Category Archives: Restaurants

Tlaquepaque in Sedona

On Saturday morning, Donna and I went down to the pickleball courts here at Thousand Trails Verde Valley RV Resort and Campground. There are two pickleball courts by the pool area. The courts are open on three sides with a fence at the back of the court closest to the Verde River. No one was there. We hit a few balls back and forth and decided it was too windy to try a singles game.

We came home and decided to ride the Spyder to Sedona (map). Sedona is an upscale resort community about halfway from our current location to Flagstaff. The population of Sedona is around 10,000 and it sits at an elevation of about 4,500 feet above sea level. The area is known for its natural beauty with red rock formations surrounding the town and Oak Creek running through it. A number of festivals including a film festival and jazz festival are held at this popular tourist destination.

Our first stop was Tlaquepaque Village. Back in the 1970s, Sedona was a sleepy community consisting of mostly open range and a single stoplight. A Nevada businessman named Abe Miller started coming to Sedona for vacations. He had a vision of creating a village within the town patterned after small communities he’d seen in Mexico. He saw it as a place where artisans could create in view of the public and sell their work while living onsite as well.

He bought several acres of land and created Tlaquepaque. The name comes from the Mexican Nahuatl Native Indian language and means “the best of everything.” I don’t know much about the early years of Tlaquepaque, but today it’s an area filled with boutique shops and restaurants. Not exactly what Abe Miller envisioned, but a nice place to visit nonetheless.

Donna in front of the Oak Creek Brewery and Inn

Tlaquepaque fountain

Donna and I started at the Oak Creek Brewery and Inn. We had lunch and a cold one. I ordered a glass of porter – all the beer is brewed onsite. The porter they had available was a chocolate-cherry porter. It really wasn’t my cup of tea, but Donna liked it. So I gave it to her and ordered a glass of their nut brown ale. This went well with my brie-mushroom burger.

Chocolate-cherry porter at Oak Creek Brewery and Inn

After lunch, we spent the next hour walking through the various shops and then taking a stroll over the Oak Creek bridge to have a look around. The scenery is spectacular – my photos taken from town don’t do it justice.

Oak Creek from the highway 89A bridge

Colorful mesa seen from town

Red rock spires viewed from town

We stopped at an artist show on the side of the road near the south side of Sedona. It was mostly native Americans from Monument Valley, Utah. We looked over their wares and talked to a couple of interesting people. One was a guy who identified himself as a Navajo-Zuni from Monument Valley. He told us a few stories about the symbolism of the designs in the jewelry he created. The designs were traditional – some Zuni, some Navajo and some Hopi. He’s married to a Hopi. Like most Navajo people I’ve encountered, he was very soft spoken and I strained at times to hear what he was saying. Donna ended up buying a pair of turquoise earrings to go with the necklace she was wearing.

On Sunday morning, we decided to try our hand at pickleball again. We practiced a bit then started a singles game. While we were playing, a guy and his teenage son showed up and started hitting a ball on the other court. We invited them to join us for a doubles game. They were beginners, so we went over the rules and some basic strategy. Donna partnered with the son and I lined up with the dad. We split the first two games and Donna’s team won the rubber match. It was fun and we may have made more pickleball converts.

We met another couple there, Eddie and Carolyn. They play as well but weren’t dressed to play at the time. They’ve been to this park before and they said pickleball can be popular here with people waiting to get into a game. We talked to them for a while and learned about a few other Thousand Trails parks.

The rest of Sunday was pretty laid back. I booked us into the Thousand Trails park in Las Vegas for a week beginning next Thursday, April 28th. We made a run to Walmart to stock up on fresh veggies and beer. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching a great Moto GP race from Jerez, Spain and reading a book. Donna went out for a hike on the trails in the park.

On Sunday evening, Donna prepared a Moroccan spiced rack of lamb. I grilled it on the Weber Q – five minutes bone side down, then I flipped it and continue to grill for about 18 minutes until the internal temperature of the meatiest part was between 135 and 140 degrees. Donna served it with Israeli couscous and a stir fry of asparagus, mushrooms, peppers and leeks. A meal fit for a king!

Dinner fit for a king

This morning I’ll be loading the Spyder in the trailer, then I’ll do the usual dump and flush of the holding tanks and top up the fresh water while Donna secures the interior of the coach. Of course I’ll do another check of the trailer lug nuts and tire pressures all around. The rules of our Thousand Trails membership require us to stay out of TT parks for one week if we spend more than four consecutive nights. We have three nights to fill before we get to Vegas and we think we’ll play it by ear and boondock our way there. Our first stop will be a couple of miles outside the park where dispersed camping is allowed on National Forest land. We were planning to head up to Flagstaff but high wind advisories will keep us off the road today.

Jerome Day Trip

Donna went down to the pool area and did her workout on Friday morning while I posted to the blog. She sent me a text saying there were a few guys playing pickleball – there are two courts here at Thousand Trails Verde Valley RV Resort and Campground. We considered playing, but opted instead to take a day trip.

