Jeeping and Caching

Even if it has only been a couple days, I have a lot to talk about since my last posting.

First of all little Andie is doing better. Her stats are up where they want them, but her lactate levels are still too high....although they were down a bit this morning (good news). She still has a long way to go before they take her off of her meds.

Friday, Ken and I finally had a chance to take off and do some Jeeping and caching. We took a familiar route over Montana Mountain and looked for and found 11 caches. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day which made it perfect for both Jeeping and caching.

This is just some of what we saw!


We even found some water falls. With the snow melting in the mountains, we had a lot of water running in most of the washes we passed.


After being out all day Friday, we decided to go out again today. We didn't leave very early or really go that far, but we were still out for most of the day.

We drove south about 38 miles to check out an area that we wanted to hide a cache for an up coming Geocaching Event. It was about 11:30 and close to 80 degrees when we got to where we wanted to be.

We ended up driving over several trails that were more like ATV paths, but the Wrangler performed like a champ. The worst part was the brush we had to go through. The trails were very narrow and we sustained some nice "pin stripping" on the sides of the Jeep. After the recent rains, the trails were pretty rutty, but with the heat, things are drying up and the mud is becoming like cement.

While in the area, we even found 4 caches. We weren't planning on that, but they just happened to be close to where we were driving. At one of the caches, Ken was near some boulders and he heard a funny noise..... well that noise turned out to be a Rattlesnake. He was so close to it that he was surprised it didn't strike him. He was so close he didn't dare try to jump back, so he pulled his gun out and shot it. His souvenir was the nine "buttons" from the tail. Sorry, he didn't have the camera to take pictures of it.

After that bit of scary experience, we decided not to do any more hiking or searching around rocks/boulders. It was getting late, so we decided to quit for the day and head back home.

It took us a while to follow the trail back to the main road, but after we hit pavement, we drove into Florence for dinner then on back to the coach. We got here before dark and had time to enjoy a nice cold drink and the beautiful evening. I think it hit 85 today, but it is supposed to hit 90 by Monday. As the weatherman just said, "the heat is on." Oh boy!!

Still hard to believe it, but two days in a row Jeeping and Caching, WOW that is almost a record (grin).

Rocks for sale

Today, the Rock Shop, Wood Carving, and Stained Glass clubs put on a "craft" show and had a lot of goodies for sale.

For the last several months, Ken has been working hard on finishing his pendants, belt buckles, and bolos. In order to showcase his pendants, he beaded some beautiful necklaces and used the pendant as the main drop. They turned out very nice! He also beaded some ear rings to complete the set for each necklace made. Today was the first day anyone has seen his stuff, and they went over very well. Yep, he sold some!! He went for quality and used Sterling Silver and high quality beads for the necklaces, and people could tell how nice they were. The main "rock" that he used was a Mahogany Obsidian which he polished to a high gloss. He also had Amethyst, Honey Onyx, and Queen Valley Marble in some of his pieces.

Here are some pictures of his display. For a better view, click on each picture, but be sure to hit your back arrow to get back to the blog.





Today was a beautiful 83 degrees and will cool to 55 tonight. The forecast is nothing but clear sunny skies and warm temps for the next week (yea, love it).

The only huge event we have coming up is the rock shop's fund raiser on March 5. It is a Chili Feed and play. The play is written and directed by one of our residents and the "stars" are all park residents. It is one the highlights of each season and always a "sold out" event.

The park's activities will be going strong through mid March. then start slowing down as many folks will be heading back to their summer homes. Our plans are to be here till early May before heading out.

Caching, Shopping, and Eating

Thursday night we attended a monthly dinner show event, which is put on by our park's activities group.  The dinner theme was "Tropical" and everyone was dressed like we were in the tropics.  Our food was Brandy Marinated Pork along with scalloped potatoes and green beans.  The dessert was fruit and pudding.  The banquet style meal was prepared by several volunteers from our park and was very good.  Of course the "spirits" I drank made it that much more enjoyable (grin).

The entertainment for the evening was Laughing Bird.   Janey and Tupelo (Laughing Bird) have been here before and are a lot of fun to watch and listen to.  They are a husband and wife duo, who have been performing and recording together for 30 years.  Laughing Bird’s show is a lively mix of original contemporary folk music with overtones of new country, bluegrass, and light acoustic rock.  It was a fun evening.

On Friday, Ken & I took the Wrangler out to find a couple of caches.  One cache really wasn't far off the main road, but the road to the second cache was another story.  We had to drive 6 miles (one way) into the back country through some muddy ruts and over some rough terrain.  It was a warm day and thankfully most of the "dirt/mud" road was drying out, so we didn't get too terribly muddy.  What mud we did get had to be washed off quickly because when it dries, it is like cement and extremely hard to get off.

Saturday was another caching, shopping, and eating day.  We drove the Grand Cherokee this time and went to Queen Creek to find 9 caches and shop at a meat shop called "The Pork Shop."  This "Pig" place has everything associated to pork products and is the best place in the area to get meat.  Of course, we left with our share (LOL).

Also in Queen Creek is a place called the The Olive Mill.  It is Arizona's only working Olive mill and a fun place to visit.  While there, you can taste many different wines, have a nice meal, take a tour, and buy lots "olive" products.    We spent quite a bit of time there and came away with some good stuff (also plan on going back).

Today, Ken continued to work on his jewelry and "rocks".  He has many neat items that will be up for sale on Tuesday when the Rock Shop and the Wood Carvers group put on a craft show.  I do plan on taking pictures of his treasures and will post them as soon as I can.

