Author: Rudy

Woke up at 6. Rolled out of bed at 7. Made coffee. Checked email. Read the news. Had bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Sue cleaned the fridge and started ‘organizing’ the kitchen, getting ready for Monday’s departure. I watched some golf on TV and fussed around the house. Then Suzy Homemaker started REALLY cleaning up — and I had no choice but to get caught up in the tornado. Cleaning bathrooms, cleaning outdoor furniture, disassembling bikes so they’re ready to load into the van, sorting through closets, cleaning up the garage. Whew! (What are we going to do tomorrow?)

After lunch we got ourselves ready for an afternoon of golf. We drove across the road to the Gold Canyon Resort — had a tee time for 1:36 at Sidewinder. As soon as I’d paid the starter offered that we could start right away — just the two of us. Well, now we didn’t even have any time on the driving range, but how could we say no. It looked like we’d have a great afternoon, the course to ourselves!

How wrong! The group ahead was slow because the group ahead of them was slow. The marshall came around and warned us: this would be a very long and frustrating afternoon. Oh no! Well, how bad could it be? The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, the scenery was spectacular. What’s to complain about?

But it got worse. A couple of times on the front nine the marshall came and offered that we might want to jump to hole 11 or 12 — because there were 5 groups, all of them incredibly slow, ahead of us. But we declined.

Suffice to say that today’s “game” took just over FIVE HOURS. And I won’t say what our score was because Sue said I didn’t have to. So I won’t.

Back at our house, we had our happy hour — chips and salsa, G&Ts — sat outside and looked at the sunset changing the color of Superstition Mountain. It almost took away the sting of today’s round. But not quite.

Wouldn’t you know it, our internet is down. Now what? The final few Netflix movies I had on “My List” will just stay there. I guess we could watch Curling, or an NHL hockey game, or worse, a ‘final four’ basketball game, or — hey isn’t that Lloyd Robertson? I thought he was dead! Is this an old W5 or is that show still being made? Let’s watch it.

Supper was a ‘concoction’ of leftover stuff from the fridge that Sue declared included wieners, although I was hard-pressed to find them in all those onions and peppers mixed in with the pork and beans… Really? Really?

We tuned in a replay of this afternoon’s golf tournament on TV. The fridge is more or less empty. The kitchen counters are lined up with jars and appliances that will need to find a place in the van for the ride home. It looks like we’re having an “estate sale” here. Sue and I took turns drifting off. At around 10:30 I had some chocolate pudding with ice cream. An hour later we’d decided that we’d pretended to be watching TV long enough — time for bed.

Scrambled eggs for breakfast again! What have I been doing right?

Rick and Irene, our neighbours across the road, are leaving today. I said goodbye this morning and arranged to push their trash bin back to the garage after today. Then it was time to get our hiking boots on and head out for our morning’s adventure. One of the guys I golfed with yesterday mentioned an interesting hike he’d done in the morning, out in the Superstition Wilderness. I forgot the name of the trail he’d followed, but I looked some of the trails up online today and decided we’d tackle the Second Water Trail. It was rated as a ‘moderate’ 7.2 mile hike on one of the websites. That should be manageable.

We drove out to just north of Lost Dutchman State Park entrance, and then followed a gravel road for about 2 and a half miles to a small parking lot at the First Water Trailhead. We parked the van, took a bottle of water and a walking stick, and set out on the trail. The trail started out quite wide and flat — an easy walk. But it soon got a bit more rugged as it narrowed and twisted its way across a wash and then up a short, rugged climb through a canyon that led into Garden Valley. The vegetation included teddy bear cholla, ocotillo and barrel cactus. In fact, I got a bit too close to those jumping cholla — and we had to stop for a while and carefully poke away at them with the walking stick to keep the needles from working their way deeper into my leg. But that’s about as exciting as it got on this walk — we saw birds, squirrels, gophers, and lots of lizards, but we did not see the coyotes or the rattlesnakes we were looking for. (Okay, we HEARD lots of rattlesnakes, but whenever we stopped to look for them in the bushes beside the trail all we saw were gophers and lizards.) We passed a couple of hikers, but otherwise were on our own all the way to the floor of Boulder Canyon. At points along the walk we saw the famous Four Peaks to the northeast, and Weaver’s Needle (we’d hiked the Peralta Trail with Dave and Marylou earlier this year, and got a better view of Weaver’s Needle on that hike) poking a hole in the horizon to the southeast.