Around 11am, we rode south on I-17 climbing out of the Verde Valley and hit AZ169. We went to Prescott Valley and checked out the RV sites at the Elks Lodge there. The sites would be tight for us – the camp host told us we would have to drop the trailer in the parking lot. However, he’s booked up for the rest of the month. Alternatively he told us he has dry camping areas that we could use. We don’t know where we are going when we leave Verde Valley on Monday, but I don’t think it will be there.

From there we rode north on AZ89A. This took us past the Mingus Mountain Recreation Area – part of the Kaibab National Forest – a 6,000-plus-foot pass. Highway 89A climbs quickly with many tight turns and switchbacks through a forest of pine trees. Once over the pass, the road drops down toward Verde Valley. I got a workout piloting the Spyder through turns with speed advisories of 20mph.

We stopped in Jerome. Jerome is a funky place that bills itself as “America’s Most Vertical City” and “The Largest Ghost Town in America.” The traffic through the steep switchback streets of Jerome was heavy and moving very slowly. Everyone was looking for a place to park, including us. When we had the scooter, parking was rarely an issue. With the Spyder, we need about as much space as a small car. We found a triangular space that looked to be custom made for the three-wheeled Spyder.

We walked the streets and stopped for lunch at the Mile High Grill and Inn. Jerome was founded in 1876 and takes it name from Eugene Jerome – the original secretary of the United Verde Mining Company. Jerome sits above what was the largest copper mine in Arizona. It was operated by the United Verde Mining Company until 1935 when it was sold to Phelps Dodge. The fortunes of the town and its population grew and fell with the demand for copper. The mine shut down in 1953. The people who remained in Jerome started promoting it as a historic ghost town. In 1967, Jerome was designated as a National Historic District by the federal government.

Remains of an old theater

Theater entry doors

Today there are about 450 residents in Jerome, mostly working in the galleries, restaurants and saloons in this tourist attraction. There are many artists here as well. We walked around and poked through a few shops and galleries.

Jerome street scene near the old bordello

Eclectic mix of buildings in Jerome

Jerome literally sits on the side of a mountain – Cleopatra Hill – 5,200 feet above sea level. There are stunning views of the Verde Valley below and mountain peaks to the north and east.

Verde Valley overlook from the streets of Jerome – look closely and you’ll find a snowy peak in the distance

We were back home around 4pm after making an 85-mile loop. We relaxed and read for a while, then Donna fixed a tray of hors d’oeuvres for a light dinner. We ate at the picnic table outside our coach.

I’ll close today’s post with a few pictures from our last week in Mesa, Arizona. I like to post pictures and descriptions of the meals Donna prepares in our motorhome. I do this to illustrate the fact that full-timing isn’t camping out and it doesn’t mean eating out all the time. We know other full-timers like us who cook nutritious, delicious meals regularly – Lisa McGuire (Metamorphosis Road) comes to mind.

Donna’s been making some single skillet meals lately. This one is lemon-butter chicken. She browned bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet on the induction cooktop, then finished it in the microwave-convection oven.

Lemon butter chicken

Lemon butter chicken plated with Israeli couscous

Another night she made Marseilles-style shrimp stew with rouille toast.

Marseille-style shrimp with rouille toast

On our final night in Mesa, she made tortilla-crusted tilapia with fresh tilapia from Mexico that we found at Sprouts.

Tortilla-crusted tilapia with pico de gallo, avocado and green beans on the side

The sunsets in Mesa can be spectacular. Here in the Verde Valley, the sun sinks behind the mountains before we know it and I haven’t captured a sunset image yet.

Our last sunset in Mesa

Today we plan to play some pickleball, then head up to Sedona. I want to check out the Elks lodge there and we’ll kick around town with all of the other tourists.

Free Beer

In my last post, I showed the catch basin I made to contain any fluid that might leak from the HWH hydraulic synch cylinder. No fluid has leaked since I had a drop of fluid last weekend. I’m thinking now that the drop of fluid I saw running down the threads on the U-bolt holding the synch cylinder may have been residual oil from the original leak. Perhaps a small amount of fluid remained on the horizontal steel mounting tab for the cylinder. When I fiddled around with the jacks, this residual fluid may have run off the tab and down the U-bolt threads.

On Wednesday, my lifelong friend Jim Birditt rang me up. He was headed to the Wild Horse Pass Casino (map). He’s a truck driver hauling household goods for North American Van Lines. He planned to stop overnight and park his Peterbilt truck in the casino truck/RV lot. I rode the Spyder there in the afternoon to meet up with him. We had a cold one and caught up a bit. I’ve known Jim since I was in the 8th grade. We spent a lot of time hunting together in the 90s.

