Wednesday, August 24, was my mother's 97th birthday in Heaven. She was born in 1925. She passed away in 2005, at the age of 80. My sister Carrie texted to the five siblings several of photos.of Nancy Brewster Shelton.
My Los Angeles friend, Barbara Coad, was due to arrive in Williams in the early afternoon. She drove the 6 1/2 hours from her home to ours. The last time Barbara was in Williams was in May, 2016. That was six years ago. She is going to visit for four nights, three full days. She arrived on time and in one piece.
Barbara and I have been friends for 44 years. The two of us met in 1978 through the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Thursday, I dropped my truck off at J J's Auto Repair in Williams. It was time for an oil change. Barbara followed me out to the shop. Within an hour, my truck was ready to pick up. Tom drove us back to J J's. Barbara and I had made a lunch date in Flagstaff with Barbara's friend Paula and her mother Jean. We met at Little America Hotel and ate lunch in the Silver Pines Restaurant.
Barbara and Paula used to work together at Warner Brothers in Burbank. Paula retired from Warner Brothers and moved to Flagstaff several years ago.
On our way back to Williams, we stopped by Bearizona for a visit. The rain had stopped and we were practically the only ones in the park.
We saw deer, wolves, buffalo, and bears in the drive through section.
Then, we visited the walk-through part of the wildlife park. A new exhibit was four young wolves. They are only five months old!
On Friday, Barbara and I went to Prescott for lunch. Barbara had never been to Prescott. I love the courthouse and the town square.
After lunch, we drove to Seligman. Seligman is a town that was an inspiration for the Pixar movie Cars. Apparently, California Adventure has a section about Radiator Springs and Cars. Route 66 barber, Angel Delgadillo, was the kindly crusader and led
the charge to save the Main Street of America; Route 66. The Historic
Route 66 Association of Arizona was formed to protect, promote, and
preserve the Mother Road. His barber shop is now a museum.
Back home in Williams, Jon came over to have dinner with us.
Tom made a Mississippi pork roast. It is crock pot heaven. Yummy!
Saturday morning, Barbara and I went to the Garden Market. Then, we went looking for some caches in Williams. Geocaching is a pastime in which one searches for hidden objects that are found by using exact GPS coordinates. Barbara was introduced to geocaching when she was visiting her sister recently in Austin, Texas.
I initially started geocaching in 2003.
Now that our cell phones function as computers, the art of geocaching
has improved significantly in the nineteen years. I still had an account with
geocaching.com. My old cache name was 5th Wheel Adventure. That is no longer applicable, so I updated my name to Explorergal. This is the name I use for Cruise Critic too. Barbara and I found the first cache in my Highland Meadows neighborhood. We found our second one near the Williams City Library.
We found a third one by a Williams sign.
As you can see by this screen photo, there are hundreds of them just in the Williams area alone!
Barbara likes to walk like I do. So with her visit, we took a number of walks around the golf course community.
In the evening, we went to Bearizona for cocktails. Barbara took a photo of me and Tom by a life-size grizzly bear.
Barbara left Williams Sunday morning. It is a six and one-half hour drive to her home in Los Angeles. There was pickleball play in the afternoon. It was five of us --- Kim, Di, Greg, Jon and me.
Monday, I had a hair appointment in Flagstaff. I also went to Sam's Club. In the afternoon, Jon came by and he and I went back to the forest location where lobster mushrooms were growing. And, we found some more!
On Tuesday, I drove to Kaibab Lake and walked the perimeter. It was a beautiful day.
Wednesday was another day of no pickleball. Many of the usual folks have left Williams. Darn!
Wednesday afternoon, I had Tom drive me to the dry Holden Lake. Before getting out of the car, I noticed that there was a cache nearby. So, Tom joined me and we navigated to this cache. It was a large white PVC tube. Explorergal scores again!
Even the golf course --- looking toward Bill Williams Mountain --- had so many yellow flowers.
On Amazon, I ordered a custom geocaching stamp. It arrived in the mail today. Fun!
On Thursday, I asked Tom to come with me and geocache in and around Williams. I found the "Spirit of Williams" cache near the Williams Cemetery.
I was able to use my new cache stamp for the very first time!
Tom found his first cache named "Double X." It was near a road leading the the east side of Cataract Lake.
On Friday, Tom and I went to look for a few more caches. There was a cache called "Out and About by the Lake." The terrain was a bit difficult --- but we found it!
While at Cataract Lake, we saw one of our pickleball friends --- Robin Leach --- and her new dog Callie.
I noticed some beautiful cloud formations over Bill Williams Mountain that were reflected on the lake.
On Saturday, our neighbors Ann and Rick Steppey wanted to know if we would like complimentary tickets to the Coconino County Fair at Fort Tuthill in Flagstaff. Apparently, Ann was given tickets as a thank-you for some volunteer work. We took the tickets and drove to the fair.
After seeing the animal exhibits, we walked through the rides section of the fair.
After the fair, we drove to Hunan West Chinese Restaurant for lunch. We rarely eat Chinese food out. The food was good!
Granddaughters Meghan and Emily have returned back to Los Angeles. Meghan posted a cute picture of herself and my great grand-dog, Carl.
Sunday, there was pickleball play after church. Many of the players who come up to Williams for the summer --- and get out of the Phoenix heat --- are returning to their homes in the valley. There was a two-day Labor Daze event on the Rodeo grounds property. Tom and I did not go, but they had excellent fireworks that evening.
Monday was Labor Day. Jon came over to meet his father for a trek to Big Boquillas Ranch outside Seligman. Jon has a Elk tag to hunt on this property in December. They wanted to scope it out.
Tom suited up for the outing.
I took Kelsey and Jamie over to Cataract Lake.
Later in the afternoon, I went geocaching. I found three caches!
On Tuesday, Tom had an appointment in Flagstaff --- an echo-cardiogram at the medical center.
I walked down Turquoise Drive to Switzer Canyon Drive. There, I happened upon a grazing deer.
On Wednesday, Kelsey had an acupuncture appointment at Canyon Pet Hospital. Because of a scheduling mistake, I had to drop her off at 8:30 a.m. The good news is I was able to go to Bushmaster Park for some pickleball.
Thursday, five of us played pickleball on the Williams outdoor courts.
Two couples from Florida are here in Williams for a week. They are very good players --- Tony, Jana, Renee, and Jim.
Friday, I happened upon the Vitalent Blood donation truck. I was not able to donate last month --- my iron did not pass the test. Fortunately, they had openings. So, I donated.
That evening, my San Marino High School 50th Reunion that took place in Newport Beach. The reunion date was two years late --- due to Covid-19. This was the first reunion that I did not attend. I just wasn't in the mood for heading back to Southern California. But, it was fun seeing photos of many of my high school friends.
On Sunday, I walked to town and found three more caches along Cataract Lake Road.
Monday, six of us played pickleball. I told Jon that he would enjoy the two Florida couples. Yes, he did!
On Wednesday, I had my final opportunity to play with the two Florida couples.
Later in the day, Tom and I packed for our trip to Bryce Canyon --- driving up there in the morning.
