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.