Home again

I came home from Phoenix yesterday without incident - except I almost missed my shuttle to the airport for being glued to the television. There was a real-time car chase taking place with the pursued driving at speeds upwards of 100 mph with at least 5 police cars in tow. At one point as the car was weaving in and out of traffic I saw two tanker trucks in the picture!! Finally an exit from the freeway, some stoplights, a little fender-bender and the police boxed him in. I still don't know what started it. The media said the individual had initially tried to run over a deputy.

Colleen is starting to settle in to her new job, and now the challenge is to find a place to live. Phoenix is growing at a rapid rate, and there just aren't any places to live. And those that are available come at a dear price. Since all of her household is in storage in Colorado, she is thinking of becoming a roommate rather than living by herself. She is currently at the Marriott Courtyard and will move into a friend's vacant house this week end until it closes later this month.

The weather here is glorious, and even though it is in the 80s, it feels wonderful after the heat of Arizona. We encountered several storms in the first few days with downpours and/or driving wind.

I drove through The Resort which is where we stayed for two weeks the winter before last when we met other friends in their motor homes. The Resort has hundreds of sites with 90% of them occupied by park models, single-wide manufactured homes that are half the length of a standard manufactured home. Most folks have added a patio and/or storage shed. Well this time of year it is a ghost town. I do not believe one single unit was occupied. Windows were heavily covered against the summer sun and many carports had vehicles and golf carts in some state of storage. The only sign of life was the maintenance folks who were busy readying everything for the fall and winter influx.

We leave Saturday morning for Dayton, Oregon where we will stay for two nights while we attend the family reunion in Hopewell at the Maude Williamson Park. Jerry and Lois are staying at the Best Western in McMinnivlle and will join us for dinner on Saturday night. Then Jeff and Bev arrive Sunday after attending a wedding in Vancouver. Right now we tentatively plan to proceed on to Washington wine country with Jeff and Bev for a few days next week.

Keith finally heard from the Army. "No". They will not grant an exemption, but they have granted a six month extension which moves his reporting date out to February. That gives some time for one or more things to happen. Dare we hope things will be winding down in Iraq? And he can proceed to "look for a job" within the Army at Ft. Meade which whould allow him to stay home.

Stay cool!!

Ciao