Five days in Cottonwood
We headed out on Monday of last week to visit my in-laws in Cottonwood. We took our RV, nicknamed Cookie, and left Boonville about noon. We arrived just after 5:00 PM; it’s about a four hour drive in a car, with the RV it takes a little longer. We arrived to rain and it rained most of the evening, but we spent most of it inside watching the Warriors play.
Every time we stay in the RV we find something we need - either to add to it or for it or changes to it. We spent part of Tuesday in Walmart and Costco picking up odds and ends: a new dog bed, phone chargers that could stay in Cookie, hooks for coats and hats (the kind that don’t mark the wall when you remove them), glue and a toilet seat bolt. We also picked up some nice prime steaks and some lobster tails for dinner that evening. My mother-in-law has trouble eating and we try to make the tastiest things we can for her.
Our biggest project of the week started small. The RV has three (yes, three!) TV’s. None of them are smart, which means you can only watch TV with the antenna or cable. We’ve learned already in bringing her home that while many RV resorts offer cable TV, in fact it doesn’t work or only works in parts of the parks. With streaming we need smart TV’s so we can watch using WiFi or hot spots. The plan was just to change one of the TV’s out this trip, the one in the main living space. But then we decided it would be more fun, and warmer, to watch TV in the bedroom under the covers. That meant one more TV. Over the next few days we ended up purchasing three TV’s - the last one being for the exterior for outdoor watching. It wasn’t simple either - each mount was different. And it turned out that even when we bought the same TV they were different - different sized screws in one case. I was beginning to think that the stores were going to stop selling TV’s to us but we eventually got them all replaced.
We had a few lunches out and I had one dinner out with just my sister-in-law; we rarely find anytime just to ourselves, so it was fun to get together away from everyone else and catch up. We had sushi one time, which was quite good, and I had Mexican with my SIL. We also had a nice breakfast at what was the auction yard; the restaurant has a new name but the food is good. I indulged and had eggs, bacon and biscuits and gravy.
Overall, we spent a lot of time visiting which was the whole purpose of the trip. My in-laws are both in the 80’s and we know time with them is precious. It was good to be able to relax, enjoy meals and watch a few basketball games with them. This week are going to spend a couple of days visiting with our granddaughter in Oakland before they leave for San Diego and family there for the holidays. And before we know it, Christmas will be here.