Last Day At Grand Canyon

Our Saturday plan was to get up very early and take the shuttle bus to Yaki Point in time to watch the sun rise over the canyon.

Didn't happen. Craig woke me up and told me that if I wanted to do that, it was time, but that he didn't want to go. My body was not ready to leave the warm bed either, and so I cuddled up next to him and went back to sleep.  We are just not morning people. After the exhausting hike the day before, and the half bottle of celebratory wine, I needed sleep more than I needed to see a sunrise. In fact, for once I lingered in bed long after our usual wakeup time reading blogs and looking thru the pictures we had taken the day before. So nice to be retired!

Although we did not do sunrise, we did follow our plan for the rest of the day, which was to explore some of the east part of the park that is accessible by car. As we drove along Desert View Drive we lost sight of the Canyon. The land is flat and covered with scrubby pine forest. I imagined what it must have been for the explorers who first discovered the canyon, or the early Indians who came upon it without knowledge of its existence.  They may have heard stories, but to see the canyon for the first time without pictorial preparation must have been amazing.

Our primary destination was the Watchtower at Desert View. Although it looks old, it was actually built in the 30's for the park service as an observation tower. The stone is all local.

It has four levels, each open at the center.

The walls are decorated with Indian motifs worked so they appear to be ancient and weathered. Fascinating.

There is a large patio observation deck off the second level. As you can tell from the picture we were there before the Saturday crowds started to come. 

In the distance to the East we could see the flatlands and Cedar Mesa. It is beyond the park borders; the locals call it "Flat Top."

This part of the canyon is quite different from the areas we viewed over the past few days. The primary cut seems narrower, and the side canyons not as deep.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at all the remaining points and vistas we could find. We were able to see more of the river at this part of the canyon.

We relaxed and rested during our last afternoon at the Grand Canyon. Craig went out to buy the T-shirt he had seen on our second day and I stayed at the Alfa to work on my blog post. However, since he took his phone, I had no hot spot.

One of our small traditons is to enjoy a dinner at the grand lodge of each National Park we visit if possible. I made reservations at the El Tovar Hotel months ago.

We had a window table and a sunset time, but we really couldn't see much of the canyon, and the sunset was unremarkable.

It didn't mater, because our whole experience had been marvelous. One thing I enjoy about our special dinners is the sense of history and past luxury. There was a time that only the rich would have been able to eat at these grand hotels.

I am so glad our country has preserved our National Parks, and that now ordinary people can enjoy them. 

Our country is rich in so many ways. 

We should all remember that, and support public works.

We were Robbed!

We were robbed. But before I tell you about it, I want to write about our challenging hike on Friday.

By walking the Rim Trail we were able to get a feel for the vast size of the Canyon. The length of the park is over two hundred miles. Our thirteen mile walk was just a taste. On Friday we ventured down into the Canyon to sample its depth. Forgive the clichè, but this was like strolling into the vestibule of a fabulous cathedral. Just a taste, just a peek, but amazing.

The most popular trail to the bottom of the canyon is the Bright Angle Trail. It is the one the mule riders take. Hiking to the bottom and back in one day is not recommended. For those that choose to go to the river, there is a hotel at the bottom to overnight in. We did not want to, nor thought we were capable of going all the way down. The top part of the trail has three rest stops. One at a mile and a half, one at three miles, and one at four and a half miles down. We aimed for the three mile stop, which turned out about right.

Although it was only three miles one way, it was 2100 feet down. That means a lot of switch-backs. 

Craig stayed ahead of me most of the way down. I purposely went slow in order to save my knees. The trail had a lot of rough sized steps made with logs imbedded in the dirt, and each was a small jolt to my knee joints.

When we walked along the rim we looked down or across the canyon and marveled at the many rock towers. As we hiked down the Bright Angle trail, we got a different perspective and viewed some of the huge rock formations and canyon walls from below.  

It's hard to know the actual size of the feature in the next image. It's a large, natural amphitheater created long ago.

As we hiked on the trail to the left of this feature, we heard delicate music on the wind.  If you look at the blow-up of the image you will see someone far to the right who was at the bottom making the music we heard.

The hike was hard, but satisfying.  We did it!  Three miles down, ten miles back up.  Well, not really, but it felt like it.

