April 18, 19, 20, 2016 Corning, California, Canyonville, OR, Eugene, OR

       Monday April 18,19, 20 2016      We took our time getting  ready to travel this morning, after such a long day driving yesterday, we don't have far to go to our next stop fueled at Costco and we  drove 106 miles to Corning, California to the Rolling Hills Casino where we spent the night. I fixed us dinner and we spent the evening watching  TV, catching up on all our shows we have recorded a great breakfast buffet we will enjoy in the morning.I am still reading to Kent, the book, "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand, the true story of Louis Zamperini , a world War II soldier and the story of his and millions of our soldiers deathbed and survival.
       Tuesday April 19, 2016  We are getting closer to home and I am getting anxious to see all our families.  We went into the casino for the breakfast buffet which is always good. As we were eating, I looked at the lady sitting across from us in a booth. I could see just the back of her head and a little of the side of her face. She looked so  familiar to me,  I couldn't get a good look without being rude. She got up and went back through the buffet and came back eating an ice-cream cone. I got a good look at her then and she started staring back at me. She said, do I know you?   I said Donna?????  Donna is a friend of my friend Bonnie Heckenlaible from  Pierre, So. Dak.  They both have a winter home in Palm Desert , California, where we go in the winter to see Bonnie. It was such a shock to both of us to meet here in a casino restaurant so far from where we met. Donna was heading home to Washington  for the summer and the same with us.  I called my friend Bonnie in Palm Desert and I told her we were in Corning, Ca. and I wanted her to say hello to my friend. I put Donna on the phone and we all got a good laugh out of us meeting  again on our way home.   We read a lot of our book today.  We called our friend Sue from Yreka to see if she could meet us again at StarBucks for a coffee break, she was at Redding in a class for her job, so back to reading our book again. We drove 270 miles stopping at the Seven Feathers Casino for the night. It is raining and cold, welcome back to Oregon!!!!  We ate dinner in the Casino and played the slots for a short time, we were tired and ready to go back to our cozy home on wheels to watch TV.  We sure are spoiled and life has been good to us, we think that keeping busy and active and surround yourself with positive happy people and family is the secret to happiness and longevity.
      Wednesday April 20    We arrived is Eugene, Oregon about 4:00 PM  We are going to spend the night with Kim and Mike. We left some of our junk from the old motorhome at their house that we didn't have room for it in the new motorhome, and we needed to take it home. Kent suggested that we fix dinner for them as they have worked hard all day, so we stopped at the store and did some shopping for our dinner. Kim was home from work when we arrived at their house and Mike got home later. I made a chicken & mushroom fettacinni casserole and a salad that we buy at costco that is so good, and hot french bread.  Mathew cooked the chicken for me and did the cleaning up in the kitchen with the help of Grandma!!!  Their baby chicken have grown so big since we stopped here  the  end of January,  We enjoyed our time together visiting, Kim has to go to work early tomorrow morning, so we didn't want to stay up too late, we went to our motor home about 10:30 for the night. We are leaving for Salem tomorrow.   I think Pepsi is ready to go home too.

April 17, 2016 Sacramento, California

       Sunday April 17, 2016  We drove 359 miles to the "Thunder Valley Casino Where we pulled in to spend the night in the large parking lot across the street where the semi trucks park. We put our slides out and put the TV antenna up to record our show. Then we called the casino to have them send someone to come pick us up after about 20 min we decided to walk about a1/2 mile to the casino where we ate dinner at the deli there. We played the slots for about an hour before calling it a day. They gave us a ride back to our motorhome where we watched  a couple of shows we had recorded before heading to bed. Kent is still miserable with his sinus infection. Tomorrow we are driving to Corning, California where we will stay at the Rolling Hills Casino. It is free to stay at the Casino's and if it is late when we stop for the day, we eat in the casino.
       Monday  April 18, 2016  We got a late start this morning, I did a little house cleaning and stopped at Costco where we filled up our propane and diesel and ate lunch. I am reading a very good book that my friend Cyndi gave me in Yuma,  I am reading it to Kent as  he was interested in it too. It  has over 400 pages and very small print, so it is slow reading, but very interesting. It is called "Unbroken". by Laura Hillenbrand. It is a true story about the men in World War II and the prison camps they were in. Kent enjoys me reading to him and it makes the driving less boring.
     Tuesday   April 19, 2016   Kent wanted to eat breakfast in the casino this morning before we left, it was buy one buffet,  get one free. We were sitting there eating when I noticed this lady sitting in a booth across and up from our table.  I thought she looked so familiar , and I kept watching her as she went back for a refill. She looked like a friend of my friend in Palm Springs where we spent some time at the club there. When she returned,  I was sure she might be Donna , my friend Bonnies friend. She looked up and saw me staring at her and she said do I know you? I said aren't you Donna and she smiled so big and said Sharon????. She knew I looked familiar but she didn't think she knew anyone in Corning, California and I knew that had to be Donna but what was she doing here. She joined Kent and I and we really had fun laughing at us meeting again on our way home to Oregon and her to Washington.  It sure is a small world.  I called Bonnie and  told her I had met a friend at the restaurant in Corning and I wanted her to say hello to her. She about flipped when she heard Donna on the phone.We drove 270 miles to Canyonville, Oregon and we went by Lake Shasta and it sure is becoming full like the old days. It is so pretty when its full and so unsightly when its real low with water being 60 feet from the edge of the trees.  We will be home n a couple of days. Blaize is so anxious for us to get home.