It took us nearly 2 hours to hike the 6.4kms to the floor of Boulder Canyon. The trail was longer, more up-and-down, and narrower than we expected. The temperature was 32 degrees, but felt a bit cooler when we got a breeze near the top of the hills, and quite a bit hotter when we were down in the black rocks in the valleys. Our one bottle of water was nearly empty, and we had to climb back up the way we came! Maybe we’d bitten off more than we could handle?

But we made it. Fewer photo stops on the way back resulted in a 1.5 hour return hike to the parking lot. We were HOT, thirsty, and tired when we got into the bake oven that was our ride home.

Major rehydration and showers when we got home. Sue made lunch. We turned on the TV to the golf channel.

Sue read for a while. She did two loads of laundry and then cycled to the bank to close our account. So that’s the end of our debit card — it’ll be U.S. dollars for the rest of this ‘trip’. Meanwhile, I got my Oak Leaf hat on and drove the van to Mountain Brook. Gotta get another 9-holes in, even if my feet are killing me.

I’m on right away. Playing yellow ball vs white ball again. This is great! No waiting. It’s still mighty hot, but I can get used to this. My drives are mostly long and straight. If only my putting…

By the time I’m at the ninth tee the new golf pro (Alex) has caught up with me. So now I get a ‘free’ playing lesson. We spend extra time on the tees, extra time in the bunker, extra balls on the fringe and on the green. Alex is very helpful (and he’s a great golfer — he shot par on the front nine, even as he was demonstrating how to draw and how to fade an iron shot!).

When I got home (my yellow ball shot a 41) Sue was sitting outside, having a glass of wine. Then we had a Facetime call with the kids — had to show Max how ‘Opa’ got attacked by another jumping cholla cactus! All good. We got Tim’s computer all fixed up, too.

Then it was time to head across the road to the Kokopelli Restaurant — it’s ‘Friday Night Pizza’ one last time on the patio. The sunset was almost done for the day — just a bit of orange and navy out in the west. But the blues guitarist was still playing, the bartender was still pouring, and the pizza was just what we needed after a long hot day of walking, walking walking. We were back at our stations in front of the TV by 8:45, tired and happy. Two days left here in paradise.

Yeah, that’s what popped up on my calendar this morning. Happy birthday, Robert. Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking, into the future…

After breakfast I worked on a web project for a bit. Then I went outside and weeded the yard. I booked a tee time for myself for the afternoon. Sue and I did a bit of personal hygiene — Sue now has stunning toenails and my facial hair is trimmed so I look neat and tidy.

Sue made a spectacular (the usual) lunch. I watched Holmes on Holmes ‘do it right’ to an old house on TV. Sue tied up the phone for most of the day, trying to get MTS to schedule reconnects at our house for when we get home in a week from today. Dealing with MTS — that is an opportunity to practice patience and grace.

Around 2:10 Sue woke me up — I’d had a little snooze while Mike Holmes had completely redone the electrical, plumbing, and heating system in some poor lady’s house! And now it was high time for me to get to my golf tee time at Apache Creek. Sue was going to stay home and clean out the kitchen cupboards while I went golfing ‘by myself’.

I got the course at about quarter to three. Went to putt a bit, but quickly joined a couple of ‘Minne-sodans’ who were set to tee off. Mark and Lee were both pretty good golfers. Lee teed off from the blue tees. Mark, who had had his knee replaced just before Christmas, joined me at the white tees.

Hole #1: I drive the ball straight and far (a good combination) but fail to capitalize and finish the hole with 3 putts — a six. Hole #2: Second shot into the bunker, from where I bash at it 3 times in a row before it finally jumps out onto the green — a seven. Hole #3: 3 putts for a seven. Hole #4: under bushes and over trees — a seven! At this rate I’ll shoot a 63 on the front nine!

But I bear down and get things under control. I finish the front nine with a par and a birdie, for a score of 47. Not good, but not horrible.

I improve on the back nine. I par the first two holes, bogey the next two. I finish the back nine with FIVE PARS! for a score of 41. Total score is 88! That’s GREAT for me! (Anytime I break a hundred is good for me.)

I’m home by 6:45. The sun is setting — it’s all pink and purple on Superstition Mountain. Sue is sitting outside on the patio, Skyping with Alex.

After (another super delicious!) supper, it’s time to watch a bit more TV — tonight we’ll make sure to watch the ‘At Issue’ panel on the CBC National. We’ve got to get all caught up for our imminent re-entry into the Canadian lifestyle.

