Day 45, Sunday February 21

Decided today was a good day to go out for lunch.  We drove to Del Webb's Sun City Grand ('cause we hadn't been there before and they have lots of golf courses).  We discovered that all the golf course restaurants are all contracted with major local or national restaurant chains.  Thus, we had lunch at Coco's at Granite Falls Golf Course.  The lunch was very good and the view was beautiful.

 

Day 46, Monday February 22

We've been making a list of the things we want to do while in the Phoenix area.  We've scratched a few of them off the list, but today was the day to spend the whole day at the Musical Instrument Museum.  It's a fantastic museum and we spent 6 hours there and didn't see everything.  MIM has a collection of about 16,000 musical instruments and associated objects and displays more than 6,500 of these collected from around 200 of the world's countries and territories.  The displays are enhanced by video with audio headsets provided at the entrance.  You can hear the sounds of the instruments as well as watch them being played in their original contexts.  There is an interactive gallery where you can play instruments (we didn't have time for this area) as well an artist gallery that houses instruments from music icons and also shows videos of their performances.  There were exhibits from Taylor Swift, Elvis Presley, Carlos Santana, John Lennon, John Denver, Maroon 5 and many more.  They had a special exhibit of Stradivarius, but we didn't have enough time to take that in.  There are special displays highlighting iconic American manufacturers such as Steinway & Sons (pianos), C.F. Martin & Co. (acoustic guitars) and D’Addario & Co (strings).  The Conservation Lab gives an opportunity to see instruments being restored and preserved (we didn't have time to this one either).  We had lunch at their restaurant and sat outside in the courtyard that was fabulously landscaped.  It was a wonderful day.  Another high recommendation for those visiting Phoenix (but do plan to spend a whole day).

  

We left at 5pm (closing) and noticed our route home was bumper-to-bumper traffic.  We decided to let the traffic die down and grab some dinner.  We went north of the museum a few blocks and found a local pub called The Sandbar Mexican Restaurant.  What a cute place.  With the exception of sand, it looked like a cantina on the beach in Mexico.  We shared a taco plate and cerveza and by the time we were done, the traffic was manageable going home.

Day 47, Tuesday February 23

Today was a golf day with Tab Bronson.  The temperatures were down to the upper 70s with a strong breeze, so a much more tolerable golf day.  We golfed at a Phoenix Parks and Recreation course called Encanto.  It is a very mature course, built in 1935.  Encanto is the 3^rd oldest golf course in Arizona.  It had wide level fairways and plenty of bunkers to attract every one of my golf balls.  It was a very challenging day, as the wind played into the golf equation and it was always a surprise where the ball would go (usually anywhere but the fairway).  We stopped at the casual course café for a beer afterward and were surprised to also receive a large bowl of freshly popped popcorn.  Tab left to try to beat the rush hour traffic.  As Dave and I were finishing our beers, in came a fellow who sat down with us and introduced himself as one of the owners of The Phoenix Ale Brewery (the beer we were drinking).  He lived across the fairway on the golf course.  Soon his wife joined us…quite a couple of characters (I’m guessing in their 80s).  They joked that because they live so close, when the golf course runs out of beer, they call them to bring another keg (the beer isn’t actually brewed in their house).  They would have stayed and talked our ears off for hours if we hadn’t excused ourselves to get in line out on the highway.

Day 48, Wednesday February 24

Dave packed up his bike and drove to a city park to ride on the New River trail (actually, there’s no river…it’s just a wash).  The paved bike trail parallels the New River through the city of Peoria, east of Phoenix, and connects lots of communities and small parks along its route.  I went for a walk and puttered while he was gone and then went grocery shopping when he got back.  BBQd Tilapia for Fish Tacos for dinner.  Found this recipe for a sauce for the tacos that was great:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/fish-tacos-with-lime-cilantro-crema

Day 49, Thursday February 25

We wanted to get out and enjoy the weather, so headed to The McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale.  It’s a 30,000 acre preserve that is home to 170 miles of fabulous desert trails of varying degrees of difficulty.  We'd read that the plants were all in bloom, but that wasn't the case.  Still too early.  The first trail we did was the Bajada Nature Trail.  It’s a hard dirt-packed trail with interpretive signs along the trail describing all varieties of flora and fauna, as well as how the inhabitants of the desert are all part of the desert ecosystem.  We then continued on the Gateway Loop Trail.  This trail had lots of loose and jutting rock and one of those hikes where you couldn’t really enjoy the scenery because you need to keep your eyes on the trail.  By the time we headed up this trail, it was the heat of the day, so decided to take the shortcut route back to the trailhead and the air-conditioned car.