April 14 &15,16, 2016 Bullhead City, Arizona

       Thursday April 14, 2016      The weather was very warm today, we didn't do much.  Kent has a sinus infection and isn't feeling the greatest.  He starts to watch TV and he falls asleep before the show hardly gets started. Kent isn't usually very sick and when he is sick, I know it. Those brown eyes of his just get so droopy and there is no twinkle in them. We watched a lot of TV shows we had taped and did nothing.  Last week before Kent got sick, we went to the movie "Miracles From Heaven"! It was very good and we both would recommend it to everyone to go see. It is a little tear jerker, but well done.We have to be in Lake Havasu again tomorrow, to have the radio and GPS put in, we will be glad to have it done, we made three trips to Lake Havasu to get it done. The back up camera didn't work either when the GPS quit, so that was no fun not seeing to back up.. Kent is a very good driver though and he did OK with a little help from me jumping out and guiding him park it a few times.We drove to Lake Havasu and got there just before dusk. We were the only ones here for the night. We hope to get done real fast as there is  High wind warnings for Thursday night and all day Friday. , with wind gust   60 miles per hour.

       Friday April 15, 2016   We were up and ready by 7:30 AM at the RV shop to get the radio and GPS taken care of. They sent the right part this time and our mechanic put it in so fast. What a beautiful sound it makes.and it has so many features on the radio. After they finished with everything we said goodbye and off we went to eat breakfast and head back to the Avi Camp ground for the night. The wind is really blowing fierce already,  the palm trees are really getting a  shake down!  I made Kent his favorite dish ( hamburger gravy) over mashed potatoes for dinner with fresh steamed carrots and a salad. I wrote on the blog and Kent fell asleep watching TV again.
     Saturday April 16   We weren't going to leave here this morning because of the wind so strong, but we decided it might be the same tomorrow or worse, so on the road we went, we fought a side and head-on wind yesterday and today, not good for the MPG. (miles per gallon). We drove about 277 miles to Bakersfield, California where we will spend the night. We are staying at the Bakersfield Palms RV Park where we like to stay when we come through here. I guess I am bored with the drive, because I found myself taking a picture of my feet.

Every time we have taken this highway we drive by a Commercial airline grave yard. It has airplanes from all commercial airline companies like United, UPS, Continental, and Eastern that are retired  from flying. These planes are 747, 727, 737, and DC 10's. they use this storage area due to the lack of rain annually and things don't rust. Without counting I would estimate over 500 planes. We wanted to get closer, so we went down some roads in the field and it still wasn't close enough to get a good picture. I was afraid someone would show up and chase us out of there.
We rested & watched TV  for an hour before heading to Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe and then to AppleBees for dinner. Kent likes the Riblet Basket but they have discontinued  that and the Onion Rings, which really disappointed him and he let them know. LOLWhile waiting for our food to be served, Kent looked around the restaurant and saw it was full , he said, I guess they don't need my riblet basket, with this many people happy with the menu!