We talked about the mysterious hydraulic oil leak. We came up with a theory. The synch cylinder has two pistons inside that move when fluid pressure is applied to one side or the other. There’s a shaft that moves with the pistons. This shaft extends out of one end of the cylinder. The shaft has a seal. Maybe at some point, after we set up here at Towerpoint RV Resort, the shaft seal leaked some fluid. Maybe the seal rolled or something was caught in the seal allowing fluid to seep past. If some foreign matter was in the seal, it may have washed out with the leaking fluid and the seal re-seated itself. It’s just a theory, but I can’t come up with any other explanation for why the cylinder would leak fluid one day, then stop leaking. The hydraulic system works fine, I’ve moved the living room slide to apply pressure in the cylinder and there’s no leakage now. I’ll keep the catch basin in place for a while just in case it leaks again.

Jim was planning to head to Tucumcari, New Mexico the next morning. I showed him an alternate route. He’s been driving trucks all his adult life and knows just about every route in the country. But he never went up the Beeline Highway (AZ87) through Payson, Arizona to get to I-40 east. He usually goes up I-17 to I-40. He tried my suggestion on Thursday morning and phoned me later to tell me the route worked out great. He picked up I-40 at Holbrook.

On Thursday evening, Donna and I prepared a whole chicken. I used my favorite chicken rub – Lambert’s Sweet Rub O’Mine – and cooked it on the Traeger wood pellet fired grill.

Traeger wood pellet fired grill

I cooked the chicken for about 80 minutes and used a quick reading meat thermometer to check for proper internal temperature. I shoot for about 170 degrees in the breast and over 180 in the thigh. Cooked on the Traeger, the chicken remains moist while fully cooked at these temperatures.

Whole roasted chicken with Sweet Rub O’Mine

Donna served it with steamed broccoli and wild rice cranberry salad. A delicious meal!

Roasted chicken quarter with broccoli and wild rice cranberry salad

On Friday morning, we played pickleball. The courts aren’t filled with players and people waiting for games anymore. Things have really thinned out here as most of the snowbirds have headed for home.

We went to Tia Rosa’s Tacqueria to meet up with David and Karin Von Kay for lunch. We first met David and Karin in Des Moines, Iowa last year. They were in the site next to us at the fairgrounds where David was showing his 1966 Chevelle in the Good Guys car show. Donna and Karin have stayed in touch and frequently trade recipes. It’s so much fun to meet new people on the road and hook up again at another place later.

Things are winding down for us here at Towerpoint. Our initial two-month stay officially ended Friday. I settled up our electric bill, then extended our stay another six nights – we’ll leave Mesa on Thursday the 21st. I have a few things to get done before we go. At first we thought we’d stay an extra five days and leave on Wednesday. I have the initiation to the Elks on Tuesday night, so I thought an extra day would be good.

On Friday evening, Towerpoint had their final end-of-season party. Free beer, chips and salsa and pretzels. Hard to beat free. Donna and I wandered around the pool area where the party was in progress and visited with a few people we know from the pickleball courts. We were happy to see Howard and Nancy there – they’re the friends that had a horrible traffic accident with their motorhome resulting in severe injuries to Howard and his mother-in-law. Howard’s a trouper and seemed to be doing better than expected. They plan to stay here for a few months while Howard and Nancy’s mom recuperate.

The party included live music – something Donna and I always enjoy. The band was good in spite of the fact they used a synthetic drum track – I always prefer a full group of musicians – even drummers.

Good music – we love live bands

Donna brought a hoop and did some hoop dancing. The band really appreciated her efforts as it encouraged dancing and attention to the music.

Donna hoop dancing

Oh yeah

It was extremely windy making the hooping difficult for her – but it was impressive nonetheless.

From here our plan is to head up to Cottonwood for four nights. This will give us a chance to make day trips to Jerome and Sedona – plus I can catch the Moto GP race a week from Sunday. We’re not sure where we’re going from there.

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!

Wild Horse Crossing

Donna and I had some fun activities this weekend – together and separately. On Saturday night, I went to Phoenix International Raceway located on the west side of Phoenix in Avondale with Mike Hall and Ray Laehu. I wrote about the tickets I got for free in my last post. I was surprised to find free parking at the raceway, however I wasn’t surprised to find $8 beer.

This was the first time Indycars have raced here since 2005. The cars were very fast, but I don’t follow the series so I had a hard time identifying the cars and drivers. The lead cars start overtaking the back markers on the one-mile oval after about 10 laps. This really jumbles up the field. Indycar has an innovation that helps the fans – they have an electronic number plate on the side of the car behind the driver that shows their position. The numbers change as the car’s race position changes.

Indycar streaking past at 190mph on the front straight

I always enjoy racing, but I’m not a big fan of oval track races. We had a good time though. The 250-mile race was over after about an hour and half and unfortunately ended with the last two laps under a yellow caution flag. No passing in this situation so the ending was anticlimactic.

On Sunday morning, Donna’s friend, Audrey Arrington, and her partner John Mitchell picked Donna up around 10:45am. They were going kayaking on the Salt River. I unloaded our Sea Eagle kayak, one seat and paddle from the trailer but didn’t unpack and inflate the kayak. Their plan was to take it along with Audrey’s inflatable kayak and set up both of them at the river. I stayed home to watch the second round of Formula 1 racing from Dubai and the Moto GP championship race in Argentina.

