We are back in the Phoenix area and enjoying the sunshine and the warmth. We have friends and family between Phoenix and Tucson and have had fun connecting with them.
Deane finally got to meet my brother and his wife Mary, and we had a great steak dinner with them the other night.
Where we are staying here in Mesa, which by the way is the 38th largest city in the US (Phoenix is the 5th), is a very large RV park that has so many things going on at any one time, that if you got involved here you would never venture out of the complex. You can go for coffee and donuts each morning, there is lunch available on the patio by the pool and every evening they have a 'happy hour' where you bring your own drink and listen to live music from 4-6pm. Besides all of that, you can work out in their gym that rivals 24 hour fitness, you can work in the lapidary room, the leather room or play billiards. There are groups that play bridge, dominos, board games, or you can join the hiking club which goes 3 times a week on hikes ranging from easy to hard (hard is where you have to be very experienced because they will be climbing over rocks!). On top of all of that, there are many more activites from dances to live entertainment you can attend. Best part of staying here is each night after dinner we are in the hot tubs and the pool. A fun group of people congregate there each night from all over the country. We are amazed at how many Canadians come down and stay for 3-6 months for the winter. There have been some interesting political discussions in the pool about our government and theirs. They do like Obama, and find their Prime Minister boring!
We had a chance to get out and visit a couple of things this week... one was the Casa Grande. A large adobe structure built by the desert people back in 1350 a.d. and abandoned around 1450a.d. Historians do not know what this structure was used for, or what happened to the people who built it. But it is quite amazing when you consider the Gila river is about 7 miles away and there are no timber trees for about 20+ miles up in the mountains and yet both were used to build this. http://www.nps.gov/cagr/historyculture/index.htm
We have also been up to the summit of South Mountain, a city park here in Phoenix. Here you get a dramatic view of the Phoenix valley area and access to great hiking trails where we were able to see petroglyphs. The mountain has a number of observation huts built by the CCC in the 1930's that are still standing.
We are experiencing our first overcast day but the temps are still in the mid 60's. Still in shorts and flip flops!