Oh, the robbery.  When we reached the three mile rest house we stopped for a picnic lunch. We found a nice place along a stone wall and had our sandwiches and fruit. There are many signs around that advise people not to feed the wildlife, so when a fat squirrel came begging, we ignored him.  Our backpack was open on the wall behind us. We heard a rustling sound, and as we looked back this guy was dashing away with a snack bag containing some  sweet onion and cheddar tortilla chips. 

We were robbed!

The culprit!

Grand Canyon, Thursday April 25th

We finished our walk of the Rim Trail on Thursday. Two and a half days, about thirteen and a half miles. We decided to stick to the relatively flat and mostly paved trail to both get accustomed to the altitude and to see as much of the Canyon from above as we could. Each day we walked part of it and then took a shuttle bus back to the campground. I really liked being able to stay near the rim. There are RV parks in both Flagstaff and Williams, but staying there would require a sixty mile drive each way, each day. The full hook-up, drive-thru sites at trailer village cost $37.50 (with tax). In late January I reserved our spot for five nights. We are a 35' class A. The other campground here has no hook-ups, has a 30' limit, but only costs $18 plus tax per day.

It is really hard to pick out a few pictures to post. Wednesday Craig took almost 200 images. Almost all were wonderful. We do disagree somewhat on processing images. Almost all of the images you usually see of the Canyon are very colorful. On a clear sunny day you will see it that way. Our images have been processed to bring out the rock formation colors as you may see them on a good day.

As we walked the last few miles of the rim trail we watched the clouds building up. We could see what we thought was rain falling in the distance. We still had some sun and it was not particularly cold. 

However as we hiked along, the clouds above us started to darken as well.

Then big drops of rain started to splat around us. We hurried on, not stopping to take pictures as the rain turned to snow.  Not much, but definitely snow that stayed on the path long enought to be seen.

It never felt really cold, but we were glad to get to the end of our hike at Hermits Rest.

Legend has it that if you have your picture taken while standing under the bell at Hermits Rest you will have good luck.  

Never pass up a chance to improve your luck!

Our first day in the Grand Canyon (Tuesday night), our Verizon internet service on our smartphone hotspot delivered its last email at 2:25 PM and then went away until some time in the early AM of Wednesday 24th.  Our daughter managed to get a phone call through about 5 PM, which made us wonder why the internet service remained inoperable, but we're happy to have it back.  There would have been no way to communicate the fun we're having to you out there in the rest of the country!

As we said in our previous mini-post, AZ 64 north to the south rim was a good drive.  We pulled into GCNP about one, got hooked up and went for a walk eastward from Mather Point along the south rim.

 
The weather was excellent, sunny but cool. We seemed to have come at just the right time. The park is not crowded, and there are very few families with children. (Not that we dislike children mind you, but crowds in general are dislikeable.)

Anyone willing to study a map of the GC would have known its chief feature in advance: it has tributary canyons in all directions, just like a lake that is formed by damming a river! This shouldn't be surprising, since such a lake is simply a highland river system filled with water, like Lake Powell above the GC and Lake Mead below it.  But when you're walking a rim trail you get very aware of the many side canyons!

Today (Wednesday) we walked west from Mather point along the south rim along the paved trail.

The building at the top of the next picture is the 108-year-old El Tovar hotel. There is more vegetation below it than almost anywhere else. Years of water disposal?

We didn't make it all the way to the end of the rim trail.  That will be for tomorrow.  

We are in awe of the beauty. 

Walking the Rim...

Drive to Grand Canyon

Internet is spotty so this is also a test post. I'm pecking it out on my iPad.

Several other bloggers are coming up to the Trailer Village in coming weeks. Carol expressed concern about the drive. We came north from Williams. The road is excellent. The spaces at Trailer Village are all pull thrus and not hard to get into.

It was cold last night. Craig disconnected the water hose. Weather was cool during the day but quite nice.

Catch Up

The remaining days of the Alfa National Rally were just as much fun as the first. Dinners every night, swimming, excellent seminars, wine and cheese sponsored by the resort, a pet parade, and time when some of the Alfa owners who have done modifications had their rigs open for us to see and admire. Throughout the week there were drawings for many prizes. They must have given out 100 gift cards of one sort or another. The resort gave away a free weeks stay, Freightliner donated several repair or service jobs including one for $350. Alfateers were the most generous donating a $1900 TV replacement package in addition to several hundred dollars worth of other stuff.

We did not win anything other than a token prize from one of the vendors. But that was OK. We feel we came away with so much. Although it would have been fantastic to get the TV package!

