By January 2022 we will be living in this manufactured home in a very nice 55+ park in Mesa, Arizona.   2 bedrooms, 2 baths (hooray), 1200 sq. ft. of space.  We might get lost with all that space.   Plus, it comes furnished (the owner didn’t want to pay to move furniture across country, so we bought it) so I don’t have to frantically try to find furniture this month.

The house has a large carport on one side and an enclosed patio on the other, plus a small backyard with 2 citrus trees, one orange and one grapefruit!   And the fruit is just starting to ripen, so fresh fruit juice come January.

We have sold our Park Model to a couple who have been wintering near us for the past few years in their motorhome.  They decided they wanted to just drive down in their car for the winter.   Now just to coordinate all the moves before the end of the year.   

Now if you are asking “are Barb and Dave selling their motorhome?" Well not just yet, but the coming summer may be the last trip in it.   As we age we have found that we can not do 6 months at a time in the coach; age is catching up with us and it is time we enter a new phase here in the “Valley of The Sun”.    

We have enjoyed this fall with life starting to get back to somewhere close to ‘normal’...whatever that was so long ago.    In November we were able to attend a concert at the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum) to see Manhattan Transfer.   They have been together for 50 years!   It was a lot of fun to see them again.  First time we saw them was in the mid ‘80s when they were at the summer music program at Oakland University campus near Auburn Hills, Michigan.    They had an outdoor amphitheater, so we brought out lawn chairs and picnic baskets (a deli near our home in Grant Blanc made up great baskets including the wine) and spent the evening under the stars being entertained.   And it was just fun being able to go out again to a concert! We have two of them this month, on the 14th to see Peter White and Mindy Abair on their Christmas Tour at the MIM, and then the 15th to see Dave Koz and Friends Christmas show at the Mesa Arts Center.   Having so many preforming arts centers in the area is one of the reasons we decided to retire in this area.  

We have also be able to have friends over for meals again - and will be able to entertain even better at the new home.   We did Thanksgiving here, and hope to do Christmas in the new house (fingers crossed!)

We had to get a couple of new wine racks when we returned this fall - didn’t realize we had purchased so MUCH wine.  We have enough for a couple of years.   And so far, everyone seems to like the new wines that we found this summer.

This wine rack holds 28 bottles of wine -  plus Baby Yoda sits on top to guard the bottles.  Of course  all that wine is again boxed up and in a climate controlled storage area - - our little park model has no room for boxes.     

The other thing I can’t figure out is where all of the stuff came from - - it clearly is more than what we unloaded from the motorhome when we began wintering here.   I swear the “stuff” breeds while we were away during the summers. 

We hope that everyone is looking forward to the holidays and getting to see loved ones again!