START OF GREAT SWITCHBACK TURNS SCENE

Study this scene for a minute, (try to ignore the bugs), we are going down a hill to the right and I took the picture from the drivers side window. There are 2 turns before the bridge.

This bridge (ditto for the bugs). It crosses the Salt River, this whole thing is the Salt River Canyon.

This water is just too pretty for words and really pictures can't do it justice.

This stop by the rocks, I just couldn't resist. (You know how I am about rocks)

LAST PART OF HWY 60 EAST

Leaving Show Low after boondocking in K-Mart shopping center. There was a new Safeway next door and I went over and walked the aisles, then walked the aisles of K-Mart - my exercise for the day. Showlow is a very nice town, probably a lot of people from Phoenix area have summer homes there.

This is Alegreens Mountain about 10,244 feet. Isn't it beautiful. When we saw it in the distance, we thought we had to go over it, but looking at the map saw we got a pass. Sure enjoyed looking at as we went around it.

This was interesting, right after we came out of Quemado, New Mexico we were stopped by NM state troopers. He asked for John's drivers license, looked at the expiration date and sent us on our way. We had no idea what that was about, unless they were looking for unidentified people coming out of AZ.

It was about 10 miles after we first saw these .... I don't know what to call them .... there was no sign, to identify what they were, but on the map it said it was National Radio Astronomy Observation. It will have to be Googled to see what is up with that. So much for a great trip on Hwy 60 East!

WE HAVE A HARD LIFE

Today has been a lazy day, we went to church then came home and ate a big breakfast. You know what happens when you eat a big breakfast ...... nap time

I told John, "Put that camera down!", but does he listen to me ..... noooo. So now you know Winchells has replaced Krispy Kreme donuts in my life. We use to go to Winchells when we raced in Omaha, but I have not seen them for several years. Lots of fun memories came to mind when I saw this place, and best of all they are still good, darn't it. I will just have to stay a little longer on the pb court to compensate for finding this place.

The bushes, flowers and trees are all just blooming their heads off and they are just beautiful. One thing comes to mind, tho. If one moved to AZ for clean air, why on earth did one drag all these pollen bearing things with one.

Mr Road Runner has just bathed and is sitting w/his back to the sun drying off. See how fluffy he is? Mr. Rabbit is looking for some green grass that the gophers have not dug up, or down or whatever. There are plenty of those little guys in this place. Around the pb court's edge they have really dug and you have to be careful going off the court for a ball, you might fall in and never be found!

STILL IN CALIFORNIA

Todays lesson is on wind mills for electricity. As we were going in to town a new way, we discovered we could get up close (sort of) to them, so you could see how big they are. There was an article in the paper that said they cost 12 million each and it takes 10 years for them to pay for themselves. There is a tour that explores all of this and I think we will try to take it before we leave.

This is going west towards Desert Hot Springs .......

Now this is to the left. Isn't it amazing? I can't decided if they are a blight on the land or not. Once they come into your view you can hardly take your eyes off them. They are just so fascinating to look at to think they are saving coal and oil.

We have been at this park for a week and will move back to TT park on Tuesday. We have been fortunate that we have played pickleball about every day. The sites are divided by Japonaca bushes, which helps when the wind blows and a big windrow of trees in the back. These trees just thrive here and grow really big, they are in the cedar tree family, I think.
We STILL haven't decided where we are headed for the summer .... still enjoying our time here.

Catalina Spa Tournament in Desert Hot Springs

We entered in an age and skill level bracket at Catalina Spa RV Park. We found a spot fairly close to the courts on Monday and got set up. It has been awhile since we did that, don't think we forgot anything. Anyway on Tuesday we went to a Sams and Walmart that was about 5 miles from the park! The tournament started on Thusday, but we didn't play until Friday, in fact played both levels on the same day.
First was the age level and we won the bronze in that. Of course I should add that there were only 3 teams in our age division, so we were pretty sure we would medal. After we had practiced with one couple the day before, I was postive we would not get gold!

Then played skill level and won gold in it. We had a good time and met some new friends. Playing pickleball is like belonging to TT. You always see someone you met at the last tournament.

This is what I did all day Thursday, line judging (since I was facing the sun thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone and try to get my feet a little more tan - to match my legs). I did referee most of the day along with ......

John .......
We were at Catalina Spa a week and then moved over to TT Palm Springs for 2 weeks. We still haven't decided where we are gong this summer. Still thinking about it.

CASA GRANDE TO PALM SPRINGS

I took this shot as we left town, hard to imagine a desert being this green. Lots of fields around this area that are so pretty. Amazing what a little water can do.

We saw 6 hot air balloons as we were getting close to Phoenix. Thought this was a great shot of cactus, well not really a cactus, but it is a word I cannot not spell that starts with a s. I could attempt it, but am too tired, as I have been trying to get this blog on the air since Monday. My internet connection has been bad.

I like the town of Phoenix, but the traffic is a little too much. This was taken about 10 or so and as you can see the traffic is a little heavy going into town. I love driving this interstate (10) as there is always a great shot of a plane coming in for landing.

