Floating through school...

We helped in Steph's class today.  Well, we were "soda jerks."  I'm sure one of us will object to "jerk", but I am old enough to remember that term... we served up rootbeer floats.  Steph's class met their goal for the food drive; their reward: the floats, and Valentine's Day swapping of cards and treats.  Their homeroom only meets for 10 minutes on Friday, but they had an hour today.

Joan and I scooped ice cream...

After that, they were able to trade cards and treats.  One of the kids brought mustaches for everyone... well, the temporary tattoo type of mustache.  One brave boy started it.  Then a brave girl... I'm thinking even braver for a young lady to put on a mustache.  Then more jumped in.  The "mustaches" are all different sizes and shapes, from pencil-thin to handlebar.  It was pretty funny to see the kids peel off the paper and see each other.

Steph gave in to "peer" pressure (OK, she is such a good sport with these kids) and put hers on...

They didn't all do it.  One kid put the tattoo on his arm (see the far right above).  It was a lot of fun.  You have to look close to see Steph's pencil-thin style...

With the kids all wound up, we took our leave (well, my work here is done ;-) ).

On the way back to Steph's house, we stopped for a visit with our NuWa friends, Stacy and Sharon.  They are staying at the RV park we will be in next month.

We picked up my brother-in-law, then went out for supper; Steph and Dan met us at the restaurant... I was relieved to see that her mustache washed off. ;-)

Well, there's something you don't see everyday...

We went out for an early lunch with my brother-in-law.  He is a retired pilot; his work used to bring him to this area years ago.  He wanted to visit the Goodyear Airport, just for a look around.  They still train pilots here for Lufthansa... lot of days of sunshine, great for training.

He started reminiscing about a gliderport south of here.  No one at the Goodyear FBO was familiar with it, but the young lady at the desk did a search and came up with the information/location - about an hour and 15 minutes away.  After a short "Oh, I don't want to go that far..." we convinced him that we were up for a road trip.

The gliderport (where glider planes launch and land) is on the other side of the Estrella Mountains - no direct road over the mountains to get there.  On the way to the gliderport, we came across this...

Yes, that's a boat... in the desert.  Look close: it is high-centered on a railroad track.  At one point, this truck tried to pull it off...

No luck.  John mentioned another thing you don't see everyday: a boat getting run over by a train... in the desert.

Pretty sure that truck driver is going to have some explaining to do to this guy.  Oh, like the fact that there are no wide load signs on the truck/trailer?  And perhaps why they are out in the middle of nowhere on a 2 lane... that would be by-passing weigh stations?

We went on to the gliderport...

Not exactly swanky...

But, there was plenty of glider activity here, on a Tuesday afternoon...

We spent about an hour, watching and wandering around.  John seemed to enjoy it all.

Oh, and the boat?  On the drive back, it was still stuck.

Assessing mental age...

The following was developed as a mental age assessment by the School of Psychiatry at Harvard University. Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud without a mistake.

The average person over 50 years of age cannot do it!


1. This is this cat.
2. This is is cat.
3. This is how cat.
4. This is to cat.
5. This is keep cat.
6. This is an cat.
7. This is old cat.
8. This is fart cat.
9. This is busy cat.
10. This is for cat.
11. This is forty cat.
12. This is seconds cat.


Now go back and read the third word in each line from the top down.

Play day...

My brother-in-law doesn't get in until late this afternoon... time for us to get some running around done.  We found out about an organization called Dress for Success that provides nice work clothes to women in need... one suit for applying for a job.  When the applicant gets a job, they provide a weeks worth of work appropriate clothing.  Joan had quite a few nice suits that she hoped someone would get some use out of - this place looked like a good match.

It is on the other side of town; since we had a lot of clothing to donate, we took the car.  The nice lady Joan dealt with at Dress for Success was delighted with the donation.  With that done, Joan mapped out some other stops, for me: guitars and scooters.

Next stop was at a great guitar shop called Bizarre Guitar, located near downtown Phoenix.  What a great selection of Taylor (and other) acoustic guitars!

Work your way back on that wall, and I found another "can't live without" guitar... that I will be living without.  My stable is full, but it is fun to see what great stuff the Taylor factory creates.

