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| Our house before the 2nd storm |
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| Pueblo El Mirage |
First semi-warm day (notice the fleece with shorts)
When we booked our reservations at Pueblo El Mirage, we asked to stay until mid-March. They could only accommodate us until 3/1, so our plan was to move south to Casa Grande for a couple weeks. We got a call from the office asking if we still wanted to stay longer as they could accommodate us in our existing space until 3/11. Perfect!! We cancelled Fiesta Grande in Casa Grande. We decided to stay at Pechanga in Temecula for a week instead of staying so long in San Diego. It’s closer to Dave’s mother and other family. We booked Pechanga (casino RV resort) in Temecula no problem, and changed reservations at Santee Lakes (San Diego). We also booked the continuation of our itinerary at Flag City in Buellton, Wine Country in Paso Robles and the 49er in Plymouth CA.
We golfed at Quail Run in Sun City one cool, sunny afternoon. It was a beautiful little 9-hole executive course and we played it for $20!! Not a bad place to warm up for the season.
The RV park had
a wonderful selection of movies for rent for $1 for 2 days. I rented 2
movies only to discover our DVD Player no longer worked. It
was probably a combination of hard wear and tear going over many bumpy roads and the fact that it was about 10 years old. We decided it time for an
upgrade and bought a new one.
Since we got rid of cable at home and streaming over WiFi became our means of watching TV, we
weren't sure how it would work while on the road. We did keep our Direct TV subscription in the motorhome but didn't intend to activate it unless all else failed. Not only did we get rid of our cable, but we also switched to T-Mobile with unlimited data for phone service. Another unknown. We tried to hook up Hulu with our Roku stick using our phone. Poor T-Mobile service in our area so we didn't have a strong enough signal to use that option☹️. At least we had cable from the RV park and our antenna, but limited channels.
We spent a good amount of our time this trip, visiting with friends we know from home. We have friends that live in our neighborhood at home and winter in the Phoenix area. We have friends from our RV club at home that winter in the Phoenix area. We have friends from our golf club at home that winter in the Phoenix area or come to visit for a week. We sometimes see more of them while in AZ than at home😄.
We met our friends Tom and Cheryl Rodewald for dinner one night and then we all golfed the next day at Quail Run, where Tom proceeded to get his first hole in one on the very first hole!!
My good friend Linda and her family moved to Phoenix a year ago and we had a couple good visits with them...once at their place and once at ours. I realized that in all the 19 years Linda and I have known each other we've never had our picture taken together. So here we are:
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| Tom Rodewald |
My good friend Linda and her family moved to Phoenix a year ago and we had a couple good visits with them...once at their place and once at ours. I realized that in all the 19 years Linda and I have known each other we've never had our picture taken together. So here we are:
Our friends Jack and Joyce Hayashi flew down for a week of golf. Not the best weather, but we all bundled up and played Hillcrest with the Rodewalds. A couple days later we all played golf again at Cave Creek. As you can see by the pictures, we were in fleece again. Lots of wind!
Sandy Donogh from our RV club stopped by for one night at our RV park. She was heading from San Diego to a park south of us and had one night to kill. Fortunately, Pueblo El Mirage had space for her so we visited and then met for breakfast the next morning before she had to check out and move south.
Our friends, Bill and Cindy Knight and Greg and Renee Schaut were staying south of Casa Grande and came up for a day to visit family. They stopped by for a quick visit on their way home. It's always fun to see these four.
One day we went out to Sun City Festival to visit with some friends from our neighborhood that have winter homes there. Jim and Ivene Morris and Gary and Deb VanWieringen (and a few dozen other folks from Trilogy) have homes in this beautiful golf course community. The guys went golfing. Deb was flying back from Seattle so we caught up with her at dinner. Ivene and I enjoyed a good visit and then went up and walked through the 16 model homes. We all met for dinner later at the restaurant in their community center.
Because we were able to stay in our RV park past the 1st, we were able to participate in the annual Trilogy Golf Tournament. 28 wintering Trilogy residents all went golfing at Wigwam Golf Course. What a fun annual event put together by Bill Hilton.
We also went to a party hosted by Gary and Deb VanWieringen at their home in Festival. Again, the crowd was all current or former Trilogy residents wintering or permanently living in AZ. Some, but not all of the folks were participants in the golf tournament. Some folks we'd never met.
Some of our RV club members were staying in a park called Cottonwood Lane just a few miles south of us in Goodyear. We met at their park for a BBQ one day when we knew the sun would be out. Dennis and Kathy Oelrich (and their dog Chester) from our RV club were also staying at El Mirage, so we all drove down together. Good food and a fun day of catching up on stories as well as journeys taken or still to come.
Our niece, Clarissa, was working on assignment in Phoenix, so we met her a couple times for dinner. We don't often get a chance to visit with her one-on-one, so we enjoyed catching up on family chatter and getting to know her better.Jerry and Judy Karwhite, friends from our golf group at home, come down each year and stay at Pueblo El Mirage beginning March 1. Because our schedules only overlapped by a few days, we made plans to have drinks at their place one night. They have an older motorhome and they've really upgraded the inside. It is beautiful and I'm so impressed with how creative Judy got in squeezing storage out of every nook and cranny. Had a great visit.