My mother sent us an email this morning, encouraging us to trade in our ‘boring’ life in Arizona for the exciting change of seasons in Manitoba. Boring? I must be giving the wrong impression. So, after a breakfast of scrambled eggs (what?!?) and toast and fruit, I asked Sue what we had planned for today. Anything fun? All she had in our schedule was a bike ride. Well, I guess that’s SOMETHING. But first, I checked my handy-dandy weather app on my phone just to see the forecast. And then, just for comparison sake, I checked the forecast for Steinbach.

Hmmm… Then I looked at SteinbachOnline.com to see how they were celebrating the first week of Spring. Oh boy!

Yikes! You’d need quite the sense of humour to think that’s ‘fun’. I’ll take our ‘boring’ life here any day.

Back to OUR bike ride:

By now we know that the desert is NOT just sand dunes and cacti, and so I took a few (what?!?) photos of some of the flora we see here in Gold Canyon. Wow! If you thought the desert is just brown and grey and hot and boring, take a look at these photos. Okay, if you’re too busy shovelling snow or waiting for the tow truck, you can come back to these later. Or maybe you’re so used to winter white-outs that all that colour is too hard on your eyes. If so, you don’t have to look at them all in one sitting — go and shovel for a while.

After lunch I posted the photos from our morning bike ride. Sue got out the chicken that we want to BBQ (NOT kidding!) for supper tonight. Then I went to the driving range to enjoy a bit of exercise in the sunshine. After I’d hit about a hundred good shots I decided I might as well take it to the golf course. I drove down to Mountain Brook and asked if I could walk 9 holes. Hmm… there’s a few groups ahead of you. Okay, how about the back nine? There’s no one on eight, no one on nine. Hmm… let me see. Sure! Go ahead. Yes!

So I walked the back nine, all by myself. I even had to take my own photos! It was 3:45 when I started. No waiting. No one ahead. Also, no one to help me spot the ball — so I’d better hit it straight. Which I did. I played two balls, a yellow one for me, and a white one for Sue. And we both played very well. It was close all the way, but lucky for me the yellow ball won, beating white 45 to 48. I walked back to the van at 5:30. Still lots of daylight left.

When I got home Sue was sitting in the back, typing away on her little iPad. I made myself a G&T and tried hard not to give Sue the whole play-by-play of my golf game. Then it was time for supper. Sue had everything ready to go. I barbecued chicken breasts while Sue fried vegetables and cooked pasta. Yum. By 7 o’clock we were done — dishes cleaned up, ready for some TV.

Went for our daily walk in the morning — Sue stopped at ‘our bank’ to put in a few more of those lousy Canadian dollars so we can keep on buy things with our American debit card. It was quite warm even though it was still early morning, and when I suggested we check out a ‘shortcut’ from the road, going over Vista Point hill by way of a ‘path’ that soon disappeared and left us picking our way over cacti and prickly bushes up one side and down the other — well, that only got us ‘warmer’.

Sue was on the phone for part of the morning — and I took a few clubs, including my new putter, across the road to the driving range. Man, everything just plain ‘works’ at the driving range, and I just can’t wait to head out to the golf course and make every shot. So, after lunch we did just that. Back out to Apache Creek, where we got on the course at around 2:40 for the $29 twilight rate. We joined a single, a guy from here in Mesa who could really hit the ball and was playing from the black tees. We had to wait for the group ahead at every tee, but I guess that’s just ‘par for the course’ at this time of year. And although I was playing ‘okay’, it wasn’t quite the same as I had envisioned it earlier on the driving range. But, as I keep saying (especially when my score isn’t very good), we were having fun. I finished the front nine with a 47.

At the turn we were joined by one of the guys from the group behind us — the rest of his group had quit for the day. So now we were four. And we had a great time. This guy was from Alberta, had just retired and bought a home right here in Apache Junction, and really enjoyed playing golf. He maintained that although his game wasn’t what it used to be, in large part because of the damage years of playing almost pro hockey had done to his hips, he just loved to play golf. Over the years he’d been partnered up with many golfers and he had never met a golfer who wasn’t a good person. So here we were, golfing with one guy who was incredibly skilled at golf, and another who was an example of how to be gracious and positive even when the game wasn’t going that well. And, just because it is GOLF, I finished the back nine with an 8, a couple of 7s, and a final score of 99. BUT, I parred the final hole, and Sue shot a 43 on the back nine! And we had a marvellous afternoon. And we’ll go golfing again!

