Palm Creek RV Resort

The weather has been lovely and the park is so beautiful to walk or ride our bikes around. The golf course is emerald green and in really great shape. They had a great arts and crafts show around Valentines Day and a quilt show today. The displays were really nice and some of the quilts were amazing! The sewing ladies also make pillow cases for the children's hospital and blankets for the nursery. Busy and talented women!

Roger has been in San Antonio on business since Monday. He was supposed to come back last night but needs to be there Monday and Tuesday so he will be home Tuesday night. I'm happy that he was able to drive to Houston - surprised the girls Friday night - and then on to Austin to see Carlos and Megan on Sunday. He helped Kyle move some furniture over to Kyle and Rachel's so he got to see them too. Beats a boring week-end in the hotel!

I'm having a chili cook-out tonight to celebrate Mike Lynch's birthday so I've been cooking today. Too bad Roger is missing one of the rare times I actually cook!

Sky Dive Arizona

 

Sky Dive Arizona is located nearby in Eloy and is "sky diving central" for skydivers from all over the world - including military training. They have an indoor wind tunnel, an equipment shop, sleeping quarters, a café and of course a saloon! We went out around noon - had lunch at the outdoor café and then watched the airplanes take off, drop their skydivers, and then eventually saw the jumpers "blossom" in the air - they look like butterfly's floating downward. We set up our lawn chairs right along one of the grassy areas where they land and sat and watched them all afternoon. Roger and I have never seen jumpers landing like that and it was so interesting. We were amazed at the wide range of ages - teenagers to 80 year olds! They offered tandem jumps and they were fun to watch land - especially, first timers that loved it! Personally, I was comfortable in my lawn chair! Can't get my video to download!

Cancer Awareness Week

Everyone at Palm Creek has been commemorating Cancer Awareness Week the last few days. Friday night was the culmination with several hot air balloons participating in a twilight glow in the town square. Live entertainment, cookies and hot chocolate with luminaries lighting the way from the front entrance. The weather cooperated and it was a lovely night.

Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort

We are finally settled here in Casa Grande, AZ - will be here until the middle of April when we travel up the west coast. It is a huge park (1800 sites!)  but beautiful with tons of activities. There is an 18 hole, par 3 golf course that is very nice - great exercise to walk it. We live on "Bogie Lane" - guess they know what kind of golfers we are - they didn't put us on "Eagle Lane" or "Birdie Lane!"

Mike and Lorraine have introduced us to many of their friends and we are getting involved in activities so hopefully, we will meet some other couples who golf. We won the weather lottery - it has been lovely in this area of the country!

Heather had a medical scare that sent me to Houston last week for 4 days but, thank God she is doing well now and it was nice to be able to help with the girls. Glad I didn't need to travel to KL!! It was Kyle's first week at his new job with Phillips 66 so things were crazy. Tima to the rescue!

Emily made a helicopter with her legos and Samantha made a "masterpiece" at her art class!

Quartzite, Arizona

We left Joshua Tree NP, spent one night in Blythe, CA (should be named Blight - apologies to the people who live there but....) and then came to the Alfa rally in Quartzite. This is the big "boon docking" area where 700,000 to 1 million RV'ers flock every January for the big rock, gem and mineral show and the huge RV show. There are hundreds of all types of RV's for sale - new and used - plus after market RV accessories and vendors selling everything you didn't know you needed and plenty of stuff you certainly don't need! The desert is full of RV's for as far as you can see!

The Alfa Roadrunners have been meeting here for a week of camaraderie and shopping for several years. They have an area they come back to each year with a big "Alfa" circle made with rocks and a large campfire pit.  They just "circle the wagons" and park anywhere. There are no hook ups so we need to watch water usage - good excuse to use paper plates and not have to wash dishes but hard to rinse all the dust off with minimal shower time! The weather has been glorious - cool in the mornings and nights but in the 70's during the day - almost 80 yesterday.

This experience has been on our "bucket list" for quite awhile and we are certainly glad we came but it definitely is not an experience we will repeat! A week in the dust and dirt is way too long for me and we saw enough junk the first couple of days for Roger to give up anymore shopping! I have been bored enough to clean but there is no sense in that until we drive out of the desert! One good thing - we got the window next to the driver's seat taken out and cleaned - it was "fogged" - easy to get it good and dry out here!

Roger is laughing at all the "potions" I am using - the air is so dry that I can't use enough face cream, skin lotion, Vaseline, Visine, chapstick, or sun screen to keep me from feeling "reptilian!"

We are leaving Sunday for Casa Grande where we will stay until mid-April. We are looking forward to settling in for awhile. Having fun but missing all of our Florida friends!

Joshua Tree National Park

We left Fontana, CA (near LA) on Tuesday evening - motorhome  fixed and hair coiffed! We heard later they had a 4.5 earthquake on Wednesday morning!

We tried to get into a campsite at the Cottonwood Springs Campground in Joshua Tree but just could not fit - long enough but not wide enough to  extend the slide - so we ended up "boondocking" just outside the gate! Along with many others! The moon was so bright last night that the desert glowed almost iridescent.

We spent the day exploring the park and hiking to some scenic spots. Many people say the desert has its own beauty but, since I prefer green grass, trees, lakes and mountains, I would use the word "barren" to describe it!! Of course, it is winter and they are experiencing the worst draught in years so I can't expect much.The road is winding and curvy through the park - can't understand it - it is all flat desert - not like they have to go around things! Guess it is to keep people from speeding like I wanted to do! We did see wildlife - a roadrunner and two coyotes. We drove up to Keys View and saw a spectacular landscape of Coachella Valley, the San Andreas Fault and the Salton Sea. The only problem was the wind - so strong we could barely stand still and/or walk - I was afraid it would blow me over the cliff! It has been really windy the last 5 days - howling at night and even though it is sunny and in the 70's it is disagreeable to be outside during the day.

Alfateers

We are in Los Angeles at Alfateers having some work done on our "house." They are putting new seals on all 3 slides and fixing a water leak in one of the bins. They have a small parking lot with electric plugs for about 6 RVs - packed in like a loaf of bread. They pull them in the shop at 7am and have them back set up in the parking lot at 3:30pm. An early morning rise and shine but at least we can get back in before evening traffic. They just called and said they noticed one of the back slides is out of balance so they are going to fix that too ($$$!.) They are going to give us a bid on new counter tops and we may have that done while we are on vacation in June.
It is not easy finding something to do all day while the motorhome is in the shop - we did laundry yesterday - looked at kitchen options at Home Depot and Lowes - went to lunch and then spent the afternoon at Starbucks! Today we decided to go to the public library and spend time on our computers. The first "library" ended up to be at a technical college; the second is now a community center; the third was headquarters for the teamster's union; the fourth didn't open until 11am! Back to Starbucks! Trying to find a place to get my hair colored and cut - not easy around this area!
Hope they finish with the motorhome today - we want to go to Joshua Tree National Park - out of the city!!