Wednesday, April 9, 2014 (Oracle, AZ)

We woke to beautiful sunny skies.  We took it slow this morning and decided that even though they have an amazing fitness center, that we would skip working out this morning.  We just had a relaxing breakfast and morning hanging out just enjoying our surroundings.

Reading on the patio with my morning cup of coffee.

Rich went around and took pics of each of the rooms of the house.  We are in the Artesa model home and it is lovely.

Built in BBQ

Fire pit and seating area - golf course behind seating, we are on hole #11

Patio table for outside dining, we ate all our meals here, it was lovely

dining and kitchen area taken from patio doors looking in

great room looking from dining/kitchen area

dining area from great room, you can see the slider out to the patio area on the right

Den

Foyer looking from front door

Foyer looking from great room area

Master bath with walk in closet to the right and separate water closet to the left

Master Bedroom w/bay window

Master Bedroom from different angle

Garage - this is the first time since we have owned our pickup that it has been parked in a garage. 

Laundry room

Great room, dining & kitchen area

Front view of house

 The house also had a powder room and a guest bathroom but we didn't take photo's of them.

We did spend a little time looking at the model homes they have on the property.  The Artesa model that we are staying in falls in the Tradition line which is the beginner models.  The high end models were pretty ritzy and big. 

After lunch we went to the pool and met a very nice couple from Canada who have a home here.  They have owned the home for 4 years and love it, but since they are from Canada they don't live here year round.  They had nothing but positive things to say about the community and we really enjoyed chatting with them.

Part of the "preferred guest" program is that you have dinner one evening with another couple from the community and it offers an opportunity to ask questions and get input about the community from someone who actually lives there.  Our dinner was scheduled for tonight.  We weren't sure how this was going to work out, having dinner with a couple we had never met, but oh well, at least it was a free meal.  Since Saddlebrooke Ranch doesn't yet have their own full restaurant, (they just have a bistro that serves breakfast and lunch) we were driving down the road about 5 miles to another Robson community called Saddlebrooke/The Preserve. 

Saddlebrooke is closer to the Catalina Mountains and have incredible views of the mountains.  Their community is pretty much built out which is why they started the Saddlebrooke Ranch community.  Anyway we found the restaurant and made our way inside.  We ran into the couple that we had met at the pool and said a quick hello before our host couple found us.  I'm sorry to say that I've forgotten their names, but we had a wonderful two hour dinner.  They were very informative and were very easy to talk with.  They were originally from Washington so we had some common ground to talk about besides the Saddlebrooke Ranch community.  Our meals were very good and included dessert, yummy.  While we were eating a herd of deer came down and were browsing on the nice lush green grass.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014 (Oracle, AZ)

Today is the day that we are driving up to Saddlebrooke Ranch.  Rich had done some research on a better route to Saddlebrooke than the one we took last week when we did the day tour and had to drive up Oracle Rd with tons of stop lights and it took us forever.  Rich found another route which had some hills but would hopefully be a much faster and easier route since we would be pulling the 5er. 

We got packed up, both the 5er and our suitcases and headed out around 11:00 a.m.  The gate leaving the RV park is very narrow and the guard shack roof line is very close to the road but we made it out just fine.  The drive went well, though it was pretty hilly and we were climbing in elevation.  We arrived at Saddlebrooke Ranch around noon.  We pulled in and parked along side the road and gave our sales agent Terri a call to let her know we arrived and find out where we were to park the 5er.  While we were waiting for a maintenance man to come and direct us to our parking place, we had a quick lunch in the truck. 

Brad, the maintenance man came along in his golf cart and directed us to our parking spot behind their construction office.  We weren't able to check in until 2:00 p.m. so we decided to take Gracie over to the dog park and hang out for awhile.  They have a very nice fenced dog park area which is grass and is divided; one side is for dogs 25 lbs and above and the other side is for dogs 25 lbs and below.  They had a nice shaded seating area, so we had a nice spot to hang out and relax and enjoy the surroundings and Gracie got to run around a bit.  There was only one other dog at the park but it was on the other side but they got to say hello through the fence.  