They left one car at Phon D Sutton Recreation Area – the place where we dry camped a little over two years ago. The recreation area is posted “no overnight camping or parking” now. We don’t know what happened, but Donna plans to find out why they closed it to self-contained dry campers.

They took a second car and drove upriver on the Bush Highway to a parking area with river access near the bridge on Bush Highway. That’s where they inflated the kayaks and put in. They cruised down the river, mostly floating with the current and enjoying the scenery. The two-hour river trip had some real highlights. They saw a herd of wild horses crossing the river just in front of them at one point. Donna was on the left side of the river and passed in front of the herd while John and Audrey went around behind them on the right. John shot a short video of the horses – you can see Donna in her kayak on the other side of the river.

Video of wild horses crossing the Salt River

Then they saw a bald eagle on a gravel bar alongside a turkey vulture feeding on a dead fish. They also spotted about half a dozen herons along the way. They really enjoyed their time on the water and plan to make another trip. The river is generally not flowing so early in the year. Salt River Project (SRP) just started releasing water from the Stewart Mountain Dam this week and will continue to do so through the summer months.

On Sunday evening, we rode the Spyder over to see our friends, Lana Jansen and Joel Myaer. I brought my laptop along. Joel is a computer guru and convinced me to install Windows 10 on my laptop. I’ve been reluctant to do it based on negative comments I’ve heard from others that made the switch. Joel had shown me how the operating system worked on one of his computers a few weeks ago.

We made the switch at their house where they have unlimited high-speed internet access – that way if anything went wrong and I had to repeat the three gigabyte download process, I wouldn’t be eating up my data plan. I also had the advantage of Joel’s expertise in setting it up. I have to say, so far I like Windows 10. It seems like a hybrid of Windows 8 and Windows 7 or XP.

While the operating system was installing, we went to Mattas Cantina on the corner of Brown and Ellsworth. This restaurant wasn’t there when we lived in the area – it opened a few months ago. The original Mattas Mexican Grill is near Towerpoint RV Resort on Higley and Brown and there are two other locations as well. Mattas serves West Texas-style Mexican food – I guess it’s what’s called Tex-Mex. Donna and I both ordered the chile verde plate. It was way different than any chile verde I’ve ever had. Usually chile verde is made with chunks of slow-cooked pork smothered in a green tomatillo sauce. This chile verde had chunks of slow-cooked pork served with potato chunks and peppers and onions in a spicy sauce. It was very hot but tasty – just different than I expected.

This morning while I was at the pickleball court, I had a phone call from the Mesa Buckhorn Elks Lodge. The woman on the phone wanted to know if I could make it to the orientation tonight at 6pm and the initiation tomorrow night! This was unexpected, but I was happy to say I would be there. About half an hour later, she called back and said she had made a mistake. The orientation is in two weeks on April 18th which is what I had been told earlier. So we’ll extend our stay here at Towerpoint for sure now.

We’re having another hot spell with the temperature expected to be in the 90s for the next few days. It should cool off again by Friday. I know I should be getting some projects done – all I accomplished over the weekend was the usual dumping and flushing of the holding tanks and cleaning the bathroom drains. Just like in a sticks-and-bricks house, drains accumulate hair and whatnot and need to be cleaned out periodically. With the heat, I may procrastinate a bit more – I have more than two weeks before we move – right?

Stop, Drop and Roll

I’ve been a little sore the past couple of mornings. On Wednesday morning during my first pickleball game of the day, my opponent hit a lob over my head. I turned around to run to the back of the court to return the ball. Somehow my feet got tangled together and I was going down! I pulled my arms in and rolled as I hit the pavement. It worked pretty well – I didn’t bang my head or lose any skin. I feel it in my neck in the mornings though – I guess the fall really jolted it. My teammate said the roll was an awesome move and he was sure it prevented me from being injured.

This reminded me of something that happened about five years ago. Donna and I visited Greece and Turkey – we had a great trip. While we were on the Greek island of Naxos, we walked down the road along the beach to a restaurant we’d heard about. The restaurant was on a point where the highway forked. The sidewalk was raised a couple of feet above the roadway near the entrance to the restaurant.

We had an early dinner and the place was nearly empty when we arrived. We saw raki on the drink menu and decided to try it as an aperitif. Raki is a popular drink in Turkey – it’s similar to ouzo found on the Greek mainland and has an anisette flavor. Our waitress was enthusiastic about raki and told me they had several different brands on hand. After our meal, the waitress joined us with three glasses of raki – she drank one with us. Then she appeared with another brand of raki for us to sample. The raki is very easy to drink and doesn’t seem very high in alcohol.

