Day 58, Saturday March 5

In researching events in the area, we discovered that the LPGA Legends Tour was playing just up the street at Grandview Golf Club (one of Sun City’s many courses), so we put it on our “To Do” list.  The Legends Tour is for professional women golfers, what the Seniors Tour is for professional men golfers.  It is open to professional golfers age 45 and over and represents some of women’s golf’s most talented players.  There are 120 members, many LPGA World Golf Hall of Famers like Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster, Donna Caponi and Patty Sheehan.  This tournament was their season opener and featured about 50 players.  Unlike some of the large PGA tournaments we’ve been to, this was really low key and casual.  Parking was plentiful.  There was no security check.  No huge pavilions with souvenirs and overpriced food and beverage.  Crowds were very small, so you could get right up to the tee box or green.  The players were really relaxed and quite chatty.  No problem taking pictures….in fact they’d pose with you if there was time.  It was refreshing to see players wearing everyday clothes without a gazillion sponsor logos.  Many were wearing large sun hats, long sleeves and long pants (probably too many years in the sun already).  A lot of the players looked like somebody’s grandma.  Some were overweight.  All of them had carts and many rode.  The caddies looked like spouses or family members, just along for the ride.  Temps were in the mid-80s and we walked the front 9 backward, stopping periodically to sit on a hole and watch the groups come through.  There was a nice breeze on most holes, so made walking tolerable.  Stopped at the clubhouse and picked up a sandwich to take to the 18^th green where we parked ourselves for over an hour.  It was nice to see many of the players walk off the green and stop to thank the small crowd for coming out to support their tour.  Really a lovely day.

Day 59, Monday March 6

 

Another baseball day!  Today we went to Surprise Stadium to see the Seattle Mariners play the Texas Rangers.  This stadium is home to Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals.  The stadium is the centerpiece of the city’s Surprise Recreation Campus, a 132 acre campus that includes a little bit of everything in addition to the baseball practice facilities.  The campus is home to the city’s aquatic center, tennis complex, community park and a regional library.  It’s quite an impressive complex and the stadium was smaller than some, but beautiful and on our list of favorites.  We got tickets on the Mariner’s side at 3^rd base.  The temps were only in the low 80s with a brisk wind (storm coming), so comfortable.  Fun game ‘cause the Mariners won 7-3.

The winds were pretty brisk all day at about 15-25mph.  We’d turned over our tables and folded the chairs before we left.  Watched many of our neighbors bring in their awnings in anticipation of the winds.  When we got home, the power was out in the entire park.  To avoid running down our batteries with lights and fans that would be required to cook inside, we went to plan “B” and BBQd outside in the wind.  Got out all my candles (battery of course) and flashlights, not knowing how long we’d be in the dark.  The power came back on at about 6:45.  Hurray!  Now we can watch the last day of the WGC-Cadillac golf tournament.

Day 60, Tuesday March 7

Golf day!  Dave and I played a course just south of us called Peoria Pines.  It’s an executive 18-hole, with all Par 3s and Par 4s with the exception of 2 Par 5s on holes 9 and 18.  Not a bad little course.  The front 9 is in a little rougher condition than the back, but a good course to practice your short game.  Unfortunately, it ate 3 of my golf balls (2 on the same hole).  From then on, I just played with my junk balls….and of course, never lost another one.  The wind was still howling pretty good, so I’ll blame my errant shots on the wind.  The best part of the round was that we booked on GolfNow, and only paid $17/ea. with a cart (at home there are courses that charge $17 just for the cart!).  Went to Palm Valley Golf Course for a glass of wine.  That’s a really pretty looking course.  Next time.  Home for the dinner that I couldn’t make the night before.

Palm Valley

Day 61, Wednesday March 8

Hanging out and getting stuff done day!  We’re 5 days from leaving Phoenix and don’t have confirmed plans on how we’re heading out of here.  We’ve been watching the weather north through Utah and West through California and neither looks particularly inviting.  Utah can be partly sunny, but cool temperatures in the 50s during the day and 30s at night (boy, we’ve gotten spoiled with the weather here).  California has been really wet.  We’re going to spend some time on the computer today checking availability at the RV parks.  That might help us make up our minds.

I hate selfies-but you get the idea

I’ve been thinking about getting my hair cut short for a few weeks now.  I don’t think I’ve had it short for over 15 years, but Dave’s been encouraging me and the weather here has been encouraging me.  I bought a styling magazine and picked out some possible styles I liked.  Decided if I was going to do it, I’d better do it today before I change my mind again.  Here’s the result.  It’s going to take some getting used to, but I think I’m going to like it.

Day 62, Thursday March 9

Today we golfed Union Hills Golf Course with some of our longtime friends and neighbors from Trilogy, Gary and Deb Van Wieringen.  

We had a great time.  It was a beautiful day in the low 80s and the golf course was really in nice shape.  It’s one of Sun City’s older courses, opening in the mid-70s.  It had the typical layout that meanders through the subdivision, but the fairways were wide and, outside of the usual bunkers, the creek that ran throughout was the most danger.  Many of the houses on the course had major remodels done, so the look of the development had a little more modern feel than some of the other older courses in Sun City.  On one of the holes, a resident had placed about 8 bags hanging from their fence.  Each was loaded with oranges and lemons, so Deb and I each took one.  These folks have so many fruit trees in their yards, they can’t possibly eat all the fruit.  It was nice they shared.  Hot, sweaty and tired, they still let us into Rock Bottom Brewery for dinner.