Dec 2 - Dec 11 Picacho State Park Part 2 to High Chapparal

Dec 2 
After our big day of hiking yesterday we are enjoying a slow day today. Leslie and I got out for some short walks with Margaret to help take out the leg stiffness. We're doing some light chores around the rig and we checked in with Dianne to see how things are going with the new baby. They're at the hospital but no announcement yet. Tomorrow is Dianne's birthday so she's hoping she gets a baby birthday gift! We'll see.
We worked on some blog posts and I went out and cleaned the bikes but otherwise it was a relaxing afternoon. We walked over at 4 to Steve & Dianne's for happy hour and a visit. We put the pictures of our hike up on their TV so we could see everything on a big screen.

We were up there !!

That was a good day lol. We went back to our rig for the evening and messaged to see if any baby news....nope.
Dec 3
We got the happy news this morning!! Baby Isaac was born at 11:40 last night! He just missed being born on the same day as his Grandma, Dianne. So close. We congratulated the super happy grandparents and wished Dianne a happy birthday as well. Lots of smiles at their house this morning.
I wanted to go for a run today and Leslie is going to do a bike ride at the same time. She took the dog for a quick walk and got out on her ride. I managed 8k/ 5mi around all the loops in the park on yet another beautiful day.

Beauty day for a run.

After showers we checked in with Steve & Dianne and they were going on a walk up to the gate on the trails. We all started out together but I soon had enough so Margaret and I turned around and the rest of the gang kept going. Along the way one of the rangers told them about a rare cactus called a herringbone saguaro. We have never seen one that's for sure.

See the herring bone lines on top?

After a quiet afternoon we started getting ready for a special birthday supper for Dianne's birthday. Happy Birthday to a super lady! So glad we were there to help celebrate. And celebrate we did. We started with happy hour at their house, I think there was a shot involved and then moved over to our rig for a special birthday supper. We enjoyed a menu of barbecued steak, garlic shrimp, baked potato and salad. Leslie, Steve and I doing our best to create a Keg dinner where we don't have to drive after. 

Happy Birthday Dianne!! :)

Of course after dinner we had some chocolate birthday cake and just a little more wine lol. Pretty sure there was another shot involved, Irish whiskey & Baileys Irish Cream shots to be exact. Not Steve's favourite if I remember correctly haha. We had a great night with lots of laughs and a few beverages and then they carefully walked home. Safe and a ton of fun.

Dec 4

Well it's probably not surprising that we slept in today and didn't do anything until around noon. Good enough to get coffee and toast into us. What a great night but a slow morning. Sadly tomorrow is our last day together for a little while. Today we slowly packed up our outside gear for the move tomorrow. We managed a light happy hour at Collibaba's and over to our place to finish the chocolate cake for dessert. Early night tonight.

Dec 5

It's a little cool and windy today while we are getting ready to go. Steve & Dianne have a longer drive to their friends house in Apache Junction where they are storing their rig while they fly home for Christmas. Leslie and I are moving to High Chapparal RV Park outside of Casa Grande which is only 25 minutes away. We reserved the month of December at Chapparal so that we have a place to celebrate Christmas and get a few items fixed on the trailer. Steve & Dianne stayed there last year for Christmas and met a couple, Karen & Wayne, also from Vancouver Island, and they had a great time. Karen & Wayne will be there again so we hope to meet them and that will give us a new RV friend at the new park. Around 11:00 we got hitched up and headed over to the dump station. After that task was done we all gave hugs and handshakes and sadly said "see ya later" to Steve & Dianne. We had such a great time with you guys and really enjoyed ourselves. We'll see you again in February in Q. Cheers guys !!

Our sad saying good by faces lol.

We pulled out of Picacho State Park and I waved to the mountain Steve & I stood on. Very cool accomplishment for us.

We stood up on the peak on the left.

We were quickly at our new home for December, High Chapparal RV, about 4 miles south of Casa Grande. They don't mind if you wash your rig at your site and I really want to shine our trailer up. It's been a long time since we gave it a good bath. We checked in and easily found our site, F21, just a few sites away from the office and laundry room. Nice long pull through sites with enough width to park beside my rig if I want. Reasonable price too at $370.00 + power for the month.

Our site.

They have a small pool and hot tub, community hall and washroom/showers which are all very well maintained. There are a couple pickleball courts that Les and I want to go learn to play and beside that is a nice chain link fence area for offleash dogs. It's not super fancy but it's clean and I think very reasonably priced. We got busy with a full set up and just relaxed for the evening inside. Lots of people enjoying happy hour around us. We'll be more sociable tomorrow.

Office dressed up for Christmas

Laundry room and the pool.

2 pickleball courts

Margaret in the offleash area, she really didn't like it in there.

Dec 6 & 7

We took off in the morning to Casa Grande to get some groceries, fuel etc at the Walmart. It's a chore day so we got back and Leslie got started on what turned out to be 7 loads of laundry!! We washed just about everything in the rig ;)

I did some outside stuff but in the afternoon I just didn't feel very good so I laid down on the couch with a blanket. Must have picked up a bug somewhere.

Dang Margaret that doesn't make me feel better. Ugh!

