Wrapping Up 2011 – Mesa, Arizona

On December 1 we went into hibernation for the winter at a new-to-us RV resort in Mesa.  We selected it based on an activity roster that promised to keep us on our toes but thus far we haven’t participated in much.  Our time has been eaten up with doctor, dentist and RV tech appointments.  Not to mention a roaring case of terminal inertia.

The “resort” has dinner dances on Tuesday evenings and we’ve attended several of those.  Generally the music has been pretty danceable and we’re looking forward to more opportunities to “cut a rug” as the season progresses.  The meals are of the stick-to-your-ribs (thighs, butt, etc.) sort.  My palate never learned to think of gravy as a food group but here it’s the base upon which the food pyramid is built.

We’ve yet to meet many of our neighbors (many won’t arrive until after the holidays) but we’ve bumped into many old friends and acquaintances while trolling through the grocery stores.  It never ceases to amaze us that we run  into more folks we know here  than we ever did back East, living in the same place for years.  Russ and Rochelle are here at the same resort and so we’ve spent time socializing with them.  We ladies have taken several beading classes together and the guys have been fooling with computers, Russ having taken the giant plunge into the world of bits and bytes.  Next the guys need to get organized enough to start biking again.  Knees permitting, I’d like to give pickleball a try.  Or maybe lawn bowling.

The weather hasn’t been what we’ve come to expect of The Valley of the Sun.  Our arrival was greeted with a few days of heavy rain and it has been on the chilly side ever since.  The space heater runs nearly full time and we are not eager to see the first month’s electric bill!  

Over the years we’ve settled into a Christmas routine that does not involved exchanging gifts with each other but usually results in the purchase of some major gift to our domicile.  This year was no exception…the coach got a new toilet.  And will soon be getting new seals for the slides, along with other assorted bits and pieces to make it whole again.  We’re all starting to show our age.

One sunny Sunday afternoon we went off to Tempe to scope out The Festival of the Arts.  Finding a parking spot was quite an adventure…I don’t know who reaps the benefits of the exorbitant parking fees but it must keep some civic budget balanced for the year!  Most spots were $10 but we found one for $5 several blocks from the main festival site.  It’s an enormous festival and we noticed than many of the exhibitors had come quite a distance to participate.  It’s always fun to see the creativity expressed at such shows…who knew you could do so many things with old hardware?

One of the biggest reasons we keep coming back to the East Valley every winter is to partake of the cheap produce.  In summer months we often find ourselves in areas where the growing season is short and grocery costs high so we do enjoy the opportunity here in Arizona to have fresh melon, pineapple, bell peppers and whatever other fruits and veggies catch our eye.  And at prices that won’t break the bank.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever other holiday you might celebrate) and we send along our best wishes for a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.

Coachella Valley, Etc. – November, 2011

We spent a little over two weeks in the Coachella Valley, first in Desert Hot Springs and then in Indio.  Because we’ve done a fairly thorough job of seeing all the sights in the area this time we mostly paid visits to the shopping emporia all along that glittering strip from Palm Springs to Indio.  We even made the drive further west to the outlet mall in Cabazon and were delighted to see almost all of the retail spaces were open for business and the parking lot quite full for a weekday. 

The small cities that stretch along I-10 from Palm Springs in the west to Indio in the east all run together as one.  There are many attractive residential areas where the famous and near-famous live (or lived).  Heavy applications of water keep the lawns green and the flowers blooming; you can’t help but wonder what happens if the water runs out.  The nearby mountains are sometimes difficult to see thanks to blankets of smog rolling eastward from Los Angeles.  During our entire stay my eyes burned and I did a lot of coughing and sneezing.

Roger and Cathy drove up from their winter quarters in Niland to have lunch with us one day.  It was great to see them again and spend some time catching up on all the chit-chat from when we saw them last in early spring.  If the timing is right, we may catch up with them again in March.

Our next stop was Colorado River Oasis in Ehrenberg, Arizona where we found old buddies Galen and Betty Jo work-camping and other friends Jim and Pat camped at the river’s edge.  We were expecting to see Rick and Carol toward the end of our stay but they revised their travel plans and came in early for just a few days.  At least we were able to have a little visit, and some of Carol’s delicious oatmeal pie, before they headed north to Lake Havasu.  They’ll be back but long after we’ve flown the coop.

As part of their work schedule at CRO, Galen and Betty Jo have to act as activity directors or over-seers.  They’d never played Snakes and Ladders before and so we dug out the rules and the equipment and set about “teaching” them the game.  One set of rules was particularly appealing….verbal abuse of opponents is encouraged and we’re all good at that. 

Another day we drove north along the river to Parker, stopping in Poston along the way to visit the memorial dedicated to the 17,000+ first and second-generation Americans of Japanese descent incarcerated there following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  The protrusion at the top of the memorial is actually a spout to keep rainwater from staining the column.   The internment camp was smack in the middle of the Colorado River Indian Tribes’ reservation.  Although we couldn’t be sure, we think we found some of the old barracks still in use as housing and as part of a Head Start facility.  A '”no trespassing” sign kept us from exploring further.  We’d hope to visit the CRIT museum at tribal headquarters but it was closed for the long Thanksgiving weekend so we had to content ourselves with celebrating Black Friday at Beall’s Outlet and Wal-Mart in Parker. 

Given that most full-timers are a little on the silly side, we joined Pat and Jim at the river bank to give our “mascots” an  opportunity to enjoy the view and do a little fishin’.  Here’s Gus and Gunther trying their luck.  Good thing we weren’t counting on them to provide the fish for dinner.

 

Just before heading to Mesa to hibernate for the winter, we had a chance to have lunch with our pal, Betty, at her winter digs  in Desert Center.  She was, as usual, up to her ears in “projects”.  On the drive over we were well past Blythe before realizing we were going to be an hour early for lunch, having forgotten we’d be in a different time zone as soon as we crossed the Colorado River.  It took us no time at all (literally!) to drive the 50 miles to Desert Center but two hours to drive back!  A Senior Moment strikes again.