Casa Grande RV Park

November & December of 2015 was spent at Casa Grande RV Park in Casa Grande, AZ. Overall, the stay was ok, but could have been a whole lot better if the weather was a little better. Colder than average temps prevailed for the most part, although I shouldn't complain, as colder than average here is still better than warmer than average back home in Vermont.

Our spot - # 103- after a rain! In the desert!

The rainbow missed us again- got Dave & Teddy's rig. They didn't get the pot of gold either

As has been our luck, the best part of our travels have been the people we've met. At this park, we were very fortunate to have some great neighbors: Dave & Teddy and Bruce & Diane from Ontario, Jim & Casey from the DC area, Jay & Jan from Minnesota, Larry & Connie from California, Ed & Judy from Washington,  and Don & Donna from the Buffalo, NY area. In late November, Dave & Teddy left( first to go to Algodones, Mexico for dental work for Teddy, and then to move to Fiesta Grande RV park in Casa Grande). Their spot was taken by our old friends from Saskatchewan, Keith & Dorann. Doesn't get any better.

Some of the best parts were our daily Happy Hours......

This Happy Hour included Pizza!

Our Happy Hours were well attended. Actually we were kind of lucky the weather was colder than normal because, after about an hour, and when the sun went down, it did get chilly and probably kept the happy hour from becoming happy hourS. On Christmas Eve, we had a huge Happy Hour....

Right between our rig and Keith & Dorann's

And a good time was had by all

And then there were the Clubhouse gatherings......

This was the opening, welcome reception party

 And then there was the Thanksgiving Dinner....

These were just some of the organized events. Along the way there were a few things that are worth reporting. Like......

A new arrival at the park.

Along the way, we had some great sunrises and sunsets.

And then our taking advantage of Dave's RV Wash Service to get our new Mobile Suites all spiffed up. Wash, roof seal, hand wax.

And the one day Events.......Like Connie and Larry inviting us to join them for a Boomers pre-Thanksgiving get together at one of their friends places in Surprise(Phoenix), AZ.....

Getting lunch ready

The group, enjoying a great lunch

And then the group got together for a photo

And the pre-Christmas trip to Barleens AZ Opry for their Christmas show...

If you are ever in the Apache Jct area, this place is a must!

Check out the hair

And a great time was had by all!

And how about our trip to Casa Grande Ruins National Park.......

And the trip to Tonto National Monument, via Globe......

View of Lake Roosevelt off in the distance as we approach from south from Globe.

Another view of Lake Roosevelt - this from Tonto National Park

Cliff Dwellings among the Suguaro's

Molly doing her sniff thing

A trip down I 10 took us to Piccacho and Rooster Cogburns Ostrich Ranch......

The goat penthouse

The Hole in the Wall Gang

And the Ostriches

These birds actually flew in to your hand and removed the lid from the container which holds nectar. They were not one bit shy about this.....

Mary with her new friends

Resting or waiting for next victim. Not sure which....

The park mascot

Picaccho Peak off in the distance

The tour "bus"

A trip to Tempe was in order. We had guests coming for dinner just before we left and had to find a couple of chairs for seating at our table in the Mobile Suites. What better place to look then IKEA in Tempe.

What an experience. Had my doubts that we would ever find our way out!

From Tempe, it was off to RT 60 and Apache Junction, where we picked up the Apache Trail for a trip to Tortilla Flats. Every visitor to AZ should take this trip.

View along the way

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More great scenery

Pic says it all

Canyon Lake off in the distance

And this is Tortilla Flats. Population: 6

Of course the population doesn't count all of us tourists......this was the lunch bar at Tortilla Flats.

We even had entertainment for lunch, which we shared with the rest of the people eating there.

The food was good and so was the music

View from the main street of Tortilla Flats

another view

And still another view.

