, 2015, Saturday, day 41

Another bright and sunny day with the Sandia's on the horizon to the east.  

Balloons coming in from the north, there were 5 in the sky. Came pretty close to our view from the hotel. One balloon was giving Bucket List tours. 

Breakfast at Flying Star on 8th and Silver, nice and quiet. 

We had our small group reunion at lunch at the Golden Corral, Sharon's favorite, not. The whole gang was there, Droop, Ronnie, Willard, and me, sans Darby. With wives, and one sister. 

After lunch we all went to Droop's to see his fully restored '54 Ford, a throw back to his car he had while in high school.  We were joined by four more reunioners, which made 12 people, 2 dogs and a cat. The most people Droop has had in his house, maybe forever. Since we missed our class photo, I took one at the house. Our mini reunion.

Got my eye on  these

Took a little rest back at the hotel before the big shindig this evening. Droop and Lisa joined us in our room for our own Happy Hour, nice and quiet and much cheaper.  According to Ken, he thought there were 250 to 300 in attendance tonight. We got to see Andi Hanks, Ken's wife, who we hadn't see in a number of years since we stopped staying in Buena Vista. We will get in touch with them when we return to Albuquerque in September. 

A good time was had by all.

Los Alamos to See Joe

July 24, 2015, Friday, day 40

Nice sunny and bright New Mexico day, got rather hot this afternoon in  Albuquerque.

Breakfast this morning was not New Mexican food, but tried and true Taco Cabana with a New Mexican hint.

Drove to Los Alamos and had lunch with long time family friends Joe Petranto and his daughter Lisa. Joe is 93 and has lived in Los Alamos since the late 40’s.  Joe was also my trumpet teacher from grade school through High School.  Lisa is 58, a retired teacher living in Austin  and is spending the summer here to escape the Austin heat and to be a help Joe. The drive from Albuquerque to Los Alamos is about 100 miles, mostly on I25, with a 75 mph speed limit, skirting Santa Fe, via 599, the Santa Fe  Relief Road and what a relief it is. It was a nice drive with great New Mexico scenery.

Returned to Albuquerque around 4, just in time for the evening rush hour. Made a Costco stop to pick up some Booze, they sell liquor inside the Costco store here, with Costco prices and Costco selection, good deals when you can find a Costco that does. Took it to Droop's house and had happy hour.  I told you we would do something about those drink prices at the hotel.

Back to the Hotel Albuquerque for our first event, the reunion mixer. Looked to be around 200 people there, not all from our class as it is a mass reunion covering many years. Saw a lot of old people and old friends, a little disappointed that some of the people we were looking for were not in attendance.

 

Albuquerque Here We Come

July 23, 2015, Thursday, day 39

No thermometer this morning thou it seems warm.

A motel breakfast then catch the shuttle to the airport for a 11:55 flight.

We got to the airport and picked up our boarding passes and were TSA PRE. Good ole lucky me I let Sharon go first and I was randomly selected for a body scan in the tube and a pat down. So much for TSA PRE, at least I didn't have to take my shoes off.

Made it to Phoenix and then on to Albuquerque right on time.

Checked into the Hotel Albuquerque and then picked up our packet for the reunion. Saw a few familiar faces including Droop and Lisa as well as Ken Hanks and Dennis Smith.  We had a little HH with Droop and Lisa at the hotel but the drinks were outrageously expensive.  We'll have to do something about that.

View of Sandia's from Hotel room

Best I could do for Mexican food tonight was a GCCB from WhataBurger, I'll do better tomorrow I hope.

The Whistle Stop

July 22, 2015, Wednesday, day 38

Fix'in to get ready to go to Albuquerque for class reunion number 55, starting with a drive to Boise. First we
have to secure things around the camp site and pack.

The drive to Boise was time consuming. They were chip sealing highway 55 from just south of Donnley through Horseshoe Bend, which meant a posted speed limit of 35 mph which was fairly well observed. We passed one cop that was giving a ticket. Double fine when speeding in a construction zone. 

We stopped in Cascade for lunch at The Whistle Stop in memory of Bev.



Made it into Boise around 3:30, checked in at the Comfort Suites and rested a while before dining at the Red Lobster. Sharon had some leftover money on a gift card that Sheri had given her for her birthday. I think we killed that mother at the bar.

Back to the motel for a good nights rest before the flight tomorrow.

Sewer Parts

July 21, 2015, Tuesday, day 37

This morning it was 54° and sunny, looks like another nice day.

Sewer parts came in. The other day while dumping the holding tanks I discovered that the tabs on the sewer hose connection were in bad shape, one was broken off and another was cracked. Not wanting to have a big sewer mess one day I ordered some new replacement sewer hose connections. The kind with a clear elbow so you can see when the tanks are finished draining. I put them on and they worked great. Hopefully preventing a shitty day.

We had a good HH with F&M, Marcia having to leave early to her dance class and saying via con dios to Sun City visitors, Mike and Sally, as they move on down the road to continue their summer vacation.

Finally Made it to Ice Cream Alley

July 20, 2015, Monday, day 36

52° this morning.

