Oro Valley, AZ to Glendale, AZ (to have two new hydraulic levelers installed)
Back to Glendale on May 12 for our appointment to have the new hydraulic levelers installed the next day. It was hot when we were here only a week before but this time it was 24 degrees over my high limit (which is 80 degrees by the way). After we got to our campsite we went out to dinner with our friend Dolores and she invited us to come to her house the next day while the motorhome was in the shop. Barney thought that was an excellent idea. He loves any time that he's not cooped up in the motorhome so we called Dolores and told her we'd take her up on her offer. They currently have 2 dogs at their house and I was hopeful they would play together and wear each other out but unfortunately that didn't happen. No fights occurred though and the three of us spent the day in air conditioned comfort. Thanks Dolo!
Star Date: May 12-13, 2016
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Back to Oro Valley
Glendale, AZ to Oro Valley, AZ (additional things to do at Doreen's mom's)
We drove back to Catalina State Park in Oro Valley to await the arrival of the parts to fix our hydraulic jacks. So we went back to work at my mom's. Laura tackled the garage cabinets, a big, big job. I worked on helping my mom use her new tablet and wireless printer along with a few other projects. I also updated a document called "Leaving a Trail" which she got from somewhere. I had helped her fill it out about 7 years ago but it was definitely out of date. I think this is such a good idea that I'm going to add it to the end of this log segment for anyone to copy and paste into a word processing document such as Word.
We were in Oro Valley from May 4 through May 11 before we headed back to Glendale to have the repairs done on our motorhome.
Star Date: May 4-11, 2016
Please feel free to copy and paste this document into a word processing software and use it to put your own affairs in order.
========================================================================
Leaving a Trail - Putting My Affairs in Order
A.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
B.
IMPORTANT ITEMS
C. HEALTH
AND FUNERAL INFORMATION
D.
FINANCIAL MATTERS
25. The name and phone number of my tax person is:
E. REAL
PROPERTY
F. REAL
ESTATE
G. OTHER
We drove back to Catalina State Park in Oro Valley to await the arrival of the parts to fix our hydraulic jacks. So we went back to work at my mom's. Laura tackled the garage cabinets, a big, big job. I worked on helping my mom use her new tablet and wireless printer along with a few other projects. I also updated a document called "Leaving a Trail" which she got from somewhere. I had helped her fill it out about 7 years ago but it was definitely out of date. I think this is such a good idea that I'm going to add it to the end of this log segment for anyone to copy and paste into a word processing document such as Word.
We were in Oro Valley from May 4 through May 11 before we headed back to Glendale to have the repairs done on our motorhome.
Star Date: May 4-11, 2016
Please feel free to copy and paste this document into a word processing software and use it to put your own affairs in order.
========================================================================
Leaving a Trail - Putting My Affairs in Order
This document will be useful to whoever you designate to handle
your affairs should you become incapacitated, unable to handle your
financial or health affairs, or upon your death. It is important that the information be
available quickly when it is needed; therefore unless your designee has
signatory power to access your safety deposit box, do not put it in your safety deposit box.
A.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
1.
My full name:
2.
Date and place of birth:
3.
Location of my birth certificate:
4.
Marital status:
a.
Names of previous spouses:
b.
Location of marriage licenses:
c.
Location of divorce decrees:
5.
Citizenship:
6.
Father’s full name, date of
birth:
7.
Mother’s full name, date of
birth:
8.
Children’s names or next of kin and
phone numbers:
9.
How long have you lived in Pima
County:
10.
My current passport
is located:
B.
IMPORTANT ITEMS
1.
Social security number:
a.
Location of your social security card?
b.
Are your monthly social security
payments deposited directly into your checking account?
3.
Location of your apartment key(s)
(card type lock):
4.
Location of your mailbox key?
5.
If you have any locked safes or file
cabinets where are the keys?
6. If you have any money or valuables hidden in your home where is
it?
C. HEALTH
AND FUNERAL INFORMATION
1.
My Medicare number is:
2.
My secondary health insurance is
through:
3.
Location of my health insurance cards:
4.
I have prescription drug coverage
through my Medicare Complete plan (see #2 above)
5.
My physicians: name, specialty, phone number:
6. The prescriptions/medications I am currently taking:
7.
I am allergic to:
8.
My dentist’s name and phone number:
9. My Health Care Power of Attorney is located:
10.
I have a living will that is located:
11.
I have accident insurance through:
12.
I have long term care insurance
through:
13.
I do/do not have life insurance.
14.
I have plans in writing and everything
is paid for my cremation through:
15.
Name and phone number of person(s) to
be contacted upon death:
D.
FINANCIAL MATTERS
1.
I do/do not have a safety deposit box
2.
My checking account(s) is with the
following bank:
3.
