Smithville Reunion

This was written Wednesday, January 23, 2008.

The past few days have been so much fun that I haven’t taken time to blog. We have been having a “Smithville Reunion” this week. Ron and Jan Ford came Saturday afternoon (1/18/08) and Dave and Jan Legaard got here Sunday evening. Ron and Jan stayed with us and Dave and Jan had their fifth wheel camper with them.

Last Saturday morning Larry and I went to the Annual Casa Grande Street Fair. There was a Classic Car and PU Show, antique motorcycles and tractors, craft booths, and food court booths. There must have been 60 to 70 cars and PUs in the show. It was held in the streets of the old part of Casa Grande. The day was cool and sunny, but by mid-afternoon it had warmed up nicely. Jan and Ron got here Saturday afternoon about 3:30 or so. Larry grilled some hamburgers and we enjoyed an evening of visiting.

Sunday after breakfast we took a walk around showing Ron and Jan the RV Park. Then we took them down to the Street Fair and walked through the Craft Fair booths and food court. By the time we got back to the camper, the play-off games had started. We all sat around and watched the games and had popcorn. That evening about 8:30 came a knock at the door! Lo and behold – the Legaard’s had finally made it!!! It only took them 11 days to get here!!! They came in and we visited for an hour or so.

Monday Harry and Sue Foster came down from Mesa. We four couples loaded up and headed to Eloy, where the skydivers were. It was a clear day and perfect for viewing skydivers. Everyone enjoyed watching the sky divers. One of the sky divers who jumped several times was an amputee whose legs had been amputated just above the knees. He was so good at it. We just marveled at the way he landed so gracefully. A hot air balloon was also launched from the area and the men (being men) went over close to the hot air balloon to watch and try to figure out how everything is done. Ha! While there we went inside a building where people can go inside a wind chamber and experience skydiving without having to jump out of an airplane. There are seats around the outside of the wind chamber where you can just watch the people trying their skills at free falling. It only cost $50 for 2 minutes!!! It was interesting to watch the jumpers. We also watched some sky diving teams as they practiced their formations in the wind chamber. After getting back to Casa Grande, we ate dinner at the Golden Corral before going to the RV Park. Another enjoyable day filled with lots of fun and laughs.

Tuesday Pat and Woody Green came down from Phoenix area for a day of visiting. They are staying in Phoenix area for a couple of months. Had a nice day of visiting and, of course, eating! After eating lunch at a bar and grill, we all came back to our camper for more visiting and more eating. Woody had celebrated a birthday on January 2 so Dave and Jan had bought a birthday cake and ice cream so we celebrated a belated birthday for Woody. About 8:30 that evening Pat and Woody headed back to Phoenix. It was so good to see them again. We hope to get together with them again sometime before we head back to Missouri.

This morning Ron and Jan Ford took us out to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. After a delicious breakfast we came back to the park and Ron and Jan loaded their car and headed to Jan’s sisters in Bakersfield, CA for a few days. We hated to see them go. It was so much fun having them stay with us. We teased Jan that we were going to miss our maid!

We extend our deepest sympathy to you in the Midwest suffering from the deep freeze! We will try to send some warmer weather your way. The weather out here is pretty cool of a morning but once the sun rises it keeps warming up until about 4:30 and then it begins cooling back down. It has been getting up in the high 60’s during the day and the 30’s during the night. We have the heat pump going at night.

I promise to answer some of your e-mails tomorrow. Thank you so much for writing.

Happy 37^th Anniversary, Roger and Suzanne!!!

WARM greetings to you all, Larry and Glenda