The Event ~ Phoenix, Phamily, Phriends, Phun, Phood. . .

A ten-day road trip to Phoenix turned out to be quite fun and relaxing.  It was nice that we didn’t have any “special” event to attend ~ just a lot of quality down time.  It seemed Tim and I were on the go a lot, and even though we “headquartered” at Vern and Melinda’s house, they thought we were not there much.  Actually, we weren’t, considering we were in and out for seven days.  But it was still good time with them.  Also an opportunity to catch up with niece Kadi Jo who lived two doors away.  It was a treat to go to her house on Monday am for coffee and a breakfast sandwich.   





Lunch in the truck!



We headed to Arizona to deliver two whole processed beef to Vern and his brother-in-law Mark and Millie Becker.  Consequently we made the trip in the pickup truck with a freezer and two coolers on the back.  We made the 17-hour trip in one day, leaving at 4 am Sat March 17 and getting to our destination at 8:30 p.m.   15 hours of driving time to be exact and two hours of stopping for gas.  We grazed on our lunch bag all the way.  Eating sandwiches, etc in the car is always something I enjoy doing on a road trip.  Sandwiches just seem to taste so good in the car. 

At the Mining Camp

We especially enjoyed dinner out at the Apache Junction Mining Camp with most of Melinda’s clan on Sunday evening ~ all you can eat ribs, stuffed chicken and beef; and then again with the Sekia clan the following Saturday nite at Melinda’s parents home where the whole clan plus friends gather every Saturday nite for family dinner ~ a long time tradition. 

Great ribs and great company at the Mining Camp!

There were 20 family and friends gathered there this time. I think this has been the third time we have had the privilege of joining that tradition.  What an awesome family tradition to keep alive.

Cousins Paul & Sharon Allen with us enjoying margaritas.

We drove to the Yuma area for an afternoon and evening with cousins Sharon and Paul.  We drove out and around the beautiful Arizona vegetable farm lands where they were harvesting lettuce and cauliflower before stopping for excellent Mexican food and margaritas, returning the next day. 

On the return to Mesa, we stopped by a hay farmer in Buckeye who was in Tim’s office a few weeks earlier looking for Nebraska farm ground.  He toured us around his Arizona hay operation, and then also to the cotton gin operation nearby.   We found the cotton gin operation very interesting. 

12 years as school buddies!

One morning a school-days classmate of mine came over and we visited for a couple hours reminiscing the good old days.  Craig Dunnam and I went through all 12 years of school together, and we both agreed we always seemed to gravitate to each other as friends throughout that time, but never once dated.  Just close friends.  What fun it was to reminisce those school days together.  He remembers way more than I do.

We met up with former Scottsbluff friends who are realtors/real estate managers and looked at several homes for real estate investments in the Mesa area.  Also spent one morning having a nice visit with church friends from home who were snow birding in Mesa.    This whole scenario had made Tim and I realize we are fast approaching that “snowbird” age, and a lot of our road time was spent chatting about the feasibility of that option in our future.

We went garage sailing with Vern and found a few useful items.  I went to Zoomba with Melinda (like jazzercise, but different).  In keeping with the Corneliusen tradition, there was a puzzle scattered out on a table with half the border done.  I sat down several different times and worked on it, with a tad bit help here and there, and completed it within a few days.  I forget how much I enjoy putting puzzles together.  Need to do that at home more often. 

Jack & Lori Gould with Tim and I.

Friday nite we met up with friends Jack and Lori from Ontario, Canada whom we met on last year’s Caribbean cruise.  They were vacationing in the Scottsdale area.  We took two bottles of wine over to their resort condo and sat around catching up before going out to a great brewery for dinner. 

Saturday they joined us at Vern’s house and we spent the afternoon at Arizona’s biggest and nicest swap meet/flea market.  It was way too big with over 1,600 vendors.  After about two hours and traipsing thru 1/3 of it, we saw enough and headed out for pizza and Coldstone Creamery ice cream.  One has to be very disciplined when strolling through that flea market.  It was fun to see them again.  Who would have thought we would see these friends from eastern Canada ever again!

The only thing I bought at the flea market was a very colorful metal lizard for my kitchen wall.   Lizzie looks great on my lime green kitchen wall. 

Several years ago Melinda introduced me to the Superstition Ranch Market, a little shanty-like produce store that seems to have several rooms in it.  It’s a fun little store to go to to buy fresh in-season produce for really cheap. 

Tim and I filled a grocery cart with $.99 pineapples, $.59 # asparagus, $.23 # brussel sprouts,  3 heads romaine for $1,  $.39 # oranges,  6/$1 huge red bell peppers,  a few red onions, a deliciously sweet watermelon, big bag of small portabella mushrooms for $.99,    a bag of mixed peppers for $.99,and other produce.  I was sure, even as cheap as prices were, that I had $65 worth of produce to take home.  But the total bill was only $30.42 for this entire basketful of produce.  Wow!  And that was my second trip there.  I had already gone on Wednesday  and bought 12 # of strawberries, and 6# of blueberries and had them washed, froze and bagged in the freezer, ready for the trip home.    Crazy, eh?  As our Canadian friends would say!    The freezer and cooler on our truck came in really handy on our return trip!

We took the back roads home out of Arizona and New Mexico, going 50-65 mph from 8:30 to 8:30 seeing new country before stopping for the nite in  Las Vegas.   It was nice to get off the interstate and see something different.  It made for a much longer trip home,  but it was good. 

It was an eventful time with eventful family, eventful friends, eventful fun.  Thanks Vern and Melinda for your hospitality.