Probably the one thing that I enjoyed the most while at Casa Grande RV Resort was Pickleball. I had never played it before and enjoyed it so much, that I was depressed at the thought of leaving and going to a park that did not have Pickleball. Leaving Pickleball and the many friends that I made playing each and EVERY morning. Special thanks to Don and Donna for their help and encouragement and practical lessons.

This is how it is supposed to be played. This taken at National Championships held at Palm Creek RV Resort in Casa Grande.

Pickleball at Casa Grande RV Park. 4 courts that were busy and in use every morning.

Palm Creek courts.......just some of the 21 or so they have.

Manufacturers day, where you could try out paddles.....

typical morning at Casa Grande RV Park Pickleball courts

Randy and Barb taking on Bill & Denny

Sue & Doug

Randy & Barb & Bill & Denny

Mike sitting on the bench waiting his turn.

What was the most rewarding about this game was the personal satisfaction in how much I improved just over the course of the 4-5 weeks that I played. The last day that I played before leaving the park, we had a round robin tournament where each of 16 players picked a number and then for 6 matches was paired up with a different partner and different opponents. When it was all done, I had been on the winning team 4 of the 6 games. For me this was awesome and the 2 games that we lost, were close enough that they could have gone either way. Boy, am I going to miss this park and all of these new Pickleball friends.....Mike from Alberta, Mike from Fort Collins, CO, Randy and his wife Adeana from Colorado, Doug & Barb from Canada, Bill & Sue, Denny from Kansas, John and John(the 2 instructors for beginners), Don & Donna, Keith, Larry from Indiana, Kathleen & Marilyn, Ed from Washington, Dick & Barb from Saskatchewan, Bob and Marvel, Charles from Alberta.......

The Pickleball group at our very own Happy Hour

Probably the biggest disappointment of our stay here was the pool. Mary was so looking forward to it and it was one of the main reasons we came to Casa Grande in the first place- lower altitude, warmer weather as opposed to Benson. To start out, when we got here, and for the first 3 weeks, there was no heater in the pool. It was broken and they had not replaced it. Then when they did finally get it replaced, the weather went to pot. Cool and windy. There were a few days, though, where she did get to take advantage of it.....

Mary, Dorann, and Diane enjoying the pool

Volleyball. Weather played havoc with this also

At one happy hour, Larry & Connie decided that we should all learn how to play Pegs & Jokers. So, we scheduled an afternoon in one of the activity rooms and all of us happy hour people got together to learn how to play Pegs & Jokers, which I really have to admit, was a lot of fun......

Table includes: Diane, Bruce, Judy, Ed, Don & Donna

Don getting in the picture

Our table with Jay & Jan

The rest of the group-Casey, Jim, Connie, Larry, Keith & Dorann

Last but not least of happy events, was our bird feeder and the progression of feeders and visitors. We started out with a regular Hummingbird feeder, but found we were attracting hundreds of bees. After some research, Mary found a feeder with a different style. It was perfect. It eliminated the bees - because they couldn't get down in to the liquid mix and became perfect for our Hummingbirds. The real surprise came, and this is when the happy event occurred, when we got a new visitor each morning around 7:00 am........

An Arizona Woodpecker

Lastly, I'll end this rather long blog with a toast: To our many friends that we made at a pretty nice RVpark.......in Casa Grande, AZ

Mike, Jim, Dave, Bruce, Larry, and Ed - enjoying another round!!!at Buffalo Wild Wings in Casa Grande, AZ on Guys day out.

Chanute to Casa Grande (and in between)

Our travels from Liberal, KS to Albuquerque were put on hold for a day as we sat tight after a 3.5" rainfall on wednesday night had things pretty flooded around here.(I was told it was closer to 4-4.5" in Liberal) We took a ride in to town just to have breakfast and survey the area. And a good thing that we did. Right up Rt 54 from the restaurant that we had breakfast at, the road was basically closed....

RT 54, downtown. Definitely a drainage problem here.....