Snow to Sunny Days

After the snow in the hills last week, the weather has been great; Lots of sun with temps in the mid to high 60s, and lows in the 40s and 50s. We did get rained on Tuesday the 17th, but most of that fell before we got up. The rest of day was just cloudy and cool. Thankfully, most of the storms coming into Arizona went north of us and dropped rain and snow in the higher elevations. In fact Flagstaff is seeing an influx of skiers hitting the snowy slopes there. This weekend, it is supposed to be warming up and should be reaching 80 by Monday.

We hope you all had as nice a Valentine’s Day as we did. First, we attended a huge Craft Sale that the RV Park was putting on. The activity hall was filled with vendors and even more shoppers. We controlled ourselves and didn’t buy anything. If we had bought something, we would have had to find a place to put it (grin--there is only so much room in the coach). After the craft sale, we had a fun “date” and celebrated by going to a movie and dinner. The movie we saw was “Slumdog Millionaire.” It was good, but I don’t think I would vote for it as best picture of the year. Even with the rough language, my vote for best picture would be “Gran Torino”…… of course I enjoy anything and everything that Clint Eastwood is in OR directs. For dinner, we chose Chinese and had a very nice quiet meal. What is nicer than an evening out with the one you love?

Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday is when Ken works in the rock shop. He is making some gorgeous stones to be used as Pendants, Bolos, and Belt Buckles. Some of the Pendants he has finished are being used as the focal point on beaded necklaces. On the 25th of this month the Rock Hound Club and the Wood Carving Club are putting on a show and we hope to sell a lot of what Ken has finished (we will see how that goes). I will post pictures later of what he has done.

With Ken spending so much time being in the rock shop, it only leaves Tuesdays and Fridays to run errands and possibly get out on the trails. We try and not to do the trails on the weekends because there are just too many crazies out there playing with their ATVs. It is not fun trying to traverse a rough road with a hoard of ATVers hogging the trails. You never know which way they will turn or where they will try and pass you.

As usual, we are participating in many of the park’s activities. Once a week, there is a coffee social where we socialize and learn all of what is happening around the park. Usually, the activity hall is over flowing, and we have a nice time visiting with everyone. There are also entertainers that come here to perform and even more places that groups (called tag-alongs) from the park will go to be entertained. Also, some evenings we spend the time with neighbors enjoying an invigorating game of cards or just partying. Tonight we are attending one of several dinners that is being put on by the park (the theme is “tropical”). It really seems like everything we do involves a form of eating or drinking…..tonight will involve both of them (grin).

Fun Week!!

Friday night a group of us from the park went to the Arizona Opry. Our group of 40 people had six tables (all up front) who enjoyed the great show. The Barleen’s “Arizona Opry” Dinner Theatre has been in operation for 30 years and is always a treat to visit. They put on several different shows throughout the season and performs everything from pop, to Opera. The “music director” is George Staerkel, who has a 5 octave vocal range and plays over 70 different instruments. George sings a fantastic rendition of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” which he also used to sing many, years ago with a group called “The Tokens.”  George was only with The Tokens for about 5 years while the main singer (Jay Siegel) was performing with another group in the east. George is marvelous and still sings The Lion Sleeps Tonight just like he did many years ago.  Read all about it at this link... Arizona Opry

Saturday was a gorgeous day in the mid 70s, but that night it started raining and rained all night long.  There was more rain Sunday and even some hail.  The high that day was only 60.  Here is one small cloud dropping some rain.

Monday, we only had a few drops of rain, but it was mainly cloudy with lots of wind.  The wind became so strong in the afternoon that we had to pull the “slider” awnings in.  It started raining later that night and poured for most of the night.  What a surprise to wake this morning (Tuesday) to 39 degrees and a snowy view of the distant hills. The snow was down as low as 3,000 feet and was very pretty.  Needless-to-say, we couldn't stay inside but had to go out and see how much snow was around.  Just twenty miles east of us is Devils Canyon with a summit of 4,600 feet.  We saw lots of snow up there and some beautiful views.  Here is just a sampling.

   

 

 

Most of the snow fell in the northern areas of AZ where roads were closed due to dangerous white outs and driving conditions. We can be thankful our area got just a couple inches that will quickly melt when the sun comes out.  It really was kinda fun to see snow and not have to deal with the dangers of it.

The next few days should be a tad bit warmer, but it looks like more rain is predicted for this next weekend (yep, a rainy Valentines Day).

Latest

Not much to write about, but here goes.

Sadly, the Cardinals lost the Super Bowl, but they sure put on a good game and came very close to winning.  Everyone in Arizona is so proud of them and are hoping there is no changes in the team, so they can have a go at it again next season.  Those guys played their hearts out and have nothing to be sorry for.  For a team that everyone was discounting, they sure proved everyone wrong (grin).

This week's weather has been perfect.  Top temps in the 80s and dropping to high 40s at night.....so much better than home.  We had a lot of wind last night and today because there is a change coming.  Seems we are going to get some rain this next week....at least that is what the weather people are saying.  Of course, it could go north and miss us entirely.  Guess we will find out!

I have been feeling better, but the sinus are still stuffy.  Ken and I went out shopping today and ended up having dinner out.  Nice!!  This Friday the park has a huge group going to the Arizona Opry.  It is a fantastic dinner show and always a treat to go to.  I will post more about it later.