NOT on my Bucket List

22 degrees again this morning. I expect that somewhere else... this is ARIZONA for Pete's sake. The very positive thing today is it warmed up quickly and there was hardly any wind. A gorgeous day and WOW did we have a memorable day.

First let me report that Don's mother is doing much better this morning. Don had to drive a few miles away to call her... no AT&T service here. Seems she has an infection and was dehydrated because she couldn't keep anything on her stomach. After antibiotics and and IV of glucose, she's on the road to recovery. Thank God. And thank you for praying for her.

Mom called and she wanted to talk about getting her "affairs in order." A subject I do not like to discuss or admit that it's necessary, as you can understand. She is so thoughtful about wanting to have everything taken care of. Oh, how I love that sweet, sweet gentle lady.

Don found George Becker outside. I will let you guess what he was so kind to be doing outside instead of in their RV. He kind of threatened my life if I told you. :-)) George & Jo are from the county in Texas where I grew up. We know a lot of the same people from there. They are also very good friends with Pat & Bobby Tomme who we met while we were in Branson, Mo. this summer. They were working at the KOA Campground. Geez, we sure miss all those guys. I know it's cliche, but it really is a small world.

This is where I spend a lot of my time when we are in the RV. Learning to blog is way too much fun.

Almost everyday, we take our gallon jugs to the Waterin' Hole (reverse osmosis filtering system) to get drinking water. It seems there is a lot of salt in desert water so it has to be filtered in this way. And of course, we check our mail daily.

We noticed that our new neighbors, Kathy and Lyell were out, so we went over and met them. Nice folks from Nebraska. NASCAR fans like Dave and Darlene. Lyell said a neighbor from another year here carved that boot for him.

Dave & Darlene invited us to go with them this afternoon so we postponed our trip to see Alvin and the Chipmunks movie until another time when it's too windy or too cold to do anything else.

We're on our way to the Sky Diving Mecca of the World.

As we approached the airport we could see sky divers dropping from the sky... everywhere. Look closely and you can count 10 divers in this pic. A few are still free-falling. [pic is missing]

Are we ever happy we went with them to the Eloy Municipal Airport only 6 miles away, to watch the sky divers at Sky Dive Arizona. It was amazing and we had so much fun watching all the sky divers.

Darlene and I decided we should learn something about this sport of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane, so we watched this one land and then commenced with the interview. Meet Coach Tom from Westpoint, Annaheim, NY. Divers today are jumping out of the perfectly good airplane at 12,000', free-falling to 5,000' (long beeps) . At 4,000' he hears shorter, more rapid beeps. At 2,000' the alarm in his helmet flatlines (appropriately named) to let him know "you should have already pulled the cord, so pull now!" Tom is here this weekend with his team of cadets to compete in the National Collegiate Championship Diving Competition. D & I nicknamed him "eye-candy." Well, he was cute and very nice. And we all plan to go back tomorrow to watch them compete. Go, Army! uh- oh..Go, Navy! Oh, yea, Go, Air Force!

This is an altimeter (did I spell that right, Mike?) It's attached to his glove and lets him know how far he is from the ground.

The videos really show how fast some of the divers came in for a landing. Tom said that some people have the larger parachutes (Cadillacs) that move slower and some edgier people like the smaller, sportier chutes that go weally, weally fast ... up to 80 MPH (Porches). Landing speeds vary from 35 - 80 mph. The first video was taken in the $5M wind tunnell. Divers practice falling techniques there.

Darlene coming down the wind tunnel ramp.

A diver folding his parachute. There were gobs of people here. Also, jumpers could hire chute-folders to fold their chutes. I think I had rather fold my own. Lots of girls diving, too. Sky diving is on Snookie's bucket list.

Last minute jump instructions.

Divers ride this tram from the observance area to the airplane about 150 yards away.

Coming in for a landing. The landing speeds vary between 80 - 30 mph. They actually land much like an airplane. Not like the old army parachutes in the old war movies.

Outside the wind tunnel. Motors are below ground level and the four pipes at the top are the exhaust where the "wind" comes out. Very fascinating to watch the divers practice free-falling. I can't believe how much fun we had this afternoon and we didn't spend a dime! Thanks, again, Dave & Darlene!

On the ride home, we passed a new wheat field. Fields growing green stuff in the desert still amazes me.

The next field was being flooded with irrigation water. Looks like a lake.

How it's done. Simply open the gate and flood the field.

When we returned to Quail Run around 4:15 PM more campers had arrived. Friends of Lyell & Kathy, Don & JoAnn Miller, were just getting set up. We were so busy talking and getting acquainted that I forgot to take pictures.

Tonight is Friday Night: Date Night. Don took me to Macayo's, our favorite Mexcian food restaurant, for dinner.