Fetch Kitty (and new camera)

As promised here is a better photo of Sandra, our fetch kitty, aka the 'cutest cat ever', bringing back the blue safety ring from a Fuze beverage plastic bottle. Another good safety ring is from the distilled water you can get at Wal-Mart. A lot of the water or milk jugs have a safety ring that does not remain a single piece and Sandra just does not like them as much.

There is a downside though to these single piece safety rings as they can fall into the heating vents. You have never heard such a pitiful sound as Sandra realizes that the ring she was just playing with is now gone. She then looks at you like you are supposed to fix it. We have taken the vents off and have been able to retrieve a few but mostly they bounce out of reach. We now place towels to cover the vents when Fetch Kitty is in the mood.

Bob was able to take this picture with our 'new' camera, or actually the camera that we finally got after Bob dropped the then new camera on our visit to Tortilla Flat. The repair facility was having a hard time getting parts so the finally just sent a brand new camera.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

2011 Royals Spring Training

As we learned last year when we went to our first Cactus League game Baseball can be fun again! The sky was blue and the temperature was in the low 80's so it was a little warm in the sun for us. Lucky it was not too crowded so we scooted into a shady portion and enjoyed the game.

Although the Kansas City Royals have the best record of the American League teams in the Cactus League it looks like it is going to be another long year for the Royals. Like the Kansas Jayhawks there is always next year :-)

The future for the Royals looks promising as some of the younger players that will probably play for the Triple-A team in Omaha do have some potential so Royals fans should not lose hope.

We have uploaded some of these pictures and others from our stay in Goodyear to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobandjotravel/sets/72157625645802714/

Till next time,

Bob & Jo

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Phoenix Light Rail

We had never ridden the Phoenix Light Rail so we went on an adventure yesterday with our friends Bob and Wilma. We drove to the closest station at the west end and parked and bought an all day pass. Our only planned stop was at the Old Spaghetti Factory which we knew from a previous visit was right across the street from a light rail station. Since the Phoenix Light Rail is not as extensive as say the Washington DC Metro and is one legged down and back we decided on the trip to eat and then get back on it and ride it end to end.

The Old Spaghetti Factory in Phoenix is on the site of an old home and they have added on a huge restaurant keeping the same look and feel from the front view. Nothing says spaghetti quite like palm trees! Our favorite meal is anything with the mizithra cheese and browned butter which you can get by itself or with another sauce in the Manager's Favorite. Wilma got it with marinara, Bob with mushroom sauce while Wilma's Bob got only meat sauce and Jo got spinach cheese ravioli. Jo recently had some dental work and is still on a soft diet because she has trouble chewing although she was able to eat part of Bob's mizithra and mushroom sauce combo which was good news. The Old Spaghetti Factory offers a full meal deal that includes salad, bread, iced tea and spumoni for dessert. The creamy pesto salad dressing here is also one of our favorites. Bob got the hearty platter which is extra food for a little extra money. With all the bread and the salad most of the spaghetti was leftovers that was finished that evening.

After the meal we got back on the light rail and did some sightseeing. Wilma wanted to show us downtown Tempe so we got off there. Much to our surprise we walked right into the Tempe 'Festival of the Arts', rated one of the nation's best. Mill Avenue and other side streets were closed to traffic and lined with tents. We didn't buy anything just walked down Mill Avenue and back which was enough although probably less than half the exhibitors. There were some really good artists on display and the weather was perfect, mid-70's and sunny with a slight breeze.

We really had a good time and plan to use the light rail again for more sightseeing and food of course!!

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

In-N-Out

We have visited In-N-Out and Five Guys and can now say without a doubt that In-N-Out is better, at least to our tastes. No matter where we have visited In-N-Out, and we have been to quite a few different locations, and no matter what time of the day, it is always busy there. That should tell you all you need to know, except that the double-double with grilled onions is the best thing on the menu.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Rock Springs Cafe (again)

Our friends Bob and Wilma may be the only ones in our park that have not been to Rock Springs Cafe. We were already going back since you get a free piece of pie with your old receipt and an entree purchase so the four of us went for lunch or should I say PIE!

Jo got the cream of potato soup as did Wilma. Wilma's Bob got the Augie Doggie Dawg and Bob tried the Chicken and Biscuits which on the menu said was a 'Local Favorite since 1924' and we can see why. Although it is basically chicken pot pie filling over a biscuit but both the chicken portion and biscuit portion were really good. The pie was good as before. This time our table sampled the rhubarb crumb, peach, and chocolate cream.

When we paid Bob forgot to use our coupon so we'll just have to go again, oh darn :-)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

NCAA Tourney

Bob spent the last two days immersed in March Madness. This year all four games are on different networks (CBS, TNT, TBS, Tru). A few years ago when we had DirecTV in our old sticks and bricks Bob signed up for "Mega March Madness" from DirecTV which was basically the same thing but you had to pay for the option plus you were at the mercy of CBS who sometimes switched games so the same game may have been on all four channels. This happened rarely but enough to be annoying.

