Hi, glad to see you back. Our last
chapter concluded on Friday, April 1st, as we arrived in
Casa Grande, Arizona after finishing our two month stay in Yuma,
Arizona with friends. Two of the couples we were with headed off in
their own directions. The Babcock's heading for home in Murrieta,
California after a few days stopover in Indio, and the Wilson's
heading for Cottonwood, Arizona and then points east and south. The
Bullock's are sticking with us for another three weeks and came up
here to Casa Grande with us.
Saturday, April 2nd, we left
the RV park with Peggy and Vernon in our car and went to do some
geocaching. We had a good few hours, getting eleven new finds, and
one DNF, in the course of a couple hours. We then stopped at a small
Chinese restaurant called Big Wa, which is a favorite of ours when
here in Casa Grande. We had a great lunch and then went out and ran
a few errands before heading back to the RV park. We hung around the
coach for the remainder of the afternoon and had cocktails with Peggy
and Vernon at 5:00. Tonight we did some hamburgers on the grill and
had some of Peggy's macaroni salad to go with them. We ate and
talked until about 8:00, when the Bullock's went home and we watched
TV until bedtime.
Sunday we stayed at home for most of
the day. We did the Sunday papers, both the Phoenix paper and the
Casa Grande paper. I did a few chores around the house and then we
just relaxed for a while. About 5:30 we drove over to the old
Western Horizon's park, where we used to stay when we came to Casa
Grande, to see my brother Ken and his wife Susan. They came down
today with their camp trailer for a week's vacation. We sat and had
our cocktails with them and talked until about 7:30 when we left and
went back to our place. We watched TV until bedtime.
Monday, April 4th, we left
the coach about 10:00 and drove over to the RV park where my brother
and his wife are staying. We then loaded up in our car and went out
to do some geocaching. We got them involved in geocaching not too
long after we started in 2008 and they have become big fans. We were
able to get 14 new finds, at least for us, and two DNFs in a few
hours. Some of the caches we found they had already gotten on
previous trips, but they were new to us. After caching we went back
to the Big Wa restaurant for lunch. Ken and Susan had seen the post
of us eating there on Saturday and thought they would like to try the
place too. We had another great lunch. We did another hour or so of
caching and then dropped Ken and Susan off at their RV and we went
home and relaxed for a while. About 5:00 they came over to our place
and we sat outside and talked until about 7:30 when they headed back
to their place. We went inside and relaxed the rest of the night.
Tuesday we left the coach after lunch
and went over to the mall on the other side of town to go to a movie.
We saw “Hello, My Name is Doris,” staring Sally Fields. It was
a sort of romantic comedy, but with a little bit of a twist. Fields
played an older lady named Doris who had lived with her mother her
entire life. Her mother, who was a hoarder, died and left Doris a
bit unhinged. She fantasized herself into a “relationship” with
a much younger co-worker, and, as they say, hilarity ensued. I
thought it was a funny, touching movie and I enjoyed it very much.
After the movie we did a couple of caches and stopped at a couple of
stores to do some shopping. We then headed back to the coach and
spent the rest of the evening in. A nice, pleasant day with just to
two of us.
Wednesday, April 6th, we
went out after lunch and did some shopping. We stopped at Kohl's to
take a couple of shirts Jackie didn't like after she got them home.
We then went to Sam's Club for a few supplies. We then headed home,
put away our stuff and relaxed for a while. We left the coach about
5:00 and drove into town to meet Ken and Susan for dinner at the
Macayo's Mexican place. Macayo's is an old name in Arizona. The
original restaurant was in west Phoenix, only a few blocks from where
I went to high school in the early 60's. I have eaten at their
restaurants many, many times over the years. However, they have
gotten too fancy with their cooking lately and I was not very
satisfied with the food. It was OK, but not the old style Mexican
cooking I remember. I probably won't go back to Macayo's anytime
soon. After dinner we went home and watched TV until bedtime.
Thursday, April 7th, we left
the coach about 10:00 and drove over to pick up Ken and Susan for
another day of geocaching. Today we went to the town of Maricopa,
about 20 miles northwest of Casa Grande. Maricopa used to be just a
small farming community on the edge of the Ak Chin Indian
Reservation. Maricopa was just a small farming community and former
railroad stop on the line between Phoenix and Tucson, until the
Harrah's gaming corporation partnered with the Ak Chin tribe in 1994
to open a casino. This was the first and only Indian casino in
Arizona with an outside, corporate sponsor. The relationship has
worked out as the casino remains a very successful hotel and casino
operation and still is operated by Harrah's. In 2000 Maricopa had
just over a thousand residents. The city incorporated in 2003 and
has bloomed to a population of nearly 50,000 as it has become a
bedroom community for the Phoenix metro area.
