March was a crazy month and I survived!  Our Aramark job at Tempe Diablo Stadium is over. There were 17 games.  I missed 3,  but still that is a lot in 30 days.  My booth was mostly made up of people like Paul and me.  People living the life on the road and working to earn that little extra cash for fuel to get to the next stop. 

Can I see your ID please?

Here is the gang that kept Booth #3 together for the month of March.  I am going to miss you all. It is amazing to me still that we all fit into that little booth without trampling someone – oops, we did have one mishap.  Hope you are healing OK Diana!

No more Nacho’s, Cold Beer or Hot Dogs until March 2011 Please!  Happy travels to all of you wherever you go and keep in touch. I plan to see at least some of you somewhere on the road!

Paul has truly crossed over!  It took him 1 1/2 hours to drive to work which  should have taken 30 minutes!   He drove 6 miles in the wrong direction to the baseball park!  No, it is not a new route, he has been driving to the ballpark for 3 weeks now and he has been driving these same roads since we got here in November!  He had no clue he was driving East instead of West until he came across a road 6 miles out that we had been on the day before and it finally dawned on him that he was heading into the desert instead of town.  And….. he did all this on his scooter which only goes 35 miles per hour!

It will be awhile before he lives this down.  One of our neighbors reminded him today to turn left instead of right when he leaves the park!

Spring is definitely beautiful in the desert; the desert is so green and full of little purple, white, yellow & orange wildflowers.  There are so many California Poppies that it makes me homesick! 

 Today we took a cruise on the Desert Belle up into the canyon of Saguaro Lake. 

The lake was full of boaters, fishermen & SeaDoo’s.  It looked a little cold to me but there were plenty of skiers & kids on tubes.  The boat was a nice double decker houseboat type of boat and gave us a leisurely ride up the canyon.  Paul thought he hit the jackpot when they said a live band &  happy hour!  The band was 1 guy on the piano and a girl that could really play a Sax!  She sang pretty well also.

Another passenger insisted!

I always get to chat with a very unlikely person whenever we go out and todays visit  was a guy that had beautiful long black hair and a beer gut who was traveling with his 2 preteens, girlfriend and 2 elderly aunts from East Texas.  People will tell you their life story and never ask you about yours which I find so interesting and really enjoy.  Paul noticed while I was chatting with this guy (who I never asked or got his name!) that his aunt was wearing a t-shirt from PBR which until yesterday morning we had no idea what it was – Stephanie was going and had to explain the language to US!

Professional Bull Rider?

And then there is always the fashion disaster!

Paul wanted to ask if she would stop by and fix our leak!

And the sunset!

It wasn’t a perfect sunset but it was pretty cool to be riding on the lake and watching the sky change.  We arrive back at the dock about 6:30 and were treated to…

Just out for a Saturday drive

One of the things I am not used to since moving into the motorhome is having friends and family around who really know me.  I have met some awesome people that are so much fun to hang out with and will be friends from now until forever but they still are not the people I grew up with, who saw me get married, have kids, etc…. so I was so looking forward to the visit from the girlfriends.

Diana, Vikki, Lani & Maryanne arrived in Phoenix on Thursday night really late so I didn’t get to see them until Friday mid morning when they came to my job at the RV park.  After a quick tour we headed  to Scottsdale to see how the rich of Arizona spend their days.  Historic downtown has lots of cute shops and you could buy just about anything from spring training t-shirts to  speciality biscuits for your doggie!

Who's that doggie in the window?

Posing on the cliff, Superstition Mountains is our backdrop

What is she doing? And, Why?

Waterfall in the desert!

After a beautiful day in the desert we went for a real cowboy dinner.  Rustlers Rooste Steakhouse is a big attraction in Phoenix, complete with peanut shells on the floor, 24 oz steaks, 2 bars, patio seating with a view of the entire city, a live band in the dining room along with a dance floor,  a slide, a bull at the front entrance and bull horns for those that have had a bit too much to drink – you know who you are!***

***Someone took photos but are not sharing!

Spring training has begun here in the desert and everyone talks baseball.  Paul & I found ourselves a job working at the Tempe Diablo Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

We work in the consession stands where I sell beer and hot dogs and Paul got promoted to Supervisor so he watches people sell beer and hot dogs and gets them more when they run low!  I was a bit nervous when we first got the gig cause I hadn’t worked a beer tap in a long time.  No worries, in Arizona you have to go to a 3 hour training course and get certified on how to sell beer!  I didn’t see any classes for drinking beer?  I passed the test and now I can sell beer (only 32 oz. per person per transaction!)  That does pose a problem with some of the fans but I stand strong.

My first day on the job I carded a 50 year old woman who didn’t have her ID and then I couldn’t serve her and I refused to serve a really stoned dude that proceeded to flip me off as he left the stand!  Today I went all the way to the park only to watch the cooks fill the hot dog warmers, ready the pretzels and cheese sauce and fill all the condiment trays and then the game was canceled 30 minutes before game time because someone forgot to tell God that it never rains in Arizona during Spring Training!

We will work 16 games in 29 days along with our already busy schedule of workamping in the RV park and I am still working 1 day a week for HR Block.    I thought we retired!!!!!!

Remember when you were a kid and the movie projector would shine on the screen and the teacher wasn’t looking?  Paul had one of those moments this week and Duke was the subject of our laugh for the day!

Duke was not sure what his dad was doing or why I was taking a photo of him.  He is such a good dog.  Duke provides us comfort, love, company and sometime a bit of entertainment!  He got an extra treat today

The power that we have over our men!  I got Paul to take me to the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix just to walk around and check it out!

This hotel was designed by Albert Chase McArthur who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago.   The hotel is first class and the grounds are beautiful.  It was a bit chilly as the rain had just let up so none of the pools were being used however we did find the swim-up bar where the US – Canada Hockey game was underway.  We had a seat until the US tied the game and sent it into overtime!  

This is definitely a 5 star hotel that also appeared quite comfortable.