Lowell's Blog
Updates from the road

Thanksgiving day dinner with Frankie,  Mom and I, the smallest Thanksgiving dinner we’ve ever had here in Cholla. It was quite a challenge to make this happen.

Cholla Bay received 4 inches of rain on Nov 12th.  The rain fell over 12 hours with the sky really opening up around mid-night. For those of you that have been to our Cholla house you know we set on the water with homes above us on the hillside. They all have water drains that turn into water cannons when it rains hard. We’ve added drainage to help the situation but this rain did overwhelm the drainage between our house and neighbor Bill causing a washout of stairs between the houses and backed water into Bill’s house. We also had water running through our garage and seeping into our kitchen.. Water coming off our house washed out landscaping below our house but all in all we survived pretty well.

Frankie and I arrived in Cholla Nov 18th for our Thanksgiving stay through early Dec and immediately went to work to get things in shape for Thanksgiving. Mom arrived in Phx from Missouri Nov 15th and landed in the hospital on the 19th with a respiratory infection. A 3 day stay got her back on her feet and finally felt well enough to join us for Thanksgiving. Yes it was a push for us and Mom and we gave thanks that we were able to spend spend our Thanksgiving together.

The desert has come alive with the ocotillo cactus leafing with a green glow and red blooms. They set set dormant waiting for rain like this.

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Thanksgiving day was mild but very windy with waves pounding the  shoreline. Juan was trying to work on building a new landscape wall in the wind, complaining about sand in his eyes. It was his lucky day for working as we sent him home with a huge pan of Thanksgiving left-overs for his family.

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One of the local Mexicans has donkeys and pigs in a corral near the mountain pass we walk each day. The new ritual is to take carrots to the donkeys and all our table scrapes to the pigs.

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With our friend Brian is recovery from surgery in Ca, we’re watching their dog Buddy. Frankie and Buddy spend lots of time together. He misses his Dad and Mom Heather.

Oh yes, Both Neely and Cholla are with us so we have a house full of dogs.. Neely and Cholla hang out in Blanka the golf cart after returning from one of their daily rides.

Mike and Gill joined us for sunset to check out some of the work done to recover storm damage.

Cheers to Brian & Heather. His recovery progress has improved and the HOOD is very happy for the news.

Hooley joined us for sunset along with BigE & Moma.. Buddy gets tucked in after some fireworks go off which he hates as you can tell.

Big Wave Dave Adams and wife Kelley held their annual local animal rescue fund raiser.. They raised over $1000 and 1400 lbs of dog food along with other supplies. Roger’s signed poster that raised $500 at our JJ’s party for Brian was one of the raffle prizes that helped raise the $1000. Kelley had won the poster at JJs.

I’m finishing this update on the 30th. Since Thanksgiving day we’ve had some very nice weather. Yesterday we sailed all afternoon with a fresh breeze and warm sun. Everybody agreed this was a perfect conclusion for November. Tomorrow winter weather is forecasted to arrive and we head for Phx Friday Dec 2nd. The Christmas holiday season is here.. But first let’s go sailing.

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Until the next update