Driving the Apache Trail: We'd done this excursion once before, but decided it would be fun to do it again. We almost turned around when we got to Apache Junction because the traffic going south was bumper to bumper. Come to find out, there was a Renaissance Fair being held out in the desert and they had thru traffic funneled down to one lane. Once we got past that long backup, we moved right along. For those that don't know about the Apache Trail, it is a scenic drive thru canyons, past geologic formations, desert plants and trees, desert and lake views and wildflowers. The challenge is that of the 50 miles, 22 miles of the road are narrow and unpaved. It was a little nerve wracking at times, especially this year with all the heavy rains having washed pot holes and ruts into the already rutty road. The state had graded the road where it could so, considering, it was fairly well maintained...not a road for nervous drivers. For the most part, drivers were pretty courteous and, when possible, pulled over or at least slowed down when approaching. The crazies were those in rented ATVs or off-road vehicles.
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| the road |
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| Fording flooded road at Tortilla Flats |
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| Wide spot in the road |
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| Canyon Lake |
One very warm day, we went to a spring training baseball game. We picked a stadium that would offer some shade in the stands (some do not) and it happened to be the Seattle Mariners hosting the Padres at Peoria Sports Complex. We had good seats in the shade and some really good pulled pork sandwiches...and, of course, baseball beer......and the Mariners won!!
Our good friends, Scott and Donna Clausen were in town from Seattle. Their son and daughter-in-law live in the Phoenix area and they'd been staying at their house for a week. They were on their way to Sedona for a few days, so we met them for lunch enroute. Timing worked out perfectly as we were leaving Phoenix the next day.
We always celebrate Valentines Day on the road. Rained All Day!!! Hmmm...just like home. Oh well, off we went for our Valentines lunch. After wandering around and checking out all the restaurants at Kierland Commons, we decided on Tommy Bahama’s. Excellent food and a table with a nice view too!We spent one afternoon at an art show on the grounds of the historic Wigwam Hotel. The hotel was built in 1918 by the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company:
Our historic hotel in Arizona is a direct descendant of the state’s early cotton ranching business. When Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company discovered that long-staple cotton extended the life of its tires, the company bought 16,000 acres of Arizona land for cotton farming. In 1918, the company established the Organization House, the first building on the site, as lodging for ranch suppliers. These guests suggested that it would be a great place to spend a winter vacation, as did Goodyear Tire & Rubber executives, who sometimes brought their families when visiting the farm. On Thanksgiving Day, 1929, The Wigwam officially opened its doors as a guest ranch with enough rooms for 24 guests. The first nine-hole golf course was built in 1930, expanding to 18 holes in 1941. Although this resort and hotel in Litchfield Park has steadily grown over the past 85 years, a portion of the original structure,The Organizational House, remains as the cornerstone of The Wigwam’s authenticity and southwestern charm. Today, The Wigwam features 331 elegant rooms, three championship golf courses-including the Robert Trent Jones Sr.- designed Gold and Blue Courses; nine tennis courts; three swimming pools including a 25′ dual water slide; fitness center; award-winning dining; 29 fireplaces and fire pits; 30,000 square feet of indoor meeting space with 25 separate meeting rooms and 55,000 square feet of outdoor meeting space.
Bisquits Café -highly recommend for breakfast...but be prepared to wait for a table
State 48 Brewery - good selection of beers and pub food...be prepared to wait for a table at dinner
Two Brothers Tap House and Brewery - good selection of beers and pub food (kinda noisy)
Firebirds Wood Fired Grill - good happy hour...but be prepared to wait for a table
Lou's Bar and Grill at Papago Golf Course - excellent!!!
North Italia (Arcadia) - very good contemporary Italian
We did a couple of cultural events this trip and purchased tickets through Goldstar. If you haven't tried Goldstar, I'd highly recommend it. https://www.goldstar.com/seattle# It's a great source for discount tickets in lots of cities - not always, but quite often close to performance date. We attended a dinner/theater at Arizona Broadway Theater in Peoria with the Rodewalds and Hayashis. The performance was "An American in Paris" and was preceded by a very nice 3 course dinner that you selected from a menu. Dave and I also went to The Phoenix Theater Company's production of Jersey Boys. I'd seen the musical in Seattle, but Dave hadn't seen it and I thought he'd really enjoy the music. We couldn't find a decent place to eat near the theater, but found that there was a bistro inside the theater and had dinner there. We had great seats and the production was excellent.
Cold or not, we had plenty of clothes of varying weights to accommodate the hit-and-miss weather. Dave went out on a couple little morning hikes and we both spent a morning hiking around Papago Park. We did the 3 mile Papago Elliot Ramada Loop Trail. It was partial dirt/paved trail with great views of downtown Phoenix as well as Papago Golf Course. We had lunch afterward at Lou's Bar and Grill at Papago Golf Course.
Somebody's really enjoying this sunshine...