Finally it was time to go and meet with Terri.  One thing that is really nice about this community is they are very dog friendly and even have a sign in the parking lot saying not to leave your pets in the vehicle but to bring them inside with you.  I know part of the reason is because it gets so hot here and leaving your pets inside a hot vehicle is not a good idea.  The other reason is the founder of these communities apparently is a dog lover and  brings his 3 dogs with him when he comes to visit.  Everyone always loves Gracie and comments on what a good dog she is, she's very friendly and loves people and when we were sitting talking with Terri she will just sit nicely on our laps.  Anyway back to our check in, we got our keys and instructions from Terri and headed to our house for the next several days.  

We had so much fun walking through the house, it was huge.....this is going to be so much fun.  Once we got our suitcases unpacked, we had to head to the 5er and unpack the refrigerator and freezer.  Since we don't have an electric hookup, the refrigerator could run on propane, but because it is so warm outside, there is a fan that kicks on periodically through the day and we weren't sure if it would run the batteries down so decided to just unpack everything and haul it to the house.  I couldn't believe how much stuff I have crammed in our refrigerator/freezer as it totally filled up the fridge/freezer in the house.  I know we have what is considered a "residential" refrigerator but I didn't think it was as big as a regular refrigerator but it is.

After we got unpacked, we made a quick run to the grocery store which is about 10 minutes down the road and got a few quick easy breakfast items since we weren't going to mess with our "traditional" oatmeal breakfasts.

After we got back to our "house" and unpacked, we had a nice dinner out on the patio and then took a drive on the golf cart to check on the 5er.  Neither Rich or I had ever driven a golf cart before and once we got it figured out, it was pretty fun and a good way to get around, I see why so many people have them.  



Just finished putting groceries away in the kitchen




Sunset as we were coming back on the golf cart from checking on the 5er



Catalina Mountains during the sunset

Gracie and I in the golf cart waiting while Rich is taking sunset pictures

Relaxing by the fire pit.  It wasn't that cold outside, but we wanted to try out the fire pit anyway.  It is so quiet and peaceful here.

  That was our first day/night of our mini vacation, we are loving it. 

Monday, April 7, 2014 (Tucson, AZ)

Today is our last day at Rincon West RV Park and if we are going to stay in the Tucson area any longer we needed to search out another Passport America RV Park.  We made a call to our extended warranty company to see when the inspector was going to show up and we were told we should receive a call today.  So after breakfast we headed out to check out another RV Park we'd been told about - Voyager RV Park.

After we arrived at Voyager and checked with the front office on their availability and pricing we drove over to the pull through area to check out their sites.  We had just finished  walking around deciding which site we liked best and had gotten back into the truck when Rich's phone rang.  It was someone from Robson Ranch Headquarters responding to an email Rich had sent the evening before asking if their preferred guest stay special pricing at Quail Creek was also available at Saddlebrooke Ranch and Robson Ranch.  Yes it was and when did we want to arrive and which facility did we want to stay at?  We decided instead of staying at the Voyager we'd much rather stay at Saddlebrooke Ranch and they had a vacancy for tomorrow.  Wow was that timing or what.  So instead of moving to another RV park, we are heading to Saddlebrooke Ranch tomorrow for a 4 day/3 night stay in one of their "guest houses".  We are looking at this like a little mini vacation.  I know we are retired, why do we need a vacation?  =)

We got back to the RV and got a call from the warranty guy and made arrangements for him to come out for the inspection this afternoon.  Sweet, things are working out.  We spent a bit shining everything up and I was just going to head for the pool when we got the call that he would be arriving in just a few minutes.  So much for pool time today, oh well, I know you feel real sorry for me.

The inspector arrived and was very nice and personable.  It is so interesting to see how the locals dress versus the winter visitors.  We are in shorts and a tank top and the inspector is dressed in a long sleeve shirt and jeans.  He said they don't even consider it hot until after it reaches 100 degrees.  We passed the inspection with flying colors, so now we can get our extended warranty going.  I'm not usually a big fan of extended warranties, but since we are full timing and the 5er gets so much use, have decided that it probably will be a good idea to have an extended warranty in place. 

After the inspector left we just kicked back the rest of the afternoon and evening.  We did take a walk around the park looking at all the park models.  This park has tons of them and the ones for sale range from $15,000 to $50,000.  Some of them are quite old, probably from when the park first started.  In talking with some of the residents, they all just love it here because they have so many activities and things to do.  We like the park OK, the pull through site is very nice, but it wouldn't be the place I would want to live year round.  The one thing we don't really like about this park is that they really restrict the areas you can walk your pets.  They only have a couple of streets that we can walk Gracie on, so when we want to walk the whole park, we have to leave her home. 

