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| From 2009- 02- 13 to 17 |
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| From Tombstone AZ |
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| From Tombstone AZ |
John is learning a card game called Faro from this Old Timer....oops I mean Doc Halliday! :-)
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tombstone: The Town Too Tough Too Die
The Wild, Wild West is here! Monday afternoon we pull into Tombstone RV http://www.tombstone-rv.com/ and right off we notice the quaint, homey atmosphere and adjust our expectations to old time western hospitality. We mosey into Tombstone and walk down the dusty, dirt covered main street and try not to fake draw our six shooters. http://www.cityoftombstone.com/ . John & Lyle are excited & reminiscing about their favorite old western TV shows and their "Gene Autrey" pistols with holster that Santa brought several Christmas's ago! It is sunny, quiet late Monday afternoon in Tombstone and the town looks like one we have seemed in a Movie......probably you too.
The Earp Boys and Doc Halliday add to the Old Wild West ambiance. The town survies on tourists and the merchants all play a role.
John is learning a card game called Faro from this Old Timer....oops I mean Doc Halliday! :-)
John is learning a card game called Faro from this Old Timer....oops I mean Doc Halliday! :-)
The Last Few Days at Casa Grande
The panic is on...our days are limited at Casa Grande! Both motor homes are being cleaned and waxed by John and Lyle and they are gleaming in the bright sunshine. We know that some of the towns we will be visiting on our trip east are quite small so "stocking up" with groceries, beer and wine is essential and a fun thing to do!
Friday Feb 13 is our day for the Mesa Market and we are looking forward to the trip.
http://www.mesamarket.com/
The market is huge with four buildings and several hundred stalls, Our walkie talkies come in handy as we often wander off and lose each other in the growing crowd of people.
Of course we all have our things of interest.......especially John as he loves the selection of TOOLS (aka...stuff) ...this is Mecca!
Look at the smiles on Lyle and Dorothy...they already found there first treasure!
We always shop for Grandkid stuff......and neglect their parents! Oh well!
The other reason we enjoy the trip to Mesa is the late lunch stop at Queen Creek Olive Mill Restaurant! The selection of stuffed olives and olive oils here make our heart sing....our is it the great lunches here? You must try this place...if you can find it as it is off the GPS grid but they have good directions on their website.
http://www.queencreekolivemill.com/tours.jsp And yes we bought stuffed olives to serve at family dinners Sherry and De!
Saturday is Valentines Day and it is just another reason to get together for food and drinks and we are hosting Lyle & Dorothy for a Valentines Dinner. I love the planning aand the cooking and it starts out simple enough with the food preparation for Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk and Brownies with Caramel Sauce. Saturday morning I am helping Alex & Alison Richards send photos to their son and it just makes sense to include them for the Valentines dinner. When our next door neighbours, Jack & Gayle Olson, arrive home later that afternoon from Tuscon.....well we can't leave them out!
Dinner for Eight in our Motor Home is what it is! The guests arrive with wine; Jack with his large brown jug of Scotch and we have a Party!
Sunday was a quiet day in our area. However, we all get together for Happy Hour......it is tradition here and we are on the road tomoorw. Dinner is Chinese food at Luckys Restaurant which we discovered last week. Thursday we enjoyed lunch at a new Mexican Reastaurant "Eva's"....we will come back to this one another time. Beautiful decor and great food.
http://www.evasmexcianfood.com/
Friday Feb 13 is our day for the Mesa Market and we are looking forward to the trip.
http://www.mesamarket.com/
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| From Mesa Market Feb 13 2009 |
The market is huge with four buildings and several hundred stalls, Our walkie talkies come in handy as we often wander off and lose each other in the growing crowd of people.
Of course we all have our things of interest.......especially John as he loves the selection of TOOLS (aka...stuff) ...this is Mecca!
 |
| From Mesa Market Feb 13 2009 |
Look at the smiles on Lyle and Dorothy...they already found there first treasure!
 |
| From Mesa Market Feb 13 2009 |
We always shop for Grandkid stuff......and neglect their parents! Oh well!
 |
| From Mesa Market Feb 13 2009 |
The other reason we enjoy the trip to Mesa is the late lunch stop at Queen Creek Olive Mill Restaurant! The selection of stuffed olives and olive oils here make our heart sing....our is it the great lunches here? You must try this place...if you can find it as it is off the GPS grid but they have good directions on their website.
http://www.queencreekolivemill.com/tours.jsp And yes we bought stuffed olives to serve at family dinners Sherry and De!