This is the entrance to our park where we will be for a week. Coincindently there is a pickleball tournament that started today. John and I were suppose to play in the mixed doubles, but they didn;t get to them. So John and I volunteered to refree and that is what we did all day. I would rather do something, than just sit around doing nothing all day.
We leave here on Monday and go to TT in Palm Springs. It will be nice not having to pay to stay for while!

TIME TO HEAD OUT

We had our outside tournament here in Palm Creek the 5th thru the 7th. John and I won gold in our age division of the lower bracket. John and his partner Ken didn't play as Ken had pulled a ham string. A player got here Sunday and said his partner had an emergency and had to fly home. So the tournament director asked John if he would play. The mans name is Paul and is younger, so John had to play down. They won their first match and then had to play the best team in AZ. Pat Kane and Al Hager. They scored 3 points in both games and were satisfied with that. It was a great time and we had a lot of out of town players. We did have a rain delay, and had to finish on Monday. John and Paul missed one match playing for the bronze.

I was looking thru my pictures and thought I would share some of my favorites. AZ has some absolutely beautiful evening sunsets.

When we came home from Tuscon it had been raining and the clouds were so low and I thought this was so beautiful.

Then of course the hummer, I am going to miss this little guy. Thank goodness there are several people around that have feeders.
We are headed for Palm Springs, CA the 15th. Will hang around there for about a month. We still don't have an itinerary for the summer, will just take it one day at a time. Will keep you informed ......

ANOTHER TOURNAMENT !!

There is a tournament called Senior Olympics and it includes just about every kind of sport. Pickleball is one of them. John and Ken entered and Joyce and I decided to give it a try. Our skill level was for Wednesday. The guys were suppose to check in at 8, so we left at 5:30 am (meaning getting at 4:30). You never know what the traffic is going to be like. It wasn't too bad and we got there about 7:20. The tournament was being held in Sun City, which is west of Phoenix. I was so excited that Ken and John won a bronze medal. This was Kens first and he was so tickled. They won a bronze in the skill level 3.0

Joyce and I were suppose to start at noon and got started about 1:30. We played for the gold - silver match about 5 pm. You can imagine how much energy we had, but we got the silver and was proud of it.

We had some special friends that showed up at the tournament. Harry and Karen, Marie and Keith. We met them on the pickleball courts in TT Orlando, Florida. They had decided to explore the west after the new year and I am so glad they did. Sure was fun to see and be with them for the day.

I don't know what this picture is, and I would have to close this out and start over to see it. I meant to have Mark (of Mark and Chris) to give me a lesson on blogs as his looks so nice, but as usual didn't take time.
Maybe when we run into each other again....

ARIZONA DINNER THEATRE

This is where the group of pickleball players went for an evening of fun, besides being on the court.

Mary, John and Joyce (my doubles partner .... I know you didn't recognize w/o her visor). By george these pickleball players can really clean up and look good.

More people we play with. That is Jay, Mary's husband me and Terri. Terri is orginally from N.Carolina and the main difference between our accents is: when we are playing pb and she calls a ball out, it takes 3 syllables and when I call out it only takes 2. We have had a lot of fun mocking each other and of course no one else can understand us.

The AZ. Opry was a lot of fun. Reminded me of shows in Branson. The leader of the show was George Staerkel. He was a member of The Tokens a group in the 80's. One of their more famous songs, was the Lion Sleeps at Night. He is so talented, see all the instruments in the background? He plays them all and very well. On odd nights the meat is roast beef and even nights it is chicken. Our night was roast beef and was very good. If you can imagine we didn't get home and in bed until after 11:30! Was well worth it.

PICKLEBALL TOURNAMENT

This is my partner Joyce Staffen and me. We are in Mesa, AZ (about 60miles from our park) at the Venture Out RV resort. The resort was holding a 3 day tournament. The first day was mens doubles (see below). I had forgotten the order. Anyway the 2nd day was womens doubles.

We had a long day. It was double elimination. We won our first 2 matches, then lost the 3rd match. So that sent us to the losers bracket. But lo and behold we worked our way back to the winners bracket and wound up playing for the gold and WON. John said it was way more stressful for him than for me.


Did I mention that it has been cold here, it warmed up pretty good this day for John and his partner.
I seemed to have lost a picture, it was of John and his partner Ken. This is suppose to be of John and all the clothes he has on. Anyway if another picture shows up it is Ken Davenport and John. This was Kens first tournament and he really enjoyed it.
John and I were suppose to play next day in the mixed doubles, but was postponed because of RAIN. We finally got to play Saturday. We won Bronze! Next up ..... Tuscon tournament

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S BEEN THIS LONG

I've always heard it is never too late to start anything. So here it goes ...... This was on the 25th of December and of course as soon as the picture was taken, it didn't look like that any more. We had a nice Christmas, kind of quiet, went out to eat, and couldn't believe how many people besides us were eating out for lunch.

Now look carefully at this picture, notice all the trees you can see just over the wall.

This happened one day last week. I can see how "batten down the hatches" came from. It had sprinkled just a little right before the big blow, so we thought oh no the coach will be a super big mud paddy. But fortunely a slow moving "raining cats and dogs" front moved thru and washed it all off. Life is good.

The most beautiful skys around here occur right after a wind storm. The reds come from dirt pollution. This was taken before the big blow.
Coming up is a saga of our tournament travels.