March 25 to 29, 2009

We've been out on a couple of bicycle rides since the last posting. We need to keep somewhat active as things are sure a lot quieter lately. Today we took a short ride toward Gold Canyon, east of Apache Junction. It was just the two of us and we took our time and enjoyed just being outside. The weather was warm enough, about 80 degrees farenheit, and the route was a mix of pavement and gravel on streets adjacent to the Superstition Mountains. Here are a couple of pictures from today:

cactus in bloom

Superstition Mountains in the background

There are starting to be a lot of flowers on the cactus. We should go out specifically to get some pictures before we leave the sunny south for the summer. You'll notice I use a lot of pictures of Lise as her pictures somehow always turn out better; not sure why that is :-)

We may be going on a hike next week. We'll see. It is supposed to be in the high hills and therefore not likely to involve interaction with snakes. Time to get our hiking boots back out, I guess.

The Mesa Market that has been open on weekends all winter is closing for the season. Today was the last day. There were a large number of people walking around the tents looking for bargains, us included. I just like going to people watch. We don't usually spend much money there.

There have been a couple of happy hours this week which we have attended. We basically decided not to go to too many this year as we end up eating too much and the ingredients are not always the healthiest. That doesn't mean it doesn't taste good, it's just that the food is inconsistent with our current dietary habits. But this week we have decided to attend them as it may be the last opportunity to see some of the friends we've made while we've been here. I think many others felt the same way as a lot of people showed up.

We've been tweaking our trip map a little bit and may decide to take a route that stays off the Interstate highways a bit more. We compare notes with friends in the park that travel in the same general direction as us and get ideas that way. Looks like we might be going through Dodge City, Kansas now. That should be fun. Hopefully we can stop long enough to look around a bit.

Got to sit down now and watch the rest of the Juno Awards (Canadian Music Awards). Will post again soon.

March 17 to 24, 2009

Life is starting to slow down for us again. People are starting to leave the park and head home, at various speeds, to their summer locations. It's still pretty cold in some parts of the country. Two couples that we spent a lot of time with this winter have hit the road today and are heading back to their Canadian homes.

With everyone leaving, there are not as many organized activities to participate in. There is still lots to keep us busy, however. We attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game on Friday. It was very hot and our seats didn't have any shade. Then on Saturday we experienced the opposite end of the spectrum by attending a Phoenix Coyotes/Vancouver Canucks hockey game. We wore warm clothing and it was still cold! Some people actually went wearing shorts. Not this guy. The game was exciting though - if you like onesided games. Vancouver showed up on paper but that's all. Phoenix played very well and executed some pretty good playmaking. Plus, we saw that shot that's probably on all the highlight reels this week - when Phoenix was getting a penalty and Vancouver put the goal in their own net, from the blue line; and the goal scorer was the same person that got the penalty for Phoenix.

We've stopped hiking as there are too many snakes around; the weather this year has been anywhere from 10 to 20 degrees warmer than average, and as a result the snakes are out earlier. We will still bike though, and will find other things to keep us busy.

We've been planning our route home. So far it looks like we'll travel along the I-40 to Oklahoma City and then up I-44 and I-70 to Indianapolis, then northward towards Sarnia where we expect to cross into Canada. We'll visit Sicard in Hamilton (where we bought our motorhome) for some maintenance, and Tech Mobile in Lindsay to check out our satellite dish. After that we'll visit family in the Toronto area and then head to Ottawa for the summer. We'll be staying at Recreationland just outside of Rockland, Ontario. We'll finally get to meet Sandra and Gordon whose blog we've been following for a couple of years now. Sandra's blog is http://srmerrikinblog.blogspot.com/ .

A dear friend of ours, who we met and got to know in Whitehorse, Yukon, passed last week. Joyce Hayden was a remarkable woman, a strong women's rights activist, and a great person. She'll be missed. Our deepest sympathies go out to Earle and family members.

