Winter vacation 2014 - Chapter 6

Sunday November16

We went to Mass last night because we had an 8AM appointment with Cox cable company.  We now have WiFi and I have a tv to watch when I can't sleep.  I'm very spoiled!!  We were very lucky, cable guy came very early and was very fast.  Wonder if I could talk him into working for Comcast??  So, done early we headed out for a little more sightseeing.  Rawhide Steakhouse and western town in Chandler, here we come.  It should have been called a ghost town, and it also should say in the travel brochure that if you are 12 or under, this place is for you.  There was a Zip line, mechanical bull, and of course the old shoot um up action in the arena.  

Shops with some interesting greeters:

But the highlight was the Steak house.  We had a late lunch, and it was "yummy".  The New York strip steak was delicious, but not the main attraction.  Folks around us were eating the Rattlesnake appetizer!!!!  Yuck!  Yes, real stuff.  As I was told, it is illegal to kill one in AZ so they have to import them from another state. 

 My recommendation if you ever go there is the: Sweet Tea Peach Lemonade (must be 21 for this one) check out the ingredients, it was delicious..

Since the town was a real bust there was a casino down the road, so we stopped for a little session..  Played a long time on their money but they ended up taking it back.  We both lost but it was a nice place.  

Oh boy, by the time we hit the road for Sun City West the AZ Cardinal game had just ended and traffic was going to be slow.  We did have a choice to go way up and around the loop or just chance it.  We were in no big hurry so we tried our luck.  Well I sure wish our luck had been this good in the casino.  Not very many of the crowd going North, so we zipped right through.  It really did look Ugly going south, I don't like event traffic!!!!

Monday:

Now that we have our WiFi both of us have a little business to take care of, and a little light house cleaning and laundry to do.  Of course a few long walks and actually cooking dinner here was good.  

The house is fully stocked with everything imaginable, pots, pans, dishes, silverware, pizza cutter, corkscrew, well you get it.  I felt right at home very quickly.  

AZ has the 6 month folks, who must spend half of their year here in order to take advantage of residency.  Most are arriving in the month of November and will stay through April and some even May.  They are busy all day long.  Golf, walks, arts and crafts.. They swim, bike ride, play tennis and Pickle Ball, and some even just sit for hours drinking coffee solving world problems.  They are very active and most look very healthy and agile, until they go grocery shopping.  Then they park in one of the overwhelming number of handicap spots and pull out their canes and go slowly into the store.  It's a fact that if you don't have a handicap plate you are definately in the minority, who must park a mile from the front door.  

Random pictures:  Dust storm.  

Another weird cactus 

And I just couldn't resist taking this pic.  Some strange landscape designs.  A bit much for a small front yard!!

And then this selfie enjoying the sunshine.  

Our first orange.

It was juicy and delicious...

Will end this chapter here.  Tomorrow is a special day, grandson Justin is coming for a short visit.  

Winter Vacation 2014 - Chapter 5

Wednesday Nov. 12:

Grandsons Joey and Danny have been coming to the Phoenix area for Spring break for a couple of years now.  Grandma Dianne's sister has a house in Scottsdale and enjoys taking them all site seeing. Last year they went to the campus of Arizona State University and Joey literally fell in love with the school, and insists that is where he will go someday.  We told Joe that we would go look at it while we are here in town.  

It is literally one of the most beautiful campuses I've seen yet.  There were young people walking around in their shorts and sandals,  hmmmm, Joey might have more than a good education in mind!!

Then, when in Rome eat what the Romans eat.  Lunch at a real burger dive.  Yummy!!

No secret where the flavor comes from. 

But, we loved them, and I guess we could and will walk an extra mile tomorrow..

Thursday in Sun City West. As we promised ourselves we walked and walked this morning, and there are garage and Estate sales everywhere. We found ourselves in an estate sale at about 9:30, and there wasn't much left.  Listening to the ladies and gents in line we realized we must arrive about 5 AM and get in line until 7 to get the good stuff.  NOT!!  Ha ha ha, there must be some really good stuff in these sales!  Oh well, no bargains but a lot of excercise and sunshine.

John searched his phones google app for some information about the University of Phoenix Stadium.  Our question was, any tours available?? Years ago we enjoyed the tour of soldier field and it was very interesting, and, yes they have daily tours and, yes we can make it to Glendale for the 12:30.  Summer clothes, sunscreen, sun glasses, and we are off for the day.  

Time to kill before the tour so in the AZone fan store we goof around a little.  This guy is their ACE player right now:

Larry Darnell Fitzgerald, Jr. is an American football wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League. He played college football for the University of Pittsburgh, and earned unanimous All-American honors. Wikipedia

2. Born: August 31, 1983 (age 31), Minneapolis, MN
3. 40 yard dash time: 4.63 seconds
4. Current team: Arizona Cardinals (#11 / Wide receiver)
5. School: University of Pittsburgh

I am very impressed by the engineering that went into this stadium.  They didn't miss one tiny detail.  Example, the red and grey seats in the background, yes there is a reason for that.  At certain times of the day when the sun is overhead the grey seats don't reflect the sun and cast a glare on the field.  

 

And yes it is a domed stadium, however the roof is translucent and sunlight is present. Also notice here that the field is missing.  

Now there isn't enough sunlight through the dome to maintain the real grass on the field, so they roll the field outside until Friday when there is a home game. The entire field weighs 19,000,000 lbs and rolls in and out of the stadium on railroad tracks.  