http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Assets/ScottsdaleAZ/Preserve/Preserve+South+Area+Trail+Map.pdf

         

Our RV park is hosting the Grand Canyon State Pickleball competition.  This is a major international tournament bringing in over 500 nationally-ranked players from all over the United States, Canada, and other countries.  Some of the Pueblo El Mirage park residents are competing, so Dave went over to watch.  He said these folks are really good.  The competition continues through Sunday. 

I took the opportunity to get in some computer time at the clubhouse.  If I don’t keep up on my email, I often have over 300 emails to plough through (did I mentioned that this “not having internet at our site” is really inconvenient?).  If we use this park again, we’ll have to figure out something different for internet..maybe a local company.  I spent 2 hours and didn’t even get the blog done.

Wow!  Can't believe we're coming up on Day 50!!!

Day 39, Monday February 15

Boy, our days are getting pretty ho-hum.  We’ve slowed down considerably and our mornings are becoming pretty leisurely.  If there’s no rush, we don’t.  Another hot day in the upper 80s.

We had a few minor repairs to do on the coach, so decided to tackle a couple today.  One of the supports on the lift under our bed kept coming undone, so Dave was able to obtain some scrap lumber from the woodshop here to shore up the connection.  Also, our ceiling fan in the bedroom became wobbly, so disassembled that.  Made a run to Home Depot for bolts and washers to complete the repairs.  Tah-dah…good as new.

Day 40, Tuesday February 16

I’ve been doing morning walks, but Dave has been more into the organized sports.  He got an introduction to Pickleball at home.  They offer lessons here, so he signed up and today at 9am was his first day.  Pretty small group so they had 1 instructor for every 2 players.  At 11am they offered the next phase of lessons, but after 1.5 hours, he was too exhausted and decided to do that next week.

 

Cleaned up and laundry done, we headed to the pool in the afternoon for the first time.  It was another hot day and the pool felt really good.  We chatted with a lady sitting near us and found out that not only does she live at Trilogy at Redmond Ridge, but she and her husband just joined the Trilogy RV Club.  They made their first outing with the club in October to Chelan (just like us), but with all the new names and faces, we didn’t meet.  There are lots of people here from Washington and the pool was crowded.  What are the chances of us sitting right next to her???  Small world.

Day 41, Wednesday February 17

Another golf day!  We met our friends, Tom and Cheryl Rodewald at Falcon Golf Course, just 15 minutes south of us.  The course sits right at the end of Luke AFB where they train F-16 and F-35 fighter pilots.  You can actually see them sitting on the runway waiting for takeoff.  Needless to say, this wasn’t the quietest golf course.  Weather predictions were for temperatures near 90.  It was hot, but fortunately, there was a breeze.  The course was decent, with a lot of trouble in the desert just off the fairways and bunkers strategically placed (attracting my ball frequently).  The best part of the round was the company and the fact that we only paid $25 for a full day of entertainment.  Joined Tom and Cheryl for drinks back at El Mirage Golf Course.  Fun day.

    

Day 42, Thursday February 18

Cloud cover today and much cooler.  Still in the 80s, but low 80s.

Dave met the bike club and they rode 9 miles to a local restaurant for breakfast.  There aren’t a lot of bike trails in this area, so they rode on city streets (not my kind of biking), but some of the roads had dedicated golf cart lanes for street legal carts.

Dave’s not a shopper, so I used this opportunity to explore and do some leisurely shopping.  I’d intended to make it to the local quilt shop, but didn’t make it that far.  Oh well, it will still be there next week (besides, that’s likely an expensive stop for me). 

We needed to get some computer time in, so headed to the clubhouse in the afternoon.   We found some cushioned patio sofas outside the building.  Normally, it would be too hot to sit outside, but the breeze blew through the covered patio and it was really comfortable sitting outside to work.  Not a bad day.

Day 43, Friday February 19

Cloud cover in the morning, so temps in the low 80s.  Very comfortable!

