It's been a busy couple of weeks.
Golf News
I messed up the lesson date for our first golf lesson. I thought it was Friday the 11th and the instructor thought it was Friday the 18th. We straightened it out and got lessons on Monday the 14th. He taught us how to grip the club, how to stand, etc. I use my right arm too much. He had me put a towel under my right armpit and try to hold it there while I swung. I guess it helped. I have a little more control and am not spraying the ball off the the right or left as much. Right now, I have to think about all parts of the swing and I won't get much better until that becomes automatic. Practice, Practice, Practice.
Luckily, practice is cheap. $5 per bucket at the driving range. We went to the driving range and each hit a bucket of balls. I was doing about 33% good shots that got good height, distance, and fairly straight; 33% shots that were basically grounders but got good distance and 33% that went no where and definitely off to one side or another. I would like to get the good shot percentage over 50% and the terrible shots down below 10%. We need more driving practice. Jan didn't keep track of her shots because she has a problem where most of her shots are grounders. She is googling how to get her shots up in the air.
We need more practice shots before we hit a course.
Golf equipment is cheap if you go to Goodwill. We each bought a new driver for $8. Not bad since new ones cost over $100 and can go way higher. Also, Jan gets a senior discount on Tuesdays. We will need larger bags at some point and we will probably get them at Goodwill. I don't know if the golf stuff at Goodwill is an Arizona thing or if it is everywhere, but here in the Phoenix area, all Goodwills have lots of golf stuff.
The Superstition Mountains
We took a driving trip up into the Superstition Mountains. They are the home of the Lost Dutchmen Gold mine and treasure hunters from all over the world come here trying to find the lost gold. We didn't find it.
It is a very desert landscape with lots of rocks and cactus. We went out to Canyon Lake and stopped for lunch. They have a marina there with a cafe. It was pretty down there. Check out the pictures.
We had planned to go as far as Roosevelt Lake but we couldn't make it. Just past Tortilla Flat, the road goes from paved to dirt. Not too far in to the dirt part was a sign saying that the road was closed in 2 miles. We still had 20 miles to go to Roosevelt Lake so we turned around.
The road was originally built with Apache laborers. Back in the Great Depression, someone decided that a road was needed so they could build 2 dams on the Salt River, one for Canyon Lake and one for Roosevelt Lake. The Apaches on the nearby reservation were starving and needed the money so they were hired to build the first road. The desert around here is not a good place to be starving because there is no water to grow anything.
RV News
Our awing decided to go out. It was making a loud grinding noise when we retracted it. The noise was not as loud but still there when we extended it. The motor had to be replaced. Luckily, they had a motor in stock so we didn't have to wait for one to be shipped. Who knows how long that would have taken.
This next bit is not strictly speaking RV News. We have always had a bike trailer for dog hauling. We found out that the bike trailer company had a conversion kit to turn the bike trailer into a stroller type of thing. The kit came with a handle to put on the back and a front wheel to put on the front. It works!
Baseball News
We first planned to be in Mesa for 2 weeks so we could go to a couple of spring training baseball games. The MLB owners decided they would rather have a lockout so most training games were canceled. They finally came to an agreement and opened up spring training again. Unfortunately, the Giants first game is the day before we leave and it sold out almost as soon as they announced it. Oh well, maybe next year. We will be in Yuma at the time, but we could come up here for a couple of games.
The RV Park
We may not be coming back to this park again. Someone told us that they were getting rid of the RV sites and going all mobile homes. Later on, someone else told us that they were only removing 3 rows of RV spaces and would still have others. We will see. This is a good park for only $20 a night.
We go for daily walks around whatever park we are staying at and this park is no exception. On one of our walks we noticed green parrots in one of the palm trees. It turns out that a flock of lovebirds lives there. A breeding pair escaped and decided this would be a good place to live. We know of at least 3 palm trees and one large oak tree that has been colonized by them. They are kind of noisy. On resident said they were Peach-faced Lovebirds. I googled lovebirds and there is no such thing as a Peach-faced Lovebird. There was, however, a Rosy-faced Lovebird. According to the pictures on Google, I think they are actually Lilian's Lovebirds based on the placement of the orange coloring.
Here are some shots from around the RV park
Beer News:
I have not made any beer at this stop, just drank it. I finished off the growler of wheat beer and have started on the growler of Oktoberfest beer. I haven't had to open any of my bottles yet. I should be good with beer for a couple of months.
I opened up one of the storage areas in the back of the trailer and it smelled like stale beer. I checked my bottles to see if any had exploded, but none had. I then check the plastic fermenter and that's where the smell was coming from. It smelled bad. I had to make a paste of baking soda and water and coat the whole inside and then let it sit for 24 hours. It worked, the fermenter doesn't smell anymore. The smell can be absorbed by any beer you are brewing and leave a bad taste. No one wants that. I probably need to soak the growlers in baking soda water overnight to clean them out too.
Scheduling News
We have extended our travel plans. We picked RV parks all the way to New Orleans and then up north to the Ozarks, near Branson. That gets us planned out to June. I have only made about half of the reservations and need to work on that soon. I will update the map on the Where We Are page with the new trip plan. Our big plan for the summer is to find a place to stay for the month of June and right now we are looking at Pigeon Forge Tennessee. After that we will again stay 3 or 4 weeks at places instead of constant traveling. We will do that until September. During September, we will find a place to spend the entire month near Charlotte, NC. We are planning to fly to The Netherlands again and so we will need a place to stash the trailer.
After that, we will make the cross country dash to get to Yuma on December first. Gas prices better drop by then.
That's enough for now. We leave on Saturday for Tucson, AZ.
As always, there are a lot more pictures on the Arizona photo page.
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