bobanddenisewanderlust

Saturday- Today is our last day of being Navigators for the AIBF. We were up early again this morning to watch the balloons land. I actually was working on the blog and looked out the window and there they were flying overhead.

We went out and spent some time talking with our fellow Roadrunners. We stayed around the MH, ate lunch, took another nap, since we are really,REALLY tired.

At 2:30 we left again to go do our last shift. We arrived and were on the same team. We went to the Navigator tent and picked up waters and chopped veggies to munch on. On the way over I had a full golf cart, dropping others off around the park. I had Jay’s family in the cart and I dropped them off at Main Street ( where all the vendors are located).

Today was the Music Fiesta. We could not go our usual route,as the stage was blocking the roadway,  but we could hear Phil Vasser playing during our trip across the field.

We took a lot of people down to the field for the main attraction, which was Billy Carrington. Lots of people arrived late for the concert, as they parked and had to get across the field. Lots of them did not purchase tickets for it, but you sit/stand on the field and see/hear the concert. We could hear all the songs while moving people up and down the hill.

We had cheeseburgers again. At least they did not give us pizza for the 3rd day in a row! As a group we decided that we were going to dinner tonight. The previous nights we have been so busy that we were eating the pizza while driving up and down the hill.

So at 5, Bob and went over to the W lot to pick up our dinners. The burgers are actually pretty good and this time they were warm. We ate and returned to the hill.

Later in the evening it became just crazy. The ‘glow’ was cancelled due to the winds, so people were leaving early. We have a security person at the top of the hill and two at the bottom. The hill is a two lane road, and there is a fence to keep people to the right. They are to walk on that sidewalk. It was very crowded and people were acting crazy. They were jumping over the railing and walking in the road. At the top of the hill, there was a different security person and she just stood there.

Finally, it was getting so dangerous, that  Lorraine talked to the gal at the bottom of the hill. The gal had tried walking up the hill and making people move back onto the sidewalk. Lorraine suggested (strongly) that she call in and ask for help. She did.

The gal at the top of the hill really did not know what to do, and she was useless. She needed to keep people from walking in front of us when we were turning the golf carts around. It was a mad house!

The re-enforcements arrived! There were three 4 wheelers with security guards on them, men, who did not take no for an answer. They ran up and down the hill, much faster than our golf carts, and made people behave. Another guard arrived and he stood at the top of the hill directing people out of our way giving us a path to turn and to drive back out of the top of the hill and onto the road.

All went well until some older woman fell on the sidewalk. We are at 5,000 ft, altitude, and it was really hard to walk up and down this hill. We were not sure what happened, but then the medics arrived. We just kept going up and down the hill. There also was no Trolley last night or tonight, as they had no drivers, so we were really busy!

We finished our shifts, turned in our safety vests, our flashlights, and the key to the golf cart. All of these items we picked up every day. Candy was there and she enthusiastically thanked us for being Navigators and invited us back for next year.

These last few nights had been rough. After the first Saturday night, when we were in that awful North parking lot, our duties were better. But that first Sunday, 14 people did not show up. They told us one of the gates was locked where they came in so they went home. Yea, right! They quit due to the disorganization!

So we worked all of our shifts, shorthanded.  With the exception of John, who was injured before we arrived, everyone, in our group, worked their shifts. Susan had asked the Navigator Coordinator if we could donate extra hours to John so that he and Karen would not have to pay half price for their site. That ended up being allowed and they are anxious for us to return next year!

Sunday- Sunday morning was the last of the Fiesta. Unfortunately, the winds were too strong and the balloons did not fly. They did raise a few on the ground and do a short glow.

On Sunday, Navigators received a 25% discount on the items at the store. So I put on my uniform and went over to the store tent. I arrived to find the place mobbed, with people lined up, out the entrance, and others sitting on the floor. Oh well I thought!

A gal came up to me and pulled me out of line. As they had a separate line for Navigators! Wahoo! I purchased a pair of earrings and a Balloon hanging for outside the MH. I also received a lot of dirty looks for being pulled out of line….

I returned on the bus and changed clothes. We went to a nice breakfast place for brunch, meeting up with friends Steve and Cindy, and some friends of theirs. Bob had known Steve from work.