We decided to go caching in Maricopa
because both we and Ken and Susan have cached a lot in Casa Grande
and between us have exhausted most of the caches in and around the
city. It was becoming very difficult for us to come up with caches
to look for that one or both of our teams had not already gotten. We
cached once in Maricopa about four years ago and Ken and Susan have
never cached there. Since there are close to 500 caches in a ten
mile radius of town it was an ideal “virgin” territory in which
to cache. We geocached for about three hours, then stopped for a
quick lunch, then cached for another hour or so. By the time we were
done we had 30 new finds, with one DNF, a pretty good day of caching.
After caching we drove back down to
Casa Grande and dropped Ken and Susan off at their RV park. We then
went back to our park and relaxed for a bit. When we arrived we saw
that Peggy and Vernon Bullock had returned from their trip to Tucson
and were now parked in the spot right next door. I spent some time
in the hot tub and did some office work before we met with Peggy and
Vernon for happy hour. We weren't outside very long before a dust
storm loomed up and we headed inside. Peggy made dinner, a sort of
tamale pie casserole, that was very tasty. By 8:30 we were back in
our coach watching TV.
Friday, April 8th, we had a
stay at home day for the most part. We had some rain come through
last night and everything got pretty wet. The weather for the next
few days is supposed to be some what unsettled. About 5:00 Ken and
Susan came over and we sat for happy hour with Peggy and Vernon,
inside of our coach because it was quite cool and windy outside.
Later we had a nice BBQ, steaks and pork chops, and ate a nice dinner
with the six of us. Ken and Susan know Peggy and Vernon from a
number of other visits with us. Everyone left and headed home about
7:30 and we watched TV until bedtime. Ken and Susan are heading back
home tomorrow, but we will be in their town, Goodyear, in a couple of
weeks, so we will see them again soon.
Saturday we left about 10:30 and
started towards Tucson, about 60 miles southeast of Casa Grande. We
are headed down there to visit with my oldest granddaughter Crystal
and her baby, Zoey. They are li
After our visit we headed back home,
getting in just after 5:00. We had cocktails with Peggy and Vernon
and then a nice spaghetti dinner that Peggy made for us. We had a
great visit in Tucson and really enjoyed our day. After dinner we
went home and relaxed with the TV before heading off to bed.
Sunday, April 10th, we relaxed in the
morning with the Sunday papers. It was another unsettled day with a
lot of wind and on and off rain. We ran a couple of errands in the
afternoon, but mostly just stayed at home and did a few small chores
and relaxed. We had cocktails and dinner with the Bullock's again.
Tonight Jackie did some simple taco salads for everyone and we had a
great dinner. Afterward we watched TV and then went to bed. Monday
we left the coach after lunch and went out to do our laundry. It has
been almost three weeks, so it was time. After that we stopped at
Walmart and then headed home. We had cocktails with the Bullocks and
then dinner in the coach on our own. We watched a little TV and then
went to bed.
Tuesday, April 12th, we left the coach
about 10:00 with Peggy and Vernon and drove back up to Maricopa to do
some geocaching with them. When we got into Maricopa we stopped at a
little place called Sunrise Cafe and had breakfast. After that we
cached and were able to get a dozen new finds, along with a DNF, in a
few hours. We then headed back to the coach and relaxed for a while.
Peggy and Vernon came over for cocktails and then we had dinner at
our place. Jackie fixed a big pot of her risotto, with shrimp,
mushrooms and asparagus. It was wonderful and we had a great meal.
We talked for a while and the Bullock's went home around 7:30. We
watched TV until bedtime.
Wednesday, we again left the coach
about 10:00 to do some local geocaching with Peggy and Vernon. We
were able to get five new finds in a couple of hours, one of which
was a cache we had DNFed last week when we
Thursday, April 14th, our last full day
in Casa Grande. It was very hot and humid today, so we had a lazy,
stay at home day. Didn't go anywhere, and didn't do much around the
coach. We had cocktails with the Bullock's at 5:00 and then did some
pork chops on the BBQ. Peggy and Vernon had a steak and we had
dinner in their coach. About 8:00 we were home and watched TV until
bedtime.
Friday, April 15th, Happy Birthday to
our old cat Smokey, 16 years old today. He is hanging in there
despite being mostly blind and deaf. Today was a travel day. We
were packed up and out of the Casa Grande park about 10:00, headed
north towards Apache Junction, Arizona. The trip was only a little
over 50 miles, but a good part of it was through the metro area east
of Phoenix, consisting of Mesa, Chandler and Gilbert. We arrived at
the Sunrise RV Resort about 11:30 and by 12:30 we were parked and
mostly set up for our one week stay. We are staying here for seven
days at no cost thanks to a coupon we picked up at the rally in Indio
in January. The Bullock's are parked right behind us and will be
here with us for the week. After that we go our separate ways until
July when we show up at their home in northern California.
It has been two weeks now since our
last posting, so a good time to put this episode to bed. Until next
time, remember that life may not be the we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance. Have fun and see ya soon.
