Well...the good and the bad have met in Phoenix.
The good - The Elks in north-central Phoenix is a great place to park. Brand new asphalt with trees lining the boulevards between rows. Friendly people at the lodge. Met new friends from Michigan - Pam and Ross and we seem to have a lot in common. They are parked next to us. Had dinner at the lodge on Wed. night - grill your own meat (salmon, chicken, steak or pork chops), then pick up your salad, fruit cup, baked potato with the fixin's and roll. ($9 - what a bargain)! The Grilllmaster was just outside the dining area/lounge and he had several large charcoal grills ready and waiting and was there to give advice. He had also made up some glaze/marindade with rum, mango, dry mustard, brown sugar +. Excellent. I had the salmon, Jerry a steak. Friendly people around the charcoal pit. It was great not to have to cook as we had a longgggg day - packing up at Havasu and traveling to Phoenix...arrived at the Elks about 4 PM. Had dinner Thursday at Valle Luna a Mexican restaurant - excellent food - leftovers for dinner tomorrow! Jerry indulged me as I was so hungry for mexican food. Then, last night, dinner at the lodge again with Pam and Ross....salad, lasagna or spaghetti and meat balls, garlic bread and a white choc/macadamia nut cookie... Gotta diet soon...lol!
The bad - The reason we are in big city Phoenix (we usually avoid the big towns) is so J could get some work done on his ankle orthotic as the padding has disintegrated and is rubbing blisters on his arch-wanna-be (he has very flat feet - part of his feet problem.) Didn't get going as fast as we could have on Thursday, so arrived at the VA about 10 miles away at 10 am - drove around for 45 min to find a place to park. Got sent to several offices/clinics to get service and finally wound up at "eligibility" to wait for 1-1/2 hrs to get into the "Phoenix system." Then the computer was so slow they advised us to go home and come back at 7:30 AM on Friday and we'd be in the system. Sounded good to us.
Friday we were there at 7:15 am...got nowhere at the first clinic...told not eligible. Back to the "eligibility desk" and the great people wrote a note on his paperwork and sent him to another clinic. Well...won't go into all the details, but finally at 3:30 pm after yo-yoing between the Prosthetics dept. and the clinic, we were a bit closer to getting service. It all boils down to the Phoenix getting paid for Iowa vets...paperwork, etc. At any rate, we're to go back on Monday at 7 AM and Reggie our great helper from the clinic said the "big man" would have the report from his assistant who talked to Jerry on the phone...and would, most probably, force the issue for him to get served. We'll hope so...it's such a minor fix needed for so much hassle....
Today and tomorrow will be rest and relax days. May get together with friends, Jan and Ken....
Hugs to all! (At least it is warmer here than many of you despite the rain to come in tomorrow). We're not complaining about that!
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