*Moving on Up*

Authored by Rickey Combs

After almost two years on the market, our house finally sold. Thank goodness. We didn’t get what we had originally hoped for it, but honestly, we were just glad to break even in this economy. It was hard to see no profit, but we got such a deal on our new house, that we can’t really complain. Five bedrooms, 3 and a half bath, full finished basement, granite countertops, hardwood flooring throughout, fenced in back yard on an acre. So out with the old, and in with the new! Onward and upward. Since my husband doesn’t do well with finances, or paperwork, I am the one taking on getting everything set up and connected. The thing I did first was go to http://www.satelliteinternetbroadband.com/hughesnet/New-York/R/Rochester/ to get our internet connected. Now that we have internet, I can go online to most of the other websites and have everything transferred to our new home. Let’s see, I need to have our mail forwarded, but I can do that online, have gas turned on, have electric turned on, set up a time for our security company to set up a new system, etc. Click, click, click, done! Thank you technology!

What’s Wrong With This Picture

Our family have been Milwaukee Brewers baseball fans for many years. Some of our best memories are from games Kevin and I attended in the early 80s when Harvey’s Wallbangers were playing their hearts out. Our team had such greats as Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Jim Gantner and Gorman Thomas.

On Tuesday we went to watch the Brewers play the Oakland A’s at the A’s Spring Training park, Phoenix Municipal Stadium. There were four former players there signing autographs on the concourse. I recognized one of them. But, there was one problem with what he was wearing. Here’s his picture. Can any of you guess who he is and what’s wrong with this picture?

The park is the only one in the Phoenix area that does not have lawn seating so we had to buy outfield bleacher seats. We were pretty close to the field. The seats were in the sun and it was hot with highs in the mid 80s. The park is very near the airport so we saw planes flying quite close throughout the game.

The Brewers were winning until pitcher De La Cruz came to the mound. He ended up giving up four runs and was taken out of the game before he got even a single player out. Those four runs cost us the game again. He also gave up four runs in the previous game we had been to which caused a loss. So, we had now been to four games and seen three losses and one tie. I hope it’s not a sign of what’s to come for the season.

A funny thing happened at that game. There was a family sitting in front of us with a little boy, about five years old. I foul ball came their way and the dad was able to snag it. He handed it to his son, and the little boy immediately threw it back out onto the field. After he found out he could have kept it, he felt bad and kept trying to get another one. All the people around them were also trying to get one for him. Finally, near the end of the game a ball was tossed into our area, and the man who caught it gave it to the little boy. I’m sure he’ll never live down that story :)

On Wednesday we went to Hohokam Park in Mesa which is home to the Chicago Cubs. It’s a huge stadium seating almost 13,000 fans, and it was packed. We met Frank and Betty at the game. We bought lawn seats and found a place to sit. It was again in the mid 80s and no shade. Luckily, there was a shady area under the score board where we could go and cool down a little. And, the good news is the Brewers won 10 to 2. We finally saw our first win this year!

After the game the four of us went to a Mexican restaurant in Mesa I had found online called Blue Adobe Grill. The food was very good. I had a chicken wrap which was delicious. The rest of the group had the daily special of stacked enchiladas. The prices were good, you got lots of food, and it tasted very good.

Today we had our carpets cleaned. The day we arrived at this park, I saw an RV a few sites down from us with a carpet cleaning van outside. I got the guy’s business card, and today he came to clean our carpets. This is the first time we’ve had them cleaned. He also cleaned our 5 x 7 area rug. The total bill was $90. I’m not sure if that was a good price, but it needed to be done and it looks like he did a good job.

So, now our recliners are squeezed into the kitchen and our dining chairs are outside. We’re waiting until tomorrow morning to put everything back to give it time to dry thoroughly.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Some Relaxing Days

We went to three ball games last week, so since Friday we’ve been hanging around the RV park and relaxing. We are staying at Leaf Verde RV Resort in Buckeye, Arizona. This is the same place we stayed last year when we came to Spring Training.

We really like this park. The monthly rate is only $350 with 9 cents per KWH for electric. Most of the sites are pull-through and somewhat close together. But, there are sites around the perimeter of the park that are back in and a little bigger and more private. Here’s our site. There is a hedge of oleander bushes behind us which gives us nice greenery to enjoy out of our back window. The area behind the bushes is undeveloped so there is nothing behind us.