Craig, My sister iin-law Gerie, and my brother Keith

On Sunday we drove about 90 miles to Surprise, Arizona and stayed one night at the resort where my older brother spends his winters. He has been RVing for a lot longer than we have. My sister-in-law made a very nice dinner for us.  They have an older park model there and were excited to show us the brand new one they just bought. It was still being installed on their new lot. Very nice. I hope we can visit them again next year.

Monday we headed north to Williams, and tomorrow we will be at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.

My feet are very happy to finally be heading to the Canyon!

So happy I wanted to dance with this par baked loaf of bread from Trader Joe's!





















We had heard that Williams was an interesting old town. I planned on spending the afternoon there.  However, many of the shops were closed or empty. We spent about an hour looking for what several people had recommended, but we were not impressed.

The air was pretty warm, but the wind came up again in the afternoon. My eyes were very irritated, and the lady at the RV park front desk said there was a lot of pine pollen in the air.  I'm going to take some Benadryl tomorrow.  Hope it helps.

Although there is a lot of green around, Craig found several of these trees that are not yet showing any buds or leaves. At 7000+ feet, the sky is incredibly blue!  Quite different from the brownish dust filled sky around the Phoenix area. I hope we get some good sunsets when we are at the Canyon.

Coming here is a big deal for me. The Grand Canyon has been on my "bucket list" for most of my life.

Food, Fun, Friendship

 

No cold has developed. I'm very happy about that. I have never been one to suffer allergies, but I understand that there are things in the desert air that cause irritation.

I started the day with another nice walk around the park while we were waiting for the windshield crew to arrive. I was please to see they were there when I returned, and finished the installation without any problems in a timely way.

The wind had died down and the day quickly warmed up.

At about ten we drove over the Casa Grande National Monument. It was interesting, but it didn't take much time to view and appreciate it.

A very nice saguaro cactus outside the visitor's center

There are many cactus flowers blooming. 

We missed the noon-time ice cream social, but got back to the resort in time to attend a question and answer session with the Alfateers techs. It was interesting in that no one seemed to have any really big problems. One of the more unusual quetions was from a woman who had experienced some electrical outages and now her microwave readout was in Spanish and she couldn't get it to reset in English.

We are getting to feel like we belong to our chapter (club). The Alfa Owners group is divided into six chapters. Ours is one of the smallest. The chapters have informal happy hours every afternoon, and sit together at the dinners. We had another all-rally sit down dinner tonight, and tomorrow morning we are going out to Cracker Barral with our chapter for breakfast, and to a dinner show in the evening.

Food, fun, friendship.  Learning more about our coaches and connecting with vendors. A rally is what you make of it. So far we have learned some new things, and enjoyed the company of other Alfa owners.

Wednesday

On Tuesday evening we went for dinner at the Bedillon House restaurant. The food was very good, and although it was a bit pricy, well worth it. If you are in Casa Grande Arizona and want an exceptionally good meal, this is a good place to consider.

In addition to an interestingly restored old house, it featured an extensive cactus garden.  

Craig choose the right shirt for visiting this garden.  He fit right in.

The early evening shadows made it hard to photograph much of the garden, but these plants were in good light for viewing.

Now on to Wednesday: it was windy!

We have had high winds for the last few days here in Casa Grande. We were lucky on our driving in days to have had calm weather, but find the blasting wind disturbing. Fortunately there is not a lot of dust in the air to blow, but when I went for a two and a half mile walk around the park this morning I had an extreme case of "leaky face". Tears kept pouring down my cheeks and my nose was running profusely. I hate when that happens! But walking felt good and I stopped to chat with a few of the winter residents that were out.  

We had good luck this morning, we were able to get a mobile RV guy to come and look at the fridge. He was able to reset the failure indication.  Although the guy we had look at it yesterday and the Squeeky Clean crew both said their wash had nothing to do with the failure, the guy who fixed it today said the part had probably gotten wet. He knows the guys that did the wash, and said they were usually quit careful and watched out for such things, but this did happen from time to time. We were glad the fix was so simple.

During the day today, Craig and I went separate ways. I attended a very nice Alfa Ladies Lunch and then a two hour Microwave and Convection Cooking class. Craig went to an informative seminar about the battery-charging system given by Vonis Spencer, who is looked at by Alfa owners as almost a saint for the help he provides to others on the Alfa reoair forums. We both feel we learned useful things.