Location of your check book:
4.
Location of your bank statements:
5.
I do/do not currently do any banking
online.
6.
I do/do not have a savings account.
7.
The following accounts have a “pay on
death” provision.
8.
I do/do not receive any pension income
or retirement benefits.
9.
My securities broker/financial
advisors are:
I do/do not do any investment work online.
I do/do not have securities bonds with “transfer on death”
provisions
10.
I own the following annuities:
11.
I am the beneficiary of the following
annuities:
12.
I do/do not own any IRA’s
13.
I do/do not own any Certificates of
Deposit (CDs).
14.
I do/do not own any Treasury bills.
15.
I am/am no the beneficiary of a trust.
16.
I do/do not receive any royalties or
payments for books, inventions, patents etc.
17.
The following payments are made
directly into my checking account:
18.
I do/do not belong to any
partnerships.
19.
I do.do not transact or perform any
other kind of personal, financial business.
20.
The name and phone number of my
attorney:
21.
I do/do not work with a trust officer
at a bank.
22. I have/do not have a will. It is located:
23. I have/do not have a trust. It is located:
24. I have/do not have a Financial Power of Attorney and a Health Care Power of Attorney. They are located:
My old tax returns are located:
26.
My active credit card accounts are:
I keep my active credit cards:
I do/do not have any inactive credit
cards.
Do any of your credit cards carry death benefits (accidental death or otherwise)
I pay my credit card bills by check/online
27.
Recurring bills paid directly from my
checking account are:
28.
I do/do not pay any bills in advance.
29.
I do/do not not owe anyone money.
30.
The following people owe me money.
31.
Bills, waiting to be paid, can be
found:
32.
Your estate may need to track your
assets through an Unclaimed Asset website for each state where you have
lived.
Please give your maiden name:
Please give your married name(s):
Please give your spouse(s) name(s):
Please list the states and towns where you or
your spouse(s) have lived:
33.
Is there any other financial
information that needs to be recorded here?
E. REAL
PROPERTY
Vehicles
1. The title to my car is located:
2.
Through what company do you have car
insurance?
Name and address of agent:
Policy number:
Make of car:
3.
Where do you keep the car(s):
4.
Location of the car keys:
5.
Where is your car registration?
6.
Where is your driver’s license?
7.
My car does/does not have a “transfer
on death” provision.
F. REAL
ESTATE
1.
I do/do not own any real estate (time
share, condo, house, apartment, rental property)
Give the locations of the real estate you own:
Give the locations of the real estate you own:
2.
I do/do not rent any property to
anyone.
3.
I do/do not lease property to
anyone.
4.
I do/do not lease property from
anyone.
5. I do/do not own any real estate or personal property in joint ownership with another person.
G. OTHER
1.
I do/do not have belongings stored in
a place other than my current home .
2.
My email address is:
My password for accessing my email is:
3.
The password to my Norton Identity
Safe or other password storage software is:
4.
Location of valuable jewelry and
silver.
5. I have made the following arrangements for the care of my pets.
My veterinarian
name and address:
6. Is there any other information you think would be helpful to your
personal representative? (e.g. organ
donor, etc.)
Out of the frying pan and into the fire!
Oro Valley, AZ to Glendale, AZ (to have the hydraulic levelers on our MH fixed)
We drove back up to the Phoenix area on Sunday, May 1st so we could drop off our motorhome and have the levelers repaired. Two of them were refusing to retract whenever we were ready to move on to a new campground and I was getting exasperated with having to get down on the ground and pry them up! While they worked on the motorhome we did a bunch of errands around the area, had ice coffee and tea at Starbucks and lunch at a very cute restaurant called Mimi's Café. It turns out they are a chain but unfortunately they don't yet have a presence in the Northwest. It's a French inspired theme with a really nice menu. If you are traveling and happen to see one, stop in and have a bite to eat.
That morning Laura had an appointment with "the world's tallest Chiropractor," Dr. Torsten Stein. At 7'2" I think you can see that he towered over Laura.
 |
| This selfie looks Laura look like a midget! |
We also visited Cerreta's candy factory in Glendale for a "factory tour." We love doing factory tours and seeing how things are made. And you never know - sometimes you get free samples!
 |
| Founder and owner, Mr. Cerreta himself! |
 |
| The caramel making section. Yum! |
 |
| Pretzels heading in to be covered with white chocolate! Why is white chocolate called chocolate? It doesn't even taste like chocolate. Things are either chocolate or they aren't and white chocolate isn't! |
The next day we met a high school friend of mine who now lives in Scottsdale. We saw her last on our 2003 trip back to Michigan when she then lived in Travers City. We spent a nice day chatting and reminiscing at her condo and had lunch at another Mimi's! Yea! Pat is now grandmother to 4 grandchildren and it's a role she clearly loves. Nothing like spoiling the grandchildren.
 |
| Pat Janis - my friend from Grosse Ile High |
Star Date: May 1-3, 2016
We asked for warm weather but let's not overdue it!