The park has a pool, shuffleboard courts, a basketball area, pickle ball court, horseshoe pits, a rec hall, dog walk area, and an outdoor fire pit area with grills and picnic tables. They have a few activities, but not as many as other places we’ve stayed at. That’s fine with us. We don’t really participate in many of the planned activities. It’s a very clean and quiet park.

The pool is quite nice and a good size. There is not a hot tub, but the pool is rather warm. It was a little cool this morning, so the cover was still on it. This afternoon it warmed up to about 80 degrees. This whole week is supposed to be around 80.

We rode our bikes to the store the other day and have been walking about an hour each morning. I’ve been doing some sewing and Kevin spent the day today watching basketball and Nascar. Two of his favorite Wisconsin college teams are in the March Madness tournament so he’ll be watching those games this week. We also plan to go to a few more games at some of the away stadiums in the Phoenix area.

Last Thursday we met some friends from Wisconsin at a Brewer game. Frank and Betty (on the left) are renting a condo in Sun City West for two months this winter. They are members of the camping club we belong to in Wisconsin. Don’t you just love Frank’s hat!

Joan and Al (in the middle) are one of the couples we met up with in Tucson and cruised with. They drove up from Tucson for the game. We all had a great time even though the Brewers lost again. They’ve been winning other games we haven’t gone to, so hopefully they’ll start winning when we go!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Unexpected Excellent Service

One of the tires on our truck had been losing air for about a week. At first Kevin thought it was maybe just a fluke, so he pumped it up and kept an eye on it. However, after about three days it needed more air so he decided to take it in and have it looked at.

There is a Discount Tire near our RV park so he took the truck into them yesterday. They were able to take a look at it right away, and after waiting for about a half hour, they brought the truck back to him. The guy told Kevin there had been a nail in the tire, so they fixed it and balanced the tires. When Kevin asked how much the bill was, he was told it was FREE. What, unheard of!

The service consultant explained that Discount Tire does not charge for tire repairs and/or tire balancing regardless of where you bought your tires. It’s a service they provide. Kevin spent his entire career in the service end of the automotive business. He knew that fixing a tire would be at least $20. So, he gave the guy a $10 tip. Still a deal for us, and a little extra for him.

We’ve never purchased any tires from Discount Tire so can’t speak to the quality or price of their tires. Kevin did look at prices while he was waiting and thought they were pretty good. We’ll definitely keep them in mind when we are in the market for new tires.

So often we’ve had to fight with companies for good service. This was un unexpected bonus, and we thought we should give kudos to Discount Tire.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Baseball and Wildfires

We’ve attended two Brewers games so far. Both days the temps were in the 80s, and the weather was great for sitting outside and enjoying a ballgame. Kevin says he’s now on vacation. Apparently, the cruise to Hawaii was my vacation and Spring Training is his :)

Last Sunday the Brewers played the Giants. The final score was 1 to 1. Most of the time Spring Training games do not have extra innings, they just end in a tie. Yesterday the Brewers played the Athletics and lost 6 to 0. Our team had 2 hits and 4 errors. So far, I’m not very impressed with their performance. Hopefully, they’ll get all of the bugs worked out and perform better.

The weathermen had predicted high winds for yesterday afternoon. On our way home we saw this dirty cloud in the sky. I don’t know that I’ll ever get used to the sandstorms in the desert.

As we got closer to home, we saw what looked like smoke, but it was very orange and dirty looking, practically blocking out the sun. We weren’t sure what was going on.

When we pulled into the RV park, we saw quite a few people outside looking at the sky. I turned on the news and this is what they were reporting.

There was a brush fire several miles west of us. Luckily, the strong winds weren’t blowing it towards us. Apparently, a farmer decided to do a controlled burn, and it got out of control. No kidding, winds were predicted to be over 35 MPH. What an idiot. Here’s what it looked like from our window.

According to the news, the fire was not near any structures. The winds died down overnight, and they were able to get it under control after about 300 acres were burned.

