Tuesday, October 25 through Saturday, November 12, 2022: Visit to Tempe, 80th Birthday Celebration, Geocaching, Elections, and Casa Grande

Tuesday morning, I started to work on 2022 Christmas cards. The past two years, I used the photo card service of Costco. However, the card stock has been flimsy. So, I decided to return to Shutterfly. Somehow, my computer was not working with Shutterfly, so I used Tom's computer.

I also worked on creating a photo collage for Ed Smith's 80th birthday party on Saturday.

Wednesday, I completed one geocache called Santa Fe in Williams. It is a cache at the Santa Fe Railway boxcar that serves as a town bridge. 

That evening, there were a group of deer on the lot next door.

Friday morning, I drove to Tempe. My friend, Ed Smith, is celebrating his 80th birthday on Saturday. The birthday event includes pickleball on the roof of one of the Friendship Village retirement community's buildings. Ed and his wife Sandra purchased an apartment at Friendship Village last year. I selected to spend the night at a nearby Hampton Inn. After checking into the motel, I walked several miles to Tempe Town Lake.

In 1999, the reservoir lake was created by the city of Tempe by damming the Salt River. I enjoyed walking the shores of the lake.

Nearby, is a boat marina and the Lo Piano Habitat. I was surprised by all the water and the open preserves.

My impression was if I ever had to live in the Phoenix area, I would want to live near the lake and parks. That evening, I drove to Whole Foods and grabbed some packaged dinner items. I ate dinner in my room.

Ed Smith's birthday celebration started at 9:00 a.m. A group of us played pickleball for several hours. Four couples I have known since my Thousand Trails days. That would be at least 12 years ago.

One of my favorite couples are Laurie and Mark Irwin.

A lunch buffet was served at 11:30 a.m. One of our Thousand Trails friends is Dennis Johnson. His birthday is one day before Ed's birthday. It was fun taking a picture of the birthday boys.

Before heading back home to Williams, I participated in a group shot of many of the Thousand Trails folks.

I arrived home around 4:00 p.m. Tom was kind enough to take care of Kelsey and Jamie while I jaunted down to Tempe for the birthday celebration. 

 

Donna and David were on a final RV trip in their Airstream Basecamp trailer. They left from Santa Fe and ended up in Malibu. There dog Doug has become a good traveler.

Sunday morning, I finalized my 2022 Christmas card. Shutterfly will be sending the cards sometime next week.

It was a very pretty Sunday, so I took advantage of the weather and went geocaching. I was very lucky. I found six caches in and around the forest and Kaibab Lake. One was called "A Knot in a Tree."

One was called "Mountain Man Trail."

Another was called "Hearts Afloat." It was located in the Kaibab Lake Campground which is closed for the season.

On Monday, I went to the nearby Kaibab National Forest. There were two caches that I wanted to find. Unfortunately, I was not successful. But, there was a nice photo opportunity behind the Three Sisters mountain.

Tuesday morning we had another "fire" sunrise.

Wednesday morning, I saw that the gardeners were in the neighborhood. So, Tom and I knocked off a lot of pine needles from the roof.

This way, when the gardeners arrived they could clean-up the needle piles. It is this time of year that the gardeners have their work cut out! In the afternoon, I went to Flagstaff for two appointments. Shawna Ritter cut and colored my hair at 1:00 p.m. I then had my annual audiology appointment at Flagstaff Surgical Associates. My usual doctor was not available, so I had a hearing test with Dr. Sarah Wright. Dr. Wright is temporarily in the office to help Dr. Kerry Beasley with all the patients.

Dr. Wright did a nice job cleaning my hearing devices. I did well on the audiology test --- no changes since last year.

Thursday brought snow to Williams. Wendy sent me a photo of two of her dogs enjoying the snow in Bend, Oregon. That's Lucy and Stanley.

We just got an inch in Williams.

In the afternoon, I drove to the gym with snow coming down.

During the evening, we received another inch or two. It was sunny on Friday, so Kelsey, Jamie, and I had a brisk first walk.

Later in the day, I walked to town along Cataract Lake Road. Mt. Humphreys had a fresh draping of snow.

Saturday evening, Tom and I enjoyed a very pretty sunset.

After church on Sunday, I walked to town along Country Club Drive and Route 66. There, once again, was Mt. Humphreys.

Tuesday, November 8, was Midterms Election Day. I dropped off my absentee ballot and Tom's absentee ballot to the polling place at Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.

In the afternoon, Kelsey had an acupuncture appointment with Dr. Jen Sullivan. Also in attendance was a veterinarian in training from University of Arizona.

Tom and I headed down to Casa Grande Thursday morning. Tom's son, Jon, is playing in the Military Pickleball Tournament at Palm Creek RV Resort. After dropping Kelsey and Jamie at the Grand Canyon Railway Kennel, it was a 3 hour 20 minute drive to The Avenida condominiums. 

I did not realize that there was a hard 4:00 p.m. check-in time. So, the key pad did not work. Along came a gentleman who was checking on the condominiums owned by Metro Management. Michael was a godsend! He was kind enough to open the one bedroom Avenida 34-A door. We unpacked and then drove the 8 minutes to Palm Creek. There, we found Jon and Roland getting ready for their first game.

Most of the tournament players are veterans. It is so fitting to have this pickleball tournament over the Veteran's Day weekend.

The first day of the tournament was the Centurion. The combined age of the two players has to be over 100. Jon is 45 and Roland is 63.

Palm Creek RV Resort has 32 dedicated pickleball courts. There were 24 courts used for the tournament. 

That evening, Tom and I went to dinner at Anaya's Fresh Mexican Restaurant. The margaritas and the food were excellent!

Jon and Roland didn't finish playing pickleball the first day until 8:30 p.m. They came in fourth.

The next day, Veteran's Day, Jon and Roland played men's doubles 19+. Because of the age difference, Roland had to play down to Jon's age range. Their category was age 19 and over.

Jon and Roland's first game was at 1:20 p.m. Jon joined us for lunch at Panda Express. We then went over to Palm Creek RV Resort. We watched Jon and Roland play until 6:00 p.m.

Tom and I left to have dinner. Jon and Roland won the silver medal.

 

We wanted to eat at a steakhouse, but we drove by Hideout Steakhouse & BBQ. We could see that it was way too busy. So, Tom and I stopped by Safeway, bought some pre-made food, and dined in our condominium. The next morning, we checked out of the condominium and drove over to Palm Creek. The final day of the tournament, Jon played with Nancy (from Tucson) in mixed doubles. We just watched four games, as we had to drive home and pick up Kelsey and Jamie.

Later in the day, Jon textTom. He and Nancy placed fourth. There were a lot of younger players in this Saturday tournament.