We continued on with picket ball as well as pottery and line dancing, but we also had lots of time to tour around the park and look at some of the rock art that many residents had done. These little gems were found all around the sites in the park but mostly on rock walls and driveways. The rocks are ones found around the area but it is the metal shells that people created around them that gave the rock art its particular flavor.
We had an opportunity to take 'the boys' to a four week beginner Dog Agility class and which took them through a variety of tricks including tunnels and loops. We had a great time and after four hard weeks, the boys both did very well and got certificates from the trainers.
In early March we attended the Subway Fresh Fit 500. This is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race held annually at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Arizona. A 312-lap event that is one of only four NASCAR Cup Series events measured in kilometers rather than miles. It was a very exciting time and the noise was amazing.
Enjoy this short video shot from our camera. Turn your volume up!
We also had a chance to take in two major league spring training baseball games. Spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. We watched the Chicago Cubs play the Chicago White Sox
and the LA Dodgers take on the Seattle Mariners.
Both were great games and it was a great thrill to be able to watch some of the well-known players and the skills shown on the field. It is really a family sport there, with a lot of families picnicking on the grass outside the outfield and inside in the stands as the tickets are between $5 and $12 each, a whole family can spread a blanket on the grass outside the outfield for $10.
In mid March, Susan went home for a quick visit and to pick up Haley, our granddaughter, during her Spring Break. They came back to Phoenix in time for us to enjoy a few days in Casa Grande before heading off to the Good Sam Rally and home which included giving the boys a long needed bath!
During our visit with Haley we took her out Skeet shooting. This was an experience she had never had before and although the initial shock of the shotgun going off was a startling one, she soon got into the swing of things and took a few shots of her own. Susan continues to improve with her shooting and is beginning to catch on to the art of skeet and trap.
We also got a chance to go out and visit the Casa Grande ruins. These are some of the pictures of the Casa Grande ("Great House") and its surrounding compound. One of the largest prehistoric structures ever built in North America; its purpose remains a mystery.
Archeologists have discovered evidence that the ancient Sonoran Desert people who built the Casa Grande also developed wide-scale irrigation farming and extensive trade connections, which lasted over a thousand years until about 1450. Since the ancient Sonoran Desert people who built it left no written language behind, written historic accounts of the Casa Grande begin with the journal entries of Padre Eusebio when he visited the ruins in 1694. In his description of the large ancient structure before him, he wrote the words “casa grande” (or “great house”) which is still used today.
Our last big adventure was to head down to Tucson and visit the Arizona Desert museum. The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum is a 98-acre (40 ha) museum and zoo founded in 1952 and located just outside of Tucson.
It contains a museum and two miles (3.2 km) of walking paths on 21 acres (8.5 ha), and is one of the most visited attractions in Tucson. The facility combines the attractions of a zoo, museum, and botanical garden, with a focus on the plants and animals that live in the Sonoran Desert. It has an outstanding display of birds and hummingbirds in huge natural outdoor enclosures.
The museum was a pioneer in the creation of naturalistic enclosures for its animals.
We left Casa Grande and headed up to Avondale (just to the west of Phoenix) for the Good Sam Rally. In the summer of last year we had visited Redmond, Oregon which had approximately 6500 RVers for the Rally. This year we had several friends from Chilliwack and Washington who were joining us and the Arizona sun beamed down on us and the other 3,370 RVrs.
We were treated to some great weather, a taste of Arizona’s history and culture and fabulous entertainment with headliner Martina McBride, country music’s 4-time winner of Female Vocalist of the Year, and Bill Cosby, everybody’s favorite comedian! Plus, Bowzer’s Rock N Roll Party from ShaNaNa, and the return of the Beatles’ tribute band, Ticket to Ride! The shows were somewhat difficult to see because of the race track fences, but the music was great.
Haley accompanied us to every show and really enjoyed herself and we had fun watching her sing to songs that predated her birth. Haley and Susan entered the boys in the Dog Show and made a good showing and we attended the Good Sam Life Members evening party where we met "Elvis", "Madonna", "Austin Powers" and others.
We were treated to some great weather, a taste of Arizona’s history and culture and fabulous entertainment with headliner Martina McBride, country music’s 4-time winner of Female Vocalist of the Year, and Bill Cosby, everybody’s favorite comedian! Plus, Bowzer’s Rock N Roll Party from ShaNaNa, and the return of the Beatles’ tribute band, Ticket to Ride! The shows were somewhat difficult to see because of the race track fences, but the music was great.
Haley accompanied us to every show and really enjoyed herself and we had fun watching her sing to songs that predated her birth. Haley and Susan entered the boys in the Dog Show and made a good showing and we attended the Good Sam Life Members evening party where we met "Elvis", "Madonna", "Austin Powers" and others.
The ride home was a treat even though we did a lot of driving in a relatively short time. We left Arizona and travelled into California, then Oregon and Washington. In Washington we visited our new great, great nephew, Eric Alexander, Jr. He was only 3 months old but came early enough so that Dad could see him before he went off to Afghanistan.
As we arrived back to the border on the 31st of March we had travelled over 25,000 kilometers (15,500 miles) and had visited 9 Canadian Provinces, 10 US States and Mexico. We had many great adventures, met a lot of very interesting people, saw some amazing sights and had a wonderful time.
As we arrived back to the border on the 31st of March we had travelled over 25,000 kilometers (15,500 miles) and had visited 9 Canadian Provinces, 10 US States and Mexico. We had many great adventures, met a lot of very interesting people, saw some amazing sights and had a wonderful time.
This is the last blog entry of our 10-month journey around North America. Next year’s adventure is already in the planning, so stay tuned…
Kerry, Susan, Bailey and Charlie
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