Then a stop at a tattoo shop.  I have some ink that is in dire need of updating.  I visited with the artist there (who came highly recommended) who said he could do something with my old tattoo.  He will work something up for me to consider... what the heck - I'm already hurtin' from the root canal (yes, still).  ;-)

Then, a stop for lunch.  Joan voted for another sandwich shop, so we tried Wildflower Bread Company... two thumbs up.  The lady who waited on us found out it was our first time there, and she brought us a slice of cherry pie to try.  You have to appreciate a company that knows how to cultivate new customers.

With bellies full, it was off to check out some scooters.  We checked out the new Vespa 946, a $10k 150cc scooter.  Yes, it was very cute, in a very Italian sorta way.

10 grand cute?  I'm sure there are Vespa enthusiasts who will be buying that to put in their living room as a piece of art.

Off to a slightly lesser expensive alternative, a scooter shop that has SYM, Kymco, Genuine, and other options...

That's a 200cc scooter... you could buy two of those, and have enough money left over for a trip to Italy... for the same money as that Vespa above.  ;-)

On the way back to the HitchHiker, we passed the sign that makes me chuckle every time...

Oxy-moron?  Everyone knows Sun City is a large 55+ planned community.  Youngtown?  Maybe that depends on the perspective?

Off to Steph and Dan's to be there for John's arrival.

Company coming...

We are awaiting the arrival of my brother-in-law, John, this afternoon.  We have been pestering him for years to come see us while we're in Arizona (we got him to come to Texas a couple years ago)... I think the truly awful mid-west winter was more convincing that we were.

The weather is supposed to be perfect while he's here!

Whatcha been doing?

Other than pissing around with your computer?

Well, that root canal took some of the fight out of me for a few days.  Five hours of drilling, digging, poking, and grinding was tough.  Today would be a scootin' around day.

Yesterday, we went with Steph and Dan to our favorite pizza place in the Valley of the Sun: Oregano's.

This morning, Joan and Izzy got a concert...

No place particular we had to be today.  Joan suggested an RV show at the Peoria Sports Complex and a side trip to Trader Joe's.  Anywhere is good, as long as we get there by scooter.

The RV show had lots of units on display - everything from Class A diesel pushers to a little Casita...

Toy Haulers and Airstreams...

An interesting 5th wheel with a slide out coming out the front...

I'm still intrigued by the size on those Sprinter chassis based motorhomes...

You'd be able to get one of those into almost any RV site... no pull-through needed.  ;-)

From there, off to In & Out Burger, then Trader Joe's.  Mostly, it was about getting some scooter riding in on this absolutely glorious day... clear blue sky, mid-70s, very little breeze.  We stayed on the secondary roads, enjoying the urban cruising. 

We finished the afternoon off with some patio time at the Love Shack; and little Izzy enjoyed leash time...

Stumbled on it...

No, I didn't trip and fall.

Today was going to be "Go To The Movies" day.  Joan got a hot deal on Groupon.  We arrived at the theater about a half hour early.  The lady in the ticket office looked at the paper Joan had printed out for our tickets and said, "I have no idea what you have here.  Besides that, Wolf of Wall Street isn't playing here anymore.

Yes, that was the movie Joan booked.  At this particular theater.  On this particular date.  And, as it turns out, this has been the nicest day of the last few... it would have been a great scooter day... you know, if we didn't have a movie planned right in the middle of the day.  A move that isn't at this theater.  That we drove a half hour to get to.

The lady went to get the manager.  Nothing else at this theater I wanted to see.  After a wait, the manager gave Joan passes to another movie.  And, suggested she get her money back from Groupon.

Hot deal.  I hear it's a good movie.  ;-)

This morning (way before heading to the movie), Joan was looking at new MacBooks online.  She asked me about the processor speed and RAM on my current MacBook Pro.  While looking up that info on the computer, she suggested I look at the specs on the wifi.  I was also able to see all the other hotspots around us - LOTS of 'em.  Seems that most RVers have a router in their motorhome or 5th wheel these days.  A light bulb went on: Joan said, "Remember when we had a problem at Hart Ranch a couple years ago because the park's wifi was on the same channel as your phone?"  Yep, almost every wifi hotspot around us is on the same channel as our phone/hotspot.

"Can you change the channel?" she asked.

"I don't know.  I could on the Droid; don't know about the iPhone."  A quick check online and... nope.  Not without jailbreaking the phone.  However, we now know why my computer is having an issue with the phone's hotspot signal.

Now that I don't have to get a new computer, I want one.  ;-)