It was dark out when we were ready to leave and the restaurant had filled with parties at most of the patio tables. After I stepped out the front door and turned to my right, I looked back at Donna said “Watch your step.” The raki was much stronger than I thought – later I found out it was 90 proof. I was a little wobbly. The next thing I knew my left foot was off the high sidewalk. My foot hung in the air for second as I realized I was about to fall into the street. Rather than falling to the pavement a couple of feet below me, I reacted by pushing off hard with my right leg. I tucked my chin in and launched into a forward roll.

My momentum coupled with the height of the sidewalk above the street allowed me to do a complete flip in the air and land in the street on my feet. I continued to walk along like I did it on purpose. People dining on the patio witnessed this feat and gave me a round of applause. Donna stood on the sidewalk dumbfounded. We laughed so hard as we walked home from there without further incident.

On Thursday afternoon, I made a stop at Lucky Lou’s. Donna has been saving fruit and vegetable scraps from the kitchen. I brought a bag of scraps to give to Mike and Jodi Hall – they have at least four desert tortoises in their yard. The tortoises love citrus and vegetables. While I was there, I saw Wayne pull up in his ’63 Nova. I posted about this hot rod before. I took a few pictures of it in the parking lot. It’s hard to believe something like this is driven on the street.

Wayne’s ’63 Nova

Look at the size of those rear tires

Super clean installation of the dash panel

I didn’t stay at Lou’s for very long. I wanted to get back to Towerpoint RV Resort for their annual end-of-season dinner. They had tables set up around the pools and bar areas. They set up for a crowd of 1,000 people. Towerpoint (Cal Am) provided free sloppy joes with coleslaw and chips and 25-cent drinks (soft drinks or beer). The 25-cent drinks were a fundraiser for the park’s charitable volunteer group called Squires.

Some of the crowd by the pool area

More of the dinner crowd

They had a bandstand and live music. The band was very good – they played a mix of classic rock and country music. Donna hoop danced to the music and had a blast. She was invited to come to the sock hop put on by the pickleball group next year – the organizer is planning to have a hula hoop contest.

Live music

I wore myself out Friday morning. Donna and I played in the open social session at the pickleball courts from 8am to 10am. Then I signed up for the 3.5-level round robin. This had me playing until noon.

I spent the afternoon relaxing with a book. At 5:30pm, we went to the Roma Cafe Ristorante on Main Street east of Power Road (map). We had a reservation to meet up with our nomadic friends, Brett and Cheri Miller. It’s been a year since our paths last crossed. We enjoyed a leisurely meal and caught up with each other over the next two and a half hours. It was a good time with good food and we plan to get together again in a couple of weeks. Roma Cafe serves a very laid back, European-like dinner. No rush – take your time and enjoy. It’s family-operated and they make you feel at home.

Blurry self-shot photo – me, Donna, Brett and Cheri

This morning, Donna took off to Scottsdale on the Spyder to meet up with her friend, Stevie-Ann Rineheart, for breakfast. I’m lazing about taking a break from pickleball and reading a book. The warmer than usual weather returned – we can expect highs near 90 degrees for the next few days before we get back to more seasonable mid-70s.

Hotter than Usual

The weekend heat wave lingered on through Monday. I skipped Saturday morning pickleball as I rested my weary legs from playing all week. If you’re wondering what pickleball is all about, check this YouTube video.

Donna arranged a meet-up for the local minimalist group. We had four attendees and we spent some time talking about the full-time RV lifestyle. We showed them our coach and talked about other approaches such as travel trailers, fifth-wheel trailers and class B & C coaches. Donna also gave them a tour of the RV park and talked about different parks we stay in. We enjoy being ambassadors for the full-time traveler way of life.

Donna with visitors from the minimalist group

After a lazy afternoon trying to stay cool in the 90-degree weather, we went out to Baja Joe’s Mexican restaurant to have drinks and dinner with our friends Howard and Sara Graff. Baja Joe’s specializes in Mexican seafood dishes. Donna and Sara split a plate of a dozen oysters and each had a couple of fish tacos as well. I went for the enchilada stuffed with shrimp and crab. Howard had a large burrito – I’m not sure what it was filled with. We enjoyed the meal and talked for two hours before we headed home on the Spyder. It was well after dark, but driving the Spyder at night isn’t a problem. It has good lighting and I’m not concerned about potholes or being seen by other drivers like I was on the scooter.

On Sunday, I passed on the pickleball games again as I rested my legs. Despite the heat, Donna went out for a 24-mile bike ride that included some hill climbing. I spent most of the day reading as I’ve deferred some of my projects until the weather cools a bit. We’ve had temperatures at least 15 degrees above average for this time of year. I managed to lay out the new bike racks in the trailer and it looks like it’ll work out really well. I still need to install D-rings to strap the bikes down.

Donna and I were ready to get back to pickleball Monday morning. We arrived on the courts later than usual – I got there around 9am and Donna came about half an hour later. We waited so we wouldn’t be worn out when the 3.0 level round robin began. Last week I was asked to run the 3.0 group play on Monday. We had eight players sign up and we took over two courts and played for nearly two hours once the round robin started at 10am. It was hot out and that was enough physical activity for the day.

