Flying to North Carolina for Katie’s Graduation…...

We had only one day to get things in order after Katie left before flying out to see her graduation ceremony in North Carolina. Packing for a flight the next day was a bit challenging since we haven’t flown in over 5 years!  Wednesday morning we packed up the RV, hooked up the car and headed north toward Phoenix a bit before 8:00 am, super early for us.

The day before I checked traffic on google maps and noticed that we should plan for 20 to 30 minutes of delays due to the morning rush hour in Phoenix. We had to drive through Phoenix over to the Freightliner Shop in Tolleson Arizona. When we were in Montana this past August I  called to set up a Thursday appointment explaining that we could drop off the RV on Wednesday but wouldn’t be able to pick it up until Monday morning since we were flying out of state. They said no problem so we had a place for the RV while we were away and even better it would have its annual maintenance done by the time we returned on Monday!

In the RV with the car in tow we saw there were 30 minute delays but we scooted over to the HOV lane and really only had minimal delays totalling less than 5 minutes. It makes one wonder why people don’t carpool and save 30 minutes of their life each way to work. We pulled into the freightliner dealer and unhooked the car. Fortunately one of the 50 amp sites was empty so we backed into it, plugged in and went to the office to check in.

The poor customer service skills we experienced the day before had thankfully vanished and we were greeted by a pleasant fellow who assured us everything would be taken care of while we were gone and we would see them again on Monday.It must have been just a bad day the first day we met him.

We hopped in the CRV and drove over to the place I reserved on-line for airport parking. We parked the car and caught the free shuttle to the airport. Security turned out to be a breeze since we were pre-checked and didn’t have to take our shoes off or take anything out of our bags. I am not sure how we were pre-checked but it made going through security very easy.

Our flight from the Phoenix airport was on time and we had no problem with our connecting flight in Atlanta. We  arrived in Raleigh by 7:10 pm and Katie was there to pick us up. Our dreaded travel day actually was a breeze. Now the only challenge will be trying to remain warm in frigid NC while attending pre-ceremony activities and Katie’s formal graduation from Physical Therapy school.

NOTE: Today’s pictures are of sunsets from San Diego and Arizona as we are now in very cold Raleigh NC visiting our daughter. We returned December 19th to Tolleson AZ to pick up our RV and move over to Gold Canyon, AZ.

Casa Grande Arizona and Saying Goodbye to Katie…

We enjoyed our brief stay in Yuma but also are happy to be moving on. Although the weather in Yuma was great and the economy of staying in the area was budget friendly, I have never been too fond of the Yuma area as a whole. It lacks in many opportunities to enjoy activities we especially like such as hiking, playing disc golf and visiting breweries. So off we went to our next destination, Casa Grande in Arizona.

Case Grande and Yuma are similar in that they are both economical stays and they both tend to have great weather. The other thing they have in common is that they have some really large, nice resorts. However, again, on the down side there isn’t much in the way of  opportunities to enjoy our favorite activities. This is why as we pulled into Sundance RV Resort in Casa Grande we only booked four nights.The first day we simply explored the resort amenities playing some pickleball and walking around to locate the recreational areas. A feature here that I have never seen at any other park is a race track for remote controlled cars. There were certainly some great facilities at this resort including a very nice fitness room, various activity rooms as well as a large pool and spa area. I could see hiding out for a month in the winter at Sundance as long as we had some good friends around to share some happy hours with.

Speaking of friends we knew that a few of our friends were in Casa Grande so we went out to visit with them. Our first stop to Jerry and Janice didn’t work out as they were not home but our next visit to see Roger and Lynn worked out perfectly. We had a great visit with them and it was fun catching up on each others adventures. We also visited the model homes within their park and were quite impressed with them.

The next day we took Katie to the Phoenix airport as it was time for her to head back to Raleigh North Carolina to prepare for her graduation from Physical Therapy school. After dropping her off we drove over to the Freightliner Shop in Tolleson Arizona as we plan to drop our RV off there to have some annual maintenance done so we wanted to check out the facility. We met the fellow who will check us in and we must admit we considered cancelling because the guy was basically a jerk… let’s just say poor customer service skills. Hopefully he was just having that one bad day

After  returning to Casa Grande we worked to put our house back in order after having guests living in it with us for about three weeks. It was nice to put things back to where we prefer them and not seeing the place so cluttered with people and their belongings. After sprucing things  up we began packing for our next move.

Where to? Well it is a bit confusing in that we will be moving the RV from Casa Grande over to the Freightliner dealer for its annual checkup. Then we will drive over to the Phoenix airport to catch a flight over to Raleigh to attend Katie’s graduation ceremony. While we are in Raleigh the RV will have an oil and filter change then when we return on Monday morning we will pick it up to move over to our next location. It will make for a hectic day and one I am not particularly looking forward to…

Besides having not flown in over 5 years and the fact that it will be freezing in North Carolina I am scrounging around the RV to locate clothes that will keep us warm but the rest of that story will have to wait until the next blog…

NOTE: We are now in Raleigh NC visiting our daughter and will return December 19th to Tolleson AZ to pick up our RV.