Saturday is Valentines Day and it is just another reason to get together for food and drinks and we are hosting Lyle & Dorothy for a Valentines Dinner. I love the planning aand the cooking and it starts out simple enough with the food preparation for Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk and Brownies with Caramel Sauce. Saturday morning I am helping Alex & Alison Richards send photos to their son and it just makes sense to include them for the Valentines dinner. When our next door neighbours, Jack & Gayle Olson, arrive home later that afternoon from Tuscon.....well we can't leave them out!
Dinner for Eight in our Motor Home is what it is! The guests arrive with wine; Jack with his large brown jug of Scotch and we have a Party!
Sunday was a quiet day in our area. However, we all get together for Happy Hour......it is tradition here and we are on the road tomoorw. Dinner is Chinese food at Luckys Restaurant which we discovered last week. Thursday we enjoyed lunch at a new Mexican Reastaurant "Eva's"....we will come back to this one another time. Beautiful decor and great food.
http://www.evasmexcianfood.com/
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Quiet Days in Casa Grande
Tuesday Feb
Our day started with a Newmar Breakfast at the Holiday Inn where we had the chance to visit with 40 people and to share our common interest....our RVs made by Newmar! It actually is interesting to visit with other people who have been traveling in their RV for 10, 15 and sometime 20 years. A lot of them are seasonal travelers like Canadian Snowbirds while some have sold their main place of residence and their Newmar RV is "home". They share advice and great stories of places visited. We attended the "Newmar" breakfast last year plus we recognized some new friends that we met at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque.
The wind cancelled our Pickle Ball Game so we attended the resort "Craft Show" which was so well attended that it was almost impossible to get close to inspect the interesting crafts that were on well stocked tables. That saved me some money as I am not inclined to wade through people to buy a "pot scrubber" or a "table runner" even if I could use them! We were impressed with the talent and output of the crafters.
Free time is shopping time! There is a new "Outlet Mall" about five minutes from our park and I can always find an interesting "treasure" for the motor home in "Bed, Bath and Beyond". The new Target store has the variety in storage container for odds and sodds for our use. All RVs have limited storage space and the right size container makes quite a difference.
Take a look at this Website and you will see the selection of shops available for poor weather days! Let it rain!
http://www.promenadeatcasagrande.com/directory.asp?r=directory
Lyle and Dorothy have friends visiting: Ron and Yvette Burndred, aka the "Mad Butcher" from Innisfail and since it is now mid afternoon it is also Happy Hour. We have met Ron & Yvette before and we know that their stories are very colourful and extremely humorous! Ron and Yvette are visiting in the area and have their new "Goldwing" with them so will be "on the road". Who knew that an abattoir would provide such fodder for great tales! Gotta go!
Monday Feb 09/09 The weather is cool and windy and 62C (16C) feels quite chilly for even us Canadians after 89F(31C)last week . Flagstaff and Sedona received record snow falls in the last 2 days......29 inches for Flagstaff so it is easy to accept that the weather system brought us heavy rain over night and cool and windy days! Monday morning is a great Computer/Blog day for me and it is a good thing that I am not distracted by great outdoor weather as it is back to square one to create a Blog, upload photos to Picasa Web Album and insert photos and web address links!
The computer room is a quiet place to work but there were several seniors with that desperate "can you help me" look for me to get much accomplished. I did help a nice couple "download" tutorials for their laptop & their camera so they could get ahead on their own.
Lucky for me our Motor Home is also a pleasant place to catch up on my Travel Blog!