Later that day, I went back to the Mesa Elks Lodge to follow up on my application for membership. Something isn’t right – they keep telling I’ll be contacted in a few days but I never hear from them. Once again, I was told the secretary would call me. I’ll go back this afternoon if I don’t hear from them.

Today’s weather is supposed to be cooler – windy with a high of 80 degrees. Tomorrow is supposed to be cool again. I’ll have to quit putting off my projects and get some things done – tomorrow that is.

Michigander in Mesa

With the orange blossoms and everything else blooming around here, my pollen allergies are in high gear. I bought Zyrtec last week, but it doesn’t work for me. All it did was make my already dry mouth drier. My eyes were still itchy and burning, I was sneezing and constantly blowing my nose. I went back to my old standby – Opcon A eyedrops, Flonase and neti pot rinses. It’s not perfect, but it’s an improvement.

On Sunday, Donna and I rode the Spyder over to our old neighborhood and visited with our friends Lana and Joel. We sat out back on the patio and had a couple of cold ones while we talked. It was an enjoyable afternoon – until my allergies started getting the better of me. Joel and I discussed updating my operating system to Windows 10. Joel was a beta tester and he’s a computer expert – so we planned for me to bring my laptop over sometime to run the update on their wifi.

On Monday morning, Donna and I played pickleball during the open play from 8am to 10am. Donna went home at 10am but I stayed for the 3.0 round robin session. We had 16 players that presumably were level 3.0 or higher. The round robin format sets up teams to play on all four courts. The games are played until one team scores 9 – no need to win by two points. In normal play, you need to score 11 to win and must win by at least two points. With all four games playing to 9, the games went quick and finished at nearly the same time. Then everyone was assigned to a new team and court with new opponents for another game. We played a total of six games in the session. I already played six or seven games, so it was a long morning of pickleball.

End of day step count

I got a lot of steps in on the court and finished the day with more than 16,500 total steps!

An old friend from Michigan, Bill Frahm, flew into Phoenix in the afternoon. He came by a little after 3pm for a visit. We sat out by the pool and had a cold Four Peaks Kiltlifter Scottish ale and talked. Then we drove in his rental car to Barrio Queen restaurant in Gilbert. This is the restaurant that our friends Howard and Sara Graff took us to a couple of weeks ago. We had the guacamole made at our table again. Donna ordered the California enchiladas and I had chile verde. Bill ordered enchiladas mole. Donna and I had the skinny chola margarita again but Bill was more adventuresome and had a margarita made with jalapeno infused tequila. While we were enjoying the cocktails my friend Pat, who also hails from Michigan stopped by our table.

Donna’s California enchilada pate with black beans and calabacitas

My chile verde skillet

On Tuesday morning, Bill picked up Donna at 8am while I went to play pickleball. They were going to meet up with our friend Deb Spencer (Rolling Recess) and hike the Pass Mountain trail at Usery Regional Park. I didn’t want to hike among all of the wildflowers – my allergies are tough enough without that. They picked a good day for hiking – it was cool in the morning and the temperature stayed in the low 70s all day.

Stones with inspirational words and phrases on a tree burl

Fruits of the Spirit on a tree burl

Along the trail, they passed a tree burl on which had someone placed stones with a set of words that Deb identified as the nine fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22).

Giant saguaro and Bill on the hike

When they finished their hike, Deb headed home and Bill and Donna headed up to Tortilla Flat for lunch. I rode the Spyder up there to meet them. I wrote about Tortilla Flat in this post. I thought it would be a fun ride on the Spyder. The road has deteriorated so badly that it wasn’t nearly as fun as I’d hoped. Between all the bumps and heaves in the road and the traffic, it was more of a chore than a joy.

When I pulled up at the restaurant I couldn’t believe the crowd. Parking areas were full and people were milling about on the boardwalk in front of the restaurant. I found Donna and Bill and they told me it would be a 35-40 minute wait for a table. What?! At 1pm on a Tuesday? I’ve never seen that many people there before.

A small portion of the people waiting for a table at Tortilla Flat

I decided against waiting that long for a seat in the crowded restaurant. I was sure the service would be hampered by the hordes of people. Bill and Donna could get a table for two quicker than the wait for a table for three, so I rode back down past Canyon Lake and home.

Drag Racing

On Friday evening, Donna and I went to Red, White and Brew for dinner. We sat at the bar and had a cold one before ordering from their appetizer menu. Donna had her favorite – mussels vin blanc – which are green lip mussels sauteed with white wine, lemon, garlic and butter.

Mussels vin blanc

I ordered a quesadilla with spicy chicken sausage, three cheeses and hatch chile peppers. It was delicious.