Thursday - Sunday, April 3 - 6, 2014 (Tucson, AZ)

The wind died down so it was a good day to travel to Tucson.  We did go ahead and go to our Walk away the Lbs class so we got a bit later start than we normally do, which was OK since Tucson was just over a hour down the road.

The drive down was pretty, the desert was definitely getting "greener" with a lot more cactus and saguaro's.  I can see why people had commented that the desert was prettier here.

As we got closer to Tucson, we definitely noticed the increase in traffic.  We are not big fans of traffic, especially when pulling the 5er.  When we got to the gate house of our next rv park, it was sure a tight squeeze.  The office was a ways from the gate house and we drove down this pretty avenue of palm trees and flowers and tons and I mean tons of park models.  I wonder where the rv's are parked? 

We got to the office and checked in for 5 days.  This park honors the Passport America rate which is 50% off the daily rate for 5 days but even at that, we are paying almost $30/day.  Yikes, wouldn't want to stay here without some sort of discount.  It's a much older park than we were at in Lake Havasu or Yuma though they do have a lot of activities. 

We are in the pet section with a pull through site.  This is the first time we've come across this type of configuration for a pull through site.  The sites are set up in blocks and an rv is parked on each side of the square with a common area in the center.  In this case, it is green grass and a couple trees.  It is nice to be around grass instead of gravel.

side view of our site

looking into the common area

We didn't do much the rest of the afternoon other than sit outside in our recliners and read.

Friday

They don't have Walk away the Lbs here, so we went to their fitness center and did a work out.  Sure am missing our walk away the lbs class.  We did check yesterday to see if we could use the rec room which has a tv/dvd player but were told that the room was already scheduled for an activity.  Oh well.....

Two things that we are scheduled for is to have an "inspection" of our rv for an extended warranty that we have decided to purchase.  We let the company know that we were here for 5 days and they are going to try and schedule an inspector while we are here but no word today from anyone. 

The other thing that we have planned is to tour another of the Robson facilities, this one is called Saddlebrooke Ranch.  So we decided that we would do that today.  This community is north of Tucson and what we thought would take 30 minutes to drive took 60 minutes.  We had to travel on Oracle Rd which was full of traffic lights for miles and apparently this is the only road.   Hmmmm that's a big negative in our book.

Once we finally arrived and got out of the truck, the air was very fragrant with some blooming trees so that started getting us in the right frame of mind.  We met with Terry, another really nice and laid back sales person; she said her "piece" and then turned us loose to look through the model homes.  Now this is the part that we both really enjoy.  They did have some different models from Robson Ranch so it wasn't all a "repeat".  This is a much newer community and there are not as many homes built yet, so they did not have a full restaurant, just a bistro cafe.  So after our tour of the model homes, we were treated to yet another "free" lunch overlooking the pool area.  The pool here is amazing, it's huge and incorporates a lap pool, a resistance channel (so you can swim or walk against a current) and a beach type area.  The climate is a lot cooler in the winter than Lake Havasu or even Casa Grande and the summers don't get nearly so hot.  The air and elevation felt really similar to Bend which we both liked.  It was a nice resort though the prices here reflected the proximity to Tucson.  The same house at Robson Ranch was approximately $20,000 cheaper than the same model here at Saddlebrooke.  It was fun looking and we enjoyed our day, just not the drive back through all the traffic to our 5er. 

The park was having it's end of season dance in their auditorium at 6:00 p.m. so we decided to check it out.  The music was provided by a DJ and he was pretty good.  When we walked in they were having a contest to guess which movie the music he was playing was from.  Rich knew the answer and was making his way to the DJ but someone else beat him.  So the next time the DJ announced the contest, Rich was prepared and didn't waste anytime making it to the DJ with the correct answer and for his efforts, he won one of those small one drink bottles of wine which he gave to me to me to drink.  =)  I have to say that we had a really good time at this dance.  The dance floor was huge and the DJ played a variety of music most of which we could dance to which made it fun.  They did do a couple of line dances and one of them looked familar enough that I almost tried it but it looked like they had added a couple steps I wasn't used to, so by the time I got it figured out, the dance was pretty much finished.  We stayed until about 8:30 and the crowd was definitely thinning out, I think the dance actually ended at 9:00 p.m.  While we were sitting at the dance, we had three different ladies come up and introduce themselves and talk about the park.  Apparently the people that winter here at this park really love it.  One lady had been coming for over 20 years. 