The highlight today was a program at the White Tank Mountain Regional Park:  Moonlight Walk.  It was a clear night with nearly a full moon.  At 7pm, we all showed up with our flashlights and scorpion lights (they had some for loan for those of us that don’t need to search our scorpions on a regular basis) for a 2 mile walk in the moonlight through the desert.  The walk was led by a park ranger and a couple assistants.  Though we all had flashlights, she recommended we try not using them because the moonlight was so bright….and it really was!  Though the trail was rocky in a few places, we didn’t need our flashlights at all.  In fact, you could see your shadow on the trail.  We were encouraged to use all our senses to explore the desert.  We walked through washes that sent a breeze of cool air across the trail, and then another area where we were met with a nice warm breeze.  We could smell the sage and creosote bushes.  The outline of the cactus and mountains against the night sky was spectacular with lots of bright stars.  We turned around at a large wash and we all got out our scorpion lights to search the rocks for scorpions.  They show up bright green with the black lights.  It was a little cool for many of them to be out, but we did see some.  They are very small so without the black lights, they wouldn’t be visible.  Hiking back to the parking lot, we had a nice view of the lights of Phoenix, but it was hard to get a good picture.  What a wonderful program.  Would highly recommend it if you are in the Phoenix area. 

Day 44, Saturday February 20

Back to White Tank Mountain Park today for their annual Arts and Crafts Fair.  It was held at the end of the park road in a group picnic area.  Really thought this was going to be huge when we saw all the traffic, but it turned out to be a pretty small show.  The majority of the vendors were local, mostly beginner, and more crafts than art (I think I've become a Craft Fair Snob).  All we walked away with was lemonade.

I think I mentioned that there are lots of people here from Washington.  Tonight was the Pacific Northwest potluck for folks from Washington, Oregon and Idaho.  I think there were about 200 people.  It was kind of fun.  They had a mixer so you had to find someone you didn't know.  There was entertainment by some musicians and singers from the group of attendees, and good food (though it's the first potluck we've been to in a long time where the food was totally gone).  We bought raffle tickets and won one of the grand prizes:  a round of golf for 4 at El Mirage Golf Course.  Couldn't be more appropriate.    

Day 35, Thursday February 11

Another golf day!  Can you tell we haven’t had golf weather for a few months?

Today we golfed at Superstition Springs Golf Club in Mesa.  We played with friends from home:  Tab Bronson (Trilogy) and Katherine Curry (Kirkland – formerly of Trilogy).  What a challenging golf course!  Because none of us had played the course before, we were surprised on every fairway.  Some of the fairways had multiple grass pothole bunkers in addition to sand bunkers, and there were lots of strategically placed water features.  Needless to say, a few golf balls were lost.  Would we play the course again?  Sure – now that we know what to expect.  It was fun and not your normal out-and-back layout.  Drinks after were in order, and much enjoyed, but put us in the middle of rush hour traffic.  Took us twice as long to get home as it did to get to the course in the morning.  Oh well…..

Day 36, Friday February 12

Another day in paradise with no plans.  These days always seem to get filled somehow.  A run to the grocery store for dinner salad fixings also incorporated a stop for Dave to get a haircut (yes, these tasks still need to happen).  Spent a couple hours in the afternoon at the clubhouse doing computer stuff like paying bills and catching up on email, then home for dinner outside on our patio.  Light clouds seem to move in each evening and we’ve had some beautiful sunsets (sunrises too).  

Day 37, Saturday February 13

Dave spent the morning waxing one side of the RV (small sections at a time).  In the afternoon, we headed out to Paradise Lake because we wanted to check out the RV  park there.  We’d looked at it online and it looked like a nice location, but it’s hard to really tell what they look like by their website and the aerial map.  Besides, there is a pub at the marina we wanted to try for dinner.  Wanting to see some of the territory besides the highway, we headed out on some side roads.  We followed a road on the map that looked like it would take us where we wanted to go, only to find out that part of the road was dirt (we don’t have a car with much clearance).  We turned around and backtracked to nearly our start point.  Reluctantly we got on the highway, not wanting to risk getting lost again.  Finally, we got to Paradise Lake Resort, only to find that they charge $6.00 just to enter…even if we are having dinner there.  Entrance fee paid, we toured the RV Resort (not quite what we would consider a “Resort”) and parked for a ride to the marina.  The shuttle actually ran out a long dock to the marina that also housed Dillons BBQ.  OK food, but not much of a view.  We had a table that faced large boats tied to the dock.  Not quite what we expected.  Walked back to the car rather than ride the shuttle.  