Sun City West, AZ to Oro Valley, AZ (to visit Doreen's Mom)
It's already hot, hot, hot in Arizona and it's only April 19th. I guess that's why the snowbirds are starting to head back north to cooler climes. Flowers are blooming here that typically bloom in June in the Northwest. Many of the cacti are starting to bloom, including the symbolic Saguaro which abound in the Tucson area of Arizona.
We were able to camp at Catalina State Park about 3-4 miles from where my mother lives which made things very easy for us.
We stayed here until May 1 helping my Mom with various things that are hard for a 91 year old to do. Our days were full - many of them doing things that I thought needed to be done like throwing away old records from the 1980's and 1990's and organizing her current records. It's not like she doesn't know how to file - she just doesn't do it and she admitted to being afraid to throw things out. We lugged 6 huge bags over to be shredded after we finished with that task. We took pictures of all her jewelry so I would know what was good jewelry and what was costume jewelry and what pieces came from my grandmother and great-grandmother. What do I know about jewelry - I wear a 12 dollar watch! Laura ironed a bunch of things for Mom and cooked many of our meals. We helped her buy a tablet and wireless printer so she can now sit in her recliner and do her email and whatever else she used to do on her computer. I moved all her personal stuff from her laptop to the tablet (quite a learning experience!!!).
My brother Rich and his wife Phyllis arrived from Michigan on April 22nd. They love the sun and the heat so they soaked it up during the 4 days they were in town. Having visited before, they didn't want to do any tourist things. We've also visited many times and have done many of the typical tourist things so that was OK by us.
OK - I have to admit that I don't have any pictures of Rich and Phyllis or of my Mom. If I did they would go right here! :-(
We got together with our friends Leslie and Madeline who live in Tucson. It was so great to catch up on their lives.
Star Date: April 19-30, 2016
It's already hot, hot, hot in Arizona and it's only April 19th. I guess that's why the snowbirds are starting to head back north to cooler climes. Flowers are blooming here that typically bloom in June in the Northwest. Many of the cacti are starting to bloom, including the symbolic Saguaro which abound in the Tucson area of Arizona.
We were able to camp at Catalina State Park about 3-4 miles from where my mother lives which made things very easy for us.
 |
| Santa Catalina Mountains as viewed from our campground. Greater Tucson is just on the other side. |
 |
| There are hundreds of these round tailed ground squirrels in the campground. We think they look like miniature prairie dogs. Anyone else have trouble holding their phone camera still while taking a picture???? |
My brother Rich and his wife Phyllis arrived from Michigan on April 22nd. They love the sun and the heat so they soaked it up during the 4 days they were in town. Having visited before, they didn't want to do any tourist things. We've also visited many times and have done many of the typical tourist things so that was OK by us.
OK - I have to admit that I don't have any pictures of Rich and Phyllis or of my Mom. If I did they would go right here! :-(
We got together with our friends Leslie and Madeline who live in Tucson. It was so great to catch up on their lives.
 |
| Madeline and Leslie |
Star Date: April 19-30, 2016
There's a whole lot of desert out there!
Palm Desert to Sun City West, AZ (to visit friends)
I haven't been keeping up on the blog (as some of you may have noticed) but I'm trying to get caught up now. I know I always like to picture friends in their homes and it occurs to me that you might want to know what our "rig" looks like. These are old pictures but we still have the same motorhome (Winnebago Chieftain - 35 feet long) and tow car (Honda CRV).
In Sun City West we visited our friend Dolores who was Laura's supervisor way back in our working days at Pacific Northwest Bell. Through the years she and her husband Chuck became our good friends. Sadly Chuck is gone now and since he passed Dolores has been spending the winters with her ageing parents in Sun City West. Her dad died about a year ago so now it's just Dolores and her mom Wanda, age 94. We were especially lucky that her daughter Morgan was down for a visit while we were there. We've known her since she was just a little person and now she's all grown up and, as you can see, a serious motorcyclist. She actually had her bike shipped down for her stay in the valley of the sun.
