Friends, Fireworks, Feeds and "hail???"

It's been a great time here at the Steppes.  We had daily happy hours - usually lasting two hours - so many people, so many conversations!  Walked most days with various groupings - most days 1-1/2 miles or so.  Jerry was able to go on three rides through the desert. 

The highlights were the fireworks last weekend.  Friday we had the wind...  looks like the morning after a big party, but the overturned chairs were the work of the wind.  Then Saturday, we had rain...beginning Friday night at 9:30 pm and rained steadily most of the morning...1" - amazing for here in the desert.  We were so happy, though, as it cleared up for the big fireworks show that night.  Long wait saving seats on the top row of the bleachers, though.  They were amazing - 40 minutes of awe!
Sunday, we had a lot of dark clouds scudding through the sky...looked as if it could pour any minute.  Everyone started gathering for "Ed's Birthday Party" scheduled for noon (rained out date from Saturday).  It's actually Duane's party thrown by his gal, Betty.  This was year five.  Years one and two were Duane's party.  Year three, Betty went to the store to get the birthday cake and they were all out except for one..."Happy Birthday Ed" which was half price...what???  Well, it seems Ed had passed away and the relatives, of course, didn't want the cake.  So enterprising Betty said "why not" and brought Ed's birthday cake to the party.  Well, we had to go with the theme, so instead of singing Happy Birthday to Duane, we sang the Ode to Mr. Ed from the long-time ago TV show bout the horse that talked.  Hilarious! 
So, we're all set for Ed's Birthday party on Sunday...all are gathered, the potluck dishes are on the long table and Duane and Betty have the hot dogs on the grill....it started to sprinkle - oh well, it rarely rains in the desert.  Everyone scrambled for their rain gear and umbrellas with a really large one protecting the chefs.  When out of the sky comes pea-size hail!  And more pea-size hail!  And more pea-size hail!  Jerry quickly put the awning down as our rig was the closest to the potluck area.  So we had 30+ of our closest friends huddling under the awning.  Many of us looked like drowned rats.  Hailed about 10 minutes, rained about 3 minutes and it quit!  Yippee - paper toweled dry the tops of the potluck dishes (many of them were still covered as we hadn't started to eat yet - good think or we'd have had soggy salad.  LOL)  and the grilling resumed.  We had some good laughs as people forgot their chairs were wet and sat down, or had to dry their dripping hair before they could eat.  We even decided the potluck had it's own theme song now "Hail, Hail, the Gang's all here!"  LOL  A fun afternoon enjoyed by all.

Monday, many rigs left but there were still about 20 for happy hour and wet got to talk with some new people.  Tuesday we helped Ann and Mick move into their new RV.  The dealer put the rigs door to door with planks and we hauled and stowed all afternoon.  Bill and Gisela stopped by to see their new rig and we stopped about 4:30 to relax and have lasagna & salad dinner a little later.  We all felt good about the progress made.  They're on their own today as we're heading to Phoenix to the VA to see if we can get Jerry's leg orthotic (sp?) worked on as it's falling apart.  It's been a fun two weeks here at the Steppes.