The sun was setting and we actually played the final two holes with the flags already taken away. We drove home and Sue got supper ready while I skyped with Ed P. After supper we were going to watch our shows, but got a little sidetracked by what was on TV. First, an ‘Independent Lens’ special on PBS, and then a CNN special. I guess all the sunshine and exercise caught up with me and I missed the conclusion of the CNN show. But I revived and watched a couple of late night talk shows over the noise of the dishwasher while I wrote my journal.

It’s our last week here. You’d think that would mean we’d try to pack as much fun as possible into our remaining days. Not quite!

We went for a walk in the morning. After lunch we went into town, first to Van’s Golf shop to buy me a new putter (we’ll see if that makes any difference to my game), and then to the Santan Village Shopping Center. Sue bought a bunch of stuff. I did too. Mostly I ran around in the stores, looking for Sue. We really know better than to go shopping together, but every once in a while we need a little ‘refresher course’ just to get us back on track.

We barbecued cheeseburgers for supper and watched TV after that. No photos today. No lengthy play-by-play write-up about my golf game. But it’s snowing at home, and at least it’s NOT snowing here.

We woke up early today — just after 6. We started watching ‘our Sunday shows’ — Fareed and CBS Sunday Morning, etc. Suzette made crepes. We went for a walk to Walgreens to return the 2 DVDs that we forgot to return yesterday. It was 9am and already quite warm outside. When we got home I started watching the Arnold Palmer golf tournament on TV. We watched it right to the end — but because it was in Florida the time difference meant it was over by 2 o’clock our time.It was an exciting finish: Matt Every won it for the second straight year, making an 18-foot birdie putt on the final hole to beat Henrik Stenson.

I was downloading another TV series and spent a bit of time ‘cleaning’ up my files for iTunes. I went to the driving range for an hour in the afternoon — not very many golfers there by 3 o’clock. When I got back we had a plate of crackers and cheese with our happy hour drinks. We started watching more of our queued up list of TV shows. We took a break to watch 60 Minutes. Sue made a delicious supper. More of our series, then at 9pm we switched to The National followed by the Fifth Estate. And THAT was our Sunday!

Bacon and eggs. Read the latest news on SteinbachOnline and the National Post. Read my ebook. Sue was on the phone for most of the morning. I went across the road to the driving range and worked on my hybrid 4. It’s coming.

After lunch I tuned in the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament on TV. And promptly fell asleep on the couch. I woke up at 2, just in time to hurry off to the golf course at Apache Creek. We have a 2:45 tee time. What if there’s lots of Renaissance Festival traffic…

Got there in time, no problem. We’re on right after the threesome that’s on the tee right now. Cool. Just the two of us. Not a lot of waiting at each tee. And I parred the 376-yard par 4 first hole, with a wicked drive that must have had a bit of help from the cart path and ended up about 50 yards short of the hole. Three pars on the front 9, and by the time we finished (which was about 6:35) I’d shot 3 pars on the front nine, and a final score of 93. Not great, but not bad — and lots of fun. Sue’s putting wasn’t quite what she’s used to, but she still shot a 102.

After golf we drove to the Gold Canyon Golf Resort for supper. Out on the patio. Sunset in the west. Lanterns lit, the big fireplace burning too. A beautiful Saturday here in Gold Canyon. We ordered one of those big salads and a fish and shrimp taco dish. Very nice.

We were back at the house by around 8. Another glass of wine, and some rice krispy squares, while we watched another episode of Hinterland on Netflix.

It’s 8:30 and already we’ve had two exciting events today: garbage day, and scrambled eggs for breakfast! I turn on my computer and my handy-dandy calendar app tells me today is the first day of Spring! Well how about that? How shall we celebrate?

Sue had a bike ride on today’s activity list. So be it.

Before we left I scouted out route options on Google Maps. How about if we go up towards the Mining Camp Restaurant, near the entrance to the Lost Dutchman State Park? I figure it’s about a 16km trip each way. Okay, let’s do that.

I pumped up the front tires on both bikes and off we were. It was about 10:30 — if all goes according to plan we should be there in time for lunch!

