Month: February 2012

We drive a lot.

I keep a log book in both cars, entering gas fills and maintenance items such as oil and filter changes. I also keep track of mileage that I put on my motorcycle. Here are the numbers for all 3 vehicles from 2011:

Pam’s Honda: On 1-3-2011 it had 225,893 miles on it. By 1-2-2012 it had gone to 252,571. That’s 26,678 miles.

My Subaru: On 1-1-11 it had 49,903 miles on the odometer. By 12-30-2011 it registered 70,926 miles. Yep, 21,023 miles in 2011.

My motorcycle has a 2nd odometer which I set to zero at the start of the year. It showed I had ridden  7,247 miles in 2011.

Total miles for 2011: A whopping 54,948. That does not include short runs with the Scout II, which I used for going to the dump and pulling trailers on occasion. I don’t log the Scout as I do the other vehicles, but guess I ran it between 400 and 500 miles in 2011.

That takes a lot of gasoline. And tires. And oil. And filters. And …you get the idea. We replaced 3 windshields last year, all broken by rocks thrown up by energy industry trucks. Our deductible is $100.00 per windshield.

Believe me, we watch the price of gas going up with something approaching dismay. Most of the time Pam and I try to commute together, but this last week saw us with differing schedules so we ran a couple cars a few of the days. Fuel bill for the week: $108.65.

Our commute is about 114 miles a day. Including the running of local errands, the average goes to around 120 miles a day. We live in the boonies: A grocery run  is 58 miles, round trip. On outing to a shopping center is even longer. Long trips account for some of the mileage;  I was back to Wisconsin a couple times in 2011, dealing with the aftermath of my father’s passing. Then there are the “land hunt” trips we take one or two weekends per month. It all adds up to a lot of driving and a lot of miles.

We drive a lot.

That’s it for now. Thanks for looking in!

Our friends for 30+ years, Hank and Elinor Tourtillott, live in Casa Grande, Arizona. (Casa Grande is about 45 minutes SW of Phoenix.) We like to visit them this time of year, both to catch up on the news and take advantage of the warm winter weather Arizona offers.  This year Eli is having some health problems, an even more important reason to touch base with the two of them.

We first met Hank and Eli when we bought a home in Colorado’s foothills west of Boulder, and became good friends. That was back in the early ’80s, and we have kept up the relationship through all of our subsequent moves, which include Oregon, Wisconsin, Arizona, and back to Colorado. They are good people, and we consider them family.

This year we made arrangements to meet our daughter, Felicity, at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix on our Arizona junket.  She flew in from Portland, Oregon, courtesy of  her boyfriend. We celebrated Felicity’s 29th birthday as well as visiting with Hank and Eli.

Blondie relaxes in the hotel room

Acting on a tip from Hank, the Legacy Suites became our base of operations.  We reserved a suite of adjoining rooms, one for us and the other for Felicity.

Our base of operations for this trip

We didn’t realize the place had a pool, or we would have brought our swim suits. (ha, ha) The weather was great the whole time, with daytime temps in the upper 70’s and night time temps in the upper 40’s.

When we arrived in the late morning, we were told we couldn’t check in until 4:00 P.M.  This gave us about 5 hours to kill. Felicity decided to take in a movie — the latest “Underworld” sequel — while Pam and I visited an IKEA store to pick up up a few ideas about living in a small space (which we will need if our land hunt eventually leads us to owning a small cabin). You have to think ahead…

We celebrated Felicity’s birthday with cake and a gift.

Felicity's birthday cake.

Felicity opening her gift

We bought ice cream for the cake from the Dairy Queen located across the road, and had a small party. It was good to have a chance to catch up.  It’s been about two years since we last visited Felicity in Portland.

The desert is renowned for it sunsets, and we were treated to some brilliant ones while in Casa Grande.  My point-and-shoot camera doesn’t really do justice to these kinds of shots, but here is one sunset:

Arizona sunset #1

Hank and Eli are of our parent’s generation, and, sadly, they have begun to have some medical issues. Because of this we needed to keep our 2 visits to about 2 hours each.  We found both of them as sharp and quick-witted as ever, and decidedly enjoyed our time with them.

Eli and Pam talking up a storm

Hank and Pam are exchanging comments with Eli

We hope the two of them enjoyed the visit as much as we did! In our “off” times we sat in the sun, read, walked Blondie, and just enjoyed the warm and clear days.

After the visits, birthday cake, and sunsets, we had to head home. We dropped Felicity off at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport, then headed north to Colorado, arriving home late in the day. (Felicity was in Portland many hours before we arrived in Colorado.) The trip back featured good weather, but returning to snow country made us regret not being able to spend more time in Arizona’s sunshine. Round trip was 1,440 miles.

One place we ate deserves special mention. Hank and Eli had suggested a restaurant called Mimi’s Cafe, which features French and southern (Louisiana) food. A banjo on the wall, part of the jazz theme, summed it up with the message it held: “Bonjor, Y’all!”  The food was very good, and we enjoyed the experience.

Here is a slide show with these and more photos taken on this trip:
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Thats it for now. Thanks for looking in!