Christmas Lumminairies

Christmas eve in our park, Fiesta Grande RV, it is a tradtion to put out lumminairies along all the streets in the park. A crowd of volunteers gather in the morning to fill the paper bags with sand and post them along the streets. As they are set down, a volunteer places the unlit candle in the sand. The first picture shows our lined street.





This ophoto shows Roger lighting a candle. All over the park, volunteers were lighting the candles on their streets.

This photo is looking down into the white paper bag, after the candle is lit. They burn all night.










This last photo in the dark shows all the lit lumminairies and some holiday lights as well. This year we were lucky, no big wind and a clear night. Lots of folks walked or drove through the park to look at the decorated sites and enjoy all the candle light and decorations. The amazing thing is that on Christmas morning, by 9 a.m. all these bags of candles and sand are gone.

This is really a nice Christmas tradition and we enjoy it very much. Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.

Happy trails.....

Holiday lights in Phoenix AZ

These 2 photos are from the Zoolights display in Phoenix. Roger and I went with a tour from our park to view Zoolights and the Mormon Temple lights display. The zoo at night is a completely different atmosphere. There were lots of families and seniors too enjoying the evening. We were lucky after several days of rainy weather to have a clear if chilly evening for the viewing. There were way too may scenes to show here but it was well worth the trip.
These 2 photos are from the Mormon lights display (free) in Pheonix. There are no lighted animal displays, only wonderful light displays, with many different kinds of little bulbs to enhance the scene. These lights reflected in the pool were just amazing. The camels and wise men are in a large open area, and they make quite an impression. Again, there were lots of families and folks out for the viewing. Walking the grounds of the facility and enjoying all the lights made for a very nice evening. We returned home to the park about 10.30p.m. Nice not to have to do the driving too.

Happy trails...

Jeep trip 2nd part

Here are more photos of that same road trip. You get a look at the rock moving, and consultations that go on one of these trips. Again, they are having the time of their lives! Roger can't wait for the next road trip! Looking at some of these 'roads', which are really ditches, gullies, washes, and dry stream beds, you have to wonder "what are they thinking?!!"
They are thinking, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.... having fun in the AZ sun.....


Happy trails.....

December Jeep trip

These are photos from Roger's recent jeep trip into the area near Superior AZ. There were 4 Jeeps on this run on a clear sunny day, but kind of chilly. You can see from the photos, these folks had some challenges. I gather part of the fun is moving big rocks to remake the road so they can traverse up and down them. The scenery is out of this world, when you are far from the freeways and a mass of autos and trucks that go screaming past. These folks try to get at least one trip a week in, and in better weather, they try for 2 a week. I'll have some additional photos in the second post on this tag line.

They start out about 7 a.m. and stop in Coolidge at Tags Rest. for breakfast. Then the 'leader' decides where they are off to for the day's ride. They all carry a lunch and it's a full days trip, arriving back in the park about 3 or 4 p.m. This road trip was about 120 miles round trip. The 14 miles off road took about 4 hours! And of course, that is the fun jpart. Final statement: A good time was had by all!

Tis the Season

One of the fun things about being in Arizona is having the chance to experience another culture. These pictures were taken at the Tamale Festival held in Phoenix Dec. 13. The sound stage featured this Mariachi Band and singer while we were there. Her dress is just amazing and the music was great! As you can see, the crowd had a great time sampling all kinds of Mexican food, from various types of tamales, to empanadas, nachos, tacos, and other things I was not familiar with. We got there early enough to buy our Christmas eve tamales, some for the freezer, and some to have for lunch. This lady is making empanadas, sort of a Mexican version of ravioli. We also saw tamales being made, and got a recipe to make 30doz. of our own, should we get ambitious!

We also went with our Fiesta Grande RV park neighbors to the local Electric Light parade in downtown Casa Grande. This is an amazing event. There were some 80 groups/floats participating. You can see in one photo, all of us lined up on the sidewalk in our chairs, waiting for the show to begin.

I've also included couple of photos of our coach and site decorated for Christmas. Of course we had to have our chili wreath right in front.

AZ isn't Washington, where there is snow on the ground today. But it is a good place to be if we can't be with all our family. Being on the road isn't being at home, but then being at home is in soooo many places.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

meanwhile, happy trails....

this is a test

3years ago I painted this rose ... while we were living in Puyallup WA. Our neighbor had beautiful roses in his garden and I stopped with my camera. He gave me a wonderful overview of the roses there, and even gave me a huge deep red rose to take home!