After four we again got together with other members of our club for a happy hour, and then at five thirty went to an outdoor BBQ sponsored by the Alfateers Repair Center. Most of us are their loyal customers, and the key people at Alfateers worked for Alfa before it closed down in 2008.

The BBQ was good, the music was good and so was the company, but we left early along with quite a few others because we were so cold and tired of the wind. I'm afraid I might be catching a cold and feel like a good night sleep may be what I need more than dancing.

A Post

[From Craig] The second night of our trip was in a Walmart parking lot in the Phoenix area. At 3:30 AM I woke up to an amazing noise that sounded like a machine grinding up rocks. Got up and looked out to see a machine that looked like a small truck modified with a pickup head on the bottom and a shredder on the back.


There was another man with a blower who led this contraption to debris that it consumed. The whole operation struck me as about the least efficient way to clean up a parking lot that anyone could imagine. But maybe the objective wasn't to clean the lot -- maybe it was to wake up and annoy people sleeping in the lot, so that they would go away? Is this too paranoid? 

After at least 20 minutes of horrible noise, it moved on to other lots.

[From Merikay] The noise didn't wake me. Free parking is free parking. I consider Walmart allowing RVers to overnight a service to travelers. I don't think they are trying to annoy people, they are just cleaning their property. 

The rest of this post is mostly about RV things, hopefully interesting to other RVers, maybe not so much to non-RVers.

We arrived and checked into the Alfa National Rally with only one problem.

On I-10 before Casa Grande we were hit by a good size rock in the middle of the windshield that left a ding about the size of a half dollar. We had a glass man look at it last night, called the insurance company and will have a new windshield before we leave here. $250 deductible. We have been in touch with Allstate and a glass man and should have a new windshield by the end of the week.

One of our goals for the Rally was to get the Alfa weighed because when we bought new front tires last fall she was weighed, but Craig was not happy with the numbers. We were able to get it done Monday afternoon shortly after we arrived. The weights on the individual wheels were similar to what we got last fall. We are not overweight and have plenty of cargo capacity available, but we are very unbalanced from side to side. I'm not sure what we can do about it. The heavy side has two slides, the couch, the clothes closet, the large cabinet in the bedroom and the large pantry drawers and cabinet. 

We have some serious shifting to do, but I'm not sure we will ever achieve a good balance, but we need to be mindful about where we put heavier things. We managed to shift about 90 pounds from one side to another, but we would need a 500 pound shift to balance.  This is impossible at this point. There is not much else in the heavy side that we can move! 

Four of the crew of five guys washing the Alfa

As I type this, Tuesday morning, there are men on the roof cleaning it. We have had the Alfa for 19 months, and except for a few free washes at Alfateers after repair work, she has not had a bath. We are having her washed, paste waxed, buffed, and given a roof treatment. Some people say buffing is not good, but because she is white, any swirls will be less noticeable. It has been a long winter, and a lot of pine tar has accumulated on the roof and slide topper from being parked under the trees.

This is one job Craig is OK with paying for. He will go up on the roof if he has to, but cleaning pine tar is not a fun job.


It is now a couple of hours later, the Alfa looks great! No swirls. The windows are sparkling, and the roof and slide topper no longer have black gorm on them. They also washed the awning. We are satisfied with the work and cost. About $7 per foot plus the roof treatment.


We were just feeling good about the washing service when the refrigerator started beeping an alarm. We got ahold of the Alfateers Norcold tech, they have a service group here at the Rally,  and he tried to reset it. It seems the Norcold recall fix has failed. After going around with Norcold on the phone, he did a temporary fix and we will be trying to find another recall kit from a dealer in the area tomorrow! The refrigerator is cooling, but we were advised to not run it on propane until it gets fixed.

What a couple of days! On the plus side, although we had to skip the introduction to Pickle Ball lesson this morning, we managed to get over to the pool for an hour or so this afternoon. We also enjoyed a nice happy hour get together with a small group of Alfa Owners from our local club, and a nice welcome dinner with the entire rally group on Monday night. There are almost 100 Alfas here.

We went out to dinner tonight after the happy hour gathering. There was a "paid for separately" Prime Rib dinner tonight, but because I try not to eat much beef we chose to skip it.

Dinner was fantastic. 
Bed time now...

Travel Day 2

Our first night at Walmart was fine. Seems to me that if you're just driving through an area, it doesn't matter much where you stay as long as it's level, legal and safe. When you close the blinds it is much like anywhere else.

