Love Trader Joe’s and the Apple Store

Off to the Apple Store…

I entered the Apple Store on my Garmin and it said it was about 16 miles from the Enchanted Trails RV Park.  I had scheduled my appointment online for 2:00pm.  I got to the store at  1:00pm so I went to the Genius Bar hoping they could take me sooner.  No such luck.  They are very busy and told me to come back closer to the time I had scheduled.

The Apple Store is located in a very high class shopping area know as Uptown.  Lots of very expensive stores.  I did find a Starbuck’s and stopped in there for a coffee and “Very Berry” coffee cake.  Then I just walked around until my appointment.

The Apple Store is really a very friendly environment.  I walked to the back where they checked me in and then they found a seat where I could sit until they could wait on me.  They had all my information regarding my speaker problem with the phone. Within a few minutes I was showing another guy my phone and he was writing all the information into an IPad.  Stuff like what I had done to see if the speaker would work, etc.

He took my phone and said they would check it out in the back and replace the speaker if needed.  He mentioned it could take about 25 minutes.  Within 10 minutes he was back with my phone and demonstrated that the speaker now worked.   GREAT!!  I can now hear when someone is calling me.  That is what a phone is for, isn’t it?

They were very professional and when I asked if there was any charge he said absolutely nothing.

Trader Joe’s in the same shopping center….

I walked out to my car and happened to notice a Trader Joe’s on the other side of the parking lot.  I haven’t shopped at a Trader Joe’s for a long time and had to go.

I usually buy my groceries from a list that I create on my IPhone.  Whenever I think of something I immediately write it down.  I usually don’t buy anything else unless it is on the list.  It usually keeps me from overspending.

However I only had a couple items on my list when I entered Trader Joe’s, but went ahead and shopped the entire store and bought my items that weren’t on my list.  I love eating seafood and if you check out the seafood in Walmart it is rather bleak.  Most times I usually buy any seafood from a good grocery store instead.

However, I did see some great seafood items at Trader Joe’s that I just had to have.  That and a packet of sushi that I used to enjoy many years ago.  I had the sushi for dinner that night.  YUM!  YUM!

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I also bought my favorite Italian Roast coffee.  I used to drink this coffee for many years before fulltiming.

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Very windy…

The rest of the day was very uneventful.  I was glad to get home after shopping as the wind was blowing very hard. New Mexico winds can get rather gusty at times.

Billy as in Billy Goat…

When Jim and I went 4 wheeling in Rockhound State Park he suggested a name for my Suzuki Samurai.  He said it was just like a Billy goat since it could go just about anywhere.  So Billy it is!

My Lazy Daze “The Breeze” as in the song by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Billy.  That sounds cool.  They make a great pair.

Will leave here on Saturday…

Saturday we will be heading north.  I didn’t want to travel on Friday because Amazon will be calling for my interview.  I missed the last time they called because my IPhone speaker wasn’t working and didn’t even here the call.  So they rescheduled it and I really need to get it right today.

I am leaving in the morning and found a Harvest Host winery that I can stay at for the night just north of Albuquerque.  Harvest Host offers many great places to stay like wineries, farms, and orchards and it doesn’t cost anything.  These places are located in every state even Canada and Mexico.  They don’t have hookups but with solar panels who cares anyway.  Besides I need to try a different wine for a change.

 

My first 4 wheel drive adventure

Hiking to a very cool canyon…

We all decided to go hiking in the desert.  Jim and Gayle had picked out a great spot past Spring Canyon.  So Jim, Gayle, Debbie and I all took off and headed out there.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera so don’t have any pics of our hike.  However, it was up and into a neat little canyon and very pretty back there with all kinds of neat rock formations.

After the hike Jim wanted to drive up a road to the cell towers on top of the mountain overlooking the Rockhound State Park.  We got up quite a ways and met several ATV’s and a jeep coming down.  At that point we decided to turn around and head back down.  It was getting steeper and lots of loose gravel.

We then returned to our campsites.  Then I got the bug to test out my Suzuki Samurai to see what it could really do.  I invited Jim to go along and we headed back to that same road.  I got just a bit further then we had previously and my tires started to spin out in the loose gravel.  At that point I stopped and put it into 4WD.  I had it in 4WD low and it went right up that steep gravel road like it was nothing.

The rocks in the road kept getting larger and the road in some spots became very steep.  But my Sami went right up like there was nothing to it.  We then arrived at the top with the towers.

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What a view from the top…

The view up here was fantastic.  However the wind was blowing like crazy and we had to take off our hats or we would have lost them.  Here is a pic of the campgrounds below us.

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Deming is way off in the distance.

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Here is a great pic of the towers.  They were huge!

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We spotted another tower further up the mountain so naturally I just had to check that one out as well.  On the way driving over to it I spotted what looked like a coyote skeleton.

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Road was very rocky and steep as well

The road was very rocky and in some spots it was loose gravel and steep as well.  But the Sami went up it like it was nothing.  I had read many reviews on the Suzuki Samurai before purchasing it and they all said it can go anywhere.  I am now very convinced of that.  Plus it doesn’t take much effort to get to these spots.  I am glad I had high ground clearance since many of the rocks in the road where very large.  This is a pic at the second tower.

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It was extremely windy up there.  There was a work truck up there but the workmen had left.

Two towers was enough for today

Once we got up on top of the mountain we could see many different towers.  We counted 5 different towers, but there could have been more.  The views from up there were fabulous.

I am so glad I purchased the Samurai.  It performed just like I thought it would and will be able to take me to places I never even imagined going.

The towers from my campsite…

I wanted to take a couple pics of the towers from my campsite just so you could see how high we got.  This a pic of the first tower we climbed to.

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And the second tower.

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My life on the road now has really changed.

I knew once I got a vehicle that things would drastically change for me.  For one thing I don’t have to unhook everything in a campsite just to go into a town or a store.  Plus now I can go to those really out of the way spots I had always dreamed of seeing.