August 22 - Albuquerque, NM

Doctors, doctors, & doctors. This was the week for all the annual appointments. It looks as though we managed to keep ourselves healthy this past year. Now we are ready to hit the road.

August 15 - Pendaries RV Park, Rocidia, NM

This has been a great week for Tim. It was filled with sadness, great joy, and pride. Many years ago, 1976 to be exact, Tim met Dr. T. John Gribble and little did he know how his life would be changed forever. John became Tim's teacher, mentor and close friend. Tim became involved with the pediatric hematology / oncology division at the University of New Mexico Hospital. John taught Tim everything he needed to know to become a nurse specialist in pediatric hematology / oncology. Together they developed the clinical oncology nursing operations, the NM Hemophilia Program, and the pediatric oncology program. John wanted Tim to continue on to follow in his foot steps. Tim chose to join the Air Force and complete his military career. Today the program has expanded Tim's wildest imagination. He's just so happy to see that.


John, unfortunately, had passed away before his time. This week though brought great honor to Dr. T. John Gribble as an endowed chair was established at the university in his name. It was wonderful to relive John's accomplishments and hear the praises of his peers.


It was also a great time for Tim as one of the parents of a Hemophilia patient came to him and thanked him for the advice he gave them when he first met them 30 years ago. Their son has grown into a fine young man with a family and they felt that Tim had played a big part in his well being. Needless to say, Tim was flying high.


It was also great to see the Gribble family. The only problem was that we realized just how much time had passed and how grown up they had become. That just means that we got a lot older. Still a great time for us all.


We're then left to go back to Pendaries RV Park. This is a great place for us to hang out with a bunch or other RV'ers. We have laughed and laughed this week. Saturday was hobo night too, more laughs.

August 8 - Albuquerque, NM

This was kind of a lazy week. We are still at "Sierra Vista RV Resort". That's our friend Joy's front yard for those who don't know Joy. She's a fellow Excel RV owner and has invited us to stay with her and keep her company. I also offered to help her as much as possible to get ready to have an estate sale later in October. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. You just can't imagine how much stuff she her husband had accumulated. OMG! Glad we could help though. Besides next week we'll be going out with a group of other RV'ers for a while into northern NM.

August 1 - Phoenix, AZ

This week brought us two birthday parties and a wedding.

Our nephew Daniel celebrated his birthday and is growing so fast. He really reminds me of his dad when he was young. It'll be fun watching to see if he follows his dad's ways.

The high point of the week though was our very dear friend Cass Wenz got married. Now this is not just any wedding. We've known Cass since the time we lived in Hawaii. She was Rose's boss at the contact lense office. This was one event we were not going to miss, even if it was in PHOENIX, AZ. Can you imagine Phoenix in July? We can and it meant HOT, HOT, HOT and more HOT. We arrived Wednesday night and at 11:00 PM it was still 100 degrees. That's right 100 degrees. Oh well, we'll have fun for sure. I guess we'll just have to have lots of cold drinks to help us tolerate the heat.

With the wedding on Friday, we decided to do our errands on Thursday. First stop, Cabela's Sporting Goods to see what I "need". We wound up buying more things for Becky & Joel than for ourselves. I did wind up with a great deal on a PFD, personal flotation device, that I'll use with my new float tube. We also looked at some of the bass boats that they had on display. WOW, they were something else. Too bad I can't tow one of them behind our rig.

Then there was supper with Cass and her future husband Mike. What a neat couple. We wish them the very best.

Friday morning found us running errands, errands and more errands for the bride to be. I was volunteered to take movies of the whole event and had to learn how to use the camera. That was easy compared to the event that happened while I was fooling with the camera.

While I'm checking out the camera, the caterers show up and are asking for Cass. I direct the man to one of the other people there and then turn around to look out the window at their vehicle. I immediately spot FLAMES shooting out from under the truck and see that the asphalt under the truck is also on fire. Then I see the two helpers, who were still in the truck, look out the rear view mirror and get a look of great fear on their faces. I call for someone to call 911 and get out the fire exstinguishers to put out the fire. Another attendee and I run outside and find the diesel is free running. The ignition is off and the engine keeps speeding up. One other man jumps into the truck, while it's on fire, puts it in gear and stalls the engine. About this time the fire truck shows up and finishes up the job. Thankfully no damage was done to the food and the wedding went on as planned.

Saturday was a day of travel with a side trip to the Painted Desert in eastern Arizona. I think this is what we like the most about our life choice of traveling. We get to experience the beauty of this land of ours. Each day we are on the road, we are more confident that we made the right decision.