Well, that shortcut through the Silly Mountain parking lot was okay, but after about an hour of cycling we were stuck. Google Maps — on my CRACKED! iPhone screen — didn’t notice the two big cracks until this morning; that must have happened yesterday when I dropped it on the cart path at the golf course. Shoot! But I digress — says there’s a road where now we find a rough gravel driveway with lots of ‘No Trespassing’ signs posted all around it. We won’t be easily put off, especially when the sun is high in the sky, we’re hot and sweaty and thirsty, and there’s supposed to be a lunch just a few kilometers from where we are! We cycle back and forth, try various ‘dead ends’, end up CYCLING halfway up Superstition, only to have to turn around and come back down. Finally we flag down one of the few vehicles we meet on this gravel road and ask the old lady driver for directions. Oh no, that road that Google is showing us so clearly was shut down quite a few years ago, and she should know — she’s lived here for 43 years. She feels bad for us, but the only way to get to the restaurant is to cycle back a bit, and then a long way around on a TERRIBLE road, up to the highway, and then back down to the restaurant. Really? Do we want to do that? Or should we just cycle back home? Sue says we’ve already cycled 25 kms.

I make the call — we’re going to the Mining Camp Restaurant. So we do. And yes, that road really is TERRIBLE. Serious washboard, especially on the downhills, where our teeth do a drumroll. And then a kilometre on the highway — lots of traffic and the road has no shoulder and a chewed up edge that forces us to share the lane with motorhomes and over-sized 4×4 trucks towing trailers loaded with ATVs. Not fun. We arrive at the turnoff with only our nerves a little worse for wear. Another kilometre to the restaurant.

There’s hardly anyone at the restaurant. The large parking lot is empty. It’s dark inside, a couple of big rooms with long tables. It’s rustic. It smells like smoke. The posters on the wall advertise upcoming ‘tribute’ shows and ‘past-their-prime’ entertainers. Sue is NOT impressed.

But the local dark IPA was tasty and refreshing, and so was the pulled-pork sandwich and sweet potato fries lunch. And the soft booth bench was a welcome relief to our tired and ‘shook-up’ biking-butts.

But we were only halfway on our adventure — we still had a long ride back. We bypassed the washboard and took the slightly longer but quite-a-bit smoother road back to our house. It was 2:30 when we got home. Total trip: 46kms. Whew!

After a brief refreshment break and a shower, Sue went grocery shopping and picked up a couple of movies at Walgreens. We read until it was time for happy hour. Max skyped us with an update from the home front: he’s putting puzzles together faster than Oma Helga can find replacements from the Thrift Store. The sky here got REALLY dark, and thunder rolled for about an hour. Only a small series of showers, but we saw quite a few flashes of lightning and for a while there was a very cool rainbow over Superstition Mountain.

Since we’d had chips and salsa for happy hour we decided to defer supper until AFTER one of our movies. We watched “The Drop” first. Sue called in our pizza order to Rosati’s, the pizza place on Hwy 60. We’d actually NEVER ordered from there before, and this was likely our last time. After our movie I drove down there to pick up our order — and waited another 25 minutes for our little pizza.

After pizza I put in the other Redbox rental: St Vincent, with Bill Murray. Not bad. It was almost eleven by the time we were “movied out”. A bit of news and then to bed.

Made some nice coffees again this morning. I got the new Van Morrison (Duets) album and we listened to that on our ‘stereo’. After breakfast Sue and I went for a long walk. I mean L-O-N-G. Through some of the neighbourhoods out behind our place where we’ve rarely, if ever, been before. We got back to the house at noon — just in time for lunch.

Sue read outside for a while, then came inside because “it’s too hot in the sun and too cool in the shade.” Day one of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Florida was on the Golf Channel all afternoon. At around 2pm I went to the driving range again. I had a great time. I used to hate the driving range; thought it was a complete waste of time. Now I can easily spend an hour and even two hours there — just hitting the ball. I could have hit my driver all afternoon, but I also worked on my #4 hybrid, and it felt like I made some progress there. Then I went to the chipping green and practiced short shots with my lob wedge. When I got back to the house Sue was sitting there, all ready to go. Yikes! I’m almost late!

We got to Mountain Brook, hoping we might once again get to play the back nine. No, not today. The course is too busy. Okay, we’ll just play the front nine then. There were two ladies ahead — they were okay golfers, but they had to wait for the foursome ahead of them. So we waited at most tees. And we played ‘okay’ — but only ‘okay’. But we had fun. And the day was fantastic. We again had a little FaceTime call from Max while we were waiting to tee off at the fifth hole. Cool.

Back at home, we had a delicious supper after G&Ts on the patio (what else is new?). And at around 7:30 we were all set to see what’s on TV tonight. We started one of the movies on my Netflix list — but soon realized we’d seen that movie before. So we switched to one of the series on the list — “Hinterland”, an English mini-series. We watched the first of 4 parts. We need popcorn to help us stay awake for the 90 minutes. When the episode was over we switched to CBC The National and the At Issue panel. Tired, we went to bed.