Phannie

Phannie
Photo taken near Monument Valley, Utah

Saturday, March 21, 2020

Settled In 'Til The Storm Passes By

At Orchard Valley RV Park, Prescott, Arizona...

Well, we didn't see this one coming. I am reminded of the old Yiddish proverb, "We make plans, God laughs." And so it was; we had made extensive plans for the next six months or so--perhaps more than at any other time during our travels. We have made appointments and reservations months in advance...and now this.

It was a conversation with my old hometown friend John that gave me the idea to change our route back to Texas and detour through Prescott, Arizona. We thought it would have warmed up by late March, and there are so many beautiful places nearby. However, we got here just as the world was shutting down, so here we'll stay, I suppose, until the storm passes by. 

There are worse places to be. We secured a space at this very nice 55+ park in nearby Prescott Valley. It is a combination of an RV park and modular home neighborhoods--a very quiet place with no children around to spread germs to us older folks:



Yavapai county had the added benefit of having no reported cases of the Coronavirus, but that didn't keep the inhabitants and staff of the park almost totally out of sight. Only occasionally would we see another person outside or at the office, which is closed to all except staff. As of this writing, we haven't met a single person here, even at check-in, which was done over the phone when we arrived, including the payment of our rental fee. It was a surreal situation, revealing the paralyzing fear of so many in perhaps one of the safest places in Arizona, if not the nation. There's no virus here to catch, folks, at least for now. Good grief!

This "social-distancing" taken to the extreme did not deter us from going into town almost daily to take care of errands and get groceries. Our on-board provisions were not very robust, given our usual daily entertainment of trying new restaurants wherever we are. We found the grocery stores to be very busy, and success in finding things we wanted usually required visits to more than one store. There were a number of empty shelves in all the stores, but we finally found almost everything we needed. We gave up on finding toilet paper, paper towels and hand sanitizers, but we really didn't need them, as we had luckily stocked up on these recently. 

We were able to try one Thai restaurant before indoor dining was shut down, and it was perhaps the best Thai food we have ever eaten. I was so surprised at the good food that I forgot the name of the restaurant, but we will certainly patronize it again and put it on our list. I hope they are still in business when this virus hysteria is over.

After a down day for bad weather, we awakened to a rather substantial snowfall! How ironic this was, as our whole reason for going to Arizona and southern California for the winter was to get away from cold weather. Following is a photo of the sight we saw driving into town that day:



This should be expected, of course, since Prescott is about the same elevation as Denver, and the high country is more subject to snowfall. Even so, Sandy and I looked at each other and marveled at how our plans and circumstances had changed so quickly and unexpectedly in the space of perhaps three days. Never in our wildest dreams would we have imagined going to Arizona for the winter and finding ourselves in a snowstorm.

Speaking of Sandy, the orthotics have not helped her foot at all, so we've made an appointment with a local podiatrist to get a third opinion. We now have no idea when we will be able to return to Houston and the medical teams whom we trust.

On the fourth day here, the weather improved greatly, so we went on a short sightseeing venture. This is a very picturesque town with an old west flavor and lots of granite rocks strewn around:



We didn't have very good light on this day for photos, so we'll be including more in future posts, since it looks like we'll be here for a while.

The virus plague, even though it hasn't visited Prescott yet, has caused all the restaurants to close their dining rooms out of fear, offering takeout food only. this puts a real crimp in our restaurant foodie habit, as we really don't care much for takeout grub. As a result, we're having to get back into the habit of (gasp) cooking again. After a light lunch of a couple of hot dogs, I fixed a respectable hearty vegetable soup, and Sandy cooked a skillet of her famous cornbread for dinner. 

Oh my, this isn't going to be so bad, after all!




Thank you, Lord, for this wonderful life; 
please forgive me if I fail to appreciate it each day as I should.

We don't stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing. 
 ---George Bernard Shaw


"I get up every morning, and I just don't let the old man in." ---Clint Eastwood

13 comments:

  1. Well, if you have to be "stuck" somewhere, it sounds like Prescott is a lovely area in which to be stuck. Just promise that you'll try very hard to avoid getting on Sandy's nerves. Being cooped up like you are, unable to socialize and, most likely, suffering withdrawal symptoms from the lack of restaurant meals, I'm concerned about how well you'll manage to "shelter in place." I'm a bit worried that your next post may be from an eastbound train or bus after Sandy has gifted you with a one way ticket back to Mindy. So sorry to hear about Sandy's ongoing medical issues during this surreal situation. So many questions (especially ones that begin with "when") and so few answers as we work our way through uncharted territory. By the way, the extra line between your second and third quotes at the end of your post is annoying me and my OCD tendencies to no end. Does it not bother you? Or are you leaving it there intentionally knowing that it would make me squirm? Stay safe and take care!

