Saturday, September 24, through Wednesday, October 5: Moving Forward

Becky's sister, Wendy, leaves this evening, aboard the westbound Amtrak Southwest Chief.  Since it is coming from Chicago, it often loses time.  In the meantime, Becky and Wendy walked the dogs through the neighborhood.  Look, Wendy has all three for a photo opportunity!

With the uncertainty of when the train will reach Williams, Wendy and Becky started a jigsaw puzzle.  The theme of this puzzle is candy wrappers!

For a special treat, filet mignon steaks were purchased for Saturday's dinner.  Becky cooked her steak at rare, and she then placed it on the counter.  She then went back to the grill to make Wendy's medium rare.  In few minutes, Becky and Wendy caught Ramsey with Becky's steak in his mouth.  He ate it whole, like a python eating a mouse!  It was incredible!  They called Ramsey "beef boy" the rest of the evening.  He was comfortable sleeping away in his crate.

Wendy's Amtrak train was over 90 minutes late.  Becky dropped her off at the Grand Canyon Railroad Hotel lobby at 10:45am.

The next morning, Wendy texted Becky.  Her train did not get into Union Station until 9:30am.  Usually, the train makes up the delayed time.  Not this Sunday!

While on the sisterly road trip, Becky turned off the backyard water feature.  It is the season for pine needles.  So, Becky spent some time in the afternoon picking up pine needles --- so that she could start the water falls again.

The rest of Sunday was beginning the process of preparing the Evite invitation for Richard's Celebration of Life.  Becky also began inputting e-mail addresses for the electronic invitation.

Monday was time to read all the sympathy cards sent to Becky's Williams address.  So far, 51 cards.  How very special.  Becky also finalized the Evite invitations --- 119 in all.  It will be fun seeing the responses over the next few weeks.

On Tuesday, Becky drove to Flagstaff.  She took Ramsey with her, but left Kelsey and Libby at home.  First on the agenda, was to go to Dr. Mathern's office.  Dr. Mathern was Richard's oncologist.  He has not yet responded to Becky's September 8th letter asking that he complete an attending physician's form.  Becky and Richard had to cancel their October trip to France.  The trip insurance company requires certain documents to process a claim.

While in Flagstaff, Ramsey started throwing up in the back seat of the truck.  The "beef boy" episode from Saturday night already created a diarrhea scenario.  Becky called the Williams Veterinary Clinic.  They suggested that she get in touch with a Veterinary Hospital in Flagstaff.  So, Becky called Canyon Pet Hospital. 

They could not see Ramsey until 3pm.  Becky drove back to Williams, picked up Kelsey and Ramsey, and returned to the Pet Hospital.  Ramsey's appointment was with Dr. McKenna.  Lab work and x-rays were taken.  All appeared normal, except that Ramsey had a lot of gas in his stomach.  He was given pills for his nausea symptoms, gas, and put on a bland diet.

FedEx had called.  Richard's large photo for the Celebration of Life was ready to be picked up.  Done!

Ramsey is feeling better.  For the next week or two, Becky is fixing three different bowls of dog food for each.

Becky picked up several medium Priority Mail boxes.  She completed the project of mailing 1/3rd of Richard's ashes to Donna, and 1/3rd of Richard's ashes to Rick.

Thursday was another trip to Flagstaff.  Dr. Mathern's office had the paperwork completed to submit to the trip insurance company.  Becky's own version of fall, it a red maple in front of her Williams home.

Joey, from Summit Spa, came out on Friday to replace two broken spa jets.  Then, Becky refilled the spa with fresh water.  She is looking forward to a nice hot spa in a day or two.

On Saturday, friends from the Grand Canyon, Dorthy Westmoreland and Nancy Charette, came to visit Becky, see the Pinehurst home, and enjoy some chicken curry salad for lunch.  It was a fun visit.

Since the road trip with Wendy, Becky has been thinking about trading in the HUGE 5th wheel and getting a smaller trailer for her and the dogs to enjoy.  So, she packed up the dogs, and headed for Affinity RV in Prescott.  She also called Stephanie and Joe Hap.  Since they live in Prescott, perhaps the three of them could meet for a late lunch.

Becky met with salesman, Clint Eastvold, at Affinity RV.  She really liked the 28 foot Lance trailer.  It was very high end and met the space needs of having three dogs.

She went home with paperwork to see how much Affinity RV would take as a trade-in for the Brookstone 5th Wheel.

Stephanie and Joe Hap suggested a late lunch in Chico Valley at Amora Italian Restaurant.  It fit the bill!

Monday morning was the day that Becky jumped into the spa --- with fresh, clean water and two new jets.  Delightful.

The dogs and Becky also drove the five miles to Kaibab Lake.  It will close to campers in a week.  Part of the day was also used to complete the Affinity RV Appraisal form, scan it, and e-mail it all back to salesman Clint.

Becky knew she wanted a new outfit for the Celebration of Life event later in the month.  So, she walked the dogs sufficiently and left them at home while she headed off to errands in Flagstaff.  It seemed that Chico's was a good place to start.  There is something interesting in being a size 0 in their weird way of sizing!  Normal stores would call it a 6-8 size.  A possible attire was found --- just add some heals, maybe?

On Wednesday, Affinity salesman, Clint, called back --- after reviewing the trade-in paperwork.  Becky had hoped that the trade-in would cover the cost of the new trailer.  Unfortunately, Affinity wanted an additional $10,000 to make the deal.  It was not the money, but Becky knew the luxurious 5th wheel was worth a lot more than what the dealership quoted.  So, this was a sign that no deal would be made.  Some disappointment, but Becky knows she can handle the 5th wheel with some practice in hitching it to the truck and learning the gray/black tank process.