Monday afternoon was a great time day to explore other RV parks so the four of us toured the area and discovered that while there are a lot of alternatives none of them are close to the caliber of the park that we are in......though all are less expensive,
One of the highlights of our tour was that I met Suzan (Don) King's sister, Candi Schopfer who hails from Chauvin, Alberta. Candi and Neil have enjoyed Casista Verede RV Resort for several years. Candi has the same warm hospitality as Suzan and she shared valuable information's well as her tea! Thanks Candi!
"Running Of The Gourds"
Did you miss it? The Wuertz Farm's 6th Annual Gourd Festival that was on the weekend of February 6 -8th at the Pinal County Fairground!! Well we didn't! Who knew all the artistic creations that talented people can make with a Gourd?
This is a well attended event that is not just for gawking tourists. It is a judged event for the artists and place to them to display their wares, offer classes, buy gourds for their next project and visit with fellow artists and suppliers.
Check out http://www.wuertzfarm.com/
This is a well attended event that is not just for gawking tourists. It is a judged event for the artists and place to them to display their wares, offer classes, buy gourds for their next project and visit with fellow artists and suppliers.
Check out http://www.wuertzfarm.com/
Monday, February 9, 2009
Palm Creek Golf & RV Resort
Tuesday February 3 - We arrived in Casa Grande after lunch and picked up our Motor Home that had been in storage since October 2008. We forgot the code to the gate to get in and had to wait for the mamanger to return. I had picked it and said "we don't need to write this one down...so simple!" Next time we will WRITE it down!
This is a Favorite Rv Park for us and Lyle and DorothyKilpatrick who are already here and we are looking forward to connecting with them again.
http://www.palmcreekgolf.com/
The Park is extremely well kept, a golf course, swimming pools, hot tubs, lots of activities and the friendliest people! There are lots of Canadians and more importantly lots of Albertans. In the section we are in the Albertans are from the Red Deer area. We are parked next to the Kilpatricks and on the other side of us are the Olsens, farmers near Pine Lake & at the end of the row are Alex & Allison Richards who farm near MacKenzie subdivision.
What a Welcome - Gayle & Jack Olsen hosted Happy Hour & Burgers for the Red Deer group on our first night and on our second we were hosted by Lyle & Dorothy!
Our first week in Palm Creek is busy with activities, happy hours, BBQ's, shopping plus getting the RV ready for a months trip to Texas. The RVers are younger and more activity than some of the parks so there is always something to do. The "Activities" room has posted over a dozen different scheduled activities.....sports, hobbies, crafts, etc. We signed up for Pickle Ball lessons as how strenuous can that be? Well.....ask Lyle as he called it "Cripple Ball" and limped to a Chiropractor for an adjustment after the 1st week. It is a lot of fun.
http://www.pickleball.com/
We seem to enjoy Happy Hour and Dominoes the best! Hum what does this mean?
Here we are having a pleasant evening with Larry/Eunice Leasak, Art/Norma McMullen and Lyle & Dorothy. We sat on the patio playing dominoes till 11.00 on thursday evening!
This is a Favorite Rv Park for us and Lyle and DorothyKilpatrick who are already here and we are looking forward to connecting with them again.
http://www.palmcreekgolf.com/
The Park is extremely well kept, a golf course, swimming pools, hot tubs, lots of activities and the friendliest people! There are lots of Canadians and more importantly lots of Albertans. In the section we are in the Albertans are from the Red Deer area. We are parked next to the Kilpatricks and on the other side of us are the Olsens, farmers near Pine Lake & at the end of the row are Alex & Allison Richards who farm near MacKenzie subdivision.
What a Welcome - Gayle & Jack Olsen hosted Happy Hour & Burgers for the Red Deer group on our first night and on our second we were hosted by Lyle & Dorothy!
Our first week in Palm Creek is busy with activities, happy hours, BBQ's, shopping plus getting the RV ready for a months trip to Texas. The RVers are younger and more activity than some of the parks so there is always something to do. The "Activities" room has posted over a dozen different scheduled activities.....sports, hobbies, crafts, etc. We signed up for Pickle Ball lessons as how strenuous can that be? Well.....ask Lyle as he called it "Cripple Ball" and limped to a Chiropractor for an adjustment after the 1st week. It is a lot of fun.
http://www.pickleball.com/
We seem to enjoy Happy Hour and Dominoes the best! Hum what does this mean?
