Thursday, October 25, 2018

Today will be a day of packing up and putting away in order to get on the road home tomorrow.  The plan is to get into central Texas tomorrow and then stop Saturday morning in the Dallas area to check with H. E. about his health problems. 

From Dallas, we are unsure where we will spend Saturday night.  If we are okay we might try to make it home, although that is doubtful.

We managed to finish our floor project, which is the whole reason for our October trip to AZ.  While we were here the weather has been crazy.  The first half of the month was unusually hot.  Records were set this month for rainfall.  We had never seen the kind of rain we witnessed this month.  There was actually more rain here in a couple days than fell during their whole monsoon season.

Sunday, we went to church as usual, made our Wal Mart stop on the way home, and visited with our neighbors. At about 4:30 our phones warned us about an approaching dust storm active until 5:00.  Well, at about 4:55 it hit here.  There wasn't much dust, but the wind was dangerous. We could feel the Ranch shudder under the gusts which must have been in the 50 to 60 MPH range.  Rain fell by the bucketful. We lost power for a short time. Then it was gone and calm took over.  The rainbow appeared and the neighbors were all outside.

Notice the palm is still being blown in the wind.

On Monday, another storm came through in the afternoon.  The rain came by the bucket again but the unusual part of the storm was hail. Hail was about marble. I am told that hail is very unusual in the valley. There have been plenty of beautiful weather days, but October has been unusual and a record setting month.

Yesterday, we hosted a "happy hour" on the north driveway.  We wanted to get the neighbors together and say our good-byes.  Temps in the mid 80's were very agreeable for our gathering.
We will certainly look forward to our return in January when more neighbors have arrived.

North driveway

Amber and Larry (Iowa)

Gary (Idaho)

Front to back, Louise, (Gary's wife),

 Marilyn (permanent resident)

And Lela

Fritz and Selena (permanent residents)

Full moon rising

This will probably be my last post for a while, but you never know.

Stay Tuned!

Saturday October 20, 2018

Thursday was spent painting (Lela), cutting and placing all the remaining molding and finishing the job we came to AZ to do.  Now when we return in January we won't have any great project to complete and we can play and enjoy ourselves. (my golf clubs are calling my name).

Friday, we cleaned up construction debris and organized all the tubs and storage which had been displaced by construction.  Then we made a Home Depot run to return all unused flooring and molding. (nice refund)

Saturday, today I set my clock for 5:45 to meet some friends from church and hike the Petroglyph trail up the Superstition Mountains. https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/arizona/hieroglyphic-trail

Obligatory photo preparing to leave

Picks to follow.  I really enjoy hiking the mountains and desert here. The awesome creation of God's earth is amazing.

Trailhead for Petroglyph (Hieroglyph) trail

 

View from the parking lot

Our objective

 

video From below

The crew

L to R Rick, Hermine, Andy, Tom, Laura, Ross,

Kneeling, G'pa and Bill

Superstition Wilderness

Tonto National Forest

View to the west.

Camelback Mountain in distance

Beautiful scenery

 

On the trail

 

North end of the Superstitions

Look at the balanced rock on top right

Old man cactus

Old man cactus and old man

On the trail

Looking west

 

 Finally reached the objective.  It is a water source in the desert mountains.  It is sometimes dry, but I have seen it twice now and both times the water has been running on the waterfall.  I had previously (three years ago) hiked this trail with my grandsons.

panorama of the objective

The objective waterfall

Petroglyphs on the cliff wall

another view

Trail ends at the flat rock in the background

Bill wanted his pic on the cliff with the petroglyphs

behind him and below

longshot for prospective where Bill climbed

Lots of folks on the mountain today 

 

Petroglyphs

 

 

Wednesday October 17, 2018

Beautiful weather today. Clear and 80 degrees.  It has been unseasonably cool and wet in October.  We have set a number of rainfall records in the past three weeks.

Lela and I drove up to Sun City in Peoria, AZ today.  We picked up some parts for Ron's race car.  I think I should have a credit painted on the car ( maybe gaskets by Paul).

It was fun to just get out in the good weather today after spending so much time (all Monday and Tuesday) replacing the flooring.  I finished laying the floor and applying part of the molding in the closets so we could at least put things away.

 

It was a long day yesterday as I was determined to finish the flooring.  My feet and knees are paying for it today. It was good to take a day off today.

Sunday, we went to Church at Desert Sands Church of Christ, our regular congregation in AZ.  We were royally welcomed several times from the pulpit. It was fun to see everyone again, as we seldom were able to see them last year.

Sunday afternoon we were invited for steaks at Ross and Laura's in Apache Junction, AZ.  They were the perfect hosts.  After dinner we were treated to a dance in their large clubhouse.

G'pa and Lela at sunset on

the way to the dance

Ross, Laura, Lela and G'pa

Dancing the night away

Old folks having a good time

 

  We had a great time and look forward to more when we return in January.

Friday, October 12, 2018

Happy Birthday to my Sis-In-Law Darlene!

On Monday this week (8th) we joined Marilyn, Larry and Amber for breakfast at San Tan Café.  This is a favorite spot of Marilyn's for breakfast. https://www.thesantancafe.com/

We encountered Nicholas the 35 year old Cockatoo. The lady who owns him was in the restaurant having breakfast.

Nicholas

 

Video of Nicholas talking.

(I hope it plays)

In the evening, we hosted the pizza party for Zachary and Thaliya.  They were leaving to go back to the Navy in Washington State.

Jr.

Christy

Courtney

 

Zachary

Ben

Nic

Quintin

G'pa and Son

 

Zachary and Thaliya

 

Zachary and Thaliya

 

Tuesday I was back at the floor project.  I finished the hallway and part of the guest bedroom. I think it was a two Aleve night.

 

Wednesday we spent most of our day between Walmart and Home Depot buying molding and other related products.  Lunch was at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Serranos. https://www.serranosaz.com/

Thursday was my birthday!  G'pa is 73 today.

Ana singing happy birthday to G'pa

(hope it plays) 

I was confronted with two plumbing problems early in the day.  I was able to repair both situations without a trip to the hardware store.

In the afternoon I painted ninety feet of molding in preparation for installation.

Lela took me out for dinner for my birthday.  We went to San Tan Flat, a western themed restaurant in Queen Creek. http://www.santanflat.com/

 

G'pa

 Then it was back home for my Birthday pecan pie.

Blow 'em out

 

T

This is what 73 looks like

I received a call this morning telling me that there were a couple shady characters stealing firewood from beneath my deck. The police were not called.

 

 We are headed to our friends, Ross and Laura's house near Apache Junction, this afternoon.  We were unable to visit with them last winter because of illness.