Police, Bikers, Ruins and Warm Weather

Sunday Feb. 9th

We're hoping for mid 70's today and by the looks and feel of it now we will have no problem making that. The sky is clear and the sun is out and warming quickly.

Today was the Hells Angles Prison Run to honor their brothers who are incarcerated in the prison here. The place was crawling with bikes and police. We are situated on the road that held the rally and we were pretty much restricted to our campground unless we took a major detour. It was like a mini Sturges.

Monday Feb. 10th

Today we went to the town of Coolidge AZ where the Casa Grande National Monument is located. We saw a informative movie and a guided tour of the monument. The tour was very informative in that we learned how the ancient people built their homes and in this case the grand building (Casa Grande) that no one is sure of it's actual purpose but only speculation.

While so much of the nation is facing another artic blast they are calling for record heat here by the weeks end. Again I'm only reporting, don't shoot the messenger.

 Early bloom

 Casa Grande (the grand house)

 Part of the tour

Retirement Living to the Max

After morning coffee it was off to do laundry. While there Chris was talking to a lady from Minnesota that was spending the winter here at Desert Gardens  It turns out that this lady was from the Brainerd area but grew up in St Paul. When asked where in St Paul she said that she grew up on Rice street and went to St Bernard’s, small world.

After laundry we decided to go back to Anthem Sun City retirement community that we had visited yesterday. They were having an open house today where you could visit all the houses for sale as well as the new models. We were very impressed at what we saw. Living here is so different to what we are use to in Minnesota. I kept wanting to close the doors that they all leave open, leaving windows and door opened without a screen is something very foreign to me. But down here a good portion of your time is spend outside and they make the outside area a part of the living experience. The patios on these homes are fantastic. It was fun going through the homes and talking to the people that live here. I have included pictures mainly of the patio areas because I would spend the majority of my time outside if I lived here.

We then headed back to the campground where we were immediately invited over to the neighbors for “happy hour”, I think I could get use to this lifestyle. A quick supper and we settled down to watch the Olympics.   

The view outside our laundry 

 Indoor lap pool at the community center at Sun City

 Outdoor pool

 Outdoor pool

 Outdoor pool and golf course in the background 

 More of the outdoor pool

Fantastic fitness center

 This model had a pool in the back

 This model had a putting green

Look at the size of the patio door, no screens

 How would you like this back yard

I love how the entire room opens to the outside 

                                                                           Fire place

                                                                        Covered patio area

Beautiful day but it's getting better

After the last two days it was great to see the sun again. 66 and sunny is about perfect as far as I’m concerned. But the forecast is for better yet, I think this is what we came to Arizona for.

We started the day with our fresh brewed French roast coffee as always, except having it out doors was a special treat. Then we jumped in the car and went to explore. Not very far from Florence we discovered Anthem Arizona a resort community developed by Del Web. This area was started in 2006 and has turned into a beautiful community comprised of two areas. One area is for families and people of all ages, the other area is for folks 55 and older. We drove through the 55 and older section and what a beautiful community it was. It surrounds a beautiful golf course and community center that contains everything you would expect from a major resort. We stopped at an open house and visited for awhile with the realtor and learned a lot about community.

We then ventured on to Poston’s Butte. Named after Arizonian Charles Poston who after a trip to India, in which he became a fire worshipper, built a continuous fire, a sort of temple of the sun, atop a hill and naming it Parsee Hill. The flames died out after of couple months and it became known as Poston’s folly and Poston’s Butte. It was a great hike up the hill with beautiful views once on top.

We had heard from folks in the campground about a drive that went out into the desert, which is full of saguro cactus, and continued through hills and valleys while passing through the small towns of Kelvin, Kearny, Hayden, Winkelman, Dudleyville, Mammonth, San Manuel and Oracle finally returning us back to our campground in time to BBQ some supper.

Looking forward to more of the same……..

How is this for a ten day forecast

A hike to the top of  Poston's Butte

Hiking on up

Atop Polson's Butte

View from the top

View from the top

View from the top

View from the top

Florence Kelvin Drive a desert loop drive

Cool Day In the Desert

What a difference when the sun does not shine. It’s normal in the desert for the evenings to have temperatures in the 40’s this time of year but it warms up quickly once the sun is up, which it normally is. Today however we woke to cloudy grey skies and it is not warming up much. Long pants and a light jacket are the uniform of the day.

One thing they don’t tell you when you sign up for unlimited call, text and data with your cell provider, at least with T-Mobile, is that you are limited to 2GB if using your phone as a wireless hotspot. We seem to use the 2GB up well before our month is up. Such was the case last night when I tried to post the blog. So first thing this morning I was off to find a McDonalds to connect. This resort offers WIFI but you have to subscribe and it’s not secure. I do have a wireless MIFI which I reactivated for a month, so we should be OK for a while. It’s a little bit more expensive than what is offered here but it is secure and probably much faster.

The sun finally managed to make its appearance around 3:00 this afternoon which made for a beautiful remainder of the day. With broken clouds still in the sky I knew that I had another sunset photo op.

Desert Walk, Chili Cook Off and Cribbage

I took this video at the start of my walk today; it’s so peaceful and quiet. It’s been cooler than normal here and will be so until Sunday when the temperature will be mid to high 70’s for a while. I hope that will be the new norm.

The resort sponsored a hot dog and chili cook off tonight that I went to. There were at least a dozen people vying for title of best made chili. They were all lined up along a long table with their entry from mild to hot. I like hot spicy food so I headed directly to the end of the line where I had a choice of four different kinds of “hot “chili. After asking how they rated their chili on a scale of one to ten I went with Mike’s Texas style that he said was a 4 on the hot scale. His chili was very good but it was an 8 on my scale. As it turned out Mike‘s chili won first place in the cook off. 

After supper I stuck around for the weekly cribbage tournament. I enjoy cribbage and it was a lot of fun. Even though I didn't win any money my score was respectable.

The sunsets here have been incredible every night so far, pictures do not capture the colors that the sky becomes when the sun sets. Maybe I need to work on my photo skills a bit and see if I can do a better job of showing the colors as they are. I’ll work on it.  (the photos were taken with my cell phone)

Super Bowl Sunday and a Cool Evening

We started the day off with a 2 ½ mile hike that went out into the desert; it was a great hike and a beautiful morning. We then went and found the various facilities that the resort offers. We met some nice people that were busy doing their stain glass projects in a well equipped studio. We spent time in the fitness center trying things out and deciding which piece of equipment we were going to master while we are here. Next we went to the pool and spa. The spa was opened but the pool covered and remains covered (unless you want to use it) until there has been three consecutive days of 70 plus degrees. By now it was time to attend the ice cream social which is a Sunday afternoon event.  People we meet in these campgrounds are all so nice and we all have so much in common, we get so many recommendations and suggestions of things to do and place’s to see.  After visiting and ice cream it was off to A&M Pizza for their famous New York style pie. We ordered it to go and brought it home in time for the kick off.

Tomorrow we head back to Phoenix to drop Chris off at the airport. She will be gone until Thursday.

Some pictures from the desert walk....

 Office building

 Office building area

Outside of the activity building 

Lounge area 

More lounge area 

Patio