Saturday - Monday, April 12 - 14, 2014 (Casa Grande, AZ)

Saturday

We got up early to get our things packed up and transfered back to the 5er all before 9:00 a.m.  The biggest chore was to pack up the refrigerator and freezer.  Because our 5er didn't have an electrical hookup while we were parked here at Saddlebrooke we chose to unload everything from the refrigerator/freezer and take it over to the house.  The refrigerator does run on propane but when it's warm out a fan kicks on to help cool it down and we weren't sure how long our battery power would last, so we went the "safe" route.

We were all packed up and all the refrigerator/freezer stuff back into the 5er well before 9:00 a.m.  We were anxious to get on the road and get to our destination because it was very windy out and the wind was forecast to get stronger after 11:00 a.m.  Lucky for us, our sales agent showed up right as we were finishing up.  We gave back the keys and said our thank you's and goodbyes and headed down the road.

Well we have never had to travel in wind before and we were barely on the highway when I heard a noise I wasn't used to hearing.  When I looked in the back of the truck, our new BBQ drip pan was flying around the back of the truck, that's never happened before.  Rich pulled over and ran back an rearranged the BBQ.  Further down the road we would occasionally hear that same clatter and realized that the wind was lifting the lid of the BBQ and dropping it down again.  Hmmmm, we'll have to make sure in the future that we use a bundgy cord to keep the lid down. 

The drive to Casa Grande went well even with the wind and the clanging BBQ.  It was nice to be around a little more greenery even though we were in the desert, though the closer we got to Casa Grande there was less greenery.  Casa Grande area is more of an agricultural area so there are more fields and dust around.

We arrived back at the Casa Grande RV Resort, the same one we had stayed at earlier in the month.  When Rich unloaded the BBQ it was missing it's handle, I guess all that clanging had taken its toll.  Fortunately the handle and the screws were still in the bed of the truck. 

It was nice to get everything unpacked and stowed back in its proper places.  That's the nice thing when we travel with an RV, you don't have to pack and unpack your suitcase as it all goes with you.  It's amazing when we do stay in a "house" how much stuff we pack with us. 

The rest of the afternoon I worked on the blog and we just kicked back and relaxed and listened to the wind and were glad we were off the road.

Sunday

We found another Calvary Chapel church to attend this Sunday.  After church we went back to the 5er for a quick bite of lunch and then drove out to Robson Ranch for a 2nd tour of their facilities to compare them with our visit to Saddlebrooke Ranch.  Both these communities are from the same builder/founder they just have a different feel to them.  The big thing with Robson Ranch is that being in an agricultural area they have a lot more dust flying around.  The other thing is that they have a freight train track near by.  We hadn't noticed the dust on our first visit but since it still was a bit breezy today we definitely noticed the dust in the air.  The houses at Robson Ranch are a bit less expensive and the community is made up of a lot more "snow birds" so in the summer it gets pretty quiet as at least half of the community leaves because of the heat.  

After our tour of the model homes, we ran across an "open house", so we stopped for a peak.  In talking with the realtor she offered to show us a couple of "resale" houses tomorrow.  After our visit today we were not as impressed with this community as we were the first time we visited a couple weeks ago.  Glad we came back for a second visit.

Monday

We were going to do our walk away the lbs tape but when we went to the room where the tv/dvd player was set up, the dvd player was not there.  Rats, we were looking forward to our workout.  Instead we went and used their fitness room which had a few weights and  treadmills.  

After breakfast we went and met the real estate lady and toured several more homes at Robson Ranch, one being a foreclosure.  We had never seen a "foreclosure" house that was in such good shape.  We had toured a few in Bend and they were always a mess, not so here.  Apparently the owners had passed away and their kids didn't want to mess with the house and apparently more was owed on the house than it was worth so they let it go back to the bank.  It will make someone a sweet deal, though you will have to have a love of curly and squiggly iron work.  It was everywhere, around the doors, around the windows on the ceilings.  They even had a custom iron work door made for the den.  It would have been interesting to see how they had it decorated. 

Well after our morning of touring houses, we made our way back to the 5er and decided that it was way to dusty at Robson Ranch and it would not be some place we would consider.  It's always fun to check out houses.  A lot of people spend the winters in this area in their rv's, but not sure we would even like to do that as it is pretty dusty around. 

I spent a couple hours by the pool reading and relaxing.  Not sure since we are headed north tomorrow if I'll have the opportunity or the nice warm sunshine.   

