Day 2310

Tuesday January 30th 2024

Dear Journal:

Tuesday morning and it was around 60ºF (15.5ºC) in the coach great for sleeping but also maybe requiring a house coat to enjoy a cup of coffee with a wee touch of an Irish blessing. We watched the morning news programs to see how many shooting there were in Phoenix, seriously it is one or two every night along with someone diving the wrong way on I-10, and no I’m not starting a rant just stating facts. Our on board electrical system is working great and our battery level got down to 62% before the solar harvest started to out pace our demand, we will try not to supplement our solar with a generator if we can help it and with nothing but sunshine in the forecast we should be good. Breakfast this morning was fried eggs and toast we are meeting up with Tom & Kathleen at ten this morning, well in reality they are picking us up at ten for a little road trip to see the area around them, as this park is quite a distance to pretty much everything.

We are in a very large cattle farming area, both dairy as well as beef farms, we are going to see a number of areas surrounding the campground, we are also planning lunch stop at a cafe in Casa Grande which has a special story and is very popular with the locals. There may be a drive by of a different campground that Tom & Kathleen have been looking at, with more amenities and would allow Tom to get away from the co-op board which he has been on for a number of years.

We seen acres and acres of livestock, huge dairy operations that make the small family farm seem so insignificant, I grew up on a small dairy farm and this was almost mind boggling in size. And I do understand the benefit to size for being able to drive costs down but it also peaks my imagination on how large the milking parlors must be and how large the milk storage coolers must be compared to our little fifty head herd of cows. We also explored some areas of Casa Grande with shopping and services before heading to our lunch destination.

Creative Cafe: The restaurant is the combined vision of Jim, Tesa and Bill Machelor. The parent company, Creative Labor Services, has provided work and learning opportunities for mentally and physically challenged adults since 1987. Looking to provide something fresh and unusual in casual dining, the family opened the restaurant in Casa Grande in July of 2000. We are now in our 24th year of preparing healthy food, along with excellent service.

A wonderful cafe in the heart of Casa Grande, which offers a great selection of lunch items in an obvious popular and bust destination. What makes this such a unique spot is that many of the staff are mentally or physically handicapped and this provides a nurturing, learning environment to prepare them for other positions in the area. As part of the Creative Labor Services which is in the next building they train people to fill roles in the hospitality industry whether it is laundry, or cleaning of serving is a busy cafe environment. We were greeted and served by trainees, the food was tasty, service was prompt, we were pampered during our stay with multiple visits to our table. Tables were cleared and cleaned promptly to keep up with a large lunchtime rush. the cafe is only open Monday through Friday from 11am till 3pm but worth checking out.

After returning to the campground we gathered at Tom & Kathleen’s site and enjoyed the Arizona sunshine, in fact it was warm enough that we were looking for some shady spots to avoid the sun. Miss Lucy and I renewed our relationship as we spent some time on the loveseat behind Tom & Kathleen’s coach. Tonight Tom is roasting a pork tenderloin on the barbeque and the aroma is almost too much for Miss Lucy and myself to handle, it’s right up there with the smell of bacon in a frying pan. We enjoyed a excellent pork dinner and as the sun set and the evening temperatures drop off, and it will be another early evening as we head back to Thunder for the evening.

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