We Feel Like We're on a Shakedown Cruise....

  ...and we are the ones being shook down!

But before getting into that, let me tell you: Suzy is now down 70 pounds since early January! Yesterday morning we did the monthly measurements (14 points to measure, such as neck, left calf, right calf, waistline, etc.). In the two and a half months since surgery, she has lost a total of 53 and a quarter inches! And she tells me she hasn't felt this good in years.

For those wanting pictures, you need to wait just a little longer. Suzy promises the before-and-current shots soon, probably at the three month mark, or a little later.

And because we have no pictures of Suzy this time, here are some recent shots:

Of course we dyed Easter eggs! But #12 was so badly cracked we didn't dye that one!

A typical sunset in Benson, Arizona!

Prickly Pear Cactus on the edge of our lot.

Some, a few, many, perhaps all of these buds, will flower this year! Which ones?

Prickly pear may be beautiful, but ALWAYS dangerous!

Now about that shakedown cruise. This morning we left for our first real outing in the motorhome since October. Our target: Roper Lake State Park just south of Safford, Arizona. It was only 79 miles from home. The plan was to stay here a week, then move about 60 miles further north on US 191 to Clifton, and spend a week there. These towns are prominent on Arizona's Salsa Trail, a byway featuring hometown Mexican restaurants, each promising award-winning salsa and proprietary Mexican recipes. Oh wow!

To make this an even more special trip, Suzy let me drive the motorhome part of the way! Since we are planning to renew our original travel style, and because we are going to need to share the driving in the future, she's relinquishing her sole authority over the helm.

We arrived at Roper Lake in good style, settled in to our pull-through site, and disconnected the toad. And that's when the problem hit. To tow our Suzuki XL-7, it is necessary to put the transfer case in neutral, the transmission in Park, and the key into Accessory. We did all that. When we got here and disconnected the toad, I could not get the transfer case out of neutral! It simply would not budge, regardless of the adjustments i made, the swear words I used, or the way I combed my hair. Nothing made any difference.

Of course at that point we called Coachnet, our emergency service. After a short musical interlude on Hold, Joann came aboard to ask the required first question: "Are you in a safe place?" After the usual pleasantries, I was able to explain our predicament, which explanation seemed to fly right above Joann's head and out the window on the other side of her cubicle.

She figured out that the place to call would be Drew and Crew Motorsport Center in the town of Safford. I explained that Drew and Crew Motorsport was certainly at best a motorcycle center, but by goodness, she had found them on Google and was not to be deterred: I must call them and find out! And then call back to Coachnet in the morning and talk to somebody who might really care.

I did my part, I called the number, only to learn that the number had recently been disconnected. And in Safford, "recently" could have been any time in the past decade, as time is slow in this part of Arizona. Which of course is a large part of the charm of this part of Arizona. You wouldn't be surprised if Doc Holliday popped up from a soda fountain and tried to sell you a sarsparilla.

That's all we know at this point. Stay tuned and see what happens as we hobble through this episode of... Our Life in Wheels.