After we ate, we decided to swing by Lucky Lou’s and see who was there. We found all the usual suspects – Mike and Jodi Hall, Mike’s brother Brian, Pat, Leendert, Ray and John. Pat, Leendert and I firmed up our plans for the NHRA drag races. Pat would pick me up a little before 8am Saturday morning, then we would drive to Scottsdale to pick up Leendert and head out to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park – formerly Firebird Raceway (map).

Leendert had made arrangements with his friend Ray. We would join Ray and his crew in the RV section where Ray had his motorhome parked right next to the track near the finish line. For $50 each we got admission, breakfast and lunch and unlimited beer, soda and water all day.

One of the things I enjoy at the NHRA events is the access. Your ticket for admission is also a pit pass. You can wander around the pit area and watch the teams prepare the cars. You meet drivers and crew – they’re all very accessible and friendly. I took a few pictures of the cars and bikes being prepared for the afternoon qualifying sessions. One of the new events here was nitro Harley top fuel bikes.

I won’t go into all of the technical details of the cars – but suffice to say that any motor burning nitromethane is going make huge power and they tend to break parts. The top fuel dragsters and funny cars get a complete teardown and rebuild after every run. That’s right – the engines only last for a minute or two of running time. They get fired up after assembly to make adjustments and make sure nothing is leaking. Then they are started when the cars approach the staging area. They do a burnout to heat and clean the tires. Then they make the full power pass that propels them to speeds over 320 mph in 1,000 feet – it takes less than four seconds.

The guys doing this on two wheels are crazy. They are laid out in a superman position with their arms cradling a nitro-burning grenade of a motor as they accelerate down the 1/4 mile dragstrip to speeds of 220 mph in about six seconds.

Del Worsham’s funny car chassis

Top fuel dragster

Funny car chassis – wheelie bar on the rear

Nitro Harley chassis

Nitro Harley ready to run

Although there’s nothing to compare to these nitro-burning contraptions, I also enjoy watching the Pro Stock class. These cars are very sophisticated. They’re powered by gasoline burning 500 cubic-inch V8 engines. This year they’re using fuel injection – in the past they used carburetors. Most of the teams are secretive about their set-ups and often cover the engine or intake manifold with towels in the pit area.

Pro Stock car – note large intake snorkel and towel over intake manifold

Mike Hall and his brother Brian showed up around 10:30am and joined us.

Mike, Pat and Leendert in front of the big screen at the finish line

We had a fun afternoon. It was hot out – the temperature reached 88 degrees. I stayed hydrated with plenty of water in the morning and cold beer in the afternoon. Ray’s crew cooked up fixings for breakfast burritos in the morning – scrambled eggs with cheese and sausage and hash browns wrapped in a toasted flour tortilla. In the afternoon cheeseburgers and hot dogs were on the grill served with potato salad.

Cheeseburgers and hot dogs on the grill

While I was at the races, Donna planned to ride the Spyder over to Sara Graff’s house. She and Sara would drive to Singh Farms – a local working farm that has a farmers’ market on the weekend – and meet up with their friend Stevie Ann. Donna’s plan was dashed when she reached Gilbert & Brown. Gilbert Road was closed for the Phoenix Marathon as were the main roads north of Brown. The only way Donna could get to Sara’s house would be to backtrack and get on the Loop 202 freeway. She wasn’t dressed for a blast down the freeway at 70 mph. After exploring her options, she gave up and told Sara she wasn’t going to make it over there.

A funny thing happened in the morning while I was on the way to the races. Sara’s husband Howard sent me a text telling me to let Donna know that Sara was in the shower and would call her back. Apparently Howard saw the missed call from Donna on Sara’s phone. He sent the text to me because he didn’t have Donna’s number in his phone. I, in turn, sent the message to Donna. I thought Donna would wonder how I knew she called Sara and how I knew Sara was in the shower!

I walked more than 11,000 steps at the races yesterday. That and all of the pickleball I’ve been playing lately left me with a little soreness in my feet and stiff joints. I think I’ll take it easy today – read a book and try to stay cool as the temperature will be in the upper 80s again today.

Up Against the Wall

I’ve written about the RV community and how we have made many new friends. We find ourselves in the same areas at the same time every now and then and it’s fun to get together and reconnect. On Tuesday we had a different experience. Blog reader Michelle Zenkovich and her husband Matt were visiting Mesa, Arizona. Michelle messaged me and we arranged to meet up at 5:30pm at the Beer Research Institute (BRI).

Donna and I rode the Spyder and arrived a few minutes early. Matt and Michelle were already there and had a table. After introducing ourselves we sat together and ordered beers. Donna, Michelle and Matt each ordered a flight of four four-ounce samplers while I went for a pint of 48OG IPA brewed onsite.

Matt, Michelle and Donna at BRI

After a bit of conversation, we ordered food. Donna and I split a machaca taco plate.

BRI machaca taco plate

Matt had the machaca tacos also while Michelle ordered the southwest poutine.

Southwest poutine

We ate and talked until 7pm, then it was time to head for home. I’m sure Matt and Michelle were jet-lagged after a long day of travel from West Virginia.