Saturday

Today we didn't have much on the agenda other than to go to Costco and get a few more items that we didn't find in the Costco at Indio.  Since we are not big into crowds and traffic, we didn't have anything else planned and our recliners and books looked pretty good.

Sunday

Today we attended the Calvary Chapel, west campus.  We enjoyed the service and the worship music very much.  I feel for the pastor though, they have another campus and each campus has two services and the pastor preaches at all of them.  They have the services timed so that he can drive back and forth, it must be exhausting for him.  It was a big church and for Easter Sunday they meet in the Tucson auditorium and combine both campuses and only have one service.  This Easter they had the worship group - Newsboys (they are a group you hear on the Christian radio stations) singing at their service.  We'd like to hear them but won't still be in the area by Easter.  

After church and lunch we took a walk around the park.  There are tons of park models and we happened upon two Open Houses, so of course we had to look.  I see why people go the park model route, as they are a pretty inexpensive way to have a vacation house in a nice warm climate.  Not sure I'd want to invest in this park, most of the park models are pretty old and it doesn't appear that you own the site, it looks like you rent the site the park model sits on.  

I spent a couple hours at the pool sunbathing and reading, though it got pretty windy this afternoon.  

While we were eating dinner, the sprinklers came on to water the grass and with the wind the mist drifted onto the 5er.  The water down here is very hard and leaves water spots, so as soon as the sprinklers stopped, Rich and I went out and wiped down the side of the 5er.  No sooner had we got back inside the sprinklers came on again.....what's up with that?  So once again, after they stopped, we went back out and wiped down the 5er again.  Luckily the water didn't come back on again.

Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow.  Hopefully we'll hear from the inspector since we plan to leave on Tuesday.

When we leave our park, this is the view that is along side the road.  There are tons of saguaro cactus in this area.

More saguaros, you can see that the cactus are right at the edge of town. 

Monday - Wednesday, March 31 - April 2, 2014 (Casa Grande, AZ)

Our travel day from Yuma to Casa Grande went well until we got into Casa Grande and were headed to our next RV park.  I happen to notice along side the road a warning sign for a clearance of 13' 3".... yikes, we are 13' 6" so that wasn't going to work.  Rich found a place to pull over and we called the rv park and asked for an alternate route to the park.  Whew, I'm glad we noticed the sign in time. 

We got to the park without further mishap, got checked in and set up.  This park gives a Resort Park International rate (RPI) which is one of those membership parks we joined last summer when we were in Montana.  We have not used the RPI rate but a couple times so far.  This park is nothing like Lake Havasu or Yuma but it's good for the budget.  We are only going to be here for 3 nights before heading to Tucson. 

We don't have a lot planned other than to tour a resort community that we heard about this winter when we were in Lake Havasu - Robson Ranch.

Tuesday

This park has the Walk Away the Lbs at 8:00 a.m. so we got up and went and did our exercise time.  I can't say enough how much Rich and I are enjoying this program.  The only "bad" thing is that they also serve "free" waffles until 9:00 a.m. so after class we stopped in and had a waffle, there went our workout.  =)

Today we were going to head to Robson Ranch and see if it lived up to the DVD and website.  Also included in the tour was a free lunch at their clubhouse, so at least we would get lunch.  Well we were pleasantly surprised that the facilities were just as nice in person as they were on the DVD and website.  We had a very nice tour guide - Frances that wasn't pushy at all.  We enjoyed our visit and lunch on the patio overlooking the golf course. 



My new dress purchased in Palm Springs

The tour was pretty much how we spent our day.  When we got home I was excited to see that my cactus had bloomed.  I've been watching and waiting for weeks now.

Wednesday

Today was pretty much a work day, doing laundry and a little grocery shopping and checking out our route to the freeway to avoid the low clearance again.  It was a cool and windy day so it wasn't much fun being outside.  We did have a pretty sunset, though this picture doesn't really do it justice.



Tomorrow we are off to Tucson.

Saturday - Sunday, March 29 - 30, 2014 (Yuma, AZ)

We got up early and got things packed up for the drive back to Yuma today.  We were on the road by 9:00 a.m. and had an uneventful drive back to Yuma.  The traffic was a little heavy until we got to the Salton Sea and then it thinned out which made driving much nicer.  The road was pretty bumpy in a few spots, which always makes opening the cupboards in the 5er such an adventure.