Here we are having a pleasant evening with Larry/Eunice Leasak, Art/Norma McMullen and Lyle & Dorothy. We sat on the patio playing dominoes till 11.00 on thursday evening!
At Last! On the Road to warmer climates!
It is always great to drive south on a day that another winter snow storm is blowing into Red Deer, Alberta! On Thursday January 29 we headed to Calgary to visit Joe Koziol (& Janice) who has been in the Foothills Hospital since Dec 08/08. Joe is now on the way to a full recovery! Way to go Joe!
We drove out of the 4 inches of fresh snow about Olds and onto dry pavement which luckily stayed dry all the way to Casa Grande, Az.
We over-nighted at Joan's (John's sister) in Calgary and enjoyed her famous lasagna and pictures of their Mexico visit at Christmas. Thanks Joan & Brian!
Our 1st day of travel was from Calgary to Idaho Falls. Our drive through Idaho was picturesque with fresh snow covered fields and ice frosted trees (but dry roads!).
Day two we drove into warm weather and brown desert country side as we drove into Mesquite (25C).
We stayed at Virgin River Casino and Hotel
http://www.virginriver.com/hotel.html
where only one of us(John)was slightly lucky at the machines! The rooms are adequate and clean but the casino is tired and too smoky. The Eureka next door suitrd us better soo check it out if you are looking for rooms and a fun evening in Mesquite.
The development in Mesquite has been recent and the residential area that we drove through had some attractive houses at very affordable prices. If you are looking for a fairly quiet, casino, desert town with resonable cost housing, hotels & meals this may be for you. http://www.mesquitenv.com/
We are in Holiday mode and Day 3/Sunday is a short trip to Laughlin, Nv where we booked into the Golden Nugget Casino http://www.goldennugget.com/laughlin/accommodations/index.asp
We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Hotel Lobby, Rooms and Casino! For non-smokers the casino, bars and restaurants are really pleasant! We spent a fun afternoon at the sports bar watching the Super Bowl with some very loyal, boisterous, colourful Cardinal Fans. There were two very knowledgeable "armchair" quarter back coaches who added a lot of colour to the game. We finished watching the game in the Joe's Crab Shack downstairs where the fans were younger & noisier.....and having even more fun!. Weather has been warm & balmy for the last 2 days! Yeah! This was a fun day and I was putting in time at a Penny Machine and won $120.00!
This was encouraging so I continued and so did my winning streak........it was a Hoot!
Monday Feb 2 - Laughlin to Sun City West, Az http://www.suncitywest.org/
It is a beautiful sunny 28 C day and we are delighted that we are able to spend a day/night with our long time friends, Jim & Jean Jones who live in north/west Phoenix in the retirement community of Sun City West where the roads in the subdivision allow for golf carts on the main streets! Jim and Jean's house backs onto the golf course and I watched a humming bird splash in their fountain outside their kitchen window! It is lovely here and Jean's makes the best Eggplant Parmigiana in the Mid West......probably the US! Jean is recovering from December back surgery and is having an amazing recovery! Click on the photo to enlarge.
We drove out of the 4 inches of fresh snow about Olds and onto dry pavement which luckily stayed dry all the way to Casa Grande, Az.
We over-nighted at Joan's (John's sister) in Calgary and enjoyed her famous lasagna and pictures of their Mexico visit at Christmas. Thanks Joan & Brian!
Our 1st day of travel was from Calgary to Idaho Falls. Our drive through Idaho was picturesque with fresh snow covered fields and ice frosted trees (but dry roads!).
Day two we drove into warm weather and brown desert country side as we drove into Mesquite (25C).
We stayed at Virgin River Casino and Hotel
http://www.virginriver.com/hotel.html
where only one of us(John)was slightly lucky at the machines! The rooms are adequate and clean but the casino is tired and too smoky. The Eureka next door suitrd us better soo check it out if you are looking for rooms and a fun evening in Mesquite.
