Ozark the cat has been enjoying her time here at Towerpoint RV Resort in Mesa, Arizona (map). She spends most of her day sitting by a window or on the door steps watching birds outside. Sometimes she even sounds like a bird – she’ll make a trilling sound deep in her throat that sounds like a bird I hear in the palm trees at times. I haven’t been able to identify the bird. Ozark also craves attention. She’ll walk up to our feet and flop down, wanting to have her belly rubbed. She rolls from side to side as I rub her belly and pet her.

Ozark the cat sitting in the galley

It was a warm day on Sunday. Although the temperature only reached the mid 80s, it warmed up quickly in the morning and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Without much of breeze, it felt hotter. I stayed inside most of the day and read with the air conditioners on. I wanted to stay out of the sun as the burn on my right calf is still healing and it’s sensitive.

Burn on my hairy calf

Donna decided to make her usual St. Patrick’s day meal on Easter Sunday since we didn’t have it on St. Patrick’s Day. She saw a recipe that claimed corned beef was a traditional Irish Easter meal. I did some research and found this wasn’t true. In fact, beef wasn’t readily available a century ago in Ireland. Corned beef is an Irish-American tradition. The corned beef in America was a cheap meat and substituted for the salt pork that was more common in Ireland. It’s origin is attributed to Jewish communities in the early twentieth century.

Donna prepared traditional Irish-American boiled corned beef with cabbage and carrots. She served mashed potatoes on the side and homemade Irish soda bread – my favorite.

Our Easter corned beef and cabbage plate

I saw on Facebook that our RV friends, Brett and Cheri Miller, had the same idea – Cheri prepared corned beef for them on Sunday as well. We’re making our own traditions out here on the road!

As we left the coach to play pickleball this morning, our neighbors were preparing to leave. I saw two coaches pull out from our street. Almost all of the Canadian visitors and many of the snowbirds will leave by the end of the week. I hope enough people are still in the park to get some pickleball action next week!

Our route to the pickleball courts takes us past a second-generation type 2 VW camper (T2 from 1967 to 1979). I remember back in the early ’70s thinking these were large vehicles. Today it looks small compared to all of the large SUVs we’re used to seeing. A VW T2 camper had a wheelbase of 94.5 inches and an overall length of of 177 inches. By comparison, a 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokee has a wheelbase of 114.8 inches and an overall length of 190 inches.

Early ’70s VW type 2 camper

We have another warm day ahead but it’s also windy today. That might make it seem cooler. Tonight a cold front will move in. We should be down to the mid 40s overnight and tomorrow’s high is expected to be 70 degrees. Last night the temperature never dropped below 55. Our new Leesa mattress is surprisingly comfortable in warm weather. That was one of the things I wondered about foam mattresses.

Today I’ll head out to Ace Hardware to pick up a few supplies so I can get some projects done. Other than that, I’ll probably just read another book.