After leaving Marana we had a short drive to the Apache Junction KOA.
We took the I60 east. What an amazing freeway! One of the interesting things about freeways in the Phoenix area is that not only are they wonderfully easy to drive but they are also quite pretty, as freeways go.
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| Giant bales of cotton after harvest |
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| Picacho Peak as seen on the way to Phoenix |
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| One of the decorated overpasses in the Greater Phoenix area |
The KOA in Apache Junction is right on the edge of town so we thought it would be quieter. Alas, it was right beside a busy intersection....
We set up camp and took a little drive to, as usual, scope out the lay of the land.
Found groceries and headed back to camp.
We were told by the campground admin. that the wifi is free but it is slow. We found out how slow it was when we tried to do some basic stuff on our devices. It was s o, s l o w I nearly cried. They also had no cable, which you may say, well who needs television when you're camping? Well, we are not really camping. We are living in our RV, traveling from place to place. These "campgrounds" don't have lovely wooded spots with fire pits and things you usually relate to the camping experience. They are basically parking lots with, if you're lucky a few trees or shrubs planted here and there. So, yes, tv in the evening is nice to have.
So, there we were, no wifi to speak of so couldn't watch Corrie or watch Netflix. We do however have quite a few good books to read, thankfully.
Thurs. Nov. 21
The following day we went to visit our friends JoAnn and Conrad Gaumont at their house in Mesa. It was so nice to see familiar faces and have another woman I know to chat with. I'm sure John felt the same way except with a guy to talk to.
We also stopped at a mobile home/rv park where some other friends stay. We got their address from the visitor centre and found them home so had a nice chat about their community and it's amenities. We found that the units were very close together. Packed in almost like sardines which is hard to be comfortable with especially coming from living in the country. But it's only for a couple of months, right?
Friday Nov. 22
We had chosen 4 mobile home/rv parks to check out this day. One was a ways out of the Mesa area, about 25 minutes but it sounded really nice. By a river, near the mountains. About half way to this destination the phone rings, bluetooth, and it's JoAnn asking if we would like to stay in their rental house, on Colby street. It is on the market now but we could stay in it if we wanted. There may be showings while we are in it but otherwise it would be ours to use.
Well how could we say no?!
It's a lovely little 2 bedroom house 1 block from Conrad and JoAnn's and two from Yvette (Conrad's sister) and her husband Archie's place. What fun! It's a nice, older (55+) quiet community. There are 4 citrus trees in the backyard and a Saguaro cactus in the front. Behind the house is a utility right of way that the neighbourhood people have made into a lovely desert walk with indigenous vegetation that is inhabited by indigenous animals:
foxes, rabbits, squirrels, coyotes, bobcats and numerous birds including quails, thrashers, hummingbirds and others.
Now, we needed to find a place to store the coach and car hauler. One that wasn't too far, reasonably priced and most importantly secure.
We heard first hand from friends, Sue and Dan Derouin, who also live in this community, about how their rv got broken into and everything, really everything got stolen. Right down to some clothes that were left in the rv!
John scoped out a few and settled on one that had 8ft high concrete walls with 2 rows of razor wire on top. It was also well priced and not too far away. Perfect! We set up an appointment to go park our rig on Monday morning.
It started raining Thursday evening and it continued until Saturday morning. Unseasonable weather, we were told by the locals. Some areas had some flooding, which is usual around here when it rains.
We took several loads of clothes and other necessities over to the Colby house for our stay there.
We were glad to see the sun later on Saturday afternoon even though it was still quite cloudy.
Sunday Nov. 24
Grey Cup day! We were invited over to Yvette & Archie's for a Grey Cup party. What a fun time. There were about 15 people gathered to watch the big game. One was a native born Saskatchewanite, Jason, who is like most from his home province, an AVID fan of the Sask. Roughriders. In the true spirit of Sask. fans Yvette and Archie had fashioned a helmet out of a watermelon for Jason and "dressed up" an special chair for him. The outcome of the game was to his liking and most of the others at the party.
We had a pool for the game and I won halftime and John won final score!
We played a couple of rounds of "Pass the Ace" card game and then headed to the Colby house to stay over night.
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| Jason ready for the big game! |
Monday Nov. 25
We went to the KOA in Apache Junction for the last time to pick up the remaining needful stuffs and then take the rig to the storage place. Then we moved into the Colby house proper.
From this day forward we have been enjoying the space of the Colby house and yard.
I hung a hummingbird feeder from one of the orange trees and in no time there were tiny jewel like visitors at
it. One particular male Anna's hummingbird has laid claim to the feeder and spends much of the day chasing other hummingbirds away.
We have spent the last couple of weeks golfing, shopping and visiting with friends here in Mesa. Very relaxing for sure.
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| A little visitor at the feeder |
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| A lovely Joshua tree in the backyard at Colby street |
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| Three of the citrus trees in the yard, L to R orange, grapefruit, lemon |
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| The front view |
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| Gambel's quails. They're all over! |
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| One of the many Desert Cottontail rabbits in the neighbourhood |
Monday, December 9th
We finally got internet two days ago a the Colby house. Super fast, so blogs should be much easier to put together.
Tomorrow we are taking an overnighter trip to do the Apache Trail loop. It will be great to get out of the city.