March 8 to 16, 2009

This is like a 'set-aside some time to do necessary stuff ' day. Lise has been working on our taxes and on those of family members. It is amazing how we can do this while travelling far from our home base. The technical tools available make it so easy - as long as we get all our mail on time!

Lise and I golfed on Sunday, March 8th. I enjoy being able to golf together. It is certainly fun with my regular golfing buddies as well, but it's nice to see that Lise seems to be picking the game up and enjoying it. On Monday, I backed out of an impromptu hike up the Dutchman Trail, off the Peralta trailhead. I had a scheduled golf game with our group from the park and I didn't want to miss that. So, Lise enjoyed the hike - and provided some pictures, while I knocked that old ball around once again :-)

Tuesday was spent running from one thing to another. I golfed, Lise practiced her violin, and then went to her lesson, and after dinner we participated in a 'Canada/USA darts tournament made up of people in our park. That was a lot of fun! There were 12 people for each side so we made 3 groups of four per side and had a round-robin tournament. Canada ended up winning by capturing the last game to break a tie (3/3). Everyone enjoyed it and it's another example of the things we do here in the park to generate some fun!

Wednesday and Saturday we went for a bike ride along our usual bike path. It takes over half an hour to get there but it's well worth it. Our total for the two days was 52 miles. One thing is for sure, it helps you sleep well at night. We need the recovery time.

Thursday was another day of conflicting activities. I had golf, of course, and there was a hike scheduled along the Arizona Trail. Lise went on the hike, I golfed, and then drove the hour out to the trail and caught up with the hikers at the spot they stopped to have lunch. It's a little more nerve racking at this time of year, with the weather being so hot, as we have to watch out for rattle snakes. Lise and I had brought our walkie talkies so I was able to find out how far ahead they were and keep in touch since it's not a great idea to be out hiking by yourself. Some of our group did see a five foot diamond back rattlesnake on the way back. It was less than 3 feet from the trail when they noticed it (heard it's rattle), but it slithered away. Unfortunately (or fortunately :-) ) we didn't get to see it as we had already passed by that area and were quite a ways ahead. If it was up to Lise we wouldn't have any interest in getting anywhere near any snake, let alone a rattlesnake!

Nice view - Dutchman trail picture

The (Ocotillo)cactus is starting to bloom and the flowers are coming out

The Happy Hikers :-)

Taken from the base of the cactus (Saguaro)

February 21st to March 7, 2009

Wow! I can hardly believe two weeks have passed already. Who has time to blog nowadays :-)

Our friends have concluded their visit in sunny, warm Arizona and returned to the cold climate of the far north. Did I mention 'warm'? I can't remember the last time it rained. It seems every day has been sunny and warm - but who's complaining? Not me!



I never did get a picture of them while they were here to prove to folks back home that they really were enjoying the sunny south. But, I'll bet that Alma's suntan will be proof enough, right Alma? I think overall that they had a good holiday and were able to experience firsthand what winter down here is like, and the vast array (that's for Kathy to look up in the Wickepedia) of things to do here. Lise and I can both vouch for how busy we can become. With all due regard to all you people still working and stressed about how time consuming and stressful your jobs are, we can truthfully say that we are busier now than when we were working.



We've both had our fair share of golf in the last two weeks. In fact, I think it's time to slow down a bit and just golf our regular rounds. Naturally we have been out hiking - Massacre grounds last week and South Mountain (Mormon Trail) this week. Both hikes were fun and just moderately challenging which, for us, was a bit of a relief after some of our recent hikes.



We also went to see the Dutton's one evening. They are a musical family and are known for being on America's Got Talent. I believe they made it into the top ten. It was a fun evening. We went with our friends from the Yukon - actually we were their guests as a bit of a thankyou for helping them with their arrangements at this end.



We've been out biking a little more frequently lately. You can't just live on one hike a week and expect to stay in shape - or lose weight. We also went to the Cubs/Dodgers game yesterday - love watching baseball but I'd rather it was the Blue Jays :-) We also went to the annual rodeo held in Apache Junction. It was impressive, and I think the pictures captured the flavour a little bit.



