November 26 to 27, 2009

Two hot days in a row. 82 F yesterday and 80 F today. I sat near the phone yesterday morning waiting for news on the baby. I hadn't heard anything so I called Lise in Ottawa and she hadn't heard either. But she did call back a few minutes later with the good news. We now have a new grandson, weighing in at 8 lbs. His name is Kaelan. I'm still waiting for pictures.

I went to the Thanksgiving Dinner laid out by the RV Park. As usual it was a grand feast; our chefs had proper chef hats and jackets and looked very professional. The meal was supplemented by dishes brought in by the rvers. I brought a pecan pie that I had baked at the Village Inn :-)
our venerable leader - George
some of the group enjoying the dinner
Today I tried to get away early on my bike ride to avoid the heat. It is Black Friday here and the highways were very quiet. There was hardly anyone heading to work as far as I could see. I took our usual ride through Tempe and Scottsdale, 14.5 miles each way. I think I overdid it somewhat as I was totally beat by the time I hit the 24 mile mark. I managed to limp back to the car and headed back home. As soon as I arrived back at the RV I headed straight to the back for a quick half hour nap. That helped :-)

a view from where we usually start our bike rides - the hill in the background is popular for hiking by the local university students; Arizona State University is nearby. Commercial airlines arriving and departing Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix always fly right overhead and can't be more than a few hundred feet over the hill, particularly on their approach.

November 22 to 25, 2009

We've had some fairly windy days lately, possible bringing in colder weather from the north. But not for a few days yet :)

I drove Lise to the airport yesterday morning. She's going to Ottawa to be with our daughter and her family for the birth. She left at 8:30 in the morning and will be gone for three weeks. It's going to be lonely around here. Even though I had golf and darts yesterday I could already see how different it was to not have her around. It really does change the dynamics of your life.

Today I led a hike up Pass Mountain. It was 2 miles each way and was a pretty steady climb all the way to the pass. There was a good turnout and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Note all the smiles in the photo below. These pictures are partly to document the hike and partly to show the beautiful views - and partly to show Lise what she's missing :).

easy trail to follow

Our group posing under the pass

What a beautiful spot!

During the afternoon I had some work done on the brakes on our Saturn. Afterwards my friend Art and I went to another motorcycle shop in support of his desire to find an old Harley to refurbish. I think today was a reality check as he now has a good idea how much it is likely to cost to take this project on. Nowadays old Harleys are hard to find and if found are picked up pretty quick by collectors. Oh well, we had a good time. I'm sure he'll think of something else to fill his time with.

November 19 to 21, 2009

We've had a couple of quiet days since our last post. I did put in 9 holes of golf on Thursday morning with my friend Art. It was one of my better golf days so was feeling pretty good about myself :-) On the way back to the park Art asked if I wanted to go look at some motorcycles at the motorcycle graveyard up towards Payson. It was a good hour outside of Apache Junction; it was a very scenic route, the same way Lise and I first came into Apache Junction two years ago. This time I got to look around a bit more since I wasn't the driver. You'd have to be a pretty serious mechanic to get some of those motorcycles back into working shape, even if you were able to find all the necessary parts. Not my cup of tea but no sweat for Art. He didn't find anything there so I'm sure he'll be looking around elsewhere to see if there is a motorcycle project he can get his hands on.

Lise and I went to our first happy hour on Friday. We met a couple of new people and got to know some others we hadn't really had an opportunity to sit down with yet. One couple works for a travelling circus setting up venues around the US so get lots of opportunity to see the whole country. What a gig!

This year the park isn't getting involved with recycling like they did last year. So today we carted our recycling materials over to bins in the Apache Junction Administration Building parking lot. It's hard to just stop recycling and throw everything out. I think we've been conditioned too well :-)

I wish now I had brought my camera to take a picture of the motorcycle graveyard. Oh well, you're not really missing anything - it's not exactly a memory you'd want to carry with you for long. ps. weather is still great - 75 F pretty well every day!

November 18, 2009

We've been writing our story as we go but, really, we've also been living it. I can't help but think that spending our winters down here has been such a blessing. We just love what we're able to do here; and we're not alone - we hear similar sentiments from many of our friends here and from the new people we meet each day. I am sure there are better and nobler achievements we can aspire to, but for us at this time, this pause on the circle of life seems to fit just right.

Whew, where did that come from? Now, getting back to normal: I set the alarm last night to be sure I would be up in time to get ready for our Wednesday hike. It's a good thing I did because I didn't sleep well and I'm sure I would have slept late otherwise. We had a typical breakfast of cereal after which I dropped over to the activities building patio area to pick up a cup of coffee. There are a number of men from around the park that get together every weekday morning to discuss the latest news and socialize a bit and they always make pots of coffee for anybody that drops by. Although I've sat in a few times I'm not exactly a regular. But, I do like to get my morning coffee fix.

There was a good turnout for the hike, a moderate climb of about 600 feet over 1.4 miles. It is called the Hieroglyphic Trail and takes us to a nice area of boulders, streams and ponds in a canyon north of the Gold Canyon Subdivision. There are hieroglyphics on the rocks that date back a couple of hundred years. The pond this year was pretty empty as they haven't had much rain and the water table is quite low. There was another group from another park there ahead of us. I think I heard them say their group was about 23 people. This is typical of many of our hikes - that we run across other large groups making the same trip. It seems that the wilderness isn't really that big a place after all.

We headed left of this range
The rock formation here - in the middle of Gold Canyon Subdivision, is called Dinosaur Mtn.

taking a breather and looking at what's ahead

This was a fairly short hike and we were back at the park by 11:30 which was great as we were expecting a high of 78 degrees F today and it's always preferable to be out when it's a bit cooler.

After lunch Lise wanted to go to the library to get more reading material so we did that, picked up a coffee, and spent a quiet afternoon reading. Lise made a turkey meat loaf in the toaster-oven. It came out just fine and with some peas, corn and potatoes made a real nice dinner, with a nice glass of white wine, of course. We'll probably spend the rest of the evening watching TV. All I can say is: "It's all good!"

November 14 to 17, 2009

Saturday was a pretty quiet day for us. Art and Linda invited us to have dinner on their patio as we all bid goodbye to our friends from New Zealand, Peter and Jeanette. It's nice to know that we can enjoy a good meal in the outdoors at this time of year. This is why we like being here so much.

Unfortunately, when we got home we didn't check our phone and forgot that it was our grandson Liam's birthday. Of course, he didn't let that go by unchallenged and called us the next morning. So, we did get to find out how his day went and he didn't seem put out. I'm sure we won't forget next time:-)

On Sunday we went to IHOP for breakfast, one of our favourite places. Later we stopped off at the driving range to hit a few golf balls. Lise is going to join the RV Resort's golf league so she wanted to get out and practice a bit before jumping in with both feet.

More of our friends have been arriving each day so the park is starting to fill up; it's like old home week around here.

On Monday we decided that a bike ride was in order. After getting our exercise regimens out of the way early on we packed a lunch and some goodies, put our bikes on the back of the SUV and headed out for our ride. Of course we went to Scottsdale and biked the multi-use trails that travel through a series of parks following the Hayden Road area in a north/south direction. We travelled 16 miles exactly, and that was quite enough, thankyou! We are still out of shape from not being able to get out as much as we wanted to this summer in Ottawa. On the way home we dropped our bicycles at the bicycle shop for some much needed maintenance. They'll be ready by Tuesday afternoon. I didn't expect they'd be done that quickly. Great!

This morning, Tuesday, after we attended the Activity mtg, we were able to get out and pick up some more groceries. We had a quick lunch and then headed out for our 9-hole golf game. This was the first time Lise has golfed with someone other than me. She did very well and I think she's quite happy with her ball striking today. Sounds like she'll put her name down as a regular member of the group now that she sees that she can keep up with the other players. There's always the fear that everyone will be too good; I know how she feels - I used to feel the same way. Anyway, I'm pleased that this is working out for her. Her positive outing seemed to give her a boost in her dart game tonight too, how cool is that?

November 12 and 13, 2009

Thursday - Art and I booked an early tee time to enjoy a little golf. Our start time was only 8:23 am but it was a lot better than golfing in the early afternoon in the heat of the day. Lise took advantage of my absence by heading out to Curves for a workout.

We finally made it to the Apache Junction Library to find some books. We now have our source of reading material for the winter. We don't need Chapters or Borders book stores where we have to buy our reading entertainment:-)

We had invited friends over for a little social hour which went very well. We sat around talking until we couldn't even see each other any more. The sun sets here about 5:30 and we don't have any outside lights. It would be nice to buy a lamp of some sort and treat the patio as an outdoor living room. Anyway, I thought it went over pretty well and this is the first happy hour we've hosted since we started this life style two years ago. So, job well done.

Friday - Lise is trying to join a Yoga class. She has tried to attend twice now - first the instructor forgot the time; today it seems the session wasn't to start until next week. I think she thinks things are conspiring against her. Maybe the third time will be the charm!

It was a cool windy day today. The sun only came out long enough to set, and give us a nice sunset. I guess it's better than nothing.

November 11, 2009

The day started out cloudy and with a slight breeze. For me, that is perfect for hiking, especially with the days still being so hot. There were 7 of us on the hike. Even though it wasn't difficult, most of us were feeling the strain during the uphill portion of the hike. After the snack break we headed downhill on the other half of the loop trail. I always find the downhill part much harder. It puts stress on my knees; and I don't think I was alone - others had similar complaints. Anyway, it's not too bad and recovery time is quick.

We were back at the RV in time for lunch. After lunch we had decided to check out the library but forgot that it would be closed for Remembrance Day. Oh well, it wasn't a one task trip as we had decided to do a little shopping so we could have a happy hour with some of our friends tomorrow. We're inviting Art and Linda from Whitehorse and their friends Peter and Jeanette from New Zealand over for some social time.

Same Saguaro as you saw the other day - different posers! A little hazy. This is the view from our snack stop