So, we spent another day in Kansas. A wise idea. We elected to make the trip all the way in to Albuquerque, a day of almost 400 miles. Fortunately all went well and we arrived at Enchanted Trails RV Park and ended up with same spot that our friends Dave and Kathy had prior to Balloon Fiesta. Checked in to RVillage and noted some "friends" - Ron & Kathy were also checked in to the park. We did meet up and spend some time with them. We treated ourselves the first night to a Seafood Buffet at the RT 66 Casino Resort just a short piece down the road from the park.....

Food was good, service excellent. Atmosphere.........just not our kind of thing.

While in Albuquerque, we had some business to take care of - like getting to Bank of America so that I could get a cashiers check to pay sales tax to register our new trailer and then a trip to Trader Joe's  for much needed "supplies".  After a nights rest, we were off the next day for Deming, NM and the Escapee Park Dreamcatcher RV Park. Coincidentally, our friends Loren and Bonnie who we met in Liberal, KS and then saw at Enchanted Trails in Albuquerque, were in a park right up the street from us. We enjoyed Dreamcatcher and especially the daily happy hours at 4. Made some new friends there - Ted and Karen. Also met some RVillage friends- Larry & Clara, in fact when I first started using Village, they were the first "friends" that I had. Small world. The happy hours there were a lot of fun, especially listening to the 2 people that were there living and traveling in Casitas. We thought an Airstream was confining......

Mary with Ted and Karen

From Dreamcatcher in Deming, it was off to Benson and Butterfield RV Resort.

Our spot at Benson

Kind of amazing, but our friends from Liberal, KS, Loren and Bonnie, were right up the street from us at Cochise Terrace. I don't know who was following who, but this makes 4 parks that we were at or near each other. Will be the same in January, as the park we are staying in in Yuma is right next door to their park.
After getting settled in, the plan was to totally surprise our friends Dick & Patti - which we did, excuse me, Mary did. Right after we got settled, she walked down to their rig, knocked on the door and invited them over to happy hour at our rig. Well, it turned into a party of sort, as Keith and Dorann from Canada and Jerry and Kitty from ND joined us and Dick & Patti. We really enjoyed showing off our new Home. Everyone was impressed and glad for us. On friday afternoon it was happy hour time at the clubhouse......

Dick in the middle of a story- he has all the women captivated!

We made plans with Dick and Patti to do our favorite breakfast restaurant on Saturday morning.......

Our favorite breakfast place

Saturday afternoon we did a happy hour over at Dick & Patti's. Dorann and Keith joined us as well as Dick & Patti's new neighbors from Ontario,  Bill and Maureen. And a good time was had by all. Sunday was time for us to pickup/packup and head out. It was off to Casa Grande. For 2 months. We have totally been on the go for almost 2 months now. It will be so good to settle down in one spot for a while. Looking forward to it.

Site 103 - Casa Grande RV Park

Travels Post Balloon Fiesta

The Balloon Fiesta was everything that it was cracked up to be. At the very least, a bucket list item. At the most, it was an unbelievable experience and one that I will always remember. I am sure the same goes for Mary. It was that good. While we were camped with the Airstream Group(150 trailers for a fact), we really didn't spend that much time with them. Most of it was spent with the Boomers Group from Escapees and particularly with friends we made at Enchanted Trails RV park, who just happened to be owners of a Mobile Suites trailer. The Boomers Group was tasked with providing help for the balloonists. We became part of that help.

Here is a pic of the pilot on day 1 for the balloon Clown......

His name was Daniel and he was from Australia. That is me in the background

And finally here is what Clown looked like all inflated....

This was the group of balloons that we worked on over the 4 days that we were there...

From left: Clown, Kermie the Frog, Squirt, and the Fireman

We took hundreds, perhaps thousands of pictures. It was just totally unbelievable. Just about all are now in Picassa web albums for future viewing.

