Laurie, Laurie, Laurie

At Roadrunner Campground, Lake Pleasant, Phoenix AZ

This is WHY we came to Phoenix…no, not the dog, but Laurie.  Marcia has known Laurie since she was an early teenager.  Her mom Joyce, a good friend of Marcia’s, passed away a few years ago, but we still love coming through Phoenix to see Laurie.  This time, we got to meet her “Best Bud”, Gary..no, not the dog, her good friend who works for the Post Office.  Recently retired from Home Depot, Laurie is enjoying retired life.  She is an avid follower of our blog, and says, “You get a bit wordy now and then Dave”.  Well, my intention was to just post pictures after this point, but with what happened today, I just can’t end without some words…probably many words.

At 1:00 pm we left the motorhome to go to Laurie’s house.  As we got close to the park gate (entrance/exit) there is a long line of cars, much like you see above.  There is a helicopter flying over just past the entrance.  A lady is going from car to car saying that they have closed the park due to a lost diver in the lake….but Marcia and I did not buy that.  I called the park’s number, but being a Sunday, all I can get is the reservation person…who did not know anything.  We of course called Laurie to tell her we would be late, and we waited.  Suddenly a police car comes shooting by, headed for the entrance gate…followed by two more about a minute later.  Hmmmm, how did they get into the park, they came from the campground area?  There must be another entrance/exit which is normally closed off.  Another ten minutes and they start to turn everyone around, and finally, around 2, we are out of the park using a back entrance/exit.  Called Laurie and decided to meet at the restaurant we were going to, and we pulled in there before 3.  Found this article from ABC15 which explains it all.  About 5:30 we depart the restaurant, and as we get close to our exit there is an Interstate Information sign which says the road we need to get back to the park is closed at marker 19.  Hmmmm…how are we going to feed the dogs if they don’t let us back into the park?  Fortunately for us, the suicidal man with a gun gave up, they opened the road just after 6, so by the time we got to the Lake’s entrance road, it was all cleared up.

  

With that ordeal over (the getting back into the park, not the dinner with Laurie which was a pleasure….as was the dinner last night with Laurie and Gary), I saw what looked to be a promising sunset…so I went out to capture some pics.

I quickly took the car from the campground, to a couple of day-use areas before the campground, and then up to the Discovery Center area just past the campground.  Such a pretty sunset…what a way to end our trip to Phoenix.

See you on our way back to Florida Laurie…we sure do love you.  Very glad to finally meet Gary, what a nice guy!

Note: We have changed our plans and have decided NOT to go to Yuma for glasses in Mexico.  Monday we head to Prescott to visit Roger, who started at the Library the same day I did back in January 1991.  Today, Roger is the Director of the Prescott Public Library.  From there, we will make our way up to Sacramento, planning to be there on Thursday, Friday at the latest.