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.

VISITORS AROUND OUR PLACE

One day last week it was sunny, so decided to go out and bask in the sun. Everytime we go outside Mr. Green dive bombs us to let us know he is charge of the feeder. I had seen him earlier at the feeder so took my camera with me and sat down and waited for him. He is on guard here and then flew over to the palm tree for awhile, then back to the feeder. He was perched for quite awhile and I didn't realize they sat for so long at a time.

I believe this is a female because there is no color on her .... isn't she cute.

It has been quite awhile since I have seen Mr. Road Runner run by. Today he doesn't seen to be in any hurry, so gave me a lot of opportunities for picture taking. This pose is interesting because he acted as if a hawk flew over and he hunkered down so he wouldn't be seen. But when I looked up to see what it was, it was just Mr. Green guarding his feeder. Even tho Mr.Road Runner wasn't even close, in fact was across the street from it, Mr Green gave him fair warning.

Eventually Mr.Road Runner came across the street and on our patio and gave me a chance at a great shot!
Is he not just beautiful!

WINNERS!

We entered a pickleball tournament at a rv park in Tucson. It is called Voyager and is about like Palm Creek where we are staying. Let me tell you it was a cold windy day. We wanted to go early and watch some of the matches, so left at 7:30. Our neighbors Noel and Judi went with us (as it turned out probably sorry they did). But I"m glad they did go as they took a lot of pictures. We were suppose to play around 12:30 and I believe it was 2:30 before we played our first game. We played 8 games in all and had a great time.

The couple on our left won the bronze and is from our park, so was glad we mostly kept it in the family. The couple on our right we played twice.

You might notice that in the first picture we have sweatshirts on and it is dark.

As soon as these matches were over, we put our pants, sweatshirts, and coats back on. It was a fun time and even more fun since we won! If we enter any more tournaments, will not go early!

Cross Lighting

It was a little too early when I took this, but was getting cold (er) and I wanted it to hurry up. We had it plugged into a timer that is suppose to come on at dusk. I was beginning to think the darn thing wasn't going to work.

BUT finally it came on .... it really looks nice and stands out from quite aways.

Really and truly, I think it could use one more set of lights, but that will be for next year.

Our neighbor Noel gave us his opinion, (of course he said it was perfect, because I give him my newspaper everyday). He and Judi are great neighbors and we are going to miss them when they go back to WA for
Christmas .... be gone 17 days!
Next up John and I entered a skill level pickleball tournament Sat. the 5th. Will let you know the results when I get all the pictures.

LIGHTING PROJECT FOR CHRISTMAS

I told John that I was sick and tired of not seeing any Christmas decorations that symbolizes Christ. I could tell by his face that he was thinking "oh no I can feel a project". Especially when I said "Oh it will be easy", that especially makes him nervous. One year I came up with the idea of making a cross, putting Christmas lights on it and putting it in a window, it was beautiful.

So we went to Home Depot, bought the lights first, then a stapler ( I wanted an electric one, but John said we would probably not use it again and he wasn't spending 30 dollars for one time use), then off to the lumber. You might think we did that backwards, but I wanted to fit the lumber to the lights. Anyway, the board was the cheapest thing in this project. First off, John sawed it, then put 2 screws in, then painted.

Next was the lights. You might notice we are now inside. That is because the wind is very cool, I believe the temp only got into the low 60's. Someone told me it would be like this until the middle of Jan. BRRRRR

It took quite a while to decide where to put it. First I wanted to put it on a palm tree close by, but John said the ranger would probably make us take it down. He was about ready to call it quits, when I thought of the flag pole! Next will send pictures of the finished product all lit up. I'm very pleased and hope it makes people think of what Christmas is really about.

BIOSPHERE II continued

This time I am going to send you some unusual things that we saw. This is a bee condo that was built, and is still being used by the facility.

The air was provided by this machine. The tour guide said it works like a car radiator. I asked if all the equipment that was in the building is the original and she said yes. It all looks in great shape and good condition.

I hope I can explain what this is. In case of a fire this is where the water would come from, notice the 2 pumps. (I hope I send the right picture) The round thing with legs is what is fascinating. The round thing is attached to a big black rubber bladder. This was needed because during the day, the air expanded and if it couldn't expand of course it would explode the whole building. So when the air warmed, it would lift the round table, which in turn would cause the bladder to expand. Then at night when the air cooler the table would bring the bladder back down. Of course when you are there in person it is simple.

The doors were all like submarine doors, so you can imagine how tight the whole thing was.
So if you are ever close to Oracle, AZ ...... visit the biosphere II

BIOSPHERE II, ORACLE,AZ

The entrance to Biosphere 2 near Oracle, AZ. It is now operated by the U of AZ.

Our friends and neighbors Judi and Nolan went with us to explore this place.

The dome on top of the first building was the library for the 8 people that lived in there. Right below it was the living quarters for the crew. To the back and left was the area where they grew their food. The place was started in 1984 and took 4 years to build. A Dallas businessman that owned Space Biospheres Ventures
spent 150 million on it. (In todays time it would take 150 billion) It has a desert, rain forest, ocean and, savanna. The ocean water came from the San Diago area and was brought in by something like 80 milk tankers. I could go on and on by facts and figures, but figure your eyes are glazed over by now. Next will be some pictures of the structure and the basement. It is amazing how man can create things.

CASA GRANDE DOINGS

We have been busy playing pickleball in the morning and then in the evenings. Did take time off to go to the flyin at the airport and saw some great planes.

John didn't think you should call this a plane, and I told him was probably a special catagory for it.

One day we were going into the coach and here came a hummer! So I dug out my feeder and looked up the receipe for the sugar water. AND here they are.

One of the hummers has a beautiful neck color and I tried to catch it, but no success. But will keep trying.
We have been here over a month and have enjoyed it. Haven't felt the urge to move on (yet), so we have until the 15th to decide about the winter. I imagine we will probably stay, but stay tuned!

CELEBRATIING OUR ANNIVERSARY

Our anniversary was the 7th, but we were a little late celebrating. We have been playing pickleball everyday since we've been here .... about 3 hours everyday ... and I've just been worn out! So we had a light morning today and decided to go this evening. I had read about a casino about 25 miles from here, so since we hadn't been that direction drove that way. It was an interesting drive. The casino is west and then north of Casa Grande. Lots of dairy farms and feed lots. The feed lots are full of Holsteen steers. Then there were fields of cotton. I didn't realize that much cotton was grown in AZ.

The casino is on the AK-Chin reservation and a very nice one. The only thing is, it was very

smoky

There was a couple walking towards the the entry and John asked him if he would take our picture, come to find out he was very familiar with my camera and took several shots of us. By the way this is our 48th year ...... doesn't seem like it. Lots of love,perservance ,commitment and humor is our secret.

This a picture of our street. We have been told that all these spaces will be filled by Nov 1. We will see.
To all who are on the road ...... safe travels
After I reread this blog, I don't know what happened to my pictures, they are all scattered everywhere, hope you can make heads or tails out of this thing! :)

MORE SEDONA ROCKS

This is a chapel built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Sedona is a high end town, kind of reminds me of Sante Fe, lots of art gallerys. The main thing it has going for it is the road leading into it with all the rock formations it has.

Last but not least, since it has been awhile since you have seen us, here we are, enjoying the top of the mountain view.
Next stop is Palm Creek in Casa Grande, AZ. We are planning on spending the winter here. Will miss seeing our kids and our friends in Fl. Looking at the brochures there seems to be a lot of interesting places to explore around here. Looking forward to sharing it with you.