Blue skies and... hail?

September 16, 2008
Show Low, AZ

We've been relaxing and enjoying the nice weather. Yesterday, we made a quick trip back to Show Low (about a 15 mile round trip) to pick up a prescription, some replacement fluorescent light bulbs, and a few fill-in grocery items. Fortunately, Home Depot and Walmart are right next to each other, and we got everything we needed.

We were just finishing up in Wally World when we started to hear a dull roar coming from the roof. At first, it sounded like they had turned on the air conditioning. As it got louder, we realized it was raining - very hard. Now, mind you, when we went into the store I could have sworn that there wasn't a cloud in the sky! By the time we made it through the quick-check line to the door, the rain was mixed with pea-sized hail that was accumulating on the vehicles in the parking lot. We made a dash for the car (help to be parked in the handicapped spot right near the door), got soaked in a matter of 75', and headed home (windows all open, of course). Within 2-3 miles, we ran out of the rain and the temperature went from 63° to 77° in a matter of minutes. As it turned out, the storm was moving to the west, away from us, so we didn't get any rain out of it. This was a good thing, as we're sitting on soft ground as it is! I guess that's how it is in the land of "pop-up thunderstorms.

When we got home, Geri whipped up a fabulous dinner of Angel Hair Pasta with traditional red sauce (aka "gravy" in Philly) and sauteed pork cutlets (no veal to be had here in the sticks). Other than my eating too much, it was perfect!

Today, we'll do some puttering around the house and relax. Here's an example of how mundane the motorhome maintenance activities can be: once a year or so, I have to go around and tighten all the cabinet and drawer handles. Today was the lucky day for that. I have a few other similarly exciting things planned for the rest of the week.

Since we're on Mountain Standard Time, we're already getting used to the shorter days and earlier sunsets. This, coupled with the cooler temperatures, has caused us to cut back on our outside evenings; we're putting on more layers and closing windows by 7:00 PM here. Of course, Maya Lynn has been getting me up between 6:30 and 7:00 AM when the sun comes up, but that's OK. When we get back to Peoria a month from now, it'll still be warm enough that outside activities have to be completed by 9:00 to 10:00 AM anyway!

OK, enough of this. It's started to "spritz" outside, and this will be a good afternoon to catch up on some photo sorting, shrinking, and posting.