On the walk back, we saw the sky full of hot air balloons getting ready to descend near the Paradise Valley airport.

Decided this wasn’t our kind of RV park, but that’s why we go exploring.

Day 38, Sunday February 14

Happy Valentines Day 

Dave got up this morning at 6:30 to catch one of the first tee times at Peoria Pines for $11.00.  He forgot it was the weekend- and a 3 day weekend at that.  No $11.00 specials on the weekend.  Ended up going to the driving range instead.  Came home with pastries and flowers for Valentines.

In the afternoon, we headed to Verrado Golf Club in Buckeye.  We wanted to find a place to have a glass of wine on a patio with a view….thus the golf course (remember, I told you that if we couldn’t afford to play a course, we eat or drink there).  The town of Verrado sits at the base of the White Tank Mountains on the west of the valley.  It is a very picturesque master-planned community with shady tree lined streets, a town square, and older-style architecture that looks like something from small town central America.

        

        

        

        

        

Watermelon/Orange Salad w/Goat Cheese

Day 31, Sunday February 7

Wow, can't believe we've been on the road for over 30 days now.  Doesn't seem that long.  I guess moving around kind of broke up the 30 days into smaller chunks.  Now that we're parked for a few weeks, maybe we'll notice a difference.

For those of us golfers, today was a busy TV day:  Phoenix Open and Superbowl back to back.  We spent the morning at the clubhouse getting caught up on email and (as you noticed), I got the blog out.  This having to come to the clubhouse for WiFi really doesn't fit my routine...I usually get up in the morning, put on my robe, grab a cup of tea and immediately get on the computer.  Now, I have to eat breakfast, get cleaned up and dressed and walk to the clubhouse (I'm such a creature of habit).  I've bumped up our data plan twice since we left, and it still isn't enough for my usage.  We then went to the store to do our usual grocery shopping and pick up something to BBQ.  Lynn and Phyllis came over and we watched a bit of golf and then went over to Tom and Cheryl Rodewald's RV to watch the end of the golf tournament and visit with some more friends from our home golf group, Jack and Joyce Hayashi.  It's just amazing how many of our friends are here this week...and there are some that are here for the winter that we haven't seen yet.  Everyone came over to see our RV and we watched the last of the Superbowl.  BBQd burgers sometime after 7:00.  It was a fun day.

Day 32, Monday February 8

This was Lynn and Phyllis' last day in Arizona, so we planned an activity that we could do enroute to the airport.  Every year, there is an art show held under huge tents in Scottsdale called the Celebration of Fine Art.  Dave and I went last year and just knew Lynn and Phyllis would be blown away with the exhibit, so that was the journey for today.  

The Celebration of Fine Art has been an art event for more than 25 years and is held from mid-January til the end of March.  It has become known for its exceptional art and interactive atmosphere.  There are 100 juried artists from all over the country that exhibit their work and actually are working in their medium at the show.  You can see artists in all mediums, including welders, sculptors, painters, jewelers, weavers, potters, and many more, all working on projects.  You can interact with the artists or simply watch as they create their work right before your eyes.  These are top of their field artists and the work is absolutely amazing!  They also have a good restaurant, so we had lunch before Lynn and Phyllis had to leave for the airport.  
http://celebrateart.com/ 



Day 33, Tuesday February 9

Tuesday was a golf day.  We golfed with Tom and Cheryl Rodewald and Jack and Joyce Hayashi at El Mirage golf course here at the RV Resort.  It was a hot 83 (did I tell you that we're finally having Arizona weather here?)!  The golf course was challenging, with lots of sloped greens and water, but the best part was that we golfed for $25.00.  Such a deal.  We all went to Carraba’s Italian Grill for dinner.  It was Jack and Joyce’s last day before heading home to Renton.  Another fun day in the sun.  I think we’re getting into the RVing/Retirement groove finally.

Day 34, Wednesday February 10

Wow!  A day with no plans.  Dave went to the driving range while I went shopping.  Did a Camping World run to pick up a few maintenance items. Stopped at Robson Ranch’s PebbleCreek Golf Course for a late lunch (if we can’t afford to play golf at a course, we usually eat there instead).  Golf courses always have a great restaurant and it’s often reasonably priced.  We were even able to take advantage of Happy Hour.  Hurray for Happy Hour!  A retirees affordable luxury.