A quick summary of our last three weeks at the park.
SUMMARY: we became pickleball obsessed. We continued with swimming, glass fusion, rowing, hiking, cards and some other activities but otherwise we were off down to the pickleball courts as often as we could.
We met many people through the activity and became friends and at other times fierce competitors.
Fras secured a bronze place at one of the Saturday comps .
Di secured the gold at the same comp. The crowd were looking for a playoff between Di and Fraser but alas Fras got pipped at the post.
As we have said, we have met some wonderful people and Danny and Della are just two of them. They live in Grande Prairie which is north west of Edmonton. They will be coming back for six weeks next year whereas we will be coming back for four months starting in December. We were both very unsure as to how we would do with this lifestyle so came away being in a pessimistic state of mind. It has certainly exceeded all our expectations and more.
Di made the comment of never ever having won any medal in any sport activity so was rather chuffed – so the medal is going “straight to the pool room”. (A very quintessential saying in Australia). We will continue to play pickleball back in Calgary and just need to work out how to go about that.
We went to a beach boys evening at the park ballroom where we had to dress as beachy as possible. Fraser found this rather attractive outfit at a local charity shop.
This is an example of the glass fusion that they do in the Glass Arts center in the park. Some of the pieces of work are stunning. Di isn’t going to put her attempt on the post as it is rather mediocre – in fact, downright awful. Next year she hopes to come back invigorated and get stuck into it more and do that one very special piece.
We had new snow tyres (not spelt tires) put on the car last week ready for the trip back. They were most concerned at the store that we were going to be running around Phoenix on them until we explained we were driving back to Canada. They are an extremely soft compound and if you were to drive them on hot roads, they would wear very quickly.
So at lunchtime we departed Venture Out and headed directly north towards the Grand Canyon. Below is the route that we hope to take providing the weather does not get in our way. It will be approximately 3,000 kms door to door.
Our first port of call is the Grand Canyon – well actually about 10 miles shy of the canyon rim.
After doing our final tidy of the park model we had been staying in for January we headed across the park to say farewell to Gabby and Linda who we disgorged the remainder of our food to – actually, it was just a bottle of mayo. After a lovely chat and the plans to see one another in Calgary in July we set off. Toque resumed her favourite position in her little carrier, securely fastened in and commenced pushing Zzzzz’s straight away.
We had 408 kilometers to drive. The clock said it was 12.45pm and 26c.
Not too long out of Phoenix we started climbing. All up we got to a height of 8,000 foot and the temperature dropped to a low of 8c – the new snow tyres were loving that. We took a slight detour to go around Humphrey’s Peak which is the tallest mountain in Arizona at 12,633 feet. There was very little snow around and not sure if any of the downhill ski resorts were even able to open up the season.
The terrain at the start of today changed very quickly from cactus to low green bushes and then into forests of conifers. As to these trees in the picture, we think they are called Postus Boxius.
So, settled in before the sun set which is a good thing and tomorrow, we head out to the canyon rim. More on that tomorrow.
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