ONE CANYON, TWO FRIENDS

About a week ago, our friend Nancy (kissackadventures.blogspot.com) arrived here at the Grand Canyon, in her new Allegro Phaeton, diesel pusher motor home. This is her longest venture away from home in Central California since she got the new rig, and she's planning on staying here until we finish our jobs on Sep 7th. We've been friends for over 25 years, and Patty and Nancy have always shared many of the same interests, like photography, antiques, travel, and lots of other stuff. Speaking of travel, when we get back to Havasu late next month, the two girls are going back to Nancy's in her motor home, then, they're flying to Nancy's condo in Maui for a two week stay in early October. With the purchase of a new home in Tucson, and all that goes along with that, I have a hunch that this winter is going to be quite busy.

A BIG MOVE

Yes, we are still alive and well. As I've mentioned several times, with both of us working full time here at the Grand Canyon, the subject matter of any blog posts are pretty limited. As a result, my decision to only post on a very limited basis is where we are today.

The big news is that we are moving to Tucson, AZ! The idea of moving closer to our kids Marc & Chandra, and our only Grandchild Laila, has been gaining momentum for the last couple of years. We finally decided to pull the trigger several weeks ago, and began the search for a property to move to. We found a home on 4 acres, southeast of Tucson in the small community of Vail. It's about a 15 minute drive from Marc & Chandra's home, and we're in the process of dealing with all of the paperwork and logistics of purchasing the property. Doing all of this long distance, while still working, only complicates the process. However, with the technology of the day, signing documents, and the speed of email versus snail mail, certainly speeds up the process.

We haven't put our house in Lake Havasu up for sale yet, and will deal with that when we finish up with our work commitment on Sep 7th. The good news is that it's a great time to buy property. With home values way down from where they were a few years ago, the downside is that it's not a great time to sell. Fortunately, we don't have a mortgage, and even though we probably will not get a full return on everything that we have invested in the Lake Havasu property, at least whatever we get, will go in our pockets.

The reality of living closer to Marc, Chandra, and Laila is pretty exciting to both of us. With Laila turning 7 in a couple of months, the window of being active Grandparents with our precious little girl, is only going to be open for so long. In a few years, when she becomes a teenager, priorities will change, and our role in her life will also change. This was a big factor in our decision to move closer, and have the opportunity to be more involved. As we get older, I think this decision to move closer to part of our family, will end up being very positive.

ARIZONA MONSOON

View through the bus windshield, from the driver seat.

Beginning in mid summer, usually around the middle of July, the skies start to cloud up, and the thunderstorms start to roll in. Here at the Grand Canyon, the last few weeks have brought almost daily thunderstorm activity.

Yesterday, while driving a Blue Route Bus in the village, we had a monster cell pass through the area, and dump an enormous amount of rain, in just a few minutes. These kinds of super cells are the ones that appear in red on the Doppler radar images. While the water was dumping from the sky, there was some brief flooding, and these images are from the trailer village bus stop. This temporary river was probably a couple of inches deep, and needless to say, no one was waiting for the bus while this deluge of water was trying to find somewhere to go.

For an hour or so, this was the scene all over the park, as thunder, lightning, and lots of rain, combined to create a pretty good mess. The weather, combined with lots of wet people, was a formula for minor cases of chaos, depending on where the bus stop was. At the Visitors Center, I had a mob rush the bus in heavy rain, while I was trying to unload a disabled gentleman in a wheel chair. These kinds of scenes were playing out all along the route, as people were trying to get to their destinations, and out of the nasty weather.

After the storm had passed, the good news was that most people had given up on using the bus system, and the rest of the day was relatively calm. These kinds of storms are fairly common in Arizona, and the majority of annual rainfall totals are picked up in July & August. Speaking of August, just a few more weeks to go, then it's back to being retired! Yipeeeee!