Before you get to Yuma, highway 8 goes very close to the Mexican border.  In the pics below you can see the fence between the U.S. and Mexico. 

Not sure I'd want to camp this close to the fence but there were a lot of people doing it.





More fence

and off it goes into the distance

What a lot of people like to do is come and camp and then ride in the Imperial Sand Dunes.  If it weren't for the creosote bush and the lack of fog you would think you were on the Oregon Coast.



We arrived back at the Palms resort around noon and got set up back in the exact same site that we were in a week ago.  A couple of people around us even commented that we were back again.  The resort has cleared out some since we were here a week ago and I imagine that as April comes, there will be even more folks leaving.  The activity calendar that they gave us didn't have any activities listed after April 12th and those that were listed were few and far between compared to even a week ago. 

After we got set up, I headed to the pool for some reading and pool time.  It was a very pleasant afternoon and evening.  Rich and I both really like it here at this resort.  I'm glad we decided to come down and check out the area.

Sunday

We got up and had breakfast and then headed to church.  We attended the same one we attended when we were here last and enjoyed it again.  Once a quarter they have "family" church where the young kids attend the grown up church instead of the kid classes.  The worship team consisted of mostly teenagers with one adult and they did a very fine job.  They sang a lot of songs that we used to sing at Westside, so that's always fun.  The pastor did a very fine job incorporating two young teenagers stories into his message on "insecurities".  

After church we did a little running around, stopped and got a Starbucks latte, it had been awhile for that.  Then the rest of the day was pretty much just hanging around the 5er.  I forgot to mention that we woke up to "haze" today (that's what NOAA was calling it anyway).  Not sure if it was dust in the air or what???  It was a little breezy but nothing like it was in Indio.  Wasn't really a good pool day since the sun was pretty much hidden for most of the day though it still reached in the low 80's.  

Tomorrow we head for Casa Grande and unknown sights and adventures.  Stay tuned...... 

Friday, March 28, 2014 (Indio, CA)

Even though we had a late night last night we got up bright and early and headed to our exercise class.  I must admit I was dragging just a wee bit.  It's amazing though that by the end of the class even though you are sweaty and tired you feel so much better.  I'm glad we got up and made it to class.

The plan today was to go and ride the Palm Springs Arial Tramway.  Once you start heading up the mountain to the lower station the road gets noticably steeper and I believe you drive up 2000 feet in a relatively short distance.  We got our tickets and they were for the 12:20 ride up which gave us a few minutes to check out the scenery at the bottom of the tram and watch a tram car go up to the top which is at 8500 ft elevation. 

Tram car leaving lower station....

Up, Up and



and away it goes



Patio at lower tram station

Pretty soon it was time for us to board the tram car.  It was very full and each car can carry up to 80 people.  Here are some pics of our trip up the mountain.

There are 5 towers on the trip up and this was either one or two.  Did I mention the car rotates 360 degrees while traveling.  This is looking back toward the lower station.

Passing the tram car going down, we are halfway there

Wow it's a long way down, you can see the desert floor in the background

Still not at the top yet.....



Just past the tower is the lodge at the top, we are almost there.  When you went over the towers it made the car sway which was a little creepy....just don't look down.



When we got off at the top and walked outside, it was instant homesickness for Bend and Paulina Lake.  The air smelled like pine and was nice and cool and crisp.  We found a picnic bench in the sunshine and ate a picnic lunch and then found a hiking trail.  Here are some pics from our hike, the views were amazing.

Nice big pine trees

One of the view points

Rich at one of the view points

More views of the cities around Palm Springs

And another view point, there were five on this hike we took

The ride leaving the upper station, the lower station is where the green in the ravine starts, it was about a 10 minute ride each way.  Going down was better than going up, it didn't seem like the cars swayed as much going over the towers or maybe it was just the fact that we were getting closer to the bottom and the end of the ride.  I'm not a big fan of heights but I did OK on this ride.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time on top of the mountain and are glad we spent the money to take the ride to the top.  I would definitely do it again.

Once we got back to the 5er we got a few things ready for our departure in the morning.  We have enjoyed our time visiting with Madeline & Roger and seeing some of the local sights.  The only downside was all the wind on Wednesday.  I guess we got to experience a wind storm instead of a snow storm.  If I had to choose, I would take the snow, at least you can build a snowman!  =)