The Unexpected New Toyota Corolla

Since we now have a place to go to in the winter and we still want to be in the RV in Maine in the summer, we decided that once we got back to Maine we really didn't need our truck anymore. Our RV park in Maine lets you store your RV there for free during the winter. Our Toyota Corolla, which we left in Maine for the winter, is 9 years old with almost 150,000 miles on it. We decided we would trade it and the truck in on a new Corolla once we got back to Maine. One Saturday a couple of weeks ago we stopped in at Superstition Springs (SS) Toyota here in Mesa to see what a new Corolla would cost. We explained our situation to our salesman, Roger Cary, before we did any looking. He still showed us the car and had us take a test drive. Then he wanted to know what we need in order to "make the deal happen." We explained that since we were going to trade in our truck on any new car that we bought what we would need is for them to move our 5th wheel from here in Mesa to Southwest Harbor, Maine for us. We were sure that that would end the conversation. To make a very long story a little shorter, and to our eternal surprise, they finally agreed to our terms! We still can't really believe it! We drew up an agreement which they signed, moved our junk from the truck into the new Corolla and drove home in it!

So now the plan is to drive the Corolla from Mesa to Detroit for a visit and then wait to hear when the 5th wheel is to be delivered (our agreement specifies a time frame for delivery). We'll then drive to Maine and meet our 5th wheel there to make sure it gets placed in the correct site and is set level. Of course we're staying on top of the situation to make sure our 5th wheel actually ends up in Maine, but the general sales manager, Brad Johnson, seems to have everything on track so far. We'll let you know how it plays out.

Our new Toyota Corolla.

Our New Home In Mesa, AZ

When we first arrived here in Mesa, AZ, it was with the intention of staying for 1 week. We enjoyed it here so much that we extended our stay to 1 month. Then we extended it another month. One source of our enjoyment is the park that we're in. The park, Sun Life, has about 750 sites, about a medium sized place by the standards of the many parks in Mesa. There are lots and lots of activities if you choose to participate. The club house has a large computer room, exercise room, library, billiards hall and more. There's a beautiful heated pool with a very large hot tub next to it. There are tennis courts (we recently took up the game!), basketball courts and shuffleboard courts. There's even a restaurant and bakery on site. Sun Life is an "RV Resort" but it's mostly populated with small mobile homes called "park models." Some are brand new and some go back to the 1970's. We kept find ourselves looking around in the new models and checking out the "for sale" board for the used homes. Eventually we looked at one of the used homes listed for sale. We really liked it and the price was right. After checking out several of the other parks in the area to make sure we wanted to buy here at Sun Life we made an offer on the home. After a little negotiating we settled on a price. There were renters in the home so we had to wait a few weeks to close on it. On Monday, April 2 we handed over a bank check, signed a few papers and had ourselves our first non-moving home in several years! OK, so it did have wheels at one time and COULD move. At least it doesn't bounce when you walk in it like our 5th wheel. We're really excited to have a home base. We're still going to spend our summers in Maine in the RV and we'll come down here for the winters.

The place was in really good shape. Since moving in all we've had to do was fix a leaky p&t ("overflow") value on the water heater and replace the bathtub faucet because the diverter value wasn't diverting much. We also added a new hand held shower head. And just today we bought a new mattress to replace the funky "air bed" mattress that was one of the most uncomfortable things we've ever slept on!

	Our new home at Sun Life in Mesa, AZ. There's a covered carport/patio area and a shed. Our "garden" has a palm tree (like all of the lots here have), a couple of aloe plants and some other desert flora.
	Living room. The place came completely furnished except for the cat on the chair. We had to supply our own.
	The kitchen and dining area. For us the dining area is actually our computer room. We really like the hardwood floors. They were a major selling point for us.
	The bedroom.
	The bathroom.

Goatheads

It's always amazing to us to discover things that are "common knowledge" in one part of the country that are totally unknown in other parts of the country. One of these things are goatheads here in Mesa. We ride our bikes a lot around the area. After a few rides we started pulling these nasty little seeds with stingers on them out of our tires. The guy in the site next to us here at Sun Life told us they were goatheads. Turns out there are all over the place! Since "discovering" them we've fixed flats on all of our tires, sometimes several times per tire! We talked to the owner of a nearby bike shop about what to do. He said most people around here "desert-proof" their tires. This involves installing a tough, plastic liner between the inside of the tire and the tube and using tubes that are filled with "slime", a green substance that coagulates when exposed to air. "Slime" really works! Before we knew about the plastic liners we had just "slime tubes" on a couple of tires. After pulling out a goathead from these tires air and a little "slime" hissed out of the hole and then it's sealed. We've now completely desert-proofed all of our tires and, so far, no more flats!

Click here for an official US Government picture of the little beasties!

Mexican Riviera Cruise

At the end of February we took a week long cruise on the Diamond Princess to the "Mexican Riviera." The cruise left from Los Angeles and made stops in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas. Getting onboard the ship proved to be an exercise in logistics for us. We decided to get a hotel room near the port of Los Angeles the night before the cruise left since it's about 400 miles from Mesa to LA. After factoring in gas mileage on our truck and parking costs we decided it would be easier to get 2 one-way rental cars, so that's what we did. It worked out well! We spent the night before the cruise at the Crowne Plaza at the Port of Los Angeles. The next morning we took a taxi to the terminal. Turns out we could have walked since it's less than a mile. No problem checking in but Princess doesn't let anyone board until all the cabins are ready. Most cruise lines let you get onboard before the rooms are ready and feed you lunch. Our cabin had the largest balcony we've ever seen! The cabin itself was very nice too. This was one of the few cabins we've had that had a refrigerator. That came in handy as we would buy soft drinks in port and have cold drinks in our cabin.

As on most ships we played trivia whenever we got the chance. We ended up on a team of really good players! We kept winning and winning. In all we won something like 7 of 9 or 10 games that we played. Go team! We think our team cleaned out the gift shop of all their luggage straps, luggage tags, etc. If only they gave free cruises as prizes!

We found the ports quite similar to each other and have to admit that we didn't find them very exciting. In Puerto Vallarta we just walked from the ship towards downtown. Because of the distance (something like 4 miles) and the heat we didn't make it all the way to downtown. Along the way all we saw were hotels, restaurants and shops. We passed a new mall that featured Starbucks, Chili's, Subway, Baskin Robbins, etc. In Mazatlan we took a cab into the Golden Zone - the shopping district. At least in Mazatlan we saw a little of the real city. In Cabo San Lucas we walked and walked and never got out of the tourist area. The best scenery was in Cabo San Lucas - Land's End and Lover's Beach were beautiful.

As frequent readers of our blog know we do like to play a little video poker now and then. On our last trip to the casino Karen got a royal flush on a 25 cent video poker machine! Her 25 cents returned $62.50! So we probably broke even in the casino for the whole cruise.

	Our balcony on the Diamond Princess. They even varnished the wood just for us!
	View of Puerto Vallarta from our balcony. Notice anything familiar? ;)
	Artsy picture of the Diamond Princess in Puerto Vallarta.
	Want prescription drugs but don't have a prescription? No problem! This was one of MANY such signs we saw in Mazatlan and the other ports we visited.
	Land's End at Cabo San Lucas taken from our balcony. The near side is the Sea of Cortez, the far side is the Pacific Ocean.
	Our winning trivia team was (left to right) Dave, Steve, Karen, Jim, Pat and Bev. Oh, and Ross who took the picture. Can't forget him :)
	Karen's royal flush - way to go!!!