Leslie kept going on the laundry monster and we just hid out in the rig all evening. By morning I felt better but now Leslie is sniffling and not feeling 100%. I tried a run but that failed miserably... too soon. Leslie tried a brisk walk and that failed too. She spent the afternoon making a big pot of homemade chicken soup and that's what fixed us. We had another quiet night and early to bed.

Dec 8

Feeling much better today we started the day with a nice long walk with Margaret around the park and actually saying hi to our neighbours. Deb from Kastles Journey blog (link here) had kindly sent an email to Karen & Wayne Stolth from Vancouver Island and told them we were staying at Chapparal for the month. It turns out that they were right behind us so we finally said hello and had a little chat with a promise to get together this afternoon for happy hour. Super nice people that have returned to this park and the same site for 10 years! Obviously something pretty nice here.

We were watching some people playing pickleball and struck up a conversation with a fellow named Dwayne beside the courts. He asked if we wanted to learn how and we of course said "yes!" They are putting together a beginners group on Monday so we are excited to join up and learn to play. We met the fellow that was putting on the beginner course, Luckie.  He plays every morning at 9:00 with a more advanced group. Cool. We also signed up for Christmas eve gift exchange and Christmas dinner potluck. Look at us blendin' in lol. Later that afternoon we noticed Karen & Wayne in their chairs beside their rig with their long time fiends John & Sandy from Montana. Time for happy hour and some socializing. What a great group of people ! I'm sure we'll enjoy their company more than once. We stayed until about 7:00 and then went inside for supper and some TV. That's a better day!

Dec 9

We both feel way better today and made it a chore day. I got out all the gear to wash the rig from the roof down. Leslie has all her cleaning supplies for the inside and got to work in there. We worked for 3 or 4 hours inside and out. It's pretty close to spotless. We also pulled out the couch and drilled a hole in the overhead cupboard for the power cord to the stereo. That gave us the chance to vacuum up the dead bugs that we found behind the couch...yuk!

It was late afternoon by the time we got done so we parked our chairs in the sun out front of our rig and enjoyed a frosty beverage watching everyone walk by and saying hello. Quiet evening inside doing some blog updates.

Dec 10

We are both back to healthy again so I'm going for a run and Leslie is doing a long walk. I managed 8k/ 5mi around the Az City Golf Course neighbourhood and Leslie did 5k/ 3mi around the park and in the area closer to home. We have our first pickleball lesson today so we want to have a good lunch and be ready for 2 pm. We arrived before 2:00 and met some of the other newbies. We learned about the paddles and some tips on buying paddles in the near future. Luckie explained the rules and how to score the game and then we moved to the courts to start swingin'. Leslie and I paired up with a couple from Tri Cities, Washington, Randy & Shelley. They're close to our age and right away we were getting the hang of hitting the ball and having some good volleys.

Two paddles? I'm that good ;)

Luckie on the far side hitting to Les.

Randy & Shelley in the far court, Yvonne & Wally closer with 

Luckie coaching in the middle.

Yeah we are going to enjoy this game! Leslie is already looking for competition, she loves getting into game mode. There was about a dozen new player that day so after a couple hours we all went home to clean up. We really had fun and we met a bunch of new friends. We already set up a game with Randy & Shelley for tomorrow at 2:00 to try our new skills. 

We cleaned up and came outside with a beer and our chairs and got an invite over to Luckie's rig for happy hour across the road from us. We found out Luckie is a very successful tournament walleye fisherman on the walleye circuit in the USA and Canada. He finished 4th at the Slave Lake tournament last year and picked up $40K. He even has a couple instructional videos out for catching walleye. Super nice couple and we enjoyed a couple hours with them and then time for supper and some TV for the evening.

Dec 11

We know already that we will be playing pickleball more than a few times so we are driving to Casa Grande to pick up some new paddles. As a bonus we hit a sale at Big 5 sports on some decent paddles for $50 each. We said Merry Christmas to each other and grabbed them and some pickleballs. Of course while we are in town we grabbed some groceries and beer/wine for when Sam gets here tomorrow!! She's flying down for a long weekend visit with us and we are very excited to see her.

We met Randy & Shelley for pickleball at 2pm and had a great time playing and getting to know each other. They just recently retired as well and this is their first winter full timing down south. We played a few games and then said "see ya later" until tomorrow when we have another lesson. We're pretty well matched at pickleball and they seem super nice so we'll no doubt see them again.

We cleaned up at the rig and packed a cooler to join Karen, Wayne, John & Sandy for happy hour across the road behind us. Wayne & John enjoy going dove hunting quite often and they make "dove bites." They are small birds and you only eat the breast meat much like a grouse in Canada. They are red meat and maybe a couple inches long by an inch wide. They serve them wrapped in bacon with a small piece of jalapeno pepper and then cook them on the barbecue on a tin foil pan. They are delicious and make a great snack size happy hour treat. We brought over some chips and guacamole and had fabulous time laughing and talking with these guys. They are a ton of fun and we really enjoy their company. Thanks guys for such awesome hospitality.

We wobbled back to our rig and relaxed for the rest of the evening in front of the TV. I don't think we have mentioned it but we get about 30 different channels on our antenna down here. It's great!

We are sad to say that we have zero pictures of the happy hours with the dove bites. We are having too much fun to remember to take a picture. We have pics of these great folks coming soon. Cheers!