April 10,11,12,, 2016 Bullhead City and Lake Havasu, Arizona

      April 10, 2016   Sunday    We drove to Surprise, Arizona in a real down pour, it was hard to drive with all the trucks on the road and the heavy rain. We spent the night at the Casino in Surprise and will leave for Lake Havasu in the morning.
April 11,  Monday    We drove to Lake Havasu after getting a late start, I thought we were going to flood away with all that rain that came down last night. We asked the RV shop to save us a parking spot to hook up to their electricity, as we come in he night before when we have repair work done and we don't have to get up so early to get our repairs done at 7:30 AM.   We arrived at the 3T RV shop and the two spaces with electricity were taken by people who just showed up without signing up for one. They had all their lawn chairs out and were  having a great time. We parked our motorhome right in front of the shops big door, to be first in line and because their was no level parking place left. One of the ladies said "well, there goes our view". I looked at her and said well, we had one of these spots reserved so I guess this is where we will park tonight. They gathered up their chairs and went to the other side of the building to watch the sunset,  Then another motorhome came in and they had taken up so much room with their big rigs that he couldn't get his slides out,  so he had them move their motor home off the the side. That took awhile for all that, so they didn't get much of their view watching done. Oh Well that is life!!!
     April 12,  Tuesday  The shop opened up at 7:30 AM sharp and we were the first ones in the shop. The mechanic opened up the box with the new GPS and radio from Winnebago and low and behold, they had shipped the wrong radio. After all that hub bub, we had to have Winnebago send us another one, second day delivery.So back to Bullhead City to spend a couple more days at the Avi Casino camp ground.  It is nice one and we like staying here. We will go back on Friday and hopefully get the radio and GPS installed.

April 6,7,8 &9th 2016 Apache Junction, Arizona

     Wednesday April 6, 2016     We arrived in Apache Junction rather late yesterday,  it took us awhile to find a camp ground to park the motor home in while we are here.  We went right to the hospital to see  my cousin Linda from Murdo, South Dakota.  She is in the hospital recovering from surgery, her husband was with their two daughters visiting a relative here so we got to spend a little time with her. We visited with the girls for a few minutes but we didn't stay very long, as she was pretty weak and tired and needed to  visit with her girls. They are leaving in the morning to fly back home to SD and to work. She was very happy to see us and that was good.

ThursdayApril 7th   We called Linda this afternoon to see if she wanted some company and her husband said she was too tired for company, so we went out for dinner and went back to the campground and watched TV for the night. Tress called today and she got a job, that made us real happy, and I think her job will be perfect for her. She will be working for the school system with the younger children. She is so good with kids and has always volunteered as a teachers aid for years without pay, so this will be great.

  Friday April 8th    We went to the hospital to visit Linda, Kent brought her another chocolate shake and that put a big smile on her face. She said she had yogurt for lunch today, but she didn't eat much of it. She has no appetite. She does eat the shakes Kent brings her though.
  Saturday April 9th   We went to visit Linda
before we went to Mass, and she and Mel were both sound asleep. Mel on the couch and Linda in her bed. We sat there watching them , not wanting to wake them up and as we started to leave to go to Mass, she woke up. We told them we would be back after Mass.  Mel was gone when we came back and Linda was sound asleep again, so we waited and she woke up.  We visited a short time and we said our goodbyes.  It was hard leaving with her so sick,
We have to leave for Lake Havasu
in the morning, but we will keep in touch by phone.  We took a picture of the cell towers they have built to look like the palm trees beside them. There are so many cell towers here, they would ruin the beauty of the palms , so it is a neat idea. The palm trees on the left are the cell towers. I am posting a picture of the canals  that are all over out here because of the  dryness and when it rains, it just runs off and the canals  keep it from flooding.The top right picture is a canal in town running with the water from the rain we had yesterday and the bottom picture is the canals that run along the freeway.

April 5, 2016 Apache Junction, Az.

       April 5, 2016 Tuesday:  Another hot day in the desert, we are headed to Apache Junction and we are looking for a copper mine  on the way,  that our friends in Mammoth told us about.The Ray Mine represents one of the largest copper reserves in the United States and in the world, starting in1883. One of the guests that was at our big BBQ worked at the mine some time ago and he told us that there is a gold vein that runs through the mine and when the mine runs out of money, for expenses,  they mined the gold to cover the expenses of running the mine, the copper is all profit.
They mine two types of ore; Oxide ore and Sulfide ore. First the ore is drilled, then blasted, then loaded into haul trucks and delivered to the proper location. For every ton of ore they must move two ton of waste rock. Sulfide ore is two-thirds of the ore of the total production. The rock is crushed here and loaded into 100 ton train cars and sent to the Hayden Concentrator. The ore is concentrated and smelted to remove the copper from the ore.
Oxide ore must be leached to recover the copper A solution of water and diluted Sulfuric acid is applied to the leach dump. The bottom picture is the leach dump.  The copper is electrolytically precipitated from the solution.
       In 2014 the mine employed 1417 employees with wages, salaries and fringe benefits of  $139.3 million. Mining began by  underground methods which continued through the early 1960's. The Mine's dimensions  currently measure approximately 2.5 miles long by 1.5 miles wide. The highest mining point to date is the 3,000-foot elevation and the lowest mined area is the 800-foot elevation above sea level.  The life of the mining operation is currently 34 years.                

