Monday, March 4…Have You Seen Her (Chi-Lites)


   Up and out the door for a walk before 9 a.m.   We’ve clocked out a 3 mile round trip walk out on Picacho Highway, the road that runs in front of the camp. It’s not a highway by any stretch of the imagination but that’s what the street signs say.  It figures to be about 7,000 steps for me and takes about an hour.
   Today Kim wanted to time himself…I wasn’t interested in that so even though we left together, once we hit the road Kim was off and running, sometimes literally.  He’d like to work up to doing a 5K…I do not intend to join him in that endeavor but would most definitely be his loudest cheerleader.
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   Last night some of Kim’s telescope equipment developed an issue.  He’s learned that sometimes it’s better to just walk away rather than let the frustration build as he tries to troubleshoot and then find a fix in the dark.  He did try to resolve the issue but ended up coming in to read.  Today in the daylight he fixed the alignment issue and is trying to image tonight.  There are some very thin clouds up there that might cause problems.  But it’s only 7:30 and there’s plenty of night sky time left.
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   When Kim and I walk together we either talk or just enjoy the silence, either way is good.  Today since I was on my own I scrounged up a pair of ear buds for my iPod, hit the ‘Music of My Youth’ playlist and started walking.  A lot of good music from the 70’s and 80’s made that 3 mile walk bearable. 
   I know that having a playlist with up tempo music can speed up the feet…today’s music was all over the place…Bob Seger, Simon and Garfunkel, George Benson, Carly Simon, etc., but I don’t think it affected my speed much.  The Tiny Dancer in my head found a good strong beat in every song that popped up and my pace remained steady. 
   When the opening strains of Have You Seen Her (Chi-Lites) started, the Tiny Dancer quickly found her Motown groove and eventually her smooth Motown choreographed moves tried working their way down into my feet.  What I quickly  learned, though, is that the road surface is not a dance floor and walking shoes do not qualify as dancing shoes…my moves were not as smooth as Tiny Dancer had lead me to believe they would be.  They were quite stumbly and consequently short lived because I didn’t want to end up in a heap on the asphalt.  Then Tiny Dancer realized that my head, shoulders and arms were free to move so we improvised…my feet stayed the course but my upper body was working the Motown groove….or at least that’s what the Tiny Dancer in my head was telling me. 😎
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   Decided to ride to Casa Grande for some shopping and entertainment purposes.   Kim has decided to go the Couch to 5K training route and since he already has a twinge-y knee I insisted he get a good pair of running shoes.  Mission accomplished! 
   We timed the ride so we could also go to the matinee showing of Green Book.  The theater, located in a big mall complex, was closer to the shoe store than we realized so we arrived a bit early.  But having extra time allowed us to get a quick bite to eat and then walk across the way to Bed, Bath and Beyond to get a can opener.  I was concerned about missing the start of the movie for a can opener but we found a Dollar Tree that was closer…and bonus! the can opener only cost $1.  We made it back to the theater with time to spare.  (I regretted leaving my Fitbit in camp as I could have added a good 1500 steps hiking across those parking lots.) 
   The theater had a senior discount and I asked what the senior age was.  The girl said, “Sixty and over” to which I responded, “Oh, man, I’m a month shy.  So I guess we have one senior and one regular then.”  She gave me the senior discount anyway. 👍   We walked into the theater and in the darkness headed to the back row.  I could make out the shapes of heads so I knew we weren’t the only ones in there.  Afterward as the lights came up and we were all making our way of out the theater, Kim’s eyes were twinkling as he turned to me grinning and said, “You know what’s really funny?”  I leaned over and said quietly in his ear “That I was the youngest person in there?”   He busted out laughing and said, “Exactly!  That’s exactly what I was going to say!”    So it’s safe to assume that everyone in the 3:50 matinee showing of Green Book got the senior discount. 😊
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   Lots of people decorate and personalize their campsites.  We’ve talked about doing that but couldn’t really decide what we wanted to do.  Until today.  Today I spied a badass biker gnome in a store and hello! there was also a biker chick gnome. Sold!!  Then at the Dollar Store Kim found some solar lights.  Now we just had to figure out where to set up our display.  I figured we’d wait until tomorrow because it was fairly dark when we got back to camp and I thought the solar lights would need to charge up. 
   I’ve been sitting in the trailer while Kim is out with his telescope.  He just popped his head in the trailer and said I should come outside.  He had set up our gnomes under the tree in our campsite…seems the lights were already charged up.  What fun!!  My one hesitation with the biker chick gnome is that she’s striking a girly pose...one hand on her hip with the other hand fluffing her hair.  Talk about playing into stereotypes…if I made her, she’d be striking a badass pose also.  Anyway, I’ve named them Freddie and Flossie.

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   Debbie pulled out this morning when we were on our walk. Over the years, it’s been my experience that this particular campground is full of friendly people.  It’s pet friendly and it’s common for people to stop by and chat while they’re out walking their dogs. Debbie didn’t have any pets but she appeared to be real good at just reaching out to others; everyone in the camp seemed to know her.  Of course she’d been here 4 months.  Our time overlapped only 2 ½ days but I sure enjoyed talking with her and wish I could track her travels around the country.   Another camper is already parked in her lot.  Such is life in a campground…
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 It took a couple of laps around the campground in the dark but I managed to get my 10000 steps in…plus a couple hundred extra for good measure.
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Today’s miles: 46
Total miles: 159

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