Off Road Jeep Trip in AZ

4 Jeeps went a trailing.... up above Superior AZ... they got up to 5000 Ft. and into some clouds. Roger reports the trip took about 6 hours to go 37 miles... From the photo below you can see some of the 'good' trail.




Views from the 'top'.. off into the valley, Roger said they saw Superior down there somewhere. Weather was pretty nice and many folks were out enjoying the desert. Lots of folks use this BLM land, trucks, 4 wheelers, m/cycles, ATVs, crawling all over the place.
The last photo was taken early in the ride, you can see the clouds beyond. As I said, these are 'bouncing' good times and good friends.

obviously, they are on ... happy trails...

Thanksgiving in Casa Grande

22 close friends got together for a fabulous Thanksgiving Dinner Thurs. afternoon. We had planned to eat out doors - the weather had been so great all week - but of course a thunder storm rolled in and we all moved inside to Max and Andy Anderson's park model. It's amazing how many people can crowd in together and have such a good time. Remember, some of these folks have been cooking for 50 yrs or more, and the food was really GOOD!













Our hostess Max at the head of the table cooked a great turkey, and below you can see we all made quick work of all the delicious side dishes!. I confess I had never had 'scolloped corn", or dressing with dried cranberries before. Let me tell you, I HAVE to have those recipes. I am not showing the dessert counter, as it was empty by the time I got the camera out.


Friday Roger went 'jeeping' with friends in the AZ mountains, for a full day of bouncing around. I stayed home and read, napped and had good intentions...lol

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving... we all have so much to be grateful for...

til next time, happy trails...

San Jose visit 11/10/08

Here we are parked at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds in San Jose CA. This site was away from the main rv parking.. we sort of had our own personal site. You can see the arch to the fairgrounds in the background. The fairgrounds gave us a weekly rate, with full hookups. The only distraction was the music fests held on Saturday night in one of the fairground buildings. This wasn't really a hardship though, and we had no problems. They also had a 24 hour security patrol, and we were parked right near the ATM machines!

Another view of our set up. You can see we are not surrounded by rigs. We were the only ones there! Now in another park of the fairgrounds there is quite a rv-park, which was pretty full with carnival workers etc. So our reclusive site was great.













Oh yeah, there is also a motorcross track at the fairgrounds which was open on Sunday. Again, this was not close to us and we really didn't hear much noise. They looked like they were having a great time though.
















Here I am with our son Lance. We were in San Jose to play nurse after he had some surgery. Course being young and healthy, he didn't need much care, so all my Florence Nightengale dreams didn't last long. He has a great support system of friends who are pitching in while he recuperates.

On Sunday we had dinner with my daughter Lisa and her family. Double Treat! Got to see all the 'kids' this trip!

Here are Lisa and her husband Bill, head of their fabulous clan...

Dave and Vienna (granddaughter) on the left below and Hannah and Lacey with my brother Buzz to the right. We had a wonderful time and visit. We are so proud of the California side of the family (and the Washington side too, of course). Hannah graduates in June and we'll be Back!!!

Desert Palms Resort, Salome, AZ

We stayed at the Desert Palms Golf and RV resort on our way to San Jose, CA Here is photo of the 'palms' at sunset. This is a nice park, tho the golf isn't available until mid November. It is a very nice course, wide open - this part of AZ isn't noted for it's big bushy trees. We'd like to come back and stay a bit when golf is available. Each lot is wider than the usual rv lot, so room so be comfortable and NOT in your neighbors lap.






Here is a shot of the golf course and water hazard. I loved the mountains in the background. Since I wasn't golfing, I could have been painting, but I didn't do that either.











Our rig at sunset. We were early to the season here so there are lots of open spaces. We were in the 'overnighters' section, so not as much space but full hookups, tho no cable tv and wifi was $.









One more shot of those mountains. Lot sunlight in the afternoons made for some wonderful views. You can walk from your site to the clubhouse and golf course from anywhere in this park. They also have a nice pitch and putt set up in the middle of the park, no charge. Golf of course is a different matter.

It has been fun to see different parks and areas as we travel. I have a big map book and mark with yellow marker our routes. Many crisscross but the 'road less travelled' add to the adventure.

Happy trails...