Star Date: April 17-18, 2016
I haven't been keeping up on the blog (as some of you may have noticed) but I'm trying to get caught up now. I know I always like to picture friends in their homes and it occurs to me that you might want to know what our "rig" looks like. These are old pictures but we still have the same motorhome (Winnebago Chieftain - 35 feet long) and tow car (Honda CRV).
 |
| Picture is taken standing in the entryway looking toward the rear of the coach. The driver and passenger seats are behind the photographer. The bedroom is at the rear. The bath is off both sides of the hallway. You close the doors on each end of the hall and "presto" you have a good size bathroom. The kitchen, dining booth and couch constitute the "living" area. The kitchen and the couch section slides to the right about 18" giving us a comfortable living space when we are camped for the night. |
The trip along I 10 from Palm Desert to the Phoenix area is long, hot, dry and dusty. It's a place where you pray you don't break down. The only thing we saw of any interest was this sign along the highway as we approached Phoenix. |
| Don't the signs usually say "Don't pick up hitchhikers"? |
 |
| ...but don't mess with this girl! |
 |
| 3 generations Wanda, Dolores and Morgan
|
Friday, June 3, 2016
Into the heat of the Mojave Desert
Santa Bernardino to Palm Desert (to visit Doreen's cousins)
We next drove to Palm Desert to see another of Doreen's cousins. Candy's younger sister Nancy and her husband Mike. They live back and forth between two homes, one in Bishop, CA and the other in La Quinta, CA where we visited them. As I write this (way after the fact of course) I realize I need to do a better job of taking pictures. I have only one of Nancy and Mike and their darling little dog, taken at the last minute as we were leaving to go back to our motorhome. We enjoyed their hospitality and had a wonderful time eating and chatting from the afternoon into the evening.
Palm Desert is part of a whole group of towns that all started years ago with Palm Springs, the vacation playground of the rich and famous of Hollywood. The area spreads from Palm Springs on the western end to Coachella on the eastern end with Thousand Palms, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells, Desert Hot Springs, Palm Desert, and Indio in between.
Remember Sonny and Cher? Sonny was once the mayor of Palm Springs where he started an event called VillageFest. Every Thursday night it's like a big street fair with food, music, vendors of all kinds and the local shops along Palm Canyon Drive open for business. We decided to check it out and the picture below will give you an idea of what it was like. Lots of tourists having a good time and hopefully adding to the coffers of the vendors and merchants (that the idea right?). Fun!
The area was where we experienced our first sandstorm. It wasn't a particularly bad one but it got our attention. It was hot there but because there was a nice breeze we left the windows open in the motorhome while we were gone. When we got back - the finest, but still gritty sand you can imagine was all over everything. Memo for file: keep windows closed in the desert if it's windy.
Star Date: April 12-16, 2016
We next drove to Palm Desert to see another of Doreen's cousins. Candy's younger sister Nancy and her husband Mike. They live back and forth between two homes, one in Bishop, CA and the other in La Quinta, CA where we visited them. As I write this (way after the fact of course) I realize I need to do a better job of taking pictures. I have only one of Nancy and Mike and their darling little dog, taken at the last minute as we were leaving to go back to our motorhome. We enjoyed their hospitality and had a wonderful time eating and chatting from the afternoon into the evening.
 |
| Mike and Nancy Finch |
Remember Sonny and Cher? Sonny was once the mayor of Palm Springs where he started an event called VillageFest. Every Thursday night it's like a big street fair with food, music, vendors of all kinds and the local shops along Palm Canyon Drive open for business. We decided to check it out and the picture below will give you an idea of what it was like. Lots of tourists having a good time and hopefully adding to the coffers of the vendors and merchants (that the idea right?). Fun!
 |
| VillageFest in Palm Springs |
Star Date: April 12-16, 2016
Continuing South into the Giant Metropolis
Santa Barbara to San Bernardino (for visit Doreen's cousins)
Our next stop was San Bernardino to visit one of my cousins. This drive was where I first realized just how big the Greater Los Angeles area really is. It didn't look that far on the map but considering how long it took us to get there I thought we must surely be in Mexico.
We spent a very fun week with my cousin Candy and her husband Larry.
Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from our time there. I should have taken some pictures of the fabulous meals Candy cooked for us because she is a great cook. I should have taken some pictures of Larry playing the guitar and singing, another thing we had the pleasure to enjoy. I should have had a tape recorder to record some of Larry and Candy's very funny family stories. We had a great time with them and we laughed a lot!
Star date: April 5-12, 2016
Our next stop was San Bernardino to visit one of my cousins. This drive was where I first realized just how big the Greater Los Angeles area really is. It didn't look that far on the map but considering how long it took us to get there I thought we must surely be in Mexico.
We spent a very fun week with my cousin Candy and her husband Larry.
 |
| Candy and Larry Whittaker |
 |
| The playful side of these two crazy people! |
Unfortunately I don't have many pictures from our time there. I should have taken some pictures of the fabulous meals Candy cooked for us because she is a great cook. I should have taken some pictures of Larry playing the guitar and singing, another thing we had the pleasure to enjoy. I should have had a tape recorder to record some of Larry and Candy's very funny family stories. We had a great time with them and we laughed a lot!
Star date: April 5-12, 2016
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