Glad tidings… 12/23/21

Things have been going really well… there’s lots of great things to update on!

After the fiasco with the Jeep (see here and here) it finally arrived! We are so excited!! We had paid a percentage of the total cost up front with our debit card, but the remainder had to be paid with a cashier’s check upon delivery, no exceptions. So the day before the carrier got here he called and set up a time with us for the next day. After Jeff got off work we went to the grocery store to get the money order. But customer service was closed! While we grabbed a few grocery items, I called every Western Union location I could find until I came across a Dollar General that said they were open until 9. When we got there, they didn’t even have a Western Union!! So the only place we could go was a 24-hour PLS (one of those check cashing places you find in particular areas of town) that, while they had fee-free money orders, had a stupid fee for processing a debit card! Needless to say, by 8 pm we were finally back at our spot with money order in hand!

After about 6 weeks of driving only the bus, it was SO weird to drive the Jeep again. The steering wheel is angled instead of almost flat like in the bus, it is super responsive (we both were all over the lane trying to drive straight lol!), it can make a 90° turn only taking up one lane (not three!), and it can go the actual freaking speed limit!!! Who literally knew?!?! But seriously, next time someone asks what it’s like driving the bus I’ll have to say, “really different” instead of my usual “not that different”.

I also got to visit with a friend I hadn’t seen in over 6 years, which was really great! She was traveling here from the East Coast for vacation and we decided to meet up. We met at a desert pull-off, showed off our respective rigs (she rented a converted van and got a taste of #vanlife), and caught each other up on family and life. It was wonderful!!

Jeff has been doing a lot of welding for the Glass Artist. He got some pictures of the finished projects to include and he can explain a little about them.

Braydon has been enjoying the desert. He likes finding different kinds of animals. We found several lizards recently and some cotton tail rabbits. The other night he heard a sound like a katydid and asked, “was that a katydid or do they not have those here in Arizona?” He’s learning a lot about this very different place.

We have some friendly-yet-cautious cat-friends around us. Today they smelled Sue Ellen’s food and came by for a visit. Braydon and I had fun enticing them closer with the kibble. They have been hanging around all day. We even had one of the kittens trespassing into our garage!!