Today Lise played slowpitch baseball; a fun game set up as Canadians vs Americans. We won 17 to 3. Sounds like Lise was one of the stars of the game. Some women approached her afterward and were asking if she would play baseball for them next year. Who'd have thought it!



That's it for now. Sorry I was so late in getting this out. I'll just attach some photos from our last two weeks. Cheers.


This is one of the scenic stops on our bike route

He stayed on for the full 8 seconds!
I like this one!






Lise trying to decide whether she'll get claustrophobic or not


Guess not!

This is a " enough pictures of me already" look :-)

natural tunnel about 30 feet long, caused by these fallen rocks

Feb. 14 to 20, 2009

Most of Sunday was spent at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport picking up our Yukon friends. They came in on two separate planes, one early afternoon and one early evening. Naturally both planes were running late but with easy access to flight information over the internet there wasn't much problem that way. We did put on over 140 miles going back and forth though :-) Not a problem for us, just helped fill out the day. Art's golf clubs didn't arrive with him but the airline was able to retrieve them after they were routed through Chicago and then back to Phoenix. Not bad since they were shipped from the Yukon - Huh?

We've been out to the golf courses twice so far and expect a couple of more next week before he has to leave. I was hoping we'd have some pictures of them in front of their rental RV but I haven't managed it as yet. Maybe later.

They've been enjoying the beautiful weather and it has warmed up considerably over the last two days and is now in the 80s, with the same type of weather forecast for some time to come.

Wednesday's hike was up Picket Post Mountain. Lise and I have never been up before and we knew it was a tough hike; but it was much tougher than we thought. We made it to the top though and we found the famous mail box on the top of the mountain. It was filled with letters and notes, and a journal, placed there by previous hikers. We added out names and comments and are now part of that history! We liked the hike but it was pretty tough and somewhat dangerous in places and we don't think we'll be making that climb again. We're not getting paid to do this; and we don't want to fall off somewhere and do some permanent damage. In fact, I believe this hike was harder than Flat Iron and that's saying something!

Looking up the canyon we're going to be traversing

my beautiful wife silhouetted against an awesome backdrop

This picture represents a pretty good depiction of the kind

of climb this was!

View at the top

Our motley crew of hikers surrounding the mail box

On Thursday, while Art and I were out golfing and Alma was deep into shopping mode, Lise went out on a bicycle ride with our friends Terry and Tina from the park. They drove out to Tempe and biked on the paved bicycle paths up there. They biked about 24 miles in total and stopped up for lunch at a pizza place in Scottsdale. We'd been looking for that restaurant for some time now as we'd heard it was quite good. So, next time Lise and I head up there we'll have a good place to stop for a light lunch.

Friday was going to be our rest day as we'd had a pretty busy week, but our friends Claude and Marlane, also in the park, invited us out for a hike so naturally we accepted - being gluttons for punishment. It was a much easier hike among small rolling hills and was a good way to stretch out those muscles that had been tortured on the earlier hike. We brought sandwiches so were able to have lunch while sitting on some rocks looking out over the surrounding vista. The weather was perfect, about 74 F and the hike was thoroughly enjoyable.

That's our week so far; I'm sure we'll have lots to report next time. Be well - summer isn't far off :-)

February 7 to 13, 2009

Well, since our last post the weather has gotten decidedly colder. We've been enjoying a rather long warm spell of weather in the high 70s to the low 80s, which I understand is warmer than usual for this time of year. Last weekend we had a significant amount of rain and the temperatures dropped down to a daily high of about 59 early in the week. It has been gradually warming up since and today we enjoyed a balmy 65 degree day.