April 3,4, & 5th, 2016 Mammoth,Arizona

      Sunday  April 3, 2016   On the road to visit our good friends Don and OJ Jones in Mommoth, Arizona. We stopped in Tucson and we bought some beautiful New York steaks and a bag of huge potatoes to fix twice baked potatoes and a salad for a BBQ tomorrow night. There are three other couples who are visiting them also, They had a grill full of chicken cooking and all kinds of salads and hot dishes for dinner tonight. We really enjoyed heir friends and all the stories they tell.
       Monday April 4th    Jones was elected Mayor this year, he drove Kent around town showing him the improvements they have accomplished since Don was elected.  The weather there was very hot and  I really appreciated the air we have in our motorhome.Kent went for a long walk this morning, walking to find where Jones was and it turned out he was about 2 miles away. Kent said he kept walking thinking he would soon be there and then it reached the point where it was too far to stop and turn around, so he kept going. He was pretty tired when he found him.Kent did some serious walking in Laughlin when we stayed there, he walked to Starbucks every day for his frappe. He is in pretty good shape I think. The BBQ this evening was so good, we had so much food, I don't think we need to eat for a few days.  We have to leave tomorrow, we are running out of time before we have to be home.

     Tuesday April 5th   Kent got up early to spend more time with Jones, they have been friends for so  many years and with them living so far away, we don't get to see them very often. OJ has not been feeling very well for some time and she says she dreads cooking anymore, it just wears her out. Kent was telling her about the hamburger gravy I make for him and how good it is over mashed potatoes. It is his favorite meal, I asked her if she had any hamburger, she got 2 pkgs. out of the freezer and I made them a large pan of hamburger gravy to eat over mashed potatoes. I froze it in meal size containers for the two of them and there was enough for a lot of meals. I finished up just about the time Kent got back to the house and we said our goodbyes and down the road we went. Saying goodbye is so hard at our age as it might be the last goodbye for any of us. These cactus are all over the hillsides as we were driving towards Apache Junction to our next stop. The hillsides are also full of rocks and they look like the Angels in Heaven arranged them so pretty for us to enjoy. If I lived here I would be hauling rocks home everyday to make my flower beds beautiful.

March 28 thru March 31, 2016 Yuma Arizona

       Monday March 28, 2016   We had to go into Yuma this afternoon, so we stopped at the casino on the way home and played the slots for a short time, we won $45 on a machine we haven't played for a long time. We came home and after dinner we went over to the club house where we played a 6 hand game of Hand and Foot. They always have new ways of playing the card games here and we found we really like playing it this way. You have 2 teams of three people and you can only have 7 cards in each book. Any cards that you draw that is already a book can't be added to the books. You have to use them as a discard or make another book from them. It makes going out a lot harder. We played 2 games and called it a night. We went to our motorhome and watched TV before heading to bed.
   Tuesday March 29    The temperature was 95 degrees today and it was hot. We stayed inside most of the day, They have a beautiful pool here, but we didn't go out to use it.After dinner we walked over to the club house to play cards, but tonight was karaoke night. The club house has a karaoke machine and everyone is too timid to sing alone, so we all sat in our chairs and sang. Our friend Cyndi told them that her husband Howie and Sharon would sing for them if they gave us a few beers!!!!  All the songs were the 50s, all rock and roll, no country. Kent wandered in half way through it and wasn't too impressed with the singing,  so he left shortly along with the other non singers. LOL
       Wednesday March 30  Today was laundry day and they have lots of clotheslines and we love to hang our sheets to dry in the fresh air. It was so hot, we didn't need to leave them out very long. We played our board game fast track with Cyndi and Howie after dinner until close to midnight in  their motorhome. We finally beat the boys tonight, they have been beating us every night, so we kept playing to see who could win the most games. We have so much fun together, we almost hate to leave, but we have relatives in Apache Junction to go to next and some friends near Tucson on the  reservation  to spend a few days with.  I love the cactus and the desert, so here are a couple more pictures.