Greetings from Arizona!

Finally! We are out of California. Not that California is so bad on the face of it, just that we spent WAY more time there than we ever intended.

California is in our rear view mirror until October. And God put a beautiful rainbow ahead of us to remind us of how good He is.

Our next stop was the Phoenix area with a half-way stop in Quartzsite. We (and by "we," I mean I) just don't like long travel days. If it were entirely up to Mark, I really believe we'd be doing ten-hour days. But we both do better on a slower, calmer schedule. So we're trying to make that our new normal.

We have a giant slab to park the car and put out our
chairs...and we even have our own trash cans!

Citrus trees line the streets

This week we are in Mesa, AZ, at an Encore park. This is a very nice park with all the amenities you could ask for. We even have orange and grapefruit trees growing in every lot from which we can partake at will. We had to pay a $20/night premium, but it is so worth it. They escorted us to our assigned spot, and Mark parked the coach without incident. Yay! Even though it was only 69 degrees, we spent some time this afternoon in the swimming pool and jacuzzi. It was lovely. The warm sunshine made it feel like 75.

We've got some visitors coming tomorrow and Saturday. Tomorrow morning Mark's niece, Becky, and her husband will come by to say hello and see our rig. Saturday, my friend, Jenny (and hopefully her husband) will visit. Both are recent transplants from Minnesota. Who doesn't love the wonderful warm weather of Phoenix... in the winter at least. And we'll be long gone before the summer heat hits.

While we were at in the Palm Desert area, Mark and I decided to check out the Thousand Trails park there. It was much smaller than many of the T.T. parks, and the pool was not nearly as attractive as Caliente's, but it has the advantage of not costing any money (outside our normal T.T. dues), as well as being right in town and close to shopping. For those reasons, we'll likely make it a destination for at least a week or two on our next time through.

On our way back we stopped at the Coachella Valley Preserve. This is a very interesting place. It is a real live oasis, in it's natural state. You can see what palm trees look like when they're not regularly tended. Kinda scary, actually. Who knows what creatures are lurking in those masses of dead palm fronds! I wasn't about to disturb their repose - THAT's for sure.

From here we journey eastward toward Florida. We'll be stopping in Texas for a short while to take care of that one unifying pain of all Americans - the tax return. Then on to Florida. While we're there, we'll be hanging out with family -- my brothers, who live in Gainesville, and Mark's daughter and her family, who will camp with us at Daytona Beach. In April we'll be park-hopping around Florida and visiting the Keys.

As the Good Book says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps." (Prov. 16:9)  Things may or may not pan out the way we plan--we'll see how the Lord directs. But for now, our plan can be found on the itinerary page.