Thursday - Friday, April 10 - 11, 2014 (Oracle, AZ)

Thursday

Today was our last full day at Saddlebrooke Ranch and we started the day out by driving the golf cart up to the fitness center and working out.  The workout equipment was wonderful and we got a nice good workout and the facility wasn't crowded at all. 

We did have a meeting with Terri our sales agent this morning at 10:00 a.m. so after a quick breakfast on the patio it was off in the golf cart with Gracie for our meeting.  When you are part of the "preferred guest" program, you usually take a tour of the community and models but since we had done the one day visit, Terri said that we didn't need to do another tour.  Our meeting today was just a check in to see if we had any questions.  We had a nice visit with Terri and made a comment that the 3 night/4 day stay just wasn't long enough to try and experience everything there was to do.  The house also comes with two bikes and they have a nice nature trail that you can ride and we had yet to try that.  We also asked if it would be OK if we could drive around the golf course that evening.  18 holes of golf also comes with the visit but since we weren't golfers, we didn't take them up on the golfing, but we did want to see the golf course.  We were told that it would be no problem to take the golf cart around after dinner. 

After our meeting we headed to the pool for a couple hours.  The pool here is amazing and it is never crowded.  At this community about 70% of the residents live here full time since the climate is cooler than the Phoenix area.  Saddlebrooke Ranch is about 3500 ft elevation and even in the summer the nights cool down.  The winters are not as warm as Phoenix and often they will even get a slight dusting of snow which usually doesn't stick around very long.  It actually reminded us a lot of the Bend area though the summers are consistently much hotter.

While we were at the pool, Rich's phone rang and it was Terri our sales agent.  She asked if we wanted to stay another night at no cost; she had checked and the house wasn't scheduled for another preferred guest until Saturday.  Well she didn't have to ask twice, the answer was a big YES.  

Here is a beautiful Ocotillo bush, this one has lots of blossoms.  Most of the year they look like dead twigs.  Even now the leaves are so tiny they don't show up in the picture. 

Here's Gracie on the back of the couch, which is one of  her favorite perches.

After dinner, we went on our golf cart ride around the course.  We started on the back 9 holes and saw two coyotes and a couple of BIG jack rabbits.  The rabbits down here have huge ears, bigger than their bodies and even their bodies are huge.  We've never seen such big rabbits.  It was a very pretty ride, but it started getting dark so since we get another night here, we'll do the front 9 holes tomorrow night.   

 Friday

We started the day out with another workout at the fitness center and again it wasn't crowded at all.  After breakfast we headed back over to talk with Terri, she wanted to touch bases with us again and see what we thought about the community and if she might have some potential customers.  When we got there, she was meeting with another couple so we decided to wander out to the models and check them out again.  We had 2 favorites, the Hermosa, the Dolce models when we first got here.  But after our stay and doing some number crunching just for fun on the options, the smaller Hermosa no longer penciled out to be the most economical option.  So that left the Dolce and now the Artesa on our top two list, which until we actually spent time in the Artesa (they are no dummies when they put you up in these nice guest homes) really wasn't on our list but now it was.  =)  Anyway, while we were looking Terri came out and said that she would be a bit longer but to just hang out here in one of the models if we wanted, so we went to the Dolce model since we already knew what hanging out in the Artesa model was like.  Rich made a nice long phone call to his son and I sat outside on the lounger next to a water feature until Gracie got too warm and we headed inside.  Once inside, we chilled out on the couch cooling off and looking at some of the coffee table books on Arizona.  Finally we were getting hungry and decided to have lunch and catch Terri after lunch which worked out for her also.  We were kind of bummed that we didn't get to spend the morning hanging out at "our house" mostly because I didn't have my book along but it still was nice just chilling out in another model home.

After lunch we had our "visit" with Terri and got some more questions answered but alas, no purchase at this point in time.  I would highly recommend that if you are looking into an active 55+ community to check out the various Robson Communities.  We found them to be very enjoyable and the homes are beautiful and affordable.  I had never considered a "retirement" community before but after having visited and stayed at one for several days, can definitely see the charm and attraction.  It even got us thinking about taking up the sport of golf.  =)

 We did have time for one last visit to the pool.  I just loved the pool area, it was so relaxing and peaceful and swimming in the pool was wonderful.  The water was a little cool when you first get in, but after a few minutes it was very pleasant. 

After dinner we took our golf cart ride around the front 9 holes and again saw a coyote and various big jack rabbits.  We were blessed with a beautiful sunset to end our last night at Saddlebrooke Ranch.  What a memorable visit, I'm so glad we "splurged" and took advantage of their special reduced pricing on their preferred guest program.

Colors just beginning to show

More color

the sky was on fire, it was amazing

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.