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    1. Thank you, Mary, for your concern about Sandy's condition and for her tolerance of me. We're working with a local doctor to try to get some relief for her foot. However, as far as her tolerance for me goes, she knows what a catch I am, so she rather likes being cooped up with me. It's either that or she has Stockholm syndrome--I'm not sure which. And just so you'll know, that extra space in the quotations annoys me, too, but I didn't put it there; Blogger did, through some glitch in its programming. Next time, I'm going to leave no space at all and see what it does with that. By the way, there was another glaring error caught by Sandy this morning that I was terrified you would see and give me a bunch of grief before I got it fixed. It was in the title of the post where I used the contraction "'Til.'" I had hit the quotation mark key instead of using an apostrophe, making it "Til--which made no sense. Knowing that you're always looking over my shoulder has had some positive effects, though. I am much more careful when I write, and all the proofreading afterward helps me kill time...lots of time. It also makes me perspire, but you probably didn't need to know that.

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    2. Please, Mike, no need for any extra perspiration on my behalf. I realize this may shock you, but I don't give a whit about all those nonsensical rules of English grammar. I write cleanly simply due to my elementary school education - which must have been excessive in the subject of English. On the very rare occasion you may make an error, your mistake is safe with me. I'll even let you in on a tidbit of info: I read my favorite blogs as soon as I get up in the morning, well before the caffeine in my coffee has had a chance to take effect. So, the chances of me catching anything are slim to none. See? No extra perspiration necessary. As for Blogger, your line space is one of its many small quirks. I'm still trying to figure out the darn thing.

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  3. It looks like my usual four month summer visit in the grand-kids area may be a non-event this year. That is not a life improvement for sure.

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    1. Well, that's a shame, Barney, and we feel the same way. We're missing ours terribly, and they us. They won't be little forever, then they'll be gone with the wind.

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  4. I know Sandy must be disappointed with the outcome of the orthotics. I sure hope this new doctor can provide her with some relief.. and soon!
    But what a deal for her... you taking care of her, doing the cooking, cleaning the rig, etc. 😉
    We were looking forward to a few days of warmer and dry weather per our weather app. I woke up in the night to rain and at nearly 11am its only 45... but no snow!
    We are glad to be home even though we haven't seen our kiddos yet... come on next weekend!!
    Take care!

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    1. Hi, Cheri! We followed your blog posts as you returned home safely, and we're happy about that. Thank you for your concern about Sandy; I'm trying to keep her off her feet as much as possible and we're hopeful that the new doctor can help. We feel very safe here in a remote and beautiful part of Arizona; we're very glad to stay here until things get better. Be safe, y'all!

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  5. I'm so glad that you found a safe place to be.

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    1. Thank you, Sherry! We feel very fortunate to be where we are right now.

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  6. This reply is for Sandy. I don't know all the details about your orthodic problem, but I had severe foot pain for 3 years. They told me it was planter Faciitis. Turns out they like to label it that, but quite often (unless you have severe flat feet) it is actually TARSAL Tunnel problem. You would need to see a Foot SURGEON and ask him to run a test to find out. The test was simple, an injection and then keeping a diary for 2 weeks to see how the pain reacts to the injection. Also, in the meantime, I discovered FIT FLOPS (available on amazon or high end shoe stores) they cured my pain for about 4 years and then when the pain returned I found out I had Tarsal Tunnel problems. Hope this helps you. The shoes were key though and they now have close toed shoes too. The fit is standard shoe size. We are in Green valley AZ.

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    1. Thank you very much for the tips. We are working with a podiatrist here in Prescott Valley who we think is on his game. I'm hoping she has success with him. Meanwhile, we will definitely check into those shoes. By the way, we are unsure who you are, as your post comes to us as "Unknown." Filling out your profile or mentioning your name would be very helpful. Thanks again for your comment!

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