We did have some traffic and train noise in the night, but it wasn't loud and did not disturb our sleep. Craig was fascinated by the amount of late-night activity in the parking lot of the 24-hour Super Center Walmart. He got up and raised the front shade to look out several times.  I felt quite safe with the security patrol car constantly driving around.

We intentionally got a late morning start because Craig wanted to get a Schlotzsky's sandwich in La Quinta and a Shield's date shake a few blocks away for lunch.

We remember Schlotzky's from when we lived in Texas many years ago. They have no locations in our home area. We were not disappointed. Our sandwiches were as yummy (and unhealthy) as we remembered from the early 80's when we lived in Texas.

We had one little glitch when Craig took a corner too tight in the Walmart parking lot, but we solved it by unhitching the car, backing both it and the Alfa up, making the turn, and rehitching.  A bother, but better than frame damage!

We drove about 300 miles and stopped at another Walmart in Avondale AZ, just west of Phoenix.  Casa Grande, the location of the rally, is less than 70 miles away and we don't check in until noon.

The weather here is hot and sunny.  We ran the heater this morning, and have the windows open now to catch some evening breeze. 

We all know Karen's husband Steve can do a brake job in a parking lot while they are on a trip.

Craig tried to chase down a squeak in the step while in the Walmart lot this afternoon.

Every time he does this, he says it's the most challenging lubrication problem he's seen.

What can I say!

And he brought me flowers last week too!

Meanwhile, I have been relaxing as we drive and wearing my happy feet socks.

I do my share. We trade off as driver about every hundred miles or so.





Gil has arrived safely, posted his first blog and video from Thailand.  See it here.

First Walmart

Well, I didn't have much time to feel sad about Gil leaving for Thailand, because as soon as we got back home we went into getting ready for departure in the Alfa.  I had taken many things up to her over the week or so before, and assembled trip necessities on the dining room table. Having a good list sure helps when you're in a hurry.

The rally we're going to starts Monday.  We have two and a half days to cover almost eight hundred miles.

Everyone has there own way of traveling and their own best times. There is no way either of us could live through a 5:00 AM departure like some of you.  For us, getting up at 7:00 AM is early, and by the time we have breakfast, shut down the house, bring the Alfa down to the front drive, fill the fresh water and load the refrigerator we are satisfied with a 10:00 AM pull-out. 

Getting the Alfa up our road, onto the freeway, and then stopping to hook up the toad went very smoothly.

Our driving day was the best kind. Uneventful. We had sunny skies and no wind. Traffic was light and this was the best L.A. has ever been.  We ran into only one slow down!  That has to be a record. 

So here we are at our very first Walmart.

We drove 360 miles today, getting an all-time high of 8.7 mpg.

The good mileage was mostly due to the fact that we drove straight down the center of California on I-5.  Flat and straight. We have also been keeping our speed between 55 and 60.

Gil left a coment on my post from yesterday.
 "Sitting here in the Singapore Airport reading your blog. So far, so good, although I'm not actually there yet." 

Love the internet!

Good-by

I picked up our son Gil on Tuesday afternoon.  I had tons of questions and concerns about how he had finished his time in Seattle, and about the details of his Thailand teaching program. I felt like I was a nosey mother, but I needed to know some of these things.  

As he answered my questions, I was assured he had thought this all through and would be as OK as he could be.  Over the years I have come to expect him to have a last minute disaster.  This time, it has been so-far-so-good with only a few small problems that he handled smoothly.

Gil, aka Joko, and Merikay

I wanted a couple of pictures of us.

These two pictures were taken with different cameras. Gil did have a bit of a sunburn and his face was red. On the lower picture I tried to color balance a bit.

Before he came home I asked him to send me a list of his favorite childhood dinners so I could make them for him.  It has been fun to recreate foods that I haven't made for years.  Not the healthiest meals, not gourmet, but family comfort "Mom food."


We did some shopping. 
I bought him some new clean socks.

We showed him the Alfa and shared some of our plans.

We just spent some time together. Just hanging out.

On Wednesday and Thursday evenings we played some three handed Sheepshead, a favorite card game from our years in Wisconsin. Gil was the winner on Wednesday, and Craig on Thursday. I found it hard to concentrate, but enjoyed our time together.

Friday came too soon.  It takes about an hour to drive to the San Francisco airport from our house. Traffic was lighter than usual and we talked about how green everything was, and what a beautiful day it turned out to be.

