Summer Travel Map

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Progress, Progress...

November 4, 2009
Peoria, AZ

We made some progress on leftover items from the Range Rover "accident" over the last couple of days. Other than that, it's been life as usual.

Yesterday, I was able to notify the insurance folks that we're ready to get the remaining repairs to the Range Rover done here in AZ. I made the appointment at the Land Rover Centre over in Scottsdale to have their work done after we get back from the NASCAR races . Other than that, Geri did some more laundry (will it ever end?) and I picked up a few things at the store to tide us over for the next few days of fine dining. For dinner, we made chicken sausage (Geri found individual links at Sprouts, a local chain, one with parmesan and one with basil) in a tomato-pancetta cream sauce with fresh gnocchi from DiFalco's, an Italian specialty store in Scottsdale. Wow, we range far and wide just to eat. We paired it with a Sicilian Primitivo, a hearty and rustic red wine. Other than not dicing up the pancetta enough for Geri's taste, it was definitely a keeper.

Today, we made the long (30+ miles?) trek over to Mesa to visit Camping World. They are the ones (albeit at their Denton, Texas, store) that sold and installed the tow setup for the Range Rover, and they offer a "lifetime installation warranty". I wasn't sure how much convincing they would need to reinstall everything under warranty, and I suppose I won't be satisfied until they are done. So far, we're not getting any flak. Their first step was to contact the tow bar manufacturer.  Even though the base plate that attaches to the front of the Range Rover wasn't damaged, they want to make sure there aren't any changes made to the parts since 2005 when we had it installed. While I'm OK with that, I really want to get this work scheduled so we can get back to "normal". I'm sure I'll have quite a few follow-up calls to make over the next couple of days.

After Mesa, we made a quick stop at Ikea in Tempe on the way home. It's always fun to get ideas on how we could make upgrades, particularly to the kitchen and bathrooms, even though the economics of the situation don't support making additional investments in the property. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" really applies these days. Doesn't cost much to look, of course...☺

This afternoon turned cloudy, which kept the temperature down a bit from yesterday's record high of 96°F in Phoenix (it was only 92°F today). Dinner was the left over pork roast from the other night, paired with baked potatoes and grilled artichoke. We need to practice on the chokes, but everything else worked out OK. Paired with a Cabernet blend from Tres Hermanas that we brought back from California, it was a pretty good "easy dinner". Now, it's time to watch Game 6 and see if the Yankees can close it out.

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