The season is really winding down here at Viewpoint Golf and RV Resort. I haven’t taken time to update this blog and I’ve mostly neglected to take photos when I had the opportunities. I’ll start this update going back to a week ago Saturday.

Mike Hall met me Saturday morning at 202 RV Valet where our Alpine Coach is stored. You might recall, we had a mishap in Utah near the end of last summer. The driver side panel in front of the left front wheel broke loose. I made a few attempts at roadside repairs and finally got it secured well enough to limp to a campground. I made a better repair and it held up as we made our way back to Mesa, Arizona.

But, the panel didn’t quite line up the way it should. Mike looked at it a few weeks ago and came up with a repair plan – he’s a paint and body man among his other talents. Saturday morning we put his plan in action – well, he handled most of the action while I watched and learned. With judicious use of a floor jack, he aligned the panel then riveted it into place. I did some clean-up of tape residue from my temporary repairs by wiping it with laquer thinner and it was job done. I don’t think Mike spent more than 30 minutes on the actual work. Thanks, Mike!

Saturday afternoon I put the Heritage duroc babyback ribs on the Traeger – I wrote about duroc pork in my last post. Our friends, DIck and Roxy Zarowny joined us for happy hour and dinner on the back deck. The duroc babybacks were a hit – I think it’s worthwhile to spend a little extra for the premium duroc pork. In fact, I went back to Fry’s this morning to see if they had them – sold out for now. If I can’t find them in the next day or two, I’ll go to Chuck’s Fine Meats and see if he has duroc or Berkshire pork babyback ribs.

The rest of the week seems like a blur – Donna had tennis most days while I played pickleball. I spent some time learning new songs on the guitar and did a lot of reading. It was hot outside with the temperatures in the 90s from Tuesday through the weekend.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone to Lucky Lou’s for a couple of cold ones and a cigar on the patio. I did that on Friday and met up with Mike and Jodi Hall there. The usual suspects – Leendert, John Huff, Bob and the other John and one of the other Mikes were all there.

I learned on Saturday that my old friend in San Diego, Bob Babich passed away. Bob played for the San Diego Chargers and the Cleveland Browns. He was drafted by the Chargers in 1969 in the first round – the 18th player drafted that year. He was an NFL linebacker for 9 years. He was part of the Bay Park crew I often hung around with at Offshore Tavern and Dan Diego’s whenever we stayed in San Diego. He would have turned 75 on May 5th. RIP Bob – you will be missed.

Yesterday we were joined by our friends Greg and Ginette DeCoteau for happy hour on the back deck. It got interesting a couple of times when wind gusts threatened to take our shade umbrellas away! Greg and Ginette are Canadians, their home is in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. They’re heading back to Canada on Thursday of this week.

I have some dinner plates to close out this post. First up was last Tuesday’s dinner – grilled chicken with Italian seasoning served with spaghetti squash and marinara and steamed spinach on the side.

The next night Donna came up with turmeric black pepper chicken with asparagus over rice.

The next dish might be a bit of an oddity, but it was delicious. Last Saturday Donna made duck sausage roasted with onions and grapes. The side dish was cauliflower risotto with chopped asparagus and mushrooms.

Yesterday I broke down another whole chicken and Donna grilled the wings, legs and thighs and prepared an Asian dipping sauce made from mayonnaise, mustard and sambal oelek – an Indonesian chili paste. We had grilled shishito peppers on the side.

The forecast calls for cooler weather – only in the mid-70s for next couple of days, upper 80s on Friday and back into the 90s for the weekend. It hasn’t been bad – we haven’t even used the air conditioning. The swamp cooler and fans have been good enough to keep the place comfortably in the mid-70s, even with the front slider open and only the screen door closed.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!