With the four networks Bob can control which game he watches and catch all the exciting endings and man there have been some from made last second shots (Butler, Temple) to rallies that succeeded (George Mason) to a couple that were furious that fell short (Oakland, Michigan State). Bob's bracket is in pretty good shape as he picked 25 of the 32 games correctly.

It has been fun but exhausting, oops, better hurry, the games are starting again!

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

Movies: "The King's Speech" and all time favorites

We try to see a movie at least once a week and we recently saw "The King's Speech" and it was excellent, so good we would add it to our all-time favorites list shown below. It truly was the Best Picture and Colin Firth was amazing. We highly recommend this movie.

We have developed a pretty good routine as the Gateway Pavilions where we see the movies has a loyalty t-shirt that you buy and then get a free medium popcorn for all of 2011 and also a loyalty cup where we can pop get refills for $1. Just outside the theater is a Yogurtland where you can get 3 oz free with your movie stub, with about 20 varieties and free sample cups it is an adventure. So we have a weekly routine of a movie with popcorn and a pop and then top it off with frozen yogurt.

So here in no particular order is our list of all time favorite movies, although we are sure we may have missed a few:

The Godfather (1972)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
The Thin Man (1934)
The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
Chariots of Fire (1981)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Citizen Kane (1941)
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
The Sound of Music (1965)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Secondhand Lions (2003)
Rear Window (1954)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
On the Waterfront (1954)
North by Northwest (1959)
My Favorite Year (1982)
Murphy's Romance (1985)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
A Man for All Seasons (1966)
How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Gandhi (1982)
Finding Nemo (2003)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
The King's Speech (2010)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

For those that like to read

We have a great gadget for all those that like to read a lot. It is a book cover we got at the Vendor Day at Happy Trails Resort in Surprise Arizona. Vendor Day is the first Friday of the month from November to April and it is pretty neat. To use the cover you slide the book into the cover that comes with a bookmark when it is closed and a clear strap that serves to hold the cover open for reading. The clear strap is also used when closed by using strategically placed clasps for reading and for when closed. The neat thing is when you are reading the book is open and flat and held in place by the strap so you can even read outside when it is a little breezy. Changing a page is easy you just start to close the book and change the page under the strap. Here are pictures of it opened and changing a page. They come in many sizes from paperback to medium sized hardback to even larger and many, many fabrics.

Here is the website, http://www.bookcoverstogo.com/, where you can see the fabrics and get ordering information.

It is hard to describe but easy to use and we like them so much we have three, two paperbacks and one hardback so both of us will always have one. They even have cookbook covers, now if only either of us cooked :-)

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

For those that love pie!

Thanks to fellow Escapee George Stoltz who recently started a thread on the Escapee Discussion Forum called, "PIE, Did Someone Mention Pie" we learned about the Rock Springs Cafe in Rock Springs Arizona. Just off of I-17 North of Phoenix it is about 60 miles from our park so we decided to eat there for lunch and get some of the pie that we have heard so much about. Truth be told Jo's brother and sister-in-law wanted to go to the Anthem Outlet Mall so Bob suggested the Rock Springs Cafe which was just a little further. Turns out we made a great choice.

The Rock Springs Cafe was founded about 50 years ago in a very historical area in the Bradshaw Mountains. Yavapai and Apache Indians camped near the springs. After the California gold rush was over word spread that "there's gold in the Bradshaw Mountains". Rock Springs became a military stopover and a stop for the Black Canyon Stagecoach which ran until 1917 with some famous passengers as the Earps and Doc Holiday. During Prohibition more than water flowed in the area and the 30's saw many movie stars like Tom Mix and Jean Harlow as visitors. The Cafe and Saloon and General Store are a museum of sorts with lots of memorabilia.

Enough about the Cafe let's talk about PIE! Since we knew we were getting pie for dessert we all decided to eat light. Bob and Jo's brother Rick both got the Augie Doggie Dawg which was a 1/4 dog deep fried and smothered with cheddar cheese, onions, diced tomatoes, green chile, deli mustard and served with fries. We both agreed it was probably the best hot dog we have ever had. Both Jo and her sister-in-law Frances got the cream of potato soup which was excellent.

We then turned our attention to the PIE menu and it was a tough choice. Bob got the Jack Daniels Pecan Pie which is less sweet than regular Pecan Pie, Jo got the Tennessee Lemon Pie, Rick got the Peach Crumble Pie and Frances got the Lemon Meringue. We of course sampled everybody's pie and everyone was excellent.

The Rock Springs Cafe is worth a drive just for the food, as we mentioned before probably the best hot dog and best potato soup ever. Then you have some of the best pie we have ever had, plus like a museum with all the memorabilia and you have a great place to visit. We will have to visit a couple more times just to make sure that the one visit was not a fluke before we can add it to our 'Our Favorite Things! (Food)" list. But that will be easy since the receipt from this visit is worth a free piece of pie for your next visit.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo