January 25 to February 4, 2010

Time just flies when you're having fun and certainly the last 10 or 11 days have been that. We are pretty busy every day and by the time we settle down in the evenings I don't always feel like updating our blog. The weather has been great and we have been doing all the usual things and trying not to think that we only have two months left before we have to leave this beautiful area. Of course we do get to see family and the grandkids again. It's all good! Perhaps I'll let some pictures tell the story this week.

First off I thought I'd take a picture of part of our living area to give you a sense of where we spend most of our time - when we're not out having fun. With the two slides out we probably have about 13 to 14 feet of width here, and it's about 20 feet from the bathroom area to the driver and passenger chairs at the front. It has always seemed large enough for us.

Here are a couple of hot rods framing our motorhome in the background. The owner of the silver hot rod (who is staying in our park) got some of his friends together and showed off the vehicles they had purchased at the recent auctions around the Phoenix area. It brought out many of the residents of the park - as you can see.

I was out for a hike with a friend last week and we mainly bushwacked our way through the desert. This is a shot of the Superstition Mountains from a different view.
Same hike, different view. This type of hike is fun because it's more exploratory and not so much getting to a destination and returning.
Some young ladies out for a ride were kind enough to pose for us in front of the Superstition Mountains. Some of these trails are multi-use and it is not unusual to see riders out enjoying the scenery from horseback.

A few weeks ago I got to go on a great hike with our hiking group but Lise had to go to a softball game and couldn't make it. This hike is popular for many of the local residents, particularly the younger crowd, and is a short, steep climb to the top of Piestewa Peak It is 2.4 miles to the summit and back (1200 ft vertical gain). Piestewa Peak is named in honor of Army Spc. Lori Ann Piestewa , the first Native American woman to die in combat in the US military. Since Lise wasn't able to go on the hike earlier she and I decided to do it by ourselves last Friday. Normally we don't go hiking by ourselves but this route is well marked and with all those people on the hill we figured we'd do just fine. This picture should give you some idea of how steep this climb is.

Lise is resting here after a very aggressive push to the top. We used this hike as a test of our stamina and climbed this hill at a very good pace. Phoenix residential and industrial areas laid out below.