Tuesday, March 4, 2014 (Estrella Mountain Regional Park, Goodyear, AZ)

We were up early and on the road shortly before 7:00 this morning...we had an appointment at 8:00 with Midway GMC in Phoenix to have the truck serviced. I took a couple of pictures along the way...this is the University of Phoenix Stadium...

 Layers of overpasses..nice to be in big city traffic again.

We arrived shortly before 8:00 and were greeted by Brian, our service rep...after getting the paperwork taken care of, we were driven down to Arrowhead Mall...well, to start, we went to Denny's across the street for breakfast. Since the stores in the mall didn't open until 10:00, we joined the "mall-walkers", walking both levels of the mall, before settling in the food court to wait for Ken and Charlene.
They picked us up at about 11:00 and we headed off to Fountain Hills for lunch at the All American Sports Grill.





The fountain comes on every hour on the hour for 15 minutes...

After lunch we started back, wanting to take a route that would keep us off major highways. We went south west to Mesa and then west to Tempe, stopping for a bit on S. Mill Avenue, a very trendy area off University Drive in the university district. I love the name of this shop...

Ken and Charlene dropped us off at Midway GMC at about 4:00. The truck was just out for a test drive and should be ready shortly. While waiting, we took a walk down to the main building to use the restrooms in the customer waiting area. Before heading back to the commercial truck area, we wandered into the parts department to take a look and who do we run into? Leonie and Armand from Ste. Sault Marie, Ontario! They are staying in Buckeye, AZ for the winter and we were planning on stopping for a quick visit on Friday when we head west. What timing! We had a short chat with them...we'll call you Friday morning!

We returned to the truck service centre to see if it was ready. This was the very first big service on the truck and it was expensive...$1248.00 so by the time it went through Visa with the exchange rate it was $1422. Last year we received a notice on the truck about possible cracking in the manifold. Well we now have that but nobody stocks it so we will have to get that taken care of when we get back to our dealer in Canada. The truck runs fine, however sometimes when going down steep hills the exhaust brake squeals.

We were invited to dinner again at Bob and Donna's, so once home we quickly got ready and then headed the short distance to their place. We enjoyed another lovely evening and a great meal...thanks very much!
Here is Ken cleaning up after dinner...too funny!

Just sitting around the table after dinner...

It was going on 9:30 when we said goodnight and head home...it was my turn to drive...and the very first time driving in the dark. We made it, though...whew! LOL!