Our time is winding down here in Mesa. I’m a little behind on some of the tasks I wanted to complete before we move. Thursday I rested my leg, I never got around to sealing the bedroom slide-out trim. Donna rode her bike with her friend, Dara in the afternoon. She rode to Lana Jansen’s house at the end of her ride and picked up Lana’s car – she had generously offered to lend it to us for the weekend. While Donna went out shopping on Friday, I hit the pickleball court. Afterwards I put my leg up and iced it for a while. It was very warm in the afternoon, near 90 degrees. Other than dumping the gray water tank, I didn’t accomplish anything.

Yesterday Donna and I played pickleball again in the morning. I can’t move at full speed yet and playing two days in a row left me with a sore leg again. We quit playing around 11am, then we got ready to head over to Andy and Donna King’s house in Gold Canyon. They were having a St. Patrick’s Day party (a few days early). People still living in the workaday world schedule parties on the weekend. Donna made Irish soda bread the night before to take to the party.

I thought the drive to Gold Canyon would take about 25 minutes. I didn’t realize the 27th annual Arizona Renaissance Festival was happening in Gold Canyon on the weekends through March 29th. The traffic on eastbound US 60 was stop and go from Apache Junction to Gold Canyon. The drive took over an hour, it was 1:30pm by the time we arrived.

We weren’t the only ones running late due to the traffic. The party didn’t start rolling until about 2pm. Andy was expecting guests to arrive shortly after noon. Many of the people attending the party were musicians – mostly bluegrass players. The party started when Andy and a few of his friends sang Seven Bridges Road. Andy picked the guitar while three others harmonized with him. They sounded great!

Getting started

Donna at the bar with her St. Patrick’s Day bling

I took a seat at the bar and sipped Guinness and enjoyed the music. Donna fixed plates of corned beef, cabbage and soda bread for us.

Our bartender, Seth and Kylie

There were a lot of talented people rotating in and out of the band. It was lively but low key and fun.

The band changed personnel often

Some members of the new bluegrass band Andy is in showed up.

Mavis really ripped on the fiddle

At one point, Andy set me up with his Alvarez Yairi acoustic guitar. It’s a beautiful instrument. I stayed in the outer circle and and followed the chord changes and improvised on a couple of songs.

Strumming along on Andy’s Alvarez Yairi guitar

People were spread out all over the backyard. Most people stayed under cover on the patio. A few took to the pool to cool off.

Cooling off

I didn’t stray too far from the bar – I claimed a sore leg required me to sit on a barstool.

Plenty of activity at the bar

The shots of Jaegermeister washed down with Guinness were catching up with me. We called it a day and Donna drove us home around 5pm. My right leg was sore from pickleball and standing around all afternoon. I iced it when we returned home.

The forecast calls for temperatures in the 90s for the next few days. I’ll need to start organizing the trailer and prepare to depart on Wednesday. We’re still not sure of our next destination.