The development in Mesquite has been recent and the residential area that we drove through had some attractive houses at very affordable prices. If you are looking for a fairly quiet, casino, desert town with resonable cost housing, hotels & meals this may be for you. http://www.mesquitenv.com/
We are in Holiday mode and Day 3/Sunday is a short trip to Laughlin, Nv where we booked into the Golden Nugget Casino http://www.goldennugget.com/laughlin/accommodations/index.asp
We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the Hotel Lobby, Rooms and Casino! For non-smokers the casino, bars and restaurants are really pleasant! We spent a fun afternoon at the sports bar watching the Super Bowl with some very loyal, boisterous, colourful Cardinal Fans. There were two very knowledgeable "armchair" quarter back coaches who added a lot of colour to the game. We finished watching the game in the Joe's Crab Shack downstairs where the fans were younger & noisier.....and having even more fun!. Weather has been warm & balmy for the last 2 days! Yeah! This was a fun day and I was putting in time at a Penny Machine and won $120.00!
This was encouraging so I continued and so did my winning streak........it was a Hoot!
Monday Feb 2 - Laughlin to Sun City West, Az http://www.suncitywest.org/
It is a beautiful sunny 28 C day and we are delighted that we are able to spend a day/night with our long time friends, Jim & Jean Jones who live in north/west Phoenix in the retirement community of Sun City West where the roads in the subdivision allow for golf carts on the main streets! Jim and Jean's house backs onto the golf course and I watched a humming bird splash in their fountain outside their kitchen window! It is lovely here and Jean's makes the best Eggplant Parmigiana in the Mid West......probably the US! Jean is recovering from December back surgery and is having an amazing recovery! Click on the photo to enlarge.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
What is Dress Club?
I posted some photos on Facebook from December's Dress Club. It was our group's Christmas dinner followed by a gift exchange. Our hostess Jan is the quintessential queen of Christmas and her home exudes warmth and charm. The charm of the evening was reflected in the photos and my niece Rhonda Redner McFaul commented on them and then asked: "What is a Dress Club?"
Our Dress Club is a social group of 10 women who get together one night a month, for our group it is the 3rd Wednesday of the Month. The hostess decides on an activity for the evening plus serves either some snacks or dessert. Our group also serves wine and since we often car pool there is always a designated driver. We seldom exceed two bottles of wine; one red, one white unless it is a dinner meeting (opening, wind-up and Christmas). The activities for the evening are as varied as the members and our interests. Such as: small craft projects, wood carving, private Art Gallery tour, a Laughter Session, a Psychic, Cemetery Tour, Journalling, Boating, Golfing lesson, Cooking Class, Red Cross Disaster Volunteer, a Choral Group, Reiki and even the secrets of a Private Eye! We all enjoy the variation of the group and our activities.
We each pay the hostess $25.00 and often she will share her purchase. This year I am buying a bracelet for my new Pandora Charms. The hostess is selected randomly, high card draw or on availability. We each have a Secret Pal who remembers our Birthday, Anniverary and at Christmas.
We have delevoped very strong, unique frienships, learned a lot and have had a great deal of fun!
See for yourself!
Our Dress Club is a social group of 10 women who get together one night a month, for our group it is the 3rd Wednesday of the Month. The hostess decides on an activity for the evening plus serves either some snacks or dessert. Our group also serves wine and since we often car pool there is always a designated driver. We seldom exceed two bottles of wine; one red, one white unless it is a dinner meeting (opening, wind-up and Christmas). The activities for the evening are as varied as the members and our interests. Such as: small craft projects, wood carving, private Art Gallery tour, a Laughter Session, a Psychic, Cemetery Tour, Journalling, Boating, Golfing lesson, Cooking Class, Red Cross Disaster Volunteer, a Choral Group, Reiki and even the secrets of a Private Eye! We all enjoy the variation of the group and our activities.
We each pay the hostess $25.00 and often she will share her purchase. This year I am buying a bracelet for my new Pandora Charms. The hostess is selected randomly, high card draw or on availability. We each have a Secret Pal who remembers our Birthday, Anniverary and at Christmas.
We have delevoped very strong, unique frienships, learned a lot and have had a great deal of fun!
See for yourself!
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