Friday was an off day---no Flagstaff, no doctors. So I relaxed in my usual way, reading, doing crossword puzzles, and catching up on emails. Also, we made arrangements to meet the Wheelers at Murphy's in Prescott for lunch on Saturday. We haven't seen them since they stayed with us last spring. It will be great to see them. We arrived in Prescott early enough so Becky could walk the dogs before lunch. I spent the extra time at the bar in Murphy's, reading Things That Matter, and having a beer, of course.
The Wheelers arrived right on time, and brought Larry and Claudette Van Dusen with them.
The Van Dusens, former Xanterra folks we've known for many years, had shown up---unexpectedly---on Friday at the RV park in Congress, Arizona, where the Wheelers are staying. The six of us had our usual riotous time at lunch.
After lunch we immediately headed back to Williams, not taking advantage of the proximity in Prescott Valley of Trader Joe's and Costco.
The Sunday highlight was a long walk home by Becky and the dogs from Holden Lake, a dry lake bed in town.
On Monday, we received 13 inches of beautiful new snow. That required our clearing our driveway, and also washing snow off our satellite dish for the third time this winter.
Later in the morning, we got a strange phone call from the Grand Circle Travel folks, advising us that our planned November river trip in France had been cancelled! We had already paid for the entire package so we were given several choices of what to do with the refund. After reviewing all the options, we ultimately (on Tuesday) elected another French river trip (in October) and received a $4,000 credit toward the (of course) more expensive cost.
Tuesday was very cold and with the new snow we pretty much stayed inside and mellowed---and considered the cruise options we were given on Monday.
Wednesday was a busy day. At 11:00, Paula Walker from Flagstaff Custom Window Coverings arrived to measure for a replacement Venetian blind in one of our guest bedrooms. We realized after only a year and a half that the existing blind did not close properly.
At 1:00, I had a biopsy in Flagstaff of the lump in my neck that seems to have recently appeared. The doctor used a needle to collect three tissue samples. Not a big deal. After a quick lunch stop at Bashas' we (including Ramsey and Kelsey) headed for Tucson---nearly 300 miles away---to spend the night. We ran into some rush-hour traffic in Phoenix, and I didn't help by causing Becky to take a wrong turn on the I-17 transition to the I-10. We stayed at the Quality Inn Flamingo, an old joint in a seedy part of town.
It was OK, though. We were so tired by the time we got there (7:00) our dinner was what was left of the sandwiches we bought before leaving Flagstaff.
Thursday morning, we got the truck washed and stopped at Trader Joe's before heading for an 11:00 appointment with Dr. Parminder Singh at the University of Arizona Cancer Center. We thought he was the "gatekeeper" for the shot treatment we are anticipating. It turned out the situation is more complicated than that, and we need more time and more information before we can sort things out. Dr. Singh was very informative and very interesting. He attended medical school in New Delhi (yes, he is a Sikh) and did his residency in New York City.
After Dr. Singh, we stopped at Costco before heading back to Williams. We loaded up on the usual things, plus a gigantic bag of salted-in-the-shell peanuts for watching the Super Bowl. We beat the rush-hour traffic through Phoenix and arrived in Williams at 5:30, thus completing our 600+ mile round trip to Tucson. We celebrated with some hot-and-sour soup from the new Chinese buffet in town, and assorted goodies from our pantry. It was an exhausting two days and we crashed early.
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