What Happened??? or, The Return of The “Pavement Princess”

On Saturday, Rollie put a big turkey in his smoker (yes, he has space in his truck storage area to carry it!) and smoked that turkey for about 10 hours.  They provided sides of home-grown corn, beans, cornbread and more for the six of us.  Since Janna and Mike had planned to head out early Sunday morning, this was our last get-together.  What a great time we had!  The food was incredible, the company and conversation lively and entertaining.  We will always remember and cherish the entire time we spent with both couples.

As with all things, though, the good times evolve, and it was soon time to say farewell to Janna and Mike as they enjoyed their last sunset with us:

 

They  were on the road very early Sunday morning, when we got up, it was so empty out in front of us!  We went about our usual morning routines, knowing it was the last routine morning for our desert experience.  Then we started our pre-departure routines, packing up our outside things and getting started on the inside jobs.

Gina and Rollie invited us over for leftovers so we wouldn’t have to cook on our last evening.  Again, we enjoyed a wonderful meal and their company!  Too soon it was time to head back to our coach to finish our preparations.

Now, for the culture shock!  Here’s a “before” picture, our spot in the desert, looking towards Gina and Rollie’s rig:

We rolled out of this beautiful, open, quiet, space at 8 this morning and headed off to Interstate 10 and the Phoenix area.  We had one stop to make at the Freightliner facility to take care of a minor recall issue:

And here is the “after” picture in our new home for the next few weeks:

Yes, our neighbor’s carport awning is so close, we can’t open our window awning!

Oh, My, Gosh.  We are across the street from a Costco, just blocks from I-17, and a stone’s throw from a dozen neighbors!  Yikes!!  But, we signed up for this and we will adjust.  The air conditioner was turned on for a little while this afternoon so the dogs would stay cool while we went and got a bite to eat.  Speaking of the dogs, Jasmine is going to have to adjust to the frequent walkers who cross in front of our coach – she really got used to the quiet and solitude and is jumpy about all the people and cars around now.

I told Jim I will absolutely need frequent day trips to the outlying areas around here, both to explore them, and to check out possible places for us to stay on future trips.  But for now, the 50-amp, Pavement Princess and her Prince are settled in (or is that squeezed in) to sidewalks and paved streets.

I’m sure we can find some sort of adventures around here!