I’ve written about the RV community and how we have made many new friends. We find ourselves in the same areas at the same time every now and then and it’s fun to get together and reconnect. On Tuesday we had a different experience. Blog reader Michelle Zenkovich and her husband Matt were visiting Mesa, Arizona. Michelle messaged me and we arranged to meet up at 5:30pm at the Beer Research Institute (BRI).

Donna and I rode the Spyder and arrived a few minutes early. Matt and Michelle were already there and had a table. After introducing ourselves we sat together and ordered beers. Donna, Michelle and Matt each ordered a flight of four four-ounce samplers while I went for a pint of 48OG IPA brewed onsite.

Matt, Michelle and Donna at BRI

After a bit of conversation, we ordered food. Donna and I split a machaca taco plate.

BRI machaca taco plate

Matt had the machaca tacos also while Michelle ordered the southwest poutine.

Southwest poutine

We ate and talked until 7pm, then it was time to head for home. I’m sure Matt and Michelle were jet-lagged after a long day of travel from West Virginia.

On Wednesday morning, I hit the pickleball courts early. They weren’t as crowded as last week and I hardly had a break between games. I ended playing 12 games and I was getting a little sore.

Towerpoint RV Resort had a free lunch scheduled for newcomers at the courtyard by the swimming pool. Donna and I attended and had a plate of sliced beef – I think it was a tri-tip – that was overcooked and tough. If it wasn’t for the mashed potatoes with a generous serving of gravy, I don’t think I could’ve choked the meat down. I’m exaggerating, of course. It wasn’t that bad and you can’t beat free lunch! We also had green beans and a salad with it. We met other park visitors along with the activities director and chatted for about an hour.

After lunch, I went to the hardware store to buy clips to hang some things in the trailer. Our new trailer is taller than the old one. This gives me plenty of room to mount things on the walls instead of stacking everything on the floor.

Kayak paddles and washing brushes mounted on the trailer front wall

I’ve been looking at cabinets to mount on the side walls and a solution for securing the bicycles. I have a mountain bike and a road bike and Donna has her road bike. In our old trailer, I tied the bikes to the roof bows and suspended them. I’d like to find a way to either hang them from the side walls or even mount them securely to the floor. They would be much easier to load and unload and I have the space to do that now.

I shot a couple of photos to give a sense of the size of this trailer. The external dimensions are 24′ 8″ overall length, 8′ 6″ wide and 9′ high.

Trailer tight in our site

Close fit by our neighbor’s place

It will be interesting when the time comes to leave Towerpoint RV Resort and tow the trailer out of here. We won’t leave until April 15th. Hopefully some of the sites around us will be empty by then, giving us more room to maneuver.

I got another seven games of pickleball in this morning.  Later, I’ll drop Donna off for a hair appointment. While she’s there, I’ll head over to the Elks Lodge in Tempe and see about joining. Our friend Dave Hobden sponsored us and I have an application. Elks Lodges usually have RV parking and inexpensive hook-ups. This will give us another alternative for places to stay while we travel about. It’s another sunny, beautiful day. The forecast calls for warm weather and sunny skies with no rain in the next 10 days.