Breakfast at TPH with F&M, I plan on doing it up right.  I did, a pancake sandwich. Egg between two pancakes, sausage patty and Huckleberry syrup, yummy.  Got to be seated very close to a table for 23. They arrived shortly before we left. Looked to be a group of teenage basketball players with coaches that had been to a basketball camp nearby. They were very well behaved with a little horse play thrown in. They were reminded by one of the adults (coaches) that they should leave a tip of at least one dollar. We left before they were served don't know how the tipping came out.

Early moments of the British open and on the first hole Jordan Spieth ties for the lead.  Too bad Jordan, so close, one shot off the lead at the end.

Need to make a strap for the bed to make it easier to lift to get to the under bed storage. Strap done. Took an extra bicycle carrier strap, cut it to length, attached it to the mattress board with a healthy screw and two washers to prevent the strap from tearing. Now Sharon can lift the bed up herself to get to the under bed storage.



Happy hour was a shortened version as we were going to dinner at 5:30. Sharon and I started a little early and just after 5, Mike and Sally, from sun city dropped by to tell us about their day and experiences in McCall. We had a nice conversation and apologized for having to cut short the HH.

Dinner tonight with F&M at Anchor Restaurant on the lake, hoping for nice weather so we can enjoy dining on the deck. And it was and it was great. Good food and good company.

After we returned to the park, Sharon and skipped out to Ice Cream Alley. Got there a little after 7:30, not a big line, home of the mountain size scoops, and they were. Sharon had strawberry and I had lemon pie. As we sat down to eat our cups, the line had stretched out under the sign.



We took our leftovers back to the park where I finished mine and Sharon is saving hers until tomorrow.

July 19, 2015, Sunday, day 35

In the 40's again this morning, 49 degrees  

The highlight of the day was the Sunday Morning breakfast prepared by Sharon.

More British Open with  Jordan Spieth paired with Sergio in better conditions.

Warm Lake Doesn't Look Too Warm

July 18, 2015, Saturday, day 34

This morning temperature is 58 and sunny. 

Golf again, endured the faux beginning of the unfinished round of yesterday and then the restart of the unfinished second round of yesterday. Watched until Jordan Spieth finished at -5, 5 back of the leader Dustin Johnson. 

After golf we decided to go to lunch at Warm Lake about an hour and a half from McCall, between Donnely and Cascade. There is a rustic lodge there with a restaurant and a full bar. Franz and Al visited it last week on their motorcycles, so we decided to do the same, but in the truck. The area was full of weekend people, camping, four wheeling, boating and family reunioning.  There was also a snow gauge, not something we see very much of in Texas.  I think the full bar was a big drawing card from the number of people in the bar. Basic restaurant menu, burgers and the like, I had the closest thing they had to a GCCB, a Jalapeño Burger with pepper jack cheese topped off with a cold Corona. The trip took about 4 hours, an hour and a half each way. 

We got back around 4 and not soon after we returned there was a knock on the door, it was a lady from the Sun City RV club in Georgetown, Sally Moody, that we had met at the last RV Club meeting. She had mentioned that they were planning a stop in McCall, staying at the McCall RV Resort and Sharon gave her a card with our site number on it.  We spoke for a little bit and invited her and her husband, Mike, back to join us for HH. They did along with F&M and we had a great conversation hearing all about their RV travels over the years. 

We were still pretty full from lunch so Sharon whipped up a great Chef Salad for each of us and a little white wine and it was just enough after we added some light desert. 

Got my new free disc drive from Dell, complements of Steven and my gift card.

Plugs and Wires

July 17, 2015, Friday, day 33

54° this morning with some overcast.

Watched some golf early waiting for Jordan Spieth to tee off after a 3 hour rain delay which ended up being very late around 11.

Took a nice walk to the post office to return a Netflix disc and then to Rite Aid to return one of the unnecessaries and then back to the park, just about 3 miles.

Back at the Park, Franz had hired an auto mechanic to replace plugs, wires, and distributor that he ordered on line, to hopefully correct an engine missing problem he encountered on the trip to McCall. He was very satisfied with the work that was done and it seemed to have fixed the problem.



Golf was on for about 12 hours and watched off an on throughout the day, with no conclusion for Jordan Spieth.

We had a late lunch, early dinner to accommodate golf with Al at 6, lamb chops on the grill.

We scrapped HH as Franz and Marcia elected to to go to the gym and it would have been shortened with the golf at 6.

Flower at the Blue Moose

July 16, 2015, Thursday, day 32

Another in the 40's this morning, 49°

Up just before 7 and watching Jordan Spieth on number 16 at -5, just missed a birdie putt. And that's where he ended up. Looking for a good day tomorrow.

Tour of Rite Aid.  They redid the store from last year and it is very organized and clean. Picked up a few necessaries and unnecessaries.

HH with F & M. During HH we observed an RV that had pulled into the park and a few women were having trouble hooking up their water. After a good while watching them struggle I wandered over to see if I could help. Grandma said she needed a Philips screw driver to reattach a lever. I went back to our RV, picked up a Philips and took it back to Grandma where she used to attach the lever and just like just like that she was able to turn on the water. My good deed for the day.

We wrapped up HH around 6 so Marcia could go dancing and the rest of us could go and watch the Fearless Fossils softball game. Thanks to our presence the Fossils won and that gave them back to back victories.





After the game Marcia had called Franz and said there was no dancing, we went back to the park and picked her up and went to the Blue Moose for dinner, pizza, pasta and salad.