Last Minute Change

We were all set to attack the slots yesterday AM at the Riverside Hotel and Casino. The day before was a roller coaster ride as we won, lost, won and lost again. The net of the day (Sunday) was that we were getting painfully close to falling back to where we were before arriving. Our goal was to get back on the winning trail and have another fun day.

One decision we made after starting out on the losing track in the morning was to play at another Casino where we have had some very good days on the slots - The Golden Nugget.  They are also known by their very different and beautiful entryway to the Casino:

We played some different machines with spotty success. Eventually, we lost all that we gained and we were at the point where we had to quit - something we always do when we lose our original stake. So, we got in the car and drove to Bullhead City where the Sam's Club is located - of course, it was closed on Christmas Day - and to the Walmart - also closed on Christmas Day. As every business was closed on Christmas Day with the exception of the Casinos, we were facing the rest of the day in our room which would be no fun at all. As we were not paying for the room anyway, we made the decision to leave early and drive home. We packed up and were on the road home by mid afternoon. There were lots of things that we wanted to do at the RV, so the decision made sense. We arrived home last night by around 6 PM. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We are always disappointed when we lose, but we never confuse the outcome with the fun we have playing. It was still a fun trip and we always enjoy going there.

We do have another "comp" offer from one of the other Casinos - the Aquarius - that must be used in January, so we may decide to return for a couple days sometime in January if we can swing some time off for Josie. We anticipate a busy January though, as our home will be on the market and who knows what events (good ones, we hope) will come out of that activity...

Trip to Powell, WY

Since we were going to take a long trip today to the Bighorn Canyon which is a 2 hour drive, we decided to stay closer to home yesterday and visit Powell, a city that is about 20 miles east of Cody. We will do Billings, MT,  another time. There were 2 very interesting attractions on our trip yesterday. The first stop was at the Homesteaders Museum which is, as the name implies, a collection of machinery, documents, pictures, stories and other paraphernalia of the original Homesteaders to this area:

We saw, among other things in the museum, an area containing volumes of homesteading claims for the area that revealed purchases of land in the area that averaged $.10 an acre. We saw several 200 acre parcels that were purchased for $20. There was another building adjacent to the main log building above that contained many of the old machinery that was used to develop the land:

After a lunch stop at McDonald's, we headed to a very touching visit to a place just off the main highway between Cody and Powell called The Heart Mountain Relocation Center. This is one of the areas that housed about 10,000 Japanese people during WW II. The whole story of this center was portrayed in a walking tour of the area where these buildings were once standing between 1942 - 1945:

The only buildings that remained from that time were a few remnants of the hospital facility:

The real story and irony of this whole experience was the story of the more than 750 Japanese men from this encampment that served in the US armed forces, defending our country. There were 15 of these soldiers that gave their lives for our country as portrayed in this memorial:

It was certainly a happy day in 1945 when they were all loaded onto trains and given free travel back to their real homes.

Today is our trip to the Bighorn Canyon with Karen and George, her husband. We will leave around 11:30 for our scheduled boat tour at 2 PM. It should be another fun day...

No Bridge and Windy

We should have done some homework yesterday before we headed out to the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park near Payson. As we drove into the park we were greeted with this sign:

It was closed as a result of both budget constraints and a construction project at the bridge. Bummer! As a result of taking our time to get ready to go, it was near lunch time so we stopped and had lunch at a nice restaurant in Pine called the Rimview Grill. We had a big lunch, including blueberry pie ala mode for $20. That about ended our "exciting" mini trip for the day. Some days are like that. We headed home and finished the laundry and watched TV.

Today begins a long stretch with no days off for the next week. One of our staff members, Jamie, is taking a trip to Montana to see her new grandson and won't be able to work on our normal days off of Wed and Thu. We've been asked to help out while she is gone. We'll see how they squeeze in our time off.

The day was also very windy for a change. We had gusts up to 26 MPH in the afternoon and the temp only reached 80 for a high. That still is very delightful though, and the forecast is for cooler weather for the next few days. Even with the wind, we have not had any rain for 15 days now which is a long stretch for being so near the edge of the Mogollon Rim during the monsoon. We don't see any rain in the forecast either for the next week, so we may as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Until tomorrow...

Change in Plans

All morning long yesterday we were trying to decide where we should go. We had to decide where to go to take care of all the things that needed to be done: fill prescription, grocery shopping, bank, take things to goodwill, pack things for storage, get the Jeep serviced and find a Costco where we could replace some toiletries and items that only can be found at Costco. The answer was- make a trip to the Valley. Getting a late start - 12 noon - hurt our chances for getting everything done but we gave it a shot anyway.

We went to Goodwill, dropped off our goodies for them, went to the storage unit and dropped off a couple boxes there and tried to fill my Colonoscopy prescription. We went to two pharmacies and neither could/would fill it. The first didn't have the product and said they could get it by tomorrow. That wouldn't work. The second said they couldn't fill it because the prescription didn't have a date on it. We never heard that excuse before. The girl said she needed to call the doctor before she could fill it. That wouldn't work. We ended up walking into a CVS in Camp Verde on the way home and getting it filled in fifteen minutes. We also went to the bank, and Costco, where we hadn't gone since we came to Happy Jack. It was worth the trip although we didn't get the Jeep serviced. That will be done after work one day, either in Flagstaff or Payson. Everything else got accomplished.

We headed home and about 8 PM we were about 7 miles from the lodge when a big bull elk ran across the road in front of us about 30 feet away. Bob hit the brakes (luckily no cars were behind) and pulled over to the side to try and get a picture. The elk stopped by a tree and was barely visible in the darkness so we didn't get a shot. We always drive cautiously at dusk for that reason. The speed limit is 65 on that road and we were going about 50 at the time. It's always a thrill to see them while driving around.

Today is another stay home and organize day as we still have a lot of stuff to go through and get rid of. Someday, we will be organized and the fifth wheel will weigh what it is supposed to weigh when fully loaded - maybe...