Thursday PM

Time is growing short for us in Countryside RV Park.  We will be packing up tomorrow, Friday, because the forecast is for rain on Saturday and Sunday. We need to get all our yard art and carpet packed before it rains. Sunday we move to Skyline RV Park.

Today we went to Scottsdale AZ to visit the Old Town.  http://downtownscottsdale.com/

They bill it as the most western town in the west. It is about a forty minute drive from where we are. It is the entrance to the Sonora Desert. We want to make another trip up there and get out on some desert trails.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Mission

Street Art

 Street Art 

Street Art

Street Art

Street Art 

Street Art

 

History Museum in the Old Brick Schoolhouse

I couldn't pass this up, could I?

Lela getting cozy with a local.

I think this guy was trying to sell me drugs

After seeing the sights we had an early supper at Los Olivos Mexican restaurant in Scottsdale.  It has been there since 1929.  We had our meal outdoors on the patio. 

http://www.losolivosrestaurants.com/

The pigeons waited patiently.

This guy was overlooking our table.

When we returned home one of our neighbors, who is a blacksmith and horseshoer, stopped by to show us some of his art. It was interesting to compare casting art as a dental technician to forged art as a blacksmith.

Lucy's (Lela's) rock collection, so far.

Relaxing with the blanket she purchased today

We are in now watching movies from the couch.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I repaired an exhaust fan in our bathroom.  We stayed home and took a walk around the park, did a little laundry and relaxed.

Wednesday AM

Yesterday Feb. 24th. was Chris and Pam's 19th anniversary.  Congratulations to them.  They celebrated at The Heartland lodge.  Check it out.  http://www.heartlandlodge.com/  They will be headed home today.

As my dad would say, "we dunced around" yesterday until noon.  We needed to buy propane as one of our bottles was depleted.  The neighbors told me where the least expensive refill station was located.  We headed to Apache Junction for a refill.

The entrance to Apache Junction on the Apache Trail Highway.

 

Plaque to commemorate the Lost Dutchman Mine Memorial.

Lost Dutchman Memorial with the Superstition Mountains in the background.

Actually, the mine is somewhere in the picture!

The next stop was at another antique mall.  Lots of interesting artifacts in these places.  I might have to buy some spurs for my boots, but I think I'll skip the chaps.

Do any of my family remember watering the chickens with one of these?

 After the antiques the farmers market beckoned. Lots of veggies there.  Lela also bought a jar of rhubarb jam. The market is very popular with the snowbirders.

We didn't buy this.

 

We picked up some fried chicken and headed home at about 5:00.  There was a concert scheduled for 7:00 and we wanted to attend.

The concert was a gospel concert.

  There was no entry fee, but an offering was accepted.  The hat was passed and most people contributed.

 

  We were invited to sing along with the songs we knew, however they did several songs that were original to the entertainers.  We enjoyed the evening and headed home about 9:00.

The weather here has been cool and windy.  A thunderstorm came through yesterday while we were out.  It blew over our chairs and a plant, but no damage was done.  I am glad I had the awning tied down.  The rain stayed in the west valley and didn't get us.

The storm cloud over the Superstition Mountains.

Monday Evening
February 23

It was a fun day today.  We did nothing until noon and then went to then theater to see "American Sniper."  That is an intense movie about a man at war and trying to be a family man too.  I recommend it if you haven't seen it.

After the theater we made a Wal-Mart stop and headed to Gilbert, Arizona.  Gilbert is an older town with a quaint main street.  It was about twenty miles away.  We had heard of a BBQ restaurant there called Joe's Real BBQ.  http://joesrealbbq.com/

It was good, but it isn't Fat Daddy's in La Feria, TX.  It was a cafeteria style set-up.  They make their own root beer and that was really good.

John Deere inside the restaurant

  We headed home after the meal.

The last two days have been windy here.  There was a winter front that came through yesterday.  It brought cooler temperatures and wind with it.  The northern part of AZ, in the mountains got two feet of snow.  I tied down the corners of the awning as it was catching a lot of wind.  We had a couple brief showers, but nothing you could really call rain, although it is drizzling as I write this.

We returned to the Apache Junction Church of Christ yesterday.  I like the way the preacher delivers his message.  He is very knowledgeable.

We went into Apache Junction after church and ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant.  It turned out to be a fast food chain.  Food was good but we won't return. The antique mall was the next stop. There are some pretty interesting antiques around here.  They have a lot of western theme booths. Lela made a couple purchases.

Saturday Feb. 21, we went to the Mesa Market and Swap Meet.   http://mesamarket.com/ 

It is a huge place with just about anything you might like to buy.  It is a favorite place for the snowbirds and is always very crowded.  Paul, Christy Ben, Nic and Quintin met us there.  After shopping until we couldn't take any more, we got some pizzas and had dinner with the family.  Paul and I had our annual cigar on the back patio.

The view at sunset from the back patio.

  We don't solve any of the problems of the universe, but we discuss them.

 Friday evening we grilled burgers at Paul's house.  He ended up working late so we didn't get to see too much of him.  We did get to enjoy the rest of the family.



 

Thursday evening

Another great weather day in the Valley of the Sun.

We left on a road trip at about 10 AM heading into the mountains.  We traveled up Hwy 88, which is known as the Old Apache Trail.  It leads into the Tonto National Forest.

 

Here are some sights along the way.

If you can enlarge this one you will see some cars that have gone over the cliff at some time in the past.

G'pa taking in the view

 

Our first stop was in Tortilla Flats.  Its claim to fame is that it is the last surviving Stagecoach stop on the trail.  We had lunch there and shopped a little bit in the Mercantile store.

The restaurant  is pretty unique because it is wallpapered in actual one dollar bills.  If you ate at the bar you were seated on saddles.

Then we set out for the Roosevelt Dam on the Salt river system of reservoirs.  The hardest part of the day was an hour and a half of old rock road.

below is the road we were on.

You could fall a long way if you got on the shoulder.

 

  To say this was a washboard trail would be giving it a compliment.  Twenty-seven miles over 1.5 hours.  Up and down the mountains and around 180 degree turns we went, vibrating all the way.  The saving grace for the rough road was that we saw some of the most beautiful sights that God has created. We saw mountains and canyons in the great splendor of Arizona.

Finally we reached the dam and paved roads.  What a treat!

We decided to head to Globe Arizona and return home without going back over the washboard.  it was a longer drive but much appreciated.

As we traveled along Hwy 188 we came across the Tonto National Monument, which is the ruin of cliff dwellings built  by the Salado Indians.

Our Golden Age Pass gets us into all National Parks for free.  The trail to the ruins ran back and forth across the face of the mountain rising about 400 feet from the start of the paved trail.  We were huffing and puffing as we reached the top.  It was a very steep climb for a couple of old timers.

Lela in the ruins

This is the view the Indians had from their perch on the canyon wall.

G'pa in the ruins.

When we left the ruins and headed for Globe to find a restaurant, we decided we were not hungry enough to eat, so we took the Hwy 60 exit and headed home.

It was a wonderful day just taking in the sights.  I am sorry the pictures cannot do justice to the scenes we saw today, but maybe you can get some idea of the scope of this creation.