And then it was time to leave Albuquerque. The frustrating thing about leaving was that there were still 6 days left of the Fiesta, unfortunately, that was just the way it was. Next year will be a different story however.  We will definitely be there for the whole thing.

And then the adventure began. A 2400 mile adventure that would take us from Albuquerque to Jackson Center, Ohio to Chanute, KS. Jackson Center to meet up with Jerry and Paulette the purchasers of our Airstream trailer. Our travels across the country found us staying overnight in Amarillo, TX at AOK RV Park,  Oak Glenn RV Park in Chandler, OK and then to RV Express 66 in Marshfield, MO.....

Our spot at RV 66 Express

Along the way we had a few stopovers.....

One of the many rest/pit stops along the way. 

Last stop for us was New Lisbon Family Campground in New Lisbon, IN. We did 2 nights there. Mostly to catch up and rest. I did get to take advantage of the nice pond they had there and managed to catch 6 Largemouth Bass and 1 Crappie. Nothing of any size, but who cares. It was still fun.

A nice little fishing pond - and one that I took advantage of

Finally on 10/11 we got to Jackson Ctr and the Airstream Factory. Found ourselves a spot to park and hook up and then it was off to Lima, OH to pick up a U Haul trailer to load all of our stuff in to. What a job. What a project. We both never realized just how much stuff we had in that Airstream trailer. It is a good thing that we got the next size bigger trailer or we might not have fit everything. We did though and on Monday bright and early, Jerry and Paulette showed up - we signed papers, exchanged check and title and then we were off for Kansas and our new Mobile Suites trailer. The trip back was not without excitement as just after we got through St Louis, we experienced a flat on the U Haul trailer. Lucky for us it happened just as we were getting off I 70 to fuel up the truck. To U Haul's credit, from the time I called then for roadside assistance until the time we had the tire changed and were back on the road - 41 minutes. Unbelievable.

The big wrecker had to drop off correct tire for us. The van in the pic was for the guy actually doing the repairs.

And then we were back on the road. Kansas, here we come. Not as easy traveling with a U Haul trailer. We had to stay over 2 nights in motels. Molly did just fine.....

Making herself right at home

In full sleep mode

Then it was time for Kansas

aka NuWa Industries- Formerly manufacturer of Hitchhiker 5th Wheels

 We stayed at City of Chanute RV Park right in town and right down the street from where we picked up our unit. Stayed a total of 6 days there. 3 spent unpacking/packing/arranging our STUFF. And 3 days just getting used to our unit and making sure that everything worked. Our unit is awesome. We've named her Toto, as in, I don't think we're going to be in Kansas anymore either.

Us getting ready to depart Chanute, KS for Liberal, KS

Lunch and pee/poop break for Molly and lunch and fuel break for us in Goddard, KS, just west of Wichita, KS

We have to park out back with the big guys

We ended up driving just over 340 miles this day with our destination being Western Star RV Ranch in Liberal, KS. This is definitely a nice little rv park. Clean and plenty of room.

While in Liberal, we made a trip in to town and had breakfast at the local "hot spot" The Pancake House(yes it was a busy place) and then did a trip down Yellow Brick Road

and there we found Dorothy's house....and coincidentally, Mary found her own Yellow Brick Road

Back at the RV Park, we made acquaintances with neighbors - Real South Dakotans - Loren and Bonnie from Sioux Falls. They and their friends are heading out tomorrow and going to the same RV park that we are headed to - Enchanted Trails in Albuquerque. We'll meet them there and talk about Yuma, which is where they spend the winter, and where we will be in January. Their park is right next door to the one we will be staying at. Definitely a small world. All 3 of us it turns out, stayed at this park an extra day because of bad weather. Amarillo, TX was looking at potential for 5" of rain.

Our neighbors from South Dakota

Tomorrow morning we will pack up and head out early. But first tonight, we are headed in to town to the Liberal Inn for a steak dinner and to celebrate the new trailer. Looking forward to that.