 Craig dropped us off with Gil's luggage and went to park the car. In the last few months he has gotten rid of everything he owned except for what fit into his two bags and a backpack.

Storage was not an option.

The International terminal was strangely uncrowded. There were no long lines at the check-in desks, and all went quickly without a hitch.

We all walked together toward the security check in area, and when we got to the hallway that led to the parking area we said our last good-bys.  

It was hard to watch him walk away.








A final wave, and then he was gone.  Off to Thailand!

Gil's passion is making videos.  This is how he saw the last few days. 

A Mother's Mixed Emotions

I'm having very mixed emotions this week.  

Our son, Gil, is coming home for a few days before he leaves for
Thailand to take a training course for teaching English as a second language. He is then guaranteed placement for the several months of teaching he needs to do to get certification. While teaching, he will get a small salary and housing allowance, but it is not a permanent position. After that he hopes to find a position either there, in Indonesia, or some other country.

Most people who do this are fresh out of college and looking for adventure before settling down back in the States. He is not. At 42, he is at the top age limit for the program. Although he is looking for adventure, he is also looking for a fresh start in life. He does not want to come back and settle down here, rather he would like to find a new life there.

He has been to Indonesia twice before. As a high school student he did a year as an exchange student, and went again as a college student. Both times he went as a somewhat rich young American with money in his pocket, supporting organizations, and a life to return to.

This time, he has limited means and has gotten rid of all of his possessions. He has given me enough to buy his return ticket and provide a little cash to start again if he comes back, but that is only because he has to show he has the means to leave Indonesia if he wants a visa to go there. Although both of our names are on an account, I am holding it for him. We have an agreement that he cannot have it unless he needs it to come back.

My mixed emotions are that I'm happy for him because he is giving this dream a shot. I want him to be very successful in this adventure. But if he is, I may not see him again for years and that makes me sad. But except for a few summers, we have not lived in the same city since he left for college 24 years ago. Our visits have been infrequent, although I always knew that he could get on a plane and be home in a few hours.  

At least with Skype, blogs, email, and Facebook we will be able to stay in touch. And if he is successful and makes a new life, we might just take a trip there for a visit. 

I guess I have to remember Evelyn's ending line on her blog:

"Don't wish on a star - Reach for one."

Good luck Gil,

 if you catch a star, hold on tight.

No Reason

Craig brought me flowers today.

Why?

No reason.

Leg Cramp Follow Up

I'm writing this because so many of you commented that you or your spouse also suffered from leg cramps. I hope this information helps someone.

I have been taking a prescription potassium supplement and using the magnesium oil I bought at Whole Foods for two weeks now. Although I have tried to drink more water during the day, I am not pushing it to extremes like I did in the first few days. I do drink Pellegrino with dinner, and most nights consume most of a liter. I only stretch lightly when I think of it, and that is not often.

I've had new blood tests that are showing good levels of potassium and magnesium. They were low before. Apparently all the avocados and other high in potassium things I have been eating, and the magnesium in my Cal-Mag were not enough. (Avocados have more potassium than bananas.)

It is difficult to describe how different I feel. Until I relaxed, I didn't know I was tense. I do know I was afraid to turn or change my leg positions in bed because if I did I was likely to set off a cramp. I often had what I can only describe as a "jangly feeling" in my entire body: a slightly nervous feeling. 

I have been fighting sleeplessness for a long time, and would often have to get up to walk out cramps in my feet or legs several times a night. I would also visit the bathroom, but that was just because I was up already.

I have not had a cramp for ten days. I have been falling asleep much quicker than before, and only waking once to go potty, and then falling back asleep easily.

My whole body feels calm, no more jangly feeling.

My mood is better because I am more rested.

I can turn over in bed without worry about setting off a cramp and my feet and legs are relaxed. There has also been an improvement in my Restless Legs Syndrome, but that comes and goes so I don't know if it is related.

One negative: I have gained three pounds in one week. This may be because I am now "hydrated" as opposed to being "dehydrated."
I can live with a gain of three pounds if it means no more cramps, but have to be careful not to gain any more. Weight gain is not supposed to be a side effect of taking either of these minerals.

Only one more point. For me, this is the first time a doctor has taken this problem seriously. I guess it took a trip to the ER. If you get leg cramps, insist you get a blood test for potassium and magnesium. It sure has made a difference in the quality of my life. 

oops!

I went to delete a draft of a post and deleted the one I wrote yesterday instead.  Oops.