In spite of the weather it didn't interfere with our usual activities for the week, so all is good. On Wednesday we had a hike up Usury Mtn. to the pass, a distance of about 1.8 miles, a fairly easy hike. We had 23 people out for this particular hike. We forgot our camera back at the RV so don't have any pictures. Once we reached the pass 5 of us continued around the mountain and came back to the parking lot from a different direction. It added about another mile and a half to our hike and we didn't get back til about 2 hours later than the main group which returned on the same trail we came up on. It was fun bushwacking a different route. It took us about half an hour of traversing the hillsides before we found the trail we were looking for.

Our friends, Michel and Micheline from la belle province (Quebec) left the park on Thursday. They were heading to Texas to spend some time before continuing east. We enjoyed meeting them this year and have made new friends that we will probably meet again in the future. It's a small world when living this life style.

Our hike coordinator arranged for a late afternoon hike up Silly Mountain, just southeast of Apache Junction. It is an easy hike, offers great sunset views, and we cap it off with pizza and beer (or soda) at the Garage Restaurant - a very popular watering hole. Unfortunately the restaurant was full to overflowing so we decided to go to the pizza place across the street. They didn't sell beer but two of our group went up the road to bring back two cases of 24 for those that wanted some. Apparently the pizza place didn't have a problem with this arrangement and we had a great time before heading back to the park. There were 33 people on this hike; it was popular last year as well. I wonder why :-)

Silly Mountain as seen from the parking lot

It's an easy hike but has some steep parts

as the sun was setting behind me it cast the mountains

in a reddish hue; love these views

some of our hikers, on top of Silly Mtn.; note Superstition Mtn in background

February 2 to 6, 2009

On Wednesday Lise joined the hiking group to hike up Fish Creek Canyon. It was about 3 miles round trip and considered a fairly difficult climb. But, as you can tell from these pictures, greater risk equals greater reward. The small waterfalls and the pond are like an oasis in the desert; and the mountain sheep across the pond, are all worth the effort. Naturally I was very disappointed not to have gone on that hike. But we are apparently going to try it again later in the year, so all is not lost ;-).

how great a place is this to stop for lunch -

and with uninvited, but welcome guests across the pond;
(or perhaps we're the ones that were uninvited)!


hiking isn't just walking on a trail :-)

the hiking group (they're all from our park)

I didn't go on the hike as my knee was still stiff and sore from the previous two hikes so I thought I'd rest it. So, while they were out enjoying themselves in the canyon, I rode my bicycle over 20 miles on the city streets of Apache Junction and Mesa. It was quite a bit longer than I intended to ride and I got a bit carried away. However, after I limped back to the park my recovery time was quite short so I was wimping out for nothing :-).

I think Lise had the best of it this time and I can't wait to experience that trip for myself.

On Friday, we decided to visit the Arizona - Sonora Desert Museum, near Tucson, Arizona. It was about a two hour drive, and apparently an all day event so we left fairly early. It is a zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place. There were animals native to the area placed in enclosed, but natural desert settings. It was an enjoyable day spent walking around this 21 acre site. The highlight was a demonstration of free flight by a covy of Harris' Hawks. If I hadn't been so caught up in the demonstration, particularly when the hawks would fly right over my head, or between Lise and I at shoulder level, I would have gotten some great pictures. Can you imagine a picture of a hawk heading right toward you and about 5 feet away. What a picture that would make!!

Anyway, it was a great day and we capped it off by visiting Grimaldi's Pizza when we arrived back in the Phoenix area. They make their pizzas in coal fired brick ovens. Great pizza.

We heard from some Yukon friends yesterday (Friday). They are flying down to Phoenix next Sunday and will be renting a Class C RV for about two weeks and staying in our park. I don't know what the others will be doing but I do know there'll be lots of golf for me in the near future. Art said he hadn't been golfing since he was down visiting us last year. And, as you know, I'm not one to turn down an opportunity to get a little golf in. We're looking forward to seeing them and they're using this trip as a dry run to see if they want to spend their winters down here or in the Yukon - this needs a decision? Actually, spending winters in the Yukon isn't so bad. We've certainly spent many winters there.