Friday we walked a lot, along the route we saw some very beautiful desert landscaping.  There are so many different Palm trees and just as many varieties of cactus.  Every thing is in full bloom, and every yard is very unique.  

So, beautiful lawns, gorgeous weather, on vacation with lots of free time, what's not to love? I'm feeling Blessed!! 

Winter 2014 - Chapter 4

,I'll start this chapter as we leave Gallup on Sunday morning.  It had been cold in the night up there in the mountains, so we didn't hurry to leave.  At that altitude the overpasses get a little frosty and I didn't want to be slipping and sliding into the semi's that were dominating the highways.  They outnumbered us little guys at least 5 to 1.  And as I mentioned in an earlier blog, posted speed in this part of the country is 75 which of course means at least 80+.  

It took about 1.5 hours to get out of NM and into Arizona:

Our route changed soon after that to a smaller, less traveled highway heading South to avoid going all the way to Flagstaff.  This route would take us through the most beautiful part of our country that I've ever seen.  

Going south this map shows how we entered The National Forests where the trees were tall and everything very green:

Heber, AZ is in Apache Sitgreaves National forest in the heart of Navajo County, AZ and lies at an elevation of 6627 feet..  Nose bleed country for sure.  As we traveled south through Tonto National Forest it got prettier and prettier.  But not very good phone reception, as a conversation I was having kept getting cut off.  Dropped calls brought back memories Of our travels through Wisconsin.  Here are a few pictures, however none do it justice. It's 50 times prettier in person.  

Then as we came closer to Phoenix we began seeing less trees and more cactus.

We arrived in Sun City West mid afternoon, exhausted  from the elevation changes, all we could do was unpack and shop for a few groceries. We went to Sunday evening Mass, thankful for our safe travels and then connected with friends here in town.  We love the house and hope to get all of the  move in business done tomorrow.  A few house Pics:

Master Bedroom

Living room

Patio

View from the Patio

More view/ orange tree and on the other side of the yard is a lemon tree.  I'm hoping they ripen this  month!!

And of course happy hour with friends the next day.  No coats, no snow, nothing but SUN!!  Darlene is a friend from our old neighborhood outside of Chicago.  We met in 1987 and became fast friends.  Her husband Sonny is not in the picture, but they live out here in AZ full time now, and love it.  Ed is our friend from 3M who we have known at least 30 years.  He and his wife Helga (also not pictured) have a winter home here.  John and I are Blessed to have such good friends.  

Tuesday, Nov. 11, had to wait for the Plumber to fix a leak in the bathroom before leaving for the day.  It was another beautiful sunny day, but you will all soon get tired of hearing that.  However, I am not getting tired of saying it.   The Desert Botanical garden. 

The perfect altitude for growth.  1000ft.

The docent who lead our tour insisted I take her sun visor to protect my eyes.  As you can see I was very well protected.  

The family who lived here must have been very small.  However it was very cool inside, so they built it with a great plan to survive these desert temperatures.  

This was their kitchen.

Beautiful glass sculptures that light up at night.  

My favorite part was the butterfly house.  The monarch migrates to Mexico for the winter, but the warm temps keep them here.  

Wonderful day in the sunshine.

 A quick session on the way home and I think it is best to end chapter 4 here as LOSERS!!  We will scratch this Casino off of our list.  I think a Bloody Mary, Dinner, and a soft bed is in order.  Nighty, night!!

Winter 2014 - Chapter 3

Friday, November 7th.

Left Frisco today headed for Amarillo.  Highway 287 cuts right up accross, and saves us about 120 miles but definately NOT a major highway.  I think I heard some banjo's through the little towns on that route!!  Some of the towns were Claude, Memphis, Goodnight, Sunset, And Henrietta, Texas. But it was a beautiful sunny day and thankfully we didn't need to stop.  We were very happy to arrive in Amarillo for the night.  Before checking into our hotel we stopped at The Big Texan for an early dinner and break.  

I did forget my cowboy hat and gun, so we felt a little out of place.  And Kathy did not disappoint us, her recommendation was spot on again.  The ribs were really really good but my sweet tooth needed a treat so Brownie Sunday!!  Yum.  

John was tempted to take the challenge, eat this in one hour and it's free:

72 OZ...  He decided against it!!  We did hit the fitness center out of guilt. 

Saturday We head to Gallup, New Mexico.  I was told some beautiful scenery ahead of us.  That will be awesome since All the states so far were flat and boring.  Come on NM..

Lots and lots of deserted mobile homes along the highway.

It was a very beautiful drive today, sunny and no wind.  I texted Kathy to ask where she thought we should stop for dinner in Gallup and she suggested I check her 2013 blog since their route this year changed and they went south to Roswell.  This is where she went last year, and I was glad we checked. Lots of history here:

This hotel/Resturant was built in 1937 to house and entertain many movie stars brought here to make films in this area.  Just to name a few, Ronald Reagan, Allan Ladd, Jackie Cooper, John Wayne, and more.  This is right on the famous Route 66 and in the heart of Indian Country.  This was the only picture I got inside:

I guess this is where John Wayne got his boots shined!  Fun place but just OK food.  Pretty good people watching though, there was a Harley biker party eating lunch at the same time.  

Spent the night in Gallup, NM ending another beautiful sunny day of driving.  But the very best was yet to come.  Arizona will be in the next chapter..