Saturday, March 22nd

Our time to start moving is nearing. We are approaching the end of our two-week stay at The Caverns and we’ve loved every minute of it. It seems we have done very little, but we really have accomplished a lot. I’ve managed to completely wax the coach, do some small repairs and upkeep maintenance, and gotten some serious relaxing practiced.

When we arrived we expected to meet Jack & Carole Morgan, a Monaco couple we know and enjoy. They were in the park, but were experiencing some low voltage electrical problems attributed to the park’s electrical wiring. When we arrived we found a note taped to the electrical box on our assigned site. They had two days of low voltage and didn’t want to risk a damaged circuit board on any of their appliances. I always use our Autoformer transformer when we’re here at The Caverns. When the park updated to 50-amp electrical service, they added one copper wire line and didn’t replace the aluminum wire line already in place. It creates a low voltage situation when the temps drop and everybody is using electrical heaters. Our Autoformer boosts the voltage to a proper level at the expense of amperage. Bottom line is that an Autoformer can be a great tool to keep the voltage from dropping too low and damaging any appliances. The Morgans decided to move on east to Willcox, so we missed them. We were surprised to hear from David & Lana Greer who were about 8 miles down the road from us so we spent a day with them touring Tombstone. Then this week we got a call from Bob & Marlene Rea that they were in Benson. So we got together with them and Bill & Sandy Crawford for a Thursday night dinner at one of the great Oriental buffets in Sierra Vista. It was a terrific reunion with some treasured friends.

The park is winding down for the season as many of the regular residents will be departing and heading north to their summer homes. The activities are dropping off and the meals have ceased. We have met some wonderful folks here and going to miss the fun that we have. We’ve made one trip to Tucson to get some serious shopping done, but Sierra Vista has almost everything a person would need. We’ll be looking forward to getting back to this area next winter.

We will be leaving on Monday morning and going to Deming, NM and the Low-Hi Ranch, the home park for the Loners-on-Wheels, a group of older singles that meet there every year. We’ll spend one night and hopefully have the time to visit the St. Claire Winery to get a couple of bottles of wine. They will custom mix wine to your taste so we’ll have the chance to get our own mix of red wine.

On Tuesday we’ll drive to Truth or Consequences, NM and the Elk’s Lodge for one night. Then on Wednesday we’ll drive to Albuquerque for two nights at the Elk’s Lodge. On Friday we drive to the Tucumcari, NM Elk’s Lodge for one night, Liberal, KS Elk’s Lodge for one night, and Wichita, KS Elk’s Lodge for two nights. There we’ll get the opportunity to see one of my favorite cousins, Linda Cain-Kreiser. After that visit we’ll drive to Hebron, NE for two nights at the Riverside City Park. Then we’ll go up to Milford, NE for a week with another cousin, Nancy Anderson-Obermeier, on her acreage. By April 15th we’ll be back in Rapid City. Hopefully the snow and cold weather will be over and we’ll be ready to go to work.

Speaking of weather, we have enjoyed some fantastic sunny days with temps in the high 70’s and cool nights. Last week we actually had nighttime temps down to the high 20’s, but it warmed up during the day. We have been very fortunate to be able to enjoy these warm days and spend a lot of time outside.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. We will miss our friends at Palisades Presbyterian Church and the church service and message that Harvey Throop will deliver. We’ll be thinking of all of our friends and remembering what Easter is all about.

Don’t forget - “we must live each day as our last, for it's not enough to merely survive, we must thrive. The clock is ticking for each of us. Make each day count. Have a purpose in life. Donate time, money, love and prayers for others. And remember, time waits for no one.” DB