Nomad Life - Day 73

After a restful sleep in Ellen and David's guest room, I woke up at 0530 (without an alarm) and spent about an hour reading, doing puzzles, relaxing, etc. I also got ready for my day and, at about 0800, went downstairs to see if anyone was awake.  Surprisingly, no one else was stirring at all so I returned to the guest room.  At 0900, I heard activity in the kitchen and returned to find Ellen cooking bacon.  We ended up having a very nice conversation (mostly about family).  Along the way, I noticed that she was making pancakes with chocolate morsels - I convinced her to give me some and they were good!  David and Robert joined the fun a bit later and we eventually sat down at the table for a more formal "brunch".  We watched YouTube videos and talked a lot about books. Things were so relaxed and I wasn't paying attention to the time - suddenly, I realized that it was after noon!  After helping to clean up, I took a break for a little while to work on my blog and take care of other online business.  Throughout this time, the weather had been spotty, with times of steady rain and other times with partly cloudy conditions.  Ellen told me that they normally didn't see any inclement weather ("this is so unusual") and I joked that maybe I'm not the bringer of good weather, only "unusual weather"...  I'd asked if I could see some of the horses that Ellen boards and cares for and she obliged by taking me to the John Volken Academy Ranch (in the southern part of Gilbert).  To get there, we had to creatively avoid several road closures (due to standing water).  When we arrived (1430), she pointed out the wide open spaces of the Gila River Indian Reservation, which was just across the street from the stables.  It was desolate for miles in most directions.  More impactful than the lonely views, though, was that there was a lot of water where the horses were.  Ellen told me that she hadn't gotten to see her animals in almost three weeks (due to family commitments and weather) and that they were unused to such long stretches without her.  As a result, it made sense that each horse was visibly ecstatic to see Ellen.  She gave them lots of love and told me about her business, which involves a kind of therapeutic riding instruction for her clients.  There were probably about 10 animals under her care and we walked through a few different buildings to see them all.  We met a lot of Ellen's fellow horse-enthusiasts and she seemed very popular.  Along the way, I got to feed Ellen's horses carrots) and some of them them let me pet or scratch them,  We probably spent about 30 minutes on site and then returned to Ellen  and David's.  By then, the weather had greatly improved (it was sunny and in the 80s) and I asked Ellen if I could pull my car into the garage to go through my bags.  My goal was to assemble the basic list of items for my upcoming international trip and she obliged my request - I then spent about 90 minutes going through bags and reducing down to two for the trip.  During this window, I also did some laundry.  At 1700, David's dad arrived and the rest of us began preparing for dinner in town.  Shortly after that, David drove us to a place called Isabel's Amor, a Sonoran (Mexican) restaurant in Gilbert.  David had been raving about how good the food was there and I got to sample several delicious menu items, including a cheese crisp ("open faced quesadilla") and the house refried beans (Frijoles de Amor) - I also tried a local (peach) margarita.  My entree was the Poblano Chili Relleno, with black beans and rice.  Everything was delicious and I really enjoyed the wonderful ambiance.  David Sr. treated us all to this meal - he seemed pleased that we'd had such good conversations about flying and travel in the military.  Back at the house, the family and I relaxed for a little while before it was Robert's bed time. Once he had gone upstairs for the night, David, Ellen and I watched a movie ("Brooklyn") - it was good!  I said good night to my cousins and went upstairs at about 2215.  I only spent a short time closing out my evening (reading, puzzles) and turned out the lights at 2230.  Glad to have had such a relaxing day - I'm feeling much more prepared for my Southeast Asia trip!