There were 3 different wildfires reported in Arizona yesterday. Last year we were close to a fire in New Mexico, too. I guess every area has it’s weather disasters to deal with, but I don’t like these fires!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Old Tucson Studios

Yesterday we spent about five hours at Old Tucson Studios. This was another attraction that was in the Tucson coupon book we purchased. Admission was $16.95 and we got one free with the coupon book. It was an okay place to visit at half price. I don’t think it was worth full price.
Old Tucson Studios has been in existence since 1939. The original buildings were built for a movie called Arizona. Since then there have been over 500 productions filmed there including over 300 movies. Some of the more famous films include 3:10 to Yuma, Young Riders, Gunfight at OK Corral and Tombstone. John Wayne filmed four of his movies at the site. Here’s the main road.

Lots of TV shows were also filmed here including Little House on the Prairie, Gunsmoke, and The High Chaparral.

One of the more recent movies was The Three Amigos with Martin Short, Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. The film ended up costing three times more than budgeted because those guys kept screwing around. Imagine that :)  Here’s the mission seen in that movie as well as many others. The mountain in the background is called Golden Gate Peak, and is the signature scenery for the studio, seen in every movie filmed here.

There was an area that was being set up for a shoot next week. It was a secret, but they did tell us it was for a well known cooking show and the studio would be closed to the public for a week to film the show. There were three very large expensive looking grills in the road.

There were some informational presentations and shows throughout the day. We watched a couple of the shows including a can-can dance show, a gunfight, and a show in honor of Arizona’s 100th anniversary as a state.

The shows were not the best, pretty low budget stuff. But, we had a good time and learned a little about the business of making westerns.
They had a train and a stagecoach you could ride on. There was also a carousel and some old fashioned cars for kids.

Today is our last day in Tucson. We went for a nice long walk in the desert this morning. I will miss the nice hiking trails right behind the park. I won’t miss the noise from the Tucson Skeet and Gun Club a couple of miles away. Every day you can hear the pop, pop, pop of guns being fired. The noise really takes away from the beauty and peacefulness of hiking in the desert.
I don’t know that we’d come back here. We enjoyed our stay, but there are so many other places to see. The RV park was adequate, but somewhat old and tired, and the sites are quite tight. Our plan for next year is to spend the winter months in Texas.
Tomorrow we’ll be on the road to Buckeye, which is west of Phoenix. We’re looking forward to enjoying some Spring Training baseball games.
I’m just watching the news, and they’re showing more damage from today’s tornadoes in the Midwest. It’s the same weather front that came through here on Monday and brought very strong winds. I’ll take the wind over the tornadoes any day. My heart goes out to all those people!
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Sabino Canyon

Yesterday we spent the day at Sabino Canyon. It is located in the Coronado National Forest. There is a nice visitor center and a tram that takes you the 3.7 miles to the end of the road into the canyon. Private vehicles are not allowed on the road.

The cost of the tram is $8 per person. The driver does some narration along the way, but nothing special. We thought the price was a bit high for the short ride. We could have taken the tram back to the visitor center, but instead we chose to hike back.

I’m so glad we did, because this canyon has breathtaking scenery and views. On the way into the canyon we saw this Cardinal.

We chose to hike a trail that goes along the edge of the canyon about half way between the road and the top of the canyon walls. Our total hike was about 5.5 miles. The trail was quite close to the edge, so we had to be very careful where we were walking. Every so often, we made a point of stopping and just enjoying the scenery. Here’s a view from the trail looking down at the road. If you look closely, you can see a tram on the road. (Click on the picture for a larger view.)

There were saguaro cactus and lots of flowers growing all along the canyon. The pictures don’t do it justice.

There is a river that flows through the canyon. As we finally got back to the bottom of the trail, there was another fantastic view. Near the water are a number of cottonwood trees with bright green leaves. A nice contrast to the desert-like slopes of the canyon.

 

The moon was out above the canyon wall. Another beautiful site. We really enjoyed our day at Sabino Canyon and would recommend it as one of the must-see sites in Tucson. If you have the stamina to hike the eight plus miles round trip into the canyon, I’d recommend skipping the tram especially if you’ve visited some of the other area sites. Most of the narration was about the plant life along the canyon.

 

 

Some sad news today. Davey Jones of The Monkees has died at the age of 66. I had a crush on him and David Cassidy in my teen years. His death makes me feel old.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!