Our flights back to Arizona went smoothly and our niece, Kristin, retrieved us from Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. The first several days back in Casa Grande were spent performing mundane tasks: opening the slides on the motorhome and setting up the interior for the rest of the month at Casa Grande RV Resort & Cottages, washing clothes, grocery shopping, and taking care of some paperwork. We did take a few breaks from the mundane to catch up on The Blacklist using the Roku. Great show!
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| Our site at Casa Grande RV Resort & Cottages |
On Sunday, January 11th, we went to the same church we had found when we were at Palm Creek. That afternoon we finally joined one of several happy hour groups around the park.
On Tuesday, January 13th, we attended a second Newmar Breakfast the local Holiday Inn. We had actually done this in December also. Nice group of fellow Newmar owners from several area RV parks. That evening we took our first dip in the hot tub at this campground. Although one third the size of Palm Creek’s hot tub, they spare no expense on keeping it up to temperature. It was HOT!!!
This campground has a free breakfast nearly every morning, so on Wednesday, the 14th, we went down for waffles, OJ & coffee. It appeared to be a popular thing to do as there were 50 or so campers sitting at tables gabbing and solving the world’s problems. Later that afternoon we golfed at the local Dave White municipal course in preparation for golfing with our bro-in-law, Al, the next week. As usual we won’t talk about scores, but we had a good time (even though we managed to find some desert scrub to hit out of).
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| Desert golf at Dave White Municipal course in Casa Grande |
On Friday, the 16th, we drove up to Mesa to hang out at Kristin & Dan’s (our niece & her fiancee) for a couple days. Nancy (Lisa’s sister) and Al were visiting from Michigan. That night we experienced Topgolf, a first, in Gilbert. It was a great time! For those unfamiliar with the concept, I’d consider it a cross between golf and bowling. Each player takes a turn hitting actual golf balls at large target zones of varying distance. Each golf ball has a microchip inside it, so the computerized scorer knows where your ball lands and automatically registers your score. There are several versions of games you can choose from. The bowling connection in my mind comes from the fact you are playing from one of over 100 hitting bays where you have a table and chairs like a bowling alley lane, and you can order food and beverages right to your bay. The 100+ bays are stacked above each other across three floors. Google Topgolf for a better idea and pictures of the layout.
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| Photobombing the kids from Michigan |
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| Late daylight view of Topgolf target zone |
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| View down the line of 3rd floor hitting bays |
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| Dusk view with targets lit up |
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| Wave your club over the sensor.... |
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| and out comes your ball chipped to you |
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| Lisa demonstrating good form |
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| Nancy demonstrating...well...something |
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| Me, Lisa, Dan, Kristin, Al, Nancy, Jim Lolli, & Carol Lolli |
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| Al, Nancy, me, Lisa, and Will & Eleanore Klein |
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| Lauren & Shane (Eleanore's niece & her fiancee) |
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| 'I think I could get used to this.' |
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| Will & I at the new supergrill |
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| I don't care who you are that looks to die for and I'm here to tell you it was |
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| Lauren, Aunt Berglet, and Shane |
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| Nancy, Lisa, Eleanore, & Aunt Berglet |
Friday morning, January 23rd, we hit the road to California in the Jeep. We had a timeshare week to use up and had elected to stay for a week at the Lawrence Welk Resort in Escondido, not too far from San Diego. We also used the trip as a means to briefly experience the Quartzsite, AZ area and to check out southern California campgrounds for next winter. Quartzsite is known in the RV world for being a boondocking mecca. For our non-RV friends, boondocking is the practice of living ‘off the grid’ with no hookups to water, electricity, or sewer. We boondock occasionally when we’re on the move and just need a place to park for the night. However, we rarely do it for more than 3 nights in a row. In Quartzsite people boondock for the whole winter. It becomes an exercise in frugal use of everything. Taking a shower on a gallon of water is not our idea of RV living. So boondocking really doesn’t appeal to us, but it was interesting seeing the inventiveness of some of the campsites. We stopped for the night in the Palm Springs/Indio area and checked out 6 campgrounds. They definitely have some beautiful RV resorts. Now we just have to pick one out. We arrived at the Lawrence Welk Resort late Saturday afternoon. The resort was actually nicer than I expected. Lisa developed a sore back so we left the golf clubs in the Jeep all week and mostly enjoyed relaxing in a big place, relative to a motorhome, that is. We did check out another half dozen campgrounds in the San Diego area for next year. We had a nice lunch in Carlsbad on Tuesday at the Fish House Vera Cruz courtesy Lisa’s cousins Dick and Marilyn Sivertson. It was wonderful to see them again to catch up on kids and grandkids, and to hear about their new home in a Mission Viejo retirement community. The highlight of the week was the magic show at the Welk resort theater. Illusionist Anthony Hernandez was nothing short of fantastic! Although I didn’t get to see the whole show. At least not from the audience perspective. In the second half of the show Anthony announced he needed an adult assistant from the audience. As his pretty assistant came down from the stage and started scanning the crowd, I slunked down in my seat and tried my best to avoid eye contact, since up on that stage was the last place I wanted to be. However, as luck would have it, she somehow zeroed in on me in the middle of the fifth row. She came, grabbed my hand and led me up on stage. She detected my reluctance and assured me everything would be alright. “Just have fun!” It’s too difficult to convey in words all that happened on stage, but suffice it to say that the crowd loved it and my embarassment was over in about 10 minutes. But alas, none of it was caught on film as the use of recording devices was not allowed during the show.
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| One group of boondockers. It's hard to see, but they have large solar panels on top indicating these folks are serious. |
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| Another group of boondockers. Must be newbies, no solar panels. |
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| The main drag in Quartzsite |
I regret to say this may be my last post. Although the end result is usually somewhat satisfying, writing doesn’t come easy to me and it takes an inordinate amount of time to put the posts together. Lisa does a much more efficient and timely job of posting our activities on Facebook. Since the vast majority of friends and family are active on Facebook, I’m going to take a break from writing the blog. Thank you for reading my ramblings! See you on the road!
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