Week Ten & Eleven 2/1 – 2/14

Stayed overnight with Dick & Pat Sunday night in Sun City West, then headed back to Casa Grande Monday morning. Phoenix traffic light, stopping at a Costco for shopping. Outside of Phoenix stopped at Beaudry RV, one of Arizona’s largest RV dealers. Looked like a “bone” yard. Like many RV mfg’s & dealers, either closed or under reorganization from the suffering economy. This one under Chapter 11.

Rest of the week held pretty close to the park, reading, walking, and biking. Fighting out a warranty issue with our failed TV. Also some credit card issues from Mexico, ie; “fraud”, Chase Visa handling well. Dined out at a very nice Mexican restaurant with Wisconsin RV friends Bill & Jody. Got e-mail from son Jeff. He will be in the Phoenix area on business 2/9-12^th, so making arrangements to connect. We have cancelled a week in Yuma and will head to Florence so we can get together. Looking forward to seeing him as it has been more than a year.

Saturday 2/7, went with Bill & Jody to the area fairgrounds for the annual “Gourd Festival”. You know, the plant that grows like a squash or pumpkin but in all kinds of funny and unusual shapes. Well, there are people out here that make a profession of carving, decorating, and showing for contest ribbons and sale. It was rather unusual to see all the various “creativities”, workshops, tools, etc.

Left the gourd fest and went to the Casa Grande Ruins a National Monument Park. Hohokam Indian culture dating from 400BC to the 1400 era. Incredible engineering for that period and a very difficult life style. They vanished from the area sometime in the 1400’s with only hypothesis of what happened. Back to the RV park and grilled steaks at Bill & Jody’s beautiful coach.

Sunday the 8^th, left Casa Grande Desert Shadows RV park heading for Florence, AZ Desert Gardens. Nice park, settled in by early afternoon. Cold front and rained moved in to the area. Went into town for a late lunch. Approaching Florence, a state and federal prison area containing some 13 prisons, noticed lots of police activity, spectators, closed streets, etc. Wondered what was going on. Learned we were in the midst of a “Hells Angel Prison Run Rally”, 26^th annual. WOW! Well, we were passed by about 30-40 bikes coming into town. Police present to control any problems. Apparently they do a bike run from prison to prison with entry fees used to support Hells Angels prisoners families. We stopped at a local bar / grille for a burger. Learned a little history from the bartender. Some bikers came in while we were there, talked to a couple. Seemed “civil” to us, just out for a ride from Casa Grande. One was the owner of the Galloping Goose Restaurant there. Not all were members of Hells Angels. New experience for us.

Monday the 9^th, drove to Mesa, AZ to meet son Jeff, here on business. Connected mid afternoon at his hotel after a long day of travel for him from Virginia. Visited in the lounge area, then went to dinner. Really nice to see him and get caught up on things. Back to Desert Gardens, 60 miles approx., in rain and wind. Got to gate realizing we did not have the code to get gate to open. Ouch! Bob scaled the fence to get code from RV, no sooner over, a car came up, so Shari approached for code, opened and in. Thanks!

Tuesday the 10^th, lots of rain, cold & wind last night. Rocked and rolled all night. Moved temps from mid seventies to now high fifties and low sixties. Stayed close to park hoping to here from Jeff. Wednesday the 11^th, took a road trip north towards Phoenix in case Jeff’s afternoon freed up. Heard from him early afternoon and he said he is tied up and has an early fight in the am, so thanked him for squeezing us in on Monday and great to see him. So we decided to continue road trip up the Apache Trail. Beautiful scenic area starting at Apache Junction first stop Canyon Lake. Very beautiful wished we could kayak, but was pretty cool . Continued trail to Tortilla Flats, historic trail stop. Live entertainment outside, three guys doing pretty much country western stuff. Fun stop! Shari bought their CD. With the recent rains, water flooding the road at Tortilla Flats. Thursday Bob down with a cold. Stayed close to home. Friday the 13^th, drove to Mesa and spent the day at the swap meet. Bought a couple of lawn recliner chairs found at a good price. Saturday, Valentines Day, drove to Tucson touring RV dealers looking at motor homes. Half the industry is in bankruptcy, so thought we would look see what’s out there. Well, there are some really good deals, but nothing set off alarms with us, and we keep coming back to our little winter home quite satisfied.

End of week Eleven