We had a great brunch, then stopped at Smiths and returned to pack up the MH. We left and traveled south on I-25 to I 40 east. We stopped at Kendall AFB and stayed the night at the FamCamp for $17 FHU 50 amp. It was so nice after dry camping for 10 nights! The Camphost had been a Navigator!

We met up with CeAnne and Ray, from the Roadrunners there. We had a very quiet evening, relaxing and doing laundry.

Monday- Another quiet day for us. We slept in, had nice, long, hot showers,( it was sailor showers over the past 10days) did laundry, went to the book exchange and exchanged some books, we took our left over coupons to the office for them to give them out to others. No sense wasting them!

We went to dinner at a nice Mexican Restaurant and to Costco for gas.

Tuesday- We left at about 9 and traveled west on I-40 to Sun Valley, retracing our drive east. We spent the night there again, in the same site. 30 amp, W/E. No wind this trip!

Wednesday-  We left at about 8 AM and traveled west on I-40 for about 8 miles to Holbrook. We exited the interstate, and turned southeast on AZ 377. We were almost the only vehicle on this desert road. It was a really nice, scenic drive.

We turned west on AZ 277. When we did, we ran into traffic from an oversized vehicle. The police were there and escorting a huge piece of equipment. We were able to pass, with police direction, and continue on our way. We found a nice pull out and pulled in to use our bathroom. A police car arrived the the cop stopped his car in the middle of the road, lights and siren going. He jumped out of the car and ran over to us, asking us to move along immediately, as they needed this wide spot to put the oversized vehicle in to so that cars could pass it. So much for a walk for the dogs!

We took off, continuing our drive to Payson, where we turned onto AZ 87. This was now taking us through the mountains and more beautiful scenery.

There were big portable signs up stating “controlled burn, do not report”. We started passing thru some smoky areas.

 

Once past Payson, we stopped at another wide area, walked the dogs, and switched drivers. Then we started through the mountain passes. Wow, were these steep!

We made it thru without overheating, and continued to Mesa. We drove onto I-10 and continued across Phoenix to Tolleson, and the Freighliner dealer, which is located at I-10 and I-101.

We pulled up in front and there was another MH waiting to park. So we stopped in the turn lane, to turn into the facility, and went to unhook the car. The car was dead!

So I went into the RV Manager, Kirk, and asked him to jump us. I hopped into the MH and moved into the RV parking area, but could not park as the sites were all taken.  Kirk came out with his Jeep and gave us a jump start. Then we switched vehicles. I ran to McDonalds to pick us up some lunch,using the drive thru, as we needed to charge the battery. Bob parked the MH after Kirk freed up some sites for the two MH’s. The guy next to us assisted Bob backing into the site. FHU 50 amp.

I returned, we ate lunch, and set up the MH for the night. We took another nap, as we are still soooo, tired, and trying to catch up on sleep!

We left and went to Walmart, as the car battery was from them. It was registering correctly, so we do not know what our problem was….

We went to dinner at Cafe Zupas, around the corner, and spent the evening watching TV.

Thursday- We were up early again, and the Tech came for the MH at 7AM. We took the dogs and went into the RV waiting room. We watched TV, drank our coffee, read our books, and left to go to lunch. We stopped at Best Buy to purchase a router for the Jabba which is going to be installed on Tuesday.

We went to Honeybaked Ham and picked up ham salad sandwiches for lunch. We retuned to the RV waiting room and waited for the RV to be completed. This was only a preventive maintenance visit, and fortunately, they did not find anything that needed to be fixed!

We paid and left at about 2:30, with Bob driving the MH and me in the car. We went north on the 101, got off at Union Hills Drive and moved back into Paradise RV Park.

We were taken to our site and we set up. We had a quiet evening at home.

Friday- We ran around the area doing various tasks. We went to the storage unit and picked up our bike rack for the car. Then went and picked up our bikes. We dropped the bikes back at the MH, and returned the bike rack to the storage unit.  I did laundry and Bob worked on more tasks for setting up for a longer period of time. We put up our flag and our sign. We put out our chairs and enjoyed the awesome weather!

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