Deming, NM to Casa Grande, AZ

A cool night in Deming, (we left the windows open) and enjoyed breakfast in our home and hit the road for Rover’s Roost at Casa Grande, AZ the next morning.  Here’s a few pix.  Actually, the pix of the pool is here at Shangri-La RV Resort in Yuma, AZ where Kathy and I are spending the night and we took a dip in the pool a little earlier – how refreshing!

When we were at Dream Catcher RV Park (doing laundry) we met Henry and Shirley and struck up a conversation.  Turns out, we had both been at TRA-Park in Pecos, TX the night before, and as we talked we discovered we were both going to be heading to Rover’s Roost in Casa Grande, AZ the next day as well.

Of course, we had more opportunity to talk over the next couple of days and learned that Henry has been full-timing (RV’ing that is) for 20 years now, initially with his first wife who passed on in 2003, and now with his 2nd wife Shirley since they got married.  (We got a kick out of the fact that Shirley had been his brother’s wife before the brother died!)

Over that twenty year period, they have been strictly volunteering.  They have been connected with a group called Campers On Mission and they volunteer their time and talents all over the country.  Sometimes they might work for a few days to a few weeks.  Only recently have they found a plot of land in east Texas where they are able to have a regular “home base” with a park model home, but when they get the urge to move on, they climb in the pick-up and hook up the travel trailer and out they go.  They’re on a 7 week trip right now visiting family all over the country.

I’m sorry I didn’t think to take pictures of them that I could share with you.  One of Shirley’s passions is to make sleeping mats literally out of plastic grocery bags!  She makes these mats (crochet) out of all colors of bags and they measure 3’x6′.  She then turns them in to their church and they are sent overseas to orphanages that use them for the children to sleep on.  I know it doesn’t sound very comfortable, but the finished product is about 3/4″ thick and will afford a child a lot more comfort than lying or sitting on a hard dirt floor.

Henry also crochets, but he showed us these cute little stocking caps he makes and then donates to hospital children’s nurseries around the country.  He figures he’s donated about 1000 or so of these over the years to hospitals around the country as they’ve traveled.

What a wonderful, giving and unselfish couple they are, if only we could all be as generous and humble as they are.  We meet the nicest people as we travel.