On Wednesday morning, I hit the pickleball courts early. They weren’t as crowded as last week and I hardly had a break between games. I ended playing 12 games and I was getting a little sore.

Towerpoint RV Resort had a free lunch scheduled for newcomers at the courtyard by the swimming pool. Donna and I attended and had a plate of sliced beef – I think it was a tri-tip – that was overcooked and tough. If it wasn’t for the mashed potatoes with a generous serving of gravy, I don’t think I could’ve choked the meat down. I’m exaggerating, of course. It wasn’t that bad and you can’t beat free lunch! We also had green beans and a salad with it. We met other park visitors along with the activities director and chatted for about an hour.

After lunch, I went to the hardware store to buy clips to hang some things in the trailer. Our new trailer is taller than the old one. This gives me plenty of room to mount things on the walls instead of stacking everything on the floor.

Kayak paddles and washing brushes mounted on the trailer front wall

I’ve been looking at cabinets to mount on the side walls and a solution for securing the bicycles. I have a mountain bike and a road bike and Donna has her road bike. In our old trailer, I tied the bikes to the roof bows and suspended them. I’d like to find a way to either hang them from the side walls or even mount them securely to the floor. They would be much easier to load and unload and I have the space to do that now.

I shot a couple of photos to give a sense of the size of this trailer. The external dimensions are 24′ 8″ overall length, 8′ 6″ wide and 9′ high.

Trailer tight in our site

Close fit by our neighbor’s place

It will be interesting when the time comes to leave Towerpoint RV Resort and tow the trailer out of here. We won’t leave until April 15th. Hopefully some of the sites around us will be empty by then, giving us more room to maneuver.

I got another seven games of pickleball in this morning. Later, I’ll drop Donna off for a hair appointment. While she’s there, I’ll head over to the Elks Lodge in Tempe and see about joining. Our friend Dave Hobden sponsored us and I have an application. Elks Lodges usually have RV parking and inexpensive hook-ups. This will give us another alternative for places to stay while we travel about. It’s another sunny, beautiful day. The forecast calls for warm weather and sunny skies with no rain in the next 10 days.

Blue-Green Water

The weather was much improved yesterday. We took advantage of it by hiking along Lake Havasu at Mesquite Bay. There are parking areas on both the north and south sides of the bay off London Bridge Road. We rode the scooter to the paved lot on the north side of the bay.

There are a few different trails beginning at the end of the lot. One is a short dirt trail for non-motorized boat access to the water. Another trail is paved and leads to a fishing pier on the water. We took this path first. Along the way, there are several informational signs describing the flora and fauna. One sign said the name Havasu is from the native America Yuman language spoken by the Havasupai people and means blue-green water. I’ve read conflicting information online about the tribe, language and translation of Havasu.

The water in Lake Havasu actually is blue-green. It’s hard to capture in photos. In yesterday’s post, the photo of London Bridge definitely shows a green cast to the water. At Mesquite Bay, the light refracted in the clear water and had areas of blue and green.

Cove in Mesquite Bay

We left the paved path and hiked around the hilltop that forms a point in the bay. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife – just a few song birds and waterfowl. The trails are short loops and we didn’t hike very far.

We rode the scooter from there into town for lunch at Bad Miguel’s – a Mexican restaurant that was recommended to us. The place is popular but we were able to snag a table. The food was good and the portions generous. There was a poster on the door for an RV Super Show this weekend. I had seen one of these posters when we arrived at Lake Havasu City but forgot about it.

The show was at The Shops at Lake Havasu – a shopping mall on AZ95 north of the Lake Havasu Falls RV resort – about five miles away from Bad Miguel’s. We blasted up AZ95 on the scooter to check out the show. It turned out to be not so super. It was a local dealer displaying everything from utility vehicles to fifth-wheel trailers and boats. No motorhomes and no manufacturer displays.

We walked through a couple of fifth-wheel trailers then we found a Polaris street legal utility vehicle.

Donna looking good in a Polaris Ranger

We wandered over to another area and found Oreion Reeper street legal utility vehicles. These things are pretty cool – lightweight, but capable of cruising at 55mph and can go off-road. We started thinking one of these might be a viable alternative to the scooter. Weather would be less of a factor and I wouldn’t be so hesitant to ride after dark. It would be easy to fit in a trailer at only 64 inches wide and 124 inches long. I might go back for a second look.

While yesterday’s temperature reached the low 70s, today’s forecast calls for upper 70s. It will be just the two of us here watching the Superbowl tonight. Tomorrow we’ll pack up and move to the rodeo grounds where we’ll be dry-camped for a week with the Alpine Coach Association group.

Flying The Koop

…from real estate to wheel estate and back again

Category Archives: Restaurants

Tlaquepaque in Sedona

Jerome Day Trip

Free Beer

Wild Horse Crossing

Stop, Drop and Roll

Hotter than Usual

Michigander in Mesa

Drag Racing

Up Against the Wall

Blue-Green Water

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