Greetings Everyone,
It is time that I write on our blog -- didn’t realize it had been so long since I last wrote. Here it is almost the end of February. How fast the days go by. I am writing this on Saturday, February 23, 2008.
We have spent some time sightseeing around Casa Grande. One day we went up Picacho Peak State Park. Had a picnic lunch and then went hiking on a trail up the side of Picacho Peak about a 1 ½ mile round trip. Not far from the state park is the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Farm that is open to the public. Stopped there and enjoyed “hand feeding” the deer, ostrich, emus, and larakeet birds. The larakeet birds are a member of the parrot family – very friendly and quite colorful. They gave us some liquid in a little container and the birds would land on your hands, head, arms, shoulders and eat the liquid. A little bit scary for me as I was afraid they would start pecking once they landed on you. They were loud also, but it was fun watching them feed.
We stopped at a Greek monastery on our way back to Casa Grande. The public is allowed in the monastery every day until 3:30 and then everyone has to leave. It was 3:15 when we got there so we didn’t get to tour the grounds. It looked really interesting and what few monks we saw were all clothed in black robes with beards and some kind of covering on their heads. Would like to go back and tour the grounds.
On Valentine’s Day Larry and Bob took Judy and I out for a special supper. We ate dinner at the Cracker Barrel here in Casa Grande. It was very enjoyable and the food was delicious. We spent the day doing laundry – quite romantic! Ha!
The annual O’odham Tash Indian Celebration Days were Feb. 15, 16, & 17. Several Indian tribes from around the area have a crafts and arts fair. Beautiful crafts made by the Indians. Friday Bob, Judy, and us took in the arts and crafts fair and Saturday morning we all went to the parade. Several tribes participated in the parade and it was fun to watch. That afternoon we attended the all-American Indian rodeo. Among the events were bareback riding, bull riding, barrel racing, calf roping, bronco riding, and the wild horse racing. In most of the events, the animals came out the winners. Ha! The wildhorse racing was especially comical. A team of 3 or 4 cowboys have to catch the wild horse, saddle him, and them ride him to the finish line without falling off or getting bucked off. It was quite a challenge for most of the cowboys, but funny. I hadn’t been to the rodeo since I was a teenager.
Sunday, February 17, was the Missouri get together for people from Missouri who live in our RV park. We all met at a local café in Casa Grande. About ten couples or so attended and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. The general consensus was that we were all glad we were not in Missouri this winter! Some of the people were from the KC area and some were from St. Louis area. Most all of them had heard of Smithville!
Larry and I took off for Yuma and Quartzsite. AZ on Monday, Feb. 18. In Yuma we visited with Bob and Paula Devers. Larry used to work with Bob. They took us around the Yuma area and showed us a date farm and we had a date shake. Was it ever delicious and I don’t even care for dates! Yuma is quite a vegetable farming community. We saw workers picking head lettuce and Romain lettuce. There were also crops of broccoli and cauliflower. We had lunch down in the old historic area of Yuma in a unique old Lupe’s Casino café. After leaving Bob and Paula’s we went to visit Pat and Woody Green, who were spending sometime in Yuma with some of their friends from Washington state. Pat had gone back to Washington for a few days so we visited with Woody and their friends, Ron and Jill Davis. For supper Woody took us and his friends to a Mexican restaurant. The food was great. Then we went back to Woody’s and he graciously let us sleep in their camper while he slept in Ron and Jill’s motorhome. Ron and Jill had recently purchased a fifth wheel, so they slept in it.
The next day (Tuesday, Feb. 19) we drove north to Quartzsite. Quartzsite is a town in Arizona where people go and camp out in the desert without electicity and water or what they call “dry camping”. You can park just about any place and call it home. A lot of flea market vendors and RV vendors park in Quartzsite and set up business during the winter months. About 75% of the vendors had already left Quartzsite by the first of February, but there were still quite a few for us to check out while we were there. It was quite a place to visit, but I sure wouldn’t want to live there. I guess in December and January it is quite a popular place to be if you have a camper – people parked everywhere!
The drive from Casa Grande to Yuma to Quartzsite and back was mostly desert land and small mountain ranges. Because of the recent rains, the desert floor has a lot of green color and some small flowers are blooming. None of the cactus are blooming yet. Sure don’t see any homes or farms around – just cactus and sage bushes. We got back to Casa Grande about 6:30 that night.
The next morning we woke up with sore throats and colds – wonderful. We took it easy and rested up from our short road trip. Thursday we did laundry and stayed around here. Friday (yesterday) Bob and Judy had been wanting to go to the Mesa flea market so we all went up there. It was cool, cloudy, and poured rain in the afternoon. Didn’t help our colds, but we survived and had a fun day. Before leaving Mesa, we just had to stop at Camping World for Larry and Bob. Ha! It is always good to get out of Phoenix by 3:00 because the rush hour traffic begins that early. We left about 3:30 and Bob did a good job of maneuvering through the traffic and getting us safely back to Casa Grande.
Today Bob and Judy and us went to some patio/garage sales but we didn’t find much. An Arizona RV dealer from Mesa had a display of motorhomes and fifth wheels at a parking lot in Casa Grande so we stopped there and checked the campers out. There were quite a few campers. We found a “diesel pusher” that really caught our eye, but way too much money for us to spend right now. Of course, we can always dream! After lunch we went back to the RV park and Larry had a repair job to do with the hot water heater. We didn’t have hot water coming out of our faucets. The cold water worked fine but when we put it on the hot water side, there was very little hot water coming out of the faucet. Larry figured out what the problem was and went out and got the part for it so now we have hot water once again.
Bob and Judy invited us over to their RV to meet some of their friends from the old RV park where they used to stay. Their names are Joe and Judy DuGay from Washington state – super nice people and had such a nice time visiting with them. Hope to see them again before we leave.
Well, that has brought us up to date so far. Hope everything is going well for all and please forgive me for being so long in updating our blog. Thank you for the e-mails from back home.
Happy Birthday to our sweet granddaughter, Ella, who was two years old on Valentine’s Day. We sure hated to miss her birthday party, but we thought about her all day!!!
Happy Belated Birthday, Brad LeFever
Happy Anniversary, Jack and Judy Ruble
Happy Birthday, Mom Bowling
Until next time, Love to you all – Larry and Glenda
Pictures above – (1) Quartzsite, AZ; (2) Picnicking at Picacho Peak State Park; (3) Larakeet Birds Feeding; (4) Friends Bob and Paula Devers and Molly; and (5) Woody Green and Ron and Jill Davis;
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